Lt. JG. Gnai - Being Fashionably Late Was Totally An Accident
Lich
((Federation Headquarters Ballroom, Bolarus IX))
Fancy parties were not Gnai’s idea of a good time. Far from it, even. The closest that it had come to enjoying itself at a party had been a very subdued affair in Capt. MacKenzie’s backyard on Earth, and even that was pushing it slightly. It just felt somewhat like a jellyfish out of water, dealing with the swirling crowds of humanoids all bustling about and making conversation.
At least no one seemed to really expect it to come dressed in some sort of formalwear. It could get away with the suit as is, even if it did technically look “in uniform”, and out of place. But it was always a bit out of place anyways, so that was… fine.
It had been doing some work in one of the labs before the party, deliberately not paying much attention to the time, just so that it could have a proper excuse to show up “fashionably” late, and not catch too much flak. Sure, it’d get some from Genkos, it presumed, if he knew that it was working more during leave, but that was expected. And such a gambit had worked today, as it arrived to a party full-swing, and sequestered itself a bit out of the way of everyone else. Totally not hiding or anything.
Lt. Cdmr. Drex caught sight of it when it entered and came to chat. They’d not talked much, but it probably should have checked in more over leave…
Drex: Lieutenant Gnai. ::His tone seemed amused.::
Gnai bobbed slightly in its tank in response.
Gnai: Commander Drex, is this late?
It knew the answer was “yes” but hopefully he’d be diplomatic about it.
Drex: You arrived at an optimal time. Late enough to avoid the preparations, early enough to avoid attention.
Perfect. Exactly as planned.
Gnai: That was not the intention… this had just been somewhat wrapped up in a small experiment in the lab and lost track of time.
Whether or not Lt. Cmdr. Drex believed that was up in the air, but if the smile was anything to go by… he didn’t, but was finding Gnai’s attempted cover-up funny.
Drex: I see. And how was your shore leave?
It shrugged with the arms of its suit.
Gnai: Mostly fine. This spent a good deal of it on the ship, with one minor excursion to the surface.
Drex: Response
Another person had joined them, Lt. Stapledon, the chief of science. It bobbed a greeting at her as she arrived.
Stapledon: Oh hey.
Gnai: Hello, sir.
Drex: Response
Stapledon: Good to meet you outside of a... dicey situation. ::Smiling::
That was putting it quite mildly in fact. As far as Gnai was aware, the mission had been a mess up until the very end, and then everything seemed to work. Which it didn’t hate, but it could have done without all the prelude. Just skip to the part where the Federation saves the day and put all the stress in the bin next time, please.
Gnai: This agrees. The mission was fairly tense. And confusing.
Drex/Stapledon: Response
Everyone seemed curious to know how everyone else had spent their leave, at least from what Gnai could hear from the snippets of conversation around them (and what it remembered as the general topic of conversation that every post-leave party it had been to on the Artemis), so it decided to try and throw that at the two of them.
Gnai: How were both of your leaves?
Drex/Stapledon: Response
Gnai: This somewhat… avoided the beaches of Bolarus, under the assumption that they would be quite crowded.
And because it had no desire to go swimming with so many loud tourist-y humanoids, at least that was what it had assumed the general populace of the beaches on such a planet would be like.
Drex/Stapledon: Response
Gnai: It will be nice to set off again…
Once they had set off, it had no requirements to go down to the planet and “take leave”, and no one could fault it for working in the labs…
Drex/Stapledon: Response
TAGS/TBC