Rucara Chocolate Experiment
Posted on November 2nd, 2009 by Kuari

Roxanne Carre and Kuari

Dr. Carre was waiting in sickbay for her latest patient. “This should be interesting, for all intents and purposes, a talking dragon.” she thought to herself. “I don’t suppose the usual cold instruments will work on this patient, I’ll have to find some other type of fun.”

No sooner had she thought up three new ideas, Kuari walked into Sickbay, looking around curiously. “I’m looking for Dr. Carre?”

“That’s me! You must be the new recruit everyone is curious about, including myself!” she said with a huge grin. “Not everyone gets to meet a talking dragon, I hope you don’t take that the wrong way. We all know you are really Rucara.”

Kuari approached Carre with what could have been a grimace, but soon she was smiling and standing up, supporting herself on the biobed. There was a curious bulge on her belly. “That’s all right. I get it a lot. I’m supposed to report to you for my physical before I go out.”

“Well lets have a look…you look like your previous physical says you should, except for this irregular bulge near your…” she consulted the chart, “ventral pouch. Have a run in with some equipment or something?”

Looking down at where she was pointing, Kuari suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, I forgot!” Reaching down, she pulled a jar out from her pouch and plopped it onto the biobed with a huge toothy grin. “Mother said you would appreciate this. Rucara spit.”

“OH. MY. GOODNESS! I was trying to think up what I could do to get a sample of this!” said Roxy, almost drooling herself. “So glad you brought it. Now, anything changed since your last physical that I should know about?”

Kuari shook her head, the horn behind it whipping through the air. “No, nothing I can think of. It hasn’t been that long. They checked me out right before I left, but supposedly you’re supposed to check me again.”

“Alrighty, well you just relax here on the biobed if you can. I programmed your species’ known information and we’ll see what it comes up with if anything,” said Carre as she tapped the proper buttons on the scanner. She watched as Kuari jumped up, towering over her on all fours for a moment before settling down on her belly. “What sort of things do dragons eat? Fruit? Veggies? Meat?” she asked as she examined Kuari’s claws, horn and skin, noting the fine soft fur covering most everything.

“Um… I eat pretty much anything organic. Well, I don’t by habit eat anything… I like broccoli!” Kuari lolled her thin pointed tongue out in a gaping smile. “And round fruits are really convenient for keeping around as a snack later.”

“What about chocolate? Is chocolate good for you?” asked Carre, thinking of her private stash.

Kuari cocked her head, her fleshy brows puckering. “What is that? Choklit…”

“Its an organic-based sweet, pretty much sugar with a bitter cocoa-flavor. I’ll get you a piece when we’re done so you’ll know. As a female you’ll most likely like it alot.” grinned Carre, pleased to induct a new female into the chocolate-lovers crowd.

She grinned hugely again, all teeth. “Thank you! I love trying new things. So much creativity here!”

“You file your own nails or is that something you’ll have done here? They look very sharp. I’m sure Charity will try to get you to paint them all sorts of colors. Don’t let her change your fur though, there could be damage.” grinned Roxy, thinking of a ‘punk’ dragon.

“We paint our fur for ceremonies sometimes!” Kuari said excitedly, her tail suddenly thumping against the biobed’s padding. “All sorts of crazy colors and designs. Not very often, though.” She turned a paw over and looked down at it. “Oh and I have a sandstone in my quarters.”

“Sandstone…oh for your nails, great. Do you usually carry items in your pouch? I could see that would be convenient,” she asked as she checked the bio-scan results.

“Usually just temporarily. I don’t keep stuff in there, if that’s what you mean.”

“It is. Now I’m going to listen to your heart. I need to know what it should sound like should something happen.” Carre placed her stethoscope on Kuari’s chest, then moved to her back, near her dorsal ridge, followed by a spot near her armpit. “Sounds real good, just like I thought it would.” She made several notes on her PADD.

Kuari was still and quiet while Carre listened, and when the stethoscope pulled away, she said solemnly, “I expect something will happen, yes.”

“Well, I haven’t been on this ship too long, but Sickbay is never dull. I do like to be prepared in physiologies that I’m not familiar with so, should you need my help, I can actually be useful.” Carre smiled widely, “And you can’t discount that human fascination with a species that looks like our mythological dragon.”

Kuari turned her head towards Carre so that she could see both eyes. It was only because of this she could tell Kuari winked at her. “Who says they’re mythological?”

Carre threw back her head and laughed, “You are going to be a blast!” She checked her PADD. “Well, lets have you open wide so I can have a look at your throat, and then we’ll see if I programmed the vision machine correctly.”

And open wide she did. Very, very wide. Her teeth were only exposed on the inside, but Carre could easily see just how many she had.

Carre muttered under her breath “My grandma, what big teeth you have.” A bit louder she said, “You have nice dental hygiene Lt., especially considering how MANY teeth you have. Alrighty, hop down from there, let me have a look at your wings. Do you do anything special with them for upkeep?”

Kuari hopped to the floor and sat, extending her wings tentatively at first, but it turned into a massive stretch. She sighed and relaxed slightly, holding them out for Carre to see. “Special, like what? You mean like preen? I don’t have feathers, so none of that annoying stuff.”

“Hmm, so they’re just ‘there’ as far as your concerned?”, motioning for Kuari to move closer to the vision machine.

The Rucara looked confused. “Well, I stretch them. They get stiff after a while. I fly when I can.”

Carre made several adjustments to the vision machine. “Okay, just look in here. Hold as still as you can until it beeps. You can probably use one of the bays or holodecks if you need a good stretch or some flight room,” she commented as she made more notes on her PADD.

Kuari looked into the machine and held still, straining to roll her eyes as forward as she could. After a moment, the machine beeped, and Kuari pulled her head away. “Holodecks are amazing. You can use your imagination and create anything! I wish I could use them more often, but I have to share.”

“Sorry, that didn’t look comfortable at all for you…and the machine didn’t care for it either.” Carre pushed some more buttons and viewed the results. “Not meant for your physiology but I got what I needed. Your sight is far better than the machine is calibrated for. You could probably get a bit more flying time if you used Holodeck 3 for flying. It seems to be terminally out of order or undergoing maintenance. Just push past the sign,” Roxy said with a huge grin. “I’ll even write a note on your chart that I suggested it.” She made a notation on the PADD.

Carre was rewarded with lolling tongue and perked ears. “Thank you, Doctor! I don’t know that I’ll be aboard long enough to make much use of it, but I appreciate your kindness!”

“No problem, glad to help. Hang on, I owe you something.” Carre dashed into her office and came out with a piece of chocolate. “This is some of the finest chocolate around. They use small paper cups to keep them from melting together and also to keep other peoples grubby hands off of ‘your piece’. Give it a try?”

Kuari crossed her eyes curiously at the small treat in front of her nose. She sniffed, her slitted nostrils flaring slightly. Darting her tongue out, she carefully freed the chocolate from the paper in Carre’s hand and drew it into her mouth. She sat staring blankly for a moment, her jaw working slightly, and proceeded through five different expressions. Her tail started to thump along the floor as she settled for beaming up at the doctor. “I like chocolate!”

Roxy laughed. “Of course you do. You’re female!”