To Err is Humanoid

Posted on Wed Feb 1st, 2023 @ 4:41pm by Lieutenant Azrel Vox & Lieutenant Thraxina
Edited on on Tue Feb 14th, 2023 @ 10:35am

1,229 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Rendezvous At Starbase 10
Location: Deck 5: Lt. Vox's Quarters
Timeline: M2 MD05 (2268.6.07) 1545

The Award Ceremony was not too far off and Thraxina was already in her silky gold dress uniform dress with which full medals and awards were worn. The fact that the young helmswoman already had a couple dangling there, from her time in the Andaran Space Sentinel Service, which she was allowed to wear with her Star Fleet uniform, didn't alter the fact that she was hopping mad that she wasn't on the list of recipients tonight.

After all, she and the rest of the bridge crew had actually fought off the pirate ship while everybody else had just.. well, that was by the by; she was here at Lt. Vox's quarters to discuss quite a different matter, though it did relate to the recent action against the Orion Pirates off Exar Station.

She buzzed at the control panel at the closed door.

"Lieutenant Vox, it's Thraxina. May I come in?" she asked in very respectful tones, quite different to the usual bantering voice she used at the breakfast table or in the recreation rooms when she saw Aze.

"Sure, come on in. I'm in my bedroom. I will be right out. Make yourself comfortable." She shouted from her bedroom towards the door.

Thrax' walked in and looked around. She had presumed that the Trill woman would be getting ready too, but somehow, her womanly instinct told her this was not the case. No smell of that specially saved up exclusive perfume, no thrown around discarded items of clothing. No sign of half open compacts and lipsticks and mascara and eyeliner bottles.

She sat down and tugged at a snag in her black tights. Needed to look perfect tonight. Instead of her usual fresh faced complexion, she had a caking of traditional Stratos eye colouring on, she was hardly recognisable as herself.

Aze walked out of her bedroom in her purple soft pajamas. With purple slippers on her feet.

"Hey there Thraxina, what can I do for you? " She asked.

As Thraxina was here to make an apology, she instinctively stood as she took in Aze's get up. Assuming that the symbiont filled host was going to the Awards Ceremony, Thraxina gave a complimentary "Oh, I like your uniform! Is that a special one that Trill-ites wear?"

Well, she was allowed to wear her Andaran medals, and Scottish Officers could wear their tartan with their dress uniforms, she assumed that Aze's people were allowed to don their traditional purple garb on such occasions.

"Anyway, I won't beat around the bush, I've come to apologise. About the other day. During the battle." she filtered down to the precise incident "When I activated the Course Setting release. That was your job, not mine, and I should have trusted you to do it. Anyway..." she repeated "... I hope you accept my apology."

It was all very formal and obviously was uncomfortable for the haughty noble from Stratos City to do but, well, she had done it.

"Oh sure absolutely. I've not done navigation for a while and I'm glad you pressed it as it was only at that point did I realize I had forgotten it. No need to apologise really. As for my outfit, these are my pajamas, sleepwear."

Thraxina nodded to show that she understood, even thought she didn't, the fact that the apology was not even needed would have been important to her, but it paled in significance compared to this mystery.

"So... you're going to the award ceremony in your pajamas? An old trill-ite custom, no doubt." she guessed.

"No. I'm not actually going. I'm planning on having a quiet evening with a glass of wine and a good book. " She advised.

"Oh." Thraxina frowned. She wasn't exactly the most sympathetic woman in the Quadrant, but she felt a sort of... no, it wasn't just comradely duty, it was perhaps a connection with the other officer as someone who looked, more or less human, but was actually an outsider on the Earther dominated crew.

"Is it because you're not getting a medal? I mean, I'm not on the list to get one either, and I didn't particularly want to go but, well, I'm going for my friends: Avis and Toby and Harmony. I mean, I'm not sure why Toby's getting one, all he did was walk around the bridge a bit during the battle, and from what I hear, all Harmony did was cop off with some pig-woman. But that's not the point is it...?" she rattled on.

She wasn't awfully well practiced at this sort of thing.

"No I just rather be by myself tonight and relax with peace and quiet. I've been meaning to read the book I brought with me and so it's an opportunity to start it. Besides, for some reason I seem overly effected by alcohol and so cocktails are probably a bad idea. " She added.

"Overly affected by alcohol? Me too, that's why I'm going!" joked Thraxina, trying to keep it lighthearted. "What book are you reading", she asked, wondering if the host and the symbiont ever sort of disagreed about what to read, or do.

"Oh, its a novel written by Clive Cussler called Pacific Vortex. Published on Earth in 1983."

"Like a sort of historical curiosity, then?" Thraxina asked. In Stratos, art, be it literature, ceramics, music or painting, was constantly reinventing itself: the idea of antiquities and classics didn't really exist: if a work of art did not reflect the current zeitgeist, it was not really worthy of the name: it was literally tossed off one of the 'departure balconies' to fall upon the heads of the unsuspecting Trogs below.

"I've been reading lots of old logs about areas of space where ships mysteriously disappear." she sighed. It was clearly a bit of a chore. "A bit different to your reading matter, eh?"

"Yes it is somewhat. I have an interest in 21st century Earth and so I have been reading books and listening to music from that period in history."

Thraxina nodded politely, but from what she'd read about Earth history, everything got a bit boring after the Eugenics Wars of the 1990s, everyone just sitting around in front of computers. When she'd gone to the flakey new experimental 'Holographic Recreation Room' she had chosen a visit to 18th Century Venice to meet Casanova.

"After the party, you could always come back here and share a cocktail with me. I can show you how to make a Firestorm." Aze offered.

Thraxina grinned. "Sure! If I'm in any fit state, I'll pop in on the way back!" (As it turned out, she wasn't... and she didn't - where the Andaran girl actually ended up that night was a whole other story!)

"Er, ... what is a Firestorm?" she added.

"Oh it's a basic cocktail I found out about in a book a read. Jack Daniels Honey, Crabbies Alcoholic Ginger beer, crushed ice and mint leafs. "

"Well, I'll try anything once... or twice!" she laughed.

Time was passing.

"Well, I'd better get to the Ceremony thing" she smiled and got up, straightening her uniform. "Might see you later, then" she said, giving a little wave as she exited.

"Have fun." Aze replied. Once the doors closed, she sat in her comfortable chair, poured herself a glass of wine, picked up her book and began to read.

 

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