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A ship through of bugs

Posted on Fri Aug 9th, 2019 @ 11:30pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Emergency Medical Hologram (Adam Power) Mk X & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Asa Dael & Lieutenant JG Rena Pacci & Lieutenant JG Thav Th'ovohrot & Ensign Fiona O'Dell & Ensign Briaar Gavarus & Petty Officer 2nd Class 'Big Ethel' Jablonski
Edited on on Fri Aug 9th, 2019 @ 11:35pm

Mission: Mudd on the Souls of Mankind
Location: USS Hera.
Timeline: 2396

Acting captains log stardate 73606.3

Well, this isn't how I imagined being in command of the Hera. With the away teams having deployed I have moved the Hera out of range of the K-7 station's weapons and put the emergency power to the chronometric shielding. So far they are holding, but theirs only so much power the Hera can give. Already the shields have briefly failed on Deck 27. Thankfully only a small area of waste management was effected through what's happened is indeed odd.

" Mushrooms? " Thex said into the open channel with the engineering team that had been dispatched to see what the damage was.

" Well fungal spores, but yeah waste control is now full of them. They seem to be dying at an incredible rate. Guess they're not build to live in our universe or timeline. " Replied the head of the engineering team.

" Well make sure they're cleaned up and all the machines are working. Call me if anything else is wrong," Thex said politely as she closed the channel.

Looking around the bridge she looked over at the operations officer the one member of a department who was on the bridge. " Lieutenant Pacci, anything to report?" She asked calmly.


"Other than reports of mushrooms popping up in random places over the ship...no not really" the Betazoid replied. "Teams are reporting the safe removal and clean up...it could take some time though."




"Commander, requesting a sample of mushrooms be brought to Sickbay for further examination," Doctor Asa Dael chirped over the comms.

Thex thought for a second before replying. "Of course doctor. Make sure to keep it behind maximum security. How are things down there? " She asked with the authority of someone who did deserve to be in the chair.

"Aye, will do. We are doing well. I have one person who seems to have inhaled something noxious, possibly these spores, but the problem is resolving. What aid can we provide?" Asa responded.

" Keep standing by for any wounded doctor and if possible switch off any unnecessary equipment. We need to keep the chronometric shielding up and the time fluctuations are getting worse." Thex said looking at the state of the ship's shields.

"Aye, Commander, moving stasis pods to emergency backup as well," Dael responded.

" Very..." Thex began before even through the ships shields and internal dampeners she heard the ship rock. For a brief second, part of the ships failed and crackled out of existence. It only took a second the ship buckled and changed as the power of raw time caused through it.

" Status," Thex yelled as ships lights began to blink.

" Sheilds are holding, but somethings draining the power on deck fourteen. " called the human ensign from the engineering console.

Thex brain only needed a second to come to a decision. " I'll check it out. Lieutenant Pacci, Ensign Gavarus and Petty Officer Jablonski you're with me. Lieutenant Lesai, you have the bridge," the sapphire officer said as she grabbed her toolbelt, which she had tucked under the captain's chair.

=^= Petty Officer Jablonski, report to Lieutenant Commander Thex, Deck 14 =^=

At that moment, Jablonski was using the strength enhancements of the existing EVA armor, which really wasn't working out for her. She and it seemed to pull at odds, which Baroness von Alcott had attributed to an inconvenience for higher strength humanoids. She had designs she'd shared, it was just that Ethel wasn't quite sure about the legality of experimenting on Starfleet property.

For now, she tabbed the control in her armor to open a comm channel. "I'm on my way."

As if causing them to appear and disappear the large mountain of muscle shed her armor, exchanging it for her uniform through the miracle of microcircuitry that enabled extradimensional storage. A miracle wrought by the will of Hera.

"Great Hera," she muttered as thje head of the honor guard ran a towel through her hair on her way out of the gym, spotted E'Vir on a squat, reminded Azzo about her glucose and caught a banana from Konga with a grin. Once outside Main Gymnasium 1 on Deck 6, she peeled and jammed the banana, then broke into a loping, ground-eating stride to get to the turbolift.

"Master At Arms, do you copy?" Jablonski asked after tapping her badge, commandeering a turbolift.

Thav was busy in the main armory strapping everything down in case the internal dampeners failed. Tapping his comabdge the andorian calmly responded. " This is Thav. What can I do for you petty officer."

“Command has called me to Deck 14 for something, sir, and with the Commander away, you’re the ranking security officer. Figured if there is an emergency you might need to be in the know, sir,” Jablonski reported back as she stepped out of the lift and began jogging to her destination.

"Very good, petty officer. I'll head to the security office, and take command from there," the Master At Arms said as he handed his job over to an ensign before beginning to head for the security station. " Make sure to take a weapon. The time shifts may have done more than mess with our systems," he added.

“Shouldn’t be a problem, sir,” Jablonski replied. Thanks to the extradimensional store available to her via the Bracers of Hera, she was quite literally a walking arsenal, and could equip a band of freedom fighters if she needed to. But the MAA was used to thinking in conventional terms, and she understood that as ahead she spotted a flash of blue and gold, and she hustled to catch up to Lieutenant Commander sh’Zoarhi.

Thex gave a polite nod to the petty officer as she joined the team along with lieutenant Pacci and ensign Gavarus. It took a mere minute for the turbo lift to reach its a destination, but even then they could tell something was wrong. The turbolift appeared to be scrapping inside the tub as if it had shrunken by a few centimeters.

As the doors opened the women eyes widened at the sight in front of them. The ships familiar corridors had gone replaced by a dark grey panel which hadn't been used in a very long time. The others might have a time placing them, but Thex and Gavarus would have recognized it easily.

" Great I'm left in charge of the ship and deck 14 turns into a deck of the Nx class refit. " Thex said pulling the scanner from her belt. " Right the main power feed that runs up the Hera is up ahead so we have to see what's wrong with it." She said leading the way.

Scanning with her own Tricorder, Gavarus replied with an attempt at a joke. "Well, it's kinda like you get to be Captain of two ships at a time, Commander."

The Andorian grinned at that. " Yeah, I guess you're right," Thex said as they arrived at the spot in question. From the scanner alone she knew what the problem would be. " Well looks like time has created a mess of circuitry and power conduits. We'll have to take the panel off and try and get everything to work with each other." the Andorian said already pulling out her tools.

Looking at the side of the panel that was from another generation, Gavarus tilted her head. "The bolts on this thing won't... Ah... need a different tool. It's an older hex design...."

But as she spoke, the large Porcine ears of the bulky Tellarite twitched on their own causing her to cut herself off. "Uh... did anyone else hear that? Like a bolt hitting the deck or something?"

"Permission to arm and armor, ma'am?" Jablonski deferred to the officer on deck as she scanned about the unfamiliar terrain of the museum piece they were standing in.

Thex had heard the sound as well one of her antenna twitching slightly. " Permission granted Jablonski. " She said calmly taking a second to switch on her own belt clipped phaser before she continued removing the panel. Behind the panel, it was a true mess. The Hera's circuitry had almost blended with that of the older vessel turning the two into a mess that they'd need to clear up before they could fix the power.

The sound of a bolt skipping across the floor echoed again. Coming round the bend in the corridor lurched what any federation historian would recognize as the first generation of starfleet EVA suits with its radiation shield down. It unnaturally moved it's head until it noticed the group down the corridor.

With a lurch that was definitely not normal, it began to move towards them reaching out with an outstretched hand.

And while she was a skilled engineer, Ensign Briaar Gavarus was never one to be thought of as overtly brave, and that perception was unlikely to change as she let out a short squeal at the sight of whatever that was. "Eee!! What the effin' @#$& is that?!"

Raising her tricorder to scan the bizarre figure, Gavarus only got back a garbled signal of static. "Tri... Tricorder is... There's interference from whatever's going on, Commander. I'll have t... t... to readjust the settings."

Thex wheeled round her hand already going for her phaser. She stopped with her hand over her holster as the figure lurched forward again. " Halt." The sapphire engineer ordered with her authority coming into her voice. " I am Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi of the Federation starship Hera. Identify yourself, or we will be forced to defend ourselves." She said calmly.

If the figure in the suit heard them it didn't comply as it lurched forward again its arms outstretched. The closer it got the more disturbing it became, as clearly something or things was moving under the surface that was wriggling and bulging in ripples across the material of the suit.

"Get behind me, sirs," A rather large armored hand that was roughly the size of Thex's thigh interposed between the advancing mass. Whatever it was in the old-school ancestor of the high-tech wonder that was currently covering Petty Officer Jablonski's massive hide, she wasn't having contact with the second officer, nor the porky engineer of whom she was fond. With a snap of the wrist, a phaser rifle appeared in Jablonski's hand, and she adjusted the power settings. "Orders, ma'am?"

Thex paused as she drew her own phaser. The thing took another step forward to which the Andorian blurted out. " Fire Jablonski heavy stun." She said firing her own hand phaser. The two beams hit the EVA clad being to which it didn't even seem to notice. It lurched forward again as the gold radiation shield began to crack as two long bone like appedages burst from within.

The suit exploded as the hardened dark green carapace of the occupant burst from within. How it fits into the suit was a mystery as the thing insectoid head was scrapping against the celling of the corridor and almost half as wide as the corridor. It lunged forward four long blade-like arms aimed directly at the huddle of Starfleet personnel as it let out an insectoid screeching that could wake the dead.

"Protect!" yelled the Andorian as her armor burst into life just in time to allow her to catch two of the bugs blade-like arms. The rest were caught on the glowing blue energy shield of the Security officer, who with a flick of her wrist changed weapons. Now armed with a TR-116C2 rifle, the petty officer changed out the loads of the rifle on her HUD, and it the room began echoing with the loud banging of automatic weapons fire. Armor-piercing rounds began sizzling through the air, slamming into the chitinous alien life form.

"Fall back!" Jablonski ordered the two officers through gritted teeth as the alien parasite pressed upon her and Jablonski struggled to hold up the weight of the thing as it pressed itself upon her. "Hera preserve us!"

"Holy $#!+!!" Gavarus squealed as she almost fell over stumbling back from the attacking creature as she began to run on her disproportionately dainty little hooves.

Thex behind the helmet visor of her armor was scowling as she looked around the insect. Seeing a fleshy bit amoung it's hardened carapace the Andorian punched with all her might into the beast. Whatever she had hit it certainly hurt as it let out a screech of pain as it partly collapsed on its two legs. Heading the petty officer's words the Andorian bolted it with the others back to the turbo lift.

With another screech, the bug stood back up and charged after them trailing a thin green gung along the floor as it did.

Partially shoving her crewmates into the turbolift Thex took the hit from the beast which knocked her back into the lift. " Emergency shields." She yelled which raised just as the bug crashed into it. It screeched in pain as it continued to strike the shields seemingly unable to figure out why it couldn't pass through the shields.

Panting against the furthest wall of the Turbolift, Ensign Gavarus was doing her level best not to panic, though she was in no way accustomed to the insanity that was more or less commonplace aboard the Hera. "That... *huff* That... thing was in an old EVA suit. I... I doubt the giant bug monster thought to it... *huff* itself, 'Boy, those look comfy. I should try one on!'"

As she ranted, the porcine officer pulled her Tri-Corder back out, flinching aggressively every time the creature hit the forcefield. But the Tellarite Ensign WAS, at least, thinking. "S... Scanning. There's less chronal interference out here and... Uh... Commander. I'm... there's human DNA in that. Whatever that is, I think it started as a person!"

" Thex to...." She began before realizing her combadge was inside the armor she was wearing. It took her a second to get the armor to open a coms channel. " Thex to the bridge I want a full scan of the ship I want everyone accounted for."

Thav had reached the bridge by this point and had already got the scan underway. " Scans are showing everyone is accounted for commander. We have three unidentified lifeforms, but the scanners are playing up due to the current conditions. I'm deploying security to check and contain them.

" Find the and get them behind a level five sheild these things aren't to be messed with." Thex said as she looked at the two crew. "You two okay?" She asked with concern in her voice.

"Y... Y... Yeah. I think so. It... It never touched me." Gavarus stuttered nervously, desperately hoping that neither woman, Jablonski in particular, had noticed the small wet patch on her uniform pants.

“Phasers aren’t stunning and I don’t know if I got any real penetration off those slugs ma’am. I think I might be able to carve it up if you want to engage it hand to hand to hand to hand, but I’m not entirely sure if that’ll be any more effective. You want to try to get a lock and beam it into a containment cell in the brig?” Jablonski may not have been the brightest gal on the Security force, but she was well trained and used to thinking outside the box.

"A good plan Jablonski. Do you have any trackers in the bracelet subspace pocket?" The andorian said as she noticed something from the corner of her eye. Part of the EVA was still logged on the bug's arm and she'd been able to see part of the ship's patch. NX-09 Kingfisher. Thex knowledge of the NX class was small, but she was pretty sure no such ship had ever been built.

"Gavarus we never built an Nx class called kingfisher did we?" Thex asked mostly to take the ensigns mind of the bug trying to smash down the shields.

Flinching with each hit, still, Gavarus was visibly shaking as she snapped her head to the sound of the acting Captain's voice. "What?! King? Uh... I don't..."

"Uh... NX class..." She struggled to recall, Gavarus kept glancing from the creature to her Tricorder. "N... No... I don't remember, but the NX-09 was something else. A... A... And Commander. T... That thing is... Registering as o... Out of sync with our quantum f... Frequency."

"Kay, here we go, dropping shields and-" Jablonski coordinated dropping the shields with presenting hers, summoning it in a twin crescent moon design so the rifle could protrude while the shield still provided cover. The first few rounds seemed to simply spatter on the creature, but the white phosphorous rounds in auto bursts that the sturdy security officer was pelting it with didn't seem to make it happy at all, particularly with the hydroshock rounds she was interspersing between. The water couldn't put out the phosphorous, but it boiled away to superheated steam that had to go somewhere, much of it under the carapace of the creature, who roared back, surrounded by a halo of steam, only to scream back in and run facefirst into the forcefield again.

"Okay, so there ya go Commander. He's got almost a dozen tracker tags all over him, and I got him good and riled up. Aw, and don't worry about him," the big farm girl chucked a thumb at the creature clawing and gnashing at the forcefield. "That's not ablative. It'll be just that strong for as long as it's got power. So what's the plan, ma'am?"

" Thav can you get a lock on them and beam them into the brig?" Thex said into the channel.

" I think so. Beaming know." Said the master at arms from the bridge.

It was a slow transport, but the blue light shone as it rippled around the alien bug before it faded from existence.

"We have it contained commander. I'm increasing the shielding around them just in case. Teams are on route to contain the other two."

Thex opened up her suit's visor with a grin on her face. "Well, girls that's over with. Well done to the two of you. Computer, lowers the shields." With the shields down Thex lead the way back to their worksite.

"Gavarus keep working on the power problem. Jablonski do you have a bg I could gather up what's left of the Eva suit with?" The acting captain said as she stepped out of her own armor. Bending down she picked up what was left of the left shoulder. The patch on it clearly read NX-09 Kingfisher, but what caught her eye was the planet upon the pitch. It was clearly titan.

"A... Aye Commander." The terrified Tellarite junior engineer grabbed her head and hessitantly went back over to the garbled power relay panel to work.

“You said there were two more- I'm gonna go coordinate with those, ma'am, unless you want me to cover your backs? And with all due respect, I'm not so sure you oughta be touching that residue in case it's contagious, Commander..." Jablonski eyed the inspecting engineer.

The petty officer was right, she realized as Thex put the remainder of the suit down. Her armor would most likely prevent any contamination, but it would be better to be safe than sorry. "You're right. Go and link up with the security team we can finish off here. Be very careful and don't take any chances." She said calmly as she bent down to help the Tellartite with the last of the rewiring.

The petty officer who had dropped the shields to take the brunt of the onslaught for a few seconds to accomplish her goal smiled, the patient smile of enlisted when they received a redundant order throughout history. “Yes ma’am, I’ll be sure to be careful and not to take any chances.”

With that, the large combat-ready security officer jogged off, to go coordinate efforts nearby to capture the specimens which seemed to have cropped up with some sort of chronal fractalism that was affecting the starship. When she was gone, Thex spoke up encouragingly.

"You handled yourself well Gavarus,” the chief engineer said, reaching up high to put a reassuring hand on the extra-large ensign's shoulder.

Trying to focus on the wiring, Gavarus scoffed lightly. Focusing on the work helped her think. She loved old technology. Tinkering with antiques and old ship parts was the hobby that lead her into engineering as a profession. But she was not in her element dealing with giant insect creatures attacking her like old holovid monsters.


"Yeah, t... thanks Commander." Gavarus tried to redirect the subject. Her pants were still wet from where she peed herself in terror after squealing like a stuck pig and didn't particularly agree with her Superior Officers assessment. "I... I... I've got the f... f... fused sections clear and separated. I j... j... just need to reroute the primary power feed through this transition coil adapter to get the flow regulated and power flowing again."

Thex nodded as she helped the ensign until a call came in from the bridge. " Power's running normally commander. " The Andorian let out a sigh of relief as a team from medical wearing biological contamination gear. " Ma'am if you follow us we'll take you to the shuttle bay. We have emergency decon set up there in case the bug problem is capable of contamination. We'll beam you there as soon as you're finished. "

Thex nodded before looking back to the Gavarus. " You finished ensign?"

"A... aye, Commander. All set." Gavarus replied as she put her tools away and stood back up, nervously.

" Okay keep your eyes peeled whilst you clean the area and gather up the remains," Thex ordered as she and the tellerite dematerialized from the corridor. Hopefully, this won't take long.

Rena shook her head as she reached out to see if she could sense any other bugs in the area. " Join starfleet it'll be fun they said. Hunting giant bugs must have been left out of the pamphlet" she muttered under her breath.


 

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