Star Trek Asalooq Episode One: Arrival With Fanfares

Chapter One - Bunkmates

Studiously keeping to one side of the corridor, Ensign Teldac Issor strode along this dark side-corridor of Deep Space 9, his eyes down on the data pad in his hand. His features were set in what, for a human, would have been a very slight frown of concentration, but in fact, he felt extremely anxious. On the pad were his assignment orders to U.S.S. Stanislav Y. Petrov (a name he could not pronounce), soon to be the Station Ship at Asalooq Starfleet Facility, on his own homeworld. On his own homeworld. He could barely stomach returning to Asalooq, let alone doing so in his new capacity as a Starfleet officer ...

He was to be CONN officer aboard the Defiant class vessel. Today was his ordered date of arrival, and his assigned latest time of arrival, 1500, was still three hours away. Everything was fine with those orders, except the little appendix signed by his new (and first) ship's XO: "Quarters: Deck 2, Section 3B, 3B-09. Berthed with ENS Myra Dhawan, OPS." A woman. He would share quarters with a woman. He absolutely hated that little appendix. Everything was fine – but that. He knew the Ensign, they had been in one Academy year, after all. He had nothing against her, but he barely knew her. At the Academy, he had always been berthed with Vulcans. That was fine. Vulcans were orderly and respectful, almost Asalooq in their outlook, if much too brisk and forward for that. Myra Dhawan was Human – and Humans were incredibly nosy and overly familiar to the point of being offensive. Teldac had gotten used to it over the years, but that didn't mean he would share a tiny space with a woman from that species.

That meant one thing: on his first day on the job, he would have to go to the XO and make a complaint, to have other arrangements made. How could he do that? He didn't even know this Lt. Commander Coryn. Or Velna. He didn't even know which was the correct name! How could he address her? They had not exchanged a single word so far. Fine, he was technically introduced to her via his orders, but that didn't mean he could go to her with a complaint. His grandmother would not speak to him for days if he knew he even considered such an uncultured act. After a few days, maybe. But not right now. He would have to apologize to Ensign Dhawan for this indecent arrangement made by Starfleet. The organisation could be most tactless.

Having presented his credentials to the computer, he tentatively stepped aboard Petrov. The corridor was bleak visually, but quite loud from all the bustling crew and final work going on all over the ship. Two Engineering NCOs passed him by very closely with a heavy piece of equipment he didn't recognise, and they didn't even stop to apologise. He was supposed to do something about such things, but this was his first day, and he could not have reprimanded them anyway. Not without knowing their names, even if he was an officer now.

With the computer's help, he quickly found his way to Deck 2, Section 3B. Standing before 3B-09's door, he found himself praying to the Ancestors – don't let her be in the shower or naked. Please.

*

Ensign Myra Dhawan was slowly making her way through the starbase. Or rather, she was trying to do just that. She had just gotten lost for the third time. Someone had forgotten to send her the deck plan she would have needed for finding her way to where her new ship was docked. Her new ship. Despite the frustration caused by this unplanned delay – at least she had made sure to arrive no less than four hours early, so she was unlikely to get in any trouble on her first day – the words didn't fail to fill her with elation. Finally, finally she was a real Starfleet officer, off to real missions. Finally, there was no doubt any more that she was doing something worthwhile. She felt a little anxious, too. The duties on board an actual Starfleet ship, stationed far away from the Federation's core and its infrastructure, were certainly going to be something else than excelling at the Academy. But that was just what she had wanted, she reminded herself. An opportunity to prove herself, to learn and grow without either the security or the pressure of her father's connections.