New Roomie, who's this?

Posted on Sat Sep 30th, 2023 @ 2:18am by Cadet Sophomore Grade V'lal & Cadet Senior Grade Ki'ana

3,079 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: 1 - Cruising through the galaxy
Location: Deck 3, USS Stardancer
Timeline: MD 00 - 1100 Hrs

V'lal had made her way onto the ship, she lucked out and was able to fly the shuttle she took up to the Stardancer, not having to worry about anyone else and get some more flight time under her belt. While she'd flown countless hours prior to joining StarFleet, she still had to meet the time required in the academy so she could graduate in a couple years. Needless to say most of the piloting courses she found to be elementary, at least with smaller craft. She was a bull in a china shop when it came to actually piloting starships.

The chief that had given her her room assignment ran through her mind, he was cute. Maybe at some point she'd find an excuse to talk to him more and see if she could get closer. With a duffle bag on each arm, a girl needs her clothes, she entered the door code to open her room and walked in, seeing the other bed that was open in the room directly in front of her, which she was fine with. If she somehow managed to find real alcohol on this cruise and made it back to her room drunk, she'd only have to walk a straight line to flop down into her bed.

She dumped her bags onto the floor and took a look around.

"...yep, tomorrow, 1800. See you!" Ki'ana waved goodbye to her friend, who disappeared down the corridor. Launch day had been growing nearer and nearer, and with it the need to move out of her old dorm and into her new sleeping quarters. Taking a deep breath she stepped through the door and into the room, which was a fair bit more spacious than her old room, at least.

Then she spotted the other girl in the room. Heat immediately surged to her face as she tossed her bags to the ground and tackled her in a hug (but not too hard, of course. She didn't want to hurt her!). "You didn't tell me you'd be staying with me." Ki'ana mumbled into her chest. She glanced up then, meeting the blond Vulcan hybrid's eyes with her own. "Did you know and simply want to keep it a surprise, then?" She accused playfully.

Upon being tackled, the smaller woman was to to say the least, surprised. Initially she struggled for a moment but upon realizing who it was, returned the embrace and then pushed up on the Kelpien a bit to shift her weight so she could catch her breath "Truth be told I had no clue who my roommate was supposed to be, I didn't even bother to look since that cute Chief that handed out the room assignments was looking hot in his uniform today. Do you by chance know if he's single?"

"Petty Officer Langley? Oh, um. I actually have no idea!" Ki'ana grinned sheepishly. She'd seen the handsome young quartermaster when she'd beamed in as well and thought that she likely had no chance with him. Like she did with most men anyway. "Go ask him, there's no harm." She took a moment to admire her roomie; she'd always thought V'lal was attractive, with her messy blond hair and features that somehow gave her a sort of roguish charm - but once again, she'd always told herself that the Vulcan deserved better than her. "Looks like we'll be staying together for now on, huh? Hope you don't mind that I snore."

"I don't mind the snoring, I usually sleep like the dead as it is. As for Langley, we'll see. I'd bet there are hotter looking dudes closer to our age anyways. Have you seen any yet that may want to give your girl here a run for her money? It's been a long week for me." She took stock of the Kelpien as she had many times before, the memory of the time they first met almost a year and a half ago. Her being v’tosh k’atur and also half human did not sit well with many conservative Vulcans, which of course the majority were. Ki'ana had damn near put one of them into the bulkhead when a pair of young Vulcan cadets, both in her class year at least, had chased and then threatened her. While V'lal had always had the attitude to stand up for herself, her small stature and half strength compared to a full blood didn't always give her much in the way of defense against them.

"Well..." Ki'ana hummed to herself. "There's a few in tactical and security. Of course there are. There's one or two in the sciences but they're gay, so." The Kelpien shrugged. "There's Santos from Engineering, but he's kind of a prude and works way too hard... maybe you could change his mind?" Ki'ana grinned. If there was anyone who could get someone to come out of their shell, V'lal was it. "You'll probably have a better chance than me, anyhow. Seen any girls you like on the other hand?"

She appreciated the other woman's sense of humor and entertaining her questions, however she returned to the discussion they both had had once before "Ki'ana, you know I'm all about the cute guys. Ladies just don't strike my fancy, and they're missing the equipment we both know that I need." She gave a wink and continued "But any guy who's not into the ladies is of course out as an option for me. I don't really want anyone that I'm going to have to bring out of their shell, I don't have time for that." V'lal turned and picked up her bags before placing one on her bed and opening it up. She began to pull out different dresses and pants she needed to hang up.

Ki'ana grinned back at her roommate and began to unpack her belongings. She didn't have all that many things to bring with her, mostly small personal trinkets which she could keep in a drawer and clothing, of course. And a few snacks. "You do you, girl. I'm sure there'll be a few guys who'll just go weak at the knees for you!" She remarked. "Heh. I wish there were at least one or two guys who'd want me. People want girls like you, you know? Not me. Girls with nice hair, and more chest and butt and maybe normal feet?" She shifted somewhat nervously on her hooves. "Things like that..."

"That's because you refuse to go to some of the hangouts I used to frequent. There were plenty of guys that would've taken you home for the night and shown you a good time. But I suppose we all have our own levels of comfort..." Just as she finished putting away her first bag, at the bottom was a holoframe which she pulled out and put on her nightstand. As it powered on, an image of her and Ki'ana sipping at the same time from a large mixed drink, called a Warp Core Breach, shimmered to life and caused her to grin. Next she turned and opened up her second bag and began to pull out a series of shoes.

"I'm not really the kind to take someone to bed for the night and leave it at that." Ki'ana protested. Seeing the picture come out of V'lal's bag made her smile. It touched her that after all this while she'd kept that thing - and chosen to preserve it in picture form to boot. To make that kind of impact on someone's life was huge for her. "Unless I'm really, really desperate, I suppose. Besides, I was studying! You know how some of our professors' finals are." She chuckled sadly. "Well, I suppose good times can come while we're aboard. Maybe if you see anyone you think I might like you could send them my way?" She smiled cheekily and prodded her roommate in the hip.

"Of course, I can't be the only one in this room with a sex life to talk about. Since I'm a pilot I haven't had too much trouble so far, I've been flying small craft for decades so the exams so far have been run of the mill. Although I will say we need to find some art or otherwise to put on these walls, I can't do this bare gray." Too much time in her early life and as a young adult were spent in caves or transient makeshift shelters so once she got away from that life she always made sure to decorate.

"I'm sure we'll find some. Maybe when we stop at planets or something we can buy some." Ki'ana remarked. "What kind of art would you like? Paintings, rugs, masks, that kind of thing?" She settled on her bed with a packet of roasted cashew nuts, which she held out to the Vulcan. "Want some? You never did tell me if you ate meat, by the way. You know, for when I decide to host a party or something."

"Thanks" she replied, taking a few. "Just fish once in a while but overall no meat. I can't stomach it and besides it can be much tougher to have as a snack." She looked around the room once more real quick, taking note of the small table with a chair on either side, their replicator, each of their beds opposite of each other on the separate walls, their dressers\wardrobes at the head of their beds, and then on the opposite sides were small desks for each of them, and then the door to the bathroom. All in all it wasn't much to live in but it was a room. The idea of a party was intriguing but only if there was hard liquor involved. "I hope the party isn't going to be in here, we don't have the space" she teased. "We could definitely do with a nice rug and a couple cute guys on the wall on my side, and a few cute ladies on the wall on yours."

"It's a ladies' room, V'lal, so there won't be guys sleeping in here with us. Other girls, maybe. As for the party? If we have one, I can organize, but you're inviting. Deal? It was hard enough work putting our crew party together and besides, you know more cute guys than me." Ki'ana smirked. "So long as they don't trash the place and leave it smelling like booze and possibly each other's bodily fluids, that is. So you and they better behave." The Kelpien smiled and turned away to unpack the rest of her belongings. "You can do that for your best friend, can't you?"

"The only guys I want in here are either on a holo or a painting. And if I can't have a guy here for the night, I don't want to see any girls gone wild over on your side when I crawl into my own bed. Although if I'm not going to be back for the night, have at it. I'll let you know ahead of time so you can plan accordingly. If we're gonna have a party, it's gonna be a party. Our room is too small. I'm sure we can find someone else with the room. Just remember by bed is off limits for you and...whoever." As V'lal finished unpacking her second duffle she plopped down onto her bed, a thick purple comforter and a pair of pillows adorning it, she kicked off her shoes and laid back, looking up at the ceiling.

"Hey, I like guys too, you know." Ki'ana grinned as she munched on her snack. "But alright, I can agree to that. Just don't use my bed for any of your liaisons either and we'll be fine, hm? Besides, I'm not sure the instructors would like that all that much." She stretched and lay back in bed, half eaten bag of cashews placed on the floor beneath her. "This'll be a rather interesting trip, I just feel it. With you around, that is. You know, everyone I've met tells me that anyone Vulcan or even part Vulcan has to be a carbon copy of every logical Surak-following Vulcan in the universe - I think that's quite boring, don't you reckon?"

V'lal had seen that look in Ki'ana eyes time and time again, the same look in other women she had known in the past, when they looked at another woman and felt more than the possibility of friendship. But she didn't push the subject any further as she knew everyone had to come to terms with who they were in their own time. She placed one of the cashews in her mouth and chewed on it for a moment "Oh don't worry, I'm not going to be cleaning up my sheets from any of them. They can clean up their own in their beds after we're done. As for this trip, I suppose we'll see how it goes. I'm 64 and this is the first time I've really been on a large starship so it'll be interesting. As for Surak, I don't really know much about him other than his followers are a bunch of assholes. So I never bothered to look into him much otherwise."

"You're sixty-four? No way. You don't look a day older than... 23?" Ki'ana gasped and rolled over to stare at her roommate in shock. "I know Vulcans live long lives, but... sixty-four? You look great for sixty-four years old - but then again that's probably the slow aging talking," She remarked with a smile. "You must have some nuggets of wisdom or experience in that head of yours somewhere. You gotta. So gimme some? Anything. Surely there must be some pearls of knowledge rolling round in your head!"

"Well, I can teach you how to fly a shuttle, how to scrounge...always remember to get your injections monthly, you don't want to end up pregnant or with some nasty disease between your thighs..." By now she had gotten used to the shock of her slow aging so she paid no mind to replying. "I don't know, ask away and I'll answer if I can."

Somehow it didn't surprise Ki'ana that most of her advice had to do with sex. Perhaps that was how she'd coped all those years, she wondered, finding intimacy with anyone and everyone she could find (mostly men, probably) when her own parents could not and would not give it to her. Somehow the idea of it made her sad. "Well... what color do you think I'd look good in? I do need some new clothes." She remarked. "You've surely had to have tried on your fair share of clothes."

She ate another cashew before responding and while removing her jacket. They had the whole day to get settled in and she was going to take it to rest. "I would say purple or blue will suit you well. Oh I wonder about a nice deep red. That could work out." She did find herself getting a bit tired of what she considered to be run of the mill 'girl talk' although to be fair the two of them hadn't caught up for some time. "So tell me, is there anywhere fun to hang out around here? This ship is older than me so..."

"Hey, slow down a bit, will you? We haven't even had the chance to explore yet!" Ki'ana replied. "Perhaps we'll find an old storage locker, or an empty cargo bay that no one remembers, or something like that! Or maybe there'll just be a nice garden on one of the decks, who knows. I'd appreciate that. Somewhere to hide and be ourselves. Wouldn't that be nice? No instructors, just the cadets. Imagine what we could get up to,"

"Something tells me a lot of trouble will be on the menu. But it doesn't help that our primary instructor is also a JAG officer. So it wouldn't be hard for them to hold a captains' mast and issue some non judicial punishment to anyone that gets caught misbehaving. So whatever locker or cargo bay we find will have to be tucked away. I wonder if there are any cute engineers I can find to help setup a good spot and also make changes so the power drain isn't picked up on scans, or at least ignored. But I agree a place of our own would be cool." Despite the Vulcan's age, at heart her maturity level matched her physical appearance.

"Well..." Ki'ana smiled. "I think I might know one. His name is Naltar. The chief of operations for our cruise. He's Cardassian, but he's not bad-looking either. I hear he has a weakness for beautiful women. Why don't you talk to him and see if you can seduce him into covering up for us, eh?" She was mostly joking, of course. The last thing she needed was to get her best friend in trouble, and she hoped that V'lal knew that. "Though if he isn't to your taste Ahmad is nice, too. The human male from the part of Earth they call Saudi Arabia?"

She wasn't sure about going after someone in a senior role, they usually took their job too seriously. "This Ahmad sounds like he could be a potential mark, I may have to go and see if I can find him, play the damsel in distress card for some help. I am after all just a pilot" she joked back. As for Cardassians, she never really had developed an opinion either way, and she had yet to hear of one in StarFleet so that did arouse her curiosity some. "Although if this Naltar is a Chief...I bet he has his own room so that would be a plus."

"Do what you will with that information. If he asks, just tell him that I sent you along." Ki'ana smirked at her. "He loves hot women, like I said. I bet he'll melt in front of you, just you see. Though I give you no guarantees on what he can do, so don't expect too much, alright?"

"I'll manage my expectations" V'lal replied. "Speaking of exploring, what do you say we go and check out the mess hall?"

"Sounds good to me." Ki'ana smiled and stood to change out of her uniform. "Maybe you'll find your cute boys there. Now isn't that nice?"

 

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