=/\= Guest Room, Living Dream Hotel =/\= The Hotel staff were true to their word, and had made good on their promise to bend over backward to make the remainder of Andy's stay an extra-pleasant one. He slept on a luxurious bed in his treetop apartment, with a sweet-smelling breeze wafting through open windows, and woke to the risings of the twin suns of Alpha and Proxima Centauri. Andy shook his head at the memory, on how wonderfully the Hotel had managed to replicate the scene. Visual, textural, auditory, even smell ... he woke, feeling relaxed, refreshed, and happily surprised to see a fresh basket of dozen pieces of exotic fruit that Andy recognized were from from at least three different planets. Next to the basket was a wide-brimmed crystal cup, brimming over with a hundred or so pastel multicolored disks, each marked with the inscription "Starburst Casino / Living Dream Hotel," in denominations of 5, 10 and 25 slips of latinum, as well as a few golden-colored chips marked as being worth 1 strip of latinum. Andy peeled a kursk and after discarding the pit, started gently biting the nectar out of the rinds, as he read the note that accompanied the crystal -- "Dear Lt. Foster, please accept these as a small token of our appreciation of your patronage to the Living Dream Hotel. Ponozko, Hotelmaster, Living Dream Hotel." He ran his fingers through the mass of disks in the bowl, figuring that there was probably 2-3 bars worth of latinum in chips there. Figuring he had to leave first thing tomorrow morning, he'd be well off to start making a dent in that pile. Grabbing a handful of beezlenuts from the basket, he popped one into his cheek, and made his way toward the casino. =/\= Starburst Casino, Living Dream Hotel =/\= Dabo, Senex, Blackjack, Poker, Q'ilott, Slots, Double Fluffer ... Andy had to admit, the casino offered a lot of ways to part their patrons from their money. Fortunately, what filled Andy's bowl wasn't his own money, but came gratis from the hotel. Moreover, his luck had stood its own against the casino, and after 2 hours, Andy still had about as much as he started with. He'd just lost another roll of Q'ilott, and decided to wander around the room, in search of familiar faces, or a new game. Eyes moving from area to area, he saw Cmdrs Guzman and Summers sitting close to one another at dabo table, Richard Cortez stood at the bar, stony-faced, looking around the room, along with a few other recognizable faces. "Good morning, Lieutenant." Andy turned and was startled to find LtCdr Palmer had sidled quietly beside him, a small bowl of casino chips in hand. Once again, Andy's brain ground its gears, trying to juxtapose the commander's pretty face, soft blonde hair and intoxicating perfume against the incident at the christmas party. Caution won out. "Commander," he replied guardedly. Samantha nodded toward his crystal bowl. "You seem to be doing well," she said. "Better than me, at least." She rolled the remaining 10-12 chips about in the bottom of her own bowl. "Mmm-hmm," said Andy noncommitally, wondering if there was a polite way to extricate himself from the conversation. Samantha nodded herself, running out of words, sensing the discomfort between them, and glanced at their feet for a moment or two before returning her gaze back to Andy's face. "Look," she said. "What happened at the Christmas party ... can we put it behind us?" She looked at him with some amount of calculation, trying to judge his response. "I'm just saying," she continued, "we're both bridge crew, we're working closely with each other, it simply doesn't make sense for this to remain between us." Andy remained silent for nearly a minute as Samantha spoke, while he considered. Overall, it made sense, from an administrative point of view. He'd read recently she'd been promoted to second officer; this might have been one of the items on her list to get cleared up to start a better working relationship with the rest of the crew, particularly since, as she said, they did work closely together. Still, there was the embarrassment and humiliation of getting slapped ... all eyes on you, wondering what he'd said or done to deserve it. And it was for nothing! Andy remembered the incident from two weeks ago like it had happened only hours before. He offered to get her another drink, and wham! He clenched his jaw as she looked at him, and waited for a response.. As the silence pressed on, his will began to soften ... that and her perfume seemed to be chiselling away at his emotional resolve. Moreover, he thought with a mental chuckle, she hadn't yet clocked him upside the skull with her bowl. A step in the right direction ... "All right," he said finally relenting. "You're right, the bridge will be a little more comfortable if we're easier with each other." Samantha seemed to exhale. "Good. I'm glad that we've straightened it out." She cast a glance over toward the bar. "Can I get you a drink--?" "WHAT?!" Andy's jaw dropped in disbelief at her callousness. He'd mustered the will to disregard the incident, and she just throws it back in his face!? Face contorted in rage and shame, Andy made to turn and storm off, but Samantha, with surprising agility and strength, caught him by the arm and pivoted him around to face her. "What? What??" said Samantha shaking her head in confusion. "You ... you ..." Andy had to clench his jaw hard to keep the words "reprehensible bitch" from escaping his mouth. He took a deep breath. "Why would you say something like that? Now what? Would it make it fair if I slapped you back?" "What in gods' name are you talking about?" "The party. I asked you if I could get you another drink. Then you haul off and slap me!" Samantha looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "A drink?!" she said in exaspiration. "You said you wanted me to strip so you could grope me!" Andy sputtered incoherenly, and finally fell silent, mouth agape. Samantha's mouth had become a thin slit as anger appeared to well up in her. "You said," she continued slowly and evenly, "that you wanted to remove my dress, and asked if you could ..." she averted her gaze, embarrassed, and pursed her lips with some measure of agitation, "if you could 'feel my ass.'" Dumbfounded, Andy looked at her in silent shock. He KNEW he didn't say anything REMOTELY similar to that ... but after gathering his wits sufficiently to respond, he saw nothing teasing, nothing coquettish, nothing malicious in her words or demeanor that would suggest she were toying with him. "Commander," he said, after a taking a few settling breaths, "I assure you, I NEVER said that ... nor would I have." Andy shook his head in confusion, as his expression began to match hers. Finally, Andy broke the stalemate of silence. "I saw that your glass was empty. I asked if you'd like another drink ... I asked if I could fill your --" Andy stopped, and stared wide-eyed at Samantha, who apparently, was coming to the same conclusion. "could FILL your GLASS!" they both said together. Several seconds passed between them before the laughter started. "Oh, gods, Andy," she said, laughing so hard, tears were beginning to well, "I'm so sorry." Andy closed his eyes, and shook his head, chuckling. This whole thing was a misunderstanding ... words misheard in a crowded room. Two weeks of useless antagonism ... Samantha took a deep breath and expelled it with a relieved smile. But then her eyebrows drew together in confusion. "But I thought you also said you wanted to take off my dress?" "Your dress?" "Yes," she said with a small frown. "You said, 'I want to take off your dress,'" Samantha said, and then bit her bottom lip prettily as she continued thinking. "No. No, you didn't say dress ... you said gown. 'I want to take off this gown.'" Gown, thought Andy. That's wierd. He tried thinking what else had been happening right before the slap. She was explaining something about Neptune, the earth god so many people had mistaken his outfit for ... gods, if that wasn't ever a failed experiment ... he was growing uncomfortable in it cause -- "CROWN!" "Sorry?" "I said I wanted to take off the CROWN! On my costume! It was uncomfortable!" Sam stared at him blankly for a few moments before finally closing her eyes and shaking her head slowly with a soft moan. Finally, she looked up at him with embarrassment. "Can we try this again?" She said, extending her hand. "Sam Palmer. Pleased to meet you." Andy laughed, and took it. "Charmed. Andy Foster. I understand we're gonna be working together." Lt. Andersen Foster Operations Officer USS Chimera-A