Tribbles Don't Fly

Posted on 12 Sep 2014 @ 1:46pm by Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Crewman Ash Rowe

2,197 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Flight Control Office
Timeline: MD 09, 1245 hours

[ON]

Dea had summoned all of her flight control staff to get an update on the Tribble situation. So far it had not been a good day. Between the Tribbles and her experience with the entity during the away mission the last several days were rough. The other reason for calling the meeting was to give her personnel a change to see that Mialin would be ok.

"Thank you for coming I'll keep this brief. I need to get an update our Tribble situation so I can update the rest of the Command Staff."

Oliver sat there, silently, watching his Chief. It was one of those things. He hadn't exactly been busy on the ship. But he never expected to be, it was a Science ship after all. He looked over at their cadet, taking a deeper breath. He wasn't sure if he was sold on what he considered a child running around in the department, but it wasn't his call. And he didn't exactly serve to air his opinion. No. Some things were best kept to himself.

"Absolute rubbish," Ash's first statement made for a rather succinct report from her side of things. She lifted her hands with exasperation, shaking her head quickly. "Those stupid rolling rat things are everywhere! For some reason, they love the shuttles. Every time I open one up, there they are...a great, thick sea of cooing fur to wade through. So I dig 'em out....you know, actually touching the icky little things with these hands..." Ash held them out in front of her, to make the point. "....And then, when I go back to the shuttles a few hours later, they're full again!"

Wintrow sat huddled away in silence, feeling out of place and he had a sense of being unwanted too. The latter was nothing new to him, his own stepmother made that all too clear at several separate occasions. "Perhaps you left one behind then," he suggested timidly, not even meeting Ash's eyes. "Me and Chief Lamar spent quite some time clearing the shuttle bay too. Is there any food left behind in the shuttles? Are they maybe kept at a too comfortable temperature? What is comfortable for Tribbles anyway?"

Dea was not in a mood to deal with disagreements with what to do with the Tribbles. "For those of you who haven't met Cadet Paragon please introduce yourself." She paused then continued. Leaning against her desk took a moment to gather her thoughts. "This situation is beyond a chaotic mess and we need some sort of resolution. Work with other departments as necessary. However I expect this department to work together not argue."

"That brings me to my next point. As your department head I'm trying to stay on top of this but I haven't been medically cleared for full duty just yet after the away team nightmare the other day. In short a good portion of me still hurts to some degree but its clear we're being overcome by these furry menaces. So I'm relying on all of you more than usual. I'll be around because I our current situation is urgent but I'm not 100%." Dea thought she'd made her point clear the first time.

Lamar sat quietly while listening to a lot of talking, but so far no solutions had been presented. "So...what exactly do you want us to do?" he asked the chief flight controller with a plain-enough shrug. "Can't kill 'em, can't get rid of them. Both shuttlebays are inoperable and none of our craft can fly," he reported. "Like Rowe said, every time we try and clear them out, a new batch appears after a few hours."

"I say we just shove 'em all in the shuttles and set 'em adrift..." Ash sat back in the chair, crossing her legs and throwing her hands up in the air. "May as well. At least it'll get 'em out of our hair," she rolled her eyes with a sigh. "We can get new shuttles, can't get new sanity..."

"Oh I'm right there with you guys on this one. I'd be the first to say decompress the bays to get rid of them but orders are orders. We need some sort of solution or to see if another department has one," Dea commented.

"Killing them is not it," Wintrow objected, "that's inhumane. They don't know any better. How would you like to be just obliterated for doing something you know no better than to do?" He sat up straighter, but didn't look at anyone. At best, he looked as if he might just up and run any second, his hands were shaking that bad already. "We have a planet below...there's probably food for them too, can't we transport them there?"

"Last I heard, the Cardassians are a little...mm..." Ash pursed her lips as if she were picking her words carefully, tilting an outstretched hand one way and then the other. "...touchy. I don't think they'll thank us for sending a catastrophe down into their mining facility."

Dea shook her head wanting to forget about the mining facility yet recalling vaguely a few things that were still a big jumble. "Its a lot more complicated than that."

Lamar looked around the room at the other pilots, unsure of what to say or do. Was the commander going to elaborate on her vague statement or just leave it at that, he wondered? The idea of beaming tribbles down the planet was no doubt a command-level decision that the commodore or captain had to make, and he wasn't sure if discussing that option was an efficient use of time. Unless maybe Mialin knew something they didnt?

"Its not our mine and that call is above my pay grade. That's a decision for the Captain and the XO. I can bring it to their attention," Mialin replied. Beyond that she wasn't sure if her memories were real or just some bad very vivid remanent of a bad dream.

Wintrow sat back in his chair and seemed to withdraw from the conversation. He'd offered his own opinion, there wasn't much else he could do in a group where his opinon clearly wasn't wanted. In his personal opinion anyway, because that's how he felt: unwanted.

"Besides, that hunk of frozen rock down there is uninhabitable for anything that wants to keep its blood warm instead of frozen," Ash shook her head as she waved a hand lightly. "Unless we plan to make them all tiny little environmental suits..." she chuckled, shaking her head. "Can't we use forcefields to keep them out of the shuttles? Sort of....scoop them out then slap a forcefield up?"

The former-Marine considered the intriguing idea for a moment then shook his head. "Good idea but I don't think so. The ship's at orange alert for power conservation and it'd eat up a lot of juice to keep force fields up all the time. And we only had two sorties this entire mission so I'm thinking shuttlebay ops aren't a big priority for the command staff," Lamar surmised with his best guess before glancing over at the cadet who was sitting nearby.

"And I agree with the kid, we can't start venting them into space. Like I said, can't kill 'em and can't get rid of 'em. Sort of like my ex-wife," Lamar mused out-loud while absentmindedly stroking his goatee.

Ash smiled knowingly at Lamar with the words, shaking her head. "Uh huh..." she arched an eyebrow, the smile becoming a grin. She tapped her hand on the table before leaning down to knock her forehead lightly against the table top with a groan. "Guess we just have to put up with it then. Hairs all over everything...."

"They are cute though," Wintrow murmured absently, while stroking a little ball of chocolate fur that had somehow managed it's way onto his lap.

Ash shivered as she closed her eyes tightly, fighting the urge to jump out of her seat and instead crossed her legs tightly. "Wriggly, cooing, hairy, creepy, tickly, nibbly, furry, shivery, messy, sly, invading, dirty, sneaky, dribbling little monster vermin...."

"I have to agree," Oliver said and smiled, weakly, to Ash. He touched her arm, nodding. He was protective over the girl. She was so young. "More because when I came back, I let my bag down for two seconds and I had four of them in there. I have fur all over my favourite jacket."

"So my assumption were correct in that we don't have a decent solution to this issue from our side." Dea put words to the current situation. Allowing her head to fall into the hands. The headache had been there before this meeting so it didn't help the situation.

Carefully, Wintrow got up from his seat and walked around the table, resting a hand on Dae's shoulder. "Ma'am, are you alright?" he asked softly, leaning forward to be at her level. His tone had changed, softer but warmer. "Do you need medical assistance?" He could just feel her headache, as if it was his own.

Ash's eyes widened a little at what she was seeing, glancing across to Lamar uncertainly, not used to stuff like that with a department head involved. Her mouth formed an 'o' shape to him and she glanced back to them, then back to Lamar. "....kay...."

Oliver arched an eyebrow as well, more at Wintrow rather than Dea's reaction. They all felt like that. Tired and fed up. He just hadn't expected the cadet to go and mollycoddle their Department Head.

Having caught the glance from his fellow support craft pilot, Lamar returned Ash's look but he couldn't do much except subtly shake his head. He wasn't sure what was worse; his DH possibly not in the state of mind to perform her duties, or the new cadet who'd just arrived flagrantly touching and trying to nurture her during a staff meeting. Either way, he now just wanted to leave the room. Nothing productive had been said as far as he was concerned, and he wasn't really sure what further use there was for all of them sitting around a desk wen they could at least be helping clear tribbles in the meantime.

Dea visibly jumped at the Cadet's touch as she moved out of the way. It was both a sign she didn't want to be mollycoddled and an indicator that something happened on the away team that left her feeling more edgy than usual. The tone in her voice however was clear, "There's no reason to be waisting time here then. If someone comes up with a solution contact me. I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything more." She paused briefly, "Other than that do your best to try an clean up these creatures and contain them somehow."

Wintrow scrambled back as she jumped, clearly startled by her sudden movement. Yet, he did not move as she told them to leave.

"Okay, gotcha 'Commander, see ya..." Ash jumped up quickly, not needing to be told twice, dashing out of the room so they could have the room to themselves if that was their thing.

Lamar was the next one out, following Rowe right on her heels. He wasn't sure if the commander had been reading his mind throughout the entire meeting, but it almost seemed as if his thoughts were mysteriously being responded to without him saying a word. The entire second-half of the meeting had therefore been unnerving for him, and he was grateful to finally be gone.

"Now that was awkward..." Oliver breathed as he got up, to follow Lamar and Rowe.

As Lamar and others were leaving Dea looked up just slightly as she spoke, "Take the Cadet with you. I'll be fine I just need more time." Honestly she had a feeling if it wasn't for the mine situation and the Tribbles she'd still be confined to sickbay.

"You need assistance," Wintrow insisted quietly, rubbing his temples as if he was the one having a bad headache.

Oliver stopped and looked at Dea and then the cadet, shaking his head. "If you want rid of him, order him away. I'm not getting involved, ma'am," he said, giving a weak nod before leaving. There was a line. And he also knew that she, like most, would prefer privacy and not a scene. Ordering the cadet out could solve that.

Sylver was right and that was what Dea was just about to do, "Cadet you have your orders. I'll repeat them once again. Go, help the department with Tribble containment." Her tone clearly indicated that was an order. Right now privacy and time are exactly what Mialin needed. "Out..." Dea pointed towards the doorway to emphasize the command.

[OFF]

--

LTCMDR Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

MWO Lamar Darius
Chief Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[PNPC Saalm]

Staff Warrant Officer Oliver Sylver
Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Rice]

Cdt (SO) Wintrow paragon
Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[PNPC T'Vanna]

CN Ash Rowe
Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[PNPC Blake]

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