Dinner interupted

Posted on Fri Nov 16th, 2012 @ 6:23pm by Lieutenant JG Victoria Drani

Mission: Heart of an Explorer
Location: Meltorran Planet
Timeline: Current

"So, you never talked much about your life before coming to Meltorra," Tavus asked as he placed the last bite of food into his mouth. Victoria was indeed a wonderful cook.

"And I plan to keep it that way," Victoria said as she finished her food. The din lighting in the former shuttle made for a cozy dinner environment. As well as a safe haven from any infected citizens that may wonder into or near the camp.

"Oh come on. Was it really that bad?" Tavus persisted.

"Long story short, the organization that I belonged to called Starfleet decided that a rule about not interfering with a civilization that hadn't yet achieved warp drive but did achieve basic space travel was far more important than saving them from being wiped out by a deadly virus, which to me, conflicted with my oath to cause no harm. By not interfering, we caused those people harm.

"What happened to those people?"

Victoria was silent for a moment as she thought back to looking at the daily planetary scans. "The population went extinct," she said quietly. "And we had the power to save them."

"Thankfully I am not from an organization such as that," Tavus replied after digesting the horrific news.

"So that's why I left and I found this planet eventually."

"I'm glad you did," Tavus smiled. "Or else I would never have met someone so beautiful."

"You're quite the charmer aren't you?" she asked with a smile in return.

"Well, it's a--"

Victoria held up a hand. "I'm sensing something..." Drani could sense basic thoughts, all with primal survival thoughts and patterns. "Shit! Infected!"

Both Victoria and Tavus jumped up, grabbing their perspective weapons as they exited the shuttle. The darkness was complete but the crunching of grass under several footfalls could be heard. "Tavus, go get your father!"

Victoria raised her Type 2 Phaser. From their thought patterns, these infected were too far gone to be treated. 'How the hell did they get this far out so quickly?' Drani thought.

Just as Tro'val and Tavus rejoined her, she could make out the shape of an oncoming small group of infected.

Seeing the trio, the small group broke out into a run, yelling and screaming with their arms outstretched.

'Please forgive me,' Drani thought as she raised her phaser and fired. Tro'val and Tavus with their more primitive ballistic weapons also open fired.

The weapons each struck their mark in taking down the infected. After a minute of constant firing, the decimated survivors of the infected group scampered as quickly as the could toward the forest.

Drani waited until the group vanished before holstering her phaser.

"What was a group of infected doing way out here?" Tro'val said as he approached Drani.

"I'm not sure," Drani replied. "But we better stay in my shuttle tonight to be on the safe side. We better burn the bodies to prevent spread of the disease first. Let's get our suits on."