Adventures Across Space

by zalla661

I Changeling

3rd of 5 was a changeling.

He always loved starships. He always wanted to pilot one. It was his dream since he first crawled out from his home and saw his first ship flying over his home. It was his destiny to fly starships.

He came from the lower Badlands where his hive of changelings resided. Much like other hives his was an intricately connected hivemind with all individuals sharing their thoughts with one another all the time. There were no secrets, no deceptions, and no loneliness, but each changeling was its own individual.

But here on a starship it was different.

Here, there were no other voices. No others thoughts. Only his own. 3rd of 5 was alone. For the first time in his life he understood what ‘silence’ was. It frightened him at first when he joined the Hydra crew. Though his dream was realized, he didn’t anticipate how lonely it would be. So he engrossed himself with flying the ship and keeping it on course and following orders as best he could.

It wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine. The recent events of the past week have taken their toll on him as well as the rest of the crew. Thankfully after encountering the Klingons last time they have had time to recuperate. So 3rd of 5 decided to go mingle with the crew on his off time. After his shift was over he relinquished his station to the next pony and went to the crew lobby and bar area.

I wasn’t a terribly fancy bar. A simple oval enclosed space with many beverages safe and secured. Ponies and zebras filled the area and 3rd of 5 had trouble finding a seat at the bar for himself. He felt at ease here at times like this. While phones and even zebras often sought the company of others for changelings it was necessary for survival. Without the voices of his fellow broodmates he had to find other ways to mingle. This was his solution. The sounds of voices surrounding him, filling his mind with the thoughts of others.

Which brought up another social anxiety of his. He was uncomfortable without changelings being around. Being the only remaining changeling aboard, he often got awkward stares from many of the crew who never seen a changeling before. He was an unusual sight about a pony ship. Changelings had their own ships. They also tend to stay with changeling crews. Which made 3rd of 5 an unusual case. He left his unit of five to transfer to the Hydra when he heard there was an opening for a pilot.

Sometimes he regretted the decision. He often found himself thinking about what it would have been like had he stayed with his unit. Had he gone with them to the changeling carrier Shadows Lament. More recently was a comment he received from the Commander when she called him a ‘bug’. That upset him greatly. However he knew the crew was on edge at the time, so he tried to forgive and forget. It still hurt though.

He was so deep in his own thoughts he didn’t realize a zebra mare standing in front of him. She was the barkeep named Azzella. She was an older middle aged mare with a long history of serving on ships as a cook and bar keep. She cleared her throat getting 3rd of 5’s attention. The sudden sound startle him out of his thoughts and made his gossamer wings buzz.

“Wha- huh? Sorry, we were lost in thought.” 3rd of 5 said.

“That’s fine honey.” Azzella said kindly to him. “What’chu gonna have, hon?”

“Give us an ale please. Thranian Ale, please.” 3rd of 5 requested.

“Coming up, hon.”

In what felt like the blink of an eye, Azzella had a green bottle and a glass on the table. A second later the glass was full and slid in front of 3rd of 5s holey hooves. The changeling blinked in amazement at the speed which the older mare poured her drinks. He then witnessed her arms going into a blur as she readied three more drinks and slid them to her customers. To 3rd of 5s surprise there was no response from the ponies other than a simple ‘thank you’ from them.

3rd of 5 still stunned by her speed, took his drink and sipped it. His wings buzzed in delight from the bitter taste of his ale. Though the Thrane were a brilliant race they sure did make a mean ale.

“Wow, we needed that. Thank you Azzella.”

The zebra mare smiled winking at him. “Think nothing of it hon.”

She walked around the bar opening a small door and closed it behind her. Azzella then walked over to 3rd of 5 and sat beside him as a crewpony left their chair. 3r dof 5 sipped his ale and watched as Azzlella took the seat.

“Something on your mind, hon?” Azzella asked 3rd of 5.

“Yeah. We are finding it difficult to adjust to living without others to meld with,” 3rd of 5 said glumly.

Azzella nodded in understanding. “Not use to the quiet aren’t ya?” She asked the changeling.

3rd of 5 only nodded in response. Azzella rubbed his back, taking care not to hurt his gossamer wings. The little changeling felt his back loosen up at her gentle touch. 3rd of 5 sipped his drink and glanced over his shoulder to the large zebra mare. She smiled and looked around at the crew. Her ears twitched and honed in on their conversations like powerful radar dish. 3rd of 5 tilted his head watching ehr listen around.

“Do ya hear that?” She asked the changeling.

3rd of 5 looked left then right at the other crew ponies around him. He heard somepony talking about the engines and then something about “beef stick”, everything else blurred together.

“What are we listening too?” He asked Azzella.

She looked back at him with a warm smile. He felt his cheeks heat up at her radiant smile. She nudged him with her shoulder and pointed to one group of mares in the corner of the room. One was a white earth pony mare with a light blue mane with a dark black streaks. She was wearing a red uniform from the engineering team.

“She’s talking about a party the Lieutenant Commander Pinkie is setting up in her quarters later,” She then pointed to a unicorn mare in heavy armor with the MAREs logo talking to another unicorn mare in similar armor to hers. “That one's talking about her crush on a stallion in her unit.”

3rd of 5 nodded and listened in. His ear adjusted to where he was looking. He tried to filter out the noise around him so he could hear what the unicorn mares were talking about. But it was harder to filter out voices he had no control over.

“Ugh, I can’t hear them. There’s so much noise around here.”

Azzella smiled and gently nudge his shoulder with hers. “Exactly.”

“Huh? Exactly, what?” the changeling asked.

Azzella faced the unicorn mares and watched as they carried on. The first one who was talking about her crush blushed when the other said something to her. She turned away from her friend crossing her front leg across her chest blushing.

“Exactly,” Azzella repeated. “You are always surrounded by voices 3rd of 5.”

The small changeling tilted his head not getting where she was going with this point. Seeing the confusion on his face the zebra attempted to clarify.

“You are lonely because you can’t hear your hives voices, correct?”

He nodded affirmatively.

“Well, then you need to listen and hear these voices instead. This ship, this crew, they’re your new home and family while you’re on board. When you were back in your hive, what did changelings do most of the time? What were their duties?”

“Well, most of the time we served the queen,” 3rd of 5 replied.

Azzella nodded. “Mmmhmm, and the crew of this ship serve the Captain. What else?”

3r dof 5 gave it some thought before he answered. There were many things the changelings did in the hive. However, he assumed there was a finer point to his zebra friends point than mindless servitude. Well, mindless in the sense they were undyingly loyal to their queen, but that was aside form the point. After taking some time to gather his thoughts he answered in one line statement.

“Well, we help defend the hive, we help repair it, help it grow, and help bring the next generation of changelings to be well respected members of the hive?” He answered in an unsure manner.

Azzella nodded smiling at him. “Yes, exactly 3rd of 5!”

She wrapped one arm around his neck and pulled him cheek to cheek with her. Her large grin never fading, while the changlein blushed at the close contact.

“So what you’re saying is all changelings help serve the hive in their own ways and all together right?” He nodded at her. “It's the same here on the ship, love. We all serve the Captain, who commands. We help defend and repair the ship, and we are all part of the same group. Sure, the crew isn’t related by blood in most cases, but we’re still a unit. And in time the unit will become family.”

3rd of 5 took what the mare said in , but the thought of being family with non-changelings seemed too foreign to him at the time. In response, he stared blankly at the zebra who after first, didn’t seem to notice his skepticism. When she did her smile disappeared, and she shook her head at him. She then proceeded to rubbed her off over his bald head and pet his head fins back. He grunted and swatted her hoof away and she got up to head back to serve drinks. She stopped a few steps away and looked back at him one last time.

“You remember what ah said now, ya hear? Life too short out here, love. Make the best of it with the time ya have.”

3rd of 5 watched as she walked back around the bar and continued to serve drinks to the patrons. After he was alone once again 3rd of 5 digested what he’d been told. Sure he was the only remaining changeling on the ship, but did that mean he was alone?

According to Azzella he wasn’t. While not his hive the ship and its crew were his. No that he owned them in any fashion, just that they were connected. He sipped his drink and looked at a group of stallions from the engineering units. He saw them happily chatting with one another sharing drinks. He watched as they shared a laugh when one looked over and saw him observing them. The stallion nudged the pony next to him and gestured toward 3rd of 5 with a jerk of his head. The other stallions smiled and waved the changeling over. 3rd of 5 smiled and nodded back. He stood using his horn to magically grab his drink and walked over to join them. They my be his crew, but in time he’d like to think of thm s friends, but first he had to integrate once more. Which is easy for a changeling. It was like infiltration, only this way you got more friends in the process.

Comments

[Traveling Soul]

I realy wounder how would he react to the Borg?

[zalla661]

9032042
Most likely he'd respond however Captain Trixie told him to. He's a loyal buggy pone and longs to prove himself. But that'll come later. I'm just glad to see you back after the long wait.

[Traveling Soul]

9034126
I usualy never unfollow a story that isn't canceled or completed.
I have stuff that wasn't updated in years.

[Kittamaru]

9034783
Same here heh... I have a Mechwarrior crossover that hasn't updated since like season 3 hah