Chapter Title: Counting Stars

Chapter Synapses: A mission to investigate an missing-in-action ship, run primarily by the elite cadet corps called 'Red Squad' hits a little too close to home for Commander Collins.

Written by: Seraph Koji

Collins ran up to Starwind in a corridor, "On your way to the briefing?"

"New orders from Starfleet." He said, rounding a corner, "You have some shore leave stoked up, don't you?"

"Yeah, about three weeks, why?" Collins asked, curiosity hanging from every word.

"As a friend I'm asking you to take it now." Starwind said, candidly, "I don't think this mission will go well for you."

"What mission?" Collins' curiosity was piqued as the rounded the corner into the conference room.

She wasn't going to leave. Feeling slightly defeated, Starwind addressed the senior officers, "We have a new mission from Starfleet Command." He touched a key on the display panel and a ship appeared on the screen, "USS Starburst, Tzinski class."

"Red Squad training ship." Collins added, slightly apprehensive.

"Correct, and she's missing." Starwind stood next to the screen, "Her last orders were to rendezvous with a cargo ship and escort it to the Trill Symbioses Program Headquarters."

"A dying symbiote?" West postulated.

Starwind shrugged, "That'd be my guess. But now both ships have seemingly vanished about five light-years from our present position. We are to begin a standard search."

"I hope the commissioned officers are all still alive." Collins shook slightly.

"You sure you don't want to take a runabout and go somewhere?" Starwind offered her.

Collins sounded resolute, "Those kids will listen to one of their own. We're Red Squad, after all."

"First Officer's Log, stardate 57768.4. It seems a new crew of Red Squad cadets is facing their own Valiant scenario. But I won't let them get to the point we got to. I'll set things right. This ship, the Starburst, must be found before the oncoming war begins. Before the madness sets in."

"We have a signal o sensors. It looks like the Starburst." Talara reported, "Hail them?"

"Yes." Starwind rose, "Red Squad Ship, this is the starship Hyperion. You've been considered Missing in Action. We are here to check on your status and the status of the Trill cargo."

"No response." Talara replied, "I'm reading life signs. Seventy-seven."

"Talara, VonBach, get over there. Take Sen with you." Starwind ordered.

"I'd like to go too." Collins said, "Like I said, they'll listen to me. I'm Red Squad."

"West goes too." Starwind conceded.

Five figures materialized on the bridge of the Starburst.

"Captain Green!" Sen attempted to find the pulse of the unconscious captain, "He's dead."

VonBach looked around, "There isn't any damage."

"So, what caused this?" Collins asked.

"A very good question, Commander." Sen scanned the Captain, "I can't find a cause of death. Sen to Hyperion, beam Captain Green to the morgue."

The dead Captain, whose body was at it's post, dematerialized.

"This one's alive, Sen." West called, standing at the helm console.

"And conscious." Collins and Sen approached. As Collins questions the cadet, Sen scanned him, "Your name, Cadet?"

"Foster." He said, "Orville Foster."

"What happened here, Cadet Foster." Collins asked.

"Let me answer that, Commander." A young girl in a cadet's uniform approached, three pips on her collar along with her Red Squad insignia. "Cadet Fourth Year Stephanie Raymond, Red Squad."

"Commander Dorian Collins, Red Squad." Collins said in reply.

"It hit us hard and fast. We responded to the distress call of a Trill cargo ship, and it swept through us like lightning." Raymond explained, "My acting chief medical officer, Cadet Novak, called it an energy life form. It took over the Captain, but burned through his synaptic relays like a candle through rope."

"We can do without the simile, Cadet." VonBach said, readying his rapid-fire phaser rifle, "Where is this entity now?"

"It keeps infesting crew members. It stays inside them until it kills them and moves on to a new host. It tried to interface directly with the ship, but overloaded the power systems." Raymond replied, "We tried to keep it in the brig, but it could pass right through the force fields."

"But where is it now?" West echoed VonBach's question.

Raymond sighed, trying to explain, "That's just it, ma'am. We don't know who it's it."

"Collins to Hyperion. We have a serious containment issue here on Starburst. An entity that possesses sentient life is on board. We have no way of knowing who it has possessed." Collins tapped her badge, "Recommend you quarantine the ship."

As she walked beside Collins, Raymond shot her a glance. "You said your name was Dorian Collins?"

"Yes." Collins gripped her rifle tightly.

"Red Squad."

"Yes."

"Tell me about it." Raymond said, curious.

Collins sighed, "The training cruise was supposed to last three months. We had a compliment of seven regular officers and thirty-five cadets. We ran the ship, and the officers critiqued our performance. We were in the Quepla sector when war broke out. We found ourselves behind enemy lines on day one of the war. We lost our compliment of regular officers in our first fight." A tear came to her eye, "Tim Waters took command. He was a fourth year like you. He was determined to carry out a mission sent to our late Captain, and the rest of my crewmates paid the price for our failure."

"The creature went for our regular officers first." Raymond said, remorsefully, "Orville, the helm officer, tried to stop Captain Green from taking over Starburst's functions. Green shot him, and the life form left him. That's when I assumed command."

"Any idea what it wants?" Collins asked.

"All we know is that it wants to get to the planet Eidolon VII." Raymond replied.

"Eidolon VII?" Collins asked.

"Steph!" A young girl ran up behind Raymond, "We've isolated the energy frequency the creature emits while in a body."

"Good work, Cadet." Raymond took a PADD from the girl, "Commander Collins, this is Cadet Lyanne Novak. Cadet Novak, Commander Dorian Collins."

"You're her!" Novak enthusiastically shook Collins' hand.

"Y-yeah." Collins stammered.

Novak regained composure and ran off.

"Just a bit of hero worship, Commander." Raymond smiled, "You are something of a Red Squad legend."

"I don't like it." VonBach and West walked through the corridors, "Not a damn bit. The idea that there's a thing inside the crew. A thing that'd control me. Get inside my head. I don't want something inside my head."

"Where would you put it?" West snipped, opening the door to engineering, "Come out, come out, wherever you are." She sang.

"Eidolon…" A voice growled.

"What?"

"Eidolon!" A man jumped from the dark room.

Instantly, VonBach opened fire. Several bursts of phaser fire hit the body, and a bright light left his body and flew through the bulkhead.

"It phased through solid matter." West said, shocked.

"Raymond to VonBach, we have the entity's frequency." VonBach's badge chirped.

"Cadet, we just shot the entity." VonBach replied, "In engineering. How fast can it move?"

"Fast." Raymond replied.

"So, what now?" Sen asked, now that Raymond's senior officers gathered along with the away team.

"Well, none of us have the Energy Parasite." Novak concluded her scans, "Meaning it's still out there."

"How do we kill it?" VonBach asked.

The cadets fell silent.

"We starve it." Collins suggested. "We beam everyone off who doesn't have the parasite, and kill the host. Then we warp out and send another ship to tractor the Starburst to a starbase after the life form dies."

"We don't know if it'll die." Novak replied.

West interjected, "It'd probably leave."

The group was speechless.

"I like it." VonBach said, "It's crazy, and involves shooting someone. I give it my total support."

"We could just take it to Eidolon VII." Raymond said.

"You couldn't make it there." Sen said, realisticlly.

Raymond got offended, "We're Red Squad, sir. We can do anything."

"You are Red Squad." Collins replied, "Totally oblivious of your own mortality. We do it my way, Cadet."

"Ma'am." Raymond said, spitefully, "You dishonor that insignia." She pointed to Collins' Red Squad pin.

"Better than dishonoring that one." Collins gestured to the cadet's comm. badge. She then tapped her own, "Collins to Hyperion, lock on to all signatures that aren't emitting this energy pattern."

The gathering dissolved in beams of light.

Raymond and Novak entered the conference lounge where Starwind was waiting.

"Captain Rodney Green died." Starwind said, "You know there's going to be an investigation, Cadet Raymond?"

"Yes." Raymond replied.

"From what my first officer tells me, the Starburst was a victim of circumstance. You'll be fine." Starwind reassured, "I'm awarding you a Legion of Honor for courage under proverbial fire. And Cadet Novak…" Starwind paused, "Lyanne? L-Y-A-N-N-E. What an odd way to spell it."

"My parents were dropped on the head as children, sir." Novak joked.

"Well, I'm giving you the Polaski Star, Cadet, for medical achievement. You discovered a new life form, after all."

"Was it difficult?" West asked Collins on the bridge.

"Seeing them. Yeah." Collins sat in the command chair, "But this time, there are survivors."

"Valiant had a survivor." West corrected.

Collins shook her head, "The Valiant was lost with all hands."