round 22 MSNPC Lt Ben Kaji - To the Briefing!

[Dizmim ChNilmani]

((USS Victory - Guest Quarters, Deck 5))

::Ben squirmed in his borrowed uniform. It had been brought to him by an overly helpful nurse, as his own clothes were a bit...bloodied. Not to mention dirty. He'd been on duty for about a month since the last of his medical staff died, with barely a moment to sleep. Laundry had not been a high priority.::

::The shower had felt heavenly. His...mother...had taken him to a small set of guest quarters to clean up. Then she'd left, promising to meet him at the meeting. Ben had showered and shaved, then walked out of the bathroom in his towel. The shy nurse was there switching the clothes. She had taken one look and ran terrified from the room, taking his own uniform with her. He wondered vaguely if she had been frightened by his nudity or the massive scars crossing his chest.::

::So now he wore an old-style uniform, mere cloth and thread that would protect him from nothing stronger than a sharp breeze. And possibly timid girls with too little life experience. He missed his armored jacket. At least the medical teal was familiar.::

::Ben looked at the clock and picked up his bag. It was habit to carry his kit with him eveywhere, and he disliked the idea of leaving it behind. He headed for the conference room, comfortable in his knowledge of the ship. He ran into a problem, though, when he tried to enter the Jeffries tube system. The computer wouldn't allow him clearance.::

B. Kaji: Computer, how do you suggest I get to deck two? Fly?

Computer: There is a turbolift on Deck Five, Section A.

B. Kaji: ::embarrassed:: Oh. Right. Turbolift.

::Chagrined, he turned around to find the turbolift. Those had been offline for years in his universe to save power for more necessary purposes. Like shields. And life support.::

::He was one of the last to arrive in the conference room. It was very different from the one Captain Faranstar used for her briefings. He saw Talia Kaji in a corner, waving him over. Shedet was near the front, guesturing to him as well. He felt torn, then decided Shedet would understand better. He caught her eye, pointed to his mother and waited for a nod. Then he joined Talia in her corner. They found a couple of comfortable chairs there. Ben leand back and reveled in the unfamiliar sense of calm that surrounded them.::

::His mother smiled at him, but a familiar voice started to speak before they had a chance to talk. Ben spun around to see his old beloved crocodile. Seeing the Gorn hurt almost as much as first seeing his mother. Nugra had taken him in when Talia died, had raised and mentored him until he left to join his first ship. Ben had been half a universe away when he had heard of Nugra's death, and it had felt like a second orphaning. The young man had grieved his "Zilla" as much as his own biological father, long long gone by then.::

::Ben refocused on the present as Shiarrael began speaking.::

Shiarrael: ::tapping panel:: Let me start out by letting you know all how bad this is. The future we came from, everybody that we know of is dead. The galaxy is filled with barren worlds sucked dry of any biological molecules to feed a monster we know as the hunger.

:: The screen lit up to show a grotesque vessel of ill-proportions floating in space. Thousands of littler ones of different shapes zoomed around it. ::

Shiarrael: The Hunger are an extragalactic, hyper-advanced race that descended upon our galaxy like a swarm of locust killing everything in sight. The most advanced starships that the Federation had did not even slow them down. Only the sacrifice of Vice-Admiral Jaxx at the battle of Anubis gave us some breathing room. It did not last and by 2414, everything we knew was gone. We have come back into the past to try to stop this from happening again.

::Ben's face hardened as he focused on the mission. They had come here for a reason, a purpose bigger than seeing loved ones long dead.::

Faranster: The hardest part of our journey was coming back here, our ship was badly damaged, and I appreciate your hospitality. However, having gotten this far, I feel certain we can nix the word try. :: She looked at her First Officer. :: These pests aren't going to get a foothold here, and they won't do the same thing they did in our future. :: Pausing, she looked back at the rest of the table. :: As my XO has stated, they aren't from here, they come from another galaxy, through a gateway. We need to locate and destroy the gateway before they take over the area.

Faranster: The gate, is a Yeltan gate. Finding the gate proved impossible for us once the Hunger arrived, and before they arrived we didn't know we needed to look for it. There is a Yeltan listening post that should have coordinates to all their technology, including the gate. However the Hunger destroyed it before we could find it, and once we got there, there wasn't much left.

::Ben remembered that raid. Several of his friends had died there, including his half-sister Iria. That battle was also the source of the scars on his face and head. There hadn't been much there, but their enemies had fought hard to keep it. A console explosion had taken half his face and skull.::

Faranster: What we are going to do, is get to that post, get the coordinates and destroy the gate.

::Nugra took back over the briefing.::

Nugra: For those of you where we're not here for the original briefing, the USS Victory has been tasked with the top secret mission to find information on the Hunger. This is the most we have had since we started.

Nugra: Some of you might remember our clash with the Yeltan defense system in an ancient temple on Til’ahn. I am quite sure that we will be facing the magnothropods, small machines about a foot in length able to integrate with others to create much larger machines.

T. Kaji: ::singing softly:: Trans-form-ers!

B. Kaji: Robots in Dis-guise!

::Ben was shocked at himself. He'd responded without thinking, singing the second line of the old theme song. He'd forgotten those long ago days, watching Old Earth cartoons with his parents. ::

:: Nugra straightened and nodded to have the lights brightened. He resisted the urge to blink away the spots that appeared. ::

Nugra: Lieutenant Commander Rossh will be leading the away team to the surface along with Mr. Vess, Captain Faranster, Mr. Santucci, and Mr. Zh’Eriss. Are their any questions?

Rossh: Do we have any information on exactly what we are looking for? Records from the future vessel's computer?

Faranster: Like I said, the station had been destroyed before we could find it, I couldn't even tell you what it looked like.

::The discussion continued, but Ben didn't hear any of it. The calm, the comfortable chair, and most of all, a child's trust that his parents would handle everything, overcame The young man, and he drifted off into a much needed sleep.::

MSNPC Lt Benjiro Kaji
Chief Medical Officer
The Victory

As simmed by

Lt.JG Talia Kaji
Chief Medical Officer
USS Victory