Star
Trek Sim / Star Trek RPG
USS Eagle, NCC 2185
CAPTAIN'S LOGS
Title: More Questions Than Answers: The Call to Mourn, Part Fourteen
Location: Sandokhan Alpha Base
Setting: Surface near one of the secret exits
Whatever happened in the Ankhanahkstoi
this time, the Captain is feeling better. His mutations finally had stopped.
He is still mostly Galadonese but is not suffering from the painful mutation
process. The Empress had not fared so well. The fever that had been halted
with her core body temperature's inexplicable drop had returned with new
vengeance. The CMO does what she can for her but it is not enough. The stoi
(bond/link) between the Captain and Empress remains intact, and until it
is severed, the CMO thinks it unlikely that either will be restored.
The remaining participants in the Ankhanahkstoi,
Lasara and Rolin, the Sandokhan children, wake up last and the CMO and a
Sandokhan healer examine them. The stoi with the children had been properly
severed and the children appear to be fine. L'Asaha takes them with her to
look after them. She silently wonders what the Great One has planned for
them and squeezes their little hands, grateful that they are alive and well
and not going to mutate into Galadons.
The Sandokhans from the religious order
carry the four on their backs or in their arms to hide evidence of mammalian
footprints in the thin layer of dirt in cave tunnels. They know that their
warriors are experts at tracking and want to give the four as much time as
possible to get away outside. The Empress is too weak to protest verbally.
The Captain feels her fear and revulsion through the stoi. He tries to reach
out through the link that they still share to comfort her and tells her it
will not be for long.
The Sandokhans trudge carefully to the exit
nearby the assault craft that had been used to capture the Eagle's Away Team
earlier. The four are told that there are many assault craft hidden nearby
this exit and to use them. If all goes well at least one of the craft will
be there and then it can be used to leave the treacherous Badlands of Sirius
South. With luck they will be able to send a distress call to the USS Eagle
using the communication system in one of the craft.
Near the exit the four disembark from
their unusual ride. Three of the four are well enough to walk. The Empress
still is not. The Sandokhans return the Empress to the Captain to carry and
gently place her in his arms. The Sandokhans quickly leave the four and fall
back and to guard the choke holds until the escape is complete. Then the
four journey upward, alone, to mouth of the cave. L'Asaha's protection
does not extend beyond the exit of the caves. At that point the four will
be totally on their own.
CRACKLE... ROLL. FLASH!! The four see
the light from outside. The mouth of the cave is briefly illuminated by the
distant storm and the walls shine intermittently as they reflect the lightning.
Seeing the light, they run towards it. CO, CMO, AMO AND Empress emerge from
the cave. They have escaped the cave of the Sandokhans!
They press on into the cresting dawn
of a new day, not wasting a minute. The Captain, CMO and AMO look around
and see the Badlands of Sirius South. It stretches out to the horizon in
all directions. The barren rock and broken terrain seem to run on forever.
There are very few distinctive features.
On the horizon, they see the sun breaking
forth and its rays penetrating beneath the storm clouds above them.
The warmth of its glow instills hope in the hearts of the intrepid four until
it rises further and is engulfed in the black, raging thunderheads. Its malevolent
storm laden clouds a foreshadowing of things to come to the planet both below
and above.
Then they smell and feel the air change. The air has become
almost electric to the touch. The Captain knows that they need to find the
land transports fast and before the rain comes. He moves faster.
The storm rushes towards them,
its winds peppering them with the debris of the Badlands. Dark, angry clouds
roll over the mouth of the cave. Soon they fill the sky and erase the
light of dawn and any hope of a new day for Sirius South. The bloated skies
now unleash a downpour which assaults the ground with a fury. It makes navigating
the jagged rocks of the Badlands both slippery and dangerous. It is now too
dark for the fugitives to see the hidden assault craft
The Captain tries hard to keep his footing.
Carrying the Empress made that even harder because he could not see two feet
in front of him even when the lightening flashed. He motions to an outcropping
he saw earlier when he briefly surveyed the area. "Over there!" he shouts
above the raging storm. As he runs, he comes up with a new plan.
The four arrive at that recessed ledge.
The Captain puts the Empress down and lets the CMO and AMO attend to her.
He huddles toward the rocky wall, began trying to modify the tricorder and
keep its insides from getting wet. Normally, this would be fast work for
the former Chief Engineer of the Eagle but without the proper tools, light
and trying to keep the components dry, it is not. He finishes and tests it.
Nothing. No response.
Captain Kematsopoulos is concerned that
the ledge which offers them some protection from the storm is also interfering
with his message. He knows from earlier that the stone interferes with communications.
That was why they could not send a message from within the bowels of the
cave. He steps out from outcropping to make a clearer signal, the rain further
drenching his already wet clothes.
At the same time back on the USS Eagle, the
XO is having a very difficult talk with the Galadonese admiral who was convinced
and claims he has proof that the Eagle and the UFP is secretly allied with
the Tureth.
With his best open and honest expression
CDR James Cline explains, "Admiral, the Turethian ambassador is onboard and
communicating with his people, but that is per the negotiation protocols.
I would have extended your representative the same courtesy, but we were
never contacted by your ambassador..." Little did the XO know, that saying
that would hit a raw nerve with the Admiral, making the situation worse.
Admiral Ghoransk has been so hostile because
it was not an ambassador that was to rendezvous with the Eagle but the very
Empress herself. She and her party had been missing for two weeks. Security
was tight and she went in disguise. Her alias was an ordinary cook, Saffira,
readying preparations for a phony future visit of Galadonese officials.
Ghoransk had also been deliberately
and wrongly told that the USS Eagle had taken her. If he did not find his
Sovereign soon he would destroy the Eagle. With the vastly superior firepower
of a Galadonese warship he had at his disposal, the small Oberth would be
easily disintegrated.
((::Plays overly melodramatic music and pauses for effect:: ;o) ))
Title: More Questions Than Answers: The Call to Mourn, Part Fifteen
Location: Sandokhan Alpha Base
Setting: Surface near one of the secret exits
The Captain is still
furtively tapping a code to the Eagle and transmitting it. Salvation for
them in the form of transport craft is near by, but the storm made it too
dark and dangerous to get to it.
The CMO keeps monitoring the Empress,
trying to do the impossible - save her life. "Never in my entire medical
career have I felt so helpless..." she says to herself out loud. "These are
the last," she says loading a precious vial into a hypo and adjusting the
dosage to try and bring down the Empress' high and climbing fever. There
is no change.
The doctor shouts, "I don't know how
to bring her fever down. I just don't have the equipment I need! This
rain isn't helping at all... "
"Do what you can," Captain Kematsopoulos
shouts back in the downpour. He is very worried about the Empress and about
getting them all safely onboard the Eagle.
The Captain finishes
programing the AMO's tricorder to continuously send the message, "FOUR TO
BEAM UP. NOW!!!"
Just then a small
band of Sandokhans emerges from the cave but they were not L'Asaha's followers.
To make it even worse, the brute Kvard was in charge of them. The Sandokhans
moved toward the hidden assault craft until...
Kvard pauses. He looks around.
The young Sandokhan cannot see clearly in the storm but does see the outline
of four mammaloids. One is small enough to be the "child" that escaped. Another
is an adult male. He is very pleased. His lips curl thinly into a twisted
predatory smile. Kvard motions to the others to advance on outline of the
man's huddled figure. They would kill him first.
"Death to the offworlders!" he cries.
"Death to the offworlders! Death to
the offworlders!" his followers chant in reply.
Title: More Questions Than Answers: The Call to Mourn, Part Sixteen
Location: The USS Eagle
Setting: Orbiting the war torn planet of Sirius South
The Executive Officer, Commander James
Alan Cline, is having a heated and confusing conversation with the Galadonese
Admiral. It sounds to him like the Admiral is blaming him and the Eagle for
the Empress' disappearance. But that doesn't make any sense to him.
"Sir, unusual readings coming from the
midst of the storm at longitude 345 latitude 79... " Ensign Petrescu reports.
"... It's a pattern! I've got them!
I think...Yes!" she exclaims, reading the Captain's message.
CDR Cline is distracted by the conversation
with the Admiral and was not paying attention to her. "You've got who?" he
asks, absently.
"The Captain, I think, and three others,"
she says.
A sharp Galadonese aide hears
that on screen and whispers to Admiral before he speaks again.
"What!? Why am I speaking to an underling?
Where is Captain Kematsopoulos?" he demands.
Down below the fight to escape the Sandokhans
was far from over. The AMO, CMO, CO, and the Empress are in more danger now
than they have ever been. Kvard and his blood thirsty group had found the
them.. The militant Sandokhans set their energy weapons to kill.
The Captain sees the
Sandokhans with weapons raised through the flashes of lightening just as
they had seen him. The Sandokhans are armed and aiming at him. He hits the
deck to make a smaller profile for them to hit and puts tricorder down and
crawls away from it.
Back on the Eagle
the XO whispers to Ensign Petrescu, "Get them onboard now! We don't have
any choice but to risk transporting them in the storm."
"Aye sir," she says
contacting the transporter room. She then tries something clever to respond
to the Captain.
Success! The Captain's
tricorder chirps to confirm his orders.
The Captain yells
over the storm noises to his medical team, "Hurry! Get out from the ledge.
We are leaving!"
The Captain runs there,
picks up the Empress and carries her out from under the protruding rock.
"Be careful!
She's very weak!!!" the CMO shouts just a few inches from him in the heavy
downpour.
Just as the four weary
souls make it to the tricorder, the armed party of Sandokhans advance into
firing range.
Kvard motions for
the others to wait. He takes his weapon and aims at the Captain. He fires.
SHIMMER!
Kvard is robbed of his victory
as the four transport to the Eagle. His weapon discharges harmlessly into
the air where they once stood and glances off the rock.
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