Ship life

Doctor Bachir’s tour likely wasn’t as good as Karega’s would have been. The grizzled man definitely wasn’t a conversationalist, but he still managed to make the long silences not feel awkward. A rare skill Alwen envied. What little conversation there was, was short and to the point.

“Where’s the crew, Karega said there was about one thousand of them?”

“Shore leave” he grunted.

“And what is a typical day in the med bay like?”

“Not too bad, though the whole crew is full of stubborn asses. Won’t leave their post even if they melt their arm off, so we have make ‘house calls’ sometimes”

“Has that happened before?” Alwen asked in alarm.

“Yup, Kevin’s the head snipe in the engine room. Burst cooling pipe took his left arm past the shoulder. His subordinates had to call me away to take care of him, still refused to leave his precious reactors. So I called a maareen to gag him with chloroform and drag him to the med bay” he explained as they entered the mess deck. A large room where the most divine smells wafted out of the kitchen.

“I’m sorry I don’t know that word, what’s a maareen?” she asked, butchering the word.

His ears twitched and he glanced over his large shoulders at her “That’s a Terran word, no equivalent in galactic common. I guess you could best relate them to a ship security force, but that doesn’t really cover the breadth of what they are. You will being seeing plenty of them” he promised.

“Do maareens get hurt often”

“Yes” he grunted “Doing the dumbest stuff too. A bored maareen is a dangerous one. They’ll push too hard in their training, or come up with dangerous contests to prove who has the biggest testicles. Though the handstand marathon around the ship was fun to see, deck apes weren’t too happy about that. ‘A bunch of sweaty maareens mucking up their good floors.’ They wouldn’t stop complaining until Alice gave one a black eye with just a flick of her tail.” he was grinning now as they approached the kitchen.

Alwen wanted to ask about that last part , but she didn’t get the chance.

“Hey butch!” Bachir roared into the back, cutting off Alwen’s question.

“What you furry brown ass” a brassy female voice called back from somewhere within the kitchen.

“Come out and meet the new girl, and behave yourself, she’s a holy women”

A large powerfully built human women with shorn deep purple hair emerged and leaned on the counter. Her thick biceps were covered in unnatural whirls and colors of a very detailed tattoo. Tattoos were common in Torweni culture, but only for ceremonial or religious appointments, and they weren’t the work of art that this human female was sporting. On one arm she saw nine distinct levels of art, each displaying a different realm of suffering. On the other there were winged Terrans on clouds playing strange stringed instruments. And she wore a weird ruffled white hat, and was holding a massive curved meat cleaver “So a holy women eh, like a nuun or a monk” she said drying her hand on a towel she them tossed over her shoulder.

“I’m not sure what the first word was, but all doctors on Torwen are sworn to the goddess of healers, Ashendra.”

“That’s not a celibate order I hope,” she said looking Alwen up and down.

Heat bloomed across her face “ah…um, no but I just got on board, I would prefer to settle in first” she chirped.

Butch boomed with laughter “Relax kid, I’m not gonna take you right here in my kitchen, that would be unsanitary.”

Well at she had her priorities straight, though the whole offer surprised her. Alwen hadn’t even had a first kiss, casual sex with an alien was defiantly not on her list of space adventures she’d dreamed about.

Brushing off the awkward moment Butch put her hand out “I’m Adela”

Alwen took her hand and shook it, “I thought doctor Bachir called you ‘Butch’”

“Nickname, every sailor worth their salt earns on. It’s a mark of being part of the crew, the old salts like the Bosun earn a few over their years. They call be ‘Butch’ ‘cuz I can wield a cleaver like a color guard twirler” she said with a sloppy grin.

“Oh I see, it would make sense for a chef to be named after a butcher” she said seeing the logic behind the name.

Her grin faded a little and Alwen worried she missed some sort of joke before the burly chef broke into an infectious laugh. Even Doctor Bachir joined in. “‘Doc, pass the word onto to the rest of the lads, no one is to explain why they really call me Butch. Bones here is too precious to corrupt” she said through the laughter.

Alwen quirked her head to the side “Bones?” she said before she thought more of it. the other part flying right over her head.

“Ya got them protruding bones on your face, Plus it used to be an old term for doctor, saw bones. Be a shame to have a new ‘doc like you aboard and not use it” she said, regaining a little composure.

Doctor Bachir grinned “Yes that would work well.”

“I’m confused” Alwen said, completely out of the loop.

“You’ve just earned your first nickname, congrats” she said patting Alwen on the shoulder.

Alwen glanced down at the cooks arm and frowned as she saw the depiction of many unpleasant torments. “What’s with the tatoos.”

Bachir groaned and the cooks grin grew wider. “Cuz with one arm I can send you down to hell” She said as she made a fist, “and with the other I’ll bring you up to heaven.” This time she made a very suggestive motion with her fingers that told Alwen what kind of heaven she was referring too.

Before Alwen could ask anything else a chirping sound started in the kitchen. “That’s my rice, I’ll put two plates out in a ‘sec, and Bones” she said over her shoulder “My offer still stands, just knock three time on door 118, first sub-deck.” And left.

A minute later two steaming plates were set out and she and the Doctor sat down to eat. Salmon apparently was a pink Terran fish that nearly melted on Alwen’s tongue, they had to simulate it use ‘soft meat’ stock, a universal protein supplement that could be flavored and textured, since they couldn’t source Terran fish this far from their homeworld. Why Butch needed a meat cleaver for what was essentially a plant based meat paste was beyond Alwen.

The rest of the tour went smoothly. She was shown her room in the ships inner section, subdeck 3 room 57. One floor above the officers level. It was pretty spacious, and the bed could have fit three Alwens, or one and half Butches. The crewmen’s ‘rec deck’ wasn’t far from her room and Doctor Bachir who lived next to her promised that it would get loud. But people had to blow off steam somehow or they would go mad on long journeys. Attached to the rec deck was the ship’s gym. Treadmills and ellipticals lined one wall while the rest of the space was filled dumbbell and other exercise machines that all needed to be carefully secured in case of hard maneuvers. A side section was dedicated to something called yohgah and another section of gym was cordoned off with black and yellow stripes. Bachir explained how they were a Terran marker of danger and caution, in this case they warned people that anything beyond that area had its gravity set to five times Earth’s gravity for enhanced training.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

The exterior sections of the ship was where the more extraneous rooms were, four machine shops filled with welders, lathes, and precision CNC machines, were adjacent to engineering but accessible to the ‘deck apes’, whatever those were. Bachir used a lot of terms that were very strange to her, best she could tell a deck ape was just someone who cleaned the floors endlessly. The exterior section of the first sub-deck had windowed rooms with many alien plants where she look out into the busy hanger core of Femeri station. It was another luxury for crew sanity, the plants and windows helped them feel a little less restless on long journeys. She had heard from her older brother Kalwen that on Torwen some navy submarines had small pools for the crew to exercise and relax in. Storerooms, lockers and armories were scattered about the ship at regular intervals, and Doctor Bachir took Alwen into the armory and explained each of the small arms and tactical blades despite her protests of nonviolence.

“All crew members are expected to know how to use these and repel boarders. Though it’s never been an issue before. I respect that you have taken an oath of nonviolence, but if the ship is boarded all hands are expected to repel boarders. An enemy won’t hesitate to shoot you even if you are sworn to nonviolence, to them you’re a threat that must be eliminated.” he said bruskly, his tone broached no argument. He then showed her how to hold, reload, and aim a hand pistol.

After that he took her to the back portion of the ship where engineering was located. Buring their visit to engineering Alwen got her first face to face with one of the deck ape she had been hearing about. She was surprised to note that the big broad shouldered man in stainless white robes was not an actual ape, or at least not like the few she had seen so far. It seemed that the term deck ape was a more derogatory one than she had first expected. The big man guarded the door to engineering and instructed her to remove her clean shoes and put on hard steal toed boots

“Is it for protection?” she asked the man.

“You could say.” He said in a thick drawl. “I don’t give a danm about your feet, you’re a doctor, you can triage your own foot if you skewer it on a nail. But if you track that trans-uranic engine coolant across our good floors, Highland will personally flay my ass. Then you’ll have to triage me there ‘cuz there’s no way I’d walk after that. Might even need to retire early from disability” the man said crassly before ushering them into engineering.

Before Alwen passed, she gave the deck ape a quick glance. For such a large man he seemed utterly terrified of this ‘Bosun’ man they called Highland. Alwen dreaded meeting such a person

Doctor Bachir pulled out some ear plugs and handed them to Alwen while he placed large earmuffs over his ears. She was confused why he didn’t use plugs as well but then realized that they wouldn’t work for his larger ears. Even the earmuffs looked strange on him.

The moment the door opened she instantly realized why he had ear protection prepared. They entered a cavernous section of the ship that likely took up a whole third of the vessels space, the scattered machine shops were practically janitor’s closets when compared to the massive machines at play in here. Several men in hazmat suits were power washing some machinery Alwen didn’t recognize while a heavy looking exo-suit was lifting several ton pipes into place for a team of engineers to bolt back into place. The fumes within the space tickled Alwens nose, not noxious, but certainly not natural.

Doctor Bachir turned to her and signed using universal hand signs, a subset of common used for people and species who couldn’t communicate verbally. He slowly signed out the words, “need-to-make-regular-trips-here-stop-S-N-I-P-E-S-like-to-cut-corners-stop-not-safe-cuts-stop” he had to spell out the word SNIPES as there wasn’t really a word for it in common. Alwen understood from the context that snipe must be another derogatory term for engineer.

After engineering the tour was pretty much done, the rest she would need to see in her own time. He told her to get some rest because shore leave ended tomorrow and that meant they would be busy. She set her head on the pillow and was out in a second, the day wasn’t physically exhausting, but her mind was completely spent.

She had been hoping to get more familiar with all the cool looking lab equipment she had seen in the med-bay. But after a long four day shuttle ride to Femeri, and all the chaos of the day general, she knew that she wouldn’t remember a single thing Bachir would say. She walked to her room and saw that someone had laid a medium size crate against her door. She bent over to inspect it and saw that it was the small bundle of clothes and the canister of tea leaves she had brought with her. The Icutoo shuttle pilots had said that it was going through customs and would be delivered to the Astaroth for her. She opened her door and slid the box into her cabin, she considered unpacking and organizing, but the soft looking bed was too hard to resist. She had promised that she would just shut her eyes for a second, but the moment her head touched the pillow she was out cold by 1900 ship time.

She likely would have slept the through the whole next day, but at exactly 0800 ship time a wailing cry blasted through her room a woke her in a panic. She feared that something was going horribly wrong because the noise was like the shredding of metal. Her mind was filled with the mental image of the ship cracking in half. She burst out of room undressed to see what was happening, and barreled into something white and fuzzy, but solid like a boulder.

“Woah there purple, you ohkay” a woman’s voice said as she caught Alwen before she fell to the ground.

“I’m fine, but I think the ship is under attack. Something’s tearing through the hull!” Alwen gasped still held in the woman’s firm grasp. The woman in question must have been another ‘uplifted’ Terran, though Alwen could tell she wasn’t a Ursiloid like Bachir. Her face was shorter and more angular than Bachir’s, and ears were bigger. Her mouth was full of long sharp teeth, and she was covered in a fine white fur with irregular black spots.

Both of the woman’s ears twisted a little in apparent confusion before she cracked an open mouthed grin like Bachir had and chuckled. Her face was also largely more expressive than Bachir’s, almost human or Torweni like. “Those are called bahgpiepss, they’re the Bosun’s wake up call for the crew. A ‘gift’ from his own native Skoht-lahnd. Crazed Skohtt even made tarrtahn robes, ugliest things I ever saw.” She said amusedly before glancing down to Alwen. “Now as nice as a pawful of tit is, you’re not my type purple.” She said with a squeeze of her big paw that had gripped her in a rather awkward position.

Alwen squeaked, partially from embarrassment, and also from the surprise at feeling little pin pricks on her chest from the women’s claws, “oh I’m so sorry” she said her face flushing deeply as she stood up and covered her bare chest with her arms.

“Its fine, were both ladies after all, and I’m not into girls so its platonic.” She chuckled before making a wry grin “I guess your people never invented the brah huh.” She said.

“A,ah, What?”

“A brahzee-air” she said slowly before she spelled it in hand signs B-R-A-S-S-I-E-R-E.

“Um no” she said still confused.

She pulled the flap of her robes to the side to show Alwen a strange black strap across her chest. “It’s a human invention, sort sucks with fur but it’s very handy for keeping the gals in place and out of the way. Plus men find them attractive, something about covering them up makes guys want it more”

“It seems painful” Alwen said slowly, not sure how to address the strange article of clothing, or the fact that the Mammaloid women had breasts similar to hers despite not being human or Torweni.

Alwen still wasn’t sure how to talk about the Uplifted, and had refrained from asking more questions during her tour with Bachir. A part of her couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable about the idea of taking an innocent animal and warping it to fit a different species definition of beauty or intelligence, let alone whole species like the Humans apparently had.

The women had continued while Alwen’s mind strayed for a bit. “It is at first, but you get used to it. This is a sports bra, its extra tight for performance. Most are a little looser and fancier.” She said with another open-mouthed grin before turning her head to the side to look up the hall “Now I don’t particularly mind, but if any of the guys walk by they’ll get an eye full, and you’ll be the talk of the ship for days.” She rebuked.

Alwen’s embarrassment at standing naked in the halls remembered she bolted back into her room and buried her face into her hands. How embarrassing, walking around shirtless might be fine for islander women, but Alwen was most certainly not comfortable with that. And judging from the fact that she had yet to see a shirtless Terran she assumed they would share her sense of decency in that regard.

After a few seconds of self pity, a knock came on the door. “Yes” Alwen called through the door.

“Its me still” said the voice of the white furred woman “You’re the new doctor right?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m Alwen Djani” Alwen said back through the door

“ I’m Alice, good to meet you.” Their was a pause, “Would like to walk to the mess deck with me?” she asked.

Alwen thought for a moment, indecent exposure aside, Alice had been very nice, and Alwen should start making friends if she was going to be here for a while. She didn’t want to be a workaholic loner again like she had been on Torwen. “Yah, just let me get dressed.”

“Kay”

Alwen dressed in a whirlwind of cloth and limbs and quickly brushed out her short hair before she rejoined Alice.

“Ah wonderful,” the furred women, Alice, said “I was worried your people walked around topless. That one ambassador woman I saw on the net was, so I wasn’t sure.”

Alwen felt her cheeks flush a little with embarrassment “Illuth is an islander, they lived in the tropics and don’t see a need to wear shirts even when they visit my homeland in the north.” She explained.

“Ah I see, well shall we” she said with a wave towards the hall.

Now that Alwen wasn’t so close she got a better look at the woman. She wore tight fitting black and white robes and stood a head taller than Alwen. She wore two blades on her hip, one black and one white. Her arms ended in clawed, articulate hands, and a very long striped tail trailed behind her swishing as it pleased. Something about how she walked and stood looked strange, she was still graceful in motion, but not in the same way as a Torweni or a human would.

“You’re staring” Alice teased “Am I your type” she said with a flutter of her gorgeous crystalline eyes.

“Ah, no, its just, I’m sorry but what are you. I know its rude to ask-“

“It fine” Alice interrupted “You are an alien, you get a pass for now. I’m called a Felinoid, or a Felid. I know you don’t know what it means but don’t call me a kaht, there from a different family of felines. Specifically I’m a snow leopard, which is actually a type of tiger. We’re a part of the Felidae family, like lions, tigers, jaguars.”

“Oh, I’m not sure what those words mean” Alwen said blankly.

“Felidae were large graceful hunters who would slowly stalk prey silently and unseen and then pounce. I don’t look it here, but stick me in the mountains and I’ll vanish. I even have this big tail that lets me pounce further.” She explained dropping onto all fours and prowling around infront of Alwen before leaping halfway across the hall, twisting midair and launching back, a whopping nine standard meters. When she dropped to all four Alwen saw her muscles and bones pop into a different position so that she could easily walk it what must have been her normal gait. She then brushed up against Alwen legs and made a deep rumbling sound before standing back up, bones popping back into place to allow her to stand up right.

“That’s amazing, your so graceful!” Alwen exclaimed.

“Oh stop you’ll turn my fur pink” she said with a suggestive twitter of her eyes and wrapped her tail around stomach

“I thought I wasn’t your type, don’t tell me I already have your heart” Alwen teased, finding herself a little at ease with the woman after her stunning display.

Alice’s eyes crinkled in mirth “oh you and will get along famously” she said making another weird sound that kind of went ‘chuff’.

Before Alice could say anything else Alwen’s new wrist communicator chirped with a new message, she read the message from Bachir. “Skip breakfast, lot of work ahead. Med-bay now.” It said.

Alwen frowned, she had been looking forward to getting to know Alice “I need to cancel on breakfast, duty calls.”

Alice looked confused, then something clicked “Right shore leave, a bunch of hungover sailors are probably clogging up the med-bay, make sure you talk quietly around them. I’ll track you down for lunch then?” she asked hopefully.

“I think that’s fine, I don’t think there’ll be that many” she said as they parted way and she rushed towards the med bay, slightly dreading the day ahead of her. Hangovers on her world included vomit headaches and temporary blindness, she hoped Terran hangovers were a little cleaner than that.