Posted by Ensign Nala Shai’Mori t’Liriena (Security Officer) in Nala’s Check-In with the Captain — Ready Room, Deck 1
By the time Nala stepped onto the bridge, the noise had changed again.

Not louder denser.

The bridge didn’t chatter the way corridors did. It layered. Consoles murmured in steady, overlapping tones. Power flowed audibly beneath the deck plates, a constant, disciplined pulse that never quite stopped. Voices were clipped, controlled, professional yet always present, always moving.

Her ears flicked despite her effort to hold them neutral.

She kept walking.

The Ready Room door stood just aft of the command area, its surface smooth and unassuming. Close enough that she could feel the bridge’s rhythm through it. Close enough that the ship never really let go.

She stopped, straightened, and took a breath that didn’t go quite as deep as she wanted.

Captain Alex Becket, she reminded herself. Just a check-in.

Her tail twitched once sharp, betraying and she forced it still, clasping her hands behind her back to anchor herself. The low thrum of the bridge pressed against her senses from every direction, not overwhelming yet, but constant. Inescapable.

She chimed the door.

While she waited, the ship hummed around her warp systems far below, sensors sweeping, command circuits alive and alert. The sound crawled along her nerves, familiar now in an unwelcome way. Her jaw tightened. She shifted her weight, then corrected herself, boots aligning precisely with the deck markings.

You’re fine. You’re almost done.

The door hadn’t opened yet.

Her ears flattened a fraction before she consciously lifted them again. She swallowed, breath hitching just enough to notice. The end of the day pressed down on her not exhaustion exactly, but the cumulative effort of holding herself together through hours of sound she couldn’t shut out.

She focused on the Ready Room door. On the stillness of it. On the promise that this conversation would be contained. Brief. Structured.

Another second passed.

Nala stood at attention outside the Captain’s Ready Room, brilliant and capable and quietly straining, the bridge alive just beyond the wall waiting to see whether she could keep her footing a little longer.

Ensign Nala

“Come.” Said a voice behind the door as he was expecting the new science officer on board, who had then just gotten dropped off by her shuttle.

Captain Alex Becket
Commanding Officer
U.S.S. Ark Angel