Working on a station like this means that the crews rotate on and off, alternation keeps everyone sane enough to push onwards through the endless slog of work.
It's your on season, meaning you're sitting in your cubical doing all the menial tasks that the station administration needs to do to keep the rights to orbit the planet it's anchored too. The chairs they give you aren't exactly comfortable for several hours of sitting and doing paperwork, yet even bringing your own pillows doesn't take the sting off of your ass at the end of the day.
Grumbling to yourself as you head for the common area of your hab block you find yourself pleasantly surprised, one of your alien coworkers has sat himself cross legged on the floor simply far too big to use one of the lounges provided, the gelatinous nature of his body looking increasingly inviting. Discomfort is a hell of a motivator, as you quickly make your way over to him, grabbing his attention and asking as sweetly as possible if you could sit in his lap, mentioning how incredibly comfortable he looks right now, eagerly clambering into his lap the moment you get a singular nod from him.
The moment you're sat relief floods through you, the slight chill of his body makes the squish all that more enjoyable. Leaning back fully you look up at his head, taking in the almost sea slug like shape of him, the wiggling little nobs and swaying strands like antenna that take in the sounds of the world around him, he's actually quite cute now that you actually look at him closer.
You're thanking him as you relax more, feeling the ache in your legs, hips and lower back slowly, eases, starting up a small conversation with him as you sit in his lap. He's off schedule right now and has simply taken to sitting in different parts of the station to take up time, one of his arms lifts and you can look through the light blue of him, something comes to mind as you poke a finger into his arm laughing slightly, perking up immediately as you spin around as much as you can, hand sinking into his chest just a little as you ask him if he would consider being your desk chair instead.
Only realising what you had asked after the words left you, trying to back track for a moment before he shrugs and agrees, calling it better than sitting in hallways all day doing nothing.
The main deck for your crew is silent most of the time, so the sudden and harsh sound of your knuckles and wrists cracking is startling for most of the aliens around you.
It had been so long since you had been without other humans around that it was easy to forget how odd humans were to most aliens, your nearest crewmate is quick to grab your hands looking them over and letting their mandibles click with concern before their translator kicks in and they ask why you would do such a thing! Still moving your arms about as they try to see the damage that surely must have come from such a loud pop and crack, it's hard to not laugh as you tell them you're fine and that humans do this from time to time.
Explaining that you had simply increased the space between your joints and dissolved some of the gases that your body makes, which leads to the popping sound.
Apparently that answer doesn't help calm your crewmates, and the rest of your work cycle is spent in the medical bay, simply listening to the med-droid explain human behaviours and habits, most of which aren't common outside of the sol system or its colonies. All while you sit smiling, watching as the two crew members with you try to come to an understanding of why humans would need, let alone want, to do such things like 'Cracking joints' or 'Trimming nails' who knew you could get such joy out of mundane human activity?
Especially as humans have been on interstellar postings for nearly a millennium now, who knew some aliens still didn't know how weird you guys can get.
However, with your new found ability to show off all of humanity's odd behaviours, another member of your crew has just learnt what humans can smell like as they feel unbridled enthusiasm and entertainment, the scent lingering thick and strong around you even after you come back from the med bay, it's hard to hold back the sounds that want to leave them, the feeling of the protective plates that keep their species sex safe and covered begin to move.
The way you smile at them as you crack your ankle, sends a chittering rattle down the equivalent of a spine, the plates and spines clicking as the cloying scent of a mate searching floods across their senses.
The next port visit is almost a month away, whatever ancestors look over them, give them the strength to survive you till then.
There's something just slightly, very, wrong in your family home.
First it is the invite for dinner together on a random weekend, second it is the fully set table and dishware that you haven't seen since you were a child, and thirdly your siblings were there, not off at uni or working their part time jobs, actually present and talking to each other. Last you remembered there was some small beef between them that had spiralled to the silent treatment between them, yet here they are chatting and sipping from whatever was in the glasses on the table.
Picking up your own cup, you don't recall ever drinking something bubbly and purple, sniffing it you can't help the face you pull. Only as one of your parents speaks do you put the cup down and listen as they remark about how lovely the new neighbour is, some young man that was so very helpful, the not-so-subtle looks they give you as they say he is single gives away what is going on.
But, you think about the neighbours you knew lived either side of your parents and you can't recall a young man.
To the left is an elderly couple that were renowned for being standoffish all your childhood and you're sure didn't have children, on the right was a young lesbian couple that you were certain didn't have any siblings, let alone any male friends close enough to have around enough that your parents would think they lived nextdoor.
The confusion on your face must be evident as your parents begin trying to tell you more about this mystery man that lives next door. You half nod along and half flick your attention to one of your siblings, catching what you swear is a half drooping face, panic sets in for a moment as you actually look at them and swear you can see their expression droop, getting out of your chair you reach for them ignoring the way your parents keep talking about this random man, snapping at them that your sibling might actually need an ambulance and to call the emergency services now.
Everything seems to stop as you get genuinely angry with your parents, looking up everything has stopped, frozen still. Stuck in place like someone hit the pause button, pulling your hands away from your sibling as if you had been burned, shifting back from the table you had just been sitting at.
It's a feed of colour, shapes, and code that passes by you, stripping away your family dining room and leaving you in a barren grey room. The panic you had felt flared to life again, spinning around you looking for anything, anyone, just something to tell you about what is happening to you as a door slowly opens on the far wall of the space.
You had been ready for government officials, scientists, anything human at all, not an alien looking creature. Made of metal and bone plates, thickly packed muscles, and a long segmented tail that clicked as it stalked towards you, three clawed hands raised in a supplicating gesture as if the rattling click of its strange mouth would calm your panic, as it essentially cornered you.
The metal wall behind you is cold, and you hardly care as you scree your face up and clench your eyes closed, expecting the worst and not... A gentle embrace?
The strange alien is cradling you gently, mimicking the motions of comfort a human would give, and yet you can't help but tense up further as the panic running through you hits a high that pushes your body over the edge, slumping into the aliens hold, passing out in a graceless way.
It's fine though, when you come around again, it can run the simulations over and get it right this time, he'll have your parents introduce him and then get to know you so that he can have the mateship he deserves. After all, he had crossed many lightyears to get you and the two of you have boundless time on the return home for him to court and mate you properly, but for now he will run the simulations and get it right.
Imagine being work besties with an alien of an almost immeasurable age difference.
Chilling in the break room of whatever station, shuttle, ship, or colony you both work on, messing around on your comms unit and telling them you would marry their kid to have them as family. Only for them to pull out their other comm unit and look at something, before responding to you with info about their child that would be the equivalent age to you in their years now.
You laugh as they ask if you could be into women, namely alien women, telling them you could be as they show you a picture of their daughter.
Older alien bestie that tells you they will find out if their child likes humans, and put in a good word for you, only to look at you curiously when you remember they told you a year ago that they had a male child. The alien you work with delivering a deadpan response of and now I have a daughter, I will find out if she likes humans, almost squinting as they try to see if you'll say anything about this change in narrative from the past.
Sighing in relief as you shrug and tell them once again, you could be into alien women.
When you saw the calendar event pop up you thought it was a joke, something between the medical staff at the station, clicking the event message you giggle at the event name again.
'Penis Inspection day'
Sighing you scroll down and expect a joke message about the event except it wasn't, scrolling down there is officially assigned roles and tasks for each member of the medical wing, names and times for shift change at the event. Your boss had signed off the event with a brief to download, the document is filled with information about intergalactic sexual infections and the protocol for treatment of said infection, the event being undertaken is only done before or after a mass interspecies deployment.
In a week's time you would be joining your fellow medical officers in inspecting the genitals of the aliens that were returning to the station.
The coworker that you thought made the event as a joke comes over not long after you had read through the brief, smiling as he laughs that it's your first year here and obviously you didn't know about the inspection days. They giggle as you stare at them blankly, asking if they are kidding, slumping against your desk as you lament the awkward situation your about to be in, shooing away your coworker as you do your best to try and recenter yourself before the days end.
To say work was tense for you was an understatement, part of you was dreading the inspection day next week, and a smaller more quiet part was excited. This would be the most contact with aliens you'd have beyond the medical scans they get when coming onto the station for trade, and those barely lasted one or two station day/night cycles, so it's no wonder the day of you wake shakey and tense.
Would you offend one of them? Could you stare too long during the assessments? What happens if one of them gets excited? How much touching is too much? What if one has teeth?!
The panic must be evident as your boss comes by your station, dropping the files of the aliens you would be inspecting off, closing the door behind her as she approaches your desk. Leaning against the corner and running through some of the usual encounters on inspection days, quelling some of the nerves and adding silent fuel to some of your own internal fires, she smiles at you before leaving, even throwing a cheeky wink over her shoulder as she tells you to remember the interesting ones.
After she leaves you take a few minutes before pressing the button for your first inspection, holding the file for the alien as he comes through the door, inside is his translated medical file and a set of photos of what his species genitals should look like if not carrying or afflicted with anything, instructions clear that if it deviated in any way they are sent for indepth tests and inspection.
You smile awkwardly at the alien in question, pulling on your first set of gloves as you ask them to open their uniform to allow for inspection, trying your best to be professional as you greeted with a long barely their slit that ran from the mid point of its chest down between its legs, the alien looks eagerly at you as the translator around its neck interpreted his words, almost cooing at you about having to coax it out first.
The wink and smile from your boss makes sense now, internally you wonder how many of these aliens you will have to coax into being able to be inspected, and how many will actually need further assistance...
I have been deep in 40k Rogue Trader, and my holding off for the unhealthy BDSM bastard romance of the Drukhari companion has given me ideas, and yes I have made RT references in this.
Anyway big scary awkward aliens?
The bowels of the ship are somewhere you should be, you work in the plasma drives, the engine bay and the more tech heavy heart of the ship, this deep dark mess of halls and steel walkways aren't your normal grounds but your com had pinged endlessly with coordinates for this section of the ship. It was an emergency channel too, meaning whatever went wrong down here needed to be seen too asap, your overseer had simply flapped his wrist and gone back to listening to whatever was streaming through his coms.
Working on a destroyer class ship is wild, not only is it a huge vessel but the sheer amount of space the people on this ship inhabit just because they can is mind boggling. Sure there's the bunks and barracks halls but you've heard a tale of a shanty town appearing on the lowest decks, and a blood church as well? That one you're not sure about, something something one of their high ranking people was close with the captain but that's none of your business, you just do what you're told and hope to live through the space jumps that take this ship port to port.
Your torch flickers as you round the last corner towards the signals point, you are met with an abandoned cargo hold, the heavy doors out of the room already welded shut long ago.
Boxes are open and overturned all over the place, lids torn from the hinges and old cardboard decays in the corners, it's more than a little rank but as you shine your light across the boxes you spot the com that had likely pinged you, sighing as you head over and turn off the message loop. The com is an older model, likely someone left it somewhere and got an upgrade and now it's being used to prank other decks like this, shutting down the unit you pull the power pack and dump the com unit back in a box before turning to make your way back to your assigned deck.
You'd almost hoped one of the other workers would be down here looking for a quick fuck or something, not a shitty com loop prank.
The cargo bay doors hiss as they close behind you, boots thumping along the grated walkway as you begin the maze like walk back to the deck lift, it's surprisingly hard to find your way back out without the message ping, sighing as you look over the old map etched onto a cross path intersection. Mentally charting the turns you'd have to take before setting out, a few workers pass you as you head back up to your deck, maybe also caught by the same ping trap but it's not your business to let them know it's nothing.
And the loop would repeat daily, the same coordinates, the same cargo hold, same time, same everything, you'd gone to the engineers that handed the com arrays internally and they said there was no record of a ping to you from that area. Even after showing them the logs they shrugged and took your old com unit and handed you a new one, pushing you out after telling you not to come back unless this new one broke.
But the pings kept coming, everything was still the same as before.
On your day off you decided to track back down and see if you could catch the person doing this, an hour before the pings normally rolled in you were in your casual clothes heading down to the same deck as a week ago, making less sound as your off duty shoes had softer soles and no metal plates.
What you had expected was some engineering idiot having a giggle, not one of the aliens that the captain had in their inner circle or retinue, it looked to be smiling as it placed the com down on one of the emptied boxes. Chittering as clawed hands ran through the mimicry of hair it had, pale skin seeming almost translucent under the buzzing lights, neon blue webs of veins trace under the skin you can see as you step into the cargo hold and flick the volume on for the pings to ring out, startling the alien enough to have them turn and hiss at you, fangs bared and lashing tail raised in defence as they tared you down for a second before blinking and shamefully unfolding their defensive stance.
You've met this alien once, some fools tried to use the plasma drives as an area to stage a workers revolt or something, you been off duty and sitting with the other that wanted nothing to do with the rambling idiots. It had stopped near you and asked some basic questions about the sector, you'd been the only one brave enough to answer the alien in his spikey armor.
He did look terrifying in his armor, black plates, spikes and a dragging twin tail of red cloth wrapped around his waist as he stalked through the plasma drives that day, the revolt ended in a brawl and him standing atop a pile of beaten men snarling and panting, apparently his kind were known for their brutality. You'd known none of this as you'd whistled at the sight of the rabble getting carried out by the ships enforcers, commenting on how strong he must have been to take so many men alone.
Apparently you were the first human outside of the captain to compliment him on his prowess, standing in the empty cargo hold as he straightened out to his full height, chittering at you as he explains that you'd lingered in his thoughts since then. He watched you work, carrying heavy boxes and working with your team to fix the drives as needed, you were strong and recognized his own strength after the scuffle apparently in his kind that's a first step in courting but amongst humans he had no clue what it meant.
Taking a seat on one of the overturned boxes you watch as he sits across from you, it's a little awkward the conversation that follows having to explain that luring you down into the bowels of the ship was odd and aggravating to happen during your working hours, as well as trying to understand why he was so adamant on starting to court you and not perhaps someone like the captain?
Apparently the captain was spoken for already and while he liked how strong they were there was a clear dislike for him as an alien, he seems to rattle in a way as he spits out the captains name, it's clear there is more than just a dislike of xenos souring the relationship between him and the ships captain.
Tucking that information away from later you still have to ask why you? You're just some drive worker after all, surely there was a soldier or warrior of his own kind that he wanted?
You learn his species don't blush across their cheeks but up their neck and chin, apparently amongst his people he is weak, short as well, nothing another of his kind would want but to humans and a few other races he is strong and desirable, hence he had thought of courting you, sure amongst the other humans you were just a drive worker but to him you seemed strong and worthy of attention.
Your conversation is cut short as your com pings with a message asking if you can cover for another one of the workers, apparently there was a small fire and they got too close for comfort so they were one down on a full crew. Sighing you turn to look at the hulking alien curled on the cargo hold floor and tell him that if he wants to talk and see if he actually does want to court you that he should find another way that spamming pings at your com address.
Standing to leave you look at him surprised as he stands to walk with you, rumbling that humans like to be walked to their destinations, tilting his head as he blinks at you waiting for you to allow him to follow along with you. Shrugging your shoulders you let him follow you to the deck lift, smiling to yourself as people move out of your way with him trailing behind you, perhaps if he doesn't want to court you after all this he will still want to be friends?
It can't hurt to have a hulking armored alien follow you around as it learns about humans, now could it?
