Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in Galley/Lounge- A Simple Chat

Posted by Captain Rende Asam (Commanding Officer) in Galley/Lounge- A Simple Chat

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Leah Hart (Nurse Practitioner/Counseling) in Galley/Lounge- A Simple Chat
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Rende nodded in lew of a response because her mouth was full. She took a sip of her water and then answered. “You would make Gorshin’s month if you would bring something in for him to try out. Let Rand know or Chief Helpful, the quartermaster. Either of them can find just about anything.” She used her fork to break of a piece of the flaky fish, well aware that Gorshin was watching. She hummed, sighed, and sat back. “Oh that’s even better than the aroma. I won’t tell the restaurant Gorshin’s is better, but it is. It’s seared better, and there is something…smokey with a tang to it.”

Cpt. Asam, CO

Hart chuckled. “Some people just have that knack. Unfortunately, no one alive in my family is gifted with cooking skills, but my grandmother does better than most. What little I know comes from her.” Her mother certainly never had had the time to teach her anything and Leah wasn’t even sure just how much her mother could cook. “But I’ll definitely see about getting some stuff in for Gorshin. I bet the crew would love a paella night, with different types from different regions of Spain. We could even do a vegetarian one.” Her eyes lit up at the thought of not only sharing her culture with the crew, but the themed events that they could do to promote more bonding between the crew.

“What’s your favourite food, Rende?” she asked, testing out the woman’s first name and how her use of it would make them both feel in this setting.

~Leah Hart, NP

Rende smiled at the casualness. It felt good. She answered without hesitation, “Irish lamb stew. I miss Ireland and my home there. I’ve tasted food from all over, but there is just something comforting about eating food from home.”

Cpt. Asam, CO

Leah dug into her rice and beans and nodded. “Agreed. Though funny enough, my parents took all their Spanish favourites with them when they settled on Aldebaran. So I grew up with all that cultural heritage and it was all mixed up with the local specialties, plus all the foods my friends ate from their respective homes and cultures. Sometimes I think a dish is Spanish only to find out that it got adapted in particular ways to Aldebaran. I always found that fascinating.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“It really is surprising, but also beautiful to see how successful groups can integrate and share and build their cultures into something familiar and totally unique. It is something I’ve always enjoyed discovering.” Rende had seen a lot of that in her travels, and it always amazed her. Of course the violence stopped surprising her as well.

Cpt. Asam, CO

The glistening fish was perfectly cooked and flaked apart in the most magical way. Leah took a moment to fully savour the bite, not rushing it for the sake of continuing the conversation. “Have you been anywhere that truly astonished you? I know a lot of people who spend any amount of time on starships can get jaded at times, but there’s usually always one place that feels special, even years later.”

~Leah Hart, NP

Rende couldn’t answer that question with the actual answer. It was people that the Federation had never encountered and it would be very hard to explain how Rende knew them. “Þynavia. Their planet is beautiful. Much like Deltans, they protect their environment and sustain it, sometimes to their own expense. They don’t build, but adapt to the environment and shelters that are naturally provided, but yet they are extremely advanced. They are compassionate and caring and loving and open. There is no prejudice on their world, no word for ‘different’. Only oniquitu which roughly translates to personal uniqueness.”

Cpt. Asam, CO

A genuine warmth flowed through Leah as she took in those sentiments. “I love that. If only we could find such a concept more often.” She wouldn’t say she had had bad experiences, but there had been a few times when people misunderstood the way she moved through her life and loved people. Most of the time it was fine, but some ended up feeling like they had been tricked, that Leah was playing some sort of game because she dated people irregardless of gender. Usually those people weren’t worth her energy, since the issue lay in their own insecurities, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt at times to be the recipient of the backlash.

“It seems to be very rare. In actuality it isn’t. There are many species that have similar outlooks. We just hear very little about them because the news, history, records the conflicts. A peaceful civilization has no drama to excite us. It’s very sad, in my opinion,” the captain said.

“I think that’s the thing I’m most excited about being on the Sentinel. I haven’t travelled all that many places so I’m looking forward to seeing more of what the galaxy has to offer.”

~Leah Hart, NP

Rende laughed, “An explorer at heart. You need that to be out here, and make a life of it. You will see many things. Make sure Kreed adds you to away teams so you aren’t just watching from the transparent aluminum windows.”

Cpt. Asam, CO

Leah’s eyes lit up. “I’ll be sure to do that!” She hadn’t really considered being involved with landing parties, and while she knew she would be called at times, she found it less likely than perhaps some of the other med staff. Then again, Leah had been an ER nurse for several years, so she was skilled with trauma and triage.

Leah ate more of the fish and nodded, in part to herself. “I was always off poking about things, sometimes where I shouldn’t. I was too curious as a child for my won good,” she said with a grin. “I found myself up in trees way too big for me far too often.”

~Leah Hart, NP

Rende chuckled inside. “I was the same as a child. Drive my parents crazy. They were very proper and couldn’t understand why I didn’t listen to everything they said and just go along with it.”

Cpt. Asam, CO

Leah nodded. “It would be easier if parents remembered that children don’t have the capacity to reason as they do.” She fought back the strange emotions that were rising up within her. She could usually tamp them down and deal with the later, but something about having revealed as much as she had about her family in her sessions with Roman, and telling Rand and the captain about how complicated her relationships with her family members were had left her… exposed. Somehow being out in space should make her feel more at ease, untethered to their expectations and criticisms. But she also knew she was in a more emotionally delicate place right now and that it was bound to have happened at some point as she adjusted to life on the Sentinel.

She dragged her fork idly through her rice, gazing at the track it made. A smile touched her face. “I still try stuff like that,” she admitted. “I think I’m trying to capture that moment of freedom and carefree wonder.” Leah looked up at Rende. “There’s a lot of BS that gets in the way. But I suppose the more you grow in your career, the more is expected of it and the less room there is for frivolous things, but you’d have to tell me if that’s true. I’m only guessing.”

~Leah Hart, NP

Rende nodded, “Very much true. Sometimes it can take over if you aren’t careful. Especially in the fleet. Duty and obligations and orders. They demand you put everything else second or third. You get a great career, but then,” Rende sighed, a sorrowful sound, “You end up very lonely. For awhile you think you have all the time in the universe, and then one day, there is nothing to fill those hours meant for frivolous things.” She picked up her cup, “Don’t let that be you, Leah. Hold on to those things,” then she took a drink.

Cpt. Asam, CO

“I’m trying,” she said with a soft smile. “Sometimes it helps when I think of my father and remember how passionate he was about life. There were lots of things he never got to do but he loved to dream about them. But I think he was stymied by what you’re talking about. There were the expectations of his career, as well as his family. He had to be a good father and husband.” She held her fork up while she gestured as if it might help her make her point. “I understand how he might have felt trapped, and to be honest, as much as it’s complicated my family life, joining Starfleet and getting my doctorate got me out of the same loop. So I guess I’m grateful, even if it took his death to prompt everything.” Leah was a pretty open person, but she didn’t consider herself an open book by any means. So this felt like a surprisingly candid admission to Rende.

Rende was quiet, leaning forward slightly to convey interest so that Leah would keep talking. The woman seemed to need it. Rende didn’t mind at all.

“What about you? What compelled you to join Starfleet?”

~Leah Hart, NP

“Oh, here I thought you would ask me hard questions. It was the fact that I knew there were bigger things out here than just my home. Thousands of species and new ideas and perspectives. I wanted to know what was different than what I grew up with.”

Cpt. Asam, CO

She nodded. “Sure, I get that. I guess in the grand scheme of things, with all the various possible ways to explore space that aren’t Starfleet, I am always curious why people choose to apply to such a competitive program as an office. I mean, hell, even if you’re enlisting they still don’t just take anyone. You have to really want it?” Leah gazed at Rende from a moment. “So what made you want it more than any other option?”

~Leah Hart, NP

“My specialty is security amd tactics. I have always known I would go into a connected field. So the options were merchant marines, privately owned ships, or Star Fleet. Merchants marines weren’t exciting enough, and private contractors are often unethical, so here I am.”

Cpt. Asam, CO

She grinned. “Fair enough. I was already a nurse when I decided to apply to the Medical Academy to do my PhD. But I had wanted to join Starfleet earlier. I just let others talk me out of it.”

Leah dug back into her meal, which was slowly disappearing. It was good and she had to admit how much she appreciated a properly coked meal like this. Life on the wards or in the ER hadn’t always allowed for more leisurely meals. It was always what was easily edible in a short period of time. This right here was a luxury.

“Sometimes I do imagine what my life might have been like if I hadn’t gone into nursing and kept dancing.” Leah smirked. “I was a competitive dancer for so many years that when I had to stop because of nursing school, it was so jarring.”

~Leah Hart, NP

“I imagine it was. When our lives change so suddenly and completely it takes some getting used to,” Rende said. She knew about that. “Even if it is a welcome change. What type of dancing did you do?”

Cpt. Asam, CO

“A whole bunch of stuff. Did ballet for years but flamenco, ballroom and Latin dance were the ones I did in competition.” Leah snorted. “I remember doing my Starfleet physical training at the Academy and everyone kept warning me about how gruelling it would be but they didn’t realize I’d been doing cardio and weight training for years already. It had nothing on dancing eight to ten hours a day for a week perfecting routines ahead of a competition.” Hart shook her head and smirked. “Don’t miss that part so much.”

“What about you? Any passionate hobbies you’ve had or maybe still do?”

~Leah Hart, NP

“I enjoy archeology and history. I ha e quite an antique weapon collection.” Rende scooped the last of her fish with the rice. “It’s a hobby though. Never anything I wanted to do for work.”

Cpt. Asam, CO

“Huh,” Leah said, intrigued. I can understand that. There’s a certain fascination with what has come before and uncovering how things might have been for those many generations before us.”

“I find it really helps you understand a culture. Yes, things change, but there is usually remnants of the past in the present. Even things that are missing have a reason and impact on a people as individuals and as a group.” Rende sipped her drink. “What about yourself? Any hobbies?”

“I make jewellery,” Hart added. “But I don’t plan on opening my own jewellery shop,” she said with a laugh.

~Leah Hart, NP

“It is good to have things that are just for fun. Not everything can be about work and deadlines and doing for others. I play a hurdy gurdy. I’m by no means an expert, but at least I don’t break glass when I play.”

Cpt. Asam, CO