The Littlest Mermaid

Posted on Thu Jul 10th, 2025 @ 5:47pm by Lieutenant JG Katie Kellerman & Lieutenant Rebecca McMillen
Edited on on Thu Jul 10th, 2025 @ 6:17pm

Mission: Doing What We Do Best
Location: Holodeck

Katie gripped her padd and rushed down the corridor. She was so excited she was practically skipping. She'd tested everything in theory, but she was ready to put her new attempt into practice, and the only way to do it was with the Woman of the Hour herself.

She entered the main science lab and looked around. "Becca?" she said.

Rebecca looked up from her work, the tiny, tiny form of Rebecca was walking along a tabletop that was converted into some form of massive display. The equal to the Pool Table that Engineer usually met around. Except science.

Katie rushed over, bouncing on her toes. "Okay, so, I have been working on something for a bit now. I think it might help you and it's not a permanent solution to anything, but I think we could expand on it. I want to try it out with you and see how it works and how you like it. Can I borrow you for a bit?"

Rebecca glanced upward, and then replayed Katie's conversation back, scaled down from 78 to 33. "I mean sure. Wait, borrow? Oh, I mean, sure. What's up?"

"We need to get to the holodeck," Katie said, undoing her jacket flap. "Mind a softer ride again? I don't want you falling off my shoulder." She held out her hand.

Rebecca gave a laugh, "This is becoming tradition at this point." but still she hopped up onto the offered hand.

She lifted Becca up and tucked legs securely under the rim of her bra, letting her sit up against her breast as she walked quickly out of the lab and down the corridor. She didn't offer explanation, just kept her gait steady to not jostle Becca too badly.

Within that jacket, Rebecca just relaxed. All things considered she was safe and protected here. Sure it was hot, her neighbors cramped in her personal space, there was limited visibility, and Katie at least didn't go overboard with the perfume. She leaned gently against one of the massive breasts that gently pinned her in place, almost subconsciously.

When they entered the holodeck, she carefully fished Becca out and placed her gently on the ground. "Computer," she said, "load program DH1." A smaller, Becca-scaled holodeck door and room appeared in the center of the room in front of Becca.

"Okay, go inside, and take off the bulky outer suit," Katie said. "I'll be right back."

"Oh boy, a dollhouse." Becca said, looking up, up, up to Katie. She sounded skeptical, of course. All this, and the bouncy ride, for this...

"Just trust me! Go inside, suit off, be right back!" Katie said, rushing out of the main holodeck.

"Okay, okay, you really worked on this so, okay." the diminutive officer walked through the miniature holodeck doors, and started the process to remove her encounter suit. Sporting the blue jumpsuit of the Science division underneath, she did as requested and waited for.... whatever it was that had Katie so literally jumpy.

Katie raced down the corridor to the next holodeck and jumped through the doors as they opened. “Computer! Initiate program DH2.”

“Link established,” the computer said.

“Activate program,” Katie said.

From Katie’s perspective, Becca appeared in the center of her holodeck. From Becca’s perspective, Katie appeared in front of her in her small holodeck. In both cases, however, the important part was that they were finally eye-to-eye.

“Heilige Scheiße! I think it worked!” Katie said, grinning. She reached out tentatively. “Can you take my hand?”

Rebecca was shocked for a moment as Katie appeared. All this for a hologram? A facsimile? The effort was certainly appreciated but, she reached out and gently took Katie's hologram hand. Softly at first, but as she felt it in her hand she gripped it tighter, then launched in and wrapped Katie in a tight, tight hug. How long had it been since the act of a simple hug had been denied her?

"Thank you." she whispered softly. Afraid to say anything louder.

Katie hugged her friend tightly, even as she worried her bones might snap under the combined pressure. "You're welcome. I'm just sorry it took so long," Katie said. She held her quietly, letting Becca get all the hug time she needed; Katie knew there was a lot to make up for.

Rebecca giggled through the moment, "Oh shush, you're fine. You're fine. Bidirectional relayed events don't program themselves. I'm guessing there's a big Me out there? No no, don't show me."

"The absolute last thing i need is to see that. Or for someone to get the idea to put me down my own top. No thanks." She shook her head, finally releasing Katie. "This is... this is a lot, thank you. Sorry i just... just needed that."

Katie laughed, trying not to cry and kept holding Becca's hands. "Nothing to be sorry for. I'd have offered a hug if you hadn't. And yes, in my holodeck, there's a full-sized version of you facing me. So, we finally figured out how to hug a friend. All it takes is two holodecks and a slew of interactive subroutines along with the most fine-tuned holoprogramming I've ever done." She was beaming even while her eyes were moist. "So, you can have a hug any time you want now! We can even see about making this transferable to other areas of the ship! With holoemitters in key sections, you could do normal bridge work, or even have a science lab that works at regular scale! Hell, screw that, we could play chess without using you as one of the pieces!" She giggled.

"First off, I'm the best Queen.." Rebecca smiled. "And that would be great. I... i wouldn't want to trouble you, though."

"I mean, all of this is fantastic, more than i ever thought possible. So so much more. The chance, the option, the.... but all of it from this little box." She paused, her tone softening. "I'd be alone, surrounded by friends who wouldn't know. Would never know. I...."

Rebecca was torn. This was a fantastic gift, but was she really cherry picking such a fantastic setup. "Let's run some tests, see how it performs around the ship. For duty hours, the thought of being able to actually do my job without routing through the MOUS is so liberating. Off shift.. i.. i want to see how it all works. Fuck i sound like such a bitch..."

"No. No, no, no," Katie said reassuringly, pulling her back into a hug. "You aren't, I promise. I know I just threw a planet-sized bit of news in your lap." She gave Becca a kiss on the cheek and held her again. "You won't be alone, I promise. And we all know your situation, so you won't be hiding from anyone. Think of it as..." she paused and bit her lip, then it hit her. "Think of it as rerouting your duty station to the holodeck. On duty, you're stationed here, and interacting with the rest of the ship remotely, but instead of being on a viewscreen, you can be experiencing it all with us in real time! Like those old holo-communication stations that were in vogue a few years back! And off duty? You can be out and about on our shoulders or bras or whatever. And if you want a hug, or whatever, we use the holodecks for fun."

Rebecca was silent as the outline was delivered, and silently gave a nod nod. Not in defeat, but the opposite. "I really, really like that idea. I was ready to do all sorts of desperate measures, years and purchases. This... this is a solid foundation. We can work on this."

"And look, i know how much y'all love to carry me around. I'd never deny you that ... just don't get any ideas about introducing me, to me." She said with a stem tone. Humor behind it, but normally her serious moments were so adorable because of the scale difference. Rebecca was confident when she needed to be.

"You have my word," Katie said. "Not sure what it would serve anyway, and I'm not sure having you in both holodecks wouldn't make the program go haywire." She thought about it for a moment, then had a stray thought, then giggled a bit, then giggled more until she was laughing outright.

"Great, I've inspired you.." Rebecca said, rolling her eyes but abused at her friends infectious mirth.

"Sorry, it's this thing from grammar school," she said. "This dumb thought experiment. 'If you met a clone of yourself, would you have sex with yourself?' It always seemed such a stupid question to me because....well...I have a clone. But for the average person, I don't know how they'd think about it, to be honest. But I figured if there was ever an opportunity, this kind of program is it. Sorry, just a silly, random thought."

"Oh geez! No, no, I will not be having sex with my clone. At the best, that's just a little too weird for me. At the worst, yeah, I'm not going to be my own toy, thank you very much. No no, eww, no."

Katie couldn't hold it in. The look on Becca's face was too much and before she knew it, Katie was laughing so hard her knees were buckling. She dropped to the floor, rolling and giggling at her friend's reaction, tears in her eyes from laughing so hard.

Katie's infectious mirth spread, and soon Rebecca was laughing and holding her sides, tears forming as she fell to the floor, just laughing at the notion of.... oh no, she thought about it, and it reignited the giggle fest. "Okay, okay ohmigod ohmigod I'm gonna die I'm gonna...." she could barely get words out between fits of hysterics.

"Stop stop stop I'm laughing because y...." and it happened again.

Katie choked back her laughter and pulled Rebecca to sit next to her, holding her tight and rubbing her back. "Breathe, Rebecca," she said, still laughing a bit. She continued rubbing her back gently.

Eventually the gigglefit died down, and Rebecca was able to breath and relax again. She leaned in against Katie, smiling. "I think I'm okay." she offered, but gave no resistance to the attention. If she had been touch starved on a one to one basis for the entire time after her accident.... years.

"This is pretty amazing. I kinda want to know how you did it, but if you just said 'Magic' right now, I'd buy it."

"Kally gave me the idea," she said. "And you hit the nail on the head when you said 'dollhouse,'" Katie explained. "I can't get the holodeck to make actual things look bigger or smaller, but I can make the holodeck make holograms look bigger or smaller. So, link two holodecks together and they each become each other's lens. And since they're recreating the image with matter, we can interact just as we normally would out there." She gestured towards the door.

"As normal, except until you tweak the deck to make me smaller I can't fit in your cleavage here." Rebecca said with a giggle, just leaning against Katie. "But that's really really clever. Gold star for Jadizon."

Katie nodded. "He's something special," she said, smiling. She glanced down for a moment then back at Becca. "You know," she said, "this opens up those kinds of opportunities for you as well."

She snickered, "Okay first, I thought I said that I... am not going to be my own toy. So no putting me in my own cleavage. Second, I don't think The Girls here can really compete with The Ladies you're sporting." she giggled.

Katie blinked and struggled to realize what she meant, then it clicked and she blushed. "Your girls are great," she said, nudging her friend. "Any guy, or girl, on board would be happy to get with you. You've got a good sense of humor, you're cute as hell and now you can actually show the girls off." She snickered and nudged her again.

Rebecca giggled, returning the nudge, "Thank you. Kinda lost my flair for guys." she admitted. "But, thank you. Good to know I have a wing'gal with me if I try my luck. I guess 'come back to my place' involves some holodeck magic but, yeah, better than nothing. Or at least, it's up there with how I've been handling myself."

She brushed some stray hair out of her face. "Hey, ummm.. thanks. For everything you said. I know you meant it. You don't just put anyone down your top I know, but... thanks."

Katie snorted a laugh. "You're welcome. And hey, if the situation was reversed, I'd happily ride in yours." She giggled again and gave Becca another nudge. "Besides, that's one of the perks of being girls. We can have that kind of closeness and not worry about it. It's our biggest advantage, if you ask me."

Rebecca smiled, glancing down, then she gave a giggle. Rather than nudging Katie, this time she just leaned in against her. The normally-diminutive scientist took Katie's hand and gave it a squeeze. "So, you and Kally wanna grab lunch sometime? You're hot as hell, both of you, and we're already pretty close. Wouldn't mind getting to know you both a little better." Rebecca had very little game, poor thing was way out of practice...

"We 100% would grab lunch with you," Katie said, squeezing her hand. "Although, fair warning, Kally is not the dating type and I'm....well I don't know what Jadizon and I are yet, but we're kind of moving towards something. I don't want to lead you on or anything if we were to do anything."

"I don't know if *I'm* the dating type really, but if nothing else, a solid core of really good friends is always welcome. And if you and Jadizon move on to bigger things, hell, I'll be a cake topper for you."

Katie blushed heavily at that. "One step at a time," she said. "He hasn't even said he wants to formally date me." She looked at Rebecca and smiled, leaning in and kissing her cheek. "You absolutely have a solid core of friends, though," she said. "And Kally and I are absolutely among them. We definitely need to have a girls' night."

"Hundred percent." The kiss was slightly surprising, but she didn't really mind it. Contact. Touch. Emotion. She had lost these things for so long. "Oh well here I thought y'all were a thing. Well, ummm, embarrassing. Don't mind me, just gonna go hide in the cupboard." she smiled, "But no, seriously, best of luck to you both. Guys aren't my thing anymore, at least I'm *PRETTY* sure they aren't. So, all yours." she giggled, like there was competition.

"So, how do I, you know, get this program up and running? Or is that one of those 'You need me' kind of deals?" she teased.

"Oh, no, not at all," Katie said. "Just activate program DH1 in your holodeck, and have the other person activate DH2 in the other. The computer does the rest. Although, we may want to rename them."

Rebecca giggled, "You're talking to a scientist. Letter and number names are no fun, so yes. Definitely needs a better name."

"Well, we'll fix that," Katie said. "I've also been working on an idea for an easier suit for you to wear. So hopefully we can get your quality of life up even when you're out and about." She put her arm around Becca and held her tight. "Computer," she said. "Put us on the Black Pearl Shore at Casperia Prime."

The holodeck grid was gone, replaced by a stretch of black sand, the grains round black orbs, going from horizon to horizon, with the blue water lapping at the shore. The sky had a few wisps of clouds, and stretched for miles. The air blowing was mildly warm and carried the taste of salt.

"I put the two holodecks down as being under diagnostics for the next several hours," she said. "So we don't have to leave right away. Not until you're ready. And any time you need a hug, you say the word."

Rebecca smiled softly, enjoying the view of the beach. Black sandy expanse, soft breeze, wide open skies. Talk about, well, anything could wait until later. She snuggled in a bit closer to Katie's side, enjoying the illusion of normality. "The word." she said softly, and went in for a hug as Katie's arms circled around and squeezed her tight. Just to be a part of something normal. Even if just for pretend.