Chapter 15: Something to Talk About
Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2021 9:11 pm
It always began with questions or commentary from a pilot. And then, from the moment Reeves landed aboard the Argus, he would be bombarded, as various crew members would pester him for information or with suggestions. He was temporarily in command of Toaster One because he was the only man that could tear down the enemy ship and maximize its usage. He was also the only man the snipes completely trusted and would give 110% of their efforts, both the wrecking yard and Poseidon crews. Despite his quiet understated nature he understood the workingmen and was able maintain the paradoxical position of “one of the gang” while giving commands. But as the Admiral had once pointed out to the Colonel, the Captain is like that with everyone. “He knows how to get real close to you but at the same time keep an extreme distance.” And today, Clubber was the first to approach captain Reeves.
Unlike everyone else, he had two questions instead of a single one as was customary. He was wondering why they don’t just use a raptor to get the FTL coordinates and jump the Argus from here. His second was why were they attaching such a thin towline between Toaster One and the Argus. He noted that it would snap the moment they tried to pull the ship. Reeves responded, “First, we have our reasons for not jumping from this location. And second, the rope isn’t for towing. It’s so I can space walk over here for my morning meetings and avoid being asked the same fraking stupid question I get from all the raptor pilots.” A little surprised at the response, the Lieutenant stood blinking, wondering if a mattress would help the man’s demeanor.
Rounding the corner of the flight deck and proceeding down the hall he was intercepted by a marine grunt that had to ask why they didn’t use a hauler to get food instead raptors. The Captain snarled that high tech planes looked prettier and kept walking. Next, it was Max; he wanted to know about installing a cylon FTL drive into the battlestar and he received a sniped comment about having to talk to Forester. This continued twice more and Reeves thought to himself that he preferred it when they were fighting to survive hunger, because he was left alone. He missed the yard and wished he could return to it and it’s simplicity.
Major Assuras rounded the corner. With pigtails in her auburn hair and eating what appeared to be a homemade granola bar, she was her usual happy-go-lucky self and stopped to greet the captain. “Morning Scotty! I was thinking about you last night and wondered…” Reeves suddenly cut her off in mid sentence and barked, “The answer is I don’t know, the Admiral will tell you if you need to know, because the doctor ordered us to take the shot, there are no replacement boots and frankly I am not the source of all wisdom.” Cupcake politely smiled saying she was only going to ask if he wanted to join her for lunch, because they would be serving meat today in the galley.
Apologetically captain Reeves turned down the offer and tried to explain his current problem. Assuras just snickered commenting that adversity was easier for command officers to handle than downtime. As she turned, walked down the hallway and was joined by Sasha, Reeves disappeared into CIC. “How is Bear doing?” The Major inquired. Sasha looked at her and shook her head. The man wasn’t handling his injury very well and walked around the ship with nothing to do and in an angry mood because he couldn’t talk. “That’s got to be hard.” Assuras noted. The Sasha also pointed out that although they now had food aboard the ship, her raptor pilot was forced to have his poured into his stomach via a tube.
“Frak! I never even thought about that. How are you handling it?” Lieutenant Gains chuckled and noted they weren’t really close, but that she felt bad for the man. The two officers continued their walk, in silence for a moment, toward the galley to get something to eat. Sasha and Lillian stopped when they saw the line up and the conversation resumed.
“Where did you get the granola bar? And is getting up early a prerequisite for extra goodies?” Assuras pointed out that chief Maxime made it for her. He had become the unofficial chef aboard the ship, even venturing out with the marines on food runs, to hand select ingredients.
“Well hopefully those bars are high in energy like the ones we used to have. I noticed you had a hard time going to sleep last night. And showering after you this morning, I regretted not adjusting the temperature as I got blasted with cold water. Is everything ok?” The Major responded, “Well, a mattress would make rack time a bit easier. I just couldn’t get comfortable.” Sasha cracked a wry mischievous grin. “I bet it would it would be a lot more comfortable if Captain Reeves was in it with you. Cupcake’s face flushed 3 shades of red and she stuttered an attempt to say that she didn’t have feelings for the captain. “Oh pleeease, my bunk is under yours, I heard you whispering his name.” Major Assuras went silent and the confident viper pilot became embarrassed about showing a side of herself, people rarely saw. Her friend gently revelled in her discomfort.
A smell came from the galley and then there was a uniform gasp and applause from everyone present. Chief Maxime proudly stood upon a chair and proclaimed that they now had both a fully functional oven and refrigerator. Before he stepped down, he confirmed that the wonderful abrupt sizzle and odor was some sort of lake trout baking.
Lieutenant Sasha, deciding to make the conversation less awkward for her friend, offered a suggestion, “You know what we need? A night of just us girls having a good conversation.” Assuras quickly recovered and thought it was a great idea. She noted that the galley was pretty empty at night. They could get some of Max’s home made white apple cider concoction and she was certain that the chief had ground up some more flour.
“Yummy, some fresh baked bread. You know, we should just invite Maxime.” Just then another female co-worker, waiting in line behind them, chimed in, wondering if she could join them, or if it was only open to officers. Whereas the doctor, who was standing off to the side, over heard the words “fresh baked bread.” And decided that he wanted to attend too. The Major intercepted. “Sorry captain.” She placed an emphasis in her voice on the man’s rank. “This moral meeting is for female crew only and yes, corporal you are welcome to attend.” Lewellyn appeared slightly perturbed and noted that chief Max was not female at all. “True enough,” intercepted Sasha. “But he is just like one of the girls.” To which the doctor matter-of-factly stated that he didn’t know the man was same-gender oriented. The 3 women laughed and their new companion calmly said that the chief was not a homosexual.
The Sasha shook her head and without thinking blurted, “I know for a fact he is not gay”. It was the Major’s turn to make her friend uncomfortable. “Oh really… Is there something you care to share?” The raptor navigator blushed and said no. However, the Major pushed the issue saying that fraternization between enlisted men and officers was against regulations. “Well then, it’s a good thing he is in officer training.” Considering that this might be a taste of what a girl’s night was like, the doctor bowed out by asking that they save him a piece of bread and walked away.
As Lewellyn, took his plate and walked back toward CIC. He noticed the admiral in the distance and yelled to him to wait up. Pausing a moment Hallis noted a disturbing trend in his officers about brining food into morning meetings. “I tolerated it for a few days because it was just over month without solid food. But I want today to be the last of it.”
The doctor apologized and agreed that a certain amount of professionalism was needed. Then quickly added that Assuras was baking bread tonight in the company of a couple of girls wanting to talk about the love affairs of chief Maxime. Admiral Hallis softly laughed, “Translation is some of the female crew are going be gathering in the galley tonight to bake bread and gossip. I also bet that the Chief is the only invited male member of the crew.” Captain Lewellyn looked up at him with a certain amount of surprise wondering how he knew that information. “Max is just like one of the girls and half the women on here have a crush on him. Oh and for the record, the only woman he is actually fraking is lieutenant Gains.” The doctor was amazed at the ease the ship’s old man was able to deduce that. “I was the only boy of 6 children, married for 25 years and raised 2 daughters of my own. I can speak girl-talk. As for the fraking… Well, you don’t get my rank without knowing what is happening around you. And I’m indulging it for the time being.” The two men then entered C.I.C and walked into the ready room where Reeves was waiting for everyone to arrive.Chapter 15: Something to Talk About
It always began with questions or commentary from a pilot. And then, from the moment Reeves landed aboard the Argus, he would be bombarded, as various crew members would pester him for information or with suggestions. He was temporarily in command of Toaster One because he was the only man that could tear down the enemy ship and maximize its usage. He was also the only man the snipes completely trusted and would give 110% of their efforts, both the wrecking yard and Poseidon crews. Despite his quiet understated nature he understood the workingmen and was able maintain the paradoxical position of “one of the gang” while giving commands. But as the Admiral had once pointed out to the Colonel, the Captain is like that with everyone. “He knows how to get real close to you but at the same time keep an extreme distance.” And today, Clubber was the first to approach captain Reeves.
Unlike everyone else, he had two questions instead of a single one as was customary. He was wondering why they don’t just use a raptor to get the FTL coordinates and jump the Argus from here. His second was why were they attaching such a thin towline between Toaster One and the Argus. He noted that it would snap the moment they tried to pull the ship. Reeves responded, “First, we have our reasons for not jumping from this location. And second, the rope isn’t for towing. It’s so I can space walk over here for my morning meetings and avoid being asked the same fraking stupid question I get from all the raptor pilots.” A little surprised at the response, the Lieutenant stood blinking, wondering if a mattress would help the man’s demeanor.
Rounding the corner of the flight deck and proceeding down the hall he was intercepted by a marine grunt that had to ask why they didn’t use a hauler to get food instead raptors. The Captain snarled that high tech planes looked prettier and kept walking. Next, it was Max; he wanted to know about installing a cylon FTL drive into the battlestar and he received a sniped comment about having to talk to Forester. This continued twice more and Reeves thought to himself that he preferred it when they were fighting to survive hunger, because he was left alone. He missed the yard and wished he could return to it and it’s simplicity.
Major Assuras rounded the corner. With pigtails in her auburn hair and eating what appeared to be a homemade granola bar, she was her usual happy-go-lucky self and stopped to greet the captain. “Morning Scotty! I was thinking about you last night and wondered…” Reeves suddenly cut her off in mid sentence and barked, “The answer is I don’t know, the Admiral will tell you if you need to know, because the doctor ordered us to take the shot, there are no replacement boots and frankly I am not the source of all wisdom.” Cupcake politely smiled saying she was only going to ask if he wanted to join her for lunch, because they would be serving meat today in the galley.
Apologetically captain Reeves turned down the offer and tried to explain his current problem. Assuras just snickered commenting that adversity was easier for command officers to handle than downtime. As she turned, walked down the hallway and was joined by Sasha, Reeves disappeared into CIC. “How is Bear doing?” The Major inquired. Sasha looked at her and shook her head. The man wasn’t handling his injury very well and walked around the ship with nothing to do and in an angry mood because he couldn’t talk. “That’s got to be hard.” Assuras noted. The Sasha also pointed out that although they now had food aboard the ship, her raptor pilot was forced to have his poured into his stomach via a tube.
“Frak! I never even thought about that. How are you handling it?” Lieutenant Gains chuckled and noted they weren’t really close, but that she felt bad for the man. The two officers continued their walk, in silence for a moment, toward the galley to get something to eat. Sasha and Lillian stopped when they saw the line up and the conversation resumed.
“Where did you get the granola bar? And is getting up early a prerequisite for extra goodies?” Assuras pointed out that chief Maxime made it for her. He had become the unofficial chef aboard the ship, even venturing out with the marines on food runs, to hand select ingredients.
“Well hopefully those bars are high in energy like the ones we used to have. I noticed you had a hard time going to sleep last night. And showering after you this morning, I regretted not adjusting the temperature as I got blasted with cold water. Is everything ok?” The Major responded, “Well, a mattress would make rack time a bit easier. I just couldn’t get comfortable.” Sasha cracked a wry mischievous grin. “I bet it would it would be a lot more comfortable if Captain Reeves was in it with you. Cupcake’s face flushed 3 shades of red and she stuttered an attempt to say that she didn’t have feelings for the captain. “Oh pleeease, my bunk is under yours, I heard you whispering his name.” Major Assuras went silent and the confident viper pilot became embarrassed about showing a side of herself, people rarely saw. Her friend gently revelled in her discomfort.
A smell came from the galley and then there was a uniform gasp and applause from everyone present. Chief Maxime proudly stood upon a chair and proclaimed that they now had both a fully functional oven and refrigerator. Before he stepped down, he confirmed that the wonderful abrupt sizzle and odor was some sort of lake trout baking.
Lieutenant Sasha, deciding to make the conversation less awkward for her friend, offered a suggestion, “You know what we need? A night of just us girls having a good conversation.” Assuras quickly recovered and thought it was a great idea. She noted that the galley was pretty empty at night. They could get some of Max’s home made white apple cider concoction and she was certain that the chief had ground up some more flour.
“Yummy, some fresh baked bread. You know, we should just invite Maxime.” Just then another female co-worker, waiting in line behind them, chimed in, wondering if she could join them, or if it was only open to officers. Whereas the doctor, who was standing off to the side, over heard the words “fresh baked bread.” And decided that he wanted to attend too. The Major intercepted. “Sorry captain.” She placed an emphasis in her voice on the man’s rank. “This moral meeting is for female crew only and yes, corporal you are welcome to attend.” Lewellyn appeared slightly perturbed and noted that chief Max was not female at all. “True enough,” intercepted Sasha. “But he is just like one of the girls.” To which the doctor matter-of-factly stated that he didn’t know the man was same-gender oriented. The 3 women laughed and their new companion calmly said that the chief was not a homosexual.
The Sasha shook her head and without thinking blurted, “I know for a fact he is not gay”. It was the Major’s turn to make her friend uncomfortable. “Oh really… Is there something you care to share?” The raptor navigator blushed and said no. However, the Major pushed the issue saying that fraternization between enlisted men and officers was against regulations. “Well then, it’s a good thing he is in officer training.” Considering that this might be a taste of what a girl’s night was like, the doctor bowed out by asking that they save him a piece of bread and walked away.
As Lewellyn, took his plate and walked back toward CIC. He noticed the admiral in the distance and yelled to him to wait up. Pausing a moment Hallis noted a disturbing trend in his officers about brining food into morning meetings. “I tolerated it for a few days because it was just over month without solid food. But I want today to be the last of it.”
The doctor apologized and agreed that a certain amount of professionalism was needed. Then quickly added that Assuras was baking bread tonight in the company of a couple of girls wanting to talk about the love affairs of chief Maxime. Admiral Hallis softly laughed, “Translation is some of the female crew are going be gathering in the galley tonight to bake bread and gossip. I also bet that the Chief is the only invited male member of the crew.” Captain Lewellyn looked up at him with a certain amount of surprise wondering how he knew that information. “Max is just like one of the girls and half the women on here have a crush on him. Oh and for the record, the only woman he is actually fraking is lieutenant Gains.” The doctor was amazed at the ease the ship’s old man was able to deduce that. “I was the only boy of 6 children, married for 25 years and raised 2 daughters of my own. I can speak girl-talk. As for the fraking… Well, you don’t get my rank without knowing what is happening around you. And I’m indulging it for the time being.” The two men then entered C.I.C and walked into the ready room where Reeves was waiting for everyone to arrive.
Unlike everyone else, he had two questions instead of a single one as was customary. He was wondering why they don’t just use a raptor to get the FTL coordinates and jump the Argus from here. His second was why were they attaching such a thin towline between Toaster One and the Argus. He noted that it would snap the moment they tried to pull the ship. Reeves responded, “First, we have our reasons for not jumping from this location. And second, the rope isn’t for towing. It’s so I can space walk over here for my morning meetings and avoid being asked the same fraking stupid question I get from all the raptor pilots.” A little surprised at the response, the Lieutenant stood blinking, wondering if a mattress would help the man’s demeanor.
Rounding the corner of the flight deck and proceeding down the hall he was intercepted by a marine grunt that had to ask why they didn’t use a hauler to get food instead raptors. The Captain snarled that high tech planes looked prettier and kept walking. Next, it was Max; he wanted to know about installing a cylon FTL drive into the battlestar and he received a sniped comment about having to talk to Forester. This continued twice more and Reeves thought to himself that he preferred it when they were fighting to survive hunger, because he was left alone. He missed the yard and wished he could return to it and it’s simplicity.
Major Assuras rounded the corner. With pigtails in her auburn hair and eating what appeared to be a homemade granola bar, she was her usual happy-go-lucky self and stopped to greet the captain. “Morning Scotty! I was thinking about you last night and wondered…” Reeves suddenly cut her off in mid sentence and barked, “The answer is I don’t know, the Admiral will tell you if you need to know, because the doctor ordered us to take the shot, there are no replacement boots and frankly I am not the source of all wisdom.” Cupcake politely smiled saying she was only going to ask if he wanted to join her for lunch, because they would be serving meat today in the galley.
Apologetically captain Reeves turned down the offer and tried to explain his current problem. Assuras just snickered commenting that adversity was easier for command officers to handle than downtime. As she turned, walked down the hallway and was joined by Sasha, Reeves disappeared into CIC. “How is Bear doing?” The Major inquired. Sasha looked at her and shook her head. The man wasn’t handling his injury very well and walked around the ship with nothing to do and in an angry mood because he couldn’t talk. “That’s got to be hard.” Assuras noted. The Sasha also pointed out that although they now had food aboard the ship, her raptor pilot was forced to have his poured into his stomach via a tube.
“Frak! I never even thought about that. How are you handling it?” Lieutenant Gains chuckled and noted they weren’t really close, but that she felt bad for the man. The two officers continued their walk, in silence for a moment, toward the galley to get something to eat. Sasha and Lillian stopped when they saw the line up and the conversation resumed.
“Where did you get the granola bar? And is getting up early a prerequisite for extra goodies?” Assuras pointed out that chief Maxime made it for her. He had become the unofficial chef aboard the ship, even venturing out with the marines on food runs, to hand select ingredients.
“Well hopefully those bars are high in energy like the ones we used to have. I noticed you had a hard time going to sleep last night. And showering after you this morning, I regretted not adjusting the temperature as I got blasted with cold water. Is everything ok?” The Major responded, “Well, a mattress would make rack time a bit easier. I just couldn’t get comfortable.” Sasha cracked a wry mischievous grin. “I bet it would it would be a lot more comfortable if Captain Reeves was in it with you. Cupcake’s face flushed 3 shades of red and she stuttered an attempt to say that she didn’t have feelings for the captain. “Oh pleeease, my bunk is under yours, I heard you whispering his name.” Major Assuras went silent and the confident viper pilot became embarrassed about showing a side of herself, people rarely saw. Her friend gently revelled in her discomfort.
A smell came from the galley and then there was a uniform gasp and applause from everyone present. Chief Maxime proudly stood upon a chair and proclaimed that they now had both a fully functional oven and refrigerator. Before he stepped down, he confirmed that the wonderful abrupt sizzle and odor was some sort of lake trout baking.
Lieutenant Sasha, deciding to make the conversation less awkward for her friend, offered a suggestion, “You know what we need? A night of just us girls having a good conversation.” Assuras quickly recovered and thought it was a great idea. She noted that the galley was pretty empty at night. They could get some of Max’s home made white apple cider concoction and she was certain that the chief had ground up some more flour.
“Yummy, some fresh baked bread. You know, we should just invite Maxime.” Just then another female co-worker, waiting in line behind them, chimed in, wondering if she could join them, or if it was only open to officers. Whereas the doctor, who was standing off to the side, over heard the words “fresh baked bread.” And decided that he wanted to attend too. The Major intercepted. “Sorry captain.” She placed an emphasis in her voice on the man’s rank. “This moral meeting is for female crew only and yes, corporal you are welcome to attend.” Lewellyn appeared slightly perturbed and noted that chief Max was not female at all. “True enough,” intercepted Sasha. “But he is just like one of the girls.” To which the doctor matter-of-factly stated that he didn’t know the man was same-gender oriented. The 3 women laughed and their new companion calmly said that the chief was not a homosexual.
The Sasha shook her head and without thinking blurted, “I know for a fact he is not gay”. It was the Major’s turn to make her friend uncomfortable. “Oh really… Is there something you care to share?” The raptor navigator blushed and said no. However, the Major pushed the issue saying that fraternization between enlisted men and officers was against regulations. “Well then, it’s a good thing he is in officer training.” Considering that this might be a taste of what a girl’s night was like, the doctor bowed out by asking that they save him a piece of bread and walked away.
As Lewellyn, took his plate and walked back toward CIC. He noticed the admiral in the distance and yelled to him to wait up. Pausing a moment Hallis noted a disturbing trend in his officers about brining food into morning meetings. “I tolerated it for a few days because it was just over month without solid food. But I want today to be the last of it.”
The doctor apologized and agreed that a certain amount of professionalism was needed. Then quickly added that Assuras was baking bread tonight in the company of a couple of girls wanting to talk about the love affairs of chief Maxime. Admiral Hallis softly laughed, “Translation is some of the female crew are going be gathering in the galley tonight to bake bread and gossip. I also bet that the Chief is the only invited male member of the crew.” Captain Lewellyn looked up at him with a certain amount of surprise wondering how he knew that information. “Max is just like one of the girls and half the women on here have a crush on him. Oh and for the record, the only woman he is actually fraking is lieutenant Gains.” The doctor was amazed at the ease the ship’s old man was able to deduce that. “I was the only boy of 6 children, married for 25 years and raised 2 daughters of my own. I can speak girl-talk. As for the fraking… Well, you don’t get my rank without knowing what is happening around you. And I’m indulging it for the time being.” The two men then entered C.I.C and walked into the ready room where Reeves was waiting for everyone to arrive.Chapter 15: Something to Talk About
It always began with questions or commentary from a pilot. And then, from the moment Reeves landed aboard the Argus, he would be bombarded, as various crew members would pester him for information or with suggestions. He was temporarily in command of Toaster One because he was the only man that could tear down the enemy ship and maximize its usage. He was also the only man the snipes completely trusted and would give 110% of their efforts, both the wrecking yard and Poseidon crews. Despite his quiet understated nature he understood the workingmen and was able maintain the paradoxical position of “one of the gang” while giving commands. But as the Admiral had once pointed out to the Colonel, the Captain is like that with everyone. “He knows how to get real close to you but at the same time keep an extreme distance.” And today, Clubber was the first to approach captain Reeves.
Unlike everyone else, he had two questions instead of a single one as was customary. He was wondering why they don’t just use a raptor to get the FTL coordinates and jump the Argus from here. His second was why were they attaching such a thin towline between Toaster One and the Argus. He noted that it would snap the moment they tried to pull the ship. Reeves responded, “First, we have our reasons for not jumping from this location. And second, the rope isn’t for towing. It’s so I can space walk over here for my morning meetings and avoid being asked the same fraking stupid question I get from all the raptor pilots.” A little surprised at the response, the Lieutenant stood blinking, wondering if a mattress would help the man’s demeanor.
Rounding the corner of the flight deck and proceeding down the hall he was intercepted by a marine grunt that had to ask why they didn’t use a hauler to get food instead raptors. The Captain snarled that high tech planes looked prettier and kept walking. Next, it was Max; he wanted to know about installing a cylon FTL drive into the battlestar and he received a sniped comment about having to talk to Forester. This continued twice more and Reeves thought to himself that he preferred it when they were fighting to survive hunger, because he was left alone. He missed the yard and wished he could return to it and it’s simplicity.
Major Assuras rounded the corner. With pigtails in her auburn hair and eating what appeared to be a homemade granola bar, she was her usual happy-go-lucky self and stopped to greet the captain. “Morning Scotty! I was thinking about you last night and wondered…” Reeves suddenly cut her off in mid sentence and barked, “The answer is I don’t know, the Admiral will tell you if you need to know, because the doctor ordered us to take the shot, there are no replacement boots and frankly I am not the source of all wisdom.” Cupcake politely smiled saying she was only going to ask if he wanted to join her for lunch, because they would be serving meat today in the galley.
Apologetically captain Reeves turned down the offer and tried to explain his current problem. Assuras just snickered commenting that adversity was easier for command officers to handle than downtime. As she turned, walked down the hallway and was joined by Sasha, Reeves disappeared into CIC. “How is Bear doing?” The Major inquired. Sasha looked at her and shook her head. The man wasn’t handling his injury very well and walked around the ship with nothing to do and in an angry mood because he couldn’t talk. “That’s got to be hard.” Assuras noted. The Sasha also pointed out that although they now had food aboard the ship, her raptor pilot was forced to have his poured into his stomach via a tube.
“Frak! I never even thought about that. How are you handling it?” Lieutenant Gains chuckled and noted they weren’t really close, but that she felt bad for the man. The two officers continued their walk, in silence for a moment, toward the galley to get something to eat. Sasha and Lillian stopped when they saw the line up and the conversation resumed.
“Where did you get the granola bar? And is getting up early a prerequisite for extra goodies?” Assuras pointed out that chief Maxime made it for her. He had become the unofficial chef aboard the ship, even venturing out with the marines on food runs, to hand select ingredients.
“Well hopefully those bars are high in energy like the ones we used to have. I noticed you had a hard time going to sleep last night. And showering after you this morning, I regretted not adjusting the temperature as I got blasted with cold water. Is everything ok?” The Major responded, “Well, a mattress would make rack time a bit easier. I just couldn’t get comfortable.” Sasha cracked a wry mischievous grin. “I bet it would it would be a lot more comfortable if Captain Reeves was in it with you. Cupcake’s face flushed 3 shades of red and she stuttered an attempt to say that she didn’t have feelings for the captain. “Oh pleeease, my bunk is under yours, I heard you whispering his name.” Major Assuras went silent and the confident viper pilot became embarrassed about showing a side of herself, people rarely saw. Her friend gently revelled in her discomfort.
A smell came from the galley and then there was a uniform gasp and applause from everyone present. Chief Maxime proudly stood upon a chair and proclaimed that they now had both a fully functional oven and refrigerator. Before he stepped down, he confirmed that the wonderful abrupt sizzle and odor was some sort of lake trout baking.
Lieutenant Sasha, deciding to make the conversation less awkward for her friend, offered a suggestion, “You know what we need? A night of just us girls having a good conversation.” Assuras quickly recovered and thought it was a great idea. She noted that the galley was pretty empty at night. They could get some of Max’s home made white apple cider concoction and she was certain that the chief had ground up some more flour.
“Yummy, some fresh baked bread. You know, we should just invite Maxime.” Just then another female co-worker, waiting in line behind them, chimed in, wondering if she could join them, or if it was only open to officers. Whereas the doctor, who was standing off to the side, over heard the words “fresh baked bread.” And decided that he wanted to attend too. The Major intercepted. “Sorry captain.” She placed an emphasis in her voice on the man’s rank. “This moral meeting is for female crew only and yes, corporal you are welcome to attend.” Lewellyn appeared slightly perturbed and noted that chief Max was not female at all. “True enough,” intercepted Sasha. “But he is just like one of the girls.” To which the doctor matter-of-factly stated that he didn’t know the man was same-gender oriented. The 3 women laughed and their new companion calmly said that the chief was not a homosexual.
The Sasha shook her head and without thinking blurted, “I know for a fact he is not gay”. It was the Major’s turn to make her friend uncomfortable. “Oh really… Is there something you care to share?” The raptor navigator blushed and said no. However, the Major pushed the issue saying that fraternization between enlisted men and officers was against regulations. “Well then, it’s a good thing he is in officer training.” Considering that this might be a taste of what a girl’s night was like, the doctor bowed out by asking that they save him a piece of bread and walked away.
As Lewellyn, took his plate and walked back toward CIC. He noticed the admiral in the distance and yelled to him to wait up. Pausing a moment Hallis noted a disturbing trend in his officers about brining food into morning meetings. “I tolerated it for a few days because it was just over month without solid food. But I want today to be the last of it.”
The doctor apologized and agreed that a certain amount of professionalism was needed. Then quickly added that Assuras was baking bread tonight in the company of a couple of girls wanting to talk about the love affairs of chief Maxime. Admiral Hallis softly laughed, “Translation is some of the female crew are going be gathering in the galley tonight to bake bread and gossip. I also bet that the Chief is the only invited male member of the crew.” Captain Lewellyn looked up at him with a certain amount of surprise wondering how he knew that information. “Max is just like one of the girls and half the women on here have a crush on him. Oh and for the record, the only woman he is actually fraking is lieutenant Gains.” The doctor was amazed at the ease the ship’s old man was able to deduce that. “I was the only boy of 6 children, married for 25 years and raised 2 daughters of my own. I can speak girl-talk. As for the fraking… Well, you don’t get my rank without knowing what is happening around you. And I’m indulging it for the time being.” The two men then entered C.I.C and walked into the ready room where Reeves was waiting for everyone to arrive.