Making Friends

Posted on Tue Jun 23rd, 2020 @ 4:54am by Lieutenant Nicholas Boucher & Lieutenant Alexandra Alves MD & Veronica Kiley
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:29pm

Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Deck 5: Recreation deck / Luna Eclipse

ON:

"Soooo... how was my left-foot bicycle kick?", Veronica inquired with a curious glance, as she and her mother walked towards the lounge.

"Truly amazing.", Alexandra replied to her daughter with a proud smile, "You're even better than I was at your age."

"You're only saying this because you're my mom.", the girl responded on a skeptical tone.

"Don't be silly.", the doctor shook her head, "Trust me, I'm always honest with you.", she then said, before adding with a mischevious wink, "Except when I'm not."

The duo walked towards Luna Eclipse to grab some refreshments before dinner. They've spent an hour and a half on the holodeck practicing their favorite sport, and it showed. They looked exhausted and sweaty, and Veronica was carrying a soccer ball in her arm. They definately needed those refreshments.

"How about watching a classic game on the holodeck after dinner?", Alex came up with an idea, "Hungary vs England, 1953? Brazil vs Germany, 2002? You choose." She was happy to see her daughter finally coming out of her shell, at least somewhat. Hopefully, she'll eventually make peace with their new environment, and get used to life on board the Pandora. Enjoying the vast the recreation deck offered, was quite helpful in that, it seemed.

Personally, I'm a fan of the 2218 France vs. Luna final," Nick chimed in. "But my absolute favourite is the 1998 final, to be honest."

Nick had finished his duty shift and decided to take a visit to Paradise Station. Before that, though, he had decided he could use a drink and he hadn't yet visited the lounge here on the Pandora.

He had been walking down the hall behind the pair when they'd started talking about classic football games. Growing up French, football was still a matter of national pride. Aside from his squad, he didn't really no anyone on board the Pandora, so he figured he'd interrupt.

"Oh, no way!", Alexandra reacted, "1998 always brings tears to my eyes!" Then, she just realized a stranger has just addressed them, apparently a kindred soul in terms of their favorite sport.

Nick chuckled. "As a child, it used to do the same for me too, but I imagine we were crying for different reasons. Allez les Bleus."

Realizing the potentially awkward moment, he extended his hand. "Nicholas Boucher."

"Pra Frente Brasil!", the doctor replied with a laugh, then accepted the handshake, "Alexandra Alves." She then indicated her daughter, "And this little football star here is Veronica."

"Pleased to meet you, Alexandra."

He squared down in front of the child to be at eye level with her. "And pleased to meet you too, Veronica. I have two young ones back on Earth around your age. My daughter, Emilie, plays football, as well. Thinking of going pro one day?"

"Hello.", the girl responded with a shy smile, not sure how to react to this stranger suddenly approaching them, but when he asked her if she plans on becoming a pro soccer player, she immediately snapped, "I do! I'm gonna be the best player ever.", she said, completely certain in that.

"Keep practicing and I'm sure you'll get there," Nick replied with a smile, standing back up.

"Two?", Alex looked at the man with a bewildered look and a joking smile, "I can't even cope with one!"

Nick shrugged. "To be honest, I have three, but my eldest is 17, so I don't really consider him a 'young one' anymore. Sometimes it seems like he's more mature than I am."

"Oh, seventeen is another interesting age. Indeed, they often happen to be more mature than we think.", the doctor nodded, "Anyways, we're heading to the bar to grab some refreshments.", she smiled, indicating Luna Eclipse.

"His mother was probably more of a factor in that than I was," Nick shrugged. "I was headed in that direction myself. I don't want to impose, but since we're all headed to the same place, we can always walk and talk together?"

Since the guy mentioned his partner in past tense, Alex decided not to pursue the matter further. However, she very much liked his suggestion to continue their conversation on the way to and at the lounge.

"Sure!", she smiled enthusiastically, then looked at her daughter with a grin, "But only if Veronica agrees."

The girl thought for a moment. She had no problem with the stranger, but she wasn't sure what to make out of him yet. Neverthless, her mom seemed to enjoy his presence, so, she was fine with it as well. "Fine.", she shrugged, then looked at the tallish man, "Are you a security officer?", she asked, trying to size him up, "My mom is a doctor."

Nick shook his head, looking down at the girl as the group started walking. "Nope, I have a much more fun job than security officer: I'm a fighter pilot. Recently arrived to accompany the Pandora back to Federation space."

"Fighter pilot?", the girl asked wide-eyed. That was certainly something. Okay, not as awesome as being a professional soccer player, but still, something. "Don't you get a headache while flying?", she inquired, "I've read about those stuff in my last school. Which was a much better school than the current one."

Nick laughed. "Don't let your new teacher hear you talk like that. And actually, inertial dampeners and artificial gravity technology basically means that we feel almost no G-forces in our fighters these days," he replied. "I suppose stress headaches could be a possibility since we need to be almost hyper-focused, but we go through a lot of training to deal with that. Almost like how your mom would have to focus so intensely during a surgery."

"Doctor, eh? How long have you been serving on the Pandora?" He asked Alexandra, looking back up at her.

"Oh, well... about a week, actually.", Alexandra said, "I'm quite a newby around here.", she then explained, "My first ever job as chief medical officer. You can't imagine just how lost I feel currently."

"You'd be surprised," Nick smiled warmly. "It's only my second day onboard. My squadron only got here yesterday."

"So, I'm not alone in all this mess.", the doctor grinned, "Good to know that.". She looked at her daughter, then back at Nicholas, "And in fact, the Pandora offers much better opportunities for kids to learn and play than the old Benecia did.", she said, "It's just that my little football princess is missing our old home.", she explained with a sigh, "I know how that feels like. When I was her age, my parents got a new job, so we've left Rio and moved to a distant colony on an ocean world."

"The Benecia is better in *everything*!", Veronica claimed, folding her arms.

"I can't say that I can relate there," he replied. "I grew up in the city where I was born, left at 18, and came back later to settle there for another 7 years. I've seen a fair amount, but I've really only ever had one home."

"Lucky for you, I guess.", she said, "So... French?", she then asked with a curious grin. Meanwhile, they arrived to the bar and strolled in to find a table.

"Mais oui." Nick dramatically pulled out a chair for Veronica and made an exaggerated arm movement towards it. "Votre chaise, mademoiselle."

The girl couldn't understand a word of what the man was saying, and looked quite surprised when he offered her a seat in such an exaggerated fashion. She looked puzzled for a second, then took the seat and looked up to the weird man, "Err... thank you?"

"Merci, monsieur.", Alexandra said with a gentle smile, much to her daughter's surprise, "Je parle un peu de français.", she added, "Not much..."

"Magnifique", Nick replied, sitting at the table. He'd been so caught off-guard by the doctor replying in his native tongue, even if her accent was a bit rough, that he didn't notice the puzzled look on her daughter's face. "Shall we order?"

"Bolian cola! I want Bolian cola!", Veronica quickly snapped, when she heard the word 'order'.

"Oh yeah, so you'd be jumping around your room the whole night instead of sleeping.", her mother replied, not so thrilled by the girl's choice, "Alright. But only one cup of cola.", she then picked up a menu from the table, and turned at their new-found friend, "Hmm. What should it be? This place seems to offer quadrillions of choices."

"Synthehol old fashioned for me," Nick stated. "It's been a long week."

"Not as long as mine.", Alex shook her head with a smile, "But I don't want to fuzz up my head right now.", she said, "I opt for a vitamina de abacate. Avocado smoothie.", she continued, "Although I'm sure they don't make it as good here as they do back in Brazil."

Nick smiled and flagged down a waiter to come take their order. This would be fun.

*******

As they said their goodbyes for the night, Nick headed back to his quarters with a bit of a bounce in his step. Veronica reminded him a bit of his own daughter, Emilie. They were of a similiar age and they both fully believed in their own invulnerability. Alexandra was genuinely a nice person and he had enjoyed their chat tremendously.

He smiled to himself. Maybe he'd enjoy this mission more than he thought.

Alexandra was happy to meet another friendly face around. Getting to know people like Nicholas makes it easier to adjust to a new place. She hoped Veronica will make peace with their new envrionment sooner or later as well. But she had tons of work to do. She was asked to accompany the Captain, the Intel department head and some other officers to oversee the delivery of the medical supplies to the planet. Besides that, she still had a sickbay and a medical department to take over. Neverthless, she hoped they'll meet Nicholas again, maybe they can even get him to accompany them to see a football game on the holodeck sometime.