Time's Legacy Continued

[Lt Aidan McKenzie]

Just as he finished his computations, recalibrations and all that, Clyde piped in on the comm channel. He relayed the message to Kiele "Looks like they're almost ready. Clyde's saying to fire exactly 7 minutes from now."

As he waited for her response, he sent a silent prayer up to the great white father to please let this plan work and allow the doc to be unharmed when the transport is called for, that he'll beam up a unconscious doctor and not a crispy crittered mess

[LtCol Kiele Christienne]

"Lt McKenzie, will you put up a a countdown display on the main viewscreen? It may only be seven minutes but the wait will seem interminable."

As the screen flashed in miniature imitation of what it foretold, she remembered a quote from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and in the last few moments before the countdown expired, she repeated it. " Brief as the lightning in the collied night,That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth
And ere a man hath power to say, 'Behold!' The jaws of darkness do devour it up: So quick bright things come to confusion."

She smiled. "In plainer words, lieutenant. Fire."

[Lt Aidan McKenzie]

"Sure can" he replied, tapping the controls, putting up the 7 minute countdown, then added a chuckle when she commented that the 7 minutes would basically take forever "Yeah, seems more like 7 years then 7 minutes."

As he waited for the countdown to reach zero, he thought of his wife and 2 beautiful twins. His thoughts were interrupted when Kiele started speaking, sounding like she was quoting something from Shakespeare, not that he knew or read anything like that

He glanced to the screen and noticed that countdown had reached the last 10 seconds. He moved his hand over the firing command. At 2 seconds, and at Kiele''s command, he fired the modified phaser beam, thinking it would take about 2 seconds to reach the ground "Cross your fingers, Colonel and hope I haven't fried the Doc." Seeing the flash of light as the blast hit the ground at the end of his comment. He had aimed a few feet in front of the doctor. Then something else came to mind: He hoped Clyde is walking behind the doctor instead of in front of him

He shook his head of that thought then contacted sickbay, knowing his aforementioned wife is currently on call there. "Hey babe, we got incomming."

[LtCol Kiele Christienne]

Action..

Chunks of rock fly up as the beam impacts the ground. The Doctor is only narrowly missed by a sharp shard, but Clyde is hit in the temple and falls, heavily dazed.

[Lt Aidan McKenzie]

Aidan looked at the readings as they came in. He frowned and cursed a bit "Damn" he muttered, seeing Clyde's life signs waver a bit, then he reports to Kiele "The doc is.. unharmed but it looks like clyde was hit by some flying debris." He then contacted sickbay again "Incomming wounded." He informed sickbay, as he began to transport the doc, Clyde and any other away team people up

[LtCol Kiele Christienne]

"It was such stony ground. I should have remembered that and tried to compensate." She said quietly.

"Please have Medical inform the Bridge as soon as possible about the away team's condition." she responded to Aidan. Kiele didn't want to give the impression that she was afraid the situation might be worse than reported but needed to show confidence in her own decisions, even if privately she frequently doubted them.

[Lt Aidan McKenzie]

He had to strain his hearing a little to hear the quietly spoken comment by the colonel after his report "you couldn't know how the ground was without being down there and neither could I. I suppse we should be lucky that no one was actually killed." He said in a somewhat somber tone

He then nodded and contacted sickbay yet again "Bridge to sickbay, status report on the away team as soon as you're able, please and thank you."

[Major Clyde Greathouse]

The beam hits and dirt and rocks fly up, Clyde sees rocks narrowly miss the Doctor, when all of a sudden he feels something hit his head, he drops like a brick hitting the ground things were bleared and fading in and out as he tryed to get back up he falls back down,

When he opens his eyes hes on the ship in sickbay as he hears Cindy talking to him and yelling out his damage "Dang Karma" he mumbles, as things go dark.

[LtCmdr Dr. Cindy Lee McKenzie]

She replies to her husband "Were ready" she reported as the Doctor and Clyde were beamed in.

"Stat! Stat!" She yells as she sees Clyde and starts treating him, she doesn't reply to Aidan a nurse replies "As soon as we know we will let you know"

Cindy puts a hand on Clyde "Keep still you been injured!" She cleans up the wound and scans his head "He has a concussion a .5 inch deep cut on his temple" She checks to make sure their is pieces of rock still in the wound then uses the dermal re-generator oh heal the wound up, she breathed a sigh of relieve theirs brain damage.

She could heal Clyde mumbling as they worked on him, she keep an eye on his vital signs, the doctor was resting comfortably, she makes Clyde comfortable after she is done. "Thank God you got a hard head" the nurse keep from laughing but Cindy dose, as she goes to the Office.

She Comms the Bridge "Lt COL, Clyde has a concussion and a .5 inch deep cut on his temple, I have healed the cut, scans show no brain damage but I need to watch him fro 24 hrs, the Doctor is fine and resting, both are comfortable now" She laughs "Clyde said dang Karma"

[LtCol Kiele Christienne]

Kiele regarded Aidan soberly. "Command is not a matter of luck. I could not have contacted Clyde's family and let them know that he was dead and it was just a matter of ill- luck. I have to take everything into consideration. Using the ship's phasers, even at low power, was risky and had I thought that a less dramatic death would have been equally convincing, I would never have taken it. Suppose that instead of flat ground, they had been in one of the hilly areas? It might have started an avalanche, Inadvertently yes, but inexcusable from a command perspective."

She was interrupted by the Counselor's report and trailed off. The lecture might have been directed at Aidan but it was self-recrimination.

"Thank you Counselor. Keep both of them there as long as you see fit" A smile was visible briefly, hearing Clyde's remark. " Perhaps Clyde should ask his brother Charlie how he manages to get away with what he does without paying for it."

[Dr. Robert Devoroh, MD (LT)]

Robert slowly woke up 25 minutes later obviously taking advantage of the extra sleep. He woke up groggy and temperarily unaware of his surrounding. Eventually, started to figure out that he was on the Ayres. But his body is still not willing to carry his weight. "and I'm back from the dead."

[LtCmdr Dr. Cindy Lee McKenzie]

Cindy moves over to the Doctor when a nurse calls her, she scans him "Welcome back Doctor" she places a hand on his shoulder "Easy your still weak you been out for 25 minutes "

She sees the scans show he weak from the medicine "You need to rest, I say another 1/2 hour, at least your doing better than Clyde"

She looked over at him then back to the Doctor "He took a rock to the temple he has a concussion and had a bad cut, but hes doing good right now" she reports to him

[Dr. Robert Devoroh, MD (LT)]

Stares at her for just a momant, hearing how long he's been asleep and that he has 30 more minutes. Then hears that Clyde is there, got hurt but will be okay. "alright then, I'm going back to sleep." He rolls over and closes his eyes.

[LtCol Kiele Christienne]

In the aftermath of everything that had happened, Kiele added one more problem to their list. The old Teer had not signed the new mining agreement before he'd died. The Capellans did not use sub-space communications however and the only way to continue negotiations was to send another away team in. She suspected that might not go over very well with them under the circumstances, at least not until things cooled down a bit. Had Clyde been able to speak with them and confirm the Doctor's death, insure that an heir was in place and generally smooth everything over, she could be more certain of the outcome, but what were they thinking down there now after a bolt of lightning seems to have carried their leader off?

This she kept to herself but she truly did not know what was best at this point. The Federation needed the dilithium mining rights but she didn't want to send anyone else down there without knowing what sort of hornet's nest might be waiting for them. Starbase 211 was closest to them. They could be there in a couple of hours. Clyde would have time to recover. She could make her report to Starfleet Command. Perhaps she could leave the decision in their hands.

"Helm, set our course for Starbase 211. We may be returning to Capella but for right now, it seems best that we leave diplomacy to the diplomats."

It crossed Kiele's mind that SB211 was fairly close to the Cardassian border but there was no trouble with them currently and she didn't want invite it with her own troubled thoughts.

[LtCol Kiele Christienne]

When Aryes arrived, Kiele learned that it was the first starship to dock there in a month but that this was not uncommon. On the edge of the Cardassian border, their mission was primarily one of observation. They had minimal repair facilities and armament, a standard galley and recreational area, but no frills. Still, the crew was granted provisional leave, and Kiele, after she was finished sending out all the required reports, thought it would be nice not to have to make any more difficult decisions for a few days, than what to order for lunch.

Preparing to be in civilian attire for the first time in several months, she scanned the contents of her wardrobe, dissatisfied with the few choices available to her. Everything in it seemed to belong to another lifetime, one that she was growing farther and farther from. Did she have what she had set out to achieve when she chose to come to Aryes? She did, but the satisfaction she had expected in doing so hadn't come with it. Was that the result of the circumstances or was the fault her own?

Counselor counsel thyself, she chided as she finally chose a dark blue pant set with a silver sash and deliberately added the dilithium crystal necklace she'd been given as a gift while on board Pegasus. It was a strong reminder to her of what was possible when you took control of your own destiny. If one is to command others, one must begin by commanding oneself.