Posted by Captain Daniel “DaVinci” Colter (Commanding Officer) in Captain’s Ready Room

Posted by Lieutenant Kaia (Chief Engineer) in Captain’s Ready Room
With the changing of the guards, there was a lot going on, and Kaia thought it wise to welcome their new commanding officer. Therefore, she found herself on the bridge, standing in front of the door to the captain’s Ready Room. It was odd to think there was someone different behind that door. But there was. She held up her hand and tapped the chime - not the regular one, but the smaller button that had been installed at a reasonable height for her.

Lieutenant Kaia
Chief Engineer USS Manhattan

“Enter,” replied a gravelly voice from inside.

The doors opened to reveal what at first glance appeared to almost be a museum dedicated to late 20th century military items. Machine guns, automatic pistols, military plaques and framed awards lined the walls, including numerous Purple Hearts, a Medal of Honor and a Bronze star. Also, on the walls were framed pictures of Army military units. If one looked close enough, they would recognize a younger Capt. Colter with various military rank insignia on the uniforms.

Colter’s favorite item in the collection sat by itself, almost reverently. It was an US Army M24 sniper rifle. The weapon he used to get him safely through the Eugenics War.

Seated behind the desk was Capt. DaVinci Colter himself. A large muscular man whose every muscle was in perfect symmetry.

Capt. Daniel ‘DaVinci’ Colter
CO-USS Manhattan

Kaia took in the display, trying not to frown or narrow her gaze. Unlike humans, she was not an apex predator, millions of years removed from instincts of a creature that was accustomed to being hunted. Her people, while being carnivores, were still mesocarnivores, hunted by larger predators, until only a few thousand years ago. An open display of this many weapons - unloaded or replica as she hoped they might be - in a space meant for command and dialogue was not something she had been prepared to be confronted with.

The depths of her discomfort was not clear to someone unfamiliar with her species, but there was a slight twitch of her tail and a subtle tilt of her ears. Unseen below her uniform, fur on her shoulders and back stiffened with tension. The weapons told a story, the photos another. This was a man who held a fondness for tools of violence, and … some long ago glory days of a time period she wasn’t familiar with. Her gaze flicked onto a few dates that … some mental math, remembering the federation year and the earth year were one and the same, told an ancient story. She didn’t look closely enough to see his face in the photos, and might not anyways considering her brain wasn’t evolved to recognise human faces the way human brains were, but saw the name on the plaques and wondered why this man felt the need to display so many commemorations to… what she had to assume was some ancestor of his?

“Captain. Welcome to the Manhattan, I am Lt. Kaia the Manhattan’s Chief Engineer. I see you’ve already,” she hesitated for a moment, glancing around again, “made yourself at home.” She stood still, just within the doorframe, her tail out of the way of the door so that it could close without hurting her.

Lieutenant Kaia
Chief Engineer USS Manhattan