Candygram!

Posted on Sun Apr 3rd, 2016 @ 9:17pm by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Lieutenant Commander Siivas McKenzie & Lieutenant Velth Andurean
Edited on on Sat Apr 28th, 2018 @ 10:12pm

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Taking Chances
Location: USS Bonne Chance, Deck One, the Bridge
Timeline: 2265
Tags: Siivas,bonnechance,Andurean

Andurean ran through the corridors of the late Beta shift on deck four, running the circumference of the entire saucer section. This was his eleventh circuit and he was just now falling into his long-distance stride. His hair was in a single long braid that flopped up and down as he jogged around the circumference, the Beta shift corridor being nearly deserted this time of the evening.

And then he noticed another runner ahead of him.

Unusual, certainly, for a runner to be using the same corridor and as he ran the other runner seemed to be just at the curvature of the corridor so that he couldn't get a good look. The same white running tank top and shorts, though like himself the runner chose not to wear shoes or any sort. Most species or runners on a ship chose to run wearing something, except for those who had been raised to running barefoot. Or they were one of those runners who needed the contact with the surface to get the spiritual connection to running.

Subtly, he increased his pace slightly. Not enough to alter his rhythm but it was enough to lengthen his stride marginally. As the meters glided by, steps stretched and contracted, the pendulum swung and legs scissored back and forth, propelling him forward. The other runner seemed to sense the pursuit but instead of quickening his pace, he dropped back a bit, allowing Andurean to catch up.

It was like a hunt; if Andurean sprinted he could catch the other man but he wasn't sure about the sudden impulse. The other was bald, pink-skinned. Human? Unknown? His odor was clean, masculine and pleasant.

Just as Andurean was about to catch up, just as he was within an arm's reach, the other man stepped into a lift door as it slid open! Andurean slid to a stop, in spite of himself, as the doors closed, he had the impression of a bright smile and a hand rose in farewell and coppery eyebrows and greenish eyes.

Who was that person?




The next day Andurean sat as his console on the bridge and performed his typical monitoring duties. There wasn't a great deal to do during normal day-to-day operations and there were no special projects pending as of yet. Still, he had his own things he was doing. He worked on decoding a bit of Klingon message format his old CO had sent his way; he monitored command-channel traffic, local traffic and scanned for distress calls and emergency signals being aimed at them.

He didn't see the bald man enter the bridge but he felt someone's attention on him for a moment, different attention, before he casually looked around and perceived a bald humanoid male in a blue tunic with his back to the communication console chatting amiably with the captain. As the lift opened and the most, well, developed female Vulcan he had ever seen sashayed past him. It seemed the bald man headed out and caught that lift, exchanging soft pleasantries with the cheerful Vulcan woman as she turned, her prodigiously curvaceous posterior obstructing his view as she turned to face the man as he headed to the lift, the swell of her buxom blue-clad bosom blotting out nearly everything else.

And then he was once again gone, the fleet impression of a scent, masculine and pleasant, left behind and a flash of blue-green eyes and coppery eyebrows.

Andurean slowly turned back to his console and considered, his face a somber mask. He wore blue, so that meant medical or science. He was well-received by the Captain and the Chief Science officer, so that meant he was either highly placed or very favorably positioned for some reason. In Starfleet, the former was more likely than the latter.

"Stht," his windslither commented as it lay customarily around his neck.

Idly he brought up a hand and hung his arm from it's coils, receiving a gentle but powerful massage in response.

The Chief Science Officer spent a few minutes checking reports and tapping out communiques, then checking the scanners in the viewer attached to the Science station. Andurean had never noticed the particular placement of said viewer, but with the voluptuous Vulcan tending to it he realized that it could not be tended to while seated, but when standing one was forced to bend over to utilize it. This point was being driven home by the blue bottoms he was being exposed to by looking over, as the shapely scientist's skirt rode up rather sensationally when she performed that particular duty.

The Captain seemed rather keenly aware of this fact as well, and judging from his reaction, the two were likely on their way to becoming, if not already a couple, however long term that might last.

Just as he returned to his duties the fulsome female apparently finished whatever scans she was performing and covered the four steps to his station. As he looked up, she was smiling at him... remarkably unusual behavior for a Vulcan indeed, in his experience.

"Hello there... Lieutenant Velth? I'm Lieutenant Charybdis- welcome aboard the Bonne Chance. I understand that you're our new Chief Communications officer?" Contractions? From a Vulcan? Small talk? What universe had he woken up in this morning...?

The Communications officer glanced at the captain and noticed his veiled disinterest before turning back to the Science Officer. "Andurean, please. Velth is my Clan-name," he offered his hand for her to shake in the Human fashion. She could see the tips of his pointed ears poking through the hair he had pulled back into a bun at the base of his neck and fastened with a beaten silver band.

Were Orions usually pointy-eared? She didn't know... she really needed to start boning up on xenocultures of the galaxy one of these days, she reminded herself. Taking the offered hand she shook it with a smile. "Oh! My apologies, I didn't know. Andurean it is... so does that mean that your file should read Lieutenant Junior Grade Andurean as the proper form of address?"

"That'd probably be the nicest thing I've been called recently," he replied with a chuckle and a wide smile. "You know how 'fleet is about 'Greenies' right?"

She cocked her head curiously. "Greenies...?" she asked cautiously.

"Fleeters call us 'Orions' after some arbitrary name they created for our star in Standard centuries ago," he shook his head. "Rather than ask us what we call ourselves and use that name. How can you expect to have respectful relations with another species if you don't take the time to learn what they call themselves and use that name to refer to them? Vulcans were lucky, Humanity was afraid to piss you off. You could have been called "pointy-eared stone-face people" or something silly like that."

She laughed merrily at that. "I suppose that's true... well, if your people were members of the Federation you could certainly make a case for how you should be addressed. As a Starfleet officer you certainly have that right... honestly, my xenocultural knowledge is quite lacking, so the fact that you have green skin doesn't tell me anything. I just assume we are all, well, Starfleet..."

"Ah nooooo," he made a face like he'd been hit somewhere soft. "The Syndicate and the Federation are on bad terms, as in pretty much at war. Though the Federation never sends ships after the Syndicate in their territory and the Syndicate only usually goes after ships that get to close to their borders or if it's off by itself somewhere full of something they want."

"Oh! Oh, I'm... I'm so sorry, I honestly did not know... and I certainly didn't mean any offense. So basically you are something of an exception to the rule, as it were as a member of Starfleet?" She looked a bit flustered at her gaffe, and her cheeks had flushed a sage color.

"A bit," he seemed a little embarrassed too but it wasn't clear what. "My people aren't Syndicate, we're Tribal so we live outside of the cities. I grew up in a really harsh environment before some pretty amazing circumstances brought me out into space. I managed to get Federation citizenship from some distant relatives and went to the Academy and," he spread his hands, "here we are."

The smile spread broadly across her face as she mimicked the gesture. "Well, I don't think you'll encounter any prejudice on this ship for being green or being from a different area of space or having a snake around your neck, Lieutenant. And if you do, then by all means report it. This is Starfleet... we're building a better tomorrow, and discrimination has no part in that." She sounded terribly naive and idealistic as she said it, but there was a sincerity behind her words.

And all that flew right past him as he said softly, eyes kind of big as his fingers sought and held the muscular black thing around his neck, "You saw my snake?"

"Well, he is kinda hard to miss..." she said with a wiggle of her eyebrows. "Um, is he not supposed to be here?" she asked in a whisper that anyone nearby would have found impossible to make out.

"Mostly nobody sees him," he replied in a whisper leaning forward. "Or pretends they don't. They're really poisonous."

That gave her pause for a moment, and her brow furrowed in concentration as her internal processes worked. "Well... there are allowances made for cultural differences in Starfleet, and obviously if you wear him around your neck, you must be able to control him from just going off and being a danger. But maybe you might want to consider registering him with Doctor McKenzie in Sickbay just in case an accident ever happens and he needs to give someone an antidote in a hurry."

"Did you get your physical while you were checking into the command...?" She was expressing all of this in that same low whisper, but there was no note of questioning in her voice. Instead this sounded a lot like a command.

"Doctor'...? Is that the person that was in here earlier?" Andurean asked thoughtfully.

"Bald, science blue, about half a head shorter than me, slender, handsome, pretty eyes, left the Bridge about ten minutes ago? That's him... Doctor McKenzie, the Chief Medical Officer. He's a very good man. Why don't you go see him? I can cover your station." This was offered more as a suggestion, and that left eyebrow had risen just a bit, and the scientist was smiling just a bit on the left side of her mouth.

"I shouldn't," he said but cocked his head deep in thought. His snake made a soft sound and he cocked an eyebrow and looked down, as if he was looking at it and then made a face. "I am reminded it's a breach of Starfleet protocols to start a tour without a fresh medical examination. I'll have one of the junior officers come up and relieve you momentarily, alright?" he confirmed.

"Not a problem at all, Lieutenant. My systems are all on diagnostic at the moment and I'm reasonably versed in the Comm station. You go get checked out," she added with a smile.

"Deucedly fine of you Lieutenant Charybdis," he smiled broadly and rose, put the over-the-ear piece down on the console and headed to the lift.

As she watched him depart, she had the oddest feeling that she had just sent a candygram to the Doctor.

 

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