Hidden Surprises & Close Encounters

Posted on Fri Jun 23rd, 2017 @ 9:07am by

2,181 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Unknown Life, Unknown Dangers
Location: Freighter Civic

The away team beams to the open airlock, mag boots engaged. The only source of light was the lamps on the EVA suits and the view that greeted them was ghostly and dark. No signs of life but lockers and cabinets opened, doors lifelessly hanging open and devoid of contents having been sucked out when the ship decompressed.

A long corridor lay ahead with a junction at its end.

BJ shined her wrist light around the darkened corridor, her hand holding the phaser as soon as they beamed aboard. There was nothing to be seen and she pulled her tricorder to scan for anything that the sensors on the Dreadnought may not have picked up. Unfortunately, it showed the same thing the ship sensors had: Nothing. "I'm not picking up any life signs at all," she said. "Let's get to our destinations and stay together in groups of two."

"Iz and one other going to the bridge to access the captain's logs." Ayla spoke up as she shone her light into the stygian darkness of the corridor. She spun slowly, running scans with her Science Tricorder. "Iz concur. No Bio Organic life signs." Looked at who was with the Team. "Get power going. Find out why there is no emergency power."

Ayla wiggled her ears as she looked thoughtful. "Iz take a security officer with mez."

BJ frowned, then nodded to the Ensign with her, a young blonde who looked eager to be doing something. "I'll go with Commander O'Connell," she said.

James nodded, "Come along Commander an' Lieutenant." He said addressing Whitaker after BJ. "To engineerin' we go."

The Ensign stepped up to the Executive Officer and began to check her weapons belt which had two phasers, two stun grenades, a pair of restraints, a tricorder, a medkit, a gas mask, a grappler, 50' of monomolecular rope and other odds and ends on it. "Ensign Wanda Wilson, ready, able and willing to kick some backside, Commander!" she said.

"Squee.. Lets go, Ensign." Ayla spoke softly. She looked at the rest. "Keep a sharp eye out. And stay in touch." She motioned Wanda to follow as she took off for the bridge.

As everyone went separate ways a stark realisation came to pass, on the bulkheads and along the floor were vine like growths as if a tree had been growing for many decades and spread throughout the ship. Appearing lifeless, dark in colour as if dead for some time it was clearly an unusual and unexpected sight.

As Ayla neared the bridge the scene gradually became one of unearie peace to utter destruction. Bulkheads badly dented, console panels smashed revealing the circuitry within, even light fixtures were broken. Anything that could prove a source or light was destroyed or damaged in the attempt. One thing remained consistent however, no bodies could be found.

For BJ and O'Connell however, things got worse a lot quicker than it had for Ayla. Surrounded by the same plant like growths around them the pair came across a door, though shut but clearly something had battered its way through by the large jagged hole it left behind. Within should anyone look was a room of chaos, furniture floated around and debris too from items that were destroyed in the carnage. Dark red stains frozen to glass splashed every wall, even the hole in the door had tatters of clothing, flesh and caked in blood as if something had pulled the occupants violently through the hole.

BJ scanned the vines and pulled a blade and a small bag from her utility belt. She carefully cut a small piece of vine and sealed it in the bag before she put it back in the pouch on her belt. "What could have done this?" she asked.

James was the first of the three to enter the engine room and, was immediately both horrified and intrigued by what surrounded the warp core. It was extremely dark, so much so that he couldn't see more than a meter in front of him. "Hol' still." He suggested to the others and found his way to one of the consoles.

He attached a backup generator and was able to provide enough power to activate some of the lighting. James looked around and saw dark growths on nearly every meter of the warp core and several consoles. The bulkheads were also covered in it, "Commander I believe we've found wha' could be considered ground zero."

"What could have caused this?" BJ asked as she looked around at the horror.

The core was littered with a bizarre lifeless looking growth upon it almost spanning the entire height and width of the core in spotted and patched areas. One might surmise that it drained the core to shut down as it grew, suffocating it of energy but ultimately without some power to the ship, lifeless the ship would remain.

BJ pulled her tricorder and started to scan the area once again, her eyes narrowed as she looks at the reading. "There's still nothing here."

James nodded in her direction, "No' surprisin'."

Ayla and Wanda finally made it to the bridge after a lengthly climb and cutting away some of the strange vegetation. Ayla took samples of the vegetation to study when they returned back to the Dreadnought.

After forcing the last door to the Bridge, Ayla scampered on over to the Centre Seat of command. She wrinkled her nose at how the vegetation had nearly covered the Command Seat and arm console. She carefully cut away the strange vegetation to clear the seat and console. =^= "Commander O'Connell. See if yooz can send some power up to the bridge." =^=

James pressed his communicator, "Workin' on it Commander." He turned to Lieutenant Whitaker, "We are gonna try to power up the ship's warp core. Go down an' begin priming the injectors."

"Aye sir." She nodded and headed for the lower decks in order to begin priming the injectors as ordered.

While the Executive Officer was talking to the Engineer, Wanda wandered around the destruction on the bridge and pulled out her tricorder. "I'm picking up blood and this strange stuff growing all over the place, but what is it?" she asked.

=/\="Lieutenant Whitaker to Commander O'Connell, injectors are primed."=/\=

The reply came about ten or fifteen minutes afterwards and James had already began the process of powering up the warp core. "Alrigh' standby." He ordered. His fingers slid across the console bringing full power to the warp core and the rest of the ship.

Meanwhile, BJ was analyzing the vines and blood splatter with her tricorder and noticed that there seemed to be unusual properties showing up now that the power was one. "Commander," she said as she held out her tricorder. "You may want to look at this."

James walked over to her, "Oh tha' is not good."

"If Iz had mez science kit. Iz could probably figure it out in a few minutes. Itz fascinating the way it can survive in having no air to draw nutrients from or light for itz photo-synthizing." She paced the deck waiting for power to be sent to the bridge. She smiled once power and light was restored to dead ship.

Ayla moved to the Centre Seat and inputted the Security Override Commands to access the Captain's ship logs.

For a few minutes things seemed to be normal, lights, consoles and systems were coming back online but as the Warp core charged to life the organism that was caked upon it also began to show signs of life. Over the next 60 seconds power began to fluctuate as if the warp core was being starved, choked and drained. A few moments later the lights failed and in its place the vines that grew like roots of a tree began to glow blue. As the seconds began to pass blue dots, like little flies began to emerge from these vines and buzzed around the members of the away team as if interested in this new unknown.

Suddenly the bizarre scene was racked by a large crash. A scream over the comms, a struggle could be heard before the tell tale sound of a helmet visor shattering....then silence....Whitaker was gone.

Banging could be heard, something was coming and more blue orbs continued to emerge from the vines.

"Dammi'..." James said after trying to reach Whitaker on the comms a few dozen times. Power to the warp core began to fluctuate wildly just before it too had failed. He was trying desperately to keep it active, but to no avail. "I have a ba' feeling about this." He muttered under his breath.

BJ looked around and made another scan before she looked at O'Connell. "We need to get out of here, now," she said. She tapped her combadge. =^=Reign to Bawden. I suggest we evacuate the ship.=^=

Ayla watched in amazement as the vines began to grow rapidly to undo the work in clearing the console. She ran a scan of the vines to get a good reading. It was really intense as if the vines were the new power conduits. =^= "Initiating beam out. Is everyone still accounted for?" =^= She motioned Wanda to follow along. She swatted at the blue floating dots, only to miss as they floated out of the way.

She scanned them, only to have them swarm the tricorder. She blinked as she watched them drain the power from the Tricorder. =/\= "Dreadnought , Away Team needs beam out immediately." =/\=

She waited for the familiar tingle of the transporter beam to grab of her and the Security Ensign that was with her. No response after a few minutes as the Blue dots grew in number. =^= Away Team? Anyone get in contact with the Dreadnought?" =^=

=^=Reign to Dreadnought. We need an evacuation=^= BJ called over her combadge. =^=Negative, Commander=^= she responded to Bawden.

James didn't even give his commbadge a test, "There migh' be too many lifesigns on board the ship." He suggested indicating the blue dots, "These things may be the cause."

*** USS Dreadnought ***

"Sir, something strange just happened." The Science officer called to the Commodore with a puzzle look on the face.

"Don't keep me in suspense." Will spoke as he gave the officer a look.

"The warp core of the Civic powered up, for a brief moment I had all of the away team on sensors but now am missing Whitiker's lifesign. The most puzzling part is the ship itself is packed with lifesigns, I'm having trouble finding our team amongst them." The harrowing report flowed. "I've lost communications too, something within is blocking our link to them."

"Try and get it back." What ever was happening over there was in full swing now and Hood was helpless to do anything about it. "I want a full security detail in Transporter Room 1 in 5 minutes." Hood spoke, he wanted to be ready for action should the need for it arrive.

*** Freighter Civic ***

Ayla gave the order to exit the Civic via the nearest airlock and once clear to get hold of the Dreadnought to be returned to the ship. She motioned Wanda to follow as they left the bridge to the nearest Airlock.

The eager young Ensign didn't have to be told twice and headed for the airlock with her phaser drawn. Any time one of the vines got her way, she sliced it off at the base and kicked it aside. "I got your back, Commander," she said.

In Engineering, BJ looked at O'Connell. "Time to make our own exit?" she asked as she drew her phaser and raised it up to setting ten.

James grabbed the phaser off his hip and set it to the highest setting possible, "Agreed." He nodded.

BJ phasered a vine that whipped towards her, then turned and began to blast the hull of the freighter. "Hurry!"

James blasted the hull at the same time as BJ until the breach opened wide enough for them to slip through it, "Let's get out of here."

Metal creaked as what ever it was that killed the crew began banging its way towards the intruders, forcing doors and bulkheads to buckle and collapse with repeated blows. Blue dots floated in the air in ever growing concentrations around each away team member trying in vain to seek entry through a tear in the suits but one thing was clear now, what ever killed the crew was now after them.

The moment the hole was big enough, BJ urged O'Connell through the hole while she switched the settings on her phaser to overload. With a backwards glance, she tossed it into the mass of vines or whatever they were and leaped out the hole. Once free of the vessel, she activated her combadge. =^=Dreadnought. We are clear. Beam us out!=^=

As the team cleared the ship they were transported aboard, Zan's fighter close by observed the ordeal and backed off once the team was whisked away. It would make for an interesting debriefing, especially since one didn't exit the freighter.

Hood once again had more questions than answers.

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