Threats from elsewhere (Part II)

Posted on Thu Jul 9, 2020 @ 10:37pm by Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Civilian 'Key Holder' Dorian Gabriel

1,821 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: SS Langston Hughes en route to Deep Space 5
Timeline: SD 04 1440
Tags: Dorian, Raddon, Langston Hughes, Saffa

OLD

"...it's a Human signal...it's the. . .Langston Hughes" The Officer reported as the sleek cruiser continued to fire on the Breen vessel. The modified phaser arrays released a constant stream of energy into the dorsal section of the Breen vessel causing an explosion to occur that rippled along its core and rocked the vessel off of its axis. Unfortunately, the explosion caused the starboard nacelle to buckle before tearing off completely from the hull of the ship.

"Where the HELL did they come from?" Dorian asked with obvious relief in his voice.

Unfortunately, before the Strat Ops Officer could finish the report, the starboard nacelle that had detached from the Gor Puth had continued to spin out of control directly towards the Halycon control tower.

"Brace for impac----" Dorian heard from the Strategic Ops Officer right before everything around him went black and he felt himself leaving his feet. The lights flickered and the facility shook violently as the nacelle collided with the partially complete facility. Fires erupted throughout the secondary core and support structures of the facility. However, emergency damage control teams and drones were able to respond and prevent the damage from reaching the primary core or essential systems. The violent shaking threw Dorian off his feet, causing him to strike his head on a fallen beam and causing him to lose consciousness.

NEW:

Dorian stirred for several moments as his mind slowly embraced the sensation of consciousness returning to him. He hesitantly opened his eyes and looked around him. At first all he saw was just blurred figures in front of him. It took him several more moments to realize that the figures were actually human beings and that one of them was talking to him.

"Wha---wha....what?" Dorian tried to utter to the figures before him

"Take it slowly..." the doctor's voice was calm, quiet and intended to be soothing. Saffa Cross, who had attended him from his admission was standing beside his left shoulder, taking readings from the LCARS panels on a sizeable medcorder that she was passing across his head and over his body, absorbing and assessing the results she was getting.

Captain Kalinda Dulla nodded. "You're in Medical Bay onboard the Langston Hughes." She said looking towards the Doctor. She shifted her gaze back towards Dorian. "The Breen vessel that had targeted the Halcyon was on a collision course. We managed to jump into the system and open fire with everything we had." The ship's Captain stated.

"It was so focused on you all that it didn't pay us any attention. We were able to knock it off course, but a portion of it collided with the Halcyon causing significant damage.

Dorian struggled to sit up, but not without a significant amount of pain.

"No, it's too soon to exert yourself" Saffa protested and gently put a hand on his shoulder to try to prevent him getting up. When it was clear he was going to struggle up to sitting at least, no matter what she said, she turned aside to load a hypospray with analgesic and turned back to say simply "painkiller?" with a pause before administering it to give him time to say no.

"Is the Halcyon gone?" Dorian asked.

"No, one of the Klingons were able to break off and join in the fight and finish it off before it could get a second go-round at the facility. However, it will be awhile before it is back to 100% operational, I'd estimate that no dilithium is going to be processed from there for 3-4 months, at the earliest." She said in a matter-of-factual tone.

Both Kalinda and Dorian knew that Melvyn would not be happy at all to learn that the facility had been dealt such a sigificant blow by such an insigificant race as the Breen. The delay in 3-4 months was going to push back operations even further when coupled with the loss of facilities on Xi'Cadia.

As the Captain and the patient both seemed to have finished their discussion and had fallen silent, Saffa watched the tension of pain seem to ease out of Dorian's next and face muscles. She re-took his readings which had also settled slightly and she took her opportunity to speak to him again.

"You're still in need of plenty of rest as you took a serious concussion to the back of your head. You also have a lot of bruising that I've regenerated but you can't rush around on it straight away. Do you feel you could use some more pillows or inflatable supports to make it easier for you to lay back and get comfortable, Sir?" Saffa tried again, still gentle in her tone but a little more persistent.

"Yeah...that'd be fine." Dorian replied to the Medical Officer. He looked back towards Captain Dulla.

"How the hell were the Breen able to get that close to us without being detected?" He asked. "Hell, if it wasn't for the Forward Operating Unit going offline, we never would've seen the first Breen wave let alone even have a chance to deal with the second." He said.

"We're not sure, I've got Josh and his crew in Science and Engineering taking a look at the sensor readings and trying to figure out what happened. So far the only thing we've been able to piece together is that the Breen have some kind of advanced propulsion system that allowed them to jump into the system faster than traditional warp drive should allow." She responded.

"I'm not gonna go so far as to say that it is a slipstream drive, but it's pretty damn close to an ad-hoc version of one." She added in a bewildered tone. "This is the Breen we're talking about, who the hell knows what they've been working on for the past 20 years. But how the hell did something like that just slip past the Federation without anyone having any idea of it?" She continued.

Saffa put extra pillows behind Dorian so he could sit up a bit and also relax into them at the same time. Then, as the conversation seemed to come to another natural break, she settled him back and said to him and to the Ship's Captain as well. "Can the pondering over what the Breen have developed wait until my patient has had a healing nap please?"

Captain Dulla nodded to the Doctor. "Alright, I'll leave him here to recover. Call me if there is any change." She said as she could see the sedative taking affect and Dorian's eyes becoming much heavier.

"Instantly Ma'am" Saffa promised with genuine intention to do exactly that. She was quite sure if she didn't this man would get up and walk up to the Bridge to do it in person, judging by what she had observed of his grit and determination.

Saffa had a question that she didn't want to ask in front of Dorian, even if he was apparently being claimed by the medications. She put a gentle hand quietly on the Captain's arm but didn't speak aloud, only pulled a facial expression that she hoped made it obvious she wanted a quick moment and an inclination of her head to show she was meaning outside.

Captain Dulla stopped as she felt the hand on her arm. She stepped just outside the doorway as they hissed shut and waited for the Doctor to return her glance and speak. "What is it?"

"It's the results from the blood tests we did Captain, we had to do some more detailed lab work on his blood because it wasn't giving the usual readings. I took the liberty of continuing the investigation as it seemed that we were doing something wrong, or missing something and that's not acceptable around here. Lives can depend on accuracy."

Captain Dulla nodded as she continued to listen. "Well maybe one of your new staff members did something wrong." She suggested.

"No, I took a scan of the structure of his blood cells myself, after blaming everyone for doing it wrong, but i came up with the same discrepancy so I went into it deeper and it seems to show that not all of Mr Gabriel's DNA is what we expect to see in humans. A small percentage appears to show a different DNA pattern. It's important to getting his treatment right, for us to know if he's not 100% human then we won't give him 100% human effective medication. We would adjust it to his actual genetic make up but at the moment we would have to go deeper to discover that so i wondered if you knew what that small element is, so we can get the right mix of treatment to him sooner than waiting for the lab?"

The Captain's eyes furrowed, "What did you just say?" She asked, stepping closer.

"I was just asking if you knew already and could speed up our findings so we can medicate effectively". Saffa repeated, somewhat confused that there could be any doubt about what she had just said.

"What the hell do you mean, Dorian isn't 100% Human?" She asked incredulously. "I've known that man for years, how the hell could he be some kind of alien?" She asked he medical officer. "Do you know what you are saying?" She asked.

"We don't have full measure of how much DNA we're talking about percentage-wise yet but I'm not saying he's 'some kind of alien' as if he's about to turn into a Gorn before your eyes! I just mean that a very small part of him seems to be non-standard human - so small it's never been detected I imagine, judging by your reaction Ma'am" Saffa explained, getting a bit alarmed now by the intensity of the Captain's disbelief, clearly making it obvious that she hadn't known this and now, much to Saffa's dismay, was seeming to be about to take umbridge over the news. Dread spread over Saffa as she now had to regret speaking to anyone about this, other than Gabriel once he came round. This was turning itself into a breach of personal information now.

"You keep this to yourself, do you understand? Finish your investigation and report your findings only to me are we clear?" The Commanding Officer said pointedly.

"Yes Ma'am, perfectly clear" Saffa confirmed, relieved not to be packing her medcorder in the next ten minutes, although it wasn't clear how much longer than 10 might be pushing her luck if she wasn't careful to tread on eggshells from now on.

Captian Dulla nodded as she turned and left the area, shaking her head trying to understand what she had just learned.




Kalinda Dulla
Commanding Officer
SS Langston Hughes

Dorian Gabriel
Head Security Consultant
Raddon Corp

Ensign Saffa Cross
Duty Medical Officer
SS Langston Hughes
(NPC Jools)

 

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