Kaya Som
Engineering/Ops
Site Historian
Yaya! You have survived! That's too bad!
Posts: 804
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Rank: Senior Chief Petty Officer
Position: Chief of Engineering
Species: Trill
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Post by Kaya Som on Jan 30, 2021 2:36:46 GMT
 [ Apazi Fellin | Apazi's, the Promenade ]
[ 01.09.2381, about one week following Taming of the Shrew. 1400 hours ] It was remarkable how space-station dwellers found a planet-side rhythm all their own. Most, regardless of species, seemed to intrinsically crave meal times together and so just like on Bajor and many other places, Apazi's had a 'lunch rush', he'd heard it called. It was just winding down now and Apazi Fellin was cleaning down for the few quiet hours to come. Fellin was a Bajoran in his late fifties with salt-and-pepper hair and a wiry build. His age alone could tell his life story - no grown Bajoran had not lived the Occupation or the Dominion War. But all that was behind them. And that much more for good Fellin. He'd arrived at Frontier two months ago to start a hasperat stand. An early retirement. He'd resigned his position on Bajor, traveled about a bit to learn the best of Bajoran street cuisine, then left the system in a small vessel to settle in a quiet part of the Beta quadrant. He didn't realize until he arrived that one Starfleet officer Judith Eastman was the station's steward. As yet, he'd not made a point of making himself known although he'd made no secret of himself. But they were bound to reunite eventually. Perhaps moments from now as he ladled sauce into jars for refrigeration. Judith Eastman |
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84 
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on Jan 30, 2021 4:37:36 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) - Apazi's]
Judy had learned about Apazi Fellin's arrival almost by happenstance. One day, Jenkins mentioned getting an excellent hasperat, and the name of the joint seemed familiar to the Captain. She knew an Apazi - as it turned out, this same Apazi, Fellin.
In fact, they knew each other quite well. They'd worked together quite closely, almost a decade ago, and well, but had drifted apart since. There was no animosity, just silence - years of it. Her involvement on Bajor ended in early '72, and here they were in '81.
It was high time to reconnect.
The Captain, in her duty uniform, made her way along the promenade. Outwardly, at least, she had barely changed: the same hair (thanks to the magic of blonde dye), the same styles of horn-rimmed bifocals, the same way she carried herself. She'd just put on some more wrinkles.
"I hope I didn't miss business hours," Judy announced her presence, with an infusion of humor.
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Kaya Som
Engineering/Ops
Site Historian
Yaya! You have survived! That's too bad!
Posts: 804
Likes: 108
Rank: Senior Chief Petty Officer
Position: Chief of Engineering
Species: Trill
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Post by Kaya Som on Jan 30, 2021 4:59:40 GMT
Fellin looked up at the voice and for a moment he looked very nearly sad, but then he broke out in a smile that was only a little sheepish. "Judy," Fellin said warmly. He wiped his hands on a towel, and lifted the bar flap of the serving counter to come out and greet her. He placed his hands on her narrow shoulders. This close, their height difference was markable - he stood nearly a foot taller; he could have sworn he remembered their heads closer to level with each other. "I've done a rotten job hiding, haven't I, right here on the promenade under your nose? I hoped you'd be busier. Are you hungry?" He released her and stepped back towards his kitchen a little. |
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on Jan 30, 2021 6:22:11 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) - Apazi's]
Judy patted Fellin on the back with similar affection. He was taller than she remembered - perhaps because her orthopedic shoes had less heel than regulation boots, or perhaps he was standing a little straighter.
"I am a little peckish. Surprise me," she answered his question. They had enjoyed bagels up in the office, earlier, but that was a comparatively light lunch.
"You did do a remarkably good job of it, actually. My office used to review all the leases on here, and you still slipped through the cracks."
She briefly eyed the loose table outside, which she recognized as belonging to the Twilight (Brack was losing his touch!), and opted to stay on her feet for now. She wasn't quite as feeble as she tended to claim.
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Kaya Som
Engineering/Ops
Site Historian
Yaya! You have survived! That's too bad!
Posts: 804
Likes: 108
Rank: Senior Chief Petty Officer
Position: Chief of Engineering
Species: Trill
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Post by Kaya Som on Jan 30, 2021 18:07:39 GMT
[ Apazi Fellin ]Fellin clearly enjoyed the opportunity to duck back behind the counter. He'd never been much of a cook in his younger days, but now it's all he wanted to do and he'd pursued it earnestly. "A Jenkins handled me. Or Hopkins," he said over his shoulder as he fixed a plate. "He seemed to know what he was doing and was not amenable to bribery." Knowing Judy, there was no need to flourish a pan to impress her and he suspected she'd accepted his offer of something to eat to be kind to him - a gift he'd accept. "Not so much the case with who you have in the docking ring." This talk of bribery, it was all said with a wink implied. He came out and set the plate on the small table between them. "Moba jam and makapa," he said. [fn]Jam from a Bajoran fruit, and a flat Bajoran bread. Fellin makes his with a bit of black pepper.[/fn] Fellin sat back and crossed one leg over the other, keeping his back towards his shop so he could see the busy Promenade. More and more faces were more and more familiar.
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on Jan 30, 2021 20:57:50 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) - Apazi's]
Judy took a moment to look into the kitchen. It looked smaller than her kitchen at home, but much more crowded with cooking equipment, suited for one - two at most - to operate.
Fellin's words tracked with what Judy already knew. Jenkins was a lot quieter than Mabel, though just as effective. That explained how Fellin slipped by for over a month.
The general implication of corruption under her nose was something to file away in the back of her head, though it wasn't anything too new. A year on, there was still much work to do on Judy's vision of turning Front Ear into a villa in the jungle.
The Captain accepted the food, sat down, her own back towards the promenade, and took a characteristic, small bite.
"This is excellent."
She wouldn't have thought to add the - pepper, was it? - but it added just the right contrast to the jam.
"When did you take up this new career?" she asked, curiously. Though her own career had taken a sharp turn from project management to command, his was by far the bigger transformation.
For now, she politely avoided the topic of why he hadn't been in touch. Fellin could bring it up in his own time.
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Kaya Som
Engineering/Ops
Site Historian
Yaya! You have survived! That's too bad!
Posts: 804
Likes: 108
Rank: Senior Chief Petty Officer
Position: Chief of Engineering
Species: Trill
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Post by Kaya Som on Jan 30, 2021 22:43:07 GMT
[ Apazi Fellin ]"I would ask you the same thing," Fellin said with a reflexive self-effacing deflection. But he quickly came back around to what should be a trust with a very old friend. He took up a bit of the makapa and jam for himself and made easy explanation. "Three years ago, I think. Well, five. It doesn't matter. It's hard to explain, Prophets will guide us. I just thought to myself a small life might be better for my back and, heh, I sensed this sector is hurting for good hasperat. But you - a captain now, and a space station. Are you still carting down, oh what-were-they-called, to your Engineers?" Once they commanded brigades together, now perhaps it was brioche?
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on Jan 31, 2021 1:23:02 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) - Apazi's]
Judy nodded. She understood the urge to take on a calmer lifestyle - she'd thought of it after the hip replacement, and both heart attacks. And yet, as Fellin pointed out, she had gone the other way.
"The bourekas keep coming, and the crew keep eating. I wouldn't have it any other way," she said of her own cookery. "Though I've grown soft enough in my dotage to feed them cakes."
She was, by any measure, "soft" already 10 years ago, but having grandchildren had taken some of her tendencies to a new level.
"To your point, it started out as my contribution to the war effort. The fleet needed warm bodies for First Officer chairs, so I volunteered mine. Turns out, it's a lot of the same skills I was already using."
As XO, Judy managed resources and people, a skillset that overlapped with her Project Management bona fides.
"Being a Captain is a different ballgame, but after all we've gone through this past year, the crew needs some calm, steady leadership," she added.
Judy really wasn't doing it for herself. It was a commitment to service, and to the welfare of her subordinates, that brought her to the 4th pip.
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Kaya Som
Engineering/Ops
Site Historian
Yaya! You have survived! That's too bad!
Posts: 804
Likes: 108
Rank: Senior Chief Petty Officer
Position: Chief of Engineering
Species: Trill
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Post by Kaya Som on Feb 2, 2021 18:48:43 GMT
[ Apazi Fellin ]"You have stories," Fellin smiled. He'd hope to hear them all, including the neglected back catalog. "Can you imagine, there are people who might think this part of space is boring? I was hoping that maybe this was the case, but I am happy to be wrong. It turns out, it's much nicer to be a cook than a commander when the lights go out." Apazi Fellin, a cook. Anyone but Judy might be surprised Apazi Fellin had left Bajor for this, walked away from all that prestige and respect to roll hasperat. But these two always seemed to have an understanding of themes below the surface. As easy as it was to be speaking with Judy again, Fellin was not completely at ease. He hated to apologize, though. An apology by nature asked for something. Judith Eastman
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on Feb 3, 2021 19:25:54 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) - Apazi's]
Judy nodded. She certainly did have her stories.
"It's certainly less stressful being a cook, though you need some Zen to be at peace in a passive role," she said. Max, himself a cook, had mastered that, and it seemed Fellin was going in the same direction.
"The real headache, so to speak, as a commander is having to keep some level of sync between departments that don't necessarily understand each other, so I'm the one juggling all of them, making sure security is ready to do crowd control before engineering starts the blackout. It's very much not a job for the faint of heart."
When they last met, Judy's own struggle with heart disease hadn't started, and yet she still felt the need to expand upon this remark.
"Good thing I have a new, mechanical one."
She set her right arm on the table, her wrist adorned with a little medical bracelet indicating her as an artificial heart user.
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Kaya Som
Engineering/Ops
Site Historian
Yaya! You have survived! That's too bad!
Posts: 804
Likes: 108
Rank: Senior Chief Petty Officer
Position: Chief of Engineering
Species: Trill
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Post by Kaya Som on Feb 4, 2021 2:57:17 GMT
[ Apazi Fellin ]Fellin laughed easily at the reference to the shrews incident. That had been an interesting day and he'd been very happy none of it was his problem. It had taken awhile for his work orders to be filled because his kitchen systems had not been spared the little nibblers, but what was his rush? But it was then that Judy, by accident or design, brought up the awkward subject. One of a few, but ultimately they were all the same. His laughter abated. "I did hear about that," he said. News had come via the FNN. "I said a prayer to the Prophets, but I meant to contact you. Was there drama, or did the doctors catch it early?" Regardless, facing mortality was never not unsettling. Judith Eastman
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on Feb 4, 2021 5:28:12 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) - Apazi's]Judy clasped her hands together. "There was a fair amount of drama. I'm surprised Max never got a little heart attack of his own from all of it, in fact," she noted, with an inflection of humor. "Heart attack #1, in hindsight, was about the best-case scenario. Max and I had just visited one of our granddaughters, Alyssa, who'd just been born, and as we were walking out of the hospital, we realized that, well, my heart was a little overwhelmed, that's how Max put it. So we turned around, went back into the hospital, and checked me in. I walked out of that one with a stent, Max took away my coffee beans, and we thought that was it."The grandkids were another thing to catch up on, but one story at a time. "Heart attack #2 really was the nasty one, but it was also very funny, in hindsight. Max and I had just gone out to dinner, for one of our weekly date nights, at a nice steakhouse in Newark, and when we got back home, as we're going up, you know, to the bedroom, Max was really in the mood, but I had, well, heartburn, and a chest cramp. At the time, we just blamed the steak and decided to adjourn until the morning, which Max was more than a little disappointed about. It was really a great, missed opportunity for me: death by sex."The story was told with more than a little humor, as any brush with the Grim Reaper should be. "And then morning came, and I was worse, we realized it wasn't this steak, but the last 60 years of steaks that came before."That morning was a lot scarier in real time than it was in Judy's retelling. "Suffice it to say, after that one, we figured enough is enough, the old ticker is a ticking time bomb, and traded it in for the new pump."
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Kaya Som
Engineering/Ops
Site Historian
Yaya! You have survived! That's too bad!
Posts: 804
Likes: 108
Rank: Senior Chief Petty Officer
Position: Chief of Engineering
Species: Trill
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Post by Kaya Som on Feb 5, 2021 1:12:36 GMT
[ Apazi Fellin ]Max. That was it, Judy's spouse's name. Fellin was grateful it had come up in conversation before he had to pretend to remember. He'd had precious little contact with the man back when. It was easy to listen to Judy go on; she was never short on words. Fellin had found that as he got older more and more space was made for him to ellucidate. Just in time, as he was learning how to properly listen. Fellin laughed loudly at 'death by sex', completely unscandalized. "An ordeal! You deserve retirement more than anyone," he said. "Or will you let Starfleet take you piece by piece by piece...?" Fellin looked at her with mischief in his eye. He was one to talk, as if a handful of years scuttling about in a warp-six cruiser made him the Emissary. Judith Eastman
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Judith Eastman
Civilian
Grandma
Posts: 2,593 Likes: 84
Rank: Civilian/other
Position: Civil Servant
Species: Human
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Post by Judith Eastman on Feb 5, 2021 4:28:44 GMT
[Capt. Judith Eastman(-Williams) - Apazi's]"Starfleet gets one more body part. One," Judy quipped, holding up a slender index finger. "And honestly, I was thinking of retirement before the operation. I had, then, 5 beautiful little grandkids, now we're up to 6 - just as of a few days ago - with 7 and 8 on the way. Let me get some pictures."Setting her handbag on the table with a heavy thud, Judy took out a PADD. "There's the new one, Stella. She's Gerald's, his third - he's saying third and done, but we'll see about that," she presented a picture of a newborn. "Just a precious little angel."She swiped on the PADD, pulling up another photo, of herself and Max with 5 small children, crowded on a sofa. "These are the first 5. Alyssa and Jules, Gerald's other kids, are right there, and then we have Lawrence's kids, Benny, Helen, and Michael, and they have twin brothers due in May. They're beautiful, aren't they?"Whatever thought Judy had entertained before mentioning the grandkids, about retirement, was gone. She was in that grandma trance, showing off her little treasures.
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Kaya Som
Engineering/Ops
Site Historian
Yaya! You have survived! That's too bad!
Posts: 804
Likes: 108
Rank: Senior Chief Petty Officer
Position: Chief of Engineering
Species: Trill
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Post by Kaya Som on Feb 14, 2021 2:54:17 GMT
[ Apazi Fellin ]Fellin leaned forward dutifully to watch the parade of children, little Humans with big smiles. The photos were steeped with the affection and chaos of young families. Judy's legacy in all these wee faces. "Yes. This one looks especially like you." He tapped the PADD but had to get up. A woman from the maintenance crew had approached the counter. When she noticed Fellin and the captain at their table, she raised a hand for him to stop. "Oh no, if you're closed-""Hasperat'a pagh'ro," Fellin said with a click of his tongue and look of feigned offense. He emphasized his point with a translation. "Hasperat is life." He ducked behind the counter and began putting something together.
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