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Chief Engineer’s Log Stardate 31296.2,
Today the Enterprise is surveilling a unique Star Cluster in the Firulian Nebula. The stars produce electromagnetic waves which interfere with the Enterprise’s internal functions. For this reason, we must keep our shields up at all times. This means that Engineering will have to be on guard as to make sure nothing goes wrong. It is tedious, but necessary work and I can only hope the cadets don’t get bored.
Tapping on the console, Hemmer rubbed at his temples as he got yet another reading sent up from the labs asking for even more power to be diverted from backups to the shields. If they kept this up, he would soon have to refuse, and that would cause a whole other headache completely unrelated to the actual engineering.
“Cadet? Could you pass me the converter? They want another influx of energy.”
“Yes sir.”
It was odd. Usually by now the cadets would be distracted, goofing off, unable to see the importance of all the work that happened around them. However, today they seemed unusually focused. Perhaps his lectures had finally gotten through their thick, young skulls.
Holding out his hand, Hemmer accepted the device. It felt heavier than usual, and just as he brought it to eye level in order to use it, he found himself splattered by a thick liquid.
As he was unable to see, he could not tell what the substance was. Nor was he fast enough to shield his eyes. Sometimes boosted hearing could not make up for what he lacked. And as he was unable to use telepathy as much as he was used to back on his home moon due to Starfleet regulations, he found himself handicapped in a way he often refuted when asked.
“Argh!”
It burned slightly, but he was unable to wipe it away as his hands had also been caught in the blast. Behind him, he could hear the laughter of those involved.
A beep in front of him alerted him to the fact that the crew still needed the extra power for who knows what.
With a grimace, Hemmer wiped his hands on his uniform before diverting the power. He would deal with the offending cadets later, after he got the gunk out from his eyes. This was no doubt their latest installment of pranks that had been targeting the senior officers.
Perhaps because it was of his irascible temperament, but he had been at the brunt of these practical jokes. And even though many of the other officers had been targeted as well, none of their pranks had been too harmful.
Hemmer’s however, had been slightly farther along the spectrum, causing minor injuries that could be healed up within a moment in sickbay. It was reminiscent of his days at the Academy, surrounded by those who couldn’t trust a species they were unable to understand.
Perhaps it was time to take things into his own hands, before they did something too out of line.
But first he had to make it to sick bay.
{0-o-o-o-0}
The first step was to get permission from the Captain. If he was to pull this off, he would need to have support from a senior officer.
The next thing he did was get in contact with Cadet Uhura to access the upcoming plans. She had been wonderfully helpful after he had revealed the last couple pranks that had been pulled on him. Each of which resulted in a visit to the hospital wing.
The third step was to rig the climate and mechanical controls in the turbolift. And finally, he had to polish up his acting skills and knowledge of bodily functions when dealing with a drastic change in temperature.
Then two days later, he found himself in the exact situation he had predicted.
“He’s stuck in there—”
“—thought he would’ve been smarter—”
“—bet he’ll think twice before asking us to microscan the warp coils again.”
A moment later, the lights in the hall started flashing red.
Climate Controls are offline. Proceed to exit the corridor. Climate Controls are offline. Proceed to exit the corridor. Climate Controls are offline. Proceed to exit the corridor—
“Wait—Guys! The controls are not working! I can’t get him out!”
Hemmer sighed, lowering himself to the floor of the turbolift, knowing that they could see him through the visuals they had set up hours before.
“Cadets? What’s going on—I can’t get out of here and it’s getting pretty cold.”
He faked a shiver for a little extra touch. He had always been a tad melodramatic when necessary.
“D-don’t worry sir. We’ll get you out.”
The Aenar lived underground, on a barren moon with barely any core activity. The temperatures dropped far beyond that of which he was experiencing right now. But the cadets didn’t know that, and nor would they need to know it. It was also a notable fact that the Aenar’s natural reaction to such cold was to allow more blood to pump through their body, and as it was blue, it would just contribute to his falsehood all the more as blue skin was a sign of hypothermia in humans.
“I entered the override— it’s not working! What should we do?”
“God almighty—We never should’ve done this.”
“Is he turning blue? That’s a bad thing, isn’t it?”
Hemmer went limp, allowing his usually still antennae to twitch in distress. This seemed to be the last straw as the cadets finally gave in to panic.
As they scrambled about, wondering if they should ask for help, even at their own expense, Hemmer pulled out a hidden device. Fiddling with a couple pre-programmed buttons, he set the temperature back to normal and stopped the alarm. Finally he disengaged the locks at the door.
But it would do these cadets no good if he was to reveal his deception as they might just use the experience as fuel. No—It was best to let them believe that it had been real. He could always blame it on a malfunction. He was Chief Engineer after all.
“Guys—guys! Look, everything's back to normal! And Hemmer’s waking up. Come on, we gotta pull ourselves back together.”
Stirring from the ground, Hemmer faked a stumble as he got up. A moment later the three cadets who had been behind the majority of the recent shenanigans came to his aid.
“Do you need to go to Sick Bay?”
“I’m fine. What I need is to make sure the rest of the ship hasn’t been affected.”
“But sir—”
“That’s an order.”
After relaying his commands to the computer, the cadets fell silent. The only noise was the harsh breathing he was forcing out.
“I’m sorry sir.”
“Sorry? You have nothing to be sorry for cadet. Nobody could’ve predicted this unfortunate turn of events.”
“Yeah, I guess so. But I’m still sorry it happened to you.”
“Oh— I never knew you cared so much. In fact, I was pretty sure you all disliked me.”
“Never sir. You’re really a wonderful officer and we’re really thankful to be serving under you.”
Hemmer could barely hide a snort of derision.
At least they learnt their lesson. Nobody would have to worry about any more unexpected surprises. And if anything untoward happened to them in the near future, it would most probably be dismissed as karma.