[Columbia] Infestation (part 3)

Posted on Thu Nov 8th, 2012 @ 2:43pm by Miral Annhwi & Commander Buck Ducati
Edited on on Thu Nov 8th, 2012 @ 2:44pm

1,383 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Enemy Within: Typhon is Missing!
Location: Tiberius IV

[CONTINUED]

[OLD]

"Then you shoot them until they're all dead," she said. Men. She shook her head at Bauer's foolishness, grabbed a phaser and began to shoot anything that escaped the area being strafed.

[NEW]


A low vibration began somewhere deep underground. As it grew stronger, a rumbling roar like that of an engine firing up could be heard, growing steadily louder.

All the remaining spiders scurried back into their holes and disappeared.

Kara shot several more as they retreated.

Peters was pleased that some of the holes were no longer accessible to the buggers. He gleefully shot them as they scampered for other holes.

Bauer began to advance firing at the holes to seal them.

With all the weapons fire, Miral, was drawn to the cavern to find out what was going on. Disruptor in hand, she entered the cavern and stopped, looking at the dozens of spider-like bodies on the ground.

As she examined them, she noticed that many were starting to disintegrate. That was odd. Why would a creature disintegrate and not decompose? She found a tricorder on a box and began to scan the creatures. They weren't flesh and blood, exactly. They were more creatures fabricated to look like they were alive. Inside they were filled with nanites encased in a viscous liquid. The nanites were Borg.

"Everyone, back away from the creatures," she ordered. "Now!" Do not get any of the contents on you."

Bauer back away instantly at the ambassador's warning. "What's wrong now?" he moaned.

"Those creatures are filled with Borg nanites. If you become Borg I will shoot you," she warned coldly.

"Me too." Bauer piped up.

Peters danced backwards. "Oh, crap!"

Kara made sure there were no more spider-like creatures before she turned to Miral. "So how do we make suer none of us are infected?"

Maria, who had come in behind Miral spoke. "We scan you. If you have any on you, we stun you and keep you unconscious until we decide what to do." She took a second tricorder and began to scan the others in the room.

First, she scanned Kara. "You're clean."

Next, she scanned Peters. "You've got splatter."

"Oh he..." Before he could finish, Miral stunned him.

"What about me?" Eamon asked with his phaser aimed at Peters for good measure. His people had never encountered the Borg and so never been known to lose any to Assimilation, to his knowledge and he always keeps in contact with homeworld since his parents reside there. So he was unsure how his body would react to the Borg nanites and hoped he would not find out.

Bauer walked over an inspected the security officer.

"Oh man....this is not good." he replied pausing to read the security officer's expression.

Eamon's eyes widened as he feared the worst.

Bauer laughed and slapped Eamon on the back. "I'm kidding you're good to go sir."

The Inaran's eyes narrowed at Bauer and shoved him backwards. "Don't scare me like that!"

"I wouldn't laugh if I were you," Maria said somberly, scanning Bauer. "I hate to tell you this, but you have a severe case of rectal-cranial inversion. I'm afraid it's terminal."

This made Eamon laugh as he took a few seconds to realise what Maria was referring to.


Miral looked disapprovingly on the antics of the others. "If you are finished, we need to warn the others. I also suggest we incinerate those creatures so no one else gets infected."

"I'll go," Kara said, eager to get away from those creatures. "Besides, I know where they're camped."

Miral nodded. "Be cautious."

"Yes we don't want to lose anyone else!" Eamon warned Kara before turning back to Maria. "I must say your come back to him," he gesture to Bauer, "was legendary."

One side of Maria's mouth twitched up in a grin before she turned to scan the cracks where the creatures had come from. "There's a room behind the rock," she announced. "It's fairly large, too."

"Lets go." Eamon said.

Maria nodded. "Lead on," she said to Eamon. "I think you're better suited to finding a way in."

Kara slipped in behind the other two, fearing that they might need more help than they realized.

Maria, tricorder in hand, followed Eamon down a small tunnel to see if there was an entrance into the room they'd detected. There were a number of side passages that went down a few feet and ended, or shrank to a size that was impassable. Finally, they found one that led behind the rock. "I think this is it," Maria said.

"Let me check it out first," Kara urged, slipping past the other two. "Watch my back," she asked Eamon as she slipped behind a rock.

The small passage opened into another cavern, not as large as the one they'd vacated, but it was twice the height. Her HUD showed her six humanoids. The ceiling of the cavern had something moving, a lot of somethings, but she wasn't sure if they were the spider-like creatures or something else she didn't want to run into. She slipped back to report.

"There are people in there. Six. Could be survivors, could be Borg."

"Why didn't you scan them?" Eamon asked.

"I don't have any point of reference to determine if they're part of the Columbus crew or not. If you'd like to go in and look, go right ahead. I'd rather report to the others and get more Marines involved before we actually go in there. Besides, if there are spiders in there, I don't want them dropping on me."

Miral had been listening to the conversation and walked up to them. "The solution is obvious." She took a phaser and walked into the smaller cavern, ignoring the protests of the others.

Setting it on wide range stun she stunned the people inside. Then she shone a light onto the ceiling where a large number of spider-like creatures waited. Those she fried. When she was done, she turned back to the Marines and Federation personnel. "That is how you deal with the situation. I trust you can manage to go in there now and bring out the humanoids so we can test them for nanites?"

Kara wasn't sure if she admired the woman for her solution or wanted to yell at her for doing something so stupid. She chose to remain silent as the woman was clearly a Romulan Ambassador and she didn't want to start a major incident by calling the woman a fool. "Yes, ma'am," she said, although her tone was not quiet as polite as it should have been.

Miral looked at Kara for a moment as if truly seeing her for the first time. She gave her a small half-smile. "There may be hope for your people yet."

Miral turned and headed back to the larger cavern to inform the others that they found six people who may be infected and to prepare to scan them.

Maria, Kara and Eamon brought out the six stunned humanoids from the back room and lay them on blankets.

Maria quickly scanned them while the medic checked for injuries. Fortunately, all six were uninjured. Unfortunately, all six had been infected.

"That one is Alvar Walder, Federation Diplomat for Starbase Typhon. That one is his aide. That one was on the bridge. The child I do not recognize. Nor do I know the other two," Miral announced, pointing to the various people on the blankets. "I wondered what happened to Mr. Walder." She nodded as if satisfied. "Now, keep them sedated or stunned until we can get them to a proper medical facility."

Miral looked around at the small group. She pointed to Eamon. "You, see if there are more infected personnel farther into the caves. And more of these creatures. We must incapacitate the crew and destroy the creatures. Take whomever you need. I refuse to sit and wait for them to come after when we are quite capable of taking care of ourselves. Now, go!"


OFF

Staff Sergeant Kara Melo
Alpha Platoon Leader
USS Calypso

Corporal Dave Peters
Marine
USS Calypso

Miral Tal'Aura Annhwi
Romulan Ambassador
Starbase Typhon

Ensign Maria Delgado
Science Officer
USS Calypso

Lieutenant Eamon Lynx
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Calypso

Bauer
Marine
USS Calypso

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