Moral Dilemma

Posted on Tue Jan 24th, 2023 @ 9:51am by Lieutenant Ayana Hillis & Commander Samantha Howard

Mission: Living History
Location: Mall

Doctor Samantha Howard rose from the chair in the food court of the mall, Ayana doing the same as they finished their meal and returned the tray to the store as what appeared to be the custom of this time. They were about to head to a store called The Gap when there was an altercation in front of them. An elderly woman was sitting quietly eating her meal, her bag on the ground beside her when a young man appeared to snatch it and run. Sam's heart jumped into her throat, her morals demanding she do something but the temporal prime directive demanding the opposite. She wasn't above asking for advice.

"What do we do?" She hissed to Ayana as she kept an eye on the fleeing thief.

Ayana was in conflict as well. She knew what protocol was, but she also was a security officer and had her impulses. "We can't interfere, no matter how badly we may want to." Then something unexpected happened as the thief was moving towards them. Ayana was now in the crosshairs of a dilemma, and she only had a few seconds to make a choice. Her instincts took over and she swung her leg out in a round kick, connecting with the thief in the gut which knocked him down to the ground. As two gentlemen in uniforms sluggishly approached she knew she had to think of something quickly.

She picked the thief up off the ground and tossed him towards the portly gentlemen. She pulled out her fake credentials. "Agent Hillis, FBI. This man is a thief. I assume you can handle him." She gave a glance towards Sam, hoping she'd play along to protect their cover.

The portly gentleman looked a bit shocked to have the thief so completely taken down by two random women who just happened to be FBI agents.

Sam walked over to the security officers and said quietly in the senior man's ear "we are here undercover. We require your complete compliance in removing any evidence of our involvement in your records. "

She turned, retrieving the stolen handbag and also handing it to the security officer. "This belongs to that elderly woman over there. Blue shirt, beige skirt. Please return it to her"

Sending a look to Ayana they headed swiftly away from the incident and the eyes of all the bystanders wondering just how much damage they had caused to the timeline.

Once they were out of earshot and away from the crowd Ayana turned to Sam, "My apologies commander. I knew better than to interfere, but I gave in to an impulse. I could have done great harm to the timeline, as well as to us."

"Let's hope the incident was minor, although I'll have to put it in the report so the Captain knows." She looked at the now dispersing crowd. "Now, which store did you want to peruse?"

Ayana nodded. "I understand." She concerned things, "Perhaps we just pop in quickly to the Spencer's Gifts. Then we can get back to the shuttle." With that they went into the store and were surprised at what they found.

" Well...this is unexpected" Sam whispered as the store was filled with younger adults, most of them dressed in an interesting array of clothes. Many had their noses deep into their communication devices, glancing up now and again to look at something. Sam and Ayana stood out like the proverbial sore thumbs.

Ayana walked past the kids and clothing near the front and moved towards the middle and back of the store which had a variety of items. Ayana was surprised to see certain items as they were risqué. She looked to Sam, "I knew society was socially promiscuous at this time, but some of this seems a bit much for some of these people considering their age." She looked at the body jewelry which was next to questionable sexual objects and graphic shirts with humorous messages. One in particular seemed to be popular and she found it funny as well. The message on the shirt read, "My heart belongs to tacos."

"Thinking of getting it for the Captain?" Sam smirked as she rifled through the other garments on the rack including a selection of intimate underwear. "Ok this was not what I was looking for" She blushed and made haste to another area of the shop.

Ayana laughed as Sam rushed away blushing. It was interesting seeing how sexualized society was at this point. She could see both the advantages and disadvantages that existed, and one of the advantages was the variety of intimate wear. She took out her phone and used it to scan a couple of items to save the patterns so that she might replicate them later for personal use. She spotted something of real interesting in the back, media shelved in the form of something known as DVDs. This was a treasure trove in her mind, historical documents that could be used for multiple things, including a look at human history and perhaps even as templates for holodeck programs. It had a few sections that were marked, including a section labeled MCU which seemed to be popular, and a variety section called classics which had films from the 1980s that Ayana found fascinating, including titles Weird Science, Uncle Buck, Spaceballs, The Breakfast Club, Top Gun, Trading Places, The Terminator, and a trio of trilogies called Beverly Hills Cop, Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future. She gathered them up and went to purchase them, hoping Sam had found something worth purchasing as well.

Sam meanwhile was meandering in another section, taking in all the trinkets and modern memorabilia. Nothing overly tickled her fancy until she found a selection of ceramic mugs with various slogans emblazoned across them. "No coffee no workee" she read from one with a smile on her face. The coffee habits of captains and medical officers through the galaxy was legendary. Picking up the mug she headed to find Ayana.

Memorabilia in bags, they exited the store and left the mall. Ayana had enjoyed this little excursion and hoped that ultimately it would be looked at in a positive light, despite the one incident. They returned to the shuttle, ready to check on the prisoner and see what Deanna and T'Plana had learned.