Damage
... pound, POUND!
Pound.
POUND!
"They're trying to get in!" Ezri squeaked, backing away from the lift-doors. Which were sealed, but ... " ... they're trying to pry them open!" The dull, metallic drumming was incessant. Almost as incessant as the sparks coming from a damaged console to the left of her.
"Does everybody have a phase pistol?" Jinx asked, looking around. Of the twenty-odd 'warm-blood' furs, only a paw-ful were here (on the bridge). The others? Well, one could only hope they'd barricaded themselves in a safe place in the lower-decks, because ...
... pound, POUND! And a few snarls.
"Does everybody have a phase pistol?" Jinx asked again, raising his voice. Which was hard to do. Not only did he have to contend with the noise, but his own headache ... his own nausea. Which was getting worse and worse. Oh, he felt sick ...
Ezri chittered loudly, a rat-a-tat sound, and she scurried away, scooting back. As the pounding of fisted paws (so many pairs of them) was shaking the closed doors.
"I'm not using one," Ross said, voice quivering. "I don't need one ... " His rodent form was cast in heavy shadow. You could only see half his muzzle.
"You're taking one," Jinx said, thrusting a pistol toward the mouse ... " ... they've turned dangerous. We have to incapacitate them as soon as they come through that door."
"I'm not shooting my mate!" Ross squeaked. The mixture of emotions in his voice so wrapped and warped ... as to put him in a state of flux. He wanted to throw up.
"You don't have a CHOICE," the skunk said, growing fierce. "Take it. That's an order."
"I'm not a commissioned officer. I don't have to take ... "
"You're an officer. I don't care, ensign, if it's a field-commissioned rank and not a proper one ... take the pistol. You're going to use it."
Ross, paws shaking, took it. Head swimming. "I don't understand," he whispered. "I don't ... what's wrong with them."
Pound ... POUND!
"I wish they would stop!" Ollie said, from the other side of the bridge. He was cowering in a chair, his mousey senses going out of control. Whiskers twitching in an almost violent way. "Why do they want on the bridge so badly?"
"Because whoever controls the bridge," Jinx said, his voice hanging in the air, "controls the ship." A breath. "How long until we clear the asteroid field?" Jinx asked. The skunk bounded down to the helm, his black tail (with the glorious white stripe) like a luxurious banner behind him. But blending in more easily with the shadows.
The lights flickered back on. And went back off, as they had been for the past half an hour. Down to emergency lighting. Down to back-up systems.
"I don't know," said Wilco, his paws dancing over the helm controls. He'd diverted all power, including life support, to the impulse engines. His fingers danced. And then paws slamming down. "I ... I can't get more than half-impulse, sir, I ... another fifteen minutes, at least." A sigh. "The engines weren't supposed to be brought back online until tomorrow ... "
"I don't think those doors are gonna last fifteen minutes," Ollie whispered, sounding so pale. And yet so calm. He'd been hunted before. Oh, he'd been hunted before ...
"How do we know they'll stop once we clear the field? I mean, the radiation that's already in their bodies ... won't it linger for a few hours?"
"We just have to get out of the field, and ... get away from it. And once we incapacitate them all, Barrow will ... he'll fix them."
"Where is Barrow?" Ollie asked, such worry in his voice ... for his best friend. But not as much worry as he had for Arianna. His mate. Not nearly as much worry as he had for her.
And Ross, too, worried for his own mate. Aria wasn't on the bridge, either ... yet. The meadow mouse, now in tears, went down to the front of the bridge. As far away from the back lift-doors as he could get, and he slumped down to the floor near the helm.
Ollie looked down at him. The flying squirrel asking, "You okay? Ross?"
A sniffle. "I ... I don't know."
"What happened to your cheek?" He squinted, looking. And he reached out his paw, running his fingers along the ruby-red marks ... that had been cut through the fur. Dried blood.
Sniffling, crying quietly, Ross didn't respond.
"Ross?"
... hours earlier ...
Arctic, still recovering from the shut-down and re-boot of its computer core, was perched on the edge of an asteroid field, which would be an adequate 'shelter' for the ship ... until systems were fully functioning.
"I feel kind of sick."
Aria looked to him (with visibly tired eyes). She was munching on baby carrots. The little, orange things making an audible 'snap!' when her teeth clamped down. She chewed, waiting for more from him ...
"I don't know," was his eventual continuation. "Like, my stomach," Ross repeated, and then trailed.
"Perhaps you should go see Barrow," was the suggestion. They were in their quarters. After-hours.
"I did."
She looked to him.
"He claimed I was fine." A pause. "But I know I'm not ... I feel dizzy." He trailed again, concerned. "And, no, mice aren't hypochondriacs. That's a stereotype."
The snow rabbit reached for her water glass. They were both sitting at the table, having their supper. Outside the windows, the asteroids drifted lazily, like whales in water. Now and then, one would collide into another. The stars, through this, could not be seen. And wasn't that rather ominous ...
"Are you okay?" he asked her ... seeing how 'out of it' she was.
"Yes," she insisted, sipping her water. And not looking up.
"Aria ... "
"I am fine."
"Darling, I'm ... intimate with you. In case you've forgotten. Which I know you haven't. I can read your moods, you know, so ... don't tell me you're fine. You're not fine. You're all agitated. All tense."
She flushed. Claiming, "Recent events have been ... trying. I was hoping my first weeks as Captain would've been more efficient."
"Hasn't been ALL bad."
She met his eyes.
"I mean, it's a lovely ship, and the crew's really nice, and ... we've gotten some good time together, and ... "
Her pupils were dilating. She wasn't entirely registering his words ...
"Aria?"
The snow rabbit finished off her water. And stood, coming from the opposite end of the little table. Almost, in the way she moved, stalking. A sensuous stalking.
Ross looked up at her, all whisker-twitching innocence. Not yet understanding ...
She pulled him, then, with more than a bit of force ... up and out of his chair, to his foot-paws.
"A-aria ... "
Her nose was on his neck. Her large, front rabbit-teeth nibbling on his fur. Nose flaring as she took his scent, and her breathing getting harder.
"Darling, uh ... I, uh, can't. I told you ... I ... I feel sick," Ross stammered, suddenly uncomfortable. And when, if ever, had that happened? He'd never remembered feeling uncomfortable around her before ...
She gave no reply, other than to work her paws under his shirt.
"Darling ... " A fur's normally-vibrant yiff drive went into a dormancy period during any illness, to allow the body to heal and conserve energy. "Look, uh ... maybe, if I take some medicine, maybe tomorrow ... I'm sorry ... "
She mouthed his fur hungrily, ignoring him.
"We're both tired," Ross managed. Any healthy male would've been wildly turned on by this, no doubt, but ... being sick, he was unable to register arousal. And why wasn't she getting that? What was going on ... " ... we're both tired," he repeated. "We should get some sleep."
But, still, she didn't stop. Now, half-dressed, and working to get him undressed, too, and ...
"Aria, please! My body won't let me," he said weakly, and he tried to twist away from her, but ...
... a possessive rabbit-growl, and a lusty, feral look in her eyes.
"Y-you're scaring me," Ross whispered. His voice breaking. His heart hammering.
Her paws clutched at him tightly. Too tightly.
A squeak of pain, and again, he tried to untangle from her, but ...
... SWIPE!
Squeak! Sharp chitters of shocked pain. As the snow rabbit slashed at her mate's cheek with the claws of her paw.
Ross, dazed, cheek burning ... knew blood had been drawn without having to touch his wound. He felt it. Smelled it seeping from the slash-marks she'd just left. Oh, it sizzled ... fierce, surfacing pain.
Aria, breasts heaving, said nothing. Fumbling to put her shirt back on, and ... leaving the room. Leaving their quarters.
Leaving Ross just standing there, a lump in his throat. And blood on his muzzle.
Not soon after, in another part of the ship ...
"Did you hear that?" Arianna stopped, her eyes wide. Watching. Her white bobtail flicker-flicked. Stopped. Flicked. Her ears waggled.
"Hear what?" Ollie asked quietly, blinking, and he looked behind them. And then in front of them. He sniffed the air, his whiskers twitching. And his tail lazily snaking behind him.
"That!" She looked to him. "Did you hear it?"
"No," he whispered.
"Listen ... listen ... "
"Arianna, I hear the ... the hum of the warp core, the ... ship-sounds. I hear ship-sounds," he elaborated. "And I hear you," he said, giving her a smile.
She looked away from him, breathing in. Breathing out. "Where were we going?"
"What?"
"Where were we going?" she repeated, raising her voice.
"To our quarters." A squint. "We just ate supper in the mess hall ... "
"Who was in the mess hall with us?"
"Honey, you were THERE," Ollie said, squinting more. "Are you okay? Maybe you got, uh, food poisoning ... "
"Food poisoning?" She gave him a bit of a glare. And then looked away, and then nodded blankly. "Yes. Yes, they would do that."
"Who?"
"They would drug me through my food ... "
"What are you talking about?" Ollie's whiskers twitched. Ears swivel. Tail snaking. Increasingly confused.
Arianna, for a brief moment, seemed pain. She sucked air through her gritted teeth, and went to the wall of the corridor, clutching her head. "Ow ... ow ... "
"You're NOT okay. I'm calling ... "
" ... no one!" she barked, snatching his wrist.
"Ouch! H-hey ... " Ollie tried to pull his paw away, but snow rabbits were stronger than mice.
She kept the grip. "You will not call Barrow."
"Okay, okay!"
She stared at him, and then ... let go of his wrist.
"Ow," he whispered, rubbing it tenderly, and his eyes starting to well up. "What's wrong? What are you doing?"
The rampant paranoia slipped aside for just a moment ... and she whispered, "I do not know." There was a healthy amount of fear in her voice. Fear? "My ... my emotional control," she whispered, "ever since we entered this asteroid field, it has been breaking down. I feel it." She looked around with a wild, growing panic. "I'm losing control!"
"The asteroid field? You think there's some undetected ... substance, or ... "
" ... or maybe it was YOU!" she accused, and she pinned him to the wall.
The air rushed out of him. He coughed.
"You. You tried ... you wanted me to feel love. This is what love is doing to me! Driving me to dementia ... I should've known better." A shove, and ...
... Ollie, squeaking, writhing, tried to breathe, and ...
... she let go, and he slumped a bit. "You are weak," she spat.
"F-funny," he stammered, tears in his eyes. "Just a few days ago, you told me how strong I was."
"You did this to me! You ... " She stopped, eyes widening even more. Waggle-ears at full attention. "Do you hear that?" she whispered.
"There's nothing there!" Ollie chittered, sniffling. "It's in your head!"
"It's all of you! All the 'warm-blood' furs ... you agreed to this venture, to crew half the ship ... so you could kill all the snow rabbits and take our technology for yourselves!"
"What?"
"You won't get away with this!"
"Arianna!"
But she was already bolting down the corridor, out of sight, leaving a winded and hurting mouse behind.
Ross and Ollie both ended up in sickbay.
"She was ... irrational. And, believe me, that's NOT like her," Ross said, sitting on a bio-bed. His whiskers twitched. He gave a bit of a sniffle. "It's ... it's not gonna scar, is it?"
"I'll run a dermal regenerator over it," Barrow promised. "Should make it go away. Heal you right up. Fur, flesh, and all."
"Arianna was the same way," said Ollie, sitting on an adjacent bio-bed. Not injured, but not feeling like standing. "Except, she didn't get all lusty and violent ... like Ross described Aria."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, she was PARANOID. I mean, like ... psyched-out. Was convinced we were being followed, stalked. That someone poisoned our food. She started saying that she hadn't felt right ever since we entered the asteroid field ... but ... but before I could press the issue, she turned the tables, and blamed ME. Said that, by loving her, I was melting her emotional control. I was driving her to dementia."
"Are you?" Barrow asked, with a slight smile.
"Am I what?" Ollie blinked.
"Driving her to dementia."
"This ISN'T funny ... "
"I agree," Ross said, in his quiet, airy voice. "It's not. I've ... I've NEVER seen Aria be like that. It's ... " His eyes welled up. And he winced. "This hurts," he said, moving his paw to touch the claw-marks on his cheek.
"Ah, ah! Don't touch ... don't touch," Barrow said, a winged arm moving to block the vole's paw. "You'll only infect it."
"Well, where's your dermal regenerator, then?"
"Over there. Ollie?"
The white-furred mouse got off the bio-bed he was on, and went to fetch the regenerator.
"I'm, like, worried SICK," Ross said. "I just ... I feel so sick. She's my mate. I love her." A shaky breath. "I love her," he breathed. "Help her. Please. Make her better."
"Make YOU better, too," Barrow whispered.
"What?" A sniffle.
"You told me earlier today ... that you felt sick. I told you that you weren't, but ... the scanner now shows ... well, look." The bat handed his scanner to Ross.
Ross squinted. "I ... I don't know how to read this."
"Elevated radiation counts. No wonder you feel nauseous."
"So, Arianna was right? The asteroid field is having a negative effect on us?"
"Would be my guess," said Barrow, taking the dermal regenerator from Ollie.
"You sound AWFULLY calm," Ollie said to the bat, twitching. Sitting next to Ross on the bio-bed. "Barrow, I'm serious ... the snow rabbits are being effected WAY differently than the rest of us, if it IS radiation. It's ... affecting their emotional blocks."
"Look, I'm sure it is, but ... I don't hear any alarms going off. I don't hear any reports coming in from other crew-furs. All I have is two mice sitting on my bio-bed looking cutely distraught. I mean, I can't relieve the Captain of duty without a GOOD reason."
"But you CAN do it," Ross said quietly.
A sigh. "As the doctor, I have that capacity, yes. But ... that's a fine line to be walking on. Between using that card and ... participating in mutiny. Every time the Captain has a mood swing, I can't just confine her to quarters."
"But she NEVER has mood swings," Ross said, exasperated. "That's the thing! She's a snow rabbit!"
"Look, Barrow," Ollie said ... " ... our mates are being hurt. And they're hurting us. It's all the snow rabbits, I'm sure. I mean, if it's those two ... it's all of them. If you don't believe how serious it is, then look at Ross's cheek again." A pause. A breath. "Or take the memories from my mind."
Ross looked to Ollie. And then to Barrow. "You can do that?"
"Yes, but ... "
"You've been in my head before," the white-furred mouse whispered.
A sigh. And a nod. "Alright," the bat whispered.
And Ross, sitting quietly, watched as both furs closed their eyes ... as Barrow seemed to re-live Ollie's recent 'spat' with Arianna. And, when the bat opened his eyes, he nodded quietly. "Yeah ... yeah," he sighed.
"You believe us, then?" Ross said.
"I believed you from the moment you came in the door! That's not the issue. The issue is ... what do you want ME to do about it?"
"You're the doctor! Give them doses of ... of something."
"Ross, it's not that simple. First, if they're all in ... states of violence, lust, or paranoia ... how are we gonna administer anything?"
"Knock them out," Ollie whispered. "The computer is able to vent gas into the air. Do we have any knock-out agents aboard? To disperse?"
"That can only be done from the bridge," Barrow said. "And you gotta have a command code."
"Why don't we just leave the asteroid field?" Ross said.
"We don't have engines, remember? They're offline ... being re-initiated," Ollie said quietly, and he squinted. "I'm starting to feel dizzy, too."
The periwinkle bat nodded, and went to the comm. Pressing it. "Barrow to bridge ... "
No response.
"Barrow to ... "
... bam, BAM! BAM!
"Eek!" Ross squeaked in unpleasant surprise. "What was that?"
"The sickbay doors," Ollie said. "Someone's trying to get in."
"I didn't lock the doors," Barrow said. "Why are they ... "
" ... pounding on it? Cause I locked it when I came in. I was afraid Aria would follow me here," Ross admitted. Feeling such a pang of guilt, of shame. To be afraid of one's mate? How did things come to that? He felt so horrible ...
"Well, there's more than one 'someone' out there," Barrow realized.
"It's the snow rabbits," Ollie whispered, eyes widening. "They know we're all in here."
The three males went quiet. Looking to each other.
BAM! Bam ...
"How long will that door hold out?" Ross asked, swallowing.
"Not long enough," Barrow said. "Alright ... I ... I can't leave the sickbay. I gotta work on an injection. Something to ... calm them down. Reverse the effects."
"But what if they make it inside?" Ross asked, his cheek still unhealed.
"I'll disperse them with my telepathy," the bat assured.
"That would take a LOT of energy. How long can you disperse them before they overrun you?" Ollie queried.
"Long enough to get away," the bat whispered seriously.
BAM!
"Alright, mouses, go! Go ... come on ... scurry ... " The bat, opening his wings, ushered the two rodents to the back of the room. "Take the access tube off this deck, to the ladder junction ... go to the bridge, okay?"
"How do we know they haven't seized the bridge?"
"Just go!" the bat chittered.
Bam, bam ...
... BAM!
They'd been on the bridge for several hours. It had passed midnight. And was early morning of a brand-new day, and ...
... bam! BAM!
"I'm getting a headache," Ezri chittered. The squirrel slouched at a console. "Why don't they just use phase pistols to blow the thing open?"
"They've lost all rationality," Jinx said. "They're operating on animal instinct. They're just ... taking their frustrations out on the door."
"Let's hope they don't figure out to use weapons," Ollie whispered quietly, from the corner he was in.
"I'm not using mine," Ross said, dropping his phase pistol to the floor. Hearing it clatter. "I won't shoot my mate," he whispered.
"Pick it up," Jinx told him.
"I won't do it."
"Look, I know she's your mate ... she's my Captain, so ... I know that, but when they get that door open, those snow rabbits are gonna come launching at us like rabid zombies, and let me tell you," the skunk said assuredly. "Let me tell you: snow rabbits have got more body strength than the rest of us ... and in the STATE their in, I doubt they'll go down even WHEN hit with a phase blast. Two or three hits, maybe."
"I'm not SHOOTING at my ... "
" ... look, if you don't incapacitate her, she'll incapacitate you. And then they'll turn on each OTHER, and the ship will be NO," the skunk stressed, "more."
Ross sniffled, shaking his head.
"You're scaring him!" Ezri accused. "Jinx!"
"This is no time for cute and cuddly," said the skunk, who was the tactical officer, and the ship's first officer, to boot. He turned away, pacing. Pacing. Feeling the radiation burning him. He was getting a fever. "We gotta be realistic here. We have to fight them."
The squirrel had already rushed to Ross's side, but Ollie motioned her away. "I'll hold him ... us mouses gotta stick together," he said, nuzzling Ross's un-hurt cheek. Whispering things into his ear. Calming him down.
"Wilco, how much longer?"
"Still, like, ten minutes 'til we're free of the field, and ... just cause we get out of it doesn't mean they'll be automatically better."
"Barrow's working on some medicine," Ollie announced.
"Look, this is all ... "
"Uh-oh," Ezri gasped, eyes fully wide ... as the door creaked and cracked open. Several white paws sticking through. This was it ...
Jinx had his weapon trained on the spot. But hesitated to fire. In his dizziness, he simply watched. He hesitated ...
Which gave the snow rabbits a chance to snowball into the bridge. They lunged, quickly, swiping paws, barking out, and ...
... CHOOM!
A phase blast. From Ollie, of all furs. Wielding a weapon (as if, in the past, he'd wielded one many times before).
And Jinx fired his own. CHOOM!
The snow rabbits stumbled, but didn't fall, and ...
... CHOOM!
Firing! More, more ... until they began to crumple, unconscious, but a few of them making it to the center of the bridge, and Wilco, jumping out of his seat, was swatted aside (very easily), sent tumbling, hitting his head. A whimper from him.
Ross cowered, eyes scanning for Aria ... was she here? He squeaked, about to be mauled, himself, but ...
... CHOOM! CHOOM!
And the snow rabbit didn't get the chance. Was stunned to a forced sleep.
The meadow mouse quivered. Still looking for Aria ...
Another snow rabbit (Olivia, maybe), pounded her fisted paws on every computer console she came to, sparking the air, and then she turned and tried to throttle Ezri. Until Jinx took the rabbit down with his phase pistol.
A few other rabbits tried to tear off the clothes of the furs in the room ... mouthing, sucking, tails flicking sensually ...
CHOOM!
Choom ...
The air of the bridge smelled a bit, like singed fur, and sparking, smoking consoles (some of which had been hit by errant phase blasts).
And the siege was over.
"Are ... are there more?"
"The others," panted Jinx, keeping his weapon trained on the figures on the floor (in case they woke up), "are probably elsewhere." A pant. "I need some water ... really bad ... "
"Some were trying to get in sickbay," Ollie said quietly. "I hope Barrow got out ... you look sick, Jinx."
Wilco, groggy on the floor, was helped up by Ross, while Jinx, himself, went to the helm (to check on their position). He looked up at the screen, intensely. "We're out," he whispered, nodding. And a deep sigh. And a swallow. And he looked around. "I'll get restraints for all of ... our friends here. And we'll have to bring them down to sickbay. The doctor can administer them ... and us," he added, "when he's ready."
When Aria awoke, she ... blinked once. Twice. Her vision a bit hazy. And she tried to ...
" ... don't lean up," Ross whispered. His mate had been one of the last snow rabbits to storm the bridge, and had been stunned upon entrance.
She obeyed. Staying down. "I ... what happened ... " The sickbay lights were a soothing sort of dim.
"You, uh, had a bit of a ... lapse." A pause. "All of you did."
She turned her head slightly, seeing other snow rabbits on other bio-beds. And she exhaled. Swallowed. "It was the asteroid field," she realized, thinking back.
"There was something in it ... it was making us all sick. But it affected snow rabbits more heavily, and ... "
" ... my emotional freeze. It melted." There was a grave tone to her voice. "Is it ... "
" ... permanent?" said Barrow, stepping into the conversation. The periwinkle bat had a hypo. And he gave her an injection of something. "Not at all. In another day, with some rest, you'll be your normal, stable self. You and the rest of them. Emotional freezes and all."
A quiet nod. Her head rustling on the bio-bed pillow. "Thank you," she whispered, "doctor."
A little smile. "You're welcome." And he moved off. Pausing to add, "Remind me never to tease you furs about ... being all stoic." He continued padding away.
Leaving just Ross and Aria again, alone in their corner.
"Your cheek."
"Mm?" the vole blinked.
"Your cheek." She looked up.
Ross paused. "Oh," he went, and put his paw to his cheek. "I, uh ... Barrow never got around to fixing that."
Aria's eyes closed. And then opened. "I damaged you," she whispered, her voice heavy. Sullen. "Ross, I'm ... "
"It's okay," he whispered, a paw on her arm.
"No ... I ... "
"It's okay. I forgive you." A breath. "I love you ... " He smiled for her. That genuine, warm smile. Of such vulnerability.
She swallowed. And nodded. "I didn't ... I wasn't in control," she said, trying to explain.
But, again, he cut her off. "I understand." A pause. "It can be fixed." He put his paw in hers, and he squeezed. "I'm just so glad you're okay."
She nodded quietly. Saying nothing. But the dream-like flashes, the fragmented memories of this recent madness ... all to prevalent in the fore of her mind. A reminder of baser things. But she forced an eye-smile for her mate, so as not to worry him. She eye-smiled ...
... and pressed on.