USS DEMORA-SULU: Not Alone in the Out There

SD: 23.0110.2045 (Pacific)
Scene: DEMORA bridge
Time: shortly after the Pirates threaten to attack,
 believing DEMORA is attacking them with dark matter
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It smelled terrible.

CO Darr'chuh was wakened by an awful smell. It was a mix of burning carpet and wires with a dash of coagulated blood thrown in. The top of his head, his whole right leg and his right wrist protested with varying degrees of pain as he tried to lift himself from the floor just enough to look around.

"Oh, good. Captain, could you help me out of this?" a Lt<jg> over near the Science station asked.

Darr'chuh couldn't remember the fellow's name right at the moment, but he recognized the Tellarite as one of DEMORA's crew. The poor little fellow was pinned against the secondary station by the deformation of the chair he had been sitting in when... Suddenly, the last few moments Darr'chuh could remember before waking replayed in his mind and he swayed, clutching his aching head.

"Captain?"

The ship had been rapidly succumbing to the desructive force of dark matter as the crew scrambled to discover a way out of their predicament, when suddenly there had been a fantastic jolt- and then his nose had filled with that stink. What could cause a lurch that sudden and powerful?

"Captain!"

"Sorry, Lieutenant Turgon. I'll get you out of there," Darr'chuh replied reassuringly.

He walked the few feet, almost stumbling at the unexpected difficulty of raising his right foot, then put one paw on the back of the chair and braced the other on the Science station. He heaved and was shocked at how difficult releasing the pressure on the Lieutenant's chest was. Darr'chuh's head was pounding now and sending shooting pains down to his left eye and left jaw.

"Are you alright, sir? I don't have much medical training and I couldn't reach anyone while I was trapped. How long do you think it will be before a Medical team makes it up here? Where do you think the repair teams are?"

Turgon was obviously suffering from reaction to the events of the day. Darr'chuh took a deep breath. That actually helped a little with his head pains.

"There are medkits stored here on the bridge, remember Lt? Why don't you go and get one and see how much of your First Aid training you remember," Darr'chuh suggested, glancing around at their comrades who still lay unconscious.

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Scene: DEMORA, bridge
Time: numerous hours and a lot of repairs later

"... so, basically, we don't know where the dark matter went, but we are -very- certain that it is gone."

The reporting Engineer took Darr'chuh's nod as permission to race off on his return trip to Main Engineering. The repairs were not difficult, other than the conduits directly affected by the dark matter, but it was so widespread that it was a long, drawn-out recovery.The sheer quantity of work to be done was the difficulty.

"Captain, we're receiving a communique from SB OMEGA."

Darr'chuh started to say he'd take it in his readyroom, when the young substitute Conn officer added, "Um, and we're receiving a message from the planet."

Well, THAT was a bit extra interesting. From the sensor readings he had perused, the planet ought to have been inhospitable enough to be devoid of life.

"In my readyroom," he replied quickly and took the unusual pause between status reports to duck into a slightly quieter setting.

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Scene: DEMORA, readyroom
Time: after the repairs and most of the trip to OMEGA

Looking out at the magnificent view he currently had of the starbase, Darr'chuh thought back to their latest adventure. It turned out they had blundered into a testing area used by a previously undiscovered, very advanced race. The dark matter had been generated by a shipdrive they were trying to work the bugs out of; only the DEMORA's unnannounced arrival had led them to an emergency cooldown and shutoff of the drive. They had burnt it out, actually, and weren't in a receptive mood when Darr'chuh had told them they could petition to join the Federation.

"Years of research, brought to a halt by persons who cannot read warning signs!" the senior alien scientist had squeaked in his distress.

It hadn't helped when Darr'chuh asked what 'warning signs' he was talking about.

Now, though, they were back in safe territory with much more understandable people in charge. It was a heavy price to pay that he was losing two people he'd grown so attached to. Darr turned back around and looked FO Ro Jarrod in the eye. Then, he turned his gaze to CSciO Kallesin n' Galleda. He was going to be sacrificing a lot in losing these two. Orders. Darr'chuh sighed and sat at his desk, his leg still bothering him a bit.

"Well, at least I can recommend the COCHRANE to you both." He paused for a long moment, trying not to get too worked up. "I am surely going to miss you both."

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NRPG: Tags?

Best Wishes,
Janet Gist

USS DEMORA-SULU, CO
Capt Darr'chuh

USS COCHRANE, ???
<you'll find out>