Main Observation Lounge – Deck 7

Ril set her tray of food down on the table with a bit too much force, almost knocking over the large glass of prune juice she had on it. The noise caused several heads to turn in the lounge.

Belania’s head turned abruptly from the large floor-to-ceiling windows that comprised the entry side of the Sojourner’s main observation lounge. The large reddish brown of a barely M-class world was visible through the window, “Why’d you do that?”

Ril dropped into the chair and sighed, “Given that lots, yeah, lots of people like. NO love Klingon food including gagh. You would think we could get some from the galley here. Sure they could figure something out with hydroponics.”

Belania suppressed a smile. “Never heard you complain about that on the Daradax why all of a sudden now?”

Ril snorted out a laugh, “She was too small a ship, but the Sojourner, she has more capacity. And I am not even the only Klingon onboard.”

“True,” Belania remarked. “Have you tried to replicate it? Stewed or boiled Gagh?”

Ril gave Belania a look of feigned disgust. “How dare you…”

Belania burst out laughing at Ril’s feigned anger. “The replicators are pretty good at getting it right. I have a good set of Ferengi dishes I programmed in. Picked them up at Quark’s before we left DS9. One of his bartenders tried to charge me a whole bar of latinum for them and then tried to get me to perform Oo-mox.” She shook her head slightly at that, “Can’t blame him but didn’t work it into the agreement. He forgot Rule of Acquisition 16, a deal is a deal. Think he was just surprised to see a Ferengi female with latinum. Guess he forgot that. I am sure we can get some good Klingon dishes programme in easily enough.”

Ril laughed slightly, “Wish I had seen that. Guess I could look but the fresh stuff is so much better. What I grew up on. You know?”

Belania nodded and took a bite of her replicated Toasted Tube grub. “Yeah, I get that. So, how was the planet?” she asked as she nodded towards the window and the planet below. “Anything of internist?”

Ril turned to look down at the planet below and shrugged, “Not really, a desert planet, lots of sand and stone. The long-range scans indicated there was a blood dilithium vein down there but it is a kilometre below the surface.” Ril picked up her glass and took a long sip of the prune juice before continuing. “Kerry is still down there cataloguing it and drilling for a sample. I left her and her science team down there with PO Thomas and a couple of security officers in case they come across some desert beasties. Though the biggest thing we say was the size of a cockroach.”

“Thomas…” Belania said, “He is the senior security NCO right?” 

Ril looked up from her plate and nodded as Belania continued. “Is she going to bring up any more to the ship? Isn’t that risky with the telepaths?”

Ril shook her head. “She said she wanted to compare it on the surface so I do not think so. The Captian doesn’t want to risk the well-being of the telepaths on board. I know Nurse Joy has outfitted all of them with neural monitors to keep an eye on them so no strange behaviour is missed.”

Belania continued to gaze out the window, “Yeah, helped her get them set up, any alerts should give us time to address things.”

“Speaking of medical, how does it go with the EMH?” Ril asked.

Belania looked back and sighed while she shook her head, “The system seems fine and the diagnostics are running smoothly. The last reports seemed to show that the programme was compiling itself. Fingers crossed we will have it sorted soon.”

They both sat in silence for a few minutes while they continued to eat their dinners before Ril spoke up.  “So how is Ops? Miss flying?”

Belania looked finished the last bit of the toasted tube grub and shrugged, “I had trained for alot of this and helped Thanen on alot of the Operations side of things on the Daradax so it is going well. He has stepped in once or twice when I have asked which has been helpful. As for flying, well, yeah. That is what I really love but I still get to whenever I want which is nice. Even look the Waverider out the other day for a flight, she can really move. Yourself?”

“Yeah, is great!” Ril said with a wide smile, “The crew are excellent and happy to be pushed which is good as I have some continual training. Lots of repelling borders and such given the way the Devore and Hirgoen work. More so the last couple of days as well since that Devore scout vessel demanded to search us the other day looking for Brenari fugitives.”

Belania nodded at that, “Yeah, I have heard lots of rumblings, well rumours, since then. Alot of the telepaths and empaths on board are concerned, especially after we helped the Brenair. The moment one person hears a story from them everyone knows and the Devore already had people on edge. I even heard a couple of crew say that the Captain should have destroyed the Devore ship.”

Ril snorted, “We could have, they knew and we knew it. Thankfully it wasn’t one of their warships but one-on-one we could likely take them but that isn’t what the Sojourner is built for. The latest reports suggest that we are faster and more manoeuvrable and the way Kirin has us running long-range scans with we will see them lightyears away.”

“True, we knew the scout was in the system when we dropped in and I think Kirin wanted to have the run-in. Show them that the Federation and the Sojourner wouldn’t be a pushover.” Belania said to which Ril nodded.

“You could say that again,” Ril said with a little laugh. “The look on the Devore Captain’s face when Kirin ordered the weapons online and the pulse cannons powered up after he demanded to let an inspection team go over the ship. It was priceless.”

Belania nodded along, “Yeah, the way she handled them definitely reassured the crew but the concern remains. The incident was a double-edged sword I think, but one that was needed. The concern had been growing since we helped the Benari.”

“Could you imagine if we still were on the Daradax out here? She was a good ship and I would like to believe we could have done anything with her but this I think would be beyond her.” Ril said with a bit of a sad laugh as she remembered her old ship.

“Don’t think we would have had this mission in the Daradax, though I do miss her at times. But have to admit the Sojourner has its perks!” Belania said.

Before Ril could respond the lights in the lounge shifted to a slight yellow and large displays showing various natural landscapes changed to show ALERT in large yellow letters.  As soon as the lights changed both Ril and Belania jumped to their feet just as the shipwide coms blared. “Yellow Alert, All crew report to stations. All Senior Officers to the bridge.”