Interlude – Lunch between collegues
by (G) Arrain - Lieutenant Arrienye t'Merek & Arrival Thomas Whitlock
Post Details
::ON::
"Okay, so, you have your comm, your candy bar and your water bottle right there on the end table next to you," Ai'lani instructed Dominic, who was lying in bed. "I've moved the holovision unit here this morning," he added. Dominic smiled, "Thanks, dad," he told him, coughing a bit. "Where you going? Got another story?"
"No, I'm meeting Whitlock for lunch to catch up," Ai'lani explained, buttoning up his shirt before putting the bag his camera was in over his head. "You going to be okay?"
"I'll be fine," Dominic nodded. "Good," Ai'lani grinned, kissing the top of his son's head before leaving their quarters.
**************
Thomas looked at the door again and sighed as he drank his wine. "Should have known the old goat couldn't tell time," he said to himself.
"Ouch! Old goat?!" he suddenly heard Ai'lani's voice and then the man himself came to the door. "Please, I'm 20 years older and I still look better than you," he told him.
"You wish," Thomas said with a smile as he stood up and extended his hand. "I thought I was going to die of old age waiting for you to remember how to open a door to leave your quarters."
"Yes, well, I actually have a family, so having someone to say goodbye to takes some time. Not that you'd know anything about that," Ai'lani replied, shaking his hand before sitting down.
"I'm sure you're happy knowing you'll have someone there to take care of you in a couple years after you retire," Thomas countered as he sat down.
"Are we really going to be doing this all through lunch? Because it's getting kinda dull," Ai'lani admitted. Though he didn't mind exchanging banter with the young human, it sometimes felt unnatural and forced for him, being of a race that valued politeness and such talk was considered extremely inappropriate.
"I can take it easy on you," Thomas replied. "How's your son?" he asked as he reached for a menu.
"He's okay. Doctor's given him some medication and he's resting before starting school next week," the Deltan replied, taking his own menu and looking through it.
"Good to hear," Thomas said as he set the menu on the table. "What did the doctor say was wrong with him?"
"Just flu," Ai'lani said, unable to pick what to have for lunch.
"The Denobulan sausage is good here," Thomas said to the other man, seeing his indecision.
"Fine I'll have that. But I swear if I get sick from it, my vengeance will be cold and painful. Like your writing," Ai'lani warned, putting in his order.
Thomas laughed and signaled for the waiter. "I thought we had a truce?"
"We do. That wasn't a jab or an insult. I was being honest," Ai'lani said with a bright grin.
Thomas laughed again and ordered the food. When the waiter left Thomas asked, "What have you been up to?"
"Nothing much. Had an interview last night, taking care of Dom, settling in, the usual. You?"
"Who did you interview?" Thomas asked. He wasn't sure if it was friendly conversation or the competitiveness in him that made him ask, but he was curious nonetheless.
"Oh, Rianni, the young woman that's the niece of the Romulan Ambassador," Ai'lani explained, remembering he had to call Rianni once lunch was over.
"Really?" Thomas asked. How very interesting, he thought to himself. "What did you two talk about?"
"Why do you care? You had an interview with her an hour before I did," Ai'lani pointed out, smiling innocently.
"I'm just trying to make conversation," Thomas said to him. "We're just two friends talking over lunch," he added.
"Yeah, like you don't have a recorder in your back pocket," Ai'lani said, Oh wait, that's me he thought. "Nothing much. The usual. Her dismissal, her heritage, her, attempted suicide," he explained. "Then we arranged to go out one night."
"What suicide?" Thomas asked, genuinely surprised.
But Ai'lani laughed. "And you call yourself a journalist," he grinned.
"I was more interested in the bigger story," Thomas replied. "Why did she try to commit suicide?"
"You'll just have to read the article when it comes out," Ai'lani said. "And here's a news flash for you. The bigger the story is, the easier you can miss it."
"And I thought we were friends," Thomas said as he sat back to make room for the waiter to set the plates on the table. "Anything else going on in your life?" he asked when the waiter left again.
"We are friends. But I think her attempt at suicide is something that's private and if you want to know about it you should ask her," Ai'lani said, wanting to make it clear he wasn't completely dissing Thomas. "Nothing much has been going on. What about you? You still dating...what's her name again?"
"Sandra?" Thomas asked. "I haven't seen her since she caught me in bed with that diplomat's wife," he said. "What was that you said about being a journalist?" he teased as he took a bite of the sausage.
"Yeah, brag to a Deltan about sex, that's smart," Ai'lani said sarcastically with a smirk. He knew Thomas wasn't adverse to sleeping with someone to get a story and while he, as a Deltan, didn't find much wrong with that, he knew that, by human standards, it was pretty low. And Thomas was, of course, a human, so it spoke volumes about his character.
"Where did you go after you left 68?" Thomas asked, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, I went back to Delta, saw my parents, did some work there. Then I traveled around - went to Vulcan, then Rigel IV, then Earth. Stayed on Earth for a while before coming here to DS5." Ai'lani took a bite of his food as he paused. "How long did you stay on 68 after I left?"
"A little over a year," Thomas replied. "Things slowed down shortly after you left. It was so bad that my affair with Christie and Sandra leaving me over it was actually the highlight of everyone's talk."
Ai'lani laughed. "Yeah, I wish I'd stuck around to see that," he admitted. "My last relationship broke off because something was missing. But I'm not sure what it was, for the life of me."
"Love is overrated," Thomas said to him, taking another bite of the food. "Have you thought about settling down with someone else?"
"Not yet. I can't seem to find the right person," Ai'lani admitted.
"Anyone particular you have in mind?" Thomas asked with a smile. "You mentioned dinner with Rianni. How about her? She's pretty enough."
"I don't know. She's sweet but she's not really my type," he admitted, shaking his head at the waiter's offer to fill his glass again. "I'll just have a Bolian tonic water, please," he said.
"How can she not be your type?" Thomas asked. "She's pretty, intelligent, charming and well connected." He paused to sip his wine. "I wouldn't be averse to settling down with someone like that. I'm just not ready for a serious commitment."
"Yes, she is all that, but you're forgetting one crucial element. She's not Deltan," Ai'lani pointed out.
"Is that really something that should matter?" Thomas asked.
"Um...yes," Ai'lani nodded surely. "Definitely yes."
"I never imagined you as the type to be so picky," Thomas said with a wink.
Ai'lani smirked. "Well, if you knew anything about Deltan culture, history, communication and customs, you'd understand why." He sipped his tonic water. "So Rianni and I are simply going out as friends."
"That's too bad," Thomas said to him. "You two would make a cute couple."
"I'm sure," Ai'lani smirked. "Okay, let's talk about something else. What are you working on on DS5? Still gonna dabble in the political cesspit?"
"Of course," Thomas replied. "It's one of the few things in this galaxy that's more sordid and twisted than my personal life," he added with a wink.
"Well, I'm sure you've already sniffed out the tension between the Cardassians and the Romulans. You could smell it from the Delta Quadrant," Ai'lani said. "There's definitely something going on there that no one is talking about."
"That's what I'm trying to find out," Thomas admitted, against his better judgment.
"Good," Ai'lani just nodded, going back to his meal.
"What have you heard about that situation?" Thomas asked, taking another bite.
"Not that much," the Deltan admitted. "Just that there's been an increased amount of tension between the Cardassians and Romulans lately. Oh, and that the Romulans' new Head of Security has almost doubled the security in the Consulate. But that's probably because of those attacks that have been happening lately."
"I haven't met the Head of Security yet," Thomas said to him. "Maybe I'll have to try to get another appointment."
"Good luck with that. From what I hear she's a hard ass," Ai'lani warned him, enjoying the way the tonic water soothed his nerves.
"I'd be disappointed if the head of Romulan security was a push-over," Thomas replied with a smile. "I do have a few things to discuss with her, though." He paused and sipped his wine. "So do you have anything going on other than suicide reports?"
"Not especially. Photography work, mostly. Might go down to the lower levels and see if there's anything going on down there besides the usual criminal activity." He paused to take a sip of his drink. "I'm also trying to work my way through Dominic's puberty."
"That's something I don't envy," Thomas replied. "I'm too young to be dealing with something like that."
"Yeah, but it's worth it in the end," Ai'lani pointed out, hoping there would be an end. "It's just difficult to raise someone who isn't your species. I mean, what do I know about being human?"
"There are plenty of people around to help if you need it," Thomas said to him. "You don't have to do it alone."
"Yeah, I know," Ai'lani nodded. "It just feel useless."
"Why would you feel useless?" Thomas asked, surprised by the comment.
"For obvious reasons," Ai'lani said, "I mean, he's in puberty, right? So he's asking all these questions about life and sex and just everything and what do I tell him? I can't raise him as a Deltan, so I can't tell him things I'd tell a Deltan kid of the same age, because most of it doesn't apply. Here's a simpler example. He just developed this fuzz on his chin and he asked me to teach him to shave it off. I've never shaved in my life, so I set the device too high and the poor kid had to go to Sickbay."
"Would it help if I tried helping with some of the things you don't understand?" Thomas asked.
"Depends on the thing, but I promise I'll keep you in mind," he said.
"It's an open-ended offer," Thomas said to him. He paused to finish the last of the sausage. "I need to start eating here more often."
"Yeah, it's a pretty good place," Ai'lani agreed, finishing his own meal.
"We'll have to do this again," Thomas said, leaning back in his chair. "Maybe a weekly meeting? You know, to compare notes and get caught up?"
"Sure," Ai'lani nodded with a shrug. "Not *all* notes of course," he grinned.
"Just the relevant ones," Thomas replied. "Which means you can pretty much leave your PADDs in your quarters."
"Yes, because you're only interested in politics, not people," Ai'lani returned.
"How do you have politics without people?" Thomas asked.
"I mean the actual people. When you take them out their career and look at them in a different light. See them as people, and not politicians. And then there are the people their decisions affect. Do they care about them? Don't they? Why not? How they affect the people involved. The emotional turmoil the events they make actually caus. Isn't that more interesting than the actual event?" Ai'lani asked. He'd always been more of an artist than a journalist, but somehow, he'd managed to combine the two.
"I like to get the 'Why' more than the 'What'," Thomas replied, "so I'm not all that different from you."
"Well, I consider myself more of an artist than a journalist, so..." Ai'lani trailed off with a shrug, finishing his tonic water.
"I guess I should get back to work," Thomas said to him. "You do know what that word means, right?"
"Mulling over papers all day and having no real social life apart from going from lover to lover in hopes of filling that lonely void inside you?" Ai'lani guessed.
"Exactly," Thomas said with a chuckle as he stood up. "I'll talk to you later."
"Yeah," Ai'lani nodded, standing up as well. "See you," he said, giving his arm a squeeze before exiting the restaurant.
:OFF:
Thomas Whitlock
FNS Reporter
DS5
and
Ai'lani Elley
Freelance photojournalist/artist
DS5
by (G) Arrain - Lieutenant Arrienye t'Merek & Arrival Thomas Whitlock
Post Details
| Title | Lunch between collegues | |
| Mission | Interlude | |
| Author(s) | (G) Arrain - Lieutenant Arrienye t'Merek & Arrival Thomas Whitlock | |
| Posted | Sat Jun 12, 2010 @ 10:15pm | |
| Location | Promenade | |
| Timeline | SD22 - Late afternoon |
"Okay, so, you have your comm, your candy bar and your water bottle right there on the end table next to you," Ai'lani instructed Dominic, who was lying in bed. "I've moved the holovision unit here this morning," he added. Dominic smiled, "Thanks, dad," he told him, coughing a bit. "Where you going? Got another story?"
"No, I'm meeting Whitlock for lunch to catch up," Ai'lani explained, buttoning up his shirt before putting the bag his camera was in over his head. "You going to be okay?"
"I'll be fine," Dominic nodded. "Good," Ai'lani grinned, kissing the top of his son's head before leaving their quarters.
**************
Thomas looked at the door again and sighed as he drank his wine. "Should have known the old goat couldn't tell time," he said to himself.
"Ouch! Old goat?!" he suddenly heard Ai'lani's voice and then the man himself came to the door. "Please, I'm 20 years older and I still look better than you," he told him.
"You wish," Thomas said with a smile as he stood up and extended his hand. "I thought I was going to die of old age waiting for you to remember how to open a door to leave your quarters."
"Yes, well, I actually have a family, so having someone to say goodbye to takes some time. Not that you'd know anything about that," Ai'lani replied, shaking his hand before sitting down.
"I'm sure you're happy knowing you'll have someone there to take care of you in a couple years after you retire," Thomas countered as he sat down.
"Are we really going to be doing this all through lunch? Because it's getting kinda dull," Ai'lani admitted. Though he didn't mind exchanging banter with the young human, it sometimes felt unnatural and forced for him, being of a race that valued politeness and such talk was considered extremely inappropriate.
"I can take it easy on you," Thomas replied. "How's your son?" he asked as he reached for a menu.
"He's okay. Doctor's given him some medication and he's resting before starting school next week," the Deltan replied, taking his own menu and looking through it.
"Good to hear," Thomas said as he set the menu on the table. "What did the doctor say was wrong with him?"
"Just flu," Ai'lani said, unable to pick what to have for lunch.
"The Denobulan sausage is good here," Thomas said to the other man, seeing his indecision.
"Fine I'll have that. But I swear if I get sick from it, my vengeance will be cold and painful. Like your writing," Ai'lani warned, putting in his order.
Thomas laughed and signaled for the waiter. "I thought we had a truce?"
"We do. That wasn't a jab or an insult. I was being honest," Ai'lani said with a bright grin.
Thomas laughed again and ordered the food. When the waiter left Thomas asked, "What have you been up to?"
"Nothing much. Had an interview last night, taking care of Dom, settling in, the usual. You?"
"Who did you interview?" Thomas asked. He wasn't sure if it was friendly conversation or the competitiveness in him that made him ask, but he was curious nonetheless.
"Oh, Rianni, the young woman that's the niece of the Romulan Ambassador," Ai'lani explained, remembering he had to call Rianni once lunch was over.
"Really?" Thomas asked. How very interesting, he thought to himself. "What did you two talk about?"
"Why do you care? You had an interview with her an hour before I did," Ai'lani pointed out, smiling innocently.
"I'm just trying to make conversation," Thomas said to him. "We're just two friends talking over lunch," he added.
"Yeah, like you don't have a recorder in your back pocket," Ai'lani said, Oh wait, that's me he thought. "Nothing much. The usual. Her dismissal, her heritage, her, attempted suicide," he explained. "Then we arranged to go out one night."
"What suicide?" Thomas asked, genuinely surprised.
But Ai'lani laughed. "And you call yourself a journalist," he grinned.
"I was more interested in the bigger story," Thomas replied. "Why did she try to commit suicide?"
"You'll just have to read the article when it comes out," Ai'lani said. "And here's a news flash for you. The bigger the story is, the easier you can miss it."
"And I thought we were friends," Thomas said as he sat back to make room for the waiter to set the plates on the table. "Anything else going on in your life?" he asked when the waiter left again.
"We are friends. But I think her attempt at suicide is something that's private and if you want to know about it you should ask her," Ai'lani said, wanting to make it clear he wasn't completely dissing Thomas. "Nothing much has been going on. What about you? You still dating...what's her name again?"
"Sandra?" Thomas asked. "I haven't seen her since she caught me in bed with that diplomat's wife," he said. "What was that you said about being a journalist?" he teased as he took a bite of the sausage.
"Yeah, brag to a Deltan about sex, that's smart," Ai'lani said sarcastically with a smirk. He knew Thomas wasn't adverse to sleeping with someone to get a story and while he, as a Deltan, didn't find much wrong with that, he knew that, by human standards, it was pretty low. And Thomas was, of course, a human, so it spoke volumes about his character.
"Where did you go after you left 68?" Thomas asked, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, I went back to Delta, saw my parents, did some work there. Then I traveled around - went to Vulcan, then Rigel IV, then Earth. Stayed on Earth for a while before coming here to DS5." Ai'lani took a bite of his food as he paused. "How long did you stay on 68 after I left?"
"A little over a year," Thomas replied. "Things slowed down shortly after you left. It was so bad that my affair with Christie and Sandra leaving me over it was actually the highlight of everyone's talk."
Ai'lani laughed. "Yeah, I wish I'd stuck around to see that," he admitted. "My last relationship broke off because something was missing. But I'm not sure what it was, for the life of me."
"Love is overrated," Thomas said to him, taking another bite of the food. "Have you thought about settling down with someone else?"
"Not yet. I can't seem to find the right person," Ai'lani admitted.
"Anyone particular you have in mind?" Thomas asked with a smile. "You mentioned dinner with Rianni. How about her? She's pretty enough."
"I don't know. She's sweet but she's not really my type," he admitted, shaking his head at the waiter's offer to fill his glass again. "I'll just have a Bolian tonic water, please," he said.
"How can she not be your type?" Thomas asked. "She's pretty, intelligent, charming and well connected." He paused to sip his wine. "I wouldn't be averse to settling down with someone like that. I'm just not ready for a serious commitment."
"Yes, she is all that, but you're forgetting one crucial element. She's not Deltan," Ai'lani pointed out.
"Is that really something that should matter?" Thomas asked.
"Um...yes," Ai'lani nodded surely. "Definitely yes."
"I never imagined you as the type to be so picky," Thomas said with a wink.
Ai'lani smirked. "Well, if you knew anything about Deltan culture, history, communication and customs, you'd understand why." He sipped his tonic water. "So Rianni and I are simply going out as friends."
"That's too bad," Thomas said to him. "You two would make a cute couple."
"I'm sure," Ai'lani smirked. "Okay, let's talk about something else. What are you working on on DS5? Still gonna dabble in the political cesspit?"
"Of course," Thomas replied. "It's one of the few things in this galaxy that's more sordid and twisted than my personal life," he added with a wink.
"Well, I'm sure you've already sniffed out the tension between the Cardassians and the Romulans. You could smell it from the Delta Quadrant," Ai'lani said. "There's definitely something going on there that no one is talking about."
"That's what I'm trying to find out," Thomas admitted, against his better judgment.
"Good," Ai'lani just nodded, going back to his meal.
"What have you heard about that situation?" Thomas asked, taking another bite.
"Not that much," the Deltan admitted. "Just that there's been an increased amount of tension between the Cardassians and Romulans lately. Oh, and that the Romulans' new Head of Security has almost doubled the security in the Consulate. But that's probably because of those attacks that have been happening lately."
"I haven't met the Head of Security yet," Thomas said to him. "Maybe I'll have to try to get another appointment."
"Good luck with that. From what I hear she's a hard ass," Ai'lani warned him, enjoying the way the tonic water soothed his nerves.
"I'd be disappointed if the head of Romulan security was a push-over," Thomas replied with a smile. "I do have a few things to discuss with her, though." He paused and sipped his wine. "So do you have anything going on other than suicide reports?"
"Not especially. Photography work, mostly. Might go down to the lower levels and see if there's anything going on down there besides the usual criminal activity." He paused to take a sip of his drink. "I'm also trying to work my way through Dominic's puberty."
"That's something I don't envy," Thomas replied. "I'm too young to be dealing with something like that."
"Yeah, but it's worth it in the end," Ai'lani pointed out, hoping there would be an end. "It's just difficult to raise someone who isn't your species. I mean, what do I know about being human?"
"There are plenty of people around to help if you need it," Thomas said to him. "You don't have to do it alone."
"Yeah, I know," Ai'lani nodded. "It just feel useless."
"Why would you feel useless?" Thomas asked, surprised by the comment.
"For obvious reasons," Ai'lani said, "I mean, he's in puberty, right? So he's asking all these questions about life and sex and just everything and what do I tell him? I can't raise him as a Deltan, so I can't tell him things I'd tell a Deltan kid of the same age, because most of it doesn't apply. Here's a simpler example. He just developed this fuzz on his chin and he asked me to teach him to shave it off. I've never shaved in my life, so I set the device too high and the poor kid had to go to Sickbay."
"Would it help if I tried helping with some of the things you don't understand?" Thomas asked.
"Depends on the thing, but I promise I'll keep you in mind," he said.
"It's an open-ended offer," Thomas said to him. He paused to finish the last of the sausage. "I need to start eating here more often."
"Yeah, it's a pretty good place," Ai'lani agreed, finishing his own meal.
"We'll have to do this again," Thomas said, leaning back in his chair. "Maybe a weekly meeting? You know, to compare notes and get caught up?"
"Sure," Ai'lani nodded with a shrug. "Not *all* notes of course," he grinned.
"Just the relevant ones," Thomas replied. "Which means you can pretty much leave your PADDs in your quarters."
"Yes, because you're only interested in politics, not people," Ai'lani returned.
"How do you have politics without people?" Thomas asked.
"I mean the actual people. When you take them out their career and look at them in a different light. See them as people, and not politicians. And then there are the people their decisions affect. Do they care about them? Don't they? Why not? How they affect the people involved. The emotional turmoil the events they make actually caus. Isn't that more interesting than the actual event?" Ai'lani asked. He'd always been more of an artist than a journalist, but somehow, he'd managed to combine the two.
"I like to get the 'Why' more than the 'What'," Thomas replied, "so I'm not all that different from you."
"Well, I consider myself more of an artist than a journalist, so..." Ai'lani trailed off with a shrug, finishing his tonic water.
"I guess I should get back to work," Thomas said to him. "You do know what that word means, right?"
"Mulling over papers all day and having no real social life apart from going from lover to lover in hopes of filling that lonely void inside you?" Ai'lani guessed.
"Exactly," Thomas said with a chuckle as he stood up. "I'll talk to you later."
"Yeah," Ai'lani nodded, standing up as well. "See you," he said, giving his arm a squeeze before exiting the restaurant.
:OFF:
Thomas Whitlock
FNS Reporter
DS5
and
Ai'lani Elley
Freelance photojournalist/artist
DS5