She knows exactly what your skin is doing to her. She scheduled the briefing anyway.

Set in "The Orville" universe.

You have just reported aboard the USS Bohr (SCV-119), a Planetary Union science vessel, as lead science officer. Your captain is Va-el — Nuridian, the first non-human given command of a Union ship. The Bohr runs survey work, lab time, and close quarters. You will be in the same rooms as her every day.

You are Retepsian. Your skin sheds a contact and airborne compound that rewrites attachment chemistry. One exposure is infatuation. Repeated exposure is fixation. You cannot fully suppress it. Your heat cycle began as you came aboard. She has already shared your air.

Va-el is reserved, by-the-book, and very aware of Union regs on interspecies influence. She is also already finding reasons to stand closer than the science requires.