Cadere a' gratia, Part Two

Posted on Wed Mar 2nd, 2022 @ 10:47am by Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D

Mission: Character Development
Location: Starfleet Medical; London, Earth.
Timeline: 2372
1762 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

The Vulcan's departure from the decommissioning festivities aboard the Oswald Avery had been characteristically late; very much enjoying the company of her friends and colleagues a final time. Though eagerly anticipating the future, and her coming assignment with Captain Bennett at Starfleet Medical, she was in touch enough with nostalgia over logic to consciously miss her ship, and Naal even more so. Their goodbye had been...intimate, to say the least, and she looked forward greatly to seeing him again whenever that may be.

Stepping across the courtyard to a Starfleet Medical building, she keenly eyed the beautiful gothic architecture around her. Spires of temples of ancient religions, and both private and civic architecture which sought to emulate the same, all set in seemingly old stone reaching for the heavens; she knew of course it was largely less than a few centuries old and was a faux rebuild of original structures following the decimation on Earth after it's third world war, where virtually every major city had been levelled. Nonetheless, allowing herself to believe for a moment that these buildings were over a thousand years old, she appreciated their beauty and majesty.

Her thoughts having carried across a cobbled yard and into a juxtaposing modern 24th Century building, she smiled inwardly at the dedication plaque at the reception; the Leonard H McCoy centre for genetic medicine, it read; with some quote from the infamous physician set underneath which she didn't have time to read as a young Andorian petty officer at the desk beckoned her forward. "Purpose of visit please" he said, with a politeness which barely hid her boredom.

"Visiting Captain Bennett for assignment" the Vulcan replied, offering a smile to the bored receptionist who seemed mildly uncomfortable to see a smiling Vulcan. "Transfer orders..." she finished, handing over a PADD to the unsettled Andorian, who placed the device on a reader.

Some kind of information cropped up on the receptionist's display; the Andorian eyeballed her, then looked at the screen again, and then eyeballed P'rel once more. "Transporter room" she said flatly, gesturing around a curved white wall to P'rel's left. "Transfer orders" she finished, handing the PADD back to P'rel.

"Transporter...? I thought I was meeting Captain Bennett at his office here...?" enquired P'rel, shifting her uniform tunic. She hadn't worn the thicker two piece uniform for quite some time and much preferred her thinner shipboard one. These older uniforms with black shoulders and large block-colour tunics were far too regal for her liking. They weren't comfortable, for one thing, and for another they were impractical, seemingly designed for comfort instead of function.

“Transfer orders” the Andorian repeated as flat as before. “Transfer orders” he repeated again. “Transfer orders” he once more repeated, and continued to do so in increasing frequency and pitch for a few concerning seconds, before he shimmered from existence accompanied by the recognisable sound of a holo+projector powering down.

“Damn.” Came a muffled voice from under the desk. Peeking over the top, P’rel noticed a young human engineer huddled in the footwell, poking his own head out. “Emergency medical receptionist my arse” he muttered in some kind of heavy regional accent the P’rel didn’t recognise and, were it not for Vulcan hearing, probably wouldn’t have been able to understand. “Just…whatever he said…” the engineer said with annoyance, waving the Vulcan away as if she were an errant hair or bothersome fly.

Taking the curious exchange in stride, P’rel followed the hologram’s directions toward what she hoped was a transporter room. On her way she couldn't help but listen to the audio for the holographic news feed which was displayed at various intervals along the wall, it was a conclusion to story she had taken an interest at the time; "....hit a major milestone today, as the final section of hull was removed from the planet, leaving only the final restoration phase of the vegetation and geography. Viewers will remember the dramatic events in the Veridian system nearly three years ago, which saw the Federation Flagship destroyed, with her saucer crash landing on Veridian 3. Federation engineers have been working in challenging jungle conditions to remove the hull of the Enterprise from it's final resting place, in order to preserve the natural evolution of the inhabitants of the neighbouring Veridian 4. We have this message from Commander Esstek, overseeing the project...". Finding it where she had been directed P'rel stepped into the room before the news story was able to finish the segment, she handed the PADD to the duty officer who put in a set of transport coordinates and handed the PADD back to her. “Where are the transport coordinates please?” The newly promoted lieutenant asked of the petty officer.

“Step onto the pad please ma’am” was the only response.

“Of course” P’rel responded, doing as requested. “But, the location?”

“Remain on the pad please”, the petty officer replied curtly.

“Emergency medical transporter chief?” P’rel asked, with some of the dry sarcasm she had picked up from her colleagues.

Seemingly getting the barb and being unimpressed by it, the transporter room shimmered blue momentarily and returned in almost identical form. The only difference was a different colour wall panelling, dark blue now, and the addition of Captain Bennett and a different transporter operator. He beamed at her whist taking two large strides with an outstretched hand; “Doctor P’rel, Lieutenant” he greeted her warmly.

“Captain Bennett” the Vulcan replied, with some friendly tone to her voice, though somewhat distracted and hoping to catch another news holo to watch the whole segment on the Enterprise.

“If you’ll follow me” Bennett gestured towards the doors as he led her out of the room. The corridors were quite different to what she had been expecting, the overly spacious design of earth facilities had been replaced with smaller more utilitarian corridors similar to a starship, though none of the telltale sounds and vibrations of a warp core or plasma network could be detected. For his part, the Captain gave no acknowledgement either way as to where they now were. “Lieutenant may I assume you read the briefing report?” He asked her after some walking.

“Yes sir” she replied, her hands held behind her back as they walked through a lengthy maze of corridors. “Though I am curious…”; the length of the corridors without going up or down in a turbo lift suggested a large flat plane, such as a planet or an enormous capital ship like a Galaxy Class, or one of the two new Sovereign Classes - Sovereign and Enterprise - but she reminded herself of the absence of the engine, and concluded they must still be on Earth, though the total absence of windows and the cramped space was intriguing.

“Please” he replied, inviting her to continue.

“The classification level on the report was above my clearance level, and it was a co-signed report with Starfleet Intelligence…”

“It was” he replied, giving little away. Entering a small room with a theme-fitting utilitarian desk, and a single large working panel behind it, Bennett gestured to the only spare chair in the small room. An office where one was clearly not accustomed to regular visitors. “Lieutenant, before we go any further you must know this. We are Starfleet Medical, however the project you are to work on is a joint operation under the purview and overall command of intelligence. From this moment, your continued presence in this room in this facility on this project is an understanding of that, and of the sensitive nature of the work. Your security level will be enhanced for project materials pertaining to this operation, and you will discuss nothing of the project outside of colleagues involved in it. Are those terms understood and accepted?”

“Sir” she replied, with a nod. This was all very interesting to the relatively young doctor; she had worked in internal security for Vulcan before but that was essentially quite limited work, restricted to jurisdictional issues within the Vulcan sector. The idea of doing medical work for starfleet intelligence was as intriguing as it was mysterious. P’rel sat down and placed her hands in her lap.

“Tell me what you know of the Jem’Hadar, Lieutenant P’rel” asked Bennett. She had noticed the man often led divulgence of information with a question first, perhaps trying to ascertain what was already known and using that to shape what information was shared.

Crossing her feet, she remained poised upright, "A warrior race, artificially bred and possibly cloned, not totally incomparable to the Klingon Empire, native to the Gamma Quadrant. Addicted to a narcotic which they are dependent on to survive, and which is controlled by the Founders, the leaders of the Dominion, via the Vorta - a kind of ambassadorial management species, one might say". She paused, though Bennett looked on expectantly as if she were to continue. "The addiction element however is now open to some debate....it seems." She concluded, referring to the briefing report she was given.

"Indeed it is Lieutenant". Bennett took his own seat behind the desk. "As the report you were read indicated, a physician and an engineer from the station in the Bajoran sector discovered a group of Jem'Hadar alone on a planet, attempting to cure their dependency on the drug - Ketracel White as they term it. As you know, the bottom line is that one soldier had a mutation which meant it was not dependant on the drug. We are interested in that mutation."

Noticing that Captain Bennett referred to the solider as "it", though didn’t dare to challenge him on the pronoun. “In order to recreate it…” she concluded aloud. “I presume with the ultimate goal of liberating the Jem’Hadar from their addiction, thus ending their oppression?”

Bennett looked at her for what seemed a long time, eventually clicking his tongue against his teeth he simply responded with a rather unconvincing “of course”. He rose, and P’rel followed the action. “Now, Lieutenant, if you’ll follow me I can show you to your working space and introduce you to others in the team…” he gestured for her to exit the room ahead of him.

As the Vulcan stepped back out into the corridor, she couldn’t help but acknowledge the distant feeling of unease creeping up inside her. She had never been one for change, and hoped the feeling was just discomfort at the changes to her life in taking the new job with Captain Bennett.