Saving Lieutenant Arnason, pt. 2
Posted on Sun Mar 5th, 2023 @ 12:45am by Kalahaeia t'Leiya & Major Ashley Rogers & Captain Freya Mannerheim & Lieutenant Hatham tr'Krotash & Lieutenant T'Ango & Uhlan Ezra Perez
6,454 words; about a 32 minute read
Mission:
Chapter VII: Into the Storm
Location: ???
Timeline: ???
Less than a second later, the shuttlecraft came to a halt again, and the black alert ended, replaced by a yellow alert, indicating that all of the shuttlecraft's tactical systems were on standby. "Hope the ride wasn't to rough for you," Freya commented with a chuckle as she scanned for any ships that might have noticed their arrival. "Right, doesn't look like there's anyone around, so I'd say we're safe so far."
Perez laughed. "Ah, good old spore jumping. Never gets old. Ash, Hatham, this was your second time, right?"
Ash forced a smile and gave a half hearted thumbs up. Stupid spore drive. She took a deep breath and channeled every bit of her training to maintain her composure.
Kali, for her part, seemed entirely unphased, and was checking her equipment.
Mannerheim shook her head. "We're in transporter range. T'Ango, whenever you're ready."
The sensation from the jump had been...weird. But T'Ango shook out the fur that had raised and got to business. "We'll break into two groups: Hatham, Perez and Kali in one, me and Rogers in the other. There's a trail Gunnar should be following, so we take opposite sides, assess how close Tal'Shiar may be, and prepare to grab him when he runs by." She drew a Dosadi pistol, an old-style projectile weapon affixed with a silencer as she took position on the transporter. "We go down weapons ready, just in case, but avoid firing if you can, especially the energy weapons - it won't take much for them zero in on those signatures and I'd prefer not to be hip deep in Tal'Shiar," she threw Ash a grin, "as much fun as that might be."
"I'll live with my disappointment," Ash joked, feeling a little better.
Freya nodded. "Keep comms open at all times and signal me in case of trouble. Your badges are all synchronised to the transporter, so I will have a permanent lock on you guys to bring you back if needed."
"Got it." Hatham drew his tiny gun and a throwing knife before stepping to the opposite side of the transport pad, facing outward from T'Ango.
Kali nodded, but based on her potential placement as the 'public face' of the group as needed, didn't draw anything yet, just reached down and flicked the switch on the holo-disguise, her face altering as it activated; leaving her a hopefully generic-enough looking (height aside) presence when combined with the clothes she was wearing that wouldn't be out of place on a traveling merchant.
Perez simply nodded as they stood from their seat and drew their swords, casually swirling them before standing next to Hatham in a combat-ready position. "Like you said, weapons ready, but no energy weapons. Let's get your man back."
With a look to ensure everyone was in place, T'Ango nodded to Freya. "Ready."
"Good luck down there." With a nod, the Captain hit a button, activating the transporter.
A moment later, Perez found themselves among some trees, immediately crouching down. Between their black MACO body armour and the mostly black short swords, only their white hair would provide anything easily visible, so they hastily pulled up the hood attached to their suit, before looking around to locate where Hatham and Kali had materialised.
A short distance away, Hatham had crouched low, hiding his bulk near a large broad-leafed plant. The light of the night sky dappled stripes of shadow and pitch-black across his armor. He barely moved, except for his eyes, which scanned methodically, until he finally announced softly, "Clear."
Kali materialized in a rather similar position to Hatham and Perez, making use of her size or lack thereof to aid in concealing herself while she took the lay of the land: Possibly surprising skills for a woman who had a history of desk work for Federation intelligence...Unless one knew that before that she had been a pilot in the war against the Dominion; and that the Federation, like most galactic powers, trained its pilots how to survive if stranded and pursued on an enemy planet.
On the other side of the trail, which could be called such only by virtue of being a strip less overgrown than the surrounding area, T'Ango also quietly scanned across her field of vision even as her ears swiveled slowly, tracking sounds. The evening jungle was warm, alive with the noise of insects and some sort of high-pitched shrieking call, but detecting nothing else, she answered with a half-whispered "Clear".
Ash nodded at T'Ango as she looked around. She may not have the visual acuity of her large cat friend or her hearing, but Ash has been around the block enough times to know exactly what she's looking for. Which at the moment... was nothing. "Clear over here too."
Once they were satisfied that everything was clear, Perez tapped their badge. "Comm check, Captain, do you copy?"
"Magpie to ground team, reading you clear. Transporter is lock is good. Don't forget to put an extra badge on Mr Arnason for extraction purposes."
Kali fished as silently as she could inside one hidden pocket, drew out the extra she was carrying, and briefly palmed it towards Perez' eyesight before stuffing it back into hiding.
Perez nodded. "Understood."
"I'm going to get a better view," T'Ango said, and vaulted up the tree beside her to take a look out position on a thick branch. Activating the eyepiece on her helmet visor, she scanned down the trail, looking for signs of Gunnar or his charges. Nothing yet. She turned to look the other way, carefully checking in case the 'tail' Gunnar had reported had come from a trap laid closer to that position. She released a sigh of relief, at seeing no evidence of that, but just as she looked across to report it, the brush behind the other group parted. Four creatures with beaked heads on a bodies that looked like a cross between an alligator and hyena broke straight for Kali!
"Chak! Look out!" she hissed, as she brought her weapon up, trying to find a shot.
Hatham's head snapped around. Mindful of the danger of using his disruptor, he threw his knife, nailing the nearest creature square in the chest ...only to see it lodge in scale, barely penetrating enough to make it flinch. Rolling out of the way, he came up with another blade, ready to drive it with more power at the next pass.
Ash looked up, "What the hell are those things?!" as she made her way towards the commotion. After seeing Hatham's knife barely affect the creatures she stopped, "Shit..." All creatures have vulnerable spots... Ash took her knife and took aim at the one Hatham already injured. With a skillful flick of the wrist, she threw her blade into its eye. It shrieked in pain and pulled the weapon out as it locked its other eye on Ash. It starts heading towards her, blood oozing from its wound. "Crap."
Kali had the bad luck of being the one they'd originally broken towards, but the proximity turn out to be a double-edged sword, quite literally: One of the things ended up effectively on top of her, too close to either be able to or need to throw anything, and she did the only thing she really could at that point, putting all her strength behind shoving the dagger she'd showcased earlier up through the soft underside of the creature's jaw-meeting-throat as it leaped on her. That one went down after a few moments of thrashing, leaving her covered in its blood as she worked to wriggle out from under it and yank her knife out of it, whirling back to the rest of the fight and reaching down into one boot at the same time to come up with a small handful of Orion throwing knives.
Another one of the creatures was sprinting towards Perez' hiding spot. Swiftly, they jumped up onto a low-hanging branch of a nearby tree, causing the creature to run head first into its trunk. With the creature momentarily stunned by the impact, Perez jumped down, threw themselves into a spinning dive, and, with three slashes from their twin swords, all but decapitated the beast. "What the fuck are these things?," they called out in confusion as they began to sprint over to where Ash was facing another of the strange creatures.
"No idea. Native to this planet probably." Kali took two of the throwing knives she was holding and hurled them towards one of the beasts with as much force as she could muster.
Ash ducked to avoid Kali's knives and cursed herself for only bringing her one...One that was in the hand of the bug ugly that Kali just hit. Ash lunged at the wounded creature, landing a punch to its wounded eye. The impact was enough for it to drop her knife, which she quickly picked up. Seeing how Kali dispatched the one that was attacking her, Ash drove her knife up into the throat and neck of the beast. It attempted to shriek, but all it would muster was a gurgling as blood spurted from the new wound. "Thanks for giving this back," Ash said as she wiped her knife off before looking for another target.
The last snarled, apparently more enraged than deterred by the demise of its fellows, and eyed targets. T'Ango meanwhile lined up a shot. There was a sound like a sheet of paper being torn in half as she pegged a rear leg joint.
The creature yowled and half-crumpled as it hock gave out, but reared back up on three legs and charged toward Kali. Seeing she was down a few knives, Hatham charged as well, launching himself at the creature as it passed and swinging onto its back rodeo style to yank its head back and drive his knife up into its throat. He rode it to the ground, hopping off as it fell but not quite quickly enough to avoid the swipe of a claw as it spasmed in death.
"Fvadt," he cursed, wiping a trickle of blood from his leg. "These were new pants."
"At this point, I think we can say the accent is no longer going to be the most question-inducing thing about me if we get stopped..." Kali's eyes smoldered in annoyance with a last glance at the fallen pack of creatures whose blood was congealing on her shirt, pants, skin, and hair. She yanked the throwing knives out of the corpses and tried to find a non-bloodied bit of her clothes to wipe them and the dagger on before stuffing them back into their respective hiding spots.
T'Ango carefully sweep the area from her overhead position before jumping down. "We're going to need to clear these bodies away and do something about all the blood. Not only could it draw more predators, but it's a giveaway - obvious someone killed them."
"True," Hatham agreed, hoisting one on a shoulder to go heave it into the brush it had been hiding in. "Though I have to wonder how your man managed to make it past them."
"They must have moved on or been frightened off by then." She frowned at carcass nearest her. "Though they certainly didn't frightened easily." Had the Tal'Shiar picked up his trail because he'd had to use his phaser against these? Or... had he gotten ahead because these things had rushed pursing Tal'Shiar? She swallowed at the thought. No, maybe he'd gotten past because they had come back and killed the things before he got here ...though if that was the case, it meant he hadn't come this way because this was ahead of where he'd made the comm to her.... Gods, I hate temporal paradoxes...
Suddenly, Captain Mannerheim was on the comm. "Magpie to landing party, I have located the Cat Dancing, it looks like it's about to depart. And you have incoming. A single life sign, should be on you in two minutes. The data I got from T'Ango indicates it's Mr Arnason. But be quick, there's several groups of Romulans also heading to you, they'll be converging on your location...less than a minute after he gets to you."
T'Ango glanced at her chrono. Fighting the creatures had eaten more time than she'd thought, but not so much that Gunnar should be only two minutes out. Had their presence changed the timeline already? Hopefully if it did, it was by removing a need divert to dodge these predators.. "Understood, Magpie. Moving to intercept."
"No time to clean this up," she said to the others, and signaled a direction. "Let's get him before they do."
A couple klicks away, Gunnar was aware he was being followed. He had, after all, put some effort into making sure that he would be the focus of the pursuers, so that the others could slip away without leading anyone to the ship.
Stumbling, he sucked breath at pain shooting up his side. Attracting enough attention to divert their pursuers had worked, but the execution could have been cleaner... He lifted his hand from the makeshift compression bandage and cursed inwardly at evidence of blood. Red. That was going to be problem. But now the others should be at the ship, so his new goal had become to disappear so he could double back - but Burnie's trick for spoofing his life sign to look like local wildlife wouldn't stand up to sensors sweeps that were actually looking for a human. However, he could hear at least two groups converging toward him, so stopping and taking the time to close the wound wasn't an option.
Keeping moving. Teral said there was a place ahead... The thought was interrupted by the sounds of violent movement, yowls and thuds - and directly ahead! It sounded like large predators, possibly the hlai'vna-thris he'd been warned about, fighting over prey. Right. Not that way then. Worse, the commotion would draw attention, and hence every Tal'Shiar after him. A good thing in keeping them occupied, but before long they'd realize it was just him and go looking for others. Regretfully, he tapped a code, telling T'Ango not to wait. That didn't mean he was going to resign himself to capture or death. He looked upward, toward a low outcrop of rocks. Climbing over it with a disruptor wound was going to be hell but it should afford enough cover to get to the next tree line...
Moving in the near soundless glide of special forces the galaxy over, T'Ango came to a turn in trail and looked down, ears swiveling. She could just hear the Romulans now. Unlike her group, they weren't being especially quiet, by which she figured that a few might be Tal'Shiar but most were likely local guard called out to capture a spy/infiltrator/rebel/traitor or whatever they had decided to call Gunnar to justify a manhunt.
What she didn't hear or see was Gunnar. Chak. While part of her felt a small swell of pride - he'd had Starfleet SERE training, but she'd taught him most of what he really knew about staying but invisible in places like this - the overwhelming feeling was frustration. They needed to find him, and quick. Making a decision, she held up a fist to signal stop and looked at Kali. "He should be here, but he's probably hiding. Look for him," she said quietly. "We'll set up overwatch and pin down the Romulans if they get here first."
Kali gave a human-style nod to T'Ango in lieu of saying anything, and within a couple of moments after that, had vanished from the trail herself, not quite as soundlessly as T'Ango but possibly a close second: One could say she'd had the same Starfleet SERE training as Gunnar, but that wouldn't have been quite the whole story; the version she'd had had been the more advanced level given to pilots and security and command or intelligence personnel; and while she lacked the Dosadi skills he'd learned, it wasn't as if she'd learned nothing from her parents as kid, either. She considered the terrain as it had been shown on the map - and what of it she could see with her own eyes more recently - and the direction their pursuers were coming from, not to mention the one they'd come from, and started off in what she suspected would be the most likely direction that wasn't the ones ruled out already.
T'Ango would really be better for this, Kali thought when she came to the edge of the brush and cover near the rock formation, then carefully started up and through it herself. It wasn't that she couldn't free climb rocks; but felinoids were undoubtedly much better at it. Unfortunately, felinoids would also be entirely out of place even at a distance if spotted by anyone else.
Ahead, two small gaps to clamber further through and over the rocks came into view, and while Kali's first instinct would have been to make for the smaller one, taking advantage of her unusual size, she had the advantage on her quarry here in knowing his size, and if he'd come this way, there was no way he'd have been able to fit through it, so she squeezed through the slightly larger gap to the left instead...And noted the little reddish flecks on the stone in one spot; triggering simultaneous mental exclamations of both a variety of curse words at what human blood on the rocks implied and a jackpot! at this confirmation of having hopefully picked the right spot. She could hear ever-so-faint scuffling up ahead, and made another on-the-fly adjustment to the plan, reaching down and flicking off the device disguising her face to let her own visage - no less blood splattered - show through. If he was wounded and that was him she could hear ahead, she'd probably catch up to him soon despite his longer legs, and at that point the benefits of having an easier time convincing him (hopefully) of her identity probably outweighed the possibility of anyone else catching up to them and maybe being able to place her family line. Her second check after her hand left the switch was a brief touch at where she had the dagger concealed, just in case that wasn't him up ahead.
Not far ahead, Gunnar heard someone scrape over the rocks. Frak. How had they caught up so fast? Hoping it was only a single scout, he quickly fell back, wedging himself into shadow and pulling the phaser from his boot. He knew he had little chance against a Romulan, especially in his current condition, but if he could surprise them at close enough range a stun might go undetected.
When the scuffling she'd been tracking went quiet suddenly, Kali slowed a bit and took the last stretch between her prior position and about where she thought she'd last heard it with more caution and less speed: Either she was about to catch up to a Tal'Shiar agent or a scout for the local guard - in which case they would absolutely attempt to get the drop on her, at best in their view an unknown citizen not where authorized or expected - or to Gunnar, who...would most likely be expecting the same, and acting accordingly. If it was him, he was the sort to be more likely to be planning a (unfortunately traceable) stun shot or the like than the lethal (but less traceable) knife to the back or rock to the head she'd have gone for in the same situation, but getting stunned at the moment - and unable to lead them out of here - might prove just as deadly to them both at the moment.
For a moment, she considered throwing one of the Orion throwing knives in her boots past the couple of spots someone might be hiding in ahead; but while your average Romulan wouldn't be carrying Orion ones, throwing knives of some sort would be a perfectly ordinary item and she doubted Gunnar - if he was up there - would be able to pick out the detail on them enough to tell the difference. And if it was someone else...Well, they'd consider it hostile intent that she chucked knives past them, and respond accordingly without hesitation. Calling out gave the other guy a fix on her: Ideally she'd stick with Rihannsu, Gunnar understood it and it wouldn't get her shot on sight if it was someone else (Federation Standard, English, and Dosadi were out for the obvious reason that they were likely in that case to lead to getting shot potentially before someone else had a good view of her, even). But if it was him, anything she'd say in Rihannsu would have to be detailed and specific enough to convince him it was her, which...Would go badly for her if it wasn't him. Finally, she wracked her brain for the couple of words she knew in his 'true' native tongue, Icelandic, and settled on the word in such for 'friend'.
"Vinur!" Kali called out experimentally, ready to throw herself to one side if her guess was wrong and someone ahead fired on her, and keeping it quiet enough to hopefully avoid notice from down below...through you never knew, the way sound could travel through or echo on rocks.
Almost holding his breath, Gunnar had gone still as a rabbit with a with hawk circling overhead, hoping he had become close enough to one with the brush and shadows for his pursuer to simply pass by. His hand tightened on the phaser as the sounds of approach slowed and he could hear slight shift at a pause, which he could imagine all too well was to ready a weapon. He drew shallow breath, tensing to fire and run, when he heard a word he had absolutely not expected. For a moment, he thought he must have misheard and racked his brain for anything similar sounding in Rihannsu, but there was nothing that could possibly make sense in this context. Unless it was name? But it wasn't the one he'd used here. Someone looking for a lost child, or a lover? The voice was female... and now that he thought about, oddly accented. Like an attempt at Icelandic by someone with upperclass Romulan diction touched by a hint of Boston...
It made perhaps less sense than any of the other possibilities that had flashed through his head. Surely no Tal'Shiar, even if they had worked out who he was, would have hit on using a word in his native tongue, and even if they did, he couldn't imagine that any could, or would even think to, imitate her. Phaser ready, he risked a slight movement, just enough to glance in the direction of the voice. What he saw - a petite woman drenched in fresh blood - overrode caution. He still held the phaser in case she was being used as bait, but his other hand abandoned pressure on his own wound to reach for his IFAK. "Kali? How badly are you hurt?"
"I'm not." Technically, the couple places where the claws of the beast that had leaped on her had made contact probably counted; but they were minor in the grand scheme of things and did not, in her mind, really count in this situation. "This is from offing some freaking beasts that tried to eat us. If you can keep moving, let's go - " Kali pointed the direction that should lead them out of the other side of the rocks and back towards the rest of the group and/or the Magpie; hoping she could save time and explain the rest better later " - possible someone heard us and is about to crash the party. The Cat Dancingis leaving without you but I have a different ride out for you."
"Good," Gunnar said, both glad T'Ango was getting away and not questioning what had brought his own unexpected rescue. "How far to the extraction point?"
"Over there." Kali indicated the direction out of the rocks again towards where she'd left the others and fished the spare commbadge out of one pocket and shoved it at him as she started to move again, reaching the edge of a way out of the rocks but then stopping again abruptly and swearing very, very quietly under her breath when the sounds of the shooting started, again fishing under the tunic and coming out with a petite disruptor, a weapon she'd probably chosen over a Federation phaser for it's cover value if she was stopped. "New plan. Keep that phaser out; if anyone noticed us you might have to use it." She quietly tapped the badge stuffed in the pocket near one shoulder; eyes flicking back and forth still as if expecting someone else to come jumping out of the rocks at any moment. "Kali to Magpie. Got him. Get us the hell out of here; all of us."
When T'Ango gave the signal to move out, Perez positioned themselves at the rear of the group, keeping an eye out. The Captain had indicated that there were several groups of Tal Shiar converging on where they had fought the beasts, seemingly coming from different directions. When T'Ango stopped the group and sent Kali out to scout, Perez took overwatch, looking out for incoming threats around them. A moment after Kali departed, they spotted a bush moving. "Movement," they called out, as quietly as they could while making sure they would still be heard. "Eight o'clock. Take cover, I'll investigate."
Without waiting for confirmation, they crouched low and moved in the direction of where they'd seen the movement, when a small rabbit-like creature emerged from the shrubberies. "That explains that," they muttered to themselves, and turned to return to the rest of the group, when they felt a stinging burn on their left shoulder. They turned their head to see a single Romulan walking towards them, reaching for his communicator. With no time to spare, Perez rushed forward, cutting off the Tal Shiar soldier's free arm and head in one swift stroke of their blades. Standing over the dead Romulan, they tapped their badge. "Perez to all, enemy contact. Just took out a Tal Shiar spotter. He was alone, and I think he didn't get a chance to radio in, but be on guard."
Ash trailed behind the group, making sure no one snuck behind them. It's just a matter of time before people noticed the bloody mess they left behind... and looking down at herself, the bloody messes they're leaving behind. The sounds of Romulans are getting closer and with Perez' last message... it's just a matter of time before this turns more interesting than he has been.
The sound of voices behind her get louder. Ash ducks behind a tree. They have no reason to look for her, the element of surprise is on her side. "There's more coming...permission to engage..." she radios quietly.
Even as the reports came in T'Ango spotted men moving through the brush not far below where Kali had scrambled over the rocks. "Contact right. Weapons free," she replied, aiming her pistol to take out the lead Romulan if he turned toward the rocks.
Ash grins as she waits for the Romulans to make a move, "Copy..." She continues to stalk them as they made their way, waiting for any cue from them to engage.
A short distance away, one of the Romulans bent to the ground, running a scanner. He looked up with a scowl. "Hevam!"
The slur for 'human' barely passed his lips before his head exploded! T'Ango didn't wait for the others to realize what had happened, quickly firing to pin down the guards behind him and divert them from even thinking about tracking the human.
About time, Hatham thought, sending a spread of return fire toward the surviving guards. But they element of surprise didn't stop them for long, and before long a hail of fire came from the guards who'd dived for cover, as well as from the second group charging toward the fire fight.
Perez quickly stored their blades and drew a disruptor pistol they had taken from Ourainavassa's armory, took aim at the nearest Romulan, and fired - but nothing happened. They swore, tucked the pistol back into its holster, and took out the swords again, jumping straight at their - intially - lucky target, plunging their left sword into his stomach and the right one into his chest. A split-second later, they once again felt the stinging burn of a disruptor hit in their shoulder, just as they dematerialised.
Mannerheim stared at the sensor screen, sighing in relief as the Cat Dancing engaged its cloak and vanished. A moment later, a message came through the comm.
"Kali to Magpie. Got him. Get us the hell out of here; all of us."
Without as much as acknowledging, the Captain hit the transporter controls, instantly bringing the landing party - and Gunnar - aboard the shuttlecraft. She swivelled her chair around to look at her passengers. Gunnar seemed to be clutching a wound, Perez was holding their shoulder, and there were a number of scratches and cuts on other members of the group.
With a nod, Freya turned to Divash. "You're a medic, aren't you? Go patch up the landing party while I get us out of here." She checked the display. "Spore drive will be ready in T minus one minute. The system isn't really designed to be used in quick succession," she explained.
"Doctor," Divash replied tersely, but without pause in running the medscanner she already had out. As soon as the party had materialized it had been evident there were two disruptor wounds, but the blood-covered state of others, Kali in particular, had made her reach for the diagnostic tool.
"It's not her blood," Gunnar said, knowing from his own reaction what Divash must be thinking. "I'm stable." He nodded toward Perez. "Treat them. That wound's -"
"You are a patient," the doctor snapped. "You don't get to do triage." But some of the edge in her voice was because he was right. Though she expected that 'stable' was a diagnosis she'd dispute later. "T'Ango, repack that wound until I can get him," she ordered as she moved to Perez, applying a hypo for pain and shock, and then began to work on the hole in their shoulder. The only good thing about disruptor wounds was that the energy weapon cauterized the edges of the wound, so bleeding wasn't excessive, but the tissue damage was severe. "I'm going to seal this and immobilize the arm," she told Perez in the direct no-nonsense manner that marked her as an experienced Starfleet doctor. "You'll need surgery to repair it completely, but that's better done once we're back."
Perez gave a one-sided shrug by way of response. "If you say so, doc. Don't worry about pain meds, I don't feel it much anyway, and I've been shot up worse in the past. Take care of him," they added, nodding their head towards Gunnar. "He seems a lot worse off. And I'm surprised he's not as confused about what the hell just happened to him."
Freya chuckled from the pilot's seat when she heard that. "That's what adrenaline normally does. Give it a few moments." She glanced at the control panel. "Okay, we're all charged up. You recall how bumpy this gets, doctor, so I'll wait for you to give me the clear that our wounded have been secured. Don't want things to get worse by them getting shaken around. There's no other vessels in the vicinity, so we can take our time."
It was true enough. As Divash went to work on Perez, T'Ango had stopped short of a tackle-hug at the sight of blood dripping down his side. "Kali's fine, but that's your blood!" Her eyes widened. "How bad is that?"
As both adrenaline from fleeing Tal'Shiar and the medic's ingrained reaction to respond to casualties before thinking about else faded, Gunnar blinked, trying to process what, and who, was right in front of him. "T'Ango? But..?" He looked around, alarmed. "Where are the refugees?"
"Safe. At the sanctuary," she assured him. "We came back for you. Literally. Back in time." Whiskers flicked with a small smile at the play on words as she guided him lay down so she could work on his side. "And good thing - if we'd come a week later..." she shook her head, frowning at what she saw as she started to remove the cloth packed into the wound. "What were you thinking?"
"It's not my best job, I'll admit," he said around gritted teeth. "Hard to pack a wound properly while..." he winced as the wound was exposed, "...running."
Not, in her own classification of those sorts of things, one of the 'wounded', Kali flopped onto one of the seats once the others seemed to have Gunnar well in hand, and found some material in an emergency kit to pull out. What she started cleaning with it, though, other than a half-hearted swipe at her face to clear her eyes and mouth, was telling: Not the miasma of blood on her skin and clothes, but rather the dagger and throwing knives, methodically wiping them each down.
Seeing Kali cleaning her weapons made Perez smile. They plopped down in the seat in front of hers, looking back at her over the back of the chair. "Hey, could I get some of that?" They drew their swords out. "These need a wipedown, too. I want them to stay pretty." They moved the blades around a little, causing the copper line between the black flat side of the blade and the polished bare steel cutting edge to glint in the dim light aboard the shuttlecraft.
"Sure." Kali tore a decent piece off the blanket she was using and tossed it to Perez. "Anyone else want any?"
"Don't just toss a rag, help them with that," Divash said, pointing at the both of them. "That arm needs to stay still. If they open that seal I'm making you handle bedpans in recovery." She frowned in Gunnar's direction. "Since we won't have a nurse."
Kali rolled her eyes lightly at Divash's comment, but held a hand out to the seat in front of her for Perez' weapons to clean, scrunching the remains of the blanket up and leaving it draped on the edge of her seat for T'Ango, Ash, or Hatham if they wanted any.
Ash nodded and said, "Sure. Well, that was fun." She looked over at Gunnar and T'Ango, "I time traveled and spore drived a couple of times for you. You owe me a drink when we get back."
"Gladly, my friend," T'Ango replied, ears perked at her.
Gunnar nodded. "I think we could all use a drink, or a few, after this."
"You won't though." Divash held medscanner readings up for him to read. "That hit knicked your liver - which is why you're bleeding despite disruptor blast cauterization. Alcohol if off your menu for the next week. Or longer if you argue." She shook her head. " 'Stable' my green ass..."
"It's a very nice green ass," he offered with an apologetic smile. T'Ango batted him lightly but snickered at the familiar banter between the two.
Divash compressed lips against a smile. "Hush." Slightly mollified, she gave him a hypo for pain before sticking her hand in his side. "You're lucky it's only grade II, or we'd have been assaulting a Tal'Shiar medical wing to retrieve you."
If it had come to that, there would have only been a body. With T'Ango there he didn't say it, though he was sure she knew. "I'm grateful. But you risked a lot for just one man. Whether I can drink or not, I'll be paying the tab for all of you."
Perez smirked and shook their head at Kali. "Nobody but me cleans my weapons. Nor will I clean anyone else's. That's what they taught me at the academy, and that's how I keep it. Every soldier is responsible for their own equipment." They smirked at Divash. "And don't you worry about me opening up the damage, doc, you would have noticed if it really was a bad injury. All of you would." They winked at Ash and Hatham, knowing that those two especially would catch their meaning. "And don't any of you dare go drinking tonight and not take me with."
The Captain turned to Divash. "You reckon the patient can handle the jump, because if he can, we can have him in Ourainavassa's medbay in a few moments. Just transport him straight over the moment we jump in." A chime on the sensor drew her attention. "Hang on, this is weird. That wasn't there ten seconds ago."
She pointed out of the window, where a Klingon Bird-of-Prey had just appeared out of nowhere. "There weren't any cloaked vessels around, and nothing came in at warp," the Captain added, before glancing at the sensors again. "Singularity core radiation? This is one of this Vulture person's ships that you guys talked about. Definitely not dealing with that. We're getting the fuck out of here, black alert."
Mannerheim hit the control to engage the spore drive, and a second - and a rather big bump - later, Drozana station was back in view. "Ah, we were off with our calculations," the Captain noted after a quick glance at the chrono. "We were gone for an hour, rather than ten minutes as we'd planned." She flicked on the comm. "Ourainavassa, this is Magpie, mission successful. Prepare to receive wounded direct to medbay, and we request clearance to dock."
On the bridge, Kaiae waited for the shuttle's clearance codes to come through and check them, and when they did toggled the connection on her end. "Granted."
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