A new friend?

Posted on Fri Mar 1st, 2019 @ 5:45am by Ensign Kara Hoffman

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: DS9
Timeline: Present/Past
1158 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Kara was enjoying her second of two days that she had off duty. She had taken the first day to spend some time in quarks bar, her second day, she wanted to spend somewhere else. She wandered the station pretty sure she would know the best activity for the day when it arrived to her or she fell over it. She approached a small restaurant that sold a variety of Klingon dishes, and shook her head. She wasn't in the mood for gagh this day. Carrying on down the promenade, she spotted one of her fellow officers but she wasn't really sure. She'd never been introduced to her, except from the crew listing manifest. Kara had somewhat of a good mind for faces, so she knew the woman was Eira Cortez. Kara had a memory pop up in her mind from the personnel file. ~Keeps mostly to herself, quiet and observant.~ "Yeah, that's right: it's Eira... She's our computer expert who works under Wynter. I don't think I've ever actually seen her in person before. I should definitely go and say hi." Kara was not one who was known to be shy or quiet, she usually jumps right in like a train-wreck and then plays fix it on the way out. "Plus, who cares about some personnel reports, those things aren't always accurate anyways" She spoke to herself, beginning to approach the woman slowly.

Eira heard the other woman talking from behind her and her eyebrow perked up with a slight arch and she chuckled to herself. "You do realise that talking to yourself is a sign of madness, right?" She turned around slowly and fixed her light blue eyes on the other woman. I have no clue who the hell this woman is.

"Well it's either a sign of madness, or genius. In my book I like to think it's a mixture of both! So hi, you're Eira right? I'm Kara! I'm Assistant Chief Engineer on the Elysium. What're you doing? Some spooky spy stuff maybe?" Kara jested lightly.

She is way too happy... Eira thought and shrugged, “I could possibly be...” the reality was that Eira was pretty much lost in her own thoughts yet again and staring off into the distance. Her previous encounter with someone else named Ken had caught her off guard. “But yes, I am Eira Cortez, nice to meet you... how do you know who I am though? I find that weird for an engineer...” her tone was more curious than anything else.

"It's a little complicated. I was so excited to get my first posting aboard a star ship." Kara took a small inhalation of breath and continued. "That i memorized crew rosters, ship layout plans. Systems, weapons, shield configurations, power configurations, and more. I sort of have a really good memory. Almost everything I read goes in there in some way or another, but recalling that information comes in the form of photographs in my brain almost. It's not quite eidetic memory, but close I guess." Kara paused for a moment, to give a chance for Eira to take in that information. "How long have you been on board, do you enjoy it?" She asked casually.

Eira raised her eyebrow at the amount of information she had just received and was to be honest a little stunned at how much personal information had just been given to her. "Um, wow. That's quite a bit of information right there." she said quietly as she moved off the railing she was leaning against. "You'd actually do good in the intelligence division, ever thought about that? I'm used to being on a planet rather than a starbase, so it's all new to me but I guess I am liking it so far. What are you up to anyway?" Small talk, polite conversation. Kara reminded Eira of an over-enthusiastic puppy with all her energy. It was... refreshing?

Kara smiled. "At this particular moment i'm engaging you in conversation. However as for my plans today, i have none. I was rather hoping an adventure would crop up. Anything to help me enjoy one of the few days off I ever get AND get to be on a station." She giggled. She loved her work, however her work ethic sometimes prevented her from relaxing on-board the Elysium. "Anything spring to mind or are you not the adventurin' type?"

"I think I've had enough adventures to last me a lifetime, to be honest, but I can't think of anything to do except just wander around really." Eira smirked and laughed a little bit at her own experiences with 'adventures' but knew it probably wasn't much help to the younger woman. "Sorry I can't be much more help with it?"

"That's quite alright. Do you perhaps want to join me then? I've just decided what I am going to do, and i'd love some company because the last time I played dabo I felt like i was seriously and majorly cheated out of winning. If your with me, then I have you as a witness. I'll even buy you a couple drinks?" She sang melodically.

Drinks sounded good, but Eira didn’t know how much of a lightweight she had become after being sober for so long. “Maybe just a normal drink would be good for me,” she smiled sheepishly and added “what is dabo?” Never heard of it.

"Dabo is a gambling game, creating by the ferengi. It's uh, similar to roulette you see. the wheel has a total of 376 slots on it, 26 of which that you can bet on, usually between 10-100 credits, or gold-pressed latinum. When the wheel spins the icons from the three wheels at a single slot are compared by the colour, shape and count of the symbols. the amount you win depends on how many icons match with these three categories. The largest payouts occur if you manage to match the colour, shape and number of the icons. Dabo is confirmed if you match three special icons which are usually very difficult to match, as the payout is over two hundred thousand percent for achieving it." Kara explained to Eira as they walked down the bustling promenade, to the entrance of Quarks bar.

Kara awoke suddenly, coming from the world of dreams back into reality. She stared up at ceiling, not entirely sure if it was a dream or a memory or something in-between. She looked across to where Tayalas slept, peacefully in her crib. "It was just a dream afterall." Kara whispered quietly, turning onto her side and closing her eyes once more. ~But who was she, Eira...someone...I'm sure I spoke with her on DS9, or am i just making things up? First thing in the morning i'll try and find out who she was, her image is like a ghost in my mind, almost as if she was never really there at all...~