Baby, Azure Cyan Me Now? pt2

Posted on Tue Aug 11th, 2026 @ 12:41am by Lieutenant B'Lakkam Slichez & Lieutenant JG Amari
Edited on on Tue Aug 11th, 2026 @ 12:45am

1,665 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Behind the Curtain
Location: Valhalla Bar
Timeline: immediately after the briefing, Md -01

Old:
The bartender arrived and before B'Lakkam could ask more, inquired about their orders. B'Lakkam politely replied, "Ladies first."

Amari smiled at the bartender. "A small cheese board please and some apple juice."

"Pretzels and a ginger beer," B'Lakkam instructed.


New:

The bartender took the orders and disappeared momentarily. As he did B'Lakkam asked, "So, how often do you order cheese and apple juice? It almost looked like the bartender expected it."

"I have been on this ship for almost a month already," Amari replied. "I think that is long enough for a skilled bartender to remember a regular customers favourites, even on a crew of nearly 200."

"So, you have bartenders back home, then? What are you native drinks? Any favorites from back home that you have programmed into the replicators?"

"I don't know how to add programs to the replicators, we don't have replicators on my world. It's definitely a fascinating technology, to create things out of thin air." Amari made a huffing sound. "I know it's not exactly out of thin air but it feels like it until you understand the technology."

B'Lakkam laughed. "Well, it may as well be. I am a bit surprised that you don't have anything like replicator technology on your planet. So, you have to actually cook and make things manually with actual raw materials?"

Amari nodded. "Yeah, we grow staraya and laros which are grains. Grind them down into ingredients for all sorts of things. Vegetables and fruits, raise animals where we can't grow things. There are a couple of clans that have growing food refined to an extremely good level, they're very influential."

"I should very much like to see them. So, how long have you been married to your husband?"

"About six cycles, we were married as part of a technology exchange between our clans. They wanted some technology we had but didn't offer something of enough value in exchange." Amari replied as the bartender returned with their orders. "My clan don't like violence we didn't want the weapons technology they wanted to add, so they had to think of something else. So they offered a high ranking member of their clan for marriage. When one of the largest and most influential clans on the planet offers up someone like that you wouldn't want to refuse."

"So, to your current clan, your value is equal to technology? How long is six cycles?" B'Lakkam wondered. He idly picked up his ginger beer and started to sip it as his eyes remained fixed on Amari.

"Six rotations of the planet around our sun," Amari said before her translation implant offered her a more appropriate word, "Six years."

"Are your cycles or years, as you say them, the same as the Earth standard years?"

"Nearly," Amari replied, she picked up one of the small bits of cheese, popped it into her mouth and chewed for a few seconds before continuing. "About 300 days,"

"May I ask how old you were when you got married and why after six years of marriage that you do not have children yet?"

Amari thought for a moment slowly chewing another chunk of cheese before responding. "I do not think why don't I have children is an appropriate question to ask someone you are just meeting for the first time."

"I apologize," B'Lakkam replied smoothly. "I was not aware that in your culture that was inappropriate. Furthermore, as I am a counselor, I tend to ask more probing questions without realizing it. I have no desire to offend you, nor was that my intent. So, please, accept my apology and any offense that I may have caused."

"I accept your apology." Amari gave him a small smile, she wasn't offended but had definitely started to find his questions probing. "But I think it is your turn to answer some question now though."

"Feel free to ask," B'Lakkam answered simply. That does not mean that you will get more than anone else. "It is only appropriate that you find out more about me like I have with you."

"First I'd want to know what species you are... You're blue like some species I've met so far but you don't have any antennae and you have hair, so you're not Andorian or Bolian." The question had certainly been on Amari's mind since she first seen him.

Laughing jovially, B'Lakkam answered, "I am an Orion." He pronounced it "OR-ee-un," rather than "Oh-RYE-un." He then explained, "I'm a blue one. My green brotheran pronounce it differently. There's no helping it. There's a long standing rivalry between are kind and that is just one of the differences."

"A blue Orion??" Amari replied the surprise evident on her face. "I'd heard of Orions but I thought they were all green.."

"So they would have you believe," B'Lakkam replied with a derisive laugh and a roll of his eyes. "If they were so good at being thieves and slavers and such, they would not be noticed. They're careless. Blue orions are clearly superior." There was a sense of pride in his words, which faded away with his own internal conflict.

"Are there any other differences between you? other than skin colour?" Amari asked, she made a mental note to look up blue Orions when she next got the chance, her computer implant started to come to life but she quickly shut it back down.

"That depends on what you call differences," B'Lakkam answered with an amused laugh. "Our biology is the same, if that is what you meant. It is no different than the numerous different skin tones of the various people on Earth."

Amari chewed another piece of cheese as B'Lakkam answered her question. "Something had to cause the colour change though, right? being closer to the sun, a substance in the food your ancestors ate, things like that. Biology is not my subject."

"I could not say and I'm not certain that anyone from our species' have ever desired to study it."

"And the pheromones that get a lot of lines about in the science database?" Amari asked, reading about how Orion women and their pheromones could influence men and drive them crazy had made for interesting reading. "Blue Orion women have them too?"

"They do," B'Lakkam confirmed without saying more. He knew that was his entire impetus for escaping his home, eventually finding himself on a Betalgeusian colony, and starting his new life from there.

Though she was still getting used to the body language of other species Amari had a feeling there was something that B'Lakkam didn't want to discuss regarding the subject. "That whole pheromones thing is really weird. Orion women seem very attractive anyway, even without that pheromone advantage I think they would be good at getting what they want."

B'Lakkam chuckled uncomfortably. That could be true but the pheromones kept the men oppressed, available, and docile. "I am not a biologist, but I would suggest that the genetic rationale is from long in our past."

"I fear I may be asking my own somewhat inappropriate question here." Amari said, there was uncertainty in her voice. "What happens if a blue and green Orion have a child?" She had visions of a some weirdly yellow Orion.

B'Lakkam blinked once. He then blinked again. An amused smiled crept amongst his face, before he burst out laughing hysterically. Between laughs, he cried out, "A blue and a green, make yellow?" Tears started to stream from his face.

When he finally settled down, he pulled a napkin from the bar and wiped his eyes. "Oh, my goodness, Amari, thank you for that! I have not laughed that hard in a long time." He composed himself further and said, "Now, technically, it is yellow plus blue makes green. You cannot really subtract out blue from green and get yellow." Softly, he giggled again, before righting himself. "That said, there are no yellow orions that I know of, unless they're really, really sick. Also, blue and green orions generally don't mix. It is somewhat taboo."

Amari found herself chuckling along with B'Lakkam's laughing but that slowly petered out as his did, "So there is a social difference between them?"

"Let us just say that there is a rivalry between the colours." He shrugged apologetically. "But, I have not been back since before I became a teen. Maybe things have changed, but I doubt it."

"Hhmm, hopefully they have changed a little over the last few years." She smiled slightly then drained the last of her apple juice. "I should get back to Engineering."

The Blue Orion frowned momentarily. He had been enjoying himself with Amari. "I suppose that work is never done for an engineer." He brightened nearly immediately and said, "We should do this again some time soon. Would you like that?"

"Sure. I'm certain I can up some more questions to ask you next time around." Amari slipped off of her barstool.

I’m sure that I will have more than a few, myself. “I will be happy to answer them. Perhaps next time we should choose an activity or maybe go to the holodeck?”

"The holodeck could be good, that technology is so interesting." Amari remarked. "The ability to make an entire interactable setting appear out of nowhere."

B’Lakkam smiled, nearly forgetting that they’re technologically was generally superior to Amari’s. “Yes, that’s true. Perhaps there is something from your home that you would like to program into it.”

"Perhaps, I'll have to look into it." Amari smiled and turned to head for the door but not before saying. "Enjoy the rest of your day Lieutenant."

"And you, as well, Amari," B'Lakkam answered. He decided to stay for awhile and muse his interaction with Amari. She was very different and something told him that he wanted to know more about her and her culture.


Lieutenant B'Lakkam Slichez
Chief Counselor
USS Fenrir

Lieutenant Jg Amari
Engineering Officer
USS Fenrir
[Pnpc Masters]

 

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