Surefoot 72: Blue Sunshine

Clearly someone needed to understand how things worked on his ship.

He buzzed the doorchime outside of the quarters assigned to Auger. Seconds later, he repeated it, more forcefully, counting to five before announcing aloud, "Computer: Override Door Lock on Counselor Auger's Quarters."

"Unable to comply. Your present security status is insufficient."

Hrelle roared, pounding his fist on the door. Where in the Seven Hells are you-

The door finally slid open, and a tall, muscular, dark-skinned human male in his late forties stood there in a robe. He was broad-shouldered, broad-nosed, with an iron-grey buzzcut that dipped down over a tall forehead in a widow's peak, matching eyebrows and a neatly-trimmed goatee.

He didn't look like any Counselor that Hrelle had encountered before; not just from having a body that seemed more suited to a drill instructor in the Starfleet Special Forces, but from his scent and demeanour, as he stood there, thick arms crossed as he replied in a deep, arrogant baritone, "What do you want?"

Hrelle drew back slightly, his fur bristling. "Counselor Auger, I'm-"

"I know who you are, Captain; I've seen your personnel file, even if I have not had the pleasure of meeting you int he flesh until now. I'll ask again: what do you want? It's 0300 Hours and I was fast asleep."

Hrelle resisted the urge to bare his teeth. "You took me off Active Duty. Why?"

The human shrugged. "Because you missed two appointments with me."

"I didn't miss them, something came up and I rescheduled them!"

"Really?" Auger didn't sound very convinced, turning and walking back deeper into his quarters.

Hrelle followed him inside, letting the door slide shut behind him. "Yes, really! When you've served on a starship long enough, you'll understand that this sort of thing happens all the time!"

Auger grunted as he moved to a curved jug of water on a side table, pouring himself a glassful. "I've served on ships almost as long as you have, Captain. I know my job, I've dealt with many officers... and I know every trick in the book, including when someone is trying to avoid meeting with me."

Hrelle bristled. He couldn't believe this; here he was, back on duty, trying to resume his former life, and now he has to deal with some petty bureaucrat trying to mark his territory! "I'm not avoiding a meeting with you, it's just not necessary."

Auger faced him again, holding his glass. "Oh? And how do you figure that?"

"Because I was already cleared to return to duty!"

"By your wife." He paused to drink. "Not the most unbiased of sources. And she had undergone her own traumas, I'm sure."

Hrelle's jaw tightened; this man was getting on his last nerve! Still struggling to control his temper, he continued with, "I understand why you might think that, Counselor, but-"

Auger smacked his lips. "Doctor."

"Excuse me?"

"It's Doctor, as in Doctor Auger. I never liked the title of 'Counselor'. It makes me sound all warm and fluffy." His grey eyes fixed on Hrelle. "And I'm not either. I'm mean and cranky at the best of times, and especially in the middle of the night. Now, attend a meeting with me, and I'll consider reinstating you."

"No. I need you to do that now."

Auger raised a frosted eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because there's an Emergency! We're responding to a distress signal!"

"Oh? Is it something your First Officer and crew can't handle without you?"

Now he bared his teeth. "That's not the point!"

"Oh? I think that actually is the point. If I contacted Commander T'Varik and asked her point blank if she could handle your distress call without your participation, would she say Yes or No?" He drank again. "I'm assuming Yes, since we haven't gone to Red Alert. You seem like you have a very experienced, very capable crew here, Captain. They managed for many months without you, they can do so for a while longer."

That was it. Hrelle stepped forward, into his quarters, growling. "Reinstate me now, or..."

But Auger stood his ground, looking completely unintimidated by Hrelle. "Or... what, Captain? You're gonna throw me in the Brig? Or maybe just around the room? Try to put the Fear of God into me with that growl that I'm sure makes cadets and midshipmen wet themselves? Go on, put the cherry on top of this fine first impression you're making, to the man who can keep you relieved of duty indefinitely."

Hrelle froze, suddenly aware of how far he had let his anger take him. Feeling genuine remorse, he relaxed his posture and let the rage drain from him. What was he going to do to the man anyway? "I'm sorry, Doctor. I'm... not used to being out of control. Powerless."

Auger relaxed his stance. Slightly. "Your psychiatric record tells a different story. Be at my office at 0900 Hours."

"I can be there at 0600. Or even now."

The human shrugged. "If you want. I still won't be there until 0900 Hours; I need my beauty sleep." Then he waved a brush-off gesture with his huge hand towards the door. "Miss this next one, and I won't be available to see you until next month."

Hrelle turned and departed, feeling thoroughly humiliated... because of his own actions. Was he really that wound up by what the man did, or was it the remaining side effects of Pheromone Withdrawal, not yet cleared by his suppression treatments? Or even residual trauma from his recent experiences? Was Auger right, about Kami not being unbiased enough to give a proper diagnosis of his mental state?

He stopped outside his quarters and tapped his combadge. "Hrelle to T'Varik: I'm remaining off Active Duty for the present. Carry on with the rescue mission as discussed."

"Aye, Sir." There was a pause, and then, "Sir, you are now restricted from actively participating in normal Starfleet duties. However, I have confirmed from your updated records that you now hold the honorary rank of Field Marshal with the Caitian Militia and Planetary Navy."

He frowned to himself, remembering; the gesture was made in response to his efforts during the Occupation, though he remained a little embarrassed by it all. "Yes, and?"

"And, in that capacity, you can still accompany the Away Teams as a Qualified Observer... if you wish."

Hrelle smiled; nice to know that Vulcan guile of hers could be put to good use. "Thank you, Commander, I do wish. Sorry, looks like you'll be in charge for a little while longer."

"Indeed. Clearly the bribe I gave Counselor Auger to relieve you of duty and let me resume command was a bargain." She paused again. "That was of course a joke, Sir."

"If you say so. Hrelle out." He grunted as he returned to his quarters... aware once more of his cubs' plush doll, still in his pocket. "Sorry, Captain, but I'm not taking you along. It's going to be tough enough already trying to fit back into my exosuit."

*

As it turned out, he could fit into it. Just about. If he stayed standing. It worked for him, though. Made him look more commanding.

Sitting down in the Shadowpaw wearing her own suit as part of the Away Team, Eydiir looked over her shoulder and up at him. "Is it safe remaining on your feet, Sir?"

"Hmm? Mother's Cubs, yes! I'm a cat, after all. I have natural grace and balance-" The runabout lurched, making him shift sharply to the side and bang his helmet hard against the replicator unit, the impact ringing in his ears and making him wince. "Ensign! Are you looking to lose your field promotion?"

From the front, Astrid Michel never looked away from the cockpit window. "Sorry, Sir! I'm trying to avoid running through the pockets of theta radiation left by the Aquarius!"

Beside Eydiir, Dr Shyrik turned to look at him, her Andorian antennae pressing against the clearsteel visor of her helmet as if seeking escape. "And anyway, aren't you currently relieved of duty, Captain, Sir? Unable to demote anyone?"

He leaned in closer to her. "I can still bite, Doctor."

"Not through that helmet."

"Clearly you've not seen me attack a buffet table." Then he looked up, to see the Aquarius, and the distinctive design of the Oberth-class starship: the saucer section Primary Hull with its mounted warp nacelles, and the longer pylon Secondary Hull slung underneath and connected with gull-wing struts to the nacelles and retractable access shafts.

It was an old but sturdy design, still in official if limited Starfleet use even after over a century, though many like this one had been sold off to the private sector. "Any response to our hails at this distance, Ms Michel?"

"No, Sir, no response."

"Sensor readings, Ensign Travers?"

Sitting beside Astrid, Assistant Security Chief Pamela Travers moved her gloved hands over the panel before her. "Two lifesigns detected in the Saucer, Decks 3 Fore Shuttlebay, but the readings aren't as clear as I'd like, because of the radiation."

Hrelle leaned in, tapping at an available panel to check the readings. "Heavy radiation from the Aft Engineering section, damage to the Secondary Hull, from what looks like an antimatter storage pod." He nodded to himself. "A lot of the privatised Oberths had the torpedo and probe magazines in their Secondary Hulls replaced with cargo storage and additional antimatter fuel storage and recyclers, to extend their range and operational life."

"Will it be safe for us?" Astrid asked.

"In the short term," Shyrik answered. "In our suits. We'll need to undergo decontamination procedures on our return. Hope no one is too self-conscious."

"I'm not, not with this strapping body of mine." Hrelle tapped the combadge unit on the outside of his suit. "Hrelle to Firepaw: Lt Shall, we're detecting two survivors near the Shuttlebay, but I want to do a close-up sweep of the rest of the ship for others we can't detect from out here. Dock at the airlock on Deck Three Port, we'll take the airlock on Deck Three Starboard."

His niece's voice, and the amusement in it, was clear as it reached his and everyone else's earpieces. "Excuse me, Field Marshal Hrelle, but I must remind you that I am in command of this Away Mission, and you have no authority to give orders. You're merely an Observer."

From her seat, Shyrik looked up again. "Told you."

Hrelle ignored the jibe, growling to himself as he responded with, "Consider it a suggestion then, Lieutenant."

"I'll give it some consideration, Sir, thank you." After a pause, he heard her add, "Ensign Michel, I have an idea: why don't you dock at the airlock on Deck Three Starboard, while we dock at the airlock on Deck Three Port?"

"Excellent idea, Lieutenant, will proceed." Then Astrid turned slightly in her chair to look back at Hrelle. "Uh, sorry, Sir. It is an excellent idea-"

"Eyes on the road, Ensign." He heard his sheathed tail smack against the runabout hull. T'Varik has definitely turned his crew into a pack of smartasses in his absence.

*

They boarded easily enough from either side of the saucer section at the respective Deck Three airlocks, taking a standard sweep pattern through the various areas, Hrelle conscious of the increasing levels of theta radiation as they went aft, unnecessary confirmation of the cause of the accident.

They found bodies near Main Engineering: seared from exposure, twisted into poses like discarded dolls. Only a cursory examination was needed to confirm their deceased states, as the Away Teams stayed focused on finding potential survivors.

As they moved away from the functional sections, where the radiation levels ebbed, Hrelle also took note of the extensive modifications made to the Aquarius, to make it a pleasure craft: smaller crews' quarters were combined into larger staterooms, and labs converted into various Holodecks and other recreational areas that would put a Galaxy-class vessel to shame. There was even still music playing here and there... barely heard over the continuing Red Alert klaxon overhead.

Then they started finding more bodies: young Betazoids in rich flowing clothes, or less, or nothing at all. Beaten. Stabbed. Strangled. Phasered. With a couple of the Aquarius crew also dead, and also looking responsible for killing the Betazoids.

Hrelle stopped at a workstation, accessed the controls and shut off the alarm. "Hrelle to Shall: we've found seven of the crew in Engineering, dead. It looks like they definitely had an accident transferring theta waste down to the transkinetic recyclers in the Secondary Hull. We found passengers, also dead, but from various forms of violence from the Aquarius crew."

C'Rash's voice contained none of the earlier jocularity. "Same here, Sir. Violence, or suicide... or extreme cardiac failure."

Hrelle looked to the other members of his Away Team, Shyrik noting, "Hallucinations and mental degradation can be one of the side effects of theta radiation poisoning."

Before he could respond, he heard Eydiir make a noise, and turned to see her kneeling beside an opened utility closet, running her tricorder at something inside. He drew up to her, peering inside to see the bloodied body of another Aquarius crewman, a pale-skinned, blonde human female, surrounded by containers of cleaning fluids and equipment like it was a nest, and a shard of glass from a black bottle still clutched in one hand. "Did she kill herself, or was she wounded elsewhere and came in here to die?"

Eydiir made another pensive sound. "Traces of glass in the wounds, the lack of other DNA present, and the blood splatter on the wall and the body, all suggests she opened her own carotid artery... after cutting her left forearm and using her own blood to write on the wall."

He turned and saw it, a jagged scrawl that went progressively more erratic towards the end. A chill ran through him. "What does it say?"

The Capellan peered closer. "'The Day of Judgment is at hand. Have mercy on my soul... and to Hell with all the others. Amen.'" She paused. "To die in here, alone..."

He looked to his crewmember again, knowing how the young Capellan's own troubled past had brought her to the brink of self-harm, using a similar method. More quietly he asked, "Are you alright, Eydiir? If you wish to have someone else manage this-"

"Thank you, Sir, but no. My personal demons have learned to fear disturbing me when I am working." She checked her tricorder again. "Captain... this woman did not have any theta poisoning."

"What? Are you sure?"

"I'm only detecting residual theta particles in the air, here only after I opened the closet door."

"What about viruses? Intoxicants, substances? Anything out of the ordinary?"

"Nothing, Sir. She has a typical meal in her stomach from approximately seven hours ago, and a birth control implant whose telemetry data indicates sexual activity after that. Her irrationality could be a natural pathology for this individual, missed from prior scans during her life, and triggered by witnessing events elsewhere on the ship."

"Yes. It could be." Hrelle didn't try to hide his incredulity in his voice, as he rose and drew back to the rest of the party. "Nurse Eydiir, you and Ensign Michel prepare to take the body back with us for an autopsy, encased in styrolite. The rest of us need to join up with the Firepaw Away Team to rescue the survivors." He reopened the channel. "Hrelle to Surefoot: Access the Aquarius' computer logs, scan for any anomalies they might have encountered in the region or along their recorded flightpath."

"Anomalies, Sir?" T'Varik asked.

"Other vessels, spatial interphases, gravimetric polywater phenomena... anything out of the ordinary. Build a timeline of the events that occurred here prior to the radiation accident. Hrelle to Lt Shall: have you located the survivors?"

"Yes, Sir! They're in the Shuttlebay Control Booth! They won't come out!"

"We're on our way."

They didn't have to go far, before reuniting with the Firepaw Team outside the aforementioned section, C'Rash turning to Hrelle. "Captain, it's two of the passengers, we've spoken to them through the intercom system, they refuse to come out, they think we're the remaining Aquarius crew trying to kill them like the others. I'm trying to reason with them but perhaps you could have a go?"

"Sure." He shifted his niece to one side, drew out his phaser, aimed and fired at the locking mechanism, letting the door slide open.

"I could have done that," C'Rash groused.

"Then why didn't you?" He stepped forward, peering into the narrow control booth to see two figures: a tall, teenage Betazoid male with the solid black irises and matching curly hair typical for his people, and an older human male with a gaunt, goateed chin, old-fashioned gold spectacles and bald head, wearing an expensive dark suit and carrying a large black valise in one hand. Both looked understandably unnerved.

Hrelle holstered his phaser again, holding up his gloved paws. "It's okay, we're here to help. We're from the Starfleet vessel Surefoot. We answered the Aquarius' distress signal."

The Betazoid still looked anxious, glancing at his companion, who now appeared relieved as he patted the young man's forearm reassuringly. "Thank God you arrived! You have no idea what we've been through!" He indicated the Betazoid. "This is Errim Veid, Son of the Second House, Holder of the Sacred Sceptre of Rixx, and heir to the Holy Keys of Betazed."

"I want my mother," Veid declared, looking and sounding afraid and pitiful, like someone a third his apparent age.

Hrelle looked to him, reminding himself that not everyone so young is as trained and capable of handling trauma as his Starfleet crew. "Don't worry, son, we'll get you home as quickly as we can." He looked to the human. "And you are...?"

"Doctor Walter Heisenberg, Errim's family's personal physician." He kept looking to Veid. "We need to get him back to his family on Tandara Prime, he's experienced severe trauma, he's very delicate."

"We should go, Sir," Shyrik suggested. "If they're not in suits, with the radiation leak..."

He nodded in understanding. "Lieutenant, escort them to the Firepaw, we'll head back in the Shadowpaw with the.... evidence we've found."

*

T'Varik was continuing to collate the data from the Aquarius when a deep new voice sounded on the Bridge. "Commander, tell me it's not true."

The Vulcan straightened up and turned in place. "May I assist you, Counselor?"

Auger stood there, dressed in a snug-looking uniform with Medical Blue colours, his steely gaze fixed on her. "Tell me Hrelle didn't disobey my directive to take him off Active Duty, in order to go on some Away Mission?"

"Rest assured I will not tell you that."

His high forehead furrowed. "So the breakfast talk I overheard in the Officer's Mess just now was wrong? Hrelle hasn't actually left the ship?"

"The Captain has left the ship on an Away Mission... not in his capacity as a Starfleet officer, but as a representative of the Caitian Government, and therefore an Observer."

Auger frowned now. "You're serious?"

"Generally, yes."

Now he crossed his arms, looking calculating. "And it never occurred to you to question this scheme of Hrelle's to circumvent Starfleet Regulations?"

"No... as it was I who suggested it."

"You?" His eyes widened, before he whistled in mock appreciation. "And did you conjure up this little act of deception in your capacity as a Starfleet officer, or as the woman who's sleeping with Hrelle's niece?"

T'Varik's face tightened, before she countered with, "Please follow me, Counselor."

"I prefer 'Doctor', actually."