[snip]

Upon being released from the transporter beam, the away team found themselves in a purple-silver toned corridor, the end of which dead ended behind them. The lights were flickering here and there but overall were operating mostly normally. The shape of it was oval in shape. Roughly 10ft in height by 8ft in width. Their first look of the newly met aliens was a pair coming around the corner ahead of them, they wore bright silver jumpsuits. They stood about 5‘8 in height. They were clearly feminine/female in body shape, lithe with purple skin slightly brighter in tone then the corridor around them. They were slender and walked with a natural grace and held a strong charisma. The two’s musculature make up seemed less prominent than a humans. They had the classic two eyes, two nostril nose, and mouth. Though their ears were slim and elfin like, what some might refer to as ‘elves’ in old Terran mythology. Their hair structure was thick and the one on the left had a dark black coloring while the one on the right was a off brown tone. Their eyes were slim but both were dark amber green in coloring. They both looked like twins as well or maybe sisters sharing similar parentage. They seemed to be coming this way due to having heard the sound of the transporter, thankfully neither were armed it seemed.

A strange song like quality of words came forth in a surprise tone, which was echoed by their facial features. They seemed as surprised and confused at the presence of the away team then anyone. Thankfully they were rescued from an awkward first contact by a third figure joining them at a jog. This one wore a similar silver toned jumpsuit by a double line of purple and a sharp song bark of words seemed to bring the first two up short from what might be defensive action. The song like quality of the voice seemed familiar to Inola perhaps the woman she had spoken to previously on the comms on the bridge? It might be wise to break out the universal translator on their comm units to try to put the uneasy situation to rest.

Kord noted the similarity of color between their uniforms and his Charon fleet uniform, his just wasn’t quite as bright.

Pulling out the UT device, he turned it on.

“We come in peace. We are the here to help with repairs to your life support systems.” he said.

Glen followed behind Kord. The strange shape of the corridor making it difficult to spread out more. However, he could see and hear the song of the aliens quite adequately.

There was another song like quality of speech, but this time the UTs translated it fairly well, “..Oh you are the aliens who contacted us! Thank the Great Abyss for your arrival.” the first batch of ‘song like words’ said from the third person to arrive.

”..I am the Second aboard this vessel, I admit we had not expected your arrival out of thin air. Truly your technologies must be in excess of ours..” it went on.

”..In either case though, come. I will take you to our control center, just down the hall. Please watch your step, as they have been some blown outs in service panels..” She went on gesturing in some manner to the first two to likely return to work while the second gesture with a palm raised and making a ‘back/forth’ gesture to follow her.

Glen found the hand signalling interesting. The UT wasn’t going to recognise those subtle communications and he thought back to his earlier meeting with Inola. This was exactly why she had wanted to join the Merrimack crew.

“How severe is the Damage X, uh Second? Do you need assistance with casualties?” Mooneys ‘ lead, follow or get out of the way additive in crisis had bought him more than on good butt chewing. Some people were just slow to learn.

Kord waited as he was about to ask the same questions.

Glen could see how Mooney’s ‘no nonsense’ attitude might cause annoyance to some, but it was what they needed to know and saving lives had to be first priority here, despite how interesting this all was both culturally and scientifically.

It took a moment for the UT to do its thing before a sing song like reply came back, though it seems some words were primitive in their meaning yet =/\= Our main power reactor is offline, secondary power is online but unstable. Maneuvering is offline, as our other critical systems. The relays to the main reactor were fused so we will need to replace them, unfortunately we can’t make such ourselves out here, nor did we have space for spares. As for casualties there were some minor injuries, and one fatality, may they rest with those in the Great Abyss beyond now. The injured our still in our medical bay though any help would be appreciated. =/\= The reply came.

Inola sighed, near silently. No respect for diplomatic protocols. “Thank you for welcoming us onto your ship.” She gestured to each person in turn. “This is Captain John Glen and Lt.Cmdr. Kord, our second. MCPO Mooney, our medic, and I’m Lt. Inola. I believe we spoke before.” Introductions were step 1, and even if she was following it out of order, she was still going to check every box.

After another moment the Second brought them into a square shaped control center, it had functional switch based panels, and console screens, quite primitive really compared to their ship but workable. There were six others present all female looking and curiously many all shared common looks and features. as the first three they had met. Could this society use a form of cloning or was something else afoot here? Another fact they noted there didn’t appear to be any males among the crew they had passed. The Second took this in and nodded slightly, =/\= This is our First,=/\= She said gesturing to the tallest of the females present standing at 5‘9, =/\= unknown words =/\= The UT buzzed as the name failed to translate. =/\= As for us speaking before, no that was my unknown word and our Third in command. =/\= the alien female said gesturing to a slightly shorter alien female to their left who gave a nod in reply to introductions but said nothing for now.

“We are here to render what assistance we can.” Kord said into the UT device, “Mister Mooney here will help with your injured. Ms. Inola, please accompany them to make sure communication is optimum. The rest of us will check out the damage and evaluate what needs to be done.”

“These parts and relays that have been damaged…” added Glen, “ask them for undamaged working examples and our replicators should be able to make 3D copies to replace them easily enough. However, before we leave everything will need to be checked over by Tiastri and Emi’Ko and the engineering detail, right from the strength of the aeroshell, to the engines, to the seals, and every last scrap of wiring with a tricorder!”

Stepping back to the hatch, “If some one would show me were your medical bay is I will get to work,” said Mooney. Medical science had advanced a lot from the time humanity was at this tech level, there was a slim chance they could resurrect the fatality if It’s TOD was within the last ninety minuets. His impatience saw him out the door and into the corridor beyond.

Glen hadn’t expected any dead, never mind casualties, so he caught Mooney before he left, “Let me know how bad the situation with causalities is. I can transport over nurses to assist you, or we transport the injured to Doctor Saark in our Sickbay. We don’t know anything about their physiology. What looks like a minor injury to us, might be life-threatening to them, so keep asking lots of questions. Don’t take any chances. if needs be, I’ll bring Saark and equipment over here too. Let’s inform Saark to stand by to receive serious casualties.”

So much for all the security precautions over technology the Captain had been taking. Now he was contemplating replicating spare parts and bringing over the most advanced medical technology. ‘The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley!’

-Glen, CO