Nothing More than a Fairytale - Page 4

Nothing More Than a Fairy Tale Page 4

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Owain Taggart & Daranavo Savoy (JP)

USS PRESIDIO, Captain's Ready Room

As Owain walked the halls of the Presidio, it reminded him of why he had signed up to be an officer. While the Horizon was the newest ship in the fleet incorporating a brand new design which Starfleet was very excited about developing, the Galaxy class was significant to the golden age of Starfleet. It was primarily designed to be an exploration vessel, and while the Dominion War had taken its toll, and its ships had changed priorities to one of War, it had taken many years and a ship like the Horizon to get back to its roots. In this essence, both the Presidio and the Horizon had something in common.

As he arrived to the Captain's Ready Room, following the officer that led him there, he glanced at its crew, who were all waiting there for the meeting to begin. "Greetings,", he said while nodding slightly. "Captain Owain Taggart", he announced himself, and gestured towards his XO, "And this is my Executive Officer, Commander Aegis Kardin."

Captain Maxine and the other officer present all stood as Captain Taggart and his crew entered the room. She stepped over to Captain Taggart and shook his hand cordially.

T'lara: "I have read your report Captain…I know you and your crew are suffering these same headaches so let us dispense with the pleasantries and get down to business, shall we?" She said with a furled brow.

Owain nodded, turned to his crew who already had began to take seats then took one himself. Captain Maxine punched up the mission upon the briefing console in front of her. Behind her the base appeared upon the screen. Everyone looked up at it except for Lt. Savoy who looked toward the door as if he had heard something. He held a pained and worried look upon his face. Jordan sat next to him and took notice.

Jordan: "Lt. are you alright? She said softly.

Several of the crew overheard and looked over at him, including the Captain.

T'lara: "Mr. Savoy, report to sickbay…Jordan, after the briefing, take a look at him."

Jordan: "Yes Captain," she replied simply.

With that Daranavo stood uneasily and silently exited the room. Captain Maxine began to lay out her understanding of the mission before inviting Captain Taggart to step up and lay out his plan.

Owain cleared out his throat and then began,

Owain: "Well, as you as know by now, the effects of what is happening to us have increased as our vessels have approached the planet. Unfortunately for us, it hasn't helped our situation much. I began to ask myself such questions, as why would Starfleet send us on such a mission. Well, surely they must have known what we were getting into…", he explained, his voice trailing off into another world. "All my crew has been affected. We haven't been able to find anything to help, which has caused certain problems including a fight among some of my crew. There must be something. I'm to assume that all of your crew has been affected as well, Captain?"

Captain Maxine nodded from her seat,

T'lara: "All except my XO, Lt. Commander Vogels and we are still trying to determine this anomaly," her voice trailed off as she fought to contain her facial expressions as a pang of pain flooded her head right then. "Proceed…Captain."

Owain: "Yes," he said while nodding and pulling out a padd of his own on the table. It had been the same one that came with the Horizon's canister. "Now that we are together, I think it's only fair for both of us to know our bargain." He took a deep breath and pointed at the picture. "This is a class P planet. It's an icy barren, which is unlivable to most creatures. So, of course, it arouses curiosity as to why Starfleet sent us here if there's nothing that can possibly live under these extreme conditions. Does anyone care to guess?"

Captain Maxine stood once more and moved up to the view screen.

T'lara: "We have detected energy fluctuations and sporadic life signs in this general location," she pointed to a localized area on the screen. "We believe it to be a base of some sort, however, we are awaiting further orders and I have no idea how these canisters fit in to all of this…Captain, if you know something, I think my officers and I have a right to know," she said as she peered over to Captain Taggart with a raised eyebrow.

Owain: "Believe me, Captain. My crew and I are just as puzzled as you are. We came to the same conclusion about the base, but we believe it's not just any base. I had my staff dig through some old records to see what they could come up with, and the results are surprising. It is an old Section 31 base, and this planet is a perfect place to hide it." He paused to let everyone take this new information in before he continued on about the canisters. "Like I mentioned earlier, Starfleet must have known what we were getting into, and my best guess is that these canisters were supposed to help us against the effects of what we are feeling. Our mission then, everyone, is simple. We must destroy that base at all costs, with the help of whatever is inside those canisters."

Captain T'lara shook her head in disagreement. His mention of Section 31 almost brought a shiver to come over her but she maintained her composure.

T'lara: "I find it an awfully large coincidence that we, by chance have Marines aboard and that we…by chance, are carrying these canisters and…by chance are suffering from severe headaches. If anything is down there, I want to know what it is." She paused and took a moment to think as she looked over at the view screen. "Captain, we have no idea what we are going to run into…or why, assemble an away team and lets use these Marines and take a look at what IS down there. My away team and I will accompany you but I want information, not bodies," she said angrily. The pain was beginning to get to her.

Owain nodded. He expected disbelief and disagreements when he revealed the information. After all, this was a bit dramatic and too much of a coincidence for even him to believe, but with these headaches, he began to feel desperate.

Owain: "Of course, Captain, my apologies. I think these headaches are getting to us all. That's what we're both here for, to find out what is causing all this. And we will find out, that I can promise you. If there's one thing about Section 31, it's that they always tend to experiment, and those experiments will lead us to them. That's where we'll find our data."

T'lara rubbed her head and fought back a cringe.

T'lara: "Very well Captain…proceed, lets assemble at 0200 hours for departure," she said then looked over toward the Major. "Major…assemble your men, I want them ready by 0100." Her demeanor went cold as she spoke to him. The Major nodded silently. With that, her crew all stood and following their lead, so did the crew of the Horizon.

One by one the Horizon's crew exited the ready room toward the turbo lift.


Daranavo Savoy - USS Presidio

A tiny, squeaky voice came from the little, glowing thing inside the glass lantern. “He will hurt her if you do nothing Peter!” Daranavo stooped down to take a closer look at the lantern that sat on a small end table. The room was very large and luxurious but unkempt. The chandeliers glowed dimly and tattered, old tapestries covered the walls around him. “I..my name is Daranavo…who are you?” He asked it. “Please Peter…get me out and I will show you!” The little thing begged him. Confused Daranavo sighed and came down to one knee. The thing had tiny wings and fluttered nervously inside the lantern as he grasped it and began to examine it. A brass clasp held a piece of glass that had hinges on one edge. With a finger, he slid the clasp upward and moved the glass away. “You are free to go.”

USS PRESIDIO, DECK 16.

After the briefing, Daranavo could feel his consciousness slipping away…

With a blank expression upon his face, Lt. Savoy typed in his access code and removed a Phaser from the locker adjacent Transporter Room 3. He set it for stun and set it inside his Tool kit. Quickly, he moved through the doorway and approached Crewman Kraydich who was on duty manning the room. The crewman looked up and smiled when Daranavo approached him. “You are free to go,” he said plainly. The crewman was confused but as there was a distinct growl inside his stomach he only nodded silently and left the room.


“The door is locked Peter…can you open it?” The little fairy asked him as it fluttered by the keyhole. Daranavo sighed once more as none of this made any sense to him but he figured for now he might as well follow the confused little thing to see if there really was someone in trouble.” With a screw driver that appeared suddenly into his hand he began to remove the door hardware from the door.

USS PRESIDIO, TRANSPORTER ROOM 3

Using the transporter control console, Lt. Savoy locked onto the Canister that sat under guard in one of the Horizon’s cargo bay and beamed it into the pattern buffer. Without blinking, he put in his command code and erased its pattern completely from the pattern buffer memory. He knew that he would soon be locked out of the computer so he had to act fast. Daranavo programmed the transporter then set it to go into diagnostic mode so they would not know where he went immediately. He removed his comm. Badge and set it upon the console. Glumly, he moved and stood upon the transporter pad. Moments later, a flash of light engulfed him and he was no longer there.

USS HORIZON, CARGO BAY
The guards aboard the Horizon all stood an amazement as the Canister disappeared before there eyes. Not a moment later they all tapped their comm badges to report the event.


“You almost got it Peter!” The fairy told him. Daranavo held the door handle tightly as he quickly removed the last screw. With a quick pull, the handle came away from the door and the rest of the hardware spun counterclockwise then fell with a “clang” upon the floor. “Yay! Nice work Peter!” She screeched in approval. Daranavo dropped the door handle and pulled the door open as he stood. Beyond it was a long hallway and several closed doors on both sides of the corridor. The fairy flew quickly ahead of him and he gave chase behind it down the hallway.


Jordan Levi - USS Presidio

Jordan Levi left the conference room feeling more confused than before. They seemed to be caught up in a whole messy political and possibly military affair. Section 31, canisters, military bases and Class P planets was all enough to give Jordan a nasty headache. Considering she already had a nice one to start with – the whole state of affairs managed to make it worse.

She made her way to sickbay. The trip seemed longer than usual. She massaged the sides of her head but it didn’t seem to help. It frustrated her. They were no closer to finding out what the cause of the headaches or the dreams were now than what they had been when it had started. The problem was that the crew was being exposed to rather lengthy periods of time without sleep. The pain and stress that went with the headaches was a recipe for disaster. Already small problems were creeping in on basic maintenance. It wasn’t anything serious yet – but it would become serious if they weren’t careful.

From Jordan’s side, she was in a catch – 22 situation. On the one hand she couldn’t administer too many drugs or the crew wouldn’t functions but she couldn’t give them anything, or they would not function either. It was a fine balancing act and unfortunately, whatever option she chose it did not help the situation.

The sickbay doors swung open before her. She entered only to be bombarded with a swarm of reports and messages. She retreated to her offices – her own headache was threatening to consume her. As the door closed behind her she leaned against it and sighed with relief.

Her eyes popped open and she crouched ready to react but there was nothing in her office. She could have sworn that she had heard something. She thought she had heard a growl. It had sounded like an animal. Her heart stopped. It sounded like her dreams. Had she fallen asleep then? No … she had been awake, but then how could she have heard that? She shook her head. She was starting to lose it. That was the only explanation. It had to be the medication she had taken. It had to be. She thought about sitting down but she couldn’t bear the thought of staying in the office. What if she heard something again … what would she do? She decided that being around people would be the better option.

“Elle,” Jordan said to the senior nurse. “How are you coping?”

“Oh, so-so,” Elle replied with a faint smile. “We do what we can … but at this point in time it’s not much. Every hour there’s more and more people coming in with injuries related to the headaches. Personnel don’t seem to be concentrating and we can’t give them any more drugs. People aren’t sleeping. I don’t know what we can do for them.”

Jordan nodded. That was the problem. She didn’t have any advice for Elle.

“And our staff?” Jordan persisted with another question in an attempt not to answer.

“Pretty much the same as the rest of the crew,” Elle replied.

“Have you seen Mister Savoy come in today? He was supposed to meet me in sickbay,” Jordan said.

“No, he hasn’t been in.”

“Odd,” Jordan remarked. She was about to inquire where Savoy was when the computer speakers blared in sickbay.

=^=Medical emergency in main engineering, medical assistance required! =^=

=^=Levi here. Transport the patients directly to sickbay, =^= Jordan ordered, a little annoyed that she had to tell the person on the other end of the communications to do something as straight forward as that.

=^=No can do ma’am, something’s wrong with the transporters … I … we don’t know what yet. =^=

Jordan swore. So it starts, the small problems were cumulating into real problems.

=^=I’ll be there as soon as I can. Levi out. =^=

“Elle you’re with me,” Jordan said as she grabbed her medical kit and headed to the door. The nurse trailed after her and they hurried down to engineering. They had no idea what was waiting for them or what the medical emergency was. All that was certain was that the medical staff of the Presidio was being asked to do more than their normal share of work while the headaches persisted.

Jordan glanced back at the deserted hallway.

“Doctor, what is it?” Elle asked.

“I’m not sure … I thought I heard something,” Jordan stated.

“What?”

“No it’s probably just my imagination,” Jordan said but she wasn’t convinced. Since when did she ever imagine wolvess howl? She shook her head. She needed to pull herself together. Determined they made there way into engineering.


Steve Sharp - Marines

Steve nodded at the Captain and walked over to Jan. "Sir along with some of the defensive items we brought on board, Staff Sergeant Eaverts and I also brought some stun grenades, and survival gear, If you would allow me to outfit your security team with Scorpion Mark V's they can withstand the weather alot better than normal Type 3 Phaser Rifles." Steve says as the ships XO looks curious.

"Scorpion Mark V's Major?" Jan asks as Steve realizes that the Marine weaponry isnt to well known outside the Corps. "

"Yes sir, it is the main battle rifle we use in the Marines, it is slightly more powerful than the normal Type 3 and made for use in all conditions, Its easy to learn so I dont think your Men would have a problem using it."
"If you would like sir, I can show you one before you make your decision, I also would recommend that we get the Security team into the Holodeck on an Artic program as quickly as possible to get them ready for this…Ordeal." Steve says as he awaits Jan's response.

"Get the team into the Holodeck, I will consider your proposal about the Scorpion Rifle, Major." Jan says as Steve smiles and snaps to attention.

"Aye Aye Sir!" He says as he salutes, turns then walks out.

=/\= Sharp to Staff Sergeant Eaverts =/\= Steve says as he hears the combadge chirp.

=/\= Eaverts here, go ahead sir. =/\= Mike says as Steve starts giving the orders.

=/\= Mike get the security team into Artic gear and into an Artic program on the Holodeck, im on my way there now will join you shortly, Have Master Guns, prepare a Scorpion, the XO may want to take a look at it. =/\= Steve says as he heads to a turbo lift.

=/\= Yes sir, will get it done…Eaverts out. =/\= Came the reply from Mike as the com channel was closed.


Owain Taggart

< = USS- Horizon = >

Minutes after having transported, again, he felt dizzy, and his headache was no better. He sure wished he could sleep, or at least try to, but with everything going on, he didn't think he could sleep anyway. On top of that, he didn't think it was the best thing he could do, what with the dreams and the nightmares they were all having. He feared not being able to wake up, with the dreams completely sucking him into its reality. The thought was a scary one.

Dorothy was having a grand time at the Mad Hatter's tea party. In fact, she hadn't had this much fun in years, and despite that she lost her house in the storm, her thoughts and worries about being in the wrong place all but vanished. She laughed and cried, and mingled with every guest at the table. She also told them where she was from and what it was like. All the guests were very attentive and curious as she told her story.
"So, pardon me, Dorothy. You live in what you say is a normal place?", asked the Mad Hatter.
Dorothy nodded, "Yes Mr Hatter. I live in a place called Kansas. Or shall I say, lived. You've seen my house. It's all been destroyed. I'm supposed to be in Oz right now", she said as she shifted her eyes around, "but I must say, this place is quite interesting."
Interesting indeed, for they all heard sounds in the distance. They sounded like footsteps, and they came closer. The Mad Hatter looked worried. "Oh dear, this doesn't sound good. Quick, everyone! We must hide!"

The Mad Hatter's worry seemed to be contageous, as soon after Dorothy also wore a look of worry as she wondered what was going on. She didn't have time to ask however as the Mad Hatter and everyone shuffled under the table. Dorothy wondered just how they were supposed to be inconspicuous under a table.

Soon, it appeared the Mad Hatter's fears were realized as they saw a parade of giant playing cards which stopped right in front of the table. "Well, that's odd", said one of the cards, "I could of sworn we heard noises."

"And it sounded like one of the crazy old man's parties", added another card.

"Well, there's nothing here. I think we should turn back", said yet another card.

Finally, the Royal figure who, who somehow looked a lot like Owain had lagged behind, finally caught up, and cleared his throat. In a gruff voice, he said, "There is no turning back! We must find them! They have broken the first ordinance. There is to be no partying, not when I'm in charge!"

The three cards who had spoken before all took turns looking at each other, "Yes, my Lord!", they all exclaimed. They were about to leave to search elsewhere when Dorothy sneezed from under the table, and the Mad Hatter was looking mighty pissed as she had blown their cover.

"I heard that!", exclaimed the King of Hearts, "Come out now, or it's off with your heads!"

Owain blinked. He wasn't sure where his mind wandered, but it felt like a daydream. He was quickly interrupted however, by the chirp of his commbadge. It was all for the better anyway, as he had to finally get a look at the canister and distribute whatever was inside before they would go down to the surface.

A worried McKinneley was at the other end, "Sir, it's the canister…"

Owain shook his head. What could it be now? He had already enough problems surrounding the canister. Two men had gotten into a bloody fight, and he had already felt McKinneley had done enough damage. His patience was wearing thin. "This better be good, Crewman. Out with it."

"Well, it's missing, sir." The silence between them seemed to last a lifetime. How could this get any worse than it already was? He wanted it to end now, but that was out of his control.

"Search the ship, Crewman. It must be around here somewhere." Right now, even though he wasn't a religious Trill, he felt like praying. Surely the two officers who had gotten into a fight before knew better than to try something again. It was probably somebody different.

"Well sir, that's the thing. A bunch of my security officers saw the canister beamed off the ship."

Disbelief was now hitting Owain square in the face. He felt like he had been sucker punched.

"Check the logs, crewman. Find out where that beamout occured."

"There's no references in the logs, sir. Whoever must have done this must have had some computer knowledge. They've wiped the logs clean of any references."

Now Owain was ready to clock him, though manners told him it wouldn't be the right thing to do, especially when he had told him it wasn't the thing to do with the two officers. "Off with his head!", the thought came to him.


Samuel McKinneley

Another shift another hour, another dollar.

Sam was dressed and headed for the Turbolift, it was time to check on the canister and make sure that everything was in place, the last thing he needed was another black mark on his record with Captain Taggart. The relationship had deffinately been strained with him screwing up the guarding of it the first time.

Sam stepped off of the turbo lift and walked into the area where the canister had been kept for the voyage, he didn't see it, his heart started to panick he looked at the first crewman he could see.

"Where the hell is the damned canister!" Sam shouted.

His head was killing him, and all the sudden the crewman looked more like a small pig.

"The big bad wolf took it!"

Sam shook his head.

"Say what?"

All the sudden the pig disapeared and it was the crewman again.

"Sir, it was just beamed off…"

"TOO WHERE!"

"I'm not sure sir…"

Sam pushed the Creman out of the way and looked for himself, sure enough there was no trace of it.

Sam looked over at two other crewman.

"Was this authorized in anyway?"

All the sudden both of them were small pigs.

"The big bad wolf is coming we better build a strong strong house…"

Sam shook his head.

"What?"

The pigs disapeared and the two crewman appeared.

"err…We said no sir there was no authorization it just disapeared…Are you alright sir?"

"I'm fine I've got to report this to the Captain.

A worried McKinneley was at the other end, "Sir, it's the canister…"

Owain shook his head. What could it be now? He had already enough problems surrounding the canister. Two men had gotten into a bloody fight, and he had already felt McKinneley had done enough damage. His patience was wearing thin. "This better be good, Crewman. Out with it."

"Well, it's missing, sir." The silence between them seemed to last a lifetime. How could this get any worse than it already was? He wanted it to end now, but that was out of his control.

"Search the ship, Crewman. It must be around here somewhere." Right now, even though he wasn't a religious Trill, he felt like praying. Surely the two officers who had gotten into a fight before knew better than to try something again. It was probably somebody different.

"Well sir, that's the thing. A bunch of my security officers saw the canister beamed off the ship."

Disbelief was now hitting Owain square in the face. He felt like he had been sucker punched.

"Check the logs, crewman. Find out where that beamout occured."

"There's no references in the logs, sir. Whoever must have done this must have had some computer knowledge. They've wiped the logs clean of any references."

"Sir, I'll have my men working over time to see if we can find any scrape or detail of it…LT. Li would more than likely be verry useful right about now…"

Sam closed the channel, and quikly walked outside the room and down the corridor until he found a good place and slid down against the wall and put his hands on his head, he was seeing pigs, and they were talking about a big bad wolf, he was loosing it and he hoped he wasn't he only one…


Jan Vogels - USS Presidio

Jan lay on his bed. He had taken a few drinks the last night. The dreams didn't come back, neither did he suffer from the mysterious headache. But he needed much more rest than usual. Whatever was affecting the crew was affecting him too, albeit in a different manner. Gastovski had reported an out-of-the-ordinary dream as well. The fact that Gastovski had dreamed at all already meant something was wrong. He too he taken a drink and wasn't bothered by dreams anymore. But he also reported a fatigue that came slowly but noticeably.

"At least I can still think straight", he said. Jan had to agree there. It seemed everyone was slowly driven mad by the headaches. Jan and Gastovski had removed access to personal weapons from everyone. Everything was locked and Jan had rigged the system to allow only him or Gastovski access to the weapons. He couldn't risk someone going mental with a weapon. They had also sealed the torpedo bays. The crew was still functioning but it got worse with every hour. Jordan was making no progress and slowly got worse also. She was trying to find out what made Jan and Gastovski resistant to the dreams, illusions and headaches, but she made no progress except noting that something in the brain was different. Jan had considered to send a coded warning back to Starfleet to keep any ships out of the vicinity until they had determined what was going on. Jan already compiled a report that would be sent automatically if something bad happened. But Jan wanted to talk to T'lara first. Unfortunately she had barricaded herself in her quarters for now, no doubt plagued by headaches as well. Jan sighed and got up. He changed into a uniform and headed back to the bridge. Everyone was trying to focus on their duty. But according to Jordan, about 40% of the crew was affected so badly they couldn't perform their duties anymore. That meant extra hours for those already stressed out to the max. Something had to change.

"Ensign, give me a report."

An Ensign walked over, slowly, and handed Jan a report of the past hours.

"Stay focused on your duties, ignore the headaches.'

The woman nodded. Jan knew it was easier said than done but there was nothing he could do.


Jordan Levi - USS Presidio

Jordan and Elle made their way to engineering. The corridors were oddly empty. She couldn’t help but wonder where everyone had gone. She knew the answer to that. With the headaches there was less crew to fill the shifts. There was a continuously larger hole to fill with less and less crewmembers to fill it. Having been called to engineering was concerning. It implied that the headaches had started affecting more than just the people; it had affected the ability of the people doing their jobs. On a starship that was very dangerous and Jordan didn’t care for it one bit.

The doors to engineering closed shut behind them as they entered. Engineering seemed to be disserted, save for a few yellow shirts working on the far side of the room. The only sound was the pulsating warp core in front of her. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. Something was wrong. There were too few crewmen in engineering. It wasn’t completely deserted but it was running with much fewer hands than what it should. The headaches were having a bigger affect than what she had first thought.

“Hello?” Jordan said into the silence. There was no answer. “Someone call for a Doctor?” Still no answer came. The men on the other side of engineering obviously didn’t hear her over the warp core.

“Where is everybody?” Elle asked. Jordan shrugged.

“I have no idea,” Jordan replied. She pulled out her tricorder and started scanning the room. “There are two life forms not to far from here. They’re not moving. Come on.” Jordan started walking the general direction of the signal. She spotted two bodies in close proximity to each other. Both Elle and Jordan hurried forward.

“This one has a concussion,” Elle said as she scanned the Petty Officer. She pulled something out of the medical bag and injected the enlisted in the side of the neck. A snap-hiss could be heard. “He’ll be fine though.”

“This one has a nasty bump on the head … nothing serious,” Jordan noted. “What is this …?”

“It looks like he fell from the railings up there,” Elle said.

“Fell? How?” Jordan asked.

“Hell! How should I know? I’m just a nurse!” Jordan almost allowed herself to smile. If it wasn’t for the ominous feeling of something being wrong, she would have grinned. The more she thought about it the more she became certain something was wrong. The Ensign groaned and his eyes opened slowly.

“Ensign,” Jordan started. “What happened? Ensign, look at me. Good. Tell me what happened?”

“Bloody bastard attacked me!” he groaned.

“Who?”

“Petty Officer McAslin,” the Ensign said signaling towards the unconscious Petty Officer to his left. “He tried to hit me … I returned the favor and the next thing I know we took a tumble over the railing.”

“Lay still,” Jordan said when he tried to get up. Fights! What would be next? She shook her head. She frowned, trying to forget about the pang of pain that was working its way through her skull.

She thought she heard the sniffing of an animal. Frightened that she might be losing her mind she turned around. Her heart nearly stopped. The officer was standing close enough to her that she almost collided with him. In the back of her mind she noted that the sound she had heard earlier was gone – as if it had never happened.

“Lieutenant, what are you doing here?” she asked, finding it peculiar to see the Chief Operations Officer in Engineering. “Never mind, I need your help with these men.”

Daranavo Savoy didn’t respond immediately. There was a strange glazed look over his eyes.

“Lieutenant,” Jordan said touching his shoulder. “Are you all right?”


Ozu - USS Presidio

“Are you awake mister Ozu” a soft but mean voice said. Ozu tried the open his eyes but it took him 30 sec to do so. Than he looked in the face of a man, human, but clearly he had met the Borg. He showed signs of a failed assimilation. “Not very wise of you to transport such a document mister” the voice said again. Ozu tried to focus on the man but he couldn’t get a clear view. “No no don’t try to look at me. We have more brains than that” the voice said again. Ozu tried the move his arms and legs but he couldn’t move them. “No no that has no use either mister, you won't get away from here soon”. Ozu let out a growl of anger but it was more like a whisper. “So so we are furious. You should relax, implanting these implants is hard enough already,” the voice said. Ozu was terrified now they where going to put stuff in him? “We can learn so much of you. So we took the liberty to implant a mind reading implant into your head. Too badly we had to remove some stuff, lucky for you Vulcans removing your emotion control part is enough” Ozu was shocked he could feel his fear and anger flow trough him now freely. “Pfft can you never relax? You Vulcans are so neurotic about your emotions. Live with them, but for now we will have to bring you back into sleep to get the data we want. It won’t be nice and you might get some damage but hey, you are the smuggler here” the voice said and seconds later Ozu was off the world.

The moment Ozu was put in coma he could see himself from above, as if he were a bird flying through the room. But his vision was still blurred like there was a tick fog. He saw people moving around he thought he could see people reading data. But it was all so unclear so vague. Then without warning he looked through his own eyes again. “So so you had a lot of information I think we should thank you for this. We will be able to expand our operations now into Romulan space. O before I forget we have replaced the mind reading implant with one who enhances your senses greatly. You can see it as a gift. Too bad you won't remember who gave it to you” the voice laughed softly.

An instant later Ozu can see himself lying in the sickbay completely in coma but with a enormous brain activity. The nurses clearly don’t have a clue what happens to him. Than he looks through his own eyes again. Straight into the face of one of the nurses. The nurse moves backward fast but before Ozu could see what happened he is gone again.

Than he can see himself in a holodeck with two men fumbling at his head. “This should fix the masking device lets try it again. Computer start program medical bay 492” one of the men says. A moment later Ozu lies on a biobed and a doctor is scanning his brains. The two men look satisfied “Only those who know that implant is there will find it now”. Than Ozu looks trough his own eyes again and sees the clear image of a Kd 56 Gryphon class assault fighter. Than he feels the fear flowing trough him, he doesn’t know where he is and how did he get here. Then he notices that the fighter is at warp he takes a look and sees that his heading is straight to Earth.

Than he looks again through the eyes of a bird into his father's office. He makes some calls to people conducting his work in a normal routine. But when Ozu looks around he can’t see a trace of his fathers stuff from the smuggler empire he had. Than he realises what has happened and also thinks who has done it. Ozu feels how the furry flows through him and he knows that he needs to take vengeance for this.

Than he wakes up he looks around him and sees damage to equipment all around him and he feels the weight of two security guards trying to get him back in control. He nods to the guards and relaxes it is over for now. But he still feels the furry flowing and knows that vengeance has to be taken sooner or later. The control of his mind has been taken from him, from his family and from his friends. “Maybe it is time to take a few weeks off” Ozu than says to the nurse. He slowly rises in his bed “Just to ask but can anybody tell me the time and what just happened?” “It is 17:45 and you have assaulted 2 security officers” the reply came. “Have I? I suppose I own them my apology than. But can you for now give me a neural stabiliser I need some help to control my brain”. The Nurse looks up and place one on Ozu’s neck. “That should work”. “Well in that case I better get out of here you seem to be busy enough” Ozu walks slowly out of sickbay. “Kinda weird that they just let me go. A well I guess these headaches make people just thinking do what you want but keep it quiet” he softly says and walks to find some one who can tell him what is going on.


Owain Taggart

Owain was seething and full of rage at the moment, which wasn't altogether impossible considering the whole ship was going mad at the moment. He couldn't believe their misfortune. One thing after another, it seemed. If anything could go wrong, it felt like everything was going wrong. He liked to think that the Horizon prided itself in a secure ship, but he couldn't even explain to himself, let alone his crew, how that canister was beamed off the ship. Such a critical component in their mission, and it had to go missing. Anger made his blood boil, but if anything he had to keep calm. He was sure that, under any normal circumstances, if their conciences were aware, that there would be possible mutiny. So, he felt regret over everything that was currently happening, yet he had no control over these events.

Owain turned to Aegis, and looking at him restored a sense of calm in him, reminding him the Cardassian's tough exterior. If he felt anything, he was hardly showing it. "This mission is getting worse by the minute. This ship is getting gripped with madness. We've got to tell Captain T'Lara about the canister."

Aegis nodded and followed Owain out of the transporter room. "You need me for anything?"

Owain nodded back, "Start checking possible landing sites. With this radiation, it's far too risky to use the transporters at the moment. You've felt the effects earlier, didn't you? We can't risk too much exposure. Also, transportation would take too long with this many people. We've got Captain T'Lara, the Marines, some security officers, both some of ours and some of the Presidio's as well as science officers. We'll be taking my Captain's Yacht, so might as well get that prepared and ready for departure." Aegis nodded.

As Owain stepped onto the bridge, everyone looked to him as to their next course of action. "Open a channel to the Presidio, and on screen."

As the image of the Presidio was replaced with the face of her Captain, Owain started explaining his reason for the message. Her face was full of concern over hearing the news, as she explained what had just happened on the Presidio. It couldn't have been a simple coincidence. As such, it was decided she would instead stay aboard to take care of the situation while Owain lead the party on the surface. Grudgingly, he complied and agreed that it was best. "Thank you, Captain, I'll do my best considering our circumstances. Taggart out."

He retreated to his Ready Room. There, he sat in pensive thought until he opened the cupboard that contained the Romulan Ale. He knew he was far too affected by now to have it work any. But he supposed that a little bit of it wouldn't hurt, and might even slow down the effect which would be useful in his leadership. He poured himself a glass and gulped it down, his innards warming to the sensation.

Then for some time, he sat before his personal computer before starting his report.

Captain's Log:

Our help is here at last. The Presidio has arrived, and experienced many of the same symptoms as we have. After collaborating with data of scans of the surface we've done when we first arrived here, we've decided to send a party to the surface, which I'm sure was Starfleet's original intent. We believe there is an old Section 31 base on the planet, our main source of problems. Once we figured out how to diffuse the situation, I'm sure we will all feel better. Our orders are to explore and identify the source of the problem, and that is what we'll do.

And we hope we do identify the source of the problem soon, as things are getting worse. The crew is struggling to maintain sanity, and I'm not sure how much longer we can cope. Our canister, which was given to us for this mission, has disappeared, and I fear we will need it before long. A situation of similar nature has occured on the Presidio, and Captain T'Lara has decided to stay aboard while I lead the party on the surface.

Time will tell whether we are successful.


Samuel McKinneley

Crazy? Thats a normal state of mind…right?

Sam quickly made his exit and went back to his quarters he felt like he was losing his mind, what was worse was now he was seeing things even when there wasn't any crewmen around.

He made his way to a mirror and sink, he put water on his face, he hoped this would cool his head and make the halucinations fade.

When he looked up he was wearing old clothing somewhere between the 15th and 18th century earth he was sure on the dating. To his shock and horror there were two men behind him wearing the same thing. Slowly turning, and really hoping they would disapear…

"Athos, we haven't got time for games, quit looking at yourself in the mirror and lets go the cardinal is after us!"

"Uh…who are you guys?"

"Its us Porthos, and Aramis, now come on lets go!"

Sam shook his head he was losing it, who were these guys they had to be part of his imagination there wasn't a way in hell that they could be real.

He looked up again the the men had turned into three little pigs, now he knew he was losing his mind, but he couldn't let anyone know they'd take him off duty, and thats the last thing he needed he had to show the Captain how good of an officer he really was.

"Lets go Lets go the big bad wolf isn't that far he right behind us and he's going to eat us whole!"

"He's not going to eat anyone there isn't a wolf now go away!"sam yells.

Sam closed his eyes and prayed that they would go away.

The pigs were gone put now it was the the funny clothed men again.

"Pigs you dare to call us pigs, you have lost your mind Athos,now lets go, the soldiers are on the way," says Porthos.

Sam knew this was just a halucination.

Sam walked up and swung at the one called Porthos and to his surprise his punch slammed into him knocking Porthos to the ground.

The next thing he knew Aramis tackled him to the floor and punches were being thrown like no other, then the next thing Sam knew Aramis was the wolf that the pigs had been talking about was on him growling and scratching and biting at his throat, he started to fear for his life.

Then all the sudden he saw Porthos walk up sword drawn and then came a the blow across the side of his head from the hilt of Portho's sword, and Sam was out.

Two hours later

Sam woke up his head killing him, Bo was licking his face, he shoved Bo back and felt of his head it was trickling with blood, then he felt of his chest where the wolf had clawed away.

He went and got his dermal regenerator, and fixed the cuts, then hopped in the show and layed down to take a nap he was exausted and felt like he was losing his mind, and the main problem was that it was coming to life…and how could he keep it hidden if it was coming to life? He couldn't sleep so he just stared at the ceiling hoping that the halucinations would be at bay for a while.


Nicholas Li

<O/C NPC = Ensign Tormass Garfield, engineer>

«= USS Horizon =»

Nicholas walked the halls, overseeing the poor fatigued crew scrambling to focus on their work. What keeps a starship crew working well was communication. But ever since they had started this mission, that was becoming very difficult. The conversation between crewmates was terse and everyone was losing patiences. The medical officers where running frantic, trying to dispense whatever analgesics they could, but nothing worked well on these damnable headaches. That wasn't the end. There were times during a briefing when he saw the focus in the eyes of some crew seem to fade out. As though they were not all there. Whatever was affecting the ship had some sort of hallucinogenic properties. Nicholas was glad that he had yet been affected by the latter symptom. However, that still didn't help that everything was taking longer to do. And everyone was slowly caving under the stress of it all.

The chief engineer's train of thought was interrupted when he saw the furry tail of a Caitian that he was looking for. Ensign Garfield turn around the corner. So Nicholas sped up to catchup to the felinoid. He called out, "Tormass wait up."

As he rounded the corner he saw the pudgy catman with a quizzical look on his face. "How can I help you ssirr?"

"Ensign, I just wanted to check on the progress of the maintenance of the plasma conduits in Jeffries tube 17."

Suddenly Nicholas felt pain, as though someone was hammering at his forehead.

Caw!

Caw!

The sound of daily ship life was drowned out by the flapping of wings.

"Your sister's suffering out there, out there!
She's weeping in the evil dragon's lair!
Bloodstains on her back,
She's digging rocks with hands so bare!"

Nicholas' vision cleared and he saw a furry paw holding him up.

"Lieutenant? Arre you alrright?"

"What did you just say Ensign?"

"I ssaid, were just dug out the weakening ssysstemss and will be rreplacing them by the end of the day."

"Thank you Mr. Garfield. That'll be all."

"Arre you going to be alrright ssirr?"

"Yes Tormass. I'll just go get some rest."


Daranavo Savoy - USS Presidio

USS PRESIDIO - MAIN BRIDGE

A weary Ensign Caroll checked the data once again from the Operations console. With a concerned look she turned toward Lt. Commander Vogels who was now in command due to Captain T’lara’s degrading mental state. He rubbed his head in thought as he continued to receive reports from all over the ship. Several other positions upon the bridge had been taken up by Ensigns and crewman due to the lack of bridge officers that have been relieved of duty by The Chief Medical Officer Jordan Levi herself.

Caroll: “Sir…” Her face beaded of sweat as it took every ounce of composure not to tear up due to the intense pain she felt. “I did as you asked and I found an unauthorized transport…from…” She closed her eyes as her mind began to wander.

Vogels: “Ensign.?” His hard voice awakened her and she licked her lips as her mouth had become terribly dry.

Caroll: “Um…yes…sir, Transporter room 3 sir, by Lt. Savoy…Very close to the time that the Horizon’s canister was beamed out of their Cargo bay. I also back checked with our weapons stores and Lt. Daranavo used his code to unlock a weapons locker and remove 1 phaser….that locker was near Cargo bay 2.” Relieved that she had gotten it all out she waited.

Vogels: “Nice work Ensign.” He thought quickly, “Computer.” He said in a commanding tone, the computer peeped ready for his inquiry. “Where is Lt. Savoy?”

Computer: “Lt. Savoy is in Transporter room 3,” the computer told him.

Right then, a security officer that was guarding the canister on the Presidio tapped his comm. Badge as he watched it disappear.

Security Officer: “Sir, our canister was just beamed out.”

Jan sat up straight in his chair and Ensign Caroll turned quickly back to her console as telemetry sped across it. A cringe quickly came to her face.

Caroll: “Sir…an unauthorized shuttle launch is in progress.”

Vogels: “Transporter room 3 my ass…Disable the shuttle bay doors and Raise shields!” Jan barked without hesitation. “I need a security team to head to Shuttle Bay 1. Locate and apprehend Lt. Savoy.”

Elsewhere…

“This is a much stronger door Peter…we will have to find another way.” The little fairy told him worriedly. “I hear someone coming…I hope it’s not…him,” it squeaked. Daranavo no longer wondered why he was there and the strange fairy was now very familiar to him. How long had he been there he did not know but he felt a sudden urgency to find Belle and Little Red and protect them from the Wolves and The Beast. Daranavo backed up, turned and saw more doors down the hall. “Well…where do these doors lead?” The fairy flew up and looked down the hall toward where Daranavo looked. “Yes…yes…this one will take us…but you must hurry!” It told him hurriedly. Daranavo bent down and began to remove the door hardware as he had done before.

USS PRESIDIO – SHUTTLE BAY 1

Half open, the shuttle bay doors began to close once more. With glazed eyes and an expressionless face Daranavo got up from the shuttle pilots seat and moved over to the secondary systems console.

Several security officers moved into the Shuttle Bay with weapons drawn and two by two they reconnoitered up to the shuttlecraft.

Daranavo plugged in the coordinates to Engineering and watched listlessly as the canister was beamed off the shuttle. He re-entered the coordinates once more, stood and moved over to the shuttle’s transporter pad.

One of the Security Officers placed an over-ride chip upon the door of the shuttle and put in his code. Slowly, the shuttle door opened. As the door swung upward, two officers stepped forward into the shuttle just in time to see Daranavo disappear.


Ozu - USS Presidio

Ozu walked around on the ship with a headache that drove him crazy. But he was far from being the only one. Almost everyone had the same symptoms. Even Ozu saw some weird things but he did his best trying to ignore them. Today he already had 2 fights involving people who saw things which they couldn’t explain. And more weird reasons.

He also knew that soon they would be going down to the surface to check for any clues about this “thing”. “Security to the shuttle bay!” Ozu heard through his com badge. “Ozu here, on my way. What’s the trouble?” “Lt. Savoy has stolen the canister and tries to get away with a shuttle” the response came. Ozu sprinted forward to a Jeffery tube and almost let himself fall down of it. 30 sec later he stood at the shuttle bay doors. He quickly typed in his override and the door opened. He ran toward the only shuttle with a open door. But when he jumped in he saw the transporter just beam off Lt Savoy. “Damn it!” he screamed and quickly checked the transporter log. It was completely erased but that was not much a problem for Ozu. “Ozu to bridge.” “Yes Lt what is it?” “Lt. Savoy escaped with the shuttle transporters. He has cleared up behind him but I think that I can find the data with an hours work.” “Do it”.

Ozu sat behind the console and started to work. “Computer load program Ozu sierra 5 pass Ozu gamma 7 theta 12.” Ozu saw the program entering the shuttle systems. “Hello E.V.A long time no see, but I need to find the coordinates of the last two transports.” The soft voice answered “Welcome back and I will see what I can do but I need your help”. Ozu nodded “All right tell me what you need.”


Jan Vogels - USS Presidio

Thing were falling apart. The crew was going mental and now rogue. If he wasn't appear of Savoy's mental disability at the moment, Jan wouldn't bother with a trial once he found him. He also couldn't wait for Ozu to track down the transporter activity but let him try in any case.

"Re-route sensors power to the internal sensors. Find me that bloody canister."

"Should we scan for Lt. Savoy's biosignature as well, sir?"

Jan was glad someone was still thinking straight, even though the suggestion wasn't usable.

"That will take way too long with our crew count, run one anyway but I think that Lt. Ozu will have tracked the down the transporter activity before such a scan can isolate Savoy. Our best hope is that canister."

"Good thinking though", Jan added after a short pause. It was important to try to keep morale up at least a bit. It never hurt to hand out compliments.

"XO to Security, lock down the entire ship, nothing gets in or out. Have teams at every transporter room and shuttle bay. Shut down all turbolifts except for one on each deck. Post guards there. Seal all Jeffries tubes."

Jan turned around to Operations.

"Shut down all transporters and shuttle bays. Cut control to areas from any terminal except the bridge. Once done I'm going to seal access to those systems with my command codes."

The Ensign nodded as she went to work. She seemed overworked. Jan imagined that working on three tasks at once, scanning for the canister, Savoy and locking down the ship, with that headache would be hard. He gestured to two operations crewmen manning smaller consoles.

"Assist her. Lock down the ship and find me Savoy."

Jan's head was starting to fume. The crew was dealing with their migraines and nightmares, Jan was dealing with an increasing fatigue. The fact that T'lara hadn't shown herself in days didn't make his job easier. She left everything to him and barricaded herself in her quarters. Jan needed her help. He couldn't keep the ship running on his own, not like this. He gestured to Gastovski who was directing Security teams from the bridge. Naturally Gastovski didn't trust anyone to guard the bridge but himself.

"Take over for me Master Chief. I'll be back shortly."

Gastovski looked surprised.

"Where are you going sir?"

"Visit our Captain."

"Sir, the Ensign is the …"

"She's has enough on her plate. Keep the show running. I'm back as soon as I can."

Jan left the bridge. The turbolift stopped on the deck below. Jan grumbled. He had given the order himself to leave only one lift between decks active. He stepped out to get to another one. He was pleased to see a team already present at this lift, even though he shuddered at their state. At least they still were quick on duty. He nodded at them and made his way to T'lara's quarters. He didn't get any reply to his rings. He could override every door on the ship with his command codes in cases of emergency, but not the Captains. But there were other ways. Jan quickly removed the panel and used a 'by-pass'. The doors hissed as they opened. Jan stepped into a dark room. T'lara sat at her desk, hands against her temples, slowly growling when she noticed the doors opening.

"I presume you have a reason to invade my privacy, Commander."

Jan ignored the calm but angered tone in her voice.

"Damnit, I need you on the bridge. I can't keep this crew together all by myself."

"I'm not in any shape to lead or function."

Jan exploded. "Hell, no one is. The entire crew is having the same symptoms and still those that Jordan hasn't put in straight jackets keep working. I need your help. It's your bloody ship, it's your duty."

"Spare me the lecture, Commander. I should be the one lecturing about duty, barging into my quarters like this."

T'lara's eyes were no longer locked on him. Jan had seen it before. People having illusions or daydreams. T'lara was drifting off. Jan knew only one cure against this. It could get him shot but it was the only way, he needed T'lara to get her act together and start acting. Jan made sure his right hand wasn't clenched into a fist. Then he slapped T'lara across the face with such a force that she nearly toppled backwards over with her chair. She glared at him as her left cheek turned darkly red. It would probably stay for a while. She slowly raised her left hand to her cheek and rubbed it gently.

"Don't ever do that again."

Her voice had a more natural tone this time, not distanced like a daydreamer and not the angry angered irrational tone she had displayed before. It actually sounded rational this time.

"You can put me in front of a firing squad when this is all over. Now I need your help."


Emily Star

Rubbing her eyes Emily groaned and sat back in her chair. The day was dragging on and no matter what she did she couldn't fight the tired feeling that dared to place her face asleep on the station. For the first time in her life she was thankful for her Vulcan abilities they alone kept her brain functioning and they also kept the hallucinations at bay. Sighing she sat back up and adjusted the specifications on the panel in front of her.

"Nothing" she said to herself. So far she'd found absolutely nothing that worked on the headaches. The sickbay was slowly filling with stressed and paranoid people. One claimed a headless man on horse had tried to kill him, another kept talking to a gingerbread cookie and unless she kept them sedated they wouldn't shut up!

Checking the data again, attempting to see something she'd missed or to find a clue Emily buried herself once again in her work. Attempting to find a miracle or at least drown out the noise.

"Excuse me"

"Yes" she said not looking up from her work and partially afraid to look.

"Can you help me? "

"I can try"

"Can you tell me where to find the white rabbit?"

Emily's fingers stopped working as her eyes moved slowly to the owner of the voice,"Blue bow, long blond hair, blue dress….Alice?"

The girl curtsied and Emily's head hit the panel.

"So much for my sanity." she laughed,"Yea, white rabbit went that-a-way"

The girl toddled off and Emily quickly wrote a letter to the CMO of the Presidio.

From: Master Chief Petty Officer Emily Star
To: CMO USS Presidio.

Curious if you have found anything that can aid the crew in fighting off these random hallucinations. So far I've found nothing and hence the reason why I am rather desperately hoping you are smarter than me. If not hopefully we can think of something together.

Sending the message she stretched her arms, looked around to make sure there were no white rabbits and set back to work.


T'Lara - USS Presidio

T'lara gritted her teeth again and downed another cup of coffee. The pain was almost too much, she could feel the front of her head almost pulsing. Dam starfleet for setting her on this asignment, as if her mental state was no fragile enough!

T'lara had lost count at how many times she had passed out in her quarters the past 48 hours. Jordan could not give her anything else and T'lara felt helpless. She kept hearing voices mostly telling her that she was going mad and was going to die. Or worse she should kill herself.

The flashbacks, people who she knew were dead, she could hear them, sense them and it was disturbing.
She wanted to go down to the surface to get some answers but she realized that she may hinder the away team in her current state. T'lara decided that the bridge was the best option and she made her way slowly, hoping she could still be of some use.


Owain Taggart

< = Shuttlebay | USS Horizon, several hours later = >

Owain was looking at them all. It was an odd appearance, seeing that arctic wasn't often used. Starfleet didn't often send them on death traps, but then again, he told himself that this was actually an improvement over the bulky gear Starfleet had started out with centuries ago. He tried not to laugh as he imagined what that must have been like, but his mind was too busy trying to fight off his headache and deal with the already prevalent mind tricks. Instead, he just looked somewhat uncomfortable, and that wasn't because of the gear, although it could have contributed to it.

Once he was sure that everyone with the away team had arrived, he lead the way inside.

< = USS Archimedes = >

The Archimedes was average in terms of Captain's Yacht, but was bigger than a regular shuttle, which allowed Owain to transport the big number of people for the away team. It was his first time using it and was glad to finally put it to good use.

He immediately made for the cockpit and sat off to one side, smiling warmly as Lieutenant Ozu came to take the other beside him. "Glad to have an old friend aboard this one. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have to get us down to the surface safely."

"It's my pleasure, sir.", Ozu said with a salute, "I've rather been looking forward to this…"

Owain nodded, "Yes, haven't we all", he said, for the sooner they could end this, the better it would be for them all.

He glanced in the direction of the door, saw that it was now closed and that everyone was inside. There were the security officers from both the Horizon and the Presidio, much needed science and medical officers, and Marines with their big guns. He shuddered as he remembered what Captain T'Lara had said. She was right, and he had been wrong, and he hoped they wouldn't need such physical force. "Alright, Winged Man, she's all yours.", he told Ozu, who anxiously went through the protocols needed to take shuttles out of docking bays. With all the relaying back and forth, they were granted leave, the shuttlebay doors opening to allow their exit.

The Archimedes lifted off the floor and heaved forwards. Ozu maneuvered and headed the Archimedes on a downwards path through the planet's atmosphere. While this was being done, he swiveled his chair and looked at the group of people. "Listen up, everyone! I'm assuming you've been briefed by your stations. If not, hear this. If you've already been briefed, hear this anyway. What we're about to do is very important. Not only for our well-being, but for this system and Starfleet. Now, I know these past few days have been hard on you all. It's been stressful and it's only gotten worse over time. Our mission to find out at all costs what the source of our problems is, and to put a stop to it." He stopped for a moment while their trajectory was causing the Archimedes to shudder violently as it hit the atmosphere.

"This shouldn't take too long, sir!", remarked Ozu, "Give or take a few moments…"

Owain knew all too well about the shaking and rolling ships and shuttles did when they entered an atmosphere. He'd done it a few times as a kid and knew how uncomfortable the few moments were.

When the Archimedes' ride became smoother again and started leveling out, Owain continued. This time he looked towards the Marines, "We won't be blowing anything up today. We're here to investigate and diffuse the situation diplomatically. You'll be our backups in case anything is hostile down there. But let me be clear. We're not to fire unless we're fired upon. Is that understood?"

They nodded and then Owain continued. "Good. Now that we have that covered, have a look out the windows while we're approaching!"

What they saw was unbelieveable, and he wondered if his eyes were deceiving him, which wasn't at all impossible considering the dillusions they were all having. He blinked, but when his eyes were open again, they were gone. He was sure he saw something, but the scans that were done earlier had confirmed that there was no life on the planet.

The snowy and icy landscape was fast approaching, and Owain started wondering if perhaps their descent was coming in a little too fast. Owain swiveled around and activated the landing gear, which was configured as skiis for the mission, which was a good decision as they slid quite a bit and helped to cushion the impact. And then they all heard it. A thump as the Archimedes came to a full stop. "Damn, if we didn't hit something", Owain thought to himself. He'd have to check on that.

He got up and faced the crew, "Alright, check if you have everything you need, and out.", he told them as he opened the door. If they couldn't tell how cold it was when they were nice and warm within the confines of the Yacht, the cold air that greeted them at the door definitely reminded them why they had taken this gear along with them. Being the first one out, he went around to the nose, where the body of what looked like a wooly mammoth lay on the ground. "Ahh hell.", he said out loud. "We need a medic here! I think whatever this thing is, is still alive." And then his senses hit him. It was huge. It was mammoth, it had damaged the front end of the Archimedes quite a bit. A medic came to look. "It's still breathing, but there's not much we can do aside from stopping the bleeding."

"Isn't there something you can do?" Owain asked desperately.

"I'm sorry sir, I don't think there is. We have to move on."

Owain was feeling bad for it having happened. He had told everyone not to fire unless they were being fired upon, but here they went ahead and hit a poor defenceless creature. The circumstances were different, but he still felt bad about it.

"Sir", one of the science officers said as he came to him, "Tricorder says we should make our way west. Best as I can see it, our source is on a hill." He pointed off to a large sharp outcropping. "It's about 100 miles out, so I think we better start making our move."


Nicholas Li

< = Bridge | USS Horizon =>

Lt. Li was on the bridge as acting CO of the USS Horizon while Captain Taggart was off gallivanting around on the planet. The Horizon was keeping a sensor lock on the USS Archimedes as it approached the planet's ionosphere. Li shook his head as he watched aerial maneuvering of the Yacht as it entered the planet's atmosphere. Leave it to Ozu to make a typical landing into a chaotic ballet. Well he was good, just not good for a queasy stomach. As the away team approached the planet's polar region, sensor telemetry was cut off as the planet's magnetic field interfered with sensors.

Li sighed and rubbed his temples. They were on their own. He wished them Godspeed and back to reading the engineering daily report. Accidents and mishaps have been up 17% since their arrival to the planet. Nicholas hoped that the Captain would be able to figure out what the problem was. Either that or someone will be wont to cause a core breach.

< = Cargo Bay 2 | USS Horizon = >

Cargo Bay 2 was deep within the belly of the USS Horizon. It contained supplies that towered in organized plies of containers and drums. In this labyrinth of synthesized polymers, no one on the Horizon noticed the sudden appearance of a two meter large white peach in the back corner of an aisle.

In the deathly quiet of the Cargo Bay a sweet voice could be heard,

"Momotarō-san, momotarō-san (Momotarō, Momotarō)
Okoshini tsuketa kibidango (Those millet dumplings on your waist)
Hitotsu watashi ni kudasai na? (Won't you give me one?)
Agemashou, agemashou (I'll give you one, I'll give you one)
Ima kara oni no seibatsu ni (From now, on a quest to conquer the ogres)
Tsuite kuru nara agemashou (If you come with me, I'll give one to you)"


Emily Star

Sickbay-USS Horizon

The headache was beginning to make itself known as her day progressed. She's been up for thirty eight hours straight, not even a nap and sleep was not an option until something progressed. No nightmare compared to that of a medical officer unable to help her patients.

"Soon it will be over" she told herself attempting to comfort her strainged nerves. It worked a little but not much. She had faith in the crew and their Captains leadership. There was no way something like this was going to be the end of them. She snorted at the thought, the end. What a morid thought but it came from living on a ship. You lived, you worked and if something big and ugly came along..you died. In some ways it was a challenge, in others a horrible fear that sat in the back of the mind. It poked every now and then like a toddler with a stick asking "can you see me now?"

Emily rolled her eyes and looked around the sickbay. She had sedated a few who were about to loose it completely. The solid lines of reality seemingly destroyed and replaced with that of insecurity. She could sense their fear and confusion. Her betazoid empathic abilities picked up on the high emotions namely fear, confusion and curiosity. To Emily it was a welcomed distraction from her own feelings.

"Princess!! Come away with me!"

"Later Romeo, take a number next to the Dwarfs and talking mice."

"But…" he said quietly and then as if on cue a chorus of violins broke out. Followed by the gentle whisper of flutes…

Emily checked the systems curious if the computer was beginning to malfunction but found no problems. The music grew louder…

"Oh please god… no singing" her voice sounding like a whimper underneath the symphony that filled the sickbay.

I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me, princess, now when did
You last let your heart decide?

"Uhh…poofy hat dude, go away" Emily said shooing him with her hands.

"It's a turban!" he said quickly before leaping onto a biobed,

I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride

"That's not a carpet..please get down" the music was nice but combined with the headache and nauseating lyrics she felt more inclined to loose her lunch.

"Come on" he said, "Where's your sense of adventure!"

"I left it behind in my other uniform. Now shoo!" Turning around she felt the strangest sensation on her hand. Turning back she looked at it and found him holding onto it, "You can't be touching me?! You're in my head!"

"Want me to show you how real I am?" he leant closer.

"Pig!" Emily moved forward and planted her fist squarely into his jaw. The music promptly ended, "I don't care what it's called…that's the stupidest hat I've ever seen! How can anyone take you seriously with a purple feather stuck to your head!"

Returning to her desk she quickly decided that as soon as she could she was going to go sleep.This was getting to be even beyond the realms of her control. Her hand tingled and she rubbed it. Weird was a word that was becoming fairly common in her thought processes.


Nicholas Li

< = OOC: NPC = Crewmen 3rd class, Dean Lam & Ensign Torrmass Garfield =>

< =Crew Quarters - USS Horizon= >

A short man in a yellow engineer's uniform was hunkered down on in one of the crew's quarters. His tools were strewn around him as he was busily degaussing some isolinear chips. If anyone were to be in the room, you could tell that there was no passion in Dean's work. He did like his job. When he had joined Starfleet, he dreamed of exploring the galaxy and fighting the foes of the Federation. After five years at the Academy and hopping from ship to ship. He's realized that he didn't have what it took to lead men, nor the skill in combat to work in security.

In the end he has been relegated to engineering and Lt. Li has him scrubbing conduits and chips. Right now, he is maintaining the isostatic field generator that periodically removes the shedding skin, scale or hair that the crew generates. He knows that despite the fact that his title is engineer, he is nothing more than a glorified housekeeper. And once this godforsaken mission was over, he would submit his resignation.

Dean continued to plod through his work. Blue chips, red chips, and the work continued. He heard a tapping noise. He looked around and noticed nothing. Dean waved off the noise as his imagination and continued his work.

Suddenly a loud crash tore through the bulkhead walls. Dean hunched over to cover his head from the flying debris. He turned and looked at the hole in the walls. As the dust settled, a huge humanoid stepped out into the room. It was tall and bulky with muscles. Its skin was a deep red. It was completely nude except for some tiger pelt pants that it wore. At the top of its head sprouted two small horns. It grinned showing off its razor sharp teeth. The monster carried a short wide blade.

Dean knew he had to be seeing things. The Captain had told the crew about the possibility of random hallucination that afflicted both the crew of the Horizon and the Presidio. Despit knowing that this thing in front of him was a byproduct of his own mind, Crewman Lam was very frightened. That gripping fear was what stopped him from becoming a security officer.

Yet now for the first time in his life, Dean Lam was fed up of being scared. He pushed down his fears and stood up straight.

He picked up a hyperspanner and said, "You're nothing but a figment of my mind," and threw the tool at the beast. The tool bounced off the head of the hallucination and rocked it back. The monster slowly turned his head towards the crewman and glared at him with fiery eyes. It let out a deafening roar. Dean could feel the spittle and smell the fetid breath of the beast and his fear exploded from his stomach.

"You dare mock the great Oni of Rashmon!"

The beast swiftly rushed the man stopping an arm's length from the engineer. Dean looked incredulously at this figment of his imagination and then look down at his chest. The oni's blade protruded out of him as his life's blood stained the ruddy carpet below.

The last thing that Crewman Lam gurgled out was, "It's not real…."

< = An hour later = >

Torrmass Garfield was stomping down deck 6 in search of crewman Lam. The man was late reporting back. This was very unbecoming of a Starfleet crewman. He reached the room that Lam was working in and entered.

What he saw shocked him. In the middle of a pristine room laid Dean Lam amidst his tool. He was pale and on his face was frozen in rigor, a look of pain and fear.


Jan Vogels - USS Presidio

T'lara stared at him.

"I suggest next time you turn and leave very quickly before you do anything like that again, Commander."

Jan nodded. "Next time, I make sure to stun you first."

T'lara just shook her head.

"These headaches are getting worse."

Jan frowned.

"It seems you are one of the most heavily affected in terms of headaches. It might be your 'unique physiology'."

She nodded. "Jordan can't do anything about it. I tried all the drugs. It helped for a while at first, but now it doesn't work at all."

"It is the same for the rest of the crew."

"What is the status of the ship?"

She rubbed her temples.

"The Horizon has initiated an away mission. Lt. Ozu, Master Chief Gastovski and the marines have joined them including some science, security and medical personnel we could spare. They weren't many. Savoy has gone rogue. I think he's caught up in a delusion. He tried to steal the canister. We have a manhunt going on for him, I put the ship in lockdown. Unfortunately he managed to interfere with internal sensors. It will be tough to find him but he shouldn't be able to get away."

"How are you holding up, Jan?"

Jan raised an eyebrow, imitating Vulcan style. She reverted back to using his first name. It meant she was thinking more clearly.

"I don't know what is happening. I don't seem to be affected by dreams or headaches as long as I take a few drinks. Jordan thinks it might be related to some toxic gases Gastovski and I once inhaled. But I'm not unaffected. Both I and Gastovski suffer from extreme fatigue. I'm not hallucinating as long as I use my miracle cure but I don't know how much longer I can go on. That's why I need your help, Captain."

T'lara rose.

"The illusions and headaches. I can't control them anymore, Jan. I…"

She suddenly rolled her eyes, then she collapsed. Jan was around the desk in time to catch her before she hit her head on the ground. He gently put her to the ground and checked for vitals. She was alive and breathing. Jan quickly weighed his options. Under normal circumstances he would covertly order Jordan to T'lara's quarters. Rushing the Captain to sickbay might panic the crew. But Jan had no other options, medical was severely understaffed and he couldn't risk T'lara's life. He gently lifted her then headed for sickbay.

When he arrived it was empty. He gently put T'lara on a biobed then headed into Jordan's office. A nurse sat there, rubbing her temples. Jan didn't recall her name.

"Excuse me, nurse."

She looked up, then noticed who was talking to her."

"Commander, yes sir, I have an excuse for using the CMO's office, I…"

"I need your help, follow me. And don't worry about the office."

She followed Jan and immediately understood the gravity. She tried to combat her headaches and started examining.

"She is alive, nothing threatening. By all accounts she should be awake. If I didn't know better I'd say she 'overloaded'. She just couldn't handle it anymore."

Jan nodded. "She told me her headaches were extremely bad."

"From all documented cases, her's seemed the most severe as far as the headaches went."

"Keep an eye on her. Where the hell is Jordan?"

"Commander Levi had business in Engineering, sir."

Jan nodded. "OK, monitor the Captain's condition, contact me once it changes. Keep up the good work."

Jan gave her a soft slap on the shoulder, then left. There had been a reason he stepped down from being a CO and now everything was burdened onto him again. He cursed Gastovski for being so rational in his explanation as to why one of them should go on the away mission. Damnit, he needed two Gastovskis, one on the ground and one on the ship.


Daranavo Savoy - USS Presidio

ELSEWHERE

Daranavo shouldered through the door and found himself inside a very large, well decorated room. A large balcony with a railing ran all along the sides. At its center stood a thick barred cage with several boys inside it all dressed as pirates. Two wolves moved around the cell slowly, snarling and growling. The little, glowing fairy fluttered just ahead of him. “Peter, those wolves will hurt Little Red and Belle!” Daranavo looked to his left and two women were hunched over what looked to be another young boy clad in a pirate’s garb. One of the women was in an elegant, blue dress. She had dark hair and fair skin. She was very beautiful. The other seemed younger and smaller. She was dressed in a simpler, darker dress and wore a small, red cape upon her back. Both seemed intent on trying to help the boy who appeared to be injured and did not move. “Use your sword Peter!” The little thing cried. Fearing that at any moment the wolves would attack him Daranavo deftly drew forth a small blade that until now he did not remember that he had. “I will not let you hurt those boys!” He yelled. Gracefully he attacked the wolves and one by one they fell to his blade and lay unmoving.

USS PRESIDIO – MAIN ENGINEERING

Daranavo materialized in the center of Main Engineering. Two crewmen in front of him moved around the Warp core but stopped suddenly when they saw Lt. Savoy appear. One of them quickly tapped his Comm Badge. “Emergency! Lt. Savoy is in Main Engineering!” Jordan Levi and Nurse Elle both looked up at him with surprise on their faces. After taking a brief, expressionless look around the room Daranavo pulled his phaser from its holster. “I will not let you hurt those boys!” He yelled in a monotone voice toward the two that stopped in their tracks upon hearing him. Lt. Savoy quickly stepped forward and fired a shot at each of the men as they attempted to evade the fire but to no avail. Both crewmen fell to the floor unconscious.

ELSEWHERE

“Peter lock the doors, more wolves are coming!” Fear drove him into action. Without hesitation Daranavo moved up and l ocked the door. Unsatisfied with that, he began to move chairs, bookcases and other furniture to further barricade the door. He noticed that Belle and Little red held a look of confusion in their eyes. “Fear not, everything will be alright,” he assured them.

USS PRESIDIO – MAIN ENGINEERING

With glazed eyes Daranavo moved over to the door and popped open the panel that controlled the door. He removed one of the control relays that sensed when someone was about to enter or exit the room. He broke off the sensing node, replaced it back into its slot then closed the panel. Without taking his eyes off of Jordan and Elle he moved over to the secondary console adjacent the warp core. On the console he manually inserted the wrong internal temperature of the dilithium chamber. Like clockwork the emergency radiation shielding buzzed on and surrounded the core. A precautionary measure that he, himself installed when he was acting Chief of Engineering when he first arrived upon the Presidio. He changed the power output of the shielding and manually changed the dimensions of the warp core casing. As soon as he pushed enter, the shielding expanded further outward toward the walls of the room. "Fear not, everything will be alright," he assured them.


Samuel McKinneley

Big Bad Wolf….

Sam gathered his gear quickly heading for the Captains Yaht he didn't care what the name of the Yaht was, he was scared he was losing his mind, he didn't look at anyone directly in the eye for fear of seeing things.

Sam quickly found a seat on the yaht and sat down closing his eyes and praying he wouldn't have another vision, he soon found that they were taking off and heading for the planet, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly hopefully leaving the ship would mean no more wierd dillusions.

Sam heard Owain, his Captains voice obviously talking about there mission, therefore Sam opened his eyes but immediatly wished he hadn't for where there had been bags underneath the seats of his fellow security officers sitting across from him were now two pigs who were signalling to him to look at Owain and mouthing big bad wolf…

Sam quickly looked over to Owain was talking and suddenly instead of seeing a Starfleet Captain, or seeing a big bad wolf, saw instead a man dressed in Red 17th or 18th Century clothes, guessing that this was the Cardinal that the two funny dressed men were talking about, Sam glanced around and moaned everyone was dressed in those funny clothes.

few minutes later

Through clenched teeth.
Sam felt a slight shutter obviously the shuttle had now touched down, he slowly opened his eyes and saw that everything was normal again, and then it hit him that this bad person, and wolf, of which his dillusions were talking about had taken form as Owain….which meant if things worsened Sam may take a desperate or violent actions against his own Captain, if he thought that it was for the safety of everyone else.

Sam shuttered at this thought and put it away from him, he would never do that…never.


Owain Taggart

<= Away Team | Phorait Prime =>

They all trudged on diligently, despite the fact that they currently didn't have full control of their minds. It was obvious that they were making an effort, which was twice as hard under these arduous conditions. Everyone wanted to stop and take a break every once in awhile, which was fine with Owain, but he had to remind them all that they had to keep moving in order to keep warm, which wasn't easy in their state of mind.

State of mind, he thought, was all subjective at this point, wasn't it? Here they were, trekking through an unfamiliar landscape on their way to the base, and it reminded him of Dorothy's journey on the yellow brick road to see the wizard. Yes, Section 31 had thought their experiment to be brilliant, just like the Wizard of Oz thought himself to be brilliant, only their experiment was causing everyone pain. Well, if they thought themselves brilliant, then surely they could turn this experiment off just as easily as hey had turned it on…

—-

The King of Hearts stared at Dorothy. It wasn't who he expected seeing. He had expected Alice. But where was Alice? He hadn't seen her. Oh well, one head was all the same, he thought. It would do. But she was an odd one; not from around here.

"Who are you!?", he asked her, humbly begging her to tell him who she was.

"I….", she said, hesitating as disbelief upon seeing who she was being questioned by. "I'm Dorothy Gale.", she announced finally. But please… I'm not from around here! Surely you would spare a young girl's life?"

Suddenly cards in the room, who had followed the King earlier, burst out laughing, as if what she was asking was outlandish.

"Oh, sure, I could spare your life…"the King said , and here Dorothy relaxed as she felt relieved, "If you tell me what the Mad Hatter was doing partying!"

And again, Dorothy tensed up. She had to find a way out of this. There must be a way!

—-

And just like Dorothy, Owain knew that there would be a way to stop this, so they trudged on…


Steve Sharp - Marines

Steve and the Marines had made it to the Frigid surface. Working thru a Headache was going to be hard enough but seeing the Characters from Southpark walking around was making it harder. The Hallucinations were getting to him, not only was he seeing Eric Cartman but he was hearing fat ass, as well. "Damn it Mike if I see them kill Kenny one more time I think im gonna flip." Steve says as he checks on his men.

"Its fricking cold out here." Master Guns says as Steve just nods. "Im more concerned with the Hallucinations and protecting Captain Taggert Master Guns." Steve says as Mike also agrees. Steve looks over at Mike then quickly looks away as Mike was wearing a Red Jacket, and a Blue hat, and looked like Eric Cartman. "Damn it Mike I think im losing it…" Steve says as Mike looked on curiously. "I thought you were Eric Cartman there for a minute." He says as he trys to hold back a laugh amongst the pain of a headache.

"Ok lets get a Campsite set up and try to keep warm!" Steve says as the Marines perpare shelter for the awayteam.


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