"Vulcan: The Other White Meat"

[Kansas_Jones 0]

1.10.07

UES Challenger NX-05

“Vulcan: The Other White Meat”

 

Shaow sighed as she gave up walking on her two hind legs and succumbed to walking on all fours. She wanted to get to the main security offices quickly to do her assigned research, and two legs just weren’t cutting it at the moment. Several crew people did the “furred cat walking on all fours” look. She knew there would be an adjustment period, both for her and the Challenger crew. There were not that many Caitians serving in the Earth Command fleet, at least not yet.

 

JoNs would never admit it, but she was nervous at this first official assignment given to her by the head of communications, Lieutenant TParek. It was a data gathering job regarding the canine like “Demons” that were currently stationed off the bow of the Challenger. These very hostile beings were demanding the surrender of the ship and crew. Uppity dogs anyway, someone should keep them on a leash.

 

Adding to her nervousness, JoNs had called the communications lieutenant “T’Pork” rather then the correct “T’Parek”. It had been the combination of learning the Human and Vulcan names, her thick, purred accent, and a natural tendency to combine the vowels of the Vulcan’s name into the former version. Not a very good first impression, if the Vulcan’s tone over the comm was any indication. Gods, according to the roster TParek was also the head of operations…JoNs might end up with her quarters in a supply closet. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts!

 

Shaow entered the offices and quickly survey the area, locating a data console not in use. She settled in at the console, drew up a mental plan of attack, and finally entered a series of words to initiate the search parameters. The pattern would cover a variety of recordings, ranging from the Caitian news feed, Earth Command reports, and the galactic news feed in general, anything that might give them a lead on the curs.

 

The computer console blipped and bleeped happily as it interpreted her search commands. JoNs sighed and walked over to a small, recessed food replicator, her thoughts again returning to the T’Pork Incident. She smiled a bit at the situation, despite the mistake. It wasn’t so much the mental image of the Vulcan coming at her down the corridor with a Lirpa over the incident that she found funny; it would be very easy reflex wise for the felinoid to get away from a ticked off Vulcan. But, leave it up to her to call a Vulcan the wrong name; they could be very snooty with things of that nature. Regardless, this was a new assignment on a primarily human vessel, and the felinoid officer would make mistakes as she learned this new posting. Shaow just had to make sure that she did indeed learn from any mistakes, and not repeat them.

 

“Chocolate milk. Hot.” Her exchange program liaison at Annapolis, Lieutenant Jack Kelley, had gotten the Caitian hooked on the beverage during her study tenure at the campus. Cradling the steaming mug between the soft padding of her paws, she walked back over to the desk console, sitting down and diving into the information the search programs had brought up.

 

One hour and a couple of hot chocolates (read: chocolate nut) later, Shaow sat back in the chair, her tail lashing. “This is not good” She muttered under her breath. Sometimes, you had to look back at past incidents in order to see the parallels to a current issue.

 

JoNs quickly went over to the nearby wall panel and touched the imbedded comm button with a claw, signaling the bridge. “Lieutenant T-P-a-r-e-k,” (she said this very carefully and with exaggerated slowness) “this is Ensign JoNs. According to my findings, there may be a connection to our current situation with these “Demon” dog beings and an attack against the SS Aetrix a couple of months ago. According to their flight logs, the cargo freighter was on a normal run between colonies, and they encountered these dogs. The Demons shook them down pretty well, confiscating over three quarters of the cargo.”

 

She paused for a few seconds, gathering her thoughts. Shaow had never liked bullies. “I am bringing a data slate containing the full information to the bridge sir. JoNs out.”