Post #35 Second Contact

Posted on Mon Mar 1st, 2021 @ 10:56am by Lieutenant Commander Kristian Long

Mission: Planet Savai
Location: Savai
Timeline: Concurrent to 29

On

The shuttle sped off the moment Long and Raymond beamed back to the surface.

" On Earth lion females rule the pride lands. Do you suppose that is a universal constant?" Will asked Long.

"There is no way to know," Kristian replied "Some prides the males rule."

The two began walking.

" Touche'. Let me ask you a question. You don't like me do you Doctor? Are you one of those girl power people? You would have preferred your click of Commodore Song, Lt Herculoid and yourself ?" Will asked point blank. " Star Fleet's about diversity Lieutenant all sorts of people in one bug happy fleet "

Kristian stopped and turned to face the commander "What brought that question on? Lieutenant Herculoid is my cousin, her mum and mine are sisters. The commodore's safety comes first. I don't dislike you, I may question a decision you make but I don't dislike you commander, if I did dislike you I'd have refused this away assignment."

" You know you're right. I flunked in the Kobiyashi maru test. The no win scenario. This mission fills like that scenario. You said the crystals hurt the natives? How did they hurt them?" Will replied

"I don't know, I was just about to find out when you had me beamed back," Kristian said

" Well let's try again," Will said waving his arms to get the prides attention.

" Hey we're back folks but this time you have both of us to help you." Will yelled.

Lurrrsa motioned for them to join her. "Why did you leave?" she asked once Will and Kristian were close enough to talk.

"My commander feared for my safety," Kristian said "You said the crystals harmed some of your people and others that live here. How did that happen?"

"The crystals fall when they get old, they go from the rainbow colors to bright red when that happens they fall. We use the red ones for our spears," Lurrrsa replied "Will you help us?"

Kristian nodded "I will, where are your injured?"

" The shuttle is out of range or something. ," Will said to Long. " Raymond to shuttle Beloit...'

"Commander I don't need the shuttle, I carry a well equipped field kit," Kristian turned to Lurrrsa "Show me your injured and I'll see what I can do."

" Ok I will triage for you then. Lurrrsa will you ask you injured to line up and we will prep them for the Doctor?" Will asked.

"Line up? They cannot not," Lurrrsa said as she looked to Long "He not a doctor, you come."

"Commander there are times when injured cannot line up this may be one of them. We'll go with her and see what is wrong and go from there," Kristian said "Lurrrsa please show us your injured and I'll see what I can do."

Will was perplexed and pissed all at the same time as he tried to follow Star Fleet protocols. It was no wonder the Admiral had warned them about this mission.

" Lead the way then. I'll try not to get in your way."

Kristian followed Lurrrsa and in a few minutes entered a large cave that had rooms curtained off.

Lurrrsa pulled back one of the curtains and motioned for Kristian to enter "It's my cub,"

Kristian walked over to where the youngster lay and found a large chuck on red crystal embedded in his leg.

Will saw the injury too and then looked skyward as the sun beamed through one if the floating land mass. He also spied a possible culprit.

" DOCTOR the flying creatures that attacked our shuttle are roosting in the crystals. They must be knocking those thing down onto these beings." Will stated.

"They won't come into the caves," Lurrrsa said

Kristian walked over and knelt next to the injured cub "I'm Kristian, I'm a doctor and I'm going to take that crystal out of your leg and fix you up. What's your name?" Kristian asked scanning the wound and crystal as she prepared a hypo for pain.

"I'm Nerrrt, is this going to hurt?" he asked

"No," Kristian said giving him something for pain as she carefully removed the chunk of crystal, cleaned the wound and closed it. "See that didn't hurt did it?"

"No," Nerrrt said, "Thank you."

Will looked at the crystal and was curious of their makeup. Tapping his comm badge to find the shuttle again but receiving only static.

Kristian scanned the crystal and watched as Lurrrsa picked it up and placed it on a pile in the corner of the room "How many other injured do you have. I'd like to check on Nerrrt later. He'll be okay, there may be some soreness from removing the crystal shard, it'll last a few hours but he'll be fine."

"We have need for a doctor," Lurrrsa said turning to Will "How much for her? She'll be well cared for. I want to buy her."

" I am afraid that is not how the Federation works. We do not enslave other species. We all work together for the better good. Where are your official leaders? Your technology? Cities?" Will replied.

"Our cities are underground," Lurrrsa said as she looked at Long and then to Will "We'll talk and come to an agreement.

"Lurrrsa, I can teach someone how to treat your people, but I cannot be bought. I have a family who will miss me. My cousin is on the ship in space," Kristian replied

"We will talk more. You want to see our cities follow me," Lurrrsa said leading the way.

Subterranean and no communication with the ship went against everything Will trusted. Clearly this race was female driven, not unlike the big cats of earth. Still Will felt uneasy. Wishing now he had allowed Amethyst to come along.

Pulling out the tri-coder Tara had loaned her Kristian scanned the subterranean caverns. "Lurrrsa who is in charge of your people?" Kristian asked

"My mate," Lurrrsa replied as they entered the underground world. The walls, ceiling and ground glowed with a soft light.

"This place is incredible, what powers this?" Kristian asked

"There is a waterfall down here that provides power," Lurrrsa said .

" Lursa who proposed joining the Federation to you?" Will asked.

"One of the others who also call this world home," Lurrrsa replied "They do not like us, they don't like that we hunt for our food,"

" Doctor these are the ones we need to seek out. They are probably more ...civilized. " Will responded

"Something feels off here that's a given. If they hunt for food then we need to find out what kind of food they eat. I'll run some scans and we need to get Lieutenant Kees to run some scans as well. I want to see the forbidden area. My home planet has a forbidden city and I know how to go there without getting caught. I want to try it commander," Kristian said

" At this point go for it. Keep your phaser handy." Will replied. " I am going to try and reach our shuttle to get Kees to help us. We also need Kahn too."

"With all due respect commander I can move more quickly on my own," Kristian replied.

" More Amazon girl power? Ok but keep in touch. " Will replied.

"Commander it has nothing to do with girl power. Amazon or otherwise. To be able to sneak into a forbidden area takes stealth and I've learned over the years how to do it. Now if you prefer I take someone along make sure whoever it is understand that they need to be quiet and let me take the lead," Kristian said "On my planet we're required to join the military when we reach thirteen. If we chose to stay with it is our choice. I chose medicine, my brother chose to stay in the military."

" We have a mission to complete. See what you can accomplish." Will told her as he heading up the hill to find the opening of the cavern. He was not far when suddenly he was knocked out by someone hiding

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