5 days down.. 8 more days to survive..

Posted on Tue Feb 11, 2014 @ 9:40pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Samantha Raylen & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson

2,217 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: A Whole New World, Part 2 - Durbatuluk
Location: USS Victory

Five days.

Five days since the Ráeru group had come aboard.

Five days.

Was that really all that it had been?

The Captain was starting to seriously consider committing a breech of standard diplomatic protocol and issuing an order to keep the Ráeru Envoy and his personnel under guard, restricted to the quarters assigned to them in order to maintain the peace and functionality of the ship and crew.

And they still had another 8 days before they reached their destination and could leave the Ambassador and his garish company to their own devices.

Frankly she wasn't sure she was going to be able to manage it.

Entering the briefing room, the Captain fixed herself a large mug of double shot espresso with a healthy jolt of chocolate added then carried it with her to a seat at the table to await the arrival of the rest of her senior staff. She almost dreaded this morning's reports.. while at the same time finding herself morbidly curious to hear what mind-boggling absurdities had been demanded, complained about, or otherwise by their esteemed guests.

Dakar stalked across the bridge, talking into his comm badge as he went. "Look, Chief, you'll just have to deal with it. They can insult you all they want. Isn't there a human saying about sticks and stones?" He tapped his badge off and glanced at a PADD as he walked into the conference room. "Is this a joke? How in the Fire Caves am I supposed to evaluate the security implications of painting their quarters magenta?"

He looked up and realized he was the first into the room after the Captain. Talking to yourself, he thought. Way to impress the brass, Temek. He muttered a polite greeting and took a seat...at the far end of the table.

Blackburn walked into the conference room, letting out a heavy sigh. Even though her department didn't have to interact with the Raeru directly, they still had to deal with them when they got off duty. Yesterday, one had asked her to do his laundry when she was off duty! They had even painted the door to the Omnicore a shade of gold!

Having overhead the comment about painting the guest quarters, the Captain's attention was quickly turned towards Dakar as he entered the briefing room. "What? No.. no .. no repainting the VIP quarters. Put the blame on Starfleet regulations requiring proper ventilation and protection during construction and painting..." she paused. "Magenta? Really?"

Alec came shortly after Dakar, he heard Rhea's comment about not repainting the VIP quarters. He gave her a look, "See? First it was this nonsense about their lights and now repainting their quarters. Next, they will want to rip up the deck." He bristled.

Chief Barnes entered the briefing room next, cup of black coffee in his right hand while his left rubbed the nearest temple on his forehead. The last night had been sleepless for reasons he wish he knew. And his morning so far had been covering for the late petty officer who was supposed to man Transporter Room Two during the alpha shift, all the while fielding complaints of his own from the displaced crewmen who handed over their bunks to their guests. "Crewman Allen went by the enlisted cabin on loan to the Raeru to pick up a couple forgotten items," he said, taking a seat next to the Cardassian. "They've already shredded the mattress covers and replaced them with something comparable to Joseph's coat. Though I imagine the coat was more impressive."

"Captain." Yarin said looking up from his seat. "I believe I have a solution to the problem with the Raeru, I can synthesize the chromatophoric cells in my skin and embed them in some fabric to help calm our guests."

Before the Captain could respond to that, everyone's attention was drawn towards the as-yet still closed doors.

"WHAT?" came Nicole's voice through the bulkhead. "You can tell that bloody dignitary that if they wish to have the nutritional components in the replicator system adjusted again, they can take their 'simple dietary needs' and shove them up their sodding--"

The doors to the conference room opened, exposing Nicole and one of her nurses. "--as you were," she growled. The nurse ran off and Nicole stalked into the lounge, dropping into her seat and dropping her bag in front of her without ceremony. "I'm putting ritevakh berries in their food next," she grumbled, then glanced at Alec's amused expression. "Sod off," she said quietly.

Kennit blinked, "Are you settled Doctor? Yes? Good.. Mr. Yarin had an idea towards helping deal with our guests which I think you are far more qualified to judge than I am.." she said. With a nod towards Yarin, she said "If you would please Mr. Yarin, tell Dr. Anderson your suggestion.."

Miguel entered the room. The last few days had gone very well for him, of course that's because he really didn't have to deal with any of the Captain's headaches with those diplomats. If he could come up with a way to get them to their destination quicker he would. But for now that was something the Victory couldn't do.

As Torres sat down, the Captain cast him a look with eyebrows raised. Her version of tapping a wrist watch in response to his somewhat tardy arrival.

"As I was saying, Doctor, I could synthesize my skin cells which could then be woven into fabric and given to our guests." Yarin said.

Now it was time for the Doctor's input on Lt. Yarin's suggestion, and whether or not she thought it might offer the ship's crew a brief respite from the demands of their decidedly naggy guests.

Nicole's skin turned almost a normal shade as she blushed from all eyes on her. *Could make pillows and smother them,* was her initial response, but she choked it back. "I'd be curious to see your skin samples and see how that will be accomplished," she said. "It would certainly cut down their requests to engineering and maintenance."

"Come to my laboratory after your shift we will harvest the skin samples then," Yarin told the Doctor.

With the exchange between the Doctor and Yarin seemingly done Miguel looked towards the Captain and XO since the ball was once again in their court.

"I know our guests are.. difficult. We're eight days from completing our current orders and seeing Heru Imlad and his group safely to their destination." the Captain said. "All I can offer is understanding of your frustration, and advise that any changes which require alterations to the ship be denied based on Starfleet protocols which require authorization to make alterations to a ship's structure. We'll get through this..." she added.

"...or they'll die trying," Nicole finished, her half smile more predatory than amused.

2/3 Any last moment comments? Yes? No?

"I think that pretty much covers it," the Captain said as she rose. "Miguel, I want to come down and take another look at your little trinket .." she told the chief engineer, referring to the robot which he'd been studying.

"Not really much of it left to even call a trinket." Miguel said with a smile.

Exiting the conference room, the Captain was still talking to the engineer and said, "Do you have any idea what it's purpose was?"

Before Torres could answer though, from a side passageway a sudden angry shout gave split second warning as two fighting crewmen barreled into the main passageway, fists flying and steady curses ringing through the air. Without thinking twice about what she was doing, the Captain moved into the fray, her own voice raised in a furious "What the HELL is going on here?!"

In response, she got a fist to the face from the 6'6" tall Lt. Royce Tavell and was promptly knocked on her ass, hands to her broken, blood streaming nose.

Miguel didn't hesitate to react as he saw the Captain go down. He went right after Lt. Tavell and shoulder blocked him into the wall, knocking the wind out of the man. He then followed up by scoping him up and slamming him down onto the ground. "Captain are you alright?" he asked after he had seemingly stopped one of the fighting crewmen at least for the time being.

Alec for his part reacted instantly, he knelt besides Rhea. "Easy, easy. Keep your hands on it." He said comforting her or trying to. "Doctor! Your presence is required right now!" Then he tapped his combadge. =^= Hunter to Security. Send a security detail to my location right now!=^= He turned back to Rhea. No quips or smart alack answers came to him, just concern for her well being. "We'll get you to Sickbay and you'll be fine. I promise."

The Captain remained where she was, planted on her hind quarters on the deck, hands pressed against her free-flowing bloody nose. The expression in her eyes however did not bode well for the current focus of her rather substantial ire! "I want them both in the brig." she said, though her words were quite muffled by circumstances so that it sounded more like 'I wan' 'mm bof' inna 'rig.'

Alec knew better than to joke or even smile at Rhea's muffled order. "Don't worry, they will be. Security is on the way. These two jokers will be cooling their heels for a long time." He looked at her. "Tilt your head back, that should help in slowing the bleeding."

She scowled, though the expression was somewhat ruined by the way her nose was swelling and her eyes starting to bruise. Face hurt, nose hurt, pride quite wounded.

Dakar ran to a wall mounted locker and pulled out a phaser. He turned and pointed it at the two belligerents. "Two choices, gentlemen. You can stay where you are, not moving a muscle, until security gets here and walks you to the brig, or I can stun you and you get carried there. I don't honestly have a strong preference."

Nicole came charging around the corner at full speed, black bag in hand. She wound up approaching so fast, she would have run over the Captain if at the last second she hadn't touched off and flipped over her, landing with practiced skill and spinning around. *Thank the Numbers for all those gymnastics lessons,* she thought. She reached into her bag without looking, pulling out a programmable hypospray and dialing up an anesthetic. She pressed it to the Captain's neck and paused as the woman visibly relaxed as the pain ebbed. "Don't talk, don't move," she said quickly, seeing the Captain's dander start to rise, all trace of her own ire gone. "Let's get you to sickbay and set you right, then you can spit flames." She tapped her combadge before the Captain could protest, hoping to spare her the indignity of walking there with a swollen face. "Anderson to Transporter room, medical emergency, beam myself, the Captain--" she spared a quick glance at the First Officer and hoped he could read the apology in her eyes, "--to Sickbay immediately."

Kennit was still trying to get over the sheer shock of having the ship's Chief Medical Officer somersault over her head when the transporter beam caught hold and she found herself now in sickbay, on a bio bed.. with a gaggle of surprised nurses all staring at her with wide eyes.

Alec jerked his head around at the CMO's statement, he was about to say something when he saw something in her eyes, an unspoken apology and then they were gone, caught in the transporter beam. He would go and check on Rhea shortly but first, there was business to take care of. "Good work Miguel, Mr. Dakar. Security is here, let them take it from here." Alec addressed the nearest of the two security officers, one named Abbott, his shorter companion was Costello. Take these two jokers to the brig and don't let them out until I say so understand?"

"Understood sir." Abbott replied, "Lets go Cos, got two to take to the brig." As the pair rounded up the fighters and got ready to take them to the brig.

Miguel looked at the first officer. "You know technically I should heading to the brig after I physically assaulted one of them." he brought up.

"Nonsense Miguel. You were protecting the Captain as you should have. So no more talk of going to the brig because you aren't." Alec told the CEO. Yet inwardly he was thinking he let Rhea down. He should have been the one to come to her aid. He would just have to think of a way to make it up to her.

Dakar barely stifled a derisive snort and chimed in. "If I may, Commander Torres, I'm fairly certain Starfleet regulations have a clause permitting the striking of just about anyone who punches the captain."

Blackburn had watched the incident and following conversation in silence until now. "Commander Torres was well within his right to defend the captain from harm. No JAG worth their weight would try and prosecute. If there I no need for me, as I see there isn't, I shall head back to my department."

 

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