With a chuckle at Graham's self-deprecation, Nia licks a bit of maple syrup--a drizzle of which she used on the sausages--from her thumb. "I think you have me confused with someone else, Booker. I'm no ivory-tower intellectual, though yeah, there's plenty of calculations in what I do. I wouldn't be here if I couldn't tell my astrogator from my altaz system."
She grins at the light pun, though it's a common one with pilots. "But I have no problem with earthy talk. Most of my favorite memories of the years before Starfleet are of getting down and dirty lying beneath the bellies of airships while covered in oil. Later, at the Academy, I heard and participated in all the, uh, not particularly intellectually stimulating conversations you'd expect when a bunch of weary tinkerers and pilots sneak out past curfew to bars where we'd try to outdo each other in filling our gullets with cheap brew."
Her smile fades until it turns somewhat hard. "Honestly, there are a lot worse words that leap to mind, not to mention some sick concocted revenge plots, when I think of the bastards who beat the crap out of that girl. I wouldn't go through with them--revenge isn't justice--but I understand the strategy and toughness it takes to deal with animals like that." Nia looks at the dwindling food on her plate. "I just hope the officials in charge of catching them feel the way I do: justice belongs to the law, not the enforcers. Those who forget that run the risk of blurring the line between them and the beasts they're supposed to be fighting."
Shrugging, Nia lifts her gaze and returns to a less pensive mood. "Sorry, I doubt you appreciate hearing arm's-length philosophy about your job. Hope you'll be willing to tell me more about yourself and your career, preferably when we're not facing a countdown till our respective watches."
Normally at this point she'd shut up and let him do the chasing--she's already come on strong enough--but she doesn't think the usual rules apply. Not after what he did for her yesterday. "So in aid of that... can I figuratively 'buy' you a drink tonight? After I woke up looking at that beautiful snowglobe you got me, I figure it's my turn to treat you to something nice and wet."