Posted by Captain Julien King (Captain) in On board the Merry

He gave her a lopsided smile and nodded, looking at the ceramic dagger she had pulled out of her formidable bosom. By gods, if somebody tried to search her there, he was not sure he wouldn’t intervene.

The shuttle sensors show that physically, the species were similar to humans. The only difference was their faces. They only had nostrils but no noses. They did not appear to have ear lobes. (Think of Voldemort with hair and eyebrows but no ears.) The were bipedal and were on average about 15% taller than the average European human. From the scans, the majority of the crew were also broad shouldered and well built. Internally, they had two stomachs and two two-chambered hearts: one heart dealing with the oxygenating of blood and the other dealing with the rest of the body. Due to the lack of earlobes, the species did not have great sensitivity to sound. They had, however, had a heightened sense of smell. Their olfactory systems were very well developed with twice the number of nerves than humans. They were also able to smell with their fingertips. This suggested that they would be able to detect changes in temperature and sweat just by their fingertips. It was probably due to this that the species all wore gloves over their hands. The gloves had detachable tips for the fingers.

The shuttle sensors also showed that the majority of the equipment were metallic, mainly titanium, steel and nickel. Their clothing were made of materials that were similar to kevlar and other fire resistant chemicals.

They came into close sensor range and he looked at Sage and David to see what the sensors revealed.

• Julien King, CO

Sage looked at the readings as she spoke over her shoulder to Julien and the rest of the team. “They are humanoid and bipedal. On average, they are approximately 15% taller than humans, with broad shoulders.” Here she looked up at the security officers. “If anything untoward happens, you two might get a run for your money.”

NE Whyso Sirius and NE Thupa Therial traded a look at that, glad now that Lt. McGregor had chosen them over some of the slighter Security officers.

Green eyes turned back to the scan information. “Internally there are a few differences also. They have two stomachs and two hearts. Now this is odd…” Sage looked directly at Julien, her brows furrowed. “I’m not sure this is accurate, but if what I’m reading here is correct, our new friends can smell us with their hands…they appear to have a much more sensitive olfactory system than we do, probably twice as developed, plus the added bonus of being able to touch someone and pick up changes like temperature variances and minute particles of sweat.” Giving everyone a moment to absorb the info, Sage drew in a deep breath and gave one last piece of advice. “It would probably be wise to avoid touching them whenever possible.”

—Sage

Marishka tucked the dagger back in it’s place as she listened to Sage. She frowned a bit at what the Doctor had said but there was literally nothing she could do about her pheromones. She could calm them down, but not switch them off. No amount of Vulcan, or any other type of meditation could accomplish that.

• Marishka, CIO

Julien nodded at Sage and then he gave Marishka a concerned look. “We’ll see how they react to you and take it from there.” he said.

David had been oddly quiet throughout the journey. He nodded as Sage gave the report on the biology of the species. “I agree.” He said in affirmation, but offered little more than that.

When the shuttle door was finally able to be opened, the away team was greeted by a group of eight. The Admiral was obvious as he was the only one with a lot of decorations on his clothes. He was flanked by a man and a woman, who were in clothing with less decorations. Behind them were five in fatigues. It was obvious that they had some kind of energy weapon in their holsters.

“Welcome to the PG Merry, the flagship of the Pallas Global Corps,” greeted the Admiral who had his right hand over his chest.

GM

COS
As NEs Whyso Sirius and Thupa Therial

As the group assembled, David stayed towards the back, trying to blend in and not make eye contact with the Admiral, or anyone in his party. Riley would not doubt be able to sense his anxiousness and it was almost as if David was trying to block his mind from Riley’s probing, something the two men had never experienced before.

Sage walked beside David as they exited the shuttle. Since she was always observing people for signs of illness, she noticed his unusual actions. David was usually very self aware, confident and relaxed. At the moment, he was avoiding eye contact (a first) and trying not to be noticed. She spoke quietly. “Hey, what’s going on with you?” Totally unaware he was trying to block out Riley, she thought he might have become ill on the trip over.

—Sage

Those without telepathic abilities, and those that knew him well enough, might be able to spot David’s discomfort and unease.

-David Michaels, CSO

OOC: James, could you send me back the email I sent you some time back regarding your character’s knowledge? I lost the file where I stored those data. Thanks in advance.

Kenson

Rear Admiral Clogtho was a tall individual. He was about 2.2 metres tall. As he was the tallest of all the people in the bay, to say that he oversaw his subordinates can also be used literally. His physical stance showed that he trained his body well, although one could see that he was a little thick in his middle due to his age. He had a kind of hat on his head. It was unlike the ones worn by the others, emphasising that he stood out from the rest.

GM

Julien was tall himself, but not that tall. He looked up and instead of offering his hand for a handshake - a very human custom anyhow - he inclined his head shortly and smiled.

“She’s a fine ship Admiral Clogtho. Thank you for welcoming us. I’m Captain Julien King and these are my senior officers. Lt. Marishka, Chief of Intelligence, Lt. Dekker
second officer, Lt. Sage Chief Medical Officer and Lt. Michaels Chief of Science. As you can see we are partly from different species, that’s because the United Federation of Planets, which we’re all part of is a federation of peaceful planets that prefer to do commerce and exploration to doing war.” he said.

At the same time he turned up the sensory input of his right android ear and his nose to hear and smell closer to the level of their hosts, trying to discern what they heard and smelled.

• Julien King, CO

Riley had tucked the extra communicator underneath his jacket as suggested by the security officers and now stood just to the side of the Captain, a friendly smile on his face. He knew David was trying to block his empathic senses from reading too much. It was a disconcerting feeling coming from the man who had long been open to him, but he ignored it as best he could. His attention was on the company before him. This was his first chance to sense anything from the aliens and the anxiety he’d sensed from David made him keenly curious to gain a handle on their new acquaintances.

Dekker, CNS