She's Blue (Da Ba Dee)...

Posted on Mon Feb 24th, 2025 @ 9:03pm by Lieutenant Cassian Maritz & Ensign Noah Balsam

Mission: Mean Green Queen
Location: Deck 3
Timeline: Mission Day 22 at 1600

[Deck Three]
[Adjacent to the Computer Control Room]
[Day 22, 1600 Hours]

The click was satisfying and Noah felt a little shudder of that evasive feeling in his lower spine. His work satchel was closed. His work tools, put away. He'd spent the better part of the day in a cold suit, that bizarre feeling of being clammy in hands and face, and yet hot in his thermal protection. Much of Noah's day had been inside the Core itself. There was some kind of bizarre, intermittent anomaly popping up in strange places. Someone's French Onion Soup had replicated a strange plastic figurine: it was single form, almost like a mold. And it looked a bit like some kind of soldier?

But the code had been clear, the request had been, "French Onion Soup, hot, Gruyere, Sourdough, Doughboy figure."

And then there'd been a system glitch in the Gym when the computer had started to random recite some kind of Andorian nursery rhyme. It roughly translated to, "Mommies its cold outside, I want to go play." When Noah had gone to track that one down, it appeared to be a glitch in a request to bring up a subspace message to Crewman zh'Relgav.

"See you guys, uh, tomorrow," Noah breathed out with his too wide smile. Rather than slide on his uniform jacket, he draped it over his shoulder.

"Ensign don't forget. There's the Mixer in the McClough's Pub later," Chief Basheer said, his brown eyes and easy demeanor holding Noah still a moment longer than Noah had really intended. Noah breathed in and looked at his station.

"Uhh... y-yeah, I know. I heard. Lieutenant Irynya reminded me too. She said its mandatory. I... don't suppose you can give me a rescue call about ten minutes in?"

Basheer chuckled at the younger man. "Is this technically an order?"

Noah's nose wrinkled. "I'm... still not really comfortable with giving you guys orders. So... no?"

Basheer chuckled. "Hmm maybe Noah. Probably. If you really think you need rescuing from a low key mixer."

Noah nibbled his lip, swaying in a turn of his feet to point himself at the door. "Okay," he drawled out, unsure of how to take what Basheer was saying. "Well, see you guys, uh, later." And the lankly youth strode out of his work site. The wash of cool, dry corridor air was like stepping over a mental boundary. Noah started thinking about his ideal afternoon: he needed dinner. Which he either did with Irynya, Shelly or at Debbie's lately. But tonight sounded solo.

Noah's lanky stride carried him toward the turbolift. He pressed the summon key and lifted his SOJO t-shirt enough to scratch a dry spot of eczema just over his navel. "Brrow?" The door to the turbolift swished open and Noah slid inside before it was fully open. He felt something brush his leg as he went inside.

"Deck Five," his soft voice rescued.

"Brrrow?" The voice again said- and Noah detected it this time. He looked down. She- or perhaps it was better described as it- stared back at him. But it was unmistakably feline. The cat had a narrow muzzle that broadened with large jade green eyes. To Noah they looked just a little cross-eyed. "Computer hold." Noah squatted down and offered out his fingers.

"Hi sweetie," he said gently, aiming his voice in the higher end. "Are you lost?" He asked the lovely lithe feline as he allowed her a sniff of his fingers.

Blue gave Noah an intelligent and calculating look at she went to sniff his fingers before twitching her nose a couple of times. After a moment of consideration, she began to purr long and deep and dipped her head under his hand for a pat, leaning right into it as she did so. She liked this person, even they weren't her owner.

In saying that, she was definitely lost and didn't know where her owner was. Where Cassian, her best friend was.

After circling around and coming back a few times for pats and the scratches behind her ears, Blue flopped onto the ground and started to roll over back and forth, her tail swishing in the process and she let out a higher than normal squeak of happiness.

The metal disc on her collar made a quiet clinking sound as she moved around before coming back to Noah and winding in and around his legs. It was approaching food time, so hopefully the human she was being nice to would think to feed her.

Noah rolled with the cat's body language. She seemed very receptive and friendly and he didn't do anything to impede her. She was quite lovely- and he could confirm a she when she flopped down. That was definitely a row of nipples. He'd let her thoroughly take possession of his fingers by her marking ways and now, she she'd begun to purr, Noah reached slowly and carefully for her collar.

"Blue Chai. Hi Blue Chai. I'm Noah." he said. He stritched at her cheekbone. "You seem lost..." he repeated. "Computer," he kept his voice light. "Use passive internal sensors to retrace nearby life form's path."

"Working," the voice said above. Noah continued to distract give Blue Chai control of where she was pet. Noah had programmed his hologram, Cat, based on the desires of his childhood pet. The door to the turbolift swished open and Noah, who had folded his legs like pretzel and hunched toward the furry beauty, looked up in some surprise. He was being stared down by a couple of women in SOJO shirts and what looked liek yoga mats under their arms.

Noah's eyes skirted to the side, back and to the side. "Uhhh sorry."

"We'll take the next one." A raven-haired woman with strong, traditionally Brahman facial features said. With a squelch they shut the turbolift doors even as the computer spoke up. He swore it giggled in a muffled way- more like someone on the other side of the turbolift door giggled.

"Proceed aft and starboard on deck Three to officers' cabin 311." The computer noted.

Noah slowly stood and moved to pick up the delicate and gracile beauty. "Come on sweetie, let's g-get you home... computer, who is in cabin 311?"

"Lieutenant Commander Victoria Cross, Lieutenant Cassian Maritz." The computer intoned.

"Thanks," Noah said offhandedly to the computer, more focused on cuddling the cat in a more comfortable travel position as he started to walk. He managed to press his commbadge on his t-shirt. "Balsam to Cross, Balsam to Maritz?" He spoke toward his chest. He eyed the first door he'd stepped beyond that was the Holo-Lab. He continued down the long axis of the ship- evens were on the starboard, odds were on the port side. Between many of the cabins- and he read off 305- were other functions of the ship.

Blue happily kept purring while she sat in his arms. She was more content to sit on someones shoulder rather than be in their arms, but she didn't know this new person well enough to do that.

---

Cassian pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed under his eyes hard while he yawned: he hadn't been sleeping the best over the past few nights and the lack of sleep combining with the bright lights of the armory was starting to give him a headache. In fact, even just looking at the checklist on the padd in front of him was hurting his eyes. Maybe he needed to go get his eyes checked again.

He was slightly startled by his name being spoken through the commbadge and waited for Victoria to acknowledge the call. When she didn't, he spoke up, "Maritz here, what can I do for you?". He'd never spoken to Balsam before, didn't even know what department he was in either.

The voice over the comm was young, and something between adenoidal and nasal, albeit not in an unpleasant. "Hi sir. Uh. Sorry. Uh." The voice on the end of the comm said something muffled to a passerby that almost sounded like they'd said, 'nice cat.' Noah continued, "Sir, do you or Commander Cross have a cat? She's... well, she's a she. uhh. Big ears, short hair, kind of like a.... I want to say a Siamese?"

Realising who Balsam was talking about, Cassian let out a sigh and tapped his commbadge, "Let me guess, she's got a collar on her that says Blue Chai?" This wasn't the first time she'd gotten out and he knew it wouldn't be the last time either. He did have to wonder though what had made her runaway like that in the first place. "Yeah, she's mine. Where abouts are you at the moment? I'll come and get her from you."

It was a blessing, really, that Blue had gotten out and lost as it gave him a chance to go and get some painkillers and water for his head. Putting down the padd, Cassian waited for Balsam's reply before he stepped out.

"Oh uh," the voice over the comm said. "I'm almost to your quarters. I'm on Deck Three... almost midship... I-I can meet you at your door?"

"Perfect. I'll be there in a few minutes, thank you." Cassian stepped out into the corridor and headed towards the turbolift. The ride was only short but Cassian prepared himself as he stepped back out two decks up on deck three, hoping his cat hadn't gotten herself into any trouble.

Walking towards where his and Cross's quarters were, he spotted the thin man he assumed was Balsam, standing around with Blue in his arms. He saw the twitch of her ears and grinned as her head turned around to the sound of something new in the corridor, and watched as she struggled out of Balsam's arms before trotting over to Cassian with her tail straight up in the air and a low 'Brrowww' before she jumped up and ended up on his shoulder, purring away.

"Hey girl," Cassian smiled wide as he scratched her nose and along her cheekbone, feeling a sense of peace as she continued to purr away. Turning to Balsam, he stuck his hand out, "Thank you for getting her for me, I hope she wasn't too much trouble for you? I'm Cassian, by the way."

Returned to the visage of her Human, Noah made no attempt to keep Blue Chai back. He loosened his arms and bent just enough that the cat flowed off of him and trotted up to Cassian. Then Noah stood. Cassian was right- he was quite thin, almost disproportionately lanky, but with sloping shoulder and a sort of apple-shaped face. He was not beautiful, but he had an interesting look. Many people would describe Noah as inoffensive looking.

As he watched cat and human reunite, Noah put his hands on the back arches of his pelvis, looking on. "No, uh, no trouble. I was heading home and she just walked in to the turbolift. So I-I asked the computer to make me back..." He extended a hand. "Oh uh. Balsam, Sir. Or Noah. Or... you know... something like Hey You. I answer to... to almost anything." Noah quirked a quick smile. His mouth opened to ask something but in that moment the doors to Cassian's quarters swished open.

Out came the gleaming metal orbs and hover torso of Dot Beta. It turned its countenance to Cassian and the plain spherical feature of the head created a digital LED smiling face. "All. Finished. Sir. Have a. Pleasant day." The Dot said around a series of identifying chirps.

Cassian felt Blue's claws dig into his shoulder as he watched her watch the robot and try to run away again. He released her and she bolted inside, wanting to go hide away from the robot. Laughing, Cassian looked back at Noah, "Please don't call me sir, I'm way too young for that." He thought about it for a moment, realising that he was closer to being twice Noah's age and said, "Actually, I am getting old, so ignore me. Come on in though, if you want?"

"Never changes," Noah said as he pieced together what might have happened. "Cats don't like things that clean." He'd noted not to call Cassian sir with a bit of that brittle edge that had been hard baked into Noah by the Academy. Senior officers were sirs to cadets... and sometimes Noah had to remember he had a pip on his neck now. That was well below Cassian's but... still. "Sorry, ok," he said with a nod. Noah tilted with curiosity to peer into the small space that officers had as a joined living space. "You sure?" He looked at the man, and then straightened his back.

"i can for a few minutes," he agreed. Noah wanted desperately to go play and unwind but it felt rude to decline. "Sssso you room with Commander Cross? Does she like cats too?"

"Yeah, she does like cats, which is good." Cassian suddenly realised something: Noah was one of the ones involved in the incident a while back. "I'm sorry, man, if you had something you were doing before you found Blue, that's all good. I mean, it's getting towards dinner time, right?" A drink at one of the bars was sounding like a good idea at the moment, but also probably a bad idea if he was going to have pain killers.

Noah acknowledged Cross' amiability with a nod and smile. "Tha-that's good." Still standing respectfully- if a bit awkwardly- near the entrance, Noah nodded, paused and then spoke. "I'm just off. I was going to get some dinner.. music... and if Sheldon isn't around, paint some models." Noah took the Lieutenant's offer as release. He'd done his good deed, and his eyes followed to where the cat had disappeared into her safe space. "We'll have a good evening." Noah gave the man an arc of a wave and a gentle smile. "See you around." Noah bowed out of the door, intent to let Cassian bond and console his cat.

"Have a good night," Cassian replied with a smile as he watched Noah disappear down the corridor. He walked back inside and waited for the doors to close before going to find where Blue had disappeared to, eventually coaxing her out with the promise of food, a chest to lay on and a safe place to sleep.


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A Post By:

Lieutenant Cassian Maritz
Chief of Security

Ensign Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist