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The Trickster's Box, Part 7
🕑 Added 2021-08-04 16:53:54 +0000 UTCCaptain Lee knew that she and her crew had a difficult time ahead of them. She used her command codes to restore power to the engines, but even at maximum impulse it would take two full days to reach their destination. She hoped with everything that was in her that she had not made a horrible mistake. She knew that occasionally a captain must be willing to sacrifice individual members of her crew for the sake of their mission or the survival of the ship as a whole, but in this situation, with the lives of over half her shipmates at risk, she had to take the only honorable path available. The only sacrifice this path required was that of her crew's dignity.
She assembled the crew in main engineering (the only single room large enough to accommodate everyone) and explained the agreement she had made. No one was thrilled. Lieutenant Kushnir had, as usual, provided the voice of the loyal opposition.
“This is outrageous! I can't believe we're just rolling over and letting them do this to us without so much as a struggle! And for what? For all we know, this psychotic program may not even keep its word. It might just murder us out of spite, even if it's masters aren't waiting right where we expect them to be.”
These words hurt Captain Lee. She did her best to defend the logic of her decision, but she knew that only Tamar really considered that argument valid. Given what she had already been through, and that this acquiescence meant that she would be subjected to more of the same, maybe not even her. Still, the captain knew her job: to provide her crew with strong leadership, a sense of purpose, and solidarity in the face of hardship.
“I know that none of us wants this. I certainly don't. But we must hold true to the principles that made the Federation what it is today. What this program is doing to us is certainly disgusting and unjust, but we must hold the preservation of life above mere pride. If we fight, we will be sacrificing our friends and comrades on the altar of our own egos. That would be more disgraceful than anything this program can subject us to. We will face this ordeal with the patience and inner strength that every one of you has displayed to me in our time together. We will, more than anything, hold on to hope that whatever sick, twisted minds inflicted this situation upon us, they are long dead. No civilization built on such principles could endure. We will get through this together, and when it is over, we will never ever, mention it again. Is that understood?”
The crew muttered their collective assent. She decided not to inflict a “I can't hear you” on them at this point.
Two factors served to make this speech ring hollow, even to Captain Lee herself. For one, she had been to Orion. She had seen that a civilization built on corruption, greed, lust, and terror could remain stable and grow for centuries. For all she knew, this Tumoh Qew group had only grown more powerful and more decadent since they created the artifact that still sat in the ship's lab. Secondly, per the instructions the hologram had given her, she had been forced to deliver this speech to her entire crew while dressed in a thick adult diaper.
The replicator had, as expected, spat out a new uniform for her upon request. Like the outfits that Commander Basu and Doctor Nixila now wore, it was a crude imitation of a starfleet uniform, with pink and white fleece replacing her usual red and black, and cheap-looking toys to replace the rank insignias and combadge that she had worked so hard to earn. Like Tamar's new uniform, it was marked across the breast with a humiliating title in big, colorful letters. “Little Miss Bossy-Pants” it read. The diaper was white and unadorned, save for the federation insignia across the front panel. Captain Lee's face was red as a beet as she addressed her crew.
“Now, you have your orders. Read through the altered versions of your duty rosters, as well as the new ship's standing orders. It is absolutely essential that follow these instructions to the letter. Immediately report any order to harm or endanger the safety of this crew, but otherwise, you are to obey the computer's instructions, no matter how bizarre or degrading. We must not provide the alien program with any pretext it might use to go back on its word. Although it may not feel this way, the honor of the Federation, and our very lives, are at stake here. Dismissed.”
Captain Lee turned to her senior staff as the ensigns and crewmen filed out, on their way to some combination of ordinary maintenance tasks and voluntary humiliation.
“Have you looked through your new rosters yet?” she asked.
Lieutenant Tabitha Forester shifted uncomfortably. “Er...yes, captain.”
“What was that?” asked Captain Lee. She hated having to do this to herself, but this was her plan, and she was the captain. She had to set an example, or the others would ignore their orders as well.
“Yes, Baby Ara.” said the science officer. She looked very apologetic, but Captain Lee could tell that part of her was gleeful at the opportunity to get away with disrespecting a superior officer so severely. “My main duties appear to revolve around looking after Comm...I mean, Baby Priti.”
Priti perked up at the mention of her name. She had been staring blankly off into space for most of the time that Captain Lee had been talking. Whatever that helmet had done to her, it would take a while for her to recover. “Uh?”
Lieutenant Forester visibly winced at what she was about to do. “I'm gonna be your nanny today, Baby Priti. Can you say 'Nanny'?”
Priti screwed up her eyes. “Na..Nah?”
“Very good, Baby Priti! My roster says I also need to talk to you a lot about how stupid you are now. Can you say 'Simpleton'?”
Priti smiled. She liked this game. “Simma...Simmbaben!”
Forester tapped Priti on the nose. “Very good, Baby Priti. You're just an adorable little dim-wit who can't even spell her own name, aren't you?”
Priti giggled and nodded enthusiastically. She had no idea what Tabitha was saying, but she could follow the cadences.
Tears appeared in Forester's eyes. Her condescending act broke down, and she drew Priti into a hug. “Oh, Commander! I didn't mean it! I'm so sorry!”
“Lieutenant!” rebuked Tamar, before the captain could.
Forester nodded. “Yes, er...Crybaby, I'll...press on. Come on, dipshit! Let's go down to mess hall for a nice ba-ba!”
The science officer took the first officer by the arm and led her off. Priti just seemed delighted to hear a word she recognized.
Captain Lee felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see Mira McDaniels, the warp field specialist. She was wearing her usual blue science officer's uniform, but was now sporting a frilly white maid's apron over it. The words “Ship's Ass-Kisser” were written on it in flowing pink cursive.
“Pardon me, ma'am.” she said.
“I'm afraid it's 'Baby Ara', today” said the captain ruefully. Was she going to have to say that to everyone again?
“Yes, sorry Baby Ara. Would it be okay if I kissed your butt?” she asked.
“Uh...”
“Please, Baby Ara. My assignment today is to kiss every butt on the ship, in reverse order of rank. I have to hurry if I'm going to get everyone.”
Captain Lee sighed and turned around.
The kiss was long and involved a lot of suction. “Are you sure it counts if it's on the diaper?” asked the captain.
“Yes, Baby Ara. The instructions were very thorough. Speaking of which...” Mira took a deep breath and recited a hastily memorized speech. “Thank you, Baby Ara. I am a pathetic little wimp, and you are better than me in every conceivable way. I deserve nothing better than to kiss your butt!” Then, in a more casual voice: “Do you know where Commander Basu is?”
“Baby Priti is in the mess hall.” said Captain Lee. She was pleased to see Mira just getting over the obvious absurdity of the situation and pushing through it.
“Thank you. Could you slap me on the butt? I'm not allowed to leave until you do.”
Captain Ara slapped the Leiutenant lightly on her rump, and she scampered off after Priti. Everyone present was considering the fact that they were only a few rungs down on the chain of command.
“Ca...Baby Ara?” said Lieutenant Kushnir. “A word?”
“Yes, Lieutenant?”
“It says here I am to personally give you a ten minute piggy-back ride.” said Kushnir. She was clearly seething with rage at the sheer indignity of this, and Captain Lee knew that she blamed her personally for it.
“I'm...I'm sorry.”
“There's worse things, I'm sure. What time works for you?”
Captain Lee turned to ensign Dunmore. Ara herself had no duty roster. Controlling the captain's schedule was to be handled by her. Dunmore had been fairly quiet the last few hours. She was still coming to grips with her new duties. Captain Lee knew this, and she sympathized, but she had to set an example for the crew by suffering whatever disgrace the computer had assigned her.
Crewman Dunmore swallowed visibly as she plucked up her courage. “A...actually, Lieutenant, Baby Ara is just about due for her afternoon playtime. Perhaps you'd be so kind as to carry her to the bridge?”
Kushnir blew out a steadying breath. Her face twisted into a very unconvincing smile. “It would be my pleasure.” Kushnir dropped to her hands and knees. “Oink.”
Dunmore patted the captain's padded rear. “Get on the nice lady's back, Baby Ara.”
Captain Lee reminded herself, for the hundredth time, that this was for the lives of her crew. She solemnly mounted Lieutenant Kushnir.
Tamar dropped to hands and knees. Wonan looked wasn't surprised, as she could hear everyone's thoughts, but she still objected. “Tamar, I can carry you. It isn't necessary...”
“It is our assigned task to imitate the captain as much as possible.” said Tamar, mostly for the captain's benefit. “It is much easier for me to carry you than the reverse, due to my greater strength. Please mount me, Baby Wonnie.”
Dr. Nixila mounted Tamar, doing a truly impressive imitation of the Captain's utter lack of enthusiasm. Tamar said “Oink.” with the same deadpan delivery as Kushnir, although she did not even fake a smile.
On the way to the bridge, Ara got a look at the new behaviors her crew were now forced to perform. Kushnir continued to oink, and occasionally threw in a squeal or grunt, as she carried her captain through the halls toward the turbolift. Captain Lee was grateful that she was rather light and Kushnir was fairly strong, and she helped out by bracing her feet against the floor as much as possible. Tamar, sure enough, could easily accommodate Wonan's weight.
In the corridor, two ensigns, (Olivera and Lafayette) wearing newly-replicated diaper uniforms, were rubbing their thickly-padded butts against each other. They recited a strange ditty as they did, no doubt devised by the computer to humiliate them. “Rubby rubby, diaper friend! I love the feel of your rear end! Diapers, diapers, they're superior! They belong on my posterior!” Lafayette was gasping with pleasure as she wagged her ass back and forth, while Olivera only winced in shame, especially when she spotted the ludicrous sight of four senior officers approaching. It wasn't hard to guess which of them had been nerve stapled. Having completely this inane ritual, they went off to complete whatever task came next in their roster, nodding respectfully to their superior officers as they did.
Captain Lee glanced over at Tamar and Wonan. Sure enough, Dr, Nixila was visibly in a state of bliss as she bounced up and down on the Chief Engineer's back. Tamar was doing her best to conceal her feelings, but Captain Lee knew her well enough to distinguish between concealed anger and concealed pleasure, and this was clearly the latter. She almost envied them. Knowing that Kushnir likely hated her for what was happening made the ride even less fun than it should have been.
As the turbolift opened, more of her crew got off. Crewman Flores slowly worked her way across the floor. She was clearly just getting used to crawling on hands and knees while sucking her thumb at the same time. Behind her, Ensign Xian was dressed in an altered uniform that left her bare breasts entirely exposed. She sheepishly approached Captain Lee.
“Would you please play with my breasts...Baby Ara?” she asked hesitantly. Dunmore patted Ara's back and said. “Play with the nice lady's breasts, Baby Ara.”
Kushnir sighed audibly under her. Captain Lee cupped and squeezed the sizable breast obediently. To her surprise, Xian began to breath irregularly as pleasure shot through her. She was also clearly nerve stapled. “Ahhh! Oooh. Suck on them!”
“Suck on the nice lady's breasts, Baby Ara.” commanded Dunmore. Captain Ara did as ordered, giving each nipple a thorough and loud suckling.
They finally reached the bridge after a very awkward ride in the turbolift. Captain Lee wondered if any of her crew would ever look her in the eye again after this.
“Baby Ara on the bridge.” announced Ensign Bowman, the day-shift helmswoman.
In the center of the bridge was laid out a pink fleece blanket, dotted with various plush toys. The centerpiece was a conical plastic shell with holes of various shapes, surrounded with corresponding plastic pieces. It was an oversized version of the “puzzles” that infants were given to help them learn to distinguish between shapes. Dunmore directed Captain Lee to sit on this. Now dismounted, Kushnir took a seat next to the vacant captain's chair and rested head on her fist. Ara remembered that Kushnir had been up most of the night, making the degree of patient forbearance she was displaying all the more impressive.
“Sit here and play with your puzzle, Baby Ara. I'll go get your ba-ba.” Captain Lee sat on the blanket and began boredly sliding the plastic pieces into the box. Tamar and Wonan, in keeping with their orders, sat down and helped her. None of them found the task at all challenging, of course, but there was something comforting about the fact that they were together in their abject humiliation. The alien program had clearly left enough of the crew upright and in proper attire to make the loss of status on the part of the others hit home, but it wasn't as bad knowing that they were all suffering through it together. Of course, each time a block slid into the main box, Wonan and Tamar shuddered with pleasure, which made Captain Lee feel a little less guilty about the whole ordeal. By the time Dunmore returned with an oversized baby bottle, the three women had already completed the “puzzle” four times.
“Here you go, Baby Ara. Drink up.”
Captain Lee placed the odds that what she was given wasn't spiked in some fashion at somewhere close to none, but she obediently sucked down the viscous liquid anyway. Sure enough, by the time she was finished, the room had already begun to gently spin.
“Are you alright, Ca...Baby Ara?” asked Wonan. Captain Lee was impressed that Wonan had spent enough time around humans to learn to ask this sort of polite question. She only nodded and resumed “playing”.
The effects of the drugged formula soon became worse. Captain Lee felt a intense warmth and comfort wash over her. She guessed that whatever she was given was causing euphoria and disorientation. Her vision swam, and the crew and objects around her began to morph. She found herself staring at the puzzle, suddenly uncertain which colored shape matched which hole, which she guessed was the whole point. No on laughed at her when she caught herself trying to roughly jam a moon-shape into an X-shaped hole, but she felt like they wanted to. She wondered once again how she could possibly assert her authority as captain again when this was over. Assuming that they even got out of it.
With the patient assistance of her two friends, Captain Lee continued to complete the puzzle over and over, much to their delight. In spite of herself, Ara found that she was enjoying herself as well, although this was obviously the work of the drugged bottle. Time disappeared for her. People came and went from the bridge, some performing duties, some humiliating themselves, some doing both. Ara thought she remembered a crewman dressed as a diapered clown jumping rope around the bridge, but that could have been a hallucination. Mira McDaniels visited to kiss each of their butts in turn, insulting herself and praising the one she kissed each time. Lieutenant Dunmore kept bringing bottles and commanding her to drink them. She also provided Wonan with a bowl of pudding, and Tamar with a gigantic chocolate sundae. The feeling of gentle warmth that surrounded her intensified briefly, and a hissing sound informed her that she was peeing into her diaper. Evidently a diuretic had also been included in her ba-ba. True to their obligations, she soon heard similar hissing sounds coming from Wonan and Tamar. She had no way of knowing if that was the work of their implants or something they had done “voluntarily”.
The puzzle had ceased to be a “puzzle”. Captain Lee was visibly confused by every shape. They seemed to swell and twist as she looked at them. Her spatial reasoning abilities were utterly shot. Even worse, she felt undeniable evidence building up that a laxative was also part of her new diet. She glanced around, wondering who would bear witness to this indignity. It didn't really matter. For at least the next day or so, she knew that dirty diapers would just be part of her existence, as they are invariably part of everyone's existence sooner or later. With bubbling farts and squelches, she emptied her bowels. Dunmore winced as she heard this, and winced again when the smell hit her. Kushnir resolutely looked away into an unoccupied corner of the bridge. With a sigh, Dunmore got to her feet and walked over.
“I so sorry.” she whispered. Captain Lee nodded. Then, in a louder, official sounding voice, Dunmore commanded her: “Baby Ara, tell us what you just did in your pants, and no using any big girl words.”
It took Captain Lee a few seconds to derive what this might mean. Her vision was so distorted that she barely recognized her crewman. “I made stinkies in my diapie, Nanny.” she confessed. In spite of everything, this announcement caused her face to light up with a blush so intense it was almost painful.
Dunmore took a deep breath, mouthed yet another apology to the captain, and tapped her combadge. Her own face looked quite reddish as she spoke: “Nanny Dunmore to all hands. Baby Ara has stinky pants. Repeat: Baby Ara has stinky pants. Changing detail, please report to the bridge.”
The phrase “What fresh hell is this?” passed through the captain's muddled consciousness.
After a few minutes, the turbolift doors opened. A retinue of five women emerged. They were dressed in pristine white collared shirts, tight-fitting white shorts, and white velvet gloves, making them look almost like they were on their way to play tennis. Ensign Mayen emerged first, turned smartly, and raised a small trumpet to her lips. She played a simple fanfare as the other four filed past her. Each woman carried an object in her hands. Kushnir couldn't help but stare as the bizarre cohort surrounded the blanket with a precision that suggested they had been practicing this maneuver all day.
“Company...Halt!” announced Mayen. “Company...Turn! Preseeeent Supplies!”
In her dancing vision, the Captain started to make sense of the scene. Each member of the changing detail had a different role to play. Crewman Sydney carried an oversized bottle of baby powder and her shirt designated her as the “Captain's Powder Bearer”. Crewman Tsung carried a teddy bear and was marked “Captain's Changing Distractor”. Ensign Cutty was carrying a diaper bag over one shoulder, and was marked as “Captain's Diaper Bearer”. Ensign Takami held a box of wipes and was labeled “Captain's Butt Wiper”. Ensign Mayen had nothing but her trumpet, but her shirt identified her as “Captain's Changing Announcer”.
Captain Lee laid back as the team went to work. She reflected that the awful t-shirts her crew were wearing were now the only place her actual title was now allowed to be displayed. She wanted so badly to ignore everything around her as the humiliating ceremony was conducted, but it was simply impossible. Throughout the ordeal, crewman Tsung stroked her hair and waved the teddy bear in front of her, in keeping with her roll as “Distractor”. That might have helped, but Ensign Mayen was sitting on the opposite side, patting her shoulder and carefully explaining everything that was happening, making sure she was intensely aware of each and every stage of her diaper change. Ara cursed the ability of trained Starfleet personnel to carry out orders to the letter.
“Baby Ara, we're going to change your diaper now. The five of us are going to change your diaper. You are going to get a diaper change. First, we open the diaper.” At this point, the five of them leaned in a gave a long sniff, wincing with disgust. “My goodness, you are very stinky, Baby Ara. That is why you need this diaper change. Next, we wipe your butt. You need wiping, baby Ara. Your stinky butt is being wiped clean. We raise your legs, so that we may wipe the whole thing very clean. Your dirty diaper is going bye-bye, Baby Ara. Then, we get out a clean diaper and slide it under you. Next, we powder your butt. Your butt is being well powdered, Baby Ara. Your butt goes down on the clean diaper, Baby Ara. Your diaper change is nearly done. We close the tapes, one and then the other. There, baby Ara is now wearing her fresh diaper. Diaper change: Complete! Company...Rise! Company...Turn! Company...March!”
Mayen played another fanfare as the changing detail boarded the turbolift. She marched in behind them. Captain Ara lay on the blanket and groaned. She wondered if her sanity could survive a bludgeoning like this.
“Helm? Estimated time of arrival?” she asked.
“Twenty-six hours, fourteen minutes, Baby Ara.” reported Ensign Bowman.
“And we're going at maximum available speed?”
“I am afraid so, Baby Ara.”
Captain Lee groaned. Her self-pity was interrupted by the sound of Dr. Nixila loudly filling her diaper as well.
“I have made stinkies in my diapie.” announced the Doctor, unprompted. As awful as the situation was, Captain Lee was grateful for her friend's solidarity. Tamar strained and followed suit.
Dunmore moaned and tapped her combadge.
