Star Trek: The Next Generation – Souvenirs
Written By: Commander Cody CC-2224
CHAPTER 14
Ben's thoughts came back to his head.
"Ah…I'm placing an order for scrambled eggs for five people…"
"How 'bout th'wun wit milted cheddar cheese awn tawp? P'rhaps you folks would like ta traiy that."
Ben thought about that for a brief moment. "All right. We'll try exactly that. Include some sausages as well."
"Whut kaiynd?"
Ben looked rather confused. He turned to Elizabeth.
"Try the English beef sausage," she said. "That's what we used to have when I was in England, and we still had that in the Colonies."
The barman looked up abruptly. "I jest gawddamn knew it!" he exclaimed drawlingly. "You an English lassie? Where sp'cifically did you cum frum?"
"London," replied Elizabeth in a rather curt manner.
"I'll be gawddamned," replied the barman, shaking his head out of habit. "English beef sawsage is what ya want, am I right, lassie?"
"Aye," replied Elizabeth, with a ladylike nod. "'That's the one."
"How many?"
Ben turned to Elizabeth again. "What do you suggest?" he whispered. Do I get 5? Maybe 10?
"Make it 11."
With a nod, "All right. But I think I'll make it 12, as I myself would want one more extra." Ben turned back to the barman. "12 pieces to go," he said in a rather final manner.
"Raiyght-o." The barman listed those initial orders on his PADD.
"Another thing," Ben added. "I'd like a junk of fresh corn beef and a…hang on, what other bakery-related merchandise are there?"
"Bakery-related stuff, ain't't?" asked the barman. "Well, lemme see…there's…all sorts o' rolls; Continental rolls, Danish rolls, German rolls, quiche, and…let's see..all sorts o' bread loves; whole wheet, pumpernickel, Jew'sh rye, rye an' injun…hmm…"
Ben seemed to have difficult keeping up with the plethora of bakery goods listed by the barman. But something the barman mentioned caught his attention.
"…And thaiyre's also a doughnut-shaped thingy cawlled a bagel and a lovely French pastry thingy called a 'croy-sant."
Suddenly Ben woke up. "Croy-what?" he inquired, confused.
"Croy-sant."
"How do you spell it?"
"Hang on a mo'." The barman bent over to the counter cabinet on the front area of the counter and pulled out a large laminated poster featuring a mouth-watering, hi-resolution image of a croissant. The name of the pastry was under the image, spelled in block capital letters, which Ben tried to make out. The block caps spelled out the word "CROISSANT".
"Sounds French," he remarked. "So that's what it looks like?"
"What ya see is what ya get," said the barman.
"I'll try that one as well," replied Ben, pointing his right index finger at the picture.
The barman looked inquisitively at him. "Hmm…you an Uhmerican kawlonist?"
"Aye, sir."
"I certainly dun't recall these things bein' sold in yer taiyme."
"'Tis true. That's why I said I wanted to try it."
"I jest hope I ain't violatin' the Temporal Praiyme Directive when I'm doin' this. Oh, well, orders is orders." He took out his electronic stick and listed the breakfast order on the PADD.
"Include the 'bagel' as well," ordered Ben.
"Whut kaiynd?"
"What do you mean, sir?"
"Well, we seem ta have all types of brands. Thayre's plain baygel, the one with blueberries, one with raisins, one with chocolate chips, one with squashed cherries, ya names it."
"I'll try the plain," said Ben in a rather cautious manner. "Would it be also possible to have it with a cheese topping?"
"Yup. Cain be dun. Anythin' else?"
"That's pretty much it. Unless…" Ben turned to Elizabeth. "Is there anything else you want, Lizzie-girl?" he asked her.
"Aye," said Elizabeth sweetly. "Five biscuits and five lemon cakes to go."
"Biscuits? Cain be dun. As for 'em lemun cakes, yer gonna hafta be a li'l more sp'cific th'n that. If yer referrin' to regular burthday-saiyzed caikes…"
"Nay, just the small ones. Like the muffins."
"Raiyght-o, Missy." The barman hastily listed the breakfast order on his PADD. Then he handed it to the barmaid, who set to work on processing the order. Then he waltzed back to where Elizabeth and Ben where.
"An' now, if you'll jest sit back and wait fur a moment, yer breakfast order'll get processed in no time't all."
"Thank you," replied Ben.
"Many thanks," beamed Elizabeth.
"No problemo," replied the barman mockingly. He was about to turn away when Ben interrupted him.
"Sir," he called.
The barman faced him again. "Davy-boy."
"'Tis Mr. Davidson, sir," Ben corrected.
"Awll raiyght, whaddaya want, Mr. Davidson?" asked the barman emphatically.
"I'm rather curious as to how these replicators, or whatever you call them, work.."
"Werk? Ya mean the basic inner workings on 'em contrapshuns?"
"Aye."
"Well," began the barman, as he leaned on the counter, tapping his fingers. "Basic'lly the replicator masheen generates muhterial entitees baiy utilizin' ah principle that has sumthin' ta do wit convertin' energy inta matter."
Ben found himself confused by the idea. So did Elizabeth.
"Kuhlonial simpletuns," he muttered rudely to himself. "Sorry, folks. Ain't no way I can explain this process no further. You maight cunsider askin' wun uf 'em engineers; they know more 'bout that stuff than aiy do."
"And besides, even if we did, you still wouldn't understand jack about the entire process," came a male baritone voice from the left side of the bar.
Startled, Ben and Elizabeth turned around. To his great dismay and astonishment it was Commander Riker.
"M-Mr. Riker?" stuttered Ben.
"Mr. Davidson," greeted Riker. "A pleasure to meet you again, sir." Riker extended his hand as a gesture of friendship. Ben felt obliged to return the favor, and the two shook hands with each other.
Then Riker turned to Elizabeth. "And to whom do I owe the honor of meeting the lovely Miss Cole?" he said, as Elizabeth extended her right hand in a manner that invited every gentleman to kiss it. Riker took her hand and kissed it gently.
"The honor is mine," replied Elizabeth gracefully, in a coy manner, as she daintily put her arm down.
"So…" began Riker bluntly, forcing a friendly smile on his face. "What's up with you two?"
Ben shrugged his shoulders. "Um, aside from the fact that we managed to get a heavenly good night's sleep, I'd say we're doing just fine." Elizabeth chuckled lightly to herself, her right hand covering her mouth in order to muffle herself.
Ben turned to Elizabeth. "W-What's so funny?" he asked, trying to be polite as best he could.
Elizabeth faced him and removed her hand. "It's your slight witticism, Ben," she replied.
Riker decided to break the moment. "Do you happen to be ladies' man, Mr. Davidson?" he inquired.
"Well…" replied Ben rather hesitantly. "Not exactly. I'm rather shy when it comes to being around most girls, but when it comes to Miss Felicity Merriman and Miss Elizabeth Cole…" He broke off.
"Then he has no trouble beating around the bush," finished Elizabeth sweetly.
"Precisely," added Ben.
"Ispeschally whin it cums to kissin' em?" inquired the barman in a blunt manner.
Riker guffawed quite audibly, as if he could hardly believe his ears. "Kissed? You kissed a girl?"
"'An' made her craiy?" added the barman. Riker chuckled again.
Ben was getting rather suspicious. "Pray, what makes you think I did that?"
"Well, the dark-skinned barmaid workin' her late naiyght shift tol' me all 'bout the affair," replied the barman. "Said you was havin' a good smooch with a young lady who was clad in a red cloak nearly as red as her haiyr and as red as Li'l Red Ridin' Hood's and the faiyres uh hell an' a fancy cream-colored dress as yellow-gold'n as one of 'em gold plates that ya finds in most of em motherboards…"
Ben was very much taken aback. The barman was referring to Felicity! And that fact was compounded further when Elizabeth started making inquiries about the affair.
"…An' frum the looks uv it her hair wuz as red as the faiyres uh hell and damnation."
The moment the barman mentioned his intro Elizabeth gasped in shock, her hand over her heart. "You…you kissed Lissie?" she squeaked.
"Who's Lissie?" inquired Riker.
"She's Miss Felicity Merriman," replied Ben.
"Miss Merriman? That red-haired green-eyed beauty that I initially saw at the Main Sickbay yesterday?"
Elizabeth nodded.
Riker laughed again. "I'll be damned. You…literally kissed her? By the looks of it she's too young to be kissed."
"Well…" Ben began hesitantly. "She did ask me to kiss her."
Riker widened his eyes. Elizabeth couldn't help but feel curious about the whole affair.
"I can hardly believe my ears," Elizabeth continued, feeling rather elated. "You…you really kissed her?"
Ben just simply gave Elizabeth a mischievous smirk. Elizabeth could not help her astonishment. Then she swooned, falling to the floor in an unladylike fashion in a heap of blue silk. The barman guffawed quite loudly. "Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha…!" For him the show was crudely hilarious.
While chuckling genially to himself Riker gave a helping hand to Elizabeth, who managed to lift herself back on her own two feet. Ben assisted, too.
"To tell you the truth, I've never seen a little girl go into a fit of swooning," remarked Riker.
"Neither did I," put in Ben.
After a few seconds the moment was interrupted when an impersonal male voice came over the PA. It was Lt. Commander Data.
"Senior officers, please report to the bridge."
Riker exhaled. "Gotta go. It was nice meeting you, swoon and all. I look forward to seeing both of you and the rest of the kids again."
Then all of a sudden Riker spotted a handsome 14-year-old teenage boy in handsome brown hair. He seemed to be staring at Elizabeth. Riker turned to her.
"Oh, just as an aside," he began, as he pointed his right hand index finger at the lad. "That handsome-looking fellow over there thinks you…" He pointed his finger at Elizabeth. "…Are hot." He smiled his most mischievous smile.
Elizabeth was slightly dazed that the very term. Without another word Riker strode out of Ten-Forward using the port-side entrance.
Though Ben felt pretty much embarrassed at the mention of his mild affair with Felicity, he decided to summon up his manly courage and act casual about it. So he heaved a sigh, as if he was exasperated about the incessant mentions of that affair.
"Hot?" exclaimed Elizabeth in a rather inquisitive manner that hinted astonishment.
"…As in 'immensely attractive'," replied the barman. "Yeah, thait's raiyght. Blue-eyed blondes are quaiyte an immense eyesore fur 'em handsome lads."
Ben chuckled to himself. "Riiight," he concurred.
Elizabeth decided to break Ben's laughing mood with the discussion of the Ten-Forward affair. "So what was the kiss like?" asked Elizabeth, grinning impishly.
"C-Can we discuss this later, Elizabeth?" asked Ben, feeling kind of vexed about talking about his spending time with Felicity in the Ten-Forward lounge. "I'm getting hungry, and only the Lord knows when our breakfast order is processed." He leaned over the counter.
Elizabeth couldn't help talking about Ben and Felicity. "Oh, but I simply must mention this to Lissie!" she squealed, feeling quite thrilled about the affair. Ben shut his eyes and kept them shut while Elizabeth was asking a series of questions about the barman and barmaid's identity.
"I heard your name was Marles," said Elizabeth sweetly.
"Yeah, that's maiy last naiyme. Maiy ferst naiyme's Jeb."
"Jeb?" inquired Elizabeth.
"That's raiyght."
"What about the lady that works with you? Is her name Phyllis?"
The barman narrowed his eyes. "Yer quite an observant chit, young 'un."
"That's an impertinent word you could ever use on a proper young lady," Elizabeth chided the barman, in a manner gentle yet firm.
"Whatevah. Who the hell caires?" replied the barman, shaking off his hand. Elizabeth gave a demurely serious look. "Yeah, her naime's Phyllis Kennedie; that's th'wun wit' an 'eye-ee' 'nstead uv th'wun wit' a 'whaiy', an' she's ah hell uv a fine black lassie," continued the barman. "Shee cawlls me baiy maiy last naiyme and I cawlls her baiy her ferst naiyme. Weerd, huh?"
Elizabeth was wide-eyed. The barmaid made the curtain calls, indicating that the breakfast order was done. The barman woke up Ben rather rudely.
"Hey, boy, yer breakfast order's done, man," he said briskly, pointing to his right side.
With a nod of assent Ben and Elizabeth moseyed to the left side of the bar counter to take the two shiny, lightweight aluminum breakfast trays. The sight was mouth-watering. On one Five plates with thoroughly cooked scrambled eggs with the cheddar cheese topping and the beef sausages were nearly enough to make the two children drool. Especially mouth-watering to Ben was the cheese-topped plain bagels and the freshly cooked corn beef, the amount being the size of a teacup filling, situated on a separate ceramic plate, on the other tray. Elizabeth couldn't wait to try the biscuits and the small muffin-sized lemon cakes on another separate plate.
"I do declare, I have never seen or smelled anything so delicious in my entire life," remarked Elizabeth calmly.
"Yeah, you can thank the good ol' replicator," put in the barmaid. "'Cause that what makes so goodly a meal so damn near possible. Would you be wantin' some napkins, kiddos?"
"Please," replied Ben, in a requesting tone of voice.
"Five of them," put in Elizabeth.
"Yeah, yeah, the usual fiver," muttered the barmaid. She bent over, opened a cabinet near where she was and pulled out five of the same large linen cloth napkins that the gave them when the children were having dinner at Ten-Forward.
"Wow," remarked Ben. "Many thanks, madam."
"Don't mention it," replied the barmaid wryly.
"Riiight," remarked Ben in a rather casual manner. "Come on, Elizabeth. Help me with the trays, and I'll act gentlemanly toward you, even if you're a Loyalist," he said sarcastically.
With a light genial chuckle, Elizabeth toted the other tray in a ladylike fashion.
Meanwhile, in the Guest Quarters…
Felicity and Nan were busying themselves with the checkers game, while William was busying himself to rolling the shampoo bottle around the flat carpet clearings of the guest quarters. Nearly a few moments later William accidentally rolled the bottle across the checkerboard, scattering the well-positioned checker pieces, much to the dismay and annoyance of the girls.
"William!" cried Felicity and Nan together.
William simply shrugged and slowly grinned a mischievous grin.
"Oh, that does it, Will!" complained Felicity. "I shall never play checkers with you next time!"
"Ohhh," sulked William. "Pretty please?"
"Absolutely not," replied Felicity crossly.
"But you said…" William piped up before Felicity interrupted him.
"I would play checkers with you if you didn't screw things up," retorted Felicity hotly in exasperation. "But you can't seem to keep still one bit! You're always running around the place, driving us bonkers!"
"I'm a boy, not a girl!" protested William. "You ladies have no problems sitting still, but I do! Why do you always have to be so mean to me?"
Felicity hung her head. William exhaled in a cross manner.
"Besides," continued William, "Mother always keeps saying that you're flighty and headstrong, and have difficulty sitting still yourself!"
"'Tis true," put in Nan solemnly, looking up at her older sister. "If you have difficulty sitting still yourself, how much more for you to criticize your younger brother about that?"
Felicity was about to retort, but couldn't find the words. Her face reddened.
"Now look who's blushing," teased William, slowly forming a playful grin. Nan started to feel rather amused.
"I think you youngsters have made me feel quite embarrassed for one morning," declared Felicity as she stooped to pick up the shampoo bottle left from William's wreckage of the nicely positioned checkers game board. "Nan, can you put away the checker pieces back in the bag?"
With a tiny nod Nan slowly gathered the checker pieces and dumped them into the small white bag. Then she took the bag and the checkerboard and placed them on top of the desk. Felicity moseyed to the bathroom to put away the shampoo bottle and back to the living area, just in time before the door chime sounded.
EE-EEP!
"Come," replied the three children. Then they looked at each other rather confusedly, wondering who interrupted who.
The automatic sliding doors opened, and in entered Ben and Elizabeth, toting the breakfast trays. Felicity's eyes dilated as she beheld the mouth-watering sight of the food.
"Mmmm, that smells soooo good," crooned Felicity, closing her eyes and relishing the alluring scent.
"So, how was your housekeeping, Lissie?" asked Ben sarcastically, placing the tray he was holding on the trundle bed, and pointing to Elizabeth to place the other, which she did with ladylike grace.
"It's…getting better," replied Felicity, grinning impishly to herself as she remembered how Mrs. Merriman told her about growing up to be a notable housewife.
"No doubt," replied Ben in quiet laughter. He took some his plate with the cheese-topped bagel, and the scrambled eggs and beef sausage and started shoving a few pieces down his mouth. The rest of the children hadn't even started, though each had their breakfast plates. Felicity and Elizabeth were near their right side of the king-sized bed, with Elizabeth being on the far right and Felicity being on Elizabeth's left. Both Nan and William were near Felicity, with Nan being nearest her, and William on Nan's left side.
"Wait," cried Nan. "Shouldn't we say grace first?"
Ben was exasperated. "Nanster," he replied, with his mouth nearly half-full. "I'm as hungry as a Continental soldier who's gone without several days worth of food can ever be. You want to say grace, you can do it yourself, or perhaps ask one of the older girls to do it."
Nan gave Ben a rather disapproving look.
"Besides," continued Ben. "I'm no good at saying it. You heard me yesterday. I couldn't even find the right words!"
Felicity, as she was starting on her breakfast meal, just simply shook her head, her cheeks puffed while blowing air. Elizabeth faced Ben.
"Well, if you tried, and put your heart and soul into it, you can do it," she assured. "I was able to do it," she declared, and nearly muttered to herself, "Even if I was a girl." Then she raised her tone of voice. "So why can't you?"
"Because…well," replied Ben hesitantly. "I'm a boy. You girls can talk more, given that you and Lissie constantly chatter with each other like magpies. Besides, you make the prayer sound so damn nice."
"Stop swearing, Ben. It's very unbecoming for a gentleman like you." Elizabeth lowered her voice slightly. "I hope you don't talk like the poor lad at the bar."
"I thought 'tis Annabelle who usually makes remarks like that," remarked Felicity, as she chewed slowly on a small slice of sausage. "'Tis rather unusual for you to say such things about people."
Elizabeth simply heaved a ladylike sigh. Ben abruptly put his plate down on his right side on the trundle bed. He felt kind of resentful about being told by the girls what to do.
"All right. We'll say your stupid grace if that's what you proper young ladies want so damn badly."
"Ben!" gasped Felicity, Elizabeth, and Nan together. William was a little dazed by that statement, but was keen enough to ignore it.
Elizabeth hung her head. "I-I'm sorry," she said quietly in a rather meek manner. Felicity looked at her. "I-I told Ben not to keep this up, after listening to the way the barman talks, but…well…I hope you won't be angry with me." She felt a little nervous.
"There's no reason to get angry with you, Elizabeth," assured Felicity. "You've done your best. Now 'tis time to do mine."
This time Felicity regained her dignity and gave Ben a hard and cold look. "Ben, one more word like that out of your mouth, and I'll personally stuff it with a bar of soap!" she declared hotly. "You're making such a bad example to Nan and William."
Ben shrugged his shoulders and pointed a wagging finger of his right hand at Felicity. "You sound just like my mother," he remarked, as calmly as he could. "You do that," he continued, trying to keep his temper in check, "And I'll do the very same thing to your Loyalist friend. 'Tis bad enough that I have to put up with her lectures regarding the King and the Colonies on our way to Ten-Forward. All this talk about how the King is a benevolent ruler when he actually tramples on our rights like grasshoppers and so forth…"
"Ben," pleaded Elizabeth. "We're friends, even if we're on different sides, just like Lissie and me. I pray you, do not let politics divide us even further."
"Fine, Fine," replied Ben resentfully. He picked up his plate and shoved a handful of scrambled eggs into his mouth.
"Aren't we going to say grace?" asked Nan innocently.
With a snorting sigh Ben set his plate aside again. "Uh! Oh, very well!" he said crossly. He crossed his hands.
"Lord, we thank you for this heavenly food, which was generated by the goodly replicator machine," began Ben in a slightly rapid and irreverent manner. "And we also thank you that the colonists won their independence from England, and that we colonists don't have to live under British rule by the likes of whimsical people like King George the Third. And we also thank you that everything around here is free of charge…or so we think. Amen."
"Amen," the rest of children recited together.
Ben took his plate back and resumed eating. "I hope I did pretty well," he said, mostly to himself, as he helped himself to a biscuit on the secondary tray.
"For a start," commented Felicity, forcing an assuring smile. "Can you please pass me three of those biscuits on the trundle bed?"
Ben snatched one of the biscuits. "Catch," he said, as he was about to toss it to Felicity, thinking that she would indeed catch it in midair. Felicity just simply snorted disapprovingly, which made Ben hand her the biscuits properly on a folded napkin.
"Thank you," said Felicity. "That's much better."
"No problemo," replied Ben, imitating the drawling barman. Felicity handed one to Elizabeth, and the two others to Nan and William. Nan turned to face Ben while seated on the bed. "Where did you learn to speak like that?"
"The barman," replied Elizabeth. "He picks up things wherever we go."
"Though I dare say, you'd best keep such things like that to yourself if we ever go back, or you'll start attracting unnecessary attention to yourself," declared Felicity. She sighed wistfully. "…If we ever go back…"
Felicity's daydreaming moment was interrupted when Ben started speaking up.
"Will you be wanting a lemon cake for yourself, Elizabeth?"
"Yes, please."
"Might as well. I think I'll help myself to a little bit of that, too," replied Ben, as he snatched two of the lemon cakes while munching on his biscuit. He handed one of them to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth gave a thoughtful glance at the cakes. I think these will taste good with a bit of tea, she thought to herself. She set aside her plate and sauntered to the replicator.
"Why are you going to that replicator machine?" inquired Felicity, looking up from her plate.
"For tea, of course," replied Elizabeth as sweetly as she could.
"I've tried it before, and much good it did," Felicity declared in a rather sarcastic manner. "When I asked the replicator for tea, all it said was "Specify Parameters". 'Twas so frustrating that I've completely given up on that stupid contraption…"
"Whoa. Wait a minute, Lissie" interrupted Ben. You asked…the replicator…for tea?"
Felicity became cross, as she was kind of expecting some piece of helpful advice from Ben on how to handle the replicator, and all she got was a criticism for asking the machine for tea, even though she was on the Patriot side. After the Boston Tea Party, the Patriots boycotted all tea made from England.
She flounced at him. "All right," she declared hotly. "I know that I'm a Patriot, but what's wrong with a Patriot girl like me asking for a bit of tea, especially since we're in a completely different time, when all that stuff about Patriots and Loyalists don't matter anymore?"
Ben couldn't help laughing about the syllabic alliteration that Felicity made in her statement. "Well…Patriots don't drink tea anymore, especially English tea. We boycotted all tea since the Boston Tea Party…"
Ignoring Ben, Felicity inquired her friend about the replicator. "Did it work?" she asked.
"Aye. I managed to get quite a cupful." Elizabeth slowly turned around; her hand was daintily carrying a bleached white teacup filled nearly to the brim with a simmering brownish liquid.
"What kind of tea is it?" asked Felicity, curious.
"'Tis Earl Gray."
"Earl Gray?" she piped. She set her plate down. "I'm getting some."
"Lissie, you're a Patriot! How could you?"
"Oh, hush, Ben!" snapped Felicity in a tart manner. "Can't a Patriot girl break the fast on tea a little bit? There's no other Patriot in our vicinity to snap at me if I start drinking tea," she added, as she worked with Elizabeth on the replicator system. "Except you, of course."
"Then you're quite lucky that's the case," continued Ben, slowly resuming his calm demeanor. "Might as well get me some, too, if you please."
"There goes our hotheaded Patriot lad," chirped Felicity. She turned back to Elizabeth. "Another cupful for Ben, Elizabeth."
Elizabeth gasped. "Lissie, are you sure?" she said in a whisper. "You know Ben is particularly adamant about not drinking tea in order to support his Patriot cause."
Felicity gave a rather cursory glance at Ben, who was devouring the last of his scrambled eggs and starting on his beef sausage slices, while savoring his cheese-topped bagel half-slices. "Well, from the looks of it, not anymore," she said finally. "Come on, Elizabeth. Let's break the rules a little."
"If you say so, Lissie."
The replicator generated an extra teacup filled with the same brown liquid. Felicity took two teacups and Elizabeth took the other one. Slowly turning, they moseyed their way back to the bed in a dainty manner like Indian slave girls.
"Your tea, Mr. Davidson," Elizabeth declared formally, as she gracefully handed the steaming teacup to Ben, who took the cup as carefully as he could, given that the cup was nearly filled to the brim. Elizabeth sat back in the their usual seats on the bed as her handed one of the teacups to her. Felicitey, getting rather restless, as usual, moseyed to the trundle bed where Ben was seated, eyeing on his cheese-topped bagel.
"Would it be all right if I tried one of these bagels?" asked Felicity in a rather sheepish manner, grinning impishly.
"You're always asking for my food!" complained Ben, in a rather resentful manner.
"That's because you have the gall to ask for something unconventional to what you colonists have," replied Elizabeth, sipping her tea in a ladylike fashion.
"Hey! This is this the future!" replied Ben indignantly. "Only the Lord knows how long we're going to stay in here, and I want to enjoy every minute of it while I…or rather, we…can."
Ben resumed eating, but couldn't help but feel rather disturbed by Felicity's shadow, much less Felicity herself, hovering over him. He looked up to her in a glum manner, then reconsidered. "All right, Lissie. Here's half," he said finally, relinquishing one of the bagel slices to Felicity, who took it in a fairly gentle manner and moseyed off to her usual seat on the king-sized bed. "I hope she's happy. Mayhap 'tis always hard to refuse Miss Felicity Merriman," he said to himself.
"That could be because you always seem to allow her faerie charms to dazzle you and influence you beyond the bounds of practicality," said Elizabeth.
Ben was nearly finished with the rest of the sausage slices and was helping himself to the last two lemon cakes.
"Ben, what about Nan and William?" asked Felicity.
"Oh. Sorry."
Felicity gave Ben a rather disapproving look. Then she turned to her younger sister. "Do you want a lemon cake, Nan?"
"Yes, please!" she cried.
"How 'bout you, William?"
"Nah. I'm not that fond of them."
Ben threw one of the little cakes to the king-sized bed, and Nan managed to snatch it promptly after it landed on the covers.
"Well, what do you say, Nanster?" asked Felicity, almost in a motherly tone of voice. For an 11-year-old she could sound remarkably grown-up if she wanted to.
"Thank you, Ben," replied Nan in a rather childish manner, putting every millisecond of spacing between each of the words.
With a cursory nod, Ben took his teacup and started taking a gradual sip on the Earl Gray. The tea tasted so strange to him to the point that he involuntarily spewed it right out of his mouth, much to the disgust of the girls. There were tea stains blotting the carpet area near where Ben sat on the trundle bed.
"You call this tea?" complained Ben, his face contorted into a squeamish grimace. Both Felicity and Elizabeth burst into a fit of giggles. Nan covered her mouth while snickering to herself. William was rather wide-eyed at the spectacle that Ben was making.
"You act so funny, Ben," said Nan, unable to keep herself from laughing.
"Thank you," replied Ben in a sarcastic tone of voice, as he proceeded to wipe the tea drips on his face. He then got to finish the last remnants of his bagel and took the time to finish the rest of the lemon cakes.
"Whew! I'm goodly full," declared Ben in a rather satisfying manner. "Mayhap I've never been this full in my entire life."
At that moment the door chime rang. EE=EEP!
"And just in time," commented Felicity. She raised her voice in a commanding tone. "Come."
The automatic sliding doors opened and in entered the same guy in a yellow Starfleet uniform, with the slightly pudgy face and his curly yellowish-brown hair. It was Transporter Chief Miles O'Brien.
"How do you do?" chanted the girls.
Miles performed a fair sweeping bow. "How do you do, young ladies," he greeted jovially in his British accent. "And you, too, gentlemen."
"Hello," greeted Ben in a rather casual manner. O'Brien glanced at the stains on Ben's carpet area.
"That's quite a mighty fine mess you made, Mr. Davidson," he remarked.
"I've always wanted to try something like that, sir," replied Ben. "'Tis the tea stains," he added.
"Hmm. You look as though you're a regular Patriot colonist."
"That I am."
"Figures. That would, I think, explain the tea stains. I'll bet you probably don't like tea that much, after your people dumped loads of tea chests into the river." O'Brien's remark was enough to make Ben chuckle to himself. O'Brien joined in the laugh as well.
"I take it 'tis time for the tour?" inquired Felicity in her usual outgoing demeanor.
"Yes, Miss. Um, actually, it won't start, or rather, I won't start it until around after five minutes."
"Then in that case we'd better get those trays cleared," declared Ben. "You're coming with me this time, Lissie?"
"Aye," replied Felicity in a happy-go-lucky manner. Gathering up the trays and plates, with bits of food remnants, both Felicity and Ben hurried to the entranceway. "We'll be back shortly," called Felicity, as the sliding doors closed behind them.
"Figures," replied O'Brien. "I might as well just be waiting for you."
O'Brien was now alone with the rest of the children. Immediately both he and Elizabeth were engaged in small talk.
"You're from England, I take it?" inquired Elizabeth.
"We'll I'm from Ireland, actually." replied O'Brien, as courteously as he could. "From planet Earth."
Elizabeth always assumed that Ireland was on Earth, but she wasn't particularly used to hearing the latter phrase. To her it felt quite unusual. But the fact that O'Brien was from Ireland kind of astounded her, as the Irish back in her day were often snubbed and persecuted by the English since Queen Elizabeth I tried to impose her rule on them. O'Brien could probably understand that, too.
"I take it the English weren't particularly friendly with the Irish back in your day, Miss Cole," he said rather seriously, after a brief, 9-second moment of silence. "But that's the way I was born. You can't change the way you were born, can you?"
Elizabeth tried to stay calm and courteous. If the Irishman is friendly to me, then I should be friendly to him, she thought to herself.
"Um, please forgive me, good sir, if I have tendered any prejudices toward you," she began in a rather shy manner. "I am aware that we as English had conflicts with the Irish, and I may have been brought up to think of them as unruly…"
"Don't worry about that, Miss," assured O'Brien. "If my people and your people indeed had terrible conflicts with each other, they were resolved long ago."
"Pray, how so?" inquired Elizabeth.
"Can't tell you too much. That would go in violation with the Temporal Prime Directive."
"Well, at least know that…if I ever go back to my time…that such conflicts will be eventually resolved…"
"But in your time that won't happen until much, much later…regretfully, you won't live to see it…"
"Aye, 'tis true," replied Elizabeth, her eyes wide with a sense of both wonder and sadness.
"But in this timeline, you get to see them resolved," O'Brien assured again.
Elizabeth decided to switch to another topic. "Can you tell me anything about your life?" she asked, smiling coyly.
O'Brien cleared his throat. "Well, I was brought in into this world forty-two years ago, in the year 2328," he began in a rather rapid manner. "When I was 18 I enlisted in Starfleet Academy, passed my tests with flying colors, graduated magna cum laude, later served aboard two Federation starships, the Rutledge and the Phoenix, and later got transferred to this vessel.
"Sounds like you had quite an interesting career," remarked Elizabeth. "What else will you be doing after that, if I may so inquire?"
"Well…in about a year or so I'm going to make a transfer to Deep Space Nine. It's a former Cardassian space station now under Federation control, orbiting the planet Bajor."
O'Brien observed Elizabet's face, which was filled with a sense of awe, and at the same time, a sense of longing.
"I hope you'll forgive me if my remarks sound impertinent, but you really make me wish I could do those things."
"Why, are you implying that the life you live in your time is a stifling bore?"
"Not exactly stifling, sir," Elizabeth replied bashfully. "I have to admit, I do feel a little comfortable with staying at home and doing things that a proper young lady should do…" Then her mind came to her friend. "But you should listen to my friend Lissie. If she heard you, I dare say she would be quite anxious to try these things."
The entry sliding doors gave way and in entered Felicity and Ben, acting playful and flirty.
"You could have knocked," chided Elizabeth, in a gentle but firm manner.
"Sorry, Miss Cole. We forgot," replied Ben sarcastically.
"Might I inquire as to who 'Lissie' is?" asked O'Brien quickly.
"Don't you remember, sir? She's Miss Felicity Merriman," said Elizabeth,
"That one?" he asked, pointing his right hand index finger at Felicity. She was busy chatting with Ben.
"Aye."
"Hmm…" observed O'Brien. "That's rather odd. She's acting kind of flirty for an eleven-year-old."
Felicity interrupted herself from her incessant giggling and regained her composure. "You're Mr. O'Brien," she said, in her outgoing manner. "I do declare we've met before."
"That I did, Miss Merriman, in the Main Sickbay," replied O'Brien courteously. "As did I, Mr. Davidson."
"Mr. O'Brien, isn't it?" asked Ben, as politely as he could. "'Tis agreeable to see you again. I dare say, your name sounds quite Irish."
"Because he is Irish," put in Elizabeth, trying not to feel too disdainful.
"Well, that's only half of it," declared O'Brien. "I have some interesting things to tell you about myself during the tour. You all ready?"
Nan and William looked up from their play and nodded. The rest of the children followed suit. The older girls, including Nan, donned their cloaks.
"Well then, let's proceed," said O'Brien, opening the automatic sliding doors and ushering them outside the guest quarters. "After you, everyone."
Chapter 15 will feature Felicity and her friends and siblings making a tour de force of the Enterprise. That chapter may take long in coming, as I will have to do further research on the schematics of the Galaxy Class ship, as well as organize the tour routes. So bear with me.