Raven Hair and Ruby Lips, Sparks Fly from Her Fingertips

Posted on Mon Aug 15th, 2022 @ 3:01am by Ensign Ilan Ocara & Lieutenant Sovas Nyseth

Mission: S1 Episode 3: Phage
Location: Science Lab
Timeline: Mission Day 4 at 1640
2742 words - 5.5 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

Operations was a tedious and often less than glamorous job with many using their position within the supply chain to up their own rackets, skimming off the top in order to enrich themselves. There was a reason that many in the Terran Imperial Fleet made certain they had a reliable go-to contact and protected them from trouble as long as it didn't outweigh their benefits. Sovas found running his Operations department in such a manner to be down right inefficient since it merely caused more problems than it solved and even created new ones. No, the half-Vulcan enjoyed order and the beauty that came with a smoothly functioning machine, not because of Vulcan logic as many suspected but because it was the practical and pragmatic choice.

So when his seemingly premature Pon Farr episodes began to cause issues for him, after having been hounded by several other members of the crew, he'd finally visited Sick bay and a short battery of tests later, they'd given him a hypospray to help suppress and reverse the worst of his biological impulses. So he was working quite happily on adjusting the mining crew schedules after several members of the Vengeance's crew had reported out due to illness. He was even humming softly to himself, a Vulcan tune that he'd learned on Vulcan during one of the few moments of privacy that he'd had from his father.

Ilan Ocara sat with her attention hyper focused on the monitor in front of her and the data scrolling by at an abnormal speed. She almost looked bored, but the movement of her green eyes displayed her focus. There was never a moment in her work where she wasn’t superbly diligent in her service to the Empire; a non-Terran couldn’t afford such a luxury. She had however carved out a nice place for herself here in the fleet, it was something she was grateful for and was as loyal a servant to the Empire as any true Terran.

It helped that she looked exactly like them. Finally she blinked and paused the stream of data, sitting back and giving a long sigh. “How disappointing.” She pouted and shook her head.

Sovas continued to hum to himself, something he'd never really done since like anything his father hadn't approved of or thought useful for molding his son into the perfect Terran heir, it was forcefully - and often violently discouraged. That he was doing it didn't seem odd to him, at least not fully since his seemed content with the state of things and was subtly influencing him to feed in other ways.

He stepped into the science lab where Warrant Ocara was supposed to have been working, pausing his humming as he made his way over to the station she was working at. "Miss Ocara?"

"Hm?" Ilan spun her chair around upon hearing her name. She was a striking woman which given her heritage was of no surprise. Her green eyes were large and striking, her dark brown hair fell in perfectly kept loose curls with slightly tighter ones framing her gorgeous face. Her lips were full and her still pouting expression only made that feature stand out more. She wore the standard uniform for women on the ship, showing off her long legs and her luscious curves. "Yes?"

Sovas hadn't looked up from his PaDD since he was pulling up the requisition form for her to give her thumb print on. Though when he did finally look up, whatever he had been about to say, or even think, was stopped dead in his tracks by how breathtaking she was. He took just the briefest moments to admire her before he recovered quickly. She was the epitome of perfection and he was surprised that the Propaganda Service hadn't found some way of recruiting her to be a face for Terra. Even the entity in his head seemed a bit stunned since it wasn't doing anything to try and influence him, but was just idling there, silent and still for the moment.

"Lieutenant Sovas, Operations." He offered up and extended the PaDD for her to inspect. "I'm here to deliver the equipment you requested, review it to ensure everything is there and confirm."

He did his utmost to appear professional, something he was being quite mindful of given his previous behavior, though his eyes kept being drawn to her large green eyes the sleek line of her neck, subtly admiring the enticing curves of her body as he felt a slight smile form in his lips.

"Oh, great." She smiled and slid out of her chair. She was tall, and the heels of her boots only added to it. Ilan walked to him without fear or reservation. "Nice to meet you, lieutenant." She held her hand out for the PADD and looked into his eyes with warmth.

It took a moment for his mind to actually catch up with how she had greeted him and again was caught off guard by that smile as every sense he'd ever had honed to a fine edge was thrown off. This was not what he expected of people and he was quietly trying to decide if it was off putting or if he actually liked it. It was most certainly different as he handed over the PaDD, again just holding her gaze and deciding that it was an intriguing kind of difference. "Let me know if there is anything missing."

"Of course." She took the PADD from him and backed up to her chair, taking a seat and crossing one long, toned leg over the other. "Thank you for bringing this down here, by the way. You really wouldn't have had to make the trip yourself though."

He watched her move, admiring her form and letting his gaze move off her legs, back up her curvaceous form as she looked over the PADD. "You're welcome, it wasn't any trouble to make the trip as I've been finding myself a bit restless since waking up in Sickbay."

"Plus my curiosity peaked when I saw the request for gene-editing equipment." He chuckled since his father had made him study the Earth Eugenics Wars as well as the failures of the Augmented Humans, the history had been quite enthralling and the lead up to the rule of the Augments followed by their brutal downfall. Though he shook himself from his reverie as he turned his attention back to Ilan.

"Mm, yes. I just wanted to have some fun with the Kazon, Ocampa, and Talaxian DNA we now have access to. So many new mysteries to unlock and all that. It helps pass the time and maybe we will even find something beneficial to serve this crew and by extension the Empire." She briefly looked up to him with the same smile.

"That should be intriguing," He did find the idea intriguing, though he wasn't certain what the Kazon could contribute other than future fodder for the Empire's wars. Though he wasn't a scientist or even a geneticist so there could be something he wouldn't know to look for. "Have you have any opportunity to study the flora or fauna of the planet? It seems intriguing."

"No, not yet. I've been waiting for samples to be brought up from the planet, though I have considered going down there myself if I can get clearance." Ilan focused most of her energy back down so she didn't take up too much of this man's time. "Did you go to the planet?" She questioned pleasantly. "It doesn't look very hospitable."

"I did," He replied while considering the planet before giving an answer. "Its environment reminded me of Vulcan, arid and hot with some plant life that had adapted to the environment, the wildlife was incredibly hostile and territorial, I personally encountered a creature that seemed to be a mix of ursine and serpent and extremely hostile."

"Did you grow up on Vulcan?" She asked, deciding to ask about him rather than the much more interested creature in the moment. It never hurts to make friends, after all. "I've heard it's awful, really."

"It has its own savage beauty, but no I wasn't raised there," He replied while quietly considering the planet he'd never seen except in pictures or via the holodeck, though he did feel the landscape bore a striking resemblance to Mars. Though Mars was a red rock that produced nothing but hatred and misery for anyone unlucky enough to ever set foot on it. "My father was a Magistrate on Mars so our home was there, we would visit Vulcan in the holodeck for training excursions."

“I see.” Ilan replied with pleasant enough interest in her voice as he clarified. Eventually, she lowered the PADD. “Everything looks like it’s here. Now did you say something about some sort of reptilian bear?” She seemed to brighten up at her own question, watching Sovas with intense curiosity now and even leaning in toward him a bit. She was perched on the end of the chair in such a way it was accenting all the right places on her curvaceous figure.

"Yes, quite impressive," He replied while watching her and just enjoying how the slightest shifting of her position had made that particular view all the more pleasant than before. "It was roughly the size of a Terran Kodiak, if you ever seen one in a museum or one of the special hunting preserves, with a heavily muscled physique covered in a scaly hide like that of a serpent with a line of fur running down its back and it had a prehensile tail that it used like a whip and claws that were strong enough to gouge stone."

"Sounds amazing." Ilan replied genuinely. "I've seen pictures of bears, but I've never seen one myself. Did you kill it?" She tilted her head, her hair sliding over her neck and face. Sovas was an attractive man and that fact was not lost on her. She lifted her gaze to his eyes and blinked her long eyelashes slowly.

The half-Vulcan smiled as he watched the woman tilting her head, it was as graceful and effortless as the flow of water and he found himself most certainly appreciating her company as he took a step closer to leaned against the work table that was behind the station she had been working just previously. "I did, though because of how aggressive it was, it had to be done with a phaser, though I don't think I'd fancy my chances without a duranium spear to pierce its hide at the very least."

"Maybe a dozen and I think that would just make it mad."

Ilan giggled at that, her eyes lighting up and her hand coming up to cover her nose and mouth coquettishly. "Stop. Was it really that big?" She asked, lowering her hand and smiling at him, her large green eyes fixated on his. "Amazing."

"Maybe not a dozen spears big but it was quite large," He chuckled, smiling back at her as he found himself relaxing for the first time since waking up in Sickbay. "While scaling the cliff face I also came across a moss? Lichen?" He paused to ponder to make sure he had used the right term to describe the smaller discovery. "That had the ability to retreat from the sunlight in a crevice when I accidentally dislodged a rock that was providing its cover."

"Interesting. I know some species that do have such a reaction when exposed to light or air." Ilan flipped her hair back behind her shoulder and gave him a charming smile once more. He didn't seem in a rush to leave since she had signed off on everything already. "So tell me something fun about you, Lieutenant."

This was a question that Sovas had to give some thought too since fun for him wasn't necessarily what other's found to be fun. In fact fun wasn't something that he necessarily experienced in his life at all. There were things he enjoyed, things that helped him relax and things that brought him pleasure to do, but just straight fun wasn't something that he sought out. He then smiled and looked at her "So my childhood didn't allow for many recreational pastimes, but once I entered the Imperial Academy I found that I quite enjoy orbital skydiving."

"And you Ms. Ocara? What's something fun about you?" He questioned her, curious to see if there would be a little back and forth.

"You can just call me Ilan, if you'd like." She all but purred at him, shifting her legs and switching which leg was crossed over the other. Holding his gaze, she smiled at him again. "I wouldn't mind at all."

"Then please, call me Sovas." He made a soft, appreciative sound at the gentle purr of his voice before he found a chair to pull over and get comfortable, quite enjoying taking a little bit of time. "So, I believe the question was to you, Ilan." He held her gaze quite easily and quite readily.

"Hmm well, I really enjoy dabbling in botany." Ilan offered up. "Or well, I guess experimenting with plants is probably more accurate, but botany is something most people can understand without their eyes glazing over." She grinned as he sat down. Apparently he didn't have anywhere else to be.

Without realizing it, Sovas had been manipulated by the entity in his mind into staying and taking a seat with their rather gorgeous image of physical and mental perfection. When he began to realize it, the half-Vulcan wasn't terribly upset but it did bother him that the thing did seem capable of learning though he also suspected that it wasn't too hard to make him want to keep Ilan's company.

"Well I'm not a botanist or even a scientist but I do have an interest in plants...at least from a survivalist perspective." He offered up, returning an easy smile that Sovas wore extremely rarely since he was generally stoic and only spoke just as much as he needed. "What kind of experiments do you run?"

"Gene splicing mostly, seeing what new things I can create. Pretty, edible, dangerous.... all of it. It's all fascinating." Ilan gave a wistful sigh and rubbed at her top thigh absently as she sat there. "I actually managed to successfully cross certain plants of the malus and atropa genera to create a fruit that both looked and tasted perfectly normal, but was extremely poisonous."

Atropa he knew was part of the nightshade family from his father's survival lessons as well as demonstrating on a slave the effects it could have. Though her creation sounded like it would be the perfect weapon for an assassin. "I know atropa is in the nightshade family, but what is malus?"

"Sorry." She laughed softly and shook her head. Not everyone enjoyed science and she often forgot that fact. What was common knowledge to her was like sorcery to others. "Apples and their closest cousins."

Sovas nodded as he listened attentively to her, smiling a bit more as she laughed, he was quite enjoying the chance to just sit and talk with her. "Something new I didn't know, though I feel like I should," He chuckled while letting his eye move over her a little less subtly now. "So was it just for personal curiosity or for a more practical application?"

"Well now, that's not exactly a question I should really be answering, do you think?" She challenged me with a smirk. Really it wasn't and she was surprised he had even asked. She flipped her hair back over her shoulder and took a deep breath. "Well, unfortunately, I should probably get back to work, Sovas."

"Mea culpa, Ilan." He stood and politely bowed his head to her, placing his hand over his heart. "I overstepped in my own curiosity as I enjoy the subtle, often beautiful and innocuous ways that nature can conceal a hidden danger." He smiled gently at her. "Thank you for sharing even a little of your time with me,"

He moved the chair back to where he'd retrieved it from before picking up the PADD and having her supplies beamed in. "Until next time." He turned to leave her to her work, wondering if he might be able to steal a moment with her again like that.

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