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Lost in Space (AmiraXTicTacGuy123)

LovinglyAmira

LovinglyAmira

Super-Earth
Joined
Oct 22, 2014
Location
The Internet
“Red alert.” The Lt of security announced, she clung to her station as they took another hit from the enemies weapons. The entire ship rattle around in space, consoles glitched and the lights flashed on the bridge. The Captain was leaned over in her seat towards the view screen, her normal perfect updo was coming undone, stray strands of white hair falling in her face.

“Status?” She called out, gripping onto the arms of her seat for stability.

“Shields are holding, forty percent. All weapons are still on line.”

“Charge the torpedo’s.” She commanded, “Aim for their weapons array.”

“Weapons are charging, and ready…” Her tactical officer replied back.

“FIRE!” The topedos launched into space towards the other ship, and the Captain B’lanna leaned back into her seat, waiting for the next impact to their own ship.

“Something is coming up on our censors. It appears to be a class three nebula but it is moving towards, Captain.” One of her crew men reported. She got out of her seat and crossed the bridge to look at her readings.

“Pull it up on the view screen.” She instructed, she looked up to see a large swirling cloud that one might mistake for a nebula but it was different. It was swirling dangerously, the space around it seemed to be being pulled into it. “That is no nebula.” She said in a hushed voice, as in front of her the anomaly morphed into a black hole like none other she had seen before. She ran back over to her chair, sitting down. Pressing down on her com button, “All stations brace for impact.” She instructed, squinting her eyes shut just as the ship is pulled into an unknown domain. She felt her body thrown forward, her head impacting the station in front of her… she lost consciousness.

Anora came too slowly, then all at once, sitting up abruptly to see her bridge destroyed, wires hanging down from the ceiling a few crew men injured, others that looked dead. She could feel that her own body had been badly damaged, she looked down to see there was a large gash in her leg blood trickling down her leg. She pulled herself up, she was good to walk so she made rounds accessing who was still alive. Her security Lt called out to her, she moved over to push some debris from her legs. “Are you good to move?”

“Yes, captain.”

“Please access the damage of all decks, and get in contact with med bay. I’m going to work on getting the view screen back up and see where exactly this thing took us.”

“Aye, Ma’am.” She pulled herself up and started work. “We have lost life support to the lower decks. Shields are completely offline, our warp core is intact but damaged. Engineering is one of the decks that lost life support, I am picking up zero life signs.”

Anora nodded, moving over to the console having to carefully move her dead communications officer out of the way. She pulled up the view screen, only to see the ship they had just been battling had been transported onto this side of space with them. They looked badly damaged, and Anora with limited scanning capabilities could only tell they were several thousands of light years away from their sector of space.

She decided to hail them, “This is Captain B’lanna of the starship Nile, of the Yamor empire. We are very far from home and we are both badly damaged, maybe we can work something out.” She stepped back from the console, she couldn’t wait for a response. She had to keep moving, helping those injured up and moving so they could start getting systems back on line.

“Med bay has suffered heavy damage, only one doctor survived.” Her security officer updated her.

“Okay, pull me up on com if the other ship contacts us back. If they are willing to compromise, you can beam their captain to the med bay. I’m going to help the doctor.” She instructed, “You have the bridge.” She headed for the lift, reporting to the med bay to see the only doctor scrambling to help whatever patients she can. Anora had limited medical knowledge, having made her start as a medic’s assistant on the star ship Mina.
 
"Lord Boros, the ship appears to be absorbing our weapons damage exceptionally well."

"I care not Artyi. They cannot withstand our firepower forever. Triple the cannons firing rates."

"As you wish my lord."

The Arkinite sat in his command chair, his leg cross and his hands pressed together, his fingers drumming against each other. This ship was not the first ship to put up a fight, but it would not be able to hold itself together after sustained fire. Lord Boros had spent decades optimizing the vessel for war, determined to make those who defy him kneel. Ship after ship, colony after colony, planet after planet, they fell to his will. He took what he wanted and then he left, caring little for the structural integrity of the loose governments that formed under his brief rule. The Dominator did not need or want to stay in one place for too long. He hungered for war, as did his followers. His crew. His family.

The ship rocked and ached, echoes of explosions ringing down the metal corridors. His eye shifted to a monitor on his left, a screen that told him the exact condition of every system and subsystem in the ship. The weapons array had been struck, their auto-targeting systems were offline. He wasn't worried, his men were capable of manually firing the weapons. Their attempt at disabling his ship would be in vain; he would be victorious.

"Lord Boros! An anomaly!"

Before the Arkinite had a chance to react, the ship groaned and quaked, substantial g-force being placed upon the hull. The blood was rushing through his body, unable to properly flow, and he could feel himself weakening, his vision blurring.

And then it was over. The ship came to a halt, the forces returning to normal. Wires dangled from the ceiling, electrical currents arching from exposed substations. His consoles were flat, the connection the rooms severed. "Artyi, what happened?"

"I'm not sure, my lord. We may have-"

As he spoke, the console in front of Boros crackled. “This is Captain B’lanna of the starship Nile, of the Yamor empire. We are very far from home and we are both badly damaged, maybe we can work something out.”

Artyi shrugged his shoulders, clearly at a loss. "We have no idea how extensive the damages to our ship are. We weren't prepared to jump like that. Anyone in the lower decks is almost definitely dead."

Boros rubbed his temples before speaking. "Make contact with the Nile." Once Artyi had done so, Boros made his return brief. "This is Lord Boros of the Silver Spear starship. My men and I will cease our conflict with you so that we may evaluate our current situation. Please be aware that any hostility will result in an immediate free fire. I expect immediate access to your vessel. My guard and I will be waiting." He turned to his second in command and ambassador. "You will come with me. Find Gryn and Malph, get them prepared."
 
Anora was alternating between helping out different crew men with their injuries and the computer console, trying to do whatever she could to restore life support to all decks from the systems. She hailed the bridge, “Joli, please revert power from the forward thrusters to life support.”

“Very well.” Her security officer returned, “We are receiving Hails from the other ship, should I relay that to you?”

“Yes.” She answered curtly, waiting for the hail to patch through. “This is Lord Boros of the Silver Spear starship. My men and I will cease our conflict with you so that we may evaluate our current situation. Please be aware that any hostility will result in an immediate free fire. I expect immediate access to your vessel. My guard and I will be waiting.” Anora let out a little laugh, just as pleasant of a greeting as she expected from their species. To think a male would talk to a woman in such a way, she supposed maybe their societal structure was less sophisticated. She would have to put aside the differences her species had with theirs, at least for the time being. The last thing she needed was a half-witted space battle, the lives of her crew held much more value than her pride.

She looked around at all her wounded that were filtering in and knew it would be better for her to meet their guests in her ready room. “Lt Joli, please meet me in my ready room after patching through this hail, we will transport them there.”

“My conflict with you ended in that anomaly, we are locking onto your life signs and will beam you aboard.” She said quickly, before running through the corridor to her ready room. She looked over at the mirror, she looked like hell, she straighten herself up quickly the last thing she needed was this Lord Boros to think as simple space anomaly would have her off her game.

“Initiate transport.” She said looking over at Lt Joli, “Keep weapons in reach, we do not want to appear hostile but we should be ready to defend ourselves if our guests attempt anything.”

“Very well, ma’am. Starting transport now.” Her teal eyes fitted on the spot they would arrive. She was wary of an alliance with one of the greatest enemies of her empire. They had not been able to reason with this species before, the whole reason she had gone into armed conflict with this ship before was to try to divert their attention away from their incubation space station orbiting Theta five.
 
Boros drummed his fingers on the desk that console sat on, waiting for the return of his personal guard. This was a massive risk, one that could severely cripple his people's universal expansion, or even worse, end it entirely. He had to rely on the instinct of the Nile's crew to want to get out alive. If at any point their fear of dying in the cold and emotionless wastes of space was outweighed by the desire to kill him, he would have no way of retaliating. His face was etched with concern, uneasy with this truce.

He was pulled from his thoughts when Artyi returned with Gryn and Malph. His guard stood at the ready, completely covered in the armor. Wickedly curved blades hung from their waists, and standard issue battle rifles were slung around their backs. Before they were beamed to the Nile, Boros got onto the ship's intercom. "I require all able hands to access damages to the Spear. All essentially systems must be brought back online. Give me a report on who we lost." With that completed, he nodded to his guard and waited until they were beamed aboard.

The process was quick, and when the four men arrived on the Nile, Malph and Gryn took their defensive stances, crouched slightly with their hands on their blades. Boros put his hand up to halt them, his eye scanning the room. The lack of any men was strange for the Arkinite, a species so heavily influenced by the power and strength of their males. "Which one of you is Captain B'lanna?" he asked, crossing his arms. He looked to Artyi, who simply shrugged once more. "I do not wish to leave my ship unattended for longer than I must."
 
Anora was a bit startled at the other ships captain, he was large and his guards were large. Her species average height never exceeded five and half feet. Anora was smaller than average, standing just an inch above five foot. She didn’t like their massive size shake her, while small she was formidable fighter. “I am Captain B’Lanna.” She said matter of fact, she felt it was pretty obvious her rank.

She pushed a strand of snow white hair that had fallen into her face, crossing the room to access her guest. It was strange that none of these creatures appeared to be the female of their species, “I do not plan to keep you long, I am sure you have suffered a lot of causalities as have we. You need not fear an attack from me, I only attacked you because you had trespassed in our space and as we are both no longer anywhere near any place that our empires hold property. My prime directive now is to return my remaining crew safe to our space.” She explained.

She walked around her desk and launched the view screen behind it, keeping a wary eye on the men in case they got any ideas. She pulled up a space map, “This is where we both began, just outside of the Theta five in Yamor space.” She shifted the map so that it got further, and further zoomed out. “And now.” She pointed at a completely different quadrant of space, “I have not done any exact calculations but at our highest speed it will take us over a hundred years to return home unless we find another way home.”

She really hoped he was a reasonable man, she had not heard any good things about his species. She turned her body towards her, gripping onto the edge of her desk and leaning towards him. “Neither of our ships is going anywhere, I doubt alone either of us have the supplies to completely restore our ship. My warp core is in tact, I guess what I’m suggesting is an alliance. We pool our supplies and restore one of our ships and try to travel back to our own section of space. We than part ways, and can go back to killing each other if you so wish.”
 
Boros stared at the woman speaking to him, the apparent captain of the vessel. Smaller, female, no doubt weaker. Speaking to him with the tone of someone who was willing to assert their authority, or at least attempt to. He glanced at Artyi, who was doing his best to cover a smirk. Clearly, Boros wasn't alone in his confusion. Whatever strange society the Yamor empire had developed was clearly not setting the ranks up for success if this was what they considered to be captain material. He put his hands on the shoulders of his guards, who relaxed their stances, now standing straight, all four men being a minimum six foot.

"I doubt you can provide us with much, but I will admit that our ship is not in any condition to travel. My men need help, and if this is the only course of action, then I suppose that I must take it." He took a step forward, standing a few feet ahead of the others. "But know that if you attempt any betrayal, my men will be more than happy to make this ship their own." He shook his head to the side, moving his pink hair out of his eye. "I don't want to attempt to move your core into my shape, so we will collect my supplies and bring them here. Artyi, have them show you where we will be staying." Artyi nodded and stepped forward, looking for the one that would be guiding him.

Boros turned his attention back to B'lanna. "Allow me to hail my ship. We will bring supplies through one of our transports, so prepare an airlock." He walked to the desk the woman was standing at, looking the console. Upon gaining access, he sent his ship a message. "We will be boarding the Nile in peace in an effort to return to charted space, so prepare a transport shuttle. Gather any materials deemed vital. Again, the boarding is to remain peaceful. Any insubordination will be met with the harshest of punishment." When he finished, he let out a heavy sigh.

"Captian, I request that you show me my quarters. I expect that I will not be staying with the rest of the crew, as we have exceptionally delicate decisions to make. Please, lead the way." He gestured for her to lead. "Gryn, Malph, make sure the transport arrives safely and the no one is harmed." The two men nodded and waited to be led to the airlock.
 
The petite woman could have spat in his face when he said he doubted they had much to offer them, but refrained trying to remain as diplomatic as possible. She moved aside, allowing him to access her panel. He was able to hail his ship with little help which meant their technologies were likely compatible. She scanned the rest of his guards, the slight quiver to the corner of their lips did not go unnoticed to her, if she had much other choice she would have destroyed the scraps of their ship and left.

She turned her attention to security officer, “The third docking bay is still empty?” With a curt nod from her officer she continued. “Send a team down there to receive his crew, there should be quarters open in the lower decks of the ship. Have Lt Fyra assemble teams, top priority is the bridge and engineering. Send all damage reports to my quarters.” She instructed, turning on her heel towards the rather massive Boros. His considerable height was going to take some getting used to, along with his overall disposition.

She paused, “Lt Joli please remind the crew to play nice. This way.” She said plainly, waiting until they were through the passage and out of ear shot of either of their crew before speaking again. “The women of my species can secrete a toxin, do with that information as you will but it would be wise that your men keep their hands to themselves.” She paused at a set of doors, and keyed in a code allowing them access. “These are my quarters in case you wish to try and slit my throat in the night.” She joked, but it was more to let him know her guard was up.

She closed the door and headed down the passage only a bit longer, she keyed in a new code, this room was just a mirror image of that of the captains, without the decorations that she had placed to make it more livable. Across one wall was a rather large window to see out into space. She walked over to a console, activating it and assigning a new security code to the room. “We should probably find a way to merge our crew in the most peaceful way possible.”
 
As the guards that Boros had brought with him went their own way, the Arkinite followed the woman. His gaze scanned the corridors, the electronics, the overall engineering and structural design, and of course, the petite woman. All of it was staggeringly different from his own species designs. More appealing to the eye, more compact than most designs. His species built things ugly, but efficient. Built for war, requiring little to no maintenance. Some spots were almost painfully obvious structural weak spots. It was a technical marvel that the ship had survived what it did in his opinion.

When she mentioned the toxins, he scoffed. "My people live in constant discomfort. Our home world isn't even considered habitable by the galactic federations. I find it hard to believe some poison will be able to take us down." He paused. "Still, my men will behave. As well I. Just don't expect your empty quarters to look the same after we part ways." He watched as she pointed out her quarters, and then walked into his own and stood by the large window.

"I agree. Our crews will most likely be at odds for most of this. I suggest limiting contact between them for the first couple of days. Perhaps have them eat in the same mess hall but otherwise simply gather our supplies together. Then we can begin integrating them." He turned to her, his expression stern. "My men will not respect your kind easily. They respect power, they respect dominance. In our culture, the women are few and far between, and many of them are servants. I would suggest telling your crew to stay away from mine until the become more...acclimated...to their new surroundings."
 
“Huh, it is a bit funny. My species has a similar problem, you will find no males of my species on this vessel. Or any starship in my empire, men tend to take jobs teaching lower grades, caring for children, working on garden bays.” She explained, “It is unheard of for a male to hold any position of stature, so they will not heed to your men easily. As I will not fold to you either, do not confuse my small stature for weakness or a lack of dominance.” She warned, her eyes locking into his for a moment.

She broke her gaze looking down at the console, “We will likely come in contact with unknown species, we need to migrate these crews as seamlessly as possible because a divided crew will make us weak.” She typed in a few things, “At least we will not have to worry about them getting along too well.” She let out a little laugh, having a distracted crew would be far worse than a divided one in Anora’s mind. “You can transfer any data you have about your species physiology here to the medbay. We lost all of our doctors but one, but she is highly adaptable and efficient.”

She walked towards the doors, “I left your access code on the panel, would you like a tour of the rest of the ships systems? I need to access the damage so I can accurately tell you how long until we are space worthy again.”
 
Boros stood at the console, typing a number of important things for the medbay files. "I will accompany you, but I do require a moment. I don't know if any of my crew have sustained injuries that they can not naturally fix themselves, so it is important that I get these notes to your doctor. His eye was fixated on the screen, finishing the list within a minute.

-Arkinite skin cannot be pierced, must be cut
-Arkinite bone is exceptionally durable
-Arkinite's can rapidly repair any flesh wound and most internal injuries
-Arkinite blood is dense
-Arkinite blood can burn and scar skin tissue

It took Boros another minute or two to figure out how to transfer the file, the systems of the Nile being vastly different from his own. While most species used the same generic communications arrays and systems, very few had anything else in common. When he had managed to send the file, he straightened and retook his place behind her, ready to access damages. "My men are excellent engineers and particularly skilled scavengers. I'm sure that they can fix structural issues and external damages with supplies or salvage from my ship. Your electronics, however, we cannot offer assistance with. It's never been our specialty."
 
Captain B’Lanna waited for him to finish before heading out into the hall, “Just from my own initial intel on your ship, our systems are built much different. The Nile is built for speed and long term space travel, we are not a battle ship. Once all the important systems are online, we will likely want to fortify our weapons array to protect the crew from any hostile species.” She saw an open panel, she walked over stepping over some debris. “Our entire systems power goes through these tubes, they can be accessed through panels throughout the ship. You can access a ships map from your console, I suggest you familiarize yourself with it.”

One of the tubes was ruptured from the impact, she reached down and ripped the calf from her jumpsuit where her leg had been cut before. She used the scrap fabric to tie around the tube, securing it from leaks. The power flickered in the hall before restoring to full power. She closed the panel, heading further down the hall to a lift. She entered the lift waiting for him to follow, before entering the floor to engineering.

“We lost life support to all of our lower decks, our engineering crew was cut in half.” The lift jolted a bit as it reached the floor, that couldn’t be a great sign. The doors slid open slowly, “It seems power hasn’t been fully restored to this deck.” She stepped through the small opening onto their engineering deck. Their large core sat in the middle undamaged, but there was no power going through it. There were engineers running around trying to fix things, stopping to stare at their massive new guest.
 
Boros followed closely, taking in all that she was telling him. "We will salvage the more powerful components of our weapons array and combine them with the systems you already have in place. I'm sure you noticed, but the Silver Spear was meant to do exactly one thing: fight." He stood in the corridor as she fixed one of the panels, fixing the leaking tubes. "I suppose I should ask you now before it becomes an issue in the future. Are there sections of the ships that cannot be entered or shouldn't be entered?" He looked at the tubing, keep his distance. "You don't have any nasty secrets stored away on this vessel, do you?"

He entered the lift, standing hunched, annoyed by the design clearly meant for her smaller species. The same was said for the opening to the engineering bay, and he stretched modestly when he was allowed to stand straight once more. He looked over the engineers, all of them smaller than he by a significant margin. "Do all of your engineers get distracted this easily?" he mused, staring at them each individually. "There is no need to stop your work on my behalf. I very much want to survive this ordeal."

The towering male walked towards the warp core, examining it. "How fast can your ship move with this kind of propulsion system? I've never seen anything quite like this..." He stood stroking his chin, tilting his head to the left. "Incredible..."
 
Letting out a little laugh she looked at him a bit amused, “I mean, I would think your crew would be better not to wander into the morgue get stuck in some of the smaller parts of the ships.”

“Get back to work.” Anora commanded, pinching the bridge of her nose. This was going to interesting, many of the women in her crew had never seen a man, let alone a man so large. “You will have to excuse them, most of them have never seen a man before.” She explained, she didn’t want to insult him. “Most of my species doesn’t really do sexual reproduction anymore, we have DNA donors and incubation stations. We are than sorted into maturation pods, and at a very young age assigned to our life long task. This means many of us never take mates, and those of us assigned to space travel usually never encounter another male of our species.”

She walked to the console nearest the warp core, typing in some calculation so she could best answer his question. “Well, according to my calculations for an example, your ship at it’s highest speed would take 180 years to reach our original coordinates, this ship at full speed would take a 100 years. Obviously that is not good enough, I would like to get home well before that.”

She turned to a crewmen, “I expect the core to be powered in less than two hours, I do not like sitting idle in unknown space.”

She headed out of engineering towards the mess hall, which wasn’t impressive just tables, cooking supplies, “A lot of your crewmens quarters will be on this level.” She explained, stepping into another lift. This one was still in good shape, so she was able to command it with vocal commands. “To the Bridge.” The lift sent them back to their original level, she stepped out onto the bridge that already looked much better.

“Captains on the bridge.” Said one of the officers, and she nodded at them walking to the front section where there were two chairs usually reserved for the captain and first officer. There were different consoles around the room, all pointing towards the large view screen where they could see Boro’s ship.
 
The man looked back at the engineers, a few of them still staring at the hulking male. He gave the console that B'Lanna was at a glance, still impressed. "If my ship had a warp core similar to that one..." he began to think aloud, staring at the core. If his men had ever salvaged a core of that caliber, then his ship would be unstoppable. His thoughts were interrupted by her explanation of reproduction. He had heard of civilizations that had eliminated the need for sexual reproduction, opting to create their spawn for specific tasks in birthing chambers. It was a concept familiar, yet unliked by Boros.

He followed her through the mess hall, now deciding to give his opinion. "Alkinites can only produce through sexual reproduction. And as I said, our females are in short supply. We reproduce with other species, with our genes generally being dominant. In practically every instance, an Alkinite that has intercourse with any other species will produce an Alkinite." He said all of this matter the factly, little emphasis or excitement in his tone.

When they made it to the bridge, he recognized his ship and sighed. She looked rough, large gashes in a number of her lower hull plates. "Well, she's seen better days" he mourned, genuinely upset at the loss of his vessel. "We'll salvage what we can. Fortunately, you weren't able to completely destroy our weapons array before we were forced into that jump. If your crewman can figure out the system integrations, our software will be a significant upgrade to yours." He sat down in one of the chairs, leaning back and brushing his hair back. "Furthermore, we can reinforce breaches in your hull with pieces of our own. The material is stronger than practically any other we've come across, save for those unfit for space travel."

He turned the chair to face the woman, his eye locked on her. "Are your crew capable of defending themselves? Hostile species won't hesitate to board a wounded ship. My men are viciously capable but are your women...?" He didn't know how to say "delicate" diplomatically, so he simply let the sentence hang.
 
Anora couldn’t figure out what exactly made her feel uncomfortable about his discussion about sexual reproduction, but it did. It wasn’t that her species didn’t have desires, some even formed well, rather close friendships with other females, she out ranked all of her crew and that would be inappropriate. Maybe it was simply the fact that his species took pride in dominating even from a genetic stand point, she cleared her throat turn her face away. “That is, interesting.”

He spoke of fortifying her weapons and she nodded along, taking her own seat. “That is well enough. We can start that after everyone has a chance to settle in, none of the current breaches would keep us from jumping in an emergency.”

He asked if they could offend themselves, and she heard her security officer laugh. She turned, giving her a look and the laughing stopped immediately. “We defend ourselves well, maybe when everyone get’s back on their feet I can give you a little bit of a demonstration.” She said in an almost teasing tone, “Though, I would be afraid to hurt you…such a delicate creature.” She rolled her teal eyes at him. How did he think her species had defended themselves all this time, by playing damsels?

“I do not know what your policy on dining is, but I take my meals in my quarters away from the crew. You are welcome to join me, it will likely be ration cubes tonight.” She offered.
 
Boros' eye shifted to the security officer and then back to the captain. "I'm afraid you'll find my kind to be...durable. One must be in order to survive on a planet of desert." He rolled his eye and sighed, sinking back into the chair, crossing his legs. "A soldier must always been in top physical condition if they are to overcome their enemies. Considering my crew and I have nothing but enemies..." The sentence was left hanging, the man not wanting to elaborate on a fairly obvious point. We're strong, they get it.

"I'll have my men eat in the mess hall or in their own quarters, assuming they can handle the rest of your crew. I will accept your invitation. It'll be a far cry to the types of feasts my men and I are used to, but in such circumstances, we are willing to deal with the uncomfortable." He chuckled, adjusting the metal plate that covered his left wrist. "I will need to be changing soon, however. I don't generally wear my Pylon-5 suit for extended periods of time. It becomes uncomfortable."

He stood, nodding to her. "I will return to my quarters to remove my suit. I will then meet you at your quarters." He headed back to the lift, taking a moment to figure out the controls before making his way back to his room. Piece by piece, the suit came off, exposing his bare skin. His torso was covered in a skin tight, jet black suit, form fitting and flexible as to not hinder any movement. He set the suit on the desk and then examined his suit, making sure there were no tears in its fabric. When he was satisfied he made his way to B'Lanna's door, knocking with heavy fists.
 
“Yes, so I’ve heard.” The captain muttered, mostly for her own benefit. She didn’t know what his suit was, but her own uniform was in tatters so she would likely change into something casual for the evening when she was sure the crew was buckled in for the night. “I will leave that to your authority, we should have the kitchen up and running by the morning but rations will be handed out in the mess hall for all crew.” She had no intention on attempting to pull rank with his crew for now. She was unfamiliar with them and being familiar with a crew was important to be an effective leader.

Anora finished up some orders on the bridge, getting the bridge back over to her security officer before heading to her own quarters. She quickly took a shower and changed into a soft white gown, pulling over top a robe this is often what she wore in her own quarters to relax. She pulled the table from the wall and set the rations out on the table, it wasn’t long before there was a firm knock on the door. She opened the door, “Come in.”

She walked over to the table, pulling a bottle out from a shelf. “Rations with good Yamor wine.” She let out a little laugh, “Away from the crew you are welcome to call me Anora. How should I refer to you?” She asked, carefully examining his change in wardrobe. She preferred this much better to the intimidating suit he had been wearing earlier. In a way he seemed a bit softer, her own body had relaxed in response. “There is a constant com link with my room, if the crew needs us they will be able to hail us here. Hopefully there will be an evening with little conflict.”
 
Boros took her in once more, formulating an opinion on her new wardrobe. It was softer, more casual, more akin to what he would traditionally imagine a woman in. It was interesting for sure, and he wasn't going to complain. He nodded and gave her thanks when she opened the door, stepping inside and standing by the table, watching her pull out the wine. He couldn't recall the last time he had a wine, especially a decent wine. Arkinites required a massive amount of alcohol to get inebriated, so they usually stuck to the harder liquors that were easy to mass produce. Still, he wouldn't decline.

"You can call me Boros. I don't have any other name to go by" he said, his eye still on her gown. "My men refer to me as lord, as yours refer to you as captain." He sat down at the table, leaning back into his chair. "I do apologize for not having something more modest to wear. Most of my garments are still on the Spear. I will make an effort to retrieve them in the coming days." He ran a hand through his hair and then began to pick at his rations, trying to make it last.

"So if I'm going to have to live with you and your kind, I'll need to know more about you. The same applies to you. If you need to drink first, be my guest" he teased, chuckling, his lips curling back and revealing pointed teeth. "Most people in this profession cannot open up about themselves for free."
 
Anora could feel his eyes scanning her, she had never been examined in that way. She wasn’t sure the proper way to react, instead she pretended his gaze had gone unnoticed, adjusting into her seat so that she was on her knees. She opened the wine pouring them both a glass, letting out a small laugh as he apologized for his attire. “It’s fine, if you are immodest, I am down right scantily clad.” She shook her head, remembering her hair was still put up to conform to uniform codes. She reached up and removed the two hair sticks, letting her silky white tresses fall over her shoulders.

“Well Boros, maybe you should be drinking first as so I do not bore you with my rather mundane life.” She teased, putting the glass up to her lips and taking a sip. She picked carefully at the rations remembering how they tasted like minerals and a vague flavor of fruit. Luckily this would only be for the night at the crew would be able to resume their normal diet in the morning. The food would only last for a time though, so getting the ships moving so they could find a new source would be important.

“I’m not really sure what there is to tell about me? The Neil left station only a couple of weeks ago, a week into our first journey the captain got ill. Some sort of illness she had caught on an away mission to one of the colonies. It happened quickly, and I as her first officer took command of the vessel. Before the Neil I worked on another ship, a science vessel where I worked my way up in rank until I became an Lt. I applied for reassignment on the Neil, looking for more…adventure. Maybe not this much.” She smiled, “Before that, I lived on a space station. I have actually never lived on a planet, or even seen our home world. What about you?”
 
He took another bite of his rations before downing the wine in a single drink, setting the glass down and chuckling. "There is no such thing as a mundane life. All lives have some way of making themselves interesting. You must simply find yours." He continued to eat his rations, watching her face as she spoke. "You've never lived on a planet. Have you ever been on a planet? Seen a natural sky, or taken a breath of natural air?" He ran a finger along the rim of his glass, his nail gently scraping the surface. "Interesting."

The Arkinite sighed and looked around the room, unsure of where to begin. "My story isn't any different from the rest of my men. Our home planet is barren, hardly capable of supporting any life. Our kind decided to become mercenaries for hire, and eventually, built their own army. I was born and raised on my planet, and then I was brought onto the Bronze Spear. When the previous Lord began to make decisions that left our entire population at risk, I fought him for the right to rule." He looked down at his ration, taking another bite. "I killed him. The men respect me now. They listen to me."

"We have been traveling the universe destroying ships and colonies, looting what we need, the men who need to breed do so, and then we move on." He shrugged, clearly uninterested in the subject. "Until we find a planet that can support us, we keep searching."
 
The woman had never thought about the fact that she had never stepped foot onto solid land a strange, well until now. “I suppose I haven’t.” She admitted, she listened to him speak of his planet. The Yamor home planet was not barren but it had a very small land mass, which meant it could not support the vast population of the empire. So her people looked to the stars, first building space stations and hubs for civilizations before moving on to colonizing planets, and even some moons.

She did not understand his people, but maybe the harsh atmosphere of their planet had harden them not only on the outside but inward. “Yamor is a tropical planet, with small islands. It cannot support the population of the empire so my people expanded into space.” She explained, “Not many of us live on planet, and only those of high ranks really visit it. I’ve been told it is beautiful. I am sorry for the hardships of your people.” She said in a soft voice, but she still took note of the fact that he was willing to kill a commanding officer.

“Hopefully we can come to an understanding, but my people do not like to start conflict for the sake of it. We have found that diplomacy works with most races.” She shrugged, taking another drink of her wine and chasing it with ration. “I am a bit concerned when you say need] to breed though, is that going to be a problem. I would prefer that no one…breeds… on this ship. Are their certain biological consequences? I have read of races that will experience great about of pain if they don’t answer the call of nature so to speak.”
 
Boros began to chuckle, then laugh, deep and hearty, his head tilted back as he roared. With a slap of the table he took a moment to compose himself, still stifling a chuckle or two. "My men have already bred. An Arkinite generally only has intercourse for reproduction purposes when they enter the final 20 or so years of their natural lives. Those among my crew who have entered that time frame have already done so, and none of the others are even remotely close. So they will not need to breed, no. Any relations they have will be purely for pleasure." His face grew stern, his tone now serious. "We are a lot of things, but rapists we are not."

He recomposed himself, shaking his head. "I apologize, I didn't mean to get...aggressive. I just don't want your crew to believe themselves to be at a physical risk." He finished off the rest of his ration, wiping his lips with the back of his hand. "So why does your population hold males at such a low standard? Is it because you eliminated the need for their presence in reproduction?" If the Yamor empire was capable of creating whomever they needed whenever they needed, then what was stopping them from simply eliminating males all together?
 
Startled, Anora shifted uncomfortably in her seat examining the mans features wearily. She didn’t see what about any of this was funny, “I was not suggesting that, we have strict policy about relations between crew men, even if there are of another species. It’s a bit hard to enforce, now more so, because we can’t afford to throw anyone in the brig.” She admitted, glad that he had stopped laughing in such a boisterous manner. It seemed even his behaviors were larger, and louder than anything you would see with the Yamor.

“Well, I suppose it started during the primal time on home planet, the females of our species have a natural defense against the creatures that lurk in the jungles, whereas the men do not. They became the hunters and leaders of early tribes, and later the defenders of the planet against alien invaders. The low population of males is a more recent thing, that came with the incubation chambers. However, the monarchs of Yamor still live by the natural way. The Empress has several consorts in her harem, members of parliament also take mates. It’s a symbol of wealth and power and sort of honoring the ways of the old.” She explained finally finishing her own glass of wine. She knew not to knock back a drink in the manner he had, wine from Yamor was very strong, fermented from a strange plant only grown on homeworld.

“If I were to become an admiral or general, I would be offered the chance to take a mate.” She shrugged, she wasn’t sure she wanted a mate. “It’s not uncommon for women to form, er, close bonds with one another.” She had a bond like that during her time at the academy before she had taken her first ship assignment, she had been younger and much more fool hardy. “Do your people form long term bonds?”
 
"Sometimes the ways of the old are still the ways of the wise" he mused, tapping his chin as he toyed with the idea of eliminating the unneeded of an entire species. "My men have never created bonds in a sexual sense, but we all do rely on each other heavily. When my people were surviving on our home world, those who strayed from the pack would quickly perish. As such, we spent centuries in small cities peppered across the surface, until we came together to expand. At this point, our species will essentially wither away without at least one other Arkinite." He rubbed his eyes slightly, feeling the kick of the wine. It was good, something he hadn't felt in awhile. "First they mentally lose their way, and eventually, their bodies will fail them. So in a way, yes, we do form strong bonds."

"Listen, I understand that this stuff may be hard to come by, especially now that we're hundreds of years from any known outpost, but would you mind if I...?" He said this while lifting his glass, gesturing it towards the wine. "I'm a large creature with a high tolerance. And I'm not even the most experienced drinker among my crew. Assuming that the few that could best me survived."
 
“Most of these bonds are not sexual in nature, just companionship. I don’t know if I would ever want to take a mate, it seems like a distraction more than anything.” Anora explained pouring more wine in each glass, she gave herself much less, not wanting to leave herself vulnerable. Even if this man was actually cordial now, he may think to take advantage of her ship and crew if she let her guard slip. “You cannot open this and not finish it, it will spoil. It’s fermented from a very strange fruit that only grows on homeworld. I have never encountered a wine stronger than this one.” She explained, “There was quite a bit in the stores, but we may have lost that. It wasn’t in my top priority.” She admitted with a grin.

She finally finished her rations, glad to be rid of them and hopeful they would return to real food in the morning. Even in what should be her leisure time there was always the temptation to continue work. “So, usually drinking is not the best learning companion but I can teach you a bit how this ship runs.” She explained, walking over to the console and sitting down.

She patted the space next to her, making sure to make room for him on the bench type seat. She pulled up the systems map, “Once all of our systems are up and running I think you will find this ship very efficient.”
 
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