Bennu Station, 462:6
We have been training visitors from Mmokc for the last two weeks. Despite Bennu falling on the last concentric of the core, we are usually overwhelmed with requests for training---most likely because of our location actually. Everyone wants to see how the core functions and to get some training in official procedures, especially with construction begun on the fast travel machinery.
I wish Shah hadn't agreed to this particular mentorship. The two Mok that came were not interested in learning anything. I spent the days leading up to the visit making sure all of the documents were ready, and each evening taking what had been done during the day and modifying our plan to accommodate their needs. Unfortunately, their needs were just desires and ran the gamut from "seeing the core", to visiting the lowest levels of Bennu, where even I don't venture because it is so seedy.
If you aren't in good with the maintenance staff or pay off one of the crew that gates access, you can't even get down there without docking a small shuttle directly to the outside of the station. Even the most brash in their proclivities avoid this, due to the tags that get associated with the ship ID in the central core databases.
Shah took me once. I think he thought he was showing off how "in" he was with all aspects of the station, and to impress me with what was on offer beyond what one could wander into accidentally. It had the opposite effect on me; I was repulsed. No matter how progressive those in the core---especially the inner concentrics---claim to be, most are exclusively into human-centric eroticism. Bennu, being located where it is, has very little of that for sale, particularly in its lower section. Humans are, relatively speaking a fragile species, and the hardness and brutality of the co-opted mating displays in the station's bottom turned my stomach. Even with the medical and regenerative technologies Bennu freely offers, most of the activities I saw activated only my primal fear response. I suppose for some that is exactly what they are after, although I have no idea what formative experiences have to occur in early life for that to be the case.
The Mok, with their exoskeletons and razor teeth, had what they self-described as "the time of their life". This was at our final compliance meeting, but it was obvious they were not talking about procedures they hadn't even had the courtesy to become passingly familiar with.
Shah is usually formally correct in all aspects of procedure, but at our final goodbye he only performed a single armed farewell. It meant nothing to the Mok, with their farewells being entirely auditory and at frequencies mostly outside of human range. I winced at our formal parting, their screams of static swept through the spectrum of my hearing and were painful, but was more startled by Shah's behaviour. The whole compliance division had never seen Shah act so rudely. He simply reasoned that if they hadn't bothered to get up to speed on the most broad safety procedures, the minutiae of core-standard social obligations would be beneath their contempt. And they were---but not beneath Shah's.
I feel like Shah and I have a good relationship, but it was a good reminder to stay on his good side. Who knows what petty assaults he would launch on my reputation if we had a falling out.