Mission 94.1201: Hlmnae Hlun: Try Again

[Deleted]

As the Centurion led the team of senior officers out onto the hull, the scene before them was a strange one. Above the hull, deep darkness of space and the brilliant array of stars was barely punctuated by the gently falling and drifting objects that appeared almost like snow and only added to the peaceful picture, but as his sight shifted down back towards the hull, the punctuation of ‘rock’ pelting both ship and crew with violent frequency shattered the mood entirely and created an atmosphere of war instead of peace. It was a strange combination of scenes, which only seemed to add to a feeling of awe at both the beauty of nature and the tragedy of destruction.

Still, the urgency of the situation managed to bleed through it all, and in spite of the strange contradiction before them, and the group pressed on towards their goal, a group of three engineers trapped in the raging torrent of unknown objects raining down on them in a seemingly endless deluge. The two security officers and Dor’vel headed straight for their destination, the three engineers, while predictably so, the science and medical officer stopped to examine one of the fallen missiles and the Legate observed the scene. Swatting away the debris like annoying insects, he was the first to arrive by one of the engineers, who was obviously dead, but still, the security chief called for Sural, who was still hovering over one of those things.

They had been somewhat sheltered under a section of hull, where the deceased had most likely been trying to go, but once the rest approached the dead engineer, the persistent clatter of impacts surrounded them. So far, the objects didn’t seem to pose much of a threat, but Dor’vel was willing to bet that after too long, the suits would begin to sustain damage, and once punctured, the occupant wouldn’t have much hope like the first casualty. While one of the security officers deactivated the gravity boots of the man and began to pull him back to the hatch for transportation to the morgue as Sural ordered, the Centurion turned his attention back to the two remaining engineers, and was horrified to find out that one of them had somehow disengaged from the hull, and he was now drifting slowly away from the S’Harien.

For a moment, Dor’vel blinked in dismay at the fate of the man in front of him before snapping out of it and trying to concoct a plan. There was no way to transport the man, as the…things were creating some sort of interference, and that was further complicated by the sudden surrounding of the doomed engineer. “We will need to pinpoint his exact location and then relay the coordinates to the transporter room. Once they’ve erected a forcefield, we’ll have to beam everything in that vicinity to sickbay and hope the only thing that survives transport is our officer. Then we’ll...”

His orders were interrupted by several gasps of surprise, and spinning around as quickly as the suit would allow expecting to see some sort of giant rock descending on them, the Centurion instead was horrified to find that the Chief Science Officer was quickly drifting away from the hull towards the engineer. Jaw dropping open in shock, the Centurion sighed heavily. “Echal is going to want to kill someone for this...and it’s not going to be me...” he muttered to himself before initiating his plan, only doubled to account for both the engineer and one very stupid science officer, whom he hoped would eventually become the target of their Commander’s wrath.

Opening a channel, the Centurion quickly arranged for a quarantine field in sickbay while using his scanner to calculate Jhu’s exact position. After ordering a security team to sickbay, as whether or not the rock things would be filtered out or survive the transport was yet to be seen, and warning sickbay of incoming casualties and the danger, Dor’vel relayed the coordinates to the transporter room. A few moments later, what could still be made out of the containment suit and a sea of little rocks vanished, and the process was then repeated only with the unfortunate engineer. By the time the transporters were complete, the final officer was being rescued from the hull and the teams were reporting in that all had been retrieved, dead and alive. “Right...Doctor Sural, return to sickbay. I’m sure you’re needed there,” he ordered.

<Tag Sural>

Turning back to the two remaining members of his team, who’d followed him back under the protection of the hull extension, Dor’vel focused on his second objective. “Ok, let’s get rid of some of these things,” he ordered and pulling out his disrupter, located the largest group of rocks and fired. To his mutual horror and delight, the things seemed to chain react, and in a massive explosion that knocked the group to their feet, an entire section of hull was cleared. Shaking his head to clear the ringing, the Centurion staggered to his feet, grimacing as Govan’s voice sounded.

=/\=What’s going on out there now, Centurion?=/\= an infuriated Echal demanded.

“Sir, the hull is mostly cleared of personnel, so I fired at a concentration of objects. They appear to be linked somehow, and a single shot took out dozens of them and caused that explosion you felt. If the ship wasn’t badly damaged, that might be a good way to get rid of these things quickly. Lieutenant i-Mhiessan said something about them being organic, so if there’s any sort of intelligence, it may also detract the rest of the things from swarming around the ship anymore, Sub Commander.”

There was a moment’s pause, probably as Govan thought about it, before a much calmer and a slightly gleeful Echal replied. =/\=You may fire at will, Centurion.=/\=

Half a smirk crossed Dor’vel’s face at the similar sneer in the Sub Commander’s voice. “Acknowledged,” he replied before fully grinning over at Ch’varak and Virh. “Centurion Dor’vel to all teams, open fire and start wiping out these things. Be sure to take cover before firing, because they seem to ignite faster than warp plasma.”

<Tag Tevio and Terrh>

~

So far, two more officer, both also scientists, had come in with the same symptoms as Uhlan Rahdik. Tamir had kept them quarantined and taken and run their blood samples as ordered, but so far nothing she did seemed to make them comfortable, which upset her greatly. She hated seeing others suffer. So far nothing had come up in their blood or on scans aside from the swelling, which seemed to be more of an effect than a cause. The only good thing is that so far, it didn’t seem to spread from person to person, as aside from the three patients, no other cases appeared.

The nurse was far from a researcher or a full-fledged doctor, but she had enough knowledge and skill to run a series of tests and know what was normal and what wasn’t. So far she hadn’t found anything, but Tamir wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d missed something. When the call came in that casualties were being sent to the morgue and injured to sickbay, the civilian didn’t even think twice. Her place was with the living, not the dead, so she decided to leave the autopsies for others and help those who needed her help most. As the engineers began arriving, most of whom were merely banged up and bruised, Tamir busied herself rushing back and forth retrieving hyposprays and dermal regenerators to heal their minor wounds.

Tamir was still running around when another call came in, this time for a complete quarantine. Once a small section of sickbay was cordoned off and surrounded by a forcefield, the transport was initiated and the nurse was shocked at recognizing Jhu. The science officer was surrounded by rocks scattered across the floor, and as the medical officers in containment suits moved forward to remove the patient’s own mostly undamaged suit, the Civilian nurse gasped in horror at the array of what looked like chemical burns of some kind covering Lieutenant i-Mhiessan’s skin. A few moments later, and a second Romulan officer was beamed in only he was even more badly burned than the science chief, and it didn’t look like he had a chance.

While the doctors worked quickly to try and heal the burns, although it seemed to be a lost cause for the second victim, Tamir turned back to healing the bumps and bruises of the luckier engineers, and hoped that somehow everyone would be ok.

<Tag Jhu and Sural>

[Deleted]

Things seemed like they were getting worse and there was very little he could do about it. Jhu had snuffed him again it did not matter she already gave him some information which was all he needed. Watching the drift was alittle un settling he didn't like to see his people get hurt. At this rate he would have much of a team left which was not making him happy either.

Thats when he noticed the weapons fire and saw the crystals start exploding something was bugging him something had him on edge. While everybody was watching the scence in front of him he pulled is scanner out and started scanning the hull of there ship and it was not good news. while the weapons fire was destroying the crystals it was sending fragments all over the hull and they were absorbing them selves into the hull.

" Commander Echal we need to stop and I mean now. Tiny amounts of the crystal are landing on the hull and bonding to it. I'm not quite sure what the results will be but since they are not being asborded by the hull it would be a good idea to find out what happening to the hull. I need to back down to engineering and gather somethings. I will start scanning the hull to see whats happening"<Tag Echal>

[Deleted]

Opening a channel, the Centurion quickly arranged for a quarantine field in sickbay while using his scanner to calculate Jhu’s exact position. After ordering a security team to sickbay, as whether or not the rock things would be filtered out or survive the transport was yet to be seen, and warning sickbay of incoming casualties and the danger, Dor’vel relayed the coordinates to the transporter room. A few moments later, what could still be made out of the containment suit and a sea of little rocks vanished, and the process was then repeated only with the unfortunate engineer. By the time the transporters were complete, the final officer was being rescued from the hull and the teams were reporting in that all had been retrieved, dead and alive. “Right...Doctor Sural, return to sickbay. I’m sure you’re needed there,” he ordered.

"In out In out" Sural muttered "I could have stayed in Sickbay the whole time." none too reluctantly Sural turned and made his way back to the hull access point. It took him a considerable length of time to remove his eva suit before finally arriving back in Sickbay.

"Report" he barked

Tamir was tending to some of the injured engineers and she looked up as he entered.

"No more officers reporting symptoms but lieutenant Jhu has serious burns. I ve done what I can to regenerate her tissues."

Sural went directly to her bio bed and looked at the still red and scarred tissue of her arm. He frowned.
"You've already used a tissue regenerator"

Tamir nodded "I stopped after five minutes"

"Good" Sural nodded. Tissue regenerators were amazing tools but over use caused cell disruption and mutation that could lead to cancer or other nucleic problems.

"The scarring is still quite bad and the skin membrane open to infection" he mused to no one in particular, "Get me a scalpel. An old one. By that I mean Sharp metal none of this laser stuff. Mono filament will do. A micro sutcher. 5 cc's growth medium and 10 cc's of plasma."

A medical technician moved quickly to fulfill his order unsure if the stocked such implements as a metal scalpel. They didnt and he was forced to detour to an industrial replicator. He laid the tools out on a tray beside the doctor.

"Nurse. Remove the patients left trouser leg. I need access to her thigh."

Tamir obeyed,

"Monitor her life signs. I m going to do a skin graft"

A graft! Tamir was surprised that anyone still knew how to do such a thing, it seemed rather odd now to take skin from one part of the body to heal another when a tissue regenerator could handle most problems.

Sural skillfuly took the scalpel and made a thin incision along Jhu's thigh. Carefully he ran the blade under the slit to draw away a wafer thin section of epidermis. There was surprisingly little blood and Sural was soon transferring the nearly translucent membrane to the burn on Jhus upper arm. Grasping the micro sutcher he attached the graft and flooded the surrounding tissue with cell medium and plasma. He sealed the edge with a regenerator and stood up rubbing his aging back.

"Right bind her leg and monitor her vitals. She'll be fine" he stated wearily. "Right who is next" The technician led the doctor on to the next bed. He had barely begun to make an assessment when a stammering from the comm surprised him

"Doctor... doctor can you come down to the Morgue.... the the dead are rising."

"Nonsense" Sural snapped but was intrigued nevertheless and went down to the small morgue. He was met by an orderly and a pair of nervous pair of Security Officers.

"In there" the orderly pointed "The dead engineer. hes alive."

"Rubbish"Scoffed Sural and barged his way into the room.

It was dark, soft light only and cold. A single corpse remained on a gurney clad in a white sheet. The sheet had indeed shifted revealing a grey pallid face.

"I pronounced him dead myself" Sural continued as he neared the body. Then it twitched. The guards went for their disruptors whilst the orderly ran from the room. Sural was more curious. He unslung his tricorder and approached.

A twitch swung the head of the engineer round. His eyes wide open, life like and alert. One of the guards levelled his weapon.

"Put it away" Sural snapped

"But but hes..."

"Dead quite dead, and no threat." He looked at his tricorder. The man was indeed dead but the crystalline growth had stimulated neural responses through the body especially in the neo-cortex and visual cortex. It was fascinating, it was then that he made a leap of deduction.

"Sural to Govan."

"What is it doctor? I m busy."

"Its your meteorites sir. They aren't meteorites. They are spores. They are definitely crystalline spores. They contain a spark of life that attempts to bioform whatever it strikes into what I guess is a larval form. Human bodys lack enough silicates for the process to be effective but their micro agents are small enough to cause a kind of flu like contagion. I believe I can formulate a vaccine but it will take time. One other thing. Something that reproduces with spores this big... well must be huge. Sural Out"

TAG ALL

[Deleted]

In spite of the current situation, Govan really wished he was out on the hull blowing the showers of rocks away from his ship. At the moment, he greatly envied Dor’vel and the others for being able to actively do something to defend the S’Harien. But instead, the Sub Commander was stuck on the bridge, waiting for reports and able to do absolutely nothing. It really wasn’t fair and didn’t pay to be in charge sometimes.

=/\=Commander Echal we need to stop, and I mean now. Tiny amounts of the crystal are landing on the hull and bonding to it. I'm not quite sure what the results will be but since they are not being absorbed by the hull, it would be a good idea to find out what happening to the hull. I need to back down to engineering and gather some things. I’ll start scanning the hull to see what’s happening,=/\= the engineer reported.

“Acknowledged,” Echal shot back in irritation. “Cease fire. We’ll have to come up with some other way to get rid of these things. Dor’vel, get everyone off the hull.”

It was back to square one it would appear, and it was a square Govan was becoming rather fed up with continually returning to. Scrounging the furthest resources of his mind for anything that might be useful in the situation, the Sub Commander came upon a random idea and threw it out there. “Echal to Virh, would it be possible to polarize the hull and adjust the shield frequency so as to repel the rocks or perhaps shatter their crystalline structures?” he asked with no clue if he was making sense.

<Tag Terrh>

This asteroid field was a nightmare... Whoever had selected this as the S’Harien’s training ground was either horribly misinformed or very well informed with a grudge. Govan didn’t know which, but either way, he or she was rising rapidly on his list of people to pay back, and with the alarm sounding from the tactical console, the name rose even higher. “What is it now?” Echal demanded turning on Dor’vel’s stand-in.

“Sensors are detecting energy readings and movement from deeper in the field, Sir. The computer doesn’t recognize anything more specific than that,” he replied.

“On screen,” the Sub Commander demanded, turning to face the viewscreen, which lit up with a rather boring view of asteroids. “I’m not seeing anything, Sub Lieutenant. Magnify until I actually have something to look it.” Echal spat at the man in disgust as the screen began to shift to a closer view, and the closer it got, the worse it got. At first it just looked like more and more rocks drifting through space, but through moving the view back and forth, it became apparent that a group of these giant boulders were not just drifting; they were moving under their own power somehow and heading through their non-independent counterparts straight for the S’Harien.

=/\=Sural to Govan,=/\= the poorly timed voice of the doctor said over the comm.

Highly exasperated with good reason, Govan snapped, "What is it, doctor? I’m busy."

=/\=It’s your meteorites, Sir. They aren't meteorites. They’re spores. They’re definitely crystalline spores. They contain a spark of life that attempts to bio-form whatever it strikes into what I guess is a larval form. Human bodies lack enough silicates for the process to be effective, but their micro agents are small enough to cause a kind of flu like contagion. I think I can formulate a vaccine, but it’ll take time. One other thing, something that reproduces with spores this big...well they must be huge.=/\=


“No kidding,” Govan grumbled “You’re a little late, Doctor, but thanks for the attempt at being useful. Forget about the injured and infected and focus on finding some sort of weakness we can exploit to fight these things. If you don’t, we’ll all end up dead. Work with science to come up with a way to defend against their attack, Echal out.”

<Tag Sural/Jhu>

Watching warily as the larger creatures, who under magnification appeared to be surrounded by the smaller ones, continued to advance on the ship’s position. Finally deciding on an order, the Sub Commander settled into his seat and glared at the approaching enemy. “Centurion Dor’vel, Lieutenant Ch’varak to the bridge, and all hands report to battle stations,” he announced, and as the bridge was bathed in the dark green light of high alert, he continued glaring at the screen. There was no way that Sub Commander Govan Echal would be taken down by a bunch of asteroids.

<Tag Tevio/All>

[Deleted]

Tevio had to steady himself after the idiotic Tactical officer fired at the crystalline objects. The chain reaction that the act induced provoked a call out of Govan Echal who asked what was going on, with much the same vein of emotion that Tevio was thinking inside. But that was not the only sensation, accompanying it were feelings of realisation and slight surprise. This early?

The Legate ignored the sideways smirk from Dor'vel, as the latter aimed his disruptor at another grouping of 'meteors'. Tevio had no interest in helping the Tactical officer - and Govan - ease their frustrations with being unable to do anything. All of his mind was concerned with his recently activated objectives.

Dor'vel was starting to move forward now, towards other groupings distant on the hull. Terrh followed him directly, Tevio made a show of it. They reached a ridge in the hull, where there was a small 'crevice'. As they approached it, running parallel with the ridge, Tevio stepped on to the ridge's other side. The ridge became more and more graduated, falling away on the Legate's side down to the crevice, Terrh and Dor'vel passed out of his sight as he made his way down into it. It was then that he activated his personal transportation device and beamed himself back into the ship directly to his office, assisted by the office's transporter projection enhancers.

He materialised in the dark room next to his desk, the room's lights immediately increased in brightness. Storing his bulky vacuum protection suit in a cupboard (for now), the Legate accessed his computer. He needed to brush up on this sporaceous lifeform, for he had only skimmed over the information on them that was in the attached orders from the Tal Diann. What his intelligence superiors wanted with this lifeform, Ch'varak could only guess. For now he just had to obey the orders, and report to the Senator with the results; he needed to get back on the ladder to glory, but the small, relatively insignificant steps needed to be taken first. This was just the start.

So, these spores. They were deadly to Romulans, apparently, according to the data, they did not do to a Romulan body what they intended, but it was enough for the result to be death. If that wasn't enough to know that these spores were not worth whatever the Tal Diann wanted to do with them, Tevio thought, Then what was?

"Centurion Dor'vel, Lieutenant Ch'varak to the bridge, and all hands report to battle stations."

It was Govan's voice, unmistakably. Without a moment's pause, Tevio shut off his computer and headed for the bridge, not caring who saw him in the corridor for once. One could not be secretive all of the time, he thought.

Arriving on the bridge, the reason for the Subcommander's summoning was instantly clear. Ah, the big variety.. the Legate mused, taking a position on the upper level behind the command arena facing forward. Govan was staring forward at the viewscreen, the green light of the bridge reflecting off his hair.

Tevio remained silent for a moment, preferring to take in the current situation on the bridge by method of observation, rather than just coming out asking questions. The tactical officer's post, now retaken by Dor'vel, was fully lit in its graphical displays. Everyone was murmuring with a definite leaning towards impending battle. The Legate shook his head minutely at the proceedings. This was not a normal enemy, they could not be fought with simple disruptor and torpedo. He hoped Govan realised that, not for the sake of the Legate's own objectives, but for the sake of Govan himself.

Giving nothing away, the Legate asked a question, "So you're just going to destroy them?" he said quietly, knowing that the Subcommander would hear him.

<Tag Govan>

[Deleted]

Listening to the Commander Echal thought and looking at the scans they had so far it was possible but he would only work for a short time. The Power need to what was suggest would be great. It would require all the power from the weapons systems and the cloak as well but it would by time.

Before opening the channel he looked at the read outs for the area and saw what the bridge was looking at. The Commander was right to worry those rocks were heading straight for there ship. Signaling his team and giving them instructions they started shutting down power to not need systems and rerouting power to the hull and the shields. " Commander Echal all availble power has been channeled to the hull and the shields we will have some protection for a estimated 8hrs and 23 minutes after that the we will have to shut down or risk hull failure. The ship was not designed for this type of combat our metal alloyeds were designed for enemy bombardment not crystal life forms."

" I will start working on other ways to to elminate this crystals and get enought power back to the engines to move us out of here." thinking for a moment " Sir it might be wise to scan the logs to see what attracted this things if we knew that it might help us figure out how to deal with them. I will work to see if the cloak was the cause we did enter the system under cloak I will access the data base from other ships to see if anything was ever reported" <Tag Echal>


He was concerned the Commander trusted him to keep the ship together and the last mission and this mission it would look good for him. The Commander might blame him and something told him it would be a report on his service record that he might end up giving up his life to make amends to the commander. That was something he wasn't looking forward to not to mention the smile on Ch'avark face and the glaoting as he watched.

Sitting back looking at the senor logs he started going through them alot slower then normal looking for anything that might explain what was causing the crystal to attack them after all this time. They had to be a new element all Romulan ships came here for shake down and none had reported a problem. Looking at the senor logs and past records of ships in this area he started his search.

[Deleted]

=/\=Commander Echal, all available power has been channeled to the hull and the shields. We will have some protection for an estimated eight hours and twenty-three minutes after that, we will have to shut down or risk hull failure. This ship was not designed for this type of combat. Our metallic alloys were designed for an enemy bombardment, not crystal life forms. I will start working on other ways to eliminate these crystals and get enough power back to the engines to move us out of here. Sir, it might be wise to scan the logs to see what attracted these things. If we knew that it might help us figure out how to deal with them. I will work to see if the cloak was the cause as we did enter the system under cloak. I will access the database from other ships to see if anything was ever reported,=/\= the engineer announced.

“You do that, Lieutenant. Keep me updated on your progress; Echal out.” Govan replied. In spite of the fact that he’d rather obliterate the entire asteroid field leaving only space dust and debris behind, he supposed that if there was a way to avoid being bombarded altogether, they should pursue it, in spite of being much less fun.

"So you're just going to destroy them?" a dry, condescending voice commented from the back of the bridge. Turning to glare in that direction, the Sub Commander was unsurprised to find a smug looking Chief Intelligence Officer smirking back at him.

“What would you recommend that I do?” Govan shot back. “How about we open a comm channel and request that a bunch of asteroids change their course to avoid a collision. Better yet, how about we apologize for flying into their space and blowing up all of their friends during the tests! Is that what you would recommend, Legate? Because although I’m not entirely sure, I believe that when your ship is pursued and attacked by a bunch of mindless rocks, blowing them up is generally a good idea.”

[Deleted]

Hearing the Commander response he went back to work it was slow. There were alot of logs to go through then something hit him. He remembered hearing a story sometime back about a federation ship talking to a crystal life form.

He started accessing federation logs and scanned them as well. He narrow the search paramitters and foud what he was looking for. Still considering the cystals were inside the rocks it might not work but it was something. If anything it might get them of the ships hull for the moment. He would have to do a little more research to make sure the hull could take it but it was a step in the right direction at least.

He started to prepair a report for the Commander, he didn't want to keep paging him about it. While doing that the scans on the Romulan logs came up with something as well. Over there past 20yrs 3 Romulan ships had disappeared in the training area. From the reports they were all on shake done missions and assumed lost do to one thing or another. The Romulan empire didn't seemed concerned there was always risk involved with shake down cruise and problems always came up.

He put that into his report and was about to forward it to the Commander. When he got a hunch, if the crystal transformed what ever they came into contact with and absorbed it to make more of them selves. Accessing the senors he started scaning the rocks that were heading there way. Looking at the scans he saw trace amounts of romulan alloys in it. This can not be just a random thing he thought.

Typeing out his report to the commander and transmitting it to the bridge

" Commander Echal,

I have scanned the logs of both federation and romulan, in the past 20 yrs 3 romulan ships have been lost on shake down cruises. They were reported lost and since they were on shake down cruises it was thought a system glitch destroyed the ship. Upon futher scanning I found that a federation ship the Enterprise had a dealing with something like what we have. They learned how to comunicate with it but end up destroying it. I'm starting to look into how they did that to see if it will help us now. Also upon futher scans of the rocks heading our way I have found trace's of Romulan alloys in the rock. They appear to be almost non existint , its my belief we might be food for them and that it takes time to absorb a ship which is why there are not more ships missing. I will update you when I have a working plan" <Tag Echal>

[Deleted]

"..how about we apologize for flying into their space and blowing up all of their friends during the tests! Is that what you would recommend, Legate? Because although I'm not entirely sure, I believe that when your ship is pursued and attacked by a bunch of mindless rocks, blowing them up is generally a good idea." Govan snapped. He turned back to facing the viewscreen, resuming his gaze at the new, larger 'rocks' approaching them from out among the real asteroids.

"Subcommander, of course that is not what I would recommend, at least not in such a naive way," Tevio said from behind the bridge's upper-level, Tevio said, trying to ignore the flash of anger he experienced at Govan's tone. He kept his cool. "I merely wished to suggest that we should consider other options. Such as.."

Tevio was cut off, because that was when the large asteroid-like sporemates started to turn course. The apprehensive Romulan bridge crew watched the large crystalline creatures execute their turn with nervous eyes, once the rocks had finished they were on something like an indirect course for the S'Harien, and bearing down fast. "..Other methods of communication." Tevio finished. But, of course, they hadn't really tried any means of communicating with them as yet. As if Govan would have wanted to, and if they could actually find a way to.

If Tevio were Govan, he would be looking at ways of containing the contagious disease, because it was doubtless going to spread. What he would not do was mercilessly attack these lifeforms. But of course, this was all because Ch'varak was privy to some more of the 'interesting' details. As a consequence of this exclusivity, the Legate now had a problem. There had to be a way of stopping Govan from allowing himself to get closer to these large rocks. He did not want to entertain the idea of Govan potentially finding something out about them.

Advice, that was what the Legate needed. But first he needed to distract Govan with some other things. He came around to the command arena, taking a rare central role in what was the heart of the ship's brain. "Subcommander," he nearly whispered, but it was more of a hiss. "Should we, as a crew, not be more concerned about the potential contagion aboard this vessel?" He was next to Govan Echal now, and was now wishing that was there was another chair to sit in. It meant he had to look down - ever so slightly because the command chair was on a small pedestal - to Govan. It did not give him a sense of power; rather it made him feel like he was conversing with a sick, or elderly, Romulan.

"This is a naval vessel, Govan," Tevio told the Subcommander who seemed a thousand times more concerned with boring holes the viewscreen, "You're not 'Tal Shiar' anymore, you can no longer abuse the power of the Navy to your own destructive ends. For everyone's sake here, think about getting away from these asteroids so we can take care of our own personnel." Govan did look at the Intel officer now. Maybe it was because of the way he had spat the term, 'Tal Shiar', as if it was a common curse-word.

After Govan had replied, Tevio immediately made his way off the bridge, he was in quite the hurry. His work on the bridge was done, Engineering was his next port of call. After that, he had an appointment to keep with a Senator. For now though, Terrh would have to deal with the interference of the Legate once more.

[Deleted]

"Sub Commander, of course that is not what I would recommend, at least not in such a naive way…I merely wished to suggest that we should consider other options. Such as…" An alert from tactical cut off the Legate’s little speech, and the viewscreen display shifted to show the larger asteroid creatures changing course, turning to more directly approach the S’Harien. As the spores settled into their new course, bearing down on them even more quickly now, Echal glanced back at Tevio, a superior look on his face. “...Other methods of communication," Ch’varak finished, in spite of what Govan perceived as proof that he was correct.

“Well if someone, namely science or medical, comes up with a way to talk to these things, I’ll consider it. But in the meantime, we have a group of creatures rapidly descending on us, and if this ship is under attack, I’m not going to stand here and let us be destroyed without putting up a fight, and I would hope you wouldn’t either.”

"Sub Commander, should we, as a crew, not be more concerned about the potential contagion aboard this vessel? This is a naval vessel, Govan. You're not 'Tal Shiar' anymore. You can no longer abuse the power of the Navy to your own destructive ends. For everyone's sake here, think about getting away from these asteroids so we can take care of our own personnel," Tevio insisted, turning to go.

Shaking his head in disgust but allowing the Intelligence Officer to go, Govan was not pleased, and hearing his first name come out of the Legate’s mouth only made him more unhappy. So far, everything he’d heard from sickbay seemed to suggest that the outbreak was fully contained, probably only spread through direct contact with these spore things. If Echal didn’t know any better, he’d think Ch’varak was trying to stall, but for what purpose? It wasn’t beyond the Tal Diann to refrain from sharing important information, but it seemed highly unlikely they would hope for the destruction of an entire warbird. It was worth watching the Intelligence Chief and exercising caution; however, there were far more pressing matters to attend to now.

=/\=Sub Commander Echal, I’ve scanned the logs of both Federation and Romulan. In the past twenty years, three Romulan ships have been lost on shakedown cruises. They were reported lost, and since they were on shake down cruises, it was thought a system glitch destroyed the ship. Upon further scanning I found that a Federation ship, the Enterprise, had dealings with something like what we have. They learned how to communicate with it but ended up destroying it. I'm starting to look into how they did that to see if it will help us now. Also upon further scans of the rocks heading our way, I have found traces of Romulan alloys in the rock. They appear to be almost non-existent. It’s my belief we might be food for them, and that it takes time to absorb a ship, which is why there are not more ships missing. I will update you when I have a working plan,=/\= the engineer reported.

“Finally, someone accomplishing something,” Echal muttered to himself as Terrh closed the channel. He wanted more information, but he decided to give the chief engineer a little more time before bombarding him with questions. Still concerned about Tevio, Govan requested the Legate’s location and smirked dryly when the computer replied that he was in the Engine Room. The Sub Commander found it interesting that even before knowing about Terrh’s discovery, Ch’varak was already on his way there. Something else was going on, something more than met the eye.

As the creatures drew closer, Govan felt his anxiety rising, but there was nothing he could do until Virh told him about what the Enterprise did, both to communicate and destroy. Trying to distract himself, the Sub Commander decided to listen to a small piece of the advice the Legate had provided and contact sickbay. “Echal to Sural, what is the status of the contagion and those injured on the hull, specifically the Chief Science Officer?” he requested hoping to get at least some good news.

<Tag Sural>

“I want you to report to the Engine Room or at least contact the Chief Engineer. He is working on a way to communicate with and potentially destroy these creatures, and I would like someone from the medical or science department assisting him.”

<Tag Sural or Jhu>

After waiting for what felt like hours watching the group of spores advance on their ship, the Sub Commander couldn’t take it any more and opened a channel to the Engine Room. “We’re running out of time. I need a way to try to talk to these things and to destroy them if it comes to that, or we are going to have to open fire. From what I’ve seen from these creatures, that may not do us a whole lot of good, and I would rather avoid the S’Harien becoming a meal for a bunch of overgrown spores.”

<Tag Terrh/Tevio>

[Deleted]

As he was busy trying to create the program listed in the federation logs from the enterprise mission an alarm signaled him that Ch'avark was heading his way. After his last visit he program the ship interal senors to warn him any time that it appeared he was heading to the engine room.

Looking up he signaled his team to arm them selves "if Ch'avark attempts to kill anybody I want him shot I will deal with the Commander on this issue we are already short handed enought" They weren't trained like Ch'avark was but even he couldn't dodge a room of fully armed engineer's

He heard Commander Echal and double checked the senors he was right they were running out of time and he still wasn't finished yet. Looking back down at his work he needed more time and some help. With out asking permission he preprogramed a shuttle to head straight for there unwanted guest heading there way. With a few simple clicks he launched a shuttle to buy a little more time. He wasn't happy about giving up a shuttle but right now he needed more time to finish his work.


" Commander Echal I still need more time I launched a shuttle for our guest out there. I think it will slow them down a little I'm sure they wont mind a little snack before the main course. I need a science officer and a medical officer to finish, I can build the program but there going to have to figure out the right frequence and burst to use sir. If you could send them down to me it would help move things along. Also if possible if they could glance on the federation logs and see what I'm trying to do. It would cut down on answering questions when they get here. I estimate a least one hour to finish. Before you say it I will have it up and running in 30 mins" <Tag Echal>

instead of closing the com channel he intentional left it open and killed the light showing it was open. If Ch'avark was heading his way he wanted Commander Echal to know what he was up to. He had to admit he was wondering what he might want as well.

[Deleted]

Sural made his way to engineering as swiftly as he could. Jhu was still in sickbay recovering from her injuries and whilst junior science officers had been summoned he decided that it was better he were on hand too.

The scientist in him was intrigued by the new life form and he was reluctant to end its life but if it came down to him or us, he chose us every time.

"Centurion Terrh" Sural nodded in greeting as he entered the room, "You require my services" he looked momentarily in puzzlement at the side arms the engineers carried.

"Ah doctor please over here" Terrh stated coolly, the engineer led Sural to a console and keyed in a password to allow him access.
"I have everything set up except the frequency"
Sural nodded taking in the information "That may just be a question of trial and error. But i doubt our dear leader will accept that. You do realise that someone used to deciphering codes might be better at deciphering this Ch'Varak and his intell guys as much as I dislike them could probably crack this faster than us?"

TAG Terrh

[Deleted]

Looking up at sural when he made his suggestion about using Ch'avark. " You might be right about that Sural. He's on his way here as we speak but its because of him my engineers are armed right now. His last visit cost me a crew member and right now I can't afford to loose any more of them. I will ask to see if he will assist us when he arrives, but I warn you if he try's to kill anymore of my staff he's going to be in for a rude awaking."


Looking at his scans it appeared the shuttle had bought them some time not as much as he was hoping for. There guest out there had made short work of there snack and appeared to still be hungry. He was hoping this would not be the last mission of the IRW S Harien he had help build her and he was not going to let the ship become food for rocks.

Looking back over at "Sural you know I was wondering are you sure there's nothing you can do. I mean there's no way you could make us taste bad to those creatures out there. If they are ruled by hunger there has to be things they wont eat right. If thats the case isn't there some way you can make us appear like something they wouldn't eat?" <Sural>

They waited for Ch'avark to arrive his team were on edge, they still hadn't gotten over his last visit. He didn't want any mistakes made because they weren't focused. Looking back at his team " I would be more worried about the Commander right now then Ch'avark. If we dont come up with something I assure you. A visit with Ch'avark will look like a good day compare to what the Commander will do to us. I suggest you start focusing on way to stop those rocks instead of watching the door for Ch'avark"

[Deleted]

Sural shrugged, "It is logical to assume such a lifeform would conform to standard ecological responses." he tailed off whilst Terrh railed at him about the Commander being worse than Tevio but teh doctor had already stopped listening and was deep in thought.

"The spore infected crew were not suitable growth hosts"he said at last "Because they lacked the suitable metallic or crystalline elements upon which the creature draws... therefore if we could make our ship appear biological in nature it is unlikely it would be unlikely to view us as prey." he paused again

"Thats not exactly practical Doctor" Terrh replied tersly "There isnt enough biological material on the whole ship to cover even one tenth of the hull."

"no... no" Sural agreed, "We have to think more obliquely, "Living organisms grow, reproduce, respire, excrete and respond to their environment. The first few don't help us but sense. Thats different if we can recreate the appearance that we have a functioning neural net like a brain or nervous system that may just do it."

"And how do we do that?"

"Can you polarise the hull?"

"Sure its an old fashioned way to defend against weapons fire."

"Then you need to set up a network across the hull to respond like nerve impulses, then polarise and depolarise them in sequence. I suspect the organism being space dwelling would respond to gravitic and electomagentic spectra, Can your engineers do this?"

TAG Terrh

[Deleted]

Listening to Sural idea it had merit as for making it happen ya there was a way but it was going to take the approval of the Commander first. With some changes to the cloaking device it could work. The problem being that if they needed to cloak they wouldn't beable to.

" Sural I can do what you suggest alot easier then you think. I would have to make some extensive changes to the cloak. The emitters are all over the ship and would give you what they want. Problem being in order to do that we need Commander Echal permission and access codes to make the changes. Only he can grant that why I can repair it any time I want only he can grant access to the program for the changes. Before you say anything he's been listening in the whole time. I'm sure we will have an answer shortly okay still it would be nice to know what these things want."

" I'm also thinking somebody has to know what these things are. I mean come on intelligence would wonder why 3 ships were lost in this sector. Even they aren't that slow I would be shocked if they came up with the cover story in the logs. Knowing them they have been working on creating a weapon of some kind out this" <tag Sural>

[Deleted]

Pacing back and forth and watching the creatures bearing down on them was an incredibly nerve-wracking experience. The bridge crew was on edge, trying to focus on their individual tasks but also keeping an eye on the viewscreen. It was a very unpleasant experience being the prey as opposed to the predator, and an unfamiliar position for Govan and in fact Romulans in general to be in. There was some sort of interference being emitted by the approaching crystalline beings that they didn’t discover until they had tried to go to warp, and even at impulse they were dragging. It was almost like the spores were emitting something that was pulling them back.

As nothing he could think of would be more embarrassing than having the S’Harien devoured by a bunch of rocks, Govan was growing more and more agitated. There had to be something they could do...some way to escape this seemingly inevitable fate. More likely than not, these things were acting merely on instinct rather than conscious, sentient thought, so there had to be some way to out think these things.

An alert from somewhere halted the Sub Commander’s pacing. “Sir,” the officer at ops spoke. “It appears we’ve just launched a shuttlecraft to intercept the asteroids.”

“What?” Echal demanded. “I don’t recall authorizing that! Under whose authority?”

=/\=Commander Echal, I still need more time. I launched a shuttle for our guest out there. I think it will slow them down a little. I'm sure they won’t mind a little snack before the main course. I need a science officer and a medical officer to finish. I can build the program, but they’re going to have to figure out the right frequency and burst to use, Sir. If you could send them down to me, it would help move things along. Also if possible, they could glance at the Federation logs and see what I'm trying to do. It would cut down on answering questions when they get here. I estimate a least one hour to finish. Before you say it, I will have it up and running in thirty minutes,=/\= the harried voice of the chief engineer reported over the comm.

At any other time, Govan most likely would have hit the roof and chewed out Terrh for going over his head like that, but in this instance, it had been a good idea and a necessary move. “I have already requested a medical and/or scientific assistance be sent to the Engine Room. And keep me informed of your progress, Echal out.”

Grumbling to himself about not being informed, the Sub Commander resumed his pacing and watched with mixed interest and horror as the shuttle drifted towards the approaching creatures. It looked like the only result of their meeting could be some sort of crash, but when an impact looked imminent, instead the surface of the spores touched the shuttle, latched on, and slowly began to envelope the ship, the two surfaces merging together to become one. Unfortunately, the snack only seemed big enough for one of the creatures, so as the single asteroid and shuttle began the dance to becoming one, the remaining group paused to observe for a moment before resuming their course and heading for their real goal: the S’Harien.

So with the shuttle being consumed in the background and the cluster of creatures growing ever closer in the foreground, the bridge crew waited for their fate to be determined, and their Commander continued pacing, helpless to do much more...

[Deleted]

Looking at Sural he brought up the plans for the claoking device very few people on the ship had access to the plans. As far as he knew nobody in medical had access there was no reason for them to. The empire went to great lenghts to make sure the cloak was secure at all times.

" Okay Sural we are going to go with your assumption that they dont live to eat living things. I can reprogram the omitters for the cloak to do what you ask. It will be a strain on the omitters because you are going to have them going in all sorts of directions. How ever they should beable to handle that they are the most up todate omitters in the fleet."

Looking back down at his panel he noticed Commander Echal had granted unlimited access to the cloak and the cloak only. This was a good thing Commander were not in the habit of granting access to key systems like this. It appeared that Commander was level headed enought and to some degree trusted him. He was not about to see how far that went he knew the only reason was because the Commander didn't want to loose the ship.

" Okay we have access to the cloak I'm granting you access to your panel to set up the program. I will input into the cloak when you are done. I'm not sure how long it will last like I said they should handle the power flux for a while but I would want to push it. I hope this works Sural because if it doesn't we are out of options."

" Once you imput and I upload we need to start working on a way to talk to those things out there. I'm hoping there will be some kind of intelligence in those spores to find out what they want."<Tag Sural>

[Deleted]

They were running out of time, and in fact, time had practically run out. Running from a bunch of living rocks at impulse and finding themselves nearly overtaken was embarrassing, but the worst part was knowing pretty soon it wouldn’t matter. No matter how many times he called down to the Engine Room, it couldn’t speed up the process his Chief Engineer and Medical Officer were attempting to complete, but it was nearly impossible to just pace the bridge watching as the creatures got closer and closer. Now, they were at the end of their rope so to speak, and in less than two minutes, the once proud ship would be overcome. Out of options and out of ideas, the Sub Commander decided he’d had enough of just waiting for Terrh.

“Charge weapons, highest setting,” Echal ordered. He didn’t have any idea what phasers would do, but he’d been patient for long enough. Ch’varak’s warnings and Virh’s assurance that he was close to a breakthrough weren’t enough to keep the commander from defending his ship. He wasn’t going to be ‘eaten’ without a fight.

“Sir,” the Centurion interjected in surprise, and sure enough on the viewscreen, the creatures had halted a short distance away. Checking sensors, Dor’vel reported, “They just…stopped. I hadn’t transferred the power yet, and their position doesn’t correspond to the perimeter of our shields, but the cloak...flickered for a moment.”

Frowning and wondering what they were doing down in the Engine Room, Govan opened a channel. “Echal to Engine Room, I want to know what you just did to the cloak, because whatever it was, the creatures just came to a halt a moment ago.”

<Tag Terrh/Sural>

Feeling incredibly relieved, the Sub Commander replied, “Continue your work on the previous plan to destroy and/or communicate with them. Focus on completing the ability to destroy them first and inform me when ready, but then continue with the possibility of communication,” Govan ordered, Tevio’s words still haunting him.

<Tag Terrh/Sural/Tevio>

Eyeing the image of their adversaries on the screen, Govan rose slowly from his seat contemplating his next move. Soon they would be able to destroy them, but was it even worth the risk to try and talk to the seemingly non-sentient rocks? The creatures were just floating in space a short distance away almost mocking them. Unsure of what his move would be for the time being, Echal turned back to Dor’vel. “Charge the phasers to full, but very gradually to avoid alarming them, if they can even detect it. I want to be ready just in case they make a move. Be prepared to fire if they begin to advance again, and keep that cloak charged to full,” he ordered.

His mind was beginning to think in terms he was unused to considering. What if they were sentient? What if their tests had been perceived as an attack? How do you negotiate with sentient asteroids? These were far from the thoughts of a Tal Shiar agent, but these were the thoughts of a starship Commander, and as much as he was loathed to admit it, that’s who he was. The question became was he up to it?

<Tag All>

[Deleted]

Listening to there Commander and his concerns about the cloak he noticed that weapons were being charged but very slowly. This was not going to be good if they blasted the spores they would be spread out through the entire field and would represent a threat to them and what ever ship crossed into the area.

"Commander it was the doctors idea to make the ship look like a living organism. I had to reprogram the cloak to make that happen. For the moment they think the ship it's self is a living thing. As for a plan to destroy them I think the best option is to communicate with them. If we blast them it would spread the spores through out the sector not to mention Cover the S'harien in them as well.

I know this is not what you want to hear but you haven't let me live as long as I have because I kiss up to you. I do my job and thanks to the doctor I have bought us some time until the cloak omitters give out which should be in 3 cycles. Sir I will say it again intelligence has to have had some idea of whats going on out here. They would just accept that 3 ships over the years just disappeared. What ever information you could get your hands on might speed up the doctor and me in being able to communicate with them.

Not to mention from the longs of the federation the communication between us could be used as a weapon to shotter there crystal base instead of blowing them up and spreading the spores. I will continue to work with the doctor to provide you with a way to talk and defend the ship. It would be helpful if the weapon systems were not draining power from the cloak Commander" <Tag Echal>

Looking back over at Sural " Okay doctor your program works you figured out how make us look like a living life form. Now we need you to figure out how to talk to them I'm bring up the federation logs now for you to look at. I know that doesn't mean that it will work the same way but it should give you a good starting point to go from. Unless you have a nother clever idea that might work. I dont have to tell you time is of the essence the commander will only hold off so long before he starts shooting at things." <Tag Sural>

[Deleted]

The trip to engineering took much longer than expected for the Chief Intelligence officer. His passage through the ship wasn't helped by his knocking himself out in a maintenance corridor. The ship had jolted unexpectedly with an impact on the outer hull and Tevio had been propelled into a hard edge of a nearby bulkhead.

Tevio checked the chronometer's reading as he started to come around again. His panicked eyes looked at the time; he'd been out for ten minutes! (Earth equivalent). Feeling the vestiges of anger from his unfortunate accident, Tevio half-ran to engineering.. Site-to-site beaming would have been more convenient, but the wrist-device the Legate used was not self-contained; it 'communicated' with the S'Harien's transporters and used the power from that grid to beam him around the ship.

The Legate arrived in the engine room. The thing that instantly stood out for him was how occupied the staff were; all of them milling around, working on this and that and conversing between themselves and, most importantly, working for the common goal of bringing honour and renown to the Romulan Navy. In addition, they were all equipped with sidearms. Tevio raised an eyebrow at the sight of the armed engineers, but gave it no more attention, he had more important things to attend to this time. He saw Terrh and the Doctor, Sural, in quiet but intense conversation. They were standing by a console off to the side of the large room's lower level.

Approaching from behind, the engineer and the doctor were too embroiled in their discussion to notice them. He poked his head in between theirs and spoke. "How are things progressing?" he simply asked. Terrh Virh told him what they had done, explaining how the polarisation of the hull using the cloaking device had halted the spores' 'attacks'.

Tevio nodded and smiled with scorn, but he didn't make his distaste clear. Ruthless spores, assaulting and eating the S'Harien up. Of course. It had to be stopped. Completely mindless rock-creatures with no semblance of sentience, destroying, destructing and making a mockery of the oh-so-proud Romulan crew...

The real truth was of course actually known to the more observant and intellectual members of the S'Harien's crew. Tevio suspected that even Govan Echal experienced an actual feeling that these rocks might have an intelligence, and that he didn't just get the idea from others of the crew. If that were true then there could be a problem; because currently none of the crew - except for about fifty percent of the S'Harien's Intelligence officers - knew what the Tal Diann's central command and a certain number of senators knew. If investigations of the spores continued that may change. The mission was all but gone, all Tevio could do now was cover.

The Legate left the two officers to their duties. He only said one more thing to them before exiting the engine room. "I'd advise you be careful with your analysis of those spores," he said to both Terrh and Sural, "Perhaps you would consider overcoming the interference they're generating that's destroying our warp ability, and take us away from this.. terrible, terrible place." Tevio smiled coldly; he headed for the engine room exit but before leaving called back. "Do not bother with telling the Commander, I will handle any retorts from him should you overcome the interference problems and take us to warp."

<Tag Terrh, Sural>

Ch'varak headed for his office. Once there, he swung up the computer console and opened a channel to the bridge. Time for some much needed fabrication... His image appeared on a small screen on the armrest of Govan Echal's chair. "Commander," he said. "The science department wishes to inform you that an analysis of the rocks has yielded no recognisable sentient pattern, these spores work reflexively, like a plant." He let the S'Harien's CO absorb this false information. I'm curious, what is your next move? Sir."

<Tag Govan>

The Legate suspected this ploy would not last long, but he needed to buy Terrh some time. This attempt at manipulating most of the senior staff had instantly grown complicated, now the time of testing had arrived; was he still worthy of the Tal Diann's top-most agency? Could he deceive this many? It was like trying to balance a giant set of scales; too big and unpredictable in its equilibrium to exercise full control over.

[Deleted]

"As an engineer Terrh you of all people should understand time is relative and when you get as old as me you soon learn not to rush things."

He leaned over and looked at the data from the Federation mission.

"It strikes me that this life form is not identical to the one we are encountering. Therefore it is not certain the same method will be effective"

"Just sort it out Doctor. Echal wants it dead first and then we can talk to it."

Sural shrugged

"Typical of a man like him to abandon science for barbarism. I ve a good mind..." Sural paused and then turned on his heel and left the engineering room.

At a brisk pace he moved quickly through the ship. He knew if he didnt hurry Terrh would report him to Echal and that wouldnt do at all.

He jumped in a lift that deposited him at the main shuttle bay.
He ran inside and ran a quick pre flight check. It had been years since he had last flown but he reckoned he could remember.

The shuttle turned on the spot and left the deck. Swooping out through the opening bay doors. He plotted a course towards the space dwelling creature. Do or Die he thought. If he was wrong then this was going to be a very quick trip if not it was going to be a very short life as Govan was likely to execute him on the spot.

[Deleted]

=/\=Intelligence has to have some idea of what’s going on out here. They wouldn’t just accept that three ships over the years just disappeared. Whatever information you could get your hands on might speed up the doctor and me in being able to communicate with them, not to mention, from the Federation logs, the communication between us could be used as a weapon to shatter their crystalline base instead of blowing them up and spreading the spores. I will continue to work with the doctor to provide you with a way to talk with them and defend the ship. It would be helpful if the weapon systems were not draining power from the cloak, Commander.=/\=

Rolling his eyes, even though the engineer couldn’t see him, Govan simply viewed his complaint as an attempt to buy him more time to solve the problem and prevent the Commander from the potential fun of destroying their enemies with torpedoes rather than communication. At Terrh’s comments regarding Intelligence, Echal was skeptical. It did make sense that they would know something was going on, Tevio had been insinuating there was an intelligence almost from the beginning, and he certainly wouldn’t put it past the Tal Diann to conceal something like this. Still, he wasn’t ready to move just yet. He’d bide his time and wait for proof to come to him. “Just get it set up,” Echal replied irritably. “I’ll deal with Ch’varak, and if you’re not ready and these things start attacking again, I am not going to sit back and let us all be eaten by them, so the weapons are staying charged. Deal with it, Echal out.”

<Tag Terrh>

Eyeing the viewscreen where the asteroids were just drifting, Echal contemplated trying to back the S’Harien away but decided it was best not to push their luck and risk attracting more attention. Whether or not they had intelligence or not was of a secondary concern to him, the first being the threat they posed to the safety of the ship and crew, but with all of this talk about whether or not they were sentient, Govan had to consider what his opinion was based on observation. Most of the asteroid’s actions could go either way. A defensive reaction against their weapons’ tests could be intelligent or instinctual, as could a response to their perceived invasion. There was no definitive indication of either option, which was both frustrating and futile. No matter why they were attacking, they had to be stopped to protect his vessel.

=/\=Commander, the science department wishes to inform you that an analysis of the rocks has yielded no recognizable sentient pattern. The spores work reflexively, like a plant. I’m curious, what is your next move, Sir?=/\= the annoyingly calm voice of the Chief of Intelligence asked, but the nonchalance seemed feigned somehow.

It was interesting that for a man who had been pushing and hinting towards some sort of intelligence from the beginning, he would suddenly do a complete reversal and now announce there was none. It was highly suspicious. Deciding to test the Legate, Govan replied, “Well my next move wasn’t entirely dependent on whether or not those things were sentient. The goal is to keep the ship in one piece after all. Since they’ve stopped attacking, maybe we’ll just try to leave the sector, but if they continue, we will have no choice but to defend ourselves. With the suggestions of intelligence, I was going to attempt to communicate with them to prevent them from continuing the attack, but if what you say is true then we can just skip that step and either leave or destroy them to prevent future attacks. What would you suggest?” Echal asked, getting the strange feeling that perhaps Ch’varak was playing them.

<Tag Tevio>

Before Govan could reply, Dor’vel spoke up. “Sir, we just launched another shuttle.”

Growling in frustration, Echal replied, “What is Virh trying to do, get us to lose our entire shuttle compliment and provoke those things into attacking us again?! I let it go the first time, but I’ve had enough and should go down there to give him a...”

“Sir,” the Centurion interrupted, “It wasn’t launched remotely from the Engine Room. There’s someone onboard, and they’re piloting the vessel straight to the creatures.”

“What?” Govan shouted, on his feet once more as the image of one of the shuttles on a direct course with the asteroids. “Who’d be stupid enough to pull that stunt?”

“Doctor Sural,” the tactical officer replied, shaking his head in disgust and confusion.

“Open a channel,” Govan snapped, ready to wring the doctor’s neck. “This is Sub Commander Echal, and I want to know just what you think you’re doing, Doctor?”

<Tag Sural>

[Deleted]

".. if what you say is true then we can just skip that step and either leave or destroy them to prevent future attacks. What would you suggest?"

Tevio hid the smile that was trying to develop on his face, knowing that the Commander could see his face on his small viewscreen. The Commander had virtually played into the Legate's hands! He nodded at Govan's image, "Subcommander, I would recommend we leave; immediately. Engineer Terrh is already - to my knowledge - working on the warp drive; the interference from the spores is preventing that option at the moment as you know."

<Govan>

Govan had replied and shut the channel rather promptly afterwards. Lieutenant Tevio hoped that his deception was working so far; it certainly seemed to be. He changed the computer-screen to the external communication broadcast system, planning on contacting the Senator with the good (and bad) news.

The intelligence of the spores - part of the subject of the Intelligence department's orders - was known only to the Tal Diann's central command and some of the S'Harien's Intelligence staff. Tevio, following the objectives of his mission, had been trying to draw Subcommander Govan away from the subject of the spores, whilst incidentally indicating that they may have had some form of intelligence. A mistake; he realised that now. It would not happen again. It didn't matter a great deal now anyway, as the ship should be leaving; just that fact was enough for Tevio to be able to appease the Senator's wrath. What he would not be that pleased to hear about was that the mission had failed. But this was something Tevio could not help.

He would get the bad out of the way first, tell the Senator that he had not expected the ship to encounter the spores so soon, that he had been taken offguard.. Tevio tilted his head as he sat back in his chair. Yes; he would be honest with the Romulan male, sometimes it paid to tell the truth in this job. He would indicate that the Commander was to blame perhaps..

The Legate drew up what he was going to say and started setting up a secure comm channel. But as he did, an alarm started flashing and sounding on his screen. His eyes darted to the intrusive red graphic; the bridge had gone to high alert. He quickly looked up what was going on, requesting reports from his department, not wanting to disgruntle the bridge with his surely grating presence. Uhlan Doctor Sural Taranek had commandeered a shuttlecraft and was bearing down on one of the larger sporous lifeforms.

"No." The Legate said, denying the information of the event that was displayed on his screen; it was almost a complaint, a plea even, this would not be done to him. Not now. Tevio jumped from his seat and all but ran from the room, heading for the intelligence department...

[Deleted]

He couldn't believe the Doctor just left like that with everything going on he just left. A few min's went by and he saw the alarm on the shuttle bay and a shuttle leave. A quick scan showed who was aboard just great the Commander was going to eat me alive

He opened a channel to the bridge hoping to buy some time for the doctor. He didn't like having to cover for him but at the same time he didn't want anybody interferring with what ever the doctor had planned.

" Commander Echal sorry we didn't inform you sooner but time was of the essence the doctor has a theroy and needed to prove it. His plan is a little beyound my understanding so it was thought best to run with it and have him explain after." He knew he was really stretching the trueth but need to give the doctor time. Just then he noticed somebody had opened a secure channel to the Romulan home world. While he couldn't pin point who or what was being said he thought it might buy some time

" Commander Echal somebody just tryed to open a secure channel to the home world. I can not pin point who it was or what section it came from but as soon as the shuttle launched the channel was cut"

He hope it was enought to distract there commander for a short time until the doctor came up with something. He went to work on trying to get the engines back on line for warp power, he had no desire to disappoint there Commander anymore and with everything that just happened he was sure to hear about launching the last shuttle.

[Deleted]

“Open a channel,” Govan snapped, ready to wring the doctor’s neck. “This is Sub Commander Echal, and I want to know just what you think you’re doing, Doctor?”

The line was quiet a moment as Sural decided whether to reply or not. He decided he ought to even if there want much Govan could do about things as it was.

"I m doing my job. Or at least trying to if it weren't for all these interruptions."

"Be more specific doctor before I have you blown out of space."

Sural smiled to himself, that was just the response he expected,

"What and loose a perfectly good shuttle. Come now Commander at least let the creature destroy me. Now if you don't mind I need this comm link free to complete this mission. Discipline me later." with that he cut the commander off and connected to Terrh in engineering.

"Terrh I need your assitance. I need you to scan the alien life form and then project an image of it around my shuttlecraft. Can you do that."

TAG Terrh

"Do whatever it takes. I ll mimic the creatures bio electric field manually from the shuttle. Oh and Terrh make the image twice the size of the creature. I m going to play a game of dominant or submissive. Hopefully I can convince the creature that this portion of space is my territory now and leave. Oh and be quick about it. If I get much closer without the illusion it may well just eat me. Sural out"

TAG Terrh/Govan