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The Adventures Of U.S.S. Old Home (Haibane Renmei/Star Trek crossover)
lauscho
Member Posts: 79 Arc User
So I'm writing this thing for a Haibane Renmei fan forum and thought I'd share it here. By no means is it meant to be a truly serious attempt at fanfiction, I've actually never written one before this, and I'm just gonna have a lot of fun with it.
For those who don't know Haibane Renmei (which I'm gonna gather is probably all of you, it's not exactly Naruto or Bleach or anything), it's an anime series by Yoshitoshi Abe*, with a very emotional plot that can be considered a sort of interpretation of the afterlife. All of the lead characters, the Haibane, are born into the world fully formed from cocoons, with no memories of who they may have once been. After shedding all of their emotional baggage, they take their "day of flight", where they leave to... who knows?... on a big beam of light. They live in a walled town called Guri, which no one is allowed to leave or enter, save for the occasional trader.
Edit: * apparently the word filter here hates Japan.
Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQVMjmB-qVc
It gets off to a slow start in terms of emotional heaviness, but as soon as things go down, it spirals out of control faster than Lwaxana Troi on Tequila.
So, on with it!
______________________________________________________________________________________
Characters:
Captain Reki: our bold captain who fearlessly orders her crew into dangerous missions... like ferrying foodstuffs to far off worlds.
Commander Nemu: the level-headed first officer who never lets her captain go on away missions... well, when she's looking
Lieutenant Hikari: ship's communicator, and part-time science officer! Bakes a mean cake in the lounge on her off-duty hours, too!
Lieutenant Kana: chief engineer, constant thorn in captain Reki's side, and always the one to make sure Kuu doesn't feed the space-borne organisms with extra energy from the fusion generators!
Ensign Kuu: Helmsman, friend to all, and probably the biggest fan of The Adventures Of Flotter holodeck novels since Naomi Wildman!
Acting Ensign Rakka: the newest addition to the crew, who knows where her adventures in the Alpha Quadrant will take her!
Fleet Admiral Washi: the only one who knows everything that's going on. Maybe there's something he's not telling us?
Here's what I have so far:
______________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter One
______________________________________________________________________________________
Space. The infinite void. My purpose here? I haven't a slightest clue. To float endlessly? To seek out the reason I'm here? To boldly keep on floating through this endless void? What voyages are these?
The girl had no idea how she had ended up in this void. It was like she simply blinked into existence inside it. There could be no air here and she should be impossibly cold, but yet she was living, and, somehow, breathing. Before her eyes, somehow still working despite the exposure to what should obviously be hard vacuum, laid out a vista of the Milky Way galaxy, or at least she was pretty sure it was that... she couldn't remember what it even looked like! Come to think of it... there were a lot of things she struggled to remember...
A light off in the distance, probably several light years away, popped into existance out of what appeared to be thin air, breaking her train of thought. Unlike the other stars she could see from her position, it appeared to be moving against the backdrop. It wasn't until she saw the coma of a tail behind the approaching light that she realized, it was headed right for her! A spaceship?
No! It was a giant crow! Could have been several thousand kilometers across, and it was lit by its own gargantuan eyes, glowing a deep shade of blue unlike any light she had seen before in her life... as far as she could remember... everything seemed like the first time again!
And, as impossibly as anything that she had witnessed thus far in the void, the crow let out a giant cosmic caw that rattled the heavens. A strange sensation overcame her body. The gentle tug of gravity! Her body was now being pulled towards a source she could not yet identify. This pull was growing gradually stronger by the minute, and eventually she could see the field of stars stretch around her, warping into thin strands of light. She had to be going many thousands of times the speed of light. But towards what!? The disk of the galaxy was approaching her at terrifying speeds, and she saw what was drawing her nearer... the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy! There was no way she could survive that! She tried to turn to look up... if there was an up in space! The giant crow was gaining on her, and let out another massive caw that blew out all the stars around it.
"Please help!" She shouted. The crow tried its best to reach her, and she felt a strange sensation that was like every atom of her body being electrified. She saw a strange light surrounding her body that began to drown out the light of the galaxy around her. Even though she was frightened, she knew the crow was doing its best to save her.
"I'm sorry, you tried the best you could!"
The galactic center was almost upon her. She winced, expecting not an impact, but to be torn apart by the extreme tidal forces as she drew closer and closer, hundreds of light years going by in almost a flash. The lights got brighter, and she could even see it through her eyelids. Three... two... one... it wouldn't be long now!
______________________________________________________________________________________
"Lieutenant Kana, have you got the scans of the region I asked surveyed? The admiral wanted this data three hours ago."
"Yes, sir, it's being transmitted to your ready room now!"
Captain Reki leapt from her chair and entered the ready room, a small office adjacent to the bridge where she could confer privately, or sort through massive amounts of information without being bothered.
Her eyes glanced at the PADD with the results of today's sensor sweeps. Seven EM-band spikes and a few errant particles of space dust. How utterly exciting. Thumbing through the charts and maps before her, she found one signal embedded that caught her eye in particular: a small metallic object, composition confirmed to be Federation materials, and organic signatures. Maybe this is finally the break I needed.
"Lieutenant Kana, prepare to beam aboard an object. I'm sending the coordinates to your station now."
I'm finally gonna get out of this void.
______________________________________________________________________________________
THUD!
"Ensign Kuu, how many times have I told you to leave the damn torpedo yield controls alone!? Bump that switch again, and I'm gonna have to explain to Admiral Washi why there's a gaping hole in side of his brand new flagship!"
The young ensign, a girl of about seventeen years old, bright and blonde and cheery, was poking and prodding the torpedo casing they had beamed aboard.
"What do you suppose it is this time? Another cadet like I was? Maybe it's a joined Trill who remembers their past hosts! Oooh! Or maybe it's a Klingon!"
"Ensign! Who said anything about Klingons on this ship!?"
Kuu immediately snapped to attention.
"At ease, Ensign, I'm just here to check out the torpedo. You guys haven't broken anything, have you?"
Kana quickly piped in, covering her junior's exuberant behaviour. "Ensign Kuu and I here were just making sure there were no anomalous readings. Could've been a Klingon ploy for all we knew. We scanned the interior. One human life sign. It's faint. Shall we beam it to sickbay?"
"What are you waiting for?" The captain had to admit, she was just as excited as the young lieutenant to find a torpedo shell. The joy of bringing another life into this world was something none of the younger crew members had a chance to experience, and this had been the first one in seven years. Lieutenant Hikari and Ensign Kuu were in for a real treat!
"Transport complete. Shall we beam this casing back into space?"
"No, Lieutenant, let's add it to our inventory. Never know when we'll need another torpedo in case the Borg start up their business again. We need to keep the Guri sector protected."
No invasions had ever actually occurred in their sector. In fact, the Captain can't remember seeing anyone but the Ferengi ever pass through. The Ferengi kept trade running in the sector, providing each system with valuable food, medical supplies, clothing and even entertainment. But they were the only connection we had to the rest of the Alpha Quadrant, with the Guri sector too far off and distant to maintain anything like constant contact with Earth. The only contact was Guri Fleet Admiral Washi, who frequently traveled to and from Sector 001. It was their only real source of news, the only way anyone in Guri had even heard of the Dominion or the Borg. Apparently, news from the Alpha Quadrant took a little longer to reach this stretch. Here on the U.S.S. Old Home, business was relegated mostly to diplomatic missions, ferrying ambassadors and diplomats, evacuating planets from emergencies, and in quiet months, as a transport freighter.
"Ensign Kuu, hand me the plasma inverter. I'm gonna take some time to start rewiring this torpedo casing while we have it here. That way when I beam it back to Engineering, I just gotta drop the charges in."
The young ensign, bright and cheery as she was, knew better than to let her naivety get the better of her. "You did check to make sure this was actually an unarmed torpedo first, right? I've heard stories of finding these things still armed..."
"Nah! It'll be fine. Now help me lift this up onto the table in the lab."
The two lifted the heavy torpedo casing, slinging it low to the ground as they entered the door of the science lab in the corridor.
"Dammit! This thing weighs a ton!"
A sharp pain cut through Kana's right foot. Oh no! She had dropped the torpedo!
"You okay, lieutenant? Come, let's get you to sickbay!"
Kuu carried the limping lieutenant out of the science lab, but as the door closed, Kana took a look back and saw something utterly terrifying, and broke from Kuu's grasp.
"Kuu! Run! It's armed! 30-second timer!"
"No, I gotta get you out of here!" Kuu ran over to Kana and tapped her combadge.
"Two to beam directly to sickbay."
As the two of them materialized in sickbay, the ship rocked from the explosion.
"Explosive decompression on Deck 3. Emergency forcefields are in place." a dry feminine computer voice announced over the commotion.
Kana's jaw was agape, and she said the first thing that came to her mind...
"Well, there goes my next promotion..."
______________________________________________________________________________________
"Lieutenant, you really need to be more careful with yourself. There were anti-grav units in the cargo bay you could have used, why couldn't you have just grabbed them?
Kana had no time for the EMH's overbearing mothering. She was far more concerned with the gaping hole she'd just blown in the hull.
"Outta my way! I gotta get back to Deck 3 and start repairs immediately!"
She rushed past the holographic doctor, who pushed her spectacles up her nose, clutching her PADD to her chest.
"If you keep walking on it before I finish treating you, you'll only make the fracture worse!" She shouted as the Lieutenant approached the sickbay doors.
Kana noticed something out of the corner of her eye. It had been the girl they rescued from the torpedo tube! She stopped at the end of the girl's biobed.
"Doctor, is she going to be okay?"
"She'll be in a better state than you if you don't let me treat you!"
"That's good to hear!" Kana said, limping out of sickbay.
No sooner than Kana leaving did Captain Reki and First Officer Nemu strolled into the cramped sickbay.
"They really gotta give us a bigger ship. Our crew can barely fit in quarters."
The tall, dark-haired captain approached the girl's biobed, signalling the holographic doctor to join them.
"Doctor, can you revive her?"
"Most certainly, she's just sleeping at the moment!", the EMH said, beaming a bright smile to the captain and producing a hypospray from her uniform. She gently pressed it to the girl's neck, and she began to stir awake.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the three figures standing over her. One was tall and had long, black hair, cut to a straight fringe above her dark, piercing eyes. The other looked much more subdued, wearing naturally wavy long brown hair to frame her pretty, but plain, face. The third was a bit more peculiar looking. She seemed quite a bit older than the other two, at least pushing her late forties. She wore large, thick-framed glasses, and wore her hair in a much less precise fashion than these other two women. They were all wearing a similar uniform, each a different color. The younger two were wearing red and black, while the older woman's was blue and black. Their uniforms were decorated with gold markings that probably indicated something like... what was it... military rank? Yeah, that seemed familiar.
"Where am I? Who are you?" She was scared and confused, but these people didn't seem like they wanted to hurt her or anything.
"We're actually more interested to learn who you are." the taller one, probably the commanding officer judging by the number of markings, said with a wry grin.
"Tell me about your dream."
__________________________________________________________________________________
The three of them listened to the girl's story intently as she told it the best she could... The crow, the black hole, the weird light...
"Hey, that was us beaming you out of the torpedo!" Shouted a cheery voice from the door.
"Ensign Kuu! Meet the newest member of our crew!"
"Hooray! You know, I helped find you! You were all crammed in this torpedo casing and then Lieutenant Kana and I came along and we *POOF!*, beamed you right out of there. And just in the nick of time, too! Because the whole thing went KABOOM! Blew a hole the size the Barzan wormhole in the side of the ship! Oh man, you should have BEEN there!"
"Ensign, you're overwhelming the new officer. Please be more kind to consider their state of shock in the future." First Officer Nemu quipped.
"We still have to decide on a name..."
The girl wasn't having any of this. She wasn't gonna let these people just come and take her as an officer on their ship! And what about naming her! She already had a name! It was... it was...
"W... what is my name? I... I can't remember..."
The captain took the opportunity to sit herself down and put her hand on the girl's shoulders.
"That's why Starfleet's out here. You're gonna be okay. As for your name, none of us remembered our names when we first joined Starfleet. Our names are given to us based on our torpedo dreams."
"Mine is Kuu! It means sky, because in my dream, I was flying a starship around in this giant nebula, and there were so many stars everywhere and it was just so huuuuuge! The other girl that found you, Reki, her name means "river fish", because she dreamed she was caught in the gossamer of the Xindi oceans, swimming with the Aquatics! I also have a friend on the bridge named Hikari, which means light! She dreamt of waking up in a Romulan tractor beam!"
"I'm Nemu, this ship's first officer."
"Her name means 'sleepyhead'!"
"Ensign, it is illogical to assume that just because I was asleep in my torpedo dream, that I have a tendency to sleep at unusual times."
"Can it, Nemu, we all know you spend all your "meditations" napping."
The captain had her there.
"I'm just the little ol' EMH. Don't mind me!"
"EMH?" The girl said, perplexed.
"Emergency Medical Hologram. Starfleet was short on medical personnel officers, so I had Kana program her to keep sickbay running."
"So... what about my name?"
The captain had to pause to think about that for a moment.
"Well let's see... you were being pulled in your dream. Nah, that was a bad idea. Actually, it sounds more like..."
"Falling seems to be the logical choice of words here?" Nemu interrupted.
"Ah! Rakka! Meaning to fall!"
"I had believed you were looking for a name that would NOT result in the children on board the ship to tease her. Perhaps we should choose something more... suitable?" Nemu was right, the hatchlings onboard the ship that they were ferrying to Kartie IV would jump at the opportunity to pick on her, especially if she turned out to be physically clumsy.
"Rakka it is, then" Nope, Captain Reki's mind was set.
"Rakka... I kind of like it"
"Yeah! It kinda sounds Romulan! I like it!"
The young ensign sure was in a chipper mood today! Another minute or so had passed before the door opened again, and two more women walked into sickbay. One had a strange contraption covering her eyes that looked sort of like some kind of beam firing device or something strange like that... maybe space age glasses? Unlike the others, her attire did not include a pair of slacks, but rather a uniform based on the same design, that turned into a skirt that cut off just above the knee. The other was a short, dark-skinned girl with a strange ridge on her forehead, and a uniform that implied she was definitely a mechanic of some sort, with all sorts of tool pouches and belts attached. She almost always stood with her arms crossed, and an exasperated expression on her face.
"Welcome aboard! Just thought I'd come and check on our newest crew member! I'm Lieutenant Hikari, the ship's communicator, and this is our Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Kana!"
"Nice to meet you. That torpedo we found you in gave me quite a scare earlier. Luckily, the damage was localized and no one was hurt. We've almost completed repairs to the outer hull."
"That's my Chief Engineer, always looking out for her ship!" Ensign Kuu could see the good in anything and anyone, even if Kana did seem a little cold to Rakka.
"I'm Rakka. A pleasure to meet you." Rakka said, eyes totally fixated on Kana's forehead ridge. Even though she was half-human and understood Rakka's wonderment, Kana's Klingon blood would ultimately prevail over her mental filters.
"Would you kindly stop staring? I'm half-Klingon. Yeah, I get a lot of flack for that. Deal."
"Klingon?"
"Kana, go easy on her, she's new. She probably doesn't even know what Starfleet is yet!" scolded Captain Reki.
"So Kana's half-alien. Are the rest of you human?"
"Nope!" Kuu shouted enthusiastically. "I'm a Betazoid! I can actually read your mind! Or at least tell what you're feeling! Isn't that SO COOL?"
Nemu lifted the long hair from the side of her head, revealing one pointy ear to Rakka. "My people are from the planet Vulcan, a people who centuries ago, learned to control our emotions in place of logic."
Kana, cooled down, explained her people. "The Klingon race, my people, are actually an enemy of the Federation. How I ended up here, I have no idea. But I dealt with the hand I was given and it's worked to my advantage. We're a so-called noble, honorable race of warriors and soldiers, but the truth of the matter is every other Klingon I've ever read a report on sounds like a real jerk. But it helps me focus on getting work done around this ship. Not like we're on any kind of important mission or anything, though."
"What about that device on Hikari's eyes?" Rakka said, trying to choose her words carefully.
"This is my VISOR. I was blinded by a sickness I contracted at the abandoned shipyards over by the Chronos system."
"Not to be confused with Q'onos" Kana interjected.
"Thanks, Kana, for that fact. Anyways, it allows me to see, as well as to visually scan into ranges beyond normal human vision. For instance, I can see ultraviolet and infrared light. And you haven't seen a sunset until you've seen the gamma ray emissions!"
"Sounds like this place is a lot of fun..."
The EMH reappeared into the sickbay. "Okay now, move along! I think it's time my patient got some rest!"
After a collective sigh, the crew headed for the door. Before leaving, the Captain paused and turned to Rakka.
"Oh. Welcome to the U.S.S. Old Home."
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Rakka laid quietly in her biobed for a couple of hours. She hadn't been able to get any sleep yet, simply passing the time by looking at all the wonderous things in this sickbay. Every wall had a huge panel with glowing displays and touchscreen panels were all over almost every surface above waist height in the room. There were objects on the ceiling that Rakka assumed were the EMH's projectors. Odd that she knew how a hologram worked, but couldn't remember her own name! Or any other details from her past, for that matter. She thought she'd try to look into the matter herself.
"EMH? You there?"
The holographic doctor's image phased into appearance right in front of her, startling her so much she jumped out of the biobed!
"Please state the nature of the medica... oh! Good! You're up! Shall I alert the captain?"
"No, thank you, I just want to know why I can't remember anything before my dream."
The EMH pulled out her medical tricorder and began her scans on Rakka.
"Hmmm... all neurochemical levels are normal. A slight increase of activity in the amygdala, but that's normal for someone in a state of heightened anxiety. No sign of cranial trauma, phaser burns, surgeries... the memory engrams in your brain don't appear to have been erased or tampered with. Your brain is medically clean. Same result for everyone I've treated with this condition. I haven't been able to find a way to reverse it."
"So you're saying then, that my memory is fine? I won't forget all of this then?"
"As long as you don't go walking head-first into any bulkheads, I think you should be just fine!"
At that moment, the door whirred open once again. It was Hikari, and she had a small box in her hand.
"Rakka, it's so good to see you awake and up and about! Here, the captain asked me to give this to you. It's your combadge. You pin it to your uniform, and you can use it to signal the ship for transport or communications, and you can also use it for intership communications. Just tap on it and give it a command. Go ahead, give it a try!"
Rakka tapped the combadge "Can I talk to Kuu?"
"Kuu here! Hi Rakka! How're ya feelin'? You should come to the mess hall when you get the chance!"
"Maybe another time, thank you. I'm still not feeling up to walking around the ship. But thank you for the offer! I gotta go!"
"Talk to ya later!"
"Kuu seems like a very nice girl."
"Rakka, you're quite perceptive! She is one of the most pleasant humanoids I've had the pleasure of treating. She's gonna make Admiral someday!"
At that moment, the EMH turned to see Rakka lying on the floor of sickbay, barely breathing. She rushed to place Rakka on the biobed and set up a quarantine field around the section. She tapped her combadge.
"Captain, it's happening. You better get down here..."
__________________________________________________________________________________
"EMH, report!" said Captain Reki, storming into sickbay.
"Her vitals have dropped to dangerous levels so quickly I didn't have time to compensate. I have her in stasis right now, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to maintain her vitals. I gave her a painkiller but I can't bring this fever down."
"She's gonna make it, right?" Reki had experienced this many times before, and almost always, the patient would pull through successfully. There was only one case she could think of where it hadn't...
"There's an infection spreading through her body, and just like the others, I can't identify the source. It appears to have something in common with the Borg nanoprobe samples you obtained from the border sensor grid mission on stardate 59135.5. The details of that mission are still classified, and I don't have the sufficient clearance to access those files. Perhaps you can use your captain's perogative and contact Admiral Washi for assistance? I'm sure he'd be understanding in this case."
No, Captain Reki thought, there's a damn good reason I'm in Guri and not back in Sector 001...
"Keep an eye on her overnight. Let me know if there are any changes in her vital signs. If I know this illness right, she should be fine by morning. Contact me by 0900 tomorrow, I'm going to come in and check on her then."
The captain paused again and turned to look at Rakka's sleeping face. Her complexion, fair as it was when she arrived, had paled, and her hair had become drenched in sweat, and looked like a total catastrophe.
"It's gonna be okay. I'm gonna get you home."
___________________________________________________________________________________________
And that does it for episode one! Discuss!
For those who don't know Haibane Renmei (which I'm gonna gather is probably all of you, it's not exactly Naruto or Bleach or anything), it's an anime series by Yoshitoshi Abe*, with a very emotional plot that can be considered a sort of interpretation of the afterlife. All of the lead characters, the Haibane, are born into the world fully formed from cocoons, with no memories of who they may have once been. After shedding all of their emotional baggage, they take their "day of flight", where they leave to... who knows?... on a big beam of light. They live in a walled town called Guri, which no one is allowed to leave or enter, save for the occasional trader.
Edit: * apparently the word filter here hates Japan.
Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQVMjmB-qVc
It gets off to a slow start in terms of emotional heaviness, but as soon as things go down, it spirals out of control faster than Lwaxana Troi on Tequila.
So, on with it!
______________________________________________________________________________________
Characters:
Captain Reki: our bold captain who fearlessly orders her crew into dangerous missions... like ferrying foodstuffs to far off worlds.
Commander Nemu: the level-headed first officer who never lets her captain go on away missions... well, when she's looking
Lieutenant Hikari: ship's communicator, and part-time science officer! Bakes a mean cake in the lounge on her off-duty hours, too!
Lieutenant Kana: chief engineer, constant thorn in captain Reki's side, and always the one to make sure Kuu doesn't feed the space-borne organisms with extra energy from the fusion generators!
Ensign Kuu: Helmsman, friend to all, and probably the biggest fan of The Adventures Of Flotter holodeck novels since Naomi Wildman!
Acting Ensign Rakka: the newest addition to the crew, who knows where her adventures in the Alpha Quadrant will take her!
Fleet Admiral Washi: the only one who knows everything that's going on. Maybe there's something he's not telling us?
Here's what I have so far:
______________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter One
______________________________________________________________________________________
Space. The infinite void. My purpose here? I haven't a slightest clue. To float endlessly? To seek out the reason I'm here? To boldly keep on floating through this endless void? What voyages are these?
The girl had no idea how she had ended up in this void. It was like she simply blinked into existence inside it. There could be no air here and she should be impossibly cold, but yet she was living, and, somehow, breathing. Before her eyes, somehow still working despite the exposure to what should obviously be hard vacuum, laid out a vista of the Milky Way galaxy, or at least she was pretty sure it was that... she couldn't remember what it even looked like! Come to think of it... there were a lot of things she struggled to remember...
A light off in the distance, probably several light years away, popped into existance out of what appeared to be thin air, breaking her train of thought. Unlike the other stars she could see from her position, it appeared to be moving against the backdrop. It wasn't until she saw the coma of a tail behind the approaching light that she realized, it was headed right for her! A spaceship?
No! It was a giant crow! Could have been several thousand kilometers across, and it was lit by its own gargantuan eyes, glowing a deep shade of blue unlike any light she had seen before in her life... as far as she could remember... everything seemed like the first time again!
And, as impossibly as anything that she had witnessed thus far in the void, the crow let out a giant cosmic caw that rattled the heavens. A strange sensation overcame her body. The gentle tug of gravity! Her body was now being pulled towards a source she could not yet identify. This pull was growing gradually stronger by the minute, and eventually she could see the field of stars stretch around her, warping into thin strands of light. She had to be going many thousands of times the speed of light. But towards what!? The disk of the galaxy was approaching her at terrifying speeds, and she saw what was drawing her nearer... the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy! There was no way she could survive that! She tried to turn to look up... if there was an up in space! The giant crow was gaining on her, and let out another massive caw that blew out all the stars around it.
"Please help!" She shouted. The crow tried its best to reach her, and she felt a strange sensation that was like every atom of her body being electrified. She saw a strange light surrounding her body that began to drown out the light of the galaxy around her. Even though she was frightened, she knew the crow was doing its best to save her.
"I'm sorry, you tried the best you could!"
The galactic center was almost upon her. She winced, expecting not an impact, but to be torn apart by the extreme tidal forces as she drew closer and closer, hundreds of light years going by in almost a flash. The lights got brighter, and she could even see it through her eyelids. Three... two... one... it wouldn't be long now!
______________________________________________________________________________________
"Lieutenant Kana, have you got the scans of the region I asked surveyed? The admiral wanted this data three hours ago."
"Yes, sir, it's being transmitted to your ready room now!"
Captain Reki leapt from her chair and entered the ready room, a small office adjacent to the bridge where she could confer privately, or sort through massive amounts of information without being bothered.
Her eyes glanced at the PADD with the results of today's sensor sweeps. Seven EM-band spikes and a few errant particles of space dust. How utterly exciting. Thumbing through the charts and maps before her, she found one signal embedded that caught her eye in particular: a small metallic object, composition confirmed to be Federation materials, and organic signatures. Maybe this is finally the break I needed.
"Lieutenant Kana, prepare to beam aboard an object. I'm sending the coordinates to your station now."
I'm finally gonna get out of this void.
______________________________________________________________________________________
THUD!
"Ensign Kuu, how many times have I told you to leave the damn torpedo yield controls alone!? Bump that switch again, and I'm gonna have to explain to Admiral Washi why there's a gaping hole in side of his brand new flagship!"
The young ensign, a girl of about seventeen years old, bright and blonde and cheery, was poking and prodding the torpedo casing they had beamed aboard.
"What do you suppose it is this time? Another cadet like I was? Maybe it's a joined Trill who remembers their past hosts! Oooh! Or maybe it's a Klingon!"
"Ensign! Who said anything about Klingons on this ship!?"
Kuu immediately snapped to attention.
"At ease, Ensign, I'm just here to check out the torpedo. You guys haven't broken anything, have you?"
Kana quickly piped in, covering her junior's exuberant behaviour. "Ensign Kuu and I here were just making sure there were no anomalous readings. Could've been a Klingon ploy for all we knew. We scanned the interior. One human life sign. It's faint. Shall we beam it to sickbay?"
"What are you waiting for?" The captain had to admit, she was just as excited as the young lieutenant to find a torpedo shell. The joy of bringing another life into this world was something none of the younger crew members had a chance to experience, and this had been the first one in seven years. Lieutenant Hikari and Ensign Kuu were in for a real treat!
"Transport complete. Shall we beam this casing back into space?"
"No, Lieutenant, let's add it to our inventory. Never know when we'll need another torpedo in case the Borg start up their business again. We need to keep the Guri sector protected."
No invasions had ever actually occurred in their sector. In fact, the Captain can't remember seeing anyone but the Ferengi ever pass through. The Ferengi kept trade running in the sector, providing each system with valuable food, medical supplies, clothing and even entertainment. But they were the only connection we had to the rest of the Alpha Quadrant, with the Guri sector too far off and distant to maintain anything like constant contact with Earth. The only contact was Guri Fleet Admiral Washi, who frequently traveled to and from Sector 001. It was their only real source of news, the only way anyone in Guri had even heard of the Dominion or the Borg. Apparently, news from the Alpha Quadrant took a little longer to reach this stretch. Here on the U.S.S. Old Home, business was relegated mostly to diplomatic missions, ferrying ambassadors and diplomats, evacuating planets from emergencies, and in quiet months, as a transport freighter.
"Ensign Kuu, hand me the plasma inverter. I'm gonna take some time to start rewiring this torpedo casing while we have it here. That way when I beam it back to Engineering, I just gotta drop the charges in."
The young ensign, bright and cheery as she was, knew better than to let her naivety get the better of her. "You did check to make sure this was actually an unarmed torpedo first, right? I've heard stories of finding these things still armed..."
"Nah! It'll be fine. Now help me lift this up onto the table in the lab."
The two lifted the heavy torpedo casing, slinging it low to the ground as they entered the door of the science lab in the corridor.
"Dammit! This thing weighs a ton!"
A sharp pain cut through Kana's right foot. Oh no! She had dropped the torpedo!
"You okay, lieutenant? Come, let's get you to sickbay!"
Kuu carried the limping lieutenant out of the science lab, but as the door closed, Kana took a look back and saw something utterly terrifying, and broke from Kuu's grasp.
"Kuu! Run! It's armed! 30-second timer!"
"No, I gotta get you out of here!" Kuu ran over to Kana and tapped her combadge.
"Two to beam directly to sickbay."
As the two of them materialized in sickbay, the ship rocked from the explosion.
"Explosive decompression on Deck 3. Emergency forcefields are in place." a dry feminine computer voice announced over the commotion.
Kana's jaw was agape, and she said the first thing that came to her mind...
"Well, there goes my next promotion..."
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"Lieutenant, you really need to be more careful with yourself. There were anti-grav units in the cargo bay you could have used, why couldn't you have just grabbed them?
Kana had no time for the EMH's overbearing mothering. She was far more concerned with the gaping hole she'd just blown in the hull.
"Outta my way! I gotta get back to Deck 3 and start repairs immediately!"
She rushed past the holographic doctor, who pushed her spectacles up her nose, clutching her PADD to her chest.
"If you keep walking on it before I finish treating you, you'll only make the fracture worse!" She shouted as the Lieutenant approached the sickbay doors.
Kana noticed something out of the corner of her eye. It had been the girl they rescued from the torpedo tube! She stopped at the end of the girl's biobed.
"Doctor, is she going to be okay?"
"She'll be in a better state than you if you don't let me treat you!"
"That's good to hear!" Kana said, limping out of sickbay.
No sooner than Kana leaving did Captain Reki and First Officer Nemu strolled into the cramped sickbay.
"They really gotta give us a bigger ship. Our crew can barely fit in quarters."
The tall, dark-haired captain approached the girl's biobed, signalling the holographic doctor to join them.
"Doctor, can you revive her?"
"Most certainly, she's just sleeping at the moment!", the EMH said, beaming a bright smile to the captain and producing a hypospray from her uniform. She gently pressed it to the girl's neck, and she began to stir awake.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the three figures standing over her. One was tall and had long, black hair, cut to a straight fringe above her dark, piercing eyes. The other looked much more subdued, wearing naturally wavy long brown hair to frame her pretty, but plain, face. The third was a bit more peculiar looking. She seemed quite a bit older than the other two, at least pushing her late forties. She wore large, thick-framed glasses, and wore her hair in a much less precise fashion than these other two women. They were all wearing a similar uniform, each a different color. The younger two were wearing red and black, while the older woman's was blue and black. Their uniforms were decorated with gold markings that probably indicated something like... what was it... military rank? Yeah, that seemed familiar.
"Where am I? Who are you?" She was scared and confused, but these people didn't seem like they wanted to hurt her or anything.
"We're actually more interested to learn who you are." the taller one, probably the commanding officer judging by the number of markings, said with a wry grin.
"Tell me about your dream."
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The three of them listened to the girl's story intently as she told it the best she could... The crow, the black hole, the weird light...
"Hey, that was us beaming you out of the torpedo!" Shouted a cheery voice from the door.
"Ensign Kuu! Meet the newest member of our crew!"
"Hooray! You know, I helped find you! You were all crammed in this torpedo casing and then Lieutenant Kana and I came along and we *POOF!*, beamed you right out of there. And just in the nick of time, too! Because the whole thing went KABOOM! Blew a hole the size the Barzan wormhole in the side of the ship! Oh man, you should have BEEN there!"
"Ensign, you're overwhelming the new officer. Please be more kind to consider their state of shock in the future." First Officer Nemu quipped.
"We still have to decide on a name..."
The girl wasn't having any of this. She wasn't gonna let these people just come and take her as an officer on their ship! And what about naming her! She already had a name! It was... it was...
"W... what is my name? I... I can't remember..."
The captain took the opportunity to sit herself down and put her hand on the girl's shoulders.
"That's why Starfleet's out here. You're gonna be okay. As for your name, none of us remembered our names when we first joined Starfleet. Our names are given to us based on our torpedo dreams."
"Mine is Kuu! It means sky, because in my dream, I was flying a starship around in this giant nebula, and there were so many stars everywhere and it was just so huuuuuge! The other girl that found you, Reki, her name means "river fish", because she dreamed she was caught in the gossamer of the Xindi oceans, swimming with the Aquatics! I also have a friend on the bridge named Hikari, which means light! She dreamt of waking up in a Romulan tractor beam!"
"I'm Nemu, this ship's first officer."
"Her name means 'sleepyhead'!"
"Ensign, it is illogical to assume that just because I was asleep in my torpedo dream, that I have a tendency to sleep at unusual times."
"Can it, Nemu, we all know you spend all your "meditations" napping."
The captain had her there.
"I'm just the little ol' EMH. Don't mind me!"
"EMH?" The girl said, perplexed.
"Emergency Medical Hologram. Starfleet was short on medical personnel officers, so I had Kana program her to keep sickbay running."
"So... what about my name?"
The captain had to pause to think about that for a moment.
"Well let's see... you were being pulled in your dream. Nah, that was a bad idea. Actually, it sounds more like..."
"Falling seems to be the logical choice of words here?" Nemu interrupted.
"Ah! Rakka! Meaning to fall!"
"I had believed you were looking for a name that would NOT result in the children on board the ship to tease her. Perhaps we should choose something more... suitable?" Nemu was right, the hatchlings onboard the ship that they were ferrying to Kartie IV would jump at the opportunity to pick on her, especially if she turned out to be physically clumsy.
"Rakka it is, then" Nope, Captain Reki's mind was set.
"Rakka... I kind of like it"
"Yeah! It kinda sounds Romulan! I like it!"
The young ensign sure was in a chipper mood today! Another minute or so had passed before the door opened again, and two more women walked into sickbay. One had a strange contraption covering her eyes that looked sort of like some kind of beam firing device or something strange like that... maybe space age glasses? Unlike the others, her attire did not include a pair of slacks, but rather a uniform based on the same design, that turned into a skirt that cut off just above the knee. The other was a short, dark-skinned girl with a strange ridge on her forehead, and a uniform that implied she was definitely a mechanic of some sort, with all sorts of tool pouches and belts attached. She almost always stood with her arms crossed, and an exasperated expression on her face.
"Welcome aboard! Just thought I'd come and check on our newest crew member! I'm Lieutenant Hikari, the ship's communicator, and this is our Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Kana!"
"Nice to meet you. That torpedo we found you in gave me quite a scare earlier. Luckily, the damage was localized and no one was hurt. We've almost completed repairs to the outer hull."
"That's my Chief Engineer, always looking out for her ship!" Ensign Kuu could see the good in anything and anyone, even if Kana did seem a little cold to Rakka.
"I'm Rakka. A pleasure to meet you." Rakka said, eyes totally fixated on Kana's forehead ridge. Even though she was half-human and understood Rakka's wonderment, Kana's Klingon blood would ultimately prevail over her mental filters.
"Would you kindly stop staring? I'm half-Klingon. Yeah, I get a lot of flack for that. Deal."
"Klingon?"
"Kana, go easy on her, she's new. She probably doesn't even know what Starfleet is yet!" scolded Captain Reki.
"So Kana's half-alien. Are the rest of you human?"
"Nope!" Kuu shouted enthusiastically. "I'm a Betazoid! I can actually read your mind! Or at least tell what you're feeling! Isn't that SO COOL?"
Nemu lifted the long hair from the side of her head, revealing one pointy ear to Rakka. "My people are from the planet Vulcan, a people who centuries ago, learned to control our emotions in place of logic."
Kana, cooled down, explained her people. "The Klingon race, my people, are actually an enemy of the Federation. How I ended up here, I have no idea. But I dealt with the hand I was given and it's worked to my advantage. We're a so-called noble, honorable race of warriors and soldiers, but the truth of the matter is every other Klingon I've ever read a report on sounds like a real jerk. But it helps me focus on getting work done around this ship. Not like we're on any kind of important mission or anything, though."
"What about that device on Hikari's eyes?" Rakka said, trying to choose her words carefully.
"This is my VISOR. I was blinded by a sickness I contracted at the abandoned shipyards over by the Chronos system."
"Not to be confused with Q'onos" Kana interjected.
"Thanks, Kana, for that fact. Anyways, it allows me to see, as well as to visually scan into ranges beyond normal human vision. For instance, I can see ultraviolet and infrared light. And you haven't seen a sunset until you've seen the gamma ray emissions!"
"Sounds like this place is a lot of fun..."
The EMH reappeared into the sickbay. "Okay now, move along! I think it's time my patient got some rest!"
After a collective sigh, the crew headed for the door. Before leaving, the Captain paused and turned to Rakka.
"Oh. Welcome to the U.S.S. Old Home."
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Rakka laid quietly in her biobed for a couple of hours. She hadn't been able to get any sleep yet, simply passing the time by looking at all the wonderous things in this sickbay. Every wall had a huge panel with glowing displays and touchscreen panels were all over almost every surface above waist height in the room. There were objects on the ceiling that Rakka assumed were the EMH's projectors. Odd that she knew how a hologram worked, but couldn't remember her own name! Or any other details from her past, for that matter. She thought she'd try to look into the matter herself.
"EMH? You there?"
The holographic doctor's image phased into appearance right in front of her, startling her so much she jumped out of the biobed!
"Please state the nature of the medica... oh! Good! You're up! Shall I alert the captain?"
"No, thank you, I just want to know why I can't remember anything before my dream."
The EMH pulled out her medical tricorder and began her scans on Rakka.
"Hmmm... all neurochemical levels are normal. A slight increase of activity in the amygdala, but that's normal for someone in a state of heightened anxiety. No sign of cranial trauma, phaser burns, surgeries... the memory engrams in your brain don't appear to have been erased or tampered with. Your brain is medically clean. Same result for everyone I've treated with this condition. I haven't been able to find a way to reverse it."
"So you're saying then, that my memory is fine? I won't forget all of this then?"
"As long as you don't go walking head-first into any bulkheads, I think you should be just fine!"
At that moment, the door whirred open once again. It was Hikari, and she had a small box in her hand.
"Rakka, it's so good to see you awake and up and about! Here, the captain asked me to give this to you. It's your combadge. You pin it to your uniform, and you can use it to signal the ship for transport or communications, and you can also use it for intership communications. Just tap on it and give it a command. Go ahead, give it a try!"
Rakka tapped the combadge "Can I talk to Kuu?"
"Kuu here! Hi Rakka! How're ya feelin'? You should come to the mess hall when you get the chance!"
"Maybe another time, thank you. I'm still not feeling up to walking around the ship. But thank you for the offer! I gotta go!"
"Talk to ya later!"
"Kuu seems like a very nice girl."
"Rakka, you're quite perceptive! She is one of the most pleasant humanoids I've had the pleasure of treating. She's gonna make Admiral someday!"
At that moment, the EMH turned to see Rakka lying on the floor of sickbay, barely breathing. She rushed to place Rakka on the biobed and set up a quarantine field around the section. She tapped her combadge.
"Captain, it's happening. You better get down here..."
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"EMH, report!" said Captain Reki, storming into sickbay.
"Her vitals have dropped to dangerous levels so quickly I didn't have time to compensate. I have her in stasis right now, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to maintain her vitals. I gave her a painkiller but I can't bring this fever down."
"She's gonna make it, right?" Reki had experienced this many times before, and almost always, the patient would pull through successfully. There was only one case she could think of where it hadn't...
"There's an infection spreading through her body, and just like the others, I can't identify the source. It appears to have something in common with the Borg nanoprobe samples you obtained from the border sensor grid mission on stardate 59135.5. The details of that mission are still classified, and I don't have the sufficient clearance to access those files. Perhaps you can use your captain's perogative and contact Admiral Washi for assistance? I'm sure he'd be understanding in this case."
No, Captain Reki thought, there's a damn good reason I'm in Guri and not back in Sector 001...
"Keep an eye on her overnight. Let me know if there are any changes in her vital signs. If I know this illness right, she should be fine by morning. Contact me by 0900 tomorrow, I'm going to come in and check on her then."
The captain paused again and turned to look at Rakka's sleeping face. Her complexion, fair as it was when she arrived, had paled, and her hair had become drenched in sweat, and looked like a total catastrophe.
"It's gonna be okay. I'm gonna get you home."
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And that does it for episode one! Discuss!
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