Star Trek: Starbase 777

As if in acknowledgement that people wanted to use the campfire for cooking rather than just for dancing around, the holodeck expanded to create a large wooden deck nearby. Poles dug deep into the ground surrounded it at the corners, all of which were decorated with various flowers. There was a multitude of barbeques and grills available here, some of which were huge and clearly state-of-the-art. Two Caitians busied themselves with slicing open rolls and chopping lettuce for burgers, but no one was manning the grill. An apron which was slung over the hood of one - tie-dye with swirling colours and the words 'Fleet's Finest Cook' printed on the front - appeared to be reserved for Shane.

Soon after it appeared Shane was setting up on of the BBQs now dressed in an apron which complimented his Hawaiian shirt by making it now a pastel psychedelic assault on the senses of swirling clashing colours. He was happy as Larry. Once the BBQ got up to temperature he began cooking some of the stuff that took longer like the steaks. He also produced a beer from an ice box which had helpfully appeared and opened the bottle by placing the cap on the edge of the Barbie and slamming down on it the bottle opening with a satisfying pop.

, The ensign, whose primary goal was to dive head first into the waters, stopped in his excited mid-dash at the smell of food. Despite his small frame, his stomach was bottomless. His heels buried into the sand as he skid to a stop, peering over to the expansion in the holodeck. Wesley gently shook the sand from his feet as he slowly stepped up onto the wooden deck, driven by the sort of craving for red meat that would make a local doctor diagnose the lad with low iron. Wesley took a seat nearby to watch over the multitude of grills, just waiting to see if anyone else was going to approach for food. He couldn't be the only one, after all!

She walked around and observed. People laughing around, some splashing in the waters, others playing games along the sand. The ambient was an unusual one, but she was surprised to find that it was not unpleasant. Some people smiled at her, but so far no one had approached, it seemed to be an act done simply out of politeness, which did not bother her. Satisfied enough after a good time of just looking, she recalled that parties usually also meant drinks and food aside from socializing, and it had already been some time since her last meal. Once she spotted the place that appeared to have people prepping something, her course was set. The Cardassian woman stopped by the grill and observed the guy managing it. Was he part of the program? If so, the person designing it definitely had terrible fashion sense. “Excuse me.” She addressed Shane directly, the accent undeniable. “Is the food actually real? Or is it just part of the… ambient experience?”

Shane was in the midst of putting burgers and sausages on the grill when Meret approached him. He looked up from his grill as the slender Cardassian approached. "No no, it's all real. Well, some of it's replicated. But the steaks, the veggies and some of the sausages are all real. I've got a guy who sends me some of the good stuff on the occasional supply ship." Shane motioned for Meret to take something and enjoy. "I haven't seen you at one of these get-togethers before. I take it your new ish to the station?" Shane recognised most of the faces at these kinds of events; not every face had a name, at least not yet, but he tried his best. He was getting pretty good at most of the Engineers, Ops, Medical and Security staff, at least the ones he saw regularly. And of course, he made a point of knowing everyone in his department. So by process of elimination, that left Science or Command, or a civilian thought it was slightly less likely, as a majority of the people at the party were Starfleet. "Are you a Liaison officer or a scientist?" He asked curiously after going through the permutations in his head.

Satisfied with his answer and indirectly confirming that he was not part of the simulation, Meret had starterd looking at her options when his question suddenly made her stop. “Yes, I’m new.” A truth it didn’t seem would hurt if confirmed, specially if he were an officer. But the rest of his suppositions… she did not like the feeling they evoked. She did not like to not know how he had so expertly narrowed down from several options of divisions and jobs. That she would not answer yet, Meret decided. “Oh..” She smiled and rested her elbows on the counter in front of her. “You are quite curious for a hologram program. How entertaining.”

Shane immediately noticed the initial confirmation followed by a deflection to the second half of his question. Scientist then, liaison officers were usually trained to be more diplomatic, scientists not so much. Though Shane decided not to press things, noting the fast code switch to a more closed off personality, despite being a jarhead shane was more perceptive than he let on, reading people was part of his job after all. "Oh yes, I'm the most entertaining holo chef this side of the Horsehead Nebula." He dramatically flicked a burger into a waiting burger bun next to Meret. "I even juggle if you ask nicely." (edited)

She would have raised an eyebrow if she had any. He wanted to play like that? Fine. Made her even more comfortable with the deflection. She carefully took two small salt shakers and a pepper one and lined them up before them. “This is me asking nicely then. I am dying for something interesting to happen in this party.” Another wide smile, her sharp teeth evident, her head slowly pending to the side in a mockery of a “puppy look”. If snakes could even give puppy looks.

Shane fixed Meret with a measured look, somewhere between an evil eye and a one-eyed semi squint people did when they considered what was going on inside someone else's head. "If you insist." Shane grabbed the salt and pepper shakers and began to juggle. To his credit, he was pretty good. Solid hand-eye coordination had always come naturally to Shane; it was a necessity to be a good pilot, coupled with excellent spatial awareness. As he juggled, he dramatically threw in a bottle of ketchup, making it four items, followed by a bottle of mustard, making it five. He went on for a few moments, eventually finishing his routine with some added flair and flips. "I would have made a good clown now that I think of it. Astrophysics got me first, though." A partial truth, he took science classes to become a better pilot when he was in the academy, not purely for the sake of science. He hoped that mentioning his science background would get some actual information out of Meret. (edited)

She eyed his performance with that same smile ever present. When he was done with the routine, she clapped, slowly, controlled, refined. And to be fair, she had not expected him to actually be able to juggle, which was a nice surprise in itself. Maybe going to these station events was not a total waste of time after all. “A holoprogram with background story? My my, who programmed you, dear…” So he was hinting to being a scientist. Meret had no reason to take his words at face value, specially within this little theater of theirs, but if he indeed were one they would probably cross paths in the science division soon enough. And if he indeed were one, they might have reason to talk further in another opportunity. Essentially, she was cataloging his words now to discover how many lies and half truths she would eventually find. (edited)

"Programmed? Only the best programmers there are, consciousness and self-determination." A hint of sarcasm, Shane was 80% sure Meret had clocked him as a real person and not a hologram, but it didn't hurt to make sure. Shane flipped some burgers, which were beginning to finish up, while he felt the steaks to see how done they were. Most of them were just about getting to a rare doneness, which ment they needed another few moments before being moved to the slow side of the grill to keep warm. "First posting as an exchange officer?" Shane asked, keeping the conversation going. It was obvious to him that is was her first exchange posting, people who had done some time with Starfleet tended not to be as standoffish but her answer would give him some more insight.

The holographic program theatrics were over it seemed, no point in playing that level of dumb, it would border on insulting. Instead she chose to take one of the burgers available on the counter. While appraising the alien sandwich, she was hit with another spot on question. Honestly, who was this guy? Scientist, really? Or someone from intel messing with her… her then mind did a click. Was her new roommate responsible? Had she gotten this guy to target her after their very friendly first talk? If yes, what good would it do to her to keep things to herself? He probably already knew a lot of things… bureaucracy to read someone’s file her ass. Still, it was just a theory, maybe she should do some digging herself, see if he was truly another spy or just that good at deducing things. “No, in fact it is not.” She then took a bite of her sandwich. This was neither lie nor half truth.

Drying themself off with a towel, Kirio felt their stomach growling and decided to act accordingly— woefully oblivious to the tight string of tension in the air, the security officer lingered close to the entrance, the smell of mouth-watering food enough to send them into indecision.

The burger was freshly grilled to a medium doneness, it had a slightly smoky taste from the grill, along with some charr marks. All in all it was a pretty good burger, the bun was dressed simply with lettuce, tomato and some melted cheese with some ketchup. The flavours all melded together to create a comforting dish perfect for a party like this one, with salty sea air and the warm feeling of the holographic sun. As Meret contemplated who exactly Shane was, he continued to tend to the grill, pulling off one of the steaks for himself to enjoy. Shane was completely oblivious to the spiralling going on in Meret's mind as he focused on cooking in his fashion criminal getup. If Meret decided to research Shane, she would surely find out that he was a noted pilot and the station's ACTO. She would also find a paper discussing shield harmonics under stellar loads currently under peer review in the Federation Journal of Applied Physics, which would prove his scientific credentials to her. Shane made a 'hmph' noise when Meret replied that it was not her first posting as an exchange officer. A small surprise to him, maybe she was just one of those people who made a point of being closed off. It happened. "Oh? Where were you based before coming out to 777? I was out on the USS Rapture before most of the crew got reassigned here."

She may research him or not, it all would depend on how they would leave this conversation. For now, she had good food though, which settled something in her stomach and made all of this more bearable. The sandwich, contrary to this man’s clothing, suited her tastes. Good juggler and good cook, maybe scientist, maybe intel. In all case, he had her attention, which was a very difficult feat. He seemed surprised with her answer, which pointed towards him not having knowledge of her file. Her time out of Cardassia had been one of the major contributors for her to be considered as a full exchange candidate. “Bajor.” She provided the information between bites. Part of her was curious on what he would think of that monosyllabic answer. It was no secret that Cardassia and Bajor had a strained relationship, she wondered if he knew of the programs being implemented to tighten their respective governments.

Smelling food, Haru wandered towards the cooking deck. He was obviously not going to be cooking, he was a horrible cook, however he wanted to eat and he smelled BURGERS! T'Sareth was not a meat eater as a Vulcan dedicated to the Vulcan ways, but Haru was. He tried not to eat too much meat though just because it made him break out but this was a special event! "Jolan tru?" Haru shuffled up to the cooking deck. He heard the voices of others, one of them being one of his bosses, ACTO Shane Lawson! And the others he couldn't determine so he assumed they were new people. "Burgers?"

"Interesting place to be posted as a Cardassian, was it one of the bilateral exchanges that happened between your two governments? Must have been interesting work as a scientist." Shane mused intrigued at his new colleague's story. As he mused he turned towards the incoming Haru. "Haru lovely to see you, Jolan Tru!" Shane took another burger off the grill and placed it on a waiting burger bun filled with toppings. He picked up a plate the burger was resting on and held it out for Haru. Meret would note that Shane greeted Haru is if he knew him, equally he held the air of authority of a superior addressing a subordinate. This pointed to Shane being an officer with some amount of responsibility.

”Interesting indeed, but I feel like this conversation is a bit too me centered, I would’t wish to pass up as self-absorbed.” That damned two edged smile was back and Meret simply nodded to the newcomer soon returning her attention to Shane. “What do you do around here aside from managing a grill?”

"Oh me? I do a bit of everything. People management, logistics, research, training, tinkering, flying and of course making great burgers and juggling." Shane began to cut up the steak he pulled aside as he spoke, with neat strips gradually separating the porterhouse and ribeye from the T-bone of the steak. Shane played into the game of mysteriousness seeing as meret seemed to be enjoying making him guess she should have to guess a little herself. He chomped on one of the cut up steak bits after finishing talking. He replied to Meret's two edged smile with a slightly smug golden retriever esque smile as he ate his food.

Meret was not one to guess much on other people's business. She was content on keeping to herself and most people on Cardassia followed the same path. Unless they had a deeper interest that is, which she doubted was the case here. For her it definitely wasn't. "A very impressive curriculum, I can see why Starfleet would be interested." Perhaps Shane's first failure at guessing so far. Meret did not necessarily enjoy playing mysterious, it was simply something she had had ingrained into her by her culture and her family. She did not enjoy having people trying to read her and every correct deduction felt like a needle inserted under her claws. Too much information could easily be turned against you, too much intimacy could be quickly weaponized as she had learned by several examples. "If you ever get tired of the officer life, you can try the food market, I'll give you at least that." The burger was good. She wondered if one could add an egg to it without breaking some culinary rule, she loved eggs.

Shane noticed Meret's lack of amusement with his attempt to play the mysterious burger chef. Clearly, she was just reserved instead of deliberately being mysterious. Dropping his own mysterious act would probably be welcome instead of doubling down. "Oh, absolutely, I'd thought of opening a restaurant or maybe a bakery once or twice. It would definitely have less paperwork than I have now." Not that Shane particularly minded the paperwork, he did, at this point, he had it down to more or less an art form of efficiency, how else would he create time to tinker with his fighter after all? "I do think the CTO and XO would object if I tried to leave to pursue my culinary ambitions, though. Plus id miss getting to fly." Shane freely gave out some more information about what exactly he did in an attempt to recover from his one and only poor guess about Meret a moment earlier.

It seemed something had made him stop with the guessing game and this puzzled Meret even more. She was used to the act of word play and why would he choose to halt was beyond her. Her own posture didn’t change much though. ”So an important man, figures.” Piloting and mentioning the XO and CTO heavily pointed towards the guy being either Command or Tactical. He’d mentioned people managing and logistics which could suggest a high rank or even an administrative position. Maybe a senior… she had met one of them already, though from her own department. One of One, wasn’t it? “Bosses object to having competent people leaving, it is a good sign usually.”

"More important than I was, not quite as important as on my last ship." Shane replied quickly, semi flippantly as if it was an offhand remark, before his expression hardened. It would be clear to Meret from his expression suddenly hardening that his words held a little bit too much truth and he only caught himself after the words slipped out. His expression only remained stoic for a moment, swiftly returning to the warm golden retriever-esque expression he had until just now. "Especially when the competent people can make a great cake whenever someone in the department has a birthday. Keeps morale up when I saddle half of them with checking harmonics for two shifts." Shane joked to distract from his previous statement. Though it was unlikely Meret would miss it. "Did your bosses object to you leaving? Bajor isn't an exchange posting just anyone gets after all." Shane turned Meret's statement around and twisted it back into a question.

And she did not miss it. No. She catalogued it quite well in her mind as she built her own profile of this stranger. One that had the ability to make her so uncomfortable. Smart, obviously, resourceful, she was pretty sure he was indeed a senior now and that apparently he had lost a higher position before. She wondered why. Actually, she wondered if she should worry about the why. She was not one to wish for an opportunity to explore this kind of information, or even worse fabricate one like some would, but she did choose to keep it in her sleeve if the necessity ever presented itself. “Someone always objects dear. I’m good at what I do.” This she believed fully and she suspected that if the tinkering he mentioned had anything to do with the vessels he would pilot, maybe he would find her work to be extremely interesting. “It is not an opportunity to pass though. Cardassia was still there when I came back from Bajor and it will still be there when I come back from the Federation.”

Haru waved in the direction of Meret, although he did not know who she was, he noticed that Shane had been talking to her. It took him a few seconds to figure out where to grab the plate, but his implants did a good job giving him enough information that he didn't need too much help with the task. "You too! Well, I don't see you, but I hear you!" Haru laughed. He was facing Shane now as he spoke. Hearing that Shane and the other individual were chatting, he stayed silent whilst he ate his burger. It was really good, he had to tell T'Sareth and Teno about afterwards. Maybe Teno would eat it, but T'Sareth was a vegetarian.

If she did somehow discreetly dig the why would be much more boring than she likely expect. A simple case of being completely shafted by an unfeeling bureaucratic machine which reallocated an entire crew from the Rapture to 777. Most of the ships crew got an equivalent or better position on 777, Shane was part of a minority who couldn't be moved into an equivalent, or better, position. And so he went from his albeit admittedly, brief time as second officer and CTO of a starship back to being a squadron commander. Granted he was commanding a significantly bigger squadron than he ever had previously, and eventually he clawed his way back up to a senior staff roll. ACTO on a star base did carry a lot more responsibility then being a starships second officer, purely because of the bigger crew. But it wasn't the same. The bureaucracy of Starfleet set his career back by his estimation about five or six years. Second officer or first officer jobs didn't grow on trees and his options for advancement on 777 were decidedly limited. There was a part of him that was still bitter about it, but he would never admit to it. Turning back to the present Shane was focused on Meret's next words, interestingly she seemed to ignore his first comment, others would tend to probe for more information after a freudian slip like that, intriguing. "I suppose someone always does. Either you object, your bosses object or your staff do. Either way, competent people are hard to let go of." divider

00:13

Shane continued tending to the grill as he went on. Flipping a burger in one place or jiggling some veggies in another so they wouldn't stick to the grill too. "It's nice to know home is always there for you when you want to head back from exchange. Bajor is beautiful though, I need to get out there at some point. What were you working on over there? If it isn't some highly classified super secret project and you don't mind me asking that is." Shane asked, probing for more information while keeping things light. He turned to Haru while waiting for Meret's answer. He was pleased with himself that more than one person was enjoying his cooking today. "How are you enjoying the beach so far? This program beats the last summer sim I was in for sure." (edited)

Or your father, but that thought was definitely not said out loud. Meraz had been adamant at convincing her not to leave Cardassia. She had won that battle. It was interesting how the tables could turn though, as years later it was the same man who insisted on her accepting the exchange proposal to Starfleet. “Oh you should definitely visit it. Worth it, I assure you.” Her time at Bajor had been much more pleasing than anyone would have expected. Yes people were cautions, yes some were straight up hostile, but nothing she hadn’t dealt with before. And she did not blame them for that behavior… she had just decided to keep to herself as she always did and to perform her duties, which many Bajorans learned to appreciate her for. “Not anymore, most of it is published and I suppose easy enough to find… I studied several insect species on my time there.” Only a matter of a few clicks or passing each other during a shift before he found out she was Science, and there was no real need to hide her job like this. She observed as he addressed the other. Probably another officer, probably they were known colleagues to each other, the tone surely suggested so.

, After sitting there for what felt like — lord knows how long — Wesley decided to also politely raid the lieutenant commander's cooking. His footsteps meandered in the general direction of the plates until he too found one. With a careful movement, the newly promoted junior grade lieutenant plucked up a plate and moved towards the slowly growing group of people. "Alms for the post-scarcity hungry?" The lad gently wiggled his barren platter, all devoid of delicious food, hoping to be blessed with a burger cooked by man and not by machine. He tried to wait until there was a free breath to ask so, not wanting to interrupt the marvelous Meret nor disrupt the important ritual that defined cuisine. "You wouldn't happen to have any burgers left? You make your skill quite visible!" Hence well, Wesley figured that if a man went as far as a custom apron, then sure he must be a good grill master. Wes turned towards the Cardassian just a bit, before dipping his head to slide a quiet greeting to her as well. He's seen others during his few months here, but never met one up close.. but Meret? To Wesley, she looked like the key player of the next spy thriller. That's a film he'd definitely buy tickets for.

"I might look into it for my next shore leave. I haven't gotten away in a while." Shane said as he began getting a burger prepped for Wesley, who had just appeared at his grill. "I take it the insect life on Bajor holds significant scientific interest? Xenobiology is outside my wheelhouse, so I'm afraid I'm pretty ignorant on that area of research." Shane then turned to Wesley as he finished off assembling a burger, complete with all the trimmings. He also added some other bits and pieces to a paper plate for him to eat, some veggies, corn on the cob, and some bratwurst to make it into more of a complete meal. "Plenty more where that came from if you're hungry for seconds. Congratulations on the promotion by the way, Lieutenant." Shane had seen the full promotion list before it had been announced publically; two of his officers had been promoted too and he had gladly submitted the paperwork to make their new pips official. (edited)

Having people eventually interrupt was to be expected, after all she was talking to the cook. At the other’s arrival, Meret chose to correspond the head nod with one of her own. Hers was more slow than his, her deep green eyes staring for one full second, reptilian slit pupils visible, before she averted them back to Shane. “Any insect species from other planets holds scientific interest.” She stated as if it was obvious. Well, to her it was. “If anything for the diversity they bring against Cardassian ones. Bajor was an excellent opportunity to broaden my horizons.” And in her line of work, diversity was key. Meret did not only study insects, she used their anatomy to develop technological designs. Of course the prospect of alien species would draw her attention, the father away from Cardassian insects the more interesting they were. She ran her fingers through her dark hair, bringing the lushfully long strands bound by a low ponytail to drape over her left shoulder while contemplating if she should get another burger. Ah, now it made more sense that people were so heavy on celebrating, it was around the period when officers would get their promotions, for service length she speculated. Well, celebration it was then. She moved her plate forward in a wordless and almost shy request, though so far it was obvious to Shane this was much more a deliberate show than genuine bashfulness. (edited)

, Wesley wasn't used to the stare, though it was only a brief second. He hadn't even noticed himself watching those green eyes with his own grass-colored orbs. Though soon there was food on his plate that called to his attention; the sight of corn on his plate made him ponder whether or not he needed to dump tajin on it. Unfortunately, the corn on the cob was not going to survive long enough to be dressed — because that was the first thing the junior lieutenant picked up when he dipped his head in gratitude. "Thank you, I can't believe it's been two years already. It's going to take getting used to." Wesley dipped his chin in gratitude once more for the abundance of food, shuffling in place a bit until he found a spot to sit that kept him near enough to the conversation. He didn't want to be the type to hit-and-run the grill.. so he might as well say something. Bajor was a topic maybe he could ask about. "Is there a particular insect or creature from Bajor you found interesting? I'm afraid all I know is their Hasperat."

Shane continued to tend to the grill as Meret spoke, and as she spoke a little bit to Wesley. It made sense to go to Bajor to study insects, the planet was bigger than a standard terrestrial body which among several other interesting factors meant it's biosphere was rather diverse, lots to study. Especially in comparison to what he knew about Cardassia Prime, large scale industrialisation and the aftermath of the war were disastrous to the planets biosphere. Plus bilateral officer exchanged helped diplomatic relationships, but that was the kind of thing governments cared about not the individuals on exchange. "That makes sense, I'm not a biologist but Bajor's biodiversity is part of it's charm, it must hold a lot of interest for science too, so many species living in the one planet. The Hasperat is delicious too." Shane said agreeing with Wesley. He looked down at Meret's plate wordlessly being pushed in his direction, curious. The Cardassian struck him as someone who only played at being shy, so the slightly shy movement of her plate stood out as part of whatever act she was preforming. Regardless he wasen't going to call that out, not on their first meeting. He reached for the place and took it gingerly from Meret, he didn't yank, just grabbed the opposite end as she was pushing it toward him and waited a second for Meret to allow him to pick it up. Once it was released he busied himself with piling it high with food. A new burger was first on the plate, followed by a corn on the cob, other assorted veggies grilled fresh with a balsamic glaze, some bratwurst and some of the cut up steak bits he had been nibbling on. The steak was real beef from Earth, not impossible to get on 777, but it did take forward planning. As he handed the plate back to Meret, with a smile he turned his attention to wesley. "I remember when I first got promoted, every officer who called me Ensign by accident had to buy a round. We got banned from two bars on Andoria."

She was at first surprised by the amount of food he served her. It was almost touching. Cardassia Prime had gone through terrible periods of starvation, it was one of the reasons why they had… invaded so many other worlds in the past. It was to be expected that food would be a somewhat sensitive topic in their society. To share food was to give up part of what you could eat to sustain another. Even if nowadays few people went hungry, the cultural significance was still there. Even in Bajor this had somewhat been true, again, thanks to the actions of Cardassia. Of course, this was a reading that only her would have. She supposed he was not doing such to show off or to intend anything. This was just how Federation acted. They did not worry about food, did not hoard it when it was so readily available. He had made her a plate like he had made this other… lieutenant, wasn’t it? Yes, the same plate. It was not special, it was just standard. She ate through her portions with poised grace, each component clearly well done and delicious, while listening to the cook’s story. She had no idea how to eat the corn on a cob, as she had not seen one yet in her life until then. For this reason she chose to leave it for last, waiting to see how Wesley would eat it to then replicate the method.

, Wesley looked over the corn on the cob, his inner halves debating how to decorate those golden babies. His mother's half told him to absolutely smother that shit in crema and cotija.. his father's half — of which he did not know — whispered the classic urges of butter and salt. The universe bade him in the ways of the 20th century American. Wes tediously salted his cob, making sure to turn it so it was evenly seasoned before running it up and down with slick butter. That cob glistened in the sunlight brighter than a Ferengi's head after a wax job. He started at the end, sinking his teeth in.. only for his eyes to accidentally catch the future 007 watching him from not-so-afar. Wesley was frozen in mid-bite, and probably stared for too long before he finished his bite and just kind of tried to pretend that allll that hadn't just happened. Don't be suspicious.. don't be suspicious.. Aside from that, he ate like a typewriter tapped. Left to right. Reset. Left to right. When he got his temporary fill of half the cob in, he gently set it down and used the napkin to wipe his mouth. Now it was time to dive into the main meat. The meat that was put on his plate with a meaty thwack — the burger that would rival In-N-Out's Double-Double.. He could hear his American ancestors dying of great happiness, specifically those from the west coast. Wesley was about to compliment Shane on a great patty, but didn't want to accidentally choke on his meat. No talking while chewing!

Shane continued to tend to the grill and eat some of the food himself. Seeing as a somewhat comfortable silence had fallen over the group as everyone ate he consciously decided not to disturb it, he simply enjoyed his own food, making himself up a burger and eating it, he himself was surprised by how well it had turned out on the holographic grill.

After seeing what she judged was enough to give the corn a try herself, she put her burger aside and took the cob, preparing it just as the other had. The butter was oily on her hands, which was not very pleasant, but she willed through it for her first bite. It was… strange. Like having beans of some kind in a stick, having to peel them off in sections with her teeth. She soon learned too, that having teeth sharper than average, she ought to be careful to not bite off pieces of the cob with the corn. It did not taste good. The corn in itself though was fresh, the butter and salt added flavor and being cooked in water made it juicy. An overall 6/10 to the experience. Iluna on the other hand would have had probably loved it, knowing the Bajoran.

, Wesley ate his burger in the overwhelming silence of the conversation. Though, since these remaining hours were precious — he decided to swallow the meat and break the silence by repeating his earlier question as he did not get a reply to it. "Earlier, you mentioned Bajor." The junior lieutenant gently stabbed his fork into one of the grilled veggies. "Was there any particular fauna or flora you found interesting or liked the most? It must be hard to choose just one given the biodiversity." Maybe next time corn on the cob was involved, the southern gods prayed it would be a 8/10 experience — but maybe the next corn-related thing to be tried is cornbread. Wesley devoured the veggies on his plate one-by-one. At this rate, his swim-fit was never going to get wet.. unless he made a sprint for the ocean at the first last minute.

"The one thing I can't stand about corn is when it gets stuck in your teeth, and you have to go digging around to get the stuck bit out cause you can't move it with your tongue, awful." Shane commented as he ate around his own plate. He was particularly proud of the steaks. Targ meat was difficult to work with, but its richness worked wonders when it was paired with a proper grill. Super high in protein too, which mattered to someone like Shane who worked out fairly often to keep up his build. Shane shut up after Wesley asked his question about Bajor to give Meret space to answer.

She had not meant to ignore the lieutenant before, she had simply been distracted and then the conversation had already moved on. This time though, no reason not to answer. She put down her half eaten cob took a second to make sure she felt nothing between her teeth, thanks to the experience share of the third person in the conversation. “I specialize mostly on insect specimens with capacity for flight. I worked with several… the Blue Tidrans were some of the most complex.” And featured on several works she produced while on Bajor, and after thanks to the on-going cooperation with Iluna’s institute.

, "Surely anything with blue in its name must be quite pretty." He partially joked, it wasn't going to always be true. "I'll have to look it up when I get back to quarters.." He really couldn't grasp how much time had already flown by today. Wesley looked towards the ocean, wondering if the replicated waters were cold, or if the entire ocean was a nice temperature. The junior lieutenant decided to drop his part of the conversation, likely to hurry up and eat the rest of the food on his plate. He didn't bother to ask what kind of meat it was, and all honesty he probably didn't want to now. Good meat was good meat, that what mattered at this moment. Was he going to wait an hour after eating? Nope. Any cramps will be worth it.

"What makes them so complex? Is it their particular method of flight, or some kind of other development?" Shane asked curiously as he began winding down the grill a bit knowing the party would soon draw to a close. Maybe he'd go for a swim before it all finished.

"Social organization. They form hives and territories, they have castes and they seem to have the ability to work along with other species and develop mutual relations when needed or cease them if it is no longer suitable. A highly adaptable insect. Different castes also have variant morphology so not all of them will fly the same... in fact, in some regions they look so unlike their first descripted specimens that many Bajorans believed they were separate species." She delivered an already long explanation to what was clearly an even longer subject to discuss. She hadn't even touched the specifics. "They are a popular topic off research."

, Seeing the time tick towards a close, Wesley began to wrap the remants of his burger up to eat later — without hesitation he bit down and locked onto his cobbed corn as he began to quickly move. He waved to the both of them, his loud and muffled goodbyes indicating his intentions to dip from the location. Wes set his stuff down next to his wrapped burger as he was intent to come back to collect — even setting aside his sandals to run faster. Without a single additional word, he ran from the cooking deck and failed to jump over the railing. Luckily, no sand got on his corn, which is all that mattered. Wesley was up in a matter of seconds and off running towards the open waters. ...with the corn of cob still in his mouth because he was gonna finish it. Only moments later he would hit the water, run against it with all his might, and eventually stumble below its waves. He lost the cob. Tragic.

"That's interesting evolving different methods of flight across subspecies. I wonder if they informed early attempts at Bajoran made aircraft in different parts of the planet." Shane was about to continue philosophising when he saw Wesley run off and promptly fall over. He made a wincing face for a brief moment before he saw that he was up and on his way. The party would be coming to an end soon now would be the best time to get in for a swim. "He's got the right idea." Shane said as he quickly took off his multicoloured fiasco of clothing, beginning with the apron followed by the Hawaiian shirt revealing a stocky and muscular frame with what looked like burn marks on the lower part of his abdomen. "You coming?" Shane asked as he prepared to take off in a mad dash for the ocean.

Well, at this point... why not. She got away from the counter, leaving her food behind and wordlessly following after them both. (edited)