Going Over the Records Part 1

Posted on Tue Jan 21st, 2025 @ 8:17pm by Leiddem Kea (*) & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya

Mission: Shackles
Location: The Coterie
Timeline: MD01 Afternoon
1364 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Leiddem looked at the ship that had fallen from the sky and shook his head amazed that the ship had survived in any real respect let alone allowed people to survive. "This is like one of those stories you tell cadets," Leiddem commented as he started across what he could only describe as a tent community.

"Major props to the engineers who built it, yeah." Kali nodded, assessing the wreck with a trained eye. "And as much as I hate to compliment the sort of thugs who were crewing it, major props to the skill of the pilot too honestly; given the level of turbulence and sensor and system failures this place throws I'd have expected her to break apart way more on landing."

Burnie whistled softly at the sight of the crashed ship. "She must have been reinforced - typical for raiders since pirates think nothing of pirating other pirates. I'm looking forward to checking what's left of her."

They had decided that they wanted to see what was going on but Leiddem thought it would be helpful to see the records of the ship if possible but they needed to pass through the tents to get into the ship. People were looking at them but for the life of him he could not tell what most of their species were and it reaffirmed was Mina had said about them not having a clue that there were people off their planets. "They stole people from pre-warp species," Leiddem whispered not envying Liha having to explain what was happening down there.

"Lowers the odds anyone will report their little racket, I guess." Kali whispered back. "For all they act tough, a fair number of pirates are cowards when it comes down to it."

"You'd have to be to be a slaver," Burnie spat. "And I have no doubt they took these people to sell as slaves."

"Then if they're lucky, they're dead already." Kali's tone was fairly flat, but one hand moved unconsciously somewhat closer for a moment to one hip, near where the concealed blade was, not any of the supplies she was wearing more openly at the moment. It was honestly the sort of comment one almost had to expect from a walking blend of human ethics, which had a strong anti-slavery stance, and Romulan ones, which had a strong 'a properly measured revenge is a family value' stance.

"When I was in the marines. We used to hunt them on the ships I was on. They are weakest of the weak once they get outnumbered." The betazoid commented as he closed his eyes. "There are too many minds for me to be sure if there are any alive or not but if they are not the survivors out number them."

Jake scratched at his beard thoughtfully. "I guess that leaves us in a little bit of a quandary, though. If we were Starfleet there'd be some real strict rules around what we can and can't do here. But, since we're not, I suppose we need to figure out what the right thing to do here is. How complete are the navigational records? Maybe we can work out what planets some of them came from. Perhaps they'd want to go home? But then that runs the risk of some pretty major contamination of pre-warp species..."

"First thing is to see what we can get from the records," the engineer said, ever practical. Which was not to say that he didn't have opinions. "Second thing is to see who even wants to go back, though some surely will. Since there seem to be only a few individuals from any given species, I don't think the contamination would be that serious, as long as we can return them without showing ourselves - like, just beam them down in a remote area. I mean, earth's pre-warp history is full of stories of people who claimed 'alien abduction' but pretty much no one took them seriously. The biggest concern would be that these folks get returned only to wind up in whatever passes for psychiatric facilities on their homeworlds."

"Definitely warn them about that, yeah. As for the ship, if we want any records we can get to actually be readable, then let's hope they - or any screens we can get working for that matter - are in some language we can actually reliably read, not one of those deliberately-hard-to-translate pirate dialects or codes...." Kali grimaced. If that turned out to be the case, they had a much harder job ahead - Divash or Beya might've been able to take a run at such a translating job; but they weren't here, and even then it would've been even odds at best given different clans in play.

"I'm less worried about translation than I am some of these refugees - if that's what we're calling them - sneak home a half dozen disruptors, or a piece of advanced medical tech. I mean, the Federation put rules in place for a reason..." Jake sighed. Things were a lot less clear-cut outside of that sort of authority. "One thing at a time, I suppose. Let's see what we can get out of the computers. And, uh, I suppose try to keep it on the down-low from our new friends?"

Leiddem had a lot of mixed feelings over what was going on. None of these people could ever go back into their home worlds due to already knowing to much about technology but that was before they even thought about how they were going to get them there or find their worlds.

Burnie shook his head and shrugged. "Just knowing advanced tech exists isn't enough to use it to affect anything. Over half of what we have now was imagined by human science fiction writers a century before First Contact. As long as they don't know enough to actually reconstruct anything, the most they'll do is give their worlds maybe a decade worth of leg up on direction for R&D." He paused, thinking a moment. "You know, it might be good idea to suggest writing this experience as fiction - it could save the ones who can't just not say anything a trip to the looney bin."

“Well the first sci fiction on earth came in 2nd century so I can see it but still just feels…” Leiddem left the feeling there as he indicated they should try and find a console and a way to find out some information. He just did not want any of them ending in psychiatric facilities on their homeworlds, it was cruel when they had done nothing wrong other then being in the wrong place at wrong time.

"First thing is to find out if we even can return them," Burnie replied, heading to one of the consoles that looked at least marginally intact. He tried to activate it, but getting no response, opened a panel. "Connections look sound." He ran his tricorder and then shook his head. "We aren't going to get anywhere without power. Kali, I hope Liha handed over the portable generator along with that stack of extra weapons."

“Liha did not but Cassie did.” Leiddem had taken the woman’s pack and equipment when he had tried to fix her enough to get her to shuttle. He pulled his pack off and handed it over to the man. “You look there. I keep watching everything else.” He knew Jake was there but it was not quite the same as himself.

Kali sighed, and since 'ex-Marine' was probably about as good as it got for someone watching your back in this sort of situation, knelt down next Burnie to join the data-retrieval/repair efforts - she wasn't an engineer, but outside of engineer, pilot was probably a decent second choice generally when it came to trying to jerry-rig specific things related to flight systems or related records.

"Just make it quick. We wouldn't want the locals to get suspicious," Jake urged. "Then we can spread out and start to interview a few of them about where they came from."