Give Me Five Minutes
Posted on Sat May 23rd, 2026 @ 4:19am by Commander Rhupert Tyree & Commander Daynah Ral & Lieutenant Commander Richard Dalziel & Lieutenant Commander Zuub
1,409 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Avan's Colony
Location: Somewhere aboard the USS Adelaide, Avan's Colony.
Timeline: Two minutes after Puzzle Pieces
The tension aboard the freighter Adelaide could be cut with a knife. Most of the medical cases from the Colony were showing signs of improvement. Kat and Amy were in a precautionary quarantine imposed by the ship's safety protocols and the doctor. But there was one of the colonists who's life was still in question.
Or rather how the final paragraph of the Klingon's story would be told.
Fade In
Zuub's antennae started to flatten more towards her head as Amy and Daynah continued to talk. "I am doing everything I can for the Klingon. I feel that I am getting closer to a cure. I just need more time."
"Doctor, sadly we are out of time. Any longer and the they will begin to suffer. Re-materialize her and we can offer her a death that she is worthy of, or at the very least allow her to decide her own fate." Daynah had more to say but the Chief Engineer stepped in and interrupted.
Richard entered wiping the sweat from his brow. "I've done what I can, to lengthen transporter stasis." He sighed. It should buy you about five minutes, let's hope its enough." The lack of resources had limited his progress, as had known physics. He grabbed a pastry and slumped into a chair.
Frantically, Zuub continued her research; however, to her dismay, it appeared that the disease was too far along. There was not anything that she could see that she could do. Her antennae wilted. Hoping against hope, she continued to run computer simulations as to possible cures.
The news from Richard was not good. Daynah gave an order that she never wanted to give. That to kill another being. "Commander Dalziel re-materialize our guest when your five minutes are up. That is an order." Daynah stood firm, the time for sadness would come. Now she had to be in command.
Zuub protested, "I need more time. I'm running as many simulations as I can. We could put the Klingon in stasis until I sort this out, even an old fashioned cryofreeze...." While Zuub's voice never varied in tone, pleading was heavily implied as her antennae leaned towards Daynah and twittered.
"Yes, we can. However, we will not know if we can until you rematerialize the Klingon. They have a right to be informed of their condition and make the decision as to what they want to do. The best I can do Doctor is allow you to make your case to them. However, once their decision is made that is the end of the discussion. Now, rematerialize our guest." Daynah's voice bilked no further argument. In times like this she tapped the memories of Alaryc, a Starfleet Captain. Her voice did not show it but she felt for the Doctor. Daynah Ral did not want to kill anyone.
With a heavy heart, Richard activated the transporter and the Klingon female rematerialized on the Transporter pad.
Locked in pain. Locked within a transport buffer, Kinna felt weight return to herself and a pained gasp escaped her lips, trying to lift her head to look around "Wha???" was all she could get past parched lips.
Zuub's antennae leaned forward and twittered frantically. "We do not have a great deal of time. You are dying. You have a disease for which there is no known cure. I cannot keep you in the transporter because your pattern will degrade. I could put you in stasis or a cryofreeze until a cure is found. That could be in five minutes, five days, fifty days, fifty years, or even five hundred years. I don't know. Ultimately, the choice is yours. My commanding officer, however, has a different viewpoint...."
Struggling to keep her head up, Kinna licked her lips and worked to get out, "Federation took choice from me." She wheezed and coughed, as pain tore at her systems and she shook her head with a huge effort. "Die m' own way." Her eyes flowed between the others in the room and didn't recognize any of them and despite everything, she felt deflated.
Ultimately, death was something you had to face alone. She had no family here. She didn't even have enemies standing over her.
Dying in front of strangers actually made it easer. She'd been imprisoned for killing a worthless cheating gambler. Her freedom stripped from her and sent to a Federation work farm where she'd detested everything to do with the place. The so-called rehabilitation the Federation counselors and judges had sentenced her to had killed her by centimeters every day.
When given the opportunity to escape, she'd taken it and slowly she'd found a family at Avan's Colony that had accepted her for her and let her be as free as any of them.
And now there appeared to be only death and she felt a comfort in that. Her lips were sticking together and she focused hard as she held back another coughing fit that tore at her. Peeling her lips apart she said, "Hegh Bat...Colony."
As Zuub and the Klingon spoke Daynah keyed in a number of commands into the replicator. A d'k tagh materialized. "I can offer you a death in combat. I am skilled with a Bat'leth and it would be an honor to see you through." Daynah spoke as she stepped toward the Klingon on the pad. "It is the least I can do. Restore some honor to you."
Mustering herself, Kinna whispered, "Kinna. Daughter of Wadki. My honor fled by my choice years ago. What was left was stolen by the Federation." She had to take a long, slow breath as she felt her system shutting down.
Death was beckoning.
With a raspy whisper, she said, "By my hand. The Hegh Bat. Thank ... for th...offer but I am still Klingon enou..., though must be soon."
Daynah handed the d'k tagh over and stepped back. She regarded the Klingon for a moment with her head tilted. "You will see the halls of Stovokor. I am sure of it." She faced the Klingon, unyielding, unflinching. She would bear witness to this most ancient of Klingon rites.
Accepting the blade, Kinna rested a moment more before she said, "One favor. Sen..d the blade to my f'ther. My body to the colony," with that, and before her death was robbed from her, Kinna began rasping a song telling death she was coming and to prepare before she plunged the blade into her heart. "Good, sharp blade," she growled out with her last breaths.
Zuub's antennae wilted. She was an Andorian. She came from a warrior culture. Death was part of their way of life, especially in a harsh environment. However, this seemed wasteful. The chance of saving someone was certainly worth more than this. IT was a meaningless death, not a warrior's death as far as she was concerned.
Richard's ancestors were hard working, hard drinking and hard fighting coal miners and steelworkers. They would fight to their last breath, if need be, dying in battle was one thing, but taking your own life, seemed wrong, and a waste to him.
Daynah's reaction could not be more opposite from her crewmates. She understood the Klingon want to end life on their terms. She knelt down next to the body and looked at the face of the now dead Klingon. Suddenly and without warning she looked to the sky and screamed. She would make sure that Stovokor knew a warrior was coming. It must have been some sight, the image of a female Trill screaming at the ceiling over a dead Klingon.
When the scream was over she gingerly and with reverence picked up the knife and stepped off the pad. Daynah tapped a command into the console and opened a channel to the planet. "Nurse Weld this is Rixx. We have one of your citizens who was ill and has passed. They have requested burial on the colony. Stand by to receive the remains. Rix out." Daynah energized the body as per the stated wishes.
Moments after the body of Kinna, Daughter of Wadki disappeared, an acknowledgment signal came back from the colony.
Followed by: THANK-YOU. GOODBYE.
A joint post by:
R. Tyree
writing as Kinna, Daughter of Wadki
Lieutenant Commander Daynah Ral
Executive Officer/Chief Science Officer
USS Valiant
Lieutenant Commander Zuub
Chief Medical Officer
USS Valiant
Lieutenant Commander Richard Dalziel
Chief Engineer/Proud Yorkshire Man
USS Valiant
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