Snip

“Rumble with some raiders?” Duncan echoed and grinned at her, raising his eyebrow. He had been slightly unsure of where exactly to go, he had options, as well as a promise made to a friend earlier in the day that he had thought about conveniently ‘forgetting’ up till this point. “You want some fun? At this time of night on the station most fun is behind closed doors Lily, but, I think I might have something a bit more exciting than rumbling with pesky raiders.” They reached the turbo lift door and it slid aside, Duncan giving Lily’s hand a squeeze as they stepped inside and the doors slid shut.

“I dunno,” she said in a skeptical tone. “Persnickety pirates play pinochle pretty....darn good.” Pointing a finger at Duncan she added “don’t judge. That was a lot of P’s on short notice,” she winked at him. “So are you going to tell me where we are going or do you not have a plan. You can tell me your bingo on ideas. I won’t judge…much,” Lily smiles at him.

“I’ll tell you what, I’m going to take you to two places. If you can keep up with me at the first, and the second makes you smile then tomorrow night you get to choose the Pizza and the Movie, as long as it’s something Indiana Jones like and the pizza doesn’t have pineapple on it.”

Lily gave Duncan an disgusted look. “Pineapple? On pizza? You heathen. And I thought you were cultured. Just for the record I am silently judging you now.”

“What are you judging me for? I said no Pineapple on Pizza,” he explained. “It’s almost as bad as spaghetti on pizza.”

The doors opened and Duncan led Lily out. The turbolift had let them out into a dark, narrow corridor area in the depths of the space station that looked like it would be dark and deserted even in the busy part of the day, let alone this time of night. Minutes later, and they had reached a door. It was bare with no signage or markings, and looked like every other door in the corridor that they had passed. “Are you ready?” Duncan asked her, smiling very slightly and moving his fingers between hers so that they were intertwined, not just holding hands. “Once we’re in, there’s no backing out. You gotta have my back, and I’ll have yours.”

Lt Duncan Rhodes, CSO

Lily’s other hand slid into the bag she was carrying. Why do the hot, sexy rich ones always have a crazy streak, she thought as her hand closed around the small tube.

The door in front of the pair began to open at the same moment Lily took her hand out of the bag.

Bringing it to her lips she blew out a large piercing sound from the whistle. She doubted anyone would hear the emergency whistle but it was worth a shot. It would also give Duncan a chance to fix things if he wasn’t going to blow her out an airlock and leave her for dead.

Lily.

The whistle was, in plain terms, unexpected. At this early hour of the morning it traveled up and down the corridors of the sleeping station like a freight train and for all the silence in those corridors, it was even louder for Duncan and the woman standing in front of them holding what appeared to be a much needed cup of coffee for her.

At the sound, the woman got such a fright that she flinched in response, and the coffee fired straight out and over Duncans chest. A crashing sound behind the woman led to a smashing sound, and two dozen small screams as the class of young children all dropped or knocked over the various science or art projects they were learning about as each and every one clapped their hands over their ears to escape the piercing noise of the whistle, then looked at the doorway at the two strangers standing in front of their teacher. One of whom was now wearing their teachers coffee and wincing at the burning sensation seeping through his shirt. Then, all of them looked at the woman the man was with, blowing the whistle as the man gently reached up and placed his finger over the small hole blocking the air passage and causing one final flat note to signal the end of the alarming call.

The whistle made a sad little wheezing sound as the pad of Duncan’s finger snuffed out its call. Lily used her tongue to push out the whistle into Duncan’s hand. “This didn’t look initially like the ideal place for a date,” she said weakly with a forced smile and shrug of her shoulders. Reaching up she plucked it from his hand and stood there not knowing what to say. That was rare for Lily but from her experience as long as you waited long enough a situation always righted itself even if there was a lot of awkwardness before it did.

“Mr Rhodes,” the woman said, looking between the two and then down at her empty coffee cup. “When I asked if you would mind helping with the night school for Starfleet night staff, I didn’t expect you to bring a drill sergeant with you. I don’t think the children are quite ready for boot camp yet.” She looked behind her at the carnage of broken beakers and spilled paint, then back to the pair.

“Oh, I’m not in Starfleet. I’m just his date. Lily..Lily Locksley,” she extended her hand realizing this was a perfect place to insert an introduction. “At first I thought we were just going to go get a drink. Probably at the casino. I mean that is the top place to go on a budget. Yeah, they expect you to gamble but if you hang around the tables they give you free drinks so it is a great place to show up if you are on a budget. Duncan here doesn’t look like the thrifty type but when he grabbed that picnic basket I started to second guess my initial train of thought. It was when really started to think about things I guess I got a little carried away. Yes, we could have been going to the holodeck but once we started to head in the opposite direction I thought ‘wait. Hold up. Somethings not right here’“, Lily said in a highly animated voice complete with hand gestures. “Obviously I was wrong and this is a prime example of why you don’t jump to conclusions without answers. Tends to get you into sticky situations that could be completely avoided with a little bit of communication,” she said happily.

Looking at Lily, Duncan took the whistle out of her hand and put it in his picnic bag. “Mrs Rose, I apologize for the interruption. I thought I might bring someone with me as a surprise for the children. You know the old Space Ranger motto, ‘Be Prepared’ and all that?” He looked down and picked his wet shirt of his chest for a moment before letting it fall back. “Lily, meet Mrs. Rose and the night school kids of Outpost 42.”

Lt Rhodes, CSO

“So so nice to meet you,” Lily shook her hand warmly. Turning to Duncan, Lily’s smile got larger. “So you are a teacher too. What don’t you do Mr. Rhodes.”

“Mr. Rhodes,” A little girl came up to the trio and tugged at his shirt. “Does this mean we are not making volcanoes today,” she eyed the wet splotch on his shirt.

“No way,” Lily said as if the kid was crazy. “This was just us doing a live demonstration of a monogenetic volcano. That is where it erupts only once and with a little bit o ash and lava which we just demonstrated using the steam from the coffee and the coffee itself. The volcano dies down and moves to a new location. A great example of this is in a place called Auckland. Auckland has them everywhere. For us, the next location is in the classroom so scoot so that we can get started okay?”

Lily Locksley