Lupercalia, Floristics, Sex, and Diagnosis

Posted on Sun Feb 16, 2020 @ 5:20pm by Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson

1,245 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Nibiru
Location: Mess Hall/Main Science Lab
Timeline: After briefing

Penny was writing a letter to Oscar 47, a letter to her parents, a paper on warp field dynamics she'd been working on, and trying to come up with a way to improve her mother's Tandoori Chicken (she'd yet to succeed) as she sat sipping her strawberry and banana smoothie.

She put her padd down when a shadow fell over her and someone sat down in front. She looked up to see Nicole with a padd of her own and a confused look on her face.

"What's going on?" Penny said.

"I was going over some bloodwork from a crewman I was trying to diagnose, when Camille sent me something and I'm unsure how to interpret it," Nicole said without preamble, handing Penny her padd.

Penny looked it over and smiled. "Aw, that's cute," she said.

"'To my lover: it was love at first bite,'" Nicole quoted. "That's cute?"

"Course! And it's got the cute little Dracula with the hearts around him and the bats," Penny said, grinning. "A cute Valentine's Day card."

"Is that what this is?" Nicole said.

"Yeah, see? She sent me one too." Penny pulled up a picture on her padd of a robot with the words, "Valentine, you make my heart go 'Beep Boop’."

"Cute, right?" Penny said.

"So it's a term of affection," Nicole said, understanding.

"Right. She did something specific to each of us, because she loves us. Well, you more, obviously," Penny said, giving Nicole a wink.

"I'll be honest, I've never understood this holiday," Nicole said. "I looked it up and it seems...barbaric. Young children chasing adults with bows and arrows, shooting those who are not displaying themselves as in love, sacrifices of food and flowers to some goddess in the hopes that couples have sex that night....what is wrong with humans?"

Penny almost spit her drink out her nose and across the room she laughed so hard. "That...oh wow...no," she said, laughing. "Oh this is awesome! I finally get to explain something to you! Wow...this is so cool! Is this how you feel around me all the time?"

"Beep, beep, Penelope," Nicole grumbled, turning pink.

"Okay, okay," Penny said, still giggling. "The holiday is just a special day to recognize the loved ones in your life," Penny said. "It's from an old Earth holiday called Lupercalia."

"Doesn't Admiral Markus have a safe house called that?" Nicole said.

"Yeah," Penny said. "At least that's what Cass said it was called, but I didn't want to pry. But basically, people give gifts of flowers, candies, chocolates, jewelry, etc, and cards as tokens of affection."

"But they can do that any day," Nicole said.

"You can drink yan savaas wine every day, but it's special at the harvest," Penny said.

"Touche," Nicole said. "And the children shooting people?"

"Cupids, I think they're called," Penny said. "One time in secondary school, this boy got me what looked like a cupid statue holding a dozen roses and a pendant, and a card asking me to the spring dance. It was really sweet."

"And he was doing it to be romantic, not to initiate sex?" Nicole said.

"No, he was doing that too," Penny grinned. "That part of your description was mostly accurate. Not that you and Camille need that kind of invitation." She giggled slightly.

Nicole blushed again. "I just wasn't sure how to take it."

"Take it that she loves you," Penny said. "Now, send her a cute card back. Maybe pick some flowers for her on the surface. A romantic gesture and biological sample. She'll love it."

Nicole nodded. "That's a good idea." She smiled a bit. "Thanks, Penny, I appreciate the help."

"Happy to finally be of service," Penny said. "See you planetside tomorrow!"

Nicole nodded absently and stood up, taking her padd and returning to Sickbay, leaving Penny to finish her break and get back to the bridge.

---

Nicole sat at her desk, fingers drumming, looking at the "Valentine's Card" she'd been sent. She wanted to do something in return. A gesture of some kind. She wasn't sure what. She glanced at the chronometer and sat up a bit straighter. "1930? When did it get to be 1930?" she said to herself. She checked and realized she hadn't received any messages from Camille asking where she was. "Which means she's lost in her lab again," she said to herself.

She started to type a message to shake Camille out of whatever scientific fog she was in, then stopped as a better idea hit her. She smiled and grabbed her black bag, walking quickly out of her office and out of Sickbay.

She almost skipped down the corridor and had pulled her torch out of her bag before she even entered the lab. She spotted Camille's familiar silhouette right away, and silently placed her bag down on a counter top, raising her weapon and preparing to strike.

She grabbed Camille's chair and whipped it around, catching her by the jaw and holding the torch up at her mouth. "Right then, let's have a look."

“Ayoye!” exclaimed Camille as she was spun around, pulled from her focus and suddenly had a light flashed in her face. “Câlisse, Nicole, what are you doing?!”

Nicole shook her head and clucked her tongue. "As I feared: Atrophy of both the labium superius and labium inferius oris. We'll have to start a rigorous physical therapy program." She leaned in and held Camille's face more gently, kissing her deeply. "I know I say this frequently, but I love you."

Camille grinned. “You can never say it too often! And I love you, too.” She let out a laugh. “This is how we met, isn’t it?”

"Mm hm," Nicole said, sitting on Camille's lap. "I wanted to do something a little special to say thank you for the valentine."

“Bienvenue, mon amour,” Camille replied. She gently kissed her girlfriend again. “So is Valentine’s Day, or something similar, a thing they have on Rigel? A celebration of romantic love?”

"Not exactly the same idea," Nicole said. "There are number charts for when to have romantic couplings for children, when to spend time with a partner to rekindle a relationship, when to make overtures for marriage, but of course those vary from couple to couple and communal group to communal group. I'll have to run our numbers again and see when I should be spoiling you." She grinned and kissed Camille again, a soft growl rising up, but she paused and pulled back when she realized the growl didn't come from her.

She looked down at Camille's stomach, then back up, smiling. "Perhaps a different desire needs to be sated first, hm?"

Camille blushed when she realized the source of the growl. “You know, they really should install alarms to tell us the time. Alert us when it’s dinner or when you’re not paying enough attention to your health or your t’hy’la.”

"They have," Nicole said, trying not to sound as condescending as the moment called for. "For about four centuries now."

Camille smirked and was tempted to stick her tongue out, but thought better of it. “Mess hall?”

"Why not," Nicole said, kissing her again before standing up and pulling her to her feet. "A little socializing should do us good, hm?"

“En effet!” Camille gestured to the door. “Let’s go.”

 

RSS Feed