20 – ‘Old Things’

Star Trek: Cayuga

20 – ‘Old Things’ 

By Jack Elmlinger

With a small sigh of relief, Aimee Maguire stripped off her three rank pips, her combadge, and finally her uniform jacket. She dropped them down onto the couch before she plunked down at the table. “So what’s for dinner?,” she asked. 

“Crepes,” Sean Pasko said, setting a plateful of them onto the table. “I’m told that they don’t have any snails in them.” 

“Snails,” Jeanne Pozach repeated admonishingly. “I lived in Paris for thirteen years and I’ll have you know that they make excellent escargots.” She sat down and helped herself to a crepe. “How’re things in Engineering?” 

“Fenzel came over from the Juneau,” Aimee said as she began to unbraid her hair. “He gave me a few tips for tweaking our sensors.” 

“OH, Alice had an idea,” Pasko said over a forkful of crepe. “She wanted to go on a double date with you and Sam. She said that she found a nice holoprogram aboard the Juneau.” 

Maguire frowned at the suggestion. “Sam? I told him that it was over between us, weeks ago. I’m game though if you want to make it a threesome.” Pozach stifled a laugh and the engineer continued,” Did she ever talk to you? Because while we were down on Gianwu II, she was all, ‘Sean this’ and ‘Sean that’.” 

“I don’t think that’s appropriate for dinner conversation. That or threesomes.” 

“Hey, I just wanted to come along, even without Sam. It’s just a word.” 

“Our love life isn’t something that can be treated casually.” 

“It sounds like you gained a girlfriend but you lost your sense of humor.” 

Pasko leaned forward in his chair. “I don’t think that sexuality is a toy.” 

“What was it that you said once?,” Maguire asked him, bringing a finger to her lips. “‘I thought that we were supposed to respect other people’s beliefs?’”

“Enough,” ordered Pozach. 

Pasko sat back in his chair, feeling chastened and Maguire smirked back at him. 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

If you closed your eyes and squinted at Vasility Keitsev, it would almost seem like he was moving up in the world. He lived in his own quarters. He was free from his tiresome duties and his stuffy uniform was nowhere to be found. 

If you opened your eyes a little more, though, you would notice it was Crewman Leung who guarded his door during Alpha-shift. He was a nice guy but he was disinclined to let him wander around the ship. The only meaningful interaction that the prisoner had were his weekly dinners with Captain Pozach and every other meal took place in the Mess Hall where it was filled with distrust. While it wasn’t accurate to say that he regretted his time with the Maquis, it wasn’t necessarily the same thing as not being sorry. 

“Why did you have to be so mean to Aimee, Vasily?” 

Keitsev has crafted a bevy of responses to that question during his incarceration. He had one for Pozach. One for Pasko. And an answer for Maguire herself that he hoped that he would never have to use. Despite all of his preparation, no one had asked him until now. 

Standing with her hands on her hips like a temperamental teapot, Alice Polcheny was demanding an answer from him and he found it difficult to be glib about his answer. 

“We were on different sides. It wasn’t anything personal,” he said after a pause that he hoped that she didn’t hear. “I noticed that nobody got too upset once zh’Tali got through with me.” 

Polcheny was framing a response to his statement when her combadge chirped. “Senior staff, report to the Situation Room. Beta Shift, report to the Bridge.” 

Keitsev was halfway to his feet when Polcheny’s gaze pinned him down. “I’ll stay here,” he said, recovering gracefully before he sunk back down into his chair. She was already gone.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“The planet in question is Quernus,” Commander Survek explained from the Situation Room viewscreen. “Both the Tholians and the Kzinti have claimed it in the course of imperialist expansion and a number of skirmishes have occurred there over the last two hundred years. The most recent incident had apparently unearthed an object of an unknown origin.” 

Pasko smirked at this. “And now they’ve come, screaming bloody murder and asking for our help.” 

The Vulcan inclined his chin slightly. “It is as you say, Lieutenant.” 

“The Tholians and the Kzinti have declared a ceasefire for the moment,” Pozach said,” which is an indication to me about how seriously they take whatever we find. We’re sending security teams down. So is the Juneau to figure out what’s got them so spooked.” 

“What are we facing exactly?,” Ntannu asked her. Pasko’s amusement and Pozach’s confidence aside, it was his security personnel going into the face of danger. Anything that made the Tholians panic and the Kzinti shake with fear was due both his consideration and his respect. 

“Unknown. There doesn’t seem to be any imminent threat.” She moved on with the conversation, leaving the Ktarian unsatisfied with her answer. “We’re due at Quernus in seven hours. I’ll be beaming down with Captain M’Roaki and Councilor Bokam to see what we can learn. Mister Ntannu, you’ll be working with Lieutenant Commander Briannon to secure the area.” 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The transporter beam released its hold on them and Captain Amaara M’Roaki wasted no time at all. “Who’s in charge here?,” she demanded to know. 

Furry feline faces almost like M’Roaki’s twisted towards the away team. “Intruders!,” one of them hissed at them. 

Before M’Roaki or Bokam could say a word, Pozach stepped forward with her hands, open and raised as a sign of peace. “We’re Starfleet officers and we’re here at your own request. We mean you no harm.” 

“Starfleet,” one of the Kzinti said, snarling at them,” Apes… who use pretty words. Weak words.” He jerked his regal leonine head at the security detachment accompanying the away team . “You come remarkably well-armed for a ‘pacifistic alliance’.” 

“What’s this crisis that you’re having?,” M’Roaki asked gruffly, taking a protective step towards Pozach. It was said that aboard the Juneau, she enjoyed a motherly relationship with her crew. They were her cubs and that relationship had carried over to the Cayuga and her crew since both ships were assigned to work together by Admiral Myrru. 

“Ejeria, devine be His name, promised this world to the Kzinti for our use alone. Then the Tholians came, claiming that this is their world. Is there no divinity to their claim?” 

“You mean we were dragged out here,” the Caitian captain asked slowly,” over a land dispute?!” 

“No,” the Kzinti said,” you were summoned here to deal with That-Whose-Name-is-Forgotten.” His mouth split into a toothy smile. “Your lifes are now worth less than ours.” 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Two months ago, Lieutenant Ntannu, as Chief of Security, had met with Captain Pozach and outlined his proposal for the continued training of the ship’s security department. Training that was similar to the training used during the war. She had politely reviewed the plan, listened to all of his points, and she reminded him that since the war was over, security officers were no longer required to be soldiers. To the Ktarian, the terms seemed synonymous except that his security officers were less than well-trained and more poorly armed. 

With three dozen strong, the security teams from the Cayuga and the Juneau were standing at the bottom of a vast cluster. The scorched earth was still smoking, warming them through their boots. An abyssal hole had been revealed by the blast. 

“It’s a couple of hundred feet deep,” Lieutenant Commander Briannon guessed, peering over the edge before looking over at Ntannu. “We’ve got our rappelling gear set up. I was thinking of six to go down in the first group, including you and me?” 

Ntannu nodded at her and fitted the straps of the harness around his hips. When the belayer signalled ready, he swung his legs over the side and dropped inside. It was pitch-dark and the lamp attached to his phaser rifle did nothing to help. 

The Ktarian security officer found himself counting off the seconds on the way downward. It was twenty-five ticks after he began counting that his feet hit the ground. Briannon touched down beside him and together, they began activating lampsticks, tossing them in a fifty-foot circle. The light didn’t quite reach the walls. 

“We’re going to need to bring a portable generator down here,” the Juneau’s security chief commented as the other officers whispered around them,” and a whole rig of lights.” 

Consulting his tricorder, the Cayuga’s Security Chief headed over to the nearest wall. Dimly, he could make out the delicate carvings. “No,” he whispered. “Oh, no.” He raced back towards Briannon. “Hold here. No one is to leave this chamber. Is that understood?” 

“What? Why?” Briannon hooked a finger underneath her gold color, pulling her three rank pips into the light. “Maybe you should explain yourself, Lieutenant.” 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“You’re sure? I mean, really, really sure or not just kind of sure?” 

Ntannu stood near the windows of the Observation Deck, staring at the hull stretched out before him. “Will you ever forget the look of that place?” 

Aimee Maguire paced the lounge frantically. “What are the chances that it’s actually the same? That was one installation, hidden in deep space — “

“So this is another installation like that one. Only it’s hidden on a planet,” Novack said from where he was huddled in one of the lounge’s chairs. “I’m more worried about what happens after we go inside.” 

The doors slid open with a whoosh and Captain Pozach stepped inside. She seemed to be calm and confused but to Maguire’s trained eye, irritation was rolling underneath her exterior. 

“Lieutenant Commander Briannon tells me that you were quite adamant about halting the operations down on the surface, Lieutenant,” she said primly. 

“Jeanne, it’s a lot more complicated than — “

“Be,” the captain interrupted her,” silent.” She turned her attention back to Ntannu and she waited for an explanation. 

“I recognized the architecture and I thought that it would be best that we waited until the implications could be analyzed,” he told her evenly. 

“Implications,” Pozach repeated. Her tone had thawed out a little bit, though she was still clearly suspicious.

Ntannu hesitated so it was Novack who answered her. “Whatever it is, it belongs to the same people who made that installation that we found.” 

“Starfleet’s report on that incident was … thin.” 

“The ‘incident’ featured Starfleet’s three favorite things to classify: the Borg, time travel, and weapons capable of causing devastation over galactic distances,” Maguire pointed out to Pozach. 

“It’s still classified,” Ntannu added. 

“That installation was a weapon,” the chief engineer told Pozach. “There was … someone… from the future who wanted to use it against the Borg.” 

“And you guys think that what’s down there could also be a weapon?” 

“We can’t risk thinking that it’s not a weapon,” replied Ntannu. “That installation was capable of destroying all of the metallic alloys within a hundred and twenty lightyear radius. There are, at least, four dozen Tholian, Tzenkethi, Cardassian, and Kzinti worlds in that range with billions of lives living upon them.” 

Pozach considered this and asked,” What do you want to do?” 

Ntannu straightened up in front of his commanding officer and said with great resolution,” We have to go down there, the three of us. We can determine if it’s actually a weapon before the rest of the security teams can come in.” 

Maguire shivered, thinking about what they might expect.” I’m going to hit the Armory.” 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

They materialized at the center of the chamber. Powerful flood lamps illuminated every inch of the floor and fifty feet up the walls. Darkness still hunger over them like a ceiling. 

“We’ve been ordered to hang back until your say-so,” Briannon said stiffly. “Our tricorders have been fizzling out after about twenty feet. Some sort of interference.” Her gaze flickered over the trio with Aimee Maguire fretting over the pins in her hair, Ntannu silently eyeballing the door that loomed over them, and Novack who was clutching his phaser rifle to his chest. “You aren’t afraid of the dark, are you?” 

Maguire scowled at her and Ntannu walked over to the door. “Let’s go,” he said. With a tortured grinding, the door dropped down a hundred feet and revealed another cavernous room. 

“If we find the generator,” Maguire whispered to her teammates,” we can get power back on-line.” 

“I’m setting my tricorder to center in on the source of the interference,” Novack said after he scanned the area for a moment. “That way.” 

With their phaser rifles raised to lead them, the Starfleet officers slipped through the echoing room. “Do you think that these were originally intended to be empty?” 

“It’s got to be a huge waste,” Ntannu answered the chief engineer,” but who knows what value the architects had? We don’t know anything about them.” 

Novack shivered. “We know that the Borg called them ‘Demedra’.” 

“No dust,” Maguire noted as she scanned the area. “No wonder. The air’s too clean. There’s barely any particulate matter here. Novack, how old do you think that this place is?” 

No answer.

Ntannu turned around in a whirl, casting his light back towards where Novack had been but the ensign was gone. Swearing, Maguire keyed her tricorder. “Nothing. No sign of him at all.” 

“Ensign!,” the Ktarian shouted. 

“Novack!,” Maguire called out to him. “Ronald!” They searched frantically, although neither of them left the glow of one another’s light. “How can he just disappear like that?” 

Ntannu swung his light around again before he flashed it up in a burst of inspiration. Maguire quickly mimicked him but the gloom refused to be parted. “We can look more once we get the power back on,” the Security Chief promised her. 

Maguire frowned. “Then let’s hurry.” 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“I’m right here!,” Ronald Novack screamed at her face. 

Maguire stepped blindly past him. “This mission had better be worth it,” she said sourly. “I’m telling you that I’m not even curious enough about this place to die here.” 

Novack rushed after them. “I’m not dead,” he insisted to the side of Ntannu’s head. He pulled out his tricorder to show them. “Look! See! My tricorder is picking up all three of us.” He held it up in front of the security chief’s face. “Maybe there’s something wrong with yours!”

Ntannu and Maguire reached a door and stepped through it. Doggedly, the ensign followed after them. “If I wasn’t here, could I do this?,” he asked them, shoving Maguire between her shoulder blades. 

“Are you all right?,” the Ktarian asked her, helping her back up to her feet.

“Clumsy. I tripped over my own boots.” 

“Why can’t you hear me?!,” Novack cried at them.

“We can hear you.” 

He spun around. “Who said there? Where are you?” 

“We said that. We are here.” 

“Where’s here?!,” Novack snapped back at the strange voice. Glancing back at the away team, he saw that Maguire and Ntannu had disappeared into the darkness. “No!,” he shouted but they were gone.

“We are patient,” the voice said. It sounded familiar, although he couldn’t place it. There was a whirring sound like servos that were awakening for the first time after a very long rest. “We are ageless,” the voice continued,” and we are tireless.” 

There was movement in the blackness. Chills seized Novack’s spine, moving up and down it. He backed away, swinging his rifle around in a vain attempt to illuminate the figures stomping towards him. 

“We are powerful.” 

Novack turned and ran away. 

“We are relentless.” 

He fell down, skidding into a wall and clutching his shoulder, he twisted around and tried to regain his footing. Fuller stood over him. His Starfleet uniform had been torn into pieces to accommodate his implants. His left eye stared glassily down at him. His right eyes had been replaced by a pulsing device. Slowly, more figures arrived to form a ring of impassive metal and flesh around the scared ensign. 

Fuller said emotionlessly,” We are Borg.” 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Ntannu stepped through another doorway and he found himself outside. He turned around towards Maguire to register his surprise but an explosion kicked him off of his feet, hurling him back down. 

Maguire was gone. 

Rolling hills covered in orange grass dominated the landscape. There were no clouds but the smoke billowing from the wreckage of the hopper that had carried Ntannu and his squad, almost to their destruction, reduced the sunlight to a few stained beams. Keeping his head down, the Ktarian ran. His feet hit concrete and the command center came into view with a grounded cargo shuttle nestled beside a stone building. Above them in orbit, two dozen starships were unable to stop the landing shuttles of the Jem’hadar. 

Ntannu flashed a hand signal at the security guards who moved over toward him to challenge him. With their weapons still raised, a medic extracted a blood sample from him. When it was clear that he was what he appeared to be, they let him pass.” 

“… got force fields over the emplacements but they’ve started ulterium shelling. I don’t know how long they’ll last,” a hysterical Ensign shouted over the din of voices and explosions.

“They’re just softening us up, kid.” A man with Commander’s pips noticed Ntannu and he motioned him over while asking the Ensign,” What kind of force have they brought down upon us?” 

The Ensign, a Bolian, consulted a computer screen. “Recon reports twenty-seven columns of Jem’hadar. They’re supported by a regiment and a half of Cardassians regulars.” 

The Commander nodded solemnly. “Lieutenant,” he said to Ntannu while he studied a topographical map,” I hope you’re here to tell me that we’ve won the battle up in space.” 

The Ktarian shook his head. “No, sir. I came down with reinforcements from the Cayuga. The last that I saw, the battle was still pretty much undecided. Especially with old Tattok in command of the fleet and leading the charge.” 

“Reinforcements?,” the Commander asked him, eyeing the empty space behind him. 

Suddenly all of the communication devices in the complex squawked for attention. Technicians drew back in surprise as a Vorta appeared on their screens. “Citizens of the Federation,” he said in a tone of heartfelt sympathy,” there is no need for bloodshed. Please! I implore you to lay down your weapons! You have my word that you will all be treated honorably as Prisoners of War.” 

“The Jem’hadar have begun to march,” reported the ensign. 

The Commander pointed to a symbol on the map. “Lieutenant, help defend this photon mortar. Go.” ntannu turned and hurried out of the complex, his combadge still whispering blasphemies. 

“I understand why you fight and though it is as noble as your cause is, you must know in your hearts that you are doomed to fail. This is not due to any weakness on your part. Indeed, in you, the Dominion has found an opponent truly worthy of our respect.” 

Ntannu contemplated throwing his combadge away but it was too valuable to lose. 

“You will be defeated on the ground, in space, in this star system, and across this sector because you have defied the will of the Founders. In over two thousand years, anyone who has defied the Founders had never persevered.” 

The words slowed Ntannu’s run. “We persevered,” he breathed. “We defeated the Jem’hadar. This,” — he looked around and he was amazed as the buildings faded to blackness — ,” this has already happened before.” He searched the darkness as best as he could but Maguire was nowhere to be found.

“What do I do now?,” he asked to break the awful silence. Then in a firmer, more controlled voice, he asked,” What’s standard procedure?” 

With a deft hand gesture, he flipped open his tricorder, intent on finding the center of the interference. On the tricorder’s display screen, he gasped despite himself. 

“Panic,” it read.

“What?!” 

“They will return,” the screen told him. “It is inevitable. They will sweep you aside. Not because of their superiority but because of your inferiority.” 

Ntannu tossed the tricorder away and fled. 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Aimee Maguire was scared. 

Not more scared than she had ever been before in her life — that distinction belonged to the incident on Sazmaar — but she was awfully scared nonetheless. Alone, she raced towards the installation’s power source. The interference was so thick that her tricorder couldn’t scan any farther than what she could see ahead of her, which was about four feet. 

The power generator appeared so abruptly before her that she nearly flattened her nose on it. It was stretched far out of sight and she guided her palm beacon along its length until she found a terminal. The interface made no sense to her so she pulled off one of the access panels and crawled inside of it. She powered up the generator, and then dragged herself free before she squinted at the dim light that filled the room. 

“It’s a start,” she muttered to herself. 

A slow dripping sound captured her attention. Confused, she glanced around until she saw it. Falling down from the ceiling, far above her, was blood and it was so dark that it was almost purple. It splattered down onto the floor, not puddling but building up to materialize into something. Maguire stepped back as a boot formed. 

More drips added a leg. 

A torso…

Arms…

And finally a recognizable face.

“What?,” Davi zh’Tali asked her, delicately licking the blood off of her fingers. “I’m your delusion.” 

Maguire blanched at the sight but the slight spurred her to react. “I am not delusional.” 

“Oh really?,” zh’Tali asked her, amused. She brushed a hand through her short white hair, sending a red spray of blood into the air. “Which one of us is talking to a dead person?” 

“I guess I am.” 

“That’s not too much guesswork involved.” The bloody woman smirked at her. “What are you not sure about? That we’re talking or that I’m actually dead.” Maguire scowled at her. “All right, it’s hardly like you to trade in on your intellect anyways.” 

“Hey! Did you see me get that damned generator on-line?,” Maguire shouted back at her, defensively. 

“I was very impressed with how you found the ‘on’ switch.” zh’Tali’s body softened and lengthened. “Really, Aimee, I just wanted to marry you for your brains. Your big brains.” 

Furiously, Maguire stepped up, nose-to-nose, with her former fiance. “Do not bring him into this.” 

“Or what? You’ll hit me?” zh’Tali smiled back at her. “Besides, it’s not like I can make you believe it any less.” Her face rounded and darkened. “I trusted you,” Pozach said, turning away sorrowfully. 

“Stop it,” growled Maguire. 

“What kind of game were you playing with me?,” Sam Dixon demanded to know. “I gave you my heart. At least, you could have told me that all you wanted was sex.” 

Snarling, Aimee threw herself at him. She splashed through his body, gagging on blood as she fell down to her knees. 

“That’s just stupid,” zh’Tali chuckled as she helped the engineer back to her feet. “I’ve attacked a lot of things but none of them have ever been a figment of my imagination.” The Andorian sighed. “Look, you’re never going to get this on your own. See that hole in the wall?” 

Spitting out blood from her mouth, Maguire stared at the break in the ornate gilding, trying to decide if it had been there previously. “What is it?” 

zh’Tali rolled her eyes and said,” It’s a hole. In the wall.” 

Maguire took a step closer and crouched down to peer inside the hole. A sharp blow to her posterior sent her tumbling through the break in the wall, dumping her onto the rough ground. She looked upward and gasped. 

Above her hung a creature that resembled a sphere of flesh dotted with eyes. At least, a dozen tentacles sprouted from it, each of them wrapped around rungs that were mounted into the stone walls. The creature filled up the cave and when it leaned down to examine her, she pressed herself against the floor to escape it. 

“Is it real?” 

“That’s a good question.” zh’Tali squatted down next to her and scratched it above one of its smaller eyes. “Yup. it’s as real as you are.” 

Orifices opened across its body, expelling sour-smelling gasses before it pulled in fresh air. Maguire clapped a hand over her nose. “What is it?” 

The creature pulled itself upward, moving a few of its tentacles to different rungs on the wall. “That,” zh’Tali said,” is an Alzok. They’re incredible creatures. They feed on neural energies and this one… this one has been starving.” 

Maguire sat up, eyeing the creature dubiously. “Does it understand me?” 

“Better than you understand yourself.” zh’Tali sat on a rock, leaning one elbow on her knee as she explained,” The Alzok are telepaths of literally the highest order. They live a very long time, and ages ago, they learned how to warp the fabric of reality with their minds. It has been down here, living in this installation, long since before the Federation was founded. Unfortunately, it has been too weak to leave until the Kzinti punched a hole into the ceiling and all sorts of people started dropping in. The Kzinti are not that mentally robust exactly, but they’re good for eating.” 

Maguire realized that her mouth was drooling but she couldn’t figure out what to do about it. “What… what’s it doing to me?” 

zh’Tali examined her fingernails. “Topping off.” 

Panic flared in Maguire’s eyes. “I’m going to die.” 

“No.” 

Slumped on the ground, she gazed up to look at Pasko’s reassuring smile. “You aren’t going to die,” he told her. “You just need to hold out a little longer.” 

“How do you know?” 

He took her hand. “Have a little faith.” 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“… his entire neural cortex was destroyed. I have no idea what could have caused trauma like that.” 

Maguire forced her eyes to open. The conversations around her stopped and faces loomed over her, blocking out the lights of Sickbay. “Can you speak?,” Doctor Moru asked her. 

“Yes,” she croaked, wincing at the pain. “My head…” 

“It’s going to hurt for a while, I’m afraid.” The Bolian turned to face a tray laid out with hypo sprays. “I can give you something to put you back under again.” 

“Please.” Squinting through slitted eyes, Maguire made out the other face. “Jeanne?” 

“You had us all really worried,” Pozach said with a tight smile on her face. “I’m glad that you’re alright.” 

I trusted you, filled the engineer’s mind. 

“No problem,” she said weakly before she caught sight of another figure. “Sean.” 

“I’m here,” he told her, stepping up to the biobed and taking her hand into his. 

She batted Moru’s hypospray away. “Sean.” She took a deep breath, exhaling it, and as if with great effort, she said,” Tell me about faith.” 

The End…