New Guests

Posted on Mon Mar 9th, 2020 @ 1:52am by Captain Gary Alexander & Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Kincaid & Lieutenant Ciara Perlit & Lieutenant JG Alexandra Campa & Lieutenant JG Serenity Hayes & Karina Tell & Lieutenant JG Talia Flowers

1,649 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 2 - Encounters of a First Kind
Location: Horizon
Timeline: 2168/07/27 1245

Once Gary was off the air with their new guests he called to the away team. =^=Away team, are you there?"

Ciara looked up from where she was sitting but didn't answer the comm. She was at least glad to be off that surface.

Nick looked up from his station, surprised to hear from the Captain as they approached like this. He flicked the switch for the comm system. “Here, Captain.”

Alex tilted her head but stayed focused on her controls.

=^= Do not be alarmed when you get back. We have guests. From what we could gather thus far, they believe that our ship was salvage.=^=

"Guests? Looks like a lot happened up there while we were on the surface." Ci said to no one specifically.

Nick smiled as he heard Ciara’s musings. “Acknowledged. What are your orders?”

=^= Get cleaned up after you get back. We will meet our guests in the meeting room. I have no desire to spook them anymore than they already are. =^=

Looking at herself, Ci realized she was a mess from scrambling to get back on the shuttle. Cleaning up was probably a good idea.

“Understood, away team out.” Nick closed the channel. “Ms. Campa, be extra cautious when you’re on approach. Follow every regulation to the letter. I really don’t want to startle them.” He looked around the cramped shuttle. “You heard the Captain. Everyone, straight back to your cabins. Get showered and into fresh uniforms. Inspection-by-an-Admiral quality. I’ve been lax on that but we’re going to look our best for our first encounter with sentient beings here. I’ll have engineering handle the shuttle and our gear.”

"Yes, sir," Alex responded, decelerating a little to make everything cautious and by the book as she brought the shuttle pod in.

"Understood," stated Ciara as she was actually glad for this.

Once landed and powered down, Serenity exited the shuttle and headed back to her quarters, moving at a fast clip. She showered and changed into an immaculate uniform, the one that everyone seemed to keep at the ready just in case, and bound her hair into a tight French braid. No longer a Chief, she doubted she'd be part of the festivities but she could help with the shuttle.

Alex took a little longer. She had some checks to run before she could leave the shuttle. If it hadn't just been attacked by a huge, aggressive creature, she might be comfortable postponing them until after the dinner. As it was, she was not. But then she too hurried back to her quarters for a quick clean and a change into a clean uniform.

---

Gary brought Talia along with him on his walk to the transporter room. "You're a rather impressive woman, Flowers. Quite the cunning linguist," he told her with a short laugh despite knowing she must have heard this pun at least a dozen times in her life. "How did you develop this talent?"

Talia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Did she have to laugh because he was the Captain? She decided, that no, she most definitely did not. She knew she was an impressive woman; how else would she have made it on board?

"Language has its basics... any species that learns to communicate verbally goes through similar processes." She smiled politely. Was he really interested, or did he just want to make conversation? Well, she donned her professorial cap and went on. "They identify items that they need, want or desire. Nouns. And then what they want to do with them. Action words, namely verbs."

She shrugged. "It's a matter of listening to the pattern, hearing the intention behind the sounds rather than the sounds themselves." She pondered a moment. "Like the beacon. It sounded urgent, angry... dangerous. Once I determined its subtext, figuring out the building blocks to create the language was easy."

Somewhat disappointed in the lack of a playful response, the Captain took on an interested tone. "If it were only that easy, everyone could do it. However, you.... You are able to decipher something completely foreign in short order. Such a talent cannot go ignored. In fact, you might be the most important person on this ship."

To add to her already inflated ego might not be the best thing, but she didn’t mind. After all, being the most important person was a nice title and certainly how she felt about herself on a regular basis.

“As long as it can help us survive,” Talia said. Her cheeks were flushed and she looked like she was enjoying herself. She so loved a good challenge...

Gary noticed the Moroccan beauty's flush. I wonder what she might be like. I may have to invite her for an intimate dinner. I wonder why she's an ensign still. She certainly does not have a fresh face. Something to research for later.

"Survival is very important," Gary told her. He wondered if she was thinking the same kind of survival that he was. "And the first step in that task is meeting our new guests."

He continued walking until he was at the loading dock doors. "Ah, here we are...." He then entered and said, "Let's see if we can get these unique individuals to our meeting room without starting an intergalactic war."

Dressed in a clean uniform and layers of dirt and sweat thoroughly washed off, Nick found himself at the door to the docking port, along with the Captain and the linguist. "Captain. Talia."

"Commander," Talia said, nodding briefly, eyes flashing still from the exciting anticipation of meeting a species no one had ever met before.

"That was quite the quick change, Nick. Did you have much fun on the planet? Ready to meet our new guests?"

Deciding on going to the docking area instead of the boardroom, Ciara wasn't far behind Nick, cleaned up as well from the mission. She didn't say anything, but worked on getting her hair pulled up since she'd not done so before leaving her quarters.

The docking area opened and the new ship contained within could best be described as mismatched. Parts from obviously different ships and even objects had been utilized to create this ship. It was not beautiful but it definitely flew, as evidenced by the fact that it was in Horizon's docking bay. The door to the shuttle opened.

Gary held his breath, waiting to see a full view of his new visitors and give an appropriate greeting. He looked over at Talia and gave her an encouraging smile. "You're my translator. Got it?"

Talia nodded briefly and turned to look at the new species standing before them.

There were two, squat bipedal humanoids with a few extra nostrils on their face where Talia supposed their nose might be. They had 4 hands, so it appeared that they might have evolved from an insectoid type ancestor, but adapted to a more mammalian variety.

Their mouths were human-shaped but their eyes were slightly larger, again, almost insectoid. But they had a pupil and an iris, so it was an odd and almost eerily disturbing impression. However, both displayed what everyone could see as a smile; upturned lips without showing teeth (if they had any, it wasn't immediately noticeable).

Talia stepped forward, extending a hand. "A traditional greeting," she said to the two aliens. "A handshake to show that we mean no harm."

The taller of the two extended one of his hands and smiled wider. "Of course," he said. Talia took it and shook it slowly and warmly.

"I'm Talia," she said. "We met... sort of." She smiled widely as well, mimicking his expression. "Fornen, yes?"

The alien clicked and then nodded with his head and upper body bobbing up and down as though it were attached. "Yes. And this is my partner, Kense."

She smiled, stepping forward slightly and nodding. "Talia."

Talia stepped out of the way and allowed the Captain space. "Captain Gary Alexander." With a hand gesture she hoped would indicate that this was the person she referred to, she bowed similarly and gave them all some room.

Seeing them, Ciara was naturally curious, but didn't let it show. She only gave a small smile. "Lieutenant Ciara Perlit."

Their smiles were a bit strained, and their eyes darted to all of the others around them. There were only two of them and they had come aboard what they had originally thought was salvage but had been accosted by a whole lot of these... aliens.

Gary held out his hand and offered it to the aliens. "Fornen and Kense, we also talked. I am Captain Gary Alexander. Welcome to the USS Horizon. May I escort you to our meeting room?"

Kense took a defensive stance behind her mate and Fornen looked down at the Captain's hand as he took it in both of his right ones and shook it. Not the regular up and down motion but by the wrist in a flailing fashion as if to jar loose anything that might be hiding under the skin or something.

Satisfied, he took a look at Talia. "For funny-looking aliens, you sure seem to multiply quick."

Kense nudged his back and he addressed Gary. "Of course, Cap. Ten." Not like he had a choice. He was hoping this meeting room was, indeed, just for meetings. It might have been silly for them to imagine this huge vehicle had been salvage, but now? There were a heck of a lot more than just two... which could mean something good, or very, very bad.

"Kense, would you like to shake Cap. Ten's hand too?" Her face glowed a little and she looked down. That seemed to be universal language for embarrassment. "Yes, that's fine," he whispered softly to her and shrugged, with his hands outward.

"To the room for meeting."

 

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