Safety Is Relative

[FG]

[Back of the runabout]

The three that had been rescued had basically commandeered the back
room of the runabout, utilizing what little space there was in the
troop-carrying version of the runabout to lay down the unconscious
Vulcan. Once he was down and they heard the whine of the engines,
Jeral nodded to T'Uriel, then looked for the extended medkit, finding
it in its standard storage compartment.

"One thing I love about Starfleet ships," he said as he pulled the
large kit over and opened it up. "Everything's always got a place and
no matter when its built, it's always in the same place." He pulled
out a medical tricorder and handed it to T'Uriel, whom had more
medical training to deal with the elder.

"How is your head?" T'Uriel asked as she scanned over the elder, not
bothering to look up.

Jeral shrugged. "It's a lot calmer," he said. "There's definitely an
edge taken off of the empathic senses. I no longer feel headaches from
encounters with people going through emotional stresses... granted,
this was not the best test out there, but I can at least focus in
presence of large amounts of people, where I couldn't do so earlier.
There's a mild headache, nothing more."

T'Uriel nodded as she continued to scan, then hit a few buttons. "Do
we have any menalotozine in the medkit?"

Jeral looked around and scavenged in the medkit. "Doesn't look like
it, but I could replica-"

"The substance cannot be replicated," T'Uriel cut him off, still not
looking up. "It was worth asking."

"I hope he'll be all right," Jeral replied. "I owe him that much to
bring him out of this alive."

"As he is a Vulcan elder, I doubt Serik would hold you to any form of
compensation," T'Uriel pointed out.

Jeral paused for a moment, then shook his head. "For me, this is
gaining my life back. The least I can do is save his."

T'Uriel stopped for a moment, then a look of acceptance crossed her
face ever so briefly. "Who are the people we have allied ourselves
with?" she asked, finally looking up at Jeral.

"Well, the pilot, I definitely recognize. I don't think he remembers
me, though..." Jeral trailed off as memories came back to him of his
first posting... Sajida... He bit back a tear and snapped himself to
the present. "Formerly an Admiral, now Captain Robert Martens.
Formerly of the USS Excalibur. What he's doing now, I have no idea,
but then again I haven't heard much since leaving Starbase 828." He
turned to T'Uriel. "I don't necessarily remember Tank that well, but I
do remember something about a Lieutenant Colonel on board... I never
had extended contact with the Marines. I was only a security officer
who took a back station on the bridge every once in a while and got
the night watch. He probably doesn't remember me or remembers my older
brother Aran more; he got assigned as Chief Engineer there and I went
to... another ship." Another sharp descent into bad memory lane was
coming, but Jeral suppressed it by going into a game of kal-toh in his
head, which he had a sudden urge to play.

T'Uriel raised her eyebrow. "Perhaps this encounter with them is not
so coincidental after all," she pointed out.

Jeral lifted his eyebrow in response. "A logical conclusion, though
mere speculation. I think we should just ask... but first..." He went
over to the computer terminal and began to access information in the
runabout's core.

"What are you doing?" T'Uriel asked.

"Finding out why some heavily armed spooks were after me," Jeral
replied. He looked at the female Vulcan. "And to see if they will keep
following and putting other people in jeopardy."


Lieutenant jg Jeral Krezek
Accessing...