When the Cat's Away...

Posted on Thu Oct 8th, 2009 @ 10:26pm by Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper

673 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: The Shining Truth
Location: Shuttlebay
Timeline: Current

ON:
"Holly, Holly!" T'kaarch, finally able to get near the shuttle again, ran towards it. Engineering staff were busy doing maintenance on the hangar, but they all looked up from their work as a running cat was screaming towards a shuttle.

T'kaarch finally ended up near the shuttle's doors, and bashed the door's panel. Instead of the doors opening, a computerized voice came out "This shuttle is off-limits for unauthorized personell. Please identify yourself." T'kaarch, tired from running, looked at the panel, and cursed under his breath. Then, without any warning, the shuttle doors opened. "Hello, Captain" The never-fainting smile of Holly appeared.

T'kaarch stepped into the shuttle, and was quite upset with what he saw. The Caitan home hologram, which normally ran permanently, was disabled, computer panels were roughly pulled loose, propably to search for any form of contraband. In short, the shuttle was a mess. "Sorry I haven't had time to clean up, Captain." Holly smiled. "How was your stay on the ship?"
T'kaarch's positive mood dried down a little while thinking up an answer for this question. "Well... We're gonna need to move, Holly." "What? Where?" "For now, we're gonna live on the Archimedes."
Meanwhile, T'kaarch started scrummaging around the shuttle for his personal posessions. Firstly, he loaded a PADD with holo programs. "But Captain, I can't live on the Archimedes, I'd dissapear!" The mere thought seemed to utterly shock Holly. "No you won't... The captain said the ship is outfitted with holo-emitters... You'll be able to go wherever you'd please on that big ship!" T'kaarch eyes twinkled again.

"Ok..." It needed a bit to sink into Holly. "What could I do on the ship, then?" Meanwhile, T'kaarch was filling a box with some more... material posessions, including a camera straight from the 21st century, photographs of various beautiful things T'kaarch found in space, and a resin model of a very strange ship:
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/2510/megaresin.jpg

"Oh I don't know," T'kaarch answered Holly, "The captain seems to be a fair enough sir, I'm quite sure you could fit in somewhere." T'kaarch set the box near the exit, and the PADD onto it. "Come on, Holly, I'll show you around the Archimedes... well.. the parts I'm allowed to go, anyway." He grabbed the box and stepped out of the shuttle. "Come on now."

Nervously, Holly followed T'kaarch. One step out of the shuttle, nothing happened. Two steps. Three steps. Suddenly, Holly started to disrupt and fade. "Oh my," T'kaarch put the box back down in order to help Holly, but before the box even touched the ground, Holly stabilized. "H... Hey, I can't feel the shuttle anymore..." Holly seemed confused, even disoriented. "Sorry?" T'kaarch said, wondering. "I... I can't read the shuttle's computers... data... stuff..." She was standing, but with both hands gripping one of the stabilizer struts on the side of the shuttle. Slowly, she recovered. "This feels quite... empty, i guess..."

"You'll be fine, you just need to get used to it." T'kaarch was trying to cheer up Holly, and simply by being T'kaarch, he succeeded, as that was how the hologram was programmed. "Yes, captain" She regained her composure and let go of the struts. She was trying to move decisively to the turbolift granting access to the shuttlebay, but her first steps were still a little unsure. T'kaarch walked behind her, a little worried about his holographic friend.

...

"Next stop, our new home!" T'kaarch said as he opened the doors to a small, but cosy and furnitured living quarters. "Don't worry, I'll make sure it's just like our shuttle" T'kaarch smiled as he put down the box and put the PADD with holographic data into one of his pockets. "Sounds like a plan" Holly smiled back, cured of her data-sickness. "Now, I need to go to the Science department, why don't you go with me? You'll be able to see some people" "Yes, captain" Holly said, still smiling. T'kaarch directly marched towards the door, with Holly in close persuit. "Let's go"

 

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