[snip]

When asked about a drink Drudoc replied. “..Orange juice will be nice, thank you.” She said.

Tel’eck added her own request slyly. “..I uh don’t suppose we got chocolate milk or hot cocoa eh?” she said with a slight grin.

Sharah got up and poured a glass of orange juice for the Captain and then grinned at Tel’eck setting down a glass of both chocolate milk and hot cocoa. She wasn’t sure Tel’eck should have both but she could at least choose her preference. For herself Sharah chose ice cold water. Something to clean the palette after all the chocolate on the table.

Drudoc sipped the orange juice, while Tel’eck cooled off the hot cocoa a little with the chocolate milk. Sipping her own drink she grinned happily.

“How did your programming project go Tel’eck?”

Lt jg Fayth, CSO

Huffing in annoyance she crossed her arms about her chest. “..Urgh stupid Ryan in my class ruined all the hard work the rest of my team made by loosing the code and backups! We got the project in late by a day and a half, rebuilding it from scratch but we still wound up with a C- because of him.” She said.

Drudoc Andone / Tel’eck Andone

Sharah nodded sympathetically. “I’m sorry that happened. That’s why I always keep my own back ups. It’s horrible when someone else ruins your work, even by accident. While I was on Earth a very well meaning cadet pulled up an entire garden bed of seedlings we needed for the research. He thought they were weeds and was trying to help. But us back almost 3 weeks.”

”..I told Tel’eck the same thing..” Drudoc said.

”..Urgh! I know Mom! But as I told you the teams were divided tasks between the boys and girls and gender neutral kids. Stupid Ryan was the only boy on our team by chance and he was tasked to ensure the safety of our main project files and backups. The point was to build trust among our teams..” She said.

“Trust is important in a group like that, but no one person should ever be responsible for all of one part. That’s why you have a team. It’s unfortunate but I’m sure Ryan will remember it and be more careful next time.”

”..And I get that, but the teacher said we had to each only do our assigned tasks unless we were in class. Ryan lost his part of everything outside it so we couldn’t help! It wasn’t fair if you ask me that we then ended up with a C- but…” Tel’eck sighed. “..it’s just annoying is all. I guess it was also meant to teach responsibility or something..” she huffed.

“Speaking of projects though.” Sharah turned to the captain, “I had a very interesting visit from a mechanical life form calling itself EXR-11.” Sharah just barely hid her grin. “It gifted me with a very interesting science project from the upper elementary children that might actually solve the problem the civilian botanists were having with the project proposal.”

Lt jg Fayth, CSO

Drudoc raised an eyebrow at that. “..Indeed? I wasn’t aware we had another synthetic life form aboard?” Drudoc said clearly not being aware of EXR-11. “..Tel’eck?” she asked looking to her daughter.

”..Ermm.....its uh a side project the kids and I are uh doing Mom. We were running field tests of its movement to the various department heads. The younger kids wanted to give some gifts we made or had laying around..” She replied.

”..I see,” Looking to Fayth then, “..I trust EXR-11 didn’t give your department any trouble on its visit then?” she asked.

Drudoc Andone CO / Tel’eck Andone

Sharah winked at Tel’eck. “That was you? I never would have guessed.” Of course her disguised voice didn’t do anything for it, but Sharah had thought it was a very sweet idea on the part of the younger children and Sharah as glad to see Tel’eck helping them. Especially after the incident with Ron’al. The younger children were afraid of him and she was glad that Tel’eck was, whether she knew it or not, helping to dispel that fear.

Tel’eck gave a relieved look in reply to Fayth as she munched quietly on her chocolate chip pancakes.

“Oh no. EXR-11 was very polite and quiet. It caused no disruptions at all. In fact I’m quite grateful for the gifts. There as this small collection of miniature biomes with all different types of insects in them. The civilian botanists are toying with the idea of introducing insects into the arboretums. They make the soil richer and help the plants grow and fertilize in a more natural way, making them stronger. The reasoning is that we are a deep space vessel and anything we can do to create resources for ourselves is a plus. It has a lot of details to work out before a proposal, but I thought the school children might like to assist since the basic idea was theirs.”

”..It sounds fascinating, and I agree producing our own goods is a strong viable need. Given our last exploration assignment had us out of contact and support of Starfleet and the Federation for nearly three years while we explored the deepest reach of the Beta Quadrant, having ways to support ourselves is a good thing..” Drudoc said.

Sharah passes the fruit, which she takes several types off as well as chocolate yogurt to dip them in. It is a strange experience for her to be socializing with ranking officers, not unpleasant, but strange. And the only thing she can think to talk about is work. Which she remembers Tel’eck rolling her eyes about.

Lt jg Fayth, CSO

Drudoc took a moment to eat her own pancakes, adding a little extra butter for her second helping. Tel’eck actually seemed more interested this time in the discussions going on, probably being in a different mood then she had been the other day. “..Personally, I think it is a good chance when we produce excess stores we can trade with them if we encounter friendly folks.” the young teen said. “..Just the other day in our economics class we were learning about the history of financial exchange rates from different cultures and how those cultures judged value on different things, even things that didn’t make sense!” She said sipping her cocoa a moment. “..Like did you know in 2080 by the Earth calendar, Tellarites considered the Voco fruit a higher valued good for trading then they did rarer things on their planet like gold, silver, and other ore? This change in value from ores to producible goods was what lead later to their growth in skills in the space faring communities into the 22nd century..” she explained.

Tel’eck Andone (education sponge) / Drudoc Andone (some CO person!)