Ensign Lyra Voss: Ensign Baby-Sitters Club
Sarah Terry
((Cybernetics Lab F26, Deck 528, Starbase 118))
Once the mission was over and she was back in her present 2403 mind again (with several visits to her therapist booked on her calendar for good measure), Lyra immediately got to work on her favorite side project - continuing to decipher entries in the infamous Ensign Bingo game. Since arriving on the station half a year ago (Four preserve, was it really already six months?), she’d already mag-boot raced down the ceiling and learned how to drive race carts on the fly in a rainbow holo-suite wonderland, and she was eager to see what else the game had in store.
After all, she and Mi’shune were now the senior ensigns. She’d watched that mantle pass from Ryden to S’zurak, and now it was theirs. And they truly had a bumper crop of ensigns - Dylan had been with them through Aurora Road, but she’d only barely met Alok at the last awards ceremony, and three more ensigns had been assigned to 118 during the last mission - Bremi Taida, Ysatch Tori, and A’Mayri. Ensign Bremi was in the science department with her, but things had been so busy since the end of the last mission that she’d barely had a chance to wave to the Bajoran let alone introduce herself.
That was all about to change. She and Mi’shune had sent out invitations promising initiation into a Starbase 118 tradition, and mysterious directions to show up at the currently-unused cybernetics lab on deck 528. It felt like the right amount of intrigue and fun - now all they had to do was wait for the ensigns to actually show up.
Lyra rocked on her heels as she held her PADD tightly. She looked at Mi’shune with a half-smile.
Voss: So if nobody shows up, do we lose the title of “senior ensigns” or what?
sh’Sonora: ?
She laughed. Luckily, they didn’t have to wait much longer. After a few more minutes, the full team of seven ensigns were together in the lab. Lyra feel her heart beating a little faster at the thought of introducing this madness to a bunch of people she didn’t know particularly well, but she hid it with a grin.
Voss: Welcome to… Ensign Bingo! If we haven’t met, I’m Lyra, this is Mi’shune, and we are here to invite you to join a little semi-secret Ops tradition. The story goes - some mysterious ensign long ago found a secret encrypted file hidden in the replicator’s raktajino recipe, and it turned out to contain a list of tasks for ensigns to try to complete without getting caught by senior staff. If you complete a task, you get to add your own task to the list for future ensigns. The tasks are difficult to decrypt *but* I’ve been working on decoding one in time for shore leave, which, of course, brings us to today! So uh… ::looking around at the various expressions in the room:: what do you say? Who’s in?
Bryce/Munshi/Bremi/Ysatch/A’Mayri: ?
sh’Sonora: ?
Voss: ::grinning:: Fantastic! So the task I decrypted was pretty simple. It listed this lab, with a combination to open a storage container here, and the instructions: “Babysit CHRLI ::she pronounced that as “Charlie”:: for eight hours.” That’s all I know so far - I wanted everyone here before I tried to open the container. But yeah! I guess that means it’s time to open it!
She walked over to the storage drawers all slotted neatly into the wall, and the group followed behind her. She could feel little pinpricks of adrenaline in her wrists and the back of her neck, but this was not the time to back down. Instead, she double-checked the code on her PADD and entered in into the storage drawer. There was a brief hiss, and a few wisps of something that smelled a bit like ozone, and then the drawer slid open.
All seven ensigns watched with anticipation as the mist cleared and revealed the contents of the drawer. For half a second, Lyra was afraid it was some kind of pile of metal scrap, but then she realized it actually looked more like a curled up armadillo or something - a bunch of sleek silver plates that reflected the lights in the room. They stared for a long moment as nothing much happened, and then the metallic armadillo-esque creature slowly stirred to life and unfurled itself. It had four silver legs and a little tail, comically large ears that perked up like little satellite dishes, and big, shining black optical sensors for eyes.
Voss: It’s so cute!
Bryce/Munshi/Bremi/Ysatch/A’Mayri/sh’Sonora: ?
And it was. For about ten more seconds. After that, it shot out of the drawer with terrifying speed and immediately started clamoring around the lab and climbing over every piece of equipment in sight.
Voss: ::with panic:: Somebody grab it!
Well, it was going to be a long eight hours…