Gilbert

Posted on 28 Aug 2014 @ 11:44am by Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Edited on on 28 Aug 2014 @ 1:03pm

763 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Tuula and Jaana's quarters
Timeline: MD9 - 0200 hrs

[ON]

Dead tired, Tuula made it back to her quarters on autopilot. She had spent the night performing one of the most difficult and certainly the most rewarding tasks in her profession: delivering a baby. While she was able to last through the procedure thanks to adrenaline and a bit of caffeine, those sources of energy rapidly depleted themselves once the job was done. But even in her groggy state, her mind couldn't stop thinking about T'Vanna and Emmeline.

"Two slices of rye toast with lingonberry jam," she whispered into the replicator, not wanting to wake Jaana. She stared at the plate a moment before reaching for it; somehow creating a piece of toast didn't compare to creating a new life.

As she took the first bite into her toast, she felt a sharp pang of distress. Suddenly, Tuula remembered that she had hidden Gilbert in her sock drawer. And that was before the delivery. By now, her sock drawer would be overrun with dozens of little Gilberts.

Carefully, so as to avoid squishing any poor tribbles under her wheels, she rolled over to her dresser and flung open the drawer. But instead of a swarm of tribbles, there lay Gilbert, all snuggled up in a gym shirt. Tuula held him aloft to examine him, the tribble waking up and letting out a soft coo. "You should have reproduced by now, Gilbert." She pulled a medical tricorder out of her bag; she had a habit of carrying one wherever she went. "Hmmm, it looks like something is slowing down your reproductive process," she started. If this was true, she had to tell her boss.

=^=Tuula to Allyndra=^=

Allyndra was on her normal shift but she had caught up on the updates, the lab did not even call though there were several projects she had thoughts about the most important of which was trying to figure out why the Akkadian regenerative genes had not completely worked. She did not even feel like reading her book. Instead she just let her mind wander in thought and sipped at the cup of her allotted ration of transfusion grade blood. It was not quite like Lamar's nor for that matter from a living source, having a somewhat flat taste but after the past few days it was like the mead of the gods. Her reverie was broken by the comm chirping.

=^=Allyndra here.=^= She replied setting down the cup.

=^=It's Gilbert. I don't know what it is, but he's not reproducing, or if he is, he's doing it very slowly. I thought my sock drawer would be full of tribbles by now.=^=

At first Allyndra wondered who Gilbert was and wondered for a moment what strange habits Tuula had but then that word was mentioned, tribbles. Gilbert was a tribble that Tuula was keeping. It was against regulations for anyone to keep an un-neutered tribble just for the very reason that the ship was being overrun with the things.

=^=I have gamma shift. Bring Gilbert down to the medical lab and let's have a look though the last thing we need is more tribbles. Be advised though, he may not like me much.=^=

=^=I'll be down in a bit. Tuula out.=^=

"What are you doing at this unholy hour" Jaana said rubbing her eyes. "It's like what?" She glanced at the time display on her desk. "Oh my, it's 2 AM." And let her head fall back in her pillow.

"I just delivered a baby," started Tuula as she looked for something to carry Gilbert in, "and now I'm going to find out why Gilbert hasn't reproduced yet."

"Gilbert?" she asked. Looked up and saw she was carrying a naked tribble. "Wait, you want that thing to reproduce? Don't we have enough of the damn things yet?"

Tuula laughed. "No, I operated on him earlier. But if we can find out why he's not reproducing, maybe we can develop some sort of birth control method for tribbles."

"Need help?"

Tuula looked around the room; there were tribbles invading their quarters through the air vents, and small mountains of them piling up in the kitchen and bathroom. "I think we all need help with these tribbles. Get dressed, we have some experiments to perform..."

"Jeh sure, who needs sleep anyway" she said as she climbed on her bed and started searching for her clothes.

[OFF]

Lieutenant (J.G.) Tuula Voutilainen, M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Jaana Voutilainen
Stellar Cartographer
USS Galileo

Lt Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officeer
USS Galileo

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