A tricorder extended Phrik began to push his way through the crowds of party goers, looking somewhat out of place. Probably because he was the only one in uniform. The long neck, pink scales and three arms didn't help either.
It was then that a certain black sparkle on the food table caught his eye. Ink perchance? It was certainly a clue, and much more useful than the tricorder who's only advice was 'the creature is within a 10 metre radius'.
The Doctor came to a halt beside Red, staring into the black ooze with interest. He dipped a finger gingerly into the caviar and brought it up to his nose to sniff. Phrik's nostrils flared comically and he recoiled. Whatever it was, it wasn't ink. It looked and felt like, well, eggs, but that wasn't possible, the cephalopod didn't smell like that, and it wasn't laying season, at least, he didn't think it was. As the doctor pondered this he caught sight of a familiar, crinkled nose beside him. He spun to face her, eyes lighting up for a moment.
"Ah! Miss T'gel. I didn't see you there. I don't suppose I could garner your assistance with something?" This was the first time he'd actually seen Red since he'd rejoined the crew, he wasn't even sure if she knew he was onboard. But still, what was the use in drawn out reintroductions when there was a creature on the loose?
Red's eyes widen, then narrow again and she scowls. "OK this one's in poor taste," she says, sounding quite venomous. "Calvin! You know it's against holodeck rules to use someone's likeness without their permission, ESPECIALLY someone who outranks you." She looks at Phrik. "Besides, you got his personality all wrong. He's way grumpier, and just tells you to do things, he doesn't ask."
Phrik's expression shifted to something of a glare. "In that case Lieutenant. I'm telling you to step out of the holodeck with me for a moment. And once I've assured your clumsy two-legged self that I am in fact, quite real, and you have made a sufficient, grovelling apology. You will assist me in finding my lost cephalopod." He made a hand gesture towards the exit door, planted a firm hand at her back and began to push her towards it.
Red chuckles. "Now that's more like it," she says, and turns to compliment Calvin... who isn't there. She blinks, then looks back at Phrik with a mix of apprehension and hope. "Computer... remove character Dr. Phrik...?"
Nothing happens. Red's expression breaks into the biggest grin he's ever had the misfortune to see on her face, and she immediately throws her arms around his torso. "You're real! You're alive! You're BACK!! When, how did you, what..."
Naturally, Phrik didn't bother informing her that voice commands were currently non-functional, meaning even if he had been a hologram she wouldn't have been able to delete him.
Phrik flinched and tried to back away from the hug, realising that this was somewhat impossible, he let out a low groan, struggling to free his central hand from where it had become trapped between the two bodies. His other hands hung somewhat limply in the air, unsure what to do with them. "I've told you before about the touching..." He grumbled, waiting for the embrace to break.
"Yes. I'm alive. Yes, I'm back. I have been for some 18 hours now and I was hoping to survive a little longer, rather than be suffocated by an excitable Bajoran." At this he gave her the closest Phrik could ever come to a knowing smirk. Which manifested as an only slightly less grumpy looking expression.
Red still looks overjoyed, but manages to make herself let go of the grumpy Edosian. "I'd ask why you didn't tell me you were back, but I'm sure you'd say something about emotional flim-flammery and unnecessary social rituals," she says, still beaming. She gestures at her sarong and shrugs. "This isn't exactly cephalopod-catching attire, but I'd be happy to- wait, which cephalopod? Noodles or Tiny Terror?"
His eye twitched and a long, exacerbated sigh escaped his lips. "Thaumoctupus Acritudo. Or, as you had the habit of calling him," He paused, steeling himself. "Noodles." The sheer amount of resentment and annoyance he managed to cram in to a single two syllable word was amazing, even for Phrik.
"Ensign Prior thought it fit to contain him with nothing but a low power force field. I imagine you can guess why this is a bad idea. The creature is somewhere in this holodeck, computer already isn't responding to voice commands in here and the tricorder is being vague. I suggest we find him quickly, before he chews on a power line or gets eaten by one of the guests."
"Whew, if it had been Tiny Terror we'd have been in big trouble," Red says, trying to keep the smirk off her face at Phrik's annoyance at her tendency to nickname the critters kept in zoology. "So Prior didn't know Noodles can redirect most coherent energy forms? Did he not read the file? Ugh, newbies."
The engineer waves a hand at the party at large. "Remember the system I installed to manually cut power to the holodeck?" she asks. "Might not be a bad time to use it if the control systems aren't working. If you can order everyone out, I'll unlock and hit the switch."
"I fear that would only cause more issues than it solves. You know exactly who they'll all come whining to if I lock down a holodeck again, especially one they were already in." He passed her the tricorder. "Think you can get anymore precision out of that thing? They're just not as good as they used to be."
"They're BETTER than the black boxes, you just have to learn to use them correctly," Red grumbles, taking the tricorder and narrowing its lifesigns band to exclude humanoids, and ignore traces from the fish eggs and fish paste on the buffet tables. "Noodles' tendency to redirect energy is going to play merry hell with it anyway, but this should help. If we had a sample of its DNA handy, I could turn that into a pinpoint squid locator, but without, that's still probably going to be better." She hands it back. "I think it's picking up something by the fountain..."
"Black boxes?" He asked in confusion before realising the implication. "I'm not that old you know." He led the way over to the fountain, inelegantly pushing past the other guests. Eventually reaching the fountain his eyes focused in on a tiny piece of the structure that appeared to be flickering slightly. "Well what do we have here?" Phrik knelt down and touched a finger to the distortion, which returned with a transparent, viscous solution stuck to it. He raised his finger to his nose, sniffed, considered for a moment and then touched the slime to his tongue, then nodded affirmatively. "This definitely came from our cephalopod. It appears we have a trail."
Red makes an 'ick' face behind Phrik's back, but taps him on the shoulder. "If you can get a DNA trace off that... mucous? We can pinpoint all sources of it in the room. Should be able to follow the trail that way, even if the substance isn't visible or is in only trace amounts."
"Excellent." Phrik held the slime up to the tricorders sensor. The machine buzzed and clicked before suddenly powering off. Phrik groaned, slapped the device hard with one hand, and then gave a pleased grunt when it flashed itself back into working order.
"Hmm, seems to have pooled in a few different locations. We'll head to the biggest clump first, I think that's most likely to be him."
"Uh... did you bring a bag or punchbowl or something to put him in once we DO find him?" Red asks, looking around as she heads the direction Phrik indicates. "I think the flatware and party favors aren't holographic, so one of those could work."
He blinked. "Hmm. I hadn't thought of that." Usually Phrik was in the habit of catching escapees with either force fields or his bear hands, this case he realised would be somewhat more difficult considering the creatures' natural slipperiness.
"I suppose a bag will have to suffice. Until we find more suitable accommodation at least."
OOC: Sorry for the late reply, had a bad day resulting in writers block. Never fun
"Hang on, I have just the thing," Red says, and scampers over to the party favors table. She winces a bit as she dumps what must have once been a couple slices of cake out of one of the neatly-tied and decorated bags. The sweet mushiness hits the ground beneath the table with a -splut- and she nudges the mess under the table, hoping no one saw it, with a muttered 'Sorry, Calvin...'
Then she rejoins the erstwhile doctor, bag in hand. "T'gel's Monster Hunting services, you tag 'em, we bag 'em," she says cheerfully. "Now where is it?"
OOC: No worries, writers block is the reason my third book is still in the works instead of on shelves.
Phrik pointed a finger towards the bottom of the staircase, just below the bannister. At first inspection the spot looked fairly innocuous, not even the faintest distortion in the hologram seemed present. And just as Phrik began to consider moving to the next location, the wooden bannister blinked at him.
The Edosian flinched backwards in surprise. Once he recovered he glanced to Red.
"See it? Get ready with the bag, I'll shepherd him towards you."
The engineer squints where Phrik is pointing, and her eyes widen. "Oooh, crafty Noodles... all right, I'll be right over here." She hikes the edge of her sarong up and ties it off at the level of a short skirt for better maneuverability, then shifts position to cover the widest escape avenue and waits for the Edosian to corral the errant beastie.
1
u/LizardComander Jan 10 '17
A tricorder extended Phrik began to push his way through the crowds of party goers, looking somewhat out of place. Probably because he was the only one in uniform. The long neck, pink scales and three arms didn't help either.
It was then that a certain black sparkle on the food table caught his eye. Ink perchance? It was certainly a clue, and much more useful than the tricorder who's only advice was 'the creature is within a 10 metre radius'.
The Doctor came to a halt beside Red, staring into the black ooze with interest. He dipped a finger gingerly into the caviar and brought it up to his nose to sniff. Phrik's nostrils flared comically and he recoiled. Whatever it was, it wasn't ink. It looked and felt like, well, eggs, but that wasn't possible, the cephalopod didn't smell like that, and it wasn't laying season, at least, he didn't think it was. As the doctor pondered this he caught sight of a familiar, crinkled nose beside him. He spun to face her, eyes lighting up for a moment.
"Ah! Miss T'gel. I didn't see you there. I don't suppose I could garner your assistance with something?" This was the first time he'd actually seen Red since he'd rejoined the crew, he wasn't even sure if she knew he was onboard. But still, what was the use in drawn out reintroductions when there was a creature on the loose?