Nomads of Starfleet

Posted on 18 May 2015 @ 8:41pm by Ensign K'os Beaumont & Commander Andreus Kohl

2,205 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: IKS CharghwI' - Deck 18, Warrior's Mess
Timeline: MD 01 - 2250 hours

ON:

The smell of musk in the mess hall was intoxicating in itself for K'os. The heavy smell of it had bombarded his sensitive nose for the last hour or so and it stirred something primal hidden deep within K'os' psyche. His hard buzz was gone, thanks to what seemed like an endless amount of water, replaced instead by a content warm feeling that made him feel happy. Various groups of Starfeet crewmembers and Klingons huddled together to talk, all with different levels of boisterousness. His head would swivel to various things that sparked strong feelings within him. The low drone of the Klingon drinking song, a chair smashing on the other side where people were sparing, sounds of cups banging together. Out of the depths of sensations and stimulating smells and sounds Kohl's touch pulled his attention back. He fixed his grey-blue eyes on Kohl's lips for a moment before making firm eye contact.

Due to the Klingon chorus reaching the fever pitch of their chosen song, Andreus Kohl had to raise his voice. He draped one hand over K'os' sternum and used the other to grip K'os' left shoulder. Kohl leaned into that shoulder, bringing his lips closer to K'os' ear. "I said," Kohl said, "I'm debating if I should gag myself in the head, so I can vomit, and so I can make room for that last bite of lung. Because I sure can't eat it now, but I can't let it go to waste!"

K'os chuckled happily. "You could just stand in there for a minute. I'm pretty sure the smell alone will start to make you gag. Have you been in there?" K'os leaned into the hand on his chest, if only to feel it pressing against him more. "Don't worry, I'll eat it for you." He said quickly just in case Kohl was serious about visiting the head to vomit. "My dad used to say I had a hollow leg."

"I never heard that expression until I moved to Earth. Always sounded like body horror to me," Kohl said, with a bit of a laugh and a dramatic shudder. He pinched the chunk of lung from his plate and he pressed it to K'os' lips. "Tell me what your dad's like," Kohl said.

K'os grinned suppressing a laugh before taking the food. He chewed as he not only mulled over the taste, but how best to answer the question. Too many thoughts about his father always made him feel mad, and anger was always so much harder to control or release than say, the butterfly feeling he always got at Kohl's closeness. He decided to just stick with simple things. "Well," he started after he'd swallowed, "he talks in this loud booming voice he says is from working in Engineering, but I've always thought it was more because he likes people to hear him talk. He's widowed, and remarried to a woman a couple months younger than me. Oh, and he's been on the Titan all my life." K'os reached up and scratched the back of his neck self consciously. "Probably spends more time in space then he does at home, really." K'os chuckled, "Which is probably why he still treats me like I'm a teenager, calling me kiddo all the time. So many deep space missions, he probably still thinks it's '79."

Internally, Kohl questioned some of K'os' interpretations of his father's behaviours. He suspected there may be benign motivations at heart that weren't meant to diminish K'os, but Kohl also supposed it wasn't his place to dig that deep at this point. The singing had faded, somewhat, and Kohl latched on to something else K'os had said. "Which one is home to you?" Kohl asked. "If you wake up in the middle of the night in the dark, what bed do you think you're still in?"

K'os thought about the question for a moment as his eyes roamed over different features of Kohl's face as if not really sure what to focus on. When he'd settled on staring into the man's eyes he said, "Commander Stace called me a 'nomad of the stars' once and I like to think that's true. Home to me is where Starfleet sends me." K'os stopped briefly and let out a small breath of air to release the strong emotions associated with that sentiment. He wasn't close to having one of his cascade attacks, so he added, "I...care a lot for people. For the ship and it's crew. I don't feel as though I belong when I'm back on Earth, and Vulcan is just...wrong for me. It's a lonely journey, but I try and make friends into family when I can."

"I think I try the same thing, but I don't know if I can say Galileo feels like home," Kohl said. His head was fuzzy from the blood wine, and the words were coming out in a stream-of-consciousness. He swayed on his feet, just slightly. "I'm comfortable here, I wouldn't want to leave this crew, but I don't know that anything can compare to Argelius in my heart. The way the air, the gravity, feels on my skin and bones... Galileo is like some wonderful hotel, and I'm on permanent vacation."

"I wouldn't call it a wonderful hotel," K'os said with a grin. "I still have to make my own bed every morning." He laughed at his own joke before his smile turned to more of a look of wonderment. He opened his mouth to say something then paused, reconsidered his words, "Andreus, I...". He stopped then flashed him a grin as if changing his mind about what he was trying to say. He said instead, "Tell me about Argelius. Tell me more about how it makes you feel. I see colours and hear sounds when you embellish and I want to feel your words." His voice and expression took on a dreamy boyish quality as he leaned in closer to the man.

Kohl's hand snaked up K'os' shoulder and cupped the back of his neck. As K'os leaned in, Kohl tilted his head to bring his lips close to K'os' ear again. "Close your eyes," Kohl said. He stood there for a moment more, waiting for K'os to comply. Kohl moved to stand directly behind K'os and gripped him by his upper arms. For just a heartbeat, Kohl squeezed K'os' arms, just to see what his body felt like.

"I want you to think about Galileo and how it makes you feel," Kohl said. "Strip away your uniform, because you should only wear fabrics that feel like they're kissing your skin. Or you can wear less. The ambient temperature is much warmer than they keep it aboard starships. Strip away your duty schedule. You can still work in Engineering if you like, but you only have to go when you feel energized, and you only have to perform the tasks you feel good at. Forget what you know about the ship's schematics, because the streets have no orderly shape or design. The streets are like a spiraling labyrinth; they appear nonsensical, but they always manage to take you where you need to be. At the same time, remember everything you know about the schematics, because you know those streets, you know every path in your bones. Every time you walk them, though, you are delightfully surprised by new scents in the air by whatever savoury or sweet is being cooked that day..."

K'os had complied and closed his eyes immediately when told to. In his mind he allowed himself to feel every and any emotion that swam to the surface, even if it was simultaneous feelings. He could feel Kohl's breath on his ear, which initially sent a shiver over his skin. Kohl's words made him feel warm and slightly in awe. He could hear a jangling, like wind chimes and his head tilted very slightly as if listening to other things in the distance. When he thought of the Galileo, he had always associated it with the smell of sand or earth and a grey light. Kohl's words transformed that image in his head and for a long moment he thought of the ocean on Earth. The cool spray and the smell of the salt air mixed with imagined smells of baking sweet delicacy's. In his mind, the feeling of Galileo changed to match the words Kohl was speaking into his ear. His body, right through to his arms and legs, vibrated slightly with emotion. His chest rose and fell deeply and his breath came out in small gasps. "It's..." K'os tried to say words, but he was lost in this surreal world Kohl had begun to create in his head.

Caught up in his own personal thoughts of Argelius, Kohl broke the spell, when he said, "I need to go back." He kept his hold on K'os, still spoke in his ear, but his words were conversational in nature. There was a tinge of anxiety beneath the timbre. "I should have gone during leave, but Holliday had only just promoted me to Chief Research Officer," Kohl said. "I felt like Galileo needed me more... but I haven't seen my mother since before... And it's been even longer since I met with my bio-mom."

Though there was no direct skin contact K'os heard the change in the man's voice rather than feeling any sort of anxiety from him. It was partially a good thing that Kohl broke his word-spell over K'os' mind. Another minute of that and K'os was sure it would prompt an emotional cascade he would have had difficulty stopping. The hybrid spun around to face him. Seeing his face and expression, K'os' first reaction was to reach his hand up to Kohl's cheek but he stopped suddenly as if he'd hit an invisible wall. He lowered his hand, "you miss them." He stated. K'os' eyes looked pained at the thought. The urge to reach up and soothe the taller man's emotions tugged at him strongly. Out of habit, he'd started fidgeting with the bottom of Kohl's tunic instead. Pinching the fabric between his index finger and thumb.

Kohl huffed out an irritated breath of air through his nose. There were pangs of feeling in his chest, but it had been such an overwhelming week, he didn't quite know where they were coming from. "I didn't used to miss them," Kohl admitted. He sounded embarrassed by that admission, but also confused by the change. "I looked for excuses to not go back. I even missed my father's funeral because Galileo was on the run from rogue Klingons..."

K'os was usually at a loss when it came to offering advice, or saying the right thing to make someone feel better. He had always admired those with the gift of conversation. He was no, Commander Stace afterall. At Kohl's mention of the funeral, a flash of pain crossed his features. Another intense desire to soothe overcame him. "That wasn't your fault..." K'os said suddenly. The conversation was on the verge of becoming melancholy and the hybrid knew that was a slippery slope in his sensitive state. He desperately wanted to do what he called a 'Kohl-ism', and say something to make him smile or laugh. He wanted to change the man's timbre to that pleasant tone that always made him think of birds in the morning. Maybe he should try an 'Ellsworthian' move and caress his face and push his body against the taller man. K'os felt like he'd muck that up too. He wasn't a seducer.

He took his hold off the bottom of Kohl's tunic and instead gripped the Argelian's wrist gently. He lifted his hand and turned it palm up. Using his free hand he ran his fingers gently over the skin of Kohl's open palm. Very gently, so as to not alarm him, K'os asserted his ability enough to excite the nerve endings in Kohl's hand to produce a pleasurable, warm feeling. The hybrid looked up into his eyes, "I'm not good with words." He explained.

If Kohl's half-lidded eyes and loose posture had anything to say about it. K'os's ministrations were having the desired effect. "Would you like," Kohl asked, "to go somewhere quieter? It might help your words."

K'os grinned, deepening his dimples. He couldn't think of anything more fun than being somewhere quieter with the man. He licked his lips, hesitating to break contact. Within another blink or two he stopped the sensation and released the grip on Kohl's wrist. The pleasure generated from it faded quickly. "I hear the view in your quarters is amazing." His eyes darted from Kohl's eyes to his lips and back as if he couldn't decide what to look at.

Kohl nodded at that thoughtfully, his lips pursed while he considered K'os' words. He made eye-contact and he held it, and he said, "I think you should decide for yourself..."


OFF:

Lieutenant Commander Andreus Kohl
Commanding Officer
USS Nautilus

Ensign K'os Beaumont
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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