Yosemite - Sombre Awakening

Posted on Thu Sep 30th, 2021 @ 3:35pm by Jaas'rah & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D’BrooNi- Haistro & Lieutenant JG Sher'ra Verona & Ilyas Horn

2,048 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 3 - Fear Is Fear Itself
Location: Yosemite Sickbay
Timeline: Mission Day 4 @ 1700 Hours

ON

The lights roused him, slowly at first he tried to move knowing the EVA suit he was wearing would be heavy and cumbersome but as he lifted his arm he noticed the tell tale weight was not present. It made him jump with fright to a sitting position. It took a second or two for him to catch up and realise he was no longer in his EV Suit, in fact, he was in nothing but a crisp white sheet.

"Where am I, what happened?"

Ilyas sat up from the bed he'd been transported to. He felt disoriented, and scared but the Gorn had given him a task, he remembered he had something to do, but now he couldn't remember what. He squealed as the figure in the bed next to his bolted upright. "Who're you!" he demanded, jumping off the bed and hide on the other side. "Where are we?"

Quickly walking over, Sher’ra put up her hands to seem less of a potential threat, “it’s ok, you’re in sickbay onboard a federation starship. We are treating your injuries so for now you’ll need to stay here”

"I'm not hurt..." The child patted himself down as if to prove it. "I think he is..." He pointed at the figure next to him, "but I'm not. And who are you?"

"She means me kiddo!" The naked Orion offered in a bass tone, eyeing up the other Orion... or was she Klingon? She was lean, primed but he couldn't do much, not with the child nearby. Instead he pulled the sheet she it covered more of his lower half and maintained his modesty even if his torso was exposed and the cold of the room was causing goose bumps across his emerald flesh. "Who are you?"

Having been informed her patients were awaking, Mel walked out. "I'm doctor D'BrooNi. Our away team found you on the bridge. This is Lieutenant Verona and this young man is Ilyas. You were very clever what you did with the suit. Practically put yourself in a sort of stasis. I would love to know how you did it. And from the look of things, we can't access the logs yet but the state of everyone else you were in it a while. You might find you have some muscular dystrophy. I've given you something that will hopefully help but we will need to get you up and around likely with some gentle physio to start.

"And you must be hungry," the Trill informed him. "Perhaps you too Ilyas?" she offered hoping to make the child feel calmer. She knew he was worried as they had no word on his father yet. She had no word on Charlie or Keiben either.

"Why don't we sort that and then you can tell us what happened here," Mel suggested walking to the replicator.

Jaas'rah shifted on the biobed, feeling more than a little uncomfortable in his state of undress, which for an Orion was unusual in and of itself. He had no issue in his usual surroundings putting himself on display but right now, in this place that had attempted to kill him, surrounded by these people he did not know that worked for an organisation that would happily see the one he worked for overthrown... There was nothing he could do right now and the realisation was perplexing. He dropped back down onto the bed, putting his hands behind his head trying to act as nonchalant as possible.

The boy nodded slowly, feeling his stomach growl at the mention of food. He could see the doctor was worried, so he really didn't want to add to her worry by asking about his father, or his mother or even his annoying older brother. So... he returned his attention to the Orion, even though he'd no idea what to say to the man.

"Are you okay Lieutenant?" the Trill asked Verona. She vaguely remembered her coming in while she had been examining the Orion from the bridge and then several crew members they had managed to beam over were flocking in and out.

Sher'ra nodded, "i'm fine Doctor. I just wanted to make sure our guests weren't a threat to the ship, and between you and me, our green friend here is rather nice to look at"

Ilyias tilted his head at those words. "You like him?" he asked, not at all subtly, while turning his head back to look at the man. "Why?"

Jaas'rah could help but laugh and it was genuine mirth rather than a forced laugh at the ridiculous situation he found himself in.

"Kid, we need to have a chat about discretion I was interested to see what else the two women said... It's been a while since I had the company of..." he realised in an uncommon show of discretion given the age of the boy that his words would be highly inappropriate. "The company of such nice people!"

He started to sit up again, once again pulling the sheet so as not to expose himself and this time looked directly at the Doctor. "So I'm guessing I need to thank you people for saving me?"

“You need to thank you for saving you,” Mel said simply. “What you did to yourself enabled us to save you.” She made a show of making sure he saw her ring as she handed him some soup. It was simple and basic. She dare not push systems right now. And she wasn’t giving up on Keiben.

“Ilyas,” she handed him another bowl and for good boot pushed one into the hands of the security officer before raising her own to her lips and taking a sip. Who knew if they would get a chance to eat anything any time further.

“So,” she said after a moment locking eyes with the Orion hoping to the trill deities he had an emitter implanted, perhaps she ought to check …. “what happened?”

My Captain picked up a signal and we found this ship... Everyone was dead. I beamed over with a small away team but this thing came out of the Metrion Clouds and destroyed my ship... I had no where to go... I thought I was dead!"

He shifted uncomfortably realising in that moment he owed these people. "When can we leave and go to your ship, this one isn't going to hold together long... And why have you brought a child with you?"

The puzzle pieces didn't fit together yet and it was confusing him before finally the penny dropped into place. "That thing destroyed your ship didn't it... You are as much refugees as I am... I'm right aren't I?"

Mel nodded. “But we are going to repair this ship. It is going to hold together. You just see.”

"You are clearly not an Engineer are you Trill.... I am. This ship is dead, little more than a casket for more dead, a tomb !"

His words seemed hollow like those of a broken man not the usually vivacious character he normally was and even he could recognise that in himself. Perhaps it was the loss of his ship and crew but in truth he didn't care for them much. Was it due to his impending incarceration at the hands of the Federation when they realised who he was or at least who he worked for... maybe. With luck the ship would explode and take him with it saving him the effort of having to exist in prison.

"The Copernicus isn't destroyed," Ilyas piped up between shovelling food into his mouth. "She's just...broken. And maybe you need to find clothes..." He looked up at the doctor. "There's clothes somewhere right? I mean, he's not got much on does he?"

"If I were an engineer, you would be dead, but I for one am not giving up hope and faith in the rest of my colleagues," Mel told him simply. "And yes ... lets see what there is round here." She knew the part Klingon was enjoying the view but Ilyas had a very good point. She returned a minute later having found some surgical scrubs. "Its not designer duds but I don't want to push the replicator too much right now," she explained handing them to him hoping they were big enough.

Kill joy Sher'ra thought, as she kept a keen eye on their guest. "I think you underestimate Starfleet Engineers. Give them a stick of bubble gum and a few wires and they'll make you a warp core. Our people will keep this tin can together long enough"

Jaas'rah accepted the clothing happily but the first thing he did was tear of the sleeves from the linen top she had passed him.

"They make me feel uncomfortable..." he slipped into the top with ease but the trousers where little more complicated to navigate given he was naked and surrounded by two women and a boy. With a little time and plenty of shuffling he made it into the trousers before discarding the sheet and immediately making from the door. "I hate to admit it but I owe you people for saving me... I will go and help your engineering teams, I'm an engineer myself!"

"Why are people so ashamed about changing," Ilyas muttered, though the boy was clearly awed by the green-skinned alien. "If you're an engineer, why didn't you fix the ship before?"

“Orions usually aren't shy,” Mel told him. “So that tells me your not the typical Orion. Or typical of the Orions we know. What were you trying to do on the bridge?”

"I am far from being your typical mindless Orion!" the venom in his words palpable. Clearly she had hit a nerve but he closed his eyes, took a deep breath and composed himself. "My people butchered me as a child good Doctor... I was born with the pheromone glands the female of our species have by genetics. I have them through a rare genetic abnormality and the military took custody of me and tried to weaponize me... I am bound to... I was bound to my Captain as he saved me from a life of torture and servitude... And now I am free of all of that. I will help you people because saved me but after that I intend to escape the clutches of the Orions Syndicate and finally be my own man!"

He started again heading for the door. "And kid, if you think I was going to parade around infront of you naked then you have another thing coming... I may be Orion but I am also trained to integrate with custom!"

Before he could finally reach the door the deck shifted beneath them and the Orion had to steady himself on a nearby biobed.

"What the hell... Have they got this old bucket moving?"

Another shake of the deck, this time more violent than before as the ship was pulled into a current, or so he assumed but the motion had knocked the young lad of balance. With feline like agility and speed Jaas'rah crossed sickbay in a single leap and caught the child as he started to fall from the biobed. "You ok kid?"

Ilyas yelped as the shockwave sent him flying, only to be caught by strong - green - arms. For a moment, he thought himself to have been caught by someone entirely else, and in reflex he snuggled close. "Dad you're here..." he mumbled before realizing this wasn't his father. "I'm fine," he added, shaking his head.

“Its not Peter Ilyas,” Mel said wondering if the young boy had a crush or something on this Orion. “We will talk later about what they did to you,” she informed the Orion in a tone that said no arguments. “And I never said I thought you mindless.”

The next thing caught them all by surprise. A familiar sensation as amber light sparkled around them, the transporter effect pulling them away and clearly it was a Cardassian transporter with the dancing energy patters around them.

"What the hel...." Sher'ra said, as the transporter took hold. Rematerialising in an unfamiliar sickbay, Sher'ra quickly looked around the room, "well it would've been nice if they'd warned us first"

END

 

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