"Fowl Talk"

[OdileCondacin 0]

Set before Harper's 'End of Shift'.

 

After Paradox left, Harper slowly sank down in her command chair, glaring half-heartedly at the viewscreen. The padd in her hand tapped restlessly against her knee, though she barely seemed aware of its presence.

 

"Charlie?" Odile called out softly, eventually phasing out of her Umbara Thanksgiving reverie. "You holding up okay over there?" she asked quietly. Sometimes, rank and all, it still surprised O'd'yl that it actually was Harper in command, and little as she liked to admit it, the Xenexian felt underqualified to bolster her in the scientific areas. So, if nothing else, moral support...

 

Snapping out of her thoughts with a visible start, Harper glanced over at Odile. "Yeah. I'm fine, Sin. Just... you know." She gestured with the padd at the battle lines on the screen.

 

A knowing nod. "What do you make of it? Of this whole..." Odile gestured a bit, motioned past the walls of Agincourt to the reaches beyond. "... this whole thing." She paused. "This isn't exactly what I was trained for as an enlisted science gofer, and, well, I don't know what they taught you at Shark School..."

 

"Mostly I'm tempted to get out and start shooting," she admitted wryly. "Counterproductive, but there it is."

 

The Xenexian laughed. "I'll join you in that wishful thinking department. But then again..." Odile smirked, "we hardly need more deathwish-ful, trigger-happy people." A beat. "At least he wasn't one of yours."

 

"Mine have more sense," she answered archly, lifting her chin to a snobbish angle.

 

"Or more fear. But it's not the kitty's fault she lacks your reputation," Odile teased, rearranging a few pieces of data on Harper's report. "I almost have this done for you, Tentacles, then you can see what a hellish little nebula we have before us."

 

"Not on the bridge, Sin," Harper replied automatically. Her eyes drifted to the padd she held, thumb holding the scroll pad down. "Did Astrometrics have anything on the nearby systems?"

 

Condacin was immune to the minor chiding -- she'd done it before, and without doubt she'd do it again. "They're a mixture -- some Selshan, some our poultry friends. I've been going over them with a fine-tooth comb, and nothing is particularly jumping out at me in any of them."

 

Sighing, she set down the padd. "All right. Let me know when the nebula report is done."

 

"Should be soon enough. It's a maze in there -- there's one clear passageway, but if for some reason we went off course, or something in there shifted... it could be messy. The gases in there alone would be fun to study..." The inner geek surfaced in the would-be-crotchety science officer, and she grinned. "Not to mention the "does the ship goes boom?" tests -- it's a shame we only have one ship to send in."

 

Shooting an exasperated look at the science officer, Harper said, "I really wish you wouldn't make jokes like that on the bridge, Sin." Discreetly she pointed at the young helm officer, who had turned a little pale.

 

Odile sighed, glancing at the ensign. "I was kidding," she informed him, and settled in against her console with folded arms as she awaited the completion of the nebula's sensor processing. "Ah. Here." She dialed in a few codes to initiate the data uplink, and nodded. "Still nothing on the other side. I'm sorry -- we boosted sensors as much as we could."

 

"Not your fault." Harper twinned the data on her own small screen and studied it. "No chance of finding a second safe corridor, then? Or a mostly-safe one?"

 

"I don't think so, Medusa. And if there is... it's going to be even less reliable than this one. This one's a gamble in our favor; a second is going to be pretty bad odds. I'll keep looking, of course, but don't count on it."

 

Sighing, she blanked the display with a touch. "Very well. Thank you, Condacin."

 

"Any time." On a lark, Odile spun her chair outwards from the console, and hovered towards Harper for a long moment. "Dinner is on me tonight. Whenever it's dinnertime, I'll either make you something or bring you up something, since you're probably not going to leave the Bridge unless something drastically positive happens. What would you like?" she offered, giving her a shockingly sincere smile.

 

Startled, Harper stared for a moment before her face creased into a smile. "Something light, I think," she said. "Sandwiches?"

 

"That's good! I can't mess those up too badly. And here I thought it'd be the creme brulee and fois de gras I'd have to find ways of locating." She stopped herself, and hushed her voice to a quiet whisper. "Do you think one day we'll see Umbara foie de gras, Colonel? I was thinking earlier that they'd probably be good delicacy items... especially the drumsticks."

 

Biting her lip on a smile, she growled warningly, "Odile..."

 

"Fine, fine -- don't be on the edge of progressive dining. Sandwiches it is. Turkey?"

 

She almost said yes, then paused to regard Condacin with a critical eye. "Perhaps we'd best avoid poultry. Roast beef. And tomato."

 

"No birds. Gotcha. And what time would you preferably like your dinner served, assuming we aren't mid-bird battle or negotiation?"

 

"In about..." -- she glanced at the chronometer -- "Is is that late already? How about at 1930, then, Sin?"

 

"1930. That works." She sauntered back to her console, and smirked at the Marine. "Thank you for choosing Cafe Condacin -- We Bring the Food to Your Bridge."

 

Harper chuckled. "You're impossible."

 

"Privileges of rank, my dear. Now at least I have a good excuse for it."

Edited August 21, 2007 by OdileCondacin

[Kansas_Jones 0]

"Or more fear. But it's not the kitty's fault she lacks your reputation,"

 

I beg your pardon Lieutenant Stabby?

 

"Fine, fine -- don't be on the edge of progressive dining. Sandwiches it is. Turkey?"

 

She almost said yes, then paused to regard Condacin with a critical eye. "Perhaps we'd best avoid poultry. Roast beef. And tomato."

 

I say we outfit the entire away team with tee shirts that say "Got Birdie?" with a picture of an Umbara drumstick.

 

<Nice log guys!>

Edited August 21, 2007 by Kansas_Jones

[Col. C.E. Harper 0]

I say we outfit the entire away team with tee shirts that say "Got Birdie?" with a picture of an Umbara drumstick.

 

::schedules Tabby and Stabby for remedial diplomatic protocol lessons::

[OdileCondacin 0]

My diplomatic motto:

 

Stab first. Clean up the mess later.