About those quarters

Posted on Thu Jul 16th, 2015 @ 2:43pm by Ensign Honey Flanagan & Commander Cor Cordale

Having been welcomed onboard, her physical done and her new direct chief met, next on the stop for Honey Flanagan was finding the chief engineer. She had a very unusual request ... As such the halfbreed made her way to engineering.

Engineering was a bustle, to say the least. Folks heading every which way on their way from something major, to something minor, and back again. One of the engineers in the bay noticed the arrival of Honey, and while being part of Starfleet gave you a crash course in diversity, these guys were above and beyond such. Maybe it was because their chief was some form of weaseloid. A crewman stopped when he crossed her path and gave her a nod, "Good afternoon ma'am. I'm Crewman Reynolds, can I be of assistance?"

"Hiii~" Honey smiled and waved cheerfully. "I need my quartersss modified. The bunk removed and a basssin inssstalled in place, one-eighty by 90 by one-ten centimetersss, with water filtration and oxygenation sssyssstemsss. Here are the ssspecsss." She produced a padd and offered it to the crewman. "D'you think it'sss posssible to complete the requessst within three daysss?" she then asked, forked tongue flicking out at the poor crewman.

Crewman Reynolds looked over the PaDD she handed him, and after a few moments gave a nod, "I think we can accommodate, ma'am. Let's conference in the Chief, since we'll need his thumbs up for a project like this. Please, follow me. He's probably in his office." and Reynolds would lead her to the Chief's officer where, sure enough, there was a Thux in the middle of decorating the office. There was a model of a reactor core on display, as well as a fake plant in a pot in the corner. Some form of stunted tree. Looked cute, though. On a half-desk against the wall there was a relic of times past: A coffee percolator. It was well secured to the desk, in case of sudden shifts in inertia, so as to not damage the unit or spill the life-giving fluid within. Coffee, with a hit of cinnamon, from the scent in the air.

The desk was a mild clutter of PaDDs, with the only other landmark being the Chief's coffee mug which bore the image of a cartoon caricature of Cordale, giving two thumbs up. Written underneath the cute image was the phrase, "Thux to be you!"

"Chief, we have a minor project request for a remodel of personal quarters." Reynolds said as he handed the PaDD over to Cordale. The weaseloid gave it a once over and gave a few nods here and there, "This shouldn't be terribly difficult. What's the time frame?"

"Three days." Reynolds replied. Cor put on his 'Thinking Face' and then gave Honey a nod, "Shouldn't be an issue at all. You'll have your tank well within the time frame."

Honey beamed a smile, bouncing up and down on her feet a bit. "Yay~" she offered. "The three daysss isssn't a problem? Are you sssure? The sssooner the more comfortable I can be during the wait, but I can ssssurvive a bit longer than thossse three dayssss if necesssary. If need be I could alwaysss go for a ssswim in the holodeck and get hydrated that way." A nod, then a pause, as she flicked her forked tongue out in the general direction of the percolator, blinking golden eyes a bit out of synch. "What'sss that?"

The hybrid's enthusiasm was contagious, as both Reynolds and Cordale wore wide smiles after that. "I got this Reynolds." and the crewman left the two to their discussion. "Three days is plenty. Hell, if I can get about six hours strung together I can probably have you up and ready quicker." Cordale said with a smirk. "Oh this? It's an actual percolator. Well, to be honest it's a redesign of the original model. You brew coffee in it, and coffee is a gift from the Source to all of us who pull all night shifts. You want a cup?" he offered, "There's cinnamon in it. Just in case you're allergic or whatever.."

"Sssure. I'll have a cup if that'sss ok." she smiled, sitting down on the edge of Cor's desk. "I'm Honey Flanagan, xenobiologissst. Which ... leadsss me into my next question. Never ssseen sssomeone like you before, and I thought I had ssstudied all of the racesss in the Federation."

The Thux replicated her up a mug, and then poured her some of the life-giving 'Go Juice' from the Shrine to the Engineering God... or in less elaborate terms, her poured her a cup of coffee. "Milk and Sugar if you need it. Careful, it's hot." he handed it to her with his prosthetic. "Cor Cordale, engineer and all around handy-Thux." he said with a smirk, "I'm a Thux, we're..."

Endangered.

Dead.

Product.

Fake.

"... new'ish to the Federation." he shook away the cobwebs of Mopey'Thux and kept that smirk up. "Don't worry, I didn't get this in an engineering accident or anything." he motioned to his prosthetic limb. "Cut myself shaving, couldn't find a bandage. Said there was nothing they could do. I'm totally kidding, I swear." he gave a chuckle.

"Cave in." he said after a moment. He hid his grimace behind a swig of coffee.

"Thanksss." Honey accepted the mug of coffee. She had never seen it as 'go juice' or 'life giving' but she knew other people saw it differently. But that was easily explained knowing that all that 'caffeine' didn't work on her the way it did on many other races. "A cave in?" she asked with the tact of a sledgehammer. "I'm a genetic experiment myssself. Only one of me exissstsss in the universsse."

On some days, he knew exactly what that felt like.

"Yeah. I used to be a miner before I became a mechanic. Long ago, a whole lifetime it seems. Anywho, long story short, I got caught in a cave in, and had to be carved out. Literally." he put his coffee mug down and rolled up the already shortened left sleeve of his uniform, letting her see that the prosthetic didn't end at the sleeve, but replaced his entire shoulder as well. It also showed off a vicious line of scar tissue, the border between man and machine.

"My two brothers carved me out, got me this, got me back on my feet. A few years after that they... they didn't make it out of that mine." he shook his head. "Sorry, being a mopey'Thux here." another sip of coffee. "So, you're the only one?" what do you even say to that?

"Damn."

Yeah, that works.

"Stop by if you want to chat. Friendly face, hot coffee. I'm working on a root beer rig, but keep that hush hush." he held his hand up to the side of his muzzle, to make it look like the root beer rig was a huge conspiracy. "I've never seen another Thux outside of that mine. I can't actually relate to knowing how it feels to be the only one of your kind in existence, but I can relate to denying it ever night."

"You need a buddy, you got one here."

"I wasss one of fifteen originally. Prudence, Honor, Hope, Chassstity, Joy, Grace, Harmony, Melody, Heaven, Angel, Sssummer, Autumn, April, June and Honey. Fifteen parallel attemptsss at combining unknown alien DNA with that of a human." She mused quietly, staring off into the distance, kicking her feet as she took a sip of her coffee, holding the cup cradled in both hands. "Only four managed to maked it to being born. Only one sssurvived passst her fifth birthday."

She glanced at Cor, offering a soft smile. "No, I don't mind being an experiment. I don't mind that the processsss that gave rissse to me wasss morally quessstionable. That isss sssomething for them to sssleep with at night. All I can do isss make the bessst of the life that'sss been given me. And, truth be told, they took good care of me. Never left me wanting for anything than what I had."

Another sip of her coffee, closing golden eyes and savouring the taste for a fleeting moment before continuing. "Sssame goesss for you. If you ever need sssomeone to talk to, I'm probably sssomewhere on the ssship." Then a smile. "If you ever need a friendly face I could always wear a paper bag with one painted on it."

Cor gave a chuckle, and brought his prosthetic hand up to gesture around his own face, "Yes yes, the competition is rough, but you should know that second place isn't such a bad spot to be in." he smirked, and gave Honey a wink. Then for just a moment, he became slightly more serious, "Thanks. It's good to have folks that I can chat with about, well... potentially serious stuff. Yeah, there's the ship's counselor, probably overdue for a meet and greet with her." he chuckled again, and that goofball Thux was back. "So, xenobiologist, eh? Try not to write a term paper about this ship. We have a talking dog, a few crazy people, a scientist with the biggest... umm.. ears! Ears... I've ever seen." he smirked.

"We're a ship of misfits and only's. I think you'll fit right in."

"That'sss probably why thisss ssship wasss chosssen for me." Honey smiled. "I've met - well, you, I've met Valeria - ssshe'sss really nice and friendly. I've not met the talking dog yet." Another sip, a smile, kicking her feet. "Thisss isss quite good. I never liked coffee that much before but thisss isss quite nice."

"I'm sorry to hear about your brothersss. Sssoundsss like you had a good bond with them."

"It's the secret Thux blend." a pause, "The secret is cinnamon." he chuckled and took another swig. "Oh, you'll meet the dog. It's hard to miss him." Cordale relayed with a smirk, "He's even got a rank, but I think it's more an honorific then an actual rank. Otherwise, hell, they're letting anyone into Starfleet these days."

He kept his smirk up, since there was too much positive energy in the room to really bring him down. "They were the best. The Thinker, the Do'er, and the Goofball." a smirk, "Looks like I'm making up for them." a pause, then a smirk as he brought up a display of tickets on a wall display. "Things are hectic today, but tomorrow looks smooth. I should be able to take care of your request then." he turned to give her a smirk.

"Guessss that makesss you the do'er then?" Honey asked, hopping down from his desk after finishing the coffee. "Mmmm, thisss ssstuff isss really good." A nod, handing Cor his mug back. "Thanksss Cor! For everything." she added with a smile, heading back out the door, tail swaying behind her.

"Anytime." he said with a smirk as he put the mug in for recycling. Though, he did follow that tail as she left. "Anytime."