That? No, That Wasn't A Bite. Really.

Posted on Tue Jul 17th, 2012 @ 4:01pm by Commander Oralia Zeferino & Ignatius Reilly

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Oz's Quarters/A Holosuite

Iggy circled the small man in front of her, moving sideways and keeping her primary eyes on the man. When she was 'behind' him, she paused, lifted a leg and poked it straight through the man.

"What are you doing?" Oralia had watched Iggy for the past few minutes as the spider had kept up at this circling and poking.

Why can I see this male but not touch him? Irritated, Iggy turned to look at Oz.

"It's a hologram, Iggy. Just an image, without any substance." She stood, retrieved the projector from the floor and set it on a shelf. The man in the program was a professor at the Vulcan Science Academy; she'd gotten the thing for Iggy, but Iggy had been more fascinated by the hologram than by the topic of the man's lecture.

Hologram. Iggy was already across the room, at the computer console, tapping at images on the screen. Oz followed her and asked the computer to provide information about holograms. While the computer recited its vast array of knowledge about holograms, holographic images, and so on, she turned and went back to bed.

Sometime later, she woke with a jerk, "Oh! Ow! What...?"

This holodeck, will you take me to one? Iggy was on the bed, two legs pressing on Oz's wrist, where a small drop of blood was welling up.

"You bit me!"

I did not. I merely pricked you with a fang. You would not wake up.

Oralia sat up and looked at her wrist then at Iggy. "What's so important that you'd bite me to wake me up?"

I did not bite you, Iggy reiterated. The computer told me about the holodeck, where one can interact with holograms. Take me there.

"Least you could do is say 'please'," she grumbled as she got up and went into the bathroom.

From her stance on the bed, Iggy added, Please.

* * Twenty Minutes Later, Holosuite * *

“Seriously, Iggy, look at that! Blood! You drew blood. If that’s not a bite--”

I did not bite you. Iggy shifted just slightly to look up at Oralia. Could we lower the lighting?

“Hmm? Oh, sure,” Oz ordered the lights dimmed and the holosuite became a scene lit by moonlight. Nearby, water lapped at a sandy beach and a small, single masted sailboat bumped against a wooden dock. Oz knew that the spider would be better able to see in the dimmer light.

What is this place? Iggy ventured out onto the dock. She could feel the station’s vibrations, but she was used to filtering those out as mere background noise. Here, in this room, there were other vibrations and air currents: those caused by Oralia moving and those caused by the photons and force field energies creating the images around her. Everything added together to allow her a clear picture of the beach and dock.

“It’s a beach near where I grew up, on Earth,” Oz settled in the sand not far from Iggy. She’d brought Connor into this program a few times. They’d had a picnic on the sand and played in the surf. Now, Oz drew meaningless lines in the sand, thinking about Connor.

In tune with Oralia’s memories and emotions, Iggy stayed quiet for a few minutes, exploring out to the end of the dock and back. Oralia, where did I come from?

“I’m not really sure. Back in the Alpha Quadrant, when I was stationed on the Montreal three years ago, a Ferengi businessman gave you to me. You were tiny then. Well... bigger than most spiders, but smaller... than now.” She looked the spider over. “I thought you were full grown at the time. It was Patrick Leroy who pointed out that you’d get bigger.”

Leroy. He is the one with the crystal?

“Yeah.”

I like him.

“You hardly know him.”

Still, I like him.

Chuckling, Oralia shook her head and looked out at the water. Grief weighed heavily on her, but, with Iggy dragging her along, life kept moving on. “C’mon, Iggster, let’s see if you enjoy sailing,” Oz picked herself up, then gathered up the spider and boarded the small sailboat. Moments later, the computer had the two sailing peacefully under a full moon.

___________________________
Oralia Zeferino
Iggy