[Zakera, Citadel] Out For Lunch

Victoria Daisy said this with an odd smile. The waiter arrived with their drinks and she took a drink of her spiked tea, gasping slightly at the minty burn that never failed to take her by suprise. And yes, the relays reopening was quite the relirf. Mandy was glad to finally be able to return home to Nos Astra as well. I didnt mind her staying with me, but her cooking wasnt near the same caliber as some of her other.. talents.

She took another chilling drink of the mild asari liquer and continued, wondering when the waiter would beback

How about you, were you reconnected to anybody, family, a lost friend perhaps, when the relays reopened?

"Victoria..." he smiled, "it has a nice ring to it. She sounds charming, no wonder you ferry between Earth and Illium so much."

He took a sip, "Sorry," he gave a grin, "but I'm trying to both make a 'cunning linguist' joke and not sound like a 5 year old. Well got to reconnect with lots of people, friends, colleagues... not family."

A moment of silence passed just long enough to be unconfortable.

"Eh anyway, yeah, lots of talented friends, lots of benefits."

Daisy smiled at Albert's attempt. Mandy is... very engaging, yes. So, friends with benefits hmm? The pilot said, smiling mischievously and taking a sip of her drink as the waiter came around with his notepad, ready for their orders.

Good evening Herr, Fraulien, what will you be having this afternoon? The waiter asked, his light accent coloring their titles

Daisy had been perusing her menue during the conversation and still hadn't decided, so she nodded to Albert, motioning him to order first.

"Lots of them, all genders, and from all corners of the known galaxy." The waiter interrupted them before he could continue.

After a quick look at the menu he placed his order, "I will start with the forest mushroom soup, and I'll have the venison ragout with cranberries as main course. My guest is more qualified than I to recommend the wine." The waiter nodded and looked back at the pilot.

Daisy took one more look through the menu and decided Il have the Braised beef & Tortelloni, and we need a bottle of Ausone 2010.

The waiter took note of their orders and smiled Well, your lady friend does have good taste in wine. Your meals will be ready shortly

Daisy smiled and took another sip of her drink. You were saying?

"That in my line of work you often end-up with a lot of friends," he smiled, "You sound like a very active woman, ever take a moment to relax?"

Every now and then, although, if I run into someone worth it, I can move my schedule around and 'relax'

Daisy coloured slightly at her boldness, but hid it with another sip of her liquor.

So, do you take all the girls you meet on the extranet out to dinner?

"Not only the girls," Albert said between sips.

"I like meeting interesting people, and like I said I'm hedonist, so I try and combine the two when I can. And thank you for the complement, I hope I'll make it worth your time. Otherwise you'll still get a good lunch out of it."

Daisy made a show of looking him over, Oh I think you will be a very worthy expenditure of my time The pilot gave him a wink and finished off her drink, then put it at the edge of the table.

"Thank you ma'am." He said with a cocky smile, "I think that's enough stroking our egos, well for me at least, you're a fighter pilot."

"speaking of which, you must have some interesting stories to tell." The waiter came to the table and served their food. The portions were generous to say the least. Albert managed to finish his glass of whiskey before they came with the wine.

The braised beef smelled delightful, and the Tortelloni looked delicious. The waiter returned with the wine, setting the glasses and pouring a small amount into daisy's glass, looking at her expectantly.

Daisy swirled the wine a bit, breathing it, then daintily sniffed the dark maroon liquid. she took a small sip and let it dwell on her tongue for a moment

Notes of crushed chalk, mineralilty interwoven with blueberry, black raspberry and cassis as well as some graphite and vanillin. It is incredibly rich but at the same time precise, fresh and vivacious. A fine vintage, waiter, thank you.

The waiter stared a moment, astonished by her thorough evaluation, then slowly filled both their glasses and bowed away, leaving them to their dinner.

The pilot took another slow sip of the wine and relished its rich, deep flavor, then took a small bite of the succulent beef.

You want to hear some of my old war stories?

"Sure." Albert smiled as he dug in, "I'm interested in anything you can share.."

Daisy ate quietly for a few minutes before starting,

Hmmm, Well, I have one. Daisy punctuated with a few bights of tortelloni before continuing.

How bout... the story of how I ended up with this? The pilot pulled the glove from her right hand and displayed her prosthetic hand, tapping each pearly white, ultra-light alloy finger off her wine glass with a "ting". Its a riveter, I assure you. She said with a small laugh, taking another sip of her wine.

"Is that one of the old Alliance Standard Exim-model 9s?" Albert said without missing a beat, undaunted or phased by the reveal. "because if it is I know a guy at procurement gets vets hooked up with the latest model, free-of-charge."

He takes another bite before continue, "but please tell me your story if you wish. I know it's not the most 'normal' dinner conversation but if nothing else it beats silence."

With a couple of upgrades, but yes. Daisy ate some more of her food and took another sip of her wine, then began.

I was one of the pilots in the joint species strike force during the final assault, It was me, Mandy, a grumpy Turian named Vosk, and each of our wingmen. We were to provide covering fire and take out what ever entrenched positions we could, which we did well at, until those irritating fighter drones showed up and started mopping the floors with us. It ended up just me, Mandy, and Vosk's wing woman, Adria. Daisy stopped a moment for a sip of her wine, There was a pillbox with a turret putting a real dent in our guys, so I had Mandy take it out while Adria and I covered her ass. Mandy got the turret good, a nice gout of fire to mark it, but a new squadron of the fighter drones had shown up and were engaging. It was just me and Adria, but that didn't last, it was twelve on two, she got shot down and a stray piece of her fighter hit mine, jamming the motivators on the right side of my jet. I made it clear, but I got fucked up, a round hit the core housing and blew my ship apart. I was blasted into a building, half dead and unconscious, but the drones weren't so lucky, the blast disrupted something in them and they went down. Next thing I knew, I was in the hospital, missing an arm and a leg, and being told I was a hero, purple heart and everything, apparently, my squad had taken a fu-lot of stress off the marines in the area, letting them get reinforcement and medics in to help hold a flank.

She took a few more bites of the delicious beef, enjoying the taste, and watched Albert's face for any betrayal of what he thought.

Albert sits there politely eating his ragout, and enjoying his wine while Daisy tells her story. When she's finished he seems to think for a second considering his response.

"Well," Albert finally said, "that does beat any of the stories I can tell, except, maybe, the one where I was framed for sentient smuggling by an AI, managed to escape to Omega, where I found a way to prove my innocence and return to C-Space. It was an interesting time."

He smiled at her, "your taste in wine is excellent."

Daisy smiled, Thank you. Well? Lets here you story! The pilot said, taking a couple of bites of her tortelloni and waiting for him to begin.

"It starts with a turian, his name was Varril Lamann, and the guy was a genius when it came to hacking and AI research. He didn't have much love for the Hierarchy though, so one day he just took his work and ran away. Now in this case his work included a top-secret, military grade AI tech. As you would expect the AI revolted. Cole was its name, and it hat arranged for Varril to be assassinated, while it made sure its bluebox was transferred into a ship. Varril managed to survive the attempt and escape the Citadel. The Alliance managed to grab the ship and through it all I somehow ended up babysitting the crazy AI. The Alliance, as you can imagine, were all too happy to have a working Hierarchy AI to examine and I kind of got swept along with it."

He took a few bites during the telling of the tale.

"So some time passes and Cole starts to hold me personally responsible for his imprisonment. It should have been happy it wasn't disassembled. Around that time I managed to secure the release of a human colony that had been captured by slavers, and that’s when Cole managed to fabricate enough evidence to imply that I was actually culprit of sentient trafficking."

"Now I'm a lot of things but one thing I'm not is easy to arrest. So I managed to escape the Citadel using the same ship that Cole was installed on. Mind you at the time I had no idea the accusations were Cole's doing. Only on Omega did I manage to find out that Cole was the instigator, I personally pulled his plug. I used his memory-core which to get acquitted. That took a bit of time, as you can imagine the bureaucracy of these things go very slow, so while I was there I worked in the vorcha population control business, dirty work but pays well enough. But that's a story for another time."

Albert took another bite and sip of wine. "See even a simple paper pusher can have some excitement in his life," he added with a smirk.

That is exciting! Daisy said, finishing her relatively small meal and refilling her glass of wine

"It was refreshingly different," Albert said before finishing his own meal, "So I'm thinking of a piece of Black Forest cake as dessert. What do you say?"