A life according to Hoyle - part 1
Posted on Tue Jul 24th, 2018 @ 4:52am by Major Cornelius Tremble
Edited on on Tue Jul 24th, 2018 @ 5:25am
1,180 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Episode 4 - The Sum of Our Parts
Location: Merchant Trader Savarravva
Timeline: MD001 1530 hrs
May 28 2394 1530 hrs (relative time)
Cornelius had a definite fuzzy feeling as he came to. He found himself laying on the deck of someplace he didn’t recognize. Climbing to his feet, he took stock and found himself attired in simple trousers, boots, tunic and over wrap. It reminded him of some sort of random crew attire.
Looking around, he noted that he was in a ships hold of some kind. He made his way through the compartment and found the hatch. Luckily it wasn’t locked and he moved through it. Neil stopped again, now that he was in a companionway. Oxygen seemed normal and temperature was a touch cold, which would be normal for a freighter or cargo area. From what he could tell, it didn’t seem that the ship was underway.
He also had no idea how he’d gotten here, wherever here was. Proceeding cautiously was the order of the day and he moved easily, listening and keeping his footsteps careful. After a few minutes, he head voices. “Alright, Captain Fa’raad. We have your manifest and you’re sure all crew members have been mustered?”
“J’es, inspector. To both. Will dis take long?” a voice queried.
“About as long as it takes. Wait in the crew lounge until we’re done.”The voice was familiar-feminine, but familiar.
There was several voices muttering at that but then a scuffing of several pairs of feet and Neil had to think fast. Obviously there was ship’s inspection of some kind and the crew was being sequestered by authorities. Since he had no idea where he, Neil likely wasn’t supposed to be wherever this was,
He had to act quickly.
He moved back along the way he had come and found an access way into the ships ducting. The grate came away without too much trouble and he crawled in, leaving the grate to one side as he slithered about four meters in and found a terminal point. He considered the computer momentarily and said, “Computer. Recognize.”
“Voice print recognized. Welcome crewman Jayden Hoyle. What are we doing today?” The computer responded and that gave him pause. What the…” he muttered as he began to pull up personal information. Then he had to blank the whole screen, remembering his training and brought up fire suppressant systems and began running routine checks on those.
Marines typically were given enough training to serve as members of damage control parties. He was fairly familiar with standard ships systems relating to that. In the background, he brought up Hoyles bio and grunted.
It wasn’t him.
The computer thought it was him, but the picture attached to the bio information was not the handsome mug of a Tremble. He skipped most of the detailed data and tried to memorize what he could as he tuned in music and kept working his way along the corridor at what he thought would be a typical spacers pace.
It took them about an hour to find him.
“Oy, you there. Crewman!” A female voice rang out. “What are you doing there?” He hand’t heard anyone come up and instinctively he jerked around, clocking himself on a piece of inconveniently jutting bracing. Rubbing his head, he had to look twice to find the baseball sized probe hanging in mid-tube, and a projected image of a woman’s face glaring at him.
“Wha…er, running maintenance on systems,” he stammered out.
“Identify!” The image snapped and he rattled of as much of Hoyle’s information as he could.
“Crewman Hoyle, why aren’t you in the lounge with your captain and the rest?” She asked.
Continuing to rub his head, he blinked at the image rapidly, trying to fein surprise, “What? That’s NOW? I thought we had a couple of hours yet?”
“Crawl out of that hole, bringing all items with you for inspection,” the woman’s voice echoed and agreed. Neil had had some time to try and work things out, but so far he’d only been able to glean the ships name, the ’Savarravva’, out of Barakka, and that he was, or rather Hoyle was, a general crewman serving aboard for 20 P’rah.
Whatever a P’rah was.
After scuttling his way out, he stretched slowly and straightened only to stop short as a vaguely familiar female voice snapped out, “So, Hoyle. You can’t tell time? Hold still.” A tall, statuesque woman ran what he assumed was a tricorder over him. Not only was her voice familiar, but she looked vaguely familiar, but he was equally sure that he’d never seen her before.
She had close cut brown hair, green eyes and a look about her that brooked no-nonsense. “Well, it doesn’t look like you’re hiding anything. She glanced along the corridor and then abruptly was in his arms, kissing him.
Neil was so shocked, he didn’t react right away, but then he kissed her back and after a hundred heart beats, she backed off, smiling. “Alright, get to the lounge and let me finish my work, though there’s nothing to find. I’ll see you later tonight?”
“Um, sure. Yeah. Later tonight.”
She gave him a look like he had a second head for a moment, then she made her way deeper into the bowels of the ship and he headed for the lounge.
This was just getting stranger. The kiss had been nice, but…different. He had no idea what was going on. Maybe it was all a dream.
He made his way to the lounge, getting dirty looks from a Nethian he assumed was Fa’raad. He found a seat off to himself and tried to take stock. The last thing he recalled was arriving at the Cardassian station and things going into the crapper shortly there after.
Now he was for all intents and purposes one Crewman Hoyle. How that could be, he had no idea. And he wasn't going to find anything out sitting in this lounge. A quick look around told him that the Com's were disabled. He didn't know much about customs inspections, but that seemed prudent if one suspected crew involvement in something.
What he couldn't figure out was his...
...rather, Hoyle's connection to the inspector. Reasoning that no amount of racking his brain would solve that, he stood and walked over to a console and brought up a general history file.
No one said anything, though he caught a few looks. He spent the better part of an hour feeling his stomach sink. He remembered something in the Captain's brief about the Cardies messing around with Temporal shenanigans. This looked like one.
After all, he didn't remember a Vulcan Oligarchy called the She'dar Va being in control of the Alpha quadrant.
If that was the case how in blazes was he going to get back to where and when he belonged?
Second Lieutenant Cornelius Tremble
Marine Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
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