Proper Food and Lodging

Posted on Sunday June 28th, 2020 @ 23:19 hours by Mayterial Droz & Lozen Nachtnebel

Mission: Safe Passage
Location: Mess Hall, Deck 2, S.S. Fawkes
Timeline: MD04 - 1230 Hours
2133 words - 4.3 OF Standard Post Measure

"Do you call this proper food?" The man that had come up to Lozen in a huff plopped the plate down in front of her, "the posting said proper food and lodging," he added when there was no immediately response, "This isn't proper food, and the lodging is something that I'd like to discuss as well." He looked at the person that was introduced to him as the Quartermaster, the person responsible for passenger affairs.

Lozen smiled through gritted teeth. "Mr., ehm..." she looked down at the PADD which, the last few days, basically seemed glued to her hand, "Piper. It is Piper, isn't it? If you have some sort of complaint about the standards of your accommodations, we'd be happy to hear you out." Her tone suggested that she felt, indeed, anything but happy at the prospect.

"Don't think just because we're on a freighter that I don't hold you to certain standards. If I could have it my way I would be on a luxury shuttle line myself, but they don't carry freight in excess of 30 Kilograms," He pointed at the younger woman, "I paid good money for this ferry, I expect fresh food. Not this replicated drek."

The man's finger stabbed at Lo, reminding her of a puffy sausage. His wide face, offset by chin-length hair and small, round eyes, gave Lo the unique impression of speaking to a pig dressed up in a wig. Everything about the man made her want to slap him but, for the sake of her new job, she decided against this course of action. She doubted that Droz would approve of her accosting the customers.

"Unfortunately, Fawkes doesn't carry fresh food in her stores. All the base ingredients are replicated to begin with." She shrugged. "I'm happy to have the galley make you something from those ingredients, but you'll need to pay a service fee."

"That's outrageous, I've paid good latinum for this trip, a proper meal was included," Piper leaned over in an effort to intimidate the comparatively small woman, "I expect proper, freshly prepared meals from here on out. Like I was promised."

"Oh no," Lo smiled her largest, warmest smile. Then, holding up her PADD where, moments before, she had quietly opened Piper's transit file, she displayed the full text of his flight contract. "It's right here, sub-paragraph 3e. All passengers are entitled to basic meal fare of the same quality as fitting for daily crew rations. You can read on if you want, there's a whole host of exceptions, but what it basically comes down to is," and here she pointed at the replicator, "all the food on this ship that wasn't brought here from outside comes from the replicator."

"You can barely call that a replicator, what is it a class 2? 3 maybe?" Piper shook his head in disgust, "I can just taste the bland protein packs you people stuff in there." He shook his head, "I'd like to speak to the Captain of this vessel."

For several long seconds, Lo merely stared at the man. "You want to speak to the Captain?"

In truth, Lo felt a little flabbergasted. On a Starfleet ship, a passenger would never think to make such a demand, save in the most dire circumstances -- and, even then, their request would probably be handled by the XO or a department head. Over the last four days, Lo had started to feel a little more at home on Fawkes -- true, a massive amount of work needed to be done just getting the resource database in order, but still... she felt like she had a handle on the things she needed to do. But this? This feels like customer service.

"Sir," she said, doing her best to, "you really don't want to speak to the Captain about this." Lo still did not have a solid understanding of her new CO and she felt more than a little worried about what might happen if the fiery betazoid were to be confronted by someone like Piper.

"Oh but I do," said Piper in return, "so you best get that man down here so I can tell them what a terrible job you're doing."

"Fine." Lo sighed, then tapped a command button on her PADD, activating the direct comm to Droz. "Uh, Captain, do you have a moment? One of the passengers has some... er... complaints about the food service."

There was a moment of silence before Mayterial came on the line, "Ehm, you're in control of food service, Miss Nachtnebel, what do you need me for?"

"Because she's doing an inadequate job, Captain!" Piper piped up hoping to be heard over the comms system.

Lozen glared at Piper over the top of her smile.

There was a loud, unobstructed sigh over the channel before Mayterial finally said, "Fine, I'll be right there, but if this isn't a genuine, Captain level, complaint I'll be very disappointed."

Minutes later, Piper -- still red in the face, greeted May as she entered the dining room. Lo, sensing turbulence in the near future, slipped ahead of him and introduced him to the Captain. "Mr. Piper came aboard at the last minute, we had a birth free and--"

"And I paid for humane treatment!" Piper injected himself like sandpaper on a burn, and Lo found a growing desire to lock him in his quarters for the remainder of the flight -- a tactic she very much doubted May would approve of. Though, then again... Lo couldn't quite read her new CO's mood yet, having just known her for a short time, but she felt that men like Piper rarely got what they wanted where May was concerned.

"Oh, and we're not treating you humanely, are we?" Mayterial looked around the mess hall, overtly looking for something, "I thought I told my crew to get rid of the racks, torture wheels and iron maidens," she then locked eyes with Lozen, "Have you been flogging the passengers again, Miss Nachtnebel?"

For half a moment, silence reigned. Then Lo said, "I mean, if you've reconsidered your stance on that, I've got all the whips on the wall in cargo bay seven."

"Only if they pay extra," Mayterial looked over at the man, who was just looking at the two women, mouth agape, "I'm sorry, I don't really see how we're impeding on your sentient rights, Mister..." She made a point of learning all of her crew's name, but failed to do the same for every single passenger that came along.

"Piper. Frank Piper." The man hissed at the insolent young women that dared to call herself a Captain, "it's outrageous that you dare to charge the fees that you do and that your passengers have to just take verbal abuse from your crew, on top of the fact that we are being fed low-res replicated drek."

"We actually had a new replicator installed not a month ago. This is the best of the best. If you wanted fresh food you should've perhaps booked a passage on a cruise liner, or perhaps you could've swung something with Starfleet, I hear their Galaxy classes have an arboretum." This was truly where Mayterial her strong suit was, making people feel very very small, "But since we're already heading for our destination at around warp 4.5, and there's really no way to drop you off anywhere during the transit, I think you're going to have to live with the fact that the freshest food that's in this cargo hull is a hidden stash of chocolate in Miss Nachtnebels quarters or a bottle of Saurian Brandy in mine, neither of which will likely be shared with the likes of you." She allowed for a moment to let that sink in, "Mister Piper." She added more to add insult to injury than to seem polite.

"I... well... how dare..." Piper's face turned the nasty shade of red a tomato gets when left in the Florida summer sun. A vein bulged near his temple and Lo realized that she had never actually seen someone's forehead vein bulge before.

For several seconds, Piper just stood there, opening and closing his mouth, apparently unable to speak through his rage. Then he found his voice. "HOW DARE YOU!" he roared. "HOW DA- How dare...?" A perplexed expression came over his large face, his small puzzled eyes seemed to loose focus as he stared out across the room beyond the women.

"I am... do you know who...?"

Lo realized what was happening just in time but, though she jumped forward to catch him, Mr. Piper's bulk proved to much for her and she succeed only in slightly delaying his greeting with the floor. There, he lay, sputtering and grasping at his chest weakly.

"Oh!" Lo looked up at May from where she knelt over Piper's prone form. "Captain, I think he's having a heart attack."

"Fuck." Mayterial immediately dropped to her knees next to him, rolling him on his back and seeing that he was unconscious, "Lozen, get a first aid kit, and call the doctor Here! tell him I'm starting CPR." She started to administer chest compressions to the passenger whose chain she'd been yanking just a moment ago. It was odd how her training kicked in as she was sitting there, pumping up and down on the man's chest. Somewhere around the twelfth compression, she shifted slightly and then she felt the crack of his ribs under her hands, "Fuck!"

Lo grabbed her communicator, wincing as she heard one of the man's ribs snap under May's administrations. "Nachtebel to medical! I need doctor--" What the heck's that Ferengi's name? As she spoke, she ran toward the small kitchen area, grabbing the emergency medical kit from it's resting spot "--we need the doctor in the Mess, deck two! One of the passengers is having a heart attack!"

She hurried back to May, kneeling and handing over a filled hypospray. "Lectrazine," she said. She then pulled a small portable defibrillator from the red box. The defibrillator, a small metallic oval, could maintain a continuous electric charge, forcing the heart to palpitate as normal.

Mayterial kept applying chest compressions, she felt the ribs move under her hands, she hated the feeling. It had been so long since she last was asked to do this, and from what she remembered that had been a holographic representation. It was never quite the same. It came really, really, close, but never quite the same.

Lo knelt down next to the man and applied the hypospray of lectrazine to the side of his neck. The loud hiss told her that the dose applied correctly, and she exchanged the spent hypo for the defibrillator while May continued her compressions.

"24, 25, 26, 27" Mayterial counted, hoping that Lo would pick up on it and knew that at thirty she'd move out of the way in order to apply mouth-to-mouth. In cardiac arrest situations, the most important aspect was to keep the blood pumping. Reaching thirty on her count she slid over to the side and tilted the head backwards, placing her mouth over the man's and pushing in air.

Lo slid into place and pulled open the man's shirt, revealing a somewhat unpleasant mass of chest hair. The defibrillator used nano-bonding to adhere, luckily, so the fur wouldn't be a problem, but Lo distinctly felt that she should get bonus pay for this.

"Aren't there any cortical stimulators or stabilisers in there?" Mayterial looked over at the medkit, hoping that the Doctor hadn't skimped on first aid supplies. It was always difficult to trust other people, but when running a freighter you had to be able to hand over stuff to people, otherwise, you'd go insane.

Lo shook her head. "It's a bit bare-bones in there." She tried to keep the hint of reproval out of her voice, it wasn't necessarily the Captain's fault that the ship's doctor hadn't been doing their job. "That's what the lectrazine's for, though. It'll keep his heart functioning normally if we can reestablish normal rhythm first." She pressed the defibrillator onto Piper's chest and held it down until a small light on the top turned blue.

Mayterial sat back, "Clear." She waited for the electric shock to course through the man's heart, looking over to the automated defibrilator it still showed no signs of normal rhythm. The thing indicated them to continue chest compressions, "Come on. Just get back here and tell us how shitty the service is." She sat back straight and continued the chest compressions, hoping that the doctor would get there quickly, but wondering if he'd show up at all if they didn't offer some bonus latinum for the emergency 'house call'.

[OFF]

Mayterial Droz
Captain

&

Lozen Nachtnebel
Quartermaster

S.S. Fawkes