New officer of the Phoenix

"I think I've seen everything now."

The transporter chief of transporter room 4 was still shaking his head. Having seen a living legend like Doctor Julian Bashir come to Starbase Lotus was already something to talk about; but seeing also a Jem'Hadar in a Starfleet uniform with Lieutenant pips on his collar, that was something else.

"No you haven't yet, Koranksi," came the reply of the security chief assisting him at the console.

He was checking the subatomic scan and biomedical data against filed records of the next arrival after confirming the identification chip sent from the USS Aurora, the Academy starship of Lotus Fleet. The new security procedures were devised to ensure full identification and control of anyone coming and going from the station; even an Undine or a Changeling would be detected through these measures, which included memory check interviews and verbal traps as well as more technical means. And no one's belongings were beamed at the same place and time as the subject before being sent for separate examination. Even clothing was replaced in transit by a fresh uniform or copy of it and any weapon confiscated, examined and sent to the armory to be requisitionned later by the owner with renewed controls specific to it.

All this ensured that no subversive agent could find his way in or out of Starbase Lotus, be it an infiltrator, a chemical compound or even a single Borg nanite.

Yet, that didn't always save them all from being surprised.

"Okay, Fisher, what are you bringing in this time?" grumbled Chief Koranksi as he adjusted controls for beam in, now unlocked by the positive completion of the security procedure.

"Brace yourself; this one is also one for the History books."

On the transporter pad in front of them, a tall form shimmered and coalesced into a sight only a handful of people in the galaxy had seen. It was easily two meters tall, thin and frail looking and entirely covered with blue, purple and black feathers under it's Starfleet uniform. They flared out the entire lenght of  long arms that ended with three opposable fingers. The legs were also disproportionaltely long in relation with the barrel-chested, short but very wide body topped by a small round head. An impressive crest of feathers, dotted with small blinking colored lights, rose on top and fell like a large mane around the leathery face almost made up entirely of a massive hooked beak and immense golden eyes that blinked fixedly at the two humans behind the console.

They too were blinking fixedly back at the newcomer, just as everyone else also looked at him, all visibly fascinated by it's starkly distinctive and novel appearance.

"Permission to come aboard, Sir?"

The voice was soft, clear and surprisingly musical coming from so tall a being. It came out without even the slightest hint of an accent, in perfect textbook Federation standard.

Jourdain and Burnstein, unaware of it, both nodded slowly and silently, still transfixed by the newcomer. Then, the forcefield around the transporter pad shimmered off and he lithely jumped off the platform.

Instantly, both security guards at the door leveled their weapons at him. The forcefield had been deactivated... but neither Fisher nor Koranksi had touched any control.

The transport area was immediately cleared by the other people around and Fisher came in front of the Bird-like being with his own phaser in his hand, leaving the transporter chief to check frantically his console. For a moment, the alien looked at one another with his unnerving raptor stare, his beak half open in obvious surprise. Then he bowed rapidly to each of them in turn.

"I... I am sorry... I was told not to do that..."

"What did you do? Explain yourself, Lieutenant!" barked the security chief.

"I activated your console, Sir. Since no one was, I assumed I could..."

"How could you activate the console from the transporter pad... and behind a forcefield?"

One of the three nailess, feathered fingers of his left hand pointed to the blinking lights adorning it's thick and long head feathers.

"My sh'reekh'ree'ss... my  integrated cerebrocranial biotech interface allows me to use electromagnetic connexions to activate..."

"This instrument should have been beamed out from you along with the rest of your possessions!" interrupted Burnstein.

"Then, I would be dead," answered flatly the Lieutenant.

In the silence that followed, he explained further.

"The... instrument... was... grown out of my own neurones while I was still in the egg... fashioned through biotechnology as I grew up... and completely part of my cerebral and neurological make-up. Therefore, it is recorded on your medical files as one of my organs... which in truth it is, even if it is artificially made. To remove it, you would have to remove my brain as well."

The security team listened with dumbfounded fascination at the mesmerizing voice of the birdman and blinked a few seconds more before Fisher cleared his throat and signaled the others to lower their weapons and return to their post.

"Hum... well... I will have to report this incident... And until further notice by a ranking officer, you will abstain from using this... capability of yours while on the starbase. Is that understood, Lieutenant... Livingstone?"

Lieutenant Livingstone nodded and stood at attention.

"Understood, Chief. Sorry to have ruffled your feathers."

It was impossible to tell from his eagle-like face if the lieutenant was joking, mocking, oblivious to what he was saying or truly as serious as he sounded. Burnstein shook his head and then wavered him off.

"Carry on, Lieutenant."

"Thank you, Sir."

Once the newcomer had left transporter room 4, Koranksi exchanged a look with the security chief and scowled.

"What in the blazes was that?"

"That, my friend, was a X'Ell."

"A what?"

"A X'Ell. No wonder you don't know; you've been posted here only for, what, a month now? You don't know about the Dyson shell."

"Oh yes I do; I went to the Academy too you know. The Starfleet records of the USS Enterprise are mandatory in the Contemporary History classes, including the Jenolan Incident where the USS Enterprise D of Captain Jean-Luc Picard discovered an abamdonned Dyson sphere around an unstable star."

"Good for you, Koranksi; but what they don't teach, yet, in History classes is that a second such cosmic construct, a Dyson shell, was discovered a few years ago in this sector by the USS Artemis of Captain Kheren... And this one was around a stable star... and it was not abandonned."

The transporter chief's gaze wandered from the pad to the closed door and the two security guards also discussing quietly together.

"The... X'Ell?"

"And you just met your first one... and according to records, the only one you and I and everyone else will likely meet in our lifetime. Unless this one finishes his Exchange Officer Program tour of duty with a positive report about us to his extremely friendly, extremely advanced but even more isolationist people."

"What... they think they're too good for us?" grumbled Koranksi as he was preparing for another beam in.

Fisher just snorted, starting to check an incoming ID signal.

"And how come it's... his... name is Livingstone? That's a Human name..." 

"Yeah... Lieutenant Jonathan Livingstone."

"You're joking."

"Not at all; look here at his Starfleet ID."

"He's joking..."

Fisher made a short laugh.

"You heard what he called that... contraption of his that allows him to activate electromagnetic instruments with his brain; well if you look at the audiorecord analysis, you will realize that you heard barely half of it; their language is partly ultrasonic, like Graalek, the Andorian language... and utterly unpronouçable to anyone without a beak and a throat like theirs. It is said also that their names are literaly songs minutes long... So, they adopt simpler, more accessible Federation names when dealing with us, which they usually choose from our cultural databases. This one apparently read Jonathan Livingstone Seagull."

"You think he chose that name for a reason?"

"Everything they do is for a reason," simply answered the security chief before getting his mind back fully to the security control of the next transport.

While this discussion was happening, the subject of their exchange was drawing more than one stare in his direction as he walked in the large hallways of the station, despite the very diverse population he was mingling in. As much as his looks, his way of moving also brought attention to himself as it was obvious he was careful not to bump into anyone or anything as he went by with a slow, deliberate and methodical walk that sometimes made him swerve wildly or stop abruptly to avoid any collision. But despite his convulated walk, he managed to reach the central part of the starbase where could be found the office of the starbase's commander.