<<OCC: This log take place sometime before the senior officer's meeting. If you were invited to the party feel free to add in ideas if you wish in your own logs. Guys can be jealous that they weren't invited.... or offend if they can cook. Have fun with it.>> =/\= Athena's Quarters =/\= Athena had made sure that everyone knew to bring at least a dozen cookies with them. She had cleaned her quarters and had a table festively decorated with snowmen. On that table she had tea and punch to drink and other goodies to nibble on. She had decorated the coffee table with a green and red cloth with little gold French horns in the corners and placed her own dozen ginger cookies. Athena ran her hands down the front of her emerald green dress and took a deep breath as she surveyed the room. Everything was ready and the guests were due to arrive any moment. As was typical military fashion Honey Huhu and Vanessa Pillows were the first to arrive promptly at the designated time. Honey had been surprised to receive the invitation. {Cookie party?..mmm...ok} Honey had been taught to bake by her mother and though it was sometime since she had ventured into the making of cakes, she found her skills were still there. She decided on Apricot and Raisin cookies...a childhood favorite...and was pleased with the results. She had made twenty so chose the twelve best looking ones and set them on a plate. Eating one of the remainder, Honey stood surveying the contents of her wardrobe. {What does one wear to a cookie party!} she thought and eventually decided on a pair of well cut jeans and a crisp white shirt. She walked along the corridor towards the counselor's quarters carrying the covered plate in one hand and a bottle of non alcoholic wine in the other. Vanessa and Honey met at the Counselor's door. She thought honeys cookies looked delicious and that her own Mystery cookies paled in comparison. Van had never been much of a cook but she tried a receipe and found that the cookies tasted as interesting as the receipe sounded. They tasted of peanut butter and oatmeal and she bet no one would be able to tell that half the butter was grated apples instead. Athena gave the two women a bright smile and said, "Come on in." She had left her door open so she could see people as they arrived. "Set your cookies there and then please help yourself to a snack while we wait for the others." Honey returned the counselor's smile and did as she was asked, setting her plate beside Athena's. She felt slightly 'dressed down' and looked at Athena's emerald green dress. {Ah well..} she thought {too late now} and walked over to the small table where a variety of snacks awaited the guests. Honey picked out a small oval crispbread which unexpectedly tasted of prawns. She looked around and sat down on one end of the sofa, waiting for Vanessa to join her. Vanessa set her plate of cookies on the coffee table and went to look over the snacks that Athena had laid out. She saw sausage stuffed mushrooms and barbecued weenies, cheese balls (a couple of different kinds) and cracker as well as other things. She filled a small plate got a glass of punch and joined Honey on the sofa. As she did a couple of others began to arrive; Van recalled them being from the medical department. Sally found herself in the turbo lift with two nurses, Lucy Fleming and Anne Robinson. All three knew each other fairly well and soon got into conversation on their culinary skills. Lucy had opted for a straightforward Orange Cookie and had done well. She lifted the cover from the plate she carried to show the others her results. She was quite flattered by their praise. "Well, I'm not a cook," Anne said, "never got into that kind of thing." "What's that then?" Sally asked, pointing to the small tray Anne held in front of her. "Angel cookies," the nurse replied and in answer to their quizzical expression explained simply "Replicated." "You haven't!" Lucy said with a chuckle. "I have" Anne said defensively. "And you're taking them to a cookie party?" "Yes...why not? they're cookies." Sally looked thoughtfully at her own plate, knowing that beneath the pretty cover, her own efforts were far from perfect. She had decided on Shortbread and though not a 'cookie as such,' it had sounded plain and straightforward. Her first effort had resulted in a gooey mess that clung to her fingers and the mixing bowl, the rolling pin (and anything it came into contact with!) with extraordinary tenacity. She had had to shake her fingers in short sharp flicks to free herself of her creation. Her friend George Pucker, commandeered into tasting the results, had laughed and mentioned selling the mess to engineering to use as an adhesive. Her expression had told him that hadn't been a wise to say. Effort two was marginally better. The mixture clung to nothing...including itself. It remained a bowl full of crumb like consistency. Effort three had succeeded. The shortbread bonded together and didn't stick, at least not much, to fingers or rolling pin. {It was a shame I left it in the oven a bit too long} Sally thought sadly. George had assured her he felt 'fine' although he had refused to eat more than four and to make up for his 'unfeeling' remarks earlier, had offered to scrape the riveted Shortbread from the baking tray. Together, the three cooks headed for the party. Lucy sounded the door chime and they entered the counselor's living room. {A cookie party?} Oriana was suprised, she was invited. It was not a secret, the other races did not treat the Vulcans for a amusing friends. She read the invitation again. {Everyone is due to bring some cookies. Interesting, though the counselor may not to heard, the sugar had the same result on vulcans as alcohol had on humans. Or maybe she had heard, and that was why she was inviting Oriana too.} Oriana putted some buttons on the computer and verified her attendance. Now she went along the corridor to the counselor quarters with a plate of cookies. They were traditional vulcan cookies, which her family baked for generations. Her mother was a good cook and she had taught Oriana to bake them too. But Oriana had been away for a long time and she didn`t need to cook or bake something for long time. But it was improbable that the ship replicator had the recipe, so she took the decision to bake some. Some cooks in the kitchen looked suprised at her, sure it was not the custom to see a Vulcan, which baked. Oriana pressed the door chime and when she heard counselor`s voice, she entered her quarters. Athena smiled at each new arrival and hoped that her living room wouldn't seemed to cramped. The coffee table was becoming quite full. She stopped Anne and looked at the plate of cookies and only shook her head. It wasn't the cookies that gave Anne's deception away but the woman's own true feelings about her deception. The cookies were set down with the other plates. Lucy, feeling a bit sorry for Sally, selected one of the slightly charred pieces and bit into it. She hoped she wouldn't break a tooth before she got to the end of it. Sally tried an Apricot and raisin cookie and delighted by the taste asked the room in general who had made them. Honey, sitting on the sofa, raised her hand and smiled in friendly fashion at Sally. "Bring me one of yours?" she asked, a question she was soon to regret. Rangi pressed the door chime. The sounds from within and the partly open door issued their own invitation to go in. Stepping inside, she immediately saw Athena in her beautiful green dress. "Rangi! Join us," Lucy's happy voice drew Rangi's attention to the opposite side of the room. She acknowledged the call but moved towards her hostess. "Hello, Athena," she said. "Thank you for inviting me." Offering the plate she held, she added, "Where do you want these?... they're chocolate chip flavour." Athena smiled and answered, "Just over on the coffee table with the others. I'm sure they're delicious." She motioned the other woman toward the table and said, "Be sure to fix yourself a plate of snacks and join the others." Athena went and got herself a glass of ice water and took a slow drink she could her a couple of the other woman speculating about some of the rumors about her. What was more interesting is that they all were beginning to wonder why Athena would ever invite such an eclectic group of woman together. Oriana sat on the sofa with a glass of terrelian watter in her hand and she spoke with other women. There were many women there and she knew all of them, but she didn`t have an occasion to talk more with them. But now counselor began to tell, so all the women stopped the talking and listened. A couple more women had entered and added their cookie to the rest and were fixing plates when Athena spoke up, "I had an ulterior motive for asking you all here." She remained silent for the next few seconds as she made eye contact with each woman in the room. The room became suddenly quite and Athena nervously smiled as she started to explain. "I've sensed that things seem to be a little down on the ship and I was wondering how you all would feel about a Winter Ball?" She took a deep breath and then continued, "We could decorate the holodeck so there would be plenty of room, have dancing of course and since there is such a short time left to relax I would need lots of help to pull it together." Athena let her words sink in as she silently awaited the replies from the other women. Oriana didn`t know, what "Winter Ball" is, untill the counselor continued in her description of this. {Another party.} she thought with remembering the last party in the messhall, which she attended. Athena was a little shocked when Vanessa spoke up first and asked, "What type of dress will it be?" Athena smiled and answered, 'You may of course either wear a formal dress or your dress uniform." Sally smiled happily, already dreaming of herself as a vision of loveliness on the arm of a certain medical technician. Lucy thought: {What a great idea....yes...that could be really something.} "I'll help," she said raising her hand and looking at Athena eagerly. "Me too." Rangi replied. "Its an excellent idea." She had a mental picture of herself and Shane dancing together, followed swiftly by another of Athena in a revealing gown. She looked away, caught Sally's eye and forced a smile. Oriana heard all the enthusiastic voices with mixed feelings. She replied lastly: "I will to help you with the make up, but I will not to take a part in possibly." She knew, every person in the room looked at her in suprise, but she couldn't imagine going to the party. Athena nodded her head as each woman spoke of helping and seemed brighten at the thought. All of them except for one. It confused Athena a bit as she felt Rangi brighten and then almost as quickly she shivered from the darkness she sensed coming from the other woman. Athena kept her smile in place as she said, "I was thinking of snowmen, candy canes and candles for the decorations." She paused for a moment, "What do you all think," she asked the group before her. There was murmuring of discussion. "Yes...candles...lanterns perhaps." "We MUST have icicles...lots of icicles" "What about the food?" someone asked. "What do we eat?" {It IS a good idea} Rangi told herself {It will brighten the mood on board..and with Christmas coming...} She glanced at Athena who was answering as many questions and suggestions as she could. "When do we start?" she asked when the counselor looked her way. Athena had either nodded or comment on the thoughts flying around the room; all the while taking mental notes. She answered a few questions s well when food was mention and Athena suggested maybe picking a couple of the ones she did today plus maybe some finger sandwiches and indicating she was open to other suggestions if they were made. Athena was beginning to think she was in a whirlwind when she turned to answer the next question and took a second to respond when she realized who had asked it. Her gaze fell upon Rangi and she replied, "As soon as possible." Athena took a deep breath and then suggested, "Maybe you and I can work together as the coordinating team, if the other approve and don't mind doing what is asked of them." She had made the suggestion partly because it was need to keep track of all these great ideas and partly because she wondered about some of the things she sensed in Rangi. "Errr..yes...yes if you like...and if everyone agrees." Rangi looked around the room half hoping that someone would suggest themselves as a coordinator, but everyone seemed to be in favour and continued with suggestions which now ranged from sensible to extreme. Rangi stood up and moved nearer to Athena. "Its a lovely idea," she said. "You're very good at organizing events like this and by the sounds of it this will be a huge success." She meant what she said and tried her best to recapture the friendly rapport that she and Athena had once had. Athena looked at Rangi and quietly said, "Thanks," as they listened to several more ideas from the other women in the room. =/\= End Log =/\= Ensign Oriana Chief Science USS Chimera & LtCmdr. Rangi Summers CMO/ AXO USS Chimera & Lt. Athena Wellington Counselor USS Chimera