Sand & Service, Part IV: Beach Bums
Posted on Wed Sep 2nd, 2026 @ 1:34pm by Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik & Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus & Lieutenant Kah’lyn Chiara & Lieutenant Commander Xalanth & Lieutenant JG Sakkar & Josef Forstinger & Master Chief Petty Officer Vashti Rao & Petty Officer 3rd Class Dallas Reese
Edited on on Sat Sep 5th, 2026 @ 2:10pm
3,065 words; about a 15 minute read
Mission:
Maintenance and Recovery
Location: Amberwash Beach, Southern Continent, Barisa Prime
Timeline: November 3, 2389
[Continued...]
Xalanth had finished digging his pit and was now prepping some grub; his youngest sitting beside her father, handing her father his tools and food.
Kah’lyn walked back over to Xalanth, offering a smile, her bikini showing off her teardrop birthmark. “Anything I can do to help?”
" You can pass me the red..." The lizard began before he noticed the birthmark. The teardrop mark that was burned into his mind. One of the missing parts of his soul....
" Dad..." Lwiari said, shaking her dad’s hand. Shaking his head, the lizard was out of his seemingly soul-reading stare. " Sorry about that; that was rude of me. Could you pass me the black canister with the red lid?" he asked politely.
“Of course,” Kah’lyn smiled as she reached for the requested canister. “Here you go.” She gave him a curious look, wondering what had distracted him a few moments ago. “Is everything alright? You seemed distracted a few moments ago.”
Taking the canister, the lizard opened it before pouring a little onto a chopping board. " Oh, it's nothing. Your birthmark just resembles my people's symbol for sacrifice," he replied.
“I’d like to hear more about that.” Kah’lyn gave Xalanth a warm smile. “Tell me all about it later. As for sacrifice, that’s a Counsellor all over; we give our all to what we do.”
"I'll tell you about it over dinner. Which I have to get to work on." He replied with a wink of one of his yellow eyes. " As for counsellors, I would say my beautiful second is one. I take it she is still fulfilling Starfleet's standards?" he joked, knowing how well his Leilani worked.
“She most definitely is. I’m glad to have Leilani as part of the Counselling staff.” Kah’lyn smiled. “I’ll let you get on; just tell me if there’s anything you need as you go, and I’ll get right on it.”
"I'll see you later." The red lizard replied with a smile. He was enjoying Kah’lyn’s company.
Kah’lyn smiled warmly, nodding before heading to mingle with everyone else.
Rixi returned from the water at a lazy jog, Yazar and Amrar lagging just behind her with broad grins. Droplets of ocean water clung to their arms, legs, and faces, but the Barisan sun was already doing its job of evaporating what it could.
"Now that was bracing!" she laughed.
Xalanth smiled at the three. " Have you been behaving yourself for Rixi?" He called over to his two eldest, who both nodded before giving him a "Yes, Dad."
Rixi reached for her towel and began patting at the excess moisture on her arms, shoulders, and belly. The whole time she did this, her attention was drawn to the Dragonian's large pit and rudimentary kitchen preparation area.
"How many are you cooking for, X?"
"For as many people as want some." The lizard smiled happily. "Cooking for one's family and clan is very important for my people."
Rixi was amazed at the work the Dragonian was putting into preparing a meal.
"Anything I can do to help before the tournament begins?"
"Could you get the bowls and cutlery out and into colour-related piles?" Xalanth said as he poked a probe into the sand to check the temperature.
She smiled at Xalanth, nodded, and began popping open some containers. "Anything for you, X."
[A little later...]
The tournament signups had drawn more interest than Vashti could have hoped for. In the ninety minutes since posting the sign-up board, several Astrea crew members had already formed teams.
So far, there were six teams that had formed. Vashti scanned the board, which contained an assortment of different handwriting. Several of the teams had already been decided through previous discussion between friends and colleagues. That was fine and dandy.
Her eyes skipped across the median and to the list of names, which were alone and would need to be paired with other singles. These were just about everybody present, and they were amateurs looking to have fun.
Vashti's eyes moved over the names once more.
Five teams and nine players without partners. Ninety minutes until the first serve.
She'd expected more enthusiasm, perhaps because she had spent an extraordinary amount of time making the sign-up system as foolproof as possible. The crew of Astrea had been through the wringer over the past couple of months, but rarely anything involving organized fun on this scale.
Kah’lyn looked at the board; she didn’t yet have a partner, so she wondered who to be partnered with. She wondered about Fulvia but wasn’t sure if Xalanth would partner her.
Vashti reached into the canvas bag at her feet and pulled out a small solid-shell case.
Emiliano glanced down at it. "What's that?"
She grinned at the Operations technician. "I've been waiting to show these off."
She opened the case. Inside, arranged in a foam insert, were several dozen thin transparent slides. Each carried what looked like a tiny square of clear plastic, almost invisible against the backing.
He leaned closer. "Are those stickers?"
Tenzi, who had wandered over from the sign-up board, looked at Vashti with immediate suspicion. Her antennae flailed wildly for a moment before settling backward as though hit with a brisk gust of wind. "Why does a volleyball tournament need tattoos?"
Vashti grinned back at her wryly. "Because I'm an engineer and therefore incapable of leaving well enough alone."
She lifted one of the slides carefully between thumb and index finger. The little transparent patch caught the sunlight and briefly disappeared. When it did slightly reflect, there was a stylized outline of a vessel--Astrea in all her Galaxy-class glory.
"These contain a communicator and a low-power beacon," she explained. "Nothing fancy. You stick one somewhere on your skin. It'll tell you when you're up, which court you're assigned to, and whether the schedule changes."
Emiliano squinted at the tiny patch.
"And the tattoo part?"
"It's temporary. It comes off with a little solvent."
Tenzi gave her a look. "I guess it's better than branding us."
Vashti turned completely serious. "I had considered it."
She turned the patch over and pointed to it. "It's all nanotechnology. It also monitors hydration levels, core temperature, pulse, and a few other things. If somebody starts getting into trouble, it'll alert the medical system before there's an emergency."
Josef approached the Case after having looked over the sign-up board. His worries of finding a partner were quickly buried under the curiosity of what the engineers were now up to.
"All of that in a little thingy like that ?" he asked, pointing towards the patches. He was at least a little perplexed. How could one fit so many things in such a tiny package? Then again, the people he was talking to were used to flying around space, and being reduced to light and then reconstructed if they had to go anywhere. So, something like this didn't seem so much out of the ordinary now that he thought about it.
"And, how exactly do you put these on?" Josef asked, pointing to the patches.
Vashti was about to explain when a voice caught her attention from nearby.
"I wouldn't let her put the stickers on, if I were you," Dallas laughed as he walked over to the others and spotted Vashti with said items in hand. "Otherwise they're going to be everywhere like they are on me." He motioned to himself: he had forgone a shirt, and there were Astrea-shaped stickers covering various parts of him from the shoulders to one disappearing below the waistband of the shorts he was wearing, and he was thankful a few covered some of the scars. "I was an idiot and volunteered for play time, thinking it was something else she'd been working on."
Vashti knew Dallas's voice before she turned toward it. The effect was immediate and rather inconvenient. Her whole face lit up, and the smile that spread across it was so genuine that Tenzi's antennae lifted straight up in amusement before Vashti had even managed to look his way.
Then she saw him.
The transparent Astrea patches were scattered across his bare skin, catching the mid-morning light wherever they found the right angle. She stared for perhaps a second too long. She remembered how much fun it had been to put her hands on him.
Vashti had worked alongside Dallas for about a year. She knew his habits, his humour, the particular expression he wore in different situations, whether they be work-related or personal time. However, something had recently changed between them and that something was unnameable. If they could put a word to it, Vashti feared it would have made it more serious than either of them might be ready to admit. Regardless of it all, they had both become very good at finding reasons to be near one another.
"Hi," she said.
A few feet away, Tenzi leaned in toward Josef and cupped a hand to her face.
"Watch how Vee suddenly becomes completely befuddled in that man's presence," she whispered.
Josef joined in on the lean Tenzi did, mirroring her. Though the man out of time was, well, frankly worse at being inconspicuous than the tall blue lady. Which is a feat in and of itself.
"Befuddled? I think that's the first time I've heard her say only a single word to someone. I mean, then again, I've only met her so many times. Think they're--y'know..." Josef was ignorant as all hell, but the Andorian's elbow had made him at least consider not saying certain things out loud, at full volume, right in front of the person.
Tenzi put a finger to her lips and threw Josef a look that said, don't ruin this for her.
If Vashti noticed her Andorian friend making light of her reaction to Dallas' presence, she didn't let on.
"Hey gorgeous," Dallas grinned at Vashti with all the easy charisma he could muster, yet quirked an eyebrow at Sergeant Yesteryear and Tenzi, knowing they were at the epicentre of the rumor mill if it started. "It's good to see you here with the good Sergeant, Tenz. Looks like it's a good turnout for this; are you guys playing?
"You bet!" Tenzi answered, animated as usual. "Just... not with him." She hiked a thumb at Josef.
"I don't think he knows how to play volleyball. I figure he might pull out a phaser and shoot the ball."
Upon hearing that, Josef gave Tenzi a light punch to the shoulder. "A phaser ? Please. I'd use a good ol' 9 millimeter. And eh, I know how to kick a ball, I'll figure out how to punch a ball. And you make it sound like playing with me would be a bad thing." He crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at the Andorian.
Tenzi rubbed at her shoulder, feigning hurt. "I'm just teasing, Sergeant Yesteryear."
[Nearby...]
Taking his place next to Vashti, Dallas looked down into the expressive deep brown eyes that were almost sparkling now she was in her element with technology and showing it off. At that moment, there was no one else on the deck, just her and him, and it brought forth a feeling he hadn't felt in a really long time.
He leaned in and spoke at a low volume to Vashti, just above a whisper, "You know you're going to have to help me take these stickers off at some point, right?"
Vashti's face turned a deep shade of crimson, and she felt the blood empty from her hands and feet. She and Dallas were colleagues before they were acquaintances, and acquaintances before they were friends, and friends before... well, what are we? Vashti wondered. They had shared a few things together and enjoyed horsing around. Things had become almost intimate on more than one occasion, but neither had verbalized who they were to each other.
Being around Dallas was easy. He was calm, cool--oh, so very cool, Vashti thought--and extremely charming. She was easily attracted to him in a way that she never was with Garo. His self-deprecating awkwardness and complete inability to take any of her hints--over ten months--had made her decision that much easier.
Vashti realized she was staring at him the way Rixi often stared at chocolate cake, and pulled her eyes away.
"Uh-uhm, I... could be persuaded to assist with that," Vashti whispered haltingly, staring straight down at the sand around her feet.
He had to bite back a laugh as he watched her go even more red in the cheeks, "I promise it'll be worth your time... maybe in more ways than one, hmm?" Dallas straightened up and coughed to clear his throat before going back to his usual self. Vashti just had a particular way of getting to him without even trying, and it felt comfortable.
The Chief of the Boat felt like every blood vessel in her face was about to explode. She attempted twice to regain her composure and look at Dallas but failed spectacularly both times.
Vashti attempted to reply with an affirmative grunt but only a small, strangled sound came out.
[Also nearby...]
Dani and Kash beamed down almost directly into the middle of the action. Dani was wearing a sport orange two-piece with a white shirt draped over her green skin, and large sunglasses that covered most of her face. Kash looked a little uncertain about being there at all, but his eyes lit up in surprise when he saw Osirin.
"Hey, catch up with you later, D," Kash said, touching her lightly on the arm, before making what he hoped looked like a casual approach over to Osirin. Dani frowned slightly after him, but then turned her attention to Charlotte and decided to see if she could pull her away from Kasper for a bit.
Kash walked over to Osirin with a bit of an impish grin. "I didn't know you'd be here. You play?" He asked.
Kash was suddenly self-conscious about how little time he'd been able to spend in the gym lately and hoped it didn't show.
Osirin noticed that Kash had put on some weight. He wasn't fat, just filled in. Most of it looked natural; none of it bothered him.
"You're looking good," he said, " you clean down well. That's the right word, isn't it?"
"Are you okay if I hug you?"
"Uh, yeah, of course," Kash replied, extending his arms. "I think you meant, 'clean up, though in a way I guess this is dressing down a bit if I think about it. It's confusing, I guess."
Osirin pulled Kash into a tight embrace that was mostly, but not entirely, platonic.
"Are you playing today? the Andorian asked. "I didn't sign up or anything. I wasn't even sure if I was going to come."
"Ahh, yes, clean up is what I meant. Thank you for the correction. And yes, I am playing. You should sign up if you can. We could play together."
"I'm not signed up, but if you need a partner, uh yeah sure," Kash replied with a grin. The way the Andorian kept his head tilted forward his grin appeared more shy than it was, but Osirin knew better even without empathic powers.
"Hey, uh, Vashti," Kash called out, looking up. "Room for me to partner up?" He asked, tilting his head toward Osirin.
Vashti turned her attention from something Luci was explaining to Dallas and spotted the Andorian operations officer. Once she realized what Kash was asking for, her face lit up. Another complete team, she thought.
"For sure, Kash."
She immediately set about updating the whiteboard.
Osirin moved up to Kash and held up his hand toward the Andorian. "High five," he said, "do they still do that?"
Kash met his high five with enthusiasm. "You'll see a lot of that today," he replied. "Come on, let's grab a ball so you can get a feel for it," he offered.
Lt. Commander Xalanth
Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea
Lieutenant Kah'lyn Chiara
Chief Counselor
USS Astrea
Lieutenant JG Leilani
Counselor
USS Astrea
(NPC of Xalanth)
Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi
Engineering Officer
USS Astrea
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)
Master Chief Petty Officer Vashti Rao
Chief of the Boat
USS Astrea
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)
Crewman Emiliano Echevarria
Operations Officer
USS Astrea
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)
Ensign Tenzi Sh'reyva
Engineering Officer
USS Astrea
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)
Josef Forstinger
Civilian
USS Astrea
Petty Officer 3rd Class Dallas Reese
Slipstream Specialist
USS Astrea
(NPC of Eirly Andersen)
Ensign Dani Harper
Science Officer
USS Astrea
(NPC of Remy Johansen)
Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik
Operations Officer
USS Astrea
(NPC of Remy Johansen)
Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus
Mission Advisor
USS Astrea
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