A Foodie Event

Posted on Thu 5th Oct, 2023 @ 4:31pm by Elizabeth Anderson M.D. & Khellian s'Siedhri MD & Lieutenant Damion Ildaran & Makila i'Hartelhai

1,255 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: O' the Cardiff Rose
Location: Tivoli Gardens River Walk
Timeline: MD 3, 1825

In spite of closing her offices in Brown Sector ... turning them over to locals she deemed had enough real-life practical training to be more helpful since they'd also have the trust of the people that she would have taken a long time developing ... Dr. Anderson's life wasn't slowing its pace. She and Damion still had to schedule times to see each other, because he was equally busy with new assignments and adventures they'd barely had time to discuss.

If anyone from the Sector took the time to seek mentoring from her, the pace would speed up more. She had the advantage of having a faster brain cortex to help, however, and wasn't worried. Well, that's an interesting thought! If I recognize that I'm not worried, is that a new expansion of humanity ... sentience ... or is it just programming me to use the words of the biologicals with whom I interact every day? She'd need to schedule a section of thought for that idea ... which also made her laugh.

Shaking her head, she told the door to open only microseconds before Damion's chime sounded in her living room. Not fast enough for him to notice, but she'd caught herself speeding time that way lately.

"Come on in, Damion. It seems like we never have enough time lately. One of us is going to have to slow down," she laughed.

Damion stepped inside Elizabeth's apartment with a picnic basket and thermos canister in hand. "Slow down? I don't see that happening any time soon." He smiled at her, looking more relaxed than she'd seen him look in a while. "I have tuna salad lettuce wraps and black tea. What are you bringing?"

Elizabeth picked up a micro-plastic red-and-white-striped container from her counter. "For one thing, these strawberry shortcakes! I'd like to claim they are my grandmother's recipe, but I can't seem to find her in the archives," she grinned. Putting that into a deep carrying bag, she added another, similar-sized container in blue-and-white stripes.

"This one has a fresh fruit salad of green grapes, melon pieces, mandarin oranges and black raspberries. I thought it would be delicious with anything, and not sugary sweet like the shortcake and strawberries. And of course," she held up her own temperature-neutral tube of liquid, "lemon-peppermint herbal tea."

Hooking the bag's straps over her left shoulder, she moved toward him where he stood just inside the door. "Shall we?" She was anxious to get outside and into the park. Even she had a hard time remembering that it wasn't *really* outside, especially as the sun lowered toward the horizon on an early fall day simulation.

"Let's." Damion linked arms with Elizabeth, and they left the building that contained her apartment and the dance studio below. "Slap my hand if I try to hog all the grapes." They were an Earth food that Damion had discovered he liked. There wasn't space for vineyards in Turkana City. "So how are you doing, now that you've closed your Brown Sector clinic? I was very surprised you did that; you seemed to be doing good work down there."

"Hmm ... yes, good, but limited. Very much an outsider. Those who would trust me did well, but I realized more could be done by my mentoring than by direct intervention on my part. I'd already trained several in the same techniques I use, so it was a natural to turn the clinic over to them, offer more mentoring when they ran into things they ... ah, didn't have the experience to handle? Yes, I think that's the best way to describe it. So, we'll see what happens. In the meantime, I'm plenty busy up here.

"What's happening in your continuing adventures ... The Secret Life of a Lieutenant From Turkana IV?" she quipped as they left her building to walk toward the park in the center square.

"I very much do want to tell you why I had to leave so suddenly, with no explanation, but I think it might be best to wait on that until we get back to your place," Damion said. "It's also likely that I'll be transferring back to Intelligence proper soon, instead of working as a liaison to another department. We'll see. I've heard a mixed bag of things about the new Intel Chief, and I want to get a read of her before I decide whether to remain with SFCIS. I respect my CIS supervisor a lot."

As they crossed the not-very-busy street into the park, Anderson nodded. "I know you do. Is it a hard decision? Are you doing something you love more than what you've done in the past?" She hitched her bag higher on her shoulder and tried to imagine what it would be like to have his choice to make. Glancing up, she noticed the two Romulan doctors she'd seen more of when she had a clinic down-base than she did now, living around the corner from them. She was torn between wanting to hear what Damion had to say, and talking to the doctors.

"There are aspects of CIS work that I enjoy," Damion said. "The hours are long, sometimes, but there's enough undercover work to keep me interested. Another major draw of the job is that, except for very short-term assignments, I stay here at the base and don't have to do extended field ops anymore. Until I met you, I never realized how much I was using field ops to avoid building real relationships with people."

He glanced at Elizabeth and noticed her observing the Romulan doctors. "Want to say hello?" he asked.

"I would like to," the doctor said, "but I'm not finished with this conversation. You're probably right, it would be better discussed in my apartment, but I do want to talk more about your observation. I'm embarrassed to say that I never considered that thought."

The animated conversation that the two Romulan doctors were having was interrupted by the female noticing eyes upon them. Glancing over, she saw Dr. Anderson looking at her, and though her partner looked familiar, she couldn't land upon his name at the moment. She waved at them, not trusting that her voice would reach that far.

"Looks like they've noticed us," Damion said and waved back.

The smile of Makila at being correct was soft and slightly smug. Her father, Khellian, glanced up at her attention's wandering and lingered briefly on both officers, before he made a sweeping gesture to the blanket that Makila was spreading onto the grass.

"That looked like an invitation to me," Elizabeth said. "Let's join them and see what they've brought for this occasion. Maybe we'll learn something new about Romulan food."

"I've heard a couple of the Promenade restaurants are starting to serve Romulan food," Damion said as they walked toward the Romulan doctors. "We should try it sometime. It can't be worse than Ferengi cuisine."

Elizabeth laughed. "NOTHING can be worse than Ferengi food ... well, maybe one or two things the Klingons eat. Romulans seem more civilized than either of those."

Khellian was setting out jars and carefully dishing up sauces into small bowls. The setup was quite pretty; so, too, was the fused glass platter he was serving everything onto.

A teapot sat steaming in the center and, as soon as they were within a pleasant speaking distance, Makila offered, "Tea, it's a herbal oolong blend?"

Accepting a cup carefully, Elizabeth let the aroma drift past her nose. "Oh, that's lovely!" she exclaimed.

To be continued ....

 

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