Mission 3 - Living Discovery

The Douglas has new senior staff members, and new transfers aboard. The Constitution III starship begins its mission of exploration, discovery and science by examining the abandoned colony in the Gamma Quadrant. Something else is out there, watching.

LD 001 – Finding the One

USS Douglas
10.01.2401

“That’s number five in the lackluster pile.”  Ensign Alanna Barker noted on her PADD as she scrolled through the remaining applicants. “It doesn’t get any better from there.”  She handed the PADD to Captain Helena Dread. “We need an XO, ma’am. Douglas is too big.”

The CO grimaced, “You would have thought with the prestige of a Constitution III class ship, we’d get some stronger applications.”  She noted her Yeoman’s silence.  “What aren’t you telling me, Barker?”

Barker sat in the chair opposite her boss, “You have a reputation.  As does the crew.”  She raised her hands, “I don’t think they’re true, but it’s out there in the universe.  Your reputation probably saved us a couple of worse interviews, to be fair.”

Dread replied, “Our crew has a reputation?”  There was a tenor of hurt in her voice, not for herself, but for her crew.  They hadn’t been together long, yet she’d found feelings developing in their defense.

“Yeoman talk.  I think they called us the ‘Island of Misfit Toys.’  We got the Daedalus, and then we got thrown to the Douglas, and basically people out there think we’re just going to get tossed to another ship because we can’t put wins together.  It doesn’t make sense, but that’s the word in the warp trails.”

Helena mused, “Tells you a lot about them – saying crap like that.  They are a bunch of shitheads if you ask me.  I think it’s more accurate to call them shit for brains.”  She tapped on each PADD, sending a declined message to the applicants.  “Well, we’re back to not having an XO, and I know that’s not going to get us very far.”

Alanna spoke cautiously, “I have an idea.  It’s…out of the box.”

“Out with it, ensign.”

“Milton Ford.”

“That is out of the box.”  Dread pulled up his dossier on her PADD, “He’s been around the block a few times – operations, security, tactical, and then counseling.  Wasn’t there a transfer request from him this morning?”

Barker pulled a PADD from the pile: “There is. I held it back…I felt in my gut we might need a plan B.”  She highlighted his record on Douglas: “He’s been an incredible mentor to his deputy chief, and everybody speaks highly of the man.”

Dread chuckled dryly, “You did your research, Alanna.”

“I wouldn’t be a great Yeoman if I didn’t work every angle possible, ma’am.”

“I suppose we’ll have to tell him his transfer’s denied.:  Barker nodded.  “Have him meet us here.  Let’s see how much convincing it’ll take.”

“You taking bets, captain?”  Barker’s smile widened.

“Just call him Alanna.”

 

 

“You’re nuts. Certifiable.”  Lieutenant Commander Milton Ford stood, having refused to take the seat offered. He’d heard the offer, and he was making his displeasure known.  “I asked for a transfer because I wanted to get back to the Academy or something simple.  This isn’t simple.  This is whacky.”

Dread rolled her eyes. “Milton Richard Ford, you cannot stand there and tell me you’d be happier behind a desk somewhere in the recess of space watching the stars pass you by. You never settled. I mean, I talked to the people who worked with you at the Academy. They were glad you left and got back out into space—you were not much fun to be around.”

Ford confessed, “They don’t usually return my calls, I admit.”  He rationalized, “I’m not even ranked the right rank for the gig, captain.  You can’t…,” his eyes widened, and he grew quiet as she slipped across a small wooden case, opened slightly to reveal a third solid rank pip.  “You’re a bastard, you know that, right?”

Helena’s smile equaled her feelings. “Apparently, I have a reputation. I should probably ensure I uphold it as best as possible.”  She pointed to him, “Don’t refuse this promotion, Milton. If you walk away from this…you’ll start building a reputation you can’t easily fix with a rank pip.”

He stared at the box, “You’re not just a bastard, but a blunt bastard.  You know why I never wanted to be promoted?”  She shook her head in reply, and he explained, “I was afraid of this moment.  I saw too many of my friends in The Dominion War climb ladders slicked with the blood of those that came before…and that damned red waterfall took so many of them…I told myself I’d never let myself get caught up on that ladder fever dream.”  His eyes remained transfixed with the wooden container, “The Dominion War has been over for years.  I wonder if I was still fighting that war inside my head?”

Dread let his confession rest before she said, “You know how I felt about that center chair when I stepped onboard the Daedalus and now the Douglas?”  He indicated he did, his face flashing with curiosity as she delved deeper, “I was afraid of that chair…more than anything in the universe – that chair scared the shit out of me.  You helped me get into the damn thing…and now I’m afraid they’ll have to pry me out of it kicking and screaming.  Plenty of people in the history of Starfleet Command should never have made it to the command track.  I thought I was one of them.  Yet, here I am.”  She nudged the box towards him, “You’ve been doing everything and anything for so long, Milton…you’ve never had the chance to consider this one thing might be what you’re supposed to be doing for the rest of your career.  The Douglas needs you.  Hell, I need you.  My background is medical and science – you’ve got the operations, security, and tactical pieces that’ll keep me from doing something stupid or risky.”  She stood from her desk, “Is your war over, Milton?”

His eyes sparkled with a momentary flash of emotion, replaced by a steely gaze seconds later.  “My war…it’ll take time for closure…but, yes…talking to you today has helped me see…what I’ve been fighting all this time.”  He extended his hand to her, a sly smile sliding across his face, “You’d make a helluva counselor, captain.”

She returned the handshake, “I prefer to work on the parts of the human body I can see and heal.  The mind is a bit too much for me.  As for you, Mr. Ford.”  She opened the case and slipped the rank pip into her hand, “Do I have your permission to complete the promotion ceremony?”

Ford looked as if he was going to run out of the room, screaming.  He let out a long breath and dropped his shoulders.  “It goes against my reputation, but yes.”

She rounded her desk.  Carefully, she removed the one pip and gently slipped the third shiny pip into place, “Someone told me once that it’s ok to change and clean up your reputation.  I think you have a chance to do just that.”  She stepped back and shook his hand again, “Congratulations on your promotion, Commander Ford…and welcome to the command team.”

He stepped back after the handshake and asked, “You said somebody gave you that advice…did you follow it?”

She let out a rare cackle, “Damn right I did. I listened to my CO back then.  If you can imagine, my reputation was much worse than it is now.  You’re getting the revised version of Captain Dread.  Be thankful.”

Milton’s smile was heavy on the sly, “I’m so very thankful, captain.”

She returned the sly smile, “Shut up, commander. Let’s get to work. We’ve had our first argument—I can’t wait to see what our first disagreement is about.”

It was Ford’s turn to cackle, “I’m all pins and needles.”

Barker shook her head in disbelief.  This was either the greatest decision she’d helped make, or this would be the biggest mistake of her short career.  She followed them to the bridge, wondering where this pairing would take them.

Somewhere warm, she hoped.

LD 002 – Twice Too Many

USS Douglas
10.01.2401

“You wanted to see me, chief?”  Lieutenant Elizabeth McKee stood at the door of her department head’s office.  

Lieutenant Greer Moore glanced up and gestured to the chair, “Close the door if you could.”  She watched her deputy chief’s eyes widen the implication.

Elizabeth sat down gingerly, “You’ve never asked me to close the door.”

Greer half-heartedly smiled, “I’ve put in a request for a sabbatical…and a transfer.”  She watched Greer’s eyes widen even more.  “You’re the first, aside from the captain, to know.”

“Why?”  It was the only thing McKee could think to say.

“In the last year, I’ve nearly lost my life twice.  Coming back from what happened in the engine room was hard…and you had a front-row seat.”  She tossed over a PADD, “In November of 2400, I was a deputy chief on the USS Mackenzie in the Delta Quadrant.  Devore tried to take the Mack…and, in the process, took me hostage to try and force the saucer separation process on the battle bridge.  They were brutal in their torture.  The pain was so much - my life flashed before my eyes.  I thought I was going to die.”

Elizabeth read over the details further, “This is horrifying.  I’m so sorry you had to go through this.”

Moore accepted the PADD back, a sad smile crossing her lips. “Well, I had hoped I wouldn’t go through it again. Once is a chance occurrence. Twice…I know when to take a hint. I know plenty of engineers out there who’d brush it aside and just…keep powering through, thinking their luck will hold.”  Tears appeared at the edges of her eyes. “Plenty of engineers whose luck ran out would loudly challenge that thinking.”  She brushed away the memories of friends who hadn’t returned or survived.  “It’s that feeling knowing that I couldn’t stay - my heart wouldn’t be in it.  I’ve seen and felt enough death in my lifetime…I’d like to avoid feeling that wound open again so soon.”  She pointed to McKee, “You’ve come back repeatedly, lieutenant.  You are the right person for this office.  I was, for a time.”

Her subordinate stared at her, “I’m not sure I am the right person for this office, Greer.  My dossier is a warp trail of dubious distinction and haphazard actions.  I don’t have any awards of substance…and my only positive notes in my file have come from you.”

Greer leaned forward, “Commander Katsumi would be livid with you if she were with us.” The sad smile returned, “Katsumi Okada was my first chief…and she was a force of nature.  Do you know why Commander Harris went and dragged her off Starbase Bravo?  He knew her worth and wouldn’t take no for an answer.  She didn’t think she was good enough.  Part of why she fought promotions and higher assignments was because she didn’t think she was qualified…or didn’t think she’d be able to handle the more responsibility that came with it.”  Tears threatened to return, “I miss her.  She was meant to be a chief engineer.”

McKee frowned, “You think I’m meant to be a chief engineer?”

“Ambrose Harris saw something in you. If you were worth his time, he worked to make you the best you could be. You’ve told me what he did for you. People don’t invest in worthless causes, Elizabeth. They invest because they believe in it and want it to succeed.”

“My first best destiny is to be a chief engineer?  I’m not sure I believe that.”

“Bringing in the Spock-isms. Clever.  You know I’ve got a weak spot for him.”  Greer lessened her smile, looked at her deputy chief, and spoke as directly as she could, “When Spock confronted Kirk then, he’d not given the idea much thought.  He’d taken the promotion to admiral because that’s what you did - you moved up and did what admirals did…but James Kirk was no admiral.  He was a cowboy who needed a horse.”

McKee groaned, “Heavy on the metaphors.  The horse was Enterprise, and the saddle was the command chair.  You’ve made your point.”

Greer replied, “Have I?  You have a mind for engineering, Elizabeth.  You have a love for it that doesn’t come from a book.  You want this ship to be the best she can with the best crew to run her.  You may not believe it now, but you have to admit somewhere in there is a small part of you agreeing with me.”

“A small part, maybe.”  She shook her head, “I understand your why, chief…but I don’t have to like it.”

“Well, you're first in what will probably be a long line.”  She looked to the soon-to-be Chief Engineer. "You are the right person for the office, Elizabeth McKee.  Treat her like a lady…and she’ll always get you home.”

McKee rolled her eyes, “You know I have a soft spot for the McCoy-isms - early, middle, and late-period quotes.  Damn you.”

Greer’s smile widened, wiping the sadness away, “You’re welcome, Chief.”

LD 003 – The Ground Moves

USS Douglas - Abandoned Gamma Quadrant Colony
10.05.2401

“What would keep the Jem’Hadar from a planet?”  Ensign Jake Shaw sat at a console in the science office, his eyes searching the data streaming from the sensors.  He was talking mostly to himself.  He was alone, and his shift had been over hours ago, but the problem continued to bother him.  With Presley Atega’s departure, he had been promoted to the Chief Communications position.  He muttered, “Victory is life is a pretty unstoppable mantra.  They flew into a Galaxy-class starship.  These guys aren’t going to let a planet get in their way.  Except…it did.”  He tapped at the various sensor readings, searching for the telltale signal of something unusual.  The readings were coming back as normal as they had been when they’d first passed the planet during the aperture incident.  “If you look normal, you should be normal.  The Dominion hated normal.  They wanted to take over normal.  Why did they give this normal planet such a wide berth?”

The console next to him beeped, and the signal from the three probes they had launched earlier was attenuating.  They were heavy-duty and built to survive just about anything.  Shaw slid over and clicked open the feed, eying the visuals and the data sets.  He felt a cold shiver trickle down his back as he examined the data and pictures.  They were very different from what the ship’s sensors were telling him.  The sensors suggested an M-class planet with idyllic views and wide vistas of open land.  The probes were telling a different story.  The clouds hung low and thick, and a muted darkness lay across much of what the various probes could see.  “What the hell?”  Shaw began recording the visuals for his report.  Why was there such a discrepancy?  How was that possible?  Suddenly, there was a flash of movement at one of the probes, and the video link went dead, and the data stream abruptly fell silent seconds later.

Shaw turned to the other two screens, watching intently.  The second probe’s camera flickered off within a few minutes, and the data showed ‘offline.’  He grumbled, “Shit.”  Tapping his badge, he called for Chief Fowler while watching the third probe.  It was on the other side of the planet.  He hoped that would grant him the time he needed for the science chief to get here.

The door flew open, and Lieutenant Sadie Fowler walked in with a cup of coffee.  “I was in the middle of my Olympic Journal reading.  This better be good.”  He pulled up the last images the cameras had recorded and played them for her.  She sipped at her coffee as she watched.  Sadie watched as one probe went down and then the other.  She rewound the footage and watched it again, twice.  “That’s not good.  Third one still up?”  He checked the feed.  It was.  She motioned him out of the chair and took over, handing him the coffee, “The disparity between readings is unusual.  It’s not the first time it’s happened, but to this extent…isn’t normal.  You see the temperature spike before the attack happened?”  She pointed to the console he was at and sent him the data, “There, and there—a spike of over fifty degrees centigrade.  There’s hot, and then there’s that hot.”  Sadie’s hands worked the data stream until it had disconnected, “There’s something else…a slight tremor in the ground leading up – you see here?  It starts thirty seconds out – it’s slight, but the sensor is sensitive enough to pick it up.”

Jake examined the other probe, “The other probe was maybe five miles from the first – whatever it was moved fast. The third…well, it’s at least over 5,000 miles.  Anything?”

Sadie shook her head, “Nothing yet.  If the readings are correct – whatever it is could be underground.”  She tapped at the console, “None of the probes could detect any landing sites or presence of Dominion forces in the past.  Whatever story was told about this planet must have been good enough to scare the Jem’Hadar.”

“What if the story was that someone landed on the planet and never came back?”  He pointed out, “Look, Jem’Hadar are bred and born for this—what if they kept sending them to take the planet, and eventually they realized the planet was eating their soldiers? As for the probes not finding any landing points, whatever is down there would have destroyed it…leaving no trace anyone had ever been here.”

A beep interrupted their conversation as Fowler grimaced, “Looks like the third probe is detecting the tremors in the ground…it matches the frequency.”  They watched, curious if their antagonist would show.  The probe began to shake, a bright light flashed, and the screen went blank.  “It’s gone.  Same as before.”  She stood, “Better get a fresh uniform on, Ensign Shaw.  I’ve got to interrupt the captain’s evening with this news, and she’s not going to be happy.”  She walked out, snapping the still-warm coffee out of his hands, “Mine.  Get your own.”

Shaw sat dumbfounded.  He clearly needed coffee.  He smelled his uniform.  Fowler was right.  He needed a fresh uniform.
 

LD 004 – Problem with Perfection

USS Douglas - Abandoned Gamma Quadrant Colony
10.05.2401

“This sounds like something from one of those old fairy tales.”  Captain Helena Dread was reading through the report, a cup of coffee ready.  “Your analysis of the images was inconclusive, and I don’t blame you.  Whatever did this avoided the cameras intentionally all three times.  Sneaky bastard.”  Dread returned the PADD to Fowler, who stood in front of her in the CO’s ready room.  “The biological readings, however…they couldn’t hide that.”

Lieutenant Sadie Fowler agreed, “It’s a complex lifeform with an unusual arrangement of appendages.  The last data transmitted suggests this is an underground creature capable of incredibly fast travel.”  She tapped at her PADD, “There is another theory, one I didn’t include in the official report.”

Helena watched her face and read it.  “You think there’s more than one.  It would explain why the third probe was attacked shortly after the other two.”  She took a long draw from her coffee, “Biologically, it makes sense.  You don’t have the survival of a species with just one specimen.  You have multiple.  It’s a big enough planet that several could survive on plant or animal life.  If anything comes along to threaten their ecosystem, they take ‘em out.”

Sadie felt the attention return to her. “That’s part of the equation for figuring out our next steps with the planet and the evidence of…whatever is down there.  Given the nature of…well, nature…we’ve come up with a plan.”  Fowler outlined using a runabout with three away team members transported down in environmental suits to conduct quick sensor scans and analysis. At the same time, the fourth remained aboard the runabout, holding twenty feet above them with a transporter lock at the ready.

The CO’s eyebrows were raised, “There is a lot of risk in this plan, Lieutenant Fowler.”  She turned her eyes to her newly installed XO, sitting on the couch reading through his PADD with the details.  “Commander Ford?”

Milton looked up, “What about flying the runabout first to get an overview of the planet?  Get a full scan of the surface and whatever is beneath.  We’ll know more about what we’re dealing with – and it keeps us farther from danger.”  He tapped the PADD gently against his arm, thinking.  “It’s not a bad plan, Fowler.  It’s a mystery, and you want to solve it.  Let’s take the proper precautions before we set foot on the planet.”

Fowler replied with, “Understood, sirs.”

 

“You don’t understand.”  Ensign Jake Shaw stood in the crew cabin with the checklist.  He’d been firmly told no; he was needed on the bridge to run communications with the New Atlantic class runabout.

Sadie grumbled, “I don’t.  Between the suits and the runabout, we’d have enough protection.”  She stabbed at the checklist, her face flushed.  “I’m annoyed.  I’m frustrated.”

Shaw turned as Lieutenant William Prentice entered the cabin, his eyes boring into Shaw, who made excuses and headed downstairs.  “Hey.”

She didn’t look at him, remaining buried in her checklist, “Did they send you to check on me?”

Will sidled up beside her, “You’re upset.  And no, they didn’t send me.”

She sighed deeply and fell into one of the chairs, “I’m not used to being told no, Will.  I’ve been doing this for over a year…every time I had a plan or an idea for a plan – I just got to do it.”  She groaned, “Saying it out loud makes me seem like an idiot.”  Regret swelled in her stomach, “Rookie mistake.”

Her boyfriend sat in the chair opposite her, “I’m not going to disagree with you, Sayd.”

“You think I’m an idiot?”

He rolled his eyes, “Sadie Fowler – give me a break.”  She blinked at his pushback, and he explained, “You said it yourself – you’ve been doing this for a year—Edinburgh, Mackenzie, Olympic, Daedalus, and now Douglas.  You’re an idiot if you think you’re an idiot.”  He reached his hands out to hers, and she grasped them tightly, “We’re only a year into our careers.  If you think you won’t make a mistake sometimes, you’re in the wrong business.”  He looked her in the eyes, “You know my Academy record.  You know I made mistakes…big ones.  I know my weaknesses…and I have to watch out for them.  You just found out you’ve got a blindspot around perfection.”

Sadie muttered, “Who gave you that annoyingly good advice?  That’s not a Prentice original.”

Will chuckled, “Commander and then Captain Harris.  From the Erigone to the Mackenzie…he worked with me and coached me.  I’m still working on myself, but he pulled me out of a few slumps…helped me know myself more.”  He leaned over and kissed her cheek, “He also taught me about helping people out of holes they get stuck in.”

“I’m not in a hole.”  She stared at the floor, grouching, “Goddamnit, I hate it when you’re right, Will.  How do I get out of this hole?”

He stood, pulling her up, “You call over someone who’s been in the hole before, and they get down in there with you…and show you the way out.”  He accepted her extended arms and held her until a voice interrupted their embrace.

“Lieutenant…are you ready for us?”  

Sadie separated from her boyfriend, her face blooming in embarrassment as her science team stood there awkwardly. “I am. Set up the equipment, and Wil…Lieutenant Prentice will work with you to connect to the runabout systems.  We launch in ten minutes.”

LD 005 – Meeting a Mystery

USS Douglas - Abandoned Gamma Quadrant Colony
10.5.2401

“Sensors are coming online,” the lead science technician reported from the crew cabin as the two junior members went to work.  Lieutenant Sadie Fowler sat on the operations side of the cockpit while one of the lead shuttle pilots expertly carried them through the atmosphere and into a search pattern.

She tapped the commands on her console, “Let’s start with the Alpha One pattern and work our way down.”  Her display echoed the readings being analyzed by the team in the back, and it was encouraging.  “Showing…thousands of plant life variations and hundreds of animal life variations.  Plant, water, and air-based are being detected.”  She was in shock, “This planet is alive.”

One of the junior team members said, “Lieutenant, I’m detecting an unusual energy reading on an intercept course…similar frequencies to what the probes detected.  Arrival in three minutes…but probably sooner as whatever it is is moving awfully fast.”

Sadie shifted her display, her eyes overwhelmed with the data.  “These readings are higher and more intense than what the probes were picking up.  Get us back to the ship, now.”  The instinct to wait and see what it was had vanished.  Whatever it was, it had killed the probes.

The helm officer was already in motion, and the shuttle started to climb.  Suddenly, it rattled and began to shake as the engine’s alarms warned, “We’re being held in place by…an unknown force!”  The lead officer’s face wasn’t holding anything behind a mask.  Panic was written across her eyes.  The runabout shook harder now as the alarms became danger klaxons.  “We’re going to lose impulse if we keep it up!”

Sadie slammed her fist on the console, “Shut it down.”  As the engines cooled, the runabout was pulled backward hard and fell fast towards the ground.  The deck now clattered as more alarms and klaxons warned about impending doom.  She shouted above the din, “Use maneuvering thrusters to slow us down!”  The pilot nodded as hands moved to correct their wild and wayward course.  It did some good.  Sadie made one last shout, “Brace for impact!”

The New Atlantic Runabout slammed into the soft earth, pushing up mud and grass while snapping small trees into splinters that rained down as it careened to a slow stop.  Fowler looked up and crawled out of her secured seat, checking on the others.  They held up their hands and confirmed they were uninjured.  They were all shaken up, including Fowler.  She walked down to the shuttle door and activated the emergency exit.  Stepping out, she was greeted by the land they knew.  Several desperate attempts at her badge did nothing to raise the Douglas.  She glanced back as the lead tech reported communications were functioning but not reaching anyone.

“That is intentional.”

Fowler spun and found a tall, broad-shouldered woman staring at her from twenty feet, her face blank.  The science chief felt all her reflexes fighting within her.  “Who are you?”

The woman walked slowly forward, and Sadie could now make out her appearance more clearly.  She was older, grey-haired, and had dark brown skin.  Her eyes were the striking part of her – they were yellow and as bright as a sun when they stared at you.  “I am Vocast.  You have lasted longer than most of those who have come to my home.  I wanted to see with my own eyes who it was before I removed them.”

Fowler gulped, “Please don’t kill us.  I’m Lieutenant Sadie Fowler from the Federation Starship Douglas…and we’re not here to cause harm…we’re just here to discover what makes this plane…your home so unique.”

Vocast did not stop staring at her. “I know of your Federation and your Starships. I have seen you and others parade through this quadrant like wandering spoiled children who can’t keep their hands to themselves. Children must be disciplined. The others came to understand why they should never come here and others before them. This is my home.”

Fowler felt the cold realization of how her story could end flood her body.  “I’m sorry.”  It was the first thing she could think of at the moment, and she led with it when the alien woman cocked her head to the side.  “I’m sorry we didn’t know about you.  We…those that came before had a…great and terrible war they fought against us.”

Vocast rolled her eyes, “I am aware of The Dominion War and the second iteration.  Do not think me a fool.”

Sadie waited for their death, but the tall mystery seemed willing to listen. She continued, “We saw a mystery that might help us keep the Federation safe, and we wanted to understand how it worked. We’re explorers first.”

Another roll of the eyes, this one less pronounced: “For explorers, you seem to have quite the weapons arrangement on yourselves, the little shuttle, and the ship above. If you were committed to such a thing…you would not bare your teeth and wave your pistols as you sought out strange new worlds and new civilizations.”

“It’s a dangerous universe out there.  What must I do to convince you we’re not worth killing?”

Vocast stared at her in silence before she walked closer. A comforting hum grew with her getting closer. “Everyone who steps foot here must be cleansed and removed. It is the way of things. My sisters made the mistake of trusting.”  She looked skyward for the first time. “They were killed for their kindness.”

“Sisters?”  She pulled out her PADD, accessing the astrometric scans they had conducted when entering the system. Three other planets were in orbit around the sun, but the readings had come back as dead planets.  “You had three sisters.”

“I was the oldest.”  She returned her attention to Fowler. “The Dominion took advantage of them and their resources, began to strip the planets of everything, and enslaved my sisters to do their bidding.  I watched and heard their cries.  The horned ones and their master had not yet come to visit me.”

Fowler was getting the picture, “So when they landed here…you took your revenge.”

Vocast’s lips curled into a sadistic smile, “They came to me…and I took them for my own.  I took all of them for my own…and brought the judgment of my family upon them.”

Sadie gulped.  She wasn’t sure she wanted the details of how that looked.  She asked, “And of your sisters?”

“They begged me to kill them.”

She waited for the alien to answer, but no further explanation came. Sadie stared back at Vocast until she could no longer wait: “Did you?”

“Yes.”

“Are you going to kill us?”

“That remains to be seen.”

LD 006 – Who We Are

USS Douglas - Abandoned Gamma Quadrant Colony
10.5.2401

“Why couldn’t you save your sisters?”  Lieutenant Sadie Fowler wasn’t sure how long she had to live, and the nature of Vocast’s conversational style lacked concrete details.  She had decided to ask whatever questions her terrified mind could come up with.

“The Dominion’s nature was to enslave whatever it could. My sister’s identity was corrupted the moment they turned themselves over to the Jem’Hadar.  They were losing themselves day by day…and their cries began to quiet.  I knew something must be done.”  Vocast searched the skies around them, “Who are you?”

Sadie replied, “I told you.  Lieutenant Sadie Fowler, Federation Starship Douglas.”

The alien woman shook her head softly as if to gently correct her: “Your identity as it relates to your position and starship hasn’t changed. I ask again, who are you?”

Vocast’s eyes had a curious look that Sadie had difficulty ignoring. Something stirred within her, and she blinked as tears crested her eyes. “I’m not sure I understand the question…what did you just do to me?”  A deeply buried emotion strangled Sadie’s voice, and she stepped back from the alien.

The lead science officer stood at her side, “Lieutenant, I think she’s asking what kind of person you are.”  He looked to Vocast, whose lips had curled into a sly smile.  “You’re not playing fair.”

Vocast chortled, “Fair in the eyes of whom?  I dare say you’d be one to speak of fairness.  I’ve only looked into the recent past.  There’s plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise.”

A dark look crossed the man’s face, “You didn’t have my permission to look into my mind.”

“The Federation doesn’t make the rules out here. I do. If you want to open up the rest of your story to your crewmates, keep speaking to me. Otherwise, I wasn’t finished with your Lieutenant Fowler.”  He considered how much truth was in her words and decided to return to the other two of his cohort. “You have chosen wisely,” she turned to Fowler. “The third occasion on which I ask—who are you?”

Sadie had wiped her tears and returned her emotions below the surface.  “You seem to know the answer already.”  A human shrug was the reply from the godlike creature.  “I’m an orphan.  My parents abandoned me when I was born.  I was raised by people who cared to see me succeed.  I latched onto science because it was something I could control and explain.”

Vocast narrowed her eyes, “History is only part of who we are.”

She snapped back, “I’ll give you one thing: you’re a lot like the old gods of Earth history.”  The questioning was pushing up against her nerves, and she could feel some of them near the breaking point.  She replied, “I want to learn everything I can about the universe.  I want to find the unknown, the impossible, the unthinkable…I want to spend the rest of my life searching the stars for everything we don’t understand.” She lamented, “I’ve discovered recently that there’s probably a connection to the unknown part of my history with my family that’s pushed me to find answers to the universe’s great and terrible questions.”  Sadie threw up her hands, “Is that enough?”

Vocast seemed satisfied and asked, “If I let you live…will you let me live?”

Sadie opened her mouth to respond and then closed it again.  The question dumbfounded her.  She wondered,  “What do you mean?”

“You study the unknown. Your science people will want to know more about me, my ways, my means…everything. I know much about you, your ship, and the universe that has stumbled on around me. What I don’t know…is what will happen to me if I choose to let you return to your ship. I have never met a Federation before. I have met many others, but not one of you.  I’ve only known threats in my thousands of years here.”

The science chief scoffed at first and then explained, “Starfleet and the Federation have come a long way…and far away from anybody you’ve met.  We’re explorers and scientists first, seeking to understand what is beyond our knowledge.  A whole book of regulations and processes governs first-contact situations.”

Vocast’s eyes relented in their intensity.  Her stance relaxed slightly, “You will not attempt to cut me apart and dig into my insides?”

Sadie’s eyes went wide, “Is that…what did The Dominion do to your sisters?”

What would pass for tears slid down Vocast’s placid face. “They were relentless.”  The two of them shared a moment of silent reflection. Sadie stepped forward and offered her hands, to which she replied, annoyed, “What is this?”

“We…it’s a human thing.  When someone is mourning a loved one…we will either hug…or express our sympathy by holding hands.  I’m sorry; it seemed like the right thing to do.”  She moved to step away and was surprised when the woman’s frigid hands suddenly grasped onto hers, pulling her closer.

Vocast’s eyes were a cornucopia of emotions. Sadie wasn’t sure what the alien was feeling, but she sensed a lot through the connection they shared in their hands.  Vocast spoke after several minutes had passed, “You…you have always wanted to reach out and feel the warmth of your parents.”  Sadie nodded, unsure of how far down the path she would go.  The alien woman continued, “My sisters were always with me.  We would talk every day and share our stories and our memories.  Our bond was unlike anything you could ever know.  Now, there is silence where there was a…you would call it a symphony.”  Her hands remained grasping Sadie’s, “It would be…nice to have someone to speak to again.”  She searched the skies, “They would send a ship, wouldn’t they?”

Sadie nodded, and her heart connected with the alien in a way she hadn’t expected, “You’ve…been orphaned.”

Vocast’s smile was wholesome as she replied, “There is no word for such a thing in our language.  It is…not something we’re familiar with – being alone.  It is what first caused me to question you.  Something felt…familiar.”

“As big as the universe is…it’s just as small sometimes.”  She offered, “Well, you won’t be alone much longer.  They’ll send a ship…or two to study you and your planet.  You have…a lot of new friends to meet.”

Vocast’s smile widened, “It is good that I did not kill you.”

Sadie laughed out loud and apologized to the startled alien, “It is good you did not kill us. I need to return to my ship—my captain will be very worried and probably angry—but not in that order.”

“I will release the planet’s defenses…, and you may come and go as you need…and talk freely.”

Nearly on cue, Captain Helena Dread’s agitated voice crackled from Sadie’s communication badge: “Lieutenant Fowler, we just got sensors back! What the hell happened?”

Sadie answered, “It’s a long story, captain.”

LD 007 – I, Baron

USS Douglas - Abandoned Gamma Quadrant Colony
10.5.2401

“She is most interesting.”  Baron Nine, the former Borg drone, sat quietly at a console in the science department, observing the lengthy report Lieutenant Sadie Fowler was writing.

Sadie continued to add details as PADDs lay scattered around her.  “That’s one word to describe her, Baron.  We’ve just begun to ask her about her past…and how she came to be out here in the Gamma Quadrant.  Her biological readings are confusing and fascinating.”

Baron asked, “Explain.”  He stopped himself.  “My apologies, Lieutenant.  Please explain.”

She smiled, forgiving him.  “She’s clearly telepathic – powerfully so.  She can read deeply into memory without contact or permission.  That’s one part of it.  The other is that she confirms she killed her three sisters who were on the other three planets – but we don’t know how yet.  We have teams on those planets investigating, but our front-runner theory is she has the power within her mind.”

He stared at the screen, “I had that gift.  It was…intoxicating.”

Sadie remembered – he had been experimented on by the Syndicate until he had found a way to attack his captors using his mind.

Baron read the look on her face, “I do not miss it. It was…fueled by a deep anger I no longer have.  It hurt for some time to live without that rage fueling my reason to exist.  Finding a different path with the identities inside me remains my lifelong challenge.”  He returned to the screen, “Does she speak of the time before The Dominion?”

“She does. It was an idyllic time—her sisters joined her in the growth and peace of the system.”

Baron did not reply, his eyes staring at the data.  “You remarked that they will study her for years to come.  That she will never be without company.”  Sadie nodded, unsure as to where his thoughts were directed.  He continued, “I have worked through losing the connection to the Collective over time.  It is easier as it was a connection forced upon me without consent.  My mind was desperate to be free of its chains.”

Sadie was still unsure what he was trying to say, “I’m not sure I get your meaning, Baron.”

“Vocast was once part of a great family and lived a thousand years with her sisters in the Gamma Quadrant.  The company you speak of that will replace them is not enough to remedy the metaphorical hole carved out of her.”

“We can’t create another sister to replace the ones she lost.”

Baron turned to hold her gaze intensely, “Do you know this for certain?”

Sadie opened her mouth and closed it.  He was right.  She didn’t know.  They’d only begun to understand the surface details of Vocast’s biological structure.  “You seem to care a great deal about her, Baron.”

The former drone shrugged, and it remained an awkward look on him.  “I am an orphan who doesn’t know his past.  I know something is missing, something… significant.  I am aware that I can never fill that space completely, but I am trying to find connections on this ship to…as the doctor says, bandage the wound enough to stabilize.  I’ve learned much about metaphors and imagery on the Douglas.”  He gestured at the screen that displayed Vocast’s information, “She knows what she is missing…and I find it…instinctual to care about and for her.  Perhaps it is my old self asserting part of my old characteristics.  Whatever the root of it, I cannot ignore it.”

Sadie felt her guilt attempting to drag her down. She fought it and apologized, “Baron…you make an excellent point.  We can’t hope to have someone be here long term without trying everything we can to return what she lost to her…somehow.  The Dominion took a lot from the universe twice over.  We owe her the effort of trying.” Baron Nine was still thinking, and she remained silent in anticipation of his words.

“May I request to be involved in determining the feasibility of this project?”  She gave him an affirmative nod. “And if it is feasible…may I be involved in helping it be successful?  It is…as you would say, a big ask…but I am compelled to ask.”

Sadie replied, “I think that would be feasible with supervision by myself or another department head.” Baron offered his version of a smile – they were still working on it.  It felt less creepy to Sadie, and she patted him on the shoulder, “Let’s get started on putting together a team.”

LD 008 – More to the Story

USS Douglas - Near Montana Station
10.20.2401

“She was convinced she knew where she came from…but we couldn’t find any evidence that what she believed had occurred.  We dug deep, and the science teams on site are going even further.  Their latest reports indicate there’s no proof her story is true.”  Lieutenant Sadie Fowler sat across the desk from her captain, Helena Dread.

“You think they came from somewhere else?”  Dread was medically trained, and her mind worked backward from her chief science officer’s position.

Sadie held her words.  The next ones to come out of her mouth were going to test her captain’s belief, as they had already tested hers.  “I don’t think that, particularly, captain.  I think…”

Helena made the connection: “You think they were created. That’s some next-level science, Fowler.”

“I know, and it’s crazy…but we’ve been reviewing the samples we took from Vocast and the remains of her sisters…and some of what we’re seeing with her strands isn’t indicative of an original native to the environment.”  The arched eyebrow of her CO pushed to her explain, “We went deep – pulling apart elements of her structure to see what we could connect to her current environment…and there is plenty – a thousand years of living in one place can nearly erase any evidence of prior habitation.”

“That is a lot of words, Fowler.”

“Too fast, sir?”

Dread ‘harrumphed’ for good measure and rolled her eyes to make the message clear, “You’re lucky I’m a medical doctor and not some Captain Jack off the street.  I can keep up with you just fine, Fowler.  What did you find?”

She handed over a PADD, “Distinct behavior, instinct, and response patterns specific to an environment that is not where she was found.  They’re buried and no longer active – they’ve gone recessive and probably would have been phased out in the next five hundred years.”

Helena scrolled slowly, “This is good science…even great science, Fowler.  How do we make this work to find where she came from?”  There was a tinge of excitement in her voice – discoveries had a habit of lighting her fire.

Fowler answered, “That’s where it will be a challenge.  We’ve already started running the results through astrometrics with the systems we know about, but…there’s a lot and more out here that have yet to be cataloged.”

“So you’re saying while we wait for the computer to analyze and do its thing…we need to do something to see what we can see?”  The science chief nodded vigorously.  “Then it’s a good thing we’re a science ship.  Work with Astrometrics and Stellar Cartography.  What’s Starfleet’s read on this?”

“They’re interested.  The science ship they sent to work with Vocast was ecstatic.”

“You sound as if you wish you could have stayed.”

Sadie shifted uncomfortably in the chair, “I was lucky enough to discover her, captain.  I knew my assignment on the Douglas wouldn’t be focused on long-term survey work.  As much fun as it would be, being in just one place and staring at the same thing for months or more can get lonely.”

Helena was tempted to pry but pulled back.  Fowler’s story was complicated, and her desire for a home and a family ran under the surface.  More and more, it seemed to be reaching out from beneath the science chief’s controlled features.  The CO made a note to have Milton check in on her.  She replied, “I can see that, Lieutenant.  Update me when you find something.”  Fowler stood at attention and departed.  Dread leaned back in her chair in wonder.  Vocast and her sisters were possibly from somewhere else.  Maybe even somewhere close?  The stars never ceased to surprise, she decided.
 

LD 009 – Bump in the Night

USS Douglas
10.25.2401

“There are several matches within the rimward space.”  Sadie Fowler sat back in her chair.  She’d taken over a conference room to run the various teams helping her search for where Vocast may have come from or been created.  The three science ensigns across from her were bleary-eyed.  The clock had just passed 2200.

“Chief – we’ve done all we can tonight.  We’ve got four definitive matches – plenty for the night teams to tackle.”  Fowler frowned, and the ensign protested, “We do have to be up for the morning shift.”

She waved them off, and they nodded in thanks.  She chewed on her bottom lip.  They were right.  There was only so much time in the day.  If they were all going to be able to face the next day functionally, sleep needed to move up the priority list.  Sadie stood and headed out the door.

 

“Lieutenant Fowler.”

She sat upright in her bed.  The voice had been right in her ear.  She waited, glancing at the block. 0300.  The communication channel at her bedside remained red, closed.  Sadie lay back down, curling into the requisite ball as her mind drifted back into dreams and sleep.

“Lieutenant Fowler.”

This time, she jumped out of bed, a short scream flying from her lips. “What the hell is going on?” she asked no one in particular. Silence stared back at her, taunting her. “I’m losing my mind,” she muttered.

“Lieutenant Fowler.”

She jumped and held back another scream.  Her mind caught up with the voice.  She recognized it.  “Vocast?”

“You search for my birthplace.”

Sadie didn’t reply immediately.  How did Vocast know this?  She was in another quadrant!

“We share a unique connection, Lieutenant Fowler.  We are both orphans.”

“How are you in my head?  Why are you in my head?”  Her heart rate was accelerating, and she was having trouble catching her breath.  What was happening?  Was this a nightmare?  A hallucination?

“I do not know how.  Why…I believe you are close to finding a piece of the puzzle of my and my sisters’ existence.  Through you, I can feel…a connection.  It is closer than it has ever been.  Perhaps in our connection as orphans, something has bridged the gap between our two people in a way I have never experienced…outside of my sisters.” 

“This is…is weird, Vocast.”

“As one of your Starfleet captains was fond of saying, ‘Weird is part of the job.’  My existence and that of my sisters is a curiosity.  That I am feeling a connection to…something near you…is worthy of exploration.  Are you not explorers?”

Sadie sensed a passive aggressiveness slipping into the generally neutral-toned Vocast’s voice. She replied with a light bite,  “We are, thank you very much.”  She considered her options. Attempting to ignore the powerful being in Vocast, which now included a voice transmitting over quadrants, could put her into sickbay or worse.  “Look, if all we’re going to be using is your feeling and the strength of the connection, we’re going to have to some wandering with me as the sensor.”

“This is accurate.”

Fowler let out a long sigh, “I’m going to need to wake the captain.”

 

“Fowler, if this is a sick practical joke, I swear I will exact revenge swiftly and painfully.”  Captain Helena Dread stood at the door to her quarters in a bright pink fluffy bathrobe, hair barely controlled and a look of death plastered across her tired face.  “Switly and painfully.”

Sadie shook her head, “I wish that were the case.  Vocast loudly protests your threat of violence on me, in case you were wondering.”

Helena gestured her in, “Let’s get this over with.”

They soon sat at her long dinner table, sipping at fresh coffee the CO had brewed.  Fowler finished explaining her side.  Dread took a long pull from her mug, the flavor and aroma shaking loose the sleep.  “We’re going to have to play the old game of hot and cold to find this place she has a connection with?  Fontana is going to laugh at me; I know it.”  She leaned back in her chair and tapped her badge, “Captain to the bridge – wake up Lieutenant Prentice and have him at the helm as soon as possible.  Get me whoever’s awake at Montana Station as well.”  She turned back to Fowler, “How are you doing?”

“Me?  I’m scared shitless, captain.  Vocast is confident, strong, and ready to find whatever she’s connecting to out there.  I don’t like having someone else in my head.  No offense, Vocast.”  Fowler’s face reddened with embarrassment.

“Nobody could ever accuse you of dishonesty, Lieutenant Fowler.  Does Vocast promise to get out of your head when we find…whatever she’s looking for?”  She watched as the science chief cocked her head to the side, listening.  A look of concern and fear swept over the young officer’s face.  Dread filled in the blanks, “She doesn’t know if she can…does she.”

Fowler blinked back tears as her mind began to grapple with her situation, “Scared shitless remains my predicament, captain.  Neither of us knows what comes next.”  Sadie took a deep breath, working to wrestle her developing feelings under control.  “I can handle this for now.  Vocast tells me she will help me through this, but…she’s a 1,000-year-old creature who’s mostly played with the Dominion at the best of times.  I may require Mont…Commander Ford’s assistance.”

Dread stood from her stool, “I’ll wake him up, too.  I’ve got a spare shower and a Quartermaster replicator.  I’m not sure you being alone for long is a good idea, Sadie.”

Fowler nodded quietly and followed her captain’s directions to the spare bathroom.  Dread watched the door close.  The mystery continued, she grumbled.

LD 010 – An Orphan’s Origin

USS Douglas
10.25.2401

“There’s something there that wasn’t there before.”  Doctor Jordan Reid stood beside Sadie Fowler, explaining what the examination had found.  Captain Dread had ordered it as a precaution.

Fowler blinked, her lips frozen in a surprised smile, “What does that even mean?”

Jordan wasn’t sure.  “Your DNA profile and spectrum analytics show additional…modifiers.  You can see here, and here…that was what it’s been showing since your medical dossier started with Starfleet.  Now, it’s showing these additional markers and modifiers….here and here.”  She walked the science chief through the report, adding, “There’s something else.”

Sadie glowered, ignoring Vocast’s voice in her head as much as she could. “I don’t like where this is going, Jord.”

Reid pursed her lips, “We ran your new DNA profile through the system.  You and Vocast have similarities – not enough to suggest a close relation, but enough to correlate a connection.”  She slid a screen over and tabbed to Fowler’s dossier, “The records of your parents are spotty at best, but we managed to get someone in Shelter Island who’s been keeping meticulous records for a long time.  They pulled your parent’s files.”

Fowler felt her face flush, “I was told those files didn’t exist.  They’d…been removed or lost or something.”

Jordan put her hand gently on her friend and coworker’s shoulder, “They probably were – from what little this person would tell me, they were the ones that removed them in the early 2380s.”  She steeled herself for the next revelation, “Something happened in and around Shelter Island, New York in the 2370s and 80’s…and not just to you.  I think it somehow relates to Vocast, at least…related somehow.”  The unsettled glance from Fowler pushed Reid to continue, “The woman I spoke with is El Aurien, and she was drawn to that part of the state for a reason she couldn’t articulate.  She worked at a few neighborhood preschools and noticed families going missing and children being abandoned.  One died.  That’s when she started investigating on her own.  It was about one every year.  You were in 2382, at four years old.”

Sadie sat back in the chair, shocked.  “How many were abandoned?”

Reid tapped at the PADD, “Eight, including the one that didn’t make it.”

“So there are six others like me…what are we?”  She wasn’t sure what to think.

“You’re human. Your parents…were not.”  She tapped at the display. As far as the records and DNA samples that our El Aurien stole, they were an unknown humanoid race.  Her list includes eight couples that abandoned children over ten years.  She’s been unable to trace the parents.  The children, she’s having more luck.  Four of the six are in Starfleet, one works as a merchant operator, and the last…that’s another thing.”

Fowler stared at her, “Is he the devil incarnate?  Is he on a mission to kill the rest of us? At this point, I don’t know what to think.”  She put her head in her hands for a moment of relief, eventually looking back up, asking, “What is the other thing?”

Reid replied, “He’s your brother.”

Sadie was as confused as ever, “Blood-related?  As in…actual brother?”  Reid nodded.  “How…if my parents weren’t my parents…what is he then?”

Jordan spelled it out, “He’s human as well.  Talking with our new friend, Geraldine…she thinks the parents were tasked with hiding you and the others like you – hiding you in plain sight must have worked for a short time.  Then something went wrong over ten years as either they left…or were taken…something happened to them. Somehow, the seven of you were spared.  The Sisters of Mercy took you in – that may have afforded you protection.  The others were similarly placed in safe places – how each of you ended up where you were remains a mystery to Geraldine.”  She shifted in her chair closer to Fowler, “This is a lot.”

“Your goddamned right it is.”  She worked on breathing as her mind processed at least the surface revelations about her past.  “What if a hunter was hunting these parents?  Working their way through Shelter Island and the surrounding area to find these…protectors of us?”

Jordan shook her head in shock, “It’s a possibility.  The people you all knew as your parents took great care to keep you safe and alive.  You meeting Vocast…that shared connection is more than just emotions.”

Sadie was still working through the pieces of her life puzzle, “But…we’re human, but share DNA markers with Vocast…but why?  Why protect us?  What do we offer?  What can we do?”

Jordan moved the screen away, “Geraldine’s answers only go so far.  She’s contacted the others, and they’ve agreed to meet and travel to Montana Station.  She thinks we’re going to find some answers out here.”

Fowler’s eyes stared at the floor, “I have a brother.  An orphan…with a brother.”  She pulled herself together and asked Jordan, “Do you think she’s right?  That we’ll find some answers out here?”

Reid replied, “In a universe of impossibilities, anything is possible.  Whatever is out there…I hope it brings you answers.”

“Me too, Jord.  Me too.”

LD 011 – The Lost Get Found

USS Douglas
10.25.2401

Sadie Fowler swallowed hard as the feelings inside her agreed, “That’s it, captain.”  Lieutenant William Prentice slowed the Douglas down as they slid closer to the third planet in the system.  Fowler stood behind him, her face awash in her emotions on top of Vocast’s.  Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she fought to control the torrent of emotions erupting within her.

Dread stared at the planet.  It had taken most of the day to use Fowler as a temperature gauge to know where to go, and she wasn’t looking forward to the requisite digging they would have to do.  She asked, “Report, Mr. Shaw.”  Ensign Jake Shaw had slid over to science to assist Sadie.

He read the data, “Breathable atmosphere – reading multiple ruins across the planet in various stages of decay.”  He paused as he worked the console to come up with a number, “We’re looking at three sites that the computer can see.  Prelim data suggests the planet’s infrastructure is over a thousand years old.”  He paused.  Something on the sensors wasn’t making sense.

Dread turned in her chair, “Mr. Shaw?”

Jake struggled to make sense of the data, “Captain, we’re getting readings consistent with an El-Aurian settlement in at least one of the ruin sites…but the other two are unknown.”  He adjusted the sensors, hoping there was at least a clue to the the two sites origins.  “Computer is coming up with an amalgamation of other species on the remaining sites…but the computer’s confidence in the various scenarios isn’t much beyond what I’d call hazarding a guess…sir.”

Helena motioned to Fowler, “I need your eyes, Lieutenant.”  

Sadie gathered herself and returned to her station, searching the screens for answers.  “Ensign Shaw wasn’t too far off base, captain.  The certainty on the one is 95.5%.  The other two…,”  she toggled the sensor readings with the cameras she activated, zooming in on the sites as she went, “I can see why it would confuse the computer.  The other two sites have architecture and design consistent with species we know…to a point.  They’re combined with other settlement architecture that we haven’t seen.  I can’t begin to hypothesize what this means until we get down there and start investigating.”

Dread drummed her fingers on the armrest, “Full sensor and probe work up on each site – I want to know everything we can know.  Mr. Shaw, get me Captain Pantuso on the Dragonfly in my ready room.”  She stood, “Fowler – you have the CONN.”

 

“You’re serious, Helena.”  Alexandra Pantuso was on the monitor in Dread’s ready room, a look of amusement and curiosity playing across her face.  “This is big.  You sure all you want is our Chief Petty Officer?”

Dread regarded her old friend with annoyance, “Alex, he’s the only El-Aurian I’ve got…and whatever the hell is down there is going need someone who at least has a grasp of what we’re walking into.”

The Dragonfly’s captain shrugged, “I know other El-Aurians, Helena.  Wouldn’t take much work to find one interested in your case.”

Her indifference furthered Helena’s annoyance, “You know they’d be a week out or more.  Vocast is in Sadie’s head now.  The sooner we can figure out why these two are connected, the better our chance of disconnecting them.”  She watched and waited as Pantuso considered the request.

“The truth is…he’s one of the best quartermasters in the business.”  There was a pause, and Pantuso sighed as she finished, “But we don’t get along…well.”  She put up her hands in surrender as if that explained the issue.

Helena knew the woman better than that. “You want your guy in there instead, don’t you?”  Alex answered by rolling her eyes but remaining silent. “Why’d you start to fight with me when I called?”

A shrug from Pantuso, “I don’t like people telling me what to do or how to do it.  Call it a bad habit, but it’s been impossible to shake.”  She sat back in her chair, sipping at a steaming cup, “Plus, it’s fun sometimes to put the screws to people.”  A sly smile flitted across the old captain’s face.

It was Dread’s turn to roll her eyes, “You wonder why they didn’t make you fleet captain over the squadron while we’re out in the ether.”  She felt slightly guilty at throwing shade at her fellow captain—but only slightly.

“No need to get nasty, Helena.”  Alexandra Pantuso’s face remained impassive for a few seconds longer before it softened, along with her voice.  “Truthfully, it’s crossed my mind.  I’ve been at this for a long time.  You start to wonder.”  A few seconds of silence drifted between them before she added, “But I have a big ship, a crew that is teachable…and I’ve got the rimward ends of the Federation to ply my trade.  I just have to put up with Fontana.”

Dread chuckled.  She knew that feeling.  “Out of all of us, you seem the most likely to get wound up by him.”

Pantuso returned the chuckle, “Well, I have to keep up my reputation, or people will start to wonder.”  She tapped at her console, “I’ll talk with Mr. Wyatt and send him your way.  He should be to you within ten hours – give or take.  You can wait that long before you require his special skills?”

Helena resisted the urge to roll her eyes, “I think we can manage, Captain Pantuso.  Thank you for the assist.”

“Anytime, Captain Dread.”  A solemn look flickered across her face as she said, “We’re out here alone – we’ll need to be ready to help each other when the time comes.  Good luck, Helena.”

The channel closed, and Dread was left to sit in her friend’s words.  She muttered, “You too, Alex.  You too.”

LD 012 – Into the Mystery

USS Douglas / Planet PLW8574
10.25.2401

“There are always bad actors in every species.” Chief Petty Officer Henry Wyatt stood amid the ruins, scanning the planet’s surroundings that held the mysteries.

Chief Science Officer Sadie Fowler stood beside him, working her long-range scanner. “You think this place was an El-Aurian enclave or something?”

“Or something is probably closer to what it is. I had some time to review the DNA data they have from you and Vocast – you’ve had some cowboys playing around in your past. The markers from Vocast are one thing, but there’s a surprising amount of El-Aurian indicators as well.”

Sadie felt her chest tighten, “I’m…part El-Aurian?” Every step of the way, the revelations threatened to increase her struggles with her identity. She had been who she was for so long.

His soft eyes turned to meet hers, his voice softening, “Who you are hasn’t changed, Ms. Fowler. Remember that – what we discover here will help you understand the what – but the who remains everlasting.” He pointed towards one of the few structures still standing, “Latent readings suggest to me we might find a power source in there.” He motioned for two security officers to follow them as he walked with Fowler behind him, “Before the Borg destroyed our world and massacred our people – many of us found our way to other places around the galaxy.”

Sadie followed him closer to the Victorian-looking house, the readings on her device also accelerating. “I remember reading your dossier…at least the available parts. You stayed on Earth.”

Henry reached the door and began to scan it, “My parents died in the Borg attack. The entirety of the Loval family line was extinguished.” He turned at her silence. He addressed the shocked look on her face, “It’s been almost five hundred years since I landed on Earth. It’s been a hundred and thirty-six years since the Borg attack on my people, Lieutenant Fowler. I have learned to accept my reality in that time. By staying on Earth, even at the precocious age of one hundred and twelve…I would have faced stringent consequences if I had returned home. I made a conscious decision to remain.”

Fowler realized what he must be thinking and replied, “I’m not making a judgment, Chief Petty Officer. I’m…this mission has been making me realize that I’m not alone in being an orphan, not in the least.” She nervously kicked at the dirt, “I was trying to ask without really…asking.”

“Well, stop doing that. If you want the answers, ask directly. Doing whatever it is that you called that…is a waste of time. And time is something I know a bit about. We don’t have as much as we think we do. Never enough time.” He sized up the door and sent his right booted foot against the wooden grain, and the door collapsed in a heap inside the house. “You are an orphan, Lieutenant Fowler. I read your dossier. Captain Walton and others have briefed me on your connection with Vocast. One thing you must realize,” he peeked inside the door and gestured for the security officers to clear the room, “…is that we are all orphans in our own way. Be it from family, homeworlds, friends, or otherwise…we’re all alone in the expanse of space.”

She was muted by what he knew. She followed him through the door after security announced the area was cleared. They walked into a shabby interior. The walls were crawling into the ground, and a thick layer of dust and debris was scattered around them. She found her words, “I don’t know what to feel, Master Chief. With Vocast in my head…I have someone who understands…but she is a lot. You are. Just…let me finish talking with him.” Sadie grumbled a heavy sigh, “She’s feeling and sensing everything around us..and excited about all of it.” The science chief turned back to him, “I thought I knew what I was. I lived this identity and this life…and now everything I know…or felt…or learned…it feels like I’m losing myself…and I can’t stop from those parts of me getting overwritten by all this new…stuff.”

He strolled, scanning and still listening. “Someone once said, ‘Everybody’s human’. Most species experience emotions along a similar spectrum. The experience of feelings and emotions…it’s one of the shared things that manages to tie us all together in this massive universe. What makes you who you are is not the DNA or the type of blood running through your body…what makes you who you are is the life you live and the choices you make in the pursuit of living.” He tapped on the wall lightly and then pounded on it as he went down one end of the room to the other. A heavy sound continued until a hollow sound was near the back of the house.

Fowler brought her scanner and began to go to work, “You make it sound so easy, Chief Petty Officer.”

He guffawed, startling her, “I don’t think I’ve ever used those words to describe life – human, alien, or otherwise.” He showed her what his tricorder was telling him and she showed him her scanner results. “You’ve begun to discover where you may have come from – all orphans eventually make this journey.” He called the security team over and pulled Fowler a distance away, “Only rule I’ll give you is this – don’t make the journey alone.”

Sadie jumped at the sound of phasers as the security team went to work on the wall. Out of the fading dust, an expansive winding staircase soon appeared. She turned to Wyatt, “Will you help me? Find my way?”

Henry clasped a hand on her right shoulder, “You really took that whole ‘be direct’ advice to heart quickly, didn’t you.”

She blushed, “I…I think I need to start accepting the advice of those around me more. You didn’t answer the question, Chief Petty Officer.”

“Yes, Lieutenant Fowler. And you can call me Mr. Wyatt. Less of a mouthful than my rank.” He stared at the stairway, “Whatever we find down there…don’t judge my people by whatever it is. I’ve seen some of the darker sides of us…and it’s never pleasant.”

“It’s a deal, Mr. Wyatt.”

“Then let’s go find out what story this house has to tell.”

LD 013 – The Mystery Deepens

USS Douglas / Planet PLW8574
10.25.2401

The lower level of the home was a stark comparison to the upper level.  Henry Wyatt scanned the dimly lit corridor, “Whatever is powering this…isn’t standard issue for this kind of colony.”  He drew his phaser has he walked forward, the two security officers at his side. The light overhead began to flicker until they clicked on, flooding the corridor with subdued lighting.  A large door loomed large out of the dimly lit darkness.  As they approached, it began to rumble open, creaking in protest of long abandoned maintenance.  They entered and found a large laboratory area with lights activating in their presence.

Fowler was dumbfounded as she walked. The desks were immaculate. The consoles slowly powered up as she walked, and doors creaked open as she passed them. She reached the end of the wide hallway and turned to face Wyatt. “What is this place?”

He tapped a nearby keyboard and scanned the bootup screen. “I recognize some of this—it’s older tech…much older than me and my memories of home.”

Vocast spoke in Sadie’s head, “I sense the strongest connection here.  Something is calling out to me.  Surely, you must feel it.”  Fowler shared this with Henry, “I feel…something.  Nothing as strong as she’s feeling…but…something is buzzing in the back of my mind…like I’m hearing something every so often but can’t figure out where it’s coming from.”  She found a nearby chair with a console, “It’s a lot, Mr. Wyatt.”

Henry stared at the screen as the operation system finished booting.  He began to work the keys as he accessed records.  “I don’t mean to alarm you, but I think there will be much more when we finish here.”  He carefully read each detail, and Fowler slid her chair over to him.  He pointed at the archaic screen, “There’s a lot of details here – we’re going to need to get your team down here to catalog it all…but there’s a name that keeps coming up.  Galdrid Ahon.”  He slipped his PADD from his belt, tapping into the databases he had maintained over the years, “Her name sounds El-Aurian…there she is.”  He turned the PADD to Fowler.

She read from the screen, “Dr. Galdrid Ahon – noted geneticist and DNA researcher who had been rebuked several times by the Science Council until she fled pending her removal from the Council.  Upon investigation, her remaining files were found to contain controversial and illegal scenarios involving eugenics.”  

He tapped at the PADD, “She was long before my time.”  Wyatt glanced around, “Whatever she was doing here was not allowed on our home planet.”

Sadie stood and walked from station to station, peeking in each of the large side rooms. She stopped at the second doorway. “Wyatt!” she stepped back, shaking her head.

Henry bounded up, phaser drawn, and stepped through the door.  It was a room filled with bodies secured within cryogenic units.  Men and women, old and young…he counted ten units that were still functioning and five that were dark.  He moved from one to another, tricorder at work.  “They’re not in stasis – this is preserving experimental data.”  Wyatt continued to check each body.  “They have a similar makeup to yours – but these are predominantly El-Aurian with more significant amounts of other genetic material from different species.  How long they’ve been here – I can’t begin to estimate.”

At the doorway, Fowler remained just outside the room, “What was she doing here?  Playing God?”  She was starting to put pieces together, but it wasn’t feeling good.

He walked past her, “I need to see the other rooms.”

 

“Ten other rooms.  Five with bodies in preservation units.  Five with old high-end scientific experimentation gear.”  Wyatt stood in the main room, speaking into his badge.  Captain Dread was on the other end.

He could hear her annoyed sigh, “What do we think she was doing here?”

Henry glanced at the notes he had furiously made in his journey throughout the facility, “Without her here to tell me…I think she was trying to make the perfect being using El Aurians as her base.  Romulan, Klingon, Ferengi, Tholian, Cardassian, Human – every kind of genetic material from a humanoid species…she was using it.  The bodies she preserved look like a map of her progress – every one of them failures.  Each shows death by various ailments, given how she was mixing and matching.  She was careful – precise measurements and scenarios were used.”

There was a pregnant pause as Dread digested the conversation.  “You’re going to ask me to get our science and medical teams down there to take a look, aren’t you.”

He replied, “Questions – I have plenty of them, captain.  We’re running low on answers.  Only a couple of ways to get them.”

“I’ll start putting teams together.  Douglas out.”

Sadie turned to him, her face a mixture of roiling emotions, “What do you think I am, Mr. Wyatt?”

“You and the other children they fought so hard to protect?  I think you’re the perfection Dr. Ahon was chasing.  Why they were protecting you so hard…that’s the mystery I’m not sure I want the answer to.  What if whoever or whatever was hunting you is still out there?”  He didn’t like where his thoughts were going.

Fowler went there herself, “What if she’s still out there?  Or if she was the one searching for us?  We both know your people can live a long time.”

He dismissed it, “1000 years is a long time to live, even for us.”

Fowler thought on it for a moment before she turned around and took the entirety of the facility in, her mind working out why they hadn’t found the good doctor in her facility, “Mr. Wyatt – you said she was experimenting with genetics and eugenics…what if she was doing it to herself as well – testing out more successful treatments.”

Wyatt grumbled, “That does not make me feel better about our situation.”

“I’m starting to wonder if she’s out there…and if she’s noticed what we’re up to.”

Henry tapped his badge, “Then we’d better start preparing for the worst.” 

LD 014 – The Creator’s Path

USS Douglas / Planet PLW8574
10.25.2401

“You think she’s still out there?”  Doctor Jordan Reid stood in one of the five stasis rooms, her full containment suit powered.  Quartermaster Henry Wyatt stood at her side, similarly adorned.  They were starting to power down the stasis pods one by one.

Henry handed her the interface adapter, “There’s no trace of her here, and the teams at the other sites haven’t found anything similar to this under any of the houses.  What little information I have on her suggests she was wily and cagey at the best of times.  Given her dedication to her illicit and illegal craft, I can’t imagine her giving up this dream easily.”  He watched as she worked and tensed as the once secure lid hissed slowly open.  The body remained still.  “The science and communications teams are working on the central computer and the stations.  Given the state of this place, I don’t think she’s been gone long.”

She mused, “Mad scientists are the worst kind of scientists, Mr. Wyatt.  Take the worst kind of scientific integrity and combine it with a genius mind…it never ends well for anyone in their orbit.”  Reid took her samples as she spoke, “These creations were alive at one point—each of them experienced consciousness.  What quality of life that brief time was – I can’t imagine it was pleasant.”  She frowned as the first readings came in, “That’s…odd.  Samples are suggesting this body died a year ago.”  She slotted the samples back in her bag and moved to the next unit, repeating the process.  A few minutes later, the scanner spat a similar report, “Same here.  I’ll need to do a more detailed autopsy back on Douglas.”

Wyatt walked to her side and read from the screen, “I have a bad feeling about this.  I don’t think she’s out there anymore…I know she is.”

 

Ensign Jake Shaw worked his console, a feeling of dread softly treading across his heart.  They had come into the sector to find answers for Lieutenant Sadie Fowler.  There was a mysterious El Aurian doctor whose demise had gone from rumored to the reverse being true – she could very well be alive.  The sensors searched the space near and far from them for warp trails, communications buoys, and anything else that might give up clues about where she had gone and if she was coming back.  He nearly jumped as the computer thrilled that it had connected with a string of navigational and communication buoys running through the sector and beyond.  Minutes later, he had an answer, “Captain?” Dread shifted to stand beside him and pointed out what he had found: “These old buoys were designed to hold as much historical data as possible – massive computer cores with plenty of storage.  I’ve got the team working on most of the data – but something is interesting.  According to Doctor Reid, the preliminary report on the bodies has them dying a year ago.  A year ago, a ship was tracked leaving this planet and traveling across the route,” he traced the path on the map.

Helena watched the data stream. “Can you isolate that ship and see how far back the historical records go?”  Her mind was working to figure out what game the mysterious doctor was playing.

Jake shifted the data mining process and focused on the ship he’d identified.  The screen shifted, “It looks like the data goes back three years.  That particular ship made trips out of the system every six months and returned like clockwork.”  He played with the data, “That is…until this last time.  There’s been no record of her returning to the system since she left a year ago.”

Dread stared at the screen for a moment longer. “Ensign Shaw, I’d like you to contact ships and stations in the direction she went. See what data they have access to. I want to see if we can build a list of places she might have gone.”

“You think she went to ground?  Or moved her operation?”  Shaw was intrigued.  Suddenly, his hand in an investigation added a different feeling to his position.

“Whatever she did, she’s overdue on her return trip.  I’d rather see her coming than get a surprise.”

 

 

 

“I have never understood the desire for perfection.”  Vocast’s voice was in her head, and there was an unusual tone of reflection in it.  Sadie lay on her couch, attempting to rest.  She had grown tired of arguing with the voice in her head.  Vocast didn’t understand privacy.  Fowler replied, “You’ve lived a long life, Vocast.  You and your sisters were perfect.  You never had reason to wish for something better – the world you live in is controlled by you.  The rest of the universe doesn’t have that luxury.”  She closed her eyes, sharing some of her thoughts with Vocast, who, for the first time, was silent.  The silence lasted for several minutes.

“I forget sometimes how small you and the rest of the universe feels.  It must be hard to be compared against others your entire existence.”

Sadie grumbled, “It is a lifelong experience.  Some people manage to avoid the struggle…I never could.”  Fowler kept her eyes closed, “Did you ever think of leaving your home?  Searching for what was out here?”

“You forget I have been able to see much farther into the universe all these years.  I have seen what is out there.  I have no desire to experience any of that.”

Fowler sat up, “You can see much farther.”

“Yes, I can.”

“Then you could find Dr. Galdrid Ahon.”

There was another silence from Vocast.  Fowler could feel a deep doubt swirling in the back of her mind as the creature contemplated this new idea.  “It is true.  I could find her.  I had not thought to use my abilities in this way.  There is only one problem.  She will be able to find me…or you – depending on the connection she senses.  She will know I am looking for her once I make contact – we cannot cloak our minds.”

Sadie stood from the couch, “We need to do something.  The bodies and the laboratory will only tell us so much.  We’ll need to talk to the captain.”

“Will she be as unhappy to see as she was the last time we met?”

She checked her watch, “It’s all about timing, Vocast.  She’s still on the bridge.  Let’s go.”

LD 015 – The Voice of Vocast

USS Douglas / Planet PLW8574
10.25.2401

“Just how many regulations do you intend on breaking, Lieutenant Fowler?”  Captain Helena Dread had more or less dragged the Chief Science Officer into her ready room when she presented the plan’s beginnings.

Fowler scowled but quickly erased the look from her face when Dread’s face rippled at the sight.  She was tired, and the voice of Vocast burned every nerve ending she had left.  She walked past her captain and threw herself onto the couch, “I can’t think straight, Captain Dread.  When the idea came to my mind, I didn’t think…”

Helena didn’t let her finish, “Lieutenant Fowler – if you can’t perform your duties as Chief Science Officer, you must make that clear.  Not understanding the limits of how telepathy works is a serious failure.  I don’t want Vocast in your head any more than you do, but I cannot afford to have an officer unable to perform her duties.”

“You are being unfair, Captain Dread.”

Dread took a step back.  The voice coming from Fowler was another voice.  “Vocast?”

“It is I.  Fowler is…pushed to the side.  She is unhappy about me doing this.  But I cannot allow you to minimize her because of my effect on her.”

“Then stop having an effect on her.”  Dread put up a hand. “I know you don’t know how to get out of her head, but you’ve got ages of knowledge and power within you. You have to know how to share the space and spare her the indignities.”

“Indignities?”

Dread shook her head at the creature inside Fowler, “Between myself, the XO, and Doctor Reid – we’ve had multiple calls on the hour about her erratic behavior talking to someone – you – and giving everyone she walks by cause for concern.  She is a member of the senior staff, Vocast…and she’s not acting like one…and certainly unable to perform like one at the moment.”

“What will occur if I am unable to share the space?”  Fowler’s face was blank as the creature spoke through her, unnerving Dread.

“I will have to remove her from active duty and place her under guard. You have to understand – you’ve now shown me you can take control of one of my officers.  I cannot ignore this.”

“I can motivate you against the pursuit of that line of thinking.  I control Sadie Fowler.  I can bring great harm to her.  My understanding of human beings is that you are…emotional.”  The head of Fowler cocked to the side, “I do not wish to exercise such actions against her, but I must be able to see and hear what is going on with this mission.”

Helena felt her fists balling up, fighting to keep her tone even and controlled.  “You wouldn’t dare.  Fowler is your only connection…you lose her…you’re back to your planet.”

“I can still see beyond, Captain Dread.  I merely wish to have access to the situation as it develops.”

Dread tapped her badge, “Doctor Reid, to my ready room – on the double.”  She returned to face Vocast’s presence in Fowler, “I’m beginning to see why the Dominion developed a healthy fear of you.”

“They did not listen to me. They paid the price.”

The door to the ready room flew open as Jordan Reid stepped in, her face filled with worry. Dread quickly filled her in, and she said, “So we’re currently speaking with Vocast.”

“Hello.”

Jordan was already walking around Sadie, scanning with a medical tricorder.  “Her vitals are heightened.  Her body is under significant stress – if this keeps up, we’re going to have to start worrying about short-term damage in the next five hours…after that, we’re looking at permanent injuries.”  Reid turned on Vocast, “What is your problem?”

“My problem?”

She stepped closer to Fowler’s body, “You have all the power in the universe…you can see just about everything…and then when you scare the crap out of us with your puppet routine, you wonder why we’re suddenly so upset.  For someone who’s studied humans for as long as you say you have…you must have missed the chapter on ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ because you are coming up short, Vocast.”

Dread warned, “Doctor…”

Jordan shook her head. “No, captain. I want an answer. You don’t threaten to hurt my friend and expect me just to do whatever you want.  I have to put her back together after you’ve done whatever the hell it is you’re doing now.  You don’t get to break us like toys because we made you mad.”

“You make a compelling argument, Doctor Reid.”

“I sure do, damn you.  If you want to keep using her and us – you’re going to have to learn to handle your feelings when we push back on your demands.  You want to find out who created her?  And why does she have pieces of you in her?  We’re the only game in town, and we read that chapter.  We play in the deep end of the pool, Vocast.  If you’re going to have us as allies at the end of this, you’re going to have to learn to swim in here with the rest of us.”  She glanced at her CO and winced at the smoldering glare she was receiving from Dread.  “I make no apologies, Captain.  I have an oath to my patient.”

“Your doctor is not afraid of me, Captain Dread.”  Fowler’s head turned to stare at Reid, “Why is that?”

Reid answered, “We don’t get the luxury of knowing when our time will end, Vocast.  I’d rather take a stand for someone and fight to save them to the last breath than back down.  It’s not who I am.”

“You did not come to this on your own.”

Reid held Vocast’s gaze, “I had to learn the hard way. I’ll never make that mistake again.”

“I will yield.  I must reflect on what I have done here.  Hearing your words has…caused me concern.”

With that, Fowler gasped and collapsed, groaning,  “Oh, it hurts…like, I got the shit kicked out of me.  Oh, hell.”

Dread tapped her badge, “Medical team with bio bed—emergency transport to my ready room.”  Seconds later, a team appeared, and Reid quickly helped Fowler onto the bed before the woman passed out. The medical team hustled her out of the room and on the way to sickbay.

The room was quiet until Reid spoke, “You gonna fire me, Captain?”

Helena leaned against her desk, “No.  I don’t fire people for saving our collective asses.  I had forgotten about the rebellious streak they mentioned in your dossier.”  She gave the chief medical officer an appreciative nod, “You found us a way to keep Fowler alive.  I’ll take that over an insubordination charge any day of the week.”

Dread’s badge beeped, “Captain, we’ve got a possible position on our target.”

“On my way.”

LD 016 – Logically Thinking

USS Douglas
10.25.2401

“I had to put her under heavy sedation.  Vocast’s power and strength pushed her body to a breaking point, captain.  This happens again – I will have my work cut out to repair the damage.”  Lieutenant Jordan Reid sat in her office across from her CO, Helena Dread. “You’ve got my preliminary report in your hands – it’s only going to worsen.”  She was thankful that Dread had been a medical officer before being thrown into command.

Helena finished reading, “I’d rather keep Fowler out of harm’s way than risk Vocast flexing her muscle again.  As much as she says she’s studied humanity, she’s missing out on some key elements of our physical, mental, and emotional characteristics.”

Jordan noted on her desk console, “I may have some insight. We’ve just started performing autopsies on the bodies from the planet. They share genetic markers with Vocast—some more than others. Our surgeon picked up on it—the brains of the various subjects appear to be missing certain developmental elements we traditionally see in humanoids who have an empathetic understanding of others.”  She motioned to the PADD in her CO’s hand, “It’s in section three of the report – we’re still completing scans and physical examinations to get a better hypothesis…but I think this might explain Vocast a little more.  We’ve contacted the team with her in the Gamma Quadrant, and they’ve gotten her to agree to a more intensive systems mapping scan.  We take the two puzzle pieces in front of us and slam ‘em together – we might have something that makes a little more sense.”

Dread replied, “And their connection with Fowler and the others?”  Montana Station had told her the El-Aurian expert from Earth and the survivors were due next week.

Reid pushed her chair back and walked over to the large holo-display on her wall, “That’s the curious thing.  There are indicators in the samples we’ve pulled. The older the bodies, the closer the connection.  The newer the bodies – the farther.  Something happened in or around 2378 to put Doctor Ahon off track.”

Helena sat back in her chair, “Our contact said the families were protecting the children – hiding them from…someone.  Fowler and the rest of them had to come from somewhere…the farther back you go, the closer they get.”  The CO shook her head in disbelief, “The only thing that makes any sense to me is that those children were a part of Ahon’s work…and that somehow somebody figured out what she was doing…whatever it was…and managed to rescue them.”  She locked eyes with Reid, “Every time I answer a question, I get fifty more.  How did they manage to find her?  How did they manage to storm her facility and take the children…and how did they escape to Earth?”

Jordan was following her logic as she spoke.  She snapped her fingers as the thought exploded through her synapses, “They were a part of her team.”  She tapped the screen in earnest, pulling the records they found.  Photos began to appear, “There’s no way anyone outside of the El Aurians knew what she was up to – thirty years ago, the rimward was even more rimward – nothing but empty space.  She either had a team that followed her.  They would have been sold out to the cause…and in the hundreds of years of experiments and work…something changed.  We’ve seen it in old Earth history and Starfleet history. Someone’s conscience breaks out of the brig, and they do the right thing.”  She looked at the faces they had images of, “We’d have to see what samples remain from the parents…but these people might be the key.”  She stared at the screen, searching for answers.

Helena stood from her chair, “Since we’re making hard-to-port turns in our logic…what if they were the final elements of perfection?  You said Fowler and the others were an unethical mix of many genetic markers from across the universe.”  She stepped closer to the long-lost faces staring back from the screen, “Once the kids were gone, Ahon had to return to the start.  As far as you’ve determined – none of the bodies died from natural causes.  They were her perfection.”

Reid felt a lump in her throat forming as the reality of their collaborative theory took shape, “These were their children…and they couldn’t allow Ahon to finish the work. They must have known what she would have done to them.  She was the smartest woman in the universe and was blind to the power of the love of a mother and father.”

Dread let out a long sigh, “Why do these stories always end with sadness?  We’ve got to hope some of these parents escaped.  The problem now is that she’s been gone for a year…probably got spooked.  Set up a new lab.  The kind of horrors I’m imagining possible is not a great feeling.”

Jordan tapped her fingers against her leg, “We need to find her.”

Helena held up her own PADD, “We’re on the way to what we think might be her current location.  It’s a pretty desolate world – it had a colony about ten years ago, but they abandoned it.  The trouble is the systems around it.  Out of the five, three have populated colonies on habitable worlds.  Two have been reporting missing children and parents in the last year.  Colonial Operations at Montana Station sent that to us urgently when they finally managed to sift through all the communications in the pipeline for the last year.  We didn’t have the connecting facts until…now.”

Jordan stared at Dread, “Do they know we’re coming?  Does she know we’re coming?”

“Colonial Operations replied to the message confirming receipt and that they would dispatch someone within the next week.  So, no.  We’re a surprise. We’re headed for the abandoned colony first.  Commander Ford will contact the colonies to offer assistance and see what he can find out.  She could be on the abandoned planet…or in or around one of the colonies.  The good news is we’ll have the Hopkins and Atascadero to assist.  The colonies are going to need help while we track Ahon down.”

Jordan chuckled, “Divide and conquer.”

Helena smiled deviously in return.

LD 017– Facing Ahon

Rimward Colony
10.25.2401

“Believe it.  We opened with an offer for assistance, and we were told in no uncertain teams to get the hell back, or they would open fire.”  The captain of the Atascadero was on the viewscreen of the Douglas bridge, a look of frustration etched on his face.  “We asked why, and they started a countdown.  Our sensors detected some kind of planet-based defense platform inside and outside the city.  It’ll come as no surprise to you that the technology is incompatible with the colony’s current level.”

Captain Helena Dread drummed her fingers on the arms of her center chair. ” Do you have any ideas on why they’re so hostile? The last report we had was that they were desperate for help.”

“They weren’t willing to share when we asked.  They looked a little nervous when we did.  We suspect something or someone has changed the trajectory of the colony – the mapping we had from just under a year ago compared to what we saw today – significant unexplained growth in structure and borders.”

Dread turned to her executive officer, Commander Milton Ford. “Sounds like we found her.”  She returned her attention to the screen. “Thank you, captain. We’ll see if they listen to us. You can drop a system back behind with the Hopkins if they decide to go from threat to action.”

“We’ll be monitoring, Douglas.  Good luck.”

Dread turned to Ford, “She’s been busy.”

Milton visibly grimaced, “Whatever we thought we’d find, she’s out-maneuvered us.  Atascadero’s observation about them being nervous with deeper questioning tells me her hold on them could be partly by force.  Her experiments took a turn for the desperate the farther she fell from being able to return to her perfect sample.  Whatever she found here must have convinced her that they offered the best chances at success.”

Helena stared at the screen, the system small against the vastness of space.  “We need to find an answer for Fowler. Doctor Ahon is probably the only one who can get Vocast out of her head.”  She grumbled, “It’s also pretty clear she’s holding this small colony hostage.  Helm, intercept course with the planet.”

 

 

“You are not welcome here, Starfleet.  I thought we made that perfectly clear to the last ship who was just here!”

Dread stood before the center chair, “I’m aware of your experience with the Atascadero.  We’re acquainted.  I’m Captain Helena Dread of the Federation Starship Douglas.”  She waited a beat, her eyes widening in expectation.

“I’m Charles Loftwood, the colonial governor.  We have no need for you.  You can leave.”

Helena stood, focusing on the man, “Truthfully, if you don’t want us around, we’ll be on our way. There is just one minor issue we need to clear up, Governor Loftwood.  I’m looking for a doctor – and not just any doctor.  Her name is  Doctor Galdrid Ahon.  We have reason to believe she’s ended up in this system recently.  We just want to talk to her.”

On the screen, Loftwood froze at the mention of the name.  He muted the channel and looked to be arguing with someone off to the side.  At first, it appeared to be quiet, but it became more animated until the face of the governor bloomed red.  He unmuted the channel, “I don’t know who you are talking about.”

“She’s in the room with you, isn’t she.” Dread stepped forward, “Doctor Ahon.”  Lockwood’s eyes widened in fear, and he stumbled back as a figure stepped into the light.  She was old, but her eyes burned bright blue as she hobbled into view.  She stooped, and a gnarled stick helped her move.

“You have quite the nerve, Starfleet.”  Her voice was raspy and deep.  And those eyes burned through the screen.  “These people told you they do not need your meddling or services. I provide them what they need.”

Dread stared back at the woman, unbowed, “At what cost, Doctor?”

A sly smile crossed Ahon’s lips. “It is a deal they are willing to make and accept.  I can only imagine you found my lab and the bodies.  I must be utterly fascinating to you.”

“I’m not sure that’s the word we would use…or that your people would use.”

“Our home is dead.  I have no people.  They had no vision.  No dreams.  No passion.  No desire to perfect.  They died in service to keep things the way they were.  They deserved their end.”

Helena sighed, “We’ll deal with your crimes eventually, Doctor Ahon. At the moment, we require your expertise.”  She explained the situation and said, “I can assure you JAG will not discuss any clemency in the face of your acts.”

The eyes of the old woman flew open, “You have one of The Sacred Children?”  She muttered to herself as she worked backward through her memory, “This…Vocast you speak of…yes.  I sampled from them so long ago.  Someone else had created them…masterful work.  I searched briefly for them…but the trail was long gone.  I sampled from so much. So many lifetimes.”  She turned to the screen, “I could lie to you and tell you that I can fix or help her…but I cannot.  The Sacred Children…they were so perfect…so beautiful…but I built measures to keep them from being tampered by anyone but me.  Upon their twenty-first birthdays, they became masters of their destiny.  I had imagined them being by my side as I swept worlds into my influence, spreading my perfection to every end of the universe.  Even I had to recognize that I would need to stop fiddling with their structures eventually.  You must know that, Doctor to Doctor.”  Her eyes glittered, “Yes, I know who you are, Captain Dread.”

Helena tightened her fists and released them, practicing every method she knew to calm her nerves that were threatening to explode into a multiple warp core breach on this woman.  “Then you know this is over.”

“I could threaten to harm these people…hurt them until you leave…but I know you will come back.  You always come back like the cockroaches of the galaxy that you are—meddling bastards.”  She glanced over, her eyes frowning, “What are you doing…pointing that thing at me?  I can snap my fingers and end your children – every last one of the ungrateful sniveling little rats!!  Do you understand my power?” She straightened up her posture and began to tap at her stick, ”Maybe I should demon-”  There was a sudden flash from behind her as she screamed and crumpled to the ground.

The face of Charles Loftwood came on screen, an ornate blaster in his hands, “Stun her again!  Keep the old lady down!”  Gone was his meek bluster as another blast crashed against the doctor, a whimper gasping from her body.  He searched the screen, “Captain Dread?  We need your help. She has our children somewhere…and she’s…that stick of hers is a remote.  I’m sorry for what I said earlier…it has been a long year.”  Tears formed at the edges of his eyes, “I don’t know if we could have gone on much longer…she’s taken so much from us.”

Helena’s mouth was open in shock, but she recovered quickly. “We’ll bring our two support ships to bear, Governor Loftwood.  Is there anyone else loyal to her?”

“At her compound on the next planet over.  Twenty or so.  Our children are there…all of them.”

Dread felt her heart grow hot with righteous indignation, “You leave them to us, Governor.  Our people are on their way to you now.”  He gave a quiet nod of thanks, and the channel closed.  She turned to her XO, “Get Wyatt down there with security – I want her secured in every way imaginable.  Then move on the compound.  Quickly.”  He headed for the turbolift while she made the order official, “Get Hopkins and Atascadero back here on the double.”  She stared at the screen.

What a mess.

And still more questions than answers.

LD 018– Life and Death in the Rimward

USS Douglas / Rimward Colony
10.25.2401

“She’s dying.”  Jordan Reid stood outside the high-security brig, PADD in hand.

Captain Helena Dread accepted it and began to read, her face dropping as the report unfolded, “Within a month?”

Reid added, “Or less.  She was still searching to make the perfect specimen – the records from the compound corroborated it, but there was something else.  In the last six months, her body started to decay.  She’s lived a thousand years and more – El Aurians live long lives, but she’s been cheating her way to an attempt at immortality. It started before this – it’s on page five.”

Helena gasped, “She was using blood, tissue, and…everything else to extend her life…artificially.”  The CO read further and stopped at the final lines, “You think that was part of why her old staff took the children at such a young age…because they discovered what she was really up to?”

Jordan took the PADD back, “I think she thought she could do it.  That she had done so much with everything else…that this would be enough on her march to scientific discovery and perfection.  I don’t think she was ever whole, captain.  I’ve done my share of studies of the worst villains in the history of medicine and science.  Most of them were missing a piece of themselves that would have kept them from straying into the darkness.  If we had access to her records from her time with her people…I think we’d find they felt the same.  She doesn’t think she did anything wrong.  I don’t imagine she’ll be changing her mind anytime soon.”

Dread stared at the door and the two deadpan security officers guarding it. “Are the kids okay?”

Reid turned to her other report on the PADD: ” There were over a hundred of them in various conditions. Thirty are going to have to stay on the Hopkins. They will get them stable—it’ll take a few days. The rest are on their way home.  Captain Molla has been ordered to remain here for at least a week to ensure the entire colony receives medical care to the level they need.  She’s quite pleased.”

Helena smiled.  Qamraaa was a medical doctor like her, and her reputation of direct mission involvement preceded her.  Helena was thankful for the Hopkins.  The people of the colony were in desperate need of support.  She asked, “Anything to report from the compound?”

Jordan did not smile in return, “There is something.  Wyatt and the security team thoroughly inspected the facility, which was much like the one we found.  The difference was that he suspects she had a partner or partners—a recent addition, maybe.  He counted the living accommodations – twenty-three rooms—one for our doctor, twenty for her new team, and two more unexplained beds without owners.  The support staff is across the board, claiming they were just extra bedrooms.”

Helena’s smile faded: “But you think they’re lying.”

“Whoever it is, or they are – they’re enough of a threat to keep anyone from talking about it.  An unknown person recently revised the records on the central computer in the compound.  I think she realized her body was going to start failing her…and she sought help.  Whoever would help her with this – won’t be winning any awards for acts of good service.  We can only keep our eyes and ears out, captain.”

Dread dismissed her and returned to stare at the door to the brig.

 

“I won’t tell you a goddamn thing.”  Doctor Galdrid Ahon was secured to a biobed with the various implements of palliative care sitting around her.  “I’d rather get to dying.”

Helena sat at the thickened glass, watching the old woman.  “You’ve lived such a long life…and even you couldn’t cheat death.”

Ahon turned her head to face the voice; her eyes had begun to be clouded by a slow blindness.  “I could still cheat the bastard.  I still had time.”  She coughed and winced, “If you hadn’t taken my supply away…I could have had a chance at doing it.  Succeeding where others had failed.”

The CO of the Douglas blinked away the shock, “Those ‘supplies’ you speak of – those are children.”

“You live as long as I do; everything in this universe becomes a tradable and usable commodity.”  She turned her fading eyes to the ceiling above, “I was meant for greater things.  For longer.”

Dread let the air between them still, her mind searching for the right question to pry the answers she sought.  She still had a chief science officer who needed to be sorted.  “You could still save someone.”

Ahon spat back, “She is useless to me…and you.  With that abomination in her head…she’ll never be free of it.  I am not its creator – whoever put those abominations on those planets long ago has gone to dust.  I wish I were as good as they were…to create such things…what I would have given to found them at last.”

Dread stood, “She is useful to us.”  She walked to the glass, “You give up too quickly, Doctor Ahon.  If you’ll excuse me, I will find a way to help my officer.”  She walked towards the door, stopping as it opened, “You will die.  And soon.  Whatever awaits you on the other side…I hope it is as ugly as you.”

The door slid shut, leaving Ahon alone again.  She stared at the ceiling, seething. 

She had been so close.

LD 019– Lawyers in the Rimward

USS Douglas / Rimward Colony
10.25.2401

“Any word from the team working with Vocast?”  Helena Dread had walked slowly back to her ready room, taking the time to process her rage at the El-Aurian doctor.  It would do her no favors to inflict her residual feelings on those around her.  

Commander Milton Ford looked up from the couch, several PADDs around him, “She’s dying.”

Dread frowned, “I know the doc…,”

He handed over his PADD, “Vocast’s dying.  It had started well before we left, but they weren’t sure what the readings told them until yesterday.  They spoke with Vocast at length, and she confirmed it – she’s known she was dying for quite some time…she thought this situation with the El-Aurian might change things..”

Helena sat on the couch opposite her XO, “I wish I could say it’s a surprise she kept it from us…but it isn’t.  What does this mean for Lieutenant Fowler?”  Her medical-minded thoughts went to work with various scenarios.  “I’m sure Vocast doesn’t have an answer.”

Ford replied, “She doesn’t.  They did say in the report that even with Fowler under sedation, Vocast and her are holding conversations; at least, that’s what Vocast told the team.  No matter what we do, those two will be together in mind and spirit until we figure out how to break them apart without harm coming to Fowler.”

Helena asked, “How long does Vocast have?”

“At the most, a month.  At the least – two weeks.  They sent over the scans of Vocast’s head.  Page seven on the report.”

Dread flipped to it and scanned the images, looking for critical markers or identifiable areas.  There wasn’t much.  It was a mind of unusual design without correlation to a human brain.  “Another dead end.  Have the results sent to the science team at Montana Station.”  She turned to Ford, “The JAG on Montana Station has requested we transfer Doctor Galdrid Ahon to their custody.  I told them she was dying.  They want her there to be at least advised of the charges.”

Milton grumbled, “Archibald was never my favorite.  I do not doubt that he’s out here for a reason.  When JAG sends you out into the far rimward, you’ve led a career of either stupidity or arrogance.  Or both.”

Helena was amused.  Sector Judge Advocate Archibald Davidson was fifty-four years old.  She guessed that Ford and Davidson had probably become acquainted over the years.  Being right in this situation was good and bad.  Good, because she liked being right.  Bad because bad blood between officers generally leads to bad things.  Dread did not like bad things.  “You and Davidson are acquainted?”

Ford rolled his eyes, “There is a reason why he’s ranked as commander in the role of Sector Judge Advocate.  That’s usually a captain rank and above.  We’ve clashed on a couple of cases over the years.  First in security, then in counseling.  He’s a yappy dog that you just can’t help but want to kick.”  He sighed, “Sorry, captain.  That’s not terribly professional.”

“I’ve said worse in my ready rooms.  I’d rather know what and who we’re dealing with than hear a rosy old tale.” She sat back on the couch, “The truth is, I’d rather send her to him so I don’t have to worry about her down there in the brig.  The Hopkins and Atascadero have the situation down below well in hand.”  She thought for a moment longer, “Let’s get her to her court date.”

Milton stood, “I’ll set course for Montana Station; let ‘em know we’re headed their way.”  He gave her one last look before heading for the bridge, “Davidson is tenacious, captain.  He’s the best and the worst of a JAG officer. They may have put him out here so they can ignore him…but he won’t ignore us.”

Helena let his warning hang in the air as the door closed behind him.

It was never boring in the Montana Station Squadron.