Unusual Cargo

Chief Medic’s Log:

For starters, I lost a bet to Jared this week. I said I could hide better than he could track. I dragged Morgan along with me. We hid and Jared found us – because I was wearing perfume. Not to mention that he suggested I wear the perfume that morning. No, that wasn’t cheating at all….

Oh well. I lost, so I’ll have to pay up. *laughs*

On a different note, we picked up some unusual cargo this week. Zeke was paid a premium to take the cargo sight unseen. (Not unusual in our line of work, I might add.)

Shortly after we picked up this cargo, the crew began to see unusual things. Morgan saw a puppy she had long ago when she was a child. Jared saw his grandmother. Rain saw his sister, Misty. I saw Misha, a pet that we had on my old ship, the Cedalion.

At first we thought that we were simply tired and were seeing things; but after we had gotten together and compared notes, we discovered that all of us were seeing things that we had been thinking about in the moments before they manifested. Whatever we thought about, we saw.
Putting two and two together, we realized that this began when the cargo was brought on board. After Jared, Morgan and Rain went down to the cargo bay, they discovered that the crate we had brought onboard was a portable holodeck – one designed to manifest what the person is thinking. It had powered up on its own.

Morgan shut it down after disengaging the power source and things returned to normal.
Now we are looking forward to some nice, relaxing shore leave – spending the money we made from the cargo, of course.

Oh. And I am continuing to train the crew and take precautions in case something happens to me. I am continuing their training in first aid and also making notes to include in the medkits on board.

~ Shara, Chief Medic of the Liberty

Transitions

This is an excerpt from Ezekiel Storm's Log:

Captain’s Log:

Our mission on Augan was a complete disaster. Not only did we not get paid for the mission, but our medic doublecrossed us. He and his cohorts ended up stealing our payload and also ransacking the ship. My remaining three crew members – Jared Stone, Morgan Connelly and Rain Meadows – were all seriously injured in the process.

Jared was in the worst shape of all three, but Morgan and Rain were pretty bad off, too.

We had a few remaining medical supplies, but no idea what to do with them or even what they were for. Then, we pick up something on our long-range scans that ended up being an escape pod. Two life signs on board, and one of those was weak. One human. One Orion. In the Delta Quadrant!

It turns out that the Orion is a ”doctor’s assistant” named Shara that is serving on Voyager. She patched up her friend that was in the pod with her – some hotshot pilot named Tom Paris – and then proceeded to jump right in and help my crew. I’ll be damned if she didn’t save them all.
Rain and Morgan were up and walking around the next day – weak, but alive.

Jared was still in bad shape, and Doc – which is what we have been calling Shara – said she needed stronger medicines in order to help him. Plus she needed some other stuff for her pheromone shots, whatever the hell those do.

Since we were going to go on a “procurement mission” – in other words, go grab some stuff – in order to get what we needed, Doc went ahead and made up a list for us to get so that we could fully stock the infirmary and also have extra stuff we could sell off later.

We found a nearby planet that operates on a caste system. Upper and lower caste. Morgan had a contact that was a doctor in the hospital for the lower caste. He supplied uniforms, IDs, and map and key cards. We go in, take the meds from the upper caste hospital, then give some to him for payment for the uniforms and ID’s, plus he’d give us crates of food, jugs of water, and other supplies.

Since Jared – our pilot – was in no shape to help, MU Tom Paris (aka Hotshot) offered to pilot for the mission. I’ll say this – he is an arrogant son of a bitch, but he sure can pilot a shuttle. Damn. Poetry in motion is all I can say about that flight. It all went without a hitch – textbook operation. We went in, grabbed the goods, made the exchange and got the hell back to Liberty. Hotshot went right in with us and worked right alongside us – no problems at all.

Doc worked her magic on Jared with those meds we got. He is still hobbling around, but at least he is breathing. Doc says he’ll be walking on his own soon. Not sure when he can pilot. Doc was really hesitant to tell me when that might happen.

I was impressed as hell with that short, green spitfire. Doc knows her way around an infirmary, and her saving my crew – plus Hotshot, her friend – was the best possible job interview I could have seen. I offered her a position as our medic on Liberty.

Tom wanted to stay. Almost from the minute he set foot on Liberty and was conscious. Doc took some convincing. Damn, she is a stubborn one. But she can tell we genuinely like her, and we appreciate her. I think that goes a long way. She accepted my offer.

Last night, I met with the captain of Voyager (Captain Janeway) and one of her officers, a Vulcan named Tuvok. They came aboard the Liberty to see the ship and to see Shara and Tom.

Janeway did her best to convince me that keeping Tom and Shara here is a mistake, but I know in my gut that it’s the right decision, and I told her so.

Still, as a courtesy and to make sure things go well, I agreed to follow close to Voyager for a while and see how things go during a trial period. I don’t have any concerns, but Janeway does. I think it will work out for both of us. I am sure we will see each other again soon.

Ezekiel (”Zeke”) Storm, Captain of the Liberty (www.usslibertyrpg.com)