A Crisp Autumnal Stroll

Posted on Thu Apr 4th, 2019 @ 11:55pm by Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra & Lieutenant Dinui Locke (loch)

4,447 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: S1:4: A Murder Of Crows
Location: Outer hull of the USS Traveller, Beacon star system,
Timeline: MD63 11.10 AM

Even in the shadow of the asteroid, the rose-tinted clouds of gas and dust reflected enough illumination to see by. That didn't stop the engineering work crews from affixing a pair of work lights to the hull, the light orb's extending out ten meters from the hull on long tethers before snapping to a halt.

The main engineering airlock cycled, the crew lift rose until it was flush with the deck. The space-suited figures checked their mag boots and began to spread out across the engineering hull towards the starboard nacelle. Here the heat warping was a lot more prevalent, with some of the hull plates warping and twisted like paper under a blow torch. By password enabled command, one of the hull plates came free of its securing pins and floated lazily upwards to reveal the intestinal squeeze of armour cladding and sensor apertures beneath.

It was going to be a very long day.

"Colder than a witch's tail," Shadi hissed with a shudder. She raised the internal temperature of her evo-suit by a few degrees.

"Your vitals read strong, Lieutenant," Tsabina said from position near Shadi's elbow.

The pandering boiled Shadi's blood. "Unlesss I'm bleeding to death, you need to point that tricorder another direction."

And so Tsabina did. "The stellar debris is beautiful," she offered, "and swimming with dormant microbes. There's no telling what lifeforms could have evolved from this primordial soup had the astrophysics of the system been more conducive to planetary formation..." She trailed off as she finished her scans of the local area, then looked to Victor and Dinui. "We'll need to ensure an aggressive decontamination protocol, although I wouldn't recommend collecting some live samples for future study."

"And here I thought you Doctor Science types loved collecting little microbes," one of the Engineer's said. Unlike the others, his suit was heavier set with yellow hazard stripes and thicker mechanised joints. He walked up to the floating hull plate, and with little effort grabbed it and began to walk it back to the airlock. "Scrappy should be here in a moment with the replacement parts."

As if on cue a bright light rose from under the hull, and the work lamps of the Travellers Work Bee came into view. The long articulated arms and armoured chassis were still a bright yellow, but someone had painted the mechanical claws on their ends a bright lurid red like boxing gloves. In those claws replacement, hull plates were stacked.

Shadi deactivated her magboots long enough to hop from the surface and pivot her feet toward her desired landing spot. The electromagnetic governors hummed back to life as she came down opposite the work bee with a satisfying slam.

"It's been too long," she said into her comm. "Nothing tastier than zzzero-g work."

Jolani maneuvered happily in the zero gravity environment. If humans could fly by themselves, she imagined that it would be something like this. She spread her arms wide and let herself feel free. Happily, she chided everyone, "This is what we were all meant for. Stop whining!"

A monkey who liked hull work? Now Shadi had seen everything.

"Help me dislodge the damaged hull plating," she said. "We can send it back to the industrial replicator for reclamation."

Flying over to Shadi, Jolani complied. "On the count of three, pull. One. Two.... By the way, how's your egg?"

"Three!" Shadi roared. She pulled the plate free nearly by herself, leaving not much for Jolani but to help leverage and negotiate the hulk of metal. "My egg is under a heat lamp. The doctor says it should be observed around the clock due to its hybrid status..."

Noting how the Saurian trailed off, Tsabina offered encouragement. "I'm sure your egg will be just fine."

"Of course," Shadi said with a proud snort. "It's of the Ragolar brood. Our spawn are mighty! The glory of our afterbirth is a herald of blood!"

"Sounds messy," the Engineer said, pointing a tricorder into the underlying hull space the plate revealed. "So far no major damage, but I'm seeing viscosity in the gel layer. And we're not even going to talk about all the hull sensors we'll need to replace."

The Engineer looked up at the large continent-sized cliff face of the asteroid the Traveller was sheltered behind...and then froze. He reached to his wrist computer and tapped in a command, and an audible sigh of relief washed over the comm line.

"Thought for a second I saw debris incoming from the 'roid. But deflectors up, and sensors aren't detecting anything incoming thats a danger to us."

Tsabina twitched like someone stepped over her grave. Had she seen something too?

"Scanning for lifesigns," she said absently, her thoughts drifting away into the concentration of a seasoned professional.

Jolani helped the Saurian with the metal. When the other started scanning for lifesigns, Jolani asked, "Now what?"

"Now we make sure that there aren't any stress fractures in the hull itself before we cover it back up," said Ari as he stepped up to the group without an ev suit.

"No," you traitorous holographic piece of garbage "I was speaking colloquially, not literally. What is bothering Shadi?"

"I'm fine, you bald-faced simian!" Shadi snipped back. "The blue demon isss right, though," she said reluctantly. "Stress fractures in the chassis will crack the plate at the firssst sign of trouble."

Dinui had taken a moment to just look around, it was beautiful and the numerous possibilities that had been halted by the death of the star. Yes Dinui could freely admit, that she very much wanted to collect samples, and see what could be learned, but she wasn't about to put the ship at risk. She made a few hops until she was closer to Shadi and the others, "We have plenty o' work no need t' get snippy." She ran scans again the 'ghost' or whatever it had been bothered her, Dinui didn't want something to be missed, to end up biting them in the backside.

"No! It can't be!" Jolani screeched out of the blue. "Where are you?!" She left the hull plating and started looking wildly about her surroundings. Finding what she was looking for, she detached herself from the tether and started to thrust towards an asteroid about a kilometer "above" her.

"Hey!" the Yellow Suited engineer bellowed. "Get back on structure! Luetenant Kohnar!"

Further argument was lost as the hull plate, bumped by Jolani's departure, began to twist. It wasn't a particular forceful gesture, but it was a heavy plate of battle steel and it didn't want to stop as one corner dug into the exposed under hull cladding. A pressurised spray of blue coolant shot up from the impact point, sticking to visors and people in jelly like bubbles.

"Shit," Arivek cursed as he threw himself towards puncture. The gel continued to coat him as he wiped it away, trying to see where the tear was. "Hand me a Voltaic Spanner," he yelled to anyone close enough to hear him.

Ari's fingers found the tear. It was a long gash, with the fibrous material of the hose cleanly torn by the heavy metal plate. Coolant foamed from it, wobbling into little bubbles of fluid held together by surface tension.

"Here!" Shadi flung the tool into Ari's face before vaulting into the damaged side of the underhull. The plate was easily several hundred kilos, which strained Shadi's exosuit and her muscular body within. "Hurry!" The plate couldn't be replaced until the seal was reestablished, yet should couldn't leverage the bulk for long.

Jolani continued her ascent towards the asteroid. "I'm coming! I'm coming!" she called to it. She sounded excited, nearly exuberant, something nobody, except maybe the Captain, had ever heard before out of the Lieutenant. "Come out! Don't hide!"

Torn between the technical failure before her and the alighting helmsman getting further and further away, Tsabina made a snap decision.

"Lieutenant!" she called after Jolani. "Come back!"

Without a reply, she disengaged her own magclamps and went after her.

"What the famine?!" Shadi screamed, nearly dropping the hull plate. A flash of violet light from behind had taken her by surprise. Twisting her head around in a near 360, Shadi saw in the fading flash a figure gracefully fall from above and land on the hull. Tall, long limbed, graceful in motion they touch the hull with one hand and vanished in a flash of purple light.

"Victor!" Shadi screamed again, still holding the plate's edge with both hands. "We have contacts!"

As if on cue something dropped close to them, landing in a crouch. It slowly stood, the tips of it's splayed booted feet staying in contact with the hull. It was easily two and a half meters tall, thin the torso and waist. It was wearing an armoured space suit of a sort, the headpiece a flared tapering triangle that gave the impression of a beak. The visor was a quartet of red glass shards that glowered at them.

It reached to its back with one long three-fingered hand and grabbed at a long staff secured there. As it swung it around, the same pale violet glow of the flash Sahdi had seen began to trace behind either end of the staff. One of the engineers who happened to be in the way turned to slowly and received a glancing blow from the staff. A bright flash of energy discharge sent him flying off the full, jetting away as a burned lack hole had been punched through his suit.

"Victor, we have contacts!" came a pitch-perfect copy of Shadi's voice as the attack drew closer.

Free floating through the void of space between the hull and the nearby asteroid, Tsabina found her heart filling with terror. Jolani floated ahead with Tsabina only making slight gains and every passing second taking them further away from the Traveller.

"Lieutenant Khonar!" she called out. "Jolani!"

Down on the hull, Shadi deactivated her magboots. The towering, spindly foe before her seemed adept at moving in zero gravity. Shadi would have to match her.

"Ssstarvation take you!" she hissed.

Accessing the twin spanner wrenches on her tool belt, Shadi brought them up in time to catch the business end of the creature's staff. She ducked around it before the staff discharged, though she caught splash damage to the shoulder. The force sent her careening away from her target.

Shadi activated a single boot to slow her flight and pivot her into an arc. She deactivated the one magboot, pivoted around, and then activated the opposite magboot. The resulting parabola swing brought her down behind her attacker. Swinging with all her might, Shadi caught only empty air.

"Great Goddess' menstruation! These birds are fast!" Shadi barely had time to duck before a second staff nearly took her head off. A third squawked its arrival.

"Sorry for the late reply Shadi comms are buggy, security is enroute!" Vic responded from the bridge where he was busy re-calibrating weapon arrays. "Teams Alpha and Bravo we have reported contacts on the engineering section of the hull, report immediately in full zero G gear on the double! I'll meet you there!" he shouted as he ran into the turbolift.

By the time Security had begun to open fire, an entire flock had descended upon the hull. Shadi dove into the thick of it, pressing the attack to the best of her ability. The lack of gravity made balance and leverage difficult, but the lack of air resistance made her impossibly fast. If only her suit wasn't so restrictive...

Tsabina and Jolani were nearly halfway between the Traveller. The situation was going to become irreparable without swift, decisive action. But she wasn't a hero. She was a nurse, trained in disaster relief and biology and emergency care...

An idea struck her brain. The magboots on their exosuits operated on alternating polarity to apply directionality to the adhesion. Direct polarity would burn out the mag generator, but it would also create a brief but powerful magnetic field.

Tsabina had no choice. She depressed the safety release on the heels of both boots, which revealed a micro diagnostic panel. She input the maintenance override that would overclock the magnetic governor.

The hum of the magboots raised pitch into a whine that soon made her feet burn with heat. Yet the desired effect happened. Soon Jolani's advance slowed, then stopped, and finally reversed. Tsabina found herself on a collision course with one delusional Halanan.

Jolani had been getting closer to the asteroid. It would not be long before she reached it. "I'm coming!" she cried out gleefully. And then, that's when it happened. She slowed down. How could that be possible? Space was a vaccuum! Someone was interfering. It became more clear as she saw that the asteroid was getting further away. She flipped over and saw the nurse coming for her. "Stop it!! Let me go!" she screamed painfully to Tsabina. Jolani started fumbling around, trying to find something she could use to fend off Tsabina. Whatever she did, she had to get to that asteroid!

The impact hit hard. Tsabina gasped at the abrupt collision whose force had nowhere to go except her internal organs and skeletal structure. What made matters worse was the frenzied resistance Jolani was putting up.

"It's not safe!" Tsabina said. "We have to get back to the ship!"

Jolani's loose tether flapped free in the scuffle. After a few hits, Tsabina was able to grasp the tether and affix it to her own harness. Only then did she remember she had released her tether as well.

Another idea came to her. If she reversed the polarity of her magboots, then the opposite attraction would link them with Jolani's. So long as the power cell held charge, she and Jolani would be attached at the feet. The reverse polarity switch was easier to access, though it was still a bear due to the struggling Halanan.

Once activated, electromagnetic forces hummed to life and pinned the two women together. And then they began to "fall" toward the hull, as the metallic starship was the densest metallic object around. Tsabina braced herself. This was probably going to hurt.

Shadi continued to fight, but it was hard to tell who was winning. Each blow she landed was few and far between, given the mitigating factors of fighting on the side of the hull and the superior tactics of these damned things. She was flipping and ricocheting between targets, counting on her own agility to dodge her adversaries' strikes as they did hers. After a whirlwind of a feignt, stroke, and counterstroke, Shadi at last pinned one of the shrieking fiends in mid-air, her legs wrapped around its lithe body and arms, which left her free to wrench its head free as the crescendo of hrr glorious flying tackle.

Unfortunately, the entanglement left her poised directly at the mercy of yet another foe. The staff in hand began to flash violet in preparation for a killing stroke.

Out of nowhere, two bodies thudded onto the bulkhead. Tsabina groaned along with her magboots which finally gave out. She pushed herself aloft, floating merely a meter to one side of the much taller creature. Its ruby mask turned to face her, inciting a momentary connection that seemed to pause the universe as an unspoken exchange passed between them. Tsabina trembled in fear as its squall seemed to penetrate her brain and sear into her synapses.

Dinui hunkered down glaring at the attacking avian-like beings, her thoughts tumbling between curses and ideas as she tried to figure out what as the cause for the attack. Had they stumbled unknowingly into these beings home? Was it something else? She tried to help Ari with the repairs even as the battle turned around.

Vic emerged from one of the airlocks hot on the heels of the last security team that exited, what he saw surprised even him. Unknown humanoids attacking anything that moved and unsurprisingly Shadi in the thick of it. His teams had already engaged and began to gain a hold of the situation. He primed his rifle took aim and shot at one of the creatures which easily avoided the shot. "Of course." he said to himself, "Fan out and cover the engineering crew, I'll help Lieutenant Zatra." he ordered to his teams as he quickly went to help Shadi.

Upon sight of the security team the small knot of long limbed assaliants broke off their attack, retreating a few meters down the hull in sliding skater like steps. Then as one the group slammed their staff's into the hull, and in a shower of violet transporter energy dropped through the hull.

Tsabina gasped upon their retreat. Something... What was that? What had happened? So confusing...

"Wait," she said, a whimper at first lifted up at the back of the retreat. A feral desire rose up within her, erupting in a sharper demand. "WAIT!"

One of the assailants, perhaps the one that had shrieked in her face, stopped. Its head whipped around like an owl, its face unreadable behind the crimson ruby helm.

"Damn you, Tsabina!" Jolani cried out. "Unhook us! That's an order!" she commanded. Regardless of whether she was about to fight or go to the asteroid, she knew that she was useless attached to the nurse.

---

=/\="All hands, intruder alert on Deck 10 and 11. Unknown hostiles have entered the ship! Prepare the repel boarders!"=/\=

Remas's voice broke across the comm channel, accompanied the sounds of metal striking metal and the errie singing of humming high voltage electricty crackling through the air.

---

Dinui blinked in confusion as her head was filled with a cacophonous noise that was several tones and pitches, the sounds were gibberish to her, her ears rang with it as the sound grew louder, making her eyes water. She hissed out curses in Gaelic as she stared at their attackers.

Hearing her curses tossed back almost melodically was just as shocking...

Now the repair team was alone, surrounding on the now alone alien who seemed to have come to a calm stance among them. It slowly spun the staff around and slide it back into the locking mechanism on the back of its space suit. It was tall, graceful, and eerie now that it was just stood there. Meanwhile it's fellows were below their feet, creating merry havok.

"Tsabina!" Jolani yelled again. "Let me go."

Without looking away from the unmoving creature, Tsabina kicked off the residual magnetic bond that held her boots to Jolani's. The power had gone out, which meant Tsabina was left totally adrift. Slowly, fluidly, she let herself float upward, closer to the subdued creature's hidden face. She could almost make out the shape of an alien visage behind the dark helmet.

Years of triage experience gave her a steady hand, yet its tremble was unmistakable as she cautiously but irresistibly brushed it against the ruby faceplate.

"What are you?" she whispered, almost to herself. It stirred...so much inside. All her secret thoughts, her whims and desires.

She tapped her combadge. "Tsabina to Remas," she said, forgetting to hide their intimate first name status. "Be advised, I believe the intruders are powerful telepaths. Use extreme caution."

Grateful that she was released from the annoying nurse, Jolani considered her options. She wanted to head back to the asteroid. Fell was there. She heard his voice. She knew she did. On the other hand, there was a creature in front of her and her crew had called for aid. Fell's voice was silent. But was not Fell dead? She remembered seeing it happen. How could he be alive, let alone out here? Anger brewing, she threw herself at the creature with all the force she could muster. "Not on my ship!"

=/\="Remas here: aye we reckoned that much."=/\= The Captain sounded winded, and even the meagre comm link between the suits and the ship was enough to overhear the running conversations as the bridge crew coordinated events on the ship. =/\="Two of them got onto the bridge. Ones dead, the other was making to use their site to site transporter tech before they were disarmed of the notion. I have a medic tending to them now. Internal sensors are detecting fourteen of them inside the hull on Deck 15 near sickbay. If you can get back inside, Victor I think you're people would appreciate the helping hand."=/\=

"To war, knaves! Nobody lives forever!"
Letting out a bold sequence of hissing clicks that presumably passed for a war cry, Shadi slithered across the hull to the airlock.

"Am I going to get any help over here?" Ari called, out, still covered in the goop from the Traveler's punctured wound.

"Duplicate yourself or something Ari, we're sorta tied up!" Vic retorted before responding to the Captain." On my way sir!. Security team Bravo, break off and get back inside the ship, Alpha, maintain watch on the hull and protect the engineering crew." several sirs responded as Vic wobbled over to the airlock.

Shadi gave a screaming fit into her helmet. The call of war summoned her back inside to do what her foremothers did best, but honor required her to remain until the job was finished.

"Out of the way, hologram," Shadi said to Ari. "I'll die a thousand deaths in the frostiest hell before I leave you to fix my tasty ship."

The WorkBee still hovered over them, the pilot seemingly unphased by the rain of telepathic mixed martial arts fighters. Who knew, maybe this was just another day in the life of a construction work? A lot of 20th Century media decipted cities getting destroyed all the time, it probably hardened you too it.

The ruined hull plate that had torn the coolant line had floated off the structure and was following Jolani's fervent wishes to fly to the asteroid. The WorkBee operator already had a replacement hull plate ready to go, even as the coolant gel began to clot around the tear. Microscopic platelet's akin to the ones in blood had been drawn to the tear, and with a little help was sealing it.

Jolani called out frustrated, "Exactly how am I supposed to do anything when I don't have a weapon?" She started searching about, her eyes longingly straying to the asteroid where she heard her husband's voice. God, if he could see me now. I really have let my body go.

Arivek pushed his elbow out towards the Saurian who was starting to intrude on his personal space, "I didn't ask you to take over, Lietuenant. I just needed a tool," he said as he began to repair the tear.

"You're a tool," Shadi retorted. "I cut my teeth on hull repair. If we need the warp core mixture rate rebalanced then we'll call you. Also, if we want to die in the middle of nowhere. Those are your only jobs."

"And you're just a bitch who can't help but put her pride and ego before her job," Arivek yelled at the woman. "First sign of trouble, you ignore the ship and try to attack an alien enemy who is one thousand times better than you. All you did was waste time and if it weren't for me, we could have lost complete containment of this area." Arivek stood, shoving Shadi as he walked past, "I'm sick and tired of hearing how you think you're better than I am and about the stupid fucking songs people sing on your planet. Just shut the fuck up and do your job for once."

The Saurian gasped in wroth. "How dare you ssspeak that way of the songs of Ragolar!" She made to lunge for Ari, but her magboots were locked down, which merely made her lurch in what amounted to a full body dry heave. Righting herself, she launched a hissing tirade worthy of her ancestors. "For the record, Zhuri, while you were off doing Goddess knows what with your space demon pal Abborax, I was right here, doing your job and fixing what was left of vital systems," Shadi snarled at Arivek. "And you criticize me for defending the crew? What should I have done? Let everybody die like you did? Handed over our computer like you did? I bet these bird things have a ship or a nest nearby that you could upload yourself to just for shits and giggles while the rest of us die a cuckolded death! Go on! Nobody wants you here. Not your engineers. Not me. Not anybody!"

"You have no idea!" Arivek's hands gripped into a fist as his knuckles began to turn a pale blue. "You weren't there! You have no idea what that was like." He took a step towards the Saurian, grabbing her by the collar of her suit and slammed her to the hull. "I did everything in my power to save this ship and get back!" He picked up the instrument he had been using and slammed it hard into the facemask of her helmet, causing a crack in the glass. "I put my life on the line for them!" Another strike against the metal. "I risked everything to undo the mistake I made!" Another blow to the helmet and the crack began to spread slightly. "I've paid the ultimate price for Starfleet and my crew. I paid more than anyone can ever give and I still came back and put everything on the line again! You will never understand how it feels to die and yet live again. And what's worse, you don't even care! All you want to do is blame someone for your misfortunes. So you blame Abborax for your problems with Mazarian, you blame me for the misfortunes of this crew. Enough is enough! I am not your scapegoat any more."

Arivek sat back, staring at the look on Shadi's face. He didn't realize he'd been crying this entire time as tears stained his cheeks. His shoulders slumped as he dropped the instrument, not paying attention as it floated away from the ship. "I'm done," he said, wiping away a tear as he stood. "You want it so bad, Shadi? Take it." His voice was barely audible above the commotion happening around them. "Take everything. I no longer have anything to give for this crew or for Starfleet."

Shadi's eyes began to dilate under the barrage of head trauma. "Did...did you say 'goat'?" She licked her hungry lips before passing out.

 

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