Bolstering the team

Posted on 30 Sep 2020 @ 5:55am by Commander Kristiana Petrova & Lieutenant Alexandra Dering

1,081 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Ab Intra
Location: Corridor

Everything had gone completely nuts! Half of her crew were acting bizarre, and the other half seemed as distracted as she was. Speaking of that, she had work to do. Standing, she exited her office and went to the main console in Engineering. Inputting her codes, she blinked when nothing happened. The frown deepened when the computer returned an "Access Denied" message.

"What the...?" she grumbled, heading out of Engineering. She was going to find the Captain or the XO and find out what the hell was wrong with her codes. They'd worked this morning.

Officers Newton and Granger were making their rounds. Or, rather, their bodies, operated by two of the beings, were making their rounds. Their gait not as smooth as nprmal, side-arms on their hips. Granger was almost bowled over by Lexi emerging from Engineering, marching towards the turbolift.

"Whoa there, - ... Lieutenant?" Granger-being spoke, tilting his head a bit. He could recognize that there was - something about the Lieutenant. There was a being just like him in there, but didn't seem to be in control.

"What seems to be the emergency?" asked Newton-being. The two of them gave each other a quick glance, as their hands reached for their phasers.

Lexi paused, not entirely sure why. ~Don't worry about it. Just relax.~

"No emergency," she answered. "I just need..." Something was wrong. She could feel it. But what was it?

~Nothing's wrong. Just--~

Shut the hell UP! She moved aside to allow the security men to pass. "I just need to talk to the XO about something."

"Can't let you do that, Lieutenant," Newton-being drew his phaser, leveling it at Lexi, his expression cold - though the Lieutenant could be forgiven to think she saw a hint of malice in his eyes and a flicker of a smile on his lips.

"I have a better idea," Granger-being said, taking a lurching step towards Lexi before stumbling and collapsing to the ground. The being had vacated him, heading straight for the Lieutenant. Maybe if the being inside Lexi wasn't enough to take her over, two might just be.

"Son of a...!" Lexi took a step back as the guard lurched at her, but she didn't get far given that her back came up against a wall. She closed her eyes tightly as the first voice had now been joined by a second. This second voice was louder, stronger. The 'coaxing' that had accompanied the first voice was now almost a compulsion. She had to relax, to let go, to--

No! I won't let you--

But she really had no choice any longer. The compulsion became stronger by the second until Lexi found herself drowning in it. Her mind was awash with thoughts not her own. At least, she didn't think they were hers. Her own seemed to blend with these alien thoughts in places, making the two indistinguishable in those places. She shook her head, but it didn't clear the alien thoughts. She was drowning in them.

Outside of herself, Lexi's form shuddered once, very violently. Then her eyes opened and fixed on the fallen form of Granger. Her head tilted, and she felt a shift in the thoughts crushing her mind beneath them. They lightened but not by enough for her to clear her mind. She saw Granger move and looked over at Newton. "He's fine," she heard her voice say, but it sounded... wrong somehow. "Just give him a moment."

As Granger started to stir again Newton-being looked at Lexi, caution in his eyes, his weapon still half raised. "It's done then? You're one of us?"

The Being Wearing Lexi smiled an odd smile and nodded. "It was easy enough once there were two of us. The One that had been here is now there." Her hand pointed to Granger. "We will need to do some more research into why some are resistant," she mused aloud.

"I think we have a plan in action for that," Newton-being spoke, as Granger slowly rose to his feet again, slightly groggy. "One of us has taken over the ship. They're on the bridge. You should check in with them."

The-One-Wearing-Lexi nodded. "Good idea. Which of these beings is that one's host?" she asked. Remembering that it hadn't been able to tell whether or not the chief engineer was one of them before asking, it wanted to be sure it approached the correct one on the bridge. It could still feel the girl fighting for her mind, for control, but it was solidly ensconced.

"Petrova, the second in command, I think," Newton-being admitted.

The-One-Wearing-Lexi nodded. "Got it. Carry on." She then headed past them, bound for the bridge. This girl was not going to give up, but that was okay. This One was far older and would hold its own just fine.

She made her way past the recovering Granger and the still alert Newton and headed for the Lift. This had gotten interesting since they had come aboard. There were new wrinkles that they had not expected, but then, that was the nature of science, wasn't it. She entered the Lift and took it to the bridge, exiting as soon as the doors opened and passing her gaze over the room to find Petrova. "Commander Petrova?" she said as she stopped a short distance away.

"Lieutenant Dering," Petrova glanced over, a cold smile forming as she recognized who it was. "Good to see you've joined us. I hope the take-over wasn't too troublesome?"

Lexi frowned slightly. "The first of us who tried to take her had some difficulty. I did not, though. That one has moved to the one I previously held," she answered. "Do we have a plan for figuring out why some of these people are more resistant to us than others?"

"We're rounding up the ones who are resistant in a cargo bay. We have someone in medical doing experiments on them to try and figure out what's causing the trouble taking over their minds," Petrova-being spoke, regarding the starfield outside the main viewscreen. "I'll reactivate your computer authorization, see if you can do anything to help her, Warner I think her name is."

Lexi-being nodded. "Makes sense. I'll go right down and talk with her."

"Good," Kristiana-being simply spoke, tapping in a few commands on her armrest console to reactivate Lexi's computer access.

Thus dismissed, Lexi-being turned and left the bridge. Next stop, Medical.

 

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