The idea for this tiny little snippet came to me one day while at work. It wrote most of it on a 10 minute break on the laptop. Hope this is enjoyed...as much as I enjoyed it's writing...
Star Trek
A Quickie
Lieutenant Surall raised from the extended viewer that resided at the far left of her console. The readings she had been studying from within the Tempest storm region were highly peculiar. Only now was she close to identifying the cause. She turned her slim chair to face the bald-headed commanding officer, Commodore Chevis Ford. “Commodore, I have a more definite fix on the energy emissions.”
“Source?” Ford’s soft voice inquired. He did not look at her, as was often his way, but simply kept looking at the roiling plasma pictured on the main viewer.
“Source is some kind of warp engine, of a design totally unfamiliar to Federation science.”
“And you say it’s closing?”
“Aye, sir. The signature is headed this way at low warp speed.”
Ford stood and approached the forward command positions that stood at either side in front of his command chair. “Helm, all stop. Ops, assist science. Let me know what’s coming our way before it gets a good look at us.”
Both Lieutenant Bronstien and Lieutenant Commander Davenport answered their skipper respectively. The drone of the ship’s impulse drives died away and all hint of forward motion on the main screen stopped. All that moved now was the flowing torrents of ionized matter glowing in reds and blues before the giant Federation ship.
“Something coming out now…” The curly haired chief of operations stated.
The fog of plasma parted at a point far out in the distance and a tiny new shape leapt out at them. It would not have been visible if it weren’t coming to a stop.
“Object slowing to impulse, Commodore.” Called out Surall.
Ford was a cautious man.
“Sound Yellow Alert.”
The Condition Two alarm began to repeat throughout Endeavour, calling again and again through the corridors. Crewmen rushed to their duty stations and guards took up their posts at regular intervals. Yellow panels flashed on various console displays on the bridge.
“All stations report Condition Two status.” Reported Mister Davenport again.
Ford patted the big man on his maroon uniformed arm.
“Thank you, Ron.”
The small image on the main viewer grew till it finally began to take on detail. It had a long, angular brown main body, and was surrounded by a wicked star-pattern of spiked mandible devices of unimaginable purpose. Its fantail was alight with a green glow emitting from two, side by side half-orbs molded into the hull of the thing.
“Weird lookin’ ship.” Ford commented.
“Aye.” Came a bland agreement from the young helmsman.
Surall was again monitoring her main scanner.
“Object is not a starship, Commodore.”
This drew the commodore’s more direct attention. He turned to his science officer.
“Then what the hell is it, Lieutenant?”
Surall’s rapt attention was focussed on the thing centered in her electronic eyes. She manipulated several banks of the lateral array to get a better focus on her quarry. “I believe it is a space borne organism. It is definitely organic, hull compromised of silicon biopolymer. I read an advanced nervous system. There is a central nerve complex, approximately the size of the bridge deck. I’m detecting a circulatory system, with eighteen heart-like chambers. The warp propulsion system is driven by an internal plasmic reaction—“
“Just how big is this thing, Lieutenant?” Ford asked, halting her. The creature was still closing in on his ship.
“477.6 meters, Commodore. Massing over six hundred thousand metric tons.”
Commander Davenport’s brows bobbed as he looked the approaching organism over.
“Big beasty.”
The brown-bodied creature drew to a slow halt in front of Endeavour, its great spines moving out, bristling back and forth. Vibrant red color began to flow over the thing’s body and its mandibles as its engines flared.
“Reading a power build-up from within the creature.” Davenport called out.
Ford glanced back to his weapons officer, Lieutenant Nechayev.
“Shields up, Weps. Just to be sure.”
“Aye, Keptin. Activating deflectors.”
As the CO looked back to the entity on his viewer, the thing’s color patterns began to flux much more quickly. Its spines no longer bristled, now curling in toward its front. The color patterns running down the length of the beast turned pale blue hues. Ford squinted.
“The creature’s biological patterns have altered.” Surall reported. “I am uncertain—“
The creature launched into motion, lurching in at the Endeavour and whipping past the viewer. Ford ducked out of reflex as the vision appeared to soar past his head.
Both Davenport and Bronstien jumped as several on the bridge gasped.
Endeavour rumbled as something struck the ship from aft. Another, more violent strike followed and scraping sounds could be heard from the outer hull. Ford braced himself between the helm and ops chairs and looked back at his XO and science officers at the main sensors station. “What the hell!”
“It’s made contact with the hull!” Commander Banks shouted back in reply. “Shields haven’t stopped it!”
“Its mandibles have wrapped around both our warp nacelles!” Came from the Vulcan.
Another, much more savage slam rocked the deck. Its impact reverberated through the hull and sent Ford to his knees between the chairs that supported him.
“Hull breach!” Shouted a noncom at the engineering console. “Deck nineteen! Shuttle Bay Two!”
The deck began to rock and tremor with a steady thrashing from the fantail. Ford staggered his way back to the conn and clambered into it. He fastened his safety strap and held on with both hands. There came a long period of vibration after a moment and the deck panels seemed about to rattle free of their mountings.
A great lurch signaled the end of the abuse, and the retreating rear of the thing flashed over the bow of the Excelsior-Class ship. The giant animal made its way back toward the roiling cloud and rushed away at warp. Ford’s brow arched in Vulcan style at his confusion.
“What the hell was that?”
“Sir,” Came the engineer back at the damage control station aport of the conn. Ford looked over to the confused looking woman and gave her an inquiring look.
“Sir, Engineer Tolin has a report from the Secondary Shuttlebay…”
Ford crammed a thumb down on his intercom control.
“Go ahead, Engines.”
“Sir,” Came Lieutenant Commander Xia Tolin’s Andorian voice, “Some sort of…armored… thing… smashed through the aft bay doors during the attack. The device penetrated about twenty times, then it gushed out some…thick…viscous fluid onto the shuttle bay hanger deck… Then it withdrew…”
Ford’s expression turned to incredulous amazement.
“Any further damage, Engines?”
“No, Skipper… The main barrier field is online and maintaining atmosphere and the fluid itself seems pretty inert. Tricorder readings show it to be… full of…genetic material!”
“Understood, Engines. Get a sample of the material and prepare to expel it into space. Bridge out.”
Commodore Ford unstrapped his restraints and returned to his place between the helm and ops. Still bewildered, he looked down to his long-time friend. “Mister Davenport… Did an alien…space-borne entity… just have sex with my ship?”
Ron took a measured moment in answering. He looked up at his CO with an absolute deadpan expression. “I believe it did, Skipper. And it didn’t even buy us dinner.”
Ford looked back out to where the creature had emerged from.
“I think I’ll let you record that particular log entry.”
END.
Topic: This ones short! Endeavour Story #7... (Read 4304 times)