After Work Activity Spin Up

Posted on Wed Mar 26th, 2025 by Ensign Dexter Elliott & Ensign Narvo Tohl

1,160 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: M01 - The Hooke
Location: Crew Mess, USS Hooke
Timeline: Present

Narvo had barely sat down in the crew mess with his meal when he saw the legs of someone standing there in front of him, he shoveled a bite from his plate into his mouth before looking up to see Dexter standing there. "Oh," He said and pointed at the chair across from him, "You can join me if you want?"

Dexter nodded and sat down, "I just thought I'd ask before just sitting down." Dexter had begun to see Narvo as a friend partly because the two shared quarters like many other Ensigns on board who had at least one person they were sharing a room with. He put his plate down, "I heard things got a little fun up here on the ship."

Narvo took another bite while nodding slowly, once his mouth was empty he spoke. "An asteroid began moving toward the planet. We found another one with thrusters on it and had to disable that one as well, at least nobody got hurt and we were able to neutralize it rather quickly. I heard things got interesting down on the planet as well."

"Oh yes," Dexter responded. "We all got stuck in the ruins, and I don't think we did anything at all to get out of them either. It was really weird and unexpected." He began to eat after finishing his sentence. Dexter hadn't sat there to discuss the away mission, which was his first one, he'd sat there to talk about other things unrelated to being in Starfleet. Besides it seemed as if the meeting was now over, or at least close to being over.

"I was thinking about possibly joining one of the off duty activities that are starting up," He said. There were several options across the ship for the crew to do, though he wasn't sure who had started what. Dexter knew Lieutenant Bancroft had spoken about starting them up as a way for the crew to get to know each other better though.

"Oh?" Narvo asked.

Dexter tilted his head slightly, "You didn't know?"

Narvo shook his head, "I hadn't heard anything, but someone did mention that it wasn't uncommon for a ship to have off duty activities for the crew. Do you know what's going to be available?" He asked because he was quite interested in doing something besides going to duty and going to the mess before returning to his quarters.

"Well," Dexter began, "There's going to be some sort of exercise group starting up tomorrow actually there's a number of them. Someone talked about putting out flyers for the crew who are musically talented to have weekly practices to hold concerts here in the mess hall. I've heard there's a couple members of the crew who are avid rock wall climbers that wanted to do something together regularly."

Dexter paused for a moment to eat a little bit more and think about whether or not there were going to be any other activities then shook his head, "That's all that I can think of, but I'm certain there will be many others." He told Narvo, "You should think about doing some of them. It'll get really boring on board this ship after a while if you just keep to the same pattern of life."

Narvo nodded, "Oh I was thinking that already," He told his friend. "I'll have to talk to Lieutenant Bancroft," He said. "Unless someone is planning on putting these somewhere in the ship's database?" He asked.

Dexter shrugged, "I don't see why they wouldn't do that." He then thought of something and pulled a data pad from his left pocket. "Here." He said and slid it across the table, "If you have any suggestions on things you want to do on the ship with others Lieutenant Bancroft asked for people to submit them."

Narvo took the data pad and placed it in his own pocket. "I'll have to do that." He said in reply. There were a number of things that Dexter mentioned that sounded really quite interesting. He wasn't musically inclined, however, the rock wall climbing sounded interesting. So did exercise groups, Narvo wasn't very good about working out on his own. Besides that Narvo thought it was better than keeping to his current routine.

"Oh before I forget," He said and pulled a data pad of his own out of his pocket. "From our conversation the other day," He said and handed it to Dexter. "I thought you'd be interested in the whole Trill and symbiont history."

Dexter raised a brow and took the data pad, though he was uncertain about reading it while trying to eat. Remembering the conversation kind of grossed him out a little bit. And, he remembered Narvo talking about it in something of a disgusted manner as well. He began skimming through it, though he'd make a better effort of reading it later, and turned up his nose. "This says it's a great honor to be joined though."

Narvo nodded, "I know," He said and shook his head in disgust. "I think I'd rather choose death than to be joined to one of those worms. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way, though I've met a great many of my own kind that felt completely differently about it." He shrugged, "I know you're trying to eat, I just remembered having that." He indicated it with his eyes.

"Oh no it's okay," Dexter said and turned it off. "I'll read it tonight before going to bed." Dexter hadn't planned on reading anything before bed this time, but it was at least not engineering related. He'd had quite his fill after the away mission, unaware of how exhausting that could be sometimes. They sure didn't teach that at the academy, the Ensign thought about that quietly. He was almost done eating anyway, "I'm sure a joined Trill definitely feels differently about it. Maybe that's one of the reasons your people go through such rigorous testing beforehand?"

Narvo shrugged, "No doubt," He said. "Though it's been known to happen where a Trill gets joined without any training. I think I'd just let the symbiont die." He said confidently.

Dexter allowed himself to laugh a little bit, "A living and intelligent being?" He asked.

Narvo nodded, "Not intelligent enough to live outside the confines of a person," He added. Narvo shrugged again, "I know that sounds brutal, it's just how I feel about it."

Dexter laughed a little more before getting up, "I suppose that's one way to look at it. I'm going to the gym then I'll be in our quarters."

"Sounds good to me," Narvo said.

Dexter then turned while shaking his head. There was a smirk on his face, mostly because he wasn't buying that his friend would let a living creature die like that. Dexter didn't think Narvo as the cruel type no matter how disgusting one of those worms were to him.

 

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