Ghost stories - Part 2
Posted on Tue May 27th, 2025 @ 5:58pm by Captain Daegan Baas & Lieutenant M'Tala "Hobbes" Clan Hrasi & Petty Officer 2nd Class Sizia Sh'velihr [Baas] & Aseek Tarnala & Commander Jerome Hunt Jr. & Lieutenant Liam O'Riley & Lieutenant Zane D'Sai & Lieutenant Jack Wells & Lieutenant Urushi Yaotome & Lieutenant Niami Troga & Julianna Raihan-Baas
Edited on on Tue May 27th, 2025 @ 5:59pm
1,867 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Sole Survivor
Location: Conference Rm
Timeline: MD 16 - 1045
"Usually direct contact. But there is also a version that has pustules that can burst splattering a contaminated fluid that if absorbed will begin to kill off the surrounding tissue. I'm sorry, my wife was the biologist, but there wasn't time for a whole lot of research into the specifics. The spread could have been held off long enough to get more specifics if it hadn't been for the religious sect. But because of them efforts were placed on holding back the tide."
Daegan's brow wrinkled. "Are you saying this religious sect actually aided the spread?"
"Some...yes. They saw the Defiled as a punishment. Which is why our warrior sect was limited to conventional weapons."
"How successful was your Warrior Sect in fighting back," Zane continued. "What kind of weapons did they use?"
"Obviously not successful enough. There were several that wanted to use fission devices but that took codes from the leaders of all three sects. Our military's regular weaponry did little but slow them down. It didn't matter how many times a Defiled was shot, they were already dead. Explosive only scattered them and the pieces were either joined to another, or eventually became mobile on its own. Combining major damage with incineration bought us the time we needed but by them it was already too late."
"So at that point I assume your species boarded the ship, along with the embryos, and headed out into space to leave behind that horror on your planet" as O'Riley paused "Obviously, by the apparent age of your technology, that was a very long time ago, so where were you headed before your vessel ceased to function?" he inquired.
Nodding, "That's the short version, yes. Apparently this all took place about 180 of your years ago and according to your Captain our original course would have taken us into hostile territory."
His mind was swimming trying to figure out how it was possible to not only reanimate but restructure the dead like that. It sounded like a bad 20th century horror movie.
Never having attended a meeting of the senior staff he was unsure of how to act so he raised his hand slowly.
"Yes Doctor?"
He cleared his throat. "Sir, with all do respect to Mr. Tarnala, I have no doubt he's gone through very traumatic events, but what he is describing doesn't sound medically possible.
"There are viruses or substances that are known to alter mental states and cause people to rage out but..." he looked around, "...to restructure the body in the ways he's describing. I'm sorry..."
Aseek looked at the man, he was actually surprised there hadn't been more people expressing similar skepticism.
"There were those on my planet that thought as you. I was like you once. Your disbelief will vanish very quickly if you are unlucky enough to come face to face with a Defiled."
Daegan lifted a hand towards the doctor to halt any rebuttals. "Doctor..."
"Johannsson."
"Doctor Johannsson. You aren't he only one that is skeptical. While others here may not have voiced the doubts, Starfleet Command has. So to put any doubts to rest we...".
Aseek's head snapped to stare at the Captain is shock as his shook back and forth, hoping he wasn't about to hear what he thought he was about to hear.
"...will be going to the Pricari homeworld. The away team recovered the flight data and star charts from Mr. Tarnala's ship so we will be going there to confirm the situation. What we find will dictate our next course of action.
"Before you proceed. Mr. Tarnala, is there anything on the your vessel you need to recover?"
"Yes. We had a cultural and historical archive stored onboard..."
O'Riley sat for a moment trying to figure out the best way to give bad news "Mr.Tarnala, during the course of retrieving various technical items from you vessel our Computer Systems Specialist procured the computer drives. She has retrieved all of the data that was not corrupted by the last 180 years" as he paused "Unfortunately the complete archives you're looking for have been corrupted beyond repair despite our Specialist 's best efforts" he explained.
Aseek head fell into his hands at the blow. He lowered his head into is arms as his hands reached back over the top of his head and yelled out at the scope of their failure. "AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" Those archive had contained everything. Their culture, history, music, art, science, medicine, technology... His head still covered, "Everything we had overcome, everything we had achieved, everything....gone."
There was a prolonged silence. Daegan sat their and imagined how he would react if he had lost everything that mattered to him and then lost found out that everything that everything else was gone as well. Looking down the table his eyes lock with Jules before clearing this throat.
In the world of Intelligence, data provided trails through reports and shipping manifests, through hotel and resort reservations, through dinner reservations and minor police incidents. Data meant pulling together tiny bits of seemingly unrelated information and using those bits to form a bigger whole. History, in a sense, used those same techniques to put together a picture of a person, a people, a world in a particular time or event. For Jules, who loved history had literally spent her professional life hunting through data as much as out in the field, the loss was especially devastating. Her dark eyes well with compassion and a shared sorrow with Aseek over the incalculable loss. She met her husband's gaze along the length of the table, sharing those feelings with him, and wishing there was something ... anything ... she could do to help.
Looking to O'Riley. "How much was lost?"
Feeling genuinely bad for Aseek, Liam searched for the right words "Unfortunately about seventy percent of the data was corrupted; but what was salvageable was transferred to a modern small portable unit that can be incorporated into a new system" then he paused "Hopefully some remnants of what you were hoping for are still in tact" he explained wishing they could have done more.
Glancing to Assek, Hunt, and then back to O'Riley. "If everything had been intact. How much space in our computer would have been needed to store the Pricari archives?"
"Considering their drives are about twenty petabytes total and our computers are measured in mega-quads which is thousands of times larger per unit" then Liam paused thinking " Maybe one quarter of one mega-quad had the drives not been corrupted" O'Riley explained.
Nodding, "Seems rather small amount of data for a planetary archive."
"By our standards yes but 180 years ago that would have been considered a huge amount of data" O'Riley explained.
Commander Hunt raised his hand. "I have a question regarding the infection. Is there a possibility that your world is still infected? What is the lifespan of those infected who technically are dead, not wondering around?"
Looking over to the Commander, "I wish I knew, but I don't have those answers."
Zane was good at keeping his opinions to himself, the old ones had hammered the need for secrecy into him back when he was a boy, and so, the skepticism he felt didn't make it to his face. Had the Pricari faced something? Certainly. But what they described sounded like something out a bad horror movie. Breaking down and reforming dead bodies and in some cases, actually merging corpses to form new beings that can not only move around but that were capable of killing? He wondered if there were any scientific or medical precedents for something like this and made a note to research it when he had a moment.
Urushi raised a hand. "Can I ask. What do you want us to do with your embryo's?" She asked. "Right now they are totally reliant on their container which we've had to build a new one due to technological compatibility problems."
Daegan answered that. "Right now we need to keep them in stasis until Starfleet finds a colony site. Right now we need to get as much information on this as we can. Hobbes, set a course for the Pricari home world warp 8. With the loss of the majority of the Pricari data we are going to have to get the information we need directly from the source.
Hopefully the data on the planet has survived the 180 years. Commander..."
The First Officer quickly turned his attention to the group. "Urushi prepare the bio suits a landing party and bring whoever you deem necessary for the task at hand. Lieutenant Wells bring five of your best people along. Don't want to many of down there drawing too much attention. Ensure that everyone is brushed up on contamination procedures. D'Sai get ready as well. Go over with Mister Aseek here over in additional data. Aseek, not sure what we'll find down of your world. But regardless you will be able to steer us in the right direction."
"Aye sir," Urushi nodded.
"Aye, SIr," Zane said. He turned his gaze toward Aseek. "I spent my childhood recovering artifacts lost to my people. I hope that we can do some of that for you on your own world."
Lt. Wells nodded at Commander Hunt. "Yes, sir. I'm on it." With that, and little else to be said on his end, Wells headed for the conference room door to see about assignments and contamination protocols with his junior security officers.
A cold sweat began to bead on his forehead. Aseek wanted to tell him there was no way in hell he was going back there but he couldn't.
Hobbes nodded, but the look on the man across the table was disheartening. He could smell the man's fear...maybe if there was something else for him to think on. "Captain. What about their ship? Surely there are personal items Mr. Tarnal would like recovered as well as the remains of his team for any burial customs that he may need to observe."
Aseek was snapped out of his frozen state at the animal's...the officer's statement. "Thank you..."
Nodding approvingly, "Very well, you've already been over there, take whomever you need and tag the bodies for retrieval. I'm sure our guest can tell you where to look for the rest."
Niami was quiet during this meeting, listening, watching and learning about the current situation. The emotions were running high, crashing against her mental barrier, the stormy sea against a rock at the oceans edge. Taking a mental deep breath she waited until the meeting was over. Much more work needed to be done for the crew, and for the Pricari she was seated by, Aseek, she will be speaking to him afterwards.
Seeing that there was nothing else. "Dismissed."
Captain Daegan Baas
CO
Medical NPC
Played by Daegan
Aseek
Last of the Pricari
NPC played by Daegon
Commander Jerome Hunt Jr.
Executive Officer
Lieutenant Urushi Yaotome
Chief Science Officer
Lieutenant Niami Troga
Chief Counselor
Lieutenant Zane D'Sai
Chief of Operations
Lieutenant Liam O'Riley
Chief Engineering Officer
Lieutenant Jack Wells
Chief Security Officer
Petty Officer Sizia Sh'velihr
Yeoman/Biologist in training
NPC played by Daegan
Juilianna Raihan-Baas
CIO
NPC played by D'Sai
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