Visiting Friends, pt. 3
Posted on Sat Jun 26th, 2021 @ 10:07am by Lieutenant Mila Lynn & Captain Freya Mannerheim & Uhlan Ezra Perez & Major Ashley Rogers & Lieutenant Hatham tr'Krotash
2,216 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Chapter IV: Unravelling the Mystery
Location: I.S.S. Amelia
Timeline: 238702.18
When Perez, Hatham and Rogers arrived in the Amelia's transporter room, Mila was already waiting for them.
"Good to see you back," she said, a wide smile on her face. "The Captain and the Commander are in the ready room, waiting."
Perez looked at Mila and the other two. "My part of the mission is done. I'll be heading down to the officers' mess to get drunk. Unless one of you thinks I should come along?"
Ash looked at Perez sternly before wondering if this is how the Commander would talk to her staff, "You're coming with us. You're not getting a head start on the drinking while we're debriefing the Captain. Besides, you made it up to the bridge, any information is good information." She then turned to Mila and put a hand on her shoulder, "Thanks for helping us out from here." Knowing Mila has her back from afar has been comforting to Ash over the past several missions. Between Mila and Hatham, Ash is pretty comfortable that they can take on pretty much anything.
The Sergeant paused for a moment. "You really are not like the Commander, at all. You have the same efficiency, the same methods and determination when it comes to your missions, yes. But she would have never said anything like that to me. Ever."
Mila looked at Perez, and put her hand on their shoulder. "Hey. Perez, right?" She smiled. "Trust me, Ash is a lot more like your Commander than you might think right now, hell, they sometimes even talk in sync. Which is annoying as hell. But I got to know this Ash, and she is good people. She might even have a soft side under all that tough. And now she'll probably throw me out of the nearest airlock to keep that secret from ever getting out."
Perez took a deep breath. They were still struggling with having lost control, and very much wanted to avoid speaking to Mannerheim and Rogers because of it. "Maybe you're right, Lieutenant. There's more to people than meets the eye, right?"
The young scientist nodded. "Exactly. And drop the rank. It's Mila."
Perez nodded again. "Right. Mila." They turned to Hatham. "So, I take it you agree with your superior officer, Lieutenant?"
Hatham's brows moved in a brief up and own that was the Romulan equivalent of a shrug. "Getting the information directly from those involved is the standard approach for AARs where I'm from." He leaned down slightly, lowering his voice. "And you won the bet, so you might as well wait until we're free to come pay for your booze."
Perez chuckled. They liked these people. "Fine. Well, we better not keep them waiting."
When the four got to the Captain's ready room, only Freya was waiting for them there. "Come in," the Captain said, with a friendly smile. "The Commander is just taking a report from the teams currently on board the James Bedford and will be with us shortly. Major Rogers, as the senior officer involved in the operation, your report, please."
"Whoever these people are knew what they were doing by eliminating most of the boarding party before we could do anything. We split up to gain control of the ship. Perez took the bridge, Hatham got to the pods, and I took out engineering. I'll defer to the two of them for their insights into what they encountered. My trip to engineering was relatively uneventful. Once we realized that we're planning to vent everything into oblivion, I shut everything down... until apparently lights were useful," the Major started.
Commander Rogers narrowed her eyes at the briefing, "Perez, what'd you encounter on the bridge?"
Before replying, Perez noted that the Commander had not referred to them by rank, which was unusual. Still, they decided not to mention the berserk episode. "When I reached the bridge, the crew was attempting to override the system lockout. One of their officers, I think, was trying to access a separate system controlling the cryo pods, to vent them into space. I cleaned up as quickly as I could, and stopped the system release by destroying the console. I then informed both yourselves and my colleagues on the James Bedford, and made my way towards medbay as quickly as I could. On my way there, the Major killed all systems except for basic life support and turbolifts, but unfortunately, she also locked out most doors. So, I forced my way into medbay and dispatched most of the enemy crew there, by the time Lieutenant Hatham arrived I was pretty much done. We must have caught them very much by surprise, as I encountered minimal resistance."
The Captain knew that Perez was holding back on something, but decided not to press that issue yet. Instead, she simply nodded. "Lieutenant Hatham, what did you find when you reached medbay?"
"I found a warning signal that it was losing atmosphere, so I broke into the breather cabinet." Hatham nodded toward Perez. "The sergeant here took out a Andorian aiming at me as I was pulling equipment out. But the pods looked to be intact. We debated how to proceed and decided to comm for engineering support to properly examine them rather than risk sending any unpleasant surprises back to your ship."
The Commander looked at the Away Team with frustration, "And none of you left anyone alive to interrogate?"
Major Rogers shrugged at her counterpart, "We were a little busy trying not to get vented into space."
The Commander shook her head at the Major, instead directing her attention at her own officer, "And you? You didn't leave someone alive on the bridge that can answer questions?"
Before Perez could answer, the Captain spoke up. "Enough, Commander. The orders for the boarding party were clear. To eliminate any and all resistance. We can get information from their logs. Now, the only question that remains is what we do with the pods. If we cram them all in very tightly, we could get them into the cargo hold, but there would be no way to access them without unloading them. Alternatively, we could send a small team over to the James Bedford, take over the ship, and escort it to a safe place where we could release the refugees."
"In my view, sir, providing the engineering team can her operational and ensure there aren't any 'tripwires' in the system, two ships are better than one," Hatham put in, leaving out that he would feel better having them on a second ship rather than here. As helpful as they'd been so far, he still didn't trust them and preferred his people not quite so easily held hostage. "In fact, I'll volunteer to join the crew escorting them to safety."
The Major pondered the options, not surprised that Hatham would choose to keep his options open and not be forced to remain with a Terran ship. But then, these were a known, or as known as they could be, quantity. Her counterpart was right, they should have left at least one of the crew alive. There's much that could be learned from eyewitnesses than just records off a computer. Who knows what the refugees are like. "If Hatham goes with the Bedford I'd like to stay here," she said. "We can always use another ship..."
Mila nodded, finally speaking for the first time in the meeting. "That is a good plan. I will accompany Lieutenant Hatham on the Bedford. I think my scientific skills are better used there."
"Very well. The engineering team should have repairs to the James Bedford complete within the next few hours. Until then, I recommend you get some rest. I will contact the Ourainvassa to set up a rendezvous. Once we meet up with them and have some more friendly faces around us, we can take the refugees out of cryo and hand the ship over to them." Captain Mannerheim looked around the room. "Unless there is anything else, I dismiss this briefing. We have some guest quarters you can use if you need some sleep, and I recommend getting something to eat, too."
Just as Freya stood and was about to take her leave, Perez raised a hand. "Actually, Captain, there is one more thing. With the MACO team gone, I assume you will request a new unit from Task Force Command?"
The Captain nodded. "Yes, I will file that request once we get moving again."
Perez slowly nodded. "Make sure they send you a new MACO commander as well. I hereby officially resign from the service of the Terran Empire. And," they added, turning to Hatham and the Major. "I would like to join the crew of the Ourainavassa instead."
The Commander glared at the Major, "Stealing our crew? I knew you were freelancers.... but seriously?"
Major Rogers looked at Perez and then at Mila and Hatham, wondering if they knew anything about this, "I assure you, I did not do anything to encourage this..."
The Terran Rogers looked at Perez judgementally. They worked with the other crew for one mission and suddenly want to desert... weak. "You've made your loyalties clear, Perez."
Perez looked at the Commander, and, for a moment, it looked as if their eyes were turning black again - but only for a moment. "Commander Rogers, are you at all familiar with Project Ghoul? When Imperial scientists experimented on a group of children with genetic therapy and all sorts of mental torture in an effort to create 'super soldiers'?" They glanced at the others, and, seeing confusion in some of the faces, tapped their tricom badge to activate the holo-PADD.
"The scientists were obviously fans of the old Hulk comic books and movies. They tried to make it a reality. What they created, in the end, were young people who, when exposed to enough adrenaline, lost all control over themselves and went berserk. When they thought they had achieved what they set out to do, they invited the Emperor and senior members of the Imperial Court for a demonstration. it went wrong, and the project was terminated. Literally. All subjects were executed. Well, except one. One of the junior scientists had taken pity on one of the kids, and decided to rescue them and adopt them as his own, covering for the genetic abnormality by faking some accident reports. That scientist's name was Eduardo Perez. So yes, my loyalties are clear. I owe no loyalty whatsoever to an Empire that turned me into a guinea pig when I was three years old, and ordered me put down like a lame horse when I was thirteen."
Mila's mouth fell open. She wanted to say something, but could not find the words.
The Captain, meanwhile, simply nodded. "I am well aware of your origins, Sergeant. However, I won't accept your resignation. Instead, I am putting you on indefinite leave. And Commander," she added, with a sideways glance at Rogers. "I know there is something you want to say right now, but be very, very careful. I may not like agoniser booths, but you know full well that I will not hesitate to use them if it is necessary."
Hatham's brows had risen, but he refrained from speaking. Perez' story was ...interesting... and alarming but also not outside someone of the stories one heard from Reman, and others. He was more concerned about the implications for the Ourainavassa since there was no telling how that could go and a real security threat if it went as wrong as whatever happened at the Imperial Court demonstration. It wasn't that he didn't feel some sympathy for Perez, but there was sympathy and then there was soft-hearted stupidity, and he was too Romulan not to make the distinction.
Commander Rogers scoffed and looked at the Major, "If you want them, take them." She then looked at Mannerheim, "No additional comments from me, Captain."
Major Rogers looked at Hatham and Mila before addressing the Terran crew, "Indefinite leave implies you want them back at some point... we are a rag tag crew of misfits that quite frankly, answer to no one. As the XO of the Ourainavassa, I am more than willing to take on additional crew after consulting with my CO... but if Perez is to join us, they join us. You have to understand my perspective... having essentially a Terran long term exchange officer is going to be a hard sell."
Mila smirked. "Especially since we've already got one of those," she said, with a wink at Commander Rogers. "I fully agree with the Major. We'll be happy to take Perez, I am sure. But either on a strictly temporary basis, or permanently. None of this indefinite stuff."
Perez shrugged. "I told you, Captain. I quit. Whether you like it or not."
Freya groaned. "Fine. We'll go over the formalities and all the quartermastery stuff on the way to the rendezvous point. Might as well do it properly. Right, if that is really everything now, get out of my office. I have paperwork to do now."
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