Subject: Grail: "Unexplored Spaces"-'A Burst of Inspiration'
<<47307.19 06:30>>
<<Vincent's Room>>
Vincent layed down in his bed, staring around at his very
undecorated room. The room's grey walls were devoid of any sign that he
had a life. The desk in the corner faired the same. It was enough for
Vincent to laugh at the paranoia Starfleet had. Of course, it was true
that he had been known to encode programs into the pictures he would hang
on the walls, as well smuggling microdisks in a walking cane, but it was
only because he didn't want to look conspicuous.
Vincent continued to stare at the ceiling, noting its nearly
flawless surface. If only his record was like that, he could actually
have fun on this vessel. Wait, if Roger's record was like that, he
wouldn't even be trapped aboard this vessel. Things were looking fairly
dim, especially with nothing to do but play with a replicator for 8 hours
a day.
Then, an idea struck Rogers. He thought about it for a moment,
trying to work out all of his options. It was an interesting idea,
something he had never thought of before. It was also extremely risky,
and the punishment would be most severe. But looking at his options, he
really didn't have much to lose.
Bounding out of bed, Vincent checked through the drawers of his
desk and found the PADD spectacles he was given for what seemed like ages
ago (a day may not seem like much to you, but to someone trying to quit a
drug habit, it's an eternity). With a new-found sense of energy, Rogers
bounded out the opening doorway to the Mess Hall.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
<<Mess Hall-Deck 10>>
Vincent entered the mess hall and looked around. The crowd wasn't
very large around shift change, just as he had suspected. Another thing
that he had suspected was for the Ferengi at the replicator to be
gossiping to some random Starfleet personel.
"...and after the three women were quite drunk, and sufficiently
off key, I saw two of them leaving together. One of them looked like a
science officer, but the other one was a certain marine who will remain
nameless for the..."
"Kord!" Vincent called out to the large-lobed individual. The
Ferengi abruptly stopped and looked at Vincent with a look that reminded
him of when he was caught stealing from the cookie jar. Vincent stepped
forward and nodded to the other starfleet personel, then turned his
attention to Kord.
"Kord, do you mind if I run a test on one of the replicators for a
moment. Hopefully, you can use the others if anymore customers come by to
*cough* eat."
"Why are you asking me? You're the boss." the Ferengi snapped with
his sharp teeth. Vincent knew that perfectly well, but something in him
made him want to say that. Sometimes, Kord thought he should be the head
cook, especially since most of the staff was originally part of his
father's business. Vincent thought about what he knew about Ferengi, and
guessed that the young man had caused his father some financial
difficulty. No wonder a Ferengi father would send his son on a suicide
mission.
Walking behind the counter, Vincent moved to one of the
replicators and began pressing a series of buttons. Taking a brief look
around, he pulled the spectacles out of his pocket and placed them into
the replicator. The computer scanned the spectacles for a moment, then
beeped when it was done. With great anticipation, Vincent removed the
spectacles and pressed a button.
The replicator beeped and whirred for a moment, then from nowhere
produced an identical pair of spectacles. Vincent took the newly created
spectacles from the replicator and examined them closely. They were a
perfect replication, nearly down to the atomic level. Vincent was very
pleased with it. Then, examining the wire coming from the right ear, all
the happyness drained away. The wires were empty.
This was something Vincent had not considered before. Nobody ever
needed pure gold or even copper in their diet. Why would they be used in
a food replicator? The fact was they weren't, and this irked Vincent
greatly. All the wonderful plans, things that would keep him busy for
weeks, even months, were dashed in the first moments of their inception.
Something had to be done, and quickly.
Vincent punched out of the replicator, and walked out from behind
the counter, picking up a PADD along the way. Sitting at a table, Vincent
linked the correct spectacles into the PADD and began working on a
program. Just before shift change, Vincent finished the program and
walked behind the counter to put it into the replicator.
With the program downloaded into the replicator, Vincent smiled as
he set the time for the program to activate. Just before lunchtime on Red
Shift was the best time for this to happen, since the engineers would be
too stressed to notice him poking around just a little.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Ken Doman
Yeoman Vincent Rogers
Mess Hall Cook
U.S.S. Grail
ICQ: 8178648