Things Past – Incognito - Part 4
by Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Richard Dunham

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Title   Incognito - Part 4
Mission   Things Past
Author(s)   Commander Chelsea Dunham & Commander Richard Dunham
Posted   Sat Aug 06, 2011 @ 10:11pm
Location   On The Edge of Federation Space
Timeline   2374
ON:

There was space debris everywhere. Chelsea, aka Cari, rushed to the controls of the shuttle she was inside but was unable to work out the Romulan controls sufficiently to find out what had happened. She was beside herself. What had happened to Henry?

Cradling the newborn infant in her arms and tending to him as she sought desperately for a way to get a scanner or a report up to see, she accidentally found the LCARS control for the front screen covers which slid back and made her cry out in distress.

All she could see outside throught the persparaplex was pieces, wreckage of ship parts, lots of them, like a thick soup.

=^= Hello....is this thing on =^= came Henry's voice over the comm.

There was a long, stunned silence as Chelsea/Cari turned several different shades, much in the manner of a Bokkai.

=^= H...hen...ry...? =^= she was standing looking out in disbelief, tears streaming down her face when she heard him. Was the voice in her head? Was her sorrow playing tricks with her?

=^= Urrrmmm yep. You ok? =^= Now out of the space debris the battered and beaten freighter started to poke its head out, like a small mammal looking out of its burrow.

Chelsea couldn't believe her eyes.

=^= Henry... *what* have you done? =^= she spluttered, gob-smacked.

=^=Urrrmmmm long story short? =^= he said rather guiltily =^= I had to use the ships warp core....I managed to get a gap in their shields so i flew underneath them and ejected the warp core straight into their hull. Made a nice bang....don't worry we have a back up, but its going to take us longer to get home now =^=

=^= Do you have ANY IDEA how.... =^= she stopped herself just in time. =^= When we get back, I have to warn you, I'm putting in a report! =^= she spluttered indignantly, being totally unreasonable as her shock and grief turned to relief and frustration.

=^= Ok =^= came a nonchalant reply. =^= I don't have the power to beam you over, so i will have to dock. Hold on.=^= There was a sound of metal on metal as the two air lock linked together. =^= Ready when you are =^= Rick continued to talk as he had forgotten to switch off the comm =^= Ungrateful cow...I save her life and what do i ge....crap is this thing still on =^=

=^= =^=

=^= Bugger =^= came a self cursing reply from Rick's Comm.

=^= Kindly refrain from swearing in range of such young and tender ears. =^= was all the 'Orion' doctor had to say. What was going on inside her was a totally different picture but she'd be damned if she was going to let him know she had cried....she wiped her face quickly, hiding the evidence.

Rick who was unaware until then that a baby had been born, grinned to himself alone in the small tramp like freighter. =^= That's good news =^= he said enthusiastically. =^= Job done lets go home =^= Rick was trying to set previous anonymity aside, so they could get the hell home as quick as possible. Which given the state of the ship, would be a limp home at best.

=^= We're not *ready* yet!!! =^= Cari replied, using an exasperated tone. She was incredulous to think he could be so insensitive but she hadn't considered, in the heat of all that was going on, that he probably didn't have the same brief as she had so had no idea what was going on.

She shut off the comm without saying more, indignant at being rushed when she was dealing with such important preparations. ~He could have come over and helped? What's to stop him holding the baby.. in fact.... what IS to stop him????~

The next thing Henry knew, Cari had crossed the docking ports and presented herself in the cockpit, planting her feet squarely, her shoulders set to give him a piece of her mind. "Ungrateful cow am i? Well here, why don't YOU lend a hand.... it hasn't exactly been a party over there! I thought you were d..dead....." she didn't mean to say that last bit and it choked her as it slipped out.

She ground to a halt mid-huff and just stuck the now squalling infant into Rick's chest, forcing him to instinctively jerk his arms up to take it. She then, still too choked to speak and cursing herself inwardly at being so soft as to dissolve as soon as she set eyes on him again, stomped back to the other ship to finish her medical attendance on the recovering mother.

It took some time as she had to regenerate the caesarian wound from the inner layers outwards and then antidote the anaesthetic in the woman's system to get her fit to pilot herself back within an hour of giving birth.

The new mother was extremely grateful She sat up, flexed and nodded approvingly at her own body's condition. "Thank you doctor."

"Cari" Chelsea corrected her gently.

The woman took her leave, but suddenly became tearful for the first time throughout, as she begged Cari to promise to see the child safely to her family on Earth. "I'll do what I can" Chelsea began but the woman grasped her hand and turned her pain-filled eyes upwards, fixing Chelsea's own with a look of intense grief.

"I lost his father.... now I have to give him up too, I *HAVE* to have your solemn promise you're going to protect him or if not, I'll have to give up my work here and all I have achieved.... which will also mean his father will have died in vain.... so I can come home and do it myself. Do you understand? Have you ever lost someone who was your whole life, doctor?"

Chelsea swallowed hard. "My dad, when I was a little girl." she whispered.

"At least you got to know him for a while. My son won't have that and if this mission goes wrong he could end up without a mother either..... I *have* to know he will be as protected as if I were there with him." The woman spoke with intensity, unwittingly tightening her grip on Chelsea's hand, her words placing a constricting band around her heart at the same time.

"I will promise." Chelsea agreed. "For my dad's sake, because he would have liked that, but also for your sake too. You're a very brave woman, braver than I think I could be."

"You never know how much you will give of yourself for love, Cari. Not until it happens to you. Perhaps we may meet again, I hope so, in better times." Her eyes filled briefly with the tears she had been unable to shed while the baby was there.

"Please go, before I fail and refuse to let him go after all...." she turned back into her cockpit with a sob that she couldn't suppress.

Chelsea's eyes filled with tears of sympathy and compassion, her heart wrenched by the agony the brave woman was enduring. She moved towards the docking port and left silently wishing the woman luck.

When Chelsea came back Rick held the baby at arms length like it was some sort of bomb looking at it with sheer panic on his face "What the hell is this?" His look then changed to confusion "Bloody hell We are not taking this thing with us are we?....take it back to the Romulan ship" he said trying to hand the baby back to Chelsea. Then their was a 'cuh-chunk' noise as the airlocks disconnected. From the view port the Romulan shuttle could be seen pulling away then disappearing in a shimmering haze of the cloak. Rick's face then turned to one of dread and groaned in disparagement.

"Bugger...." he mumbled quietly "What are you looking at?" he grumbled at the baby who was giving him a odd look.

"Stop making such a fuss and hold him closer to your body, he'll feel insecure at arms' length and only cry more." Cari turned away to hide the amused smirk that was playing around her lips.

"Perhaps he's still yelling because you haven't changed him? Those first newborn poohs are always green and evil, so don't panic, ok?"

"And by the way..." she called back over her shoulder as she dived off to change her blood and amneotic fluid stained clothes. "He's part Klingon, so he'll bite you instinctively and also part Romulan so he won't stop doing it even if it hurts you and you yell.......probably do it more if you do!!" she teased.

As she crossed the corridor to go into the shower she added with a chuckle. "What will you pay me never to tell him that it was you who blew his relatives to smithereens?" She didn't wait for an answer but ducked into the shower cubicle before he could get off an indignant reply.

Rick who had brought the baby to his chest considered what The Orion Doctor had said....he hadn't thought of it like that, and he looked down at he baby with new found sympathy, gently rocking the baby and making gentle 'shhhhh' noises.

When 'Cari' returned to the small bridge she found what looked like a bomb had hit his a military operation. A pile of dirty and clean baby nappies sat in the replicator, clean-up wipes were scattered on the floor and a baby mat was in the middle of it covered in some sort of baby powder.

The baby was a sleep in what looked like a rudimentary crib made from the foam of an ammo box, sheets from their beds and the frame of a class one probe casing. On a monitor a guide on how to put a baby down and wrap them up. Rick was very quietly pressing buttons on the LCARS display with one hand and eating a slice of pizza with the other. Next to his plate of food was a half drunk bottle of baby formula.

Chelsea was impressed. So much so she stopped, one hand on the towel she was rubbing her hair with, her mouth wide open. "Woh! You're going to make some lucky woman a great sire to her offspring some day." she grinned, deliberately making the comment feminist to annoy him.

The baby cooed, kicking his dark-skinned arms and legs, soft but clearly Klingon ridges on his rising forehead and the clear formation of teeth in his gummy smile. His genetics were strongly towards his father it seemed although he *did* have beautiful green eyes like his mother and an obvious point to the tops of his tiny ears, indicating Romulan heritage too.

"He's stunning." She murmoured, crouching down beside him her face soft as she spoke to him in baby-standard. He gurgled at her, kicking his legs and waving his arms. "He likes me! Either that or he thinks I look like he'd like to bite me!" she commented, putting her little finger into his palm and letting him close his surprisingly strong little fist around it.

"What should we call him? I suppose the Earth family will choose something appropriate but we need to call him something until we get him home....." she looked up at Henry as if she expected him to decide.

Since he had dealt with the baby in such an incredibly efficient and caring manner, he had risen in her estimation again. And he was still an awe-inspiring pilot and a resourceful, imaginative and inventive juryrigger. She couldn't help but slowly realise that despite herself, she was growing to like and respect him. ~Bugger!~ she thought with an internal smirk, picking up on his favourite curse.

"Shall we call him Bugger?" she asked mischievously. "Seeing as that's the word he's heard most since he was born?" She looked up at Henry from beneath long dark eyelashes that were not in keeping with the Orion disguise.

"No!" said Rick indignantly around a large mouthful of Pizza almost chocking on it. He swallowed his food. "You can't call him that!"

"What then?" Chelsea smirked again, amused at his protectiveness in sharp contrast to his earlier attitude of 'what the hell is this... take it back'. Clearly a spell of being responsible for the infant and some inventive and inspired cobbling together of some comfort for him, had brought out the paternal, or at least the elder brother, in Henry.

"How about Henry Junior.... I mean, as we both know your *real* name isn't Henry, it wouldn't matter... and as it's only between us, no-one needs know?" she suggested.

"Oookkkk" said 'Henry' a little uncertainly, he had not had anything named after him before, if that's what this was. "So this baby is part Romulan part Klingon and part human.....that couldn't've been easy. You must be a pretty good doctor." If Rick had seen the birth he would've gone so far as to say an amazing doctor by the way she had brought a baby into the world from a very difficult pregnancy and complications through the birth.

"It wasn't an easy birth, I have to say, she went into difficulties straight away. You can see with a head like that he wasn't coming out the normal way, so it was an immediate caesarian. That would be commonplace if I had still had the medical supplies, but luckily the mother had a more comprehensive kit on her shuttle to add to what I took from here. Anyway, All year 4 medical graduates should be able to do a delivery. It's pretty much the calculus of the syllabus." she shrugged modestly playing down the life and death stuff that had taken her to the verge of panic before she had managed to wrestle it all back under control again.

"Wow" said Rick, impressed. "Could you take a look at this then" he said pointing at his forehead that had been cut in their fight with the Dominion.

Cari looked up at him, suddenly realising that he had that injury all this time and not only had she failed to notice but she had done nothing about it for him.

~He's right. I *am* and ungrateful cow*!~ she felt like something crawling along the bottom of a murky pond somewhere.

"OH!! I'm so sorry.. why didn't you mention it before?" She got up straight away and hurried for the medical first aid kit that she had brought back with her. She was blushing bright red and looking very sheepish as she carefully scanned it, cleaned it up and regenerated it layer by layer, making sure not to leave a scar. Her work was good, despite her modest dismissal of her own talents and before long the deep gash was just a memory, the bone, tissue and skin all back as they were before it happened.

While she worked, she was very much in his personal space. She didn't know what to say, she felt so bad about not even noticing that he was hurt.

Rick felt his forehead where the cut had been "I take it back Doc, you are amazing." It was true, "It's true that's not the first time I've been under a dermal regenerator before, and you handle it like a pro. Look, I'm sorry I didn't say anything its my fault for not mentioning it. But we were under attack and then I was worried about you getting hypothermia...."

Chelsea had forgotten that, she had gone into shock, she remembered now. It hadn't been severe nor lasted too long but it had been Rick's quick thinking to put a thermal-blanket over her that had made sure she recovered quickly.

"OH yes.... I owe you for that one too. Seems you've made a habit of saving my rear lately. Thank you." she admitted graciously and gratefully.

Before she put the regenerator away she leaned in and kissed his cheek as a thank you, then blushing outrageously, turned and looked intently into the medical kit, searching for a sky-hook or something as obscure, in her attempt to cover her embarassment.

tbc.....


A JP between:

Cadet Rick Dunham
aka Henry the Vulcan

and

Cadet Chelsea Adams
aka Carisel the Orion