Have a drink on me?

Posted on Wed Nov 24th, 2021 @ 10:44am by Staff Warrant Officer Reo'thanra Sandtail & Lieutenant Commander S'hib

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
1544 words - 3.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Reo'thanra Sandtail shifted uncomfortably as he stared out the Observation window set into the wall of the Ships Lounge, marvelling once again at the sheer comfort that the federation was willing and able to put into this, a Front line ship. His thoughts again drifted to the possible future he was here to help decide whether or not the federation was the best choice for his people, or if they, like many other small powers, would continue to be independent.

The lounge was quiet, for no fault of Reo and his preoccupied mind, it usually was just after the night shift had started.

Though an air of disquiet hung like a cloud over the Arten, drawing S'hibs eyes over as he ducked low under the Lounge entrance.

"Reo!" He neighed loudly with an arm outstretched to his side, his other still in a sling awkwardly raising as best as it could while his Sequus throat bellowed out the Artens name with far too much enthusiasm for this time of day.

"How in the nine dunes have you been?" He added with a toothy grin, stomping loudly over until he was practically on top of the startled Arten, tail lashing out behind him and almost knocking a chair over as he did so.

The Vulpine alien almost jumped out of his seat, his hand darting towards the holster of his Sidearm, before falling short, as he remembered where he was. "S'hib," he said softly, as he turned to face the much larger alien. "I've been worse, Been better too..." he said quietly, his long tail swaying slowly. "How have you been?"

"Well, I broke my arm." He snorted, rolling his left shoulder, as if the sling wasn't enough of a giveaway. "It's healing well though, few more days of regenerative treatment... just aches a lot." S'hib sighed as he sat down, legs sprawled out on either side of the table.

Reo gave a slow nod. "Probably heals a lot faster then mine would in similar circumstances..." he said. "Well...I'm glad you're Denautra," he added, the last word hissing through a Translator glitch.

S'hibs ears flicked back against his head as the last word hissed out. "I'm sorry? what did you say?"

"Denautra?" Reo Said with a tilt of his head. "Its..." he frowned and flicked his ears. "Well....uh...Safe, well, and healthy..." he said after a brief moment.

"Have you still not gotten that damnable thing fixed?" He snorted, reaching over the table to gently tug at one of the Artens large ears, moving it so he could look for the universal translator buried beneath the plume of white hair that rose out of his canine shaped ear.

"It works perfectly fine!" The Arten Hissed softly his ear flicking about in the Sequellian's hand giving him flashes of view of the pale glistening disk tucked just inside his ear canal "its...just that Esethimba has words that..don't translate well..its even a problem for the ACDF.." he chuckled quietly. "Dunepaws end up Talking Circles around Homeworlders over even basic things."

"Maybe we should get you a picture book... so you can point at things instead..." He teased as he retrieved his hand, sitting back in his seat with a stupid grin on his face.

"Or Maybe I should just pack around some detonators to really Hammer my point in." Reo scoffed, his ears twitching with minor annoyance. He sighed and shook his head. "Sorry...been on edge lately..."

S'hib was silent at first, tilting his head and weighing his words as he leant forward, crossing his arms on the table and making it lift noticeably on the other end. "For someone so small, you do tend to drag a very big rock behind you..." he finally said with a deep sigh that gave way to frown.

"You see, life is like the great red sea... full of many ups and downs, its the nature of it..." S'hib continued, visualising his metaphor with the wave of his stubby hoofed hand.

"When you're at the top, you can... see out, over everything... the bottom before you, and the one behind... some are steeper than others, some you hardly lose sight of the horizon." He added, his eyes boring into Reo.

"But you, you're meandering at the bottom, snaking along, hoping to find a way up that won't be so difficult for that big rock... maybe you should just leave it be... let the desert cover with sand, while you... crest the ridge."

He sat silently for a moment until he saw Reo's mouth move, but interrupted him with a loud neigh as he continued his lengthy monologue.

"Either that or you ask someone to help you move it with you, hm?"

"And what if the burden I'm carrying right now is the possible cultural Assimilation and homogenization of my species?" Reo asked with a sigh, his head tilting to the side. "My mission here might end soon..."

"Cultures don't just, disappear... Reo, not in the Federation, were not the borg..." He replied with a gentle snort. "You're worried that everything will get diluted, will change for the worse... well, look around you... at all these humanoids, the humans specifically..." He mused, looking around the lounge at the few crew that had come to relax.

"Their culture has been exposed to so many external influences, yet... speak to any of them, they're all the same... nothing has changed."

"That's the problem..." The vulpine huffed. "Humans...they seem to make everything like them....Even body shapes...Its not Vulcanoid...or andorianoid.. or even Klingoid...Its Humanoid..." he shook his head. "Well..I've heard things about how their culture and the Nyghcnatha's interacted," he whispered, the word crackling Into unintelligible sounds as the Translator failed to translate yet again.

"No," S'hib stated matter of factly. "They're categorising an overarching body shape for simplistic sake, you and I don't fall into that humanoid category, we're mammalian... our skeletal structure is too far removed to be associated with those definitions... it's no different from cataloguing different planetary types," He added with a smirk. "So stop worrying, they aren't going to terraform you into an M class."

Reo Scoffed quietly, his tail twitching. "Would do my home world a lot of good actually to be terraformed into an M Class...though...not my people..." he muttered.

"I think the issue is the fact you fit in more aboard the Ely than you do with your own people, and that you're worried everyone else will suffer the same fate." He snorted repeatedly, making an odd laugh through his nostrils.

Reo shrugged. "the only thing on this ship Remotely attractive to me is M'turri," he countered. "Any my quarters are hot enough that they'll actually kill humans if they go there to long..."

"Her?!" S'hib practically shouted, his equine throat silencing the room briefly as he stared at Reo with a confused glare. "Reo... I admit she's attractive, but that woman is on far too many reports I don't have clearance to... you be careful pursuing that one." He finished before sitting back, inhaling deeply as he crossed his arms, still staring at Reo with a deep-set frown.

Reo tilted his head to the side, his ears twitching. "I didn't say I was, just that she's the only Sentient on the ship that somewhat fits the...niche my species has for physicality."

"Hmm, well you are rather small... even for M'Tuuri... Though I wonder what the Priestess will think of you, I'm sure she'll want to learn everything about your culture once she's settled in." S'hib replied, going on a tangent and mostly talking aloud rather than directly to Reo.

"Priestess?" he asked softly. "Are you Religious?" he asked.

"Me? no, no... not really, but my people are... two of them came aboard with me." He smiled, as though the notion of having more of his own kind around had only just struck him.

"High Priestess An'Dalus, a diplomatic envoy from Sequella and her Sovereign T'han... I don't believe they even know your people exist... so you should go say hello at some point."

the Vulpines eyes narrowed. "Great...just hammer in how alone I am," he said in a low hushed tone, before he chuckled. "I'm glad you're not by yourself though s'hib."

"I wasn't by myself before... I have my friends, Naxea... whom none of which are Sequus by the way." He shot back with a creased brow before sitting up and relaxing his demeanour. "Look, you're homesick, I get it... I was too and still am, especially since I just got back after having no time to reconnect, was like picking up a handful of sand just to watch it all fall back to the dunes." He scoffed, the bitter taste of the events on Sequella still palatable.

"If you're dropping sand like that your hands weren't built for it," Reo said with a bittersweet smile. "But I get your point."

S'hib nodded in response, hopeful that he had at least somewhat got through to his Arten friend sitting across from him. "Come on, let's go get some drinks..."

"Sounds good, I've be dying to get some of those Cocktails the federations famous for." Reo laughed softly.