A Tale Of Two POV's
Posted on Tue Dec 11th, 2018 @ 11:27am by The Narrator
Mission:
S1E1: Welcome Home, Now Go Away
Location: Intel Section Head Quarters
Timeline: MD1 14.30PM
Interview Room 2
Puck was having a near-religious experience.
Now this was not to say Puck Harrison had not been close to this sort of sensation before. He'd grown up in the Pittsburgh Metroplex, in one of the modern 200 floor Public Housing Complexes. You couldn't travel down two floors or less without passing through another neighbourhood with its own weird customs. Rastafarians on one, Judaic Abrahamic on another, and some people worshipping floating pasta in red sauce.
Puck just passed on through, not needing the words of other's to tell him that he was his own boss. At least until he joined Starfleet and found out his boss was an officer, and he had a job to do. But that had nothing to do with the near sexual pleasure he was enduring.
Sweet & Sour Chicken with Rice, fresh from the replicator. And no sand or dust. Oh. Em. Gee. Maybe getting grilled by the Intel pencil pushers wasn't going to be so bad after all? Sure the little cube of a room wasn't great, but it was air-conditioned, and they had brought him food. Had they given him a rewritten confession to sigh, he would have done so on the spot.
"So..." he said, pushing away his plate reluctantly after the second helping. "You want me to start from the top again? Well, it begins for me when the Life Boat from the Traveller lands on Planet Nevada. I have the nurses and this trainee Doctor get the med kits ready, and I'm thinking this might be a daring rescue kind of gig ya know? So we pop the hatch, and before you know it-"
Interview Room 1: Same Time Line
"--some of the other colonists got up in their face, but we calmed them down before any blood was shed. I'm sure you can understand our point of view. We'd been shot down by their ship only an hour before. We didn't know how bad it was at the time, but we knew that there were going to be casualties among the people still in cryostasis." Bahat Riya knew an interrogation chamber when she saw one. Starfleet's version may have been charming, cozy even, by the standards of some races, but she could feel eyes on her. No doubt this was being recorded in full holography. "I have experience in disaster relief, so I sort of took charge of our emergency response. I kept people busy, kept the Starfleet crew isolated from the angriest of the colonists. Considering what happened to us, it was all quite civilized."
Dania sipped a cup of coffee slowly, her eyes dancing over Bahat's face and posture. "Why would a Starfleet ship shoot down a colony barge filled with Federation and allied colonists?"
She'd read the report from the Traveller so she had a rough idea of what had happened, but hearing from survivors of each side would prove beneficial, or so she hoped, as a filler of the missing details.
Interview Room 2
"-so there we are, with all these civi's threatening to do harm to the folks who came down to offer aid. Ungrateful, that's the word to use. I mean you're writing this down? Yeah, course you are. Now I'm being my level-headed self, and I'm trying to tell these ingrates that 'we', and by 'we' I mean Cap'n Remas and the Traveller didn't shoot them down. It was this fella called a Myriad, went by the name Abborax. Had some sort of techno voodoo powers that let him override the ship's systems. It might have been our guns, but it wasn't our fingers on the trigger," Puck shook his head and looked at his interviewer. "But you try telling that to folks who know you did the dirty. See thats when I knew, if I didn't take charge of the sitation fast these yahoo's were gonna break skulls. So, being the seasoned NCO that I am, I took charge."
Interview Room 1
"You'd have to ask Captain Remas why they shot us down," Bahat said, keeping her voice casual. "There weren't any colonists on the Traveller when it happened, so we had to take their word for it when they claimed it happened without their control. That's a problem we've had since we first arrived in Messier 4. No oversight."
The Bajoran woman rubbed her chin as if thinking. "Now, you have to understand, a lot of the colonists felt that sending only a single life boat and five personnel was inconsistent with their claims. Why wouldn't they do everything they could to help us if it truly was an accident? Some colonists even claimed that the Starfleet people were there to observe us, like some sort of science experiment. We're far from the watchful eye of the Alpha Quadrant." She looked pointedly at where she thought the holographic recorder was, in a corner of the ceiling. "I don't know if I believe that, but was in the air. There was this one noncom--Mr. Harrison, the one who came with me--who was really trying to act like we were there to help him, not the other way around. Honestly, we most ignored him while we diagnosed our damage and casualties over the first few days on the moon."
Dania made no outward indication, aside from taking another sip of coffee. She had heard every word, of course, but she needed to act impartial at this stage of the game, because they needed information and they needed it from a clean source. Clean source being a non-Abborax controlled one. First they had to find one, of course. One way to do it was to not give the other side indication you knew something was wrong. Slips most often happened when the offenders didn't think anyone was watching.
"So what was your assessment of the situation and what was the chain of events following the arrival of the Starfleet team?"
Interview Room 2
"Planet Nevada. That's what I call it anyway, cause its hot. And arid. It's like Mars, but without the cheerful reluctance to give up the Russian accent and a metric butt-ton of breathable atmosphere. But you ignore that because you're a medic and you gotta get the job done right? And let me tell you the work was heavy. Nearly 10'000 colonists [If I'm messing with your figures let me know] and most of them were on ice. Well, most. See when the barge was shot down it wasn't able to land softly, so you had some freezer's go offline. Poor bastards died in their sleep, which is a blessing to the ones who woke up couldn't get out of their tanks before the hydro tanks could drain. Drowning to death on a desert world, that's messed up. But we medic's served the living, and the living we had...we did our best."
Interview Room 1
Bahat leaned back in her chair and looked into a middle distance as she gathered her thoughts about the past two weeks. Eventually, she began. "After the crash, our first priority was keeping the already-awake colonists alive. Second was to keep those in cryostasis safe. It took us about three days to do the initial assessment. 500 awake, 8300 frozen, 1200 dead or missing. The Acheron itself wasn't a total loss, but she's not spaceworthy. She'll never leave that moon. We'll never leave that moon, not without help, and until we detected this starbase on approach, we didn't know whether we were on our own out here."
The Bajoran woman took a moment to maintain her composure. She'd been speaking with the practiced calm of an experienced disaster relief worker, but she hadn't been in a disaster in a number of years. It was harder to talk about than she'd expected. "Once it was clear to us that we weren't leaving, we started making plans. That moon is arid and dusty, class L. Our equipment was designed to support us in a class M environment, and that was before it was half-crushed in the incident. We needed to find a way to support nearly nine thousand people indefinitely. The people in cryostasis are fine for now, but our senior doctors told us that long term stasis could damage them neurologically in the long term. And that's assuming we can keep our power generation high enough to power their units, which isn't something I'm counting on.
"Like I said earlier, I tried to keep people occupied by giving them tasks, but it didn't always work," Bahat admitted. "About a week ago, there was a scuffle between some of the Starfleet people and a few colonists. It was decided that it would be safer for everyone if the Starfleet crew was disarmed and escorted by our security personnel for the duration of their... stay. Since then, we've been doing the best we can to figure out and implement short- and long-term survival strategies. When we detected your starbase on approach, we decided to send out a representative." She shrugged. "So here I am."
"So, the people sent to assist you are under armed guard and the first sign of another Starfleet facility, the first thing you do is hop a shuttle and come our way." Dania spoke in a soft tone. "Why? Why not contact us first and ask us to come to you? After all...given what happened, and what you've done with the medical team left to assist you...why risk coming to us instead of having us meet you on home turf, as it were?"
Dania had a fairly good idea what the answer would be. Needs must, hope that the other crew wouldn't further destroy them, the lot.
"Well, we tried to hail you and weren't successful until we were almost here. But beyond that, it seemed less risky to send out a team than to invite more Starfleet people onto our compound before we could establish their intentions." In other words: if Starfleet had come back to finish the job, as some colonists expected, sending a lone representative meant that they'd at least have some warning.
"And why bring Harrison with you?"
Bahat paused for a long moment. "He's a charming conversationalist."
Storm stood up at that point, taking another sip of coffee, "thank you, Bahat." That said, she headed towards the door.
Interview Room 2
"Yeah...yeah that's what I'll tell'em." Puck said to the empty room, now filled with the smell of sweet and sour chicken. He'd always liked the sound of his own voice, and it had been a near thing between a life on the stage and a life in Starfleet.
Damn you Nikki Larakorvski for tell me I look good in uniform, Puck thought quietly before the door to his interview room opened. He didn't quite squeak in terror. But he was just a medi tech.
"So...free to go right?" he said in a voice that screamed for a background check, a search of his quarters, and rigorous sampling and testing of bodily fluids.
"Not quite yet, Mister Harrison." Dania replied in the same manner she had addressed Riya. "Tell me, what were you told when the order came to go help the Acheron survivors? What was the situation on the Traveller?"
“That we couldn’t use the transporters because the main computer was off line, or missing. Look Dr Kal came down to sickbay and pointed at five of us, told us to grab anything we’d need for a mass casualty event and book it to the lifeboat bay. Then it was into the boat, and down the gravity well to that moon,” Puck said in a rush of air. “Look I’m just a medic, you want to know more you’ve come to the wrong guy. All I know is we’ve had nothing but bad luck since we got here.”
Dania fashioned her voice in a soft, enticing tone, her head canted to the left as she observed him. "Yet you're all I've got, Puck, I need your help."
This one obviously needed a different approach than the Bajoran. "How did the colonists treat you? What lead to the skirmish that had you guys at gunpoint by them?"
"Well, our ship did shoot'em out of the sky ya know, so that's what the people there assumed we'd meant to do. In hindsight, I think Cap'n Remas didn't want to make it seem like he was sending in the brute squad if you catch my drift, but man do I wish some of the Expedition Security types were with us," Puck worked a finger under the collar of his dust-stained uniform. "Look they treated us bad, but when it became clear they needed us to help treat the wounded it was alright. And, okay, maybe...MAYBE...I was a little rude to a few of those who were getting loud and cranky. Maybe I forget to use my words, ya know, and throw down with this big lug giving me nothing but the ear about how Starfleet's a no good bunch of thugs putting there boot down on fringe colony necks. You respect the uniform, am I right?"
Dania observed Puck for a few moments in silence, observing his mannerisms as he spoke. Part of her felt sorry for the poor Non-Com, he was clearly the fish out of water in this situation, but she didn't let it show.
Another sip of coffee.
"How many were wounded? How many awake and how many still in cryostasis?"
The conundrum that was becoming clear was the fact that both sides seemed to be telling the truth and both sides had made some glaring mistakes. Most importantly though, Dania believed she was looking at victims, rather than cohorts.
"Thousand plus wounded, few hundred awake and they still have more under. They'd have lost more in the crash but the blackouts and shorts only took out cryobanks in sections, not decks. I don't know their supply status for the ship, but Planet Nevada ain't exactly a tourist resort world ya know?" Puck said. "I'm thinking maybe you's should be getting folks off the surface and onto this big tin can. At least the CryoCaskets."
"Do you believe the Colonists would harm your colleagues while you're away?" Dania again did not offer opinion nor answer the question. An image was starting to clarify, and it was one that was the least favorable.
"Honestly? I ain't got a clue. Folks got shot out of the sky by a ship marked by the Fleet delta, so folks tend to go with the story that's easiest to swallow, even if its batshit crazy. But the other's on that sand ball planet, the doc's and nurses, they've filled up the good fill trust fund a bit with their work. I think with that Riya running things, we'll be okay." Puck gave a mirthless chuckle. "Course there are others, the ones who lost families and friends when the CryoCasket's went dark...no telling what they'd want to do."
Dania nodded. "Thank you, Mister Harrison. We'll talk again soon."
He smiled weakly, and then gestured to the interview room.
"You know where to find me."
Interview Room 1: Following
Dania stepped through the door again, right hand still holding a cup. "Come with me, Ms. Bahat."
The Bajoran woman kept her expression carefully neutral as she stood and approached the officer. "Of course." She figured it was unlikely she would be led to the brig or an airlock by someone so casually holding a beverage.
Dania spared the bajoran a glance, before she turned on her heel and stepped outside slowly, to allow for Bahat to catch up. "The boss will want to see you." She offered as an explanation.
On any other day she would have loved to actually speak with the woman, rather than interrogate her. There was a rich history and mindset there that Dania would have loved to hear. Alas, not this day.
