Posted by Lieutenant Commander Stark Nightstalker (Chief Intelligence Officer) in XO Meeting Stark

Posted by Commander Luka (Executive Officer) in XO Meeting Stark

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Stark Nightstalker (Chief Intelligence Officer) in XO Meeting Stark
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
snip
“How do we cope with the loneliness… At first, you don’t even notice it. You feel a little empty, but it’s not that much of a deal. You’ve been alone before. Then a day passes. It’s fine. A week, you begin to feel a strange emptiness inside. A month… I spent three days in my quarters, crying. Can you imagine, Stark, if everyone you cared about suddenly couldn’t touch you? Couldn’t tell you they loved or cared for you? Imagine everyone you loved, could only communicate their emotions to you by… Doing the chicken dance in front of you. And then imagine that you’re on a ship where everyone is doing the chicken dance with one another, and you are separated from every friend you’ve ever known…”

Luka panted slightly. Her voice had risen more than she had intended to make it…

Luka, XO

Stark put a paw on her shoulder, a rare show of empathy that made him feel more than a little awkward but he knew it was what Laraan would do in this situation.

“I won’t even try to equate my experiences with yours, I lack the biology to make a comparison. That said I was once deep undercover and isolated from all I loved and cared for, I went so deep I lost myself for a time and was chemically manipulated into almost killing my nephew’s wife. A part of me knows something of what you may feel and even if it doesn’t I hope that you’ll at least appreciate the fact that I’m trying to” He paused and then removed his paw and broke the moment with a smile “I promise to never, ever do the chicken dance in front of you”.

Stark Nightstalker CIO

“I’m not afraid of the chicken dance. It was just… a reasonable comparison,” she took a deep breath. “I think some of my people deal with the transition more easily than others. The transition from Home to the Academy to Starfleet is not as abrupt, apparently, since there are always at least ten or so Galdori there each year and the older individuals help the younger through the process. A kind of weaning, if you will.”

“Makes sense” Stark said succinctly.

“You have a nephew on the ship, I noticed that. He is a good officer?” she inquired, glancing up at him. She was appreciative of the hand on her shoulder, but she didn’t make a big deal of it since she didn’t want Stark to feel more awkward.

Luka, XO

“The best,” Stark said with no hesitation, “He has a heart as gold as his fur which is always, always leading him into trouble. His wife T’Pon however keeps him from being walked over by all and sundry.”

“Do you have family in Starfleet?”

Stark Nightstalker CIO

“No, although my niece is interested in pursuing that path. I’m not certain if she will be pursuing starfleet or the Galdor Space Program, but either way I will be proud of her,” Luka said with a small grin. “There’s something strange about being an Aunt - or an Uncle, in your case. Perhaps one day I’ll be able to introduce you to Tavi. She would be excited to meet an alien such as you. There are very few sentient species out there with fur, teeth, and claws out there,” she lifted a hand. They were not the same as cat claws, but her fingers ended in blunted blackish-grey nails - similar to the nails of the wolf she was so easily compared to.

Luka, XO

“Yessss, “Stark said slurring the s as he would have on his home planet. “At Starfleet nearly every second cadet wanted to pet me like a cat, it took a great deal of discouragement and one disciplinary hearing to get people to stop”.

Stark cocked his head to one side, “How do most humanoids respond to you first time round?

Stark Nightstalker CIO

Luka found herself chuckling slightly. “I didn’t attend the academy. In general, most humanoids see my apparent teeth and claws and would rather not risk offending an alien with enough jaw strength and a long enough snout to bite their hand off in one snap,” she explained. “I am, however, quite soft, according to the occasional individual who I let stroke my fur.”

She smiled slightly. “I think humans have a grooming instinct due to their primate origins. They pet one another’s heads and play with one another’s fur… no, wait… hair. Yes, they play with the hair of other humans, so their desire to stroke our heads and play with our head fur is not that unfounded.”

Luka, XO

“It’s disturbing” Stark said flatly, “I’ve run with their apex predators on the plains of Africa and I can’t for the life of me think why they think they’re big pussy cats that need a good stroking, bite your hand off in one bite is right.”

“So you let someone stroke your fur? Sounds like there’s a story there’ Stark inquired politely, or at least in a less than interrogatory fashion.

Stark Nightstalker CIO

“I formed a close bond with a human female aboard the Killian in my six years as an operations officer there,” Luka explained with a small smile. “She was my roommate when I moved onto the ship, and she helped me through the bad part of my transition in the first month, and part of that was sitting next to me and just keeping physical contact with her hand on my shoulder. It was helpful. After that, it didn’t feel so strange when she would touch my fur and run her hands through it. It was somewhat comforting, like a much less potent echo of the En’ne. Part of emotional well-being is the fact that my race do spend time, for lack of a better term, cuddling like a pack of wolves. I had no one to cuddle with, so she was my substitute. If that makes sense?”

“It does” he said succinctly giving nothing away about himself. the whole subject of physical touch was a new one for him, he’d shunned it for all his life save for a brief contact with someone’s throat through the medium of his teeth. Lately however he’d had to seriously overcome invasion of personal space and he was growing to become accustomed to it.

She was much less in need of physical contact these days, and when she did, she turned to Mukin for the snuggles. He was a very good snuggler, with his soft fur and warm nose. She loved hugging him to her own furry chest in the evening, and when he licked her nose.

Luka, XO

“Do you miss your last assignment?”

Stark Nightstalker CIO
OOC Missed that hard return… again :-)