Lt. Kim Stapledon - Translating while Buzzed

[John Smith]

((Interior, The Veytan Shell, Risa))

Kim sat down at the bar beside some familiar faces and ordered a Risian Starshine.  

Stapledon: Hi.

S'Rorr: What are you having, Karen? May I call you Karen?

Fodder: Response

Just then a strange man with long hair, pale skin, and round glasses approached.  He spoke with a very weird voice that sounded like he had smoked far too much in his time.

Man: Hey! You got any pot?

Kim shook her head.  

Stapledon: No, sorry.

The man wandered off and Kim thought about the last time she'd been high.  It had been at a waystation between New Cyprus and Earth on her way to Starfleet Academy with a bunch of other soon-to-be cadets.  

Fodder: Response

S'Rorr laughed a little and shook his head.

Further down the other side of the circular bar a group of Nausicaans approached a group of Klingons.  

S'Rorr: What do you think they're fighting about?

Kim tilted her head, remembering her course on Klingon at the academy.  

Stapledon:  Something about one the breath being stronger than they are...

Fodder/S'Rorr:  Response

Kim recognized a few other phrases that she decided not to translate.  Many of them involved detailed descriptions about someone's father's reproductive system.  She was almost done her starshine.

S'Rorr: Could I have another one? Actually, can I have a Cari'Ol Blood? Kim, Karen, you've got to try this one.

Kim checked on her watch, calling up the data link function, looking up the beverage on the tiny hologram that appeared.  

The Klingons were getting rowdier.  Kim felt a slight tingle in her knuckles as she remembered punching a fellow student in the face during multivariable calculus class in her latter high school years.  Her mother had been mortified that she'd not been more tactful.  Her father, a retired Federation diplomat, had beamed at her with pride while pretending to also be upset at her for rebuffing the self-proclaimed class pickup artist in such a decisive manner.  

More importantly, Kim felt like she'd finally found a group she could hang out with in the Klingons.  Her friendship with Kurak had been a defining characteristic of her senior year.  All of it had started with her gathering the courage to sit with them and try each other's food at lunch.  This had included tasting blood wine.  She grinned in spite of herself when she recalled her mother asking exasperatedly, "Are you drunk???" one evening.

Presently, she considered Cari'Ol Blood.  Caitian blood drink?  

Stapledon:  That looks good.

Fodder:  Response

S'Rorr: Come oooon, it's good!

Just then Kim heard a Klingon woman declare,

Klingon Woman: I will have COPIOUS amounts of Blood Wine! ::To cheers of agreement::

Kim laughed, feeling nostalgia mix with the happiness of her present company.

S'Rorr: Seee? Blood drinks aren't THAT bad. They like 'em.

Stapledon:   ::Now feeling a little warm:::  Blood drinks are good...

S'Rorr/Fodder:  Response

Kim heard another torrent of insults coming from the Nausicans.  This was followed by one of the Klingon women yelling something Kim once again decided was best left approximately translated.

Stapledon:  She's mad.  She thinks he's weak.  In certain ways.

S'Rorr/Fodder:  Response

Stapledon:  You don't want to know.

She sipped her new drink.

Stapledon:  This is really good actually...  ::She felt a surge enter her head from her lower body::  Owwwffff  wow!

S'Rorr/Fodder:  Response

Klingon Woman:  ::In Klingon::  Battle????  You couldn't even defeat an Earth poodle in combat, you weak kneed p'takh!  

Kim's universal translator began picking out words in the Nausicaan's language.

Nausicaan:  Poodle???  Hahaha, your mother was a gerbil and your great house smells of cowards covered in soft lavender!

Stapledon:  Oh no...

S'Rorr/Fodder:  Response

--

Lt. Kimberly Stapledon

Chief of Science

USS Chin'toka

I238601KB0

[John Smith]