Blood and Ice
by Soledad
For disclaimer, rating, etc., see the Foreword.
Author's notes:
Daliwakans are a canon race. Their only representative, a Human/Daliwakan half-bred was the gigolo in Tom Paris' Sandrine's holoprogram. Ensign Hodel is "played" by Sendhil Ramamurthy, just for the exotic touch. Carli, the alien nurse, is "played" by Colin Morgan, better known as Merlin. And no, s/he's not a J'naii. Not all androgynous species are necessarily bloodless.
Technical data of the Oberth-class vessel are borrowed from the Ex Astris Scientia website. If I've misinterpreted anything, it's not the fault of that excellent site. I've made the Copernicus an Oberth-class ship because it was said to be a science vessel. Feel free to disagree with me. The rest of the technobabble is from the "Next Generation Technical Manual".
Chapter One – HAUNTED
The senior officers of the Enterprise were an interesting bunch, to put it mildly. Starting with William B. Ryker, the most… colourful personality that had ever served as an executive officer aboard a Federation starship.
Born as the only son of a highly-respected civilian advisor of Starfleet Command, the "little Bonaparte" had left home (and Earth altogether) at the age of fifteen, and ended up on the pleasure planet Argelius as a saxophone player. At seventeen, he became the companion of an Argelian lady dancer twice his age. Three years later the woman died, leaving her considerable wealth (mostly in the form of pleasure palaces and gaming arcades, which she co-owned with her late mentor's grown son, five years older than Ryker himself) to her young lover, making him almost disgustingly rich.
For some reason, however, Ryker decided that he wanted to join Starfleet after all, and went to the Academy, although he could have easily bought his own ship… hell, a whole fleet of ships! Serving first aboard the USS Pegasus, then on the Hood, he'd been assigned to the Enterprise right after the ship had come out of the Utopia Planitia Shipyards.
Despite his sometimes insubordinate behaviour, Picard liked him a great deal. While he was ready and willing to nail everything on two legs, males, females or genderless aliens, he was very reliable where duty was considered and worked well under pressure.
Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said about the CMO of the Enterprise. Beverly Crusher wasn't very good at dealing with the unexpected, and whenever a new problem presented itself, she seemed so clueless at first it could drive Picard up the walls. Without Dr. Selar's unflappable Vulcan calmness in the background, Beverly would have drowned in chaos several times already. Given enough time, Dr. Crusher proved an excellent physician, but quick decisions weren't her forte.
If one added to the mix Macha Hernandez, recently-promoted Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge, who still seemed a little uncertain about his new position but tried to hide it, and Tactical Officer Worf, who was staring sourly at the tabletop in front of him, as usual, one could easily realize that staff meetings never got boring aboard the Enterprise. Not even the colourless presence of Counselor Yar could bland the too many volatile personalities crowded into the same room, forced to make decisions each and every one of them could agree with.
Aside from the section heads, who were regularly present at the daily meetings, this time Transporter Chief O'Brien had been asked to join, and, of course, Counselor Yar, as always. Picard summarized the situation for them, then he looked at Data askance.
"Mr Data, are there any reports of what exactly is the Copernicus doing out here?"
The android nodded. "Aye, Captain. They have been scheduled for a routine cartography mission, in order to keep the star maps of this region up-to-date. They are also searching for previously unknown life forms in the neighbouring systems. So far, the most they have found were some algae."
"I see," Picard looked at Worf. "Do all attempts at contact still prove futile, Lieutenant?"
"No changes, Captain," reported the Klingon.
Picard shrugged. He hadn't really expected anything else, but it was worth trying.
"Counselor, have you been able to pick up any emotions from those aboard the Copernicus?" he then asked.
Yar nodded, her naturally pale face becoming ghostly white with distress.
"Hunger," she whispered. "I'm experiencing an incredible sensation of hunger, something I've never really felt before on such level."
"Perhaps there is a scarcity of supplies," Dr. Crusher suggested, her pretty art-déco features mirroring great concern, "and it has resulted in a mutiny."
Several people around the table suppressed a grin and Picard withstood the urge to roll his eyes – barely. As much as he loved Beverly, even he had to admit that she could be incredibly naïve sometimes – bordering on stupidity. At such times he really wondered how she had come so far in her chosen field, as half the time she seemed completely bewildered by each new thing.
Of course, it could have been just a clever role that she played to make others underestimate her. Most likely, however, she had very good friends in very high places. That, and capable co-workers who ironed out her mistakes in time.
"Do you really want to consider that possibility, Doctor?" Picard asked dryly.
Beverly had the grace to blush. "No, I don't," she admitted."
Fortunately, the others were more concerned with the task at their hands than with her hair-raising theories.
"We need to know what's going on over there," Ryker declared, stating the glaringly obvious as always; only Data was even worse than him in that area. "I'll lead the Away Team myself."
As that was one of the primary duties of every executive officer, the declaration didn't earn him any admirers. Picard simply nodded and asked the department heads for suitable candidates for the Away Team.
"I will go," Data offered. "Should there be some sort of epidemics, I will be immune."
"You might need me and my special vision, though, if there is a technical problem," LaForge said. "And I'll take Hodel with me. He's my best diagnostic engineer, and he's half-Daliwakan, with the most robust immune system after a Vulcan or a Klingon."
"And I'll take Daro and Baldor," Hernandez decided. "They're both crack shots and excellent at hand-to-hand combat; should Dr. Crusher's mutiny theory have any merit. Besides, there's little their Vulcanoid constitution couldn't deal with."
"Baldor is Romulan," Worf growled. "You shouldn't take a Romulan with you somewhere where you might have to depend on them. Romulans have no honour."
Hernandez rolled her jewelled eyes in exasperation. "Don't give me that Klingon nonsense!" she snapped. "Yes, Baldor is a Romulan – born in a family that has been living in exile on Vulcan for three generations!"
"That doesn't mean a thing," the Klingon answered stubbornly. "Romulans are a patient people. They can wait."
"Well, I can't!" Hernandez replied impatiently. "And since Baldor is best suited for this job, I'll take her with me. Period."
"Fine!" Worf growled. "Be a fool! But don't come to me, complaining, when she's shot you in the back!"
"Oh, believe me, you'd be the last creature in the multiverse I'd ever go to pour out my wounded little heart," Hernandez returned, dripping with sarcasm.
The others needed a moment to recover. The mere idea of Macha Hernandez pouring out her heart to anyone was too weird to even imagine. There was a general agreement aboard the Enterprise that she didn't even have a heart to begin with. Well, not beyond the biological necessity of said organ anyway.
"All right," Picard finally said. "Make it so, Number One. Your Away Team leaves in twenty minutes."
It spoke of the dedication of the Enterprise crew to their jobs that the Away Team found together in Transporter Room Three less than fifteen minutes later. Only Chief O'Brien was there even earlier, that is, but that was a given fact. During delicate missions, the transporter chief always insisted on operating the controls personally. This one was no exception.
This being a potentially dangerous mission, the two security guards chosen by Hernandez were armed with the heavier Type II hand phasers. They looked surprisingly alike, considering that Daro was a Rigelian male and Baldor a female Romulan. However, she wore her hair short-cropped, like the males of her species, and while she did possess the slim elegance that appeared to be typical for most Vulcanoids, she was not particularly pretty – or in any way feminine, for that matter.
The same could not be said about the med tech appointed to the Away Team. Carli, whose long and complicated name nobody could really remember, belonged to a species that was not a member of the Federation but had joined the officer exchange program of Starfleet, and came aboard the Enterprise less than a year earlier. The others usually referred to hir as he, because it was earlier for them, but in truth s/he was neither male nor female. Or s/he was both, depending on one's point of view, displaying male or female characteristics when "in heat", as s/he put it, depending on the gender of hir partner.
On the outside, s/he looked like a young human male around eighteen or twenty, of middle height and very thin, almost spidery, with long limbs and a narrow torso. Hir thin, almost triangular face sported killer cheekbones, a pair of large, luminous, dark blue eyes and ears that stuck out, elf-like, from hir smooth cap of short, thick and shiny black hair. With hir easy manners and mischievous nature, s/he had become very popular among the Enterprise crew.
LaForge's diagnostic specialist was just as much sought after. A gifted engineer in his mid-thirties, Hodel – which was the Anglicized version of his actual name – was the son of a Hindu mother and a Daliwakan father: a good head taller than O'Brien; slender, dark-skinned and almost devastatingly handsome, with wavy, ink-black hair that he wore just a bit longer than regulations would strictly allow. Fortunately for him, Geordi LaForge didn't care about such minor transgressions as long as people did their jobs well.
Hodel also had a row of delicate ridges down the centre of his forehead, and pronounced skin above the eyebrows, but a lot less prominent than by full-blooded Daliwakans, which only enhanced his good looks. Small wonder that he already had two spouses back on his home planet, and – according to Daliwakan custom – he was entitled to have three more.
He was also a good pal of Carli's, who seemed surprised to see him.
"Hi Mikal," s/he exclaimed in delight, "you coming with us on this away mission?"
Hodel nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, I can't wait. I've never been aboard an Oberth-class ship before; not outside the Fleet Museum, that is."
"They are interesting little vessels," O'Brien said, putting the image of the external sensors on the viewscreen behind his console. "A bit crammed perhaps, but very functional. I've served on one right after graduating… it was quite a challenge, but I loved it."
The other two watched the image on the screen with interest. The Oberth-class ship was definitely of a strange structure, with two separate hulls connected by the nacelle pylons. Many of the standard features found on other Starfleet vessels weren't present. The nacelles seemingly lacked the normal Bussard collectors and blue warp field grill. The navigation deflector array was apparently missing, too. There might have been impulse engines, but they weren't obvious. One had to wonder how the ship managed to travel through space to begin with.
"That's… unusual," Hodel commented softly; as an engineer, he must have found the ship even stranger than the other two. O'Brien nodded.
"Yep; a fairly old design. This ship class came into service in the early 23rd century and has been refitted and modernized several times since then. It's said that all Oberth-class ships will be retired as soon as the new Nova-class can replace them as planetary science vessels."
"Can you tell me anything about the inner structure?" Hodel asked.
"Sure," O'Brien said. "It's a very simple layout, actually. The upper section contains the living quarters, bridge and science labs. The bottom section contains the warp core and engineering. There's a turbolift shaft that runs through the pylons or the crew has the choice to beam to each section. The ship itself only requires a small crew to operate it."
"How many crewmembers are we talking about?" Carli inquired, mentally checking the contents of hir emergency medkit.
"Oberth-class vessels generally have a crew of eighty," O'Brien told him.
"Eighty people on such a small ship?" Hodel stared at the viewscreen, completely baffled. "How do they fit in, and that with the required equipment, too?"
O'Brien shrugged. "As I said, it is a little crammed. By a length of a hundred and fifty metres, there are only two decks within the saucer section, the upper one mostly occupied by the bridge itself. But we've managed just fine. One learns to live at close quarters if one has to."
They were interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the away team, lead by Ryker, who – to general surprise – was accompanied by Worf. The Klingon was carrying no hand phaser but a heavy phaser rifle. Baldor's faint smile hinted that she had an educated guess about the reason for their Tactical Officer's presence as well as for the heavy weaponry.
Captain Picard had chosen to see off the Away team personally, accompanied by Doctor Crusher, who was very obviously concerned about the possible dangers that could await the team aboard the Copernicus – above all contamination.
"No need to worry, Doctor," Chief O'Brien reassured her. "I'm beaming them over in a landing envelope."
The term clearly didn't ring a bell with the good doctor, as she blinked at the transporter chief in confusion.
"In a what?"
"An energy field which essentially provides an atmosphere and habitable living condition for all contained in it," Data explained. "It will restrict our movements by sixty per cent, but it allows us to ascertain the situation and decide which risks we will need to take before actually doing so."
"It will, if we finally move on," Ryker interrupted him rather impatiently. "Get ready, people, we don't have all day!"
The others followed him, taking their places on the transporter platform. Ryker looked at Picard.
"Permission to beam over to the Copernicus, sir?"
"Permission granted," Picard turned to O'Brien. "Beam them over, Chief."
"Energizing," O'Brien touched the controls, watching as they turned into golden columns of light and disappeared. Then he checked his readouts. "Transfer complete, Captain. They've rematerialized. The landing envelope is in place and working."
The captain nodded. "Thank you, Chief. Keep a constant lock of them, just in case they might need an emergency beam-out. I'll be on the bridge."
The away team materialized in a darkened corridor of the other starship. As O'Brien had mentioned several times, the corridors were crammed, but that wasn't really surprising by a small saucer section of 39m diameter for the lower deck and 32m for the upper deck, respectively. As the same small saucer included the standard-sized bridge, a computer core, quarters for eighty crew members, three cargo bays and, of course, several science labs as it could be expected on a dedicated science ship, it was small wonder that the corridors offered barely enough room for two people to walk side-by-side.
"Are the environmental systems still working?" Ryker asked.
Data switched on his tricorder to check the environmental data and nodded.
"Oxygen levels are low but the air is still breathable," he replied. "The tricorder cannot detect any know pathogens or any traces of potentially harmful radiation, either.
"That doesn't rule out the presence of unknown pathogens, sir," Carli warned.
S/he made a very concerned impression, but considering that they were on a ship full of potentially dead people and that s/he was a short-range telepath, bombarded by the worried thoughts of everyone around hir, that was not really surprising.
"I know that, Ensign," Ryker answered tensely, "But I find the fact that we can't move around freely more dangerous," he touched his comm badge. "Ryker to Enterprise."
"Go on, Number One," Picard's disembodied voice answered.
"Captain, Data couldn't find any airborne threats," Ryker reported. "I think the landing envelope can be dropped safely."
"Very well," Picard's voice became more distant as he most likely turned away to speak through a different channel. "Chief O'Brien, drop the landing envelope," then it grow louder again as he turned back. "Good luck, Commander. Keep me informed. Enterprise out."
In the next moment the air around them shimmered briefly, as the energy shield collapsed – and then it hit them like a salvo of Romulan photon torpedoes.
"By the elements, it stinks!" Baldor complained, not even her Romulan stoicism being up to dealing with the odour. "As if something had died here."
"Or someone," Daro added darkly. "Or rather several someones."
He tried to breathe through his mouth, while the ever-practical Carli fished a surprisingly large, brick red kerchief out one of hir many pockets and bound it before hir nose and mouth. Ryker gave the android an accusing look.
"I thought you said we could breathe here, Data," he snapped.
"Correct, sir," the android replied blandly.
"How come that damn thing doesn't tell you about the odour of this so-called breathable air?" Ryker demanded.
Data, not sharing the human sensitivity for bad odours, simply stared at him, blinking in confusion. Ryker gave up. Some things were not worth arguing about; and besides, they had a job to do.
"All right, people, let's break up in three units," he said. "Geordi, you and Hodel go to Engineering. Take Worf with you, for safety's sake. Hernandez, you and your people check the science labs. Data, you and Carli come to the bridge with me."
"Aye, sir," the others chorused, and the team broke up, the three groups heading in three different directions.
None of them caught sight of the small cloud of glowing sparkles that followed them down the corridor for a while before it would vanish.
Back on the Enterprise bridge Beverly gave Picard an anxious look.
"What do you think they'll find on the Copernicus, Julien?" she asked, blithely ignoring the fact that they were on duty and she should have addressed him as Captain. "An alien infiltration? A mutiny? Or perhaps some terrible unknown illness?"
"Let's hope it's the latter; that way they'll have your help," Picard replied encouragingly. "Stay on the bridge with us. You can direct the medical aspects of the mission from here better."
Which would also give her co-workers the chance to do their jobs in peace, without her constant meddling and histrionics. But he was not going to voice that opinion. Not in front of the ersatz bridge crew.
She nodded in agreement but still seemed troubled. Picard wondered about the reason for that – when finally a random piece of information surfaced in his mind.
"You've got a relative on board the Copernicus, don't you?" he asked, with as much compassion as he could manage.
Which, to be honest, wasn't very much. He was sick and tired of her emotional rollercoaster – ever since her daughter had grown out of her diapers, the good doctor had been suffering from the thought of getting older.
Beverly hesitated for a moment. "A relative by marriage only," she finally admitted. "Robert Crusher, brother of my late husband, serves as the chief medical officer of the Copernicus."
Picard tried to be considerate of her feelings in this situation, but as he'd never met the man before, nor was he aware of his reputation, should he have any, all he could manage were a few vague commonplaces."
"Oh, don't worry about that," Beverly said quickly. "I've always prepared myself for the worst; not that I'd want to lose another member of my family," she added, her brave face crumpling in misery, making her look older than her actual age. "With Jack gone, Robert's all that's left of that part of my life… except Leslie, of course."
Who was thoroughly fed up with her mother still treating her like a small child, Picard knew that. Everyone knew it, as Leslie was fairly vocal about her feelings and didn't really care who heard her outbursts.
It was understandable, of course. Leslie had come of age earlier this year, growing into a beautiful young woman, and young omen wanted to be treated as adults at such age. Add to that the girl's genius-level intelligence and one could easily understand why she was irritated with her mother's behaviour.
"I'm sure Jack would have been very proud of his daughter, could he see what she has become," the captain emphasized, feeling like a cheap liar, as they both knew that Jack Crusher was not Leslie's biological father. "She's a great girl – give her a few more years and she'll become an extraordinary young woman."
That, finally, seemed to have been the right thing to say, as Beverly beamed at him gratefully.
"It's such a shame that Robert and Leslie have never met, as he's been away on deep space missions all her life," she then added, her smile faltering again.
Picard patted her hand encouragingly, glad that they were no longer together. She was high maintenance on the best of days, with her constant need for reassurance, and he had a starship to command. The starship; a vessel that needed all his attention.
"Hopefully now they will have the opportunity to do so," he said. "Why don't you take Bill's seat, Beverly? You can follow the events more comfortably from there."
Meanwhile, aboard the Copernicus Ryker, Data and Carli were heading towards the bridge. As O'Brien had told them, it occupied the upper deck of the saucer section. As they had originally arrived at a corridor in the crew's quarters, didn't have a long way to go, and so they could enter the bridge after about twenty minutes. It was barely lit and seemed abandoned.
"Try to re-establish standard illumination, Data," Ryker ordered.
The android went to what was most likely the control station for Engineering and worked on the console for a moment. Gradually, the lights became somewhat brighter, but still didn't reach normal level.
"I'm sorry, Commander," Data apologized, "the energy levels are dangerously low. Twenty-five per cent is all I can give you."
"I think it will be enough to see what we needed to see," Ryker answered grimly.
The other two joined him as quickly as they could without injuring themselves in the twilit room, and soon they were surrounding the mummified body of a Copernicus officer, half-lying in the command chair. He was wearing a burgundy uniform and the rank insignia of a captain on his collar.
"Presumably the commanding officer of the Copernicus," Riker guessed. "He must have been the one who sent out the distress call," he looked at Carli. "Can you tell me what happened him?"
"Well, he seems fairly dead for starters, sir," Carli replied, examining the body with hir medical tricorder. "In fact, he looks like someone who's been dead for quite some time. See? The eyes are open, but empty and hollow, skin colour is sallow, the cheeks are sunken and the lips pulled back from the teeth, as if the mummification process had already begun."
"That is impossible," Data said. "Nine hours and fifty-two minutes ago we still had regular contact with the Copernicus and everything was all right on board at that time."
"That may be so," Carli returned, holding hir tricorder right above the skull-like head of the dead man that was covered with wiry black hair, "but there's nobody home anymore. See? No neural activity whatsoever in the brain."
"Could some chemical agent have been released into the ship's atmosphere?" Ryker asked. Something that would speed up the mummification by, say, a factor of one hundred or so? This guy does look like those mummies dug out of the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt."
The android changed the settings of his tricorder and re-checked the environmental data. Then he shook his head.
"If there is, it is nothing that would be known by Federation science, Commander," he declared. "I cannot find anything unusual in the air."
"Aside from the odour," Carli added, "but I think we know now where that came from."
"Well, something has killed this man," Ryker said grimly, "and we need to find out what it was. Ensign," he looked down at Carli, who was still kneeling next to the command chair, taking readings and transferring hir founds to the medical computers of the Enterprise, "I want a complete analysis of the body chemistry of this corpse. The tiniest anomaly could be helpful. We need to know whether we would endanger the medical personnel in sickbay if we beamed it over to the morgue; in that case they'd need to prepare the isolation labs."
"Aye, sir," Carli replied absently and continued hir work.
"Number One, do you have an identification on the body," Picard, who was monitoring from the Enterprise, asked.
Ryker looked down at the mummified corpse in regret. What a way to end a Starfleet career! he thought.
"Well, the man wears a command uniform with a captain's rank pips, so I must assume that he is… was… Captain Ahrens, the commanding officer of the ship," he then said. "It is a human male in any case, and the colouring seems to fit. As for the right age – it's hard to tell with a mummy. The facial structure has also changed so much that a visual identification won't be easy. There's always the DNA-test, of course."
"Commander," Carli interrupted them. "I've just discovered something… disturbing."
"Define disturbing," Ryker said.
"Well," the med tech looked up to him, hir face stark white with shock, "I do find it disturbing that this man's body contains absolutely no blood. Highly disturbing, in fact."
~TBC~