Meeting expectations

Dustin adjusted his seat carefully. He’d opted to not hold this meeting in the ready room or the counselling suite, and was instead sitting in one of the less used areas of the ship - one of the small number of secondary meeting rooms dotted in between the officer’s quarters. Given that most of the officers shared his living space anyway, these rooms had been mostly just gathering dust since he’d left Earth. They were, therefore, neutral ground as far as this discussion was concerned.

Deciding he’d fussed enough over the furniture, Dustin had just enough time to procure both drinks and a plate of biscuits from the automat and settle in his chair when the door hissed open. “Ah, Aricia, please come in.”

In the aftermath of his discussions with Trea’k the previous day regarding assistants, Dustin had caught up with the butterfly woman before she finished her photography to let her know he wanted to have a proper check in with her. To that end, he’d booked a couple of hours out of his day and made the arrangements to meet here; he’d opted against the ready-room as too public, and he didn’t want to use the counselling suite in case he made anything harder for her professional-patient relationship with Trea’k.

Aricia drifted in, wings fluttering lightly as she settled into the chair Dustin had prepared for her. Pouring them both a glass of juice, Dustin leaned back in his seat and began to explain his reason for wanting to speak with her once more. “As you know, I arranged this meeting because I’ve not had much chance to check in on you, what with the Fractals and the Durathisian coup. Everything got so hectic, but I’ve finally had enough downtime to start working through my to-do list. So, with that in mind - how are things going?”

The Lieviran woman frowned, kicking her legs idly underneath her chair for a moment before shrugging. “Good? I think they’re good at least. I’ve not been able to see much of the other stars we’ve visited for obvious reasons, but just talking with the crew has been… oh, what’s the human expression, ‘eye opening’? Trea’k is helping a lot, and I’m learning so much about so many things it makes me dizzy sometimes.”

She paused, smiling at him before picking up her tablet from where she had it clipped to her belt. “My photography is going really well too. Trea’k says that she thinks I have a natural eye for it. Would you like to see?”

Dustin smiled back. “I’d love to look through your album once we’re done with this meeting, but I do have a few other matters to discuss first. Key amongst those is your thoughts on your future; obviously, before everything with the Durathisians it was either come with us or stay with the other Lievira, but with the change in galactic circumstances you have new choices now. You could stay on Earth, or travel on any friendly ship, as well as remaining aboard Sola. While the Durathisians might be a danger wherever you are, a Velca research vessel or a Rabyth repair ship would still let you travel while being far safer than being part of the Earth fleet right now.”

Aricia frowned at his words. “I want to stay here, please. My friends are here, and…” she glanced to one side, before mumbling something that sounded very much like “this is my home.”

Reaching across to squeeze the butterfly woman’s hand reassuringly, Dustin chose his next words carefully. “I’m more than happy for you to stay here. And I’m glad you’ve made friends - we’ll talk about that in a bit too. But I wanted to make sure that you knew you had choices, that’s all. So, if you’re staying, fantastic. Let’s move on to what you want to do while you’re here. Trea’k thinks that it’ll be unhealthy for you long term if all you do is drift around, and wanted me to see if you’d put any thought into what kind of things you might like to do as a job.”

The butterfly woman’s smile returned once she realised that he wasn’t planning on removing her from the ship; the mention of a job didn’t seem to phase her as much as being given the option of leaving had done. “As long as I can take my photos I don’t really mind what I do. Trea’k sent me a message this morning and asked if I’d like to do some basic counselling training with her, which I don’t know if I’d be any good at but if she thinks I’d be worth teaching then I’m more than happy to try” the woman babbled, fingers drumming on the back of her tablet before she brought it up and snapped a quick picture of Dustin’s contemplative expression.

“Sorry, I know I should have asked first - Emely made that very clear, that pictures shouldn’t be taken of people without permission - but you get that expression whenever you’re worried about any of the crew and I struggled to describe it to Trea’k at my last session. I hope it’s okay if I keep that picture to show her?” She said, flipping the tablet so that Dustin could see and make sure he was alright with her work.

Dustin nodded, before waving vaguely at the tablet. “If Trea’k thinks you’d be worth teaching, then lets leave it at that for now. Maybe counselling will be your calling just like hers, maybe not, but either way you should focus on one role at a time. And if you enjoy it, I believe she’s planning on calling for volunteers to take their training further. With that out of the way then, friends and socialization is the next topic. How are you finding things with the rest of the crew?”

Aricia rocked back and forward on her seat for a moment, wings fluttering slightly before she spoke again. “Things are going well. I don’t speak in any great depth with many of them at the moment; Emely seems to be avoiding me out of the senior crew, while the junior staff are always so busy that we don’t get much time to chat. Trea’k is lovely, but our talks are almost always just part of my counselling sessions. Umm…” her words trailed off, as if she wanted to ask a question but was unsure how to begin to voice it.

Finishing his glass of juice and pouring another, Dustin looked at her over the jug. “You have a question? Feel free to ask, this is supposed to be a two-way discussion” he said politely, before filling her glass when she held it out. The Lieviran woman lifted the glass up for a moment, contemplating the way the light glinted over the orange liquid inside, then set it down on the table and fixed him with what for her was a piercing stare.

“Dustin… can I talk to you about your relationship with the crew? I did start to discuss it with Emely, but then she said you had ordered her not to try and ‘recruit’ me and refused to talk any more about it. I think that’s part of the reason she’s avoiding me at the moment to be honest.” The woman’s expression was hard to read, and Dustin was glad he’d not been sipping his drink when she started to speak - he’d have choked on his juice for sure.

Clearing his throat, Dustin rubbed the back of his head. “We can talk about that if you’d like I guess… and yes, I did ask Emely to behave herself with you. She has this thing… but that’s not important right now. What did you want to know about my relationships?”

Aricia bit her lip in thought for a moment before she responded. “You are… intimate, with the bulk of the senior staff. Trea’k and Meli’a are both carrying your children, aren’t they? And you are together with Emely, Rye…” she ran down the list on her fingers “…Bleu, Naera, Sammie… but not Yri’k, if I am observing the signs correctly?” At Dustin’s somewhat hesitant nod, she smiled. “And you accept them all being together as well, without you present? The temples at home… before you came, they would sometimes have priests with many lovers, but the lovers were always strictly separate.”

She paused, seemingly unsure of where to proceed with her thoughts before gesturing vaguely in the direction of Dustin’s quarters. “Is there a reason you limit yourself to the senior staff?” her word caused Dustin to actually **** on his drink this time as she continued “you are after all a very attractive man and…” she trailed off, blushing before concluding “…could surely have many more lovers if you wanted.”

This conversation was not going the way Dustin had planned at all. Clearing his throat after his coughing fit, he took a deep breath and sighed. “I could have. But honestly, I don’t actively go out seeking more partners. Meli and Rye more or less fell into my lap, Emely was basically an arranged marriage, and Trea’k was essentially the same. Bleu, Naera and Sammie all sort of invited themselves in… To be honest, at this point the relationships I have with my lovers are such that new people would need to get a committee of women to agree to anything happening as well as persuade me. And the crew are, well, my responsibility. I kind of feel I’d need to refuse any advances there just due to the power imbalance you know? We held off on letting Sammie join for quite some time for that reason. I’m not like one of the temple priests.”

Aricia nodded, although something in her eyes made Dustin instantly wary as she summarized what he’d told her. “So, new lovers would need the approval of your harem. I see. And I am well aware you are not like a temple priest, Dustin - you care so much for your people, and think almost nothing of yourself. I can easily see why the others worry about you.” With that, she shook her head, the movement making her wings sparkle in the harsh light of the meeting room. “Thank you for answering my question. I sense that the topic is embarrassing for you - so perhaps we should move on? If you have nothing else to ask…”

The Lieviran held up her tablet hopefully at that point, and Dustin was all too happy to agree. Shifting his chair closer, he grabbed a biscuit from the plate and leaned in, trying to show as much interest as possible about the butterfly woman’s artistic endeavours, anything to distract from further discussions around his relationship status. It didn’t help therefore when Aricia unlocked her tablet to reveal that the background was set to a range of self-portrait photographs.

While most were of the flighty woman smiling or looking out into space, Dustin’s eyes traitorously focused on the one black and white image in a corner of the collage. It had clearly been taken in her quarters, using a mirror to get a shot over her shoulder - but the way the grey-scale somehow enhanced the natural pearlescence of the membranes on her wings wasn’t what drew his gaze. No, that would be slightly lower - for whatever reason, Aricia had opted to take that particular photo stark naked, and with her wings spread wide there was nothing in the image to cover what could only be described as a cute backside.