Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty

Posted on Tue Feb 7th, 2023 @ 8:50am by Ensign Syaffia & Cadet Freshman Grade Poppy Koppelman

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Rendezvous At Starbase 10
Location: Other Ranks Quarters
Timeline: During Midway's sojourn at SB10
Tags: Syaffia

Poppy had unpacked everything and was tired out.

She had tried not to be too nosy and look at the belongings of the other two girls that occupied two of the four bunks in the room, but while rummaging in their wardrobe panels had accidentally noticed that their spare uniforms and civilian wear indicated that they were a pair of Tellarite crewmembers. Further examinations of letters, diaries, name tags etc. revealed that their names were A'Glosz and Stromi and they worked B Shift down in maintenance. A'Glosz had a boyfriend on a transport ship out of Epsilon Canaris II and Stromi was single but looking. She was about to find out more when she heard footsteps coming and she scrambled into bed - top bunk on the right, oops, starboard side of the room.

Thus, when the door swished open and the fourth and, by a couple of hours, newest member of the dorm swished in, she was greeted by the sight of a greasy haired, acne faced teenager, dressed in a pink fluffy 'onesie' with a picture of a cute cartoonish sehlat on the back, wearing a pair of outsized tribble slippers, lying prone on her bunk making pretend snoring noises while simultaneously giving the game away by peeping out of one eye to see who it was.

Syaffia had at first been somewhat disappointed to see that two of the bunks had belongings on them but were elsewise unoccupied - she'd been hoping to say hello to her new roommates and get to know them a lot better. A closer look at the third bed, however, told her that the occupant was definitely not asleep, as much as she was desperately pretending to be. "Hey, it's okay. I'm not one of the officers here to check in." She said softly and with a giggle, lightly touching the shoulder of the other. "My name's Syaffia. I'm new on board. How about you?"

Poppy couldn't but let out a giggle, too.

"Oh oh, busted! How did you know I was awake?!"

She sat up in the bunk bed. The other girl was so tall that she didn't need to clamber down to talk to her. "I'm new, too. I'm Poppy, Poppy Koppelman. I've been on the Star Base until today. I didn't see you there. I saw some other people off the ship, though, and I tried to make friends but they were were all sorta stand-off-ish, you know? And there was this one old man I tried to be nice to, you know, because old people are sometimes lonely, and I was all being, you know, so nice and kind to him and he just turns round and says 'young lady, Commodores do not usually engage in conversation with freshmen cadets!' and I said, 'well, sorry, but I only thought you might be lonely because you're so old' and he was like 'go away' and I was all like 'all right I will'."

She took a breath, which at least gave Syaffia a chance to get a word in edgeways.

Syaffia patiently listened to her talk, placing her bag on the bunk below hers. "Well, hi, Poppy. Don't worry about it, some high-ranking officers forget that they deal with people first instead of just names and ranks on a roster. It's a fact of life. Poor guy mustn't be very well liked." She chuckled softly and settled down at the edge of Poppy's mattress with her arms folded. "I've met Lieutenants like that. This one Vulcan I had for a flight instructor treated me like I was less than scum for being emotional. He didn't explicitly say it of course, but I could definitely feel it in the way he talked to me. Know what I mean?"

"I DO!" nodded Poppy until it looked like her head might drop off. At last, someone who thought just like her. "Like Lieutenant Thraxina, wait 'til you meet her! She is so horrible, I'd avoid her if you can, she's a real b... b..." Poppy sometimes stuttered a little if she was rattled or upset ".. bad lady. She called me an annoying little pest. That's not nice, is it?"

She shifted about and looked at Syaffia properly with a quizzically tipped head.

"Please excuse me if this is a rude question, but where are you from?" She seemed to find something slightly alien in the angelic beauty of her new roomie.

"Argelius II. I know, I know. Can't tell that I'm not human, huh?" Reaching to the back of her head she undid the blond ponytail she'd been keeping her hair in, allowing it to spill down her shoulders in a golden cascade. Further close inspection revealed that it wasn't really blond; the roots were black. She'd dyed it blond.

“Argelius II, the Love Planet?!” Poppy’s were a round an wide as saucers. “Do you dye your hair? I tried that once. See, my hair is naturally Raven Black...” she held out a greasy lank lock for illustration “but I dyed it Midnight black. It kinda looked the same but the dandruff showed more, so I just thought what’s the point?”

A horrible thought struck her. “You’d better make sure it’s tied up as per Regulations, or that nasty ... Lieutenant Thraxina will bawl you out if she sees you, like she did me.”

"And I'll keep that in mind. I'm reporting to her for my first flight lessons in fact - I'm sort of her mentee. But that's okay! As I recall humans call it tough love. Be harsh so that the person you're teaching takes their training seriously and works hard at it not to be scolded. Been there way too many times. I'm fine with it." She said.

“Oh no!” Cried Poppy, jumping off the top bunk “Poor Syaffia! C’mere! Besties hug!!” And for once it was the Argelian who got some surprise, and very innocent affection.

Just then, the door swished open and two tough looking, boilersuited Tellarite crew-women walked in.

“Hey, look what we got here...” grunted A’Glosz “A couple o’ human rug munchers!”

“Wonder which one’s the Boar and which one’s the sow?!” The other laughed gruffly.

"None of your business, girls. Concentrate on your own duties and we can do ours, and we'll get on just fine." Syaffia replied as she wrapped her arms around Poppy in a hug. Rudeness and insults were the Tellarite way, after all. She smirked at the two. "You two can wait your turn for a hug if you want. I got all night, lovelies."

“Moons of Tellar, she must be an Argelian!” Snorted A’Glosz “What a slut!”

“Huh, we’ll take a rain-check blondie” agreed Stromi “we just knocked off a 12 hour shift. You carry on making’ out with yuh girlfriend though, we can sleep thru anything!”

The first pig-woman peered at the parts of a now struggling Poppy that were visible in Syaffia’s embrace. “What the f__k kinda animal ya got there anyway, Stretch? I ain’t never seen fur like that on no animal before.” She asked.

“Hey, an’ look!” The other one joined in, pointing an accusatory trotter at Poppy’s slippers “The damn thing stomped a couple o’ sweet little Tribbles t’ death an’s wearing’ ‘em for shoes!! That’s disgustin’!”

Poppy managed to dip down and escape the tall bottle-blonde’s embrace and slip around her to face the hoydenish porkers.

“You don’t understand! We’re just besties, not perverts, and these are slippers...” she kicked them off to illustrate her point “... and this isn’t fur, it’s my sehlat onesie!” She explained ingratiatingly.

“Prove it. Take it off.” Growled the imposing A’Glosz, moving threateningly close to the shaking, knock-kneed Cadet Koppelman who started to reluctantly reach for the zipper at her throat. “O... OK, she whimpered...

"Hey, hey, hey. Watch it." Syaffia's firm hand landed on the Tellarite woman's arm, and pulled her back from Poppy. The Argelian had a murderous look in her green eyes, a marked change from her earlier demeanor.

The grab on the pig-woman's muscle bound arm, even from the tall and well built Syaffia might have been as effective as a ping pong ball hitting a brick wall, but it sure got her attention: her beady little eyes shifting to the tall Argelian, allowing Poppy to scuttle off back to her side of the room.

"Oh yeah?" said A'Glosz squaring up to the blonde.

'You aren't forcing anyone to take off anything, buster. Lay off. Second of all, yeah, I'm from Argelius and love having fun of any kind like anyone else from there but I'm not a slut, and I suggest you stop calling me that before you find yourself on a one-way ticket off this ship. You wanna graduate and earn that stripe on your sleeve, don't you? Then bug off?" She sat down next to Poppy and took the girl into her arms, holding her close to her chest. "Hey. I'm here. They ain't touching you as long as I'm here, promise."

The two Tellarite crewmembers looked at each other and then burst out in rough, snorting laughter. "She thinks we're cadets! Ahh ha ha ha!" The one called Stromi came over. "Listen, Princess, we're ACs, long service women. We do all the shitty jobs on the ship so Officers and Cadets don't have to get their lily white little hands dirty. When someone tries to put a stripe on our cuffs, we run."

The other, A'Glosz now chipped in, as she sloughed off her red overalls to get ready for bed, revealing a rack of more boobies than you'd see on a night out at Wrigley's Pleasure Planet. Poppy counted six. "I like you, Stretch, I like the way you stuck up fer ya little girlfriend there. Ya got moxy." she kicked off her boots and walked over: her feet were as trotter-like as her hands and her fat fleshy body was covered in fine but wiry looking bristles.

"Not sure about your pal, though" she said, towering over them both. "Where you say you come from?! You an Earther?!" she suddenly demanded of Poppy, and it sounded like 'yes' might not be a good answer.

The girl being protected by the Argelian pointed to herself and stuttered out "I... I'm a pee-pee"

"'splains the smell!" chuckled Stromi.

"No! P.P., Proud Plutonian!" Poppy corrected. "I'm Poppy Koppelman, from Pluto!"

"Noooooo" snorted A'GLosz "You any relation to that skinflint Koppelman who runs Koppelman's scrap metal place?"

"Yes. He's my Dad!" blurted out Poppy, not seeming to mind him being called a skinflint. Well, after all, he was! But the next comment seemed to get even the supine Poppy's ire up.

"Hey, Stromi, she's a 'Junk Yard Julie'!" In a second the scrawny teen had leapt from Syaffia's protective embrace and was pulling back a fist to strike. "You take that back or I'm smash your stupid pig face in 'till your ugly snout's facing the way you came!!" she squeaked, at which the two Tellarites laughed and snorted even louder than they had before.

"Hey, hey, Poppy!" Syaffina grabbed the younger girl and held her back with all her might. As sharp as those insults had seemed to be to her launching herself at two much bulkier, stronger Tellarite women who spent most of their day doing grunt work wasn't worth it. Especially if she wanted to graduate with a stripe on her sleeve.

The supernaturally weak Poppy struggled in Syaffia's held "Let me at her, let me at her!" she snarled.

Her attention now turned to the two Tellarite women. Syaffina forced her breathing to calm. Posturing, insults, rudeness and vulgarity were the Tellarite way. Standing up to insults and whatever was being thrown at you told them that you deserved their respect. Besides, if either of them had really wanted to bully the two into their places both she and Poppy would've been bleeding and bruised on the floor already. All they'd done so far was hurl verbal abuse, which she would hardly call intimidating by itself. They were testing them, testing their mettle.

"'Kay then. You've probably been here longer than us, you know this ship inside out, definitely better than us. So help us. We've both got a lot to learn still, her moreso than me. Hell, I'm not gonna be handling the systems of the ship as much; I'm a pilot to be. We could use someone to help us about in that regard. You know, in case we ever really do have to do the dirty work you two do for us while we sit all nice and pretty with our hands all lily white and perfect, isn't that what you said? Now, if you two and everyone like you go down leaving the Midway with just us on board unable to even begin to, say, pry open a wall panel and fix what's inside, that'll be a real shame wouldn't it? So help us get better at that and other things like that. Think of the bragging rights you'll get! Two officer cadets just asked you for help! Wouldn't that make you famous!"

"Whatd'ya think, Stromi?" asked A'Glosz.

"I think the Princess talks too much." snorted back Stromi.

"Or am I wrong, and you two are all talk and nothing to show? Are the hardworking, experienced, oh so capable ACs of this vessel just that?" Syaffina held the gaze of the one in red coveralls - as much as having three pairs of bra-covered boobs bared made that somewhat difficult.

The piglike woman leaned forward a bit and sniffed at the Argelian girl and the still restrained Proud Plutonian. It seemed to be that, their smell, that decided her, more than Syaffia's well reasoned arguments.

"Stromi, I think they're OK. You two wanna be in our Litter?" she grunted.

"Boy, do I?!!!" beamed Poppy, who had never been asked to be in a soroity or a gang before. or a Litter for that matter.

A'Glosz looked at Syaffia.

"What about it, Princess?"

"Your litter a.ka. your little group, or sorority, or whatever you wanna think of it as? Count me in." Finally! So she was right about their intentions after all. Syaffina's steely demeanor melted away, replaced by the playful cheer she'd had before. She let go of Poppy at last, allowing the girl time to breathe. "What are the rules? There are definitely rules, right? That's usually how these groups work?"

"Rule number one, the pledge is taken naked..." Stromi said coming over and slipping off her overalls. "Unless you're from Pluto!" Poppy breathed a sigh of relief. A'Glosz pointed a trotter at her. "Yeah, you can keep your bed socks on!"

"Rule number two, you don't get to know the rest of the rules until you join. You two brave enough for that?"

"I am!" piped up Poppy, gingerly removing her onesie, revealing yet more clothing underneath: pajamas, bed socks, and who knew what else under that. "OK, Julie, that'll do! Else we'll be here all night" A'Glosz grunted.

When Syaffia was ready, the two pink, nude grotesque looking pig-women stood face to face, with the newcomers at right angles, facing each other, too; although Poppy wasn't sure exactly where to look!

"Trotters in!" commanded Stromi, and two right hand trotters and two humanoid right hands touched, making a cross. Poppy was amazed at how warm and soft the Tellarite 'fingers' felt.

"OK, repeat after me: 'Trotter to trotter, Snout to Snout, Littermates forever, Friends throughout'" All four repeated the pledge in unison.

"That's it, the third and last rule is we look out for each other and try and get along, and if one of us brings a feller back to the room for a bit of rutting..." she looked at Syaffia "... or a girl for that matter, the rest of us have to pretend to be asleep. Oh, and we treat and refer to each other in terms of the utmost respect. OK? OK! Now, you two b___ches get to bed, us two need our beauty sleep!"

"Yes Ma'am!" beamed Poppy, putting her onsie back on. But before she jumped into her bunk, she grabbed Syaffia and looked up at the tall girl "Thanks for sticking up for me back there... oh, and for stopping me hurting anyone! Even if we weren't litter-mates now; I'd be trotter to trotter and snout to snout for you anyway!" and with that, she gave the older girl a great big innocent hug.

In a few minutes time they were all in their bunks, Syaffia's maybe a teensy bit too short for her, with lights out, the hum of the great starship's engines humming them to sleep. Poppy closed her eyes and... a pair of flung Tribble Slippers hit her square in the face and a porcine grunt of 'Night Julie' sounded on the other side of the room in the dark. She closed her eyes again and sank into a deep, smiling sleep.

 

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