Star Trek: Bendross
Episode 20 - Happy Easter Egg
(Spring, 2083)
By
And
The Bendross Players
Rudy found his eyes crossing again."Damned screens." He cursed as he set his electronic book down. The Bendross III was carrying an impressive archive of scientific and engineering data. All of it was in digital electronic format. If the colonization mission tried to carry the archives in paper form, they would have been able to load some passengers on the third ship.
Therefore, the organic chemistry and pharmacological classes that Michelle Gibbons taught used electronic text books. Rudy felt all the negatives of being in college again, without the benefits. No clubs, little music and no swim team to oogle.
Rudy climbed out of his bunk and stretched. It was time to take a break.
-*-
Michelle Gibbons was, at the same time, reviewing the same text and Rudy and trying like mad to remember what her own courses had been like. Michelle was avoiding text based instruction as much as possible and doing a lot of "show me" work in the lab.
Doctor Jon Dou was a good student. She plugged her way through texts and absorbed them well. In the lab though Rudy really came alive. He loved to do trial and error experiments. Once he held a compound in his hand he was able to see it at work; he understood the text based descriptions on a visceral level.
The problem was that Michelle had a very limited allotment of raw material to do lab work with.
The classes were the most fun that Michelle had in years. She was not a pharmacologist, and her chemistry was based more on her biology and ecology specialty than on medical work.
Michelle, Stephanie and Rudy were all teaching each other as they went along. Michelle was playing teacher in this instance because she always did. She enjoyed the role. Michelle realized that most of the fun she was having was that there were competitive minds in her class. Neither Rudy nor Jean Dou was with the prodigy that Michelle was, but they were close and Michelle enjoyed not having to slow down in quit the same ways.
Michelle blinked as an idea wandered past her mind. They had a huge computer aboard. Perhaps she could convince this Computer to *simulate* the interactions of chemicals and compounds. It would be as good as actual hands on lab work, but they wouldn't use up their supply of raw material before the class was done either.
-*-
Hamilton and Martin were in the Sickbay. It was a small room (like all of them on the Bendross III) done in steel. Steel and Aluminum were cheaper in orbit than tile and concrete. The Sickbay was designed, frankly to allow blood and other bodily fluids to splatter all over the room and then be cleaned off easily.
"Yeah." Jean Dou said tiredly "I noticed."
Hamilton's face quirked. "So why didn't you report it?"
"I did in my log." She said "Was I supposed to report to one of you?"
"It would have been nice." Martin said. "I am the chief of security."
"Pluh-lease," Jean Dou dismissed "You're the chief breaker of little green legs. That doesn't mean you have any authority over me, or anyone on this boat. Don't let the jack boots go to your head."
Martin rolled his eyes.
Hamilton asked "What does this mean for the functioning of the Sickbay? If I get hurt are you going to be able to treat me?"
Jean Dou nodded "Don't worry. If you get your head busted I can still fix it. I'll just have to prescribe a lighter, more stretched out does of pain killers about it. Michelle and I are working on being able to create more drugs and medicines once we get to the planet."
Martin scowled. "The last medical officer's logs indicate that there were no drugs missing from the stocks, but you discovered the missing supplies as soon as you took the inventory."
Jean Dou nodded. "Yes. You can read. I'm impressed."
"That means either he took the drugs or you did." Martin said.
"Try again Sherlock." Jean Dou said. "C'mere." She waked over to the drug cabinet. She pulled out a box of medicine. "How main units are in this?"
Martin scowled at the box. "it says 24 units." he began to open the box. "Twenty four in there."
"Aha!" There you go." Jean Dou pointed. "How many units in that one in the back?"
Martin looked. "There's a layer of dust on it. Twenty four?"
"That's how most people take inventory." Jon Dou said. "I got burned that way once. These boxes have been sitting here for ten years now. All it would take is one person raiding a box in the back and putting it back and then the next couple of people making that same assumption that you did. The count will be off eventually, but there's no way to track who took it."
"Shit." Hamilton said disgustedly.
"Better luck next time, Sheriff." Jean Dou breezed.
"I want it added to the procedures that every box is counted every time the watches change, by both medical officers. Let's keep this from happening again, Shall we?" Martin said.
Jon Dou sighed and nodded "I'll add it."
"Thank you." Martin said. He turned and left.
Hamilton stood there for a few moments, Something didn't quite fell right. Jean Dou looked at him coolly.
Hamilton realized that there was more than one thing. Three of them didn't feel quite right. First, Hamilton didn't care who had stolen the drugs. It would catch up with them eventually. It always did. Second, he felt a little put on the spot by being Martin's side kick for "COPS in a Can". Something about the whole mess just didn't seem right. Hamilton found that his disquiet over being volunteered to be a cop over rode that.
"See ya." Hamilton said to Jon Dou.
"I don't suppose I can avoid it." She said.
-*-
Out in the corridor Hamilton caught up with Martin. "Since when did I join the posse, Martin?"
Martin turned on Hamilton slowly. "They didn't pack much of a margin for us, Hamilton. If someone's stealing drugs, what else are they stealing? When our lives are on the line, what are we going to reach for and not find?"
"You'd think that the mission planners would have figured this sort of thing out. What are we doing here faking this?"
"They made one critical false assumption, Already. They assumed that everyone in this ship has a brain and wants to live a long and happy life at the colony. If someone is stealing drugs from the sick bay, then we know that this is not the case." Martin said. "You're elected Deputy, because you want to live through this adventure."
Hamilton flapped his arms helplessly and wandered back down the hallway singing to himself "Bad boy, Bad boy, what am I gonna do..."
-*-
Rudy was in cargo bay 85. He'd never been in this one, before. It was stacked with carefully packed boxes and packages. Tools and implements waited patiently for land fall. There was a slight whiff of something in the air. Rudy couldn't identify it. Curious he began to search through the cargo bay. As it turned out there were dozens of hiding places in the cargo bay. Rudy grinned. He was going to have to start his rounds of the Bendross III again. Who knew what might be hidden somewhere. It was like an Easter egg hunt with an edge.
Then Rudy found his first hidden treasure. It was a white paper bag with a golden M stenciled on it. Rudy blinked. "You must be kidding." He checked the bag. Sure enough, the most fossilized and aged hamburgers he had ever seen rested in the bottom. McDonalds had taken to precooking burgers and then sealing them and radiating them. Burgers so preserved could rest in warehouses for years. If the fast food addict who'd stashed these had grabbed some still sealed burgers he'd have done okay. However, these were bought over the counter. Unwrapped and lightly microwaved they would have made for a bland but salty and greasy meal ten years ago. Now they were archaeology. Some moron didn't grasp that ten years in cold sleep only suspended aging *inside* the hibernation tube.
Chuckling, Rudy left the bag where it was. Let the poor math impaired sucker figure it out for himself.
Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.