Chapter 7 - Entry Into Darkness
Melissa Vargas stood listening to Mei-Wan as her friend sat at the desk in the Archaeology Lab.
"Mei, I'm not sure what you should do."
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought you into this," Mei-Wan said.
"No, I'm your friend. We should be able to depend on each other. You were there when things fell apart between Lee and me," Melissa replied.
"Still, this puts you in a bad position again."
"I can still show the captain respect as the captain, despite what goes on between the two of you."
Mei-Wan shook her head. "I wish I had your ability to compartmentalize things."
Melissa grinned. "I think it's some of the Vulcan DNA trying to come through."
"If I were a Vulcan I would have done the logical thing from the start."
Melissa looked down. "Doing the logical thing isn't always the right thing, Mei."
Mei-Wan turned to her friend. "I thought it was."
"I guess it depends how you look at it," Melissa said. "My mother thought she did the logical thing by having nothing to do with me after my father left her and insisted I be raised to experience my emotions. I've never thought it was the right thing."
Mei-Wan eyes widened. "You didn't know your mother?"
"I saw her about five times while I was growing up. Every time she came by only to ask about taking me back with her to Vulcan. When my father wouldn't allow it, she didn't waste any time getting to know me."
Mei-Wan looked down. "I'm sorry, Melissa."
Vargas took a deep breath. "I don't feel like I missed all that much. My dad's great. He's always been there for me."
"Why did your parents get married in the first place?" Mei-Wan asked.
"According to my dad, they were in love. My mother says it was a moment of madness on her part and the biggest mistake of her life."
Mei-Wan nodded. She was glad there weren't any children involved with her and Jack.
Melissa walked up to Mei-Wan and nudged her in the arm. "Hey, don't be so glum about it. I had a great childhood."
"Sorry, I was thinking of something else," Mei-Wan said.
"Mei, if you love him. Don't give up. It's hard enough just to find good friends in this Universe. If you've found someone you really love, don't ever let go."
Mei-Wan came close to crying, but forced it back. She turned to her desk and activated a nearby display. "I probably ought to get to work."
Melissa frowned. "Maybe you should go talk to your husband."
Mei-Wan turned to her as data began appearing on the display. "I could say the same about you and Lee McGuire."
A smile came to Melissa's face. "You always want to make everything about… "
She stopped and stared at the display behind Mei-Wan.
"What?"
Melissa pointed to the display. "Where did you get this?"
Mei-Wan turned around and looked at the set of twisted alien text on the display screen. "That's something from my Hel'yra data."
"From that planet in the nebula?"
"Yes, why? Have you seen this before?" Mei-Wan asked.
"Hank Evans showed me something very similar about a week ago," Melissa said.
"This is over five billion years old. Where did Hank…"
Melissa interrupted her. "It was in a transmission from this ship. I have to go. Sorry, Mei."
A moment later she was out the door.
Mei-Wan stared at the text. She took a deep breath. "Okay, Zachary. I'll follow the chain of command, but you'll have exactly ten seconds to inform Jack about it, or I'll go over your head… again."
Mei-Wan walked out of her Lab.
***
Hank Evans walked down a corridor on Deck Twenty with a tricorder. A few steps behind him Jack followed.
"This isn't anything like the past signals. It just keeps repeating, over and over," Hank said.
"I don't know if that should be a good sign or something to dread," Jack replied.
"Dread it until you discover otherwise."
"That's a sad commentary on the Universe," Jack said with a grin.
"You'll be less disappointed with life if you follow that."
Hank stopped near an access to a Jefferies Tube.
"It's somewhere in here," Hank said.
Jack's Comm Badge chirped. "Now what?" He tapped it. "McCall here."
Over the Badge, Doctor Preston's voice spoke, "Captain, Cynthia Pederson was just brought in here. She's been attacked."
"Is she alive?" Jack asked.
"For now, yes."
"On my way," Jack said and tapped his Badge. He turned to Hank. "You armed?"
Hank smiled and pulled out a phaser. "Never leave home without it."
Jack ran down the corridor. "Let me know what you find!"
***
The moment Jack entered Sickbay he heard the tortured screams of a woman. He ran into the central exam room and found Doctor Preston and several nurses working on a struggling form covered by twisting tendrils of black metal. The body was female, but beyond that he couldn't tell who it was.
"What's going on?!" Jack demanded.
Preston turned to him. "This is Pederson. She's covered by some sort of expanding metal that's tearing through her body."
Pederson continued to scream at the top of her lungs. Jack took a step back.
"Can't you give her something for the pain?"
Preston shook his head. "I've already given her enough sedatives to stop her heart twice over."
Melissa Vargas walked into the exam room and up to Jack.
"My god, who is this?"
"Pederson," Jack replied.
Melissa's eyes went wide as the twisted body on the exam table screamed louder than before and then suddenly went silent and motionless.
Doctor Preston looked at the diagnostic display. "Damn it!"
He turned to one of the nurses who handed him a medical device.
"Cynthia… " Melissa whispered.
"What happened?" Jack asked.
"She's gone into full arrest," Preston said as he continued to work.
Jack turned away from the doctor and closed his eyes a moment. When he opened them his face became stern.
"Computer, lock down all shuttles, airlocks, and transporters. Authorization McCall Zed-nine-alpha, Mei-three-nine." He paused a moment. "Bridge, raise shields and go to yellow alert. Start wide scans and look for any vessels in range."
He turned to Preston who set the medical device in his hand down on a nearby table. He turned to Jack and shook his head.
***
Mei-Wan walked down the corridor on Deck Seventeen toward Duncan Zachary's office. She wondered how anyone could actually be using that language to communicate. It was probably a dead language just like that of the Ancient Progenitors. She was beginning to wonder if the Progenitors, or Beota as Jack had told her they were called, had really disappeared from the Galaxy. If now a second language found on a planet they had lived on was still in use it might indicate they still existed in some form.
Mei-Wan stopped at Zachary's door and touched the switch at the side of it. She waited for a response that didn't come. She pushed it again, but with more force.
"Come on, Zachary. If you're not in there, the hell with the chain of command."
She stopped and looked up and down the corridor. Confident no one was near, she touched a second control at the side of the door and it finally opened.
Mei-Wan slowly entered the dark room.
"Zachary? Are you in here?"
She waited a moment and smiled. "Too bad."
She turned to exit, but the doors closed suddenly.
"Great," she said in frustration. "Computer, lights."
Nothing.
"Computer?"
Again, nothing.
Mei-Wan reached around in the dark for the controls to the door.
"Damn!" she cried out as she nearly tripped over something. She took a deep breath and reached out with her hands and searched the floor with her feet.
A sound.
Mei-Wan stopped and listened. All she heard was her own rapid breathing that grew deeper with each moment.
She reached again for the door control.
A thump sounded against the door. She stopped and stepped back.
Something behind her hit the floor. She spun about, now unsure exactly which direction she faced. All was black, empty darkness.
The door to Zachary's office opened behind her. Light flooded into the room. She slowly turned toward the light.
A figure shrouded in the absence of light stood blocking the doorway. Mei-Wan tried to speak, but something primitive short-circuited her voice.
The figure's left arm raised high into the air.
Mei-Wan took a single step back as the arm reached its full length. She could see the hand in the air now that her eyes had adjusted to the sudden brightness of the corridor lights.
Something was in that elevated hand.
A finger moved to touch a control on that something.
Mei-Wan stared directly at the object. She took a deep breath.
A flash of light filled her eyes with a brightness so complete, she couldn't see a thing.
Her heart took a beat… and another.
"Lieutenant McCall?" the figure asked.
Mei-Wan stood frozen.
"What are you doing in here?"
The figure took a step toward her and lowered its arm. He turned sideways enough that the light from the corridor illuminated his face.
"Blackwood?" she asked.
"Yeah. I was down here a few minutes ago and the lights wouldn't work so I went and got a light. What are you doing here?" the man asked as he shined his portable light about the room.
Mei-Wan took several deep breaths. "I needed to speak to Zachary."
Blackwood walked over to a panel on the wall and worked at the controls. "What the hell's going on with this?" Nothing happened when he tried to activate the lights.
He shined the light toward a Comm Panel and it was dead as well.
"I came in here and the doors closed and nothing worked after that," Mei-Wan said.
Blackwood shook his head. "I better get maintenance down here to take a look at this. Something's wrong with the computer interface."
Mei-Wan walked back out into the light of the corridor. She went to a Comm Panel a few feet away.
"Computer, the location of Duncan Zachary."
The machine responded. "Duncan Zachary is in turboshaft eight on Deck Seventeen."
Blackwood joined Mei-Wan out in the corridor. "Did you find him?"
"I think so. Do you know where turboshaft eight is?"
He pointed behind her. "Down that direction. Take a left turn at the first intersection."
"Thanks, Timothy," she said as she started walking.
A minute later Mei-Wan had made her way to turboshaft eight. She touched the control at the side of the door and after a few moments the door opened. She entered the turbolift and looked down.
On the floor a Comm Badge laid connected by thin filaments to a PADD which displayed a set of cycling waveforms. Mei-Wan reached down and carefully picked up the odd contraption.
"I doubt this follows regulations, Mr. Zachary."
Mei-Wan turned to face the doors.
"Computer, location of Mr. Evans?"
"Main Sickbay," the Computer responded.
"Deck Thirteen," Mei-Wan said to the turbolift.
***
Hank Evans looked over the lifeless form of Cynthia Pederson.
"Where did you find her?" he asked.
Doctor Preston stepped up to Hank. "Deck Nineteen, just outside a Jefferies Tube access."
Hank nodded. "She must have climbed upward to get away from whoever did this." He turned to Jack. "I went into the Deck Twenty access and found an open panel inside, but there was nothing else there. I'm having it checked now."
Jack nodded. "Good. I've got the ship locked down, so whoever it is won't be leaving anytime soon."
"That's assuming they want to," Hank said.
Melissa stepped up to them. "Why don't we check?"
She took a deep breath. "Computer, has anyone left the ship?"
"Negative. All crew members and visitors are accounted for."
Mei-Wan walked in. "Jack, I need to…"
He cut her off. "Not now, Mei."
She wouldn't relent. "Jack this is important."
He turned to face her. "Cynthia Pederson has been killed."
Mei-Wan closed her eyes a moment. "I think I know who did it, Jack."
"What?"
She walked toward the entrance of Sickbay.
"Computer, location of Duncan Zachary?" she asked.
After a moment. "Duncan Zachary is at the entrance of the Main Sickbay."
She held up the Comm Badge, PADD combination.
Jack turned to Hank. "Damn."
