<USS Banshee> 1. Assignment
- From: CptHacker@xxxxxxx
- To: ussbanshee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 23:48:12 EST
1. Assignment
By Lieutenant Samantha Mason
USS Banshee
It makes me edgy having to push my way through the crowded daytime bazaar on
Deep Space Nine. Even with station security looming about overhead, perched
on the catwalks spying over the crowed bazaar below, I can't help to feel
that I'm unsafe here. The architecture of the promenade doesn't make things
any lighter either - the gray and black, deviled-horned looking walls,
catwalk-rails, and adornments remind me that this was once a torture and work
camp for hundreds of Bajorans. This promenade was probably filled with filthy
Bajorans being dragged about by their Cardassian masters. The drab colors on
the walls sometimes trick my eyes into thinking that the paint job is
actually rust and blood left behind from the occupation.
I'm an engineer, so, I don't even know why I'm being called down to the
station's infirmary. The station's chief medical officer, Doctor Bashir,
wanted to talk with me, and coincidentally, the night prior, I had just
received a notice from Commander Shelby via subspace telling me of urgent
business and work for me.
"Lieutenant Samantha Mason?" Doctor Bashir grinned wide and held his hand out
for mine. We shook and I followed him inside in the infirmary. "It's quite
odd really. Command seemed especially interested in the man we found."
"I haven't a clue as to what you speak of."
The Doctor lead the way into a small examination room. Laying on the biobed
was a Japanese man, battered and bruised. His skin looked jaundiced and his
body meek. "My god," I said. I recognized the Japanese man, but I couldn't
put a name to the face. I remembered only seeing the face once some five
years ago. The Lao Tzu received a shipment of cargo freight that was
originally from the Enterprise - it contained special transporter tanks that
carried various people still in a quantum state. Commander Shelby and Doctor
Emily Signaru had found them - people who were assimilated, left behind, but
not quite dead.
Seeing this oriental face brought a shiver down my spine - I remembered: the
man's face had been scarred by dead and burnt tissue. He had been assimilated
by the Borg and left for dead. I stepped backwards toward the door. I
remembered there were thin tendrils licking the air out of broken blisters
and holes in his cheek and they were whipping the air lunging at me.
"Are you alright, Lieutenant?"
I shivered and wrapped my arms around me. Doctor Bashir could see my woe - my
great stupid eyes, can't seem to conceal anything about me I don't want to
say.
"He was in an escape pod, we found him while the Defiant was running
exercises in the Badlands. He's a survivor from the USS Atlantis. Lieutenant
Commander Akira."
"What's Shelby want me to do with this corpse?" I frowned. My skin crawled to
even be near him.
"Commander Shelby," Bashir said. "Wants you to take him back to Earth with
you on the Banshee."
"Isn't this a job for the Banshee's medical officer?"
"Commander Shelby's asked that you handle it." I turned to the body, then
Bashir. He stood there waiting for me to accept the assignment. I waited for
him to do something, anything to the body, to cover it, but he didn't move. I
eyed Bashir suspiciously, but his look was grim. "He's sleeping," he said.
"Dear Lord! He's awake!" I stepped further away my back to the door.
"Yes." Bashir studied me with a confused look. "Commander Shelby wants you to
readjust him socially and find out what happened on the Atlantis. Find out
what he remembers. Commander Shelby seemed especially interested in Doctor
Emily Signaru."
"Right." I nodded. Shelby had mentioned everything too me the night before.
"He still needs a lot of rest. We'll be transporting him to the Banshee
tonight. Doctor Crusher's staff will be watching him and he should be awake
soon enough." Bashir smiled a little one. The tone of his voice spoke
volumes: he was eager and happy to rid of such a sorry specimen. "It won't be
that bad." He tried a larger smile, flashing his gleaming white teeth, but I
only held myself tighter and hunched over in a pout.
Bashir left me alone in the room with Akira. I watched his lifeless body and
stepped around him keeping my radius to him constant and far. I couldn't
curse Shelby enough to give me this assignment.
"Amy…" I stopped cold in my tracks and listened to his breathy voice hiss the
end of that name. His yellow hand twitched; I bolted out the door rubbing my
arms as I sped by Doctor Bashir. He said something to me, I could hear a few
laughs, but their voices only drove me further away. Standing at the door of
the infirmary, I didn't want to be out there in that open bazaar either. The
drabness of the architecture rubbed off on the denizens, who looked like
beggars from the seedier side of Victorian London and Bajoran slaves bound to
their invisible masters.
I hailed the Banshee. "Transporter room, I need a site to site transport from
DS9 to the Banshee."
"Ma'am," The Chief continued. "I can't authorize this use of a transporter
unless there's an urgent reason."
"I'm not feeling well." He started to speak, but I cut him off. "Please, I'm
not feeling well. I just want to return to the ship and get some rest.
Please."
A moment passed. "Standby."
I returned to the ship. I couldn't even face the chief behind the transporter
console. He said I looked flush and feverish. I nodded, mumbled my thanks,
and hurried back to my quarters. "Computer, all lights, one hundred percent."
The room lit up like daytime. I huddled on the couch cursing Shelby and
trying to forget about Lieutenant Commander Akira's jaundiced hand, his
hoarse and yearning voice, and the Borg tendrils breaking out of his burnt
cheek.
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