Stuck on You, Part 1

Posted on Sat Jan 20th, 2024 @ 7:31am by Captain Remy Johansen
Edited on on Mon Apr 1st, 2024 @ 1:15am

1,662 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Artifact or Artifiction
Location: Deck 12, Science Lab 7
Timeline: MD: -6 1230 hours

Remy hauled a large crate of "artifacts" toward Science Lab 7. On her way she tapped her communicator, "Johansen to Lorut, I've got a box of presents from Jupiter Station. Meet me in Science Lab 7. Feel free to bring Ghiram if he's free. He might be interested in this."

Lorut was in her office, and when she got Remy's page, she stood up. "Hey, Ghiram, want to catalogue artifacts? Let's go," she said. She was excited to see what the Commander had found. She stepped out of her office, and spotted the man. "Lab 7!" She headed out the door. "Dani, hold down the fort here, please. You can switch with Ghiram later, if you'd like," she said. Ghiram trailed behind her, hiding a bemused grin as best he could. She wanted everyone to experience this. She took the turbolift to Deck 12 and hurried down the corridor and bust open the lab doors.

"Johansen? What'd you find? An Orb?" She asked. There were still some missing, and it would be VERY cool if it were a Bajoran scientist that helped to find one or more.

"I'm not sure what all is in here," Remy said. "I don't think it's all been examined yet. Well enough to be deemed unworthy of Daestrom at the moment." Remy handed Lorut a PADD.

"A ... friend of mine is temporarily stationed here, vetting items recovered either floating in space, or recovered from old storage containers, pieces of cargo ships, you name it, after the supernova. Most of it has drifted over here as a result of a gravitational rift after so many planets were destroyed." Remy opened the crate. "A lot of what they are finding doesn't appear to be Empire, or anything we've ever encountered before. Daniel may have pulled some strings so our scientists could get in on a piece of the action."

"The Romulans remained quite tight-lipped about what other species they'd invaded and colonized. A lot of the 'Romulan' artifacts I've been cataloging end up being from species we haven't even heard of, and the subspace damage caused by this freak supernova mean that we might not even get to approach half of these planets. Then again, if my people had been subjugated by the Empire, I wouldn't be keen on reintroducing myself to the intergalactic community."

"Oohhh, a friend gave you this," Vila said, with a small smirk. "I need to meet this Daniel," she said. She rifled through some things. "Lady, you're talking to the wrong person about that," Vila remarked. "What do you think?" She asked Remy. "Should we start cataloguing this stuff? I'd like to run some tests on it, just to see the metallurgy used and such," she said. Romulan tech was fascinating.

"Quite a bit of it has been found to be functional. I brought it here, rather than the archaeology lab so we could use the isolated computer systems to run some tests without giving the entire ship a virus. Or blowing up Dr. Hurtz's brainchild of that slipstream drive he expects us to use with families on board," Remy explained. "I guess Daniel's also into some classified stuff that has come from this. He mentioned maybe getting me access to that? I have to admit my curiosity is peaked. If there's bio tech that we have our hands on that could just..." Remy trailed off. Words couldn't really explain the magnitude of what they might find.

Vila listened as she started to sort through things. "I want these rocks for carbon dating," she said. "Then we can ensure they're returned to...whomever they belong to," she said. "Ooh, what are THESE?" The Bajoran held up what appeared to be bracelets. "Pretty..." she said, fingering the soft metal. "I think it's pressed copper, but I can't know for certain until I test it, of course," she said. "Think it's OK if I try one on?" She asked Remy.

“Aren’t you a little too old to be playing around with the sensitive artifacts? How do you know that isn’t a shock collar for a small animal?” He grabbed the box of rocks. “ I’ll carbon date these with my own machine, since it seems like I’m on a ship of children.”

"If it's a shock collar, I suppose I should rethink my rule about not dating Romulans," she remarked.

Remy laughed light-heartedly at Ghiram. Lorut needed someone like him, they'd been here a little over a week and she was already trying to do everything by herself. "Let me see one of those," Remy said gesturing to the bracelet. "It looks like there might be some writing on them." She reached over to take one to try to look at the encryption a little more closely. "It doesn't look remotely familiar. I wonder if the U--"

Remy's words were cut off as the bracelet seemed to animate, wrapping itself around her wrist. "How did it do that?" Remy asked as she struggled to pull it off. She looked up to see Vila in the same predicament.

"What the hell?" She said. "Who is our language specialist?" She asked. She reached out to try to remove the bracelet. "It's...stuck," she said.

"The computer?" Remy said. "I don't think one's boarded yet. We can't walk around with these things stuck to our wrists. They are supposed to be secured in the lab."

"Do you think they give us special powers or anything. Can you read my mind?" Remy asked suspiciously.

“And WHAT did I just say? Idiots!” Ghiram slammed his box of rocks down on the table. “I’ll be back with a tricorder. Don’t do anything else moronic while I’m gone.” Ghiram gave out a hearty snort from his snout and left.

Remy looked back at Vila. "Can you? Read my mind?" She asked again.

"Look, Remy, if I could read your mind, I would tell you telepathically!" Vila cried, frustrated. "Thank you, Ghiram. Maybe also get...medical?" She asked. "Nah, I can figure it out once we get the tricorder," she said. Her original idea had been to saw it off, but then...she'd have to explain things and she really didn't feel like it.

Remy took a closer look at the inscription and tried rubbing it with her fingers. "Here, try to take mine off? They didn't attach themselves to us until we each had one. What do you think is the possible use for these thing?." Remy walked over to Vila and held out her arm.

Vila shrugged. "Could be anything from a familial link, like our earring tradition, to some kind of more nefarious thing. Literally slavery," she said, a tinge of nonchalance in her voice. She had seen the worst of people (well, as people like as the Cardassian's were) and believed that they could easily enslave others for a myriad of reasons.

Remy took Vila's wrist and tried pressing on the bracelet to see if she'd find a magic button or something. Then she tried pulling on it like she had her own. "These things are so tight," Remy moaned. She pulled on her uniform over shirt to see how well she could hide it.

Ghiram slapped his combadge. “Sickbay, we have a situation down on Deck 12, Lab 7. These two idiots put on a pair of unidentified bracelets and are now pretty much handcuffed together. We’re going to try a few things, but we’ll need your equipment- and maybe some emergency surgery if I have to chop off Remy’s hand.”

“We’re on our way- and don’t attempt any medical procedures before we arrive.” The woman on the other end said, already exasperated.

Vila rolled her eyes, and tapped her communicator, "It's hardly a medical emergency, Ghiram," she said. "Did you get the tricorder?" She held up her hand. "And the handheld UT," she said.

"A laser scalpel might work," Remy said. "I mean, if we can't figure something else out.

Vila considered. "It probably would, yes," she said. "Still, I'd rather not risk a limb for you. Not that I don't like you, I do. I just...you know, NEED my hand," Vila said.

"What's taking him so long? I'm going to go check," Remy said. She crossed the length of the lab and went into the corridor and started walking toward the nearest turbolift to see if the Assistant Chief was on his way back. It really hadn't been that long, but Remy was getting worried that she would need to be somewhere. She tried to nonchalantly cover the bracelet with her uniform and her other hand.

Remy didn't get far out of the lab when a headache so extreme hit her with such a sudden force that she found herself grabbing her temples and almost falling to her knees. "Vila!" She cried out, but her voice was much quieter than she intended the searing pain inside her skull taking precedence over being heard. She started stumbling back to the lab.

Vila noticed a change when Remy left. Her reaction wasn't as severe as Remy's but still, she had an upset stomach and a headache, like the kind that you get when a Betazoid tries to "read" you.

"Remy?" She came out into the corridor. "Are you ok?" She looked at the XO. She tapped her COMMS. "Medical to Science Lab 7. STAT," she said. "I'm feeling weird, too," she said. The feeling lessened as the two women got closer to each other. "Maybe it's some kind of temporal energy. Should I call security?" Vila asked.

"I'm feeling fine now," Remy responded. "It just came out of nowhere, like an ice cream headache sorta, but multiplied by a thousand. It's going away."

>> To Part 2 >>

Commander Remy Johansen
First Officer
USS Imperator

Commander Vila Lorut
Second Officer, Chief Science Officer
USS Imperator

Lieutenant JG Ghiram Korin
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Imperator

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