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The Feast II

Posted on Fri Oct 30th, 2020 @ 1:05pm by Lieutenant JG Kevin Lance & Captain Mystery Ellis & Commander Charles Gillespie VII & Lieutenant Commander Feyd Relor & Commander Jamie O'Connell & Crewman Thomas Jefferson

Mission: By Odin!
Location: Captain's Ward Room
Timeline: Current

Chuck entered the ward room, not entirely sure of what he would find.

Inside the usual furniture had been replace with a long wooden table with benches either side. The only backed chairs were at either end of the long table. In place of the ship's china and crystal were metallic plates and large goblets, and the only utensils were long knives, a single one at about half of the place settings. The lighting was dim, the only illumination coming from holographic candles on the table and torches along the walls.

A harried Chief sh'Rosa approached Chuck from across the room. "Good Evening, sir," she addressed the Commander, "When the feast begins, you will be sitting at that end next to the Odinskus Storhatten."

"Thank you, Chief. Your work is greatly appreciated." Chuck nodded to the Andorian petty officer. "You are a credit to the Independence."

Lieutenant O'Connell walked into the Ward Room not knowing quite what to expect since this was the first time that he had the opportunity to actually be in this area of the Ship. He made his way over to Charles. "Good Evening Commander, I see we're having another go at command-directed fun."

"Good Evening, Mr. O'Connell." Chuck sighed. "Indeed. Mandatory fun. Well, let's make the best of it."

"Certainly....the decor is quite unique; I imagine this is in tradition with their culture" O'Connell observed.

"It makes me think of Hrothgar's mead house... Interesting..."

"Lieutenant O'Connell," Chief sh'Rosa called out to Jamie, "You will be seated here." She indicated a place setting with a single thick knife, plate and goblet three places down and across the table from where Chuck would be sitting.

Several more officers entered including the Chief Flight Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and the Assistant Chief Science Officer entered the ward room and were directed to where their places by Chief sh'Rosa.

On her way to her seat Ensign Devroe walked behind O'Connell and paused "How are you doing with your exercises?"

"Good" the Lieutenant answered as he turned and saw her lovely face. "Keep at it" she responded as she gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze and made her way to assigned seat, several places down from Jamie's. Conversation with her during the dinner would be all but impossible.

There was polite conversation amongst the officers, mostly centered on the unusual circumstances of the summons, until Captain Ellis arrived.

Mystery looked at the decorations in the room, while she knew her officers were uncomfortable she also knew they'd do what they had to in order to make this dinner a success.

There was a few more minutes of polite conversation with pauses growing longer when the Odinskus Storhatten entered the ward room with Captain Astra Karrelsdotter, a short blue robed man, and several other Odinskus with hats shorter than Astra's. Lieutenant Commander Feyd and Lieutenant Lance entered with the group of Odinskus. Kevin looked more disheveled than usual, his uniform wrinkled and his boots scuffed, and was accompanied by the Odinskus Jungfru.

Feyd made eye contact with Lt. Lance and, having taken in the disheveled uniform and the body language of the CoS, gave him a lecherous grin and a wink.

The Storhatten approached Mystery and taking her long braid in his hand, he kissed it tenderly. "I tink dat ve kan dizpenze vid de ceremonial braid pulling," he said to his companions. There was a general murmur of disappointment from the collective Okinskus. To Mystery, he said, "I tank yoo fur infiting us to deese feast."

Mystery was relieved that the braid pulling was going to be stopped but said nothing as she didn't want to offend her honored guests. "Ambassador it's my pleasure to invited you to this feast. Knowing my chef as well as I do I know he's outdone himself with this feast and I'm sure you'll enjoy the dinner he's made."

The Odinskus made their way to the table, directed by Chief sh'Rosa. The Storhatten was at the opposite head of the table from Mystery, with Commander Gillespie on his right and the short blue robed man to his left. Captain Ellis was seated with the Odinskus Captain, Astra Karrelsdotter, on her right and Doctor Relor to her left. Seating along the benches alternated Federation and Odinskus with the most junior officers and Odinskus with the smallest hats seated towards the center of the table. Jamie found himself seated between the two blue robbed women who had toured the Engine Room and Bridge with him. Kevin was sitting across from the Jungfru Kera Börsdotter.

The two blue robed women on either side of Jamie looked around him at each other and giggled.

Jamie was becoming annoyed with the two women. As much as he would have like to switch seats with one or the other of them; he knew that he couldn't change the ceremonial seating. The last thing that he needed was to catch all kinds of hell from either the Captain or Commander, or both, for changing seats. Neither prospect was very appealing at the moment. Jamie just decided to sit there and "suck it up" for the evening.

Chuck sat down and attempted to make small talk. This was a great opportunity to get to know the Odinskus better.

Mystery was chatting with the OKD Captain. Lieutenant Lance looked distinctly uncomfortable as the two Odinskus to either side and Kera across from him engaged him with questions about weapons systems.

While O'Connell was just sitting there he began to notice that the Captain and Commander were engaged in conversation with some of the Odinskus as well as Ensign Devroe. "Maybe I should at least make an attempt to converse with these ladies. I wouldn't want any hard feelings with them while on Mission" was his thoughts.

"So...may I inquire what you two ladies were giggling about a few moments ago" O'Connell asked not knowing what kind of an answer to expect.

"Oh, eet vas zometing dat mine zizter zaid," the woman to Jamie's right replied.

"Ztop eet!" the other woman squealed.

"Avter de tour of yoose sheep, zhe zaid dat yoo hafe a verry nize aft compartmint," the first woman winked, "Noodge, noodge, eh?"

Jamie was spared an immediate response by the arrival of a creamy white substance in a wooden bowl and platters of fruits and grains placed in the middle of the table by shanghaied female crew-members dress in historical Nordic garb circa 800AD. The Odinskus looked around their place settings then pulled spoons out from under their armor and robes.

Kevin looked at the single sharp knife at his place setting and muttered something about "eating soup with a knife".

None of the Odinskus crew make any move towards the bowls until their captain reached out and spooned up some fruit, then dumped it on the Skyr. Once their Captain started eating the rest of his crew threw themselves at the food like a pack of starving dogs. As the platters are cleared off, new platters with fresh fruit and grains are immediately dropped in their place. Loud slurping could be heard around the room as the Odinskus clear out their bowls.

O'Connell looked at the bowl and then his knife "This should be interesting" he thought; he picked up the knife, the sharp edge facing away from him, and proceeded to dip it into the bowl and eat it off the back edge of the knife. Although he would have preferred a spoon, this actually worked fairly well. Maybe he wouldn't have to comment on the Odinskus's jab about his butt.

Mystery opted not to use the sharp knife to eat with but rather picked up the bowl and drank the soup from the bowl.

Kevin ignored the bowl of Skyr entirely and instead used the knife to skewer and eat individual pieces of fruit from the platter on the table. He tried, somewhat unsuccessfully, to ignore Kera's lips as she cleaned an errant bit of Skyr from the corner of her mouth with her tongue. The Okinskus captain to Kevin's left seemed to have similar difficulties.

Chuck looked around, shrugged, and said quietly, "When in Rome..." He dug in to his food with the same ardor as the Odinskus.

 

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