Let the hunt begin! [Part Two]

Posted on 21 Mar 2022 @ 7:52pm by Lieutenant C'Tora Kuroka

Mission: R&R - Styx Outpost
Location: SB21
Timeline: During Shoreleave
2703 words - 5.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Continued

After Meal


On the way there, M'tara tapped her combadge, "Lieutenant Junjie, if you are not busy, may C'tora and I pay a visit with you. We'd like to discuss something concerning the voles. Are you available."

Junjie responded back promptly. " Does this have to do with your work here upon the station? " He asked. " If so then please feel free to drop by my office in the science lab. Tam and I were just grabbing a bite for lunch, so feel free to join us if you'd like. There are some in restaurants on the station if you want to bring something along with you and a new Raktabucks just opened on the promenade. " He offered as a suggestion.

Well M'tara and C'tora show up.

Tam looked up as she finished the small morsel left on her plate. "Well nice to see you again how is the hunting going on?"

"Oh it is going well enough but C'tora and I have come up with an idea. I will let C'tora present it though."

C"Tora finished sipping his grande raktabucks and spoke. " you caught me a little off guard there darling. " He looked at the XO and CSO sitting at his desk. " We had an idea to use some dead voles to lure the other voles into a trap, but we need your help for it to work Lieutenant Han. M'Tara suggested that we use the pheromones of the male and female voles to make a spray that they would follow into say a small cargo bay where we could remotely open and close the jeffries tubes. I also suggest that we use some engineering bots to go into the jeffries tube until they find a group of voles and leave a trail of pheromones to the trap sight where M'Tara will be up on a platform with a pair of MK 2 phasers set on wide spread stun setting and clean them up when we have enough of them and reset the trap when we're ready for the next batch. "

Junjie looked to Tamaska. " It sounds do-able to me, What do you think Tam? I can help with the pheromone aspect of the plan, For the location and authorization of the phasers, that's your area of authority Tam. What do you think? "

"Sounds like a marvelous plan and would definitely get this problem taken care of." Tam pulled out her padd and put in the order for the help of the engineers and also giving authorization for what is being required. "Okay, you have been approved and a requisition has been made. Good hunting and I am so looking forward to the voles being dealt with."

" I'm looking forward to getting this problem dealt with as well." Said C'Tora as he licked his lips in anticipation. " If this works out as I hope it will we might need a larger stasis container before we're done here. Well let's get going and get the gear we need and get this done M'Tara, We've got work to do. "

M'tara gave a nod. "Thank you Tamaska and Junjie for this. And see you later." the pure white Caitian gave a smile and headed out the door.

Tamaska called out, "The weapons will be waiting for you along with the other things you need. Be careful and good hunting."

The Following Morning


C'Tora and M'Tara sat in the small control booth overlooking cargo bay eight with the video monitor for the maintenance bots and control units for the two bots that were set up with the spray units attached to them. " I suggest we send both units out at the same time and converge them into the shaft that leads back here to increase the number of voles into the trap, shall we begin? "

"Let do this." she began maneuvering the bot she was in control of watching as the voles followed the Pied Piper as she named her bot. "I am liking this very much, kind of fun actually. I just have do the easy pace though, don't want to lose any of them. How are you doing there?"

" I'm doing very good over here, I wasn't really expecting it to be this effective on our first run of the day. If they keep coming at this rate we might have the entire station cleaned out in two or three days. " He watched the map as the two bots were coming to the intersection that would lead them back to the cargo bay were they were waiting. " Alright, We'll stop the spray after we get them to the center of the room and park the bots in the corner. when we think we have enough we'll close the hatch and start our harvesting. "

"And the bots need to be above where the voles are at so we don't get them destroyed. The engineers won't be happy if that happened. Okay, looks like we're getting into the capacity we are needing" As she guided her robot into the center and the voles followed them inside. "Lets get to business." watching as the voles come pouring in. "We have quite the haul here, it going to keep us busy."

C'Tora pressed the control to close the hatch cover as the vole stream slowed down to a trickle, he checked the settings on the phasers to make sure they were on the proper setting and handed one to M'Tara. " Here you are darling, Shall we begin? " They walked out to the railing with phasers at the ready and saw that every square centimeter of the cargo bay was covered in voles. It wasn't one of the smaller cargo bays, but still that was a lot of voles down there. " M'Tara my darling, I think we better keep the phasers on us in case some of them wake up before we're done killing and storing them. "

"You know dear we can kill them with the stun application. Would make things quicker and would help us rid the station of these things." continuing to do the wide spread phaser fire at the voles. "Isn't it interesting how the Voles look a bit like Cardassians?" she remarked, to C'tora.

C'Tora squinted his eyes as he looked at the voles. " They do say that humans evolved from apes, Perhaps cardassians evolved from voles? It's not just the cranial ridges but the eyes as well." He shrugged. " I guess we'll never know. " As he kept up the rate of fire. C'Tora took out his tricorder and scanned the pile of voles. " No life signs, let's start loading them into the stasis container to keep them fresh. " He borrowed a anti grav sled to load the voles onto and dump them into the container until the room was cleared. He wiped his brow and turned to M'Tara. " That took us a little over an hour to clear the cargo bay, if we do that another two or three times I'll be ready for a good night's sleep. " He stated to his lovely mate.

M'Tara was panting from their work but she smiled at her handsome mate. "I agree, I will be ready for a good night's sleep as well. Hopefully by the end of our shoreleave we'll be done with eradicating the voles from this station. And this has been a worthwhile honeymoon as well, my love. A well earned rest when we get back to the ship."

" Since this is our honeymoon, I guess one could say that the voles are our wedding gifts. Very thoughtful of them really. " Said C'Tora with a warm smile. After two more trapping sessions they were done for the day. " Would you like to go out to dinner tonight M'Tara? I saw a Brazilian steakhouse on the promenade. I hear they bring around different cuts of meats on a cart and when your done they bring more. Want to give it a try? "

"That sounds very tasty." M'Tara purred out. "Beef sounds so good right now. And I am very hungry." giving him a kiss, then nuzzling along his jawline. "Let us go get cleaned up and go get dinner." Then her gaze went out to where they had cleared up the voles. "I do love this wedding present." wrapping her arms about him.

"I agree, let's get cleaned up. We're a bit dirty and smelly in our current state. " As they walked back to their quarters C'Tora pointed to a restaurant. " That's where we'll be dining tonight. Hmm... It looks like people get dressed up to dine there. We should do the same since it seems to be a custom there. " After returning to their quarters C'tora cleaned up and dressed in a white shirt with a red tie, A black glossy dinner jacket with matching black glossy pants. " I'm ready to go my love, How are you doing? Do you need more time? As he turned to look at the bedroom door.

M'Tara stepped out from the bedroom, her hair loose, with a crimson flower in her hair. the dress she wore was red, to match the color of C'Tora's tie. It was a halter top neck with the dress gently hugging her form and plunged slightly down the front showing some cleavage. It flared out at the bottom where when she walked it swirled about her shins. On her leg was a gold anklet with rubies to match the dress. She had a bracelet which matched as well. Her green eyes looked over C'Tora including the black cumberbund he had about his waist.

"Meeeooowww." she purred, walking up towards him. "You look purrrrrfectly handsome. Shall we my love. My mouth is watering at the thought of the beef we will be dining on."

" Wow!!, You look incredible! " As he stared at her for several long seconds beforebrushing up against her as he walked behind her and gently kissed the back of her neck and then offered her his arm. " Then I shan't keep such a gorgeous lady waiting, Shall we then as the door opened before them and headed to the promenade. Once there he pulled the chair out for M'Tara and ordered a bottle of red wine to go with their meal. As they waited to be served C'Tora lifted his glass and proposed a toast. " Here's to the luckiest caitian male who has the most beautiful and wonderful mate that there could ever be. And I am so glad that I am that male. " He said. A few moments later the waiter showed up with the first cart and sliced the meats for them and moved onto the next table. " By the Goddess, this has been a perfect day my love. "

"It indeed has been a perfect day." lifting her glass towards him, "and to you my love. I am glad we met, it was definitely kismet, fate, whatever you may call it. I do hope that Natasha found herself a mate. I've not been able to talk with her in a long time since that fateful meeting. Have you?" M'Tara having a curious gaze. " I will have to satisfy my curiosity and find out from her."

" If I recall correctly, she is still assigned to the Andromeda as the Chief Diplomatic Officer. we will have to pay her a visit one day. I would like to name one of our daughters after her, If it wasn't for her I wouldn't have escaped my mothers grasp and we may have not met. I think it would be a nice way to honor her and make her the godmother of one of our cubs." C'Tora chuckled briefly. " I can just imagine the look on her face when she finds out we named one of our cubs after her. We do owe her an indirect debt of gratitude for us meeting and becoming a mated pair. " He lightly nuzzled her nose with his. " I would have never imagined that I'd ever be this happy in my life, I am so grateful that we found each other. " He said as he gazed into her eyes.

"I am too." looking into his matching emerald green eyes. "And Natasha will certainly be surprised when we ask her." M'Tara giving a light laugh. She returned the nuzzle, reaching out and touching his hand, with her own. "I am full, how about you? I am ready to go get some slumber." masking a yawn with her hand.

" We work rather hard today and were well rewarded for our efforts and I'm beginning to feel a bit drowsy after filling my belly. Let's go home and curl up together, we have another long day before us. " As they departed the restaurant and returned to their quarters and slept soundly.

Two days later


" These last two days have been hard work for us M'Tara, and there are less and less coming into the trap zone. Perhaps we should clean up and go and talk to Tamaska and have her run a internal sensor sweep to see if there are any more live voles on the station. I hope not, we will have several days left on shore leave and I just want to relax and enjoy some quiet time with you M'Tara. Is there anything you'd like us to do while we're here? " He asked, curious to see what she'd like to do.

M'Tara nodded, " That would be lovely. I would love to just relax but it was relaxing to get all the voles as well. But maybe a spa day, get a massage, find some comfortable clothing or even visit one of the planets we are allowed to go on, since the planet below is off limits for now. That will be how I would like to spend the rest of our shoreleave. Lets go pay Tamaska a visit, get confirmation then go out and play."

Tamaska looked up from her desk when the two Caitians arrived, she greeted them with a smile, "Hello, how was the hunt?"

M'Tara gave feline smile, then said. "It was marvelous, if you check the sensor readings of the station, there should be an indication of what isn't there."

Tamaska nodded and punched in the codes for that purpose. After a few moments, she smiled. "I see there isn't any voles left. You did a wonderful job."

M'Tara nodded, "Well that is pleasing news, and we have left instructions on how to get rid of the little beasties without calling someone like us. Though, we are happy we could help out. It was a glorious hunt and honeymoon. And thank Junjie for us as well for the help."

Tamaska nodded, then she looked at C'Tora. "What are your plans before your shore leave is ended."

C'Tora glanced at M'Tara, and then back to Tamaska. " well we were thinking of perhaps buying something comfortable to wear and heading over to the spa for a massage and maybe a soak in a hot tub. After that we talked about borrowing a shuttlecraft and going to the Ba'ku planet for a day in the forest if that is permisslble. It's always nice to feel the sun on your skin and the earth beneath your feet as one races underneath the canopy of the trees and find a nice warm rock to laze upon for awhile. " He said with a wistful look in his eye.

"Going to Ba'Ku I don't think there will be a problem, and that sounds wonderful." Tamaska having a wistful expression herself. "You two enjoy yoruselves. I do know of a civilian transport which runs tours to various planets for those wishing to go to different planets. Anyhow, thank you once again for your help." giving a smile.

"You are very welcome Tamaska." M'Tara replied.

When all was said and done, they departed the office for a well deserved day of relaxing at the spa and to book a flight on the mentioned civilian transport to finish up their time on shore leave, Both happy and content with a job well done.

Ensign M'Tara Kuroka
Medical, USS Andromeda

Lieutenant JG C'Tora Kuroka
Chief Medical Officer
USS Andromeda

This segment has been sponsored by RaktaBucks of Qo'nos And McVoles Burgers.