Star Trek Hunter Episode 13: The 15,000 Cities of Cun Ling

Review 13.6 - I enjoyed Pepper's leading what amounts to a school field trip to the museum, complete with recalcitrant tag-alongs.

Why is it that whenever a bunch of dead bodies are found, Shran's somewhere in the vicinity? I mean, it seems like this time it's coincidental... but is it? Is it really?

 

Review 13.7 - A great 'down-time' scene, with our crew relaxing among the locals. Suddenly, a rare insight into Dolphin's psyche, a potential glimpse of the man behind the myth. Was he being serious, or was he saying that for public consumption?

Still and all, he has a point.

 

Review 13.8 - Sneaky Canada sneaks and is snuck upon! Looks like he has actual actionable intel to share, and that Hunter's crew is under threat already. These poor folks can't catch a break. Every time they come up for air, someone else is waiting in the wings to take a swing at them.

 

Pep feels like he has to get some culture into these people... Any time bodies hit the ground those Shrantennae go up...

Dolphin's isn't wrong... He pointed out what polite society has been trying to sweep under the rug.

It's not your average sleuth who gets the drop on a Blue Wraith... Thanks again for the reviews!! rbs

 

Star Trek Hunter
Episode 13: The 15,000 Cities of Cun Ling
Scene 11: Lower Trantor

13.11
Lower Trantor​

While 2nd Lt. T’Lon was officially in charge of the rescue mission on the ground, she had allowed Investigator Lynhart Shran to take the lead and put together the response team. Shran had recruited three Trantor natives: Flight Specialist Dih Terri as well as Tammy Brazil and Thomas Hobbs from the engineering department. Shran had also included the bolian field agent from the Trantor Police, Anana Lynarr, with the promise that she would not interfere with the Hunter’s investigation but would help coordinate with the Trantor Police. Investigator Buttans Ngumbo was the seventh and final addition. No one was in uniform - all were wearing casual clothing in the style popular in Trantor - fewer earth tones with a greater emphasis on blues, grays and whites.

Shran had banished Tactical Specialist Belo Cantys to the Hunter to work with Lt. Tauk to process information the ground team gathered and uploaded.


“They say all canals lead to Trantor,” said Flight Engineer Thomas Hobbs. Hobbs had a thick Scottish accent heard in several of the oldest areas of Trantor – the warehouse, transportation and machinery centers that supported the planetary engineers. These were the grimy parts of the federation’s greatest city and a significant portion of the early population had been Scottish. “What they don’t tell you is that all tunnels lead to Trantor as well.” Hobbs was middle aged with gray eyes, gray hair and a gray mustache and goatee. At the moment, he was leading the Hunter’s team through Lower Trantor toward a series of gates.

Midshipman Tammy Brazil had also grown up in Lower Trantor, as these sectors were referred to – quite literally in the lowest lying areas of the city, below the waterline of the central and outer lakes. Elevators and tunnels ran from these areas directly down underneath the lakes to the chasms on all sides of Trantor so that the enormous machinery that engineered and maintained the planet could be quickly and efficiently moved in and out of the chasms for repair and renovation.

“What I don’t understand is how they got around the transporter blocks,” said Agent Lynarr, “No one should be able to transport anything inside Trantor – in or out – without an approved transit code to get through the shielding.”

“Ah now lass,” Hobbs replied, “Anything can be had in Trantor for the right price. Even your precious transporter codes. That’s our first stop – the Trantor underground market. The market master keeps tight control over the most valuable commodities, and transporter codes are right at the top. And they deal strictly in ferengi currency.”

Dih Terri nervously brought her hair down and her collar up to cover her spots. Lower Trantor was a place she had avoided all her life. “I’m not sure how much good I can be down here. I grew up in Middle Trantor in the fountain district. I think this is the first time I’ve ever been at street level,” she said.

“Then keep your eyes peeled, your collar up and your hand on your phaser,” Lynhart Shran replied.


A fair amount of traffic was passing through a series of turnstiles at 16 gates – 8 inbound, 8 exits. The inbound gates were heavily guarded.

“Does anyone ever try to get in by jumping the exit turnstiles?” asked Dih Terri, nervously.

Shran pointed toward sniper windows above the gates. “They might, but I doubt they would be conscious when they get in,” he said.

As the party stepped up to one of the turnstiles, Hobbs offered seven slips of gold-pressed latinum to one of the guards, who deposited it, then held out his hand and said, “Your weapons, please.” Hobbs responded by depositing seven strips of latinum in the guard’s hand. The guard stepped aside, allowing the Hunter’s hunting party to enter the Trantorian Underground.

- * -​

Deep inside the Trantor Underground, more latinum was on offer, this time from a friendly looking human with a brown beard and friendly brown eyes, to a number of extremely seedy-looking ferengi. These slips and strips of latinum not only made the ferengi talkative, but also purchased evidence from the them, including a bloody human thumbnail…

- * -​

In another part of the Trantor Underground, still more gold-pressed latinum was changing hands – only instead of slips or strips, a single bar of gold-pressed latinum was on offer. A small party consisting of four andorians, two cardassians and a well-dressed human were allowed into a meeting that they had not been invited to. A room full of andorian workers turned baleful eyes and antennae on these human and cardassian interlopers, only to be astounded as they and their andorian escort walked straight through the room toward the stage and the speaker that the workers had come to listen to. The speaker, a well-dressed andorian, stepped aside deferentially…

- * -​

In yet another part of the Trantor Underground latinum was not on offer. A contingent of 30 Andorian Imperial Guard troopers had overwhelmed an outpost guarded by a small group of humans and bajorans – most of whom were now dead, all with extensive phaser burns. Commander Oshreb Sav was using his Ushan-Tor to remove clothing piece by piece from the two surviving human prisoners.

Commander Sav wasn’t asking questions… Yet… Just making it clear how sharp and effective the andorian ice-cutting blade could be. Over the years he had found that humans in particular did not like being naked and they tended to be far more cooperative under interrogation after their clothing had been stripped from them.

- * -​

In the Market District in the middle of the Trantor Underground, Thomas Hobbs was offering additional latinum to a representative of the market master in exchange for information.


In four different transactions under Trantor, two fueled by gold-pressed latinum, one enabled by latinum and fueled by soaring rhetoric, and one driven by combined phaser fire and knife work, the same name came up: The hidden city of th’Istel…

13.11 (of 16)​

 

Review 13.9 - Hmm. What's Ivonovic up to this time? The man is largely incapable of selflessness, so the political angle for him here must be a significant advantage.

 

Review 13.10 - Torture, horror, love and acceptance, all in one brief installment. If there's one thing this crew knows how to do it's survive.

Woe be unto their captors once Irons catches up with them.

 

You definitely have the man's number... This is the opening beat of a major character arc for the nefariously ambitious politician (and a few of his underworld connections.)

And they were doing so well at the end of the previous episode... Alas, no good deed goes unpunished.

Thanks again for the reviews!! rbs

 

Star Trek Hunter
Episode 13: The 15,000 Cities of Cun Ling
Scene 12: The Painted Specter by General Suk Sin Soor

13.12
The Painted Specter by General Suk Sin Soor​

“…was I sought, never a key, always the lightning that revealed itself the wraith I chased. Chased to obliteration the wraith or myself.”​

Commander David Pepper was in the captain’s chair on the bridge of the U.S.S. Hunter, reciting poetry from memory:

“Although there was my love and there would be my heirs, I never sought th’Istel. It was…​

“…painted specter I followed, followed I thought to the end of my days.
“Followed ever south with my dreams. Tracked through den and valley. Tracked through burning wastes and…”​

2nd Lt. T’Lon, Investigator Shran and the rest of the Hunter’s hunting party were seated at a table in the Trantor Underground, listening intently for clues:

“…woke screaming from this…​

“….that revealed this phantom I had for so long chased until south I could go no more and only when…​

“…only look to the north. All my dreams were north. My eyes could only see north. North I only could go.
“But the painted specter had me in its grasp along with all the treasures it foretold
“Deep underground, the ice, the cold, the walls lined with precious southern stones
“More wonderful to behold than all the fleshly beauty I had dreamed to touch in my youth
“And there my lust exhausted itself finally in a cold southern cavern of marble and cascades of precious stones
“A cavern made for mad lords to lust to own but could not be owned
“The stones could not be taken north
“The marble floor could not be reaped
“The lust lingering beauty of cold stone and lifeless
“And at long last I caught glimpse of the painted specter I had given my life to capture
“Its beauty, its evil, its cold heartless face
“And I reached out to grasp it and cut my hands on the sharp edges of ice
“As the mirror shattered and I and the specter shattered with it
“At th’Istel, at the end of my dreams
“But at long…”​

“That’s all there is to it?” asked Investigator Lynhart Shran after several seconds of silence.

“That is all there is to it,” Commander Pepper replied.

Shran and the remainder of the U.S.S. Hunter’s hunting party were seated at a workman’s lunch station in the Trantor Underground, at which they were enjoying a surprisingly tasty, if suspiciously greasy lunch along with nearly a hundred machine workers and wranglers. Flight Engineer Thomas Hobbs had recommended this place and had secured a reasonably private booth for the Hunter’s crew – he still had a few friends who worked in the underground and apparently a relative who managed this food court.

The crew members had all heard Pep reciting the fragments of the only poem known to be penned by General Suk Sin Soor. Many other works had been attributed to the legendary andorian general, but The Painted Specter was the only one that could be authenticated and none of the disputed works came close to matching the general’s command of Lak, an antique andorian language.

“You should hear it in the original Lak,” Pep continued. “The language ripples and shimmers, particularly the long, unbroken fragment at the end.”

“Another time,” said 2nd Lt. T’Lon. “This poetic fragment sounds like very little to base a lost city on.”

“It is the progenitor of the legend,” Pep replied. “The oldest known reference to it and many scholars believe General Soor was writing not about an actual underground city, but an inner struggle. Of the many aphorisms attributed to him, the one that is probably most well authenticated is: ‘To conquer the world you must first conquer yourself.’ So th’Istel became, in legend, a holy place. A place to rid yourself of inner demons, conquer the soul, and emerge a true warrior, ready to serve the andorian people and the andorian state selflessly. That poem launched a literary and cultural movement that has lasted nearly 3,000 years.”

“It sounds like he’s describing being at the South Pole,” observed Lt. Tauk, who was monitoring this conversation from the Hunter’s ground operations center, along with Belo Cantys. “‘Followed ever south with my dreams… My eyes could only see north. North I only could go’…” Tauk quoted.


“And that is probably what our Andorian friends think as well if they have gotten this far,” said Pep. “Unless they have a scholar of the literary classics with them who has actually looked at the original work. General Suk Sin Soor was a boustrophedonic writer.”

“A what?” asked Shran.

“Meaning he wrote every other line backward,” said Tauk.

“And the lines he wrote in reverse are always the lines that contain the words ‘north’ and ‘south’ or ‘southern’,” said Pep. “Meaning that if our andorian friends are digging for the lost city under the South Pole…”


“They’re digging in the wrong place,” said Shran, Tauk, T’Lon, Hobbs and Buttans in unison.


“I will need to provide this information to Agent Canada,” said Agent Lynarr.

“Of course, Anana,” said Pep. “So T’Lon, Lenny, what would you like to do next? Fancy a trip to the North Pole of Cun Ling?”

“Not just yet,” Shran said. He glanced at T’Lon, who displayed no discernible expression.

“Why is that, Lynhart?” Tauk asked.

“It’s just… too easy,” Shran concluded. “We aren’t the first people to go looking for th’Istel and if it were that easy to find, it would have been found by now, literary scholar or no. We need to consider the other clues... Like the precious gems that could not be removed from the walls…”

“You’re not going to find that anywhere on this planet,” remarked Hobbs. “It takes certain conditions for gems to grow – millions of years – and Cun Ling is less than 300 years old.”

“An andorian would have less than no use for such baubles,” said Tali Shae, who had been listening in from the bridge of the U.S.S. Hunter.

“Precious stones in the Lak language does not refer to what you think of as gem stones,” said Pep. “A better translation would be stones that contain high amounts of ore – iron, zinc, bauxite, copper…”

“Iron and marble that cannot be removed…” mused Hobbs, his Scottish brogue just a little thicker than normal.

“What are you thinking, Tommy?” Pep asked.

“th’Istel might be closer than we think,” Hobbs said. “Most cities on Cun Ling were built on a single asteroid – a large body. But Trantor is built on eight of them. And you may have noticed the really tall skyscrapers – the ones that reach so far up into the atmosphere they need their own solar shielding and have the upper floors pressurized – they’re located on the north and south ends of the city. If they were built anywhere else, the city would be perpetually in their shadow…”

“The asteroids those buildings are anchored to…” T’Lon started.

“Lumps of solid iron embedded in marble,” Hobbs said. “Nothing else could hold them. And there is iron that cannot be removed and marble that cannot be reaped. Right under the north and south poles of this city…”

Lynhart Shran turned toward Agent Anana Lynarr from the Trantor Police Intelligence Division. “I’m sure our scanners won’t be able to penetrate the city’s shielding. Think you can get us some maps of Trantor Underground – with particular details about the north end?”

Before Lynarr could answer, Dih Terri spoke up. “It won’t be as accurate as the maps from the Trantor Mining Consortium. My father had details from those maps all over the walls of his office.”

“Turns out you were useful after all,” Shran said with a smile. “Think dear old dad will forward the maps to you that we need?”

- * -​

“They want Lieutenant Commander Dolphin? Why him?”

At the same time that Pep was reciting ancient andorian poetry to the hunting party, Justice Minerva Irons and Kenny Dolphin were in the captain’s office, having a conversation with Johnny Canada, who was at a precinct station near the Trantor Underground Market. Canada had already arranged for Tolon’s excised left thumbnail to be beamed up to the Hunter’s medical bay, where Ensign Chrissiana Trei and Dr. Jazz Sam Sinder were analyzing it.


Johnny Canada was speaking from somebody else's office. A portrait of a tellerite in a highly decorated Trantor Police uniform hung on the wall behind him. “Andoria First suffered a major blow – 37 dead andorians in the streets of Trantor. They need a big win to even the score. According to my sources – and they are usually reliable – it appears the commander of the I.G.V. Ravonnelle lost her command during the battle over Rings. The story goes that her first officer stunned her with a phaser, assumed command and warped out of the way of Lieutenant Commander Dolphin’s attack at the last second. She escaped from her own brig, commandeered a shuttle and made it to an Andoria First enclave. Apparently the entire Andoria First movement has taken the incident personally and they really want your director of flight operations. They would see it as a symbolic victory because of his notoriety both as a philosopher and as a pilot. My sources would be the go-between in this swap of Dr. Dolphin in exchange for Tolon, Chin, Jarrong and the Belo siblings.”

“Can you negotiate the exchange on our behalf, Agent Canada?” Justice Irons asked.

“I strongly advise against trying to make this exchange.”

“I’m just playing for time,” Irons said...

“That is a very dangerous game,” Canada said.

“What would you recommend?”

“Bargain for his life, for a fair trial." Canada's expression was grim. "If you do that, you might get another fingernail or two before they start sending you mutilated bodies, which is what you will probably get if you give in too easily. We have to make this appear to be real – and they know you are looking for them. They won’t give you many chances.”

13.12 (of 16)​

 

Star Trek Hunter
Episode 13: The 15,000 Cities of Cun Ling
Scene 13: Cardassian Pepper

13.13
Cardassian Pepper​

They had taken Flight Specialist Joey Chin. That was all Jarrong could think about. With a combination of cold blasts of air, changes in lighting including bright lights and occasional blasts of unbearable noise, her andorian captors had made it largely impossible for her and her crewmates to sleep.

Tolon's thumb had turned black and his hand was quickly turning. If he were fully human, the rot would have spread into his blood stream by now, but bajorans were exceptionally resistant to infection and this was all that was keeping him alive - barely. That and there was a native toughness to the man. But he was clearly nearing the end of his endurance.

Tactical Specialists Belo Rys and Belo Garr were little better off than Jarrong. All three had huddled around Ensign Tolon Reeves in an effort to keep him warm and conscious. They had retreated into emotional shells they had created long ago in order to survive harsh cardassian prisons on CIO 19 (Cardassia Imperial Outpost 19) where they had been born and grew up.


The cell door lock rattled, then the door opened with a bang. Two andorians briskly entered the cell. "Get up, cardassian," said one of them. "You're going to have to carry your friend."

Tactical Specialist Jarrong summoned the last of her strength, wrapped Tolon's left arm around her shoulder and lifted him. She trudged out of the cell, her cousins ahead of her. Her mind suddenly became alert when she heard the andorians quietly talking behind her:

"Where is the other one? There was one that was part human, part vulcan."

"Not in any of the cells we've seen so far, must be ahead. Take point."

Jarrong moved carefully to her right as one of the andorians squeezed around her, then in front of her cousins. He put up a clenched fist and the group jolted to a halt. Jarrong could see him adjusting the stunbludgeon to its highest setting, which would deliver the same amount of force on contact as a phaser set to kill. Just ahead was the open cell door to the cell in which Tolon had been tortured. Another andorian was standing guard at the door. She challenged the andorian at the front of the line.


"I wasn't told the prisoners were to be moved..."

"You mean they tell you everything?" said the andorian in front of her. He stepped forward casually. "Because they never tell me anything..." He completed the sentence by delivering a death blow to his interlocutor with the stunbludgeon.

Crackling electric buzzing and the smell of charred flesh.

The andorian door-guard's body slammed back against the cell door and several of her teeth exploded out of her mouth from the massive electric shock delivered by the stunbludgeon at full power.​

The andorian carrying the stunbludgeon surged into the cell and Jarrong could hear screaming from within as at least two more people were dealt fatal electric shocks.


Jarrong's heart sank as two more andorians came quickly from the other end of the hall, phasers drawn. More people were behind them. She closed her eyes and sagged against the freezing wall of the tunnel, barely managing to keep from dropping Tolon.

As if in a dream, she heard a voice say, "Let me have the bajoran, little sister."

Jarrong finally gave into some fantastic dream in which a very large cardassian was gently taking Ensign Tolon from her failing arms. In her dream, Belo Rys took her arm and helped her move forward down the hall. A giant cardassian lumbered in front of her, carrying Tolon. Or was it Pep who was carrying Tolon?

It had to be Pep. For some reason he was about a half-foot shorter and had cardassian neck ridges. But if a giant cardassian could rescue her and take her half-bajoran commanding officer from her arms, Pep could grow neck ridges. And be a little shorter.

Just ahead of cardassian Pep, another man was carrying another person. Bare legs and feet dangling from his left arm. A head rolling back and forth on his right arm. A cascade of impossibly fine, black hair. So black that it had a blue shine to it.

13.13 (of 16)​

 

Review 13.11 - Odd that Hunter's enemies haven't caught on that the same environment that feeds and supports their activities is equally conducive to Starfleet and Andorian machinations.

The crew are using the literal local underground to their advantage, good for them. And now, they have a target...

 

Review 13.12 - The stakes keep being raised and Hunter's not dealing with patient opponents. Time to pick a strategy and see it through to the end.

 

Review 13.13 - A genuine rescue attempt, or two sects fighting for control of their hostages? Granted, the point of view here is from an unreliable narrator, so anything could be happening.

Ghoulishly wonderful detail with the exploding teeth!

 

Terrorists never figure that stuff out...

Andoria First = not nice people. Wait until Earth First gets into the action...

(Alas, there's no toothless emoji...) There is another player on the field... Thanks again for the reviews!! rbs

 

Star Trek Hunter
Episode 13: The 15,000 Cities of Cun Ling
Scene 14: The Assault on th'Istel

13.14
The Assault on th’Istel​

Commander Oshreb Sav had sent a small contingent of his Imperial Guard forces to the South Pole of Cun Ling to dig for th’Istel, but he had little expectation they would find anything. With eleven squadrons of Imperial Guard Spelunkers at his command, he had troops to spare and the mission might at least divert some attention.

Sav had no intention of sending a squadron of the Andorian Imperial Guard to go digging under Santa’s Workshop on the North Pole, rumors of reverse writing or no rumors. He had received information from more than one source that an Andoria First stronghold was being built deep in the Trantor Underground, near the north end of the city.

The more reliable of these sources, the Trantor Police Intelligence Division, had agreed after negotiations between Sav and Trantor’s Mayor, Harry Issacs, to a three-pronged strategy. To put this strategy together, Commander Sav called a meeting with the key players in the north underground Trantor Police precinct. The squad room was cleared out to serve as their field operation headquarters.

Commander David Pepper had beamed into the precinct to coordinate on behalf of Star Fleet. Special Agent in Charge Johnny Canada represented the Blue Helmets (Trantor Police Uniform Division). Commander Oshreb Sav represented the Andorian Imperial Guard. The three of them remained in the precinct to coordinate their respective forces. Maps provided by Dih Strangent, Flight Specialist Dih Terri’s father, a director in the Trantor Mining Consortium, were spread out in front of them. Dih Terri remained with Pep to help interpret the maps, which were insanely detailed.


One of the details on the map turned out to be the Trantor City limits.


Markers on the maps denoted the positions of the AIG, the Trantor Blue Helmets and T’Lon’s small response team, which, at Investigator Shran’s recommendation, now included Lt. Napoleon Boles.

It turned out that T’Lon’s team was not in Trantor anymore, but was in the City of th’Istel, which had been established nearly 300 years previously as an Andorian colony, giving primary jurisdiction to the Andorian Imperial Guard. A hastily devised plan allowed for T’Lon’s team, already in place, to infiltrate th’Istel backed by the AIG while the Trantor Police would prevent any Andoria First separatists from escaping into Trantor City limits.


Predictably, the plan went awry.


T’Lon’s team was supposed to enter the catacombs at the lowest level of th’Istel in secret, but someone had tipped off the Andoria First group about the impending attack and T’Lon and her group were surrounded by armed andorians and had to take cover.

They were in a large open underground cavern with pillars of various sizes at irregular intervals holding up the ceiling. Lanterns high above provided dim, general lighting. Tabletops had been carved around these pillars at chest height for andorian use - since andorians rarely used chairs. 2nd Lt. T’Lon, Lt. Napoleon Boles, Investigators Lynhart Shran and Buttans Ngumbo, Flight Engineer Thomas Hobbs, Midshipman Tammy Brazil and Agent Anana Lynarr of the Trantor Police Intelligence Division ducked and found themselves back to back dodging among a group of large pillars to avoid phaser blasts from the separatists.

Adding Dr. Boles to the team proved fortunate as he was nearly as good with a phaser as Shran. Using a pencil thin beam that left tiny scorch marks on the granite and marble pillars but burned clothing and flesh, causing excruciating pain, Boles laid out a continuous web of phaser fire that served not only to incapacitate several andorians, but also kept them ducking behind pillars to avoid getting burned. Flight Engineer Thomas Hobbs, although he took more time to draw a bead, turned out to be a fair shot with a phaser as well.


As soon as the first shots were fired, Commander Sav committed his forces, producing a storm of phaser fire that relieved the pressure from T’Lon’s team.

“Disengage and head toward the catacombs,” T’Lon ordered. Boles was slow to respond, so she enforced the order by slugging him hard on his upper arm. Although he outranked her, he had agreed to come on the mission under the condition that it was her mission.

A broad area of steps led down to a large opening. Before T’lon’s group could enter, phaser fire came lacing out. One beam cut a broad mark into T’Lon’s cheek, and sliced through her ear on its way up, where it cut into Midshipman Tammy Brazil’s chest.

T’Lon shook her head, releasing a spray of green blood, then headed down the stairs toward the wall next to the opening. Brazil screamed in agony and crashed to the floor. Dr. Boles slung his phaser and lifted her effortlessly, carrying her down the stairs and against the wall. Boles was carrying a medkit and quickly began treating Brazil’s wound. He ripped her uniform away from her chest. Her right breast had been sliced nearly in half. Boles quickly reconfigured a dermal regenerator, hooking it into his phaser and began treating her breast with what appeared to be a phaser beam. “Emergency medical beamout! Boles, Brazil!” A moment later, they vanished.


T’Lon grasped Thomas Hobbs’ arm to stop him from firing into the catacombs. “NO SHOOTING BLIND!! They may be using our people as shields!” With a quick hand sign she ordered her team to line up on either side of the opening. While no more phaser beams were coming out of the hole, weapons fire could be heard inside. T’Lon brought out her tricorder and held it out into the opening, then brought it back and studied the readings.

“Shran, Hobbs, Lynarr, guard the opening, watch our flank. Buttans, with me. Stay close to the wall.”


Within a few minutes the fighting died down as Commander Sav’s units easily overpowered and outgunned the Andoria First group. Commander Sav, Pep and Johnny Canada came forward from the precinct to view the carnage. The Andorian Imperial Guard, unlike their Star Fleet and Trantor Police counterparts, did not hesitate to use deadly force. Nearly fifty andorians in various civilian clothing, most dressed as either mining engineers or support workers, lay dead or wounded in the broad underground courtyard where the battle had taken place. Most were armed only with cutting tools, which, while they did not have stun, vaporize or kill settings, were perfectly capable of cutting a person in half.


After a number of Imperial Guard Spelunkers had cleared the area of any potential threats, Pep, Sav and Canada approached the entrance to the catacombs where Lynarr, Shran and Hobbs were standing guard. Almost at that moment, T’Lon and Buttans emerged from the entrance to the catacombs, followed by two andorians and a cardassian. T’Lon’s face was bleeding and the top half of her right earlobe was missing.


Then a large cardassian emerged, carrying Ensign Tolon Reeves, who was barely conscious and moaning incoherently. Belo Garr and Belo Rys followed, supporting Jarrong between them. Jarrong could barely walk. She was shivering and evidently suffering from hypothermic shock.


Then, flanked by two more andorians, came Federation Councilmember Emory Ivonovic, tears in his eyes, streaming down his face. The front of his simple, but flawlessly tailored gray suit was matted with blood.


In his arms, Ivonovic carried the naked, dead and mutilated body of Flight Specialist Joey Chin.

13.14 (of 16)​

 

Star Trek Hunter
Episode 13: The 15,000 Cities of Cun Ling
Scene 15: Requiem

13.15
Requiem​

Ensign Tolon Reeves and Tactical Specialist Jarrong were both recuperating in Trantor General Hospital. Belo Rys, Belo Garr and Belo Cantys stayed with them. Because Lt. Tauk was restricted to shipboard duty, they insisted that 2nd Lt. T’Lon attend the funeral to represent the Ground Operations Department. The U.S.S. Hunter’s transporter systems chief, Midshipman Tammy Brazil, was also recovering in Trantor General with Lt. Napoleon Boles in attendance. The Trantor doctors were fascinated with the field dressing Dr. Boles had applied that had made it possible for her breast to heal. From the shape of the wound, the doctors anticipated they would have needed to amputate.

There was no choice when it came to Ensign Tolon’s hand - his left arm had to be amputated just below the elbow. A prosthetic was created for him that looked completely natural, but he was warned that it would never be as sensitive or as controllable as a real hand. Because he was a hybrid, there was no chance that a compatible donor could be found and within two weeks of his nervous system adapting to the prosthetic, he would never be a candidate for a transplant.


Joey Chin’s body had been too mangled to display in state, to the dismay of his parents, brothers, sisters and many cousins who lived in Ba Sing Se. Following family tradition, which Joey had requested when he had entered basic training just under three years previously, his body was, following a thorough autopsy, pulped and the remains placed in a large, black planter along with a river willow sapling, to be planted along one of the many rivers that ran through the great Earth Kingdom city.


Justice Minerva Irons presented the eulogy jointly with the U.S.S. Hunter’s Director of Flight Operations, Lt. Cmdr. Kenny Dolphin. Given the gravity of the events and the large number of dignitaries in attendance, there was no hope of this funeral being an intimate affair. Nearly 6,000 people, including the majority of the Irons, Chin, Lin, Smart, Young, Li and Wu families, filled one of the courtyards of Ba Sing Se’s Imperial Palace. The Dai Li were out in force; well over 500 Dai Li agents were visible among the crowd with many more out of uniform, providing covert security.

Along with Joey Chin’s immediate family and the U.S.S. Hunter’s entire Flight Operations Department and several other crew members in the front row, Commander Oshreb Sav, Seiv th’Stavin (a distant cousin of Emperor Sin IV), Ba Sing Se’s Mayor Chris Young, Trantor’s Mayor Harry Issacs, and Federation Councilmember Emory Ivonovic were among the most prominent dignitaries.


“I could lie to you. I could tell you that Flight Specialist Joey Chin gave his life heroically in the line of duty.” The communicator embedded in Justice Irons’ chest was connected to the public address system, bringing her voice clearly to the thousands of people in the courtyard and a far larger audience scattered throughout Trantor and across Cun Ling who were watching this event live on their viewscreens.

“But Joey was not on duty. He was on leave and wearing civilian clothing. Just another tourist walking into a pub in Trantor. One of millions of tourists walking into any one of thousands of pubs in Trantor. He was kidnapped, along with his crewmates because they served on the U.S.S. Hunter, which has seen action against a separatist movement identifying themselves as Andoria First.

“Joey was kidnapped, tormented and eventually tortured to death to satisfy a grudge. This is what happens when terrorists attempt to supplant the rule of law with the more ancient rule of personal honor. Endless cycles of revenge. Savagery. We will not meet savagery with savagery, but with justice. However, when the many members of Andoria First who have been arrested are brought to trial, I cannot sit in judgement. I am touched too closely by their crime.

“To Joey’s family, please understand that I know what it is to lose a son in Star Fleet. I have lost three children in the service of Star Fleet and two of my grandchildren and two great grandchildren as well. And Joey was in battle - a battle for his life and for the lives of his four crewmates. None of his crewmates would have survived without him. Although Joey was a combat pilot, it was not his combat skills that saved his crewmates’ lives. It was his warmth and his kindness that saved their lives and gave them the strength to hold on just a little longer and he will be greatly and bitterly missed.

“Flight Specialist Joey Chin was a member of the U.S.S. Hunter’s Flight Operations Department. I have asked my Flight Operations Department Director, Lieutenant Commander Kenneth Dolphin, to speak about Joey. Kenneth?”


Kenny Dolphin had been standing next to and a half step behind Justice Irons on her left side. He took one step forward and to the left. His internal communicator connected into the public address system, creating an ambient breath.

“Today is Joey Chin’s 21st birthday. We had planned a party. A little over a week ago, along with another pilot, Joey conducted a flawless first strike against a facility, destroying vital infrastructure to a private residence. In that attack we confirmed that four andorians were killed. Four out of an entire facility population of 167. Our telemetry shows that the only people killed in that strike were those unfortunate enough to be in the vital systems we needed to take out at the moment of our attack. As a direct result of that flawlessly conducted strike, three young andorian girls who had been held at that facility against their wills and at threat to their lives were rescued - by the very crewmembers that Joey saved only a few days ago.

“Sometimes fighter pilots are portrayed as romantic heroes. Sometimes as heartless killers. Joey became a fighter pilot because he just wanted that feeling of flight. He loved to fly solo. But Joey was in the business of saving lives. And his primary tool was a Star Fleet Interceptor. Over the past few days, he saved the lives of his crewmates with his kindness, his warmth and his gentleness.

“The Flight Operations Department will remember a trusted wingman. The Ground Operations Department will remember a kind, gentle and beautiful young man. I will remember the young man I occasionally caught discussing romantic poetry with a small circle of friends on our crew. And now I am faced with the unenviable task of finding another pilot to take the place of a young man who cannot be replaced.”


As Dolphin was speaking, he noticed 2nd Lt. T’Lon, Dr. Tali Shae, and Commander David Pepper getting up from the front row and trying to exit as discretely as they could. Which, given Pep’s enormous size, was completely impossible. Out of the corner of his eye, Dolphin could see them hurrying across the courtyard, then being beamed out.


After the ceremony, Dolphin found himself speaking with Emory Ivonovic, who introduced him to Seiv th’Stavin, who had accompanied Ivonovic into the caverns to rescue the Hunter’s crew. “Siev was the one with connections to the Andorian Naturalborn Coalition,” Ivonovic was saying. “Many of their members had become increasingly uncomfortable with Andoria First and the separatists. They were the ones who told us where to look and convinced some of the guards to defect and give us access…”

A clearly distraught woman elbowed her way into the conversation. “I recognize you! You’re that horrible man who hates hybrids! Why are you here? What gives you the right?”

Dolphin found himself responding: “Councilmember Ivonovic rescued our crew from Andoria First. He carried Joey’s body out…”

“I have five daughters,” Ivonovic said, “and for the past two and a half years, that young man put his life on the line to protect my daughters. I only wish I could have gotten...” Ivonovic swallowed hard, took a breath, grimaced… “I wish I could have gotten there sooner.. I wish I could have brought him out alive…”

- * -​

“His babies!!!” wailed Cantys. She collapsed into Dr. Tali Shae’s arms. They were in the small surgery behind the Hunter’s medical office. “I’m carrying his babies!! He’ll never see his babies!!” She buried her face into Tali’s chest, and wailed, her tiny body wracked with uncontrollable grief.

Tali held the Hunter’s youngest crewmember tightly, stroked her hair. “I know baby. I know,” she whispered, her voice cracking, unable to talk, her antennae curling, emphasizing the grimace of grief on her face.


A few feet away, Dr. Jazz Sam Sinder was talking with Pep and T’Lon. Buttans Ngumbo was nearby.

“It was really only a matter of time. We performed four surgeries since he arrived. His circulatory system was unique. Andorians and humans really aren’t very compatible. It’s a wonder his heart ever worked at all. There was never a chance of finding a compatible donor and for the same reason, the chances of a prosthetic working for him were… unacceptable. So we just repaired it as best we could. This time it just… pretty much… just… fell apart. We had him on the table and open within three minutes, but there just… wasn’t anything I could do…”

“You did your best, Sam,” said Pep, laying an enormous hand on the bajoran doctor’s shoulder. “You kept him alive this long. You gave him years he wouldn’t have had without you.”


T’Lon’s face had turned a bit pale, causing the dark green scar on her right cheek to stand out more. She had unconsciously brushed her hair back, revealing her ears - the top half of her right earlobe had been cut off by a phaser blast only days before during the assault on th’Istel.

Buttans Ngumbo stood across from her, a blank expression on his face. Registering only shock.


On the surgery table between them, chest sewn back up, eyes closed, oddly large antennae finally motionless, lay the body of Investigator Lynhart Shran.

13.15 (of 16)​

 

Star Trek Hunter
Episode 13: The 15,000 Cities of Cun Ling
Scene 16: Imperial Script

13.16
Imperial Script​

Federation Councilmember Emory Ivonovic had received a cryptic message from Emperor Sin IV. In the emperor’s own handwriting - sort of. It was actually a duplicate of an original. The original had been destroyed immediately after being coded as a replicator pattern. A small square of silk with a pair of symbols painted in ink.


This pattern was sent from Andoria to Cun Ling via subspace radio. The signal was coded to Ivonovic’s Federation Council security access protocol. Ivonovic was slightly disconcerted that the andorian emperor had access to security protocols for Federation Councilmembers, but it was not unreasonable for such information to be provided to the head of state for a member government.

Once Ivonovic entered his security access code and the small piece of silk with its unique ink lettering was recreated in the replicator in his stateroom, the replicator pattern was erased.

The emperor had painted only two symbols on the square of silk, but it took Ivonovic hours to determine what they meant. He was not about to ask anyone for help or even enter the symbols into a computer, where his search might be traced. He was not taking any chances that might let on that he was in secret communication with the andorian emperor.

Fortunately, Trantor had several analog libraries - libraries with actual books. After several hours digging around in the stacks near the top floor of the Trantor Metropolitan Library, Ivonovic was finally able to track down the top symbol in a book about antique andorian languages. The message had been written in Lak, a dead language.

The top symbol translated roughly to an imperative: “Remain.”


Ivonovic searched through dozens of books for the bottom symbol without luck. He sat, staring at it, then slapped his forehead – hard – when he realized the bottom symbol was identical to the top symbol - only reversed. Another twenty minutes of research revealed that the ancient andorian military officers who used the Lak written language occasionally used reversed symbols to invert the meaning.

Fully translated and put into context, the emperor’s message read:


“You stay there. I am coming.”

13 – The 15,000 Cities of Cun Ling​

The adventure will continue in Episode 14: When Death Comes




New to Star Trek Hunter? You can catch up with the series at Ad Astra via this link:

Star Trek Hunter at Ad Astra​

 

Review 13.14 - Oh, damn. Right up until the very end I thought that was going to be a full win for our heroes. Not so, unfortunately. I appears Andoria First took their pound of flesh.

Excellent combat sequences, very engaging with a good grip on the tactics!

 

Review 13.15 - What?! In the midst of the crew's anguish over the loss of Joey Chin, suddenly Shran's dead? I'm hoping this is some sort of body-double, but I fear not. It appears these dangerous times have caught up with USS Hunter at last.

Chin's service was a somber affair, as befitted that loss, and a wonderful summation of his life and dedication to service.

 

Review 13.16 - Methinks the Andorian population of Cun Ling may soon be experiencing some... social unrest. The arrival of the new Andorian Emperor will likely not be a subtle affair.