Ep1 Act3: The Golden Hind

[Nevian]

Sai'tan sighed and slowly sat down against nearest solid bulkhead or support.

" Captain, the UT will process simple commands .. the ship .. " his eyes closed for an extended blink, " needs coaxing, not a whip. "

He looked exhausted, pale with a grey tinge and shadows under his eyes, the skin on his face looser than it had been a few minutes ago.

" I'm sorry, P'Trell.. I must rest.. the ship can form passages as needed if it understands what you want. "

He leaned back and closed his eyes, " I used a lot of energy to program the translator matrix, now I must pay. "

A slow breath later, he fell into a deep trance from which hours would probably pass before he would awaken.

[SabrinaPandora]

Leaning over the unconscious Vulcan, P'Trell first checked his vitals, than rolled him in the crinkly foil blanket he had been using as a cloak, preventing the deck from leeching away his body heat. Ginerly she stroked his hair, then whispered to him. "Sleep, pointy-ears. You did your duty, and I will do mine. You gave us a chance, and I will make sure it gets us home, I think."

Rising, the blue brawler pointed to the unconscious form she had tended to as best she could. "Chief Saitan is very unconscious, Captain Santra Arron. He does not need guarding anymore, I think."

~tag anybody

[Sjet]

"Really? Is that your informed medical opinion Lieutenant P'Trell? Or maybe like our Chief Engineer you are inferring some profound knowledge from your feelings?" Santra said with such acid in his voice that it seemed a little underhanded to call it 'cutting'. The Bajoran looked at his scanner and gave the barest nod to himself before snapping it closed "It does seem as though we are rising through the atmosphere. We'll more than likely be in contact with the Starbase soon. Once we have the ability to mount a successful search, with the aid of the 82nd Construction Company, we will make a thorough survey of this vessel for our missing crewmen."

"'Our' missing crew, Captain Santra?" Captain Sjet said, his usual jovial nature turning a touch icy at the Bajoran's words "I didn't know you subscribed to the fraternity of Starfleet."

"I dont." Santra said coolly as he stood back up "But I thought reminding you half your crew and ship are missing in action might be considered kicking a man when he's down."

"I appreciate the thought." Sjet said, before unbuckling the phaser from his hip and doing a passable check on its power cell "But I'm not going to wait for us to reach orbit. Chief Sai'tan was able to coax marginal responses out of this thing by nearly giving himself a aneurysm, odds are fair to long we'll come up to orbit out of range of the Starbase. I'm taking Ensign Ryler and Lieutenant P'Trell to help me mount the search."

"You will do no such thing!" Santra barked "They are my crew-"

"Well ya could have fooled me!" barked back the bigger dog of the two, the younger captain taking a none to polite step towards the old Bajoran "I pitied the Hell out of your command staff after the first week on board the Tim Allen, thinking they had a commanding officer who seemed to go out of his way to make sure they were never recognised for a single God damned thing they did right. But now, after this fun little adventure I see it was never intentional...you're just blind to them. They. Don't. Matter. To. You!"

There was a silence, heavy with tension as Sjet worked his jaw back from grinding his teeth into dust. He then seemed to relax, a pitious look on his face as he looked at Santra.

"But they matter more than you know. They follow us, and we lead them: can't have one without the other. One day you'll be the one lost and alone, and you'll be wondering where your crew is and when their coming for you. Got me this feeling you would be left waiting a long time. Duty ain't free, we got to pay it forward or there's no point putting on the uniform otherwise." Sjet looked to Dr Zuub and Lieutenant Jones "I'll leave you two here to look after Chief Sai'tan and monitor the situation. If you can get in contact with the Starbase, maybe look into getting us off of this thing...well that would be something wonderful."

He didn't say look after a Bajoran who seemed ready to have a fit of venom induced rage, seemed like the sort of thing not worth mentioning.

TAG-Zuub and Jones (You get to play with a angry Santra, call this the payment for finding better things to do than write fiction )

Sjet looked back to Ryler and P'Trell.

"Ladies, if you'll kindly check your side arms and scanners, we'll make short work of finding the rest of my crew and making sure they're safe and accounted for." he nodded to Ryler "Make sure we're carrying one of the med kits just in case their alien survivor is someone we can talk to."

Also in case we need to patch up the bullet magnet of an Andorian, he thought.

TAG-All

[SabrinaPandora]

[Ciara Mei]

[Aoife]

Despite the cold biting into her hands and body, Emerald couldn't help but admire the.. bravado.. the stupidity.. the insane capability of beings to fight at the worst moments. The slow, insolent clap of her hands echoed for a moment. "Oh bravo," she muttered, before pretending that she'd been clapping to keep warm. The truth was, she felt out of her depth, and desperately wanted something to numb the fear that was trickling along her nerve endings. Every single sharp sound caused her heart to jump, and her body to feel tight.

She sullenly bent over a comm badge that she was working on. She'd been concentrating on it to the point of obsession for the last while. Any sort of diversion to calm her nerves.. keep them down where they needed to be. Tucked back behind the brick wall she constructed in her mind. She glanced at one of the medkits, her tongue touching her bottom lip as if tasting something there.. She bit down and turned away. Not now.. it would kill them all if she gave in now.

Emerald Jones tweaked a few more settings on the badge, before trying to contact the starbase again. She was about at the point of devolving the signal to an ancient code of taps and spaces if she couldn't get an answer soon.

[Sjet]

Sjet lead P’Trell and Ryler out of the bridge dome and back into the conference room, walking past the walking wounded of the other survivors and the snarky science officer. Sjet wished he had had a chance to double check her figures before they transported, but seeing as no one had been reported half melted into the floor it was all jake in his book. He gave her a nod as they passed, if only because her voice carried and others had listened.

The former captain of the USS Tim Allen would chid himself later about his out burst. First rule about being a commanding officer was to make sure you were fit to command others, that also meant keeping your nose out of another commands mess. He was pretty sure a board of inquiry would side with him, extenuating circumstances and all that, but he;d not put it past Santra to slip him something in his tea. That Bajoran seemed to have a capacity for duplicity that would make a Cardassian blush.

Then again, if half the rumours about Doctor Santra Arron were true…well blushing Cardassian’s would be the least of anyones troubles.

The trio got into the conference room where P’Trell’s wounds had been neatly, if not entirely colour co-ordinately, healed. And still the door way out of the back was barred with the same mesh work of gold strands. Sjet reached for his passer again, checking the power setting was dialed to high yield and narrow focus…and then checked himself.

“Okay Chief Sai’tan….lets see if your mental jujitsu was worth the effort.” he mumbled to himself, before speaking directly to the door in a clear and commanding tone “Open door.”

And so it did, the vine like gold strands falling apart and sliding back into the angular frame like foliage. He looked over his shoulder to two fearless fighting females, and turned back to the now open doorway and stepped through. The reality of the exterior was underwhelming, with a long arcing corridor running to left and right of the bridge dome. The walls were high and triangular, rising to a arched point above their heads, with that fey golden light emanating from the walls. No runes or markings flickered on the walls.

Sjet turned his scanner from left, and then to the right as he watched the readings swing down and then up.

“We head right.” he said with a nod “Aft and out to the starboard if these readings are anything to go by.”

He kept his phaser in one hand, scanner in the other as he moved along the corridor. Every now and then they’d come to a raised lip that ran from ceiling to floor, and across to the opposite wall. It formed a high pointed ridge that they had consciously step over to proceed. There seemed to be such a ridge every dozen paces or so as they walked the long, doorless corridor.

“What do you think those are?” Sjet asked as he checked their heading on the scanner, and then nodded to one of the ridges “Emergancy pressure seals? If I was a betting man I’d put my money on them being just that: able to cut off certain sections of the ship.”

TAG-Adventurers

Of course why you’d need to lock off a sealed bubble inside of a ship, far away rom the hull and the vacuum of space, left space for a variety of options.

“P’Trell, try and keep a line open to the folks back on th bridge. I’d hate for us to wander into something dangerous and not get the warning because the hazard lights were blinking up there and not here.” he asked politely.

TAG-P’Trell.

[SabrinaPandora]

[Nevian]

The nominal vulcan healing trance paralleled a coma in many ways. The body shuts down to minimum resource usage, body temperature, respiration and heart rate reduce to barely detectable levels.
In humans, the higher brain functions nearly disappear, perhaps the consciousness goes to into the realm of dreams.. In vulcans the trained mind can remain active, conscious to some degree.

For Sai'tan, he had welcomed the resting state. His body was no longer young and the risks of the last hour had strained his abilities.. The mind meld had been traumatic enough on it's own.. but the accelerate, risky even in the best of situations, had nearly been fatal. A few moments more and he would have lost sections of his frontal lobes.

But now, he entered a deep trance, almost a dream like state where he was mostly unconscious but aware, dreaming of his body and it's injuries. Wounded sadness colored his being in reds and blacks. Then he willed light with an effort that left him figuratively gasping, light which sputtered and flared weakly from his core barely driving shadows back.. Then slowly, healing began.
Weary now, even more than before, he collapsed, falling into restful darkness.

He continued to fall, then floated free as an image of the alien ship rising at the center of a soap bubble into a storm and rising upwards swept over him.
The ship took a winged form and rose further to soar, transforming into a large hunting bird, to glide down to a welcoming branch where he found himself sitting.

The bird cocked it's head and looked at him curiously before speaking.
" This is most strange. "

" Indeed. This is not my dream. " Sai'tan answered.

" Nor mine, yet here we find ourselves. "

Sai'tan's narrowed in thought, " I have had no time to process the consequences of the meld. "

The bird might have given an amused trill of song, " A savings of time then. I left more of myself than intended, your method of deep transfer was unexpected, swift wind that swept away control.. " one wing ruffled, " This remnant was only intended to give you hints to your conscious mind and then expire soon. "

Looking down, over the limb he straddled, Sai'tan saw the tree trunk sank toward infinity.

" Is this a hint. "

" Everything here is a hint. " was the response as the bird took wing and swept around the trunk, reappearing to show one wing pierced and bleeding.
" The song has many harmonies. "

[Ciara Mei]