Lieutenant Commander V'Nille - Do You Wanna Play Tourist?
V'Nille
(( Brew Continuum Lounge, Deck 7, USS Valkyrie-A, Aelkuun orbit ))
// V’Nille’s Personal Log, Stardate 240304.15
It seems that the water world Captain Aleron directed us to go to ended up housing a sapient lutrine species. Otters, in other words, as I’ve overheard some of the humans calling them. I can see the resemblance, I suppose. They’re amphibious and most of them seem to live their lives along the coasts and shallow waters of the many islands of varying sizes that dot the planet they call Aelkuun. There is one larger landmass that can be properly called a continent and it houses their planetary capital. They call themselves the K’tsélai.
This is an inadvertent and entirely unplanned First Contact scenario. Fortunately, Captain Aleron has enough experience with diplomacy to roll with it when we first came in and it seems that though their starships are relatively primitive compared to ours, they do have at least a basic warp drive. They have had some contact with other aliens in the area, from what I can tell. So we’re not violating the Prime Directive here. They have graciously allowed us to keep the ship in orbit and seem eager to have visitors.
By now, the Universal Translator should be completely done working their language, though there seems to be a nonverbal component to it that it might still have trouble with. They seem to have anticipated something like or struggled with it on their own somehow because they use a dialect for speaking with us that makes some of what is typically nonverbal more explicit, like emotional tones, and in the transmission where I asked some questions about where we could visit, I overheard them speaking differently to each other. Hot mics are a universal problem, it seems!
I’ve decided to visit their capital and get a sense of the place. I’m hoping I can convince a couple others to come along. //
V’Nille strode into the lounge, dressed in a loose-fitting outfit she decided was perfect for the coastal weather she had been warned about, and looked around to see who was there. It was a few minutes after the end of Alpha Shift, meaning the place should have been decently populated with people getting coffees, a bite to eat, or just finding a place to chat with friends. The Caitian hadn’t planned any of this out very much yet, but she wanted to take a shuttle down to take a look around the planet and she figured this was one place she’d be able to find at least one person willing to hop along.
She found her first target sitting at the coffee bar and hopped onto the neighboring spot.
V’Nille: Hey, fancy seeing you here! Might I have a moment of your time?
Any: Response
V’Nille: Wonderful. ::spreads her paw-like hands wide:: Imagine: me, you, and maybe a couple others we rope into this go down to the surface of Aelkuun and play tourist.
Any: Response
V’Nille: Yeah! I talked with one of the contacts they gave us and it seems like there’s potential for some really neat stuff we can find there. They promised to have a tour guide available if we let them know we’re coming ahead of time. I’m thinking… one hour? I’ll go alone if I have to but company makes everything more pleasant..