Star Trek: Odyssey: Shadow Plays
Lieutenant Commander Michelle Trinn breathed in the dry air of the unknown planet. The unofficial name for the planet was Thundera since it was the final resting place of the USS Thunderchild. The crew had come up with the name so they didn't have to keep calling it "unknown planet." She glanced upward towards the darkening sky, as if she might see the O'Hara sliding into orbit above the planet to help claim the fallen shattered remains of the Thunderchild. Captain Stork and Commander Purdy were on Earth having meeting with command. She wasn't sure exactly what the meeting was about but it was safe to assume that it was about the loss of the Thunderchild.
The remaining crew as well as engineering crews from the O'Hara were carving the ruins into transporter loads of recyclable scrap. Though the ship was not salvageable, in accordance with the Prime Directive no trace of it could remain on this world. Even though the planet was uninhabited, another space faring species may land here, they must not find any trace of advanced technology which may affect their natural development.
Trinn had expected that the full emotional consequence of the ship's loss would have consumed her by now. This was the second starship she had lost. The first was the Alexandria when they were on their way back to Deep Space Nine from the Chin'toka system after a devastating defeat to the Terran Empire. And now the Thunderchild.
She had gone for a walk to clear her head, which she thought may have helped her emotional turmoil. On the horizon, the last radiant spike of the setting sun flared, then vanished behind a distant peak. A warm breeze stirred the small branches and dried leaves of the lone brush that shared the land. In the fading of the day, this forsaken area of alien rock had become a solemn place. She figured it was time to report in and she tapped her comm badge.
"Trinn to O'Hara."
No response. She tensed up a bit but she then realized that every day wasn't a life or death situation. A few moments passed before her communicator chirped. She smiled as she tapped it to receive the communication.
"Trinn here." She said. But her smile faded when she realized that the static filled transmission did not come from the O'Hara.
"Commander Trinn! This is Sullivan! We're under…" An explosion of static washed out the rest of the communication. Sullivan was part of the engineering team from the O'Hara.
"Sullivan, this is Trinn. Repeat!" Static was the only thing to come through. Trinn didn't understand the cause of it. There was nothing in this planetary system that could cause subspace interference. Finally Sullivan's voice came through again.
"Tell where they're coming from. Two shuttles have been destroyed! We…" Then silence. Not even static. Trinn tried to reestablish a link but it was to no avail. She had to get there in a fast. She tapped her badge again. "Trinn to transporter station one. Beam me to the salvage site."
"Stand by, sir." The voice said. "Energizing."
She felt the cool tingle of the transporter effect as she moved from the open area to her destination. She then rematerialized into hell.
Driving rain sprayed through the ragged hole in the canopy of the portable transporter platform, drenching Trinn as soon as she materialized. The transporter operator was already soaked to the bone. The platform shuddered in the concussion of a nearby flash and bone shaking thud.
"MOVE!" Trinn yelled. The platform shuddered again. Sparks flew from one of the pads.
It was night in this particular region of Thundera, and Trinn had been prepared for partial darkenss. But the emergency lights weren't operating and the bombarded camp had become a collection of looming shadows, hidden by night and rain.
Trinn caught up with Sullivan. She leaned over the walkway railing, staring to the east where a sputtering ball of plasma flared against the uranium skin of the Thunderchild's lifeless hull. The starship's primary hull rose from the raw mud. All around the ship, energy beams danced.
"What's happening, sir?" Sullivan shouted.
"We're under attack." She yelled back.
A wave of heat blasted her from the side as a cargo platform detonated in a fountain of plasma fire. Flaming debris fell all around them. The two of them took off running to get out of range of the fiery downpour.
An enormous thunderclap threw them off balance. Trinn twisted as she fell through the hiss of crisscrossing shrapnel, in time to see the transporter platform engulfed by plasma. As she struck the ground, colums of steam shot up all around her where molten metal hit cold mud.
Trinn was face down in the mud, lungs aching with the need to breathe. Her ears rang with the thunder of whatever had hit the transporter platform.
"Lieutenant Sullivan!" She called as soon as she pushed herself out of the mud.
A thick shaft of green energy stabbed through the night, piercing the Thunderchild's hull. The impact point was close to a wedge already removed by the engineers. Trinn saw the inner decks light up from the discharge of whatever type of weapon that was being used. The beam sliced through the Thunderchild. A chain reaction of explosions started deep within the hull of the ship.
"Commander."
Trinn turned to see Sullivan and the transporter operator, Ensign Alverez running toward her. They both were layered in mud.
"Who's doing this?" Alverez asked.
Trinn shrugged. She had no idea or even a suspicion.
"Let's try and get to a shuttle." Trinn said. The three of them headed to the east of the camp toward the shuttle pads.
Bodies lay scattered around the debris of the burning communications center. More explosions shook the hull. Trinn's jaw tightened as she heard screams blended with the roar of the unseen ship.
There was no way to know where the screams came from. And there was no time to search for them. As they ran through the debris, Trinn saw two Type 11 shuttles lay in pieces. A third was intact. They fought through the mud as they got closer to the shuttle. There were a few other officers standing nearby. They were from the O'Hara's crew.
"Who are they?" Trinn asked as she leaned gratefully against the shuttle's hull, leaving a muddy handprint that was later washed away by the pouring rain.
"I don't know, sir." One of them said. "They took out the O'Hara."
Trinn felt acid course through her stomach, The only other Starfleet vessels in the system were transport freighters and engineering support ships. Without the O'Hara, the survivors of the salvage camp were at the mercy of the attackers.
"What could they be after?" Sullivan asked.
They all glanced over to the looming mass of the Thunderchild's saucer section. The space between them and the downed ship was just a wasteland of destruction. The ship itself still crackled with energy discharges, long bolts of plasma sparking outward.
"I don't know." Trinn said. "There' snothing important left in her. All the tactical computers were pulled out the first day. Phasers, shields, torpedoes, everything classified has been taken out." The ground shook as a blinding flash of light exploded from the ship's interior with a thundering echo. "Does this shuttle still have the demo charges?"
"You can't be serious, sir." Sullivan said. "The second you turn on the shuttle's targeting system, they will incinerate us."
Trinn smiled grimly. "Probably."
Sullivan handed Trinn her tricorder. "We can't do much more, sir. If you want to launch those torpedoes, we're going to have to do it from inside the shuttle."
Trinn nodded. The torpedoes could be launched only by the controls on the shuttle's flight deck. But the moment they were brought online, the enemy would detect them and fire at them.
"Get your people out of here." Trinn said to the O'Hara crewmen.
Trinn felt Sullivan's hand on her arm. "Sir, you can't do this alone."
Trinn watched as the O'Hara crewmen fled into the rain. She then took the tricorder and entered a command into the small device. She then launched the tricorder into the rain filled darkness, quickly disappearing from sight.
"In a few moments, that tricorder is going to put out a signal that makes it look like a phaser bank is coming online."
"Nice." Sullivan said smiling.
Trinn then jerked her head to the side. "Follow them into the forest and take cover." Trinn then stepped into the shuttle. She activated the shuttle's torpedo controls. She set the torpedoes to target any moving object a hundred meters in altitude or above. As soon as the panel confirmed her input, she hurried back to the shuttle's doorway.
As soon as she appeared in the doorway, a green energy beam, hit the area where she had thrown the tricorder. She heard a small explosion from the beam hitting the tricorder and was relieved that the distraction had worked. However, the beam sliced through the ground towards them like a shark's fin in the water, closing in on another target. The shuttle.
Trinn gripped both sides of the bulkhead to push herself forward and away from the shuttle. Her boots slipped.
She fell, chest slamming into the deck, she lost her breath, looked up to see the green beam making its way towards her. Her insides clenched as she saw her inevitable death only moments away.
A hand grabbed her wrist.
"Commander." The voice said.
Sullivan didn't leave her. Trinn's eyes had met Sullivan's as she hauled her out of the shuttle with desperate strength. The beam struck the shuttle a moment later. Trinn heard Sullivan cry out, the hiss of vaporized flesh, the sound of torpedoes launching and the shuttle being sliced in two. The taste of mud filled her mouth once again.
A moment later, there was another explosion in the air as the torpedoes found their target. Trinn picked herself up into a sitting position with a lot of pain. It pained her to breathe as she choked on mud and rain.
She then saw Sullivan's arm sticking out of the mud. Full of relief, she pulled and to her horror she dropped the hand as she realized that it was only a hand and part of the forearm.
She sat alone in the night as the rain seemed to lighten up a bit. The crewmen from the O'Hara appeared, one had a medkit. The white haired Andorian engineer named Lex pulled Trinn to her feet.
"Why?" He asked.
"I don't know." Trinn said. "There was nothing here to steal. No secrets left, nothing." She stopped talking as she felt the cool hiss of the hypospray against her neck. "However, I doubt the torpedoes were the cause of the end of the attack."
"Then why did they stop?" Lex asked.
"The same reason any successful attacks stop. They completed their mission." Trinn said.
"What was their mission?" Lex asked with anger beginning to seethe from his voice. "What could there be on this chunk of rock worth dying for?"
Trinn had no answer for the question. However, she knew that someone had the answer and she was going to find out.