<USS Avalon> "From Small Talk to Friends" Lt. Cmdr Marksbury & Dr. Alexis Cazook

"From Small Talk to Friends"
Lt. Cmdr Marksbury & Dr. Alexis Cazook
   
 
Elissabeth  closed the comm and sat back from the desk in her room, releasing 
a huge  sigh.  What a change.  She ran her hand over her eyes in hopes to  
erase the tiredness that was surely registered there.  She was looking  forward 
to dinner with the doctor, a nice relaxing evening catching up.   She stood 
and walked to the main room at the appointed  time. 

Alexis was nice and relaxed after her shower and  doing some needlepoint. She 
changed her clothes and left her quarter's heading  for the main dining room. 
It would be nice to have a nice relaxing dinner with  Elissabeth. She looked 
for the Cmdr, saw her sitting and walked over to the  table. "Is this seat 
taken?" 



Lissi  chuckled, "Most certainly not, doctor.  Or may I call you  Alexis?" 
 
"Alexis is fine."  Pulling out a chair Alexis sat down. "So may I call you  
Elissabeth?"

"Of course.  Or Lissi if you prefer.   What seems to be on the menu tonight?" 
 She stopped and grinned.   "Don't you just love it when we travel as guests 
and have nicer amenities than  home?"  


"Yes,  it is much nicer. Real water showers are wonderful. There is still no 
place no  like home no matter how nice it is. So what is on the menu that 
looks  good?"  

"I was thinking about a roasted vegetable pitta  of some sort.  With 
mushrooms and peppers..." her mouth began to water as  she thought of it.  It 
had been 
so long since she'd felt hungry.   Truly felt it.  But recovery and the 
release of stress can do wonders for  you appetite.  "Would you be interested?" 
 


"It  sounds wonderful but I would actually like some steak on mine and leave 
those oh  so slimy mushrooms off." Alexis laughed at the thought of slimy 
mushrooms. Oh  how she hated them. "You look much better than when we started 
this 
journey. I  hope everything turned out the way you wanted it to?"  


"Well,  I guess being told that you're not dying anytime soon to some 
mysterious illness  can do that to you."  She got up and moved to the 
replicator, 
asking for  the requested items and then returning them to the table.  She 
reached for  the salt.  "Care to pour the wine?"   


"You  know salt is not good for you missy." Pouring two glasses of wine 
Alexis handed  one to Lissi and kept one. She raised hers in the air. "A toast, 
to 
long  life, good friends, and good wine."  


"I'll  toast to the first two," she laughed, "but it's replicated, so I don't 
know how  good the wine is."  They clinked glasses and Elissabeth took a sip, 
eyeing  the woman across from her.  "So what made you go into  medicine?"  


"I'm not really sure how to answer that? When I was young my  parent's always 
instilled in me that it was good to help others. It didn't  matter how you 
helped them as long as you took the time to help them. With that  instilled in 
my brain, once at the academy I chose medicine as my way of helping  others. Of 
course I thought it would be in coming up with cures for strange  diseases 
and such, never working on a starship. But, I suppose things change as  you 
grow 
older." Alexis eyes misted over just briefly before she took a sip of wine. 
Why did you choose  your career path?"  


"It's  all I ever knew..." Lissi's voice trailed away a moment.  "I'm sorry 
that  you're stuck on a starship.  It's my fault, isn't it?"  Her voice was  
softer than usual.  


"No,  no you musn't ever think that. It's actually been quite a learning 
experience.  One I wouldn't trade for anything. Besides if I hadn't been 
assigned 
to the  Avalon I wouldn't have met such nice people as yourself and Cmdr 
Skyler. You  musn't blame yourself. Things work out for a reason Lissi. I've 
gotten 
to see  more of the world than I ever would have in a little laboratory. I 
have no  regrets and neither should you." 


Elissabeth smiled genuinely, "Thank you for saying that."  They  paused for a 
moment.  "You know," she began, trying to make conversation,  "my father was 
a linguist."  


Taking  a small bite of her Pitta Alexis listened to Lissi, getting the 
feeling she was  having trouble making small talk. "A linguist you say. I know 
this 
is going to  sound very stupid but just what does a linguist do?"  


"Languages.  He knew them.  Spoke them.  Studied  them.  Very important 
during a war.  Linguists are often  code-breakers."  She took a bite and chewed 
thoughtfully.   


Thinking for a moment Alexis commented, "Would that be similar to  what the 
Indians did on Earth during one of the world wars? Didn't they use  their own 
language as a code or something to that effect? I'm not much of a  history 
buff, but I do remember something about that."  


"I  think... I think I remember that vaguely.  I'd have to look it up to be  
sure.  But it's important to have an alien race language expert  around.  
Especially during negotiations," she laughed.   


"Yes,  I suppose that is true. I believe it would be quite difficult to 
conduct  negotiations using smoke signals or some such barbaric way. You know 
Lissi, you  don't have to talk if you don't want to. We can simply enjoy our 
meal 
and  company. I get the feeling that you are not very comfortable talking to 
me?"  


She  sighed, "It's not you... I'm just a very quiet person.  I don't chit 
chat  well.  My social skills aren't exactly... good."  


"There is nothing wrong with being a quiet person and frankly chit  chatting 
is not all it's cracked up to be. As for your social skills I would  have to 
disagree with you, as they seem fine to me. You have been under a great  deal 
of stress  these past few weeks. I'm sure you've been talked  to death. Why 
don't we finish our dinner and you can go do as you please?  Something relaxing 
and stress free."  


"Oh,  I'm actually enjoying this time.  I'm just not a good  
conversationalist."   


Alexis  sighed, "You really must stop putting yourself down Cmdr. You would 
not achieved  what you have without being good at what you do, including 
conversation. I can  with all honesty say that I am a lousy shot with a phaser. 
It 
must have taken me  an extra 3 months to pass that part of the academy. It was 
just horrendous."  


Elissabeth chuckled.  "Well, I could show you a thing or  two.  That I can do 
well."   


"I may  just take you up on that offer. However you may live to regret making 
it. I hope  you have lots of patience? The last person who tried to show me a 
thing or two  almost lost his hair. Not that he had much to begin with." 
Alexis laughed as she  took another sip of wine.  


"I  have the patience of the proverbial saint as long as you're not  
stubborn."  


"Oh I  can be stubborn but only when I know I am in the right. You needn't 
worry about  that." Alexis poured herself another glass of wine. "You know this 
wine ain't  too bad."  


"I  agree," she smiled.  "Where have you lived most your life, Alexis?"   


"Well I was raised on the  Benecia Colony, which has now been a human  
settlement for almost 100 years. I spent most of my life surrounded by books 
and  
the electronic data base of the colony. After graduating from the academy I  
spent most of my time on Starbase 12."  


"Sounds peaceful.  Steady.  A nice way to live.  What  do you think about all 
this travel?"   


"To be  honest when I first joined the Avalon I was extremely nervous. Here I 
was an old  lady who had never left her labs, suddenly thrust into an 
entirely different  world. It took some adjusting and now I love it. Seeing new 
places, meeting new  people. Now enough about me, tell me about yourself." 
Alexis 
finished her wine  and poured another glass.  


"Um..."  


Taking  a long sip of her drink Alexis looked at Lissi. "Come now, there must 
be  something you can tell me? How did you and Cmdr Skyler become so close? 
Got a  special beau in your life? If I get to nosey just tell me. I tend to do 
that  when I drink." Speaking of which she took another long pull of her wine. 
"This  may be replicated but it grows on you, that's for sure."  


"Commander Skyler..." Elissabeth smiled fondly.  "We... well,  let's just say 
we go aways back.  She saved me once from a fate worse than  death, I 
believe."   


"I  know you repaid her in kind by helping her to remember her sister. I was 
afraid  we were going to lose there for a while. Who would have thought she 
would've  blocked out knowing she had a sister."  


"The  mind can be a tricky thing - obviously."  She fell quiet again,  
remembering.  She'd learned so much in the last couple weeks that  Elissabeth 
felt 
confident enough now to know if she had to do the same it  wouldn't hurt her.   

"All I know is  that I can't thank you enough for all your help. I wasn't at 
all sure what to  do. She had shut herself off so deeply and then when she 
hurt  herself so  bad in the holodeck, I wasn't sure what was going on." Alexis 
finished her drink  and poured another starting to feel the affects. 


Elissabeth shrugged.  "She's my friend," she said, as if that  should explain 
it.  She finished her last bite and took another sip of  wine.   


"Must  be one hell of a friend. I know she cares about you and trusts you 
completely. I  wish I could say I had a friend that loyal, but growing up an 
only 
child and  with no one around, friendships are hard to develop. Although I 
would like to  think of you as a friend."  


Finishing off her glass of wine, Lissi sat the glass on the table  and looked 
Alexis square in the eye.  "After all this - I think it's  fitting, don't 
you?"   


"Quite  my friend. I like the sound of that. It's nice to have good friends." 
Alexis  stood but ended up a bit woozy and sat back down. "Uh, Lissi my 
friend. I think  I might require some help back to my quarter's. If you don't 
mind?"  


Chuckling, Elissabeth stood and offered her arm.  "Of  course."

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