This little drabble was created when I first created Corky, so not only is his pesonality slightly ascew, the writing and characters probably seem rather forced and underdeveloped. I appologize for this ahead of time, but I wanted to post this hear to give people a taste of what Corky's daily life at Starfleet is like.

"So Corky," Andrew called. The young human boy ran after the Dalek years later. He was a boy of 16 and remarkably young to be at Starfleet Academy. It was quite remarkable, especially that he was soon to graduate in a year and already set up to be deployed as an ensign on the starship

"I heard you shot down twenty holographic bogies in seven minutes. How'd you manage to aim at all of them so quickly? I remember going through that same simulation and barely shooting down three! They move too fast."

The Dalek halted so that it might look at Andrew while he was speaking. It'd found out that most humans thought it rude to not look at the person speaking, even if all instinct in "Corky's" thoughts told him that eye contact should be challenging. "I followed orders."

"I know that," Andrew waved a hand, "but still, how did you do it?"

"I followed orders."

The boy chuckled, patting his odd friend's domed head. "Well you must be very good at that, then."

"Affirmative." The rather haughty remark was truth, and those that had hung around Corky for long enough knew that the Dalek did not like to lie, nor did he like to be humble… but at least he wasn't always bragging like some students did, or arguing at every chance he got. If anything, Corky got more flak than anyone else simply due to the fact he was different than everyone else… he wasn't humanoid, and what was worse was that he had to be placed inside a mechanical pepper shaker just to be mobile. Even so, Corky was the unofficial adopted 'son' (though some of his classmates called him 'pet') of Q, and nobody wanted to get under Q's skin… there were just too many stories about what had happened to the crew on the USS Enterprise D - and that was just when Q was bored… an angry Q was not something anyone wanted to dare face.

"I'm going to pop in at the cafeteria, if you'd like to join me," Andrew offered after a few moments of silence. The Dalek he'd befriended scarcely ever spoke, and wasn't one for idle chatter, which often made conversation difficult. Even so, he knew ways to get his pal to speak up and convers.

"I do not require sustenance," Corky replied, "I have said it before."

"Yes, but you never come with me to the cafeteria and you've really got to lighten up! You've heard of a mess hall, right?"

"Affirmative."

The boy grinned, "Well then you know that you'll have to roll into a 'snack and socialize' gathering sooner or later."

"Visiting a mess hall on a starship is not required," Corky responded, almost with distaste. "I will not need to visit one when I am an officer."

"Too bad, 'cause we're visiting something similar now," Andrew grinned, pushing the Dalek to turn into a large room filled with seats and tables. It had a typical restaurant feel to it, and students of all species were digging into replicated food and babbling with friends.

Corky skidded to try to resist as soon as he'd seen the place. If anything, he was afraid of large groups of people and preferred to spend his time alone, studying, training, or with very few companions. "No, no, no," he said softly, even as Andrew continued to push him to the end of a table. So many eyes turned to the commotion with curiosity, amusement, and anger… all turned on the Dalek. It wanted to panic, to defend itself of the humility, but refrained. Already he'd shot one man with his phaser (Corky was lucky it was on stun at the time) in a panic attack in a similar situation.

"See?" Andrew said as he took a seat, "It's not so bad. Just relax." He looked up at Corky, and due to the lack of expressions a Dalek possessed, he didn't see the fear running haywire through his friend.

"I want to go back," Corky admitted quickly, turning his single blue eye to Andrew. "I do not have any needs or orders requiring me to be here."

Andrew had by this time replicated a full spaghetti dinner and was contently chowing down. "Mhmm," he agreed with mouth full. Swallowing, he added, "But it's good for you to get out of the holodeck and into real life." Taking another bite, he looked up at the Dalek. "You know, it's a shame you don't need food. You're missing out."

Corky admitted inwardly that the food his friend had in front of him did smell good -a sense little did he know most Daleks never got to experience. There was a short sense of longing to be able to consume and taste, but the Dalek did not say anything. There was nothing to say that was of any importance… "I wish I could taste," he suddenly blurted. Corky didn't quite know why he'd spoken… he hadn't meant to.

"Yeah? Well, I wish you could to. Then you might be more content to come here and be a normal life form for once." It was a running joke between the two that Corky was not a 'normal' life form or a 'normal' student, and it wasn't 'normal' for anyone at all to encounter a Dalek since the days of the Federation began.

"I wish to leave."

"Oh, yeah, be my guest," Andrew waved an arm, "I don't want you to, but at least you somewhat willingly came-"

"I was brought by force."

"Nevermind that, but at least you came. See you later? In Warp Theory?"

"Affirmative," Corky agreed, "I will see you then."