Wining, Dining and Talking - Part II

Posted on Fri May 30th, 2025 @ 9:12pm by Captain Robert Burke & Lieutenant JG Gianna De Luca

1,558 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: EPISODE 1: SHAKEDOWN
Location: USS Hecate - Gia's Quarters
Timeline: MD032 1830hrs

::ON::

[And now the continuation ...]

Nodding, Burke replied, 'sure,' with evident enthusiasm. 'Where to start,' he said, thinking a moment, 'well, Ok. So we live in dome cities, and that's because the atmosphere of Titan is nitrogen. It's incredibly thick - I'm sure you've seen pictures or videos of the planet. It's really like being enclosed in an orange fog for most of your day. Outside the domes, the terrain is incredibly unusual. It's cold, well below freezing, so any exo-suits have to be thermally reinforced as well as it's minus one-hundred-and-sixty-seven degrees Celsius. Mind-blowingly cold,' Burke said with a chuckle, unconsciously mirroring Gia slightly by moving his hands while talking. 'Not far from where we grew up is one of Titan's more famous lakes. Cassiopeia. An amazing liquid methane lake. There's nothing else like it in the solar system. Not that it's easy to go for a picnic there, obviously.'

He paused, cleared his throat self-consciously. 'So that's Titan,' imaging that it sounded as exotic to Gia as Earth did to him.

"Wow, absolutely wow," Gia said as she listened, "That... that sounds like a really intense place to grow up and live. I don't think I'd be able to deal with living in a place like that." She laughed, "You weren't wrong when you said the other day that Titanian's are tough!"

'It comes from the work, really,' Burke laughed, 'we do a lot of mining. We have large formations of things called cryovolcanoes that erupt with water, ammonia but also hydrocarbons, so some prospectors still go in and scoop up what they need with primitive bussard collectors,' Burke said, 'and in the upper atmosphere, we get a lot of pockets of helium forming that are also mined.' He shrugged, 'it's a tough, risky business. Most people try and get a job in Sol-Six, the shipyard. Pretty cushy by comparison,' he said deadpan.

"That's absolutely fascinating," she took up her glass again and swirled the remaining drink around absentmindedly before taking another sip of it, "I have absolutely no clue what any of what you just said means, but something like that would require a high level of skill to perform it, correct?"

'Yes, the materials being mined or harvested can be quite volatile if you're not careful,' Burke said. 'There's a lot of scope for the hydrocarbons in particular to ignite if they come into contact with a spark of some kind, and that's led to a number of accidents and deaths over the years.' He smiled, 'it's getting better though, with time.'

"Uh huh," Gia nodded. The science behind things like that were more of what her brother Gio would be fascinated with. "I understand about volatility, accidents and death, but the rest of it is something my older brother Gio would love to talk to you about." She picked up some more of the spaghetti and ate it while she thought about it, "He's the smart, science nerd of the family even if he is the oldest."

Burke chuckled, 'The brains passed the eldest in my family and went straight to my brother, he opted to become a teacher in the end. Absolutely loves it. Teaches Mathematics to secondary-age children. They think it's boring of course, but he enjoys the work and the few pupils that actually take a serious interest in the subject.'

"Well," Gia said with a slight laugh, taking note of the fact he'd mirrored her by talking with his hands, "Think of it this way: the children who actually pay attention and take an interest in what your brother is teaching them, they're going to go a lot further in the long run than the ones who aren't paying attention. And, at the end of the day, your brother will be the one they can thank for it. Am I right?"

She had finished her own plate of food and picked at a piece of garlic bread while they talked, and Gia found herself really enjoying Burkes company. Not that she'd let it get to that particular point or anything, it was just nice to have a sophisticated and adult conversation with someone over dinner and wine.

'That's completely right,' Burke replied with a chuckled before clearing his own plate of the last few morsels. He took a sip of wine to wash it down. 'Now that was really delicious. Thank you.' Wiping his mouth with a napkin he asked, 'so what do your brothers do? Is Gio a scientist?'

Put on the spot, Gia had to remember in order what everyone did as a job, "Okay. Give me a moment here to remember," she laughed, "So we have Gio, or Giovanni, he's the oldest and is a civilian marine researcher, hence the mention before, then there's Marco who helps to run the family business with our father, then you've got Enzo who is a civilian contractor for the city." Taking a breath, she continued, "Luna is my only sister and she's currently finishing off a PhD in Business Management or something, and then the baby of the family is Nico. He's a Marine on the USS Cherokee, something to do with ballistics, I think."

She played with the edge of the napkin for a moment before adding, "So yeah, aside from my parents and I, that's the low down on my family. I also forgot to add, and if you wanted to know, that my father runs an alcohol distribution business, and my mother was a teacher before she retired too."

'It seems like a busy family - and you all have such different careers. Incredible,' Burke replied with a smile. 'Two of my siblings are teachers, and my youngest brother is an administrator for the shipyards. None of us really strayed far from the family business I suppose. Dad was an administrator too, and mum was a teacher.' He rested his head on his fist as he talked. 'So, your father set up the business himself?'

"Not quite, he set it up with my nonno, my grandfather, back before Gio was born and it's one of those kinds of businesses that have weathered all kinds of challenges, if you get what I mean?" Alcohol distribution was only the face of the business, but it wasn't pertinant for Burke to know that because Gia's father had purposely kept his family and business dealings completely separate.

"Did you want some more food or some more wine? Or sit somewhere more comfortably, like the sofa?" She offered. The chairs weren't really that comfortable in general but were good enough to sit on for dinner.

'Another glass of wine on the sofa? Seems a pity to leave it in the bottle,' Burke said as he smiled and got to his feet. He was enjoying himself, Gia was natural conversationalist, and he found her family dynamics to be fascinating. Fetching the bottle, he split the remainder between their glasses. 'It sounds like your father and grandfather are successful businessmen - sounds like your brother will be too.'

Taking a seat on the sofa and folding her legs under her, she accepted the glass with a smile and a soft thank you as she nestled in a bit and faced him, "I hope so, it'd be a shame if anything happened to it. In saying that though, Marco also runs his own security business because he's more the brawn of the family, but we'll see what happens." Gia shrugged and sipped her wine. "So enough about me and mine, what did your family think or say when you told them you were going to join Starfleet?"

'Well. They were surprised, to say the least,' Burke chuckled as he recalled the look on his parent's faces. 'I hadn't really shown an interest in Starfleet until it was pretty much time to apply to the Academy.' Shrugging he said, 'I'd been working towards it for a few months if I'm honest.' He smiled, 'my parents were entirely supportive of course. They had never chartered a course for me in life and understood that I wouldn't necessarily want to follow in their footsteps. They've been avid followers of my career in the years since.' Clearing his throat he asked, 'what about your family? You course seems to be more unusual for yours.'

Gia couldn't help but to bring out her inner counsellor as she said, "Having the support of family when making a crucial step, such as joining Starfleet, is always going to make things a lot easier. My father was originally against it because he would be losing his baby girl to space, but he came around when I explained the opportunity I'd been given to join the program as one of the first counsellors on a ship." She took a sip of the wine again, "My mother, however, was all for it from the start, of course. She wanted all of her children to succeed and having me be the first in the family to go up was an achievement."

To be continued ...

::OFF::

Captain Robert Burke
Commanding Officer
USS Hecate

Lieutenant (JG) Gianna De Luca
Chief Counsellor
USS Hecate

 

RSS Feed