The Lower Deckers are on their way

“Isn’t this so exciting?” Tendi squealed while checking her duffle bag for any missing supplies. The Lower Deckers were walking down a corridor in the Cerritos.

“What’s so exciting about fixing a holodeck?” Mariner grumbles as she walks beside Tendi. The B Shift had been assigned to join Lt. Commander Billups in resolving the Winged Heart’s holodeck issue. The group was on their way to the docking port where the ships were connected.

“I heard from Barnes that the ship’s captain was a species that wasn’t in anyone’s database,” Boimler said excitedly. “This could be an unofficial first contact.”

“Oh shit really?” Mariner exclaimed as Boimler presented his PADD. It had a picture of Hera with her goggles on her head and lekku showing. “Huh, I’ll admit they’re kinda pretty.”

“I’m more interested in their ship’s nacelles and engines, they don’t look like any warp engines I know,” Rutherford said. He had scans of the Winged Heart on his PADDs and was reviewing them. “They have so little exhaust and energy output that it's almost as if it was trying to hide its signature.”

“You think it could be a trap of some kind?” Tendi asked as the group stopped outside of the docking port.

“I sure hope not,” Rutherford replied.

“I’ll be fine, let's get this over with so we can get back to decide what to do first at Risa,” Mariner shrugged as she opened the door, revealing Billups already inside with a couple of engineering kits. “I, for one, am going to be hitting the bars.”

“I hope we get there in time for the Great Discovery Awards, I heard they’re presenting a new method of skin grafting,” Tendi cheered as she pictured the medical technology to be shown off. “They say that the new technique uses .5 percent less skin.”

“You’re excited for the GDA as well? I heard that Dr. Tamblin’s new warp core design might take the award in engineering,” Billups whispered conspiratorially. Further discussion ended as the airlock hissed and opened revealing the short gangway connecting the two ships. The lower decks and Billups were surprised at the two human girls standing at the door to greet them.

One was wearing a bodystocking with various armor pieces on her torso and arms; she also had some pistol-like weapons holstered by her side. The other wore a friendly face and was wearing a long sleeveless maroon dress. The first girl had blue and orange hair while the second had long white hair with chest length bangs with curls at the end.

“I guess we weren’t the unofficial first contact,” Biomler said under his breath.

“Hello! I’m Mirajane Strauss and this is Sabine Wren, we’ll be escorting you to the holodeck where our friends are trapped,” the white haired woman announced as she waved her hands to her left.

“Lead the way then,” Billups chuckled goodnaturedly as he walked forward with the Lower Deckers following him.

“Wow you have a beautiful ship,” Rutherford complimented as they looked around the deck, at the design of the room and all the little gadgets and decorations that were scattered around.

“Thank you, James won the ship a few weeks ago in a card game and tasked us in making sure it was shipshape,” Mirajane explained as she led the _Cerritos _crew members towards the elevator. Sabine hung behind the group to make sure no one wondered off. Meanwhile, the Lower Deckers made comments on what they saw.

“They have a replicator and a kitchen?” Boimler commented confused on seeing the grill set up. “Weird.”

“You’re telling me. What’s up with the maids?” Mariner said on seeing a girl with blue hair and what looked like blind eyes dusting furniture and a screen setup. “Don’t they have self cleaning? What is this, the twenty-third century?”

“It's busy work mostly,” the blue haired girl replied with a shy expression. Mariner cringed, not realizing that she would be overheard.

“Come along, miss,” Mirajane said from inside the elevator where the rest of the Lower Deckers were waiting.

“So are ya going to tell us anything on what's going on inside the holodeck?” Mariner asked as the elevator started going down slowly. They were briefly surprised by ancient human music (for Star Trek) that started playing in the elevator.

“James had wanted to show some of his childhood memories along with some programs he got gifted recently,” Mirajane explained while she tapped her hand against her other forearm. “I had left to get mistress Aelita some tea when the malfunction occurred. Gogo, the remaining engineer, said that the program separated everyone and started spawning random people.”

“I heard there might be pregnant women trapped inside, do they need medical assistance?” Tendi frowned in concern. Mirajane only smiled.

“Last I heard, some of the holo Vulcans that James…turned and a friendly cowboy are keeping them safe and calm,” Mirajane explained after a brief pause.

“Oh? How did they turn the Vulcans?” Boimler asked with a frown.

“Well, they were apparently under something called a Pon-Farr?” Mirajane explained. Billups and Boimler coughed nervously while Tendi blushed a little. Mainer let out a little snort while Rutherford only looked around in confusion.

“What’s Pon-Farr?”

“Vulcan mating cycle, they get a little CRAZY,” Mariner explained, leaning against the wall. It was at this moment that the elevator’s indicator went from Deck 1 to Deck 2. “The poor guy had to help some extremely horny and out of control Vulcans out. Kinda reminds me about this one time, some friends of mine got stuck on a planet with a pair of hot Vulcan twins.” Mariner then frowned a bit.

“Hey, why is the elevator so slow? You only have like four decks,” Mariner said to change the topic.

“Oh, I don’t actually know,” Mirajane said before Rutherford examined a display and started fiddling with it. Mariner tensed as Sabine reached for her guns.

“I see why it's so slow. You guys ran into a cosmic string earlier, yikes. The elevator is just in a precaution mode,” he said before altering the settings causing the elevator to rapidly increase in speed. “We’re moving now.”

“Oh good, now we can get everyone out of there much faster,” Mirajane sighed in relief. “I hope they aren’t having too much trouble.”

“I will only mate with my airens!” Shampoo shouted as she lifted up a poetry- orating Klingon warrior and threw him at a set of bat’leth wielding warriors.

“Please we have shown our strength and poetry, allow us the chance to court you. Our lineage would be legendary!” A large Klingon begged as he ducked a thrown borg. Erza just looked at him in disgust.

“Ever heard of a bath!” Erza shouted before she slammed the warrior she had in a head lock into the ground, burying him head first in the floor.

“Sorry but we’re spoken for!” Diana explained before she flipped a tall Gorn over her shoulder.

“Then let us show you our honor!” A muscled Klingon roared as he threw himself into the surge of Gorn, Salt Vampires, Jem’hadar, and other creatures trying to barge into the room.

“Honor better not be what you call your dick!” Laura sneered. Laura had her claws extended and part way through a Jem’hadar’s armor.

“So your cybernetic arm contains a digitizer that can take objects and convert them into pure data without any loss and your robotic companion is still aware in this state?” A short but curvy human girl in a blue StarFleet uniform asked as she stood across from Gaige inside of an Engine room.

“Yup, DeathTrap can see everything and pop out when PEOPLE NEED DYING!” Gaige suddenly shouted as a wolf-armadillo hybrid creature got past Ahsoka and Gwen Stacy. The holographic StarFleet personnel around them flinched back before DeathTrap phased out of the ground and spun around with its claws out, blending the animal into a bloody pile.

“That’s amazing!” The previous StarFleet member exclaimed with starry eyes. “You have to let me study your arm!”

“Sorry but I already had too many people steal my tech,” Gaige shrugged with her arms up in a ‘what can you do’ manner.

“You must tell me where you got your outfit,” a Cardassian said to Marinette as the two of them stood back to back with a disruptor and a yoyo respectively. They were standing on a bar to stay out of the water flooding the room. The reason they were standing on the bar and not swimming towards the exit were the small puffball-like creatures swimming around. A half eaten Nausicaan floating around revealed that threat.

“I made them myself,” Marinette explained as she looked around for a good escape. The Cardassian looked back at her in surprise.

“Really? Then if we make it out of here, I simply must commission a wardrobe from you. How does 50 strips of Latinum sound?”

“I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Marinette said before she grabbed the Cardassian around his waist. “We’re getting out of here!” Marinette threw her yoyo towards a pipe that had broken through the ceiling and swung the two of them towards a large hole in the ceiling where the water can come from.

“I’m sure they’re doing great,” Mirajane waved off her worry as she guided the Lower Deckers and Billups over to where Gogo was.

“Fuck!” Gogo shouted as she hit the side of the panel with a wrench.