[USS Tempest] A Sort of Rivendell
- From: TKilyle@xxxxxxx
- To: ussgeorgetown@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, usstempest@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 09:16:58 EDT
A Sort of Rivendell
by Zachary Garrity, Lily del Sol, Nikolas Renaldi, Lindsey Craig, Edward
Harris, Benni, Joshua Garrity, N'Ellie Coyne, Anna Jameson, 'Dr.' Tony,
Whitney
Keller, and Seren Deaver
"If you want my advice, make for Rivendell. That journey should not prove
too perilous, though the Road is less easy than it was, and it will grow worse
as the year fails."--Gandalf
***takes place directly after 'Fleeing the Balrog' then during and after
'It's the Cure That'll Kill You'
Zack fired up the shuttle, calling to Lily, "secure them all and hang on."
He looked more than just worried, he looked near ready to cry. As calm and
assured as his movements seemed, his _expression was clearly upset. "We need
to
get off this rock fast."
Over any protests, Lily did as Zack said, strapping or locking down their
charges. She kept a reassuring patter of talk, realizing now that they really
had no idea what she was saying. "Do you know how to fly?"
Zack nodded, choking back any fear, knowing it had no place here. "I fly
well enough. Not as well as Josh,"he stopped and drew a breath. Not now, he
told
himself. Not now. "but better than average, I guess."
Lily skidded across the deck to his side, laying one small hand on his
shoulder. "You can speak whatever language they understand. I can pilot as
well
as you can so maybe you;d be better use there."
Zack nodded again, but seemed reluctant to rise. Finally, he unbuckled and
relinquished the seat. "Keep an eye on the shuttle behind us. If it seems to
flounder...well....just watch it, okay?"
She offered him a weak smile. "This thing has enough power to tractor a
similar sized ship for a short amount of time," she reassured him as she
buckled
herself in. "And I've got a quick eye."
Zack nodded and headed back quickly, while he still could make himself do
it, to deal with the frightened youth they carried.
Everybody had to learn to fly these things once and I did okay, she told
herself as she went through the quick start up sequence. "Lift off in thirty
seconds, blondie. Hold onto your hat."
Zack nodded, and warned the kids to hang on, preparing them for the trip to
come as carefully as he could.
Tap and in went the last start flight command. The shuttle lifted off
slowly but surely even as Lily cringed in her seat. Those damned lizards were
going to come after them sooner or later. "Hopefully later..."
The second shuttle came up behind the first, though it's attitude seemed
off. It seemed to be listing and correcting often, as if the pilot was
struggling with it. No sooner had the shuttles cleared the atmosphere of the
moon when
the explosions started, each of the three moons going up in turn. The first
shuttle was rocked hard in it's wake even as the second was drawn backwards,
pulled toward the fiery space where the mines had been moments before.
Lily bit back the Mandarin swear words that sprang to mind and concentrated
on her displays,. "Hang on," she said to no one in particular. "Number
two's looking shaky so we're lending a quick hand. Even the mild tractor
beam's
going to give us a kick."
"I was expecting that," Zack sighed, the fear plain in his voice now. "Do
what you can, please." That said, he turned his attention back to the others,
trying to warn them what was coming.
It was like dropping in free fall then coming to a dead halt. The breath
was squished out Lily by the flight harness. "that hurt," she said softly but
the stop was good. It meant they'd grabbed the other shuttle. "Alright,
nice little boat, play sweet and go home now."
"Just get them both home...please...don't let him be lost out here.." Zack
whispered from behind her, his voice choked with emotion. "Let him see this
finished first."
"Shhh..." Lily said softly. "All's not lost. Listen, we're closer to your
ship than mine. Give them a yell and see if they can't give us a hand here."
Zack nodded, pulling himself together enough to attempt to raise the
Georgetown . "Garrity to Georgetown ," He called, forgetting all about
aliases.
"This is the Bradbury requesting emergency assistance for ourselves and the
Asimov. Please respond."
The only immediate response was a hard blow to the shields as the Gorn
fighters closed in around them, seemingly determined to prevent their escape.
Nikolas swore in Greek as he throw out orders." Get a tractor on those
shuttles!"
"Commander, we can't with the shields up."
He growled as he hit the comm.. "Captain Craig, is there any way we can get
some help from your fighters to get those shuttles to one of our ships?"
Lindsey glanced at the progression of the battle outside and groaned. "We
can try, but most are tied up with protectin' us. I'll see what we can do,
Craig out." She patched through to Harris the second the link was closed to
GT. "See those two shuttles, Harris? Got any spare fighters to back 'em
up?"
"Can do Ma'am. Harris to Scimitar Red and Blue Flights. Rendezvous with
shuttle and escort in. Orange sections, Scramble! Scramble! Scramble!"
He sighed before continuing, "That's all fighters out now, tech crews
prepare for incoming any time."
Lily saw the fighters coming in but there was no way they could actually
help with the tractoring. "I should have been an engineer," she grumbled
under
her breath as the shuttle, still tractored to the second one, bucked and
shuddered. She glanced over her shoulder at Zack. "It's probably going to
get a
bit chilly in here, blondie. I'm going to make a beeline for your ship but
it'll cost us a bit of environmental control."
"Try to raise Josh," he told her, looking back at the already terrified
children. "He is an engineer. He might be able to tell you how to keep it
stable."
Benni grabbed the blonde one's hand, fear shinning in her eyes.
Lily nodded sharply. With one hand, she reached for the comm switches.
"Bradbury to Asimov. This is Lily," she said, tossing rank out the airlock.
He
wouldn't have any idea who del Sol was. "Josh, we could use a hint of
expertise here."
After several long moments a tired, weak sounding voice came barely audible
across the comm. "Go ahead."
"It's me that's got you tractored. Tempest's fighters are running block for
us but we need to make a swift jump to Georgetown . Any ideas what we can
do?"
It seemed to take far longer than one would expect for Josh to work it out.
When at last he did, his voice sounded oddly shaky and uncertain.
"Try...rerouting systems....the, um....all redundant systems...secondary
systems...to
....to environmental control...and...pull the ...the....warning chip...so you
won't...get...a full system reboot...an emergency shutdown...then just go..."
tiredly...weakly he repeated.."just go."
"Right." Lily bit her lip in concentration as she attempted to fulfill his
ideas. "Can't we have that control/alt/delete thing like Lieutenant Le Beau
made."
Zack squeezed the girls hand gently, but his own hands were shaking. Taking
a page from Senek's book, he tried something he never had before. Zachary
began to pray.
"God but I hope the artificial gravity's not included on that list," she
said, cringing as she pressed in the last command.
The ships lights dimmed and the shuttle jerked before shooting forward at
an alarming speed.
"If anybody makes any smart ass remarks about woman drivers, I'll beat them
senseless," Lily said as the gravity slammed her back in her seat. She
didn't dare move her hands from the control panel but she glanced up in time
to
see that the other shuttle was still practically glued to their tail
Zack sighed as they approached the Georgetown hanger. As soon as they
landed, he unbuckled himself and darted for the hatch.
Lily's hand shot out, grabbing his arm. "Wait!" she insisted. "The bay is
still re-pressurizing."
"He needs me, " Zack whispered, though he didn't pull away from her
hand."Something's wrong. Really wrong."
"Comm still works," Lily suggested. "Call and have them beam you to him. I
can hold down the fort with our guests." Her eyes softened. She had her
own brother, too. "Go on. Ask."
Zack nodded, but before he could, Josh's voice came over the comm. "Asimov
to Georgetown . Requesting...emergency beam out ...of all passengers ...in aft
section of shuttle...and quarantine of pilot area ...for biohazard."
That was Josh's voice asked for a biohazard quarantine and it made N'Ellie
looked up form the reports coming in about the battle. He was back! Yet, he
sounded far from being alright. Running out of the office she headed for where
they kept the bio-suits as she yelled, "ANNA THE PLACE IT YOURS!"
Zack heard it too. Jerking away from Lily, he shook his head. "No....no way,
Josh, no .." Hitting the com button he hailed the Georgetown . "One to beam
to Asimov."
"No," Josh's voice answered, much to Zack's dismay. "the plan ... remember
... help .. .calm them .... they need you ...." They'd both known the risks
going in, and they'd discussed what would need to be done if this happened.
Seren knocked on the CMO's office door then stuck his head in. "It's much
safer out here now, Doctor. Obviously you heard Dr. Coyne, though. I have no
idea what the problem is."
N'Ellie got many odd looks as she hopped and ran down the hallway putting
the bio-suit on. When she got to the bay she knew which shuttle to go to
without even asking. "Coyne to sickbay, we need a medical team in shuttle bay
two."
There would be kids on those shuttles, but she needed to get to Josh. After
opening the hatch she looked at the little ones, her heart breaking. "Josh?"
The tiny evacuees shrank back from the new person, wondering what would be
done to them next. An almost inaudible sound came from the pilot area as Josh
raised the shields around it.
"It's alright." She said softly as she boarded the shuttle. "Your safe now.
It's alright." She looked them over as she came into the shuttle. They didn't
look any better than the ones in sick bay. They were going to need more
room. "Coyne to sickbay, we're going to need to commandeer another bay."
One of the tiniest, no more than perhaps five, looked up at her curiously
and slowly, tentatively reached up a hand, mindful of her reaction in case he
should need to pull back. Gently, he touched the ridges of her forehead, his
expression one of absolute awe. "An ga pa'e" he whispered, smiling slightly,
before withdrawing his hand quickly as if in fear she would lash out.
She normally hated to have her ridges touched, always hiding them behind her
bangs, but when the child brush careful fingers over them she smiled.
Crouching down she reached out and touched his cheek just as lightly. ~~What
did he
say?~~
~This one...has pretty marks....~ Josh's quiet voice answered in her head.
That actually made her blush. "You're pretty too," she told the boy. ~~What
happened? Why the biohazard?~~
The sad, near-silent voice replied with just one word. ~vr'tae~
N'Ellie swore inwardly so no one could hear her. ~~How do I treat it?~~
Quieter still came the response. ~ you don't~
~~I won't believe that. I won't lose you, we need you.~~ She replied as a
medical team approached. "They're going to take you to a safe place, to wash,
and eat. You safe now."
They drew back, few understanding until one among them began translating for
the rest. Once they all understood, he looked up at N'Ellie. "J'su." he told
her, pointing toward the cockpit. Then, pointing toward the back, he
whispered. "Wl'm". He looked at her studiously for any signs of understanding.
~~What did he say?~~
~He tells you ...where we are." Josh answered after a long moment.
~Joshua...and William.~
N'Ellie smiled at the boy and brushed dirty hair from his forehead. "We'll
see to Josh and William. You go with the nurse and she'll take care of you, I
promise."
The young boy nodded slightly, and went docilely with the indicated nurse.
The pretty marked one would see to the last of them.
She moved further into the shuttle once it was clear, finding a young boy
with what appeared to be wings strapped down. She pulled out a tricorder and
started to scan him. ~~What happened?~~
~stabbed...blood loss...regenerated what I could ...not enough.~
N'Ellie nodded as she went right to working on William. There wasn't much
she could do outside of sick bay, but she could get him ready for transport.
~~They're beaming the worms into stasis over on Tempest, oh and there are
several people rather pissed at you at the moment, can you beam it out of
you?~~
Josh shook his head, though she couldn't see him. Until they died or
burrowed out, they wound tightly among the internal organs, especially the
heart
where the minerals in the blood were most easily accessible and most
plentiful.Only in death, when they released their hold on those organs, could
they be
beamed out. Unless, of course, you wanted to take the organs out with them.
Remembering at last that she couldn't see him, he answered. ~no~
~~I don't like that word.~~ She replied before tapped her badge. "Coyne to
Jameson, I'm sending you a critical one, Anna. Stable but suffered blood loss
and some unique breaks."
~ neither do I~ he answered, his quiet voice sounding slightly amused by
that. He realized that the replicator was out there. It figured, didn't it?
He
really wanted a cup of coffee.
Anna tapped her badge. "Jameson here. Send them over. Awake or not?"
"Computer, coffee, strong, black." N'Ellie called out as she finished up.
"Transport coffee to biohazard area."
Josh saw the coffee materialize nearby and smiled. ~thanks~ his mind
whispered as he reached for it with shaky hands, and downed half the cup in
one
draught. Sighing, he leaned back against the wall next to the chair, drawing
his
knees up to his chest and resting his head upon them.
"Unconscious," N'Ellie replied. "stand by." She stepped back then ordered
the medical transport. "Did I mention the wings?" ~~Welcome.~~
"No..." Anna gasped as the massive form filled the room in front of her, a
pair of bedraggled wings the only things she could see. "What is he?"
"Wl'm" a young voice said behind her, pointing to the winged boy and gazing
patiently up at her for any indication she understood.
Anna peered around her to see child at her side. "Hey, sport," she cooed as
she got down as near the ground as she could. "Wl'm, is that his name?"
"Josh said it meant William,"N'Ellie replied before turning to face Josh.
"And my scans say he's human."
Josh raised his head slowly to look at N'Ellie. "You...shouldn't ...be
here..." he said with great effort.
"This is exactly where I should be." N'Ellie replied as she slid to the
floor outside the force field.
Josh shook his head as he shivered with the overwhelming cold.
"...sickbay...the kids..."
"Anna has everything under control there, and the others have the cargo bay,
I need to be here with you." She couldn't say in case she was losing him.
Josh nodded slightly, drawing a ragged breath before coughing weakly,
ignoring the blood that came with it. It hurt. He didn't remember those
infected
speaking of pain so much. Weakness, yes, he'd seen that. Fatigue. But not
usually so much pain. He felt as if his chest were exploding.
This was killing her inside. She was a damned doctor and the only thing she
could do was beam him in more coffee. "That helps with morning sickness you
know," she told him lamely, "I think you passed that on, it must be genetic,
your dad drinks coffee like a fish in water."
Josh reached for the second cup gratefully, though his hand shook so badly
by this point, much of it spilled.
She couldn't fit the tears that welled in her eyes. "Don't you dare die,
Joshua Garrity. We need you, I need you."
She needed to step away. This wasn't good for her. For them. She needed not
to be here. "Zack..." he whispered through the blood." Find
him...look....look after him..please..."
He was sending her away? She loved him and he was sending her away? "What do
our children do with out a father? What do I do without the man I love?"
"I...." he struggled, coughing again weakly as consciousness slipped away.
"I...love..." the darkness engulfed him as the final whispered word escaped,
much like a a sigh, "..you...'
N'Ellie screamed and hit the force field. "JOSH! JOSH! NO! JOSH!!"
The child nodded to Anna. "Wl'm" he said again with a shy smile, then
pointed to himself and said, "t'ne" before pointing to her questioningly.
"Anna," she said softly. "Tony is it?" She offered her hand to the boy,
creaking to her feet. "Could you help me with William?"
The child took it slowly, clearly nervous, but nodded, moving to help her
with the winged boy.
The pair of them manouvered the boy with the massive wing span onto a biobed
so she could scan him. The wings were badly broken and set even worse in
several places. She eyed the boy and said, "I need you to hold his wing for
me. Can you do that, Doctor Tony?"
The boy nodded slightly as he reached up to take hold of William's wings.
Slowly, Anna performed a basic scan using her tricorder to get as much
information about the appendage as she could. Clearly, the major damage was
several years old and so she could leave it until the knife wound was healed.
"Okay then, Dr Tony. Next we need to clean the wound. Can you get my the
implement from the table over there?" she asked as she pointed to a
hypospray.
Tony moved quickly to follow her directions, handing her the hypospray then
awaiting the next order.
Lily sat in front of her young charges shaking her head. "We wait," she
said in a normal, comforting tone. "We wait for the ones in charge."
Zack paced, pausing only occasionally to whisper a word of comfort to one
child or another as Josh had instructed him to do. Just as they'd planned. His
eyes were full of fear and anger. Turning to Lily, he hissed desperately,
"What's taking so long? We're losing him. Can't they feel it?"
"Is there somebody nearby him? Can you see what's going on?" Lily asked
softly, reaching to pat his shoulder.
"N'Ellie," Zack answered, sinking into a sitting position next to her.
"She's crying. Screaming. She knows. She can't get past the field. He locked
her
out. But...I don't feel them now. Just him. And blood. So much blood."
Her hands were numb and burned from beating on the force field, but she
couldn't override the lock Josh had put on it. "Computer beam me into the
cockpit! Medical override, Coyne Alpha nine seven five."
In less time than it took to take a breath, she was there, kneeling beside
his prone form.
By instinct, Lily put her arm completely around Zack, pulling him closer to
comfort him. "Talk to me," she said, realizing now that these were no normal
Humans. "What do you see now?"
Zack was unaccustomed to being embraced and yet he did nothing to extricate
himself. Instead, he sat there taking in her warmth, struggling to find the
words to answer her. 'She's there...inside now...next to him..." tears
streamed down his cheeks. "He's still..."
"Still isn't bad. Gone's bad and you didn't say gone," Lily suggested.
"Not gone," Zack agreed. "Not yet."
A medical team entered the shuttle then and began looking everyone over.
Them being the smallest and weakest of the breeder herds, including toddlers
and
babies, almost all were beamed straight to sickbay. When at last the shuttle
was clear of refugees, Lily and Zack were looked over. Both being found to
have injuries sustained in the fighting below, they were triaged there and
beamed straight to sickbay for a closer look as well.
With little else on her mind but saving him, N'Ellie went into medical mode.
She pushed away all feelings, all emotions, all attachments. Her only
concerns were him and her children, who were safe as long as she was in the
suit.
She scanned him, looking for the worms, she didn't know how, but she had to
get them out. She almost didn't believe what she was seeing. Something was
killing off the parasites.
Lily stared open mouthed at the condition of Georgetown's Sick Bay .
"Wow...there was certainly a fight in here," she exclaimed even as she waved
at one
of the little ones who'd been on their shuttle.
"Ah, yes, a keen eye for the obvious," Seren snorted as he approached.
Zack looked at Seren with a raised brow. "Did you take classes in Sarcasm or
is that a natural talent?"
"Natural talent, my dear young Mr. Garrity," Seren said wryly. He saw no
point in keeping up the Tuttle charade any longer. "Some of our older
'guests'
took exception to their new surroundings."
Zack sighed, and nodded. They'd been afraid they might. "Where are they
now?"
Seren almost sighed even as he ran a tricorder scan over them both. "Some
were beamed down to the two shuttle bays that were empty. Unfortunately, some
have also escaped one of said bays."
"They what?!" Zack asked, eyes going wide. Not good. Very not good. "How'd
they let that happen?" Realizing it didn't matter, he shook his head. "Never
mind. We have to find them before they hurt themselves."
Lily looked around. There were some of the older ones here still but they
appeared to be more docile for whatever reason. She about grinned when she
saw the red haired girl who'd said 'thank you'. "I bet they're scared as
hell."
"Coyne to Sick Bay," came N'Ellie's emotionally cracked voice, "Anna, Seren,
the parasites, you're not going to believe this, coffee kills them! Strong,
black, Josh Garrity coffee! Everyone who set foot on the moon is to be given
coffee, make sure the others know."
Zack jumped at that. "We'll help get it in everyone," Zack told her
nervously. "How's Josh? Is he okay?"
"I've removed the parasites," she replied. "Sick Bay, I'm going to need a
surgical bay and medical transport."
Seren nodded at Anna. "Shall I have Grossman and Whitney set up the suite?
I can go down to assist Dr. Coyne."
Lily's brows drew together in a frown. "Are you folks going to pass that
coffee information to Tempest? Dr. Calhoun's going to have a fit I bet. He
can hardly drink the stuff."
"I just did," Nurse Whitney Keller answered from the nearest comm console.
"Someone named Lincoln in your sickbay got the news and agreed to pass it
along." Without waiting for further comment she went to start setting up the
suite.
Lily smiled sightly and squeezed Zack's hand. "Dr. Lincoln'll make the
stuff by the gallon I'm sure." She took a quick survey of the room.
"Zack...do
you know the language these kids speak?"
Zack nodded. "It is my own," he admitted quietly.
"Can we leave then? Maybe if you talk to the kids who escaped, they'll
listen." Those dark almond eyes looked very sad and very old as they spied a
girl who couldn't have been more than twelve, huge with child. "So they won't
get hurt or hurt anyone."
Zack hesitated, glancing toward the surgical suites, before nodding.
"Yeah..okay...let's go do it...." he answered at last.
"Not so fast," Seren cautioned. "I might have scanned you but we have a two
stage process going on." He pointed toward Anna. "You have to pass muster
with Dr. Jameson, too, since I'm not quite an MD."
"Okay, but if we wait too much longer you can expect to see more wounded.
Those kids are scared, and that makes them at least as dangerous as anything
you could be scanning for right now." Zack answered truthfully.
Seren raised one brow and looked around at the fairly well trashed main
room. The look as much as said 'like I didn't know that'. Aloud, all he said
was, "We all have our superiors to answer to, Cadet, so..." He pointed toward
the very pregnant doctor.
"Yeah, yeah.." Zack muttered. "Let's just all state the obvious."
"I have that copyrighted at the Federation patent office," Seren said
mildly. "That usage will cost you."
"You have some weird Vulcans over here," Lily whispered.
"Gee," Zack answered with a wry smile. "Ya think?" To Seren he added. "Just
put it on my tab, will you?"
Lily giggled, glad of the levity after such harsh reality. "C'mon, blondie,
let's play nice for the poor lady. She looks like she needs a break."
"Okay...okay..." Zack smirked. "I'll be good."
Lily stood in front of the red haired doctor the very weird Vulcan had
pointed out and looked up. "Neat piercings," she commented before asking,
"Can me
and blondie here leave? We have to help keep the refugees from wrecking the
ship."
"You'll have fewer to patch up if you let us go now," Zack assured her
quietly. "And those that need help might even cooperate a bit if I can talk to
them."
Anna gave them both a hard stare then nodded. "Make sure you're all clean
from anything then do anything you can to help." As an after thought, she
offered them both a small smile. "Thanks."
"That weird Vulcan over there said we were good to go but that we needed
your stamp of approval. Does this mean we're good?" Lily asked.
"You're good," Anna nodded.
"Thank you," Zack replied near silently as he took Lily's hand and dashed
for the door, trying hard to ignore his brother's prone figure as he was
rushed
into the surgical suite.
Lily followed along in Zack's wake, having no choice since he had hold of
her hand. Once they were outside Sick Bay's main doors, she came to a halt.
"We need a plan," she told him. "We can't just do this off the cuff. How do
we get the message across to them without causing more chaos?"
Zack shrugged, thinking. Sniffing the air, he moved toward an open shaft.
"All-call, maybe....or...." he knelt next to the opening, his head cocked to
the side, "some similar form of shipwide communication...." Reaching in, he
clamped his hand around a slender wrist and drew the owner forward. "Word of
mouth."
âSeren,â N'Ellie ordered, all unease about taking command put a shelf for
later, âif can handle things on this end, I'm going to need Anna and a full
surgical staff.â
The blue eyed Vulcan fusion nodded. "I'm good with that. We've got the
best nurses here right now and I think Mr. Eislin and the sergeant major's
young
friend will help me if I ask nicely."
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