PRACTICE: Wesley joins the party

as the party continued, the holodeck doors slid open with a hiss and Lieutenant Jg McArthur walked in.

" I'm sorry, I'm intruding. I was looking for the Fleet Captain."

Fleet Captain Samji turned to him and said: "I'm the Fleet Captain; what can I do for you?"

"I Have been having a problem with the communication systems. I tried to get you on my combadge, but I was on this deck and decided to join the party... with your permission of course," Wesley replied.

"Permission granted; the more the merrier am I right?"

In the short pause that followed, one deep yet soft voice could be heard through the confused din of the assembled crowd.

"What am I doing here again?"

The voice came from a dark-blue-skinned, white-haired alien standing near McArthur but slightly apart from the rest of the assembly. He was obviously Andorian, his antennae wobbling with annoyance from the top side of his thickly white-haired skull. But, although he was tall as expected from one of his kind, he was however amazingly broad and muscular. To Wesley's Human eyes, he looked like a very athletic man; but to those of his own kind, this Andorian must have appeared abnormally massive and powerful. He wore the standard black and grey-shouldered Starfleet uniform and on his red collar flashed the four golden pips of his rank.

"You are here to socialize, Captain."

This voice, clear but firm, dropped down from above. It came from the plush blue lips of another Andorian, this one a female... as much as that name could be attributed to one of this four-gender species. Aside from her own blue skin and long,straight and rich platinum hair where sprouted also a pair of antennae, she had all the attributes associated to females of most humanoid species: long, shapely legs in high black boots, wide curved hips and slim waist within the regulation short black skirt, generous bosom within the dark uniform vest with a golden collar showing the pips of a Lieutenant Junior Grade.

What set her apart however was her towering height; Andorian women were as a rule taller than the males but this one was taller than everyone else in the room, clearly well over two meters tall. Born of a passionate, violent warrior race almost as strong as Vulcans and just as tough as Klingons, it was no hard job to guess that she worked in the Security department.

Nevertheless, this towering woman seemed not to intimidate in the least the one she had called captain, the powerfully built Andorian, who grumbled:

"Socialize... Hmmmph! I know everyone in here already... and they all know who I am."

"Not everyone..."

This time, the giantess' icy blue pupils and knobby antennae were, all four of them, looking down directly at McArthur.