(Snip)

“You wouldn’t like the answer if I was honest”

“Try me.”

For potentially the first time since boarding the USS Challenger, the young cadet let out a smile and a chuckle. He took the now empty vial from the hypospray machine and inserted a new vial of Terakine. He noted that he hadn’t felt the ship shake and he wondered if whatever was going on had finally stopped and he would be able to work without fear of his patient ending up on his lap.

“Just a quick injection of painkillers, like I promised. Whilst I work, do you know what’s going on?” he asked as he continued to move methodically, injecting 2ml of Terakine in order to dull the pain the lounge host was feeling. Once the cocktail of medicines had kicked in, he could see about getting her moved to sickbay. It would just be a small wait until that occurred.

Cadet Zachariah Conway - Medical

A cryptic smile played across her face. “More than you, most likely.” She paused as the terakine started flowing through her body and she felt that moment were the pan eased. “Orions want our cargo. Our special archaeological cargo that we’re took on from a Corvallen freighter because they had been attacked multiple times. Which is curious, because unless the archaeological finds are so valuable they can sell them on the black market. But the goods will be hot, and hard to move after. Especially after alerts will be out because they attacked vessels, including a Starfleet vessel. It doesn’t add up.” How Demara knew all this was a mystery and it wasn’t like she had been on the bridge during all of this. She also wasn’t offering up any more clues just now.

~Demara, Lounge Host

Cryptic.

It was the only way to describe what the girl was saying. She clearly knew a lot about the situation, more than probably most department heads did. He wasn’t going to probe for more however, she’d given him enough to think about already. The ship had been attacked by the Orions due to some cargo that they took on board whilst he would have been working.

“Must be some important cargo” he said finally, after a few seconds of empty air. He pushed himself up to his feet, having been crouched since he’d first used the hypospray upon the lounge host. He hadn’t realised he’d gotten a bit of a cramp in his thigh from how long he’d been crouched there and he took a few seconds to shake his leg out and get some feeling back.

“Or, they think it is,” Demara countered.

“I don’t suppose they’ll stay around long enough for us to ask” he added, his more humourous side starting to show for the first time since he boarded the USS Challenger.

“You feeling up for a walk to sickbay? If not, I can try and see if we can get an emergency transport down there” he asked softly, placing the ball in her court. He wasn’t going to rid her of her independance without asking, he knew how undignified it could be to have to rely on the emergency transporter and thus he figured he would give her the option. “Hopefully those Orion’s don’t decide they fancy round three”

Cadet Zachariah Conway - Medical

She nodded. “I’m feeling better already.” The inaprovaline was helping and the internal bleeding was slowing down. She already appeared more alert than she had been.

Demara pushed herself to her feet with a smooth motion and pulled down her black tunic dress over her grey leggings. She gave him a nod and headed out of the cargo bay.

As they stepped into the corridor though the power fluctuations were more apparent than before. And then there were signs of damage, with bits of debris on the floor, holes in the ceiling and parts dangling. Demara paused and held up her left hand to signal for him to hold up. She reached into her pocket with her right hand and pulled out an impossibly tiny phaser that looked like it might be Starfleet issue. “Someone is here,” she said in a low voice.

~Mischief Maker

“What a mess”

He couldn’t even catch it, the words just slipped out of his brain without a filter the moment the duo went out into the corridor. Zachariah wasn’t an engineer by any stretch, but even he could tell there wasn’t meant to be holes in the ceiling and bits hanging down from above. Star Fleet starships had a reputation for being immaculate, and the current presentation of deck 6 was anything but.

Then she stopped him and before he knew it she had a small phaser in her hands. She spoke softly, mentioning another presence that he hadn’t even noticed. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound good. She seemed much more comfortable in this situation than he, so he was more than happy to allow her to take the lead, especially since his concotion of drugs appeared to have her on the mend.

“You’re in charge” he spoke softly, quietly, gesturing to her as he did.

Cadet Zachariah Conway - Medical