You're eating my foods food.

Posted on Thu May 6th, 2021 @ 5:04am by Commander Sthilg & Lieutenant Commander S'hib

Mission: Season 5: Episode 2: Operation Save Humanity
Location: Messhall
Timeline: MD0
1736 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

It had been a slow day aboard the Elysium, as far as Lieutenant Commander S'hib was concerned anyway. daily security reports had come and gone, a rather dull read that made the last hour drag its hooves, not that he minded... better this than talking to a crewman on the other side of a forcefield he thought, slowly walking into the mess hall.

His mind sat idly as he moved past the odd member of the crew, stewing on how to fluff up his departmental report beyond a couple of lines, hard to comment on events when no events had occurred to begin with.

"Computer, umm... Sequus supplement twenty three... and uh, one carrot juice." S'hib mumbled, suddenly aware he had been stood in front of the replicator for a few moments.

The door slid open as in stepped the cheif MD. After looking after his grandson for a few hours the lizard had an hour before his shift began. Noting the ship's equine security officer the lizard took a place in the line behind him for the replicator. " Hello Sss'hib how are you doing?" he asked

The hiss of his own name nearly made S'hib jump out of his own skin, and the clatter of a bowl slipping out of his hoofed digits did little to help the sudden tempo of his panicked heart. "Doctor..." He finally neighed, his voice a tad higher than intended as he cleared his throat and gathered his lunch.

"I didn't hear you come in, how are you." He blinked, walking around the Gorn.

" I'm sssorry that was my fault." The old gorn said as he bent down to help him pick up his fallen cutlery. " I'm doing fine. I've been teaching Conner how to make corn bread."

"Corn bread?" He asked, somewhat surprised "Can you eat that?" S'hib continued, taking the returned cutlery.

" Very badly." the doctor replied gesturing to his teeth with a slight chuckle. " My ssspecies is mainly carnerousss, but we can digessst sssmall amountsss of grainsss and vegtablesss though we gain very little nutrition from them."

"That's what I thought..." S'hib replied, glancing down at his bowl of seeds and vegetables, all tossed around in long strands of grass and drenched in a salted mineral-enriched sauce. "What about Conner, how'd he do?"

" Not bad for a firssst attempt." The gorn said as he pulled a slightly burned loaf in a very bad image of a walking lizard. " He'sss a quick learner."

"Whos teaching who?" S'hib said in jest, walking back towards an empty table. "Come join me once you get your food, you can tell me more about Conner."

The gorn nodded as he turned to the replicator placing the loaf back in his pocket. It took the old doctor a few moments before he decided on a roast xorarch thigh with a spicy sauce with a nice blood wine vitage. Taking the orion dish he sat opposite S'hib. " Ssso how are things between you and Naxea?" He inquired

The question caught S'hib off guard as he attempted to eat, mouth wide open as his food slowly dripped off his fork and back into the bowl. "We, uh... we just moved in with one another..." He smiled before finally placing what remaine on his fork into his mouth, his jaw moving side to side as he watched the Gorn intently.

" That'sss good. I hope the two of you are doing well." Sthilg said as he picked up his knife. His species eating habit was considered impolite in most societies, so the old doctor had over his many years had worked out a more polite way. Slicing a thin strip from his roast the gorn carefully placed it in his mouth before swallowing.

Sequellian eyes followed the strip of meat, watching it vanish into Sthilgs carnivous maw before flicking back up to the good doctors eyes. "We are... but she isn't sleeping well, I think she's been having nightmares... but she won't tell me, and I don't dare ask." He confessed, lowering the food he was about to eat back to his bowl, his gaze falling to the table as his mind retreated to memories he wished he couldn't recall with such vivid detail.

The gorn felt his hunger leave him and the sadness return to his bones. " I'm sssorry for the both of you. I know it can't be easssy for her given the chief MD hasss the face of the monssster who hurt her. I know Ssshassssssou would be horrified asss well."

"I think there is more going on inside her head than what happened inside that broken mirror, but she's not the type to open up... even to me, I just hear the things she says in her sleep... though she does seem to stop once her body remembers that I'm there, the warmth on her back... Sorry, you were telling me about Conner?" He finished, trying to divert the conversation onto something far less sombre

" Yesss Conner." the gorn said grateful for the change in subject. " The little man is doing well. Asss you can sssee he know'sss how to cook." He said placing the loaf on the table. It was in the shape of a crudely drawn lizard man and hard as a rock, yet the old lizard beamed with pride.

"I can show you both how to make some native Sequellian bread sometime if you'd like." S'hib asked as he picked up the loaf, tilting it side to side to admire the attempt of shaping the two had done.

" I'm sssure he'd like that. He's an inquisitive little man. " The gorn replied cathing himself before he said that he took after his father. " He's definitely ssstarfleet material."

"I'm sure he is..." S'hib replied softly, his gaze catching his reflection in the black abyss of the finely polished table they sat at, its single eye staring back at him with disgust as he quickly looked away, forcing a smile onto his face as he caught Sthilg's eyes.

"How's the Captain been? I haven't really seen her since... well, yeah." He finished, scooping another spoonful into his disinterested mouth

" Well, asss can be expected given what'sss happened to her. Her kidsss are helping her through it." the gorn said as calmly as he could. " Why didn't her mirror come to me or anyone in medical for help Sss'hib? i could have had that bomb out in under three minutesss."

"The same reason people didn't speak to me for days after we returned, some still don't..." S'hib replied quietly, resting his hands beside his bowl. "It's just a face, but a face with memories associated with it... and given enough time, like all wounds as you know, it will heal."

He fell quiet for a moment, stirring the contents of his bowl, the gentle scraping of the spoon sounding oddly loud given the bustle and noise of the mess hall.

"Three minutes, in that situation, with our faces... even with three hours there was nothing you could've done."

" I hope ssso Sss'hib. I hope ssso." The old doctor replied remembering the looks that bastard from the mirror had burned into people's minds.

After a long silence between the two only broken with the small clink of cutlery.

" Ssso have you had a chance to read from the book you retrieved from the hunting grounds?" The gorn said trying to change the subject.

"Honestly, no... I mean I want to, I've sat there holding it for many hours... just can't seem to bring myself to unbinding it." He replied sullenly, though his expression did not match the seriousness of his tone, as though amused by something else.

"My people are quite superstitious, the journal was burned for a reason... so it only makes sense that it was returned for a reason... but that's not something I was taught, nor would have been as a male."

" If the librariesss wanted you to have it it mussst be important. Why sssome ssspecies keep knowledge from certain sssex'sss is such a myssstery to me. " the old lizard replied.

"The mortuary cult on my world is exclusively female, they are our spiritual advisors and hold just as much power as the Matriarch herself... And I fear I may need to ask for their help..."

"They'll be sssurprised that a book they burned has been returned thanksss to an undead gorn libarian. I hope you'll invite me to that conversation. " The gorn said slightly chuckling.

At this S'hib erupted into a coughing fit as he choked on the dregs of food in his mouth. "I don't think that would be a good idea." He said between coughs, trying to ease his discomfort with a long drawn-out sip of carrot juice.

" Try breathing through your nossse." The gorn said as he ran a quick scan from his hand scanner. S'hib had no food stuck in his system."

"Try not suggesting anything funny while I'm eating." S'hib quipped through watery eyes.

"Good food and laughter isss a sssign of a happy man." the lizard replied with the well-know klingon saying.

"I prefer to think of myself as naively optimistic, after all... if I stopped to really think about it, there are plenty of things not to be happy about... and I don't want to live like that." He sighed, somewhat admitting to the good doctor that he was avoiding a great deal of things without even realising.

"Ssseem'sss like a very good way to live. Unfortunately being a doctor my mind won't allow that." The old gorn replied as he took a sip from his drink.

"I'd have to disagree with you on that doc, seems to me the only thing you truly care about right now... is this bit of bread." S'hib smiled, slowly reaching over the table to place the loaf down infront of Sthilg.

The gorn smiled slightly as he picked up the bread. "I'm going to make sssure he growsss up to be a good man Sss'hib. The mossst fitting ssspit in the face we could give the monsssterss that he'd have called father and grandfather if we'd not rescued him."

"With you around, I don't think the kids got a choice..." S'hib smirked as he placing his glass to his lips, having quickly forgotten how scared Sthilg still made him in that moment.

The gorn laughed as he continued with his food feeling much happier with himself.