Who Let the Dogs Out? - Part II

Posted on Tue Oct 7, 2025 @ 5:07am by Commodore T'mpest Michaels & Colonel Nicholas Means III & Commander Cara Letsul & Lieutenant Commander Curtis Thibideaux & Lieutenant Annora Tessaro

1,434 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Time After Time
Location: Commodore's Ready Room
Timeline: MD01

[PREVIOUSLY]

[Outside the Station]

Means had been in a shuttle outside what had been their assembly as he coordinated the arrival of the all the new gear that was streaming in. Three squadrons of fighter flew in and were berthed or landed in the bay followed by the squadrons of wyvern transport...some of them would be deployed to the surface but it would be easier to have then inspected on the station first.

All the Marines, their new drop ships with their new vehicles were being sent to the base. When the call came in he issued several orders and had himself beamed to the pad in the command center and made his way quickly to the Commodores' office, unaware of the current situation.

[CONTINUED]

[DS5 - Commodore's Office]

"Afternoon All. Commodore you'll be happy to know...". His voice trailed off at the looks from the others. "What am I missing?"

"First, what is your good news? We could use that right now," T'mpest replied before reassuring him. "Nothing drastic, but we have an...animal problem."

Moving to take a seat, "Animal problems? Anyway...The 21st's new personnel, fighter, transports and equipment are arriving as we speak. Personnel and ground vehicles to the base and craft to our landing bay."

"Excellent news." T'mpest smiled. It was good to have them here, just in case. "As to our animal problem, Mr. Grumby is the captain of a transport ship that was taking a large number of animals to a colony when they had to make an emergency stop at the station. Unfortunately, all of them got loose and are now running around the station. He requested our help to gather them up before they get harmed."

"Ahhh." Looking from the Commodore to Grumby and back. "Well, that shouldn't be too difficult. Forcefields to contain, have personnel sweep those areas with two sweeper teams. One with hand phasers on a light stun and another to pick up the immobilized animals." Leaning back, "Done and done."

T'mpest nodded. It was a good plan, and if the Marines and security coordinated efforts, they should get the animals under control fairly quickly--as long as the animals didn't get into any of the access tunnels.

"But won't that hurt them? I can't have them getting sick or injured because you're stunning them," Grumby asked.

Means gave it a thought. "Minimum settings shouldn't do any permanent damage. And if it does...I'm sure Lasuma's, the Klingon, and other shops that deal with non-replicated food can take them off your hands."

"As long as someone else is paying to replace them," Grumby groused. "Then I'll leave the catching to you and see about getting my ship fixed." He turned his attention to the commodore. "I still need some help with that."

"A team is being organized as we speak," T'mpest assured him. He only confirmed to her that they couldn't count on him for any help in this matter, so it was better if he stayed on his ship.

Grumby nodded to everyone in the room, then left.

Once he was gone, T'mpest tuned to the others. "I agree with the colonel, but we also need to protect the arboretum and promenade. Suggestions?"

Once again, Means chimed in. "Force fields at every entrance. Should be able to set the proximity sensors to allow only those with communicator or similar tech to pass through. But we should definitely get those screens up before they spread any further."

Looking to Annora and back to the Commodore, "And Lt. Tessaro and I should get teams moving as well."

"Agreed. We have the added complication of the large number of pets on the station that may be confused with the runaways." T'mpest made a quick note. "We need to get out an immediate station-wide alert as well."

Now that she had a better idea of the emergency at hand, Annora could start to come up with a plan.
"An alert has already gone out to the security personnel already on duty. Extra help is being called up, still working on the best plan of attack, so to speak. I agree with the Colonel that low-level force-fields should be able to contain the animals while minimizing injuries. As for the civilians, we inform them of the loose wildlife and issue a shelter in place order. If there are those who have useful experience, their input is welcome. With oversight of course. Don't need a bunch of cowboys running rogue."

"Excellent," T'mpest replied. "I will send out the announcement while you and the colonel take care of the rescue."

"Sounds to me like we've gotten a good plan of action. Well organized already." Cara giving a smile at hearing all of the plans. She looked over to where Curtis was at. "What about you? What do you think as to the plans?"

Curtis had been fishing through the incoming reports from all of the stations departments and winced at the sheer number of calls security was fielding. "Recommend halting all inbound traffic at the threshold so we don't compound the problems of stray beasties getting aboard ships and having to sweep them as well. We can probably limit that to three decks above and below Bay Two Twenty Two. Ops can speed up departures as well, for that matter."

His eyes refocused on the meeting participants and he said, "Sounds like a solid plan. Short of bringing in a Pied Piper, I don't know that I have anything more to add."

"Okay. Then we are done here. I will make the announcement. Hopefully, all the animals will be retrieved quickly." T'mpest stood. "Thank you."

"Pied Piper, that would be interesting and I wonder if that would work. One never knows." Cara rose to her feet as well. "Here is hope that we'll be able to get the animals gathered safely" Though she's not truly familiar with working with animals, that was more Brina who had more practical knowledge.

Cara certainly didn't know how she was going to handle things if she were to come across any of the escaped animals. She paused turning to T'mpest. "Commodore, I do want to know would it be feasible for the rest of us to carry a phaser just in case we have a close encounter with the animal kind?"

"Only if set to the lowest setting. Stun may be too much for some of the animals," T'mpest replied. "You may be better served carrying food they would like to eat and luring them to you. Treats they like, sweet hay, small pieces of bread..."

Cara nodded, "I will keep that in mind, and I don't really want to hurt any of the animals. Too bad we don't have Doctor Doolittle to help us. I knew one once, he was a really good vet, and seemed to understand what animals were saying."

"I knew a few Betazoids who could sense an animal's emotions. Perhaps we have some on the station who could do so as well?" T'mpest would have to look into that.

Fingers drumming on the tabletop, Curtis flipped through a few data files on his HUD and said, "With your permission, Commodore. I think I'll try to run down that stray Pied Piper comment of mine. I seem to recall something about all life forms responding to sound and light stimuli in addition to food bribery. Might be something there we can use. I know I had a report on something someplace about sonic technology being used creatively."

"Ah, yes. If you find it, give it a try. With a station this size, we need all the help we can get." T'mpest paused. "I may have an idea for modifying drones to help find the animals. I'll touch base with ops to see what we can come up with."

"Aye aye, Commodore," Curtis said, making notes. He also used sub-vocals ordering the computer to run searches.

Then T'mpest looked at each of them in turn. "I would like to recover most of them in a day, if possible. We can use cargo bay 42 to corral them until they can be returned to the Minnow." She paused for any further questions. When there were none, she nodded. "Good luck, everyone."

Cara contemplated on that then gave a nod. "And on that note, looks like it’s time to get to work."

---

A post by

Commander Cara Letsul
XO
DS5

Lt. Commander Curtis Thibideaux
Strategic Ops.
DS5

Lieutenant Annora Tessaro
Chief Security Officer
DS5

Colonel Nicolas Means
Marine CO
Deep Space 5 & Pangaea

Commodore T'mpest Michaels
Commander
Deep Space 5

 

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