EPISODE #53 of STAR TREK: SHUFFLE THE DECK
Star Trek: Shuffle the Deck
Balboa—Deep Space Nine—Federation; Earth—the Essians
#53
Previously:
With out warning, Shigeru stumbled on some rocks and fell to the ground, hitting his head on a large rock. A gash on his head produced blood, and caused dizziness. Shigeru looked up to see the entity, which had moved closer, glowing even brighter. He struggled to stand, but was too week: and it was too late. Thron bent over and picked up a massive boulder, towering over the fallen human, and prepared to bash Shigeru’s head with it.
“And now,” Thron said with a near evil tone, “you will die!”
The wind had picked up momentum as the sun had set, and dust and smaller sized rocks were beginning to be blown about. The light provided by the three hover-board headlights cast an eerie neon glow upon the nearby mountain slope.
The massive Gorn pulled back the rock, and prepared to thrust it down on his helpless prey on the ground. But, from out of nowhere, a phaser beam struck him in the chest, causing Thron to fall back on the ground behind where he stood.
Lt. Elame, who Thron had thrown moments earlier, had been able to pull his phaser out from its pouch. Thron, though he was massive, was also nimble. He fell to the ground, and was able to regain his composure. Baring his teeth a Lt. Elame, Thron stood again, and retrieved the same bolder.
“All you have done,” Thron said with an even more sinister sounding voice than usual, “is changed who will die first.”
He raised the massive boulder above his head and approached Elame.
At that instant a Starfleet shuttle craft dove over the top of the mountain, and zipped down toward the three struggling crew members. Before the shuttle, which was piloted by S’ovak, could land, the hatch opened and Commander West jumped to the fast approaching ground, with his phaser drawn.
Instantly realizing that Thron was in a crazed state of mind, West fired his phaser and the beam struck Thron, throwing the enraged Gorn to the ground.
Shigeru had managed to stand, even though the gash in his head continued to bleed, and caused him dizziness. He pointed past Commander West and to the strange glowing entity near the cliff walls.
S’ovak, who had landed the shuttle craft, joined West as he walked up to Shigeru.
“That thing over there!,” Shigeru said as the howling wind increased, “I think it did something to Lt. Thron’s mind. He went crazy and…”
“Yes,” West said, as he stumbled against the force of the wind, “we know. Now listen to me, all of you!,” West said so that they could all hear him, “we must force our selves to think only pleasant thoughts. That thing feeds of the negative emotions we can produce; they are like food to it.”
“Think humorous thoughts,” S’ovak said. “The archived report we read on your ship seemed to suggest that only by laughing, and showing camaraderie, was it driven off the Starfleet vessel.”
“I know what always makes me laugh; that food fight we had at Starbase 152,” Elame said. He started to laugh as he told the story. “Remember? Captain Duell and Thron got into that argument over what baseball team was better, the Pike City Pioneers or that Gorn team. Then she,” Elame started to laugh, “picked up the plate of goulash and tried to dump it on his head, but he deflected it, and then it landed on Bynak’s head instead.”
Thron, who had regained control of his mind, laughed out loud, having shaken off the stun effects of the phaser. “I do remember that!” Thron said, as he began to laugh a deep, guttural, laugh.
West began to laugh to. He came over to Elame and Thron, who had crawled closer to each other, their wounds to sever to walk just yet.
“The best part,” West said as he sat next to them, laughing as he did, “was when that Ensign, I forget his name, but he threw the pie, missed Thron by inches, and it plowed right into Bynak as well.”
The three of them howled in laughter at that memory.
“That’s when Bynak picked you up,” Elame said to West, “And threw you on that table of Naussicans behind us, and they beat the crap out of you as we all continued to food fight.”
West laughed, though at the time, it wasn’t fun being beaten-up by three of those brutes.
Shigeru, and S’ovak, were monitoring the entity. It was no longer radiating a red glow. It was radiating a green, and then blue, light. As West and the others continued their laugh induced memory of the food fight, the entity, no longer feeling anger to feed off, fled up to the sky and then streaked off into space.
“It worked,” Shigeru said, “How?” He asked S’ovak.
“One of the legends of the lost Hurq treasure,” S’ovak said, “Told a story of how it was protected by a curse that would bring total madness to all that approached it.”
West and the others walked over to where S’ovak and Shigeru stood.
“Apparently,” West continued, “this kind of entity had been encountered in the past by, of all people, James Kirk, his crew, and a Klingon crew that had been taken captive aboard the Enterprise.”
“Perhaps,” Elame said, “This entity was left here by the Hurq to guard their hidden treasure until such time they could return to reclaim it.”
S’ovak nodded, “Unwittingly, your Benzite doctor, and Ensign Davies, must have found their way to treasure and that thing caused him to kill her, and then remove her body far from here so as to hide the location of the treasure.”
“Let us go see the treasure.” Thron said as he pointed towards the darkened area of the mountain that he and Elame were walking towards before Thron was taken over by blind rage.
“Why not,” West said, “we’re here.”
Shigeru stood by the shuttle as the others made their way up the incline. Commander West stopped and looked back to Shigeru.
“Why aren’t you coming Ichiro?” West asked.
Shigeru shook his head, “Mekura hebi ni ojizu,” he said softly in reply.
West was able to translate most of it, “Yeah well, I have bad news for you: Shakespeare didn’t even exist.”
“I shall wait here, none-the-less,” Shigeru said back to West.
West turned to join the others, and then, without warning, a massive stun beam exploded around the general area. They were all stunned, and fell to the ground, out cold. With in moments, six hooded figures walked out of the thick forest in the near distance. They collected up West’s motionless body and the others as well, and put them on the shuttle. One of the unknown hooded figures did as he was instructed and climbed aboard the shuttle and then whisked the fall Balboa crew members, and S’ovak, away.
Several hours later, a Balboa rescue team found the shuttle a hundred miles from the rugged mountain terrain it had been last reported at. Commander West and the others were revived and with out hesitation, West piloted the shuttle back to where they had been attacked.
Ensign Davies, having been freed from the brig, was beamed down and with his memory now restored, showed them where the opening of the cave was that he and Kip’fk had found. Upon entry they found just a large empty cave.
“It was right here,” Davies said, his voice echoing in the darkness.
The treasure was gone. But it was clear, due to some discarded boxes and other trash, that something had been inside this cave. Davies assured West that he, and Kip’fk, had both found the cave packed to the breeching point full of treasure and artifacts from all over the Alpha-Quadrant.
“Who would have done this?” S’ovak asked West as they both watched a large security detail, which had just beamed down from the Balboa, begin to search the entire cave for clues.
“I don’t know,” West said in silent anger. “But I would guess it had to be a force of at least forty or fifty.”
With the treasure gone, and what appeared to be an unknown force somewhere on the planet, Commander knew that the game had changed.
--
Outside the cave, and deep with in the nearby forest, two hooded figures gazed at the bottom of the mountain through binoculars. They were looking at the entrance to the cave, and the Federation crew that scurried about it.
“What now?” One of the hooded strangers asked, as she took off her hood. She had a head of red hair, and was stunningly beautiful.
“We go home,” was the reply from the other figure who removed his hood as well. He was of Vulcan descent, with long black hair that he kept tied in a tight tail down to his waist.
And with that they joined the rest of their crew, who waited patiently in a sleek ship hidden with in the dense forest: The Sheppard. Once they were aboard, the ship vanished from sight.
Continued…
Star Trek: Shuffle the Deck
Deep Space Nine
