EPTIt was a warm, sunny day in space and Captain Monkey Bananahands sat on his bed in his Captain's Quarters. Monkeyhands was an average sized monkey, son of the highly decorated and respected Admiral Monkey Hairyfists.
Bananahands was the youngest of three sons and sadly, the dimmest of them all. His general clumsiness and aloofness had earned him the name Bananahands, much to the dismay of his proud and popular family.
He was on board the training and exploration vessel called the 'xxxxxx' which was used for the new recruits in their first space roaming training. It wasn't particularly grand but it was not intended for much else other than safe space proceedings.
The comm system rang.
"Captain Bananahands, this is First Engineer Cat Clawsharp, engine checkouts are green, all systems have been checked. We are ready to use the warp drive to the mission beacon."
"Ok Clawson, I will head for the bridge."
Bananahands sat up from his bed, straightened out his blue captain's jacket and flared his tail around. He travelled through the quarters quarter and met with Supplies Officer Sloth Sleepface.
A low, slow and soothing voice emerged from Sleepface, "Captain...I managed to get you 10 sachets...of the Spicytail Soupsauce...however, according to regulations... the Blacktongue Swampsauce is not allowed on board...this vessel."
"The Blacktail?" The captain's face scrunched up. "Because it is too hot?"
"No sir...the Tail and Arm Training Academy do not allow it as it is classified...as dangerous. Not because of it's searing hotness...but because the Academy don't want the risk of it getting into a recruit's eye." Sleepface paused and shook his head slightly, "could probably sear through someone's eye in no...time..."
"Come on now," Bananahands said in a rejecting look, "it's not that hot. I can eat it just fine."
"That may be true sir but we believe...it's probably melted the insides of your mouth by now...that would explain...why you could eat Whiskersqueek's Bodaffi plant." Sleepface continued, "I don't think any creature...has eaten a Bodaffi plant before, but there you were...munching it away like it was a Banana...Bread...Special. Why...exactly were you eating Whiskersqueek's gift, Captain?"
"It was my first day on the ship, Officer. I was trying to find the cafeteria but I seemed to have stumbled in to a storage room. Looking back now, I probably shouldn't have eaten the contents of those wrapped up gifts..." Bananahands averted his eyes to the ceiling in thought.
"We didn't know you had eaten more of the crews gifts sir, that...may be quite...bad." Sleepface paused and shifted his gaze to the captain.
"You...didn't open and eat the gold wrapped container...did you?
Bananahands pondered. "There was a large, gold wrapped container..." His face lit up, "Oh yes, the big one with that food in. Who's was that? That was an amazing set of treats!" He grinned to himself whilst he remembered all of those strange and sweet foods he had seen and eaten from the gold, wrapped container.
Sleepface winced. "Sir...that...may have been...the Emperor's golden gift to the tribal leader...Snarltooth Silverclaw of the...Moogata planet...We were supposed to deliver it on the next mission when we were...to explore the Momada sector."
Bananahands' grin faded as his head slightly drooped towards the wall as he stared.
"Perhaps, Captain...we could replace the contents of that container...and deliver it like normal, although...we are supposed to be at Momada in 22 hours. I'll need to think about it, but we are...going to have to make some time...at some point...otherwise...well, I don't know."
"OK Sleepface," nodded the captain, "we'll have to make a plan soon." His brow furrowed and released, "Oh and thank you for the Soupsauce, we'll have to get a bundle of it for the whole crew."
Sleepface slowly raised his hand to his fuzzy brow and glided off a salute. "Maybe two bundles sir, so you don't...eat all of it yourself."
"Hah!" the captain chortled as he raised his gaze and cracked a smile. He returned focus to the Sloth and returned the salute.
Captain Monkey Bananahands carried on through the corridor that led to the stairway to the Bridge. "Spicytail..." the captain thought as he rose up the stair, gently nodding his head in the pleasure of having one of his favourite Soupsauces on board.
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