Going a Little Batty
Posted on Sat Mar 23rd, 2024 @ 4:42pm by Ensign Aaron Soong & Ensign Jedda Khadja-Chata & Ensign Ross Clarke & Ensign Shiv Th'zhalner & Crewman Recruit Candice Kayne
1,229 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Lower Decks
Location: USS Intrepid: Decks 2-4
Timeline: After I’ve Got Six Feet
Previously on Star Trek: Intrepid
A few minutes later -after putting his trainers on - Dani opened the doors and stepped out into the corridor. The purple fruit bat, about the size of an Australian fruit bat fluttered past him harmlessly. Dani let out a frustrated breath. Turning around, Dani shouted, “Five God damned minutes, you blue menace. This time, and last time, were on you. You’re reporting this. I hope the Lower Deckers leave the stool in all your future feedings!”
Dani walked away, the only one not ducking away from the purple bat.
Kaydren watched and seemed to catch Morgan doing the same. “I don’t mind seeing him enter a room, but I do love to watch him go. Especially when he’s angry.” Kaydren laughed.
The “blue menace” tapped his combadge. “Alpha shift Lower Deckers, I’ve got a mission you ain’t never done before!
And Now the Continuation
Aaron stalked the halls of the starship, watching out for good places the Corinthian bat may have landed. Like Earth bats, the likes to hang upside down, so he was checking all the Jeffries tube openings, where the bat’s feet could hang comfortably from the rungs.
It wasn’t the first time Lieutenant Aukai’s breakfast had gotten away from him. Two weeks ago, they had had to hunt down a giant cicada. Of course it had eaten half of the galley’s stored food before they netted the monster. Luckily they caught it before it molted into the flying kind. Unlike today, where the bat was in its final, flying form.
"I can't believe this has happened again," Ensign Clarke sighed walking alongside Aaron looking for the bat. "I mean does the LT not have any primal instincts to eat his prey, or just toy with it?" he asked. "Maybe we should ask one of the Caitan's to help - they might have stronger predatory drives than most."
From the Mess Hall, Candy heard the Comms that the Sti'ta'ch sent out. She sighed deeply, but grabbed her camera, tossed her tray in the recycler, and made her way to the corridors. She passed by Aaron Soong and Ensign Clarke. "Hey...what is happening??" The blonde asked.
“Aukai lost another bat. What is this? The third animal this month to come running, crawling or flying out of his quarters?” Aaron answer Candy without any semblance of hiding his annoyance. “Also, Freki is coming, so maybe he’ll just eat it for us?” Aaron answered with hope, directed at both of them.
"Let's hope so," Clarke sighed. "Hey what's with the camera Candy?" he asked. "Going to immortalize our adventures forever?"
Candy nodded. "Duh, I AM the FNN reporter,' she said, with a noise at the back of her throat. She flipped a blonde curl over her shoulder. "This ship is so full of juicy stories. I am going to be a star journalist yet!" She clapped her hands once. "So. Where does a bat even GO?" She looked confused for a moment. "Why would Freki eat a bat?" She asked, her blue eyes growing wide.
"Just remember those juicy stories could get our asses in serious trouble," Clarke chided. "Better make sure you pick the right moments. I don't think the story of Aukai's run away meal would make great reading especially if Freki was to eat it."
“Also, didn’t you have to toss your last report because ‘as amusing it is to see a group of idiots swim in animal excrement, it isn’t news Candy’,” Aaron suggested while making air quotes and brandishing a net. “This was mid-section of text news, not Breaking News on FNN. The fodder no one reads except the very old.
"No," she replied. "I don't know who told you that. Lorut only said to EDIT it," she said. "I give the people what they want," she said, placing a hand on her hip and tossing her head. "Again, why would Freki eat a bat?? That's so....mean. And disgusting," she said, making a face.
"Because they're making broad assumptions about the Caitian species," Jedda said as he crossed paths with the growing party of Lower Decks officers. "Not all carnivores catch their own food to eat. Hunting requires a lot of energy and time." Jedda carried a phaser with a tranquilizer setting. He glanced at the nets.
Candy shot the others a triumphant look. "Exactly. Lieutenant S'tera doesn't eat live animals!" she said. At least, not as far as she knew, and Candy didn't want to know otherwise. "Shouldn't we call someone from science?" she asked. "Or like...the Captain or someone?"
Clarke rolled his eyes - this was the whole point, wasn't it? To deal with this themselves without alerting the senior staff and most defiantly not the Captain.
"What's the captain going to do? Lure the bat out with a song?" Jedda asked. He held up his two hands; one held a tricorder, the other a phaser. "Search and capture. Bats aren't the best fliers in still, starship air. The corridors are too narrow for them to get much speed or lift." A moment later, he added, "That's science."
“Captain singing a song,” Aaron snickered at the comment about the captain for a moment, but like a turning on a switch, it did give him an idea. “What if we open the holodeck and send a series of signals across the deck? Simulate the bat’s food stuff flying until it reaches the holodeck? That bat has to be starving after all this time in stasis!”
’That’s science for all of you,’ he thought, touting his own smarts, if only to himself.
"How would you catch it once it's in the holodeck?" Clarke asked. "And how do you know what it eats? Read it's bio?"
“The computer would know its primary food source,” Aaron answered easily, “and be able to mimic it holographically. Once it’s in the holodeck, we at least have a finite space in which to catch the trapped bugger.”
“Besides, anyone else have any bright ideas?!” Aaron challenged the group.
"Bats eat fruit," Candy said, absently, fiddling with her hair. She was fully bored now, only here because the commotion was more interesting than her mock reports she was sending out to various planets' news organizations, looking for real work. "Does the Arboretum have fruit trees?" She asked. She HAD paid attention in school. The dumb-blonde thing was mostly a game.
“Why would we try and force it twelve decks down when we have a perfectly good holodeck on this deck?” Aaron asked, not bothering to his his exasperation.
“Fine…let’s just go to the transporter room, lock onto its biosigns and beam it back to stasis!” Aaron shouted in aggravation. Except, it wasn’t a bad idea.
“Fuck me! We’re all so stupid,” he grumbled as he tossed down his net.
Ross mirrored him annoyed neither of them thought if that before now.
"Aww, see there, Candy? Who needs science when you've got those combined brains?" Jedda put his phaser away. "I've got weapon locker inspections I've still got to do. I trust you gents can handle this?"
“Off we go!” Aaron answered, looking at Ross. “Transporter room one, just around the corner. Coming Candy?”
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