"Crewman...crewman!" the doctor pushed and shoved past everyone to the pilot. "How much oxygen do we have on this thing? Should we be conserving our air supply?" He tried not to sound overly worried, but it wasn't working.
The pilot sounded reassuring. "Dr. Dorrin, we have a recirculating environmental system. We also have supplimentary oxygen tanks injecting fresh oxygen all the time. We have plenty of air for the trip to the station."
The doctor was obviously not quite convinced. "And if one or more of those tanks were punctured, then where would we be? By the way, my name is Doctor Rass. Dorrin is my first name."
"My apologies, Dr. Rass." The pilot offered. "I got confused by the crew roster. I thought you were listed as Rass Dorrin."
"I'm Bajoran, crewman. We list our last names first. Anyway, what about punctures?"
"Doctor, even if the oxygen tanks ruptured, there's enough air in the cabin already to get us safely to the station. We're perfectly safe. Now, please return to your seat. We'll be at the station in less than ninety minutes." The pilot turned back around to his controls. Out of the doctor's eyesight, he rolled his eyes.
Still slightly upset, Dorrin weaved his way back to his spot. "No one ever said anything about a shuttle before," he mumbled. "One would have thought that little detail would have come up during one of the meetings, but noooo." As he neared his original seat, he once again saw the near-human sized semi-transparant spider near the rear of the shuttle. The thing looked downright menacing. He was sure it was a security guard or something. Bajor had spiders, too...big ones...but nothing like that. It gave him the creeps.
He was pleasantly surprised to see a thin Vulcan woman with uncharacteristically long, brown hair between him and the spider, though. He hadn't noticed her before. She considered him with a typical calm face and raised eyebrow. "Greetings, Doctor," she said flatly.
Trying to regain his composure, he sat back down and did the best he could to smile. "Well, hello, Leiutenant Commander. I'm Doctor Rass Dorrin. Peace and long life." He made his right hand into the Vulcan greeting sign, a 'v' shape with the pointer and middle finger forming one half and his ring and little finger making the other half.
Her face seemed to soften a bit. She returned the gesture. "Live long and prosper. I am T'Nia, the ships tactical officer. There are not many outside of Vulcan who can perform our greeting gesture. Thank you."
"Well, I'm not only a physician, I'm a surgeon. Nimble hands come with the territory." He replied with a smile and trying to sound charming. Secretly, he was wanting to claw his way out of the shuttle.
"I see," she stated. "Well, it was agreeable to meet you, Doctor. I look forward to journeying with you on our new assignment." She turned and began heading towards the spider creature.
Dorrin stopped her short. "Are you planning on talking to that thing?" He asked, his voice and eyebrows raised.
"Doctor," she started slowly, "I graduated from the Academy with 'that thing'. We are friends. I'm surprised, Doctor. I wouldn't have thought you to be xenophobic."
"Oh, I'm not xenophobic," he defended quickly. He raised his hands for emphasis. "It's just...I don't know... I guess I'm just a little edgy around things with more limbs than me." He offered a weak smile to downplay the situation. She was right, of course. He didn't have any problems associating with other humanoid lifeforms. However, the more 'alien' the alien was, the more uncomfortable he became. Between that and his claustrophobia, he made a lousy resistance fighter during the Cardassian War. "I didn't mean any offense." So much for making a good first impression.
T'Nia simply responded, "Hmmm," and raised an eyebrow. She then turned back to the spider.