Shore Leave Buddies

Posted on Mon Sep 3rd, 2018 @ 2:16am by Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi

Mission: Holographic Horrors
Location: USS Hera, Deck 8, Lieutenant Commander Thex's quarters
Timeline: 2395

The mercurial mood swings of one Rita Paris had their highs and their lows, as mood swings were wont to do. At theis particular moment, however, she was riding a particularly high mood. From the growing fear that had the retro throwback officer considering desperate measures, the air had been cleared and she felt considerably better about herself, her position onboard, her captain, and even her best friend. Leaving her quarters for the leisurely 70 meter stroll to the chief engineer's quarters, Paris did so with a wiggle in her walk that was basically dancing, scooting along to a beat that only she heard. When she arrived at the quarters of one Thex sh'Zoarhi, Paris hip-bumped the door chime.

Having made sure that the Hera was okay, as the captain's automatic shipyard got to work fixing her, Thex had retired to her quarters. Now, she was looking through the code of the holo-programs they had encountered on the ship's flight deck. Something was very strange, as it hadn't been listed. Not just on the Federation holo data base, but apparently it wasn't in any database she could find. Now she lay on her bed, wearing the dancing outfit she had been given by the Orion dancers she had encountered, looking through the code when the door alarm buzzed. Standing up, she walked over to door and opened it.

When the door opened, Rita was waiting with open arms. "THEX!" she squealed, then swept the smaller woman up in a hug. Spinning her about, Rita released her to cheer, "Shore leave! Shore leave! Shore leave buddies?"

Thex smiled ,even as her friend briefly drove the wind out of her lungs with her enthusiastic hug. " Good to see you as well, Rita! You're certainly in a good mood. Sure, I'll be your shore leave buddy," Thex gasped as the breath returned to her lungs.

"Well... yeah! Yeah, I am in a good mood. Just... a lot of things got cleared up, and I feel really good about where I am and what I'm doing. So, I hear that this is some fantastic space fortress? No mere space station, but a space fortress complete with a castle no less. And casinos and gambling and night life and seedy characters..." Rita paused, a calmer expression on her face. "And I have no illusions about my combat awareness or my martial abilities or my untouchable status in this uniform. So we should watch one another's backs, right? Shore leave buddies! Stick together, watch your buddy, keep them out of harm's way. So I watch your back and you watch mine, and we can go and have a good time!"

At that moment Rita finally noticed the dancer's outfit. "Were you practicing your dance moves in here? Man, you really commit, pal of mine."

" Well I'd planned to, but then I got a little distracted with something. Besides, this place does get rather hot for me, and this is a rather cooling outfit." The engineer replied grinning.

"There's kinda not much to it, you mean," Rita teased gently. "So this place is hot? Like sweaty hot?" Of course, as usual Rita was standing there in her anachronistic gold minidress that she seemed to wear all the time if there wasn't a specific occasion.

" Hot, but not sweaty hot. Well, for me it is, but I do come from an ice planet. Nothing I can't handle, though- I enjoyed the place the last time I was there," The andorian replied, the grin still lodged on her face.

"So that actually raises a question I've never known the answer to, so I can ask you, right? You come from an ice planet, very cold, and you are adapted to it. But we live on a starship where the average temperature is 22 degrees- is that hot for you?" Rita held out her hands before her in a backpedal, "If I'm asking something culturally insensitive or wrong, I apologize, I sincerely don't mean any insult. I just... you're my first Andorian friend. Like, ever. If you look at my graduating class, there's one green face, one furry snout, a Saurian and a lotta humans. I really don't know, and I'm still trying to catch up on everything I don't know, which trust me, literally fills volumes. So... is this an okay question to ask?"

" Rita, relax. It takes a lot to offend me, so you can ask me these sort of questions. " Thex replied reassuringly. " The ship is hot, but after the four years at the academy, I got used to the increased temperature. Andorians are made out of tougher stuff than most species, even if our blood doesn't clot."

"Oh my scants, is that why you were bleeding out so fast when we were running from T'Pral? Your blood doesn't clot? Jeez, Thex, when you wormed into that duct you could've been killed! You shoulda sent me... ah... oh." The curvaceous cosmonaut started to object that Thex should have sent her in the engineer's place. But there was no way she would have fit in that slender duct like thin and wiry Andorian could, Rita wouldn't have known where she was going, nor what to do when she got there. As much as she admired and appreciated the spunky little Andorian spitfire, this raised her estimation of the cheerful spanner jockey up yet another notch, at least with her friend from the golden age.

Wrapping her arm around the shoulder of her diminutive gal pal, Paris offered her that million-watt smile. "Well, now I know, so next time something happens to you I'll know what do do and not let you bleed out because it's not cold enough for your wounds to freeze over. Which is totally not happening this time around, because we're on shore leave! In a fortress of bloodthirsty pirates who are more afraid of the Captain than pretty much anything else, so we should be totally fine, right?"

" Oh, the station is staffed entirely by holograms. The pirates live in a few stations and outposts surrounding the place, and most of them know not to hurt any Starfleet personnel. Not that you need to leave the station, it seems to have anything. " Thex explained.

"I... did not know that. Keen, I guess? I dunno, like pretty much anything it's new to me, so I'll just tourist and keep an eye on your back. Whiiiiich actually won't start, at least for me, for 48 hours. Ensign Gonadie has been tireless in her efforts to teach me, bring me up to speed on my own department and generally she's been the best assistant a gal could ask for. So I sent her out on 48 hours of liberty as soon as she walked me through docking here. I just wanted to make sure I got dibs in first with you, and that you were okay looking out for me while I wander around looking like a rube." In truth, Paris was unaware that half the terms she was using were anachronisms, and she was inadvertently confusing her friend a bit just as she herself was so often lost in modern conversations.

" Well, I'll be happy to show you around, my friend- it's quite easy when you-" Thex began, when the discarded PaDD chirruped with an incoming message.

" Huh, I wonder who that's from..." the andorian wondered aloud as she reached for the padd. She could see from the title it was from... Rita?

In that moment, a number of realizations came to Rita Paris. The realization of the time, a few hours after docking. Of why a message would pop up for Thex with the urgent tone, sent high priority. And in that moment, the lost navigator realized that she had gotten a little busy, and forgotten to stop one of those dominoes she had been setting up from falling.

"Ah, Thex? If that's from me, please don't read it?" Rita asked with a note of regret in her tone.

" Okay... " The andorian replied, having picked up the padd she turned to regard her friend. " A late night message you don't want people to read? I could get it cancelled, if that would help you." She was feeling slightly confused, but her human friend must have some reason for wanting her to not read it.

"No, not exactly.... c'mere," Rita grabbed the cerulean-skinned starfarer's hand and pulled her to a chair, as Rita sat opposite her. "So, confession time. Seeee, I was really kinda worried about the captain and the come-on and the pirates and the space fortress- I didn't even know it was a space fortress, I thought it was just a station. That would have freaked me out worse."

"At any rate, between that and... well, I'm homesick, Thex. I miss my ship, my shipmates, Sonak..." Rita stared off wistfully for a few seconds before coming back to the conversation. "I miss not being the dumb kid who doesn't understand half of every conversation I'm in. I miss having a good relationship with the command staff- I miss them valuing my input, I think. I miss... I miss my life that was, Thex. And I am telling you all of this for a reason. I mean, you pretty much know all of this, I figure." While she was relaying all of this, the agile engineer noticed that for a change, Rita seemed... relaxed. She was relaying stressful points, but she didn't seem nearly so wound up.

"The part you don't know, is that I've been researching slingshot trajectories for chronal insertion and travel. It's hard to piece together, but I had a rough idea and I had kinda concocted a plan to get me out of here before something unpleasant happened. To make a run for the past, where I could try playing ionic transporter bingo in an effort to get home. And yes, I know, if I did anything like that you would be obligated to tell the Captain, and that's why I didn't tell you. Because I would never ask you to compromise your duty for a friend." Rita took Thex's hand again and gave it a squeeze before letting go.

"Thing is, I could do all of that and leave all this behind in a mad gamble to get home. But I couldn't leave without saying goodbye to you, Thex. You've been my friend since the moment I met you, and you're actually the best friend I've ever had. No lie. Other women always seem to hate me or want to sleep with me, but you've been kind, patient, supportive and willing. You put your life on the line for me and almost died. You've given freely of your time and your heart, and you were the only regret I had about leaving this place." Now Rita's eyes had filled with tears, and she was choking up a bit as she smiled.

Thex said nothing as she listened to her friend pour her heart out to her. She knew this current situation was bad, but the fact that her friend had been planning on risking her life to try and escape it was a gut punch to the andorian's system. With tears in her own eyes, she reached out and tightly hugged her human friend. "Don't you ever try that, you stupid fool. If you ever feel down, come and see me, and we'll find a way through it!" the girlie grease monkey said through her own tears, as she held her friend tightly.

"Well, thing is, I did, and... you kind of, well, it seemed like it bothered you a lot, so I didn't press the matter. It didn't help talking with my shrink either, if it makes you feel any better." Rita stroked the slender back of the Andorian, patting her gently to reassure her. "I did talk it out with the Captain though, so it's a lot better now. And there might be developments to get me some closure too, so there's that."

Pulling back, Rita's human blue eyes peered into the blue eyes of the Andorian. "Please don't read that letter, because you don't need to read it. I'm not going anywhere, and I've got no secrets from you. Just know that you are my friend, my shipmate and my partner in trouble. I'll always trust you, I treasure your company, and I'll be there for you when you need me. I am now, and ever shall be, your friend, Thex."

Thex was about to mention the quote made famous by Spock, before realizing her friend probably didn't know what had happened to the vanished ambassador, or that the quote was historically attributed to him. She nodded at her friend's words, though she kept gripping her hands as a smile spread over her face. " And I will always be yours, Rita."

"So! Shore leave buddies!" Rita beamed that happy smile at her best pal that really did make her look like a model. "Mine starts in two days give or take, and I am totally taking you up on showing me the sights and keeping me out of trouble." Squeezing the blue hand in her own lightly bronzed hand, Rita tossed her hair with a flick of her head. "Thanks for understanding, Thex. Sorry if I scared you. I guess maybe I scared myself, too."

" No problem, Rita my friend. I'll make sure to show you around when your shore leave begins. I have a few things to sort out before I can get started on my own. " The andorian replied, grinning.

Rising from her chair, Rita Paris Walked to the exit, then stopped shy of the door sensor. "I wouldn't have made it here without you, Thex. So whenever you feel down about yourself, just remember- you saved my life in more ways than one."

On that line, the ebullient Miss Paris made her exit. Apparently she practiced this sort of theatrical exit, because she pretty much nailed it.

The andorian smiled at her friend as she left. The chief engineer suddenly felt a great sense of accomplishment, although part of her didn't know why. She'd done what she'd hoped anyone else would have done, if they found someone scared and confused and alone. Picking up her padd, she walked back to her desk. She still had a mystery to solve, though she set back to it with a smile.