Joy Riding

[Capt Rian Kwai 0]

Rian Kwai’s shoreleave would be considered uneventful to most StarFleet officers. Or maybe even boring. But the Trill didn’t care. She was looking forward to a little dull. A little quiet. A little boring.

 

Her host, Cdr Gail Ranau, had a farm darn near the center of the North American continent outside the small city of St. Louis, sitting on the banks of the Meramec river. While Gail told Rian it was a ‘small’ farm, the Trill had no concept of geographical layout on a planet and difficulty keeping track of which orchard or field belonged to what farm and often got lost as a result. It was a nice sort of lost. A wandering sort of lost that Rian enjoyed.

 

In fact there was a lot that Rian had started to enjoy. She slept in late, a surprise in itself considering her propensity for insomniac behavior. Her host’s relatives tried to stuff her full of food, making her look a little less gaunt and sickly. With help, she figured out how to doctor the horrid tea she’d been drinking for weeks so it didn’t smell so bad. She also did what she wanted, read what she wanted, walked where she wanted, and napped where she wanted.

 

The only bit of excitement to her days was the periodic trips she took in Gail’s flyer to either Star Fleet Headquarters so Gail could teach class or to the marine base to pick up or drop off Gail’s sister, Gunnery Sergeant Genna Dailey. And oh, how she loved that flyer. She just wished the girls would let her fly it every now and then.

 

It was on one of these trips that Rian had her most interesting encounters and engaged in one of her most reckless acts.

 

She’d just dropped Genna off and two hours to kill before her lunch appointment at the JAG offices. Following Gail’s advice, Rian had chosen casual civilian clothing so she could wander San Francisco as a tourist without drawing attention to her Captain’s uniform. With official digs stored in a bag in the cargo hatch, Rian felt oddly plain, normal, and unremarkable. Add the bright sun, clear air, and bustling city that Rian’d never explored before, the Trill couldn’t figure out what to do with herself first. That was until she heard a man’s voice behind her.

 

“Heeeeelllllloooo, Beautiful!”

 

Rian startled, hearing the male voice. She turned around to see who would have been so bold (or obnoxious). She had to crane her neck over the top of the vehicle before she spied a spot of a Marine’s uniform and the top of the man’s dark haired head on the opposite side of the vehicle, bent over and examining it carefully. Listening carefully, she could hear the man slide his hand across the curves of the Gail’s flyer. Rian deduced that the comment hadn’t been meant for her but for the Screaming Eagle that Rian was leaning against. Kwai propped her elbow upon the top of the vehicle and waited patiently for the man to trace the lines of the flyer all the way around to her side of the vehicle and perhaps notice she was standing there.

 

It took a bit, as he was rather engrossed in the vintage vehicle, but when he did look up, he startled just as she had when she’d first heard his voice.

 

“Hello, yourself.” Rian smirked.

 

“Ah, sorry.” He straightened quickly and Rian got a good look at him then. Dark hair, blue eyes, roughly 2 meters tall, muscled form in a Marine uniform. Physically, he had the look of a thick-headed athlete, but his insignia indicated a major’s rank so the man likely had to have some smarts about him.

 

“You two want to be alone?”

 

The human looked a bit embarrassed, but hid it well with a charming grin. He lifted his hand from the flyer, but not before giving it a pat. “Screaming Eagle, S-Class, yes?”

 

“Aye, so I’ve been told.” Rian straightened up from her own lounging position against the flyer. Gail would have killed her if she dinged the paint.

 

“Yours?”

 

“A friend’s.” Kwai watched him as he started tracing the vehicle’s lines again, this time with his eyes.

 

“Love to meet your friend.” He rolled his tongue against the inside of his cheek.

 

“You talking about the owner or the vehicle itself?” She teased. “Because if you’re talking about the owner, I think her husband would object to your tone of voice right now. And if you’re talking about the vehicle…well Gail’d be crowing about all the attention you’re giving it.”

 

“You’re funny.” He smirked, the motioned to the driver’s compartment. “Could I?”

 

Rian hesitated, then opened the driver’s side hatch. “Go ahead.”

 

He smiled, brushed passed her and sat down inside the compartment, where more studying, caressing and content sighing could be heard. Rian shook her head and circled around to the passenger side hatch and slipped into the compartment herself. “Always wanted one of these.” He ran his hands over the steering yoke.

 

“She’s a dream,” Rian commented, watching the major.

 

“That she is.” The major sighed softly. “Always wanted one of these as a kid.” He paused. “Hell, always wanted one of these as an adult.” He then proceeded to tell her all about the attributes of the Screaming Eagle, all details that Gail had shared with Rian years ago yet never grew tired of replaying every chance Ranau got. He was so engaged in the details after ten minutes that he failed to notice that Rian was dangling the ignition access fob within his reach as an invitation to take the wheel. When he’d realized he’d been rambling on, he glanced over at the Trill to see if he’d bored her to sleep and eyed the fob with start. “Ma’am, you don’t know me. I could be an axe-murderer.”

 

“Are you an ax-murderer?”

 

“No.”

 

“Then that’s all I need to know.” She tossed him the key.

 

“Well, I don’t know you. How do I know you didn’t steel this baby and are now trying to make me your accomplice?” He smirked.

 

“Do I look like I’m a thief?”

 

He studied her with a grin on his face. “No, ma’am. You sure don’t.”

 

“Rian.” She held out the hand she thought that humans shook as part of a greeting.

 

His grin widened as he took her hand. “Jamie.”

 

“Well, Jamie, I’ve got two hours to kill before my appointment.” Rian closed the passenger side hatch before telling the first lie. “And I have this lovely borrowed vehicle of which I have no idea what it can and can’t do, nor do I know where it’s safe to test its prowess in the sky.” The former nav-com now ship’s executive officer lied. “You seemed to be enamored with the vehicle and I’d love to see what she can do. If you’ve got the time, I’ve got the flyer.” She glanced up at him expectantly.

 

“You won’t get in trouble with your friend?”

 

“I won’t tell if you won’t tell.” She grinned, then motioned to the driver’s yoke. “Well?”

 

The answer came with the slamming of the driver’s side hatch and the roar of the Screaming Eagle’s engine.

 

 

 

A little over 90 minutes later, Jamie masterfully parked Gail’s vehicle back on the landing pad. She thanked him for the instruction and he, for the opportunity to fly, handing the ignition fob back to the Trill. As he opened the hatch and climbed out, Rian looked over his shoulder to see a tall brunette human woman standing there. Genna Dailey was apparently early for her lunch date with Kwai.

 

“Major!” she snapped to attention. “Sorry, I didn’t know. I thought—I was looking for the Captain.“

 

“At ease, Gunny.” Jamie then poked his head back into the compartment as Rian started to open her side of the vehicle. “Captain?”

 

“Major, hmm?” Rian shrugged nonchalantly at him, then climbed out of her side of the vehicle. She grinned as she stood up to see him shaking his head at her across the vehicles roof.

 

“Thanks, Rian.”

 

“No, thank you, Jamie.” She drummed on the roof of the vehicle before waving at him.

 

As soon as he turned and walked off, Genna relaxed again, turn to give Rian a critical examination. “Captain Rian Kwai, what have you been up to?”

 

She watched Jamie turn his head slightly over his shoulder at Genna’s exclamation, probably cataloging her rank again. She tried not to laugh. “Just out sightseeing, like Gaily told me to.”

 

“And did she also say you should pick up strangers to fly her baby?” Genna was trying not to laugh.

 

“I’m not going to tell if you’re not going to tell.” Rian teased.

 

“Sure.” Genna smirked, holding out her hand. “If I get to fly her home.”

 

“Oh, bother.” Rian handed over the ignition fob, foiled yet again in her own ability to fly the darn thing home.