Echo

Chapter 22: Watch Your Step

Echo

Needless to say, you were rather alarmed when you were summoned to the reception area, only to find that Dr. McCoy and Captain Kirk were standing there, waiting, while the tech that was working the front eyed the captain nervously. It was commonly known that the women in the Interspecies Veterinary Science sector were highly appreciative of his dashing good looks, like everyone else on the ship.

You, however, were sort of coveting a different person who also happened to be present, and you felt an annoying jolt of excitement in your gut when you saw him standing there.

"Good morning Captain, Dr. McCoy," you greeted them when you arrived.

"Ensign," drawled McCoy.

Kirk frowned at you, his eyes flitting to your shoulders, and despite the fact that he was probably here on a more important errand, inquired, "Is that really safe?"

You glanced at the bearded dragon perched on the right side, to the other on the left and answered, "Yeah, they're fine. They have excellent gripping skills. What can I do for you guys?"

"We're here on a mission that we would like to be kept brief," Leonard answered predictably, "It's come to our attention that you have a monitor lizard in the reptile sector. We need to take a look at it to make sure it isn't the Malbarian one that bit Chekov the other day."

Unconsciously rubbing the spot on your face where the demon lizard had scratched you, you replied, "Well we do have a monitor, but it's not from Malbar, it's from earth."

"We'd like to see it anyways," Kirk replied, and you could tell from his voice before he even added the next part that you would have to obey. "That's an order, ensign."

You nodded and said, "Of course, sir. Follow me."

You turned your back on them and headed for the first door on the left, which opened automatically. The doctor and the captain followed you, gazing curiously through the glass fronts of the enclosures where you kept the reptiles. You walked until you reached the bearded dragon enclosure, where you would have to deposit your little friends, and halted in front of it, pulling your keys out of your pocket.

"I just have to put these two back really quickly," you told them, pushing the key into the lock experimentally to find that it was the wrong one.

Trying not to appear frustrated in front of two superior officers, you continued inserting keys, searching for the right one. You would have to start color-coding them or something, because not knowing which one was the proper one was a little embarrassing now that you thought about it. When you were on your own it didn't matter, but sometimes it took a situation like this to clarify things for you. Otherwise, you didn't really think it over.

Kirk leaned in a little closer, looking at the lizard on your shoulder and asked, "Why are you carrying them around?"

"They need to be socialized," you explained, withdrawing the fourth failed key and pushing in the next one, "You can pet him if you like."

You had to commend him for reaching out and gingerly stroking the top of the bearded dragon's head with the tip of his pointer finger considering his former experiences with reptiles, and naturally the lizard was cooperative. That's why this particular breed of reptile was your favorite; they were very friendly, and had a lot of interesting personality quirks, making them fun to care for.

Predictably when he withdrew, the little reptile cocked his head to the side curiously, as if wondering why he had ceased the stroking.

McCoy, who had previously remained silent, chose to direct his attention to the inside of the enclosure, where the others were, as you finally found the correct key. The tank was thirty gallons, enough to house the little ones for a time. When they reached adulthood they needed an enclosure that size of their own, and the males could no longer be kept together, but when they were babies they coexisted peacefully.