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Guest Laarell

"Motivational Conversations"

The mess hall wasn't too crowded when Tandaris arrived. He had just finished preliminary preparations for the probes. Compared to some of Corizon's other requests, this task was relatively straightforward--and fairly harmless. He was surprised.

 

Tandaris went to the replicator first and ordered a meal. In fulfilment of his earlier promise, he got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on rye bread. That wouldn't be enough, however, so he asked for a side of fries and a Ktarian omelette. He coaxed some bitter Altairian dew tea out of the replicator and then looked around to see if Laarell had already found a table.

 

She had, and was waving him over to it eagerly. Her plate was filled with various sushi and a side of gagh, and apparently the Orion'd had enough time to change into some -- closely-tailored -- civilian wear.

 

"About time you showed up," she teased.

 

"Time is an illusion created by our linear perception of causality," Tandaris retorted. He glanced down at his rumpled uniform, stained with substances from the Boganary devices with which he'd been tinkering for the past few hours. He imagined that he did not look like the prestigious Starfleet engineering chief he should -- or worse, maybe he fit the part all too well. Suppressing a frown, Tandaris sat down across from Laarell.

 

"Well, that's true." She grinned, foregoing chopsticks and eating one of the California rolls with her own fingers. "But still -- it's an illusion we must all adhere to."

 

Tandaris began segmenting his omelette. "If you say so. I've yet to actually experience it myself, but so far Starfleet has had remarkable success in--what's the human expression ... 'wrapping the space-time continuum around its little finger.'"

 

"... you exist outside of time?"

 

"No. I was referring to the numerous and often embarrassing incidents of time travel throughout Starfleet's history."

 

"Oh. Well. There's always the next mission. Maybe we'll get sent back in time to the Earth-Romulan War." She grinned. "We could be heroes and save some old starship!"

 

Chewing thoughtfully on his omelette, Tandaris emitted a short grunt and said, "I'm seriously rethinking my return to active duty. Teaching and R&D was so ... stable."

 

"Novelty is the spice of life. Teaching and research? That's not for someone whose point in life is to give hir symbiont the most interesting life possible." Laarell grinned.

 

"Research can be very fulfilling," Tandaris said. "You never know what we'll develop."

 

"True. But you should be out on the frontier." She smirked meaningfully. "Life can have so many more... perks."

 

Tandaris wondered if that was the spices in the omelette or if his body was just hallucinating from lack of sleep. He blinked carefully at Laarell. No sudden movements, he thought as he reached for his tea.

 

Laarell reached for her own mug, filled with raktajino. "I take it you don't agree?" she asked, playfully.

 

"If you mean, life here is interesting, then I couldn't argue with you. But Corizon's tendency to get us into mortal peril every month or so ... sometimes I would rather be back on Trill, exploring new methods of subspace commmunication."

 

Laarell giggled. "Hey -- you're the one installing a kind-of-illegal cloaking device that could make us all go boom."

 

She had him there. "Yes, well ... I have to do something to mitigate all the other factors that could lead to our premature destruction."

 

"Oh? Well... yes..." She ate another piece of sushi. "It's quite an important job you have..."

 

Tandaris picked at his fries. He had not yet touched his sandwich. "What about you? What do you do up on the bridge anyway?" Tandaris tried to remember the last time he had been on the bridge....

 

Laarell blinked for a moment, then shrugged, deciding to hold the mental debate on "Do they just pay attention to my sex appeal?" for later. "Chief science officer. Second officer now, too. I do the geeky research on the ship."

 

"Well yes, I knew that," Tandaris said, idly waving his fork around. "I mean, what's it like ... there. You know, with Corizon around making decisions. I'm usually in engineering, so all I get is his disembodied voice expressing disapproval at the latest state of affairs."

 

"Uhm. He kind of... sits in his chair and barks out orders..."

 

Tandaris nodded and let that topic drop. Unsure of exactly where their conversation was going, he bit into his sandwich.

 

Laarell shrugged. "So, what are you doing after dinner?" she asked, easily filling in the conversation gap.

 

Tandaris ticked the tasks off on his fingers. "I have to check over the probes to make sure they're ready, tell Corizon the good news, then I'm hoping I can catch some sleep before we catch up with the Boganary vessels."

 

"Oh." Laarell looked slightly disappointed. "That's rather... prosaic..."

 

"Why, what did you expect?"

 

"I don't know..." She considered, then smirked the same smirk that had the dangerous edge. "Something more... interesting?"

 

Tandaris' chewing increased to a frenetic pace as his thoughts flew by. That smirk definitely couldn't be regulation. He tried to swallow and ended up with peanut butter and bread stuck to the roof of his mouth. "It's hargh to thlink about more 'intheresthing things when we have a baby to rethrieve."

 

"Blowing off a little tension can't be a bad thing," she pointed out, fully grinning now.

 

Finally managing to extract the sedimentary foodstuff, Tandaris took a long swallow of tea. "I imagine that's why so many of our 'diplomatic' missions with Corizon end with me writing a lengthy report detailing repairs."

 

Laarell blinked, thrown off -- something that seemed to be happening a lot. "Uhm," she replied, taking a sip of her coffee as she tried to think of an answer.

 

The compressed events of the last day had taken their toll on Tandaris' ability to concentrate--which was considerable. His mind was filled with thoughts of a missing baby, a cloaking device that was less reliable than a Pakled life support system.

 

"Priorities, Laarell. Deal with emergency first, fun later. Once I've had some sleep ... another meal ... then maybe I'll feel up to tackling a holonovel or a multi-dimensional spatial puzzle."

 

Laarell nearly inhaled her coffee. "I wasn't talking about books or games -- not that kind of game!"

 

"Now you've lost me," Tandaris said. He closed his eyes for a moment and massaged his forehead. "Sorry, Laarell. I've just been so focused on this mission, and I'm so tired ... I'm having trouble focusing."

 

Laarell sighed. wanting so badly to smack her head against the table and repeat the motion several times. "Another time," she acquiesced, inwardly... dying a little bit.

 

Tandaris finished his tea and said, "No, no, go on." He set the cup aside and sat up straighter, clasping his hands together. "Really, you've got my full attention now."

 

"Well... I was thinking of more... intimate," she said markedly, "forms of tension-relief."

 

Never in his life had Tandaris been more glad that he had swallowed that last sip of tea. He blinked, rapidly now, and sputtered, "Oh. OH! You ... you mean ... with ... hmm ... I--oh." Laarell's words sparked the firing of the precise neurons required to reduce his brain to an incoherent network of sluggish synapses.

 

Glad to see the dawning of comprehension, the Orion grinned, leaning in across the table a little bit. "You find the idea appealing, of course?"

 

Her intentions had been obvious for some time now that he thought about it. Tandaris chided himself for not seeing it earlier. This was not Admiran's first encounter with Orion females--and if Laarell had any say, it would not be his last.

 

Tandaris ran his tongue along the inside of his teeth. "Of course. But ... why--why me? I'm sure there's many younger, more fit ... opportunities."

 

"You think you're old?" Laarell raised an eyebrow. "First of all, I personally find that Trills age like fine wine -- deliciously." She grinned. "Secondly, you are quite intelligent, and I like a good brain in addition to good body." She leaned in closer, licking her lips. "And third, I find Trill... enigmatic and highly unique."

 

A stray neuron bludgeoned the other ones into line, and Tandaris suddenly realized he was being an idiot. Here she was, practically throwing herself at him, and he was asking her to list her reasons. He really needed sleep.

 

"What about Commander Segami?" Tandaris asked. As intrigued as he was, he also knew that intraship relationships could get complicated, and he prized harmony over ... experiences.

 

"Oh, we understand that we're not exclusive." She grinned. "Unless you're implying he should join us?"

 

"N-n--um, no. I just wanted to make sure it wouldn't case ... friction." Tandaris decided a change of subject was at hand. "You know, I ran into slavers once. This was back when the Orion syndicate was actually Orion ... oh ... over a century and a half ago. Met the nicest Orion slave girl. We got to know each other quite well until she was sold to a Rigelian diplomat. I managed to escape a month later, thanks to the unwitting help of some Pakleds and a faulty alarm circuit." He smiled fondly at the memory. "She had this amazing thing she could do with her tongue--" he sighed and added, "I suppose it's probably not even anatomically possible with a male...."

 

Laarell grinned. "I take it you were female at the time?" she asked, in far more comfortable terrain and back to sipping at her coffee happily.

 

Tandaris allowed himself a small smirk. "Laarell, I will tell you all about it and more ... after we rescue the Ziers' baby."

 

She swallowed the coffee and grinned, laughing. "You know... I suddenly feel our quest to find that child more important than ever..."

 

Now Tandaris knew what it took to get Laarell motivated.

 

To be continued.

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