Who Lost the Tribble?

Posted on 30 May 2014 @ 11:50pm by Nesh Saalm & Cadet Sophomore Grade Alenis Taban
Edited on on 30 May 2014 @ 11:51pm

1,194 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 04 - 04-2522 JO Quarters
Timeline: MD 04 - 2038 Hrs

ON

Nesh was in a panic.

After spending her morning on the surface of the planet and scanning rocks, the young Orion had spent most of her down time up until this point in a self-proclaimed 'Orion Beauty Slumber.' If Taban had come in and out during that time, she hadn't noticed, sleeping deeper than a cryogenically suspended Klingon. As soon as she awoke, she acted higher than a peppy-spirited Bolian who had just been given a sugar injection.

That was, of course, until she caught sight of her tribble terrarium. Her face fell the moment she realized that there was only one brightly-colored creature and not two, and was mortified when she discovered Pup hadn't managed to sneak it's way into her Ferengi mold growing chamber, the one she had procured for an Academy project.

Her side of the room was torn from top to bottom for any sign of the green-colored creature, and was tempted to tear apart Taban's side as well. That was the next logical place to look. She was sure he would have understood.

As soon as she bent over to pick up an item of his, the door swooshed open, and Nesh was immediately bounding for it, on the off chance her tribble was going to make a break.

"Close the door! I don't want Pup wandering out!"

The Bajoran/Cardassian froze where he was, which didn't help. "So...err.... what?" he slowly managed to stutter. "H...how does a tribble wander? Wh... Why don't you know where he is?" He was very confused. On many levels. Looking from the room to the corridor and back again, then up into Nesh's eyes. "Wha... What's going on, Nesh?"

"Get out of the doorway!" Nesh hissed, moving to grab his collar and pull him into the room.

The man was too stunned and confused to really react and felt himself dragged out of the doorway. If a man had tried to do that he'd probably have instinctively reacted by throwing a punch, but a tiny, pretty, girl: no way.

She huffed at him, finally responding to his befuddled state. "I don't know where he is, he got out of his terrarium!" Her foot stamped down on the ground, much like a frustrated child. "I have to find him before he finds something he shouldn't be getting into. Come on, help me out!"

"How..." he mumbled as he looked at the enclosure. "How would he even get out of there?" He took a deep breath and bent down so his face was level with Nesh's. Locking eyes with her he asked slowly "When did you last see him?"

Taban might have been trying to keep calm, but Nesh was nearly in tears from the panic she was causing herself. But, he was right. She had to try to remember, or else they'd get nowhere. "I fed him just before heading off to survey Lyshan III.... so some time this morning? I made sure to secure the terrarium. He can't have gone far, right?..." A squeak. "Right?"

Alenis nodded. "Surely not." He replied, still looking confused. "Where have you looked already? How can I help?" He asked as he put his small rucksack down.

Now she was starting to calm. It was possible that that was because Taban was not Lirha, or anyone who was going to yell at her for losing a tribble. "My side of the room. I didn't want to look through your side without you around." Who knew what kind of dirty boy things she was going to find on his side? As religious as a Bajoran mentality might have been, it didn't exempt them from having dirty boy things, whatever dirty boy things were.

The Bajoran looked to his, very bare, spartan side of the room. "Oh..." he mumbled "well... thanks, but really that's no problem." Moving to his bunk he had a cursory glance around, before concluding that there really wasn't anywhere the creature could be hiding - unlike the clutter on Nesh's side. "No sign of him..." he muttered. He looked back to Nesh, and then down at his rucksack. "Unless..."

Moving quickly back across the room, he opened the bag and pulled his PADDs out. There was no sign of the tribble. Looking up to Nesh, with his hand still in the bag, the male shook his head. As he pulled his hand out of the bag though, a brightly-coloured piece of fluff floated up into the air. 'Uh... oh...' went through his head as he saw it.

Nesh shifted uncomfortably, eying Taban gratefully. Wiggling, she turned her attention to her side of the room. It would have made sense that the green tribble would have roamed about the room, and if it wasn't in the area the first three times she looked, maybe it would show up the fourth time? Luckily for the poor Bajoran, the tuft of fuzz went unnoticed on the Orion girl's part. "Anything yet?"

Taban coughed to draw his roommate's attention. "Err... he didn't end up in my bag at some point, did he?" He asked nervously. "'Cos I have no idea how this got in there."

"... Did he?" Nesh squeaked, eying Taban with large, scared eyes. She was [i]adamant[/i] that she placed both tribbles in their terrarium this morning, but she was in such a rush that she could have easily left one out. [i]Which would be awful.[/i] Her nervousness turned into sheer terror at her realization. "... Ohmigodno."

The man looked up at Nesh, unsure what he should say. "Err... I've spent all afternoon in the mess since I got off duty." He paused, realising the severity of what he'd just said. "Oh..." he winced as he spoke. Standing, he shuffled to the far side of the room before finally mumbling "What... what should we do?"

"Uhm..." Once the realization that the tribble was indeed lost in the one place that would be most horrific, Nesh's 'uhm' turned into an... "Ohmigod no." This was then followed by a series of panicked, girlish squeals, and an amount of flailing that could only be measured in 'buttloads.' The thought that preceded and followed these actions was a resounding 'I am so dead.'

"Ohmigodohmigodohmigodohmigod... I don't know. Uhm..." They should have alerted Engineering, right? Or was it Security who would have been in charge of all this? Wait... "Wouldn't... Ops... be the place... to start? Or... or Engineering maybe? Somewhere where... we could find someone who'd know tribble capture procedures? Are there tribble capture procedures?" If Taban had been in the mess hall all afternoon, tribble 'capture' may soon have been 'infestation,' which didn't comfort Nesh at all. "... But we should definitely talk to someone from one of those departments, right?"

Taban gulped. "Ops..." He muttered. "Thank the prophets Chief Keval's on duty." He paused. "Maybe we should tell him in person, though..." He turned and looked Nesh in the eye. "To the bridge then?" He asked.

OFF

--

Cadet Freshman Grade Nesh Saalm
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC Kita]

&

CDT(SO) Alenis Taban
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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