Into the Caves--Again (Part 2)

Posted on Fri Aug 7th, 2020 @ 1:30pm by Lieutenant Trei Jansum & Lieutenant JG Tiskatee Troilon & Lieutenant JG Pippa Patterson & Lieutenant JG Tessa Nicoles

1,924 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Caverns of the mind
Location: Planet - Jungle, On the Path to the Caves

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

"I sometimes wonder if Jansum actually means what he says?" Troilon kept her eyes peeled.

[NEW]

Nicoles made her way just off to the side in the tunnel; a laser scalpel was made to cut tissue but the quietness of the instrument helped her cut away a bit to place her probe into the ground at base of the cave wall.

Noticing a life sign ahead of them on the opposite side of a sharper turn the Security officer put her back to a wall.

"I have the tricorder set with our life signs and those of the scientists. Anything aside from that will let us know?" The Doctor was fidgeting with her Tricorder..

Movement set off the sensor in Tunnel three; a life form was further down; twelve meters around a slight bend of the tunnel and out of direct sight. The humanoid sign was approximately at a point between Boudreau and the main cavern. This reading is set apart from the gathering of the Natives.

Making his way cautiously through the tunnel system, Boudreau was aware of the sound of his harsh breathing loud in his helmet. Taking several deep breaths, he forced himself to calm down and focus on his training. As he approached the midpoint of the tunnel between the entrance and main cavern, he and his tricorder noticed an indistinct shape lying in the middle of tunnel floor.

He hunched down. His tricorder told him the naked body wasn't native to the planet. And it was alive. After a few long minutes of observation, Boudreau concluded the figure was in a dead faint. Remembering the primary purpose of his mission, he unhooked the sensor he was carrying and drove its spike into the ground. The sensor warbled to itself before giving a solid tone indicating it was functional.

Hitting his commbadge, Boudreau advanced towards the figure, determined on his course of action. 'Boudreau to team, I have a body here - unconscious, but alive. I'll retrieve it, and meet you at the mouth of the cave. Acknowledge?'

As he waited for the rest of the team to reply, he dragged the body up in a fireman's lift, and draped its bulk across his shoulders before turning back towards the cave entrance.

=^= Tessa here, Ah am gettin' there as fast as Ah Can. Will meet yew outside.=^=

Nicoles took off with Tisk-Tisk on her heels.

Trei's head snapped up. =A= Jansum here. We're coming. Don't do anything until I get there. I will meet you outside. =A=

He was torn between the urgency of meeting up with Boudreau and matching his speed to that of Nakano, who had much shorter legs due to the difference in their heights.

Jansum's thoughts were sluggish before, but now they were getting sharper again. His telepathy, however, was becoming unfocused as he was hearing noise from everyone and all the animals in the area.

Trei met Boudreau outside the cave just as the Cajun was setting the body down. The man had a beard and longish hair that were unrecognizable as any color due to how dirty and matted they were. Trei wasn't a scientist, but he knew some things. The man's hands showed that he had been using them a lot for work as they had become thicker and more muscular; he looked like he had acquired some muscle in his arms, too. After playing sports and training for hand-to-hand so long, he knew to look for those. Other than that, he was guessing.

"His hands and arms are thicker than most scientists' that I've known. Anything else you see, Boudreau?"

'Callouses on the hands,' Boudreau gave him a quick once over, 'abrasions on the knees - suggests he's been kneeling a lot. Physical labour maybe? Some sort of primitive mining?' he asked rhetorically.

Opening her medical kit Nicoles began to scan him. "This is not one of them..." She looked up in her helmet visor. "This is human; I am ruinin' DNA scan." She tapped her comm badge. "Nicoles to Quinn. Ah am sending yew some DNA scans; one of the scientists, can yew confirm whom? I dew not want to give him the wrong meds and hit an allergy?"

"Receiving now," Amber said, looking over to Paris. "Give me a couple of minutes to compare it to the computer records. Quinn out."

"Ah will get him stabilized while you run the DNA." Nicoles replied. "Just wanting to make sure there are no medications Ah need to avoid here."

A few minutes later, the doctor's combadge chirped. "Quinn to Nicoles. The DNA is definitely human, but it doesn't match any of the scientists in the research facility. I'm checking it against the Starfleet database for matches. That'll take a bit longer."

Nicoles glanced to Chief Science Officer Boudreau. "He is not one of The Scientists but Is human?"

=^= Acknowledged. =^= She replied to the Commander.

Running a scan she quickly go out the hydro-saline to help bring his bio-chemical balance closer to normal.

"I am going to try something." Her Southern accent getting more pronounced. "Theanine is a calming agent of Amino Acids that is an extract a Herb used in tea form to calm. This should slow some of the Primal Brain activity while he is unconscious." Preparing the hypo. "With the mind near REM sleep this calming agent may balance synapses reactions." Injecting him. "Otherwise it will just make him more relaxed while we move him."

A human - but not from the science mission. How is that possible? Did I miss something in the briefings? Boudreau took a second to clear his mind, and compartmentalise the new information. 'Alright, is it safe to move him?' he shot the question at Nicoles before turning to Jansum and his mussed up hair, 'what's going with', made vague gestures circling his head, 'what's going on with your noggin, Lieutenant?'

Trei grimaced. "A lizard in there thought my hair was dinner. It came out of a hole in the cave ceiling and started chomping." He shook his head and tried to flatten his hair, but it was a lost cause. "It took off some skin, too, and it left behind some...drool."

"Two of yew." Nicoles said and stood. "We need to get them back, quarantine The Security man and the new patient." Nicoles said calmly. "See to the injury and all." Looking at the other man. "He is safe to transfer; with what Ah gave him he should be out for a couple of hours at least."

Nodding his understanding of Nicole's instructions he glanced about, 'anything we can use to carry our patient?' He looked over at Jansum, 'you OK to walk back - no wooziness?

Jansum looked at him. "I'm fine to walk back," he said. "It'll be a sunny day on Ferenginar before I allow someone to carry me. Let's get a couple of branches and use what supplies we have to tie other branches to them to make a travois to get him back to the....the...um....umm..."

"Yew'all just walk back Jansum," Nicoles said. "It will not be the first patient AH have ever helped with a stretcher, meaning tew people carry it."

Jansum countered, "A travois is essentially a stretcher that one end drags on the ground." He paused for a moment. "What was I saying?"

Noticing Jansum trail off at the end of his sentence concerned Boudreau, but he said nothing for now. He looked at Nicoles, 'We'll walk together as a group - more security that way, and if needs be we can swap who's carrying the stretcher. Patterson and Troilon can cover us.'

Trei came around and got in Boudreau's face, so close Remy could feel his breath. "I am the Security Chief, Cajun," he said, using the word as an insult. "I can cover us."

A muscle in Boudreau's jaw twitched. 'You are,' he forced out, tone civil, 'but I need someone in the middle of our column too, as overwatch while they're not carrying the stretcher.' He smiled easily and drawled, 'you don't think I'd forget about the Chief of Security now?'

"I will take care of our tracks." Troilin said as she went to get a leafy branch and cut it off.

Trei's sense of domination was sated, for now. "You better not," he said as he went to help get branches, criticizing Troilon the entire time.

Chewing his lip as he looked at the Betazoid's retreating back, Boudreau reflected that he didn't know the man well enough to judge him on his outburst. Still, that's unexpected,.

'Alright if we're ready, we'll head out,' Boudreau called out after gathering himself. It was going to be a long walk.

"Ah am right behind Yew." Nicoles said. "Sooner we get him back the better for finding what happened to him?" SHe had a good grip at the feet of the patient.

Pippa, who had been watching the entrance, fell in behind them. She was looking forward to getting back to the facility to do some work.

Troilon started using the branches to 'swish away' the tracks.

"I have your backs Sirs." Troilon informed.

"No, take the front. Scout ahead a little," he said. He didn't like the green woman. He felt vaguely that he did before, but he knew he didn't now. She was probably trying to take over his job. He didn't like that. He was the Chief. She had no business telling him what she was going to do.

There is a nagging in the back of her head; she usually followed that reaction but the Chief seemed at his limit; he was becoming irritable; he got bit by something, Troilon supposed in her rational mind it could be put up to being a bad day.

"Okay Boss, I take point, check if an easier path?" SHe did not like her feeling at the moment but the Boss was obviously having feelings spike as he kept concentrated upon the Engineer.

She figured it was just a mix and all so she went ahead with surprising agility considering the terrain. She would feel less weird as she went farther on ahead, she almost turned back but decided the Boss getting angry with her would not do well in a small station so she did as told this time.

Azusa followed quietly. She did have much to input as she was only an engineer. Plus she had been running an mettalurgical analysis if the cave system. It seemed vast from what her tricorder could see.

Trei began grunting as he began gathering sticks. He tore off his uniform jacket and tunic along with the undershirt. Bare-chested he returned to the group and, bending down, put Azusa over his shoulder and ran towards the caves. He tossed the tricorder aside along with his phaser, not caring what happened to him as long as he got into the caves with his woman.

Azusa let out a squeal of surprise at suddenly being picked up and carted off. "Let me go!" she could be heard shouting before they got too far into the distance before her voice faded.

OFF:

Lt Trei Jansum
Chief Sec/Tac Officer
USS Aurora

Lt Azusa Nakano
Chief Engineer
USS Aurora

Lt Remy Boudreau
Chief Science Officer
USS Aurora

LtJG Tessa Nicoles
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Aurora

LtJG Tiskatee Troilon
Security Officer
USS Aurora

LtJG Pippa Patterson
Operations Officer
USS Aurora

RSS Feed