A detour on your vacation

“Are you sure he is at this location?” T’Lyn asked the dark-skinned human standing next to her. The human was wearing the red uniform of Starfleet’s command though T’Lyn noticed that she did not wear it as properly as other Starfleet personnel that she had seen in the past day. The pair of them were standing outside the front entrance to an indoor petting zoo with environmental controls.

“Oh yeah, his friend/employee Katara told me about how James and Starfire were going to be at a petting zoo today. This is the only one open all day,” Mariner assured T’Lyn with a confident grin. T’Lyn quirked an eyebrow and stared at the grinning human she had encountered at the north convention center.

“That leaves the possibility that they might’ve gone to a petting zoo that is already closed, such as one for nocturnal creatures. Alternatively, they may have yet to arrive at a petting zoo today,” T’Lyn suggested.

“Knowing Starfire, she’ll want to be around cute animals as much as she can and James is a bit of a push over with her wants. He’s definitely here,” Mariner said as she started walking inside. She then rocked her head a little side to side as she thought. “Then again with that Aelita with them, he might be a little different.”

Accepting a map of the petting zoo, Mariner pointed to an icon of a fuzzy little creature. “Starfire loves weird and cute animals. We should go that way.”

“That is the most popular section, it stands to reason they will be in that area,” T’Lyn agreed. They followed the group, dodging the running and laughing children and animals being chased by attendants.

“Ferengi love those puffy things,” Mariner commented as a primate type animal with two sets of ears groomed a little girl’s hair. “They’re obsessed with lobes. My ship, the Cerritos, ran into a smuggler with an entire troop of them running wild. It took forever to get all the fur out of the jefferies tubes.”

“That must have been quite unfortunate, for your ship and the Ferengi,” T’Lyn replied. They walked in silence for a couple of minutes as Mariner tried to make a conversation and T’Lyn would reply with only a short comment.

“So why exactly were you looking for James?” Mariner finally asked. “I mean I kinda recognized you from that holodeck before you were snapped away.”

“I did not expect you to recognize me, you only had approximately 10 seconds before I was sent back to my ship,” T’Lyn replied with the slightest of surprise in her voice. “Due to the events that occurred during the Q incident, I require a conversation with James Gardner regarding my actions and the potential consequences of them.”

“Ooooh, so you among that crowd…,” Mariner said as she connected some of the dots.

“I request to end this line of inquiry,” T’Lyn walked faster towards the general furry creatures area. Mariner didn’t need to do much to catch up to her.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to step on anyone’s toes but it couldn’t have been THAT bad if you’re looking for him,” Mariner defended herself.

“Apology accepted,” T’Lyn quickly replied while the gate to their goal was in sight. The pair entered the room and quickly spotted the flame-like hair of Starfire and the pink hair of Aelita at a bench near the center of the room.

“There they are!” Mariner exclaimed as she ran over. T’Lyn walked at a sedated pace though her brow frowned slightly as she noticed many of the animals running towards the edges of the room much to the confusion of the other visitors.

“Hey James…” Mariner started as she approached from behind you and put a hand on your shoulder. You look up in surprise. Mariner grinned at you and opened her mouth with sarcasm on her lips when she noticed what you had been staring at. “Is that a glowing koala?”

“It does appear to be a marsupial of unusual luminescence,” T’Lyn commented, looking at the creature with curiosity. Starfire stood up and approached the koala, let the Quanbi in her arms go. It appears that none of the other visitors have noticed the unusual scene. As soon as the Quanbi and Nanats left your wives’ sides, the koala started to speak.

“Noitom ni stneve tes ot dedeen era setam ruoy dna uoy reyals reyalf dnim eht fo dlihc,” the koala said. The next moment, you lurched as you fell to the ground as you were blinded by a flash.

“Security to the bridge!” Someone shouted as you tried to blink and rub the spots in your eyes. You could hear Mariner complaining and struggling with someone.

“Freeze!” Another shouted as your sight cleared. You looked around and saw a vaguely familiar bridge with Aelita sitting on some steps nearby, Starfire with her hands up with a phaser in her face by a dark skinned Vulcan, and Mariner on the floor with a tattooed human male with a foot on her back. You saw movement out of the corner and saw a T’Lyn being held at phaser point by a brown haired and tall human male.

“Who are you? How did you get on my ship?” Asked a human woman in a StarFleet captain’s uniform. You feel that the captain with the hair bun was very familiar to you. It's not until Mariner spoke up that you made the connection. Whatever that koala did to get you here really disoriented you.

“Did I get taken down by Chakotay? Awesome!” Mariner said in front of the Voyager bridge crew. “Take that Boimler, may better than getting beat up by Tom Paris.”

“Hey! I think...” Tom Paris protested before looking at Ensign Harry Kim “Should I be insulted?” You only facepalmed.