Star Trek: Cayuga - 09 - 'Four People from Khymer'

[admiralelm11]

Star Trek: Cayuga

09 - ‘Four People from Khymer’

By Jack Elmlinger




It was too early in the morning.

Naala pulled at the sheets of her parents’ bed again. Her father groaned with fatigue and reached down to pick her up. “Daddy,” she said with the seriousness of a three-year old.

Her father rubbed the ridges around his eyes. “Yes, Naala?”

“There’s a monster in the backyard.”

“There’s no such thing as monsters,” her father told her. Her gaze didn’t waver and he sighed. “Come on and show me. Don’t wake up your mother.”

Naala led him into the kitchen and pointed out the window. “There.”

Wiping the sleep from his eyes, her father leaned on the windowsill and gazed outward. Then he slowly stepped back. The creature was as tall as a Cardassian. Hard plates were embedded into its brown-and-green skin. Each of its fingers were easily as long as a humanoid forearm. None of this was as disturbing as the six blood-red eyes staring out from its face.

“Is it a Gem’adar?,” Naala asked him.

“Never say that name,” her father snapped at her before he shook his head. “No, it’s not a Jem’hadar.”

His daughter frowned at him. “What is it, then?”

“I don’t know.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“‘Cause I’m as free as a bird -- oh, damn it.”

Jeanne Pozach resettled the guitar on her hip and strummed through the riff again. Still not satisfied with the sound, she tightened the strings. The door suddenly chimed and she glanced up from her music.

“Enter,” she said.

The door slid open and Commander zh’Tali strode in and came to attention before her.

“Captain, I apologize for interrupting you during your off-duty hours.”

“At ease, Commander. What brings you here?”

“Lieutenant Maguire is missing.”

Pozach placed the guitar across her lap. “What?”

“During the twelve hundred rounds of Starbase Three-Five-Nine’s hospital, it was discovered that her bed was unoccupied. Station security ran a sweep and they were unable to locate her. I was informed myself, twenty minutes ago.”

Pozach stood up, laying her guitar down on her couch. “Did she come here?”

“No. her codes weren’t used to access the ship.” zh’Tali held out a PADD towards her. “Upon further investigation, I found out that she had booked passage on a Rigelian relief freighter bound for Cardassia Prime. They launched from the starbase, an hour ago.”

“Have we received any orders yet to resume our cargo runs?”

zh’Tali shrugged at her question. “No. A number of ships from the Seventh Fleet have been reassigned to deliver relief aid to the Cardassians. Our return to duty has been delayed.”

“All right, recall all of our personnel from the Starbase. Have a course plotted for the freighter. Rigelian ships are fast but we’re quite a bit out from Cardassia. We should be able to intercept them.”

zh’Tali took her orders as a dismissal and departed from the Captain’s cabin. Jeanne sat back down on her couch and strummed a few cords. “Aimee,” she asked the room plaintively,” what have you done now?”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The monster wasn’t alone.

While her father left his family to go fetch the authorities, Naala watched three more creatures appear in flashes of light. New plants also appeared out of nowhere and spread, strangling the life out of the trees. By the time that her father returned with a few members of the local militia, the air was thick and tinged with green particles. The soldiers took aim with their disruptor rifles and they gagged on the strange oxygen, falling back, overwhelmed.

Naala’s mother took her and they fled the house that afternoon. Before she left, the small Cardassian girl saw small, hopping lizards flit through the living room.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“This is so like her!,” Sean Pasko exclaimed with disgust. “Something bad happens to her and she runs away. I know she did.”

Across the table from the pilot, Thomas Riker looked up in surprise. “I’m sorry?,” he asked him.

“It’s the same thing that she did with Captain Pozach. It’s like all she knows how to do is run.”

Riker frowned at his admission. He had only been aboard the Cayuga for little more than a day and already there was excitement. Although if half of what he heard about her was as true as what he read in the ship’s logs, then this Maguire was the type of person who enjoyed making a scene.

“Captain Pozach sent a message to a Lieutenant Dixon aboard the Gihlan,” he told Pasko. “Are he and Maguire related somehow?”

“She’s just like my sister!,” Pasko cried, obliviously. “I’m always having to chase after her.”

“All senior staff, report to the Situation.” Riker glanced up at the ceiling and he pushed himself up to his feet.

Pasko shook his head and glanced over, noticing Riker for the first time. “Do you know where the Situation Room is?,” he asked the new guy. “It would be embarrassing for our new Operations Officer to get lost. Come on.” He gathered his plates up onto a tray, adding,” I suppose we’ve caught up with that Rigelian freigher. I’m going to kill her.”

They stepped into the corridor and Riker could feel the subtle vibration of high warp through the deckplates. To Pasko, it felt like the ship was changing direction, but only slightly.

The doors to the Bridge parted open and Pasko led Riker into the Situation Room. Lieutenant Hobbes, Lieutenant Ntannu, Assistant Chief Engineer Zehna, and Commander zh’Tali were already seated around the conference table. Captain Pozach was standing behind her chair and she beckoned them to their seats, impatiently.

“How long until we intercept the freighter?,” Pasko asked her.

“We’ve received new orders from Admiral sh’Diaar,” was the Captain’s answer. “A distress signal has been received from Iannar III. They’re reporting that they’ve been invaded by unknown forces. The USS Patsayev is on-scene and we’ve been tapped to assist them.” She turned her chair around and sat down. “Mister Hobbes has the details.”

Brandon Hobbes stood up, with uncertainty from his chair and activated the wall monitor panel. A planetary globe appeared and it was covered in small red circles that were largely concentrated in the southernmost continent. “This is Iannar III as it was illustrated by the Patsayev’s sensor scans. As of fifty minutes ago, there were over two hundred and thirty… portals for the lack of a better word.”

“How do they work?,” asked Zehna Nako, Lieutenant Maguire’s assistant chief engineer.

Hobbes’ mouth opened and he shrugged at the question. “Unknown,” he said. “They’re almost like … puckers in the fabric of reality.”

“Like wormholes?,” zh’Tali asked him.

“No,” the science officer said, shaking his head. “The scan returns are nothing like those from the Bajoran or Barzan wormholes. Or even what we know about the Iconian gateways for that matter.”

He pressed an indicator on the side of the screen and the globe was replaced by a Cardassian video feed.

“The portals are short in duration, just for a few seconds and they usually deposit one or two lifeforms.” The feed showed a wide grassy plain. There was a burst of light and a massive beast appeared. It had legs as thick as tree stumps. “The portals have deposited a variety of flora as well as some of these plants emitted toxic fumes.” He glanced down at the PADD in his hand. “With the alien fauna killing off the native fauna and the gases polluting the atmosphere, Iannar III will soon be rendered inhospitable. It will be the end of the world as they know it.”

“That’s great,” Pasko snapped,” and I feel for these folk, I really do, but what about Aimee?”

zh’Tali glanced at him from across the table. “Lieutenant Maguire has chosen her own course of action, Mister Pasko. We have a mission and we cannot divert from it for the sake of one wayward woman..”

With his face turning red, Pasko began to rise up from his seat. “You unfeeling -- “

“Sean, sit down,” Pozach said icily and she silenced zh’Tali with a glare. “She’s right, Sean. The invasion of Iannar take priority.” She typed a command into the command panel on the table and the screen turned into a map of Cardassian space with the Federation to the right of it. The Cayuga’s position was indicated by a Starfleet delta symbol just over the border. The solar system Iannar appeared to be near it.

“Sean, how long will it take for us to get to Iannar at maximum warp?”

Pasko stared at the screen and he spoke softly. “We can maintain Warp Nine-point-Three for the next twelve hours. After that, we’ll have to cruise at Warp Eight.” He shot a look at the temporary chief engineer. “Assuming that Zehna can keep the engines together, we should be there in about fifty-four hours.”

“Good,” the Captain said, ignoring the venom in the helmsman’s voice. “When we get there, our orders are to evacuate all of the civilians from the affected areas. After that, we need to put an end to this invasion by shutting down the portals.”

“Evacuation will be difficult with the proximity of the larger cluster of portals, Captain. Their reality-warping effect makes using the transporter impossible,” Hobbes explained to her,” but the Patseyev reports that they’re already in the process of completing the most critical of the evacuations.”

Pozach nodded at all of them. “All right then, we’ve all got our jobs. Let’s go do them.”

All of the senior officers but Hobbes and Riker filed out of the room. They stared at each other and once the doors swooshed shut again, Riker spoke.

“Hello, Brandon.”

“Hello, Thomas.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Sickbay was empty and Zimthar Moru liked it that way. A full sickbay meant sick people but an empty one meant that he could sit back in his office, relax with his feet propped up on the edge of his desk, and read a paper on the evolutionary consistency among non-dual gendered species like the Andorians, the J’Naii, the Hermats, and the Jarada. He had just gotten to the chapter on gendered social interactions when Captain Pozach walked through the door.

She didn’t look good at all. Despite the late hour, she was still wearing her duty uniform, although the jacket was hanging open. She crossed the tiled floor to sit down heavily on a biobed. “I can’t sleep, Doc,” she moaned.

Moru walked from his office and glanced at the readouts on the display over the bed “How long has this been going on?,” the Bolian physician asked her.

“About a day.”

“Since we got our orders,” he said, sitting on the edge of the biobed beside her.

“And we had to abandon Aimee,” Pozach finished, grimacing. “I’m worried about her.”

Moru thought for a moment. “It occurs to me, Captain, that I haven’t taken any leave since before the Dominion War.”

“That’s wonderful for you, Doc,” she said with a tone of defeat creeping into her voice. “Wait a minute, didn’t you just have leave on Earth?”

The Bolian shrugged at her question and he raised his voice a little to better illustrate his point. “Were I to take leave, I was thinking that I might want to spend it on Cardassia Prime. See the sights of something. There might even be a friend that I might want to look up.”

The captain looked back at him. “You’d better take the Garibaldi. Talk to Mister Pasko about when you can launch.”

“Certainly,” he said, helping her to her feet. “I’d best go get ready.”

Jeanne placed her hand on his shoulder, making him pause. “Thank you.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

 

[admiralelm11]

“Entering the Iannar system now,” Pasko reported.

“Sensors have detected an Excelsior class starship, the USS Patseyev, in high orbit,” zh’Tali said, pressed her earpiece closer in her ear. “Captain Talmadge is hailing us.”

“On screen,” Pozach said, settling down into her command chair.

The starship on the main screen disappeared and a wide Bridge appeared with an older man sitting in an off-set command chair. “Hello there,” he said pleasantly in a British accent.

Pozach smiled at the other captain. “Hello, I’m Jeanne Pozach of the Cayuga and we’re ready to assist you.”

“Excellent,” Talmadge said, examining a panel on his chair’s armrest before he continued,” We’ve mostly evacuated the areas closest to the portals but there’s still a large cluster of them on the southern continent that’s been giving our transporter fits. We’ve been using our shuttlecraft to move civilians away from the affected areas and into Shendo, the city, four hundred kilometers to the east of the hot spot.”

“We can begin beaming down relief teams into Shendo immediately. I’ll join them myself. My First Officer, Commander zh’Tali will be leading an away team into the portal-thick area to help with the evacuation.”

Talmadge’s lips curved into a charming smile. “I’m very much obliged for your help. Thanks, Jeannie.”

The viewscreen switched back to the curve of Iannar III and the Patseyev farther ahead of them in orbit. The bridge was silent as all eyes moved to look at Captain Pozach.

“... Jeannie?!”

* * * * * * * * * * * *


The fact that the shuttle Garibaldi wasn’t available for the mission irritated zh’Tali but she accepted it as fact and moved on. She strode across the shuttl day and observed her chosen away team. Lieutenant Ntannu and Crewman Leung were helping Crewman Taylor pack the medical supplies into the shuttle Ivanova while Collier and Halah-Uen were preparing supplies for the second run. Pasko was completing his pre-flight check when she stepped inside the shuttlecraft’s rear hatch and waited for him to notice her.

“Commander!,” he yelped in surprise. “I didn’t see you there in that very… black… uniform.”

zh’Tali sat down on the bench behind him and she began checking her equipment. “This is a combat operation,” she asked him,” isn’t it?”

“Well, potentially,” he admitted to her.

“This is a combat uniform,” she said, sheathing the kar’takin across her back.

“Right,” he continued nervously.

Ntannu, Taylor, and Leung filed in through the back of the shuttle and began settling into their seats. The pilot retracted the hatch and kicked into the antigravity system, floating the shuttle off of the deck.


“Okay, is everyone ready?”

He waited for an answer but the ebony-clad figure of zh’Tali seemed to discourage any form of banter. Pasko sighed, his hands moving across his console.

“Well, here we go.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *


Pozach materialized into what could be politely called organized chaos. The government building that she and her team had beamed into was filled to capacity with Cardassians of all genders and ages. They were unified by the tangible wall of sound that they threw at the stage where a Tellarite wearing Command red stood.

“No, this isn’t a weapon of the Federation! Nor is this an invasion of any way orchestrated by the Dominion! This is ridiculous! What are you, a bunch of idiots or something?!,” the Tellarite yelled at his audience in response to the questions aimed at him by the roar of the crowd.

“The Union wouldn’t have allowed these aliens to gain a foothold on our world!,” a Cardassian woman yelled back at him.

“What is Starfleet doing to repulse these invaders?!,” a man beside her demanded to know.

The Tellarite tried to answer both of them but the din of the crowd’s dissent overpowered his voice. Pozach grabbed Lieutenant Hobbes’ arm and pulled him close enough for him to hear her.

“Get the medical team over to the infirmary here before you hook up with the Patseyev’s science officer. Try to help them out. Go.” The science acknowledged her orders and gesturing to the medical officers, motioning for them to follow him out of the room.

Pozach inhaled and exhaled a breath before she traced along the edge of the room before she reached the stage. With a little clamoring, she pulled herself up onto it and walked over to the Tellarite officer. He saw her first, her uniform, and then the four pips on her collar before he stepped aside to let her take his place.

“Who are you?!,” a voice demanded from the crowd.

Pozach stepped up to the edge of the stage and she waited as more and more of the Cardassians noticed her. Curious at her silence, the crowd quieted down from a dull roar to a disgruntled rumble.

“I’m Jeanne Pozach,” she said, calmly falling into a rhythm that reminded her of her time serving as an Starfleet attache to the Federation Council in Paris,” Captain of the Federation starship Cayuga.” The crowd began to rouse itself and she continued before any more questions could be asked of her. “As we speak, my ship is beaming down medical officers for your wounded and security officers to stave off this invasion.”

The crowd rumbled and a single Cardassian man stepped forward. “Captain,” he said genially,” please understand the position of my people. A year and a half ago, we were occupied by the Dominion and now our infrastructure is destroyed. Now we’re forced from our homes by these new aliens. You’ll understand why we are enraged.”

Pozach considered him, asking,” Who are you, sir?”

The Cardassian stood up a bit straighter “My name is Anam Rusek, and I am the elected leader of this world.”

Crouching downward on her knees, she extended her hand out to him. “Join me?” Rusek took her hand and she pulled him up onto the stage. Still shaking his hand, she looked back to the crowd. “My crew is doing everything that they can to disable these portals.”

Aware of the image of amiability that she was trying to create, Rusek asked her,” Do I have your word on that as a Starfleet officer?”

“No,” was her reply,” you have my word on it as a fellow sentient being.”


* * * * * * * * * * * *


With his passengers emptied from the Ivanova, Pasko gave them a quick thumbs-up before he launched back up into the sky, on a course back to the Cayuga. Thirty feet away from where he had landed, Cardassians were huddled into a Type-Six shuttle from the Patseyev which rose up into the sky and disappeared. Taylor dashed off to the field hospital, stepping quickly between the wounded Cardassians lying in the mud.

zh’Tali sighted a Lieutenant hunched over a communications unit and led her security officers over towards him. He glanced up and smiled at her. “Are you from the Cayuga? Martinez, Patseyev’s Security Chief.”

zh’Tali accepted his hand, shaking it briefly and he continued speaking,” The biggest cluster of portals appeared in the urban area of Geeton. Right now, I have twenty three-man squads that are going door-to-door, evacuating the buildings. The number of hostiles is increasing rapidly and a lot of the personnel out there aren’t even from Security.”

“Where are we needed?,” the Andorian asked him.

Lieutenant Martinez picked a PADD up and handed it to her. “There’s a squad that should be coming north along the main street. I bet that they wouldn’t mind some backup, Commander.”

zh’Tali gave the PADD a cursory glance before she reached back behind her head and pulled down a mask that was the same black as her uniform. “Let’s go.”

Ntannu and Leung fell in behind her. They moved across a long field, walking until they couldn’t see the evacuation camp behind them any longer.

“Why is the ground so damp?,” Leung asked, looking up at the sky. “It looks like it hasn’t rained in days.”

Ntannu started talking to his fellow security officer. “The atmosphere is thickening,” the Ktarian guessed. “It’s some kind of side-effect -- “

“Silence,” zh’Tali hissed at them. She knelt down, her fingers adjusting the lenses in the eyes of her mask. The security officers followed her gaze.

“What the hell is that?,” demanded Leung, squinted ahead of them.

“Some kind of flying reptile,” the Commander said,” with claws and a tearing beak. It appears to be hostile.” She stood up and continued marching.

The away team entered the city, swiftly trading the one-story building at the outskirts for the buildings that were much taller. zh’Tali realized that the silence was wearing on the security officers. “We’re being stalked,” she told them in a level tone,” but don’t be afraid. I believe that we can defeat them easily.” Satisfied at her effort to ease their anxiety, she turned her attention back to the road in front of them.

Leung passed a sidelong glance to Ntannu.

zh’Tali gazed at one of the buildings where there were inconsistencies in the play of light and dark. Inconsistencies that were moving. She kicked in her lenses again and frowned.

“Commander?,” asked the Ktarian security chief behind her.

“There is a creature on the building. Its body is vertical with two limbs on the dorsal surface and two on the ventral size. Each of its limbs has claws that allow it to dig into the wall.” She paused for a moment in her report and added,” And it had noticed us.”

“You mean that?!,” Leung shouted, sighting his phaser rifle at the creature as it leapt over to the building above them.

“Fire,” the zhen ordered. Orange-red energy beams stabbed out of their weapons, striking the creature and the wall around it. The wall-crawler screeched as the three beams struck it, before it let go of the building. It fell twenty meters and slammed down into the ground, shattering its carapace.

Ntannu pushed the creature with the butt of his rifle. “Is it dead?”

zh’Tali fired into its head and said,” Yes.”

A scream wrenched their attention farther down the desolate street. zh’Tali bolted down the street and towards the sound, the other officers trailing behind her. Out of the gloom, a woman ran towards them. She tripped and tumbled to the ground.

Before she could lift herself back up, the Andorian hoisted her back up to her feet. “Ntannu, Leung,” she said,” secure this area and defend this woman. I will attempt to locate other survivors.”

There was another cry. It was more of a bellow than a scream. The commander set off after it at a run. She moved around a corner and slammed into a ground of Cardassians that was running the other way. “Run!,” one of them screamed. “It’s coming!”

Irritated by their fear, zh’Tali swatted them aside and looked down the cross-street at ‘it’. Standing up at just over eleven feet, the humanoid creature’s indigo skin gleamed like polished armor. Its head was disproportionately small, dwarfed by the spiked hump rising up from its back. In its left hand, it held up a shield that looked like it had once been the shell of a mammoth tortoise. Clutched in its right hand was a Human male.

The creature roared again and threw the Human down at zh’Tali’s feet. Dazed, he looked up with his eyes wandering over her combat-suited form before they settled onto the handle of the kar’takin strapped to her back.

“Oh,” he said,” hey, Davi.”

zh’Tali slid the mask off of her face. “Wiebach.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *


“Shuttlecraft 21099-2 Ivanova, looking for a spot to land,” Pasko said, scanning the field for a clear patch to land on.

This was his fourth return to the planet’s surface and it seemed like there were more Cardassians milling around the landing zone than before. A hundred meters away, a Type-Nine shuttle dropped down through the cloud cover, rotated on its axis, and settled down easily into a spot that Pasko wouldn’t have tried for if he was piloting a bicycle. He checked his scanners and opened a channel on his communications gear.

“Nice landing, Callaway.”

“Thank you,” answered a woman’s pleasantly surprised voice.

Pasko picked a spot to land and coasted down on his antigravity system. As he opened the rear hatch, he smiled at the voice. “It’s a pretty tough run, what with the crowded landing field and all.”

“Oh, I don’t think it’s that bad,” replied the other pilot. “I’ve been at this for three days. It could be a lot worse.” Pasko heard a tiny beep in the background. “I have to go now,” she continued. “Goodbye.”

Pasko turned away and smiled broadly at the Cardassians crowded before him. “Welcome aboard the Ivanova, express flight from Geeton to Shendo. I’m Sean Pasko and I’ll be your pilot today.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“Its armor is effective against Cardassian disruptors and Starfleet phasers up to Level Fourteen,” Wiebach said as zh’Tali helped him up to his feet.

“Any thoughts?,” she asked him as they separated, edging forward to circle the creature.

Wiebach casually reached down and plucked a Klingon mek’leth up out of the ground. “I think that the creature’s brain is in that spiked bulge on its back. Do you see where the exoskeletal plates join?”

The creature turned towards zh’Tali at first and then towards Wiebach before snorting. It slammed its shield down at the spot where Wiebach was standing. Both of them leapt away and the Andorian managed to grab the creature’s shoulder while Wiebach swung onto its arm. It shook them free but Wiebach managed to shove his mek’leth into the plates’ seams before tumbling down to the ground.

zh’Tali clambered up the creature’s side but its massive hand grabbed her before she could strike. It threw her casually at a nearby wall but she flexed her knees, rebounding against the wall and slamming the flat of her kar’takin against the hilt of the mek’leth that was jammed further in. The creature’s eyes fluttered and it pitched forward, dead.

“What are you doing here, Nathan?,” zh’Tali asked him.

Wiebach tugged his weapon from the creature’s braincase. “Helping the helpless. I had to keep busy, didn’t I?”

zh’Tali glanced back in the direction of her security team. “Come with me. You’ll be safer in Shendo with the refugees.”

Wiebach gave her an amused chuckle and began to walk. “You think that these things are a threat to me?”

The commander shook her head and set the pace.

* * * * * * * * * * * *


The Cardassians have been given rooms in the city and the government building was empty except for a few Starfleet officers that included Captain Pozach and Governor Rusek.


“I must thank you again, Captain,” Rusek told her. “I know that your Federation must be strained greatly, especially with the Klingon and Romulan Empires so resistant to become involved in the Reconstruction.”

“I thought that the Romulans had given resources to over a dozen worlds including Cardassia Prime?”

“There is always a price when the Romulans offer you aid.”

Pozach had paused to construct a somewhat non-committal reply when her combadge chirped for attention. “Steven to Jeannie.”

“Excuse me,” she said, taking a half-step backwards and tapping her combadge. “Pozach here. Go ahead, Captain.”

“Patseyev’s sensors have managed to locate the point of origin for the portals,” Captain Talmadge reported to her. “It’s a system that’s a dozen lightyears out, and unmapped by the Federation. It doesn’t even appear to be on any of the Cardassian star charts that we have on record.”

Pozach frowned while she tried to work out speeds and times in her head. She failed. “I’ll have the Cayuga head out, immediately,” she said, regardless of the dangers involved.

“Good,” added the other captain,” because at the rate that these portals are appearing is increasingly exponentially. Within twenty-four hours, there could be as many as seven million sentient aliens on Iannar, plus countless other lifeforms.”

“We’ll hurry,” Pozach said and deactivated her combadge. She turned towards Rusek and said,” I’m afraid I’ll have to take my leave of you.”

“Actually, I wondered if I might come along with you.”

“That’s somewhat unusual.”

“I would very much like to see the world that these invaders come from. Of course, this is subject to your approval, Captain.”

She pondered this over in her head before she nodded her assent. “Pozach to Cayuga. Two to beam up.”

The auditorium dissolved around them, resolving them into appearing in the Cayuga’s transporter room. “Pozach to Fuller. Please report to the transporter room and escort Mister Rusek to guest quarters.” She turned back towards the Cardassian. “I would take you myself, but I have to get us underway.”

Pozach rode the turbolift up four decks to the Bridge, running out of the life after the doors swooshed open. Riker glanced back from the command chair and stood up. As she sat down, she gave orders to Aerru at the helm.

“Set a course for the star system at the coordinates provided to us by the Patseyev. Mister Riker, contact Commander zh’Tali and the away team. Inform them that we’re heading out of orbit and that they’re to report to Commander Grudak of the Patseyev.”

“Aye, sir,” the operations officer said, fumbling to get the transceiver into his ear.

Pozach took a steadying breath before saying,” Helm, take us out. Maximum warp.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

 

[admiralelm11]

Lieutenant Brandon Hobbes wasn’t used to seeing other officers with blue departmental colors. So the science team from the Patseyev stuck out to him. A woman with Lieutenant Commander’s pips motioned him over to her. She sat cross-legged on the ground with a beetle that was the size of a house cat on her lap. Its single compound eye observed him for a moment before it went back to gnawing on a stick that the woman held in front of its beak.

“Would you like to play with Alfie?,” she asked him.

Hobbes blanched at her request. “W-what is it?”

“He’s a beetle. He’s been telling us lots of interesting things about where he’s from.”

Hobbes sat down beside her, watching the insect carefully. “Like what?,” he asked her, examining it with his tricorder.

“Commander Malstrom found out that he’s been artificially adapted to this environment,” an Ensign explained to him. “Most of the creatures that we’ve been able to observe have been forced to restrict their activities to the regions of contaminated atmosphere.”

Malstrom stroked Alfie’s shell and Hobbes was taken by her subtly violet eyes. “We’ve been trying to figure out this task in this invasion.”

The Cayuga’s science officer hesitantly touched the massive insect. “No significant claws,” he said,” and I’m not reading any poison sacs or adaptive camouflage.”

“It could be a scout since it can breathe the atmosphere here,” suggested one of the other science officers.

“I doubt it, Silthin,” Malstrom said apologetically.

“It’s too big and it has no depth perception.”

“He,” Malstrom said mildly, correcting Hobbes.

“Could I see a list of all of the lifeforms that you’ve observed so far?”

“Well, sure. Silthin, link up with his tricorder.”

Hobbes nodded his thanks to the Suliban officer and he began skimming through the data. “You’ve found four separate humanoid species?,” he asked with surprise.

The Patseyev’s chief science officer nodded at him. “The security teams did. They’re rarely seen outside of the areas with contaminated atmosphere. We think that they’re the intelligence responsible for this invasion.”

“Over the six hundred species of insects recorded,” Hobbes read off of his tricorder screen. “Thirty-seven types of amphibians. Fifty-three lizard species. Twelve mammals and more than two hundred types of plants.”

“Worst invasion ever,” Silthin mumbled.

Malstrom looked up at Hobbes. “He’s right. This isn’t an army…”

“It’s an ecosystem.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *


The Cayuga slowed rapidly at the edge of the system, coasting in at high impulse speeds. Captain Pozach took in the scene before her. The star and three planets would have been picturesque if not for the situation on Iannar III that had brought them here.

“Mister Riker, find the source of the portals. Scan the system for hostile ships.”

“Sensors are reading the energy signature of the portals,” Riker reported. “A lot of them are coming from the upper atmosphere of that gas giant.” He glanced up at the captain. “No spacecraft of any kind.”

“Any sign that we’ve been detected?,” she asked the ops officer and he shook his head. “Take us into orbit.”

The gas giant grew larger on the viewscreen. As the image became clearer, the captain leaned forward in her chair. “That’s a moon,” she said underneath her breath. “It’s in such a low orbit that it’s inside the atmosphere.”

“Too low,” Riker reported. “The moon isn’t maintaining its orbit and it’s falling into the gas giant.” There was a pause and he continued his report,” It’s also where the portals are coming from.”

“Haill them.”

Riker entered a few commands into his board before shaking his head. “It’s no use. There isn’t anybody receiving down there.”

Pozach sat back in her chair. “We have to establish contact. Mister Riker, ready a security team and call Zehna to the Bridge to assume command. You and I are beaming down there.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *


Pozach’s first impression of the planet was that it was too foggy. She squinted through the faceplate of her environmental suit, abruptly realizing that she stood three meters from a massive beast. Its limbs were stunted and covered in luminous tattoos and its head was fused onto its torso. A line of creatures of all varieties stretched away from it while the larger animals were being herded by four distinct humanoid species. At the head of the line was the glowing form of another massive creature connected to the first by tendrils of energy.

“Captain,” Riker said from beside her as he consulted his tricorder,” that thing is projecting the portals. If we can shut it down, we can stop the invasion.”

There was a sund, almost like barking when the aliens spotted them. The orderly line disintegrated as the humanoids scattered.

Pozach’s eyes flitted across the retreating mob. “This isn’t right,” she murmured, turning towards Riker. “Look at them. If they’re soldiers, then where are their weapons?”

“And why are they bringing children?” She followed his gaze to a humanoid hiding behind two others twice its size.

Motioning for the nervous security officers to stay where they stood, the captain stepped forward. “I’m Captain Jeanne Pozach of the Federation starship Cayuga,” she said, pausing for a moment before continuing,” I would like to speak to your ruling council.”


One of the humanoids let out a series of barks, snorts, and brays.

“Take me to your leader?,” she asked, venturing a guess.

Another humanoid stepped forward uneasily and began to chitter. “The Universal Translator needs more of their syntax to provide a baseline for their language,” Riker said,” but it seems friendly enough.”

Slowly, words of understanding began to funnel through their combadges. “... do not mean harm/injury/damage. We do not wish strife/conflict/discord.”

Pozach approached it slowly and sat down cross-legged on the ground. “I don’t want to hurt you,” she said, hearing her words being repeated in a series of barks and squawks. “We’re here on the behalf of Iannar whose planet that your people are occupying.”

The alien’s eyes widened and it sat down on its knees across from her. “Please understand/comprehend/sympathize. We seek escape/exodus/sanctuary. This world is untenable/dangerous/unwelcoming.”

“You mean the orbital degradation?,” Riker asked him. The alien blinked at his, its head wavering from side to side. “Did it get hot?”

“Yes, hot. For many generations and the v’g’eel saw that it would not become better.”

“V’g’eel?”

Riker shook his head. “Translator didn’t get it.”

“The v’g’eel has worked for many eclipses to find an escape. They crafted/bred/designed the s’rogiie to allow us transit to sanctuary.”

“Well,” Pozach said, glancing around,” are you the leader of these people?”

“As far as any of us lead,” it said, sitting up a bit straighter,” I am designated Dacl-tarin.”

The captain took that statement as an affirmative and stood up, offering the creature her hand. “I would like you to come with me back to my ship and discuss your exodus with the leader of Iannar. Perhaps you and he can work out an arrangement.”

Dacl-tarin flexed his legs and stood. “I will do as you ask.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *


Doctor Moru’s plants had been removed from the observation deck and it had been flooded with a gaseous mixture similar to the moon’s atmosphere. When Captain Pozach walked in with a pair of breather masks, she found Anam Rusek waiting for her with Ensign Halah-Uen.

“Captain,” the Cardassian governor said,” am I to understand that one of the invaders is aboard your ship, right now?”

“Through those doors,” she confirmed, handing him a mask. “I only ask that you keep an open mind, Governor.”

The doors swooshed open and they stepped through the light force field that retained the foreign atmosphere. Across the hazy room, Dacl-tarin sat at the opposite end of the table while Pozach sat down at its center.

“Governor Rusek, this is Dacl-tarin,” she began with the introductions. “Dacl-tarin, this man leads the people of the world that you are evacuating to.”

“I regret, lament, apologize,” the alien said. “Our exodus was blind, misguided/desperate.”

Rusek looked unimpressed so the Captain explained the situation to him. “Their world is a lost cause. It has fallen deep into the gas giant’s gravity well and there’s nothing that we can do about it. They need a new place to live.”

Before Rusek could respond, she turned to Dacl-tarin.

“And now with that said, I should say that Iannar III does belong to the Cardassians and the Cardassians can hardly be expected to give up their world, but I think that I have a mutually beneficial solution.”

She turned back to Rusek. “There are massive tracts of land on your northern continent that are untouched.” She turned again to Dacl-tarin. “Much of the Cardassian Union was damaged in a recent war. Your people clearly possess advanced biotechnology that could greatly aid them with their Reconstruction.”

Dacl-tarin squawked happily. “We would gladly tithe/lease/trade for a home.”

Rusek still looked unconvinced.

“Think of it, Rusek,” Pozach told him. “Many worlds of the Union have regained their self-sufficiency but none of them are able to aid those that haven’t. How impressed, how grateful would the provisional government on Cardassia Prime be if their shipments of food supplies came from Iannar?”

The Cardassian’s eyes brightened slightly. “But the planet cannot be terraformed in part. How are we to co-exist?”

“The v’g’eel will work to reverse the effects of the s’rogiie,” Dacl-tarin said,” and we will develop the bodies of the Sr’khymer’arni so that we might live on your world.”

Pozach sat back and watched Rusek and Dacl-tarin slowly began to warm up to one another. Two hours later, the Cardassian leader communicated the plan for the integration of the Sr’khymer’arni to Iannar and she sighed in relief.


* * * * * * * * * * * *

Lieutenant Pasko knew that he was in the habit of going to the Mess Hall after a successful mission. Ordinarily falling into ruts irritated him but as ruts went, this one was fairly pleasant.

A number of the Sr’khymer’arni stood around the lounge, conversing and socializing as best as they could. Riker had explained that ‘Sr’khymer’arni meant ‘The Four People of Khymer’. There were four distinct species with the six-eyed Gai who had long fingers and embedded exoskeletons, the tall, thin Paici with pale blue skin and split jaws, the Seiri with eyeless skulls and complicated tattoos, and the massive blue Jisimi on who, the pilot noted, that Commander zh’Tali was keeping an extremely close eye on. The only unifying traits of the four species were bipedality and a large pointed hump rising up from between their shoulder blades.

Pasko walked over to zh’Tali’s table. “Hello, Commander.”

She glanced up at him and then over to the man sitting beside her. “Lieutenant,” the zhen said,” sit down.”

“Please,” the other man added as he reached across the table and offered his hand to Pasko. “I’m Nathan Wiebach.”

“Sean Pasko.” Wiebach’s grip was surprisingly firm and the pilot flexed his fingers upon release. He motioned between Wiebach and zh’Tali. “Are you two friends?”

zh’Tali scowled deeply but Wiebach smiled. “Comrades during the war,” he said,” who fought in the 383rd together.” He looked across the room and spotted Captain Pozach. “Though I’m afraid that the stories will have to wait. I’d like to speak with your captain.”

Pasko watched the man walk away. “Good friends?,” he asked the Andorian who just frowned at him.

“Captain,” Wiebach said, by way of greeting.

Pozach excused herself from the Paici that she was speaking with. “Hello. We picked you up on Iannar, right?”

“Yes, I’m Nathan Wiebach.” He offered her his hand and made a conscious effort not to squeeze her hand too tight. “I’ve been working on Iannar III for a year now but with the Sr’khymer’arni adding their assistance to the Cardassians, I don’t think that I’ll be needed here anymore.”

“Well, we’d be happy to drop you off anywhere along our relief supply route.”

“Actually, I was hoping if I could stay aboard.” Surprise crossed the captain’s face and Wiebach pressed on quickly. “I know quite a bit about this region. I’d like to continue helping out the Cardassians and the Cayuga seems to be the best place to do it from.”

Pozach smiled at him. “I’d be delighted to have another set of helping hands, Mister Wiebach. Welcome aboard.”


* * * * * * * * * * * *


Her quarters were dark when she entered them and she didn;t bother to activate the lights. zh’Tali dropped her jacket on the desk and scowled as her hand brushed across something that she hadn’t left there. It was a packing container that was the size of a large PADD and identical to any other PADD in use throughout the Federation.

She took the package into the bedroom and opened it carefully. Inside of it lay folded fabric and a paper note with her name on it. Holding the note up to the faint light of the stars, she read, I wanted to give you a little variety in your wardrobe. With love, Thana.

zh’Tali stared at it for a moment before she laid the dress down on the bed. She left the room and returned, a moment later, with her kar’takin. Reverently, she wrapped the weapon in the dress and placed it on her dresser. Satisfied, she prepared to sleep.



The End…

 

[CeJay]

Still working myself through these.

This one was a truly classic Trek tale which starts of like a sinister invasion story only to ultimately turn out to be a tale of desperation and survival. It had a real feel-good ending which was a joy to read.

Also like how you manage to write tight, self-contained and entertaining stories while at the same time sowing the seeds for other plot lines such as Maguire going AWOL and zh'Tali fighting companion (and perhaps more) joining the crew.

More than enough here to make me want to keep reading.

 

[Gibraltar]

Great story! I loved the mystery of the invasion, an invasion that turned out to be a desperate evacuation. Lots of wonderful little character moments and humor sprinkled throughout. Did I miss the 'episode' where Thomas Riker came aboard, or did that happen 'off screen' in between stories?

 

[admiralelm11]

Tom Riker came aboard between stories.