Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | PLOT LOG

Posted on 09 Oct 2022 @ 1:31pm by Captain Easton Lawe & Commander Kristiana Petrova

1,300 words; about a 7 minute read

The crew had not been mistaken in declaring the strange craft as dead. It was, in fact, entirely inert. There was nothing hiding within it or on it. There was no timer set to make it come to life and take out the ship from the inside. It was quite dead.

The problem was thus not in there being subterfuge of that nature.

The problem was that it wasn't alone.

What was more, however, was that its compatriots were lingering in a pocket of space that was unreadable by the usual scans of the ship. It was from where they came, where they lived, until they decided to go take over somewhere else. And that was precisely what they were in the process of doing when they tore open the fabric of space-time and crawled out en masse...

Right in front of the USS Odin.

"Commander,"

No response.

"Commander ... !"

Kris was too absorbed in her reading. 'The Desolation of Wendolyn'. A psychological horror story. She was pretty sure someone in Starfleet wrote this, though probably under a pseudonym.

"COMMANDER!"

With a jump Kris returned to the present, almost dropping her electronic reader as she did, spending a fleeting moment gathering what was going on.

"That's - "

"Sensors reading twelve of them. Fifteen. More coming out through some sort of - wormhole," tactical reported.

"Energy readings? Weapon readings?" Kris demanded.

"Energy spiking, they're scanning us," Tactical replied.

Kris narrowed her eyes, steepling her fingers. "Helm, back us away slowly, thrusters only. Con, send a hail, standard hailing frequencies. Let's see if they want to talk."

Dozens of small, round lights on the front of each craft lit up. If you were paying attention, you might notice that only one vessel's lights glowed red at a time. There was a sequence to it on each one, though no human would understand that much. They might just recognize that only one lit up at a time, suggesting communication.

The communication was not, however, at all directed to the human vessel. The hail went ignored, but the ships closed in at a slow, steady pace. They weren't rushing the Odin, but they clearly had their sites set on it.

"Tactical, opinions?" Kris asked, brows furrowed, her old Russian lilt coming through in this moment of pressure.

"They're advancing. Their attention is firmly focused on us. I don't think any individual one is a threat but all together that's a shitload of energy they're generating, Ma'am."

"Helm, keep backing us up. Thrusters only. Let's not make any sudden movements," Kris mused, eyes darting across the viewscreen, following the red light as it flickered and pulsed on one vessel at a time. Certainly some sort of communication, but it would take years if not decades to decode. "Bring us to yellow alert. Raise shields, make sure to keep weapons cold. Let's tell them we don't want a fight, we just want to live."

Amber-hued lights started to flash through out the ship, which told the captain--who had been in his quarters--that something bad was happening. He had a moment where he hoped it wasn't that craft in the bay because he didn't want to have been that wrong in his judgement, but the alternative was not really any better... He was on his feet in a moment and on the bridge shortly thereafter, since the two were not far apart.

"Report," he said as he strode toward the center seat and his first officer.

"Few dozen more of that artefact showed up, these ones active," Kris offered, stepping off of the center chair, vacating it and moving aside it in one smooth motion. "They're advancing, scanning us. We're backing up under thrusters only, shields up. No return on hail, no attempt at communication that we can pick up. Situation's a bit of a stalemate at the moment, Sir," she finished explaining.

Easton nodded once in acknowledgement. "Are we seeing any signs of activity from the craft we brought aboard?" he asked.

There was a moment before the reply came from the relief ops officer, given that Veera was still in sickbay. "No, sir. It remains inert."

He was pretty sure that was a good thing, but it seemed to leave more questions than answers. His mind rushed through a few possibilities. "With no sign of activity from the thing we brought aboard, what do we think the chances are that these ones are here to retrieve it?" he speculated aloud.

"It's possible," Kris mused after a brief moment's contemplation. "They certainly show enough signs of intelligence and organization. We'd have to analyze the footage to see if there's any sign of hierarchy, but I'll leave that to wiser people than me," she added, glancing over at the captain. "You thinking we should give it back to them?"

"I'm strongly considering it," he said. Standing in front of the center seat, he crossed his arms over his chest as he stared intensely at the viewscreen. It showed these "spider" sorts of creatures as they moved through space. They still moved slowly but steadily toward the Odin, even as it considered its own slow retreat. "After all, it's obviously the same as they are. Perhaps if we release it from the bay, they'll take it and leave." He didn't speak in a rush, but there was a tint of urgency to his deep tones since who knew when the situation it could change on a dime.

Kris considered his tone for a fleeting moment before tapping her comm badge. "Petrova to fighterbay. What's the status on the artefact? Has invasive research begun?"

"Negative commander, unit is still untouched," came the reply.

"Good. Prepare to release back into space on my command," she added with a slight Russian lilt to her words, r's rolled a bit more than in standard Federation English. She glanced over at Easton, as if waiting for the final confirmation.

Easton mentally crossed his fingers. He really didn't feel like having a scuffle with the church. "Do it," he said with a nod. "Let's see what they do. Keep moving back slowly to put distance between us and the artefact."

A nod at Easton. "Release in three .. two .. one .. release," Kris spoke into the aether.

"Artefact is floating out of the bay now, Commander," came the reply.

The Odin continued its slow retreat, coasting on momentum now. It didn't take long before the artefact appeared on the viewscreen too, floating slowly forward towards the group, ever increasing its distance to Odin.

There was a moment of hope when the group slowed to a stop around the artefact. The exchange of light patterns happened again, and then one of them curled it's...mechanical tentacles forward to take hold of the ship and back away from the group...

However, the hope did not last long. The rest of the ships once again started forward.

"Contact the lead ship of the convoy an--"

Easton didn't get to finish what he was saying because every forward craft shot forward with speed so fast, they were almost unseeable. The craft came straight for the Odin...

...and slid through their shields as if they didn't exact.

"What the f--" one of the bridge crew got out in an uncontrolled burst that Easton entirely understood.

"They're latching onto the hull and starting to cut through it!"

"Security, prepare to...shoot at anything the comes through," Easton shouted over the sudden noise of chaos and panic--even if the panic was just in everyone's inward feelings. "Bring the weapons online!"

"Red alert! Helm, evasive, full impulse!" Kris added to the Captain's call-outs. "Sir, I'll go arm up and be boots on the ground, keep me posted on where they're breaking through," she said before making her way off the bridge down to the armory.

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