Strange New Arrivals - Part I

Posted on Mon 9th Dec, 2019 @ 7:55pm by
Edited on on Tue 10th Dec, 2019 @ 12:16pm

725 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Deck 362: Main Docking
Timeline: MD-03: 1530 hours

Brok, of clan Koltern, had watched with awe and wonder as the USS Destiny had moved with an effortless grace through the main stardock doors of the massive starbase designated as one-oh-nine. Brok hadn't moved towards the airlock immediately, being self-aware enough to realise that a good number of people would be disembarking and, as a rather sizeable unit, he might be better off waiting until the crowd had dispersed a little.

Instead, he busied himself in his guest quarters on the Destiny, beginning to familiarise himself with his new assignment's primary locations. As he scanned briefly through the deck list on the screen in front of him, he wondered how he would ever get to a point where he would consider himself 'familiar' with a station that had two-thousand, five-hundred decks. He tried to commit to memory the primary locations that he would need to know in the immediate - the security offices on deck five-hundred and seventy-six, his quarters on deck forty-three... immediately his mind began to wander, as he considered how long the turbolift ride from his quarters, down five-hundred and... thirty... something decks was going to take every morning.

His enthusiasm for his new posting slightly waned, he turned off his console and packed the last of his effects into a shoulder bag, straightened his bed clothes, and headed out into the corridor.

A few moments later, he joined the mass of people still attempting to disembark. Although he soon realised that, being the size that he was, even if he walked slowly, respectfully and at the general pace of the crowd around him, most people were still quite content to get out of his way - often staring up at him as they did so. While it wasn't completely unheard of to see a Brikar at a Starfleet facility, he could understand that, for many, he was a somewhat unusual sight, his rocky visage towering, as it did, over most of the other travellers.

As the crowd moved through the tunnel, Brok was conscious of the number of people that he was bumping, although most seemed to accept that this was going be par for the course for a little while. Just then he kicked something that seemed solid - more like a trunk or a case. He glanced down and saw that this had indeed been that case, and that he had sent it flying forward a few feet. A small, blue-skinned alien - clearly the owner of the trunk - turned and let fly a volley of words that the universal translator failed to adequately interpret, although judging by the tone, Brok could infer the meaning perfectly well without. He raised his hand in a vain attempt to apologise but the little blue-skinned creature had already turned his attention back to the trunk and seems to be trying to push through the crowd to catch up with a figure up ahead in a black cloak and hood.

He thought no more of it as, eventually, he arrived at the turbolift. He selected one of the shorter queues and waited until a car arrived. A few people got on before him and he took a step forward into the lift too. As he did so, a female voice, which he assumed belonged to the station computer, echoed through the car:

'Weight limit exceeded. Please reduce load.'

Several of the other passengers turned and looked at him. Brok gave a small shrug - as much as his rocky frame would allow, sighed, and then stepped out of the car waiting for the next one to come along so as he could ride solo.

In the moments that followed he briefly contemplated what would happen if he exceeded the weight limit of the turbolifts without anyone else in the car. He didn't fancy descending down five-hundred and thirty something decks worth of access tubes just to get to work in the morning - and he certainly didn't like the idea of climbing back up them to get to his quarters in the evening.

The next lift arrived and he tentatively stepped in...

The computer was silent, and so he punched in the command for deck forty-three and soon he was speeding upwards through the station, to his new quarters... and his new home.

 

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