New blood

Posted on Wed Jul 28th, 2021 @ 6:09am by Captain Taliserra Tigran & Lieutenant Commander Tyrus Acevedo

2,083 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Silent Scream
Location: Various
Timeline: 6th April 2395- 2230hrs

Taliserra slowly paced the transporter room, waiting for a signal from starbase 54, her hopes for a nice simple assignment was already starting to be dashed and they hadn't even left the starbase yet.

Radak's sudden request for emergency leave had taken her completely by surprise and she had no choice but to approve it but it left her in a dire situation, the ship about to leave for their next assignment without its second in command. She'd contacted Fleet command and they had quickly assigned her someone already waiting for reassignment on Starbase 54 to her.

"Starbase 54 is ready for transport Captain." The crewman at the transporter console reported.

"Go ahead." Taliserra instructed.

The transporters were in full effect as everything illuminated to life, and on one of the pads of the unit's platform a bit of a shimmering silhouette began to take form: humanoid at least, by its shape, two arms and two legs, bipedal by their stance and general posture. Given the distance from Taliserra and the elevated platform, the figure in question was about her height, maybe a smidge taller, but not by much. A set of heels and she'd have them by a good few inches.

More features began to clarify as the shimmering effect of the Federation transporters began to dwindle and the human cargo was solidifying into a younger-looking Human male with some thin facial hair. The pigmentation of his skin was pale but not porcelain, more of a buttercream tone with a freckled complexion particularly around his nose and cheek bones.

It was evident that he was holding something in his left hand, a PaDD by the shape of it. Soon, the man was more materialized and became animated. The transport was complete yet for a moment he said absolutely nothng. Then, he did. He spoke after a heavy sigh. "Great," he muttered. "An explorer...a science ship."

He had said it to nobody specifically, more of an observation that he was not all too thrilled about. His uniform looked new as though he had never worn it a day in his life until now. The hollow pip on the lieutenant commander's collar also looked fresh as if it had just been placed there before transport.

"Lieutenant Commander Acevedo," he said introducing himself though the few brief second pause between the word lieutenant and commander were clear tell that he was not comfortable with the latter portion. "I believe we have been paired together, Captain," he added as he studied the woman head to toe. Wouldn't mind counting those spots he thought to himself as a small smirk found its way onto his face.

"Welcome aboard Commander." Taliserra said stepping forward "Thank you for taking this assignment at such short notice." She offered him her hand.

"Oh you're joined," he replied with a tone of voice that sounded slightly disappointed and yet not too terribly bothered, somewhere in the middle. No, he was not empathic or telepathic. It was strictly a behavioral thing. "Well, it is either that or something else" he added.

He looked handed that PaDD over to her. "To be honest with you, I did not have much of a choice. The Sabre class starship that I was going to be assigned to was just pulverized into a debris field, compliments of some mercenary assholes from what I gathered. Apparently, they did not take too kindly to them poking about shipping lanes."

Taliserra took the Padd. "What ship was that? She asked, She'd not heard reports of a starship being destroyed so it must have happened very recently.

A solemness came over Ty momentarily. "The USS Espada," he replied with the information. He opted to omit he had known individuals serving aboard it. "All hands lost. There was practically nothing left when the debris field was searched."

Mercenaries Taliserra thought, she hoped it wasn't the dead skull privateers vessel that had escaped them only a few days ago. Making a mental note to get what information she could about the Espada's loss she quickly glanced through the Padd. "I hope they launch a full investigation and find who was responsible." She said, handing him the Padd back she motioned towards the door.

"I hope they are able to pinpoint who exactly is responsible," he replied sharply. So that I may see to it that they don't get another chance to destroy a starship he thought privately. "I don't know if you know anything about me, if you've had a chance to read my service record, but if you havent...trash it. Don't read it."

"Why would I not want to read it?" Taliserra asked surprised at the mans remark, she hadn't had the chance to read it yet but she had planned to.

He gave his uniform a swift tug. "Well, Captain," he said gruffly as he began to plow through the brief synopsis. "I killed my last Captain," he said not mincing words and not sugar-coating it.

Ty knew that would probably cause her to immediately stop her from moving an inch more. "By asphyxiation, and no I am not locked away behind a forcefield or doing hard time on a Federation penal colony. The fact of the matter is I had little choice in the matter. It was investigated thoroughly and no charges were brought against me, but I know Starfleet has it noted in my personnel file, and I would rather you hear it from me first than read it."

Taliserra stopped dead, they were only a few paces outside the transporter room which was good as she felt like dragging Ty back onto the pad and sending him straight back to Sb54. "What? You killed your Captain."

He looked at her and then around. Could you have said that any louder? he thought to himself with a heavy sigh. "I don't know if this is exactly the right time or place to discuss this, Ma'am," he said a bit firmly. "Perhaps this would be best explained in private maybe over some tea?"

"You're going to explain it to me right now Commander." Taliserra said more firmly than Ty had.

Ty flashed a small smile at Taliserra. He knew that he had at least grabbed her attention with his little snippet of information. "Before you send me back as a bad apple, the Captain was compromised by an alien organism, had removed the First Officer from duty, and the Chief Medical Officer was about as spineless as they come for a vertebrate."

"So you decided to kill him?" Taliserra continued, she wanted to know everything about the situation.

Ty shook his head. "No, of course not. Her by the way. My previous Captain was a woman. I would never seek to kill someone or something intentionally unless absolutely necessary. I shoved her into an airlock and slowly depressurized it...makeshift interrogation tactic. I know, not by the book."

He looked at his new Commanding Officer. "The organism that had control over her had made her irrational and deadly. There were lives at stake, the ship itself was at risk. We were getting nowhere."

Taliserra remained silent for a moment taking in what Ty had said before continuing her walk down the corridor. "I'm going to assume you did everything you could officially before resorting to those measures."

The man lifted his arms in a shrugging gesture. "Who's to say," he replied briskly. "Could I have done things differently? Yeah, but would that have turned out favorable...probably not. The First Officer was confined to quarters, the Chief Medical Officer was too afraid to make the wrong determination, and the Security Chief was a coward who would follow the Captain's orders no matter how insane they were."

"And you managed to get the investigators to see that this was the best thing you could have done and got off with just a warning." Taliserra asked as they reached a turbolift and stepped inside. "Bridge." She called out before Ty could respond.

"Well to be fair, if I did not do something to stop her, the Captain would have decimated a planet with a population in the billions," he said shaking his head. "That thing inside of her had complete control by the time things escalated, and apparently her knowledge of command codes. It was either stop her have a front-row seat to genocide. I suspect the Federation and Starfleet were grateful not to have that blood on their hands."

There it is Taliserra thought, the final piece of the puzzle. If he'd have opened with that their whole discussion could have been simpler. "I suspect they were."

The turbolit arrived at the bridge and Taliserra quickly crossed it and entered the ready room.

Ty followed his new Commanding Officer, watching her movement carefully. He wanted to see how she carried herself.

Taliserra sat down behind her desk. "Other than killing your last Co is there anything else I should be aware of?" She asked.

"I look Human and I have a very Terran last name, but that's purely cultural. I'm only half Human. My father was Ardonan which was where I was born and raised. There's not really anything special about that, but I figured I'd just let you know."

"I wouldn't mind if you were a Klingon," Taliserra replied "so long as I can trust you."

Ty scoffed and nodded. "Yeah, the feeling is mutual. I don't care what you are so long as you are you, and not compromised by an alien parasite...Trill symbiont aside," he teased. "I don't think my service record could withstand the death of another Commanding Officer."

"This host doesn't plan on dying any time soon." Taliserra said, it seemed Ty had been trying to find out if she was joined from the moment he'd beamed aboard so decided to indulge him.

That confirms that he thought regarding her status of being joined or not. He had suspected that she was, but now he knew 100% that she was. "Then, we have a common goal. Avoiding death for the time being," he stated. "What can you tell me about this upcoming mission, I have the brief notes, but I hadn't been officially assigned to your starship when they were given to me."

Taliserra handed a Padd over that she'd prepared earlier. "Something nice and simple, which is a rarity or this ship. We're to do some surveying around the Arbazan system."

"That is fairly simple," replied Ty. "The Arbazan species are a bit peculiar, their culture is antique compared to many other that make up the Federation, but I wouldn't foresee too many issues on just a simple surveying mission."

"That's what I'm hoping for, since I took over the Wolff we have seen our fair share of danger and crazy goings on," Taliserra explained. "We are due for something nice and easy."

Ty shrugged. "I have to admit, I was not pleased when they assigned me to the Wolff because of the Luna class' tendencies to be assigned on these charting, surveying, and general explorative missions. I like something a little more close to home and fast-paced, life or death."

Taliserra shook her head slightly in disagreement. "Being in life or death situations too often is draining, we need some peace and quiet occasionally to balance it out."

"Point taken," Ty replied. He smiled. "Sounds like the crew has had a rough go of things."

"Before I took over we nearly had the ship blown out from beneath us," Taliserra explained. "And since then almost nothing good has happened to my crew."

"Ah well," Ty replied. "Good thing I am here then. Good luck charm at your service."

Taliserra huffed. "I'd need a dozen of you just to level our luck out never mind make it good but it's a start."

"Let's get started," Ty replied. "I'll get my physical and psych evaluation out of the way, no promises passingbthe latter, but I'll give it my best."

"Get that done Asap Commander," Taliserra told him. "We're scheduled to leave at 1800hrs tomorrow."

Ty playfully saluted the Trill. "Aye aye, Captain...lickety-split" he added and relaxed his posture.

Taliserra sat back in her chair. "Dismissed."

He smirked a bit. She's a formal one he thought as he composed himself and gave a parting nod.


OFF:

Captain Taliserra Tigran
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Tyrus Acevedo
Executive Officer

 

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