by David Smith
“Doesn’t look like we have much choice, Stavros, power up 10%”
Dave went to a comm station at the side of the deck. “Hey, O’Mara, fancy going for a ride?”
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Stavros piloted the shuttle as the Security team weren’t experienced with the alien technology. Dave and O’Mara added themselves to the away team and Dave asked Chief Belle to bring a third Security person. For some reason, he was quite nervous.
Stavros took it easy. Odd sounds emanated from the flight controls and Dave watched with increasing unease as Stavros scanned the displays trying to work out what each new sound meant and what to do about it. Occasionally, he’d resort to scanning the display with a tricorder to use the universal translator, but most times he seemed to press buttons at random until the sound stopped.
From orbit they’d identified a landing site on the edge of the largest settlement. There were very few life signs nearby, but the structures seemed intact. The site itself appeared to be some sort of park or recreation space, large enough that if they landed the shuttle in the centre of the space nothing could get within fifty meters without being seen.
Stavros carefully put 10% down and Chief Belle and Lieutenant-Commander O’Mara stood by the hatch. O’Mara did a scan of the immediate area, and pronounced it safe.
Chief Belle opened the hatch and disembarked, phaser in hand. The planet orbited a red dwarf star and the whole landscape was bathed in shades of red, brown and black. Even the local flora photosynthesised with a red version of chlorophyll, giving every vista a monochromatic feel.
The air was thinner than Earth’s but at 26% oxygen it was breathable, although cold. As they stepped out of the shuttle, every one of them stopped and stared at the space around them.
Even abandoned as it was, the space had an elegance that reflected what they’d seen of the Sha T’Al in old recordings. Paths through the space curved gently to wander past exotic sculptures and features, as if the whole space was an open-air art gallery. Even the buildings around the park were beautiful, each styled individually, but not so much as to be discordant with the structure next to it.
There wasn’t a blank space anywhere. Every corner of every building bore some adornment, often keeping within a theme for the building or the block it stood in. Dividing walls were filigree arrangements, or decorated with murals, or perhaps a row of sculptures depicting an element from Sha T’Al mythology. Every bench was a sculpture, every wall a portrait. Even the litter bins were sculpted from wood into iconic animal shapes. The whole place was an art-lovers paradise.
Dave had to shout to them to get them focused on the task in hand, and reluctantly they all fastened their new Aran cardigans closer around themselves before moving off.
Izzy took the lead, looking for direction and road signs which she translated via her tricorder. Comparing this with the map they’d prepared from orbit she quickly came up with a couple of proposals.
“This would appear to be a university of some sort. Just north of here there’s some kind of hospital which would be an obvious place to start. There’s also an administrative centre to the south and east.”
Dave considered the options.
“Ok, we split up. Medic, A&A and Stavros stay here, scout the local terrain and work out emergency escape routes. Chief Belle and crewman Sparks will lead the science team to the hospital, PO Sorenson with me and Lieutenant Grosvenor to check out the admin centre. I know it’s exciting, and we want to explore, but stay focused. Our only aim is to find out what’s happened to the Sha T’Al and how we can help them”
“We stay in contact and check in every 15 minutes without fail. No further division of teams, we stay together for safety. Nightfall is at 1425 ship’s time, we rendezvous here no later than 1400. Everyone clear? Then move out.”
Dave led the smaller party south and east. The city appeared deserted, but they couldn’t help themselves moving quietly, whispering as they went. The city was uniformly beautiful, every building clearly the statement of an architect’s personal vision, but this made the deep silence all the more eerie. Occasionally, the wind would stir something and make them jump, but they had no choice but to continue.
There were worrying signs along their way. The city should have been well lit, with street-lighting columns and spotlights that had clearly been placed to high-light the best features of the city with white light to give colours the local star wouldn’t allow. There was no power apparent anywhere, and many of the light fittings had been cruelly smashed. Elegant ground vehicles were smashed open too, with the doors levered open or windows shattered. They saw shreds of what appeared to be clothing, smeared with dark stains that they tried to ignore.
Unconsciously, their pace quickened, and Dave and Izzy both loosened their outermost Aran cardigans as they got warmer. Unbeknown to them, the other team was finding the same disconcerting evidence, and stopping to analyse their findings left them close to panic.
Dave and Izzy eventually reached the admin centre. As with many other buildings, it was simple but elegant. It was constructed from finely carved stone, and beautifully proportioned, but the ornate doors hung off their hinges. The doors showed signs of horrific violence, and as they stepped inside, they found the beautiful marble floor littered with papers, books, pieces of smashed furniture and many items they couldn’t identify.
Izzy tried translating some of the pieces of paper while Dave checked in with the rest of the away team.
“As far as I can gather this is all mundane stuff, births, deaths, marriages. It’s a bit hard to tell because everything seems to be hand written. Well I say written…that really doesn’t do it justice….Caligraphed? Inscribed? Illuminated? These documents are works of art in their own right. This is a civic centre alright, but it’s one where nothing was too much trouble. Unfortunately, I can’t see anything here that tells us anything of what’s happened. The documents are scattered but I’ll keep looking to see what caused the more recent deaths.”
They moved further into the building. High ceilings and bare walls and floors echoed and amplified every tiny sound, and they soon became aware of a pungent, cloying aroma.
Izzy stayed close to Dave, and Dave noticed that Sorenson was now holding his phaser out in front him, ready to shoot. Without any power, it got darker the further they went in to the building and they had to turn on their torches. With a limited choice from stores, Dave had ended up with a novelty torch shaped like a Hindu deity. It could have been worse: Izzy’s was the shape of a very large penis.
As it got darker, the smell got worse, and Dave began to wonder if they weren’t better off leaving now. His heart was already beating fast when they heard a noise. Something further inside the building was moving. Dave drew his phaser and whispered “Set for stun” before edging forward.
They were clearly getting closer to the source of the noise and Dave’s heart was pounding like a drum. No matter how good the simulations at the academy were, nothing had prepared him for this. Izzy held out her tricorder in front of her and whispered “Reading a life-sign. Non-human, can only be Sha T’Al.”
Peering around a corner into the gloom Dave’s eyes adjusted and he saw a large open chamber with a high vaulted ceiling. In the very center he saw a hunched figure kneeling on the floor, and realised he didn’t have a clue what to do. The decision was made for him when the figure’s attention was drawn by the light of his torch.
It looked up, and Dave barely had time to register its mad staring eyes, before the creature screamed and launched itself at him. The chamber must have been thirty meters across, but the crazed creature was on top of him in an instant. Sorenson fired but missed, so great was the creatures speed, and it crashed into Dave, throwing him to the floor.
In near total darkness the creature pinned him down and Dave struggled to hold it off. It screamed and its fetid breath swept over Dave like a tsunami. Something in the most primitive part of Dave’s brain told him that this thing was tryin
g to eat him, and fear gave him a strength he’d never known before. Even then, it was all he could to keep the beast at arm’s length.
Sorenson moved in and clubbed the creature across the back of its head with his arm, but this merely enraged it and it turned on Sorenson instead. Temporarily freed from its attention, Dave scrabbled for his phaser, but he couldn’t find it in the dark. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Izzy valiantly battering it with her penis-torch but it barely seemed to notice this, engaged as it was in trying to rip Sorenson’s face off.
Still groping for his lost phaser, his hand closed on a stout metal pole and jumping up he smashed it down on the creature’s skull. It screamed again, but clearly in pain this time, and for a split second it released its grip on Sorenson. Taking his chance the ice-cool Dane rolled away, found his phaser and shot the creature in the chest.
The force of the blast threw the creature away from the Security man, but to Dave’s horror, it gathered itself, and threw itself back at Dave. Sorenson was ready this time, and fired again, catching the creature in mid lunge, throwing it across the room. It started to stand again, but more slowly this time, and Sorenson calmly notched the power up a level on his phaser and shot the creature a third time. This time it stayed down.
Dave collapsed into a dazed heap on the floor. Izzy, shaking but determined, ran a tricorder over their attacker.
“It’s dead” she said flatly. “It appears to be a Sha T’Al, but clearly something had driven it mad”
Slowly clambering to his feet, Dave joined her. Finding his torch, he shone it on the wild creature. He’d seen pictures of the Sha T’Al in the archive from when they’d signed the Treaty of Par Van. Tall stately beings, they were the essence of calm and grace. The creature in front of them was a wizened, emaciated version of a Sha T’Al and even in death its face was a mask of furious hatred.
Coming to his senses now, Dave took out his communicator and contacted Chief Belle.
“Chief, we’ve just had a close encounter of the extremely unpleasant kind. We found a Sha T’Al, but it was insanely hostile. Be on your guard, and set phasers a notch up from stun. The standard stun setting barely slowed this one down”
“Affirmative, will proceed with extreme caution. Just to keep you up to speed, we've found several corpses on our way, almost exclusively skeletal remains. They've been dead a while, but Sparks reckons we should send them up to Chief Burns just to get a change from haggis.”
"That's not even remotely funny Chief."
"In bad taste, sir?"
"I wouldn't find that funny even if I wasn't scared shitless. Hollins out."
How un-funny that was became immediately apparent: Izzy was still examining the corpse, and even in the near darkness Dave could see she had gone deathly pale.
“My god… the contents of its stomach display the same genetic markers as the creature itself”
“What??”
“This creature has been eating other Sha T’Al”
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They retreated hastily to the shuttle, getting there well before darkness fell.
The other team had reached the hospital without incident, but their findings within had been horrific.
The whole team was silent and withdrawn and Dave could see the terror in their eyes. Lieutenant-Commander O’Mara took it upon herself to brief him.
“That was hard going. The hospital had been abandoned, but it looks like they’d been trying to tackle whatever happened from there. It had been barricaded heavily and most of the doors and windows were sealed completely. Inside there were hundreds of corpses, mostly dead from severe physical trauma. Bites, gouges, scratches, lots of broken bones….”
She shook her head “A few of the corpses were in isolation. They were all very securely strapped down, so I’d have to assume they were alive when they were taken in, but samples of blood and brain tissue had been taken from every one of them. We also found a lab area where they seemed to be working on the samples from the isolation cases. They didn’t finish the job. From the amount of blood and mess, we assume more crazies like the one you encountered got in and wiped them out.”
“We down-loaded what little we could, but wouldn’t you know it, most of the files were encrypted or locked. We need to go back tomorrow and see if we can recover the hospitals main data storage and translate it.”
“I was hoping to get out of here.”
“You an’ me both!!” she sighed “But there’s so much more we need to find out. Give me another day and I’m sure we can gather everything we need and get the hell out of this nightmare.”
Dave picked up his communicator “Chief Belle? We’re staying the night. Please arrange sentries round the clock. No one is to go anywhere on their own”
They’d brought a few tents that they’d managed to scavenge aboard Tiger, but after the findings of the day no-one felt brave enough to sleep outside, and they slept as best they could curled up on the seats inside the shuttle. PO Sorenson took the first watch as night fell, but Dave couldn’t sleep and stayed up with him.
The more powerful sensors on the shuttle revealed some alarming facts. There were far more life signs in the area than had been apparent from orbit, and Dave could only assume that like the one living being they’d encountered, these life-forms had hidden themselves deep inside buildings or underground during daylight. They seemed to move individually, and very quickly when the mood took them. Worryingly, there were several in the immediate area.
Sorenson closed up the ship and shut down everything he could to make them as innocuous as possible. In the darkness and silence Dave could hear the tortured screams of these mystery life-forms, even cosseted inside the shuttle as they were.
PO Sorenson woke Chief Belle for the second watch, but even the ice-cool Dane was worried enough that sleep escaped him, and the three of them spent the night nervously watching the sensor displays for signs that they’d been detected.
When the external cameras finally switched from night to day mode as the sun rose, it brought an enormous sense of relief too, and they relaxed as the mysterious life signs seemed to melt away again.
For all his good intentions of saving the Sha T’Al Dave just wanted to be out of here as quickly as possible. After a hasty breakfast of emergency rations, the whole team went to the hospital, barring Stavros and Sparks who stayed to guard the shuttle.
They made quicker progress today, through experience of the route and nervousness of knowing that there were life-forms nearby. The science team collected artifacts and samples from the corpses and Izzy eventually located the hospitals main data storage.
Being of an alien configuration, there was nothing they could do to unlock it, so they disconnected it and physically lifted it out to the main entrance, ready to go. O’Mara’s team worked as quickly as they could, but Dave could see that O’Mara wasn’t happy.
“I’m fine with what we’ve done, but I’ve been thinking about it and come up with a conclusion I don’t like.”
“Which is?” asked Dave nervously.
“We need to capture one alive”
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Dave took an involuntary step back. “Please tell me that’s just your wacky oirish sense of humour”
She sighed and pointed into the lab with the isolated cases.
“Whatever happened here happened quickly, but it didn’t happen overnight. We know the Sha T’Al are as technologically advanced as we are, but they couldn’t cure the problem working from cadavers. That’s why they went out and captured a couple of live ones and put them in there. They still didn’t come up with an answer, but I guess that’s ‘cause they ran out of time.”
The logic was inescapable, and Dave reluctantly called Chief Belle.
“Chief, the Science Officer thinks we’d have a better chance of working out what’s gone on here if we capture a hostile alive. Any thoughts?”
“How about: good luck with that, rather you than me?”
“Hmm. Finding them will be trickier than disabling them. We can’t risk going out at night as there are too many of them wandering about. We’d definitely get over-run. We need to go looking for one wherever it’s holed up for the day, hopefully on its own.”
She thought about it and continued. “We haven’t seen any evidence of personal arms anywhere here, which indicates that the Sha T’Al tend to enforce some kind of weapon control among civilians. If we do find one, it won’t be armed but we’ll still have to stun it before it can physically attack us. If the phasers aren’t safe to use, we have a tranq dart gun in the shuttle. The science team will have to find something to put in it, though. From what I gather, the Sha T’Al genome is so different from ours it’s unlikely anything we would use on humans would have the same effect on them.”
“Well last night proved that there are enough of them around that we may get a couple of shots at bagging a crazy. Much as I hate the idea of killing one with an overdose, I don’t fancy it waking up when we’re not expecting it. We’ll start with a best guess dose rather than err on the side of caution” said Dave, trying not to sound as scared as he felt.
“Oh joy.”
“Yeah. Speak to PO Torres, her biochem background might be relevant”
“Affirmative. Belle out”
Dave re-opened his communicator. “Izzy, if you were a deranged, psychopathic cannibal with a morbid fear of daylight, where would you kick-back after a hard night of terrorising Starfleet personnel?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Every hospital has some kind of mortuary”
Dave gulped. They were on the ground floor, and every hospital he’d ever seen or heard about had a morgue below ground. The crazies might be closer than he thought.
When O’Mara’s team had gathered everything that was likely to be of use, Dave and the Security team shepherded them back to the shuttle and crammed everything in. They cleared space in the cargo compartment and Lieutenant Chen laid out a stretcher and equipped it with extra restraints ready for an unwilling Sha T’Al. Torres provided what appeared to be a quick acting sedative she’d recovered from the Sha T’Al hospital and they carefully filled a few of the tranq darts, making some a heavier dose than others, just in case.
