Just One of Those Days

Posted on Fri Aug 18th, 2017 @ 6:24am by Commander K'Niras Sh'howul & Lieutenant Junior Grade Shras th'Zarath

Mission: S01E01 - At the Brink of Night
Location: USS Musashi

K'Niras did not have his best whisker forward today. Today he felt off. So far he had dropped everything he had picked up. One of those resulted in scalding a crewmate with a very hot cup of raktajino that he dropped. Aside from the cup and the scalding, he had also destroyed his PaDD, forcing him to replicate a new one, got his tail caught in the door to his quarters, it still hurt, and tore a hole in his freshly replicated uniform with one of his claws, which was completely humiliating to him. The claw had a tiny crack in the surface, not enough to really disrupt the nail, but enough for it to snag on everything. He had quite a bit of work to do and he couldn't seem to focus on any of it. He had spent the morning at his duty station and now that he was off duty he was trying to catch up with everything else. One of the channels in his headset had seemed off today and he had all intentions to take the equipment to an engineer, but found himself lost on his way to engineering. Frustrated, he had turned around, deciding the lounge might be a better idea since he seemed to need a break.

The Caitian had buried his nose in his PaDD and truly wasn't paying attention to where he was going once again, pretty much how he got lost in the first place when engineering was his goal. When he realized he had missed the lounge by almost the entire length of the deck he suddenly spun on one heel and ran headlong into a crew mate. Fortunately, the person he ran into was much larger than he was.

Shas was pushed back and had to balance himself on his other leg to keep from faltering. He shook his head and regained his composure in just enough time to see a fellow officer on the floor. He stooped down and picked up his PaDD. Tucking it under his left arm he put out his right hand. "Let me give you a hand," he said.

K'Niras landed hard on his butt and it took him a moment to get his bearings again. He stared at the big, blue hand that was offered him for nearly 30 seconds before reaching up and taking it and pulling himself up. "Thank you so much. I'm afraid today has me chasing my tail." He made a gesture like he was brushing off his uniform, but it was actually to smooth his fur that was standing up under his uniform. "I'm so sorry. Are you alright?" He had met Andorians before, but he speculated that this one might be the tallest yet. He tipped his chin up to look at the larger male. "I was headed for the lounge..." he explained weakly.

"I'll be fine," Shras replied. "How about you?" he asked, handing the caitian back his PaDD. He did a quickie stretch just to be on the safe side. He heard the lounge mentioned. "I was actually headed that way myself," he added. "My name is Shras by the way."

K'Niras straightened his uniform, now that all his fur was right again. "It's a pleasure to meet you..." he said with a little rumble and a smile, showing his front teeth a little. His long tail swished back and forth for a few moments before settling again. "Would you like to join me? At least for a drink perhaps? I don't know where my head has been today. It's not normal for me not to have my feet under me."

"Best offer I've heard all day," Shras said. "I know the feeling!" he added.

K'Niras led the way, unsure of how to make small talk with an Andorian. He glanced sidelong at his tall companion. "So how long have you been aboard? Are you enjoying your time here?" he asked as they entered the lounge. As the door slid shut behind them K'Niras shot a quick glance over his shoulder, paranoid that he might have a repeat of his earlier tail incident. Fortunately, this time it was out of the way.

"Just beamed aboard recently, actually," he replied, following K'Niras to a table. "Still getting used to things myself. Got used to the old Hermes class I was on," he smiled.

K'Niras pulled out a chair and sat. He smiled at the Andorian. "I haven't been here very long myself. I transferred over from the Enterprise. There were better opportunities here to be honest. At least for advancement. I'm really not as concerned about that as I sound, but they didn't really need me and this ship does. What department are you in? I'm in Communication..."

"Navigation," Shras replied. "Same here about the opportunities. Tellarite department head and Andorian Ensign," he laughed. "Chief position was open here so I jumped on it," he replied."Oh, did I catch your name?"

K'Niras laid his ears back in embarrassment. "I'm so sorry. I have somehow ceased all normal function today. I am K'Niras. I'm afraid I didn't catch yours either." He grinned, showing a little of his front teeth. "I'm really not usually this rude." He felt awful about not introducing himself, but it was also seemed par for the course today.

"I'm Shras. Don't worry about it, we all have off days," he smiled.

K'Niras nodded in agreement. "Well we should maybe get some drinks. What would you like? I can get them." He stood again, one ear swiveled toward the bar and his tail swung back and forth, lazily behind him. "Are you hungry? I was thinking about maybe ordering some food as well. I honestly don't remember when I ate last and that's probably not a good sign." He chuckled. It wasn't like human chuckling, it was more like rumbling.

"Orange juice is fine by me," Shras replied. He laughed a little too.

"I will return," K'Niras replied, and stepped away from the table and toward the bar. He spent several moments in conversation with the person tending the bar and then proceeded to lean on the counter and wait while the barkeep fetched whatever it was that he had asked for. He returned to the table with two glasses of drink and a plate of something that resembled mostly raw meat. "Here is your orange juice... I wasn't sure what orange juice you were referring to, but the attendant seemed to know." He smiled and sat down again, pushing the Andorian's drink toward him across the table.

"Thanks a lot," Shras replied. He returned the smile. "Perfect."

K'Niras continued to smile. "Excellent! I hope you don't mind that I eat a little. I don't really remember when I ate last and I'm starving," he chuckled. "I can get so caught up in everything that I need to do that I forget really simple things sometimes." He picked up his fork and began to poke around his plate of food with it. "So do you have any family on board?" he asked the Andorian before taking a bite.

Shras took a sip of his juice, savoring the citrus. "They're all back home on Andor, actually." He took another sip before placing his glass down. "Decided to stay home for the near future. They say they've had enough of space duty." He smiled.

"You... live in two pairs together? Right? Two males and two females?" K'Niras asked curiously. He took a bite of his food, his eyes on Shras. "Forgive me... I have a hard time with some of your pronunciations... You are a than are you not?"

"That certainly does happen," he replied. "But my family prefers the "one male one female" marriage. And yes to your question," he smiled.

K'Niras looked surprised. "Oh really? I didn't think offspring could even be produced without all four sexes of Andorians. Interesting... there is so much that we still don't know. Please forgive my ignorance of your species." He shook his head. "I met several males at Academy, but I've only ever met one other than. The chan's are quite a bit smaller... at least the ones I met. Once again... forgive my ignorance. I'm not meaning to be insulting if I am."

"Not at all!" Shras replied. "Only way to learn is to ask," he said smiling. He took a sip of his juice.

K'Niras ate more of his food, contemplating. "How do your people deal with alternative lifestyles that don't fit into the expected norms? I mean if the traditional relationship is a quad then how do your people feel about only a couple? Or is that too personal?"

"One on one is encouraged as well. We court and bond with our mates similar with Humans. Marriage is for life though," he said.

"My people mate for life as well. Although, with the ratio of females to males we tend to live in groups with one or two males and up to a dozen females. As children we are raised within that family group."

Shras nodded. "Interesting," he replied

"And raised usually with several different litters all together." K'Niras shrugged a little. "I find that regardless of our upbringing most species have much in common. Do Andorians ever pick mates from other species?" he asked.

"I've heard that but I've never seen such couples firsthand," he replied.

K'Niras nodded. He seemed to be searching for information, but he wasn't being very clear on the exact information he was looking for. "Interesting... my species also has picked mates from other species, that I've heard of. But like you, I have never seen it in person or in practice." He chuckled a little. "Now, sleeping around... that is another matter altogether. To an extent it is even encouraged in some societies." He looked down at his PaDD that he had brought with him to the table and continued to eat his meal.

Shras nodded.

It was at that moment that K'Niras' PaDD chirped. He looked down and then looked up at his companion. "I'm afraid I have to go. The Captain is requesting my presence. Thank you so much for having lunch with me. It was a pleasure to meet you." He stood and gathered his plate, glass and PaDD and bowed a little to Shras in respect. "I'm sure we will meet again, Shras." He smiled a little.

"Count on it!" Shras replied, returning the smile.


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