The Genesis Directive (Part 5 of 6)

Posted on 30 Apr 2019 @ 6:13pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander & Ensign Callin Mastrel & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Crewman Draia Thero & EMH Mark X-C "Shirley" & Elegy Reiko & LuAnn Lovegood PhD
Edited on on 30 Apr 2019 @ 6:25pm

3,610 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A - Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 01, 0440 hrs

Previously, on The Genesis Directive (Part 4)...

"Wylde to Warraquim," a terse communication suddenly interrupted and came through the doctor's comm badge pinned to her breast. "Quarantine has failed."

The Orion Fates often played devious games with the Spirits, but even Lirha -- she herself risen from the dead a year ago -- quickly realized that what the Humans called 'Murphy's law' was in fact, a real and credible hypothesis. Her lithe and curvy form visibly straightened and her green eyes tensed before they snapped to the acting security chief. She didn't need many additional details to know that something had gone wrong.

"Amaranai and Allyndra, go. You too, Lake. And someone find Luke," the captain ordered, then tapped her communicator. "All hands, we have a medical quarantine failure. Initiate ship-wide biohazard protocol and isolate all compartments." The overhead lights dimmed and the alert strobes now pulsed with deep blue flares signifying the unique nature of the ship-wide emergency. "The rest of you, get back to your stations and coordinate internal scans. Dismissed!"

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

With both hearts thumping violently in his chest, Alexion Wylde sprinted as fast as his damaged, complaining body would allow him. He was vaguely aware of footsteps following up behind him, and he presumed they belonged to the chaplain and counsellor who had witnessed the whole impossible saga in Sickbay. Judging by the way Elegy had managed to somehow push through the forcefields in there like a body gliding through water, he didn't hold out any hope for the quarantine forcefields elsewhere in the ship being able to stop him either.

LuAnn heard the commotion and came out into the corridor in time to see Elegy sprinting away. "Elegy!" she called, but it fell on deaf ears.

=^=To Wylde and Franklin if you locate the patient and can confine set the temperature to freezing. The silicone biochemistry will shut down putting the patient comatose. Whatever you do, do not expose to large quantities of water.=^=

Alexion slapped his badge at hearing Allyndra's voice over the comm, shaking his head on instinct as he found the breath to reply. "Not likely, Doctor...he can literally walk through forcefields....and open doors with his hands...containing him will be near impossible..."

Wylde dragged air into his chest as he closed the comm, yet he managed to spare enough breath to shout after the patient, but it fell on deaf, sparkling ears. It felt like Elegy was running with the speed of the gods. How this could be the same man who had been curled up with pain a mere hour ago was beyond comprehension. He remembered his actual concern and empathy for him in those moments. Now, if he got his hands on him, he'd be all too happy to make sure the bastard couldn't get back out of the bloody bed for a considerable amount of time...

As Wylde had noticed, Elegy Reiko was sprinting down the corridor as if on the feet of Hermes. His white jumpsuit was increasingly in tatters, but it wasn't his dark skin being revealed underneath the garment. It appeared as if his strength was rapidly returning to him as more of his skin had been replaced with an amber crystalline exoskeleton. As much as his strength was carrying him across the deck, his hunger gnawed into him more deeply with each panicked step. Elegy barrelled into a forcefield at a T-intersection in the corridor, and he crashed through it even faster than the last time.


Deck One - Turbolift

Amaranai rushed to the turbolift and headed toward the nearest location for Sickbay. Though the emergency forcefields would have been activated by the quarantine alert, Amaranai had to make sure that the escapee needed to be caught. The message of containing and freezing the patient wasn't something that Amarani would have thought of, so she prepped herself for that possibility as well. Tapping her badge, Amaranai also called Luke.

=^=Franklin to Commander Wyatt=^= she started. =^=In case you didn't notice, we have a situation. A patient has escaped protective custody in Sickbay and is on the run. I'm approaching from the opposite side of Sickbay in an attempt to trap the patient.=^=

Riding the turbolift with Amarani, Lake ir-Llantrisant kept quiet. Chasing an intruder wasn't his field of expertise and he trusted Lieutenant Franklin to coordinate the crew's effort to apprehend this runaway patient. All the same, Lake wished he'd thought to bring a phaser to work today. He nodded at Amarani's stated intent, and he silently indicated he would come with her.

Allyndra was not far behind at this point. Her mind was racing with what was going on. The patient was loose with who knew what sort of alien infection and not knowing if it was potentially infectious to others and if so what the vector might be. She did know her biochemistry though and perhaps there might be some things to do along those lines. Silicone loved oxygen, it loved it so much that it was pretty reactive to oxygen and silicone combined with oxygen at ship temperatures would make silicone dioxide or basically glass. It was one reason she had chilled sickbay. It would slow the reactions down, but the patient was no longer there.

=^=Allyndra to Captain Saalm=^= she called. =^=I need your authorization to reset environmental controls ship wide. I believe the patient is now working mostly on a silicone based biochemistry. Cold will slow reactions and also increased oxygen will interfere as well. Think of being in a refrigerator with high carbon dioxide. You would begin to slow and get sleepy.=^=

The captain was back at her station in the middle of the bridge and furiously tapping away at the small center console between she and her absent first officer. When the doctor's voice came across the comm, she frowned at the practicality of the suggestion. "Ship-wide?" she repeated for clarification. "What will that do to the rest of the crew?"

"Captain, at worse some of us will be cold. I am probably the worse one affected by that, the extra oxygen though will make most feel more energetic. Might I remind you that we have someone with some sort of alien infection with unknown epidemiology and vectors that has managed to break through quarantine force fields. We must slow and contain the patient even if it means a bit of discomfort to the crew." Allyndra sounded a bit winded as she was now running toward sickbay. She was worried about what contamination might be spread. "That is the least harmful to both us and the crew at the moment without more drastic measures."

The doctor's rationale and proposal sounded reasonable to Saalm, especially given the extreme circumstances they now found themselves under. It took only a second of private thought for the captain to agree with the suggestion and confirm the order. "Do it, doctor."

It did not take any more prompting than that. "Computer command authorization, lower temperature of entire ship to 4 degrees and oxygen content to 35%"

=^= Environmental changes initiated ship wide on command authorization. Warning exposure to higher partial pressure oxygen will become toxic in three hours =^=.


Deck One - Bridge

Callin's face was pale and tight as he hurried out of the conference room and over to one of the science stations. As tense as things had been in the briefing it was nothing compared to the reactions on board as the ship began locking down sections for quarantine. He could feel the surprise and worry, the fear and concern, rising across the ship. Callin had reached his station, his hands poised above the controls to start his scans, but there they paused, his eyes unfocused for a moment while he built up his personal shields.

"I'm uh," he said a little shakily to Sofie across the Bridge at her station, black eyes a little dazed as he tried to catch her eye, "going to start with that meteorological scan, see what kind of disruption the uh...source...might have caused, make sure the shuttle can touch down safely." He sounded about as confident as he looked, not much at all, but fell back on his training. "You got the colony right?"

"Here's the data," Ullswater said matter of factly also doing her best to maintain a level of professionalism "I've also run the geomorphologic telemetry again. There nothing I can see to suggest that there is too much risk of..." she paused grasping for the right words "Of another large scale event." She hit a few buttons on her console and transmitted the analysis the two of them had gathered to the shuttle, hopefully it would reassure those who were onboard it. "I've sent an analysis to the shuttle, you're copied in Captain." She quickly forwarded copies of the analysis to the captain's chair as well as Callin's station.

Ryan scanned his console, typing in commands and adjusting settings. Initially he was having trouble getting a read on the patient. An idea popped into his head, and he ran a quick scan of the when the patient walked through the fields, and was able to see how the power to the force fields were affected. With a small smile he wrote a query that would notify him of any similar drops over the active force fields. "Almost got'em." He said quietly to himself as he noticed the data scrolling across his console. With a few more commands the sensors began to scan for a mass of moving silicon on the sections where he encountered the power fluctuation. "I am tracking 'em on Deck Three, sending the location to security."


Deck Three

Luke was at the armoury on deck three only a short walk from his quarters when his assistant Amaranai Franklin's voice rang around him. =^=Wyatt here, I am at the armoury now aft of the ship, I'll make my way to you, what are we dealing with exactly?=^= he asked but before her response was a commotion outside.

Said commotion was a collision between Elegy Reiko's crystalline shins, an open Jefferies tube access panel, and a Cardassian engineer who was swearing like an injured miner when Elegy smashed into her. Moments earlier, Draia Thero had been trying to affect repairs to the forcefield and holographic systems on deck three when she had heard the quarantine warnings. Promptly, Draia had abandoned her repair work and set about escaping into the jefferies tube. She wasn't prompt enough, as Elegy tripped over the open hatchway and collided on Draia as a tangle of crystalline limbs.

Having heard the collision and to his knowledge being the closest to the escapee Luke decided to proceed alone hoping his team would come to a natural rendezvous with him. As he approached from the same direction the intruder had come in he could hear an assortment of curses and cries off pain. =^=Security head directly to jeffries access deck 3 junction 4-Charlie.=^= with his orders complete he neared the entrance, weapon drawn and eyes peeled on the tangle of limbs. "Starfleet security, please step away from the hatch."

Draia Thero's instructions to Elegy were far less civilized. "Gerroff 'a me!" Draia shouted at the gangling mass of limbs and crystal that was skittering atop her like a spider. She shoved at the man with the heel of one palm, but he grey skin of her hand abraded painfully against the sharp planes of his crystalline shoulders.

"I ca-- I can't step-- much of anywhere," Elegy spat back at Luke's approaching voice. He couldn't see Luke; he could only hear that Starfleeter arrogance Elegy had heard so many times before. Elegy was winded; breathing heavily between every other word. Clearly, he was struggling to get to his feet, to get away from the Cardassian woman knocked down beneath him. The probably appeared to be his own body; he was moving like a newly born foal. His limbs weren't responding in the ways he was accustomed; his joints weren't moving in the proper direction all of a sudden.

Luke had now approached the entrance hatch and was peering into it seeing both the stranger whom he guessed was their runaway and security breach which Luke decided he didn't look much like a threat to anyone except perhaps himself and Crewman Draia. "Here, let me help you two out. " he said going from concerned security officer to seeing two people in harmless distress. He put his hand for Elegy to take whilst his trigger hand placing the rifle against the bulkhead.

"I don't-- I don't need any help," said Elegy in reply. He waved Luke away with little vigor, as if he were swatting at a fly between them. All the same, Elegy wasn't bumbling about anymore. He was holding still, holding steady, kneeling on Draia's body. Keeping her down. "All I need," Elegy said, the words coming out of him like a sigh, "is to eat..."

From further down the corridor, a shrill voice commanded, "Keep away from that thing!" Steadily marching towards Luke and the jefferies tube access was the Emergency Medical Hologram, Shirley. Be it a physical reaction to the damage Elegy had caused her --or be it an affectation-- but her red pixie cut was visibly disheveled. Instead of a questioning look in her eyes, there was a snarl to her lips. Instead of a medical tricorder, she was brandishing a type-2 phaser, aimed right at what she could see of Elegy Reiko. "It's dangerous."

The security chief was half way through saying "I can take you to the mess Hall where there is food" When the ships EMH came armed with a phaser pointing towards the escapee. "SHIRLEY stand down immediately," he said fort looking at the EMH and then to Elegy. "Sir Come with me and we can get you something to... Eat and stop this madness." Luke said slowly leaning back to his stun everyone ask questions later plan. He was also curious how the EMH referred to the man as it and not a he.

Despite the additional free-will algorithms Shirley had been discovering within herself, following the orders of senior officers was embedded in her core programming. She stopped her approach on Elegy --remaining half a section away from the open jefferies tube-- and she lowered her phaser. At that, she only lowered her phaser enough to point it at the deck between them. She couldn't bring herself to holster the weapon. She couldn't risk Elegy touching her again.

Still, Elegy had not let Draia stand up. Elegy's eyes --one hazel and one amber-- were following Luke's interaction with the holographic doctor. All the while, Luke's offer of food had drawn a pained expression of puzzlement across Elegy's facial features. Aside from his one discoloured eye, Elegy's face and curly hair looked to be the only part of his body that was still mostly flesh and blood. "I don't like your food," Elegy said by way of reply. His speech pattern had gone flat; he sounded drained of vitality. He licked his lips. "I ran out of food on the escape pod weeks ago," he said simply, almost matter of fact. "It's not food I'm hungry for..."

Having halted Shirley's advance on the escapee Luke turned his attention back to Elegy with puzzlement filling his face. "Whatever it is you need, I am sure we can facilitate but please come out of the jeffries tube, there's no need to escalate matters further." Luke had began to feel uneasy, the state of Shirley the EMH who was programed to do no harm and the way Elegy spoke was certainly not right, he hoped back up would arrive soon.

Grunting softly, Draia shifted her weight, trying to roll her body left or right. She couldn't manage to shift out from under Elegy's elbows and knees, certainly not in the tight quarters of the jefferies tube. "What are you doing?" Draia whined. When she tried to sit up again, she could feel his lanky frame was far heavier than what she predicted. She could barely shrug her shoulders off the deck. "You're hurting me!" she cried out in frustration.

"You heard her," Wylde was catching his breath as he moved in closer, the chase having taken it out of him. He grimaced with pain as he dropped into a crouch so he could see them in the tube more clearly, his violet eyes shining as he motioned with his hand. "You're hurting her. Is that really what you want to do?"

Jutting his chin up, Elegy sniffed at the air to the left and he sniffed at the air to the right. That was the only answer he offered to Wylde's question. His eyelids drooped heavily, because his eyes weren't serving his need -- his hunger. He swayed his weight closer to the hatchway, but not so much as to shift his body weight away from holding Draia down. Keeping his eyes closed, he turned his attention to his other senses, so much so that he began to drool.

"Hey...hey, stay with us..." Alexion watched with a conflicting mixture of mistrust and concern at what almost looked like him swooning, the doctor's chest still heaving painfully for breath as he reached out. He caught hold of the side of his face and arm, trying to bring him back to the present with the physical touch as well as steady him, carefully urging him forward. If he was about to collapse or seize, they needed to get him out. "Elegy, come on, time to talk back to me again..." he murmured; if it brought the man back into focus, he could complain at him all he liked.

Elegy's chin jutted out and his eye's met with Alexion's gaze. "Y're in my way," Elegy said flatly. He squinted at Alexion, seeing him with new eyes -- literally, because both eyes were crystalline amber now. Moving inhumanly fast again, Elegy snaked a hand out of the jefferies tube to swing the hatch toward himself. The hatch slammed shut, separating Elegy from the huddled crewmembers. From within, an alarmed cry from Draia was muffled by the bulkheads.

Luke moved into action but soon found trying to pry the hatch open was no good, taping his comm badge. "Ops this is Wyatt, Lock on to crewman Draia's lifesign and emergency beam her directly to sickbay, seal all jeffries tubes on this level and vent the atmosphere enough to knock someone out hell add a couple of seconds something isn't right here. All security personnel, runaway is to be considered dangerous and force to apprehend him is authorized without hesitation." He turned to Wylde," Get me something to cut open this tube."

Alexion arched an eyebrow and spread his hands to either side to show the empty palms. "Sorry, 'Commander, but unless you want a scalpel, I'm not the right man to ask..." he moved to try and help him pull the hatch open instead. "I'm not sure what good it's going to do..." he warned between harsh breaths. "This man can walk through shields and open doors with his bare hands...and he survived longer out there than he was meant to."

Trudging towards the jefferies tube hatch, Shirley declared, "Stand back. I have a scalpel," and she raised her phaser. Once her path of fire was clear, she aimed the emitter crystal at the hatch and increased the settings to the point of disintegration. Shirley tapped the firing stud, immediately vaporizing the hatch. Within the jefferies tube, the form of Draia Thero was fading through the sparkle of the transporter effect, and Elegy Reiko was nowhere to be seen.


Deck 1 - Bridge

"Wyatt this is Ops. Solid Copy. Initiating site-to-site transport to sickbay. Sealing all jeffries tubes on Level 3. "Ryan said as he quickly typed in the commands to follow the Lieutenant Commanders orders. "Activating emergency venting procedures. 5 seconds until oxygen levels are at 7%." Ryan called down to Luke. He waited the requested time adding in a few seconds before responding back to Luke. "Sir, oxygen is holding at 7%."

Ensign Ullswater shook her head "It's not enough, sensors are still showing the patient on the move." She pulled up a map of the ship and overlaid the path of the escapee onto it and tried to work out where he was going "From his current path he seems to be making his way to..." She stared for a moment at the path shown on the map trying to make a good guess at where it lead "It looks like the shuttlebay."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

Elegy Reiko
Colonist Survivor
Latari B III
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

CWO3 Alexion Wylde
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

EMH Mark X-B
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

CN Draia Thero
Engineer's Mate
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

CMDR Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

LT Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

LT Amaranai Franklin
Deputy Security Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Ryan Alexander
Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Callin Mastrel
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

LCDR Luke Wyatt
Chief of Security
USS Galileo-A

EMH Mark X-B "Shirley"
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

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