The Resilient

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Deciding that formerly introducing themselves would help the situation Garrett stepped forward once the seller was out of the office. "I am Commander Garrett Cartwright and this," he gestured with his hand towards Kathi, "is Ensign Kathi Rierson. Our ship is known as Resilient. We were docked at this station to barter for supplies when one of our shipmates caught sight of you. The plan had been to rescue from the highest bidder but that has obviously changed." Garrett clasped his hands behind his back as he examined the former slave. "I apologize for leaving you chained for now but the other species around here might take us for easy prey if they see us walking out with a freed slave. You have my word that we will give you safe passage on our vessel." As long as you pose no threat to us, Garrett added in his head.

Though curious about how the man came to be in such an unfortunate position even Garrett knew better than to interrogate him right then and there. As long as this man was friendly, Garrett saw no need to treat him as a threat. This was a fellow human after all and not some random alien stranger. The commander made his way over towards their new acquaintance and extended his hand in an offer to help him up so they could leave. Perhaps, if the man was willing and the supplies could be spared, Simon could give this man a new arm just like his own. Garrett said nothing on the subject however as he did not want to get the man's hopes up if the procedure could not be done.

Simon nodded in response to Emma's comment about his reading habits, completely unashamed about spending so much time buried in research. Oftentimes the most trivial pieces of knowledge were the most fascinating to him. A few weeks ago he even took an interest in reading about old Earth delicacies and the obsessions people back then had with sweets and sugary treats particularly with a substance called chocolate.

Simon smiled faintly when Emma eagerly took her seat in front of him and even adjusted her posture to a more professional one in case anyone walked in. They couldn't have two high ranking officers looking like lazy bums when their guest came walking into the infirmary. He shifted in place when he noticed Emma's expression change no doubt to his comments on slavery. Sure enough, that was what she focused on surprising him with the sincerity and seriousness which she treated the matter. Though she had stated most of what he already knew and believed it still disturbed him to no end that slavery existed. Still, just wishing for the circumstances to be different would not be enough to change things and even if he wanted to act Resilient could not pour all their resources into freeing everyone. They had to find a way to take care of themselves before they could focus on anyone else.

He let out an exasperated sigh, nodding once more. "Yeah. Sometimes it's easy to forget how awful some of our ancestors used to be. We moved beyond that though and it's just saddening to know not everyone else has as well." Finding himself unable to continue the conversation he went silent, watching Emma from where he sat. Emma might have complained about being bored but he had no problems just sitting here like this doing nothing.

The beeping of one of his instruments broke him out of his daze sooner than he would have liked, startling him and causing him to rush over by the computer console to check the results displayed on screen. "Mm..." His brow furrowed while he scrutinized the data before him. "Looks like the results came in sooner than I anticipated. Between what my assistant has analyzed and what I'm seeing here, it looks like I just found something new that won't kill us all or get us sick." Simon scratched his chin. "It's still new...so I'll need some time to prepare it. I could synthesize it here in the lab but...that seems a little artificial..." He trailed off in thought beginning to wonder if he should enlist the cook's assistance. "Well, we'll see later." Simon's gaze returned to Emma realizing how easily distracted he was and nervously laughed. "Uh, sorry about that. I know we were in the middle of something more important than my pet project here."

 

Dania was sitting at her office going over things waiting for a response. It was somewhat pleasant to hear her brother responding to her with an update. "Thank you Jael. When it as all done and over with report back to me with the costs, I will do my best to reimburse those who have chipped into buying the person. I will be heading down to the medical bay soon. I have a few things to finish up. And no we have not get everything bought yet but I am working on it. Most of the lists are in, so it shouldn't be too much longer." Dania replied to her brother.

She was trying her best to finish up things when she got another transmission, this time from her Captain. "While that is a cleaver use of our extra space, it limits where we can travel and since we are't allowed in certain sectors anymore, it limits the deliveries that we can make meaning most won't want to deal with us. Unfortunately for our current situation it is impractical. My apologies Captain, and thank you for the suggestion. Good work. We will prepare to leave in a couple hours, until then you are free to do as you please. Though with the new passenger coming aboard we should prepare." Dania suggested before getting off the communicator so she could do the last of the budgeting and meet this new human.
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The man eyed the girl curiously. He wasn't sure why what to think of the situation. He hoped that they were letting him go free, but there was no promises and even with going to the medical bay, perhaps they wanted a healthy slave. So long living in a dark mentality made it hard for him to be optimistic. The most optimism he had with this was that he didn't fight back yet, not when there was still a chance for them to be his salvation. When the girl asked his name it really caught him off guard. He stared at her blankly until the male with her spoke up, introducing himself and the girl. There was a small amount of recognition at the name of the ensign. At first he tried to hide the surprise however. That didn't stop him from staring at the girl in wonder until he remembered the question he was asked. "Oh... Right.... You can call me John.... No last name, not that I can remember at least." He admitted.

Taking Garrett'g hand, he got to his feet, the harsh sound of rattling chains followed. While he understood why they left them on, he was looking forward to the time that they would be removed. His wrist and ankle had been rubbed raw from the manacles he wore. "I didn't think... there were any human ships left. After no one responded to our distress call and all those in an age range fit to be sold for physical labour were taken, I thought that would be the end of our kind. I have been waiting to die since that day...." John told them, keeping his head down before they left the room. His voice was rough and low. After that he remained quiet, simply waiting to be lead out of the room, not sure what else to say or do. His side hurt enough that the thought of walking anywhere was a bit daunting. He was pretty sure when the slavers had kicked him those few times they broke some ribs. It wasn't the worst pain he had ever been in, but still wasn't a pleasant experience. He kept the pain from reaching his expression, an art that took years of practice. He could tough this out if he had to, it was better than pity or being viewed as useless at this point.

 

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"Well met, John." Though Garrett would have preferred to know the man's full name he settled for just having the first for now. He found that he had little to say to the man's explanation of how he ended up on this station and in the hands of slavers. The story was vague giving him little idea just how long ago John had been captured but if a distress call had been sent there might have been something tucked away in their sensor logs. As they approached the ship Garrett had noticed some kind of uncomfortable silence between John and Kathi but had no reason to suspect anything of it.

They arrived at the ship and as soon as they did Jael and Kathi spoke of money. "This is Lieutenant Jael Carrillo, our xenolinguistic officer. He will escort you to the infirmary." He looked over at Jael motioning for him to take John. "Our guest here is named John. Treat him with the same courtesy as any other member of our crew. Kathi will stay back here." Garrett waited, eyeing Kathi briefly. The situation had calmed down and given how well it had all turned out the reprimand he had intended to give her had become not so harsh as he originally intended. That did not mean however that she was free to go with no word from him.

Taking a moment to open up a comm channel to the Admiral, Garrett spoke once more. "Admiral, we're on Resilient. Our new guest will be in the infirmary shortly if you would wish to meet with him."

 

So far these humans seemed nice, but there was a tension between him and the girl who bought him, that much he could tell. Perhaps he was not remembering things incorrectly, perhaps the name sounded familiar for a reason. Whether that was the case or not, John decided it was best not to address it. After all Kathi had not said anything about it, so perhaps there was a reason for that. That or she had no idea what he was talking about with the ship he had originally come from and just started to regret buying a slave. Both were reasonable possibilities, and he didn't particularly care to bring it up or deal with it. If the subject was brought to light then perhaps he would be willing to speak on it, until then he would keep his thoughts to himself. Garrett seemed to be nice enough too. He didn't seem to talk much, instead being polite and leading the way. There was a silence that stretched out until the point of which they reached the ship and a man, the same who had pointed out the bullsh*t that the slavers were trying to pull with the pricing for things. Apparently he was to go with the boy from now on while Kathi, as she said before, likely got a talking to. Turning to Kathi, John didn't say a word but gave a small bow of thanks before turning to the man.

Following him into the ship, they didn't get far before the man stopped and turned to him, removing his chains. It was odd, the feeling of the heavy chains dropping from his wrists and ankles. Raw red rings circled his wrist and ankles. Even though it looked like it would be rather painful, John didn't seem to notice as he shook his legs out, marveling at how easy moving suddenly had become. "I-I'm free...." He marveled, not realizing that he was speaking the trade tongue instead of English. When Jael offered to help him with English if he was rusty, he then realized what he was doing. "Oh... I think.... I think I remember enough." He tried to tell Jael in English. He went to do wide circles with his arm, something he could rarely do thanks to his chain on the wrist being connected to the ones on his feet. H stopped however as a sharp pain laced through his side. There was a low grunt but he tried to pass it off as nothing.

After this Jael took him to the medical bay. Stepping inside he saw two people, a young man, and a young woman. Perhaps a couple? What did he care anyways? Perhaps his mind was trying to grab on to something normal that could happen. He wasn't too sure but that was okay with him, it didn't effect anything. After Jael introduced him, a girl, the pilot introduced herself. "A pleasure." He replied trying to be polite. It had been a long time since he had been in a place so nice. Even when he was treated as a slave, they usually did it in is small cell like room instead. Eventually his eyes fell on Simon and stopped there for a moment. With the power of deduction he could deduce that the man was the doctor here.

 

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As soon as the others were out of sight Kathi began with trying to explain her actions. Garrett nodded quietly to her explanations and took a short moment to compose his thoughts after taking into consideration what she had said. "You disobeyed an order, Ensign." Garrett said in a calm but stern voice. The truth was, while he was in no way upset with the woman he still had to remind her of her duty. "This is one of the reasons why we train. To control those instincts. If we allowed everyone to follow their instincts the ship would fall into anarchy."

"I had not wished for our people to participate in any transactions of the slave trade. It was a matter of principle and the risk involved in a rescue operation would have been acceptable. Buying John may have been the easy way out but it was not the right one." It was rare for Garrett to have to explain his commands to those under him in the chain of command but considering the circumstances he wished to be a little more transparent to prevent more problems in the future. "You will get off with a slap on the wrist this time, Ensign but I advise you to exercise further restraint in the future. You are dismissed." With nothing further to add Garrett began to walk down the corridor. As much as it may have frustrated him at times even he knew he could not run the ship's crew as tight as what he would have preferred. This was less of a military vessel and more of a generation ship than anything and such conditions made for a more lax crew, a fact he was reminded of constantly by certain "problem" members of their ship. Even Emma and, to a lesser extent, his own son had been difficult in taking his lessons of discipline and they weren't the only ones who had such troubles. Perhaps he was getting old. No. It was everyone else who was wrong.

Simon's eyes had still been fixed on the results of his project as he scrolled through the rest of the data that came in. He may have gone a little overboard with the testing but when one lives their whole life in space the knowledge that viruses and "weird" space diseases lurked around every corner was common knowledge to the medical community. ...Not that he was technically a part of any medical community outside of whatever his mentors had taught him and what information he could take from every alien medical database he could get his hands on.

When Emma asked him a question it barely registered in his head and it took him several moments to process what she had just said. "Uh sorry." He backed away from the console ready to answer Emma in hopes she would be excited after hearing his explanation of what to expect when their new passenger arrived with Jael as his escort. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the little bow Emma did and smirked before realizing he also needed to introduce himself to the man.

"Lieutenant Commander Simon Cartwright, ship's medical officer, at your service." Simon went over towards the man, almost sighing in relief that(aside from a missing arm) this would not be one of the more gruesome patients he would have to treat. On the surface everything looks fairly simple to treat though he would want to do several scans to ensure there was nothing else wrong. "Hey Jael? Mind helping our friend here to a bed?" Simon went over to the stores of medical supplies he had just finished reorganizing earlier to retrieve a needleless syringe. "A mild painkiller." Simon reassured John as he returned before pressing the injector to the man's arm. There was a faint "ssss" sound as the medication was pushed through the man's skin painlessly. "Don't worry. We'll take care of those cuts and bruises and broken bones soon enough."

 

"Thank you Captain, you have done well today. I will be down soon. I am sure Lieutenant Commander Cartwright will take good care of him in the mean time." She said before turning off the communicator and assessing the amount that was paid for the slave as well as the other supplies. They were cutting it close, but they could manage all the costs, if barely. She finished dividing the money between everyone who needed it, sending the money to Kathi last through an electronic transfer. When it was all dealt with, Dania finally got up and went to meet the man who had been brought to their ship.

Entering the Medical Bay, Dania did not knock considering the door was already open. She remained in the background, giving Simon a chance to look over the man. He was in bad shape to say the least, but nothing so bad that she though Simon couldn't help. When Jael moved the man to the bed, Dania stepped forward. "Greetings, your name is John correct? I am Admiral Dania Carrillo. It is a pleasure to have you on the ship. We will be putting together a room for you soon and you are welcome to stay with us. However if you do, keep in mind when you heal you will be put to work just like the rest of us. I won't bore you with the details of it until you are feeling better. Until that time, Lieutenant Commander Cartwrite will take good care of you." Dania introduced herself and welcomed him to the ship before stepping back again but not leaving quite yet. ​

 

Allowing Jael to lead him to bed, John sat, surprised at how soft the bed was. He looked at the others before finally laying back on the bed. Exhaustion tugged at him but he didn't let it win as he felt something cold against his skin. It wasn't instant but it was pretty quickly that the pain killer started to kick in and the pain in his side and face began to subside. He was aware of the dull aching, the fact that it existed, but it didn't bother him nearly as much. He was almost about to relax when a lady walked in and introduced herself as the admiral. The first instinct was bitterness, but sitting up to get a better look at woman. She looked younger than he, meaning that the issues with his ship, the fact that no one had come to their rescue, it wouldn't have been her fault. He had to remind himself he couldn't blame the events of the past on people who had no hand in it now.

"Thank you Admiral." John gave a small bow of the head to the Admiral in respect, but she gave attention back to Simon, so John gave him the attention. He was not sure whether or not he should be laying back, so instead he sat up for the moment on the edge of the bed. His hard eyes watching Simon for instruction. He seemed nice enough but it was still odd, trusting someone. With his high pain tolerance and the pain killers, it didn't bother him to sit around or do anything. He hardly felt it right now, as his joy from earlier faded into caution. He had been so happy about being free that he hadn't thought of all the wrong that could happen, and now that things had calmed down he was a little more concerned about things. All seemed well and good but it was almost too sudden a change for him and it started to feel too suspicious or like a dream. His eyes then dropped to his hand that rested in his lap and the raw skin that wrapped around his wrist. He thought of the chains that had been there not minutes before. Suddenly remembering them however he glanced over at Jael. "That is good steel... trust me, I tried to break it enough times. You should try selling it, it is worth at least as much as you paid for me." He informed. It was sad when the thing used to bind him was worth more than he was.

 

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Garrett crossed paths with Allec who seemed quick to ask about the deal that had been made. "It went as well as could be expected." He stated simply, not wishing to get into too deep of a detail. "Thankfully it ended on peaceful terms but dealing with slavers always leaves a bitter taste especially when all they're interested in is how much profit they can make off another's desperation." He said, referring to the lies they faced about the cost of purchasing John. The Commander folded his arms and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He could have explained his feelings over validating the traders by partaking in their auction but such thoughts were irrelevant when they could do nothing about it. Garrett shook his head, knowing that he had better things to worry about than situations that were out of his control. Reports to read, reports to make, new inventory to take stock of...a new member of their crew to worry about.

"You will be cooking for one more today. Our latest crewman just escaped a life of slavery so I will remind you to keep whatever you cook him easy on the stomach."

"Just hold still for a moment." For every bruise or gash in John's skin Simon repaired two more seemed to pop up. Even when he finished "patching him up" on the surface there were sure to be a few broken bones that needed to be mended. As Simon treated John the man made a comment about his chains and the quality of their steel, a morbid phrase to say the least. Jael made light of the situation to where Simon would have called him out on it if the Admiral had not been right there. Perhaps this "John" would not mind so what was Simon's opinion matter if the actual former slave did not care?

"They couldn't have been feeding you too well where you were kept. I'll prescribe some nutritional supplements for you. You'll find yourself having more energy in no time." Simon assured the man as he took the dermal regenerator, a device meant to accelerate the healing of surface-level injuries like the raw skin on John's wrists, and passed the instrument over him. Technically, for the treatments John had just about anyone else with medical training could have treated such maladies. Broken bones and internal bleeding however? Not so easy.

Simon passed a medical scanner over John once his wrists had begun to show signs of healing on their own so that he could check for any signs that would indicate a need for surgery or if anything unusual popped up immediately. The scan finished but Simon discretely took an extra moment to modify the parameters and increase the sensitivity of the device to detect other abnormalities that could have been in John's body. "Hm." Simon raised an eyebrow as he stared at the device. "Good news is, you don't appear to be sick. Bad news, you have a broken rib. It doesn't seem to be in any danger of puncturing your lungs so I don't need to preform surgery. I'll just give you some medication for that but you'll need to keep from doing any strenuous activity for the week." Going over to place the scanner by the computer he had been using to run his project.

 

Listening to John, Dania cringed a little internally. It was a grim thought to think that the man was worth less than the shackles he wore. Materials could be worth a lot if you knew the right people, and if the chains were pure steel then she didn't doubt the mans words, she just didn't like to think about it in that aspect. She was brought out of her thoughts by her brother speaking to her. It made her shift uncomfortably when he called her admiral. While she could understand why he was being so formal in this particular instant, it made her feel like there was a gap between her and her brother, like they were siblings like they used to be. She wanted to be there for Jael when she could and sometimes hated herself, hated her job and title when it prevented that. It was for that reason whenever he addressed her by her title, it would make her uncomfortable.

"That will be fine." She responded to her brother with a nod, before turning back to Simon while he worked. "We will leave you to your work then. If you don't mind, I ask that you keep John here for the night, he should have a room set up for him by tomorrow. There will also be a meeting in an hour to discuss the next course of action, you are free to join us if you please, but it is not a requirement. It is simply meant for everyone who wants a say to have a say. A notice about it will be sent out soon. Lieutenant Carrillo, Lieutenant Commander White, I suggest you also leave Lieutenant Commander Cartwright to his work." With that she turned to John once more. "Welcome aboard the Resilient." She told him once again before striding out of the room.
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John let the conversation flow around him, meanwhile he just watched what Simon was doing. He watched as his skin mended itself together with the help of one of Simon's devices. While dirt covered most of his skin, he could still notice the visible change as the bruises, and some of the swelling that the bruises brought, went down. The most amazing of all was the work it did on his wrist. He could see the process of skin starting to mend itself, and while it was still a ways away from finishing, he could see hope that it would at least look normal once more, and he hoped it wouldn't cause him too much pain. It had been a long time since he had known life without a metal cuff over that spot and the pain that came with it was a permanent reminder of what he was. Now, not only were the chains gone, but there was hope in healed skin. Even if is scarred, it was better than the red mess that it currently was.

When Simon did his scan and brought the supposedly bad news, John was relieved. "Just one? That is good in my book." He said with a strange sort of lightness in his voice. Like he was trying to make a joke, but didn't quite know how, and his voice sounded grim and gruff. It almost seemed out of place. It was true though, to him just a single broken bone seemed good. Pain had been such a constant companion that sometimes he couldn't tell how badly he was hurt. Several times he was beaten to the point of passing out for several days. When he woke he could hardly function. While that hadn't happened recently there was some lingering pains from it and sometimes he wondered if there were broken or fractured burns that never healed. The fact that it was only one bone that was actually broken was good. Chances were then, that over time it would all heal if he could rest enough. It was a luxury he hadn't had for a long time, but seemed to be doctor recommended now.

After a moment of awkward silence John finally spoke up with what was on his mind. "That girl Kathi... has she been with you all her life?" He asked. A strange question but he had to know.