Raffi slammed the lid of the large container shut with some frustration.
“Nothing corresponds with anything on these damn checklists, nothing!”.
Large metal crates and containers sat stacked surrounding the transporter of La Sirena.
The crates and containers varied in size and once their inventory was checked off both Seven and Raffi would be ready to leave orbit and haul the shipment to a Ranger outpost for the replenishment of medical stocks.
“Mmm-Hmm…”, Seven vaguely acknowledged as she investigated the contents of another container and checked it against her padd.
“I mean okay it’s nice that the Mariposa’s give this stuff to the Rangers but can’t they atleast try to put shit in the right damn crates?”, Raffi continued her topic.
Seven shook her head as she dug through the contents…
“They’re a little busy in war zones Raff, just like the Rangers are”.
“Busy palming their out of date supplies onto you guys by the looks of it”, Raffi muttered whilst closely examining the serial number and expiry date on the back of a sealed pack of bandages.
“Alright, much of it may be past its official shelf life but it’s still perfectly usable in a conflict zone”, Seven checked off the items as she corrected the inventory on her padd, “medical tricorders… check, dermal regenerators… check, blankets… check, bandages, plasters, basic first aid kits… check”.
Seven closed the lid of the large crate, corrected the incorrect crate number and checked off the inspected items on her padd before turning her attention back towards Raffi.
“Okay so just a couple more crates to check off”, Raffi emerged from behind another stack of crates with a similar padd in hand, “then coffee”.
“Coffee sounds good”, Seven agreed. Despite the importance of the work a short break was certainly on the cards.
But first there was a little more work to do and she moved towards the next crate.
This one was a large crate, waist high against Seven, and with a lid that flipped open from the top.
“Slice of cake with your coffee, hmm?”, Raffi tempted.
“Why not”, Seven smiled and looked down at her padd and it’s corresponding information for this crate.
“Alright… lemon? Carrot? A cheeky donut maybe?”, Raffi listed her sweet temptations.
Seven released the locks on the crate and watched as it automatically opened to reveal hundreds of sealed silver packs containing emergency survival rations for use in disaster zones.
“You choose… I’ll just finish checking this one, it just food ration packs”.
She leant further into the crate and dug her hand deeper through the contents of the sealed ration packs, “I don’t envy anyone eating these things, they make even the worst food seem WOOAAH!! SHIT!!”.
The Ranger recoiled and her padd clattered to the deck as she dropped it.
She slammed shut the lid of the crate took and several very brisk steps back all the while wiping her hands quickly against her clothing as if having come into contact with something absolutely awful.
Raffi rushed from her own crate in great alarm at witnessing such a reaction from Seven.
“Seven?! You alright? What the Hell’s in there?!”, Raffi hurriedly asked as she brought herself quickly to Seven’s side.
Seven shivered in disgust as she scowled wordlessly at the crate and her body tensed.
“Oh god don’t tell me it’s spiders”, Raffi shook her head and gestured dismissively, “I’m not doing spiders, not before lunch, or rats for that matter!”.
When Seven didn’t respond Raffi took a curious step forward before Seven moved her arm to block her path.
“Raff no, it’s an infestation”.
“Of what though?”, Raffi dreaded to think, “is it maggots? I hate those goddamn things!”.
Raffi watched as Seven shivered all over once more as she looked again at the crate.
She frowned, confused as to just what in the known universe could possibly be so awful that it could put chills through Seven.
“You don’t do spooked…”, Raffi placed a reassuring hand on Seven’s arm, “so you stay right here Babe and I’m just gonna have to take a nice slow look for myself, okay?”.
This time Raffi gently brushed aside Seven’s arm that was blocking her path and edged cautiously towards the crate.
If it were explosives or something that could be considered a clear threat to life she knew Seven would have reacted proactively and dealt with it immediately.
But she called it an infestation?
So if it wasn’t a bomb, she thought, and it wasn’t a danger to life… just what the Hell was it, and why had it scared the Hell out of Seven of all people?
Slowly Raffi reached the crate and took a firm hold of its lid ready to drop it again instantly should it be something awful that had to be contained.
But just what the Hell could scare Seven?
“Raff… don’t let ‘em out… please”.
The fact that Seven had said “please” was enough to convinced Raffi that this was indeed real and not a poor attempt at a joke.
With some trepidation Raffi took in a deep breath, readying herself for whatever horrific or stomach turning sight she maybe about to see.
She opened the lid, slowly, just by a few centimetres… and then a little more…
Seven took another step back in deep unease as she watched.
With the lid open by a crack Raffi lowered her ear to the gap and listened.
There was indeed movement. The sound of many somethings, creatures of some sort moving amongst the ration packs could indeed be heard.
Whatever this was, Seven had not imagined it.
Suddenly Raffi flipped open the lid quickly, looked inside and her thoughts crashed to a halt in disbelief at the sight before her.
There were indeed creatures within the box and they had made their way through a substantial number of the emergency ration packs.
“What the…?”.
She blinked a couple of times just to make sure she wasn’t actually seeing things and given the reaction she had just witnessed she slowly looked back with immense curiosity towards Seven.
“I…”, the Ranger scrambled to form a response for she herself recognised the sheer disbelief written on Raffi’s face, “I…really don’t like them”.
Raffi could scarcely believe this, Seven had to be joking?
Raffi needed a moment to both process and find the words for this.
Carefully she reached into the crate and picked one of the creatures up.
“I’ve not seen one of these in years!”, Raffi couldn’t help but smile.
She placed it in her right hand and examined it closely before turning back to Seven and extending her hand out while holding the offending lifeform in her palm to prove that it was indeed quite harmless.
Again the Ranger stepped back quickly - so quickly that her back made hard contact with the bulkhead and her trembling hand moved quickly to the weapon holstered at her side.
“You’re gonna SHOOT it? Oh… oh wait… you’re, you’re joking right?”, Raffi queried still not fully convinced this was for real.
Raffi began to step forward and offered the small creature out for Seven to take.
She watched as the Ranger, now backed up against the bulkhead, looked away, unable to even look at it.
“Raffi Put-it-back! Put-it-back! Put-it-back!”, Seven’s voice raised in both volume and urgency in a manner that told Raffi she was infact very much not joking, “and wash your hands!”
Raffi stopped.
Seven was terrified, her fear palpable and her breaths almost as trembling as her hands as she stood cornered like a wild animal.
Raffi held up her free hand to signal for Seven to calm and took a slow step back from the Ranger much in the manner in which a criminal steps away from a weapon at gunpoint.
She drew back her hand and held the little creature to her chest while smoothing it with the fingers of her other hand.
It chirped a few times in response.
She looked up once more at the horrified Ranger who folded her arms protectively around herself as if shivering from cold and who grimaced in response to the sound.
“Wait, wait, wait… You’re really NOT joking are you Babe?”, Raffi quizzed.
Seven said nothing. She looked down briefly, her awkward embarrassment as obvious as her fearful discomfort at the creatures presence.
“You really are scared of Tribbles…?”, Raffi put two and two together as the mystery solved itself.
Raffi could scarcely believe this - Seven was the bravest person she knew!
In all her years out and about in space she had both seen and encountered some truly ridiculous shit but…SEVEN scared of TRIBBLES?
This was a whole new level of ‘Shit Raffi never saw coming’.
She wondered if now might be a good time to pinch herself, to check this wasn’t a dream, or to check she hadn’t entered some new form of mirror universe where everything was completely preposterous instead of evil.
Seven shuffled where she stood.
“I’m not scared… I just…”, Seven struggled to find the right words.
“Okay then let me word this different…”, Raffi grounded her own thoughts and took a moment to think of a way of wording this in a manner less damaging to Seven, “you have a phobia of Tribbles?”.
“Word it any way you like just put the damn thing back”.
Seven looked down at the deck in quick awkwardness, then back to Raffi, then to the accursed Tribble, then to Raffi again.
“Wow…”, the intelligence officer muttered, mostly to herself and still processing this.
The Tribble chittered again and Raffi held it before her face and smiled as it responded to her touch.
“Ugh”, Seven leant her head back against the bulkhead and rolled her eyes, “look Raff…. If there’s ten of them in there now we’ll have five hundred before we know it”.
“I know…”, Raffi was more than aware of this.
“Then get rid of it!”, the Ranger urged.
Raffi shielded the small creature with both hands.
“I will Honey don’t worry…”, Raffi assured the Ranger from her safe distance, “but first I wanna know more… I mean Tribble phobia? That’s a new one on me. Have you always had it?”.
Seven remained silent with her eyes fixed on Raffi’s hands which now shielded the creature from her glare.
“I won’t let it out I promise”.
Seven’s tensed shoulders fell as she realised she had no choice but to explain.
She huffed out a large breath and let her hands flop to her sides.
“Firstly they ate all our rations on Kannak 4… our team was starving for days before rescue came. They’re the main cause of starvation on the Asgarro colony because they breed in the dense wheat fields and nobody can keep up with the eradication programme, they’re are responsible even today for the loss of many outdated grain ships in the beta quadrant that just can’t travel fast enough to outrun the pace of their breeding”, Seven paused having held up a finger for each point she had made, “and they’re… they’re… we’ll they… just make my skin crawl. Ugh”.
Raffi listened and, much to Seven’s disgust, the Tribble chirped once more almost as if taunting her.
Raffi sucked in her lower lip as she listened and considered Seven’s words.
“Okay, none of this is actually news though so what happened to you specifically?” she weighed up the evidence and tried not to chuckle, “you have a bad experience with a Tribble or something?”.
Seven said nothing, just shivered all over in revulsion once more at the closeness of the Tribble and the sight of it moving in Raffi’s hand.
Raffi moved back towards the crate, still perplexed at how anyone could possibly fear Tribbles, but she had over time come to recognise signs of rarely seen distress in Seven.
This was clearly one of those times and right now Seven appeared torn as to wether she wanted to vaporise the entire crate or get herself away from the Tribble infestation as quickly as possible.
Raffi gently placed the Tribble back into the crate and noticed just how much of an audible sigh of relief Seven made once she saw it leave Raffi’s hands.
(She didn’t mention that it looked like there were atleast ten more Tribbles in the crate than there were a few minutes ago).
She edged slowly towards Seven once more, holding her palms out before her to demonstrate that she was safe, not a Tribble in sight.
“So what happened?”, Raffi gently asked, she was genuinely curious.
Seven looked away and brushed some stray hair back behind her ear.
“You’ll laugh…”.
“You’re right I probably will”, Raffi smiled, “so try me anyway ”.
Seven waited and thought. How was she to find the correct words to describe the experience without sounding ridiculous?
“Six years ago we were on Asgarro guarding the colonies harvest from raiders”, Seven began, “we knew of the Tribble infestations but they were already everywhere, in the shuttle controls, in our equipment…even in our camp”.
Raffi snorted a laugh. It was just possible she was beginning to see where this was going…
“Your camp? You woke up with a Tribble in your bed didn’t you? Should I be jealous?”.
Raffi’s smile grew as she listened. Despite how absurd this story was there was something so endearing about hearing Seven describe these events.
“*A* Tribble? A? Raff they got into everything… “.
Seven paused. This was beyond awkward and Raffi could tell that Seven was questioning wether or not to even continue.
“…Into everything?”, Raffi questioned in a tone intended to gently prompt the Ranger into continuing, “oh you can’t leave it there…”.
Seven sighed, it was that exhale of breath that she so often did when discussing something outside of her comfort zone.
“The fire in our camp died out during the night…”, again an awkward pause, “I guess they sought out an alternative source of warmth to multiply”.
“Hang on, you mean they…?”, Raffi was beginning to guess.
“Raff have you ever woken from sleep to the sensation of Tribbles breeding all around you? All OVER you?”, the sheer disdain for the creatures grew clearer with each word, “they were in my damn sleeping bag!”.
Raffi quickly held both hands over her mouth. She hadn’t meant to react with such a huge grin lighting up her face but it was hard not to and she did the best she could to hide it.
She had thankfully stifled the laugh and that was a good thing because right now she couldn’t help but picture the scene of Seven waking up in her sleeping bag filled with Tribbles… and it was both absolutely adorable and outrageously funny.
“Oh Honey I’ve taken some weird shit over the years but you’ve got me beat on that one”, Raffi laughed harmlessly.
A flush of embarrassment coloured the Ranger’s cheeks as she thought back over the events of her story - of waking in the middle of the night in the Ranger camp to the sensation of Tribbles crawling all over her entire body both on and around every limb and then causing something of a scene as she fought in terror to free herself from the zipped up sleeping bag.
“Well they’ve creeped me out ever since”.
Raffi smiled warmly, she didn’t doubt it at all now and she placed her arm sympathetically around Seven’s shoulder.
While she did find the Tribble phobia more than a little amusing it was now time to solve this problem.
Seven was tense, distressed and clearly fearful of coming into contact with the Tribbles again so Raffi had to act.
Besides, seeing Seven so unusually anxious and agitated bothered Raffi.
“Okay, so here’s what we’re gonna do… you’re always helping people, now let me help you”, Raffi’s voice was gentle and reassuring and she moved to now physically turn Seven to face away from the infested crate.
She pointed to the deck below with its tables and bench seats.
“You’re gonna go below and you’re gonna get that coffee we spoke of okay? Latte for me I think, extra shot, maybe a hint of vanilla too”.
She took a step and encouraged the Ranger to walk slowly with her away from the crate filled area.
“Just don’t let ‘em out Raff!”, the spooked Ranger pleaded, “this isn’t exactly a big ship, we don’t have the space for a Tribble infestation!”.
Seven’s fear was chaotically endearing but Raffi gently patted Seven’s shoulder encouragingly as she walked her along the deck.
“Shush… shush… Honey…it’s gonna be okay just leave it to Raffi”, she placed two fingers of her other hand lightly over Seven’s lips to quiet her, “…and while you’re down there get me that donut I mentioned… oh and make sure it’s the biggest, jammiest most sugar coated donut on the replicator menu”.
Seven looked unsure, concerned that if she turned her back even for a moment then the Tribbles could begin emerging from the crate, yet she trusted Raffi and walked with her.
“Atleast take my gun?”, Seven fumbled clumsily for the weapon at her side once more.
Raffi chuckled quietly and placed her hand over Seven’s to discourage her.
“Not every problem requires a hole blasting through it”.
“There’s a few problems over there that do”.
Raffi did laugh this time, openly and she once more pointed to the lower deck and the table she expected Seven to meet her at.
“Coffee, donut, table…”, she spoke her instructions clearly while holding Seven’s gaze with her eyes and taking her hand from the weapon and into her own, “…then sit”.
Once more Seven looked to the crate apprehensively and then again at Raffi, uncertain.
“Go on…”, the intelligence officer quietly encouraged, “and while you do that Raffi here is gonna seal that crate with a level ten force field and beam it back to the Mariposa base as a rejected shipment”.
Seven thought. She took in the confidence of Raffi’s words and then reluctantly gave in.
“Alright, but if so much as one of those furry things gets near me I will obliterate it”, she tapped her gun as a reminder.
“I don’t doubt it Honey but right now”, she again pointed to the lower deck, “vanilla latte, extra shot, donut, go”.
Seven thought… She mulled over several scenarios and possibilities.
What if they got out?
What if Raffi missed just one of them?
What if they got into La Sirena like they had the Ranger shuttle?
What if it happened again? Tribbles, everywhere!
And then she saw… Raffi’s loving face just looking at her and waiting, giving her the all the time and space needed for her thoughts and fears to pass…
She looked at the caring smile and felt herself give in.
With a nod and a small smile Seven leant into Raffi’s ear.
“Vanilla latte, extra shot, donut”, she repeated the list, “got it”.
Raffi nodded, proud.
“I’ll take care of the T word”.
Early the next morning….
Raffi stretched out in the bed and yawned, content to enjoy her lay in.
The accidental Tribble shipment had indeed been contained and returned to the Mariposa’s and a great many apologies had been expressed in return.
Seven had got up half an hour ago. She had showered, grabbed a coffee from the replicator, got dressed and left to prepare the ship to leave orbit and head for the Ranger base with the now satisfactory delivery.
“Any minute now…”, Raffi said quietly with a smile as she relaxed and enjoyed these last few quiet moments before the peace would be shattered.
If Raffi was correct, and she so very often was, Seven should be reaching the bridge and sitting down in her captains chair any moment now…
Three…
Two…
One…
“RAFFI!!!”.
…And there it was.
Raffi rolled over and drew the covers quickly over herself then buried her head beneath her pillow and pretended to be asleep.
She had absolutely NO IDEA just who might have replicated a cuddly toy Tribble and left it on Seven’s captain’s chair ;)