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A New Adventure
Part IX: Murmurs in the Dark
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*I remember when you spoke your secret,*
*Having never told another.*
*But you smiled when I replied,*
*That I fear the darkness too.*
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-Risa Sector, 0.17 Light-years away from Gamma Orionis Transwarp Conduit-
The U.S.S. Pallas Helena is reaching its’ destination and has already prepared for the jump into Borg Space. Straight ahead is a dark patch that blocks any light from the opposite side of a viewpoint. The bridge crew looks at the viewscreen trying to figure out what they are looking at. The Captain stands from his chair and walks closer to the viewscreen, his eyes narrowing as he himself tries to identify the anomaly. He turns and raises a hand towards the right side, at operations. “Spectral analysis Mr. Cherrosk. I want to know what this is and why we didn’t receive any word about it.” The captains’ eyes never left the viewscreen.
Cherrosk activated the forward sensor array, the computer however returned with a message that there was nothing present upon completion of the scan. “Well, that can’t be right.”
A rumbling started shaking the ship and the anomaly on the viewscreen grew 10 times larger. “Who took it upon themselves to zoom in.” The captain asked as he kept himself on his feet.
“Captain, the anomaly just increased in size exponentially.”
“Will someone please increase the power of the inertial dampeners?” The Captain asked as he looked towards Cherrosk.
“I already did Captain, it had no effect.” Cherrosk replied as he continued to work. “Captain I am picking up strange particle readings.”
“Clarify Mr. Cherrosk.”
“They seem to be a mix of… Thalaron and Tachyon Captain!”
“What a strange mix.” Spoke Reaver as he reviewed the scans from his seat.
“Agreed. Shields up, Yellow Alert.” The captain took his seat and looked to the analysis data displayed on his chair’s arm console. “Back us away from the anomaly Hal.”
“Aye sir. Backing off, quarter impulse.” Hal responded as he input the commands. The Pallas Helena’s nacelles flared up and the ship began to move backwards away from the growing anomaly. The ship suddenly jolted, as if it backed up against a wall.
“Report!”
“Captain, impulse drive is working however the ship is… stuck sir.” Hal responded with a confused tone of voice. “Increasing to half impulse.” The ship jolted once more, this time violently. “No effect Captain. Should we jump to warp?”
“Negative. Full stop, kill the engines. I have the feeling that we’ve run aground.”
“Aye sir.” Hal spoke quietly, feeling defeated. The Pallas Helena came to a halt, but the image on the viewscreen gave cause for concern. “Are we being pulled into the anomaly?”
“Analysis” Reaver asked looking towards Theo at Operations, as Cherrosk was already running a diagnostic on the engines.
“Sir, we’re not moving an inch. The Anomaly isn’t growing either. IT is MOVING towards US.” Theo answered, giving a baffled look to Reaver.
“How long until it hits us?” Reaver asked.
“Two minutes and 43 seconds.” Theo replied.
Talons tapped his console and spoke, “All hands brace for impact.”
“Captain! I’m picking up triolic waves!” Theo shouted suddenly. The Captain and Reaver shot each other a serious look.
The anomaly moved and soon it was upon the Pallas Helena, an ominous black void. It began to wrap around the ship, engulfing it the way an amoeba ‘eats’. As the black void came into contact with the shields, the ship shook tremendously. Within seconds of contact, the anomaly had fully enveloped the Odyssey class starship. It prevented any light from reaching the ship, and caused the ship to disappear entirely.
“Captain the shields are being drained!” Marietta shouted through the other voices of the bridge crew.
“Reroute auxiliary power to the shields!”
“Shields boosted to 88 percent, but they have resumed dropping!”
The intercom chime came through and Narciso could be heard. “Captain, I just lost power in Science Lab One. Is everything alright up there?”
“Captain Talons here, Counselor come to the bridge.”
“I am on my way Captain.” Narciso didn’t need to hear the serious tone of Talons voice to know that something was going on. He ran out of the massive laboratory and into the corridor passing by crewmembers who were looking around, confused by the tremors. He entered the turbolift and spoke that the bridge was his destination. The turbolift powered up and began to ascend only to come to a complete halt. Narciso turned to the controls to do a manual input for his destination, but as he reached with his hand he was shocked by the console which then went blank. He looked up to the lights as they flickered and then gave a startled jumped as he heard various screams coming from the corridor outside. The screams continued and he was hit by a sudden nausea as a flood of fear crashed into his empathic mind. He held his head and tried to shake off the mental baggage before he overloaded. “so many people... so frightened.” He managed to control his empathic senses and reached for the turbolift doors. He began to try and pry the doors open as more and more screams where heard. He began to pull sideways and as soon as he was getting somewhere, the turbolift lights died out leaving him in darkness. “No…” He walked backwards until he hit the turbolift wall and slid down until he was sitting. “What’s happening…?”
A light shined on the bridge as the Captain placed his emergency flashlight on his left shoulder. “Alright people. Stay calm and grab your emergency flashlights.” Everyone grabbed their equipment from underneath their consoles. As they lit up their flashlights all eyes fell on Marietta and Ric over at their tactical stations. Ric was holding a pulsewave phaser rifle and Marietta was holding her favorite phaser assault minigun. The rest of the bridge was holding standard issue tricorders, save for the Captain who held a phaser rifle. Both Ric and Marietta were already doing a weapons check when they noticed the stares.
Ric looked up and raised an eyebrow. “What? Never saw an Andorian with a shotgun?”
Marietta looked up and spoke after Ric. “What? Never saw a girl with a big piece?”
Even Ric turned and gave Marietta a look after that one. Her response was to load her weapon and put it at the ready.
The Captain looked towards Cherrosk, his flashlight right on the Engineers face. “Is the Warp core still operational Mr. Cherrosk?”
“I can’t tell from here Captain. We lost all power as soon as the anomaly ate our shields and came into contact with our hull. But it seems life-support is functioning fine. That’s the only good news I have for you.”
“Alright people. It looks like we’ve come in contact with a power draining anomaly. But we cannot rule out the possibility that we’ve been boarded. And the fact that Triolic waves and Thalaron particles were observed is cause for concern. Our top priority is to stabilize the ship and restore main power. Seems secondary and even auxiliary power has been cut off.” The Captain moved towards the turbolift, so he could face his officers. “Ric, Marietta, Cherrosk and Theo, you’re with me. We’re going to Main Engineering and we’re going to restore power. Reaver, stay here and try to get some communication from the crew, no doubt they are worried.”
Reaver stood from his seat and moved toward the Captain. “Sir, with all due respect I should take your place. You are the one that should remain on the bridge.”
“Damn it man, you’re not going to quote protocol again are you?”
“Only if you force my hand sir.”
“Fine Number One.” The Captain moved away from the turbolift and opened a hatch which opened a Jeffries tube. “I’m sure you know the way. Try and reach the Battle Bridge on your way to main engineering. We can establish it as a basecamp.”
“Aye sir.” Reaver nodded then moved towards the hatch. “Alright here’s the game plan. Tricorder readings indicate that we have an influx of triolic waves emanating from deck 18, within the various holodecks. Theo, Marietta, you’re on this. Go down there and clear away those waves, check for any afflicted crewmembers and send them to sickbay. I’m sure the Doctor has already started triage. Ric and Cherrosk, you’re with me. We’re going to Main Engineering and we’re going to restore power. Tricorder readings can’t penetrate the triolic wave interference. So we’re going in blind. Everyone ready? On me!” Reaver spoke as he climbed into the Jeffries tube and began to crawl at a quick pace. Cherrosk went in after him, followed by Ric. Theo and Marietta went in last with Marietta taking up the rear. She and Theo were thin enough to go in as a pair, but her bulky weapon was not. Unable to help herself she gave a slap to Theo’s rear causing the young man to look back.
“Inappropriate timing!”
“I couldn’t resist myself! I can SEE why Narciso couldn’t either.”
“Who told you!?”
“His Grandmother of course! Now get going and shut up. The others are way ahead already.”
The group crawled and then slid down ladder after ladder until they reached deck fourteen. Reaver pulled out his tricorder from his holster and scanned the deck. “Marietta, head towards the bow with Theo. I’m getting strange readings from my tricorder, but you’ll have a direct path down to deck eighteen.” Reaver pointed towards a path while he and the other half of the team continued downwards.
“Aye sir. Come on Borgy.” Marietta teased as she ducked and crawled into the opening of yet another Jeffries tube.
“Marietta that’s hurtful.” Theo called out as he followed her motions.
“It’ll give you an excuse to talk to Narciso when this is over.”
“I know you’re trying to help, but it’s complicated.”
“He’s beautiful, your horny, I say go for it.”
“You make it sound so simple. And I’m not ‘horny’. I’m… intrigued.”
“Geez you make him sound like a spacial anomaly.”
“You know what I meant. Besides, he and Commander Reaver are one.” Theo looked ahead past Marietta and noticed something odd. “Hey, is that hatch look open to you?”
Marietta stopped and looked forwards, instead of down at her hands which was her habit. “It’s cracked open slightly. Someone must have forgotten to close it.”
“Or they didn’t manage to get through it fast enough. Take a look at my tricorder readings.” Theo spoke as he passed his device forwards, nudging it on Marietta’s side.
“I know I’m not the best with tricorders.” Marietta spoke as she tried to handle the device ‘delicately’. But, if this is saying what I think it is… then there are petrified remains on the other side of that hatch.” She handed the tricorder back and signaled for Theo to follow her with a hand motion. The pair crawled with haste, reaching the open hatch in a few seconds. Marietta peeked out of the slight opening and looked downwards to see a stone like composition. She reached up and pushed the hatch open further only to hear the sound of rocks shattering and hitting the floor. She gave out a gasp at the sight. A crewman had fallen on the floor and had reached up to open the hatch. His arm, which now laid in pieces, had been reaching upwards, the hand still grasping the handle. Marietta had to tear her eyes away from the sight only to see something more disturbing: All of the people within Fourteen Forward had been petrified and the vast majority laid in scattered rocks and dust.
Theo moved out from behind Marietta, seeing the sight for himself. “My god… What caused this?”
Marietta knelt down and looked onto the face of the crewman. “This was Craig… There’s Annabel… and T’pel… Mon Deus…” She stood back up and looked towards Theo. “Romulans. They caused this. With their Thalaron weapons.” She moved towards the doors and left into the corridor. Theo had never seen her so upset. He quickly followed after her and the two entered another long Jeffries tube.
Reaver, Cherrosk and Ric managed to bypass the upper decks and came out onto deck nineteen. Cherrosk took out his tricorder and began scanning. He was going to tell their location, but Reaver beat him to it.
“We’re on deck nineteen. The battle bridge is down this corridor and up one level to deck eighteen.”
“I, for one, hate how the decks of this ship interchange into each other.” Ric spoke up, having always had problems reading maps.
“Noted. Now let’s get going. Once we set up secondary command, we’ll be able to open the coms with the main bridge. Then we can work on getting down to Engineering.” Reaver spoke quickly and gave the order to continue moving. They reached the turbolift doors that were meant for the battle bridge only. Cherrosk stood before the doors, waiting for something. Ric and Reaver only stared at him, then at each other. Finally having gotten annoyed, Ric shouted. “Dammit man! Did you forget the power is out!?” He reached and grabbed Cherrosk by the back of his collar and began to pull him away from the doors.
“Wait-wait-wait!” Cherrosk shouted as he was being dragged. “I heard something behind the doors!” He pointed towards them as he finished his sentence and without warning the turbolift doors opened and something lunged out at the trio, striking Reaver square in his chest and onto the floor on his back. The flash of blue confused the men, who stumbled to try and find it in the dark with their lights.
“There! There!” Cherrosk shouted as he landed his flashlight dead-on with the creature in the spotlight. “DEVIDIAN!”
Ric raised his pulsewave rifle and fired shot after shot at the specter, which managed to dodge all but the final shot, knocking it down. Reaver regained himself and stood up, aiming his phaser rifle at the motionless creature. “Jesus, Ric. How many modifications have you done to that rifle?”
“A lot sir. Marietta and I exchanged weapon tips.”
“Oh, then I’m not surprised. We need to report this right away.” Reaver and the others gave a jump as the specter appeared to dissolve into nothing after being defeated, its energy released. Calming themselves, they found the only hatch into the battle bridge and crawled onto the bridge. The space was eerily quiet though well kept. Cherrosk moved towards the operations station and attached an auxiliary battery. The station’s main console booted up and came back online.
“Good Cherrosk. Try hailing the bridge.”
“Opening specific communications sir. Done. Give it a try.”
“Reaver to the bridge, can you hear me?”
“We hear you loud and clear number one.”
“Glad to hear that Captain. We have reason to believe that this is a Devidian attack on the Pallas Helena. We just neutralized a member of their boarding party.”
“Is that so? This just got more complicated… Marietta just reported casualties.”
“They have already begun to feed on the crew?”
“No number one. She reported the remains of seventeen petrified crew members. They were hit with a Thalaron explosion.”
“Thalaron… that explains the strange readings we picked up.”
“Number one, it is imperative that you hurry to Main Engineering. We need to get back control of our ship.”
“Yes sir. Understood. Ric will stay on the battle bridge and relay our communications. Cherrosk and I will continue to Main Engineering.”
“Acknowledged. Also, Marietta reported that she has pinpointed a large singularity within Holodeck six. She says Theo believes it is the cause of the interference of our normal coms. They have gone to neutralize it. Expect similar events.”
“Roger that Captain. Reaver out.” With the com closed again Reaver moved towards the hatch again. His mind going a mile a minute with thoughts regarding their situation. It didn’t make sense to him. Devidian and Romulan influences on the ship, it didn’t add up. Something bigger was happening. If Thalaron weaponry was used, it could easily have wiped out the entire crew and the Romulans would have complete control of the ship. The Tal Shiar would be that efficient and blunt. The Devidians were much slyer. They operated under the radar. And the fact that they only ran into one is troubling. They always moved in groups and operated as such.
Marietta and Theo had reported to the captain. Once finished Theo removed the auxiliary battery and they continued towards holodeck six, where their tricorders were reading a high concentration of triolic radiation. They moved with speed and caution, Marietta rarely exhibited the latter. With the holodeck doors before them, the pair moved before the large doors and found the manual release. The doors opened slightly. Theo passed through with ease; Marietta did as well save for her large weapon. Cursing out loudly, Marietta pulled and pulled while positioning the weapon in all possible ways. She finally placed herself in the middle of the doors, pushing with her backs and her legs. The doors opened enough that her assault gun went through just barely.
Finally having caught up to Theo, she finally took heed of the bright blue light coming from a large triolic portal. Theo stood looking at it like a dear in headlights. Marietta herself kept looking back and forth from the portal to Theo with a wide open mouth in sheer awe. The portal itself was taking up more than half of the entire holodeck. It was not the standard for actual Devidian portals, and it kept fluctuating in its pulses. Marietta finally snapped out of her shock and delivered a slap to the back of Theo’s head. “Snap the Hell out of it! We have to close this… thing!”
“Why don’t you just try firing at it. You might disable it’s frequency enough to cause it to collapse.”
“Great idea!!!” Marietta shouted after she had already lifted and aimed her weapon.
Just as Marietta began to fire Theo went down in a huddle and braced himself for whatever might happen. Marietta unleashed a massive volley of an assault, putting her weapon on widespread targeting. The singularity began to destabilize and compress then expand and on and on until finally it collapsed entirely while giving off an explosion of energy which sent Marietta flying to the wall and crashing to the floor. Theo was able to withstand the blast due to his ‘defensive position’ (taking the fetal position of the floor). He jumped to his feet and ran to Marietta. She suddenly sprang to her feet and let out a howl. “MON DEUS! THAT! Now THAT was awesome!”
“…How are you not dead yet?”
“I’m wearing a kinetic-resistant armor.”
“Under your uniform?”
“Of course. You honestly think I could Rambo like this constantly and leave with only a bruise or two?”
“A lot of things just made a shit ton of sense…”
“Alright borgy. Let’s go, the singularity has been neutralized and look. Backup power is online!”
“But something is still blocking main power. Good thing the others are heading straight for Main Engineering.”
“Yeah…. Something is fishy though… Thalaron weaponry in ten forward… and a unnaturally made Devidian portal here in the holodeck…”
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On the main bridge,
“Captain!”
“Yes Ensign?”
“We’re getting reports from all over the ship. The crew is calling in casualties… All Thalaron related. As well as the defeat of random Devidians sir. All sections have reported in save for Main Engineering.”
“Wait, where were the Thalaron incidents located?”
“Scattered randomly throughout the ship sir.”
“Randomly. Are you certain?”
“Now that you mention it sir, their appears to be a pattern to the incidents.”
“As I thought… It’s not a natural phenomenon from the spacial anomaly that is engulfing us… They were distributed by an intelligence…”
“Why would someone do that? With Thalaron weaponry, we could all be wiped out.”
“It’s a distraction tactic. They don’t want all of us to die… We need to get main power back now!”
~To be Continued~
