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Engineering - Surprise Lunch Date (Tag: Dagen)

Posted Oct. 31, 2022, 6:49 p.m. by Lieutenant Commander Dagen Thor (CE) (Gene Gibbs)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Reia Shandy (C Intelligence -Comm Officer) in Engineering - Surprise Lunch Date (Tag: Dagen)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dagen Thor (CE) in Engineering - Surprise Lunch Date (Tag: Dagen)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Reia Shandy (C Intelligence -Comm Officer) in Engineering - Surprise Lunch Date (Tag: Dagen)
Posted by… suppressed (12) by the Post Ghost! 👻
It was two days after Reia and Dagen had a long discussion regarding retirement, family, and, of all things, space parks. This had brought up a lot of family issues for Reia. There were things she felt she should probably be discussing with a counselor but Reia simply wasn’t in the mood to discuss her mother yet.

After doing some research, she was ready to discuss space parks. Exiting the lift, she smiled at a few of Dagen’s colleagues and put a finger to her lips trying to make her visit a surprise. She carried an old school picnic basket and several PaDDs. Finally she spotted Bat.

“Okay so where is your boss my good man?” she whispered.

  • Reia

The portly Bolian, Bat, gave a good long look at Reia and then the basket and looked to be about to make some kind of comment. “His office,” Bat said after a long pause. “Might be sleeping off my famous muffins. Blueberry cream. Angel loved them, but her logic doesn’t let her say it. I’ll get to her yet.” He winked, then said, “But it looks like you’ve brought in some dessert and .. your work? Or did the Chief forget those this morning?”
- Bat

Reia shook her head and smiled.

“No, he didn’t forget anything. I guess this is what you’d call my work… Marriage work. I feel like I have to fix something. He better not be sleeping off those muffins.” she said with a wink making her way to Dagen’s office.

“Thing about the Chief,” Bat said as Reia moved on. “He is rarely full.”

Reia had been there on several occasions but, generally speaking, they tried to stay out of each other’s away from home work places. Reia knew she could just walk into Dagen’s office but felt it was always polite to ring the chime.

  • Reia

Meanwhile, Dagen had discovered something, or rather something had been pointed out to him. He had a stack of PaDD’s that were dropped off to be repaired - something that Deeg was especially good at. He had called himself a glorified TV repairman but that the stack of PaDD’s looked more like LEGO. That drove Dagen back to research both of those terms and, as Reia had said on more than one occasion, fallen down the rabbit hole.

The chime was a background sound and he called out, “Come on in!”

When the door opened, Reia would see Dagen hard at work with a stack of shiny, colored, knobbly blocks of dubious material piled up on the desk. Peering over the top at Reia was Dagen, a boyish look in his eyes who said, “Reia! Look at this stuff. It’s great! It’s like a 300 year old … puzzle, game, thing.” His hand waved at the pile as though it would self identify as one of those options.
Dagen

Reia walked in and smiled from ear to ear. Dagen was definitely within his element and they both knew it. She looked at the desk but couldn’t find a place to set anything down so she shifted it from one arm tot he other before plopping it down in a spare chair.

Dagen looked from side to side before picking up the lid to a container and, with a sweep of his arm, cleared a section of the desk of the LEGO pieces to make way for the coming mug. They clattered onto the lid, some missing and scattering on the floor. “We can have build the best model of the ship with these things. They’re great! Some of the sets I found were specific kits making these strange looking utterly unspaceworthy creations in some ‘star wars’ universe.”

“Ooo, pretty. Here. Try this.” she said handing him a mug of the hot tea he seemed to favor, when they were having a movie night, followed by several of the PaDDs she had brought, “So I’ve been doing a little research regarding your parent’s proposal and your mention of space parks. I’ve got to tell you, it’s a terrible idea.”

He quickly took a sip of the chai tea, the spices tickling his nose. “Me too,” he said in the midst of her sentence, talking over her at the end almost saying the same thing as her with, “I’ve got to tell you, it’s a great idea.” Then he stopped, furrowed his brow in thought, tipped his head quizzically. “Sorry, what, love?”

As Reia spoke, she brought out sandwiches, fried chicken, and several desserts from the picnic basket. At the mention of the words ‘space parks’ her face crinkled as if she had eaten something untenably sour.

  • Reia

Distracted by the food coming out he helped make more space and places for it, peeking at the sandwiches to see what they were but tempted too by the chicken. Dagen had found that when it came to protein on the table that he needed to get in there quickly lest it all be claimed by his wife. In fussing with the food and places, he utterly missed the face crinkling Reia made.
Dagen

Reia had caught that Dagen said it was a good idea and sighed as she brought out her own mug of tea. Sitting across the desk from him she ate a bit before launching into her explanation.

Dagen peeked at the sandwiches before digging in. Reia had playfully threatened to feed him a ‘vegemite’ sandwich which seemed more to him to be a form of Australian termite. Better safer than, well, eating bugs.

“Okay, in theory they are a great idea but, I’ve seen lots of brochures and, maybe, I just haven’t found the right ones because, all of these things look terrible to me.”

He finished a bite and his brow furrowed. He too had seen some pretty poor excuses for a space park but he had seen some that were more like resorts. What was it that she had found? Leaning in he looked at the images she had found but took that opportunity of closeness to lay a soft kiss at the base of her neck.

Reia started showing Dagen things on one of the PaDDs she’d brought. They were in backwater areas of space no-one would ever want to live in. Several brochures even showed some of the park occupants. Looking at it just made Reia shake her head.

“These are real?” he asked. In his searches he hadn’t found anything ‘that’ bad. Was that a swamp next to one of them? They seemed pretty decrepit and about a hundred years old. One old Class 3A freighter had a canopy over one side and its landing gear was being used in one case as a picnic table base. That wasn’t moving again. One that looked more like an old ‘rocket’ but made to look like an old medieval tower with windows and a pennant at the top was equally permanent. He shook his head and pulled out a PaDD from the mess to show her what he had found – ones that were of much higher class and held their own security.

“Another part to this that I didn’t really realize till now love, is that my profession in intelligence has always kept me moving. I don’t think I know how to stay still. It’s not safe in my line of work.”

  • Reia

That was a consideration. He nodded, biting absently, sandwich in one hand and the other reaching to squeeze her free hand. There had to be a middle ground with risk. If one wanted to be particularly extreme one could say the Genesis was hardly a safe haven. She was stationed there. It was mobile but she was not. It didn’t take that much effort from a ‘spy’ to learn where the Starfleet ships were and with it, Reia. Replying with what he hoped was a reasonable question, he asked, “How long is a safety margin for remaining in any place? I mean, one can’t be flying about forever.”
- Dagen

Reia sighed and idly tossed a chicken bone into the picnic basket.

“First let me say that you make a very good point and I really don’t have an answer to that question in terms of months and years. It’s more of a feeling that some of us Intel people get. I guess Iw as just really surprised with your parents’ offer of a piece of land an all that because they seem so keen on having a spy in the family. I thought your father would have understood the whole safety thing at least a little bit.”

Reia reached back intot he basket and dug out some napkins. Dabbing at her lips she leaned in and kissed Dagen’s cheek before going after a small sandwich of her own.

“But I realize that is an unfair assessment and I apologize. Find us a good space park and we’ll talk.”

  • Reia

This was a sensitive topic, Dagen felt, and with that his ‘spider senses’ as one of his old friends on Outpost 42 had said often enough. “Mother has a way of steamrolling certain thoughts,” he said. “She is a force of nature.” He peeked into the basket to see what else was there and pulled out a small bottle of what looked like wine, probably enough for a glass each, and, not real and thus allowed for ‘on duty’ partaking. “I think that right now we are both on a career path and will be for some time, love. So maybe we can go at this part way to satisfy all parties. We can engage in a prime spot and apply short term leasing to other destinations as we like it. The ship can sit on that location while we are out with Starfleet and we can use it for a holiday there or collect it to move to another spot for a shore leave and can use that to visit either of our relations. If, after however many years we come to the place of wanting something else we can liquidate and do what we want.”
- DAgen

This made Reia smile. She dug out the glasses and handed them over to him.

“Oh yes, lets toast to that sweetheart. When we call your parents for their weekly, or whatever, call, we can explain as much of that as you like. Show them something pretty and maybe that will put the situation at rest for a while. I hope you like the wine and I’ve actually brought dessert.”

Reia felt great relief and it probably showed. She didn’t like being at odds with Dagen. This was the biggest sticking point they had had in their relationship so far. Hopefully the next one wouldn’t rear it’s snarky head for quite some time.

  • Reia

Dagen took opportunity to pour the wine out, given that he was still holding the bottle. Taking his time he was thinking what was the best way to break the news per se, which, to him was good news. It may not be a ‘brick and mortar’ style thing but it would give them something to work with, and it would give he and Reia something to work toward. Decent ships, after all, were not cheap. Sure they could do a ‘fixer upper’ but he wanted to provide better than that. He knew some people and could likely get something that was just ‘past warranty’ per se.

“Let’s have a look and give them something concrete for a plot. I can look at what is out there. Civilian is fine but given your concerns I’d like something with a bit more speed and shields. I’m thinking a courier ship. They are minimally crewed, can be more automated, move like stink and, as they are also designed for VIP movements can be a bit cushy too.” He sniffed at the wine. Lin was very knowledgeable in the way of wines. Dagen very much less so. It was all in the taste which he wasn’t very useful for, but that was okay.

“You mean you’re not the dessert, love?” he said with a wink. A beep came over one of his monitors. Just a staff evaluation meeting prep notice. It wasn’t till later but it was one thing Dagen always left for the last minute unless notified. He would tackle that after .. dessert. Whoever said that being a chief engineer was playing with all the stuff? He got to see all the others do the play and he ‘got to’ do the admin to keep them playing.

He noticed the change in Reia’s expression to something more relaxed, which relieved him. He handed her the one glass then clinked hers with his. “We’re getting a home,” he said. “Imagine all the things we can do with it.”

Dagen

Reia clinked her glass with Dagen’s and shook her head.

“Well if that beep means anything, you don’t have time for full on dessert sweetie. Maybe just a little tease until later this evening. Okay, yes. Let’s work on finding some pretty little place we can send them lots of footage of. I might have a few lines on a plot if I just relax and don’t put all my walls up about the situation. I really do like your idea of a courier ship, it might be just what we need.”

He shrugged. “Nyah, just a staff meeting reminder coming up later.” Putting his attention back to his wife, Dagen winked. “A little tease. You’ve neve done anything little, my love. Even a small shift of things about the cabin is big.” He grinned to say that that was not a criticism and to not take it that way. “Okay, how about this. I’ll send you bits of the mid to upscale sites I’ve seen and you have a look see and whatever else you find. You’ve a good eye for what would be a place of rest and where you’d like to stay. Pick out three. We can own one and maybe timeshare the others to give us a place to roost. Maybe Earth and Trill for those. I’ll look into the courier ships. One can negotiate a pretty good deal if we consider ourselves as active or semi-active in the fleet. Deal?”

Reia leaned in and gave her husband a long wine soaked kiss before her own comm began to beep. Was she late for a meeting?

  • Reia

“Too many beeps,” Dagen said against her lips. “Next picnic we’re device free like our bedroom.” Reluctantly he pulled back to give her space to answer.
- Dagen

Reia reluctantly looked down at her comm.

“Right. I’m late for a linguistics lesson with that new ensign that has so many ‘Q’s in his name. Luckily I’ve learned how to twist my tongue in so many different directions.”

Dagen was about to make a comment, but Reia’s last sentence silenced him. “Uhhh ..” he managed. His mind wasn’t much help as it flew off in a dozen directions.

Reia smiled and gave Dagen a flirtatious wink.

“Practice does make better,” he said after another moment of brain flutter.

“I do love your division of labor. I’m certain we can find three places that will make us fairly happy. Now, I should be off. Oh, and I’ve sworn off moving furniture for two weeks.”

  • Reia

Mind back in a groove, it danced down his mental rolodex to recall names whom he might talk to. He had heard that since the Dominion war there were some mothballed ships that didn’t quite fit the new normal. Looking down at the picnic basket, he said, “You take off and get to your appointment. I’ll clean up and get this back to our quarters later.” Moving around the still somewhat cluttered desk, Dagen pulled Reia into a tight hug and too short kiss. “Thank you for the surprise, love.”
Dagen


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