Ensign Hoshi Sato paused to rub her eyes tiredly, taking her gaze away from her screen for a few moments to catch a surreptitious glance around the bridge. She had been working on the tricorder logs ever since the captain and the away team had returned to the ship. Captain Archer's tricorder had yielded very little information; it seemed Lieutenant Reed had taken the more detailed scans, but the data was even more corrupted than that held in Archer's tricorder; it seemed that Lt. Reed had been that much closer to the electromagnetic pulse. She had finally managed to extract the data and had been attempting to rebuild as much of the information as she could, while simultaneously trying to translate the archaic alien symbols. The language appeared to be pictorially based hieroglyphs rather than a recognisable alphabet as she had first thought, but rather than the pictures representing letters or words, they appeared to represent ideas – it was more of an art than a language, but the alien drawings were so far removed from any human concept of visual representation that it was difficult to work out what she was looking at. However, she was making slow progress, drawing parallels from other such hieroglyphic writings. One thing that she was certain of, however, was that the language she was looking at was old – truly ancient. She wondered if it might be the oldest language that she had ever seen. She almost smiled – if it had not been for the desperate urgency of the matter, she might have been excited at the prospect of writing a paper for her xenolinguistics journals and submitting the language for further study to her colleagues on Earth.
She tapped a few keys to bring up similar images, trying to ascertain the meaning, jotting a few notes on a PADD, and listening again to the repeated message she had recorded, and which had suddenly ceased, apparently at the same time that the ancient stone column had been destroyed. She regretted the loss of such an artefact, and wished that she had been given the opportunity to study it up close, though from what she had heard about the away mission, she was relieved she had stayed behind.
Turning her attention back to her console, she lost track of time, engrossed in her work. She was just making a few notes when she sensed a movement beside her, and jumped slightly when she realised that Captain Archer was standing there.
"Sorry, captain," she apologised, feeling herself blushing slightly, "I – I didn't see you there..."
"I didn't want to break your concentration," Archer quirked a tired smile; Hoshi could see the worry in his eyes; "we've been getting reports from all over the ship of sightings of everything from a smoke in the corridors to mist shimmering in the mess hall. One crewman, who shall remain nameless, apparently completely freaked out when a 'ghost' appeared in his quarters. This creature is definitely on board, we're just lucky nobody else has been hurt by it so far."
"I've been working on the scans Lt. Reed took," Hoshi reported, turning back to her monitor, "captain, this language is incredibly old, older than anything I've ever seen. It's very complicated, I can't get an exact translation, and the logs are badly corrupted..."
"Anything you can give me at this stage would be helpful, Hoshi."
She sighed, and took a moment to organise her thoughts, before summoning an image of several alien symbols onto the screen before her.
"The language is based on pictorial representation rather than a concrete alphabet, it looks like a very early form of a written language – almost primitive," she explained, "but, oddly, there seem to be representations of an advanced technology; whatever it was that produced the EM pulse you experienced... it's almost as if the people who wrote this witnessed the technology but did not understand it."
"So perhaps whoever built the stone circle and the column didn't carve the symbols?" Archer guessed.
Hoshi nodded; "Exactly – I think the people who carved the column were attempting to explain what they had seen. I can't translate much – most of it doesn't seem to have a direct meaning. It certainly doesn't relate to the message we were picking up. It's two different languages, sir. Two different races."
"Damn," Archer said, "so we're no further forward then..."
"Not much," Hoshi admitted, "but I do have a little. All I can say is that whoever carved the column recorded a lot about a bright light – it looks like a sun, or a star. There's also a rather odd depiction and I can't figure it out; it looks like some sort of god, or demon – something bright and powerful. It's this symbol, here..."
Archer drew in a sharp breath of recognition, causing Hoshi to give him a quizzical look.
"Captain...?" she began, curiously.
The strange pictogram, to Hoshi, appeared to be a stylised eagle, standing on two legs with two clawed arms outstretched. Sharp lines emanated from the creature's hands, and large wings were spread out behind its back.
"That looks remarkably like the figure that appeared to us on the surface," Archer replied, in a deliberately measured tone, "does the text give any indication about what it is – or what its intentions are?"
"Hard to say, captain," Hoshi said, apologetically, "I'll keep at it, though. Whatever this creature is, it appears several times on the carvings; the computer is still recovering data. The tricorder memory cores were severely corrupted."
"Anything you find out, let me know immediately," Archer inclined his head, and stepped away slightly, "T'Pol, you have command – I'll be in sickbay."
"Aye, captain," T'Pol acknowledged, as he stepped into the turbo-lift.
Archer made his way down to sickbay quickly, and was surprised to find that, if anything, the air was even warmer. Trip stood up to greet him, and was obviously feeling the heat – he had removed his uniform jacket, revealing his standard issue blue t-shirt.
"Hey Jon," Trip immediately dispensed with formality, "Phlox is around here somewhere..."
"I am here, Captain," the doctor appeared from behind one of his many animal cages, frowning as he checked one of the readouts on the bio-bed, "I assume you still wish to speak to Lt. Reed..."
"I'm afraid I must," Archer nodded, firmly, "Hoshi isn't getting anywhere with the alien text, she says it's a different language entirely from the signal we received... if Lt. Reed has communicated with this creature, then I need to know what it may have said to him."
Phlox drew in a deep breath and sighed, reaching for a hypospray, as he reminded Archer; "I must repeat, captain, I do not agree with this course of action."
"I'll note your objection in my log, doctor," Archer replied, crossing his arms.
The doctor frowned, but said nothing, and administered the injection.
"Give him a moment," the doctor said, holding up a cautionary hand, "he is likely to be disoriented..."
Phlox did not get any further; with a sudden gasp, Reed shot bolt upright on the bio-bed, causing both Trip and Archer to jump back in surprise. Phlox grabbed Reed's arm, as if to restrain or support him, but the lieutenant made no further attempt to move, simply sitting there, gasping in deep breaths, and looking around wildly.
"Lieutenant?" Dr Phlox stepped forward to where Reed could see him, "Lieutenant Reed, do you know where you are?"
Reed hesitated, and nodded, still gasping a little, as he stuttered out; "S...sickbay. Enterprise..."
"Good. Do you know what happened to you?"
Reed opened his mouth as if to speak, but Trip cut him off, point upwards with a cry of "Captain!"
Archer and Phlox both respectively looked up, and there is was – a thick, white cloud of shimmering mist, pouring through the bulkhead, obviously drawn by Reed's sudden return to consciousness.
"Don't touch it," Archer warned, "don't do anything unless it threatens us..."
Trip already had a phaser in hand, keeping it targeted at the coalescing figure. Phlox had already grabbed a scanner and was taking detailed readings. The figure formed in the air just above and behind Reed, who had apparently frozen in place. The figure raised its clawed hands, placing them either side of Reed's head. The lieutenant gasped in obvious pain as the light around the creature's hands grew brighter.
"Leave him alone!" Trip pulled the trigger, but the beam passed straight through the apparition.
On the bed, Reed drew in a shaky breath – his eyes had clouded over again, taking on a milky-white appearance. He trembled in the creature's grasp, and Archer took a step forward, but then Reed spoke.
"Do not move."
Archer froze. Reed had spoken, but it was not Reed's voice – it seemed that the creature was speaking through the armoury officer. Reed's eyes were glowing an eerie white as the figure spoke.
"If you move I will kill this one."
"Who are you?" Archer asked, taking a cautionary step backwards, gesturing for Trip to lower the phaser, "My name is Jonathan Archer, Captain of the Enterprise..."
"I do not care," the creature replied, through Reed, "where are the T'ch'ra'kai? This one has a receptive mind, but no knowledge."
"I... I do not know that word," Archer replied, honestly, glancing at Trip and Phlox, who both shook their heads, "who or what are the tuh... ch...?"
"You do not know that T'ch'ra'kai. This one confirms this," the creature moved one clawed hand over Reed's head, and the lieutenant grimaced, clearly in pain, "you know nothing of me. You know nothing of the T'ch'ra'kai. This is not possible. Our watch spread over the dozen known star realms. How can this be, that you do not know the twelve watchers of the T'ch'ra'kai? How long have I been imprisoned?"
"Captain," Phlox's warning tone cut in, quickly, "Lt. Reed is suffering extreme neurological disruption, prolonging this conversation could cause serious brain and nervous system damage. His body temperature is also dropping rapidly. He could be at risk of cardiac arrest."
"You are hurting my crewman," Archer said, addressing the entity hovering above the bed, "please, you must release him."
"One life does not matter. I will find another receptive vessel. You will help me find the T'ch'ra'kai."
"All life matters to my species. I will not help you if you hurt my crew."
There was a slight pause, and then the mist suddenly evaporated, disappearing upwards into the ceiling. Released from its grasp, Reed groaned, and slumped sideways. Phlox caught his arm, supporting him, trying to ease him back onto the bed. However, Reed struggled, trying to pull himself towards Archer.
"Captain," he wheezed, reaching out, blindly, "it... it wants to find its people..."
"These T'ch'ra'kai – they are its people?" Phlox queried, saving the Archer the trouble of attempting to pronounce the unfamiliar word.
"Yes," Reed's voice was little more than a whisper; Archer was appalled to see blood drip from the lieutenant's nose onto the blanket, "but it... it's very angry. It wants to kill them... they imprisoned it, on the planet. Our scans woke it up, and it realised the power supply keeping it there was failing... it caused the explosion..."
"Do you know why it was imprisoned?" Archer asked, as Trip took over supporting Reed, allowing Phlox to rush to prepare a hypospray.
Half-sitting, half-cradled in Trip's arms, Reed drew in a shuddering breath, blinking rapidly as his eyes slowly began to clear a little; "I... I don't know. It's dangerous... it wants a body, but it's too powerful, it would kill the host after a while, no matter what... it's the only time it's vulnerable..."
"Does it mean to hurt us?" Archer asked, urgently, "Is it a threat to the crew?"
Reed tried to speak but could only gasp as pain lanced through him; it felt as if every nerve was simultaneously freezing and burning, while someone had stuck a spike through his head. He had no control over his body, which was shaking uncontrollably, as he tried to raise his hands to cover his eyes, anything to ease the pain...
"Malcolm! Is it a threat to the crew?"
"It would kill us all," Reed whispered, painfully, as he felt himself being lowered onto the bed, "to get what it wants..."
Something was pressed against his neck, and he distantly recognised the distinctive hiss of a hypospray. He groaned, once, and then surrendered to the darkness.