Inspecting a Shuttle

Posted on Sun Aug 19th, 2018 @ 9:50pm by Captain Remas McDonald

2,517 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: S1:3: Myriad Problems
Location: shuttlebay
Timeline: MD 60 23.40

Jolani purposefully moved to the shuttle bay to do a visual inspection of Abborax's shuttle. She had been asleep or otherwise indisposed when it arrived. It would be her first chance to view alien technology. Was it superior? Was it not? What she knew was that the spider was disconcerting and that she trusted Abborax not one bit.

The Myriad shuttlecraft had not moved from the patch of the deck it had landed itself on hours before. With time to really look it over, the thorn analogy still held true. The hull was a glossy green and tan, rising to a serrated barb-like fin along its back. Stubby wings lent it at least some aerodynamic qualities, which help to hide away the pointed landing gear that supported it.

No apparent drive system was evident, though the edges of stubby wings and nose were dotted with irregular gouges that could have been attitude control thrusters thruster nozzles.

But the most striking thing about the shuttle was not its appearance, but the way the air around it was utterly freezing.

While the cold was bothersome, Jolani ignored it. She wondered where the Science Chief was but said nothing. She simply pulled out a tricorder and tried to determine why the air around a space ship should be freezing. It made no sense. Why would anyone build a ship in such a fashion? Was it a Trojan Horse? It was a disturbing thought but she had no answers at the moment. All she knew was that she did not trust Abborax.

Having received the Captain's page while in meditation in her quarters T'raa had taken a quick and efficient shower, dressed in her duty uniform and ridden the turbo lift to the appropriate shuttle bay. The Lieutenant entered noticing that there was already an inspection going on and the other Lieutenant seemed to be awaiting her arrival. Nodding to Jolani Kohnar the Vulcan asked, "Is there anything I should know before we begin? Initial findings?"

Jolani silently handed the tricorder over to T'raa and asked, "What do you make of the fact that the air around this shuttle is significantly below freezing and is at odds with the air around it? That's hardly normal and I cannot figure out why that would be necessary."

As if beckoned to action by her words, the shuttle began to emit a series of metallic clicking sounds. At its rear, where its thorn like appearance tapered into a pair of stretched back spines, a door folded open and a small ramp extended. Had the noise not announced its presence, the spines would have hidden the entrance neatly.

A pleasant warm light glowed from within, invitingly.

Jolani looked back at T'raa. "Well, it appears that we have been invited in, wouldn't you say, T'raa? What does the tricorder show?"

The Vulcan regarded the shuttle opening. Its motion seemed almost organic, and might have been vaguely disquieting to others. However she spared no time to such thoughts and instead boarded the shuttle, monitoring the readout of her tricorder as she scanned the vessel.

"The atmosphere was 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen, incompatible with our own systems. I read traces of carbon dioxide, argon, xenon, radon. I'm picking up traces of traces of Kepler Radiation," the Vulcan said, raising an eyebrow. A bi-product of the process that had brought their own vessel this far. The Lieutenant sent an alert to Phase Space Acceleration team leader Zado Kasmir as per protocol.

"I'm not able to acquire temperature readings. However I do detect multi-cellular life signs. 10'000 complex multicellular lifeforms detected. We may need to go further into the shuttle to determine more," T'raa said.

The interior showed the same oddly organic design as seen from the outside, but its fabrication was more clear. Support beams of machined metal interwoven with fibrous strands of hull material. Manufactured control panels set into openings in the wall like knots in a tree.

It was large for a shuttle, with the pilot's controls set into the front but no chairs for a pilot to sit in. A cargo space was how the two Starfleeters entered, which held a very odd piece of cargo indeed. A large mound of rocks had been heaped in one corner. Each stone was as large as a melon and came in a variety of shapes. But all were worn down with ripple like tracks and small holes bored into them. There must have been at least a ton of stonework there.

From one of those holes a small vibrant orange worm wriggled out, rearing up to hiss its multi jawed mouth at the intruders before squirming back into the hole it had risen from.

T'raa had stepped further into the shuttle, allowing time for the ship's environmental systems to inject breathable atmosphere into the smaller vessel. However as she moved further inwards she saw motion and the orange worm. Raising her tricorder she attempted to get a reading as it hissed at the two officers and then retreated. Alone she turned to her fellow crew member and said, "Fascinating."

Jolani looked at T'raa and uttered, "Vulcans definitely have a gift for understatement. What do you suppose that was? Can you get a reading on those? And why did the shuttle open for us? What is the purpose of so many of these lifeforms being on this ship?" Her mind was analyzing the many problems and so far she had many more questions than answers. "Do you suppose that these beings are meant for us? Or to be released on us with a hostile intent? Have we just stepped into a trap?"

Her head turned back to the shuttle door to make sure that it was open still. "And if there is Kepler radiation, does that mean that this is a ship not native to this galaxy, either? If so, where is it from and why is it here?"

The door was still opened, but it was now blocked.

Mazarian sat on the porch of the gangway, his many coils bound up so that his arrow shaped head directed it’s diamond cut eyes towards the two intruders in Starfleet uniforms.

“I would not anger them,” he said, gesturing with a nod of his head towards the pile of rocks from which a gentle sizzle could be heard. “Abborax likes to keep them starved so that they might be more vicious if required. One would assume you do not have Ambulatory Hives where you come from?”

With a gentle hissing sound, Mzarian’s coils undulated and he moved into the cargo hold of the shuttle more fully, turning his eyes from Jolani to T’arr.

“Kepler radiation? Huum...yes that must be your word for the atomic phosphorescence caused by instantaneous travel through brane space, or phase space if I recall...” the serpentine alien hissed. “So many names for so few things.”

He held out one of the small set of arms he held folded against his chest. “Might I see your scanning device?” He asked.

I'm already dead. So how would my responses matter? Sarcastically she responded, "I think you have seen it." Confidently, she started moving towards the serpent and open door. "I think it would be best if you just let us pass."

"I do not think as such," Mazarian said, and darted forward as fast as any earthly serpent. Snake-like in form he might be, but Mazrian did have six limbs with dexterous claws. With worrying quickness he plucked the tricorder from Jolani's hands, his coils bunching and unspooling to block escape.

Behind them, the pile of rocks began to fizz and hiss, as a sudden rush of neon bright worms flowed from the holes. They multi jawed maws opened up, snapping closed around the mouths of other worms like links in a chain and pulled taut. In doing so the rocks jittered and rocked, moving...rising.

Like a child's toy the rocks began to rise into a humanoid shape, the worms acting as muscle's and joints holding the rocks together.

"Get behind me!" Mazarian hissed, shifting around as his forelimbs furiously worked the tricorders controls. The rocks, the Ambulatory Hive, had risen up onto blocky feet as a head formed. Angular, misshapen, its single eye was a knotted collection of worms that had formed a sort of weave across the flat surface of the head. Like a Hindu deity figure, the Hive began to reach out with four arms-

The tricorder began to hum loudly, and with a shriek the Hive shuddered and began to fall apart, the worms suddenly disconnecting and letting their rocky shells fall to the floor.

"You very nearly got yourself killed," Mazarian hissed as he turned his head to Jolnai and T'raa. "I am not your enemy. Your enemy speaks sweet words with your captain, and I need privacy to speak to you now."

Jolani shrugged indifferently. "Then, let us speak. I don't trust Abborax. I only have a little more reason to trust you. If you you will give me that tricorder back, now.... I would be most interested in analyzing that data so I could deal with those troublesome pests in the future. But you have a great deal of explaining to do. First, if you are not our enemy, then why are you with our supposed enemy, for starters. And secondly, why it is so cold outside the perimeter of your ship. Does that have something to do with its mode of transportation. And finally, why these rock things were even on this ship."

"You certainly are a clever primate I grant you that much," Mazarian said, his lips parting in a wide smile. "I cannot give you back your scanning device, it is the only thing keeping the Hive from recombining into an effective mass. They are single-minded creatures, fiercely loyal to the Myriad. You cannot bargain against them."

He tightened his coils, confining himself to a smaller volume of the shuttles cargo bay as he assumed a thoughtful post, his upper forelimbs stroking under his chin as he thought.

"To answer your questions...huum...I will do my best. The Myriad do not rule over worlds, but they control the space between them ruthlessly. No race within the sphere of their influence has access to warp drive or other means of faster than light travel. My own people, centuries ago, attempting to break the light barrier only for there to be a terrible accident. A great swathe of my world was irradiated by an antimatter explosion, we assumed caused by our experimental drive system. The Myriad arrived shortly after, claiming to have detected the explosion and come to help. They spoke of the danger we had been lucky to survive, provided aid to help us recover...all in return for trade. At first trinkets and minerals, our culture and science. Then our people, our brightest. Our best. We tried to refuse this, but the Myriad...their techniques for keeping our world alive after the radiation had removed our ozone layer, they took it away for a single year. Our crops failed, our peoples began to die of sickness, of blindness, as our own suns killed us. Our leader's begged forgiveness..." Mazarian's voice dissolved into a sibilant hissing that the universal translator refused to translate. "Not all believed the promise of the Myriad after that, that they were our saviours who would gladly kill us as proof of their righteousness. In secret, some of us banded together and sought a means of proving the Myriad wrong. We discovered subspace and the signals within. We found other's who, like us, had had our wings clipped at the moment we were about to soar."

He looked around.

"I volunteered to be taken as trade for the Myriad. They prize intelligence and wit, selling the expertise of another civilisation to anyone who can pay. I did this to learn as much as I could, to find allies who could help my people and all those who rest under the yolk of the Myriad," Mazarian stopped, his tongue flickering out to sample the air and to take a breath.

"That is why I am here. As for the cold, this shuttle is both ship and subspace node. It is transmitting a great deal of data from the Myriad's vessel to the proxy it is using to walk about your ships halls. I've never met a Myriad's true form, only their proxies. They are formidable."

"If I understand what you are saying," Jolani said carefully, "the Myriad prevent anyone from achieving warp so that they're stranded on their home worlds." A fire burned in her belly. "That is just wrong! People must be free to fly! And trading people like chattel? This has to be stopped. I will speak to the Captain about this."

She hesitated before saying more, not caring about the Vulcan beside her. "It is transmitting data. The spiders...? Is that what they are? Are they stealing our technology?"

"The spiders are spiders, tailored biology. Most of them are used to pass on synthetic drugs that are highly addictive and prized on certain worlds. They keep people....placid, happy. They are a scourge," Mazarian hissed venomously. "And your technology, whilst novel, is not unique. Once a science is known, there are only so many ways to achieve its ends."

"Drugs?" Jolani asked. "Keep people happy?" I'm never letting one of those things touch me. I'll never be happy and I don't want to fake it. "I have to warn the Captain." Pushing the envelope, Jolani asked, "You're going to return the tricorder when we leave, right?"

"The tricorder is the only thing keeping the Hive from reassembling itself and then tearing you limb from limb. Some speices live under the rule of the Myriad, others have found ways to gain favour and presitege. The Ambaltory Hives are one such speices who found a niche within the Myriad. My own people would rather court disaster and ruin than be slaves." Mazarian explained. He looked at the two Starfleet Officers.

"I had planned to court the favour of the Saurian, but now you have broken into this shuttle you have provided context for Abborax's displeasure. If he knows you have been here you are in danger."

Correcting the snakelike creature, Jolani insisted, "We did not break into it. The shuttle opened and we happened to walk in. However, we will take your advice and leave. While I am not concerned about danger to myself, I would not desire to see harm come to T'raa or the Traveller crew." She started to walk out of the shuttle to seek out the Captain.

"Then you would never have come, and presented my people and others with a slim chance," he bowed his head. "Now go, bring word of this to your captain. I will stay and do my best to hide your trespass here. With luck, maybe we will see tomorrow yes?"

"Another day in paradise," Jolani mused sarcastically as she exited the shuttle with T'raa.

 

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