The Other Side (Part 1 of 6) [18+]

Posted on 30 Mar 2023 @ 6:15pm by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Ensign Amanda Turell & Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald Andrews & Petty Officer 3rd Class Constantin Vansen
Edited on on 30 Mar 2023 @ 6:24pm

4,030 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: Cold Station 31 - Level 3
Timeline: MD 10, 0805 hrs

Previously, on Cold Station 31 (Part 3)...

"WARNING," notified the automated computer voice, "primary generators exceeding safe power output."

Vansen swore, shaking his head as he started to run a diagnostic on it, but also decided to do a manual check of the lines. It helped sometimes, and he saw the issue there. "We got a runaway power cascade in progress, Andrews! Can't tell what is causing it..." he looked at the diagnostic results coming in. "And neither does the computer by the looks of it."

Additional crimson caution lights continued to light up across all of the engineering consoles at a rapid pace. Within seconds, the room was drowned in red alert strobes. Something was terribly wrong. The station's computer gave a single, final warning which began to repeat. "WARNING. Unknown anomaly detected."

A distressed and guttural voice suddenly spoke, originating from the room's ceiling where there were no Galileo crew members or CS31 personnel present. At least, not alive. The cloudy decomposing eyes of the skinned corpse came to life then started to turn red. Its arms and fingers twitched and its torso slowly started to descend. Intestines stretched from its severed lower body to serve as an anchor to the overhead bulkhead, still seemingly fused into the station's metal infrastructure. It's voice rumbled then echoed across the room.

"...What...have you...Done!!?!"

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

"Shutting down main power!" Vansen shouted, because there was no way that he wanted to see this. And he didn't even try to pull a phaser, no...he was cutting the power flow, eyes wide with the adrenaline that was coursing through his veins. When the computer didn't react like expected, he swore in several languages Klingon, Cardassian, Ferengi, Bajoran, and looked at the manual shutdown by the core.

"What the f--k is that?" Donald said in a mix of curious and disgust at its appearance.

Facing the outside of the engineering bay when the computer gave its 'unknown anomaly' alert, Amanda immediately turned rifle ready scanning for a target. When she saw it dangling from the ceiling she trained her rifles sights on its face ready to take it down if she was so ordered to.

Vansen closed his eyes for a second, before he took a breath for courage. He ran, keeping low, towards the core. The power was being drained to this thing, so his plan was to get the lever to do the manual shutdown.

Blake's pulse was racing so hard that she could hear the rushing in her ears from the impossible sight. Her rifle was lifted, aimed at the...form moving grotesquely. But...however horrific it was, it had talked. "Identify yourself!" she demanded, weapon ready.

The combined length of Human intestines measured roughly 15 feet in length. That was less than a quarter of the height from the engineering room's ceiling to the floor, yet the half-corpse's entrails continued to unravel and descend from its anchor towards the deck plating at the away team's feet. Its curled fingers expanded and stretched themselves with audible cracking from newly-severed joints. Its mouth opened wide as if to speak but then continued to widen. The jaw popped and the lower mandible became unhinged and started to freely dangle. The skin around its lips and cheeks tore to reveal the macabre sight of its gums and dentals. In response to the first officer's communication attempt, a deep resounding sound emanated from its vocal cords. The sound of something not from this world.

The living corpse unleashed a reverberating bellow of terror in harmonic frequencies unknown to the away teams. Death, destruction, pain and malice all combined into a single form of petrified communication. It continued to descend until it was within range of the gold-collared Starfleet petty officer attempting to terminate the facility's primary power source. One of its arms reached out, the bones in its elbow breaking cleanly through its skin as it stretched its white tendons and ligaments to grab hold of Vansen by the back of his head. Its fingers started to dig into the man's scalp, merging with the Human's flesh and halting him in place.

The station's computer blared another severe alert. "WARNING. Primary generators approaching critical levels. WARNING. Unknown anomaly detected."

As the creature made a grab for Constantin, Amanda fired her phaser rifle, a ready-aimed precise shot impacting against its face.

The single pulse of orange, phased weapon energy seared through the room at high velocity toward its target. The hit was clean on the mark but the concentrated burst quickly dissipated into the corpse's skin with barely any noticeable effect. The phaser burst was seeming absorbed by its biology, yet was enough to draw its attention to the security officer. Its free hand lashed out at Turell. The arm's skin tore and extended several meters to expose red muscles and tendons as it suddenly grabbed the woman by her throat with incredible quickness. With the back of Vansen's head in one hand and Turell's throat in the other, the half-corpse lifted the security officer into the air by her neck with supernatural strength. Its decaying fingers started to dig into her flesh and violently choke her.

As the creature's arm lashed out at her Amanda managed to fire one more shot which had the same little effect as the first before it grabbed her. She beat at its hand trying to break its grip as it lifted her into the air but it was unnaturally strong.

"Commanders!" yelled Darius as he witnessed the most unholy of demons assaulting the away teams. He quickly tapped on his hand phaser's power setting to cycle it to the maximum power level then trained his weapon on the creature and tried to get a clear shot. The helmsman had no idea if he should engage after seeing what had just happened to the security officer.

Allyndra spun in the air surprised. She had trouble trying to mentally process what was happening. Finally galvanized into action she took her phaser and aimed and fired at the entrails hoping to sever them, not sure what would happen.

The doctor's phaser beam loudly swooshed when it fired from above, striking the dangling corpse's exposed intestines. The orange weapon energy held steady for several seconds then started to burn through the soft internal tissues. A cry of rage emanated from the former-person who suddenly released their grip on Vansen and Turell. The security officer fell to the floor hard, and the operations officer's head was shoved into the deck plating before being released. The corpse now ascended back to the ceiling and trained the entirety of its focus on the hovering Akkadian.

Please stop, please stop, please stop...Vansen sucked in a breath with pain, but apart from that hadn't been able to make a sound since he had been grabbed. He hadn't even been able to draw breath, the pain and images stealing his identity for a moment. A muscle under his left eye twitched and unseeing eyes closed suddenly. His head hurt, a pressure he hadn't felt before, and he reached to touch the back of his head. There was blood, but only the expected amount for a scalp wound. He was alive. He didn't feel it. He felt cold, heavy, like every nerve of his body had been put through a plasma torch. His cheek was bruised and scraped from hitting the deck, but he didn't even notice it. That pain was distant, not something to focus on. He sucked in another breath, desperate for the air, before he tried to roll over onto his back. He couldn't think though. There was too much in his head from the touch, of bodies ripped and earth crushing. Images and what felt like memories that had rushed through him. He was familiar with pain. He had never felt anything like that before.

When Constantin hit the deck Donald ran to his side to check on his friend. "Hey Constantin, you alright." He said as he pulled him towards one of the consoles so he could rest him up against it.

Constantin lashed out with a cry, hitting Donald in his shoulder with his hand as he tried to push away from him. His eyes were wide and wild, still unseeing, trapped in what he had seen and felt.

Her arms and legs flailing as she fell, Amanda landed back on the deck with a heavy thud; her phaser rifle tumbling several meters away from her. A loud yelp was the first thing to leave her lips as she felt the pop from her shoulder as it dislocated. Groggily she tried to sit up as images she didn't know swam in her vision, she saw herself strapped to a biobed in an absolute mess; her body in pieces all hooked into banks of machinery no doubt the only thing keeping her alive despite her vision's self pleading for them to let her die. "Someone.... please.. kill me." She involuntarily called out.

There was not a lot of room to maneuver but Allyndra moved as much as she could backward. The phaser had done the intended work of getting the things attention. She changed target and fired again this time at the face.

The head of the dismembered corpse barely moved from the phaser blast's impact. Once more, its decaying skin seemed to absorb the Starfleet team's weapon's energy. A pair of bloodshot eyes with enlarged black pupils stared back at the doctor with pure menace. Its dangling and detached jaw continued to drip blood, but for the slightest of moments, there was an awkward pause of silence. Suddenly, with inhuman speed, one of its arms snapped out towards Warraquim. Its hand palmed her face like a basketball. The knuckles in its fingers popped clean from their joints and began to extend around the entirety of her head. With her body under control, its other arm reached out and grabbed one of the Akkadian's fluttering wings, crunching its fine membranes within its grip.

Trying to fly backward only made her contact the structure of the base. She had no place to go and the phaser dangled in Allyndra's hand as she watched the impossible movements of the creature. The thing grabbed her and she had enough sense to fold her wings. Even so, she could hear the crunch as the surprising strength of the thing exerted its force on her. The force constricted her breathing and her mind seemed to spin into overdrive. "Can't breath! Can't fly!" The thoughts ran like water down a fall.

Down at the engineering bay's main level, Darius yelled amid the chaos. "I don't have a shot!" Multiple overhanging catwalks and supporting extensions prevented a clear line of sight to the creature assaulting the doctor in the upper level. The conn officer scrambled into action and sprinted to the other side of the fusion reactor before looking up and aiming his weapon. His rational mind tried to process what he'd just witnessed alongside the cries of distress from his shipmates. What the hell is this... He reached a new position then knelt and steadied his arm for a long-range shot from his hand phaser, aiming at the corpse's exposed entrails. He couldn't risk hitting Warraquim. A two-second phaser stream fired from his weapon followed by several shorter consecutive bursts. The first two hit the target while the third and fourth went wide and sparked against the far bulkhead.

The humanoid creature unleashed a reverberating cry of distress then released its grip on the Akkadian. Its intestines started to sever, leaving it dangling by a proverbial thread.

A moment of blackness and all Warraquim could see suddenly was a skyship and her husband. The ship was falling struck by lightening and was on fire. Gerrin held his hands to her. "Allyndra help me! Please!" She could not move, could not fly, and she was frozen watching the flames consume him and then race toward her. Finally she found a breath, screamed and then found herself falling, her wings useless. The floor rushed up and she instinctively remembered to loosen for impact. "The ground is a harsh mistress," her old flight instructor's words came back.

Adrenaline pulsed through Blake as she took a few running steps to get a better angle, skidding down onto one knee as she lifted her rifle, set on maximum. The ex-sniper took a breath before pushing the air out of her chest in one long, smooth stream between her lips. A spare moment after the purge, she fired a single shot at the remaining vulnerable intestine strand.

The final phaser pulse completely detached the corpse from the ceiling. It started to tumble in free fall, bouncing against the bulbous fusion reactor chambers until it finally impacted the hard deck on the main level with a sickening sound. Motionless for many seconds, it started to twitch and regain a perceived form of consciousness. Its twisted mandible was now hanging from the side of its face as it looked Blake square in her eyes.

The conn officer saw Warraquim's body tumbling and descending in the air with an apparent lack of control. Some of her wings fluttered but at least one appeared damaged and non-functional. Darius sprinted to a position beneath her as she succumbed to the forces of gravity, then held his arms out and braced for impact. He exclaimed an involuntary 'oomph' when she impacted him and he broke her fall. Together, they collapsed on the floor and tumbled for a short moment. "...Are...you okay...?" he managed to wheeze.

The fall was long enough. It was hard to remember to relax. "The ground is a harsh mistress, let her embrace you, do not fight her." Allyndra repeated it almost like a mantra. The impact when it came was surprisingly softer than she expected. Opening her eyes as she came to rest she saw Lamar spread out. He must have tried to catch her. He wheezed out a question. "I'm not sure yet and you?"

The collision had knocked the wind out of him and he laid on his back for those painful few seconds of oxygen deprivation. His chest started to rise and fall with regularity as he sucked in air. "You're heavier than I remember," he managed to tease as he rolled on to his knees.

"You are softer then I remember. Are you injured?"

Darius shook his head negative while he slowly got back up to his feet. "I'm fine," he answered. At least, he thought he was fine. There was enough epinephrine pumping through him to make it hard to self-diagnose. But nothing felt broken and at worst, he would have a few bruises when they finally returned to Galileo.

Blake shifted to a crouching position, staring back at it as she caught her breath, her jaw tight. "Check the wounded," she ordered the team members who were still on their feet, but she didn't look away from the corpse. "We were here to help," there was an edge of bitterness in the usually inscrutable tone of the First Officer as she spoke to no one in particular.

"It...it is beyond help..." Vansen managed to get out, blinking slowly. He looked at Andrews, and then over at Blake. "Commander Blake, it...it showed...there's darkness. Just darkness and evil and pain. There's nothing...nothing here to save. We...we need to destroy it. We need to destroy it all."

"We still have a mission," Blake said firmly, turning to look at him before glancing around the others, taking in the sight of the scattered team. "We have to account for all the scientists and assist if needed. And we still haven't established what's going on here. We're going to get back on our feet and carry on."

Allyndra moved oh so slowly. She came to the quick conclusion that she had a very sprained ankle. "Uhia!" she exclaimed as she tried to move the limb. Dragging her medical kit around she fetched out the device to help increase the healing rate but it would not be anything like a ship. She would be hobbled for a bit, still able to walk but not run. Luckily there were no pain receptors in her wings but she knew they would be useless for weeks. "Ummm....before we figure what our next move is, shall we attend to the injured? I can't fly, might be able to walk but not run."

Vansen looked at Andrews, frowning, before he reached to touch his arm. He pushed himself up, swaying for a moment, before regaining his footing. "I'm fine," he said, quietly. "See what you can do to help, I...just need a moment." He reached into his belt, pulling out the hypo of his medication, taking it. The adrenaline had sped up his body's metabolism, and the additional rush of chemicals to stimulate his body's reaction to gravity also had the benefit of clearing his brain and blocking out pain. Multitask. The bleeding from his scalp had slowed, which told him nothing vital had been ripped.

"I could use some help here." Amanda called out from where she had managed to push herself with her good arm; her right arm hanging mostly useless. She'd put it back in by herself if needs be but it was easier with help and a pain hypo.

Vansen looked at Andrews, frowning for a moment as he heard Amanda's voice. "See if you can find out if that thing is still...draining power," he said, before he pushed himself over. He moved to Amanda's side, frowning. He didn't need a medical tricorder, he knew the way she held her arm what had happened. As someone who had experienced dislocation, it wasn't brilliant. "Already, Turell..." he gave her a weak, reassuring smile. "Better get that back in the socket...doctor, can you slide your medical bag over?" he looked over at her, with some hope, because he wasn't a doctor. But a hypo for the pain, and then some regeneration once it was back in place.

Allyndra used her good leg to do that.

Donald headed back to the console they'd used to power up the fusion generators, he gave the corpse a wide berth.

The aftermath of the chaos offered an artificial respite to the away teams which the cold station's fusion generators ignored. "WARNING. Reaction chamber overload in progress," exclaimed the facility's computer with repetition of its previous alerts. Multiple consoles within the engineering room continued to flash with red warnings of cascading system failures. "WARNING. Unknown anomaly detected." Plasma surges suddenly lashed out from the bulbous deuterium cells. They sizzled into the surrounding bulkheads with lightning-like blue intensity, each tendril capable of instantly killing a humanoid who was caught its path. Plasma suppression systems within the cold station's engineering bay activated and started to flood thick and toxic white vapor into the chamber. A tritanium blast door slowly started to descend in front of the primary exit to seal off the compartment.

"Oh hell." Donald said, he ducked as an plasma discharge split the air above him. "I can't stop it." He added after some more desperate tapping at the console he stood at.

"Move! Move!" Allyndra shouted and waved. "Go on hurry, we get caught we are dead!"

"You'll get no argument from me Sir." Donald said, he very quickly packed up and sprinted for the exit.

Vansen had only had time to give painkillers to Turell, so when he heard Allyndra shout and saw the plasma discharge, he grabbed the Security officer by her good arm and pulled her up with him. He put the bag over his shoulder and ran, pulling the other woman with him.

"I can make it without you pulling me." Amanda said after he pulled her to her feet and tugged her in the direction of the exit.

Vansen let her go at that, his eyes on her. "Sorry," he said, before turning away from her and running. He wasn't taking his chances against the plasma discharges, those things were deadly.

Amanda started to run towards the exit, passing a console she caught sight of her phaser rifle, she glanced back towards the exit for a moment before changing direction to grab her weapon.

Allyndra limped along but when she saw Ensign Turell turn back. "Forget it! Move Ensign that is an order. Tell you the truth I need help to move faster myself." She glanced up at the door which was descending noting that at least it seemed to hesitate in spots like the tracks were dirty, but descend it would.

Hearing Allyndra calling out to her Amanda hesitated for a fraction of a second before continuing, single mindedly running to grab the only thing important to her, the last thing she had that was hers.

Somewhere, deep down inside, Darius knew their situation was dire. The noxious clouds of expanding white vapor flooding the compartment were meant to extinguish the deadly plasma leaks. They didn't discriminate against any humanoid life caught in their path. He began sprinting to the engineering bay's exit while coughing, his lungs starting to burn from chemical inhalation. He put a hand over his mouth in a vain attempt to filter the toxic particles, but to little effect. His eyes started to water and his vision became blurry. He caught a glimpse of Warraquim near the exit struggling to maintain a quick pace and decided to put his head down and carry her out. Running up to her from behind, he dropped his shoulder to the back of her waist and grabbed her, using his leverage to hoist her over his shoulders in a carrying position. "I got you, doc," he grunted and wheezed, trodding under the large door and making his way back to the Jefferies tube at the far end of the corridor.

It was not an elegant way to travel but got the job done. Allyndra was having trouble breathing due to her respiratory system. She managed a very raspy “Thank you.”

Reaching the spot where her rifle lay Amanda quickly scooped it up by its sling in her good arm and sprinted back towards the exit. She avoided the denser clouds of vapour as she ran but she couldn't avoid inhaling some of it so decided to take a deep breath and held it trusting her well tuned body to keep going.

Inside the Jefferies tube, Vansen waited at the intersection, his shirt up to cover his mouth and nose. "Hurry!" he shouted, to try and get people moving. Anything, really, because right now it seemed everyone was taking forever. He was itching to move, but something inside of him, that might be the scalp wound, Constantin kept him waiting for the others.

"WARNING," blared the station's computer voice again. "Reactor containment failure in 30 seconds. Evacuation protocol initiated. Emergency lockdown activated." All doors and compartments within the cold station began to permanently seal. The Jefferies tube hatch suddenly hissed closed behind the operations officer cutting him off from the rest of the away team. "WARNING. Unknown anomaly detected."

A series of consecutive structural shudders were suddenly felt from within the facility. In space, the secretive station's escape pods jettisoned themselves from their hosing and launched to get clear of the impending blast radius. Each one of the five small modules were empty and devoid of life, leaving anyone still remaining within the asteroid to meet their fate.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

CMDR Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Deputy Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

ENS Amanda Turell
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

PO2 Donald Andrews
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

PO3 Constantin Vansen
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Rice]

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