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.

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<<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.

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--Ken Doman

Yeoman Vincent Rogers

Mess Hall Cook

U.S.S. Grail

ICQ: 8178648