So this was the Resolute.

Jeri stood in the docking ring corridor, pack over her shoulder, looking out at her new ship. It was smaller than she’d expected. She’d know the Rhode Island classes were small but this was… Her gaze flicked to the Sovereign class in the next dock. Next to it, the Resolute looked like a toy. 

“She’s a pretty little thing, isn’t she?” A deep voice said beside her and she slid a glance sideways. 

A tall captain stood next to her. Red-blond hair, blue eyes, a smile that was either slick and practised to have every woman falling at his feet or was totally unstudied and natural. Human, she decided, but took a breath in and rolled it over the back of her tongue to be sure. Yeah, human. Not long out of the shower, used a showergel with some kind of smoky wood base. Under that she got a hint of his natural scent. Clean and interesting. 

“She is, sir,” she said with a nod. “I’m looking forward to serving aboard her.”

He turned to look down at her, interest in that warm blue gaze. She was early and she rarely traveled in uniform so he wouldn’t know her rank. The fact that she was in this corridor though, meant she was in the fleet. 

“Really?” His smile widened and she made her decision. It was practiced. This man looked good and he knew it. Used it like she used the claws that were hidden in this form. As a weapon. “My day just got better and better.”

“Oh?” she tilted her head slightly, watching him for a moment before looking away for a second. A lot of humanoid species didn’t like a direct gaze, and she’d been told she had a look that would give a rattlesnake a headache. She’d looked rattlesnakes up after that. They were small reptilian predators from Earth, nothing more than a snack to a Ract’l. Barely even worth the hunt. 

“Yeah, I’m headed out on the Resolute as well.”

“You are?” She blinked and looked at the rank on his collar. “With all due respect, sir, but how? You aren’t the Resolute’s commanding officer. Not unless Captain Mason lost a lot of mass and several inches. And changed species.”

The man in front of her chuckled. “You mean I can’t pass as a Llanarian? I’m wounded, utterly wounded. As we’re headed the same way, please… allow me,” he said, motioning toward her pack. 

Her hand tightened around the strap momentarily. 

“It’s heavy,” she warned. 

“‘Oh, I’m sure I can manage it.” 

His smile didn’t budge, so she handed him the pack, keeping her face perfectly level when his arm dipped before he tensed to take the strain. His eyes widened slightly as he looked down at it with newfound respect and more than a little surprise. 

“What are you packing in here? A gym?”

“Spare socks,” she answered. Deadpan. It was heavy. Nothing for her, but most other species wouldn’t want to tote it around for long. 

“Awesome,” he smiled as he slung the pack over his shoulder. 

Sweeping his arm out in invitation, they started down the corridor toward the space-bridge over to the ship. She didn’t like transporters much, even less so after recent events. Now most people were more than a little wary of them, so no one commented on her preferences anymore. 

“Bluntly put, no. It’s not just that, your scent is definitely human.”

“Which means your sense of smell is one of your primary senses,” he commented. “‘Which cuts you out as being human.”

She inclined her head. He was right, and normally she didn’t take well to being interrogated over her species, but with him it didn’t come over like that. If anything, she found his manner… charming. Especially when he didn’t push her and changed the subject. 

“So, now we both know what we’re not, I assume that since you know what Captain Mason looks like, you’re either very dedicated to your job, or, you needed to know what he looks like when you report aboard. If it’s the first, then Mason is going to love you, even if you’re not his usual type for crew, if it’s the second, that makes you senior staff.”

The space-bridge wasn’t crowded, but they had a short wait for other crew to pass the security checks at the airlock. She angled a look up at her companion. He wasn’t sweating from the pack yet, but she could see the tension in his body. 

“Want me to take that back yet?” She asked. 

His lips compressed slightly and he shook his head. “Absolutely not. I am an officer and a gentleman. No gentleman allows a lady to carry her own bag, even if she does pack spare socks with the gravitational weight of a small planet.”

Her lips quirked. “That might be my spare uniform.”

He nodded. “I knew it. It’s the rank, isn’t it? You’re a Grand High General-Admiral, or something, aren’t you?”

She chuckled. “Maybe, you never know what someone is on their own planet.”

“True, true.” He leaned in, voice low. “I’m not a Grand High General-Admiral, by the way.”

“No… I think I got that.” Her smile was a little looser, more natural. “But you do know Captain Mason, enough to know his preference in crew. What did you mean that I’m not his usual type for crew?”

Two of the people ahead of them passed the security checks and they moved forward a place. 

He looked down at her. “Without being rude, you’re tiny and delicate. Mason usually likes to pick veterans.”

She tilted her head in curiosity. “Veterans?”

Her companion nodded as the guards waved the next two through without checking their ID or transfer orders. They must have reported aboard earlier, or were old hands on the crew. 

“People who have served in combat units usually,” her companion nodded. “People who have seen warfare in one way or another. Makes his crew one of the hardest in the fleet. I heard tell that pirates were stupid enough to attack once.”

She arched her eyebrow. Her family’s ships had had trouble with pirates a couple of times. “Once?” 

“Uh-huh. The rumour says that Mason crawled through the jefferies tubes and took them all out with nothing more than a fruit bowl from medical.”

“Well, he certainly sounds interesting,” she said as the people in front of them passed security and it was their turn. 

She stepped up with a smile. “Commander Zale, transferring in,” she said, listening out as the security officer on the other side of the airlock announced, “Welcome back, Captain Reese-Riggs.”

She blinked as she was waved through, and looked at the handsome human. 

“You’re Reese-Riggs?”