1 Star-Trek: Enterprise
Authors Note: Not much to say, except thanks for all the reviews.
He couldn't scream. He couldn't cry out for help. In fact, due to the fact that a very large slug-type creature was blocking his air passage, the ensign could not do anything towards breathing either, and quite sensibly started to choke. He staggered about, gasping around the huge purple thing that was quite vigorously trying to reach his stomach via the most convenient route: his oesophagus. He ran for a few minutes, as more of the creature disappeared from his view. It had a slight calming effect until he realised what that meant. It meant that more of the creature was inside him.
That was when he panicked.
He made a slight choking noise, and the ensign ran against a wall very quickly. Unfortunately, the thing in his mouth was made of something very rubbery, and bounced off the rough stone wall without a scratch. He tried pulling it out, but it wriggled so much that he couldn't get a proper grip. He looked around desperately for something anything, when suddenly his asphyxiated brain said, "Sunlight".
For five seconds he stood and thought about that. What was a creature like this doing down here if it could get outside, where there was loads of animals to slam down their throats. He ran like a bomb was going to explode, and red dots did explode – in front of his eyes, as the blood rushed to his brain, and he thought, oh Good God, I'm going to die. Wait a minute… God can't be good if I'm going to die. He must be blue… I wonder what colour cheese tastes like?
He realised on the last thought that he was going slightly insane from the trauma, and lack of oxygen, to his brain. He broke through the curtain of vines in a frenzy, and in that moment, the creature finished entering him. He felt a dull ache in his stomach, which was from… was from… Now, danged if he could remember. Probably just a really bad sandwich he had eaten before they had…
Images of eating entered his mind, and he staggered to a red tree, held himself against it, and promptly threw up over a small mole-like creature, except with no back legs, minding it's business and tending to its brood under the tree. The Ensign threw up again, this time trailing slime from his mouth to the ground, and he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He was surprised, and scared, to see blood on his arm.
"Oh, man," he moaned, just as Ensign Bolden entered the clearing, calling his name. Bolden rushed over, as his friend puked up all over his newly polished shoes. He groaned, and then helped his friend up.
"You'd better have a damn good reason for puking on my Italian loafers, buddy, or I'll turn you into a loaf of bread!" He pulled his friend up, an arm supporting his shoulders, and opened his tricorder. The other ensign just stared into space, a bit dazed.
"Captain Archer, sir? I need to take Ensign Traywait back up to Enterprise, sir. He's, uh, feeling a bit ill." Ensign Traywait puked up audibly, just to back up his statement. Archer's voice groaned back flatly through the tricorder.
"Alright, we're heading back. Phlox had better say it's an alien virus, or I'm gonna…" Archer seemed to realise he still had his tricorder on, and there was a frazzle as he switched it off. Bolden sighed as he dragged Ensign Traywait back to the clearing. He propped his friend against the side of the shuttle-pod, turning his head to one side, and kept a lookout for the rest of the crew, hardly thinking for a minute that his best friend was being slowly lobotomised.
Ensign Traywait stood inside a huge cavern, huge, the hugest he'd ever been in. He floated in a fog, and it twirled around him. Sometimes it was the gentle caresses of loved ones, while at others it felt like demons were scratching at his skin with nails as sharp as, well, nails. He looked through the fog inside the cavern, and saw through it images that someone else was seeing… a huge slimy creature falling from the ceiling, tentacles whipping through the air…a trail of slime, mucus, and sick…gripping at walls and trees, coloured strange colours…walls of the cavern flashing past at immeasurable speed…
Suddenly there was something else there with him. He screamed, as its purple tentacles wrapped around him. At first, he felt disgust, but then he felt a euphoria that he had never experienced, not even after the first time he had scored, not even when his mother had cooked hash brownies…remembering his mother brought on memories, some unbidden, some drawn to him by himself…faces, some he knew, some he had no idea about, and some that twisted and stretched until he wasn't sure if he knew them or not. He tried to scream again, but this time…this time…something was stopping him…something in his mouth…he looked down and saw a stinger, like the back end of a maggot, sticking out of his mouth…it disappeared in a moment, and then he screamed again, screamed, and opened his mouth wide, as the huge, purple, multi-tentacled monster ripped through the fog and slammed through his stomach, through him…
He woke up in sickbay, trace memories of his strange dream, and threw up, straight into a metal bowl which was held in front of him by the knotted and whorled hand of Doctor Phlox. He muttered something under his breath, something like, "untidy humans…" and then patted him on the shoulder.
"How do you feel, Ensign? I must say, you must feel quite dehydrated, as you have been sick nearly fifteen times in the last half hour alone!" he grinned his inane grin, and then turned to the Captain and said, "I'll have to keep him overnight for observation, and also I will have his stomach pumped. Maybe whatever is causing his fever is a viral agent indigenous to the aboriginal Fauna on the planet below. However, he has been delirious for the last –" Phlox was cut short by a burst of hysterical laughter originating from the table.
"Delusions! Delusions goooood, so good, tentacles, monster, there's a MONSTER HERE! IT'S HERE! IT's Under my BEd! Help us all!! HELPME –" HE was interrupted by the fact that he had a very large syringe-gun stuck in his neck, and fell asleep.
"Like I said, captain, he has been having violent delusions, in sleep and also in waking moments. I will conduct a full analysis and have the results in your ready room in the morning." He nodded his head, with no further need for discussion, and Archer glanced at his crewman before he left sickbay.
Later that night, which, to Phlox, was the best time of the night, as he was undisturbed, he worked hard on his new assignment. He was studying the patients blood cells under a microscope when the computer beeped loudly, signalling that there was a fault, not with the machine, but with the patient. There was a large obstruction inside the patients stomach, near to the gastritis entrance, but also blocking the exit to the large intestine. How extraordinary!
He pulled from the shelves around him the various pieces of equipment that he needed, and his overalls, as his pet kept screeching to the thin, cold air in the medical room. It always seemed to know when he was about to draw blood from a person. He had two theories: either it was telepathic, or else it had an extremely acute nose…if he could only find the nose…
"Hush, sweetie, you just calm down. It's only a simple operation…" he muttered to the thing in the darkened cage, as he pulled on his gloves. He turned to his patient, and began the hour long procedure.
An hour and a half later, and he was amazed at what he saw. There was another organism inside the Ensign, attached to the entrance to his oesophagus. How the man had been puking up, Phlox had no clue. The creature was purple, and about ½ a metre in length, which explained the blockage. It was covered in what looked like bluish-white veins, and its mouth was round, with sharp teeth levering it against the entrance to his throat. It had two large pincers on either side of its head, and had no eyes, at least, as far as he could see. It seemed in pain next to the light, and it was letting go of the stomach wall. He reached for the communicator on the wall, never taking his eyes off of it. It reared out of the Ensign's stomach, like the alien pupae, and immediately shoved half of its length down the alien doctors throat before he had even realised it was moving. His pet in the cage squealed, as the Doctor scattered millions of objects on his desk onto the floor, and he fell onto the floor, gasping. A few minutes later, there was silence. A hand raised itself shakily from the floor, and gripped the tabletop. Phlox's head, slightly swollen with a bump on his forehead, muttered, "Now how in the world did I end up down there? And why is Ensign Traywait cut up like a cucumber?!"
TBC
Reviews, anyone? The plot thickens, Inspector!
Authors Note: Not much to say, except thanks for all the reviews.
He couldn't scream. He couldn't cry out for help. In fact, due to the fact that a very large slug-type creature was blocking his air passage, the ensign could not do anything towards breathing either, and quite sensibly started to choke. He staggered about, gasping around the huge purple thing that was quite vigorously trying to reach his stomach via the most convenient route: his oesophagus. He ran for a few minutes, as more of the creature disappeared from his view. It had a slight calming effect until he realised what that meant. It meant that more of the creature was inside him.
That was when he panicked.
He made a slight choking noise, and the ensign ran against a wall very quickly. Unfortunately, the thing in his mouth was made of something very rubbery, and bounced off the rough stone wall without a scratch. He tried pulling it out, but it wriggled so much that he couldn't get a proper grip. He looked around desperately for something anything, when suddenly his asphyxiated brain said, "Sunlight".
For five seconds he stood and thought about that. What was a creature like this doing down here if it could get outside, where there was loads of animals to slam down their throats. He ran like a bomb was going to explode, and red dots did explode – in front of his eyes, as the blood rushed to his brain, and he thought, oh Good God, I'm going to die. Wait a minute… God can't be good if I'm going to die. He must be blue… I wonder what colour cheese tastes like?
He realised on the last thought that he was going slightly insane from the trauma, and lack of oxygen, to his brain. He broke through the curtain of vines in a frenzy, and in that moment, the creature finished entering him. He felt a dull ache in his stomach, which was from… was from… Now, danged if he could remember. Probably just a really bad sandwich he had eaten before they had…
Images of eating entered his mind, and he staggered to a red tree, held himself against it, and promptly threw up over a small mole-like creature, except with no back legs, minding it's business and tending to its brood under the tree. The Ensign threw up again, this time trailing slime from his mouth to the ground, and he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. He was surprised, and scared, to see blood on his arm.
"Oh, man," he moaned, just as Ensign Bolden entered the clearing, calling his name. Bolden rushed over, as his friend puked up all over his newly polished shoes. He groaned, and then helped his friend up.
"You'd better have a damn good reason for puking on my Italian loafers, buddy, or I'll turn you into a loaf of bread!" He pulled his friend up, an arm supporting his shoulders, and opened his tricorder. The other ensign just stared into space, a bit dazed.
"Captain Archer, sir? I need to take Ensign Traywait back up to Enterprise, sir. He's, uh, feeling a bit ill." Ensign Traywait puked up audibly, just to back up his statement. Archer's voice groaned back flatly through the tricorder.
"Alright, we're heading back. Phlox had better say it's an alien virus, or I'm gonna…" Archer seemed to realise he still had his tricorder on, and there was a frazzle as he switched it off. Bolden sighed as he dragged Ensign Traywait back to the clearing. He propped his friend against the side of the shuttle-pod, turning his head to one side, and kept a lookout for the rest of the crew, hardly thinking for a minute that his best friend was being slowly lobotomised.
Ensign Traywait stood inside a huge cavern, huge, the hugest he'd ever been in. He floated in a fog, and it twirled around him. Sometimes it was the gentle caresses of loved ones, while at others it felt like demons were scratching at his skin with nails as sharp as, well, nails. He looked through the fog inside the cavern, and saw through it images that someone else was seeing… a huge slimy creature falling from the ceiling, tentacles whipping through the air…a trail of slime, mucus, and sick…gripping at walls and trees, coloured strange colours…walls of the cavern flashing past at immeasurable speed…
Suddenly there was something else there with him. He screamed, as its purple tentacles wrapped around him. At first, he felt disgust, but then he felt a euphoria that he had never experienced, not even after the first time he had scored, not even when his mother had cooked hash brownies…remembering his mother brought on memories, some unbidden, some drawn to him by himself…faces, some he knew, some he had no idea about, and some that twisted and stretched until he wasn't sure if he knew them or not. He tried to scream again, but this time…this time…something was stopping him…something in his mouth…he looked down and saw a stinger, like the back end of a maggot, sticking out of his mouth…it disappeared in a moment, and then he screamed again, screamed, and opened his mouth wide, as the huge, purple, multi-tentacled monster ripped through the fog and slammed through his stomach, through him…
He woke up in sickbay, trace memories of his strange dream, and threw up, straight into a metal bowl which was held in front of him by the knotted and whorled hand of Doctor Phlox. He muttered something under his breath, something like, "untidy humans…" and then patted him on the shoulder.
"How do you feel, Ensign? I must say, you must feel quite dehydrated, as you have been sick nearly fifteen times in the last half hour alone!" he grinned his inane grin, and then turned to the Captain and said, "I'll have to keep him overnight for observation, and also I will have his stomach pumped. Maybe whatever is causing his fever is a viral agent indigenous to the aboriginal Fauna on the planet below. However, he has been delirious for the last –" Phlox was cut short by a burst of hysterical laughter originating from the table.
"Delusions! Delusions goooood, so good, tentacles, monster, there's a MONSTER HERE! IT'S HERE! IT's Under my BEd! Help us all!! HELPME –" HE was interrupted by the fact that he had a very large syringe-gun stuck in his neck, and fell asleep.
"Like I said, captain, he has been having violent delusions, in sleep and also in waking moments. I will conduct a full analysis and have the results in your ready room in the morning." He nodded his head, with no further need for discussion, and Archer glanced at his crewman before he left sickbay.
Later that night, which, to Phlox, was the best time of the night, as he was undisturbed, he worked hard on his new assignment. He was studying the patients blood cells under a microscope when the computer beeped loudly, signalling that there was a fault, not with the machine, but with the patient. There was a large obstruction inside the patients stomach, near to the gastritis entrance, but also blocking the exit to the large intestine. How extraordinary!
He pulled from the shelves around him the various pieces of equipment that he needed, and his overalls, as his pet kept screeching to the thin, cold air in the medical room. It always seemed to know when he was about to draw blood from a person. He had two theories: either it was telepathic, or else it had an extremely acute nose…if he could only find the nose…
"Hush, sweetie, you just calm down. It's only a simple operation…" he muttered to the thing in the darkened cage, as he pulled on his gloves. He turned to his patient, and began the hour long procedure.
An hour and a half later, and he was amazed at what he saw. There was another organism inside the Ensign, attached to the entrance to his oesophagus. How the man had been puking up, Phlox had no clue. The creature was purple, and about ½ a metre in length, which explained the blockage. It was covered in what looked like bluish-white veins, and its mouth was round, with sharp teeth levering it against the entrance to his throat. It had two large pincers on either side of its head, and had no eyes, at least, as far as he could see. It seemed in pain next to the light, and it was letting go of the stomach wall. He reached for the communicator on the wall, never taking his eyes off of it. It reared out of the Ensign's stomach, like the alien pupae, and immediately shoved half of its length down the alien doctors throat before he had even realised it was moving. His pet in the cage squealed, as the Doctor scattered millions of objects on his desk onto the floor, and he fell onto the floor, gasping. A few minutes later, there was silence. A hand raised itself shakily from the floor, and gripped the tabletop. Phlox's head, slightly swollen with a bump on his forehead, muttered, "Now how in the world did I end up down there? And why is Ensign Traywait cut up like a cucumber?!"
TBC
Reviews, anyone? The plot thickens, Inspector!