First Impressions [Backpost]

Posted on 01 Feb 2015 @ 10:31pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Pieter Van Zyl Ph.D.

733 words; about a 4 minute read

[ON]

USS Belgrade, 2381

There was a girl in the Botany lab.

Growing up with women, Pieter had always shied away from such infantilizing comments as calling grown women 'girls' but there was simply no other way to describe the petite creature resting its tiny frame between Pieter's spray bottles and his collection of Keela flowers. She had a paDD in her hands, her lower lip trapped between her teeth a clear indication that her entire focus was on it, not even deterred by the blond locks of her shoulder length hair falling in her face.

Her legs, clad in black leggings and knee high boots, were kicking childishly off the edge of the table she was sitting on, her layered dress half pooled around her, half contaminating the closest specimen. Raising his eyebrow, Pieter couldn't help but he intrigued by her presence and her appearance as, over her whole little ensemble, she wore a Starfleet uniform jacket. She reminded Pieter of his high school girlfriend, who had always insisted she wear his jacket, even if she all but disappeared under it.

His entrance must have broken her from her paDD induced trance as she lifted her head and Pieter was suddenly assaulted by a pair of very bright, green eyes. Seeing him, she only looked surprised for a moment before her lips spread into a wide smile.

"Hi," he saw her say. He raised a hand up in greeting, his left one, hoping she'd see the VOICE there. Her eyes went to it but only briefly.

"I'm sorry, is this yours?" she asked instead, pointing to the desk she was parked on. He nodded and, with a sheepishly apologetic quirk of her lips, she slipped off and landed gracefully on the floor. He walked forward a few steps, awkwardly maneuvering around her. She was almost a head shorter than him, he observed as they now stood only a foot away from one another.

"Do you need something?" Pieter finally asked. At the sound of his "voice" he saw her eyes widen with fascination as they fell on his wrist.

"Oh..." she let out, looking back up at Pieter's face.

"You can't talk?" she assumed, tilting her head questioningly towards him.

"I'm deaf," he answered. The girl nodded before falling into silence again, apparently lost in thought.

"How does it work?" she asked, leaning forward to take a closer look at the device. She entered his personal space and, needing it back, Pieter gently nudged her back so that he could move his arms more freely.

"I have nanite sensors in different places in my body. They read my signing and my other gestures and translate them. The device on my wrist picks up sound around me and display them on the screen," Pieter explained.

"Can I see?" she asked almost immediately and, being in a relatively good mood that day, Pieter indulged her curiosity. He extended his left arm towards her and she looked down at the screen after pushing her hair away.

"Hello," she said and Pieter rolled his eyes discreetly, letting her 'ooh and aah' over it for a few moments before taking it back.

"Sorry," she said, wincing. "I bet people do that all the time."

"Not really," he replied. She pursed her lips, looking slightly embarrassed by her display.

"Was there a reason you're in here? Are you waiting for someone?"

"No," she shook her head. "I'm new to the department and this seemed like the only place people didn't go."

"There's a reason for that," Pieter replied, going for a warning, but she just returned it with a smirk that made her look like she knew when the universe was going to end. Pieter wasn't sure how to respond.

"Well, either way," she said with a shrug. "I just came in for some quiet to respond to my messages. Thanks for not kicking me out."

Pieter nodded, seeing no harm in it. Sure, he'd have to throw out one of his specimens, but it wasn't like his entire project had been put in jeopardy by her presence. "It's fine," he said with a gesture.

"Welcome aboard," he added, wondering which department she could be in, so he proceeded to ask. She grinned, shaking her head, presumably at her lack of manners.

"Sorry. I'm in anthropology," she explained.

"Dr. Oren Idris, at your service."

[OFF]

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