Sticks and Stones (Part 2)

Posted on Sat May 7, 2016 @ 3:42pm by Commander Caden Aldrex & Commander Amia Telamon M.D. & Lieutenant JG Noelle Bennett M.D. & Qinee & Second Lieutenant Emily Ransom

3,246 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Pangaea/Deep Underground
Timeline: MD13/1145

[PREVIOUSLY]

The sentinel stood aside and watched them enter. It did not follow. Bentzen looked over his shoulder and met the strange creature's gaze for a moment. When he turned to face forward again he and the others were no longer in the cave. They were in the middle of a burning city. All around them were buildings reduced to rubble. Screams and cries came from every direction.

A military-looking vehicle approached them. It bristled with antennas and a small, turreted weapon. In no time it was on top of them and screeched to a halt. The top hatch opened with a hiss that released some of the air from inside. Then a soldier, clad in what looked like chemical warfare gear, emerged Jensen pointing a weapon at them. "You people! What are you doing here?"

Qinee stared around the blasted landscape Now where were they? This was certainly not the cavern. Fascinating.

“We were hoping you could tell us,” Qinee said. “We seem to have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque,” she cited the Terran reference, though she didn’t exactly know what it meant.

Visibly befuddled, the soldier lowered his weapon. These people didn't look like they were from around here. But they didn't look hostile either, and there wasn't time to ask them questions. "You'd better leave the city. The Ahemait Alliance is moving in. All our forces are pulling back. Move quickly. You know what they do to women." He closed the hatch and the vehicle moved on, kicking up a veil of dust and ash behind it.

The doctor in Amia reacted to the screams and cries around them. "We have to help..." she began, looking frantically around for her med-kit. She had started out with it, but when they entered this cave system, somehow she had arrived at the next situation without it. She wondered at which part of this jigsaw nightmare she had lost it and how come she hadn't noticed it was missing until now.

Noelle was just as confused and disoriented as everyone else. When they agreed to enter as the sentinel had directed, Bennett felt they had had no choice, a feeling she was certainly becoming accustomed to. To another passing soldier she offered, "We're lost. How do we leave the city?" She wasn't about to question the soldier's suggestion, not until she knew more.

The passing soldier, this one double-timing it on foot, stopped momentarily for Noelle. "All units are heading west towards the hills. Maybe we'll have a chance on the high ground. But the sun is down and the Alliance owns the night. Whatever you do, don't stand out in the open." He nervously scanned the windows of a nearby high rise.

While Noelle was talking to the soldier, Bentzen looked down and noticed they were all standing on a flat, circular stone inscribed with markings. He knelt and brushed away the accumulated dust. "It looks like the Fae language," he muttered to himself. "What is this place?" he asked the soldier. "What's happening here?"

Still scanning the high-rise, the soldier was too distracted to understand the question. "My thoughts exactly. Just remember this wasn't the fault of the warrior class. We begged the leaders not to allow the Alliance to settle here. We knew this would happen." He resumed his pace to catch up with his unit. "Get yourselves out of here!" He yelled over his shoulder.

More soldiers on foot ran past them, some panicked, but most with looks of exhaustion. Behind them an exodus of civilians came down the street. These people, too, were dirty and shell-shocked. Many had their arms full of whatever belongings they could carry. Many were also limping or pressing blood-soaked bandages against wounds. A handful was being carried on makeshift litters.

"This is awful," Amia said, wondering what horrors had occurred here and, judging by the flight of the "warrior class" soldiers, what was about to continue to happen. "What is the Alliance?" she asked, looking around. "Or who are they? Is there nothing we can do to negotiate, or at least ask to talk?" That even sounded naive to her ears. She cringed, but there had to be something. "Do you think we should follow the soldiers? They did at least seem not to intend us harm," she offered as a better suggestion to finish with.

Bentzen nodded his agreement. "Our first order of business should be to stay alive. Whatever is happening is much bigger than us." He shook his head and added, "I've never heard of the Ahemait Alliance before. This planet could be in an unexplored region of the galaxy." Bentzen's instinct was to run away from here fast. As the ranking officer, however, Amia was in charge. It was up to her to give an order. No one would move until she said so. Hopefully the Ferengi would fall in with them and not get in the way.

"Help! HELP ME!" someone cried out. It was an older man, shirtless and bloody, holding a little girl in his arms. The girl was limp. He moved along with the crowd at a slightly quicker pace. Despite his attempts to get someone's attention, he was ignored. "HELP PLEASE!"

Amia was on her feet and running towards him, reaching for the limp child instinctively. "What happened to her?" she demanded as she felt for a pulse the old-fashioned way and lifted the child's eyelids gently. She left her in the man's arms because it made it easier to look her over. "Let's get her out of the main rat run so we don't all get swept into the crowds or out into the open. That's what the soldier said to avoid." She glanced up at the windows that she'd seen the soldier looking at and then turned her attention back to the child and to listen to what the man was saying had happened to her.

Amia needed to be aware of the people who were with her as well as helping the injured. She was facing an inner conflict between her medical self and the training she had received as a Starfleet officer. Lieutenant Commander was a rank that asked her to be a leader as well as a healer, and the two were in conflict here. She needed to get her group to safety and she also needed to help the injured child. She looked up at Noelle. "Can you please get everyone to the east? I'll see what I can do here and join you all as soon as I can. Follow the instructions that first soldier gave us," she said.

“You shouldn’t be alone,” Qinee said. “We shouldn’t split up.” She looked around and found a broken fence and some ragged canvas caught on it. “Nazl!” she snapped at her aide, grunting as she pulled up two of the narrow poles.

Nazl grumbled but went to help. “We need to go!” he whined.

Qinee constructed a makeshift stretcher, folding the canvas over the two poles. The girl’s weight would lock the canvas in place. “Can you work while we move?” she asked Amia, wiping her dirty hands on her expensive Tholian silk dress that was already spattered with mud from the storm that had driven them into the caves. “Tell us what you need us to do.” She looked at the young child tenderly, brushing back the girl’s hair.

Amia was surprised -- very pleasantly surprised -- at the Ferengi's kindness. "Thank you," she said. "Yes, I can. Good idea."

"Something exploded next to our house," the man explained, his voice trembling. "The roof collapsed, and a large beam fell on her head. She's been unconscious ever since. I can't wake her up."

“The doctor will do all she can,” Qinee said. The Ferengi ambassador looked appraisingly at the others in the party before declaring, “Nazl and I will carry the stretcher. The rest of you will be more useful with your hands free.”

“What?!” Nazl sputtered. “I am no menial laborer.”

“Tonight you are,” Qinee said coolly. “So pick the front or the back, you choose, but one of us is carrying the Hew-man child.”

Nazl grumbled but went to the front end, picking it up. Qinee took the back end.

"Thank you." Amia was genuinely grateful for their help as she leaned in to reach the patient while they hurried along towards somewhere safer.

"Thank you, doctor," the girl's father also said. He was a bit awestruck at the Ferengis' appearance, but didn't ask about it. On a day like this it was the least worrisome occurrence.

As they made their way among the crowd, other people took note. "Are you doctors? Are you here to help?" a person asked as they hurried past.

Another person nursing a bloody wound said, "Doctors? Where!"

In an instant the news rolled through the packed multitude. Doctors! Doctors had come to help! It was welcome news. Every doctor on this planet had been drafted to help on the front lines. These people hadn't seen one in this city for a long time.

Wounded and sick began surging in the away team's direction, begging for treatment.

Amia looked around and began to wonder how to deal with all this without her med kit. "Do you have a hospital here?" she asked the father of the wounded child. "Or even a soldiers' field hospital? That perhaps they are leaving… No, they'd take it with them surely?" she guessed the answer to her own question. "Maybe there was a medical facility? In this town?" She repeated the first part of the question to someone close by who was trying to get her attention for her own babe in arms.

Instinctively Amia reached out and tested the baby's forehead for a fever. She used the back of her own hand and then her cheek to see if she could tell. The child was not burning up, it was cold and clammy. Amia knew this was bad news and looked straight into the fraught eyes of the mother who was gazing desperately at her in false hope. Uncharacteristic tears threatened to well up in Amia's eyes. She fought them down and swallowed her suddenly dry throat.

The number of sick and desperate people was increasing and it was getting impossible to help even a few of them without medicine or a regenerator. It was not Amia's way to despair, but she felt close to some very black feelings right now. Forcing a weak smile and some words of what she hoped might be comfort she took off her own Starfleet uniform tunic and wrapped it around the tot, layering it around several times before returning the child to his mother's arms. “Try to keep the baby warm and drop small amounts of water onto their lips. Like this...” She tipped some small droplets out of her small belt flask onto the tiny lips. The baby's eyes fluttered and the woman sobbed with relief.

Amia knew it wasn't as much of a breakthrough as the mother was thinking and she prayed hard that it might be a sign that the child needed water. She gently pinched the back of the baby's hand and let the skin go. It was slow to fall back properly.

"This child needs water," she declared. "Does anyone have water to spare?"

There was a ripple amongst the crowd and lots of shaking of heads. Amia looked at Bentzen. "Right, that's what everyone needs. Can you see if you can find a water source that's still intact please?" she asked him. The stretcher, the bearers, the Starfleet staff, and the crowd that had attached to them were all still moving in a vague direction after the soldiers they had seen earlier. It was a slow procession, but Amia was aware that they had been warned not to be caught out in the open. She encouraged everyone onwards, hoping some buildings up ahead might offer them something, perhaps water, perhaps refuge, even better if it might be something medical.

From somewhere unseen an angry voice called out. "We need help! Let us through!" A clamor began from somewhere in back. People pushed and shoved against each other to be first. The yelling and commotion increased. Predictably the crowd began to crush against Amia and the others. Then someone grabbed Amia's arm and pulled on her. "Help!"

Bentzen wrapped his arms around Amia's waist to keep her from being pulled into the crowd. But the man who had a grip on her was stronger than he looked. Other hands began latching on to her. Someone even pulled on her hair. "Let go of her!" Bentzen yelled above the din.

Bentzen threw wild punches with his free hand, trying to force the desperate people to let go. Someone threw a punch back at him. He saw stars and felt blood coming out of his nose. Now he had no choice. He pulled his hand phaser and set it to wide-angle stun. Then, pointing it at the crowd, he fired.

Several people fell. A huge chorus of screams went up, and then most of the others fled.

Bentzen grabbed Amia by the hand. "Let's get out of here!" he said to the others.

Noelle knew there was no way they were going to be able to help all of these people, and her gut told her they needed to get to safety as soon as possible. She'd known it since the soldier had told her so and she was even more certain now. Still, she knew Amia outranked her and she knew the doctor would make the call of what to do next, good or bad. Adding her voice to the chaos and disagreement was only going to make it worse. The other truth was, she was just as torn about leaving the sick and injured behind as the CMO, and while she was on board with trying to find a safe place to accomplish all of their goals, it soon became clear they had encountered a situation in which their very survival was at stake. "We need to go, Doctor," Noelle shouted over the din.

Amia had been horrified to be pulled around so roughly. She had been very grateful for Bentzen's help and was only now realizing what the others seemed to have already observed. There was no point in being hurt or even killed trying to help a crowd of desperate people and ending up unable to help anyone at all, least of all her own self and the people she was responsible for.

"Lead the way, Mister Bentzen! " Amia shouted, trying to be heard. "Everyone follow." She tried to see ahead to where the Ferengi were attempting to carry their stretcher and being jostled about too. "We can't stay here," Amia called. "I'm so sorry. We'll come back when we reach—“ Someone pulled at her again and she clung to Bentzen's strong arm, allowing herself to be half pulled and half lifted forwards. She felt awful that she could do so little, but without even a med-kit and with no water for the patients even if there had been medicines, she knew her work would all be just a prolonging of a terrible inevitable.

"Everyone look for water!!" she shouted out, aiming her instructions to the whole crowd. "It's the most valuable medicine here" He voice sounded strained but she continued to yell as loudly as she could, hoping to get the message over to as many people as possible. Not letting go of Bentzen, Amia looked around for Noelle and reached to grab her to stop her being swept away in the sea of terrified, desperate people.

"Where are our Ferengi friends?" she called to Noelle, hoping that she could see them in the waves of movement all around. The noise levels were terrifying in themselves alone and it was threatening to become overwhelming. Amia sucked in a deep breath but it was full of dust and smelled of burning. She tried hard to remember her bridge exam and the lessons they had been attempting to teach her about leadership and decision making under the duress of an 'out of control' emergency.

Amia was well used and very experienced about decision making under emergency medical circumstances, but she was not at all used to volatile crowds and near riots, especially at such close and dangerous quarters.

Bentzen led them back to the stone slab, the one they had been standing on when they arrived here. He remembered seeing the inscriptions on it. He hoped and prayed it would tell them how to get back. There was no way they could stay here and survive.

Some of the refugees followed them, keeping a safe distance since Bentzen still had the phaser in his hand. These were the desperate ones with vacant, feral looks in their eyes.

Bentzen pointed the phaser in their direction, which made them stop or take cover. When he turned his attention away, however, they continued to follow.

From somewhere beyond the canyon of buildings came the sounds of war: the shrieks of plasma beams accompanied by shrieks of people. A smoky fireball went up.

"The Alliance is coming!" someone shouted. Those who had been following turned and ran full sprint.

Bentzen handed his phaser to Noelle. "Here, Counselor. It's set to stun. But shoot to kill if you have to." Did counselors also have to take the Hippocratic Oath, he wondered? It wasn't important. Pushing the thought aside he pulled out his tricorder and began scanning the inscriptions on the slab. "Come on, tell me something."

Noelle accepted the phaser with a grim nod. Like any other Starfleet officer, she'd had to demonstrate minimum proficiency with the weapon. Bennett was a decent shot, but that didn't mean she would enjoy stunning someone or even ending his or her life. However, she would do it if it meant the difference between her life or that of others.

The Ferengi were a few steps behind them. "Hurry, Ambassador!" Bentzen shouted to them.

Qinee and Nazl were both panting. Qinee had prided herself in keeping in shape, but she was not in Starfleet shape, and Nazl was worse off. Fighting the crowds and trying not to drop the little girl where she would get trampled.

“We’re…here…!” Qinee said as they paused to examine the slab again.

Amia joined Bentzen and tried to be of help to him. "What can you decypher?" she asked, peering at the inscription and hoping to spot something familiar.

"I think we got it," Bentzen said in a mesmerized tone. He was looking down a dark hole that had appeared as soon as the Ferengi had set foot on the slab with them. He could see the sentinel on the other side. It was the way back to Pangaea.

Not knowing how long the portal would stay open, Bentzen hustled everyone through, then brought up the rear. The portal to this planet, wherever it was, closed behind them.

Back in the Pangaean cave the sentinel simply said, "you are needed above," to Amia, and in another instant they found themselves back at the mouth of the cave where they had started.

Liam, Lieutenant Tessaro, Ambassador Voskene, and another uniformed crewman were several steps outside the cave. It was then that Amia understood why she was needed.

[TBC]

 

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