Scientists, and their Baggage (Part 4 of 4)

Posted on 07 Jul 2012 @ 7:23am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant JG Kestra Orexil & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Anthony Hardaway Ph.D. & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Justice Abernathy Ph.D. (MIA) & Emma Kennedy (MIA)

3,824 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: Starbase 152 - Decks 122-124, Crew Quarters
Timeline: MD 07 - 1545 hrs

Previously...

Missing the interaction between Mor'an and Kestra, Pola turned to follow after Justice. Smiling as she followed the scientist she wondered what it would be like to have a person so devote to you as he was to Emma it seemed. It was a sickly sweet romance to outsiders but she was sure it meant everything to the couple. Being a Doctor, Pola focused her attention on Justice as he was, not seeing any dangers or anything wrong. Her only concern was the holdup on completing the transfer of personal and their property.

Justice bowed his head and held the door open for them to pass through, then led the way down the hall, swiping his palm over a bioscanner to open a door that led out of the labs and into the regular corridors.

He led them down a turbo lift and along another corridor until they reached a lane of doors noted as crew quarters. "Ah," he shook his head, sounding dismayed, still extolling Emma's innumerable virtues in his mind like a mantra. "I forgot the anti-grav lift. And the access keys." He spread his hands apologetically, "Forgive me. I won't be a moment. Just... would you wait here?"

Kestra looked at the man. She didn't want to be insensitive to his new love, a feeling that was quite strong and nearly overpowering. She knew the influence such strong emotions could exert. But, at the same time, they had a job to do and he was complicating it by focusing so much on Miss Kennedy. "Perhaps we could come with you," she offered, hoping to avoid a situation where he went off in search of Miss Kennedy instead of an anti-grav lift.

Justice shook his head, holding up a hand, "It will be faster if I just go myself. I will go as quickly as possible. My apologies," he added, bowing his head, and backed away from them down the corridor before turning to hurry to the lift.

Kestra watched him hurry off and looked to Mor'an, lifting her brows, and signaling her to follow him. She touched her eye and then her wrist, silently telling her to keep an eye on the scientist and keep him on task.

Mor'an nodded once and casually followed the young man as he scurried along. She simply could not believe he was allowing himself to be impeded by another being in such a way. Love was all well and good, but, in the Tarkannan wary of thinking, if anything got in the way of your duty, it was best left alone.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

As Justice turned in the turbo lift to see the Tarkannan following him, he felt a little spike of frustration. He was so close. He just needed a little time. He could see that the officers were just doing their job; he sympathized with them. It just happened that their goals were cross-purposes and his were more important. He met the Tarkannan woman's gaze and considered telling the turbo lift to just go without her. But that would have been suspicious and he couldn't afford to be suspicious. Not right now. "You're my chaperon?" he asked lightly as she joined him on the turbo lift and they set off.

"A poor choice of words, I think." Mor'an stood next to the young man, hands clasped behind her back. "I should hope a member if Starfleet would not need a... chaperon in order to complete the task at hand. I am simply a companion." She could tell her presence at his side was anything but welcome.

"I would tend to agree with you; yet here you are." Justice crossed his arms behind his back, eyeing the door. "Tell me something about yourself, then. If we're to be companions, we might as well be cordial about it," he added as the turbolift opened and he stepped out, heading down the corridor.

"Something about myself?" Mor'an asked, trying to be civil to a man she didn't particularly like, "Only if you return the favor. My nickname is Little Gecko."

"Little Gecko," Justice repeated, smiling as he brushed his palm over a bioscanner and opening the door to a lab, leading her inside. "Any particular reason for that nickname?" He opened a drawer, then another one. "Could you help- I just need to find a passkey with a little red and blue stripe on one side. It should be around here somewhere."

Mor'an nodded in response to his request and began looking for the item in question. "My classmates in Red Squad call me that because of my unusual eyes." She lifted a pile of papers and found the elusive key. "I found it."

"What's unusual about them?" Justice asked absently, slipping one hand into his pocket and holding out the other expectantly for the key. She'd found it far faster than he'd anticipated, but it had been enough time.

"Well, for one thing, they are very blue," Mor'an said, handing the key to Justice. "And for another, I can see infrared."

"And... geckos... they're the same?" Justice asked, taking the key. He'd never seen a gecko, nor indeed many other creatures. Even on earth, he couldn't remember having seen anything more than a birds and dogs and house cats. His mind had always been for the future, for the potential, for the lab. Invention. Discovery. Nothing so messy as nature. He turned from her, crossed out of the room, across the hall, and then paused dramatically. "I could have sworn the anti-grav was in here. Ah well, we'll have to look around a bit."

Mor'an gazed at Justice, her arms crossed in annoyance. "Forgive me," she said, her voice stern, "But are you always this inept?" Her eyes narrowed and she studied his face. He was getting on her nerves and she was done playing his game. "I am surprised that you would be so unknowledgeable about your own starbase. You know where it is. Take us there. Now."

Unfortunately for her, he was used to being called all sorts of things for doing things right. The sting for doing things wrong, when that was his intention, sailed right past him. "I'm sorry to cause you any grief," he said quietly. "It's just that the anti-grav lift is used by several departments on the starbase, you see. Any number of people could have taken it to use. The other group of officers from your ship may be using it to transfer our equipment. In which case, we'll have to wait for them to be finished with it."

"And did you not know we were coming?" Mor'an sighed. "Never mind, just find it. You have five minutes."

For a moment there, he'd felt a little guilty about his part in all this. The consequences his plan might have for e crew of the Galileo, who really weren't at fault for Hardaway's greed and disrespect. Thanks to this woman, though, he was feeling immeasurably better about the whole matter. Justice was pleased, but he said nothing. He felt no need to defend himself against the demanding senselessness of the junior officer, nor any further reason to continue any attempt at conversation with her. She was no longer a person in his mind. Merely a part of his life that would soon cease to concern him at all. So he went about his vague searching, taking care to look every place the lift might be, but wasn't, as they entered room after room. Twenty minutes later, after accomplishing what he'd set out to do, he - shockingly - discovered the anti-grav lift in the shuttlebay and circled back around the shuttles to the impatient alien. "Shall we?" he asked pleasantly, and pushed it merrily towards the turbo lift.

Mor'an grinned at Justice's retreating back, her blue eyes gleaming. He needed his enthusiasm to be nipped in the bud. She followed him calmly into the lift, standing close enough to touch his neck. Closing her eyes, she did just that, focusing her mind and pouring energy from herself. Justice was rendered motionless. "You want to get to know me?" she asked in a whisper. "Here is my last little bit. One of a Ta'rkan's most useful abilities is the capability to control the neurosystem. Fortunately for you, I am very skilled in just that. You will not move until I do. I had hoped you were going to be helpful to us, but I guess not as much as I expected. Do not think I am stupid -- you are playing a game and my commander is not going to like it. Keep your mouth shut until we arrive back to Orexil and Dhuinn." She released her hold on him and her voice dropped even lower. "I can do it again just as easily."

It was unfortunate the alien felt the need to threaten him. She really didn't understand the way Justice reacted to threats. It was as much in his name as his personality; reason swayed him. Bullies just pissed him off. And so as he stood, silenced by her alien power against all possible Starfleet regulations, he smiled internally and hoped she would be one of the first to see just what that sort of treatment earned her.

Was her last action going to get Mor'an in trouble? Maybe. was she really that worried? No.


In the Personal Quarters Corridor...

Watching as Justice left, Pola felt disbelief, this was getting beyond ridiculous by now. They had a task to be completed and all of these interruptions and the romantic interjections were become a logistical nightmare. Turning, Pola saw the motion Kestra made and watched as Mor'an nodded her head and followed the scientist, "Kestra... is there something going on I should know about?"

Kestra watched Mor'an follow Justice around a corner and disappear from view. "I'm not certain. He seems... singularly focused. That can happen in a new romance, but there's something..." she shook her head. "Better safe than sorry," she said, looking to Pola. "I do dislike waiting," she added with a small frown.

"Surely there must be something we can do while we wait? Are there people we can try track down? Maybe we should try getting that girl Emma back? She seemed to actually know what she was doing." Pola was at a complete loss over all of this, without knowing the scientists they needed to track down, or having access to the containers they really were limited.

Kestra considered the PADD Emma had given them. "I don't know that us wandering off in search of Miss Kennedy would be the correct move..." She tapped the PADD, "Operations doesn't keep unallocated quarters locked, typically, do they?" She handed the PADD to Pola. "The scientists who have been packed up are technically no longer assigned to their quarters so they should be..." she walked up to a door and brushed her hand over the keypad. It opened with a whirr. "...unlocked," she finished, stepping into the empty room and picking up a box with 'Westin, A. Ph.D. For Authorized Personnel Only. For Transfer to USS Galileo' marked clearly on the top and carrying it out into the hall. "Let's gather these, scan them while we're waiting, then we can load them onto the lift when Im'er returns." She smiled at Pola. "Never imagined we'd be highly ranked bellhops, did you?"

Smiling across at Kestra, Pola moved over to help her colleague manoeuvre the container, "Well my only advise is watch your back, I don't fancy trying to fix any slipped disks." feeling the weight of the box, Pola grunted as they both moved it into the hall, "I'm suddenly very glad we were limited to one box per person. Who's next?"

Kestra peered onto the PADD Pola was holding. "Across the hall. The next two rooms." She flexed her arms behind her back, "What are they packing, I wonder. Rocks?"

Laughing, Pola just shook her head, "I've known biobeds which have weighed less than these things but sure...let's do what we can and at least it'll be less work to be done once these other two get back."


Twenty Minutes Later...

Justice waved as he exited the turbo lift to find the two officers stacking the personnel crates in the corridor. "Took a bit of searching, but we found it."

Mor'an looked over at Orexil and, with a single look, told her the whole story.

Smiling softly, Pola walked over to the anti grav lift, looking at the controls to figure a way to make it work, "Main thing is that you are here now. Myself and Lieutenant Orexil have been busy collecting up the already packed crates and locating them in a central location, will make our job from this point a little easier at least."

Kestra considered Mor'an's look, then glanced at the seemingly unperturbed scientist. She gave a short nod to her security officer and touched the side of her eye. If the man was going to keep causing trouble, he needed to be watched and carefully. "Quite," she agreed aloud with Pola. "Let's move this along."

Having caught Kestra's movement this time around, Pola internally frowned as she tried to figure out what was going on, her eyes flicking between the other three people. Why did she have a funny feeling she was being felt out of something? "Right so we need to get these loaded into the shuttle, and we need to get the case scientists to pack up cases and finally get the scientists scanned. Have I left anything out?"

"I think you've covered everything, ma'am," Justice said pleasantly. "I would offer to assist you further, but I find I am less than inclined. I cannot say with certainty that you, too, do not plan on using a neurotoxin on me to rob me of my ability to speak for a time as this one did. And regardless, I do not relish another incident with your less than regulation friend here." He stepped a little closer to Pola, shuddering slightly as he looked at Mor'an. "Horrifying," he whispered and straightened his sleeves. "You have your lift. You know where things are. I am going to make a report to my commanding officer."

Appearing around the corner, Emma looked up from her PADD as smiled brightly as she saw Justice and the people from the ship. "Hey Guys. Just the pe...." Coming to a stop, she suddenly became aware of the unease between everyone as she looked at each person individually. Looking at Justice in confusion, she continued with the message she had been sent with, "Um...Your ship is looking for an update on our delay? They have advised that they had expected the luggage to be loaded now and the scientists started on."

Justice stepped neatly between the Tarkannan and Emma. "We had some trouble locating the anti-grav lift. Now they have it." He rested his hand on her shoulder. "Let's leave them to it, shall we?"

Uncertain what was happening, Emma looked between Justice and the other's as she still found herself lost. "Surely we would be best utilised giving them a hand to ensure no further delays Justice?"

"That-" he pointed to Mor'an, "took control of my neurosystem. Stopped me from being able to move. Trapped me in my own mind. Because I was unable to locate a grav-lift. No, Emma. We aren't going to be spending any more time with these... officers. I am filing a report and seeing a medic to make sure no lasting damage has been done to my brain. And you... sweet, you shouldn't stay near her. She could hurt you. For no reason."

Kestra considered the scientist's words. He felt more angry than scared, but there was fear and disgust and nerves there too. "Is this true, cadet?"

Whenever someone first experienced loss of control of their neurosystem, they do tend to panic. Mor'an, herself, panicked in a way that much concerned her mentor. "He exaggerates," Mor'an said, leaning against the wall. Now came the time to defend an ability that not a soul here could ever come close to comprehending. "I would never do anything to hurt anyone other than in self-defence." She looked at Kestra. "If you know me at all, you know this to be true. You know my mind. Ask him if he purposefully delayed our finding of the machine. He is not as innocent as he may seem." By now her voice had dropped to a level that only Del'an, her mentor, would recognize as being emotions roiling inside. Her gaze found Justice and her blue eyes turned to steel. "You call me horrifying. You have no comprehension of how horrifying my people can be. If what I did to you, which in no way causes any kind of damage unless I cause it, than you will have a pleasant life. Do you think that what I can do is more horrifying than the similar attributes of the Vulcan race? You speak of what you do not understand." Her eyes found Emma and her voice became civil again. "M'lady, do not fear me. I am different, but not dangerous." Mor'an's voice was soft again, but her eyes remained hard. "There is something going on aboard this ship, and I do not like it."

Justice scoffed. "Lady, I don't frankly give a damn if you're Vulcan or Romulan or what. You seized control of my mind and motor functions because you don't like me, when all I've done is go out of my way to try to help you when no one else in my position would have. You say self-defense. Fine. What in heaven's name could I have done to you to warrant such a thing? You're a trained security officer and I can't even figure out which end of a phaser to fire. So I'll thank you to save your pretty, useless speeches for your court martial."

Turning to Justice, hoping he might trust her due to how close him came to her earlier, Pola held out her med-kit. She just wanted to get things back on track. She didn't know Mor'an so she would leave it to Kestra to try resolving that aspect of it, she herself could do her best to get the scientists to cooperate. At the end of the day they needed for their objective to be completed, get the scientists and their luggage transferred to the ship. "Look. Right now we need to get you all transferred without delay, would you allow me to check you over to ensure you are ok? Once we are on board the ship we have the Captain look into this further if you would wish."

"No. No!" Justice shook his head regretfully, "I'm sorry, Lieutenant, but it's in your interest to push this under the rug and she's your fellow crew member. I'll tell the others to hurry, for your sake and our safety, but I'll trust our doctors before I'll trust anyone who takes your cadet at her word." He turned to Emma. "We can talk to the B-level labs and encourage them to pack up. I don't want you to stay here. Please. Em."

It took every once of Mor'an's training not to roll her eyes at the ridiculous human. "As always," she said, looking at Justice, "No one actually hears what I say. You misinterpret my words. That is why I hate spoken languages. Lieutenant," she looked over at Kestra, "May I speak with you a moment?"

Kestra lifted a brow, You can speak with me here. Leaving them alone at the moment would be unwise. Was he truly a risk?

Mor'an locked eyes with Kestra and poured every emotion, as gently as she could, towards her. He needs to learn his place. He is overreacting. Neurocontrol never hurt anyone. I have had it done to myself so many times I should know. He was taking too long to accomplish our task and I knew no other way to get his attention. I apologize for inconveniencing everyone.

We'll discuss it once we're back on the ship. I appreciate the initiative, if not the method. Kestra gave a slight nod and let Mor'an get a taste of the complicated web of feelings the situation brought up. On the one hand, it was good to see Mor'an taking a stand and working with her instincts, but on the other, it was important to be able to tell when it was appropriate to use certain measures, and to use empathy when considering using ones personal gifts to manage the behavior of another sentient being.

Looking at Justice, Emma stepped close to his side, tucking her hand into hers. She didn't like whatever was going on here and she disliked even more that the man she loved might have been in danger. Squeezing his hand tighter, she traced her fingers across his cheek, "Are you ok?"

"For now," he murmured, still shielding her bodily from the unfamiliar alien. "I can't leave you here, with them, but I can't stay. Won't you please-" he dropped his voice to nearly a whisper, "please, let's get out of here."

Looking up into Justice's eyes, Emma paused for a moment or two before looking at the Starfleet officer's over his shoulder, "We'll go see the Starbase infirmary and meet you at the shuttle. I'll get another scientist to meet you to ensure you are able to roundup all of the luggage and myself and Justice will arrange for all the scientist to meet you in the shuttle bay."

"Better warn them to wear an aluminum helmet," Justice murmured, slipping his arm around Emma's shoulders and hurrying away.

"That will not prevent neurocontrol," Mor'an said loudly after they left, her voice heavy with disgust.

Looking between her two colleagues, Pola couldn't figure out what was going on. She had a funny feeling something may have occurred which she hadn't been made party to her and at this stage she was starting to feel a little pissed off. "Right...what's done is done. We have to get all of this wrapped up. This has taken far too much time as it is."

"Agreed," Kestra said quietly, watching them go. Mor'an had good instincts. And now Kestra found herself wondering if the man wasn't up to something more than a case of love-sickness.

[OFF]

----

LT JG Kestra Orexil
Chief Security Officer
USS Galileo

LT JG Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Emma Kennedy
Assistant to Doctor Anthony Hardaway

Cadet Senior Grade Im'er Mor'an
Red Squad Cadet
USS Galileo

Justice Abernathy (pNPC Lilou Peers)
Disgruntled Sienna Scientist

LCDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

CDT(SR) Im'er Mor'an
Red Squad Cadet
USS Galileo

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