STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINCE

A Dark Discovery

Chapter Three:

"Don't Fear the Reaper"

In the past Federation Starships had been in contact with ancient vessels, for example the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 and her encounter with the S.S. Botany Bay lead to one of the most dangerous emergencies in the history of the Federation, the Genesis Emergency, as well as other dangerous examples, the crew had relaxed more since the return of Captain Sisko to the Defiant. Hoping this would not be yet another page in the same ever growing file.

Silently the Defiant followed along side the ancient Earth vessel as it began too exit the Bajoran Star System as Lt. Cmdr Worf sat at his console studying the read out on the energy field that surrounded the ship, many questions still echoed in his mind, 'How did Sisko communicate or even beam threw the interference?' Shaking off his questions he looked back at his Captain and give his report.

"Captain the energy field is once again surrounding both ships"

"Very well mister Worf, take the conn, I'll be in my quarters"

"Aye sir!"

As Worf stood from his chair he noticed something about the Captain was different, he couldn't quiet put his hand on it though.

He had been in the command chair over half an hour when a call echoed over the bridge intercom.

"Bridge this is Crewman Anders… I'm the mess hall, I've just found Ensign Parker… Dead!"

"Say again Mister Anders? Parker is dead?"

"Confirmed sir"

"I'll be right down… Ensign Nog, alert the Captain and Medical then take the Conn"

"Me Sir?… Aye sir!"

Quickly Worf ran threw the tiny ship until he reached the mess hall as he passed threw the doors, already a medical team was examining the body.

"Doctor?"

"Ahh Commander Worf, I assume the Captain is on his way… Well the body, it appears as if something had drained all of the live out of her"

"What?…"

His mind raced until he remembered something from his youth.

"…Doctor, check behind her left ear, is any discolouration present?"

Quickly the doctor look behind the victim's ear and slowly turned back towards the large Klingon officer.

"How… did you know?"

"Know what?"

A deep human voice rang out from behind him.

"Bruising behind the victim's ear Captain"

"I see"

"A story from my childhood, it tells of a hideous beast and evil spirit sent from darkness to capture the… souls of warriors, preventing the warrior from Sto-Vo-Kor. Legend says it can change it's form at will to… blend in with the living"

"Like the Grim Reaper?"

"Yes, this 'Grim Reaper' would then take the soul to Gre'Thor. The only sign was a bruising behind the victim's left ear"

"Do not tell me you're afraid of this Reaper Mister Worf?…"

Worf Snarled at the mention of the word 'Fear' as his Captain smiled slightly.

"… Forgive me Mister Worf, for a moment I forgot who I was talking too. Alright, lock this location down, I want a full security check on the entire crews where about during this incident, and Doctor, full blood screenings just in case we have a Changeling on board, or Mister Worf's Reaper"

A slight laugh came from the crew present as Worf left the Mess hall as Sisko turned and smiled slightly at the Klingon officer as he left the large room.

On Board the Discovery, Chief O'Brien was once again busy working on the communications array, upon further inspection of the secondary systems it appeared a key component had been turn out, with out this component the whole system was off-line. Sighing deeply he began to look around the area for anything that could be used or modified to fit the comms array, nothing but what force could have ripped that component out of the wall with that amount of force. Wiping the sweat from his brow he stood an began to walk towards the door as his comms-badge sprang into life.

"…Repeat this is Deep Space Nine to Chief O'Brien…"

"O'Brien here, Major Kira? How did you manage to get threw the interference?"

"We're relaying threw Bajor amongst others …. Unsure of how long we can keep this link. Message from Dr Shonac reads, Molly O'Brien injured in fall from first level promenade… emergency surgery at the moment, prognosis…"

Before the message had ended the sound of static emanated from his communicator, panic stricken he ran out of the large room, down the corridor towards the rest of the boarding party. Quickly he ran threw the large double doors leading to sickbay, still on the bio-bed Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax sat attempting to focus the images out of her mind while working on a way off this ship.

"Chief, we heard is their anything we can do?"

"Yeah! Find a way off this wreck. And get me back to my daughter"

"We're working on it Chief, Jiasha is here while Porter and Bashir have gone down too the Shuttle bay, hopefully we can use a shuttle pod to get the hell out of here"

A second voice came from behind them as the sickbay doors opened.

"Don't worry Chief, We'll get you back to the Station quickly"

Half turning his head he smiled nervously as he saw where the voice had come from.

"Thank you Captain"

"Of course, now… how about we get down too engineering, we can set up a new command post from their"

"Of course"

Quickly the small boarding party entered the large engine room, with a worried smile in his eyes O'Brien looked around the engine core. Although he had been here not long ago, he stooped and took in the view of the large room.

"Chief, lets set up a command post in here, can you tap into the internal sensors from here?"

"Sorry Captain they're still off-line"

"All right what about…."

Suddenly alarm bells rang in the engine room as the engine core began to activate.

"What the hell?"

"Chief?"

"The core, she's powering up too go into warp!"

"What?"

"Sir, the inertial dampeners are at 10% and will not take a warp acceleration"

"Can you dump the core?"

"Ejection systems are off-line…"

"How long before it reaches warp speed?"

Quickly he climbed up too the Chief Engineer's console in front of the core.

"We got a little good news sir, thirty minutes"

"All right, Chief and Jiasha. Try too get this engine core off-line, Dax lets see if we can get the inertial dampeners to full power in case they fail"

Quickly Dax and Sisko left engineering as O'Brien jumped off the platform and ran to a console in some vein attempt to shut down the system as Jiasha continued working in an attempt to dump the engine core.

"Chief, I can't do this. The core jettison protocols have been erased, I'd have too program them from scratch"

"All right, let's work on shutting down the core"

As she worked towards him from the corner of his eye he saw a figure standing in the doorway watching them, quickly he whipped his head towards the figure but nothing was there.

"Did you see…? Never mind, I guess this place is getting to me"

"Of course…"

Replied his companion as she walked towards him, nervously he nodded yet once again he whipped his head around to the direction of the door, almost instantly he looked back at his companion.

"Okay tell me you heard and saw that?"

"Saw what Chief?"

Once more his head whipped around as he heard the sound of a child crying.

"I can hear crying…"

"Chief, Perhaps you should…"

"I'll be right back Jiasha"

Quickly he left the engine room by the door he thought he heard the crying, yet the sound had stopped only to be replaced by the sound of bare feet on a metal floor.

"Hello?"

Quickly the sound stopped, he listened for a few moment before shaking it off and returning to his mission at hand, as he stepped threw the door, once more a voice called after him stopping him in his tracks.

"Daddy"

Almost the instant he stopped an huge energy surge blasted out from the warp core and struck the young Bajoran engineer, vaporizing her slowly from the inside as she screamed for his help, while all he could do was stand and watch the horrific sight take place.