"Food for Thought"

[OdileCondacin 0]

O'd'yl sat on the Bridge, the 'little kid from Gamma' a few consoles ahead of her, doing... something. Did he know what he was doing? Had she invited a complete newbie to take OPS mid-battle without realizing it? Oops. The jellyfish would've had her head for it if he'd done something wrong... blow up the ship, for one thing. Better to put such fears to rest. She turned to him, putting a casual tone to her voice. "Midshipman... how much prior experience did you have with Operations?" she queried.

 

Aidan slowly turned around when his Chief addressed him and frowned. "Experience? Well, I wouldn't call it that. I have certainly never done this in a combat situation. Well, frankly Chief, none." He knew this wasn't what she wanted to hear but he didn't care now. He was just glad this was over.

 

Take desk, take head, smack head against desk repeatedly. "There's a first time for everything..." And she'd just made a huge mistake. But then again, she hadn't had time to memorize all the science records. "But from now on," she added in a cautious tone, "if a superior asks you to take a position in the middle of battle and you're unfamiliar with it, there's no shame in saying so."

 

"Aye ma'am" He knew she was right, but when she'd told him to sit at the OPS console and wait until something happened he hadn't thought he'd have to deal with the hull integrity failing somewhere on the ship. It had more sounded like he was supposed to sit there and wait for the marines to check in regularly. Well, at least he hadn't been stupid enough to beam that marine over mid battle or they wouldn't be worrying about getting back home anymore. Despite feeling guilty, he was also a little proud of himself, everybody was alive and the situation on Deck 6 was under control.

 

"Well then. You did quite well!" She smiled. Off on a good foot, as CSCI? Wow.

 

Aidan grinned sheepishly. "Well, let's say I could have done a whole lot worse." He was starting to think that his Chief might not be as bad as everyone had always claimed.

 

"Yes, you could have." Blunt as a club. "I'm about to go off shift, and I do think you are, too. Want to run by the mess? I, for one, get hungry during battles."

 

He didn't really have a choice there. Saying no to your chief was hardly an option, and now that she had mentioned it, he was indeed hungry. "I would gladly accompany you."

 

"Very good." She swung out from her console, logging off before standing. "Need to finish anything up, or ready to head down?"

 

Aidan couldn't help grinning at this. "No, I don't have anything to finish off; I tried to only do as much as necessary. I didn't want to break anything after all." He got up and waited for the Chief to lead the way.

 

Entering the lift, she looked him over, quickly. Typical young, fresh-out-of-the-academy type. But he had to be remarkable in some way if he'd been put on Alpha. "So, what projects have you been keeping busy with in the dank hours of the night in the Lab?"

 

Following her into the lift, he noticed her assessing look. He was used to it by now, nobody ever believed in his abilities before they got to know him. "Well, actually, apart from monitoring the Alpha Shift's projects, I have developed an interest for artificial wormholes. Considering our situation I find it quite an intriguing thought."

 

Odile snorted. "Find anything that can get us out of this deserted wasteland?"

 

"Well, that's the plan, but I fear that it all sounds good in theory but it would take quite a lot of research to actually get anywhere." Aidan started couldn't help but go on about this, as he had indeed found this to be a most intriguing subject. "But just think about the possibilities, what an advantage this would be."

 

"Forward me a copy of some of your theories," Odile asked quietly. "I'll see if I can recommend them to the Colonel. Colonels," she corrected, emphasizing the plural.

 

The door of the turbo lift opened and Aidan waited. "I can certainly do that, but I doubt this will be a possibility for us. It was just a thought that had occurred to me at some point." He wanted to avoid getting anybodies hopes up. It was one thing to open up a wormhole, quite another to open up one big and stable enough for a ship, not to mention the fact they'd have to somehow manage for it to open at the right place too.

 

"Still, an interesting concept to ponder." She searched her list of "Instant Conversation Starters" for a moment. "And other than contemplate the existence of theoretical wormholes, what else do you do on your free time?"

 

Fortunately Aidan was disciplined enough not to smile at this question. Could it be that his Chief felt uncomfortable in a situation like this. He decided to make it easy for her if that was the case. "Well, I work out a lot actually. As my father always says, 'Your mind is only as healthy as your body, son.' "He tried to imitate his father's voice."Yah, anyway, I've always like sports, especially competitive ones. Work doesn't leave time for much else."

 

"Ahh. Yes." She smiled. "As do I. Physical training is always good. Ever with weapons?"

 

At that he raised an eyebrow. "Chief, my father is a Marine; I grew up in the belief that it's not competitive if it doesn't involve at least a very slight chance that someone might get killed."

 

Odile bit back a good laugh at that one, pointing down at the dagger mounted at her hip. "I agree with your father on that one. What kind of weapons do you prefer?"

 

"Whatever you throw at me. The weapon doesn't matter, winning is what matters." He had noticed the dagger before, of course, but pretended he'd only just acknowledged its existence. "Nice one"

 

"Thank you. Soon to be unpeacetied. My next stop, after food, is Security to pick up the proper paperwork." Condacin was grinning. "Ahh. Here we are now." She waited for him to enter the Mess. "Carrying a weapon on duty is messy, however. Apparently, one has to take annoying refresher courses constantly. Even if you've been carrying something for decades. You have to love protocol," she muttered, sarcastically.

 

"You sound a lot like my father there." He led the way into the Mess. "He is a very, well, my Mum says he's a very practical thinking person. Not always the words his superiors used."

 

"Stubborn, conceited, volatile, sharp-tongued, bitter, sarcastic?" The Xenexian gave him a lopsided smirk.

 

He couldn't help but chuckle at this "That and a lot more. But I agree with him on many things. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice. Don't get me wrong, I love what I'm doing, but it's nothing compared to..." Suddenly he broke off; he probably shouldn't be telling a superior that kind of things.

 

She looked at him expectantly. "Continue," she urged, but without malice. "There's no shame in considering other alternatives. Especially when you've been thrown to the other side of the galaxy."

 

For only an instant, their eyes met before he hurried to look somewhere else. He figured he probably felt the same at times. "Well, sometimes it feels like we're not really involved. I'm not someone to sit back and let others get their hands dirty. And frankly, nothing compares to the adrenaline rush of a hand-to-hand battle situation. Where you don't have time to consult databanks, where it's you, your wit, your strength and your fitness."

 

O'd'yl led the way to the replicators, frowning a little. "It's not always like that. Wait until the first time you're dispatched on an away team as 'scientific backup'. 'Backup' usually turns into 'another body to engage in hand-to-hand'. It's a reason I'm planning on implementing physical training for all Science personnel."

 

"Well, little boys from Gamma don't get assigned to away team missions. I won't lie to you, if it ever came down to joining the fight or coming up with a neat scientific solution I'd probably throw away my tricorder." He suddenly realized that he should probably decide on what he wanted to eat but was too caught up in thoughts of his own to really care.

 

"Food," she pointed to the replicator. "There's no shame in that, either. I wasn't exactly raised a scientist." A small smirk.

 

Aidan indicated that she should go first. "You neither look nor act like one either. If I may say so."

 

"Fried chicken," she instructed the replicator. "My reputation precedes me, I see" she commented.

 

"Maybe I'm just that perceptive." He waited for her to take her food and then stepped up to the replicator. "Tuna sandwich." He let her choose the table and thought that she was actually quite nice; he didn't understand what others found so difficult about her. Maybe he would find out after working with her for a while.

 

"Maybe so." She shrugged. "I'm not deaf, though. I hear what the department thinks of me. Rather difficult not to, after all. When word breaks that I'm their new department head, I expect mass suicide and transfer requests."

 

"Some people tend to cultivate their being misunderstood." Aidan didn't say this to his Chief this time but to a person he started to like regardless of what others said. He hoped that she would take it that way, because this was definitely not the way a Midshipman should talk to his department chief.

 

That made her chuckle. "And also commonly cultivated is a distance between department head and lesser-ranking minions. But I've always chosen to disregard that when possible."

 

"I'm one of your minions now; charming. I've always wondered what that would be like. Anyway, of course you're right; Midshipman Driscol shall remember his place in the food chain now." He liked the way this was going. From a somewhat forced conversation, they had moved on to joking now, and quite personal matters.

 

Odile laughed again. "Yes, yes. But think on the bright side -- if you'd gone into the Marines, you could have been directly under the Evil Medusa instead of a mere Xenexian Warrior Woman..."