First Steps

It took some time to fill Trea’k in on what had happened since she had begun her metamorphosis; the crew took turns to run through the various decisions they had taken, with the Vex’ess woman nodding along. Yril’k made a point of leading her friend around the garden as the group explained their plans moving forward - and Dustin noted that while she did so she made a point of constantly changing who Trea’k was closest to among the quartet of non-Vex’ess. He chalked that up to her trying to minimize how much bonding the former queen’s psyche would make with any of the crew during the risky initial period after hatching. The insect warrior and Meli had both explained that the only one the new envoy wouldn’t potentially bond to would be her former friend - envoys being naturally outward looking from their hives.

Eventually, the group came to a halt in front of a small purple sapling in one corner of the garden. Dustin and the others had brought it back for Meli from their trip to see Rye’s family, and after some discussion it’d been planted here as the start of what would hopefully be a small shaded area with a few trees and (once Rye had upgraded part of the climate control) potentially a pond. The fact that Emely blushed every time she’d seen the designs for a pool of water next to purple trees had pretty much cemented the idea as far as Dustin and the others were concerned. For now, however, it was just a single solitary sapling and some lightly undulating grass ready for the water feature to be installed.

Into one of the dips in the grass Trea’k now sank, folding her legs neatly underneath herself as she did so. “You all seem to have made such strides while I was out.” The insect woman mused, before looking at Dustin. “So, our next destination is an ecological mission of sorts I believe you said?” With a nod, Dustin took an offered tablet from Meli and tapped it a few times. “Seeing as you missed the main mission briefing, let’s have a quick recap over lunch. Rye, Meli, would you mind grabbing some thing from the automat for everyone?” The Velca and Rabyth women nodded, walking the short distance to the nearest dispenser while Dustin set the tablet down and turned on it’s limited projector.

“This isn’t as detailed as the one in the briefing room - but for a recap it should suffice, and you can always review the details on the display in your quarters later Trea’k.” He began, gesturing at the pale image of a planet that was currently being shown. “This is Mecuar - it’s the home world of a group of friendly little aliens, by what our information tells us. Little being the operative word - they only reach an average height of ten inches.” The holo shifted to show a tiny figure with a human looking gigantic alongside it for scale. Dustin paused for a moment to take one of the plates of food that the others had returned with, grabbing a bit of a sandwich before resuming.

“Issh norr…” he swallowed “sorry, it’s not exactly our usual sort of mission - basically there’s a species of large herbivore on the planet too. Non-sentient, non-hostile - and also very sedentary when they find a good grazing area. Well, said herbivores have a colony in a location the Mecuar want to build a new city, and that is where we come in. The little guys don’t want to have to kill the herbivores, but the cost of moving them would normally be too high. So they put out a request for any ships large enough to help that could also land on their planet - they were in no real hurry to get the city build, so could afford to wait. And they’re on our route to our next long term stop.”

Trea’k nodded, one hand idly stroking the tip of one of Emely’s tails that had drifted a little too close. Dustin was pretty sure the Vex’ess woman wasn’t even aware she was doing it and so gestured subtly to Emely who looked puzzled for a moment before realizing and gently retrieving the appendage. “Captain - Ambassador - how can I help? Rather, I feel I owe a lot to you - the overqueen and I pushed quite heavily for me to get this role, and you barely know me.” Dustin shook his head. “You don’t owe me anything, Trea’k. And please, call me Dustin. We’re going to be working together for a long time I hope.”

The insect woman inclined her head, then sighed, seemingly not hearing his request to call him by name. “And yet… how can I help captain? I am somewhat of a passenger on your crew compared to my queensguard - I would do what I can to pay my own way.” At the envoy’s mention, Yril’k stood. “That reminds me’k. Please do not move a moment’k.” The warrior scurried off in the direction of the automat; Dustin shrugged in reply to Trea’ks confused expression. When Yril’k returned a moment later, he understood - she was holding a familiar medspray a little distastefully in one hand. “My lady, in accordance with the customs of this vessel’k and our overqueen’s instruction’k. I believe at this point you have been awake’k long enough for this to be appropriate’k. Just in case’k.”

Dustin watched as the Vex’ess envoy went from puzzlement, to realization, to blushing embarrassment at the sight of the contraceptive. “It is… appropriate, Yril’k. I believe I have control of my libido, but better to be safe.” Then, the insect woman turned her attention to the rest of the crew. “Would one of you mind doing the honours? My chitin makes reaching the most appropriate spot on the back of my neck rather difficult for me.” The four non-Vex’ess glanced at one another. “Of course we don’t mind” Dustin began, adding “who should…” as Emely stood and took the spray from Yril’k.

Murmuring something in the chittering tongue of the Vex’ess too low for Dustin to hear, the fox girl reached carefully behind Trea’k’s head a moment. A short hissing noise later as the spray activated, she withdrew her hand. “There you go. All done.” The fox girl’s tone was bright, and she seemed to almost skip back to where she’d been sat. Dustin filed that under “things to talk about later”, but for the time being settled for smiling at the envoy across from him. “Now that is taken care of” she began, idly running a hand across her arm in thought as she did so “the fact remains that I serve no purpose on this crew. I am a guest, am I not?”

The other women present turned to look at Dustin as he shook his head. “Officially, you’re the envoy from the Vex’ess. I understand from talking with the others that your species doesn’t do ambassadors the way the rest of us do - you don’t have to be on a planet to talk to our government, you’re more interested in seeing who we are and…” this time it was his turn to blush “…gaining a genetic understanding of us. So, unlike say Meli’s uncle, you could hold a role on this ship. And to be frank, I’d like you to feel like a part of this crew especially as we… um… that is to say err…”

Meli put one hand gently on his arm for support even as Rye rolled her eyes. “What our glorious leader is trying to say” the Rabyth began “is given he knows you’ll be joining the rest of us in bed at some point he doesn’t want you feeling like dead weight on the ship. Which is stupid of course, nothing wrong with an ambassadorial relationship being the only purpose for someone being here, but he’s a sweetheart like that.” Dustin managed a nod to confirm what Rye had said, then coughed to cover the remainder of his embarrassment. “Rye’s right. At present, there’s not that many jobs we need covering with the six of us - but we’ll have a lot more crew eventually. I’ve spoken a lot with Yril’k over the past few days while you’ve been out and she’s given me what I hope is a reasonable understanding of your skills. With that in mind, what do you think about becoming the ship’s counsellor?”