Roughing It

Posted on Thu Apr 16, 2020 @ 1:44pm by Commander Caleb Ryan & Civilian Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan & Commander Amia Telamon M.D.

2,281 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Pangea/Caleb’s Cabin
Timeline: MD04 1400

Aleczandra stepped out of the shuttle and looked around the clearing. There was the cabin and a small shed, but the planned fenced-in paddock hadn’t been built yet. The beginning of a small trail on the other side of the clearing led into the thick woods surrounding it. Zandy had known her father was building the cabin, but this was the first time she’d seen it. A traditional log cabin, it was roofed with wood blanks, with a stone chimney rising from it. It looked...cozy.

Caleb finished unloading the gear from the shuttle and onto the grass. “It’s all complete,” he told his daughter, eyeing Shay, unsure about letting a boy stay down here with his daughter, but Aleczandra had refused to even consider this self-exile if she couldn’t have a friend. He’d had to finally give in just to get her to go. “You’ll be roughin’ it,” he warned them. “No generator. There’s firewood stacked in the shed, but it’s summer in these parts right now, so ya’ll shouldn't need it much, other than for cookin’. That path there leads out to a pool an’ waterfall, but there’s also a well here in the clearin’. Good, clean water. Ah’ll be bringin’ down supplies every week an’ ta swap out yer communicator. Call me if ya need anythin’. If there’s an emergency, the colony is five miles that direction,” he said, indicating toward the forest. “Likely won’t be easy gettin’ there, though,” he admitted. “So just call an’ Ah can get someone down here if it’s an emergency. Ya’ll should have enough for a month, but Ah hope this gets sorted faster’n that.”

Zandra nodded. “Thanks, dad,” she said. As always, he’d thought of nearly everything. She took the encrypted communicator he handed her, as well as a phaser rifle. “Just in case.”

“Ah’m leavin’ mah little girl in yer hands, boy,” Caleb warned, looming over Shay. This was the first time he’d met the young man. He knew nothing about him. He hadn’t even had time to run a background check yet. He didn’t like it.

"You can trust me, sir." Shay stood to his full height, but couldn't match up to the XO. However, he held his gaze solidly and was genuine about his intentions to take care of Zandy. He hoped that much would be clear, and as he was genuine and honest about it, he had faith that Caleb would see he was trustworthy. Shay had trouble with Dr. Morgan, not the XO, and certainly not his lovely daughter, who had already won a great deal of affection from Shay.

“We’ll be fine, Daddy,” Aleczandra said. “It’ll be just like a vacation.”

Caleb gave Shay another withering look, but nodded curtly and climbed back into the shuttle. Aleczandra watched it take off and then sighed. “Well, that went bloody well better than expected,” she muttered, turning to Shay. “Sorry you had to meet my father like that,” she apologized. “And, uh, sorry I didn’t tell you he was, like, the number two boss of the whole station.” She looked down, kicking the dirt with embarrassment. She’d never expected things with Shay to go so far that they were going to take an extended vacation together.

"It's okay. If he were the lowest janitor he'd still be wanting to look out for his daughter. I get that." Shay put his arm around Zandy and led her towards the cabin, carrying her back pack in his other hand. "I'll come back for the rest of the bags when we're settled," he assured her.

“I’ll get a fire started,” Aleczandra said. “You’ll need to fill the water tank from the well. Outhouse is out back. At least dad supplied us with toilet paper,” she said with amusement. “You ever been camping before?”

Zandy pulled on a cord in the door of the cabin, lifting the interior lock and letting her pull the door open. Inside was empty, no furniture. There was a large room that served as the common room, with a large stone fireplace for warmth and cooking, as well as a small storage room and pantry. A ladder led up to an empty loft for sleeping. The front of the cabin had a porch, and out back was an outhouse. It lacked any sort of modern convenience, no replicator, no electricity, no central heating or cooling.

Shay brought in the remaining luggage, although there wasn't a lot, as they had travelled light. He looked around and took in the cabin's interior and his heart began to sink. He could see basics, but very little by way of what he was used to, being raised a Starfleet brat. At least they always had replicators and re-cyclers, and, for the love of everything, proper toilets. He sighed, but did his best to keep his smile wide and not to show his initial horror.

Aleczandra inhaled deeply, the scent of freshly cut wood and the great outdoors filling her lungs. “Ah, this is great!” she said. “Real air, not recycled. I haven’t had a proper camp since we left Leto Colony,” she told Shay. “Where do you want to set up the bed?” she asked Shay, pulling out the bedrolls. She’d made it singular. “Do you want to bother with the sleeping loft, or just by the fire?” She tossed the bedrolls and blankets to him. “I’ll unpack the food. Do you think we need the bear bag?” she wondered. “Should be safe enough inside the cabin. But just in case…”

Zandra pulled over a large black case and popped the seals. Opening it, she revealed a Type III phaser rifle, a Type II sidearm, and a small Type I bridge phaser, all current models, and probably signed out from Security. “You know how to use these?” she asked, looking up at Shay.

"Yeah, course!" He shrugged at first, but under the gaze of her beautiful eyes he soon broke and was grinning broadly. "Well, okay, just the Bridge Phaser...?" he admitted, still with his charming smile in place, looking at her with renewed admiration.

Zandra sighed. “Fair enough,” she said, handing him the smallest of the phasers, the size of his thumb. “It only gets a couple shots, depending on setting,” she reminded. “I don’t imagine we’ll need them, but to be safe…” She tucked the Type II in the back of her jeans, and put the rifle in a rack above the fireplace. “Don’t go outside without it.” She also tossed him a Starfleet Marine combat knife in a sheath, adding one to the back of her pants, as well.

“Get the beds set up, then get some water. I’ll get some firewood and start cooking dinner. You get to wash up,” she said with a grin before she headed outside to the shed.

Shay climbed up to the loft, naively expecting beds of some sort, and by the time Zandy had returned he had fetched one pail of water, which he had set beside the fire and one other in the kitchen, as he wasn't sure where else to put it. He was appropriately ashamed at the sum total of his efforts even in the circumstances. He had simply expected much more of himself and his trouble.

Aleczandra came in with a canvas carry bag full of wood. She filled the stand beside the fireplace with the wood and then started to set some in the grate. Soon she had a good fire started. She threw a grill over the fire and put on a pot to boil some of the water before joining Shay.

Zandra cupped his face so he would look at her. “You going to be okay?” she asked him. “You can always go back on the next shuttle run,” she promised, “if this is too much.” She leaned in and kissed her boyfriend softly. Boyfriend? When had that happened? She supposed when she’d invited him out alone on an unspecified length of time to go camping with her.

Shay was expecting her to send him packing, but there was still a light in one of the windows of his mind that made it possible that she might not, and he realised much to his own surprise that he was clinging to that hope.

He had started off initiating a relationship with the XO's daughter, with all the dangers that would entail, and with the cold intention to use her and her contacts network, period. No complications. However, she had completely blown him away by proving she was, well, yes, it was an overused word, but "cool" only started to cover it. He loved the way she just got on with life, and if it had the gall to try to resist her she would metaphorically march up to it, pull it up by its lapels until she was nose to nose with it, and gave a piece of her mind in such clear and alarming terms that even he as an observer had would have stood back in amazement.

Zandra was unique, in his opinion. She had passion and fire and something burned in her that made him want to adore her and, better still, to have her adore him back, but also she had pain, and deeper and more fragile sides that most ordinary people her age couldn't begin to understand, let alone have suffered.

The biggest mystery of Zandy was that he could sense, almost touch a form of an aura around her; a scent that lingered, that told him of all this, yet offered him so much unexplored challenge. She fascinated him and, despite all his attempts not to let that happen; it clearly had got through his reserves too. Perhaps they had too much in common. He was only now realising how deeply he had been sucked into this silent, silken, delicious lace web, and all he wanted to do was to stay for more and protect her.

"No, it's not too much, beautiful -- unless you'd prefer me to go?" he answered, drowning in her eyes as she held his jaw softly to face her. "I don't pretend to know much about this back to nature stuff, but if you're willing to show me what to do, I couldn't be more ready to learn. This set up is like some kind of paradise, and there's no one I'd rather spend time here with than you," he gushed, then blushed, then began to want the ground to swallow him up. God, listen to him. That sounded like the worst load of smarmy, rehearsed, insincere, bullshit anyone ever tried to use for nefarious purposes, but he moved his body more upright and his eyes attempted to show her what his words seemed to have failed so miserably to do.

"If you let me stay, I will prove it to you." He hoped the challenge might help him show his genuineness. He lowered his eyes and moved over to the pot she had left boiling up on the grill over the fire. He looked around for a means to pick it up and tip tea in it, but settled for putting enough of the tea leaves in to make a big brew and lifted it off the fire with the protection of a rolled up hand towel well clear of the sides, flames, and tea. He was proud of his first efforts, and handed her a big tin mug telling her that it was okay, she could tell him what decision she had made in the morning.

Aleczandra smiled, running her hand down Shay’s chest. “If I didn’t want you here, I wouldn’t have asked you to come,” she said, her voice sultry as she slipped her hand into his pants, keeping her eyes locked with his. When he offered her the tea, she smiled and took the mug, retreating a bit. “Thank you, Shay,” she told him. “You finish unpacking, I’ll make dinner, and then we can get more...comfortable,” she said as she sipped her tea. “And there are a couple bottles of something nice I hid in one of those crates,” she said with a grin.

"Now that's the most civilised upgrade I've heard about all day!" He grinned widely and began to relax a bit more, even before he'd taken his first sip. He put up his glass, cuddled up together in front of the wood fire in the wide stone chimney, and toasted to her. "I'm the luckiest guy in the universe! Best company ever, no interruptions, warm and cosy, vintage, nice," he grinned, teasing her with that description. "Cheers to you as well, the most beautiful, amazing tomboy I ever met, and I'm not knocking it, as I know you're all woman underneath! To you and me, beauty and the beast? O course in the opposite grouping. I'm the beauty, but you're young enough to grow into your looks." His ridiculous grin and defensive body language expected a dead arm or worse for his jibe.

"But you know I love you though, right?" He took cover behind some vastly inadequate cushions and waited in delighted anticipation of a little bit of cushion wrestling.

“I don’t know. You might have to prove it to me,” Zandra said with a melodramatic huff and a cocky, sexy grin.

FIN

Aleczandra Ryan
Civilian
NPC Caleb Ryan

Shay Alexander
Psychology Student
NPC Amia Telamon

 

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