Empiricalus Imbecilius

Posted on Sun Dec 14, 2014 @ 5:54pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot

1,707 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: All this has happened before...
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: Post-Departure

Nicole sat in the center of the clearing, lying against a tree. The sun was filtering down through the leaves and the sounds of birds, small animals and insects were teasing her ears in the distance. She had just begun to relax and put her troubles aside when the holodeck doors opened at the other side of the clearing.

"There you are Doctor, when you told me to meet you after my shift, I assumed it was for some medical purpose. But this is highly unexpected." Yarin said.

"Well I meant for a drink later, but why not," Nicole said idly, looking up at him. "Pull up a tree trunk."

Yarin sat down. "So what are we having to drink, and what is the occasion?" he asked.

"Rigelian ale, and why do we need one?" she said. "I felt like having some 'matter-of-fact' company, and you fit the bill nicely." She reached into her little black bag as she said this and pulled out a small bottle and two glasses. She poured each of them a glass full and picked hers up. "Cheers," she said, downing half of it in a go.

The doors opened again and Penny skipped into the clearing. "Oh here you are!" she said, grinning at Nicole.

Yarin reached into his satchel and pulled out various bottles from different worlds. He passed a couple to Naroot as she walked by.

"Great, now it's a party," Nicole grumbled, sitting up a bit more.

"Oh great I love parties!" Penny said, taking the bottle from Yarin and looking at it carefully. She pulled her silver wand out and scanned it briefly, then dropped to the ground, legs crossed.

"Sarcasm, dear," Nicole said dryly.

Yarin drank in silence as the two women talked only pausing to take a breath or listen when he heard his name.

Nicole gestured towads Yarin. "Penny, Lieutenant Yarin. Yarin, Lieutenant Penny Naroot."

Penny smiled at Yarin, then tilted her head. "Woah, cool," she said, crawling over to examine him up close, pulling out her wand and scanning him up and down. "You're pretty weird," she said.

"Penny," Nicole scolded. She looked at Yarin. "Just so you know, that's a compliment."

Yarin stood up, swaying a bit before straightening. "And your name means 'sacrificial pants,' oh let us arm wrestle."

"I would strongly advise against that," Nicole warned.

"I'll go easy on him!" Penny protested.

"Though we may not..look it...a Nyac's strength is four times that of a human." Yarin said as he assumed the standard arm wrestling position.

"Oh is that all?" Penny said, a wicked gleam in her eyes. She grabbed one of his hands and looked at Nicole. "Wanna test him out?"

Nicole looked at Yarin swaying and couldn't resist a chance to have some fun with him. She knelt next to Penny and took his left hand, while Penny grabbed his right. "Say when," she said, looking at Yarin.

"At the tone the time will be 03:30 hours," he said as he strained against the two women.

"What does that mean?" Nicole said.

"Go," Penny said, instantly slamming Yarin's lower right hand down.

Nicole was briefly caught off guard and Yarin gained ground with his lower left hand against hers, but she applied all her strength and brought their arms back to upright, and even gained a few degrees of advantage. If Penny's win had thrown him, he seemed to recover as well as Nicole's progress suddenly halted. She sat there, not showing strain, but not gaining any more ground. "So," she said, "how long can you keep this up?"

Yarin was too lost in his thoughts to reply, I wonder if i left the water running in my bathroom, I should check on the experiments in my bag see how they are maturing. I hope the holodeck does not malfunction again. I wonder why Lieutenant Naroot does not give off a visible aura, must remember to ask her about that. I wonder what Nina is doing right now, oh right the arm wrestling, we appear to be evenly matched although that could just be due to my current intoxication. He strained but could not move the doctor.

Nicole kept her arm steady, feeling the pressure exerted by Yarin and held her own. After a few minutes of Penny staring back and forth between them dramatically, she looked up at Yarin. "Might want to declare this a draw," she said.

"Agreed," he said as he released her arm while grabbing himself another drink, this time a bright purple concoction that tasted of berries.

Nicole sat back on her heels and flexed her hand briefly, before looking him over. "Hitting it hard tonight, aren't we? Didn't figure you for the type to get schnockered."

"There are many things one can learn from changing perceptions." Yarin said as he tried to climb the tree.

Nicole glanced at Penny who was doing her level best not to bust out laughing. "Such as?" she said.

"Such as a gaining a better vantage point." he said as he tried to do a flip off a branch but hit his head on the way down.

They watched him jump, miss his landing point, knock his skull and break the branch, then catch his uniform on the sharp protrusion, ripping his pants down the side.

He spun around as his uniform tore, and fell out of it, hanging by his booted foot which wouldn't go through the intact pant leg.

"Catch him if he falls," Nicole said to Penny, pulling a tricorder out of her black bag, putting it between her teeth, leaping up and grabbing a branch. Growing up in these woods and being a gymnast, she was a natural tree-climber. She quickly ascended, reaching his height and grabbing him by the ankle, pulling him away from the branch. She did her best to ignore the loose pant leg flapping at her in the breeze (and the other part of his personage doing the same) and hung upside down by her legs, flipping her tricorder open and scanning him quickly. She sighed and let him go between two sets of branches, his fall unimpeded until Penny caught him.

Nicole dropped to the ground, landing in a crouch. "Computer, end program," she said, the forest vanishing, replaced by a grid and the few real bottles they'd brought with them. She quickly scooped them up and crammed them into her bag while Penny tried to modestly cover Yarin up, her giggles finally coming out in a wave.

"Beep, beep, Penny," Nicole said, although she found her eyes straying and a laugh building in her throat as well. "Anderson to transporter room, medical emergency. Three to beam directly to Sickbay."

A moment later, they materialized in the middle of Sickbay. Nicole and Penny grabbed Yarin and hauled him onto a biobed with ease. "S'tal, get a hospital gown," Nicole said to a Vulcan orderly without looking up. She held out her hand for her tricorder.

Penny stepped up across from her out of habit and handed her one from an instrument tray. Nicole scanned him again and held her hand out for a hypospray, Penny slapping it into her palm and taking the tricorder, continuing to scan.

"Minor fracture," Penny said. "Minimal swelling, bruising."

Nicole tossed her the hypo and she caught it and immediately returned with a bone-knitter. She followed behind with a dermal regenerator, reducing the swelling and removing the bruise. They quickly divested Yarin of his uniform, Penny giggling again and Nicole shushing her, and wrapped him in the hospital gown, settling him back down on the biobed.

"Wonder what a Nyac hangover looks like," Nicole said, trying to cover up her laugh.

Penny burst out laughing and had to leave the room for the sanctity of Nicole's office, her voice carrying through the transparent aluminum.

Two nurses suddenly grabbed their temples, giving a small cry of pain. Nicole looked at them, then at Yarin and nodded. "Well, I have my answer," she said to herself as she pressed a hypo to his neck, giving him a dose of painkiller, then tossing the hypo to the nurses for them to do the same.

Nicole sighed and pulled a chair over by the side of the biobed and pressed another hypo to Yarin's neck, giving him a slight stimulant to rouse him.

Yarin opened his six eyes. Noticing that he was no longer on the holodeck he asked the Doctor the obvious. "What happened to me?"

"You walked in on my holodeck program, got pissed as a newt, climbed a tree and failed in a backflip to another branch," she said. She shook her head and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "You know, I thought you were going to be someone who didn't give me extra work," she said.

"Well at least I learned something: never drink and climb trees," he said.

Nicole reached over and smacked him over the head. "I could have told you that," she said. "You know, Yarin, not every life lesson has to come from breaking your own body parts. And not everything has to include one. I'd wanted to just enjoy a drink and relax, not fetch you from a branch like felled liska bird."

"Life is an experiment Doctor. If one does not test the boundaries of what is possible, what is the point of getting up every morning?" Yarin said as he stood up and prepared himself to leave sickbay. "Oh and one more thing, thank you Nicole." He said turning an appreciative shade of brown as he left the room.

Nicole opened her mouth to argue, then closed it as he turned and left the room her staff staring at him, then looking to her for a signal as to what to do about him. She just watched him go, so they did the same. As the doors closed behind him, and the sight of his exposed backside in his hospital gown was cut off from everyone's view, she shrugged. "Well," she said to herself, "enjoy testing the boundaries of the crew's tolerance for Nyac nudity."


Joint Post


Nicole Anderson
CMO

Penny Naroot
Chief Helmswoman

Yarin
Chief Science Officer

 

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