Posted by Captain Calvin Marius (Captain) in CO quarters 2000 hours

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vanessa Slade (CNS) in CO quarters 2000 hours

Posted by Captain Calvin Marius (Captain) in CO quarters 2000 hours
Posted by… suppressed (11) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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Slade’s quarters 1930 hours
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“Oh for the love of God girl this is just a date…just a date,” she said to herself in the mirror studying her outfit. It was the tenth she had tried on which varied from a clean uniform to cut off with a t-shirt to the cocktail dress she was now wearing. The clothes had been tossed aside instead of put back so her bedroom now resembled that of a teenage girl’s. Holding her hair up off her neck, she turned and twisted debating about whether she should wear it up or down. As her eyes drifted down the mirror, a small curse erupted from her lips as she saw the time. Wiggling and bouncing, she got the zipper down and tossed the dress into the small gym bag along with a pair of heels. Hopefully, it would not wrinkle badly in the next five minutes on the way to Calvin’s quarters. Grabbing the spandex workout pants she rapidly pulled them on followed by the soft PT shirt with the words USS Genesis plastered across the front. Grabbing the bag on the bed, she stopped only to shove her feet into a pair of sneakers before exiting her room. Pulling out her personal communicator, she sent Calvin a message. Stopping in from of his quarters, she rang the chime and hoped this went as well as she planned in her mind.

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Captian’s Quarters
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Calvin thought of how quickly thing had been moving, this time yesterday he was having a couple drinks in the lounge trying to improve crew morale by sharing one of his bottles of whiskey with those who were courageous enough to sit with the old man. Well there were two, one tapped out early and one stayed until morning.

He shook his head, probably against regulations, actually it wasn’t it was highly frowned upon. The big thing that bothered him was the rank separation. He commented about the age difference, but 10 years in the 25 century didn’t mean a hell of a lot aside in his mind.

Cooking was not a huge exercise now-a-days outside of the setting the table. Marius took care to have sparkling clean utensils and dinnerware as the food itself came automatically. It was a few moments before 8 and he prepped his first course. It was just a simple dish, seasoned fried red tomatoes. He had sampled a couple recipes from the computer, but he picked the one the closest matched the dish he had once in Georgia… It tasted just like breaded tomato sauce.

Marius

His personal communicator would trill and then display the message =/\=Don’t look when you open the door=/\=.

=^=Okay,=^= the question was clear in his tone, but he suspected a covert attack. She would be disappointed. Even with his back to her, there was a full dozen ways he to turn Vanessa into a pretzel with long hair and he wouldn’t break a sweat.

Arriving at the door, Vanessa tried to appear casual as she rang the chime. She had no if the message had be seen or not but at least anyone caring to notice she was at the CO’s door would think nothing of her arriving in PT clothes and a gym bag. It was not uncommon for senior staff to meet off their duty shifts. With so many shifts, it was not like they could always meet during duty hours.

Vanessa Slade CNS

https://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Terry+Crews+Red+Carpet+America+Got+Talent+ZSMb82BlSKYx.jpg

“Come,” He announced, all his doors were keyed to that phrase and unlocked to admit the guest and re-locked behind them.

Vanessa walked in without the normal slight awe one felt with walking into the boss’s home. Probably because she had been here last night and second because she didn’t want to take the chance of someone seeing her skulking around the Captain’s door.

“Can I turn around now?” He waited. He didn’t get attacked immediately so he suspected the trick was something else.

“No,” she said loudly before letting out a sigh and then a nervous laugh. “I mean sure but I just need a minute.”

When so instructed Calvin turned. Marius looked her up and down, “Well, I didn’t say it was formal.” He smiled, the funny thing Calvin found work out clothes pretty attractive too, probably had a lot to do with the fact he like people working out so it was a Pavlovian attachment. He saw the duffel bag. He suspected that she had brought some over night stuff so she wouldn’t be put out again in the morning and what made more sense with workout gear then a duffel.

“Oh I am not wearing this,” she gestured down at her spandex and half shirt. “This is my disguise. Can I use your bathroom for a second?”

He nodded, “Sure, The mission was not to be seen. Coming to my quarters in sweats or in lingerie is probably going cause the exact same number of tongues wagging, although I appreciate the effort.”

“Oh I am pretty sure if tongues are wagging it is because they are assuming we are going over some ridiculous paperwork and not that you are having a nervous breakdown and need me to braid your hair and hand you kleenex,” she winked at him. Vanessa knew exactly what the wagging tongues would be saying however acknowledging rumors only gave rumors power and a sense of truth.

“Yeah, that’s exactly what rumors are about. The completely normal, very boring, appropriate behavior of officers. No chance of them coming up with the worst possible conclusions, which in this case would be right.
”
Looking at the table with food laying on it she let out a small laugh. “Okay that smells amazing and me being late for meals is starting to become a thing I am definitely a habit I am going to break.”

He reached for the platter of fried tomatoes lightly breaded. There was a horseradish aoli, which was a glorified mayonnaise but it did have a slight kick. “These are simple, but delicious,” And for some weird reason women liked veggies, so he wanted to offer one that he enjoyed too.

Marius

Picking up one Vanessa took a bite and moaned bending her knees with a smile. “No these are f-ing amazing,” she popped the last bite into her mouth and sucked off a bit of aoli on her thumb. “You are setting the bar quite high their skipper. I think I should change up my game. Don’t worry about showing me where to go to change. I got the nickel tour last night.” Turning on her heel she headed towards his bedroom.

It did not take her long to change. Taking one last look in the mirror, she pulled her hair out of the clip and roughed it up some. Tonight she had curled it into waves that gave her a slightly all day at the beach look. It was far different than the pin-straight look she wore on duty or the sporty ponytail that swayed in the same cadence as her hips as she walked. Kicking her sneakers off to the side of the bathroom, she slipped on the pair of black stilettos giving her another three inches to her height. Exiting the bathroom, Marius would hear her approach now with the soft clicking of her heels on any surface that was not carpeted.

Meeting his eyes she gave him an easy smile. “Kinda not the same as opening the door and seeing this but until we figure out if this is anything or going anywhere it will have to do.” Moving across the room, she did not have her typical bouncy stride. Instead, Vanessa took long slow strides making sure his eyes were on her and all over her at the same time. “May I have another please,” she pointed to the plate he had offered her when she walked in.

Vanessa Slade CNS

Marius had started adding thing to the table. He was hungry as it was already eight and he was careful not to eat anything since lunch to preserve his appetite. He spun about with a plate with four crispy spicy Chinese pork belly slabs. It was like crazy fatty crisp spicy thick bacon. It was tons of things everyone liked. Secretly Calvin found it too fatty to be really good, but it was hard to argue with how much others enjoyed it.

“Oh my,” Calvin looked her up and down. “That is a hell of a dress, it is a whole poem, a song.” He nodded. “Jezus, that’s the dress Homer was looking at when he wrote the Odyssey, the Helen of Troy part… if you were wondering.”

Her smile was one of amusement and slight mischief as she politely returned the compliment with, “so you would launch a thousand ships just to get to me if I was stranded wearing this dress?” She let her question hang for a second knowing Calvin had a taste of what could be his and how to force his attention on her when in public. “You look amazing as well.”

“That is what I said.” Marius spoke without preparation, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true.

“Good information. I will just make sure that I am wearing this when I get into trouble so that I know you will not only send the Genny to rescue me but the entire Black Fleet.” Her comment was in jest but also had some historical truth to it. At least on the Genny, it would probably be harder to stick her nose into things that required rescuing.

“I don’t generally dress up, but I do have a couple of nice outfits. All custom,” like most clothes now a day. “my shape is so odd it isn’t on the rack too often.” He had gone to some big and tall shops and a Klingon tailor who more commonly had his build in stock.

Calvin had planed a five course meal. The key about a five course meal is small portions. You can’t let people eat what they think they want to eat. They will be full before the 3rd course, certainly before the 4th. “I have a soup course.” Calvin was well dressed but somehow it looked more comfortable than her dress. Perhaps it was because Calvin was only seen in two outfits, his uniform and his marine tee shirt and too tight shorts.

“A soup course,” she said with a flirty smile. “I am glad I wore my Helen of Troy dress and not just my sweats.” Looking at the soup as she took a seat at the table and draped the napkin over her lap, she inhaled deeply. “It smells delicious what is it?”

“If I feed you right, you might need those sweats.”

“If you feed me right I might take it all off,” she countered. “I didn’t bring a host gift sooo I might have to find an interesting way to say thank you.” She had every intention of removing the dress but for less clothes instead of alternate ones depending on how the evening progressed.

“Vanessa, you are quite the tease.” He chuckled. He wasn’t certain she was joking and she didn’t know how serious he could become. “Well, we can see how much you like what I made, then make your decision.”

“Your professional service is all the gift I could ever ask for, although I’d be a liar if i didn’t admit I do like presents.”

“Excellent I have next Thursday at ten open on my calendar so you can sample my professional services,” she replied as a matter of fact. Captains and those in authority were notoriously difficult to get into a counseling chair. Most counselor’s let it slide as a professional courtesy between officers. They spent enough time with senior staff to note if things were off. It had been her experience that unless the Captain began wearing an eye patch and ran a Jolly Roger off the nacelles, Captain’s and XO’s were sane enough for government standards. Still, since he brought it up, she would comment. “I also do off-the-couch sessions so you are more comfortable we can do it in the gym and I will strap on some hover skates to keep up with you doing laps. There is a fair chance you could outrun me but I don’t know. I am rocket-powered and run on liquid caffeine.”

“That’s not what I meant,” He stuttered slightly, ‘check’, “I meant your services for others as your superior, I appreciate them.” He smiled. Noting quickly that he wasn’t finding the traction he wanted with that argument. “I’m actually on duty at 10 hundred hours Thursday.” He as on duty at 10 hundred hours everyday. He could keep that excuse up forever.

“You are the Captian. You are on duty twenty four hours a day seven days a week,” she countered picking up her wine glass. “That however does not mean you don’t have time to perform the three S’s daily. Shower, shave and share,” Vanessa said with a smirk as she took a sip from her glass. The share part of the saying was not from the famous quote about the three things men needed to do to get ready for any event from their duty shift to their wedding day.

“That is not the third S, counselor.” He added unnecessarily. He knew she had edited the phrase intentionally, but wanted to participate in the conversation.

There were at dinner and the word share was more polite and on the topic than the bodily function. “And before you say you do not share, sharing is as wide open as the response how is your day. You share your wisdom in staff meetings. You share your leadership skills in the way you command the ship. You share jokes which at times a few are truly funny. So why not tomorrow morning you bring up my schedule and play pin the tail on the open time slot. Like you…coffee and conversation don’t happen from eight to five for me.” Vanessa really didn’t care one way or another if or when the Captain came in. He would when he wanted or needed to. She wasn’t just going to let him give her some half-arsed platitude about why he could not show up.

“You just want an excuse to get me on the couch and romp around in my brain.” He started. He had a bad habit of dating psychologists. Not that that was a big deal since pretty much all people, women in particular wanted to talk more than he did.

“Possibly but your brain was not the first thing that came to my mind,” Vanessa took a sip of her drink and hide the smile behind her glass.

“I thought this was a…” he searched for a benign enough word. “social occasion not an professional meeting. If it’s a professional meeting, I don’t think I would have spent as much time programming and designing our meal.”

“Yes you would have,” she countered. “I think you would have gone to just as much trouble. Maybe more,” she shrugged. “If you had me focusing on the food then I would be less apt to focus on the things I might be interested in.”

“So what are you serving me,” she asked looking at the first thing he brought to the table as she placed a napkin in her lap.

He had two small cups of soup. “It ox tail soup. It hasn’t been made out of the actual tail… we’ll replicated tail in years. It’s pseudo beef, slow roasted, or braised…” Calvin really didn’t know what recipe the computer followed. “The cut of meat historically had a lot of fat which breaks down and make the soup rich and meaty. Sometime people think its a very spicy beef stew.”

Marius

“It’s like you read my mind. We Slades are all about the beef stews,” she let out a laugh. “The difference between ours and yours is two things,” Vanessa stirred the soup as she talked. “The first is you can see the beef. We played a game called can you get to five and tried to count who got the most. Then we cited that whoever had the most was mom’s favorite.” The smile she wore was no longer flirty but that of someone remembering a happy memory. “The second is your food is tiny. Tiny food is fancy food and we didn’t have the credits for fancy.” Taking a bite she let her shoulders sad and let out a small groan chewing to savor the bite.

“Its not small because it’s fancy…” He didn’t know anyone who called ox tail soup fancy. “It more because of the number of courses. If I used full sized portions, you’d never get to the end… or you’d be so bloated you wouldn’t want to do anything after finishing but nap.” He left off the part where he didn’t want her to go right to sleep.

“Says the man who obviously did not grow up on potatoes and pasta,” she laughed. “I will grant you the idea of portion sizing being small so you can sample a lot however no one in the history or anyone ever plopped down a cereal-sized bowl of caviar and said here is your spoon.” Extravagant or exotic food was small because the ingredients were expensive. Too large of a portion took the cost out of reach. While Ox-tail soup might not be that exotic, for someone raised on chicken soup it was.

“Does your family like own a restaurant or something back home? So far both of these things are amazing.”

Vanessa Slade.

“No nothing like that,” Marius kind of had two families. “I just wanted to come up with something a little special and to put some thought into it. Its five courses from different parts of Earth. The fried tomatoes, is a North America thing, pork bellies, that’s Chinese, Ox tail soup is African. That leaves more than a few area for the main course and desert.”

Marius

“And a whole lot of pressure on me if I invite you for dinner,” she let out a laugh. “There are a lot of us which means a normal meal is like a holiday dinner and run with the precision of the Academy mess hall. With twelve of us, replicator credits didn’t go far so we cut back in logical ways. Pancakes are a staple for breakfast and there was always a pot of something on the stove. Oddly enough we eat a mack ton of seafood but it was because my Uncles were fishermen. So you said you put some thought into this…why,” she asked taking a bite of her soup. “What makes all of this special to Calvin Marius?”

Vanessa Slade CNS

“Now obviously there dozens of classical dishes from South America, but I took the easy way out and picked a Parilla, or steak house selection.” He stood and walked over to the replicator. Even before he reached it a large dish glowed into existence. The savory smells wafted to her before he was even able to pick it up.” The platter was covered with five selections. Each slightly different but all clearly beef. “This is Lomo, filet ojo de bife, rebeye; pulpon, rump; asado, short ribs, and finally morcilla.. which is blood sausages. Its pretty good, I like them better with eggs but you can have them with dinner as well.”

“And I have no idea what you just said,” she picked up a fork, “but I am going for this one.” Taking a bite of the filet ojo de bife she groaned. The juices and texture took her to a happy place as she closed her eyes and chewed very slowly savoring the bit. It was perfection in her mouth.

“Its Spanish names for cuts of beef. I’m sure the universal translator couldn’t understand my accent well enough to translate. In English that the rib eye. Everyone likes that cut of beef. People say the filet is better, and it certainly is softer more tender, but the rib eye - particularly the cap is fatty, juicy, and very beefy.” Which was pretty stupid to add. How could beef not be beefy… but whatever.

“Oh I am not wearing it,” she waved him off. “It was a safe bet you spoke English and it allows you to resort to another language without me knowing what you said. Everyone needs some privacy at times to vent. It also lets you learn other languages because if that little puppy breaks you are left with miming and no one likes mimes.” She let a playful shudder ripple down her body. Mimes were like spectral clowns to her. They weren’t funny, neither talked, but instead of being colorful, they reminded her of a ghost.

He smiled, “I excluded common dishes like Mollejas, which is the sweetbreads and chincjulin, intestines. they are a little more of an acquired taste.”
\
Marius

Instantly her eyes opened and she stopped chewing. A long stare passed between them. Raising a hand to her mouth she covered it as she spoke still holding the bite between her teeth. “You um said Excluded right. See I was just having a culinary orgasm,” she swirled at her lips, “and my brain turns into a goldfish during one so I need to make sure,” she began to chew the bite as if it is were a cross between tar and peanut sticking to her teeth and the roof of her mouth. Swallowing the bite she took a long drink of her beverage. “That was EX and not In.”

“Yes, EX cluded.” Marius shook his head, “I always wondered why people cared so much about those things.” For the most part organs didn’t really taste that great because they weren’t muscle and the did things that made them tough or bitter. “You know you eat intestines all the time when you have sausages… right.”

“Okay,” she gave him a playful look. “I am going in again,” she speared another piece of meat and placed it on her plate. While she might be acting like she was on Galactic Survivor and debating each bite of food she sampled at times, Vanessa was enjoying every moment of this.

“So you deftly avoided my question about why the food you picked was important to you and while informative, responded by just reading the menu. So,” she cut another bite of food, “you either want to impress me..which you have but don’t need to,” she popped the bite in her mouth nodding at how much she liked it, “you took dinner dating advice from Lt. Bobby ‘the boink her’ Zellers which is always a bad move or this means something to you.” Cutting another bite of meat she ate it and looked at the plate for another selection. It was amazing and so far she loved it all not yet finding a favorite. Vanessa had given him several outs for replies and would take any of them.

Vanessa “going to avoid any dessert that looks like a sweet bread” Slade CNS

“No, they really aren’t important to me,” He thought he kind of explained it. “I was..” he smiled, “trying to put in some effort and I decided that I should give you a tour of Earth and I picked a dish from different regions.” He paused, “Well not Australia, they are only famous for shrimp.”

Marius

“So you are trying to put in some effort but not look like you are trying to put in some effort,” she smiled back at him. Leaning in she wiggled her finger for him to lean in also. “Noted and so far breakfast is looking more and more like a sure thing.” Vanessa leaned back and continued to eat as she deftly changed the topic. Calvin was a big boy and an intelligent one. She was not going to explain or connect any dots, especially after last night.

“Oh, I’m not trying to hide it. I absolutely want you to see the effort and feel completely beholden to me and if you don’t I at least want the guilt.” Men have gotten pretty far using guilt. He leaned forward as he spoke.

“Oh there will be no guilt tomorrow. That is the sign of a good date. When you wake up and your first thought isn’t coffee but good god what was I thinking last night yet still have that nagging feeling in the back of your head that says is it too early to ask about dinner again? I will save you the trouble. It is not.” Vanessa winked at him before sitting back in her seat.

“So where is the most exciting place you have ever been to?” There was no point in worrying about getting too personal with her questions on some level. Calvin and she had skipped a lot of conversational steps last night. The whole tell me about yourself might seem trite but whatever this dinner lead to, she did find him interesting on a lot of levels.

Vanessa Slade CNS

“Well on Galnondon Core and had to repel a Cardassian Breen incursion on that death sentence of a planet. They were trying to cut off the Romulans from the Federation or visa versa. Between random mortar shells and wondering when you nervous system was going to break down from the electromagnetic storms was pretty exciting.” He looked at her, he didn’t think that was exactly what she was looking for, but it was never a bad idea to remind you date of the fact you were a war hero.

Marius

“So that means if we survive whatever this is between us for longer than a week fling I plan the weekenders and you plan all the rescues?” Her smile was wide and happy filling her face. “I promise you will only have to knock out the two or three blokes at the beach bar trying to pick me up as I saunter up to the bar getting us drinks if I plan it.” Her comment was tongue in cheek but Vanessa had seen him at the gym. She also saw him on the bridge. The two sides seemed to be in total contrast to each other. Calvin was built like a tank and could probably put a Klingon through a bulkhead if he was motivated enough. He was also very reserved and tended to be rather laconic when on duty. This did not mean however Vanessa was not curious or turned on by his story.

Vanessa Slade CNS