Mell'ana's First Encounter

Posted on Tue Nov 30th, 2021 @ 5:23am by

1,888 words; about a 9 minute read

I looked around the transporter room as I finished materializing. The room was HUGE! As was the human transporter operator.

I was intimidated for just a moment or two when I saw what looked like confusion on the human’s face.

“Um… is this some kind of joke?” the ensign said. She tapped a control on the panel in front of her, opening communications with the bridge “Sir, we may have a problem. We’ve got the transport from the Leth’aan ship for the new cadet but there’s only some luggage and a cat in a cadet uniform.”

I had been sitting among my luggage bags and given the size of the room I almost instantly regretted that my antigrav unit wasn’t cleared yet for use on standard Star Fleet ships. My people’s organic tech wasn’t yet fully trusted by Star Fleet medical. Something I hoped would happen soon as I’d had some basic tutorials on Star Fleet tech and it seemed so impersonal that I was sure I’d miss the faint tingling of an organic neural link to control the devices around me.

The captain’s response came through with a chuckle “On my way.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the human’s confusion as she stood there. Unsure if she should approach the cadet uniformed cat or even how to respond to what appeared to be a joke at her expense. I had of course been briefed on earth’s many feline species that my kind was so similar visually to and was briefed on possible responses that the larger races may give me, from thinking I was a small earth standard feline to disbelief to hopefully recognizing that I was a fully sentient being who as a cosmic joke, looked like a standard Earth type house cat at first glance.

About a minute later the Captain walked in and I shifted to stand on my hind legs. Something I had been practicing quite a bit recently as I was told it would improve acceptance among the larger races to see me stand like they do.

My hip popped embarrassingly as my bones readjusted to allow me to stand. Fortunately my shoulders didn’t give me the same trouble readjusting as they had been recently and I was able to manage a reasonable standing position. I gave a traditional salute, narrowing my eyes to near shutting them and nodding deeply and said in what I would learn was passable if some what accented Federation Basic “Cadet Mell’ana reporting for transport to the Academy.”

I was impressed when the Captain returned the salute in the same fashion, narrowing his eyes and nodding his head. The salute indicated a mutual respect and a mutual trust. Not only narrowing your eyes to reduce your visual acuity but potentially taking your eyes off the person you were saluting entirely. Of course with his great height over me the effect wasn’t quite the same as he had to look down to see me to begin with.

“Good to meet you in person. This is the first time I’ve ever met anyone of your species and I hope that your joining the Academy will be an important step toward your peoples full integration into the Federation. Welcome aboard.” He said some what formally while the ensign continued to look confused behind him.

“Ensign Mayweather here will help you with your luggage and show you to your quarters.”

“Thank you sir. I hope to make a good impression. I won’t disappoint.” I said, a bit to eagerly for my tastes. It was true. I did want to make a good impression. I was a runt by Leth’aan standards and even though I was in the top percentile of intelligence, no one believed I would amount to much because “runts” aren’t fit for being a warrior. Never mind that we aren’t a true warrior people anymore. Never mind that the warrior class all retreated like cowards when they saw that even the weakest of prey species out in the universe could dwarf us. I would show them that this “runt” could stand where they feared to tread. I WOULD STAND among the giant’s of the universe and be accepted among their best and in the process strike a blow against the remnants of the warrior class in favor of all the runts that they shun.

I quickly shut down those thoughts as now was not the time or place to dwell on them. “Thank you sir.” I said crisply before the Captain turned on his heals and walked out of the room.

“Um… Hi.” Ensign Mayweather said awkwardly to me. “I’m sorry about earlier… I didn’t realize that you were...”

“Sentient?” I said with a bit of a chuckle. “It’s ok. I’ m probably gonna have to get use to that response honestly. I would love your help with my luggage. While I tried to pack light it’s a few more bags then I can handle comfortably.”

I tried not to lay my ears back and struggled to keep my eyes at a nominal level as the giant approached to pickup what was honestly a very small set of luggage by comparison to her giant size. At least I think she was a she. I’d studied the giant races enough to pick up on basic gender markers and such.

I did get a good impression of her scent as she bent close. It was masked by a deodorant of some kind so it was a subtle scent but still discernible. She smelled healthy and like she was in heat though she didn’t behave like it. Of course I’d studied basic exo-biology and knew that humans didn’t have the same mating cycles we had but… it was another thing to observe it. I distracted my self from reacting in fear to her being so close by thinking on my implant. How it would keep me from entering a heat cycle. I repressed a bit of bitterness as it was not just a convenience for being away from my people for so long but a mandated necessity as runts weren’t normally allowed to breed and I would have an uphill battle proving to my people that I was worthy of the opportunity.

I kicked my self internally. Here I was making one of the few first impressions for my people among the Federation and I could barely keep my mind from wondering like a week old kitten. I refocused on the Ensign in front of me, realizing I had missed some of what she had just said.

“… same quarters. Let’s get you settled in and I’ll give a basic tour of the ship. I understand the Captain has cleared you to shadow a few of the science personnel during the trip back to earth. I can’t wait to see how they react to meeting you.” she said with a bit of an evil smile.

I found myself laughing a bit, wondering how appropriate it would be to try to spread the same confusion she’d initially had on meeting me. To her credit once she realized I was not a standard Earth type house cat she rapidly readjusted and made pleasant conversation with me all the way back to my quarters that just happened to be the same as hers. The looks we got from other crew members as we walked by were almost uniformly humorous as I had shifted back to walking on all fours and had to jog a bit to keep up with her massive stride.

I was delighted to find I had a full half of the room. I suppose by her standards it was a bit small but by my standards it was, like everything else these giants did, absolutely huge.

“I can move to the top bunk if you like” she said as she set my small luggage set down on top of one of the two dressers in the room.

“No need.” I said as I hopped up to the top bunk. I had to bounce off the wall to land comfortably as I couldn’t fully see the top bunk from the ground level but now that I knew it was clear of anything that would get in the way I was confident I could make the leap from the ground with little trouble.

She came up and was standing about eye level with me and suddenly looked awkward for a moment. “Sorry… it’s just that you look so much like a cat I had when I was a young girl. I miss her.”

As she was standing close enough to the bed I nuzzled at her face and purred a bit. A bit forward I know but… if we were going to be bunk mates for a few weeks while this ship made it back to Earth, we needed to get over being awkward. I’d studied the standard Terran cat and was sure I’d probably get along with one, once I established my dominance of course. Like my people, most of their casual communication was either physical or occurred on wavelengths outside of human hearing.

She reacted with a bit of shock at the casual contact with her. I stared her in the eyes and narrowed mine a bit, indicating trust. “I won’t claim ownership of you like a Terran cat would but if we are gonna be bunk mates for the next few weeks we should at least be friends.”

She chuckled a bit at that. “Sorry… I don’t know quite how to act. You look so much like a normal cat but...”

“Smarter.” I filled in, closing my eyes and stretching out a bit on the bed, clearly and openly signaling trust and friendship to her. I was quickly figuring out that most humans were completely clueless at some of the subtler social queues I was sending. I was however quite sure I was missing a wealth of subtle human social queues so we were on equal footing there I supposed.

“Yeah, way, way smarter than that little derp.” she said with clearly evident affection and love for the missing animal.

I had been warned that humans would try to form familial pride bonds with nearly any species and that it could be potentially awkward for me. However as she finally gave into the temptation to scratch behind my ears I figured forming a pride that included humans wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.

Over my time at the Academy I would learn just how quickly and closely humans formed familial pride bonds, not only with themselves but with nearly any and all other races they encountered. While I had lost any chance at being a part of my familial pride, rejected because I was a runt and had no chance of ever forming a pride of my own. I would find I was readily accepted among these humans who may not always fully realize just how like them I am in intellect, are quite often ready to accept me into their lives and prides despite our vast physical differences.

 

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