Undergarments of the Tongue

Characters: Dr. Mira Trassano

Mira Trassano sat in the lounge eating something that was named spoo stroganoff. Apparently it was once a human food that succumbed to the influences of spoo. It looked perfectly horrible. However, it tasted quite nice. So, Mira was eating it as quickly as possible while looking everywhere other than her plate. All of which led to the fact that she saw Mr Carter enter the lounge with a smug grin and a PADD. He was heading straight for her. Ah, well, a perfectly good Day of Grief ruined by an overly grumpy human, thought Mira as she set down her utensils and waited for him to arrive at her empty table.

“Hello, Mr Carter. How are you today?”

“Fine.” He sat down in one of the empty chairs. “Have you seen Captain Shaver today?” The previously smug grin began develop an unusually wicked air.

“Don’t you mean Commander Shaver? He wasn’t promoted with the absence of Captain Narsh.” Mira was only more confused when Mr Carter’s grin began to broaden.

“I don’t know, doctor. You’re the one who informed us all that Captain Shaver had left the ship.” The attempt at an innocent look failed miserably.

“I did no such thing! I said that Captain —-” The light of remembrance dawned over Mira’s face about two seconds before the blush hit. “Oh.”

Carter laughed and shook his head. “I’m glad I got to be the first one to tell you about that Freudian Slip. I’m gonna remember your face forever.”

Mira’s blush managed to creep upwards until it almost reached her single knot of hair. “I don’t see what undergarments have to do with my making such a terrible mistake, Mr Carter,” she whispered fiercely. “I hope you straightened this out for the staff, since you obviously were not mislead.”

Mr Carter laughed harder for a moment and then managed to nod. “Yeah. I told them you were distracted by the news yourself and simply misplaced your words.” He finally calmed down a bit. “You’re not the only one slipping up lately, though. I’ve brought you a revised version of the list of new staff picked up on our last layover. Apparently some of the Medical staff were listed under maintenance by mistake.” He slid the PADD over to her. Mira looked at the pertinent section of the list.

“Why, Mr Carter, this is wonderful! We’ve acquired another doctor.” She quickly keyed over to the personnel data that they had of him. She sighed. It wasn’t much. In fact it was little more than a note that he was a licensed doctor. “I didn’t see anyone new at the staff meeting. But, of course, I wouldn’t have. I didn’t know he was one of my staff. I wonder when he’ll report for duty. Is everything else in order at MedLab, Mr Carter?” Mira resumed her meal and her eyes began to wander once more. She registered what Mr Carter was saying in that part of her brain she reserves for the complaints of grumpy humans. Carter never really wanted her to do anything about whatever he complained of, he only wanted to complain. It must be a stress management technique. He seems to do this more when we are about to embark on a mission. Or perhaps, there is simply more to complain about. The door to the lounge opened again and an unfamiliar Ranger entered. Well, S’ran-to, if this is your way of telling me to take more joy in my duty, I could do without. Mira turned her attention back to Carter.