She Did What? (Part 2 of 5)

Posted on 04 Jan 2020 @ 3:42pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri & Ensign Mimi & Ensign Callin Mastrel & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Azra Ghoc & Commander Andreus Kohl & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley"
Edited on on 04 Jan 2020 @ 3:50pm

3,471 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 1, Conference Room
Timeline: MD 01, 0812 hrs

Previously, on She Did What? (Part 1)...

Kohl looked straight ahead and he hardened his gaze. He stopped looking for his childhood home between the panels of upholstery and duranium. Kohl just looked at the back of Rasmussen's head and he followed him into a turbolift.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Deck 1, Conference Room

There was an audible hiss within Galileo's conference room when the rear-most door suddenly opened to present three new arrivals. The Ops petty officer, Amul, hurried in first then stood at attention with his legs spread. "Sirs, Captain Rasmussen and Commander Kohl are here from USS Lagrange," he announced.

Kohl folded his hands over his chest, briefly. "I'm Andreus Kohl," he said and his lip curled into a wry smile. "For those of you who don't know me," he added, looking to several of the officers in uniforms highlighted teal or gold. He offered smiles and nods as his gaze jumped from face to face in quick succession. Gesturing to the man by his side, Kohl explained, "This is Captain Rasmussen," and his gaze bounced between the two extreme ends of the conference table. "Allyndra, Luke..." --Kohl said, his voice caught in his throat, again briefly as he swallowed the swirl of confused emotions-- "What's happened here?"

Rasmussen entered the cramped briefing room after his XO and came to a halt. He let Kohl's question linger to be answered while he observed the various senior and junior officers gathered around the table.

Luke already standing stood a little taller at the mention and visit by Captain Rasmussen. He was also surprised to she Kohl, who made no attempt to great his old crew. He should have known that this would eventually happen but not until the Galileo crew had gathered all the information.

Rising from his own chair, Lake ir-Llantrisant let his gaze go fuzzy as he considered the entering men. His last conversation with Andreus Kohl had not entered in a particularly dignifying manner. Lake blinked once, Lake blinked twice, and then he locked his gaze on the Captain. Only the Captain.

Allyndra thought at first that is was some tardy officer or perhaps some other information relevant to the meeting when she heard the door open behind her. She swiveled in her seat and was a bit startled to see Kohl come in. He had obviously done well from the rank but movement behind him caught her attention as a taller older man entered with a frown on his face. There was very little room to stand in the cramped room as she recognized the man's rank but did her best but was caught off by Kohl's seemingly flat question without really saying hello to former shipmates.

She answered first, "We are convening a senior officer's meeting, well what is left after a battle with the Tholians." She waited just a moment for that to sink in. She then threw the 'grenade'. "We are currently under something called the Genesis directive." Her attention turned to watch the man with captain's rank. "Commander Wyatt can further detail as he is currently acting captain," she made a nod toward the head of the table.

Rasmussen suddenly coughed with surprise then shook his head and stepped forward, brushing past Kohl with his robust figure. "What?!" he exclaimed, his eyes widening. "Where's Captain Saalm?" He glanced around the room again, not noticing the ship's XO present either. "And Commander Blake?"

Speaking next, Luke's voice was an aura of confidence. "Commander Blake is leading an away team in an investigation and Captain Saalm and Ensign Ryan have since decided to carry out the Genesis Directive alone whilst the Galileo undergoes repairs. Efforts to stop her failed." Luke didn't want to outright discuss that she had also been medically relieved of command but would inform the captain privately.

The senior captain regarded Wyatt with a baffled expression while he tried to process everything he'd just said. The Genesis Directive? 'Efforts to stop her failed'?! Rasmussen silently glared at Kohl with wide eyes.

Kohl sure as hell recognized that look. His Captain needed answers, needed actionable information. There would be time later for pleasantries or prevarication. In this moment, Rasmussen was not a patient man. Knowing little about the genesis directive other than it was something he should not know, Kohl was quickly drawn to the mention of Blake. He muttered her name softly. “What is the status of the away team?” Kohl asked. The concern was evident in his voice, given the poor condition of the starship herself. “Where exactly are they?” Kohl asked, his expression turning quizzical.

"Away teams, plural," Allyndra answered being closer to Kohl as Rasmussen had moved closer to Luke. "At the moment unknown as we where driven away by the Tholians. One team is on Latari A, the other on B. Commander Blake heading one team." Her voice began to display impatience as well, for the longer sitting here there was no telling what the Tholians were doing or destroying. They had indicated as much they intended to kill or erase what remained.

Rasmussen barely waited to respond, now with even more questions. "And the Genesis Directive? You...detected Genesis particles in this system?" he cautiously asked, not knowing how much knowledge the Nova-class' senior crew - or his own XO - possessed regarding the classified intelligence.

"The ENTIRE ship shut down briefly with some sort of symbol being displayed on all the monitors that was later explained by Captain Saalm indicating a genesis protocol had been invoked. I had patients and one in CRITICAL condition," Allyndra tried to emphasize what she thought of the whole thing. "It is my considered opinion that the longer we talk the less likely that we will recover anyone from the Trial, the away teams which I guess might be all three now. Commader Wyatt was indicating that there might be some idea to deal with the Tholians."

"Then tell me, Allyndra," Kohl replied. He spoke entreatingly, struggling to convey that he and Rasmussen were only here to help the situation. "What resources do you need to secure your ship and crew?" Kohl asked. Tentatively, he added, "and the Tholians," even though he meant a different time of secure, and he left the talk of Genesis particles silently unspoken.

"We need to transfer the most injured, I believe that Commander Wyatt has a plan or was just beginning to discuss one that would give us an advantage against the Tholians." She turned her head to face Wyatt. "Commander?" she queried.

"Well," Callin's voice was distant, detached, "we were considering luring the Tholians into a trap of our own." He looked at Rasmussen and Kohl with large, black eyes. "EM bursts into the star's corona to trigger some minor - but potentially deadly - solar flares."

Allyndra listened to Ensign Mastrel's very brief synopsis. It was an interesting idea, bold and yet dangerous. "And what is the lure to get them close enough?" She inquired.

Sofie had kept quiet for most of the briefing - she didn't exactly constitute senior staff and wasn't too keen to talk out of turn. "I believe Commander Wyatt mentioned our own ship, damaged and ill-equipped for combat as it is, could be the lure." She was trying her hardest to keep a straight face and just impart the facts but from the tone of her voice it was obvious that she found the whole plan a bit terrifying and wholly a bad idea. "Close to the star magnetic interference will drastically reduce the efficacy of our instruments, but so would those of the Tholian ship. Commander Wyatt has suggested hiding shuttles within the interference field in order to surprise the Tholians."

She paused glancing around at the faces of the listening senior staff, it all felt a bit wrong. Nobody had specifically asked for her analysis but so long as she was at the table she wouldn't be stopped. "There are issues with that of course - without proper sensor readings the turbulent nature of the star's corona would be unpredictable and it would be impossible to guarantee the safety of the shuttles. Sensor interference would also make it hard to detect the target ship and to ensure that the ejection could be directed towards it. There is also a large risk that these shuttles could be caught in the ejection as well. Star coronas are hard enough to mess with at the best of times, and with the interference these would be far from the best of times." She stopped talking and nervously looked in the direction of Lieutenant Franklin, maybe she had already come up with solutions to all of Sofie's quibbles.

The door to the conference room suddenly swished open and presented the arrival of a sweaty red-collared yeoman who stuck her head in to look for the highest-ranking officer. "Sir...I mean sirs? The shuttle Virginia has returned. They just docked."

Perking up, Lake ir-Llantrisant straightened up in his seat and craned his neck, looking to the yeoman. "That makes one fewer away team, singular, to locate," Lake said, affecting an air of brightness. He shrugged helplessly at the chaos storm of threats that was surrounding Galileo. Lake quipped, "Any bit of luck will help to give us more capacity to focus on the Tholians and the Trial."

Azra entered the conference room. She hadn't had a chance to change from her uniform. It was wrinkled and the collar had begun to show a white crust where sweat that had soaked into it was drying. She was also fully cognizant that her uniform was the cleanest of the entire away team's. She entered the room and stood stiffly against the near wall, as the leader of the Virginia away team entered the room.

Allyndra was surprised when she heard the news and turned when Warrant Officer Ghoc entered. Her appearance indicated that it had been no routine mission and before anyone else said anything she stood and jerked her head toward her seat.

"Chief Ghoc, have a seat." It was not a suggestion but the tone indicated a command. As a medical officer she almost did not go anyplace, and certainly not in the current case without a small medical device. "Let me have a look at you before we get started. Someone please get some water please."

"Thank you, doctor," Azra said. She crossed to the indicated seat and sank into it. "Ensign Mimi was on the surface during the dustup, she will likely need your assistance far more than I will."

A moment later Mimi stepped through the door, if Azra looked bad Mimi certainly looked worse, her uniform was a little torn up with rips and even burn holes where small specks of hot magma landed on it, her fur was all matted up in places and to add to all that, she was really hungry. "Commander." She simply said after seeing Luke at the head of the table and assuming he was now in command.

Coming in third after Ghoc and Mimi, Matthew entered the crowded room. He took a long look around the room and made his way to the side. He sat down and held his side. As soon as he sat down, he felt light-headed and he got very hot, very quickly. It felt good to sit, to stop moving. He wondered why the room was so dark. He would wait as long as he could. When he opened his eyes everything was grey and then it got darker. His right side was openly bleeding and he said to himself, "Oh damn...". He went ghastly white and felt like he would pass out. He just had to give them the message. These "brass asshats" as he called them. Oh? Did he say that out loud?

Captain Rasmussen heard the yeoman's announcement then witnessed three new crewmen enter the conference room with a sense of urgency not long after. One was bleeding all over himself and the other two looked...disheveled. "What is this?" he grumpily gestured to Plumeri and the other two, then looked to Kohl.

The sight of blood, especially from Matthew, roused Callin out of his stupor. His eyes went wide when he saw all the red, the deathly pale man's face. Why would they do this to him? What happened to the away team? He gripped the table, white-knuckled, to keep himself from speaking out of turn, or maybe to keep from running out of the room.

Allyndra just shook her head. These crew members needed medical attention and yet they had come to be debriefed. It showed the kind of dedication and fortitude that this crew had. She paused for only a second and then said, "Computer, please activate Emergency Medical Hologram."

The Computer chirruped a feedback tone at that request. Moments later, a holographic haze coalesced beside Allyndra in a roughly humanoid form. Photonic particles swirled and solidified into the lithe uniformed frame of Shirley, with her bright red manic-pixie-dreamgirl haircut. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency?" requested the Emergency Medical Hologram.

"Yes doctor," Allyndra replied. "If you would attend to those two patients there and transport if needed though if they are stable enough the captain and task group leader would like their input."

Nodding twice, Shirley acknowledged the order with a quick, "Aye, aye." On slow steps, Shirley circled the table, only stopping long enough to wave her medical tricorder at the officers who looked fatigued and largely bloodier than the others.

Matthew made a hacking cough that with every movement sent rivers of pain through him. His vision had settled at black and white, the color was gone from life and from his face. He heard what he thought was the EMH. Matt knew that he was injured but all he needed to do was deliver a report. He decided to act now; beg for forgiveness later. He somehow rose to his feet, gripping his side. He couldn't see anything now - he was blacking out. "The Trial....they have everything. I said the Trial. We were boarded by a heavy armored Tholian boarding party. Couldn't stop them. Our weapons....had no effect on their suits. They...they killed most of the crew. Corned them....I mean....cornered them. Tholians hunted them down. The Tholians killed us! They have all of Trial's data. Do you understand me? They have it all now. We tried to stop them dammit. Captain Tanakata...he...he...". Matt shook his head in the memory of it. "We can't just sit here and leave them out there! Tholians...they should. We should...not let them get away." His hearing now went. Everything was ringing. He slumped back into the chair and with his last bit he said, "I'm so tired."

Shirley's head snapped in Matt's direction. "Oh, hell no," Shirley muttered with alarming determination for a photonic being. As she closed the distance between herself and Matthew, she generated a second set of arms to give her greater capacity to use the range of tools in the medikit hanging from her shoulder. With four hands, she affixed a cardiostimulator to Matthew's chest and she inserted a 20-guage infuser port to allow for a continuous infusion of pharmaceuticals and fluids to make up for the blood loss. She also sprayed bandage foam on his obvious lacerations, while operating the tricorder to monitor his vitals and operate the cardiostimulator. "I don't know that I can treat him here," Shirley said in protest; "I can't say with certainty."

Plumeri felt the ministrations of someone...some angel come to help him. He held out as long as he could; he felt like he could rest now. The last thing he remembered was trying to say 'thank you'. And then his body went limp and he went unconscious.

Allyndra nodded in response to Shirley's assessment of the patient's condition. "Very good Doctor Shirley. Let us initiate and emergency transport. If you could be so kind as to check the others over?"

Rising from his chair in one swift moment, Lake ir-Llantrisant offered, "I'll take him." On one hand, the offer was motivated by a rush of care Lake felt for Matthew. They had grown close --perhaps a little too close-- through Matthew's treatment. More than that, the last time Lake had seen him, Matthew had kissed Lake and told him he would miss him. On the other hand, Lake affirmed, "Allyndra is more than capable of representing the medical department in this meeting."

Lake positioned himself behind Matthew's chair and he tapped his combadge to call for a site-to-site transport. Two heartbeats later, Matthew and Lake dematerialized in the sparkle of a transporter's annular confinement beam.

On the opposite side of the table, Shirley had shuffled to move by Mimi's side. She waved her medical tricorder and its hand sensor over the young officer's body, slowing down over the blatant lacerations and burns. "How are you feeling, dear?" Shirley asked. "Does anywhere hurt?"

"I do not think I am too bad but this one hurts the most." Mimi told Shirley motioning to an area on one of her ears, she'd felt something land on it but had resisted touching it till now, something didn't feel right and she realised a patch of her fur there had burnt off entirely. "And my stomach is making some really bad noises."

Nodding at the report of symptoms, Shirley looked Mimi in the eyes until she had finished. Raising her medical tricorder, Shirley look another look at the readings and then tucked the tricorder away in her medikit. Shirley glanced over her shoulder at Azra Ghoc, and she asked her, "How are you feeling?" All the while, she applied a hypospray to Mimi's neck and operated a tissue regenerator on the worst of Mimi's wounds.

"Tired, a bit of a headache. Likely just dehydration, but I'm no doctor," replied Azra in a low voice, in the hopes it wouldn't carry across the room.

Lowering his hand from his combadge, Commander Andreus Kohl returned to the conference table from the corner of the room, where he had tucked himself away. Looking to Allyndra and looking to Luke, Kohl made eye-contact with each of them, and he shared, "Lagrange is evacuating the critical patients from your Sickbay as we speak. They're also gathering damage control teams to beam over to Galileo momentarily."

Kohl leaned against the table, bracing his palms against the wooden edge. "Did I hear you say 'dustup', Chief?" Kohl asked, abruptly turning his gaze to Azra Ghoc. There were patients and pleasantries he had steamrolled right through, but none of that mattered. Rasmussen had given him a look. Rasmussen was expecting a situation report and options and a risk analysis, come hell or high water, even if the entire senior staff were bleeding out from head lacs. Kohl couldn't slow down. He asked, "What can you tell us about what happened on the planet?"

"We hit an ion storm but landed ok with minor damage," Mimi started to explain. "Chief Ghoc stayed with the shuttle, the rest of us headed for the protomatter signal we had picked up, at a large impact crater." She pulled her tricorder out to double check the information she was about to tell. "We found debris that looked like it was from a Federation starship, the registry number looked to be NCC-1864, then the ground.... exploded."

"What now appears to be a large, silicon-based life form emerged from the ground, followed closely by Tholian transporter signals. I warned the rest of the away team and suggested they return to the shuttle with as much speed as they could manage." Azra continued when it appeared that Mimi was having trouble continuing.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Second and Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

Commander Andreus Kohl
First Officer
USS Lagrange-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Chief Security Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

CAPT Rasmussen
Commanding Officer
USS Lagrange
[PNPC Saalm]

ENS Callin Mastrel
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Mimi
Deputy Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Azra Ghoc
Boatswain
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Matthew Plumeri
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

EMH Mark X-C "Shirley"
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

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