Snippet 4 :-)

"It's that little shoot thing, there," Mel said, pointing out a small door in the wall. "Garbage gets incinerated."

"Mm." Christi said to herself, making a face at it before walking over and carefully tossing the peels inside. She shuddered briefly to herself as she came back, giving Mel a wide-eyed look. "Can you imagine if a cat fell in there?"

"We can experiment, if you'd like," Mel sighed, before turning with her mango and flopping down onto a nearby sofa. "I'm a little bit numb-headed right now, I gotta admit."

"Been drinking already, huh?" Christi joked as she flopped down with her clementine. "You would."

"Shut up. Besides, aren't you at all concerned that we're stuck in a different dimension right now?" Mel said absently, glancing around the room. Her eyes rested on a picture that was standing up on a nearby table...one that had a picture of them and their respective crew mates on it. "God. This is so weird. At least we know what we're doing though, right? I mean, we can just... play along so we don't get put in the holding cells..."

Christi scoffed. "Holding cells? Are you serious?" She shook her head and squished another section in her mouth. "We'll be fine. You know engineering stuff, right?"

"Yeah," Mel said warily. "...why? You planning on using me for prison break?"

Christi scoffed again. "Like you could ever get us out of a prison."

"Maybe I just could," Mel huffed. "Besides, I'd get that random redshirt to help me. I think he's in love with me. I could see it in his offhanded, bemused face."

Christi frowned at her in disbelief. "Oh god...already?"

"I was joking. But I'm NOT when I say that Boma's still looking at your butt, from what I've observed," Mel said, wriggling on the couch until she was lying down instead of sitting up. "We all knew he's got a thing for blondes, but the BUTT-scoping..."

A wedge of clementine hit her in the face, followed by Christi's glare. "Stop that. We can talk about stuff like that AFTER we've been here for 20 odd years."

"You think we'll be here that long?" Mel said, suddenly looking alarmed. "I'll be dead by then! Unless I somehow succeed in making myself a famous and well-known redshirt...then maybe I'll have a chance..."

Christi rolled her eyes. "Well it won't be hard making yourself known if you just be yourself, let me tell you..."

"Maybe I should break out into song and dance in the middle of the hallway sometime. You know, totally flip out and incorporate my name in various ways into my song..."

"Pfft. You'll be on the next Away mission for SURE." Christi said, reaching over for another clementine. "You do that and I'LL put you on it."

Mel glared at her. "You'd really sentence me to death like that? Death by something stupid and pointless no less?"

"I've never thought of a more suitable death for you."

"You SUCK. You'll be raped by a Klingon and enslaved by a Borg, then. I'll make sure of it."

Christi laughed. "What a bad ass answer. You should join communications."

"No. Only gay people and the ugliest aliens work there," Mel said firmly. "....oh, and Uhura."

*

Later that evening, after supper and a relaxing evening of...re-acquainting themselves with their quarters, Christi and Mel lay on the floor beside the couch, staring up at the ceiling - which, they had just noticed, was painted like the night sky. Genius on their part, for sure, for decorating it that way.

"Maybe we'll wake up tomorrow back at home," Mel mumbled after a while. "You know...since we woke up here today?"

Christi half-laughed. "Or not."

"What the hell are we going to do if it's an 'or not' case?"

"We just stay here until we figure something out," Christi said resolutely. "We're bound to run into Q some time or other, right?"

"That's in Next Generation," Mel pointed out dryly. "He might not even meander to this side of the galaxy for another hundred years or so. But - hey. At least you're a nurse, right? I mean...dream job, right?"

Christi chuckled and shook her head. "Kinda, I'm not gonna lie. McCoy's a real blast to work with!" she said, grinning at Mel. "And Chekov's waaaaay cuter than in the movies!"