"Killing Strike," Erislia said with a grin as she moved her piece down from its elevated spot, taking down my pack leader.
"Fair play," I said and reached out to poke the chess piece, making it fall over.
"You should stop holding back," Salia said from her seat where she was watching us play.
I rolled my eyes, "Where would the fun be in that? I try to keep myself at the level of my opponent, why else would there be any kind of point in playing?" I said with a shrug. "Though, to be fair, most my my advantage would be to have more time to think and have the rest of the computer help out."
Erislia flicked her tail tip, "Not like I win all the time like it is. What are we at?"
"Eh, about even. A couple of games in my direction," I said and smiled. "I can tell that you have played with T'Ro. Some of those moves are right from her playbook."
Erislia nodded, "We did start playing games about... seven months before we moved onto you."
I smiled. "I know you played with Star before. Still, you are good," I said as I crossed my legs. "Another game?"
"Sure. But this time, play as best you can, no limits. I want to see how long I last."
Snorting, I nodded, "Sure thing," and reached to start putting the pieces back in their starting spots. "You don't want to play Salia?"
She grinned and shook her head, "Oh no. I'm more than happy just watching my cousin getting her tail handed to her. Chess, Caitian or Terran or otherwise is not my kind of game. Don't have the brains for it."
Erislia sighed, "Don't be silly, you are as smart as I am. Stupid people don't get interplanetary shuttle licenses."
"Well, not at this kind of stuff," she said with a grin and got up, smoothing out her short robe before walking over towards the replicator in their quarters.
As Ajan, Erislia and Salia followed mostly Caitian customs, you would think their quarters would be decorated in a Caitian style, or at least Caitian with hints of Trill. But it was nothing of the sort, if anything, it was mostly human.
Not standard quarters either, a lot of stuff had been replaced with replicated wood and the windows had nice flowing curtains of what looked like silk.
Hell, my quarters had more of a Caitian style to it.
"Any of you want something?" Salia asked as she reached the replicator and tapped through the menu before a bowl of ice cream replicated.
"Uhm... I'll have a tea. You know the one?" Erislia said and frowned at the board, moving one of her pieces.
"Yeah. You, Ivy?"
"Vulcan tea, please. It's from one of the desert regions, kind of spicy. It's called..." I answered and moved one of my pieces. Killing Strike in fifteen moves.
"To'sedon tea," Salia filled in and tapped through the menus. "Star likes the same one."
I nodded and smiled, moving another piece as Erislia countered, "I know. That's where I got it from."
Killing Strike in ten moves. Mistake to move there, sweetheart.
"Here you go," Salia said as she returned, putting our drinks down on the table before she sat back down, pulling her legs up and curling up a bit as she poked at her ice cream.
"Thanks," I said with a smile as I watched Erislia try to figure out her next move. Wonder which one she would make. Runner to west field ambush point or striker to west flank? Both had their own pros and cons.
Neither of which would have saved her, but one would slow things down one turn and make things a bit trickier.
She finally reached and moved her runner.
Mmm. Good move.
"You know, if you miss flying shuttles, we are not Starfleet," I said and looked over at Salia where she licked the cherry ice cream of her spoon. "You can get back to shuttles if you like."
She shrugged one shoulder, "I don't know. I mean, flying is fun but I wouldn't be flying. If things got serious, I would want you in control anyway. I mean, I'm good at it, but I'm not 'that' good. I only did reach a B-shuttlecraft license."
"Doesn't need to be an aeroshuttle. Just because I'm not equipped with shuttles normally doesn't mean I don't have any hangar space for normal ones. I could easily squeeze in a small shuttle."
Salia flicked her ears in thought, "You would do that for me?"
"Don't be silly, of course I would!" I said and took one of Erislia's key pieces.
Salia hesitated and then shook her head, "...No. You don't need to. I like running the kitchen, it's fun, challenging and you get to talk to everyone. Besides, I do love cooking. But I wouldn't mind taking one of the aeroshuttles out for a spin at some point."
"I think I would like that," I agreed and took a sip from my tea. Of course, it was all a hologram, just like this avatar. I never replicated my cup of tea, just made a hologram to make it seem like it. My real avatar was off with the away team into the Badlands.
I moved one of my pieces, "Killing Strike."
"Damn. You drove me into a corner," Erislia sighed. "Still, that took longer than I thought it would."
"The board is pretty big," I said with a smile. "Takes time to move pieces about without being obvious about the trap," I explained before I flicked my left ear as new information connected to my system.
"I am back in contact with my avatar and shuttle selves. They are about to clear the Badlands," I said before I looked at them. "They were attacked."
AN// A big pile of thanks to Pietersielie for betaing this section.