I Naviganti 13: "Teneri Paciocchini

(Cute Chubbies)"

by Monica MicioGatta

§2

«Archer to Commander Tucker.»

T'Pol pulled her arm from under the covers and reached over to Trip, lying behind her. «Trip, wake up.»

«Archer to Commander Tucker.»

T'Pol sighed and turned round to face her mate, «Trip!»

Trip slowly opened his eyes: «What's up?» He slurred, sleepily.

«Captain Archer is looking for you.»

A not really awake Tucker looked toward the door. «Where is he then, he's not here.»

«The comm.» she said.

«Ah, that's good, he's not here.» Trip remarked, as he firmly closed his eyes and nuzzled up against her.

«Archer to Commander Tucker... damn it, Trip, where are you? «

At that point, Trip really opened his eyes wide. «Oh hell!» He reached across to active the comm and asked: «What time is it?»

«0200 hours, I need you in launch bay one, double quick.»

«At two in the morning?» He protested, yawning loudly. «Okay, I'm coming... Tucker out.» He pulled the blankets back up to his ears.

«Trip, you have to go.» she said.

«Mhm...»

«Archer to Commander T'Pol.»

«T'Pol here.» She replied, while shaking Trip's shoulder.

«I need you in launch bay one, immediately.»

«I'll be right there.»

T'Pol deactivated the comm and sitting up on the bunk, pulled the covers away from the man lying half asleep at her side.

«It's cold,» Trip muttered.

«Get up.» She replied, getting out of bed.

«But I'm sleepy...»

«When we want to mate, we must stop watching movies that keep us up late early. Otherwise, you do not get enough sleep.»

Tucker sighed heavily and sat up. «This really takes the cake!» He muttered as he got out of bed and retrieved his clothes from the bench. «And I would have got enough sleep enough if the Cap'n hadn't woken us up after only an hour...»

T'Pol reached up to Trip's shoulders to straighten out his uniform, and then they exited her quarters.

When they entered the launch bay, they immediately noticed a large metal cube sitting on the deck. Then they acknowledged Captain Archer who was standing alongside Hoshi.

«What's that?» Trip asked.

«We found it in a field of debris.» Archer said.

«I can confirm your suspicions, Captain.» Reed advised, as he emerged from behind the cube.

«What is it that you are "confirming"?» Trip asked.

Hoshi pointed at a sign on one side of the cube. «It's a Patragano cargo cube.»

«Which would indicate that the debris is from a Patragana ship?» T'Pol asked.

«Exactly.»

«They've travelled far from their planet.» Trip noted, as he looked the cube over. «I wonder how it opens?»

«If we knew that,» Archer commented, «I could have left you to sleep. However, we'll need all your skills to get it open.»

Then Archer turned to Hoshi and issued an order, «I need you to find a way to contact the Patragani. As this is the only cargo cube from their transport ship to survive intact, they'll probably want it back.»

Just then, there was a distinct «click». Then the onlookers saw the top of the cube rotate.

Tucker had taken a good thirty seconds to open the cube that just a short time before, Reed had declared to be an "inaccessible single unit".

«What's inside?» He asked, peering into the cube.

«Small life forms.» T'Pol said as she finished analyzing the result of her scan of the contents of the cube. «They are all in stasis-» abruptly, she stopped what she about to say as Trip lifted out one of the transparent cubes that were packed inside.

«All except one.» She corrected herself.

Trip looked at the animal that was beginning to move in the transparent cube.

«Oh! It's so tender!» Hoshi whispered. «Do you think Patragani keep them as pets?»

The little ball of fur stretched out to reveal five chubby tiny paws, which were then stretched one by one. Then with a slight «pop» two drop-shaped dainty ears came out and between them two antennas sprang up.

«Oh, how sweet,» Hoshi cooed.

Archer wondered to himself if Hoshi had a pet as a child. He concluded that she had probably not had that experience, hence the reaction to the little creatures she was having now; a reaction which would have been more appropriate if she was twenty years younger.

Then two little black eyes opened, blinked, and looked at the five humans surrounding it. Suddenly, the creature's fur swelled up, and then it began to visibly tremble.

«If I were you, commander,» T'Pol said, the Vulcan with phlegm. «I'd put the container in its place.»

«If I were you, commander,» T'Pol said, with icy Vulcan calmness. «I'd return the container to the cube.»

«Why? It is cute...» However, when his hands began to tremble because of the strong vibrations from the creature, Tucker decided it was better to listen to T'Pol. He put the container back were he had found it, in the metal cube.

«What is it doing now?» Reed asked.

«It seems to be afraid... poor baby!»

Hoshi leaned over the top of the cube and stroked the outside of the transparent container as if to caress the creature. In that moment, without warning, the animal exploded and Hoshi shouted out as she jumped away.

When they returned to peer into the cube, all that was left was something that looked like it had been splattered by a food processor. Bits of that poor creature were scattered around inside the small container.

«It's... exploded!» Trip exclaimed.

Archer activated the comm. «Archer to Doctor Phlox. Please come to launch bay one.»

Trip arrived in the sickbay. Phlox had brought the container with the exploded animal inside, there to examine what was left of it in more detail.

«Morning, Doc…discovered anything?»

«Very little.» The doctor replied, raising a pair of tweezers in which he had trapped a little ear. «This animal has been almost completely shredded by the explosion.»

Trip sat down beside the table where Phlox was working. «Wow. I'm going to have to tell the Patragani that one of their sweet pets died at my hands.»

«Do not blame yourself.» Phlox said. «How could you know that it would explode if removed from stasis.»

«I didn't even know that pulling it out of the cargo cube would be wake the creature up.»

The doors opened and Captain Archer came in. «We have made contact with the Patragani,» he announced.

«Ah...» Trip folded his arms. «I must go and apologise to them.»

«No, don't worry about it; I have already spoken to them. They also told me that their ship, the Patraga 4 exploded here two years ago, by mistake.»

«Crew error?»

Archer nodded. «There were seven males aboard, they managed to launch escape pods in time and were later rescued. They thought that the entire load had been lost. When I told them that one of the animals exploded…»

«Hmm.» Phlox muttered in the background.

«…they explained that it is an instinctive reaction of these animals... I did not understand exactly what they are called, but Hoshi assures me that their name can be roughly translated as...» He stifled a laugh. «"Chubbie".»

Trip did not attempt to contain his amusement, as he laughed out loud.

«They are pets, but they should be gradually accustomed to the presence of their masters. Otherwise, they swell up and burst. Apparently this discourages and confuses predators.»

«Maybe we should leave them in stasis until we can give them back to Patragani.» Trip proposed. «Cargo bay 4 can accommodate them, it's nearly empty.»

«Unfortunately it isn't that simple. The chubbies cannot last much longer in stasis, and it is probable that some of them are already dead.»

Phlox nodded to express his understanding of the situation. «I can keep them here with my other animals in sickbay.»

«No, that won't work there's too many of them.» Archer said.

«Do we know what they eat?» Trip asked. «We must consider how best to keep them alive until we can return them to the Patragani.»

Archer gave out a groan to indicate that he was suffering. «To tell the truth... the Patragani have given them to us.»

«Those…. little chubby things? They're ours to keep?» Trip exclaimed, amazed.

«Oh yes. There's at least one for each crew member, including MACOs.»

Phlox returned the severed auricle to one of the dissection dishes on his examination table. «I think it might be useful for the crew to have a little lesser animal that is soft and tender, to care for. After all, captain, you have Porthos.»

Porthos may be a «lesser» being, but he does not explode if he is afraid.» Archer objected. «Please advise the crew that if any of them don't want a pet, they can leave it the cargo bay.»

Tucker jumped to his feet. «Perfect, I'm going to prepare the cargo bay for mine.»

«Be quiet!» Hoshi said softly, when she saw Travis Mayweather on the threshold of the mess hall.

The young helmsman stopped. He looked at the linguist who was slowly caressing a ball of light brown hair.

«Did you manage to tame it?»

«Yes, look how sweet it is... when it's eating the creature is quite relaxed.» Hoshi smiled. «And yours?»

«Ah, to be honest it's still in stasis.» Travis took a cup and filled it at the dispenser. «I heard that Hess ended up in sickbay.»

Hoshi turned to him. «Because of her chubbie?»

Travis nodded. «Her chubbie literally exploded in her face. An ear hit her right in the eye and she got several scratches which were caused by flying bone fragments. «

Hoshi stroked her pet while it quietly munched on the crumbs that she had prepared for it. «I'm sorry for Hess. Maybe her chubbie was more easily frightened than mine.»

«I think we should have left them all in stasis.» Travis stated.

«But they're so cute...»

Travis smiled. «If you say so.»

Hoshi stood up to retrieve another piece of bread. «I believe that having pets on starships might help to relieve stress.»

«And take away the very little free time we have. It's been five days and I'm doing double shifts because Hutchison was hurt by his pet. If I had one I really would go crazy.»

Hoshi shrugged. «I think it's relaxing.»

Then chubbie turned and saw Travis for the first time. The creature began to shake and it's hair swelled up. «Oh no!» Hoshi cried as she ran towards it with the intention of soothing her pet. She didn't make it in time. Hoshi was halfway there when the chubbie exploded; she only had time to protect her face. When she lowered her arm, Travis could see her expression was one of great disappointment.

«Hoshi, I'm so sorry...»

«It's not your fault.» Hoshi said. «I should not have left it alone.» Then she sighed.

«I'll give you mine, if you want it.»

«Really?»

Mayweather smiled and nodded. «Let's go and get it.»

«I think that first I'll have to clean up this disaster...» she said, looking disconsolately at the area where her chubbie exploded.

«I'll give you a hand.»

After they had finished cleaning up and fetched the chubbie allocated to Travis, they discovered that either Hoshi was particularly lucky, or she definitely had an affinity with the Patragani chubbies. Even the chubbie Travis had so willingly given to her; quietly nestled up against her without exploding…. at least for now.

(To be continued...)

Author's note: I want to thank Opal who betaread this story, Zero Credibility who I can consider my Englih fan, Seti & Franz whop betaread all my stories in Italian.

All my stories are published in Italian on my blog.