The Future, is what you make of it | By : emeraldsyndicate Category: Star Trek > Discovery Views: 549 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek nor do I benefit financially in any way. I take no credit for these characters, I'm just playing with them, seeking a happy ending to a muse that sat upon my shoulder and murmured "what if...." |
“Wait, wait ….just wait chief” the captain had said from the chair as his chief engineer had come roaring onto the bridge in a state fit to be tied.
“Why in the name of all that it logical was she back in the damn tubes to begin with ?” the chief was demanding in a morally outraged tone.
“Your suppose to still be in sick bay chief” the captain had started to say fondly. “That Gorn damn near got the best of you…”he had begun to be quickly and savagely cut off by his chief engineer.
“Yah, well without her I’d be dead” the chief had interrupted as the captains face had suddenly shown an expression of confusion and he sat up straighter in his chair.
“What?!?” then he paused for a moment, tipped his head to the side and given her that enigmatic smile of his continuing, “I think your confused chief” he had said indulgently.
“You protected her, you did a damn fine job, it was as always, ingenious” he continued with a little shake of his head, his hand coming up to rake through his hair before looking at her and stating “your due accommodation for managing to take out the gorn when wounded, with a civilian to try and care for to boot, especially that one ..” he’d said with a disappointed sigh.
“NO! I ! DID! NOT!......sir “ The chief interjected, very loudly.
“Now, why wont you just actually listen to me, as apparently nobody bothered to listen to her….Sir” she added reluctantly.
Her blood was at a full boil after seeing the bruises, the deeply troubling bio-scans, broken bones, listening to the raspy breathes, interjected sporadically with what was to her the worst of all, the little whimpers…of pain.
Taking a deep steading breath, with the bridge stunned into silence by her passionate outburst, all eyes on her she began….
”She pulled me out of the wreckage, I’ve no idea how she found that kind of strength…I don’t think she knew either as she had wanted to know why all Starfleet officers were so damn heavy.” The chief had said smiling ruefully shaking her head back and forth slowly.
The chief continued with “I watched as she limped back to grab the med kit and then tended my injuries while blood dripped down the side of her face and she kept flinching when she moved to fast.”
“We tried to hail you but didn’t know if it got through but by then, by then we knew the gorn had survived too.” The chief had paused looking around the bridge before focusing back on the captain who was now leaning forward in the command chair. His brows furrowed as he took in every word, his face an epitome of focus on the chiefs every word.
The chief looking right at him continued, “She held off the GORN and built a damn…ahhh… flame thrower, I think is what she called it out of scraps. Scraps?!? Insisted that any teenager could make a potatoe cannon so by the same principals she should be able to make a flame thrower. I’m not sure I could have done it. Certainly most of the ensigns I’ve trained couldn’t have. Absolutely remarkable but she had to be scared senseless.” The chief had paused to shake her head and shift her weight from foot to foot rather gingerly, before continuing.
“She just had to be sir, shes from another time and she was up against a monster that ATE humans. How could she not be, any officer with any sense is scared of them. She protected me, not the other way round. I’d told her to take my comm badge and run, intending to hold the gorn off as long as I could . I was already injured, I knew I wasn’t going to survive long and she would be put in an indefensible position trying to keep me alive and stay alive herself, yet alone hold that thing off.”
“She refused to leave me. Said she wasn’t going to give it dinner and a show” the chief had said with a laugh “as there was no way she was out running something on 4 legs. Using the tricorder she managed to jury rig that flame thing. She had me looking for a part she said she needed in the scraps behind a barrier as I wasn’t really that mobile. I had thought the flame thrower wasn’t finished yet sir, hence the part I was looking for. That she had me looking for. There was no way sir, none, that I was letting her take that thing on. She was the civilian, she was supposed to be behind the barrier, out of harms way, well as far out of harms way as you can be when dealing with the gorn. That was when I heard her yell. I’d told her not to act aggressive, I was crystal clear aggression would attract it, provoke it to attack…” the chief had paused her hands on her hips tipping her head to the ceiling, eyes closed with an expression of pain as she tried to relive the pressure in her aching back bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet again.
“You need to go back to sick bay chief” captain Pike had said softly and gently. “We know she doesn’t listen well, that’s a proven fact isn’t it or we wouldn’t be in this diplomatic mess with the Tal, and then she put you both in even more danger with her thoughtless, carelessness…” the captain had injected running his hand through his hair tiredly.
“Your not getting it are you sir,” the chief had interrupted in a seriously pissed off tone, “yah, she listened real carefully sir and then SHE DID IT ON PURPOSE…sir. She deliberately provoked it, while I was safe!”
“Chief you weren’t going to be safe for long with that thing…..” the captain had interjected starting to sound ticked off himself. As well, he thought to himself, he should be. Again, she had put his people in danger again with her indulgent, selfish...his train of though was interrupted though.
“...the power regulator was cracked” the chief stated simply, calmly and quietly “sir.” “It had a 50 /50 chance at best of blowing. She knew that sir, its on the tricorder. She knew it, and she made sure I didn’t….” as understanding dawned on the captain and bridge crews faces.
“She chose to protect me sir. I literally just checked the readings on the tricorder we had brought back with us. Demanded it when I saw….. well even before, I knew, I knew something was off. It was her smile” the chief had said a far away look in her eyes and tone to her voice as she continued “she just kept telling me I would be okay, that I would be back to my family in no time.” The chief paused again before continuing in a thoughtful tone “ It was such a sad smile captain, with so much longing in it. That was my tip off. That was what made me look for it when I woke up. She made sure I was safe and then deliberately provoked an attack, from a killing machine, fully aware she had at best a 50/50 chance of surviving herself… but I’d be safe. Well protected from the blast…” the chief let that hang in the air in the silence of the bridge while everyone had a moment to recall all the nasty ideas they had harboured towards her, especially the captain.
“She got lucky sir, “the chief had said with a shake of her head “all that got burned was her hands, enough to hurt like..well…some very colourful language, and she nearly passed out once or twice. It could have been stress or shock just as easily. I wrapped them up for her lecturing her the whole time. That was when we got transported up. That was how we arrived in medical. I didn’t save her sir, she was the one protecting me.”
“I, ah, …well, chief. You were injured, you’ve got blood loss, organ trauma, a concussion and I think its more than possible that you are confused. “ he had said with a gentle indulgent smile. Anyone else, I'd believe you, but her” he had said, “her… well. That one would have screamed it from the rooftops if she’d though it would get her any “pull”." The captain had continued his dislike and judgement of you clearly visible in his voice. “It’s just not plausible”
“Fine, ..fine.. computer access recording…and play, main screen.” The chief had said obviously barely holding onto her temper as she deliberately chose not to add “sir”.
Pike had watched in disbelief as the scene played itself out. The proof was there, there was no doubt. You’d known, been warned by the device/tricorder the system was compromised and the likely, lethal, results.
‘But.., “ Tilly had said looking around confused “why didn’t she tell us. She didn’t say anything at all about the flame thrower or…anything. She just said you’d wrapped up her hands, that you were hurt, that there was a gorn but it was dead. She said nothing about any of the rest of it..”
“At a guess” the chief said “the screw up didn’t think anybody would believe her, any more than they had last time.”
Into the silence the chief said very very quietly. “I know she didn’t show captain, but why? This, this” she said gesturing to the info on the screen “isn’t something that just suddenly happens. She chose over and over and over to put me first, Sir”, the chief sighed and arched her back to relieve the ache as she mused out loud.
“I mean was she scared, they were aliens and you did lay it on thick about how we mustn’t upset the Tal, how important this reception was. Did she get the time or place wrong, exactly what happened as I just can’t, can’t believe she knowingly caused it all, not after this sir… “ the chief had paused and then added “How could she have as she’s from 100's of years in the past. I’m willing to bet alien politics is a little on the new side for her. Besides, she seemed excited, eager even at lunch in the mess. She had said she had been suppose to be picked up and escorted but had just had gotten a message to transport in on her own at 1915, precisely…, she’d even set an alarm to make sure she didn’t miss it sir, I was there, it just doesn’t fit….”
“Wait..what did you say chief? “ the captain had interrupted. Leaning forward in his chair, his body language tight as a sense of dread coiled inside him.
“I said she was excited sir, you’d think she’d never been dancing before with all the questions..” the chief had responded.
“NO, no..” the captain had interrupted. The time when did you say she got the message.”
“We were in the mess sir, I was siting with her. It had made her a bit nervous to suddenly be going on her own actually” the chief had added perplexed “Sir?, what is it sir?”
“Micheal, Tilly start a search, immediately. All communication traffic, find that message, where it came from who sent it, in fact track everything remotely related to her from that night, every last detail backchecked a dozen times…look for what doesn’t fit…or what looks too perfect...”
“Aye, captain” said Tilly and Micheal.
“Sir?…” Micheal had said
“Yes, Michael…” Pike had answered solemly, his eyes hard, his chin resting on his hands with his elbows on his knees.
“Neither you nor the commander sent a message cancelling escorting her, or telling her to go on her own at 1915….did you?” she’d said with great resignation in her voice. “That was why she wasn’t there at 1930 when you went to pick her up”
“No” he’d all but whispered “I most certainly did not”
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