Date with a Bio-Synthesiser (Michael)

[jesslewis]

It had been a couple of weeks since the Venia had first left Earth, a day or so since they left Delta Prime behind having completing their mission there. The science team had collected any data that they could, and the rest of the crew had contributed a great deal to the clean up process, getting through the initial chaos and setting the people there up for the longer recovery process.

Jess had been a little surprised when Michael had cornered in the corridor one day and asked her if she wanted to join him for dinner at some point. Sure, there had been some flirting going on, but this was the most forward someone had been with her in a while. She hadn't sat down with a man for dinner in a long time, not since her fiasco with her fiancee. It was welcome though, she just couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

They were only eating in the mess hall, so she stuck with the same clothes that she'd been wearing through the day, and freshened herself up a little, before making her way along to the mess hall, not entirely sure what she would find there.

[cap01]

Two weeks or so had passed for Michael, he had been trying to get to know his crew a little bit better. One crew member he wouldn't mind getting to know better was Jess. While living on a military based ship Michael would in the past put his feelings to the side but now he couldn't stop thinking about it. Michael had other things in mind at the moment like asking Jess out to dinner, though he hadn’t been on the dating scene for a while it was nice to see that Jess had accepted his offer. Michael was worried that Jess was going to say no, though they had been both flirting for the past two weeks so Michael thought that he would kick things of with dinner.

Michael was now in the bathrooms with his shaving kit. Michael finished shaving and placed everything back in his quarters before getting changed out of his uniform and into something nice but less formal than most people had seen him in so far. Putting on a short sleeved white t shirt and jeans, Michael took a glance around the room and put his boots and socks on. Leaving his quarters Michael made his way to the mess hall. Michael entered the mess hall and looked around before taking a seat at a empty table and waited for Jess to arrive.

[jesslewis]

Jess pushed the door to the mess hall open, struggling with it a bit as it stuck, straightening up upon seeing that Michael was already there. She had to say, it was nice to see him out of his uniform. The uniform was very proper, whereas this was more casual, and more flattering, in her opinion. She was covered up by he white lab coat pretty much day in day out, so she felt a lot more free too not wearing it.

"Hey," she said with a smile, heading over to the table, her heels clacking against the floor, "sorry if you've been waiting a while. You know how women are about getting ready." It was much easier for guys than it was for girls. But then, if she had changed and everything, it probably would have taken her longer. He was lucky she was already wearing what she had wanted to wear. "Did you want to go straight for food, or sit down for a bit first?"

[cap01]

Michael was looking around the room of the mess hall, there wasn’t many people here at this time which was good it meant that he could spend more time with Jess. Michael actually hadn’t been waiting that long for Jess maybe a couple of minuets or so nothing more. Michael was glad that he was out of his uniform, it got hot wearing it all the time. Michael looked up when the mess hall doors opened and Jess walked in. As walked in further and Michael stood up, old habits and good proper manners too. “That’s alright I wasn’t waiting for you that long.” Michael replied back to Jess.

“I don’t mind either way. We can go straight into eating if you’re hungry.” Michael replied back to Jess. Michael looked back at Jess, she was still wearing her white lab coat he smiled at that. Michael fell silent as he waited for a response from Jess, yeah great he could go into a full scale war with aliens but on a date he was completely a different person.

[jesslewis]

Jess hadn't even realised that she was still wearing her lab coat. It was like a layer of protection for her, against the outside world, against the terrible things that she saw at work. But, she shouldn't need protection from Michael, that was a bit silly really. She slipped the lab coat off, draping it over a spare chair before looking back at Michael. "I wasn't until I made the mistake of mentioning food," she said with a small smile, "my stomach is definitely in need of some sustinence." She nodded a litte before heading over to the bio-sythesiser, thinking about what she should have to eat.

"It's a pity this thing can't read my mind and tell me what I want." She pursed her lips, before eventually ordering roast chicken, and a glass of white wine to go with it. "You're not your usual conversational self," she said, holding her plate and glass, waiting for him to order his meal, "cat got your tongue?" She still had butterflies in her stomach, but she thought she was doing okay considering. It was funny, she'd already seen some of the younger crew members begin forming friendships and potential relationships, and yet here they were, feeling a little awkward about it. She felt like she should be more practiced at this by now.

[cap01]

Michael watched as Jess slipped out of her white lab coat, he smiled at her comment about food. The food on this ship was surprising good, he was used to eating military style foods and some of them were bad it would seem as the years went on military food stayed the same. Michael paused for a moment as he tried to think of what he was hungry for, since all this food talk was making him incredibly hungry. “I know what you mean we waste more time in actually thinking on what we want to eat.” Michael replied back laughing. His nerves were calming down which was good. Michael waited until Jess ordered her roast chicken before turning towards the bio-synthesizer, now the question was what he wanted to eat.

Pondering on it for a moment he ordered himself a hamburger with the lot and ships. Looking down at the plate of food it looked really good, he ate a couple of chips before walking over towards Jess. “Just glad we could get some time off for dinner.” Michael replied, ok he lied about that but it was a white lie he was feeling nervous like a schoolboy asking a girl out for the first time. The real reason why he wasn’t that talkative was the fact that he was nervous but as time went on he was calming his verves down. Michael walked over towards the table with Jess and placed his plate down. Michael pulled Jess’s chair out and waited for her to sit down.

[jesslewis]

Jess smiled across at him, putting her plate down on the table before taking her seat, "I'm glad too," she agreed with a nod, turning to face her food, the table providing her with a knife and fork. The technology these days could do all sorts of things, it was amazing really. "Guess the table didn't want me eating with my fingers," she said with a slight smirk, taking a sip of her wine, waiting for Michael to sit down before she started eating. The wine would help her relax, she knew that when she had ordered it. Just one glass was enough to make her loose and talkative but not tipsy, and certainly not drunk.

As he sat, she picked up her fork and said, "Bon Appétit," before taking her first bite. The texture wasn't exactly right, but the taste was marvellous, she had to give the machine that. "So," she said, swallowing another bite before addressing him, trying to find a topic of conversation, "how do you think the ship's first mission went? I haven't heard that much from the science team as to what they discovered, if they found anything at all." She knew that she, Penn, and the rest of the medical team had done a good enough job getting people patched up and helping thin out the sheer mass of those that were injured.

[cap01]

Michael looked back at Jess as she smiled back at him, he couldn’t help but grin and smiled back to her. Picking up the burger Michael took a bite, he placed it back down on his plate once more he forgot a drink. Michael laughed, he liked using knives and forks but there was only one perfect way to eat a burger and chips and it was without them, he knew that it was probably not very good manners but like before he liked picking the burger up and eating it that way. “There’s only one good way to eat a burger, knives and forks aren’t right.” Michael explained.

Michael stood up and walked over towards the bio-sythesiser and ordered himself and glass of coke and ice, he really didn’t feel like ordering something with alcohol since it wasn’t that time of the day to even drink that stuff, well to Michael anyways. Michael sat back down and took a sip from his drink. Michael picked up a few chips and ate them while he listened to Jess as she asked him about the ships first mission. “I think the science team did a good job on the first mission, though I really want to see what this ship can do. I’ve looked over the specs and I’m impressed the government have really lashed out with this ship.” Michael explained.