SB ASSAILANT - MISSION 2.2 The Nascent

[Deleted]

In response, Tedak moved towards the girl, and stayed between her and Tomlinson's line of fire. He glared at the admiral for a moment. "Affinity, yes. I found her and brought her here. Yet, now she does not want me to leave, watch."

In demonstration, he walked away from the girl and out of her line of sight, upon which she woke up and screamed again. She didn't stop screaming until he returned to her line of sight. When he returned, she clung to him like an infant would to her father. Gently he disentangled her fingers from his robes and guided her back to the bed.

"It's all right now, I'm not going anywhere," he whispered to her, then returned to Magellan. "It is quite disturbing, how am I to go about my duties when this girl won't let me leave her side? I cannot begin to guess what will happen if I leave sickbay to attend to my duties, and my firelizards. I have not dared calling them here, as I fear what she may do to them."

[mercy]

"Doctor how are you?"

Stuart looked at Admiral Lin in disbelief while still shaking his head. “Uh, sir. Can we get back to where 100,000 beings on this station and 250,000+ on the planet below were going to be a challenge? I mean I’ve been on station less than twenty four hours and have been zapped by an electrical discharge and thrown halfway across a room already.” Stuart held his head and looked at the strange visitor. “I don’t even know if her beauty is even worth all this pain.”

The admiral simply smiled.

Sonak said:

In response, Tedak moved towards the girl, and stayed between her and Tomlinson's line of fire. He glared at the admiral for a moment. "Affinity, yes. I found her and brought her here. Yet, now she does not want me to leave, watch."

In demonstration, he walked away from the girl and out of her line of sight, upon which she woke up and screamed again. She didn't stop screaming until he returned to her line of sight. When he returned, she clung to him like an infant would to her father. Gently he disentangled her fingers from his robes and guided her back to the bed.

"It's all right now, I'm not going anywhere," he whispered to her, then returned to Magellan. "It is quite disturbing, how am I to go about my duties when this girl won't let me leave her side? I cannot begin to guess what will happen if I leave sickbay to attend to my duties, and my firelizards. I have not dared calling them here, as I fear what she may do to them."

Stuart did notice from earlier, as well as now, how much calmer the young woman was when within Tedak’s vicinity. “Sir, if I may suggest. Even though I have had my share of dealings with her already, I truly believe that she will not cause any problems if she was to accompany Ambassador Tedak. Maybe she’s here looking for something or someone, but we won’t find out with her locked up in here. Of course I’d attach a security detail to the ambassador.”

Admiral Lin was pondering the idea in his head while Ambassador Tedak was comforting the woman in question.

Stuart couldn't get passed those mesmerizing eyes that had literally electrified him.

[Magellan Lin]

"Agreed Doctor. In this sickbay I defer to you, but be careful you ve seen what shes capable of. I think finding a way to communicate is top priority. Ambassador I want you here to, all other duties should be suspended, theres not much you can do anyway with comms down. keep me updated Doctor"
"Will do"
Magellan left and made his way back to ops to see what Paul had managed to uncover.

[Deleted]

“Go and tell her to join the rescue mission,” Drew told Saarok, “I’ll inform Magellan of the situation.”

"I need to sort out some things in the embassy so I will inform her as well.", Saarok said

After finishing the convo with the admiral, Saarok and his security moved out of the ops center and proceeded towards the turbolift. As they were walking down the corridor the lights flickered again, which was not a sign of good things to come, and it certainly was not going to give anyone a chance to get some rest nor to do the exams Dr. Mercy planned for them, but perhaps that was a good thing.

As they entered the lift, they ordered it to the correct deck, but something appeared to be wrong with the lift, as it appeared to be moving more slowly than usual.

=/\=Ambassador Saarok to ops=/\=

=/\=Drew here go ahead=/\=

=/\=There appears to be a problem with lift nr. 5, you should send an engineering team to run diagnostics on it, it appears to be moving slower then usual=/\=

=/\=Understood, Drew out=/\=

As the lift finally made it to the correct deck, Saarok and the two officers got out of it and proceeded down the corridor. When they approached the embassy, they entered. Even though it was night there were still people running around inside, attempting to restore the link to central DCS news network and a link to Earth but the nebula appeared to be affecting long range communications as no contact could be established.

He made way to the hive and arrived to the office of Ambassador Laika. He pressed the bell on the side of the door and entered without even waiting for a response.

"Ambassador Saarok"; Laika said as he entered her office leaving his guards outside

Skipping the human way of polite talk at the start of the convo Saarok got right down to business. He told Jatira everything about the current situation, and the nebula and the distress cal from Qualinost and also that she should accompany the rescue team, she was supposed to report to launch pad alpha ASAP.

<Jatira>

After ending the talk with Jatira he went back into the central hive of the embassy where people were still running around carrying pads, transportable receivers and transponders, and even paper, although Saarok could not see the logic in replicating paper at a time like this. He approached the main comm. console where the chief liaison officer between the DCS, Earth and Assailant was working.

"Report!", he said to the man

[Deleted]

Tedak sighed, a suspension of his normal duties was the last thing he needed. Yet, glancing back at the obviously frightened girl, he knew that there were more important issues going on right now. "I'll take her with me," he said, "she can stay in the guest room. I am sure T'Val would not mind me playing host to this girl."

He looked her over and glanced from Tomlinson to Mercy. "Is she medically fit or must she remain in quarantine?" he finally asked.

<mercy>

"Very well, I will take her with me then," Tedak said and bowed lightly towards the CMO, then courteously extended his right hand towards the woman. "If you would follow me please, ma'am," he said gently, "I believe now is the time we should introduce ourselves to one another." He bowed slightly yet again. "I am Ambassador Tedak, representative of the Romulan Empire. You have met Doctor Stuart Mercy and Lieutenant Tomlinson."

<does this girl give her name now? No, lol>

Tedak took her arm, and escorted her out of sickbay, towards his own quarters. "This is where I live with my wife," he explained, then pointed at the two firelizards, who were watching the woman with silent curiosity. "That are my companions, the brown is Nut, the bronze is Sev. They will not harm you, and will protect you if I tell them to."

He gazed the young woman over. "I would assume that you would like to freshen up and get out of that sickbay attire. Please follow me." He led the woman to the bathroom, and showed her how to work the shower, while he ordered proper attire for her from the replicator.

Half an hour later, the girl re-emerged from the bathroom, her purple hair still damp, and dressed in a long elegant dress that matched her eyes and hair. "Lovely," Tedak remarked, "you look absolutely astonishing." Then he smirked at her. "if Doctor Mercy would see you now, he would go down on his knees for you."

The Romulan ambassador hadn't missed the looks the young doctor had cast at the girl, and assumed that the young man was smitten with the girl. "Would you care for some refreshment?"

<I'll leave you to reply for the girl Magellan;Thanks.


The girl cocked her head to one side and stared at Tedak. Her lips and mouth moved but nothing but noise came out. It was no language Tedak was certain of that.
Tedak went to the replicator and called up a speciality dish to try and tempt her. As teh replicator whooshed into life the Girl looked up and rushed over.

"See food" Tedak pointed and lifted the plate, The girl ignored him and placed an outstretched hand on the replicator screen. Electricty erupted from her fingernails and entered the replicator. There was a whir and a swirl of purple gas appeared.
Tedak stared at the small pocket of purple gas as it roiled around the pad of teh replicator, it looked for all the world like the nebula outside. )>

[Deleted]

Lieutenant Timmy Tucker hurried down to launch pad alpha as soon as the call came in from Admiral Drew, he was the security officer assigned to the rescue team, and this was going to be his first major rescue mission.

Reaching the launch pad, he was greeted by the team commander – a Vulcan male named Vok, who was currently speaking to Admiral Drew over the comm system, being briefed on the situation on Qualinost. Timmy was no scientist so he couldn’t understand how it was possible for the Nebula to have expanded so much, but he did understand the dangers posed to a planet that experienced such a phenomena.

“Your attention please,” Vok said, catching everyone’s attention, “I have our orders.”

Timmy stood extra straight as Vok explained how the radiation from the Nebula had entered the atmosphere of Qualinost, causing the air to become polluted, the job of the Away Team would be to evacuate the worst infected areas, and provide medical treatment. As this was happening, a squadron of Runabouts would orbit the planet, and repair the damage done.

“Any questions?” Vok asked as he finished the briefing, nobody answered, but the doors to the room did open as Ambassador Laika hurried in, “Ambassador,” Vok said in greeting, “I was informed you would be joining us, we were just about to beam down.”

<tag Jatira, I’ll NPC some members of the away team with you>

[mercy]

Magellan left and made his way back to ops to see what Paul had managed to uncover.

Tedak sighed, a suspension of his normal duties was the last thing he needed. Yet, glancing back at the obviously frightened girl, he knew that there were more important issues going on right now. "I'll take her with me," he said, "she can stay in the guest room. I am sure T'Val would not mind me playing host to this girl."

He looked her over and glanced from Tomlinson to Mercy. "Is she medically fit or must she remain in quarantine?" he finally asked.

“As near as I can tell she is medically fit. Hopefully you can uncover why she is here.” Stuart answered with hope.

"Very well, I will take her with me then," Tedak said and bowed lightly towards the CMO, then courteously extended his right hand towards the woman. "If you would follow me please, ma'am," he said gently, "I believe now is the time we should introduce ourselves to one another." He bowed slightly yet again. "I am Ambassador Tedak, representative of the Romulan Empire. You have met Doctor Stuart Mercy and Lieutenant Tomlinson."

As every one had left the infirmary Stuart was left alone, to contemplate what to do next. Just having arrived on station and already in the middle of a crisis situation, he was sure that now was no time to be idle. He tapped his com badge.

=/\= Admiral Lin. Dr. Mercy here. I was just wondering if you have any reports of any injuries or anything else of medical importance. =/\=

=/\= Injuries on station, no. We do, however, have a situation on Qualinost. It seems the nebula has entered the atmosphere and has caused some radiation poisoning. Admiral Drew has activated the Emergency Planetary Support Team Alpha and they are just about to transport to the planet. =/\=

=/\= Ah, I see. Does Admiral Drew not think that I am capable of handling the situation or did he think I was way too busy, for I wasn’t notified of this support team call up? I can’t emphasize enough that I feel I should be included in this. =/\=

=/\= My apologies dear doctor. I’m sure it was just a small oversight with you having just come on station. You just haven’t been integrated into the automatic call up. Collect your gear. I’ll have the team wait for you. Lin out. =/\=

Stuart did just that. He assembled his med kit and added a few items specifically for radiation poisoning. Anyone with severe symptoms would need immediate transport to the station anyways. He informed nurse Tsomba to be expecting casualties and to have the EMH on standby.

Dr. Stuart Mercy made his way to the transporter room.

[Deleted]

He didn't know whether to be impressed or afraid by the young woman's actions as his gaze remained fized on the purple cloud. At last he set the tray down and gently pulled the girl away from the replicator. "That is a replicator," he explained, "it is used to make us food." With that, he pointed at the plate of food, which was a variety of foodstuffs from different cultures.

Tedak was fairly sure that there ought to be something to her liking between the foods, but apparently she craved for the energy emitted by the replicator. The girl pulled herself free from his grip and returned to the replicator.

"Miss," Tedak started, then wondered what to call the girl, as she'd not spoken in any language he understood, and since he was no telepath, he had no idea what her name was. He pulled her away from the replicator again, and led her to a chair at the dining table. Then he cupped her chin in his hand and gazed at her intently. "You need a name," he finally decided, "so that I have something to call you by. You have beautiful hair, it reminds me of a Lily, so that is what I will call you. Does this strike your fancy?"

The girl returned his scrutinizing gaze as if she were copying him, then smiled brightly at him. Again, Tedak gestured to the food. "Try some," he suggested, upon which she hesitantly picked up a piece of fruit. Her face contorted as she tried the fruit, then spit it out. She glared at him angrily.

"I guess that is not to your liking then," Tedak laughed, as he continued to suggest other pieces of food. At last, she seemed to find something of her liking, as she gulped down three mugs of Raktajino.

To the Romulan ambassador, the girl seemed very intelligent, and seemed to be absorbing the information she was handed all around her, either just by looking at things, or listening to people talking.

"Lily, would you like to see more of the station?" Tedak suddenly suggested.

The girl looked up, and Tedak was surprised to see her nod. "Very well, let's go then and I'll show you around." He held out his hand to her, which she eagerly grabbed. Tedak felt a jolt shoot up his arm as remnants of static electricity shot through him. ~odd~ he thought, but he didn't yank his hand away as he would normally have done.

He led the girl through the mazes of corridors and led her up to OPS. "This is the command centre," he explained, "overthere you see the main office. Perhaps I should properly introduce you to the commanding officer now." They walked up to F'Rass, who held station before the office. "Is the admiral in?" Tedak asked quietly, "I've got someone I;d like to introduce."

[Magellan Lin]

F'Rass was not best pleased, Ops as far as he was concerned was no place for civilians, Ambassadors or not.
He smiled politely, a site most found decidedly creepy, something to do with the curl of teh lips and the revealed fangs. But then to bear ones fangs to someone on Regula was the equivelant of a handshake on earth.
"Pleased to meet you... Lily"
Lily seemed not to notice the Regulan and stared around the room in fascination. She walked to the window and stared out into the dock. Then she noticed the viewscreen. It depicted the nebula. It held her gaze and she moved towards it.
"Yes thats the nebula. It surrounded the base... well about the same time you were found." Tedak looked at F'rass, could this be important?
Lily moved away from the viewscreen and over to the master operations table.
She stretched out her hands to touch it. She laid her palms down on it. Blue White electircity arced from her, entering and leaving the terminal. It intensified and began to form a shell of electirical energy around her.
"What the...!" Frass exclaimed dashing towards her,
"No!" Tedak shouted "Dont touch her"
F'rass paused,
"But..."
"The last one to try that was flung across the room." Tedak moved round the table towards her carefully,
"Lily?"
The girl appeared not to hear him.
"Sir somethings going on" Bral announced from Tactical,
"What" teh Regulan snapped,
"Its the systems, its as if we re experienicng a station wide power drain. Also somethingis access or library, data banks, everything, every bit of information is being... scanned... downloaded."
F'rass turned back to Lily,
"Now Miss this is inappropriate."
Lily ignored him. If anything the bond between her and the terminal increased.
"I m sorry Sir, but this has to stop" F'Rass siad to Tedak. He pulled out a phaser and before he could stop him fired on Lily.
The beam lapped around the energy shell. Lily's head jerked up and looked directly at him. She raised an arm and blasted him with a thunderbolt. F'Rass fell back his fur all on end. He looked like a blow dried Cat.
"You okay?" Tedak asked,
F'rass nodded and tentativly touched his comm badge,
"Ops to senior staff and Security. Report to Ops immediatly."
Lily looked at Tedak a pleading look on her face then in a wave of sparks collapsed. Ops blacked out, all the terminals went dead and they were left in the dim glow of emergency lighting.
On the viewscreen however were three words in Purple Text.

- WHO AM I -

[Deleted]

The chief liaison officer for the communications in the federation embassy was attempting to explain to Saarok something he himself could not understand, All long range communication were offline and could not be repaired no matter what they tried.

"Well sir, all long range communications are down and we can not get them up"; the man informed Saarok

"That is, odd", Saarok said to the man

"Sir?", the mans asked looking oddly at Saarok

Just as Saarok was about to explain there was a bright flash in all of the consoles in the comm. center just moments before it all shut down. Everything went dead, display pads, operations panels, personal computers, normal lights, everything went offline.

"What is going on", Saarok asked the chief officer

"I do not know sir, everything just died, and all our databases are locked out, no way to access them.", the man said

Just as Saarok was about to contact ops, he heard a hail from Commander F'Rass.

=/\=Ops to senior staff and Security. Report to Ops immediately.=/\=

Seeing what has just happened and now this hail, from OPS, Saarok decided to go up and see what exactly is happening. Seeing that most likely all personnel transports and lifts were offline, he thought of his two firelizards who immediately appeared next to him.

After exchanging a few brief sentences with his two guards, Saarok and one of his guards opened up a Jeffries tube in the bulkhead of the embassy and proceeded, with the help of the firelizards, on their journey to the ops center.

--Some time later--

After finally they arrived to the panel that opened directly to ops, Saarok kicked the panel open and to the surprise of everyone present up there, he, his guard and the firelizards arrived to ops. Adm. Drew was already up there but Saarok could not see adm. Magellan anywhere, however he did see Tedak next to an oddly looking girl and the letters Who Am I written on the main viewer.

"Admiral Drew, what is going on", Saarok asked as he approached the admiral who was talking with F'Rass.

"All of the terminals on the station went off line"; Saarok added while waiting for the admirals response

[Deleted]

"No!" Tedak shouted, as F'Rass moved to stop the girl, "it is very dangerous for you to do so. She has the power to fling you aside with a mere gesture of her hand."

They stood waiting as the girl concentrated on the console, and finally turned to Tedak with a pleading look in her eyes, before she collapsed. Tedak rushed towards her, and caught her just before she could hit her head on the deck. He held her close to him, and felt static electricity run through him. Without having to look in a mirror, he knew his hair was sticking out to all ends, as each single hair repelled another.

He felt the girl's body racking with sobs, and he looked up to Saarok, who read aloud what the console was saying. "Who are you indeed," Tedak whispered, as he gathered her up in his arms, and carried her into Magellan's office, not caring whether the admiral minded or not. At present, the office had the most comfortable chair at hand, and he placed her in it.

"She appeared when the nebula engulfed us," Tedak guessed, "so she must come from there. Since her arrival, she hasn't spoken a word, but she refuses to leave my side. She's hurt Doctor Mercy, but she hadn't meant him any harm. She apparently thought he was going to hurt her."

He ran his hand through her beautiful purple long hair, which felt like silk to the touch. "What I can tell you is that she's young, I'm guessing fifteen maybe sixteen standard years old." He paused when Nut came winging in, chirping his worry. The Romulan ambassador held out his arm to the little brown, allowing him to land. The brown gazed at the girl with curiosity, chirping questioningly.

Lily opened her eyes and squealed in fright. Tedak knelt before her, so that he was at eye level with her, then pointed at Nut. "This is my friend Nut," he explained, "he is a firelizard, and he will protect you when I tell him to. He is of no danger to you, and means you no harm." Nut hopped forward, and nuzzled her cheek in response. This time, the girl seemed to giggle but the fear did not leave her eyes.

Tedak looked around the room. "Where is Magellan?" he finally asked.

[mercy]

The transporter chief had started the initiation sequence to energize, but then the power had gone out. Now the emergency lights where on and not much else.

“Sorry sirs, but I don’t think the transporter is going to be back online anytime soon. We just had a major power fluctuation and we’re down to emergency power…not enough to transport you folks.” That was the transporter chief’s assessment.

Dr. Stuart Mercy was the first to speak. “Well, I suppose we could take a shuttlecraft? But I wonder if that is safe enough through this nebula. Chief, who would know this for sure?”

“Well sir, I suggest you check in at ops. The science officer there should be able to asses that for you. Hopefully they got some decent scans before this power outage.”

Stuart tapped his comm badge.

=/\= Dr. Mercy to Ops. Can someone please advise if a shuttlecraft would be safe to take to the planet? =/\=

Dr. Mercy waited for a response from anyone who might have that knowledge.

[Magellan Lin]

Magellan quickened his pace as the lights went out. Things did not look good. Assailant took on an eeirie quality when under emergency conditions. Officers moved methodically and carefully to their posts. They were good people and knew what to do in such a situation.
Appearing in Ops Magellan appraised the situation. He noticed the frazzled F'Rass and noticed the scorch marks on the ops terminal. He could also see Tedak and Saarok in his office. No doubt the girl was in there and the root cause.
"Report" he barked and listened with increasing annoyance as F'raas relayed his sorry tale.
"...and lastly Dr Mercy and Jatiras rescue mission to Qualinost is stalled without transporters."
"Okay one step at a time. Get maintenance - all of them on this. I want the station operational. Give Dr Mercy authority to use the runabouts to get his team down there. Assign Tomlinson and his pilots to fly them. And then consider yourself off duty"
"Aye Sir" F'Raas replied crestfallen.
Magellan wasnt having any of it. It was the regulan who had initiated a higher energy burst than necessary and who had allowed the girl a) into Ops and then b) access to their systems.
Leaving Ops he entered his office,
"Whats going on?" he demanded,
<Tag Tedak and Saarok>

"but shes okay?. well I suppose thats one thing. And at least shes attempting communication. We need more information. I ve had an idea - Dr Lenara Kahn, my friend maybe able to help. Shes with the Trill Science Institute. I ll have her meet you both in Science Lab 3. Try and establish an on going dialogue. I ll remain in Ops and co-ordinate efforts here."

[Deleted]

Drew could scarcely believe what had happened, he had been in Magellan’s office, relaying a report to Starfleet on the current situation, when suddenly all power had gone, then upon hearing the commotion out on Ops, he headed out to see what had happened.

He found Tedak, and a girl he didn’t recognise near the centre of Ops, the girl appeared to be in a great deal of pain, and Tedak’s hair was standing on end for some reason, almost as if he had been electrocuted. It was then that Saarok arrived on the bridge, and asked Drew just what had happened.

“I wish I could tell you Ambassador,” Drew said, “because right now, I don’t have a clue.”

Drew knelt down next to Tedak, to more closely examine the girl, as Saarok read out what the console was saying, Tedak and Drew both exchanged surprised glances, and then Drew indicated Magellan’s office.

“Better to get her away from Ops,” he said, as he helped Tedak pick her up.

Minutes later, Magellan was back up on Ops, taking charge of the situation. While the Ambassadors and Magellan busied themselves trying to solve the problems with the girl, who Tedak informed them he had named Lily, Drew was given the task of trying to get the station’s power back up.

Getting a palm torch from the nearby storage locker, he walked back out onto Ops, and cast the light around the area, which upon until now had been lit solely by the stars of the display screen.

“Is everyone ok?” he asked, as he stepped down to the command and control station, in the centre of Ops.

“Just a bit shocked,” Lt. Commander Vicky Nelson, there new Strategic Operations Officer said from her station, “I have never seen anything like that.”

“You must never have served on a ship named Enterprise then,” Drew said with a chuckle, as he checked the status of the rest of the Ops team. In times like this, Drew knew it was important to keep moral up, people didn’t like the station being powerless, especially with so many unexplainable events happening in the last few hours.

“That Nebula is nothing but trouble,” Nelson said, “first the Copenhagen gets lost in it, and now this.”

“That may be Commander,” Drew said, preferring not to think about the Copenhagen’s fateful mission, “but lets concentrate on getting Assailant up and running again before we try to explain what happened.”

Although Drew tried to sound confident in his words, in truth he had no idea how to get power back, just like Nelson, he had never experienced anything quite like this before, it was going to take time to learn how to re-power everything. And Drew just couldn’t help but shake the feeling that time was something they didn’t h

[Deleted]

Tedak sighed deeply, as he stood protectively over the girl. "Admiral, allow me to introduce Lily," he started, then hesistated as he had no idea how to explain this. Earlier in sickbay, he'd been unable to explain to.

He coughed a few times, then caught Drew sniggering at him and cast a glare at he admiral. In response, Drew pointed at his hair, and laughed again. Tedak rolled his eyes and tried to smoothen down his hair again, unfortunately to no avail. This action, however, drew laughter from the girl. Tedak smiled wryly at her, tousling her hair. "You like that don't you," he teased, then turned back to Magellan. "She somehow drew energy from the console. She's done this earlier in my quarters, after I had replicated food for her. She's learning to eat our kinds of food, but it appears she needs electrical energy for sustenance."

[Deleted]

Jatira was somewhat startled when Ambassador Saarok suddenly came barging into her office, but she knew that she shouldn't have been. He wouldn't have done such a thing without a good reason.

"What is it Ambassador?" she asked, seeing that he wanted to get right to the point.

"It is about our current situation," he began and told her what was happening.

She was uncertain what that meant to her and why he came personally to talk, but then he mentioned that she was needed on the rescue team since she was the new liaison officer.

"You need to report to launch pad alpha," he told her.

"Of course," she nodded and watched as he hurried out the door. She paused for a moment and then called for Sala, her aid. Sala came running and Jatira quickly explained what she was going to be doing.

"Please allow me to accompany you, Ambassador," she asked. "I would feel better if I went along."

"Yes, of course you may come!" Jatira said. "I'm sure you're help will be greatly appreciated."

"Okay," she nodded. "I know what to do," she said and grabbed a few items to take along. A mintue later, both of them were hurrying to launch pad alpha.

[Magellan Lin]

Dr Kahn heard the call for her attendance in Ops and quickly made her way up the station the decks. Lighting had been restored to most of the station but strangely certain parts still remained dark. Assailant was an old station. Built in the 2290’s it had been in continuous service. New additions and system upgrades had all been layered on the top resulting in an engineering jigsaw puzzle that resembled Kal-toh. Once in Ops she found Magellan stood looking out of the main window.
“Magellan?”
“Ah Lenara, I need your expertise”
“Of course what can I do?”
“Its your scientific mind I need. In particular your knowledge of nebulas and life forms.”
“You do have your own scientific knowledge you know” Lenara noted,
“Yes, but I’ve drawn as much from Toya as I can. She was an exo-ecologist and this is unusual even for her.”
“You haven’t dug deep enough.”
“I don’t have time”
“I take it yourself and Lin are still not in unison”
“Not exactly. But that can wait for now.”
“Agreed. What do you want me to do?”
“Start with the analysis of the nebula fragment that’s engulfing us.”
Magellan led Lenara to a console and got her logged in. With power still fluctuating it was hard to keep anything going but with perseverance gained from several life times she started to work.

***

Down on the launch pad the Planetary Support Team had finally assembled. Lieutenant Commander Vok stood beside Ambassador Jatira. The Vulcan, an Operations Specialist paced before them.
“The main city on Qualinost whilst re-inhabited lacks a deflector shield. High levels of radioisotopes have flooded the surface. The inhabitants require immediate medical support. Embark”
The line of officers quickly entered the Runabout. Ensign N’Chok took helm whilst Lt Timmy Tucker took the co-pilot seat. Dr Mercy sat beside Nurse T Somba and Doctors Shav-es and Winston. Three Orderlies and 5 other nurses sat towards the back. Jatira sat near the front with Vok.
“Ambassador I hope that you can smooth the way with the Elders.”
“Smooth?”
“Jak’dor (the Debrune leader) is as illogical as his Debrune and Romulan brethren. He has on many occasions declined Starfleet assistance despite this being a Federation Planet.”
“I see” Jatira answered nervously, she was unsure what to expect from her first diplomatic encounter with the Debrune.
“We’re ready to go. Everyone buckle in this is going to be rough” N’Chok grinned broadly.

***

Magellan popped into his office to check on the others.
“How is she?”
“She seems well” Tedak replied,
“And seems communicative” Saarok added,
“Destructive more like” Magellan answered ruefully.
Tedak stepped forward protectively,
“She didn’t intend it. It was just… I don’t know too much for her.”
Magellan relented,
“Agreed. At least she communicated, not that its got us far. She doesn’t even know who she is.”
Tedak and Saarok nodded.
“perhaps there is a way we can communicate with her again.” Tedak suggested
“SHE IS NOT going anywhere a terminal” Magellan insisted.
“Perhaps a PADD will do” Saarok suggested
“Okay, do it. Although our priority is power. We need things back up.”
With that he bobbed back into Ops.
“Paul get down to maintenance and find out whats taking Chief Alari so long.”
“Will do, your with me Nelson. Your chance to visit the bowels of the station, and Alaris little domain.”
“Aye Sir.”

[Deleted]

The girl that seemed to have emerged from the nebula still was not able to communicate verbally, at least in nothing they or the universal translator would understand. The only way to communicate at the moment seems to be via things that have their own power sources, like terminals and Saarok thought that it might be possible to use the pad in the same way.

Now that the girl seemed to have calmed down, he got one of the pads from Magellan's table and wrote some text on it:

"Do you know where you are from"; he asked her and wrote it down on the pad before giving it to her. After he gave her the pad all they could do was wait

--Meanwhile in the Federation Embassy--

Chief liaison officer Tom Quinn was going mad. He could not get access to anything. All of the databases were still off line; they were able to get partial power thanks to the nice people in engineering that put the as high as possible on their repair list, right after the important systems.

"Any luck with the communications relays", he asked one of the OPS people from the station

"No luck sir, the system couldn't be more dead than it is", the man answered

"This is not good, we need access to the DCS news streams, while we are locked down and blocked down here who knows what might happen out there, for all we know we could start a war with the Romulans and we wouldn't know of it till one of their ships came shooting at the station", Tom said

"I know sir, but this nebula simply is not allowing any signals go through it, which is very odd, not to mention that after that power overload we had earlier most of the systems are dead and without power", the OPS tech said

"Keep trying to get a signal through till I try to think of a solution to this problem"; Tom told the man

[mercy]

They were onboard the shuttle. It was a large complement, at least it seemed like it to Dr. Stuart Mercy. There was no telling how many had been afflicted by the radiation within that Nebula.

Stuart hoped that Ambassador Laika would be able to smooth out the diplomatic side of this mission. They were going to need a large facility right away to handle the influx of patients that may be coming. Of course there could already be a hospital available.

Stuart wasn’t sure what the Debrune had established yet on this planet. The Takara, he was sure weren’t going to have much of anything as they were newly arrived refugees. Stuart just hoped that both species could be seen at the same location. He didn’t feel like having to split up his time and resources just because two species can’t get along. That would be another diplomatic hurdle for Ms. Laika.

Stuart just hoped for the best as the shuttle was coming in for a landing.

[Deleted]

When the order had come through for him to take the away team down to the planet, Tomlinson had been slightly confused. Although he was in charge of the stations fighter wing, he was not a shuttle pilot. It was only after he had read the orders again, and then slightly interpreted them in his own manner that he found that they were to his liking. He would not be flying the shuttle, he would get another pilot to do that. Instead, he would take a fighter craft as an escort to the shuttle. Indeed, he decided that three escort craft would be suitable.

So it was that a few minutes later he was sitting in the Draconia, his personal fighter.

"This is Freelancer, requesting permission for launch."

"Permission granted Freelancer, have a good flight."

"Affirmative."

With the order given, he powered up his engines, and rose to hover a foot above the shuttlebay floor. Once he confirmed that the shuttle was ready for departure, he gave the order for the other two fighters to leave the bay. He himself waited until the shuttle had gone, and followed behind.

It was the first time in a few weeks that he had flown, and he was thankful now for the order which had let him. Unfortunately, all too soon the planet was looming large in front of them, and he held back while the first pair of fighters landed, soon followed by the shuttle. Once they were down, he did the same, landing the fighter with only a slight jolt.

He released the glass above him, and with a slight hiss it lifted up and rolled back. He jumped out of the fighter, and then moved towards the team, his phaser rifle slung over one shoulder.

[Deleted]

Entering the maintenance deck, Drew couldn’t see a thing, and not because the lights were out. The entire area was filled with engineers, consoles were ripped open, wires scattered along the floor, and god knows how many toolboxes were on the deck.

“Chief?” Drew called out into the engineering crowd, apologising as he stepped on one poor man’s hand.

“How can anybody work like this?” Nelson asked, coming up behind Drew, doing her best to avoid treading on body parts.

“You will be amazed what conditions Starfleet engineers can work in,” Drew told her, still searching for Chief Alari, “the real question is how can they work so quickly.”

“I told ya before Admiral, its all done by fairies.”

Drew looked and smiled, as Chief Alari appeared from behind a workstation, his uniform covered in dirt marks.

“How are things going Chief?” Drew asked, as he and Nelson walked over to join the Tiburonese officer.

“Well, whatever the heck you brass are doing up on Ops, it fried half the ODN relays on the station, my boys are going to be working round the clock repairing some of this stuff.”

“But it will be fixed?” Drew asked, catching onto the positive aspect of Alari’s complaints.

“Of course it will be fixed Admiral, what sort of an engineer would be I if I couldn’t handle a simple job like this!”

Drew looked around his surroundings, which still looked like a full squad of torpedoes had it. With a smile he decided it best not to ask the Chief what he called hard.

“Admiral Lin wants things back up and running ASAP.”

“Admiral Lin can want what he likes, I have told him before, I wont rush a job, slow and steady wins the race, as you humans like to say.”

“I’ll be sure to pass along the message,” Drew said with a small smile, “but seriously, how long are we talking?”

Alari looked around at his department, and for a few moments, Drew thought the Chief had fallen asleep, so concentrated was his look, but finally Alari gave him an answer.

“And before you even think about cutting my time in two Admiral, I tell ya now it isn’t possible to finish the job in under the time I set,” Alari warned as Drew and Nelson manoeuvred there way back out of the maintenance department.

“Interesting fellow our Mr. Alari,” Nelson commented; once they were safely back out in the corridor.

“Assailant is filled with interesting characters,” Drew told the young Commander, “as I am just discovering myself.”
“I thought you had been on Assailant for months now Admiral?” Nelson asked, clearly confused.

“Very long story Commander,” Drew said, as they stepped into the turbo-lift, the details of Drew’s abduction and replacement by his mirror universe counterpart had been promptly classified at the highest levels.

When the lift had returned back to Ops, Drew looked round for Magellan, finding him back at the command and control station.

“What’s the latest?” Drew asked, stepping down next to his friend.

[Deleted]

Lily gazed at the PADD questioningly, wondering what to do with it. She then gazed up at the pointy eared, robed fellow who had given the PADD to him and shook her head, handing the PADD back at him. After returning the PADD, she gazed up at the other pointy eared fellow, the one who had been protecting her ever since he'd found her. On her lap, she found the brown flying creature looking up at her, it's eyes whirling green and blue. It chirped at her, but she couldn't understand what it meant.

From the people gathered around her, she understood their intentions, but she couldn't quite understand their words. She saw the person, whose name she understood was Tedak, kneel down before her, his face level with hers. She saw him take the PADD from the other person, and hold it out to her, indicating that she should answer the question asked.

~how can I answer if I don't understand who or what I am?~ she thought, gazing at the PADD. It's power supply was too small to answer the question, and she reached for the larger panel, to answer. The spotted creature, however, shouted something and she was stopped.

Her eyes sparkled with anger as she shot a glare at the spoted creature who had ordered her stopped. The air fizzed with electricity, and only her protector's calming touch held her back from releasing her frustration at the people around her. Lily sat back in her chair and angrily glared at the PADD in her hand. There was no way she could give the answer they desired on this item, it just didn't hold enough power.

Helplessly, she looked up at Tedak, and noted that the flying creature picked up on her distress as the colour of it's eyes changed from blue/green to orange/red.

Tedak, on his part, turned to the people present in the room. "I don't think she understands what we're trying to get her to do," he said, "I am getting the impression that she's trying to tell us where she is from, but as long as we can't really communicate with her, nor with her remembering who she is, I doubt we can determine where exactly she is from."

He motioned at her, while smiling at her encouragingly. "Obviously she is trying, and she's impatient at that. Also, it seems that she's short tempered and feels hindered in her attempt to communicate. Look at her eyes, they are sparkling with anger. You all know what she can do when she's sufficiently angered. I suggest we give her the room to try to communicate, but isolate this powersupply to a console from the rest of the station. This way she can use part of the energy required for her to communicate, but it will not harm the rest of the station."

[Magellan Lin]

Lily stretched out and made a connection with the isolated terminal and began to drink deeply from it.
"Where am I"

Tedak/Saarok

Lily looked around confused.

"What am I?"

"You appear like a woman, a human woman"

"Hoo mon?"

"What do you remember?"

"I remember freedom, great freedom. Being larger much larger. Now I m small and... and static. Pain I recall pain, I recall being forced, channelled... I... I...."
Lily stopped in confusion.

***

Out in Ops Magellan surveyed the scene. Systems were slowly coming back online and Assailant seemed to be returning to normal. The away team would be reaching Qualinost about now, he hoped the radiation poisoning wasnt too bad.
Lenara swivelled in her chair.
"Magellan I think we have a problem. The nebula whilst not draining our energy is causing a wider problem. The radiation levels are rising exponentially. It will become deadly within the next 30mins, after an hour it will incapcitate us and cause irreparable damage."
"That doesnt give us much time" Drew answered entering Ops again, "By the way the Chief says hes working on it"
"Okay" Magellan replied, "That may all be academic. Shields?"
"Not yet" Drew noted checking a console, "And not for another 2 hours"
"In that case we need to do something... different."
"I suggest polaron burst. It will depolarise the ions and disperse the nebula cloud. Essentially it will distribute the cloud so thinly as to render it harmless, solar winds will then scatter it."
"Go ahead." Magellan instructed.
Lenara began to refocus the emitters and then let out a burst of polarons.

Inside the office Lily turned round and wide eyed screamed. She doubled up on the floor and seemed to phase in and out of existence in a blur of electrical energy.

[Deleted]

Tedak still sat knelt before the girl. "You are aboard Starbase Assaillant," he replied, upon which her following questions appeared rapidly. Between the people present, they answered her questions patiently. She was starting to look increasingly confused, as though their answers weren't helping her any.

"You are safe here," Tedak ensured her, "nobody will harm you here." Just as he said it, she screamed and collapsed. The Romulan ambassador stared at her in a mix of fright and amazement as she seemed to be partially out of phase at certain intervals. He gazed up at Saarok. "Go see what they're doing," he urged, "and whatever they're doing, tell them to stop at once or they'll kill her!"

Saarok darted out of the office, as gracefully as possible for a Vulcan. He returned seconds later, looking rather grave. "It is either us, or her," he reported, "radiation levels are rising, and they will become dangerous within 30 minutes."

"What? No 30 point something minutes?" Tedak mocked him angrily. He gathered the girl up in his arms. "I'm going to take her to sickbay," he announced, "oh...a telepath might be useful in trying to talk to her." He shot a look at his Vulcan friend. "I mean one who does not need to touch her. A Betazoid might help us...."

<r?>

With that, Tedak walked out of the office, ignoring anyone and everything around him as he carried the girl to sickbay. Carefully, he placed her on one of the biobeds and covered her with a blanket. He beckoned a nurse to hand him a hypospray. Now that she was unconscious, he might as well draw a blood sample. ~it may violate her trust in me~ he thought ~but it is our safety we're playing with here. Please let me Lily, please~

He got the bloodsample without trouble, but he was surprised at what he was looking at. The contents of the vial were not fluidic, as they seemed to desintergrate as soon as it left her body. "Now that is odd," Tedak muttered, as he entered his observations onto a PADD. THen he gently shook her. "Lily? Lily are you all right? You gave us quite a scare."

[mercy]

The shuttlecrafts landed and Emergency Planetary Support Team Alpha had arrived at a hastily made medical camp. The Debrune had been briefed of their arrival and had set up this camp in one of the ‘clean’ areas of the planet. Shuttles from the starbase were being used for medical evacuations and were bringing in patients from areas were the nebula’s radiation had reached ground level.

Dr. Stuart Mercy was already making a visual assessment. “Ambassador Laika. There are only Debrunes here. Where are the Takarans? Can you go find out what their status is with whoever might be in charge around here? I mean I want you to ensure that Takarans can be brought here for treatment so that we don’t have to travel to another location. Make it clear to these people that it would be very inefficient. Throw in that word ‘illogical’, like those Vulcans always do.”

Stuart took his medical team and ran towards one of the medical tents. They immediately started looking over patients and began their various treatments. The patients had illnesses ranging from basic radiation sickness to the more severe radiation poisoning. There were even more severe cases with injuries of dermal dysplasia, which was a skin disorder due to overexposure to thermal and ultraviolet radiation. This had been brought on by the nebula in areas where it caused holes in the planets atmosphere, displacing the ozone layer, allowing the natural radiation of this system’s sun to become the culprit. Stuart separated these patients and started intracellular regeneration treatments.

Dr. Stuart Mercy split up his team and assigned them for the respective illnesses. He gave instructions to the head nurses. Adrenalin for those with radiation sickness, and hyronalin for the treatment of radiation poisoning. “Be careful to start with a small dosage of hyronalin. Too much will cause hallucinations, and muscle spasms due to a sudden drop of serum calcium. So monitor the patient’s bio levels. We don’t want to be the cause of anymore unnecessary injuries.”

The teams split up and went to work.