CTRL+S Face

Posted on Tue Aug 15th, 2023 @ 10:08pm by Ensign Kate Kono

Mission: Damn Dirty Apes
Location: Kate Kono's Quarters
Timeline: Slightly after beamout from planet, slightly before Sickbay Briefing

Kate didn’t have to take Sam’s advice about running off to her quarters since she was lucky enough not to be wounded in the incident on the planet. Covered in mud, wearing tattered remains of her uniform, followed by a a wrapped medical blanket that looked like the outer-wrapping for a Moe’s Burrito, Kate was in no condition to hang around and chat about the mission. Her quarters were pretty big for that of just an ensign. Fairly large living room area with a desk in the corner overlooking a small sofa that faced two windows overlooking the crazy planet she spent an hour on not too long ago, and recessed into the wall was the sonic shower just across from the bed on the other side of a small partition. Kate threw everything to the ground except for Sams jacket, which meant a lot to her considering how much it meant for Kate to not have to face the crew half-naked. Kate placed that jacket in a place of honor on the back of a chair in the dining area of her quarters.

All she had left was one unmentionable item and she threw that into the pattern replication system under the replicator so that it wouldn’t go anywhere near where the food was delivered. Kate stepped into the sonic shower and a warm wind blasted down on top of her head which did nothing but keep the dirt that she accumulated from being inhaled into her respiratory system as the sonic waves blasted over her body. She held her hand in front of her face as particles shook free from between the small webbing between her fingers, out from under her nails, and she could feel her hair being shaken as the matted mud turned to dust and fell over her shoulders.

Kate watched as the caked residue on her arms split up like the ground after an earthquake and fell free from the clean skin underneath. If there was one thing Kate missed about 21st Century Earth, it was having water do this for her instead of an invisible force, but on the other hand, the invisible force was more thorough and she could feel the difference. She leaned her back against the wall of the shower and was met with a cool touch, something else that a hot steaming shower wouldn’t have allowed to happen. She quickly left the tactile contact of the wall and just pressed her hands against the other side of the wall which was almost like a bluish black carpet — something that would never have existed in a shower that used water. — ‘Carpet in a shower’ Kate laughed to herself as her straight black hair dangled freely over her eyes now that it was clean.

She thought about the Humans on the planet as she stood there completely sterilized of mud, dirt, and even disease. The air got warmer but not enough for her to sweat — it was comfortable now and the vibrations subsided to near-nothing as the computer detected no lingering debris of any kind on her skin. The one good thing about the Sonic Shower is that she could get used to it as if it were real water. Up until now, she had never spent enough significant time in one to find out that it came with the exact same temptations as standing under a stream. As much as she wanted to stay in that shower, she knew that everyone would be congregated in sick bay.

“Computer, stop Sonic Shower.” Kate said. She walked to the replicator and replicated a uniform in her size along with fresh everything else that went with it. Still, she thought of those poor primitive people as she finished zipping the form-fitting Security Intelligence Uniform that hugged her tiny framed body like a glove. Kate took her combadge and ran it under the water in in the bathroom sink a moment to get the dirt off of it before wiping it down with a towel and sticking it back to her uniform. From there, she grabbed a PADD just in case she needed one and slipped her socks and shoes on. She felt refreshed.

.. A lot better than the poor primitives. She found herself felling so sorry for them. They would never know what it’s like to be as clean as she felt and she wondered if any of their future ancestors would ever have the chance considering their species structure. Kate tried to put it out of her mind. For now, she wanted to give Sam her jacket back, and thank her for all that she had done during the mission. Kate couldn’t believe how nonchalantly Sam had taken that arrow hit. Kate knew how lucky she was not to have been injured during the conflict but she felt that if it had been her instead of Sam, she’d have been screaming and crying for sure.

Kate used a new mechanism to spike her short black hair in front of the mirror the way she liked it and smiled slightly at herself before proceeding to Sams jacket to return it to her, and from there, out the door to sick bay.