Sea & Sky: Card Sharks

Posted on 05 Apr 2023 @ 10:24pm by Commander Calliope Zahn & Lieutenant Ethan Gunnarsen & Lieutenant JG Maxwell Tilmer
Edited on on 15 Oct 2023 @ 7:56pm

Mission: M3 - Into the Deep
Location: Arrowclass Runabout USS Acamas, on Korix, parked at the reef
Timeline: concurrent with Sea & Sky: Difficult Circumstances
1613 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

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As the rest of the team filed into the center passage and took their gear to the rear compartment, Tilmer plunked his diving helmet on the side of his console. "How about that. Come all this way to meet people and just wait it out in the shuttle?" He griped when Zahn was well and good out of earshot.

Ethan glanced over the control board once more to check that everything was secure before turning to regard his younger companion. "It's not all bad. You saw how they greeted us; more than likely they'll be subjecting the rest to welcoming speeches and state dinners of kelp and raw fish. I can nap here just as easily without the distractions." Granted, he would have been interested to see the strangers, but as he was unfamiliar with them, Ethan felt more secure not getting into a situation that could possibly prove overwhelming. "You could always take the chance to relax and catch up on a holo if you brought it with you."

At a loss, Tilmer looked around. He hadn't prepared himself for killing time, and there was no uplink to his data collection. He crossed his arms and just lolled his head back to peer through the greasy writing on the canopy at the mural of aliens on the ceiling with their bizarre eyes and goofy poses like they were in some sort of album cover representing a sea-lion band from heaven. "You're a pilot. A wheelman like my buddy Wiser. You gotta be used to keeping the engines warm. What do you do while everyone else is skipping around with aliens?"

Amateur, Ethan thought. The kid had no experience with how to keep himself occupied, from the looks of it. "Well, you can go a few ways. When I was your age, I'd use the time to catch up on my credentials, do a little studying. Otherwise there's always mapping your eyelids if it gets really bad, or a couple hands of solitaire - poker if you're manning home-base as a team."

"Sure, I can beat you at a few hands, El Tee," Tilmer offered.

Ethan snorted. "Is that so? You putting anything on the table to back up that claim?"

Tilmer reached under his diving suit collar and into his shirt pocket producing a fistful of small latinum chips he'd exchanged from credits from his stipend, plunking them on the console. His brushy blonde mustache twitched with a smirk beneath. "I'm good for it. You?"

The kid had nerve; Ethan would definitely give him that! Pulling his deck out, he grabbed his own stash of chips before flipping down the table top next to him. “Challenged gets to call the game, kid. What’ll it be? Super Nova, Klingon Rummy, or plain old Texas Hold ‘Em?”

Tilmer rotated his chair and leaned in. "Oh, Klingon Rummy, for sure."

"Right," Setting his chips aside, Ethan began tossing out the cards. Behind him he could hear the chirping of the ship's sensors, and a slight increase to the rocking, but nothing that set off his personal alarms.

Tilmer started flipping over the first cards for the hand's challenge. It was Klingon Rummy, after all, so there was always a battle challenge elimination before the pick up.

Ethan checked his cards and snorted in amusement. "You weren't kidding about beating me. Or trying, at least." Flipping over his own challenge for Tilmer to consider, he waited to see if the younger man would accept the challenge or forfeit the first hand.

"It's too early to show fear." Tilmer flipped a card to meet the challenge card.

"Who said anything about fear? I'm just pragmatic." For the next plays they maintained a casual banter as Ethan kept one eye on the monitors, another on the game. As he got ready to lay down his cards, a shudder rippled through the Arrow, setting off a responding series of chirps from the control panel. "Whoa!"

Tilmer looked concerned. They were inside of a mostly enclosed reef structure. But the rush must have come through the breaks in the dead and missing corral that had broken from the walls, like wind whistling through a drafty cabin. "What was that?"

Folding his cards for a moment, Ethan turned around to check the sensors. "Looks like there's a storm coming in," he murmured, brows furrowed as he tracked the sensors. "We're pretty deep in here, so the worst of it should miss us. Still ..." The surge had been strong for as far out the sensors were tracking. "We'll keep an eye on it; if it keeps on the current track, it might miss us, but if it shifts, we'll want to alert the team."

Tilmer threw out a couple of jacks in a sacrifice play- the hegh'bat move- and took a fresh hand. But he was distracted by the weather alerts.

"Relax," Ethan assured him, picking up the cards and shuffling them into his own set, considering his options for a qeylIS move to steal the game. It would probably piss Tilmer off, but it would at least take his mind off the possible threat for the time being. Arranging his assault, Ethan grinned. "Ready to part with some of those chips," he teased before laying out a flush of hearts.

"You've been hanging on to all that?" Tilmer threw down his hand and howled, like he'd been injured in battle, though he clearly was having fun with the play act. "I got a bunch of junk for my trouble." He was forced to push over the bet.

Ethan laughed out loud. "Live and learn, kid. Never show your best plays at the beginning of the game." Scooping in his winnings, Ethan started shuffling the cards. "Wanna give it another go?"

"My honor demands it."

"If you say so," Ethan dealt out the next hand and set up the discard pile. "Loser chooses first move."

Tilmer rearranged his cards in his hand. "Gotta set up a better battle strategy this time." There was an uneventful battle challenge between them, just a couple of low cards with no effects, and then Tilmer took up the top of the discard and exchanged it. "Glory will be mine."

Leaning back in his seat as Tilmer prepared his attack, Ethan made a quick survey of the sensors. The storm was progressing; the shuttle had taken on a near-constant tremor that he doubted Tilmer even noticed, but the sensors still tracked it as being outside the range of an immediate threat. Turning back, Ethan debated the logic of trusting the machines or his gut … more appropriately his head. “Well, if you’re gonna shoot the parrot, let’s see what you’ve got."

"Not so fast, El Tee." Tilmer brushed his mustache and then pushed some more of his credit chips into the center. "How much you wanna pay to see these cards?" He leaned back and waited to see if Gunnarsen would match or fold.

Considering his hand, Ethan selected his chips and moved them to the center. “Seeing as I’m still working off what I won from you last time, I’ll take the chance.” He tapped the surface-top and waited for Tilmer to make his move.

"Three generals and some disruptor fire." Tilmer laid out the kings and two nines with a cocky grin.

“Impressive.” Ethan shuffled his hand before selecting his cards to rebut the move. “Well, we’ll see what the ladies have to say on the matter.” He laid out four queens and a wild. “More Romulan than Klingon there, but who said subterfuge isn’t a good thing now and then?”

“Targ Guts.” Tilmer pushed over his credits. “You stacking the battle deck?” There was a shudder and Tilmer looked around.

Ethan felt that one to his core. Shooting up, he all but leapt into the pilot’s seat and brought the shuttle up to power. “We just moved from the fringes into the line of fire. Make sure everything’s locked down - I’m going to try and contact the party crew.”

Surreptitiously, Tilmer took back his credits, tucking them back into his shirt. El Tee left them on the table after all. He pulled his station interface back up. “What’s shakin’?” Tilmer muttered, checking the readings.

“Us, in less than ten minutes.” Hitting the comms, Ethan opened a link to Zahn. “Commander, the team needs to return to base pronto. We’ve got a storm moving in and this reef is going to be ground zero in the next twelve minutes.”

=“Copy that. We’re already enroute.”= Zahn responded. =“Get the engines… nevermind, we’re in sight. Looks like you’re already pumping plasma. Be informed, we’re bringing two guests aboard. Zahn out.”=

“The Commander doesn’t sound happy.” Tilmer said quietly to his new card buddy as he ran a quick engines check. “Diplomatic ball must not have had good dancing music.”

"Only music worth dancing to would never be played at a ball anyway. She just has good taste, that's all." Ethan prepared the shuttle for boarding. "Make sure we have space secured for the extra passengers; I want to get out of here as soon as everyone's locked in."

Tilmer hopped out of his station to go back to the ops compartment and try to make it into guest seating. "How are you meant to make a couple of fish-people comfortable on dry land? Hose down the seats? Foot soaks?" He muttered as he went.

"You'll figure it out." Shaking his head, Ethan fought the urge to chuckle as he waited for the away team to arrive.