Explanations

Posted on Thu Dec 30th, 2010 @ 9:02pm by Lieutenant Lianna Vanders & Captain Benjamin Byrne & Lieutenant Chihiro Ogino MD & Provisional Lieutenant Commander Narayn Ballard
Edited on on Sun Jan 9th, 2011 @ 8:48pm

Mission: Bug-Eyed Bogies
Location: Near Deck 2
Timeline: MD07 1112hrs

Li and the rest of the officers moved toward deck 2. "We're almost there. We've sealed off the Bridge and Deck Two. That's where most of us ended up after they got aboard."

"Give me a report, Lieutenant," Benjamin said, thankful for the respite from the insects. "What happened to that distress call you responded to?"

She spoke, "When we arrived, the freighter was dead in space. So I sent an away team on-board. We lost contact. So, I sent another away team on-board using the shuttles. This one more heavily armed." Li explained. "Everything was quiet for the first few moments, then we discovered that the entire ship was swarming with those things. We fought our way back to the shuttles and got back to the Endeavour." Li stated.

"I take it you made certain that the appropriate safety protocols were in place?" Benjamin said, his voice a mixture of the tone he uses for orders and the tone one might expect to accompany an accusation. From what he knew of her service record, he doubted that Lianna would be careless enough to bring one of the bugs back with her, let alone the numbers that they'd seen so far, but if she had then he was certain that she would find herself off the ship and out of Starfleet faster than you could say James T. Kirk.

"What I didn't know was that their larvae managed to get on-board the shuttles. They hatched, spread out, and started eating, mating, and growing. These things are damned deadly, and untraceable on the sensors. We've tried several ways to kill them, but they keep on multiplying faster than we can kill them. We've lost damn near a third of the crew, the rest are holed up with us up here, and some down in the Deck Nine aft lounge. Others have holed up in several of the cargo holds." Li explained. "We're being killed off Captain, section by section. When you found me, I had lost four men trying to get to the medical supplies in sickbay."

"Why haven't you been able to lock them down into sections?" Benjamin asked. She knew as well as he that every starship was equipped with a variety of methods for containing intruders, and that the ship was also programmed with a variety of pesticides in the ventilation systems to prevent an infestation of ants or flies. Using the internal systems combined, there should have been no problem in eliminating the insectoids without loss of life past the initial wave.

Li spoke, "Without a way to scan them, we won't know what will kill them. We've tried everything to contain this. Every time we erect a force field, they go after the power conduits when they begin getting warm." She made her way toward the makeshift infirmary. "And the way they eat is horrific. They don't chew you up, they inject you with some mix of digestive enzymes that break you down on the inside, then they suck it all up." She moved the sheet off a deceased crewman, he appeared completely mummified. "Nothing but skin and bones."

Li made her way across the deck. "We're almost at our breaking point here. I was contemplating ordering the crew to the escape pods, then blowing the core. But we have no way of trying to keep the larvae off the escape pods without the internal sensors."

=A= Ogino to Bryne. We're in sickbay Captain. But its a right mess, looks like those bug things decided to use this place as some sort of storage area. Several crewmen are stuck to the walls in some sort of green glue, but they're hardly alive. If we can capture one of these bugs and get it to sickbay I may be able to find a way to exterminate them, or at the very least disable them so we can get them off the ship =A= Chihiro explained over the comm system as she started to help the crewmen off the walls.

"Grab what you need and move to the secondary science labs on deck eight," Benjamin ordered, tapping his badge. "Sickbay is a hot spot, you'll be cannon fodder if you stay there, especially if they've already established themselves. Grab whatever gear and equipment that would be useful and make sure it isn't going to be a liability for you in the corridors."

Li spoke, "Captain, a word?" She asked.

Nodding, Ben turned towards Narayn and gave the simple nod that all military men with combat experience knew meant to simply watch their backs until he was sorted and done.

The intelligence officer winked and as they turned their backs he found himself shaking his head. A combat situation was no time for a private pow-wow. Anything that needed to be said could be said in open forum.

She lead him to a private place to talk. "Sir, with all due respect. I did not loose the ship. I've done everything right." She mentioned. "This is not my fault sir, how was I supposed to know the freighter had a unknown species we've never encountered before on it. I don't know what the pacifists in the Federation think of me, but I kept this crew alive, and I'm going to make sure they stay alive."

"We haven't lost the ship, and I'll be damned if I hear anyone even mention that again," Benjamin replied. As any good captain would be, he always felt the urge to fiercely protect his ship, and would never hear of any thoughts of abandonning it until it was the very last option left in the universe. "You did your duty, Lieutenant, and you followed protocol. There's no fault in that - but protocol and regulations can't stop everything. Now it's just up to us to find out what these aliens are, and get them off this ship."

"Is that so? From the tone of your voice, it seems like I've failed at something. Let me hear it, I'm a big girl, I can take it. I've been taking it ever since my unit was disbanded." Li stated. "So much for my career in starfleet. I get temporary command of a starship, a Soverign, and it is most likely I'll have to blow this ship to hell to keep this race off a Federation Planet. Even if we survive, Starfleet Command will crucify me. I'll be lucky to get a post on a relay station." She mentioned as she placed her phaser rifle on the side of the corridor and leaned against it.

"You're a big girl?" Benjamin said, his voice carrying a mixed tone of annoyance and stress that had been hightened by having this conversation in this situation. "Then shut up and listen to this. I don't give a damn about your last unit. I don't care what reservations you think Starfleet has in you or your abilities. All I care about is whether you are going to be able to do the job I've given you to do. If you can't do that; fight beside me and have confidence in our ability to get through this, then you're relieved, and I'll find someone else who can."

Li was distracted by something. "Dammit! They're up to something, I can feel them."

"Your answer, Lieutenant?" Benjamin asked, lifting his rifle up, ready to lower it into the 'ready' firing position, whilst keeping his eyes on the officer in front of him.

Li grabbed her rifle, "Lets squish some bugs!" She said, giving him his answer.

"Much as I love to be the third wheel in this little chattykin," Ballard offered, "there's something moving behind this bulkhead. I can hear it moving. It's a sort of faint rattling."

Li spoke, "SHHH!!!" She closed her eyes for a moment, focusing on her telepathy. Trying to locate where they were coming from.

Benjamin meanwhile had to strain and use his ears, rifle trained at the wall, moving along as the creature behind it stayed in motion. Eventually the sound stopped, and the three officers stood, frozen and silent, their rifles trained at the bulkhead. With a sudden smash, the bulkhead panel - one used to cover the maintenance access hatch - flew across the corridor, slamming into the other wall as the giant insectoid half-climbed, half-flew out of the aperture. Benjamin's rifle opened up immediately, slamming five rounds into the creature's central mass.

Ballard swung the muzzle of his rifle to face the opposite bulkhead as the hulking frame of another insectoid came flying through the bulkhead. The pulse of his rifle mangled the abdomen of the alien as it shot towards him. Its innards pasted the wall of the corridor but yet it still came at them. He ducked as it swiped desperately at his head before he forced the rifle's muzzle into the bottom of what he assumed was the alien's chin, firing it into the insect's head.

"Come on!" Ballard shouted over the squeals of the fallen insectoids, "We need to keep moving. I might not know much about these things but I'm pretty sure they're not going to kick back with a cup of tea and wait for us to go to them."

"Agreed, let's go!" Byrne responded, leading the small group down the corridor.

---------------------
Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Lianna Vanders
Chief Tactical/Security Officer

Lieutenant Chihiro Ogino
Chief Medical Officer

Chief Narayn Ballard
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Endeavour NCC-86105