Little Rascals

Posted on Mon Jun 22nd, 2020 @ 5:37am by Lieutenant Commander Mindo & Petty Officer 1st Class Greep & Eva Griffin
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 4:54pm

Mission: Divided We Fall
Timeline: current

A Mission Post by Aoife Brennan & Lieutenant Mindo & Petty Officer 1st Class Greep
Mission: Divided We Fall
Location:
Timeline: current
Sat May 19th, 2018 @ 7:05am

It had been a while since the disappearances of the entire bridge crew and it had occurred to Mindo that with both Shae and Cailus gone, Aoife might not be doing well. This instinct about Aoife was not a new one. In the last few months, Mindo had made quite the connection with her. Mindo was not a father, nor had he ever been well around normal-sized kids, but he felt a mysterious, almost instinctive nerve about her, and he suddenly felt a little responsible for her in Shae and Cailus' absence.

Irrational as it may sound, Mindo was actually worried for the little tyke. He knew she would be with her nanny, whom Mindo had met only once, so he went to Shae's quarters and hit the chime. Under his arm rested a plush orange and white fish he had replicated as a prize for games at the Palace. One thing he knew about kids, they liked presents. And Mindo knew Aoife liked fish. What could go wrong?

Rebakah and Aoife weren't there, but they were just returning from Deck 5 where they had been observing the Indigo sky before everything had gone terribly wrong. Rebekah was honestly at a loss for what to do; Aoife had a routine that normally helped her feel secure and calm, but that routine had been disrupted, and while the child was adapting calmly for the moment, Rebekah was worried a freak-out was not far off. Thinking that the familiar surroundings of Shae and Cailus' quarters might help prolong the present calm, Rebekah returned with Aoife to Deck 3, only to find Mindo waiting outside the door for someone to answer.

"Mr Mindo?" Rebekah said with surprise. "Funny seeing you here. Have you come to visit with Shae? If so, I'm sorry to say that last I heard she was among those who disappeared from the Bridge," she said as she unlocked the door to let them all in, all the while Aoife smiled at Mindo, though her face brightened drastically when she noticed the fish plushie under his arm.

Mindo smiled as he followed Rebekah and Aoife into their quarters. "Actually, I came here to check on Aoife. When I heard Shae and Cailus were among the disappearances, I felt compelled to look in on her." He smiled again at Aoife and handed her the plush toy. "I also thought she might enjoy this little fishy!"

"That was rather thoughtful of you!" Rebekah replied with a lopsided smile. "And look, Aoife, he brought you something!" she said to the little girl toddling uneasily beside her, though instead of taking the fish, Aoife took a step forward to hug Mindo around the waist. "That is so cute!" Rebekah remarked, then reached into her pocket for a small camera to snap a picture. "Sorry, Shae often misses so much during the day, plus she likes to send cute pictures back to her family, so catching moments of cuteness is part of my job."

Mindo smiled and hugged her back. "That's perfectly fine," he said. "Hi Aoife! I brought you a fish!" He held the fish out for Aoife to see.

Aoife squeaked happily and took the fish, hugging it tightly. "Mind your manners, kiddo, say thank you," Rebekah reminded Aoife, to which Aoife looked at Mindo with a smile and chirped. "That's about as close as we can get to her talking for now," Rebekah remarked with a dry smile. "So Mr Mindo, I was about to give Aoife a snack; would you care to join us?" the nurse offered as she helped Aoife over to the dining table then lifted the child to sit in her high chair.

"I'd love to," said Mindo. "I'm off for the next hour, so I have plenty of time. What kind of snacks does she like?"

"Normally fruit and some honeyed graham cracker bear cookies, but I can get something else for you," Rebekah stated as she pulled up a couple of snack patterns in the replicator, mixed fruit for Aoife and a small salad for herself

"I'll try the bear cookies," said Mindo with a shrug. As he sat down, he felt something in his pocket, something metal and cylindrical. He must have forgotten to put something back into the toolkit earlier. No big deal, he thought; and with that, he immediately forgot about it.

"Bear cookies coming right up!" Rebekah replied cheerfully, and a moment later the replicator lit up and the snacks appeared in the bin. Rebekah set out a bowl of mixed fruit and a plate of cookies for Aoife, cookies for Mindo, plus milk for both to dunk their cookies in, then Rebekah returned to the table with her small salad. Aoife was all too happy to dig right in, grabbing a couple of the tiny bear cookies and dunking them into the milk.

"So, what's our situation?" Rebekah asked in between bites of her salad. "I mean, besides the obvious of the missing crew... I ask because very little news other than conjecture has made it to deck 5 where the civilians gathered."

"Well it's no secret the warp drive is down," said Mindo. "We've also lost weapons, shields, and a few other secondary systems. After my stop here I'll be crawling through various Jefferies Tubes fixing this and adjusting that. There's absolutely no damage to critical systems like life support, and we do have sensors completely online. After a deep scan, we determined there weren't any other ships in this region." Unless they're cloaked, Mindo didn't add.

He took a cookie and, following Aoife's lead, dunked it in the milk and ate it. "Mmm-mm!" he said, smiling at Aoife.

"Well, my mother always used to say 'Be thankful for small miracles,' so for all we've lost, at least we're not blind," Rebekah replied while Aoife giggled at the exaggerated way Mindo was eating his cookies.

Mindo looked back to Rebekah. "Then there's the bad news," he said. "The entire bridge crew, including Captain Temple, Cailus, Shae, Fick, Krysia, and some others have disappeared." Mindo looked down at Aoife happily eating her cookies. "We'll get them back, though," he added. "Commander Nash has been promoted temporarily as Captain of the ship, and I've been temporarily named his Executive Officer. Our number one priority is finding our missing crew and bringing them back safe and sound." He took another cookie and popped it in his mouth. These things weren't bad!

Rebekah sighed. "So they were both on the Bridge..." she said with some sadness. "I have no doubt we'll get them back, but until then... It's been a trial keeping Aoife calm; normally by now either Shae or Cailus has visited with her, and she hasn't seen them yet so she's been growing increasingly agitated. At the moment she's coping just fine, but if they're not back by bedtime this is going to become very unpleasant..."

Aoife noticed that Mindo was only eating cookies, so she grabbed a bright red strawberry from her bowl of fruit and offered it to Mindo.

"For me?" said Mindo. "Thank you, Aoife!" He took the strawberry and immediately ate it. He looked back up at Rebekah. "It's hard to say when we'll have them back," said Mindo. "But we'll do everything we can. If there's any help I can give, please let me know."

"I know you and everyone else will do everything they can, that we will get them back, but in the meantime I would be happy to accept any help you could offer," Rebekah replied with a grateful smile. "Although now I think it's time for her physical therapy, which we can handle alone just fine, but before we go, would you mind keeping an eye on her for a moment so I can hit the head; I don't think I've stopped for a bathroom break all day," she admitted shamelessly.

"Of course," said Mindo.

"Thanks, you're a gem," Rebekah replied, then got up and disappeared into the bedroom.

Mindo watched as Rebekah walked out of the room, then he turned back to Aoife. Suddenly he felt a little dizzy, and could feel a head rush coming on. He closed his eyes as the head rush passed, but still had a disoriented feeling afterward, and so he tried to shake it out of his head. He opened his eyes then and suddenly felt like he was going to black out. Mindo closed his eyes again and suddenly felt disoriented.

When the dizziness cleared, Mindo opened his eyes again. Aoife was still in her chair, munching away at the few small cookies that were left. Mindo blinked his eyes, getting the last bit of unease out of his head. It was then he noticed he held an empty hypospray in his right hand. Just then, he heard Rebekah coming out of the other room and quickly put the hypospray back in his pocket. He had no idea what it was doing in his hand, or even his pocket, but he decided not to worry about it. Perhaps he needed some alcohol. It had been a while since his last drink.

As Rebekah walked back in, Mindo looked up and smiled. "That was very fast," he said.

"Well, I wasn't kidding when I said I hadn't stopped for a break all day," Rebekah replied candidly as she cleaned up the table, running leftover food back through the replicator. "It was crazy on the Rec Deck, it was chaos with the civilian populace, though I imagine it must be worse for you guys working on our little problem. Still, crazy day..." she mused aloud as she finished cleaning up. Then she lifted Aoife from her high chair so they could go.

"Alright, munchkin, let's go play in the water!" Rebekah said to keep Aoife distracted so the child wouldn't notice the absence of her parents. Aoife responded with an excited series of chirps as her tail wagged happily. "No surprise there... Can you say goodbye to Mr Mindo?" And with that, Aoife smiled at Mindo and waved goodbye, seemingly unfazed by whatever had happened while Rebekah had been away.

Mindo smiled and waved back. As he stood up, he felt another head rush coming on, but the feeling passed quickly. Only Aoife knew what had happened while Rebekah was away, and even she did not know of the potential consequences Mindo's blackout could have.