I'm sorry for the huge delay; the universe seems to be conspiring against me. Regardless, I hope you enjoy!
Sarajul Lylan had always been a light sleeper, so it was no surprise that the good doctor's early morning activities awakened her. She was surprised, however, to find herself nearly falling off the biobed she lay on. The biobed itself was a surprise, too, until Lylan found she vaguely remembered being hauled into sickbay in the wee hours of the night.
She felt the skin on her stomach, where the disruptor had hit her. There was no evidence of a wound. She rose from the biobed and looked around. T'lea was nowhere in sight.
Sara wandered into the smaller room at the back of sickbay, where she did not like what she saw.
The one occupied biobed contained a badly-burned young man in the charred remains of a yellow uniform. The extent of his injuries was the reason for the stasis field around him: obviously, whatever was wrong with him was more than what a mere starship's medical facilities could handle.
Sara felt a rush of anger. This member of her crew had most likely been injured in the line of duty, protecting the ship from the invading Hyskans.
T'lea approached her from behind. Without looking away from the patient, Sarajul asked, "What's wrong with him?'
"Ensign Halley was one of three security officers sent to cargo bay two to intercept the Hyskans. In attempting to stop them, he was caught in an explosion triggered by weapon fire hitting a container of volatile chemicals."
Sara walked closer and saw the full extent of the ensign's injuries for the first time. "My God," she gasped. The man's entire body was laced with burns. On the side that must have been closest to the explosion, the skin actually looked as if it had started to melt.
"Captain?" T'lea looked with concern at the other woman, whose hands were shaking at her sides.
"This never should have happened!" Lylan exclaimed, slamming a fist against the wall. "I should have anticipated the Romulans' involvement—we're less than an hour from the Neutral Zone. I should have realized—raised the shields before they beamed aboard…I should have…"
"Sir." T'lea was uncertain whether logical advice would have any effect on her captain in this emotional state, but it was worth a try. "You could not have anticipated the Hyskans' actions, nor could you have prevented the injury of Ensign Halley or any of the other crew members. Your self-incrimination is illogical."
"That may be so…but I hate to have something like this happen on our first mission." For a moment, T'lea almost felt sympathy for her captain, but she squashed the emotion before it could shame her by revealing itself. She did, however, recognize that the captain had also regained her composure and was looking around for a chronometer.
"The alpha shift begins in fifteen minutes," she advised.
Sara nodded. "I'll be on my way, then." If she hurried, she could make it back to her quarters to change before reporting to the bridge. "And doctor, will I be seeing you this afternoon?"
T'lea glanced at Kyle Halley's immobile form. "I need to run a few more tests on Mr. Halley, but once they are complete, I see no reason not to join you."
Sara grinned. "I'll be seeing you, then," she said, before dashing through the door.
Not more than twenty minutes later, the doors reopened, admitting Mark Nguyen, whom T'lea immediately intercepted.
It was not until well into the lieutenant commander's physical that the Vulcan commented on his unresponsiveness, which had piqued her curiosity in its unusual degree. "What is troubling you, Mr. Nguyen?"
"What?" His head snapped up. "What are you talking about?"
T'lea inclined her head. "You have been remarkably silent over the course of the past twenty-five minutes. Both reports and my observations indicate that such is not your usual behavior; the only logical conclusion is that something is troubling you. As Chief Medical Officer of this ship, it is my duty to determine any factors that may negatively impact its crew."
Nguyen laughed, which was hardly the reaction T'lea had been expecting. "That's what this is about? Logic? Duty? Don't you Vulcans ever think of anything else? It's revolting."
T'lea cocked an eyebrow. She had believed this attitude of passionate Humans toward Vulcan philosophy to be very outdated. Apparently, this was not the case. Fascinating.
"Mr. Nguyen, while you are entitled to your opinion of myself and my species, I suggest you refrain from expressing it in such a manner in the future."
Nguyen snorted and looked away, but made no further comments. T'lea continued with the physical as if nothing had happened.
The events of last night, which had already become common knowledge even to those of the crew who had not been on duty, were giving Ensign Alex Thatcher a lot to think about.
First and foremost, she was glad at having been asleep. The three aliens alone had done minor damage to dozens of people. Apparently they were far stronger than Humans, and possessed some kind of telepathy that alerted them to the presence of other beings. As Alex was neither a security officer nor significantly above Starfleet's minimal physical requirements, she was not sorry to have avoided that situation.
Despite her misgivings, however, she was intrigued by what she had heard of the Hyskans. True, she was interested in everything, but...
The turbolift doors distracted her when they opened and released Mark, who relieved the lieutenant that had been manning ops in his absence. His movements were slightly off, and his gaze was turned downward, which Ally thought indicated that he was upset. She couldn't be sure, of course, so she continued to observe him.
After a little while, Mark exhaled strongly. His hands were moving constantly across the panel, although they weren't doing much. He was nervous, then.
Alex was focusing on Mark's body language so much that, in addition to blocking out much of the background noise on the bridge, she had filtered out something the captain had said. She waited; if the captain had been speaking to her, she would repeat herself.
"Ensign Thatcher?"
"...Yes, captain?" she asked hesitantly.
"Sensor readings, Ensign." They had been monitoring Hyskan space for signs of Romulan activity. So far, nothing.
"Negative—wait, no, there is a small ship entering sensor range to starboard. It shows similarities to the Hyskan Vessel One."
"They are hailing us," announced the communications officer on duty. "Putting them on screen."
The viewscreen blinked to life, displaying an image reminiscent of communication with Captain Eoosk. However, this time the caller was female.
"I am Klloa 2 Seev Ydarr. You hold my offspring and his subordinates. You must release them."
Captain Lylan's face hardened. "I have no intention of doing any such thing. Your... offspring and his friends have attempted to capture my ship and have injured several members of my crew. I cannot, will not, release them to you just because you ask me to. You must understand that."
"It is you who does not understand. These hllein are my responsibility. You must give them to me."
The captain hesitated. She didn't want to offend the Hyskans by violating some custom of their society; but she could not simply release the prisoners into this woman's custody.
"Miss... Ydarr," she ventured, "I suggest we discuss this further in private. We can beam you over here, if you like."
Ydarr answered without hesitation. "That is acceptable." The transmission ended.
"Raise shields after she's aboard," Lylan ordered. "We don't want to fall for the same trick twice."
Ydarr 19 Eoosk was snoring loudly, much to his cellmates' consternation. The fact that his unconscious mind was broadcasting his dreams did nothing to alleviate their discomfort; they found the disjointed images quite distracting.
Suddenly, Eoosk jolted upright. "Seev Ydarr!" he exclaimed. When his companions wondered, he explained, "Seevhlleim Ydarr is here. She has come to take us away.."
This revelation caused even more of a commotion than Eoosk's breathing problems. "But we must capture the ship!" Oohl insisted.
"Seev Ydarr will help us capture the ship," Eoosk said. "She will have a good plan."
"You must ask her what her plan is, so that we will do it," Skaa said excitedly. "Then we will capture the ship!"
Kolla 2 Seev Ydarr was almost exactly two meters tall. Like the males of her species, she was completely bald, and had scaly purple skin that suggested reptilian ancestry. Her large, ovaloid eyes gave Captain Lylan the distinct impression of being stared at.
She began formally (and somewhat nervously), "I am Captain Sarajul Lylan of the Federation Starship Atlas. Welcome aboard." She extended her hand, unsure if the Hyskan woman would understand the gesture. She did, furthering the general hypothesis that the Hyskans were telepathic.
"We will talk now," Ydarr stated bluntly.
"Of course," Sara said. "Would you like to sit down? The observation lounge is-"
"No," Ydarr interrupted. "We must talk now."
"Oh. All right, then." Sara did her best to remain calm. "What do we need to talk about?"
"The gaakhllein."
"You mean the Romulans."
"Yes. They came to our world many rotations ago. They gave us ways to travel through space and to move objects and to heal the sick. But they also began to tell the hllein what they must do. This is the role of the hlleim, not the gaakhllein. As seevhlleim, I know that the gaakhllein—the Romllen—must leave."
Sara was puzzled by the presence of the strange words. The Universal Translator should have been able to find a Standard equivalent…unless the concepts were too complex for its program to grasp immediately. Or if there were no Human equivalent.
"I'm not sure I understand," she admitted. "Hllein… gaakhllein… I don't understand what these words mean.'
Ydarr blinked. "I will explain. We will walk."
As the two women left the transporter room and walked down the corridor, the Hyskan began to elucidate, gesturing as she spoke.
"The hllein are those who need guidance. They must be told what they must do, but once they are told they will do it and not question the one who told them. The hlleim are the ones who tell the hllein what they must do. When a hlleim produces an offspring, she becomes seevhlleim. I have produced nineteen offspring, nine of which have had a contributor." She paused, and seeing that the khlleim did not understand, she continued.
"A contributor is a hllein who is selected by a hlleim to give his traits to her offspring. Only hllein with the most superior traits are chosen. They are the fastest, strongest, and most obedient. I know from the gaakhllein that it is different for khlleim, that they must always select contributors before producing offspring. This is not the case for us."
Sara was having a minor epiphany. "So… the hllein are males, and the hlleim are females." She struggled with the strange words.
"Yes. Those are the words the gaakhllein used—'may-ole' and 'fee-may-ole.'" Those words were just as alien to her.
"What about the kllein?" Sara asked.
"The khllein are those who are like the hllein—the 'may-ole'—but are not from our world. The gaakhllein are the khllein who taught us about worlds other than ours. They are also the khllein who are harmful. You are khlleim, and that is why I came to you for help, so that you and your khlein will make the gaakhllein leave."
"My… khllein? What do you mean?"
Sara wasn't sure, but she thought the Hyskan "seevhlleim" looked annoyed.
"I mean your offspring who are on your vessel. You will tell them that they must help us, and they will help us."
"Wait. Just. A. Minute." Sara stopped dead in her tracks, her face turning warm. "My offspring?"
"You must be a very prolific seevkhllein to have produced enough khllein to service this vessel. Who are your contributors?"
By now, Sara's blush was beet red (despite her darkish skin tone) and beaming like a small sun. "Contributors?" She thanked God that the corridors were empty at the moment. "Listen Ydarr, you've got it all wrong. I don't have any children—and I'm not married, or even seeing anyone. The crewmembers of this ship are all people who have volunteered to serve the Federation of their own free will. Whatever the Romulans told you about other species, they obviously did not tell you the whole story."
Now it was Ydarr's turn to look taken aback. "But you are sexually mature… surely you must have produced several offspring by now."
Skillfully hiding her immense discomfort, Sara replied, "Our species are very different, in many ways. If you like, you could learn more about us from our computer library. It has information about everything you want to know."
Ydarr considered. "That would be beneficial. But first we must make the gaakhllein leave."
"Now that I can agree with," Sara said. "Come with me to the observation lounge—we can discuss it there, along with my senior officers."
"According to Seev Ydarr, the Romulans have been on Hyska VI for several months. They gave the Hyskans disruptors, transporters, and warp drive, among other technologies. We can only guess at their motives, but they seem to have gained the Hyskans' trust enough that the hllein—the male Hyskans—would attempt to capture the Atlas for them." Sara Lylan finished the briefing and placed her hands in her lap. Around the table sat the USS Atlas's department heads—Carol Lylan, Thel Kres'sh, Elni Daron, Mark Nguyen, and T'lea—and the Hyskan representative, Klloa 2 Seev Ydarr.
"Given the nature of our prisoners," Kres'sh said, "it would be prudent to tighten the security measures around them. They might attempt to escape."
The captain nodded. "Good idea. Ydarr, you say you have a certain influence over them. Could you… talk to them? Convince them to behave."
"Yes. They will obey me."
"Good. Now, about the Romulans. They most likely have a cloaked ship orbiting the planet. We have been scanning for any trace of them at regular intervals for the past several hours with no results."
"You'd think they'd respond to a Federation starship in orbit with them," Carol grumbled. "If I were them, I'd have done something by now."
That is why you are the engineer and not the captain, Thel though. Attacking us would be stupid.
"We haven't tried an antiproton beam yet," Nguyen pointed out. "That has been know to work."
The captain looked at her chief engineer. "Carol, how long would it take you to set that up?"
"I'm not sure, captain. A few hours at most."
Sara nodded. "Do it."
Lieutenant Kres'sh, Captain Lylan, and Seev Ydarr stood in front of the force field that contained the four Hyskan "hllein." The purple humanoids were facing each other, as they had been for several minutes. Thel would have said they were having a conversation, but they hadn't said a word. Either they just liked staring at each other, or they were communicating in some way other than what the Andorian could detect.
Finally, Seev Ydarr turned to face the Starfleet officers. "They will not attempt to escape. They will not capture your ship."
"Thank you, Ydarr," the captain said.
The trio exited the brig. Captain Lylan said, "We have a while before we'll be able to do anything else. Would you like to see the ship's library now? Or Mr. Kres'sh could show you around the ship."
Ydarr considered the offer. "You will show me around the ship."
"I wish I could. But I need to be on the bridge the second we find any sign of those Romulans. If you'd like to wait until this is all over..."
"Khllein Kres'sh will show me around the ship," Ydarr corrected quickly.
"Good. Lieutenant, I'll see you later."
The captain turned and left, leaving Thel alone with Ydarr.
"Let's begin, then," the Andorian said without a hint of annoyance in his voice.
Ydarr leaned over the railing, looking down onto the lower deck of Engineering. From that height, the activity below resembled the movements of the eelooh insects on her homeworld. "They are making a way to find the gaakhllein," she determined.
"Yes," answered Thel to the implied question. "They're setting up the equipment for the antiproton beam." Engineering was the last stops on this tour. Thel had already shown her most of the saucer section of the ship before the Hyskan had wanted to see the vessel's inner workings. Thel had his doubts about whether it was a good idea to show off their technology to a member of a less sophisticated race. It was, however, the captain's orders, so he would not dispute it for the moment.
Thel was still uncomfortable around the captain. The incident between the two of them the night before they had come on board was… embarrassing. To be put in his place by a Human, even if she was a Starfleet captain...
But that wasn't the real problem. The real problem was that the captain did not trust him. This was not simply a matter of personal pride—the Chief of Security was the person the captain had to trust the most. It was vital to the safety and smooth functioning of the ship.
Of course, if he'd known that securing the captain's trust would mean acting as an escort for this… person, he might have reconsidered.
"We must leave," Ydarr declared, walking to the exit without even looking at Thel. When he did not follow immediately, she stopped and glared at him. "Khllein, you will come."
It wasn't like Thel was unaccustomed to taking orders. It was that he was unaccustomed to taking orders from a civilian, and someone who refused to acknowledge that males had any kind of intelligence at all.
He gave within seconds, stalking after her with his disgust barely restrained. When they were in the corridor, the Hyskan said, "We will go to the place where illusions are solid." She had seen it in passing on one of the higher decks; two crewmen had been exiting a room when the room's contents had vanished behind them. The khllein had explained, calling it a word that made her tongue feel strange, which she could not remember now.
"The holodeck?"
"Yes—the hllodeik. I will see it work." Ydarr was doing very well at being patient with the khllein. It wasn't his fault that he was deaf to her mind-nudges. If he required extra instruction, it was a failing of the species and not of the individual. She tried to keep this in mind while interacting with all the khllein.
In the holodeck, Ydarr "requested" (more like "demanded") to see a program of Earth. From the many options stored within the computer's memory, Thel selected one that seemed appropriate.
The duo stepped through the double doors and onto a city sidewalk. People of many different species walked past; none payed the newcomers any attention. Then, they were just computer projections. "This is San Fransisco," Thel stated, "a city on the Earth continent called 'North America.' Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy are located here, as well as the Federation Council. It is a very important city."
"The sky is blue."
Thel couldn't resist looking up. The Terran sky had taken some getting used to when he'd first come to the planet. Seeing it, even as a simulation, brought back a number of memories, some of them pleasant, some of them not so much. "It's a result of the gasses in the atmosphere. 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gasses."
Instead of responding, Ydarr stepped in the path of a passing Bolian, who looked at her strangely before moving around her. "This one is unfamiliar," she said.
"Many species are a part of the Federation."
They walked down the street—slowly, because Ydarr stopped to examine every little detail that seemed unfamiliar to her. She found the oddest things—like bricks, doorknobs, shoelaces, and the weeds growing from the cracks in the sidewalk (a problem that remains unsolvable even in the 24th century). Yet she never asked questions, only saying, "I am unfamiliar with this," or "This object is strange." Thel was no communications officer, but it occurred to him that there was no way to ask a question in the Hyskan language. Either that, or this matriarch was reluctant to show anything as weak as a lack of knowledge before a male.
Suddenly, the hologram flickered; pale lines on a black background appeared in the sky. The power fluctuated again, and San Francisco, Earth was replaced by an empty holodeck.
The door refused to open. As Thel went over possible scenarios and strategies in his mind, he attempted to contact the bridge. "Kres'sh to bridge." Silence. "Kres'sh to security." Nothing. "Kres'sh to anyone who can hear me." Even more nothing. Thel sighed and looked at the alien beside him. "It looks like we're going to be stuck here for a while."
In engineering, Carol was putting the finishing touches on the setup for the antiproton beam when the ship suddenly rocked to the "side" (as much as there are any directions at all in space). As she caught herself on the counter, she called out, "Engineering to bridge! What the hell was that?"
"Sara here," her sister's voice replied. "'That' was the Romulans. Looks like we won't be needing that beam after all."
"You could say that."
"I don't suppose," Sara said casually, "that you could do anything about the power. Half the ship is on emergency backup."
Carol grimaced. "I noticed. I'll do what I can; no promises. Carol out."
Sara sighed as the channel went dead. She had more pressing issues, specifically the warbird that had just decloaked right in front of the Altas.
"Try hailing them again," she ordered, and heard the bleep of buttons being pressed in quick response.
"They're receiving, sir, but they're ignoring us."
She hadn't really expected anything else. After all, why would a ship full of Romulans come out of hiding to attack a Starfleet ship and then decide to talk? They might not be devoted to logic like their distant relatives, the Vulcans, but they weren't stupid.
"Evasive maneuvers," she said.
Another blast rocked the ship. "Sheilds are down to fifty percent," Ensign Thatcher announced.
"We've lost all communication systems, Captain," said the communications officer whose name Sara couldn't remember somehow.
Great.
She stared at the Romulan ship hovering on the viewscreen. They could hardly retreat now; the Romualns would shoot them down before they could get out of the system. There was only one other option. "Return fire. Aim to disable them."
A phaser beam shot out from the front of the ship and struck the warbird—right where it hurt.
"Nice shooting, Ensign!" Sara couldn't help exclaiming.
The young woman's pale skin turned pink at the compliment. "Thank you. ...Captain," she returned awkwardly.
The communications officer—Lorenzo? Lawrence? Something like that—spoke up. "Captain... the Romulans are hailing us."
Sara couldn't help smiling a little. "Put them onscreen."
The image of the warbird was replaced with one of a Romulan woman. "I am Commander Telal. Why have you violated our space?"
Sara raised an eyebrow. "Your space? In case you haven't noticed, you are on the Federation side of the Neutral Zone. I should be the one to ask you why you are in our space."
Commander Telal didn't miss a beat. "We received a call for aid from this system. Thinking it was one of our own vessels that had reported a system malfunction not too long ago, we followed it, intending to rescue our comrades before they were detected by the Federation. Instead, we found that this primitive society had sent out the distress call. We had just begun our investigation when you arrived."
"Well, commander, hopefully we can get this cleared up quickly with our respective government so we can each go about our ways. Atlas out."
Once the screen was dark, Sara turned to Commander Daron. "She was telling the truth," he said, "at least in part. She is definitely hiding something from us."
"Why does that not surprise me?" Sara muttered.
Whew... finally done! Did I do a good job on the scene with the Romulans? I'm not too confident about writing them, the pesky, sneaky things...