Star Trek Sim/ Star Trek RPG
USS Eagle, NCC 2185
CPT Kematsopoulos & LTjg Richards
JOINT LOGS
Joint Logs by Myth and Nouri
Title: O, What a Tangled Web We Weave, Part Five
Location: The USS Eagle
Setting: Captain's Quarters
LT Richards stood in the CO's quarters studying the futuristic phaser. She
wondered idly how much more powerful it was than the one that had accidentally
taken out the Captain's bathroom.
The Captain spoke, "Ensign Hanson took that from the intruder."
~So that's what they shot me with...?~ " Oh." Leah answered. Apparently the
stun feature hadn't been done away with, which was nice to know.
"We need to find the other intruder but not raise any questions about this,"
he said.
"Do you think it's back on the Eagle, sir?" Leah was fully focused on the
new mission-unaware of the trouble she was already in.
"Yes, I think that is likely. If not now, then soon. We don't know what race
the other intruder is. Are you sure you can't give more description?" the
CO asked.
That was one thing Leah was very sure about. She shook her head. "I didn't
even really see a silhouette, sir. The lights were all out."
"Then you have to be careful on your assumptions. The other intruder may
or may not be the same race," he said.
That was standard operating procedure from her point of view. "Yes, sir."
At the start of any investigation everyone was suspect.
"For all we know it could be any race, even a Federation one or Human," he
finished.
"Aye, sir." Leah agreed again.
~Time to change the subject,~ he thought. "I need a list of anything that
has gone missing or unaccounted for. The intruder will no doubt need supplies,"
he said.
~Oh boy...~ Things had just taken a big turn for the worse. Bob had snitched
tons of things to make his horde of kiddies.
"Er... everything?" Leah repeated.
"Yes, anything could be a clue to help identify where the intruder has been
or frequents. Intruders of this nature often have some things in common with
stowaways," he said starting to pave the road to knock out two birds with
one stone.
"Yes, sir. It's just that the ship has been attacked-some things that are
missing might have just been destroyed. Wouldn't certain types of items be
more important? Like a phaser or a missing uniform?" Leah was hoping for
a loop hole-any excuse-to reasonably leave off the junk Bob had used.
"Those can be important but they are usually noticed quickly. Intruders,
of the well planned type we had, brought their own weapons and could easily
do the same for uniforms if they wished. Our ship is small compared to others
so it is easier for us to recognize a new face. So looking for things like
smaller very useful things are especially important. Things like tools, medical
devices hyposprays..." he explained. As he did this, the curious botlet that
entered the room earlier went to investigate the bot pile where the CO was
sitting. This one in particular had an appendage made from a caliper.
She sighed. One of Bob's more pointy kids was largely based off a hypospray.
Many of the others came from tools he'd found around the ship. Leah wracked
her brain, but she was running out of excuses. There didn't seem to be much
else to do but tell the truth. "The list ain't gonna be so easy to compile,
sir." She sounded resigned.
"Why not?" the CO asked catching the sound of her voice.
The botlet finished the inspection of the inactivated larger bots and went
over to where its mistress was seated. The wandering botlet rubbed against
Leah's leg like a cat might and received a sharp glare for its trouble. "Bob
... has a few kids now, sir. I think he made 'em with parts he found here."
"Pardon??" he asked, hoping she would confess more.
Leah scowled. "Can't give ya a list with all that stuff on it, can I? That
would just point us in the wrong direction to find this guy!" She might be
resigned to telling the truth, but she didn't have to enjoy it.
"Your unauthorized bot took parts? How many and from where," he asked, concerned.
Leah flinched knowing that he had every right to be very angry, even if he
didn't sound it yet. "I think there's a list in my quarters. I don't know
for sure off the top of my head, sir." She hadn't even really seen them all
at once for more than a few seconds nor had she taken the time to read Bob's
list over. It had felt better not knowing.
"I want an itemized list as soon as possible," the Captain said. "For now,
estimate," he ordered.
"I don't know, sir. There's a bunch of them now." She tried to be helpful,
"I can get the list he kept, though."
The Captain caught the usage of the pronoun, "he", and wished there was more
time to deal with things on that level as he would have preferred. The red
alert situation did not give him too much longer to handle this.
"Do so please and make it fast. I'll ask CSEC for a current inventory," he
replied. Again the CO tried to get her to confess. "How many new bots? Two
or three?" he asked.
Leah's day had gone from very bad to plain awful. Unstoffe was going to flip
over this. "...I don't know. It's been a bit busy for a head count."
He tried again, "More than two?"
Leah almost smiled. "Yeah, more'n two." A lot more than two.
As if to emphasize that, the wayward botlet rubbed more vigorously on her
pant leg. It was waiting to be acknowledged and trying to be patient.
He tried yet again, "So three then?"
She looked down at the botlet wondering what the heck it could want now of
all times.
There was a big pause as LT Richards hesitated to answer. The Captain repeated,
"Three?
"No."
"Four?" he asked.
What little patience Leah had was used up. "I don't know, sir! A bunch of
'em!"
The CO listened intently to the sound of her voice. He was still holding
out some hope for her. "Ten?" he asked.
"I. Don't. Know. Besides-Hanson took half of 'em with him." Leah realized
the little botlet was just looking for attention and a scratch so she went
back to ignoring it.
"Estimate," he ordered.
As is often the case with small children, even the metallic sort, the botlet
gave up waiting and proceeded towards the CO. It was hopeful that the other
Organic would scratch and play with it.
Of course, rather than just get bored and leave, the stupid bot WOULD go
pester the Captain. Leah ducked quickly to grab the bot, forgetting that
the Captain might be blind but he wasn't a fool. He'd realize she'd moved
and wonder why.
The Captain did indeed feel the air change from Leah's sudden movent and
he heard the sound. "What's wrong?" he asked.
Leah tried to trap the little bot in her hands, hoping to keep it from bugging
the Captain. Talking about this was bad enough-explaining it with one of
the bots present would just be worse. Besides-if he insisted on confiscating
them he'd have one handy to grab. It would be easier to hide the whole bunch
if they were together.
The botlet leapt out of her reach and into a fold of the Captain's pants
that were tucked in his left boot.
Leah grimaced. There was little chance of getting the stupid 'bot now. She
just hoped it would hop off on its own before they left for the bridge again.
It would be very bad if it decided to go running around the bridge willy
nilly.
The Captain seemed not to notice. The little bot hitchhiker gently sunk in
until most of it disappeared. The only visible part, was a very tiny optical
piece sticking out so it "could watch". Unless someone was looking for it
they would probably not see it. ~Maybe I will go some place fun,~ it thought,
deciding that another adventure into the unknown would be more fun than getting
scratched and some play time.
~It's not going well for LT Richards. I keep giving her so many chances and
instead of coming clean and freeing her self, she is digging herself in further,~
thought the Captain. He reluctantly put the earpiece back in to be able to
listen to descriptions of his surroundings. He was reluctant not because
of the headaches but because he could not trust her to be honest.
"Nothin'!" Leah fell back on lying out of habit. Thinking that answering
him might prove a useful distraction, she blurted out a number. "Uh... maybe
like twenty or, uh, thirty?" She had a feeling there were more than that
but she really hadn't counted them and underestimating couldn't hurt too
much.
"Thirty??" the Captain asked in disbelief. It was obvious to him that there
were more and that she was still trying to hide this from him.
She gulped. "...They're still little..."
The Captain shook his head. ~Even now, she's still not telling the truth,~
he thought. Aloud he said, "That's a lot. No more than thirty? Anything else
you want to tell me?"
"I didn't want to tell you that, honestly!" Leah answered a bit embarrassed.
In spite of or perhaps because of the seriousness of the situation and all
the things that the young lieutenant needed to confess more than that, her
embarrassed admission of something so obvious, was funny to him. Funny in
that absurd surpassing way. He laughed gently.
Leah blushed. The Captain might be laughing now but she knew better that
to think she was going to get out of this that easily. She'd just heaped
a pile of more trouble on her head and that was not amusing.
The Captain waited for her to tell him more. After a pause he said more sternly,
"You need to tell me this and more, do you not?" ~ This is her last chance
to tell me what I already know I hope she takes it. I can't afford to lose
anymore time on this. ~
Bad enough to have to give up on Bob and spill everything without that, too!
"Now you'll just have to tell Unstoffe and he'll take 'em all. I can't let
him do that, Captain!" Leah wasn't sure how she'd stop them, but she intended
to try.
The CO arose from the chair. He was greatly disappointed in her. He had tried
so hard to get her of her own volition to tell the truth. It was now time
for something else. "I don't think you understand how serious this is," he
said walking away from the bedroom and partition. "Perhaps you can help me
with something in the kitchen..."
Leah reluctantly followed him to the kitchen, arguing all the way. "But they
never hurt anything! Not really-!" She had the feeling her protests were
being totally ignored.
The Captain wasn't ignoring her but had to end this quickly in as gentle
and strong a manner as possible. He could not have these bots of hers multiplying
and stealing parts all over the ship to do it. Besides making it impossible
to find out what the intruder was taking and helping target a plan or location
of his pr her base onboard and impairing productivity as people searched
vainly for missing tools, it was also dangerous. As he entered the kitchenette
area and reached the small stove, he said, "From the reports, I deduce quite
a lot of problems..and it's easy to see why. There seems to be an infestation
problem..." Then unexpectedly, he put his fingers in his mouth to make a
whistle sound.
Leah's eyes widened when she realized what he was going to do- that was how
Hanson had communicated with them. ~Oh no...!~
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