Hard to Eradicate I'm Your Huckleberry

[Crash Calestorm 0]

The following log takes place during our 4 Hour TBS…

 

Dr. Stephen Maturin: Jack, I fear you have burdened me with a debt I can never fully repay.

Capt. Jack Aubrey: Nonsense! Name a shrub after me...something prickly and hard to eradicate.

- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

 

Osiris Prime

Secondary Grid

Southeastern Section

 

Captain Calestorm could be prickly and she’d proven adept at being hard to eradicate on numerous occasions.

 

As for naming a shrub after her? Lord help her not to knock some sense into Doctor Maturin. The afternoon had started off well. No really, it had.

 

Crash, Staff Sergeant Joseph Vega and Doctor Steven Maturin had set out on the designated search pattern in the southeastern section, secondary grid. The Starfleet survey team had started to map the grid areas previously and with the Comanche Creek crew searching for the missing personnel, she was hoping to find all alive and well.

 

Warrant Officer First Class Maturin wasn’t a bad sort of guy; assigned to the ‘Creek Sciences department, his specialty was within the Naturalist sciences and he’d earned scientific commendations as well as a citation for bravery. He tended to get a little too into his work but Cale couldn’t fault the man for being dedicated.

 

He could get just as excited about discovering a new plant as she did when zooming off in a fighter, and it could have been worse - at least the flowers hadn’t tried to eat them.

 

Crash had caught two of the projectile barbs - one in her neck and one in the palm of her hand as she tried to instinctively deflect the second one - and it’d stung like hell but hadn’t penetrated deep into the muscle and the damn things weren’t poisonous unless you counted the pseudo-alcohol effect. Vega had been able to almost immediately shake off the effects of one barb due to his size, but it had taken fifteen minutes for her system to compensate. Maturin had managed to escape the barbed volley ejected by the shrubbery.

 

The senior female officer and the two enlisted men had retreated to a perimeter area outside the area; with the mild puncture wounds cleaned and dressed from the field kit, Crash rested one knee on the ground and drank from a canteen to further dissipate the lingering effects of the toxin in her system.

 

“Aside from our Bill Nye the Science Guy over there,” Cale waved her hand towards Maturin as he carefully took samples from the prickly shrubs, his movements slow and precise, “what’s your take on these shrubs, Vega?

 

“One projectile is doable but I wouldn’t want to get hit with twenty of the barbs. Not dangerous, not like those plants the survey team reported on. We’ve no way of knowing how other species will react…”

 

Calestorm turned her attention away from Vega and nodded, considering the non-coms advice carefully.

 

He continued speaking. “And Doctor Maturin confirmed as much while you were quotingTombstone from the last ships movie night. He suggested setting warning markers around the area.”

 

She swallowed a drink and turned, lifting a wry eyebrow at the big Ground Pounder.“….ah was quoting Tombstone?”

 

Vega gave her a grin. “In all your Huckleberry glory, Captain.” His tone turned sympathetic, but his expression still held that mirth, “…and Doctor Maturin recorded your reaction to the toxins. I couldn’t catch all of the Sciences-speak, but he was going on about the toxin compromising your inhibitors and tapping into short-term memory and was all excited as he recorded you.”

 

Getting caught on a video recording quoting and acting out said film? Not cool, even if it was in the name of science.

 

“Awww Hell…you serious, Staff?”

 

“You drew down with an imaginary weapon,” he mimed a gun with his thumb and forefinger,“on one of those purple-ish rabbit things. I’ll say that your gunslinger form is rather impressive.”

 

Calestorm shot a glare at the Staff Sergeant.

 

“It is what it is, Sir. At least you’re contributing to Science?”

 

She snorted delicately in response and took another drink from the canteen.

 

Maturin called over to his two ‘Creek companions and pointed a finger towards the prickly, hard to eradicate sapling shrub and the things damnable defensive mechanism. “I shall call it ‘Crashstormis’! It has quite the ring to it, wouldn’t you say Captain?!”

 

With an exasperated growl, Crash rose up from her kneeling position and Vega grabbed her by the back of the utility belt to stall her forward momentum.

 

Maturin continued to be downright thrilled. “That is wonderful that she is regaining full control of motor functions, Staff Sergeant Vega! Absolutely wonderful!”