Nano-Tats

Posted on Sat Oct 17th, 2015 @ 6:06am by Lieutenant JG Ricki St. Louis
Edited on on Sat Oct 17th, 2015 @ 6:09am

Mission: Blooming Friendships
Location: Pargellis Hospital

[ON]

Having achieved primary recovery from the near-fatal Adirkal marathon flight, Ricki St. Louis prepared for her voyage to Archa Sector. Part of these preparations included patiently lying naked under a nano-infusor. As she laid comfortably on a suspensor field, a cluster of small emitters focused closely over her skin.

During the slow but simple process, a Starfleet nurse sat nearby. She surveyed the artistic tattoo designs which covered much of Ricki's body, "So this is why you cover yourself up so fully with clothing!" She shook her head, "You should show off your skin. Your art is absolutely beautiful."

"I'm trying to blend in with humans."

The nurse sighed tensely, "Lieutenant..."

"Ricki."

"Ricki, Admiral Rainer will not release you for transfer until you comply. Security protocol requires that you divulge the complete data map of your nanometric tattoos."

"I've already explained. These tattoos contain my complete medical library, Federation geography, translator languages-"

"No, Ricki. You know full well that simply telling them isn't enough. They want a complete computer analysis to map them."

"They already stole a scan of my transporter beam pattern."

Not having words, the nurse gave her a wistful look.

Ricki smiled lightly, "What's the matter? They can't break the encryption? Look, there's nothing in my skin-library which isn't publicly available at Memory Alpha." She corrected herself, "Well... very little."

"They're worried about a Prime Directive breach. A third world technology could map your technical data."

Ricki chuckled, "That is a fraudulent pretext, a lie. Anyone who can break the encryption would already have the ability to access Memory Alpha."

The nurse shifted nervously in her chair, "Ricki... for your own health, you really need to stop using words like 'liars' in the same sentence as 'admiralty'."

"If they'll stop lying, I will. Nurse..."

"Judy."

"Judy, let's just cut to the chase of what's really going on, here? Humans crave control. Your ancients even admit to it. 'Any form of government not held in constant restraint will encroach upon the liberties of its people'. I refuse to allow memory-nazis to molest and dictate my brain functions. If Fleet wants to transition push into shove, then we'll bring the Thorian embassy into this."

Judy closed her eyes in a deep sigh, "You are so graciously diplomatic." There was a weary pause in the conversation, "What data are you adding to your tat-library?"

"A collection of latest medical journals, mostly xeno discoveries. Judy, Starfleet is just going to have to accept it. Thorians are now eugenic. Skin libraries are as much an integrated part of our essential physiology as fingernails. We simply lack the metabolism for generating them biologically."

"Ricki..."

"Judy, you've done your gentle pleading dove job very nicely. You can go back and give your waiting superiors my response to their eh-'security' demands. If they want my exact words, then I'll let you pick between 'no thank you' and 'go to hell'."

The nurse couldn't help but laugh, "Okay, okay..." She got up with a restful sigh. Before departing, she rested her hand upon Ricki's shoulder, "Outside this room, I'll deny ever saying it." She broke into a big smile, "Good for you!"

Now left alone to complete reception of the nano-metric data to her skin, Ricki's smile faded amidst lingering trauma from the recent torturous attempt upon her life.

[OFF]

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Lt. Jg. Ricki St. Louis
Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet