Dinner Pt 1: Springball Recap

Posted on Fri Sep 15th, 2023 @ 8:13am by Commander Chalan Kendri

1,042 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Campor III - Resupply
Location: Deck 19: Sports Bar
Timeline: MD 62

Kendri and Kobi found the restaurant that Kendri was talking about and grabbed a seat in a corner booth. It really did look like an old school sports bar set up, with old fashioned flat screen televisions showing different sports games, beer specials on tap. The food items the restaurant seemed to be showcasing were pizzas and wings with various sauces.

“Cool vibe, huh?” Kendri asked as she tapped the screen on a PADD for a menu. “I think the wings are like chicken or something and you have to pick what sauce you want.”

“This is most definitely cool, Kendri. Nice choice. The smells bring back memories of Tajod, my first host. He spent some time on Earth and frequented places like this. He thought the chicken wings were delicious. It’s like I can taste them. Do you like spicy, Kendri? The hot sauce from what I recall is amazing.”

Kobi lifted his arm to get the attention of a server. A human female approached the table and smiled with a PADD in her hand.

“Good evening to you. My name is Esme and I’ll be your server tonight. Can I get you something to drink?” The pair each ordered a beer and a sampler of spicy wings.

“So who taught you to play springball so dirty like that?” Kendri asked, hiding her face behind a glass of water as she took a sip.

“Dirty? You think I was playing dirty? Come on, Kendri! It’s part of the game! You have to play aggressively if you want to score. Defensive strategy, my friend. I also wanted to show you I can play, that I wasn’t some amateur.”

“There’s aggressive, but you totally hit that ball outside of the oval, and then expected me to play it. That was clearly a foul,” Kendri said accusingly. The first batch of wings had been set out and she grabbed a celery stick and pointed it at him for good measure. As far as Kendri was concerned, celery wasn’t good for much other than pointing a things and feeding animals.

Kobi ripped the celery stick out of her hand and took a bite. “Don’t you know it’s not polite to point celery at people? You should dip the celery in this stuff here,” he said referring to the bleu cheese dressing. “Alright, look, maybe it was a foul, maybe it wasn’t. There were no officials there to referee our match. If I came across as too aggressive, that’s my fault and I’m sorry. I just get really competitive sometimes. But you have to admit it was fun, right? You had a good time, didn’t you?”

Kendri responded, dipping the celery in the sauce Kobi had told her to try, “I’m not saying you were too aggressive, I’m just saying that was clearly a foul,” She took a bite of the celery and made a face. “Oh, that’s terrible,” she said grimacing and putting the rest down on the plate. She took a drink of her beer to get the awful flavors out of her mouth.

Tomm laughed out loud at the sour expression on Kendri’s face. “Not good, huh? It takes some getting used to. It’s called bleu cheese. I know, it’s not blue, but it can be pretty potent sometimes. Anyway, speaking of fouls, what do you call falling on my ball? Was that intentional?”

Kendri pretended to be deep in thought. “If I remember correctly, you pushed me, which is what caused me to fall in the first place,” she said deflecting the question. Kendri had reached for a wing and was biting the meat off the bone, the sauce turning her fingers an orange-red hue. “This is replicated meat right? Why do they bother with the bone? Seems it would be easier to eat with a knife and fork if there weren’t any fake bones to eat around,” she said, examining the food for a brief second before taking another bite. “Good though.”

“Come on Kendri, admit it, we both know that you fell on purpose,” he responded, not breaking eye contact, though his eyes showed his amusement. “But let’s move on. I don’t want to argue about a game. If you’re past it, I’m past it. No need to dwell on something like potential fouls in Springball.”

“Eating these with your fingers, bones included, is part of the experience” he explained. “The sauce gets on your face, under your fingernails, everywhere. Just don’t touch your eyes with your hands. We might need to beam you directly to Sickbay. So, I know you dislike the bleu cheese, but you can do one of two things. The cheese helps balance the spicy sauce; so you can pour some cheese on the chicken, pick it up and eat it, or, what I like to do is dip the chicken in the bleu cheese,” Kobi said as he dipped and took a bite.

“This way you get the flavor of both in your mouth at once. Mmmm… delicious.”

“Speaking of fouls, that bleu cheese sauce is foul. No way,” Kendri said, shaking her head. “I like the spicy sauces just as they are,” she said reaching for another, this one covered in sesame seeds, and had a tangy flavor along with the spice. “This is kind of like something I might cook,” she commented. She laughed a little at how clumsy she felt picking the meat off of the bone.

“Really? Maybe I should have made you cook for me.” Kobi joked as conversation started to flow more loosely. “What other culinary delights have you been known to come up with? Of course, I’ll have to sample all of it. I can follow a recipe, but I’m not creative in that way. I wish I could say I could take inspiration from my previous hosts, but they couldn’t even make toast.”

Kendri laughed. “Well with replicators, it’s not all the necessary to know how to make anything, is it?

(to part 2)

Lt. Commander Chalan Kendri
Executive Officer
USS Columbia

Lt. Kobi Tomm
Chief of Security
USS Columbia

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