A Barrel of Voles (Part II)

Posted on Tue Mar 8th, 2022 @ 4:54am by Commander Grace Vetur & Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii & Lieutenant Percival Bálor Ph.D
Edited on on Tue Apr 5th, 2022 @ 11:25am

1,836 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: The Bandits of Black Rain
Location: Cargobay

Percy was trotting down the corridor with a tricorder in hand, and with an Efrosian armed with a phaser trailing closely behind him. "Oh man," he sighed. "I don't even need this tricorder to know we have a problem. I can smell them all the way down this corridor."

The Chief Science Officer was half-Tellarite, not quite fully equipped with a Tellarite's excellently sharp sense of smell, but more sensitive than a Human. "Vole urine is considered an aphrodisiac on some planets, but I think that was just started as an excuse for why people reeked of Vole piss."

Wrinkling his nose as the smell grew as they neared, Yiv cupped his hand over his lower face. 'I hope this means you won't be turning up for date night doused in it. Not that it doesn't have it's own particular bouquet.'

"Not a chance, lover," Percy replied and bit his lip a bit at the slip of tongue. "Lieutenant," the Chief Science Officer quickly said as if he could make up for it, but he knew what he said. He knew that even if Yiv's eyesight was not that good, the Intelligence Officer had damn good ears.

Percy continued onward. "I may bottle some of it though. Might make a great gift for Amanda. Just infuse it a bit with some floral essences and oils, cook up a pretty nice perfume for her."

Feeling his ears burn at Percy's slip of the tongue, Yiv smiled slightly and slipped his hand into his briefly and gave a squeeze. 'Just ignore her. She's not worth the energy of any plots or plans, Percy.'

"That was a gesture of sincerity," Percy replied with a chuckle. "I am trying to find ways to present her with peace offerings and compliment her, but Commander Vetur told me to just keep my distance and give Amanda space. That's is a little hard to do when she looks at me certain ways."

'Commander Vetur might just be right,' Yiv replied lightly as he released Percy's hand, alert for a lay attacks to his own shins. 'Amanda may never come round. Which is a shame. But ultimately her choice.'

Percy sighed. "Delightful," he replied with sarcasm at the forefront. "I get to serve aboard an Ambassador class starship where the Ship's Counselor hates my guts and cannot work through hurt feelings logically nor diplomatically." It was what is was, and a shame was accurate.

The Chief Science Officer opened the doors to the cargo bay as soon as he reached the threshold. Once it opened, the situation was clear. Several Cardassian voles scurried across the decking of the cargobay scattering about behind cargo barrels and containers. "Oh gobshite!"

Uttering an unrepeatable Efrosian curse word, Yiv recoiled from the sight, sound and smell of the voles that had occupied the cargo bay. 'How the hell can these stinkers get aboard undetected?' He almost, but not quite, put the sleeve of his uniform across his nose. 'These things must stink from a sector away.'

"It's not too bad when it is on a planet with open space, but these damn things have nested in one or more of these cargo containers" Percy replied. "They also have clearly been mating...a lot."The half-Tellarite shook his head.

Percy slowly approached a cargo container. "You are not going like this one bit, but I have adjusted this tricorder and I am reading about a hundred and fifty tiny little heartbeats in this cargobay."

'It certainly explains why it smells like a Gorn's underclothes in here,' Yiv couldn't get over his own distaste for the creatures. 'A hundred and fifty is a lot for one phaser. Is it the only way? Could we set a trap?'

"Oh sure," he replied. "We could set a trap, but we're not exactly talking peanut butter smothered cereal or a hunk of cheese. This is going to take some doing, and I also am not about to kill these little guys. They stink, they are complete pests, but they are a life form. We should inform Lieutenant Commander Vetur before she finds out and suspects me."

'You're a botanist, not a biologist, why would they have reason to think it's you?' asked Yiv a shade indignant. Deep down he was also glad that he hadn't been called in to serve as an exterminator of living creatures. Yiv had seldom fired a weapon in anger and felt a deep reservation with that requirement of his service, whether the creature was sentient or no. He slowly holstered the phaser. 'We still have to get them off the ship. Or at least cordoned off enough they won't be a menace,' he observed.

"I am a botanist through extensive appreciation, Commander" Percy said to Yiv with a smile. "I am a Biochemist by specialty and in order to get to such point, one needs to have the building blocks in biology and chemistry. Plants may be my preference, but I served in the Biological sciences division aboard the Sastri for two years, and head of Biological sciences aboard the Kerberos before I transferred to the Ontario."

"Nevertheless, I am going to let Commander Vetur know about this situation. She would not be pleased to learn about it after the fact" said Percy as he tapped his communications badge.

Percy took a deep breath. "Commander Vetur, we have a bit of a situation on deck eight, Lieutenant Commander Ra-Gruvloeii and I were investigating some issues in my botanical lab on deck seven. We're currently in a cargobay and it is overrun with Cardassian voles. Ma'am they have nested and bred...we have an infestation."

Grace paused for a moment, thinking over the ramifications. "Do you have any indications of how far the infestation has spread?"

"Given there looks to be about one hundred and fifty some life signs narrowed to vole specificities, and that being just this deck...I'm going to say far. They destroyed my crocuses, Commander, and they are definitely mating. These things are highly attracted to energy fields. If they find their way to the computer core or down to Engineering, we are going to have a huge problem. I have some recommendations, but you may not love them."

Grace sighed. No, she was not going to love them. "What are they?" she asked.

Percy heard the sigh yet didn't take offense to it. "I believe quarantine and quarreling is the most prudent course. Lieutenant Commander Ra-Gruvloveii has suggested setting traps, and I agree though I believe one large one will do" said Percy nodding at Yiv.

"Commander, we put the Ontario into gray mode, or at the very least decks three through thirteen. I believe that is wide enough. If energy field attract Cardassian voles, then we make the ship less attractive and spring a trap down here on deck eight."

"Can we not just set the transporter to locate every vole and transport them to a cargo bay and then put them behind a force field?" Grace asked. "Surely the computer can locate every vole on the ship?"

Staying quiet, Yiv worked on linking his tricorder up to the ship's Main Computer so the internal sensors could be calibrated and tracked to monitor the voles as a deviation to the standard internal sweep that was conducted every few minutes. Should be sufficient until they've figured out a plan, he thought. The Efrosian looked over at the half-Tellarite to see what his response would be.

Percy smiled "That would work under normal conditions, Ma'am. We can definitely get a good number of the voles that way. The problem is it won't get all of them. There are nooks and crannies that are a little harder to penetrate with transporters right now due to some...'neat things' that Engineering is working on. I can proceed with your plan though. It just means picking up.the stragglers we don't initially get."

The Chief Science Officer continued "Either way we do it, my trap is simple. We reconfigure a few pattern enhancers down here, set them up to emit a proper energy field in a triangular placement, voles would come scurrying for it like ambrosia."

"I think it would be best to get as many as we can with the transporters and then lure out the rest," she said. "Before this spreads any further."

"You're the boss, Commander," Percy replied. "Though I might snag one of these for a pet. Just forewarning you." Percy chuckled.

"Only if it can't reproduce," Grace retorted.

"I'll name her Amanda. Chances are good she won't get the opportunity" quipped the Chief Science Officer. "Yiv and I will work on transporting the voles."

"I suggest you come up with a different name," Grace said, trying not to chuckle. "Especially if you're trying to mend fences. I'll let you get to it. Please keep me informed of your progress."

Percy snickered. "Just teasing. I'll find a more suitable name, Bálor out." This was obviously going to take some time, and Percy would need the help. He looked at Yiv. "Help me with these Voles?"

The Efrosian waggled the tricorder in Percy's direction. 'Already programmed a deviation in the sensor sweep - I can set it up to run continuously until our critters are penned in if you'd like. Transporter should pick em up, no problem.' He smiled through the stink of the voles. 'I'm surprised Cardassians didn't do to these what the Klingons did to Tribbles.'

"The voles were not as much of a nuisance to the Cardassians as the Tribble were to Klingons," replied Percy. "Actually, the Cardassians benefited from them. They unleashed voles on Bajor to demolish the crops, break the spirits of the Bajoran people, and crush them."

Folding his arms contemplatively Yiv pulled a face. 'You forget sometimes how Cardassian Central Command could be such malicious bastards.' He sighed, 'the past is a strange place as they say. And thankfully they never broke the Bajorans.' Looking at Percy he smiled, 'so, the plan of action?'

Percy gestured to one of the cargobay transporters. "Life forms, Yiv," Percy said with a chuckle. "You start scanning the ship for life forms...tiny little life forms." Percy sighed heavily. It was going to be a long afternoon.

"I'll start getting to work on setting up the trap," he added.

'Reconfiguring those internal sensors will be a blast,' Yiv said with a chuckle. He reached out and clapped Percy on the shoulder before running his hand down his arm, and clasping his hand for a second again. 'At least it's not spreadsheets!' he roared with laughter.

Percy snorted and smiled with the gentle touch. "I leave those to the underlings."

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

Lieutenant Commander Yivliph Ra-Gruvloveii
Chief Intelligence & Second Officer
USS Ontario

Lieutenant Percival Bálor
Chief Science Officer
USS Ontario

with

Lieutenant Commander Grace Vetur
Executive Officer
USS Ontario

 

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