The Misadventures of Jason Haines -- Pain(Part 2)

Posted on Tue Dec 29, 2020 @ 11:25am by Lieutenant Jason Haines

1,309 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Things Past
Location: Pangae
Timeline: MD1 minus 3 weeks

[ON]
Previously…
…He dug out a tub and got it filled with the ocean water and set them in it. Now it would be a matter of time to see if they lived.
Now the Conclusion

Jason stayed at the dirt hole tub that he had dug for his patient the whole night, despite the rain. (Which luckily for him only lasted another half hour) His scans of the individual gave him little information except for all the obvious. The tricorder had no data on the race. That meant no one on DS5 had encountered them or detected them before.

He had been thrown one lucky bone in all this; the species, despite having gills, could survive without being emerged totally in water. Jason wasn’t sure about its skin and what would happen out of water, so he decided to keep them immersed until they woke up and could choose for themselves.

At some point in the wee hours of the morning, Jason must have nodded off because he woke up with a jolt as a voice exclaimed loudly, in what was almost a shriek, “Naigeera, Naigeera!”.

Looking about, Jason saw his patient weakly standing up in the tub as the sun was just starting to rise off the morning horizon. He got up on his knees and held his hands up and to the sides in a non-threatening manner. He put a smile on his face and waited a moment as the individual looked around, looked at him, and then looked at their shoulder area and winced. Looking resigned, they sat down.

Even though he was pretty certain of the answer, Jason asked, “Can you understand me?”

The individual looked at him oddly but didn’t say anything back.

Jason kept smiling and then slowly tapped himself on the chest, “Jason.”

The individual slowly started to nod and then brought their hand to their chest and said in a slightly less loud, but no less shrieky voice, “Eeshna.”

Jason nodded and repeated, “Eeshna.”
Eeshna shook their head negatively and repeated, with the shriek, their name.

‘Damn’, Jason thought. The auditory aspects of their language were going to have as much impact on the meanings as the words themselves.

“Eeshna”, Jason said again, this time trying to match the pitch of the ‘shriek’.

Eeshna made a sound that seemed like a laugh. Jason smirked a little and laughed himself. He held his hands up again, slowly got up, and then held a finger up for a moment. He then slowly went back to where his gear with and got the communicator he purchased and then came back.

He showed Eeshna both the communicator and his tricorder. He linked both up and then said his name. He then said, “Eeshna”, rather plainly.

Eeshna corrected Jason and the universal translator processed the language a little. Eeshna looked at the communicator suspiciously as it echoed the name back properly. Jason smiled and said his own name again and the universal translator put a different tonal quality to it as replayed the words.

The training of the universal translator took a couple of hours. Jason brought forward numerous objects, rocks, sticks, boots, clothing, rope, anything he could think of to help the translator build enough of a database so they could have an easier time communicating.

After learning how to communicate with an antiquated universal translator and sharing some food, which Eeshna ate hesitantly and didn’t seen to care for, Jason was able to convince Eeshna to let him check their wound. Jason ran the tricorder over the wound and scowled.

Through the translator, Eeshna asked, “What is problem?”

“You have an infection”, Jason answered. “I don’t have any medicine to make it better.”

After a moment, Eeshna replied, “In the water, near the rocks, there is a blue weed.”

Jason nodded and went to look for the weed. He came back about twenty minutes later and showed Eeshna, who nodded. Eeshna took the weed and placed it on the wound. Jason ripped off part of his shirt and tied it around the wound, so the weed didn’t fall off. After that Eeshna rested.

The rest of the day, Jason went back to his training and for a while, his mind wasn’t occupied with his failures. The sun was starting to set, and Jason was working on the training dummy when Eeshna woke. Jason went over to them.

“I am curious”, Eeshna said. “Why do you fight the wood?”

Jason snickered a little as he could see how his training methods might seem odd to someone who seemingly lived underwater.

With a bit of a sigh, Jason replied, “I have my own wound and there is no regular medicine for it. What I am doing helps.”

Eeshna looked at his bloody knuckles and asked, “What kind of wound makes you hurt yourself?”

“One in my soul”, Jason replied.

Eeshna nodded and there was nothing more said of the issue. They spent the next few hours talking about various things, with the big topic being where Eeshna was from. Jason took in every bit of information he could, listening to all the details. The conversation took longer because of the translator, but it was learning and Jason and Eeshna were starting to understand some words without the translator. When Jason turned in, it was the first time in quite a while that he easily fell asleep.

His dream of Deep Space 5 changed some, his mind taking out the imagery of Eeshna on the beach. In the new dream he was simply sitting on the beach and then the station exploded and fell to the surface. Without the storm in the dream, he didn’t wake up with such a start.

The day was a mix of tending to Eeshna, including getting more ‘blue weed’ and then some other ocean weeds that Eeshna ate in addition to his normal training. Eeshna was getting stronger, which made Jason happy as it seemed he still had the medical touch and he learned more about the ocean plant life. With all the various activities and having someone to talk to that had no true knowledge of his past, the day pass by quickly.

The night passed quickly as well because Jason didn’t seem to have the dream again. That said, he woke with a start as someone yelled at him. It was the same language as Eeshna’s, but the tone was different, deeper. As his eyes snapped open and focused, Jason found himself on the wrong end of a spear and the person holding it. He then heard Eeshna speaking rapidly. He had no idea of what was being said as the translator wasn’t on. Then again, given the age of his equipment, Jason doubted it would have been able to keep up with the rapid conversation that ensued.

After a few moments, the spear was pulled out of Jason’s face and the figure stepped away from him. Jason slowly sat up. There were actually two strangers in the camp, not just the one who had put the spear in his face. They both seemed to be of the same species as Eeshna but were taller and broader.

Eeshna nodded to Jason who then stood up and simply nodded to the other two, who he assumed were looking for Eeshna. The one who had been standing over Jason nodded back.

Eeshna smiled and then said slowly and with as little as shriek as possible, “Jason, thank you.”

Jason smiled and replied, “You are welcome.”

With that, the three individuals went into the ocean and soon disappeared under the water. Another thing that disappeared, at least for the day, was all the negative thoughts Jason had been having.

[OFF]


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Jason Haines
Resident Beach Bum
Deep Space 5

 

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