Extraction

Posted on Tue 3rd Feb, 2026 @ 10:24pm by Commander Damion Ildaran & Commander Heriah Rex & Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide

1,784 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: [MAIN] From The Ashes
Location: Sickbay-Starbase 80
Timeline: A few days after "Disappearing Act"

After a few days' rest and a sonic shower, with removal of the Trill pouch seam appliance from his abdomen, Damion felt much more himself.

Lying abed in Starbase 80's antiquated Sickbay, waiting for his liver to heal, gave Damion plenty of time to study and memorize the new legend of Corin Durant, once Sevrek brought it to him. He was used to living Durant as a small businessman, as someone who had worked his way up from obscure replicator repairman to running a small appliance repair shop, long since closed, on Starbase 109.

Given that established history, Corin's new legend made no sense to Damion. Through a combination of fortuitous business acquisitions and investments in startup companies creating and scaling the latest replicator technology, Durant was now a quietly wealthy businessman, able to travel in grand style. Damion had never traveled anywhere first class in his life, and there was a reason for that. Field operatives tended to avoid creating legends of wealthy people, as the wealthy were a rarified group who tended to know the others in their niche and to investigate strangers suddenly appearing among them. Obscure replicator repairmen were far more common and easier to fake.

Still, the Federation was large enough that, even among the wealthy, everyone could not know everyone--Damion hoped.

He maintained his ratings in replicator maintenance and read every issue of The Federation Journal of Replicator Technology he could find. That was why he could live this particular legend. Why it had to be lived among the champagne set, Damion questioned. Maybe Cmdr. Severide or this Pampo Gnu fellow reasoned that the Dangerous Trill Duo chasing Anslo Tol would never look for him in first class.

That would be an entirely logical presumption, Damion decided. Anslo had not looked like the kind of guy who had access to first-class starliner tickets; thus the reason why he'd had to leave 109 on a subsidized refugee transport. At last satisfied with the reasoning behind his legend, Damion studied it in earnest--

--Until Dr. Lessi hurried into his room and yanked the privacy curtains closed. She began speaking before he could. "Lieutenant, we're moving you into pre-op--now. You're having a hepatic hemorrhage--"

Damion went alert. "I am?"

The doctor pressed an index finger against her lips and shoved a hair net at Damion with her other hand.. "--and it requires emergency surgery." Then she bent down and whispered in his ear. "There's a Trill security agent here, looking for a joined Trill. You're back to looking human, but I don't want to take chances. The guy makes my skin crawl."

Damion swore under his breath. He nodded and slid the PADD containing his new legend under his legs. Then he pulled the hair net onto his head, lay back down and pulled the covers over himself. "I guess that's why I feel so dizzy."

"I'm sure it is," Dr. Lessi said. She scanned the ID chip he'd been given at admission, which identified Damion by his real name, and ducked back behind the curtains. "Conlin, Tyne, the patient's in here. He's going to OR 3. I'm off to scrub in."

"We've got you, buddy," the cheerful, curly-haired male corpsman said as he took one end of Damion's bed, while a serene-looking black-haired woman took hold of the other and rolled it into the hallway. Moments later, Damion was seeing Sickbay slide by him through slitted eyelids. At one point, he heard an annoyed, British-accented voice just ahead.

"I'm terribly sorry, old chap, but, for the second time, we don't have any joined Trill patients here, and I'm not going to let you look at every patient we have, just to reassure you they aren't the one you're looking for. Sometimes, you just have to take a bloke's word for it."

Damion strove to look very unconscious.

"'Scuse us," Tyne said and wheeled Damion's bed/gurney past the British fellow and whomever he was speaking to.

More rolling and a few turns later, and Damion heard double doors open. "Here you are," Corpsman Conlin said. "A nurse'll be here in a couple of minutes to take your vitals."

"Thank you both," Damion said to them as they headed out to find another patient needing to be moved.

No sooner had they vanished, than Dr. Lessi reappeared, her arms filled with clothing, which she placed on his bed. "I cannot believe they just rolled you right past that guy. I about died. That's what I call moxie." She shook her head. "You're well enough to be discharged, Lieutenant--just barely. You aren't jaundiced anymore, and your blood tests are much improved. Your liver and spleen are recovering nicely, and so are your ribs. Normally, I'd release you to your quarters on bed rest for a couple more days, but you don't have quarters to go to. I hope Intelligence has somewhere you can stay."

"They do," Damion said as he began putting on the uniform she'd brought. "Thank you--everyone here--for all your help. I feel much better."

"Yeah, well, stay out of fights, next time," Dr. Lessi said. "I've sent a message to Cmdr. Sevrek to send someone for you. Lastly, here are your prescriptions."

Damion made a face but accepted the bag she gave him.

"Thank you Dr. Lessi." The voice came from Sevrek, who had been overseeing the affair. He walked up to them and examined the work, "You've done good work, I will call on you again in similar cases if that's ok?"

"Yes, that's quite fine," Dr. Lessi said. "Keeps me on my toes." She glanced at Damion. "Good luck, Lieutenant."

"The same to you, Doctor," Damion replied, and she left.

The ordered chaos of the base was often a feature that assisted in these cases. Obfuscating the data would take months to sort back to accurate, but it was the price to pay. Rizhkyn and Rautha had apparently blown a hole into the side of an Acamarian shuttle to get to a VIP, which was not in fact Anslo. Even breadcrumbs were dangerous, so a new plan was formed and the two overzealous bounty hunters reversed their tracks to here. The investigation was ongoing to issue warrants, so time was not quite right, but these Trill needed to go away.

Sevrek tuned his attention to Damion, "These two have an ambassadors clearance, and are straining the papers bearing their authority. I cant arrest them yet, and they can investigate calmly to their hearts content by treaty. So we still need to get you out, before they hurt anyone else. I have arranged site to site transport and a diversion. Stay here, you will be beamed to the pilots cabin on board the "BV- Groggy Frog" where you will not emerge from the cabin until arrival to SB109. You've got the rest of the packet already I see. The remainder of the DNA samples you've provided will lead them into the interdimensional portal. Happy Hunting to them. Anything to add?"

Damion stared, appalled by the story. "Surely the treaty doesn't extend to them almost getting an Acamarian VIP killed?" Then he shook his head. "Above my pay grade, I guess. I appreciate all the assistance you and the staff here have given me, and if Starbase 109 can ever return the favor, I'm sure we'd be glad to. I know there's a joined Trill who's very thankful to not be in that pair's clutches. I'll wait here for the beam-out, sir."

"Good, we will contain these two and send them home, or on to the infinity of the multiverse. Nobody will come to this door past when I leave, if someone does, the plan has gone bad, and contact security right away." Sevrek held out a small stylus, "This is a guaranteed lock for the Bomari vessel to find you should you need to run for any reason. Their ship leaves within the hour. Good work Lieutenant, these men will face justice, just not by you."

"I'm quite content with that," Damion said as he slipped the stylus into a pocket.

Sevrek stopped at the curtain on his way out, "I do hope you have enjoyed your time on our base. Farewell."

Damion laughed. "It has been a memorable experience--in a good way. I might come visit sometime when I'm on leave, Commander. Farewell."

Sevrek nodded and walked out. Damion moved from the bed to the visitor chair, dropped his gown and bouffant cap into the recycling bin, and took out his PADD again. He read for a couple of minutes and then heard the double doors at the far end of the pre-op ward swing open.

He'd been in Sickbay long enough to recognize the sound of the medical staff's footwear. Their rubbery clogs made very soft noises as they walked. These footsteps were soft, too, but much slower than the pace of a busy nurse or corpsman. Occasionally, Damion would hear the sound of a stool or a nurse's mobile workstation being pushed aside or the rattling of rings as a curtain moved. Damion locked his PADD and tapped the combadge that had come with his uniform. "Ildaran to Security. Intruder alert, pre-op, main Sickbay." he said in a low voice.

The soft, slow footsteps moved closer to him along the deck. At this hour of the day, his was the only alcove whose privacy curtain had been pulled to; all the other alcoves were empty of beds. Damion waited, taking deep breaths to slow his racing heartbeat, even as sweat beaded his palms. He wiped them on his trouser legs and focused his entire attention on listening.

Step...step...step....

Someone snatched the privacy curtain and swept it aside. Damion glanced up from his PADD to see he was looking down the barrel of a Trill sidearm. This Trill in real life looked magnitudes more terrifying than his image had. Eyes with a thousand-mile stare gazed back at him. A face with no softness or warmth to it reminded Damion of Adrian Dobbs. His eyes had looked just as heartless. Damion went cold at the memory.

Damion curled his fingers around the frame of his PADD as the weapon never wavered, and those dead eyes bored into his. Everything in him demanded that he face the man down, as if something had crystallized in him that this was his purpose for being--to oppose people like this Trill.

He's looking for Anslo, Damion reminded himself. He glared at the Trill. "I don't know who you think you are, but get that thing out of my face!"

And then his world dissolved into sparkles.

 

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