Those Darn Replicators

Posted on Wed Oct 17th, 2018 @ 4:27pm by Commander Abigail Prescott & Commander M'Mira

1,315 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: The Return to Faltan
Location: Executive Officer's Office
Timeline: MD01 - 1100

Immediately following the briefing, Mint snagged M'Mira's arm and practically dragged the Caitian into her office. "I need my coffee, and since you're so eager to do Engineering work, you can fix my replicator," she said while they were still in the corridor. Once they were inside her office and the door was closed, she released M'Mira and smiled at her. "Come on, let's work this issue out."

Mint wandered over to her replicator and started running a diagnostic. "What are you waiting for?"

M'Mira allowed herself to be dragged into Mint's office. She smiled, as her BFF took her into the privacy of her own office. She removed the control panel that led to all of the circuits and wires of the replicator. "I wait for no woman," M'Mira purred. "And all Operrrations work is Engineerrring worrrk but not all Engineerrring is Operrrations. Someone has to keep this station rrrunning smoothly."

"Yes, but the physical work, generally handled by the Engineers," Mint pointed out. "You can't fool me, I am an engineer, I know who does the fixing." She paused and looked at M'Mira. "You have a problem with Tendai. What is it?"

"Besides the fact that she's as incompetent as Damon was?" M'Mira grumbled with a low growl.

"From what I've seen, she's a hell of a lot more competent than he was," Mint countered, leaning against the wall. "You took offence before you even spoke to her. Don't deny it, I remember our conversation when she asked you to meet with her. Why? What is so wrong with this woman that you hated her before even meeting her?"

"I did no such thing," M'Mira replied sharply. "And she is incompetent. Give herrr and answerrr and she asks the same question about the same prrroblem. She does not listen and does not want to hearrr. I have no use for this. It was betterrr when we werrre alone, even if I had to occasionally get dirrrty." Mint watched as M'Mira cringed at that thought.

"Hmmph," Mint moved away from M'Mira, knowing there really wasn't a problem with the replicator since she'd fixed it herself. "So this call I got when Tendai first arrived, middle of the day, from a Caitian woman angrily ranting that Tendai expected the Caitian to go to her office and stating something to the effect of 'have you seen her file? It's like a Glamour shot?' and proclaiming that she didn't like Tendai already was not you?"

She leaned against her desk. "Come on M'Mira, you've had your hackles up from the moment she contacted you. Why?"

"I told you!" M'Mira insisted. "Didn't help that she was, what? Six days late and caused me to do herrr job and my job, both." She grumbled, "Not that she can do herrr job."

She turned her head nearly upside down looking inside the panel and the results from her tricorder. "Says this should be worrrking. How could that be?" She told the replicator, "White Rrrrusian, extrrra crrream." It came out perfectly. She purred happily as she took a sip and then realized that Mint had used this as an excuse to bring her in here. "This was neverrr about the rrreplicatorrr, was it?"

"She is more than capable of doing her job, and she has proved that in the past week," Mint said crossing her arms over her chest and wincing slightly. "Her delay was unfortunate, but shit happens M'Mira, that's no reason to dislike someone before you've met them. Also, you didn't have to do her job, that was on me, but you were a great asset when shit hit the fan. Engineering is now up to her. If it needs to be repaired, Tendai or the engineering team is to fix it as they should.

And no, this was never about the replicator, that was just an excuse to keep people from being curious as to why I was calling you into my office since everyone knows we're friends. I just wanted to see how you'd react to finding it working perfectly," she smirked at that last bit.

M'Mira gave a mock hiss and snarl at Mint. She raised her arm to pretend throw her tool at Mint, made a throwing motion, just to see if she would duck but held onto the instrument. "You arrre feisty today. It must have to do with yourrr new perfume. You do not smell as pungent as norrrmal," M'Mira said as a matter of fact.

"As to Tendai, you arrre not rrright. Do you have any idea how that witch trrreated me when I firrrst met herrr? Orrr how she could not be botherrred to even rrread the rrreporrrts that werrre sent to herrr? It was Turrrner and Kapule that did the majorrrity of the worrrk. Did you know that she trrrried to dismiss me?! The nerrrve! I will not have herrr on this station messing it up."

Mint flinched just a tiny bit when M'Mira mimed throwing the instrument at her, but did not duck. She had a tiny bit of faith that the Caitian would not follow through with it. Not only because they were friends, but because Mint was also her superior officer. "First off, yes, I'm feisty, I have Captain Refelian telling me to clear this issue up before it goes any further. Secondly, I don't wear perfume, you already know this," Mint pointed out. "As for not being as pungent to you as normal, my heat cycle is over, so that's probably it," she waved her hand as though dismissing that bit of the conversation.

"You went in to meeting her with your hackles up because she's pretty and could potentially steal mates," she pointed out. "You had a prejudice against her before you even met her, and then from the sounds of it she asked a few "dumb" questions and you apparently decided she was an idiot and treated her as such?" Mint didn't accuse her of doing it, the tone of her voice was curious. "You know what, I don't actually care why you hate her so much," she said after a moment. "Just this outward hatred of her? It has to stop. If it doesn't, you're going to get written up for conduct unbecoming and I don't want to see that happen." She held up a hand to stop any protests. "Before you say anything, no Tendai will not get the same thing because other than ignoring you, she's not being outwardly angry toward you. And I won't be the one writing you up."

Mint ran her hands through her hair and sighed. "M'Mira, you're my friend, and I've grown to love you like a sister, but you've got to try to contain your feelings toward Tendai. Try to find common ground because the two of you are going to be working together a lot. Your departments are interconnected. Please, if not for your job, for me? I've got enough headaches to deal with, I don't want to be pulling you in for conversations like this anymore. I hate being the bad guy..."

Abashed, M'Mira made a pathetic mewing sound. "I don't like herrr, Mint but you arrre not completely wrrrong. I cannot afforrrd being wrrritten up." She stomped her foot angrily and hung her head, trying to figure out what to do or say.

Smiling, Mint walked over to M'Mira and gave her arm a squeeze. "I know it's not easy to work with someone you dislike, but you're a strong woman, you can do this." She paused and sniffed the air catching the scent of the white russian. "Now that this unpleasant conversation is done, let's go grab some lunch, I'm starving!"

M'Mira threw back the White Russian without a thought and placed the glass back on the replicator to be reintegrated. "I think I needed that," she answered. "Let's go."

 

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