Spockluck Dinner

Posted on Wed Jun 17th, 2026 @ 8:46pm by Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Ensign Aidan "A.J." Reid & Lieutenant JG Benjamin "Ben" Dalton

3,476 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Sins of the Empire
Location: AJ Reid's Quarters
Timeline: Current

Kate stepped into AJ's quarters and paused. Bamboo paneling lined the walls, strung through with paper lanterns that cast a warm amber glow across every surface. Candles flickered on the shelves, and the air carried the faint sweetness of coconut. The standard overhead ship lighting had clearly not been touched in some time, its cold utility entirely displaced by the softer warmth AJ had replicated throughout the compartment. Kate glanced over at Ben with a small smile.

"Not sure if these are AJ's quarters or the Holodeck," she said. "Feels like a completely different world in here."

'Pretty sure these are AJ's quarters Kate sweetie,:" Ben replied as he looked around the place. He held the green cake, AJ was such a fan of. "Let's do some more exploring." As they ventured further into the cabin.

Kate came in carrying a replicated box of cookies, dressed for a day off in blue jeans, blue sneakers, and a blue tank top. Her badge was still clipped to the strap, a small concession to the Romulan situation simmering in the background, but for now it was good to breathe before whatever came next.

AJ and Na'Riss were already in the main room, standing near the wide windows that looked out into open space on one side and across a narrow void to the facing crew quarters on the other. AJ wore multi-colored shorts that fell past his knees, a loose Jamaican-style shirt, sandals, and a seashell necklace that swayed at mid-chest. Na'Riss had chosen loose black pants and a fitted high-collared shirt. After such a long stretch of everyone in uniform, it was something to see them all just looking like people.

The table was laden with food, divided as naturally as a border between two countries. Kate and Ben's side was a carnivore's spread: roasted chicken glistening with its own juices, green beans that had the slight imperfection of something actually grown, baked potatoes split and steaming, pan-fried fish with a golden crust, and a slow-cooked barbecue pork that had been falling off the bone for hours. Na'Riss' side was quieter, greener: kale, broccoli, mixed greens, a bright composed salad, and a arrangement of fresh fruit.

"Yuh brought di snacks!" A.J. said warmly as he came around the table and lifted the cookies from Kate's hands. Kate looked around at the spread they had laid out, still taking it all in. Na'Riss stepped over to Ben and reached for the cake, and together they found room for everything on the table.

"Mi love dis cake, Ben, yuh have a real gift, yuh know dat? You keep baking and mi will keep setting di table for yuh, every time. Mi cyan only imagine what else yuh can make from scratch." A.J. pulled out their chairs as he spoke. Na'Riss settled quietly into her seat across from Kate.

"Thanks AJ." Ben replied, 'I do like baking. Who knows when my career is over I can open my own small scale baking business," he joked as he settled into his chair and eyed the abundance of food. "Everything look delicious. I don't know where to begin."

Kate lifted one of the pan-fried fish onto her plate and helped herself to the baked potato and green beans. Across the table, Na'Riss was methodically arranging a careful selection of vegetables while AJ was already tearing into the barbecue pork with both hands.

"Mon, if you open up a shop, I will be dere every single day, you hear me?" AJ said to Ben, licking sauce from his thumb. He nodded toward Na'Riss. "You going try de cake too? Dat alright for you to eat?"

Na'Riss set down her fork. "Vulcans are not categorically opposed to confections. The nutritional inefficiency is acknowledged. However, the experiential value is," she paused, "not entirely without merit." She picked up a floret of broccoli and bit into it precisely.

"So." Kate narrowed her eyes at AJ, mouth curling at the corner. "An intelligence officer and his Vulcan girlfriend invite us to dinner the night before potential battle. I'm going to go ahead and say there are ulterior motives."

"Ulterior motives? Me?" AJ leaned back with a grin, his accent thick and warm. "Come on now, we just want to know how our family is doing. Is dat so hard to believe?"

Kate glanced at Ben and squeezed his hand. Her smile was genuine but tired around the edges.

"It hasn't exactly been a normal month," she said. "And here we go again. At this rate we're all going to need a very long vacation somewhere very boring."

"A holodeck excursion would be the logical next step," Na'Riss offered, setting down her fork with characteristic precision. "The psychological benefits of pleasant sensory simulation are well documented. Humans do not typically meditate, but the neurological effect is not dissimilar. I would recommend it."

"Yeh, one of dese days I need to introduce yuh to Jamaica on de holodeck," AJ said, his voice rolling warm and unhurried. "I already took Na'Riss dere once. She loved it."

"It was adequately appropriate for a first date," Na'Riss said.

"She loved it," AJ said.

"Acceptable and agreeable to the senses," Na'Riss clarified.

"She so loved it," AJ said, beginning to chuckle.

Kate giggled a little, watching the exchange unfold. Na'Riss raised one eyebrow at AJ, then returned her attention to Kate and Ben.

"The computer shows a semi-complete collection of 'Vulcan Love Slave,' parts eight through seventeen, the latter authored by Quid, a holographic engineer of considerable reputation based on Ferenginar."

AJ's eyes went wide. He pressed his lips together and fought to swallow the water he had just sipped. Na'Riss continued without pause.

"I would suggest a couples retreat program. However, I calculate a low probability that Kate could sustain the behavioral profile of a Vulcan. We may nonetheless consider it a practical assessment of her infiltration capabilities."

Kate was at a loss for words. Then she caught the faint twitch at the corner of Na'Riss's brow.

"Are you joking?!" Kate asked.

"I am engaging in retaliatory social humor, in response to AJ's misrepresentation of my emotional state," Na'Riss said. "I will note, however, that your reaction has been adequately entertaining, Kate. It is not, however, as satisfying as observing AJ's involuntary diaphragm malfunction induced by acute and sudden psychological distress." She did not smile. She did not need to.

Kate turned her head toward Ben with the wide-eyed reverence of someone witnessing a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event: a Vulcan who had just successfully delivered a punchline. She stuck her tongue out at him, delighted. Across the table, AJ melted back into his chair with a long exhale, deeply relieved that the comment had been a joke and not the opening line of a conversation that would end with someone filing a holodeck maintenance request.

Ben watched and listened to the shenanigans around him. "Vulcan Love Slave. I think you may have a good idea Na'Riss except for what you already stated. Kate isn't Vulcan. However Human Love Slave might be doable. It all depends on how agreeable she is to being a love slave." Ben then decided to pull Kate's leg and he hoped Na'Riss caught on. Doesn't Vulcan Love slave have a lot of bondage for the love slave?"

Na'Riss gave Ben the slightest of knowing nods while AJ seemed to catch on immediately. Kate, meanwhile, blinked at Ben a few times as though waiting for a translation.

"But I like to be on top!" Kate finally blurted out. Na'Riss raised a single brow. AJ burst out laughing hard enough that the silverware rattled against the plates.

"I knew inviting you two to dinner wouldn't disappoint!" AJ said.

"I also prefer to have AJ beneath me when performing the ritual of prospering," Na'Riss added serenely.

AJ's laughter stopped as though someone had unplugged him. He disappeared for a moment and returned with a paper bag, which he placed over his head and sat down in silence while Kate howled.

Kate leaned into Ben and wrapped both arms around him, tucking her chin over his shoulder and pulling him close enough that her next words were more breath than sound.
"I would never tie you up. I'm not a meanie." She drew back just far enough to plant a slow, deliberate kiss on his cheek, her lips lingering there a beat longer than needed but as long as she wanted.

Ben's hands were at Kate's waist holding her softly in their grasp. "I know darling and now Na'Riss and AJ know as well." he teased gently just before he kissed her. His kiss was slow, deliberate and passionate. "Thank you sweetie. I know you aren't a meanie." He whispered back as he kissed her again and a single thought passed through his head. Life didn't get better than this.

Kate settled back into her chair, reaching for her fork. The fish was still warm. She could still feel where Ben's hands had been at her waist. Across the table, Na'Riss had returned to her broccoli with the focused attention of someone defusing something, and AJ was pulling apart a second helping of pork with his bare hands and no apparent regret.

"Alright." AJ sucked sauce from his finger and fixed Kate with a look that was almost casual. "Fearless Intelligence leader. You really tink we can do dis? Pull a whole people back from de grip of de Duras family? Dat is not a small ting you are talking about."

"No," Kate said. "It isn't. But we're going to try anyway. The Klingons have had enough of what the Duras touch turned to rot. Somebody has to show up."

Na'Riss set her fork down with a soft click. "The objective is not without merit. I would observe, however, that Starfleet's support cannot be assumed. The captain's plan operates in a space where institutional authorization and ethical necessity do not fully overlap." She picked up her fork again. "History suggests that this is frequently where the most consequential decisions are made."

Ben stopped chewing his pork and swallowed. "Everyone. Don't assume anything and take it as it comes. That is how to deal with this current situation."

"Na'Riss is accustomed to playing 3D Chess wherever she goes, mon. She kicks my ass every time, but what can I say—I still love her for it," AJ said, grinning wide.

"Chess is a precise measure of intellectual capacity and strategic discipline. The player with the most comprehensive understanding of the game's variables will, in the vast majority of outcomes, emerge victorious," Na'Riss said to AJ. She then turned her gaze to Ben. "To understand one's opponent—their patterns, their tendencies, their likely responses; is itself a three-dimensional method of achieving victory. It is, in most respects, the only method that matters."

"Aye, if is intellect yuh want to test, let mi introduce you to Dominos and see how yuh handle a game I know like the back of mi hand," AJ said.

"Dominos. You refer to the activity in which one tile is displaced and the remaining tiles fall in sequence. That is not a game so much as an applied demonstration of chain reaction physics," Na'Riss stated.

"No no no, not de stacking kind! Is a real game, mon… strategy, reading people, knowing when to hold back. I will show you all sometime." AJ glanced at the table and laughed. "But de table covered in food right now. We eat first, den we make room for de greatest game ever invented by human hands!"

Kate finished her first plate and went back for seconds, loading up on chicken this time, along with another potato and more green beans.

"I think what Ben means," Kate said, coming to his defense, "is that we need more information before we can start putting any kind of plan together. Until then, we're just a ship tractoring a Klingon Bird of Prey. We know what we want to do. We just need the plan to do it." She bit into the chicken and her eyes went wide. Her mouth was too full to say anything, but she looked over at AJ and her expression did the talking for her.

AJ nearly lost the thread of the conversation entirely. He gave her a slow nod, the kind that said he knew exactly what she meant, because he always knew exactly what he was doing when it came to his herbs and spices, and the special breading blend he had spent a long time getting right.

"We are down one intelligence officer," Na'Riss said, setting down her utensils with quiet precision. "Kevin's treachery was considerable. However, his operational effectiveness was not in question when his objectives were singular. I find it... illogical that I should note his absence as acutely as I do. It is an inefficiency I have not yet resolved."

AJ leaned back and sucked air through his teeth, shaking his head slowly. "Dat man had a fire in him, y'know? Tings nah always line up, but I feel him gone, still. Real talk." He looked across the table. "How you holdin up, Kate?"

Kate had been resting her head against Ben's shoulder. She straightened, set down the chicken she'd been picking at, and wiped her fingers on a napkin one careful stroke at a time.

"Numb," she said. Then, softer: "I think."

She looked at Na'Riss. "We watched him kill you. No hesitation. No flicker of anything. I would like to think that this is the reason behind my lack of emotion about what I did to him." She reached for the water pitcher and refilled her glass slowly, watching the water level rise. "Every person I've ever known who took a life, someone they knew, they all said the same thing. That it stayed with them. That it found them in the night." She set the pitcher down. "I keep waiting for it to find me. I keep thinking, maybe tomorrow. Maybe when I'm alone. But it doesn't come. And I don't know which part of that frightens me more. The not feeling. Or the not minding that I don't."

The table held the silence like a room holds smoke. Kate brought the glass to her lips and drank, and no one looked away.

Kate took a deep breath and watched the water swirl around in her glass, then looked over the rim. "Maybe there's just something wrong with me. I don't know. I killed eighteen people. A lot of them with my bare hands. I came back minus one KIA and I keep waiting for it to hit me, you know? I keep waiting to fall apart the way everyone says you fall apart. The guys, the therapists, the documentaries, all of it. And it just... hasn't. And I don't know if that makes me broken or if that makes me a monster, and I genuinely cannot tell you which one scares me more."

Kate gave a long sigh and nodded slowly. "But yes," she said, her eyes somewhere far away. "I will miss the Kevin we used to know. Maybe we lost him a long time ago. But he was there once, and that's the Kevin I miss."

"You aren't a monster Kate. You are one the most sensitive and caring people I know and i love you for it. However Kevin was a traitor. He betrayed our friendship, our trust and our loyalty. I will never forgive him for what he did and maybe that makes me the monster." ben finished and put his fork down. "I'm suddenly not hungry anymore." Ben finished going quiet.

"Neither of you are monsters, you hear me? Not even close." AJ's voice dropped low and warm, the Jamaican lilt in it thickening the way it always did when he meant every word. "De fact dat you both sittin' here, hurtin' over de scars, askin' yuhself whether you did right or wrong, whether you cut too deep or not deep enough, dat right dere is your answer. Monsters don't lose sleep. Monsters don't bleed for each other. You two? You bleed plenty." He let that sit a moment before continuing. "Evil is always gonna be knockin' at de door, every single day, wearin' a different face. Could be a thought dat creeps in at three in de mornin'. Could be somebody offerin' you something dat costs you everything. Could be yuh own pride, yuh own fear, yuh own doubt whisperin' dat you ain't enough. But dat is exactly why we don't walk alone. We are here. Right now. In dis room. Because we remind each other what we are. We are Human, and dat is not a small thing."

Na'Riss allowed a single, measured cough and elevated one brow precisely 4.2 degrees in his direction.

"Oh, come on, star!" AJ broke into a wide laugh. "You have humanity in you too, don't even try it!"

"I have observed," Na'Riss said, with the serene composure of someone filing a quarterly report, "that humanity finds itself inside me most reliably during intercourse."

"You see dis woman?" AJ looked between Kate and Ben with pure delight, gesturing at Na'Riss like she was a marvel of the universe, which to him she was. "I pour out mi whole heart, every drop, and she just walks right up and unscrews de bottom of it! Dis is why I love her. Dis is exactly why." He was laughing fully now, and it was the kind of laugh that filled a room and left no cold corners in it.

Kate's grip on Ben's arm tightened just slightly as a wet, helpless laugh escaped her, the kind that comes out when you have been crying and suddenly, without permission, something pulls you back toward the living.

"I am in love with AJ because he carries the emotional weight for us both, and I have determined that this is correct," Na'Riss said, and turned to Ben and Kate. "What I feel toward you is not so different. You are governed by a precise and consistent logic of humility, of humanity, of practicality and care for what endures. These are not weaknesses. They are the most rational responses available to anyone who has seen what you have seen and carried what you have carried. It would be wholly unreasonable to feel otherwise. You are exactly what you should be. And that is why you are my family."

Kate and AJ both turned to look at Na'Riss, their mouths open. AJ let out a short breath through his nose and shook his head slowly.

"Yuh always know how fi grab di heart n’ tug at those strings, Na'Riss," he said.

Ben just sat and listened as first AJ and then Na'Riss spoke. He had no doubt about the truth to their words or the weight behind them. He was mad, mad at himself. he should have seen this coming. Kevin's manipulative style. His phony friendship. How he cared only for himself. But beyond the anger he was scared because his failure to see the real Kevin could have gotten Kate, AJ and Na'Riss killed and that was something he had to live with. So, he just looked at AJ and then Na'Riss and he hugged Kate closer and nodded in agreement.

Kate felt something in her chest come loose, the way a knot does when you finally stop pulling against it. She pressed her face briefly into Ben's shoulder, just for a second, just to feel the solidity of him there. She didn't need to know what he was thinking but she knew that he was affected, too. Na'Riss had said what she said, and AJ had said what he said, and somehow between the two of them they had covered every corner of the room. Kate lifted her head and looked around the table at all of them.

"Alright." Her voice came out lighter than she expected. "Cake, cookies, and Dominos. Right now. I'm serious."


AJ let out a loud laugh and clapped his hands together once. Chairs pushed back. Plates were collected. The four of them moved around each other in the dining room with the easy, unspoken coordination of people who had learned long ago how to share a room without asking. The viewport beyond the replicator framed them briefly, four small figures passing in and out of the light, before the frame widened and they became part of the ship, and the ship became a shape moving through nothing, pulling behind it the dark angular silhouette of the warship on its line, and then both of those became points, and then the points became part of the larger dark, and the nebula turned slowly at the edge of everything, enormous and unhurried, the way things are when they have no reason to rush.

 

RSS Feed