The Reluctant Guest

Posted on Sat Mar 28th, 2015 @ 1:24pm by Lieutenant Dylan Santiago & Staff Warrant Officer Nexi

Mission: Temporal Kickback
Location: Shuttle bay

Deciding to use his chat with Nexi as as chance to meet one of his staff, the thought foremost in his head was that Dylan didn't want to disappoint Ethan by failing to convince her to go on tonight's blind date.

Wandering out of his office, he looked around. It took some searching to find her, but eventually he spotted her in the shuttlebay, the woman whose picture he'd seen in her personnel file and wandered over, a charming smile on his face as he said "Hi...you must be Nexi."

"A-yup," Nexi said as she examined some work the Hera's Engineers had recently done on her ship, the Wandering Star. She crouched by one of the thrusters to really get a good look at the repair job, then nodded approvingly. "What can I do for you, Boss?" she asked without looking up at him to properly acknowledge him. Instead, she scooted over to another thruster to look at the degradation of the parts to see if it needed any repairs or replacements, getting her hands good and dirty in the process.

"Oh I'm uh...just doing the rounds, you know, getting to know the people I'm going to be working with." Dylan replied, figuring that his charming smile wasn't going to work whilst she was so busy with the shuttle.

"Well, I usually work alone, so I'm still getting used to this whole 'team player' thing, but so far I don't mind working with that Angel girl over in Security. She seems to have her head on straight," Nexi said idly as she worked. "Oh, and I met your boyfriend. I was in your office reading stuff I shouldn't be looking at when he came by to find you."

"You were in my office poking around?" Dylan looked suddenly annoyed even though he knew that he kept the good stuff locked away, "And just what gave you the right to do that?" he added, clearly miffed.

"Because I'm nosy," Nexi admitted shamelessly. "Please, you can't tell me you didn't at least expect it. I refuse to believe the Captain didn't at least warn you about me, and as a legit spook you should've expected it."

"The Captain didn't even mention you and as for expecting it, that's why I have the good stuff locked away." Dylan replied with a grin.

"Yeah, locked away..." Nexi said with a snicker. "So, what can I do for you, Boss?" Nexi finally said, standing and dusting off her hands on her pants.

Ignoring her question, Dylan said "Does that mean you've been snooping elsewhere as well?" He watched her and made a mental note to keep a close eye on her. Clearly she was someone who was a bit of a loose canon.

"I don't like the term 'snooping'," Nexi said seriously. "I prefer 'creative information gathering'."

"Oh do you now?" Dylan crossed his arms and glared at her. This meeting was not going as planned.

"Yes, I do," Nexi replied with a nod. "Now seriously, what do you want? I got a lot to get done today."

"Polite aren't you?" Dylan commented dryly before saying "Like I said, I'm just getting to know my staff." then he grinned and added "And in that spirit, I'd like to invite you to a housewarming party and me and Ethan are having. We're moving in together and want to celebrate." then he fell serious and added "I'm hoping that it'll help to take his mind off...you know, what happened."

"I'm polite when it benefits me," Nexi said, rubbing her fingers together in a way that seemed to have a universal meaning: money. Shit, Enalia seriously said nothing to this guy! Nexi almost felt sorry for him. Almost. "But in this case, I suppose I could show up for a party. I guess I can appreciate what you're trying to do for your boyfriend, and I usually ain't one to turn down free food. Will there be booze? The real stuff, not that face synthohol shit."

"There'll be booze." Dylan chuckled, choosing to ignore her rather crass mention of payment "I have a few cases of wine from back home in the cargo bay..." then he paused and frowned as he asked "You do like wine?"

"Wine is fine," Nexi said. "Oh, by the way, I have something for your man," she said, digging around in her pocket for something. A moment later, she pulled out a memory stick and handed it to Dylan. "I'd give it to him at dinner, but even I know better than to ruin the mood with something like this."

"What is it?" Dylan asked, turning the memory stick over in his hand.

"Proof that he doesn't have to be afraid anymore," Nexi said cryptically. "He doesn't have to watch it.. If anything, he's probably too soft to see what's on it, but maybe just holding it and knowing what's on it will give him some closure. The crew of the Raptor are dead, they can't hurt anyone anymore." It was a surprisingly thoughtful gesture from someone like her who couldn't show an ounce of consideration for another person unless there was some benefit in it for her. Maybe taking care of her disabled sister was having a bigger impact on her than she thought...

"That'll make him sleep better." Dylan nodded, making himself a promise to review the contents of the stick before he let Ethan anywhere near it. "And thank you...I'm sure that he'll appreciate it."

Nexi nodded, then returned her attention to her ship. "So what you want me to show up for this shindig?"

"Gotta have some folks to turn up for it...does eight o clock sound okay?" Dylan replied, pocketing the stick and finding himself unsure how to take the woman.

"Alright, I'll be there," Nexi replied agreeably enough.

"Excellent. Well I'll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing and I guess I'll uh...see you tonight." Dylan replied as he began to back away towards the door.