A New Mutation

Posted on Sun Nov 28th, 2021 @ 4:14pm by Jerant van Rijn & Commander N'Garzi Zora

Mission: With Gleaming Eyes
Location: Planetside hospital grounds
Timeline: MD2, early evening
1329 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Still suited up, for safety purposes, Jerant had left their small party to have a wander around among the patients. He knew that Savin could handle himself as long as not too many people were speaking, and he was sure Ki could help out if utterly needed. The Betazoid linguist walked among the patients, listening left and right, trying to get a feel for the language.

What he did notice, was that there weren't just a handful of Cardassian patients among the great many Metis patients, but there were a great many hybrids of the two species as well. And that gave him pause for a moment. Because he didn't just see the hybrids on their own, in a variety of age groups, but he saw entire mixed families among the sick and dying as well. He made a mental note to report this to the chief medical officer later, if the man's keen sense of observation hadn't picked this up as well.

He smiled as a small round object landed at his feet, and he knelt to pick up what appeared to be a ball. "Is this yours?" he asked of a clearly hybrid child, holding the item out to her. "My name is Jerant, what's yours?"

The child followed the path of the ball as it rolled along the ground and stopped at the man's boot. She looked up at the stranger and at first was very frightened of what she saw; a metallic silver and white armoured suit, with flashing lights, and a domed head. She had never witnessed anything like it before in her life. But what truly scared her was that it spoke, and she understood it. She instinctively took a step back as it introduced himself to her. Her parents had always warned her not to speak to strangers, but if she didn't reply to the armoured figure, would it hurt her? Would it disintegrate her with one of its many flashing lights? She couldn't take that risk.

"Keeva," the girl managed to say. "Are you going to hurt me?"

"I would never hurt a child," Jerant spoke, kneeling a little lower so she could actually see his face. He could easily sense her fear and the last thing he wanted was for them to be afraid of him. He still held out his gloved hand, hoping she'd take the ball. "Me and my friends are here to help those who are sick. I'm not a doctor, but I can help with conversation, if I get some insight on your language. Do you, and maybe some of your friends want to help me with that?"

Keeva cocked her head to one side. Now that she could more clearly see the man, she realised he was just another alien in a strange hat, not as scary as she first thought. She still needed to be wary of those lights though, and the lies. "I can understand you just fine, Mister," she said in a stubborn voice.

Jerant smiled patiently. "That's because of a device called the universal translator," he explained, "but sometimes it fails to translate things, and then it's up to people like me to learn the language and help update it so it won't happen again. I am what you call a linguist, it's my job to learn languages." He nodded over to a group of children that had gathered and was watching their exchange. "Maybe you can help me?" he repeated, "I'll just sit right here, and you can point at things and tell me what you call it, and I'll tell you what we call it in Federation Standard." He smiled brightly at her. "Maybe that'll make you a local linguist too," he suggested.

Keeva once again stared at the man. Even though she understood the words he was saying, he wasn't making much sense. She had no idea what a linguist was, or a universal translator. In fact the only thing she had caught that made sense to her was the name: Federation. She had heard that spoken among the elders in hush whispers as though they were the saviours who would rescue them; or the hell bent destroyers who would doom them. "I want to wear your helmet," was all she said, in the same stubborn tone.

For a moment, Jerant held his breath. "Tell you what," he promised her, "when this is over, and we've found a way to heal all your sick, I'll find you an entire suit in your size for you to have." He was sure that something could be arranged for that, or replicated in terms of something to play with. "My helmet is far too big for you I'm afraid." He couldn't really tell her that he had it for his own safety now could he? He didn't want the child to think she was somehow dangerous either. "What do you think?"

Keeva watched as her friends made a circle around the two, leaving them in the middle. She was certain that the man didn't notice and she was also certain that she knew what her friends were planning; just a little bit longer. "No! I. Want. It. Now!" She said, no longer playing the sweet and innocent stubborn girl, but the commanding leader she was born to be.

As though on cue, the other children all rushed towards the man and with fingers and hands quicker than lightning, they held the helmet in a loud triumphant roar of noise. Keeva backed away from the man, just as the other children did too, reforming the circle they had broken to initiate the game. The rules were simple, they had something that he clearly wanted, they would pass it to each other, keeping it from him as long as they could. There was never anything to do here, and a naive alien made for ideal fun. "Roskat in the centre," Keeva yelled as she caught the helmet that had been thrown to her.

Jerant had sensed the crowd of gathered children, but he couldn't -and simply wouldn't- get a read on them all at once. The damage already done, he didn't really see a need to try and retrieve the helmet. What was the point, since he now was already exposed? "Clever," he commented to Keeva, "but what you just did is extremely dangerous. It is also very wrong to just take what you desire, without a thought for the consequences." Where before his voice had been friendly, it now held a touch of anger and beratement.

He watched them for a few seconds more, before pushing himself up to his feet and backing away from the crowd. He knew very well that for the moment, there was no rejoining the medical team, or even going back to the ship. Quarantine protocols had to be observed, but how was he going to do that without possibly compromising the rest?

"Spoil sport," Keeva said as she puffed out her chest and stuck out her tongue. If the alien wasn't interested in getting the helmet back then why had they gone to all the trouble of getting it from him in the first place? Aliens were really strange, they didn't know any of the games or any of the rules and this made her mad. Keeva and her friends passed the item to each other for a few more minutes, but without someone scrambling to get it back, this game really wasn't any fun, so they quickly ditched it and went back to playing with their ball, looking for their next victim for their games and entertainment.

His helmet now abandoned, Jerant scrambled for it and quickly put it back on. He was already starting to feel cold, as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice over him just for fun. As fast as he could, he hurried back to the medical compound, where he explained he had to be isolated from the rest.