Surprise (Sort of) Part 1
Posted on Wed Aug 27th, 2025 @ 4:21am by Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan & Ensign Tenzi Sh'reyva & Ensign Iozhara & Chief Petty Officer Vashti Rao & Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi & Crewman Emiliano Echevarria & Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus & Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik & Ensign Dani Harper & Civillian Samuel Wynters
1,849 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
The Menagerie II
Location: Paddy's Loft / Ten Forward, Deck 10
Timeline: MD007
Paddy's Loft was dressed for festivity, though no one could say who had decorated it. Streamers curled like little question marks from the ceiling's edge. A scattering of floating candles bobbed near the windows, each flickering with programmable light. The replicated cake on the bar was both gluten-free and lactose-free but also somehow managed to be fun-free too.
Garo Hakobyan sat with his elbows on a high-top near the wall, staring into his second glass of double-casked Rigelian whiskey, which wasn't actually whiskey and hadn't been bottled anywhere near Rigel. Across from him, Emiliano Echevarria was unbuttoning a black blazer to reveal an orange T-shirt underneath.
"It's always hot on this ship, don't you think?" Emiliano asked, fanning himself with his collar.
When Garo didn't respond, he glanced over his shoulder and across the bar. "She's not looking over here," Emiliano said flatly.
Garo took a long sip and followed it with a short sigh. "Didn't ask."
"You didn’t have to. You keep glancing like the corner of your eye’s got a crush. Mae, it’s obvious."
Garo set his glass down harder than he had meant to. "Each time I speak to her, she disappears. I ask a simple question--she nods, gives a smile like a shadow, and walks away. As if I offended her, somehow."
"Or maybe," Emiliano said, leaning forward with a conspiratorial glint, "she gets shy around you. Think about it, hermano. You're a transporter chief. You handle quantum phase alignment like it's a Tamarian crossword puzzle. You got forearms like someone poured them into a mould in a forge. Maybe she's the one nervous."
Garo laughed, slightly disbelieving. "You're insane."
Emiliano grinned. "Better insane than blind, mae. And she's looked over twice since we sat down."
Garo turned his head slightly. Across the room, under the soft amber lighting and beside a table holding far too many drinks for three people, stood Vashti Rao, Tenzi Sh'reyva, and Zal Rixi.
Tenzi wore a half-smirk like it had been grafted-on at an early age, arms folded loosely across her chest. Rixi had her hip cocked to one side and was deftly spinning a stir stick between her fingers. And Vashti--gods, Vashti--was laughing at something one of them said, the sound too far to hear but not to imagine.
Garo turned back to Emiliano and said nothing.
On the other side of the room, Vashti leaned against the cocktail table, lifting her drink--something sparkly and hibiscus-pink--and narrowed her eyes toward the bar.
"Okay," she said, voice low but amused, "is it just me, or is Garo Hakobyan looking over here again?"
"He's looked over at least three times," Rixi said. She didn't look up, just kept poking a lime wedge deeper into her glass of synthetically-produced Barbadian rum punch. "I'm keeping score. He owes you a drink or something."
Tenzi raised a silver brow. "You counting his looks like poker chips?"
"I'm counting your avoidance strategy," Rixi said, shooting Vashti a look. "Every time he gets within ten feet, you vanish like a warp core safety protocol."
"It's not like that," Vashti said, setting her glass down.
Rixi grinned. "It's exactly like that."
Tenzi leaned in. "Would now be a good time to bring up that one time in the lift when he asked if you were going to the poetry slam and you replied, 'I have a scheduled cry'?"
Vashti groaned. "You're never letting that go, are you?"
"Nope."
Rixi snapped her fingers. "Speaking of things we don't remember--who the hell is this party for again?"
Tenzi blinked. "Ensign... Marris?" Merris?"
"No, no--Marin. I think." Vashti bit her lip. "Bajoran woman. In Stellar Cartography?"
Tenzi tilted her head. "Wait, is she the one with the weird laugh?"
"I thought that was the Bolian in Environmental Systems," Rixi said. "You know, the one who always brings her own coffee cup on-shift."
Vashti looked around. "Did anyone invite her?"
They all paused.
"... I assumed someone else did," Tenzi said finally.
"Maybe she's just fashionably late," Vashti added.
"Maybe she's been here the whole time and we don't recognize her," Rixi said, deadpan.
That made Tenzi laugh--loud and bright and real. "Best surprise party ever."
Surprise parties weren't much of a thing on Akadia. After all on a planet where almost everyone had some mental abilities surprises rarely occurred. They weren't out of the realm of possibility, but they were rare. He only vaguely knew the person being surprised, but he was there anyway. It was all part of absorbing a new culture and becoming part of the crew.
She hadn't meant to come. Iozhara told herself she was just passing by--headed for the arboretum, or maybe just a walk, somewhere quieter than Sickbay or her own thoughts. But somehow her feet slowed near the soft spill of light from Paddy's Loft, and the rise and fall of the laughter from within pulled at her like gravity.
The crowd hadn't yet tipped into chaos, but it was building--junior officers mingling in loose knots, drinks in hand, voices tangled with music. Decorations lined the walls and ceiling, shivering slightly in the recycled air. Someone had made and effort and that counted for something.
Iozhara edged along the periphery, skimming past the buffet where the punch was criminally pink and the desserts looked suspiciously replicated. She wasn't in uniform--just a dark tunic and a quiet expression--but even so, she felt like a ghost floating between conversations.
Then her shoulder knocked into someone else's--soft but firm, like brushing the flank of a tree you hadn't realized was there.
Iozhara blinked, startled. The man was shorter than her, with black hair and striking green eyes. She could see a gentleness behind them.
"I'm so sorry," Iozhara stammered.
He looked over at her the corners of his mouth lifting up in a smile. "It's fine," he said. "Happens to me more than I like."
That was only partially true. He had been overlooked before, but it wasn't in that way and it had only happened once, but she had no way to know that. Terrans called it a white lie, he believed. "I'm Osirin by the way, I don't think I've met you before."
"Iozhara," she said sweetly, extending a hand. "It's nice to meet you."
He had kind eyes, she noticed--clear and calm like the shallows of a glacial lake. She brushed some loose strands of hair from her breathing apparatus and smiled at him.
He smiled back. It was easy to do. It wasn't a flirty smile. Really. Or at least he didn't think so. It was just a smile. But he noticed how she flicked her hair away. "You new to the ship?" he asked.
"Not new," she said, glancing down as if the floor might finish her sentence for her. "Just... resurfacing." Her hand, still half-raised from brushing her hair, drifted back to her side. She wasn't sure why she'd said that--maybe it was the truth, or close enough. Time in Sickbay moved differently than everywhere else, quieter, like a room with all the wooden furniture taken out. "It's strange being somewhere loud again," she added, her voice soft but very steady.
His left brow lifted above his hairline as he tilted his head forward. He could have read her mind. It would have been easy. He was curious about what she meant, but not tempted to try. He wasn't that kind of man.
"That is an interesting revelation. Do you want to talk more? Or are we moving into to too personal territory."
She gave a small laugh--more air than sound--and then let her gaze drift toward the clusters of officers laughing at nothing. "I think," she said slowly, "personal territory is just... territory. Sometimes you step onto it without meaning to." Her fingers traced the rim of a nearby glass that wasn't hers, as if mapping out the borders of her thought. "And if you stand there long enough, it either gets easier or it doesn't."
Osirin took a half step toward her. It wasn't intentional, it was barely conscious. But now his curiosity had been aroused. "I'm an Akadian stepping into unknown territory comes naturally to us. And easy is for weaklings."
"Easy isn't always weak," she said. "Sometimes it's just... breathing room." Her gaze shot over to the doorway, where someone had just burst in carrying a large sheet cake topped with at least two dozen unlit micro-candles. A cheer went up--far too loud and sudden--and she felt it in her teeth. She looked back at Osirin. "But I suppose unknown territory has its merits. You find out which parts of yourself will follow and which parts get left behind."
There was a swell of off-key singing on the other end of the room, and she realized she was standing close enough to see the green in his eyes shifting with the light. "Maybe," she added, "you just have to decide if you're the type of person who keeps walking." She winked at him playfully.
Osirin didn't have a lot of experience with Federation culture, but some things transcend societies and don't require any telepathy. He didn't wink back at her, but his smile broadened. "Well," he said. "Akadians have seldom been described as shy. And, I am a bit of a risk taker."
She tilted her head, considering Osirin like a puzzle whose edge pieces she'd just found. "Risk takers," she said, "usually end up with the best stories... or the best scars."
~tbc~
Samuel Wynters
Proprietor
Paddy's Loft
Plain Shirt
NPC: Spello
Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi
Engineering Technician
USS Astrea
Chief Petty Officer Vashti Rao
Engineering Technician
USS Astrea
Ensign Tenzi Sh'reyva
Engineering Officer
USS Astrea
Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan
Transporter Specialist
USS Astrea
Crewman Emiliano Echevarria
Operations Technician
USS Astrea
Ensign Iozhara
Nurse
USS Astrea
Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acaincus
Mission Advisor
USS Astrea
Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik
Operations Officer
USS Astrea
Ensign Dani Harper
Science Officer
USS Astrea
RSS Feed