StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I wrote:Captain Archer saw the planet before him. Hadley III. It was an Earth colony world, apparently they had ceased communicating for a little while. Why people would set up a colony there was beyond him, studies indicated it was a barren lifeless rock. Apparently an Earth company had given massive funding to this colony in particular.

"Captain?" It was T'Pol. Jonathon was clearly lost in thought.

"...yes?" He had a feeling this would be bad news.

"I'm not detecting any strong life signs. Half of the colony seems to have lost power. There also doesn't seem to be any debris, which would indicate this wasn't the work of the Klingons."

"Captain?" This time it was Ensign Sato.

"They're not answering our hails."

Archer thought to himself for a minute. "Very well, prepare an away team. Lieutenant Reed, you're in charge. Take Phlox with you, there may be wounded."

Malcolm nodded to the captain in acknowledgement. Then to Mayweather and T'Pol. The three of them soon left the bridge.

* * *

The NX-01's shuttle landed with a light thud. A strange interference coupled with a dark atmosphere made a precise landing very hard. The away team, now with five security staff walked out onto the planet.

"Anyone detect anything?" Reed asked to his team.

T'Pol replied; "I'm getting approximately fifty human life sign readings. They are very faint though."

"Let's go. Smith and Mallory, stay here and keep watch. Our communications with Enterprise will be cut off while we are inside the colony. You must stay and relay our communications."

"Yes sir." Lopez nodded.

The rest of the away team, now numbering seven started walking towards the colony. Travis had a nervous feeling in his throat, he felt that something wasn't right. He'd heard the stories about the colonies where all of the inhabitants disappeared overnight. Some said phantom plagues, others that it was some other malevolent species. Anyway, nothing was ever really certain.

* * *

The inside of the colony looked fine. The lights were functioning, albeit with a slight flicker. Nothing could be heard or seen that was amiss.

Phlox looked intently at his scanner. "Over there"; he pointed to the corner of the room. There was a small creature lying there. The ground around it was burned away.

Lt. Reed's communicator chirped.

"Reed here."

"It's Smith, something's happened to Mallory. It look like some creature has latched onto his face."

Phlox grabbed Reed's communicator out of his hands. "Can you describe the creature?"

"Ummm... it's beige in colour. Looks like a spider with a massive tail it's wrapped around his neck." Smith was losing his cool.

"Ok, we'll need to return to Enterprise as soon as possible. Once we return to the shuttle I'll contact the ship and get them to quarantine sickbay to the fullest extent. I cannot stress our need for time in this matter."

"What is it Doctor?" T'Pol rather sternly asked Phlox.

"I'll explain it when we get back to Enterprise."

Robert Walper wrote:One word: More.

I wrote:Mallory had been safely put in stasis in sickbay. It was now time for explanations. The senior staff had gathered in the briefing room.

Phlox stood up and addressed the room. "Everyone, what we're facing is very serious. These creatures have only been encountered a few times by my people. And possibly once or twice by Earth vessels. Ensign Mallory is in stasis right now. There's no way to remove the creature without killing him."

Captain Archer sat up in his chair. "So... what can be done?"

"All I can think to do is try to study the creature while it's metabolising. We have to take it out of stasis for that. Which is out of the question. Because in a few hours, that creature would shed it's skin and go into Mallory's torso. From then it would grow and gestate. After a day like that, it'll burst out of his chest. Killing him then growing at a very fast pace and becoming very dangerous." Phlox's voice was devoid of his usual cheerfulness.

"Could we study more of the beings on the planet? Perhaps learn a way to save Mallory?" Archer sounded desperate, the thought of Mallory being in stasis for the remainder of the trip was not encouraging.

Phlox sounded hesitant. "I can try to remove the creature. But that would place the patient's life in grave danger."

Archer sighed; "Ok, can you try anyway? It seems to be our only course of action, short of leaving Mallory in stasis for the rest of the trip."

"I'll do what I can sir." Phlox clearly was not confident.

* * *

Phlox had the sickbay in total confinement. He was the only one in there. There were security monitors running and a security team outside the door, in case anything went wrong.

Phlox began his operation, he narrated it for the people viewing on the monitors.

"Removing the patient from the stasis chamber now. Making first incision in the front right leg... AHHH"

Archer's voice cut over the intercom; "Phlox, what just happened?"

"I made a primary incision in the creature's leg. Some blood came out. It burned a hole right through the stasis table."

"So this creature has acid blood?" T'Pol chimed in.

"It would seem so. Sorry, but now there's no way to remove it without killing him. Now it would seem we can't put him back in stasis either. He has approximately 1-2 days before this kills him."

"Would it be possible that this same thing is happening to the colonists?" Archer sounded worried.

"More than possible, I'd call it a certainty." Phlox replied with urgency.

"Very well, leave him. Join us up here in the conference room."

"On my way sir."

With that, Phlox locked the door to the sickbay, dismissed the security detail and left for the upper decks.

* * *

6 hours later...

Sickbay was abandoned, Doctor Phlox was in bed like most of the crew. Only a skeleton staff was up, trying to think of some way to help the colonists.

Mallory regained consciousness, he opened his eyes slowly. Still trying to recover the memory of what the hell put him there. He slowly stepped off the damaged table. In a few moments, he realised where he was.

"... Doctor Phlox?" He asked, still sounding groggy.

Even with the night lighting, Mallory could see the door. We walked over to it and pushed the Open button.

It was locked.

Again, locked.

Mallory puzzled over this for a minute. Why would it be locked?

He started to feel a strange pain in his chest. The pain grew to intense levels in a matter of moments. He ripped his surgical gown off, in an effort to see his chest and what was causing the pain.

A hideous serpent burst out through his chest.

He collapsed.

Gandalf wrote: Questions, comments?

Many thanks to Demandred and Robert Walper for their help.

2000AD wrote:No no no, they can't be expendable red shirts if you give them names!

I wrote:The Alien creature scurried through the air ducts of Enterprise. In there nothing could stop it, there were very few security systems, and the ducts ran through nearly every room in the ship.

But this ducting was only a means to an end, it needed food. The creature poured through duct after duct, occasionally picking up the scent of some tasty crewmen. Until at last it came upon a godsend, the ship's food storage. Dehydrated and vacuum sealed foods from wall to wall.

It tore through the first container it came across, full of some sort of basic grains. After an hour of gorging itself, and growing at an exponential rate, it needed some quick rest.

After a few moments of sitting still and metabolising, something bad happened. The ship's chef had entered. He was less than impressed with what he'd seen.

"What the fuck happened here!?" Chef held up his spatula as some sort of threatening gesture. He slammed the door control panel. Whoever did this wasn't getting out. And if this was another of Phlox's pet medical experiments, he was going to pay.

A few moments of silence passed. Chef heard a snarling noise from the pile of containers in the far corner. He walked over to investigate the noise, unaware of nature's perfect killing machine waiting there for him. It's appetite suddenly awakened by this new food in front of him.

Chef was dead in moments.

* * *

"Phlox, what's happened to Mallory?" Archer was outraged, he had called Phlox and Reed into his ready room to figure out what to do. The creature was now loose. And if what Phlox said was true, they were in serious trouble.

"It seems the creature grew and gestated quicker than normal. It burst out of his chest a few hours ago."

Lt. Reed cut in; "The monitors got the whole thing." He pushed a few buttons on a wall terminal, Archer, Reed and Phlox watched as Ensign Mallory woke up, and died gruesomely.

"This is where it gets interesting." Phlox and Archer looked at Reed with a mix or horror and confusion. This was the first time they had watched Mallory die. Reed had watched it several times over.

"There" Reed pointed to under the damaged stasis table. "It seems the acid it has burnt through the floor. Made a hole just big enough for the creature to squeeze through. It could be anywhere right now."

Archer stood up straight, it was now time to be the captain. "Phlox, how fast could this thing grow?"

"Within a day it can be over two metres long."

Reed answered; "There's another issue, the acid blood. It burnt through 3 decks. If this creature is two metres long, I shudder to think how much acid might be released if we kill it."

"Good point Malcolm, any ideas on how we can get around that?"

"Nothing, we might have a slight chance if we kill it on one of the upper decks. Perhaps the acid won't drop down through all of the dec-"

"T'Pol to Captain Archer."

"Archer here." For T'Pol to interrupt a meeting like this, it had to be very urgent.

"Chef is dead. It appears that the creature that emerged from Mallory is responsible." T'Pol's cold hard voice once again reminded him that she was a Vulcan.

"I'll be on my way in a moment. Archer out... Malcolm, shipwide red alert. No-one is to be alone at all. I want the best security you can give me. Phlox, I want a full autopsy on Mallory, find everything." Archer made for the door.

"Aye captain." They answered in unison.

The three men left the room.

NecronLord wrote:Do phase pistols have an NDF setting?

Gandalf wrote:

NecronLord wrote:Do phase pistols have an NDF setting?

I think it's just stun/kill.

Biddybot wrote:Nooooooo, not Chef!!!

I was initially going to suggest that surely it would only take seconds to kill him, not moments, but only because I tend to think of a moment being similar to a minute...but it isn't, is it? (So English isn't my first language. So sue me.) As long as Chef got killed quickly...that's what counts. (Wouldn't want the poor never-seen SOB to suffer, now would we?)

The thought of a young Alien tearing into a packet of grain set me back for an instant--I think most people tend to think of the Aliens as strict carnivores--but that really hasn't been established for sure, has it? Makes more sense for a creature renowned for its ability to survive on almost nothing to be an omnivore, anyway.

I don't much like the main cast of ST: ENTERPRISE and most of what little pleasure I get out of watching them in action usually derives from seeing Archer get beat up by aliens (AGAIN) or Reed getting yelled or glared at by one of his superiors. If your story's plotline were to involve such future scenarios as, say, an adult Alien trampling Reed before he could get off a single shot of whatever firepower he's packing, then knocking Archer around and chewing him up a bit before the cavalry charges in, I for one would be especially delighted to read that.

I wrote:Reed's security team gathered in the armoury, they were going to put an end to this menace before it killed any more people. He pulled of a schematic of the engineering deck.

"Everyone, as best we can figure, it's moved somewhere near the engine room, namely the maintenance tunnels. So be careful with your weapons, we don't want to hit the plasma inducers, or whatever the hell those things are. It'll blow up half of the ship in short order. T'Pol and Phlox have determined that if we only use stun, we can minimise any chance of bleeding."

"What happens if the bleeding gets out of control?" The ill-fated Ensign Gilray asked.

"We don't let that happen." Reed responded glumly. "Now let's go. we'll keep in one large group. Spread out, but never be out of sight of another officer."

* * *

Reed's eight-strong team moved quietly through the engineering maintenance tunnels, this was just like in the simulations at the Academy. Cramped space and a silent enemy.

"THERE IT IS!" Gilray screamed, the creature rushing at him from an adjacent tunnel. He fired his phase pistol repeatedly at it. The creature recoiled a little with each shot, but it just kept coming. It's burnt but still active body chomped into Ensign Gilray. His screams audible throughout the whole tunnel network.

The nearby officers and crewmen fired at the creature from in front and behind. It down, screaming as it lost it's life energy.

"... did we get it?" A nearby Ensign asked.

Reed peered at the creature. "I think so... It's bleeding. EVERYONE OUT!"

The security men scrambled to get out of the tunnels, scared that the blood might rupture some piping and kill them all.

* * *

"Uh, Capt'n?" Trip look concerned at his station on the bridge. "We've got a loss of containment in one of the antimatter storage... we'll have to eject."

Archer sighed. "... do it."

Outside the ship, the antimatter pods flew out into space. Within a few seconds it exploded, sending a shockwave toward Enterprise.

Trip looked worried. "Captain, the shockwave damaged what was left of the primary engines. We're adrift, all we have left the are docking thrusters."

Mayweather cut in; "We're now losing altitude, atmospheric entry in 5 minutes."

"Fuck this." Archer sat down in his chair in defeat. "This is why I wanted seatbelts."

dragon wrote:Lol good ending seemed a little rushed though. Should have made them suffer a little longer

I wrote:Enterprise careened into the atmosphere of Hadley III, shaking violently from atmospheric pressures. Ensign Mayweather used what was remaining of the engines to level the descent, maybe even steer it to a good landing space amingst the seemingly endless jagged rocky formations. He aimed for the plains near the colony, they weren't too far off considering the speed they were going.

The ship shook with an almighty thud, they had hit the surface. Enterprise was ploughing along on momentum. The ship shook again, then they could feel that it had stopped. The crew lifted their heads, they saw the front of the bridge was missing, in it's place they could see what looked like another structure. They had run into the colony.

T'Pol stood to peer out of the hole and into the colony. She sniffed the air, and her eyes widened in fear.

"Captain, we need to evacuate the bridge immediately."

Archer was in no state to respond. He was fading from consciousness on the ground.

"Is anyone here conscious?"

There were only a few groans emerging from around the bridge. Trip and Malcolm stodd up, hunched over from pain. Hoshi followed them.

"What's wrong T'Pol?" Trip groaned.

"I can smell the Aliens, they're closing on the ship. Right now it would seem the heat from the hull is preventing them from approaching. I estimate we have less than thirty minutes to evacuate this deck and any others which have breached. In that time, the hull plating will have cooled enough to make it possible for them to approach the ship. Assist me in carrying the wounded."

Trip and Malcolm complied, barely able to carry themselves. T'Pol hoisted Captain Archer over her shoulder. Trip and Malcolm grabbed Ensign Mayweather. T'Pol forced the turbolift door open. She pushed a few buttons inside.

"It seems to be working."

T'Pol carefully placed Archer in the lift. Trip soon followed with Mayweather.

* * *

T'Pol and the remainder of the able-bodied crew gathered in the armoury. It's double plated walls would make it harder for the Aliens to get in, thus making the ideal choice for a gathering place.

Malcolm limped to the front, using a makeshift crutch for support.

"Ok..." He struggled to get the words out. "You've been assigned into four groups. One for here, one for sickbay and one for engineering. Everyone else will be part of the expedition into the colony."

The whole room jumped in surprise.

"Our long range transmitter is down, we need to grab the one from the colony. It's about three hundred metres form the ship... Also, we've sealed up what deck plating we can. there are two access points. Each guarded by an automated phaser array. That's all from me... T'Pol?"

T'Pol walked to the front of the room. Malcolm sat down, a clear look of relief on his face.

"If these creatures reproduce the same way they did with Mallory, then there is a possible population of three hundred and five in this colony... In the event another crew member is taken like Mallory was. It is your duty to kill him. We believe it will also destroy the Alien embryo-"

"Engineering to Armoury." Trip's voice sounded worried.

Malcolm spoke up; "Armoury here."

"The creatures have started to attack the ship through the breach near the armoury. The automated phasers are holding them off though. They will have breached the outer hull soon. Engineering out."

"Ok, groups one and two, get out there now. Three and four head to engineering and sickbay. Go!" T'Pol ordered harshly.

I wrote:T'Pol directed the fire out of the hull of Enterprise and down to the Aliens crawling along it's surface. Each automated array was now backed up by an armed team of officers behind it. It was imperative that they didn't enter and bleed inside the ship, as the blood would burn right through the decks and cause more damage.

The Aliens charging at them seemed relentless, like they were directed by some great will. The horrid screeching they made when shot became almost too much for some crew members as it resonated around the cavern.

Nobody really knew how many had been eliminated. Some dozens from this one point alone probably the same amount at the other entryway.

"You're all doing an adequate job. Continue." T'Pol chimed in over the phaser fire and screeching. She learned from Soval that humans often needed positive reinforcement to continue their duties in unfavourable corcumstances.

As soon as it had started, the rush stopped. An eerie silence spread through the hall for a few moments.

T'Pol pulled out her communicator. The little chirp causing some to jump in surprise, a sign of their fraying nerves.

"T'Pol to team two."

"... Lt. Arturo here. You still getting attacked?" T'Pol was a little dismayed at the lack of decorum in his voice.

"Negative. They seem to have stopped for now."

"Same here. I just spoke to the Engineering and Sickbay teams. They've reported no activity."

"Very well. I advise we meet up in the armoury and formulate a counter offensive. Are there any casualties?"

"No, we made an effective bottleneck. Nothing could have gotten through."

"Very good. T'Pol out"

* * *

After a quick check to make sure the team was ok, they started the path back to the armoury. The damage around the ship seemed more evident than before. Walls had cracked horribly and wires were exposed. The reeking smell of burnt out circuitry was immense.

This damage was going to take months to repair, since the ship was obviously in no shape to fly back to a repair station.

T'Pol's team approached the Armoury, to find group two standing outside. Their sullen expressions meant yet another unfortunate event had occurred.

"What is wrong?"

Lt. Arturo stepped forward. "In there... Lt. Reed... we shouldn't have left him alone."

T'Pol shoved past him and opened the door. The sight shocked her like nothing she had seen before. She immediately closed the door, as not to alarm the other crew members.

"What was it?" Some unimportant NCO asked, like a crude child asking how much the bill was at a restaurant.

"It would appear Lieutenant Reed is dead. He's been skinned and hanging from the ceiling." She had to expend a lot of effort to keep her stoic state in front of impressionable crewmen.

T'Pol's team all bowed their heads in shock and sadness, also in respect for a man who had done immense service for the ship. Team one because of the shock of hearing the news delivered in such a heartless way.

"Fucking Vulcan whore, show some respect." Lt. Arturo sneered at T'Pol.

"Lieutenant, restrain your feelings. There are duties at hand and your insubordination is counterproductive. Now, remove his body from the Armoury and place him in the morgue in cargo bay one."

"Very well. Come on guys, let's get him out of there." Arturo was bitter to say the least.