by Zander Blakeslee and Salvek
81015.2300
Before and after History’s Lessons
-=Bridge, USS Serendipity=-
81015.2300
Before and after History’s Lessons
-=Bridge, USS Serendipity=-
"Mr. Blakeslee you are relieved of duty." TC called out from behind a PADD. "Go home."
Zander looked up from his station at tactical. "Sir?"
"I think your duty to the Admiral has been satisfied." TC explained. "Go and see your wife and kids I'll take care of the Admiral if she needs anything." He smiled. "Get off my bridge."
Zander returned the smile happy to be relieved from dealing with the Admiral. "Aye sir."
= Blakeslee Family Quarters =
"I'm home." Zander called out as he walked thought the door.
"Yea!!" Came the simultaneous screams of his twin boys who came rushing out of their bedroom to greet him. Each child attached himself to a leg like a leech and hugged their father.
"Hey guys, you two been behaving?" He asked as he walked, slowly, to his wife who had rose from he favorite chair to kiss him. The typical shockwaves passed though his body from the physical contact with her. It was a sensation that he hoped he would never get used to.
"Welcome home." She said.
He smiled and kissed her again which received the standard "Ewww" from the boys.
He looked down at his sons with a mock look of shock. "Ewww? Eewww? Ha you think that is bad watch this."
He smiled at his wife and pulled he close to him flattening his boys between them as he kissed her passionately.
After a long moment they broke off the kiss and stared at each other in silence their laughing children squirming between them.
"Adults night out?" He asked.
She nodded slowly and sultrily. "Yes."
"OK." He scooped up one child in each arm detaching them from his legs and walked them into the bedroom tossing each onto their respective beds as they laughed and teased their father.
He returned a few minutes later leaving the kids to play in their room.
"Let me make a call." He smiled at his wife as he tapped his badge.
"Commander Blakeslee to Commander Salvek."
[Yes Mr. Blakeslee. What can I do for you?]
He smiled at his wife. "Well commander I am calling in that favor we discussed a little while back."
-=Later: Salvek and Kellyn’s Quarters=-
“A deal is a deal.” Salvek stated to his wife. “We agreed to watch the Blakeslee children so he could have time alone with his wife.”
“Who’s we exactly?” Kellyn asked. “Because I don’t recall making any such arrangement. I’ll stick around since I miss Arie, but let’s be clear, my darling husband, this is your show.”
Arie heard the magic words, Blakeslee children, and her ears perked up, knowing she’d get to play with her younger friends this evening.
Salvek stepped through passageway, into the bedroom. He removed his dark robe, and hung it in the closet, deciding on the durable and stain proof protection of his first officer’s uniform. He regarded the Command red for a moment, thought better of risking his preferred outfit, and hung it back up. Instead he pulled out the gold uniform from his days as Chief Engineer.
“Oh, have you been demoted?” Kellyn asked, as she sauntered into the room.
“Merely protecting the cleanliness of my First Officer’s uniform, in case I should be called off to duty suddenly.”
“I understand.” Kellyn said, as she pulled out a sheer, black, floor-length nightgown and held it up in front of herself. “I don’t want to get my favorite outfit dirty either, in case I should be called away to duty as well.”
“Now is not the time,” Salvek began.
“Of course not. That’s why I’m just going to hang this back up now.”
“They’re here Osa-mekh!” Arie shouted through the walls from the next room.
Kellyn followed Salvek out of the bedroom, and curled up in a chair with some light reading material. Specifically, thousands of pages of data from the Alchemy logs.
She simply wasn’t content to just focus on the transwarp aspect of their research as Lassiter had suggested. She was going to do whatever it took to try and decipher what exactly had happened that caused the ship to travel through time for a brief moment. Salvek had agreed to go over the data with her as well, stating that no harm could possibly come of lending their expertise to the situation. It was not like they risked opening up some breach in space-time.
Thomas and Johannes bounded into the quarters, and Arie immediately corralled them, suggesting they play a game on the computer. She looked to her father for approval. Salvek gave his consent, and she loaded the game. Thomas holstered the toy phaser he brandished and settled down to listen to Arie explain the rules.
“Perhaps this will not be difficult at all, my wife.” Salvek said. Arie had the situation well under control, and logic clearly dictated the best course of action was to stay the hell out of the way.
“Just wait until they want dinner. Give it fifteen minutes,” She warned.
= Seventeen minutes later=
Salvek felt a strong tug on his pant leg.
“’Cuse me Mr. Commander.” Thomas looked up at him. “Can we haz dinner?”
Johannes, who had been deeply engrossed in the game until he heard the word dinner, came streaking over in a flash. He bumped into Thomas, almost toppling his sibling.
Thomas responded with a light punch to his brother’s arm.
“Ya, I want doggies.” Johannes exclaimed excitedly practically dancing at the thought. “and cake and mac-n-cheeze and soda pop and…oh…and…OUCH!!” He exclaimed as his brother pinched him.
Thomas glared at his younger (by five minutes) brother and scolded him by wagging a pointed finger in his face as he had seen his mother do to him on so many occasions.
“’Member what daddy say, be polite or we not get any cookies tomorrow.”
Johannes rubbed his arm while glaring at his older brother. “You only five minutes older. I member what daddy say. I be polite.”
He turned back to Salvek and looked up at him with his big blue eyes and smiled. “Can I has doggies and cake and mac-n-cheeze, and soda pop and a crazy straw.” His smile broadened until his eyes were squinty. “Pleeeeeezzze!”
He turned back to his brother. “Cee, I polite.” He nodded his head in triumph.
“That is not nutritional fare.” Salvek admonished. “Perhaps some root stew. It is a Vulcan traditional meal that provides one with a large dose of essential vitamins and nutrients. Arie grew up strong on it as a child.”
Kellyn shook her head silently. Arie also had Vulcan blood in her veins and had been raised on the stew and come to appreciate it in a way only a Vulcan child could. The Blakeslee children had no such frame of reference and would likely have the same reaction Kellyn had the first time she ever tried root stew.
She appreciated the simple charm of the meal when shared with her husband now, but back in the day, she would be huddled around the replicator whispering for Bajoran chocolate cakes and grape flavored soda beverages at two in the morning.
“Nude-tree-show-al?” Thomas tried to speak the word phonetically, as if he were reading it in the very original Vulcan itself. He then drew the toy phaser he had been holding, and pointed it at Salvek. “Romulan oh-press-or, you will give us the doggies, or suffer the con-see-quince-ees!”
Thomas punctuated the point with fake phaser sounds.
“Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew! Pew!”
“Daddy said no shootin’ the phaser at the Commander eiver!” Johannes warned.
“Charming.” Salvek said. He extended his hand towards the young man. “Relinquish your sidearm, please.”
“Nev-oh! Pew! Pew! Pew-pew-PEW!”
Arie stepped in between her father and the children, and knelt down to their height. “If you give my father the toy, you can have the doggies, cake, and mac and cheese like you wanted.”
Salvek stuttered, and prepared to argue with Arie until he heard the low stern voice of his wife speaking through gritted teeth from behind him. “Give it up, Salvek.”
He considered arguing with her as well, and suddenly remembered Tam. The child Wren brought aboard would surely appreciate the necessity of a simple vitamin and mineral rich meal. Now was not the time to reinvent the wheel for the Blakeslee children.
“Do either of you require any special condiments to adorn your,” Salvek cleared his throat “doggies.”
“Ketchup and relish.”
“Mustard an onions.”
“And the cake?” Salvek asked.
“Chocolate with mint frosting.”
“Vanilla with white frosting.”
Salvek approached the replicator, and activated the terminal. “Computer, two children’s hot dog platters. One with ketchup and relish, the other with mustard and onions. Mac and cheese on the side with each, and chocolate cake with mint frosting with the first meal, and vanilla with white frosting with the second meal. Am I missing anything?
“Cola!”
“Orange pop!”
“Do not forget the crazy straws,” Arie warned.
Salvek input the drink orders, and the two meals appeared in the replicator.
“Let’s wash our hands!” Arie declared, and led the children off to the washroom. Salvek set the two trays down.
“Really, Salvek? Root stew? Really?!” Kellyn asked.
“You have learned to appreciate the simplicity of the meal over the years.”
“The key words there are over the years. I’m also a grown woman with a vested interest and desire to participate in Vulcan culture and traditions.”
“You are correct of course.”
The sound of tiny feet pounding on the deck signaled the return of the children. They sat in front of their corresponding meal, and began to eat. Arie replicated herself a meal of her own.
“What about you Cow-mand-oh? Are you going to eat? You should try doggies I bet they are better than your stew.”
“Perhaps. I will give it a try.” Salvek said.
“What?” The sound of Kellyn’s shocked voice was followed by the clatter of the PADD she was reading hitting the deck. “Salvek, how can I put this bluntly? Hot dogs are…well…entirely made of meat.”
“One vegetarian hot-dog meal, with macaroni and cheese on the side and chocolate cake, mint frosting.” Salvek nodded to her, eyebrow raised as if to say ‘so there.’
He took his plate and sat next to the children. Arie took a slow bite of the mashed potatoes on her plate, without taking her eyes off her father.
Salvek lifted the hot dog to his lips, and bit into it. He chewed it slowly, with his eyes closed, savoring the sensation. Everyone breathlessly awaited the verdict.
“I can appreciate the appeal of this meal to a child. The fare is comforting and pleasing to the palette, even if it lacks the necessary nutrients.”
He then tried a sip of the cola. “The drink however is nothing more than liquefied candy, and the carbonation is best reserved for a fine champagne. It had no redeeming qualities.”
“You have impressed me in that you even tried.” Kellyn declared.
Johannes looked at Salvek with thoughtful eyes as he chewed his hotdog. As he swallowed the food, leaving a smear of mustard on his cheek, he spoke. “Why do you has the same name as daddy?” He asked.
A rare confused look crossed Salvek’s face.
“We calls Daddy Daddy. But everyones else calls him Commander. Just like you. Commander. Why you gots the same name?”
Suddenly Thomas chimed in talking with a full mouth of mac and cheese. “Ya! Lots of people has that name. Sunshine doggy daddy called that too.” He swallowed the food and took a long swig of soda to wash it down. He completed the process by wiping his mouth with his sleeve. Then he grinned at Salvek. “Yum.”
"Commander is my rank, not may name. It signifies my authority over others on the ship. My name is Salvek." He popped the end of a hot dog in his mouth, and chewed it with a sense of satisfaction he didn't even realize he was experiencing.
"So you and daddy are both the same rank on the ship?"
"No, I outrank your father."
"But you are both cow-mandohs!" Thomas threw his hands up in frustration, sending a blob of ketchup to the ceiling.
Like a graceful wisp of wind, Kellyn was out of the room and back into it in an instant with a bottle of spray cleaner and a step stool.
"We share the same rank, but my position is of greater power. I am the First Officer, I answer only to the Captain on this ship."
Thomas dusted off his hands as he finished his meal. He approached Salvek, put his hands on his hips.
"I am the Captain! You answer to me. Give me a piggy back ride."
"You are not the Captain." Salvek defiantly.
Arie stifled her laughter, which was a testament to her Vulcan DNA. Her mother was not nearly so able to contain herself.
"Perhaps the time has come, Lair Arie, for more of your video games." Salvek offered.
"As you wish, Osa-mekh." She said respectfully.
*********************
Lieutenant Commander Zander Blakeslee
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Serendipity
and
Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity
NRPG: One of the Funniest. Posts. Ever. Pew! Pew! Pew! Great work, Cow-man-dohs! ROFL~ZL
Lieutenant Commander Zander Blakeslee
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Serendipity
and
Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity
NRPG: One of the Funniest. Posts. Ever. Pew! Pew! Pew! Great work, Cow-man-dohs! ROFL~ZL