PLOT - Joint Duty Log - LtCmdr Waterhouse, Cmdr Grant, Cmdr PontBrillant, Ensign Maxwell & PO2 Rayya - "Yo-Ho-Ho And A Bottle Of Rum!”

Posted on Tue Sep 23rd, 2014 @ 4:55am by Commander Amelia Waterhouse & Vlimar PontBrillant & Commander Logan Grant, PhD. & Ensign Robyn Maxwell & Petty Officer 2nd Class Rael Rayya

2,571 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Are You Touched?

-=/\=- CONTINUE AWAY MISSION LOG -=/\=-

As Amelia took a step back, the shield jolted to life with a zap, followed by a low hiss as the light spread from the point of impact like ripples on a pond. What looked like a seed pod bounced back, hit the edge of the ship sized trough, and rolled down to stop just in front of the shield. As she glanced at the shield generators, the shield zapped and hissed again. And again, and again. Soon one side of the shield was constantly alight from impact, the sound of it almost drowning out the clicking and screeching from the beings.

Vlimar observed where the hits seem to originate. It was obvious that the projectiles were inoffensive for the structure of the vessel, but could easily injure an unprotected human. Vlimar looked back at Amelia. "We can move the generator forward, until we can accomplish first contact, if you wish," he stated calmly.

The automatic response was to cringe as the 'missiles' came flying towards her but after the first few it was the brilliant light that made Robyn half close her eyes. Who ever was throwing them certainly intended to show their victims they meant business even if it was only with seed pods.

Robyn looked down at the growing pile outside the shield and saw that some were actually quite large with a hard outer shell similar to small coconuts.

Rael was kneeling, weapon still at the ready position. "Ideas?" he asked scanning the jungle line.

"They only seem to be pelting us from one side... Maybe we should go in the opposite direction?" Amelia suggested, looking to Vlimar for a second opinion. "Would we be able to move the shield with us and have it still work? It wouldn't stay intact through the tree line though, would it?"

"We can always remodulate it to form a wall instead of a circle. That way, we can using it as a deflector while we relocate," he stated with a shrug. "One way or another, we could always stun them if it gets too dangerous," he added, clearly unworried.

"Okay, so we've got an idea for movement, how about communicating with them?" Rael asked, keeping his eyes on the jungle and the pod piles growing.

"The universal translator can't make heads or tails of their... speech," Amelia answered Rayya's question. The question gave her pause as something else occurred to her. "Do we see any signs of technology on them? The prime directive could apply," she pointed out.

Vlimar observed, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. "I do not think so. They seem to have... nothing on," he stated, observing.

Amelia tried to look at the beings through the flash of the shield, eventually turning to look at the couple that crouched in the bushes to the side and behind them. The ones not yet throwing seed pods. "They've already been contaminated, we can't undo that. We have no evidence of the crew not surviving the crash, in fact they quite probably did survive. Any recommendations?"

"Can't we make some gesture of...peace?" Robyn asked as another particularly heavy volley of pods hit the shield. "I mean...they've watched us approach carrying weapons so obviously they think they have to defend themselves."

Vlimar looked at Robyn. "That's a good idea, Ensign. It's worth a try," he stated, nodding to Sørensen to drop her weapon, while he did the same, raising his hands so they were visible.

"Rayya, stand down," Amelia directed.

Rael nodded and lowered his weapon, slowly standing, showing his hands so the creatures could see they were empty. "I don't like this idea," he said quietly, his Marine attitude popping up.

When the scientist lowered his weapon, the beings who stood to the side not throwing seed pods started screeching and clacking louder. Slowly the pods stopped hitting the shield and it went quiet with nothing more than a faint shimmer to remind the crew of its presence. The one who'd appeared first stepped forward, continuing to speak, thought the universal translator was still not having any luck making heads or tails of it. Amelia raised her hands wide at shoulder height.

"Lower the shield," she said softly to Vlimar, making eye contact with the one she took to be the leader. On the edge of her vision, something caught her eye. One of the beings behind the downed ship had a pirate hat on its head. She winced as she recognized it. "Now."

Vlimar immediately lowered the shield at the "now", slowly reorienting his position so he could offer protection to Amelia by proximity if she was targeted. He kept eye contact with Rayya and Sørensen, keeping himself aware of their situation and the location of their weapons.

After a quick sideways glance at Vlimar, Amelia stepped towards the being she took to be the leader. "Do you know Noah?" she asked. The screeching and clicking went into a frenzy, and the one wearing the hat pulled it off his head to wave it. Amelia almost swore she heard something similar to the word 'touched' in the cacophony, but she dismissed it assuming it was her ears playing tricks on her. The being stepped forward and grabbed Amelia by the hand, quickly tugging her toward the tree-line like an insistent child.

Rael was about to raise his weapon, but stopped knowing that would be an unwise move. He looked back to Vlimar to see if they should follow or not; as the creature tugged on the commander, Rael took a few steps forwarded to follow.

Robyn glanced around thinking that there were a lot of these little beings all of whom were in a highly excited state and seed pods or not, things could quickly escalate.

Vlimar remained close to Amelia, signaling Sørensen to offer support on the opposite side; both kept their weapon hidden by their sides. Vlimar kept his hands up and, upon Amelia being tugged, followed two meters behind her the entire time, careful to not display any aggression, his actions mirrored by his fellow security officer.

"Stay with me," Amelia directed, letting herself be guided into the tree line. "Try not to expose them any further to any tech. Keep it put away and turned off," she added, though she was pretty sure it really didn't need to be said. The rest of the beings surrounded the team, any who didn't move quickly enough got poked, prodded, and screeched at until they did.

"Ok..okok! I'm going." Robyn said to the small being who gave a hearty jab to her lower ribs. She quickened her steps.

Rael did his best to hide his Marine phaser assault rifle behind his pack, but he kept his hand near his Ka-Bar, unsure what was gonna happen next.

The path they took through the jungle didn't seem to follow a straight line, and they walked for easily a half hour before they reached a clearing. Within there were more of the creatures and a ragged looking group of people, mostly humans. A couple stood out, being significantly taller than the others: one blond one with faded spots and a soft Klingon forehead ridge and the other a dark haired human. As the group broke through the tree line, Amelia took off like a shot at the blond one, catching him in a tight hug.

"Do you know how much trouble you're causing me?" she demanded of him as they pulled apart, punching him in the shoulder. He grinned wide at her.

"Prime directive doesn't apply to civies," he dismissed.

"Know her?" The being that had guided Amelia here by the hand had moved up next to them, and now it tugged at Noah's pant leg as what sounded like a universal translator spoke over his screeching. Amelia looked down at her combadge, and Noah shook his head, producing from somewhere a pin that looked like a wad of spaghetti and meatballs. "Safe?" the pin said as the creature screeched again.

"It took it a couple days to decipher their language," Noah explained and looked down at the creature. "Amelia's my sister," he explained and the pin screeched and clicked.

The insanity only brought with it hope that they'd been rescued. One more story about the flying not of noodles and Logan knew he'd lose the plot and there'd be no more Noah Waterhouse. The beings that he'd argued endlessly about protecting and not 'converting' to the cult nonsense that Noah spouted had gone completely mad when they'd noticed the away team. Fear had spread like wildfire that the Federation had tracked them to the location of the crash and they were all about to die.

Enter Amelia Waterhouse.

Rumors of a redhead with ridges had immediately caught the Kiwi's ears, there'd been only two that he'd ever heard of and this one wasn't the spotted one. This one was the hot mess he'd talked with on the Griffin, sister to the psycho that had helped him off that Godforsaken station. When she appeared it meant Starfleet had found them and safety was alight. It meant he was free from the perdition that he'd found, much to the chagrin of a couple doe eyed hippies that were in Noah's clan. They pouted as soon as they saw the light in his pretty green eyes once more flick on, he was leaving them like he swore he would. He wanted to go home to Andrea, finally.

"Hello, Pond." He drawled, coming to a rest a few feet off Noah's right shoulder. He knew it would be nearly impossible to identify him with how wildly unkempt he was. Bleach him and he could have passed for a street clothed version of Chippendales' take on Santa Claus.

Real's grip tightened slightly around his Ka-Bar handle. "What happened?" Rael asked.

Amelia's eyes darted back at Rayya when he spoke, and she clicked her tongue at him. "Hands off your weapons," she directed, and turned her attention back to the familiar voice. A voice that didn't make sense to be here... he would have been on Earth with his wife and kids, right? One of the people that Dani had run off to save. She studied him a long moment, searching for his eyes — everything else about this wild man who stood before her did not match who she expected that voice to be attached to. His eyes said it all though.

"Dr. Grant," she said with a smile.

"In the flesh." Logan admonished her with a small bow and the creatures clacked wildly about him, tugging and pushing. He ignored them. Too much damage had been done by them crashing onto that planet. Feeding them spaghetti had absolutely driven him up the wall. These were creatures on an evolutionary course, not pets - or so he'd argued with Noah - but there had been no appeasing or swaying him. "While you might not be Starfleet," He tutted at the slightly taller boy, "I am, and this has been a travesty." That would be all the credence he'd give Noah Waterhouse before he lifted his brows at the boy's sister and her armed escorts, "I'm Logan Grant, Commander Logan Grant, a Starfleet psychologist and I'd really like to get off this planet now."

"Of course, we should just find somewhere more... private, for beam up. So as to not add to my little brother's efforts," she said with a sigh, directing a look up at Noah. "Can you ask your friends to stay here?" she directed at him. He opened his mouth as if to protest, and the look she directed at him caused him to shut his mouth and quickly nod. "Sørenson, with me please. PontBrillant, you're in charge here until I see the Commander is beamed up safely, and we'll evaluate what to do with this... situation."

With that all said and done, Logan released the breath he'd been holding in a relieved sigh and took several steps forward with his halting, lame gait. His cane had been left behind in a last minute bid for freedom off the station. Going back for it would have meant certain death for the academy accredited psychologist, something he considering an unworthy risk knowing that replicators could replace it in a heartbeat. "Fine. Let's get this done and over with because you have much bigger fish to fry here." his head shook as he cast a cold glance towards the colander wearing part-Klingon as he walked past.

Amelia noted the way Dr. Grant moved, and subtly offered him her arm. She didn't want to draw attention in case he didn't want the help, but she certainly didn't want to fail to at least offer. "Obviously Noah's made a mess of the solution," she said to him softly as they walked, looking for somewhere out of view to call for the beam up. "Is there anything in particular you feel I should be aware of before trying to clean it up?"

"You have no idea." Moving was a small effort with the way the plants and grasses grew on the planet, but that hardly came as a surprise knowing that they were in Klingon space. Everything was a nightmare in Klingon space. Everything. Logan sighed as he accepted Amelia's help, for all of her shortcomings she was still a loyal person at heart and old loyalties, it seemed, died hard. "He's bent on making this entire planet some new cult center. Save him from himself, Amelia, because the Klingons won't take kindly to this." He replied, stopping their forward progress, "Here is fine. I'll put together a briefing once I get settled in and have a shower. We'll do what we can to solve this problem before it gets even further out of hand, I know he's your brother, but this is complete stupidity."

"It is," she agreed, plucking her combadge off her uniform. "In the short term, I'll try to get him to collect his flock and let us drag them off the planet. Unfortunately, he is right in that he's not legally bound by the prime directive, so I have to try to talk sense into his noodle touched head." She sighed and she triggered her combadge. "Waterhouse to Vindicator, one to beam up. Lock onto my combadge." As she said that, she placed the combadge on Dr Grant's shirt.

"Acknowledged, Commander. Standby."

"You might like to know, a certain tricky engineer told me that your wife and kids are safe, though the fleet is still working to free Earth," Amelia said. She almost didn't... she wasn't sure if it was her place, but she wanted to give him some good news.

"Ready to beam up on your signal, Commander."

"I never doubted that they'd come out of this. You know Andrea." He grinned brightly, "good luck with Noah. He's touched alright." And with that, the Kiwi hit the combadge on his chest and a moment later the shimmering whine of the transporter claimed him, beaming him away from the planet's surface and back to the reality of Starfleet.

-=/\=- TO BE CONTINUED -=/\=-

Lt Commander Amelia Waterhouse
Executive Officer
USS Vindicator

Commander Logan Grant
Starfleet Psychologist

Petty Officer Rael Rayya
Science Mate Second Class
USS Vindicator

Robyn Maxwell
Medical Officer
USS Vindicator

 

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