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Dealing with the wrath of a trickster

Posted on Wed Jan 2nd, 2019 @ 6:33pm by Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Commander Rita Paris

Mission: Escaped Pantheons
Location: USS Hera, Deck 18, Main Engineering
Timeline: 2396

Down in engineering bay testing room, the sapphire engineering officer was humming to herself as she crossed another word off a long list of words. The nanobots in this jar were still humming along in their protective jar as she removed another load of element mix from them. This could take a while.

As she was just about to input another one, the door opening made her turn around. " Hello, Commander Paris. Can I help you with something? " The andorian asked giving her human friend a polite smile.

Looking around the lab to confirm they were alone, the USS Hera's first officer's face lit up in a winning smile. "If it's just you and me, Rita's fine, Thex. The only time I object to familiarity is if it is in front of the crew. I imagine it has probably evolved beyond all that in modern Starfleet, but I'm just old-fashioned that way. It keeps that distance between the officers and the crew, prevents familiarity from breaking down the command structure, as that erodes leadership. And I sound like an Starfleet Military Etiquette Academy instructor. I'm sorry, apparently lecturing is becoming second nature to me- isn't that a lovely trait?"

" You're the first officer Rita it's only natural. " Thex replied with a grin on her face.

"As for why I came down tho the workshop of the gods, I came to ask about your latest project. Reading the reports is one thing, but I like to see for myself, you know?" Paris nodded to the clay protective jar with all the leads and sensors attached to it.

" Well as of the moment I'm trying to get this one to work. From the description on the jar it's the bow of Artemis, so I'm running elements to spell out words related to hunting and sports to see if that will activate the nanobots. No luck so far, but I knew this could take a long time." Thex replied bringing up her results onto the rooms big screen.

"Bow of Artemis," Paris muttered as she typed it onto her PaDD and accessed the ship's computer's databanks. "Daughter of Zeus and Leto... twin sister of Apollo... daughter of Zeus and Leto... Zeus transformed Leto into a quail to prevent Hera from finding out about his infidelity, so Leto would suffer as few birth-pains as a mother quail suffers when it lays an egg. What a swell fellow," Paris muttered.

"Most stories depict Artemis as born first, becoming her mother's midwife upon the birth of her brother Apollo, which becomes significant because... are you kidding me? Okay, get this," The crimson-clad commander began reading odd the PaDD in disbelief. "Artemis believed that she had been chosen by the Fates to be a midwife, particularly since she had assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo. Artemis, while sitting on the knee of her father, Zeus, asked him to grant her several wishes. Here we go."

"To always remain a virgin, to have many names to set her apart from her brother Phoebus (Apollo). to have a bow and arrow made by the Cyclops, to be the Phaesporia or Light Bringer, whatever that means. To have a knee-length tunic so that she could hunt, to have sixty "daughters of Okeanos", all nine years of age, to be her choir- okay, very specific and weird. To have twenty Amnisides Nymphs as handmaidens to watch her dogs and bow while she rested, to rule all the mountains, any city, and to have the ability to help women in the pains of childbirth. All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis closely guarded her own chastity. Her symbols included the golden bow and arrow, the hunting dog, the stag, and the moon."

Looking up from her exhaustive narrative, Paris shook her head and blinked a few times. "So about that golden bow... okay, here it is. According to the Homeric Hymn to Artemis, she had golden bow and arrows, as her epithet was Khryselakatos ("of the Golden Shaft") and Iokheira ("showered by arrows"). The arrows of Artemis could also bring sudden death and disease to girls and women." Paris paused as she and Thex both looked at one another, then to the large earthen jar, then back to one another.

"Artemis got her bow and arrow for the first time from The Kyklopes, as the one she asked from her father. The bow of Artemis also became the witness of Callisto's oath of her virginity. In later cult, the bow became the symbol of waxing moon. Well, that's... what we know. And that's what you think is in there, eh?" the pretty pilot may not have been much of a scientist or histoprian, but she could use a search engine with the best of them.

"What it says on the jar. Gods really seemed to have a messed up life, didn't they? I mean all the oaths of virginity, the cheating, the constant fighting. You'd think beings with the power to warp reality would be above such things. " Thex replied as she looked at a close up of the jar.

"That's a nice thought, Miss sh'Zoarhi. I've always appreciated your optimism," the earth girl explained. "But according to Hera, absolute power really does tend to corrupt, absolutely. The gods are just people like you and me, but with a lot more personal power, and it magnifies everything about them- the good and the bad, the noble and the petty.

"Maybe the bow has the power to regenerate the reproductive system to an earlier state so it's welder will forever remain a virgin and part of that got lost in translation. " Thex jokily said as she inputted the next combination of the element to spell out the word hide. " Are gods messed up on every planet? I know the ancient gods of Andor...." the cerulean-skinned engineer began, before a low vibration echoed around the room.

The jar began to vibrate, as the energy readings from the computer skyrocketed while the nanites began to work. It took a few seconds before they had finished their labors, and the jar began to crack away, then dissolve into dust. Only what was on the experiment's platform confused the andorian officer.

No bow now sat on the table, but a silver chained necklace with a hideous pendant hanging from it. A horrific visage frozen in metallic sculpture displaying a face with hollow fish-like eyes, blacker than anything Thex had ever seen. A wide hungry mouth was gaping at the two Starfleet officers.

"Okay... well, that is definitely not a bow." Thex said as she stared at the item before them. Something was scratched into its surface. The computer was having no luck translating it, but it recognized some of the words as Celtic.

"I'm no expert, but that really doesn't look Greek to me. The design looks more European... here, are those runes on there?" Observant. and for a change this dealt with earth's ancient history, in which Rita Paris tended to be a bit ahead of the curve for a change, as a native of the planet whose knowledge base they were using for their mythology. Of course, nearly every race in the Federation had multiple myths of gods and heroes and wondrous beings. At least the lost navigator had some touchstone with the legends of her own planet to help her through times like this.

"Where's a tricorder... oh, you've already got one. Okay, so what are you seeing," Rita fetched a diagnostic tricorder off the workbench nearby, snapped it open and began scanning even as she observed Thex was one step ahead of her.

" This isn't making much sense. I can actually partly scan this one. The chain's made from silver, but the pendant is impossible...." Thex began before a deep hollow laughing began to fill the room.

" That does not sound good. " Thex said as a bright energy began to glow from the pendant as it began to hover of the table. A language that Thex and the computer obviously didn't recognize boomed across the room as the mouth of the pendant began to open even wider as water began to pour from it's mouth.

“Uh, Computer, erect level three forcefield around this compartment, and erect a level 10 forcefield around that artifact please,” Paris fairly barked as the recently reformed artifact activated itself, and began breaking the laws of physics. “Any idea how it’s doing this all by itself, Chief?”

"I guess it must have the ability to produce water and something we did must have activated it. I'm guessing it was Artemis’ bow and someone must have swapped it out. Most likely to annoy Hera." Thex said as she began to use the computer to look through the words that had been on the object’s surface.

The computer had come up with something one of the words matched something in the database. As she brought it up she let out a slight gulp. The words was a title of a goddess from Celtic myth. ”Fideal, a goddess of fresh water, swamps, and bogs. Well, that explains the color of the water that's pouring out. It may be an artifact belonging to a Celtic water goddess." Thex said as the water continued to build behind the shield.

“Good to know. I wonder how much pressure it can build up before we have problems. Okay, so inscriptions around the side, computer is working on that translation, we’ve got forcefields in place. If we can't figure out how to deactivate it can we disassemble it? Alternatively can we break it down and store it as a pattern in the computer like the replicator does as a temporary solution if this gets out of hand?” Leave it to Rita Paris to be trying to stay one step ahead of the artifact that was wanting to flood the starship.

" It would need a lot of pressure, but seeing we don't know how much water that thing has let's try and find a way to..." Thex began before there was a bang from the shield that started both of them. "Rita, there's a spare phaser in the top drawer of the desk if you don't have one." Thex said calmly as she furiously tapped the scanner, while another bang shook the shield. Through the murky brown water, a pair of red flaming eyes emerged and began staring at them. It banged again causing the shield to shudder.

"And it has a water monster protecting it. Great. " Thex said, now having to scan the monster.

Tapping away at the tricorder, the pioneer of an earlier age fussed with the interface. It wasn't as simple as the old tricorders, with a number of more variable options and screens one could wander down if one was not acquainted with the device particularly well. On the very long list of 'things Rita plans to get around to learning how to do in the modern day', learning to use a modern tricorder was definitely on that list. Right now somehow she was getting a salinity level reading on the water, which was low, unsurprisingly.

"Computer, please reinforce the forcefield around the artifact with a secondary forcefield, also level 10, thank you," Rita could at least do that while she stalled for time and a good idea. "Goddess of bogs. Or that's her in there hammering at the glass, she's attached to the amulet. Okay, so the goal here is that we want to stop it from producing more water and ideally calm the angry-"

THOOM! the impact was borne of the creature swirling about in the water to build up speed before slamming into the wall it wouldn't see yet held it captive, and the first forcefield failed. While the computer could not project a level 10 forcefield inside another, it had used the SFI generators to augment the initial forcefield, then replaced the fallen field fractions of a second after the first had failed. To the human eye, the forcefield seemed to ripple slightly, yet was contiguous.

Fortunately for Rita Paris, the computer knew what she meant, and helped out a bit.

"Computer layer two more forcefields there..." Rita muttered, still trying to make sense of her tricorder.

" I don't think that's her or else she would probably have just walked out of the shield. Normal ones can't stop Hera." Thex said as the results began to come through. Whatever was in their forcfeild seemed to be a horiffice mix of horse,fish and dragon and judging the increased bagging it was getting very angry.

A horrific gargled voice echoed through the room as, to the andorian's horror, the artifact flashed as the shields shut down leaving for a brief moment hanging in the air before with a furious crash fell flooding the room. The andorian was knocked back her nose, and mouth filled with the muddy water as she struggled to the surface. Her head broke as she gasped for air. " Rita?????" She screamed as she looked around for her friend even forgetting about the horse monster that was now loose in the room.

Swept away by the crashing wave of bog water, the Commander ran her fingers through her short blonde hair to get it out of her eyes"Worst time to check up on experiment ever! Seal this room, alert security, activate the emergency medGLARBLE!"

As the First Officer began barking orders, the smelly peat-infused bog water splashed up in a wave to take her off her feet, the slimy water even overcoming her sure-footed explorer's boots of a bygone age. As she fell, the commander struck her side on that desk the chief engineer had mentioned, and she scrabbled to hold onto it as the two glowing eyes rose up behind her.

The andorian still coughing up the water noticed the stream of bubbles and jumped down to grab her friend. Pulling the woman up she dragged her away from the glowing eyes and the now visible fin that had emerged from the water. " Sorry about all this. " She said as she dragged the two of them into a corner as the fin started circling the room.

Those were broken ribs, Rita Recognized as she felt them grind against one another, and the compartment was still flooding. Coughing up water that had gotten into her lungs hurt like crazy, and it was getting herd to keep her footing as the murky awful smelling water swirled about them. Pulling herself to her feet to orient herself, the outtatime officer scrambled for that desk console with the phaser in it- not entirely sure what she was going to do with it, but at least on wide dispersal beam she might be able to lower the water level.


Thex had never thought she'd die like this. Being killed by a Scottish bog monster from legends in the engineering testing room had been the last thing she'd think would happen. As she reached around in the water for anything she could use her hands fixed around something. It felt so familiar, yet she knew it couldn't be it. It was locked in it's box with the other pieces. Pulling up her hand her eyes were fixed on the bracelet from the armor.

How the hell was it here?

Never mind she thought as the fin began to charge towards the two of them. Slapping it on her wrist she screamed the word " Protect." at the top of her voice. The armor materialized around her as she stepped in front of Rita talking the full force of the beast that slammed her into the wall cashing the wall to dent. " Okay, beast let see how you can fight." She said bringing up her right hand in a hook causing it to go flying across the room into the bank of computer consoles.

Seeing the legendary armor come into play made Rita Paris somewhat suspicious- somehow she wondered if one crisis had been engineered so that another of the legendary artifacts would be called upon. Were they also based on faith and belief, she wondered? At this stage she could see Security working outside the forcefield, which she hoped wasn't going to release any time soon. A flood in Engineering wasn't going to do the components any good. For now, she'd hunt that phaser while Thex went toe to toe with... whatever this was.

Thex couldn't help, but smile as she pulled the now screaming horse monster from the water and pushed it right in the face. It spat hot bile at her as it struggled to break free hitting her with its head, arms, and tail. Though she could feel herself moving it's blow barely got through her armor. " Not getting through me are you?" She yelled at the monster.

" Ah woond't dae 'at if Ah waur ye." Said a voice that combined with something tapping on her shoulder made Thex look up. Squatting on what was left of the bench was someone who shouldn't have been there. With long ginger hair, freckles and blue eyes the woman clad in fur and leather who was holding a spear to Thex throat looking like someone you didn't want to mess with. " Mah sister doesnae loch it when fowk hurt 'er pets an' aam sure ye dornt want tae tak' it's place."

Which was when Rita Paris finally found that phaser, managed to turn it on and point it at the figure on the table, bouncing a heavy stun setting off it like water droplets. "Well, that probably isn't good..."

The figure turned her head and gave a mischief grin at Rita. " Noo yoo're a brae a body arenae ye lass. if ye value yoo're mukker yoo'll nae dae 'at again. Noo whaur is that norse snake fa stole mah sisters device?" She said calmly still keeping the spear at Thex' neck.

“Norse snake?” Rita grunted, trying to focus through the pain all while fighting to one-handed retain her footing. Plus while this was a language and dialect of her own planet, it was a bit thick, and the universal translator wasn’t doing diddly to compensate. “What, the oroborous? Or are you another one of those… uhn! Folks with an axe to grind against Loki?”

" Och aye 'at dobber seduced mah sister, stole 'er tech an' left 'er Heartbroken oan th' fluir." The ginger replied

" Well, we don't know where Loki is we found the necklace in jar claiming to be the bow of bow of Artemis." Thex said still trying to hold the struggling beast. The ginger woman seemed to look hard at both of them. Slowly she lowered the spear away from Thex " Lae them they arenae workin' fur heem." She barked at the beast which growled at her, but did seem to relax in the Andorian arms. It spat something at her which turned out to be said necklace which was still spewing water.

" Noo hoo dae ye.. thaur we gang. " She said as she fiddled with the device before with a slight flash it the water appred to reverse and withdraw inside the necklace. The beast appred to dissolve as well, but not before hissing at Rira and Thex. "

" Sorry abit heem. Each-uisge arenae th' most bricht ay creatures. " The stranger said as the water drained from the room.

“Well, as long as he’s not trying to kill us that’s a bonus. So we’re good here, then? Argument resolved?” Rita Paris grimaced, hoping that this was going actually going to resolve this simply. “Anything we can do for you other than tossing your amulet in the room should we encounter Loki?”

" Weel i'll be takin' thes wi' me." The ginger goddess replied as she held up the amulet. " But ye tois clearly didne ken whit it was sae Ah hink we can lit thes slide. i'll lit mah sister ken ye foond it fur 'er. She'll probably grant ye somethin' as a reward."

" Well, that's a relief." Thex said as she walked over to help Rita.

“Not sure if that’s the word I’d use,” the injured first officer replied, uniform dripping with stinking muck. Leaning on the engineer, the lost navigator grumbled. “Magic… see, this is why I don’t really enjoy dealing with magic… before you know it you are dealing with some ancient grudge from someone with an accent so thick you need a carving knife to understand who’s mad at someone you don’t even know.”

The godess laughed at Rita remark with a smile on he face. " Yer a funay a lass. ken ye hae a pal in Flidais godess Ay th' hunt. If ye see loki can ye kick heem in th' nuts fur me?" She said before with a flash of light vanished from the room.

" I can remember when my life didn't have god popping in and out of it." Thex said as she supported her friend. " I think we need to get you to sickbay and i need a word with Hera. I need to find out where she got these artifacts."

“No argument here,” the feisty first officer grumbled. “Loki can definitely count on that kick in the bisquits if I ever see him...”

" Indeed." Thex repsonded as she hobled off with her freind allowing her team to start cleaning up the mess that had been created.






 

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