Time Between Things

[Nijil tr'Korjata 0]

 

Time Between Things

Jylliene looked across the table at Nijil. She could see he was just as exhausted as she. At least her duties required far less footwork than a traveling engineer. Lately, their time together was squeezed between eating, shower, and sleep. Tonight: dinner. She brought out one of the many simulated Rihan proteins topped with an assortment of vegetables. It was one of the rather zesty dishes his homeworld offered. He began to stare at his plate while he chewed.

“Those cores made for a stressful few shifts. I was glad to see them go,” she remarked, with a sympathetic smile towards him. Of course, what the cores might do now was another concern, but at least they were off-station.

"The cores are essential in providing power to the station. It's always a point of stress for the engineering team."Nijil replied, still staring into his meal, perhaps hoping something would pop out just like the seven or so spices did to the flavor. "Cores?"

“Droid cores. The diplomatic representatives,” she clarified.

He blinked and looked her in the eyes. "Sorry, um, tired.” He yawned. “What a strange name for them. Perhaps the translation was off. I did not get to meet any of them. Were they agreeable?"

“They were as polite as you could expect. Just a bit unsettling, since they decided to adopt our crew’s appearances as their own, albeit at about half or two-thirds scale. Given the ease with which they had replicated the captain’s appearance, I think we were all still on edge.” She paused, then added, “I’m not sure what they call themselves.”

"Well," he thought, then supposed, "We call ourselvesRihan and au call us Romulans, so they are bound to have a name of their own...unless they were a recent creation. Beyond their programming?"

“Entirely possible. I imagine they must have SOME way to refer to themselves, even if only in their own programming, to distinguish themselves from others.” Jylliene shrugged.

Nijil cut into another portion of his meal. The taste was a blessing compared to what he ate over the last few days. "Regardless, I am thinking more about us than those robots. Did Annisha tell au she is handling something from our bonding?"

“No…” she replied, with some slight trepidation. “Did she say what?”

"No on that as well, and she's enlisted her band of friends to keep me from finding out. Maybe it's just a token of celebration. She was quite adamant about me not digging to find out. If I did not know better her feline friend almost hissed at me."

She chuckled. “Well, I suppose we’ll just need to hope for the best? Has she asked anything about wedding traditions or the like?”

He shook his head, taking a drink of his tea. "Na, but she could merely ask the computer. I don't think she'd sabotage anything, right?"

“Not deliberately, no. It's the unintentional that I’d worry about. I imagine she’s done some research, though. She really doesn’t do anything halfway.” Whether that eased or concerned her, Jylliene wasn’t entirely sure.

"She will be commanding this station in a year," he laughed. "I did want to ask au something. There's a lot of Rihan tradition in our bonding. Is there anything from Trill you wish to include?"

She was so very tempted. “I’m not sure; how far do you think you can crawl on hot coals?” Jylliene kept a straight face for a beat, then grinned. “No, not that. There are a few rituals, but I’ll need to review them myself first. It’s been ages since I’ve been at a Trill wedding, and I kept meaning to look up the ones I recall, but droid cores and yellow alerts and…” she smiled sheepishly. “I’ll have them within the next day.”

He laughed again. "Hold tight Commander,na an order. I mean I can't order au not to do research." He looked at her. "There are rituals of the elements that were performed long ago, but I did not include them. Reminded me of something Klingons would choose to do, just fewer pain sticks." He placed his hand over hers. "We could run up to Chirakis' office now and get it out of the way."

“My parents would have a fit. Moreover, Annisha would have a fit. No, we go ahead as planned,” she replied.

"Very well," he smiled. "Besides, the best part is the, what do humans call it? Oh yes, reception. Before our departure to the resort, I did reserve a holosuite. We need to relax before our long trip on the Nei'rrh. I hope that was not presumptuous."

“Not at all. That sounds perfect.” She turned her hand over to clasp his.

"Good, I would hope my hours studying holo systems programming is not wasted." He stopped and had a dreadful thought. "Um, what if that's what Annisha was doing?"

“Then I imagine we’ll be playing in a park or something similar. I’m sure we can find ways to make that suitably enjoyable,” she reassured with a grin and a wink.