Dinner with a spy

Posted on Thu Jun 26th, 2025 @ 8:46am by Lieutenant Commander Ryan Price & Lieutenant Zara Kingston Ph.D.

Mission: Those who are left behind
Location: Price's Quarters

They had met once in the intelligence chief's office, had a date in the Holodeck, had an intimate truth-telling moment in her quarters, and now was the dinner date they had planned what felt like forever ago. The Klingon/Human's hair was in a half-up, half-down hairstyle. She stood outside Ryan's door and quickly fluffed her hair, pressed out her dress she was wearing, and clicked the chime.

Ryan had set the table, he'd tried to keep away from anything too complicated for dinner, even by his low standards this was a luxury meal, he'd set out a bottle of white wine, two glasses, he paused in mid stride as he heard the door chime, he walked over to the door opening it, he fumbled out a rather clumsy "Hello, you look beautiful."

Zara entered with a smile. "Thank you," she said and walked in. "I hope I'm not too early?"

Ryan took a moment to look at Zara, his mind started to wander when he heard her speak, "Not really, I was going to get the replicator going shortly, wine?"

"I'd love a glass," said Zara. She sat down at the table and watched Ryan as he poured them both a glass of white wine. She took a sip. "Tastes great. So, how have you been?" she asked, twirling the wine around in the glass.

"Busy, we finished the debriefing of a Cardassian prisoner who had some interesting information to give, I'm waiting on what comes next." he paused as he lifted his glass to take a drink "how about you?"

She nodded, remembering the prisoner that the commanding officer had mentioned to her. "I've met a few crew members here and there. Rebuilding a science department is slow, isolating work, but also promising work. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the Daystrom Institute," she said with a light chuckle.

Ryan smiled for just one moment, "I've only been to the Osaka campus of Daystrom a couple of times, but I didn't do much sightseeing."

"Oh really?" she asked. "What were you there for?" She leaned forward, matching his smile. "Or is that classified?"

Ryan leaned in slightly, "I think we were dropping off some tech of some kind." his eyes met hers.

Not a very thorough answer, she thought to herself. She took another sip of her wine. "I'm not sure if I told you this before, but I left the Daystrom Institute to take a sabbatical here. It's meant to be temporary, but I"m not so sure if that will be the case anymore."

Ryan decided to ask "So are you going back to Daystrom or what?"

She let out a sigh. "I'm not," said Zara. "I'm surprisingly enjoying my time here on the Resolution, so I plan to stay here permanently." She shrugged. "And even if I did want to go back, I couldn't. I found out recently that my position was terminated."

Ryan felt a pile of different emotions suddenly "The old Daystrom's loss is Starfleet's gain adage would seem appropriate, but I think from my own perspective I think it'll be great." he paused reaching for the wine bottle, "Refil?"

She extended her glass for him to fill. “Are you saying it’ll be great because I’ll be here with you?”

"Can you blame me?" he said pouring the refill "I should warn you this isn't replicated."

"And I should warn you that I'm half Klingon, so I can drink humans under the table." She laughed and reflected on her conversation with her mother about leaving the Institute and staying in Starfleet permanently. She wondered what Ryan's response would have been if she really was leaving the Resolution to go back to the Institute. "Do you need help with dinner?" Zara asked, trying to disregard that thought.

Ryan slid his chair back "I think I've got this, I found a pasta al forno on here that's really good then again anything that's not field rations is a huge improvement." Ryan said with a smile as the replicator came to life, he reached for the two plates grabbing them carefully and setting them down carefully.

Zara raised an eyebrow. "I don't think I've had to eat field rations since the academy during a training session." She looked at the meal. "But this all looks great, Ryan."

Sliding the serving dish on the table "When I was on leave before the war I came across this small Italian restaurant what made fresh pasta for all of their dishes it was so amazing, okay maybe it was because I hadn't had a real meal in several days....." he paused scooping up a helping for his attractive guest the melted cheese made a stringy mess on the plate like a chaotic spiders web "those days were different times." he said.

The Klingon/Human scientist watched as he fixed her a serving of the pasta dish. She took another sip of her wine as he did so. "Thank you," she said. She pinched part of the melted cheese and pulled it until she had a long piece, and tossed it in her mouth. "Lucky for you, those days are over? The freedom of a starship has its perks."

"It has it's advantages." Ryan said as he took a helping for himself, looking up he looked at Zara, "One of them is sitting across the table." he finished his sentence with a smile.

A blush formed across Zara's face. "Well, aren't I the lucky girl on the Resolution who caught your eye?" She felt butterflies in her stomach. She hadn't expected to date anyone while she was on this starship, but it just sort of happened. "I'm really glad I came to introduce myself so we got to know each other. It worked out pretty well if you ask me."

"When you walked through the door I thought to myself that there was something special about you..." he paused trying to eat "I was right."

She chuckled. "Well, you can't call me special without telling me why you feel that," Zara said and placed her fork down. "Otherwise, you'd be a tease."

"My life didn't always allow for relationships of most kinds, especially romantic, but I guess I'm tired of being a hermit, I wanted...." He rested his hand on the table "Someone that wasn't in the business." he said his eyes made contact with hers.

She could understand that. She had once dated a politician in the Federation and hated it, vowing never to do it again. "That makes sense," she replied. "Although I'm sure most people might assume the opposite? They'd say because of the nature of the...business that it would be easier to date someone in it."

"I guess I don't want to talk shop all of the time...Well my shop." he shoveled a fork full of pasta in his mouth trying to think of what to say.

"What do you like to talk about? Something you could talk about all the time?" she asked.

"Uhh..."Pausing "I made a trip down too the firing range, I think I scared several of the security officers that were down there." Ryan said he said with a weird grin on his face.

She laughed. "You might be gaining a reputation around the ship then," said Zara. "Well, if you're ever up for it, I'd be willing to spar with you."

"I was a firearms instructor for a bit and I'm willing to bet we're on equal levels for hand to hand, although I know a couple of tricks..." He said with a crooked grin, "But then again I'm not much of a scientist."

"My hand-to-hand is also influenced by my time on Qo'noS from Klingons, so I know a few tricks too." Zara shrugged. "I think you'd be pretty good at my science specialty. It's not astrophysics, it's social science. And you know," she said with a smile, "I was a mission specialist on a Starfleet Intel assignment once."

Ryan had too think, "Now you've got my attention, how does such a stunning woman get wrapped up with a bunch of intel guys?"

"I was brought in, alongside others outside of Intel, to consult on counter-terrorism measures. It started with the Maquis and eventually the Cardassians. My role was mostly to be a liaison between that specific ops unit and the Federation council." She realized she had been gazing into her wine glass as she recounted her time. She looked up and into Ryan's eyes. "It was already pretty stressful with the deaths and urgency, but the intelligence team I worked with didn't make it any easier...pretty intense fellas. Lots of disagreements about what to do and how to do it."

Ryan sat up, "I think you and I did cross paths, I was one of the ops teams in the field, the mission on Panora that went sideways." he reached for the glass of wine "We got caught off guard with that one." he said taking a drink.

Zara couldn't believe they had crossed paths. "Yes, Panora," she said. "Small galaxy." She shook her head, finishing her glass of wine. "I remember those briefing room meetings all too well. I was never planetside during that mission, were you?"

Ryan's face went blank "I was there on the ground, I kept my face covered because I was the undercover agent that got into that cell, I also went by another name at that time."

She nodded. "Well...you're certainly a lot nicer than the intelligence officers I worked with." She paused. "And hotter."

Ryan felt his face flush, he took her hand across the table "You're pretty amazing yourself."

"You're too kind," she replied, enjoying the embrace of their hands. "Can I help you with clean up?"

Ryan stood "I'll take care of it in a second." his eyes were fixed on her, "I need a moment."

Zara's smile widened, her hand still in his. "Take all the time you need," she said softly.

He leaned in slightly, "I think I'm going to need more time." as his eyes locked on hers.

As he leaned in, Zara couldn’t help but blush. “You’re so charming,” she said. “Do you know that?”

"No...but then again you're quite intoxicating" he said as his eyes met hers, his hands ran down her back.

Zara's body relaxed as she felt his hand. She nestled her head into his chest and wrapped her arms around him. "Intoxicating? That's a first that I've been called that." If anything, Zara felt like she was the one who was becoming intoxicated by Ryan's presence and his touch.

Ryan's hands stopped at her waist "It's quite a nice feeling."

"It is for me too," Zara replied. She felt like she could be held by him forever.

He leaned in to kiss her, his mind wasn't racing like it usually did. Live for today. was the only thing he could think of when he moved in.

It wasn't the first time they had kissed, but Zara still felt butterflies in her stomach. She held him tighter as they kissed. "That was nice," she said looking up at him.

"It was." he felt almost hypnotised "I hope its one of many more."

END