Naguva Nayana
Posted on Fri Sep 19th, 2025 @ 5:32pm by Chief Petty Officer Vashti Rao & Ensign Dani Harper
2,061 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
The Menagerie II
Location: Science Lab 3, Deck 5
Timeline: Prior to Arrival at Barisa Prime
Chief Petty Officer Vashti Rao glanced upward at the low whine of a corridor light.
Just what I need: one more bloody thing to repair, she thought, gritting her teeth.
For today's duty shift, she had been assigned a long list of minor repairs by Lieutenant Commander Winters. It wasn't a terrible assignment--just a lot of moving through the ship and fixing the most unimportant of systems. A burned-out light filament here, a broken door sensor there. But it sure beat a full shift stuck in the deuterium storage tanks.
Vashti stepped through the doors to the science lab, her toolkit slung over one shoulder, and a small pack of freshly-opened isolinear chips clipped to her belt. Science Lab 3, Deck 5--her PADD confirmed it, and she allowed herself a brief smile. Science Station Gamma. Again, confirmed. No one else should be here. No one at all.
She knelt before the station, the metal ice-cold beneath her fingers, and began inspecting the power relay. She popped the assembly cover off the back of the console and began removing the entire sequence of old isolinear chips. Her movement was automatic and very precise--she could re-sequence these chips in her sleep.
A hum slipped past her lips, tentative at first. It was a song her mother would often sing around the house when she was little. The hum was a single note that carried softly through the dimly-lit lab. Then another, and another, until the soft melody of Naguva Nayana filled the entire room. Vashti's voice was low and rich as she began weaving the words she knew by heart, the lyrics unspooling like silk thread across duranium.
The work slowed, as she fingered-out the new isolinear chips from her belt. Each replacement chip slid into its slot with a tiny click. Her voice strengthened, blossoming into full song, completely clear and resonant:
Naguva nayana madhura mouna
Midiva hrudaya ire maatheke?
Hosa bhaasheyidu rasa kaavyavidu
It felt like shadows had pooled around the corners of the semi-darkened lab like spectators, but she didn't care. The music wound around the science stations and reverberated off the bulkheads.
By the time she replaced the final isolinear chip and sealed the power relay, the station whirred back to life in quiet approval. She let herself linger in the lab, finishing the last line of the song with a long, breathless note that seemed to hang in the air:
Ida haadalu kavi beke?
She exhaled, almost shyly, as if she'd just realized someone might have been watching. But she was alone, wasn't she?
"What's that you're singing?" Dani asked casually as she entered the science lab without ceremony.
Vashti jolted, spine stiff as if she'd been caught stealing. Her hand hovered over her toolkit, the song collapsing in her throat like a tent struck by a devastating wind. She turned, cheeks flushed despite the chill in the lab. Standing there was Dani Harper--half-smile, half-intrigue. The half-human, half-Orion leaned against the doorframe.
"Um," Vashti stammered, smoothing back a strand of hair that had slipped loose from its braid. "It's, uh, an old Kannada film song." She tried to remain casual but felt her tone had landed closer to the defensive. "It's something my mother used to sing. It helps me keep the rhythm when I'm replacing chips."
"It's nice. You have a pretty voice," Dani replied as she entered the lab. "Sorry, I didn't realize engineering had any scheduled repairs in here. I was going to check on a simulation I've been running, but I can come back later."
Vashti waved her hand quickly, the gesture seemingly more abrupt than she had intended. "No, no, stay. Don't let me chase you off." Her voice still had a slight edge of embarrassment clinging to it. She bent to snap her toolkit shut, just to give her hands something to do. Leaning a hip against the now fully-alive science station, she folded her arms across her chest--unconsciously hoping to shield herself from further compliments. "This is your turf, anyway. I'm the intruder."
"Nah, not really. We break it, you fix it, right?" Dani said jovially. "We like our stuff to work when we need it."
She straightened, and offered a hand. "Vashti Rao," she said, forcing a smile through the lingering embarrassment. "You're... Dani, right?"
"I am. Dani Harper," the science officer confirmed as she reached out to shake the hand that Vashti had offered. "Nice to officially meet you. I'm sure I've seen you around. You've been with us a while, right?"
Vashti's hand retreated with a slight stiffness, a nod replacing the warmth of a smile. "About ten months now," she said, her voice flat and dry. "Kash has mentioned you once or twice." She turned to look at the science station for a moment and then back to Dani. "I've replaced the isolinear chips and realigned the relays. What sort of experiments do you perform using this station?"
"Oh, your friends with Kash?" Dani felt a slight flush rise to her cheeks. She wanted to ask more, but the engineer had already changed the subject.
"I've been running simulations on the area impacted by the Hobus supernova," Dani replied casually. "Specifically the gravitational shifts and ongoing fluctuations. We were able to get some pretty good data during Astrea's first mission tracking some space debris that wouldn't normally make its way into Federation Space. The plan was always to get back to the region again, but you know Starfleet."
"So who do you hang out with outside of work hours? Or what do you do in your spare time?" Dani asked shifting the conversation away from her experiments. She found most people didn't really care about the details of it, and she was more curious about who this Ensign was in her off time anyway.
"Well," she began. "I'd say my friends are Zal Rixi and Tenzi Sh'reyva. Rixi's my roommate and also the most annoying person I know. They both keep me from taking things too seriously all the time." She gave a small, dry shrug. "I know Kash a little--not really socially. We've chatted over our work before."
Vashti paused before continuing. "Outside of duty hours, I... well," she faltered in her words, a sheepish grin appearing on her face. "I run the unofficial betting pool for the ship."
"There's a betting pool?" Dani asked with more than a passing interest, her voice taking on an almost sing-song tone. "And what sort of things are we betting on?"
"You bet," Vashti replied, watching Dani's eyes brighten like she'd stumbled into a candy store. "But the usual high-brow, scholarly wagers are exactly what you'd imagine." She pushed-off the station and placed both hands on her hips. "Whether Captain Johansen finally finds herself a lover, odds on the XO shirtless in the gym, or whether Xalanth takes a fifth wife from one of the crew... the classics."
She waited for Dani's reaction before deciding to hit her with the rest.
"You're wrong about the XO. I thought it was pretty well known he and my boss are pretty close," Dani replied as she sized the girl up. "I don't know what I'd wager on Xalanth. He seems pretty square."
Vashti grinned. "I may have heard something about that," she said, tone playful. "In any case, there are also some real long shots on the board in my quarters: anyone managing to make Nurse Thivi actually angry, or cleaning-out the Akadian officer on poker night. I don't take those ones lightly. People have lost replicator privileges betting on those."
She shifted her arms across her chest, the tiniest flicker of sarcasm glinting in her eyes. "But for the more mathematically inclined? Odds on warp core efficiency hitting exactly 98.98%. The number of days before the Caitian marine gets promoted. And of course, the pool on how long before Winters invents yet another checklist to make our lives miserable."
"Creative," Dani admitted. "I had no idea the ship was full of so many people keen on gambling. I'm still not hearing any topics that strike my fancy though. What else do you got?"
Vashti's brow furrowed as she tried to imagine what sort of wagering the Orion hybrid might be interested in. "There are more traditional wagers--the beach volleyball tournament is coming up. Science versus Engineering, Medical versus Marines."
"Oh, really. What kind of odds do you have on our team?" She asked. They'd managed to convince their Vulcan officer, T'lenn to play and found her to be quite good and surprisingly competitive. Dani had been looking forward to the tournament for a while.
The bookmaker engineer tapped a finger against the edge of the console, lips pressed tight in thought. "Alright," she said, conspiratorial. "Engineering's fielding Winters and Tenzi. Since Rixi and I are making the book on this, I'll be honest: Winters is built like a relay coil--efficient, but rigid. Tenzi's quick, towering, good reflexes, but she'll treat the game like stand-up comedy. Easily middle-of-the-board.
"Medical's tricky," Vashti went on. "Two separate teams. Doctor Blackstone and Nurse Iozhara are fine, but not spectacular. Safe bets. The real fire's Beckett and Andersen. They're killers. Played a couple of friendlies in the holodeck already--put half the ship on notice. They're the ones to beat. Credits and latinum are flowing in their direction."
She shifted her arms a little and pursed her lips. "Security's S'Niri and Williams. S'Niri's one of the most athletic members of the crew, and Williams is mostly brute force--little grace. But they're fearless, which counts more than it should. They've knocked down more nets than any other pair so far. Odds say they'll go deep." She sighed. "You'd have to come and see the full board. Right now, Operations, Marines, and Diplomats have not submitted their players, so nothing is wagered there. And for Science, well"--she lifted both hands in a theatrical shrug--"it's you and T'lenn. Good servers, but you both haven't played in a while. You're wildcards right now."
"Has Kash placed a bet?" Dani tried to make the question sound casual.
Vashti laughed firmly--if a laugh could be firm. But it was. "I don't think he's made any wagers. Yet." She wanted to mention that Kash had a tendency to sometimes shoot for long odds and often would find himself out of replicator credits fairly swiftly. She flashed a smile at Dani again, adding, "You should drop by for poker night some time. We don't publicize it--there are other poker groups around the ship--but, we do have the best finger food."
"Yeah, sure. I could play..." Dani answered quickly, then thought twice. "These aren't like super high stakes or anything are they?" She asked.
"Come find out on Thursday," she quipped. "We usually get started around twenty-one-hundred. I share quarters with Rixi on Deck Twenty-Two." Vashti stepped away from the console and pulled her toolkit further up her shoulder. She smiled at the half-Orion woman, an expression full of warmth, as though she may have just made a friend.
"Yeah, okay. Sure," Dani said with a smile. "Can I bring anything?" She asked.
Vashti tilted her head, considering. "Bring yourself. And maybe that famous smile everyone is always talking about. Rixi will feed you junk until you burst, and Tenzi usually sneaks in contraband desserts anyway. Nobody leaves hungry. Some leave broke, but that's..."
She cinched her toolkit strap tight and gave the science console one last glance.
"Well, that's me," she said, nodding toward the door. "Try not to break anything too badly before poker night."
Famous smile... Who was talking about her... Vashti's final comments and sudden departure left Dani stunned and more than a little confused as she watched the engineer disappear out of the science lab.
The doors suddenly opened again, Vashti's smile framed by the grey science lab threshold.
"Don't forget to bring credits or latinum," she said as though Dani needed reminding. The doors closed again leaving the room almost empty.
Ensign Dani Harper
Science Officer
USS Astrea
Chief Petty Officer Vashti Rao
Engineering Technician
USS Astrea
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