New Arrivial
Posted on Mon May 20th, 2019 @ 11:34am by Lieutenant JG Lillian James & Captain Luka Mahone & Lieutenant Gunnar Arnason
2,157 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Deep Freeze
Location: en Route to the Colony
Timeline: MD 05 : 1301 Hrs
The problem being half-way to somewhere is you can’t choose the better of your two options, in this case, Lieutenant Jg Lillian James was half-way to the Haumea colony command center and half-way from the shuttle port. What had kept her from walking to either one was the frigid cold temperatures outside her ground vehicle. Checking the rest of the vehicle she let out a string of Klingon curses as she found only a med kit, and nothing else. She sent out a distress signal from the vehicle but she had no way of knowing if it was received or how long until help arrived. She was going to have words with the man in charge about not having properly working vehicles for new arrivals in this cold weather, she was lucky that she was told to expect cold weather.
Sitting in the broken down vehicle she tried to curl up as small as she could to preserve body heat. It certainly would have been more interesting if there was someone else with her. She gave herself a mental shake, and move her line of thought to something else. She hoped that she wasn’t going to run into any Klingons, he God-father taught her well enough to throw insults back and forth with each other, but as far as interacting with other Klingons she was nervous, Klingons, in general, made it an art to insult people and swear at them.
AS she sat there, she began to compose her letter to her mother, she was finding it difficult to get past anything that meant cold or freezing. She had no way of knowing how much time had passed as the windows froze over shortly after the vehicle stopped working. She thought she heard a voice but wasn’t sure, but a while later she was certain as she heard a male voice, muffled as it was over the blowing wind and through the broken down vehicle.
Once they located the broken down vehicle, Gunnar had stepped out into what was, even by his standards, pretty cold. Cold enough that his own experience with such temperatures cautioned against letting the engine in their own transport cool. "Keep the engine running, sir." Quite apart from any consideration of rank, when the rescue party was a Hawaiian and an Icelander, which should get out to check that the occupant had had the sense to stay inside seemed obvious.
He flipped open his medical tricorder as he got close, and rubbed gloved finger over the already fogging screen, then flipped a thumbs up toward Commander Mahone. There was someone inside, and while she was undoubtedly very cold, she wasn't yet hypothermic. "Hello," he called, rubbing frost from the window to peer inside. "You called for a lift?"
Letting the ground transport idle, Luka leaned over in his seat, eyes moving to the shuttle they were next to. He was ready to get out himself, hesitating only to look back and make sure their vehicle would remain on once he did. As the door opened and he stepped out, a chill went down his spine. "... I'll go get that blanket."
Lillian heard the voice and since she was too cold to be either sarcastic or angry at the moment she decided to just yell out, "Yes," and she tried to uncurl herself and found that her limbs did not want to move. Once she was able to sit properly in the seat she hit the side of the vehicle hoping that they could hear that over the wind.
"Okay, hold on, we'll get you," Gunnar assured her. He pressed the door release, but nothing happened. Not necessarily a big surprise given the conditions. "Bring a hand heater, sir," he called over to Luka. "The door's frozen shut."
Feeling better with just knowing that help was just outside, deciding that just sitting here wouldn't help, she decided to slowly move all the joints in body that she could, that way when she had to move it would hopefully be easier. Each joint protested in moving causing pain, but she worked through it.
Luka did more than that. He brought over a full emergency medical kit as well as the requested hand heater. As he handed the device over, he began to unfurl a stretcher out for the young woman. He squinted further inside the transport. "Is she the only one in there? Where's the driver?"
Hopefully not going for help, Gunnar thought as he expertly, having had to do this a time or two before, applied the heater. Grabbing a blanket, he quickly yanked the door open and tossed the blanket over the occupant. Recognizing stiffness from being curled against the cold, he reached in, getting arm around her. "Here, let me help."
Suddenly the door was opened and a blanket threw on her, still moving slow because of the stiff joints, she didn't expect the arm around her, "Th...th...thanks," Lillian stammered. "Wha...what t...t...took you s...s...so long?"
Luka frowned at the occupant of the vehicle, looking about for signs of a driver or any other occupant. He glanced to one side of the vehicle, then to the other. "... If we can't find the driver soon, I'll call in a security team to go on a search. We can't comb this whole area on our own."
"He l....l...left, s...s...s....said he was going b...back f...f...for help."
Lillian said as she curled into the man with his arm around her for warmth. "He said d....d...d...didn't have s.s...stuff he needed t...t...to fix the trans....s...sport."
Gunnar exchanged a look with Luka. Unless the driver had been Andorian, that had been a very bad idea. However, the trying to crawl into his side was shivering uncontrollably, and that required attention too. "First things first. Let's get you into a warm vehicle," he said, slipping his other arm under her legs and simply lifting and carrying her to their idling transport.
"B...b...best offer I've had all day, c...can I t....t....take you home with m...m.m..me?" Lillian asked, starting to feel a little warmer.
"I think the idea is for us to bring you home," he laughed, sure it was just stress-relief joking, though he could almost hear T'Ango trying to get him to blush with some joke about sweeping women off their feet.
"True, but once you say I can go home I'll drag both of you with me for warmth," Lillian said as her shivering was getting better. "But you know what Starfleet says to do in survival situations right?" Wagging her eyebrows at the men.
"Use contact for shared warmth but avoid sweating?" Gunnar deadpanned (though it was actually the right approach). "Having warm liquid with sugar content to replenish energy lost to shivering helps too," he remarked, handing her a thermos cup.
"Thanks," she said as she took the cup. "If I drag the two of you home it won't be in a survival situation.
All joking aside, I want to thank you guys. I appreciate the rescue." With that, Liilian set down the cup and walked over to Luka, gave him a kiss on the mouth, and in a voice just above a whsiper said "Thank you."
Walking over to Gunnar, she eyed him for a moment before just jumping into him and hoping that he would catch her.
When she leaped at him, Gunnar should have been faster - after all he'd been staring at her, albeit in surprise while he tried to decide whether what he'd just witnessed was due to prior relationship or a rare reaction to cold exposure hypoglycemia. He managed to catch her half on reflex, but stumbled backwards, hitting his back against the open door.
"What the-" Luka's cheeks flushed. He blinked a fair few times, before he hesitantly pulled out a communicator. "This is Commander Mahone to Security. We need a small team out here - preferably with someone who can endure extreme cold - to go out on a search for what we believe is a missing member of the ground transport crew. Last seen on the North side, en route from the Landing Facility to the colony proper. There's a downed ground transport on my coordinates, where the missing crewman was last spotted. Once we have more information, I'll relay it. Mahone out." He gave the pair a sideways look. "... Shall we?"
Lillian didn't hear what Luka said, just that he was talking, her focus on Gunner and how she was going to get up to his face, "Sorry but you're rather tall for those of us who are vertically challenged," she said before she kissed him. "Thank you." Looking at Luka, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention, what did you say?" She asked as Gunner lowered her to the floor.
"Um..." Gunnar cleared his throat slightly - it wasn't the first time a patient had unexpectedly planted a kiss, but those had usually involved intoxication or other mental confusion. One jumping into his arms for a 'thank you'? That was a first. "Just doing my job, ma'am," he said setting her down carefully, and just as deliberately turning his attention to Luka. "We may be able to find the driver if we head toward the Landing Facility, Commander. If not, the people in the control room probably know him, might have an idea of the route he'd take back."
"Wait, what?!" Lillian asked in surprise, suddenly feeling embarrassed, and wishing the floor would open up and swallow her, and not thinking, stepped wrong and fell flat on her rear. Looking up at Luka, "You're Commander Mahone?" Looking slightly agitated at Gunner, "And how are you? An Admiral?"
"Only a Lieutenant," Gunnar said, suppressing a chuckle as he reached down to give her a hand up.
"Thank goodness for small mercies," Lillian mumbled as she stood up, walked back over to her seat, "Well, since I made a complete fool of myself, I'm Lieutenant JG Lillian James. I'm the new assistant chief of security. Reporting for duty Sir," she said as she looked at Luka.
"You can report for duty after we get you to a medical facility," Luka replied, all but ignoring the woman's reactions. He leveled a serious look in her direction. "And I won't take no for an answer. Until Gunnar clears you, I'm putting you in his care." He flashed the other a glance, as if gauging a reaction. "I'll be heading back with you myself. I would wait for the search party to get here, but that's just not safe for anyone."
"Understood sir, I didn't plan on doing anything until I was released anyways, but when we get to medical, can I have my arrival physical at the same time? You know, kill two birds with one stone." Lillian replied. Glancing at Gunner, Lillian was seriously thinking about flirting with him, but thought better of while in the Commander's presence. "I tried to get the driver to stay here, but he refused to listen, is there anyway that we can check in at the station to see if he arrived back yet?"
"After going through this, I wouldn't release you without a thorough exam anyway," Gunnar said. Since she was clearly embarrassed, he didn't add that that should include a psych check in from Nikedoros, but he intended to see that that wa done. "As to checking with the station, I think giving them a comm would be wise, sir," he told Luka. "If he made it there, or shows up soon, they can inform security to call back the search party."
"Might I suggest sir, that you have someone make sure that there are emergency survival kits installed in each ground transport and shuttle. I certainly could have used one in this case." Lillian said.
"Maybe make the suggestions to your department head," Luka pointed out, following it up with an adamant, "After your exam." He turned back to the driver's seat of the working and still running transport, ready to make the suggested call before they piled in and drove off. "Anything we need from the transport immediately?"
"Understood Sir, I have a small carry all sir, once we have that there is nothing else I need right away." Lillian said, she decided that for the foreseeable future to avoid talking to Commander Mahone, she just kept digging the hole she was in deeper.
"I'll get it," Gunnar volunteered, quickly going to retrieve the bag before anything else untoward could happen. After grabbing the bag, he slid into the transport and nodded to Luka. "We're set to go, sir."
"Good." Luka had a rather neutral expression on his face as he readied the transport for their departure. "Then let's back before we're stuck out here ourselves."
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