Posted by Commander Daniel “DaVinci” Colter (Chief Intelligence Officer/ 2nd Officer) in Kavia’s Quarters- Kavia 101

Posted by Civilian Karnapriya Aaratrika Vanhishikha Ilavalangi Alankritha Balakrishnan (Diplomatic Attachè of Suu’sianna Prime) in Kavia’s Quarters- Kavia 101

Posted by Civilian Karnapriya Aaratrika Vanhishikha Ilavalangi Alankritha Balakrishnan (Diplomatic Attachè of Suu’sianna Prime) in Kavia’s Quarters- Kavia 101
SNIP

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Kavia’s Quarters
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The walk to her quarters was unnaturally quieter than usual. Reaching the room she put her hand out on the door panel and it opened. It was a calculated guess but this ship seemed to run a lot on biometrics. Entering the room, Kavia for the first time realized how far from home she was. Colter’s room was warm and inviting with small touches about his life. This room was a bare palate. Decorating would come later. “Can you get us some coffee? Maybe a pot,” she asked as she moved to one of the five boxes in the middle of the room that contained all her possessions. “I think you and I have a lot to talk about,” she said popping the lid to one of the boxes.

Kavia

DaVinci moved toward the replicator. “Wow, a whole pot?!? Are you telling me we’re going to have a long and eventful night?

With coffee and cups in hand , he turned back around and saw the serious look on her face. The CIO moved toward Kavia and the boxes. Setting the coffee down, he asked, “Everything alright? You’ve been awfully quiet lately. Not counting the time you were unconscious.”

Colter (CIO)

Kavia let out a laugh. “My dad said that all the time about me except it was about when I was sleeping.” She took the cup and let out a deep sigh.

“Okay I haven’t been 100% forthcoming on some stuff and I need to take a leap of faith here. I trust you, Colter,” she said drumming the edge of her cup with her fingers. It wasn’t like she lied to Colter or the Captain but more of stretching the truth. Besides, it was better to come out with the exact facts now rather than make anyone think she was hiding something.

“My government does come in peace and we have no intention of anything with the Federation past friendship and cultural exchange. That part is the truth. What I haven’t expanded on was the details of my government. My government is called the Celestial Confederation or Cel Con for short. Our purpose is to explore and learn much like your Federation. Our little edge of the galaxy is vast and thriving filled with a myriad of races of which Boja’s people are included. What I have let you assume that my government and Boja’s are one and the same. They are not. Boja’s people chose not to join us for their own reasons. We can respect that. Cel Con’s association with Lt. Boja’s civilization is like a next-door neighbor you see every day coming home from work but don’t necessarily invite them over for game night.” Kavia hoped she was getting her point across that there was nothing wrong with the Sussiana people but just that they were not part of the HOA.

DaVinci sat in stone cold silence as she explained the truth about where she came from.

“Cel Con is like many confederacies where the power of the individual worlds resides with them and Cel Con acts more like your ancient United Nations. We are mediators in a sense putting out disputes or flareups between individual worlds when asked. That being said we do that the power behind us to enforce the rules that were voted in place. Cel Con doesn’t want to force ther views on the galaxy so even if you are not a part of the confederation you can come to us for help or share information with us. That is how Cel Con got involved with Boja and the Federation.” Kavia hoped she was not throwing too much information at Colter but the man was the chief intelligence officer so there was no reason to think he could not keep up.

“I think I’m going to need something stronger than coffee to take all this in.”

“Do you mean like John Bean? Here’s to what’s inside,” she pipped in with a smile. Only yesterday had she seen an advertisement that must have been a reference to his comment about ‘taking it all in’. The small movie clip showed a man sitting at a table with his daughter and her boyfriend/fiance. The father was the classic image of a dad in a sweater and tie while the boyfriend looked like the lead drummer of a garage band. In the clip, the daughter was going on and on about Sarat Hellmiss’ talent and his band, April Chaos. It was obvious to the viewer this drummer had zero talent yet the daughter was asking the Dad to just let her borrow some money from her college fund to get the unlikely couple a head start in the music industry. This was when the Dad cracked open a bottle of something uttering ‘I think I’m going to need something stronger to take all this in’ as the narrator displayed a bottle stating “We all have these moments in life. Here’s to what’s inside” as the actor did a shot.

This had to be what Colter was referring to as he had the same befuddled expression the father did as she told her life story. Albeit Kavia was employed but she and Sarat did find themselves lacking a permanent residence.

Kavia continued her story as Colter got up presumably to find his something stronger.

“The part about my homeworld was correct but not the planet. I am from Venoma which is the third planet of the Venomian system. All the stuff about it being a jungle world with an extremely strong magnetic system was still correct. The eidetic memories, large hippocampus and memory dump information is all still the same. My life span is 400 years and we travel by interdimensional wormholes,” Kavia summarized the information she had already mentioned. “The part you don’t know about us is that our tech is almost 100% organic-based. We don’t have machine-based engineering. All our base materials come from plants and or animals and bioengineered. For example,” she took a sip of her coffee, “the hulls of our ships are made from the webs of the Corcoran spiders. The tensile strength of it is unimaginable allowing us to travel in space just like you do with your metal alloys. We harvest it much like you harvest silk from worms for fabric. We have several other type of building materials but it is 100% organic and grown not produced as we can tell your materials are. It’s primarily why your tech fascinated us so when Boja talked about her experiences here and is the primary reason I am here. It’s also the reason I have no idea how anything works here,” she laughed.

Kavia

He moved to the replicator and ordered a shot of Jack Daniels. DaVinci knew it was only synthahol, but the action of pounding back the shot was satisfying in itself. He leaned back and rested his head against the coolness of the wall.

“Do you realize the position you’ve put me in, Kavia. I vouched for you. I told the skipper you’d be my responsibility. That I’d keep an eye on you. How can I do that now knowing you haven’t been completely truthful with me? Are there any half-truths you want to share with me or you just going to keep me in the dark until you feel the need to tell me?”

The CIO sat down in a chair across from her. The look on his face wasn’t one of anger, but more a look of disappointment.

“We have a saying on Earth: “Trust is one of the hardest things to gain, but one of the eastiest things to lose. . . .”

Colter (CIO)

Kavia sighed heavily. “I want to be truthful but the delegates from Suu’sianna Prime insisted Cel Con follow a set of guidelines when coming over. I am not privy to why but Boja’s government did not want the Federation to know I didn’t come from Suu’sianna Prime but they did. We have to respect their government but showing up and saying hey remember when I said I was from Sus Prime, well I am actually from a far more powerful confederacy. You have never heard of Cel Con until now and we could match you blow for blow in a slug out but don’t worry we are friendly.” Kavia hoped Colter understood the situation she was in. He was in intelligence so the don’t ask just do policy had to come up at least once for him.

His eyebrow rose questioningly at the mention of being able to go blow for blow with the Federation. . .

“DaVinci, I am just a working schmuck. I don’t get to ask a lot of questions. They said don’t mention us and that was my orders but five minutes after I got here I realized I had to break orders. I just wanted to do it with you. You can do what you want with all the information. I also have a way to show you how serious I am about telling you the truth. For the record, I would not last long under interrogation or torture in this form,” she laughed gesturing at her body. “Lucky for me I don’t have to.” Kavia hoped that her small attempt at levity broke the seriousness of the situation. She knew it was not a laughing matter but when one had orders to do something one did it like a good soldier.

‘In this form’, he wondered, as both eyebrows now arced toward the ceiling. DaVinci liked this form she was currently in. He didn’t think of himself as a xenophobe, but the thought of doing ‘things’ together with Kavia did make . . . .he pushed the thought to the back of his mind for the time being. . .

Reaching out she put her hand over his. “From this point, I will tell you everything. I,” she bit her lip nervously. Moving over to a box that had contained a few things she brought with her on the journey, Kavia returned with a delicate blossom that resembled a yellow daisy. “This flower is called the light of your spirit. It has a unique property to relax you when brewed in a tea or soup. We use it to calm people. Now when eaten,” she popped the blossom in her mouth and chewed it slightly grimacing. “It gets you to,” she moved her tongue about her mouth a bit indicating she was not particularly enjoying the flavor, “lower your inhibitions. Gah,” she grabbed her coffee and chugged some down to wash the taste away as best she could. Shaking her head to push through the bitter taste she shrugged and said simply, “so needs sugar when it is in tea.”

“Lower your inhibitions? From what I’ve experienced with you so far, I didn’t think you had ANY inhibitions.”

“Oh I have a few but they tend to revolve around eating anything I have to chase down on my plate or meeting someone’s parents after the first date. I mean who does that. Only crazy people,” her voice was still upbeat but taking on a less hurried quality. The words were not slurring but more the cadence of someone lazing about in a hammock with a cool drink and nothing to do for the rest of the day but nap and read.

Kavia could instantly feel her body relaxing. Her face didn’t have the tension in it but more the calm, happy look someone had after their first cup of wine. “I didn’t want you to have to ask me to do something like this in medical or doubt me so I took the lead. I want to prove that I am not going to lie to you and this is the only way I felt I could show you. God, you a so cute,” she drifted feeling the ability to stay focused and not say what she was thinking harder and harder. “I mean darn for a guy thats about three hundred you look amazing for your age. How often do you work out?”

“Not as often as I’d like to,” the Intel Officer replied. He watched Kavia intently, trying to ascertain if this particular type of flora really had the properties she said, or whether she was trying to pull the wool over his eyes again. I’ll play along for a while, he thought.

Leaning forward, Kavia placed her elbow on the table and rested her chin in her palm creating a seat for her face. Her expression had melted into a sweet grin with a hint of mischief behind her eyes. It was the look that terrified sweet old church ladies but made the young grandson bring a girl coffee and donuts after the service. “Liar. I mean you don’t get to look like you do under that uniform without a few sit-ups a day. Your tailors do a get job of keeping it modest with the long sleeves and high neckline but I went to the beach with you,” she winked. Kavia you have to focus. This might not be the best choice you have made today. Get your libido in check and your honesty in overdrive. Focus on something boring like his chin although he does have a great jawline, she fought mentally with herself to give Colter what he wanted and not the things she was dreaming about.

With an impish grin, he added, “You do make it very hard to stay mad at you. You realize that, don’t you?”

“Yep,” was all she said with a side smirk. Knowing where the was going to lead maybe, Kavia reigned it in. This was not her first rodeo and there would be time to continue this line of interrogation later.

Clearing her throat she blinked twice to focus herself. She could already see herself wanting to confess all kinds of off-topic things to him. “As you can see it lowers inhibitions so you are going to have to reel me in and ask all the questions. I just,” she paused and looked at him sincerely. “We are both adept at finding and keeping information. I just want you to know I trust you. So ask what you want to know. Based on my metabolism you have about an hour to find out everything you ever wanted to know about Karnapriya Aaratrika Vanhishikha Ilavalangi Alankritha Balakrishnan .” Leaning back she smiled at him not quite innocently with a touch of flirtatiousness.

“Alright, you. . . . .”

“Oh but,” she stopped him after his first word. “Don’t kiss me for about ninety minutes. You could get some residual effects off my tongue and I would so rather enjoy our honeymoon phase for a while instead of jumping into the ‘why can’t you put all your crap away from the bathroom sink’ phase. Now..go.”

Kavia

“You mentioned ‘in this form’ before. What exactly did you mean by that?” he questioned, hoping she wasn’t going to turn into some giant, slimy, space slug or something resembling a mugato. . .

Colter (CIO)

Kavia leaned back. Internally she knew she would regret what she was about to say. Morally though she had to. One person was not a threat to this Federation of Planets. An armada from the Celestial Confederacy was. In no way was her government planning anything other than peaceful exchanges of information, however, if she was on the other side of the table, Kavia would need more than Colter’s charm to actually trust him. Deep inside she had to come clean and let the information percolate with Colter. “So when I said we were an all organic civilization I truly mean that. All our tech and weapons are organic. The reason my metabolism is so high is that we have a symbiotic relationship with several organisms on my planet. My race is the only one of the Cel Con that has this ability. So for a short period of time when we are in danger or need to defend something, we eat one of these organisms and for like the next hour or so we become....symbiotes. It’s completely harmless. I promise. They are in stasis like a butterfly. They are in that crate.”

DaVinci followed her gaze to the crate she indicated, and tried to imagine what these symbiotes looked like. “So everytime we kissed, you weren’t trying to pass one of these creepy crawlies off to me? So you could take control of me?”

He was partly serious, as something similar had happened in Starfleet once before. . .

Kavia looked at Colter with a concerned expression. “I can’t imagine how many questions you have but right now you have all the cards. I can’t lie nor have the inhibitions to do so. Ask me something you know I have lied to you about,” Kavia let out a small laugh. “I know you have enjoyed every moment with me but I also know you have the training and background to ferret out a lie. Asking me questions you already know the answers to should prove just how pliable I am right now,” she smiled and shrugged at him.

Kavia

The CIO took a step back from Kavia and began to think. “So, your heightened metabolism, is that why you were able to go five, six rounds with me? And weren’t even close to stopping?”

“Was that all natural, or did you have to chow down on a number of those critters to keep up? If that worked on humans as well, increasing stamina and endurance, you could corner the market on treating ED in men.”

“Is this how you normally gather info from new races and species you meet? Get them to fall in lo–, get to sleep with you, so they open up, implicate yourself into the society and culture, and then up and move on to the next race?”

Colter (CIO)

(bump)