PNPC Lieutenant Kyle Morgan - Like a Swarm
Addison MacKenzie
(OOC: I thought this would be a great way to get Michelle’s MSPNPC introduced and to provide a new perspective as to what’s happening off-world. In general, PNPCs should not be written for during missions unless permitted or invited by a member of the ship’s staff.)
(( Sickbay – Deck 7, USS Artemis-A ))
It all happened so fast.
They were in orbit of Betazed, but they weren’t. …but they were.
As if out of nowhere, the Artemis was surrounded by Dominion ships, and Jem’Hadar were swarming through the corridors of the Luna-class vessel. As a ship, they had no opportunity to defend themselves. As individual crewmembers, there was little time to mount any kind of resistance – it was as if the Jem’Hadar appeared out of thin air, and in every critical area… It was as if they knew exactly where to infiltrate…
How much time did it take for them to overtake the ship? How much time had passed since? Who knew? In many ways, time seemed meaningless. It felt both as if the Jem’Hadar just arrived, and that they’d been enduring this agony forever.
The Dominion made a quick order of rounding up and securing the crew. As far as Kyle knew, there hadn’t yet been any loss of life, but those who bothered to offer any resistance were injured and sent to Sickbay, where Kyle had the gross misfortune of being the senior medical officer on duty. Of the injuries presenting themselves so far, they all seemed to be non-life-threatening: broken bones, superficial scrapes, burns from polaron weapons set low enough that they would only damage the epidermis…
But he supposed if there were any fatalities, there was no reason to bring them to Sickbay…
Did the Jem’Hadar even believe in morgues?
Or burying their dead?
He thought about Adea and MacKenzie – one his boss, the other his mentor, and how he wished that one of them had been there to take charge of the situation… But they were all likely still planet-side, and likely condemned to a fate far worse than anyone on the ship seemed to have been – yet.
In fact, as far as he knew, the senior staff was likely all dead, and it was possible that he was the ranking officer on board.
That was terrifying. He was a doctor, not a military strategist. His knowledge of the Dominion was limited to what he learned in school – at nearly 30, he was barely walking and talking when the War was underway, and there was nothing in any briefings he’d seen to indicate the Dominion were mounting forces capable of overtaking Betazed, let alone in a position to be able to do so…
And yet, in Sickbay, there were several Jem’Hadar standing guard over them, weapons ready as if to waste any one of them at the first opportunity.
Something was bizarre about the whole situation.
But there was no time to give any thought to it. There were wounded and, while none of them appeared to be critically so, it was up to him and the small unit of medical officers and nurses to take care of them. As he ran a dermal regenerator over the arm of an officer who was the victim of weapons fire, another soldier made his way into Sickbay. This one was different – the Jem’Hadar coming to Sickbay were doing so for one of two purposes: to dump off the wounded or stand guard. This particular Jem’Hadar was unaccompanied and, while juvenile-looking, carried himself with an air of authority that the others seemed to respect.
He was likely their First.
…and he was coming directly at Kyle.
When the Jem’Hadar was close enough that Kyle could nearly feel him breathing on his neck, he spoke but didn’t bother to lift his gaze from the wound of the officer he was treating.
Morgan: What now?
Tark'iqbar: Response
Kyle raised his head and offered a look that fell somewhere between disgusted and annoyed.
Morgan: What does it look like? I’m treating the wounded.
Tark'iqbar: Response
Morgan: I’m a doctor – I’m just doing my job.
Tark'iqbar: Response
Tag, and TBC!
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Lieutenant
Kyle Morgan
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
V239601AM0