A Skunk for a Solution

Posted on Sun Apr 26th, 2015 @ 8:38pm by Petty Officer 2nd Class Amelia Takethen & Commander Angelica Fairchild

Mission: The New Sydney Fiasco
Location: Holodeck 14
Timeline: while en route to New Sydney

Everyone dealt with loss their own way, but there was one thing that Angel was absolutely certain of. As someone dealt with a loss, they needed to be distracted. And since she also was in need of some distraction - lest she fall victim to thoughts of zombies and ghosts - she'd paged Amelia to meet her at the holodeck the moment their schedules aligned to give them both a few hours of downtime. The trouble was that Angel couldn't decide on a program. She didn't know Amelia that well yet and wasn't sure what sorts of things the Andorian woman might enjoy. And she didn't want to do some stereotypical thing about Andorians liking cold weather or being aggressive people. She wanted something a little more personal. Not really sure what she was looking for, she flipped through the available programs, waiting for something to catch her eye.

Amelia rounded the corner, Looking down at a PaDD and looking like she hadn't slept at all. "Commander," She said in greeting, looking up at Angel. "What do you have planned for us then?"

"I haven't quite decided yet. But something peaceful... relaxing... and that does not in any way remind me of zombie things or ghosts." It was possibly the most vague description she could possibly come up with, but Angel wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders after those recent events. She doubted any of the crew truly were.

"What about one of those Earth nature preserve things? People say they're relaxing..." Amelia said, looking back down at her PaDD.

"Nature preserve... that sounds nice and safe." Tapping in a keyword search, Angel pulled up a list of those programs, eventually selecting one that primarily held herbivores. A nice, peaceful place where they could hang out and talk without the fear of being eaten by a holographic predator. She wasn't normally so timid and afraid, but she also didn't normally tangle with zombies and ghosts! Loading the program, she looked over at Amelia with a puzzled expression. "What are you doing?"

"Please let it not be one with cages..." Amelia muttered as she put up her PaDD. "Nothing much - just looking over an inventory of broken parts that never made it to recycling." Amelia wasn't looking forward to anything dangerous either and her experiences growing up... the few zoos she had been to had just left her feeling worse. Maybe a nice 'nature preserve' where the animals roamed free would be nice.

"No cages. I don't much like to see animals in them either." It wasn't something Angel admitted often, but she did have a small soft spot for animals. The program announced it was ready, and the doors opened to a lovely green space just in time for a deer to trot past into the wood line.

"That's... unexpected..." Amelia said, giving a slightly awkward sideways glance to Angel as she stepped out onto the holodeck floor. "You're not what I expected at all, you know. By the rumors and your reputation, that is."

"If you were to believe my reputation, I kill six people a day before breakfast." Angel rolled her eyes a bit at that as she followed Amelia into the holodeck. "Or what's the other one the security boys tell... that my heart is truly made of ice? Something like that?"

"That your heart is 'of ice so cold, even Andorians shiver' if i remember correctly." Amelia finished. Looking off in the distance, Amelia could see some strange animals she had never seen before. Animals that were decidedly used to warmer climates than she was.

"Yeah, that was it." Angel followed Amelia's gaze to the animals in the distance, wondering how those had gotten in the same program as a deer. Perhaps the deer had actually been an antelope? Or this was a park that had animals from all over Earth. "Honestly some of the rumors are a bit silly. I know where they come from, and I might even encourage some of them a bit... but there are a few I'm not fond of. The heart of ice, for example."

"Understandable. Even on Andoria, a heart of ice isn't entirely good." Amelia waved her antenna at a group of large grey animals and some long escalator-necked yellow and black creatures. "Do you know what those are? And that first creature we saw... was that what's known as a... a cow?"

"The first one was some sort of deer or antelope. Didn't get a good look at it." Angel looked at the far group of animals again, realizing now there were two groups. "The tall ones are called giraffes... they pretty much only eat leaves off trees. The other ones..." She paused, watching as one of the large grey animals flapped its ears. "Those are elephants. The giraffes are gentle, but elephants can be aggressive. Don't get too close."

"Giraffes and elephants... What strange animals..." the Andorian muttered under her breath as she walked along the footpath that led near the long necked animals.

"Andoria doesn't have many big animals, does it?" Amused by Amelia's fascination with the large creatures, Angel followed her down the path.

"No and neither did the colony I grew up on. About the biggest thing I saw growing up was a redbat and that was on a plate." Amelia replied, a bit fascinated by the animals and starting to come out of her shell. Suddenly, a large flying creature flew overhead with long legs and a large pliers-shaped beak. "What was that?" She exclaimed, having never seen anything with feathers before.

"Some kind of bird. Maybe a stork or a heron." Angel watched the bird fly off into the distance, but she wasn't really sure what sort of bird it was. "What's a redbat?"

"An Andorian flying mammal. Not much to look at but it's tasty if cooked right." Amelia explained as she watched the avian fly away, her antenna twitching excitedly.

"Can't say I've ever eaten a bat. Don't think I'd want to... Terran bats don't have much meat on them." Finding a grassy spot under a large tree - close enough to the giraffes to watch them for hours if they wanted - Angel sat down on the ground, leaning against the tree's trunk.

Plopping down next to Angel, the younger Andorian woman sat cross-legged, staring at the long necked beasts. "How long do you think it takes for food to reach their stomach?"

"I really don't know, but I imagine it's a long time." Angel watched as one of the animals stood on just its hind legs to get some leaves from the top of a tree.

Leaning back against the tree, Amelia nodded and just enjoyed the breeze and watching the animals. The smell of grass was new to her as well. She knew most planets had green and yellow plant life and she had even seen it a few times but there was so much green here... Running her hands over the grass, she picked a few blades and brought it to her nose, sniffing it.

Angel smiled a bit, amused by how innocent Amelia seemed as she sniffed the blades of grass. "Good thing that's holographic or you might start sneezing."

"Sneezing?" Amelia looked up, worried. "Is it toxic?"

"Oh no, not at all. But some people are allergic to its pollen, and that makes them sneeze." Angel had to remind herself that such problems weren't always common on other worlds. Now that she thought about it, she'd never heard of an Andorian being allergic to anything.

"Ah, allergic." Amelia said, mulling the word over. "It sounds unpleasant. Is it like when I try spicy Earth foods and my guts hurt? Is that possibly an allergy?"

"Maybe. It could just be that you're not used to the peppers and spices."

Her antennae perking up, Amelia directed her attention to a scurrying sound not far from them in the grass. Glancing back at Angel a moment, she waited for whatever it was to show itself.

Following the noise, Angel looked over just in time to see a tiny fox with enormous ears dart out and stop dead, staring at them. The small animal started to back away, then changed its mind, coming close enough to sniff at Amelia's leg.

Amelia held her breath, trying to remain as still as possible, her eyes wide as the creature sniffed her. What was it? It was too cute to be edible but she still wanted to know what it was.

"Cute, isn't he?" Angel said quietly, as to not drive the animal off. "He's a Fennec fox... usually lives in the desert, but these parks don't usually differentiate much in habitats. Just lump everyone together."

Amelia started breathing again, slowly moving her hand so her palm was up towards the strange fox so it could sniff it. Without disappointing, the fox sniffed her palm, then licked it slightly. "So cute..." Amelia breathed.

"Some breeders on Earth have tamed the Fennec fox and offer it as an exotic pet." Angel had never been one to keep formerly wild animals, but she could see the appeal in this case. The little fox was downright adorable.

"I think I'd want to stick with a holographic one." Amelia said softly as the fox decided to head over to Angel and check her out too.

"In that case, I'm sure there's a way to have a hologram of one in your cabin," Angel said gently, noticing how Amelia seemed to relax in the tiny animal's presence. She almost didn't notice it sniffing her until a little paw came to rest on her leg. Looking down, Angel was surprised to see the fox so close.

"They do say animals are therapeutic. I never understood that before now since all the animals I've met before have been for food. I can't see eating this one though." Amelia said as the fox became a bit braver with Angel.

"It's been documented as a positive effect of owning pets for a long time... Earth medicine's agreed on it since sometime in the twentieth century." Angel held her hand out for the fox to sniff, grinning as it first licked her and then gave an exploratory nibble. "I don't have a pet here... never had one on a starship..."

"I was a pet for a while..." Amelia didn't know why she said that. She hadn't even told Ven. Strangely enough, her mood didn't darken that much. Normally she'd be in tears just thinking about it but somehow with Angel and this fox, she felt safe. Safer than she'd been in... well, ever...

"I'm sorry, did you say you were a pet?" Angel gave Amelia a surprised look.

Nodding slowly, Amelia was silent a moment before saying anything more. "Before I joined Starfleet I was kept in a cage a lot. He called me his pet Andorian." Falling silent, she watched as the fox crawled into Angel's lap.

"That's... well that's rather terrible." Angel patted the fox's head, not paying a great deal of attention to it now. "Putting people in cages..." She'd put plenty of people in the brig, but they weren't pets.

"It made working on shuttles and tinkering with things a bit difficult." the Andorian woman said with a sigh. "I don't know why I told you that. I didn't even tell Ven that." Feeling something poking her in the butt, Amelia looked down and saw another strange critter. This one looked decidedly out of place out on this grass, being black with a white stripe. Gently picking it up and moving it to her lap, Amelia ran her hand down its soft fur. "What's this animal called?"

"I'm glad you're comfortable enough to tell me. I can make allowances for it now, give you more spacious work areas, if you need them." Looking at the animal Amelia had on her lap now, Angel scooted a little bit away. "That's a skunk. Don't startle it... they spray a really nasty substance when they're scared."

Amelia just pet over it softly as it sniffed around on her. "Is that what that sweet smell is? Interesting." Scritching behind its ears, the skunk flopped down into her lap and settled there.

"Um, sweet? I don't think so..."

"To my nose, he smells sweet and tangy. If he sprays something else, I don't smell it." Amelia said, finally cracking a smile as she enjoyed petting this skunk animal.

"I don't smell anything yet." If the skunk hadn't sprayed, Angel wasn't sure what Amelia was smelling. She figured it was the difference between their senses of smell... lots of aliens had stronger senses than humans.

"Then let's hope he's nice and pleasant the whole time. Do you think he'd make a good pet? He's so fluffy." Amelia asked as she smiled and rubbed the skunk's belly as he rolled over in her lap.

"I don't see any reason why not, but if he does spray his other scent, people might not like it." Angel had to admit, the little skunk was cute. Cute the same way the tiny dogs some women carried in handbags were cute. "If he's holographic though... you can turn that off and it won't be a problem."

"I wonder what it'll take to set up a holo-pet..." Amelia mused as the skunk got off her lap and wandered off, sniffing the ground curiously.

"Shouldn't be too hard... doesn't the ship have holo-emitters just about everywhere?" Angel scratched behind the little fox's ears for a moment. "At least you don't have to train it to pee on a newspaper or something."

"Yeah, there's a dedicated system for ship-wide holomatrixes but that's really more for so the emergency holograms can do stuff. For anything dedicated or long term, it's advised you use one of the 47 holodeck matrixes." Amelia explained, having had installed most of the power systems for them during the refit. "Maybe I can put in a requisition order for a smaller holomatrix for personal use... Do you think the Captain would allow that?"

"She will when I tell her how much more relaxed you are with a tiny animal sitting in your lap." Angel grinned a bit. "Honestly I don't think she'll mind all that much. It can't be the strangest request she'd have gotten."

Amelia's cheeks tinged a shade darker blue as Angel spoke. "No, I'm sure it wouldn't be. Now if I could just ditch my roommates... Thank you for letting me stay at your place, by the way."

"You're welcome. I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I thought you were in trouble. As for your roommates... I don't know if I can solve that problem."

"Yeah, you'd have to promote me a couple more times, I think." Amelia said, the slight blush leaving her cheeks. "Or if I was made a secretary or yeoman, but there's no real hope of that either." Gazing off into the distance at the larger animals, Amelia had a bit of a distant look as she studied them.

"A yeoman or a secretary..." Angel trailed off for a moment, thinking back to her discussion with Enalia. Amelia was uncomfortable working in small confined spaces, and she was unhappy with the living situation she'd be going back to with her roommates. "Is that a position on the ship you'd like to have?"

The andorian woman glanced over at Angel with a hint of surprise, her antenna waving curiously. "And brush elbows with the senior staff on a daily basis and be treated like an errand girl?" Now that she was thinking about it, it didn't sound too bad... "Maybe..."

"Have a little faith in me, Amelia. I wouldn't treat you like an errand girl.... I can probably even get you set up in an office. It would be small, but it would be your own space. You'd deal directly with me... and the best part is, no roommates. You'd get a private cabin near mine." Angel paused for a moment, letting the idea sink into Amelia's head.

Amelia nodded slowly, thinking it over. "So I wouldn't be working directly with the Captain then? I don't mean to be rude, but..." Leaning in slightly, Amelia lowered her voice. "I heard she's been a bit of a troll since the refit."

"You have no idea. She tried to get me to change uniforms in front of her, pretending she didn't have a bathroom." Angel shook her head slightly. "But no, you wouldn't be working directly with her. I'd be between the two of you."

"I can imagine that." Amelia had to grin widely, shaking her head in disbelief and a light chuckle barely managing to escape her lips. "Ok, I'll do it. For you."

"Fantastic. I'll put the changes into the computer when I get back to my office." Angel couldn't help grinning a bit; she'd solved some of Amelia's problems and alleviated some of her workload at the same time.