Yamok Sauce and Booze

Posted on Sat Oct 14th, 2023 @ 8:35am by Cadet Senior Grade Ki'ana & Cadet Senior Grade Naltar Jerane & Cadet Sophomore Grade V'lal

2,451 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: **ARCHIVED** 1 - Cruising through the galaxy
Location: Mess Hall
Timeline: MD02 2230 Hrs

V'lal was glad to be done with her shift. She'd spent all day going through shuttles and making sure everything was up to spec. She felt like the engineers should've been on that instead but apparently they were busy doing other things. Tonight she didn't feel like eating too heavy so she picked a simple vegetable soup along with some bread to dunk in it. He jacket was half unzipped since she was off duty and with a grease smudge on her cheek she exited the line and took a look around for a table.

"V'lal? Over here!" Ki'ana called out to her from her table at the opposite end of the mess hall, and waved at the Vulcan to get her attention. She'd managed to find time to dress down after her duties that night, and so she wore a snug-fitting dark blue shirt and shorts for comfort. "Join me?" Her meal seemed to be some kind of steak that took up three quarters of the medium sized plate it sat on - Ki'ana was hungry, alright.

Seeing her friend, the pilot made her way over to the table and put her tray down before sitting across and taking note of the others attire "I'm glad one of us had time to look presentable this evening, benefits of working in a lab I'd say. Anything exciting today?" V'lal then took a sip of her juice before making a bit of a face.

"Not really. It's mostly research work and assisting the actual lab technicians with their work. Carrying lab samples and results and such," Ki'ana sighed. "Menial stuff. Guess we'll get to do more when we're trusted with more responsibility. You? Is that grease on your face?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "If I were to guess - were you made to do your own maintenance today or something? I can't imagine any other way you'd get grease anywhere on you..."

"Ya can you believe it? Apparently the yellow shirts are too busy otherwise, I guess the guy that is in charge of ops runs a tight crew. I tried to ask one of the team leads for help in my bay but she was politely insistent about talking to their division chief and that they had timelines to meet. Dude sounds like a tightwad. I went through 4 shuttles today and it was so boring. I'd rather be flying or training instead of doing maintenance checks. But supposedly we're going to be dealing with some wannabe group of resistance fighters or something, at least that's the rumor I hear. I dunno why we don't just use the transporters." She took some of her bread and soaked it in the soup for a moment before taking a bite.

"Naltar is a busy guy. We chat sometimes via PADD. This entire ship is run down and falling apart and he has to pick up the slack to make sure it doesn't fall apart," Ki'ana replied with a snicker. "Besides. Shouldn't a pilot know when her craft's going wrong and how to fix it? You won't have a hangar crew with you all the time, you know." Ki'ana added with a smile. "Think of it as practice for the scenarios where you've only got yourself to help you, okay? I know, it sounds hard, but I'm sure you'll adapt."

While V'lal knew Ki'ana was right, she had spent years of her life keeping shuttles in working order and was looking forward to getting a break from it, which apparently wasn't the case. "I guess. It just gets old and I prefer if everyone covered their own jobs..." She took another sip of her juice before setting it aside. "I do have some other news tho....remember when we talked about finding a space for, you know, a private hang out? I discovered there are a number of storage bays not in use especially on the lower decks...a lot of hideaway spots for shuttle parts and the like. If I can find a way to get my Chief to approve us using them to you know, store more parts, then maybe I can get them powered up and no one will be the wiser. Do you know any other ladies that may want to hang out with us if I get it setup?" She kept her voice a bit lower on purpose.

"Everyone." Ki'ana replied. "Everyone I've talked to so far is willing to come hang out. Except this one Magna Roman in security, she's way too uptight. I'm kind of scared to tell her about it, actually." She shrugged her shoulders. "You know, in case she gives us away. We might need to find furniture to put in it, though. Question is, where do we get it?"

She was a little surprised at what seemed to be a large amount of people that Ki'ana had spoken to about it, but didn't discourage her either. "It sounds like I'll have to find a decent sized room. I think I can manage that though, I was looking through the deck layouts earlier so I have it narrowed down at least. And for furniture I suppose we'll need access to an industrial replicator which will be a challenge of it's own. This Magna gal might be good to keep off the list, but we also may need someone to sign off on general inspections too for all I know."

"Not her." Ki'ana shook her head. "As for the furniture, I guess we'll need someone who's pretty good at squirrelling away stuff, huh? I'm thinking a few lounge chairs, a few tables, maybe a minibar? Assuming we can make one, of course. Maybe with a small counter or something... what do you think?"

Swallowing a spoon full of her soup V'lal took a moment to consider what all they may need. "I can agree we should have a bar. But I want new stuff so I'll have to find a replicator we can use."

Being a little taller than her roommate Ki'ana had a better view of the room - which allowed her to see a certain someone at the door. "Speaking of Naltar. There he is!" She pointed towards the doorway.

Taking note of the Kelpien down the way he waved back before going and getting himself a tray with some sort of fish on it, and some odd fruit juice. While he wasn't a fan of sweet flavors he figured he'd at least give it a shot. Once he exited the line he made his way over to the table and took note of both of the ladies. "Looks like I'm not the only one working late tonight" he said, more referring to V'lal.

"Definitely not," Ki'ana smiled up at the Cardassian. "Join us, we'd love the company." She said, nudging V'lal under the table. "I take it you've been busy as usual, seeing as you're still in uniform?"

"Thank you" he replied, sitting next to Ki'ana. "Ops never sleeps, especially now. Which means I have double shifts for the foreseeable future." He took note of the Vulcan hybrid across from him and flashed a grin "Ops Chief, Naltar Jerane. You are?"

V'lal looked up from her soup and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Pilot, V'lal." She glanced at her roommate before sitting up and managing a light smile to appear amicable. "Aren't you charming. A Cardassian in a gold uniform."

"Charming indeed. You should rest, you know, you can't possibly keep performing at peak capacity if you're running double shifts all the time. That's why you have an assistant head of department." Ki'ana smiled. "Think of it as cultivating good working habits now. Unless, of course, you're actually being forced to do all the work by your instructor. Surely they must've appointed someone to be your deputy?"

"No deputy yet, I'm going through possible cadets in my department I may end up asking. And who knows, maybe we'll be able to get a little more done and start helping out with shuttle maintenance" he said, half serious and half teasingly. He'd been apprised of the Vulcan's request earlier in the day but kept his teams focusing on what had been assigned to them. "With what's coming up though we'll need a solid pilot, maybe they'll assign you V'lal. I think I heard Ren mention you during the briefing. How are things in science Ki'ana? That steak looks delicious although I think it look a little dry." He pulled out a couple packets of Yamok sauce and slid one over to her before opening his own and putting it on his own dish. "Give that a try."

Ki'ana did not hesitate to rip open the packet, pour the contents over her steak and take a bite out of it. "Oh my goodness." Her lilac eyes lit up with excitement. "Whoa. That is amazing. Yamok sauce, it's called? It's delicious!" A few other cadets around them gave her horrified looks as she cut herself another slice of steak and practically inhaled it. "Mmm. I gotta have more..."

"It's all I have at the moment, I do have a storage container squirreled away of it that was sent with me. Plenty to last our trip I think." He looked over at V'lal and offered her his 3rd packet but she shook her head. "No fish sauce for me, thanks." She was aware of what it was and it definitely wasn't her cup of tea. She did have a thought come to mind however. "Say, Jerane. If the flight group has a storage area we want to use and need powered up, how do we go about getting that?"

He took a bite of his food while she was speaking and replied after swallowing "As long as I have a signed request from either of your chief's, we can make it happen and add it to the schedule. I just have to get a team to inspect the conduits in and out first, we've had a lot of safety issues as a result of the age of things." He finally took a sip of his juice and made a face very similar to V'lal's earlier on. He sniffed it next and then his eyes got a little wide. "I think this juice has fermented some...."

"Naltar, it's replicated. If you haven't asked for it to be fermented it won't be. Right?" Ki'ana raised an eyebrow. "Because if it is something's gone wrong with the replicator, right? What kind of juice are you drinking anyway?"

"I think it's supposed to be some kind of grape juice. It just tastes a bit...sharp." He set is cup back down.

V'lal chimed in "I have the same drink, try it Ki." She handed her cup across to the other woman.

It took only the smallest sip for Kiana to gag and push the cup away as if it contained the vilest liquid in the world. "Oh, no. No, okay. That is... not good at all," She commented dryly. "Maybe the replicator's broken. My food tastes fine, oddly. Maybe we should report this? I'm not sure if that's safe to drink..."

Taking a look around, V'lal noticed a number of cadets beginning to line up at the replicators. "Of course" she said, smiling. She looked at Naltar for a moment and then back at Ki'ana. "Tell me what you taste in there girl, why all of a sudden everyone wants some?"

The Cardassian turned around in his seat and sensing the same thing, made his way towards a nearby wall panel.

Ki'ana watched in silence as Naltar prised open the panel and got to work. As he'd said: ops never sleeps. She turned her attention back to V'lal thereafter. "It's kind of... fermented. Yeah. Sort of sharp. Maybe it's a new recipe and everyone's hyped over it, I don't know..."

The other woman grinned "You do realize that drink is a handful of days from turning into an alcoholic beverage right? Something tells me our new friend over there is about to shut the party down." V'lal took her drink back from Ki'ana and set it on her tray. "Good thing someone else likely already has what we need, we won't be trying to ferment bad grape juice in our waste repository stations...."

Naltar meanwhile looked at the display panel he'd just uncovered and cycled it to run a level 3 diagnostic, which shut down the replicators. A series of groans could be heard followed by several dirty looks sent his way, but the Cardassian stood there with his arms crossed staring right back at everyone else.

"Nicely done!" Ki'ana grinned and gave her friend a thumbs up before giving an equally dirty look back at the complainers. "What? Go get your alcohol elsewhere! This is the mess hall, if you really want to get drunk so bad there's a bar down the hall! Beat it." The rest rolled their eyes and dispersed, muttering in various languages as Ki'ana smiled back at V'lal.

"I'll say one thing" V'lal added "He knows how to ruin a good time. Hopefully he's good at more than that. What makes you so interested in him anyways?" She knew at times her roommate could be too kind to others, but she never took for granted how the pair had initially met.

"He's a friend, V'lal. Am I not allowed to care for a friend as I should? Besides. I'm sure he's got plenty of talent. Eidetic memory, definitely. And the Cardassian work ethic. You'll be surprised how effective that can be." Kii grinned back at her roommate. "Though if you mean interested as in interested interested... I suppose I wouldn't mind." She let that topic hang in the air as she returned to her meal in silence.

Continuing to eye the Cardassian across the way, the Vulcan took a moment to think about what her friend had said. "I wonder if I can get that same sort of work ethic out of him. Might be useful in getting our spot setup. As for any sort of interest...I suppose we'll see. I'm still taking stock of what this ship has to offer." She checked the chronometer on her wrist and realized what time it was. "Oh crap, I gotta go see if I can catch that cute Andorian in security as he comes off shift. And just in case, don't wait up." She stood up and gave the Kelpien a wink before walking off with her tray.

"Let me know how it goes!" Ki'ana smiled at her friend before returning to her dinner.

 

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