First Assignment
Posted on Tue Nov 30th, 2021 @ 6:03am by
1,004 words; about a 5 minute read
I was sitting on my new antigrav chair looking over at T’ral who looked rather good in her science officer uniform. All of my belongings were packed up and she was helping me load them onto a tiny antigrav sled that was currently held in place by a small tractor beam.
“Your friend Lisa produced some excellent plans for your antigrav platform. Just remember to exercise regularly.” She said in that same placid near monotone Vulcans seemed to love
“I understand several of the engineering graduates had a great time building it. I’ll keep up on the exercising. With this I won’t have to run to keep up with you giants and dodge feet during drills.” I said to her.
“Ensign Roddard did apologize for stepping on your tail.” came her almost amused sounding reply.
“Don’t remind me. I still have three more apology letters from him that I haven’t read yet. At least the doctor healed up the break with out any trouble.” Came my exasperated reply.
“Congratulations on the promotion to first science officer by the way.” I said a bit more happily.
She raised an eye brow and looked at me. “I’m only being promoted because you are moving to a new post. I should be congratulating you on escaping the USS Rand so quickly. Studying already well documented stellar phenomena along glorified mail delivery routs is hardly what I would call an engaging endeavor.”
“Kinda strange really. They issued orders for me to report to the Rand along with quite a bit of the rest of the class for a milk run and suddenly last minute I get reassigned to the Lionheart. Though honestly I think Captain Haddock was glad to be rid of me. I don’t think he thoroughly studied any of our records or he wouldn’t have looked so shocked on seeing me hop up on his desk for the first time.” I said.
I was going to miss her. As strange as it was at first sharing a room with her I had grown to enjoy the incense she burned and the quiet meditation times. Vulcans as it turns out made good room mates. She meditated and I napped and it all worked out. She was slightly cooler then Lisa was but still far more comfortable to curl up on then the standard beds the Federation seemed to issue on it’s ships and to it’s students.
That’s right, I was going to be an officer now. I would have my own room all to myself. I wasn’t sure honestly what I would do with all that space.
“Your mind is drifting again.” T’ral said as she angled her head to look me in the eyes.
“Yeah, sorry about that. Just wondering what I’m gonna do with a whole room to my self now.” I replied.
“I would suggest getting a heated blanket or pad to simulate a room mate to curl up on. I know I have grown accustom to having you around at night. Your peoples custom of communal sleeping is… not practical for other species but proved a logical solution to the perpetually faulty temperature sensor in our quarters at the Academy.”
There it was… she was going to miss me as well. Vulcans tended to be far more difficult to read then humans when it came to emotions but there was still plenty of things that gave them away. Subtle tonal shifts in their voice, subtle body language (far more subtle then human body language at any rate), and the context of what they say.
“It’s time for me to get moving.” I said as I guided the antigrav unit closer to T’ral’s head.
She scratched the top of my head and behind my ears as I nuzzled her face. I was proud of the progress I had made with her. She was very uncomfortable with any physical affection. Now she was much like many humans when it came to that kinda thing with me. Though some humans do have hangups about it as well. Not wanting to treat me as a pet and all that… whatever… If you are a friend then just scratch my head and don’t worry about it…
“Don’t forget this present. It’s from the astrometrics club. Your secondary tractor beam should be more than sufficient to move it.” she said, with a hint of amusement in her voice.
I looked at the plain cardboard box. I almost slapped my paw against my face… I knew what it had to be. “It’s a self assembling cat tree isn’t it?”
“Along with a few smaller boxes with bedding in them yes.” T’ral said, hiding her amusement better that time but I could still hear it.
“Wow!” I chuckled. “Ok. I’ll take it, heck I’ll probably use it but don’t you give them the satisfaction of ever knowing that. It’s annoying enough that you will have the satisfaction of knowing that.”
“Vuclans do not take satisfaction in practical jokes. They are illogical.” came her reply, sounding both slightly indignant and still like she was finding far more humor in the situation than was logical.
I flexed my fingers on one paw and typed on the controls for a moment, aiming and firing the beam, picking up the box.
******************************
Beaming up to the Lionheart went about as I expected. Along with all the confusion about a cat wearing officers pips (even if I was low ranking), operating a custom antigrav platform with soft cushions on it, claiming to be moving into quarters assigned to the new science officer.
Have I mentioned humans are so cute when they are confused?
Fortunately the confusion was cleared up rather quickly and I was shown to my room. Interfacing with the ships systems to bring up my email I saw that I was also ordered to report to Lionheart's XO....
Tags: Background
RSS Feed