A Slightly Animate Problem

Posted on Sun Aug 23, 2015 @ 6:33pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres & Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant AJ Taggart & Lieutenant Cassandra Kennings & Lieutenant Nicole Anderson

3,904 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: All this has happened before...
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: Begins concurrently with "Briefing"

Nicole jumped through the Sickbay doors before they fully opened and sprinted into the morgue, almost colliding with Maggie at the entrance. "What's going on?"

"We registered a spike in the containment field," Maggie said. "The field held, but the interference...moved. We went to inspect the box, and the cadaver...twitched."

Nicole stopped dead in the middle of the room and turned slowly, Penny catching up with her. "Say that once more?"

"I know I sound crazy," Maggie said, "but I swear, it moved. It was like it was...tapping at the field."

Nicole hit the button to extend the stasis chamber out from its storage slot and stepped back as Penny came up on the other side, pulling out her silver wand. They both stared at the chamber and the desiccated body inside.

"Radiation levels spiking...dropping...changing density...what the hell," Nicole growled, looking over the sensor readings.

Penny ran her wand over the chamber, looking at the readings, then let out a squeak of surprise as it appeared something did tap at the containment field by her.

Nicole hit her combadge fast. "Anderson to the Captain, whatever you do, do not let the Bethesda near the Starbase! I need Mister Yarin down here immediately. We have....a situation."

"We should get the pod into a cargo bay," Penny said. "We need to get it somewhere we can jettison it if need b-b-be."

"Agreed," Nicole said, walking back to the door and shouting into Sickbay. "All right I need Rhodes, B'tal and Osika to prep the Aux Sickbay immediately! Fairway and Kelson get an antigrav cart stat! Someone recall the floaters and get them all in here!"

People scrambled and two of the larger male nurses came rushing in with a cart, then helped Penny and Nicole guide the statis pod out of the wall and onto the cart.

"We've got thirty minutes before the containment field loses power. I want us in the cargo bay and hooked back up to the ship in ten," Nicole said as they lowered the pod onto the cart.

"Aye, Ma'am," Kelson said as Yarin came rushing in.

"Stay with the pod," she said to Yarin without preamble. "Watch for any movement. We're taking it in a turbolift down to cargo bay 16. We'll decompress the bay if it comes to it."

"I apologize for being late. When I heard what had happened I ran to my quarters to retrieve some tools that may help us." Yarin said shouldering his satchel.

Nicole nodded. "Get moving, stay safe," she said, although the orders were relatively needless. As Yarin, and the nurses left with the cart and the pod, she turned back to Penny, handing her a tricorder. "Transfer your readings, then get back to the bridge. If we have to toss this thing, I want you getting us as far away as possible."

"Aye, aye," Penny said, smiling and taking the tricorder. She walked back to Sickbay and sat down at a workstation. She tapped her silver wand to the tricorder, downloading her readings to it quickly, then copying them to the Sickbay computers. If she had to venture a guess, she'd have said the radiation was behaving in a completely sentient manner. It was encountering the containment field in a systematic fashion, never hitting the same place twice and moving in a loose pattern. If that didn't suggest intelligence, she didn't know what other signals they'd need.

With the room now cleared, Nicole returned to Sickbay and tapped her badge again. "Anderson to cargo bay 16."

"Um...Ensign Tahir here," a voice came. "Can I help you, Doctor?"

"I need the bay completely emptied ASAP," Nicole said, taking her tricorder back from Penny and adding it to the things she was putting into her little black bag.

"Okay...yes ma'am," Tahir said. "It'll take some time--"

"You have five minutes," Nicole snapped. "Pull whoever you need to get it done, but the room is being set up for quarantine. If there's materials in it, they are to be transferred to bay 15 immediately."

"Aye ma'am," Tahir said. "Tahir out."

Penny gave Nicole a supportive smile and rushed out the doors, heading back to her helm.

Over the comm, the Captain called down and said, "Status report! What the hell is going on down there?"

"We're extracting the stasis pod from the morgue," Nicole said, hitting her combadge, "and we're going to move it to Cargo Bay 16. I want the option to jettison this thing. We'll relay from the Aux Sickbay. Captain..." she took a breath and shook her head trying to think of the simplest way to say it, "there are radiation spikes along the containment field, like something is testing for weaknesses. And..." she snapped her bag closed, bracing herself for the words she was about to eat as she walked towards the exit doors, "the cadaver is slightly animate."

Her expression unreadable, after a moment the Captain said "Slightly animate...I'm not sure what you mean by that however, I want it kept contained is that clear?"

"Aye, Captain. Anderson out," she said. She reached the door which opened for her, and she collided with a large security guard, bouncing back but staying on her feet. "What's all this, then?" she said, looking cross.

"Sorry, Ma'am," Frame said. "We're here to guard the morgue." He stepped aside, letting AJ enter behind him, gun at the ready.

"Oh, well. Jolly good, off you pop," she said, slipping between them. "Course, mind you, the body's been moved to Cargo Bay Sixteen," she tossed over her shoulder as she ran out into the corridor, black bag securely in her grip.

AJ was flabbergasted at Nicole's forcefulness. For some odd reason, he found it incredibly attractive.

As Nicole charged down the corridor to the turbolift, she heard the Captain's voice over the comm. "Yellow alert! Yellow alert! Set Condition Yellow throughout the ship. This is not a drill!"

She jumped into the lift the moment the car arrived and shouted, "Cargo bay sixteen," taking a moment to breathe as the car sped down. When the doors opened she dashed through again before they were completely open and raced to the bay, catching up with Yarin and the medtechs as they entered the now-empty bay.

"All right, let's get set up," she said.

"Doctor," one of the medtechs said, "it's....moving."

"I'm aware it's moving," Nicole said, scanning the stasis pod. "Hook the pod's power source back to the ship, please."

"Doctor how can it be moving if it's--"

"Can I have a bit of hush?" she said, heatedly, giving them an extremely annoyed look. "Connect it, and bugger off, both of you."

She continued her scan as the medtechs reestablished the pod's power source, then quickly left the bay, leaving her and Yarin alone. "I've got the Aux Sickbay standing by," she said. "What do you see?"

Yarin studied the mobile corpse. "I am seeing an odd aura emanating from inside the body."


*************************Bridge*****************************


On the Bridge, the Captain was standing near her seat with an odd expression on her face. "Slightly animate corpses?" she echoed. "Is she kidding me? I want a scan of that section of the ship.. now! Take a look and tell me what is going on.."

Alec was still seething from his exchange with Taggert. He wasn't finished with the man, not by a long shot but first things first and that was to determine just what the hell was going on. "Knowing what I do of the CMO, I don't think so Captain. She would need a sense of humor for that."

Penny bounced out of the turbolift and down to the helm, slipping into her chair, bringing up their status and glancing at Evans working next to her.

Cassandra stepped out of the turbolift with Nina, making her way to an empty station quickly.

Alec pointed at the Ops station. "Pull up the scans of the Bethesda."

"Aye, Sir. Checking now," Evans said from Ops.

Alec then turned to Cass and said, "contact the escort ship. Find out what's going on over there."

"Yes, Commander," Cassandra said, putting her earpiece back in and hailing the escort ship. She frowned and tried again.

Aware of the XO's mood, the Captain's own mood was not too positive at the moment either. Impatient, she queried "What do you see?"

Aiden stepped out onto the bridge. He could sense the lingering tension in the room and as unobtrusively as possible took the left most seat below the Captain's chair.

Miguel had stepped onto the bridge again after a brief visting to engineering. He still didn't know how he was going to inform the Captain of his hunch that whatever it was that had infected the crew from the Bethesda was now causing some problems with the gel packs.

Evans looked up from his console. "Getting major energy fluctuations from cargo bay sixteen, similar to what we were reading on the Bethesda."

Hearing what Evans had said Miguel walked over to the engineering station and had his engineer put that scan on one of the monitors for him to review.

Blackburn stood next to Ops with her arms crossed as she monitored the readings. She looked at Evans. "What sort of energy readings?"

"Spikes in radiation," he paused and brought up the scans on his console, "along with fluctuations in the ship's energy levels."

"Spikes in radiation," Alec repeated, "Are they concentrated in one place or throughout the ship and are they what's affecting the Bethesda's energy levels?"

Evans nodded. "Concentrated in cargo bay sixteen," he said. "And similar, affirmative."

"What is in that cargo bay that could be generating radiation?" the Captain asked.

"Uncertain Captain. Can't get a clear reading from the radiation," Evans said.

Alec ground his teeth and counted to 100 by tens before addressing Evans. "I'm guessing, Mr. Evans, you mean 'affirmative' in that they are affecting the Victory's energy levels. Is that what you meant?"

"Yes, Sir. The radiation is affecting the ship's energy levels." He paused. "The fluctuations are throughout the ship, Sir."

Nina turned to the XO and the captain. Radiation levels high enough to affect a ship's power grid was not a good thing. "Recommend we vent the cargo bay and commence radiation clean up protocols."

Miguel was studying the scans from the engineering station. It's true that some radiation could cause power fluctuations. But he couldn't see as to why this particular type of radiation was causing these troubles. The wavelengths didn't look like anything that should be able to cause these issues on any ship. It just didn't make sense. "Radiation doesn't need to be that high to effect a ship's power matrix. What's more important is the type, and nothing from what I'm seeing here says that it should be interfering with the ship in any way. As such, I'm not sure if our radiation protocols are going to be enough, added to the fact that I'm not sure if the escort ship is even equipped for that sort of operation."

Nina's mind raced, partially enjoying the mystery at hand. Miguel was right: radiation would have to be nearly equal to a yellow star such as Earth's sun to disrupt systems, and the levels weren't that high from what she saw on the Operations Console. "Could the energy be drained instead of disrupted? Can we pinpoint the energy loss if that's the case?" It was the only other solution she could think of immediately.

"It might be possible to fashion a collector of some sort that could remove it," Miguel said, "but getting to close to it without getting killed would be the trick," he added. Of course the other trick would be developing such a device in time.

Cass finally turned around. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm having trouble raising the escort ship. I can't tell if the problem is on our end, or theirs."

Miguel doubted that the communications problem was on their side. Granted they were having some interesting anomalies, but nothing that could do this... at least not yet. "The radiation field on their end seems to have gotten stronger." he said as he looked over the sensor readings.


***************************** Cargo Bay 16 **********************************

"An 'aura'?" Nicole said. "Could you be more vague? Does it have defined shape? Is it effusing from the corpse or clinging to it? And why am I asking rather than scanning," she said, hitting herself in the head before grabbing a tricorder and flipping it open.

"It is a vaguely humanoid shape and appears to be clinging to the corpse." Yarin said.

"Right helpful, you are," Nicole grumbled, scanning the stasis pod. The fact that the creature could move at all with the stasis field on worried her. If it was pushing against the effects of the field, then it was only a matter of time before it would find a way to circumvent the field entirely.

"The Bethesda was completely powered down," she said, thinking. "Engines were shut down, most of the crew was congregated in Sickbay, which is where the strongest readings were." She looked at Yarin. "So if this thing needs energy to survive, should we try starving it?"

"We could either try that, or we could try overloading its matrix with an abundance of energy to see if it explodes. We would have to try a variety of energy fields though." Yarin said as he continued scanning.

"Maybe," Nicole said, "the question is, do we have the time? Look at the pressure it's putting on the stasis field. And it's getting stronger by the moment." She looked at the loading bay doors and bit her lip. She'd chosen this cargo bay so they could eject the pod if necessary, which seemed to be the growing reality.

******************************** Bridge *************************************

Looking at the internal scan readings, the Captain scowled. "The energy readings are growing...whatever is happening it's getting stronger." Tapping her comm badge, she said "Bridge to Dr. Anderson, our internal scans are indicating that the energy readings are growing in strength. Tell me you have something."

***************************** Cargo Bay 16 **********************************

Nicole sighed and tapped her combadge. "Captain, whatever this life form is, it's continually poking at the stasis field. I think it might be absorbing some of the energy. The ship's attempting to strengthen the field to compensate, but that's just creating a spiral. We're going to lose containment, and we're going to lose it soon. I'd recommend we jettison the stasis pod and put some distance between us and it. Without a power source, the creature should become dormant again, and we can circle back to examine it in a shuttle. That should keep the ship out of harm's way."

"If time is a factor why not simply add on additional stasis fields directly on top of one another continuously every time one is breached?" Yarin asked.

Nicole shook her head. "The stasis pod wasn't designed for that. We don't assume cadavers are trying to break out when we build these things," Nicole said. "Plus, that would escalate the problem. We'll get to a point where we can't erect the field fast enough."

"I am not willing to place my crew in danger," the Captain said, her voice amplified by the comm system. "If we can't guarantee containment, jettison the stasis pod and get it off my ship," Kennit ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am," Nicole said. She immediately began disconnecting the pod. "Ops, I need Cargo Bay 16's doors opened and the bay jettisoned in 30 seconds." She wheeled the pod towards the cargo bay doors, then an idea hit her. She ran back and grabbed Yarin by the arm and pushed him out the door quickly. "Scan the bay once it's depressurized," she said. "Make sure there isn't a trace of radiation."

"Yes, Doctor, but--" the doors closed, cutting off the rest of his sentence.

She hit the door controls, sealing them and closing her inside the bay. She counted seconds in her head as she searched the storage boxes along the wall until she found the two lengths of polycarbon-fiber rope she needed. She quickly tied one end of one rope to the pod and the other to a handle on the wall, praying it'd hold.

As she did, the bay doors opened and she knew she only had a second or so left. She tied the other piece of rope around her waist and then to another brace handle for security, then grabbed the and held on tight, breathing deeply and rapidly to hyper-oxygenate her blood. Once the bay lost pressure, she'd have only moments to go through with her plan.

The force-field dropped and the bay lost pressure. Nicole quickly expelled all the air from her lungs. Most people's instincts were to hold their breath, but that was the worst thing you could do in a vacuum. It was a fight you just simply couldn't win and it'd just waste time and energy.

She held on fast as the air rushed out and finally when the bay was truly empty she fell to the ground with a thud. She reached under her uniform and pulled out a small switchblade knife, snapping it open quickly. She then blinked, her eyes already turning bloodshot and rushed over to the pod, cutting it loose as well and turning on it's anti-grav functions. With no force field or air to hold the pod in, the ship's momentum forced the ship to pull away from the pod, separating from the ship, but leaving it stationary in space so they wouldn't lose it later.

She could feel her lungs screaming for air and her skin was turning less pale and more grey. She hurried back across the bay and ripped open a panel for the life support controls, trying to shut the doors and reinstate the air as it occurred to her she'd told Evans to depressurize the bay, but hadn't given instructions on when to re-pressurize it.

*Stupid me,* she thought as the world got dizzy.

******************************** Bridge *************************************

Evans tapped off twenty-five seconds, then started tapping in commands. He looked up and gave a nod to the Captain. "The Cargo Bay doors should be open and the bay depressurized."

One minute passed. Another. And another. Finally, the Captain activated the com system again and said "Bridge to Lt. Anderson. What's the hold up? Is there a problem?"

Another 30 seconds passed before the comm system came to life. "Bay....empty...." Nicole said, gasping over the system. "Pod...stationary....in space.....we can stop...and examine...from a distance..."

"Is everything all right down there?" the Captain asked, concerned by how Nicole sounded.

"I'll be up...in a minute. Just need to...catch my breath," Nicole gasped. "Anderson out."

On the Bridge, the Captain turned. "Keep watch on that pod. I want continual scans running."

Almost absent-mindedly, as she waited for a response from...hell...anyone. The Captain slowly flexed her right hand and fingers. The sensation of slow tingling through her wrist and fingers dissipated after a moment, and she paid it little mind, though in her thoughts the awareness of it lingered; subtle and quiet yet now alert.

"All radiation and energy readings on the ship are returning to normal." Miguel said. For now it looked as if they had solved the issue on the Victory, *but what about the Bethesda and her escort?* he wondered.

"What about the issue with the gel-packs?" the Captain asked. "Run diagnostics."

"They were still within normal standards. I'll have my team recheck them now that we've gotten rid of the source on our ship. But seeing since both things started at roughly the same time, I think we'll find that the gel packs will be returning to normal operation."

"I don't want assumptions, Mr. Torres, I want facts. Keep a close eye on system performance and when you have those facts, report back to me." Kennit answered.

Torres nodded and then turned around to head back to engineering. He knew it hadn't been that long since he had left, but some how he had a feeling that things would be back to normal.

Blackburn had remained silent as a plan formed. "Captain, I suggest I lead a small small infiltration team aboard the escort ship. There may still be survivors."

The Captain turned to look at Blackburn, "The escort vessel is some distance away. Sending a team back would not be a logical use of resources."

Nicole walked onto the bridge, finishing a long swig from her flask and rubbed her temples as she walked over to an empty station, sitting down and checking the life support scans.

"Captain," Cassandra said somewhat quietly, "the escort ship is still not responding to hails. If these life forms managed to get aboard their ship, they could be dead in space like the Bethesda, or worse, still moving towards the Starbase with no one at the helm."

"Or out of immediate communications range," the Captain pointed out. "No one from the escort ship was tasked with going aboard the Bethesda...we were careful to make certain the ship was designated as a quarantine zone."

"Since when is the preservation of life ever considered illogical, captain?"

"Captain," Cassandra said, suddenly, her hand flying up to her earpiece. "Captain I'm getting an emergency hail from the escort ship." She listened for a moment, trying to get the majority of the message before the suspense was too great. "They had a fault in their communications system. The tug ship had an issue with the radiation, but they managed to keep away from it. The Bethesda's radiation levels are...dropping!" She turned towards the Captain, a relieved look on her face. "By their estimates it will be inert in twelve hours."

Kennit nodded once. "Advise them of what we have discovered, that the radiation levels are indication of an unidentified life form. Extreme caution is advised. If they can not quarantine the remaining bodies aboard safely, then attempt to clear the bodies from the ship by using transporters to beam the infected into space, allowing the beam to dissipate. However, they must also run scans of the Bethesda's bio-neural gel packs. If infected, it may be necessary to engage the Bethesda's self destruct system in order to ensure that the starbase and other ships are not also infected."

"Aye, Captain," Cassandra said. She relayed the message quickly, making sure she checked everything twice. The last thing the escort ship needed was a misunderstanding. After several minutes, she nodded in satisfaction. "Escort ship acknowledges." She sat back with a sigh of relief.

"Very good." the Captain answered. "What is our operational status?" she asked.

"All systems are nominal, engineering reports some continued issues with degradation in the bio-neural relays as a result of the radiation however it is under control." was the response.

"Before we encountered the Bethesda, we'd received a distress call from a Federation colony out on the fringe. Has there been any further communication from them?" Kennit asked.

"No, Captain," Cassandra said. "Unfortunately, I'm not picking anything up at the moment."

"See if you can get them on the comm. Try and raise the Colony Administrator's offices, or else Colony Operations.." the Captain said. "Set course to Abrao Colony, warp 6."

"Aye, aye!" Penny said, enthusiastically. "Setting c-c-course and engaged!" she hit he boards and surged the ship forward.

~*~

 

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