Star Trek: Somphethec Nebula

2410

Gamma Quadrant

Menoron

The Vorta felt uneasy as he entered the bridge of the cruiser. The Jem'Hadar was as always hard at work. With no need for sleep, food consumption or recreation they where the perfect soldiers, proof of the Founders perfection as far as he was concerned. He paused for a second as he thought he caught a Jem'Hadar give him a glance with narrowed eyes. He took it off and let his gaze rest upon the First.

"How goes things, First Yulu'maz?" The Jem'Hadar First turned his full body toward him and Menoron saw how tense he was. Was it uneasiness about their journey or something caused by it? It had been merely an hour since they entered the nebula. He had asked himself several times what good reason the Founders saw in exploration of it. He knew they had good reasons, but due to him being a lowly Vorta he didn't see it.

"There is nothing yet, Vorta."

"What of the other ships?" He wasn't sure what he had expected, but mayhaps the Jem'Hadar Fighters had caught something at least. The smallest ping on their sensors. There was eight Fighters spread out in a pattern. It increased their radius and hope of locating anything at all. The war with the Federation had not allowed him to travel with anymore vessels.

"Nothing."

"When did you speak to them last?"

"Three minutes ago. There was a possible problem," First Yulu'maz answered plainly.

Menoron furrowed his eyebrows.

"I beg your pardon? What problem, exactly? Speak clearly."

"One ship is not responding to communication attempts. The ships has not changed course."

"Well, send one of the closest vessels to investigate," Menoron ordered.

With a harsh voice the First responded, "I already have."

"Get control of yourself or I shall have you executed and replaced."

The First hesitated before he shook his head as if to regain focus. "Yes. I regret my choice."

He considered punishment for a moment but decided that it may not have been him. More likely the place itself. He spun around at the noise of some commotion. Two Jem'Hadar looked about ready for a fight and other Jem'Hadar had turned to look to their brothers. Most of them. one stood by his console and stared forward, into the wall across the bridge.

"Enough!" The First commanded and pushed himself in between the two. "What happened?" First he received no answer. "Speak," he commanded one of them.

"The traitor want's me dead," was the answer, almost in a growl. "You can see it in the look in his eyes."

"Lies! He attacked me. Can't you see the cowardice in his eyes? Same as any Starfleet officer."

"Get back to your posts," the First commanded with a hard voice. "If you fall out of line I will kill you myself! Do you understand?"

"…Yes, First."

"…Ye-yes, First!"

"Madness…" Menoron said, low as a whisper, as he stared at the scene. In any normal scenario he would demote or have the First executed for going easy on his men. It was an unusual situation however. It seemed clear that their improved shield technology did at best little to halt the effects of the nebula. If it was the nebula. It seemed unreal that it could have a psychologic impact of this magnetite of Jem'Hadar. "The Founders must be mad to explore this nebula again." Two days minimum seemed utterly mad. Had they made a mistake? But gods didn't make mistake though, did they?

"I have reports of fighting in one of training compartment on deck five," the Jem'Hadar at the communications console announced.

"A fight?" Menoron said in disbelief.

"Yes, Vorta. A few dozen warriors are involved."

"First, deal with it."

The First nodded and keyed his comm, "Second Orimid'akor. Respond."

"Yes, First."

"Take men to end the brawl in the training compartment on deck five. Deal out punishments afterward."

"…I obey." It took a moment for the Second to respond.

"Obedience brings victory," the First said.

"And victory is life," the Jem'Hadar said in unison.

It had been decades since the last expedition attempted to explore the Somphethec Nebula and as Menoron remembered, and had read up on in the reports before he set out on this mission, only one ship survived, and of the crew only a handful of Jem'Hadar crewmembers had survived, but they set a course for Dominion space, the highest ranked of them recorded a log, and then they committed suicide in the name of their absurd concept of honor. Whatever happened there wouldn't happen on his ship though. As long as the Jem'Hadar stayed in line it should be fine, or so he told himself.

"I shall return to my quarters. See to it that I am kept inform."

The First stood at attention, "Understood, Vorta."

For two full days Menoron mostly kept himself either in his quarters or on the bridge as incidents continued to arise and one of the Fighters was torn apart by an explosion from the inside. It seemed the ship's crew had caused the explosion, either by malice or accident. The ship they lost contact with had remained unresponsive until it intentionally rammed another Fighter. The insanity made him question if the Founders had had a mental breakdown of their own. He could do little but thank the Founders in relief as he remained unaffected. On the dawn of the third cycle he was told by the First that had caught something on long range sensors.

Now then Menoron made his way to the bridge he estimated that they were a mere hour away from visual distance. If they found something he hoped that the Founders would consider the mission finished and successful. The first successful mission into the treacherous nebula. He first took note that the Jem'Hadar guards outside his quarters were gone.

He snorted. There would be some punishment for those who abandoned their post. He would see the First punished if he didn't have an explanation for not answering comm attempts.

"He better be on the bridge, for his own good."

As he made his way to the turbolift he heard distant noises he couldn't identify and a gnashing that grew louder. A vicious snarl made him halt near a corridor junction. The noise came from around the corner, a few meters up the corridor. Stepping around the corner he was met with a grotesque sight. A Jem'Hadar lied dead in a puddle of his own blood and his gut wide open. A knife was stuck deep in his skull with only the handle visible and on his knees sat a second Jem'Hadar, with his hands digging around deep inside the other's guts. He had blood up to his elbows and viciously ripped out guts. Menoron was overcome with horror and a strong fear. Before he could flee out of sight the Jem'Hadar turned his head to him. His eyes was narrow and Menoron saw the cold and beastly look in his eyes.

He ran. Without any idea of where he was running, he just ran.

"For the Founsscherr…!" The insane Jem'Hadar's cry turned into a animalistic snarl.

Menoron down the empty corridor as he heard the maniac's footsteps thunder behind him. The only thought he had was to get away, but panic shot up further for he knew he wasn't fast enough to ever outrun a Jem'Hadar. His people hadn't been constructed for that sort of thing. As a fool he stumbled over a corpse when he ran into some room through an open door. In front of his face he saw a pair of boots.

"Kill him!" A Jem'Hadar voice yelled.

Half a dozen shots followed and after ten seconds and a bunch of footsteps he realized he had not been the target. Someone grabbed him and forced him up on his feet.

"The Vorta is still alive," a Jem'Hadar that was now behind him, outside in the corridor, noted in disbelief.

"Are you wounded?" The first Jem'Hadar asked.

"I am…fine. Yes." He did his utmost to collect himself. He counted four Jem'Hadar and determined that he had entered a secondary control room. He was about to ask them was had happened but figured that mere Jem'Hadar would have no idea. "What are your rank?"

"I am Fifth."

""You will escort me to the bridge, immediately." He had to reach the bridge to get some control over the situation and see the status of the ship.

"Understood.

"Fifth," a weak, trembling voice spoke up.

Menoron and followed the Fifth's eyes to one of their number. He was trembling and his eyes darted around as if paranoid.

"Control yourself," the Fifth ordered sharply.

"I ca-cannot. You must ki-kill me before I can no longer obey."

With the merciless nature they were engineered with, the Fifth killed him with a shot aimed for his head. With that settled the three Jem'Hadar escorted him to the bridge and he attempted to contact the bridge twice but it proved useless. As he found bodies of dead Jem'Hadar on the way he worried about his three loyal soldier's shooting him in the back. when he stepped onto the bridge after the soldiers entered first.

"Oh my. I should have realized this was coming I suppose."

The bridge crew were all dead and it appeared they had killed each other. The First laid dead by the tactical console with a combat knife deep in his neck. He looked at a console and determined that they were still at warp. That was always something he supposed.

"Fifth, take us out of warp and contact the other vessels."

"Understood." The Fifth pointed to one of the other's to take up a console and for the third to lock down and secure the bridge.

He steadied himself against the sensors console.

"Are those, ships?"

The Fifth raised his head and came over to the console. With a few commands entered he then answered, "Sensors are picking up three objects, seven hundred meters in length. The sensors read them as biological in nature." For a moment Menoron wondered if they had encountered some spacefaring lifeform, and for that matter how did they managed to live in the nebula? The Fifth was quick to shut that down though. "There is an energy buildup in the closest two."

The Fifth turned his head to the Jem'Hadar that positioned himself at tactical.

"Confirmed, shields."

"Shields are up," the Jem'Hadar affirmed.

Fifth turned his head to Menoron, "I recommend we power up weapons, Vorta."

"Obviously you must do that." What in the blasted Founder's was happening?

"They are firing!"

He froze for a second, and waited. Then the ship shook violently and threw him to the ground. When he looked around one of he soldier's had begun to slash around him like a maniac, forcing the Fifth to take the time to raise his rifle and kill him with two shots. Was it only a matter of time before one of the other two lost it and would try to kill him. He had to get out of the nebula immediately. The ship shook again and tactical exploded as a mass of volt went into it and killed the operator instantly.

"Vorta, the other ship's are not on sensors. We stand alone."

What? What in the shapeshifters name had happened? Banging against the locked door revealed that several mad Jem'Hadar was outside. The vessel shook again as the third strange vessel or lifeform fired some energy weapon at them. getting back on his feet he glanced over the console and attempted to focus on one thing at a time. The sensors were unable to identify the energy that had impacted the shield. As began to search for a headset to get a look at their attackers as the Fifth said,

"Incoming volley!"

Menoron wasn't certain what happened next, but there was a great amount of pain and he was thrown against the floor with sight of the door into the bridge. An alarm beeped and the door partially slid open, grey hands pulled at the door and someone fired a rifle.