Ensign Tho’Bi - Bomb-Proof Shock-Resisted Cat Palanquin

[Tobi]

((SICKBAY, DECK SEVEN - ARTEMIS))

Swoosh! The double doors opened. The scene was chaotic. Medical staff dashed from patient to monitor to control panel to supply locker back to patient. Shouts and footsteps overlapped and crisscrossed the room. Beds were full of whimpers and hollow sobs. Dazed crew sat against bulkheads, many with bandaged arms, ribs, and heads. Others stood or staggered about, they too strapped in lines of white.

The young Ensign recognised many of the faces from the Engineering SITREP Feed. He felt his stomach go a little light. His face became hot, his mouth dry.

Pressure pushed into his shoulder at two points. Two meters ahead, two front paws landed and then two back paws. Two seconds later, the cat sprang up and into the two arms of Sam Richards.

As the Andorian, he of the blood of the moon of Andoria, forged in violence, and born for war, rushed to catch up with the cat, he noticed Ensign Bancroft stood to one side. The Doctor's uniform appeared to be covered in a chunky, chemical orange paste. Had they resorted to chemical weapons on the planet's surface?

Richards: Why do you have my cat?

The ragtag collection of pregnant scientist cat mama, guilt-ridden cat taxi Andorian, and freshly arrived Doctor with not so fresh uniform, had become an awkward chicane of sorts. Medical staff dodged and side stepped around them, muttering a rich selection of expletives from across the many worlds of the Federation.

Bancroft: Is there–

The puke-blasted doctor neatly sidestepped to allow a nurse to race through unhindered. 

Bancroft: Is there something wrong with the cat? Is it injured?

For his part, the Andorian was caught between two rapidly approaching realisations. So completely consumed by the rigorous demands of combat with the Orions, the young Ensign had not had a moment to consider the human cost. A human cost that now spread out all around. And, it had not occurred to him that Sam might not know why her cat was beamed to the bridge.

Tho’Bi: :: looking around :: Erm… :: dry swallow :: We ha- had to beam the cat to the bridge. :: looking around ::

Richards: Tho’Bi. Explain yourself. Why was my cat on the bridge?

Tho’Bi: As part of a combat maneuver :: beat :: Artemis shields collided with the shields of an Orion Destroyer. 

As he heard his own words out loud, the young Engineer was forced to admit, it wasn’t the most self explanatory reason for a cat on the bridge.

Bancroft: ::dryly, with a raised brow:: Should we not, for the sake of medical triage, begin with the question of why there's currently a cat in Sickbay?

The young, recently cheezy puked, doctor appeared to be trying to deescalate, in contrast, Sam Richards was most certainly escalating. 

Richards: Are you insane?

It had been a long and difficult day with no sign of letting up.

Tho’Bi: No! :: steadies mood :: the shield collision caused our EPS network to overheat. :: beat :: when venting plasma failed to cool the network :: beat :: I vented half of decks two to six into space. 

Bancroft: ::flipping open his medical tricorder and scanning Tho’Bi:: I’m not reading any unusual–

The doctor was cut off by Sam.

Richards: Response

Tho’Bi: :: breathless exasperated :: It was the only way to save the ship :: voice thins out :: and beaming the cat to the bridge :: shaky inhale exhale :: was the only way to save the cat.

A casual slap of white and black paw sent the Doctor's Tricorder tumbling to the deck. Had the noise or the lights annoyed the cat? Or had the Tricorder simply been fair game? 

Bancroft: ::bending down to retrieve the tricorder:: Look, all I’m saying is, if this becomes some sort of hostage crisis, the cat has seniority. I will not be negotiating.

Richards: Response

The Andorian slipped the rucksack from off his shoulders and held it up in front of Sam Richards.

Tho’Bi: This is blast and shock proof :: nods at cat :: she emptied all the Engineering Tools out and took it for her own. 

The cat slipped out of her cat mama's arms and sprang tail over head and dived into the open rucksack. Moments later, the white and black of her head reappeared out the top of the rucksack. She let out a deliberate ‘Meow’ in the direction of her mama. As if to say, “Look Mama, look what I have.”

Richards/Bancroft: Response

Tho’Bi: :: looking down at the cat :: I think this belongs to the little one now.

The Andorian held out the rucksack, with Copurrnicus sat like a princess, in her bomb-proof shock-resisted palanquin. 

Richards/Bancroft: Response

The rucksack secured on Doctor Cat Mama Richards’ shoulders, Copurrnicus placed her two front paws on Sam's shoulder with her hind paws resting inside the bag. Her white and black head and torso next to, and rising above her cat-mama's head, Copurrnicus perched. Green eyes took in the room.

She let out a quiet, thinner ‘Meow’, as though she were saddened by the cries of pain and anguish that reverberated around the sickbay. And then buried her head into her mama's neck and shoulder. 

Richards/Bancroft: Response

The young Andorian looked on. He wanted to tell the little one, he understood, but did not know if it were his place to do so. And so he said nothing. And in saying nothing, he was left with the absence of those unrealised words, just the cries of pain and the thick smell of plasma burn.

 

TAG/TBC

((OOC: Cat action approved by Beky))

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Ensign Tho’Bi

Engineering

USS Artemis-A

A240203T11