Alex and Eris

Posted on Fri Mar 14th, 2025 @ 12:52pm by Commander Alex Flynn & Lieutenant JG Eris sh'Rhavar

787 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: The Serpent's Tooth [3]
Location: Docking Port One, Alpha Dock, DS13
Timeline: 0145 - MD02 (After Mana'i's arrival)

Alex watched the transfer crew depart from the USS Swiftsure. There had been no arrival ceremony, the Captain beamed aboard separately to be met by whoever was on duty, after all it was after midnight DS13 time. Those few crew who hadn't decided to simply sleep aboard the ship and wait until morning were making their way across the gangway into Alpha Dock. Alex wasn't even totally sure the woman would be here, but then she caught sight of the unmissable combination of red, white and blue.

She waited until the woman got closer, and once she was at a decorous distance, Alex stood up and spoke to her. "Lieutenant sh'Rhavar?" She asked, hoping she wasn't butchering the pronunciation.

Eris lined up for her turn to make her way down the ship’s gangway. This was her first look at the inside of her new duty station and home. It was…unmistakably Starfleet, she sighed. But, she told herself, this first view was just a hangar bay. The inside probably looked less utilitarian and sterile.

The Marine in front of her was about to step onto the gangway but he glanced behind and noticed Eris.

“Sorry, ma’am…I didn’t know you were there. Go ahead,” he offered, stepping out of the way. His rigid posture at seeing her told Eris he was probably an enlisted Marine, maybe an NCO. But to her, he was just another body crammed aboard the Swiftsure for the trip.

Eris smiled at the gesture, nodded her thanks, and awkwardly maneuvered her bag in front of her. The bag didn’t hold everything from her last duty station - just some essentials. The rest of her things would arrive later. She stepped off the gangway and followed the “herd” towards a large doorway just a few meters ahead.

She noticed a dark-haired human woman in a Command uniform take several steps in Eris’s direction before she called Eris by name. Eris was impressed - most humans had a difficult time with Andorian names. But not this one…

“Yes, ma’am,” Eris replied with a slight smile. Her gaze darted over the woman’s uniform.

“Apologies, Commander,” Eris corrected.

"Now now, don't start apologising yet, or I might not believe you when you actually do something wrong." Alex said with a wry grin. "Mind if I walk you to your quarters? There's a few things we need to get you caught up on, and I think we neglected to send you a briefing kit." Alex knew they had forgotten to send her one, only sending them to the three tactical support chiefs. She knew because she had been the one who had forgotten.

Eris smiled warmly at the Commander's joke, her antennae curling slightly in amusement. After dealing with so many stern-faced officers in her career, it was genuinely refreshing to see someone in the Command division with a sense of humor and such an approachable demeanor.

"Well..." Eris stammered, caught off guard by the Commander's unexpected offer. Her antennae twitched nervously as she searched for the right words. "I feel like I'm getting the royal treatment, Commander. Not many senior officers would take the time to personally welcome new crew members."

Eris adjusted her heavy bag and glanced around the bustling hangar bay, her hands trembling slightly on the strap as she tried to process this unexpectedly warm welcome to her new assignment.

"You're right, they probably wouldn't, but there aren't a lot of assignments like this one. And I... should have sent you all this ahead of time. But, many ways to skin a cat, as my grandma used to say." Alex said, realising that probably wasn't the best metaphor to go with, but realising she didn't really have a better one.

"I'm not sure how much you've heard already, but not long after arrival we discovered an anomaly that moves in an orbit mirroring that of the third planet. The anomaly it seems is some sort of bridge between universes. What's more, it changes, apparently at random to another universe approximately every six and a half days. We've figured out a technique to force a shift in the universe we're connected to, but it eats through more than half our fuel reserves every time." Alex explained, giving the woman a chance to take it all in as they reached the turbolift, and waited for a car to arrive.

"Oh. No, I... hadn't heard that." Eris said, not quite sure what to imagine as she described it.

"Okay. So, on Stardate 79598.63, an exploding freighter revealed what we would later learn was a post-entropy anti-universe, in the form of an apparent singularity..." Alex began, as they stepped into the turbolift.

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