Neutrons, Electrons, Protons, and Morons
Posted on Mon Dec 15th, 2025 @ 8:22pm by Caithlin t'Leiya & Lieutenant Commander Sofia Nikedoros & Shea Voran II
2,130 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Terrorpin
Location: Evacuation Camp
The still somewhat hasty and haphazard evacuation camp set up for the residents of town and the areas in potential danger around it was.... well. It wasn't the first such sort of setup Caithlin had ever seen; but unfortunately the universal constant of, as she'd heard one her nieces once say, 'being made of neutrons, electrons, protons, and morons' was proving to be about as true here as it had in the remnants of the Empire...with the difference that humans and their associated ilk seemed to be somewhat more prone to become useless in the face of panic, though somewhat less likely - at least so far - to resort to violence from it.
"...Is...is he..." the former senator didn't waste any more time finishing the incredulous statement; she half-stalked, half-ran to the man in question, clustered by one of the tents with his family and seemingly setting up a pop-up holoprojector for his kids to watch. She also didn't bother to reason with him, given he was about to activate the thing; and instead hauled her fist back and socked the thing onto its side, then followed it with a hard and repeated stomp! of her boot, snapping a few no doubt important pieces off of it and not stopping till she was sure it was off, simply elbowing the man in the stomach simultaneously when he tried to grab or strike her with his fist to stop her....though the latter did connect, albeit without any apparent training, knocking her off balance in the mud.
"WHAT THE HELL lady. You owe me a lot of - " The man, both of them having scrambled out of the mud, was bellowing in anger.
"And you owe ME your LIFE, and those of your CHILDREN, potentially." Caithlin snarled back, less in 'you have paid me mortal insult and must answer' style and more in 'how in the entire galaxy has someone as stupid as you survived this long'. "Did you MISS the part of the warnings concerning no use of any devices drawing anything beyond the most minimal power?!?"
"It's a portable one, it's not going to draw eno - "
"You. Do. Not. KNOW. That." The snarling had transitioned into an icy tritanium command voice. "I will compensate you for it later. Until then - " She glanced over at one of the nearby vehicles that had been used for the evacuation, and the Marshal, who was standing near it. "...I need any device you might have capable of amplifying sound, please. And - " She glanced again at the truck itself. " - a lift up to or ladder up to climb to a higher vantage point most of the camp can see. Like the top of that truck."
Shea had been nearby surrounded by several volunteers for helping to run and organize the setup of the settlement. Hunched over the hood of her jeep with an old-school map, she listened to one individual in charge of setting up temporary showers as they discussed how to ensure drainage so as not to leave any standing water that could attract unwanted things that liked to eat people.
The ruckus nearby - especially the sound of something potentially expensive suffering sudden unwanted disassembly - immediately drew everyone's attention for dozens of meters around. Immediately transitioning to her role as a Cop, Shea began a slow jog toward the disturbance; one hand undoing the latch on her holster.
"Woah-woah-woah! Easy now, let's all calm down here." She gave a glare toward both the man and Caithlin in turn, a hand raised to gently motion them to back away from each other. "Now what the heck is going on, here?" The Marshal looked down, a boot gently nudging the wrecked holoprojector with a scowl that showed she was not interested in excuses.
"Somebody missed - " or just completely disregarded as exaggerated or not applying to them, she thought, but didn't say, " - the instructions about not running things that draw anything beyond the most bare minimal power like a flashlight." Caithlin sighed. "And if one did, a decent number of others probably did, too. We need to remedy that, quickly, and widely, before anyone else tries to turn on significant equipment they might have hauled in with their luggage. Hence the need for an announcement, camp-wide and rapidly."
Having witnessed the ...pre-emptive strike... Sofia had headed toward a situation she expected might require intervention. The Marshall had however made it there ahead of her. "It's not a bad idea," she put in. "But perhaps allow me? I have considerable experience projecting my voice to a crowd without need of amplification devices."
"Certainly. You will still want a widely and unavoidably visible spot, however." Caithlin said, ceding the task without any discussion given her view of its urgency; or perhaps given her long years of delegating items in her past life.
"Glad for the help, Commander." Shea picked up the wrecked holoprojector before she turned her attention back to the upset Romulan. "Still, Ma'am, this could have probably been handled less violently. You scared the kids..." She casually indicated the two children hiding behind their father.
Without waiting for a reply, apology, or angry retort she stepped back toward the edge of the tent. With two fingers in her mouth, she let out a shrill whistle for attention; the result was the noise stopped, heads poked out of nearby tents, people walking between them stopped what they were doing to look over, even a few Starfleet grunts unloading a nearby truck of supplies froze in mid-step.
Caithlin, meanwhile, seemed for her part to anyone still watching her to have rather little regret at any potential for the children to have been frightened by her destruction of their father's entertainment set. For a moment, at the sight, she had almost seen instead in the two's place the terrified faces of her own children, then no more than toddlers; finding them beneath her cousin on the floor of a burning room with silent, tear stained faces pale with horror and bodies slick with Katera's blood as she had shielded them even as she had lain dying from vanquishing the assassins that had come for them. But if anything the moment of overlap only strengthened her resolve now.
If they were disturbed by its destruction, so be it as the price of their survival; that is far better than potentially losing their lives to its activation, she thought, not to mention those of every surviving member of my house; and the entire rest of town.
The Marshal barked in her best Drill Sergeant voice while holding up the wrecked thing; "LISTEN UP! ANYONE GOT ANYTHING LIKE THIS ABLE TO PUT OUT MORE POWER THAN A FLASHLIGHT ABLE TO DRAW THAT MONSTER HERE BETTER TURN IT OFF AND TURN IT IN AT THE FRONT GATE, NOW!"
Turning her attention back to Sofia and Caithlin; "Rumor mill helps too." She pointed to one of the Starfleet utility trucks they were using to transport supplies. "You might be able to borrow one of those Colts, move around to the various areas of the camp, stand atop it, make your announcements."
She pointed to a Klingon by her jeep she had 'Conscripted' to serve as a Deputy, waving him over and handing him the wrecked holoemitter; "Find the knucklehead doing the inprocessing and have them seated in the CP so I can have words with him when I'm done here..."
"Not a bad plan." Caithlin said to Sofia, head inclining for a moment in agreement or consideration.
Sofia tipped a nod back. It was not quite how she would have done it, but Voran's approach was effective. "I believe I can persuade someone to loan me a truck," she said, heading toward the nearest.
It didn't take actual persuasion. The driver, having heard Voran (how could not?) saw a Lt. Commander heading purposefully toward him, snapped to attention. "Where to, sir?"
"We'll make a circuit of the camp, stops roughly every half klick at crossroads for announcements," she replied, climbing up into the bed of the truck.
Caithlin vaulted into the truck bed as well, and if the fact that she was still covered in mud now bothered her, she gave no sign of it, turning to Sofia as the vehicle started off. "Hopefully people will at least take the subsequent announcements seriously." She sighed again. "Because the other possibility beyond people having simply missed the information initially in the chaos is that some simply decided it does not apply to them."
Shea leaned on the back of the truck with a smirk; "Well, if that's the case just send 'em my way and I'll deal with them. And try not to cause any more trouble? Or at least, make sure I don't find out about it?"
"That was not trouble. He was in the process of pressing the activation button; there was not time to argue with him to tell him not to in time to prevent it. That was an attempt to ensure we did not allow the device to attract the creature."
If I ever did decide to cause 'trouble', I would most certainly expect most of this planet to 'not find out about it' Caithlin thought, silently. Though the Marshal might be among the more difficult parties to make sure to hide any such from, she conceded; not because of the woman's profession so much as from the fact that in her own life of dealing with danger and dealing it out in turn, she had become skilled at noting others who radiated it, however subtly, and through their few interactions the last few months, the other woman definitely tipped her sensors for such.
The attorney shrugged her eyebrows up and down simultaneously. "I have already promised him compensation for the device's replacement once the emergency is over."
Which Caithlin herself would likely not have been satisfied by if someone had abruptly smashed something of hers. Sofia didn't say it. Firstly, because Caithlin would never have been careless enough to put anyone risk for the sake of having some entertainment, but mostly because she was preventing-trouble mode and voicing such a thought would be counter to that. However, she made a mental note that she was going to have find an appropriately subtle way to get her to begin to address the combination of upbringing and trauma that lead her to such 'smash first, discuss later' reactions. Perhaps she'd bring it up with Gunnar - he had both a closer relationship with her, and personal experience with rationalizing the effects of trauma. "The goal is to make everyone aware of the danger. And in such a way that they are more likely to tell a neighbor to shut down a device than help them it out of some sense of common cause against people they perceive as bossing them around."
Caithlin dipped her head subtly again for a moment in agreement to the last statement - apparently, the enlistment of society as a whole in the policing of reckless elements of such was an idea both such societies and species shared; and could make use of. She hadn't seen much of such during her time on Earth, but that didn't exactly surprise her - Earth tended to lack the acknowledgement - to her observations during her time on it - by many residents of the reality of existence that the colony appeared to have a generally better grasp of.
"Welcome to peacekeeping." The Mazaran huffed, grumbling under her breath; "... I'm really going to have to punch Rampage the next time I see him... Easy Job my tail..." She smacked the side of the truck; "Okay, get moving. I have an Admin Clerk needing some Wall-to-Wall Counseling for not telling everyone about this when they entered the camp."
"That is, unless they have been; and idiots and assholes are merely disregarding it" Caithlin sighed as the truck began to move. "though, in that case, perhaps they should still adjust their message to be more forceful and explicit."
"Sometimes the best way to deal with any doubt in the matter is to have people turn in potentially problematic items, give receipt, and hold them until they can be safely returned," Sofia suggested, knowing full well that would lead to some discord, but might be easier on everyone than her companions' approach to enforcement. "If nothing else, the potential of confiscation may keep people from using the devices they already have so we won't have to resort more direct policing."
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