One day, about two weeks after she'd moved to the ship with him, Azhem had to go on an away mission. Aredhiel said she'd like to explore the ship. He agreed it would be a good thing to do, especially since folks were now used to seeing her on the ship.
After he left, she ventured out to explore the Ulzuix ship on her own. Up to now she'd mainly stayed in their cabin, rarely even venturing out for meals. She preferred to cook their meals in their cabin. She did go on patrol with him occasionally, though.
Aredhiel wore makeup, a tshirt she'd bought at the museum, what had been called yoga pants centuries earlier on Earth, and flipflops.
She'd braided her hair, letting it hang on her left side. She wore a baseball cap from the museum and dangly earrings of Sauria's solar system as well.
She'd also lightly put on some perfume. The perfume smelled of flowers that were native to Aekzhea.
He'd given her a map so she wouldn't get lost walking around, and she looked at it before stepping out of the cabin.
She decided to go to the observation deck for awhile. Once there, she looked out at the stars for an hour or so, thinking about how her life had changed since meeting Azhem.
Crewmembers occasionally stopped by to look at the stars. They greeted her politely and she nodded in return, occasionally saying, ”Yes“, or ”Yes it is.“
Unless she was with Azhem, Aredhiel generally avoided the crew, and they did the same with her. She was nervous around them, and the feeling among the Ulzuix regarding her was mutual.
They were still getting used to the idea that there was someone on their ship whose race they'd believed was extinct, if it had even existed at all. In private, the crew spoke of her as ”Azhem's Elven Woman.“
Eventually she sat in a corner on the floor to look at the map and decide where she wanted to go next.
She decided to visit the library. Once there, she walked around, looking at globes of Sauria and other Empire planets, checking out the maps of various galaxies and solar systems that had been mounted on the walls.
Aredhiel looked at several astronomy books. She found one book with maps of solar systems and looked in it, hoping to see where Aekzhea was.
After she found it, she looked in a book about the history of flight. She found pictures from Earth's early days of flight to be quite comical.
She was fascinated by the pictures of Earth and its moon that were taken from space.
She'd heard about the planet and its solar system, but had never seen pictures of it. She decided Earth looked alot like Aekzhea only bigger. Aekzhea was similar in size to Venus. Neptune looked closer in size to Porzhu, the planet she'd originally been traveling to before crashing on Sauria.
The Aezkheans weren't enemies of Federation Directorate, but they weren't allies either. They knew very little about Earth, or humans for that matter. She'd never personally met a human, although she'd seen pictures of their kind.
The pictures of Earth's solar system intrigued her as well.
Eventually it was time for lunch. She decided she'd go to the dining hall for a meal. After looking at the selections, she settled on a shredded chicken sandwich and pasta shells with cheese. She got some iced tea, a spoon for the pasta, then sat down to eat.
There were a few crewmembers in the dining hall, but not as many as there usually were during breakfast and dinner.
After finishing her lunch, she was still hungry, so she selected the same meal again. After finishing her second helping, she was full and decided to look on her map to see where she wanted to go next.
She settled on the fitness center to explore. After putting her garbage away, she followed the map until she found the fitness center.
Crewmembers were using exercise equipment. She decided to try out a treadmill since her ankle was finally doing much better.
Aredhiel started at a leisurely pace, gradually working her way up into a nice jog.
The crewmembers looked at her, intrigued by this polite elven woman, but said nothing. They merely nodded politely to her.
She jogged for a good thirty minutes at an extremely swift pace. Being descended from elves, their legendary speed was in her genetic makeup.
She then walked around the fitness center. She saw the weight room and pool. In a room to her right she heard fast music.
Going over to investigate, she saw women doing what looked like dancing.
”That looks like fun.“, Aredhiel said to herself.
In another room she saw crewmembers doing graceful movements with peaceful music playing in the background.
It looked very similar to Aezh Chhi, an exercise and meditation discipline every Aezkhean learned to do. She'd done some of it herself that very morning in the cabin before leaving for her walk.
Aezh Chhi was a form of self-defense as well, but Aezkheans rarely used it for that.
She stood there for awhile watching the crewmembers doing the Ulzuix form of Aezh Chhi, smiling wistfully, before turning to leave. A female crewmember, having noticed her watching, came up to her.
”Hi. I'm Cressa. There's another class starting in 10 minutes. I'm the instructor for it. Want to join us? You're more than welcome to if you'd like.“, she said.
Aredhiel thought for a few seconds, then nodded, smiling ever-so-slightly.
Five minutes later the first class ended. Cressa walked in and Aredhiel followed. More crewmembers arrived, both male and female. She walked to the back of the room, away from the bulk of the Ulzuix.
Cressa didn't make a big deal about her, instead acting as if nothing unusual was happening.
The class started and Aredhiel followed along with the movements quite easily.
”This thing they do is slightly different than Aezh Chhi, but it's not that difficult.”, she thought to herself.
At the end of the hour-long class, the crewmembers left while Cressa was putting her supplies away.
“Thank you for inviting me. I enjoyed it.”, Aredhiel said.
“You're most very welcome! Here's a list of my classes. There's also a fast-paced dance and exercise class listed. I teach aqua-aerobics as well. Feel free to join any class you want.” Cressa replied as she handed her a list of classes.
“Thank you.”, Aredhiel said, smiling politely before turning to leave.
She decided to retrace her steps back to the dining hall for some iced tea. It was more crowded than earlier, but she ventured in anyway.
The Commander was there, and invited her to sit with him and other crewmembers he was dining with. She wasn't sure about it, but did so out of respect for him. He asked how her day was going.
“It's going well. Thank you, Sir. You have a very nice ship.”, she replied nervously. He thanked her, and they chatted abit more.
After finishing her drink, she pulled the map out to choose her next destination. She decided she'd go back to the cabin to relax abit before exploring again.
The Commander invited her to join him for dinner, saying he'd like to get to know her better.
Seeing Aredhiel's uneasiness over his invitation, he explained that he made it a habit of getting to personally know each person under his command on the ship. She then accepted his invitation.
Politely excusing herself, she got up and went back to their cabin until dinnertime. After taking an hour-long nap, she showered then put clean clothes on. Her hair was still wet, so she let it hang down and air dry until she got back to the cabin for the evening.
Soon it was time to head to the dining hall for dinner with the Commander. She didn't want to go, but she'd promised him, and she wanted to keep her promise.
The Commander was not as discreet about her presence there as he was earlier.
“AREDHIEL!”, he called out to her, motioning her to come over to where he was sitting with seven other crewmembers.
Everyone in the hall looked up when he called her name. They were curious to see the elven woman who'd recently joined Azhem on the ship.
“Come on over!”, he said to her, smiling.
Forcing herself to go into the hall, she went to his table.
Lieutenant C'oor, a member of the Command Team, pulled a chair out for her next to him. Sitting down, she nervously thanked him.
The Commander introduced her to the crewmembers. Lt. C'oor was married to Cressa, the instructor in the class Aredhiel had attended earlier. Cressa joined the group at the table as well.
Aredhiel excused herself as she got up to select her meal. She settled on pork roast and iced coffee, then returned to the table. She thought the roast was delicious.
She didn't speak much during the meal due to her nervousness, but was polite when people spoke to her. The Commander asked her how she was adjusting to life on the ship.
“I'm adjusting fairly well, Sir. Everyone has been extremely polite. I feel quite safe here on your ship.”, she replied.
When dinner was over, she politely excused herself and went back to their cabin to wait for Azhem.
Relaxing in the recliner, she sipped iced tea and read a fashion magazine on her small-screen.
A realization crossed her mind. She missed Azhem. She missed his bad jokes, their conversations, his scent. She missed...HIM. Her Ulzuix friend had grown on her.
She couldn't wait to see him again. She wondered how much longer it'd be before he returned.
Eventually it was time to go to bed. Azhem still wasn't home. She slept fitfully for a couple hours then, just around 1am, heard the cabin door open. “Hello?”, she called out.
“Hi Aredhiel. I'm home.”, a tired voice replied.
Springing out of bed, Aredhiel yelled, “AZHEM!”, and ran to him, nearly knocking him down. He gave her a big hug and kiss, which she very happily returned.
“You're home!”, Aredhiel said, smiling broadly.
“Yes, I'm finally home. How've you been? Did you do anything interesting while I was away?”, he asked.
She hugged him tighter, then told him about her day, including her trip to the library, the fitness room, exercise class, and dinner with the Commander and other crewmembers.
She threw her arms around him again, telling him how much she'd missed him. She also asked how his day had been.
She poured him some tea and offered to make him a grilled sandwich with cheese and ham. He told her he wasn't hungry, having eaten earlier, but was definitely thirsty.
She then did something neither of them expected her to do. She threw her arms around him and kissed him passionately.
She hugged him tightly before giving him another very passionate kiss. Azhem gladly reciprocated both the hug and the kisses. He didn't know what had come over her, but he most certainly was NOT going to refuse her hugs and kisses!
After chatting for about an hour, they were finally ready to get some sleep. They climbed into bed and, within two minutes of laying down and covering himself up, Azhem was snoring loudly. Aredhiel was happy he was home again and, within five minutes, she was sound asleep herself, snoring softly.
The next morning they slept in until 10. After they got up she made them breakfast. She cooked sausage, diced potatoes seasoned with a type of seasoning similar to ancient taco seasoning, and scrambled eggs, all cooked together in one skillet and topped with cheese.
Azhem loved it, and finished over half the skillet. He was to go on patrol that day, and invited her to come with.
He enjoyed her company immensely. His friends told him she seemed to "bring him out of himself“. He tended to agree with them.
For the first time in years, he seemed completely content and truly happy with life.
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