New Skills; New Friends

Posted on Fri Apr 12th, 2024 @ 6:59am by Ensign Ilan Ocara & Lieutenant Dr. Daniel Brasken

Mission: In-Between (S1:E7-S1:E8)
Location: CMO's Quarters
Timeline: Date 2371-09-25 at 2215
1867 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

“Tell me. What is your relationship with other people on the crew?”

Daniel was standing at the view port of his quarters, dressed only in his silk and linen blend lounge pants as he watched the small streaks of passing celestial objects in the far off distance. He had heard Ilan stir behind him and given her a few moments to gain her bearings before the rather non-sequitur questioning began.

“Hmm…?” Ilan hummed out in question as she stretched in his bed much like a cat would have, even flexing her fingers and toes. Her eyes moved over to him and she gave a bit of a snort. “Hey you put on pants, that’s no fair.”

Turning to face her, Daniel’s face was more pensive than playful. “Your relationship with the rest of the crew. Are you close to any of them on a non-professional level?”

Ilan looked up to his handsome face and pouted slightly at his expression. She reached back to gather up her hair and pulled it all over one shoulder. “Well yeah, of course I am. I mean I guess it depends on your definition of close, but I have plenty of friends. Why?”

“I was surprised at my response to our recent losses. The fact that I knew no one that was lost on more than a professional level or as files in our system should have insulated me from the loss.Instead I am…” He trailed off, at a loss for words to explain how he was feeling.

Ilan didn’t prompt him with words to continue but did lean toward him with raised eyebrows, communicating her interest in what he would say next without pressuring him toward an answer. They didn’t do too much talking on a personal level; it was mostly professional with some chit chat and a healthy amount of flirting. Their personal time was spent… very personally with little time for words.

“Lost? Alone? Perhaps doubting how best to manage the trip we have ahead of us in isolation.” He turned back to looking out the viewport as he spoke. “It is impossible for me to completely disconnect by virtue of my position and profession. More than that though, what am I doing on this voyage? Making a new soldier that is going to take years to get working for…what?”

“Well why would you want to take the trip in isolation anyways?” Ilan asked, her expression scrunching slightly. That was a completely ridiculous notion to her.

“Just always been that way. Nose in the books to make sure I progress as best as possible in the fleet has always been the only concern before.” His shoulders lifted slightly in a shrug, still looking out the port with his back to her. “I’m very capable of taking care of myself and getting what I need when I need it.”

“Seems a lonely, boring way to spend the next seventy or so years.” She finally shifted off of the bed with her body wrapped up in his sheet and grabbed her glass of water from the bedside table. “What are you even interested in doing with your life? In general before we got stuck out here… what was your goal? What did you want to accomplish?

“Nothing particularly inspired. Increase my family’s influence in the Empire.” Daniel turned around again and walked closer to the bed before continuing. “I was fine with that. Burying myself in science and sweet talking the admiralty to get more opportunities for my mother and grandparents.”

“Well, not really an option now and they’ll have to learn to stand alone.” Ilan pointed out and wrapped her arms around herself. “So what do you want to do here now? Do you want to be so standoffish and alone or do you want to make a life here?”

“Is it worth it?” The doctor stood solidly as he looked at Ilan, his muscles betraying the uncertainty he was feeling just having this conversation.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” She asked, tilting her head.

“There is a lot of depression and anger over the losses we have suffered because of those connections.” He paused just a moment before adding, “And the idea of working with someone that might learn how to read me is problematic.”

“People will learn how to read you anyways, Daniel. Some people are just good at that.” Ilan offered, patient in tone at the moment. “And of course there’s been depression and anger over the loss, that’s natural and while a bitter pill, the risk is worth it for how much certain people can enrich one’s life.”

“For example?” Daniel smirked at himself for leaving such an obvious open ended question out there for such a clever person. “I don’t count.”

Ilan grinned at that and stepped toward him while lifting her hand to place on the side of his neck. “Of course you count even if I don’t for you, you just want to be an ass about it.”

She winked, showing she was joking and really had no hard feelings about the matter. “Let’s see, off the top of my head I have a group of people I get together with every week or so if time allows just to gamble or play other games, relax, have fun, and unwind together.”

“I suppose that is a start, some level of friendship to perhaps build on later if the entry level experiments are promising.” He reached up and touched her hand, spreading his fingers to work between hers and then closed it to hold it firmly. His instinct was to use the hold to leverage her into a more carnal position and he knew she wouldn’t object if he did so, but that wasn’t the point of this conversation and so he reigned in the impulse and took half a step back.

“What do you gamble on?” Daniel asked as his eyebrow raised just slightly in curiosity.

“Poker, dom-jot, sometimes we’ll even go to the holodeck and bet on some horse racing. It’s fun. You’d be welcome to join us sometime - it’s open door.” She held his hand and stood there easily with him, looking into his eyes.

“Holodeck horse racing? I suppose there is no higher risk of someone cheating that than any other game of chance. Can look at it as a trust exercise I guess.” His eyes unfocus just slightly as he starts to analyze the possibilities as he would a lab experiment.

“We set the program up together, but honestly we don’t have problems with cheating. It just takes the fun out of it; you lose the thrill of the win. We’re not out to make money or get some extra rations, we want to have fun.” Ilan explained, tilting her head and wondering at him. She supposed she had never really realized how strangely antisocial he was before; they focused on other things.

“You don’t think some of them might enjoy the thrill of not getting caught?” He let his hand fall from his face and looked at her in slight disbelief. In his experience of the Empire and specifically the fleet, everyone was looking out for themselves at the sake of someone else. Climbing through life on other’s necks and not caring how that affected the one they stepped on was all too common. Hell, even his own family subscribed to the mentality.

Ilan shrugged. “In other settings, sure, but it’s an unspoken rule that it doesn’t fly in this group. In the end there are no stakes of worth so cheating is honestly just laughable and juvenile at that point. We’re just out to have fun and relax and just… exist without having to worry about anything for a couple of hours.”

She paused and lifted her shoulders in another shrug. “If someone were to cheat, you’d immediately make like eight enemies, it just isn’t worth it.”

Daniel listened and absorbed the words, working hard to wrap his head around a concept that sit against his life to this point. Still, he trusted Ilan’s words and intent on the subject. He did come to her for advice after all and ignoring what they said because it didn’t match what you thought before hand was a fool’s way of living.

“Very well,” He said as he stepped behind her and moved his hands to her shoulders as he pressed his thumbs into the muscles there as he continued. “Any plans for a gathering soon?”

“I think we’re going to try a poker game here in a few days. Do you know how to play?” She asked, stepping closer to him in response to his touch.

“The rules are known to me, never had a reason to actually play though.” Daniel massaged her neck and shoulders gently, honestly more interested in just the feel of her than worrying about any benefits of the muscle stimulation. Another change in his world view being that he was surprised about, wanting physical connection beyond the needed release of tensions.

As he massaged her neck and shoulders, she melted into him and sighed in soft satisfaction. “Well, I could teach you here or could play a few rounds on the holodeck just to cut your teeth before you start throwing around anything with some value.”

“Lets start small and move up from there. I understand that wagering articles of clothing is an option, that seems like relatively low steaks to start with…once we have more to wager with.” He didn’t stop the massage but also didn’t angle towards other activities. Daniel was serious about trying to make a change.

Ilan laughed at the suggestion, the grin that had formed remained as she looked into his eyes. “A little strip poker, sounds good to me. We’d have to get all dressed if we want to do that now though… and there are other distracting things we could do in our current state.”

Daniel’s head tilt just slightly as he considered her words and then gave his thought, “How about this. Other things now, but tomorrow we get dressed up for a formal dinner type event and play after dinner?”

That almost sounded like a date, but Ilan said nothing. Instead, she disengaged from him and backed up to his bed again. Once she bumped into it, she dropped the sheet from her body. “Sounds like a grand idea to me… if you earn it.”

Daniel covered the gap in half a second, his hands gaining purchase under her ribs as he half pushed and half threw her back onto the bed. He followed quickly but his goal was obviously much lower as his hands went to her thighs and he put them on his shoulders.

Ilan squealed gleefully as she was tossed back onto the bed. Her fitful giggles that followed soon shifted into more pleasured coos, and eventually she simply closed her eyes and left Daniel to his work.

END