The Braken Perspective

Posted on Sat Jan 15th, 2011 @ 11:47am by Adam Parker & Lieutenant Commander Aiden Roberts (KIA) & Captain Nathan Cowell MD

Mission: Hippocratic Hijacking
Location: Colonial Administration Building, Braken Colony
Timeline: Concurrent with the SS North Star Investigation

The colony residing on the surface of Braken III was in dire straights. A viral agent had torn through their society in less than a month and had managed to take down at least three quarters of their population. At first the virus hit the outlying farms and homesteads, places where facilities were somewhat limited and the odd contaminant does sometimes slip through. It seemed much the same as a cold until people started breaking out in bizarre lacerations and blotch marks that began to spread throughout a person's body. Though no means of transmission could be found by the local doctors, the disease spread rapidly through out the outlying communities until finally reaching the colony's seat of power. The 'lower class' citizenry contracted the virus first, though it didn't stop there. As the weeks wore on, more and more people from the 'upper crust' began to show symptoms, all of it leading up to the current state of affairs.

The Braken colony's de facto Colonial Administrator, Mister Adam Parker, sat in the office that he had inherited not long after the virus started spreading through the colony. His original position had been as an undersecretary for Colonial Commerce. While his position had in no way been a direct line to the Administrator's office, the circumstances and the sheer randomness of who contracted the virus and who seemed resilient to it was utterly bizarre. Mr. Parker's family was not considered overly hardy stock, Adam himself had caught many an illness in childhood. His family had wondered how well he would have survived had it not been for the cutting edge of medicine back on Earth.

Within the Administrator's office resided Parker himself, an aide, and three ministers who, like Adam, had been elevated to their respective positions by sheer happenstance. In his opinion, they all performed admirably given their situation, but the colony was not the well-oiled machine it had once been. It was simply surviving by the skin of its teeth, and little more.

"Mister Parker," the voice of his aide, Julia Keller, broke the silence of his small office, "I have a message for you from the Security Director."

Adam gave the woman a courteous smile, "Thank you Miss Keller. Is there anything else?"

"No, I just thought you might be interested in what Mister Ferrell had to report," the woman smiled back. Years ago, the two of them had shared a brief romantic encounter, though it ended in an agreement to simply return and remain friends. That didn't mean Adam didn't sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have stayed with her.

He pushed the idle thought from his mind and took the data device from her, "Then I will read it right away. Thank you again."

"You're welcome, Adam. If you need me, I'll be right outside the door," Julia said, though she really didn't have to.

Adam just nodded as he turned his attention the the data being displayed. It was a sensor sweep report from one of the orbital platforms orbiting the colony. Despite having very little in the way of defensive capabilities, the Federation had been kind enough to outfit them with several sensor platforms to ensure that they weren't caught blindsided by raiders or other undesirables. This time, however, the report spoke of a Federation warp signature, and further down the telemetry had shown a Prometheus Class vessel having entered the system. It also revealed that the transport they had been waiting for was somehow adrift in the outer region of the solar system. It made sense that if they had drifted into their system without a significant power source, the ship might have been overlooked as nothing but a meteor fragment or other such 'trash' floating along the perimeter of their space, a threat or item of interest to no one.

'If a Starfleet vessel had arrived in the system, the Starfleet officers that had been dropped off a day or so ago by a passing vessel must be awaiting it,' was Adam's first thought after reading the full report.

"Julia!" Parker yelled.

"Yes Adam?" came the usual reply.

"Contact the representative of that group of Starfleet officers, let him know the ship they are waiting for is in the system," he called out.

"Which one?" Julia asked.

"That one with the yellow uniform... Rudger... Rogers..." Adman began, suddenly aware that he'd forgotten the man's name.

"You mean Roberts?" she corrected.

"Ah yes, Roberts, thank you. Have him come see me as soon as he can, I want to talk to him about passing on some things or at least an invitation to his Captain," Adam requested.

"Can do!" Julia answered back, never leaving her desk.

Aiden swore loudly as he dropped his tricorder again. He crouched to his knees, which were covered in dirt much like the rest of his uniform. The tricorder landed this time in a puddle of mud, the screen now caked it. "Built for all situations my ass..."

Lieutenant Aiden Roberts had been on planet for nearly two days now. He was tired, and frustrated to say the least. He wasn't a doctor. He wasn't a nurse. Hell, he wasn't even a scientist. But nonetheless here he was in the midst of a medical emergency sitting on the sidelines. Defeated, at least for the moment, he sat down on a decorative retaining wall that was a little more meter high.

While he couldn't contribute to the calm, supportive, bedside manner his peers were caught up in, Aiden took it upon himself to lend a hand in some of the day to day service work throughout the settlement. With the labor force crippled, Roberts found himself in contact rather regularly with the administration here, picking up work assignments and distributing them to his fellow 'Yellow-shirted' Starfleet personnel who were essentially sitting in limbo like himself. It was work he was used to, at least. On his last three assignments, he worked as both Chief of Operations and in a sense Chief Engineer. He was used to finding a problem, and simply fixing it. Now, he wouldn't be on a starbase or a colony. He would have to get used to working with someone when it came to that realm.

His midday pondering was abruptly over as his commbadge began to click, summoning him back to the main administration building.

When Lieutenant Roberts finally made it to Administrator Parker's office, his mud caked uniform and the somewhat haggard look he had spoke volumes of his attempts to aid them. Adam found it rather admirable that even though the handful of officers and crewmen that had made the short layover on the colony were putting forth such great efforts despite their limitations.

"Lieutenant, a pleasure to see you again. Please, take a seat," Adam said, getting to his feet as the man came into the room, "I thought I would relay some information to you that I thought you might like to hear."

Aiden extended his hand after wiping the dirt and grease from his hands on the hip of uniform to meet that of the Administrator's. The two had only met briefly upon the Lieutenant's arrival, in passing while he was extending an invitation of whatever support and aid he and his companions could offer. Parker himself looked tired, as any official would who be faced with such a crisis.

"Good to see you again Administrator..." Aiden looked over his shoulder into the hallway, hoping to catch a glance on the young administrative aide.

Adam felt a pang of jealousy as he watched the man sneak a look back toward the area of his office that Julia normally resided. The fact that she had gone on an errand a little while before he'd arrived didn't stop him from feeling that pang in his chest despite his efforts being for naught. He let it go, as he usually did when people gave his former partner less than professional glances. It wasn't as if he owned the woman or something.

"A Federation starship just entered the outer edge of our star system. They seem to have found our missing transport floating around out there, something our own scanners seemed to have overlooked. I'm not sure if it is the vessel you are looking for, but it is something for you to investigate if nothing else," Adam said, surrendering the small data device he'd been given earlier.

Roberts did a once over on the device. "That would be the Arizona..." He trailed off, still thinking to himself as to why he was here, but most importantly why an 'off the record' warship would be spearheading the efforts of a medical emergency. "If you don't mind, I'd like to use one of your orbital platforms as a comm relay. I would like to make contact, and start coordinating our relief efforts."

"Of course, there is an empty office just two doors down, it should have a terminal suitable for your needs," Adam offered the man.

The Lieutenant gave a nod to Parker, before wondering back out into the hallway. Upon entering the office, Aiden closed the door for some privacy while he made the modifications to the console in conjunction with the sensor telemetry provided by the Administrator.

"This is Lieutenant Aiden Roberts to USS Arizona, please respond."

"Lieutenant Roberts, eh? This is Captain Cowell of the Arizona. What in the hell are you doing calling from way down there? I thought a transport or some other nonsense was supposed to be coming to meet us later... No matter, you're here, we're almost there, no harm no foul. What's the situation like down there, Lieutenant?"

Aiden lost his concentration for a moment, daydreaming trying to place a name with a face when the Captain introduced himself. "Uhh - right. I'm no doctor, Captain, but these folks down are pretty sick. We have been assisting with the relief efforts here as much as possible. I have the junior medical staff that arrived with me working up some of the locals, both infected and not. Truth is sir, the settlement here is ill equipped as much as we are. We haven't made much progress, except that we know this whole business started on the outlying regions of civilization here. It might be something native to this planet that hasn't been encountered yet, but again I'm not a scientist either. We were dropped on this rock with nothing more than the cargo containers carrying our personal belongings. To be blunt, when can we expect a ride?"

"As soon as the away team gets back to the ship. When we make it to the planet, we'll pick you up and I'll look over the data you have on this virus... since I am a doctor," Nathan said over the comm, "Until then, do what you can but try not to get infected. It won't do to have you aboard mucking up the clean air with germs. Doc out."

"Try not and get infected? Wait one..." The line went silent, and Aiden felt dirtier than his uniform actually was. "Doctors...."