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“Lieutenant's log. Stardate: 83184.51.” Markus held the PADD in front of him as he tried to record one of his latest away missions he was picked to go on, “So far this has been a very interesting day. And not one that I would say as difficult either.” The young man sighed and stretched his arms up above his head once he set the PADD down. “The Kano was ordered to make a detour to a planet that was discovered a few hundred years ago, and was just now entering warp-capable speeds into space. We were told to make first contact with them before the Klingons do.” He rubbed his chin nervously, “Well no one told me I would be needed on any first contact missions, as I didn’t study diplomacy very well at the Academy.” He rubbed the engraved tattoo on his face. “It all started like this...”
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Earlier that day
Markus entered the ready room of Lieutenant Commander DeSoto. A tall Trill woman with auburn bangs past her eyes, looked none too pleased at the fact she was having to speak to one of her engineers individually.
“Sit down Darmoth.” DeSoto barked, causing the young man to find the chair in front of her desk. While she didn't have any qualms about this specific engineer, the fact that her Captain had asked for one of her junior engineers to accompany him to the planet surface irked her. "What I have to say to you is for your ears only. Please don't be passing this around."
"Yes Ma'am." Markus responded, settling into his seat.
"I've been asked by the captain to select an engineer from my crew to be a part of the away team for this contact mission. The reason why I don't want you to say anything beyond this room is that I wish I was going instead. But the captain feels that the junior members should take the place of a more senior member. To give them the experience." DeSoto's shoulders dropped as she thought about her response. "So if I was to pick a junior member of my team, it would have to be the best that I can give him." She smiled at Markus, "Tag, your it."
Markus groaned lightly as he leaned back against the back of the chair, "You've got to be kidding me?" He looked at his Commander to see if she was joking in any sense. The look he got back was not encouraging, "but you know I don't do anything diplomatically." His mind began to wonder if his Commander really was taking a joke too far.
"Unfortunately I'm not joking here Markus." The older woman sighed, knowing that she would have to order him to go on this mission. "The only thing that you need to worry about is that their systems are working fine and if there is anything that we can do to help out." DeSoto slid the PADD over to him and leaned back herself, "Everything we know about this species says they're just at the cusp of achieving warp 2 flight, but we didn't catch them during their first warp test." She pointed to him, "You will be our engineer to help them refine their process just enough to get them past their roadblock."
"I'll see what I can do, Commander." Markus replied and picked up the PADD, standing up and leaving her office after DeSoto’s quiet dismissal.
-----
Markus had returned to his quarters and reviewed information. Once he felt he was ready, he gathered his things and met with the away team once they arrived at the planet.
"Are you ready for this?" A blue Andorian woman said, gently patting his arm.
"About as ready as I can be." The woman smiled at him, knowing that he would be fine.
"Energize Chief." The thirty-five year old captain said to the transporter chief and the pattern buffers energized, beaming the away team to the planets surface.
Once on the surface, the away team was greeted by a being that was taller than anyone in the team itself. She was hairless, with very little reptilian features across her neck and high pointed ears like a rabbit. Robes covered her length from neck to foot, and she walked with a style and grace of a dancer. “Welcome to our world, Outsiders. We bid you peace and great tidings.”
Captain Tresh stepped forward, looking up into the woman’s eyes. “Greetings, I’m Captain Tresh, of the U.S.S. Kano. We’re from the United Federation of Planets and bid you great tidings as well.” The woman gave a slight nod at the captain and turned to look at the others with him.
“And who else is with you, Captain Tresh?”
The Andorian woman who was next to Markus stepped forward, “This is Lieutenant Mirra sh’Zarath, Tactical officer on the U.S.S. Kano.”
Another woman stepped forward, this time with markings across the sides of her face and down her neck, indicating she was a Trill, “This is Ensign Nasera Call, Science officer on the U.S.S. Kano.” The captain spoke again.
Markus took a step forward, meeting the woman’s gaze as the others did, “This is Lieutenant Markus Darmoth, Engineering officer on the U.S.S. Kano.” Markus gave a brief nod before stepping back.
“An engineer. We understand you have achieved faster than light travel much earlier than we have. And have breached past the higher levels of travel.” The woman looked at Markus specifically. The engineer nodded slightly. “Then we will be discussing things very closely.” The woman nodded her head, “Forgive me for not introducing myself. I am Ralsha. Engineer of the F.T.L. Ship Trachal.” She began to lead the away team to the city center.
-----
“So what do you think, Engineer Darmoth?” Ralsha lead Markus on a brief tour of the ship. To Markus, it resembled the old submarines of long ago.
“A tight fit in some places, but quite understandable.” Markus stated, running his hand over some of the interior plating. The ship was still in their drydock undergoing some refits to the power source. “But it seems that you are working towards warp two.”
“Yes. We seem to have a hard time reaching that speed. Each time we get to that barrier, the field collapses.”
“I could look over your calculations, maybe the field is collapsing because...”
Boom
Markus was knocked to the floor with Ralsha as an explosion rocked the ship, air seemed to be escaping for a brief moment before the airlock doors shut between them and the gaping hole near the engineering section.
“Oh no.” Ralsha exclaimed, looking at the doors as she tried to get up, “The Terachs.”
“Who are the Terachs?” Markus coughed out, rolling onto his knees and dragging himself up.
“Traitors to the Union. They feel that we’ve broken some spiritual law by creating this FTL ship and we’re destroying our land.” She raised her arm up as Markus helped her stand. “We have to get out of here before they find us.”
“Markus to Kano. Get a transporter lock on us and beam us out of here.”
“Negative Markus. Something is blocking the transporters ability to lock on the two of you. You’ll have to move away from where you’re at.” the transporter chief responded. “We will keep working on getting a lock on the two of you and beam you out when we can.”
“Roger that Kano. Notify Captain Tresh, he’s still on the surface with the rest of the away team.”
“Will do Markus, Kano out.” And the comm went dead. Markus pulled out his tricorder and began scanning the area while placing a hand upon his phaser.
“Engineer Darmoth, we have to head to the front of the ship. There might be a craft able to transport us away from here.” Ralsha began leading him away from the engineering section of the ship towards the front.
“Do you have space suits in case there are any hull breaches.” He was looking around corners as they got to them, keeping his phaser in the holster.
“I’m sorry Engineer Darmoth, but if we did, they wouldn’t fit you very well.”
‘Of course.’ Markus reminded himself that the species itself was very tall and thin. Him fitting into any one of their suits would cause it to tear. “Let’s hope we don’t meet anyone from this Terachs group.”
Luck was not on their side. Markus looked around another corner when Ralsha pulled him back. She beckoned him to not speak as she pointed at the corner he was looking around.
“Did we get her? The she-devil who is trying to keep this going?” a male voice spoke, his tones harsh and unforgiving.
“We don’t know, she was with the Outsider. The filth.” Another male, growling out the last few words as if they were a curse, “They bring this upon themselves for using this technology. The unbelievers will fall and our Gods will smite them out of the sky.”
Markus groaned quietly, pulling out the phaser and setting it to a low stun setting. Ralsha looked intrigued at the weapon before he leaned out once more. A few shots at the two unsuspecting traitors and they were down. “Quickly, we don’t have much time.” Markus grabbed Ralsha by the hand and pulled her in the direction they were originally heading. “Which way?”
“Take a left up here and the third door on your right. We can take the ladder up to the craft holding area.” Ralsha explained. Markus nodded and found two more traitors.
“Stop, unbelievers!” They opened fire upon the two engineers, who ducked into a small alcove. The projectile bullets they were firing ricocheted off the hull plating and nearly hit the two. Markus leaned out and fired a few more shots, hitting one of the men and spooking the other into hiding.
“Kano, do you have a lock yet?” Markus yelled, taking a few shots.
“Almost. I can get one of you, but not the other. You may have to stick close to each other.”
Markus growled and fired two more shots at the saboteur, “Well you don’t have a lot of time to cut through this interference. we’re pinned down now, and there might be more on the way.”
“Roger Markus, we’re boosting the signal on the transporter beam now. We should be able to get you two on to one pad.”
“Hurry it up then.” Markus looked at Ralsha. “We’re going to have to get close for this to happen.” Ralsha nodded, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around him. “Markus to Kano, we’re ready for beam out.”
“Energizing Markus.” And the two beings began to dematerialize, right in front of the traitors, before they were gunned down by the Union security guards.
Both patterns began to materialized in the transporter room on the Kano as they completed transport. Markus breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the transporter chief.
“Wow.” Ralsha stated, looking at her hands as she let go of Markus. “Matter transportation. This.. This is just theorized only days ago.” She flexed her fingers, then looked at Markus.”
“We didn’t want to spook you too much by beaming you onto the ship.” Markus looked at the woman, “But we will transport you back to the surface via shuttlecraft if that will make you feel better.”
“No.. I would like to experience this transportation again.” Ralsha gave a light blush at her child-like enthusiasm of being teleported from one place to another. “You saved me from death. I will have to tell my Elders of this.”
Markus gave a light nod, then looked at the transporter chief. “Beam us back next to the rest of the away team. I think that they were also talking to the Elders before we left.”
The chief nodded and soon the two were beaming back to the surface.
-----
The away team sat in a small conference room that they were given once the two engineers arrived in front of the Elders. Ralsha began speaking very quickly for the universal translators to pick up and the Elders looked at each other before requesting that the dignitaries from Starfleet stay in the conference room until this matter was settled. During that time, Markus was debriefed by Captain Tresh.
“So you had the Kano beam you two out after participating in a firefight with a sect of followers who sabotaged the warp drive’s power plant?”
“Yes sir. I didn’t want to chance it that this First Contact would cause us to loose a new Federation ally. I’ll gladly take any reprimand you give me if this goes sour.”
“You might have broken a few Prime Directives, but you were also in a combat situation. I’m sure we can look over a few things.” Tresh was interrupted by a guard coming in.
“Engineer Darmoth. The Elders would like to speak with you and your Captain.” Markus looked over at Captain Tresh, who nodded and both followed the guard out.
“Engineer Darmoth, step forward.” The high Elder spoke, Markus once again looked at his Captain for guidance, and was given the go ahead. He stepped forward and bowed to the Elders. “You’ve done a great deed for one of our own, and saved them from death at the hands of evil men. We humbly ask you to join us, as one of our own, and receive the mark to signify that you are friends of the Iracis.” Markus followed Ralsha off to the side, where they had him sit down on a chair and lay him back. They brought up a device and rested it against the left side of his face. “This is a symbol of our friendship,” the slight burning of the device tapped out the pattern, “The ink is the blood of our kinship.” The device finished it’s mark and was pulled away from his face. “And this signifies the love of family.” Ralsha leaned down, kissing his temple where the mark was made. Markus was brought back to an upright position, a mirror was placed in front of him and he saw the tattoo on his face, even the slight kiss from Ralsha’s lips was left upon his face. “You’re now a member of my family, and are welcome amongst the Iracis.”
“Thank you.” Markus responded, looking at Ralsha with a soft smile.
“You will have to come back for the pilgrimage to complete the ritual. I will show you what you need to do when the time comes.” Ralsha took Markus’ hand and lead him back to his Captain.
“We’ll let him come back to complete the ritual when it’s time.” Captain Tresh responded. “We will have some engineers come down and help with any repair work to get your ship back in operation.”
“Thank you, Captain Tresh. We would like Engineer Darmoth to work with Ralsha on completing the project.”
Tresh nodded, “He will be made available. For now we should head back to our ship and gather what we need to assist. If that is alright with you Elders?” The Elders nodded, waving them in a quiet dismissal. The away team bowed to the Elders and headed out of the building they were in.
“When will I see you again Engineer Markus?” Ralsha asked as the team got into position.
“In a few standard hours.” Markus replied, noticing the change in his designation.
“Then I will await your return.” Ralsha responded, leaning in and rubbing her cheek with his.
-----
“So in a few more hours, I will be returning to the surface. Captain Tresh said to go ahead and help them past Warps 2 and 3 as a sign of good faith. Even though it violates some of the Prime Directives. Ralsha also told us when the next pilgrimage was happening and Captain Tresh already blocked out the time for me to go on leave, even if I didn’t have enough requisitioned.” Markus ran his hand back over the new tattoo. “I guess that makes me a part of Ralsha’s family. I hope I didn’t just get married.” Markus remarked, before turning off the terminal.
_________________ =/\= ==================================== =/\=
Lieutenant Markus "Seikyo" Darmoth
Science Division, Zeta Squad
12th Fleet, United Federation of Planets
=/\= ==================================== =/\=Markus' Biography
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