Bridge – Deck 1

Kirin sat in the command chair of the bridge looking at the view screen in the dimmed lights of the yellow alert which showed two unknown contacts approaching their position. “What is their status,” she asked without turning around. 

Belania had just moments before rushed onto the bridge with Ril after dashing up from the main observation lounge. She relieved the young ensign from the ship’s main Operations console and took in the information before her. She could understand why the Captain has called for a yellow alert, two large ships were approaching at high warp. “Hard to say Captian, there is alot of interference around them so I cannot get a good reading but they are all broadcasting distress calls on open channels. Give me a moment to isolate one.”

Kirin nodded but left it there. She then glanced back at Ril, “Notify Kerry and her team that they may need to beam up momentarily. Let Crewman Trisim know that she will need to be ready for a possible emergency beam out.”

“Captain, I have cleaned it up but it isn’t great, audio only,” Belania stated.

“Play it,” Kirin said.

Over the bridge coms came the audio, ‘We need assis….t. De…e Imp….um attacked our m…g colony and ships. Engi… and life s…ort failing. Please help.’

Kirin visibly relaxed at hearing the distress call. The last thing she wanted to to be confronted by a group of Devore warships or a Hirogen hunting pack, “Keep us at yellow alert but prepare relief teams. Has the reading cleared up at all?”

Belania shook her head, “The interference appears to be large amounts of theta radiation emanating from their vessels. The translator indicated the language was Malon, if that is the case it would explain the radiation.”

“Ah, notify Nurse Thame that we may have wounded. Really wish that damn EMH was working!” Kirin said just as four points of light flashed on the view screen and two Malon transport ships dropped from warp several hundred kilometres from the Sojourner.

“Hail them,” Kirin said as she stood up and straighten her top.

“Channels are open.”

“This is Commander Kirin Tarken of the USS Sojourner, we just received your distress call as you approached. How can be of assistance?

A moment later the view screen was replaced with the image of an elderly Malon woman who looked exhausted and on the verge of collapse, “Greeting Commander, I am Palek. I appreciate your offer, our ships are damaged and the radiation tanks ruptured. We also have some people who were injured when the Devore attacked our mining colony. Anything you can do to help would be appreciated.”

Kirin nodded, “We will do what we can, my XO will beam over with repair teams and do what he can. I would ask that your vessels move towards…” Kirin paused and looked down at the system display. “The small rocky world further out of the system. The Theta radiation your ships are leaking could cause lasting damage to the planet.”

Palek looked on a little annoyed but nodded and moments later the two Malon ships began to turn and head towards the outer system. “I appreciate that, if you would like to transfer your injured over our med bay is open to you. I would like to hear more from you about the attack,” Kirin stated.

“I appreciate that, we await your repair teams and I will have our injured ready for transport,” Palek said.

Medical- Deck 4; 22:05

Kirin walked into the medical to find Ensign Joy Thame, though she preferred Nurse Joy, busy pulling out equipment and other things she thought she might need once the Malon arrived. Though she was only an ensign Joy had been a trauma nurse for over 20 years before joining Starfleet and Kirin was very seriously considering making her the acting CMO until a replacement could be found.

“Nurse Joy, I wanted to check in, the injured Malon crew are almost ready for transport. Do you need any assistance?” Kirin asked.

“Depends on the injuries, just wish the cursed EMH was working.” Joy said as she continued to move around medical without looking at Kirin, clearly focused on what she was doing.

Before Kirin could respond Belania’s voice came over the comms, “Captain, Palek has confirmed that eight of her passengers are ready for transport, she claims they are the worst off.”

“You all set?” Kirin asked looking at Joy. To which she shrugged.

Kirin tapped her combadge and responded, “Ok Lieutenant, bring them over.”

A moment later the medical bay lit up as the transporter engaged and a moment later eight Malon were standing in the middle of the medical.

Nurse Joy stepped up to them with her medical tricorder and frowned, “Ok, everyone onto a bed, I will triage you and get to you all shortly.” At that, both Kirin and Joy began to help them to the various biobeds around the room.

After they were all lying on the beds Joy turned to Kirin, “A hand would be of use if you can spare some staff it would be appreciated.”

Kirin nodded, “I will see what I can do but we will have someone here shortly.” She paused for a moment and thought, ‘What the hell,’ “Computer activate EMH.”

Joy looked at her and shook her head, “Never works,” she began to say but stopped dead when the form of a man appeared between the two of them.

“I guess I should say, ‘What is the nature of the medical emergency?’ but it is obvious isn’t it.” the EMH said.

Kirin looked at the EMH and frowned but before she could say anything he nodded to her, “Captian Tarken it is good to see you again.”

Kirin glared at the EMH, “You transferred yourself over? Is that why we haven’t had an EMH for the last 3 weeks?! Give me one good reason I should delete your programme the second we get back to Federation space?”

The EMH shrugged, “I am better than the other EMH, figured you wanted the best, I have been ready for a while but Nurse Joy here seemed more than qualified to handle the minor injuries until now and they were boring.”

Joy looked between Kirin and the EMH, “What is going on? You know this EMH?”

“In short yes, he was the EMH on my last command and was always odd, but knew his stuff. I guess he decided to tag along when we moved to the Sojourner.” Kirin said with annoyance.

“I would love to chat,” the EMH began, “but as you can see there are people in need of medical treatment, Nurse Joy shall we get started? I believe the patient on the bed at the end is in most dire need of care for now; radiation and energy weapon burns by the looks of it.”

Joy looked between Kirin and the EMH aghast, “Do it,” Kirin said to her before looking at the EMH. “When this is sorted we are having a talk.”

Ready Room – Deck 1: 00:30

Two hours later Kirin sat in her ready room looking out the window at the Malon transport silently counting her luck it wasn’t one of their waste transports. She was amazed that a society as advanced as theirs hadn’t invented or procured the means of disposing of anti-matter waste.  

Stifling a yawn she stood up and stepped to the replicator and ordered a large coffee. Between having Thanen and his teams on the other Malon ships, Kerry and her team still on the planet finishing up their survey and now the blasted EMH operational she could feel a headache coming on. One that she really didn’t have time for as the day was long from finished.

Several minutes later the door chimed notifying her that the guest she had been expecting had arrived. “Enter.”

The door opened to reveal the Molan leader, Palek. “Commander, thank you for inviting me over. And for everything you have offered.”

Kirin nodded and gestured to the sofa by the window, “We are happy to help Palek, please have a seat.”

Kirin studied the woman for a moment as she entered the room and sat on the sofa, her skin showed old scaring from theta radiation lesions but nothing recent., “I have spoken to our medical team and all your people going to be fine. They had some minor radiation poisoning which was treated and I will have radiation treatment sent over for the rest of your people as well. Our engineering team has also reported that it will be another 12 hours until your ships are ready but once there you should be able to continue on.”

Palek smiled, relief clearly visible on her face, “That is great to hear, if there is anything we can do to pay you back please ask.”

“That leads me to the next point, “One of your people was shot, I assume it happened when the Devore attacked your mining colony?”

Palek nodded, tears coming to her eyes, “Yes. We have never had issues with them before as they know we aren’t telepaths but one of their survey ships showed up about a week ago and they beamed down and claimed we were in violation of their space. We had been mining there for years…I can only think it had to do with the new red dilithium that began to appear on the asteroid. They arrested all the miners and locked down the mining transport as well as the waste transport that was docked then told the rest of us to leave or we would be arrested as well. Some people fought back, trying to get their partners and damaged the waste transport, several were killed. The Devore fired on our vessels in response. We had to leave, otherwise, I think they would have killed us all.”

“I am sorry to hear that and I wish I could say it was a one-off event but we are getting reports of the Devore expanding in almost all directions. But as you mentioned new dilithium deposits it makes sense, they have been laying claim to it everywhere.” Kirin said.

Palek looked at Kirin and then around the room, “Your ship, and the Federation, could you help my people? Get them back from the Imperium? I think they kept them there so that they could mine it for them.”

Kirin sighed not sure how best to respond, “This isn’t a warship, we are a science and exploration vessel but if you give me the coordinates I will see what we can do. I cannot make any promises though.”

Palek nodded, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks, “I understand. I will have the coordinates sent over soon, it’s a binary pulsar system, you cannot miss it. That fact you even listened to means alot, not to mention what you are doing for our ships and crew. Thank you.” She wiped the tears away with her sleeve and smiled. “I should get back to my ship after I check on my people here if that is ok?”

Nodding Kirin rose to her feet and walked with Palek onto the bridge, she gestured to one of the crewmen at the secondary operations console. “Please show Palek to medical and then the transporter room when she is ready.”

After they left Kirin glanced over at the viewscreen and the image of the two Malon ships there before turning to leave the bridge and calling it a night.