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Main Sim - Deck 2 Section 3 - Cat and Mouse games

Posted Nov. 27, 2019, 10:05 a.m. by Crewman Faith Hopkins (Yeoman) (David Fergusson)

[snip]

Faith’s shift was officially over, though she still had to visit the Captain’s Quarters and put out food for the Ship’s cat, Ginger. Ginger had been confined only to certain areas of the ship after the incident where he had knocked over the coffee cup on the Bridge console. However, this was difficult to achieve as the Merrimack was a maze of small tubes carrying wiring and eps conduits, as well as Jefferies’ Tubes, turbo-life shafts and air conditioning, and Ginger knew them all having spent most of his life aboard this and other ships. He was also very useful and keeping done the persistent infestation of Rafalian mice aboard the Merrimack, which meant that ordinarily the Ship’s Pest Officer found him rather useful.

Not today. As Faith reached the Captain’s room she heard the comm and turned, immediately making her way to deck 2, section 3 instead, where the CSO, the Ship’s Pest officer and a large security team had already arrived.

As the door opened they were welcomed by a big surprise. There lounging on one of the couches of the room was Ginger the ship’s cat. Except in this case the cat was nearly the size of a Terran tiger and was chowing down on some kind of leafy substance that scans showed was a mix of catnip and some kind of meat. The cat for the moment seemed innocent of their approach/entry lazily licking the leafy meat. But scans oddly confirmed too that the cat was now the source of the readings that had brought them here.

William stopped when he saw the enlarged feline, drooped his shoulders and sighed “That’s it. I quit” He murmured in an annoyed tone. He grabbed the communicator from his belt =^=Grey to Bridge, I’ve traced the source of the strange readings… it’s the bloo..” He paused “The cat. It’s Ginger, he’s gotten big, like tiger big and it’s eating some sort of cat food. We might need security here and whoever his veterinarian is. That is if he even has one. For now, I’m just going to do some non-invasive scans and hope his food doesn’t run out=^= He reported.

=/\= What in hell has Faith been feeding him? =/\= Glen asked rhetorically, but then realised, =/\= This is the Reality Stone again! Like the Tuna fish incident. We must be getting closer to have so many of these events. My advice would be to leave him be and stay clear. Ginger doesn’t like being disturbed when he is eating. =/\=

Turning back to his team “Alright don’t get too close, set up our scan beacons around him, also does anyone know where that food came from?” He asked “As I recall the wee taffy doesn’t eat anything anyone gives it. Unless maybe the Captain and Yeoman Hopkins”.

The NE’s nodded and gave the now large cat a wide berth as it continued to gnaw on the bones of its dinner on the couch. With the scanner pods in a circle around the room the NE’s nodded to the CSO as they activated, then hurriedly made their way out of the room again.

William opened the channel again =^=Agreed Captain, I’m going to seal off the area and keep the cat under surveillance, it’s too unpredictable to leave him with potential exits.=^= He explained then closed the communicator “Alright, let’s start sealing of this area.”

Sealing the room was easy as the door shut, a command code of locking it down would be all thats needed for now. And now with the scanners setup they could observe in more detail things going on in the room then before.

William brushed his hands together and smiled at the group Alright, you two monitor things from here” HE said pointing at NE’s Barret and Dumas “Send all sensor info directly to my Bridge Station, I want a real time analysis if anything goes on there It might be an indicator of possible change. Then, of course, it might just be that now we have a big cat instead of a small one, which does provide some excellent possible experiments on the behavioral correlation between Wild cats and Earth Tigers or lions.” He said to his team.

The NE’s nodded, “..Aye sir. Should um…we maybe call security down here just to keep an eye on the door?” One asked.

“Aye, that was one of my concerns. Call the security desk, have them send someone over. I’ll inform the bridge” Will answered “Inform them of the situation and make sure they have the proper equipment to handle such a beast if necessary. Tell them to send someone who it doesn’t know, I don’t want the cat to smell a friend and start trying to claw itself out.”

”..Aye sir..” Came the reply from an NE

Faith didn’t arrive until after William had already left but she asked the Security officers if she could be brought up to speed on the situation. The room had cameras inside just like any other, and the scene was surreal. It was Ginger, or else an extremely good likeness, but he was about five times the normal size. She also wondered what he was chewing on since it contained a bone as long as a man’s forearm.

“I’d like to stay and help, if I can?” asked Faith. “He knows me. I doubt he would attack me.... say, I’ve heard that there have been a number of these strange occurrences. How long do they last? When is he likely to change back to normal?”

Scans showed that Ginger was still the large Tiger like cat it was before now licking its sizable paws clean of the blood and viscal it had gotten on itself from the earlier eating. Bones of the meal lay nearby while the cat stretched out on the couch of the VIP Quarters it had taken residence in. There still was the energy pattern around the Cat similar to the Finite Stone so likely at least it wasnt going to be changing back anytime soon.

NE NotPaidEnoughForThis spoke up. “..No idea, Faith. The cat just finished its meal and is lounging in there. If the Captain gives you the go ahead we’ll see about getting you inside..” He said.

Faith looked again through the window and realised exactly how large the cat had grown. Upon hearing that it wasn’t going to change back anytime soon she had a second mind about entering the room.

“That’s okay,” Faith replied. “Don’t bother the Captain. I’ll just sit out here with you, if that’s okay. I don’t want to interrupt the cat’s lounging time!”

-Faith, yeoman


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