"Okay, do you want to tell me again what happened that requires the chief of security in here?" Michael Garibaldi asked Doctor Franklin as he looked around the medlab. There were battered people everywhere, all wearing the uniform of maintenance. Had there been a riot he had somehow missed?
"It was the cake. It seems Mister Harper in maintenance was having a birthday, and his co-workers chose to get him a cake." Stephen closed his eyes for a moment, trying to fight off the beginnings of a pounding headache. "Unfortunately, there was an error at the bakery that supplied the cake. Have you ever heard of it? The nearest I can figure is that it's located somewhere in brown sector and….."
"They got a cake from there?" He knew what place they were talking about, alright, and he honestly wasn't sure how the bakery was still in business. "So what happened? Did they riot when they got an obscenity on their cake? Everyone gets that on their cake. I don't think whoever does the decorating knows how to spell in any known language."
"No, the problem is that they somehow got a cake that was apparently meant for a pak'ma'ra. I don't want to know how that one happened, and how they managed to cut and actually eat it without noticing there was a problem. There's an ingredient that the pak'ma'ra use, the best explanation would be that it would be like a super-inhanced sweeter if it was for a human. Unfortunately when humans ingest it. hallucinations are the result."
"So maintenance….."
"The entire first shift ended up out of their minds on cake and somehow no one noticed until second shift came in. When they tried to get everyone down here, I don't know what they thought was happening, but they went crazy. So now I have the entire first shift in here out of their minds, the second shift in here with injuries, and most of the third shift who I don't want to know how they ended up involved…."
"So we have no maintenance?"
"We have three members of maintenance, who were unfortunately, or fortunately as it turns out, called to deal with a complaint in Londo's quarters."
"Okay, so how does this call for security?"
"I've got everyone in here, and hopefully they'll be fine by tomorrow. What I need for you to do is to get to that bakery and shut them down before there's another little mistake."
"Fine." Was closing down a bakery really a job for security? But he wasn't going to argue with it. Michael was surprised that someone hadn't tried to order that place shut down long before now. He turned and headed for the nearest lift. Better get this over with fast. With maintenance out, the complaints would start piling up fast.
The lift didn't seem to be co-operating with him, though, heading down for the intersection with green sector instead of up towards the level he needed to get to brown. Not again. Normally he would be thrilled to take a little ride with Miss Winters, but not today, not when his mind was focused on that bakery, and some of their more interesting and disastrous pastries.
"Miss Winters." He said as the lift door opened and the telepath stepped inside. Don't think. He closed his eyes and tried to order his brain to stop working, and to stop recalling the cake that was supposed to be an old Earth style rocket ship but had ended up looking more like….. No, no, no! Don't think! Don't recall the twisted donuts or the….. Maybe if he beat his head against the back of the lift it would get those thoughts to stop, hopefully before Talia decided to slap a restraining order on him for sexual harassment. Could telepaths seek restraining orders based on out of control thoughts, like the cake that someone had ordered in the shape of a sliced pear for some reason, but ended up looking more like a…
The elbow in his stomach abruptly cut off the thought of the cake.
"Mister Garibaldi, I have had a long day of meetings." Talia said as she glared at him. She had actually gotten used to how loudly he tended to broadcast thoughts, but today was just too much and the things he was thinking about… "My head feels like it's about to explode, and honestly, I'm tempted to stop off at Commander Ivanova's and ask to shoot me. I do not need to hear you thinking about…."
"I wasn't! I promise, I wasn't thinking about anything bad! Well, okay, I was but it isn't what you think. There's this bakery that I've got to go shut down. I swear I was just thinking about their cakes, and their donuts and…." He paled as he recalled the croissants the bakery had offered once. "Talia, could you hit me again fast before I remember something else?"
Talia started to reply before the lift suddenly jolted, and she tumbled into Mister Garibaldi's arms. "What just happened?" She demanded as she looked up at him.
"I think I just found a problem maintenance caused when they were high as a kite." The lift definitely wasn't moving. Was the universe out to get him? Trapped in a lift with Miss Winters. He had had fantasies about that, but nowhere in his fantasies were there thoughts of obscene baked goods running through his head that were sure to make her think he was insane. He helped her back to her feet and then activated his link. "Garibaldi to Security. I've got a problem in one of the lifts."
"Shouldn't that make a noise?" Talia asked. Normally she would have half suspected Mister Garibaldi of setting this up. She was still trying to work out how he always ended up in the lift she was in, but the worry on his face was clear, even if his thoughts weren't enough to convince her he wasn't up to something. If his thoughts just wouldn't be so loud….
"Yeah, it should." He stared at the link before activating it again. "Garibaldi to Security!" No, nothing. "Garibaldi to C and C!" No C and C either. "Garibaldi to Ivanova?"
"Mister Garibaldi?"
"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry about this. We're having a few little problems with maintenance today. Garibaldi to Franklin." Still nothing. "Garibaldi to Sheridan. Garibaldi to….." What was his name now? "Garibaldi to Corwin?" Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Communications was deader than a doornail.
"Mister Garibaldi?" Talia called again and then winced and closed her eyes as a pain washed over her head. "What is going on?"
"Little maintenance problem. Little maintenance problem." Why in the world hadn't Stephen warned him that maintenance might have done a little monkeying around with things before second shift found them high as a kite. Link was down, lift was down, panel to signal for help inside the lift was down too, he realized as he punched it without response.
"Little maintenance problem?" Talia said as she looked at him.
"Yeah, first shift got into a cake made with some pak'ma'ra ingredient that made them hallucinate. Apparently it also made them go nuts and fix a few things that didn't need fixing."
"So we're trapped?"
"It looks like it. Listen, I'm sure someone's going to come looking and get us out of here sooner or later. It's just a matter of whether or not any of the other lifts are out too, and if anyone that ranks more important than us has managed to get themselves stuck." It would be just his luck that Londo and G'Kar would be trapped in a lift together. They would be lucky to be rescued before next week if that happened. The time spent cleaning up the blood alone….
"Do you suppose they are?" Talia said in a halfway hopeful tone as she picked up his thoughts. "I don't mind waiting if that might be the case."
"It might be a long wait."
"I spent four hours in a meeting with the two of them. If there's a chance they're in a lift killing each other now, I'll happily wait." Well, maybe not happily. With her head pounding, she wasn't going to be happy until she saw a soft pillow and hopefully some painkillers, but she could make do if it meant she would never have to attend a meeting with the two ambassadors again.
"Well, hopefully we won't have to wait too long. Surely someone will notice that communications are down before too long." He took the gray jacket part of his uniform off before spreading it on the ground. "If you want to rest your feet though?"
After a moment, Talia nodded her head in thanks, and sank to the floor, tucking her feet under her, and smoothing her skirt into place. With a soft sigh, she leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. Maybe if she could just rest slightly, her head would stop pounding.
Michael watched her, a smile on his face. Maybe being stuck in the lift for awhile wouldn't be so bad, but that didn't mean he shouldn't at least make some attempt to get them free. "Garibaldi to anyone?" He called softly as he tried to activate the link again. What in the world had maintenance done, and was taking down communications and the lifts the full extent of the problem?