New Life and New Civilisations: Part 1/2

Posted on Wed Jan 21st, 2026 @ 12:28am by Petty Officer 1st Class Ember Locksley & Lieutenant JG Amari

1,065 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Prologue: To Boldly Go
Location: Valhalla Bar
Timeline: Day 9 - after the crew board Fenrir

ON:

After a morning of back to back psych evaluations, Ember had been in serious need of a break. And a real one at that. If she remained in or around the counselling office, she'd end up just drawn back into work...and that's how she'd ended up in the bar, to resist the temptation. It was busier than she had expected, perhaps due to crewmembers taking the chance for some last minute R&R before they headed out. She couldn't blame them.

Ember headed for the long, straight side of the bar, so she could hop up onto a stool, smoothing the dark grey tweed skirt over her knee that she'd matched with an emerald green polo neck. Her long, dark red hair had been plaited over one shoulder and she clasped a real book in her hand. Again, a padd was just too much temptation to be pulled away to work. She nodded a greeting to the pale haired woman she'd set herself next to, motioning for a tender. "What are you drinking there?" she asked lightly, in need of inspiration for her own order...and also inviting conversation if she felt for it.

Glancing over at the red headed human trying to start a conversation with her Amari gave her a small smile. "I forget what he called it but it's nice, very fruity, I think it has alcohol in it too." She showed her more of the half drunk glass of cocktail.

"Sounds good enough to me," Ember chuckled softly as she raised her hand to catch the eye of the server before motioning to the frosty glass. "I'll have one too, thank you," she nodded as he moved away, settling back in the bar seat. "I'm Ember, it's a pleasure to meet you...?"

"Amari, of the Lesrai." Amari replied. "Nice to meet you Ember."

"Lesrai?" Ember hooked an elbow over the back of her seat as she watched her with interest. She'd spent her youth exploring the hidden gems of traditional lifestyles that still remained across the galaxy. But she didn't remember coming across a Lesrai in her travels. Or perhaps she was just getting old and forgetful, she chuckled softly at the thought.

"We're from outside your federation, keep to ourselves mostly, took a lot of persuading to get them to agree to me applying to the starfleet officer exchange program." Amari told her, she was getting used to hearing the same few questions from a lot of the people she talked to and wondered how many of them Ember would ask.

Ember's smile widened at the words, enjoying the idea of the assertiveness she would have needed to put up that fight. It meant there was a streak of feistiness in the engineer. "What's the strangest thing you've found about us?" she suddenly asked...she was so used to going and learning about other cultures and customs, she was curious to know how they came across in return.

"I am surprised how so many different species are working together, it is very strange. We can't even get all the people of my planet to work together unless something really bad has happened." Amari replied. "And you all have strange greeting gestures."

"Is it the handshake? I'm sure grabbing a stranger's hand does seem somewhat precarious," Ember couldn't help but chuckle softly. It had been a fascinating answer from her. It indicated a thoughtful young woman who saw more between the lines. "I assure you, we still have our moments of disagreements and differences. We learned that we needed to embrace our differences, use them as our strength, learn from each other and different perspectives. It's never perfect, but we keep trying."

"It wasn't a handshake," Amari told her. "We have a similar greeting on our world.... can I demonstrate what he did?"

"Please do," Ember nodded lightly, always happy to learn about the culture of others. She pushed her drink aside, sliding to sit on the edge of her seat, crossing her legs comfortably, ready to learn.

"He said it was a human greeting, and went like this." Amari reached out with both hands and gently squeezed Ember's bust.

Ember watched with shock for a long moment, before it was replaced with disbelief and chased up with anger. She reached out, gently taking a hold of Amari's hands to pull them away, but squeezed them reassuringly. "No, my friend, that's not a human greeting...that's assault."

"Something definitely didn't feel right about it but I thanked him and he soon went back to his friends at the next table." Amari explained some more. "They seemed very happy that he'd done it."

"You know when I said that things still aren't perfect?" Ember shook her head with a weak, half smile as she leant in a little closer to lower her voice. "I was talking about arseholes like that. Your body is your own, no one has the right to touch it unless you say so. If you know who they were, you should make a complaint. It's a very poor reflection on us as hosts to a new guest."

"You have already proven to be a much better host." Amari said with a smile. "I really like one of your engineers.. Hel, she is a very interesting woman, completely different from all the other crew I've met so far."

"Hel! You've met her? I served with her on a previous posting. She's an absolute diamond," Ember assured with a warm laugh, her eyes sparkling with the memory of a couple of escapades the other woman had managed to get them into. "Good at her job, great fun...and she knows what it's like to feel 'other' on a Starfleet ship," she added softly, hoping she didn't mind her saying so.

"We had a good discussion when we first met, did you know she can digest metal?" Amari asked, that had certainly surprised her.

Ember leant in closer to her, so she could rest her chin delicately in her hand, chuckling gently at the idea of it. "I'm going to guess she'd be the last survivor in a shuttle crash," she teased lightly.

"She said she couldn't exactly just rip out a chunk of metal and eat it," Amari added. "It definitely needs more investigation."

TBC:

Dr. Ember Locksley
Counsellor
USS Fenrir

LTjg Amari
Engineer
USS Fenrir
[Pnpc Masters]

 

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