Dry Cleaning...

Posted on Wed Feb 8th, 2023 @ 9:49am by Captain Tristan Faust & Cadet Freshman Grade Poppy Koppelman

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Rendezvous At Starbase 10
Location: Deck 1: Bridge

Shore Leave on Starbase 10 was beginning to wrap up as more and more members of the crew returned to the ship. Although there were still a few more days in dock, Captain Faust was ready to get back into the action. He sat on the bridge reading a few reports while drinking a cup of coffee. Looks like the last report he was still waiting on was from Cadet Koppelman.. Penny, Polly... Something like that. Tristan felt a bit embarrassed he couldn't remember but their first meeting on the ship the Cadet introduced herself in a motor-mouthed word salad fashion.

The Turbolift doors opened and the aforementioned Cadet walked out backwards still talking to someone inside.

"I'm so sorry Commander, I didn't know you wanted to get out. And I'm late with my report and..."

The lift doors shut.

"Oh."

A worried looking Poppy turned, heart in her mouth, it was nerve wracking enough having to approach the Captain at the best of times; somehow approaching him when he was on the bridge, in his 'Throne of Power' was even more so. He was surrounded by high rank officers, too, all at his bidding.

On top of all this, she was in trouble. She couldn't work it out: her report had been all ready to go last night when she went to bed. When she woke up, half of it was missing! But how? No matter, the 'dog ate my homework' excuse was no good to tell the Captain: she would have to just take what was coming on her rather weak chin.

She walked around the back of his chair and nearly collided with that Lieutenant Thraxina woman, who frankly terrified her. "Out of the way, girl!" barked the helmswoman as she went to check something with shield control. "S... Sorry..." stuttered Poppy. "S-S-S-Sorry what?!" demanded the gold uniformed gorgon. "Sorry, ma'am." the cadet managed to reply in a very small voice.

"Better."

She finally got to the Captain. He was in his gold uniform. Poppy wondered what he would look like in a green wraparound number: she though it would really compliment rather than clash with his amazing blue eye, his blond hair and his beautifully wax... oh, he'd noticed her; if not in the way she wanted him to.

"Koppelman, Sir, Personnel Data report. I'm sorry it's late Sir. No excuse, Sir." she said, coming to attention and handing him her electronic clipboard.

"Thank you cadet, I've been waiting for this report," the Captain responded giving her a reassuring smile. Penny or Polly or whatever her first name was, looked clearly nervous. Her skinny legs were vibrating.

"Yes Sir!" she acknowledged, staring straight ahead. For a second. Or two. Then her eyes slid downwards, defying her will. She watched him intently, biting her bottom lip, trying to memorise him, hoping she cold replay this moment again and again in her head later on; except in her version he would look at the report in wide eyed wonder and then, shaking his head in awe look up. Poppy... it is Poppy isn't it? Poppy, this is the most accomplished Personnel Data report I have ever seen in all my years in the Fleet. My God, you've done it! You've revolutionised the way personnel data is recorded, stored and retrieved. This is wonderful, this is... he looked up, his dazzling blue eyes becoming lost in her green limpid pools... are you free for dinner tonight? I'd like to discuss this with you furth...

Oh shoot, he was looking up for real! By the time he had lifted his eyes to her, Poppy was staring straight ahead again.

"Everything looks ship shape cadet, please file it and push the changes to live status," he said before handing the clipboard back to her, "You are making quite a splash so far on the Midway, I hope it continues."

Phew! Poppy was so relived, she took back the clipboard without really looking and clipped the full thermo cup of coffee, which the Captain had balanced on the arm of his command chair. She looked on in horror as the acrobatic cup committed a mid-air flip and deposited most of its scalding hot contents straight onto Tristan’s crotch.

“OH NO!!” Bellowed Poppy, which brought Thraxina running. She was sick of seeing the obnoxious, love-sick girl making cow-eyes at Faust.

Fortunately the Captain caught the thermos before its comments were completely empty.

“Quick, it’s the Captain! His ‘downstairs parts’ are all hot and wet!” Poppy cried.

Thraxina looked the panicking teenager up and down and dryly commented “From what I can see, he’s not the only one.”

The Captain looked at the cadet and laughed at himself. "Well this is what I get," he said standing up. His uniform tunic and crotch were quite soaked. Downstairs parts? Was she 10?. He tapped the intercom, "Bridge to Sanitation, need a mop and bucket up here," he said.

Because female uniforms had no pockets (another sure sign, apart from their ridiculous shortness, that they were designed by men) Poppy, who had a permanently runny nose it seemed, had to keep a hanky in her regulation red pants. She managed to extract the venerable snot-rag (which had once been white with a pink border and a picture of bunny-rabbits in the corner, but was now mostly green and yellow stains) without exposing too much of her knickers to everybody on the bridge who were all, unsurprisingly staring at this farrago.

"Don't worry Captain!" she gasped. Balancing the clipboard in one hand and quickly going down on one knee, the blundering girl started to rub the front of Faust's trousers with the mucky hanky.

"Ah please Cadet, that's fine," the Captain responded before standing up, "I think I'm going to go get a shower and change. Please just be more careful in the future."

"Oh, OK, sorry Sir." Poppy nodded, standing and putting the hanky back safe where she got it from: she would never wash it again, it now carried an extra, special stain, that would always remind her of the Captain.

"Well don't just stand there, girl, help the Captain back to his quarters with his reports!" Lt. Thraxina ordered the hapless whelp. "Oh! Yes Ma'am!" Poppy yelped, scooping up the clipboards while Faust walked, somewhat awkwardly, to the turbolift doors. They swished open and a rather bemused Lt. karashka walked onto the Bridge.

Poppy smiled at science officer, even though she scared her almost as much as Lt. Thraxina, and explained "Don't worry Ma'am, he hasn't wet himself, I just had a little accident on his lap."

"The mind boggles!" the Bulgarian officer commented, walking past. She had more important matters to deal with than incontinent cadets.

In the Turbolift down, Poppy tried to shake off any stray coffee from the sensitive electronic clipboards.

She looked up plaintively at Faust.

"Oh Captain, I hope I haven't damaged any of your equipment. Maybe when we get to your quarters I could give things a rub down with a damp cloth." she suggested.

Then it hit her... they were going to the Captain's quarters?!!!

"I'm sure the equipment will be fine Cadet," the Captain responded, "You know, you need to try and calm down. I know they wind you all up at the academy and set you loose. But if you stay this high strung you're going to explode." He pulled his uniform tunic off, revealing his black undershirt which was thankfully not as soaked as his Command gold tunic.

Maybe he should have waited until they were inside: she couldn't decide if it was embarrassing or cool to be seen going into the Captain's quarters with him as he was pulling his clothes off. She gave a passing crewman a bashful smile.

"He can't wait!" she grinned.

Once inside, Poppy marvelled at the small size of it. The room, that was. She could clearly see though to where his bed was, with its red cover, and she too went a little red as her tummy leapfrogged. She put the clipboards down on the triangular desk and held out her arms to him.

"Would you like me to take that down to be dry cleaned, Sir?" she asked, nodding at his bunched up gold tunic.

"If you would, that would be incredibly helpful," he responded before walking over to the dresser. He took out a fresh uniform which in this case was the green wrap around tunic. He removed his uniform boots and set them down. "I'll be quick," before heading into the bathroom.

She dragged her eyes up from his slim but muscular body, outlined so neatly by the tight black regulation t-shirt, to his sparkling blue eyes.

"Uh? Oh!" He wanted her to wait until he had removed his other coffee stained clothes. "Ok...er, Sir." she gulped. While he was gone, she looked around the room. There wasn't a lot of room for ornaments and mementoes, but one item did get her attention. It was a large silver altar crucifix. It looked to be several hundred years old.

"Oh darn!" muttered Poppy, looking a the crucifix "And, of course, I would be Jewish!" She bent down so her eyes were level with the little man on the front of the cross. She didn't dare touch it. Not with her track record today. "Hello" she said "Hey, he loves you and YOU'RE Jewish!" she reasoned.

Several minutes later the Captain emerged from the bathroom fully clothed except for his tunic which he had forgotten on the bed. Tristan's tanned, muscular and hairless torso passed through Poppy's field of vision as he picked up and donned the green wrap around tunic.

Poppy looked at the half naked man on the cross and the half naked man in the room. Both objects of veneration and wonder, but perhaps only one offered any kind of salvation.

"I was just admiring your cross." she said. She didn't know to call it a 'crucifix'.

"I'm Jewish." she said suddenly. She wasn't sure why.

"Ok, congratulations?" Tristan responded as he fastened his tunic. He wasn't sure why her mentioning her religion was important. "And thank you, it's a heirloom and an antique," he added.

"Oh, so..." it was a cheeky question to ask, especially of her commanding officer, but she blurted it out anyway "... so, are you a practicing Christian?" she had no conception that she was, in fact, asking him if he was a practicing Catholic.

Odd, here she was, a half naked Captain Faust in front of her, IN his quarters, a dream situation she could never have even planned or hoped for; but somehow she had conjured up this potential barrier between them, from out of nowhere.

Sure she was Jewish; her Mom had made her put it on her Academy application form, and yeah, her family celebrated Jewish holidays and carried on Jewish rites like the blessing on Friday night supper, but... well, they had just seemed like mere family traditions until now. She was going to have to talk about this to someone. She needed advice. And she needed advice from someone to would tell it to her straight. But who?

"Um, yes," Tristan responded, "I won't have figured this was something that would appear on my personnel file. Usually religion is on something like that." He walked back into the sitting area, "Well, I should return to the bridge... Is there anything else you need from me?" He asked.

Yes! Everything! was her immediate thought, but she settled for "No, oh, unless you want me to take the rest of your laundry down? Two of my room-mates are an A.C.s in maintenance and they say nobody ever thinks to take their laundry to them, they always have to collect it." she smiled helpfully. "I'll go fetch it!"

She dived to the bathroom and grabbed his laundry basket before he could stop her.

"Thank you cadet," Tristan responded thinking nothing of it before heading towards the door.

Poppy followed him out, but went the opposite way, heading towards the turbolifts to the below decks maintenance areas and, it should be noted, a great deal, in fact the vast majority, of his clothes did make it to the laundry.

 

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