Meeting of Old Friends - Ra'vak and Torilla

Posted on Wed Jan 31st, 2024 @ 11:04am by Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi & Captain Ravak

Mission: Mission 112: The Heart of a Truth Long Lost
Location: Various Locations - Starbase Vanguard
Timeline: 1000Hrs - January 20th, 2394

Fleet Captain Torilla Yamaguchi was visiting the Starbase to pick up her final orders. She knew that she was heading back out into the field shortly. Spending time with her husband and children had done real wonders for her. Both mentally and spiritually. Spending time looking after herself had done wonders for her physically. Since her exile had been lifted, she had discussed the topic at length with her husband. However, her opinion remained the same.

She was sitting at one of the local replimat's. She was wanting a moment to enjoy a Boston cream doughnut and a cup of coffee. Jake swore by these things and she had developed something of a taste for them herself. She went to wake a bite from her doughnut as she smiled. "This is new," she commented. The plaza was relatively quiet at this point in time. "Hello, my little demon." she grinned at Ravak, who was passing by.

Ra'vak quickly recognized Torilla's voice, "Torilla, well its been a while."

Torilla grinned at him. "Yeah," she commented. "Are you busy?" she inquired. "If not then pull up a chair. I promise I won't bite."

"I could be busy, I could be not," Ra'Vak decided to be deliberately ambiguous. "Who could say what im up to? Sometimes even I dont know."

"Ooh." Torilla grinned at him. "Then why not take a moment for yourself?" she asked. "Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing myself at times." she added.

"Oh I have plenty of moments to myself," Ra'Vak pointed out. "I mean sure, Roanoke A is a bigger, more powerful ship than the original, but hardly anything ever goes wrong, she is almost boring in comparison."

Torilla grinned widely at him. "Nice. Sometimes a little boredom is a good thing."

"Yeah, but it feels so different, not having to do anything, not having to rebuild old clunkers, which I have done for nearly my whole career," Ravak replied.

"Oh I hear you." Torilla regarded the man before her. "Remember how I was always frazzled. Doing her work, plus my own, plus dealing with all the constant drama?" she sighed. "Sitting back in my command chair getting to relax is something I'm still considering a novelty." as she sipped her drink. "Now I can have my drama and not have it get out of hand."

Ravak nodded with a smile, "Yeah original Roanoke was a particularly special case. I mean most of my career was on clunkers, but that ship took things to a special level of crazy. Well, actually not all my assignments were clunkers. My first ship wasn't one, but everything after that kinda was."

"Look on the bright side of things Ra'vak." Torilla smiled. "You earned the best seat in the house on the best-looking ship yet built." she smiled. "You got it made, bud."

Ra'vak put a finger on his chin, pondering, "Hmm, I dunno about best looking, to be honest. I've always been a little more partial for the Century or the Sovereign. That OISU cosmic noble class looks pretty damn sexy too."

"Thats because you have your own aesthetic in regards to ships." Torilla commented. "You know about how to treat a ship, that's never a question I need to ask you as how many times did Roanoke bring us home with you in her engine room?"

"While being held together with ductape and prayers, more times than I care to count," Ravak replied dryly. " But Roanoke wasn't my first experience with that situation either, no Courageous broke me in pretty good."

Torilla frowned. "Wait... When were you assigned to the Courageous.?" she asked.

"Mid 2374 to the end of 2376," Ra'Vak stated simply. "How do you think I was able to keep the Roanoke's engine room together so well. Because it wasn't my first time with that style of engine room. Especially since Ronaokes hadn't been modernized since the 2370's."

Torilla sighed. "Jake was the skipper of the Courageous at that point. Not a time he thinks on fondly," she admitted.

"It wasn't a fond time for anyone then," Ra'Vak pointed out. "Back in those days we where working many long hours practically every day for two years straight just to keep the engine plant from falling apart. Especially my Department head Danaja. It was rare that she didn't look exhausted then."

"I remember her. Lovely lady." Torilla sighed. "When she was promoted. She said leaving Courageous was hard. I didn't believe her but I didn't tell anyone else that." she then sighed a second time.

"I haven't kept up with her since then," Ravak admitted, "So I have no idea where she is now."

Torilla nodded her head, while she sipped her drink. "Fair enough," she answered. "So, whats new with you. I've not seen you in almost a year and a half now. So, is there anyone special in your life these days?"

"Not too too much to be honest," Ra'Vak answered simply. "We had been on an exploration mission to the OISU for the past year. The kind of crazy megastructures these guys can build, its an impressive level of engineering."

"So we can learn from them?." Torilla inquired. "Thats something. We can trade them replicator tech for the plans for some of their megastructures," she added.

"Oh yes," Ra'Vak replied with a smile, "But there are a few things they can learn from us too, so its not entirely one sided either. But i have talked with their engineers on the subject, and we do have a lot of prerequisite technology for megstructure construction, so its more we lack the industrial experience and engineering know how to build them, rather than lacking the technology."

"Thats good to know." Torilla commented. "Still. Building megastructures in the Federation would be quite a sight to see." she added.

"and one we will need very soon," Ra'Vak added, "With the addition of Ageless medical technology, the federations population is going to start growing rapidly."

"Well. I will leave those details for others to sort out. I am but a humble Starship Captain." Torilla smiled.

Ra'Vak shrugged, "Eh for now. Me, my life is in the engine room."

"Fair enough. But mind a word of advice?" Torilla inquired. "Don't refuse to hear it when it calls you by name."

Ra'Vak shrugged," Eh, starship captains life isn't for everyone."