Star Trek The Remembrance
Chapter 8~ You Did What?
"Tell me something, Quark. Why did you bring a Stasis Chamber onboard without first checking its manifest?"
"I didn't bring it on board," Quark argues, "I just bought it." Quark moves over next to the viewport. "Look, I can admit, I might have moved a little fast on this one." He knew he moved at warp speed on this, but he wasn't going to admit that outright. That would make it look like he was to blame for everything.
"A little fast?!" Kira yells. It was taking everything she had not to come over the console at him. Was he serious? A little fast? Who buys a Stasis Chamber without looking in it first? Who does that?
"Do you know anything about it?" Sisko asks.
"I know it's 112 years old."
From beside Quark, out in space, a being suddenly walks through the station's walls.
Quark yelps and then scrambles to get away from it.
The being had dark armor, horns, and a hunchback.
Odo takes a phaser from O'Brien's workstation and aims it at the visitor.
"Easy," Sisko says with his hand out, "Hold your fire Constable. If he was going to hurt us, he would have done it by now."
Odo lowers his phaser but takes a step towards the visitor's side, "What is your business here? What do you want?"
The visitor looks around the room, as though it were ignoring the Constable, and then walks straight at the wall and out of the station.
"I've never seen anything like that in my life," O'Brien says.
"Was it a hologram?" Quark asks.
"I don't think so. It was organic," Odo says.
"He looked confused didn't he?" Quark says.
"No. He looked like he was looking for something. And I don't think that's what was in the Stasis Chamber if that's what you're getting at," Kira says.
"How did you come to that conclusion?" Quark sneers.
"Because if it was from the Stasis Chamber, why didn't it just walk out anytime it wanted?" Odo rebuttals back.
Kira laughs, "Fair point," she says.
Deep within the station, a crewman is working. He was within a very dark area, next to a long corridor with several pillars every 20 meters. On one side, the corridor was open with a 35-meter drop. The opposite side had a wall with several relays. He was attempting to fix a burned out relay.
A loud bang comes from behind him. He turns to the noise, "Hello?" he asks faintly, "Never mind don't answer. I can't believe I let Williams talk me into this! What was I thinking?" He turns back to the relay and pushes a device against it.
A bright yellow light comes on, indicating the relay is operational.
"Good. Maybe now I can get out of here!" he mumbles to himself. He reaches down for the relay's cover and grabs it.
A strange sound erupts around him.
He stands and listens intently. It sounds as though there was metallic laughter all around him, echoing from every corner. He couldn't figure out where it was coming from, but truthfully, he didn't care. He was getting out of there.
"CLANG!" A loud sharp metallic sound erupts next to him.
He turns around and peers up into 4 orange faint lights roughly 4.5 meters in the air. The lights look as though they were floating.
Another sound, from the left, distracts the crewman. He turns to see a well-armored beast standing right next to him. But before he can move, from the corner of his eye he sees those orange lights get closer to him. Just below the lights, were sharp, stone-like stalactites and stalagmites protruding from the darkness.
"Wow. Those almost look like…" the crewman stops as he realizes what he was looking at. His face falls, "Oh," he whispers, "No." Fear washes over him.
The orange lights lunge towards him. From total darkness he sees an odd-shaped hand emerge, with 5 long talons. The talons swat at him and rip right through his uniform, his hair, his flesh.
The crewman grabs his chest and falls backward, into a storage supply box. He looks up at the thing coming towards him.
From the darkness, a cloaked figure appears.
"Giltak!" the creature's voice booms and shakes the walls.
The cloaked figure jumps in front of the wounded crewman. The figure looks at the wall next to him and removes a long, metal pipe.
The armored figure falls to the floor, next to the wall.
The shadow blocks the creature from the crewman and the armored figure and spins the metal pipe. The figure holds out a hand with palm visible and 2 fingers out, with the remainder of the fingers down.
"Giltak!" the creature repeats and leaps towards the shadow.
The shadow runs, right at the creature and then slides under it, gets up, leaps into the air, and impales the creature through the back of the head, with the pipe.
The creature reaches up, with 4 arms, and begins to remove the pipe from its head.
The shadow climbs up a support pillar, swings around the top, and double kicks the creature over the balcony.
"That… was… amaz…" the crewman mutters passing out.
The figure walks next to the open balcony area and looks down at the fallen beast below.
The cloaked figure then steps over next to the crewman and checks his pulse. There was a strong heartbeat. The shadow looks on the wall, to the right of the crewman, and sees a metal box. He sees writing on it in several languages. But the one at the bottom he can read,
"Emergency Station Activation."
There was a red button to the right of the writing. The figure reaches up and pushes the button and a loud blaring horn emits with a bright white flashing light.
"Emergency Station 15 has been activated. Please standby, assistance will be with you quickly." A computer voice announces.
The shadow figure leans down, picks up the armored figure, and then begins to walk away when the figure hears a noise.
The figure pauses, listens, and then leans over the balcony.
The creature was gone.
The shadow figure looks side to side, making sure there was nothing near that could harm the crewman, and then continues walking away from the injured man.
On the Enterprise.
"Q," Picard says, "What did he say to you? What's happened to him?"
Q turns to Tohaus and sighs. Then he turns back to Captain Picard, "His son is missing. That's why he was out this far. He and his son were traveling when a nearby star went supernova. The eruption sent his son into an uncontrolled flight. Then, after the explosion, a wormhole formed. His son was sucked in. He followed but he has no idea where it sent his son."
"How old is his son?"
"12." Q shakes his head.
"He's just a boy," Crusher comments.
"Or is he?" Riker states, "Is that age considered a child in his species?"
Q nods, "Yes. They can live thousands of years, but they only age, in a natural progression until the age of 40. Then they visually no longer age. But the progression to 40, is a normal one, and just like humans."
"So we do have a missing child?" Picard asks.
Q nods solemnly.
"Then that changes everything," Riker says.
"Guinan, can you please inform our guest we are more than happy to assist him in locating his missing son," Picard says.
"I would be glad to Captain," Guinana smiles. She walks over next to the medibed and takes Tohaus's hand, "They want to help find him." She grins and nods, "Yes, yes, your son. Then we will work together and find Brual."
Tohaus sits up on the bed. He scans the faces of everyone in the room, "Soalt," the voice pierces through the air causing the lights to flash and several consoles to shatter. An electrical charge comes out of the wall and goes into Tohaus, through his eyes. It quickly dissipates. A second later a single tear falls from Tohaus's eye.
Doctor Crusher places her hand on Tohaus's shoulder, "I believe I can speak for the crew and I can tell you, you're welcome." She smiles and turns to Picard.
"Guinan?" Picard says.
"It was a thank you, sir," she says.
Doctor Crusher gently pushes Tohaus down. "You need rest," she says with a smile.
"Meeting in the Observation Lounge in 15 minutes," Picard says, "Q, Guinan, I will appreciate your presence."
As Riker is walking out with Q and Worf, he turns to Q, "So the Ragoreyn only have sons?"
"Yes," Q replies.
"So their species is lacking any females?" Worf asks.
"Yes, well, not exactly, they have a queen," Q replies.
"Why, 'not exactly'?" Riker asks.
"Because I have only heard about her," he stops and turns to Riker, "In the 2000 years I have known the Ragoreyn, I have never met her," Q says vanishing into a flash of light.
Worf huffs, "Smart woman," he says.
Riker laughs, "Sounds like she has good taste," Riker says.