Posted by Lieutenant Garth (Chief Science Officer) 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 (12) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“It must have gotten in through an open hatch or the like,” Tija mused matter-of-factly. “I’m a doctor, not a veterinarian, but from what I know about felines from Earth they can not walk through walls. Though apparently wherever their heads fit through, they will be able to get in.” That said, the Bajoran CMO looked around the science lab. So far she couldn’t see anything. So without another word, she turned on her heels and left the lab, looking for an open hatch or the like outside the lab instead.

It didn’t take long till she found a panel nearby that somebody had left open. At first glace it didn’t look like a cat could have moved further into the ship from there, but at closer inspection she discovered an opening that might be just big enough for a cat’s head. And there seemed to be some black fur stuck in a corner of the opening.

Tapping her combadge, Tija said, =/\= Lieutenant Tija to Science Lab 2. It seems I found the opening through which the cat got into the wall. =/\=

~Lt. Tija, CMO

Garth pursed his lips and crossed his arms, watching Taurean search with disapproval. However, the cadet’s offer to disinfect the entire lab seemed to placate the chief science officer to some extent.

He glanced up reflexively at the sound of Tija’s voice. Garth made a sweeping motion toward the door. “Go, then. Find your cat, then report to me before you begin the disinfecting.”

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

Offering Lt. Garth a lazy salute of acknowledgement, Anders rushed back out of the lab and found the Bajoran Lt. observing an open panel in a wall nearby. Walking over, Anders looked into the opening as if it might provide him some oversight as to where the cat could have gone.

“Where does this lead to, exactly?” He wondered out loud. His time on the Challenger had been short to this point, and little of that provided appropriate chance to study and memorize the ship’s schematics. What little of them he’d seen seemed much in line with what he had to study at the Academy, but Anders wasn’t yet ready to be making assumptions based on that. “Lt., is it possible for this hatch to lead directly to another floor or do you think they’re connected to a set of Jefferies Tubes running parallel between the floors?”

(Cadet Anders Taurean, Science Division)

“That, Cadet Taurean, is a good questions. Both of them actually,” Tija replied staring intently into the opening. “And I’m afraid I can’t answer either of them. Maybe if the direct the tricorder towards the wall we can find out where your cat went and find an opening that is big enough for anyone from the crew to crawl into. Or you could contact engineering and see if Lieutenant Vras or someone else from his department could be of any help,” she suggested.

~Lt. Tija, CMO

Frowning, Anders looked back over the reconfigured tricorder with confusion. The readings themselves became overwhelming in such a manner that the tracking of a single organism shouldn’t. The idea of contacting engineering for such a trivial task mortified the young cadet, and he decided to himself that he’d rather starve searching the halls for this cat than clog up communications logs with his menial hunt.

“This is odd,” he said, attempting to re-calibrate his initial configurations, “The tricorder is showing three different organisms that matches what I’d set the device to track. Most likely two of the three are residual readings, picking up the feline’s biometrics even though it’s not actually there.”

Tija peered that the tricorder as well, her left eyebrow raise, and muttered, “That is odd, indeed.”

Walking along the corridor with the tricorder held in front of him, Anders followed along what seemed to be the most active biometric scan signal.

“Lt., I believe the opening you found goes along this way,” he traced the path he’d just walked and then pointed directly down, “and then one deck below us. If I’m correct, the nearest targets should be Sick Bay and the adjoining Med Labs, or the Shuttle Bay.”

(Cadet Anders Taurean, Science Division)

With her hands on her hips, the petite Bajoran looked sternly at the Cadet. “You better hope that cat is in the shuttle bay and not anywhere near sickbay or the medical labs,” she said curtly. It was probably pretty obvious that she wasn’t happy about those readings, but the questions was: How annoyed or maybe even angry was she about the possibility of a cat in sickbay? “Well, we better get to Deck 6 and try and find that cat of yours,” she continued.

Tija then turned on her heels, but instead of heading towards the nearest turbolift, she walked back into the science lab. Without preamble, she said, “Lieutenant Garth, we’re going to sickbay. I suggest you come with use and I give you some antihistamine against your allergic reaction.” There was something in her voice, that turned her suggestion more into a command and she didn’t even wait for his response before leaving the room again and heading towards the turbolift.

~Lt. Tija, CMO

Garth looked up from inspecting one of the counters in the science lab with his magnification goggles on and tweezers poised to snag another stray cat hair. He sniffled before opening his mouth to resist, then grunted as Tija left the room. Garth huffed to himself as he straightened, wincing slightly as his back elongated. Then he grabbed his cane and hobbled out of the room after the CMO, giving Taurean another narrow-eyed look as he joined them in the hallway and eventually the turbolift.

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

There were few thoughts in Anders’ head that didn’t go spiraling into some sort of embarrassing scenario. The Bajoran Lt. Tija had heel-turned from relaxed and helpful to stern and guarded when he mentioned the cat might be in sick bay. She was a doctor, for sure. On the Challenger, her being a Lt. meant it was likely that she was the CMO, something Taurean suspected but wasn’t positive about.

Snapping from his masochistic daydreams, Lt. Tija returned from the science lab with a hobbling Lt. Garth, who gave Anders a none-too-happy glare. Surely he’d rather be going about his business in the lab, unbothered by terran pets or the allergies they wrought upon alien biologies. As more C.O’s attached themselves to his little entourage, Anders felt more like a side-character in his adventure.

The trio took a few short steps into the turbolift, with the cadet waiting for both of them to wander in before he joined last, and muttered a meek, “Deck 6,” sending them down one quick level. It took no time at all for the lift’s doors to swing open again. Anders extended one of his long arms, letting the Lieutenants know he was letting them exit first.

As he was doing so, Anders asked, “Would it be best to split up or remain together? I could check the shuttle bay while you two check sick bay?”

(Cadet Anders Taurean, Science Division)

After a moment of thought, Tija replied, “No, we currently only have one tricorder that is modified the way we need it to find that cat. There are a lot of places a small feline could hide in sickbay and I’d rather not search it all by hand.” That said, she led the way towards sickbay.

Garth grunted in agreement. “Besides, it’s your cat, Cadet. Even if we found it, somehow I doubt we would be able to catch it before it disappeared again and started wreaking havoc on some other part of the ship. Hopefully it’ll be more agreeable if you’re the one that corners it.”

The moment the doors swished open in front of her, the CMO addressed the member of her department nearest to the door. “Ensign Priel, have you seen a cat?” she asked without preamble.

“A cat, Doctor?” the tall, blond Trill asked, confusion plain on her face. “Why should there be a cat in sickbay?”

“Cadet Taurean is missing his cat and according to our tricorder readings, sickbay might be one of the places where it is hiding,” Tija replied, trying to keep her voice as level and emotionless as possible. At the same time she grabbed another medical tricorder and a hypospray. “That being said, we might have a couple of people come in with allergic reactions.”

Turning towards Garth, Tija said, “Please have a seat on one of the biobeds. I want to examine you first to make sure I give you the correct antihistamine.” She then added towards Cadet Taurean, “In the mean time, can you continue the search here in sickbay. Ensign Priel or any other members of the staff will assist you.”

~Lt. Tija, CMO & NE Priel, medical technician

Garth shuffled over to the biobed and hoisted himself up unceremoniously, plopping down with a wheeze. His small eyes squinted as he scanned the room for any sign of the cat, but soon he had to wipe them as they started to water. He stifled a sneeze with his shoulder and let out a “bah!” of frustration.

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

Once Garth was sitting on the biobed, Tija started to carefully scan him. “Even without the tricorder I can tell that two of your symptoms are tearing eyes and an itching nose. Anything else, Lieutenant?” she asked, her gaze fixed on the tricorder readings. At the same time she made a mental note to check his medical file to make she he had no allergies to any of the medications in question.

~Lt. Tija, CMO

One thing Anders had going for him was his mixture of precision and speed. Between the turbolift and sick bay, the cadet tucked his chin against his chest and formulated a gameplan going forward. The two Lieutenants split themselves off from his search for a preliminary check-up. At first, the Tellarite’s intense reaction upon entering the room sought to prove that some sort of feline had been in the room.

The Ensign, Priel, seemed competent and non-judgemental for the most part. She didn’t hesitate to hand over her own tricorder to Anders as well, which he reconfigured in the same fashion as Lt. Tija’s. Except this time he scanned the loose hair Garth had found to make his readings more accurate.

“If you would, please grab another tricorder and adjust it to match these readings. I’ll sweep around from southeast, to south, to southwest. If you would, move opposite to me, moving northwest, to north, northeast.”

Nodding, still confused but willing, Priel moved on about her odd assignment.

Anders wasn’t halfway through his search before concluding that the cat had not been on sick bay, but had more recently moved about this deck. Still curious, Anders widened the tricorder’s search parameters back to his initial adjustments and checked on the other odd lifeforms popping up. As he swept toward the south wall, he noticed a consolidation of five of those readings. They most definitely were not feline, but had similar organic biometric readings. And it seemed to him that they were pulsating in energy more inconsistently than before, strong to weak to strong. and back.

Priel confirmed where his cat was headed, which should have soothed him a bit. Instead, Anders remained concerned about the energy readings he was getting on the opposite end of the deck. Thanking, and then dismissing, the Ensign, Anders requested to hold on to both of the tricorders he had requisitioned. Shrugging, she told him it was alright as long as Lt. Tija agreed to it.

“Lt. Tija, Lt. Garth, Ensign Priel and I have concluded the cat is headed north toward impulse,” Anders wanted to choke on his own words. A cat? Near engines? That seemed worse a mix than a cat in sick bay some how. Instead, he trudged on, “However, I’m getting odd - and organic - readings coming from the south in Cargo Bay. I saw several of them on the Doctor’s tricorder earlier, but I hadn’t refined my search and assumed they might be other cats, or cat-like. But I used the hair Lt. Garth found earlier to define my biometric readings and they’re definitely not cats, nor do I believe them to be corporeal. What’s the plan?”

If it were up to Anders, he’d let the cat wander and all three of them would check out his readings in Cargo Bay. But he was outranked even by Ensign Priel. The cadet knew it wasn’t his call to make, at this point. He’d caused enough of a disturbance. So he’d wait this time, a feat he was often incapable of accomplishing.

(Cadet Anders Taurean, Science Division)

(OOC: Calling a Mulligan on my previous post, so ignore that!)

One thing Anders had going for him was his mixture of precision and speed. Between the turbolift and sick bay, the cadet tucked his chin against his chest and formulated a gameplan going forward. The two Lieutenants split themselves off from his search for a preliminary check-up. At first, the Tellarite’s intense reaction upon entering the room sought to prove that some sort of feline had been in the room.

The Ensign, Priel, seemed at the very least to be non-judgemental, which set the cadet a bit more at ease. Not that he was actually at ease, but the nerves could have been far worse than they were.

“If you could just, eh, hold for a moment, Ensign, uhm, Preel?” Anders requested, uncertain that he correctly pronounced the ensign’s name. Normally he was good with that sort of thing, but was more than a little distracted at the moment. Holding Lt. Tija’s modified tricorder, he swept about the room doing a quick three-sixty spin, the shuffling of his feet and the pinging of the tricorder combining for an anxious melody.

“Of course,” NE Priel replied with a slightly lopsided smile. Of course a cat possibly contaminating sickbay was no laughing matter, but in a way there was something humorous about the whole situation nevertheless.

One signal coming from Impulse Engines, and a lot more coming from Shuttle Bay. Furrowing his brow, Anders let out a groan.

In the blink of an eye, Priel’s expression switched from amusement to concern and she asked, “Is everything okay, Cadet?”

“Ehm, one more moment, please, Ensign.”

Having held onto the mysterious cat hair Lt. Garth had produced from the science lab, Anders scanned it with the tricorder and added the readings to his original search parameters. The pinging continued as he moved about in another full circle spin, changing speeds and the height with which he held the tricorder this time, adding “hmm“‘s and “huh“‘s the whole time. When he finished, Anders turned to show Ensign Priel what he’d been looking at.

“From what I can tell, the cat hasn’t actually entered Sick Bay, eh, yet. It seems to have wandered through most every room besides Sick Bay, but if the reading is right, it should be somewhere in or around the impulse engines,” cringing at the potential danger he could be wreaking upon the ship, Anders trudged on anyway, “However, if we return to my original biometric adjustments that led us here, you can see two organic lifeforms pass through Sick Bay, at which point they become four in the CMO’s office, at which point they head to Shuttle Bay and become six.”

Priel was about to say that the CMO would be happy to hear that, though the CE surely would not be. But before she had even opened her mouth, Cadet Taurean had continued talking, leaving her rather speechless for a moment. Eventually she said, “I’ve seen a lot over the years, but that is certainly new. I’m afraid none of the Senior Officers will be pleased to hear that; least of all Doctor Tija and Lieutenant Vras. Then again there is the possibility that this tricorder is malfunctioning and those multiplying lifeform readings are a result of that malfunction.” While talking she made a mental note to check all medical files later to see who on this ship was allergic to cats and inform them that there might be cat hair in unexpected places.

Without much more analysis to add on top that, Anders instead added a confused shrug, looking at the Ensign with a mixture of a sheepish smile and a grimace.

“Ensign, would it be possible to grab another tricorder?” He asked with a face full of innocence, “We should still sweep Sick Bay for potential feline allergens in case I’m wrong and, eh, in case I’m right, try and narrow down what these other organic readings that are popping up could potentially be.”

He knew the Lieutenants had to be informed as soon as possible, but Lt. Tija seemed to still be working on Lt. Garth, and if Anders had a second of time to gather more information to bring to them, he would take it.

(Cadet Anders Taurean, Science Division)

“Of course,” Priel replied and without another word turned around to get another tricorder.

Returning to Taurean’s side, Priel handed him the device and asked, “Can you show me how exactly you calibrated the other tricorder? Not that I don’t trust your work, yet maybe something in the calibration caused a glitch in the tricorder. And two pairs of eyes see more than one.”

~NE Priel, medical technician

Garth shook his head in response to Tija’s questioning. “You tell me, doctor. Those are certainly the most annoying symptoms.” He raised his voice slightly to make sure that Taurean could hear his displeasure. Tija would find no noted allergies to medications in Garth file.

No one would be surprised that Garth was keeping a keen ear tuned in to the conversation between his cadet and the medical ensign. “Did you say that your cat is multiplying?” Garth almost stood up from the biobed in exasperation.

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

“Yes, good thinking Ensign, always double check and triple check,” he said, waiting for her to return with her nominal tricorder before beginning his demonstration, “So my initial configuration accounted for organic biometry at an approximate height and width of a feline.”

Returning his tricorder to how he’d originally configured it, he continued: “So the tricorder was picking up and filtering out organic lifeforms any bigger than that of a cat-“

As he was speaking, Lt. Garth’s anxious calling cut across the room. Anders replied, saying, “Well, not the cat, Lt. Possibly something else, ehhhhhh, the Ensign and I need a little time to see if it’s a calculation error or not.”

Turning back to Priel, he continued: “Lt. Garth uncovered a cat hair in the science lab one deck above, which I used to further pair down my biometric readings to exact figure. I’m scientifically certain this one dot here is my cat. I cannot account for these six- eight other lifeforms, which appear organic yet incorporeal according to my readings.”

Again, the potential lifeforms had expanded, now from two to four to six to eight total. For the time being, they remained in the Shuttle Bay area.

Looking to Ensign Priel, Anders asked, “Was there is mistake in my reconfiguration? I think I’d prefer it at this point.”

(Cadet Anders Taurean, Science Division)