Rumpleteazer's Rescue, part one

Posted on Sun Aug 28th, 2022 @ 3:06pm by Lieutenant JG S'Lace & Lieutenant Commander Rayek trLhoell & Lieutenant JG Alia Fitzgerald

3,415 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Into The Void
Location: scout ship Rumpleteazer

The Rumpleteazer was the only support vessel that had survived the Lionheart-A's destruction and even then it had been torn apart. Hadenbeer had kept it around for sentimental reasons, it seldom saw use because smaller shuttles and the more versatile runabout were better suited to most roles.

Today it fulfilled a duty it was perfectly suited for.

S'Lace did not speak much. Actually she did not speak at all. She simply sat there, monitoring sensors, seemingly uninterested in anything remotely like small talk. All her responses were monosyllabic as she monitored sensors.

And then she said, "I have it, twenty thousand kilometers ahead," her eyebrows raised a fraction, "It is an escape pod...but while it has a hull consistent with Starfleet materials, the configuration is not standard."

"Oh? What are the changes? Standard escape pods are pretty universal and I don't recall this system having any unusual environmental effects." Dangerous environments were Alia's bread and butter when it came to technology. Even an insignificant change such as hull color could tell her a lot... assuming there was a legitimate reason for it at all.

S'Lace called up what the sensors were showing and pointed to significant elements.

"This design is unlike any escape pod the Federation is currently employing," she explained, "Nor any design that has been previously in use. Either we are looking at some sort of crude attempt at a fake pod...which makes no sense since the material is an exact match. Or..."

The chief nurse gave the tiniest of shrugs, "It is not my habit to speculate. I have one life sign. Male. It...could be Vulcan or Romulan."

"What are the chances that it was an improvised pod? And are there any signs that there's anything dangerous on board? If there are no weapons or anything hazardous, it may be someone trying to escape from whatever is happening on the station." Alia pondered briefly. "If it isn't weaponized, then the likelihood that this is a trap is low. Why put someone on board at all? Against odds, this may be a legitimate rescuee."

"The pod is too large to beam aboard, we will have to beam the person directly here," she paused and added, "And to do that we will have to drop shields and will be visible. Orders?"

S'Lace almost seemed to enjoy saying the last..."

Up until this point, Alia was just fine ordering someone of higher rank than her (since she was the 'commander' for this mission) but now she keenly felt the burden land on her squarely. She took a deep breath and then released it before squaring her shoulders. "Your knowledge of Vulcan and medical skills are better than mine, plus you are almost certainly stronger if they turn out to be hostile. I'll manage the transporter and shields. Be ready to incapacitate the person or render aid as needed and I'll man the comm. I'll put up the shields or that 'special' surprise as necessary as soon as they are aboard."

She laid her hands lightly on the controls and waited for S'Lace to get into position. "Give me a count of three and I'll beam them over."

S'Lace gave a curt nod and slid out of her seat.

"One," she said. She stepped over to the rear, phaser in hand just in case.

"Two," she murmured as she set it for heavy stun.

"Three!"

The shields dropped and transporter lock solidified with a fraction of a second of each other. Wishing she had a better setup, she did a 'snatch and grab' transport just within the boundaries of safety for living creatures.

The transporter hummed... Scintillating light appeared on the transporter pad more typically used for cargo as the young lieutenant made sure this 'cargo' made it on board safely!

In the cramped space of the escape pod, the Romulan had all of a fraction of a second to react to the alert notification of a nearby craft, when he felt the unmistakable 'tingle' of his atoms being caught up in a transporter beam. Normally, one might think rescue from an escape pod was a good thing - but that usually is accompanied by knowledge of what caused you to be in that situation in the first place. The Romulan lacked this knowledge.

The Romulan had woken barely 20 minutes prior dressed in little else than a sickbay robe. He had a large untreated particle weapon wound to his left side, a sizable bump on his forehead and no recollection of how he had obtained either. With his wound interfering with his mobility, the Romulan wasn't even able to access the escape pod's own medkit to give himself a dose of analgesic.

That the transport had initiated without any form of contact had the Romulan concerned that his rescuers might be less than amiable, and so prepared himself to defend himself.

As he reformed on the vessel's transporter pad, the Romulan had a second where he managed to remain upright - during which time he looked about for indication of where he was and how best to defend. First thing he noted were the two Starfleet officers looking at him - one Human female in Operations yellow seated in the pilot seat, and one Vulcan female in Sciences blue holding a phaser pointed towards him. 'How typical.'

Alia slapped the buttons to re-raise their shields and brought the shuttle around for their return. She scanned the surrounding area hoping that their presence hadn't been spotted.

Given that they were Starfleet... and that his legs were about to give out on him, the Romulan chose not to act aggressively and rather leaned back against shuttle wall and did his best to raise the hand on his uninjured side to indicate he was not holding a weapon and meant no harm.

S'Lace withdrew her tricorder with her free hand and waved it in the subject's general direction. She spared a fraction of a second to check the results, her phaser never wavering.

"Injuries are serious, but not severe," she reported, "We could let him suffer until our trip back to Lionheart or I could treat his wounds now."

She cocked her head, "It depends on how cooperative the patient is willing to be. If he assumes I will be easy to subdue I will stun him into unconsciousness. The awakening will not be pleasant."

Alia nodded, "Sorry about the abrupt rescue but is there anyone out there about to shoot us?" She spoke in a passable Romulan dialect but with an odd lilt. Months of learning the language primarily through songs had taken their toll on her accent. "Also, we'd rather complete the rescue back on our ship rather than out here, but we can at least give first aid until we get there."


The Romulan continued to lean against the wall and listened to the Vulcan suggest leaving his wounds untreated. For some reason this seemed completely unreasonable to him, and he frowned to show his disapproval. He'd expected better from Starfleet officers. It wasn't like his people and the Federation were enemies anymore.

When the Vulcan cocked her head remarking on how she would stun him if he were uncooperative, he felt an nearly overwhelming to urge to test that; but his injured side cautioned otherwise. Instead, he merely mirrored her cocked head and smiled peaceably. He looked then to the young redhead, wincing when she completely butchered his people's language.

"No need to strain yourself. I understand and speak Federation Standard fully." He stated then looked beyond her towards the viewscreen of the shuttle. Unfortunately, he wasn't a cartography savant - he had no clue where he was from just a glance. "As for your question, I honestly don't know. I guess that depends on where we are."

The Vulcan had mentioned a ship earlier...Lionheart. The name evoked a mental image of a vessel badly damage. There was a sense sorrow and loss associated with the recall. He wondered what it meant.

The offer of aid from the human was met with a more genuine appreciative nod. "An analgesic - if nothing else - would be welcome, but only if your Vulcan 'feels' it is worth her time. I'd hate to be a bother."

The shuttle's impulse engines engaged and Alia responded. "No offense intended. Without going into details, we've been under attack very recently and we need to be cautious. Please treat him, lieutenant."

S'Lace gave a curt not and holstered her phaser. She used her now free hand to open up her medkit and began to prepare a treatment. Rayek saw that she never took her eyes off of him, her fingers deftly finding each element in the kit.

Alia kept half her attention on him and the other half on the scanners. "Pardon me if I misunderstand, but do you not know where you are? Even generally?"


The Romulan nodded appreciatively at the pilot as she explained about their situation, yet still gave orders to have his wounds looked at. "Thank you" he responded straightening his unsteady legs beneath him. Yes, his legs felt weak but the wall was doing a great job of keeping him upright for the moment.

The pilot's question was a bit troublesome and so he hesitated in answering at first. He knew that knowledge was power - and that at the moment he was completely powerless. His first instinct was to lie about his situation and instead play off that he was just being stubborn in not answering. But as he regarded the two Starfleet officers, he got the sense that someone important to him expected him to trust the uniform and those wearing it, and be truthful about his situation.

He let out a bit of a wistful sigh wishing he could recall more about that someone, before he slowly nodded, looking back towards just the human, feeling much more comfortable speaking to her than the Vulcan. "Yes. I have no recollection of where I am, who I am or how I got here, though I would hazard a guess as to the Gamma Quadrant - since the only image I can recall is that of the Bajoran wormhole opening."

It was at that moment that his legs decided to give out on him and he collapsed on the floor of the shuttle at the feet of the Vulcan. "Fvadt!" he cussed quietly, though easily heard in the small space of the shuttle. The Romulan term expressed his frustrated sentiment aptly.

"Lay back," S'Lace ordered her new patient. She injected him with a mild analgesic to deal with his aches. She then withdrew a dermal regenerator.

At the statement regarding the Gamma Quadrant and wormhole she briefly glanced back at the Chief of Operations.


"We're not far from Gabriel station." She gave him the rough coordinates, watching him for any sign of recognition. "But our ship hasn't gotten there yet. Perhaps you remember anything about your 'escape pod'? While functional, it mostly remarkable that it worked at all."


The Romulan, already sprawled on the floor in a medical gown, did not have to do much to comply with the Vulcan's order. Rolling over, however, did strain his wounded side causing yet another grimace of pain to which the Vulcan had responded by pressing a hypo to his shoulder. The release of analgesic in his system was very much a welcomed relief - so much so that for a moment the Romulan dropped his cultural dislike of Vulcans and smiled up at her. However when she tried to use her dermal regenerator... something in him balked. He raised a hand to stop her. "No, wait."

He seemed thoughtful a moment... "Can you just treat the burn with gel and dressing, and leave it heal on its own?" he asked. "I feel that keeping the scar of this is important." It was hard to explain since he didn't truly understand why he felt that way.


"I shall comply with that request," S'Lace replied after a moment's hesitation.

Pleased with the Vulcan's compliance, the Romulan laid back against the shuttle flooring and waited for the Vulcan to finish her treatment of him.

When the human pilot - he still didn't have a name for her or her Vulcan science officer - mentioned Gabriel station, the Romulan had hoped for some flash of insight but the station name didn't seem to hold much meaning to him. The pilot's question about his escape pod was puzzling. What would have caused an escape pod to 'barely function'? "I'm sorry. I don't recall anything about Gabriel station or my escape pod."

An idea came to him. "Is there a way to tow the pod back with us? Perhaps there's a clue within that can answer both your questions, and my own.."

Alia shook her head, "I truly regret that I can't comply. With the current situation, we are risking our lives being out here at all. We'd be sitting ducks if we tried to tow it. S'lace did a scan of it... it'd be better to call it welded panels that were able to contain an atmosphere than anything more grandiose." She looked carefully at the sensors and breathed a sigh of relief that there didn't seem to be an immediate pursuit.

"Oh, by the way, welcome to the Rumpleteazer. I'm acting commander Alia Fitzgerald and that's Lt. S'Lace. It seems, for now, we have escaped detection." She quoted a Romulan saying that literally meant, 'It's best to see one's enemies choking on poison, but not seeing them is acceptable'. A less literal translation would be, 'No news is good news.' She had been told it was appropriate for such situations.

"That is not precisely how I categorized it," S'Lace replied to the young lieutenant, clearly annoyed that her analysis had been interpreted in the manner Fitzgerald was describing. To her patient she said, "We are currently dealing with an enemy that uses subterfuge in their attacks and is not hesitant to employ violence. Towing the pod would render us...more likely to be detected."

To Alia she said, "Perhaps we could disable the beacon and mark where the pod is?"

The young Lt. JG objected. "We've gotten away and we aren't even certain that they have spotted the distress beacon. They are closer than the Lionheart and we heard it, after all. Rather than cut it off and possibly alert anyone, best to leave it alone. The longer we stay here, the worse off we are. We know the location and heading of the pod. If anything happens to it, well, it's a gamble either way."


Once more the Romulan acknowledged the pilot's response with a nod. There wasn't much else he could do currently in his state. He was puzzled however by how he'd come to be in an escape pod.. much less one that was in such a poor state. It hadn't seemed patch-worked from the inside. Had he fashioned it himself?

He listened as the pilot welcomed him to the vessel before introducing herself and the Vulcan. Because of her talkative nature, there was no awkward expectant pause for him to struggle to recall his own name. She by-passed that entirely to offer instead a rather unusual Romulan saying.

Unfortunately, his request to have the escape pod he was found in towed behind the shuttle, was denied - though he understood the reasoning. That they had risked themselves to rescue him was enough. He wondered who their enemy might be? But figured that perhaps they might not know themselves - especially if they thought he might have been part of some elaborate trap.

At the mention of disabling the escape pod's beacon, even he shook his head knowing the situation they were faced with. "Acting Commander Fitzgerald is correct. If my escape pod was part of some trap then disabling its beacon and rescuing me... would be taking the bait.." He pushed aside the Vulcan's hands as he struggled to sit up.

"If your enemy is using older generation Romulan tech from before Hobus then I might know of a way to ... " his voice faltered as his sudden recollection of not just how to detect a cloaked ship, but the loss of his entire planet to a star going nova, stunned him for a moment. When he spoke again his tone was a lot more somber. "I might know of a way to detect a cloak."

"Oh? It can't hurt to scan for that. What are the settings?" Alia was puzzled about the Romulan's lack of memory and, frankly, his very presence. But, despite her rudimentary ability to tell the veracity of others, he did seem honest about his situation.

The Romulan opened his mouth to respond, then shut it again as he continued to sit up with difficulty. He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I genuinely want to help but I can't just tell you the settings. I may not know who I am but I certainly know that is not something I should be sharing. But if you'll trust me for just two minutes.. I'll input the settings into your sensors and then we all can know if anyone is laying in wait." The escape pod rescuee looked between the two officers as he made his counter-offer finally settling his gaze on the Acting Commander.

Alia cocked her head to one side very slightly, her curls shifting a bit. "Hmmmm... okay." She programmed a PADD to accept scanner input data and send it to the sensors. "You can use this as I don't want you moving around too much and getting re-injured. Everything's encrypted and you can delete the settings afterward. You have my word that I won't try to copy anything."

If the Romulan was surprised by the Acting Commander's agreement he didn't show it. He reached out and accepted the PADD from her, looking it over momentarily to familiarize himself with its older generation LCARS. He then began entering the sensor setting adjustments. "Typical Starfleet - provide the remotest ships and stations with the oldest tech," he remarked in a way that suggested familiarity. When he was done, he handed the PADD back to the pilot. "That should do it. Anything cloaked within 3 million kilometers should be detectable by your sensors."

S'Lace gave Fitzgerald a glance at the suggestion that the latest generation PADD was considered 'old tech' by this person. She continued to treat their new charge while he worked and she said, "I have done what I can here. He will not die of his injuries."

"Thank you, Lieutenant. We can give him a more thorough treatment once we get back. Do you want to take over scanning while I talk to our guest? I'd like a different set of eyes just in case."

S'lace murmured an affirmative.

At Lieutenant S'Lace's statement, the Romulan briefly looked down towards the patched up wound and promptly adjusted the hospital gown he was wearing to better cover himself. If his face looked flushed it was just a mild reaction to the analgesic. The medic had done a passable job - perhaps more than passable given he'd made her job that much more difficult by limiting the treatment options with his preference to avoid use of the dermal regenerator. Still, he got the sense that his own doctor would have done far better with a much better bedside manner. The vague feeling made him all the more aware of the blankness of his memories. But there wasn't really time to dwell on that here - it was a problem for another time.

He waited, still seated on the floor, in a bit of tense expectation for the Vulcan Lieutenant, now at the ship's controls, to announce if his sensor settings had revealed anything. It was not a good anticipation he felt but something more like the tenseness before a battle you didn't expect to win but would fight anyways.

Alia turned toward the Romulan. "Your memory loss is very puzzling. Is there anything you can remember? You seem familiar with technology."

Before the patient could respond S'Lace murmured, "Look."

The sensors registered a cloaked vessel rapidly approaching. Soon it decloaked right above the escape pod, distressingly close to the scout ship. The vessel was a Klingon B'rel class like the one that had been involved in the altercation with Lionheart very recently. Possibly it was the same vessel..."

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

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