Drowning Out Your Troubles In Chocolate And Comics

Posted on Mon Jun 12th, 2023 @ 12:01pm by Lieutenant Michael Amato & Ensign Tobias "Toby" Dienstag & Lieutenant Thraxina

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 3: The Peace Ship
Location: Deck 5: Mess Hall #1

The mess hall was deserted on a Friday afternoon around 1500. Except for the wait staff clearing tables and milling the floor the only one there was Ensign Dienstag. Toby sat at one of the tables sucking down a chocolate milkshake, a forlorn look on his face. This was his third one, as evidenced by the two empty glasses in front of him.

Thraxina plonked down opposite, she was carrying a tray containing three banana milkshakes.

She looked at Toby's discard pile and then her own three full glasses.

"All right, I'm a pregnant lady. I have cravings. What's your excuse?" she asked frowning, as if she suspected that just because she was with child, Toby was going to claim that he was, too, the little attention grabber.

"So you're really pregnant?" Toby asked as he dropped his spoon, his eyes widening even more, "I thought you were kidding." He never knew when Thraxina was being serious or just messing with him. She knew no boundaries.

"Mmm, you can feel my bump if you like, it's amazingly big already." she confirmed, taking a big suck of dazzlingly artificial yellow liquid through her straw. "I don't know if it's because there's five of the little perishers in there, or because it's a 'cross species mating' as Doctor Slattery so charmingly calls it. Gods, he's a funny bugger and no mistake, but according to the computer, he's the biggest expert on this sort of thing." Thraxina felt weirdly guilty, talking to Toby about this, as she could have insisted in seeing Amato instead, but was actually relieved that he hadn't been chosen as her obstetrician.

"Otherwise, I'd have gone to see Mike, of course." she lied.

Toby nodded but the expression on his face clearly showed that he did not believe her.

"Anyway, the old tum is growing like topsy, my boobs feel heavy and I'm getting sort of... well..." she leaned in and whispered "... bristle-y" Probably T.M.I., but the beautiful young woman with the flawless body seemed to find these rapid physiological changes more fascinating than distressing.

"Alrighty," Toby responded, "I'll have to take your word for it. I'm not sure I really want any kids. Probably be as screwed up as Mike and I."

"Mike and me" Thraxina corrected, pregnancy hadn't made her any less of a grammar Nazi. She didn't pry as to why they were 'screwed up': well, she and Amato only put up with each other for Toby's sake, but she had assumed that the two of them were madly in love with each other. Hmm, trouble in paradise?? Oh dear, now he was getting one of his children's magazines out; she felt a lecture coming on about Invisible Boy or Wonder Lass or someone heading her way any second now.

He sighed, "Well at least one good thing happened today... The 15th means new comic book." He pulled the rolled up comic book out of his pocket. It was a "Spider-Man" comic of all things. The 167,000 issue of it or so.

Thraxina tipped her head so she could see it.

"Spider... Man." she read out loud from the upside down letters, pronouncing each word very separately. "Oh yes, you told me all about him - he's the one with eight legs, isn't he? And he killed his arch enemy The Fly" she guessed, hoping to forestall a detailed description of the arachnid themed masked crimefighter.

"Ah... No, just a nerdy kid who got bit by a radioactive spider and got super powers," Toby corrected, "Some days I think through what it would take to actually engineer such a spider, but I doubt Car Crash would let do something that out there... Even then I'm not much of a Xenobiologist."

"What do you mean, 'Screwed Up'?" Thraxina asked suddenly and abruptly. She didn't mean to pry, really. Actually, she wasn't even majorly interested; just anything to get Toby off the subject of Spider Boy or whatever. Last week he'd given her an hour long lecture on how he could replicate wonder Woman's lasso if he had unlimited supplies of dilithium. She couldn't go through that again.

The young man shrugged, "I don't know," he responded sheepishly, "Just a low week I guess..." He sighed, "Well, like I said, Mike's been distant. We haven't spent much time together in awhile and I wonder if it's me. I know we have demanding schedules, especially now that Car Crash seems to have me managing the entire computer core now..."

"Well, that's a sign she trusts you!" smiled Thraxina, trying to be positive. She did wonder to herself if there might be another man in the picture, but she couldn't imagine who. Well, she certainly wouldn't mention that idea to him.

There was only one person who knew the answer to this, Mike Amato. They didn't really get on, but for Toby's sake, she needed to get to the bottom of this!

After Thraxina had left, another officer who was holding a coffee cup, took her spot across from Toby. This time it was Carter Page, one of the ship's damage control officers. He was about Toby's age.
and of a similar, slight build. He smiled at Toby, "Hey Tobster, why the long face?" He asked.

"Oh, hi Carter… Just the usual, no time for anything except work," Toby responded with a sigh.

"And comic books," Carter responded with a smirk, "Latest Spider-Man eh? I'll have to take a look myself." He examined the book's cover. "And tell me about it, you know how my job is… Lots of downtime then days of 24 hour shifts," he added before adjusting his red operations tunic.

"Yeah, completely," Toby responded, "You free tonight?"

"Yeah, finally a night off," Carter responded as he fixed a few loose black strands on his head, "Why? Need to clear your head?"

"Yeah, could use some time away from it all," Toby answered.

"I know the feeling… Well, figure out what movies you want to watch and I'll have them queued up," Carter offered.

"Thanks," Toby responded, finally letting s smile break through.

"What are friends for?" Carter offered, returning the smile.

 

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