Reflections Down a Corridor

Part 6 - Contact and Crabcakes

"By all means," replied Tre'ex, "we can speak again later."

Communications cut, Jonathan glanced around the room anxiously. "Did we just destroy the timeline?"

"The ship would no longer exist," T'Pol stated.

"We can't simply blunder about, hoping that we won't destroy the timeline," Malcolm stated the obvious for all of them.

"No, of course not," the captain said, "we need to be better prepared, and know what to say. Because this is going to happen over and over again, over the course of the century. We'll get together a plan. In the meantime, consider if there is anything you need or you may need, all right?" he said to Tripp, "Let's not squander this opportunity."

=/\=

Lili and Will sat in the kitchen. Chang was there, emptying the sanitizer. "You can take a break," she said to him. His uniform patch said D. Chang. "What's your first name?"

"Huh?"

"Don't tell me you don't know it," she laughed.

"Oh, uh, it's Dan."

"Well, hiya, Dan," Lili said, "Yanno, we just don't know most of the folks in the MACOs at all. I think the only first names of the enlisted folks I know are Susie Money and, now, yours."

"There's too much separation," Will agreed, "but I suppose that's the fault of both sides. Tell you what; we're trying to make the list of the foods that Craig Willets will try to program into the replicators. Can you think of anything?"

Dan thought for a moment. "Uh, I wouldn't know where to begin."

"Let's try this instead," Lili suggested, "what's your favorite restaurant meal? And I'm asking about a restaurant meal because homemade foods are fraught with a lot of meaning. So let's look at something that doesn't really have any psychological baggage."

He thought again. "Uh, crab cakes, I guess."

"Now, let's consider what's in them," Will typed on his PADD. Lili also typed. "There's lump crab meat, of course. There's usually mayo in there, breadcrumbs and lemon juice, sometimes parsley or finely chopped celery to give it some color and texture. There might be chopped onions or scallions, too."

"Then the spices vary depending upon the recipe," Lili explained, "any idea what spices are in the version that you like the best of all?"

"Salt and pepper, I guess."

"There's usually also egg, to keep everything together," Will added, "Paprika? Garlic? Dry mustard powder?"

"I dunno."

"And it might not be regular breadcrumbs," Lili noted, "It might be Panko or even cracker crumbs, or something like that."

"They have to be fried, too, so there's also oil or butter. And we haven't even gotten to the sides yet!" Will said.

"I guess it's complicated." Dan shrugged.

"Consider the ingredients," Lili said, "and we'll keep the recipe really simple. So it's lump crab meat, egg, salt and pepper, breadcrumbs and mayo."

"Don't forget the oil," Will reminded her.

"Right, and the breadcrumbs are bread, of course, so they consist of, let's see, milk, butter or oleo, yeast, sugar or honey, flour, salt and more egg. The flour is wheat, but it could be barley or rye or corn, or it could be mixed grains."

"And the mayo is egg, oil and vinegar or lemon juice," Will stated, "Let's say lemon juice so that we have the juice for the crab cakes. How many ingredients are we up to, Lili?"