Captain Nakia 1 (Patreon)

@Startide suggested this madness. Blame him.

But yet, I had great fun writing it!

———

“Commissioner!” said First Officer Nylizx, forcibly injecting some cheer into her voice. “I didn’t expect…”

Her ears drooped, and she stared a moment at the unfamiliar face on the bridge’s display screen. “Who the fuck are you?”

The anup on the screen glared, closing his yellow eyes to slits. One side of his enormous muzzle wrinkled, and he snarled, “What manner of obscenity is transpiring on your bridge?”

Nylizx’s ears perked in surprise at the curious question coming from the curious stranger on screen. With a grunt, she pressed hard against the railing that lined the balcony’s edge, lifting her weight off her ample chest so she could turn about and see what the anup could be referring to. Behind her, an officer with bright blue stripes held her by the hips, eyes closed, teeth biting down on his lower lip, humped hard against her.

Beside him, another officer stood, looking bored while he waited his turn. A gal stood beside him, checking the mail on her communicator, and so the line went, across the bridge and out the door. “Oh, this!” said the first officer, turning about to face the screen. “Nothing important. Ringel ritual. Why?”

The anup’s short black fur bristled as he growled. “I am calling regarding your captain! And… And… You speak to me while engaging in coitus—”

“Captain’s dead,” said Nylizx, casually interrupting the alien. “Told him there was no way to survive that. Though I gotta admire him for trying anyhow, and that was why we all loved him. Seriously.”

When the anup continued to glare at her, she glanced back over her shoulder at the blue-striped officer. Turning back, she explained to the gigantic canid, “Oh, Lieutenant Zyryz? Ignore him. He’s not really in the running. Doesn’t stand a chance.” She turned back once more and snarled in a louder voice, “Because it’s not a race!”

The blue-striped officer shrunk sheepishly in on himself and reduced his pace somewhat, but didn’t stop humping the first officer.

The anup opened his muzzle to say something, but Nylizx cut him off, explaining, “When a ringel captain dies unexpectedly, the sixty-four top candidates to replace him compete in a series of challenges in a quadruple elimination competition.” She drew a deep breath and released it slowly, pushing against the railing to shove her hindquarters harder against the lieutenant. Her long, black-and-white striped tail snaked its way over one of his shoulders, around behind his neck, and down the other. She whispered, “Better. Still not Captain material, but better. Anyhow, some of the officers have taken an early lead, but we can’t name a captain officially until—”

“The company has selected a new captain for the JXV-12.”

Every ringel on the bridge and a few out in the corridor beyond froze in their tracks. Lieutenant Zyryz’s ears fell.

First Officer Nylizx whispered, “They did?”

The anup moved so close to the camera that the bridge screen showed little more than black irises set within huge yellow eyes. “I will be your new captain,” said the anup.

# # #

“I can’t do it,” whispered the newly minted Captain Nakia. “There’s no way I can do this.”

“You can,” his mate replied. She scooted closer across the foot of the bed and leaned her cheek on his shoulder. “You did just great. They listened to you. They respect you.”

He turned to face her. “You saw them, Marwa,” he sighed. “They don’t respect anyone. I can’t… Why would the commissioner ever think that I could change…” He couldn’t say it. Instead, he just gestured impotently at the darkened screen with his span.

“Because,” the charcoal grey female whispered, “you are a great leader. You inspire the rest of us. They have confidence in you.”

“I can’t. It’s just not possible,” he said. “There’s ten thousand of them and only one of me. I can’t stop them from being … ringel.”

“No, of course you can’t. No one can,” said Marwa. “But the company would never expect that of you.”

He cocked his head. “They said they want me to bring order—”

“Yes, they did, my beloved.” She stared into his eyes and gave him the secret smile she only shared with him. “But they can be orderly without giving up what they are. Focus on what the krakun wish to accomplish. Don’t let our culture blind you to thinking that they must be like us.”

“And do what, Marwa?” he sighed. “Ignore how they act?”

“I think you must,” she whispered. “If you are to lead them, you must learn their culture and immerse yourself in it.”

He stared at her, his ears drooping. “You want me to act … like that?”

“I want you to succeed at all costs.”

Nakia lowered his chin until it nearly touched his chest. “But I have made vows—”

“And had the company not given you incompatible goals,” she whispered, “I know you would have kept them for our lifetime.”

“You will not blame me?” he asked.

“I will be proud of you always,” she said. “I think few could succeed where I know you will.”

# # #

“The fuck you want us to do?” shouted someone in the crowd.

“It’s not what I want you to do, it’s what I want you not to do, what I expect you not to do” First Officer Nylizx explained. “First, you are not to touch things while you’re in the new captain’s presence.”

“Don’t touch … anything?” asked a female to the first officer’s left.

“Right. Unless you have no choice,” said Nylizx, “the only part of you that should be touching anything is the soles of your paws touching the deck. Oh, and no gesturing either. Just keep your arms to your sides.”

Another male crossed his arms in frustration. “And just how the fuck are we supposed to accomplish anything like that?”

“It’s easy,” said Nylizx. “Let’s say that the captain asks you for the latest engineering status report. What do you do?”

The male uncrossed his arms and pulled a communicator from his belt. “I … mail it to him?”

“No,” said Nylizx to the assembled group. “You say, ‘I’ll go get that for you.’ Then, you leave and go mail it to him.”

“Oh,” said a few voices simultaneously.

The male who had spoken earlier, crossed his arms once more. “That’s stupid.”

“Yes, it is,” agreed Nylizx, “but Captain Nakia comes from a very different culture, and he’s going to be in a position to make our lives very fucking miserable. We don’t want that to happen, so we’re going to respect his culture as much as possible to keep from making him unhappy. Got it? So, he tells you to do something, go do it. Even if you can do it right there, use his request as an excuse to leave, and then do what he’s asked.”

“And … you’re going to play the captain?” asked another.

“Right!” said Nylizx, happy that they seemed to be getting it. “I realize this is going to be a big change for us. It’s not something we can learn to do overnight. Captain Nakia arrives aboard the JXV-12 in three weeks. That gives us three weeks to practice, three weeks to get used to this new way of doing things. So, for the next three weeks, you will practice on me: no touching anything in my presence!”

A softer voice said, “But…” It was Ensign Yittryx, reaching from the crowd to touch her arm. The ensign was an exceptionally sweet guy, and though the first officer wasn’t romantically entangled with the ensign, she certainly made love with him more often than anyone else on the ship. For a ringel couple, that was as good as mated.

“Paw!” she shouted. The ensign jerked back to attention, dropping his paws to his sides without actually touching her. The first officer explained, “Yes, that’s right. For the next three weeks, none of you are to touch me. This will be a challenge for many—myself especially—but I feel that it’s the only way to train you guys, to prepare you for our new captain’s arrival.”

“But hon…” the ensign said, without trying to touch her this time.

“Don’t worry about me, love,” she said with a reassuring glance. “In school, I got a minor in masturbation. I’ll be just fine.”

“What about that sex thing?” shouted someone way in the back of the crowd.

“The sex thing is even easier,” said the first officer. “No sex, no masturbation, no touching anyone else in any space where the ceiling is three meters high or taller.”

“But—” someone started to whine.

“No exceptions ever,” said Nylizx. “Most of this ship has two-meter ceilings. So, if you’re in a two-meter space, you’re highly unlikely to run across our new, three-plus-meter tall captain.”

Lots of ears frowned, but First Officer Nylizx showed them no sympathy. “No exceptions, ever,” she said. “There’s lots and lots and lots of places you’re still welcome to screw. So, keep it there. With what I’ll be giving up these next few weeks, I don’t want to hear anyone bitch about not being able to fuck in the cargo bay. Just go somewhere else, for fuck’s sake.”

She raised a finger as she remembered. “Oh yeah, and I want you to be very aware of whenever someone is on a call to the captain—or for the next few weeks, with me, obviously. If Captain Nakia can see into a room with a camera, then have your sex elsewhere.”

# # #

Marwa knocked at the bedroom door. He answered it quickly enough, but she had never seen him looking so disheveled and miserable. “I made you some lunch,” she said quietly, offering him a plate. “How are you holding up?”

“Terrible,” he whispered. He leaned his head against the doorframe and closed his eyes. “Are you certain this is necessary?”

“Yes, I’m sure,” she said. “This is the only way you’re going to desensitize yourself. You must overload your senses with it.”

Nakia wiped at his eyes with the back of a wrist and nodded. “If you say so,” he whispered. He accepted the plate from his mate and sighed.

“Have you finished the second season of ‘Real Housewives of Rigel III’?” she asked.

“Not yet,” he admitted. “The soap operas are the worst, the most painful. I switched over to the game shows.”

“Okay, take a break from them if you have to,” she said with an encouraging smile, “but I expect you to circle back to them. There’s only three weeks of preparation left until you transfer, and I think those are liable to be the most educational.”

“I will not disappoint you,” he promised. Then, he leaned forward to kiss her on the lips.

Startled by her mate’s forwardness, Marwa recoiled. Then, silently chiding herself, she stepped in close to him once more. With a gentle peck on the lips, she whispered, “You’re going to do great.”

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wFepkkjtx6FED_2fqvqIGt2yJFrYcoD2ulrZ_Prd4DM/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?