Reunions

Posted on Sat Nov 3rd, 2018 @ 2:01am by Reessem Nubohn KIA (*)
Edited on on Tue Nov 6th, 2018 @ 7:29pm

Mission: Mission 8 - Shattered
Location: USS Mary Rose
Timeline: MD 02, 10:00
2895 words - 5.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Hump walked the corridors of the Rose feeling empty. Even more so than usual as elements of his past, he thought long buried, came bubbling up unbidden and unwanted. And with the emptiness came the bitterness and the resentment that always followed. His bitterness for what could have been, what should have been his life, a simple, boring life with a family. His resentment, the multifaceted hatred for the stupidity and greed of others along with his self-loathing for not being there for her, for not protecting her, or being able to save her. His resentment was all that remained of his vengeance, the burnt out husk of what drove him to kill anyone involved with it, anyone who might have profited from it, anyone that opened their eyes at him the wrong way.

The little girl that gave who gave her father’s life meaning and joy. The little girl who after she after being ripped from his life,,,, There was a hole in him, a festering crater that in so many ways defined the creature, Humphry Van Weydan. Today he was an unrepentant, unforgiving, unrecognizable parody of that girl's father. He done things to others, to himself, trying to tear out the remains of his own soul, to prove,,,,, To prove how meaningless it all was. People were unfeeling, uncaring animals, only concerned with there own selfish needs and wants. He had proved it to himself over and over again, from the bridge of a starship to the sweat-stained sheets of any number of beds he’d taken a tumble in. It was a fact, people were nothing, except for possibly being tragically hilarious. But nobody was ever more of a joke than he himself. He laughed at that joke, laughed at how we was still searching for his daughter's ghost after all these years.

It was then a noise brought him out of his head. It could have been nothing, just some creaking in an expansion joint. Still,,,,"Van Weyden to security." he said tapping his comm badge, "I'm in search grid Alpha-3. Do you have any teams in this area?"

"That's a negative XO, our teams already swept that section." A voice answered, "Do you require assistance, Sir?"

"No, no." Hump responded, carefully peering through a doorway, "Continue your search for any stragglers. But inform me immediately if you locate either of the ship's secretaries. Van Weydan, out"

Reesseem had gotten separated from the other women when she had heard people coming down the corridor towards her. They didn't sound like anyone she knew at all and she dived out of the way into the nearest room which happened to have been the crew bar. She slammed out as she saw someone peer into the room, her tiny fist connected with his cheek.

The blow surprised Hump more than hurt him. Shooting his arm out he grabbed Reesseem’s wrist and spun with the punch. Using her own momentum he pulled Reesseem's waiflike from off her feet and pinned her against the nearest wall with his forearm. At the last second Hump recognized her face, with his heart pounding he shook his head. “Of course, who else would it be.”

Then glancing at the door said, “There are thirty feet of straight corridor to either side of that door. Run and I'll shoot you with this.” He said slapping his hand on the heavy disruptor on his hip, “And the only stun setting it has is ‘hurts like hell.’ And if by some miracle I miss, you'll just run into the loving arms of our security teams, and trust me neither of us would like that. Your choice 'Peanutbutter Cup.'” He sighed as he looked over towards the bar.

The woman was about to fight, she could easily escape she hadn't survived out in space since she was fourteen for any reason. She struggled but then stopped when he called her peanutbutter cup. Why would he call her that? No one called her that. "Get off me before i start biting." She hissed.

“Good! good!” Hump replied with a sad smile as he released her. With a nod, he left Resseem standing there and went in back of the bar, “Anyone gives you any static, spit in their eye.” Finding a bar towel and some ice, he looked up at her, “You're going to want to ice that.” He warned pointing at her wrist, “Might not feel like much now, with your body all hopped up on adrenaline. If you don't, it will bruise and swell.” Then Hump turned and studied the bottles lining the back of the bar. “You want a drink?” he asked, “I sure as hell need one.”

The woman muttered under her breath in French and nodded. She could certainly use a drink if she honest not that she was legal on any planet but that hadn’t stopped her before at any point. “What do you care? Who are you?” She demanded as she ignored what he said about ice or a drink dropping onto the a chair.

“Care? I pride myself on the fact I haven't cared about a damn thing in years.” Hump replied in French with a heavy Corsican accent, as he gently took Reesseem's arm and wrapped her wrist, finally cradling it on the ice he wrapped in the towel. “Don't let that get too cold.” He said switching back to Fed Standard.

“As far as who I am, my name's Humphery Anton Van Weydan, a Boer from the Transvaal in South Africa, late of Bonifacio in Southern Corsica, where I once dove from its battlements to the sea and climbed all 187 steps of Escalier du Roi d'Aragon, for a lady's kiss.” Hump said as he expertly mixed and poured two drinks into martini glasses, “Current XO of the starship Fenrir, soon to officially become your captor, but for now simply your bartender. Enjoy.” He said picking up one of the glasses contemplating its contents. The second glass stood in front of Reesem, filled with a light green liquid smelling strongly of mint and chocolate.

"Your accent is awful." The woman found herself saying without second throught. This man was unnerving her to say the least, he woudl scaring her if truth be told but there was nothing that he could do to stop it. "Why would I be a captive hmm? What have I done to derseve that?" She spoke in federation standad ignoring what he spoke about her home. Many people came from there and her accent was pretty unique.

“Yes, well between speaking Afrikaner, what passes for French on Corsica and the Orion I learned while ,,well that's another story entirely, most people agree they can't understand anything I say,” Hump admitted while tasting his drink, “Very nice. My compliments to whoever stocks your bar.” Then motioning to Reesseem's untouched drink, “Your should really taste that while it's cold.”

Then sighing heavily he continued, “As to why you’re my captive. Well we captured your ship, you see therefore,,,” he shrugged indicating the obvious, “As far as what you personally did, probably nothing. In fact I doubt anyone on this boat has done a damn thing. You see this individual named Hamish, who you may know, more dramatically as THE COLLECTOR had something rather important.” Hump explained, “He stashed it in someplace called, equally dramatically, the Grotto. Now my superiors want this item back, in a real ‘We don't care about collateral damage.’ kind of way.”

The woman took a sip of the drink and nodded. It was good but she wasn’t going to admit that at all. Just like she wasn’t going to admit that his help on her wrist felt better with the ice. “Stick to what you know Mr Van Weyden.” The woman prompted before she rolled her eyes at the mere mention of the collector. “The man who nearly killed us all with a genetically modified virus figures it would be about him.” She muttered thinking that everyone had nearly been killed because of discovering the Grotto.

“My Captain told me about that.” Hump replied as he flipped open a tricorder. Taking a hand scanner from his pocket, he went up and down Reesseem's wrist adding, “Sounds like something Hamish would do. He was a right bastard, even for one of us.” Looking at the display, Hump felt a fist tighten around his heart.

Many of her cells had the quantum resonance of the other universe, but the calcified cells of her bones, nerves cells, the cells that would have been laid down when this woman was a child, their resonance matched. Oh dear God he thought, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the hand sensor tighter and tighter, They match!! Now what was he going to do? How was he going to protect his little girl, who was good as dead?

It was then he felt Reesseem staring at him. Or more precisely staring at his shaking fist that was starting to crush the hand probe like an old beer can. “Sorry,” he said putting the probe back in his pocket, “Hamish played a large part in destroying my family.” He said honestly, “In fact he was the last one on my list.” He said smiling at her. Trying not to be obvious that he was studying every feature of her face, “Did you ever meet him?"

The woman watched him scan her wrist and was confused as to why he was helping her and not just doing what he colleagues were doing. "Nope, he has been dead at least a decade." She commented on not at all sure what he was staring at or why he was so interested in it. "Barton brought the ship and then Reuben brought me onboard as his yeoman when he took over when Barton was busted for drugs." She shrugged at it all. "From the logs, we found he knew he was dying and set his trap so that no one human or Betazoid could survive the virus. There was only a few of us uninfected."

“So as yeoman I imagine you know all the ins and outside on the ship.” Which, Hump knew would make her priority one in terms of capture and interrogation. How do I keep you safe? He thought trying to keep the worry and the other twelve emotions he was feeling off his face. Then something she said hit him like a ton of bricks. “Wait a minute there Peanut butter Cup, the logs said you were the only one unaffected by the virus. Are you saying there were others?”

"Stop calling me that." She said down the rest of the drink before she moved to get something else. She might not look legal but she knew how to act legal. Reessem hated when people called her that, it was annoying and childish. "Yes, there were other. I was the only human unaffected, non-humans mostly were unaffected." She said with a shrug as she poured a big measure.

Hump smiled at her, proud his daughter had more than her measure of sand. But back to the problem at hand, he thought, How do I keep you safe? It wasn't like he had the time to tell her who he was. She was so young when,,, He hoped that maybe she would,,,, but there wasn't even a glimmer of recognition. She'd think he was nuts. That limited his options. “Your ship has two yeomen doesn't it?” he asked, a plan forming in his mind, “And you Captain, Reuben, he's the type that would do anything to keep any of his crew safe, not just you, right?”

"Yes and I don't know where she is." The woman shrugged taking a big sip of the drink as she saw two officers dressed in the same gear as the officer who had nearly broken her wrist appeared in the entrance of the bar.

"Sir?" The female called pulling out her phaser seeing the woman just stood there casually siping on a black liquid.

“Well, that's unfortunate.” Hump said calmly as he shot his disruptor from the hip. Both the security officers fell to the deck writhing in pain before passing out. Stepping from behind the bar, he looked at Reesseem and shrugged, “Told you it hurt like hell. Now be so good as to drag Miss Frank’s in here, and I'll grab Mr. Bowsman.”

The teenager downed the drink fearing she might need the courage it was giving her as she slowly moved over to the woman now crumbled on the floor. She pulled her inside the compartment that let the door close allowing the pair to be alone again. Without any real thoughts in her mind, Reessem held up the disruptor at the man. “So tell me what stops me from using this on you?” She demanded.

Hump looked at Reesseem and sighed as he pushed Bowsman into aa corner booth. “Sorry, there's an operational clock ticking here, so I'm going to move and talk. You don't mind, do you?” Reesseem didn't shoot him so he took that as a positive sign. So committing himself to fate he went over and threw Frank’s on his shoulder, “As far as you not shooting me. Well let’s see I have several arguments there.”

“First of course is obvious, information.” He explained as he composed Franks on top of top of her companion making it look like she was sleeping in his embrace, “I have much better idea about what's going on here, than you do. So in order to pump me for this crucial intel I must be awake and aware.”

“Second is tactical.” Hump said as he carefully removed something from his pocket, holding it up so Reessem could see it was just a hypospray,. As he adjusted settings he continued, “I know what the search teams are going to do and how best to avoid them. Take these two knuckleheads for example: Kylie Franks and Tommy Bowsman, creeping around this section after the security team already swept through.” Leaning over Hump injected each of them with the hypo, “They're working with the security, stealing anything they can before the quartermaster could make his way over.” Grabbing the bottle of black liquor off the bar, he poured a generous amount on both Franks and Bowsman. The wiping the bottle pressed each of their hands to it he left it on its side right next to them. Stepping back he folded his arms and said, “There we go, suitable for framing, aren't they”

Then angling himself a little closer to Reesseem, he showed her the settings. “BDZ, an oldie but a goodie. Gives you all the effects of hangover plus just the right amount of anterograde amnesia. Currently the passed six hours of their memory’s just, which includes us, is just going away.” Then Hump looked at the hypo and smiled, “Grabbed this when I liberated the medical tricorder from sickbay. I love these things, just key in the right code like this and you get a completely different drug. Now where was I. The third and most important reason that you can't shoot me with that weapon."

The woman didn’t drop the weapon she had in the slightest nor did her grip seem to faulter as she followed him around the crew bar. It seemed like he had a solid plane and it looked promising but it made her wonder more and more what the hell was going on. “My dad taught me never to back down and listen to people’s crap.” She said in federation standard as he carried on talking away to her. “And the third reason?”

Hump stopped at Reesseem's mention of her dad, feeling his heart fracture, but he brushed it off and smiled at her. "Of course, the third and most important reason as to why you actually can't use that weapon on me. The safety's still on." Just for a second, Hump saw Reessem glance down at the disruptor, that was all he needed. Springing off his back leg, he pushed the barrel out of his way and injected her hand with the hypo. Almost instantly her hand went numb, and she started to look unsteady on her feet. Hump quickly went to cradled her in his arms, picking her up as if she weighed nothing. "Now that's neorozine. It will just knock you out for a while. No I'll effects, I promise you." He whispered, pain and worry in his eyes, "I'm sorry daughter of mine, but I need to get you somewhere safe, and I don't have time to argue with you."

Safety? She glanced down and realised to late just how stupid she was when she took her eyes from the man in front of her. “You bas...” she started as she felt her body go light and then her knees buckle. She barely heard him talk but the word ‘daughter’ was the last thing she remembered as her eyes closed. She was going to be so angry when she woke up.


OFF::


Reessem Nubohn
Secretary
SS Mary Rose


Humphrey Anton Van Weyden
Executive Officer
ISS Fenrir