The Derelict

Posted on Mon May 22nd, 2023 @ 7:10am by Captain Charlotte Rhodes & Lieutenant Subat & Lieutenant Jackson Rutledge II & Lieutenant JG Verelan & Doctor Samantha Knight, DSci.

3,210 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 1: Runner
Location: Crash Site, Eta Halix II
Timeline: MD 6

The hulking mass of the derelict vessel dominated the scenery before the Boudicca landing party. This craft looked ancient, yet clearly advanced. The vessel was badly damaged, though if that damage came from the ion storms and crash landing or from combat was still unclear. A sizable chunk of its underbelly and scrapped off, littering the two mile long ravine behind the crashed ship with shredded plating and pieces of interior decks.

The vessel would never fly again, that much was clear. However, it was also clear that this vessel arrived before the time dilation. The amount of weathering, dust built up, and plant life surrounding it made it clear that the ship had arrived decades ago. The theory that this ship was the source of the time dilation seemed as confirmed as ever.

Perhaps the most ominous piece of evidence was the presence of a Starfleet transport craft, landed and apparently abandoned next to the derelict decades ago.

Rhodes took in the scene, while eying the readouts on her EV suit hud. "Looks like we aren't the first visitors," she said ominously, pointing toward the slightly obscured transport.

Verelan looked around. “This place gives me the creeps.”

"Captain," Rutledge spoke, "are we going to go and check out both ships? If so, I am ready to go."

"Let's check the transport first. Their might be some clue as to what's happened here. It'll also take a lot less effort to interface with," Rhodes replied. "Drake, go with Rutledge and see if you can get the transports computer back up and running."

Rutledge moved towards the shuttles hatch, waiting for Drake. He started to wonder what condition that shuttle was going to be in.

---

Verelan was paying attention to the medical side of matters, she was curious about the occupants of the ship they’d found. “I’d like to try and get access to the medical records aboard this ship Captain. It may give us a clue who the people were that were aboard.”

"Agreed. I wouldn't mind learning a bit about who these people were before their ship crashed here," the Captain replied.

Samantha hoisted her audio visual recording gear and started off towards the derelict ship. She wanted to perform a walk around before these Starfleet types trampled all over the perimeter and contaminated or damaged anything of archeological value.

It took a moment for Charlotte to register the woman striding away from the rest of them. She turned toward Samantha, waving to try and get her attention. "Got a meeting you're late to doctor?"

Samantha glanced over her shoulder, not even breaking her stride. "There’s no signs of immediate danger and I want to see if the ship has any external markings. It may prove useful for translation of anything we find inside."

"It's the less immediate kind that tends to catch you off guard," Rhodes replied. "Lt. Subat, can you stick with her? I don't really want anyone heading off without a partner."

The Vulcan nodded exaggeratedly so his gesture would translate through the suit. "Aye, Captain. I will accompany the doctor." He headed off with a somewhat amusing accelerated pace.

Rhodes turned her attention back toward the door hatch. "Ok, Lt. Verelan, let's see what's inside this thing." Reaching into her pouch, she retrieved a door override device. It was a fairly simple thing really. A device which forcibly channeled power into most species door mechanisms in the event of a power failure. It wouldn't overcome any security features, but it'd gain them entry.

Rhodes adhered the small circular device to the door fraim. The indicator lights on the disk flashed yellow twice, indicating a successful mapping of the doors' mechanism. Then a brief countdown chirped out as the blue lights around the devices exterior counted down to charge.

The Captain tapped the comm button on her wrist panel. "Breach mechanism says two minutes to entry into the derelict. Find anything in that transport?"

---

Rutledge managed to pry open the transport main hatch and gained entrance. He shined his beam over the entire length of the corridor that led to the control area. "Rutledge here, captain. We just managed to gain entry into the transport. So far, haven't seen any evidence of a crew. Moving now to the command area."

While Drake was trying to activate the main controls of the shuttle, Rutledge was trying to access of the secondary systems, with little luck, he stumbled upon something. "Rutledge to captain. I found a star chart which may indicate a place of origin for the shuttle." Rutlidge pulled out his tricorder and had it confirm place of origin. "Captain. Place of origin somewhere very deep in the Beta Quadrant."

"Deep in the Beta Quadrant? How the hell did it get here?" The Captain's voice replied over the comm. After a pause she continued. "If there's a star chart from the derelict back in that transport, it means that the transport crew must have made it back. See what else you can find."

"On it, captain." Rutledge closed the channel then began searching the shuttle, beginning with what systems that were still active. He searched the captain's logs, and the crew logs. Then he started searching the control room of the shuttle. When he struck out there, he started searching each compartment, storage room, sickbay, and engine room. Nothing. He returned to the control room and was just about to hail the captain, his temper got the best of him and he punched a wall panel. The wall panel fell off and there was a hidden compartment inside the wall, and inside, a container. Inside the container was a dozen or so data chips. Rutledge started plugging each chip into the panel. Most times, the chip had degraded and was unreadable, but the last one worked, a map appeared, it looked like another star chart, different then the first one he found. "Rutledge to captain. I think I found something. Transmitting data to you."

---

The door override device beeped twice and then provided a charged shock. The old mechanisms of the airlock rolled open slowly, the sound of grinding metal filling the air even through the Captain's helmet. The hallway beyond left a lot to be desired in terms of welcomes. The lights were fully extinguished, leaving the sunlight streaming in through the opened airlock as the lone source of light aboard. And yet, despite having been sealed moments ago, the hallway was positively teeming with plant life. Vines, grasses, mosses, thicker branches. The site raised her hackles immediately.

"Rhodes to away team, everyone make your way back to the entrance. And step very carefully. Something is very wrong with the plant life down here. I just opened the hatch and the entire inside of the derelict is covered in it," Charlotte reported out, before activating the lights on her helmet. She turned to the Vulcan next to her. "Lt. Verelan, correct me if I'm wrong but usually plants require some things to sustain themselves. Soil, sunlight, water."

Verelan nodded. “Usually Captain. There are plants that can thrive in darker environments but they’d still need access to water, or other liquids, not to mention soil or whatever their usual growing medium is. I don’t understand how these plants are thriving in this environment.”

"I'm no botanist. My background is in planetary sciences. So I can't say for sure if the continued exposure to an ion storm could have done this, but...I don't like it," Rhodes said. Her hand drifted to the phaser on her belt, patting it and making sure it was set to stun.

She took a few steps into the craft as the others gathered. Beneath her feet, the foliage crunched like the bed of a forest. There was nothing dead about the plant life in here. Brushing aside a hanging vine, she proceeded down the hallway. The universal translator started running on the side of her helmet's hud, attempting to translate the text visible on the wall panels. Ahead of them, a room was visible, its door was slightly ajar, held open by a branch which appeared to be protruding from inside the room itself.

Verelan followed Charlotte through. “Is it possible these plants have learned to harness the energy from the ion storm? I would take a sample but I don’t want to risk a reaction.”

Rhodes nodded. "I'd second that concern. Let's try not to disturb anything until we've regrouped."

Samantha had an audio-visual recording device out and was making a record of every symbol as she fell into the group entering the derelict space craft. She had made a data link to the Defiant computer with her EVA suit communications to initiate a translation. She turned to Subat. "I'm currently at a loss as to the meaning for any of this symbology. These could be instructions on operation or just identifying descriptions. What's your take at the moment?"

"I am at a loss. As is the universal translator. The base codex of this language is clearly outside of the translator's coding. Perhaps if we found some sort of information to provide more context, we could gain a deeper understanding," Subat replied, following Knight in. But a few steps in, he came to a stop, taking in his surroundings. "Captain. These plants. They shouldn't be in here."

"I'm glad we're all in agreement. I don't know what good it will do, but everyone have your phasers ready," Rhodes said as their group grew to four. She tapped her comm to make sure it was broadcasting to the whole team. "Rutledge, Drake. Regroup over at the derelict's entrance. I don't want us too spread out."

"Acknowledged, captain." Rutledge started packing up his equipment and also the data chips for further analysis. He looked at Drake. "Ready to go, sir?"

---

Rhodes stepped up to the door to the adjoining chamber, feeling a surge of apprehension toward what she would find. She wasn't entirely sure what she expected. Bodies of deceased aliens or of the search team? A room full of mysterious devices? Nothing?

Regardless of expectation, she was not prepared for what she did see. Standing in the middle of the room, near an access panel, was a tree. A full grown tree. It was spindly, sure. But the branches, leaves, trunk, roots planted on the ground. They were all present. And yet, there was something a bit odd about the tree. Its shape was almost...

And then it moved.

The impact came so quickly, that she was airborne before it had even registered. Her mind simply hadn't been prepared to process a tree limb moving toward her, let alone at the speed it did. The solid thud as a thick branch caught across her chest and hurled her flying was an after thought. With a sickening crash, Charlotte felt herself slam against the side of the access hall. It was only the wave of nausea from the whiplash of her head that saved her from the next swing, as she crumpled to her knees just out of reach of another massive wooden limb.

Adrenaline surged into her veins, aided by the wailing of her suits alarms, bringing her back to focus just in time to roll to the right and dodge the big wooden club of a limb slamming down. It was only as she dodge this third attack that the scene came into focus in front of her. Standing in the doorway to the side chamber was a massive entity. Though its body took the rough outline of a bipedal humanoid, the substance of its body was entirely plant-like. Its "arms" and "legs" were branches off a thick wooden trunk, each studded with thick armor like bark. The thing approximating a head was as much a raised leafing section as it was anything else. Her attacker was heavy and lumbering. Now that she was perceiving the threat, she could tell that it was slower than her, though only just. With a cocktail of willpower and primal instinct, Charlotte nearly leapt to her feet, sprinting toward the airlock to the ship. A single word managed to escape her mouth into the comm speaker, as much an exclamation as an order.

"RUN!"

Verelan heard the words before she saw just what Charlotte was running from, she stood for a second before starting to run. Just at that moment one of the many vines on the floor, flicked up catching her footing and causing her to tumble. She landed with awkwardly her right arm taking the full brunt, she had no choice but to get to her feet one handed and follow on as fast as she could manage.

Rhodes grabbed the back of Verelan's suit, pulling her with her as they raced out of the craft. The two spilled out onto the grassy terrain surrounding the downed craft. The thundering sound of the monster following them crashed its way down the hall.

Charlotte's phaser was in hand now and she wheeled on the being, firing off three shots in quick succession. The blue stun bolts met their mark perfectly, but they might as well have gone fully astray for all the impact they had. In the moment she had wasted on her vain attempt to stun the being, she'd sacrificed the ground she'd gained. The long arm of the plant-being shot forward, making unnerving wood snapping noises as the end of the thick wooden branch suddenly contorted into a frightening approximation of a hand.

Its fingers engulfed Charlotte's helmet, lifting her off the ground with its sheer strength. On what appeared to be the palm, tiny tendrils shot out, impacting the visor of her helmet in what appeared to be some attempt to inject her with something. For a half second, she took solace in the protection of her helmet. And then the fingers squeezed. A sharp crack started to spread across the transparent facing of the helmet. The helmet's frame would only last another second or two under the crushing pressure.

The Captain's hands moved on instinct. She didn't have time to assess the risks of her next action. That would come later. Her right hand instinctively flipped her phaser to kill. Even as the emitters were swiveling into place, her left hand found the release on the collar of her helmet. With the push of a button, Charlotte's suit and helmet came apart and she dropped the foot and a half to the ground.

Falling, she squeezed off a few hurried shots of her phaser, grazing the massive creature. As her feet made contact with the ground, she launched herself to the side, tucking into a controlled roll down the steep hillside away toward the landing craft. She needed to put distance between herself and the creature and hoped her crew would be able to buy enough time to get back to her feet.

Verelan did her best to get at her phaser, but it was holstered on the same side as her broken arm. As she scrambled to reach it a vine twisted around her foot, as she stumbled she slid down the hill behind Charlotte the visor on her helmet taking a sharp impact as she landed. As she got to her feet she cursed as she found a large gaping hole, she no longer had any protection.

Having heard the weapons fire, Rutledge arrived, seeing the situation, started laying down phaser blasts to hopefully, distract the creature, giving the captain a chance to find cover. He touched the comm button on his glove, "Rutledge to Defiant. We need help down here. Can you try to lock onto our communicators and beam us up?"

Rutledge's comm crackled for a moment as the voice of the communications officer came through. "Negative, Lieutenant. Interference is far too strong. We'd lose your signals before we could bring you aboard."

At the mouth of the access hall, the massive floral being turned toward the source of the new weapons fire and let out a shriek through its approximation of a mouth. The sound was unnerving, clearly created by something other than the vocal structures so many beings used. And then, it began its lumbering charge toward the Operations Officer.

Samantha was unarmed she had ran for the shuttlecraft at Charlotte's first order to run. She had made it to the shuttle as the others emerged from the derelict ship.

Rhodes tumbled to a stop at the bottom of the hill. With only a moment of rest, she turned back toward their assailant. It'd begun charging at Rutledge and he didn't have long before it reached him. With a flick of her finger and a high pitch whine, the phaser pistol in her hand came to a full tactical charge. They didn't have time to see what this thing could tolerate. Taking aim, Rhodes fired off three shots in succession.

Charlotte's eyes went wide again. On impact, the shots, immediately seared right through the massive form. But they, remarkably, left much of it intact. The blast would have incinerated anything it came into contact. And, to an extent, it did. But they make up of this creature clearly allowed it to bleed off the energy before it was fully consumed.

As she took aim again, she shouted over the comm. "Phasers on maximum setting. Take out its legs!"

Verelan was nursing her arm hoping the others could manage to take out the plant creature without her.

"Oh crap." Rutledge started running when the creature started after him. He found a cervices in a wall that he was able to squeeze through, so when the creature couldn't find him, it turned it's attention back towards the others. Rutledge went around the long way to get back to the others, and he found Verelan nursing her arm. "Don't worry." He picked up her phaser, and aimed both of then at the creatures legs, and commenced firing. He could hear the creature cry out in pain, but he maintained fire at the creatures 'legs'.

Lt. Subat dropped to one knee, aiming his own phaser at the creatures knees. He couldn't abandon Doctor Knight's side, but he could contribute to the barrage.

Under the sustained barrage of the officers, the plant being finally stumbled, one its knees being nearly atomized. With a loud crack, one of the trunk like legs snapped, and the creature fell to the ground. The officers kept firing, closing in around it as they did.

Captain Rhodes walked up to it, looking at the semblance of a face that the creature had. It was silent, looking at her contemplatively. "Do you understand what I am saying?"

It looked at her for a moment. Then, suddenly its arm swept out, claw-fingers spread. Rhodes didn't hesitate. A final phaser shot rang out and the being went still, a smoldering pile of debris near where its head had been.

She looked at her officers for a moment, trying not to think about the air she was breathing. "Rutledge, come with me. We're setting up a remote access shunt. I want to be able to access the derelict's systems from orbit. Everyone else, back to the shuttle. Now."

 

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