JP: Ens. Gnai, Ens. Chevalier - Home - Part 2
Lich
(( Quarter 0712, USS Artemis-A ))
Black: Bye, Gnai.
And left. As the door closed behind Black, Jaseb raised his hand to the ceiling, first with an empty index finger, then adding a squirt and a thumb.
Chevalier: ::whispers:: Three... ::smiles:: Do you hear it, Gnai? SILENCE. Finally..
Chevalier leaned back on the couch and sighed contentedly before straightening up again.
Chevalier: Don't take it badly, Damien is...great...but now after Bajor...Father protects me… he is overprotective and demanding…
Gnai sat down next to Ens. Chevalier on the couch, mildly perplexed. Good to hear that he was better, but what was this about his father?
Gnai: Your father…? Did he come to see you at Rakantha?
Jaseb chuckled briefly before his laughter turned into a short, hacking cough. He leaned over the table to take a sip of coffee, clearing his throat.
Chevalier: No, not my father. I'm afraid that my father won't even come to my funeral. The Father-Founder. Our blessed guide and architect of our society. You know. Name for God, but he’s actually a living, breathing, walking person. He saved us from Earth’s World War 3 and led us to Eltharia, our world. Simply…heh…yea, just replace Father with God and it will start to make more sense. ::smiles::
Gnai was concerned when Ens. Chevalier started to cough - it had been just his leg, it thought, not his chest. Had the injuries been more extensive than it had assumed? And whatever he was going on about with his father-that-wasn’t-his-father, his living god… Gnai wasn’t sure what to make of it. That sounded far different from most of the religious concepts that it had been exposed to through classes and classmates at the Academy. Hopefully he hadn’t hit his head too hard and gotten a concussion like Renirs had. He seemed coherent, unlike she had been… And it seemed a bit rude to ask about his state of concussedness, so it just prodded him with a few adjacent questions.
Gnai: Your god is a living person? And he was here, to see you at Rakantha? Or is this metaphorical…?
Jaseb paused to answer, but after a moment, he exhaled once more.
oO Maybe I should give him a copy of Liber viarum ad astra... that would greatly simplify the explanation a lot... Oo
He tilted his head and looked at the jelly hidden in a transparent canopy embedded in the suit that surrounded the Gnai. Maybe it was best just to say it straightforwardly.
Chevalier: Yes. He's a person. Our God walking among us. I never met him in person, but you know, you can see him in holovision. But, leave it to be. We worship him, so my Father protects... yea, it was a metaphor. Like some others would name Earth Allah or Bajoran Prophets... ::nods to Gnai:: So, how do you like the ship? Are you settled yet?
Gnai paused then bobbed up and down. That made a bit more sense, rather than possible hallucinations. It wasn’t the most religious of individuals, so it decided to just not prod any further.
Gnai: ::pause to think:: The Artemis? It’s a good ship. ::pause:: Although the Captain is quite intimidating. You might have missed it when you were in the hospital, but she was quite mad because of what happened on Bajor.
It shuddered a bit in its tank. She had not been pleased, to say the least. It hadn’t really been the target of her frustration, but it also wasn’t really in the clear. Renirs hadn’t been the one to report the cave to Lt. Jovenan and Renirs didn’t suggest to her that it would be a worthwhile place to explore. That was all on Gnai, and it still felt horrible for deciding to prioritize its curiosity over caution.
Chevalier: I would not lose a leg over it, Gnai. This will come and go. We were on a scientific expedition in the middle of a former war zone marked as clean by the Bajoran Militia. It was just bad luck, no one is there to blame…
Jaseb savored the last sip of his rich, aromatic coffee, then carefully placed the empty cup back on the polished wooden table. Then he lowered his head to examine the small aqua jelly in the suit closely.
Chevalier: So, tell me, did you look around the quarters when you moved in? You know, I know everyone is a little curious about other cultures and stuff, so I would not hold a grudge if you did…
What an odd question. Sure, it was curious, but it wasn’t going to barge into his room and search it to try and suss out what it could about his culture. Humans liked their privacy, and their space.
Gnai: No. ::pause:: Did you?
It would have understood, but still been displeased if he had. Galadorans were open with each other, but with the other species in the galaxy, they preferred not to be as open of a book. It was fairly obvious to guess, from how it carried itself in a tank, but Gnai didn’t need the details of the larger tank of water that it slept in to be more widespread knowledge than necessary.
Chevalier: No, we usually assimilate first, it shortens the time needed to get someone to know… ::looks at Gnai and laughs:: That was a joke.
Chevalier reclined on the plush couch, letting out a deep, satisfied sigh as he savored the moment.
Chevalier: Okay, then, you did not find a little surprise I wanted you to give… may I ask, can you go to my room and pick it up? It’s on the bookshelf. Wooden box with post-it “4GNAI”. I would go myself, but you know… ::points his prosthetic leg::
The “assimilate” joke sort of fizzled on landing, as Gnai wasn’t certain what to make of it. It seemed in poor taste, but then again - Gnai wasn’t the one that looked fairly Borg-y. It bobbed up and down, before getting up off of the couch to go into his room and retrieve whatever the mysterious package that he had stored away for it.
The room that Ens. Chevalier lived in was moderately spartan, little was there besides the generic furniture that had been provided. But as Gnai stepped in further to search for the box that he had been referring to, it saw two clear places where he had actually left a mark on his room. The first was a table (or maybe a desk?) that was strewn with various small engineering tools and a terminal. The second was a bookcase filled with paper books and some sort of… miniature hologram? Interesting… Beside that was the box that it had been sent to retrieve, so Gnai took only a few seconds more to take in the room and its austere contents, before leaving back to the main joint space.
Package retrieved, and minor snooping (it couldn’t help what it saw as it went in his room!) completed, Gnai carried the box back into the shared space. With another bob inside its tank, Gnai started to pass off the box to Ens. Chevalier. Wait. Perhaps it should hold onto the container, as he had mentioned that it was for Gnai? It kept it in its hands, gingerly held between the mechanical fingers.
Gnai: This what you meant, correct?
Jaseb smiled as he saw Gnai holding that box.
Chevalier: Yup, exactly that one I meant. Open it.
TBC
--
Ensign Gnai
Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240102G11
&
Ensign Jaseb Chevalier
Operations Officer
U.S.S. Artemis-A
A240009JC1