Lieutenant Xansta looks in through the doorway and spots Commander Vaj. He hesitates, then heads over to the table where Vaj is sitting.
Mind if I join you?
Commander Vaj looks up in annoyance from his ONI brief, recognizes Lieutenant Xansta with some surprise and gestures to the chair across the table before returning to reading. Xansta looks at Vaj’s reading material with some familiarity. He obviously wants to talk about something, but does not want to interrupt Vaj’s concentration. He’s almost ready to speak up when the barmaid arrives.
“What’ll you have?” she asks in an accent Xansta can’t quite place.
Xansta looks at the barmaid dressed in a TSN uniform. He’s about to say something about the inappropriateness of wearing the uniform while working in a bar when he realizes it’s only a costume. Then he recalls that this bar caters to the locals enamored of the mystique surrounding the TSN.
Pointing at Vaj, I’ll have what he’s having
Xansta watches in distracted admiration as the barmaid heads back to the bar. He turns back in time to catch Vaj’s warning look. He can’t tell if it’s regarding the barmaid or the implicit interruption of his reading. Taking advantage of the ambiguity, Xansta taps one of the documents.
Did you get to the part about the race code named “Ingratus?”