“This is crazy.” Slyvexs remarked under her breath as she continued with her medical scans of the children and young people that had just come out of stasis. 

“Doctor, your continued sharing of your frustration is not going to change my mind or your situation.” Stated Captain Jyster, her irritation of the doctor’s constant barrage of comments was evident in her tone. “You and your crew are now safe on my ship and will care for my children. Please continue with the treatment regime as previously shared..”

Biting her bottom lip, Slyvexs said nothing and carried on with her medical team around her. All of them had been transported to what was called the hospital area. At least three levels high with numerous wards, their patients were all of the young people that they had rescued from the stasis tubes. Barely speaking to their new guardians, the young people kept to themselves after receiving instructions from Captain Jyster to cooperate with the Odyssey crew. It was the job now of Doctor Slyvexs and her team to treat them all from their cellular degeneration. Once they were done they would be returned to the rest of the crew. 

Moving on to her next patient, the Denobulan doctor recognised who the young man was. It was the first youngster  they had found in stasis and Captain Jyster had stated that he was her son. “Jorgeh, isn’t it?” She asked as she raised her tricorder. 

The young man just nodded. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Slyvexs said, “I’m Doctor Slyvexs and I promise we are not here to harm you.” Looking at her tricorder her smile grew further. “You’re responding well to the treatment we’ve provided. That’s good.”

He said nothing. 

Looking behind him, she noticed his brother sitting behind him. “Wylem, I’ll be with you shortly.” She said, trying to gain their trust by being nice. Looking back to Jorgeh, Slyvexs spoke more. “You both look alike, you can see your brothers.”

Returning the compliment with a smile, the teenage alien humanoid looked at Slyvexs appearing more at ease than a second ago. “Thanks.” Jorgeh answered weakly.

“You’re lucky, I don’t resemble any of my brothers.” Slyvexs said as she completed her scan.

“How many brothers do you have?” Wylem asked as he got closer to his brother and the doctor. 

“I had twelve, but sadly four of them are no longer with us.” Sylvexs answered as she started to scan the younger brother. “I also have eight sisters and many children and grandchildren myself.”

“Really?” Jorgeh questioned. “You don’t seem old enough to be a grandmother!”

Chuckling a bit at that compliment, Slyvexs appreciated it. “Thank you Jorgeh, that’s very sweet of you.” She finished her scan of Wylem. “You’re both are perfectly well now. The treatment my team has given you has done its job.”

“Thank you.” Jorgeh said. 

“You’re welcome.” Slyvexs said as she moved on from the two teenagers to the next group besides them. Looking back at the two boys who were related to Captain Jyster, she wondered just how much they understood what was going on. Not wanting to hear another telling off, she returned to her work and was certain she would find Captain McCallister and the others to catch them up on what she had found. 

Sitting or standing around an outdoor table under some trees, in what was known as the valley on the Quirennal, the rest of the senior crew were all discussing their current dilemma. After Jyster had beamed the rest of the adult population over from the Odyssey, she had forced everyone into the valley as precaution to stop them from trying to take over the ship.

Anger filled the veins of Captain McCallister. He had found this alien ark, he had been the one wanting to investigate it, he had been the one wanting them to help them. His generosity had been abused and taken for granted. His mood was apparent with everyone else and they all shared his sentiments. 

Walking across the large field they found themselves currently in were Lieutenant Commander T’Rani and Counsellor Samris. The Vulcan pilot and Romulan counsellor had returned from the nearby lake. 

“They are all fine.” T’Rani mentioned as she approached the group and sat down on one of the benches. “Lieutenant Commander Quendez reports he has not seen any other members of the cetacean ops team besides Lieutenant Artir and those who are humanoid based.”

“The think tank may be our only hope in getting outside help.” Samris referred to the Xindi-Aquatics that served the Odyssey. He didn’t include the others, including the pair of beluga whales brothers and the group of bottlenose dolphins. “That’s if they can get control of the ship.”

McCallister appreciated their input and nodded to show this. “Okay, I’m not sure where we go with this. Ideas people?” He asked those surrounding him. 

“Captain Jystar does have, what an old academy instructor of mine would call, the home advantage here.” Lieutenant Tomaz stated. He was sitting on a bench opposite to the captain with Flemen beside him. “She has full access to every system and the technology she has is pretty impressive too. That said, we do outnumber her.”

“Tomaz is right, the level of technological advancement we’ve seen so far places her just above our understanding.” Jen added, he was standing behind the captain. The ops manager continued to share his assessment. “For one instance the transportation is almost similar to the translocator technology used by the Nyrians that Voyager encountered in its third year here in the Delta Quadrant.”

“Lukiz and I believe it’s how she was able to transport everyone off the ship through the shields and grab everyone in one go.” Hunsen backed up Jen’s claims. “And from what we can tell some of this natural environment uses a form of particle synthesis all of which is powered by a thermionic generator.”

“So I take it that whatever type of rescue mission we may want to hope for from Odyssey we need to be able to help them to level the playing field.” Reyas said from where she was sitting next to her husband. 

“I would hate to find out what type of weaponry this ship has.” Lenjir said from where he was sitting. 

“There’s no way even Odyssey could take on the Quirennal.” Tomaz remarked.

“Why are we expecting a full blown confrontation?” Duncan questioned them all. “I mean, is there no way we could find a diplomatic solution here?” 

“I was going to suggest the same thing.” Flemen commented. “I know we’re being held against our will but Captain Jystar’s demands are so far nothing too harsh for us to work on.”

“That’s easier said than done, especially when your own children have been left behind.” Reyas said, sounding almost frustrated. It was apparent she and others who were parents on Odyssey were highly concerned for the children that were now on the ship without any adult supervision. 

“Have faith Karyn,” Court responded. The senior enlisted man had been sitting next to Commander Duncan on a bench besides the captain and chief science officer. “Knowing your sons, I reckon they’re rallying the teenagers left behind to look after the much younger ones. Alongside that before we left most of the holographic crew were operational.”

“You’re right Tobi,” Reyas replied. “I just don’t feel comfortable knowing we’ve left a huge piece of Federation hardware in the hands of a bunch of teenagers. God knows what they’re up to.”

“Let’s go back to Max and Craigen’s ideas about a diplomatic solution.” McCallister said, trying to re-assert some control over the discussion. “Gentlemen, your thoughts?”

Duncan inclined for Flemen to resume first. The diplomatic officer took the cue and spoke up. “Captain Jystar wants us to remain here on the Quirennal to care for her children and young people that Slyvexs is treating right now. What if we can find another solution where we are allowed to return to the ship and these young people are cared for?”

“Have our cake and eat it too.” Duncan included. “My thoughts as well. We need to understand how she envisions us caring for them. I’m assuming she wants us to take on some sort of guardian role, but we need to know how that would work. Is she going to group us off with her children or is it just meant to let them roam free of this ship and check in with them every so often?”

“Given the fact that the hologram of Jystar is based on the original flesh and blood version, I’d say she would want the former. Her actions portray that she is taking these decisions as a mother.” Samris contributed. “If that’s the case then we may have a way in to begin negotiations. Appeal to the parent side of her program”

Turning to her husband, Reyas spoke up. “We should try talking to her, parent to parent. Perhaps bring in Slyvexs as well.”

“You three are probably the most logical choices to open such a rapport.” T’Rani stated.     

 McCallister considered the idea and scratched his chin. “It’s one possibility, any others?”

“We need to understand what we can and can’t do while here in the valley, sir.” Lenjir stated. “Let me use the hazard teams to scout the area and understand what our boundaries are.”

“Sounds good.” McCallister agreed with his security chief. “We still need to understand what technology we are up against.” He looked to his chief engineer, chief operations officer and chief strategic operations officer. “Trent, Lukiz and Tomaz, I want you three to take the lead on that and use every one from your departments to do that. They’ll have to use the old fashioned way of making assessments just with their eyes and hands.”

Tomaz, Jen and Hunsen all looked at one another and nodded in agreement. 

“In the meantime we also need to deal with the crew’s morale.” Duncan stated. “Those who are parents are going to be feeling the same amount of powerlessness and concern over the state of their children.”

“With the rest of my team, I believe I can deal with that, sir.” Samris offered. 

“Make it so,” McCallister instructed. “I want everyone to know we are not giving up hope and we will find a way to get home.”

“Captain, I’d like to offer my services to determine how Captain Jyster plans to provide essential services to us, like food and shelter.” T’Rani proposed. “Also making sure the crew are confident in their survival training would aid us as well.”

“Then that’s all of yours to manage, T’Rani.” McCallister said. “Max, Craigen, Tobi, I want you all to come with me and Karyn to see if we can open some sort of diplomatic channels with Captain Jyster.” All of them nodded in agreement, “Let’s reconvene here in two hours and see what progress we can make.”

The group all agreed to the plan and got up to get on with working a way to get themselves back to the Odyssey.