Dinner With the Captain

Posted on Sun Jun 21st, 2020 @ 4:28am by Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Commander James Smith & Emilie Temple & Huyo
Edited on on Wed Jun 24th, 2020 @ 7:56am

Mission: New Moon Rising
Location: Pandora's Box - Private Booth

ON:

The Pandora's Box was the ship's main mess hall, though it was hardly the utilitarian, cold space of most other Starfleet vessels. On the Pandora, the mess was a sophisticated restaurant, more suited to comfort a crew during a long and arduous service. After the events of the previous days, Nyx especially was looking forward to a friendly meal with good company, where they could act like human beings and not officers on a starship.

With little Katrine in Daycare, Emilie and Nyx had reserved a private booth in the Pandora's Box, and invited along Nyx's old friend James Smith as well. The Temples looked suitably dashing, with Nyx in a charcoal grey suit and black bowtie, and Emilie in a black bodycon dress.

Arriving at the restaurant, the couple were early, so they slid into the booth together on one side and cozied up against one another.

"What a gorgeous restaurant," Emilie remarked, as she poured herself some water from a bottle on the table. "Looks like a restaurant you'd find on Earth."

Nyx smiled, taking the bottle and pouring himself a glass too, "That's what we were going for. Home comforts."

Smith was busy going through and finishing his final reports for StarFleet Intellegence that he had lost track of time, his doctors had warned him not to let his work consume him but at times he had a hard time doing that. Tonight was no different, he was so lost in his work that he was startled by a voice behind him, "don't you have dinner plans tonight sir". Looking up he smiled at his Assistant, "Yes, Lt. Ryan, thanks for the reminder." Standing up he made his way to the door, "keep an eye on things for me Lieutenant I'm now off duty.

After a quick stop at his room to change into a black suit, which he was known to wear. He quickly made his way to Pandora's Box. Looking around he noticed the Captain and his wife and made his way over to the table. Smiling he said, "Its been too long since I've been able to enjoy a meal with you Nyx and your lovely wife." Sitting down he poured himself a glass of water.

Emilie reached over to shake hands with James, "So good to see you again, Smithy, I was really surprised when Nyx told me you'd come to the Pandora."

Chuckling, "Well the last time we served together I really enjoyed working with Nyx, and when I heard that he had his own ship I couldn't help but request the Pandora. It's good to be working with him side by side especially after Command ordered me to take leave and undergo medical and psychological evaluation. Luckily command approved my request and now I keep the Captain up to date on anything that come to the attention of the Intel department."

"Small universe, hey?" Nyx added with a smile.

At that, a tall Deltan woman in a subdued tan dress appeared next to the table as if having transported there, beaming a warm smile at them all. "Good evening to you all. I am Huyo, and I'll be serving you tonight. Can I get you any drinks?"

"Good evening, Huyo," Nyx responded with a cheer, "Everybody, this is the best chef in the galaxy. I had to beg her to come onboard after tasting her dishes at... where was it? Palais de la Concorde? Command? Anyway, somewhere completely under appreciating her enormous talents."

"Oh Captain, you exaggerate," Huyo said with a tinkling laugh. "It was San Francisco, of course. Not even this lovely ship could draw me away from Paris. Now, might I recommend our rosé wine to start?"

Smith looked at Huyo "The rosé wine sounds good."Can't wait to see what else this place has to offer."

"Sounds delightful," Emilie agreed, "Thank you, Huyo,"

"Thanks Huyo," Nyx echoed, "If you get a chance to take a break, please come join us."

Shaking her head but smiling all the while, Huyo put a bottle on the table followed by several glasses, although where those items came from was a mystery; it was if they'd appeared from thin air. "Oh no, dear Captain, I still have cooking to do. My establishment has a great deal to offer, after all," she added with a teasing wink at Smith before departing.

"Speaking of Paris," Emilie began as she settled back down into the bench seat, "Nyx's brother has just taken a position in the new President's cabinet."

Nyx laughed, shaking his head to James, "Yes, my little bror Magnus is actually helping to run the Federation, can you believe it?"

Smith smiled, "That's wonderful to hear, Magnus always seemed liked he always aimed high when it came to his career choices. It wouldn't surprise me if he was President someday." Taking a sip of the wine, Smith Said, "This wine is very smooth". Smith looked around "of course this place is a lot nicer then some of the establishments Command has sent us to before we both took on more responsibilities."

"Oh man. Remember the mess on the Cestus training camp?" Nyx exclaimed with a laugh, looking to Emilie, "It was held in this burnt out supply bunker deep in the desert. Barely enough room to sit down and Marine grade rations every night."

Emilie shook her head, "Sounds horrible."

Laughing Smith replied, "it got to the point where I was setting traps just to catch us sonething better to eat. This was where I also met my wife."

Nyx gave a solemn smile, as Emilie leaned over and reached for James' hand, "I was incredibly sorry to hear about what happened, how are you coping?"

Smith looked down, before looking back at Emilie, "I'm doing better then I was, I keep reminding myself that she died as a StarFleet Officer, and the Marines Under her command did what they could despite being outnumbered and outgunned, and my daughter was going to follow in my foot steps was right their with her. These are the dangers when we put on these uniforms, now our job is to locate and apprehend and bring to justice these Ravangers before anymore lives are lost. With my and Nyx history and reputation for getting things done, our families death will be avenged."

Emilie nodded along, "I'm sure the Federation is doing everything it can."

Smith took another sip of his wine. Smiling he said, "So when do we eat."

Appearing again next to the table with odd suddenness, Huyo piped in, "That would be within ten minutes of deciding what to eat, sweet James." With a graceful wave of her hand, a hologram popped over the table, showing a small menu.

Nyx leaned over to look through the list but was finding it difficult to choose. Meanwhile, Emilie had skimmed the selection and saw one dish that brought a smile to her face.

"May I please have the lobster with red pepper and cardamom jus?" She asked Huyo, before giving Nyx a nudge with her elbow, "How delightful that they happened to have my favorite meal here."

Nyx just raised his eyebrows and continued to look down at the table, but there was a small smirk on his lips.

Smith looked over the menu as he chuckled a bit not realizing he was actually doing it, so many things to choose from, looking around and spotting Huyo, he asked, "So what do you suggest everything looks amazing and I'm having a hard time trying to decide what I want." Smith looked over at his friend and noticed he hadn't decided what to get either. Smiling Smith said, having a hard time deciding Nyx."

Catching Smith's joking tone, Huyo turned to Nyx with a dazzling grin. "Captain, how about you just close your eyes and point? If you don't absolutely adore whatever dish you pick, I'll...what's that strange human expression? 'Eat my hat'?" Laughing, she then turned her cheerful eyes on Smith. "Why not do the same, James? I'm sure you'll love any food I prepare for you."

Nyx smiled at Huyo's comment, before shaking his head, "I'm not a person who likes to leave things to chance. I will have the salmon, Huyo, mange tak."

Smith looked down at the Menu again, "Well...I think I'll have the swordfish it's been a while since I had it, and for dessert, let's see maybe something with s lot of chocolate."

"Ooh yes," Emilie gasped, "Anything chocolate is good with me."

"Lots of chocolate it is!" Huyo said with a laugh as she walked away.

= Some time later =

The meals had been excellently prepared and graciously eaten, with many thanks given to the Pandora's master chef. Now the small party were engaged in a lively discussion as Nyx was retelling a particularly hairy incident from his past training with Lt. Smith.

"So there I am, arse cheeks to the wind in this god forsaken desert, no flashlight or communicator in sight, thinking I'm going to be lost out here forever," Nyx regaled the group, "And from nowhere appears Smithy, with our drill Sargent and camp CO, to reveal the exercise had finished three hours ago and asked if I could kindly return back to base for dinner and a new uniform!"

Emilie bent over with laughter, slapping Nyx's thigh as she did. "Oh no!" She gasped between chuckles, "Where were you?"

Nyx shrugged with a big grin on his face, "Only about twenty k's from base." He replied before dissolving into laughter once more.

Smith broke into laughter "We teased him for days, he told me he would have no trouble finding his way back to base, a simple excersise to see if we could use are own abilities to locate our objective, and in this case it was our base camp. What made matters worse was the different species who ate during this time were waking up looking for their next meal. He still never told me what had happened to his uniform, it was torn and looked like he had tripped over some rocks or fallen off a Cliff"

Smith Continued, "And if I Remember we had a little wager on who would complete the excersise first, of course our drill Sargent wasn't impressed we were suppose to work together, and make sure we completed the objective as a team. We just decided a little competition would make it more interesting."

Emilie shook her head, "It's a wonder either of you made it out of boom camp."

Nyx shrugged, "Well it was pretty clear from that exercise that I wasn't cut out to be a Marine. And no matter how many times you ask, Smithy, I'm not telling you what happened to my uniform. That secret is going to my grave."

The group laughed again until Emilie was interrupted by a beeping noise from her communicator. Looking at her PADD she sighed, "The babysitter is wondering where we are. Gosh, look at the time Nyx!"

Nyx leaned over to look, before giving a non-plussed chuckled, "Well we had a lot of catching up to do. And I haven't even gotten to the story of Smithy and his shore-leave on Risa."

Smiling Smith laughed and that's one story Nyx enjoys telling about me, and don't think I'll ever live that down."

"Another time," Emilie replied gently, as she scoocheed down the bench seat. "It was a pleasure to see you again, James, I hope we can do this again soon?"

"Aye," Nyx added, reaching out his hand to shake with Smith, "We'll make this a regular reservation."

Smith stood up and shook Nyx hand, "Agreed we need to do this more often, and Emily is was so good to see you again, well I'm off to bed."

Smith continued, "Need to get some rest before my staff meeting tomorrow morning." Smith headed toward the doors and headed back to his room for some much needed rest.


OFF