Tribble Confessions

Posted on 03 Aug 2014 @ 2:32pm by Lieutenant Min Zhao & Cadet Sophomore Grade Alenis Taban & Nesh Saalm
Edited on on 03 Aug 2014 @ 2:32pm

890 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Section 30, Room 15 - Min & Jared's Quarters
Timeline: MD 04 - 2230 hrs

[ON]

Their next stop was Operations, a department that Nesh wasn't all that educated in. She knew Taban was in Ops, and that they wore yellow. That was all she ever needed to know up until this point. Word was out, however, that the Operations head was pregnant. Nesh knew a thing or two about pregnant Orion women, but pregnant human women? She heard they were really really hormonal.

"... Your department head's not gonna eat us, is she?"

"Errrrr....." Taban was really unsure how to respond to that. "I don't really know her... she seemed nice enough when I checked in, but Chief Keval's the one I've spent most time with. Why would you ask that?" He replied, at first pensively, but finished very quizzically. Was she trying to mess with his head? Right before he had to talk to his new boss and the person who would determine his evaluation at the end of his tour. Was she even taking this seriously at all? Or had she just decided to make him the scapegoat and torture him a little first?

Nesh lowered her voice to a whisper, fear written all over her face. "Because she's pregnant, and I hear pregnant humans can be touchy."

"Oh..." muttered Taban as a muted exclamation. "I didn't think about that. She wasn't sneezing earlier though, so maybe she's not been badly affected yet?"

Brightening her expression up, more for herself than for her fellow Cadet, wordlessly nodding and ringing the chime for Min's door.

Min was just drifting off to sleep when she heard the chime on her door. Most of her staff knew that this was her sleep cycle and only should rouse her if it was an emergency. They also knew to use the comms as well.

Slipping into a housecoat and slippers, Min went to the door and pressed the open button. The sight that confronted her was the two cadets looking at her rather nervously. Given the hour this better be good.

"Ma'am!" Nesh squeaked as soon as the door swung open, nervous smile on her features. "Good ah... erg... good evening?"

Min frowned. She didn't need the two cadets in her doorway at this hour. Motioning for them to come in and have a seat in her living area, Min replicated a glass of water while she let the pair stew for a few seconds. Sitting across from them, she looked them both in the eyes.

"So what is important enough that you can't wait till Alpha shift to speak with me?" A few ideas were running through her head, not the least of which is these two had gotten a bit too close to each other, and now Nesh wasn't sure how to approach her mother to explain that Lirha was going to be a gramma, and Taban was the daddy.

"One of Cadet Saalm's tribbles is loose, Lieutenant." Announced the larger, male, Cadet, his eyes fixed on the ground. "I think it may have got out in the mess-hall..." He sheepishly glanced up at his superior. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant."

Min nodded. She wasn't one hundred percent sure this couldn't have waited but she couldn't fault the two of them for jumping on this. The cute little critters were known for infesting ships in a manner of hours given the right circumstances, and cleanup could take days.

"I appreciate you bringing this to my attention. The next question is, what are your plans to find the creature, hopefully before it multiplies and starts causing problems for the ship?"

Luckily, Nesh found that her head hadn't been eaten off by Min. Maybe she would have had to research what gave pregnant human women the reputation for being so touchy. Perhaps there was a lady warlord that managed to conquer worlds while spitting children out the whole time.

Filing the thought away for another time, Nesh's shoulders rose with her nervousness. "We've gone to Lieutenant Stace first, and she suggested we get together, have a meeting about a ... a uhm, plan of attack, before the tribble turns into tribbles. Taban and I just thought it'd be best if we presented the information to you personally, because well, it's our fault the tribble got lost in the first place."

Min nodded. "I appreciate you both coming to see me, late tho it is. We'll need all three department's assistance getting this resolved, and I suspect a meeting will need to be held sooner rather then later. As much as I'd prefer it to be tomorrow, tonight is probably better."

"Yes'm." Nesh nodded after a small moment of hesitation. "I'll... uhm... I suppose we should probably wake Lieutenant Kita up for this too." Nesh seemed to keep forgetting the engineer in all of this mess. "And then we'll go inform Captain Holliday and Commander Blake before we come join you?"

"Sounds like a plan. I expect to hear from you within an hour once you've spoken with the others."

"Yes ma'am." Nesh nodded, turning towards the other Cadet, gesturing for him to follow her toward their next destination.

This was going to be a long, long night.

OFF

--

CDT(FR) Nesh Saalm
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC Kita]

CDT(SO) Alenis Taban
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LT Min Zhao
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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