A Missing Captain? Part 2

Posted on Tue Jan 3, 2023 @ 10:17pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Master Sergeant Jian Zhao & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Lieutenant Colonel Nicholas Means III & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Lieutenant Commander River Morgan & Lieutenant JG Brianthe Oaxaca & Master Sergeant Miranda Schultz & Gunnery Sergeant Terry Henderson

2,475 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Pangae

Previously...

A grin spread over the Lieutenant's face. "Well Cpl. Stevens wasn't lying when he said he could catch a fish in his sleep. He made a net and using a couple empty container deployed it into the lake and basically herded quite a lot of fish into our section of the lake. We also have 2 deer-like creatures, that we can also thank Stevens for."

"A regular back woods boy huh. Well at least we won't go hungry. Now if we just had some coffee..."

Now the Continuation...



[Western Patrol]

The 12 Marine patrol was making good time as they made their way towards the ridge that they would then follow westward. Even though, it was getting late, and they were going to need to stop soon.

Alanna sensed a group moving her way and pulled out her tricorder. She didn't want to run into another Cardassian patrol, or worse, that creature. But from what she could tell, they weren't angry and they weren't alien. The scan verified that they were mostly human. Federation? She needed to be sure. She reached out telepathically to ever so gently touch the surface thoughts of three of them to be sure they weren't hostile. She moved into an open area where they would see her and waited.

Normally a patrol would be given field tricorders for scanning or for jamming but after the fight and their method of escape functioning unit and power was at a premium, so their scanning was limited to the periodic direction fix to keep them on track, preserve power for when they reached their objective, and to minimize their EM signals. The last thing they needed was the Cardassians to swoop down on them.

Something moved ahead!

The lead Marine signaled for a halt and as that signal was relayed each Marine took up a defensive position. Back up front the leading group, using nothing but hand signals moved forward and in flanking maneuvers to get a better look a what was ahead.

Raising her weapon and using her scope, Vasquez easily found her target. A woman, standing in a small clearing just ahead. No uniform or identifying insignia but she was holding Federation tricorder. Better safe than sorry. At her signal three Marines moved quickly from their position, weapons raised. "DROP THE DEVICE...HANDS UP...IDENTIFY YOURSELF!"

Alanna was not going to drop her tricorder, but she did hold her hands out to her sides. "Alanna Wells. Scientist. Betazoid. Resident of Bag End."

Even though she didn't do as instructed she had made the device visible an made no move to use it. With her hands at her side, it was obviously a federation tricorder.

One of the Marines lowered his weapon slightly. "Lieutenant Alanna Wells?"

"When I have to be," she quipped. "Right now, I'm just Alanna."

Standing up he slung his rifle behind him and approached. They had no way to confirm her ID, at the moment, but she did look familiar to the senior officer she claimed to be. Turning towards the rock he signaled an all clear to their sharpshooter as the rest of the patrol came forward. "Sgt Carren ma'am. We were on the surface for training maneuvers when the Cardassians hit. We had thought the other senior officers either killed or captured."

As he finished his statement, Emily, the patrol's leader moved in the clearing and over to the pair; her snipers rifle propped against her shoulder. "What have ya got here Sergeant?"

"A wandering scientist," Alanna replied. She turned to the sergeant. "Not all the senior officers are dead."

Emily grinned, her homemade toothpick in her mouth, having had her in her sights. "Well good things he gave me the all clear. Would have hated to have lost anyone to friendly fire.

"Are you alone?"

As a historian, Alanna was aware of friendly fire and its causes. Most of the time, it was due to an inexperienced officer who wouldn't listen to his men. That wasn't the case here. She chose to ignore the comment. As for the question, there were a dozen ways she could respond. Some of them could get her shot. "No. I'm standing in the middle of a Marine patrol."

Emily smirked as her head bobbed slighty. "A fleeter with a sense of humor...nice. Any other survivors, beside ourselves that is?"

"Yes. There are quite a few. Among them, Doctors Telamon and Morgan." She was not going to mention some of the others. Partly because she wasn't sure where they were, and partly because she didn't want the information to get back to the Cardassians. Not that she mistrusted the Marines, but anyone could be overheard.

"Well let's get them rounded up and we will take you with us. With any luck we, or one of the other patrols will find at least one of those medical yachts. We are going to need those resources."

"I'll let the doctors know you're looking for them. As for me, I've got a few more places to check, then I need to head back to my home here." Alanna had no interest in going with the Marines. Not with all the data she was gathering back at Bag End.

~Why were Fleeters always such a pain in the ass...~, Emily thought to herself. "Ma'am, there are Cardassian troops scouring the planet, trying to get to the portals or anyone that knows anything about them. You are a senior officer and probably top of their most wanted. We can't let you just go off by yourself."

"Captain Soran is top of their list." Alanna wasn't going to get into why, or Maritza's role as ruler of Pangaea. "I may know how they work, but I don't control them. And before you disagree, I do know that I'm a person of interest. But I am perfectly safe where I am. I'm not alone and I'm monitoring communications from both DS5 and the Cardassians. I need to be there."

"Is this location secure enough to be used as a command-and-control center?"

"Only if you're a scientist. I have six bedrooms and five people. I had two others, but they went to another location. We are doing archaeological research, gardening in areas where the plants aren't likely to be found, and monitoring communications. We are not set up to be a Marine base of operations." It was secure enough to be a C&C, but it was her C&C and Alanna wasn't sure she could stay hidden if the Marines took up residence. "Consider us the passive resistance."

Well from the sound of things it, her place couldn't accommodate to very many...even if the doubled up. One thing was for certain, if they had the capability to monitor communications, it definitely could provide a source of intel and serve as a HQ to coordinate operations. "Regardless the Colonel is going to want to speak with you and we have those yachts to find."

Turning to her squad. "You. Beat feet back the Colonel and let him know who we found..." glancing back to the Lieutenant, "...or would you like to go with him?"

Alanna didn't want to talk to the colonel. She was very happy with her own version of covert ops. However, she knew that she should share some of her information with the Marines. "How close is he?"

She smirked as she thought to herself, ~Poor fleeter probably worried about her feeties getting tuckered out.~ "Don't worry it's not far. I sure together you and the Colonel can find a way to hamstring those spoonheads."

Dropping her weapon from her shoulder to her arm she addressed the rest of her team. "Everyone else get ready to move. Korva, you take point."

* * * * * *

The walk back to the Caves and the Colony of the encamped refugee Fleet lost souls, was both tedious and exhausting. Amia and her two colleagues did their utmost but the cardassian patients (with full sets of legs or not) were very large men and heavy boned as well.

Talking and encouraging the others, Amia who was carrying the rear of the horizontal stretcher tried to keep the mood as light and positive as possible. Semmt who had the vertical stretcher from his shoulders out behind him to the ground, sliding it along, had the heavier load but luckily he was strong and determined and was keeping up a good pace at the front of the little column.

Sarah, at the front of the horizontal stretcher was trying to sing little songs or ditties with good strong beats to help them trudge along more lightly and the other two were joining in with anything they knew the words or tunes to. It was quite a nice little atmosphere, despite the rough ground they were covering and the burdens they bore.

Just as they struggled up a steep little hilltop and were about to descend down the other side, one of the patients appear to regain consciousness. It was the amputee on the horizontal stretcher and he roared with pain and apparent anger, trying to throw his legs over the side of the stretcher in an attempt to stand up.

Amia, called over to Sarah and asked her urgently to put the stretcher down as carefully as she could but the struggling Cardassian tipped the stretcher out of both of their grips before it was down completely and ended up tilting out onto the ground, landing on his good leg but clearly horrified to now be upright and able to see the other half missing leg.

He lashed out and clipped Sarah hard around the side of the head and she fell to the ground unconscious.

Ahead and trying to turn to see what was happening behind him (a truly superhuman feat with a vertical patient virtually on his back, the lower ends of the poles of his stretcher digging into the soil of the path) Semmt tried to turn sideways to get a look behind, or perhaps even turn around to go back, but his attempt simply served to pivot the stretcher on the lower ends and he was pulled sideways too.

The vertical patient was jolted awake and more firmly strapped to his vertical stretcher, he too began to struggle to free himself, but with less success than his wounded colleague. He began to roar out in Cardassian as Semmt hastily freed himself from the shoulder straps and rolled away. The vertical patient was less hurt, proportionally, but more securely strapped so Semmt got clear leaving the cardassian fighting with his "papoose" type of constraints.

Semmt ran to Amia and Sarah, checking Sarah first, relieved to find she had a good pulse, and lifting her away from the downed stretcher, pulling her to one side out of range of the furious, arm waving, yelling Cardassian Amputee who was giving Amia an unintelligible 'piece of his blurred mind'.

Amia stood just barely out of arms reach from where he was sitting on the path, his good leg beneath him and his stump outstretched as he waved his arms in agitation and kept yelling.

Glad they had sedated him (to ease his pain - but actually now having a very helpful, minor side-role in keeping the man from some of the worse things he might try to do next) Amia began to try to gesticulate in a way that might give him some form of sign language to help him understand what was happening.

She had learned sign-language to facilitate patients that might come through Sickbay with hearing impairments or hearing damage. It was one of the routine skills that it was essential for at least one of her staff to have, but in this case, it was one the CMO had actually equipped herself with. Once again, a fortunate coincidence.

Amia held out both hands, palms forward and lowered them gently, repeating this to indicate she was trying to ask the patient to calm down.

She pointed to herself and opened her arms to include Semmt and Sarah at the side of the path and did a form of mime to try to show that they were not hostile towards the wounded pair.

She slowly put a hand out to her med-kit which had been knocked free to the opposite side of the path from Sarah and Semmt and this move drew the frantic patient's attention. Continuing to pat the air down gently with one hand she pushed the lid of the kit open and sat back, leaving the contents in full view for inspection and clarity of what kind of people they were. Doctors. Surely that would now be obvious?

The other Patient seemed to be almost free of his strapping and his violent struggles were making it likely that he would impale someone with the long poles of his imprisonment if he didn't calm down, so, whilst Amia was trying to convince the amputee patient that she was a doctor who meant no harm to him; Semmt moved very carefully closer to the other thrashing patient and began to speak to him, calmly but firmly. "You're going to have to let me undo those if you want to be free" he said in Federation Standard, having never learned Cardassian.

Exactly like his CMO, he caught the patient's eye mid-struggle and patted down the air in a similar 'calm down' gesture and stood up, holding both hands in full view, palms forwards, a couple of metres out of range but close enough to show that he wasn't going to attack.

The Cardassian with the amputated half-leg caught on quickest, despite his drowsy state. He looked into the med-kit and decided that it meant these people were medics of some sort.

He stopped roaring and spoke to his colleague over the decibels of the other's yelling. His voice, whilst strong, was of a deep timbre and when he spoke it resonated sufficiently to slow the other Cardassian's struggles and get his attention (and very useful eye-contact). The two then held a short discussion in their native tongue and the 'vertical stretcher' patient, although very much horizontal now, stopped fighting and began to speak his replies with much more control and rational behaviour.

It was such a relief to Amia once the two began to calm at least a little, that she tried again with some signals she hoped might be at least a little bit universal.

Semmt reached out carefully and freed the entangled ankles of the horizontal patient then stepped back a little and began to try to ascertain if this was gaining the patient's idea that they weren't enemies. Well, at least not under the white flag of medical aid.

"Not safe. In the trees", the Cardassian said very slowly searching for the human words. He looked afraid.

tbc....

 

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