Posted by Ensign Kalani Kāne (Scientist) in Alindor’s Quarters

Posted by Lieutenant Jarred Alindor (Chief Engineer) in Alindor’s Quarters

Posted by Ensign Kalani Kāne (Scientist) in Alindor’s Quarters
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Kalani shifted the pizza box in her hand to the other one carrying a six pack of beer. Jarred had mentioned getting together when they requisitioned supplied. He didn’t say when so this was as good as time as any. Especially because Kalani couldn’t wait for a week to play the should I call or should I wait game. Unbeknownst to him, she and Jarred would be spending a lot of time together. Tonight was just as good as any to start. He was easy on the eyes and had a great sense of humor. Balancing the food and drink, Kalani hit the controls on the door panel and waited.

Ensign Kalani Kane, science

“Enter!” came Jarred’s reply. He had gone about cleaning his room, it had always been a bachelor pad in many ways, even when he was with his wife, or Cori he still never found the art of tidying up.

Lot had changed between Jarred and Cori. She had returned and they had drifted. His holo emitters no longer on but he still cared for her. There past had long been muddled dark and bloody but Jarred knew he needed to find a start away from his past and away from her. His promise to find Cori a new body though was his bond and he would do anything to help her, as she still was his oldest friend even if they no longer were together.

Now Kalani was going to bring friends and they were gonna nerd out and this was good for him. It got him away from a bottle and he could learn who he was. Away from his ex wife and the bloody past of Cori and Sharise. He hadn’t found a new friend in a very long time outside of Saterya.

Alindor, CE

“I got a six pack of Miller lighhhhhhhhht.......and…a…pizzzzzza,” Kalani said entering the room and seeing Jarred move about the apartment. The place was not clean by any stretch of the imagination but it now was tidy. “Okay so tell me you are not one of those types that I am not going to be able to ask over but need to clean for a week before hand,” she asked him moving to the table and setting the food down.

“Well I hadn’t cleaned in a long time, I figured if you were gonna bring guests…” Jarred said, releasing she was by herself. Didn’t she say she was going to bring guests? Jarred didn’t see anyone else with her, he wasn’t sure if that made him upset, or more happy. In some ways he had kinda wished her to be alone, and she was easy on the eyes. Still he didn’t really know what he wanted in his life. He had been chasing so much in his past that for once he wanted to learn who he was.

If I knew you were neat nick I would not have brought Max and Ralph, she thought to herself. Still she was here and hungry. After setting the pizza down with the beers she took one strap off her shoulder revealing a backpack.

“I hope you don’t mind but I had to bring a couple of friends. Max and Ralph have been cooped up in shuttles with me for the past week getting here. I didn’t have the heart to tell them they couldn’t come but if it is an issue I can leave the chow and come back another time?” Kalani had now swung the back pack around so that one arm still had the back pack attached to it but the other hand was holding is as if poised to open it. In the silence that hung between her speaking and Jarred replying a series of sounded like growls was coming from either her stomach or the backpack pressed against her stomach.

Ensign Kalani Kane. Science

“Wait… these are the friends?” he asked as he got near the bag, a large smile on his face. “What did you bring here?” he asked her, an almost sense of childlike wonder in his voice. “Okay, lemme see… who did you bring me?” he said with a wide open smile as he opened the bag for her, looking in gently. Jarred knew her occupation, so having wild animals might not seem so strange. Plus she was wanting him to build her an terrarium for her lab so she had to have some animals already.

Alindor, CE

Kalani opened the top and reached in pulling out a ball of fur. The creature’s ear unfurled giving it a bat like appearance except for the golden fun and lack of wings. It’s huge eyes blinked as if it needed time to adjust to the lights. “This is Ralph and he is a juvenile Fennec Fox,” she said moving the two-pound animal towards Jarred. “If you could just hold him for a second. He won’t bite but if he does don’t shake him or drop him. As you can see he is a little guy. He sometimes forgets we don’t bite as a sign of hello doncha lil’ guy,” Kalani said scratching the top of his head as she moved to a pocket of her backpack. “I’m not sure why he does or doesn’t sometimes.”

“Oh!” Jarred said as he eyed the little guy. Holding him he couldn’t help but admire his gorgeous fur, but the floppy little ears were often enough to make anyone want to squeal a little. “Ralph?” he asked as he began to play with the little guy as he held him like he was a precious little gem.

Ralph looked up at the man holding him. He appeared much like all the other human’s Kalani had introduced him to. Briefly, Ralph wondered if he should test the waters.

Most of the males that held him often paid more attention to Kalani than him. It took him a while but soon Ralph realized it was part of some bizarre mating ritual his oversized human friend. They tended to act like they were interested in him but the second his mom turned her back they were shooing Ralph off to play. This one, however, seemed a bit more keen on looking at him. There was only one way to test the waters and Ralph knew how to do it. Blinking up with his almost overly large round eyes, Ralph faked a sleepy yawn. That always sparked an ‘ohh’ or ‘awww’ from the females of his mom’s species. Surreptitiously, Ralph let his head roll to the side a bit so that he fell off balance. This often would elicit some soothing comment if they were actually interested in him and not Kalani.

Jarred melted a little, cuddling with the little guy as he yawned. He kept he close and got behind his ear as he kept the small little pets. “Sleepy little guy.” he said as he beamed down holding the fox.

Okay human nice one but you would not be so silly as to drop me even if you didn’t like my mom. Let’s see how you do with the old teeth kisses hmmmm. Acting like he was going to curl up in Jarred’s arms, Ralph conveniently wrapped his teeth around Jarred’s thumb and bit down. Not hard enough to draw blood or even hurt. It was only a test to see how the guy reacted. Ralph rarely ever wanted to bite a human. He had no idea where a human’s hands had been. Half the time he did bite was out of self-preservation to hold on when the human began flailing about screaming that he was being bit. Most human’s were pretty tall and a five-foot fall did smart.

Ensign Kalani Kane, science

Seeing the fox use his teeth, he had enough pets in his days to notice when an animal was teasing and playful. Letting him put his teeth on him he encouraged the play as he put him on his belly giving him scratches yet keeping the hand ready for him to play. Jarred knew this type of fox could have a high level of energy in them and needed some stimulus.

Stop it. Stop it, Ralph squealed in delight. The sound was nothing more than a series of high pitched barks and growls but the way his were batting at Jarred’s fingers showed everyone that Ralph was loving the attention. It tickles, he let a long howl like sound as his ears laid back against his head and his tail swished quickly back and forth. Your killin’ me Bigs, he barked up at the human face staring down at him.

He kept playing with the fox before he remembered Kalani, “You said two guests right?” he said, almost forgetting the second one before playing with Ralph some more.

Alindor, CE

Ralph immediate stopped playing and laid stiff. He had been rather enjoying all the attention and now Kalani had to go about and ruin it bringing the hairless wonder out.

Gently pulling what looked like a wad of rubber gloves from a pocket, Kalani held her hands out cupped as one delicate wing extended followed by another. “This little lady is Maxine or Max for short,” Kalani introduced the fruit bat. “She is not of the Dracula variety and the strawberry jelly donut variety,” Kalani explained. Most people ohhed and ahhed over the fox but few people instantly took to a bat. That is why Kalani spent a bit more time with Max’s introduction than Ralphs.

“Maxine? Well you are full of surprises aren’t you Ms. Kane?” Jarred said, looking at at the small animal, keeping a tight hold on Ralph. He had been around animals all his life and was used to wiggling butts they might try to get attention.

Raising her head, Maxine looked up at Jarred with her light green eyes. Pleased to meet you, she blinked and settled back on Kalani’s hand looking at Jarred.

Pleased to meet you, Ralph mimicked Max reaching up with his paws towards Jarred’s face. Hey…Hey tickle man. More tummy less talkey,

Jarred smiled as Ralph played, taking his paws he gave them a small kiss before reaching out to gently pet Max. “She’s so gentle, how long have you had her?” he asked Kalani as he seemed to be beaming at the small animals.

Face it furball they all love my eyes, Max said leaning forward and taking a small step forward with one wing as if she was scared. She wasn’t. It was all a trick to gain attention. Aren’t you jealousy, Max said as she lifted her nose to touch Jarred’s outstretched finger.

Aren’t you nocturnal. Little early for you to be up ain’t it, Ralph turned his head towards the small bat in Kalani’s hand. Mom why did you have to bring out the bloodsucker, he barked not worrying about his place in space and slipping over the edge of Jarred’s hand.

Take that back! I eat fruit, Max said snapping her head down to look at Ralph as he tumbled over the edge of Jarred’s hand.

Ensign Kalani Kane, Science

“Ralph,” Kalani yelped and reached down to grab the tumbling fox. Her action caused Max to have to fly up to avoid tumbling out of her hand.

Jarred felt Ralph slipping before tightening on him, taking him in his hands he held the little guy close. “Wow little guy, don’t fall over the edge.” he said as he held the little guy close.

Kalani smiled seeing Jarred so fast on the draw. Most people, mainly the men, tended to juggle the falling critters like clubs at a Renaissance Festival. “Um maybe I should have come alone,” Kalani scratched her forehead slightly embarrassed.

“Don’t be silly little guy she is fine. Enough pizza for us all.” he said giving him more pets as he gave him scratches behind his ears.

Alindor, CE

“My mom warns me not to come full menagerie the first time I visit somewhere. I just kinda hoped I could sit back, have something to eat, watch a good movie,” Kalani sighed deeply and dropped her shoulders looking at Jarred a bit guilty. “Okay so I was going to say that was enough but it’s not. Jarred…Jarred I really wanted to show you my plans for my lab. I mean you are hot, funny, smart. You didn’t drop Ralph and gave me your donut. You are a great guy. I know it and I am all about finding how great but I am not an engineer. I have just spent the past three months working on a dream vivarium that everyone has told me can’t work. You are the first person that I think is going to tell me ‘yes babe. This is so doable,” she imitated some deep surfer type voice. “So since I came clean could you look at my plans over pizza and then we curl up and watch Star Wars,” she said digging through her backpack and handing him a PaDD. Kalani practically bounced from foot to foot like she had given Jarred a gift that she spent hours searching for.

Lt. Kalani Kane, science

“I mean… yes.” he said as he eyed her carefully. He didn’t mind finding a way to make her dream come true but he had to admit he hadn’t really expected the ambush . Still he grabbed the PaDD in hand and sat down, patting the couch for her to come next to him as he held close to Ralph. “Get the beer grab us some pizza and I will go over it.” he said as he read some of the plans.

“Has anyone told you that you rock,” Kalani said moving to the area where the replicator was housed. Ordering two plates she began to dish out the pizza. It surprised her to find that Alindor’s plates were not the boring standard issue white that came with most replicators. She didn’t know anything about him but plates like these meant one of three things. Jarred was attached to some partner that made design choices and he as a guy just went along with it. Jarred has some secret home interior design fetish. Jarred was still a momma’s boy. The middle she quickly ruled out. The state of his quarters, while perfectly acceptable for a male, was not clean enough for any woman to slap the stamp of ‘company ready’ to it. That left option one and three. If it was option one, then Kalani might have to rethink the barge in without a call first tactic. She would also have to set her mind in one way. Jarred as not classic Greek Adonis but he was ruggedly handsome with a great smile. He was also good with her animals which translated into possibly good father material. Since he had not talked about his mom once, she decided she could rule out number three. Plating the food, Kalani balanced the two meals on one hand and hooked the six pack of beer on a finger of the other hand as she made her way to the couch.

“Okay hit me with how easy peasy lemon squeezy this is going to be,” she said plopping down on the couch next to him. “My last vivarium only had two biomes essentially. I am looking to expand,” she said the last word in a humorous deep rumbling.

It seemed she wanted her lab to be almost living in some ways, a home to creepy crawlers, fliers, furries and more. “Now, you do now this will limit some of your lab space, it doesn’t seem too bad but I can’t build inwards, only outwards. Which means you may have to loose some lab equipment, or at least I will have to find creative ways to hide it.” he said, wondering the best approach to said task.

“Equiptment shwimpment,” she waved off his concern. “As a biologist, my job is to observe what the animals and plants can do on their own provided I set up the initial conditions correctly. That is where you come in. All I need is a path between the cages that is a little larger than my shoulder width apart and a console to store my data. The rest of the room is yours,” she said wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Napkins,” she said jumping up and heading back towards the replicator.

Jarred gave a small grunt as he thought about that, she was giving him an interesting set of parameters. He could have hanging ornithology areas for birds, floor could have colonies for an entomology area. She could even have some areas for aquatic life to study ichthyology. Those were some of the more uncommon fields, most people wanted the cute fury creatures but birds, fish, and insects didn’t always meet said criteria. Kalani seemed the type to want all of it, and it gave him an interesting challenge to say the least.

His mind a flutter Jarred began to think of the best ways to do as he said, there could be a modular floor setting, or ceiling. he also could go somewhat into the walls, but he was indeed limited. Still creative usage of space was always a fun task as he put the PaDD down and grabbed a slice of pizza. “Now are you wanting them all to inter mingle? That could cause a few issues but I can let them see in their worlds easily, but to keep controlled environments I can’t allow cross-contamination, that is the point of these correct?” he said as he took a bite, taking a pepperoni off he gave it to Ralph to have.

Alindor, CE

I love you. I mean we dudes need to stick together, Ralph though scurrying up on Jarred’s armrest with his tasty morsel. Quickly eating it he turned and looked at the human with the food. Oh yes…you and I are going to be great friends, he barked at Jarred wagging his tail a bit in anticipation. Kalani always added lots of meat to the thing she called pizza and Jarred seemed to be more than willing to share.

Jarred smiled at the small fur-ball, giving him playful scritches behind his ear he gave him a piece of sausage as well to munch on. He was cute, Jarred couldn’t deny as he enjoyed playing with the little guy.

“Yes but I want them to move about freely to an extent. You are right though, managing water salinity, humidity, temperature, and pressure will be the biggest obstacles. My secret goal is to great one massive biome that spans from polar to tropical and introduce non-native species to an area. That will show us what we can and can’t do safely in an environment. Computers can extrapolate all darn day but that doesn’t mean we won’t get a surprise or two now and then. Want more,” pointed to his empty plate and stood up. Normally Kalani would just dump the box on the coffee table in front of them but with Ralph running around it was better to bring them food than take the chance of fox feet traipsing though sticky cheese.

Ensign Kalani Kane. science

Jarred nodded a the suggestion of more pizza before he continued. “Well each zone they could move in, but when trying to maintain homeostasis you don’t want the animals crossing into other regions. What’s fine for a Risan marmot might be deadly to a Vulcan tree cat. To let them wander freely would require each creature to be decontaminated before they went into a new zone. That can be done, but I am not sure you want to keep doing that over and over to the animals, in many ways it might ruin the study but having them need to interact with technology so much. With that said, I can certainly make it so each biosphere has plenty of animals that can intermingle that belong in the same zone. That way you can see a sure eco-culture for them all.” Jarred suggested, as he watched as she went to get the pizza smiling as she did.

“Now, don’t get me wrong, they can all intermingle, I am just saying it may cause more issues for you than help is all.” he said as he took a large bite before taking several pieces of meat and gave them to Ralph as well before gently giving him small scratches under his chin.

Alindor, CE

“Okay you understand this,” she pointed at the PaDD and made a swirling gesture with her hand. The expression on her face indicated she was not talking about the engineering aspect.

“Don’t get me wrong but you seem to have a grasp on biodiversity that goes well above the average Joe. I am not going to hold it against you but,” Kalani tucked her legs up under her body and turned to face Alindor. Leaning her head up on one hand on the back of the couch she smiled at him. “Did you Gaggle or Bang zoology 101 after we met at the requisition depot or did you really know all of this?” If he replied that he had banged for hours after meeting her, Kalani would have found it endearing. If Alindor was one of those ultra-smart nerdy types, she might have to watch how much she drank.

“Honestly, a little bit of both. I admit I had to brush up a little to make certain I had all the facts right, but I used to do this on the Starbase I grew up. You’d be surprised how many critters get lost on a starbase. I would often make cages and keep them. So I gaggled and banged my way into knowing how these things work. I did a little bit want to impress you with all I remembered I confess.” he said, smiling at her he couldn’t help but feel a slight need to impress her more and more.

Pawing at his arm, Ralph tried to get Alindor’s attention. There was plenty of pizza on his plate and since his Mom started talking and Jarred stopped reading the morsel’s were getting slower and slower. Reaching up Ralph decided maybe his buddy needed a paw to the chest. Unfortunately the span was just large enough that he missed Jarred’s body and plummeted face first into the crack between the cushion and Jarred’s body.

Ensign Kalani Kane, Science

“Wow!” Jarred said as he quickly got Ralph, he didn’t mean to let the little guy go tumbling. “Come here little man…” he said as he petted him and held him closer. “What do you think little man? Want more?” he said as he grabbed a bit more meat for him as he kept rubbing him gently.

Alindor, CE

“You don’t need to eat Jarred’s pizza,” Kalani said. “Let me get your dinner.” Kalani stood up and walked to the replicator as Ralph scurried up Jarred’s body and around his neck. Curling his tail around his throat like a protective scarf, Ralph pretended to go to sleep. There would be times later for leftovers.

“Oh come one,” Kalani said returning with the plate of wet dog food. “You eat this all the time. Don’t act like you are not hungry because you are going to be hungry in an hour and I am not giving you anything but kibble,” she said to the small animal around Jarred’s neck.

Dropping the plate on the table she took a knee next to Jarred. “Let me remove your neck brace,” she said reaching for the fennec fox.

Ensign Kalani Kane, Science

“I got him hon.” he said, gently getting Ralph off of him as he gently laid him near the bowl to let the little guy have more. “He is a sweet animal, where did you find him?” Jarred asked her as he rubbed Ralphs head as he talked to Kalani. “As a well as Maxine, I hadn’t seen much of her yet.”

Alindor, CE