The Sun is shining.... But the ice is slippery.....

Posted on Tuesday 10 January 2017 @ 19:58 by Commander Caroline Miller & Captain John "Apollo" Barstow, M.D. & Captain Melody Jones & Lieutenant Caleb Mitchell & Major David Scarlet

Mission: Old, New Ship
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD9
2472 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Continued from 'Start of a slippery slope....'

Caroline gasped at the sudden movement and question. She didn't say anything at first immediately going into doctor mode and scanning the man. In the room one of the Marines looked at her and the arm on her. She shook her head to say no do not wade in. "I'm Dr Miller and you are safe onboard our ship." she answered not sure how much of the specifics she should go into.

Sel'Mek was trying to get his bearings. He could tell there were still drugs in his system. Judging from how his muscles felt, he could also tell he had been asleep for a very long time. He was also surprised that the woman was speaking his language flawlessly.

The room in which he found himself look enormous and very advanced. He could see emblems on the wall and on various uniformed people walking past but could see none of the captors. What had happened to his people? His mental abilities were still somewhat subdued from the drugs, but he could feel two familiar presences nearby. The other stasis pods?

He had to be very careful around these strange people. He thought to himself 'Don't give them any sensitive information. I need to find out who and what they are. If they are a threat? And if so how they can be dealt with'?

He turned back to the blond woman "How long have I been in stasis?"

Tal'vin groaned as he heard the voices that started at a distance, almost too far off to make sense of and grew closer. One he recognized as his security chief, but he did not recognize the others. As he opened his eyes, hearing the various beeps and whirls that he did not recognize, he sat up and put a hand up to shield his eyes from the lights. The Commander squinted as he looked around, had they been captured by some unknown species? He looked over at the Centurion, "quite," he barked telepathically.

"I was hoping you could tell us," Caroline answered. "We found your ship and your stasis pods in an asteroid field. How do you feel?" she asked.

Sel'Mek heard the Commander speak in his head. Without looking over to him he sent back "We need information on these people" what he said out loud was "My strength is slowly returning but I still don't feel like I'm all here." He was deliberately making out like he was weaker than he was, trying to lull these people into a false sense of security.

"I'm not very familiar with your body chemistry so it's proving a learning curve working out if our treatments can help properly restore you to what you were before going in the pod but as far as we can tell you have been in those pods for centuries. Things are very different now," Caroline said softly. Clearly what she had used to sedate them had not been powerful enough or compatible with their physiology. The Captain was not going to be happy with this development.

Sel'Mel's mouth fell open. "Centuries" he mouthed silently. He got the feeling that he had been in stasis for some years, maybe ten at most. But hundreds of years. "Where are we? I don't recognize your uniform. What happened to those who followed us?" He started to swing his legs off the biobed, trying to muster what strength he could.

Tal'vin gritted his teeth, after decades of attack after being forced off Vulcan Sel'Mel was buying into the story, I gave you an order, let me remind you who the Riov is he growled in thought and tilted his head forward slightly, rolling his eyes up just a little and focusing every thought on Sel'Mels upper thigh, causing boils to form almost instantly and start crawling slowly up towards the Centurions genitals.

"Please try not to move at the moment," Caroline said softly. "You're regaining your strength after the statis. You are onboard the Federation vessel the USS Merlin. I wear a Starfleet uniform. The colour Teal signifies I work in Science and Medical. We are the exploratory branch of the United Federation of Planets that exists now. Your ..." Caroline started. How did she explain this? "We have descendants of your species in the Federation. They are called the Vulcans now."

She frowned as an alert went off on the Bio bed of another of the aliens. A closer look showed he suddenly had a genital disease. How had that happened?

Sel'Mek grimaced in pain. He lower his head in submission. He projected back towards Tal'vin "Apologies Commander, it won't happen again."

"Look around you," the Riov said, his gaze shifting from each of the men with what he assumed were weapons from the tense stance of the aliens in gold and green, "they play friendly," he added then looked at the doctor, "prisoners do not speak, you will release us," he said in a determined voice.

"That's just a safety precaution for us. We know nothing about you. Are you friend or foe? You are alien to us, just as much as we and the situation is to you," Caroline stated firmly. "But if you're not willing to engage in a little trust and allow my team to try to heal you, I will get our CO down here to speak to you about going forward. Your ship, you see is half buried in an asteroid and power was failing. Had we not intervened you would have all died."

Tal'vin just looked around again before letting his eyes settle on the doctor, full of distrust as he studied her, "Would you trust if our positions were reversed and you were surrounded by weapons?" he asked simply then looked to Sel'Mek if they draw kill them.

"The Captain ordered them here. Not me. And I cannot go against a direct order from my CO. Like I said I can get him down here and you can discuss the issue with him. But if the situation were reversed are you telling me that you would not take safety precautions against us?" Caroline said simply. "Look I am here to treat you. I have no control over that," she indicated the marines. Other than to ask them," she turned to one of them, "To get the Captain down here. In the meantime," she devoted her attention back to the alien. "Do you wish me to continue?"

Tal'vin looked at his security chief grudgingly, truth be told the Riov would have just let the aliens die and not wasted his time or resources on them. As much as he liked control, however, Sel'Mek had been right, though the Riov was still guarded, "continue, carefully, I will watch for an opening, I do not trust them and we must get back to our fleet."

When no answer was forthcoming from the alien Caroline said again, "Do you wish me to continue?"

Tal'vin just nodded simply, keeping a wary eye on the unknown officers. His jaw tightened as he saw an officer walk by with familiar green tinted skin, yet black hair and pointed eyebrows, "Vulcan traitor," he seethed.

Caleb saw the look and heard Tal'vin's remarks and almost asked the Vulcan officer to take a step back. Instead, he took a half step towards the guest He didn't say anything and tried to look as non-threatening as possible. Right now he just wanted to defuse the situation, before it got out of hand.

Caroline looked a mixture of concern and relief when Caleb walked in. She was starting to feel nervous around these aliens. "May I introduce a colleague of mine. This is Counselor Mitchell. He will be able to help you with the shock of being in such a different time," she suggested. An alarm went off on the furthest biobed containing the female. "Excuse me one moment."

Caleb looked over at the aliens. "She's right, that's my job, I am here to help.

Caroline, now she knew what to look for as conscious for these beings could see the female had finally awoken. She had almost got to the biobed when there was an almighty scream. And more surprisingly it was in her head. A look to the others in the room confirmed that they had all heard it. The other males heads snapped around staring at her.

Caroline reached the bed as she snapped completely upright. The women grabbed her shoulders roughly. "Where is he?" she demanded verbally. The universal translator picking it up. "Where is my son?"

Sadness betrayed the blond's face as she had to tell her the news, "I am so sorry. We were only able to rescue 3 of the 4 pods." The alien screamed again this time out loud.

TAG ANY reactions

"But," she said loudly. "There's a fourth pod intact. Someone else took it," she looked to the first alien that had been communicating. He had also decided to sit up. "We have to get our son."

Caroline felt awful and was trying to calmly formulate a response that she did not know who had the other pod but if they could get the Captain down it could be discussed. However,before she could open her mouth the female was staring intently at the first alien.

Fethraie knew she was in pain physically, she knew she was confused. But she also knew the last thing she could remember before being sealed in the pod was giving birth. Her mother's instinct was taking over. The only other familiar thing was her mate Tal'vin and he was resisting her mind brush. She knew it was forbidden to question your CO but they had shared so much. And this was their son. So she forced communication and then stiffened at what she discovered.

Caroline was flung roughly to one side as she was out of the biobed. "You did not spare our son," she screamed. "He was not in the other pod. You lying evil son of a Torak."

As the aliens started to surround her and block her path she laughed using telekinesis to flung them also to the walls. "I gave myself to you. I followed you. You promised me our son would be free to live. To have a life."

Tal'vin stood slowly, his eyes narrowing as he looked at her, "he is alive, despite you being a amton'wi'kha (promiscuous),” he said, lasing out himself, his grip tightening as he pulled his focus together to prepare to attack anyone who stepped forward.

"LIES," she screamed. "And you," she yelled at the other male. "You knew. You were part of it." Her face darkened and her eyes intensely settled on the Tal'vin who started to squirm.

Tal'vin could not react fast enough against not just the scorn of a woman, but the scorn and pure, unadulterated hate of a brokenhearted mother. All he could do was sudden his eyes until his eyelids no longer held his eyeball in place.

Ignoring all pleas she continued concentrating. Caroline had no idea what was happening until steam started rising from the male aliens heads, them beginning to convulse. The blood vessels in their eyes popped and blood began to trickle down from their ears. Caroline didn't need a tricorder to guess what was likely to happen next. She locked eyes with Caleb, "Get back,"

Two alien heads exploded from the male bodies and blood flew in every which direction splattering down on all of them. It was like it happened in slow motion.

The female alien stepped back and started breathing heavily. "What ...... what have I done ........."

Caleb's eyes grew wide at the gory exhibition of power and he was only mildly relieved that the woman now seemed to regret her actions. He knew he had to act before things started to escalate. Holding his hands up, palms, out, at shoulder level, he walked towards the woman. "It's okay," he said soothingly. Just try to stay calm and we can talk about it."

"Don't come near me. No further," she demanded shaking. Her eyes shifted to Caroline still on the floor. "This is a different time. Everything I know is gone. Our empire, my ship, my baby. My mate ......" she looked at the remains a hint of sadness and horror from her earlier actions. You must kill me. I cannot live with this burden."

Caroline shook her head. "I sorry but I am sworn to oath that I heal not kill patients."

Her eyes darkened and Caroline could feel the adrenaline in her system kicking in. Was she, or they next?

"So be it," she insisted looking around at the remainder of the federation staff, eyes now fixating on one of the yellow shirts. A flash of understanding flittered on her face as she pulled out of the other mans head what the device was in his hand. "I'll do it myself."

Another impressive display of telekinesis power was witnessed by the room as the phaser flew from his hand and powered up to full power. It stopped floating in front of her at point blank range.

Caleb didn't hesitate, he flung himself grabbing at the phaser. As he struggled he said to her, "if you kill yourself you'll kill me too. Do you want to take another life?"

Her eyes narrowed at him and she used her telekinesis again. Not as roughly or angrily but Caleb found himself compelled to just walk back to where he had been. He had no control as the phaser easily slipped out his hand and floated back to the position it had been in.

"I do not go from one male manipulating my life to another, and I take my own life."

"NOOOOOooooo," Caroline screamed in horror as they watched.

The phaser fired and in seconds she was disintegrated in front of all of them. Nothing was left but black charcoaled dust that fell all over the floor.

Caleb slowly sank to the floor, his head in his hand. He had tried to fight back, to resist, but he had no control over his movement. Now that it was done, that she was dead he felt equally helpless and he had to wonder to himself if he could have done something, anything different to change the outcome.

Caroline after a few moments stood up shakily and pressed her comm. badge asking to be patched through to the bridge so this could be reported.

OFF


Dr Caroline Miller
Chief Medical Officer

Lt. Caleb Mitchell
Counselor
USS Merlin

Commander Tal'vin (APN Barstow)
Romcan Commander
RRV Tri'jema

Centurion Sel'Mek (Jones)
Chief of Security
RRV Tri'Jema

Centurion T'La (Miller)
Chief of Engineering
RRV Tri'Jema