Cordyceps

Posted on Mon Nov 2, 2020 @ 2:47am by Civilian 'Key Holder' Yolanthe Ibalin & Commander Caleb Ryan & Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Lieutenant T'Lul & Lieutenant Jason Haines

2,907 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Et In Arcadia Ego
Location: Main Docking Bay, Slip Twenty three
Timeline: MD 05 1600

[ON]

Slip Twenty-three was one of the smaller births near the roof in the yawning cavern of the main docking bay. Even as the hazard team approached it, they could see an orderly, silent queue of people leading to the open docking ring. Expressions were all blank, and when the queue moved, they moved as one, a perfectly timed step forward, no one out of time or sequence.

Alanna whistled softly. "That is terrifying. They act like they're possessed. Does the crystal and anything it infects become one, much like the Borg, or are they more like automatons that don't think at all?"

Terry was behind Alanna, decked in the hazard gear they needed to have on to prevent any dust getting in their nostrils, eyes, or ears, and any slight cuts they might have.

"In a sense, Lieutenant," Terry said. "The dust that is taken in, intertwines with the nerves, and they eventually take control. How fast depends on how one gets the dust in them. We are going to have to get them injected fast with the antidote. Be careful they don't breach your containment or give you any cuts with their nails or such."

"Yeah. I've seen what it does to EPS conduits, but this... I'll be careful, but let's hope nothing goes wrong with this operation." At the same time, she wanted to know where they were going and why. What was this crystal entity trying to do with them?

Wilks was not just playing here. The sonic hand cutter was doing a good job with this junk,' and he had been using it too long, as his hand would be vibrating long after he ceased clean up operations. He was damage control, and how he ended up being here was beyond him. The power grid and conduits that kept the station powered was his specialty, not scraping crystalline kunk out of every crevice of the station with this kid's crystal growing project on steroids.

"Those types are not violent or anything, are they?" WIlks said as he made sure things were clear, his gear functional, and those affected at a distance.

Travis Nottingham gripped his sonic disruptor. He wished for a more trusty and reliable phaser, but he’d been told a phaser would only exacerbate the problem. “This is what has Jess?” he asked. “I mean, Ensign Mayhew?” He eyed the twenty or so people lined up. “Shit. There’s kids there!” he exclaimed. “And is that...a targ?” The Caitian Starfleet engineer they had been looking for was there as well, not the only person in a Starfleet uniform. Many engineers had been working to clean up the crystals after the station power outage.

Leonora Dell had walked to the very edge of the slip and looked over to look at the umbilical that led to the ship. "I'm going to get a plasma cutter up for that umbilical. I'm not prepared to salvage it." She looked to Lieutenant Wells as the ranking member of Science present. "Do you want me to cut it before you all go in?"

"That depends on if we're going to come back down that way," Alanna said. "Is there a reason we should cut it now?" she asked.

"I don't want it attached to the station?" Dell had her tricorder out. "It's inert at the moment, no heat, no power. I don't feel like finding out if that changes suddenly."

"Up to Security, but we should be prepared for how that line reacts when you do." Sour the milk, Alanna thought. They just had to sour the milk. She wanted to find out what was behind this, to be sure that the plan would work. Okay, simply because she really wanted to find out what they were going to and why.

Travis adjusted his hazmat armor. “We taking them in to Sickbay?” he asked

"Medical is going to flood the umbilical with an aerosol version of the antidote," Terry said. "We haven't had any tests on the volume in the umbilical. It may take longer for things to make an impact."

"One way or another, I want to see what's up there," Alanna said. "We'll see how long the antidote takes, then go find out where they're going and spray it, too."

"They don't seem to be going anywhere but that ship." Dell shuddered. "We should just shunt it out and torpedo it."

“I’m up for that, except how many people are on board?” Travis asked. “Can we get readings from inside? How compromised it is? Number of people? We could beam them to quarantine.

"Nothing but silicon and trace elements," Leonora replied. It's either scrambling organic signs, or..." She bit her lip. "There's nothing organic left."

Lt. Amoran, Benj, a seasoned Bajoran medic, had been tasked with the spraying of the aerosol antidote into the umbilical, and was suitably decked out in serious 100% hazmat. His helmet had a shaded visor and his gloves were almost too thick to operate the machinery. He moved clumsily towards the edge and asked all the other crew to leave. He attempted to divert some of the twenty or so queuing to go inside, but they were too many and too far gone to take any notice of him so he sprayed them first and then turned away to put all the rest of his large container full of the antidote down the umbilical at as fast a rate as he could make the pump muster.

"We need answers. We need to make sure this doesn't keep happening," Alanna said, waiting for the medics to do the spraying before moving forward to see what was actually up there.

Ben didn't get very far before the infected peeled away from their crew and converged on him. They walked, but fast, and soon reached him. Then they grabbed him, several trying to grab him by legs as well as arms, and began to drag him back towards the waiting cargo hauler.

Terry darted to Ben. The man wasn't a Marine, but he was a fellow medic, who moved into dangerous areas to help. Grabbing the crew member who had the hold on his left arm, he threw him to the deck and started to pull Ben back.

Alanna ran up to the umbilical and grabbed the sprayer, hoping to distract the crystal zombies long enough for Terry to get the other man away.

The first individuals sprayed began to slow in their movements, becoming sluggish, but by then, more were peeling off from the queue. Two more turned to Terry, clinging to his arms, and a third grabbed for Alanna.

Travis cursed, knocking away the arms reaching for Alanna. He pulled his sonic phaser and fired it at the nearest crystal zombie.

Alanna pulled out a hand-held sonic drill and turned it on. She'd already set it to the right range to disrupt the crystal, hoping it wouldn't hurt any of the Human parts of the people. She didn't leave it on long enough to kill anyone, just enough to cause them distress.

The first two to get sprayed had collapsed to the deck, and yellow brown growth appeared at their mouths.

And more of the afflicted came out of the line, and out of the ship. They were grabbing on to Ben and to Terry, trying to haul them off, away to the ship.

Terry hadn't expected the zombies' to be so strong and aggressive. Having learned his lesson, he brought his strength to bear and pivoted his hip, the motion breaking the grip, for now. He pulled again on Ben, determined not to let the man or himself get pulled in further.

Travis fired his sonic disruptor again, causing another crystal zombie to stumble around disoriented. Then he felt something on his leg and looked down to see a six-year-old boy clinging to his leg. The boy tried to bite through the thick hazmat.

“Get off!” Travis said, kicking with his leg, not wanting to shoot a kid.

The boy fell back, dropping to the deck, where he lay still. But the other afflicted didn't let go, and pulled Ben inside the cargo ship.

Alanna sent a sonic wave towards those dragging Ben and ran toward the boy to make sure he was okay. She checked his pulse, relieved that there was one, and took him back for Medical to take care of. Then she hurried back to help the others.

She stopped at the umbilical terminal and accessed the sound system to send a high-pitched whine up the umbilical.

There was no immediate response. The afflicted were all quickly filing into the cargo ship.

The people Ben had sprayed had collapsed. Brown crystal growths were sprouting out of them, building in size and starting to quiver. Leonora leaned over one, frowning. That stuff was supposed to be a cure. The brown growth quivered, and then burst.

Leo yelped in surprise as the sharp crystal burst against her suit. "Oh, crap." It didn't seem to have penetrated. She quickly brushed it off, and hurried after them.

Ben struggled to his knees, then tried to stand up. "Thanks," he tried to tell Terry, but the Marine had moved on. Ben got up and staggered back to the medical post, more than grateful to be still here and not full of crystals.

"At least we know the suits work," Leonora said. "Let’s go disinfect that ship."

There was a rumbling coming from the cargo ship, starting from the umbilical, where the high frequency sounds were being sent through it. Through the door where the afflicted had vanished, puffs of brown crystal could be seen floating off.

Alanna cut the sound. She wasn't sure -- yet -- what the brown crystal dust meant, but she wanted to save as many people as she could. She pulled out her tricorder and scanned up the umbilical.

Travis pulled a sonic grenade off his combat vest. The engineers had whipped up some nice toys for them. He yelled a warning to the others, then threw the sonic grenade into the cargo ship after the possessed passengers.

Wilks had been frozen as the uprising occurred. He had nothing to use really; what good would a spanner or tools of his trade be? He moved more towards those actually doing something, pulling up short to get a better look as the man had warned about a grenade, and ducked behind some cover.

Alanna was grateful she was in a suit and not exposed to the sonic grenade. She couldn't help being concerned about the damage they were causing, and if there would be anyone to save when this was over.

The grenade seemed to thin some of the attackers out, at least giving them some breathing room. Several of the possessed inside the cargo ship were sprawled out, the dead brown crystal showing on them.

“How are we coming on that umbilical?” Travis yelled, stunning another with his sonic phaser.

Dell checked her tricorder. "It's not responding. I need to check from the inside. She looked inside the ship, but from this distance, nothing was visible but crystal.

Terry had pulled back to check his suit. Given the different ways he had been pulled, he wasn't sure if he had lost containment. Knowing he was good, he moved back to the team to try and get into the ship.

Alanna pulled up the specs from the console at the bottom of the umbilical to see if there was another way to the ship. There wasn't. She then tried to access the ship through the computer to hopefully get an idea as to what was going on there. She got nothing but gremlinite.

But there was no connection. Dell looked to Travis and Wilks. "Throw in a couple more of those sonic bombs. Then I'm going in."

Travis nodded. He pulled two more of the sonic grenades and depressed the buttons. Then he tossed them inside. “Fire in the hole!” he yelled.

There was a series of high pitched whines from inside, and another puff of crystal. Tentatively, Leonora stepped through.

Several of the afflicted were lying on the floor of the access hall, unmoving, and free of life signs. The floor itself was covered in crystalline crust, bursting out from EPS conduits, and spreading across walls.

The lights were gone, but gravity was still working, just. It felt spongy, ready to fail at any moment. The nearest jeffries tube was fifty meters in, the turbo lift twenty more after. She lifted up her light and started forward.

The science officer watched them, waiting to see what they found before going up.

Terry followed in, looking all about as he did. The situation seemed very risky given how far the crystal growth had made it. There was enough in here to infect the station five times over. The safest thing to do would be to tow the ship into the nearby star. However, given that there was a slight possibility of saving lives, it wasn't the Starfleet way.

Then there was movement, and one of the doors in the hall opened behind them. A pair of Dopterians, in stained overalls, eyes glazed, started walking towards them. The first one wrapped his arms around Terry and exploded.

Brown crystal erupted from the Doptarian's skin, shredding him from the skeleton out, slicing into the hazmat suit, and shattering against the visor.

The second Doptarian went towards Travis, also reaching.

“Shit!” Travis fired the sonic disruptor at the Dopterian. Then he used the crystal zombie’s grab to turn his momentum into a judo throw, trying to toss the Dopterian into the maintenance well outside the entrance.

"Damn," Terry said, trying to clear his visor.

"Seal the docking tube!" Terry said into his comm unit, knowing he didn't have a lot of time. "Command, recommend you tow this ship out and destroy it."

Terry pulled the emergency suit sealant from his belt and applied it on the tear in his hazmat suit, but given the size of the tear, it wouldn't be enough. He started to feel his skin start to numb near where the tear was.

"Travis," he called out. "Shoot me."

“We’ll get you to Sickbay!” Travis promised, aiming his sonic phaser at the tear in the man’s suit. “They can help you.” He fired.

Terry winced as the energy hit him. The crystals had started to grow into him, so he could feel their 'pain' from the blast.

He tapped his comm badge. "One to beam to medical quarantine."

He gave a thumbs up to Travis as the transporter beam enveloped him.

"Beam them into an isolation chamber," Alanna said. "We might still save them." She set the sound system up the umbilical as far as she could to emit a high-pitched tone to disrupt the crystals.

As Terry shouted, Leonora turned around. She didn't see the hollowed eyed Klingon walk out of a doorway, two more infected civilians pressing him forward..He grabbed onto her, pulling at her helmet, ripping it free.She could see the crystalline growth emerging from his mouth, and struggled to get free..Lenora slipped on the crystal that had grown onto the floor. She flopped to the floor and it saved her life when the top half of the klingon burst open, sending shards of gremlinite shattering against the wall.

"Command." She got to her feet and touched her combadge."I second that assessment, beam us out and --"

Whatever she was about to say was lost in a shocked, wet gasp, as a huge shard of crystal was driven right through the back of her neck, to emerge from her open mouth. The infected who had stabbed her with a spur of the rapidly growing crystal lowered his arm, and she slid to the floor. The infected walked forward again.

“God damn it!” Travis exclaimed. He fired again, rapidly, but the sonic phaser just wasn’t as fast a recharge as a normal phaser. He managed to shoot his way to Leonora, grabbing her collar and dragging her back to the safety of the group.

“You’ll be okay,” he said, mostly to reassure himself as much as her as he tried to stop the bleeding.

Alanna tapped her combadge. "Beam Leonora to sickbay. She's been pierced by a shard."

As soon as she was transported, the science officer checked on the rest of the team. When she was sure they were safely away from the umbilical, she turned up the sound, focusing it through the umbilical to the waiting ship, then closed the passageway.

With the sonic system set up, Travis started to lead the slow evacuation of uninfected from the ship. Some of the zombies were screaming in pain, others seemed relatively unaffected, other than cracks appearing on the visible crystals.

They got the the least affected out, but at least half were too far gone. But they had destroyed enough of the gremlinite in the umbilical to free the cargo ship from DS5.

Two work bees came down and tugged it out away from the station, taking it out to a safe range.

From the quarantine in sickbay, there was only one thing left to do, and Soran gave the command to have it torpedoed. burning the crystal to dust.

[OFF]

Just cutting this off to get it over with.

 

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