Nevermore

Posted on Tue Apr 30th, 2019 @ 3:47am by Master Warrant Officer Tsabina & Lieutenant Dinui Locke (loch)

2,409 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: S1:4: A Murder Of Crows
Location: Sickbay
Timeline: MD63 12.45PM

Sickbay had a place for everyone who had to come to it, and for the walking wounded that place was the floor or leaning against a wall. Triage was king as the LEMH worked side by side with orderlies and Dr Kal to sort the walking wounded from the critically injured, of which Jolani was determined to be. Expedition Security was there in a token presence, ready to repel another assault by the flash dancers of the Reka.

Though there was already a Reka there, wounded but fighting against the sticky hardened foam bindings applied by ExpSec upon its arrival and subjugation. A constant low-level telepathic assault of voices in a variety of languages and tones drifted through Sickbay like a miasma, as the Reka's actual cawing voice broke through every now and then.

Dinui shook her head softly trying to ignore the hauntingly accurate rendition of Chi Mi Mórbheanna (Oh I see, I see the great mountains) echoing in her head as sung by her great grandmother, great aunt's.
~~O chì, chì mi na mórbheanna (Oh I see, I see the great mountains) O chì, chì mi na córrbheanna (Oh I see, I see the lofty mountains) O chì, chì mi na coireachan (Oh I see, I see the corries) Chì mi na sgoran fo chèo (I see the peaks under the mist). Chì mi gun dàil an t-àite ‘s an d’rugadh mi (I see right away the place of my birth).~~ Dinui took a soft breath closing her eyes as she muttered some words, her mother would happily washer her mouth out with soap if she'd been within ear shot of, she didn't take the comfort from the song as she had when she was younger.

"I don't feel so good, Tsabina. If I am going to die, can you please make it quicker and less painful?"

"Careful what you wish for," Tsabina said. She applied a hypospray to Jolani's neck. "This is for the pain. Try sit still, or you'll be made to."

"Made to?" Jolani asked, as a sedative kicked in. She yawned and asked, "What are you doing, Tsabina?"

"Just lie down," Tsabina said. "I'll see to you in a moment."

Turning to Dinui, Tsabina said, "There's an extra labcoat inside the wardrobe in the CMO's office. Grab one and then jump in wherever you can."

Dinui nodded her thanks to Tsabina, the extra distraction of the spoken voice helped a bit more as the Reka continued to 'sing' through the songs of her childhood in her thoughts. "Aye, thank ye," was all she was able to manage in reply with confidence.

Tsabina left the two women and made for the main door. She passed the Reka which stood under guard by two ExpSec officers.

"Is it tamed?" she asked the guards.

"Apparently so," said the leftward ExpSec officer.

"Shame." Tsabina raised her hand and cupped the side of the creature's face as she had done before. "Such noble creatures in their own rite. They see what they want... and then they take it."

With a flick of her wrist, Tsabina ran a laser scalpel across the exposed throats of both guards with a surgical precision. She had moved on before they even knew what had happened. By the time they clutched at their gurgling windpipes and opened jugulars, Tsabina was already at the main door.

She had the Reka's staff in hand, which she slammed into the opening mechanism. Sparks flew out from the door panel, leaving the doors trembling in locked-out impotence. And then she did the same to the CMO's office where Dinui was changing.

Dinui spun at the sound of door release panel being fried from the outside, her startled expression went to shocked surprise at seeing Tsabina on the other side of the damaged doorway causing chaos...

"Tsabina!" gasped Dr Kal who was too distracted by the triage situation to see the actions of her head nurse before it was too late. "What are you doing?!"

"Taking what's mine," Tsabina said. Gone was the warm bedside manner for which she was known. The Risian was overtaken by a cold and savage bloodlust that seemed completely foreign. She thrust the staff against the Trill, sending the doctor careening against the wall, where she stumbled onto a biobed and clutched her side.

Jolani, more and more drowsy called on her commbadge, =^= Security...security to sickbay.... The nurse...attacked the doctor....=^=

"Belay that, Security," Tsabina said with a tap to her combadge, still on all fours. "The patient is delirious."

Operating the staff did something to Tsabina. The glint in her eye turned to obsession that all but morphed its hue. She could hear meaning in the Reka's shrieking, even reason and logic. It pulsated through her mind and into her being, evoking long repressed energies that she had been storing for some time. Consciousnesses ricocheted inside her skull, rending her psyche, making her gut clench with the distress. But equilibrium was achieved. She had dropped to her knees under duress, but only for a few instants. When she rose back to her feet, the signs of distress were gone, replaced by a sadistic satisfaction reminiscent of a spider spinning her web. Even her hair and pallor changed in some sort of exotic metamorphosis into something more... simply more.

"We hope we didn't hurt that wonderful symbiont." Tsabina tossed the staff to the Reka. "Go wild," she said to it before turning her eyes back to Kal. "Now... where were we..." She approached the biobed where Doctor Rena Kal lay half conscious and flicked out her laser scalpel like a switchblade. "Right. All those lifetimes... we want them."

While Tsabina, or whoever was at the helm, focused on Kal, the newly armed Reka set its sights on the wounded souls trapped inside the locked Sickbay.

Jolani moved towards Tsbaina, "You cannot do this." She was starting to have a great deal of trouble staying awake. Feebly she held out her hand. "Stop, Tsabina."

Coming from the counselor's office, the Andorian counselor came out. The moment that he did, his antennae picked up something unusual. "Tsabina, I do not believe that you are yourself," he stated in a wispy voice. "In fact, I sense many Vulcan katras inside you. How did that come to be?" he wondered. "Please, allow me to help you."

"Tsabina has been harvesting katras from dead and dying Vulcan members of the crew for some time," said Tsabina's voice. "The first was an accident, a serendipitous transfer from a science officer. He was Tolkath, but now he is we. For it was not good to be alone. We wanted more!" Tsabina's voice rose into a crescendo not unlike the Reka. Then her eyes settled back to Ral. "If you want to help us, then hold down the Halanan that we may harvest her next. If the symbiont does not give up the ghost, then at least that one will. It longs for death."

Katras? Interesting. "You say that you have Vulcan katras," Peeph told Tsabina. "Speak to them," he said in his calm, soft voice. "Is it logical to steal? Is it logical to want to kill for more? To what end to you do this?" he asked stepping between Tsabina and the doctor.

Tsabina threw her head back and let out a hysterical cackle that would make a witch shudder. "Do you know what every Vulcan carries beneath their vaunted logic? An insatiable rage. Freed from the bondage of their former bodies..."

She turned away from Kal and stared at Peeph to drive home the next words. "... the katras say only one thing: I wish to do more violence."

In the meantime, Jolani tapped her commbadge. Tired words came out, =^= Security...sick bay.... =^=

This time the call to security was followed by a score of similar demands as the Reka moved through the wounded at Tsabina's command. It alternated between delivering savage kicks with its booted feet, to powerful strikes with the haft of the staff. It only reacted to bring the energy weapon portion of it to bear when someone had a weapon, seeming to enjoy inflicting pain through brutality.

"Don't run! Don't run! I'm here to help!" came a mad, telepathic giggle from all around as the Reka continued to wade through the walking wounded like a child in a candy shop.

Peeph's antennae leaned forward in towards Tsabina interested. "It is not rage underneath, Tsabina. It is the suppression of their emotions. When freed, all of the emotions run loose. Violence only begets violence and ends in destruction. When is enough, enough? Think, Tsabina!" Peeph instructed, his voice, staying soft.

"Silence him," Tsabina ordered the Reka. "His paracortex is undeveloped, like most of his kind. Precious little to harvest, so I will save him for last."

Peeph saw the Reka closing in on him. The gentle giant did not like to fight; however, his kind were bred for it. Security was not here, so for the time being, it was up to him. Before one of the Reka could get to him, he charged it like a wrestler going in for a clothesline maneuver. Instead, he picked up the Reka and tossed him into the oncoming rush of another couple. "Tsabina, stop this, now!" he told her, feeling his Andorian blood start to rage.

Turning him a blind eye and a deaf ear, Tsabina set her laser scalpel upon Kal's abdomen. At this point the Trill was starting to come back around from the savage discharge of the Reka's staff. Her doctor's coat was burned, but she seemed more shaken than injured.

When she saw the malformed Tsabina, she screamed.

"Life is over, Doctor, but weep not." Tsabina drew an incision several centimeters long. "I will take good care of your memories."

Dinui had been hitting the doorframe as she tried to get loose from the improvised cell. She screamed curses, then hit her combadge, =/\=Security Sickbay needs ye NOW!=/\= her eyes streaming tears as the feeling of being helpless settled. There had to be a way out she just had to keep trying. ~~*Ne'er give up, ne'er surrender!*~~ The thought was her own she was going to find a way out she was going to help....

Peeph did not wait. Seeing the laser scalpel cut into the doctor, Peeph rushed into Tsabina, knocking the scalpel out of her hands, a cut further going across the Doctor's abdomen. Trying to wrestle Tsabina away, Peeph said, "You will not steal any longer. Those katras must come out of you, Tsabina." His antennae were now leaning completely back against the Andorian's scalp.

"Noooo!" Tsabina snarled, her lips curling back like an animal's. She shook her head, trying to break free from the grip of Peeph's arms and antennae. Her hand slipped loose from his Greco-Roman wrestling grab and slid around his throat. The strength of her squeeze was not superhuman, but still more than expected. It was nothing compared to the penetrating psionic burst.

"Our mind to your mind," she seethed. "Our thoughts to your thoughts..." Her eyes grew wide in wroth fury, her choking hand trembling with rage. "OUR MIND TO YOUR MIND! OUR THOUGHTS... TO YOUR THOUGHTS!!!"

Feeling Tsabina start a mind meld, Peeph resisted. Rapidly he considered the situation. He could resist. Mind melds could be physically debilitating for a strong mind. Also, the sharing of minds could merge emotions. Perhaps his emotions could assist Tsabina in seeing the wrongness of her actions. For the moment, he continued to resist before reaching a decision.

The mind meld was interrupted as the Reka who had been running rampant through the sick and dying a placed a hand on Tsabina's shoulder.

"You go, we stay. Other's soon arrive, survival not assured," the Reka purred into her mind, its four red eyes glowering at Peeph. "Bone Shard Crowns will follow Song Stealer."

Peeph's impassive face looked at the Reka. "Song Stealer?" he asked of the Reka. "Why do you name Tsabina that?" Of course, Peeph already had an idea of why but was it not a counselor's job to keep someone talking?

The swirling gestalt inside Tsabina's mind latched hold of the epithet and the significance it implied. "Destroy them," she hissed to the Reka. "Destroy them all!"

The Reka before her bowed awkwardly.

She abandoned her designs for Ral and Jolani, leaving them to the massacre that had already been wrought. She spared but one glance for Peeph as she crossed the room away from him. "The 'play' was fun while it lasted," she said. And then, activating the medical transporter, she was gone.

Where in the world is security? Peeph wondered. He could fight and fight well, but with the amount of Reka in here, a drugged and injured Chief Flight Officer, a disabled doctor, and little better in a Chief Science Officer, Peeph knew that he would eventually fall. Perhaps the only answer for now was to delay. He considered his priorities. First, protect the doctor and the symbiant. Second, protect the science officer. The Chief Flight Officer is last priority. Someone else can fly the ship, though, likely not as well in a stressful situation. Let us go on the attack and throw them off balance. If they have a chance to gather around, I may not be able to protect anyone. And so, Peeph flung himself at the Reka closest to him, feeling the Andorian battle lust filling him up.

The Reka hopped back, swinging its phase staff in an arc that would have taken the Councillor's head off. But at that moment the door to sickbay opened, and a trio of ExpSec officer's stepped in, the flashlights under their carbine's locking onto the Reka and firing a tight pattern of shots into the alien. It was flung away, the energy staff flying through the air to discharge against a bulkhead. The three officer's stepped in, fanning out to cover sickbay before one of them spoke.

"Oh...oh my god."

Of the dozen wounded brought to sickbay, the only mobile entities still breathing were Peeph, Jolani, Locke and the ragged gasps of the wounded Kal.

 

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