Posted by Lieutenant Julien Smith (Doctor) in Ship tour with Karina - Lounge

Posted by Ensign Karina Niles (Doctor) in Ship tour with Karina - Lounge

Some time later Julien found Karina again in sickbay and smiled at her, his oddly mismatched green eyes twinkling. He was quite old for a Lt. jg., in his fourties, his short black curls had a few streaks of white at the temples which formed quite a contrast to his tanned skin.

“Hello Dr Niles. I’m now an official member of the medical staff I’m happy to say and I would really appreciate if you could help me find my bearings … I’ve never been on a ship with /three/ sickbays.” he said in his deep rumbling baritone.

• Dr. Julien Smith

Once more, Karina had the feeling it was line. But, she smiled and nodded, it was a fairly good one. “Well they are all laid out the same, except this one which includes the CMO’s office and the specially surgery area.” She nodded across the room to the end could be sealed for simple sterility, noise, light or even quarantine.

Setting the door in place over her last set of instrument checks, she turned to Julien and nodded. “I was about to have lunch. You’re welcome to join me. Nothing fancy, I fear, just the lounge fare.” The invitation was genuine, even if a little stammered. Karina had never learned the fine art of flirting. Her couple run ins with Grey reminded her of that. But even just friendly conversation seemed a bit awkward to her. She had spent all her time the ship, (both times… her mind whispered) just trying to keep her head down and to her duties.

She motioned to the door behind him for him to join her if he wanted.

Ens Karina Niles
Doctor

His smile widened and made that dimple appear in his left cheek. “Lounge fare sounds good to me, and that way, I don’t have to go there alone as a newbie and sit on a lonesome table with everyone wondering who I am.” he said and chuckled a deep rumbling chuckle.

He walked with Karina towards the exit. “How long have you been serving on the Athena?” he asked in an easy conversational tone.

• Julien Smith, doctor

His dimple added to the charm. But poor Karina merely blushed, unaware if he was flirting or merely being polite. “Lounge fare, it is, then.” She turned to head towards the lift and the mentioned lounge. At his question of how long she had been on the ship, she bit back a laugh. “Now ‘that’ question is an interesting one. Not sure how much everyone else talks about it, but we had a bit of a ‘time thing’ happen. So I think I’ve been here a few months. Hard to explain.” She wasn’t purposely hiding anything. But in all honesty, some had chosen to let this time line of themselves remain and others had replaced them with their current selves. So how to explain that, without incurring another psych eval, was something she hadn’t contemplated. “But it’s a good ship. And the Docs,” she smiled, “both of them, are good folks. I’ve learned a lot. And the crew is really nice.”

He listened attentively and nodded while walking next to her. “I’ve heard about the time thing.” he mentioned, using her words without qualm.

After exiting on the proper deck, she smiled once more. “In fact, I doubt you would be the ‘odd man out’ in the lounge for long if you were alone.” She glanced sideways at him and smiled slyly, “And you don’t strike me as someone it happens to very often, anyway.”

Karina
Doctor

He winked back at her with an easy smile. “Maybe on the surface, yes. But there is a difference between people who are nice to you because they think it’s good for them, and people that are nice to you because they genuinly like you.” he said.

“I’ve read up on that last mission, it sounded so very fascinating. Have you met your alternate timeline self?” he asked.

• Julien Smith, doctor

“Something tells me that folks here will genuinely like you, Lieutenant.” She smiled and nodded to the large door to the lounge to indicate where they were going. “The mission was… interesting?” She wasn’t quite sure the word to use. When he asked about her alternate self, a part of her froze up a moment and her heart hitched. The meeting had not been painful, physically, but mentally it still resonated with her in a way she hadn’t quite reconciled. She put her smile back on fast enough that, unless he had been watching her intently, he wouldn’t have noticed the change. “Yeah… I mean, from what I gather, most of us did. But then time settled and it was just… me…” she shrugged as the doors parted and the mostly empty lounge lay before them.

With his right android eye he could pick up micro expressions, but he would never push on such a topic so early in a relationship with someone, so he just nodded.

She quickly changed the subject. “Kitchen or replicators? I think there is an Earthen pasta dish of some kind and a Klingon dessert of some kind of fruit in the kitchen today.” She motioned to both places to let him choose where to lead.

Karina

His eyebrows went up and his whole face lit up. “A proper kitchen? Real food?” he just repeated. “As in, every day, not just for very special occasions?”

• Julien Smith, doctor

At Julien’s reaction, Karina laughed. It was a genuine bright laugh that went all the way to her eyes. She rested her hand on his arm and nodded. “Yes, dear… a real and proper kitchen complete with the occasional burnt experiment that leaves the replicators running double time for a day or two.”

Without thinking, she hooked her arm in his and dragged him towards the cooking area. There was a small counter with a few dishes of hot food to serve from and stacks of dishes off to the side, including silverware.

“Ok.... soooo…” she pointed to the dishes. “This is Pasta Alfredo… Eggplant Parmesan… That’s the Klingon fruit I mentioned, keep forgetting the name, “kimscatch” or something like that.” She laughed and handed him a plate and nodded to the other fresh fare including both fruit salad and regular salad, and apple pie that was almost gone.

“Eat up… no one is shy in here. I promise.” She helped herself to the Alfredo and Klingon fruit and snatched a piece of pie as she watched him with a smile on her face.

Karina