So we meet again

Posted on Sat Oct 25th, 2025 @ 10:43am by Captain Jaivir Vohra & Captain Bethsabée Leroux

Mission: Royal Mail
Location: USS Atlantis
Timeline: Day 450
2480 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

Beth was nervous about this meeting. It had been okay whilst they had been talking over relays but face to face was going to be different from last time. This time she was visibly pregnant and really not feeling her best but there was no way she could let this chance get away from her crew. She had decided that her office was the best place and a armoury officer was escorting him there. She stood slowly from looking at the last of the information about the princess and called out. “Come in.” She requested gently.

The pop of a dark head around the corner to peer in as if seeking not to intrude was an odd occurence given the expectation of an escort. The fact that Vohra had his hands wedged into his pockets to resemble a man on a midday stroll was equally as perplexing, though the situation was rectified swiftly as the breathless officer arrived, apparently liberated from whatever distraction had left the visitor disinclined to hang around and wait. Whilst hasty apologies gave way to introductions, Javir slunk in to stand behind the poor sod and shot Beth a surreptitious wink over the top of her officer's head.

"My regards to your friend," he called as the doors closed behind the retreating crewman, a cheek considering it offered no further context and the flustered man was in no position to speak to anyone whilst stationed outside. Vohra spared the exchange no further thought, however, as his attention focused on the somewhat obvious changes in the woman sat before him.

"You've cut your hair."

“Among other things, yes.” Beth smiled a little and indicated he should sit down. “My officer looked flustered do I dare ask what you did to fluster him so much?” She wondered thinking she had never seen the man flustered and he faced Gerhard and Voznyuk daily. They were the standard of you can face then you can face anything.

As he slipped into the seat opposite, Vohra held up his hands in supplication. "I am but an unwitting audience member to what I believe was a slightly awkward..." The man paused, eyes twinkling, as he settled on a term that seemed most apt. "...morning after conversation." Leaning forward, he dropped his volume unnecessarily to add, "I believe he may have left before she woke up."

Beth let out an audible ah as she glanced at the door and nodded. "That would cause his flustered appearance and ... I do not really want to know at this stage." The Captain admitted with a roll of her eyes as she decided it was easier not to delve into that; it would only make things awkward. "But you look well Captain." She said turning it back on him.

"I feel well, Captain, and all the more for seeing you again."

Here, in the blessed sanctuary of a ship without an attitude, Javir took a moment to revel in the silence that followed his blatant attempt to be charming. This was the way it ought to be, a man should be able to hold a perfectly normal conversation without the autopilot chiming in.

"Between you and I, I was quite glad once I realised this contract might put us back in contact again. It never did sit quite right, just letting you wander off after that cabbage soup incident. Hopefully your situation's improved, at least."

“We do wandering off well,” Beth commented smiling a little as she saw how relaxed the man was and the way he still tried to charm her. It was nice to be spoken to like that. “Our situation has improved.” She assured. They had fuel at the very least now which was great, they were not going to freeze or starve to death now.

There was a brief hesitation, stunned silence as it turned out, before Vohra gathered his wits in a foiled attempt to smother his surprise. "Well good, that's...very good." Whatever response he had expected, clearly this wasn't it, and since the man's face gave him no room for attempting otherwise, the next words from his mouth were blatant. "You've succeeded where many others have failed, this can be a challenging sector."

"Yes. We have established that, but our situation has improved regarding fuel and maintenance, which is always in our journey a boon. How about yourself? Have you fared okay?" She had thought about the man a few times over the last couple of months, wondering what he had been up to and wanting to know his story. He was human, but not like any other human she had met.

It was an unfortunate piece of information to have so blatantly on display. Certainly, it made the man's presence in this region utterly incomprehensible and the fact that he had not outright disclosed the detail either was odd. Biometric scans were part of a rigorous security protocol, however, and it seemed unlikely that he wouldn't have anticipated some level of detection.

Perhaps he would pass as an alien with genetic mimicry. That sounded quite fancy.

"Oh, we keep out of mischief for the most part. Of course, part of maintaining our trading license means dealing with pesky things like quotas and supply checks, on top of tariffs and the occasional audit from some bureaucrat who’s never set foot outside their office. As much as this job should set you in good stead in terms of reputation and resource acquisition, it also has to be said that you are taking your turn to save our backsides.”

He flashed a smile again.

"So thank you, on behalf of my posterior."

Beth laughed a little running a hand through her hair sweeping it out of her face. She was sure that his friend who had interrupted in their communication would keep him out of trouble for the most part. “I do not believe you can keep out of mischief even if you tried.” She teased him a little. “Bureaucracy never changes no matter the region of space. Our home region is full of it.” She promoted searching his face for any wonder about the Atlantis’ home.

"I think the whole universe is full of it, if you ask me."

The mention of her home hadn't provoked so much as a thoughtful pause, nor was there any indication of a retrospective curiosity as Vohra's features settled into a relaxed smile and there was a definite lull where his mind seemed to wander off on its own without supervision. It may have masqueraded as consideration for Atlantis' origins had it not eventually been followed up with a clarifying context.

"It smells lovely in here, how do you get any work done?"

Beth laughed a little and shook her head. The man was like a breath of fresh air after the last year with the same people and being the top of the chain. It was moments like that she missed Michael. “I just work. But how about you? How do you want this to work with your ship and crew?” Beth wondered.

"All documentation suggests this is a routine escort. A lot of the time, that just requires a bit of chaperoning, these dignitries usually have vessels of their own they prefer to swan about in. Once in a while, they either don't want the royal carriage getting scuffed up or they've agreed to turn up wearing neutral colours for some diplomatic purpose or another."

At ths point, Vohra's eyes glazed over and there was a subconscious pause where he would normally let his computerised personal assistant take over. His eye twitched and the Captain found himself on his own with only limited recollection of the intricacies outlined in the mission briefing.

"In this case, your ship would take the place of said carriage and me and mine will do what we usually do; fly ahead and make sure there's no space rocks big enough to chip the paintwork."

"Your crew does not want quarters onboard to keep an eye on our passenger?" The Captain wondered quietly as she allowed the conversationn to move to something more business-like. She had assumed that at least some of them would want berths onboard to keep a close eye on the princess.

The man teetered his hand side to side. "I will likely need to stick around, the others will..." There was a squint as if Vohra was trying to visualise each of his crew and what their sensibilities leaned towards on any given day. Certainly, there was a lack of direct intent to dictate what any of them did, which was a little stranger for the person apparently in charge. "Trin might like to come over, Tink and Big Mama can probably sort the rest of them out."

Beth smiled a little as she wrote down names that would be coming over and how many rooms they would need to sort out. “Is all your crew female?” She laughed listening to the names he said.

"Not exclusively." There was a vague hesitation, perhaps an attempt to apply a loophole or two. They were a diverse bunch, Vohra wasn't all that keen on delving into the specifics of gender identification in some cases. "Recruitment's not really my area, if I'm honest, Tink has the interview process pretty much perfected by now and she'd sulk if I tried to interfere."

“Sounds like you are managed, Captain.” She teased a little and stood. “Come on I’ll show you your quarters.” She decided knowing she needed to stretch her legs a little. She indicated the way and led the man to the turbo lift down to deck G where the guest quarters were.

In a clear demonstration of the penchant for distraction that had seen him run a little tardy in the first place, Vohra treated the escort as one might a guided tour. Open curiosity and a friendly and open disposition towards greeting all the personnel they encountered along the way suggested a healthy level of self-confidence, though he was just as much taken by the ship itself as the people running it. It was only as the turbolifts opened that it became obvious the guest had lagged a little behind, currently enthralled by an up-close examination of what would prove to be a cleaning cupboard.

He was struggling to make the mop stay upright enough to allow him to close the door.

Beth turned as she realised her new guest was not followings closely as she wanted. She smiled in amazement as she moved in front of him and stood the mop up straight. “A cleaning cupboard and cleaning drone charging dock.” She said amused gently. “Come on.” She instructed.

As they moved forward, Vohra's curiosity was self-evident. What was less easy to discern was why he was gawping at everything as if slightly mystified by the existence of automated doors. It made very little sense given the apparent sophistication of his own vessel, which was advanced enough to make preliminary scans a little difficult to interpret.

"This is an impressive ship," he enthused, adding further mystery. "I didn't realise..."

The thought seemed to catch a snag before shaking loose.

"You're holding together pretty well, all things considered."

Beth raised an eyebrow as she looked at him in confusion. She was sure that his ship seemed to be more high-tech, but she was now not sure. "We are trying our best, and that is all that counts. So tell me about your ship as you have so much interest in mine." She offered as the turbo lift lurched to life.

The putter of lips gave some indication that Vohra didn't really know where to start. "Eh, well, she's not really mine, per say. She'd have all sorts of opinions on that and, trust me, you don't want to get her started. We, uh, crossed paths a few years back and owing to a mutual need to keep fuel in the tank, so to speak, started sticking our nose into the trade routes around these parts. Got a mind of her own, literally." The Captain squinted and added, cryptically, "Well, two technically."

Beth leaned out and stopped the turbo lift in its tracks and looked at him confused. “If I ask to explain things would you explain it properly to me?” She wondered trying to understand what he meant properly as his ship seemed to run differently than what she was used to.

A twisted scowl of concentration saw Vohra hesitantly concede several seconds later. "It's a tricky one. You met one half. Blue, horns, about this tall. Apparates out of thin air primary to pass judgement and be snarky about leadership decisions. Tink...uh, Clover," he corrects, realising the unhelpfulness of the nickname, "is technically the brains of the whole operation. Integrated artificial intelligence, bit of a know-it-all, kind of in charge of whether or not we have sufficient air to breath and whether the showers work, so it's usually best to humour her."

“I see.” Beth said trying to fathom it all in her head. She was not sure if she should ask more questions or leave it there for a second before he hand hit the resume button and the lift lurch back to life. Armoury department were going to be tracking her route and having a tiz that’s he stopped the lift but she had so many questions. “I have so many questions but I think they can wait for now.”

"It's a bit of odd situation," Vohra admitted. "We're an eclectic bunch and I suppose you could think of it as me being in charge of the business aspects on behalf of the actual ship's owner. You'll meet her," he added, "or at least get an opportunity to chat. Mama's a raising a hellion but since she's the only one can put Tink in her place, I prefer to stay on her good side. They're, uh, what's the word for it."

He used both index fingers and brought them together as if trying to make a pair.

"Sympatico." It wasn't anywhere near the right word. "Some kind of neural interface, can't imagine the constant headache if it's anything like mine and I'm not hardwired to the Pixel Princess."

“You are a very interesting man, Jaivir Vohra.” Beth decided was the only anwser to the very confusing question of this man. But it seemed she’d have time to figure it all out as they delivered a princess.

Had he arrived sooner, the sheer wattage output of Vohra's grin could have put a swift end to recent power issues.

"A little short of charming but a considerable improvement on my daily performance reviews."

He offered his fellow commander a wink.

"I'll take it."