Chapter Six:Traditions

 Crad hurried up the corridor and managed to catch a brief glimpse of the new helm officer enter the captain's quarters as he turned the corner to arrive. 

Great, he thought, late to my first briefing with the new captain. This is going to go over well. 

Of course, Crad knew he wasn't actually late, but arriving after the junior-most officer couldn't possibly look good. The door had already closed by the time he arrived, so he pressed the bell.

"Come!" 

The door hissed open and, before he could even register anything visually, the aroma of hot savoury and spicy steam filled Crad's nostrils. 

As he was afraid, he had been the last to arrive, though what he saw was enough to force that discomfort to the back of his mind for the moment.

The Captain's quarters were, as would be expected, well apportioned and comfortably decorated, but in the middle of the main room of the suite, Captain D'arko had a stove set up with a number of large pots steaming and boiling on the various burners. While in uniform, D'arko wore a blue apron with gold lettering spelling out "Salute the Chef" in fancy script. A truly joyous smile played across the Andorian's mouth and he busied himself with the various pots, splitting his attention between them and the assembled senior crew milling about.

"Chief! Glad you're here. Help yourself to a drink," D'arko indicated a small table by the door with various bottles arranged next to a selection of glasses. Crad stood still, his brain unable to make any sense of the situation.

"That everyone?" the Captain asked the room, though no one in particular. "Excellent. My first assignment as a bridge officer was on The Massachusetts under Captain Julienne Jeansonne. He had a tradition that I swore I would take up when I had command of a ship, so... Since our mission officially begins at 0700 tomorrow, I'm making dinner for our first briefing." D'arko lifted the lid on one pot, giving it's contents a slow stir.

A low murmur of polite appreciation among the gathered crew passes through the room.

"Food's almost ready, but let's get started. ghaH'e', give me a basic rundown on the crew status."

Klortho was clearly impressed with the ease D'arko referenced him by the Klingon honorific.

"Aye, Captain. Most of the crew is currently aboard and settled. Crew rotation will begin with Gamma shift in four hours, to make ready for departure. We are scheduled to take the final crew members aboard when we arrive ad Deep Space Nine to rendezvous with the Serenity. "

Crad had never served with a Klingon before and the look of the new First Officer brought a shiver up his spine.

"Good good," D'arko acknowledged, "Chief? Status."

Crad suddenly felt the need to swallow a lump of... something.

"Well, Sir, the new Matter/Anti-matter Array is functioning at 98% efficiency at this time..."

The Captain frowned.

"I think we can do better than that, Chief."

The colour drained from Crad's face. D'arko chuckled.

"Kidding, Chief. It's new and I know your record. I'm sure you'll have her roaring like a sehlat in heat in no time."

Crad felt his heart begin beating again as he noticed the new squadron commander cast an very uncomfortable glance toward T'Upok at the mention of a sehlat in heat.

"Yes, Captain. Also, we're still working on the new data system Starfleet has partially integrated. It does seem to be a major improvement in computing, but... it just keeps disconnecting itself. "

"Hmmm... Keep me updated on that, Chief. Now, some of us are new to the ship, like me. Not being an idiot, I know you've all done your homework on your new captain, but,"D'arko pointed  ladle at the new squadron commander, "this is Group Captain Daniel Townshend, he's the new CAG for our escort squadron. CAG? How are we set?"

Townshend coughed slightly.

"Well, Skip, the new Kestrels are all loaded up and the pilots are ready for action, but I would like to fly a few exercise sorties when we reach DS9 to make sure the pilots and machines get along okay."

The Captain nodded and he picked up a bowl and uncovered a pot, nodding briefly to the young helm officer Crad hadn't seen before tonight.

"This is Lieutenant JG Alinn Song, straight out of the Academy, our new Helm officer. I'm told you're quite the hotshot pilot, Lieutenant."

Song blushed.

"I'm not sure I'd say that, Sir, but I do my best."

"Modesty, Lieutenant. You must be new,' D'arko ladled out a thick, nearly iridescent green stew-like substance into the bowl before handing it to Dr. Torgas. "Captain Jeansonne introduced me to a traditional Earth dish called 'gumbo ya-ya', so I've made a bit of an Andorian twist on it for you all tonight. Give it a moment to cool, though. Anyway, Lieutenant  Syndella Starr is our new tactical and security chief. Lieutenant? Report."

Crad noticed Lieutenant Starr seemed to be suppressing a smile, though, it wasn't exactly one of happiness. Nor was it exactly malice-filled. Mischievous, perhaps?

"Aye,Sir. The new phaser emitters are calibrated and ready. In my opinion, they may be able accurate enough to perform surgery on a Denebian mud-skipper, though, I suppose Lieutenant Commander T'Upok might be more an expert on them. We just finished cataloguing our torpedo magazines. We are picking up our final security personnel on DS9. For now we're at 80% staff, so... we should try not to pick too many fights for the next couple days. "

D'arko spooned out another few bowls of the gumbo and passed it around. Crad watched as the doctor took a spoonful. Interestingly, the Plexarian's normally grey-silver skin briefly turned bright orange before returning to normal. It cleared its throat loudly.

"What do you think, Doctor?" The Captain's voice held a friendly tone.

Torgas coughed again slightly. "It's... Still a bit hot, Captain. I will say, though, there's nothing like this on Plexar. I'm afraid, though, I need to head to sickbay to make a few final preparations." It hurried out of the Captain's quarters.

Chief Crad took a small spoon full of the almost glowing stew and sipped it.

Having been an engineer for years, and having worked on engines for most of his life, Crad knew just about everything one could know about plasma conduits, from the sound of one working properly to the vibrations of one about to breach. What he didn't know was how a burned out warp plasma conduit tasted.

Until this moment. 

He was fairly certain he had just experienced this. 

"Chief?"

Crad's mind entered warp drive, itself, trying to find an appropriate description that would not insult the Captain, yet would ensure he would never have to endure this again.

"It... really explodes... with flavour, Captain."

D'arko's left antenna cocked slightly.

Commander Klortho slurped from his bowl loudly. 

"This," he began, "This meal will ensure entry into Sto-vo-kor!"

Crad decided, after this meeting, he'd need to check in at sickbay.