A Sad Duty

Posted on Sun Jun 21st, 2020 @ 4:15am by Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Machwen Adaestron
Edited on on Wed Jun 24th, 2020 @ 7:35am

Mission: New Moon Rising
Location: Talarian Cruiser
Timeline: After "Debris and Debriefing"

With the trademark sound that all Starfleet transporters make, Machwen, Tannis and a couple of other medical officers materialised on the Talarian cruiser.

Machwen looked along the empty corridor, before looking at Tannis, "I guess we should start, have you got everything you need?" he asked

Crewman Tannis lifted up his bag that he was holding for Machwen to see, "Everything's in here," he told Machwen.

"Let's get to work then," Machwen replied, before walking along the corridor to start his work, with Crewman Tannis leading some other medical staff to another area.



A Few Minutes Later...

In the cavernous engineering spaces, four more officers appeared. Unlike Machwen and his medics, these new arrivals bore yellow undershirts and alert, suspicious looks. All four had their hands on their phasers as they finished materialising, and the sight of the rubble-strewn engine room did nothing to reassure them. Charred conduits hung from the ceiling, rubble littered the deck and a good quarter of the room was burned black by fire. The reason why the rest of the room hadn't burned, as well as the tall white warp core that dominated the room, was obvious. Talarian bodies surrounded the damaged area, some of them still holding fire extinguishers even in death as a medical team did the grisly work of collecting them.

Cailus and his team took a moment to look around, and then the smell hit them: an awful, sickly sweet scent mixed in with the remnants of the smoke. All of them coughed instinctively with one of the officers, a young Vulcan man, retching at the sensory overlord.

"Okay, okay, get it together, we're on the clock," Cailus sputtered, his eyes watering. Tapping his combadge, he said =/\=Griffin to Pandora, Candles is a go.=/\=

Behind them, two large torpedoes appeared in a slow blue fizzle, hovering on anti-gravity sleds. As the tactical team got to work, Cailus walked up to Machwen. He seemed in charge.

"Doctor Adaestron?" he asked cautiously, having not met the man before.

Machwen turned around to the unfamiliar voice, realising who it was when he saw him, "Lieutenant Griffin?"

Cailus nodded, crossing his arms. "Yeah. I've got a team installing some munitions on the warp core." Gesturing at the bodies, he frowned. "Hell of a way to go."

"It is unfortunate," Machwen replied, although his face wouldn't give you the same impression, being mostly void, "is there anything you wanted?"

Considering Machwen's blank look for a moment, Cailus raised a bemused eyebrow. "We've got fourteen minutes until we hit the Tzenkethi deadline, and twelve minutes before everyone has to beam back to the Pandora. Do you think your people will have collected all of the dead by then?"

Machwen paused for a moment, working out how many bodies had been collected by his team, before tapping his comms badge, "Crewman Tannis, how long will you need until your team are finished over there?" he asked

After a few seconds, Crewman Tannis's southern voice came through the communicator, "I think we should be done in about ten minutes, sir,"

"Okay Crewman, come back here when you're done," Machwen replied, before turning back to Griffin, "It looks like we should be done by then, Lieutenant"

"Very good," Cailus acknowledged simply. Glancing back at the armory technicians as they worked furiously to attach the torpedoes to the warp core, he nodded in satisfaction before coughing mightily. "Doc, I have to ask...how the hell does that smell not affect you? We can barely breathe in here."

"I guess I'm used to the smell. It also helps to have this," Machwen said as he pulled a bag out of his breast pocket. The bag was small, with holes in, and held the petals of a small purple flower, "Betazed Telefor, it really keeps the smell at bay. Would you like some?" he asked, putting the bag back into his pocket.

Blinking the tears out of his eyes, Cailus shook his head reluctantly. "I'll...make do. You need them more than I do. Besides, if my people see me sniffing flower petals because I can't handle the smell, it's not a good image."

Glancing back at the team as they rushed to prepare the torpedoes, he frowned. "I saw you had to take on casualties from that shuttle we took aboard. Is everybody alright?"

"Everyone's fine, thank you. There's a couple of officers in sick bay to take care of them and anyone else who was injured, but they should be getting better soon," Machwen responded, "Are all of your crew handling this well?"

"Well enough," Cailus said bluntly, crossing his arms, still keeping a weather eye on the torpedo techs as Machwen did his work. "How about yours? A lot of people think highly of you and Kolbeck."

"Thank you, that means a lot. Hopefully I'm doing well as the new Chief Medical Officer."

Nodding simply in reply, Cailus was about to say something when one of the torpedo technicians shouted, "Sir, we're done!"

Turning, Cailus raised a hand in acknowledgement, examining the two cylindrical torpedoes from a distance with a critical eye. The weapons were strapped onto the deactivated warp core with the four yellow-shirted techs standing around them, checking and double-checking everything as fast as they could. Cailus couldn't help but impressed at their efficiency; in his own time, such an operation would've taken an hour.

""Finish final checks and transport back to the ship immediately," he called back, scratching his beard for a moment before catching the motion; that damned smoke and ash was itchy as hell, and everyone was already sweating profusely. Turning back to Machwen, he added more quietly, "Time to go, Doctor. We don't want to still be here when the Tzenkethi come back."

Machwen tapped onto his communications badge, an began speaking, "Machwen to Tann-"

"We're all done," Machwen heard from behind him, before turning around to see Tannis and his crew, carrying behind them a trolley of bags with the bodies they had collected.

"You have good timing, Crewman," Machwen replied once he had gotten over the small shock.

"Thank you, I've been told that a few times. Do we need to go anywhere for transport?"

"There's no need," Machwen told him, "we're being transported from here."

As they stood for transport, Cailus paused as a thought struck, glancing back at Machwen in confusion. "Wait, you said you're the new CMO? What happened to Kolbeck?"

Machwen paused for a minute, deciding best how to handle this, "Did you not hear? Lieutenant Kolbeck was badly burned during the skirmish. I managed to stop him from getting to bad though. Although I'm not entirely to credit - Crewman Tannis helped quite a bit," he replied.

"Damn," Cailus cursed softly, shaking his head. Considering Machwen for a moment, he realised belatedly that the man must've managed to stabilise Kolbeck and the other casualties, assumble the responsibilities of CMO, then assemble a rushed collection of the dead...all within less than hour. He didn't even seem tired.

"You're doing fine, Doctor," Cailus said quietly, his tone belying his cool look. Tapping his comnbadge, he added, =/\=Griffin to Pandora: all personnel are ready for transport. Energise when ready.=/\=

As everybody vanished in a brief flurry of blue sparks along with the dead, the Talarian cruiser once again became quiet, the decks empty. Nobody would board her ever again.