Everybody needs a hobby

Posted on Thu Feb 28th, 2019 @ 3:55pm by Lieutenant JG Terry Wu & Lieutenant JG Serena Giacomo

2,569 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Pirating Typhon resources
Location: Deck 74
Timeline: Current

ON:

Throughout his brief but mostly-successful career as a criminal, Terry had boosted many starships. So many that he had long since lost count, but it was somewhere in the high fifties. And when Tim had abandoned him, taking with him the lion's share of the latinum they had collected so that he could buy his way into the tong he'd joined, Terry had been forced to go into business on his own to survive. Without Tim to cover his six, it was difficult going, but he'd managed to pull off several jobs solely on his own. And one of those jobs saw him stealing an old Maquis Raider from a group of Orion slavers. They'd stolen it from smugglers who had, in turn, stolen it from the Maquis who'd managed to flee the Cardassian DMZ. Instead of selling the ship, though, Terry had held onto it, taking a few smuggling jobs to fill the time between each unsuccessful attempt to apply to the Academy. When the academy did finally accept him, Terry stashed the ship away somewhere safe, and had only recently taken it out of mothballs to fly it out to Typhon.

Naturally, after so many years serving unsavory owners, the ship was a piece of crap, but Terry planned to fix her up while he was here. He might be, under most circumstances, a caged bird, but now he had wings of his own that he could use to fly. And where better to do so than on a Federation starbase? Here, he could access all the resources he needed to fix up the aged ship. Fixing it up gave his hands something else to do besides becoming the Devil's workshop. And it made him happy.

And thus, fate saw Terry walking down the hallway to the maintenance bay where his ship was berthed, a length of plasma conduit held before him and whirling like a baton or a jo staff as he whistled a happy tune. Sometimes, it was the little things in life that made everything else bearable.

"You can take a person's head off with that if you are not careful!" an amused feminine voice sounded from his left.

Terry turned his head towards the sound of the feminine voice, his lips already forming a bit of a smile as he did, and found his eyes seeking a little too high, falling upon the woman's crown rather than her face. Abnormally short for a male officer of the fleet, he was used to a good percentage of women to be his height or taller. "I think I'm more likely to hit someone in the ankle from down here, if you catch my drift and I think you do." He replied as his gaze meandered its way down to meet Serena's.

Serena eyed him a moment and offered her hand, "Serena Giacomo one of the resident spooks as most call intelligence."

"Terry Wu." Terry responded, switching the conduit to his left hand and wiping his right against his thigh to remove any greasy residue from the conduit before taking hers and shaking it. "One of the resident fly-boys or hotshots or whatever they call FCO's here." He added with a bit of a smirk. "Gotta say, I'm a little disappointed, you're not half as spooky as the chief spook on this station. No black lipstick or eye shadow or anything..." Terry pursed his lips and shook his head at her disapprovingly.

Serena grinned cheekily, "Yeah I leave the true spookiness to the Chief, I go for eccentric instead." Her natural deep red locks still currently hidden within the vivid blue dye, her naturally ginger brows matched her hair, and the tips of her lashes were a cerulean hue. She eyed the piping in his other hand, "Most fly boys do not do repairs themselves anymore unless it is for a hobby; so hobby fix up or are you just as eccentric on your own?"

"Well, you could call it a hobby, I suppose." Terry said, shrugging and bouncing the conduit off of his shoulder. "Although, at this point, it's more like making my own personal deathtrap less... Deathtrappy. The previous owners weren't very kind to it. Near as I can tell, they had a Tholian spinneret hooked up to the weapons grid; blew out the whole shebang and nearly the transporter and life support, as well. And what about you? What brings you down here? Is it spooky stuff? Like... the interesting Holodeck spy-thriller type of spooky stuff as opposed to reading a bunch of dull reports spooky stuff."

Serena laughed softly, "Yes actually I was on my way to the holodeck to try out a spy-thriller from a friend. It is supposed to have some fancy flying involved that I was going to leave to a holo character but-- if you want to come along and try it with me you are most welcome to." She had a carry all with change of clothes in it along with a few other spy stuff. Lock picks and like...

"Holodeck?" Terry asked with a slight hint of disdain. "I don't think I've been in a holodeck outside of academy exercises since... Well, the Academy. Sure, they were fun when I was a kid, and I could play out a character from my favorite young adult fantasy series, but other than that... I dunno, would I get to wear a tuxedo? And speak with a sexy English accent?" He asked in a husky intonation that might be reminiscent of an actor from the twentieth century who starred in several spy movies. "Will you be wearing something slinky, Monkeypenny?" He'd perused his share of nostalgic media, but he wasn't completely fluent in the genre.

Serena blinked then gave a light laugh "Oh yes you have to come along now that you even know a bit of the genre to make that statement." she was delighted to see he seemed to know a bit of the genre they were about to play. "Yes there should be some tuxedo time along with all the spy fun stuff. Maybe even time for a dance. Though if you are busy I can reschedule and take the time to help you out on your less deathtrappy project?"

There was a moment of conflict in Terry's mind as he pondered the options presented. He hadn't really made any friends at the station since arriving here -- at least, none his own age. Sure, he was on friendly terms with most everyone he met, but he'd felt like there was a sword of Damocles hanging above his head. Either he would screw things up here, or the admiralty would have poisoned the well against him with the Captain to such an extent that they'd be looking to pawn him off on the nearest passing deep-space listening observatory rather than keep him around. Part of his mind was of the opinion that he needed his deathtrap functional so he could hoof it to free space the moment things got bad.

But he kinda also wanted to have fun.

"I think I can be convinced to sneak off for a little espionage-y stuff." He said, shrugging and pulling a tricorder off his belt. He used it to scan the conduit he held, and then transmitted a command to his ship, which beamed the conduit and the tricorder away. "And I suppose I can break out some of the old tango moves to impress one of the few ladies on the station that I don't have to look up at."

"Come along then Mr Wu, let's see what this program has in store for us." Serena said with a playful wink and grin that flashed a hint of her dimples, before she lead the way towards the holodeck she'd reserved.

-Holodeck 2-

Serena looked around the room; it looked like it was a lavish lab, that seemed to also a office, and library all rolled up into a huge room it even had, a huge crystalline chandelier hanging down in the center of the room. She could not help the grin on her face at the sound of jazzy music playing in the background, a guy in a white suit standing next too a mountain of a man that was the guy's body guard. She looked up at Terry to see his reaction. "What do you think?"

Terry, now dressed in a well-tailored black tuxedo, white formal shirt with onyx button-covers and cuff-links, black bow-tie and a white handkerchief in his pocket, smirked at Serena with raised eyebrows. "I think you're looking deadlier than the Walther tucked in my waistband, Monkeypenny." He said, tucking some errant strands of his now slicked-back hair behind his ear.

Serena blinked and looked at her own outfit, what there was of it, a very close curve hugging dress that shimmered in dark wine red and silver threads giving it the shimmery look. She could feel a small gun at the small of her back hidden beneath the black shawl that draped over her arms at the elbows, the heels were the same wine red color and quite pointy, like could easily be used as a weapon pointy. "Thanks for the compliment though I like your outfit better hides your gun better than this tight dress does." She had another weapon in a thigh holster and but with the slit in the skirt that ran to mid-thigh on the opposite side she was pretty sure she could get to it whatever it was if needed. "You want to take the lead or do I?" she offered since usually in the holo novels it was the guys who was the main hero...

"Honestly, I wouldn't even know what to do." Terry said with a laugh, trying to see where her weapons were hidden. Or just ogling her shamelessly. "And this is more your field than mine. So, lead on, and I'll just follow along and make the occasional pithy remark."

Serena smiled and lead the way towards the center of the room, the guy in the white tux turned to face them a smile on his face that was both welcome and quiet warning. "Ah, Miss Giacomo, you are looking lovely as ever, whom is this?"

Terry gave the man a winning smile. "Terribly sorry. My name is Wu." He said, reaching up to straighten his bow tie, which was possibly the most ridiculous clothing accessory for men to have ever been invented. "Terrance Wu." He said, exuding a cavalier air of confidence, despite his accent being a few shades short of Klingons trying to pull off Shakespeare.

Serena smiled at Terry, this was about to get interesting....

"Perhaps Ms. Giacomo will do me the honor of introducing you?" Terry went on. "Before I steal her away for a dance."

"Doctor Thaddues Moreau, and I am afraid I don't know the name of your new bodyguard, what happened to Tomas?" she replied lightly,

Dr. Moreau laughed waving a hand, "He needed a break so I gave it to him this is Hudson," he said and nodded his head, "Yes go ahead and steal her for a dance or two we can talk business later." he pointed to the doorway on his left, "That leads to the ballroom where the rest of the guests are already."

....... ........

-hallway-

Serena smiled as she and Terry walked out of the holodeck a short while later. "Did you have fun?"

Terry shucked off the Tuxedo jacket and flipped it over a shoulder, nearly smacking a teenager with a surfboard in the face. "It was a bit of a romp." He said with a grin and a playful wink. "And I got to dance with a beautiful young lady, which is always a plus. Being as short as I am, I don't often get the opportunity to show off my dance moves."

"Yes well your moves are good enough but is tango all you know?" she said with a cheeky grin up at him.

"Tango, ballroom, swing..." Terry said, holding up a finger. "Momma Wu was determined that her sons be well versed on the dance floor. Dance, music, art; the sorts of things that encourage academic excellence and are good indicators of strong work ethics and career growth." He laughed. "Oh, where did it all go wrong?" He then lightly tapped the tip of her nose. "You know, you're no slouch on the dance floor yourself, Ms. Giacomo. Every holographic eye in the room was on you."

"Thanks to you for making me look good!" Serena retorted with a delighted laugh, "Definitely have to try another where you get to show off your piloting as well as dancing."

"You're doing a fine job of looking good without any help from me." Terry replied, moving in close. Was he going to go in for a kiss? It would be very easy for him to do it, as he drew within inches. "And just wait until I get a chance to show off some of my other skills." He said, waggling his eyebrows playfully.

Serena wiggled her blue hued brows, right back at him, then she lightly brushed her mouth against his, if he wanted to play she was definitely game.

WooHoo! Terry drew Serena into his arms, his tuxedo-jacket brushing against her ankles as he did so, and he kissed her softly in return. He liked Serena; she was fun to be around... And he'd like to keep things between them fun for a while. Rather than steering them right towards the bed (or couch, or nearby wall in a pinch) and eventually ditching out as soon as possible, as was his usual modus operandi. Not that that wasn't fun in its own right, but it wasn't how he wanted to treat Serena. After a few long moments of kissing her, Terry drew away from her lips, but pulled her a little closer. "We definitely should do this again..."

Serena smiled up at him, "Agreed," her arms she slipped around his neck and tangled her fingers into his hair softly as she regarded him. "Do you want to go have a meal or something else Terry?" she asked her mouth inches from his own, she hadn't expected to have as much fun as she had and this spark between them was just as surprising but not unwelcome, she wasn't sure what would be next but she was more than curious to find out.

"I could eat." Said Terry blithely, nodding. "And we are dressed for it." He added with a chuckle. They were dressed for the higher-class parts of the Promenade that he normally wouldn't go near because it was above his pay-grade. "Plus, how often do I have the opportunity to be seen around town with a beautiful girl on my arm?" He hadn't so far, although he was getting a bit of a reputation after helping rebuild things in his work-bee. "Let's do it."

Serena smiled, "Okay fly-boy let's go eat, but you better not get me any Klingonese food." She said lightly though the idea of Klingonese food grossed her out beyond measure.

"Klingon food? Ugh, no." Terry replied, making a face. "We could try Bolian. They make great Tex-Mex, believe it or not."


OFF

Lt.j.g Serena Giacomo
Infiltration specialist

&

Lt. jg Terry Wu
Chief Flight Control Officer

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