CHAPTER 3: And A Star To Steer It By (part 3)

In his ready room, Captain Kheren was looking at the wide transparency that showed him the stars streaking by in the peculiar bright and elongated, blue to red-colored manner of transwarp travel. Like every experienced Starfleet officer, he was so familiar with warp travel that the sight of the stars as viewed under the deformed lense of the warp field was much familiar to him; so much that he barely glanced at it anymore. But now, the view under the transwarp effect was at the same time similar and different, making him look at the miracle of space travel with new eyes.

He was almost in a meditative trance before the sight when his doorbell chimed and so, it took him a while to answer the second one. The door parted to let in the slim and curvy silhouette of his yeoman, Ensign Miramanee Blackbird with a covered tray. The mell taht came from under the domed cover immediately attracted his antennae.

"Yeoman?"

"Dinner, Sir. "

"Dinner was at eighteen hundred hours, Yeoman. "

"And you weren't there, Sir. It is now almost twenty-three hundred hours."

She put the tray on his desk.

"I am not hungry."

She opened the lid. The aroma of the golden strips of meat and pale white slices of soft processed milk instantly filled the room. He came up to his chair and his antenna bobbed in obvious reaction.

"Cooked meat? "

"Aye, Sir. Smoked bacon fried and fresh cheddar cheese extra old. "

"I eat raw meat, Yeoman," commented the captain as he took one piece of bacon and looked at it with all four eyes with curiosity, clearly enticed by the aroma.

"I am aware Andorians usually do, Sir. But begging your pardon, Sir it's for you like drinking grape juice and thinking you tasted wine. Try it. "

A bit suspicious, Kheren sniffed the cooked meat then popped the piece he was holding into his mouth. In an instant, his face contorted so much it almost managed to produce a smile from his too few facial muscles.

Sitting down, he attacked the plate like a man who hadn't eaten all day; which was almost the case. between two slow, relishing bites, he looked at the Amerind woman and spoke in a falsely reproacheful tone.

"Lyrya put you up to this, right? Or was it Tyvya?"

"Actually none of them, Sir. But I did suggest it to them, noticing from the medical logs your ususal eating habits that you never tried cooked food and, well, since we are breaking grounds here with this vessel and expanding new horizons, I thought it was fitting for you to do so and enrich your diet."

The Andorian chewed more bacon and cheese and his silvery eyes rolled to the ceiling.

"Wonderful... now I have three females to dictate my life... and one is not even Andorian."

"Four, Sir; you forget the Horizon."

She looked at him with a smile that was not at all according to regulation;  definitely michevelious.

"Speaking of the Horizon; where are we with ship status and reports?"

She became instantly serious and stood straighter as she answered.

"All reports in, Captain. Commander Redding should be here momentarily to summarize them and discuss readiness for implementing the second phase of our trial run."

No sooner said than the door chimed admitting commander Redding. "Good evening sir, third shift duty reports are in and I thought you might like.." Then sniffed the air. Bacon cheddar rolls, Captain? I don't think I've ever seen an Andorian eat cheese before, Sir." He had what might be a smirk on his face.

"Evening ensign Blackbird" There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice, as if he might have caught her in the middle of sucking up to her captain. Not that there was anything wrong with that if not taken to extreme.

"One of these days I'll have to introduce you to real Terran prime rib, not this 'suitable nutritional value' stuff that comes out of the replicator." A gave a slight show of distaste at the idea.

" A good suggestion, Sir, " the Amerind woman said with the exact same tone as the Horizon's exec had taken with her, hinting back at the very same sarcasm to him as he had to her.

"I am looking forward to it, " Kheren said between two bites, completely oblivious to the exchange and motioning to his first officer to take the seat opposing his across the transluscent workdesk. " Andorians require a lot more proteins than you, Humans... and you might be interested to know that we do have a sizeable dairy industry on Andoria. But we do not advertize it much; seems our cheese is rather too... strong for other species' tastes. "

"Call me if you need me, Sir, " Yeoman Blackbird said and she exited to ready room so as to leave the ship's two most senior officers alone to work.

Putting his half-finished plate aside, but not without a last bite, the commanding officer of Lotus Fleet's flagship gave his complete attention to the large man sitting in front of him.

"Alright Number One; let's hear it. "

Redding straightened up first "I've called for a senor officers meeting at 0800 tomorrow, that should give most of them enough time to settle in with the new duty officers as well as the equipment. As it stands so far the engineering and science departments are reporting no unforeseen difficulties with the transwarp systems as of this time.

"Doctor's 011 and 110 have found no abnormalities amongst the crew and are projecting that there should be none forthcoming according to their data, but of course they can't speak for higher transwarp speeds than Trans three, sir." Without apparently thinking about it Redding reached down and took a piece of cheese covered bacon and brought it to his lips but stopped before biting into it because of the somewhat astonished look on Kheren face.

Redding looked at the piece of bacon with mild surprise. "Ah.. right, my apologies Captain, spent a little to much time with the Klingons i guess." and gave an apologetic shrug. "They have what you might say is a more communal view point on eating, some ship commanders would have been insulted if I hadn't tasted their meal."

"Sharing meals right from the plate is a very ancient Andorian tradition as well, Number One, " then said Kheren. "But it has been years since I went back to the homeworld. Your action reminded me of things I had almost forgotten outside of my recent bonding. Sorry if I reacted a bit... emotionally."

Awkwardly he went to put it back but that also seemed to him to be a bad idea as captain Kheren would be unlikely to eat it after he manhandled it. So instead wadded it into a ball and sort of hid it in his left palm. Then went right back into his report.

"Tactical reports that all offensive and defensive are fully operation at transwarp speeds, however they do expect a decrease in offensive capability after trans two of around 10%, a figure I concur with as well sir."

"No phasers and no tractor beams... " understood the commanding officer of the flagship.

Redding shifted his stance.

"I will have a more detailed report tomorrow after the staff meeting, sir." and waited for any follow up orders.

" Carry on, Number One... I will await your final report before ordering us to transwarp 2. Oh, and you better eat that bacon before the cheese melt in your hand. You would not want to appear before subordinates with something sticky between your fingers. "

With a half smile Redding said "Yes sir." and left the ready room. He acknowledged his relief and entered the turbo lift. One of the bridge crew stopped and sniffed the air as he passed but didn't say anything.

Redding said "Main sick bay." and stood there swinging his left arm back ad forth thoughtfully. The doors opened and Redding preceded down the nearly abandoned hallway as the third shift crew members started their work.

He took a quick glance into sick bay before heading in and proceeded over to a nurse he didn't recall meeting yet. "Excuse me nurse, do you have a moment?"

Ensign Leedixia was restocking some of the medical supplies when the question seemed to spring out at her from behind and she dropped her PADD. "Oh, hello commander.. I didn't see you there." Redding retrieved the PADD  and handed it to her. "That's quite all right ensign, didn't mean to startle you." and held out the small wad bacon and cheese. "This taste a bit off to me, almost like the cheese went bad, would you mind analyzing it for any abnormalities? I'd like to find out if it's just me before I order a overhaul of the replicators, I doubt that would make me vary popular with maintenance."

"Umm, of course commander, it shouldn't take long, if you like come back tomorrow and pick up the results." as she placed the food sample into a container.

Redding flashed her a charming smile and turned and started to leave. "No hurry, I doubt you'll find anything but if you do just let me know." And headed to his quarters.

As he left Leedixia sealed the container and placed it into a scanner. As she did it occurred to her that she never got the commanders name. "Computer, who was that who just left sickbay?" The computer quickly intoned *Commander Neil S. Redding, first officer* So she marked the sample 'Redding' and put it on the pick up list for tomorrow.

On the way back to his cabin Redding was debating his action in his head. I'm I being protective of my new captain or just paranoid?  He wasn't overly happy with his minor deception earlier, communal as Klingon's may be, one still didn't eat boldly off their captains plate. No, best to be sure He decided. In his experience, the captain had to always be on his guard but as this was the federation and the new and improved Federation, A captain had to be more than a superior officer, they had to be fiends. And wasn't it his job to watch after the captain? Let him be their friend, and let is enemies beware.