The Mess Hall, Day 39 [Open/Unfinished]

[miss_gaila]

Humans had bizarre food customs... and bizarre food. When she was at the academy, Gaila had normally cooked her own food, but it wasn't possible to cook every day on the Enterprise, so she was left eating what the replicator claimed were human foods. She hadn't even heard of half the menu choices. The plate before her contained something called

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[crankychef]

Tony glanced up from where he'd been picking up plates and throwing them into the big grey bus tub. He'd let the crewman have a 15 minute break to do, whatever it was Crewman Withers did when he wasn't bussing the tables. REally, Tony just didn't care enough to find out.

Well, lets see how the pretty Orion reacts to the pot pie. Ahh, that pot pie, pretty much unofficially voted by all the kitchen staff to be the worst entree in the replicator.

The Chef in him really wondered how the fuck you could screw up pot pie, the damn dish was designed to be a dumping ground for leftovers and food that was just slightly on the good side of going bad. How the hell the replicator fucked it up he'd never know.

At her face, he chucked, "Yeah, I don't recommended the pot pie, it's got it's own level of nasty above all the other nasty that comes out of that replicator."

[miss_gaila]

... And that was pretty much the most disgusting thing ever. She gagged slightly and took a sip of her water before glancing over at Tony. She quirked a slight smile and pushed the plate away from her, relieved to have an excuse to stop eating it. "Thanks for giving me the heads up before I tasted it," she said teasingly. "I have no idea what chicken pot pie is supposed to taste like, but I'm pretty sure that not even humans could stomach this."

[crankychef]

"Ehh, you'd be surprised what hunger can do." Tony put the tub on the table behind him and sat across from Gaila. "Granted, that particular dish was voted the worst by 3 out of 4 line cooks so."

He smirked, "I still don't know how the hell the replicator fucked up pot pie though. I'm not that familiar with Orion cooking, I'd like to be. Anyway, I'm not that familiar with Orion cooking, so I don't know if you have this kinda dish, you probably should, every other culture seems to. But, Pot pie is supposed to be one of those dishes you can make with almost rotted vegetables and meat and still come out tasting great. The fact that the replicator screwed it up... is just, well, fucked up."

He glared at the offending machine across the room.

[miss_gaila]

She laughed. "Well, I'm not that hungry," she said, walking over to the replicators and getting chocolate cake. She looked at him for a moment, as if challenging him to question her decision to only eat dessert, and then returned to her table.

At his next comment she looked slightly horrified. "This dish is intended to include food that's no longer fresh? Why wouldn't those foods be thrown away?" She paused. "Clearly I need to consult someone before making random selections from the replicators. Although honestly, the only human food I'm certain about is dessert."

[notacactus]

One thing that didn't change no matter where you went was that working in the labs tended to force a slightly irregular timetable on you. An experiment that couldn't be left unattended had pushed Jay's lunch break back by a couple of hours. Oh well, might as well look on the bright side. At least there weren't queues at the replicators.

Jay turned, tray in hand - some sort of rice dish with chicken - and scanned the room for the nearest free seat. Ah, there was one. She approached the table and cleared her throat politely. "Is it okay if I sit here?"

[miss_gaila]

Gaila looked up from the half-eaten chocolate cake (and nearly untouched pot pie) and smiled at the woman standing before her. "Of course," she replied, smiling warmly and trying to recall the woman's name. "Dr. Zagri, right?"

[notacactus]

"That's me," she said, setting her tray down on the table and sliding into the seat. She shot her fork an unfriendly look and lifted it. "Call me Jay. I don't think I know your name...?"

[miss_gaila]

"It's nice to officially meet you, Jay," Gaila replied, taking another bite of the chocolate cake. "I'm Gaila." She glanced at Jay's plate. "Whatever that is, it looks a lot better than chicken pot pie."

[miss_gaila]

Gaila hadn't eaten the pot pie, but was almost done with her second piece of chocolate cake. She looked up when Nyota suddenly sat down across from her, and then blinked in surprise at her declaration. "Why are you apologizing?" she asked, and then realized that Nyota probably felt bad about their conversation in sickbay. "It's all right, I know you were upset."

[miss_gaila]

Gaila listened attentively to her friend's apology. "Thank you," she said. "And I know you weren't really mad at me, but if you can't freak out in front of your friends, who are you going to freak out in front of? In any event, apology accepted."

She raised an eyebrow when her friend snagged part of the cake. "Do we need another one?" she asked teasingly.

Nyota's next comment made her happy in a way she hadn't expected it to. It wasn't that she didn't know Nyota was there to support her - Nyota had listened to her before when she found human society confusing, but... But somehow the words seemed significant. The invitation was stated so openly, and Gaila found herself wondering if someday she might be able to tell Nyota about the things that really hurt her. Not yet, but... "Thank you," she said softly. "I really appreciate that, ."