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Clara is seated at that usual table just to the side of a tall plant and against a wall, skirt settled modestly to drape over one of the legs of the chair. She seems to be reading, of all things, a novel, a can of soda on the table.
G'ben runs at full speed into the hall, on more-or-less a straight course for the Vendotron. It must like him- he procures a blue can with little trouble. Glancing around as he pops it open, his eyes rest on Clara, lighting up. After a brief glance down at himself and a shrug, he skips over toward her table. "Doctor Claaaara!"
Holding himself proudly, this eleven-year-old human boy actually looks his age for the first time in years. His neatly clipped honey blonde hair is short except for the skinny braid that trails down his neck. Brightly curious blue eyes sparkle with life and mischief. He's quite proud of his new clothes, good-fitting black denim jeans and a pullover ivory-colored sweater. Well, it used to be ivory-colored. Now it's muddy and he's bruised. He's even got new shoes- sneakers, to be exact.
Now, it's not often that Clara hears her name from small children, so this -definitely- gets her attention and she starts to brighten before her eyes widen in dismay. "G'ben, dear, what -happened-? Oh, come here and let me see you. Were you scrapping again?"
G'ben shrugs, ducking out of reach to plop into a chair at the table. "Twasn't nothin'. I ain't hurt. Did ya talk to Ma-a-a-a-a-Addison?"
Audity nods briefly to Clara before finding a seat and settling with a notebook.
Clara fumbles in a white box with a red cross on it on the side of the table, fitting together a tiny scanner and moving to kneel next to the lad's chair and double check. "Still, hold still just a moment. Let me check you over." Audity gets a pleasant, if distracted smile before she grins up at G'ben. "I did. He promised not to chomp you up for dinner."
G'ben sighs long-sufferingly, squirming just a little. "Ain't hurt," he mumbles again, eyes flicking toward Audity. That last brings a wary smile to his face. "I wouldn't be good for dinner," he notes solemnly. "Too stringy."
"Now he didn't mention anything about lunch," muses Clara as she regard the scanner, then grins. "He's more than willing to talk to you, dear. I'm sure we could invade on him some time that he's not busy." She sighs faintly. "G'ben, could you come up to Medbay with me, please?" She scoops up her novel and soda, in one hand, then holds out a hand to the boy.
Audity glances up at the boy, smiling amusedly.
G'ben rolls his eyes, giving Clara his hand. Hey, if it'll get him a talk with a real /engineer/... "/Women/."
Clara grins wryly at Audity and quirks her head at her patient amiably. "Bravest fellow for three or four Steadings around," she comments, then leads him out, noting airily, "Yes, dear. Lots of women. We rule the universe."
G'ben shakes his head, trotting along. "Think the universe is in trouble.'
[Travel to Medbay snipped]
Clara gives Kramer an imploring look, indicating her charge for the moment. "I'm only here to aid this fellow. Hackles down, my keeper." Kramer snorts vaguely, gives G'ben a grin, and goes back to his paperwork. "Okay, hop up here, kiddo," Clara adds, patting the bioscan.
G'ben climbs onto the bed, rather cheerfully. "I get chocolate, right?" He gives Clara a curious look. "Your keeper?"
"Sure, you get chocolate," Clara agrees amiably. "I'll bet Chief Addison even has some fudge left from my family. Maybe we can talk him out of a piece." She unseals an antiseptic cloth and tugs the sleeve of the sweater up to clean a scrape. "Mm-hmm. That's Major Langley. I'm officially off duty right now, and he's aiming to make sure I don't work."
G'ben oooohs, "Fudge is better 'n chocolate. He ain't stingy, is he?" A slight hiss as the sleeve is moved is quickly suppressed. "How come ya ain't supposed to work?"
Clara sighs quietly and absently reaches for a hypo and nudging the proper components into it before pressing it to the boy's arm. "No, he isn't stingy. Not that I've ever seen, at least." She returns to cleaning another scrape, followed by a light ointment, and half grins at her work. "I'm not supposed to work because Chief Addison ordered me off duty for a day."
G'ben frowns indignantly. "How come he went and did that? Who's gonna fix people if you ain't working?"
Clara moves to work on the other arm, laughing. "There's two other doctors, dear. And Major Langley is more than able to help people." She shifts to clean a scrape on the lad's face, shaking her head. "You're going to have quite the shiner here."
G'ben hmphs softly. "Don't want no other doctor if /I/ get hurt." One hand raises to poke gingerly at the bruise. "Badge o' honor. How come Addison made ya off duty for a day?" Persistent, ain't the?
Clara doesn't seem inclined to argue the matter of honor. Perhaps her counseling brain cells have all been used up for the day. Instead, she gives G'ben's hair a gentle ruffling and grins. "Because I was tired. There, now. All better. What do you say we go see if Chief Addison's busy? If he is, we'll run down to the bakery, hmm?"
G'ben hesitates a bare second before nodding with a grin. "I'm buyin' if we go to the bakery. Got money, not stealin'," he adds proudly.
Clara's brows quirk up in surprise, although she simply nods and offers her hand again. "Quite the generous offer. Thank you, sir," she replies, starting towards the door, much to Kramer's approval.
G'ben grabs Clara's hand, hopping off the bioscan with a solemn and careful, "Yer welcome."
[Travel to Security snipped]
Niko is busily plugging away at paperwork, the comm headset tucked atop his terminal so that it looks like the machine is answering calls. Maybe that's how he prefers it. The new arrivals distract him enough that he turns and lifts a hand in greeting. "Hiya, Clara. Hey, kiddo. What's up?"
Clara comes in leading a rather scruffed up G'ben, obviously amused about something. "The sky?" she responds, giving Niko an evaluative look. "I like the hair. Anya's going to tackle you and shave it all off, though. Is the Chief in?"
G'ben pauses, glancing around, counting softly to himself. He promptly hides behind Clara.
Niko grins at Clara's comment. "That's what Ri--ack." That's as he catches sight of his chrono. "She's going to be here soon, I'd best finish up and get out of here. I don't want to be a sheep, after all. Yeah, he's in, go ahead." G'ben's hiding gets a puzzled look, and Niko observes, tone gentling somewhat, "We don't eat kids here. No worries."
"I told you that," Clara murmurs down at G'ben, grin widening. "Come on now, where's that brave lad that I saw in Medbay?" Niko gets a quick wink. "Good luck. And thanks," she adds before heading towards the be-doome'ed door and knocks.
G'ben snorts at Niko's comment, not looking particularly reassured. He glances up at Clara sagely as he trails after her. "I /am/ brave. Here, ain't i?"
The light by the door handle changes from red to green.
Somewhere, somehow, a paisley light taunts the pathetic light by the door handle.
Clara chuckles and opens the door, nodding. "Here you are, yes. And into the lion's den, we go. Hopefully, the lion has fudge, hmm?"
You walk towards the Chief Addison's Office.
G'ben here from the Security Central.
SECURITY> The light feels unloved.
SECURITY> The light needs a makeover.
Riley is seated at his desk with a pile of paperwork, Pen's sprawled at his feet, getting an ear scritching. As y'all enter Riley offers a grinned greeting, "Heya' there, how fares the day?"
For fudge, G'ben would face down a whole battalion of SecOffs. This does not, however, prevent him from treading warily. Riley gets a cautious nod, Pen gets a startled blink and the beginning of a grin, and then he spots the /toys/. Even if they're funny-looking birds, they look like fun.
Clara leads G'ben in, then settles her hand on the boy's shoulder, returning Riley's smile with her own. "Hey yourself. I come bearing a visitor, sir. Chief, this is G'ben. G'ben, this is Chief Addison...and that fellow at his feet is Commander Quinn."
Riley offers G'ben something of a salute, grinning, "Hi, nice to meet you G'ben." Pen offers his own greeting, padding over to sniffle at the boy in search of petting. Riley shakes his head in amusement.
G'ben recognizes the greeting, carefully returning the Clara-version of a salute. Delight lights up his face, and like all little boys, he sets to giving Pen a good thorough petting. "Nice to meetcha Commander Quinn!" As an afterthought, he looks up with an only slightly less enthusiastic, "Nice to meet you too, um, Chief. Chief, that's right."
Clara trades one of those 'grown-up' looks with Riley, one of delighted amusement with the child, and she takes a step back after giving Pen a quick ruffle on the ears. "Are you busy, by any chance? G'ben is interested in engineering, you see, and wanted to talk to a real live engineer..."
Riley regards the stacks of paperwork a moment, trying not to wince at them, but he shakes his head. "I've time, although Arthur's a lot more of an engineer than I am. Although admittedly, he's, um, evil. I can get us into Maintenance though if you like?"
G'ben 's eyes flick toward Riley dubiously, then up to Clara. "Arthur got a dog?"
Clara flicks a glance over the paperwork as well, smile turning more apologetic than anything as she turns to lean down at murmur to G'ben, then offers to Riley, "That's all right, sir. I'll check with you ahead of time, next time. Come on, kiddo. We'll hit that bakery, what do you say?"
You whisper "I'm afraid Arthur doesn't have a dog, no. And he doesn't like me all that well...and I think Addison's a little busy. What do you say we let him get back to work?" to G'ben.
Riley shakes his head to that, "It's okay, no I don't mind. This can wait, it's not going to go running off anyplace."
G'ben nods to Clara, giving the piles of paperwork a /look/. "Kya says he's busy /all/ the time. Don't believe anybody can not like /you/ though." His gaze drifts to Riley, surprised hope appearing in his eyes.
Clara clears her throat at G'ben's comment, trying not to laugh, and leads the boy over to the couch, perching on one of the arms herself. "He is always busy," she agrees. "Would you happen to have a bit of the fudge left Niles sent you, sir? I promised G'ben chocolate for being so brave in Medbay."
Riley looks somewhat amused by the continued use of 'sir', but is not about to comment in front of G'ben. Instead he rummages in a lower drawer, pulling out a heavy lock box and twisting the combination lock carefully. "Fudge I can do."
G'ben climbs onto the couch, encouraging Pen to do the same, and perks up at the word 'fudge'. "You wasn't kidding. He's really got fudge!" At the same time he gives Clara a puzzled look. "How come ya call your boyfriend... Oh!" Comprehension apparently dawns. "He's /that/ kinda boyfriend. Gotcha."
Clara actually coughs at this, eyes widening down at the entirely too precocious child. "-That- kind? Uh..." Riley gets a briefly desperate look of 'Help!' before she clears her throat and tries, "Er, why don't you tell Chief Addison why you'd like to go to the Academy, dear?"
To his credit, Riley does -not- fall off his chair laughing. But it's very close indeed. "G'ben, she doesn't always call me sir. Only if she's trying to be official and professional and such. A lot of people call me sir out of habit." He unlocks the lock, pulling out -another- locked box and sets to working on it.
G'ben nods solemnly. "I bet they do. Gots to get respect or somebody steals 'em." He looks up at Clara to nod, and launches into, "Wanna play with engines. /Real/ ones, on the big ships. And the 'cademy trains ya best."
Clara purses her lips, just shaking her head at the rather well-protected fudge, "Respect is an important point," she vaguely agrees, reaching down to scritch Pen's ears. "He's read half the library, I think," she adds.
Riley half-grins at the mention of the Academy. "The big ships have the best engines, yes. Or the small really fast ones, they have the really -fancy- engines, with all the newest technology. I didn't go to the Academy, so I couldn't say what it's like. But I enjoyed the school I did attend for engineering. Very fascinating place. They let us build and re-build various enginage among other things."
G'ben stretches up a bit, trying to get a look into the boxes. "Your school as good as the A-cademy?" Eyes widen. "They did? Mebbe I'll get /that/ school instead." A glance up at Clara with a blink. "Uh uh. Only all the engineerin' stuff. And the mythology."
Clara slips down into a corner of the couch to pay thorough attention to Pen after unobtrusively lifting her brows at Riley over a faint grin. "Just those, hmm? Goodness."
Riley finally gets the three layers of boxes and a small chain off the fudge tin and proffers it to G'ben. "There's a lot of good engineering schools. It depends on what you want your specialty to be."
G'ben actually controls himself to take it politely, even remembering a "Thank you. Sir." The fudge is distracts from the conversation for a moment, though he offers some to Clara after he gets his own. "Yeah. Gotta find new books." He gives Riley a curious look. "Specialty?"
Riley nods to that, offering the tin to Clara as well, "Some folks specialize in engines, or weaponry, or demolition, or ship design, or architecture, or any of a thousand things."
Clara shakes her head with a warm smile to both boy and man, and returns her attention to Pen. Very quiet, small Clara. Not an engineer. She'll just listen.
G'ben shakes his head, fudge-chomping. "Engines, just engines. Make 'em even better and faster and smaller. What's your specialty?"
"In school? I specialized in hyper engines." Riley explains amiably, settling the tin back into its containers after filching a piece himself. "On ships, well it was never that specific. It became whatever needed doing."
G'ben 's eyes sparkle. He does a fairly good imitation of Homer Simpson drooling over a donut. "Hyper enginessss..." He grins at that last. "Good. More... versatile, that's it."
Riley nods to that, hair bobbling lightly, "And versatile's important. Especially if you want to be a military engineer, or any kind of engineer that works on spaceships. Because things go wrong without warning, and you need to fix it fast."
G'ben cocks his head, licking chocolate from his fingers. "If they went wrong /with/ warning, wouldn't go wrong at all. You'd fix it first."
Riley nods amiably, gesturing to the chairs. Pen is -quite- interested in these goings on now, chocolate is involved. Riley adds, "And most of what being a ship engineer is involves preventing things from going wrong to begin with."
G'ben nods, confidently on comfortable ground. "Maintenance." He pronounces it carefully. "Know that stuff. Learned the whoooole checklist."
"The checklist?" Riley questions curiously.
G'ben gestures toward the paperwork. "Had a clipboard with lotsa stuff to do. Dai-ly and week-ly and monthly."
Riley glances at the stack of paperwork, "Yeah, every ship and every command has a different routine. You have to be very careful to do everything on it. One mistake can be a big problem."
G'ben nods solemnly. "Yeah. Engines can /'xplode/ if ya got a lousy engineer. I'm very very careful."
"What's it like living shipboard when you're not working on the engines, Riley?" Clara interjects quietly, smoothing at a wrinkle in her skirt.
Riley nods to that, grinning, "Careful is very important." He hmms at Clara, "Well, ships are pretty crowded, and there's not a lot of space or privacy. But there's always a new place, and something new to see."
G'ben shrugs. Space and privacy were, until recently, fairly unknown to him. "Get to see new planets?" Now /that/ notion brings a measure of excitement to him eyes.
Clara stifles a sigh of mock dismay. "Ah, the Navy's captured another heart. The Infantry can use engineers too, G'ben," she teases lightly.
Riley nods to that, grinning, "New planets all the time... And the stars outside of atmosphere are a -lot- different. Brighter, right -there-." He hmphs, "Groundpounders."
G'ben hmphs. "Tara said I'm too good to be a grunt." He turns blithely back to Riley, eyes widening. "How long til /I/ can go?"
"Well how old are you? And exactly where do you want to go?" Riley can't help but grin at that first, giving Clara an innocent look.
Clara rolls her eyes at both of you indignantly and hmpfs right back. "See if I find more fudge for -either- of you," she mutters, trying to hide the fact that she's trying not to grin.
G'ben straightens up proudly. "I'm eleven and three-quarters." He in the vague direction of the Academy, nodding to himself. "Academy. Definitely." Clara gets a blink and a mournful look.
Oh, melt. Clara's utterly susceptible to that look from a child and she leans over to ruffle the boy's hair and smile warmly. "Welll...maybe for you, dear. Especially for a future cadet. The Academy was a wonderful school, even if some of us -are- Infantry."
Riley attempts to look pitifully at Clara, "Awww, but, but, not the -fudge-, you can't take away fudge." He nods to G'ben, "About six years before you can go to the Academy. But there's a lot of school before that."
G'ben beams instantly at Clara, reminding her, "I'm brave for fudge. Six /years/? Hmph." That last makes him hesitate. "Learnin' lots without school. Schools... pressive." Well, he's close.
"But schools have a lot of important things in them. Learning to work with other people, and authority, and engines, we musn't forget the engines. By you age I was already in engineering courses where they let me take stuff apart. I just wasn't too great at putting it back together yet." Riley looks perhaps a bit sheepish, "But I learned."
Clara's gaze is almost distant as she muses quietly, "Isn't there a private school for the diplomat's children, Riley?"
Various expressions flit over G'ben's face as he listens. "Nope, can't forget the engines," he mumbles. "Know 'bout authority. You're authority." Oooh, envy at Riley's last remark definitely shows through before he looks up at Clara. "I ain't a diplomat's children."
"Schools are wonderful places. They have some annoying parts, but they also have all kinds of textbooks and workshops and such. It's worth all the bad things." Riley nods to Clara, "First floor, the same hall as the secondary offices. It's pretty impressive."
Clara laughs easily at G'ben's retort and shakes her head. "No, lad, you're certainly not a diplomatlet. But it's a school...and a good one. What would you say to attending it?" she asks after a grateful glance at Riley.
G'ben looks positively wistful, but he tries to play it cool. "Wouldn't mind, I suppose."
"I think it can be arranged," Riley offers amiably. "It's not too tricky. They're pretty neat people. There's a lot of kids from the city there too. Addie is in the nursery group for example."
Clara raises a hand expressively. "We'll have to ask Roland first, of course, since he's currently your guardian...but if he'll agree to it, we can see to your enrollment. It would be fun...but hard work, dear. But I think you're up to a challenge..."
G'ben glances downward. "Prolly nobody I know. Who's Addie?" He gives a dismissive wave at Clara's statement. "He'll say yes. Anything to give him more time to pant over Kya." He harrumphs at that last. "Bring it on. I'll beat any ole work."
"Addie is the daughter of one of the Security people. She's brilliant, well, for a two year old at least." Riley explains amiably, "She's trouble personified."
Clara reaches over to rest a hand on the boy's shoulder, casting a fond smile at Riley before noting, "You mean you don't know them...yet. Think of meeting new people as a discovery, like seeing new planets." She snickers at Addie's description and shakes her head. "She may even be as tough as you are, G'ben. Tell you what, though, why don't you and I let Chief Addison get back to work, and go invade that bakery?"
"She, huh? Sounds interesting, for a girl." G'ben slides off the couch, giving Pen a scritch behind the ears. He's not about to turn down baked goods. "Thank-you-Chief-Addison-for-talking," he burbles by rote, then adds, "And the fudge."
"No problem, G'ben, thank you both for coming by. I appreciated the break," Riley offers, grinning.
Clara rises as well and starts to lead the child to the door, then glances over her shoulder to offer a quiet, "Thank you, love. See you tonight," before ushering the lad out of the room.
G'ben glances up at Clara, voice floating back into the office as they exit. "'Love' sounds lots better 'n 'sir'."
You walk towards the Security Central.
G'ben here from the Chief Addison's Office.
Niko puts aside the comm as the parade exits Riley's office, casting a wary look to his chrono and murmuring about the joys of folks being late and obnoxiously talkative fluffheaded diplomats. "Oh... Clara, can I steal you for just a second?" He starts to fumble the gray envelope out of his jacket pocket. "Want to show you something." And his broad grin suggests that the gray envelope contains a good thing.
Clara comes out of the office, blushing slightly, but laughing quietly at something. "Well, yes, I think so too. But sometimes he's my boss, too." She blinks up at Niko, then grins and heads on over to peer at the paper. "Sure. Mister G'ben here and I are headed down to the java quarter, but we can spare a moment. What's up?"
Niko offers a charming grin. "G'ben, yeah, hi. It'll just take a moment, no worries. I just wanted to show off this, before I skeedle." And 'this' would be, of course, the picture he showed Riley earlier--the revoltingly adorable picture of his nephew and nieces, the fluffy-haired twins holding the baby. And even if Sochos looks somewhat less than thrilled with his baby sister, it's still a cute picture.
G'ben stands on tiptoe to get a look at the picture. He doesn't look particularly impressed. "Hi, SecOff," he mumbles in return to the greeting.
Dingdingdingding! That would be Clara's biological clock again as she simply melts at the picture. "Awwww...oh, Niko, they're -precious-. Oh, you'll have to take tons of pictures on your honeymoon, please?"
Niko supplies to G'ben, "It's Niko, though you can call me that if you'd rather." (He can call me Flower if he wants to.) Clara's comment elicits an absolutely tickled grin. "Of course, of course. It takes too long for the family to ship 'em to me, after all--so much easier if I take them myself." After a brief pause, he adds, "Speaking on that, thanks for the offer of the boat, Clara. Ela and I are really looking forward to the chance to get away for a little."
"Or Lieutenant Commander Casymed," Clara adds to G'ben with a grin. "See? Navy ranks take forever to say. Mine's -lots- easier." She nods at Niko affably. "Think nothing of it. Just enjoy her, and take good care of her." Presumably, she means the boat.
G'ben nods slightly, eleven-year-old eyes on Nick's sidearm. "Niko then." He glances up at Nick, misunderstanding slightly. "Ain't legal shipping kids." He pauses as Clara speaks, and nods again. "Niko."
Niko blinks at Clara, his brief grin suggesting that he's got a 'her' other than the boat in mind. Turning to G'ben, he blinks once more. "Uh... no, kid, I meant a boat. A sailboat--Clara--er, Dr. Aleron's boat. She's letting my fiancee and me borrow it, after we get married."
G'ben blinks a few times. "You said it takes too long for the family to ship ya /boats/?"
Clara squeezes G'ben's shoulder lightly and grins. "I'll let Niko tell you about it, G'ben. I have to get something from Medbay. You come get me when you're ready to go, all right?" she offers, and slips out the door.
[And here, Clara's player had to run off to deal with RL.]