Dis-Orientation!

Posted on Sat Jun 24th, 2017 @ 8:32am by
Edited on on Sat Jun 24th, 2017 @ 4:52pm

Mission: Mission 3 - Negligence
Location: Deck 7, Nowhere Near Sickbay!
Timeline: MD -02, 1330 hrs
1972 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

"You can't get lost," Bettina muttered to herself as she strolled the deck, exuding more confidence than she felt, but then, that was the whole purpose for this exercise...to learn the ship, to learn the layout, so that even in an emergency or without proper lighting she could get where she needed to be, "...it's a ship, you can't get lost..."

Of course, that didn't mean that she couldn't find where she wanted to be...sure, there were charts and whatnot, but those were only marginally useful for her, it wasn't until she'd padded the steel floors...decks...a few times that that she really caught on.

At least she was on the right deck this time...of course, she'd taken the grand tour, as much as wasn't restricted of Decks 9, 3 (Mess hall, score!) and 6...twice! But this was Deck 7, she was certain of that, although that didn't stop her from checking every time she passed a place where there might be a sign. Of course, it was absurd to think that she wasn't on Deck 7 now, she hadn't been on a lift, but then, she was Bettina, so just about anything was possible!

"Has to be around here someplace," she muttered, shrugging and lightening her step, the little bells on her anklet tinkling in time to her left foot, only slightly muted by the ample folds of light, violet material that made the pants look more like a skirt. Her shirt was of light, gauzy material as well, it packed well, was already kind of wrinkle-y and was loose to allow for movement.

Would she have a uniform here, she wondered, for when she was on duty? What was 'on duty' anyway? Would they always be on-call or would there be shifts? And when they got where they were going, who actually got to go? Were there even any other field medics? There was a doctor, of course, but she hadn't met him yet...Her...which was it?

As she pondered it all she was pretty much ignoring the occasional people that she passed, her concentration on her surroundings for now, although it certainly wouldn't hurt to sort out her crewmates, but there would be time for that, too.

Pausing, she looked down the corridor, then frowned. She'd been this way before, hadn't she? Or maybe...Maybe someone needed to paint pretty murals here and there with a little tag that declared, 'You are here'!

With a sigh, she turned to look the other way. Maybe she was lost after all!

Dr. Olsam Mott was standing in the middle of the corridor, looking at her down the barrel of his Dai-Matsa Consolidated Polarized Phase Blaster MK IX (also known as "the PPB" or "the Mark Nine"). He had his feet wide, finger on the trigger guard, and one eye closed to aim properly, though it looked more like he was in the middle of a stroke. The barrel itself was waving all over the place in hands that were steady as a rock during surgery but gelatin in the face of a security threat.

And surely that's what he was seeing right here. A security threat. An intruder. An unidentified object, probably a sapient humanoid, but that remained to be proven. He'd encountered a lot of things in space, so who was he to say if something was a sapient humanoid just because it appeared to be a sapient humanoid? He'd once had a run-in with a large fungus that looked like a sapient humanoid but turned out to just be... well, a large fungus.

"You there! Hands and all other grasping appendages where I can see them!" shouted Olsam. The severity of the statement was undercut somewhat by the gleeful giddiness in his voice. This was his first opportunity to pull the Dai-Matsa Consolidated Polarized Phase Blaster MK IX (also known as "the PPB" or "the Mark Nine") on someone, and he was thrilled to be able to put it to some use. It had cost him a small fortune; it was about time he got to hold someone at gunpoint with it.

Startled by the shout, Bettina looked up, even more startled to see that someone was pointing a phaser of some sort at her (she had no appreciation for weapons in general, much the less the Dai-Matsa Consolidated Polarized Phase Blaster MK IX (also known as "the PPB" or "the Mark Nine"), having little use for them, not that she wouldn't resort to using one in a pinch, should a pinch ever happen), and she instantly complied, raising her hands, then suddenly worrying that maybe her feet, which, indeed were appendages, could be considered 'grasping', since she *could* grasp things with her toes, were she not wearing shoes over them, and then wondering just how she would raise them, although, technically, the command was simply to keep them in view...

And *then* wondering if maybe somehow she'd gotten on the wrong ship and she didn't belong here at all, and that was why she was being drawn on....

In any event, she managed a smile and tried to look as benign as possible, not at all difficult for her. "I'm sorry, sir," she murmured, "I have no intention of...grasping anything with any of my...appendages..." Did biting count as 'grasping'? Hopefully, a smile was 'where he could see them' enough!

Quang turned the corner, following the directions of the tricorder with the ship's plans. As he turned the corner he found a young woman being confronted by someone with a phase blaster. It was old, it didn't make it any less deadly.

With certain qualms, he called out. "Hey you! What are you doing?"

"I'm apprehending an intruder," Olsam said with a huff. "Do you know her?" He took half a shuffle forward as a feint and waved the Dai-Matsa Consolidated Polarized Phase Blaster MK IX (also known as "the PPB" or "the Mark Nine") in Bettina's direction. "Is she some smuggler friend of yours?"

Not only was Bettina relieved that someone had intervened on her behalf, maybe sparing her from becoming a pile of ash at the working end of the Dai-Matsa Consolidated Polarized Phase Blaster MK IX (also known as "the PPB" or "the Mark Nine", a weapon that she, personally, could not name), but it rather confirmed that she actually did belong on the ship. As to the allegations...

"I'm Bettina Davies, sir, I just hired on as a field medic for the Mary Rose? This *is* the Mary Rose, right?"
She could easily be lost, after all! "What would I smuggle?" A cat, maybe, but she'd, sadly, left hers with a friend.

"I don't know what you're talking about," replied Quang evenly. Using all of his customer skills gained from bartending, he kept his eyes on the man with the gun. He remembered him as the obnoxious guy from the restaurant earlier. Great, of all the people to stumble over.

"Look, she's just announced who she is. Me, I'm your new Quartermaster. You might not want to get rid of the guy who will be gaining supplies for the ship. And injuring a field medic? Think it over. Just think it over. Not a good idea."

Taking a cautious half-step forward, Bettina held her 'appendages' in front of her as she smiled uncertainly. "What he said," she commented, then shifted tactics. "You don't want to shoot me, though...I mean, if I really am an intruder, wouldn't it be better to take me to your captain so he can find out why I'm here?" Hopefully, he wouldn't take a notion to 'interrogate' her himself! "I mean, you could be a hero, right?"

From the moment the captain was mentioned, the Bolian got a sour look on his face.

"Who, Rueben? What would I take you to him for? He wouldn't know what to do with an intruder if the intruder was intruding right in front of him. I'm pretty sure all he does is drink and mope. Between you, me, him, and the corridor," Olsam said, pointing to Bettina, himself, Quang, and the corridor in turn with the barrel of the Dai-Matsa Consolidated Polarized Phase Blaster MK IX (also known as "the PPB" or "the Mark Nine"), "I don't think he even knows how to operate anything on the ship. Oh, sure, he was in Starfleet, but so what? I've known plenty of people in Starfleet that don't have a clue what they're doing. He certainly doesn't have a clue how to manage the payroll, I'll tell you that. You wouldn't believe the salary he's paying me. I've known Ferengi street sweepers who're pulling more latinum than me. And I'm a doctor! I should be making the most out of any of you people."

Dr. Olsam Mott paused for a moment and looked between Bettina and Quang while slowly lowering the phase blaster. His face almost seemed to suggest that, somewhere in the midst of his diatribe about the captain, he'd completely forgotten what he was doing holding the weapon or why he was standing in the middle of the corridor with them. Without missing a beat, he holstered the Dai-Matsa Consolidated Polarized Phase Blaster MK IX (also known as "the PPB" or "the Mark Nine") and moved on like the entire encounter had never happened.

"Did you say you're the new field medic? Bettina Davies? I'm the ship's doctor. Usually. Part time security, too. A self-appointed position, mind you, but we need it with the all the laxity around here. Doctor Olsam Mott at your service. You can call me just Olsam, though. Not Just Olsam, I mean, simply the name Olsam. See? Without the surname? Or Dr. Olsam in Sickbay, please. You know, in order to maintain some professionalism in a medical environment."

Quang shook his head. At least the quack wasn't going to shot anyone. Yet. He turned to walk away.

"Guys, I'll be going. I was advised by the captain to go to the grotto. I'll see you later." He turned and walked away.

Still a little baffled Bettina blinked as Quang moved past her, muttering, "Thank you for keeping him from shooting me." Then she squared her shoulders, feeling a little more confident as she turned to face the doctor. "Yes, sir...I am Bettina Daives. It's good to meet you, just Olsam, and yes, 'Doctor' in Sickbay."

She offered a bright smile, hoping that he would look on her now as a ally and not an intruder. "I'm anxious to work with you, sir, and learn how you like to do things..." Hopefully, his medical methods weren't as...quirky as this first meeting had been!

"How I like to do what things?" Olsam asked, genuinely curious.

"Things like...well, you know, your job, how you run Sickbay..." She had a feeling this wasn't going to go much of any place, and her learning would be on the job and on the fly...but still, there was something about the man's quirkiness that she found intriguing...

"Oh, those sorts of things," Olsam said, sounding almost disappointed. After all, he was so much more than a doctor. How come nobody wanted to know about how he liked to do other things? His preferred guidelines for a proper table setting, for instance, or the correct way to pack luggage for an interstellar voyage passing through Nausicaan space and lasting no more than three days? "Let's go to Sickbay. I'll show you around, and we'll find you a weapon. This is a very dangerous ship. There are lunatics roaming the corridors, you know."

"Aye, sir," Bettina muttered dryly as she fell in step with him, grinning, "I'm beginning to figure that out..."

---

Olsam Mott, M.D.
Ship's Doctor
SS Mary Rose

 

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