To: , ,
        , ,
        , "JustKenning"
        
From: "Jay  P Hailey" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com


Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile
Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey{at}yahoo.com) Series: MISC - TNG OCs
COdes: None
Part: 144/335(?)
Rating:[PG]
Archive: Fine with me, just tell me where. Disclaimer: Paramount owns all
things Star Trek.  I claim Original Characters and Situations for me.
Webpage HTTP://www.phoenixinn.iwarp.com/jayphailey

The Defiant
by
Jay P. Hailey
And
The Star Trek Players

The rest of the Defiant was similarly horrific. In some places it was
deceptively normal, except for the black soot around the air vents. In
other places the bloodshed was incredibly violent, with the dead heaped on
top of each other as they died.

In one place they found some one who was not in a Starfleet uniform. He was
wearing some other sort of uniform. His tricorder identified him as an
Orion.

"What is a dead Orion doing on the Defiant?" Baker asked. No one
had any answer. Dr. Smith identified the weapon used. It was a standard
Starfleet medical probe. The Orion had been stabbed with it repeatedly.

The Defiant seemed to sway drunkenly. The artificial gravity was weakening
as the emergency batteries ran down. In some area there was no light, and
all the lights seemed to flicker. All this served to reinforce the image of
a ghost ship even more.

The crew arrived at the main computer core, buried deeply within the saucer
shaped primary hull. As they approached they could hear a voice. It was
shouting. They ran to find out what it was. The main computer core on the
Defiant was also the auxiliary bridge. There the First Officer of the
Defiant had tried to make his last stand. He was dead but his last log
entry played on a repeating basis.

"You've got to warn them! Warn them all! The Shadows! They're
coming... Aaaaiiiigghh!" He looked off screen and screamed. The screen
flickered. He was back at the beginning, shouting his warning.

"Can we shut that off?" Baker yelled over the repeating image.

"Yes, Sir!" Tandala moved to the master control console and found
another alien device attached to it. It was a baroque device, whose
decorations and details obscured it's true function. Tandala linked her
tricorder with the damaged main computer and shut the recording off and
then scanned the device.

"Lieutenant Commander, it looks like you've got it in hand, here, Sir.
Shall we get down to Engineering?" Birdy said.

"Yes. Please get on that." Baker said. "Be careful."

"Aye, Sir." Birdy said.

-*-

The Engineering section of the Defiant was in her cigar shaped secondary
hull. Birdy knew that he and his team had a long hike ahead of them to get
there. Fortunately since it was vital area of the ship, there would be
plenty of routes available.

As they walked along the curved corridors, they encountered scene after
scene of mass violence. Mixed in with the bodies of Starfleet crewmen were
the odd alien and civilian looking person.

"Take a look at this, Birdy." Silvia said.

"What is it?" Birdy said. He sounded a little distant. It was
hard to focus standing in and among so many dead bodies.

"This guy isn't wearing any uniform that I recognize, but..." She
pointed a man whose skull had been cracked open with a large pipe wrench.
His clothing was a dark gray jump suit with a blue sash on the shoulders.
She was pointing to a pin on the left side of his chest. It was the
characteristic Starfleet arrowhead, only turned on its side, and it trailed
a dark triangle behind it, rather than an oval or a rectangle like their
own Starfleet badges.

Birdy absently fingered his own badge. Was that a Starfleet Officer from
another time frame? How long had they been crawling around this ship,
anyway? Birdy decided that it would be safer not to think about it until he
absolutely had to.

"Not our problem Lieutenant. Let's keep moving." He said.

"Aye, Sir." Silvia waiting until they rest of the party had
turned and then she took the unfortunate man's pin off and slid it into her
tool kit. She thought it would make an interesting souvenir. "And
besides, that poor shmuck isn't going to need it any more."

-*-

"It's some sort of universal interface." Tandala said.

"Is that how they got the last log entry playing?" Baker asked.

"I guess so." Tandala said.

"Will it interfere with our mission?" Crystara asked.

"Probably not. I bet it would help a lot if we could figure out how to
work it." Tandala said.

"I'll enter the prefix codes and see if we can get the Main computer
banks opened up." Baker said. He went to the captain's chair and keyed
in the code. Now the Defiant was an open book.

Tandala ran a diagnostic program. "The Computer system has been
damaged and many files have been scrambled." She announced. "I'll
have to download what I can and hope that we can reconstruct some of it
back at the station."

"Go ahead." Baker said. "I wonder what the First Officer
meant by Shadows?"

"Perhaps he was referring to phantoms of his own mind." Crystara
said. "The interphase effect can cause hallucinations as well as
paranoia and psychosis."

"The Dreamtime is filled with Shadows." Tandala said.

"The Dreamtime?" Baker asked.

"It's a sort of metaphor for the subconscious, the spirit realm and
the unknown, all at once." Tandala explained.

"And it is filled with shadows?" Crystara said.

"Remember when I said that I sing places to make them more real?"
Tandala said. "Until it is sung, a place is unknown, it is part of the
Dreamtime. Anything can be there. In our myths, shadows are creatures of
the dream time. They can have any shape or none. They thrive on the chaos
of the dream time. They hate us because when we sing a place then it is
another place where the shadows can't go."

"Does this remind you of the Dreamtime?" Baker asked. He didn't
know whether to take Tandala seriously or not.

"No. But isn't that the point?" She grinned.

A shout interrupted them It sounded muffled and far away. They looked to
the door to see who was shouting. Baker suddenly felt very stupid. He sent
his two security people away with Birdy and Sylvia because they had farther
to go inside the derelict than he and his team did. That meant little.
Baker, Tandala and Crystara were going to have to wait just as long inside
the ship to get their jobs done.

The voice resolved itself and a figure came into view. He appeared as if
out of a thick fog. In thin air right in front of the startled explorers.
He was wearing an old Starfleet uniform, but not as old as the ones the
crew of the Defiant were wearing.

The man was gibbering until he caught a glimpse of Baker and then he
snarled. He leapt for Baker. Baker met the charge and turned it into a
martial arts throw. Another voice appeared behind him. "Uh oh."
Baker thought.

He turned to see another raving man in an old Starfleet uniform running at
him. The man grappled with Baker, catching around the throat and squeezing
with insane strength.

Baker's eyes bugged out. He couldn't help it. It hurt more than he thought
it would and the feeling of not being able to breathe was more
uncomfortable than he thought. He twisted and kicked the insane man in the
groin. The man whoofed with the impact and the pain but kept the grip. Then
Dr. Smith crept up behind the insane man and applied a hypospray to his
neck. The man's eyes rolled up and he collapsed to the deck.

The first attacker caught Jonathan Baker and bit him fiercely in the leg.
"Arrrggghh!" Baker yelled. He fell to the deck and the crazed man
started to climb up him, growling.

Dr. Smith applied the hypo to the first attacker's neck and he went limp immediately.

"Thank you." Baker said, breathing heavily. Was he getting out of
shape behind his desk on the station?

"You're welcome." Dr. Smith dropped a small curtsy at him.
"Next time bring more Security. I can't afford to risk my hands saving
you."

Dr. Smith turned and began to administer more drugs to the two figures on the floor.

"Where in the hell did they come from?" Baker said.

"From their uniforms I'd guess that they are members of the Harrier's
away team." Crystara said.

"Thank you. How did they get here? They don't look like they are fifty
years older than when they beamed off the Harrier." Baker said.

Crystara said thoughtfully. "That may be why the life forms that
Lieutenant MacBier scanned were fading in and out. They may be moving in
and out of the interphase."

"Great. Could we get caught there?"

"I could not say, really."

"Why don't you help Tandala. The quicker we finish up and leave, the
better I'll feel." Baker said. He turned to Dr. Smith. "What
about these two guys?"

"What about these two guys?" Dr. Smith asked.

"Do you think we can rescue them?" Baker asked.

"I have given them a short term sedative and a dosage of the treatment
for the interphase induced insanity. If they are capable of being rational
once they wake up, then we might be able to rescue them." Dr. Smith
said.

"Okay, well do the best you can." Baker said.


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