Chapter 2
The ship was brought in to the main shuttlebay, decontaminated and the medical team allowed in after the security team did a 360° walk around. The first obstacle soon presented itself.
"Crusher to Picard." he answered: "Go ahead doctor." She answered back: "Captain, we can't find any kind of external control to open the cockpit. I can just barely see the pilot through the canopy but we can't open it without cutting it and I would prefer that Engineering be able to inspect this vehicle before we open it up."
Picard said: "Bridge to Chief O'Brien." He answered: "Yes Captain? What can I do for you?" Picard said: "Speak with Dr. Crusher. I think you can help her more than I can in this." O'Brien said: "What seems to be the problem doctor?" After explaining the situation to him while going back to sickbay, O'Brien said: "No problem at all doctor. I can do a site to site transport from the vehicle to sickbay. Scanning . . . okay, I've got the pilot's parameters and whoever it is doesn't appear to have any weapons, although there is a strangely scanning object on his left hip but I can keep the patterns separate. A moment later he said: "Ready to energize on your mark Dr. Crusher but be ready to catch him because the pilot is in a sitting position. When he rematerializes, that's the position he'll be in."
Beverley Crusher said: "Understood Chief. Energize." The familiar hum of the transporter could be heard as the pilot began to appear on the exam bed. As the process completed, Dr. Crusher was ready to catch the head and shoulders while Nurse Ogawa stood ready by the feet. Smoothly the pilot was let down flat on the exam tableand the analysis panel on the wall suddenly lit up and started to scan the pilot.
Dressed in a bright orange flight suit, black boots and gloves with a rather beat up white helmet on his head bearing two anchor-like insignia over the eyes, Beverly didn't quite know what to make of the pilot. She saw too the cylindrical metal object on his left hip that had confused Chief O'Brien during the scan prior to transport.
About this time, Worf and one of his security officers entered sickbay and began to scan for weapons. Finding no obvious ones, Worf removed the cylinder from the belt of the pilot and looked it over being careful not to activate any of the few controls that could be seen. His tricorder was able to identify the basic materials of its construction but didn't recognize the way they were assembled as anything at all. This was strange, and as a practice, Worf didn't like anything that was strange when it came to the safety of the ship or its crew. Setting the strange cylinder on a side table where the unconscious man's few articles were being placed, he posted one guard by the door to sickbay as he went to report to the Captain.
An hour later, Picard came to sickbay himself with Counselor Troi close behind. As he walked in to sickbay he said: "Doctor, what's your prognosis?" Turning to face him she said: "I can confirm he's a male human but there are no traces of him in any database I have to try and identify him. He was suffering from dehydration and borderline starvation but those conditions were easily remedied barely thirty minutes after his arrival. I've tried to wake him up with both physical and chemical means but he won't wake up. No injuries to speak of, a few scars but then who doesn't have any of those? He'll live and right now I'm just observing him and trying to figure out how to wake him. Near as I can tell, his current condition is self-induced somehow. We were able to get his flight suit off. Underneath it, all he had on were some shorts and a shirt so that's why he's covered by the blanket. For now, I'll just have to wait and see."
Picard listened and then turned to Deanna and said: "Counselor, any changes that you can pick up on?" She looked at the man on the table and said: "Not really, maybe after he wakes up, maybe then." Picard said: "Are you alright Deanna? The word 'maybe' doesn't usually exist in your vocabulary." She said: "I'm fine Captain, thank you for asking. It's just that I feel somehow disconnected from my abilities right now. Before we brought him onboard, it was just barely noticeable, but now that he's here in the same room as me, it feels like I've lost something that I never had in the first place. I'm sorry I can't be more detailed than that but it's as close as I can get in words." Picard turned back to Crusher and said: "Keep me posted please doctor." As the Captain and Deanna left, she said: "Will do."
Meanwhile, back on the Bridge, Riker was speaking with Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge over the commpanel. He said: "What do you make of it so far?" Geordi said: "It was a fairly simple binary signal to unlock the canopy of the vehicle once we started scanning on all bands. The technology in this thing though is the strangest mix of old and new I've ever encountered anywhere. The control surfaces in the cockpit are actual buttons and switches and are marked with what I think are symbols and words but if they are, it's a language I sure can't read. We haven't disassembled anything yet, and I don't really want to just yet. What our scans have been able to discern so far is pretty amazing considering the size of this vehicle."
Riker said: "What do you mean?" Geordi said: "Well, it uses ion engines that are fueled by some kind of hyper-efficient liquid fuel and it appears to have some kind of warp drive of its own. The onboard computer doesn't have the power or storage space for that kind of information so we're looking for some kind of exterior add-on system. As soon as this thing entered the shuttlebay, its landing gear deployed. I think it was some kind of emergency recovery system, say if the pilot was too injured to do it themselves, then when a tractor beam latches on, the landing cycle starts automatically. That's just a guess on my part though."
He continued with: "I would love to get a look at its shielding system. Something this small shouldn't even be able to have shields but it seems that the pilot can redirect energy as they see fit in a given situation. They can redirect energy to shields to speed up the recharge rate or send that energy to weapons to speed up their recharge time or siphon off energy from either one or both systems to increase engine output and speed. The possible control combinations are impressive for something this small, and this ship is also capable of dual operation in either atmosphere or space."
Riker asked: "You said something about a mix of old and new?" Geordi said: "That's right. Just looking at the vehicle and you can see it's been in service for awhile. The paint is chipped and fading in places, there are obvious patches in other areas while the control systems in the cockpit look like they were installed only yesterday. It's really strange Commander." In the background, a sudden series of beeps, whistles and whines could be heard over the comm. as Geordi's voice exclaimed: "Hello, what do we have here?" The channel closed unexpectedly as Riker said: "Geordi? Geordi!"
At the same time as this was going on, Beverley Crusher was just about to try a different stimulant when her patient's hand suddenly whipped up and grabbed her arm at the wrist to prevent her from administering the hypospray. Beverley Crusher considered herself a level headed person who had seen many of the things possible in medicine. From autopsies to battlefield injuries to internal organ replacements, but even those experiences couldn't prepare her for a nearly catatonic man to go from zero to consciousness and grab her. Naturally, she was startled, naturally she screamed.
As Picard and Deanna walked down the corridor towards a turbolift, Deanna suddenly put one hand to her head and the other to the wall to prevent her from collapsing just as Picard heard Beverley's scream from sickbay, torn for a moment between his two friends and colleagues, left Jean-Luc Picard momentarily unsure of what to do for the first time in longer than he could remember. Deanna said: "I'll be alright, go and see about Beverley."
With no more prompting required, he ran for sickbay and was inside the door just behind the security officer.