The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls Part 2

Posted on Mon Oct 12, 2020 @ 4:29pm by Lieutenant Roden Serav & Commander Caleb Ryan

1,623 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Timeline: MD09 11:00

Previously in The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls, Lieutenant Roden Serav arrives at DS5 to take up the Chief Engineer position. With him is his wife, Anashe and their four year old daughter Mudiwa. After the initial settling-in, Serav is immediately anxious to report to the executive officer and begin work.

And now the continuation...

[ON]

Roden took long strides towards the turbolifts as he tapped his communicator badge. “Lieutenant Serav to Commander Ryan. I have arrived at the station and would like to report for duty at your convenience. Where can I meet you, sir?”

A baritone Texas drawl answered Roden. “Ya’ll like steak an’ sushi?” came the reply. “Ah’ just sittin’ down for an early lunch, if ya wanna join me. Look for Gino’s, on the Prom,” and he gave directions on how to find Gino’s.

Roden's long stride took him across the promenade, gazing over the heads of the lunchtime crowd to spot the landmarks he'd been given. There was a tall, dark eyed man in a Command uniform sitting at one of the tables. Serav approached him, noting the pips on his collar, and saluted. "Commander. Lieutenant Serav, engineering." He stood at attention.

“At ease, Lieutenant. Have a seat.” The tall, lanky officer was seated on a pad on the floor. He gestured to another pad across the low table that had a small sampling of sushi set out. Ryan also had an iced green tea set in front of him. He waved over to one of the staff.

Gino’s was...unusual. When Roden walked in, he left the bustle of the Promenade behind and entered the bright outdoors, stepping onto a small wooden bridge that crossed a bit of water to an island set in a lake. Cherry trees in full blossom lined the lake filled with large koi, and small breezes sent pink and white petals drifting through the air. The restaurant itself was an open walled wooden structure with a pagoda style roof. It had a bar, several low tables with seating pads, and a few private rooms screened off with paper walls illustrated in Japanese style, and with Japanese calligraphy. The staff were female and Human, dressed in kimonos with geisha paint on their faces. Behind the bar was the stoutly built Italian-American Gino in a men’s kimono.

“Welcome to Kyoto,” Caleb said. “The sushi is excellent. The kobe beef filet mignon even better.”

"Thank you, Commander," Roden replied, looking around. He recognized many of the cultural markers from his study of Human history, but there was an incongruent nature to this place that he couldn't quite put his finger on. "I must admit that I have already eaten; my daughter eats like a targ." He knelt on the pad in front of him, placing his hands on his thighs, attempting to recreate a pose he had seen in the holo-recreations of ancient Japan. He gave up and moved awkwardly to sit cross-legged, feeling all elbows and knees.

After Caleb had gestured for staff, a tall, buxom blonde woman approached. She wasn’t dressed in a kimono, but rather wore a bright pink pinafore dress over a white blouse containing a well-endowed chest. There was some kind of anime character on the front of the dress. Thigh high white stockings that didn’t come up to the very short skirt ended in black Mary Janes. Her name tag said CHARLENE. The blonde’s hair was streaked with pink and baby blue and tied up in two ponytails on the side of her head, and two pink cat ears popped up from her head. Her eye makeup was done in such a way to give her the more slanted eyes of a Japanese woman, though she was Caucasian. She looked vaguely familiar, like in another culture she should be in a low cut dress torn in such a way as to expose her generous assets without being obscene, clutching onto the sinewy thighs of a tall, broad shouldered, bare chested man in a Scottish kilt, the wind pulling at his long brown hair as he gave a sultry stare at the reader.

“Commander-san! Are you ready to order?” the very kawaii-dressed woman said, giving Caleb and Roden a respectful bow with her hands pressed in front of her. She set down a paper menu in front of each of them. Besides a full sushi and sashimi bar and the kobe steaks, it also had other traditional Japanese cuisine like hibachi, soba and ramen, and tempura. “Can I get you sake?” she asked.

Caleb waved that way. “Still on duty, Charlene,” he reminded her. “Ya know that.”

"Black tea, please." Roden bowed slightly as he spoke, not letting his eyes linger on Charlene. He kept his posture straight-backed, and unconsciously rubbed the back of his bald head. "Forgive me, Commander, my knowledge of Earth history is not as complete as I would like. Gino is an unusual name for what I believe to be a Japanese establishment?" He waved a hand to encapsulate their surroundings.

Charlene bowed again, giving Roden and Caleb a nice view of her cleavage, and then bounced away to get Roden’s tea.

Caleb chuckled and sipped his green tea. “Picked up on that, yeah?” he said. “This is a holo-restaurant. Gino changes the menu weekly. Last week was Venice. Italian. He specializes in good Earth food. Don’t know what next week is. Always a nice surprise ta find out.”

Caleb reached out and popped a bit of grilled eel into his mouth, savoring the taste. After swallowing, he said, “So you’re my new Chief Engineer. Why don’t ya tell me about yourself?” he prompted, as Charlene returned with Roden’s tea, and another glass of iced tea for Caleb.

“Ah’ll have the steak,” he told Charlene. “With some tempura shrimp, the sesame broccoli, and soba noodles.”

“Hai!” Charlene said with a bow, taking the menus. “I will bring another sushi sampling, as well.”

“Thanks, Charlene,” Caleb said, then looked back to Roden as Charlene sashayed away.

Roden straightened his uniform self-consciously. "Yes, sir. Hekaran. Thirty-seven. Married, one daughter aged four. Graduated from the Academy with a specialism in engineering. My thesis was on subspace radiation field manipulation with modified deflector arrays. Cadet cruise was on the VSS Solok, a Vulcan science vessel investigating temporal phenomena in the Hromi cluster. Saw combat on the USS Belisarius." He swallowed drily and found his left fist was clenched. He relaxed it consciously. "My last two postings have been at the research base in orbit around Kessik IV and the USS Seshat. My service record should be satisfactory, though I am aware of my relative lack of experience in the Chief position," Roden finished, self-consciously. He sat back and studied the commander's expression.

“Everyone has to start somewhere,” Caleb said. “And you came recommended by your previous commanding officer. “Yer family come with ya? The school here is good, an’ Ah’ve got a teenage daughter that could use the babysitting,” he said with a chuckle.

Charlene returned with the sushi platter and Caleb’s steak meal. “Help yerself,” he said, gesturing to the sushi.

“You boys need anything else, just call,” Charlene said, giving them a bow before going on to another table.

"Yes, sir. They're settling in now. My wife is a physicist; I'm sure she'd appreciate the help. My little Mudiwa is a handful." Roden took a sip of his tea, the slight dryness in his mouth subsiding slightly. "She's hoping to start a research program. It's a little difficult whilst finger painting." He smiled.

Caleb smiled. “They don’t become any less a handful when they’re older,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s just different things than fingerpainting. Things like boys.”

Caleb cut up his steak and popped a piece into his mouth, savoring the kobe beef as he chewed. Finally, he asked, “Ya got any hobbies? What do ya do in your time off?”

"I study history, Commander. My planet is somewhat isolated; ships have to drop out of warp weeks away and approach on impulse. We became somewhat..." Serav struggled to find the word, "insular. I learned to love the historical databases and holonovels in our public archives. I've started building holo-programs from Human, Vulcan, and Hekaran antiquity, though I must admit that I don't have much time." Roden looked around. "To be honest, Commander, the station is due a major systems refit. I doubt my leisure time will be increasing any time soon."

“Don’t overwork yourself,” Caleb said. “We won’t be falling apart anytime soon. Ah’ll see about getting you some temporary assignments ta help out,” he promised.

"I appreciate it." Roden smiled briefly. Understaffing was a perennial problem on star bases, with thousands of meters of hardware to look after and an engineering corps reluctant to give up on the dream of exploring the galaxy. "Let me leave you to your lunch, sir. I'm keen to get to grips with her." He waved a hand at the bulkhead, and noticed he was accidentally including Charlene in his hand gesture. "I mean-- th- the station! My apologies, Miss Charlene!"

Charline smiled brightly, leaning over the table to place down Caleb’s lunch order and flashing both men with a very nice view of her cleavage. “You make sure to come back,” the buxom blonde told Roden. “It will be my pleasure to serve you.”

Caleb chuckled, cutting into his steak. “Thank ya for stoppin’ by, Lieutenant,” he told Roden.

[OFF]

A post by:
Cdr. Caleb Ryan
Executive Officer

Charlene
Hostess at Gino’s

Gino Romano
Owner of Gino’s

&

Lt. Roden Serav
Chief Engineer
DS5

 

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