A Ship, Darkly - Part II

Posted on Fri Nov 13th, 2015 @ 4:04pm by Ensign Six of Ten & Niro & Lieutenant Bajun Julisa & Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: EFS Korenna

Pushing Six ahead of him, Darwin did as Julisa yelled, waiting till the attorney was inside before shoving the level into place and closing the hatch. The creature outside slammed against the metal. “What the hell was that?”, he asked, blind in the darkness again.

“Julisa?” Six turned to her. “What was it? And is it something I can get rid of?”

“No!” Julisa shook her head. “No, you can’t get rid of it!” She was shaking, partly from fear, partly from excitement. “My mother used to tell me about those; they were sacred, but the Cardassians... they hunted them to extinction during the Occupation. It’s a... um... the best likeness might be a Terran panther? But with scales and a venomous bite. She used to tell me that the Cardies hated having a scaly competitor that was even more poisonous than they are.”

“Then apparently we are going to need weapons. But...if the Cardassians hunted them to extinction, what is it doing outside this ship? None of this is possible unless….” She turned to Niro. “Get me to engineering.”

Darwin went for an easy answer: “Are we on a holodeck? Is this some sort of training program? I’m going to kill Gilroy if this is his idea of a training program.”

“Engineering, Niro,” Julisa nudged the ship owner.

“Okay, come on. We should probably stick together,” he took Julisa’s and Six’s hands and started walking, guided only by the light from Six’s implant. Several turns and a ladder later, they arrived at engineering. “Where the hell is my crew, though?”, Niro complained.

“They had to be on the ship when we left,” Six observed. “But there is no one here. I’ll see what I can do about at least getting auxilliary power up and running or we’ll be running short of breathable air soon.” She paused as she looked back at Niro. “I hope you don’t mind a few minor modifications? For now?”

“I like being able to breath. And maybe you can get us to a point where we can lift off?” He was asking for the moon and knew it.

“That snake-cat will be gone in the morning. They seek out high rocks where they can eat their kill and warm up in the morning sun,” Julisa said.

“Does that mean he’ll stay all night?” Six wanted to know.

“Um... that, I don’t know. Maybe not? It needs to hunt and we’re rather safely inside a giant metal can,” Julisa offered with a shrug.

Darwin asked Niro, “Weapons? Surely you have a cache of them somewhere, right?”

“What? Why would you assume that?”

“Niro!” Julisa gave him an exasperated look. “He’s not here to arrest you for having weapons right now!”

“Right. Of course I have a weapons’ cache. And there should be...,” he went to a cabinet in the corner and opened it. “Ah! Torches.” He passed one to each of them. “Mike, let’s go find the weapons.” he gestured for the man to follow him and they followed their spots of light out into the corridor.

Julisa turned to Six and asked, “Anything I can help with here?”

“Come over here.” Six led the way to a panel along the wall. “What I recall of this class, this will give me access to the auxiliary systems and life support. It’s probably best that Niro’s not here to see this.” She raised her hand and two tubules shot forth, burying their ends into the panel. Moments later, a faint green light began to glow from inside the panel and then it spread as the controls began to come back to life.

Julisa stepped back, frowning as the Borg technology took over. “Does it diagnose what happened as it fixes things? Can you learn anything from it?”

“Once the sensors are restored and we can get to the logs, maybe, if the sensors weren’t damaged. Do you really think we could be on Bajor?”

“I used to sit in the munguaali tree, pulling apart the blossoms and eating the petals. I haven’t been everywhere, but I’ve never smelled that same scent anywhere else. Even synthetic perfumes lack ...something... a freshness, I suppose. So... if we aren’t on Bajor then where are we? On a planet that happens to have the climate, soil and atmosphere necessary for those trees? Oh, and that also has snake-cats on it? That’s a bit much to believe,” Julisa said.

“But how?” Six continued to work at the panel as she asked the question. “Ohh, excellent. Look here….basic life support’s coming back online. Let’s see if we can light up the boys.”

“Light up the... okay, go for it.” Julisa watched her work then grinned when low lighting came on, illuminating the engine room. “At least we can move around the ship now.”

“And breathe. I can get the replicators on line so we can get something to eat and drink, too,” Six answered. “What do you remember? I mean, I know we were in your office and Niro and Darwin came in, then we were here and then...nothing.”

“My office, then Niro beamed us here, then... he had us stunned,” she said. “Bastard. He had enough crew right there - he didn’t need to stun us. Maybe he’s afraid of you, though.” Julisa eyed the Borg tubes still attaching Six to Niro’s ship. “That’s not... the ship isn’t going to ...self-sustain will it?”

Six nodded. “It will continue to repair, too.” She withdrew the tubes and they vanished back into her hand. The surface of the panel began to slowly change as the surface reconstructed itself, sprouting new tubes and relays. “Though it will take a while before the major systems are affected. Why would he be afraid of me?”

“Huh.” Julisa nodded. “Okay. Why is he afraid of you? I don’t know, maybe he’s nervous about Suresh,” she chuckled, knowing that wasn’t why Niro was afraid of Six, if he was afraid of her. “But, no, actually, I meant afraid of you in the sense that you’re stronger than most people realize. He might have known that his crew couldn’t have stood up to you when you’re awake and aware.” She paused before asking, “Is it possible we’re not even in our present time? I mean... the snake-cat...? No, that’s a silly thought.”

Six’s hands stilled as she turned to look at Julisa. “Do you think…? Oh...wow. So...where on Bajor did those cats hang out?”

“Um... they had a large range, southern hemisphere...,” Julisa paused, thinking about her past lessons about the animal. “From B’hala down to Gorhat and over to Dahkat. You know that Bajor has five moons, right? Are the external scanners operating yet? Can you search the skies?”

On one of the newly re-configured panels, a screen came to life. “Sensor logs,” Six informed Julisa. “See if you can get anything out of them and I’ll get these sensors working.” She pressed the panel and it sparked, singeing her fingertip. “Ouch!” She stuck it in her mouth for a few seconds, then went back to work. “Sensors scanning. We should have a location soon.”

“Oh...,” Julisa looked over the information in the logs. She didn’t understand all of it - sensor readings weren’t her thing, but she could detect strange readings when she saw them. “Hey, about two hours after we were stunned, there was a surge in energy readings. The crew took a life boat; nice of them to remember us. The ship took damage and was venting atmosphere. And then... nothing,” she said. “I wonder if Niro told them to abandon ship. I can’t see him doing that and not going with them.”

“Rats leaving a sinking ship,” Six quoted. “Except for the big rat. I suppose it’s true that there is no loyalty among thieves if they’d leave him. We were venting warp plasma as well and that will take some time to get over too. We’re not going anywhere anytime soon.” The panel before her beeped and she looked down at it..and froze. “Oh...no. Julisa….”

“What?” Julisa turned from her console and asked again, “What is it?”

“According to this, we are ten kilometers outside the Dakhur province. According to the computer the stardate is 37456.1. June 15, 2360.”

“June 2360?” Julisa faced Six and shook her head. “That’s not possible. I was born in 2357, Six. Oh no... Cardassians ruled until 2369. The Borg weren’t even known in this quadrant yet.”

“What do you mean, yet?” The voice was Niro’s and he and Darwin were just entering engineering. He looked from Julisa to Six and back. “Jules?”

Jules looked at Six then said, “According to the computer, we’re on Bajor in the year 2360.”

Darwin, just behind Niro and holding two phaser rifles and four hand weapons, stopped and said, “Now is not the time to joke about things like that.”

“I’m not joking,” Julisa assured him.

Darwin glared at her then put the weapons down and handed a hand weapon to Six and Julisa. “When we get back to SB900, I quit. I’m done with the weird shit.”

“You can’t quit, Dar, I need you,” Six said softly.

Niro looked around sharply at her comment. We’ll see about that, he passed to her.

“Yeah, but first the alternate universe, now this. Settling down and marrying some girl sounds like a nice idea right now,” Darwin said.

“We have to verify this somehow. Though... it does make the snake-cat’s presence make sense; the last cat was hunted in 2365.” Julisa looked at Darwin and Six and added, “If we’re really in 2360, we need to hide this ship.”

“Repairs are going as fast as they can without something drastic.” Six paused to look at the other panels that now showed signs of Borg presence. “We should have main power back by morning though. At least enough to put us in orbit or move somewhere else. But if it really is 2360, I’m going to be a big problem. Niro can cover it without any issue, but I can’t.”

“You look vaguely Vulcan, maybe one who’s had her ears split. And the implants,” Julisa shrugged, “We could tell the curious that they... maintain... your... frontal lobe? Eyesight? Or we could get you a hood, claim you’re devout.” She was referring to Bajorans’ deep religiosity.

“That could work, though let’s maybe not be seen by nearby residents? That would be my preference,” Darwin said. “Can we get the replicators online and powered? Then we can eat and drink and make what we need to repair the ship.” He watched as a panel sprouted a new part. “Or... we could just wait. Hey, we’re not going to be assimilated, are we?”

“Only if you piss me off,” Six replied casually, and cast a glance at Niro. “Life support is up and running, as are replicators. Now it’s a matter of waiting on the main systems so until then, we might as well catch a movie or something.”

Niro’s eyes narrowed at her comment, then suddenly he paled as the dream he’d had of Six came back to him. “I don’t think any of us are in the mood to make you angry,” he said with obvious reserve.

Darwin laughed, “You sure about that, Niro? You already did something really stupid. Six, if I were you, I’d be pissed at him. Now, how about we go shoot the little kitty and take a look at the hull of this thing?”

“No! You can’t kill it!” Julisa argued, though... what was the difference if it died now or at the hands of a Cardassian hunter? Likely Darwin’s shot would be more merciful than the Cardassians’ weapons.

Six nodded, though she looked to Julisa. “I get it. But we do need to look around. This area is pretty sparse so no one should be out who’d see me. Ready when you are.”

Niro looked to Julisa now. “Coming Jules?”

“We’re all going?” She saw Darwin nod slightly and sighed, “Okay. But just stun the poor thing if it’s still out there.”

“That poor thing was hoping to have you for dinner, Jules,” Darwin remarked then, seeing Julisa’s look, relented and said, “Yeah, fine, stun it. It’ll sleep it off without harm. Let’s go, I’ve heard that the Bajoran sun can be brutal, even early in the morning.” He motioned for the three to follow him.

****************************************
Niro
Lt. M. Darwin
Ensign Six of Ten
Lt. Bajun Julisa