Meeting Some Resistance

Posted on Sun Nov 15th, 2015 @ 1:21pm by Lieutenant Bajun Julisa & Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin & Admiral Lucius Hawke & Ensign Six of Ten & Niro

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Bajor 2360

* Bajor - 2360 *

Stepping over a branch, Darwin commented, “Looks like the ship flattened a few trees. I’m guessing we didn’t have a gentle landing.” He looked at Niro and thought, not for the first time, that the slimy bastard wasn’t telling the whole story. “Life pods have detached, so the crew did get away,” again, he glanced sideways at Niro.

Julisa spoke up, “The computer told us that.” She intentionally grabbed Niro’s arm and read him, “And you ordered it. What the hell, Niro? You told your crew to get away but... us? Were you going to leave us to die in whatever was happening to the ship?”

He looked down at Julisa and narrowed his eyes. “If I intended to do that, then why would I stay behind? Dying is definitely not on my list of things to do for the next century.” He shook his head. “I must have known it wasn’t that serious, or thought so at the time. To be honest, I don’t recall what happened either. I know we picked up an energy surge and I recall ordering a scan, then...nothing.”

Six stopped and looked back at Niro. “You didn’t mention why you took us in the first place.”

Niro looked from her to Julisa, then Darwin. “Various reasons.”

“Six, he likely intended to kill me, take Julisa and run off into the darkness of space,” Darwin said. “That you were in the office with Julisa at the time he put his plan into action was happenstance, unless he’s psychic as well as telepathic.”

“A lucky happenstance, actually,” Niro answered. “But that is between me and Six and none of your concern Darwin. Julisa, yes. She was a good guarantee of getting off the station. No one would want her injured and your bunch, Darwin, would be far more cautious with the weapons if the transport out had not gone as well as it did.” He smiled now. “Luckily, no one was hurt. Well, except me.”

“You had us shot!” Darwin rounded on Niro, moving fast, and swung his torch at him, intending to take his head off with it. He barely missed as Niro, cat-like, jumped back. Darwin ended up reaching out and grabbing him, pulling him around to pin him against his own ship. “Listen, you piece of shit, I’m going to let you continue living until we get back to our places in the universe. And then I’m going to kill you.”

“Michael!” Julisa caught Darwin’s arm as he was pulling back to hit Niro. “Stop! There’s someone in the trees over there.” She indicated where she meant with a slight twitch of her head.

Six stepped up beside Darwin and stood still as her implant focused in the direction Julisa had pointed. “It’s two men and a woman,” Six whispered. “Bajoran. You may want to take point on this one Julisa.” She ducked behind Darwin and out of sight.

“Right,” Julisa nodded at the three of them. “Stay here,” she said before turning and walking towards the woods. She greeted the three in a southern Bajoran dialect, “Hello. We’re from Starfleet and have had trouble with our ship.”

One of the men stepped forward and answered her, “That doesn’t look like a Federation ship. There are no markings on it.”

Jules glanced back at the ship, looking over the hull. Inwardly, she winced at the gash along the ship’s side. “We’ve had to scrub those off, due to where we are.” She reached up for her commbadge and only then realized she didn’t have one. Of course she didn’t; she reminded herself to hit Niro for that later.

“Are you here to help the Cardies?”

“Really?” She looked at him and pointed to her nose ridges and the earring she wore. “I’m Bajoran. If anything, I’m here to help my people. But... for now, we have another mission and we have to repair our ship then get back to where we need to be.”

The man looked beyond her then turned to have a muted conversation with his companions. Julisa waited.

“What about your friends back there?” the other man asked. “I see only one other Starfleet uniform. Who are the other two?”

“Both are civilians. One is a criminal we were transporting for trial,” a not-entirely-untrue statement, “and the other is a witness against him. I’m Lieutenant Bajun Julisa of the JAG Corps; the man in uniform is Lieutenant Michael Darwin. We... the four of us are all that’s left from the ship’s population. We’re not sure what happened,” Julisa told them and was puzzled as the three had reacted to her name.

“Probably shot down by the Cardies,” the female Bajoran said.

“If they had been shot down, then the Cardies would already be here, crawling over the ship like snakes,” the first man said. The three Bajorans glanced at each other and, after a moment, the man who’d spoken first said, “Let’s take them back to camp and let Tora decide what to do with them.” His companions nodded in agreement and gestured with their weapons.

Julisa saw that movement and knew they’d use the weapons if she refused. “Okay, we’ll go, but there’s no need for those.”

“We’ll see about that.”

* Resistance Camp *

The camp was deeper into the forest and tucked in amongst the hills. Even the various fires were not visible as they approached. They group moved through a valley and finally reached the camp, which was alive with people moving through it, some working on various things, others sitting near a central fire eating. A tall man stood near the flames, conversing with a woman. She had a phaser rifle strapped to her back, but her posture was relaxed.

“So much for a hood,” Six whispered to Julisa.

“I suppose that if they don’t like us, they’ll just shoot us instead of letting us leave,” Julisa whispered back. Taking Six’s arm, as if to steady one or the other of them, she added, Don’t let them know I’m telepathic. She looked around at all the Bajorans then saw the man and realized he wasn’t Bajoran. In fact... she thought he looked like someone she knew. “Darwin? The tall man over there?”

Darwin looked over and nearly tripped. It wasn’t the ground that tripped him up, it was the man: “I think that’s Lucius Hawke, Jules.”

“That’s what I thought, too,” she agreed.

The man by the fire slipped his arm around the woman and leaned down to whisper in her ear. The two men ahead of Julisa and Six moved forward and he stepped back and gave them his attention.

Julisa’s attention was caught by the woman he’d just whispered to and her jaw dropped. She recovered quickly as the men in front of her and Six spoke, “Lucius, we found the site of the crashed ship. These four were there. The one claims she’s Bajun Julisa.” He glanced back at Jules.

Lucius looked over at Julisa and his brow furrowed. “I’m sorry, did you say Bajun?” He looked from her to the woman at his side. The resemblance was remarkable.

“Yes, he did,” Jules said. “Lieutenant Bajun Julisa, and I think you’re Lucius Hawke.”

The woman stepped forward and grabbed Julisa’s face in her hand. She turned her one way then the other. “What sort of Cardassian trick is this?”

Julisa wasn’t sure what to say to her mother.

Lucius didn’t acknowledge Julisa’s statement regarding his identity. He did, however, look her over as closely as her mother did. Finally, he addressed the two men. “Take them all to the med tent and scan them. I want to know exactly who and what they are.”

Easy Jules, this is getting really weird. Niro flashed the thought into her head and rested a hand on her shoulder.

That’s my mother, she shot back, glancing at him as they were herded towards one of the tents.

Darwin, glowering darkly, went along quietly. As he passed Niro, he muttered, “Fine mess you’ve gotten us into.”

“Except you.” Lucius reached out to stop Six.

Six looked to Darwin and Julisa, but she did stop. Niro hesitated, but one of the men nudged him on ahead. Six turned back to Lucius and Julisa’s mother.

“Yes?”

Darwin, too, tried to stop, but Julisa grabbed his arm and moved him along, quietly whispering, “They won’t hurt her.”

The Bajoran woman, Jules’ mother, demanded, “What are these things on your face?” She looked critically at Six’s implants.

Six looked from her to Lucius. “When I was younger, my colony was attacked and I was damaged. I lost my eye. This helps me see and provides structural support for the damaged bone underneath that was repaired.” She reached up to touch the hardware on her cheek, appearing self-conscious. “It’s been a long time but people still point and stare.”

“Interesting technology,” Tora said, still eyeing Six’s implant. “Did Starfleet do that?”

“Yes.” Six nodded. She looked over, watching the other three as they entered the med tent. “They are who they say they are. All we want to do is get home.” She looked to Lucius. She’d never met him on 900 but she knew his name and his position there. “Can I go now?”

Lucius looked at Tora and Six suspected a rapid silent conversation. Finally, he nodded. “Tora will go with you.”

“Come along,” Tora took Six’s arm and led her to the medical tent.

Six entered the med tent as a woman was moving a tricorder over Niro. “Unusual readings but then, I’ve not seen everything there is to see in this universe.” Finally she looked to the man who’d brought them in. “Definitely not Cardassian. One part-Bajoran, one Human, and one humanoid that is as far from Cardassian as you can get. You come here.” She motioned to Six and scanned her too. “Halanan? Wow. You’re a long way from home.” She closed the tricorder. “Ren, take them to get something to eat. I want to see Tora for a moment.”

Darwin caught Julisa’s and Six’s arms and walked with them behind Ren, leaving Tora and the medic alone. “Food is a great idea,” he muttered to the two then winced, “Oh, crap... it’s going to be Bajoran food, right? Spicy and probably no beer.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and there will be beer,” Niro chimed in. “At least no one wants to kill us...for now.”

The doctor waited till they were gone, then turned back to Tora. “You need to sit down.”

“Why? Is there some problem?” Tora frowned at her long-time friend. She found herself sitting anyway; she tended to trust Rhett when she said sit.

“This woman, Julisa. She is Bajoran and Betazoid. The name was too coincidental so I cross-matched it. She is...yours. Somehow or the other, she is Julisa, just older.” Rhett shook her head. “All of them are lousy with chroniton particles that are out of sync with this time. You’d better tell Lucius.”

Tora was glad she was sitting down. “How... how is that possible? There are so many things in the universe we don’t know. Lucius just told me that the woman with the eye thing.. she thought of herself as ‘Borg’. He doesn’t know what that is.” She stood. “I’ll go talk to Lucius.”

Rhett nodded. “They need to get home. The sooner the better before they mess things up here. As it is, you now know more than you should, as will Lucius. Let’s minimize the damage.”

“Yes. Minimize the damage.” A touch stunned by Rhett’s information, Tora nodded and left the tent to find Lucius.

* Lucius’ Tent *

Tora handed Lucius a bottle of water before she sat down beside him. “So... what’s your impression?”

He opened the bottle and took a drink, then studied Tora’s face. “Mixed. The humanoid thinks of himself as a species I’ve never heard of, and the other as a Borg. There’s been random rumours of such a race but that’s all I know. As for the one who gave her name as Julisa, that’s who you’ve come to talk about?”

“Yes. Rhett scanned her and said that she’s,” she paused and waited till he wasn’t drinking anything then said, “actually our Julisa. As in not a fake, not a Cardassian trick. Plus, they have chronitons in them that don’t match our time.”

“I see.” Lucius frowned and put the cap back on the water bottle. “That’s not good. She can’t stay here. None of them can. We’ll have to figure out a way to get them home as fast as we can. There’s already been too much mixing, at least with Julisa.” He glanced over to the corner where a small dark-haired child slept curled beneath a blanket. “Let me get to work on this. Send her and the Human to their ship to get whatever they will need for the night. They are the safest to be wandering around. We’ll keep the other two here. Maybe by morning, Iain will have a plan on how to get them out of here.”

“At least we know she survives this damned Cardassian occupation and doesn’t end up as a ...mine worker,” Tora said, knowing that Lucius would read her other concern: that Julisa would grow up to be taken as a comfort woman. She stood then leaned over and kissed his forehead. “Watch over her, I have a few things to do then I’ll be back.”

“I will. Hurry back.” He watched as she departed, then crossed the tent to sit down by the sleeping child. Gently he stroked her hair. “There’s a new ray of hope in this mess, Julisa. We will get through it,” he whispered.

* * *

Julisa jogged behind Darwin, cursing his long legs as he easily outpaced her. “Could you... could you just slow down? A tiny bit?”

“Look, go back, Jules, I can get our stuff just as easily by myself,” Darwin stopped so he could face her. “I’d rather you stayed at the camp with Six.”

“Tough. My mother said I was to go with you, I’m going.” She got ahead of him and continued on towards the Korenna.

“Damned woman,” Darwin followed after her.

They had made it to the ship, gathered supplies and were just sealing the hatch again when Julisa froze, eyes wide. Darwin looked at her then past her and cursed a blue streak. Five Cardassians held weapons on them; Darwin dropped what he was holding, pushed Julisa down and reached for his phaser. He was halfway to it when one of the Cardassians shot him. Julisa watched in horror as Darwin went down like a stone. “Mike!” Before she could scramble to him, another Cardassian reached her and hauled her away.

***************

Lt. Michael Darwin
Lt. Bajun Julisa
Ensign Six of Ten
Niro
Lucius Hawke
Vedek Bajun Tora