Incorporeal Nightmare (Part One)
A Voyager fanfic written by Lt Taya 17 Janeway circa 1999
Author's foreword: This piece of work is strictly non-canon, which means everything goes, even major characters dying. (See my note at the end.) I have rated it PG-13 for violence (but absolutely no slash, I'm not that sick) I think. Also note that I have watched a grand total of four Voyager episodes so far (the local network doesn't carry any sci-fi at all, *rage rage rage* ) so any inconsistencies are NOT my fault. You have been warned.
Stardate: somewhere near 53049.2
A Voyager fanfic brought to you by TaTTooGaL aka fROzen Lt. 17 of 26 (MERSTS)
An insistent chirp forced its way into a world without boundaries or limits, where reality merged with unreality to form a spectral world of hellish chaos. She futilely pushed the chirp away from the corners of her mind momentarily, hoping to snatch another moment of unsettled sleep.
The chirp sounded again, this time driving its way deep into the heart of her consciousness, rendering her unable to resist it.
Kathryn Janeway groaned and pushed herself upright. The blurry world around her coalesced into the sharp lines of her ready room as she focused on her surroundings and brought her mind back to the present. She blinked, unable to believe that she had fallen asleep while on duty.
Her commbadge beeped for the third time. With a sigh of irritation, she answered it. "Janeway here."
Chakotay's voice sounded from the commbadge. "Captain! I thought-"
"I know, I know," grumbled Janeway. "I fell asleep at my desk." She reached over for the cup of coffee on her desk and found that it was cold. Disgustedly, she pushed it away. "I was reading a report on the irrigation systems of the Marlok system."
Chakotay's voice sounded vaguely amused over the commlink. "The Marlok ambassador, Ha'agden, is on board, waiting in the observation lounge."
Janeway nodded absently, running her fingers through disheveled hair. "I'll be right there. Janeway out." She terminated the commlink and stood up, wincing slightly at the sudden cricks in her back. I'll need to have a medical checkup soon, she noted to herself as she headed for the observation lounge.
The observation lounge was unusually silent, noted Chakotay, as everybody had been cleared out of it, giving Ambassador Ha'agden a clear view of the stars and the blazing reddish planet beneath them. Ha'agden was the topmost ambassador of the Marlok colony on this planet, Lukas IV, and at eight feet he towered over everybody on board, even Chakotay. But it wasn't merely his height which made Chakotay uneasy, it was…. Something deeper within. Something that let Chakotay know that this man was hiding something from them.
The doors to the lounge slid open and Janeway strode in, hair mussed but otherwise showing no trace of having been asleep. It was only the years of experience with her which told Chakotay that how tired she really was.
Janeway smiled up graciously at the hulking Ambassador. "Ambassador Ha'agden," she said pleasantly. "We are honored by your presence on board our ship."
"As we are honored to have this cultural exchange, Captain Janeway," he replied a deep baritone which sounded like came rising from the depths of his belly. He drew his brow ridges together tightly and bowed in the traditional Marlok manner- a deep, half-waist twist with his hands clasped tightly on his nasal orifices. Janeway tried her best to emulate this, not very successfully.
"We are honored to present you with a ta'andarr, our symbol of peace for millennia past," he said, lifting an elaborately wrought circular sculpture the color of polished brass. Smiling, he placed the ta'andarr on Janeway's head. The ornament was meant to be worn on top of her head, but its wide circumference disallowed that, causing the ta'andarr to slip down and finally come to rest on her ears.
The corners of Chakotay's mouth didn't so much as twitch, but his body language made it pretty clear that he was amused.
Janeway shot him a dangerous look before turning to the Ambassador with a smile. "Thank you, Ambassador. Shall we proceed to the conference room and begin with the negotiations?"
Naomi Wildman pushed her way through a crowd of rowdy aliens who were blocking her way to the holodecks. Ever since the ship had docked at Lukas IV two days ago, there had been a steady stream of curious tourists coming onboard the Voyager, wanting to see for themselves the amazing technologies which this ship possessed. Well, it was fun at the start, but now it was getting rather annoying. These people were everywhere! And not to mention at the oddest hours too!
Naomi finally reached Holodeck Two which she had booked for the evening. Tonight, she was going to try something that Seven -or was it Harry?- had recommended – some ancient Earth story called Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It sounded spooky to her.
She stepped into the familiar grid of the holodeck and activated the program.
A cold biting wind suddenly hit her face, making her shudder. It was a dark wintry night on a desolate street. Gas lamps burned at periodic locations, casting their pale yellow light into the unsettling gloom. Naomi shivered and took a step forward. Her footstep seemed to reverberate in the yawning emptiness around her.
Another echo followed… and another, and another, and another. No, it wasn't echoes she was hearing, she realized, but the footsteps of a person approaching from across the street. A dark, hooded figure.
More footsteps- this time the light pitter-patter of a running child. Naomi's eyes widened in horror- the man and the girl were about to collide! She started up and ran across the road.
Too late, the pair rammed into each other with utmost force. But the hooded man did not stop, not even after running over the child! He just kept walking… trampling over the little girl, who shrieked in pain. She turned to face Naomi, and Naomi's heart stopped- whoever wrote this program had written her in as the little girl.
But nothing prepared Naomi for what was about to happen next. The hooded man, sensing the commotion behind him, turned and leered at Naomi. His face, cold and inhuman, sent chills down Naomi's spine. Snarling incoherently, he charged forward and leaped at her throat.
Naomi shrieked as his viselike grip clamped around her neck and shoved her backwards… then darkness totally overwhelmed her.
The conference room possessed a decidedly light moon, thought Janeway, as she surveyed it. All the bridge crew were here, exchanging pleasantries with Ambassador Ha'agden. She smiled inwardly but kept a solemn face as she reviewed their agreement again. The Marlok were a technologically competent race, but their technology was far more developed in terms of biotechnology than anything else. She ran through the list of what they could do –and couldn't –and tried not to get too excited about it. Their advances in biotechnology could greatly improve the Voyager's food supply --
Janeway's commbadge beeped, cutting off her thoughts midway. She tapped it with a touch of irritation. "Janeway here."
"C-captain?" whispered a shaky voice which she recognized as Ayala's. What the hell happened to him? She wondered. "I think there's something you ought to see down here."
Janeway had never felt like throwing up more in her life. She stood in front of the doors to Ensign Erman's cabin and felt really, really sick. For where there had once been a clean, pristine room housing a Starfleet officer was now a sick carnage covered in that Starfleet officer's remains.
Tom Paris stepped his way gingerly into the room, trying to find spots which were not covered in flesh and blood. Several times, he was unsuccessful and his boots made a distinct squelching sound when he stepped on it. Tricorder in hand, he tried to focus on his task, but the stench of oxidized flesh made that nearly impossible. His tricorder beeped softly, and he gratefully turned to attend to the distraction.
Five seconds later he regretted ever thinking that.
The tricorder pointed out that in the mass of once-living tissue lay a data padd. His stomach twisting, he bent down further to examine it. "I need a pair of surgical gloves," he grumbled by a way of a joke, but it did little to make him feel better. Holding his breath, he gingerly picked up the padd and straightened up.
Janeway watched Paris' face turn a shade of green as the blood ran and dripped off the edge of the padd. He bit his lip tightly and Janeway's insides lurched in sympathy.
"It appears to have a message on it," said Paris after a long pause. He headed over to Janeway who noted with a wave of nausea that Paris' boots left bloody tracks as he made his way out. Paris handed the padd to her, which Janeway reluctantly accepted with a touch of revulsion.
On the padd was written the words, "The end is just beginning."
Naomi awoke in Sickbay with a lurch of fear. She last remembered the hideous man in the holodeck who had attacked her. Sitting up, however, he realized with relief that he was nowhere in sight. In fact, so was everyone –Sickbay was deserted "Doctor?" she asked uncertainly. "Computer, activate Emergency Med-"
"I may be incorporeal, but I am certainly not invisible!" grumped a voice from behind her. Naomi started in fright and jumped to face the Doctor. "Ah. It appears that our little patient has recovered.
Naomi nodded. "What happened? There was a –malfunction on the holodeck?"
The Doctor nodded. "So it would seem. Somebody shorted out the safety protocols and interfered with the holographic controls." He put on a more genial smile and asked, 'Would you like to see the research I've done on the Marlok colony?" He called up a screen, which showed strands of genetic material. "By using their refined methods in replicating and grafting certain portions of the ideal HYV strands, I have managed to produce a plant which can produce five times the yield of one in half the time- all in one hour!" He folded his arms and stood back to admire his work triumphantly.
Naomi nodded, but her thoughts lay focused elsewhere. 'That's very nice, but how about the holodeck? Could you tell me more about the holodeck malfunction?" A lump of worry grew in her throat.
Before the Doctor could answer her, the doors to Sickbay slid open, admitting the Captain and the rest of the senior crew, all of whom looked decidedly green. They were followed by the towering hulk of Ambassador Ha'agden and a antigrav sled on which rested a black utility box contained-
Naomi didn't want to know.
Janeway, voice tight, handed the Doctor a padd. "What do you make of this?"
The Doctor took the padd, read the message and frowned. "'The end is just beginning.' It sounds like a…. death threat."
"Precisely," said Janeway, and she proceeded to describe in gory detail what they had just seen. "This box contains the remains of the late Ensign Expendables," she said heavily. "I want you investigate cause for his death."
The Doctor nodded. "I will attend to it as soon as possible."
Janeway's lips tightened. "Gentlemen, it would appear that there is a murderer aboard this ship. We don't know why or when he will strike again, but I would advise you to keep your guard."
Naomi, pretending to be invisible in one corner of sickbay, gulped in fear
Ambassador Ha'agden moaned softly in the background. "It is no murderer, Captain. It is the Wrath of the Cloud!"
"The Wrath of the Cloud?" asked Janeway in confusion.
Ha'adgen closed his eyes. "It is an ancient folklore of ours." He moved in front to address the crowd. "Our prophecies have a chapter which dictates the occurrences of the time when we could take wing to the skies like the birds of heaven." His eyes darkened. "It was said then when the messengers from the darkest hearts of the heavens arrived, terror and death would rain down upon them and the Marlok colonies." He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. "It is all coming true."
When he opened his eyes again, his looked directly at Janeway, and she could feel the compelling force behind it that sent shudders down her spine. "The only path that this could follow is clear. We will all perish in this confrontation."
Engineering was not a very good place to be in when Lieutenant Torres was in it, figured Joe Carey. Nevermind that she had pushed him to the night shift for the last three years; at least it had kept him out of her way most of the time. But not today. The Lieutenant was busy- and had been busy for the last few hours- helping work out the glitches in the Marlok colony's biosphere system
An anguished exclamation and a loud clatter of instruments attracted his attention. Torres had tossed a padd on the floor in frustration. "Augh!" she yelled angrily. "Four hours of work and nothing to show for it!" She slumped into her seat in despair, running her fingers through her hair in irritation. 'Their entire system is so screwed-up, I can't get anything out of it." A beep from one of the nearby consoles monitoring the ship's status attracted her attention, and she moved over to investigate, giving Carey a chance to look at the console.
"Maybe it's a problem with their interlinking conduits," suggested Carey as Torres gave another grunt of irritation as the ship's system announced yet another problem. "According to my calculations, they seem to be operating below peak efficiency, and that may be slowing down the power relays and jumbling up the code signals."
Torres turned to stare at him like he was an idiot. When he still didn't move, she snarled, "Well, what are you waiting for? Get started on it, Lieutenant!"
"Aye, sir," gulped Carey, and turned to begin his job. As he turned away, he heard her voice calling out behind him. "While you are on your way to ship's stores, bring back one of those isolytic tools for readjusting the flux in our power cells. Cells four and seven in the engine core seem to be misaligned by fifteen nanohertz." For the second time this week, thought Carey grumpily as he made his way to ship's stores.
Where in hell is that Lieutenant Carey, raged Torres, pacing around Engineering like a caged cat. I really don't have time for this! She checked the chrono on the wall, and blew air between her lips with vehemence. Of all the blundering morons I had to assign to this job today-
Someone tapped her on the shoulder. Torres leapt up and screamed.
"Hi. I didn't know you had been reading many horror novels lately," remarked a familiar voice dryly from behind her.
Torres whirled around, furious, to confront Tom Paris. "You!" she exclaimed. "What did you do that for?"
Paris seemed taken aback. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't think your reaction would be so… vigorous."
Torres shut her eyes wearily and leaned back on the console. "I'm sorry," she apologized, rubbing her temples. "I didn't mean…. It's just that I've been rather jittery the past few days
Paris moved closer to her. "I wouldn't blame you," he said gently. "After all, with the murder and everything…" He clasped her by the arms. "We're all getting very paranoid about it."
Torres nodded, feeling a deep empathy. "When I think of what that creep did to Expendables, I feel like-" Groping for a suitable word, she opened her eyes to glance at Paris. "I don't know how to describe it! It's like every time I step into my quarters, I expect someone to be waiting in there for me with a phaser, or something."
"I know." He sighed. "Sometimes the feeling gets me too. What you need is a little distraction to get you away from all this… dinner together, perhaps?" he suggested slyly.
"Oh, damn!" said Torres suddenly, pushing Paris away from her. "I nearly forgot!" Turning to a confused Paris, she explained apologetically, "I'm waiting for Lieutenant Carey to return from ship's stores with the isolytic tools I asked him to get-"
Tom nodded. "Why don't you go check the ship's stores yourself? He's probably still hanging around there taking his own sweet time."
Torres nodded and headed her way out of Engineering.