Farm to Table Dinner
Posted on Wed Oct 8, 2025 @ 3:28am by Senior Chief Petty Officer Alexander Rylan & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro & Lieutenant Bronwyn P’ril
4,129 words; about a 21 minute read
Mission:
Chicken Run
Location: Promenade
Timeline: MD1
ON
P’ril was still unsure what to make of Alexander Rylan.
The more she thought about it, the more confused she became. He seemed downright charming, charismatic, even. But his “invitation” had been awfully pretentious and bordered on creepy. And then there was the question of whether or not he’d known what she was thinking.
She hadn’t actually decided to meet him when she headed to the restaurant in question. She was just… well, she didn’t really know what she was doing, and that was very human of her.
Her mother’s voice sprang unbidden to her mind. You are human, my P’ril. You should act like it from time to time. To never act human would be illogical. Which was probably true. It had worked for her for this long, after all, so why not longer.
There was the place. La Panini’s. She strolled along, pausing at the sign, pretending to read the specials while she searched the establishment out of the corner of her eye.
Alex saw Bronwyn looking at the sign and admired her from a distance for a moment before approaching. Like him, the young woman could almost pass for Human with her hair over her ears. Vulcan or Human, the engineer was very attractive. He walked up behind her, but stopped before he got creepy close.
"You beat me here," he said. He'd been able to leave work a bit early and run back to his quarters to wash up and change. He was casually dressed. Just nice enough for a date, not nice enough to be considered pretentious. Casual mock turtleneck, black, with gray chinos, black belt, and black ankle high casual dress boots. Under his shirt, worn privately, especially on a first date, was his silver Great Bird of the Galaxy pendant. Usually, if that became a topic of discussion, it meant the date went really well... or things were moving too fast and would flare up and then crash and burn in short order. Only time would tell which this date would be, or if it would be something else entirely. "Now you're the one who's here, for no particular reason, and I'm the one running into you!" Alex flashed a winning smile.
P’ril started slightly at the sound of his voice. How had he sneaked up on her like that? Her hearing was supposed to be better than that! She supposed there was a lot of noise around them; it must have kept her distracted. She quickly regained her composure as she turned to face him. “I was merely checking the menu,” she replied. “So yes, I am here for no reason.”
"Well," Alex said, a smirk in his voice so obvious even a Vulcan could pick up on it. "If you need a reason to be here, are you hungry? Would you like to have dinner with me? If it would make you feel comfortable, I could get a table, sit down, and you could happen to sit down across from me, for no particular reason at all. Once we're there, we could order food, share a meal, ask each other questions about each other... hopefully answer questions asked of us by each other, or this could get awkward."
Why did everything have to be subterfuge with this guy? Why couldn’t they just go in and have dinner together? Her face did not betray her annoyance, but her voice did. “We do not have to be secretive,” she said. “Nobody will care if we go into a restaurant together.”
Alex laughed. "Sorry," he said. "That was apparently my poor attempt at flirtation. I guess I figured it got you here, maybe I should keep doing it. Guess not. Shall we?" he said. He offered her one of his muscular arms, then stopped. "Sorry," he said. "I should have asked. Some Vulcans don't appreciate physical contact with people they're not close with. Would you like to take my arm? No is a perfectly acceptable answer. Think of it as... a polite offer that you're under no obligation to accept and won't offend anyone by declining."
“Thank you,” replied P’ril with a slight bow of her head. “I will decline for now.” She motioned for him to lead them into the restaurant. She didn’t know why, but something about him made her uncomfortable. Always explorer discomfort, her mother had told her on many occasions when P’ril had really not wanted to do so. It is in discomfort that we grow and learn more about ourselves. So she intended to explore this discomfort.
"As you wish, Lady Bronwyn," Alex said, his formal tone a departure from his previous interactions with P'ril, but there was no mockery in his voice. His demeanor remained light and friendly. "Please follow me." When the maitre d'hotel asked if they wanted to eat inside or on the patio, Alex turned to his dinner companion for the evening and raised an eyebrow. The gesture would have looked more traditionally Vulcan on a full-blood Zami, as they are biologically indistinguishable from their Vulcan ancestors. But Alex was half-human. Inside he was almost entirely Zami and therefore physically Vulcan. His outsides, however, had a definite "Human" flare and Alex could never quite sell the stereotypical Vulcan raised eyebrow and therefore had to verbalize the interrogatives that a Vulcan or Zami Full Blood might be able to offer with just a raised eyebrow. "Lady's choice," he said. "Which would you prefer?"
P’ril considered for a moment. She had never been a fan of sitting where people could walk by and stare at her or try to talk to her. Perhaps that was a reason to choose the patio- discomfort was growth- but perhaps one discomfort at a time was better. She didn’t not want to stress herself out, after all. “Inside,” she answered after only a couple of seconds.
Alex nodded. "Your wish," he said. "My command." Alex asked the maitre d'hotel to seat them inside. The Bolian (Alex really hoped the chef didn't do some kind of Italian-Bolian fusion) man led them to a table. The lights were dim and and there were small candles on the table.
"Would you like wine?" the Bolian said, handing them menus. "A decanter for the table perhaps? We have Barolo, Brunelle, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sangiovese."
Alex looked at Bronwyn. "Would you like wine?" he asked. "Please, consider that another question you can answer as you like, without judgement." Alex grinned. "Or obligation, for that matter. I can drink anytime I'm not working. I don't have to do it tonight."
“I will decline,” she replied. She had never liked the way wine made her feel, so she simply did not drink it or any alcohol. “But I do not mind if you would like some,” she added.
"No wine tonight, thank you," Alex said to the Bolian. "But please bring us a bottle of Altairian mineral water. Bread and olive oil I think, and, unless there's something the lady would like, we'll look at the menu while you're at all of that."
"Of course, sir." the Bolian said. "Miss? Is there anything I can get for you?"
“No,” replied Pr’il, belatedly adding “thank you.” When was the last time she had been this discombobulated? She could not remember. And certainly never because of a man. This was all completely new territory for her and she hated every second of it. Why had she decided to heed her mother’s advice?
It didn't take an empath to realize P'ril was uncomfortable. Alex set down his menu and looked at her, right in the eyes, and smiled warmly. "Hey," he said. "You seem a bit wound up. How can I help you relax a bit?"
Oh he was definitely Betezoid. At least a quarter, maybe half. “I have never been in this situation before,” she replied. “On a date, I mean. It had not occurred to me until we sat down. The only other man to pursue me was Vulcan and Vulcans do not date.”
"I understand," Alex said, flashing another winning smile. "Trying looking at it this way. This is a dinner date. It involves eating, talking, and listening. Things to avoid include, but are not limited to: chewing with your mouth open, talking with your mouth full, biting your tongue, and getting food all over your clothes. If you can manage to avoid all of that, what could else possibly go wrong?" Alex flashed yet another of his annoyingly winning and attractive smiles and threw in a playful wink for good measure.
Of course, a myriad of things could go wrong on a first date, some of them quite embarassing. However, shame wasn't really a thing Zavi did, so things that would mortify his date probably wouldn't faze Alex.
She afforded him half a smile that lasted slightly longer than half a moment. His half joke had made her relax a little. “I will try to keep all those in mind,” she replied. “Now that you have mentioned it, we will probably both do all of it at least once.”
"Ah," Alex said. "But there is safety in numbers! If we both do it, neither of us has as much reason to feel embarassed! So, have you eaten here before? For that matter, have you ever had food from the Earth nation known as 'Italy'?"
“It is impossible to spend more than two weeks at Starfleet Academy and never find your way to Gulino’s,” replied P’ril. “I became enamored with chicken carbonara during my first year.”
"I ate there when I was in the Enlisted Academy," Alex said. "They had some great food. For me, it was the cacciatore. Hunter's Chicken or Hunter's Beef. Technically you can do it with just about anything you can catch or eat. But rabbits are cute and cuddly. I don't want to think of them in a stew pot. Wait, you eat meat? Not a judgement. It's just interesting. Your mannerisms are quite Vulcan. You eating meat is unexpected, but not unpleasantly so. Just makes you interesting."
“I am half human, after all,” replied P’ril. “My mother believed that my brother and I should try meat. I enjoyed it, he did not.”
"Well!" Alex said, grinning. "That is interesting and unexpected! Well, shall we order when the server comes around?" Alex stopped and stared out the window for a moment. His mouth opened and closed three times, as though he was either a fish out of water or trying to say something but couldn't find the words. The fourth time was the charm. "I don't want to alarm you, but I'm pretty sure I just saw two Terran alpacas walk by. I saw the first and waited for the second. Not because they travel in twos, but because I wanted to be a bit more certain I wasn't halucinating... and... that's Terran alpaca number three..."
P’ril blinked and her brow wrinkled. “What?” she said, surprised, as she turned just in time to see the alpaca disappear past the window. “What in the universe…?” she muttered in an uncharacteristic show of humanity.
"Hang on," Alex said. He reached in his pocket and pulled out his commbadge. "Security, Senior Chief Rylan."
"Rylan, Security, go ahead."
"This is going to sound crazy," Alex said. "But I swear I've not been drinking or taking hallucinogens. I at La Panini and I just saw three... make that four, Terran alpacas walk by."
The was a moment of silence before Security replied. "Okay," they said. "Yeah, there was some kind of incident in one of the cargo bays.Something like 1000 domestic livestock and barnyard fowl are lose on the station. Not actually too bad for a station this size but they're spreading out fast. Any chance you could try to help contain the situation until we can get someone over there."
Alex sighed. "Of course." he said. "Rylan out." He looked at Bronwyn. "So," he said. "Our date could get very interesting. Wanna go play alpaca wrangler with me?"
At that, P’ril gave a real smile- one that reached her eyes and made them sparkle. It did not stay on her lips for but a few seconds, but it remained in her eyes for far longer. “I would be disappointed if we did not wrangle some alpacas” she replied, and they headed out of the restaurant once more, offering apologies to the Bolian host as they went.
"When I was at Special Operations Independent Duty Corpsman School," Alex said as they exited the restaurant. "There was a Veterinary Medicine section of the program that included Herd Management and Large Animal Medicine. Every now and then I'm glad I stayed awake in those classes, and not just because I needed them to graduate from the program. Now, these guys... and gals... are herd animals. We have to calmly, working together, herd them into a pen, while keeping them together. As herd animals, individual alpaca will get anxious and agitated and then they get decidedly less adorable." He frowned as he looked at the crowd around him. "Of course, it's not going to do us any good to be calm if everyone else out here acts like a moron on amphetamines. Without our uniforms, no one is going to pay much attention to us. Medicine, I'm good with. Farm animals, I can handle. I grew up around them and, like I said, large animal vet training. Crowd control, however, didn't figure big in my training. I'm open to suggestions."
“If we just walk with authority, crowd control will sort itself out,” she offered. “If you do not question your own authority, nobody else will either. Especially if we catch one of the alpacas. People will just assume we are in charge of them and leave us to it. There is one over there by the coffee shop,” she added, indicating an alpaca who had stopped to consider whether or not the colorful awning was edible. “Alpacas are relatively friendly. If we approach slowly and casually, we should be able to get ahold of its harness.”
"We need somewhere to pen them up," Alex said. "There are two of us, and at last count, six alpaca... make that seven, and that one is male. If he's still whole and complete he's going to get surly and defensive pretty quickly. Uch, one problem at a time. If I can get us a few bodies to clear the crowd, do you think you could rig up a containment area? Then we could encourage them together into it. The more of them we gather, the more will want to join the herd. What do you think?"
“Is is as good a plan as any,” she replied. “I suggest we go after one of the females first. The male may simply follow if we capture one or two of the females.”
"Okay," Alex said. "But we still need somewhere to pen them up." Alex looked around. "There! That cul de sac! Can you rig a containment field and open it and close it as I bring the alpaca to it?"
“They should exist already,” P’ril replied. “Security force fields. I will cordon off an area to warn pedestrians while you attempt to capture the alpacas.”
Petty Officer Grossi and Crewman Mailander were on patrol when the alert went out about escaped animals.
"This is different, but preferable to invading Cardassians. Let's go see what we can do."
It wasn't long until they heard the sounds of a gathering crowd. Following the noise, they encountered a large group of civilians along with Lt P'Ril and SCPO Rylan.
"How can we help Lieutenant?"
“We were just about to attempt to corral the animals,” P’ril answered. “But your presence will make it easier as you have a better knowledge of where the security force fields are. Also, are they visible or should we also set up a blockade to warn people?”
"Lieutenant," Alex said, choosing to be formal only because the petty officer and crewman were both her subordinates and his, and he didn't want to set up a weird dynamic. He wanted to set a professional tone. And if the two security crewman weren't smart enough to figure out for themselves that he and P'ril were on a date, then they probably should probably be assigned to the rubber phaser squad. So there wasn't any reason to babble on about just running into each other accidentally. Besides, Alex was fairly certain that if he so much as hinted that he was going to use that routine, P'ril would kick him in a very sensitive area. "If you guys want to figure that out, I'll try and see if I can get my hands on one or maybe, if the Great Bird of the Galaxy is smiling on me, two of the alpaca. Mind you, smiling is difficult when you have a beak, so I may only be able to get one. And guys, once you help the Lieutenant with the information she needs, maybe you try and keep the lookie-loos back?"
"In the public areas, SOP for the security fields is for them to be visible."
Grossi stepped off to the side, tapping his comm-badge.
=/\=Security, we have found some of the escaped livestock. Deck 400, section 7. Recommend low level force-fields to help with containment. Might need some help with crowd control as well.=/\=
In short order the familiar crackle of force-fields energizing could be heard.
"They're online Lieutenant. We'll do our best to keep the civilians out of your way. More help should be inbound shortly."
P’ril nodded at the faint yellowish glow from the visible force fields. They would do nicely. “Thank you,” she said. “We should probably get started.”
"We'll need to calmly approach one and get hands on their bridle," Alex said. "If we can get one, we lead it to another. They're herd animals. They'll be calmer if they're together. We can lead them in groups into the Lieutenant's containment."
“I know next to nothing about alpaca,” admitted P’ril. “Except that they are cute. Which one do you suggest we begin with?”
"Let's try... that one over there, with the pink bridle," Alex said. He led the way over to a pretty alpaca, talking softly as he approached. "Hi there. There's a good girl. I'm Alex. How'd you like to take a walk with me? You must be scared. Shhh... it's okay..."
The alpaca snorted softly and shook her head nervously at the newcomers. They did not seem to want to harm her, so she stayed calm, but kept one eye on each of them.
P’ril gave the alpaca a soft almost smile as she reached out a hand slowly and tentatively towards her. “We will not hurt you,” she promised. Though logic told her the animal could not understand her words, studies had long ago proven that animals responded well to soft voices.
The alpaca eyed the hand, but allowed to to advance towards her head where it scritched that spot behind her ears.
“Do you suppose we could move her now?” P’ril asked.
Alex smiled. "Yup," he said. "I think so. Gently slip grip her bridle, speak softly, and sort coax her to walk with you. You okay with this one? If you are, I'll see if I can secure one and bring it over."
P’ril carefully took hold of the bridle, which caused the alpaca to toss her head lightly. She gripped a little tighter. “There we go,” she told the animal softly. “Come with me now and I’ll keep you safe. Maybe we can find some hay. You like hay, right?” And she slowly began leading the animal towards the containment area. “Allie,” she said, reading the name embroidered into the bridle. “Is that your name? It is a very pretty name. My name is P’ril. That is not nearly as pretty as Allie, but it is my name and it suits me.”
Meanwhile Alex saw the male eyeballing P'ril and decided that would have to be dealt with before he could get his hands on the other females. Alex abandoned his original plan and instead slowly, carefully, and calmly approached the male. It took some convincing, but he was able to get close enough to get his fingers through the males bridle. Alex led the male over to the containment field, first motioning P'ril to wait a moment. When he got there, he realized he needed a way to get the field's entrance. Alex cursed and then remembered he was a senior medical NCO. He used a medical emergency override command and his code to open the field and put the male in and then motioned for P'ril to bring in the female. Meanwhile, some of the other females had followed P'ril, perhaps thinking she had something tasty.
One habit P’ril had picked up from her father was the mild superstitions every human seemed to hold as true, one of which was that when things are going smoothly, you do not say that things are going smoothly; you just keep going and hope they continue to go smoothly. To say it out loud would surely invite disaster. So, since she was happy with the way things were going, she simply gave the other alpacas an almost smile and reached out slowly to give them scritches, too. “Well, I suppose we should gather the stragglers,” she said.
"Yes," Alex said. "Only a few more. We should wrap this up ASAP. There are thousands of people on this station. I don't even want to think how many interested bystanders are going to want to come and see these guys. Security is going to get overwhelmed."
The two guards watched as the crowd continued to grow, despite the requests for people to stay out of the way. A shopkeeper frowned as an Alpaca stopped to investigate the flower arrangement out front.
Having just arrived, Mailander gently grabbed the animal's bridle while Grossi kept an eye on the bystanders. They were soon followed by a team of 4, having been re-routed to deal with the growing incident.
"Should you have experience with livestock, please make yourself known. Otherwise, I need everyone to move back and keep the hallway clear.'
Alex saw that Mailander had an alpaca and went to help. "Hey," he said. "I can take your four-legged-friend off of your hands if you'd like."
The Bolian turned to the older, brown haired man.
"That would be helpful thanks. They told us in training that we'd face unexpected challenges, rounding up livestock certainly fits this category. Although, it is preferable to fending off rampaging Cardies."
Mailander handed the bridle over to Alex.
"Thanks for the assist."
"Sure thing," Alex said. "Alright little lady," he said. "Why don't you join the other gals fawning over that handsome fella over there?" The alpaca seemed to be alright with the arrangement and let Alex lead her over."
When he got to the containment area, he overroad the security field, then put it back up after P'ril lead another one in. "See anymore?" He said to Bronwyn. "You gotta admit, this is one heck of a first date!"
P’ril’s brain immediately gave her two replies simultaneously. One was ‘first date indicates that you are fairly certain of a second date’ but this could be taken in more than one way. It could mean ‘ask me out again’ or ‘very brazen to assume I would want a second date.’ So instead, she went with the second reply, which was far less ambiguous. “It will be difficult to match it for the second,” she said, giving him an almost smile.
"I'll see what I can do," Alex said, grinning mischeviously back at P'ril. "Or maybe we'll see what you come up with!"
Hm. That was something she had not considered. She could plan the date. “Perhaps we will,” she replied as another alpaca followed the others into the enclosure. “This is easier than I had anticipated,” she said.
"Yeah," Alex said. "Like I said, herd animals like to be in, well, a herd. Let's get the last ones and then see where else we can be useful... though we may want to change into uniforms first."
P’ril nodded in agreement as they moved to gather the rest of the alpaca.
A post by
Lieutenant Bronwyn P’ril
Chief Engineer
Deep Space 5
Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Alex Rylan
Independent Duty Corpsman
Deep Space Five
Various Security NPCS
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