FSE

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Chapter Two

Looking in the mirror above the sink the face that stared back at him looked like it had got no sleep in days. That was almost true, the past week before graduation had been hard on him. The stress of not knowing what was going to be his future had kept him up while he stared at the ceiling from his bed. Now he had reason to stress for another completely different reason. M'Sara had not fared much better, whenever she was awake too, they would talk themselves to sleep. They had grown even closer emotionally, and mentally sense that one fateful day. He still had a hard time believing someone so alien to him could share so much with him. They had found down to their core, were in sync with each other. Like two warp cores running on one ship. Even though their backgrounds were completely different, how they were raised, not to mention their cultures, everything was utterly different, but that did not matter. All those differences just made the other that much stronger when joined together. He had admitted to himself a while ago that they did make a great team, and he felt good about that. He felt her give him a hug from behind, her arms wrapped around his bare belly.

Her muzzle nuzzled the side of his upper arm before she asked him, "Are you looking for someone in there? I'm afraid all you will find is yourself."

Looking down he saw her head peaking beside him, her ears were half up and forward, and her eyes were looking into his through the mirror. "I found you as well, and good morning to you."

She let go and patted him not so very gently on his bare butt while she told him with a purring undercurrent, "We need to start getting ready, time to report for duty is only hours away. We get one last shower in a real water shower for quite some time, at least until we get shore leave, we need to make it count."

Slightly blushing at her gentle touch, he nodded slowly while a smile spread on his face. "Indeed, we should enjoy ourselves while we still can. Meet you in the shower."

Her ears slowly lowered and turned slightly to the sides of her head as she nodded and turned, opening the shower door she turned her head to give him an imitation of a smile, and it looked like a slight snarl her sharp teeth that were designed to tear flesh off the bones of her prey were visible, just before she entered.

It is time I enjoyed myself and let go of all my prejudices and enjoy myself fully, he thought to himself. I am ready to experiment with her, if she is willing.

With that he followed her into the shower, and he never regretted his decision as she was very willing.

******

In their new uniforms with the rank of ensign, they walked onto the crew transport type shuttle together, already on board were the others joining the crew along with them.

Once they entered, the looked around in wonder at the mostly full shuttle. He spotted Matt sitting near the front, and opposite him were the two last empty seats.

Pulling her with him, they went to fill those seats. She had to tuck her tail beside her, having it run beside her leg. Not very comfortable for her, but not many options either. Matt nodded towards them in greeting as they sat down. "It is good to see you Thomas, M'Sara. Something is different about you two this morning, I wonder what that is? Oh maybe it is because you two are now ensigns assigned to a starship. Yeah, that must be it." He said with a very not Vulcan like grin.

Thomas blushed and looked away as if something suddenly caught his attention as M'Sara patted his hand, her ears half down and off to the sides while she said, "That is it exactly Matt. How perceptive of you."

With a dead pan look, and voice he nodded as he said, "I endeavor to be so, thank you."

******

As they exited the shuttle, they lined up with the rest of the new crew. The captain entered the shuttle bay, and everyone stood at attention. He forgot about any of his personal issues, and they were at their professional best. He came to realize at that moment, that he was aboard a star ship, he was leaving home, and he could not be more proud of himself.

(Think of name for Klingon XO)

The captain nodded in our general direction and said, "Welcome aboard everyone. Commander, see that our new crew members are seen to their quarters, and they get there schedule for the week."

Behind the captain was a male Klingon who was almost seven foot tall. "Aye captain." He looked over them, with a sour look. With a cold tone he told us, "Follow me." He turned in place, and headed out the same door they entered in.

Behind M'Sara he followed along with the rest, looking around like a kid in a candy store he bumped into her when she stopped. The six of us, plus the XO fit into the turbo left.

He talked to the wall, "Deck seven."

We got off along with everyone else and followed him down the hall. After a few turns we stopped.

The XO was standing in front of a now open door as he said, "Ensign D'Khatarr and ensign Hauer this is your room."

The rest of the ensigns that were with us turned to look at us, some with scorn, others with surprise, but they said not a word. I followed her inside and dropped my bag right beside where she dropped hers as the door closed behind us with a swoosh sound.

As soon as his duffle bag hit the floor, she pounced him with her ears perked up, and her tail going straight up saying with a very excited voice as she did, "We did it! We are in space, and part of Starfleet!"

He laughed and picked her up easily, giving her a twirl in the air around him as he said, "Yes we did, we did it! I could not be happier than I am at this moment!"

Sitting her back down her took a step back and looked around at their quarters. It was small and cramped, with one single bed, a desk, and next to that a small food replicator. Behind her was the refresher room with a stand up one person waterless cleaner, and a toilet. Just what one would expect on a ship designed for fighting. Not a single luxury in sight.

She turned back to face him with her arms on her hips, her tail was swishing slowly from side to side as she said, "We are going to be cramped in here, looks like it is a single person room, but we have to share it. Maybe all the rooms are the same except the officers' quarters on such a small ship."

He nodded and now he was thinking about that too. Would we drive each other up the walls having to share such a small space for however long they would have them, well it is not like they have any personal possessions with them to worry about, and they would only be sleeping in this room mostly anyway. So maybe it won't as bad as all that. I could just get a matte and sleep on the floor if I must, he thought to himself.

She went to the wall while he was in thought and was tapping and sliding her finger over it as she looked something up. After a few seconds she said while tapping on it again, "Our shift starts in just a few hours, I say we find the mess and have ourselves a meal before that. We are being classified as one being on the shift roster that must be so they don't separate us. That is going to confuse more than a few of the crew."

Turning she walked past him to the door and grabbed his hand as he stood there looking confused, "Let's go eat, I know where the mess is."

As they entered the mess she actually drew closer to him, her other hand took his arm that she was already holding the hand of.

He looked around as they entered for the first time, this was no Galaxy class ship that was for sure. There was about a dozen tables, and one wall of the rectangular shaped room was all windows facing what he figured was the side of the ship. He could see the bottom of a nacelle at the top of the view of the window, behind that he could spot a few stars. There was about a dozen four person tables, and a self-serve bar. Between them and that was two full sized food replicators. On the far side of the bar was a small open room with a kitchen. Half of the tables had crew seated at them, no one they have met already, and a few had looked their way as they had entered, and were watching them still. One of the human males in a red uniform did not look at all happy about their arrival either as he was glaring right at him.

He guided them to an empty table by the window as let go of him so she could sit he told her, "I'll get us some drinks."

After he got them, turning around he heard M'Sara say to someone, "No, you may not sit there."

He looked up from the tray with the drinks and that man in red who had glared at him when they entered as sitting beside M'Sara. He started walking back to the seat before he heard him say, "I see you like humans, how about you ditch that loser and we can have some real fun back in my quarters."

M'Sara's ears went flat to her head and with a snarl that was in no way an imitation of a human smile answered him, "You must be joking, or insane. I wonder witch one it is. I suggest you get up and leave us."

Sitting at the table he noticed the man was an ensign like them and he acted as if nothing was wrong, ignoring him as he sat the tray down between them as he said to her as if they were alone, "I got your favorite drink, I'm excited to start our first duty shift."

She turned her head slowly around to face him as he handed her the drink, one ear started to relax as her eyes lost their glaring look and she replied, "Thank you, and you are right, we should ignore the fly who thinks he is a man."

The man in the red shirt who I have yet to hear the name of eyes were bulging and his face was red like he was about to explode opened his mouth but all he did was sputter.

Behind him another man in a red shirt, an Andorian with a gaunt face put his hand on his shoulder as he softly said to him, "You really live dangerously, treating the captain's daughter like that. If he knew, he would likely claw your face off."

That was when his face turned white as he squawked, "Captain's what?"

The Andorian grunted, "Not so hard to keep track, only three Caitians on board."

The Human in the red shirt took one look at him with a grin on his face, then at M'Sara who by now had her ears at a more relaxed position, her tail unseen tucked beside her leg under the table. The next thing he did was to stiffly stand up, and quickly slide away to stand behind the Andorian as he quickly said in a high pitched voice, "It was a joke, just a joke, yeah, I was just joking. No hard feelings, huh?"

M'Sara was sipping her drink, as if that person was not even there. Thomas looked up at him like he just noticed him and said, "Oh did you need something?"

The man backed away as he said, "No, no I'm good, thanks." Then turned and walked quickly out of the mess.

The Andorian who Thomas noticed was a lieutenant smiled at him as he looked back to him then said, "It is nice to meet you, welcome to our dysfunctional crew. I'm (think of name for him)."

Thomas nodded and smiled, liking him already, "It is very nice to meet you. I'm Thomas and this lovely Caitian is M'Sara."

She just sat there and nodded as she was busy nursing her drink.

He nodded back to him, "I hope I see you around, take care." With that he turned and went back to his seat.

He finally started in on his iced mocha espresso quad shot. One drink the replicator did exceptionally well on. He found himself watching her lick at her warmed drink for some time before he turned his head to look out the window, losing himself in the stars.

Before too long he felt her furry hand on his hand before she said, "We should eat lunch now, you know what I want."

Nodding he sat his half empty drink on the table and got up, walking over to the replicator. I hope I can leave her alone this time without a pest appearing at our table, he thought to himself.

He returned with their meals, he got a turkey and roast beef sandwich, and for her something similar, but instead of bread was a special Caitian flat bread like food stuffed with roasted meats, mostly beef like. Taking her plate off the tray he sat it in front of her, and she grabbed it right away and started eating it before he could even sit down.

They entered the engineering dept. office, reporting for duty about fifteen minutes early, they ended up waiting for the chief engineer for about ten minutes. They were sitting in the available seats as she entered. They stood up as the door swished open at attention. In unison they said, "Reporting for duty, sir."

She walked past them, and sat behind her desk, "That is what I like to see, you waiting for me, instead of the other way around."

The women looked to be Klingon or partly so, and in her late twenties. She was almost slim, and about 1.5 meters tall with shoulder length hair in a ponytail. She tapped on her desktop console screen, "I'm Commander Lateen the chief engineer. Now let's see here, I have need of some nacelle maintenance, good chance for you to get acquainted with the ship while you are at it. I expect you to do that for the entirety of your first shift. That means you have ten hours to do a three hour job. Dismissed."

After saluting, they turned and departed. They wondered around, holding each other's hand, and when they found an unused wall console they used it together, standing side by side, their hands still held, him on the right, using his right hand, and her on the left using her left hand. It was an odd thing to see, but none of the other yellow shirted crew members in the room bothered them, they were all busy doing their own tasks.

They called up the layout map for recent modifications to the warp nacelles and power junction overlaid with all the plasma conduits along with all the cooling systems. They made notes on a padd they were sharing for areas that needed inspections. That included recent modifications, and areas that have not had recent maintenance log entries.

The reason they held hands while they worked was he could use his mind much more efficiently, and he had also found he was much more effective in trouble shooting as well. They had figured this out just about a week ago, while working together on class projects. It had the same effect on her as well, she had told him at the time.

Walking down the hall, hand in hand, Thomas was looking over the padd to see where they should get started. "I think we should use the L64P5 access to the Jefferies tube. That will take us to one we should start at. We take the hall down at the end to the left and it is near the end."

Beside him she nodded, her ears were at rest, "I agree."

He let go of her hand, and pushed the unlatch button with his palm, with a hiss it unlocked. Grabbing the handle on the door he pulled it open, latching it into the open position against the wall to above it.

He put the padd in the hip holster on his backside and climbed in, she followed him inside. They crawled a good ten meters before taking one down at the junction. They climbed down four more levels before they took one to starboard at that junction. From there they headed about twenty meters before they came to a stop in front of an access panel labeled with its serial number.

She sat down behind him as he unlatched the panel before removing it and placing it on the floor on the other side of him. "Let's do this."

He sat down facing the now open panel and removed the tools from his belt holster, placing them on the floor next to the cover. When he was down she crawled into his lap and sat facing the exposed plasma conduit junction regulators. They did not speak another word while they worked, she used the engineering tricorder to scan and identify anything that needed adjusting, and he used the tools to make the adjustments. They completed the job in record time. Placing the tool back on the floor, he got his padd, and using her lap as a table he held it for her, as she entered in the maintenance record and completed ticket information.

Replacing the access cover, his tools all back on his belt, they headed to the next one. They had worked out a route that would take them using the Jefferies tubes to everywhere they needed to be to complete their assignment. Each one was a repeat of the next, they were all easy jobs, no doubt to test them on their first day. They were to check the ten plasma regulator junctions to make sure they were all running at the highest possible efficiency.

After they put their tools away in the storage compartment M'Sara touched her com badge, "M'Sara to Lieutenant (Name)."

After a few seconds she got an answer, "(Name) here, go ahead."

"We completed all of the tickets, we are going to go clean up, then take a meal break. We will be back in thirty minutes."

"I see you two got done with those sooner than expected. Good job. Take a one hour break, then report back. I expect you two will become familiar with this department by the end of the shift."

"Aye sir." She said before tapping her com badge again to disconnect.

He smiled at her and said, "Do you know what that means?"

She looked up at him with her ears pointed forward and nodded, "I think so, though I don't know where we are going to find a trampoline or a tattoo parlor."

He hugged her to him as they both laughed at their inside joke, a passerby hearing the last part looked aghast at them. Turning they headed to the turboleft that would take them to the level that their room was on. As dirty as they were, having crawled around the innards of the ship, they needed to get cleaned up first.

As soon as the doors to their room hissed closed behind him as he followed her inside, she started to remove her clothing, at each step one was left behind her. By the time she reached the refresher room it was all gone.

He chuckled at her and headed for the desktop terminal. He needed to enter in their detailed report into their log. Bringing up the files from the padd he no longer had, he added those to the log, after that he entered in suggestions and comments as to their thoughts on improvements to be considered. There was not really much to add, so he got done in only a few minutes. Not long after he hit the 'Done' button, he felt her hands on his shoulders.

Rubbing his shoulders using her paw pads only, she decided to give him a short massage, "Your turn, I'll wait for you out here. I wish there was more room in there, only enough room for one of us at a time, what a bother. We are going to need to think of something fun when we get some holosuite time."

He waited for her to get done with her massage, making pleasurable noises as he did before he stood up and faced her, "Something very intimate, we will look through there public library to see what they have available." With that he walked into the refresher room for his turn, and she stood watching him as he removed his clothing.