A Peek Into the Past

Posted on Fri Aug 28th, 2026 @ 5:19am by Lieutenant Muffy Harrington

1,520 words; about a 8 minute read

A Peek Into the Past
Joint Log
Lieutenant Commander Toulaine (Chief Medical officer)
Lieutenant Muffy Harrington (Chief Science Officer)



=/\= Begin Sim =/\=



Muffy put the finishing touches on the Texas chili, no beans, fresh made and blistered tortillas, Shredded beef and pork combination tamales in the traditional manner, homemade refried beans and mexican rice with a large amount of homemade salsa, one a pico and one chunky. She set out the spread and waited for Toulaine to come over for dinner and a chat.

Toulaine could smell the food before she got to the door and felt her stomach rumble. It had been a few weeks since Muffy made the whole spread and Toulaine wondered if it was whole spread or only one or two of the dishes.

The timer went off and Muffy took out the shredded beef and chicken enchiladas and took the last of the chimichangas out of the deep frying and put them on paper towels to drip the excess oil off of them. Finally she poured out two glasses of horchata for them from a pitcher of chilled horchata. Then she heard the chime and went to her door to open it for Toulaine.

“I’m glad you came, Toulaine. Did I miss anything?” Muffy asked as she invited her friend and sister by choice into her quarters.

Toulaine smiled at the food on the table. “You do know it’s just you and I Muffy, and you made enough for an army. What are you going to do with the rest of it?”

Muffy shrugged. “I thought I would take it Science and let those who are on shift now have something home cooked to make the shift go easier. The middle shift is always the hardest because you don’t quite belong to normal day hours, but then you don’t quite belong on the flip side of just doing day for night. If that makes sense to you.”

Nodding, Toulaine moved over and sat in her special chair that took the pressure off of her lower back and her bad leg. “I do understand, I’ve been on beta before and you are correct, it is the hardest one to find your niche. And the only thing I see missing the fl….”

“Flan?” Muffy said and opened up the chill box and there were several flans in there and the hint of orange came through strongly.

Toulaine laughed. “Okay, you didn’t miss a thing.” She reached out and took one of the fresh and hot homemade tortilla chips and dipped it in the chunky salsa and popped it into her mouth and sighed with pleasure. “You need to do this more often.”

Muffy shrugged again. “We’ll see. But I’ll make it for you any time you ask and yes, I have some saved for you to take home and warm up when you want good Mexican and Tex Mex.” Then she sat down and also dipped a chip in the picante salsa rather than the chunky.

Together, they ate in silence for a few minutes and then Toulaine looked over at Muffy. “Do you remember the first time we met?”

“On the shuttle? Yes, I remember. What about it?” Muffy answered and took a bite of the chili over some jalapeno cornbread.

“I didn’t like you and I thought you were some kind of Barbie girl and a complete airhead. And at that party I wanted to kill you for speaking up.” Toulaine said and took a sip of the horchata.

Muffy nodded. “I remember. But I saw something special in you, just trying to break free of the cage you had put it in. I think that is maybe why I wouldn’t let you alone. I wanted to help break you out of the cage.”

Toulaine frowned and looked at Muffy. “I never thought of it as a cage, I thought of it as protection against a harsh world and universe. I had it all and it was taken from me because of someone else’s negligence and then to have it all take from me, all except for my abilities to help others.”

A hot, cheesy, meaty enchilada hit her plate and she cut into it and then looked at Toulaine again. “I think that the ability you have of helping people, being able to heal them and make them better is the most beautiful thing in the universe and anyone who doesn’t see needs glasses.” Then Muffy put the hot bite in her mouth and she wished she had blown on a little more, but she loved the spices that hit her tongue and filled her mouth with flavor.

Toulaine blinked and her pale blue skin turned a bright violet color as she blushed. “Thank you, Muffy. You have made life worth living again. I wanted to thank you for showing me that there is more to life than just surviving.”

Muffy giggled and finished her enchilada and took a small pile of chips on her plate and poured the chili over them, then added cheese, beans, rice, and salsa over the top of it and ate her homemade nachos. “You know, Toulaine, I love this food, but as you have met them, you can see where my family would look at this like it was pig slop. But this is really good and it looks amazing to those who see beyond the limits of their lives. All I did was help you see that your limits are self imposed and there is nothing you can’t do if you really want to. And I’m glad that you chose to be my sister rather than keep me at a distance and continue to live in your cage. Because you see me and you understand what I’m about.”

Toulaine took one of the tortillas and filled it with the seasoned shredded meats, rice, beans, cheese, sour cream, and guacamole and made herself a burrito and dipped it in the salsa and savored it. “Yes, I understand what you are saying. Well, I do now, a few years ago, I would have turned away from you.”

With a smile, Muffy put her dirty dishes in the recycler and pulled out the orange and caramel flan and cut pieces of it for herself and Toulaine. “A few years ago, you wouldn’t have tried this kind of food. Now you find it’s delicious and is actually a top cuisine on Earth. And now you find joy in your work instead of doing it because you feel it’s the only thing left to you. Science is all about asking questions and finding answers. Medicine is all about taking the broken and making them whole. The two departments go together hand in glove. Just like Engineering is about making things work again that didn’t in a mechanical manner, again, hand in glove with science. You know how much I love to be first, to ask the question first and to find the answer first. It’s why I’m in Starfleet rather than in a think tank back on Earth or on Vulcan or another world, building on someone else’s first questions and answers.”

“I, for one, am glad you are in Starfleet, Muffy. I’m glad you ask questions first and find answers first. Maybe one day you will find a way to fix me so I get a prefix again.” Toulaine said and moaned over the bite of flan. “This is so…..it’s heaven.”

“I’m glad you like it, Toulaine. And do you really need a prefix, other than Dr.? I mean, that is the most important part of you. Granted, you don’t have the Andorian prefix, but you are still Andorian, no matter what your family and settlement believes of you. You are still fighting, still doing what you were trained to do and given honor for doing before the accident. And they are idiots because all they see is one tiny part of who you are and not the whole picture. Let me disown you and disavow you as Andorian, You aren’t going to turn another color because they said so, and you aren’t going to cut off your antenna because they said so, and you aren’t going to color your hair just because they said that you are no longer one of them. I say they are dishonoring the name of Andorian because they have stopped fighting and have given in to a rut with no growth. To me, you are now and always will be the embodiment of an Andorian, fighting for what you believe, fighting to make your place in this endless universe, fighting to live.” Muffy said and then the two women hugged, Toulaine had a large carry bag filled with wonderful Mexican and Tex Mex food and Muffy was gathering up the rest to take down to Science so that her in between shifts felt special.

=/\= End Log =/\=


Lieutenant Commander Toulaine - CMO
Lieutenant Myffy Harrington
USS Churchill

 

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