Posted by Civilian Halai Cosgrove (Head of Science and Terraforming) in Maza’s Kitchen- Lunch : : : : : : : Halai couldn’t help but grin and even let out a small chuckle. “Well, if you haven’t figure it out yet, I enjoy deep conversations. they don’t frighten me. But depressing is not what I want. It’s just been a rather volatile time for me personally and I feel so off balance. Give me time and you’ll see that I’m actually quite a bit of fun,” she said with a wink. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : “Well I certainly look forward to that.” Astrid said with a grin. : : : : : : : : : : : : Tish returned with a platter that she sat on the table between the two women. “Enjoy. Halai knows what it is.” Amongst large dark green leaves were huge prawns in some sort of coating with a dish of a red suace and small rectangles of a clear substance that fad some sort of pale coloured pieces inside it. : : : : : : : : : : : : : : And indeed, Cosgrove’s eyes lit up. “How did you know?” : : : : : : : : : : : : : : A secretive smile appeared on the Denobulan’s face. “You’re not a telepath and neither am I, but we both know more than people realize. Call it intuition if you like.” Bowing her head to Astrid, Tish departed. : : : : : : : : : : : : Astrid looked over the new offering with a look of piqued interest. It looked delicious but then, she expected as much now that she had been introduced to the place. Her fingers hovered over the platter as she decided which she would try. Finally, deciding, she picked one up and looked at Halai. : : : : : : : : : : : : Smirking but also clearly delighted, Halai pointed to the shrimp. “Coconut shrimp with chilli sauce and saksak, a dumpling type thing made with tapioca pearls and banana and cooked in banana leaves.” She smiled wider. “They are common finger foods back on Earth in my grandmother’s native Papua New Guinea.” She shook her head. “I was just thinking that I’d love to have something comfortingly familiar like that. Go ahead and try it, but warning you that the chilli sauce is rather hot.” : : : : : : : : : : : : : : ~Halai Cosgrove, Head of S&T : : : : : : : : : : : “I do not mind spice actually. French food is not particularly spicy, but I do not subsist entirely on French cuisine. In fact, I have a particular love for wasabi and salsa; Japanese and Mexican cuisines respectively. I started eating them when I lived in San Francisco and became quite addicted.” She lifted the strange looking item to her mouth and took a bite. For a while she simply contemplated the flavors. Spice was definitely present though it was an altogether different flavor than she was used to. “MMM… That is very nice. Definitely higher on the spice level.” She said grinning as she took a sip of her lemon drink. : : : : : : : : : : Rousseau, HotJ : : : : : : : : Halai was feeling rather nostalgic now and simply nodded her head as she took another bite. “Reminds me of my paternal grandmother. I miss both her and my grandfather. Been so long since I last saw them. Somehow subspace messages just don’t cut it after awhile.” Not to mention she didn’t have a lot of family left and the ones she did were either far away or technically missing. : : : : : : : : ~Halai Cosgrove, Head of S&T : : : : : “True enough. My siblings and I are close. We communicate as often as we can. Matthieu is quite busy in Star Fleet Command and Marguerite is in the Academy working on her medical degrees there so time is limited. My father and I speak but we aren’t as close as we once were. I love all three of them though. I am supremely proud of Mattie and Margie. Do you have any siblings?” She asked before she continued to eat. : : : : Rousseau, HotJ : : Her immediate response used to be that no she didn’t, but Cosgrove just nodded slowly. “Yes. I have a half brother and sister, but I wasn’t raised with them. I’ve sort of developed something of a relationship with my sister but that was only because she took off from home and came here to Oed. It’s… complicated,” Halai said, feeling like that word could barely encompass her family’s situation. : : ~Halai Cosgrove, Head of S&T “Families are rarely anything else.” Astrid said with a grin. While her siblings and her were happily family, she had not mentioned her father, step mother and step brother with whom she had significant issues. She occasionally spoke to her father, but it was maybe twice or three times a year. He would love more but she didn’t. He was still married to that horrible witch and her horrible son. He stood by while she and her son had abused them all. Her forgiveness did not extend to him. She ate more food, enjoying the flavors before continuing on. “So you have found a home here on OED. What brought you here in the first place?” Rousseau, HotJ

Halai exhaled as she smiled slightly. “Well, the full story is one I’d love to share with you, but it probably too long for our lunch. But for now I’ll say I had a deeply spiritual experience during my a previous assignment with Starfleet and ended up taking a leave of absence to go home to Tyrellia. While I worked on personal things, the position eventually came up and… it spoke to me. Something about it just seemed like it was the right thing for me, so I applied, if hesitantly. But I was still a Starfleet officer, so there were things to work out in the beginning. For several years it worked well to do both, but now I’m content being a civilian and working on what I feel is lifelong work,” she said quite openly.

Halai Cosgrove, Head of S&T