Pets & Pestering
Posted on Wed Sep 11th, 2024 @ 4:13pm by Lieutenant JG Callin Mastrel & Lieutenant Njalia Sayffier
Mission:
Take My Hand
Location: Callin's Quarters
2177 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure
"Unable to establish connection." Callin winced as the Computer's voice rang out across his quarters. Thankfully, neither of the other occupants woke up to the noise. Lieutenant Kwasi Chisomo grunted, and shifted on his bed, but the Brig Officer didn't stir any further than that. Callin was relieved, they'd gotten off to a great start he felt, and he didn't want to make a bad impression with the human. The man was big enough that he could probably throw Callin with just one hand, though he'd seemed gentle and careful enough when they'd met. Callin's roommate was mostly a lump in the darkness of their shared quarters, as the Betazoid didn't want to risk turning on the lights when Kwasi was trying to sleep. Being on different shifts was going to be hard at times.
"Computer, lower your volume another 50%, okay?" Callin sighed softly and sat back on his heels. He wiped his brow, and examined what he was working on. A small mess of wires from the open wall panel were one of the few things that were lit up, glowing slightly with a pale blue light. The jumble was his doing, trying to get the small power cables to connect to a system they just weren't meant to. He was willing to use some of his own energy allotment on his project, needed to in fact, but even after replicating an adapter between the plug of his device and the outlet behind the wall panel he hadn't figured it out.
"Affirmative," came the softer response.
Callin glanced next to the wires, at the large transparent terrarium set up next to the wall. Inside, a quarter-meter long reptile had its eyes closed and didn't seem disturbed. Yet. In the dark it was hard to see, deep green scales appeared black, and the brilliant plumage and webbing was just grey. Still, Callin imagined the terrarium's occupant was moments away from waking up and protesting the chill temperature in the room, or the noise when he was trying to sleep too. That would definitely wake up Kwasi too. It was time to call in some backup. Callin slipped out of his quarters, blinked rapidly at the lights in the brightly lit corridor outside.
=/\="Lieutenant Mastrel to Ops,"=/\= Callin wondered who would be on duty during Alpha shift that morning.
Maiden flagged the incoming call to Njalia who had indicated an interest in meeting the new officers aboard. "Operations here," she replied. "How may we assist you today?"
=/\="Hi! Sorry to bother you, but I could really use some help. Trying to make an adapter between Betazoid tech and Starfleet systems, to handle a low-voltage transfer and a teeny-tiny data stream. This is way above my head though, harder than running a diagnostic!"=/\= He paused a moment, smiled though it couldn't be seen, and added, =/\=" I'd be really grateful, happy to pay back the favor."=/\=
"You are in your quarters? I will be there directly, Ops out," said Njalia.
"This should be amusing," said Maiden, manifesting on the table edge.
"It is always fun to meet new people and this one sounded quite lost," Njalia said, slinging her tool satchel over her shoulder.
"Have fun, I am back to chasing that sensor flutter," said Maiden derezzing.
"You too," said Njalia heading out.
A few minutes later she was standing outside the junior officers' quarters, she confirmed the address and tapped the chime. "Operations here."
Callin winced again as the door chime went off. His roommate grunted, shifted on the bed. The reptile in the terrarium sighed. Callin stood there for several heartbeats, afraid to even breathe himself as if that slight noise might wake one or both of them up. Then he let out of the softest relieved breath he could before he answered his door. At least that opened so softly it was barely audible.
"Hi!" he grinned from the doorway, the room dark behind him, and his voice in a whisper. "Really appreciate the help! I can't figure out how to get both power and datastream to work together; I fix one the other fails. Feel like I'm going in circles. Doesn't help that I'm working in the dark and trying not to wake anyone up." He blinked black eyes against the bright lights of the corridor again. "Oh, right, I'm Callin. Nice to meet you!"
The Betazoid stepped aside to make room for the Androrian to come in.
Njalia's fingers played over the holographic control of her datapad establishing a privacy screen between the two parts of the room, leaving Callin's roommates in comfortable silence and dim light. "There, that should make things easier." She brought the lights up to eighty percent of standard in their half of the quarters.
"I am Lieutenant Najalia Sayffier, Chief Ops," she said with a brilliant smile and amused quirk of her antennae.
"Now, show me this piece of technology you are trying to install."
He was too late. "Wait-!" Callin raised a hand as the lights started to go up, his face dismayed. There, along the wall, was the terrarium, along with the mess of wires Callin had made trying to connect it to the ship, and within the terrarium its occupant began to stir at the sudden illumination. "Oh no..."
The reptile was long and sleek, with deep emerald scales that glistened dully in the light. It blinked overly large mud-colored eyes, and raised its plumed head, a brilliant crest of scarlet and gold that was something close to but not quite feathers. The lizard shifted, lifted its legs, revealing a thin membrane between limbs and torso that was even more brightly colored than its plumage, swirling patterns of red, yellow, blue, and green. By the time it opened its mouth, somehow managing to look at the two humanoids with annoyance at being disturbed, Callin was at the terrarium's side, reached within to stroke the creature's back.
"Sorry, sorry!" he tried in a soothing tone, and the lizard looked up at him, seemed to weigh and judge him for a moment. Then it opened its mouth and let out a keening wail. The noise filled the quarters, but not so much that they couldn't hear Kwasi grunt and mutter from the other half ot he room. "Nooo, Sir Quilly, no, it's okay. I know it's too cold still, but Najalia here is going to make it all better and you can go back to sleep."
Njalia sighed and increased the sound blocking of the privacy screen, sadly it did nothing to protect her antenna from the noise. First Vulcans, now a lizard, it was going to be an interesting tour of duty this time. She stepped over to the connection that Callin had been working on and gave it a scan with her tricorder, interesting, it used a non-standard power system. "Where did you get this . . . setup for your . . . friend?" she asked as she rooted around in her satchel for a unitary connector.
As he kept trying to reassure the lizard through petting it, Callin glanced up and answered, "Sir Quilly's been my pet since I was a kid back on Betazed. His species are native to the jungles and canyon where we lived." Sir Quilly ran out of air and paused his crying, seeming to consider if he should keep going. For the moment, he seemed contented enough to be pet, and stayed silent. "He's very particular about his terrarium, so I had to get the exact one from home shipped out to my last posting." Callin lowered his voice to a whisper again, and added, "He's so picky, he didn't even like a replicated copy that was exactly duplicated. Honestly, I think he just likes being difficult sometimes." The lizard grunted.
"Interesting, I wonder how it could tell the difference in a replicated one . . ." she said, gently removing the wiring that Callin had installed and checking the ends. "And the name?" she asked.
For a pilot, his makeshift adapter between the terrarium and the ship wasn't all that bad. Callin had a bit more than an expected amount of technical skill, but he'd missed a number of things that would allow for a stable interface, leading to the adapter failing repeatedly. "Ah. Yeah. The name." Callin did his best, but he actually blushed slightly, cheeks reddening. "I was a fan of legends about the old knights from Betazed's past and...well...I guess I wasn't the most creative child." He shrugged.
Njalia replaced the link between the terrarium and the port with a unitary connector and watched it cycle through linking options before settling, the telltale going green. "How do you mount the unit for Sir Quilly? I would hate for something to happen to it during maneuvers or turbulence."
"See?" he said to the lizard, then grinned at Njalia,"An expert! Physically bolting the whole thing to the table, which is already built into the wall there, instead of relying on something powered that might fail. He's a lot more sturdy than you might think, and can ride out things really well. He handles zero-gee better than me actually." Another grunt came from the lizard. Perhaps judging him for his piloting skills now? "What's the weirdest request you've ever had when it came to this kind of thing, Lieutenant? I can only begin to guess with a ship as big as this the neat things you've gotten to see and do!"
Njalia thought for a moment. "Did you put a layer of shock-absorbing foam between the terrarium and the table? If not, I can get you some, it would help cushion any minor bumps."
She smiled at the question. "It has been quite a ride but most recently, I was over on the Nelson, one of the new Inquiry-class ships, for a shakedown and assessment. It was . . . an interesting experience but I am glad to be back on the Vesta, she is my home for the moment and I hope it stays that way."
Callin fiddled with the controls on the terrarium as the connection was established, and soon enough a gentle warmth began to bathe the reptile within. The minor set of climate control devices built into the unit would make his pet comfortable within, where it could soak up some heat away from the cooler air of the ship. Callin gave the rock lizard a few more affectionate strokes of its scales and scratched around the brilliant plumage on its head. The large eyes rolled in contentment and Sir Quilly began to settle down, back towards sleep.
The pilot grinned back at Njalia, and lowered his voice once more, "The bottom part has all the electronics, and then shock absorption, he should be pretty safe. And yeah, I understand, I'm glad to be on the Vesta too - a ship like this, can't wait to see what missions we get! If there's anything I can do to help out, as a thank-you for this, I'm glad to."
"Operations is here to help," said Njalia packing away her tools. "I am sure you will have your work cut out for you, the Captain demands the best." She looked up. "If you wish to meet for dinner sometime, I would like to learn more of your home and its cuisines."
"Oh!" Callin look a little surprised - he wasn't cheating, reading her thoughts before they were spoken, and hadn't expected the invitation. A moment later he was back to all smiles, enthused by a fun way to pay back the kindness she'd shown him and Sir Quilly. That she hadn't actually made fun of him for the childish name was owed something in return. "Yes, that sounds like fun. I'm likely to work Beta shift, but I'm sure we can figure something out if you want to pick a stardate. Do you like vegetables?" He'd forgotten to keep his voice low in his enthusiasm, and even through the increased filtering of the screen dividing the room, they both could hear a very unhappy sort of grunt coming from Chisomo.
"Oops-" Callin was back to a whisper. He'd stopped scratching scales, and the rock lizard had resumed glaring up at him in unhappiness. "Definitely got a lot of scheduling to work out for all sorts of things." He followed that up with, "Computer, dim lights again," seeing as Njalia was putting away her tools. "And I'd like to hear about your home too."
Njalia smiled. "Excellent, we will get it scheduled for the near future. Good luck with your bunkmates," she added with an amused quirk of her antennae.
"Thanks again!" he said back softly as he opened the screen, waved sheepishly at the grumbling black man glancing their way, and led Njalia to the door. They were nearly closed when he stuck his head back out and waved to her as well, adding, "But definitely not quarters for dinner in the future." Then he dipped back inside to go try to settle down his two grumpy companions.
