Star Trek: Into the Void - Season One

[admiralelm11]

Chapter Two

Lieutenant Junior Grade Zia Kehen gracefully steered the shuttle away from the large maw of the Shuttle Bay and directed its bow towards the pale world below. Beside her, Commander Yashiro Masafumi was deep in through while he was examining the newly-installed panel in front of him. They were both wearing environmental suits but their helmets sat on the deck behind their seats.

She had never really been shy. She was the only Yulani in Starfleet and chatting with strangers was essential if you didn’t want to be lonely. She always felt slightly intimidated by Masafumi and never knew what to say.

“So, is this thing going to work?,” she asked, immediately regretting it. What a stupid question, she thought and she knew that her skin was probably going a deeper shade of blue in embarrassment.

Masafumi looked up and she was surprised to see him smiling. “Let’s hope so,” he said. “Of course, if the test fails, I might have to blame it on pilot error.”

Kehen laughed. “And who chose the pilot?”

“Ah, you have me there,” he replied before returning his attention back to the panel.

Kehen ran a hand through her long white hair. It already felt matted and dirty. Environmental suits always made her sweat more. “Are these suits really necessary? The shuttle is fully pressurized.”

“Yes, it is, but the clouds down there are composed of ammonia, carbon dytoxinade, sulphuric acid and a dozen other elements. Most of which would love to eat their way through our hull.”

“Oh, okay, then,” she said as the shuttle broke through the atmosphere. “Wow,” escaped from her lips when she saw the endless sea of clouds below.

“Impressive, isn’t it?”

“I’ll say. What do we do now?”

“Set a course for the mountain. It’s the only real landmark that there is. When we reach it, begin a slow concentric course out from the peak. Keep your speed down to the bare minimum while I watch the sonar.”

“There’s the mountain.” She pointed at the peak up ahead and it struck Masafumi that calling it a mountain, while accurate, was also slightly absurd. From here, it looked like a tiny hill. “What do you hope to find?”

“I honestly don’t know. If nothing else, we should be able to get a more accurate picture of the clouds themselves. I would hypothesize that the clouds become denser and denser until they form a liquid. The depth of that ocean is unknown.”

“What’s the range of the sonar?”

Masafumi looked sheepishly across at her. “Well, that’s another unknown. If I had to hazard a guess, I would sas fifteen meters.”

“No offense, Commander, but that doesn’t seem like a lot.”

“It isn’t but then, Science isn’t always about discovering new worlds and new lifeforms. A lot of it is pretty mundane but if this works, we’ll see further than we ever have before. Even if it’s just fifteen meters worth of cloud.”

“I guess so,” Kehen said, still convinced that there wasn’t going to be anything interesting just under the clouds. As she swung the shuttle low around the peak, she heard a distinctive and regular beeping noise as the sonar came to life.

* * * *

Lieutenant Louise Ramblin was angry and in truth, Lieutenant Tennyson didn’t blame her. That didn’t change the situation, however. “Look, Louise, I’m sorry but I’ve talked it over with the Captain and we feel that it would be in everyone’s best interests if you take over as the reserve Operations Officer. In a lot of ways, it’s a promotion.”

“Like hell, it is!,” she snapped back. “Why should I be the one who gets punished? Lieutenant Reeves has just as big of a problem with me as I do with him.”

“I know that, but he’s also your superior officer. Look, maybe the two of you just need a few weeks apart from each other. We’ve all been under a lot of stress recently and – “

“Yeah, but Bill only thinks of himself,” Ramblin cut in.

Tennyson inwardly sighed. “Look, Louise. The way that things were going, I expected it to come to blows between you two.”

“Only because he has no respect for women! That sanctimonious bastard!”

“Okay, that’s enough, Lieutenant,” snapped the Chief Engineer. “You’ve been reassigned to Bridge duty and I expect you to carry it out to the best of your abilities. Is that understood?”

Ramblin was quiet for a moment. “Yes, sir,” she finally said.

Tennyson had never been good at maintaining a harsh front. “It’s just for a few weeks,” she said gently. “I promise.”

Ramblin stood and made to leave the Chief Engineer’s office. “Letting him get away with stuff isn’t going to solve his attitude problem, you know?,” she said before striding out.

Liz sat there, deep in thought. Bill Reeves was a misogynist and nowhere near as good at his job as he thought he was. Still, since she had started to allow him to get away with the odd comment here and there, he had been a lot happier and a lot easier to manage. Deep in her heart though, she couldn’t help feeling that Ramblin was right.

* * * *

The shuttle was two hundred meters away from the peak, moving so slowly that it felt to Kehen like they weren’t moving at all. This wasn’t flying. This was hovering. Masafumi hadn’t said another word since they began their circular course and she was getting bored. Normally, the thought of visiting a new place filled her with excitement but this place was so dull. It was impressive, at first, but now her enthusiasm was fading and it just looked like an endless sea of white as far as the eye could see.

Then the tone of the sonar changed and a longer beep sounded for a moment before the shorter beeps returned. She glanced over at Masafumi at the same time as he glanced over in her direction. “Quickly! Reverse course.”

She didn’t hesitate and the shuttle was traveling so slowly that it only took moments to begin reversing back the way that they had come. The Commander was staring intently at the sonar screen now while Kehen was staring out of the viewports at the clouds, just a few meters below them. The interior of the shuttle was silent except for the beeping of the sonar as they cruised over the spot where it had picked up something, only seconds before. The beeping didn’t change its tone.

“Maybe it was a glitch?,” she asked, just as the sonar let out another long note.

“And maybe not,” he said as the shorter beeps returned. “Turn west.” She complied and the Type-II shuttle slowly turned to port. Masafumi’s eyes were still fixed on the sonar and the beeping remained constant. “Reverse course ten meters and then go east.”

“Aye, sir,” Kehen said and the shuttle began to move backwards. After a few seconds, she turned the shuttle again. Still, the sonar held its beat. After another few minutes, she said,” Where next?”

Masafumi was quiet for a moment. When he spoke, he did so without once looking up from the screen. “Take us back to the Testudo.”

* * * *

Captain Cardonez has a headache. She had darkened the lights in her Ready Room and Doctor Hollem had given her an aspirin shot that seemed to be doing the trick. At least until an overexcited First Officer had stormed into the room, a few minutes before.

“You want to do what?,” she asked him.

Masafumi hadn’t sat down and he stood on the other side of her desk. He was still wearing his environmental suit and she wondered if he was ever going to take it off again. “I want permission to remain behind with a small away team while you go off and fight the Drixon.” He was beaming like a twelve-year old.

“Throndrix,” she corrected him. “And why now? I need my First Officer here.”

“No, you don’t,” he replied with a shake of his head. “I was there in the meeting earlier if you recall. The Throndrix are no match for us. All you have to do is rattle a saber at them and then come back and pick us up.”

“It might not be that simple, Commander.”

“Of course, it will. Come on, Isabel. Please.”

Cardonez blinked with a look of surprise in her eyes. “Did you just call me Isabel?,” she asked him quizzically.

Masafumi’s posture suddenly straightened and the smile faded from his lips. “My apologies, Captain. It will not happen again.”

Cardonez smiled but a stab of pain made it look more like a wince. “It’s okay to call me Isabel, you know,” she said. “Just so long as you don’t start doing it on the Bridge or during staff meetings.”

“Are you all right, Captain?,” he asked her, noticing her wince.

“Headache. So why is it so important that you stay behind now?”

“As I explained, the readings from the sonar indicated that there was something large several meters beneath the surface.”

“And you’re sure that it wasn’t just an outcropping from the mountain?”

“Yes. If it was, it would have been in the same place when we passed over it again. It wasn’t. Whatever it was, it was moving.”

“Could it have just been a thicker layer of cloud?”

“Possible but unlikely. I think… I think it was a lifeform of some kind.”

Cardonez massaged her temples. “How big was the contact?”

“It’s impossible to say with any accuracy, but it was definitely over ten meters long.”

“How sure are you that it isn’t just a glitch?”

“Very. Look, Captain, Isabel, if there is something down there, there’s no telling how long it will be in the vicinity of the mountain. Normally, it might not even live close to the upper atmosphere. Even if we get back in a few days, we might have missed our chance.”

“Okay, Commander, you’ve convinced me. Just how are you going to look for it anyway?”

“Ah,” he said, raising his index finger knowingly. “I had a quick conversation with Lieutenant Tennyson before I came up here. We’ve looked over the numbers and there’s a very high probability that the shuttle can survive beneath the cloud layer. At least, for several hours.”

“You want to go into the clouds?,” asked an incredulous Cardonez.

“Yes. Given the limitations of the sonar, I will need to get closer if I’m going to find anything.”

“And Liz is confident that the shuttle can survive?”

Masafumi smiled. “She is currently adding extra protection over its vital systems and vulnerable spots.”

“Currently?” She smiled as well. “I guess you know that I’d say yes, huh?”

“I was fairly confident.”

“Who will you take?”

“I want to keep it small. Myself, Lieutenant Kehen and Ensign Grady.”

“Okay,” she said,” but I want you to take the runabout as well as a few extra people, just in case. Lieutenant Kandro might be a good choice. And take a Security officer as well.”

“Captain, I hardly think that I’ll need a Security officer.”

“Hey, humor me…”

* * * *

“Are you sure that you want to assign me to this mission, sir?,” Ensign Pamela Tilmoore asked while she and Adam Huntington stood outside the Main Hangar Deck.

He sighed. “Ensign, I never assign anyone to a mission if I don’t think they’re up to it.” He smiled down at her, amazed as always about how tiny she seemed.

Tilmoore let her gaze wander to her feet. “I just feel like I haven’t been aboard for very long and I don’t feel like I deserve the opportunity.”

“Ensign, it’s hardly the most glamorous of missions. The Captain wanted a Security officer on the away team and she also wanted someone with flight experience. Believe it or not, you’re the best qualified of my officers.” She continued to gaze at the deckplates, swinging her head from side-to-side in a manner than reminded Huntington of his daughter when she was sixteen.

“Ensign! Look at me,” he commanded. Tilmoore looked up at him. “Look, I know that on some level that you don’t think you belong here and that I transferred you here out of pity. Am I right?”

“I guess so.”

“Well, I didn’t. You acquitted yourself well on Merix. So well that I felt that you would be wasted on continuing to pilot a shuttle run. You have the potential to be so much more than a bus driver.”

“I guess,” she said again, looking unconvinced. “It’s just that if I had any potential, surely the Academy would have spotted it.”

“Damn it, Ensign. So you didn’t excel at the Academy – “

“I was fourth from the bottom of my year,” she interjected.

“It doesn’t matter. Unless you want it to matter, that is?,” he asked her questioningly.

“What do you mean?,” she asked and Huntington was pleased to see a hint of fire in her tone.

“I mean that, sometimes, a person allows themselves to fail as an excuse for not making the effort to succeed. I trust that’s not it?”

“No, it isn’t!,” she snapped, her back a little straighter now. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an away mission to join.” She turned away and walked through the door.

Adam smiled. “Kids,” he muttered.

Inside the Hangar Bay, Tilmoore found the rest of the away team milling around the shuttle and the runabout, USS Snohomish. She marched straight up to Commander Masafumi. “I’m sorry that I’m late, sir.”

“That’s all right, Ensign. We’re still waiting for Ensign Grady.”

As if on cue at that moment, Ensign Linda Grady ran in and she was clearly out of breath. “I’m sorry, Commander. I had Louise, uh, sorry, I mean Lieutenant Ramblin crying on my shoulder about a reassignment.”

“I realize that our exploratory mission is nowhere near as important as girl talk,” Masafumi said sarcastically,” but unless anyone has any other pressing matters, perhaps we should depart.” When no one piped up, he continued. “Ensign Tilmoore, you’ll fly the shuttle. Take Lieutenant Kandro with you. The rest of us will follow in the runabout.”

As the group split into two, Kandro walked over to her. “It’s Pamela, right?,” he asked with a grin.

“Actually, it’s Ensign Tilmoore, Lieutenant,” was her reply.

Kandro kept smiling, holding his hands up as if he were fending off an attack. “Whoa… I’m sorry, Ensign. I was just being friendly.”

Tilmoore turned towards him and smiled back. “Yes, I suppose you are. In fact, I hear that you try to be friendly with most of the female officers on the ship.”

Kandro’s smile broadened. “I see that my reputation precedes me.”

Tilmoore’s smile faded. “Yes, but you should know that I have a boyfriend at the Academy who I love very much. I’ve also been taking advanced self-defense classes with Lieutenant Commander Huntington. So don’t get any ideas.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” she turned around and headed towards the rear of the shuttle. “Oh, boy, this could be a long mission,” he muttered underneath his breath before he followed.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Really liking the environment that Masafumi is exploring for the B story. Good decision to leave him a runabout for support.

The A story has a strong UT feel to it.

Thanks!! rbs

 

[admiralelm11]

Chapter Three

Just under thirty-six hours at high warp, the USS Testudo entered the Kargenta system. As the planet came into view, Isabel Cardonez stood from her command chair and moved over to stand just behind the ops console where Lieutenant Ramblin sat. “Scan the area, Lieutenant.”

“Aye, sir. There’s nothing unusual. Kargenta is the only planet in the system. I’m registering the colony beacon and it appears to be transmitting as normal.”

Cardonez cast a glance over her shoulder. “Any sign of the Throndrix yet?”

Huntington shook his head. “No, not yet.”

“Okay, then I guess we'll wait. Mister Ra-Moveii, take us into orbit of Kargenta.”

* * * *

Several lightyears away inside Sector 29004, Zia Kehen was holding the shuttle steady, a mere two meters above the clouds. Beside her was Yashiro Masafumi and in the rear of the shuttle at an improvised science station was Ensign Grady. As she looked out the viewport, she could see what they had termed ‘the beach’. A flat plateau on the mountainside where the runabout sat, two suited figures were beside it and watching them.

“Are you sure that we’re ready?,” she asked with just a hint of sarcasm.

“Yes,” he replied. “The extra time we took to ensure that the trip will be as safe as possible was unavoidable.” He threw a quick smile her way.

“I’m sorry. It was a little boring.”

“How can you be bored here, Lieutenant?,” asked Grady. “It’s beautiful.”

“Well, I appreciate that it’s pretty, but don’t you find it a little… I don’t know… the same?”

“That’s what I like about it. It’s very peaceful.”

“I wouldn’t let either of your preconceptions cloud your judgment about this place,” Masafumi told them. “Once we drop below the clouds, we could be entering a whole new environment. Take the ocean as an example. On the surface, it can be as still as a millpond but once you dip beneath it, there can be currents and riptides powerful enough to drown you. Remember that the shuttle’s hull won’t last forever and neither will these suits if they’re exposed to the clouds.”

“Gee, you really know how to cheer a girl up,” said Kehen.

“I’m sorry. I just want to ensure that we’re fully prepared for anything. Now then, shall we descend?”

“Aye, sir,” the Yulani said, manipulating the controls in front of her. “I’m taking us down at one meter per second.” In the time that it took her to say it, they had already breached the cloud layer. Suddenly the shuttle seemed to be a lot more claustrophobic as all that they could see outside was a white wall.

“Ten meters below… Fifteen meters… Twenty meters… Call out at any time when you want me to stop.”

“It’s all right, Lieutenant. Lieutenant Tennyson has assured me that the shuttle can withstand an amazing amount of pressure.”

“I’d feel happier if you turned the sonar on!,” Kehen said nervously.

“Oh,” Masafumi said, frantically switching it on now. As the steady beeping began, Grady had to bite her knuckle to stop from laughing.

“Level us out at thirty-five meters.”

“Aye, sir. We’ve stopped at thirty-five meters.”

“Wow,” Grady said, standing from her seat and staring between her two companions at the view outside. “Look! The clouds are definitely bluer at this depth.”

“Indeed,” said Masafumi.

“Human eyes must be better than Yulani eyes because they still look white to me.”

“Any change on the sensors?,” asked the Commander.

Grady moved back to her seat. “No, sir. It’s still messing with the sensors. I’ve pulled a sample of the atmosphere in for closer testing. It appears that the delenite concentration is higher at this depth. Point-zero-seven-five percent.”

“This might be a stupid question but if delenite interferes with the scanners, then how are you capable of scanning it to detect it?,” asked a confused Kehen.

Grady laughed. “The sensors can perform an intensive scan of a small amount. It's tricky trying to see it through the entire atmosphere.”

“Nothing on the sonar. Lieutenant, move us another thirty meters away from the mountain and descend to fifty meters.”

“This is weird,” reported Kehen. “It doesn’t feel like we’re moving at all. We’re at fifty meters now though.”

“Concentration of delenite is point-one percent now.”

“Incredible,” answered Masafumi. “That’s an unheard of volume. We really are treading new ground here.”

Kehen shook her head. “It still looks like a big white cloud to me.”

* * * *

The Testudo had been in orbit of Kargenta for over an hour when the Throndrix ship entered the star system. Cardonez had ordered an intercept course and now, a few minutes later, they had come to a stop in the path of the alien vessel.

“What a pile of junk!,” Ramblin said.

On the main viewscreen was possibly the ugliest ship that Cardonez had ever seen. It was long and underneath all of the hundreds of protrusions and lumps that were slapped together haphazardly all over it, it appeared to be cylindrical. Ramblin had summed it up quite well. It looked like a ship that had crashed into a junk pile and took off again with the junk still attached to it.

“Don’t let its appearance fool you,” Huntington said from Tactical. “All of that junk welded to its hull acts like a layer of ablative armor.”

“They’re tough?,” queried Cardonez.

“Defensively, yes. Apart from the added armor, I’m also detecting quite a few shield generators. There are some indications that their shield strength should match our own.”

“Weapons?”

“Limited. I’m reading several dozen low output disruptor cannons and several missile ports. They don’t seem to have anything that would cause us a lot of great difficulty.”

As they watched the Throndrix ship come to a halt, Isabel directed her next question at Ramblin. “Lieutenant, what else can you tell me about that ship?”

“It’s one thousand and forty-two meters in length and I’m reading approximately four thousand lifeforms on board. Their warp and impulse systems are archaic and I wouldn’t anticipate them being too maneuverable.”

“Captain, long-range sensors are detecting another for Throndrix ships of similar configuration on an inbound course,” Huntington said all of a sudden.

“ETA?”

“Four hours.”

“I guess these guys are just the scouting party then,” came the easily recognizable Efrosian timber of Ensign Giren Ra-Moveii at the helm.

“Commander, tactical analysis, please. Us versus five Throndrix ships.”

“My latinum would be on us, Captain. We have superior firepower and maneuverability. If it comes down to it, we could engage them at high warp.”

“Let’s hope that it doesn’t come down to that.” She paused for a moment. “Hail them.”

“No response.”

“Put me on.” When he nodded, Cardonez began. “This is Captain Isabel Cardonez of the Federation starship Testudo. You have entered a Federation star system without authorization. I would advise you to turn back immediately.” Several moments passed by. “Any response?”

“Negative,” Huntington reported. “No, wait. Some kind of opening just appeared on the ventral side of the ship. I’m tracking five inbounds on a direct course towards us at one-quarter impulse.”

“Shields up. Red Alert.” As the lights darkened and the alarm sounded, Cardonez continued,” Are they missiles?”

“Negative, Captain. They appear to be fighters of some kind.”

“I need more information. Mister Ramblin, what do your sensors say?”

“They’re, well, they’re single-seat craft but incredibly simplistic. I’m reading a metallic hull, impulse engine, and rudimentary inertial dampeners. There isn’t even a life-support system. The Throndrix inside appear to be in some kind of environmental suits.”

“Weapons?,” queried the Captain.

“Minimal. One disruptor that’s barely bigger than a handheld model and a single missile attaching ventrally,” the relief operations officer added.

“On screen,” commanded Cardonez and the view was altered to show five dots. “Magnify.” As the view changed again, they were able to examine the five fighters closely. They appeared to be little more than a rocket with a cockpit and small delta wings. Each of them looked ancient. Their hulls were rusted and pitted in places that appeared to have holes!

“They’re brave,” said Huntington. “I’ll give them that.”

“How long until they’re in firing range,” asked the Captain.

“Twenty seconds. Do I take any action?”

“Negative. Let them make the first move.”

The five spacecraft swung in on a course that led them over the Federation starship in a single file. As each of them came into range, it fired its single missile before veering away in an arc that led them back towards its mother ship.

The Bridge barely rocked underneath the five weapons impacts and now they watched the fighters heading back the way that they had come.

“Damage report?”

“Shields are down to ninety-eight percent, Captain,” said Huntington. “Those missiles were loaded with concussive charges.”

“Put me on again,” she said. “This is Captain Cardonez. You have just attacked a Federation starship which is considered to be an act of war. By now, you must know that your weapons cannot harm us. I’ll say it again. Withdraw now before we retaliate.”

Seconds ticked by while on the main viewscreen, the five fighters reached their home.

“We’ve got a response. Ten more fighters are on the way. Do I fire?”

“Negative. I won’t slaughter people if I don’t have to. Lieutenant Ramblin, any suggestions on disabling those fighters without harming the pilots?”

Ramblin grimaced while she examined the data on her console. “I don’t think so. Even a minimal phaser blast is likely to destroy them. They have no shields and their hulls are wafer-thin.”

“They’re firing,” Huntington said as the first of ten tiny shockwaves struck the ship. “Shields are now at ninety percent.”

“Damn it! They’ll peck us to death at this rate!,” Cardonez barked.

“I have another ten spacecraft inbound.”

“Fire a few shots across their path.”

Three bright-red phaser bursts shot out in front of the fighters. They kept coming.

“They’ll be in firing range in fifteen seconds.”

“Target the lead vessel.”

“Phasers are locked on target.”

She waited, watching the lead fighter draw ever closer to them. It was only a matter of seconds but the decision about whether or not to end a life seemed to take ages in her mind. “Fire.”

On the main viewer, a single red beam shot out and the lead fighter was vaporized. “They’re still coming, Captain,” reported Huntington.

“Can you take out their missiles after they’ve fired them?,” she asked, cursing herself for not thinking of that option earlier.

“I’ll try,” the Tactical Officer replied as the new lead fighter released its missile. Then the next fighter and so on did the same. Crimson phaser blasts fired outward but the ship still rocked from impacts. “I got three of them. The other six fighters hit us though. Shields are at eighty-six percent. I have another flight of ten fighters incoming.”

“Attention, Throndrix vessel! Recall your fighters immediately or we will be forced to fire. I don’t want any more loss of life. Please recall your fighters!” Isabel looked over at Adam and he shook his head. They were still coming at them.

“Commander… fire at will.”

Short sharp phaser bursts that moved like machine gun fire danced across space, destroying the first four and the last three fighters. The remaining three fighters came through the destruction of their comrades and launched their missiles.

“Our shields are at eighty percent,” reported Huntington,” and I have another ten fighters on approach.”

“What’s wrong with these people?!,” Cardonez shouted. “They’re sending their pilots out to be slaughtered for no gain!” She turned her head towards the helm. “Mister Ra-Moveii, maneuver us back twenty thousand kilometers. Let’s see if they have a range limitation.”

“Captain, I would recommend against that,” Adam said. Ra-Moveii looked frantically at his Captain, unsure what to do.

“Hold fast for a moment, Ensign. Commander, what’s the problem?”

“The Throndrix are nomadic and every indication points towards them having some kind of code of honor. If we back away, it could be seen as a sign of weakness.”

“Well, what would you suggest that I do, Commander? I destroy their ship, despite the fact that it’s probably full of innocent civilians?”

“Uh… Captain, those fighters are getting awfully close,” said Ramblin.

“Let them. It’s not like they could hurt us. Well, Commander?”

“I suggest hitting the fighters after they’ve made their attack run.”

“Explain, please.”

Huntington opened his mouth to reply, just as the missiles began striking the Testudo. As the shaking subsided, he began. “It’s simple. Do you know what counting coup is?”

“I think so. It’s a Native American custom from Earth, centuries ago, I think.”

Huntington nodded. “It’s where a brave would go into battle and attempt to touch an opponent with a stick, gaining honor of himself.”

“You’re saying that the pilots in those fighters…”

“Are young, and probably lacking in honor amongst their own society. That’s why they keep throwing them at us, even though we shot them down.”

“So if we hit them after they’ve struck at us…”

“We kill an honored member of their society. The young braves will keep attacking otherwise because they have nothing to lose. Once they’ve completed their attack run, however, they do.”

“It’s worth a shot. Do we have another flight of fighters coming in?” Adam nodded. “Let them come but as soon as they’ve hit us, return fire.”

“On all of them?”

Cardonez shook her head. “No. Let’s hope that one fighter is enough.”

They waited in silence while the Throndrix fighters cruised in. Even when the first missile struck, Huntington kept his finger off the trigger, waiting until the shockwaves subsided before vaporizing the next to last ship.

“I have another group of fighters launching,” he reported.

“Is the group that attacked us still in range?”

“Aye, sir.”

“Take out another one.” As they watched, another one of the retreating fighters disappeared in a blossoming explosion..

“They’re still coming.”

“Two more. Fire.” Twin phaser bursts reached out, destroying two more fighters.

“They’re still coming… No, wait. The fighters are turning and heading back to the main craft.”

Cardonez let out a sigh. “Nice hunch, Commander.” She gazed at the massive Throndrix ship on the main viewscreen, still sitting in space impassively. She thought about the other four ships on their way. “The question is: what do we do now?”

* * * *

Yashiro Masafumi decided that it was a pleasant change to have Ensign Tilmoore at the helm during their second voyage. Kehen was usually enthusiastic about exploration and he liked that about her. Though Cassius V didn’t seem to inspire her at all. The young ensign hadn’t made any comment one way or another and she seemed to be expending all of her concentration at keeping the shuttle steady. He was still sitting and monitoring the sonar while Lieutenant Kandro was now at the science station. This trip was fifteen minutes old already and they had decided to make each trip last for twenty minutes and no longer so they could minimize hull damage. After the first time, the Betazoid had done a thorough scan of the hull and he would do it again after this trip.

“Our depth is now one hundred and seventy-five meters, Commander,” Tilmoore said. This was the deepest that they had been and there was every indication that they could go further still. Outside, the clouds were a darker shade of blue now.

“Excellent. Mister Kandro, take a sample of the atmosphere. Then we can begin to ascend.”

“Got it,” Kandro said and the shuttle began to slowly rise. “It’s weird. The delenite levels at this depth are down to point-three percent.”

“Fascinating,” Masafumi said. “It looks like the delenite occurs in its greatest concentration within a thin band of the atmosphere.”

They were at a depth of one hundred meters when the shuttle suddenly shook as if a gust of wind had slammed against it. At the same time, the sonar sang out briefly. Tilmoore fought to keep the shuttle in position as the shockwave subsided.

“What the hell was that?!,” she cried out.

“Some kind of turbulence,” said Kandro. “A storm, maybe?”

“Perhaps,” Masafumi said, staring intently at the sonar. “Or perhaps it was the close passage of our mysterious sonar contact. According to the readings, it was less than ten meters off of our port side, traveling at fifteen meters per second.”

“Did the sonar tell you anything else?,” asked Kandro.

Masafumi looked up with concern etched across his face. “Only this it was a lot bigger than ten meters.”

Suddenly the interior of the shuttle went quiet. “Do you want me to follow it?,” asked Tilmoore softly, secretly hoping that the secret would be no.

“No. We’re near the limit of exposure down here. Take us up. We’ll try again later.”

Tilmoore inwardly breathed a sigh of relief and resumed their course upwards.

* * * *

Isabel Cardonez was back aboard the Titanic. It wasn’t the holodeck this time though. Instinctively, she knew that. The air was too cold and the darkness was too natural. She was standing near the prow, still in her Starfleet uniform with a cold wind biting through it.

It was nighttime. It was cold, and it was quiet. She looked around, focusing on the huge mass of the ship rising up behind her but she couldn’t detect any signs of life. There were no lights and all that she could hear was the wind, the crash of the waves thundering into the ship’s hull and the steady thrum of the engines. She could feel that the ship was moving and moving fast. As she turned back to the prow, she finally noticed that she wasn’t alone. There, ahead of her, stood at the very bow of the ship with their arms outstretched above the waves as if they were a figurehead, was a humanoid form cloaked in shadows.

She took a step forward. “Hello?,” she shouted above the keening wind.

The lifeform turned around and slowly but surely, they began to walk towards her. As it stepped out of the shadows, Cardonez instinctively raised a hand to her mouth to prevent a gasp of surprise.

He stopped, a few meters away from her. There was a tiny smile evident on his face at her obvious astonishment. She had only seen him in the flesh once, years before and at a distance. However, she had seen his picture enough times to instantly recognize him.

“Hello, Captain,” said Benjamin Sisko. His voice was a low baritone that carried above the wind with seemingly no effort at all.

Cardonez didn’t respond. She couldn’t respond. Instead she took a step forward. Then another step before she reached out and touched his chest, expecting her fingers to dissolve through what was obviously a ghost. They touched solid matter. She could feel the texture of his uniform through her fingertips with the rhythm of his heart beating.

She snatched her hand back. “You can’t be real,” she muttered, gesturing around her but never taking her eyes off of Sisko. “None of this can be real.”

“It’s as real as anything ever is,” Sisko said, enigmatically.

“Ben Sisko disappeared almost two years ago. You can’t be him. What are you? Some kind of alien?”

He smiled again. “I’m Benjamin Lafayette Sisko. Nothing more. Nothing less. Although I suppose I can’t prove that. So you’re just going to have to take my word for it.”

Cardonez slowly walked around him as if she was expecting to discover that he was a cardboard cutout. She stopped behind him with the majority of the ship now in from her as ‘Sisko’ turned to face her.

“What happened to you?,” she asked him.

“I exist in the Celestial Temple now with the Prophets.”

“The wormhole aliens?”

“If it makes it easier to think of them in that way, then please do so.”

“What do you want with me?”

“I want to warn you,” he said simply.

“Warn me? Why? I’ve never even met you before. Why would the wormhole aliens want to help me?”

“It isn’t the Prophets. It’s me, but they’ve allowed me to warn you and through you, help to protect Bajor, my family and the Federation.”

“Warn us about what?”

“The Federation is facing a new enemy. You and your ship will be in the thick of the conflict.”

“What new enemy? A new race in Sector 29004?”

Sisko sighed deeply. “I can’t tell you who they are. All I can say is that sometimes, the greatest enemy is the one who stares back at you from the mirror.”

Cardonez shook her head. It made no sense. “That’s it? Can’t you tell me anything else?”

Sisko pointed over her shoulder. “Sometimes, the iceberg is closer than you think.”

Cardonez turned around, just in time to make out a large gray form loom up into the ship’s path. She felt that the ship was beginning to turn but she knew that it wouldn’t make it.

Then she woke up.

Not in the conventional sense of the word. Instead she woke up in her own reality. She was seated in the Captain’s chair and her ship was still facing the Throndrix vessel. She looked around but no one seemed to have noticed that she had zoned out. Her mouth was dry but she still managed to speak.

“Mister Ra-Moveii, lay in a course back to Cassius V.”

The Efrosian ensign turned to face her, a curious look on his face. “Aye, sir.”

“Captain?,” Huntington asked from his station behind her.

She looked back at him. “They’re in trouble. Don’t ask me how I know but I do. We have to go back.”

“And the Throndrix?”

“I think it’s time that we reversed the playing field,” she said with a smile.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The pagh of Sisko... prophets... portents...

This is about to get fun...

Thanks!! rbs

 

[admiralelm11]

Chapter Four

On the main viewscreen, the five Throndrix vessels sat apart from each other. Each of them were roughly the same size and had the same layout. Yet each of them was unique. Ramblin had declared that they all looked like different piles of junk but still piles of junk. Since the four other ships had arrived, twenty minutes ago, they hadn’t moved.

“It looks like they’re willing to wait us out,” said Huntington.

“It’s a shame that we don’t have the time to wait with them,” Cardonez said, standing behind Ensign Ra-Moveii. “Course laid in, Ensign?”

“Aye, Captain.”

She looked back at Huntington. “Torpedoes loaded.”

“Yes,” he said. “It seems to be such an awful waste though.”

“Not if it warns them off,” she said, dropping down into her seat and pressing a button on her armrest. “Cardonez to Engineering. Liz, are we ready?”

“Yes, Captain. The warp core is optimal. We can go to warp whenever you want.”

Cardonez leaned back in her seat. “Okay then, Mister Ra-Moveii. Andale.”

At one moment, the Testudo was sitting still in space. In the next moment, she jumped straight ahead to Warp One. seconds later, they dropped out of warp behind one of the Throndrix ships. They were still frantically trying to ascertain where the starship had gone when the first four quantum torpedoes impacted against the hull of their ship. Aboard the Testudo, Isabel imagined that she could hear the loud clangs ripple through the alien ship as the four hollow torpedoes – their warheads removed earlier – impacted at high speed against the ship.

“Next stage, Ensign,” she said and Testudo leapt to warp again, just as the Throndrix disruptor turrets were frantically coming to bear on their position.

The other Throndrix ships were just taking notice of the attack on their sister ship when Testudo dropped out of warp again above another one of their vessels. As the next quartet of torpedoes struck home, the Federation starship was already on the move again.

By the time that the ship dropped out of warp for a third time, the Throndrix had raised their shields but it was too late. Testudo now sat close to her original position with her shields raised and her weapons fully armed.

“Captain, we’re being hailed,” said Huntington.

“On screen.”

The image on the viewscreen changed to show a curious individual. He was slightly humanoid with a thin angular face and long-pointed ears that swept up from his head, appearing like horns or antennae. His chin and nose were similarly pointed and his skin was purple. He had no hair but a single ridge beginning at the point of his nose and sweeping up over his skull, bisecting his head almost like a Bolian. He had three silvery eyes. One of them was centrally located. The other two eyes were based far apart to lay almost on the sides of his head.

“I am Mishik, leader of Throndrix,” he said. His voice sounded little more than a high-pitched squeak.

“I am Captain Isabel Cardonez. I’m glad that you’re finally talking to us.”

“We have no choice since you committed Jo-Lann on us.”

“Jo-Lann?”

“You humiliated us and robbed us of our Ro-Lan.”

Cardonez assumed that Ro-Lan meant honor. “With all due respect, Mishik, it is you who attempted to rob us of our Ro-Lan first. You were warned that this is Federation territory and we would defend it.”

“Our Gods have led us to this world.”

“Mishik, if our torpedoes had been armed a few seconds ago, it’s likely that two of your ships would be in pieces now. I’m sure that your Gods wouldn’t want that.”

Mishik seemed to consider this argument for a moment. His three eyes began blinking rapidly. First, the central eyes and then the other two on either side. Cardonez found it to be quite disconcerting.

“Our Gods promised Throndrix that they would be led to New World. They would not want Throndrix to be destroyed. Throndrix will withdraw.” The main viewer returned to a view of the five Throndrix ships. They began to turn as one entity before moving off at impulse. Seconds later, one by one, they jumped to warp.

“Mister Ra-Moveii, lay in a course for Cassius, maximum warp.”

* * * *

The interior of the shuttle was starting to smell. No matter how powerful its air conditioning system was, the accumulation of several sweaty bodies, several times a day was noticeable. They were at a depth of three hundred meters now, several days after the shuttle had last detected the mysterious sonar contact. Commander Masafumi was hopeful that the Testudo would return soon. The away team, himself included, was tired and the shuttle was beginning to show signs of wear and tear. He had decided that this would be the last trip. After that, they would wait for the ship.

“Anything?,” he asked Kandro, who was sitting in the rear of the shuttle.

“Nah. The samples are just like the last three. The atmosphere has been consistent for two hundred meters.”

“I can’t believe I said this place is so boring,” Kehen said with fatigue evident in her voice. “What happened to all of the windstorms that you said we would encounter? At least, that would be a challenge.”

“I said we might encounter windstorms. They’re probably a lot lower down if they exist at all. Look, let’s call it a day. Begin the ascent back to the surface.”

Kehen smiled. “You won’t get any arguments from me on that,” she said before she began the slow rise to the surface.”

* * * *

Cardonez was pacing back and forth behind Commander Huntington and the Tactical station. “There’s still no word?”

“I’m sorry, no. The ion storms in the vicinity are blocking our transmissions.”

“Damn it. We’ve been on course for over thirty hours. You’d think that we would get some kind of response.”

“I’m sorry, Captain.”

“Keep trying,” she said, continuing to pace.

* * * *

On the surface of Cassius V, Tilmoore and Grady were outside the runabout, collecting soil samples.

“Well, that’s quite enough soil samples to keep the Geology department happy for a month!,” Grady laughed, gently patting the case that held their samples.

“Probably. What do you want to know?”

Grady shrugged, barely perceptible inside her suit. “Personally, I need a shower. How about you?”

“I think I might take a walk up to the peak. I know that the view won’t be any different but, at least, I can say that I’ve stood at the highest point on the planet.”

Grady took her proffered case. “Just be careful. Okay?”

“Yes, sir,” the other woman said with a mock salute before giggling. As Grady turned back towards the runabout, Tilmoore looked up at the peak and began to climb.

It took her a few minutes before she was finally near the top. She stopped to catch her breath and she turned around to take in the view. It was really magnificent, although she knew what Kehen meant about it being a little dull. It certainly surpassed the same shuttle run every few days. As she watched the runabout below, her attention was suddenly drawn to a spot that was several hundred meters out in the clouds. Something was rising up from the whiteness and her first thought was that it was the shuttle. She was about to contact Grady when she realized that it wasn’t the shuttle.

It was much, much bigger.

Like some kind of lumbering sea monster rising from the depths of the ocean, wisps of clouds fell away as it slowly orientated itself. She had taken several classes on starship design at the Academy but she didn’t recognize the vessel. Its hull was gleaming. Silver in color, long and flattened, it was curved like the hull of an ocean-going ship. Two struts curved down from the sides near the bow of the ship, each of them ending with a warp nacelle. It made the ship look like a predatory animal with its claws bared. She couldn’t see any windows or anything that resembled a hatch. In fact, the ship looked like it was composed of one solid piece of metal. She estimated that it was thirty-five meters long, although it tapered towards its stern to almost nothing. At the bow of the ship, four tiny black holes suddenly appeared and Tilomoore instinctively knew that they were weapons ports of some kind.

Finally realizing that she hadn't warned Grady, she activated her suit’s communications system. “Linda! Get into your suit and get out of the runabout!”

“Pamela? What’s wrong?”

“A ship just appeared and it doesn’t look friendly. Don’t mess about. Just get out of there!”

Inside the runabout, Linda Grady frantically ran to the flight deck. She had stripped down to her shorts and vest in anticipation of her shower and she knew that she should be grabbed for her suit. However, curiosity overcame her common sense and now she looked out over the flight controls and saw the silver vessel while it hovered in her direction.

Ignoring the rising desire to run, her Starfleet training kicked in and she hit the communication panel. “Attention, unidentified vessel, this is Ensign Linda Grady of the Federation starship Testudo. We are here on a peaceful mission of exploration. Please identify yourself.”

There was no reply from the ship and it was moving even closer. Over the communications system, she could hear Tilmoore’s voice screaming at her to get out. As the ship closed in, she finally allowed some panic to enter her actions. She turned and ran.

From high on the mountaintop, Tilmore saw it happen, almost in slow motion. The unidentified ship fired a single blast of amber-colored energy. It impacted against the bow of the runabout and the forward half of the Snohomish was immediately vaporized.

Inside the runabout, Grady was lucky enough to have made it to the stern section of the ship when the weapons fire struck it. Her luck lasted for all of a moment before the shockwave slammed her forward into a wall with sufficient force to break almost half the bones in her body. It also mercifully rendered her unconscious while her lungs drew in the noxious atmosphere of Cassius V and asphyxiated her to death within moments.

On the mountaintop, Ensign Tilmoore looked on, too shocked to move or to speak. Until the ship began to turn in her direction. Suddenly her survival instincts switched back on. She was alone and unarmed. Silently, she cursed herself for not carrying a phaser with her.

She knew that she had only one chance, remembering everything that the Commander had told her about the clouds below. She dipped over the peak and began to run down the other side. She didn’t hear the explosion as the peak that she had recently stood on was blown apart but she felt the shockwave as it pushed her forward to the ground where she began to roll down the incline. She frantically tried to slow her descent, her hands grasping at the loose soil but failing to grab on. She was terrified that her suit would rip open and her fear intensified when everything suddenly went dark. She screamed and redoubled her efforts to grab hold, finally catching her hands on a rocky outcropping before she stopped. For a few seconds, she remained still, wondering how far below the clouds she was and whether the delenite would shield her from their sensors.

Her survival instincts were working overtime and she realized that the enemy ship might choose to blast away at random. She also knew that her suit would last for maybe twelve minutes before the corrosive elements in the clouds rotted through. Slowly but surely, she began to crawl to her left. Her only chance was to somehow slip around the other side of the mountain and either hope that the ship had left or that she could find a phaser in the remains of the runabout. All that she knew was that if she was going down, she was going to go down fighting.

* * * *

As the shuttle popped up above the clouds, the three Starfleet officers watched in disbelief at the remains of the runabout and the mysterious ship hovering over the wreckage.

“What the…,” said Kandro.

Kehen closed her eyes, imagining the fate of the two Ensigns.

“What kind of ship is that?,” Masafumi asked no one in particular.

“I don’t know but it’s turning our way,” Kandro said. “Shoot it!”

“I cannot. This shuttle isn’t armed. Lieutenant, prepare to drop us back under the clouds,” Masafumi said, raising the shuttle’s meager shields.

Kehen nodded. The silver ship had turned to face them now.

“Commander, I don’t know if the hull will stand, spending much longer beneath the clouds,” reported Kandro.

“Well, I do know that it won’t take being shot at,” Kehen said while she manipulated the controls. She was a moment too late when four amber energy blasts streaked towards them and struck the shields with a thunderous blow. The shuttle rocked and the Betazoid operations officer’s console exploded with flying sparks, causing him to yelp out in pain.

“Shields are down and the hull is starting to fracture on the port side,” said Masafumi.

“So much for hiding under the clouds. Now what?”

“I think we need a miracle.”

“Yulani don’t believe in miracles,” said Kehen.

“Well, maybe you should start a trend,” Kandro said with a smile, an instant after a crimson phaser beam struck the silver vessel.

“Testudo,” said Masafumi.

“Testudo,” Kandro agreed.

* * * *

“Direct hit,” called out Huntington.

“Damage?”

“Their shields are impressive but they’re down to eighty percent now.”

“Hit’em again,” Cardonez ordered with a snarl.

“Another hit and I think we’ve got their attention. They’re leaving the shuttle alone and heading up for orbit.”

“Good. Let them pick on someone their own size,” Cardonez said with anger rising in her voice.

“I have them on visual,” the Tactical Officer said once the mysterious ship appeared on the viewscreen, heading towards them at full tilt. “They’re firing!” Energy blasts spat forward from the bow of the ship.

The Bridge rocked when it was struck. “Shields are at sixty percent,” said Huntington.

“This is more like it,” the Captain said, smiling. “Fighting the Throndrix was too much like being the school bully. Return fire, all weapons.”

Testudo fired back with her phaser beams intermingled with a spread of quantum torpedoes that struck the enemy as it fired back with another volley of amber fire. As the Bridge rocked again, Cardonez clasped the airs of her chair. “Mister Ra-Moveii, come to course zero-seven-nine, mark one-one-eight.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Shields are at thirty percent. They’ve taken some heavy damage though,” Huntington said while the other ship raced past the maneuvering Testudo.

“Fire aft torpedoes.”

Huntington hit the command and two torpedoes flew out from the ship’s aft torpedo tubes, striking the enemy vessel square on its stern.

“They’re going to warp, Captain,” said Ramblin.

“Should I lay in a pursuit course?,” asked Ra-Moveii.

“Negative. Let them run. Let’s find out the status of our away team.”

* * * *

When Tilmoore climbed up into clear air again, she was surprised to find that the silver ship was gone and that the shuttle was sitting near the remains of the Snohomish. Walking over, she discovered Commander Masafumi and Lieutenants Kandro and Kehen in their suits, clustered around a limp form on the ground. It was the Yulani pilot who noticed her first, running and swinging her arms around her in a tight hug.

“Thank Heroy that you’re all right,” she said with her voice tinged with sadness.

Kehen let her go and took her hand, leading her over to the others. When she saw the remains of Grady’s body sprawled on the ground like a ragdoll, she burst into tears. “I’m sorry, Commander,” she said through her sobs. “I was at the top of the mountain and Linda was inside the runabout. There was nothing that I could do.”

Masafumi moved forward and laid a hand gently on her shoulder. “I know, Ensign. I know.”

 

[admiralelm11]

Epilogue

It was two days later after the battle and on the beach of Cassius V, twenty Starfleet officers were gathered together around the wreckage of the runabout. More crew members had wanted to come but Captain Cardonez had imposed a limit of twenty people and only those who had known Linda well had been allowed to attend.

Commander Yashiro Masafumi stood slightly apart from the group with his gaze focused on the perfect whiteness of the clouds that stretched out into infinity. After a moment or two more after composing himself, he activated his suit communicator. Everyone else on the beach was hooked into his frequency and his words would be broadcast over the shipwide intercom system as well.

Although his voice was clear when he began, it was tinged with a slight croakiness. “We are here today to honor the life of Ensign Linda Grady. I would like to thank Captain Cardonez for allowing me to speak. I know that she wanted to do the eulogy but at the end of the day, I am the commander of the Science department on board and I was in command of the away team on which Linda died.”

As he paused, Isabel Cardonez blinked tears away from her eyes. Looking to her left, she saw Lieutenant Ramblin almost being held up by Lieutenant Kandro. Doctor Hollem had tried to stop her from beaming down, insisting that she needed rest but to no avail. Beyond them, she saw Ensign Tilmoore, standing slightly away from the group. She knew that Commander Huntington was worried about her mental state and Cardonez resolved to talk to her herself. She had read the mission report and knew that there was nothing that the young woman could have done to save Linda Grady. She also knew how little that mattered when you watched a friend die. There were other friends and work colleagues and Cardonez was amazed to see faces that she didn’t recognize. She made another resolution to tour the ship more often. She didn’t want to be standing at another funeral, wondering who exactly they were burying. Although, maybe that was easier. She had known Linda, worked with her. She even had her at a dinner party once. She was so engrossed in her own thoughts that she almost didn’t notice when Masafumi began speaking again.

“I gave a lot of thought about what I was going to say. About the tragedy of when someone so young dies, I considered celebrating Linda’s life rather than mourning her death. I was even ready to lament her dying for nothing. In truth, though, none of those approaches seemed to do her justice. Linda was a Starfleet officer. She was a scientist and she was an explorer. I don’t think anyone chooses a life in Starfleet without some appreciation of the risks involved. Some would claim that we live in a century where we are at the height of our prowess where there’s nothing more left to explore. When we are merely jaded observers of things that other crews had seen before and there is nothing new. Well, Linda didn’t believe that. She still burned with the desire to discover things that no one else had ever seen. And before her death, she did. She was the first Human to explore beneath these clouds. She felt that this was a beautiful world and her enthusiasm was infectious. With this in mind, I have spoken with Linda’s family and…”

Finally the tears that he had been holding back began to pour out.

“I’m sorry…,” he sobbed.

Cardonez began to move towards him but another suited figure got there first and placed a comforting hand on his arm. It took the Captain a moment to realize that it was Kehen. Masafumi placed a hand over hers and leaned his head against hers, drawing strength from the contact. After a moment, he moved his head and stood fully erect once more.

Now standing hand-in-hand with her, he continued on, his voice broken but yet filled with strength. “I spoke with Linda’s family and I learned how proud that they were of her and how proud they always would be. I suggested to them that there would be no better resting place for her than beneath these clouds that she loved and they agreed.”

As he paused, Isabel raised herself up to her full height and clasped her hands behind her back. “Attention!,” she ordered and everyone else did the same.

Masafumi and Kehen broke contact and did likewise. It was him who spoke next. “Commander Huntington, if you will.”

High above in orbit of Cassius V, Adam Huntington pressed down on the firing button, unconcerned with wasting a torpedo this time.

On the surface, the mourners watched as the quantum torpedo carrying Grady’s body streaked across the sky and disappeared into the clouds below. Cardonez waited a few moments longer before ordering,” At ease.” As everyone relaxed, she added,” Dismissed.”

People began talking to each other now. Already several officers were beaming back to the Testudo. Some of the others were simply standing or walking alone as if they were appreciating the wonder of their surroundings for the first time.

Masafumi turned towards Kehen. “Thank you, Lieutenant.”

Kehen smiled. “You’re welcome, Commander. It was a beautiful speech. I’m sure that Linda would have approved.” He placed a hand on her shoulder and nodded.

Captain Cardonez watched as Ramblin and Kandro walked over to Ensign Tilmoore and the three officers embraced. A moment later, she watched the Yulani join them. Seeing that he was alone now, she walked over to join Masafumi.

“Very moving,” she said simply.

“Thank you and thank you for allowing me to speak. I know that you probably would have had something more profound to say.”

“I doubt it, Commander. I hate to bring this up on today of all days, but have you read the technical report on that ship?”

Masafumi nodded. “Yes. It was fairly limited but quite informative. The ship was unmanned.”

“Remind you of anything?”

“The Aora,” he said. “It appears that whatever force that commandeered the Aora was also responsible for Linda’s death.”

“And much like the Aora, the ship was hiding where no one was going to go looking for it,” she said. “I wonder…”

“If there are any more of those ships down there?”

She nodded. “I wish we knew who they were and what they want with this sector.”

“There was something else in the report that was most disturbing.”

Cardonez looked at him. “Yes. That ship’s technology was mostly of an unknown origin but its warp drive seemed to be derivative of Federation technology.” She paused before adding,” Sometimes, the greatest enemy is the one who stares back at you from the mirror.”

Her gaze became locked onto the billowing white clouds, wondering.

The End.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Always good to have a creepy, forboding ending. Thanks!! rbs

 

[Bynar0110]

I finally caught up and I enjoyed reading it very much.

 

[admiralelm11]

Thank you, gentle beings. There's more to come.

 

[admiralelm11]

Star Trek: Into the Void

Episode 08 - ‘Nostalgia’

By Jack D. Elmlinger


Prologue

Lieutenant Zia Kehen was humming. She was also standing naked with her eyes closed, allowing the vibrations from the sonic shower to jar loose dirt, sweat, and dead skin cells from her body. She knew many people who hated sonic showers, claiming that soap and water were the only way to go. Compared to the bathing rituals on her homeworld of Yulan, she appreciated the convenience of letting sound do all of the work. She had never enjoyed covering herself in mud and ash and still shivered at the thought of the m’tek brush. Whenever she went home to her parents, she always made sure that she used the sonic showers at the Federation embassy, much to her father’s annoyance and her mother’s amusement.

A smile crept onto her lips at the thought of the Federation embassy. Or, more to the point, the ridiculously handsome Vulcan attache who worked there and she began to run her hands over her skin, tingling at her touch combined with the gentle sonic undulations. Her relaxation was interrupted when the door chimes to her quarters rang. Starfleet engineers had long made sure that if someone pushed your door chimes, you could hear them, even in the shower. This was apparently done after some overzealous Security guards had burst in on an officer who wasn’t answering his door, only to discover him and several fellow officers naked in the shower.

Deactivating the shower, she grabbed a white bathrobe and wandered into the main living area of her quarters. She lived on Deck Six who placed her on the ventral side of the saucer section. As a result, her windows were slanted upwards, making her quarters seem slightly smaller than those on the dorsal side of the ship. Not that she minded. It meant that she usually got a better view when they were in orbit of a planet. On the wall screen was footage of a young Yulani girl playing with toys in a meadow of lilac grass.

Kehen smiled as she watched it for a moment before the door chimes rang again. “Come in,” she said.

The door slid open and Commander Masafumi, Testudo’s First Officer, was standing outside with a PADD in his hand.

“Evening, Commander.”

“Good evening, Lieutenant. I apologize if I’m intruding. May I enter?”

“Of course.” She smiled. His good manners had always amazed her.

He gingerly stepped inside and the doors closed behind him. He held up the PADD. “I just wanted to let you know that our replacement runabout has arrived. The Captain and I were wondering if you would care to take it out for a few test flights so Lieutenant Tennyson can anticipate any problems.”

“Sure. it sounds like fun,” she said, grabbing a glass of water from the replicator. “Can I get you a drink?”

“No, that’s okay. I do not intend to stay for long.”

Kehen nodded and took a sip of water. “So what’s the new runabout going to be called? Not the Snohomish-A, I hope?,” she asked, sitting down.

Masafumi smiled wanly and shook his head. He walked over and handed her the PADD. “The USS Gagarin.”

“Gagarin.”

“Named for the first Human in space, a Russian cosmonaut named Yuri Gagarin.”

“Does Starfleet ever name its ships after pioneers from other planets?,” she asked, bitterly.

Masafumi suppressed a laugh. “Hoping for a USS Kehen someday?”

She smiled in reply. “Maybe, but don’t tell me that you don’t want a USS Masafumi?”

“Perhaps,” he replied, gesturing towards the wall monitor screen, which showed the young girl climbing on some kind of frame. “She’s a pretty child. A niece?”

“Actually, it’s my daughter, Liella.”

“Daughter?,” he asked her, not even attempting to keep the surprise out of his voice.

“Yes,” she said, baiting him. “Don’t you read personnel files?”

“Well, there are a lot of files. One cannot always discover everything about a crew member. How old is she?”

“In Human terms, she about nine.”

“She lives with her father, I take it?”

“Oh, no. Her father left Yulan a long time ago. She lives with my parents.”

Masafumi raised an eyebrow. “Forgive an old-fashioned attitude but surely a child’s place is with one or more of its parents?”

Kehen laughed. “I’m sorry, Commander, but you should really read up on Yulani customs. I thought you were supposed to be the expert on exploration and the like.” When she saw him beginning to blush, she continued her explanation. “On Yulan, children are raised by their grandparents.”

“Really?”

“We believe that the best environment for a child to grow up in is with mature and experienced guardians. One day, hopefully, I will raise Liella’s children.”

“Fascinating. I’ve heard of societies that venerate their elders but never to the point of having them raise their children.”

“Can you imagine how terrified we were when we discovered how most other races do it?” She smiled. “Having children has never been a chore on Yulan. The thought of having to work childcare around your career, not to mention your social life is a pain!”

Masafumi walked over to the computer panel beside the wall screen. “May I?,” he asked her

“Sure,” she said, not really knowing what he intended.

“Computer, access personnel files of Commander Masafumi and display birthday image file six-alpha. Authorization - Masafumi-Echo-One-Eleven.” Suddenly the images of Kehen’s daughter faded away to be replaced by a still picture of a small boy sitting at a table behind a large birthday cake. His hair was dark, tousled, and he was grinning broadly.

Kehen smiled. “Your son?”

Masafumi nodded. “William. This was taken on his last birthday. He’s six now.”

“He’s handsome,” she said, just before her combadge chirped. “Kehen here.”

The Captain’s disembodied voice responded,” Zia, can you come up to the Bridge, right away, please?”

“Give me a few seconds to get dressed, Captain. Listen, I have Commander Masafumi here with me. Do you want him to report also?”

There was a long pause and she closed her eyes, shutting them tight and wincing when she realized what she had just said.

“Uh… yeah, I would like Commander Masafumi up here as well. Cardonez out,” the Captain said, sounding rushed as if she wanted to get off of the channel as quickly as possible. In truth, Kehen didn’t blame her.

When she opened her eyes, she saw that Masafumi was blushing. “That’s going to be all over the ship within the hour, you know?,” he said.

“I know,” she replied. “I’m sorry.”

He smiled. “As Oscar Wilde once said,’ The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about’.” He gestured with a thumb over his shoulder at the door behind him. “I’ll wait outside while you dress.” He turned around and left.

Zia closed her eyes again and sank back into the couch. “Oh, boy,” she muttered.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Fun opening. I had used the idea of andorian children being raised by their grandparents - not such a terrible idea. On paper...

You are definitely on a tear! Thanks! rbs

 

[admiralelm11]

Chapter One

Lieutenant Kehen and Commander Masafumi had discussed staggering their arrival on the Bridge but both of them had decided that it would seem less suspicious if they turned up together. As they stepped out the turbolift, she felt like everyone was looking at her.

“Ah, Lieutenant,” Captain Isabel Cardonez said, noticing their arrival.

“Hi, Captain,” she replied as she and the First Officer walked down the ramp to stand before the Captain. “Look, about earlier, I had just got out of the shower when Commander Masafumi had arrived to brief me on test-flying the new runabout.”

Lieutenant Valian Kandro spun around in his chair to face them. “A likely story,” he said with a smirk.

Kehen glared at the Betazoid. “I was wearing a bathrobe,” she snapped.

Meanwhile, Masafumi had quietly sat down and he was trying to keep as low a profile as possible.

“Shut up, Mister Kandro,” the Captain said. “I’m sorry to disturb your evening off, Zia, but we’ve detected a distress beacon coming from nearby. Its frequency matches those that are used by the Yulani Space Force.”

“All the way out here? There shouldn’t be a ship this far out from Yulan. Our most advanced warp-driven ship can only do Warp Two-point-Five.”

“Well, we should shortly find out who they are,” Kandro said. “We’re coming into visual range.”

“Ensign Ra-Moveii, take us out of warp. Zia, sit here,” Cardonez said, gesturing towards the empty seat on her left side.

Kehen sat down as the Testudo dropped out of warp.

“Captain, I have a vessel up ahead,” said Lieutenant Commander Adam Huntington from Tactical.

“On screen.”

On the main viewscreen, they saw a small ship. It was composed of two spheres that were connected by a rigid cylinder. The larger of the two spheres had four pylons coming off of it in an X-shape. Each pylon supported a short squat warp nacelle that was unlike any that Cardonez had ever seen before. Rather than the straightforward nacelles that she was used to, these nacelles were serrated, dipping and curving up and down along their length. She estimated that the large sphere to be twenty meters in diameter. Its aft section was squared off and she could see that there was some kind of propulsion system installed there. The connecting tube appeared to be a couple of meters in diameter and maybe ten meters in length. The forward sphere was perhaps ten meters in diameter and unlike the aft sphere, it was covered in small bumps that she believed to be sensors of some kind.

“Scans confirm that it’s a Yulani ship, Captain,” reported Lieutenant Kandro.

“It’s not ‘a’ Yulani ship,” Kehen said suddenly. “It’s ‘the’ Yulani ship.”

“What do you mean?,” asked Masafumi.

“I mean I recognize that ship. Its name is the Thona Relath. It was named after one of the greatest of Yulani explorers. A woman who lived three centuries ago, she was the first Yulani to explore the Northern Polar Deserts and she discovered the Euklen Islands in the Eastern Sea.”

“Wait a minute,” said Cardonez. “You’re telling me that ship is – “

“The first Yulani warp-capable vessel. The equivalent of Earth’s Phoenix or Betazed’s Chalice of Rixx.”

“Shouldn’t it be in a museum or something?,” asked Huntington.

“It was, until five years ago when Praktor Yannis Lekon took it for a test flight and never returned.”

“Praktor Yannis Lekon?,” asked Kandro.

“Yannis Lekon was the father of Yulani warp propulsion. He practically invented theoretical warp physics. At least, on Yulan. He became a Praktor after our first flight.” When the Betazoid appeared to be confused, Kehen continued. “Praktor is the highest rank that a scientist or a doctor can achieve. After our First Contact with the Federation though, he became a hermit, working in seclusion. It was quite a shock to be the greatest living scientist in the known universe, one day, and a mediocre amateur in a technologically-advanced universe, the next. He didn’t handle it very well. The rumors stated that he spent the next seven years working to improve his warp design. Then all of a sudden in 2372, he re-entered society and published several papers that proposed ways of making warp drives more efficient. For several months, everything was fine but then he asked to be allowed to fly the Thona Relath on the seventh anniversary of our maiden voyage. He was supposedly making pre-flight checks alone when the ship suddenly jumped to warp and disappeared.”

“And no one went after him?,” asked the Captain.

Kehen shook her head. “There were no other warp capable ships in any condition to launch and by the time that was prepared, he was long gone.”

“And no one’s seen him or the Thona Relath since?,” asked Huntington.

“No, but there were rumors that he had been spotted heading for Romulan or Klingon space or even the Delta Quadrant but there were no firm sightings.”

“Lieutenant, what was the ship’s maximum speed?,” asked Masafumi.

“Well, when we flew her, we got her up to Warp One-point-Seven. She never got pushed much beyond that. Why do you ask?”

“I was just wondering how a ship with such limited propulsion systems made it all the way out here. The last time that I checked, Yulan was over a hundred lightyears away. At Warp One-point-Seven, it should have taken fifteen years to get here and that’s assuming that he kept a constant speed with no diversions.”

“Maybe he hitched a ride,” offered Kandro.

“Or perhaps some of the rumors were true,” Kehen said.

Cardonez cocked her head to one side. “Rumors?”

“There were several theories, widely discounted at the time, that Yannis had, in fact, developed a radical new warp theorem that was potentially so dangerous that he believed that the Yulani government would never allow him to experiment with it. So he stole the ship and disappeared to continue his research in hiding.”

“Well, we could always go ask him,” said Kandro. “I’m reading one lifeform aboard. It’s definitely Yulani. The vital signs are faint.”

“Captain, we have to go over there. He could be in need of medical assistance.”

Cardonez held up a hand. “One moment, Zia. Valian, what’s it like over there?”

“The ship seems to be fine. As far as I can tell life-support is fully operational as is the warp drive and its ion propulsion system.”

“Mister Huntington, are there any other ships in the vicinity?”

“Negative, Captain. The nearest ship is over a lightyear away.”

Masafumi jumped to his feet. “Permission to lead an away team aboard?”

Cardonez stood from her seat as well. “Take your seat, Commander. I think I’ll lead this one. I need to stretch my legs anyway. Lieutenant, you’re with me,” she said, looking at Kehen. “Valian, ask Doctor Hollem to meet us in the Transporter Room.”

“Captain!,” came simultaneous cries from both Masafumi and Huntington.

Cardonez laughed. “Yes, gentlemen?”

The Security Chief gestured for the Commander to go first. “As your First Officer, it’s my role to assume the risk of commanding away teams. Your place is on the Bridge, Captain.”

She smiled in reply. “Commander, there’s only one person over there and by all accounts, he’s incapacitated in some way. Mister Kandro’s sensors read that there is no threat. I’ll be fire. Now then, Commander Huntington, you have something to also say?”

“Only a recommendation that you take a Security officer with you.”

“I refer you to my last answer. Come on, Zia.” She and Kehen walked off of the Bridge and into the turbolift.

* * * *

Three transporter beams materialized brightly before they faded to nothingness, leaving behind the figures of three Starfleet officers. With bright blue lighting illuminating the area from beneath the floor, they had no need to use their palm beacons. Although each of them has a phaser, they kept them holstered.

“It’s different,” Doctor Hollem Azahn said, casting his gaze around the chamber that they had entered. Not only was the illumination coming from the floor but the circular chamber had no obvious door. The walls were transparent but they seemed to be filled with a bluish fluid. The Bajoran was easily the tallest of the group and the ceiling was only a few centimeters above his head. He nervously eyed the ceiling, watching while the liquid pumped through it in the same way that it flowed through the bulkheads and the deck.

“It’s just water,” Cardonez said, examining her tricorder readings.

“Of course,” said Kehen. “It acts as a cooling system for the entire ship and it also provides additional protection against radiation.”

“What was this room used for?,” he asked, taking his eyes off of the ceiling and examining the only object in the room, a single squat console that rose up and seemed like it was almost a part of the deck.

Kehen walked up to it and began tapping at the control panel. “No response. It looks like it’s offline. Originally, this was the nacelle monitoring room for Nacelle Number Three. Our original flight crew was eight. Four engineers who were tasked with maintaining a constant watch over a specific nacelle. There was myself and a co-pilot on the flight deck. Then Yannis and another engineer would be monitoring the warp core.”

Cardonez swept her tricorder over the console. “It’s operational but it appears to have been networked to somewhere else. I guess it’s hard to steal a ship on your own when it’s built for a crew of eight.”

“Yannis is probably on the flight deck,” Kehen said, nervously. “Shouldn’t we get moving?”

“Where’s the door?,” asked Hollem.

Kehen shook her head and made a move towards a section of the bulkhead. When she got them, she reached out and sank her arm into the wall. As he and Cardonez watched, they were in awe when she stepped through the wall that seemed to allow her to sink into it until she disappeared completely.

For a moment, the two remaining Testudo officers stood there, looking at one another and then the wall. Finally, Cardonez said,” When in Rome…” and walked up to the wall. Reaching out with a hand, she began to push. The wall felt soft and cold but it allowed her hand to push inside and through to the other side. Taking the deep breath and closing her eyes, she stepped against the wall and it began to give in. A moment later, she found herself in a corridor with Kehen who was standing impatiently to one side.

“What took you so long?”

“Sorry.”

“Where’s the doctor?”

Cardonez shrugged. “He should have been right behind me,” she said and they looked back at the wall.

After a moment, a hand gingerly pushed through but then it immediately withdrew. After a few seconds, it pushed through again, slightly further this time but again, it was pulled back. Another few seconds passed by and the hand reappeared again. It came no further but this time, the hand began to wiggle around as if it was testing the air.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” the Captain said before she grabbed the hand and pulled it as hard as she could.

“Aghhh!,” Hollem shouted as he was dragged through before he fell to the deck while breathing heavily. He quickly began to pat his body as if he was convinced that it could all be there. “What did you do that for?”

Cardonez reached down and helped him up to his feet. “My tricorder said that the air was going to run out before you made it through on your own,” she answered him with a smile.

“I was going to but it’s weird.”

“Oh, please, it’s only memetic plastic,” said Kehen. “Can we, please, head up to the flight deck now?”

Cardonez noticed that her senior pilot was becoming increasingly erratic. She was hopping from foot to foot as if something was causing her distress. “Are you okay, Lieutenant?”

“Yes, I’m fine!,” the Yulani snapped.

“No, she isn’t, Captain,” Hollen said. He had his medical tricorder open and a scanner in his hand. “The air in here has a fractionally higher oxygen content than we’re used to. Bajorans and Humans don’t tend to notice things like that but the Yulani are quite susceptible to changes in the atmosphere.”

“Well, I am feeling a bit restless,” Kehen said and Isabel saw that her color was brighter and turning more green than blue.

“Do we need to get her back to Testudo?”

“No!,” Kehen shouted. “You need me to show you around the ship. You would get lost without me.” Suddenly she giggled. Then she began to look very unsteady on her feet. “Doc, I feel drunk. Is that normal?” She fell back against the wall and slid down to the deck where she began to giggle more as her breathing became shallower.

“Well, Doctor?”

“We don’t need to get her back to Testudo,” he replied, slipping his medical bag off of his shoulder and extracted a hypospray, quickly adding two compounds together. He kneeled beside Kehen and pressed the hypospray against her neck, depressing the activator with a tiny hiss. “I’ve given her a shot of Lextrazine to calm her system down. It’s mixed in with a small amount of Kelmonox that will help her system adjust to the higher oxygen content.”

“But I’ll be fine?”

“Pretty much. You might find that you’ll get a slight headache if we stop aboard for too long.”

Cardonez knelt down beside her. “Zia, are you feeling any better?”

“Yeah,” she replied groggily, nodding her head. “I’m sorry, Captain. Yulani can be quite fragile, sometimes.” Cardonez was relieved to see a slight smile on her face.

She and the doctor each grabbed one of Kehen’s arms and helped her to her feet. “Thanks. I feel a lot better now. The corridor isn’t spinning anymore.”

“It’s lucky for you that not all of the walls are made of memetic plastic or you would have fallen straight into another room,” said Hollem.

“Which way was the flight deck, Lieutenant?”

“This way,” she said before she left them a dozen meters down the corridor until they came to what appeared to be a dead end. “This leads to the connecting tube between the engineering and command sections. If Valian’s scans are right, then Yannis or whoever is aboard, should be on the flight deck.” She walked through the wall.

Cardonez turned towards Hollem. “Don’t make me yank you through this time,” she said before she followed the pilot’s lead. Hollem hesitated for just a moment before he walked confidently through the blue plastic. On the other side, he found himself in another corridor.

“This way,” Zia said with enthusiasm.

The corridor was short and it ended in another wall which the three of them passed through. On the other side, the away team found itself in a small circular chamber. There was an opening in the floor and the ceiling with a ladder that led upward and downward.

“There are three levels in the command section. This level is living quarters and if we went down a level, we would find storage and life-support. We need to go up to get to the flight deck.”

“After you,” Cardonez said before she and Hollem followed Kehen up the ladder until they found themselves in a similar chamber to the one that they had just left. The only difference being was that the ladder melded into the ceiling above their heads.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Kehen walked straight ahead towards the front of the ship through one wall and then a little further through another one. Both the Captain and the Bajoran were getting used to the memetic doors and passed through them without any difficulty.

“Well, this is the last one,” she said, suddenly coming to a halt before another wall.

“How on Earth do you know where the doors are?,” asked Cardonez.

She shrugged. “We just remember. That’s all. Look, maybe you should go through, Doc. There won’t be a lot of room in there and if he’s hurt or sick, you’ll be the best person to see him.”

“Okay,” Hollem said before he eased his way through the blue liquid-filled wall once more. Once he was through it, his first thought was one of wonder. Ahead of him with the backs of two seats and beyond that was only the stars and the reassuring image of the Testudo through the transparent hull. His second thought was that Kehen had been correct. There wasn’t a great deal of room on the cramped flight deck and it looked like the pilots had to clamber over a console between their seats to get into position. Taking his eyes off of the New Orleans-class frigate that he called home, he inched forward and stuck his head between the two seats.

Sitting there in the left-hand seat, a Yulani male lay slumped over.

“Hello?,” he said softly.

“Hello,” he repeated, only louder this time. “Listen. If you can hear me, I’m here to help you. I’m a doctor from the Federation starship Testudo.”

Again, there was zero response.

Hollem began to climb over the console until he could sit in the right-hand seat. It really wasn’t built with tall people in mind and he felt very cramped. He managed to extract his tricorder and he began to take scans of the man sitting in the left-hand seat. He also got his first proper look at him and gasped in shock. He seemed to be quite old. His skin was the same greenish-blue like all Yulani but its texture was wrinkled and faded in some places. His white hair was cropped close to his skull and he saw that the twin protrusions that all Yulani had that would usually be extended out and down from the skull had been pruned down to just a few centimeters from his head. It wasn’t this that made the Bajoran gasp.

It was the wide-eyed look of shock frozen on the man’s face.

 

[admiralelm11]

Chapter Two

Yannis Lekon - for Kehen had confirmed that it was him - now lay on a biobed in Sickbay. Hollem, Cardonez and Kehen stood on one side of the bed. On the other side stood Lieutenant Dayle, the ship’s counselor. He was a Lareyan, a species known for its pale skin and cat-like eyes. It looked like he was growing his hair out. It certainly seemed to be subtly longer each time that the Captain saw him recently. Inwardly, she wondered if she would have noticed with any other member of the crew and decided that she probably wouldn’t but then, she felt a certain something for him that she didn’t feel for any other member of her crew.

In plain terms, her dad would have said that she fancied him something rotten. Not that she planned to do anything about it. Relationships between the Captain and a crew member weren’t unheard of and certainly not against regulations. She had even enjoyed a brief affair with her Captain aboard the Galaxy when she had just been another Security officer but it wasn’t something that she planned to do aboard Testudo.

Certainly with the ship’s counselor. The last thing that anyone wanted, when divulging intimate details to Dayle, was the thought that he shared a bed with the Captain. It was a shame though. He was cute.

“Well, his vital signs are stable,” Hollem said. “Low, maybe, but that’s only to be expected. It doesn’t look like he’s eaten or drank anything for several days and he’s very dehydrated. We’ve got him on a regular dose of saline and vitamin compounds to build his strength up again. Ordinarily, I would say that he’d be up on his feet again in a matter of hours but…” He let that word hang in the air.

“It isn’t his physical condition that worries you?,” asked Isabel.

“Exactly,” the Doctor replied, moving across the room to a nearby console that displayed Yannis’ vital signs. “Physically, he’s fine and I’m detecting brainwave activity that’s pretty close to normal. By all rights, he should be aware and conscious.”

“But he’s not,” said Kehen, leaning over her fellow Yulani and staring into his eyes, trying to find some recognition there. She found none. His near-white pupils gazed dead ahead and she knew that he wasn’t seeing her.

“No,” said Hollem. “His mind appears to be closed off completely.”

Cardonez turned her head to look at Dayle. “Counselor?”

“Well, it’s not unusual for an individual to retreat into a catatonic state when faced with a trauma. Certainly the look of anxiety on his face would seem to confirm that hypothesis.” Dayle’s voice was calm and melodic. Cardonez tried to ignore the familiar flip in her stomach when he spoke.

“What trauma?,” Kehen asked, standing upright once more. “Both he and his ship are in good condition. There’s no evidence of an attack or of any kind of accident. So what drove him into this state?”

“We may never know,” said Dayle.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that the only person who can answer that question right now is Yannis and if he doesn’t return to an aware state, he cannot tell us.”

“I don’t understand. Surely you can treat him, Doc? Shock him into waking up?”

“He’s not asleep, Zia,” said Hollem.

“You know what I mean!”

“I’m sorry,” he replied. “Yes, there are things that I could do that might shock him out of his catatonic state. Cordrazine has been known to work in some cases, as have neural stimulators.”

“Well, what are you waiting for? Use them.”

“Lieutenant,” Dayle said,” Doctor Hollen is correct in that those treatments have, on occasion, worked well enough to bring a patient out of the catatonia, but the price can be high. Upwards of fifty percent will suffer some form of neurological damage as a result of the shock alone. Many continue to suffer from mental anguish for years afterwards.”

“Why?”

“The mind is fragile. Sometimes when it’s hurt, it retreats from all external stimuli in order to repair itself. If that repair work is left incomplete, the problems that caused the initial breakdown are still embedded in the mind, lurking in the subconscious.”

“What’s your recommendation, Counselor?,” asked the Captain.

Dayle looked thoughtful for a moment. “Leave him be. Eventually, he will probably find his own way back. Whether that takes a day or a year or even longer.”

Cardonez turned to the other side. “Doctor?”

“I agree with Lieutenant Dayle up to a point. I think that we have to give him a chance to come out of it on his own. I can keep him healthy in Sickbay for as long as it takes but I would recommend putting a time limit on his recovery. I’ve seen cases like this before and sometimes, the longer that a patient is in this state, the harder that it is to pull them out of it. I recommend giving him a month. Maybe two. After that, I recommend another approach. Most likely a course of neural shocks of steadily increasing magnitude. If that doesn’t work, we try Cordrazine.”

“What about Vulcans?,” asked Kehen. “Could they help him?”

“Possibly,” said Hollen. “There have been cases of Vulcans experienced in mind meld techniques being able to reach a catatonic patient but the results can be similar to what you would get from using Cordrazine.”

“We don’t have a Vulcan officer with anywhere near the mental abilities and experience aboard Testudo to attempt this,” Cardonez said, looking from Hollem to Dayle. “You’ve given me two very different long-term solutions but you’ve both agreed that for the moment, we should keep him comfortable. Give Yannis here a chance to recover on his own.”

Both officers nodded. “Now this doesn’t preclude us from beginning an investigation to try and determine what exactly precipitated his condition,” the Captain said. “Zia, first thing in the morning, I’ve asked Lieutenant Tennyson to go over his ship with a fine toothed comb. You’re welcome to join the away team. With luck, you might discover something.”

“Why wait until tomorrow?”

Cardonez smiled. “The ship isn’t going anywhere and I want my officers to be well-rested.”

“Okay,” she said, nodding in agreement.

The doors to Sickbay slid open and Lieutenant Kandro breezed his way in. He was grinning broadly. “Hi, Doctor. I’m here to help out as ordered.”

Hollem stood silently for a moment, a look of consternation on his face.

Kandro saw it. “Remember, Doc? You buzzed me about ten minutes ago. I would have been here sooner but Lieutenant Ramblin was late in relieving me and Commander Masafumi wouldn’t let me leave until she got here.”

“Ah!,” the Doctor said when the memory flooded back to him. “Yes, I wanted a quick opinion from you on my patient here. “He gestured towards Yannis.

Kandro didn’t even blink. “He isn’t there.”

“What do you mean?,” asked Dayle.

“I mean that I can’t sense anything from him. You, I can read,” he said, pointing at the ship’s counselor. His eyes flickered quickly towards Cardonez as he spoke and she was sure that she felt a blush coming on. Was it possible that he was getting feelings of attraction from Dayle towards her?

“Well, he’s in a catatonic state. Would you expect to read anything?,” asked Kehen.

“Yes, I would. Before we invented the technology to scan brainwave patterns, Betazoid doctors used empathic scans to determine if a patient was braindead or not, based solely on what a panel of three specially-trained empaths could sense. When we finally developed the ability to scan brainwaves, we discovered that ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time, those specialists had been right.”

“No offense, Valian, but the sensors are reading healthy brainwave patterns. He isn’t dead.”

Kandro shrugged. “I can only tell you what I sense, Doc. As far as my senses are concerned, he’s a vegetable.”

* * * *

Valian Kandro’s comments had shaked Zia Kehen and so Hollem Azahn had offered to ‘buy’ her a drink in the Backyard. The Betazoid had said that he would join them later and he suggested contacting Lieutenant Tennyson to join them. Now, twenty minutes later, she, the Doctor, and the Chief Engineer were sitting around a table in an unusually quiet part of the ship’s lounge.

“Where do you suppose everyone is?,” Hollem asked with his gaze wandering around the bar. There were only another five people in the room who were congregated around two tables situated close to the bar. As such, they had no trouble in grabbing one of the usually popular tables near the window with its fantastic view of the rear of the ship, illuminated by its twin warp nacelles.

“Who knows?,” Liz said, nursing an ale in front of her. “I’m just wondering where Valian got off to.”

Kehen took a long swig from her purplish drink. “Maybe he met a cute ensign on his way?,” she said jokingly.

Hollem chuckled but Tennyson didn’t. “I don’t know. He’s been quiet on that front for the last few weeks.”

The three senior officers turned their heads when the doors to the Backyard slid open. It wasn’t Kandro but it was a surprise.

“Masafumi?,” said Liz.

“In the Backyard?,” asked Zia.

“First time for everything,” added Azahn.

Yashiro nodded in their direction before he headed for the bar. A few minutes later, he was on his way over, carrying a drink. “Good evening. Would you mind if I joined you?”

“Not at all,” said Hollem. “The ladies here were just discussing the fact that we don’t see you down here very often.” He winced a second later as Tennyson kicked him under the table.

“Ah, I see,” said the Commander, sitting down between Hollem and Kehen. “What is the ship’s square of a First Officer doing in the ship’s pub?”

“That’s not what we were saying, sir,” said Kehen.

Masafumi chuckled. “Yes, it was. I do keep meaning to pop down here but I never seemed to have the time before today. So, what’s the topic of conversation?”

“Well, mainly, we were wondering where everyone is,” said Hollem.

“I had noticed something similar. The corridors don’t seem to be as busy as they normally would be and the Bridge seems to be a degree or two cooler as well,” said Masafumi.

“The ship’s temperature controls are functioning at ninety-nine-point-five percent efficiency, Commander,” Tennyson said defensively.

“That’s not what I meant, Commander,” he replied. “I meant that it felt colder, not that it was.”

“You’re right,” Zia said suddenly. “I suppose I’ve been too busy to notice it but sitting here for the last few minutes, I’ve felt… something. A charge in the air.”

“Like there’s a storm coming?,” asked Yashiro. Zia nodded.

Tennyson shuddered. “My God, not you two and ghost stories again.”

“Sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what it is but Starfleet officers always seem to get nervous when there’s a deserted ship off of their bow.”

“Yeah, well, I think I’ll go and see if I can find Valian. You’re all going to be here a while, right?,” asked Liz.

All of them nodded and she left.

“And then there were three,” Hollem said with a smile before draining his glass. “I’m going to get another drink. Anyone else want one?”

“That’s okay,” Kehen said, her own glass only half-empty. Masafumi merely gestured at his full glass.

As Hollem left, Kehen smiled at Masafumi. “If I didn’t know any better, I would think that people were trying to leave us alone.” Luckily for the commander, she still had trouble with skin tones that weren’t blue or green. So she didn’t notice his blush as anything unusual.

For his part, Masafumi emitted a very croaky laugh and tried to change the subject. “So what are you drinking?”

“Just T’kera. You?”

“Any ancient Earth drink, shandy,” he replied. Suddenly he leaned forward and lowered his voice. “May I ask you a personal question, Lieutenant?”

“If you don’t mind a personal answer, Commander.”

“You seem to be very concerned about Yannis Tekon and you did mention that the father of your child left Yulan, a long time ago so I was wondering– “

“If Yannis is the father of my daughter?,” she completed the sentence. “Yuck!,” she added, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “Older men are nice but not when they’re old enough to be your grandfather.”

“I apologize. I just - “

“Put two and two together and came up with thirty-seven?,” she asked with a wink.

“Yes,” he replied. “I’m sorry.”

She laughed. “That’s okay. It was probably a logical assumption to make.”

“What was?,” Hollem asked, a fresh drink in his hand as he dropped back down into his seat.

“I mistakenly assumed that Yannis was the father of Lieutenant Kehen’s daughter.”

“You have a kid?,” Hollem asked, open-mouthed.

“Don’t you read the crew files, Doctor?,” Masafumi asked, straight-faced.

“Well… I do… I mean…,” the Bajoran stammered as Kehen burst out laughing. “Why do I get the feeling that I’m being made fun of?”

“I’m sorry, Doctor. A private joke,” Yashiro said with a smile. “So, Lieutenant, if it isn’t too personal, may I ask where the father is?”

“Kee is a navigator on a Ferengi freighter. At least, he was, the last time that I spoke to him. That was four years ago, though. So who knows?,” she replied with a shrug. “Where’s Mrs. Masafumi, then?”

“We were divorced shortly after William’s birth. They live on Adrianis now. Marie is an archaeologist and the underground ruins were too tempting of an opportunity for her. It’s a very nice place though.”

Hollem was staring at Masafumi now, a curious look on his face.

“Are you all right, Doctor?,” he asked the Bajoran.

He didn’t say a word at first. He merely kept his gaze on Masafumi. Finally, after several seconds, he cocked his head to one side. “You have a kid too?”

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Nice slow horror movie buildup here... And some good character background moments.

I really liked the plastic membranes instead of doors on the Yulani ship and also the cultural background and attitudes, particularly of the ship designer. great culture and ship design.

Thanks!! rbs

 

[admiralelm11]

I do what I can. Just don’t get stuck in the wall…

 

[admiralelm11]

Chapter Three

Lieutenant Kandro’s quarters were located on Deck Five, port side and it didn’t take Liz Tennyson long to reach it. She rang the door chimes and waited. There was no answer so she hit it again. There was still no response so she moved to a nearby computer panel and activated a link to the ship’s computer.

“Computer, please locate Lieutenant Kandro.”

“Lieutenant Kandro is currently located in his quarters,” intoned the female voice of the ship’s computer.

Tennyson went back to Kandro’s door and rang the chimes again. When there was no answer, she banged on the door. “Valian!,” she shouted. “Valian! Open up!”

“Go away,” came a labored voice from within.

“Valian!,” she shouted for a third time, banging on the door once more. “Valian, let me in.” There was no further response so she returned to the computer panel. “Computer, open the door to Lieutenant Kandro’s quarters, authorization Tennyson-alpha-seven.”

“Unable to comply,” replied the computer. “Insufficient authorization.”

“Damn it,” she said before hitting her combadge. “Tennyson to Engineering.”

“Reeves here,” came the reply.

“Lieutenant Reeves, I need you to turn off power to Deck Five, Section Thirty-Seven for ten seconds.”

“I can’t do that, Liz. It’ll disrupt the repair schedule down here.” She should have expected that it wouldn’t be a simple request with Reeves on duty.

“No arguments and it’s Lieutenant Tennyson, not Liz. Unless you’re now okay with me calling you Bill, this is?” She said it harsher than she should have, normally but she didn’t have the time for this right now.

The communications channel was quiet for a time. She knew that he hadn’t terminated the link and she knew that he was probably standing in Engineering with that look on his face. The look that meant that he didn’t understand why this slip of a girl was above him in the chain of command and he certainly didn’t understand why she spoke to him like he was a child half the time, despite him deserving it.

Finally he replied,” I’m shuttling it off now,” he said curtly before he cut the channel.

Moments later, the section of the corridor that she was in went dark and she moved quickly to Kandro’s door when it slid open. In the event of a catastrophic power failure, most of the doors on the ship were keyed to fall open. Using only the weak illumination from the unaffected sections of either side of Section Thirty-Seven, she stepped inside moments before the power came back on and the doors slid shut again.

That was never ten seconds, she mused.

It was dark inside the cabin and she immediately called for the lights.

As the brightness illuminated the room, Kandro screamed and she followed that scream. He was in the bedroom hidden underneath a blanket, a pillow held over his head. “Shut the lights off,” he whimpered.

Tennyson made sure that she reached the bed first and sat down before she ordered the lights to dim. It took her a while for her eyesight to adjust to the darkness but she could finally make out the huddled form that lay a meter away from her.

“Valian, what’s wrong?,” she asked softly.

“Just leave me alone,” came the Betazoid’s weak response.

“You know that I can’t do that. You’re my friend and you’re obviously hurting. I’m going to get Doctor Hollem to – “

“No!,” Kandro seethed. “All he’ll make me do is take me medicine.”

“You’re having an attack?,” she said in surprise. “Don’t you have any Pylium around?” She was confused now.

“I have plenty. I just don’t want to take it.”

“What the hell are you talking about? You would rather wallow in agony? That doesn’t make any sense.”

He was quiet for a moment and she eased forward, reaching down and taking him into her arms. “Valian, why won’t you take the Pylium?,” she asked him, his head now cradled in her arms.

“Because I want to feel something, Liz. You don’t know what it’s like when I have an attack. I used to be able to deal with it but they’re getting longer and longer. It scares me because I know that one day, I’ll have an attack that won’t end.”

Liz closed her eyes. She knew that his empathic blackouts would, one day, become permanent and he would lose his most important sense. “I know that it frightens you but that’s no reason to punish yourself with pain.”

“Yes, it is. At least, the pain is real. The emptiness that I feel under the Pylium is worse.”

“What’s this really about?,” she whispered.

She felt his head turn in her arms and she could just make out his face in the darkness looking up at her. “I miss Linda,” he said simply. “I can deal with it when I can feel everyone else around me. Feeling their highs and their lows but when an attack comes, I’m cut off. At least with the pain, I have a hard time thinking of anything else.”

“I didn’t realize that you missed her this much. I thought that she was just another notch on the Kandro bedpost,” she said bluntly. They had been friends for too long not to be honest with each other.

“I never had a notch get killed before. I saw her body afterwards. It doesn’t get more real than that. It makes it worse because I now resent the Captain for destroying the Borg enclave on Malthea II.”

“I don’t follow?”

“At least, Linda’s memories would have survived there as part of that small Collective. Now they’re gone forever.”

“Whoever thought that we would find a use for the Borg,” she said, her voice tinged with irony.

“At least the Borg are never alone,” Kandro said and Tennyson suppressed a shudder.

“Look, I’m going to get you a hypospray and give you a shot.” He began to protest but she shushed him. “It’s okay. I’ll stay with you tonight. You won’t be alone.” Reaching down to the bedside table, she fumbled around for a few seconds before finding the hypospray that she knew would be there. She gave him the shot and then laid him back down. Then she laid down beside him and wrapped a protective arm over him.

“What did I ever do to deserve a friend like you, Liz?,” he asked, a little of his natural cockiness returning as the Pylium kicked in.

“I don’t know, Valian, but we’re stuck with each other. Don’t you forget that. If I ever find out that you’re hiding stuff from me again and I’ll kick your ass all around this ship! Now shut up and get some rest.”

“Yes, sir!”

* * * *

When Kehen suddenly awoke, she was covered in sweat and she was surprised to find the sheet cast aside onto the floor. Her breathing was heavy and she was scared for some reason. She tried to remember the dream but it was gone now. She knew that it had something to do with Yannis though. Carefully, she slid off of the bed and, clad only in her nightdress, padded quietly into the main living room. She drank three glasses of water in a row before she finally felt sated. She was starting to cool down as well and shivered slightly. Resolving to grab her dressing gown from the bedroom, she turned to walk back and she froze.

The sight of the Thona Relath outside of her window and sitting a few hundred meters away had captured her gaze. Testudo must have reoriented itself while she slept, she theorized. Because the ship hadn’t been visible when she went to bed.

Setting her empty glass down on the table, she walked over to the window and placed her hand on the glass, partially covering the Yulani ship. So many memories associated with that primitive vessel came flooding back to her. Most of them were happy but she couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that she had carried over from her sleep. She shivered again and decided to get dressed.

* * * *

It was early, the next morning, when Lieutenant Tennyson discovered Kehn aboard the Yulani warp ship. “Hey there! Have you been here long?,” she asked as she poked her head between the two seats on the flight deck.

Kehen smiled at her. “Only about two hours,” she replied from the left-hand seat.

Tennyson climbed over the console, having as much difficulty as Doctor Hollem had the day before. “You really didn’t build this ship for tall people, did you?,” she joked after she finally crammed herself into the right-hand seat.

“Did you just think I was short? You’re taller than any Yulani.”

“Hell of a view,” Liz said, pointing at the Testudo above them.

“You should sit here at warp. It’s been a while but I can still remember what it felt like.” Tennyson had seen Kehen excited before but never as passionate as she was now. “It was like riding an ice buggy at high speed. Damn, it was a thrill but it was scary. The first time that we powered up the ion drive past thirty percent, the whole ship almost shook itself apart. I nearly crapped myself!”

Tennyson laughed too. “Now there’s an old Yulani phrase that you don’t hear much of anymore.”

“Yulani? I learned that one from you.”

“It’s nice to see my New Yorker attitude is rubbing off on you!,” she said. “I remember the first time that I traveled at warp speed. It was boring as Hell. I was six weeks into the Academy and they took us on a field trip to Alpha Centauri aboard an old Constitution-class ship. That would have been cool except my class was stuck in the Engine Room at the time!”

“And you’ve been stuck in there ever since?”

“Yeah. Now I’m always in the Engine Room when we go to warp.”

“Have you had a chance to check out our archaic warp core yet?”

“I’m just on my way but I thought I’d come and find you first. The Captain had an idea about checking to see if the ship’s logs could tell us anything.”

“I’m way ahead of you,” Kehen said before hitting a switch on the console between them.

“Science Journal, Eleventh Day of Kulitt, year seven-forty-four.” Yannis’ voice was dry and dusty, reminding Liz of her Vulcan Literature professor at the Academy. “I’ve resequenced the warp manifolds now and I don’t think I’ll get the oscillation problems that I was experiencing before. Assuming that I can coax the warpfield up to Warp Seven or better, I’ll activate the reflective energy pulse and hopefully this time I’ll see some results.”

“That was his last entry,” said Zia. “The eleventh day of Kulitt was roughly three days ago.”

“Okay, next question. What is a reflective energy pulse?”

“I was hoping that you would know that.”

Tennyson shook her head. “I have no idea, but I guess I should head down to the Engine Room and find out. Are you coming?”

“Why not? It’s been ten years since I’ve seen it,” she replied with a smile. “There was one other thing though.” She tripped another switch on the console and suddenly navigational data appeared to be superimposed on the windows. “This was the position of the ship when he made his last log entry. I’ve compared it with where he ended up and…”

“And?”

“... it means that this ship traveled half a lightyear. What’s surprising though is that, according to the navigational logs, the ship was only in flight for a little over one hundred minutes.”

Tennyson did the mental calculations in her head. “I think we really need to see the Engine Room,” she said in awe.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Nice character development on Kandro and Tennyson. thanks!! rbs

 

[admiralelm11]

Chapter Four

An hour later, Lieutenants Tennyson and Kehen were standing in the Engine Room. Once she had done an initial analysis of the warp drive, she immediately asked for the Captain and Commander Masafumi to beam over. They had, bringing Doctor Hollem along at her insistence.

Yashiro was standing with his arms folded, looking at the warp core. “Okay, what are we looking at?”

Tennyson shrugged. “On the whole, a fairly generic second generation warp drive,” she said, gesturing to the spherical object suspended midway between the deck and ceiling by a cluster of six thin silvery tubes. “A standard reaction chamber fed by matter from below and antimatter from above. It’s the reverse of the standard Federation model but by no means is it unusual. The use of multiple magnetic constriction segments is different but they basically do the same job as our single housing. The dilithium articulation frame is nearly identical to one of ours and Zia believes that Yannis had upgraded it significantly. Certainly, there are few if any remnants of the original design.”

“How can you be sure?,” asked Captain Cardonez.

“We have the original design schematics in our ship’s computer. It looks the same but it isn’t. Some of it, Yannis obviously built himself but there are a number of elements that seem to have come from other races. As I said, the articulation frame is Federation technology. Old, certainly, but definitely one of ours. I could be guessing but it looks like it came from a Constellation-class ship. The deuterium control conduits look like they’re of a Yridian design and the EPS taps are –”

Cardonez held up a hand, interrupting her Chief Engineer. “Okay, Liz, I think we get the idea. It’s a hodgepodge of differing designs but on the whole, it’s a pretty ordinary piece of technology. Yes?” Tennyson nodded. “Then how did it do half a lightyear in one hundred minutes?”

“First of all, it didn’t do it in a hundred minutes. The navigational logs indicate that the ship was traveling at approximately Warp Seven for an hour and thirteen minutes of its flight.”

This news grabbed Masafumi’s attention. “What?,” he said, unfolding his arms.

“For the remaining twenty-seven minutes, this vessel was traveling at Warp Nine-Point-Nine-Nine.”

“How the hell did it manage that?,” he asked her. “You said it yourself that the warp core is nothing special.”

“I did. On the whole, I think he was lucky to coax Warp Seven out of it. What he has managed to do was supplement the energy output by routing the plasma stream through something that he called a reflective energy pulse chamber. Or that,” she added, pointing across the room to where a large bubble was attached to the wall.

Cardonez walked over to it and gazed inside. The skin of the bubble was a misty white and inside she could make out a cluster of small brown crystals. “It’s empty except for a few crystals.”

Masafumi grabbed his tricorder. “Strange,” he said. “These crystals seem to be kamerite but I’ve never seen so many in one place. They’re exceedingly rare.”

“They only occur on only one world,” said Kehen. “Feldon, a Ferengi colony.”

Masafumi shook his head. “Kamerite is a pretty extravagance only. The Ferengi sell them as jewelry.”

“Well, that might change if this information gets out,” Tennyson said. “As near as I can tell, kamerite is a fairly inert crystalline form until it’s bombarded with high levels of energy. Yannis has reconfigured his warp core so that the plasma stream coming out of the reaction chamber is funneled through this chamber. When the energy passes over the kamerite, minute quantities are absorbed. However, over time, those qualities build up.

“Does it act like a battery?,” asked Hollem.

“In layman’s terms, yes, but it can absorb extremely high quantities of energy, greater than anything else that I’ve ever seen.”

“So Yannis was running his engine at Warp Seven for over an hour to fuel that crystal,” Masafumi said, beginning to grasp the concept.

“Yes. After which time, he bombarded the kamerite crystal with verteron particles.”

“Let me guess,” Masafumi said. “That caused the crystals to release the energy that they had stored up.”

“Exactly,” smiled Tennyson. “A sudden pulse of energy was channeled into the nacelles. It is quite a radical design if I might add, and that propelled the ship to Warp Nine-Point-Nine-Nine.”

“No offense, but it doesn’t sound too radical to me.”

“Oh, Doctor, it is,” answered Masafumi. “I believe that the last person who attempted such a craft was Zefram Cochrane.”

“You’re right,” said Liz. “The Enterprise concept that he postulated in the late 2090s. It never got beyond the drawing board though because there had never been a way to store that much energy. The Enterprise would have been huge and little more than a giant battery. His concept for advanced nacelles was way beyond the technology to build anyway.”

Cardonez asked,” Theoretically, how long could you sustain such a speed for?”

“That’s the problem. At the end of the day, there’s plenty of starships that can do close to Warp Nine-Point-Nine-Nine, if not match it, and they can do it for longer periods.”

“Nitro,” Cardonez said. Everyone except Tennyson stared at her. The Chief Engineer knew what she was talking about. “In the twentieth century, some automobiles were fitted with a device that pumped nitrous oxide into the fuel system. It had the effect of pushing fuel around the engine faster and increasing the speed of the vehicle. If I remember correctly, it also tended to burn the engine out very quickly.”

“Very good analogy, Captain. That’s pretty much what the reflective energy pulse does.”

“Liz, you mentioned that a lot of Federation starships could go that fast anyway.” Isabel had a conspiratorial look on her face. “What about Testudo? Could this technology be adapted to our engines?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be spec and I don’t know what Starfleet will make of it when Testudo has her next overhaul but I don’t see why not. I take it that you want it as an edge? Remember it’s not the sort of thing that we could use all the time. It might be a one shot deal.”

“The ability to jump to such a speed, even if only for a few minutes, could provide us with a tactical advantage.”

Masafumi cleared his voice. “Captain, I feel I must remind you that, technically, this technology is the property of the Yulani government. I do not believe that they would take kindly to us appropriating it.”

“Thank you, Commander,” Kehen said. “Can I steer the conversation onto a more personal topic? We still don’t know what’s wrong with Yannis?” He looked at Hollem. “Is it possible that the high warp fields had some kind of an effect on him?”

“I don’t see how. There’s no medical evidence to suggest that warp fields have any harmful effect on the Yulani. Certainly, you’ve never had a problem and I’m sure that if other Yulani had, we would know about it.”

“But we can surmise that something in his trip was what shocked him into the state that he’s in.”

“Probably,” said Hollem.

“Then I suggest that there’s only one way to really find out what happened. Let me fly the Thona Relath on another flight.”

“Lieutenant,” said Masafumi,” that is a foolhardy idea.”

“I have to concur,” said Cardonez. “We have no idea what happened to Yannis and nothing to say that the same thing wouldn’t happen to you.”

“I’ve thought this through and I believe it’s the logical thing to do,” said the Yulani pilot. “First of all, I wouldn’t be alone. Liz has volunteered to make the flight with me and there’s no reason that Doctor Hollem couldn’t accompany us as well to keep an eye on our vital signs. Testudo can keep a close watch on us as well, and we would only use a fraction of the energy that Yannis used. Just enough to push us to high warp for a minute or two.”

“We would still be several minutes behind you,” argued Cardonez.

“Close enough if something were to go wrong. Look at it another way. There are hundreds of Yulani out there who are traveling at warp. If there’s some indication that it’s harmful, it would be better if we knew about it.”

“Doctor, what’s your opinion?”

“My opinion, Captain, is that we have no idea what happened to Yannis and whether something similar would happen to Lieutenant Kehen. So there is a risk. However, the Lieutenant is correct. If there is a problem with Yulani at high warp, then this is as good of a way as any other to determine it. I would be on hand and Testudo would be close behind.”

“Do we really want to risk Lieutenant Kehen’s safety in this way?,” asked Yashiro.

“Commander, it’s my safety to risk,” Kehen replied. “There’s another good reason for going, Captain, and that’s Yannis. It’s possible that we might discover something that could help him.”

“He means a lot to you, doesn’t he?,” asked Cardonez.

“Captain, I was seventeen years old when I enrolled at the Elleni Institute. I surprised all of my family and friends by opting to major in Theoretical Warp Studies. No one thought that I would get in for a start. Yannis was considered to be something of a crackpot by a lot of people but he had a way of attracting people to his cause. There were forty of us, competing for three places. Bear in mind that a lot of those were existing students who were in their second or even third years. He chose me because he believed in me. Three years later, when I graduated, he appointed me to his orbital team and a year after that, he chose me to fly the Thona Relath. Pretty much everything that I am, I owe to that man.”

“Lieutenant, I appreciate that he means a lot to you but…” Cardonez began.

“Captain,” she smiled,” it’s not just me. He is quite possibly the greatest Yulani mind of all time. He deserves a better epitaph than being a vegetable.”

Cardonez smiled. “Okay, Lieutenant, prepare the ship for flight. Doctor Hollem, I want her fully monitored during the trip. Zia, remember, two minutes at high warp and no more.”

“Aye, Captain.”

* * * *

The Thona Relath was in flight, an hour later. Kehen was manning the left-hand seat while Liz Tennyson was squeezed into the right-hand seat. Behind them, Doctor Hollem was sitting in a seat that folded up from the deck. He held a medical tricorder that was receiving telemetry data from the cortical sensor fixed behind the pilot’s left ear.

“So, Liz,” Zia asked her,” is this better than the Engine Room?”

“Much better,” the Chief Engineer said as the star’s streaked past the flight deck. “It really is beautiful.”

“Should the ship be shaking as much as it is?,” asked the Bajoran physician.

“The inertial dampeners are a little behind the times, Doc. They’ll keep us safe but they can’t eliminate all of the stress.”

“Warp Six,” Kehen said. “I know that he acquired a lot of additional technology but still, to get this ship to that kind of speed is an achievement.”

“He appears to be a very clever man,” said Liz. “The nacelle design is like nothing that I’ve ever imagined before. It’s left-field but brilliant in its simplicity.”

“Warp Six-Point-Six,” Tennyson said. “Testudo is increasing speed to match us.”

“What’s the status of the reflective energy pulse?”

“Up to sixteen percent capacity by my count. If we get it up to twenty percent, we can go ahead with a two-minute burst, we will need to increase our current speed.”

“I’m way ahead of you,” Kehen said, pushing the toggle to its furthest setting.

“Warp Seven-Point-Zero-Three. I don’t think we’re getting any better than that and the REP chamber is showing twenty-one percent capacity.” Liz tapped her combadge. “Tennyson to Testudo. We’re ready to initiate a warp pulse.”

“Very well,” the Captain replied. “We’re increasing our speed to Warp Nine to gain a head start on you. Hopefully, this will mean that we aren’t too far away once you hit high warp. Doctor Hollem, is everything set over there?”

“Yes,” Captain,” replied the Chief Medical Officer.

“At your discretion, Liz. Testudo out.”

Tennyson took a deep breath and let it out in a low gasp. “Well, I guess there’s no time like the present,” she said, looking over at Kehen.

“I guess not,” she said with only slightly more conviction in her voice than Tennyson.

“Can we go soon, please?,” asked Hollem. “My stomach wants to get back to a ship with real inertial dampeners.”

Both women laughed. The tension that they had been feeling was momentarily broken. “Okay,” the Yulani woman said before she pointed at the single yellow switch in the panel between them,” do you want to do the honors?”

“Nah. This is your show, Zia.”

“Hold onto your stomach, Doc,” she said and flipped the switch.

For a moment, nothing happened and she almost turned the switch again. By the time that she decided to do this, the ship began to increase its speed, not to mention its vibrations.

“Warp Eight… Eight-Point-Seven… Nine-Point-Three… Nine-Point-Six…. Nine-Point-Eight…”

“I think I’m going to be sick!,” Hollem shouted over the rattle that echoed through the ship.

“It’s not long now,” said Tennyson. “Warp Nine-Point-Nine-Seven… Nine-Point-Nine-Nine… We did it! Zia, we did it!,” she cried out and glanced over at the pilot. “No!”

Kehen was thrust back in her seat. Her head was rolled over to one side and her eyes were staring blankly ahead but seeing nothing.

* * * *

Zia Kehen didn’t know what had happened. The last thing that she could remember was sitting in the pilot’s chair and hearing Liz announce that they had reached a speed of Warp Nine-Point-Nine-Seven. Then it was as if a black blanket had gently descended over her that cut off all sight and sound.

No, it was beyond that.

She remembered clutching at her chair’s armrests. That feeling was gone, replaced by nothingness. She no longer felt the pressure of the seat behind her. In fact, she no longer felt anything at all. She couldn’t feel her toes, her eyelids, or her fingers. She tried to open her mouth and take a breath but nothing happened. She thought that she was alone, drifting in a sea of emptiness. The urge to panic was there but she also felt incredibly calm as if she was safe here. Even though she had no idea where ‘here’ was.

She wondered what had happened for a few minutes. It could have easily been hours or seconds or even years. Time didn’t seem to matter much, wherever she was. Before her, thoughts turned melancholy and she imagined never seeing Liella again. Never seeing her parents or her friends again. She was surprised to discover that she was sad about the fact that she would never see Commander Masafumi again and she tried to mentally shake her head clear so she could clear his smile from her mind.

As she did that, she realized that she wasn’t alone.

She felt the tendrils of other minds touching her own. Some of them were gentle but others were more forceful. Alien images flashed through her mind, manifesting themselves as images in her mind’s eye that felt so familiar that she had trouble with separating them from her own memories. She saw a river of blood crash over a clifftop to create a bright red waterfall. She saw through the eyes of a small creature as it crawled across the surface of a crystalline planet. She tasted – remembered tasting – live worms of some kind as she ate them.

Suddenly, she was seeing out of a pair of compound eyes as she swooped over a field of black flowers. Image after image and memory after memory assaulted her until she could hardly remember her own name. An image of a small blue-green-skinned girl smiled at her from her memory. She couldn’t remember the girl’s name. She remembered the first time that she had made love to her wives and remembered the taste of bitter phosphor as she swam through the clouds of a gas giant. Memory built upon memory until she could take it no more and her mind screamed out.

And it was over.

The memories, the images, the smells and the tastes were gone. She was Zia Kehen again and she was completely alone. Strangely, this was worse than the mental confusion that she had felt before. Moments? Or hours?

* * * *

Kehen’s body materialized out of thin air on a biobed next to Yannis Lekon’s. Doctor Hollem and Lieutenant Tennyson appeared a moment later and the Bajoran immediately moved towards the console beside the bed.

“Is she okay?”

“I don’t know. Her lifesigns are stable so she should be okay. It’s exactly what happened to him,” he said, jerking a thumb over at Yannis. “Nurse Wickham,” he barked, "get me twelve cc’s of Leporazine!”

A moment passed by and the red-haired nurse returned with a hypospray. Hollem snatched it from her and injected Kehen with it. “Come on, Zia,” he muttered while he watched her vital signs. “Damn it! No change.”

At that moment, the doors to Sickbay opened. Captain Cardonez walked in, closely followed by Masafumi and Kandro.

Hollem looked up. “I don’t have a lot of room, people.”

Cardonez ignored his comment. “Same as Yannis?,” she asked him.

Hollem looked up from the console. “Exactly the same,” he said, resignation evident on his face.

“I don’t understand,” Tennyson said. “She was fine. We jumped to high warp but it worked. There was nothing out of the ordinary. I just don’t understand.” She looked like she was close to tears.

“I agree. I’ve checked the cortical scans. There’s nothing out of the ordinary about the readings. They remained constant before, during, and after the flight. I had another scanner checking her physically. There was no sudden increase in respiration… blood pressure… nothing…”

“I cannot believe that, Doctor. She experienced the same thing that Yannis did when you reached excessive speed. There must be a reason,” Masafumi said, his voice somewhat louder than usual.

Hollem turned and glared at the First Officer. He picked up a PADD and thrust it into his hands. “Go ahead. You’re the award-winning scientist on board. Find the problem because I can’t!”

To Cardonez’s belief, Masafumi began to read through the information. “Commander?,” she asked, sterner than she anticipated. “I’m sure that when the Doctor says he can’t find anything, he can’t.”

“Even the brightest mind can miss something. Especially when they’re absent-minded to begin with.”

“Stop it!,” screamed Tennyson. “Stop it,” she repeated, sobbing now.

Cardonez reached over and wrapped a protective arm around her shoulder. “It’s okay, Liz,” she said. “Doctor, Commander, stop bickering right now or I’ll releive you both of duty and Doctor Marcizowski can look after Zia.”

“I’m sorry, Captain,” said Hollem.

“I also apologize,” said Masafumi.

“Good. Now let’s clear out of here and let Doctor Hollem look after her,” she added.

“She’s still in there,” Kandro suddenly said.

“What?,” Hollem and Masafumi said simultaneously.

“Zia. She’s still in there. I mean, I can sense her. She’s confused but she’s definitely in there.”

“But you could not sense Yannis, correct?”

“Right, Commander. He’s gone but Kehen is still in there. Although…”

“Yes?”

“She’s fainter now than she was a minute ago,” he replied. “And she’s getting fainter.”

Hollem dashed over to a nearby equipment table and loaded a hypospray with something. Coming back to Kehen’s bedside, he hesitated. “Captain, I’ve got cordrazine here. It’s risky but if Lieutenant Kandro is right, then Zia might be getting further and further away from us by the moment. There’s a good chance that this remedy might kill her. Even if it doesn’t, it could induce brain damage.”

“Captain, surely you are not going to allow…,” Masafumi began to say.

“Commander, if Valian says that Lieutenant Kehen is drifting away, then I believe him.” She turned towards Hollem. “Doctor, on my responsibility. Do it.”

Hollem nodded and gave Kehen the shot.

* * * *

After what felt like an eternity of loneliness, Kehen had decided to try and attract the other minds back again. Her mental scream had obviously registered with them on some level so she tried to ‘think’ at them.

*My name is Lieutenant Kehn from the Federation starship Testudo,* she thought.

Even though she was just a disembodied mind here, her Starfleet training was hard to shake off and she mentally giggled. Composing her thoughts, she tried again.

*Hello?*

*Is anyone there?*

*Hello?*

*Zia?* It was another mind. *Zia Kehen?*

*Praktor?,* she replied.

*Yes. It’s me. Zia, what in the name of Herog are you doing here?*

*Praktor,* she answered. *I have no idea where ‘here’ is.*

*Well, that makes two of us.*

*How long have you been here?*

*I have no conception of how long. It feels like we’ve been talking for days.*

*But it’s only been a few seconds,* replied Kehen,* hasn’t it?*

*I don’t know,* replied the mind of Yannis. *I was lost, confused. I think that I had forgotten who I was. Then I felt your thoughts. They were familiar to me and I was drawn to them. Suddenly, I remembered who I was.*

*What do you remember?*

*I was on my ship. I had just activated some engine modifications that I had made.*

*The reflective energy pulse, right?*

*Right,* thought Yannis. *How do you know about that?*

*How do you think I got here?*

*I’m sorry, Zia. I can’t hear you.*

*I said that’s how I got here.*

*Zia! Zia! Where are you? Where are…*

*Praktor?,* Kehen thought as his mind drifted away from her. It took a moment for her to realize that it was her mind that was drifting away. Suddenly, she felt… something? Hardness beneath her. She could smell things as well. She opened her mouth and took in a huge gulp of air.

“Zia, can you hear me?”

It was Hollem’s voice. Kehen opened her eyes, immediately squinting against the light.

“Hello, Doc,” she croaked.

Blinking her eyes a few times, she opened them to discover a large group of people had congregated around her bed. Hollem, Kandro, the Captain, Liz – who seemed to be crying for some reason, although she was smiling - and Commander Masafumi, relief evident on his face.

“Welcome back, Lieutenant,” said a smiling Cardonez.

“Thanks, Captain. It’s good to be back. Can I get a drink of water?”

“Sure,” the doctor said and moved away to get a drink.

“Lieutenant, I would appreciate a full report on where exactly you’ve been.”

Kehen sat up. “Sure, Captain,” she said, smiling weakly. “Can I do it tomorrow?”

“Of course,” she said, grinning broadly. “In fact, you can have until the day after tomorrow. Any later than that and you’re demoted.”

“Aye, sir,” Kehen said as Hollem thrust a glass of water into her hands. She drank from it sparingly. “How did you get me back?”

“It’s a long story.”

Kehen suddenly glanced over at Yannis. “What about him?”

Hollem shook his head. “Once it seemed like the cordrazine was bringing you back, I tried the same dose on him. There’s no change though.”

“I’m sorry, Zia,” Kandro said. “I could still sense you. Yannis is gone though.”

Kehen began to cry. “He’s all alone there now,” she said but no one standing around the table knew what she meant.

 

[admiralelm11]

Epilogue

Lieutenant Zia Kehen was back on duty, three days later. Doctor Hollem had wanted her to spend another few days in Sickbay but she couldn’t. She was never one to lie around when she was sick and being in close proximity to the body of Yannis was depressing. She wanted to tell the Bajoran doctor to just let his body die but she knew that he couldn’t do that.

Technically, Yannis was still alive and technically he still had some brain activity. She and Kandro knew that whatever made him an individual was long gone from his body but the doctor had to adhere to professional medical procedures. They were due to rendezvous with a Federation transport in a few days that would take both Yannis and the Thona Relath home to Yulan. Until then, the ship from her past was an ever-present sight from her window. She had considered asking the Captain to reposition the Testudo so she couldn’t see it but she decided against it.

It was dark in her quarters now and she sat in a chair. The Yulani funeral dirge played in the background and it was unusually melancholy. Normally she preferred the more upbeat dirges but this seemed to be strangely appropriate.

It was quiet enough for her to clearly hear her door chimes ring. “Come,” she answered and moments later, the doors opened and Commander Masafumi stood silhouetted in the doorway with a small box in his hands.

“Lieutenant, I wonder if I might have a few moments of your time?,” he asked.

She stood. “Sure. Come on in. If you want to know what happened to me and Yannis though, don’t bothing asking. I have no more ideas than the good Doctor.”

“I know. I’ve read your report. No theories at all?”

Kehen shook her head. “So far, the only person with any ideas is Lieutenant Dayle. He referred to something called… ‘astral projection’?”

“Yes, I’ve heard of it. It’s similar to an out-of-body experience, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. He hypothesizes that a Yulani’s ‘astral form’ can become disconnected from their bodies when traveling at high warp. I was okay because I was still tethered to my physical form but Yannis had already drifted away from his body. There was no way to bring him back.”

“It sounds pretty far-fetched.”

“Commander, I was there and I still have trouble believing that it happened. Whatever did happen, I have to be very careful in the future to avoid traveling at high warp.”

“As do all Yulani. Lieutenant Tennyson has removed the Reflective Energy Pulse Chamber from the Thona Relath now with the permission of the Yulani government.”

“Well, there are still his other modifications. I think that the Yulani Space Force will be getting a leap in warp technology soon.”

“Indeed,” said Masafumi. “That wasn’t what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Really? What can I do for you then?”

“I wished to give you a present. Two, actually. Well, in truth, one of them is for your daughter.”

“Presents? I love presents.”

Masafumi reached into the box and produced a clear bottle that he handed to her. She examined it for a moment. Inside of it was a small model that looked like a miniature spaceship of some kind.

“It’s the Yamato,” he said. “A twenty-first century Japanese submersible. It was responsible for charting most of Earth’s Pacific Ocean. I build models all the time and I thought that your daughter might like it.” He was blushing again.

“Now I know why you’re never in the bar,” Kehen said with a smile. “It’s beautiful. I’m sure that Liella will love it. Now what about my present?”

He smiled. “There’s an Intrepid-class starship that has just been commissioned. It was originally intended to be named the USS Phoenix but Starfleet has appropriated that name for a new ship class. I suggested to a close friend of mine at Utopia Planitia that Thona Relath was a good replacement. They agreed. Apparently, even the Yulani government was quite pleased.”

Kehen glanced at the Thona Relath outside the ship before she turned back towards Masafumi. “Thank you, Commander.”

“You’re welcome. That was all that I wanted anyway. I will leave you alone now.”

“Commander,” she said,” I was just about to eat. Have you ever tried traditional Yulani food?” When he shook his head, she added,” Would you care to join me?”

Masafumi smiled before sitting down on a couch. “As an explorer, I would be honored,” he said.

“Great! You’re going to love Krennig moss soup.”


The End.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Great technobabble. Treknobabble... I'm amused by the astral projection as Episode 2 of Star Beagle Adventures is "Astral Traveler" - although our visions of it are quite different. Very interesting concept - a reaction by particular species to high warp. Lots of nice character and relationship development as well.

Thanks!! rbs