FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

File #8 - "Gravestone"

Commander Val'sha struggled in Muraco's grip as she stood in the turbolift. She has tried to reason with him but all she could make out was the single tears the dropped from his eye occasionally. Starfleet diplomacy was definitely not going to work and besides, he was one of their own.

The turbolift hissed to a stop as they walked out onto the bridge of the Victorious. It was dimely lit, with only a few consoles working and the ship still on emergency power after the successful attack from the Warrior.

The bridge resembled something that Val'sha had only seen in the Starfleet Museum on Earth. There was a light teal glow in the room from the classic LCARS of the Excelsior's era. The room was circular, with control panels lining the outermost walls and a large display featuring the whole cross-section diagram of the entire ship on the rear wall, with doors either side that provided the rest of the access to deck one.

A figure stood up from the center of the room as Muraco pushed her out of the turbolift and onto the bridge itself. She tried not to show any of the pain she was feeling from her injuries, her Vulcan discipline affording her some comforts as well as her longevity and endurance compared to humans.

The figure was horrific as he came into view. It appeared to be some cross between a classic equine of Earth and a humanoid. But there was something more, a blank, lidless expression between his eyes as he walked forward, revealing his Starfleet uniform.

Val'sha recognised him as the creature that had made the log entry that she and Zant had witnessed in Engineering.

He raised his hand slowly, the white fur that covered it, so pristine in his youth had become deeply greyed and mattered.

She still however did not recognise his species or even how he had come to be part of Starfleet. At the raising of the creature's hand, Muraco released her and she found it suddenly much easier to breath again.

She looked up into his eyes, they were a deep cyan blue that glowed in the darkness.

When the creature opened his mouth to talk, a distorted, high pitched version of English filled the room. "You are from the Warrior?" it asked.

"Don't do this! Diamond, I know you are still there!?" shouted Muraco, the desperation from a creature so huge and powerful was so shocking to Val'sha that she turned around at once in astonishment but not showing the emotion on her face.

"Silence!" commanded the creature, lifting his hand. Muraco instantly took out the phaser that was attached to his jumpsuit and shot himself in a beam of orange energy.

Val'sha looked down at the purple mass that had collapsed on the floor and then at the phaser, which was showing it was still on the stun setting. This comforted her despite her not showing on her exterior or showing her outrage.

She turned to stare directly into the cyan eyes of the creature that stood directly in front of her. "Yes, I am Commander Val'sha." she responded cooley.

"You will repair..." stated the lifeform, she believed that Muraco had called him "Diamond" before he shot himself. A curious name for such a creature, she was pretty sure it had been a nickname or pet name for him as it was a very emotional way of displaying friendship.

"Can you not repair it yourself?" she asked, believing it meant the ship, looking directly at him with a raised eyebrow, looking for any information on this creatures capabilities she could fine. It was clear that it was capable of making people act against their will, a logical assumption based on Muraco's behaviour.

"You will repair this vessel or I will kill you" responded Diamond with the same distorted voice. Val'sha was unsure if this kind of behaviour was typical for this species.

"If you kill me then there will be nobody here to repair the vessel?" she retorted, nailing this entity with her razor sharp logic.

The creature appeared to be considering this, almost searching for a means of coercion that could make her do what it wanted. "My offspring is aboard the Warrior... If you do not repair me, it will destroy me when it matures."

Val'sha pondered the meaning of this. What exactly did this lifeform mean by "offspring" or "me".

"What kind of lifeform are you?" she asked.

"I exist as energy..." boomed the creature. "I encountered this vessel and now, this is me. I am Victorious. I know every piece of information stored here. I know about your Starfleet and it will birth more of my children. I have melded with the ship and I have used this corpse to communicate with you parasites that live inside me."

Val'sha lifted an eyebrow. This was starting to make sense to her, although not completely. She believed that the Victorious encountered some kind of energy based lifeform while it was missing which may not have experienced sentience until it melded with the ship itself. To a creature that had essential become the ship, a crew would seem like parasites in the same way that a worm could be seen as a parasite inside an animal.

There was still something she was unsure of though.

"What do you mean "corpse"?" she questioned.

The creature pointed to itself. "This body has ceased to function, I am using it to communicate. It was already deceased when I became Victorious."

Of course! The creature was capable of manipulating neural impulses of a dead host, as well as a life one and there was an absence of a consciousness to get in the way.

"What about your "offspring"? Val'sha asked again, gathering as much information as she could.

"I have impregnated the Warrior with my seed and pretty soon, it will give birth to a new child." responded the creature.

"But there are living beings already on the ship?"

The creature continued to stand absolutely still, the cold dead expression in the eyes of the face with such distinct equine features. "All parasites will be removed."

Val'sha knew what this obviously meant, the Warrior was in considerable danger and she needed to think of a way of warning them without alerting the creature and getting herself killed in the process.

"You will repair me" repeated the creature.

"Yes, I will" nodded Val'sha, wondering why a creature so powerful as to be able to control Muraco, who was now unconscious behind her, would even need her to repair the ship in the first place. Could it not just do the job itself?

Maybe it couldn't?

There was enough information to form a reasonable hypothesis that the creature was not able to use the experience from a host's mind. It could control people but could not use their knowledge or experience, or control their actual thoughts. This had the horrifying thought that Muraco and the others infected may be painfully aware of everything they do but unable to respond or take control.

The initial encounter with Commander Tempest seemed to indicate that these creatures we imposing another neuro-electric pattern onto the host in order to exert their will, sending the very basic neurological impulses to control muscle movement. But this also came with the unfortunate realisation that these beings could stop the heart of anyone they inhabited, killing them instantly.

Val'sha had virtually no choice. She would have to get started with the repairs and attempt to find someway to combat this creature.

"Proceed" said the creature, looking down at the young Vulcan and moving back to the Captain's chair. Val'sha watched a strike of electrical energy vacate the body, the glow leaving his eyes as his head drooped back forward into a state of death.

She walked over to the main computer, tapping controls to see if she could get an idea of how far this creature had infiltrated into the Victorious.

The main computer was fascinating, all the key systems were joining together through new electronic pathways similar to that of the intricate network of neurons inside the human brain.

It was as if the ship and this creature were literally a single lifeform.

However this had also caused massive widespread file corruption within the computer of the Victorious which was probably the reason why the files were so badly damaged when they had first gone to Engineering and assessed the ship's condition.

Most of the major technical files and schematics for the ship itself had been damaged beyond repair during this merging process, with only classified Engineering files on the experimental "Reality Drive" still existing.

This was why the creature was unable to repair the ship! It simply did not have the knowledge itself and was unable to extract it from its hosts.

Val'sha was also familiar with the concept of the "Reality Drive", an experimental drive developed by top Federation scientist, Bendes Ketteract. Katteract was an unconventional and infamous Federation physicist who created the concept of a drive that was capable of "jumping" between parallel universes.

The experiment had run as a "more successful" version of The Great Experiment which was considered a huge failure for the Excelsior Class in the 2280's. Katteract was convinced that he could do a better job then Starfleet Engineering Corps and developed a quantum drive which was able to travel along the quantum strings between universes and dimensions as well as huge distances.

The drive, also known as the Ketteract Drive was fitted secretly on the U.S.S. Victorious at his research outpost in the Lantaru Sector. Starfleet had originally given Ketteract this outpost to "keep him out of the way" as he was an eccentric scientist that was considered by many to be "crazy".

However the experiment was a failure and the Victorious was believed destroyed when debris of its nacelles were found at the test site.

Although Val'sha knew that this was not the case.

She turned and walked to the front of the bridge, paying no attention to the unconscious Muraco or the deceased body in the Captain's chair. Checking the navigational logs filled her with surprise.

According to the logs, this ship had been thrown into the Triangulum Galaxy!?