Archer glanced at the faces of his senior crew as they stood around the briefing table. They had re-watched the security footage from sickbay a number of times over the last couple of hours, while Hoshi continued with her attempts at translation. They had reconvened to share their findings.
"The creature that appeared in sickbay had no detectable life signs," Dr. Phlox was there, having taken a brief sojourn from the medical bay to deliver his report in person, "however, I did discern notable levels of electromagnetic energy and something that I can only describe as a neurological reading – it has a very distinctive brain pattern, but it can only be detected at extremely close quarters. It is clearly non-corporeal and very powerful, a creature of pure energy. It seems to be telepathic in nature but lacking in empathy; it showed no remorse or sympathy for harming Lt. Reed and threatened to kill him if we did not assist it in finding the T'ch'ra'kai. However, I do not know if it is actually malevolent or simply ambivalent."
"What is Lt. Reed's condition?" Archer asked, quickly.
"Stable, for now," Phlox conceded, "I am keeping him sedated to reduce the trauma and aid his recovery, but I fear each time the creature interacts with him, it causes him further pain. It is apparent that the creature has to restrain its powers if it wishes to use a human host."
"Lt. Reed said it was vulnerable – could it do that? Possess a member of the crew entirely?" Hoshi asked, clearly concerned, "Would we know if it did?"
"It was pretty obvious while it was using Malcolm," Trip replied, recalling the misty form and Reed's glowing white eyes, "I think we'd know if someone had been, uh, possessed..."
"Any luck with the translations – or with finding out about this T'ch'ra'kai?" Archer asked, glancing around, clearly desperate for some good news or useful inspiration.
"The word T'ch'ra'kai fits in with the message we initially received," Hoshi reported, bringing up the image of the creature Archer had identified to her earlier, "all I can work out from the recorded message is that it was automated and left there by this species; whether as a welcome or a warning I can't tell."
She tapped a few more keys, and brought up a few more of the archaic pictograms.
"This isn't so much a language as a representation of events," she explained, tapping some of the images to enlarge them, "that's why it's so hard to translate – but from what I can make out, the planet was occupied by a primitive people. I have no name for them, but they apparently worshipped this creature as a god..." she gestured to the hawk-headed alien, "however, it seems that other gods came and imprisoned their god in a chamber of stone. It was a punishment – but it became a holy place to the people, a place to go when they were dying."
"That explains the skull we found," Archer commented, "it looks as though this 'god' was our non-corporeal visitor who assumed the appearance of the native people."
"Agreed," Hoshi nodded, "I don't know what happened to wipe out the indigenous people, but it seems that they relied on their god to protect them."
"And he wasn't there to save them," Archer mused, "does it say much about the nature of this god? Was he kind or cruel, I wonder?"
"I don't know, captain," Hoshi sighed, "all I can translate from what I can see, is that their god had the power of life and death; his word was law and his wings could block out the sun if he was displeased... it's all very vague."
"I have been running long range scans of the star systems within the vicinity," T'Pol reported, tapping a few buttons, "the entity spoke of 'the dozen known star realms'. Assuming these to be star systems capable of supporting life, I have identified seven potential star systems within range that could be the realms it spoke of. There might be sentient life that would have knowledge of this creature and its intentions."
Hoshi's pictograms disappeared, to be replaced by star charts on the computer screens.
"You mean we might find the T'ch'ra'kai?" Archer raised his eyebrows as he studied the newly charted systems.
"It is one of many possibilities, captain," T'Pol responded, "it is also possible that we will find nothing except for seven more planetary systems to add to our star charts."
"Do you have any hints as to where we should start, T'Pol?" Archer asked, carefully, leaning on the table to study the charts.
She paused for a moment, and then pressed a few buttons, bringing up one of the star charts.
"This planet looks the most capable of supporting life as we would recognise it, captain," she reported, "it has a nitrogen-oxygen rich atmosphere, several large land masses and oceans covering more than half of the planet's surface. However, if the T'ch'ra'kai are non-corporeal, they might not require such hospitable conditions and they could reside on any planet – assuming, that is, that they still exist at all."
"Understood," Archer nodded, tapping the edge of the table thoughtfully, "well, without any more hints from our intruder, we need to start looking somewhere. Travis, lay in a course – we'll check this one out first."
Alone in sickbay, Lt. Malcolm Reed lay in an induced slumber, silent and unmoving under a heated blanket as the monitors around him kept a steady reading on his life signs. However, the neurological scanner began to emit a low, continuous beeping, as the brain activity began to increase dramatically. A white cloud was forming above the armoury officer's chest; it was shapeless this time, as a tendril reached forwards, piercing his sternum. Reed gasped and sat straight up on the bed, snapped awake and pulled upright by the invisible force. The voice – the awful, screeching voice – echoed around in his head, and he groaned in pain.
"What do you want?" he hissed, through gritted teeth; "Why me? What do you want from me?"
You are the protector of these people, the voice was quieter this time, but still felt like claws sinking into his head, just as I was the protector of mine. You will help me.
"I will not jeopardise this crew!"
I am Tai'chu'un. I do not care about your people. I must find the T'ch'ra'kai. You will help me or I will kill you and find another.
Reed hesitated; he had no real fear of dying in the line of duty but his death would accomplish nothing if the creature simply moved on to someone else.
"What must I do?"
You will take me to the home of the T'ch'ra'kai.
"Why? Why did they imprison you?"
Take me to them.
"I need to know why!"
So that the people you protect do not die. Give yourself to me.
"What?"
I require a host. I need a solid form to fly a small ship to their star realm. You will be my body.
"No! No, I – argh!"
Reed broke off with a choked cry of pain as the ghostly creature, Tai'chu'un, passed straight through his chest. A cold feeling swept through him like an arctic blast; every muscle felt leaden and heavy. His eyes were misty, he could barely see through the white clouds that seemed to be masking his vision. Every nerve sang with pain, but he was moving, unwillingly, pulled around like a puppet to the creature's whim. Its voice constantly whispered and shrieked in the back of his mind; he could not see, speak or move of his own accord; trapped in his own body, he fought to regain control, but the creature laughed at his efforts.
Sleep, it commanded, I must keep you alive for now... so you must sleep.
That was the last think Reed was aware of before everything went dark. Tai'chu'un stood up, flexing Reed's hands, taking in the odd nuances of the alien body it inhabited. By suppressing most of its natural powers, Tai'chu'un was able to keep the body alive. It was not as physically strong as that of its watched people, nor was it capable of flight, but this did not matter; the brain was much more advanced and with a little adjustment it had accommodated the entity perfectly with only minor damage to the host.
It walked towards the door. Two crewmen stood there, who turned in amazement.
"Lieutenant...?" one of them asked, uncertainly, reaching for a weapon.
A mere wave of the host's hand sent a wave of telepathic energy coursing through the two of them, as they convulsed and collapsed to the deck. Tai'chu'un stepped over them, and paused, accessing the host's mind, looking for schematics of the ship. It was much harder to move around when confined to physical spaces and solid floors. The host attempted to protest, but Tai'chu'un simply tore down its pathetic attempts to resist and forcefully extracted the information it needed. It then turned and strode down the corridor, stumbling a little as it got used to the motion of walking in this strange form. It encountered several more of the odd people who crewed the ship; most of them were caught unawares, but one or two fired weapons at it. Tai'chu'un felt the energy discharges and absorbed them, dispelling them harmlessly. Each impact caused pain to the host, but Tai'chu'un silenced it and ignored the physical sensations. The pain meant nothing to it. One of the figures before the creature raised a communications device.
"Ensign Fox to Captain Archer! Lieutenant Reed has left sickbay – it appears the intruder is using him to..."
Tai'chu'un unleashed a psychic blast, but the woman before him dived back around the corner. The other crewman was not so lucky, and crumpled to the deck, shivering and groaning, clutching his head.
"Ensign Fox! Report!" Archer's voice was coming from the communicator.
Fox opened fire, but the phaser beam had no effect. The creature waved a hand, throwing her backwards into the bulkhead, where she slid to the floor, stunned. The figure of Lt. Reed walked past her, his eyes glowing with a freakishly bright white light, as she reached for the communicator.
"This is Ensign Fox," she muttered, attempting to get to her feet, "sir, the creature is in possession of Lt. Reed... he, uh, it, um, I mean, they... they seem to be heading to the shuttle bay..."
"Lock down all shuttle access," Archer ordered to someone on the bridge, "Ensign Fox – keep a visual on the entity but do not engage further. We need to stop it from leaving the ship."
"Understood, captain!"
Fox hauled herself to her feet and dashed down the corridor after the creature.