Posted by Commander Ryder Raauhl (Executive Officer) in Corridors - An evening wander (open to all)

Posted by Civilian Kula (Researcher) in Corridors - An evening wander (open to all)

Posted by Commander Ryder Raauhl (Executive Officer) in Corridors - An evening wander (open to all)
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Mwezi took in a breath, then released it. He stared at the layout figure of the ship on the wall, his eyes boring into the blacked out areas.

Soft footfalls came up beside him, a warm hand resting in the small of his back while a head rested against his shoulder. “You alright?” Kula’s melodious voice spoke in their native tongue, a moon dialect of the Laleri. Unlike the more common Galdori tongue, it was not picked up by the Universal Translators.

“Perhaps I will be in time. I don’t like all the secrecy. How little we know about this place.” Mwezi leaned his head over to rest it on top of hers, letting out an angry little chitter.

“Perhaps you are not so angry at Cobb and his crew as you are at being stuck in this timeline,” Kula responded kindly, pulling away in order to force him to look into her eyes. There was that soft wisdom she always had, making the soldier in him stand down.

“I just want to go home,” he grumbled, leaning against the wall.

“Home to Galdor, or home to the Chernov? I thought your home was with me?” she giggled, teasing.

“Either? Both?” Mwezi sighed. “I’m not sure. It’s out there, but it’s hardly the same planet we were orbiting a few days ago.“

“I’ve been doing a little digging. The scientists were kind enough to give me what information they have on Galdor in their computer. Not much of it was classified, and apparently being a native of the planet gave me a little extra clearance,” Kula said with a small grin. “Galdor as we knew it was almost exactly the same in this timeline, up until First Contact with the Federation. It was a little later, which meant they had the Sar’tep better refined by the time they met Starfleet. From what I could tell, the me and you of this timeline were both involved in the project. The Mwezi of this universe was a shuttle pilot, of all things.“

Mwezi chuckled. He could see it happening. He’d been a good pilot at the Academy, but his ambition to go to Starfleet had disqualified him from the Shuttle Bonding path. He nodded, encouraging her to continue.

“The Federation wasn’t as aggressive in this timeline, and it took a while, but Galdor did join the Federation eventually - without the sharing of the Sar’tep in the conditions. They did share it, but on a very limited basis. There are only a few units in the whole galaxy. And before you ask, no. I couldn’t access the locations,” Kula cut off the question before it even had time to form in Mwezi’s mind. He grinned widely. She knew him well.

Mwezi hadn’t smiled like this in a long while. He had missed this feeling of happiness.

It was at that moment that the two of them heard footsteps approaching. Who else would be out and about at this hour of the evening?

• Mwezi and Kula

Ryder had been settling back into life aboard the Leviathan, though short the time aboard the station and then alone retrieving Gen and Casela was oddly nice. Alone he could do some the things he wanted without interruption. So now back on the Levi he always found himself waking in the night and going for a walk. He’d kiss Casela every time and check in on Gen before leaving. He could hear voices up ahead and wondered who it was. He rounded the curving corridor and was met with two faces who he recognised but not personal. “Good evening” The trill XO said with a smile. The two furry humanoids in front of him both with their own identifying features meant, if his memory served him well, was Lieutenant Mewzi and Kula.

• Commander Raauhl, XO

Mwezi’s face curled into a grin, his sharp teeth being perhaps a little intimidating at first glance. “Commander Raauhl,” he greeted, giving the man a slight bow of the head. “I must thank you again for allowing Kula and I to remain aboard the Leviathan.”

Raauhl put up his hand as if to stop him politely, “No please the pleasure is ours, we pride ourselves in the diversity of this ship and just like it the crew is unique to we have some pretty interesting individuals onboard, I hope you are both settling in alright I imagine there is a lot to take in” The Trill was speaking from experience when he first ever joined the crew the ships seemed neverending but as the years went by ship got smaller.

He looked at the man with an analytical mind. He wasn’t a species Mwezi was familiar with, the smell was all wrong for human and he had spots all down his face and arms. Mwezi briefly wondered how much of the man’s body was covered in those spots, and especially how the arm spots would intersect at the shoulders with the ones on the head and torso - if they were there as well.

Kula’s smile was a little more reserved. She was tense, not as used to Federation people as Mwezi was, and the lack of emotions radiating from people around here was disconcerting. Mwezi pushed comfort towards her En’ne, and Kula relaxed somewhat. “It’s a big ship,” Kula commented. “I’ve never been on a ship so big, and I’ve barely been anywhere on it.”

Mwezi and Kula

The Trill XO chuckled, “You’ll get used to it besides I doubt for a moment you’ll find yourself bored whilst on the Leviathan and talking of not boring I must admit Mrs? Kula that your story is certainly fascinating I hope that whilst onboard you may find yourself putting our science decks into good use. I for one wouldn’t want to waste a scientifically minded person like yourself yo waste whilst on a ship with some of the latest equipment.” He shrugged, “Time travel is hard enough to wrap your head around but a multiverse, just when I think I couldn’t be surprised anymore.”

• Commander Raauhl, XO

Kula shook her head slightly at the “mrs,” and explained once Raauhl was finished talking. “Our people do not use such honorifics, civilians just go by our name.”

Ryder hoped he hadn’t just offended their latest crew members, civilian or not he always valued anyone on the ship as ‘part of the crew’ some if not all brought different things to the Leviathan again only making it one of a kind. “Oh I didn’t mean to offend.”

“I think there was a question in there,” Mwezi commented, looking at Ryker with a slightly tilted head. “The answer simply - no, we’re not married. Not in the way you’d think. Laleri culture is a… well, it’s different from most Federation cultures. We’re promised, which I think is really similar to being engaged? Different again, but close enough. It’s like marriage, but without the ceremony and without the…” he glanced at Kula. “Child-making,” he decided to answer.

Relieved that he didn’t have several large claw marks from his assumption he smiled, “Well I’ll make sure if it isn’t done already to updated the cultural databases meeting new people of different backgrounds and learning about them is why we started exploration in the first place.”

Kula let out a little choked laugh. “It’s been a challenge, certainly. Luckily, it was really close to our time period when the cultural split happened. The Federation’s path changed, I think forty or fifty years before our time, but our planet didn’t encounter them until around a decade ago. So the multiverse situation isn’t as difficult for us to process as it would have been if the worlds had been more different,” she said. Kula’s analytical mind had studied the issue quite extensively. “Changing the subject again, I do hope that I can use my mind here on the Leviathan, maybe help out with the science stuff. I’ve hit a lot of information barriers in my attempts to help so far. There is a lot of… classified information on this ship.”

Mwezi and Kula

bump

“Well certainly, while I cant gain you access to everything I don’t see why we can at least get you some rights to use our more common labs and archives, besides it would be a shame to waste talent and then help we can defiantly use all of it from time to time. I’ll request that you be given civilian contractor rights you’ll have access to the labs though not the RTF specific ones and you’ll be able to access most of our less sensitive files, hell there’s some that even I can not access.” He chuckled, “Will that help? I am sure as well that our chief science officer will willingly accept any help too.”

• Cmdr Raauhl, XO

Kula nodded her thanks. “I appreciate that, Commander. I’d hate to feel like dead weight on this vessel, and I think I’m reaching the end of my ability to entertain myself. I’m used to being a lot more active. I was one of the heads of my research team,” she added, with what looked like a small smile of pride.

“Perhaps there is some spacial research I can help with. It was my field of study, after all.”

Kula, Civilian

Again the Trill commander paused, “Well we do have several different concurrent studies going on at the moment i’ll have their non-redacted notes sent to you as well and if anything picks your fancy you can contact the scientific team lead, no doubt something else will come up soon if this ship has anything to do with it so something may come up that’s exactly what you’re looking for.”

• Commander Raauhl, XO

“I’d really appreciate that, thank you,” Kula said with a grateful smile. “Before you arrived, Mwezi and I were talking about the differences between our… timeline and yours. For example, the fact that Vulcan actually exists in your world. It’s fascinating to think about. Amazing, to wonder how much history is there to be discovered there.” There was a sparkle in her eyes.

“And some fun discoveries about our own personal histories,” Mwezi added. “The Mwezi of this universe was a Shuttle Pilot instead of being in Security.”

Mwezi and Kula