Dog Day Afternoon, Part I
Posted on Mon Jun 29th, 2026 @ 5:29pm by Lieutenant Ezra Van Wijnbergen & Ensign Nala Rider
Edited on on Fri Jul 3rd, 2026 @ 7:22am
2,059 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Episode 3 - The One Who Got Away
Location: Corridor - Deck 3 - USS Artemis
Timeline: MD004, 1330 Hours
Ezra walked between his two canine companions, their leashes loose but not overly careless in his large hands. The scent of fresh soil was still in his nostrils and he swore it lingered despite having left the holodeck nearly a minute ago. Going from a holodeck to the Artemis's artificially-lit corridor always felt like contradistinctive: recreated sunlight using a holo-emitter only to find oneself in the bland, clinical illumination of a ship in space.
"You had your fill," Ezra murmured, his baritone voice directed at Milo. "Or are we pretending you didn't just run half a continent?"
Trigger walked at his left, his form measured and composed, his head level with his ears perked upward. If their hike had been a real one, there would be no doubt that dirt would still be caught in the pads of his paws.
Milo, by contrast, still hadn't returned to the ship in any real sense. He moved in soft bursts and loops, moving too far forward and then circling back. To him, the leash may as well not exist. His tail made wide arcs in the air--if it moved any faster, it might only be seen as a gold-and-white blur.
"You," he added, glancing down at Milo, "are not still in the valley. We've come back."
Milo glanced up at him, tongue hanging lazily to one side and his eyes bright with unearned joy. For a good three seconds, Ezra entertained the idea that the dog understood far more than he let on. That perhaps he simply chose not to comply.
They reached the turbolift.
Ezra paused, one hand adjusting the leashes, the other about to press the call button when the doors parted suddenly.
Inside stood a woman. There was a moment that had arrived--as such moments sometimes do--where they found themselves suspended between recognition and hesitation. He recognized her but could not immediately place her.
Nala was lost in thought when the turbolift doors parted, and almost didn't see the man and two dogs standing there.
He remembered her not as a set of details, but more as an impression: a cheerful voice with nearly unending energy. The dinner on Bajor with Layal's family. Nala. It was like the echo of a melody he'd heard just once and had forgotten when work and duty pushed everything else to one side.
Ezra had just enough time to incline his head and open his mouth... and that's when the dogs made their decision.
Trigger moved first. Not swiftly and not impulsively but out of pure curiosity. He angled to the left, approaching Nala with a mixture of skepticism and fascination. His nose wiggled and puffed in the air, finding the hem of her skirted uniform. His tail wagged in a steady motion behind him, almost in approval. He remembered her and what's more, he liked her. No small thing for a Belgian Malinois.
"Hehehe! That tickles, Trigger!" Nala giggled, stroking Trigger while readjusting her skirt.
"Trigger," Ezra scolded, shifting his stance and preparing to yank him back, "we don't conduct interviews in the turbolift."
With his attention on his older brother, Milo had decided to choose chaos.
He surged forward with all the reckless enthusiasm of a creature who believed the universe existed solely for physical connection. The leash slipped, looped, and in the space of what amounted to a heartbeat he had circled Nala twice, drawing a loose but affectionate snare around her legs before Ezra could even think to intervene.
Nala felt the strap, but she didn't really take much notice of it as she had two cute fuzzballs distracting her.
"Milo--no!"
The gold and white blur reappeared at her right side, his tail in jubilant motion before doubling back again. It was as though he'd judged his first greeting as lacking. His nose pressed eagerly into her hand, and finding no outward resistance, he took the liberty of offering a series of earnest licks.
"OMPH! Hey! Get off ya big goof! I can't breath!" Nala'd decided to try and move while Milo was licking her hand...and ended up on the floor with a face full of slobbery love!
Ezra was stunned at what had just occurred--a tangle of limbs, laughter half-strangled by surprise, and the unrepentant insistence of two canines who seemed to believe that affection must be immediate and absolute.
"Off."
The command wasn't loud, but it carried. Trigger responded first, as he always did. He stepped back and glanced up in supplication at Ezra before returning to Nala. It was Milo that always seemed to require further translation.
Ezra closed the distance in two strides, one hand catching the crossed leashes near their knot, the other braced carefully--not on Nala, never--but against the bulkhead beside her, anchoring himself so as not to crowd or startle. He guided Milo back, disentangling limb from leash and leash from limb until some order seemed to win against the chaos.
"Milo," he said again, almost scoldingly. "That's enough."
He looked down at Nala and offered a hand.
"Thanks. Hehehe, haven't been in a good old fashioned dog pile in a coon's age! Ezra, right?" Nala asked, taking the offered hand and getting to her feet, adjusting her skirt again before dusting herself off.
"I take it y'all just got out of the Holodeck? The boys smell like Summer." Nala commented as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail.
Once she was on her feet again, Ezra did not release her hand immediately. It wasn't out of impropriety, but because he had the curious sense--fleeting and quiet--that if he let go too quickly, the tiny moment might scatter away like a bunch of startled birds. When he did let go, it was out of care.
Nala felt a small flicker, but wasn't sure what it could be, so she tucked it away to analyze later.
"Yes," he said, amusement wrapped around his voice. "Ezra. I think we've met before--on Bajor."
"Yeah...it was at Layal's party. Milo and Trigger were more on duty than today...but then again, every fuzzball needs re-coup time." Nala grinned as she went back to stroke the dogs.
Ezra smiled at her, noting her soft, light-brown skin and wavy red hair. "I think it's safe to say they're settling into life aboard Artemis quite nicely."
Milo's tail whipped back and forth in a frenzy of love and excitement as he stared open-mouthed at Nala.
"Are you still on-duty, Nala?"
"Just got off. I had a light workload today and was headed back to my quarters to change and maybe wander. There are still parts of this ship I've not seen." Nala used both hands to nuggy-rub Milo before giving Trigger another ear scritch. Trigger was still the more reserved of the two, so Nala was attempting to respect that.
Ezra shifted his grip on the leashes, though there wasn't any urgency in it.
"I've seen most of it," he said. "Or enough. But I find smaller ships like Artemis don't often give themselves up all at once."
He glanced down at Trigger and then back to Nala.
"If you don't mind the company, I'd be glad to walk with you."
"Yeah, I'd love that! Er...that'd be acceptable. [Dang it, girl! What the S'more!?]" Nala thought, a small, confused blush coloring her cheeks.
Ezra smiled, seeing the young woman flush. "Would you prefer that with a side of dogs or no?"
"Ssure, dogs including...er, are included! [Just breach the hull and throw me into space!]" Nala was having a functional mental hissy-fit!
The smile on Ezra's face widened a little as Nala corrected herself.
"Here," Ezra said, handing the reins of Trigger's leash to her. "Malinois are easier to manage."
"Thanks...good boy, Trigger." Nala scritched Trigger's ears, before heading toward her quarters, both to change and to entertain...even if only for a little bit. Nala couldn't figure out her emotions, and having something to keep her mind balanced was helpful.
They began to walk, Ezra allowing Nala to lead the way slightly--he wasn't sure where her quarters were located exactly and did not wish to presume.
"We didn't have much of an opportunity to talk back on Bajor," he noted, as they rounded the corner.
"No, we didn't. Um...where were you born?" Nala asked, adjusting the leash, wrapping and unwrapping it from around her wrist.
He hesitated for just a second, unsure if his new friend would want to hear about the horrors of Pi Cygnus III. In all likelihood, she was simply making conversation, he thought.
Nala noticed the hesitation.
"The wrong side of the tracks," Ezra muttered, almost to himself. Realizing that Nala probably heard him, he added: "A planet called Pi Cygnus III."
"Oh...yikes...I've heard bits and pieces about that...uuuu!" Nala shuddered, accidentally yanking on Trigger's leash.
"I'm so sorry, Trigger!" Nala apologized, rubbing Trigger's head apologetically.
Trigger didn't protest Nala's sudden tug. He absorbed the motion as he did with just about everything: a slight flick of the ears and a questioning upward glance.
"He'll survive," Ezra murmured. "He's an understanding dog."
Nala smiled at both thankfully.
Milo, meanwhile, took the opportunity to zig where he hadn't been asked to zag. Ezra attempted to correct his meandering by shortening his hold on the leash.
"And you?" he asked, looking back over to Nala. "Where do you call home?"
"I'm from Colorado. Got these beauties from a mad Mama bear when I was a kid." Nala actually grinned a bit self-consciously as she showed her scars... something she'd not ever really pointed out to anyone...and when someone did mention them, she'd not been so stinking SHY about talking about them!
[Oh for Pete's sake!] Nala thought as her cheeks burned.
Ezra's eyes moved furtively to the young woman's scars without lingering too long. He did not want Nala to feel as though she were being inspected. He knew that on average, people could tell the difference between being seen and being studied.
"Wait, a bear?" he repeated, turning his eyes ahead of him.
"Eyup! I had wandered off from my group, saw a Mama and her cubs, tried to seek away, she heard me...and yeah. I asked them if I could keep the scares as a reminder to be more alert and less of an air-head." Nala tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, the scars reflecting the light.
He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Nala," he said gently, "you survived a bear attack and your conclusion was that you needed to pay more attention?"
Ezra was not mocking her. In fact, he was quite amazed.
"Well...yeah. If I'd not been staring around at the scenery with both eyes instead of one eye on my group, I'd not have gotten separated, disturb the bears, and my face would be in one piece...or maybe something WORSE." Nala shuddered a little as her thoughts flowed through scenarios she could have gotten into if her scars hadn't been there to remind her to look before she leapt. While she'd obviously been in scrapes since then, she'd been able to forgo several misadventures.
He chanced another look at her scars--this time without caution. They were three, thin white scars on her left cheek and as Ezra judged, barely noticeable. At least to him.
"You didn't have to keep them," Ezra said. "But I think I understand why you did."
"Ah, here's my quarters." Nala grinned as she scritched Trigger's ears.
"Wwanna come in for a cup of..." Nala sputtered, not wanting to offer something Ezra he wouldn't want, and fairly embarrassed by her attitude.
Ezra grinned and tried his best to hide it.
"A cup of...?" He knew she was being polite and he only wanted to tease.
Milo glanced up expectantly at Nala.
A Joint Post By
Ensign Nala Rider
Facial Reconstruction Specialist, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Ezra Van Wijnbergen
Victim Advocate Counselor, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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