The Awkward Date

Posted on Sat Feb 4th, 2023 @ 11:21am by Lieutenant Michael Amato & Ensign Peter Novak & Ensign Tobias "Toby" Dienstag & Lieutenant Thraxina & Ensign Avis Larant & Lieutenant Mariya Karashka Ph.D.
Edited on on Tue Feb 14th, 2023 @ 9:42am

2,821 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Rendezvous At Starbase 10
Location: Starbase 10
Timeline: M2 MD03 (2268.6.05) 1700

Toby wasn't sure how but Thraxina had agreed to the triple date of Toby and Mike, Peter and Avis and oddest of all of her with Dr. Karashka. His boss had really put him in a spot. This was going to be a long awkward dinner. He also wasn't sure how she managed to rope Avis into this. Her and Peter had probably broken the bed by now in their sweet suite. He in fact was rather wore out but in a relaxing way. Although neither he or Mike were walking right this evening.

They held hands walking down the corridor towards the restaurant. No one cared aboard station and they weren't in uniform. Mike was wearing a loud flower print shirt, black pants and black ankle boots while Toby was wearing a blue quarter zip sweater and jeans which were extremely tight clearly showing off that his legs were pencil thin although the bobos made his feet look huge giving him an unbalanced look. The maturity difference in dress was rather pronounced.

When asked where to go by Thraxina, Toby had blurted out "Captain Nemo's," where Toby, Mike and Marcel Knowles, their new life support systems officer met with the Captain for dinner the night before. It was a nice place with a good view and Thraxina was a high maintenance woman who had a thing for beauty.

Thraxina was next to arrive, and boy was she glad she hadn't overdressed, rejecting the barely-there evening gowns of her home city for a simple tunic-like, sleeveless shift of a translucent buff colour, decorated with odd symbols around the neckline and flat slippers. Her legs, which the short tunic showed off beautifully, were bare and smooth as silk: centuries of eugenics had rendered the bodies of Stratos women completely hairless, so she didn't even need to shave them. All in all, she looked like a Nymph from Greek Mythology.

She waved when she saw Mike and Toby at their table for six. No sign of Avis and this Novak person, whom she had never spoken to, but knew by sight. Looks-wise he was everything that an Andaran girl should want: handsome, well chiseled, smooth. But truth to tell, she was hoping that this Lt. Karashka that Toby had set her up with was more like the sort of men of the Trog underclass that, on her own planet, she was not allowed to go with: a swarthy, hairy, sweaty, apeman: she wanted a bulky, muscly, hairy brute with male pheromones positively squirting out of his every pore.

She sat down and beamed a brilliant smile at the pair of lovebirds.

"Avis and Novak not here yet, then?" she asked redundantly, and then, more to the point "And where's the famous Karashka?!!"

"Did I just hear my name?" a voice sounded behind her: it was a feminine voice and sounded like that of a woman trying to sound pleasant and friendly, but who was a bit out of practice. Thraxina span in her seat, exposing a good bit of pale thigh as she did so and came face to face with pair of black thigh-boots, shapely black nylon clad thighs, a tight black shift which was even shorter than the regulation uniform and which did nothing to hide the curvaceous, wide hipped, womanly shape of the body within, and as Thraxina looked up and over the two stupendously upholstered twin nacelles, the pretty, but unexpected, face of an attractive brunette woman in her early 30s.

"I don't know... did you?!" answered Thraxina, now looking daggers at Toby (who might just have omitted to mention a couple of important bits of data, and pronouns, in his description of Karashka). Toby would have no trouble translating the words that the pretty helmswoman now mouthed at him very clearly: I am going to fucking kill you!

The young man sank into the booth, a horrified look on his face. He did remember mentioning the doctor was a woman, but either he was mistaken or it was lost in translation. Of course it was difficult to speak with Thraxina as she wouldn't let you get a word in edge wise. He quickly grabbed a menu to hide behind them.

"Ah," Mike started but then closed his mouth. Lordy how was he going to solve this. He sighed, "Yes, lieutenant, welcome to the party." Boy this was going to be a long evening.

"Thanks Mike!" the black clad newcomer said warmly "And you must be Thaxina" she gushed, holding out her hand. When the Andaran half stood to take it she was treated to a big kiss on each cheek by the usually undemonstrative Lieutenant Karashka "How wonderful to meet you at last, Toby has told me so much about you. I'm really looking forward to our date." she gushed.

"Oh" said Thraxina, collapsing back into her seat with two big lipstick marks on her face "He hasn't told me nearly enough about you, Lieut..." she started.

"Oh, it's Mariya, please." she smiled at the trio "I'll be right back, just going to get freshened up." she announced and marched off in her big kinky boots.

"Freshened up? More like 'strapped up'!" hissed Thraxina, as soon as she was out of earshot. "Toby!! Do I look like I just beamed up from the planet Lesbos?!!"

"Sorry Thraxina, I was strong armed into it," Toby responded, "She is my boss..."

"If this is going to be a mess, we could just... Ditch her and find another restaurant or just go home," Mike offered, trying to figure out a solution.

The girl rolled her eyes and sighed at Mike "Noooo it's fiiiine. She's Toby's boss, let's keep her sweet. And besides, we've got to wait for Avis and her feller. I mean, it's not like I have to... do anything, is it?"

The Camp Commandant got back to them even before Avis and Peter arrived and sat herself down next to Thraxina, nice and close. "Isn't this fun?" she beamed patting the Ardanan girl on the thigh with a light slapping noise while the recipient of this unwanted attention stared forward at Mike and Toby with a fixed smile.

"How about we order?" Mike offered, trying to speed things along for everyone's sake, "And ah put it on Captain Faust's tab." He looked at Thraxina, "I'll talk to him later... He'll be fine with it," he said.

“Why on Earth would I want to do that?” Frowned Thraxina. She suspected Mike was trying to show off his special relationship with Faust, and she was just about to attack him about it, but luckily Avis and Peter showed up right then. Just as well, Amato and the girl were meant to be showing a united front for Toby’s sake: sort of like mommy and daddy not arguing in front of the kids.

Mike rolled his eyes, even though they had made peace he still didn't like Thraxina. She was nosey, opinionated and was in everyone else's business. But anyway...

"Good evening Avis, I'm glad you could make it," Toby responded, glad to change the subject. He shot her look. He wish he could signal that Thraxina was particularly pissed tonight.

Avis was wearing the same rather flashy leopard spots pattern mini-skirt she had the day before when she and Peter had checked into the Hilton. She was also a blonde now.

She almost replied 'Well I'm not." But her self-control kicked in as she seated herself, "Yes ecstatic." OK, that even was dripping with sarcasm.

She was only there because Peter had received the invitation and wanted to meet her friends. Honestly friends was stretching it but now that they were a couple they really needed to go and do things as a couple. Might as well get the intros over.

"Peter you remember Dr. Amato and Toby from yesterday. And this is Thraxina...my sparring partner."

The young man nodded and smiled.

She glanced at the other woman, no clue. So she finished, "Everybody this is Peter Novak."

Lt Karashka smiled up, whoever the woman was, she looked incredibly happy "I'm Mariya, Thraxina's date."

Really? Avis blinked.

"A pleasure..." Peter responded.

Thraxina herself, looking mortified and embarrassed, looked narrow-eyed at Avis and gave a little shake of her head, as if to say don't you dare...

Avis caught the look but she hadn't quite finished with the introductions...like herself.

"I'm Avis...Avis Larant. Security. Nice to meet you, Mariya."

It looked like they had stepped into something coming to this dinner. Still this dinner should be informative. Worse comes to worse there was room service. Peter and Avis sat down. Peter was wearing a dark blue polo shirt and grey pants. His muscles filled the shirt leaving not much room to spare. He exchanged looks with Thraxina. He could tell she was sizing him up from head to toe.

Her examination confirmed exactly what she'd suspected, Novak was just the sort of chest-waxer she wasn't interested in. She wanted a real caveman. Unfortunately Karashka was about the butchest thing at this table.

A waitress came, Troyian by the look of her, and wanted to know if they wanted anything. Thraxina picked up a the menu, which was a quaint old fashioned thing on card, a gimmick of the place.

"What's the most alcoholic thing on here?" she muttered before looking up at the strange coloured woman "A double saurian brandy for me please... with a cherry on a stick in it!" she yelped.

"I'll have a Tranya" put in Toby's boss, before turning to Thraxxy and cautioning "Don't get too drunk, I might take advantage of you!" and giving her thigh a little rub, which made the Andaran's eyes become very round indeed.

Avis saw it and resisted all temptation to make a wise crack.

Everyone else at the table noticed the obvious pass. Toby's eyed got even wider, "Ah... How about a Banana Daquiery..." he said.

Mike looked at him, "You would..." he said with a chuckle, "Gin and Tonic."

Peter looked at the waitress, "How about a Coca-Cola with Bacardi," he said.

"Rigelian whiskey on the rocks," Avis didn't even look at the drinks part of the menu. She already knew what she wanted.

Thraxina caught Avis' eye "Oooh, is that stronger than a saurian brandy?" she asked plaintively.

Mariya smiled wolfishly at the two other couples.

"Isn't this nice?" she asked rhetorically "Have you all been staying at the hotel?"

She sighed "Oh, I've been stuck on the ship, filling in forms about Toby's naughty little 3-D recreational facility malfunction." she chuckled, wagging a finger at the Ensign in a very genial manner. If that had happened this time last week, she would have been furious.

"Yes, I nearly got squashed by the Loch Ness Monster!" chirped up Thraxina, in an almost babyish voice, which made Mariya do a pitying pout and rub her bare shoulder, as if to say there, there, my pretty, Auntie Krashka kiss it better.

Toby sighed, "Once again it isn't my 3-D recreational facility," he said, "The yard engineers installed it and now we are all trying to keep it together... It is only experimental after all."
Toby was gay but he was still creeped out by the Camp Commandant being all over Thraxina, especially since it was clear Thraxina was not interested. Still she could take care of herself...

“I am so sorry, Toby” What, the Car Crash was apologising to her whipping boy of the last two weeks?! “It’s just that you’ve done such wonderful work on that device that everyone just thinks of it as yours!” She beamed him an indulgent smile and it was clear that offering the Dragon virgin sacrifices was definitely the way to keep in with the boss lady.

"Ah, thank you..." Toby responded. His face was flushed as he was incredibly embarrassed. He quietly hoped this evening would be over quickly.

"So Peter, has the hotel lived up to it's reputation?" Mike asked trying to change the subject.

"Oh absolutely, so much better than being aboard ship. Glad I didn't get stuck with that," Peter responded with a smile, "It's been a nice vacation, so far anyway..." The young man was trying his best not to shoot weird looks at the rather forward woman

"I hear each room has a hot tub, viewscreen, double bed and a mini-synthesizer" purred Karashka "I've just got the one night here. Of course, I'll be just rattling around a room like that on my own though." she sighed sadly.

"Plenty of people at the bar if you want to go that route," Mike commented, "I've seen several give you the once over... Like that pretty blonde over there." He was trying to do Thraxina a favor, even if it was only a small one. In actuality no one at the bar had given car crash a second thought.

Mariya frowned and took one look at the bar and then back at Amato. Avis had looked that way too just out of curiosity.

"Doctor, are you trying to get rid of me?!" she glanced round at everybody sitting at the table except Thraxina, as she was right beside her. "Or..." her face fell, and she suddenly stood, and looked at Toby "... very good Dienstag, very good indeed. Perfect revenge on the old dragon who's been giving you a hard time at the office: show up the deluded old dyke by setting her up with the girl you know she likes and humiliate her in front of a crowd." she nodded and looked down at Thraxina "I don't suppose you're even..."

Avis blinked, she wasn't in on anything. This whole thing was confusing to her.

The beautiful Andaran looked up and shook her head sadly "I'm afraid not."

Karashka nodded and smiled sadly, looking at Toby again. "Don't worry Dienstag, I won't hold it against you. You've taught me a valuable lesson. I'm past it. Too many years in the lab when I should have been out looking for someone. Look at me!" she gestured to the, frankly, ridiculous outfit she was wearing "Mutton dressed as lamb! I deserve to be laughed at... enjoy your evening, everybody. I hope you get some more laughs, but this joke is going to her room." And with that she walked away, trying to keep her dignity by keeping her head held high and not running, although she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, before the tears started and her overdone eye makeup ran.

Avis frowned, "And sometimes I admit I'm a bit cruel. That was...bad."
If it had been some plot to humiliate the woman, Peter better not have been part of it.

Thraxina just glared at Amato.

"Oh Mike! You IDIOT!" she hissed.

"Well that wasn't my intention, but regardless you're rid of her now," Mike responded with a glare, "Be happy we got rid of her before she starting fondling you under the table."

Peter shot a look at Avis, trying to signal maybe they should get out of the line of fire as well.

Avis was glaring at Mike.

The drinks had arrived and Thraxina stood and grabbed hers, a double saurian brandy with a maraschino cheery on a stick. "Typical man!" she growled and sank the brandy in one go. "You just don't understand women! You've completely humiliated her. I'm going to have to go after her."

"And tell her I had nothing at all to do with this!" Avis asked of Thraxina.

Thraxina shuffled sideways out of the booth and pointed at her empty glass and garnish. "I'll be back in a bit and no one had better try and take my cherry!" she warned, then hustled off at top speed. And that was the last they saw of her that night.

"Well, I guess we better be going," Peter said the looked at Avis who nodded.

"Yes, what a shit show," Avis gulped down her whiskey and coughed a bit as she stood up.

"Good night," Toby responded with a sigh.

Avis so wanted to say something to Toby but the guy would probably burst out crying so she let it go.

Peter and Avis then left the booth.

"Stupid bitch," Mike responded as he stood up, "I don't know what you see in that sexist Andaran."

"She is ridiculous and always everyone's business," Toby commented, "She just keeps stepping on rakes."

"Let's get out of here, we'll have more fun back at the room and forget about this mess," Mike responded, "And if the Camp Commandant takes it out on you, file a complaint with Zon."

"Yeah I guess," Toby responded with a sigh. Well that ended on a brown note...

 

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