A Snake in the Grass

Posted on Wednesday 21 April 2021 @ 13:30 by Captain Melody Jones & Lieutenant Commander Hayley Godding & Lieutenant Nir’anyar

Mission: A Cry from the Darkness
Location: Ceti Beta 4
Timeline: MD5 1600
1823 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

An ocean of makeshift tents, prefab buildings, shuttlecraft and the like was all that could be seen. Local medical personnel, Starfleet Medical personnel and much to Anya's chagrin, a full contingent of marines from Merlin getting under the feet. Anya was stood in the middle of this torrent of noise trying to organise it all with the help of the local medical leaders, like a conducting standing at the head of the orchestra.

"Have the isolation wards set up away from the main staging area and make sure we have as many shuttles as we can spare for transporting the more severe cases up to Merlin", she handed the PADD of one of her Nurses before turning on another Federation medical officer. "Make sure those labs are hermetically sealed and Merlin has a data feed set up with them."

"Excuse me, are you a Doctor?" A timid voice came from behind Anya. It belonged to a human woman with fair skin, green eyes, dark brown hair, and an obviously visible baby bump showing which she was holding in her hands. The woman kept nervously looking at the floor as she spoke. "Everyone is getting sick and I'm worried about my baby." She smiled sweetly at Anya.

Behind the smile, the woman was taking in the setup and observing what everyone was doing. These Federation fools weren't going to interfere with her well laid plans, she thought to herself.

Keeping up her masterful performance, she continued. "Can you help me?"

"I am a Doctor, Nir'Anyar but most everyone just calls me Anya" Anya took in the woman before her, she had to admit, this was something she had not considered but amniotic fluids had tremendous healing abilities in most species. "And I will try and help you of course. Maybe you could be of use to us in fighting this infection as well!"

The woman held out a hand. "Hello Anya, I'm... Missy." She then looked slightly embarrassed. "I'm afraid my motivations for coming here weren't as selfless as wanting to help everyone else. I just wanted to make sure my baby was ok. I don't know if I can help everyone. So far, I've managed to avoid catching.... whatever this is that's going around. Also, my baby is half Trill, could that cause complications?"

"It shouldn't make too much of a difference truth be told, but I will run some scans to make sure!"
Anya lead them both over to the nearest prefab building and motioned for Missy to hop up onto the biobed in the room while she started the generator and booted up the equipment.

Missy managed to get on the biobed. "So, you're in Starfleet. Which ship are you on?"

"Merlin, the large ship in orbit".

Anya offered while she finished booting up the prefabs built in mainframe and initialized the uplink with Merlin's medical database.

"So how many weeks left?" the Benzite turned around, motioning to the baby bump as she snapped up the medical tricorder from her hip holster.

Her eyes narrowed slightly at the mention of the Merlin. "I'm not sure. I think I'm about 5 months along. As I said, I wasn't sure if the baby being half Trill made a difference. The father did a runner on me. If I see him again, I'll kill him." she said, without a hint of irony or humour."

Anya had started to scan the baby and narrowed her eyes, confusion blossoming across her features before turning to suspicion... was this woman lying to her, or was she simply unaware of the baby's lineage?
"Well, your baby is very healthy and yes you are almost five months along... however the baby is not part Trill and any Doctor would have seen this even at the three week stage of the pregnancy... Your baby is part Vulcan so is there something you are not telling me?"

A cold fury flashed across her face. "What!" The kindness left her eyes and she fixed her with a deadly stare, Her mind working "Are you Sure?" she asked her slowly.

"To coin an Earth phrase, You should know my answer by the way I’m nodding my head up and down." all form of subtlety evading her thought process at this point.

She was breathing heavily, her hands were now gripping the edge of the biobed, her knuckles turning white. "There was another, a Vulcan. He... He forced himself on me." She now started to tremble and tears well in her eyes. A truly masterful performance.

"And the polygraph scan my tricorder is currently running shows that you are still lying to me!"
Anya took a slight step back, showing the women her tricorder and the flashing red indicators while silently moving her free hand down to her phaser... Something here was very wrong.

She looked at her for a moment, sizing the young woman up. "Very well, let's put a pin in that one, shall we? This is still my baby and my personal life is none of your business. As long as my baby is healthy that's all I care about. Is my baby alright?" The warms in her eyes had gone, and she looked at Anya with a cold, hard stare.

"Aside for the usual potential complications from a hybrid birth, your baby is healthy and fit!"
Anya remained at a distance, not wanting to come too close to this woman sensing rather than knowing she was dangerous.

All the tears and pretence were dropped as the woman sat up on the biobed and noted how far the Doctor was standing away from her. She smiled. "You're a smart one. I like smart people." She fixed Anya with a cold stare "They know not to screw with me. Tell anyone else about this and I'll slit your throat."

The woman got up off the biobed "I think we're done here Doctor." She turned before leaving adding with a sinister smile "I'll be seeing you." before walking out.

Just outside the medical complex, a man was stood waiting. He fell into step beside her as she walked past, keeping his voice low. "What are your orders?"

"Prepare the device for launch into orbit. Once it cripples their communication and engines, move in with the strike team. Take the ship. Kill them all if you have to."

He stopped and put his hand on her arm "Are you crazy? we'll never be able to take over..." He stopped as he saw the look on her face and quickly removed his hand from her arm. "Take the ship, Yes mistress. What about the medical complex?"

She turned at looked at it for a moment, then said with a smile "Burn it to the ground. No survivors."

Back in the prefab medical unit Anya was still in shock, she hadn't moved from the spot, not wanting to risk antagonising the women and sensing something highly malevolent and dangerous radiating from her like the suns corona. She took a moment after the doors had closed to compose herself, her hands were still shaking.

This needed to be reported though and with those same shaking hands she tapped her combadge and opened a channel.
"Doctor Anya to Merlin, I need to speak to Security!"

=/\= USS Merlin, Main Bridge =/\=

Standing at the main tactical station, Hayley lamented the boredom of being one of the ones who had to stay behind when there was an away mission underway. True, it did give her more time with Sansa, which was always a positive.

The call from the surface came through and was as usual routed to her console, since it wasn't aimed directly for the Captain. "Godding here, what's the problem Doctor?"

"Commander, please forgive the intrusion. I did not want to bother the Marines with this, they have enough on their plate right now. I have just had a most uncomfortable encounter with a pregnant human" where to start, and was this really a matter for ship board security... The threat on her life was cause enough. "A young women that gave me the name of Missy asked me to check her baby over, lied to me about its genetic heritage, continued to lie to me even after I called her ruse and then threatened to slit my throat... I am fine and this young women has gone but I thought I should alert someone... She made my tendril ganglia itch"

She used the colloquialism common on her own planet that meant the same as the old Human saying of 'someone walked over my grave' but gave no explination to that.
"Something smells fishy and its not me for a change!"

Hayley couldn't help but chuckle at the colourful use of cliche's that the Chief Medical Officer was attempting to use. That being said however, any threats against Starfleet personnel should be taken seriously, else she would be negligent in her responsibilities of protecting the ship and crew. "Very well Doctor, we'll look into this for you. A quick check of your facilities security systems will help us to determine who this person was and we can send an officer to have a discreet word..."

"I am afraid the security systems were not functioning. I powered up an unused prefab unit... I did not think that recording devises would have been needed... I will know better for next time" Anya added forlornly.

Sighing, Hayley shook her head. Why did they always disregard security protocols?! Scientists and Doctors... always the same. Some of the brightest and most intelligent people in the Federation, yet utterly stupid in the ways of how the universe actually ran. This now made their job a thousand times harder trying to find one lone human female on an entire colony who may have lost their temper with a Starfleet doctor. It did change the equation somewhat. "See that you do, Doctor. Just because the marines are running security on the ground, doesn't mean normal protocol goes out the window. Next time you forget, I'll have to mention it to Commander Rejal." Hayley said, chastising her. "In the meantime, I'll send a bulletin to the marine commander to be on the lookout for this lady with instructions to detain for questioning. Best I can do from up here."

"Much appreciate Commander... and I can assure you I have learnt from my mistake!" which she could categorically say she had. "I will keep my eyes peeled also and report in if I see her again... thank you Commander"
She closed the line and immediately turned to activate the units security uplink.

OFF:

Missy
???
npc Jones

●● Lieutenant Nir’anyar
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin


○●● Lieutenant Commander Hayley Godding
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Merlin