"Not. A Happy. Feline."

[Kansas_Jones 0]

08.24.07

USS Agincourt NCC-81762

“Not. A Happy. Feline”

 

The away team materialized in the transporter room, the Selshan defector in tow. A junior security officer relieved JoNs of her energy weapons, and the next couple of minutes were hectic as the new “guest” was taken off to be processed by Mister Black-Knight, and the remaining marine members of the away team dispersed to go about any follow up debriefings or duties regarding the away mission.

 

Her personal padd had beeped at one point during all this, and JoNs now moved off to one side as the stragglers moved out of the area in order to check the message. It would have been just as easy to hike down the corridor to the security offices and check the message on her own office terminal, but she had programmed the system to forward any text encoded from the senior officers to her padd for the duration of the away mission.

 

A curious ear flipped back as the feline accessed the sender coding - Kairi? – and she read the message from the senior engineer. Curiosity turned to shock, followed soon after by anger. JoNs stayed in the transporter room, hind paws planted on the decking, front paws on hips, one clutching the padd, and tail lashing. Her ears were planted so tight against her skull she almost had a headache.

 

Crewman Ibanez, the transporter tech on duty, surveyed the Caitian officer with a mixture of curiosity and wariness. “….sir? Is everything all right? No offense, but you look exactly like my childhood pet cat right after my brothers and I made her agitated…”

 

JoNs slanted a sideways look at him. “Obviously, you are still good at that Ibanez.”

 

“…I have duties elsewhere sir.”

 

“Thank you Crewman. Please stop in the security offices when you walk by; have Master Chief Keltex come in here.”

 

Ibanez exited as quickly as dignity would allow, leaving JoNs to deal quietly with her roiling emotions.

 

Eight minutes. I am back on the ship no less then eight minutes, and I have to deal with another disciplinary problem. Is the entire security department going bat######? Is there something in the recycled water? The air? Or maybe I just need to start slamming a few heads into the bulkheads.

 

The doors to the transporter room whooshed open, admitting the tall hulking form of the Klingon master chief. “Commander Kitten, the Selshan guest is now being processed. And why was Ibanez going on about a housecat or some such…..”

 

The Klingon officer stopped in mid-sentence as he got a good look at the lieutenant commander. “Ah. Never mind. Sir?”

 

The master chief was the most senior, both age wise and service wise, out of the Agincourt crew. Advice wise, he was just what the younger security chief needed right now, if only to let her vent out some of her frustrations. JoNs offered the padd to him, and the enlisted officer hesitantly took the offered padd, reading the highlighted entry. Course gray eyebrows shot upward as he read.

 

Keltex slowly and deliberately handed the padd back to the feline, who with stiff movements placed the device back in its waistband holder.

 

“Well? Thoughts Master Chief?”

 

“It is funny Lt. Commander.”

 

“Yes, I know that Keltex. It’s hilarious, and I’ve done the same thing myself…TEN YEARS ago when I as a cadet!” A paw waved through the air in exasperation, and a wry smirk quirked up one corner of the Klingon’s mouth.

 

JoNs started to stalk back and forth. “Not during an away mission. It’s unacceptable. Lieutenant Nimetti used the tactical console to access the internals, he located OBrien, and then piped music down to the engineering console nearest the cadet so he could listen to it. What the frag? The lieutenant should have had his full attention on that tracking program of his, keeping full attention on the away team. Not dithering around with the sensors and the engineering feed, and such.”

 

The feline security chief paused in her stalking to rub a paw against her temple, attempting to head off another tension headache. “Master Chief.”

 

“Commander?”

 

“Accompany me to the bridge please. I need someone competent on the TAC console while I have a chat with Mister Nimetti…”