As Kira entered the bridge of the
USS Ronin, he turned to his right and headed toward the science station. Today
was a rather quiet day aboard the Ronin. After departing from Valaria, life
aboard the Ronin had measurably slowed down.
As Kira sat down, Captain Evans turned in his chair to see who had arrived on
his bridge. "Good morning, Commander." Stated Evans in a quiet tone
as he turned his attention back to the PADD's he was reading before Kira entered
the room.
"Good morning to you as well, Sir." Replied Kira as he turned his chair toward the consoles in front of him.
"If you wouldn't mind, Commander, I'd like you to assist McMillan by running a long range sensor sweep of our current course."
"Not a problem, Sir."
Moments later, Kira completed the task and passed the data he had collected to Ensign McMillan's station. "This should be of some assistance to you, Ensign." Said Kira as he tapped the final sequence on the console that sent the data stream to the front of Tricia's view. "It looks like our course is clear for the next couple of days."
"Thank you, Commander." Replied Tricia as she scrolled over the data she had just received.
Kira sat back in his chair, and pulled up next week's duty roster on one of his open panels. *It's so quiet around here, I should be able to finish this before the end of my shift.* He had barely started to work on the roster, when the communications channel opened on the bridge.
[Commander Markos, this is Doctor Jin. Could you please come to the infirmary, there's something I'd like your medical opinion on."] Said the voice of Dr. Jodana Jin.
Kira looked over at Evans and gave him a puzzled look. Evans gave a shrug and returned the look back to Kira as if to say, "Beats me."
Kira tapped on his communicator badge and replied, "I'll be with you in a moment Doctor." He then looked over at Evans and said, "Captain, with your permission I'll go see what the Doctor wants."
"Of course, nothing happening here. Let me know what is so interesting." Captain Ryan replied.
Taking his cue from Evans' approval, Kira stood up and moved toward the rear door of the Bridge. As the door opened to the hallways of the Ronin, Kira felt a slight breeze around his ankles. Looking down at his feet as the bridge doors closed, Kira didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, and thus continued on his way toward the Infirmary.
A couple of minutes later, Kira stepped through the doors of the Medical Bay, and immediately looked around for Dr. Jodana Jin. She was seated in her office in front of her console, thoroughly engrossed in its contents.
"OK Doctor, what would you like me to look at." Said Kira as he walked across the room toward her office.
Jodana turned around to look at the voice that broke her concentration, and smiled once she realized that it was Kira. "It seems that we've underestimated the intelligence of Nige's cat." Jodana remarked, nodding towards one of the bio beds outside her office.
Kira turned his attention toward where Jodana indicated and was greeted with the sight of Torasu seated on a bio bed, as if nothing was wrong, performing a quick wash before lunch.
Kira smiled at the little intruder then shook his head in disbelief as he turned to face Jodana once again. "But how, I thought the computer was programmed to stop Torasu from entering the restricted areas." Kira said.
"Well I guess he must have got in when Ensign Haigh left. She'd left shortly before Torasu appeared on my desk. She had a little accident whilst working on the internal sensor grid, minor electrical burns, nothing fatal. That might also explain why the computer didn't detect Torasu." Doctor Jin speculated.
With his curiosity piqued, Kira replied, "Let's try an experiment. Computer, locate the cat Torasu."
After a brief response the computer responded,
"There, the internal sensor grid seems to be working fine." Kira announced after hearing a favourable response.
The computer then chirruped again and stated,
"What?" They both said in unison.
Leaving Torasu on the bio bed, Kira and Jodana quickly moved toward the sickbay exit doors.
"Computer, erect a three foot boundary, level one force field around bio bed four." Jodana requested as the doors closed behind the two officers. "That should keep him out of trouble for a while."
Kira immediately added to Jodana's orders. "Computer, lock and secure sickbay. Allow no access to sickbay until further notice." As the computer chirruped its acknowledgement of the orders, the two perplexed officers headed toward the bridge, wondering what would await them.
Moments later Kira and Jodana arrived on the Bridge, a little out of breath from the speed of their arrival. As the doors opened before them they found Captain Evans, Tyran Nige and Tricia McMillan standing together in a small area, with another Torasu in Nige's arms.
"Good, Torasu is still here." Said Kira as he and Jodana stepped across the threshold and officially entered the bridge.
Without wasting any time to greet the newcomers to his bridge, Ryan said, "You knew that the cat was on the Bridge?"
"Sort of Captain, that's why Doctor Jin asked me to go to sickbay." Kira replied.
Captain Evans was quiet for a moment and then sneezed once again. "Lieutenant, take that cat of yours off my Bridge NOW." Ryan ordered.
Nige picked up Torasu and started to walk off the Bridge. As he was leaving Kira stopped Nige by putting a hand on his shoulder. "Nige, put Torasu in his travelling case and bring him to sickbay in half an hour. I'll explain why later."
Nige nodded in response to Kira's request, he was a little confused as to why Kira had given him the order, but quickly turned his attention back to Torasu. "OK. Come on you nosy feline, let's get you back to safety and away from the nasty Captain." Nige said as he left the Bridge.
"Commander, Doctor I'm confused." Captain Evans stated as he returned to his chair in the centre of the bridge. "Would either of you like to explain."
"Could we talk in your ready room Captain." Kira requested.
"Sure, if it will help to shed some light on the situation." Ryan replied, rising from his chair and walking towards the door. "McMillan, you have the Bridge until Tyran returns."
The three officers sat down in the ready room.
"So Commander, Doctor would one of you like to put me in the picture?" The Captain asked, sneezing again. "Damn allergy." He exclaimed.
"Captain, are you having an allergic reaction to Nige's cat? Because we can fix that with an injection, no problem." Doctor Jin announced.
"Don't try to change the subject Doctor." Ryan replied.
"Well it's like this.." Kira started to explain. "We appear to have, how can I put this?"
"Straightforwardly." Ryan replied.
"OK." Kira said, taking a deep breath before continuing. "We appear to have two cats aboard. One secured in Sickbay and the second with Nige."
"Do we know who the other cat belongs to?" Ryan asked.
There was a moment of silence, before anyone spoke.
"Captain, I don't think you've
quite understood." Jodana said. "There aren't just two cats, there
are two Torasus'."
