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Starbase 118 Stepping off the transporter dais, the tall imposing Brikar wearing the uniform of a Academy Cadet was soon approached by a young petite ensign with extremely pale skin and honey-red hair. She had been lost multitasking on her PADD, far too engrossed to realize who or what she had approached until she stopped right in front of him and looked up. She kept looking up, her startling green eyes widening a bit as her head craned up to look at his face. She saw a head that seemed to have been carved from a block of stone; a domed skull with a thick pronounced brow, a pair of all black eyes, and two vertical slits for a nose and a simple slit for a mouth. His face was inscrutable and reflected nothing of what he was feeling or thinking. He was looking down at her, calmly and silently. “…and I’m going to need yo…Oh!” the ensign gasped, taking a backward step. She recovered quickly and smiled, not wanting to offend what she now recognized as a Brikar. “I need your orders, Cadet.” The Brikar lifted a chip held within two of his three fingers, one of which served as a thumb. The chip look ridiculously tiny compared to the large digits. The ensign took it, scanned it and handed it back. “Cadet Tul Gidon, you’re orders have been confirmed,” she offered with a warm smile. “Welcome to Starbase 118. Have you been here before?” “No.” His voice was deep, gravelly. It sounded like two stones grinding against each other. “Oh, well then…I’ve updated your orders and you will find your assigned quarters and location. Your first class is tomorrow at oh-seven-hundred hours, so between now and then would be an excellent opportunity to get to know what is what and where on this star base and what it has to offer. I would suggest however that you first familiarize yourself with the orientation packet included with your upgrade. I wish you well on your endeavors, cadet.” And with that, she was onto the next visitor. Tul Gidon was his birth name, but for most of his life, he had been called ‘Brick.’ He understood nicknames to be an affection of Terrans and endured it with the quiet self-effacing stoicism representative of his race. He slowly, ponderously, walked out onto the main concourse that was the commercial sector. It was a hive of activity, of people and throngs of people all going about their way. Quite a few took a second glance at the Brikar walking amongst them. How could they not miss him? He stood at six foot eight inches, a tall thing that looked as if chiseled out of stone, a crude statue with life breathed into it by a callous god. Yet unlike most Brikars, he had not grown up with the heavy gravity of his home planet. He was not squat and huge of chest and torso. He was heavy, yes, and broad in the shoulders and possessed a barrel chest. He weighed at just a tick under 400 pounds, yet he walked with a hidden grace that belied his dense weight and lurching stride. Unlike most Brikars, Brick had a insatiable curiosity and a desire to expand his paradigm of the universe. Starbase 118, with its throngs of people of different species and the cacophony of noises, should have been a sensory overload for the typical dour and taciturn Brikar, but not Brick. As he walked among the throngs, usually a head or more above the tallest around, his head swiveled on his thick neck like the turret of a tank, his small dark eyes taking in everything. Shops held items of wondrous interest to Brick and he would spend quite some time patiently listening to the vendors extolling the wonders of their product, the stony impassive face rapt with attention. The air was full of polyglot words and inflections, a Babylon of galactic speech that held his ear. After several hours of wondering the commercial sector, Brick soon found himself sitting on the ledge of a circular water fountain, oblivious to the spectacular spray of lighted water behind him. In one hand, dwarfed by the size of his stony digits, was a ice cream cone. As he took a moment to lick the pistachio flavored ice cream, Brick began to wonder what tomorrow had to offer. Another lick and all such ideas of training disappeared. He was getting another cone. Cadet Tul Gidon

Out I'd go into the Black, I'd tell 'em I ain't coming back, They can burn the land and boil the sea, They can't take Firefly from me.