(G262 22/01/2016 via Roll20 - JF(GM), AP, MI) 45
DAY 123(tue) cont...
Kirk and his crew formulated a sort of plan. They would land near one of the cities under cover of darkness as stealthily as possible.
Kirk's orders to Paterson were,
'Fly in, avoid settlements, no lights, quick and quiet. Drop us 50km from the settlement, then go back into orbit.'
While they waited for nightfall Kirk had Murphy read up on how to implant Subcutaneous Transponders and once he felt confident enough Murphy performed the minor surgery. Kirk now had a subspace communicator under the skin of his wrist. In the end though it wasn't going to do him much good.
As they approached Kirk had some idea, perhaps involving camouflaging the ship and requested a landing in the wilderness first, but then he cancelled that order when he could not find a suitable spot with the scanners.
Paterson began to bring them further in until Kirk blurted out, 'Forget all that. Rocket boots!'
At that point the rest of the crew began to think that Kirk needed to get more sleep, but his reasoning was based on his experiences of HALO jumping on the Numiri homeworld. It wasn't long before he cancelled that instruction as well when he remembered how dangerous it had all been.
At 10,000 feet the Caco was thrown about a bit as if hitting very bad turbulence. Tal Celes also informed Kirk that they had just lost all forms of communications.
'It's a jamming signal Captain', she said, 'White noise on every frequency.'
'OK. Paterson, just get us down.', ordered Kirk.
Paterson was impeded by whatever was affecting the warp engines and they missed their landing area by 13 miles. With a crunch that broke some of the landing gear she brought them down on the side of a mountain about 60 miles away from the city Kirk planned to go to.
The away team was to be Kirk and Adam so they loaded themselves up with all the equipment they planned to take with them. Adam was given the job of carrying all the water.
Ship time and local planetary time were both roughly 2100 hours when they set off in the dark. Once outside Kirk heard the sound of goats bleating not far from the ship. Adam stumbled around in the dark for a bit trying to get a better fix on them, but in the end Kirk located them on his MATSE's infra red.
Seeing no threat from the goats Kirk tried to call up the Caco on his communicator but got nothing. The jamming signal affected all radio and most Subspace means of communicating so he just stuck his head through the air lock and told the rest of the crew,
'Check for people, keep an eye on the goats. Try getting into orbit. We'll head for the city and put up a flare when we want to be picked up. Red for emergency. Green if we want to meet back up here.'
Finally Kirk and Adam walked from the ship for two hours and then set up camp. Presumably Kirk preferred to spend the night on the side of a mountain (rather than their his bed back on the Caco) to enjoy the stars and get used to the climate. Never sleeping, Adam kept watch all night.
DAY 125 (thu)
At dawn they headed east, then south when they reached the valley floor, and followed a dried up river bed until they got to where a path crossed an old stone bridge.
They followed the path for an hour or so until they saw a group of twelve men coming up the valley, far in the distance.
Using his binoculars Kirk could see that they were humanoids armed with spears and lightly dressed. They decided to wait and act innocently.
However, this was a war time patrol. On Huroc there was a conflict going on between the Vulcans in the north and the Kazons in the south. The area they were in was largely desolated and home only to a few goat herders and half starved hermits. Two healthy, well armed 'Vulcans' were highly suspicious to the patrol and unfortunately Kirk could not speak Vulcan so it was left to Adam to try and talk them out of it.
Adam spoke Alpha Quadrant Vulcan, which sounded odd and archaic to the Hurocians. Adam simply lacked the charisma to bluff the soldiers and made up increasingly unlikely stories about being travelling hermits.
'We have been travelling the mountains for four months. We have suffered a loss and we are looking for a Katric Arc in order to preserve the soul.'
The captain of the troops looked at their well fed bodies and Kirk's neatly manicured hands.
'You look like you just stepped out of a rich man's town house. Your sandals are hardly even dirty.'
He pointed at their flintlocks, 'I've never seen weapons like that before and as to Katric Arcs they only exist in legend.'
The captain placed them under arrest and sent some of his men up the valley to continue the patrol.
Kirk and Adam went with the soldiers without putting up any further protests, attempting to make any bribes or threats trusting perhaps to their misconception that these Vulcans were like Alpha Quadrant Vulcans and were people that could be reasoned with using logic only.
The sun climbed to its full height and the noon day sun beat down on Kirk who began to sweat profusely. Adam took pity on him and leant him his sun hat.
Adam again tried to talk to the Vulcans, but only made things worse. Kirk asked what was going on, but when they talked together they greatly confused the Vulcans,
'What language do you speak?', asked the captain.
'English.', answered Adam. The captain looked fearfully at him and made a sign to ward off evil.
'Apparently they now think we are demons', Adam explained calmly to Kirk.
Kirk sighed, 'Ok Adam. Translate this to him; We come from a more advanced part of the planet.'
The captain shouted back, 'Silence with your lies, devil scum! Corporal, if he speaks again give him a poke with your spear.'
Two hours later they arrived at a village, that consisted of no more than twenty houses. They were kept under guard at the village spring while the captain went to make his report. Ten minutes later a Vulcan male that looked like a nobleman arrived and talked to Adam.
'Where were you born?'
'I am from very far away and I was never born.', answered the ever truthful Adam throwing caution to the wind with the Prime Directive.
'Name the place.'
'Made in China', replied Adam, presumably to try and lighten the mood, but then changed his answer to Gol, a city on Vulcan.
'Never heard of it.' said the nobleman.
'It's the largest city where I am from.'
'Why are you lying?'
'We are only here for a Katric Arc', explained the AI, 'We mean no harm.'
This made the vulcan lord think for a minute. He then gestured his men away so he could talk to
Adam without being overheard.
'Where is your spaceship crashed?'
Adam realised that they had been guilty of making assumptions about the planet once again. Just because the technology on the planet was pre-industrial did not necessarily mean they knew nothing of space travel.
Adam eventually answered by drawing a Starfleet symbol in the dirt with his foot.
'Do you know this symbol?'
'Yes' answered the lord.
'What is the name of the organisation?'
'Those who journey through space..'
Adam was about to speak but the noble guessed he had not been believed and said,
'Enough of your games!', and gesturing at Kirk, 'Nail that one to a tree, maybe it will make this other one a bit more cooperative.'
As the soldiers advanced on Kirk he drew his katana. He tried to get Adam to say something to calm the situation down, but this was beyond the AIs capabilities and a melee ensued.
'Die offworlder!', cried the captain as he rushed at Kirk with his spear.
Both Kirk and Adam drew their flintlock pistols and fired them at the rushing men. After that Kirk
fended them off with his katana and his superior skill with the weapon soon left the captain in a bleeding heap in the dirt and the rest either injured or fleeing. He did sustain a couple of minor injuries but that was all. Adam shot the lord in the head, cutting a bloody line across his cheek which made the vulcan flee. The rest of the soldiers attacked Adam but they too were forced to flee as the AI drew out more of his pistols and shot at them.
The Starfleet crew let the soldiers take their injured away as they left the scene. No vulcan had been killed in the fight but several had been badly wounded. As they headed out of the village a woman gestured to them and said,
'Take me with you, spaceman!'
(As an aside here, the words 'demon', 'offworlder' and 'spaceman' are all the same word in Hurocian. Literally it would translate as 'other world being'. Remember that Adam was using a very different version of the Vulcan language and his translations were not always precise.)
At first Kirk was unsure but when she offered to take them to safety he agreed. She grabbed a small boy by the hand, her son, and lead them to the stables were three krodoks (eight legged riding lizards) were saddled and ready to go. She jumped on one and pulled her son up in front of her. Gingerly Kirk and Adam mounted the other two lizards and together they all rode out of the village at high speed.
As they left the village in their dust the woman told them over her shoulder,
'My name is Marion! My son is called Guyus. I'll take you to a cave where we can spend the night.'
Lacking a better plan Kirk and Adam followed on behind her, trying not to fall off their mounts.
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