That Delinquent, Oz
Posted on Thu Sep 27th, 2012 @ 2:25pm by Cadet Senior Grade Chance Conradi & Ignatius Reilly & Cadet Senior Grade Eli Ziyad
Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Chance and Eli’s quarters
...and the feline may or may not be alive. Thus, it is both alive and dead, at the same time? Why would someone be so cruel as to put an animal in a box and then declare it both alive and dead? If you want it dead, then kill it; if you want it alive, then do not put it in the box, Iggy shifted slightly to focus on Chance with her primary eyes. You bipeds... how did you ever evolve?
“Hey! We evolved just fine, thanks very much! Speak for yourself, anyway, Ms. Hunts Her Own Dinner,” Chance grumbled back at the arachnid. So far, he’d explained the Schrödinger's cat concept five or six times and was finally getting the message that Iggy just wasn’t going to ‘get’ it. She kept getting stuck on the apparent inhumanity of the basis of the explanation.
“C’mon, now, focus here, Iggy,” he sighed just as a message popped up on his console. Reading it, he muttered, “What the fu--? Oh my...!” He got up and dashed for the door.
Hey! Where are you going? You are forgetting something!, Iggy shouted at him.
Halting and turning to look at the spider, Chance said, “Oh, shit, right. Wait... what am I forgetting?”
Me! What just happened? I cannot read yet, so what has you running off?
“Oz,” he answered, picking Iggy up, “She’s in jail.”
The Brig? Really? The arachnid sounded both surprised and... pleased. Perhaps now, she will know how it feels to be locked up unfairly.
“No... well, yes... gods, I hope it’s unfairly. She’s on the planet, Iggs,” Chance stammered as he headed out into the corridor.
Eli had heard the news from both Jackson, who was pissed about it, and Jan, who seemed to think it was no real surprise. Either way, it wasn’t good and he figured they’d be informing Chance. Eli had to get there, he knew this wasn’t going to go over well. As soon as the lift doors opened, he dashed out and down the corridor, arriving just as the doors opened and barrelling straight into Chance. And Iggy.
“Oomph!” There were some things even telepathy couldn’t help.
Scrambling to catch Iggy before she fell, Chance juggled the eight legs and abdomen and forgot to move his own two legs. Holding Iggy, he fell, taking the brunt of the fall on his right shoulder. “Ow!” Iggy, however, was fine.
Eli! Watch where you are going! Iggy admonished the Enaran. Taking several steps away from the now prone Chance, she shook each leg in turn, then smoothed the hair on her abdomen. You two nearly got me hurt.
“Oh, sure, you nearly got hurt. So sorry, Ignatius,” Chance growled as he stood up and rubbed his shoulder.
“Sorry Iggs. Chance, we just got some news about Oz--”
“She’s been arrested! What kind of bunk is that?”, her brother snapped. “And... how do you know already?”
“Janice told Jackson who told me. He was livid, and as I understand it, she had to threaten to chain him to his desk to keep him from taking off to do something about it.” Eli reached out to rub Chance’s shoulder gently. “Sorry, handsome.”
“No worries, babe,” Chance answered as the three moved back into the cadets’ quarters. “If Jackson’s going to go off and do something, I want to go along. After all, I should have the right to get in to see my sibling, no matter what the charges are. The message I got didn’t say what she did to get tossed in jail. Did Janice... Janice was listening to gossip again, wasn’t she?”
“Straight from the Security horse’s mouth. Ganesh. So it’s mostly reliable. Something about taking a swing at their security chief after she tossed Kh’ali in prison for murder.” Eli stopped, his mouth hanging open. “Wait...murder?”
“Murder?”
Murder?
Iggy and Chance echoed Eli at the same moment. But Chance followed up faster, “Kh’ali? The diplomat? Are they nuts? And Oz doesn’t hit first - she learned better than that with our brothers!”
“That’s all I know. And no, Jackson isn’t going to run off and break her out of prison. We might be able to pick up some gossip at the club. I could probably sneak in to the computer but then they would be after my ass and the brig isn’t where I want to be.” Eli dropped down on the sofa and propped his feet on the coffee table. “I'm just glad I’m not the one who has to tell Commander Leroy.”
“Leroy? The Science guy? Why does he need to be told?”
“Wow, where have you been, love?” Eli smiled finally. “Oh yeah, not listening to the gossip at the bar. Kh’ali and Commander Leroy are a ‘thing’ and have been for a while. Apparently the stony-hearted one has a thing for Klingons. They were in the Nexus a few nights ago, having dinner with his parents.”
“Huh... you know, sex with Klingons... that’s a dangerous thing. A bit like,” he glanced at Iggy, “...being a male spider up against a female.”
Iggy perked up, They eat their mates! That is so intelligent!
“I doubt Kh’ali is going to eat Commander Leroy. She’s too nice for that. His mother sort of acted like she thought Kh’ali might eat her at first, though his dad seemed perfectly fine with it. Do you think most men have dreams about that sorta thing Chance?”
“Being eaten?” Chance blinked. “Ah, in Iggy’s context, no, I hope not. In another context? Oh, hell yes.”
What other eating is there besides... eating?
Chance snickered. “Maybe Eli could give us a demonstration. Besides, Iggs, I think Oralia’s demonstrated it for you a couple of times.”
Oh, yes, she has.
“I mean in Chance’s context, yes. Dreams of Klingon women. Not that I have about Kh’ali. All I do is see her to check in once a week while she handles my case.”
“Case, huh? Is that what we’re calling it this week?” Chance teased Eli.
A faint pink dusted Eli’s cheeks. “My citizenship case, you moron.” He picked up a small pillow from the sofa and lobbed it at Chance. “The only one handling any other case I might have is you. Though there was that one night at Seyla’s....” An evil glint appeared in his eyes.
“Thought you told me Darwin was there that night!” Chance laughed and tossed the pillow back at Eli.
“You’ve got me. He was, and I was asleep. Out cold, so there. You’re it.” Eli leaned his head back against the sofa. “So for now Chance, all we can do is wait. The Admiral and Commander Hawke have already taken off and gone down to the planet.”
“Well... you could, at least, distract the distraught brother of the wrongly accused,” Chance suggested with a smile. “Give little Iggy here another lesson in male-to-male relations?”
“I thought we agreed to no audiences, humanoid or otherwise?” Eli reached out with his foot to nudge Chance.
Hey! This time, I am in the living room - you two go somewhere else! Iggy huffed, since last time, Eli and Chance had been upset about having a voyeur on their bedroom wall; they’d told her to stay in the living room.
“The eight-legged one has a point,” Chance laughed and pulled Eli from the couch. “Bedroom it is for us. Iggs, we’ll be back... sometime.”
Eli rose and slipped his arm around Chance. “And Iggs? The whole idea behind Schrödinger's Cat? Is possibility. It is always one or the other...until you open the box you’ll never know.” That certainly applied in our case. The thought was passed to Chance, then he spoke again. “Don’t worry Chance, they will get her back.”
Already, Chance had his hands in pants that weren't his own. “Oh, I know, luv. And, if they don’t... well, I know where to visit her.” Leading Eli by something other than his hands, Chance walked him into their bedroom, leaving Iggy to puzzle over the poor cat in the box.
_________________
Cadet 4th Class Eli Ziyad
The Bearer Of News (Gossip)
Cadet 4th Class Chance Conradi
Leader of the ...something
Ignatius J. Reilly
Concerned about the Cat
