ULC-Annual Prompt 2: 'Rouge'

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• hawku001x Member Posts: 10,758 Arc User

  February 2017 edited February 2017

  Captain Oroku Seifer sat in command of the Pathfinder-class with Discovery-class pylons U.S.S. Ragnarok as it approached a giant, anomalous nebula in space.
  
  "Ah, interstellar matter, the wrath of Kahn of the universe in gaseous, fragmented, non-racially confused form," Seifer said in pleasing and comforting way.
  
  Aramaki turned in his chair to observe the view screen. "Except we never planned to check this thing out; just ran into it. And it's not a harmless anomaly, but a Zanthi-class nebula; the kind that infects people and Betazoids and transmits feelings of love and affection to everyone on the crew or space station— whichever the plot device conveniently provides."
  
  "Ugh, Lieutenant, that is such a set-uppy thing to say," criticized the Captain. "You're on break early, but stay out of the coffee room. Someone's been stealing the filters and I have a hidden camera set up that I don't want you to accidentally block because you don't know where it is."
  
  Suddenly, the Zanthi nebula moved toward the Ragnarok, enveloping it completely and infecting the entire senior staff and crew.
  
  "Aaauhhh! It's on me. It's all over me!" Moggs reacted in panic as he tried to brush the pink dust off his Caitian fur. "Everything sticks. You don't know what it's like to be a giant cat. None of you get me!"
  
  Edward watched him from her helm position. "Awww. He's so cute when he's angry. I just want to squish him."
  
  "Oh, no. Seifer to Engineering, what's the status of the engines??" the Captain said, suddenly sitting up in his chair in fear.
  
  Winry's reply came over the air. "Just what you expected, sir. The warp core attracted the nebula to the ship and now it's neutralized our engines completely beyond operational recognition."
  
  "How do you know what's going on from down there? There aren't any windows? Also, I removed several key ceiling pot lights that I thought could save us power in the long run."
  
  The Chief Engineer replied, "We have a Traveler down here who is constantly expanding his mind to the Bridge and describing everything that's going on. He knows that all you sickos taste-tested heart of targ yesterday. You know who you are."
  
  "What's going on?" asked Captain Aeris as she entered the Bridge. "I was just checking out the forbidden back-room lavatory when I was suddenly assaulted by an unusual mixed aura of Deanna Troi brand lust and self-arousal."
  
  Seifer slouched, defeated. "Gah. We ran into a Zanthi nebula, and now everyone on the crew is going to suffer the Love at First Sight trope like nobody's business."
  
  "You know, you could have waited to do this when we weren't going to go to the Starfleet Headquarters Captain's Bowl of Worms Dinner together. That's the last time I abandon my ship for a shortcut with you," she disputed.
  
  But, while she was talking, Seifer couldn't help but draw a sudden, unwarranted affection and appreciation for her as she stood before him explaining her backstory and what she was doing there.
  
  "Are you listening to me or Kirk-staring at me?" Aeris interrupted herself, impatiently. "You know he gained, like, 30 pounds by the end of his five-year mission."
  
  It was then she and Seifer noticed the other Bridge officers drooling over each other in reaction to the Zanthi infection, with Edward trying to leap onto Moggs without hesitation. "Aauuggh!" Moggs yelped, struggling to get away. "She's found a way to purr as a Human, which should be physically impossible?!"
  
  "Damn, it's already started," Seifer said, getting to his feet. "If I don't get us out of this convenience-machination, we'll all be descending into NX-01 Decon Chamber debauchery. What's more is the possibility of reaching Vulcan neuro-pressure levels."
  
  He fought his unrelenting urge to confess his lust for Aeris, covered his vision, and entered the turbolift as fast as he could.
  
  ---
  
  Entering Engineering, Seifer was quick to lock the doors behind him, securing the area from any extraneous intruders. Winry was busy staring at a PADD before she noticed him.
  
  "Oh, don't mind me. I was just admiring how attractive Aramaki was in his profile picture," Winry said. "His image popped up when I Voyager's-Doctor-view-screened the Bridge, looking for you. Being confined to one spot on the ship has its quirks, video-calling-people-wise, at least."
  
  Seifer furrowed his brow at her. "You're not a hologram; you're Human, and you're free to go anywhere you want on the ship??"
  
  "Yeah, but my dedication to the job force-marries me to one spot, which is the least I can say about my desire to force-marry Aramaki. But he'd better provide for me, because I have my out-dated, ostracized fetishes that don't fit in with today's updated world views."
  
  The Captain gritted his teeth. "Too much info, Winry. And it's that damn nebula that's causing us all to fall into licentious sexism disguised as delightful quirks that are borderline-safe for the whole family. We have to get the engines online and us out here as soon as we can."
  
  "Oh, Captain, if only you knew how I felt and how much my libido is controlling me like Data being possessed so many times on the Enterprise," she said, taking his hands into hers.
  
  Seifer's eyes widened. "You have feelings for your old Captain, too, huh? It's nothing to be ashamed of, considering Tasha Yar once came on to Picard when Q put her in that non-visible, non-existent penalty box farce."
  
  "What? I don't mean you; I'm talking about Lieutenant Aramaki! I just have a thing for Asian-descent men."
  
  The other man threw up his hands, channeling annoyance and sarcasm. "Well, thanks for the rest of us! Never mind. We have to find a way to forget our love obsessions and focus on the weird, convenient-sciencey problem at hand."
  
  "But is love even real to begin with, or are we falling for a chemical reaction that merely compels our animal-kind to breed?"
  
  Seifer deadpanned her. "Of course it's real. It's magical and mystical and unexplained in all facets of spiritual mindfulness."
  
  "That's not scientific at all, Captain. In fact, I think you're just mashing words together to make it sound more brazen than it really is."
  
  Pointing accusingly, Seifer replied, "Only non-enchanted, non-miraculous, magic-lacking Odo-talkers speak like that! Where is your sense of wonder and that rose-colored VISOR I got you for your birthday?"
  
  "I keep telling you that's not a Chief Engineer thing and that Geordi was blind! Just because there was never an explanation or plot point about his changing to eye implants out of nowhere doesn't mean he was doing it for fashion."
  
  Seifer reassured her, "Still, though, everyone's doing the tech-on-face thing now. Seven of Nine gets it. Gaius Selan totally gets it."
  
  ---
  
  Later, the two found themselves in the Holodeck within Vic's lounge in 1961 Las Vegas, with holographic representations of Aramaki and Aeris.
  
  "Now, when Vic was trying to shake Odo's frigidness, he used a Kira-lookalike hologram to melt his cold, non-physically-existent heart with an amorous rendition of Little Willie John's Fever," Seifer explained as he sat next to Winry at the piano. "If a duet by these two heart-throbs doesn't scream 'spellbinding' then you've got nothing in you and you're the Devil!"
  
  Suddenly, the holographic representations of both officers began singing, with Aeris first: "Never know how much I love you; Never know how much I care."
  
  "When you put your arms around me; I catch a fever that's so hard to bear!" Aramaki continued, lying across the top of the piano as sultry as a man could trying to imitate Lola Chrystal.
  
  Winry halted the music and stood up. "Not that this isn't convincing enough to make me want to jump this brilliant man's bones, but all that you're demonstrating here is lust, which only serves to reinforce my point about people just being breeding machines."
  
  Seifer, suddenly unable to pull his frozen gaze from the holographic Aeris, murmured, off-track, "The who in the what now?"
  
  ---
  
  Later, Seifer trapped Winry with the real Aramaki and Aeris in the Delta-class shuttle Mako.
  
  "When Tom Paris and B'Elenna Torres were racing the Trans-Stellar Rally, Tom stopped the Delta Flyer II to confront her skewed feelings, confess his love and eventually ask B'Elenna to marry him," Seifer explained. "If you refuse similar compulsions, you're a pariah!"
  
  Winry was cramped up against the other three as the shuttle was full of excess cargo: Packaged worms for the Starfleet dinner, later.
  
  "What's going on again?" Aeris asked, confused, also cramped and struggling. "And why do you keep your original pylon parts in your cargo bay, forcing your normal cargo into shuttles??"
  
  Aramaki attempted to nudge a cargo container jutting into his back. "Oh, targ manure," he said in shock. "I just opened one of the compartments!"
  
  "Ugh! Worms??" panicked Winry as a large chunk of wiggly creatures poured onto her shoulders.
  
  Seifer backed away but hit another container, opening it, and pouring even more worms out onto his own shoulders. "This was a bad idea! I see that now."
  
  ---
  
  Later, Seifer, Winry, Aeris and Aramaki found themselves in the Arboretum, where it was brimming with plant life; so much so that its growth continued out into the rest of the corridors, turning the entire deck into a jungle.
  
  "When Worf and Jadzia had to rendezvous with a spy on Soukara, Jadzia became injured in the jungle and Worf was forced to choose between his duty or his beloved," Seifer explained just before he took out a phaser and fired a beam into both Aeris and Aramaki's legs. "If you choose duty, you're a ne'er-do-well!"
  
  The victims both then screamed in pain. ""AUGHH!!""
  
  "And now, our mission: I order us to reach Section 28 and leave our love interests behind, for duty, except if, perchance, our hearts take over and force us to go back to save their lives," the Captain continued just before he and Winry ran off into the jungle that was Deck 14.
  
  As the pair were running and panting in a breathless panic through the foliage, Winry stopped them both just a few meters before their appointed goal. "Hold on a second. This is crazy? We should go back for them because this is just a fake order, and the Dominion War is not at stake!"
  
  "Or, are you so lost in fear for Aramaki's life that you would abandon any order to save him for his well-being and the power of love?" Seifer criticized.
  
  Winry deadpanned him. "You know he's the only one on this ship who can fire the torpedoes, right?"
  
  "My precious Attack Pattern Delta!" Seifer panicked, abandoning all arguments of any kind. He then ran back for the injured parties, followed by Winry.
  
  By the time they reached them, Aeris was already wrapping a bandage around her leg wound. Winry glared at Seifer, critisizingly. "You left her a first aid kit, cheating your own test??"
  
  "Yeah," Seifer shrugged, guiltily. "I couldn't allow her to suffer or lose her life. That in itself proves my point from the very beginning."
  
  Aeris glanced at him and smirked, finally catching on. "So, you do have a thing for me, huh? I thought as much."
  
  "Fine. I'd like to specify that my claim of a chemical-reaction extends to delusions of love, and that, thanks to my observations of your actions and my internal reactions, perhaps it's all the same in the end," Winry finalized. "It all does or doesn't matter."
  
  The Captain nodded. "I can live with that middle-ground."
  
  "Auugggghh! Is anyone going to help me??" Aramaki complained, seething in physical discomfort. "I'm literally bleeding out all over these asclepias curassavicas."
  
  Aeris turned to the group. "Speaking of 'out', what about leaving this Zanthi nebula? Weren't you guys working on that problem before you shot us in a very sociopath-driven way?"
  
  "Oh, that? A frequency modification of -04.7 to our warp core reaction should cause a rejection of the matter surrounding the ship," explained Winry. "Like Geordi, I was so distracted by this love obsession, I lagged in the actual situation at hand."
  
  Seifer's eyes widened in shock. "In effect, we poison the milk! No one's ever thought of that!"
  
  "So, Captain, they say these forced-attraction love spells stem from latent pre-existing feelings," Aeris began. "Are you sure that's how you want to start things, by proving that you're so layered and deep that I should, by default, be interested in you?"
  
  Seifer recoiled. "Ugh. That's inherently predictable and over-done. How about I drop a stack of PADDs and when we both reach for them our hands accidentally touch?"
  
  "That's just as over-done, but not as layered and, thus, less looming," she said as they both began walking out of the Arboretum. "Count me in."

  Post edited by hawku001x on February 2017

  

  USS Phoenix-X Literary Index | Comics | Most recent story: "The Opposite of That"

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• aten66 Member Posts: 654 Arc User

  February 2017 edited February 2017

  Lovesick
  
  Eta Serpentis Sector
  
  Archon-Class Intel Cruiser, U.S.S. Stardust
  Sickbay, Makeshift Decon Chamber
  
  “If you stop moving around, I’ll be able to get a clear reading on your Ankaran Flu,” the Doctor says, while leaning over a fidgeting Ohir, who was getting restless for the chance to go beyond his makeshift cell, “Be happy Cortez caught onto the fact you showed signs of going into the early stages of the flu, and managed to get you started on the treatment ahead of schedule; otherwise I doubt you would be being cleared today.” The emergency holographic doctor had the same constitution as most Mk.1’s, but then again Ohir was happy to have the emergency hologram around, with how infectious the flu could be spread, he was happy to put up with the Doctor’s lack of social grace and professional courtesy for the past six days.
  
  “Sorry Doctor, but three days ago we received new orders from Starfleet and were directed to a newborn stellar nursery in the sector, three hundred years ahead of its projected formation,” Ohir states, “With the Tzenkethi working with artificial singularities in the Gon’cra sector, it’s worth a note to see if their is any correlation between this nursery forming faster than expected within the nebula, and the Tzenkethi protomatter production.” The Doctor sighs and nods in agreement.
  
  “Very well, that’s all good and such, but it won’t make the tricorder readings process any faster, Captain, and while I am not Chief Medical Officer T’Vrell, I have the authority to still pull rank with various clauses available for me to pick out of a hat,” the Doctor rebuts, “So stay still for a minute and let me check your cardiovascular system and clear you for active duty!” Suddenly a chime from Ohir’s comm-badge goes off, and he answers, to the annoyance of the hologram.
  
  “Captain, just wanted to make you aware we are now approaching the stellar nursery at one quarter impulse, and nothing seems out of the ordinary,” Zelok states from the bridge, “Flores hasn’t got us caught in a Klingon blood-feud, or sucked into the Gamma Quadrant, and it seems the area is relatively free of strong or unusual gravitational forces associated with a nursery; so we might just make it out of this mission without a scratch!” Ohir chuckles at that, before standing still as a board as the holographic doctor returned to the medical check up.
  
  “Well, it seems you’re in perfect health,”the Doctor says, “I’d sanitize and replicate new personal effects if I were you,but I’d say you’re as healthy as a Horse on-” Suddenly the ship rocks and the hologram falters before stabilizing.
  
  “Ohir to bridge, what just happened?” he asks, “Zelok, don’t tell me a Tzenkethi dreadnought just decloaked with a House of Torg ship and opened an artificial wormhole deep into Dominion territory?” The attempt at humor was met with silence. Ohir tried to step out of the room, but jumped back when the emergency force field stung him in return, obviously not knocked out like the remainder of the ships systems seemed to have been.
  
  “I’ll attempt to unlock the force field,” The Doctor says, stepping out of the makeshift decon chamber and into Sickbay proper, “I’ll get you out in a jiff-” At that it was then the ship chose to go to red alert, as the ship was rocked by another blow. Within moments it seemed the ship was going to continue working against him leaving this stifling cell, when the red alert ended and the sickbay doors automatically opened, shutting down the force field as well. “Well that is just strange, why are the doors opening?” the Doctor says to himself, before he notices a strange pink vapor floating through the air and into sickbay, “Yes, well, let’s get that force field back up now, level ten, shall we!” At that Ohir was possibly the most aggravated he had been in the past year and a half of his life as a Starfleet Captain, but choose to ignore those feelings when the pink mist seemed to encompass everything and begin to press in towards the force field, causing sparks to dance as blue and pink clashed together.
  
  “Well, that is quite unexpected,” the Doctor says, clearly unaffected, “Since no one seems to be bothering...” The Doctor’s medical colors shift to red and he quickly moves over to the nearest console, inputting a command to vent the foreign particles in the air. Before he even completes the action, the pink dims and dissipates, leaving the Doctor and Ohir quite puzzled. “Well, I can tell you no one on this ship did that,” the Doctor says as he switches to his normal programming, “The air filters were still offline, though it seemed that we had gotten hit, the breach was pinpoint and sealed almost immediately before whatever that was happened.” The Doctor scans for a moment, before giving of an elongated sound of puzzlement, and lowers the force field.
  
  “Whatever that was isn’t infectious?” Ohir asks, stepping down from the area he had been held in, “Or did the force field fail to keep whatever that was out, even at level ten?” The Doctor shakes his head in the negative.
  
  “Quite the opposite in fact, the gaseous reaction that caused the explosive and colorful diffusion, seems to have decayed quickly due to our oxygen/nitrogen mixture,” the Doctor states, “Whatever held that pink cloud together broke down as rapidly as it diffused to fill the ship, so much so that I’m barely get a millionth parts per square foot, and decaying at half that rate that it will be inconsequential whether or not you get exposed now or later.” Ohir quickly moves to exit the sickbay and head to the bridge, when the Doctor clears his throat.
  
  "I’ll join you on the bridge in a minute, I need to find my mobile emitter, in case this thing has knocked out any of our systems on other decks,” he states, “We need to know how everyone has reacted to the gas, so I suggest making a ship-wide call to check in with medical personnel about the status of the ship, and find out which decks there aren’t medical staff on hand, and check them out asap.” Nodding Ohir continues on his way to the turbolift. As he does so, the doctor finds his missing emitter and picks it up, activating it as he does so, and moves to leave Sickbay. As he walks, the pink silicate left on his emitter from the event, sparkles as it falls off disturbed by the jarring motions.
  
  
  Bridge
  
  Arriving on the bridge, Ohir was quite surprised to see that almost everyone was okay, and working on the bridge. “First Officer Flores, Commander Zelok,why did you not answer my communication?” Ohir states, “I tried to contact the bridge, why did no one respond if you were all okay?” The purple and white-masked Saurian turns to the Euroafrican first officer, and both turn to their Captain.
  
  “Sir, there was a minor glitch in the comms system, but the spatial turbulence wasn’t anything major, the pinhole was sealed in seconds,” Zelok responds, “We hadn’t drifted off course or anything in those ten seconds it took to put a force field up.” Ohir was staring incredulously at his two officers, and clearly resisted the urge to facepalm.
  
  “Did you all just ignore the chemical reaction that spread through the ship in one massive burst?” Ohir says, “The giant, pink cloud that blew through the hallways like a sandstorm through Vulcan’s Forge?” Elisa Flores puts a hand to her mouth and purses her lips.
  
  “Sir, we don’t have any records of anything happening less than ten minutes ago, besides a momentary loss of power for a few seconds, but emergency systems compensated very quickly,” the black haired woman with steely-grey eyes responds, “Check out the computer records for the past fifteen, if you need to assure yourself.” She points to an empty station, which was currently empty. Ohir sighs and walks over to the system, quickly looking over the systems logs, which corresponded to their claims, then he moved to check the internal cameras. He checked up to the past twenty minutes of footage, just minutes before the first disturbance, when the camera’s imaging systems switched to a fuzziness, at the same time the pink cloud had swarmed the ship, and did not restore imaging until six minutes later, which showed the bridge clearly. It was as if they had all been knocked unconscious with sleeping gas, and then began to wake, shaking off the effects and continuing on as if nothing had happened.
  
  “Captain,” Zarva says, calling in from engineering, “I think I need you to come down here to check something out.” Ohir pauses in his restoration of the disruption in the cameras, and weighs his options before making a decision.
  
  “I’ll be right there,” Ohir says before he begins to mutter to himself, moving away from his fruitless search over the computer records, “Perhaps there is other evidence elsewhere...” Going to the turbolift, Ohir sets it to go to engineering just as Flores moves to join him. “Going somewhere?” he asks, “Aren’t you supposed to be on watch in my absence?”
  
  “Zelok has an officer on the bridge to fill in for him, so he can watch over the bridge in my place,” she rebuts, “Deck Ten, please.” The turbolift closes and Flores moves to take off her intelligence styled overcoat, revealing a lighter undershirt that fit her quite well and modestly. “I felt like going for a drink, it gets hot and stuffy staying cooped up in that bridge for hours at a time,” she states, “My shift was almost over anyway, and I thought I could convince you to... join me for a glass of synthale?” Ohir merely stares at her for a second before giving a chuckle.
  
  “Perhaps another time, Flores, right now I have my own mystery to solve, and Zarva needs something from me in Engineering,” Ohir states, “Maybe tomorrow after both of our shifts end, I can join you for an evening drink and convince the chef to pull out one of his reserve bottles of Chateau Picard out of hiding.” Ohir smiled as the turbolift doors open, but Flores barely covered the grimace and flash of jealousy in her eyes, and Ohir noted it but passed it off as her being mad for blowing her off for figuring out the mysterious cloud no one seemed to remember.
  
  Walking past a Tellarite crewman and a Ithenite officer out of uniform walking with arms around each other, Ohir thought it was sweet that Barran and Ihina had finally gotten together, and was planning on telling Zarva that the betting pool needed to be settled after all. But first, to deal with whatever oddity she had called him down here for. As he walked into main engineering, he was greeted with the mean-spirited Bolian glaring daggers at him. “I called you down here five minutes ago, why didn’t you take the internal transporters?” she asks, “What if the spatial phenomena had knocked our antimatter out of alignment and we were all in danger of blowing u, unless you were here to help me reset it?” Ohir stops and looks around engineering,noticing the twelve other officers at work or laying about between jobs trying to look busy and ignore their scornful CO.
  
  He moves his hand up to point that out, but decides to cough into his hand as he rethinks that option. “What was it you wanted to show me?” Ohir asks instead, “It seems you think it was pretty urgent, but neglected to tell me what ‘it’ is?” She ‘harumps’ and turns on her heels to move over to what is obviously a spare bio-neural gel pack on the engineering center control table.
  
  “This is what I wanted to tell you about, I wouldn’t have noticed it almost, except it had a consistent and unique vibrational frequency” Zarva says in reply, “Some kind of infection has taken to our bio-neural gel packs, and you’ll be interested in seeing what it is.” She brings up a close up sample of the gels contents, showing an odd crystalline lattice that seemed to continue to grow as it was being observed. “This showed up fifteen minutes ago growing inside the gel pack I brought out to replace one that was busted on deck six, and when I went to get another one, I found out that all the spare gel packs had the same impurities within them,” Zarva states, “Now, I just replaced a gel pack with one of the ones from this new batch a week ago, and it didn’t show any signs of growths like this; so I decided to check both the one I replaced a week ago, with one I knew was isolated from the main systems on one of the shuttles, and the crewman on duty in the shuttle bay reported that he detected the same trace elements of this crystalline lattice forming within the shuttle.” Zarva then brings out a phaser from her holster, puts it on a narrow beam, and cuts into the pack, opening a large gap in the fixture.
  
  Ohir slowly watched as small crystal fixtures appeared at the edges of the bag, as if growing up and out of the self contained system they had been confined in. “They’re pink, and they almost look like dilithium?” Ohir states as he looks at one of the pink nubs, scanning it, “If I was just going by looks, I could easily mistake it for dilithium, but the geological composites are all wrong.”
  
  “Exactly, and it seems to be in every major part of the ship, actively growing like this one was,” Zarva states, “If this keeps up and we don’t stop it, every bio-neural gel pack that is infected with these crystals, will grow until they pop like soft shelled eggs and potentially damaging other hard to repair equipment with it.” Ohir thinks for a second and snaps his fingers.
  
  “Maybe we can ‘sterilize’ them, if we find their vibrational frequency and inverse it using the sonic weaponry we have in the armory, perhaps we can ‘stunt’ their growth?” he asks, “At the most we can shatter them if we find the right frequency, and if we direct it properly we can get by with minimal damage to delicate systems, at worst we can halt their progression until we reach a Starbase for proper sterilization protocols to be engaged.” Suddenly Ohir notices a blue liquid drop onto the console, and he looks up to see Zarva bleeding from her nose. “Zarva, did you hit your head at all,” he asks, stepping to look at her more closely, “You need to get yourself checked out by a medic.” The Bolian quickly stops and wipes away the blood with her hand, before shrugging it off.
  
  “No, I-I can’t, not now, not until I have the calculations we need to stop these crystals from growing any further,” Zarva continues, “I’ll go to Sickbay after I calibrate the sonic weaponry and we get the ship cleansed of the infections...” Suddenly a few more drops of blood appear, and Zarva stops her work, sighing. “Then again, if I keep getting blood everywhere, perhaps its better I go to sickbay,” she says, excusing herself, “Captain, if you can tell Michael’s to work on the formula I’ve left him, tell him to adjust the sonics accordingly.” Ohir nods as she leaves, and shortly after informing Michael’s as to the adjustments and need to cleanse the ship, he is approached by one of his Tholian officers.
  
  /Captain, I’d like to make you aware that there appears to be unusual activity around the ship, starting approximately a half an hour ago,/ Tikrene reports, /An unusual- infection, has taken over the ship, and everyone is in great danger if it is what I believe it to be./ Ohir takes that in, and looks toward Tikrene. /I have taken great care to check for the infections source, Captain,/ Tikrene states, /And I believe I have found from where the seedpod has infected the ship./ At that Ohir became alert.
  
  “You know how the ship has been infected?” Ohir asks, “I need you to show me where it is now!”
  
  \\\
  
  “How do the Tholian’s even know what this?” Ohir asks, “This is a newly formed nebula, there is no way your people have ever come across something space-borne like this.” Ohir is walking behind the suited Tholian, passing by couples who seem to be leaving Ten Forward arm in arm, laughing jovially and having uncomfortable to watch displays of affection. Moving on past Ten Forward, down one of the lesser traveled hallways, Ohir immediately notices the cordoned off section, kept separate by force fields. “What is this?” Ohir states, noticing the entry puncture that had an emergency force field over it, “This is where the ship got hit, how?” Ohir then looks to see where the object hit on the opposite side, and he is immediately on alert. The entire wall from where the small meter fragment had pierced the hull and landed, looked like it had hit a paint can, and caused a wide, conical spray pattern on the wall, Except instead of paint, the wall was covered in small,jagged crystalline structures, which he had just observed forming inside a cut open gel pack.
  
  /If I am right captain, / Tikrene states, looking to Ohir, /This was a colony of highly virulent, thermophilic, silicon bacterium, or at least what was left of it, before it infected the ship./ The Tholian moves its carapace to face Ohir,who looks at Tikrene in the indeterminate eye.
  
  “And now it’s infected the ship?” Ohir states, “How come it ‘was’ a colony of these bacterium, how did it even get past our shields and hull?” The Tholian tilts, before becoming upright. “And again, how does the Tholian Assembly know of this bacterium?” Ohir asks.
  
  /It is unknown in the exact specifications of how; it could have been brought on a mineral sample of meteors for metallurgical analysis, or found while scouring for trace elements in a nebula like this, but the Tholian Assembly has come into contact with a similar bacterium in its long existence, one we call the Falseblood,/ Tikrene states, / In the last encounter on a Y-Class planet suited for colonization, three colonists stumbled upon a vein of what they believed to be pure dilithium, the lifeblood of Tholian colonization at that time, when the Assembly was small and Queens fought for resources./
  
  The Tholian turns away and Ohir looks to the crystals, the Tholian’s shadow being cast across it. /By the time the colonists managed to retrieve a sample of the mineral, they had already been exposed to the infectious bacterium within it, and that was the beginning of the end for the failed colony,/ Tikrene states, /By the time the last colonist managed to return and warn the others, his left arm had been completely eaten through, his right hand, once strong and solid, by then porous as they ate away from the inside out, tunneling through the interior systems and hollowing out his carapace like he was just another rock to eat away at./
  
  Ohir begins to understand, but he can barely process the imagery of that story. “I’m assuming some of the colonists escaped unscathed, to tell the tale?” Ohir states more than asks, “Otherwise you wouldn’t be telling me this... but that doesn’t explain how the ship got infected!” The Tholian turns and nods, before walking back towards Ten Forward.
  
  /You are quite correct, as thermophiles living on a Class-Y world, no doubt they managed to survive in space by going dormant, perhaps returning to a state of liquid silicon until they could seed a world properly,/ Tikrene continues, /I detected organic residue, a unique mixture of liquid helium and other various harsh chemicals and gases, and came to a unique conclusion: assuming that it was not a seedpod, but an egg sac, silicon bacterium suspended within an organic mix of chemicals that when exposed to a Y-Class planet could create a suitable foundation, but when introduced to a much cooler, confined space, it creates an explosive forces that causes a chemical reaction unhampered by the necessary gasses needed to stabilize it, and seeding the whole ship in an unforeseen way./ The Tholian stops in front of Ten Forward, as does Ohir, who attempts to take this all in, slowly absorbing it.
  
  Suddenly interrupted by the opening of the door, Ohir is surprised to see Elisa Flores stumble out of the doorway and onto the wall. Ohir quickly moves to her side, as she giggles in her drunken revelry. “Flores, did you get into the Ale stash again?” Ohir asks in concern, “I know I promised to have a hard drink with you later, but I didn’t think you’d take it so badly as to get drunk...” Flores doesn’t even respond except with a giggle, as she straightens herself up and turns to the crouched Ohir.
  
  Smiling and licking her lips, Ohir suddenly notices the position he is standing (crouching) slightly over her as she lays against the wall, and he moves to help her up. Suddenly a pair of strong arms comes around his shoulders,and he finds his face is quickly coming closer to Elisa’s... When he bothers to stop enjoying the feel of her warm, plump lips against his own, to let his modesty shine through as to the fact the third occupant of the hallway was just a foot behind him, Ohir breaks free of his drunken officers hold.
  
  He then quickly realizes as his mind catches up with his body, that she was extremely warmer than he thought she should be, the odor of alcohol was not on her breath or personage, and that she smelt of cloves and cinnamon. Along with her drunken act,whether or not it truly was an act, Ohir was starting to get a suspicion in the back of his head, before he noticed the drop of blood that suddenly rolled down from her right nostril. Ohir then quickly realized what the gas really did to his crew, and that Elisa clearly needed to be rushed to sickbay.
  
  "Tikrene, get with the engineering crew who are trying to modify sonic weaponry to destroy the crystal colonies in the Bio-Neural Gel Packs,” Ohir states, “Tell them what you told me, and that they need to move as fast as they can to take out those colonies before they breach and cause more problems for the ship, and tell someone to put out an SOS to any nearby medical ship, we’re going to need a full evacuation of the ship with strict decontamination via the transporter, and we needed them yesterday; I’ll be in sickbay coordinating with the Doctor.”

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• aten66 Member Posts: 654 Arc User

  February 2017 edited February 2017

  Sickbay
  
  Arriving in sickbay, the holographic medical officer is seemingly stretched thin as four other EMH’s of various mark have joined him in his work. The Doctor quickly directs Ohir to set Elisa down on an empty bed, the other beds having been filled with various other patients. “It seems miss Flores wasn’t the only one to suffer from exposure to the nebulous gases,” the Doctor states, “I’ve had six other humans, a Deltan, three Betazoids, a Ferengi, and five Klingons come through my triage this afternoon, with various different cranial traumas and headaches to some degree.” Ohir gently lays his head tactical officer down on the bed, taking care as he does so not to jostle her too much.
  
  “Doctor I’ve conferred with Tikrene, whose suit seems to have kept him isolated to the exposure, and I’ve come to the conclusion that these medical incidents are connected to the infection of the bio-neural gel packs around the ship,” Ohir states, “The bio-neural gel packs act like a organic brain for the ship, even the fluid medium is organic, right?” The Doctor stops and looks at him exasperated in a way that says ‘I’m a holographic doctor, not an engineering hologram!’, and it causes Ohir to rethink his analogy. “Thermophilic silicon-based bacteria, are attacking the crews bodies, because they breathed in the remnants of an accidental chemical exposure,” Ohir states plain as he can, “They eat rock and minerals, transform them into habitable colonies, and they are literally out for the miniscule scraps composing up the bodies blood count.”
  
  “If it’s traveling through the capillaries... yes then that means... this infection is hitting the crewmen’s limbic systems hard and fast, particularly targeting the hypothalamus and causing oxidation in the brain; the bleeding of the nose I’ve been recording, is a symptom that the brain is trying to regulate stress and blood pressure buildup, as the crystallization process is trying to occur,” the Doctor states out loud, “It is basically treated as some kind of inorganic virus, and your bodies systems are trying to stop the damage by clotting off the affected areas, while simultaneously trying to cause something similar to intracranial artery stenosis, to compensate.” The Doctor lights up, and smiles. “This is wonderful, do you know what this means?” he says, not really expecting an answer, “It means we’ve just discovered not only where the damage is being directed, but why; the brain is made up of highly energized neurons and synapses, it’s probably confusing these invaders and causing the loss of inhibitions,the loss of control over emotions and hormonal balance,which explains why everyone has been so lovey-dovey!”
  
  Ohir is a bit confused at that point, but shrugs as the Doctor now chooses to ignore him, and he moves on to his various remaining patients, obviously trying to ease whatever damage these bacteria were causing to the crewmen, before anything became to permanent. /Captain,/ Tikrene says over the comm line, /The Captain of the U.S.S. Revah has requested conversation with you, regarding relief efforts... transferring to sickbay./ Ohir brightened at that, and quickly moved to the main office, closing the door and opening the channel to show a pink Lukari male.
  
  “Captain Tekaaru, of the joint Federation-Consortium medical ship Revah, offering aid in this sector since the Tzenkethi attacks and now at your service, we received the detaled report your, uh- Tholian specialist onboard sent our way,” the Lukari brightly and cheerfully replies, “My helmsman tells me we’re less than half an hour away, in the mean time do your best to sterilize your ship as you can, we don’t want the infection to spread even more, or let it grow worse until we arrive; we have special bio-filters on our newly installed transporters that should help us minimalize any damage the silicon life forms could leave behind, and help us salvage damaged cells with quick and proper medical treatment...” The Lukari Captain almost seems like he is about to say more, but the words die on his lips as he changes his mind.
  
  “That’s good to hear Tekaaru, though I thought I heard a ‘but’ at the end there,” Ohir states, “What aren’t you telling me?”  The Lukari captain gives a little cough and sheepishly smiles in return to the question.
  “Well...” he begins, “The transporters are so new, that we really need a transporter sample of an uninflected member of your crew to compare it with, since we haven’t even had a need to really use them.” Ohir nods and looks to the Doctor.
  
  “I’ll get back to you on that,” Ohir states, “But I believe I am a suitable candidate, as I was shielded off due to an infectious sickness I had contracted, and was just about to have been cleared for duty when the event occurred, when I was resealed behind a force field by the Doctor, who was on duty at the time.” The Lukari nods and cuts off the communication, while Ohir turns to the Doctor. “There is a way to know if I’m infected, right?” he asks, “Please tell me there is, or I may have just made a promise I can’t keep.” The Doctor stops what he was doing, and brings over a medical tricorder, going over Ohir’s cranium.
  
  “You aren’t showing any signs of oxidation or crystallization in your bloodstream nor anywhere in your body,” the Doctor states, “So far, unless one of the gel packs were overlooked of course, you will be the sole, living survivor of this ship of six hundred.” Ohir blanches at the attempted joke, but watches as the Doctor moves on to help the next person coming into his sickbay, and he can’t help but feel a bit apprehensive.
  
  Transporter Room
  
  “The Rekhav is in range, sir, alerting them of transporter coordinates,” the transporter operator states, “I’ve been informed they’ll need time to adjust for such precise screening, sir, so it may take a few minutes.” Ohir nods and waits.
  
  “Any news about the sterilization sweep?” Ohir asks, “I know all decks below deck seven have been accounted for, but I haven’t had an update since.” The transporter operative shrugs, and shakes his head.
  
  “I wouldn’t know sir, I’ve been stuck in here since this whole mess began,” he says, “You don’t hear a lot standing behind a console.” He stops to wipe the blood from trickling past his nose.
  
  Elsewhere on Deck Six
  
  “Worths, come in, dang it Worths what is your status on junction thirty nine?” a voice states through a commbadge, “Worths if you’re slacking off with your girlfriend again, I swear...” The threat goes unanswered as the human engineering officer lying unconscious in front of the exposed panel remains comatose, the threat of the Falseblood crystal puncturing the gorged bio-neural gel pack remaining unchecked. It was then that the gel pack ruptured, the crystal exposing itself to the air and continuing to grow. Suddenly the gas it gave off begin to shift, as it broke down into the air. The pink mist then began to fill the hallway, leading towards the transporter rooms.
  
  Transporter Room
  
  “Sorry sir, I’ve just been informed that their calibration is almost complete, it will just take a few more minutes,” the transporter operator states, “Oh, I know, how about we play some card games while you wait?” Ohir is about to object, until he sees the man pull out a sealed deck of cards, some poker chips, and a green eyeshade. “We can play pinnacle, poker, ooh, or my favorite, blackjack!” the transporter officer states in joy, before he looks at the door, “Hey- what’s that?” Ohir looks over to see pink mist bleed through the closed doorway, quickly expanding into the room.
  
  “Good news Captain,” the Lukari Captain states through the open comm line, “Calibration is complete, engaging transporters now!” Just as Ohir thought he couldn’t back away into the transporter, as the mist slowly reaches towards him, he feels the familiar tug at his cells as the Lukari ship begins to transport him.
  
  U.S.S. Revah
  
  Materializing in the Lukari transporter room, he was... blinded by the lights above him? After a strong feeling of falling, Ohir hits the ground hard, causing his vision to spin. “Ooh, sorry about that,” the three Lukari say, as Ohir opens his eyes to see them merge back into one smiling Lukari, “Haven’t had much practice on this thing, but I’m glad to see you made it here all in one piece, despite what our projections thought!” Ohir gingerly sits up, as he finds himself on the alien ship. “Other good news!” Tekaaru states, “We scanned your cellular pattern, and can say we can successfully extract the silicon virus with our transporters, and correct any damage on the cellular level by extrapolating information; at least until we can get proper medical attention to all your crew.” Ohir nods and smiles in relief, happy to know everyone would be okay.
  
  Hours later, DS9
  
  Once they had returned to the station, Ohir was glad to know that everyone would be okay. Starfleet had sent a medical ship and some other ships for help in medical transport, as his crew was broken up to help expedite both physical and psychological relief and correction. Ohir was also happy to know Starfleet had already sent a ship to deal with the remainder of his ship, so that its infection wouldn’t be spread any further. There was even talk that the ship was equipped with metaphasic shielding, and that it was going to drag the crystallized corpse of his ship into a nearby sun. Ohir was just glad he was keeping the hundred or so recovered or unaffected crewman under his command.
  
  Tekaaru had even offered his own ship as a home for him and his crew. “This is a joint Starfleet ship, isn’t it?” Tekaaru had said, “Besides it could benefit from a Starfleet captain at its helm.” The Lukari was very convincing, and Ohir was grateful, Starfleet had even approved after a short conversation with the Consortium. “I get to benefit out of it too,” Tekaaru had continued, “I get to learn how to be a better Captain by shadowing you, you get a ship with loyal crew, and we both get to further the relations between both our peoples!” The Lukari’s joy was infectious, as Ohir stepped onto the alien bridge for the first time, in awe at the mixture of nature and metal surrounding him.
  
  “Flores, disengage from Ds9, Zelok, good to see you both up, now set course away from the station,” Ohir states smiling, “Ladies and Gentlemen, it seems we’ve already got our first mission from Starfleet, so let’s make it a successful one!” Ohir is smiling as he takes a stand at the center of the ship, seeing the expanse of stars on the viewing screen. The ship rumbles as it powers up its warp core before it jumps to warp, leaving streaks of light behind it, and the feeling of adventure ahead.

  Post edited by aten66 on February 2017

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