STF

Maxia - Maximum Boredom

Posted Feb. 19, 2021, 9:35 a.m. by Lieutenant Junior Grade Ilena Keelara Rox (Medical (Assistant Researcher - Abell)) (Jennifer Ward)

Ilena walked the park, Thor running ahead of her and back, his tongue lolling out to the side in doggy laughter. She sighed heavily. There was NOTHING to do here on Maxia. The infirmary had no need of her. Said she wasn’t going to be there long enough and there was no reason for her to take over patient care just to return it. And in a logical way she agreed, but Ilena never did well being idle. She was having trouble sleeping. Her mind, with nothing to stimulate it, went into overdrive, but none of the thoughts really made sense. It was like she was engaged in a Lewis Carrol esc type waking dream in her head. And another side effect of her voracious mind, with nothing to do she was getting a severe headache. She’d studied the PaDD Lt Cmdr Hallasholm had given her until she’d memorized it. Okay so more times than that. It only took her 3 times. Probably less, but she’d not really been reading it the first time. She could recite at will the hierarchy of the ARU and the Leviathan where she was going to be stationed. It seemed very strange to her that the CSO would rank higher and have more control than the CO of a ship. Now she could see them being of equal ranking within the science department but to let the CSO outrank the captain in general…that seemed…counter productive to her. But Ilena was a doctor and a researcher. She didn’t bother to try and understand the politics of command and rank and the pettiness involved.

She did learn one interesting thing though, that gave her a couple of days work: all pets had to be tested to ensure they were not anomalies. It surprised her and the terms “extensive testing” concerned her. Ilena understood the precaution, she even knew the need for test subjects, but she also knew in their advanced technological society, ‘animal testing’ or maybe in this case ‘anomaly testing’ did not need to include harmful or risky procedures. So using her new access badge she was able to pull up the tests that needed to be done. She appeared, the next morning, Thor in tow, at the science/medical labs. They took blood and ran several tests, giving him a complete physical. Checked his eyes, which was interesting. Apparently anomalies could see or not see certain light spectrums or could be injured by them. The same with sounds. When Thor began barking and whimpering to several high pitched sounds, the Bolian in charge had requested “RTF to science labs” and before Ilena could blink the room was filled with grey and black uniforms. Ilena blinked and Thor, usually very protective of her, was hiding behind her and under a table staring at the 5 grey and black clad officers, his tail tucked. The Bolian was shouting and pointing at Thor, something about him being an anomaly. Lt Cmdr Hallasholm was one of the five men. It took Ilena several intense minutes to convince Hallasholm to not ‘subdue’ Thor with their batons that looked like they shot electricity out the end. She had all the paperwork showing when she’d adopted him, how old he was, all of his veterinary records. When Hallasholm realized the Bolian officer hadn’t completed his exam and had called ‘RTF’ because the dog was sensitive to sound, Ilena though Hallasholm would have a heart attack he turned from pale to red to purple and purplish blue so fast. Ilena was told to return the next day with Thor after the Bolian had done his homework on Terran dogs. The rest of the exam went well the next day. But the last test “reaction to anomalies” she was told would have to be done on board because there were no active anomalies being contained on Maxia at the moment. Ilena made a note that the CSO onboard would conduct that test.

Mom….mom don’t make me go back there. Please, mom mom mom Every time they went by the building, Thor would get on the far side of Ilena and press against her leg. Ilena sighed. She was frustrated with the Bolian officer, but she didn’t really blame him if he wasn’t familiar with dogs. She tried explaining it to Thor, because she had no one else to talk to, but Thor just looked at her and whined.

They turned a curve in the path and Thor, like always, took off to where he had found Xavier. Every. Single. Day. Ilena sighed. Poor Thor, he’d made a friend and now he was gone. MOM! He was here! I know he was. I can smell the food still and him. Where did he go? Where did he go? The question bounced around in his brain as he sniffed and tracked back and forth around the park. MOM! He was FUN! Why aren’t you helping me? We have to find him! Like now, right now, today! MOM! Ilena cringed as Thor’s thundering bark cracked right next to her to get her attention. “Thor! Stop that.” She pet him and roughed housed with him a bit, but Thor was really too strong for her. If she thought he would do it she’d tie a rope around a tree trunk and let him play tug. She laughed at the thought, Thor would probably pull the tree out by the roots. Eventually, Thor led them back to the barracks and instead of going to their door, for some reason he was fascinated by the stairs and would run up the stairs every time, stop half way down the corridor and whine and wag his tail and sit. “Thor, really, I don’t need more exercise. Come on.” And after a moment of looking at her like she was stupid he’d go with her. Mom! He’s in there! Or he was! Where did he go? Mom? You’ve got to knock and ask where he went. MOM! Thor sighed heavily and followed Ilena back down to their quarters. He loved her dearly but sometimes she was SO dense.

Ilena jumped out of bed, in a wonderful mood that morning. “Last day Thor! As long as that shipment arrives like it’s supposed to. And then we can finally get going.” Thor raised his head from his paws and blinked orange eyes at her. Once she was up and making food, he finally decided to pad into the living area and sat, waiting patiently for Ilena to feed him. She got food from the replicator and filled his other bowl with water and after putting it down she ruffled his ears a bit and then got her own breakfast. Ilena stood on the landing pad with a PaDD in hand with a list of the things that she was to receive for Leviathan. A Ferengi shuttle settled down on the pad and she waited until the hatch opened and she moved out, with a few NEs with antigrav sleds to meet them.

DaiMon Olash looked around and sighed. He preferred to work with Cpt Cobb directly but was unable, this trip to meet him. He looked around and saw a young female Lt coming towards him and he winced mentally. He had learned in his years to accept that other cultures allowed their females to be clothed, and he had eventually not been bothered by it. But the men on his crew were not the same and always had to open their mouths. And if this hooman female was part of Cobb’s crew then he could not afford to insult her and then Cobb. Working with the captain had brought him much profit and Rule 57 said: Good customers are as rare as latinum—treasure them. He nodded to the young Lt. “I am DaiMon Olash of the Nant. I am here to fulfill an order for Cpt Cobb of the USS Leviathan.” Ilena nodded and offered him a PaDD she’d been given with the captain’s orders to inspect and accept the cargo.

Ilena looked at the manifest and then at the crates. She had never had business dealings with Ferengi and so thought it would be better not to speak to begin inspecting the equipment first. She moved to open the first crate of medical supplies, when one of the men reached out to stop her. Ilena, oblivious as always when working didn’t notice, nor did she notice DaiMon Olash stop the man. He hissed over his shoulder, “Borrick, you are endangering my profits. Next time I’m dropping you off on a lifeless asteroid. I’ve repaid my debt to my uncle, and it will no longer protect you.” Borrick whimpered and genuflected towards the DaiMon, “But DaiMon, it’s a Feeeeemale. She’s opening the cargo!” Olash grunted, all equipment was inspected and if this was the person Cobb wanted to do it, then Olash didn’t care, as long as he got his latinum. Zanic, having learned very quickly the benefit of working with the crew of Leviathan stepped forward to assist. He had no problem with hooman females, and this one was rather pretty. Unfortunately for Zanic, he was a little too helpful and Thor was very protective of his mommy. Zanic stepped too close to help and startled Ilena, and suddenly there was Thor between Ilena and Zanic, smiling, all teeth showing, and his were a lot sharper and bigger than the Ferengi’s. Unlike his thundering bark, Thor’s growl was low and barely heard, but the excellent ears of the Ferengi heard it easily. Zanic backed up, scurrying behind his DaiMon watching the demon dog from a safe distance.

A day and half later Ilena and Thor were on a transporter pad and beaming over to the Leviathan.
Lt Rox


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