More Revelations

Posted on Mon Feb 3rd, 2025 @ 6:08am by Lieutenant Haarris Zim & Captain Kelly O'Connor & Lieutenant JG Cara Ross

1,361 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 8 - A Blast from the Past
Location: Avian Planet
Timeline: 2296/03/13 1400 hours

O'Connor continued to march upwards towards the governmental buildings on the higher levels. Having taken some of Zim's advice (or all of it), the Captain refused to intervene in the native behaviors. The party could observe a number of different odd behaviors. Stores were being broken into and objects taken. Fights broke out on a moment's notice. Avians were having mating rituals in the street. Simply put, this did not appear to be an advanced civilization at all. Everything seemed primal and uncontained.

"I have never seen a civilization like this," O'Connor told everyone wonderingly.

Cara Ross felt a tingle in her nose and swallowed back a sneeze, wrinkling her nose instead. She licked at her lips and looked around again, not noticing that she'd begun to tug on the grey green collar of her undertunic, before returning her hand to her tricorder, no longer trying to be terribly subtle about the act. All around her chaos seemed to be unfolding, but the Captain had said it was an internal matter...She looked at the Captain and felt a pang of envy for how good the other woman's red hair looked. It would be nice to reach out and tug ...

Blinking, she pulled her hand back just in time and looked at the monitor again. "Captain," she murmured quietly, not noticing her voice was a little thick. "There is a lot of pollen build up in the area...."

"Yes, there is. I wonder if this is normal. Can you sort it out?" O'Connor asked Ross.

Zim's hand almost instinctively slid back down to the handle of the phaser in its holster. His thumb rubbed at the handle as if he made sure it was still there. Everything that had been transpiring screamed of something being horribly wrong, something that he and his Captain should not be involved in. As he tried to breathe through the heavily pollinated air he could not help but think that they should return to the ship before the worst happened.

To her credit, the Science Chief didn’t ask what exactly her Captain meant by ‘sort it all out,’ and simply applied her mind to it. But as she took another long, deep breath of the pollen, she felt heat crawl up her back, and she unbuttoned the strap holding the main flap of her maroon jacket, allowing it to fall open, and then ran her finger under her collar. Perhaps to her detriment, she tried to do everything all at once - analyze if this was a normal build up; attempt to devise a counter; take readings of her team and the locals; simply quantifying the amount of particles per square centimeter and getting nowhere fast.

“Its a lot,” she said, sounding eager to be helpful, almost giddy, but giving no useful information.

Through the haze of the pollen, the Romulan who had been standing near the avians was approaching the away team. She started shouting from afar, "I see you Captain O'Connor! I also see that you have been sneaking other people down here to start a war!" Her tone was decidedly getting harsher as she got closer. It also was very un-Romulan-like. Where was the cloak and dagger? The gamesmanship? This seemed too blunt.

For the moment, O'Connor just continued to walk towards the Romulan, saying nothing. Was she waiting for something to develop? Was she going to deny it? Was she going to counter with something? Whatever she was thinking, she did not make it evident to Zim or Ross.

This was a fact that Ross did not fully appreciate at the time. She gawked briefly at the Romulan, eyes darting to the edge of her brow ridges, the upswept sneer on the woman's lips, and the tightness of her fists. She whipped her tricorder around fast enough that her hair shook loose behind her and started scanning, silent as a mouse.

With a slow but deliberate movement Zim drew his weapon. He did not level it, so it remained lowered at about his waist. However, his hands were in a firing position. In an instant he would gun down the Romulan if ordered to do so.

O'Connor looked over at Zim. She was pleased that he was ready and did not appear to be overreacting. She favored him with a warm smile. Then she turned back to the Romulan who continued to rave. "They're dead, you know. They were shot down. Don't even try to investigate."

"You shot them?" O'Connor dared the Romulan.

"I did not," the Romulan replied with a cryptic smile, "but I will end you. Why don't you tell your little boy to put his toy away?"

O'Connor turned towards Zim, while keeping her eye on the Romulan. The Captain wondered how the Capellan was handling this situation, let alone Cara, who had been unusually quiet. However, even that singular moment was enough for the Romulan to start running at O'Connor at full speed. From behind her back, she pulled out a knife.

Zim had stood off the Captain's right shoulder as the exchange occurred. When the Romulan charged he sprang into action. All at once he was in front of his Captain with his phaser leveled. Two short bursts came from the weapon. The first missed the Romulan entirely, the second hit square in the shoulder and yet the Romulan continued. "If you do not cease I will open fire again." Of course the Romulan did not stop her charge, so Zim turned up the setting on the phaser and fired again. This time he hit the Romulan square in the chest and they fell to the ground. He turned to the Captain. "She is stunned but most likely not for long."

O'Connor grinned at Zim. "Cut that a bit close didn't you? Seems you need to work a bit on your aim. I could help you with that if you want," she answered with a twinkle in her eye and a crooked smile. What in the hell are you saying, Kelly? She shook her head, as if shaking out water stuck in her ears and said, "Let's get her tied up and take her to the shuttle. She may be the Avians' guest but this is very out of character for her to act this way. I want the Doctor to take a look at her."

Zim nodded at the Captain's order as he holstered his weapon. Although his head continued to dart around as it searched for other targets. He did not feel safe here, did not feel that anyone could be safe here. There had to be more attackers. "Yes sir, I think we should get back to the ship as soon as possible. There is something terribly wrong here I think."

"Alright, Zim. Bag her and let's carry her and get back, quickly."

Still oddly quiet - for someone so eager to please as Cara normally was - she followed right behind Zim, her nose hovering above the screen of her tricorder. She crouched down and waved the device over the Romulan woman, and bit her own lip. Brow furrowed in concentration, she tried to make sense of the patterns displayed on the screen - and then she sneezed again, and shook her head, face flushed.

“Fascinating. The doctor is going to love this,” she finally said, swaying a bit as she rose back up to her feet with a soft giggle. Swinging the tricorder around so it slid behind her back, she stepped away and clasped her hands behind her, bouncing on her toes. “I’ll leave the tying up to you, Lieutenant. I’m not very experienced in that department.”

Once the doctor was finished, Zim knelt down and tied the Romulan up. Thankfully the stronger stun setting he used had the Romulan still unconscious. He shouldered the woman and looked at both the doctor and the Captain. "Doc, keep a sedative ready, if she wakes up we are going to need to put her back under and quickly. Now I suggest both of you keep up." With that he took off at a run heading toward the shuttle.

 

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