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Max prepared another, emerging with four passing them out. “Do you want me to explain it?”
Quinn opened his mouth to inform Max that he didn’t have to, but then thought better of the situation. “Sure.” Curious to see how Max’s explanation would differ from what he had read online.
Max explained the rules faithfully while adding in a few ‘house rules’, which he told him only applied to their immediate company. Rick defeated Alec. Max set up to go up against Rick next, and Alec asked Quinn if he’d like to play a game on the side while he finished his ice cream. He promised Quinn that he would not go easy on him despite him being new, as he said. “That bloody brain of yours doesn’t deserve a pity win.”
“I don’t know why you would go easy on me.” The concept of going easy on someone for the sake of fun involved a few social constructs that Quinn couldn’t understand yet, seeing as he’d never played a game before. Settling in across from Alec, the engineer shuffled. Surprisingly, Quinn lost. Alec had to work rather hard to manage it, but in the end, he won. In part thanks to a house rule about doubling up cards.
Alec’s complete and utter shock came with his quick dismissal of another game, seeing as he knew when to take his winnings and leave. It left the other two amused. Quinn side eyed the other game. He learned Max had a difficult time with Rick, who seemed as lucky as skilled.
The security officer worked in a way that always put him five steps ahead while planning for any contingency.
Alec settled in to watch as well, telling Max, since he could see his cards, “Might wanna be careful with that.”
“I know what I am doing,” Max replied, raising one brow and shifting his hand.
“Oh aye, ya do now, but when he wipes ye out, don’t come crying to me.” Alec’s gruffness displayed openly but he clearly wasn’t upset, a smile on his face.
“You wouldn’t offer me your shoulder, Alec?” That already raised brow went higher. Max turned in his seat to eye their engineer, the move smoothly done as he brushed the edge of Alec’s shoulder.
Alec stammered out a reply in a brogue that Quinn could not translate, but he did watch as Max roared with laughter.
Rick spoke finally, his level voice the one of reason, “You should pay attention before you lose.”
“I think I might prefer it now.” Max laid down his next card.
Alec flushed. His entire face looked like the tomatoes that were harvested earlier.
After a while, Rick came out victorious, though it was a good fight. Kira wandered in around that time asking them, “And who is crowned champion this evening?”
“Rick by default,” Alec supplied with a mighty grin, coming up out of his seat and clasping hands with the captain as if it were a natural thing.
“I see,” she said, glancing down at the full table.
“Are we done already?” Quinn blinked in surprise at this. He’d thought he would play more than one game. The implication that there was a champion already suggested that they were finished.
Kira being there he would not complain if that was the case.
“Goodness no,” Max said politely with a laugh. “But we have an ongoing tournament amongst ourselves that we were sorting. Rick has just finally won. We rarely play so seriously against one another.”
Kira smiled. Quinn didn’t check his neural net and therefore did not notice he’d spent an hour and a half with the crew already after having watched the first, then playing his own, and watching the end of a second.
“I promised I would play the winner, though not tonight Rick, if that’s alright?”
Rick nodded, shuffling his cards. “It can wait.”
“So who do I play next, then?” Quinn inquired.
“I’d like to take a turn.” Max was the first to seize the opportunity.
As the game progressed, it became obvious Quinn playing against Max lacked a resolved strategy. Much like how he experimented with his meals, he occasionally made poor plays to figure out how to use the house rules to his advantage. Deliberately creating scenarios so he could see how strong of a move he could fabricate.
“Oh aye,” Alec said smoothly, watching the end play out. “The lads got a handle on it, that’s for sure.”
Rick put his true game face on as he switched spots with Max and they began to play. The sound of an alert that went through comms to each of them only saved him. Everyone stood to disperse, with hardly a word to each other.
Only Kira cursed softly as she hopped off the table. “You should head to your room, Quinn.”
The alert was unexpected and his neural net booted up as he looked over the ship’s logs to see what triggered it. When Kira advised him to go to his room, he frowned. That bothered him, but he couldn’t argue with the suggestion. If it was a patrol, they were a danger to him. Getting up, he did as he was told.
