"How Do I Get You Alone?"

Posted on 01 Mar 2024 @ 6:35pm by Lieutenant Raviran Dattek-Winters & Lieutenant JG Lisald Vaat

Mission: Enigma Variations
Location: Ravi's Quarters
Timeline: A couple of days prior to the Distress Call

Dr Winters was listening to music in her quarters. She had some ancient music from the archives - something she often liked to explore. She had found a song by centuries old artists "Heart" and looked them up. Apparently they were daughters of a singer from another, even older group. Clearly a very talented musical family.

Ravi liked the sound of Ann's voice, it was clear and pure and she also found other tracks, such as one very powerful one called "Don't Tell Me Now" on which she featured, so Ravi had been checking this particular artist out. One of the songs she played was called "How do I get you alone" and it seemed to Ravi that it found some feelings that resonated with her own.

Vaat had been to Bajor whilst the crew had been at DS9 for R & R and the fact that he hadn't taken her had made her not a little bit hurt. She had hoped he would introduce her to his family. He had said he would but then he'd gone 'home' as it were, if not directly, with another crew member and Ravi still stung over it, but she didn't know how to bring it up, in fact she didn't like to...... if Vaat didn't want to take her to meet his folks, she wouldn't have been at all surprised, given what she looked like!

It was just that he'd said he wanted to, that had given her the hope and now dashed it was more painful that if it had never been mentioned.

Opening a Comm-Channel, Ravi decided to take this by the horns, but as soon as she heard Vaat's voice her courage melted along with her knees and she didn't say a word about it, but just sweetly invited him to come and have supper with her.

It wasn't until he had gone that she remembered she hadn't turned the music off, but as he didn't mention it, she was sure he hadn't even noticed it in the background.

=^= Winters to Lisald =^= she began, hoping he was free to take a personal call. =^= Can you talk Lieutenant? =^= it was an unwritten rule to make it sound formal in case either of them were to happen to be in a meeting or on duty if they called one another.

=/\= Of course, Doctor. I am in my quarters now. What can I do for you? =/\= Lisald was surprised that she was calling upon him so quickly after their dinner, which had been lovely, and comfortable. Whatever the noise was that she had been playing in the background had eventually faded away to his ears. He thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

With both her courage and her knees useless to her, Ravi was feeling vulnerable now. "=^= ....erm..... I was thinking it might be nice.... if you want to...... well, I've booked some time in the holodeck and I was planning to do a bit of hiking or climbing.... and there's a program already on there of Bajoran hiking and climbing routes, so I thought maybe we could .......... well.... check it out......... if you'd like... I mean it might be boring for you - you've probably done them all a thousand times before..... and if you don't want to I'd be happy to do them on my own but I just wondered...............well it never hurts to ask......? =^=

Lisald smiled to her stammering and pauses while she spoke. When he responded, the smile was clearly evident in his voice. "I'd like that very much, Ravi. Bajor is a large world, so I imagine there are all kinds of trails and things I haven't even heard of, let alone experienced. This is extremely thoughtful of you. When is the holodeck time reserved for," he asked. With Spangler on leave, and Lisald's own recent promotion to Assistant Chief Science Officer, he was effectively in charge of the department again, and so wanted to make sure there was no conflict.

=^= I was able to provisionally reserve tomorrow afternoon, but if that's too short notice there's also the next afternoon and by then I go over to nightshift so we'd skip four days and then could start looking at the afternoons or mornings for either of the two days after those, ie days 8 & 9 if tomorrow is day 1 =^= she had this worked out and now he was sounding as if he was onside with the plan, she was getting her legs back underneath her again.

=^= What would suit you with your shifts? =^= she asked.

Lisald listened carefully. She had him at tomorrow afternoon, but he listened to her schedule, already in mind to try and plan something for her on her next set of days off that married up with his. When she was finished, he responded, "Tomorrow afternoon sounds wonderful. I get off duty at 1400." He then had a horrifying thought. What if her reservation was at 1300?! "Uh, is that too late?"

=^= No, not at all, that's perfect. My booking is for 15:30 so time for us to get a shower or coffee or something first so you can wind down a bit after your shift? =^=

Things between Lisald and Ravi were certainly progressing. He had wanted to take her to Bajor during their last visit, but she had gotten busy and could not attend, so Spangler had gone with him instead. If she had gone, he was going to take her home to visit his parents and other extended family. Things were progressing indeed. To that end, he absolutely wanted to freshen up after work. Not that his work aboard ship was particularly disgusting, or even caused him to work up a sweat, but it would be nice to shower and brush his teeth again after his long 6-hour shift. "Yeah, that would be great, Ravi. That will give me time to freshen up so we can make that time. Maybe afterwards we could get a drink in Ten Forward?"

=^= I'd really love that!=^= she replied, the enthusiasm obvious in her tone of voice. He had accepted and seemed keen. She was so happy. Things were looking up and she went to bed as excited as a kid unable to wait for tomorrow to start.

Lisald smiled, her joy and excitement clear in her voice over the comm channels. "Great! Then I shall see you tomorrow after work!"


Lieutenant jg Lisald Vaat
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Cygnus

and

Lieutenant Raviran Dattek-Winters
Chief Medical Officer
USS Cygnus