“Oh no, I can’t accept anything less than a proposal that comes with a sunset and you down on bended knee.”

Voss flicked a glance up from his padd at the captain and grunted slightly under his breath. That the doctor would leap in there was no surprise. It was no secret on the crew that Collins had the hots for the captain and she seemed to tolerate it.

He’d once had thoughts of approaching her himself, to gauge whether they would be compatible. She was certainly intelligent enough to keep up with him, and their… debates, he wouldn’t call them arguments, were certainly things he looked forward to.

He tuned the rest of the conversation out, concentrating instead on the information SB80 had provided on their target reality. There wasn’t much to go on, just some initial scans they’d managed to gather while they were looking for information on how mundane things in the reality worked.

He hissed a sigh of frustration. Really, who cared how Starfleet ran when there were more interesting things to look at. His eyes narrowed. The data on this nebula for examp—

“Voss.”

He blinked and looked up at the sound of his name. “I beg your pardon?”

Everyone in the room was looking at him. Their expressions ranged from horrified to morbidly curious, and he was fairly sure the captain was trying not to laugh.

“I’m sorry, what did I miss?”

Commander Savage smiled. At least, the physical description was that her mouth curved up at the corners, but he wasn’t stupid enough to think it was an actual smile. Not when he knew what she was, anyway.

Ract’l might look human, but they weren’t. They didn’t think anything like humans did, not by a long shot. She might have only been half Ract’l but he’d seen the records of what just one of them had done on a Gorn breeding planet.

“I need a husband, Doctor Voss.” She dropped the smile, thankfully. “And I have chosen you.”

He blinked, folding his hands over his padd. “While I am honoured—“

”Excellent! That’s that sorted,” the captain announced, rising to her feet. On reflex, he and the rest of the room followed suit. “Right, since we only have an hour before our transit window for the portal, I suggest we all decamp to our quarters and make sure we are correctly attired for this little adventure. Shall we?”

There were general murmurings of assent and the room began to clear. Out of the corner of his eye, Voss spotted Collins following the Captain, hands moving as he talked.

He turned to find Commander Savage standing in front of her seat, watching him. “You don’t like me much, do you Doctor Voss?”

The blunt words were both reassuring and also took him back a little. People were rarely so blunt with him, always dancing around the subject in case they ‘set him off’. Their words, not his. He was plain talking and logical, that was all.

“I didn’t say that.”

She tapped the side of her nose. “Sight’s not my primary sense. But you already know that, don’t you?”

”I… maybe.” He frowned, watching as she walked toward him. “What makes you say that?”

The corner of her lip quirked upward. “I generally get two types of reactions from people. Those who don’t know what I am treat me just like everyone else. Those who do know what I am look at me like you do.”

He lifted his chin, trying hard not to take a step back as she stood right in front of him. “How do I look at you?”

She grinned, showing her teeth. They were straight and blunt but he knew that was just an illusion. There was far worse concealed in there. Far, far worse. Like, tear into a gorn and win, worse.

“Like I just triggered all your fight or flight instincts. You look at me like you’re prey looking at a predator.”

She had, but he wasn’t going to admit that. The only thing that was stronger than his survival instincts was his pride. He lifted his chin.

“So why pick me to be your ‘husband’?” He challenged.

She tilted her head and smiled again, but this time it was different. The movement was the same, but this time the skin around the corners of her eyes crinkled and he realised her eyes were actually three rings of colour.

“Because I think you’re handsome.”

Well, shit. He had no idea what to do with that.