Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - C Deck - Rick’s Quarters
[snip]

Nessa looked at Rick with a tilt of her head as if not quite understanding his request to her, perhaps he should try one of the commands?

Rick had a fleeting panic. What? His head swiveled over to the gratefully still sleeping scientist and then back to Nessa. What was he missing? He flipped through the PaDD and the list of commands, then flipped through it again and couldn’t find anything specific. It seemed there was a command for everything but that. Did that need a command? Well, let’s see what he could do with what he had. “Fall in,” he said, reaching for a ball amongst the many things the dog had - that and a bag. “To the arboretum.”

Once he did so the dog barked standing up and moving to the door waiting dutifully. Seems she did indeed need to do her business.....

GM CockRoach

Rick winced at the bark that seemed so loud in the small cabin. Mark mumbled something utterly unintelligible. “Let’s go,” he said to Nessa as he opened the door to the cabin and stepping out to the corridor. “Heel,” he said in an afterthought hoping that meant to accompany him. It wasn’t far to go to the arboretum. He tried a ‘Sit’ when they slipped into a lift to descend the one deck down to D Deck where the small arboretum was. He shared the lift briefly with Benji, a short MACO who had come on just before they shipped out, dressed in grey gym gear, apparently heading down to G deck and the gym. As he recalled the man had just had a birthday, at least according to the loud corner in the galley where that group celebrated it.

As he stepped out with Nessa close by he started feeling that he might be getting the hang of this. Might .. hopefully with the early hour there wouldn’t be any scientists in the arboretum and he could toss the ball to her for a bit while he figured out what to do next.

• Rick

As the lift ride ended the doors opened near to where the science lab arboretum space was. Once there Nessa headed inside and once seeing their location moved over to the grass patch once more near one of the miniature trees, and hunched over doing her business.

Rick watched as Nessa scampered over to the patch of grass. That may need to expand, he thought, if this carries on. How did others do it in generational ships with pets? He might have to research that. Absently he scratched his jaw and yawned. It was early. He clutched the ball in one hand while his other fumbled for the bag he brought.

NE Poom nearby sighed rolling her eyes. “..You know you could give us a heads up when the dog is coming down here for that right? What if we were in a critical experiment with the plants and couldn’t let that dog doing her business interrupt it?” She said.

What form of ‘critical’ experiment could they be doing here? Rick thought. Pompous creature. Odious is the word that came to mind. His Aunt Tree had used that word. It was utterly old fashioned and he’d never heard it used outside of her. Something she had picked up in her historical fiction reading, but it seemed appropriate here. “Is there an alternate place I could take Nessa in that case?” he asked, getting an idea there on building something ‘like’ this in a corner of the cargo bay.

Nessa meanwhile had finished and moved off the grassy area and came back over to Rick’s side sitting down on her back side looking up to him then to Poom as if expecting the next command. Poom after a glance back to the stinky patch of doggie doo commented further, “..Either way once you bag that up put it in one of the sample bins on the third shelf there. NE Byrans mentioned how we could use her droppings to enrich soil samples for small fresh crop growth here on the ship to given Chef fresh veggies or fruit now and then..” she said.

GM CockRoach

Rick, feeling like ‘he’ was the one being trained, obediently moved over as Poom pontificated. “Sample bin, right,” he said, glancing over to said shelf where there were some small bins hanging on the bulkhead. Make up your mind. You want the poop but not here, he thought with a frown, hoping that that would be interpreted as the ‘ikky’ feeling of picking up said ‘sample’. Depositing it obediently in the bin, he looked at Nessa and started to move out, looking to her and patting his thigh. “Nessa, heel,” he said and started to move out. “We’re going to the cargo bay where you had your nap and scared the borsch out of Ensign Gagarin. We’ll have a little play before breakfast, well, mine. You’ve had yours I think.” He glanced around. Did people talk to their dogs like he was doing? He felt very self conscious about it. He totally needed to ‘write’ Barb for advice. Perhaps after his shift.

Making his way to the cargo bay he opened the doors. “Nessa, play,” he said, showing her the ball and giving it a toss in before finding the lights and turning them on.
- Rick