Attacked from within! Part 2

Posted on Sun Jun 29, 2014 @ 11:06am by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Samantha Raylen

2,297 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: A Whole New World, Part 2 - Durbatuluk
Location: USS Victory

[Corridor outside VIP quarters]

Piled into the turbolift with a full squad, Dakar bit back a curse when he heard the XO's call. "Weapons on maximum stun, team, we're going in hot."

With seven rifle-toting people in the tight confines of the turbolift, a little jostling was inevitable when they all checked their weapons. Normally, a team of professionals would have no problem with this, however the circumstances were not normal.

"Watch it!" "What the hell?!?" "Move next time!" "What is your problem?"

Dakar spun around to dress his squad down, only to see a rifle butt slamming into a Bolian's face. Before he could say a word, the blue-skinned woman was on the floor and a stun beam struck her assailant in the chest. Soon fists and phaser beams were flying and the Cardassian had to slam himself against the door to stay out of it. The turbolift arrived at the destination and the doors slid open, leaving him to stumble backward out into the corridor. Tapping a control on his rifle, he snapped off a wide beam and stunned the entire squad. Spinning around, he sprinted over to the captain just as she told Blackburn about the Raeru.

"Captain," he panted, "There's something else going on. My entire squad was just brawling in the turbolift. Something is...wrong."

"I overhead him," the Captain answered, administering a truly vicious kick to the indicated "him" as he lay on the floor unconscious, "and some of his pals talking about some sort of device. I think whatever it is might be what's causing the rise in disciplinary issues over the last few days. It might be what's causing the issues with your personnel and others. We need to find this thing and shut it off, or destroy it."

A look of dawning realization came across Dakar's face. "That 'artifact' of theirs. They wouldn't let us near it; said we had 'profane auras' or something. It's in the enlisted barracks, where the honor guard was billeted."

The ship shuddered then, a low quiver underfoot that was all the warning they had before the lights went down leaving them in darkness. A heartbeat passed and then the dim, vaguely disconcerting amber color of the emergency light systems powered by self-contained backup batteries came on.

"Damn it!" Kennit cursed. "What the hell is going on here? How did they cut out power?!" She turned towards Dakar then, bruises rising against her skin on her neck and right cheekbone as she said, "Please tell me you have an extra phaser. I'm unarmed and I think I really need to rectify that problem."

"Maybe we can make our way to the armory," Blackburn offered.

Dakar pulled a hand phaser out of a holster on his waist. "One problem I can solve, anyway," he said as he handed it over. "Actually, if you're interested, I just left a fully armed security team stunned back in the turbolift.

Accepting the phaser with a soft, "Thank you." The Captain asked in concern, "what happened with the security team...you had to stun our own people?"

He tried not to sound defensive. "They...they just went berserk. I honestly thought they were going to kill each other. I've never seen anything like it."

"I don't understand this. Why are our own people fighting each other? That thing they brought aboard, it has to be involved. We have to find it and figure it out. Maybe they had some sort of chemical inside that our sensors missed; something to mess with the crew, causes anger or paranoia or...who knows..."

Nina grabbed a phaser rifle, checking it's power level as she approached Dakar and the captain again. Looking up, her eyes widened at what she saw. "Captain!" She leveled the rifle and fired. The phaser missed the captain by a four inches, striking T'lok dead in the chest as he fell to the deck, stunned with a knife in his hand.

Dakar trained his rifle on T'lok, not lowering it until he was sure the attacker was fully unconscious. "Whatever is causing this, we need to stop it now, before one of these attacks succeeds!" Realizing he had just yelled at his commanding officer, he finished with a more subdued "Sir."

Reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder, the Captain answered "Agreed...completely." She shook her head. "The problem is, that big chest they brought into their quarters has been moved, and there's no guarantee that it contains something now that we can just turn off. It could just as easily be some sort of airborne agent which is affecting personnel."

Nina shook her head. "I don't think it's airborne. It would have to be rather complex to affect the different species aboard the ship and yet not the Raeru. Also, if it was airborne, how come we haven't been affected as of late? Not to mention, the ship's security systems are designed to detect a vast number of biological agents. There has to be another carrier source for that chest."

Dakar looked at Nina as she spoke, recalling the conversation they'd had when the aliens had first come aboard. "Something in their shuttle, maybe? We still haven't been able to get a solid scan of the interior."

The Captain nodded, "That would make sense.. though I don't know how they could have moved it back to their shuttle without someone from security noting the fact that they were moving items around."

"Unless, of course, they were already somehow controlling our people, but I doubt it," she continued. "Carrying stuff like that around from their quarters to the hanger, they'd have to influence half the crew. They might have some kind of transporter we can't detect, though. I'd definitely like a look inside that shuttle."

Kennit looked at the groaning, unconscious guard on the deck at her feet. "Or...we wake him up and then...'encourage' him to tell us..."

Nina looked at the captain for a moment. She hadn't expected such a suggestion to come from her and wondering if the captain was beginning to be affected. "Your call, Captain. If needed, I can make my way to the shuttle and if need to, blast that shuttle to pieces to get to that chest if it's in there."

"Let me do the persuading," Nicole said suddenly, coming around the corner. She was breathing hard and sniffing the air like an animal on the hunt. She'd managed to reclaim her tool bag and meet up with Yarin as they reached the Captain's location, and Nicole was looking at the man on the floor like a hungry reshka beast stalking wounded prey.

"Their little boxes are designed to enrage us. They're using an interspace beam to play havoc with our emotional stability." She growled slightly in annoyance. "But I believe Mr. Yarin knows where their boxes are hidden. He...'interrogated' one of them."

Indeed, Yarin's thoughts echoed in their heads, although the incident has left me somewhat incapacitated. As you can see, I cannot move my mouth. On the plus side, I did find out where they are keeping the beam device: it is, in fact, on their ship.

Nicole glanced at Yarin's creepy smile and then back at the man on the floor. "Permission to play with him Captain?" She started inching closer on the balls of her feet.

Something dark and savage glittered in the Captain's eyes. "Granted. Lets find out how to access that ship shall we?" she said, in what sounded almost like a purr of anticipation.

Blackburn let the strange Nyac Chief Science Officer approach the unconscious guard. She was skilled in in interrogation techniques but the Nyac was considered a strong telepath and would get faster results than she. But Dr. Anderson was another matter. Since when did Federation doctors take delight in hurting others? Blackburn wondered why she wasn't being affected as much as the others. She then felt a sharp pain that seemed to spread from the base of her neck to her forehead. Her brain pulsed with pain. She then felt rage and a strange sense of loyalty to the man on the deck. She leveled her phaser rifle at the captain. "Wake the guard now and let him go or I'll vaporize the captain right here."

Time seemed to slow as Dakar ran through his options. He'd probably be able to stun Blackburn before she could react and turn her weapon on him, but if she decided to shoot the captain instead there was a good chance she'd get the shot off before she lost consciousness. Normally he'd also consider having the computer shut her weapon off remotely, but that too would take time, assuming it worked at all with the systems malfunctioning. He decided to try another tactic.

"Lieutenant," he said, turning to point his weapon at the intelligence officer, "You know that isn't going to happen. You're also smart enough to read this situation. There's four of us and one of you. You shoot the captain or anybody else and this will NOT end well for you. I'm willing to bet that whatever's come over you, your intellect is still intact, so you know what I'm saying is true. So how about you lower that rifle before somebody gets hurt, and we all get to walk away from this. It's your best option right now."

"Are you really ready to gamble your captain's life? Revive the guard." She reiterated, as she applied slight pressure to the rifle's trigger. "Now!" Blackburn's voice seemed to change at the 'Now' part...almost as if someone else was speaking though her.

The Captain's eyes were filled with rage. How dare Blackburn turn a weapon on her aboard HER ship!? Kennit's gaze was locked on the other officer, when her gaze shifted away from Kennit to focus in fury on Dakar that was all the break Kennit needed! She lunged, her half El-Aurian heritage giving her a boost in speed and strength. Grasping the phaser rifle by the barrel, instead of trying to jerk it away from Blackburn's grasp instead the Captain heaved with the added force of her entire body's motion to both twist the barrel up towards the overhead and at the same time, slam it back into the other woman's body. Not slowing her attack, one hand locked on the rifle barrel, she curled the fingers of her other hand into a hard, tight fist and drove it into Blackburn's face.

The pain of the attack was blinding as Blackburn stumbled backwards as she tasted blood. She knew she had to act fast and that the odds against her getting the upper hand this time was slim to none. She immediately turned and ducked around a nearby adjacent corridor in a full sprint. The master would want to know of their plans.

Nicole let out an animal-like snarl and took off like a shot after the IO, hot on her heels.

Dakar snapped a stun shot at the Lieutenant as soon as she was clear of the Captain, but she was too quick, and the phaser beam harmlessly struck the wall. He almost moved to chase her, but stopped himself. He didn't know what he’d be running in to, and his duty to his Captain came first. He turned and faced the other officers. “We need to do something about that device, and we need to do it NOW. I say we shut off the gravity in the shuttle bay and open up the door for explosive decompression. Blow the whole cursed shuttle off the ship. Hit it with a few quantum torpedoes afterward, assuming we can get the weapons working.“

"The only way to shut down the gravity is from the Bridge, or Engineering." the Captain answered, anger in her voice. "I want someone to track down Blackburn and take her into custody as well. Find someone to get after them and assist Lt. Anderson!"

"The bridge and engineering....kosst! Captain, I think we may have another problem. Before I left the armory, I sent security teams to the bridge and engineering. Standard protocol, given the situation, but if they're fully armed, and if they were compromised like Blackburn..." He paused, envisioning the consequences. "I think we should get to the bridge."

It took her a moment to reply, not liking his advice but unable to argue the truth to his words. She frowned, "Let's just hope that once we get that thing off the ship our crew return to normal, and that the changes in mental state aren't permanent!"

"Hopefully...we might as be well try the turbolift. If it doesn't work, we've only got one deck up the shaft to climb."

A smile flashed across her face at that, "Can't argue with the truth...lets get going" They headed down the corridor, reaching the turbolift after a moment and pressing the call control. Nothing happened. "Well...that's that." the Captain answered after a moment. "Where is the nearest entrance to the jefferies tubes?"

"We can always try the manual release on the door and just climb the ladder in the shaft." Suiting action to words, Dakar removed an access panel next to the door and pulled on the lever within. The doors slid a few centimeters apart and then slammed shut. He tapped a few controls and grimaced. "They've got it locked down, not responding to commands. Override is non-functional. That's a clever bit of work..."

"There's a Jeffries tube assess a few sections down the corridor. Looks like we're crawling."

"I've done worse...lets move out. Time to get control back and then deal with our unruly and rude 'guests'!" the Captain declared.

TBC in Part 3

 

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