Of force fields and watermelons.

Posted on 13 Sep 2016 @ 1:12pm by Lieutenant JG Lenaris Marika & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell

1,092 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Brig
Timeline: MD 02: 1633h

[ON]

.."so then I tell the freighter Captain..." The young Bajoran took a surprisingly serious tone. "You pay us back, or I have my Nausicaan friend back there show you a good time!" Unable to hold her serious any longer Marika burst into a fit of giggles and accepted the coil spanner from the security officer.

"The funny thing is, Nkitka is actually a lot of fun. Sure she can be a little dangerous when angry, but that's just more incentive to make sure she's angry at other people." She paused for a moment to make sure her adjustments were good, then pointed at the holding cells locking mechanism. "Try it now."

Greg managed to put on a polite smile and laugh....for the fourth time as this young woman he hadn't interacted that much with since he came aboard fixed the brig's broken force field while telling him another story. According to the crew manifest, which he had brought up during her second story, she was the Archaeologist and Anthropologist, Ensign Marika Lenaris. While he made an attempt to be polite to everyone he came across, he couldn't quite figure her out. First and foremost she wasn't an engineer, which he figured right off the bat by the color of her uniform.

And as much as he feared making the story longer, he couldn't help but ask her to clarify one thing. "So....where exactly did the three horses, the Klingon, and the bag of fruit you mentioned fit into that story?" He asked, as he walked over to the control panel to test the force field.

She stared at the lack of a forcefield in front of her and giggled lightly. "Poor poor Cyrin. He didn't think the Klingon would follow us from Trill. But he did! Poor guy was convinced we'd insulted his honor." She picked up her tricorder and poked a few button. "So here we are, trying to convince the freighter Captain to leave immediately when we hear a roar coming from the rear. There, amidst the cargo is our friend the Klingon. He had snuck onto the ship to catch us!" She grinned at her audience of one and picked up the coil spanner once more and started up again.

"At this point Cyrin and Rheneas were a little disheartened. But from behind him, Sigrid comes rushing and tackles the poor Klingon to the deck." Almost jumping up from her kneeling position, the young bajoran threw her arms in the air in triumph, forgetting about the calibrations she was doing. "Of course that's when Nkitka decided to intervene on our behalf."

As Greg began to type in the code to test the forcefield, he felt like he was catching on.....sort of. "By throwing the watermelon at him?" He tapped the last button and the forcefield hummed to life.

Picking up a tricorder and checking the readings on it she laughed. “It was more like a case of them. One even split open on his head…” She laughed harder for a few moments. “His face was all sorts of colors and twisted from one funny face to another. It was… it was so funny I dropped down to one knee and laughed so hard my sides started to hurt.”

Grinning at the Warrant Officer she briefly touched the forcefield with a finger. “Ouch!” She shook her hand as if to shake away the sharp pain that had shot through her. “Seems good.”

She put away the tricorder and started with her tools. “And that’s about when the most amazing thing happened. There I was, half bent over laughing, staring at the Klingon warrior screaming out insults at us all when I hear a noise I’ve never heard. Some scream of some sort, with a lot of thumping. The ground starts shaking and I start looking around.”

Forgetting her tools again, she jumps up and mimics her look of surprise. “And there! Coming at us from the adjacent freighter is a herd of Denevan bred horses. It was so unexpected I didn’t even move until they were on us and I was kicked off my feet and ended up in a puddle of mud at the bottom of the ramp.”

Greg couldn't help but laugh at the excitement in the young woman's voice. "I do hope you weren't injured too much. My dad used to raise horses, and they can really pack a punch when they hit." He tapped a quick software diagnostic into the control panel of the force field to check for any other issues.

"Nah!" She smiled yet and giggled some. "I mean I had some bruises to add to my collection, but what can you expect from shore leave?" Forcing herself to get back to her tools, she took a moment to make sure her readings were correct. "All seems to check out on my end. What about you?" 

Greg typed in a few commands to test the forcefield. "It all looks good to me, but.....I'm gonna level with you. I have no idea what half of these complex commands mean. Does this look ok?" He asked, pointing at the console.

Closing in, she places herself between him and the console. Unmindful of their closeness, the stared at it for a moment, then compared the code to what her tricorder told her. "Looks great!" Turning around she smiled at him, as she'd done throughout their calibrations.

"Have I ever mentioned you are upbeat all the time? Does anything ever phase you." Greg laughed, pointing out her optimism.

"Sometimes." She nodded. "But rarely. And never on the spot. It usually requires some behind the scenes processing. BUt for the most part, this is what you get!" She struck a pose before quickly bursting in a fit of giggles.

With a twirl she turned back towards the tool kit she'd brought along and started packing up the different instruments they had used to make the repairs. "So where was I? Oh yeah! So I'm on the floor, wide eyed, still unsure how to react to being bumped on my butt by horses fo all things, when I hear a roar of laughter comming from the hold. Our good Klingon friend is wrapped in two, bellowing like a Shakalian hawk. So that's when Cyrin..."

As she turned around, Greg proceeded to slam his head down on the wall next to him.

[OFF]

Lieutenant Junior Grade Lenaris Marika
Archaeologist/Anthropologist
USS Galileo

&

CWO3 Greg Mitchell
Security Officer
USS Galileo

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