The Ferali

Tejeda's laughter echoed throughout the room while everyone else stood there in awe at the Interplanetary Police officer. His ears turned to the glorious laughter, still pointing upward. The fur on them waved along with the motion, opening up his cochlea.

Shayla turned to Tejeda. "I don't understand why you are laughing. Can you please explain it to us?"

"In a second," he replied, trying to catch his breath. "I laugh because I imagined the faces of those admirals if they would find out that their outstanding officer who freshly graduated their academy is a Ferali."

Shayla's eyes widened before she returned her attention to their new crew member. Jackeye seemed unconcerned. C1313 stood up and spoke in a solemn, unemotional tone. "One of my directives requires me to notify the superiors. All Ferali are abominations that must be exterminated."

"Do you want to make that call and see our friend here destroyed?" Tejeda asked plainly.

C1313 tilted her head, pondering over her internal drives. "No," she stated after a while.

Tejeda gave her a huge grin. "Perfect! Then sit down and purge that directive. Learn to make a triage."

"A triage? How am I supposed to do that?" the emotionless phosphorescent teal eyes inquired.

E00 coughed straight into their ears or via the speakers. Nobody knew for sure. "C1313, if you need assistance, connect yourself into one of my consoles and I will assist you with scanning and debugging your system."

"Don't do that," Tejeda whispered, holding a hand over his mouth. "He will screw you up so bad that it will be even harder for you to understand yourself. He likes to play with people's minds."

"I heard that!" This time E00's voice seemed pissed as hell.

Tejeda dismissed him with a gesture of his hand. "I was joking. You two can do things however you want. I won't intervene." He pushed the table with his hands, sliding the chair over the floor tiles. The Nubilae stopped right next to the young officer. "What is your name?"

"Cato," the officer responded without looking up. His ears flickered at every sound as if he was afraid.

Tejeda smiled as he patted him on the shoulder. "Cato is a bold young man. Even though he is a Ferali, he graduated from the academy. His race had been labeled a genetic monstrosity, and every member had been sentenced to death. Cato would be dead today if he had been apprehended."

"Mmm, hey, Tejeda, you should stop referring to Cato as a he. Cato is a woman," E00's voice interrupted the speech.

The officer's cheeks blushed.

Tejeda decided to ease up the mood. "You need not be worried about anything. You are among friends. Also, we…" he paused a bit, gesturing with his hands through the air while searching for his words. "We understand women. E00 can read women's minds, so he knows a lot about them. Jackeye pretends to be a woman often enough."

"No, I don't," Steffen interrupted, paying attention to the conversation for the first time.

Tejeda shrugged. "How many times did you have a female avatar?"

"No comment," Jackeye said, his gaze returning to the floor.

The Nubilae continued from where he left off. "Shayla is a woman."

"Gee, you think!" the second in command whispered.

"C1313 is partially a woman and I can bet she is constructed anatomically correct."

"I bet you took a careful look," Shayla hummed again.

"And I was a woman for an hour or so."

"He means to say he was me for an hour or so." Shayla wrapped her arms over her chest and leaned against the backrest of her chair.

Tejeda gave a warm smile and raised Cato's chin to make her look at him. "You see! I even have a woman's voice echo."

"I understand," Cato responded with a timid voice. "But you are wrong there. Even though I prefer to be referred to as a woman, actually I am both genders."

"Nice one, Tejeda," Shayla muttered.

The Nubilae looked at the ceiling, shook a finger at it, and yelled to ensure that the ship heard him. "That was a good one, E00!" He then returned his attention to Cato. "You have to believe me when I say you will be ok and no one will hurt you."

"I believe you," Cato replied with a sweet, soft voice as her ears yielded their bustle.

Tejeda's coal-black eyes narrowed with distrust. "That was quicker than I expected. Care to tell me why you are here? Why did you entrust us with your secret?"

"I wish to enter the Interplanetary Police in order to exact vengeance on those who decided to exterminate my people. But I know I can't do it on my own, and I won't be able to maintain my cover for long. You are a Nubilae, aren't you?" Tejeda was engulfed by Cato's stare, her eyes brimming with hope.

He wavered at her straightforward question but responded nonetheless. "Yes, I am. Why is that important to you?"

"I knew I had to contact you and talk to you after learning what happened to your species and how everyone treated you after the experiment. Only you understand..."

Before Cato could reveal anything else, Tejeda interrupted her. "Say no more. I see you did your homework. We will talk later about this. You are welcome into the crew and we will see how we can help you when the time comes."

He then faced the others, avoiding Shayla's curious stare. His hand moved anxiously over the table's edge, his fingers scraping and tapping the surface. Those beautiful dark green eyes noticed his anguish. Tejeda knew she would have questions for him, ones he would never gladly answer.

He pushed a grin back onto his lips. "What do you think of our new addition? Isn't she lovely?"

Shayla's glare could have burned a hole in his cheek, but the grin was there to stay, ending any further discussion.