Niples@Stewie's "Dinner is served"

Captain Niples, Stewie Mackenzie and Mike Mackenzie
Stewie's quarters
Friday night, teatime
 
"Right, Stewie. You wanted to discuss something with me?" Asked the Captain, trying to look authoratative and dashing in his posh dinner suit."Well, I do need you authorisation for the hiring of fifteen staff for the restaurantand also ten more staff for McKenzies.""Indeed. We'll manage to arrange this. Now you say you've got a manager for"La regal de McKenzie"?"
 
Seymour was facinated with the idea of having a swanky restaurant on his ship and wanted to it to be as sucessful as possible. Ever since he had spent time on his 'captain's training' in the posh side of London, Earth, he had developed a taste for the finer things in life. Fine wines, decent meals, educated conversation... These were things not readily available on the Blue Dwarf. Yes, the alcoholic beverages are good- if you want a pint of something which may have been drained off of the plasma-coolant tank. And sure, the food was alright as long as you either liked fast-food or wanted to take a gamble with the chicken soup machines.
But as for educated conversation, well. Not even the advanced artificial intelligence with developed ligual programming (Holly) was capable of that.
 
So a classy restuarant was something that Seymour was prepared to give his full attention ans as much cooperation as he could give as Captain. He listened to Stewie carry on about the proposed manager of the new restaurant.
"Oh yes, his name is Gary Macarthur. He'll be boarding as soon as the restaurant is built. Say, sir, what is your opinion in the matter?"
 
"I think it is a fantastic idea Stewie, I think it will be a fantastic touch of class that should make this ship more upmarket by half. It could lead to so much more. In future times people might look at the Blue Dwarf and see it for the ship is is, a high-class cruiser with fine restaurants, wine bars, coffee houses, dance halls and croquet pitches."
 
As if in responce to Seymours comment, there was a sneeze followed by a few more curious noises coming from the direction of the kitchen.
 
Mike walked back into the room and asked, "Excuse me, can I have your orders again? Just want to make sure."
They ordered again and Mike went back onto the kitchen, a few more bangings could be heard.
 
"So you definately think this is a good idea Captain?"
"Yes, I do. And I hope that everyone else is too. Mind you, some of the people on this ship dont even know the difference between a fish knife and a bread knife." he guffawed.
"Indeed." said Stewie. They cracked open the Chardonnay Seymour had brought and drank it with various cheeses. (That Mike dropped on the floor just to make it look like they were more mature than they were).
 
A little later, Mike brought the food and sat down with them at the table to eat it. "So Mike, what kind of career do you have planned? There are a few job openings on the Blue Dwarf. All you have to do is apply." said the Captain, making small-talk. "As I've seen so far you're a pretty responsable young lad...oh my god MY TONGUE'S ON FIRE!!!"
 
Niples had to down half the water in the flower vase before the burning in his throat went down. 
"Erm.... I hope you dont hold this against me...." Mike said, looking a little nervous.
Seymour eyed the young man curiously. "I take it that wasn't intentional?"
"I...uh...of course not!" he said quickly. Stewie didn't know what to do, so he scolded the boy and told him to go into the kitchen to change the meal.
 
There was an awkward silence as Stewie and Seymour sat alone, the captain still wiping his mouth with a napkin. The flavour of the hottest sauce known to man was still tingling his tastebuds.
"I'm really sorry Captain Niples. He can be so clumsy sometimes, I will make sure he never makes a mistake like that again."
 
"Don't worry about it Mr. Mackenzie," said Niples. "He is just trying to make a good impression, he's under a lot of pressure because he wants everything to go perfectly. I was the same when I started. My dad had a friend who was on a battleship, and when he came around for dinner I took one look at the medals on his uniform, and listened to the exciting stories he told. I tried to show him that I was officer material and in doing so I accidentally spilled a cup of scolding hot coffee onto his leg. It was a good job it was only a prosthetic leg, although I dont think the rotation-servos worked quite as well when he walked after that."
 
Stewie chuckled. "So were you serious about the job?"
"Yes, in fact we always need new pilots, Maybe Mike could become a trainee?"
 
Unbeknown to the captain, Mike overheard this last comment and dropped something else.
 
<What do you think to that Mike?>
 
=============Lt. Cmdr David "Onion" BallAssistant Helm officer/ Pilot  USS Endeavour-ACaptain Seymour Niples  JMC Blue DwarfWWW.Geocities.com/BlueDwarf2000
 
     ======================================     "If we could harness the power of the       Stringfellow we could provide enough       electricity to power the whole of Doncaster."       ---Banzai. (Channel 4, UK) Mentions my home town     =======================================