Dinner Conversations in the Dark

Posted on Sun May 10th, 2020 @ 3:57pm by Ahreva Malana & Ensign Weiaex
Edited on on Tue May 19th, 2020 @ 12:37pm

Mission: Return to the Core
Location: Ahreva Malana's quarters, Deck 10
Timeline: 2397

Walking down the corridor of Deck 10 of the U.S.S. Hera, Ensign Wieaex wasn't her usual, hyper-talkative self. The orange-shelled Edosian pilot was walking slowly on her three legs, her three arms being held close to her as her head hung low, trying to ignore any other crewmembers she passed in the otherwise empty hall.

As with most everyone on the starship that was trapped in a starless realm of the unknown, she had been suffering from broken sleep, punctuated by nightmares. As such, she was actually relieved and a bit happy when her unexpected friend, Ahreva Malana, had called to invite her to a meal. The two couldn't be more different. Malana was a woman literally made of stone from a near-immortal race of watchers who had a rule of non-interaction among their people. A rule that Malana was breaking by serving on the Hera, and in Starfleet. But Wieaex was glad that she did. 

The generally chatty pilot enjoyed being around the stoic, contemplative woman. She liked feeling like she could slow down and just be herself around Malana. She genuinely liked Malana. And she was fairly sure Malana liked her as well. But right now, everything was a source for doubt in the Edosian officer.

Nervously, she eschewed the chime on Malana's door, and instead rapped lightly on the door as she arrived.

"Enter," came the well-paced reply of the stone woman. Inside, Malana had begun preparations for something that she wasn't even sure was possible, yet here she was. On the table were tiny sample portions of Edosian foods on unfinished ceramic tiles. There were also several small cups of Edosian drinks in similar earthenware glasses. The lighting had been reduced to half and there were several lit candles on the table.

"I hope that the meal I've prepared for us to share is... pleasing. I had hoped that you could eat the biological components while I eat the ceramics." If she could blush at the intimacy this implied, Malana would have. As it was, the slight fidgeting in her fingers was enough to give away the nervousness she felt.

Stepping inside, Wieaex's first reaction was to relax just a bit. She had been in Malana's quarters only once before, but it had looked completely different. And it had smelled completely different. "Mmmm, that... did you make? You did!"

Stepping over, Wieaex was a bit more herself as she looked at the tray of samples from her homeworld, prepared with obvious care. Most of the foods were the consistency of various pastes of different colors. One was a small bowl of bright green bean pods but it was the gray paste in the center that the Edosian pilot took a long sniff of. "I haven't had Taron meal in forever. Wow, Mal. This is..."

At this point, the usually much more talkative woman's eyes went a little wider and she stopped talking as she began to take in everything else: the dim lights. The candles. The light, scraping sound of stone-on-stone that came from Malana's fidgeting. "Mal... uh... are you... okay?"

"Because this is... uh... actually way romantic." Wieaex herself was starting to fidget a bit, two of her hands trying to find a place to rest on her hips, failing, resetting and trying again. With a carapace of slightly more rigid material itself, she couldn't really blush much either, at least on the surface. but the sensation was there nonetheless.

"I believe I had one of those Night terrors that have been spoken of recently and it has revealed certain... feelings of..." Malana paused a moment, now unsure of how to word her feelings. "They are... I enjoy your company in a manner befitting that of a couple and I hope that you would entertain the idea of exploring such feelings with me." In the end, she blurted out a long-winded version in the hopes that it didn't sound crazy, but to her it did.

Tilting her head, Weiaex stopped dead in her tracks, her shoulder-length silver hair bobbing to a stop. "Wait, you had a NIGHTMARE and it made you... want to date... me?!"

"Uh..." Suddenly, FAR more nervous, at least her mind was off of her own issues for the moment as she stammered a bit. The inexplicable New York accent that she had picked up growing up on Earth with her parents, who emigrated there for work, got a bit thicker as she spoke. "Why me? I mean... I like you too, Mal. I like spending time with you n' all... but... I mean, at this rate I don't even know if they're gonna let me stay on the ship after what happened. I'm a mess! I screw things up. I talk too much. I... I went back to that stuck-up statue that gave you crap on Earth before we left and stuck a bunch of gum up under her when nobody was lookin'. I mean... me?"

Malana nodded solemnly, taking a tentative step forward. "Yes, I... In the nightmare, I was forced to come to terms with and realized that I have feelings for you and I want to try to live as a biological would with you. All of you. Perhaps more so because of the gum."

"Wow. Uh .. believe it or not, I think I'm speachless." Wieaex said, chuckling slightly as she ran a hand through her hair. "Well,not literally. But, ya' know. Figuratively. Which is to say I still can talk I just don't know what to say, ya'know? It's... A little overwhelming, I guess. Which is not to say I don't... Uh .. I'm not saying that I don't have, ya'know, feelings too. I do. Holy crap, I do. I'm just... I don't know what to say, Mal."

The standard level of verbosity Wieaex was known for had returned in force as she rambled on. "I just don't know what to think. I mean, I'm happy, I guess. But, uh, what does 'live as a biological would' mean?"

Motioning towards the table full of food, Malana did her best to explain. "It means that I do my best to live at your pace and share your life and learn about these emotions. Rather than observing, take part in. As best I am able, that is. Even to the point of procreating with you, if we decide to. So... Shall we eat?"

Listening, Wieaex's eyes widened again and her jaw fell open. "Ah... uh... yeah, so, about those emotions. They, uh... tend to ramp up at comments like that. Also... we need to talk about how to do a smooth conversational transition, cuz... that was not it, Mal. And... uh... Procreate!? With ME?! Uh... how is that even possible?"

The stone woman lowered her head and rested it in her hands. "I don't know... None of the shared experiences of my people prepared me for anything like this. My observations of people do not include such things. I've only ever observed wild creatures procreating from afar... I am older than biological kingdoms and yet... I lack... so much experience..."

She then looked back up at Wieaex, stone dust forming in her eyes. "I don't know if I can experience these things with you. But I feel things for you and I want to explore them with you. Things that I don't think that anyone in the history of my race has ever felt before and I feel so... lost and inadequate."

"Oh, shit. No! no no no no no. Oh, crap, no." Wieaex said in a mild panic as she rushed over, giving the stone woman a hug, which with her shell-like skin, was a sound not unlike tap shoes on concrete. "Oh, crap, I'm so sorry! I wasn't thinkin'. I'm just... I'm feeling so damn inadequate lately myself and I screwed up. No, you're NOT inadequate! At all!"

"It's just, like you said, your people DON'T ever get into relationships, so you only have your observations to go on, and on this ship there is a HELL of a lot of observing to do. You should see the Leprechaun in R&D with the Tellarite. Those two are so weird, but it's kinda sweet. But anyway, it's not about... biology, I think. I mean. There are all kinds of couples on this ship. And... what do you call it when it's, like... right, a threesome? There's gotta be a less awkward word for stuff like that. But there are a few relationships like that too. It's all... I think we ALL feel lost, Mal."

"I... I know I do. But I don't feel so lost when we hang out, so that's gotta mean something, right?" The orange Edosian said with an awkward smile.

"I do. I think it means that these feelings are correct. Plus, I was able to slow time with you, which means something to my people. It means we are compatible in many ways. I can not ignore that at the very least." Taking two of the Edosian's hands in her own, the stone woman raised them to her lips and pressed them lightly in what she knew to be a kiss, making a light klink of carapace against granite.

With her third, center arm, Wieaex covered her own mouth as she, once again, was momentarily speechless. At the same time, all three legs wobbled slightly. Her pulse raced and her eyes went even wider. "Mal... I... I... I..."

"I got nothin'." Wieaex said with a chuckle and a sincere smile.

Malana glanced over at the meal she had prepared which was now slowly getting cold. "I have food for both of us. Should we eat and discuss our feelings further?"

"Huh? Oh, crap. Right. Food. Yeah, totally. Food. Heh heh!" Wieaex said, in truth more than a little happy for the distraction as she stepped over, her hands a bit flustered and waving about. "I... I like food."

"Well, of course, I like food. You've seen me eat before. Heck, I've seen you eat before. Dinner is awesome. It smells great so of course, we should eat. Food. Which is what you made. And the little plates are what you dig, which is really cool. So, we can actually share the meal in a way, which is thoughtful too. You made, like, Tapas and everything, which is sweet and I should probably stop talking and sit down or something, right?"

Without further prompting, Malana guided her Edosian friend over to one of the more normal chairs and helped her into it before settling into one of her heavy steel chairs built to support her weight. "Now we're sitting down. Which one do you want to try first?" With a soft smile, she waited for Wieaex to pick one.

Looking over everything, she picked up the small, unfinished ceramic tile that had the Taron meal on it and took a small bite off of it, holding the tile like a cracker. "Mmmm. wow."

Taking a second bite, Wieaex finished off the gray pasted, running a finger through it to get it all off the tile. "This is... really good, Mal." Gently, she handed the tile to the stone woman sitting across from her with a warm smile.

Malana took the tile and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. "Thank you. Though I replicated the ingredients, I wanted to do my best to make everything by hand for you, Wieaex." It was not in her people's nature to use the names of things or people, and indeed her own name had been almost randomly chosen as it had been a philosopher that she had modeled herself after from the now-extinct biologicals from her home planet.

Still, having used her friends name for the first time, it sent a small thrill through her and she couldn't help but smile.