Surefoot 27: Oubliette

But not expecting the screech.

The bundle unravelled into ribbons which jerked and dropped like banners caught in a storm, before vectoring back and striking Leslie in the chest, sending him sprawling. He was unconscious before he hit the bulkhead, his chest smoking and his combadge fused.

The ribbons scurried away.

*

In the gym, Atiaro Thykrill punched the heavy bag, again and again, feeling like the frustrations of the last few days, the last few weeks, were being channelled out of her body and through her gloved hands. The bag barely shifted; she had increased its density to near-Maximum, and it felt like she was punching a wall.

But the tension of the Final Exams still built up inside her- no. Not just the Exams. Everything. Her lack of success with the male cadets over the past year. Her being posted to her third choice, a newly-christened ship, and going there alone. And now today's fiasco, landing all of them in another Universe. She had manned the Tactical station, and should have spotted that Ferengi trap before it was sprung! And now, her ship and everyone onboard was... somewhere else. Because of her. Her!

The anger seemed to heat up her skull, her antenna almost curled up like kindling in a fire, the sweat pouring down her azure skin as she snarled and cursed and punched and punched and punched-

Something caught her eye, and she spun in place, expecting it to be some other cadet foolish enough to want to pull a prank on her. She swung out, connecting-

-With what looked like a bundle of energy in red and green ribbons, coalesced together into a vaguely humanoid shape. And swinging back.

She blocked the punch with her forearm, wincing as an energy surge travelled through the muscles, and she tried punching back again. She had no combadge on her to call for help, and there was no one else in the gym at that time, and she was damned if this -- whatever it was -- thing was going to get the best of her.

They began sparring, but every connection she made only delivered more shocks. And when it punched back-

Thykrill delivered one final shot, direct into its midsection.

Her arm went through it completely.

And the energy copied her.

*

Cadets Cheung and Adams stood on either side of the doorway that led into the Evacuation Barracks, where the Ferengi were being kept. Both of them were armed, and both of them couldn't help but reach down to absently touch the handles of their phasers on their belts as they passed the time. The red-haired Irishgirl Adams grunted. "Think we'll ever get to take the Final Exams?"

Cheung smirked. "At this rate? We'll both make Captain before we do." He shook his head. "I think I can still smell those Ferengi even through the walls."

She grunted again. "I know what you mean. And the way they were leering at me... Hrelle has got some nerve, saving their lives. He should have let them eat vacuum."

He made a sound of agreement. "I think he's getting soft from having his baby around. Starfleet ships are no place for kids. How does it look to our enemies, seeing him practically nursing it on the Bridge?" He shook his head. "He's pathetic. I'll be glad to get off this ship. Hrelle, C'Rash, the Counselor -- I'm sick and tired of seeing Caitians everywhere I go."

"Yeah, me too." Adams looked to him. "You know where your first assignment is?"

He grinned now. "The Ellesmere. A Captain Jaxik R'ven."

She frowned. "R'ven?"

He nodded. "I think it's Vulcan, or Andorian-" Then he started as he saw the energy ribbons coming around the corner. "What the-"

The ribbons moved like heavily-medicated red and green lightning bolts through the air, towards the two security cadets.

Cheung knew exactly what to do, drawing his phaser, aiming and firing. The orange beam struck part of one of the ribbons.

And made it angry, coalescing and striking like a spear against the cadet's phaser, fusing the circuitry as the energy rode up his arm and sending him sprawling and unconscious.

Adams tapped her combadge as she drew her own phaser. "Security Alert to Corridor 4-Starboard!" She fired as well, while trying to evade the ribbons.

But even as she did so, a part of her knew it was futile, as another ribbon struck her in the rear, sending her down to join her companion in oblivion.

*

On the Bridge, Hrelle tried not to stare at the joined entity his wife had dubbed 'T'Vessis', as she stood there with Kami, the Ferengi physicist, and Jonas and Kit, the latter two making adjustments to the sensor stations, as the Vulcan/Medusan continued to explain. "My knowledge of the Oubliette has allowed your gifted young cadets to make the necessary adjustments to your sensor array, allowing you to track the weakest point in the local space/time fabric. Once arrived, your deflector dish, modified to emit a sustained graviton pulse, should open a rift back to our universe."

The Ferengi nodded, acting more professionally than any member of his race Hrelle had encountered before. "Assuming that the graviton pulse is strong and steady enough. Your Strategic Engineering Officer believes it will be possible, assuming all ship power, including Life Support, is diverted to the task -- along with the additional power from the Filthy Lucre. You need to know beforehand, Captain, that should it fail, we are unlikely to last long afterwards, or be able to restore even Emergency power."

Dying relatively quickly from lack of life support, or dying slowly from any manner of other terrible reasons... "The Riskier the Road, the Greater the Profit. Let's get started."

Ponzi looked impressed at Hrelle's quoting one of the Rules of Acquisition, and chuckled.

At Ops, Neheru and Kit performed the sensor sweep. "Scanning now, Sir..."

Then a signal from Tactical drew Neraxis' attention. "Security Alert, Captain! We have phaser fire on Deck 4, near the Ferengi quarters!"

Hrelle rose to his feet. "Red Alert! Force fields at all critical junctures on that deck! Get a team down there, Cadet!"

"Aye, Sir!" The Bolian girl summoned Lieutenant C'Rash, as per procedure -- only to find her superior officer's combadge turned off.

*

Deck 4 Aft -- Main Engineering:

The crew on duty moved quickly in response to the Red Alert, accentuated by Grev clacking his hooves. "Pruul! Lock down the manifold controls, assuming your simple Betazoid brain can work out where they are!"

The cadet kept moving, fully accustomed to the Tellarite chief's banter. "If someone of your limited abilities knows where they are, Chief, I won't have any problem!"

Grev laughed with satisfaction. "Okone, disengage the power limits, the Captain might need the weapons back online if we're on Red- Okone?"

He squinted, sniffing the air; a Tellarite's sense of smell wasn't as great as a Caitian's, but it was acute. He knew his Assistant Chief Engineer was just around the corner, and strode forward. "Okone! Silence is not Banter-"

He stopped as he saw Okone lying unconscious on the floor. "Dan!" He rushed over, dropped to one knee and touched the young man's neck, finding a pulse, even as he reached for his combdage to call for a Medical team.

He never sensed the presence moving up behind him, grasping his neck, touching the right pressure points and sending him into unconsciousness to join the other crewmen before help could be raised.

Sakuth straightened up and moved to the Main Engineering Control Board, activating a new sequence. "Computer: Starfleet Intelligence Security Override, Authorisation Code 107105.11611, Captain Sakuth reporting. Computer, activate Emergency Self-Destruct Protocols, effective imme-"

The rush of incoming air reached her microseconds before the black-furred body slammed into her, sending her backwards towards the Warp Core column.

*

On the Bridge, Neheru looked up. "Captain, we've receiving reports of random energy phenomena appearing through the ship, and injuries from crew encountering them!"

"Energy? What type?"

"It's matching the exotic energy wavelengths in the Oubliette!"

T'Vessis moved to the Science Station, examining the readings. "Your Operations Officer is correct, Captain, the energy is identical to that outside the ship. I can't explain it-"

All eyes turned up to the ceiling near the Auxiliary Engineering Station nearest the viewscreen, where a plume of red and green energy seemed to seep down, snaking along the unoccupied station and chair.

Everyone had risen to their feet, Neraxis drawing her phaser, Kit his tricorder. But Hrelle held up a hand. "Nobody move." He watched it carefully, as it seemed to coalesce at the base of the chair, before suddenly, seemingly becoming aware of the presence of the people on the Bridge, and darting into a nearby vent.

"Whoa..." Neraxis muttered. "That was-"

"-Alive," Hrelle finished, fascinated.

"Alive?" Jonas echoed, "But it's just made of energy!"

"As am I, Cadet," T'Vessis reminded him dryly. "At least, in my original body." She examined the readings on Kit's tricorder, and her expression changed, sobering. "And your assessment appears correct, Captain. There are lifeforms in the Oubliette, despite what we initially believed when we surveyed this space." She handed the tricorder back to the cadet. "I would never have selected this continuum as the destination for the Trajector if I'd known it was inhabited."

"And that the locals could be so hostile," Neheru added, before raising his voice again. "Captain, there's some sort of massive energy wavefront approaching from astern! The same wavelengths as the Oubliette Beings, but the power readings are off the scale!"

"Onscreen!" Hrelle looked up and gasped at the image of a red-green tsunami of energy, much larger versions of what they had just witnessed on the Bridge, quickly filling up the viewscreen as it rolled in. "Can our shields protect us?"

"I- I can't be certain, Sir!"

"Have we got a fix yet on that weak spot in this space?"

"We think so, Sir!"

"Then get us there! Maximum warp!"

*

In the Crèche, Misha and Naida were changed, fed and sleeping in the playpen, while Sasha had been catching up on her revision, wishing she was somewhere else, instead of babysitting.

Then she heard the raised voices in the adjacent Sickbay, and carefully rose to her feet, setting aside her PADD as she made her way to the door and stepped outside, only intending to be away for a minute.

In Sickbay, Masterson, Kline and the nurses and Medical cadets were bringing in and treating more and more victims of the energy ribbons, Masterson shouting, "Scarlo, get the emergency dermal regenerators from Stores, we're gonna need them!"

Sasha emerged from the Crèche, rushing up. "Doc, you need help?"

He never looked up from his latest patient. "Yeah, help Scarlo in Stores."

"Yes, Sir!"

Back inside the darkened Crèche, Misha stopped pretending to snore, opened his eyes and smiled, gurgling to his girlfriend to wake up so they could play some more. The tiny Roylan stirred and rose as well. "PetaQ!"

The room suddenly brightened as ribbons of energy snaked in, swimming and circling overhead, coalescing before the infants.

Misha laughed.

The ribbons laughed back.

*

Hrelle stared at the tactical display, as it presented an image of the Surefoot dragging the Filthy Lucre behind it, while the energy wavefront drew ever closer. "ETA to spatial point?"

"At current speed, 12.3 minutes."

"Continuing to receive reports of injuries throughout the ship, from encounters with the smaller Oubliette Beings. Internal force fields seem to have no effect on them."

Hrelle never took his eyes away from the view ahead. "Go to Security Alert 4, avoid approaching the entities if possible- and where in the Seven Hells is C'Rash?"

*

C'Rash thought she had been imagining it, a response to her seeing her partner following the mindmeld with the Medusan: a woman whose voice, manner, even scent had altered slightly. It was like seeing T'Varik as one of those living dead in the horror vivids her older sister used to make her watch as a cub, and what the cadets today seemed to favour. Or maybe it was simply protectiveness on her part, seeing how T'Varik had reacted to the appearance of Sakuth. Or maybe it could have been put down to simple jealousy.

But no, once she got past all of that, she watched Sakuth -- and knew the woman was up to something. Her departure from the Science Lab, seemingly defeated, was not like her. And so she followed surreptitiously, and with the aid of the ship's computer, having switched off her combadge so any messages received wouldn't alert the Vulcan.

And now, her claws and teeth bared as she charged at the other woman, she knew her instincts had been correct. She slammed into Sakuth, twisting around to try and pin her down, but the Vulcan's strength, speed and training was a match for her own. "Lieutenant, stand down! That's an order!"

"Kiss my furry ass!"

They swung and grappled, Sakuth knocking the phaser out of C'Rash's hand as the Caitian tried to draw it, the Vulcan then moving with astonishing speed, reaching up to try and touch her opponent's face with her fingertips- a mindmeld? Was she really going to force a mindmeld onto her? If she made contact, she could shut down C'Rash's mind-

C'Rash tightened her grip and extended her claws into her opponent's skin, drawing thin green blood. And the Vulcan's face was a picture of lost control over her pain, as she gritted her teeth and called out, "COMPUTER! INITIATE-"

She never finished her orders; C'Rash dropped and clamped her jaw around the other woman's throat, pierced the flesh and crushed her windpipe.

Sakuth spasmed, the fight draining from her as the futile struggle to breathe eclipsed her. C'Rash slid out from under her, spitting out the acrid taste of the copper-based blood and reactivating her combadge. "Medical Team to Main Engineering!" She watched her opponent turning a darker and darker shade of green as her crushed trachea, now bleeding between her fingers, failed to provide her with oxygen.

The Security Chief rose and rushed over to a medical kit on the wall, opening and extracting a small hypospray, removing from it a thin clearsteel tubing and returning to Sakuth. She knelt over the woman, prying away her struggling hands to get to the soft nape of her throat below the bite, as C'Rash extended the claw on her forefinger -- and pierced the skin and subdermal tissue, working the tough flesh open and forcing the tube into it, the tissue clamping around the invader. A rapid but welcome sound of air intake through the tubing filled the space between them.

Sakuth stared up with wide, pained, hostile eyes, gurlging something incoherent.

C'Rash caught her own breath. "You're- You're welcome, bitch..."

*

Sasha returned to Sickbay with the spare units, saw more of the injured -- and felt a pang of guilt about leaving the children. "Doc, do you still need me in here-"

"No, y'all get back to the Critters."

She nodded in appreciation and returned- stopping and gasping as the door slid open.

The room was no longer darkened, but lit up like a nightclub, courtesy of the energy ribbons, which now... danced with Misha and Naida. The energy patterns had thickened, changed shaped, formed rudimentary bodies and faces and appendages, like toddlers.

And they stopped as they sensed her presence, and looked at her.

She froze, not wanting to endanger the children, guilt and terror suffusing her frame. Why did she leave them, what was she thinking? Stroking idiot! She'd heard the reports, seen the burns and shock of the crew who had encountered them already! They could have- they-

The children were laughing. So were the energy creatures. Misha and Naida had been alone in here for at least a few minutes, but were unhurt.

Some of the energy creatures approached, warily, making faces much like... like her own. Reflecting what she felt. Fear, guilt, anxiety, apprehension...

Don't face life afraid or angry all the time; you tend to get that fear and anger thrown back at you. And usually it's because you started it.

She relaxed, and smiled, opening her mind, remembering her father's words. And hoping it would work.

*

On the Bridge, Hrelle focused his attention on the approaching wavefront, gasping as it swallowed up the Filthy Lucre and crushed it utterly. And passing through the debris, the energy seemed to darken and coalesce, taking on a vaguely humanoid face.

An angry face.

"Fascinating," T'Kessis exclaimed quietly.

Hrelle had other words to describe it. "Kit, analyse the energy signature, see if we can disrupt them somehow. Tactical, ready the aft phasers and torpedoes."

Then Sasha's voice came over the intercom. "Captain, the energy creatures onboard, I don't think they're really hostile!"

He started, glancing at Kami and the other officers before responding, "Sasha, there's reports of at least a dozen injuries throughout the ship because of them, and there's one big one trying to crush us right now!"

"Sir, the ones onboard are all here in the Crèche right now! Playing with the children!"

Hrelle heard Kami start, and he rose to his feet, his heart racing at the thought of his cubs in danger. Or, apparently, not. "Playing?"

"Yes, Sir! They've turned into energy analogues of Misha and Naida to play with them! I don't know if they're trying to communicate like that or they're just imitative, but none of us have been threatened, so long as we've not threatened them!"

"And the children are okay?" Kami asked aloud.

"Yes, Kam, I promise!"

Hrelle silently motioned for his wife to get down and verify Sasha's account, as he regarded the pursuing, relentless wavefront with the angry... anxious... face.

Energy versions of Misha and Naida... playing- "Helm, full stop!"

Velkovsky looked to him in disbelief. "Sir?"

"Do it! All hands, this is the Captain! Make no aggressive moves towards the energy beings onboard!" He glanced at Tactical. "Keep shields up, but do not fire on them!" To Neheru he ordered, "Send Handshake messages on all frequencies- Professor Kessis? Any ideas?"

The Vulcan-Medusan bonded entity nodded, looking almost feverish and weak after such a length of time together, but remaining alert. "The base frequencies on the 110cm wavelength would make for a good communications field for this medium-"

Kit nodded excitedly, feeding the frequencies to Ops, as Neheru focused the hail and the accompanying translation matrix towards the desired band.

The wavefront, fronted by the vague face, seemed to crash on the Surefoot's shields, making the vessel shudder.

"I think it's mad," Jonas muttered, clinging onto his station.

"I'm not surprised," Hrelle replied. "We might have their cubs onboard."

*

Kami entered the Crèche cautiously, suppressing her maternal instincts as she saw Sasha sitting cross-legged on the floor with Misha and Naida and a half-dozen Oubliette Beings, in a circle, passing a ball back and forth to each other, all of them laughing and giggling and gurgling happily. Sasha looked up, silently urging her to smiling broadly, her voice confident. "See, Kam? No one's hurt, no one's in danger."

Kami trained her instincts on Sasha and the cubs, sensing no fear from any of them, no undue influence. Then she put on a smile and joined the circle, studying each of them in turn, while touching her combadge. "Captain, Ensign Hrelle is correct. The beings here are imitative, picking up what they see or hear."

"Do they seem like actual children to you?"

Kami reached out tentatively to one Oubliette Being, her fingertips brushing along its surface, making the fur along her hands and arms rise but offering nothing more dangerous. "It's dangerous to make judgements on an unknown species, of course. But in this instance, you might possibly have something."