Refraction (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 31 Aug 2019 @ 12:50pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri & Captain Hiroshi Tanakata & Commander Teegan Jones
Edited on on 31 Aug 2019 @ 12:52pm

3,347 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari A III Orbit, USS Trial
Timeline: MD 01, 0619 hrs

Previously, on The Battle of Latari (Part 6)...

Returning to the CONN, Plumeri read off the sensor data. "Confirmed! four...no...eight new lifeforms being beamed aboard. Sensors are having a hard time identifying who. It has to be Galileo...they must be sending a team of..." He cut himself off as the internal sensors finally made a match. "Oh...crap. We're being boarded. Deck five...and spreading out." The internal sensors made a whine as they locked onto the biosignatures. He looked at Hiroshi, "Captain - - it's the Tholians!"

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Throughout the decks of USS Trial, coordinated chaos ensued. Power was now restored to emergency levels yet primary and secondary systems remained offline. Most consoles were dark and the overhead lighting had faded to crimson alert strobes to highlight the blood on the wounded who were being ferried throughout the ship to sickbay.

On Deck 5, however, damage control operations quickly turned to sudden death. Simultaneous cerulean transporter signatures materialized across the level and delivered an assault team of Tholian shock troopers. The silicon forces were clad in advanced environmental suits with integrated tetryon rifles embedded into both of their upper limbs.

When the Tholians shimmered into existence, the Starfleet occupants in the corridor paused and turned to observe the sudden newcomers.

In that first moment, the Tholians also moved to observe their new surroundings. The multifaceted carapaces of their environmental suits rotated in the directions of the Starfleeters passing by. While the humanoids gaped or sputtered at the Tholians arrival, the Tholians were noiseless. They offered no explanation for their appearance, aside from the hydraulic hisses from their suits.

The Tholians communicated quickly over the comms inside their carapaces, causing three of the Tholians to take flanking positions with their backs to the nearest turbolift door. Lancing forward, three of the Tholians crouched down into a squatting position on their spidery six legs. Their arms raised in unison and they shot off a rapid-fire of tetryon pulses like fireworks. Aiming high and aiming low, the pulses rocketed across the corridor like the glitter in a snow globe, but this glitter hit Starfleet personnel in the face, in the chest, in the knees with a heavy stun effect.

At the corridor junction behind the first silicon fire team, a large and heavily-built Tholian slowly emerged and followed the shock troopers in front of it. It towered a foot above the other smaller Tholians and held a heavy tetryon rifle the size of a Human in its silicon hands.

The robust Tholian commander emitted piercing shrieks in its native tongue to instruct the boarding party to move forward and across the deck to their objective -- the Federation ship's computer core.

A Bolian engineer sputtered out a desperate, "Gahh," feeling vulnerable as he was without cover, at an open intersection between four corridors. He dashed to the nearest door and it, blessedly, wasn't a secured area. The door slid aside obediently to allow the Bolian entry. Said Bolian's legs weren't as fast as the door. An approaching Tholian swung its spindly arm in the blue man's direction. A final heartbeat later, the Bolian crumpled at the open threshold to safety, immediately one tetryon pulse struck him in the shoulder, followed by another in the chest.

Despite the unnerving chittering sound of the Tholians' spike-footed EV suits clattering towards her, an Andorian medical officer pivoted on her left foot and charged towards the fallen form of the Bolian engineer. She was running closer to the Tholians, which only made her an easier target, despite the caduceus emblem on her medical smock. Struck by another tetryon pulse, she landed face first on the deck, a decimeter out of reach from the Bolian. Another engineer was shot down and splayed across the medical officer's legs. Even then, all three of them were trampled by the sharp spidery legs of the Tholians marching through the intersection. Their bodies didn't even slow the Tholians down. In formation, the troopers hung a left into a cross-corridor, on their hunt for the computer core.


Deck 1 - Bridge

The bridge was a mess of broken stations, broken conduits and broken bodies. So far the hull had not breached here. Very few of the people on the bridge though were functional, not that it mattered, the ship was dead in space and what image the main screen managed to show through the crack and the flicker of badly damaged circuits indicated the Tholians were spinning their infamous web. The Trial at the moment was not going any place even if they had power.

Matthew tied his panel into the internal sensors and activated the monitors. The screen revealed the Tholians as they materialized onto Deck 05. He had never seen Tholians up close. Only in holo-images and those were terrifying enough. He accessed the Trial deck layout as he tried to understand why the Tholians chose that deck to board.

Matthew said, “Deflector control? Auxillary battery access? Computer….oh crap…”. Matt looked at the internal sensors and the Tholian count was now eleven. They were making their way to the top accessway to the main computer core. Wiping his face he stuttered, “Captain?! I-I-I think I know where the Tholians are headed. The top of the main computer core…it opens onto deck five. There isn’t anything else of value on that deck really. I mean, other than the gym.”

The monitor tracked the Tholian boarding party as they mercilessly and ruthlessly cut down any crew who wandered into their path. To watch that and not do anything about it; it was difficult to watch. And the anguish of indecision wore on Matthew’s face. He even considered if the Trial had enough power to increase the gravity deck plating and pin the Tholians down like bugs on fly paper. But the ship was barely on batteries – and those would not last. “Ship has more holes in her than swiss cheese. We can’t do shit from here Captain.” Matt stood up from his station, determined action on his face.

When Plumeri had announced the boarding party was Tholian, Hiroshi knew exactly what they might be after. The ship had nothing of technological value but there might be knowledge that the aliens were after and that meant the computer core.

"Security heading to Deck 5 to repel borders," Jones informed the captain. She hoped they would be able to do something to stop the advance.

Hiroshi shook his head and looked around the bridge as the information came in. They were terribly short handed on people that were functional enough. Finally he settled on one ensign that was nursing her side on the floor. "Ensign!" he said sharply.

She looked up, "Yes, sir?"

"Waters, if I remember correctly?"

"Yes sir," she straightened up winching as she did so.

Hiroshi stood and nodded to his number one and then to Lieutenant Plumeri, "That team may not be enough, we need to protect the core so arm up and follow me." He spared Ensign Waters a glance, "You ensign have the bridge," he hit a section on the chair and it opened to reveal hand phasers. He took one and handed one to the Ensgin, "you blast anything that has more than two legs, got that?"

“Fuckin’ ay, now we’re talking!”, Matt said and nodded in support of Ensign Waters. He gave her a fist bump to try and help her confidence.

"Yes sir," she said. "Come on there are more arms just off the bridge" He did not wait to see if the others followed. Instead he was chanting low in his breath:

"Ryōhō shōsha soshite seifuku-sha wa shikashi
Ro no shizuku shikashi inazuma
shitagatte, watashitachiha sekai o mirubekidesu."*
It was a classic Samuri death chant.

Jones hit one button to log out of her station to make it harder if the Tholians made it to the bridge and hurried after the captain. She didn't speak the language, but she'd worked with Hiroshi long enough to recognize it for what it was. She would have joined if if she'd known the words. This was the time to hold the enemy back or die trying.

Taking the hand phaser offered to him, Matthew activated the weapon and checked the power cell; it was fully charged. Deep down, he wondered if a hand phaser would do anything against the Tholian environment suits. It didn’t matter; he knew that he would destroy the computer core before letting it fall into their hands. But something was amiss…something…is out of place… a voice inside him said ever so softly. He had to push the thought aside. The images of Tholians trampling the crew filled his heart and mind with a desire for retribution. “Ready Captain” Matt said as he stepped quickly to follow Hiroshi.

Jones grabbed two phasers and a phaser rifle, in case she ran into someone who needed one, and followed her captain.

It was difficult to get down to deck 5 with the lifts out and the structural damage but finally Hiroshi managed to emerge from a hatch. He took up a defensive position but from the bodies lying in doorways it appeared that the Tholians had long gone past. He wanted to curse about the Tholians casual barbarity but did not want to alert any of them that they were being trailed.

He waved to the others and put a finger to his lips for silence.

It was the stuff of nightmares. A smoky corridor, pulsating with a slow rhythm of red emergency lighting. The air was thick with smoke. The tendrils of it looked like banshees floating about the deck. Forming and merging into otherworldly and terrifying apparitions. The chittering of the Tholians spider like legs on the deck plating. The quiet, unnerving lack of familiar sounds like air vents, engines and the banter of crew. Matt’s tunic started to smell. It was covered now in thick congealed blue Bolian blood. Wet with sweat and singed with smoke. It was going to make Matt sick and so he swiftly, silently, slipped the tunic over his head and off. His grey undershirt was dark with perspiration, but he felt about twenty degrees cooler as well. He tossed the blood-soaked garment into a dark corner and resumed his alert position with Captain Tanakata. Matthew was nervous. He was a scientist for Pluto’s sake; not some combat trained security officer. And the thought of the Tholians gave him the creeps. He’d heard stories about how the Tholians sometimes flayed alive those they captured. Cooking their flesh and watching them burn in their native Tholian environment. Plumeri was determined that none of them would be a meat stick at a Tholian cookout. Matt’s blue eyes scanned the area and came to rest on the Captain.

Hiroshi did not speak just made gestures. He gestured toward and open doorway and indicated he would make the move. He indicated for Jones and Plumeri to cover. They could hear the Tholians but so far no visual. He wanted as much surprise as possible. He peered down the hallway again and then slipped quietly through the smoke toward the open door. He only paused a moment to check the crew person fallen in the doorway. He was surprised at finding a pulse. The Tholians had heavily stunned but not quite killed the person. He wondered briefly why but tossed the thought away. So far clear and he waved the others to join him.

Teegan slipped silently up to the captain, her weapon at the ready. There was something odd about this. They weren't trying to take the bridge. Were they heading for the computer core? And if so, why? It made no sense from a tactical position, but it did if they were looking for something.


Deck 5 - Corridors

The unnerving sound of multiple Tholian legs clicking across the deckplating permeated the nearby corridors. Even with the audible warnings, they moved quickly and their tactical movements were swift.

The Tholian commander continued to advance down the main corridor of Deck 5 accompanied by his silicon platoon. The atmosphere was dark and hazy with only red emergency lights illuminating the ship's hazy hallways. The large Tholian slowed as their formation approached the final T junction before the computer core entrance.

Across the top of that T junction, the security detail aboard the Trial made a truly valiant effort to draw the line here. This far; no further. Unlike the Tholians, however, the security officers had no armour to protect them from their fatal flaw. A jefferies tube panel snapped open; a single door from a double doorway pulled back, allowing for the second door panel to serve as cover; and an anti-grav gurney was pushed down one of the junction corridors, providing further cover for the security officers that sprung out of the figurative nowhere.

The element of surprise did the security officers little good. They could move faster than the Tholians; they knew the territory better than the Tholians; they were certainly sneakier than the Tholians, but they couldn't outrun their own fatal flaws, despite all of these advantages. Brilliant orange beams of phaser fire shot out from behind panels and gurneys. The Tholians hurled themselves heedlessly across the corridor to bodily protected their commander, criss-crossing their limbs as a literal Tholian web.

The fatal flaw that allowed the Tholians to murder the security officers dead was that the security officers were Starfleet security officers. And Starfleet doesn't kill. Or, at least, Starfleet doesn't kill first. Not until they're backed into a corner. And their heavy-stun beams left the heavily-armoured Tholian environmental suits with little more than burns and scuffs. A couple of the Tholians experienced damage to the hinges of some of their legs, but they could cradle those legs close to their bodies and continue their march on their other legs. They had so many, after all.

In unison, the Tholians tapped at their tetryon pulse rifles before they fired back with a barrage of blue globules of death. The Tholians had little care for this garbage scow of a ship and its mortuary of a crew. The tetryon pulses had been intensified to a higher setting, causing vaporization effects on the door panels and overhead panels and jefferies tubes that were protecting the security officers. Those vaporisation effects were all the more effective against flesh and bone.

The bridge team stepped into the corridor in time to watch the onslaught. Clearly they would have to come up with something different if they hoped to repel these boarders.

Matthew pulled back behind the corner of the bulkhead and shook his head, "Nuh uh! Can't go that way!" It was getting cooler in here. Life support must be failing - for sure the heaters were off. Matt liked things cool anyway. He looked around the corridors nervously. He was thinking about the initial exchange of dialogue that Captain Saalm had with the Tholian commander. Tholians are territorial. They are expansionists too and they defend their territory frightfully so. But, the Tholian commander said nothing about this being their territory. Rather, the Tholian was concerned about some kind of a weapon. Something was missing and Matt needed time to think. He scooted closer to Hiroshi and whispered. "Captain, something's not right. Why the computer core? I'm pissed and angry too but we aren't going to win this shooting our way out. Not with these hand phasers. You've seen the Tholian EV suits?"

Hiroshi nodded to the Galileo lieutenant and waved him and Jones to a location where they could talk. When they were secure enough he looked to his XO and then to the lieutenant. "Not sure before you came over, but what I am about to tell you is classified understand? When we arrived both ships got a notification, an automated one indicating the presence or the use of a Genesis device. Jones here as Executive officer knows about it but not sure you do. I am only guessing but I think it might be what the Tholians are after, or at least knowledge about the device."

"Makes sense," Teegan said. "The question is, why do they want it? It obviously has something to do with what's going on with the two colonies. I thought the Tholians were responsible, but if they're after information, then maybe they aren't."

Matthew nodded, "My Captain informed us in a staff meeting. I was scheduled to lead an away team to the surface when I got the call to report...here." Matthew's tone was slightly irritated and he recognized it, "Sorry. No offense. I wish I was anywhere but here right now" he said. "When I heard the Captain say the Genesis device was potentially being used - and that the Genesis synwave had been detected; I was shocked." He looked out into the corridor to make sure they were still safe to chat. He kept his eye on the corridor and spoke quickly and softly.

"We were going to try and find the source of the Genesis signal. That was our mission. Now, I know that Galileo was ready to launch the Virginia shuttle so my bet is that the shuttle was launched before the Tholians made their appearance. I didn't detect any stray ships in the area - but I wasn't looking for a shuttle either." He stepped closer to them now in a hushed tone, "Let's assume for the moment the Tholians are telling the truth. They detected the device, they know what it is and they think either Starfleet is weaponizing it, building better worlds with it or that someone else got it. They send out a strike force to investigate and they run into us. If that's all true then they are here to recover the logs and any data related to the Genesis device. We have to stop them because that's what they'll find. Starfleet fooling around again with technology that they can't control. Captain...we have to talk to them. How do we get their attention long enough so that they will listen?"

Hiroshi thought about what to do. They could set the phasers full up but even so they were outgunned, and outnumbered and shooting would only bring those weapons on them. Oh he wanted to wipe the decks with them but then again the acid would only bubble the deck. And that was if they even got through those heavy suits. They needed something to give the Tholians pause long enough to even try to attempt to communicate, something so nasty or debilitating that they might be willing to listen and if they did not, be able to take them out without the three of them going with them possibly. Bubbling the deck seemed to come back and it tickled something from chemistry classes. He loved chemistry, the way things combined and worked.

"Jones, keep an eye on our visitors. Put your phaser all the the way up. If they move this way fire. There are plasma conduits there and that might slow them down. Lieutenant I have an idea but need your help." He nodded toward the room marked science lab.

Jones nodded and turned up the level of her phaser rifle, training it on a plasma conduit while she kept an eye on the Tholians.

Matt nodded to Jones, "I think your Captain has an idea? If we survive this...I'll buy the beer."

"You're on," Teegan said.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Captain Hiroshi Tanakata
Commanding Officer
USS Trial
[PNPC Warraquim]

Commander Teegan Jones
Executive Officer
USS Trial
[PNPC Sandoval]

Alpha Tholian
Commander
[NPC Saalm]

Various Tholians
Shock Troopers
[NPC ir-Llantrisant]

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