Posted by Cadet Anders Taurean (Scientist) in Side Sim: Mean cat, mean ship

Posted by Lieutenant Tija Aizala (Chief Medical Officer) in Side Sim: Mean cat, mean ship

Posted by Cadet Anders Taurean (Scientist) in Side Sim: Mean cat, mean ship
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The instant Anders Taurean finished with all the routine ship check-ins, he found his quarters and checked on his cat. The Buenos Aires streetcat displayed unrelenting anger and, in spite of the young cadet’s fears, remained unphased by the reality of space flight. It kept him sane, boarding the Challenger with such a little monstrosity. A puff of evenly distributed black-and-white fur, this cat displayed Yin-Yang imagery while possessing multitudes more Yin.

Boxes containing what few personal effects the new cadet brought with him were clawed and gnawed to shreds, turned over spilling out their meager contents. Between finding a food the whirlwind of fur would find acceptable and cleaning up the remnants of its wrath, Anders had little time to relax before being called to his first shift aboard his first ship. During the graduation ceremony held for the Challenger’s previous cadet crew, Anders spent most of the time sifting through Lt. Garth’s astroparticle equipment tinkering around with and cleaning the well-worn pieces.

Upon returning to his quarters, Anders expected to find the cat stood atop a mountain of its inanimate victims. Instead the room remained much in the relatively-cleaned state he had left it. Suspicious, he conducted a search through the quiet little apartment. The cat, unable to shrink itself to molecular size or turn invisible, appeared to be missing.

”…Major?” He called out, confused. Waiting another moment, he again called out, “Major Major?”

Ten more minutes of aimless wandering and calling out the cat’s name, Anders decided it must have somehow escaped. More confused than ever, he stepped out from his room to an empty hallway and looked to his left and his right a few times. Deciding left, the cadet turned and looked for any sort of hint of a loose cat; scratches along the lower end of the wall, any kind of markings.

The first two people he passed, both Ensigns, he asked: “Have you…seen a cat loose about this floor?”

Lacking any sort of luck, Cadet Taurean continued his frantic search, half-hunched rushing down the hall, popping up to confront the occasional passerby as to potential sightings of the cat.

(Cadet Anders Taurean, Science Division)

Coming from the opposite direction, a petite woman in the blue uniform of science and medical walked down the corridor. Her copper hair was tied back in a neat ponytail, leaving her many freckles, Bajoran earring and the faint white scare along the hairline on the right side of her face from her temple to her ear visible. She was reading a PaDD while walking and was only paying enough attention towards her surroundings that she wouldn’t walk into a wall or another person.

~Lt. Tija, CMO

Nose snooped low to the ground as if looking closer at the floor would reveal tiny paw imprints that would lead the cadet to his tiny runaway, Anders moved quickly as if to embody a predator’s hunt. Soft stomping footsteps just around the corner caused the young scientists to slow and de-hunch himself. First he noticed the Lieutenant’s pips on the woman’s collar; then Anders saw the sheen of the Lt.’s earring. Anders recognized it immediately as Bajoran, despite having never met one in person. Propping himself up to his full height - half out of self-defense and half-snapping to attention - the terran cadet almost let her pass only offering the simple acknowledgement of, “Lieutenant.”

The cadet’s greeting only partly registered with Tija and she merely acknowledged his greeting with a nod.

But curiosity got the better of him, and after taking one long stride past the preoccupied Lt., Anders spun on his heel like a dancer and called out, projecting a bit much for the minor distance between them:

“Uh, Lieutenant? Have you seen a cat? It, ehm, should be on this floor…” His voice was soft and unassuming, despite his general size. Maybe his voice betrayed his uncertainty, as he wanted to add:Unless this is the smartest of all cats and has managed to work the turbolift as well.

(Cadet Anders Taurean, Science Division)

After a few more steps, Tija stopped somewhat abruptly and turned around, wondering if she had heard correctly, “Did you say you’re looking for a cat?” She knew of course that it wasn’t uncommon for officers to bring their pets on board, but till she left Bajor the concepts of pets had been foreign to her. Of course some people had life stock, but that was something completely different.

~Lt. Tija, CMO

“Eh, uhm, yes.” He spat out, twiddling with his fingers in an attempt to preoccupy parts of his nervous energy. His eyes and mind wandered along the corridors of the ship and the odd situations one could find a wild cat in. For a moment, Anders was confused at her own confusion.

Duh, she’s Bajoran, not human. Having lived with pets was as natural to him and his culture as her and her culture having not.

Twisting his body in the direction he had been walking, Anders looked for a brief moment, as if the cat would trot itself right back down the corridor and back into the cadet’s quarters as if nothing had happened. Oh, the terror this cat could cause.

“Gangling, skulking. Black on top and white on bottom. Looks friendly, will bite.” In truth, Anders knew very little of this cat but that it had survived for a couple years in the dark corners of Buenos Aires, in spite of being easily goaded into a carrier by promises of a tasty treat on the inside. Then, the man who had studied theoretical astrophysics most of his life wondered why he’d been so dumb so as to not leave a treat for Major to coax the cat back to his quarters…

(Cadet Anders Taurean, Science Division)

“I see,” Tija replied with a slightly raised eyebrow and if Taurean looked close enough he might detect the hint of an amused smile on her freckled face. “Have you tried using the internal sensors or a tricorder to locate your cat? Either might be helpful and would hopefully direct you in the right direction. Otherwise this might turn into a … what is the saying? … wild goose hunt?” While she spoke, she tugged her PaDD under her left arm and reached for the tricorder in the holster on her hip. “This is a medical tricorder, but that shouldn’t make a difference, if you want to give it a try. And I can help you search for a little bit,” she offered. While she didn’t find it easy to socialize with people, this search for the cat intrigued her for some reason. And while she was on call in case of an emergency, her next duty shift wasn’t going to start for a few more hours.

~Lt. Tija, CMO