Gunny and Falor

Posted on Mon Oct 19th, 2020 @ 7:05pm by Commander Taeler Santu M.D.

Mission: The Shadow of Arachne
Location: Taeler Santu's Personal Quarters
Timeline: MD03
1070 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

The doors to her quarters opened with the same old swoosh they had before. The extensive damage to the ship had shook a lot of systems and a lot of her faith in her capabilities to cope with all of this, but apparently, it wasn't affecting most of the crew's quarters. She carefully stepped over a flower pot that had come off the small side table next to the door. She wondered if it had been the impact or the cat, "Gunny?" Santu looked around, starting to worry about the fact that she wasn't being greeted by meowing or an excited dog.

it had been a long while since she had taken both of the creatures in, her therapist had told her it would be a good idea for her to take care of something that would return her affection. There were plenty of rescues on Bajor and Falor had been one of them. The dog had sat in the corner of its cage, cowering away from the path. It had reminded her of a kid in the camp. A kid she couldn't save. She had promised herself never to forget, never to let his name die. Falor was that attempt.

"Falor, come here boy," She was still looking around his small cushion in the corner was empty, even his chew toy was gone, "it's okay. It's me." She didn't know why people always talked in a high pitched voice when talking to animals, or babies for that matter. She had seen in it a lot of other cultures as well. Except for the hard warrior cultures, and definitely not the spoonheads.

She startled a bit when Gunny came jumping out from behind a chair, "Hey, Gunny," She let out a sigh of relief. It was good to see the cat was alright, "there's this other kitty on board, beautiful ball of fluff, you should meet them someday." She squatted down next to the cat and ran a hand through its red fur, "How come you're so pretty?" She smiled a bit, a spaceship was no place for a cat, or a dog for that matter. But that was the reality for domesticated animals, they had to conform to what the owners wanted. And for Gunny and Falor that meant they had to conform to life onboard a Prometheus class vessel.

The cat ran his head along her shin, rubbing his entire body up against her uniform pants leg, "Wasn't enough to lay on top of them last night, huh? It needs more of your smell?" She ran her hands over the cat's body, the agile feline snaking its way through the maze of her hands and legs, never losing touch with at least one of her limbs. Then it placed itself in between her hands, clearly wanting to be picked up, "Come here you big ol' softy." She held the cat close and pressed her nose up against its pelt, "You smell like I feel."

With Master Gunnery Sergeant Whiskers in her arms Santu started to pace the room, getting rather worried that Falor still hadn't made his way out to her, "Now where did you hide Falor, Gunny?" She looked around the room again, "Did you stuff him in the closet?" She slowly started to make her way over to the bedroom, having an idea of where the canine might be hiding.

Gunny meowed loudly before purring and snuggling up against Santu's chest, "Oh, I know, it was very scary." She stepped into the bedroom area and didn't immediately spot Falor, she felt she was tensing up again, "come on Falor, it's not funny anymore."

A whimper was all she got in return, it was clearly coming from beneath the bed. The small dog must've fled into the darkest, smallest corner he could find when the loud noises and rumbling began. Santu turned and placed Gunny back on the floor, guiding him back into the living area. She had a policy of not wanting them in her bedroom. She kneeled down and leaned forward to spot the dog cowering all the way against the back wall, "Falor, come here boy, it's me." she put out a hand, hoping he'd come closer to her because there was absolutely no way she would be able to get him out from under the bed any other way.

Pressed all the way to the ground Falor started to very slowly inch forward and sniff the hand that was reaching out to him, another whimper when the ship's superstructure seemed to moan under some sort of stress from the explosion, or the badlands. The dog immediately crawled back into the furthest corner, hiding behind one of her cases that was probably currently empty.

"It's alright, it's just the old girl grumpy with what we've put her through, come here boy." She encouraged the dog to come crawling further out to her. After a minute or so he seemed to have built up enough courage to make his way towards her and she finally felt his warm fluffy face against her hand, "there you go. Who's a good boy?" once within reach she pushed her other hand under the bed and grabbed him by his front paws. He allowed her to pull him out from under there, "see that wasn't so bad, was it?"

Falor licked her face and still seemed to be a bit shaken by the whole ordeal, his big eyes looking at her, "I know, this wasn't what I had imagined at all either." She flopped back on her behind and leaned against the wall behind her, dog in her lap, eagerly climbing up in direction of her face, getting a bit of his confidence back. They were soon joined by Gunny, "Sure, let's pretend we don't have any rules," She closed her eyes, able to hold in the tears over memories that were stirred by the whole ordeal.

She knew she really needed to take a shower, she needed to get ready for whatever crazy plan had been brewed up by the science department. A desperate move to get them free of the chasing Breen aggressors. She knew all too well what desperation moves looked like, and how they often ended. She didn't want to think about it. For now, she wanted to be with her cat and dog, in the dark corner of her bedroom, "Just for a moment."