From: 96906700afk@nene.ac.uk
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 20:36:24 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: USS CHESAPEAKE: First Day of Duty

Scene: Crewquarters, O'Graeachs cabin
	The hot shower was divine, utterly divine.  Go and have a shower,
the Officer of the watch had said.  That was, have a shower before turning
up again, to take over the next shift at the helm.
	Oz couldn't see the reason for a helmsperson while the ship was
docked, but who was he to ignore orders ?  Especially with his knack of
making enemies.
	He took a towel from the rack and rubbed himself dry.  They were
nice.  Not half as nice as his own towel, resting in his bag, but nice.
Maybe he could get the replicator to give him a bathing towel, king size.
They were always useful.  Maybe he could nick one or two before leaving -
then he remembered that he had no intention of leaving.  Not that he had
ever had an intention of travelling across the galaxy, never mind being
involved in more wars and hotspots than the average history student could
remember.  So maybe he ought - just to be on the safe side, of course -
consider an escape route.
	He slipped into a nice, dry, clean uniform and slung his bag over
his shoulder.  A quick glance at the image in the mirror - he shook his
head.  Who would have thought that he'd sink so low ?  Wearing a uniform.
Okay, so he had done that before, but he had not actually belonged to any
army.  Belong in the patriotic sense, not the ownership sense, of course.
After all he HAD belonged to a few armies, or their warlords, anyway.
Slavery wasn't something foreign to him.
	It probably was simply his fear of uniforms, he reasoned.  After
all, the Federation was against slavery in any form, so he was doing
something good, but the simple act of wearing a uniform disturbed him.
Another faceless person obeying order ?
	He adjusted his bag, which he did not like to leave behind, pushed
his hair around with a comb before giving up.  His hair had a will of its
own.  Not a life of its own, he washed it regularily, and somehow anything
clinging to him had just signed up on the list for endangered species.
No, just a will of its own.  No matter how much he combed it, it stood off
his head, bunching up sometimes, hanging into his eyes when it wasn't
supposed to, and generally gave the impression that nobody had cared for
it in a long time.  Which wasn't true.  Well, he was used to that.
	He trotted off to the bridge, taking his time and looking around.
Life was unpredictable, but it was very interesting, too, he thought,
passing a small group of female Ensigns.  He had never managed to form any
long-term attachments.  It wasn't because he couldn't hold a relationship,
there had been the tiny problem of someone after his head.  It didn't
really matter where he had been, in just a few days the situation usually
exploded, either killing the girl he had been interested in, or
threatening his life.  Usually it was a combination of both.  So perhaps,
assuming things stayed calm, he could strike up some sort of relationship
with someone female.  It was a thought worth keeping in mind.
	He stepped into the turbo life and ordered it to go to the bridge.
The doors slid aside and he stepped onto the bridge, clean, smooth, and
scented with all the scents of araby.  He headed for the flight console
and tapped the extremely bored Ensign on the shoulder.  "I'll take over
from here."
	The Ensign turned, and Oz noticed halfway surprised that it was a
Najiin, a three-eyed, six legged creature which changed its sex every
three weeks.  And there were four sexes.
	"Ga'ju !  Who the hell are you ?", it said.  The famous politeness
of the Najiin, Oz thought dryly.  For a member of its race it was
extremely polite, knowing that other races did not value insults as much
as their own race.  Insults, in Najiin culture, were a sign of strength
and innovation.  Calling him a Ga'ju, a dimwit, was a definite sign of
self-restraint.  It was something you might call a child you did not want
to scare.
	"The name's O'Graeach.  Ozwald O'Graeach.  My friends call me
Oz.", he said, adding, "Pu'zal'cam'pog !" which was suggesting its
conception had been caused by two same-sex parents and a left-sex parent
(sex was something highly complex).
	The Najiin blinked surprised.  It was an interesting sight,
because the three eyes were not synchronised.  They did not blink
together, rather, each blinked at random.
	"This ones name is Po'rom'ga'go.  Some individuals are allowed to
use Po'rom.", it said, adding, "Why should you want to take over ?
Ba'ga'po'gr'lu'to'ga !"
	Oz chuckled at the comparison of his birthplace to a wet, moist,
cold place.  Which it was, of course, but for a creature that liked warm
areas it was an insult.  Especially since Najiin born in cold areas
suffered brain damage.
	"Because I'm the FCO, you effin' numbskull who was born in the
month of the rain, with the wits of a dead Klingon, raised by wild goats
!", Oz replied.  "If you had bothered to use your minute brains which you
got from a op'lug you could have thought of that yourself, you
prg'chtr'ram !"
	Po'rom hurriedly jumped up.  Anyone who called it a prg'chtr'ram,
an untranslatable term formed by the words for
utterly-disgusting-slimeball, horribly-diseased-with-skin-rotting-eczema,
brainless-bird-creature and Spice-Girl-Fan, connected by a third
inflection disgust and fourth inflection amusement had to be respected.
	It quickly filled Oz in, explaining the current settings.  Oz
looked around.  The bridge was, basically, crewed by a skeleton crew.
Nobody was actually doing anything, just standing around, in case
something happened.
	A quick smile crossed his face.  His fingers typed in a few
commands, and the screen changed from the boring
sparkling-stars-on-black-background to the logo of Australian Network One.
Oz leaned back and watched the huge screen while the music started
playing.  That was good timing.  Just in time for his favourite soap.

NRPG:  Well, I'm a student, after all :)
Love,
Fabian
96906700afk@nene.ac.uk
Ens. Ozwald O'Graeach, USS CHESAPEAKE, FCO
*********************************************************
"Fate always wins.  At least when people stick to the rules."
"Just because it's impossible doesn't mean it can't be done."
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