Domino
Chapter Seven – Seeing vs Understanding
The further they travelled down the sterile grey corridors, the more the depressing sterility gave way to the feeling of being encased in a tomb. Dan glanced over at McCoy as Sul had launched into a tirade of questions directed at their host, his confidence seeming to grow with each short answer. The words bounced from wall to wall as they spoke.
"What do you know of the real reason we are here? Call it a causal factor, the route of the problem." Sul pushed, his casual tone poor deceit.
"I would hazard a guess, I know more than you." Carl replied, a hint of a wry smile ghosting his lips, he knew that Sul was unsure and was probing for the answers which would tell him just where he stood. Their contacts at command had supplied them with the bios of all the team members dispatched to the outpost in response to their request, only one featured on his list of people he could trust with the full weight of what they had discovered.
As they walked Carl silently surveyed the dynamics of the small team, carefully deflecting questions from the insistent Commander Sul who headed the four, whilst a few steps behind the other two gravitated toward the man he knew to be Leonard McCoy.
Seth, the worldly warrior, positioned to the right seemed to be the protector of the group. Carl could imagine him with a Cuban cigar, thoughtfully measuring up his opponent through war wizened eyes. He didn't strike Carl as the type of man who enjoyed conflict, rather one that didn't know what else he could do; time and experience building up like prison walls around the future.
The one they called the Kid however was his polar opposite; full of the curiosity of youth, Carl judged in his twenties, not naïve but still inexperienced, still striving to earn his place in the universe. Carl shuddered – a pity it had to lead him here.
The two men flanked the doctor, who's reputation preceded him. McCoy rolled his eyes at Sul's constant prodding, a fact which Carl, keeping to front the right of the small group had not failed to notice, the small gesture lightened his spirit. Their destination lay up ahead so he stopped and turned to coolly regard his interrogator.
"You're pushing me, commander Sul." He stated calmly, "you already know who we are."
"And the others?"
Sul's almost imperceptible nod of the head indicated his understanding, the two men locked gazes for one heavy moment, the answer hanging between them unspoken.
"Familiarity and trust are two separate things, Mr Fuller." Sul grinned evidently pleased by his accurate recollection of Carl's last name.
McCoy on the other hand, was far from pleased, a fact that he pasted over with his deceptively relaxed tone, "Well now, while we're standing around in the corridor jawin' and trading eyebrows like a set of high school football rivals you could be explaining just what the hell it is you two know, that we don't? Just a suggestion…"
Carl smiled at Sul, "You don't keep your team all that well informed."
"It's need to know." Sul growled.
"And since we're only trapped underground on an isolated little moon with several dozen oddly resilient, giant sized creatures topside thirsting for blood and vengeance I'm sure you can afford to keep us in the dark a little longer. Not to mention if you two carry on looking at each other like that I won't need to know why I'm cleaning one of you off the floor when still we're no closer to knowing what the hell is going on down here!"
McCoy's sarcastic rebuke saw Sul spinning towards him, angrily grasping his collar so he could throw him up against the wall. Further expression of his anger was cut short be the awareness someone stepping close enough to intervene.
"I think what the doc is saying, Sir," Seth cautioned Sul, "is that this classes as need to know."
Sul dropped his hold on McCoy's collar.
"These aren't the people we came down here to find. The original researchers are all dead, am I correct?" he passed the groups attention to Carl.
"Yes."
"Our orders," his jaw worked before he continued, "included the possibility of intervention by other agencies. We are to facilitate them, as surely as if they were our own people. The research data must survive at all costs."
"You know this man?" McCoy pressed.
"Of him yes. His team went off the radar over six months ago."
"Our team made sacrifices for the greater good. Something only a small minority of you to understand" Carl threw a knowing look at McCoy, "there is an old Vulcan proverb; the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. What we did..."
"Was mutinous" Sul judged.
"…Was not for personal gain." Carl defended, "Regardless of how you feel commander, your orders are to help us." He paused, pulling something from his pocket. "Give me your arm." He indicated to a small DNA analyser he now held in his hand. "I'll need a sample of living tissue from each of you." He indicated to the end of the corridor – a living genetic door similar to the one McCoy had seen on Gia. There were two criteria for entry; you had to be alive and you had to be authorised.
One by one the men offered their forearms to Carl, flinching slightly as a core sample of radial marrow was removed from each man to provide reference data for the door barring their way. Last in line, McCoy offered his arm as had the others. The cool metal of the extraction device pressed firmly against his skin followed by a needle like pain as the instrument pushed through to the bone. Carl paused for a few seconds seeming to consider something before finally removing the device. A searing pain shot up McCoy's arm and taken by surprise he swore, snatching his arm to his side and bowing his head slightly as a wave of dizziness struck him from out of the blue.
A hand came to rest on his shoulder, "easy doc! That hurt?"
He focused a glare on Seth, whose eyes now twinkled with humour, obviously amused by McCoy's overreaction to the device.
"Not as much as your face if you don't stop looking at me like that." McCoy bit back.
Fully accustomed to McCoy's straight faced banter Seth threw his head back and laughed, slapping the scowling doctor on the shoulder. "I'd better watch my back!"
McCoy swallowed hard, masking the nausea which crept up his throat. Carl spoke as he worked on programing the door's sensors, drawing their focus back to the situation at hand.
"In my short time here, I have seen more than any man would want to. We were able to nurse some of our companions through the worst of the symptoms. First the pain, rushing like fire through every cell of the body, then fever and delirium... The infection spreads to the brain and a violent madness ensues. Once the victim succumbs to it, they become dangerous and unpredictable, it is only a matter of time before cellular breakdown occurs, however throughout the process, he or she essentially remains human; there are no monsters here."
The man was beginning to sound like a tour guide reciting a grim camp fire horror story, building up to the revelation which would make you drop your marshmallow in the fire.
"What you saw on the surface," Carl paused, "was not human."
"No Shit." Seth sniped, from his pocket he had found a cocktail stick which he began chewing, a bored expression on his face, "impress me."
As if on cue the door opened revealing an open space, the centre of which held a large opaque tube. Carl stepped toward the tube, indicating for the other men to follow. Once in place he tapped the tube's surface twice, a small touch screen appeared on its surface.
"What you saw gentlemen" he said, pressing his palm against the screen, "Was this."
He seemed to revel in the reactions of the four men as the opaque screen cleared to reveal the tube's contents; larger than a man and trapped in motion the pale humanoid alien was frozen in horror, back arched and blank eyes wide and starring in pain as though something was tearing it apart from within. Black tendrils patterned his skin and seemed to raise outwards like bulging veins. In the stasis unit, the thing was frozen in place.
"What the hell is that?" the Kid muttered.
"His name was Veyaan." A voice rose from the far side of the enormous lab, the cool, serenity of the voice struck McCoy as strangely familiar. He turned around to see a short, slim woman, with neatly clipped dark hair, slightly messy where it fell about her face. Her angular eyebrows gave a stern look to her otherwise neutral features. From what he could see underneath her hair, her ears were pointed.
She held a data padd close to her chest, regarding the men as she spoke, "He is the reason we are still alive."
xxxOxxx
"Preliminary analysis of the debris indicates the vessel we boarded was S'toh'ian, likely a passenger or freight vessel. It would seem that that at least two of the other vessels were from the same area, but their exact specifications remain undetermined." Spock stood at the head of briefing room 3 indicating to a grainy surveillance image of a S'toh'ian freighter, the best they had available in the Enterprise's own considerable archive.
"Escorts perhaps Mr Spock?"
"Possibly Captain, weapons damage has been identified, yet our analysis is, as stated, in its preliminary phase. Debris from a further two vessels at this time remains unidentified."
"Ye mentioned the significance of this area of space Mr Spock, and the weapons damage to those hull fragments is pretty extensive, just what's yer assessment of the risk?"
"It is not this area of space which presents the dilemma, rather, the point of origin of the freighter, not far from our location on the boarder of the neutral zone. Of the three planetary systems, only one lies within Federation Space. The other inhabited system lies within Romulan space, the disputed third system is directly between the two in the middle of the Neutral zone."
"A war?" Kirk offered, curious.
"The evidence of conflict would support the possibility of the outbreak of interplanetary war." Spock confirmed, "An issue which, given the location of the three systems, could cause significant concern for the federation."
Kirk leaned forwards, unease still pulling at his equilibrium, "You'd think with such an area of known instability sitting right on our doorstep the situation would be more closely monitored."
"Indeed." Spock conceded his Captain's point openly, but his intonation left no doubt to his friend that he also felt the same disquiet.
"S'toh'a is within federation space Mr Spock, is that correct?" With the question his unease spread around the entire room.
"It is, but it does not recognise the Federation as a unifying organisation. It does remain very much its own entity."
Kirk shook his head, already making up his mind. "An entire people's live could be at stake and their space lies within our borders." He looked around the table, seeing the understanding of responsibility settle on the shoulders of his command crew. "If we can offer humanitarian aid, then that is our responsibility."
Scotty was the first to say what the room was thinking, "If a conflict exists, right on the border of the neutral zone, we'll need a damned good reason to get involved…"
An urgent comm request cut Scotty short, "Reconnaissance imaging Sir," said the voice over the comm, "I thought you'd want to see this."
A picture of the debris field appeared on the briefing room screen, a point within the field came into focus and magnification and not one person had any doubt as to what it was they were seeing. Easily recognisable was one of the cone-shaped craft that had attacked the Enterprise at Gia.
Jim Kirk felt his muscles tense, "Relay all available data to Starfleet command. I think we just found our reason."
xxxOxxx
McCoy took time to re-focus his eyes as Sul's attention darted suspiciously from the newcomer to the chamber.
"I recognise that thing in there," He said, "He's Phelantian, their planet lies just within the Romulan sphere of influence, if the cold war that exists between Phelan and S'toh'a has anything to do with this, you can bet your last credit those pointy eared bastards are involved."
Seeing a need to explain, Carl stepped between the group and the Vulcanoid woman, "Sur'i is our head scientist; she's been leading the research into producing a vaccine for the Domino virus. She is a fully authorised member of our original unit." He eyed Sul's phaser pointedly, "and did I mention your weapons will not function in this room?"
Testing the theory Sul aimed his rifle at a spot on the ceiling to his far right, he pulled the trigger but nothing happened.
"A gift from Veyaan and his people up there on the surface," Carl began, "you'll remember I mentioned the attackers originally proposed a trade?"
"I can hardly believe you'd sell out for a dampening field."
"I can hardly believe you'd suspect us of selling out. The Phelanti were desperate, they came here unannounced. But attack wasn't they're intention, they just wanted incapacitate us long enough to listen."
He nodded toward Sur'i, who directed her explanation to McCoy, "Average symptom progression in humans is 1 – 4 hours post exposure, in the Phelanti it can be anything from days to years; they have a natural resistance to the virus. These people came here to facilitate the development of a cure for their people, but they were too late. Several members of the Phelanti crew had already begun manifesting symptoms, no systems were in place to effectively prevent the spread of infection." She nodded towards the frozen alien, "Their leader donated himself to the work being carried out here. It's the furthest that anyone has come to developing a cure, many lives have been laid down to make this work."
"That could explain what happened to the other research stations…" McCoy offered.
"Their vessels function by direct neural link to the crew. When they become, shall we say, mentally compromised, they can no longer control their craft. Veyaan's ticket out of here burned up in the atmosphere when the crew started to go under." Carl explained, "they were stranded, in the ensuing struggle most of the technology on the surface that keeps this place functioning was damaged."
"Commander everything you see here is subject to constraint and we are running out of time. We had hoped that the surface would be clear before we needed to leave but the damage to the station's systems is too extensive. I can swear to you that there isn't a single member of my team who wouldn't die to see that your objective is met. You leave here with the answers, or none of us leave at all."
The lights in the lab flickered and the powering down hum of equipment failure filled the room. Sur'i and Carl exchanged alarmed glances, "the stasis chamber!"
They dashed back round to the tube containing the static alien just in time to hear a piercing scream fill the air. In the tube the alien figure writhed, nails scraping on the glass of the container's interior.
McCoy held his hands over his ears, eyes widening in horror at the suffering he saw.
"Browett, this is Carl, I need every ounce of auxiliary power you have to the stasis chamber right now!"
"It's en route Carl, I hear ya buddy." A distant voice crackled over Carl's communicator.
Veyaan's tortured form stiffened, smoke like vapours blossomed from every inch of his skin as if he himself were evaporating. Sur'i stepped forward toward the glass and placed her hand by his, for an instant his eyes focused on her, lucid and searching.
The evaporating effect picked up in intensity, filling the chamber with a thick brown vapour obscuring Veyaan from view completely.
"You'll have full power in three, two…"
"Cover your eyes!"
In a blinding flash the contents of the chamber were emblazoned in light, then disappeared – complete disintegration.
McCoy swayed, as a stunned silence filled the space around the empty chamber. The throbbing in his arm seemed to have spread throughout his entire body, he glanced at Carl, wondering if he had noticed, a paranoid part of his mind demanding to know what he had done…
Auxiliary lighting was finally replaced by the cool glow of the main lights in the lab and Carl's communication device came to life again. "Carl, we have an entrance breach, happened when the power went down."
"How many?"
"I dunno, maybe three or four. Upper level scanners are out altogether."
"Do you think you can hold them?"
"I might need a little help, Thomas is still in containment and Browett's up to his neck managing system failures. I'm on my own up here."
"If they're on the upper levels this is going to make our escape a little more complicated." Carl thought aloud after the com link had closed.
"We'll go." Sul suggested
"Might I suggest the doctor stays here, we could use his help gathering the data before we evacuate."
Sul nodded once, "If we holler, you don't hesitate. Get that research out of here." He pointed at McCoy before pulling him to one side. He spoke quietly so that no one else could hear, "Do whatever it takes." He squeezed his arm in an uncharacteristic gesture of faith and turned to leave with Carl and the remainder of the team.
The door closed behind them and McCoy turned as steadily as the increasing dizziness would allow to see Sur'i observing him curiously. He focused again on her face; understanding spread across her features like a wave reaching across the shore before receding again into such careful neutrality he wondered if he'd seen it at all.
"Carl trusts you."
"He seems to be avoiding giving out answers an awful lot for man who trusts us."
"Not them, you." She observed him briefly, noting the fine sheen of perspiration on his brow, the subtle rise of his respiratory rate.
"You have the samples from containment?"
McCoy rummaged around in his pocket, finally producing the small containers.
She laid the samples from Dozer under the bio-analyser and drew his attention to the image; the slides were completely empty.
"The virus cannot survive outside of a host organism, it consumes the resources of every living cell it infects and having no means of sustaining itself, it dies. We have no way of analysing it outside of a living host."
A wave of nausea swept over him and he reached for the nearest place to sit.
"The key lay in enhancing natural antiviral agents which would slow the progress of the virus to a near stop, if given long enough prior to initial exposure the carrier would have sufficient time to work on the final cure. Unfortunately initial tests were only partially successful. The original cross-species variant of the serum was developed with Veyaan's help, but the dosages vary from one individual to another, some died within days of exposure, some suffered irreparable muscle damage due to rejection."
McCoy stood, anger and outrage coursed through him with in a burst of adrenaline that made his head spin. Subconsciously he clutched his aching arm to his side.
"My God! You were experimenting on each other! How in hell can you live with that?! Is that what happened to Thomas? How many people have died down here?"
Sur'i remained serene in the face of his outburst, watching as his face paled, she stepped forward and pulled back the cloth of her sleeve to reveal the black spider-web like evidence of infection.
"I ask no more of anyone else than I do of myself…" She said, a hint of sadness touching her words.
"What did you do?" He panted.
"Trillions of lives doctor; the virus has already been used as a weapon, and we have the key to finding a cure."
He stumbled, losing his grasp on the table top he dropped to the floor. She knelt beside him, pulling a cloth from her pocket to press against his head.
She whispered in his ear as he lost his battle with consciousness, "and now," she said softly, "so do you."
A/N: The Hiatus hath ended :-)
I hate I hate I hate writers block!
