#* guest muse {bethany bashir}

[starbcrn-kids]

For @riseofthemuses​ Starring Victoria Mercer, Bethany Bashir, Wynn Scott, and other assorted Orville muses. Guest starring canon Orville muses.

“My god,” Ed mutters under his breath.

It’s certainly befitting of the situation, seeing the planet from orbit. There was allegedly a Federation colony down there. Or, well, the remains of one. “Any lifesigns?” Ed glances to Addi at their station.

“Captain...” They frown. “I’m picking up an automated signal.”

“Play it,” he orders.

“--tine. Please be advised, do not approach. This colony has signs of an unknown virus that has proven extremely hazardous and has been placed under quarantine. Please be advised, do not approach.”

Addi clicks it off after a moment, frowning at their screen and gasping. “Definitely life signs, captain, but... not very many.”

“Hail the surface,” he orders. “Let’s see if we can establish contact.”

Addi nods and reaches up to respond. “This is the Federation starship Orville seeking contact with Federation colony Kasaxton-4. Please respond.”

Victoria looks up from where she’s dabbing a cloth at Bethany’s forehead at the signal on the computer. Her fever hadn’t broken yet, and hope for her looked bleak. She looks at the boys, chewing her lip a moment and then nodding for them to respond.

They had to try and get help, right?

[starbcrn-kids]

unscrxpted​:

Lyssa clenched her jaw, looking around. She shook her head. “No. I don’t need an entourage. I just want to get this done. I’m hungry.”

Melina held up her hands. “In that case, I’m gonna go finish playing poker with Klingon Lite.” She hurried off.

Mackenzie sighed softly, smiling at Lyssa. “Come on. We don’t bite.”

“I do,” Lyssa grumbled, glancing around at everyone. Too many. Too many. Michelle stepped back and towards the wall.

Grayson sighs. "Hey, hey, that's fine. Can I recommend we bring Dahlia? She can take you straight to the only good replicator for you after we're done in sickbay."

Dahlia holds up a hand. "Werewolf, wendigo, banshee. Don't worry, there's a far better way than attacking someone to keep surviving on our part."

Ed just offers an anxious wave. "We're not here to follow, I was just called down to keep apprised of the situation. Captain Ed Mercer, my first officer Kelly Grayson, and my chief of security Alara Kitan. If all's settled down here, we'll go in back to the bridge. Keep us informed, Mackenzie." He kisses Victoria's head and then heads back to the bridge with the other two. Noooope.

James raises his hands. "I'm the adoptive father of those two." He points to Brynn and Grayson, then adds, "And dating her." He motions to Mackenzie. "You can probably imagine what brought me down here."

Bethany pauses and links arms with Wynn and Victoria silently. Victoria squeezes her arm and Wynn glances at her and then at Ziva, still worried. Victoria smiles softly. "We didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. Captain Mercer, my dad, he... thought we'd be able to help."

[starbcrn-kids]

unscrxpted​:

“That’s reassuring,” Liam mumbled to himself, glancing around. Strange lifesigns… yeah, something rubbed him the wrong way about that.

Aoife frowned a little. That… that couldn’t be good. “I’ll get them.” She blinked across the ship, in front of the classroom, nodding to Lara as the door opened. “Excuse me, I need Victoria, Wynn, and Bethany.”

Alfonso looked up, looking over at Victoria and frowning. He stood up as well. “I’m going if she’s going.” He didn’t wait for anyone’s approval or disapproval, just gathered his things and went over to Aoife.

Lara pauses. Those three? “Of course.”

She glances to her daughter and nods with a smile. Bethany tries to ground herself. She doesn’t like that it’s them, she doesn’t, but she gathers her things and gets up slowly.

Victoria and Wynn share a look. This...

This couldn’t be a good thing, could it...

But they get themselves together anyways and Victoria shoulders her bag, looking at Alfonso and smiling weakly. It helps her a bit, really.

Once they’re with Aoife, she clears her throat. “What’s going on?”

[starbcrn-kids]

unscrxpted​:

Ziva shook her head. “No…” She sniffled. “They’re everywhere… there’s so many of them…” She wiped her face, glancing up and immediately recoiling. So many… so many… “What the fuck happened here?”

Melina nodded, watching and listening carefully. She held the phaser down at her side. She looked around them, making sure to keep an eye out for anything vaguely dangerous.

Brynn looked up at Grace. “Here, let me help.” She took the fabric, straining slightly to rip it but getting there eventually.

Lilith sat up a little, putting her arm around Penelope. “I’m serious. Fergus was the first one to test these.” She pointed to her protective glasses. “He’s alright. I know he is.”

Eretria whined softly, trying to keep herself from crying. Oliver meant safe, calm, happy. “Do you think… do you think they’re okay?”

Wynn shakes his head, holding onto Ziva. “I don’t-- I don’t know, I don’t know. I’m sorry, but I don’t know. But I’m here too, okay? I’m not leaving you.”

Once the fabric is ripped, Grace takes half of it and ties it where the parachute... was, since Victoria had gotten it cut loose, then takes the other half and ties it to the other end of the first strip, pulling it tight and standing up. “It’s not great, but it’ll do for our purposes. We’re ready, Ms. Bashir.”

Lara nods to Grace. “Okay. I’ll take up the lead, our new guest will take the end. We’ll take turns pulling Nari so no one gets too worn out. Who’s willing to st--”

“Me, I’ve got it,” Grayson gets up and walks over, taking the makeshift strap from Grace.

Lara nods. “Okay, guys, I know this is gonna make you feel like little kids again, but I’m gonna need you to stick to a buddy system, all right? Don’t leave your buddy behind during any leg of this journey, you hold onto each other like you’re each other’s lifelines. That way I know we’re all together, and we’re all here.”

Wynn grips onto Ziva, looking up at Lara and nodding. Oliver stays wrapped around Eretria, nodding at her question. Penelope leans into Lilith, shrugging off her comment a bit again. Grayson holds up the strap for Nari’s pod. Marcus quietly walks over to Bethany. Avery clings to her twin sister for dear life. Victoria grabs Grace’s hand tightly.

[starbcrn-kids]

unscrxpted​:

Scott nodded. Right. Right, the aliens. He’d almost forgotten about those. Yep. He was… still getting used to it all, despite how long he’d been there.

Lyssa stumbled a little. If her CO could see her now… She shook her head, rubbing her eyes. “Okay. Aliens. That’s- okay, I’m just rolling with the punches at this point.” She cleared her throat. “Can’t be worse than the ogres.”

“You had ogres?” Mackenzie said, blinking. Lyssa nodded. “Yikes. That sounds-”

“Stinky.” Lyssa nodded. “Yeah. It was. But they’re good at taking heavy fire.”

Sam bounced nervously. “Think everything’s going okay in there?”

“Well, we haven’t heard any screaming, so it seems to be,” Melina said.

Aida and Eretria stood up as soon as Victoria did, gathering their things and heading over. Michelle paused for a moment, then stood. “I didn’t go through quite what others here did… but I’ve seen a lot of combat.”

Grayson wrinkles his nose a bit and shakes his head. "Not sure I envy you."

He sighs. One thing left. "Okay. I'll just be the asshole for this. I don't know what it was like for you, none of us do, and I know that there's a slim chance it was better in your lab than ours. I hope so. But... the asshole thing that someone has to say, is that you have to see a doctor here on the Orville. They're required to do an onboarding scan, and to make sure you didn't accidentally bring back a virus they eradicated centuries ago, or anything else. It's not as bad now as it was back then, I swear it's not."

Dahlia cocks her head. "Brace yourselves. Grayson was just the asshole."

"The hell does that mean?" Ed looks at her, confused.

Wynn sighs, running a hand through his hair and getting up anxiously. Bethany glances at her mom, who nods to her. Nodding back, the girl gets up as well.

Lara sighs and shakes her head. "I think I'll just dismiss early for the day. I'll send the lesson to your PADDs, finish it as homework for me, all right, guys?"

[starbcrn-kids]

riseofthemuses​:

The second the computer emitted the slightest bit of signal, Jaehyun, who had previously been sitting on the floor, was almost too quick to jump on his feet and run towards it. His feet almost tripped on each other as he made his way towards the computer, grabbing on the closest surface. Fumbling over the controls, he eventually managed to hit the right button. “Hello! Hello yes this is Jaehyun, from Federation colony Kasaxton-4. Can you hear me? We need…. we need help, please help us” his voice was shaky and weak as he spoke, almost in disbelief at the situation. He glanced back at where the others were, his expression showing a mix of relief and anxiety at the same time.

The bridge stands still.

Everyone looks around at everyone else in shock at the scene onscreen. Kids. The lifesigns... were kids?

“That’s... okay,” Ed definitely was not prepared for this situation, which is basically how his entire career has been so far. “Okay, okay, okay... this is Captain Ed Mercer, Jaehyun, is there an adult we can talk to about your colony’s status?”

“There aren’t any,” Wynn gets up and joins Jaehyun, looking at the monitor, at the captain of the ship. “Some adults died in the attacks, but most of them... the attacks exposed something in the ground that got the adults sick, and they couldn’t fight it off. There’s no one left. Just the four of us-- me, Jaehyun, Victoria, and Bethany. Bethany’s sick, we need help.”

“Okay, that’s... fantastic,” Ed mutters under his breath sarcastically. “Okay. Where are you guys right now?”

“We’re inside the central building,” Wynn answers. Ed glances to Addi, who nods in confirmation before they frown.

“Too much interference, captain,” they inform him.

Ed nods and looks back. “Okay. Is it safe for you guys to move outside? We can’t get a transporter lock on you inside.”

Bethany coughs a bit, leaning her head into Victoria’s touch, barely breathing. Victoria looks up at them and shakes her head. Wynn sighs and looks back at the screen. “I don’t think so, Bethany’s pretty weak.”

“Okay. Okay, okay, okay-- I will be back on with you guys shortly, okay? Don’t go anywhere, but I need to brainstorm with my crew about getting you out of there. Okay? It’s gonna be okay. Mercer out,” Ed says, and Addi cuts the communications gently.

“Ed, we can’t just go down there,” Kelly sighs. “Even if we could get a transporter lock, I’m not so sure that would be viable.”

“Why the hell not?” Ed looks frustrated.

“Because, even if they didn’t get sick from whatever it was that has the planet in quarantine, those kids could be carriers for that virus. We need a way to limit exposure as much as we can. I just...” She runs a hand through her hair.

“What about young Miss Grace?” Isaac asks. The captain and commander look to him.

“Excuse me?” Kelly asks, as Ed says, “WHAT?”

“Forgive my bluntness, but it may be that she is your best hope of success,” Isaac argues. “Her mutation allows her to teleport and bring others she is in contact with with her. She could easily teleport down to the group and bring them back up directly into the quarantine in sickbay, from which Drs Finn, McCoy, Tayen, and Pike could perform a full medical scan and provide aid as needed.”

Ed pauses and sighs. “Kel, you’re not gonna like me saying this...”

“He’s right,” she sighs in frustration. “I know, I know. Let me get her. You check back in on those kids.”

He nods and sits back down. “Mx. Janeway, onscreen.” Once they’re re-established. “Jaehyun, kids, are you still there?”