Into the Woods

Posted on Thu Nov 5th, 2026 @ 4:50pm by Commander Alex Flynn & Ensign Calithra-Esmarill-Tiranas

2,622 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Shifting Shapes [4-5]
Location: Cali's Quarters - DS13
Timeline: Afternoon - MD07

Chime pressed. Acceptance received. Quality transaction. Alex entered the doorway, and found something she wasn’t expecting.

Where someone might expect to see a lounge or entrance they found a mossy forest in summer heat.

Alex took a few steps in, up to the first tree. “Hello? Calithra?”

A clip-clopping sound from the distance, through the bright autumn hues and leaf-rustled silence. Calithra galloped into place in her natural body. “Commander. How can I serve?” She bowed sincerely in a smooth graceful motion.

“Hey. No service, just want to say hi. How’s it going?” Alex said.

“It?” Cali asked.

“Your life here. Since I last saw you, anyway.” Alex clarified with an easy smile.

“It is satisfactory. I like the weapons and many of the people. Lieutenant Thul is eager. But I wish for real activity. Challenges beyond routine.” Cali confessed.

“Oh, that’s inevitable, don’t worry. Even in normal places. And we aren’t exactly the first result when normal is searched. I like what you’ve done with the place. Is this somewhere in particular?” Alex asked.

“It is mostly flora from my homeworld, to the best description I can give your computers. It is not unlike the family grounds of my youth. Follow, if you would speak further.” She said as she galloped away the way she came.

Alex sighed. This one was high energy. But that was okay, she was prepared for that. “Computer, whip me up a holographic hoverboard with omnidirectional velocity control.” She’d been looking for an excuse to practice her boarding.

The device appeared, a Betazoid Heptapula-500 model hoverboard not unlike the one she’d had as a teenager. 150,000 replicator credits when she got her hands on one. Her stepmother had forbidden it (her brother, Alex’s step-uncle? had died in childhood from an accident on one), but her adoptive guardian allowed it so long as she maintained protection. She hadn’t done a lot of it since she first became a chief of security a decade ago.

She stepped on, getting a feel for it. Good balance. Easy wobble. “Interface control default Flynn Alpha-321. Disable inertia.” The board itself seemed to chirp and change at the instruction. She leaned it forward, and began an instant, but pretty-chilled-projection forward, fast enough to be dangerous, but skilled enough to miss the trees.

Not that it mattered, colliding with the trees only played a caution tone to discourage reckless driving in non-holographic environments. She wondered what her 14-year old self would think to see her doing it again in her 40’s.

Alex caught up with Thari after a minute of accelerating and search.

They were in a meadow surrounded by a wide even square of trees, all equidistant from the central focus: a single implausibly large tree in the centre that appeared to have died then been carved and shaped posthumously into a secure and fashionable fortress, basking in the afternoon sun.

A creek flowed nearby to the tree, coming from the rear forest and heading into the one ahead.

“I welcome you to my home, Commander Flynn. I will perform the ritual of welcome.”

“Please.” Alex said, stepping off her board, stomping on the back so it shot up, and catching it.

“Remain very still.” Calithra said, and her tail began to flicker in a pattern that brought it very close to Alex across its complex course, but never touching.

“We welcome our trust embodied, we welcome a fellow servant of our great prince, we welcome an ally, a peer, a comrade-in-arms.” Calithra said while she walked a circle around Flynn, finishing the phrase as she got back to where she started. Her tail lashed dangerously close to Alex the whole time she said it.

“Please, come.” She said when she finished and her tail remained behind her, climbing up a long flat-carved root leading up into the main hollow of the tree, steps hewn into it to facilitate Andalite travel. It stretched up like the paved entryway of a grand castle.

Alex got back on her board. “Right with you.” She puttered along over the worst of it, made childishly easy by the same holographic forces that rendered the place.

The inside is clean and palatial. Protected from weather but open and airy. Long deep couches for Andalite bodies. But also a few chairs for non-centauroids. Flowers and plants in almost every spare space not left so on purpose in the large central deck.

“The doors around the perimeter led to staircase limbs going into the rooms above and below. The viewing tier is above, the residential deck below. The waterdeck is below that. Here is the place where we rest in comfort. Cali reclined onto a long supporting couch that allowed her to rest all four of her legs and support only her torso upwards, and there was a leaning ottoman nearby for her if she wished it, like a seatless chair for her to rest her arms on as she reclined on the couch.

“So you’re getting along with everyone?” Alex asked as she took a seat, leaning her board against the back of the chair.

“Some of them are foolish or strange. But I simply do not entangle with those I do not care for.”

“Entangle. That’s a fun way of putting it. But you’re allowed to be picky if you want. That’s your inalienable right. Speaking of which, I have some good news. The Federation Council has granted you permanent resident status, with some conditions.”

Alex produced a holographic padd with a click of her fingers, and quickly brought up the documentation. She passed it to Cali.

“What does this mean?” Cali asked.

“Well, when you’re entered into provisional Starfleet service, the Federation considers an application for permanent residency. The Council reviewed yours and they approved it urgently. It means you’re allowed to leave, if you so choose. After a minimum 6-month term of service. As a multiversal resident and shapeshifter there’s some rules you’re going to need to follow. You will have to get Admiral Gali’s approval to depart the Dreizhen system, but you’re entitled to all the protections and guarantees of Federation citizenship, which is a status you’re also eligible to apply for if you wish it.”

“What does it ask of me?”

"Nothing mandatory. But if you're willing, for the public record, some basic information. If you’re willing to provide more specific data, you can receive various credit perks. Credits are fun. Not necessary to live a rich and full life, but fun." Alex said.

“Money.” Cali realised.

“No, we don’t have money.” Alex disagreed.

“What you describe is money.” Cali insisted.

“Well, yeah. But we don’t call it money. And you don’t die without it. And the best way to earn it is by serving your community. Don’t want to do that, or do anything at all? You’re free to live the life you choose, and a basic habitat, replicator and transporter credit allocation is sufficient to go anywhere or do anything in the Federation not established specifically for premium entertainment or materials. Ergo, not money. In my humble opinion, anyway.” Alex countered.

“Premium entertainment credits. It is sophistry.” Cali huffed. “But I like what they do. I am surprised to get so many as an Ensign.” She looked with affection at her home.

“Well, truth be told you’ve got nicer quarters than an Ensign would usually get. Normally holographics are reserved for senior staff and VIP rooms, though there are a few private and public rentals available in the civilian sector. But you’ve got different needs to the rest of us, and hell, we’ve still got a few empty rooms. Personally I think wilderness is a pretty cool need to have.” Alex said with a smile.

“Then I am grateful. I would perform the gratitude ritual, but I am conscious that very few individuals here perform rituals regularly as social convention. Also I am enjoying sitting down.” Cali told the Commander.

“Hey, I don’t mind. I don’t love the tail getting so close admittedly, but that’s only because it’s such an impressively deadly looking thing.” Alex laughed.

“The closeness of the blade conveys the trust. It is said that the host who harms their guest is cursed and must be paid the wound in kind upon themselves to regain their honor.” Cali explained proudly.

“Okay. That’s… fairly reassuring. But you look like you know what to do with that thing. What do you call it?”

“It is the shorm. In females it is normally like a scalpel. My blade is the envy even of some men.” Calithra traced her tail in front of her as she spoke, watching the light through the openings glint off it as she lounged.

“Lucky you. Can I ask, have you acquired any more morphs while you’ve been here?”

“No, my comrades do not know that I am a shapeshifter. I understand I am to keep this relatively secret.”

“Right. I guess acclimatising to the beautiful centaur warrior with a halberd-spear for a tail is enough for them.” Alex laughed dryly. "But you are allowed to tell anyone about yourself, so long as they have a Starfleet security clearance. If not, maybe just try to change the subject."

“They do not know that I am a Centaur, either. It is interesting that your system lets me set my own profile to my choice. I perform my shifts only in human form as Ensign Cali. Off-duty I am Calithra-Esmarill-Tiranas. I am not ashamed to maintain the secrecy of my people’s power for the security of my prince’s realm.”

“You absolutely don’t have to do that. But of course, it’s your choice. But don’t feel like you can’t be yourself on duty. Trust me, everyone here has seen and worked besides weirder things than blue Centauroids. Most people think it’s pretty cool. At least I know Saez and Yy do. Even Three of Five said that you would be a species the Borg would pursue assimilation of aggressively.” Alex said in a way she hoped would be complimentary.

“They did not tell me these things.” Cali was confused, almost suspicious.

“Well, no. Not everyone has time to seek out new relationships. And some people just keep to themselves, but it’s my job to talk about everyone, see how they’re feeling, what they think. If I thought they’d mind me telling you, I wouldn’t.”

“Then I am grateful. There is rare honor here. Even among Andalites, we speak proudly and boldly of peace as a universal sentient right, but we wage war to enforce it, bringing inevitable suffering upon entire worlds. Your Federation seems to believe in true peace. You do not enforce. You enrich.” Cali observed.

“Hard to argue with.”

“Slake called you ‘Communist’. What does that mean?”

“It’s a human political movement that ruled a significant part of the planet in our history. Their belief system centered around the idea that rich ruling classes should be abolished, and workers should be entitled to the reward of the value they produce.”

"That does sound like the description of your system. Why is it incorrect?"

“They sought a worker’s paradise, where all the honest working-class people decided the future they would achieve together without the predations of the wealthy. In practice unfortunately it proved consistently authoritarian well into the 21st century, and such states quickly abandoned much of their economic self-sufficiency in favor of global market commerce.”

"That sounds less like your way. It is not a complimentary thing to say?" Cali asked.

“There were a lot of bloody failures when it was first attempted, despite the best intentions where they could be found.” Alex explained. “To a Ferengi, whose entire culture is commerce, that’s how we seem to them. At least when they’re looking at their most uncharitable. Does that make sense?”

“I believe so. It all sounds admirable. Except for the Ferengi. They seem frequently despicable.” Cali said. “Thank you for telling me of my residency. Would you stay for a meal?” She offered.

“I’d love to, but I’m due elsewhere. I’ve loved seeing your home, though. Makes me think I should spruce the old place up where I’m sleeping.”

“What is your design?” Cali asked.

“Oh, no real design. Just a recreation of an apartment I had on Regulon a few decades ago. Jumbled together from old holos. It might not all have actually been the same apartment at all the times depicted. But it’s comfy. It’s even got the holographic dust accumulating, with real hot holographic rain and smog on the balcony.”

“Why would you want this?”

“Immersion. You want to forget its not real. That’s why they make it so convincing. Once you believe it, you can relax better.”

“You forget that it is holographic?” Cali asked.

“No. But it’s easier to look past it when it’s got real signs of life. The computer won’t default you to anything with real indication of having been lived in.” Alex admitted. “I think I felt the most at peace there, of all the places I’ve lived, in that dirty, sweaty city-planet full of marvels.”

“I have seen few planets here. But I understand my Prince must enforce the wish that I stay around this sun. I would like to see the planets of this system, if I might. I do not fear its fauna, but I would prefer to visit Dreizhen IV if I were permitted.”

“Of course. Hell, you could get started on low-impact surveying. You’ve got the ability to cross more ground without equipment than any other non-flying resident aboard. Well, depending on how fast Volsunga runs.”

“Surveying. Science work?” Cali asked.

“Yeah, volunteer stuff. We do have a plan to get started on the inspections, but we’ve still got another month of full time full teams inspecting Dreizhen III. Which means if you’re willing to head our in your own time, we’ll definitely be able to facilitate.”

“I am intrigued, Commander. I would like to pursue this.”

“Speak to Dr T’Zor about it. She’ll sort you out.” Alex said, standing. She hadn’t had the chance to budget a lot of time for this meeting, and she’d got the important part out a while back.

“Thank you, Commander. It is an honor to serve our Prince beside you.” Cali said.

“Lovely of you to say, Cali.” Alex said genuinely. “I look forward to what’s to come.”

“Until next we meet, Commander.”

“Say, are you coming to the Ferengi Embassy opening tonight?”

“I do not have any currency.”

“It’s fine, I’ll spot you. Plus those vouchers might say one per customer, but I know there's a few floating around unused, and you have the unique ability to appear to be a different customer every time you present one. If you want to come along?”

“I plan on running for at least four hours. Afterwards though, I may attend. I will contact you when I have finished my course.” Cali smiled at the clever idea to get her free things.

“Great, beep me if you want to hang there. Bye” Alex said with a smile. “Computer, exit.” She said, and the main door to the hall appeared only a few feet away from her. She went though it.

Cali suspected she would need to speak to the Quartermaster. She needed a dress that could morph.

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