The Rules of Hospital-ity

Posted on Mon Dec 4th, 2023 @ 9:07pm by Captain William Maddox & Commander Ayanja Tusalo & Lieutenant Commander Javiylah MacArthur & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral & Lieutenant Commander TaijanSuda ch'Thulhu & Lieutenant Jayla Kij MD & Lieutenant JG Fox Jasper & Lieutenant JG Stanislav Finch

1,947 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: World Wide Web
Location: USS Daedalus, Sickbay
Timeline: After Snazzy

"CLICK Ahhh...Captain Maddox, please come in. Come in. Can I offer you anything? A drink? A morsel? This dialysis is especially good."

Proximal raised a limb to which the medical device was attached, pumping out and then returning the machine oil like the blood of the creature. Now without the need for comm badges to pick up on his speech, the odd clicking mannerism was dialled down, adding a subtle 'recorded' edge to the voice.

The fact he looked like a Maine lobster rocking the cyberpunk look notwithstanding, he sprawled over the main biobed with his limbs lazily swinging in the air. His two forelimbs were folded up under his head, providing a look of contentment on an otherwise unreadable being.

"How gracious of you," Maddox said dryly looking around the sickbay of his ship. Well, Starfleet's ship but that was beside the point. "I hope you don't mind if I bring in my senior staff, as you can imagine we have questions for you. Doctor?"

He turned to look at Jayla.

"Is he in a fit state to answer questions?"

“As near as I can tell,” replied Jayla, with an almost comedic scratch of her head. “He’s… an enigma.” She didn’t even know where to start explaining the being’s physical nature, and so left it at that. “It’s hard to provide an accurate medical assessment of a creature you’ve never before encountered,” she added.

"He was in a good enough state to knock others out of the way with his big ass so he was first into the DSRV," Suda cut in, arms folded over his chest. "If he can do that, he can answer some goddamn questions."

"Agreed. Now, Proximal, how did you come-" Maddox began before the clawed hand of the being being questioned was raised.

"Proximal Assurance Of Success is my name. I am Shipmaster by grade and function and was deposed by my crew following a meeting between myself and the crew of this Icarus starship you chase," Proximal said with a crossing of clawed limbs. "If I am to be treated so poorly by your underlings, perhaps I would be better off remaining silent? There is profit in silence, in mystery. You peddle the trash of one civilisation to another who sees it as treasure, you learn a thing or two."

"And you think that the implanted LCAR's database you stole from a Federation log bouy grants you leeway to make demands?" Maddox asked with an arched eyebrow.

"I think it leaves room for negotiation," Proximal chuckled. "And given I possess the only copy and have encrypted it thoroughly, I would say I have the upper hand."

“Don’t be so sure,” Jayla warned. “This guy-“ she jerked a thumb at Suda “-would just as soon dump you out an airlock and forget all about the data.”

"Ask that frozen corpse how dying for data worked out for him," Suda quipped without apology."The risk/reward isn't balancing toward keeping around some cagey walking detritus."

“See what I mean?” said Jayla dryly.

"Negotiation," Fox interjected calmly, hoping to draw a line under the somewhat frustrating current exchange. "Is indeed a good place to begin, Proximal Assurance of Success. Lt Fox Jasper," he offered a token gesture of a raised palm. "You'll know me from the DSRV when we rescued you - which is a debt to be repaid. If I take into account the personnel involved in said rescue, the costs incurred to our fuel and supplies, injuries sustained," he pointed to himself and Suda. "And other deaths present on board the vessel we found you... quite a substantial debt. Add to that the medical procedure and sustenance you are currently receiving, I'd say we're entitled to a form of payment. Information being one you have readily available."

Aya nodded at Fox's level headed response the Junior Lieutenant was showing level headedness beyond his years; while the more senior Memebers of the team were displaying a distinct lack of tact. Not that she was a paragon or virtue in that regard or anything but it was disappointing to see this conversation take in such an adversarial tone so quickly.

"The team did go back for you as I understand, risking their lives for a stranger... Against of of their better judgment. You're really going to prove to them to listen to the devil on their shoulders in the future?"

"You...make something of a fine point," Proximal relented, one of his lesser limbs reached around to its side, scratching at the tapped PADD it had installed in itself. "Huum...then in the spirit of cooperation, I will tell you this. The Icarus and my ship parted ways, and before I was so rudely mutinied against, that ship was on a course for Talbian V. It's a panthalassic world, a few rocky atolls and oceans kilometres deep."

The bulky alien then went silent. Maddox leaned forward slightly, waiting for more, and when things grew awkward he stepped up.

"We're going to need a little more than a name of a planet we have no record of," he informed the creature.

"Hardly my fault you arrived so unprepared. But fine, I will...gift you pulsar coordinates," Proximal said disgustedly. "Talbian V is a world under the stewardship of the Mendicants. Don't let the name fool you, they are canny traders and barterers. They have a number of refinery complexes moored to the atolls allowing them to process the oceans into deuterium and potable water for passing starships. They also have something of a habit of providing aid to travellers who have come afoul of the local gravity tides. Stranded crews, and broken starships, they offer succor to the needy and a bill to those able to manage it."

"So not friends of yours, I can't imagine why they didn't warm to you," Maddox mumbled and turned back to his senior staff. "What do you think? These Mendicants sound like the ideal first contact on our search. What do you think?"

"If that's where the trail goes, that's where we follow," Suda said. "If the Icarus limped away from those plasma leviathans and went down on this Talbian V, then our mission may be drawing to a close before it got started."

He didn't interrupt Suda, but the mention of the Icarus going down caused Fox to inadvertently suck in a sharp breath. He tried not to think too hard about stuff that was so far out of his control as to be ridiculously unnecessary, but experiencing such a volatile adversary or two already wasn't helping his inner concerns.

"If we can be so lucky," Maddox said with a released breath. He then returned his attention to Proximal, holding out his hand. The holographic interface of his wrist social appeared. "The pulsar coordinates?"

"Perhaps after I have partaken of this dialysis the good doctor has provided, I am finding it most enjoyable and restorative to my good..." Proximal's voice petered out as his multiple eyes glanced at Maddox. Then with a little harumph, the holographic gaive around the captain's wrist flickered with a data transfer window.

"Thank you," Maddox said, before flicking his fingers over the display and sending the file off for a suitable data scrubbing before being released to the navigation team. "Fox, lay in a course once we're ready. We'll only be hitting warp three in case we run into more of those rip tides."

"Yessir," noted Fox. "I'll study the data and keep her low and slow," he added, with a confident smile. Once that file was cleaned up and safe to upload to his console, he'd be all over it, but raw data wasn't as useful as an entity who knew exactly what they were going to find. "And if I could get some time with our friend here, when you're done with him, be good to know the local lowdown on the approach, passwords, rip tides and weather...." He shrugged and looked from the Captain to Proximal and back again. "Y'know, the usual."

"Given the rescue," Maddox said before Proximal would stomp all over Fox's good intentions. "I'm sure he'd be delighted to offer you aid."

The noise Proximal made was either one of commital or of gastronomic distress.

"Aarix, I want your people babying the warp drive. We're running on the spare tyre, so let's treat it like the precious thing it is. Maybe these Mendicants have a line on a spare crystal array?" Maddox enquired.

"Sure," Aarix responded with a nod. At the mention of trading, he began making a list of what desperately needed fixing, with the hope that Maddox would approve the items and he could go trade for them.

"And Mister ch'Thulhu, whilst these Mendicants do not seem the type to be dangerous, let's plan for the worst and hope for the best. Drill your security teams, I'm sure you can imagine the sort of problems we might run into. Then again didn't think I'd see a shuttle eaten by crabs that came out of an asteroid, so there's that." Maddox joked with the taciturn security chief.

"Already being done, sir," Suda said, "but I'll redouble our efforts. We won't be caught sleeping." He looked at Fox and Proximal. "If we're doing an extended debrief of our esteemed guest, then add my name to queue."

"Commander, I want you to assign Mr Finch to data retrieval with Proximal. I somehow think the two of them will get on like a house on fire. But please remind our intelligence officer that we're writing no one's golden ticket here, no promises bigger than his fists. I don't want to find out Finch sold Vulcan for a dirty lymeric."
He turned from his executive officer and eyed the doctor. "Could I ask you to be on hand for that debriefing? Just in case either one of them needs medical intervention. Or adult supervision?"

"Ay-Aye Sir." Ayanja said biting her tongue to keep from expressing her concerns. She already didn't believe that Mister Finch had any right to be with or add any value to their particular mission. She certainly didn't like the idea of him and this... Being to workout that they could be. Benefit to the other. Frankly, there was enough experience.between herself and Javi in interrogation not to mention their current serving Security Officers why ads uch an unstable element to an already tense situation.

Jayla looked positively gleeful- and also a little sinister- a the mention of Finch. “I’m sure I could keep in line,” she said. “It might mean breaking more of ‘my’ cameras, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”

Maddox gave the doctor and knowing nod.

"And for you Commander MacArthur, you get the fun job: I want an Operations after action report on this mission. Lessons and failures, not just from the away team but from ship operation. Could we have done anything differently to achieve our mission goals without a shuttle getting chewed to pieces?" Maddox asked, before turning his attention to his chief engineer. "Also to throw more work on your plate, we'll need to spin up the fabricators to begin rebuilding the shuttle. Apart from the DSRV we only have the two support craft."

"Aye, Sir. We've already started to scope out the necessary repairs on the shuttle," Javi spoke from the back of the area, where she had been standing and observing.

Aarix just nodded again. "The list never shortens," he said with a small smile.

"Any other questions? If not, lets get to Talbian V."

 

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