Every scar has a story

Posted on Sat Aug 8th, 2026 @ 11:06pm by Lieutenant JG Aria Rice & Petty Officer 2nd Class S'Ralor

1,955 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Behind the Curtain
Location: Mess hall
Timeline: Enroute

[ON]

A security officer was never fully off duty even when officially off duty S'Ralor liked to roam the ship taking in the sights sounds and especially the smells of the ship. A strong sense of smell had its disadvantages, horrible scents smelt event more horrible and stuck in the receptors for even longer, some species that didn't smell to others smelt bad to him. It had distinct advantages though especially in the field of security. Some explosives and dangerous chemicals had specific scents, even the scent of certain materials could be picked up with a strong enough nose and just if not more important the scent of a person under the right circumstances could be tracked if you knew what you were looking for.

Though he'd not met everyone onboard yet the scents of some individuals onboard were already very familiar to him and now an already familiar scent was coming closer and closer. "Good afternoon Lieutenant Rice." He called out before she'd even rounded the corner.

"Afternoon!" Aria smiled as she saw him, her eyes warm as she looked at him. "Let me guess...the sound of my footfall? Scent in the air? Or me muttering to myself?" she winked and stopped, looking at him.

S'Ralor made a slight huffing sound, "Bit of all three." He replied with a toothy smile.

"See, you always know how to track me," she said with an easy laugh. She liked S'Ralor, had gotten more used to him, the same way she suspected he had gotten used to her. "I'd be worried if it wasn't likely to save my life one day."

"Eventually I'll be able to pick out almost everyone onboard by their scents, with enough time and interaction with them." S'Ralor told her, "Your scent is quite distinctive."

"Is it?" she asked before she narrowed her eyes, pretending to decide if it was a compliment or an insult. "Let's confuse it more. How about the mess, grab some food? And you can tell me what you think of the new firing range modifications they sent us. I've not run the simulations yet but...." she let it hang in the air for a moment.

"The mess hall isn't a bad idea, I could go for some food." S'Ralor said, the mess hall was definitely a whirlwind of scents. Different foods and different people all mingling in one room was a challenge for any sense of smell.

Aria looked at him with a smile before motioning for him to follow. "So, tell me...how have you been? I mean, obviously I know how you are on duty...but you settled in? All...squared away your stuff, got your bed comfy?"

"Comfy enough," S'Ralor replied. "but when you've spent a few nights on a bare metal shelf anything is comfy. Don't know how those Klingons do it."

She nodded, thinking about the various accommodations she had experienced in her career. "I honestly don't know either," she admitted, hands moving as she talked. "Like, I can sleep anywhere, but it's the soreness when you wake up! Stiff neck, legs cramping...nope. Give me a semi-soft bed, with loads of throws and cushions and pillows and I will be happy."

"Don't get me wrong I'll take a pile of cushions and blankets over a bare metal shelf any time, so much better for be..... sleeping in." S'Ralor said as they walked. But as you said I can sleep just about anywhere if I'm tired enough."

Aria's eyebrows lifted but she smiled, giving a nod. "It's the lot of Starfleet. I swear they train us to be able to sleep anywhere. Weird shifts, weird missions...sometimes knockout gas..."

"On my last assignment I got hit with a phaser set on heavy stun, woke up in the sickbay a few hours later surprisingly well rested, was quite the experience to be on the receiving end of a heavy stun." The doors to the mess hall opened and he followed Aria inside.

"Oh, I let Lieutenant Amari stun me," Aria declared proudly, her eyes shining as she looked around. Plenty of tables, so she headed straight to the replicator. "It was...instant regret, but she is really cool. You'd like her."

"The exchange officer?" S'Ralor asked, naturally he'd checked out the background of the officer from a non federation species that was joining the ship for a while. "You let her shoot you with a phaser?"

"No, she has her own personal implant for that!" Aria's voice was excited but hushed, so she wasn't just announcing it to the room like some Federation Network reporter...or worse, the ship's computer. "She is really, really cool. I know, I know, I said it already..." she looked at the replicator, tilting her head. "Chocolate milkshake, personal size Naples pizza, margarita. Chilli oil on the side." She smiled as the food appeared and took the tray, humming.

"An implant she can stun people with? Very interesting." S'Ralor remarked, as Aria move he stepped up to the replicator. "Rare half pound beefburger in a bun, barbecue sauce. Blackcurrant flavoured water." The food emerged and he picked up his tray and followed her to a table. "Did it look like a weapon or something else?"

"No, just...part of her," Aria admitted as she smiled, carrying the tray to a table. She sat down and reached for the milkshake at once, sipping it. "Mm...you know, as a boring ol' human...it was amazing to see. But then again, I always get amazed with what people can do. Like, any skill..." she shook her head and looked at S'Ralor, studying him. "Every other species seem so...superior in skill to humans. I think the only thing we got going for us is that there's so damned many of us."

S'Ralor made a mental note to investigate this Amari, someone with a built in weapon capable of stunning people was intriguing but also a potential security risk. "You're adaptable, I've heard of humans setting up colonies in places most species would consider completely hostile to life and yet you've thrived there."

Aria picked up her pizza, glancing over at him before she shrugged. "Our solar system was a hostile place. So we built domes on the Moon and then terraformed Mars and put stations in orbit of Jupiter...we're nothing if not slightly unhinged as a species."

"Unhinged at times certainly," S'Ralor remarked. "I once helped break up a brawl in a station bar, the cause was one of them 'looked at me wrong' and so they started fighting then everyone around them joined in for no apparent reason."

She laughed, shaking her head as she picked up her pizza, carefully taking a bite. But it wasn't that hot so...she took another bite with confidence. "Mm...see, had that too. The worst brawl I was in, I didn't start. Got sent to break it up, started calming it down then someone said something wrong and the other drew back to punch...caught me right between the eyes with the elbow. Accidentally. I woke up in sickbay. They all got me flowers. And a small bottle of fake Romulan ale..."

"At least you got some form of an apology." S'Ralor took a big bite of his burger before continuing. "Last person that put me in sickbay was already on their way to prison by the time I woke up."

"Okay...now that's a story," she said and looked at him, with expectation. He had opened the door, now she was eager to hear the whole story of it.

"A Nausicaan," S'Ralor replied. "Smuggling illegal goods to the Inraka system. We'd tracked him down and were raiding a house he used as a stockpile. Managed to hide an explosive booby trap from our scans, we put the door in I went through and my whole world went black. Apparently I carried on until we carried on until we'd arrested him before I collapsed but I don't remember a thing, woke up a week later missing most of my fur and with a bunch of new scars."

Aria's eyes had widened as she listened and she grimaced at the right bits....but her awe was clear as she watched him. And her worry. "Darn...that...it's the stuff we can't see that is the weirdest. Hiding things from scans...I mean, smugglers do that, sure...but booby trapping it all just seems like a step too far into being a horrid person..." she shook her head and sat back. "Did you keep the scars?"

"Every one of them, unless the docs had already taken care of them." S'Ralor replied. "Every scar has a story."

"Yes..." Aria looked at him before she looked down, thinking about the scars she had chosen to keep. "And even if you remove them, you...sort of remember, right?"

"Most of them, some are old enough I can't be certain where they came from anymore. my youth was rather wild." S'Ralor grinned, wild was certainly an understatement.

"Well, my everything is wild and I don't have those stories," she teased as she watched him with both fondness and respect. "Although there was the time I stabbed a smuggler in the leg with a combadge. Does that count? Not my scar, obvious!"

S'Ralor chuckled. "Of all the things to stab someone with, how did you have to choose a combadge?"

"I had it in my pocket," she said before she reached into her uniform and pulled it out. It was a broken commbadge, older design...a bit charred too. She held it in her hand for him to see.

"Definitely an interesting thing to have kept." S'Ralor remarked looking at the older style combadge. "Not the best thing to try and stab someone with but if the situation is dire you use whatever is available."

"Oh yeah, I generally have a no stabby stab policy, but he had his arm across my throat," Aria said and smiled, putting it back before she shrugged. "It's...a charm, and a reminder. Just...something that makes me feel more grounded."

"A very interesting charm," S'Ralor had a few of his own, stories for another day. "I'd say stabbing someone with a combadge is definitely a unique story to tell."

"Well...and now you know it, S'Ralor," Aria said smoothly, her eyes shining with it. "Isn't that amazing?"

"It'll be an interesting one to tell your kids," S'Ralor remarked, he'd never asked and Aria had never mentioned whether she had any so he quickly added. "Eventually."

"Oh, would have to be like...cadets...or children of other people," Aria said quickly, pale blue eyes wide with underlying panic at the phrase your kids. For many, many reasons. "But I will regale someone with tales on how I used it to fight...give me ten years, it'll be against like...five nausicaans! Humans exaggerate stories as they get older. Known fact."

S'Ralor's ears and nose twitched slightly, Aria's response had been an interesting one. For a moment he thought about asking if she was able to bear children or not but eventually decided against it. "Five is just a warm up." He remarked then tore off another chunk of his burger.

"Yes, afterwards I wrestled a Klingon, outsmarted a Vulcan and took over a Ferengi business," she said and nodded, her blue eyes shining with playfulness. "By the time I am retired, S'Ralor, I will have enough stories to fill a whole holodeck databank..."

"And great stories they will be!" S'Ralor remarked and devoured the last chunk of his food.

OFF:


Po2 S'Ralor
Security
USS Fenrir
[Pnpc Masters]

&

Lt. jg Aria Rice
Assistant Chief Security
USS Fenrir
[PNPC Hanlon]

 

RSS Feed