Stranded
Chapter 1
"No one gets left behind, remember?"
Mitch Albom
Nyota walked quickly down the cobbled road to the small house she and Leonard were living in. She carried a large basket filled with groceries from the local market...small amounts of flour, sugar, honey, tea, fresh fruit, potatoes, and green produce. There was also some of the local cheese, butter, and a small amount of meat. The basket was heavy, but Nyota was strong and she carried it with ease. Her flat sandals made a faint flap flap as she walked, and her long linen skirt and tunic swayed gently.
She slowed as she saw the small cream stone house with the pale green shutters and door ahead of her. It was very late in the afternoon, and the two small suns of this out-of-the-way-planet would be setting soon, Leonard should have already finished his work for the day.
Today was an anniversary of sorts. It was exactly ten weeks since the Enterprise had left the system and she and Leonard had stayed behind on this planet.
A preliminary reconnaissance of the planet for a possible First Contact was what had brought them here. The indigenous people of Sarena lived in a far flung area of the Alpha Quadrant, but observers of the Federation and Starfleet were watchful and wary about their safety. The planet was far too close to the rapacious Orion syndicate and Fleet scout ships had reported some activity from the Orions in that area of space. Starfleet wanted Sarena to join the Federation, which would offer them Federation and Fleet protection, but first it had to be determined if the planet was ready for First Contact. The Enterprise crew, dressed like the indigenous population, had made their way to what the Xenobiologists on the ship said was a typical small town on Sarena where they planned to stay for several days to study their First Contact readiness.
First Contact assessments were always exciting. After all, it was the primary mission of Enterprise, to discover new life and new civilizations. But first, many questions had to be answered before a formal approach to join the Federation could be made to the Sarena governing body.
First contact was only initiated by the Federation if a society was sufficiently advanced and had already developed or was on the verge of developing interstellar travel. Contact with primitive civilizations was strictly prohibited by the Prime Directive. The preferred method of initiating a First Contact was to approach scientists and local leaders to make the initial contact on the assumption that they would more easily grasp the concept of other worlds and different life forms. An initial First Contact mission was always covert. There was no identification of self or mission; absolutely no interference with the local governing bodies, no references to space, other worlds, or advanced civilizations. The population of a planet was first observed long distance and covertly for some time before making an on-site first contact assessment.
Thus, the small covert assessment group led by Captain Kirk (who loved First Contact missions), Hannity for Science, Leonard for Medical, Uhura for Linguistics, and Giotto for Security, were in this small town of Torreon for the onsite initial assessment of readiness. Spock had been left on board to man the conn and oversee the mission from his station.
It had been during their first foray into the town center, when a hysterical woman had come running out of a small house, screaming for the need of a physician. They had stopped to help, and she calmed enough to tell them her husband had collapsed, and was burning up with fever. Leonard, explaining he was a physician from another town, had hurried to the sick man's side, and quickly determined that medical intervention was required or the man would die. Jim and Giotto carried him from the small kitchen to a bedroom and put him a bed.
With a gentle, "let's let the doctor do his work," Uhura and Hannity gently pulled the distraught woman out of the room. Now alone in the bedroom, Leonard had opened his field medical bag hidden in his carryall and hurriedly begun treatment. The patient was burning up with a raging fever, and the first priority was to bring it down with a strong antipyretic.
Within the hour, the man began to improve slightly, but the antiviral and Triox to help his breathing were slow to work. Jim and the others left the house when his communicator had silently buzzed. It would not do for the locals to see a Fleet communicator before the First Contact assessment was complete. Spock reported that the Away Team had been recalled to the ship because they'd received a priority comm and new orders had come in. Leonard had stubbornly refused to leave his patient.
Once back on the Enterprise, the Captain learned that a ship, on its way to colonize a new world, was stranded and in distress, and Enterprise was to intercept the colonist ship, repair it, if possible, and if not, ferry the colonists to their new world destination, then return to tow the stranded ship to the nearest star base for repairs. Jim's orders specified that they had less than 48 hours to prepare for the enormous job of rescuing the stranded colonists. The crew would have to be shifted around to make room for their passengers, the Chef would have arrange for the Mess crew shifts to be doubled, and Scotty would have to calibrate the shuttle bay transporters for mass transports of people instead of using the much smaller main transporter.
Leonard had stayed behind in Torreón to treat his patient and Nyota had stayed with him. When Jim told the doctor they were going to have to leave, Len absolutely refused to desert his very ill patient.
Jim had been extremely reluctant to leave the doctor behind. First he'd cajoled, then argued vehemently against his staying behind, but Leonard was adamant; he would not leave a very sick, possibly dying patient. Presently there was no other doctor in the village. The man would certainly die if Leonard didn't continue to treat him. They could all go, he told Jim, and come back for him later, because he was not leaving his patient. At last, seeing no alternative, a frustrated and angry Jim, with the rest of the Away Team, agreed that Leonard would stay behind.
Since it was a hard and fast rule of Starfleet that no crew member was to be left alone on an Away Mission without backup, Nyota had volunteered to stay with Leonard. It was a golden opportunity, she told Jim, to study a new and previously unknown language, decipher the language algorithms in order to speak it fluently without the use of the universal translator, and for her to become proficient in yet another language.
So after telling the patient's wife, that Jim and the others were returning home on urgent business, Leonard and Nyota settled in for the duration in the patient's home. Nyota slept on a sofa in the living room, and Leonard slept on a cot in the patient's bedroom. Happily within 24 hours of treatment with a potent antiviral, the man, Alarik, improved and with a couple of more days of treatment, was well on his way to a full recovery. Leonard and Nyota then had to concoct an elaborate, but plausible story, about their needing to stay in the village. They told the wife, whose name they found out was Doranna, that Leonard had to take time off to rest following a physical collapse after a prolonged period of intense work, thus their decision to stay for a while in this pleasant village for Leonard to regain his health and strength. Furthermore, they needed and were anxious to find a place to stay for a few weeks. Leonard assured Doranna that they themselves would collect their luggage from the hover train station and settle in nicely in the small house without needing any assistance from her.
Nyota, he explained to the couple, was his ward, and had been his ward since her parents had both been killed in an accident and left her orphaned at age ten. Her father had been Leonard's dearest friend as well as his partner in their medical practice. Nyota was not only his ward, but she also served as his lab assistant, secretary, bookkeeper, and she traveled with him. The grateful Doranna, now knowing that Leonard and Nyota wanted to stay for a while, immediately found them the small furnished house to rent.
The town council, delighted by Doranna's glowing report of the doctor's skill, spoke with Leonard about serving as the village doctor while he was staying in Torreón. Len had been forthright when he'd told the town council that they weren't staying long, just long enough for him to recover his stamina, but the village had been without a doctor for so long, they were thankful for any time he could give them. They were hopeful, they said of finding another doctor soon.
After making sure the council knew that due to his "health issues" his practice would have to be limited to routine and minor medical issues, and that they might have to leave the village with little notice, Leonard's career as the village doctor began.
Before the ship left, the unhappy Jim made sure the two were well equipped for a possible prolonged stay. The quartermaster replicated more clothing for them to wear, plenty of the local currency, Dr. M'Benga filled a bag with the essential meds Leonard requested, and their phasers and communicators along with everything else were beamed down to them in the dead of night.
The village was very pretty. It had been built below a steep hill and looked prosperous and peaceful. The houses, some wooden, some built of stone, were well maintained. Almost all of them had gardens in the front and there were colorful blooms that added bright colors to the neighborhoods They saw a few hover cars in the village and several public transport buses, and a train station, but it soon became evident that the villagers mostly walked wherever they needed to go, such as to the local market, as Nyota had done so today.
It was nearing sundown as Nyota approached the front door of the house and noticed the sign still said open. She turned it over to read closed. She'd taken it upon herself to do this every day, or else Leonard would have worked nonstop until late. The man didn't know how to say no when he felt he was needed.
Nyota was acting as his nurse cum receptionist, so now she understood Christine's frustration when Len worked himself to the ground and either Dr. M'Benga or Christine had to put their collective feet down. Sometimes even Jim had been known to intervene and make it an order for the stubborn Len to get some rest and eat.
She opened the door, let herself in and locked it behind her. "Len, it's me. I brought the groceries." Leonard came in smiling at her from the examination room at the back of the house.
The rental house was small and detached, made of the local cream colored stone, and built on a small grassy knoll set apart from other houses. There were no other homes or businesses, nothing close by, which under present circumstances, Len and Ny were grateful for. The house was laid out well too. There were two small bedrooms with a full bathroom between the two rooms which they shared, a large storage room which Leonard was presently using as a make shift medical examination room, and a living area with a stone fireplace. The kitchen was directly adjacent to the living room, but was separated from it by a door. It was small, but adequately equipped with a stove, a cooling unit, pots and pans, china, glassware and cooking utensils. There was also furniture that came with the house for the living room and bedrooms, not much of it, true, but it was sturdy, well built, and adequate for their needs. The yard was pocket size and required minimal care and maintenance.
"Did you find what you wanted at the market, Ny? Gotta' say, you're usually more successful at finding good food stuff than I am." His blue eyes twinkled. It was a running joke between them that because Nyota was much prettier than Leonard, the vendors tended to give her the best of what they had to offer.
"I did. We'll have a nice dinner this evening."
"Is it my turn to cook, darlin? I kinda' lost track."
"No, it's my turn. You cooked night before last and we had left overs last night. They were just as good as the first time."
"Winona's recipe," the doctor told her. "That woman is the finest cook I know, and that's sayin' somethin' 'cause Georgia has some mighty fine cooks. Now what can I help you with."
"Help me unpack the groceries first. It's almost time for the ship to check in, so let's get that done. I locked the front door, and the curtains are drawn, so we're ready for the comm call," she added.
All communication with the ship was secret. A final decision had not been made as to whether this planet was ready for First Contact, so advanced tech, superior medical knowledge and procedures, weapons and communication devices, had to be kept hidden from the villagers. So far the two had managed well. Their phasers were kept high up in their closets behind assorted junk, and their communicators were hidden in the bedrooms in drawers which were kept locked.
Jim checked on them on a regular schedule he'd set up before the ship left. He commed religiously every other day after Alpha shift and always from his comm in his quarters. He was, truth to tell, nervous and antsy about being so far away should they need him, and frustrated that the colonist's rescue mission was taking so long. Complication after complication had plagued the rescue mission and had delayed their return to Sarena.
"Did you have more patients come in after I left for the market?" Nyota looked at the old fashioned writing tablet where she kept informal track of Len's appointments.
"Just two. I wrote them down for you, Ny, and I'll input their notes in the computer after supper. Just the regular routine stuff. Nothin' serious at all. Also have to give the examination room a good cleaning too." He sighed. It was a make shift room, very minimally furnished and equipped, but it had to be kept scrupulously clean at all times. There were no automatic sterilites here to sanitize everything, so good hard hand scrubbing with soap, water, and a disinfecting solution to clean the room and equipment was done meticulously every afternoon.
The villagers, under the gentle prodding of Doranna, wife of Leonard's first patient, had donated a small bed with white bed sheets, a bright lamp, a storage cabinet with a lock, hand towels for the examination room, and a wash basin which they had installed. There had also been credits allocated by the council to purchase some necessary medicine, cleaning products, and minimal medical equipment. The town council had moved quickly to purchase everything Leonard asked for and the shipment had been sent by express to Leonard from one of the larger cities. Leonard had been assured by the council that everything the village bought would be put to further use by the permanent doctor the village hoped to hire in the near future.
The equipment, new medical supplies, plus the contents in his med bag, along with the additional meds Geoff had sent and Leonard had managed to procure from Sick Bay before the ship left, were all Len had to work with. Thankfully, the villagers didn't show much curiosity about his medical tricorder. If anyone asked he explained it as the newest type of thermometer, quite expensive and available only in large cities. Leonard always made a show of examining a patient first with his hands and only used the tricorder very occasionally to confirm a diagnosis.
Additionally, the house came with a small primitive comm unit, much like an old fashioned telephone, mounted on the wall. No calling codes existed in the village. One simply asked for a resident by name and they were connected. Leonard had also been allocated a personal computer for his patient files, and there was a small holo viewer for their use in the living area. That was the extent of the personal tech that he and Uhura had seen.
Leonard emptied the food basket while Uhura put it away. The refrigeration unit for perishables was small but adequate for two people and they shopped weekly so as not to buy too much at one time. The rest they stored in the small pantry by the stove.
"I thought I'd make us each a veggie omelet with baked potatoes as a side. We have plenty of eggs and I brought some fresh greens. I know the eggs here are not as "eggy" as the ones our earth chickens lay, but they're pretty close."
Leonard chuckled. "Eggy." His blue eyes twinkled. "Guess that's a new word our resident linguist invented."
"Leonard McCoy you know exactly what I mean," Nyota mock scolded him.
"I do, darlin'. Most everythin' here is almost but not quite like it is on Earth or the other humanoid planets we've been to. And not just the food, but a lot of other things. They're all good folks livin' here, peaceful, hardworking, and intelligent. I think we've been here long enough to know that these folks would be good candidates to join the Federation...if they're willin' to do so. Guess it'll be up to Jim and Spock to do the invitin' and treaty signin', if they agree with our findings and if the Sarenans decide to join us."
Uhura nodded. "I agree, Len. I've been adding to our report little by little and it's pretty comprehensive. I've also started recording the linguistic algorithms for their language and I've been practicing speaking it without the help of the universal translator. One interesting fact I've discovered by doing some discreet investigation, and it's an interesting and unusual fact. The entire planet only speaks one language. We've never seen that before in a humanoid planet, only in non-humanoid worlds, like Tellar and Andor."
"Is that so," Leonard said, surprised. "I hadn't even considered that, what with the universal translator doing its job so well. That, as Spock would say, is facinatin'."
Uhura grinned. "I miss him too, Len." She sighed. Truth be told, she missed all of the crew.
"Who says I miss that green blooded hobgoblin," Leonard growled at her, but his blue eyes sparkled with mischief.
"I do. Now come on let's go to the bedroom and wait so we don't miss Jim's check in. He'll be worried and upset if we don't answer right away."
