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When your executive officer is an orange ̶c̶a̶t̶ Caitian
The Laser Pointer Solution
USS Carpenter — Stardate 2273.214
Captain's Quarters — 2031 Hours
---
[The corridor outside Captain MacReady's quarters. A brief pause before the chime sounds.]
MENG OREN: (door chime)
JR MACREADY: Come.
MENG OREN: (entering) Captain. Good evening.
JR MACREADY: Commander. You're early. I expected you at twenty-one hundred.
MENG OREN: I finished the duty logs ahead of schedule. I can return in half an hour if the timing is inconvenient.
JR MACREADY: The timing is not inconvenient. Close the door and sit down.
MENG OREN: (the door sealing behind her) I note you have not yet changed out of uniform.
JR MACREADY: I observed that you haven't either. That's unusual for a first officer who finished her duty logs thirty minutes ahead of schedule.
MENG OREN: (settling into the chair nearest the viewport, hands folded in her lap) It is not unusual. It is practical. The duty logs were finished. The duty uniform is comfortable.
JR MACREADY: You're wearing the gold skant.
MENG OREN: I am wearing a gold skant. Yes.
JR MACREADY: The one with the collar that sits differently than the standard cut.
MENG OREN: (a pause) You have an unusual degree of familiarity with my wardrobe.
JR MACREADY: (settling back in his chair, setting down the padd he was reviewing) I've been sitting across from you at dinner four times a week for the past several months. I have, in fact, become aware of your wardrobe. You have three gold skants. That one has a slightly asymmetrical collar. You wear it when you're in a good mood.
MENG OREN: (her tail curls slightly) That is observational overreach.
JR MACREADY: Is it wrong?
MENG OREN: (a beat) ...No. It is not wrong.
JR MACREADY: (something warm in his expression) Then come here and sit somewhere closer than the tactical chair you've chosen, which is approximately as far from me as you can get while still technically being in my quarters.
MENG OREN: (standing, crossing to the low couch near the viewport, settling considerably closer) Better?
JR MACREADY: (moving to join her, leaving a professionally appropriate distance that is nevertheless the closest available option) Significantly. How was the rest of your shift?
MENG OREN: The cargo manifest discrepancy from Deck Seven has been resolved. Ensign Holloway was miscounting the deuterium reserve canisters. He was counting two partially depleted canisters as a single full unit. I spoke with him.
JR MACREADY: Harshly?
MENG OREN: Accurately. He will not miscount them again.
JR MACREADY: Good. What else?
MENG OREN: Lieutenant Commander Osei has submitted his request for a crew rotation in Stellar Cartography. I've reviewed it and I think it has merit. I'll have a recommendation on your desk by oh-eight-hundred.
JR MACREADY: You don't have to put it on my desk by oh-eight-hundred.
MENG OREN: The rotation affects the survey assignments in Sector Twelve. You'll want to review it before the morning briefing.
JR MACREADY: Meng. It is twenty thirty-one hours. You are in my quarters. In the good-mood skant. You do not have to give me the duty report.
MENG OREN: (slight pause) Old habits.
JR MACREADY: Is that what they are?
MENG OREN: (the smallest audible intake of breath — almost a laugh) You know I dislike when you turn my own phrases against me.
JR MACREADY: I know. I do it anyway. It's one of my more endearing qualities.
MENG OREN: It is on a list. The list has other entries that I will not enumerate tonight.
JR MACREADY: I live in fear of that list. How long is it?
MENG OREN: It is precisely as long as it needs to be. (a pause; her tail has shifted to a relaxed curl) You had a good day. The Petrakis situation resolved itself.
JR MACREADY: Petrakis apologized to Ensign Wren without being told to. I didn't even have to schedule a formal review. He came to my ready room at fourteen hundred and said, and I'm quoting directly, that he had reflected on the matter and found his conduct to have been unworthy of a Starfleet officer.
MENG OREN: I told you he would.
JR MACREADY: You told me his pride required him to arrive at the conclusion independently before he could act on it, and that if I forced a direct order he would comply but never internalize it.
MENG OREN: Yes. That is what I told you.
JR MACREADY: You were right. You are always infuriatingly right about crew psychology.
MENG OREN: (with something that might be called satisfaction, though she would not call it that) I have also flagged Lieutenant Morrow for a commendation. She performed the navigational recalibrations during the course correction this afternoon with exceptional precision. It took her four minutes and twelve seconds. The standard protocol allows twelve.
JR MACREADY: Noted. I'll include it in the weekly review. (a pause) You're pleased with her.
MENG OREN: She was my student. When she performs well, it reflects on the instruction. Yes. I am pleased.
JR MACREADY: You're a good teacher.
MENG OREN: I had a good teacher.
JR MACREADY: Christian Pine?
MENG OREN: Among others. (she glances at him sidelong, and it is entirely deliberate) Some instruction is less formal but no less effective.
JR MACREADY: (quietly) I'm going to note for the record that you are being charming and I appreciate it.
MENG OREN: I am never charming. I am precise. Occasionally the precision lands charming.
JR MACREADY: You're doing it again right now.
MENG OREN: (a pause; her ear tilts forward slightly, which he has learned means she's pleased but isn't going to admit it) How is your coffee?
JR MACREADY: Cold. I forgot about it. I was reviewing the engineering proposals from Nick.
MENG OREN: The plasma relay modification?
JR MACREADY: He wants to reroute the secondary EPS grid through the aft nacelle manifold. He thinks it will give us a four percent improvement in response time during high-warp maneuvers.
MENG OREN: (her ears shift forward with interest) Does he have modeling data to support that?
JR MACREADY: Seventeen pages of it. Complete with color-coded diagrams and what I believe was an interpretive analogy involving a bagpipe that I did not fully understand.
MENG OREN: Nick's analogies frequently involve instruments. His cousin has the same tendency, apparently. Dane Scott once explained a thruster realignment to me using a fiddle. It was unexpectedly effective.
JR MACREADY: The Scotts are a musical engineering family.
MENG OREN: The Scotts are a very specific kind of brilliant that expresses itself sideways. I have learned to follow the sideways. (a beat) Send me Nick's proposal. I'd like to review the modeling before you respond to him.
JR MACREADY: It's twenty thirty-one hours, Meng.
MENG OREN: I am aware of the time. I read efficiently. I can review it tonight and leave a note on your desk before oh-six-hundred.
JR MACREADY: (looking at her steadily) You're nervous.
MENG OREN: (a pause) I am not nervous.
JR MACREADY: Your tail has been moving since you sat down here.
MENG OREN: My tail moves. It is a tail. It is engaged in standard tail behavior.
JR MACREADY: It's flicking.
MENG OREN: Tails flick.
JR MACREADY: You're also talking about work more than usual and you came half an hour early and you're sitting in the exact posture you adopt when you're about to tell me something you've rehearsed.
MENG OREN: (a longer pause) You have developed an alarming degree of fluency in reading me.
JR MACREADY: I've had several months of dedicated study. And considerable motivation. (gently) What is it?
MENG OREN: (she sits very still for a moment, which is, he has learned, actually a tell — she goes still when she is collecting herself) I have a matter to raise with you that is of a personal nature. Again. I recognize that the last time I opened a conversation with that framing it resulted in a significant development in our— in the nature of our—
JR MACREADY: In the nature of our.
MENG OREN: In the nature of our circumstances. Yes. I want to note that this is not of equivalent weight to that conversation.
JR MACREADY: All right.
MENG OREN: It is, however, somewhat awkward.
JR MACREADY: More or less awkward than the first conversation?
MENG OREN: (considering this seriously) Different awkward. Less significant. Potentially more embarrassing. I have not entirely decided.
JR MACREADY: (leaning slightly toward her, not crowding, just present) Meng. Whatever it is, you can say it.
MENG OREN: (a breath) I am aware of that. I am also aware that I have now been sitting here for approximately three minutes building to a disclosure that I should simply make directly, which is itself a sign that I am— (she stops)
JR MACREADY: (very quietly) Take your time.
MENG OREN: (with the deliberate composure of someone doing a controlled surface entry) I am experiencing my monthly cycle, JR. The— the Caitian one. The one I briefed you on, during our initial— during our first honest conversation. In broad terms.
JR MACREADY: (a beat) Ah.
MENG OREN: Yes.
JR MACREADY: Are you all right?
MENG OREN: I am physiologically well. I am not in distress. It is— it is manageable. I have been managing it throughout my career. (a pause) It is, however, presently more— the term that lacks a comfortable translation into Federation Standard is th'reya. Which means approximately "loud." In the context of physical sensation. The cycle is— it is being th'reya this month.
JR MACREADY: Loud.
MENG OREN: Insistent. (a pause) Persistent. (another pause) I said the translation was inexact.
JR MACREADY: (carefully) I understand. And you're telling me this because—
MENG OREN: Because we are in a relationship. And because the— because given the context of our current circumstances, the th'reya is, if anything, more noticeable than usual, and I thought you deserved to know why I might be— why I am— (she stops again)
JR MACREADY: Why your tail has been doing that.
MENG OREN: (with immense and admirable dignity) Among other things. Yes.
JR MACREADY: (nodding slowly, processing this with the composure of a man who has been on a starship long enough to know that composure is the correct response to most physiologically sensitive disclosures) Right. And— given that we are on a Constitution-class ship, with over one thousand crew members, and we have been very carefully and very deliberately maintaining the appearance of a strictly professional relationship—
MENG OREN: We cannot. No. That is— that is not something I am requesting or suggesting. The professionalism stands. It must stand. The crew cannot know. You are my commanding officer. I am your executive officer. That does not change because I am experiencing a—
JR MACREADY: A th'reya month.
MENG OREN: (a pause) If you are going to use that word, I want to note that your pronunciation is approximately sixty percent accurate.
JR MACREADY: I'll practice. (pause) So. You're telling me not because you're asking for anything you know we can't reasonably do on a ship full of people, but because you wanted me to know. As your— as the person who— (he stops, and tries again) As someone who cares about you.
MENG OREN: (very quietly) Yes. That is the precise reason. (a beat) There is also a secondary reason.
JR MACREADY: I thought there might be. You came prepared.
MENG OREN: I always come prepared. You know this about me. (she reaches into the small carry pouch she set on the table upon entering — he hadn't remarked on it, but he had noticed it — and withdraws an object that is approximately fourteen centimeters long, cylindrical, with a small emitter lens at one end)
JR MACREADY: (looking at it) Is that a—
MENG OREN: A laser pointer. Yes. Standard issue. Model seven-B. Non-hazardous emitter. Regulation compliant. Visible wavelength — red spectrum.
JR MACREADY: You brought a laser pointer to my quarters.
MENG OREN: I did. Yes.
JR MACREADY: (a pause) I want to make sure I'm following this correctly.
MENG OREN: I will explain. I would appreciate it if you would allow me to explain before your expression does whatever it is currently considering doing.
JR MACREADY: My expression is doing nothing.
MENG OREN: Your expression is doing several things. You have a tell. The corner of your mouth does a specific thing when you are trying not to react.
JR MACREADY: I don't have a tell.
MENG OREN: JR. I am Caitian. I have spent months watching your face across a bridge. You have a tell. (a pause) The laser pointer.
JR MACREADY: Please. Yes. Explain.
MENG OREN: (composing herself, which involves a brief and involuntary adjustment of her tail) Physical exertion is, in my species, a recognized means of managing the— of managing the intensity of a heat cycle. Vigorous movement. Sustained cardiovascular activity. It does not resolve the cycle, but it— addresses the th'reya component in a way that is practical and not— not— it is simply practical.
JR MACREADY: Understood. Physical exertion.
MENG OREN: Yes. The difficulty is as follows: the holodeck is occupied. Alpha shift has a standing reservation for the combat training program that Ensign Dakarai organized, which runs until twenty-three hundred. And I cannot— I would prefer not to use the ship's gymnasium this evening.
JR MACREADY: Why not?
MENG OREN: (a pause that is longer than most of her pauses) There were incidents. On the Reinard. During early cycles aboard that vessel, before I had fully developed— before I had established a reliable system for managing—
JR MACREADY: Incidents.
MENG OREN: I was in the gymnasium. During a heat cycle. I was using the zero-gravity apparatus. And there was— there were several crew members present. And I was not fully— my awareness of the effect the cycle was having on my behavior was not as refined as it is now. I was younger. I had not yet developed the same degree of— of self-monitoring.
JR MACREADY: You don't have to elaborate—
MENG OREN: (a breath) When a Caitian is in heat, our hearing becomes significantly more sensitive— I found myself cornering a junior ensign who could not stop singing while exercising, despite having a terrible voice, behind the resistance training equipment. I made a sound at him that I am told was extremely alarming. I also bared my teeth at the poor ensign and crouched down on all fours, as if I were about to spring on my prey.
JR MACREADY: (very carefully) A sound and teeth, while you were on all fours.
MENG OREN: A Caitian vocalization. It was— it is used during— it is a specific vocalization. The ensign in question was very understanding about it, ultimately, but he did require approximately three days before he could comfortably resume his normal duties. He never sang during exercises again. He also submitted a personal report to Dr. Falco that I was not aware of until approximately six months later.
JR MACREADY: (the corner of his mouth is doing that thing)
MENG OREN: You are doing the tell.
JR MACREADY: I am attempting not to do the tell.
MENG OREN: You are doing it anyway.
JR MACREADY: I'm— I'm sorry. I'm fully present and supportive and the ensign sounds like he was very brave. Was that the only incident?
MENG OREN: (a pause) No.
JR MACREADY: (quietly, managing himself with visible effort) How many incidents?
MENG OREN: Across the full tenure of my service aboard the Reinard, three incidents of varying— three incidents. The first with the ensign. The second involved a malfunctioning resistance band that I may have torn in half. The third was— the third is not relevant to the current situation. The point is that I am now more experienced and more self-aware, but the gymnasium creates associations that I find—
JR MACREADY: Distracting.
MENG OREN: Counterproductive. During a th'reya cycle, environment matters. Being in a space that carries those associations is— it compounds the situation rather than addressing it.
JR MACREADY: That makes sense. (a beat) So you'd like to use my quarters as a— a running space.
MENG OREN: It is the largest private space aboard this vessel that is not currently in use. Your quarters are seventeen by twelve meters. That is a meaningful footprint for this kind of—
JR MACREADY: And the laser pointer.
MENG OREN: (taking a breath) The laser pointer. Yes. I am aware of how this sounds. I would like to note that I have worked through considerable internal resistance before arriving at this request and I would appreciate your—
JR MACREADY: I'm not going to make you feel bad about it.
MENG OREN: I know that. I know that about you. That is why I am here and not — I was going to handle this alone tonight. I was going to lock my quarters and manage it privately and not say anything to you at all. But that felt like — it felt like the kind of distance I'm not supposed to be putting between us anymore. And I have been working very hard on not doing that.
JR MACREADY: (quietly) You have. I've noticed.
MENG OREN: (a pause — genuine) The laser pointer is— it is, if I am being fully accurate, a specific trigger for a specific Caitian instinct that is— it is prey behavior. It is hunting behavior. Something small and fast and unpredictable that requires physical pursuit. The exertion is real. The pattern is— it is deeply instinctual, which means the body responds to it at a level that is not— it does not require me to think about the th'reya. The instinct redirects the energy very efficiently.
JR MACREADY: That's actually quite elegant, from a physiological standpoint.
MENG OREN: (somewhat surprised) You— yes. It is. It is not a solution I arrived at independently. It was suggested to me aboard the Reinard by T'Val, who came to my rescue on all three incidents.
JR MACREADY: Your science officer.
MENG OREN: Also executive officer, yes. Commander T'Val. She was Vulcan, which is relevant because Vulcans are— they are not uncomfortable with the topic of biological cycles. It is scientific data to them, not a social complication. She observed that I was having difficulty during one of the early cycles and she asked, with complete logical directness, what I typically did for management and whether I had found an effective protocol for shipboard conditions.
JR MACREADY: What did you say?
MENG OREN: I told her, after approximately fifteen minutes of being unable to determine whether it was more uncomfortable to discuss it or to refuse to discuss it with a Vulcan who clearly had no understanding of why I was uncomfortable. She suggested several options. The laser pointer was the one that proved most effective. After that, it became — it became a system. She would hold it for me.
JR MACREADY: T'Val held the laser pointer for you.
MENG OREN: T'Val held the laser pointer for me, yes. Once monthly, approximately. She approached it with the same precision she applied to the stellar cartography. She was quite skilled at it, actually. Variable speed, unpredictable directional changes, use of the full floor and lower wall space. She never laughed. She considered it a — (she pauses, and something in her expression is warm and slightly sad at once) She considered it a matter of crew welfare. She said my operational effectiveness was a resource the ship could not afford to have compromised by an addressable biological circumstance.
JR MACREADY: That's a very T'Val way of saying she was looking out for you.
MENG OREN: (very quietly) It is. Yes. She was like an older sister I never had. (a pause) I have not asked anyone to hold the pointer since I transferred to the Carpenter. I've been managing with the holodeck when it's available and— and other methods. Tonight is the first time I've—
JR MACREADY: Asked for the pointer.
MENG OREN: Asked for the pointer. From you. Specifically. Yes.
JR MACREADY: (a pause, steady, not wavering) Meng.
MENG OREN: JR.
JR MACREADY: Give me the pointer.
MENG OREN: (a pause; she looks at him) You are not—
JR MACREADY: I am completely certain. Give me the pointer, and tell me the technique, and we will handle this the way T'Val would have handled it — as a matter of crew welfare and operational effectiveness.
MENG OREN: (looking at him for a moment that is longer than is strictly necessary) You are going to be— you may find—
JR MACREADY: I'm going to find it charming and I'm going to behave myself completely. Give me the pointer.
MENG OREN: (handing it over) Variable speed is more effective than constant speed. Unpredictable directional changes. The full floor space. Lower wall — Caitians are comfortable on the wall surface when in pursuit, if the gravity plating allows, so if you angle it up the bulkhead about sixty centimeters—
JR MACREADY: (testing the weight of the pointer in his hand) Does the color matter? Red versus other spectrums?
MENG OREN: (a pause) Red is the most— yes. Red triggers the response most efficiently. It is a luminance and wavelength interaction with Caitian visual processing. Red in low light is— yes. Red is correct.
JR MACREADY: (standing, moving to the clear area near the center of the room, and he is — to his credit — being very matter-of-fact about this) Where do you want to start?
MENG OREN: (standing, and there is a shift in her — something loosening, the held-together precision of her officer's posture beginning to ease at the edges) Far wall. Begin low, near the floor seam. Slow. Let me track it before you move it.
JR MACREADY: Understood. (he clicks the emitter on; the red dot appears on the far bulkhead, near the floor)
MENG OREN: (watching the dot with an attention that is — visibly — different from her usual attention. More immediate. More physical.)
JR MACREADY: Ready?
MENG OREN: (a breath — and there is a very slight sound in her throat, a low note, preparatory) Ready. (a pause) And JR—
JR MACREADY: Yes?
MENG OREN: If I say things. While I'm— if I vocalize. In Caitian. Please do not take them personally.
JR MACREADY: (a beat) Should I be concerned about what you're about to say in Caitian?
MENG OREN: I will be talking to the dot. Not to you. In Caitian. Some of it is— it does not translate. Some of it does, but only loosely, and none of it is— it is hunting talk. It is ancient and it is instinctual and I have absolutely no control over it. Just. Know that.
JR MACREADY: Hunting talk to the dot. Understood. I'll try not to answer.
MENG OREN: (already tracking the dot with her eyes, her weight shifting subtly, her tail rising)
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot — slow at first, a long arc along the base of the far wall)
MENG OREN: (a sound, very low — k'rrrrh — somewhere between a hum and a growl, and she drops)
[She drops to all fours with a fluid speed that is startling if you haven't seen it before, and MacReady has not, quite like this — the transition from composed Starfleet commander to something ancient and very fast, utterly confident in four points of contact with the deck, orange and cream fur catching the low cabin light, tail up, ears fully forward, every line of her focused on the dot]
JR MACREADY: (to himself, very quietly) Right. Okay. (he moves the dot — faster, a hard cut to the left)
MENG OREN: (a sharp chirp — mrrt! — and she moves, crossing the distance with three fast bounds, paw landing on the dot's last position)
JR MACREADY: (pulling the dot away just ahead of her, a quick arc up the wall)
MENG OREN: (her eyes track up, and she says something in Caitian — low, urgent, a string of syllables that are clearly directed at the dot and just as clearly unkind toward it) Veth'ka, thariss-ni— k'rahh— (she is already in motion, pushing off with her hind legs, reaching with her forepaws up the wall—)
JR MACREADY: (pulling the dot down and to the right)
MENG OREN: (missing the wall, pivoting in mid-air with a grace that is— he is making a note to himself to never remark on this in front of her — landing back on all four feet, spinning, eyes already back on the dot)
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot in a slow, maddening circle)
MENG OREN: (crouching, weight back on her haunches, tail lashing — flik, flik, flik — making a sound that is unmistakably anticipatory) Sh'keth— sh'keth— k'vrath'n—
JR MACREADY: (fighting, visibly, to maintain a neutral expression, because the expression his face wants to make is not neutral — it is deeply, helplessly fond) (he breaks the circle — sharp cut across the room)
MENG OREN: (she is already moving, tearing across the floor, claws out for traction — a sound erupts from her that is somewhere between a battle cry and a purr and something for which there is no Federation Standard equivalent) MRROWWW— veth'ka, sha'rir— NA'KAL—
JR MACREADY: (pulling the dot up, over the low table, behind the couch)
MENG OREN: (vaulting the couch — completely clearing it — landing on the far side, paws finding the dot's position a half-second after he's moved it again)
JR MACREADY: (to the dot, solemnly) Run faster.
MENG OREN: (without looking up, tracking the dot): I can hear you.
JR MACREADY: I know. I was speaking to the dot.
MENG OREN: (makes a sound that is briefly, unmistakably amused — a short chirp — and then immediately returns to the hunting state) K'rrh— (pouncing)
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot in a sharp zigzag)
MENG OREN: (following with equal sharpness, paws hitting in rapid succession) Thariss— thariss— veth'ka sha'— (she stops, suddenly — mid-zigzag — going completely still) (and then, in a tone of absolute suspicion) It went behind the chair.
JR MACREADY: It did.
MENG OREN: (crouching, not moving, watching the shadow under the chair with the focus of a being who has become, for this specific moment, entirely and sincerely committed to this hunt) ...Sh'keth.
JR MACREADY: Is that "waiting" in Caitian?
MENG OREN: (not looking up from the shadow under the chair) It is approximately "I see you" in Caitian. Addressed to prey. It has some additional connotations involving inevitable outcomes.
JR MACREADY: You're trash-talking my laser pointer.
MENG OREN: (a brief, involuntary) ...I am trash-talking your laser pointer. Yes.
JR MACREADY: (fighting himself — losing — a quiet, helpless laugh)
MENG OREN: (immediately) I said things. In Caitian. I told you about the things.
JR MACREADY: You told me about the hunting talk. You didn't tell me about the trash-talking.
MENG OREN: The trash-talking is the hunting talk. I told you it doesn't translate cleanly.
JR MACREADY: I will never underestimate the complexity of Caitian linguistics again.
MENG OREN: (still watching the shadow) You are moving it when you think I'm distracted. I can hear the emitter hum change when your thumb angle shifts.
JR MACREADY: That is an unfair advantage.
MENG OREN: I am Caitian. In heat. In pursuit mode. There is no such thing as an unfair advantage. (and then, almost immediately, a pause, and something shifts in her) I did not just say that.
JR MACREADY: You did, in fact, say that.
MENG OREN: I said I was in— I was referring to the physiological state, not—
JR MACREADY: I understood what you were referring to.
MENG OREN: Because I would not normally— in a professional—
JR MACREADY: Meng.
MENG OREN: Yes.
JR MACREADY: You are on all fours on my floor, mid-hunt, three and a half minutes into an activity that you just explained to me in entirely clinical terms. I do not require you to defend the phrasing. (he brings the dot out from behind the chair, across the floor, fast — very fast)
MENG OREN: (and she goes, instantly, no transition, straight from the self-conscious pause to the full sprint — her tail streams out straight behind her, ears flat against her skull for aerodynamics, claws clicking on the deck) VETH'KA—
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot up, to the ceiling near the light fixture)
MENG OREN: (up — both forepaws on the wall, back legs pushing, reaching — not quite — drops back, turning)
JR MACREADY: (watching her) You know, you're faster than I expected.
MENG OREN: (panting slightly, tracking the dot as he brings it back to floor level) My species. Enhanced reflexes. Forty percent above human baseline. (she is breathing more deeply now, and the purring has started — it runs under her words now, a continuous low note) I have told you this.
JR MACREADY: You told me about it in a briefing context. That's different from watching you vault my furniture.
MENG OREN: I cleared your couch cleanly.
JR MACREADY: You absolutely did. With room to spare.
MENG OREN: (a small sound of satisfaction — not quite a purr, not quite a chirp — something pleased) Rrrnn.
JR MACREADY: Was that— was that the Caitian version of accepting a compliment?
MENG OREN: (tracking the dot) It was involuntary. (then, after a pause) But. Yes.
JR MACREADY: (smiling — not hiding it now, just letting it be there) (he moves the dot in a slow, deliberate circle again — then reverses, sharply)
MENG OREN: (she was already anticipating the circle — the reversal catches her, and she overshoots — slides slightly on the deck, catches herself, and makes a sound that is not Caitian but is universal) Nnh—
JR MACREADY: All right?
MENG OREN: Fine. (she shakes herself slightly — a full-body, very catlike motion) Good traction. Adequate. The deck treatment on a Constitution-class is better than the Reinard.
JR MACREADY: You've compared deck surfaces.
MENG OREN: I've been doing this monthly for thirteen years. You notice things. (she is settling back into the tracking crouch, and there is something deeply, unself-consciously beautiful about it — the precision of the posture, the economy of the readiness, the way the light catches the cream tone at her throat) (and she says, without looking at him, low and warm beneath the purr) You are not moving the dot.
JR MACREADY: I noticed I was staring and I momentarily forgot the dot. I'm moving it now.
MENG OREN: (a sound — mrrrn — which she would probably classify as acknowledgment)
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot again — a long, wandering arc, almost lazy, then a sudden cut)
MENG OREN: (she doesn't take the cut — she waits, watching where the dot is going, not where it is) ...Sha'rir. K'vrath'n.
JR MACREADY: You're predicting it now.
MENG OREN: I am always predicting it. That is what navigation is. You are always predicting where things will be. (she launches, and she has predicted exactly right, both paws landing on the dot)
JR MACREADY: (tilting the emitter so the dot escapes)
MENG OREN: (a growl of genuine protest — rrrowww — spinning, back to full sprint)
JR MACREADY: (starting to move the dot with more creativity — using the corners, the transitions between surfaces, the undersides of furniture)
MENG OREN: (going fully, completely after it, the purring now a constant background, occasionally broken by brief exclamations in Caitian or by the small sounds of effort — the chirps, the clicks, the low vowel of a near-miss) K'rrh— veth'ka— sha'rir— MRRT— (landing successfully on the dot, both forepaws down hard, and she makes a sound of pure triumph) N'KATHAL.
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot out from under her)
MENG OREN: (a sound of absolute outrage) VETH'KA—
JR MACREADY: (laughing — not loudly, not unkindly, but genuinely, warmly, helplessly) I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that was very mean—
MENG OREN: (already after it again, but there is something in her — the flicking of her ears — that suggests she is also, somewhere under the pursuit instinct, registering that this is slightly funny) K'rrh— (pouncing) (missing) Veth'ka— n'kal— sha'rir na— (pouncing again) (catching it) (sitting on the dot with both forepaws firmly planted and a purr of finality)
JR MACREADY: (quietly, still smiling) Should I move it?
MENG OREN: (firmly) ...Sh'keth.
JR MACREADY: I'll give you a moment.
MENG OREN: (sitting on the dot for exactly five more seconds, purring deeply — and then she sits back on her haunches, paws still hovering, and says, in a tone of grudging scientific interest) Move it to the right. Slowly.
JR MACREADY: (moving it to the right, slowly)
MENG OREN: (following it with just her eyes, then her head, then, as it accelerates, with her whole body — and they go again)
[The sequence continues — seven minutes, perhaps eight — the dot leading her from one end of the quarters to the other, up the walls, under and over the furniture, the Caitian vocalizations forming a kind of ongoing commentary in a language that predates warp travel by several thousand years, and MacReady's face is doing what it does when he finds something genuinely delightful and cannot fully contain it, and he is moving the pointer with increasing skill, anticipating her anticipations, creating patterns within patterns, and she is working — genuinely working — the breathing audible, the fur slightly ruffled, the tail fully committed to a series of expressions he is cataloging for future reference]
[At some point, without fully deciding to, he starts narrating quietly.]
JR MACREADY: (as the dot hides behind the recycler unit) It's very clever, the dot. It thinks it's safe there.
MENG OREN: (without looking up, in full hunting crouch) The dot is not clever. The dot is a photon. It does not think.
JR MACREADY: The dot is doing very well for a photon with no cognitive function.
MENG OREN: The dot is being controlled. The dot's cleverness is your cleverness. (a pause — the strategic kind, when she is deciding)
JR MACREADY: Are you complimenting me while hunting my laser pointer?
MENG OREN: I am making an accurate observation. (she launches)
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot up and to the right, fast)
MENG OREN: (catching the wall, pivoting, chasing) K'rrh— veth'ka— mrrt— (catching the dot) (losing it again) (a sound that, in a human, would be called a very mild oath)
JR MACREADY: (innocently) Was that a Caitian profanity?
MENG OREN: (between pants, still pursuing) It is a word that expresses frustration at a target that continues to— (she stops) It does not translate.
JR MACREADY: What's the closest Federation Standard equivalent?
MENG OREN: (a pause in which she clearly considers whether to answer) (the dot has stopped) (she is tracking it) ..."Insolent."
JR MACREADY: You called the dot insolent.
MENG OREN: (launching) The dot is insolent.
JR MACREADY: (laughing again — warm, full, delighted) (moving the dot on an unpredictable, jagged path across the full floor space)
MENG OREN: (after it, full sprint, claws out, the purring now deep and constant and audible across the room — and she says something in Caitian that is clearly directed not at the dot but toward the situation generally, a long flowing phrase with a particular cadence, almost musical)
JR MACREADY: What was that?
MENG OREN: (between breaths, still pursuing) It is a hunting phrase. From my grandmother's— (she doesn't finish, she's concentrating) — sha'rir n'kathal— (pouncing, landing, sitting on the dot again)
JR MACREADY: (holding still this time)
MENG OREN: (remaining on the dot, breathing hard, purring, tail sweeping in slow satisfied arcs)
JR MACREADY: (softly) The phrase. From your grandmother.
MENG OREN: (looking up — slightly flushed beneath the fur, eyes brighter than usual, something loosened about her that he has not seen before, a quality of being thoroughly inside herself rather than managing herself) She used it on the ice hunts. It means— the closest translation is— (she considers) "The small ones run fast and far, but the current finds them in the end." It is about patience. About inevitability. About trusting the instinct that knows where the prey is going before the prey knows it has gone.
JR MACREADY: (quietly) That's navigation.
MENG OREN: (a pause) Yes. It is. That is why I remember it. My grandmother told me, when I was small, that navigation and hunting are the same thing. You are always chasing something. The good navigator knows it is not the thing itself you chase — it is the place the thing will be.
JR MACREADY: She sounds remarkable.
MENG OREN: (something in her settles, the way it settles when she speaks about her grandmother — a specific warmth, quiet and deep) She was. (a pause) I carry her charts with me. You have seen them. On my desk.
JR MACREADY: The silk ones.
MENG OREN: Yes. (and then, because she is still sitting on the dot and they have reached, it seems, a natural rest) I should— (she stands, smoothing herself, and the shift back to her officer's posture is gradual — not a snap, but a return, like a tide coming in rather than a wave) I should move. I have more work to do, if you're willing to continue for a few minutes more.
JR MACREADY: I am willing to continue for as long as you need.
MENG OREN: (looking at him — and the look is direct and unguarded in a way it is not, usually, on the bridge, or in the ready room, or in any of the spaces that belong to the Carpenter rather than to them) You have not— this has not been— you have been very—
JR MACREADY: (gently) I told you. I wasn't going to make you feel bad about it.
MENG OREN: You did more than not make me feel bad about it. You— (she stops, and something crosses her expression that has no Federation Standard name either) You held the pointer, JR.
JR MACREADY: I held the pointer.
MENG OREN: That is what I mean. You just— held the pointer. Without making it something else. Without being uncomfortable or performatively unaffected or— you just held it, the way T'Val held it, because it needed to be held and I needed it, and you— (she stops again, and the purring that had begun to quiet has restarted, very low)
JR MACREADY: (very quietly) Ready? Three more minutes.
MENG OREN: (a breath) Three more minutes. Yes. (she drops back to all fours — the transition is faster this time, easy, unself-conscious) Right wall. High up. Tease it.
JR MACREADY: (pointing, angling the dot high on the right bulkhead, just at the edge of her reach, moving it in small slow tantalizing circles)
MENG OREN: (a growl — low, immediate, her haunches dropping as she lines up the angle)
JR MACREADY: (moving it tighter, slower)
MENG OREN: (crouching lower, lower — sh'keth, sh'keth — and then launching straight up, both forepaws extended, reaching—)
JR MACREADY: (dropping the dot at the last second, straight to the floor)
MENG OREN: (she comes down already spinning, following the drop with her eyes, landing, spinning, pouncing in three connected motions that have no gap between them) MRROWWW— N'KATHAL SHA'RIR—
[She lands on the dot hard, both forepaws, and sits. And stays.]
[The purring is very loud now.]
JR MACREADY: (turning off the emitter)
MENG OREN: (still sitting on where the dot was, tail sweeping, breathing deeply — and then, gradually, sitting back and upright and eventually standing, rolling her shoulders once, like a person re-inhabiting their body after a long time away)
[She smooths her skant. She adjusts her collar.]
[She looks, slowly, considerably better — there is a quality to her breathing that has changed, a looseness at the base of her posture, a quality of having been wrung out in the best possible way.]
MENG OREN: (quietly) Thank you.
JR MACREADY: How are you feeling?
MENG OREN: (taking a breath — actually considering this, rather than defaulting to "fine" or "adequate") Considerably better. The th'reya is— it is substantially quieter. The physiological effect is— yes. This was effective. This was— (a pause) It was better than the holodeck, actually.
JR MACREADY: Better?
MENG OREN: The holodeck has parameters. Predictable physics. You— (she looks at him, and there is amusement beneath the gratitude, something wry) — you are unpredictable. You moved the pointer in ways I did not fully anticipate. That is better exercise than a programmed environment. The catch was harder.
JR MACREADY: (pleased in a way he is trying to moderate) I'm glad my laser pointer technique was up to standard.
MENG OREN: It was, in fact, exceptional for a first attempt. You have a— you anticipate movement well. You anticipated where I was going and moved the dot to where I wasn't. That is— that is the same skill as the helm. You think ahead of the current position.
JR MACREADY: Years of watching you pilot. Some of it was bound to transfer.
MENG OREN: (the ear tilt forward — the pleased-but-not-admitting-it) That is a generous attribution.
JR MACREADY: It's an accurate one. (a pause) Meng.
MENG OREN: Yes.
JR MACREADY: You have something else to say. I can see it.
MENG OREN: (a pause) I have a request. A small one. It is— I want to note that it is also physiologically grounded and not— it is not an escalation. It is a Caitian thing and I will explain it if you want the explanation.
JR MACREADY: (meeting her eyes) Make your request.
MENG OREN: (drawing herself up slightly — and she is formally requesting, genuinely formally requesting, in the way she makes formal requests, except that what she is about to request is—) I would like permission to lick your face, Captain.
[A pause.]
JR MACREADY: (a beat) (another beat) That is not where I expected that sentence to go.
MENG OREN: I told you it was a Caitian thing.
JR MACREADY: You did. Yes. (another beat) Can I have the explanation?
MENG OREN: (a breath) Grooming behavior. In Caitians, specifically — and more specifically in context of a heat cycle, in the resolution phase, which is what I am currently in — the instinct toward social grooming is elevated. It is a bonding behavior. It is what you do for someone who has— who has been with you through the— through the difficulty. Who held the pointer. (a pause) T'Val did not permit this. She made it very clear that Vulcans do not participate in interspecies grooming behavior under any circumstances, and she used five or six words I had never heard in that specific combination to explain why. I understood and I respected the boundary and I am not— I would not ask if it crossed a line for you. I can manage without it. I simply— I wanted to ask. Because asking has been— I have been trying to ask instead of managing alone.
JR MACREADY: (very quietly, very warmly) Permission granted.
MENG OREN: (a pause — she blinks) You didn't— you didn't consider it.
JR MACREADY: I considered it for approximately one and a half seconds and then I granted it.
MENG OREN: One and a half seconds is not—
JR MACREADY: It was enough. You want to lick my face as a Caitian expression of gratitude and bonding after a physiologically significant shared experience. You have just explained that it is culturally meaningful and practically harmless. I don't require more time than that.
MENG OREN: (a pause, and the tail curls — fully, softly — and the purring deepens) You are— you are very certain about a great many things, JR MacReady.
JR MACREADY: About some things. (he sits on the edge of the low couch, bringing himself to approximately her level) Go ahead.
MENG OREN: (crossing to him, and she is — for this — not in her officer's posture, she is just herself, the Caitian self that the Academy collar and the rank insignia sit on top of, and she places one hand very lightly on his shoulder and leans forward and — carefully, deliberately, with the texture of her tongue and the warmth of a creature whose affection is entirely physical and entirely sincere — she licks his cheek, once, from jaw to temple)
[A beat of silence.]
JR MACREADY: (sitting very still, and his expression is — bemused, and warm, and something else that doesn't have a name either)
MENG OREN: (stepping back, and she is flushed again, or she would be if you could see it, and there is a quality to her that is the Caitian equivalent of shy — ears slightly back, tail curved, eyes slightly averted before they come back to his face)
MENG OREN: You have— (she stops)
JR MACREADY: (touching his cheek, lightly) I have what?
MENG OREN: You have— the beard texture is different from what I anticipated. Coarser. (a pause) I am telling you this because you would probably want to know that, as data.
JR MACREADY: (a very quiet laugh) Thank you. For the data.
MENG OREN: You're welcome. (she straightens — the return to posture is gentle this time, not a defense, just a habit she wears comfortably) I— JR.
JR MACREADY: Meng.
MENG OREN: Thank you. For this evening. For— for all of it. For letting me explain instead of simplifying it. For the pointer. For— for holding it the way T'Val held it. With— with that particular quality of just accepting the situation as a situation to be managed rather than a problem to be solved or a thing to be— (she stops, and something in her expression is full) You see me. I have told you before that you see me as an officer first. This is— this is an extension of that. You saw me as a person tonight. Who has a monthly cycle and an inherited hunting reflex and a grandmother's vocabulary that comes out when I'm chasing photons across your deck. And you held the pointer. You just— held it.
JR MACREADY: (very quietly) That's what I'm here for.
MENG OREN: (a pause — and the purr has become very quiet, very warm, a sound that, if you knew what you were listening for, means contentment; not the relief-contentment or the stress-contentment but the particular one that means this is where I am supposed to be) I know that. I'm learning to let it be true instead of just knowing it.
JR MACREADY: You're learning quickly.
MENG OREN: I am. I have been told I'm an efficient learner. (a pause) By you, actually. Among others. (she picks up her carry pouch from the table; he holds out the laser pointer; she takes it)
JR MACREADY: (standing) You'll sleep?
MENG OREN: Better than last night. Yes. (a pause) You should review Nick's proposal. The plasma relay modification. I know I said I would take it but— you should read it first. His analogies are better when you haven't already pre-processed the technical details.
JR MACREADY: I'll read the bagpipe section with fresh eyes.
MENG OREN: The bagpipe section is actually the most technically precise part of the proposal. I know that sounds— it is, however, true.
JR MACREADY: I'll keep an open mind.
MENG OREN: (at the door — and she pauses, and looks back, and the look is unguarded, the full direct blue of her eyes in the warm light of his quarters, and the tail is still curled, the easy curl, the relaxed one) The deck in here is very good. Better than T'Val's office, which was where we did most of the sessions on the Reinard. Her floor was Vulcan-standard, very smooth, very low traction. I kept overshooting.
JR MACREADY: (quietly smiling) Good to know.
MENG OREN: I am noting it for next month. In case the holodeck is again occupied.
JR MACREADY: The pointer will be in the same drawer.
MENG OREN: (and something crosses her expression that is warm and slightly helpless and very much hers) You are planning ahead.
JR MACREADY: I'm learning to anticipate where things are going. (a pause) Someone once told me that's what navigation is.
MENG OREN: (a sound — rrrnn — involuntary, and she knows it's involuntary, and she chooses not to address it) Goodnight, JR.
JR MACREADY: Goodnight, Meng.
[The door seals.]
[MacReady stands in the middle of his quarters — which have been used, tonight, as a hunt course, and show it; the couch is slightly displaced, there is a small scuff mark on the right bulkhead, and the low table has been moved approximately thirty centimeters from its original position.]
[He looks at his cheek in the reflective surface of the viewport.]
[He sits down on the couch.]
[After a moment, he picks up the engineering proposal Nick Scott submitted, which is seventeen pages long and contains a section that does, in fact, involve a bagpipe.]
[He reads it. He is still smiling.]
---
End of record.
—
Story and characters: Meng Oren and JR MacReady ©
An Orange Space Cat
Art by:
tony07734123/KangWolf
Caitian species and related lore © Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry and owned by Paramount Global.
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USS Carpenter — Stardate 2273.214
Captain's Quarters — 2031 Hours
---
[The corridor outside Captain MacReady's quarters. A brief pause before the chime sounds.]
MENG OREN: (door chime)
JR MACREADY: Come.
MENG OREN: (entering) Captain. Good evening.
JR MACREADY: Commander. You're early. I expected you at twenty-one hundred.
MENG OREN: I finished the duty logs ahead of schedule. I can return in half an hour if the timing is inconvenient.
JR MACREADY: The timing is not inconvenient. Close the door and sit down.
MENG OREN: (the door sealing behind her) I note you have not yet changed out of uniform.
JR MACREADY: I observed that you haven't either. That's unusual for a first officer who finished her duty logs thirty minutes ahead of schedule.
MENG OREN: (settling into the chair nearest the viewport, hands folded in her lap) It is not unusual. It is practical. The duty logs were finished. The duty uniform is comfortable.
JR MACREADY: You're wearing the gold skant.
MENG OREN: I am wearing a gold skant. Yes.
JR MACREADY: The one with the collar that sits differently than the standard cut.
MENG OREN: (a pause) You have an unusual degree of familiarity with my wardrobe.
JR MACREADY: (settling back in his chair, setting down the padd he was reviewing) I've been sitting across from you at dinner four times a week for the past several months. I have, in fact, become aware of your wardrobe. You have three gold skants. That one has a slightly asymmetrical collar. You wear it when you're in a good mood.
MENG OREN: (her tail curls slightly) That is observational overreach.
JR MACREADY: Is it wrong?
MENG OREN: (a beat) ...No. It is not wrong.
JR MACREADY: (something warm in his expression) Then come here and sit somewhere closer than the tactical chair you've chosen, which is approximately as far from me as you can get while still technically being in my quarters.
MENG OREN: (standing, crossing to the low couch near the viewport, settling considerably closer) Better?
JR MACREADY: (moving to join her, leaving a professionally appropriate distance that is nevertheless the closest available option) Significantly. How was the rest of your shift?
MENG OREN: The cargo manifest discrepancy from Deck Seven has been resolved. Ensign Holloway was miscounting the deuterium reserve canisters. He was counting two partially depleted canisters as a single full unit. I spoke with him.
JR MACREADY: Harshly?
MENG OREN: Accurately. He will not miscount them again.
JR MACREADY: Good. What else?
MENG OREN: Lieutenant Commander Osei has submitted his request for a crew rotation in Stellar Cartography. I've reviewed it and I think it has merit. I'll have a recommendation on your desk by oh-eight-hundred.
JR MACREADY: You don't have to put it on my desk by oh-eight-hundred.
MENG OREN: The rotation affects the survey assignments in Sector Twelve. You'll want to review it before the morning briefing.
JR MACREADY: Meng. It is twenty thirty-one hours. You are in my quarters. In the good-mood skant. You do not have to give me the duty report.
MENG OREN: (slight pause) Old habits.
JR MACREADY: Is that what they are?
MENG OREN: (the smallest audible intake of breath — almost a laugh) You know I dislike when you turn my own phrases against me.
JR MACREADY: I know. I do it anyway. It's one of my more endearing qualities.
MENG OREN: It is on a list. The list has other entries that I will not enumerate tonight.
JR MACREADY: I live in fear of that list. How long is it?
MENG OREN: It is precisely as long as it needs to be. (a pause; her tail has shifted to a relaxed curl) You had a good day. The Petrakis situation resolved itself.
JR MACREADY: Petrakis apologized to Ensign Wren without being told to. I didn't even have to schedule a formal review. He came to my ready room at fourteen hundred and said, and I'm quoting directly, that he had reflected on the matter and found his conduct to have been unworthy of a Starfleet officer.
MENG OREN: I told you he would.
JR MACREADY: You told me his pride required him to arrive at the conclusion independently before he could act on it, and that if I forced a direct order he would comply but never internalize it.
MENG OREN: Yes. That is what I told you.
JR MACREADY: You were right. You are always infuriatingly right about crew psychology.
MENG OREN: (with something that might be called satisfaction, though she would not call it that) I have also flagged Lieutenant Morrow for a commendation. She performed the navigational recalibrations during the course correction this afternoon with exceptional precision. It took her four minutes and twelve seconds. The standard protocol allows twelve.
JR MACREADY: Noted. I'll include it in the weekly review. (a pause) You're pleased with her.
MENG OREN: She was my student. When she performs well, it reflects on the instruction. Yes. I am pleased.
JR MACREADY: You're a good teacher.
MENG OREN: I had a good teacher.
JR MACREADY: Christian Pine?
MENG OREN: Among others. (she glances at him sidelong, and it is entirely deliberate) Some instruction is less formal but no less effective.
JR MACREADY: (quietly) I'm going to note for the record that you are being charming and I appreciate it.
MENG OREN: I am never charming. I am precise. Occasionally the precision lands charming.
JR MACREADY: You're doing it again right now.
MENG OREN: (a pause; her ear tilts forward slightly, which he has learned means she's pleased but isn't going to admit it) How is your coffee?
JR MACREADY: Cold. I forgot about it. I was reviewing the engineering proposals from Nick.
MENG OREN: The plasma relay modification?
JR MACREADY: He wants to reroute the secondary EPS grid through the aft nacelle manifold. He thinks it will give us a four percent improvement in response time during high-warp maneuvers.
MENG OREN: (her ears shift forward with interest) Does he have modeling data to support that?
JR MACREADY: Seventeen pages of it. Complete with color-coded diagrams and what I believe was an interpretive analogy involving a bagpipe that I did not fully understand.
MENG OREN: Nick's analogies frequently involve instruments. His cousin has the same tendency, apparently. Dane Scott once explained a thruster realignment to me using a fiddle. It was unexpectedly effective.
JR MACREADY: The Scotts are a musical engineering family.
MENG OREN: The Scotts are a very specific kind of brilliant that expresses itself sideways. I have learned to follow the sideways. (a beat) Send me Nick's proposal. I'd like to review the modeling before you respond to him.
JR MACREADY: It's twenty thirty-one hours, Meng.
MENG OREN: I am aware of the time. I read efficiently. I can review it tonight and leave a note on your desk before oh-six-hundred.
JR MACREADY: (looking at her steadily) You're nervous.
MENG OREN: (a pause) I am not nervous.
JR MACREADY: Your tail has been moving since you sat down here.
MENG OREN: My tail moves. It is a tail. It is engaged in standard tail behavior.
JR MACREADY: It's flicking.
MENG OREN: Tails flick.
JR MACREADY: You're also talking about work more than usual and you came half an hour early and you're sitting in the exact posture you adopt when you're about to tell me something you've rehearsed.
MENG OREN: (a longer pause) You have developed an alarming degree of fluency in reading me.
JR MACREADY: I've had several months of dedicated study. And considerable motivation. (gently) What is it?
MENG OREN: (she sits very still for a moment, which is, he has learned, actually a tell — she goes still when she is collecting herself) I have a matter to raise with you that is of a personal nature. Again. I recognize that the last time I opened a conversation with that framing it resulted in a significant development in our— in the nature of our—
JR MACREADY: In the nature of our.
MENG OREN: In the nature of our circumstances. Yes. I want to note that this is not of equivalent weight to that conversation.
JR MACREADY: All right.
MENG OREN: It is, however, somewhat awkward.
JR MACREADY: More or less awkward than the first conversation?
MENG OREN: (considering this seriously) Different awkward. Less significant. Potentially more embarrassing. I have not entirely decided.
JR MACREADY: (leaning slightly toward her, not crowding, just present) Meng. Whatever it is, you can say it.
MENG OREN: (a breath) I am aware of that. I am also aware that I have now been sitting here for approximately three minutes building to a disclosure that I should simply make directly, which is itself a sign that I am— (she stops)
JR MACREADY: (very quietly) Take your time.
MENG OREN: (with the deliberate composure of someone doing a controlled surface entry) I am experiencing my monthly cycle, JR. The— the Caitian one. The one I briefed you on, during our initial— during our first honest conversation. In broad terms.
JR MACREADY: (a beat) Ah.
MENG OREN: Yes.
JR MACREADY: Are you all right?
MENG OREN: I am physiologically well. I am not in distress. It is— it is manageable. I have been managing it throughout my career. (a pause) It is, however, presently more— the term that lacks a comfortable translation into Federation Standard is th'reya. Which means approximately "loud." In the context of physical sensation. The cycle is— it is being th'reya this month.
JR MACREADY: Loud.
MENG OREN: Insistent. (a pause) Persistent. (another pause) I said the translation was inexact.
JR MACREADY: (carefully) I understand. And you're telling me this because—
MENG OREN: Because we are in a relationship. And because the— because given the context of our current circumstances, the th'reya is, if anything, more noticeable than usual, and I thought you deserved to know why I might be— why I am— (she stops again)
JR MACREADY: Why your tail has been doing that.
MENG OREN: (with immense and admirable dignity) Among other things. Yes.
JR MACREADY: (nodding slowly, processing this with the composure of a man who has been on a starship long enough to know that composure is the correct response to most physiologically sensitive disclosures) Right. And— given that we are on a Constitution-class ship, with over one thousand crew members, and we have been very carefully and very deliberately maintaining the appearance of a strictly professional relationship—
MENG OREN: We cannot. No. That is— that is not something I am requesting or suggesting. The professionalism stands. It must stand. The crew cannot know. You are my commanding officer. I am your executive officer. That does not change because I am experiencing a—
JR MACREADY: A th'reya month.
MENG OREN: (a pause) If you are going to use that word, I want to note that your pronunciation is approximately sixty percent accurate.
JR MACREADY: I'll practice. (pause) So. You're telling me not because you're asking for anything you know we can't reasonably do on a ship full of people, but because you wanted me to know. As your— as the person who— (he stops, and tries again) As someone who cares about you.
MENG OREN: (very quietly) Yes. That is the precise reason. (a beat) There is also a secondary reason.
JR MACREADY: I thought there might be. You came prepared.
MENG OREN: I always come prepared. You know this about me. (she reaches into the small carry pouch she set on the table upon entering — he hadn't remarked on it, but he had noticed it — and withdraws an object that is approximately fourteen centimeters long, cylindrical, with a small emitter lens at one end)
JR MACREADY: (looking at it) Is that a—
MENG OREN: A laser pointer. Yes. Standard issue. Model seven-B. Non-hazardous emitter. Regulation compliant. Visible wavelength — red spectrum.
JR MACREADY: You brought a laser pointer to my quarters.
MENG OREN: I did. Yes.
JR MACREADY: (a pause) I want to make sure I'm following this correctly.
MENG OREN: I will explain. I would appreciate it if you would allow me to explain before your expression does whatever it is currently considering doing.
JR MACREADY: My expression is doing nothing.
MENG OREN: Your expression is doing several things. You have a tell. The corner of your mouth does a specific thing when you are trying not to react.
JR MACREADY: I don't have a tell.
MENG OREN: JR. I am Caitian. I have spent months watching your face across a bridge. You have a tell. (a pause) The laser pointer.
JR MACREADY: Please. Yes. Explain.
MENG OREN: (composing herself, which involves a brief and involuntary adjustment of her tail) Physical exertion is, in my species, a recognized means of managing the— of managing the intensity of a heat cycle. Vigorous movement. Sustained cardiovascular activity. It does not resolve the cycle, but it— addresses the th'reya component in a way that is practical and not— not— it is simply practical.
JR MACREADY: Understood. Physical exertion.
MENG OREN: Yes. The difficulty is as follows: the holodeck is occupied. Alpha shift has a standing reservation for the combat training program that Ensign Dakarai organized, which runs until twenty-three hundred. And I cannot— I would prefer not to use the ship's gymnasium this evening.
JR MACREADY: Why not?
MENG OREN: (a pause that is longer than most of her pauses) There were incidents. On the Reinard. During early cycles aboard that vessel, before I had fully developed— before I had established a reliable system for managing—
JR MACREADY: Incidents.
MENG OREN: I was in the gymnasium. During a heat cycle. I was using the zero-gravity apparatus. And there was— there were several crew members present. And I was not fully— my awareness of the effect the cycle was having on my behavior was not as refined as it is now. I was younger. I had not yet developed the same degree of— of self-monitoring.
JR MACREADY: You don't have to elaborate—
MENG OREN: (a breath) When a Caitian is in heat, our hearing becomes significantly more sensitive— I found myself cornering a junior ensign who could not stop singing while exercising, despite having a terrible voice, behind the resistance training equipment. I made a sound at him that I am told was extremely alarming. I also bared my teeth at the poor ensign and crouched down on all fours, as if I were about to spring on my prey.
JR MACREADY: (very carefully) A sound and teeth, while you were on all fours.
MENG OREN: A Caitian vocalization. It was— it is used during— it is a specific vocalization. The ensign in question was very understanding about it, ultimately, but he did require approximately three days before he could comfortably resume his normal duties. He never sang during exercises again. He also submitted a personal report to Dr. Falco that I was not aware of until approximately six months later.
JR MACREADY: (the corner of his mouth is doing that thing)
MENG OREN: You are doing the tell.
JR MACREADY: I am attempting not to do the tell.
MENG OREN: You are doing it anyway.
JR MACREADY: I'm— I'm sorry. I'm fully present and supportive and the ensign sounds like he was very brave. Was that the only incident?
MENG OREN: (a pause) No.
JR MACREADY: (quietly, managing himself with visible effort) How many incidents?
MENG OREN: Across the full tenure of my service aboard the Reinard, three incidents of varying— three incidents. The first with the ensign. The second involved a malfunctioning resistance band that I may have torn in half. The third was— the third is not relevant to the current situation. The point is that I am now more experienced and more self-aware, but the gymnasium creates associations that I find—
JR MACREADY: Distracting.
MENG OREN: Counterproductive. During a th'reya cycle, environment matters. Being in a space that carries those associations is— it compounds the situation rather than addressing it.
JR MACREADY: That makes sense. (a beat) So you'd like to use my quarters as a— a running space.
MENG OREN: It is the largest private space aboard this vessel that is not currently in use. Your quarters are seventeen by twelve meters. That is a meaningful footprint for this kind of—
JR MACREADY: And the laser pointer.
MENG OREN: (taking a breath) The laser pointer. Yes. I am aware of how this sounds. I would like to note that I have worked through considerable internal resistance before arriving at this request and I would appreciate your—
JR MACREADY: I'm not going to make you feel bad about it.
MENG OREN: I know that. I know that about you. That is why I am here and not — I was going to handle this alone tonight. I was going to lock my quarters and manage it privately and not say anything to you at all. But that felt like — it felt like the kind of distance I'm not supposed to be putting between us anymore. And I have been working very hard on not doing that.
JR MACREADY: (quietly) You have. I've noticed.
MENG OREN: (a pause — genuine) The laser pointer is— it is, if I am being fully accurate, a specific trigger for a specific Caitian instinct that is— it is prey behavior. It is hunting behavior. Something small and fast and unpredictable that requires physical pursuit. The exertion is real. The pattern is— it is deeply instinctual, which means the body responds to it at a level that is not— it does not require me to think about the th'reya. The instinct redirects the energy very efficiently.
JR MACREADY: That's actually quite elegant, from a physiological standpoint.
MENG OREN: (somewhat surprised) You— yes. It is. It is not a solution I arrived at independently. It was suggested to me aboard the Reinard by T'Val, who came to my rescue on all three incidents.
JR MACREADY: Your science officer.
MENG OREN: Also executive officer, yes. Commander T'Val. She was Vulcan, which is relevant because Vulcans are— they are not uncomfortable with the topic of biological cycles. It is scientific data to them, not a social complication. She observed that I was having difficulty during one of the early cycles and she asked, with complete logical directness, what I typically did for management and whether I had found an effective protocol for shipboard conditions.
JR MACREADY: What did you say?
MENG OREN: I told her, after approximately fifteen minutes of being unable to determine whether it was more uncomfortable to discuss it or to refuse to discuss it with a Vulcan who clearly had no understanding of why I was uncomfortable. She suggested several options. The laser pointer was the one that proved most effective. After that, it became — it became a system. She would hold it for me.
JR MACREADY: T'Val held the laser pointer for you.
MENG OREN: T'Val held the laser pointer for me, yes. Once monthly, approximately. She approached it with the same precision she applied to the stellar cartography. She was quite skilled at it, actually. Variable speed, unpredictable directional changes, use of the full floor and lower wall space. She never laughed. She considered it a — (she pauses, and something in her expression is warm and slightly sad at once) She considered it a matter of crew welfare. She said my operational effectiveness was a resource the ship could not afford to have compromised by an addressable biological circumstance.
JR MACREADY: That's a very T'Val way of saying she was looking out for you.
MENG OREN: (very quietly) It is. Yes. She was like an older sister I never had. (a pause) I have not asked anyone to hold the pointer since I transferred to the Carpenter. I've been managing with the holodeck when it's available and— and other methods. Tonight is the first time I've—
JR MACREADY: Asked for the pointer.
MENG OREN: Asked for the pointer. From you. Specifically. Yes.
JR MACREADY: (a pause, steady, not wavering) Meng.
MENG OREN: JR.
JR MACREADY: Give me the pointer.
MENG OREN: (a pause; she looks at him) You are not—
JR MACREADY: I am completely certain. Give me the pointer, and tell me the technique, and we will handle this the way T'Val would have handled it — as a matter of crew welfare and operational effectiveness.
MENG OREN: (looking at him for a moment that is longer than is strictly necessary) You are going to be— you may find—
JR MACREADY: I'm going to find it charming and I'm going to behave myself completely. Give me the pointer.
MENG OREN: (handing it over) Variable speed is more effective than constant speed. Unpredictable directional changes. The full floor space. Lower wall — Caitians are comfortable on the wall surface when in pursuit, if the gravity plating allows, so if you angle it up the bulkhead about sixty centimeters—
JR MACREADY: (testing the weight of the pointer in his hand) Does the color matter? Red versus other spectrums?
MENG OREN: (a pause) Red is the most— yes. Red triggers the response most efficiently. It is a luminance and wavelength interaction with Caitian visual processing. Red in low light is— yes. Red is correct.
JR MACREADY: (standing, moving to the clear area near the center of the room, and he is — to his credit — being very matter-of-fact about this) Where do you want to start?
MENG OREN: (standing, and there is a shift in her — something loosening, the held-together precision of her officer's posture beginning to ease at the edges) Far wall. Begin low, near the floor seam. Slow. Let me track it before you move it.
JR MACREADY: Understood. (he clicks the emitter on; the red dot appears on the far bulkhead, near the floor)
MENG OREN: (watching the dot with an attention that is — visibly — different from her usual attention. More immediate. More physical.)
JR MACREADY: Ready?
MENG OREN: (a breath — and there is a very slight sound in her throat, a low note, preparatory) Ready. (a pause) And JR—
JR MACREADY: Yes?
MENG OREN: If I say things. While I'm— if I vocalize. In Caitian. Please do not take them personally.
JR MACREADY: (a beat) Should I be concerned about what you're about to say in Caitian?
MENG OREN: I will be talking to the dot. Not to you. In Caitian. Some of it is— it does not translate. Some of it does, but only loosely, and none of it is— it is hunting talk. It is ancient and it is instinctual and I have absolutely no control over it. Just. Know that.
JR MACREADY: Hunting talk to the dot. Understood. I'll try not to answer.
MENG OREN: (already tracking the dot with her eyes, her weight shifting subtly, her tail rising)
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot — slow at first, a long arc along the base of the far wall)
MENG OREN: (a sound, very low — k'rrrrh — somewhere between a hum and a growl, and she drops)
[She drops to all fours with a fluid speed that is startling if you haven't seen it before, and MacReady has not, quite like this — the transition from composed Starfleet commander to something ancient and very fast, utterly confident in four points of contact with the deck, orange and cream fur catching the low cabin light, tail up, ears fully forward, every line of her focused on the dot]
JR MACREADY: (to himself, very quietly) Right. Okay. (he moves the dot — faster, a hard cut to the left)
MENG OREN: (a sharp chirp — mrrt! — and she moves, crossing the distance with three fast bounds, paw landing on the dot's last position)
JR MACREADY: (pulling the dot away just ahead of her, a quick arc up the wall)
MENG OREN: (her eyes track up, and she says something in Caitian — low, urgent, a string of syllables that are clearly directed at the dot and just as clearly unkind toward it) Veth'ka, thariss-ni— k'rahh— (she is already in motion, pushing off with her hind legs, reaching with her forepaws up the wall—)
JR MACREADY: (pulling the dot down and to the right)
MENG OREN: (missing the wall, pivoting in mid-air with a grace that is— he is making a note to himself to never remark on this in front of her — landing back on all four feet, spinning, eyes already back on the dot)
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot in a slow, maddening circle)
MENG OREN: (crouching, weight back on her haunches, tail lashing — flik, flik, flik — making a sound that is unmistakably anticipatory) Sh'keth— sh'keth— k'vrath'n—
JR MACREADY: (fighting, visibly, to maintain a neutral expression, because the expression his face wants to make is not neutral — it is deeply, helplessly fond) (he breaks the circle — sharp cut across the room)
MENG OREN: (she is already moving, tearing across the floor, claws out for traction — a sound erupts from her that is somewhere between a battle cry and a purr and something for which there is no Federation Standard equivalent) MRROWWW— veth'ka, sha'rir— NA'KAL—
JR MACREADY: (pulling the dot up, over the low table, behind the couch)
MENG OREN: (vaulting the couch — completely clearing it — landing on the far side, paws finding the dot's position a half-second after he's moved it again)
JR MACREADY: (to the dot, solemnly) Run faster.
MENG OREN: (without looking up, tracking the dot): I can hear you.
JR MACREADY: I know. I was speaking to the dot.
MENG OREN: (makes a sound that is briefly, unmistakably amused — a short chirp — and then immediately returns to the hunting state) K'rrh— (pouncing)
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot in a sharp zigzag)
MENG OREN: (following with equal sharpness, paws hitting in rapid succession) Thariss— thariss— veth'ka sha'— (she stops, suddenly — mid-zigzag — going completely still) (and then, in a tone of absolute suspicion) It went behind the chair.
JR MACREADY: It did.
MENG OREN: (crouching, not moving, watching the shadow under the chair with the focus of a being who has become, for this specific moment, entirely and sincerely committed to this hunt) ...Sh'keth.
JR MACREADY: Is that "waiting" in Caitian?
MENG OREN: (not looking up from the shadow under the chair) It is approximately "I see you" in Caitian. Addressed to prey. It has some additional connotations involving inevitable outcomes.
JR MACREADY: You're trash-talking my laser pointer.
MENG OREN: (a brief, involuntary) ...I am trash-talking your laser pointer. Yes.
JR MACREADY: (fighting himself — losing — a quiet, helpless laugh)
MENG OREN: (immediately) I said things. In Caitian. I told you about the things.
JR MACREADY: You told me about the hunting talk. You didn't tell me about the trash-talking.
MENG OREN: The trash-talking is the hunting talk. I told you it doesn't translate cleanly.
JR MACREADY: I will never underestimate the complexity of Caitian linguistics again.
MENG OREN: (still watching the shadow) You are moving it when you think I'm distracted. I can hear the emitter hum change when your thumb angle shifts.
JR MACREADY: That is an unfair advantage.
MENG OREN: I am Caitian. In heat. In pursuit mode. There is no such thing as an unfair advantage. (and then, almost immediately, a pause, and something shifts in her) I did not just say that.
JR MACREADY: You did, in fact, say that.
MENG OREN: I said I was in— I was referring to the physiological state, not—
JR MACREADY: I understood what you were referring to.
MENG OREN: Because I would not normally— in a professional—
JR MACREADY: Meng.
MENG OREN: Yes.
JR MACREADY: You are on all fours on my floor, mid-hunt, three and a half minutes into an activity that you just explained to me in entirely clinical terms. I do not require you to defend the phrasing. (he brings the dot out from behind the chair, across the floor, fast — very fast)
MENG OREN: (and she goes, instantly, no transition, straight from the self-conscious pause to the full sprint — her tail streams out straight behind her, ears flat against her skull for aerodynamics, claws clicking on the deck) VETH'KA—
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot up, to the ceiling near the light fixture)
MENG OREN: (up — both forepaws on the wall, back legs pushing, reaching — not quite — drops back, turning)
JR MACREADY: (watching her) You know, you're faster than I expected.
MENG OREN: (panting slightly, tracking the dot as he brings it back to floor level) My species. Enhanced reflexes. Forty percent above human baseline. (she is breathing more deeply now, and the purring has started — it runs under her words now, a continuous low note) I have told you this.
JR MACREADY: You told me about it in a briefing context. That's different from watching you vault my furniture.
MENG OREN: I cleared your couch cleanly.
JR MACREADY: You absolutely did. With room to spare.
MENG OREN: (a small sound of satisfaction — not quite a purr, not quite a chirp — something pleased) Rrrnn.
JR MACREADY: Was that— was that the Caitian version of accepting a compliment?
MENG OREN: (tracking the dot) It was involuntary. (then, after a pause) But. Yes.
JR MACREADY: (smiling — not hiding it now, just letting it be there) (he moves the dot in a slow, deliberate circle again — then reverses, sharply)
MENG OREN: (she was already anticipating the circle — the reversal catches her, and she overshoots — slides slightly on the deck, catches herself, and makes a sound that is not Caitian but is universal) Nnh—
JR MACREADY: All right?
MENG OREN: Fine. (she shakes herself slightly — a full-body, very catlike motion) Good traction. Adequate. The deck treatment on a Constitution-class is better than the Reinard.
JR MACREADY: You've compared deck surfaces.
MENG OREN: I've been doing this monthly for thirteen years. You notice things. (she is settling back into the tracking crouch, and there is something deeply, unself-consciously beautiful about it — the precision of the posture, the economy of the readiness, the way the light catches the cream tone at her throat) (and she says, without looking at him, low and warm beneath the purr) You are not moving the dot.
JR MACREADY: I noticed I was staring and I momentarily forgot the dot. I'm moving it now.
MENG OREN: (a sound — mrrrn — which she would probably classify as acknowledgment)
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot again — a long, wandering arc, almost lazy, then a sudden cut)
MENG OREN: (she doesn't take the cut — she waits, watching where the dot is going, not where it is) ...Sha'rir. K'vrath'n.
JR MACREADY: You're predicting it now.
MENG OREN: I am always predicting it. That is what navigation is. You are always predicting where things will be. (she launches, and she has predicted exactly right, both paws landing on the dot)
JR MACREADY: (tilting the emitter so the dot escapes)
MENG OREN: (a growl of genuine protest — rrrowww — spinning, back to full sprint)
JR MACREADY: (starting to move the dot with more creativity — using the corners, the transitions between surfaces, the undersides of furniture)
MENG OREN: (going fully, completely after it, the purring now a constant background, occasionally broken by brief exclamations in Caitian or by the small sounds of effort — the chirps, the clicks, the low vowel of a near-miss) K'rrh— veth'ka— sha'rir— MRRT— (landing successfully on the dot, both forepaws down hard, and she makes a sound of pure triumph) N'KATHAL.
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot out from under her)
MENG OREN: (a sound of absolute outrage) VETH'KA—
JR MACREADY: (laughing — not loudly, not unkindly, but genuinely, warmly, helplessly) I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that was very mean—
MENG OREN: (already after it again, but there is something in her — the flicking of her ears — that suggests she is also, somewhere under the pursuit instinct, registering that this is slightly funny) K'rrh— (pouncing) (missing) Veth'ka— n'kal— sha'rir na— (pouncing again) (catching it) (sitting on the dot with both forepaws firmly planted and a purr of finality)
JR MACREADY: (quietly, still smiling) Should I move it?
MENG OREN: (firmly) ...Sh'keth.
JR MACREADY: I'll give you a moment.
MENG OREN: (sitting on the dot for exactly five more seconds, purring deeply — and then she sits back on her haunches, paws still hovering, and says, in a tone of grudging scientific interest) Move it to the right. Slowly.
JR MACREADY: (moving it to the right, slowly)
MENG OREN: (following it with just her eyes, then her head, then, as it accelerates, with her whole body — and they go again)
[The sequence continues — seven minutes, perhaps eight — the dot leading her from one end of the quarters to the other, up the walls, under and over the furniture, the Caitian vocalizations forming a kind of ongoing commentary in a language that predates warp travel by several thousand years, and MacReady's face is doing what it does when he finds something genuinely delightful and cannot fully contain it, and he is moving the pointer with increasing skill, anticipating her anticipations, creating patterns within patterns, and she is working — genuinely working — the breathing audible, the fur slightly ruffled, the tail fully committed to a series of expressions he is cataloging for future reference]
[At some point, without fully deciding to, he starts narrating quietly.]
JR MACREADY: (as the dot hides behind the recycler unit) It's very clever, the dot. It thinks it's safe there.
MENG OREN: (without looking up, in full hunting crouch) The dot is not clever. The dot is a photon. It does not think.
JR MACREADY: The dot is doing very well for a photon with no cognitive function.
MENG OREN: The dot is being controlled. The dot's cleverness is your cleverness. (a pause — the strategic kind, when she is deciding)
JR MACREADY: Are you complimenting me while hunting my laser pointer?
MENG OREN: I am making an accurate observation. (she launches)
JR MACREADY: (moving the dot up and to the right, fast)
MENG OREN: (catching the wall, pivoting, chasing) K'rrh— veth'ka— mrrt— (catching the dot) (losing it again) (a sound that, in a human, would be called a very mild oath)
JR MACREADY: (innocently) Was that a Caitian profanity?
MENG OREN: (between pants, still pursuing) It is a word that expresses frustration at a target that continues to— (she stops) It does not translate.
JR MACREADY: What's the closest Federation Standard equivalent?
MENG OREN: (a pause in which she clearly considers whether to answer) (the dot has stopped) (she is tracking it) ..."Insolent."
JR MACREADY: You called the dot insolent.
MENG OREN: (launching) The dot is insolent.
JR MACREADY: (laughing again — warm, full, delighted) (moving the dot on an unpredictable, jagged path across the full floor space)
MENG OREN: (after it, full sprint, claws out, the purring now deep and constant and audible across the room — and she says something in Caitian that is clearly directed not at the dot but toward the situation generally, a long flowing phrase with a particular cadence, almost musical)
JR MACREADY: What was that?
MENG OREN: (between breaths, still pursuing) It is a hunting phrase. From my grandmother's— (she doesn't finish, she's concentrating) — sha'rir n'kathal— (pouncing, landing, sitting on the dot again)
JR MACREADY: (holding still this time)
MENG OREN: (remaining on the dot, breathing hard, purring, tail sweeping in slow satisfied arcs)
JR MACREADY: (softly) The phrase. From your grandmother.
MENG OREN: (looking up — slightly flushed beneath the fur, eyes brighter than usual, something loosened about her that he has not seen before, a quality of being thoroughly inside herself rather than managing herself) She used it on the ice hunts. It means— the closest translation is— (she considers) "The small ones run fast and far, but the current finds them in the end." It is about patience. About inevitability. About trusting the instinct that knows where the prey is going before the prey knows it has gone.
JR MACREADY: (quietly) That's navigation.
MENG OREN: (a pause) Yes. It is. That is why I remember it. My grandmother told me, when I was small, that navigation and hunting are the same thing. You are always chasing something. The good navigator knows it is not the thing itself you chase — it is the place the thing will be.
JR MACREADY: She sounds remarkable.
MENG OREN: (something in her settles, the way it settles when she speaks about her grandmother — a specific warmth, quiet and deep) She was. (a pause) I carry her charts with me. You have seen them. On my desk.
JR MACREADY: The silk ones.
MENG OREN: Yes. (and then, because she is still sitting on the dot and they have reached, it seems, a natural rest) I should— (she stands, smoothing herself, and the shift back to her officer's posture is gradual — not a snap, but a return, like a tide coming in rather than a wave) I should move. I have more work to do, if you're willing to continue for a few minutes more.
JR MACREADY: I am willing to continue for as long as you need.
MENG OREN: (looking at him — and the look is direct and unguarded in a way it is not, usually, on the bridge, or in the ready room, or in any of the spaces that belong to the Carpenter rather than to them) You have not— this has not been— you have been very—
JR MACREADY: (gently) I told you. I wasn't going to make you feel bad about it.
MENG OREN: You did more than not make me feel bad about it. You— (she stops, and something crosses her expression that has no Federation Standard name either) You held the pointer, JR.
JR MACREADY: I held the pointer.
MENG OREN: That is what I mean. You just— held the pointer. Without making it something else. Without being uncomfortable or performatively unaffected or— you just held it, the way T'Val held it, because it needed to be held and I needed it, and you— (she stops again, and the purring that had begun to quiet has restarted, very low)
JR MACREADY: (very quietly) Ready? Three more minutes.
MENG OREN: (a breath) Three more minutes. Yes. (she drops back to all fours — the transition is faster this time, easy, unself-conscious) Right wall. High up. Tease it.
JR MACREADY: (pointing, angling the dot high on the right bulkhead, just at the edge of her reach, moving it in small slow tantalizing circles)
MENG OREN: (a growl — low, immediate, her haunches dropping as she lines up the angle)
JR MACREADY: (moving it tighter, slower)
MENG OREN: (crouching lower, lower — sh'keth, sh'keth — and then launching straight up, both forepaws extended, reaching—)
JR MACREADY: (dropping the dot at the last second, straight to the floor)
MENG OREN: (she comes down already spinning, following the drop with her eyes, landing, spinning, pouncing in three connected motions that have no gap between them) MRROWWW— N'KATHAL SHA'RIR—
[She lands on the dot hard, both forepaws, and sits. And stays.]
[The purring is very loud now.]
JR MACREADY: (turning off the emitter)
MENG OREN: (still sitting on where the dot was, tail sweeping, breathing deeply — and then, gradually, sitting back and upright and eventually standing, rolling her shoulders once, like a person re-inhabiting their body after a long time away)
[She smooths her skant. She adjusts her collar.]
[She looks, slowly, considerably better — there is a quality to her breathing that has changed, a looseness at the base of her posture, a quality of having been wrung out in the best possible way.]
MENG OREN: (quietly) Thank you.
JR MACREADY: How are you feeling?
MENG OREN: (taking a breath — actually considering this, rather than defaulting to "fine" or "adequate") Considerably better. The th'reya is— it is substantially quieter. The physiological effect is— yes. This was effective. This was— (a pause) It was better than the holodeck, actually.
JR MACREADY: Better?
MENG OREN: The holodeck has parameters. Predictable physics. You— (she looks at him, and there is amusement beneath the gratitude, something wry) — you are unpredictable. You moved the pointer in ways I did not fully anticipate. That is better exercise than a programmed environment. The catch was harder.
JR MACREADY: (pleased in a way he is trying to moderate) I'm glad my laser pointer technique was up to standard.
MENG OREN: It was, in fact, exceptional for a first attempt. You have a— you anticipate movement well. You anticipated where I was going and moved the dot to where I wasn't. That is— that is the same skill as the helm. You think ahead of the current position.
JR MACREADY: Years of watching you pilot. Some of it was bound to transfer.
MENG OREN: (the ear tilt forward — the pleased-but-not-admitting-it) That is a generous attribution.
JR MACREADY: It's an accurate one. (a pause) Meng.
MENG OREN: Yes.
JR MACREADY: You have something else to say. I can see it.
MENG OREN: (a pause) I have a request. A small one. It is— I want to note that it is also physiologically grounded and not— it is not an escalation. It is a Caitian thing and I will explain it if you want the explanation.
JR MACREADY: (meeting her eyes) Make your request.
MENG OREN: (drawing herself up slightly — and she is formally requesting, genuinely formally requesting, in the way she makes formal requests, except that what she is about to request is—) I would like permission to lick your face, Captain.
[A pause.]
JR MACREADY: (a beat) (another beat) That is not where I expected that sentence to go.
MENG OREN: I told you it was a Caitian thing.
JR MACREADY: You did. Yes. (another beat) Can I have the explanation?
MENG OREN: (a breath) Grooming behavior. In Caitians, specifically — and more specifically in context of a heat cycle, in the resolution phase, which is what I am currently in — the instinct toward social grooming is elevated. It is a bonding behavior. It is what you do for someone who has— who has been with you through the— through the difficulty. Who held the pointer. (a pause) T'Val did not permit this. She made it very clear that Vulcans do not participate in interspecies grooming behavior under any circumstances, and she used five or six words I had never heard in that specific combination to explain why. I understood and I respected the boundary and I am not— I would not ask if it crossed a line for you. I can manage without it. I simply— I wanted to ask. Because asking has been— I have been trying to ask instead of managing alone.
JR MACREADY: (very quietly, very warmly) Permission granted.
MENG OREN: (a pause — she blinks) You didn't— you didn't consider it.
JR MACREADY: I considered it for approximately one and a half seconds and then I granted it.
MENG OREN: One and a half seconds is not—
JR MACREADY: It was enough. You want to lick my face as a Caitian expression of gratitude and bonding after a physiologically significant shared experience. You have just explained that it is culturally meaningful and practically harmless. I don't require more time than that.
MENG OREN: (a pause, and the tail curls — fully, softly — and the purring deepens) You are— you are very certain about a great many things, JR MacReady.
JR MACREADY: About some things. (he sits on the edge of the low couch, bringing himself to approximately her level) Go ahead.
MENG OREN: (crossing to him, and she is — for this — not in her officer's posture, she is just herself, the Caitian self that the Academy collar and the rank insignia sit on top of, and she places one hand very lightly on his shoulder and leans forward and — carefully, deliberately, with the texture of her tongue and the warmth of a creature whose affection is entirely physical and entirely sincere — she licks his cheek, once, from jaw to temple)
[A beat of silence.]
JR MACREADY: (sitting very still, and his expression is — bemused, and warm, and something else that doesn't have a name either)
MENG OREN: (stepping back, and she is flushed again, or she would be if you could see it, and there is a quality to her that is the Caitian equivalent of shy — ears slightly back, tail curved, eyes slightly averted before they come back to his face)
MENG OREN: You have— (she stops)
JR MACREADY: (touching his cheek, lightly) I have what?
MENG OREN: You have— the beard texture is different from what I anticipated. Coarser. (a pause) I am telling you this because you would probably want to know that, as data.
JR MACREADY: (a very quiet laugh) Thank you. For the data.
MENG OREN: You're welcome. (she straightens — the return to posture is gentle this time, not a defense, just a habit she wears comfortably) I— JR.
JR MACREADY: Meng.
MENG OREN: Thank you. For this evening. For— for all of it. For letting me explain instead of simplifying it. For the pointer. For— for holding it the way T'Val held it. With— with that particular quality of just accepting the situation as a situation to be managed rather than a problem to be solved or a thing to be— (she stops, and something in her expression is full) You see me. I have told you before that you see me as an officer first. This is— this is an extension of that. You saw me as a person tonight. Who has a monthly cycle and an inherited hunting reflex and a grandmother's vocabulary that comes out when I'm chasing photons across your deck. And you held the pointer. You just— held it.
JR MACREADY: (very quietly) That's what I'm here for.
MENG OREN: (a pause — and the purr has become very quiet, very warm, a sound that, if you knew what you were listening for, means contentment; not the relief-contentment or the stress-contentment but the particular one that means this is where I am supposed to be) I know that. I'm learning to let it be true instead of just knowing it.
JR MACREADY: You're learning quickly.
MENG OREN: I am. I have been told I'm an efficient learner. (a pause) By you, actually. Among others. (she picks up her carry pouch from the table; he holds out the laser pointer; she takes it)
JR MACREADY: (standing) You'll sleep?
MENG OREN: Better than last night. Yes. (a pause) You should review Nick's proposal. The plasma relay modification. I know I said I would take it but— you should read it first. His analogies are better when you haven't already pre-processed the technical details.
JR MACREADY: I'll read the bagpipe section with fresh eyes.
MENG OREN: The bagpipe section is actually the most technically precise part of the proposal. I know that sounds— it is, however, true.
JR MACREADY: I'll keep an open mind.
MENG OREN: (at the door — and she pauses, and looks back, and the look is unguarded, the full direct blue of her eyes in the warm light of his quarters, and the tail is still curled, the easy curl, the relaxed one) The deck in here is very good. Better than T'Val's office, which was where we did most of the sessions on the Reinard. Her floor was Vulcan-standard, very smooth, very low traction. I kept overshooting.
JR MACREADY: (quietly smiling) Good to know.
MENG OREN: I am noting it for next month. In case the holodeck is again occupied.
JR MACREADY: The pointer will be in the same drawer.
MENG OREN: (and something crosses her expression that is warm and slightly helpless and very much hers) You are planning ahead.
JR MACREADY: I'm learning to anticipate where things are going. (a pause) Someone once told me that's what navigation is.
MENG OREN: (a sound — rrrnn — involuntary, and she knows it's involuntary, and she chooses not to address it) Goodnight, JR.
JR MACREADY: Goodnight, Meng.
[The door seals.]
[MacReady stands in the middle of his quarters — which have been used, tonight, as a hunt course, and show it; the couch is slightly displaced, there is a small scuff mark on the right bulkhead, and the low table has been moved approximately thirty centimeters from its original position.]
[He looks at his cheek in the reflective surface of the viewport.]
[He sits down on the couch.]
[After a moment, he picks up the engineering proposal Nick Scott submitted, which is seventeen pages long and contains a section that does, in fact, involve a bagpipe.]
[He reads it. He is still smiling.]
---
End of record.
—
Story and characters: Meng Oren and JR MacReady ©
An Orange Space CatArt by:
tony07734123/KangWolfCaitian species and related lore © Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry and owned by Paramount Global.
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