Episode3: Hide and Seek

Joint Post by Yaroslav Ivanko, Frank Peterson, Rhys Stubbs and K'Rene

|Sector Command Department
|Sector Commander's Ready Room
|0909hrs - 24 days since the arrival of Ivanko

Admiral Ivanko sat at the head of the table, with Colonel Stubbs wandering around, awaiting the arrival of Captain K'Rene and Commodore Peterson. The pair had been waiting for about ten minutes and already, Stubbs was getting on Ivanko's nerves, much like Commander Hawk did. The Admiral's Ready Room had changed a little since Dixon last occupied it; the desk remained in the same place, but the room had become slightly more decorated with several display stands showcasing some of the Admiral's most prized collections of antiques and weapons. Taking pride of place behind the Admiral's desk atop of a stand in front of the window, was a Klingon Bat'leth along with several other ceremonial weapons from various cultures.

The set of sofas along with the coffee table that Dixon had in the larger 'lounge' section of the room to the right of his desk, had been dispense with and replaced by a large silver table with black glass edging and LCARS interfaces. Surrounding the table were six large chairs which bore resemblance to the Captain's Chairs on Sovereign Class Starships.

The Admiral was sat quietly reading through one of his novels whilst he waited, listening to Stubbs mutter the lyrics of songs to himself, pacing the room and looking at Yaroslav's collection.

"They're taking their time, aren't they?" piped up the Colonel, getting quite bored of singing a 'Time goes by...'.

"Is it impossible for you to sit and stay quiet for fifteen minutes?" said the Admiral in a cold manner, he was really not in the mood for Stubbs persistant annoyances.

"I'm hyperactive, sir. I've gotta be doing something all the time otherwise I get really.."

"Annoying." finished the Admiral, firing a look at the Colonel.

"Yeah."

"I would never have guessed. How did you get so high ranking?" quizzed Yaroslav with a slightly puzzled, but equally annoyed tone.

"I earned it, taken thirty five years. And skill. One of the best pilots..."

"Yes, yes. You've said that a number of times, and personally, I don't like stuck up, self righteous, egotistical officers such as your self. You're only here because you're good at your job and, believe it or not, sometimes are quite sensible in your imput. Now sit down, shut down and don't annoy me any more." sighed Ivanko, laying the paperback book on the table and taking his glasses off to clean them.

"Yes sir." Stubbs said simply, moving to the chair but-one to the Admiral's left and taking a PADD from the centre of the desk, noticing the glare of Ivanko then signalling that he was just going to read it.

Quickly skimming over the details, it became at least a little clear why the Admiral was in such a grouchy mood. Almost one hundred officers over the past three months had just simply vanished, one day they had turned up for shift, the next they had ceased to exist and hadn't turned up since. There was no log of any of the officers ever leaving the station. It also seemed, that the disappearances had increased since the dinner two weeks ago, with a significant portion coming from around a shuttle bay which its only occupants in the last seven months had been some of the shuttles that had transported some of envoys the other week. Why it had taken this long for anyone to realise, was beyond the Colonel.

“Colonel, in fact, you're dismissed. I'll see you later. I'm tired of you, now leave. Go piss someone else off!” snapped the Admiral whacking Stubbs' hand, which had involuntarily begun drumming on the table, with his cane. Stubbs frowned as he rubbed his hand. He looked at the Admiral, who had turned a shade of scarlet before picking up the PADD, slipping it into his pocket and making his way to the door.

“Leave it here.” called the Admiral.

“No. I've had a thought.” said Stubbs with defiance, exiting the Ready Room.

“Colonel!” shouted Yaroslav but to no avail. The Colonel was walking along a very thin sheet of ice with the Admiral. Picking up his novel, the Admiral began to read once more in an effort to calm down, only to be interrupted by Commander Mitchell over the Comm.

=/\= “Captain K'Rene and Commodore Peterson have arrived, sir.” =/\= echoed the voice.

=/\= “Send tsem in.” =/\=

K'Rene was fuming. She had a pretty good idea what this was about, and was fairly certain that she would be blamed, as the disappearances had first being noticed under her watch.

But she knew it was not her fault. She was not in charge of Security here, and Federation rules regarding reporting in were so lax it would have been foolish to start a panic until Peterson returned, in merely to elimate the officers he'd taken on his natlh mission from the missing.

Once she had been aware of it, she had reported it to both Peterson and Ivanko, but she was certain the blame would rest on her.

And she wasn't entirely sure they were wrong.

Breathing deeply (experience had taught her it was a bad plan to have her temper too close to the surface with this Admiral), She stood to attention.

"Captain K'Rene, reporting as requested."

K'Rene was fuming. She had a pretty good idea what this was about, and was fairly certain that she would be blamed, as the disappearances had first being noticed under her watch.

But she knew it was not her fault. She was not in charge of Security here, and Federation rules regarding reporting in were so lax it would have been foolish to start a panic until Peterson returned, in merely to elimate the officers he'd taken on his natlh mission from the missing.

Once she had been aware of it, she had reported it to both Peterson and Ivanko, but she was certain the blame would rest on her.

And she wasn't entirely sure they were wrong.

Breathing deeply (experience had taught her it was a bad plan to have her temper too close to the surface with this Admiral), She stood to attention.

"Captain K'Rene, reporting as requested."

|USS Vesuvius
|Frank's Quarters
|0913hrs

Frank struggles to get his uniform on while Sarah Yukov keeps trying to take it off. "Hey! Come on now, do you know how much trouble I can get if I don't get...over there!" he said as he slips out of her arms.

"Awww come on! It's been what...three weeks since we had any time alone?" she said.

"We do have time alone, they're called nights." he told her.

She crossed her arms as she spun around and went to get her clothes on. "I'm talking about a whole day, a single day!"

Frank sighed, shaking his head. "Stubborn woman." he said as he finished putting on his uniform and straightens it out. "Look, we're both Starfleet Officers, I'm a dam Commodore. You know full well that a relationship would be difficult."

Sarah sighed heavily, "I know. Just wish we had some more time together." she said, looking at him. "You're a Commodore...I'm sure you can make more time." as she walked over to him, pressing her bare chest against his.

Frank sighed heavily, "I can...but it's difficult during time of War. Besides, the Phoenix is almost done...I'm sure we can have more time once we take her out." he told her.

Sarah nodded, "Has anyone else found out?" she asked as she pulled away and put the rest of her uniform on.

"No, the Chief has done a great job in keeping the ship hidden. It's like our own ghost but undetectable. I hope it stays that way for as long as it can." he said as he headed for the door. "Come on, you can come with me as my assistant, but no more."

She faced him with a smile on her face and paced over to him, wrapping her arm around his. "It's a date!"

Frank sighed, "It's a job. Now stop acting like that, act more professional, will you?" he asked her.

"I can't help it...I finally got what I want." she stuck her tongue out at him.

Frank shook his head then headed out of the room with her at his side, her arms at her sides.

|Sector Command Department
|Sector Commander's Ready Room
|0938hrs

It took a while but Frank and Sarah were finally at the door, and Frank hit the chime only to wait for the 'Enter'.

When it came, Frank stepped in with Sarah behind him, seeing K'Rene standing at attention. Frank raised a brow at her, "At ease Captain." he said as he headed over to a chair and sat down in it, Sarah sitting down in one next to him.

"I apologize for any lateness, Admiral. This is Commander Sarah Yukov, and she's going to be my temporary assistant, even though she should be on the Vesuvius, since she is the Executive Officer there." he said, glaring at her, and she just gave him a quick hidden wink.

Frank rolled his eyes and smiled at her before looking back at the Admiral. "So, what's up?" he asked

"I wouldn't push your luck Commodore, I'll just dismiss you, I already have done so wiz Colonel Stubbs and I will do so again if necessary," Ivanko spoke, his anger from earlier present as he remained engrossed with the reading of his novel.

Yaroslav finally acknowledged the fact he had a meeting to lead, peering over the top of the book, he looked Yukov up and down, she was definately the Commodore's assistant all right, and by the last name, very likely to be of russian decent, Ukrainian names tended to be -iv rather than -ov, which was more russian . Right now though, there were more pressing issues to deal with, he would remind Peterson about fraternisation later. Clearing his throat, the Admiral set his book on the table.

He took the top PADD from the middle of the desk and slid them around to K'Rene and Peterson; there wasn't enough for everyone around the table since Stubbs had defied Ivanko and taken the fourth one.

"Sorry Commander Yukov, zer isn't enough for us all. You'll have to share wiz tse Commodore." he said with a hint of disdain. He wasn't Russia's biggest lover.

"Before we discuss ze matter, no one will be pointing fingers at each udder. Understood?" he stated loudly and clearly, looking at each of the people around the table.

If K'Rene had been human, she would have sighed with relief. As it was, she simply said, "Crystal sir."

Frank shrugged his shoulders, "I didn't know I was pushing my luck." he said before he got up to sit down around the table.

Sarah just smiled politely to the Admiral, "It is perfectly fine, sir, I can stand." while she ignored the joke...if it was a joke...that the Admiral had said about 'sharing' the chair with Frank.

Frank then looked at the Admiral, thinking for a moment. "Depends on what it is but I understand perfectly."

Ivanko eyed Peterson dangerously, his temper was fragile enough as it is, and the 'happy go-lucky' attitude of the Commodore grated on him, it's not a bit of wonder that Dixon thought very highly of him. Nathan clearly had a soft spot for him, helping him go from Lieutenant to Commodore in twelve years – Dixon, in Ivanko's opinion was too attached to his crew, and whilst so was Ivanko in some ways, there was a line.

With everyone seemingly comfortably sat around the table, glancing over the PADDs which Rosenburg had drafted, Ivanko poured himself a glass of water, then, leaning ever so slightly forward in an imposing posture, the Admiral spoke.

“We have a troubling matter. I'm sure zat bose of you are aware zat we're almost one hundred crewmen down since a few munts ago, during tse reign of Dixon. I'm not sure how an issue like zis has stayed in tse shadows for so very long, but I'm telling you now; we're going to find out what is going on, and fast.” he said, his voice quiet, serious and aggressive, his looks focus directed more at Peterson than K'Rene for the simple fact they are mainly the Commodore's crew that have been going missing.

“I feel somewhat of an idiot myself, since I didn't take a second moment to consider what had happened to your former Executive, Commodore, but all of us should be taking a more tsorough view of tse goings on wizin tse station instead of going on unnecessary 'patrols' which could easily be fulfilled be Taskforce ships,” the Admiral continued, with a degree of scepticism on patrols but he didn't look at anyone in particular. He had been made aware various Quartermasters that supplies have been loaded onto the Vesuvius and not come back, with no log of where they went as per procedure. Ivanko wasn't going to confront the matter, however, since he had no hard evidence of misconduct.

The Admiral scratched his chin thoughtfully in much the same fashion that Admiral Dixon did when he gave lectures and didn't want anybody else to speak at that point. Taking another drink, Yaroslav continued, tapping at the desk to bring up a holographic 3D structural model of the station in yellow, and red dots where people had last been identified by the computer as being 'aboard' the station.

“As you can see, ze less concentrated grouping of disappearances seem to be focused around tse Command areas of Archangel – it is zose tsat should have been picked up first, tsey are tse ones zat took place before ze dinner,” said Yaroslav, he was slowly getting increasingly more frustrated with his accent and his inability to pronounce 'th' correctly – this was evident through the gradually increase in volume and tempo of his voice. He would just completely miss the words out if he didn't know that it wouldn't make sense.

He pointed to the slightly more random, but more densely concentrated area of red dots ranging from the middle of the station, right through to the stations generators.

“Tsese began appearing after said dinner and have gradually gotten more frequent, wiz tse highest number taking place around Auxiliary Shuttlebay-D. I've already taken liberty and posted guards around tsat area, but to no avail; a look and a scan of it also came up negative.” the Admiral stopped, allowing for K'Rene, Peterson and the russian to divulge the information and discuss the matter.

K'Rene shrugged. "Arkangel is a port, people come and go pretty much as they please. If you recall our chief medic vanished for nearly a week just before your arrival" She ground her teeth. she was still annoyed about that.

"I can agree that this is almost certainly linked to the dinner, as there have been no similar disappearances on IKS Gorkon. Colonel K'mtar has offered extra help if we need it, but I would not recommend taking it up until we have no other option." She didn't expand on that. The Admiral had served with Klingons, he understood.

"An interesting feature is that none of the missing are what you would expect. That is to say, no one in security or anything along that line. The Commander was the highest ranking officer, but even that's unusual as one would expect a member of the Admiral's team to be targeted."

She shook her head. "What I'm trying to say is I think we can rule out assassination or sabotage of a particular person or ship as the motive. It could still be terrorism, but it's not focused."

Peterson listened to the Vice Admiral carefully and understood that the man was onto something, or at least onto him, by the constant glares he received from the man. 'I guess that is what you get when you don't trust each other', Peterson thought.

Peterson then turned his head to K'Rene, listening to her explanations, then he would speak up to add onto it.

"It is possible that there has been, maybe, an accident in Auxiliary Shuttle-D, but you know how crewmen are...if they make such accident, they would be afraid of being thrown off the station so maybe they're trying to repair the damage. I know you'd say why, this hasn't come to me or to you or to any of the Command Staff, but all I can say is, they're doing a good job in keeping it a secret, but not good enough. And depending on the damage, it could take days...weeks to repair. I personally would send our Chief Engineer and Chief of Operations down to investigate to see what is going on." Peterson stated.

"Of course...if it is..." Peterson leaned forward, as if trying to conceal something from any 'hidden' cameras if from local terrorists. "If there are terrorists on the station, and if they are gathering there...then we would need someone to go under cover for us, someone who...has a great deal of trouble in Starfleet yet still managed to work their way up." Frank suggested to the Admiral.

"I also could ask the Vesuvius to run a deep, thorough scan in that general location." Frank said.

Commander Yukov then spoke up, "But, I am sorry, just I know the Vesuvius well since I been the Executive for a long time...but if there are terrorists, and if they have done well in trying to elude and avoid sensors as much as possible, then I doubt the Vesuvius would pick up anything, cause they could have some sort of sensor block in the area." she suggest, only to step back a bit, in case she was out of line.

"It would have to be a some what large accident and over a number of weeks." K'Rene snapped. She was no more eager than Peterson for his pet project to be found out, but the man needed to learn either to keep his mouth shut or at least improve his lies.

"That said, she has a fair point. Sensors on both stations have reported nothing amiss, nor have any of the ships in the invincity noticed anything. It just appears that one moment the crew members are on sensors and the next they aren't. I can come up with about twenty species capable of this, but there have being no reports of any of them in this sector."

Yaroslav nodded in agreement with K'Rene, and strangely, Yukov. If Archangel's sensors, nor the Klingon Outpost's could detect any anomalous readings, then Vesuvius stood no chance. The Vice Admiral listened further to what K'Rene was saying, she seemed to be on roll. The question was probably not who was causing the disappearances, but more likely, what and why.

Ivanko, who was running his finger around in a circle on the table, thought, trying to remember which species were present at the diplomatic meeting that seemed out of the ordinary, that was easier said than done however since there was a considerable number. Setting that thought aside, he spoke.

"What if tsere are two potentially hostile species aboard. Tse patterns implemented before and after ze dinner are very different. And one more question, if we have been boarded, why haven't we detected tsem?" asked the Admiral openly and curiously, his eyes flicking from person to person.

K'Rene shrugged. "The first is possible, but still leaves us with the question of how they got on board. The second..." She shrugged. "it is not hard to alter appearance or readings to fool Federation sensors, Klingons have been doing it for decades. Beyond that..." She sighed. "It grieves me to suggest this, Admiral, but we must not overlook the possibility that they have had help on board."

Peterson just pretended to ignore her snapping. His lies were good enough for anyone, and he won't have a silent bickering in front of the Admiral either. But he listened to the two talk and thought about it for a while.

Peterson then sighed softly, "It's the war." he said before looking up at the Admiral. "How long have we been at war with the Klingons?" he asked, before going straight to another question. "And when exactly did this war with the Dominion and Reptilians start?"

"Either way...to some officers, or even to some crewmen...a war that starts right after another means extended duty hours, less shore leave, less time to see their families or loved ones. So...for those who are on edge, maybe already lost their minds to this war, could of let the enemy on board the station...in hopes to leave the station and return home." Peterson suggested. Now he wasn't lying this time, he was speaking suggestions that would apply to the strange anomalies that the Admiral was showing them.

"But of course, for some of us who don't have families to see anymore, or not allowed to see..." Frank thought about his brothers for a moment. "...or those who are truly loyal to the Federation. There is no reason to commit treason." said Frank.

K'Rene fought to keep her hand away from her dagger, as she replied, she hoped normally. "There is always money. or Power. Men can always be brought."

----End of Part One----

Part Two


Ivanko took careful note of K'Rene's movements, watching her twitch with fury. The level of anger flowing into her voice, being directed at Peterson was surprising; had she been any other species, he would have flicked her with his cane for being insolent and disrespectful, however, the Admiral knew that Klingons only got that way when something was troubling them, or provoked. He would enquire about it later.

In the meantime, he listened to the discussion taking place, the suggestions of the others were quite valid, and maybe accurate, but Yaroslav wasn't convinced that this was the case.

"It is possible, tse suggestions you have bose put forward, but I doubt somewhat. No, I don't tsink any Starfleet officer could commit zemselves to allow sometsing to kill nearly fifty tousand comrades, it is possible I may have to higher praise for officers tsough and biased opinion." spoke the Admiral softly, allowing his deep voice and accent to help diffuse the tension between Peterson and K'Rene, he briefly thought that he may have made an error assigning her as the Commodore's Executive, but it has only been two weeks.

Ivanko rested his elbow on the table, running a finger across his dry lips as he thought. It was quite possible that his opinion of Starfleet officers was incorrect, and he knew it, only he hadn't had the unfortunate distinction of working with traitors, nor had the desire.

"We have overlooked sometring, but what..." he trailed off, looking at the holographic display.

Yaroslav watched as the flags of the Federation, the Klingon Imperial Empire and the Romulan Star Empire went up along the Cargo bay doors, hiding them completely; a table was placed in front of them; the Federation flag separating the Romulan and Klingon ones. Ivanko had a name plate located in front of where he was sitting, with Captain K'Rene to his left and Commodore Peterson to the right. For political reasons, the Klingon delegates (from Gorkon) would be sat next to K'Rene with the Romulans the other side of Peterson. No doubt there'll be a touch of quiet verbal sparring between the other two empires, with the Federation quite literally stuck in the middle.

K'Rene grimaced, remembering the meal. The blood pie had tasted like it had been dead for days, and the blood wine had been synhol.

However very little food had been thrown and despite the poor quality of the drink none had ended on the floor, which with a Romulan and Federation presence was nothing short of miraculous

Her eyes narrowed suddenly.

"Mev!" She yelled, holding up her hand. "I saw something."


Ivanko heard his neck click as it snapped to attention as he looked at K'Rene. He was intrigued by the sudden outburst, but if it was valid, kudos to her.

"What did you see, Captain?" he asked.


"I..."She struggled for the human phrase and decided to try her best.”A shadow without an owner. Just behind Commander Kalrind. It's being a part of her, that's why no one noticed. But as she leans forward for the food, the shadow does not move."

"Sorry, I don't understand?" intoned the Admiral, making what would normally be a statement, a question.


K'Rene pointed again. "There are four shadows, though there are only three people at that table. At first, I thought it was a trick of the light, but here," She pointed, "This is my shadow, as I am speaking to you. Colonel K'tmar's shadow is to the left, as he drinks his..." She was uncertain of what the beverage had been meant to be. "Drink. Captain Stren is consulting his pad, and is leaning away from the light, so his shadow is not present. That still leaves two shadows, both of which should belong to Commander Kalrind, but as she leans forward..." She trailed off

"Forgive me, what shape was tse shadow...or do you not know?" inquired the Admiral, his eyes glancing over to Peterson who was leaning forward.


K'Rene shrugged. "It looks; this will sound crazy, like a human dog, but with six legs"


The Admiral's eyes lit up; there was one species present at that dinner that had several sub-groups, one of which was a spider like creature about the size of a dog, with six legs.

"Are you sure you saw what you saw, Captain?" the Admiral quizzed, knowing that the Lodrians, when dormant and inactive could project images into people’s heads using telepathy. He personally had not dealt with them, nor ever wanted to, but he'd read the reports from Admiral Dixon's encounters - one of only four Captain's to survive an encounter with them.


K'Rene nodded slowly.

"As sure as I can be, Admiral.”


The Admiral paused, tapping his communicator.

=/\= "Commander Mitchell, enforce a twenty-five tousand metre quarantine around tse station. No ships may enter or leave until furrzzer notice." =/\=

=/\= "Aye sir." =/\= came the reply.

"If we have Lodrians aboard, we have a big problem." stated the Admiral, a touch of fear in his voice.


K'Rene nodded. "But it would explain why Gorkon has been unaffected. Lodrians cannot use Klingon bodies to reproduce. Our immune system attacks too quickly."

She paused. "The question is now that we know what we are up against, how do we stop it?"


"We're going to ha..." Ivanko started, being interrupted by Stubbs.

=/\= "Umm...we have a minor issue, down here." =/\= came the voice of the Colonel, the master of understatement.

K'Rene bit down on her lip, as she hit her comm. badge.

=/\="what sort of issue?"=/\= she demanded, remembering Stubbs's slightly liberal interpretation of minor.

=/\= "We have two cloak..." =/\= the response was overshadowed by numerous screeches and roars followed by the sound of phaser fire.
The voice of the Colonel shouting 'Run like fuck' managed to get through before the line went dead.

K'Rene hit her comm. badge before anyone could speak.

=/\="Captain K'Rene to Gorkon. We have a report of a federation vessel being attacked by two cloaked ships. Possibly Lodrain. Please scan and aid!"=/\=

Ivanko looked around, wondering why the Colonel aboard Gorkon hadn't responded. He frowned as he looked around the room.

Noticing that the LCARS terminal had gone black.

=/\="Colonel Stubbs. Respond"=/\= K'Rene barked.

She snarled. "baQa’! Stex assured me the engineering problems were fixed!"


"A problem..." the Admiral trailed, nodding to the LCARS console.

Ivanko got up from his chair and limped to the window, watching as the normally stationary view of the shipyards and Outpost Gorkon was slowly drifting to the right.

"Captain. Commodore. Commander. I believe tse term, 'take arms' may be appropriate."

K'Rene didn’t' hesitate. There was a phaser on her belt, and the makings of a disruptor under her baldric. With in an instant, she stood crouched in an attack position

Ivanko moved over to the desk, dismounting his Bat'leth, fastening a leather strap to it and slinging it over his shoulder. He tossed a Phaser rifle from beneath his desk to Peterson, a hand phaser to Yukov then slung over across his own back, a Klingon rifle.

The emergency power kicked in, automatically opening all the doors except for the entrances to the Sector Control department, which automatically sealed shut.

The face of Mitchell appeared around the door, Rifle in hand.

"Commander, everyone. We have been boarded and must take arms. The fight will be glorius." he called, in the style of a Klingon, nodding to K'Rene to lift up a section of carpet beneath which a Jefferies access hatch lay.

"Turbolifts will be out wiz no power. We must use tse Stations maintenance tunnels." he said simply.

The grate opened without much trouble, and K'Rene held up her hand.

"Admiral, it would be best if I go first. Klingons tend to be less affected by telepathy and it is hard for the Lodrians to attack me."

Also, she thought, but did not say, I have no problems shooting to kill

"I don't tsink we'll be in danger yet, but if you would prefer honourable K'Rene..." he nodded.

"As much as I hate Stubbs, I hope he's alive," the Admiral heard himself say what he was thinking before looking at Commander Mitchell.

"Sir, allow me to come with you." requested the young Commander, but the Admiral shook his head.

"I need you to stay here and defend tse department." Yaroslav said

Ivanko looked at the others.

"Commodore, you and Yukov are to head to tse CIC, get a message to all nearby ships and inform tsem of tse situation. You can do whatever you feel necessary afterwards," he looked at K'Rene, she had the look of a warrior about her, something which he had always admired in Klingons.

"K'Rene and I will set up checkpoints and determine how bad tsings are before..."

he trailed off, he knew the Captain understood what was coming next, thus he didn't need to say it.

K'Rene nodded, and slowly dropped into the tube.

the darkness was all around her, making her think of the stories of her childhood. Of Shadowheart. She smiled to herself. if you see a demon in the shadow, then it is that person's day to die.
but she could see nothing. No demons, no spiders and no other Lodrians.

"Clear." She called up, slowly moving forward.


With K'Rene taking point, and indicating it was safe, Ivanko instructed the Commodore and Commander to follow, once they did, he clambered down the tube shutting the hatch and sealing it. He fumbled around in the dark looking for glow sticks and torches which he found in a little cubby hole.

Ivanko dropped the pack down to K'Rene.

"Hand tsem out," he instructed, before proceeding down the tube until the junction where Peterson and Yukov would depart.

K'Rene didn't bother pointing out that as a Klingon she was used to operating in low light levels. Instead, she handed one each to Peterson and Yuksov and one to Commander Mitchell.

she moved forward and secured the final one to the admiral's Bat'leth holder.

"better to have our hands free." She said, softly."

"Quite," the Admiral said, shuffling on his knee to face the Commodore and his 'assistant'.

"Good luck, Frank. Remember, if you get spiked...setting eight should do it. Quick and painless." he nodded, shaking the Commodore's hand. "You too Commander." he added.

Ivanko watched as the two officers crawled into the darkness, the beams of light dancing off the cold, dust filled air.

He turned to K'Rene, smiling meekly.

"My back is going to regret tsis in ze mornin," he said, pointing to the tubes at which the pair were going to have to crawl through.

"Let's move."

TAG OPEN

|Bridge, EDF Voxi
|0935 Hours

Relations between Ishan and Starfleet had been better recently. He had developed a rapport with Commodore Peterson and felt that as a result tension had dropped. He didn’t even mind the dozen or so Starfleet engineer teams that littered his ship at the moment.

In all fairness the dinner was an icebreaker between himself, Holan and the other species that he supposed would he would be getting to know better whilst they stayed in the Alpha Quadrant. He hadn’t spoke directly to Admiral Ivanko but had seen and understood how busy an occasion such as that would be. Ishan himself had been in that position many times, and he always hated it.

Walking onto the bridge he looked around at the smooth operation that had almost become a boring routine in recent weeks.

“Anything new Holan?” he asked, already knowing the answer would be no.

“Nothing sir. Not even… hold on.” She said pausing, “Sir the stations power grid has just failed… it seems they are operating on emergency power only.”

“What caused this?” Ishan asked.

“Unknown sir, I’m patching in some communications from before the loss of power.”

They listened as various communiqués overlapped each other, but what was heard was loud and clear. The Archangel had been infiltrated by an unknown number of Lodrians. This was a species that even Ishan had not come across.

“From what I can gather sir, it seemed there are a lot of them. We appear to be unable to register them on the sensors. They seemed to make a clicking noises… that’s all I can get.”

“Is our airlock still open?” Ishan asked ushering himself down into his command pit, which was a lower part of the bridge with a table with holographic technology built in, surrounded by information and tactical consoles.

“Yes General.”

“Well close it! Seal it!” he yelled in an almost angered tone.

“Done sir, but it they want to get through it they can. Starfleet technology is easy to circumvent.” Holan responded from her station, across the table from Ishan.

“I am aware of this Holan, can we break free of the station?” he asked.

“With them having lost power that’s not a possibility. They need to release their seal from us in order for us to safely break off. Only solution I see is firing on the docking clamps, but that’ll damage us both.”

“How much damage?”

“Minimal for them sir, but we’ll suffer a big jolt from the kickback of pressure.”

Ishan stood and thought for a moment, “Prepare the pulse beam, make it as accurate as possible to try and minimise damage to us both, we'll deal with our damage when its important. When we’re free put a bit of distance between us and the station, from there we’ll discuss sending in our security teams to help aide them.” Ishan replied.

“You’re wanting to risk our people for theirs?” Holan looked up at him with bewilderment. “That’s very unlike you sir.”

“I’ve got a soft spot for these children Holan, don’t hold it against me. Now pay attention and prepare the pulse beam.” He ordered.

|Holodeck 3
|Starbase Archangel
|0930 -0938hrs

"Yes honey, I know. I've got everything packed. I should be leaving next week. It'll take a while but I'm sure you can handle being Chief of Ops without me around," Laura said, her hologram flickering somewhat. Adelle frowned at the flickering but dismissed it, there could be a number of reasons for it not least of which solar flares.

"Are you positive you have absolutely everything? What about your transport, who are you going to be traveling with?" Adelle fretted.

"Adelle, calm yourself. Just because we are at war does not mean everyone is a spy or trying to kill us," Laura said, shaking her head.

"Yeah, that's what they want you to think. Besides, am I not allowed to be worried about you? You know I'd never forgive myself if you got hurt because of this transfer," Adelle replied.

Adelle frowned a little as the hologram of her lover flickered even more.

"Laura, what's going on on your end?" Adelle inquired, trying to figure out what could be harming the connection in such a way.

"Nothing. It's all clear here in the Taurus Reach. You know, now that the Klingons and everyone else are chilling out with fighting over this bit of space," Laura answered, her brows furrowed. She watched as on her end the hologram of her lover also flickered, but much more badly than on Adelle's end.

"Something is happening..." Adelle muttered. She stalked to the console near the door and typed in a few commands. She narrowed her eyes and slammed her fist on the top of the console.

"This cannot be right..." she said.

"What's going on over there?" asked Laura, wishing she could see the console that Adelle was looking at.

"Talk to me, what's happening?" Laura asked. The hair on the back of Adelle's neck rose as Laura's hologram walked forward.

"We're being attacked. Look, Laura you have to--" Adelle began before the power grid failed and the connection to Starbase Vanguard was cut before she could finish what she had to say. Laura pounded on the console on her end, trying to get the connection back.

"ADELLE!" she shouted. There was no answer.

Adelle sighed as her night vision kicked in just before the emergency power could kick on. She turned towards the door to exit the holodeck.

"Oh for fuck's sake!" she shouted as she pounded on the door as it refused to open. She swore to herself and berated herself for not bringing a torch with her.

She tapped on her COMMbadge, figuring she might as well try it.

=/\=This is Commander Adelle Dagmar. Anyone out there?=/\= she called out. She groaned as she got no answer. Luckily with the power failing, the holodeck had destroyed the illusion of being on a forested planet.

Her gaze swept through the quiet and dark holodeck. She finally caught sight of a small grate.

"I guess the best thing to do is to try to get the hell out of here," she muttered. She opened the grate easily then slid her way inside of the tunnel. She grabbed at her phaser and set it to stun only. She could not just assume that no one else thought of traveling by the tunnels.

She knew most of the station by then, but knew she did not know the entire maintenance tunnel layout. She silently thanked her parents once again for having such foresight as to give her such advantages as night vision.

|Center of Ops Department
|Starbase Archangel
|0949 hours

She finally crawled out of the shaft into the main operations center. She held up a hand as those in the room turned with phasers raised.

"Calm down," she said.

"What do we have going for us?" she demanded.

"We still can't get main power to kick back in. We're running on emergency power for now. We should be able to run for about 12 hours on it, depending on what all we use," a young perky blond reported in.

"Alright. Well, let's see if we can get into contact with Ivanko and Peterson," she said.

"No go, we already tried it. Communications are firmly down," the blond answered with a shake of her head.

"Mo chreach!" Adelle swore angrily, slamming her hand on the wall nearby. The force of her punch caused the metal wall to dimple. Those around her winced at the sound of the metal crumpling.

"Alright, alright. Let's stay here in case they find their way here. I need you guys to take shifts covering all of the entrances including the maintenance tunnels. We have no fucking clue what is going on but keep your phasers on stun. We don't want to give the Admiral a heart attack if he finds his way here," Adelle ordered.

The two dozen people around her quickly went to follow orders.

"Those who are not watching the entrances I need you to work on getting the station's main power back. We can't work on emergency or auxiliary power for long," Adelle said.

"Aye sir!" the men and women barked out.

Adelle went to a nearby console to work on it herself.

Tag: Open

Joint Post between Ivanko and K'Rene

|Jeffrey's tube off Center of Ops Department
|Starbase Archangel
|0955 hours

"Clear," Ivanko said, briefly glancing down each of the tunnels at the junction. There was a clunk as K'Rene dropped down behind him. Yaroslav shone his light at the arches of the junction, deciphering the numerals referencing current location, and tunnel end point.

The faint echoes of gunfire further into the bowels of Archangel reverberated around the junction. Barely audible, but there.

"Left. Or right." asked the Admiral, turning back around to look at the Captain behind, lowering his weapon. He squinted as he did, trying to ignore the glare of the single red bulb above, and the one in the tube behind K'Rene.

K'Rene paused, listening. She could hear clanks and bangs around the corridor, but she knew her first duty was to protect her leader.

"Right." She said, quietly.

The Admiral had heard her, but something had caught his eye, a silhouette in the shadows. Something small. It was only there only for a split second.

He leaned past the Captain, raising his gun and flashlight, edging closer to the tunnel opening.

K'Rene didn't think, she reacted. She fired, a quick motion.

There was a sound like a wounded animal, and she fired again.

Ivanko felt the heat from the disruptor bolt passing close to his head. He was thankful that the Klingon was a good shot.

"Dead." K'Rene said, triumphantly.

"Cover me." he said, handing her his rifle and upholstering his hand phaser.

K'Rene easily loaded the disruptor and aimed it into the darkness.

The Admiral began his crawl into the tunnel which he'd seen, and K'Rene subsequently shot something. The journey took a few moments as he clambered over the bars of horizontal ladder to find exactly what the Captain had killed.

Her eyes searching, and trying very hard not dwell on the stories of Shadowheart, of demons lurking in the shadows.

There, lying half cooked from the disruptor bolt, was one of the 'spider' groups of the Lodrian species. He looked towards the red bulb, seeing if there were anymore.

The shadows were still.

There was none. Turning back around, Ivanko headed back out of the tube, pulling himself upright on a handrail.

"Lodrian. A spider. Don't expect killing tse uzzers to be so easy," he said, taking back his rifle.

K'Rene shrugged. "Everything dies if you throw enough fire power at it. And we are both armed with bladed weapons."

She sighed. "But I agree we were lucky. That there is only one."

"Must have gotten separated, reading Dixon's reports on tse species, tse spiders always attack in swarms. We should move," the Admiral replied softly, nudging his gun in the direction of the right tunnel.

K'Rene nodded.

She moved forward, her eyes searching the shadows. They were still, but she was aware of the sense of danger.

Suddenly a scent hit her nostrils, almost forcing her to gag.

A repulsive scent of death.

"Admiral. Come closer," she muttered, her stomach rising through to her throat.

The smell of rotting flesh filled the Admiral's nostrils as the duo approached the next junction.

"Yes. I smell it." said Ivanko, breathing through his mouth to avoid vomiting.

The light from the glow stick illuminated a sickening sight.

The mutilated, rotting corpse of what must have once been a human.

K'Rene moved closer, fighting against the smell to examine the face.

"Ensign Horatio Hamlet. Missing for four weeks."

Ivanko crawled out of the tunnel, watching K'Rene chuck a flare in the direction of the stench.

He lowered his body, checking first the tunnel she was heading for, then the others.

"Since before I arrived?" asked the Admiral, lowering his rifle after determining the area safe. He flipped up a panel to reveal a small lever, which he then worked repeatedly to real the tube they had come from.

"Yeah." K'Rene sighed. "But, Sir, I suspect he has been dead since he disappeared. From what Nathan, Admiral Dixon, used to say they act like wasps. Kill and then implant the larvae. That may be why we only found one spider." She paused, and added. "It also means this route will be safe. No creature fouls its own nest."

Continuing to resist the urge to throw up, Ivanko crawled into the space to look over the body himself.

There were no visible signs of an exit for a parasitic lifeform, such as the Lodrian, but then, there wasn't much of a body in the first place.

Pulling out his tricorder from a back pocket, Yaroslav scanned the body.

There were no distinguishable traces of other life on the body, or contact with another. But that didn't necessarily mean much since lodrians don't show up on sensors.

K'Rene spoke, softly. "Once, during the war, we found a ship. It was adrift, no discernable lifesigns."

She swallowed "Two security teams beamed over, in case it was a trap. They found a body. Still warm.”

There was one interesting feature though, a very precise, clean bite by something with many sharp teeth.

“So of course they took it back, so see if the medical officer could save him or at least tell them what killed them." She swallowed. "The body was on the transporter platform when it...spilt open."

She swallowed, her stomach turning more than ever at the memory. "This creature emerged from the young human's stomach. It spun around and started to eat him, it was honestly the most disgusting thing anyone there had seen."

Ivanko was listening, but didn't acknowledge, he beckoned the Captain to look at the bite.

She moved forward, carefully stepping around the body. "Thankfully we had a good transporter chief. He transported the body and the creature into space. And we destroyed the ship."

"I can imagine. Admiral Dixon's logs from tse Andromeda Galaxy when tse Lodrians attacked the Vendetta, were...disturbing. Look at tse bite. Lodrians don't have numerous sharp teese, zey have mandibles."

K'Rene glanced. "So there is something else on board. But the Lodrians don't work with anyone. They're like the Borg, they just take over other species."

"Indeed," the Admiral said, he twisted around to look at the hatch he'd just closed. There was a gentle tap, followed by a bang. Then another. Then a third. He watched motionless as K'Rene turned, watching dents beginning to appear.

"Come on. Close tse hatch behind you."

K'Rene nodded, pulling the hatch closed, her eyes scanned the darkness ahead, as Ivanko moved forward. She trusted him, but she did not want to serve under Peterson more than she already did.

Ivanko turned back around, quickly took aim at the dead Ensign and fired, vaporizing the body.

Ivanko made the sign of the cross before moving quickly down the tunnel.

The banging continued as the two officers reaching more junctions, closing more hatches as they left the tubes.

K'Rene snorted. "They get marks for persistence, if nothing else."

By the fifth junction, Ivanko's age was catching him. He chuckled a little at the Captain's comment.

He could feel his back aching more than it had done in sometime. The adrenaline had kept him going for the most part.

But enough crawling around was enough, the Admiral finally admitted defeat.

"I'm too old to be doing this sort of tsing," he said breathless, pressing himself against a corner to catch his breath.

"Good for tse soul, not for everytsing else,"

K'Rene paused. "We could try the corridors. They would wider, and the lighting might make it easier to see them before they see us."

The Admiral nodded, standing up as tall as he could, he looked at the wall to see where exactly they were.

Level 254.

"Yes, would certainly help my back." he smiled softly in the dim light.

"Ladies first." he uttered, nodding to the ladder and hatch above.

K'Rene climbed up and punched the hatch open.

Suddenly there was a sound of a phaser being cocked.

"Identify yourself!" A voice demanded.

K'Rene snarled, turning to face, her threatener, a young human male in the uniform of a Lieutenant.

"Captain K'Rene. Executive officer of this station and you would be?!"

"Sorry, sir. Lieutenant James Hawkins." replied the Lieutenant, stammering and shaking as he lowering the rifle and helping K'Rene out.

The Admiral meanwhile was getting slightly nervous, the last bang of one of the hatches they'd closed sounded a bit too close for his liking.

K'Rene reached down and pulled him up.

The banging of another hatch giving way echoed as he kicked the hatch down.

"Dyakuyu"

K'Rene raised an eyebrow. "Is that a curse?"

The Admiral managed to put his weight on his good leg, as he looked at K'Rene, shaking his head.

"No. It means 'tsank you' in my native tongue." he said quietly, pressing his remaining weight on his rifle so that he could stand.

"What's going on?" inquired Hawkins.

K'Rene spun around. "What is going on, Lieutenant is that our ship and our station are under attack!" which should be obvious to anyone with a brain, was implied. "What are you doing here anyway?" She asked, suddenly realizing that there was no one in the corridor but them.

"I was just strolling along when the power cut out. I heard gun fire so I armed myself, then you two pop up." explained the Lieutenant in as quick a fashion as possible.

"K'Rene, grab some power packs," said the Admiral, nodding to the open arms locker near the door. Ivanko looked at the Lieutenant, grabbing the shaking boys arm.

K'Rene did as she was ordered, her eyes never leaving the boys.

His eyes said that he spoke the truth, but they knew nothing of how the Lodrians processed their victims. He could be a host at that very second and not know it until the creature burst forth from him.

Turning back, she froze.


"Look at me. We've been boarded, you're going to come with us. We'll stand a better chance as a group, zan as individu..." Ivanko paused as he noticed his shadow vanish then reappear.

Something in the air had changed, the hairs on Yaroslav's neck stood on end as a cold sweat began to form on him. He didn't want to turn around, but slowly, he looked over his shoulder.

There was nothing there, at least, not now.

K'Rene didn't think, she acted. Her disruptor was set on full and she fired.


"What is it Captain?" he said, literally a second before she fired off a few shots into the darkness.

Spinning around, the Admiral pulled his rifle to his shoulder, looking down the barrel.

"Lieutenant, get tse door open!" hissed Ivanko, slowly stepping backwards so that he stood adjacent to the Klingon.

"It's locked..."

"Try tse manual release,"

K'Rene spotted what ever it was again in the darkness. She turned and fired at the door.

"Now it's open."

The Admiral grabbed one of the power packs from K'Rene's belt, and tossed it just beneath the light.

He nodded to the Captain to keep her gun trained on the power pack.

Suddenly, the eerie silence was shattered by the sound of claws and bone supporting something heavy, clanging off the metal floor.

K'Rene glanced at him.

"Now?"

"Wait for it..." the Admiral said, his finger firmly on the trigger, ready to fire.

The shimmering, black exoskeleton of two Lodrian 'Warriors' appeared from the darkness, running towards the trio.

"Now!"

K'Rene fired.

The Admiral opened fire, his finger repeatedly bouncing off the trigger unleashing a flurry of green bolts hitting the enemies squarely.

The two lodrians were tossed into the wall as the power pack detonated from K'Rene's shot, stunning them for a few moments.

Able to see them, K'Rene fired, hitting them squarely in the abdomen several times.

"Run!" ordered the Admiral, turning around and running down the corridor, the Captain and the Lieutenant following.

The Admiral quickly reached another door, sealed again, this time it was a blast door. There was no getting through here. He turned around to lay down some covering fire as the two intruders regained awareness and began running angrily down the corridor in pursuit.

"Admiral, I retract my position. The tubes would be safer." K'Rene said, laying down more fire and nodding towards the hatch.

Ivanko had already thought of this and took aim at the hatch leading to more tubes.

The disruptor began to flash, indicating it was almost out of power. Cursing in Ukrainian, the Admiral pulled out his hand phaser.

K'Rene snarled. "Go. I will cover you."

It was one of the reasons Klingons preferred disruptors. They took longer to run out of power.

Plus all Klingons carried weapons that didn't need power.

"Get in. I'll seal tse hatch!" he commanded, firing high powered phaser beams at the approached.

Carefully, she unsheaved one of her daggers and flung it, hitting one of the creatures squarely in the chest.

He considered himself expendable, he had two younger officers to protect.

"Captain!"

"You first, Admiral. Peterson in charge of this sector."

She shook her head. "It does not bare contemplation."

This was no time for an argument, he complied, diving into the tunnel, leaving his rifle deliberately at the entrance as the Lieutenant and K'Rene followed.

"Shoot tse rifle."

K'Rene did as she was ordered.

The rifle exploded, sealing the hatch.

All three leant against the wall, panting (though K'Rene would deny it if asked)

Slowly, she turned to the admiral. "I was wrong. I failed to take into account that the differences in size of the space would lead to differences in the predators. That mistake could have killed us."

"Don't mention it Captain, I'm as much to blame," said Ivanko, placing his hand on the Captain's shoulder.

"What was that!" exclaimed the Lieutenant.

"A Lodrian." K'Rene said, checking her weapon. She was glad to have got rid of that knife, the balance had never been right, but it had been a gift from her uncle, she was obliged to keep it. "A warrior, though I would hesitate to use that term for honourless Petq such as them."

Ivanko sighed, his breath almost back.

"I don't tsink we're going to manage getting to tse Marine's alone." Ivanko said, realizing that none of the group had checked the tunnel before entering.

K'Rene watched the thoughts, before saying "It's clear. And I agree."

He looked around, it seemed a little more light than the other one, it was clear. It least for now.

"The El Aurian ship is only 8 decks further down, sir."

Ivanko looked at the Lieutenant. The only problem was, was that Ivanko knew there were no connecting tunnels to the airlocks, or corridors surrounding them.

K'Rene thought this too.

"Which way is the ship, point?" She asked.

"That way. We're on the east side of the station, the El Aurian ship is on the west." the Lieutenant pointed roughly in the direction of the centre of the station.

"Lieutenant, tse station is tree miles across."

K'Rene closed her eyes, summoning up all the numerous diagrams of the ship she'd memorized before coming on board, aimed her disruptor a little to the left and pointed.

The wall spilt open, revealing a narrow passage way.

"Emergency escape tubes. Used to be standard part, but hardly used these days. Hope no one Clausaphobic."

The Admiral looked into the newly formed hole. It seemed safe enough.

Yaroslav squeezed into the narrow passage way, which was high enough for to stand straight in.

There was one downside, the passage was in pitch-black.

Flicking on his lamp again, the Admiral removed his Bat'Leth, ready for some close quarter combat.

K'Rene removed her own weapon and remembering the Lieutenant (who was looking decidedly green), handed him a melth.

"You do know how to use one of these?"

"Can't be anymore difficult than a phaser," the Lieutenant said, unaware of how ignorant he sounded.

K'Rene growled, but decided to stop.

"If something comes at you, hit with the sharp side" She added under breath. "I'm sure even a human can do that."

"S..." the Lieutenant was about to answer the Captain back for being patronizing, but thought the better of it.

"Yes, sir," he replied.

Ivanko sighed quietly to himself, his mood lightened slightly as he remembered his own time aboard a Klingon ship, and just how blunt they can be.

"I'll go first." K'Rene said, stepping into the darkness. "Lieutenant, bring up the rear."

She stepped forward, peering into the blackness. The corridor was worse than the tube, as the tube had at least had some lighting in it.

But this time, her instincts told her that, for the moment, they were safe.

Soon after stepping into the passage, the Admiral swapped places with Lieutenant, although, K'Rene wanted to protect him, the Admiral didn't feel the Lieutenant had the experience to defend himself adequately, so took his place.

"I wonder how everyone else is managing." asked Ivanko quietly.

|Tag Open

|Center of Ops Department
|Starbase Archangel
|0955 hours

Adelle grunted as she slammed the hilt of her phaser onto the electronic lock keeping her out of her own damn locker. Sparks burst from the lock but she kept going until the whole thing popped off. Duotronic cables hung from the gaping hole that her actions left.

"About fucking time..." she muttered. She put her phaser back on her belt then rummaged into the locker. She found her retractable shock sword and smiled to herself.

"Hello my baby," she said. She kissed the hilt of the sword then attached it to her belt. She then crouched down to open the bag at the bottom of the locker. She rummaged inside before removing a hyperspanner, a plasma torch, a tricorder, a laser welder, and a micro-optic drill.

"Alrighty then," she said. She attached everything to her belt, happy to have all of her proper tools on her waist. She then put her locker back together, doing it quickly and easily.

"Sir!" a young lieutenant called out from his post that involved trying to get the main power back on.

"Aye?" Adelle answered, making her way calmly over to the lad.

"I-I got the lifeform scanner working. There are... things out in the hallways," the lieutenant said. Sweat peppered his forehead as he gazed at his superior.

"What do you mean by 'things', lad?" Adelle asked.

"I don't know. The computer can't register what they are, they do seem to be humanoid-ish though, but... not entirely," the lieutenant answered, wiping his face with his sleeve.

"Alright, well... that tells us something. Not a very helpful something, but something nonetheless," she said.

"Oi!" she called, turning around as she heard a clunk behind her. A young ensign had dropped his phaser thanks to the sweat accumulating on his palms.

"Sorry sir," the ensign said, bending down and scooping up the phaser quickly.

"Alright. I need two of you to help me work on the communications system. We need to get it set up so we can use our combadges again," she said. A young ensign and a lieutenant commander stepped forward.

"Alright, let's get started," she said to them. As one, all three engineers unleashed their spanners and got to work.

Tag: Open

|Deck 100 Docking Bay
|Starbase Archangel
10:00 Hours

The investigation was still ongoing when the power went out. Lia was the last one standing. She had locked up the defiant class vessel to make sure nothing got in it because there were still people aboard. From what she could tell, the Defiant vessel was air-tight and nothing could get into it. As far as she knew the occupants of that ship were safe. Lia pulled her rank collar off of her naked body and extended her fingers to a form that could bite into the tritanium hull. She climbed the walls and found a corner for a while and simply observed the bay from the several hundred foot tall ceiling corner.


The lights went out but she was a predator amongst predators. The field was level. This was how she hunted, too.


Lia watched as a lone figure scurried through the docking bay. It was a fast creature. From what she could tell as she watched it move, it was serpent like, with dark scales, almost humanoid, but more like a giant ant. It didn’t seem to have eyes but it knew that it wasn’t alone in the room. As Lia stalked it quietly from above, she observed it’s behavior. It seemed primarily instinctual. She wouldn’t kill it yet. For all she knew, it was someone’s pet and had nothing to do with the power outage.

As the dark figure raced on, obviously not liking the idea of being watched and not knowing from where. It was the sure sign of a predator. Lia waited quietly for a few minutes before moving on.

|CiC
|Starbase Archangel
|0955 hours

Frank and Commander Yukov returned to the CiC via Jefferies without encountering anything along the way, for now. Frank would then approach the Strategic table and begin making up a message to send out to all ships. Sending a message via comms may be a bad idea, then again maybe not.

Frank tapped his comm badge, as he wanted to talk to Adelle but for some reason his badge refused. He tapped it again and still no connection. "Dam it." he cursed under his breath.

Now that Comms don't work, it was good that he was making up a message.

It went as,

'All ships are to stay away from Starbase Archangel. The Starbase is under attack and is off limits to all vessels. If you have supplies you need to drop, drop it off at the Gorkon Station, otherwise it is recommended you stay in the area, inside the defensive line, but away from Archangel. If any vessel has the means to send security personnel to assist in halting the enemy invasion, it would be much appreciated.'

Frank would then hit the button, sending the message to all ships, before making another for the Gorkon Station.

'Do not attempt to help us, for many reasons. You may have picked up the message I sent to the other ships, but ignore it. If the Archangel goes down, and is captured by the Lodrians, you have orders to destroy the station. I've already sent a message to the Voxi and other Starfleet Vessels to be prepared to beam all Starfleet personnel off the Archangel, if when I send the signal out for evacuation. I just hope that none of the Starfleet personnel we evacuate are...impregnated. You have your orders, carry them out when the signal is given. I just pray that I never have to send it. Archangel out.'

Suddenly they would be hearing violent bangs against the turbo lift doors, as if someone was trying to force them open. None of is sounded right, so Frank and a few others would approach several emergency weapon lockers on the CiC. Frank took a phaser rifle and tossed a hand phaser to someone, while he powered up his rifle.

Suddenly, one of the turbo lift door jarred open just a bit and a few 'spider' like creatures came out. Frank immediately identified them, a species he researched on before he arrived at the station years ago, just in case they ever encountered them, as they were just as nasty as the borg.

"Shit! All weapons, maximum power, and shoot them now!" He cranked the power setting on his rifle and fired at the first spider, destroying it. Everyone else got to the other spiders before they sprayed their nasty gas into the air.

That was the last thing Frank needed, is to go through blistering pain and possibly blindness. If the spiders were sent in first...both turbo lift doors were ripped open, a couple drones and warriors stepped through.

"Fire!" Frank shouted, aiming his rifle at the first warrior and let off a few bursts into the creature's face until it exploded and the create fell to the floor dead. "Aim for the heads!" Frank shouted. He knew that aiming for heads is inhuman and mostly against the rules of engagement, but these things were very dangerous, and Frank was willing to 'bend' a few rules.

Some plasma bolts sailed through the room, a few slammed into the Strategic table and destroyed it. "God dam it." Frank cursed under his breath, looking at a Ensign. "Activate the silent alarm throughout the station, do it now!" Frank ordered, and the Ensign got to an active console, hitting a few buttons before activating the alarm system.

The Silent Alarm was designed to keep all intruders from knowing, but the main personnel of the station would figure it out either on the walls of the corridors, or on other active consoles. Basically, it be red lights would rapidly flash four or five times, signaling that the CiC had been breached.

Just when Frank was going to tell the Ensign to take cover, since he didn't have a weapon, a few plasma bolts hit the console, destroying it and killing the Ensign in the process. "No!" Frank shouted, and cursed under his breath, "He didn't deserve to die you bastards." he said to himself before looking at the small weapons locker and yanked a photon grenade out.

He quickly looked at some of the Lodrians standing all together, before activating the grenade. "Fire in the hole!" he shouted, waiting just a few more seconds and tossed it towards the group. And because he waited, it didn't give any of the Lodrians a chance to run or throw it back, as the grenade went off and exploded on them.

The only thing they got left now, were a few drones an a couple warriors. But Frank doesn't know if more will come or not.

"I thought they were suppose to hang low!" shouted a Lieutenant. "You know...keep producing until they're ready to take the station over!"

"Why don't you ask them!" Frank shouted back. Frank then leaned out from a corner and fired off several shots into one of the Warriors chest, a few other officers did the same with their rifles or hand phasers until it fell to the floor.

"Wouldn't they have a ship?" asked another officer.

Frank just got a little more frustrated, "Everyone just shut up and kill the dam things, then we'll figure out how they got here and why they're attacking the CiC!" he shouted, finally stopping all the questions.

Sarah would be at his side with her hand phaser, her breathing a bit out of control, obviously nervous. "Jesus...why are they here...?" she asked.

"I thought I told everyone to shut up." he said, talking calmly to her.

"Yes but...these things...they can impregnate us, and keep growing and growing and it may never end." she said.

"It will end!" he told her. "Because if it doesn't, the Gorkon has orders to send this station straight to hell, and take these bastards with them!" he told her.

"That's re-assuring. What about us?" she asked.

"If not impregnated, all Starfleet Personnel will be immediately beamed off the station before the Gorkon and all defense platforms open fire on the station. I just pray we don't have to do it." he told her.

Open Tag

|Corridor near Auxiliary Shuttle Bay D
|0942hrs

Picking up the phaser rifle from the dead Lieutenant - hit by a plasma bolt from the wrists of one of the larger alien invaders - and Rhys spun around, taking pot shots into the darkness, hoping to get lucky. The enemy returned fire, purple balls of energy sparked against the metal walls of the corridor as Stubbs and the remaining three officers retreated.

"Sir, the door's sealed shut," called one of the officers present. The Colonel turned his head to face him whilst keeping the covering fire.

"Look for a jefferies tube - it's our only hope," shouted the Colonel over the roar of the creatures approaching in the darkness, the slow decisive footsteps of them and the constant repetition of plasma and phaser shots leaving their respective weapons and slamming harmlessly into the walls. If anything, the only good thing about the Station's adversaries was that they were awful shots.

"Come on you bastards!" roared Stubbs, pulling out his hand phaser, now dual firing. The Colonel felt something grab his leg. Rhys didn't have time to react when he felt his head hit the cold, hard deck with something trying to pull him in the darkness.

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" he spat, kicking in at thin air until his free foot made contact with what must have been a Lodrian hand. He could feel the claws digging in tighter into his calf, feeling the warmth and wetness of blood trickling down. Several phaser blasts soared overhead, crashing into whatever was pulling the Colonel. It screamed as it released Stubbs from its grasp. Rhys felt a firm hand grab his arm and drag him into the Jefferies Tube.

"Come on you," he heard, slightly dazed from banging his head and the firey pain creeping up his leg. rhys reached idily around the entrance of the hatch, fumbling at a small pouch full of flashlights and glowsticks.

"Here..." trailed the Colonel, them to the person who was dragging him along. Rhys quickly begun to regain his senses, just the pain in his leg. Scrambling to his feet after removing the hand of the officer pulling him a long.

"You sure you're okay?" asked the Marine Captain, snapping one of the glowsticks and letting the light fall on Stubbs leg. It was torn up pretty bad below the knee with a greenish fluid quickly spreading through the blood vessels.

"Yeah, keep an eye on the hatch" said the Colonel, who was unbuckling his belt then strapping it just below the knee as tight as he possibly could.

The roars of the Lodrians echoed down the tunnel, several of the creatures were looking directly at the Colonel's squad, probably figuring out how they could get into the tunnel. It didn't take long. Stubbs snatched a Photon grenade off of the Captain's belt and tossed it down the tunnel.

"Fire in the hole!" he shouted, turning on his knee and scuttling in the opposite direction before diving flat against the deck. The deck shook as the sound of a loud crash resonated through the tunnel as the photon blast tore through the fragile 'plumbing' causing it to collapse and sealing off the entrance.

"We need to get you to sickbay," said the officer in front of the Marine, a Lieutenant Commander of the Science variety, "You don't want that stuff getting too far around your body,".

"Thanks for the update,"

TAG OPEN

Joint Post by Emma Rosenburg and Luke Dragos

|Enlisted Mess Hall, Starbase Archangel
|0900 Hours

It was finally nice to get a morning off, and by that she meant that her morning meeting with Admiral Ivanko was cancelled due to his own Staff meeting. She was still on duty but this gap in her schedule gave her time to get some breakfast. She’d missed it this morning due to her gathering all the data for the Admiral’s meeting.

It had been a week or so since the dinner and it had went pretty well. Emma had sat down at one of the latter tables for people that were not really essential to the proceedings but that was their thanks for helping out and setting things up.

She was in awe at the amount species that had attended the dinner, and she even had the opportunity of talking to the El-Aurian General of the Voxi for a good period of the evening. He seemed a nice enough man, even though he seemed pretty detatched from well 'life'.

For the moment she was in the mess hall, and it was pretty big with a lot of people in there, mostly enlisted crewmen. For some reason she felt more comfortable with them, they were easier to talk too and had more of a personality than most of the officers on the station.

This morning however Emma was sitting alone, her breakfast in front of her and padds to her right. She was pretty content, nice breakfast with a bit of light reading, all that was missing was a bit of company.

Luke entered the mess hall, before taking his stroll of the station. He was promoted only a month or so ago, and he didn't much feel comfortable in the officer's mess just yet. He walked over to the replicator and ordered up his French vanilla cappuccino. He was about to head out the door when someone caught his eye.

He was in here almost every day, except for recently because he's been spending more time with Rhys and in the CIC. He's been trying to become more social, and that's caused a habit to know everyone on the station. So he decided to cancel his morning stroll, and ask to join the new crewmember. She was wearing Ensign pips. I guess I'm not the only one not comfortable in the officer's mess, he thought to himself with a little chuckle.

"Hi there. Mind if I join you this morning?" He asked with a smile, and taking a sip of his drink.

As Emma sipped her orange juice she was approached by another ensign whom she recognised as the Command Chief of the station. He seemed quite a nice person, even though she’d never spoke to him directly before. She heard a lot of things about people as the Admirals assistant, sometimes stuff she didn’t want too, but most of the time it was most interesting.

As he asked to join her she fumbled a little trying to move her padds, “Yeah, sure. I thought I was the only officer that really came down here.” She said raking in her padds. “Sorry about the mess, the Admiral keeps me busy most of the time and I read everything just to try and keep up.” She replied as the man sat down.

“Oh I’m sorry, I totally forgot, I’m Emma Rosenburg. Sometimes I get so caught up trying to do so many things I forget the simpler things…”

Luke pulled out the chair, smiling. "Don't worry. I know what it's like. Although, I'm sure I don't have quite as much work as you do," He commented in a light-hearted manner, extending his hand as he sat. "Luke Dragos."

"I thought I was the only officer that came down here. I was only promoted like, a month or so ago. I mean, this is my second Starfleet career, but mess halls on starships work so differently than they do here. If you're the Admiral's assistant, then you must have come of the Tirpitz... She's a fine ship," he commented before taking another sip of his drink. "Does this mean you have more work now that the Admiral is the sector commander?" He asked curiously.

“Nice to meet you Luke” she said smiling, then listened as he explained that this was his second career in Starfleet, and that he thought he was the only officer that came down to the enlisted mess hall.

“I like coming down here, it’s friendlier, if you know what I mean?” she asked rhetorically. “Yeah I came on the Tirpitz, it’s a nice ship but I rarely saw anything but the inside of my office, or the Admirals office that is. That’s all I do these days is run after him.” She said laughing a little. “So you say this is your second career? You don’t look that old to be starting again?” she asked inquisitively.

"I'm 136 actually," he said with a smile, waiting for the response on her face. "I'm El-Aurian," he concluded. "I was a doctor in my first career. It lasted 72 years before I decided I wanted more out of life. I settled on Earth for about 15 years. I was hoping to find love, but I began getting restless. And so I went back into Starfleet. Oddly, I found love on my first assignment," he rambled on, taking a brief pause to take a drink.

"He was Romulan too, believe it or not. But he was assigned to a different ship when the Vesuvius was stationed here, and we decided we couldn't hold our relationship over long distance. And now I think I'm in love all over again. Anyway...I'm sorry. When I start talking, I kinda don't stop until I'm interrupted..." he said with an awkward smile.

“That’s alright; I’m the same, although mine is more of a nervous habit more than anything.” She replied taking a sip of her orange juice. “I can’t believe I forgot you were El-Aurian, I read that in your Starfleet history too, sometimes I even wonder if I have a memory in my head.” She said laughing slightly.

“I was talking to General Zano, from the Voxi, at the dinner a week or so ago. He’s completely different from what I’d say you are. He seems more closed off and cynical, but I guess that’s because he’s older? I asked him but he refused to tell me...” she said trailing off, “and then kind of walked off on me. Not sure if I insulted him by asking or if he is simply just an angry man…”

As she finished her sentence there was a slight droning noise followed by all lights going off. These were replaced seconds later by the occasional glow of a red emergency light, indicating emergency power.

“What’s going on?!” she said standing up abruptly. “There are no power system diagnostics arranged for today…”

In the background you could hear clicking noises (apparently Lodrians click) and the frantic sounds of crewmen trying to figure out what just happened. However, she was certain that something was wrong, she felt totally uneasy and afraid of what was to come.

Luke quickly shot up out of his seat and went to the console by the replicator. He tried activating it with no success. At the failure, he took off the panel beneath it, and it too was dark. Just then the clicking noises of the Lodrians caught his ear. "Oh no..." He said aloud.

"Ok. Listen up everyone. I need you all to stay calm for the moment. It would appear that we've been boarded. The power throughout the station is off. I'm uh...not exactly sure who's boarded us. But, I need you to stay calm," he addressed the crewman in the mess hall.

"Emma, I'm going to try and make it to one of the fusion reactors. I think I can make it past the Lodrians, if that's who they are. If I can't make it to one of the reactors, I'll either go to the CiC, or the Sector Command Centre. Are you coming with, or would you like to stay here?" He asked, already searching the bar for a hand phaser.

Emma listened to the words of a seasoned man, that being Luke, try to calm the crewman of the lounge down. He was over 100 years old and as such deemed listening too, that and what he was saying was the smartest option of all. He had also tried to work a console with no success.

“I’ll go with you if you don’t mind. I’d rather not stay here doing nothing, If I’m moving around, with my mind occupied then I wont worry as much about the situation at hand.” She finished with a weak smile.

She had never been in a dangerous situation before, with her life in the balance, as well as those around her. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t scared, in truth, she was terrified but strived her hardest to hide that.

|Emergency Access Tube
|1255

Ivanko and the other two officers had been creeping around the bowels of the station for the best part of three hours. Three hours of darkness, silence, nothing.

The trio had remained quiet, only speaking whenever they thought they heard something, or to confirm their location. There was a constant feeling of being watched.

The Admiral could feel the adrenaline pumping around his body, given him strength and maintaining his relative calmness.

"How far from tse Voxi are we?" whispered Yaroslav.

The Lieutenant looked down at his tricorder, quickly interpreting its readings.

"The access hatch onto the deck is 30 metres further along. We'll have to use a corridor for the rest of the journey." replied the officer.

K'Rene growled softly.

"Sir, If the corridors in this section are compromised, and it seems reasonable to suspect they are, the Voxi is also likely to be." She warned.

"We'll just have hope zey aren't," said the Admiral simply. Ivanko had a feeling that the El Aurians would have had enough common sense to disengage the dock, or break free if they could.

K'Rene nodded. "At least," She said, reaching into her baldric, "Let us take precautions this time."

The Admiral nodded, forgetting that K'Rene couldn't actually see him. He peered down at the glowing tricorder, reading the information it was giving out. Not much further.

"All airlock decks are sealed wiz blast doors. Lodrians would need heavy firepower to doors down,"

"That of course rises the question of how we get in." K'Rene muttered, but she was relieved. Less chance of harming innocents this way.

Carefully, she held out what she had been fiddling with in her tunic. "Adorian bomber. Designed to completely stun anything that gets in it's way in an open battle field. In a closed environment..." she let her voice trail off.

"Let's hope it's more effective zan tse phasers -" started the Admiral, being interrupted by the Lieutenant.

"We could hot wire the blastdoors, use a phaser powerpack, they are designed to be compatible with other starfleet equipment with a little jiggery pokery!"

K'Rene rolled her eyes. "Do you wish our Allies to fall victim to these monsters? El Aurians are not Klingons, the beasts can reproduce in them quite willing."

She sighed. "This will clear the corridor, then we can worry about the doors."

She didn't think it was tactful to point out that while Starfleet doors were certainly blast proof, evidence from the last conflict between their people, suggested they were certainly not Klingon proof.

The Lieutenant ignored K'Rene's quip, continuing as if he were naturally progressing from his previous statement.

"If you two can provide cover, and set your bomb to motion detection, I could fiddle with the electronics. It'll be safe enough cos as soon as the power is down again, the doors will seal shut,"

Ivanko hadn't been paying attention however, he was straining his eyes looking around in the pitch black. He couldn't hear, see or smell anything, but there was something around somewhere.

"I tsink we ought to get out of here," he uttered nervously.

K'Rene's instincts were suddenly screaming the same.

She pulled the panel off the door and threw the boomer in.

"Has a three second fuse." She muttered, aimer her distruptor in the direction that her instincts told her their predator was in. "Take cover."

The Admiral and Lieutenant pressed their backs against the wall separating them from the boomer blast.

K'Rene let off a shot into the darkness, at the same moment as the boomer exploded. The blast echoed deafening through the silence, and the shockwaves coming off it made the whole corridor feel like it would collaspe.

K'Rene continued to fire, as the waves hit her, flinging her against the wall.
She blinked stupidly at the darkness for a moment, and then let it claim her.

The Admiral heard the thud of the Captain hitting the wall, sliding to the floor.

"Captain!" he said loudly, rushing to her, whipping out a glowstick and shining it over her unconscious body.

"Lieutenant, do what you have to do," snapped Ivanko, lowering his bat'leth, pressing two of his fingers against the Captain's neck. There was a pulse, she was at least alive. Yaroslav noticed a slither of purple blood trickle down the Klingons head.

Reattaching his bat'leth to its strap, Ivanko pulled the lifeless body of K'Rene up, and slung her over his shoulder. She was heavier than she looked, but he would manage for a short time.

"Yes sir." The Luitentant was honestly too shocked to think. He stepped out into the corridor, his eyes scanning it automatically.

He turned to look at the Admiral.

"Sir, I'll need her phaser."

"You'll need to get it yourself," replied Ivanko, stepping out of the pitch black darkness into the dim red glow of an emergency light. There was definately something odd going on. Ivanko had never known the corridors to be this quiet, or unattended before.

He nodded, and moved over, reaching up to where the phaser lay, clipped to K'Rene's belt.

The Klingon moaned, and her right arm moved, automatically attempting to prevent it, as he rescued it.

He tried not to be worried about the amount of purple blood he saw hanging around. The Admiral was carrying her, so he evidently thought she had a chance.

Slowly, gripping the phaser, James Hawkins moved forward.

There was a eerie clicking noise coming from where the trio had emerged, deep within the darkness, echoeing through the nothingness.

"Get tse door open Lieutenant,"

James Hawkins nodded, carefully rigging the phaser's powercell to the doors, then rapidly rearranging the wires.

The doors opened.

"You first sir."

Ivanko unholstered his own hand disruptor, turning with his back to the door, protecting the Captain somewhat.
Yaroslav walked backwards through the door, checking it once or twice as he did. It was clear.

Hawkins followed through, but something dived on him from out of the black, dropping him face first onto the deck. The Admiral reacted swiftly as the black creature that had dug its claws into the screaming Lieutenant's back opened its mouth and began puncturing him with a large retractible tube from its mouth.

Dumping K'Rene to the floor, he shot the officer once before taking aim at the creature. Shooting several times as he walked slowly towards the door, crouching down whilst still keeping his adversary at bay and snatching the linked up phaser before running to rejoin the Captain.

The blastdoor slowly resealed itself, Ivanko, now alone, having to keep the boarder at bay long enough for the door to seal

Breathing heavily, listening to the Lodrian drone ram itself uselessly into the blastdoor, Yaroslav looked out of the window out onto the Voxi. He had been right, they El Aurian ship's commanding officer did have common sense.

|Tag Open
JP Between K'Rene and Ivanko over MSN

[ 1300
[ Medical, EDF Voxi

Reana paced back and forth on the Medical Deck. She had been there for hours now.

Her mind went back and forth, debating the fortuitous circumstances of her relative safety.

Had she not been so curious about the crew of the Voxi and their culture, she might be stuck out there with whatever is causing all the comotion.

She hadnt been assigned long, so her thoughts turned to the few people she had met. She wondered if people where dying, how many, and of what?

She sat down and began typing into her PADD. She needed to be ready for when this is all over. She expected her office would be fairly busy with grieving friends and lovers and traumatized makeshift soldiers.

Voxi crewmembers continued about their business. In Sickbay, their medical officers appeared to be readying to receive the Archangel’s injured. She looked out a port hole into the quiet hangar bay, hoping to see someone else who might have been lucky enough to make it this far.

|Bridge, EDF Voxi
|1000 Hours

Ishan and Holan were down in the command pit calculating the proper setting and angles to use the pulse beam. They wanted to use as little power as they needed so that they wouldn’t damage them, as well as the station.

“I think that’s the best we’re going to get sir.” Holan said, pushing a datapad across the table.

Ishan looked at this datapad and then his own… they’d come up with the same thing.

“I agree, set up the beam and prepare to break away from the station.”

A few moments passed and Holan nodded to him, looking at the viewscreen he sighed, this could go wrong in so many ways if they were so much as a millimetre off.

“Fire!” he yelled from the command pit, holding onto a handle as he expected quite a jolt.

As the beam fired the ship shook violently as the kickback of pressure from the airlock seal pushed them away. There was a small rumble and one or two sparks flew, but the inside damage was minimal.

“Report?!” Ishan yelled at Holan as the ship began to settle.

“We have hull breaches on decks 210 through 225 around the airlock seal, and a debris impact on decks 176 through 182. Casualties are reported and are heading to the medical bay. Apart from that sir, we’re ok.”

“Great (!), send repair teams and keep me updated.” He replied making way into his office.

|Ishan’s Office, adjacent to the bridge, EDF Voxi
|1300 hours

The door chime rang.

“Enter.” He replied, watching Holan enter. “What is it?” he asked.

“Repairs are coming along, we have 3 confirmed fatalities, and the rest are stable in the medical bay. We are also holding position away from the station.”

“Good, thank you Holan. What’s the status of the Starfleet personnel on the Voxi?”

“They’re fine sir, some injuries amongst them but apart from that nothing is wrong. We even have some Human doctors in medical assisting Doctor Kel.”

“Right, you are dismissed Holan.”

“There is one other thing sir… we have picked up some life signs where our airlock was. A Human male and a Klingon female, with her lifesigns being the faintest.”

“I see… transport them on board, but put them in quarantine in the medical bay until they’ve been cleared by Doctor Kel. I’ve been reading up on these Lodrians, and sometimes they can put their embryos into living people, and I’m not having an infestation on this ship. Not with the size of our crew, and our species being the way it is.” He replied, making his orders very clear.

Holan nodded, saluted and left to carry out his orders.

Tag K’rene, Ivanko and Azyle (just to give you some company in the medical bay)

|Center of Ops Department
|Starbase Archangel
|1000 hours

Adelle sighed a little bit as she wiped some sweat from her face. She had gotten things fixed in the Ops area, but she still had to connect the dots in Main Engineering. That was a trip she was not looking forward to.

"Alright, everyone stick here. I'll take a nice little trip to Engineering. Call me if you need," she said. She waved before making her way into a nearby shaft.

|Tubes near Auxiliary Shuttle Bay D
|1003 hours

Adelle hated the access tubes, hated the whole situation. She slapped her hands on either side of her as the tube she was in rocked. Nay, the entire area around her rocked thanks to an explosion somewhere around her. She had gone a different way than from where Stubbs had thrown his grenade.

When she felt it to be safe enough, she made her way further ahead. Her eyes caught sight of a group of starfleet personnel up ahead.

"Stubbs?!" she called out, barely recognizing the man. "Jesus fucking Christ what is that smell?" she muttered before her gaze swung to Stubbs' leg. Her nose wrinkled a little bit.

"I got communications partly up. I need to finish up the job in Engineering. I need some of you blokes to help me get there. I may be armed to the teeth with tools but only two of them can really help in a battle," she said.

"I think our medical personnel on this heap has been cut off. We can only rely on outer medical. But to do that..." she paused before glancing over her shoulder.

She removed her phaser from her belt then fired behind her.

"To do that we need to convince those not on the base that we're not impregnated by these damn creatures so we can get off," she said once she heard a death cry.

Tag: Stubbs

|Archangel's CiC
|1300 hours

Peterson strolled around the command center, they held back the Lodrians for a while and had managed to seal the turbolift doors with whatever they could use and welded them in place with lower powered phaser beam from a hand phaser.

It should keep them out for a while, all that means is the turbolifts were out of the question, at least they couldn't be used to get to the CiC. So Peterson ordered to shut down turbolift power at the CiC. Basically, anyone wanting to go to CiC will just be directed else where that is closest to it.

Placing his rifle down on the broken strategic table...that was pretty much shattered to pieces in the middle, he looked around to see that some of the officers were being attended.

"Look if they had been attacked by any sort of needles or if anything is attached to them." he said. Suddenly, someone called for him and he walked over. a Ensign did have something attached to him, right to his left leg. Peterson stared at the ensign, and knew that they would not be able to get the man to sickbay in time...

"Step away from him." Peterson said, the other ensign looking puzzled. "I said step away!" Peterson shouted. Sarah approached him from behind, "Frank...what are you doing?" she asked, while the ensign stepped back.

Frank immediately pulled out his hand phaser, setting it to maximum. "I'm sorry." he told the man on the floor before vaporizing him.

"Jesus christ, what the hell was that for?!" Sarah shouted. Frank turned around and could see eyes on him, so he looked back at them directly.

"The ensign was infected, there was no way we could get him to Sickbay, no way at all. If we left him as he was, with little to no medical treatment...more Lodrians would of been born and this CiC would of been infested..."

Frank reset the setting on his phaser before holstering it. "I expect you to do the same for me, and for your comrades here in this Command center. Understood? The only thing you need to be concerned about, is yourselves and the lives of your comrades. My responsibility is to you all, and I have to live with that for the rest of my life. So get the fuck back to work!" he shouted at them, watching them immediately turn away and return to what they were doing.

Frank then looked down at Sarah. "I mean it...if one of those fucking things get attached to me...you better have the guts to kill me." he told her before walking away, going straight to his office, where he would try to find some way to help the others on the station, form a plan...anything....

Open Tag