After chatting with Ezol for a few more minutes and learning more about the city, the night was calm but flew by. Martinez learned of good places to eat and where he could buy groceries. Martinez left Ezol to close up his store, and after a short stop by what was essentially a bodega for some staple foods, he had returned to his new home.

The following morning, Martinez loathed the shrill buzzing of his alarm clock. Regardless of his belief that he would pay for them, he did not want to worm his way out of the warm silk blankets he had nested deep inside. After wrestling with the siren call of sleep, he managed to drag himself out of bed and start the day.

The crisp morning air of the city did little to help Martinez wake up since, while on his grocery run the previous night, he failed to find one essential item. An item anyone working in the military or medical field needed to start the day; Coffee. The lifeblood of his mornings for the last five long years, one cup at a time. Ever since Martinez joined the Navy, he had seldom, if ever not, started his days with a soothing hot cup of joe.

In a dreary caffeine-absent haze, he stumbled to the Trauma Center on base, dreaming of when that black gold was steaming in his mug. The interior of the Trauma Center was exactly as he could vaguely remember it looking like, at least from what little of it he saw nearly an entire Earth year ago.

A pristine white twenty-meter-high dome, bright lights evenly spaced along its arch. Lined evenly along the walls were the trauma rooms. All their sliding glass doors were wide open, revealing the well-made beds and cabinets filled with medical equipment. Centered inside the Trauma Centers' dome was a circle of gray desks. Placed atop them were the shining blue projected screens the nurses and doctors use to fill out treatment logs and patient records.

Seated behind those screens and idly tapping away on them were two aliens. One looked as if someone had grafted the skin of a naked mole rat onto a gorilla and then slapped some blue scrubs onto it.

While the other looked like a child-sized bird, it had vibrant feathers that shifted from bright greens near its beak into flaring yellow at the tip of its four wings. It chirped a happy tune from atop the chair it used as a perch.

“Ah, Human Martinez, good morning,” Martinez heard from across the room. He looked up and saw Doctor Harnsis fluttering from his office towards him; the alien doctor's vibrant green chiton shimmered beneath his lab coat.

“Good morning, Doc,” Martinez yawned.

Landing in front of Martinez, the doctor's eyes locked in on his. If not for his sluggish state, Martinez would have likely felt a bit more awkward about the intense stare, but he just figured it was the doctor being slightly odd again.

“Human Martinez, are you alright? You have periorbital edema and are oscitating,” Harnsis chittered as he leaned closer toward Martinez. The doctor's mandibles shifted and snapped in curiosity as he examined the sluggish Human.

The gears in Martinez’s brain struggled to think and ground together, desperately trying to figure out what the doctor had just said. His fogged brain failed to extract any meaning behind the technical terms.

“Doc, it's too early for technical terms. Can you say that again?” Martinez groaned.

“You look tired. Did you not sleep?” He chittered.

“ I didn't get any coffee this morning and couldn't find any last night. I'm just not fully awake yet," Martinez said while attempting to wipe sleep from his eyes.

The doctor leaned back and rubbed two hands on his mandibles, “Coffee? If I remember, that is a stimulant drink, and you Humans use it often as some kind of morning ritual,” he said enthusiastically.

A morning ritual? That is one way to put it, Martinez thought as he nodded at the doctor's explanation.

The doctor's odd mannerisms and descriptions of Human culture were things Martinez was starting to expect. Especially after listening to the doctor gush for what felt like hours the previous night, going on and on about each and every item that he acquired to make Martinez feel welcome. With how much the doctor knew about the history of each item, Martinez would not be surprised if the doctor told him he would write a book about them.

“Don't worry about it. I just need a little while to wake up,” Martinez said with a half-hearted chuckle.

“Very well then, Human Martinez. I am looking forward to getting to work with you. Go ahead and find a seat, and get to know your new coworkers. Oh, before I forget, I have selected a mentor to help you adjust to your new environment. I'm certain you and her will get along well,” Harnsis chittered happily.

“You got it, Doc. I will see you later,” Martinez replied before turning and slumping into an unoccupied seat.

Just as Martinez was starting to log into the workstation in front of him, he heard loudly announced from the direction of the two aliens, “So you are Harnsis’ new mate.''

Martinez swiveled in the chair to face the sound. The two aliens on the other side of the workstations scooted their chairs closer to him and looked him up and down for some reaction.

“I’m his. what now?” Martinez questioned, hoping he had misheard the last statement.

“His mate,” the bird-like alien chirped. “Isn’t that right, Ivorn?” it said while poking the bulky alien next to it with one of its wing claws.

“Yeah, Harnsis has not shut up about you and Humans for months,” Ivorn boomed. The alien's deep, gravelly voice filled the entire room.

He leaned back on his chair, the plastic frame creaking under the strain. “I don't see what is so special about you. You look downright punny,” Ivor continued with a smirk. He crossed his arms, his loose skin stretching tight around his forearms, revealing layers of dense muscle.

Martinez could hardly imagine what the doctor told them about him and Humanity, especially with the doctor's tendency to be borderline obsessed with Humans.

Martinez eyed the two of them and was not sure if these two were serious or not. From his time dealing with Human Marines, he was all too familiar with a culture of messing with the new guy, having been on both ends of messing with or being messed with multiple times. Martinez’s somewhat sluggish and caffeine-desperate brain almost instinctively decided to roll with it and treat his new co-workers like any of the Marines by calling them on their bluff.

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“Uhh, sorry,” Martinez said, feigning embarrassment. “The Doc did seem to be a bit excited to be around me, but I swear I am not the Doctor’s, mate.”

The two aliens glanced at each other and then back at Martinez, an awkward tension built between the two groups as they looked each other over for some kind of reaction. That tension snapped like a rubber band when the bird-like alien started to make a sound halfway between laughter and a tin can being forced through a trash disposal.

“I like you, new guy. At least you can take a joke. I’m Therin, by the way,'' the creature said after catching its breath. Shortly after, it seemed to have realized something. “Oh yeah, you are Male, right? I have a bet with old Ivorn here,” Therin said while leaning forward on the chair.

“Yeah, I am a Male,” Martinez confirmed.

“Score, I told you so, Ivorn. Pay up,” the bird-like alien chirped happily and proudly puffed up the bright feathers on their chest.

“Fine, I owe you lunch.” Ivorn groaned as he looked over at Therin.

Ivorn then looked back towards Martinez. “Hopefully, you turn out better than the last guy. Shiksie sent him packing, with his tail between his legs only after a few days on the job,” he said with a smile.

Therin’s head snapped back to Martinez, a much less pronounced laugh coming from the tiny bird. “Oh yeah, she is going to be so pissed. She will still be the only female on the shift,” he said.

“Who is Shiksie? And she did what?” Martinez questioned.

Both Ivorn and Therin started to laugh without missing a beat. Martinez could quickly tell this type of laughter. He had seen it several times since he became a non-commissioned officer. It wasn’t a laugh when someone told a funny joke, nor was it the laughter you would see from a group enjoying something together. This was the same type of laughter he and the other NCOs would share when they were about to send a new guy into a situation he could not win, where that poor fool was the only one out of the joke.

That knowledge let a slight twinge of worry run freely in his chest. Martinez could not imagine what they had planned for him. When he was around Humans, he could relatively guess, here amidst these aliens, the possibilities were as vast as the universe.

“She is who Harnsis has assigned to be your mentor,” Ivorn said with a snide grin.

“Oh, come on, can you at least tell me something about what she did?” Martinez pleaded.

“Not a chance. It will be funny to see how you react to her. We had to go through it, and so do you. You are her fresh meat, after all,” Therin squawked.

Just great, Martinez thought.

He now fully understood how this wouldn’t be some special advisory position like command had initially sold him. He was being placed firmly back on the bottom of the totem pole with someone who, by the sounds of it, was going to act like some hard-charging sergeant.

Martinez could not help but wonder if this might be a punishment from the Navy. Ever since Verilon, he had been distant and short with the newer Marines, not wanting to be close to others who likely would die on their next deployment. He could not help but think Command had gotten tired of hearing complaints about him yelling at privates for doing something stupid.

“Oh, would you look who it is? Best of luck, buddy,” Ivorn said while gesturing behind Martinez.

Spinning around in the chair, Martinez nearly jumped out of his skin. Standing within arms reach was a feline-like alien. She stood about three meters tall. Any part of her body that wasn’t covered by scrubs had thin, bluish-grey fur, with a few darker spots running up her arms. Her long tail hung down and lightly swayed against the ground behind her. She had a lithe build that reminded Martinez somewhat of a gymnast.

She stared down at Martinez. Two bright emerald eyes narrowed and focused on him. Their slitted irises were as sharp as razors and cut into Martinez’s soul. The edges of her thin lips slightly curled into what looked like an uncomfortable attempt at a smile, revealing her sharp fangs. Her predatory grin and the fact that she had gotten so close to him without making any sound unsettled Martinez.

“Uhh, hi, I'm Martinez. I assume you are Shiksie?” He said as he nervously shifted and extended his hand toward her.

Her large cat-like ears twitched and focused in front of her, and her eyes slowly shifted to look at his extended hand. Then her focus darted back up and over Martinez at Ivorn and Therin.

“Don't you two have anything better to do right now?” She said in a soft, flowing voice.

“Yeah, we were just meeting the new guy,” Ivorn and Therin said in near-perfect unison. Martinez focused on the woman before him, not wanting to willingly give his back to anything that moved as silently as she did.

Therin and Ivorn shuffled away and spoke to one another in hushed tones once the sound of them faded. Shiksie’s eyes snapped back down to him, and a jolt of fear shot through him like a gun from the intensity she looked at him.

“You can put your hand away,” Shiksie said while tilting her head.

“I was just trying to be polite,” Martinez said awkwardly before he retracted his hand.

“Don't bother. Even if Harnsis recommends you, I have yet to see any reason to believe that you will thrive here,” she said coldly as she lowered herself into another chair.

Shiksie pulled out a datapad and started to flick through it with her clawed fingers. After she found whatever she was looking for, she handed it over to Martinez—then turned to the workstation in front of her.

“That is a listing and details of the major species of this station. Start studying them,” Shiksie said flatly. Her attention stayed firmly on the workstation. Martinez noted she shifted slightly as she sat as if she was full of energy despite her glacial demeanor.

Martinez looked down at the datapad and started to scroll through the list. Thousands of species were outlined and separated by classification of general physiology or their rarity class within the GU. Martinez was overwhelmed by the amount of information presented and had no idea where to start.

“Uh, what do you want me to study about them?” Martinez questioned.

Shiksie let out a long sigh and kept flicking through pages on her workstation as she spoke, “What are you some kit? Those were simple instructions. Study them, learn them. I'm not going to hold your hand,” she said in an annoyed tone.

“Can you give me more guidance than that?” he asked.

She stood up and gestured for him to follow. “Fine, if that's what you need,” Shiksie said as she started to walk towards one of the doors of the open trauma rooms.

Martinez got up and started to follow her. Once they reached the open door, she turned back and leaned over until her face was centimeters away from his. She placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Stand right here and start reading over each of them. I will be quizzing you on them later. That is all you will do until I say you are good enough. Do you understand?” She whispered in an icy, hushed tone.

“What that can't—” Martinez started to say but was cut off when her long claws dug slightly into his shoulder.

“Do you understand, little Human?” She hissed into his ear, her warm breath flowing across his neck. His heart began to race as she pushed her claws slightly harder into his skin.

“I understand,” Martinez said in a panicked stutter, not wanting to anger the large feline further, especially with her claws centimeters from his neck.

She stood up, releasing him from her grasp. She gave him a gentle smile before turning around and sauntered back towards her terminal.

What the fuck was that? Martinez thought as his racing heart tried to calm itself down. Her claws and cold, predatory tone sent his body into a primal fear almost as bad as when he met the Director.

“Don't worry, new guy. Shiksie did the same thing to me,” Therin said as he walked past him carrying what looked like some fresh bed sheets.

Martinez gave him a short nod and felt thankful that at least two of his new co-workers seemed to understand that working with other species was entirely new to him. He also felt relieved that this was some kind of initiation or hazing. It wasn’t specific to him.

This can't last forever. I just have to prove myself, Martinez thought.