EXPERIMENTAL

Posted on Thu Feb 16th, 2023 @ 9:26am by Ensign Tobias "Toby" Dienstag & Lieutenant Mariya Karashka Ph.D. & Ensign Dora & Cadet Freshman Grade Poppy Koppelman

1,740 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Rendezvous At Starbase 10
Location: Science Lab #1
Timeline: M2 MD07 (2268.6.09) 1000

Shoreleave was winding down and Toby was back to work in the Science lab. In his absence no fewer than fifteen complaints were filed about the experimental holographical recreation deck and over twenty bugs were reported. Apparently no one bothered to read the EXPERIMENTAL warning label posted everywhere. Although the deck wasn't his idea or his invention, he not only had been stuck with deal with it but also had been associated with it which was driving him nuts.

The young man was sitting across from Dora at their shared desk in Science Lab #1. The Edosian was engaging two computer consoles at once, giving one bulging eye to each screen while Toby was pounding the raised hard plastic keys at his own console. Some personnel had been caught uploading their own programs, which was against protocol at this point given its experimental nature. The new assistant records officer, Poppy Koppelman was one.

Toby had heard all about her fiasco with the Captain on the bridge the other day and her diatribes about the number of tapes in the ship's computer computers. He found it interesting that she had yet to ask him her slew of embarrassing questions he had heard so much about. He guessed he was low on the list. He stopped typing and looking up from his console, "Has Cadet Koppelman asked you any records questions?" he asked Dora.

Dora blinked his eyes closed and then gave a deep, creaky chuckle.

"He he he. You mean the embarrassing ones?"

"Yeah, she hasn't paid me a visit yet," Toby responded, "Although I sent her a message... She's one of the 5 people on the naughty list for trying to upload unauthorized programs into the holographic rec deck." He sighed, "I don't know how I got stuck with that boat anchor around my neck," he added.

"He he he, Camp Commandant's revenge..." the Edorian continued to chuckle, and not entirely at Toby's expense. Poppy's clipboard had been sent to their lab to ensure that the questions that came up on the computerised device were entirely random. Dora just hadn't been able to resist a bit of fun re-programming...

He might look like a gnarled twig, but the multilimbed being was adept at covering his tracks when playing his practical jokes and computerised japery. After all, Toby did only have 5 people on his list.

__________

It was sometime later, after Dora had left the lab to untangle some crossed neurones on the bridge computers, that the door swished open and a teenaged girl, skinny legged and with her red uniform hanging sack-like from her thin frame peeped her head in.

"He... hello? Is Ensign Dienstag here? I'm Freshman Grade Cadet Koppelman, records Department, I've been told to report to him." she said, quite shyly for the usually ebullient Poppy. She had a sort of feeling she might be in trouble for something.

"We shall not sleep, though poppies grow..." Toby recited.

"Uh?" grunted Poppy. She didn't know "Flanders Fields" from "The Charge of the Light Brigade." Her home schooling on Pluto had been perfunctory at best, and poetry was certainly not on the limited curriculum.

"You've come to the right place," Toby responded, "And you can drop the Ensign bit, I'm barely four years older than you." The wide eyed young man responded with a chuckle.

"You are my senior officer, though, Sir. Did you know that a recent report from Star Fleet Academy suggests that an increasing lack of discipline in the service is leading to a less efficient force. Why gosh, in five years time, we'll all be lounging around the ship in our pajamas!" she exuded "...Sir."

"I'm a scientist, such things really don't bother me," Toby responded, "Just have a seat. There's something we need to... Discuss..."

Poppy steeled herself... she had known it would come to this. She put her hands behind her back in the 'at ease' position, held her head up high and stared straight ahead.

"I'd rather stand, if you don't mind , sir. I know what this is about. It's about the Captain's underpants, isn't it Sir?" she asked in a dignified voice. "I take full responsibility, Sir. No excuse, Sir."

A look of horror came across Toby's pale face, "Um... No... This is not about the captain's underwear..." he responded, "However it does concern the captain... And the holographic recreation deck..."

Poppy's eyes dropped and she gave up her rigid position and sunk down into the proffered chair after all, looking very sheepish.

She stared at the floor, wringing her hands.

"I did a bad thing, didn't I?" she asked plaintively.

"Well it wasn't good," Toby responded with a sigh, "Uploading an unauthorized program into the ship's library computer can compromise our security... But was even worse was the content of the program... Does the Captain know you think he's Roy Rogers? Fringes and all?"

"Oh no, this is so embarrassing!!" cried Poppy holding her face in her hands. "Th.. the Captain doesn't know does he?!"

She was about to ask if it was Lt. Commander Stryker who had told on her, but then it occurred to her that if it wasn't him, she might be getting him in to trouble by mentioning his name. So she kept quiet.

"No, the Captain doesn't know..." Toby responded, "We found it during a routine diagnostic. The holographic rec deck is highly experimental and it has been getting a great deal of use lately..."

Just then Lt. Karashka swished out of her office and spotted Toby having his cosy fireside chat with Poppy. She marched over.

"Is this one of the guilty parties?" she snapped and picked up Toby's clipboard. "Oh, this one!" she looked daggers at Poppy.

"WELL STAND UP GIRL, YOU'RE TALKING TO AN OFFICER!!" she bellowed at the cadet who immediately jumped up like a cat on a hot tin roof and stood to attention on trembling legs, she was sure that she could hear her knees knocking together.

"This is the one who created the sex scene with the Captain's image?" she asked Toby "Oh no, I..." The Bulgarian officer shouted at Poppy again.

"DID I TELL YOU TO SPEAK?!"

"No, bu..."

"NO WHAT?!"

"No, Ma'am" Poppy sniffed, trying to stand up straight at attention and not run crying from the room. Karashka moved toward the shaking cadet, who was two inches shorter than the imposing woman in teal and brought her face close to the other's.

"Do you realise the damage that you have caused to expensive and sensitive equipment on this ship? Do you realise that you have endangered the lives of crewmembers? Can you think of any reason why I shouldn't have you put on the next shuttle back to whatever rock you crawled from under?" she hissed like a snake in Poppy's ear, which was even worse than the shouting.

The terrified girl couldn't help but break her forward stare and look down at the floor, tears now rolling down her cheeks.

"No... Ma'am."

"Or we could punish you. Teach you a lesson you won't forget, so that you do not make such a mistake again. Would you prefer that..." the she-dragon glanced at the clipboard "... Koppelman?"

"Yes" Poppy managed to say, her bottom lips trembling.

"Yes... puh" Karashka reminded.

"Yes, please... Ma'am." Poppy completed the sentence.

"Yes, please, Ma'am... what?" Karashka pushed it, buckling the girl's frail spirit to the point of breaking.

Poppy hit a point then, she didn't know what it was, but somewhere inside she couldn't buckle and fracture and break any further. She was a Proud Plutonian, the first of her family to ever do anything but work in a junk yard. She sniffed back a tear, and spoke the humiliating words out loud.

"Yes, please Ma'am. Please punish me so I won't make the same mistake again."

"Good" snapped the Lieutenant. "Report to me every day at the gym for the next week during your rest period for extra physical exercise. I will supervise you personally. Good healthy exercise. That will cure you of these dirty, disgusting fantasies about the Captain. It will also help clear up your body odour problem."

Poppy was horribly aware of the large sweat patches that had darkened her uniform around the armpits during this ordeal.

"Do you own a regulation leotard?" the woman asked, stepping away now and starting to circle the girl like a vulture eying up its prey.

"N.. no, Ma'am." stuttered Poppy.

"Well you had better borrow one, otherwise you will have to exercise in your underwear, in front of everybody else in the gym. Ha!" she laughed "i might even invite the Captain down to watch. God knows he could do with a laugh."

She smiled as she looked at the girl. Was it pure sadism, or something else?

"Dismissed!" she barked. And Poppy started to dart from the room, but Karashka called her back. "Cadet! You forgot to thank me."

Poppy balled up her fists and stood to attention again. "Thank you Ma'am."

Karashka waved her away and Poppy marched as steadily as she could from the Lab. Then she turned and looked down at Toby.

"That, Dienstag, is how to discipline a Cadet."

"But a fellow officer," Toby commented which was about as direct as he could get without old car crash coming down on him like a ton of bricks, "I would say the... Dressing down... Was enough for her to learn her lesson. Everyone else on this list is a lot more senior than a freshman cadet."

"Who else have we got?" she asked, tersely.

"Most of these other violations involve turning off certain program protocols... Such as well, prohibitions against sexual acts... Like Lieutenant Leopold.Some people have modified programs, others overrode programs by saving..." Toby responded, "Lt. Thraxina and Yeoman Corden got their wires crossed a few days ago... Overloaded the system and the door wouldn't appear."

"Mmmm" Karashka took back the clipboard and looked at the list "Well, I can't believe Lit. Thraxina did anything wrong..." No bias there, then! "... the others just need a polite warning communication. It's that girl that actually breached the system integrity. And she'll pay for it, too." the grim Camp Commandant predicted.

She took one more look before giving the clipboard back to Toby.

"Quite clever, though. She's wasted in Records."

And with this she marched back to her office.

 

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