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Star Trek Adventurer	By : Tcr Category: +S through Z > Star Trek: Online Views: 2690 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: Star Trek is owned and copyrighted by Paramount Pictures and CBS. For full disclaimer, see Chapter 1.

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Chapter 17: They Say There’s No Devil...

The transporter beam vanished from around Taka as instantly as it began and she had to blink to readjust to the natural light that streamed across the surface. She glanced around her. Only rubble was strewn around the area, collapsed buildings falling over in the street, rusted metal stick up like bones of an ancient graveyard.
“What the Hell?” Erra asked. “I thought Hiland detected lifesigns concentrated here.”
Tanis flipped open her tricorder. “I’m detecting lifesigns all around us. But something’s off.”
“What do you mean, off?” Korolevna asked.
“They’re… off,” Tanis repeated. “I don’t know what else to call it. It’s like they’re scattered throughout.” She showed Taka the tricorder. “It’s like someone’s trying to make it look like there’s still a civilization here.”
Taka nodded. “It’s true.”
Erra reached for her phaser. “What the Hell is going on?”
“This world was attacked,” Korolevna stated the obvious, “and from the looks of it, centuries ago.” She glanced at Erra and nodded approvingly, pulling her own phaser out. “Zh’An, keep watch on Ensign Lanul. Netu, you and I are heading deeper into this city.”
Taka watched as the other two women moved forward, her own hand drifting next to her phaser. Nervousness gripped her, her antennae betraying that as they twitched in different directions, before Tanis’ hand was on her shoulder. She glanced at her lover before nodding with a smile. She placed her hand on Tanis’ reassuringly.
“I know she doesn’t make it easy, which is the biggest understatement I can say, but we all have to work together for the next six months, Taka,” Tanis said. “You and Erra have to move beyond what happened.”
Taka nodded. “I know that. Hell, I’ve tried, but she doesn’t.”
“Then you have to do better, shenva,” Tanis scolded. “I love you, but sometimes you make it so hard to do so. You’re just so stubborn.”
Taka offered a sheepish smile in contrast to the serious tone Tanis was using. “Can I blame it on the blue skin and the antennae?”
“Being Andorian doesn’t negate the fact that you’re choosing to be stubborn.”
“Are you psychoanalyzing me now?” Silence met her question and Taka folded her arms across her chest. “Tanis, I’m not one of your patients, holographic or not.”
“No, you’re not,” the Trill woman admitted. “You’re the woman I love, the one I care about, the one that I look forward to seeing every day.” She sighed. “I’m worried, Taka. I’m worried that this situation with Erra is going to explode and I’m going to be caught in the middle.”
“You know I’d never do that,” Taka said, reaching out for her love.
Tanis pulled back. “Really?” she scoffed. “I am in the middle of you two.” It was her turn to fold her arms across her chest. “I have to be the buffer between you two, I always have to be the buffer between you two. All the time.”
The Andorian woman pulled her hand back and her antennae shrunk away in sadness. She had never considered how much pressure the feud between her and Erra had placed on Tanis. The Trill had always taken her side, had always put herself right up against Taka without hesitation, had stood there and defended her against Erra’s assault. Taka had never thought that it was stressing her out.
“She was my friend, too, before this all happened, before Io,” Tanis’ eyes dropped sadly.
Taka was about to answer her love when her communicator chirped. “Ensign zh’An, bring Lanul and head to our position.”
She tapped her badge. “Aye, Captain. On our way.” She looked at Tanis. “I’m sorry, I never thought of what… What I’ve been putting you through with this feud…”
“Then don’t keep it going,” her lover stated. “I know you can put your differences aside and you can be persuasive when you want to be.” Tanis brushed her hand against Taka’s cheek. She smiled. “I just don’t want to be stuck between you both for the next six months.”
“I’ll try,” Taka said.
She held Tanis’ hands against her cheek for a moment before letting it slide from her fingers and turning to face the direction Erra and Korolevna had headed towards. She looked at the blue-uniformed woman, who nodded. They were at least heading towards the other two women.
A cackle of electricity pulsed in the air, splitting it, and Taka’s antennae shrunk against the top of her head as she stumbled against one of the ruins. She shook her head as Tanis moved towards her. She was only briefly aware of the Trill’s touch as she pushed away from one of the building’s wreckage.
“That was…”
“Not like you,” Tanis said. She glanced up at the suddenly darkening sky. “I don’t like the look of this.”
“Neither do I,” Taka agreed. “Let’s get to the Captain.”
It didn’t take much convincing. Both women hurried towards the Captain’s biosign, a brisk pace in their boots, swiftly moving around the debris strewn across the ground. They were almost at Korolevna and Erra when Taka realized something was definitely wrong.
The debris and the buildings were pushed out from where the other two women stood. The epicenter of a detonation, she knew; someone had purposely destroyed this planet? No, Taka, you can’t just jump to the worst case scenario, she scolded herself.
There were several other explanations. An industrial accident could have caused just as much of a catastrophic detonation as any bomb or torpedo. Hadn’t humanity suffered several of those same situations through its tumultuous past relationships with nuclear power? It had been thanks largely to the Vulcans that Earth’s radiation had been cleansed from its atmosphere, that areas such as Chernobyl and Fukushima had been rendered non-radioactive.
And that was merely nuclear.
Thalaron radiation was just as capable of eradicating all life on a planet, leaving almost nothing remaining of the inhabitants. Perhaps that had been what had befallen the inhabitants here, though Taka admitted that it hardly explained why lifesigns were still being read on sensors if that were the case. Hell, Taka could find no explanation why any lifesigns would still be present for anything that could have happened to the population.
“Ensign Lanul, what does your tricorder tell you?” Korolevna asked without turning to look at them.
There was a moment of silence as Tanis glanced at her tricorder, a shocked expression on the Trill’s face. “I can’t explain it, Captain.” She returned her look to Korolevna. “I’m detecting massive amounts of differentially charged polaric ions.”
“Consistent with?” Korolevna asked.
“I’d speculate a polaric energy bomb, Captain, likely detonated two decades ago,” Tanis said with uncertainty and shock in her words. “I just… Why would anyone use polaric energy in such a heinous manner?”
“450 years ago, my ancestors were embroiled in what we call the Cold War,” Korolevna stated. “People now ask the same question about nuclear weapons.”
“That doesn’t explain the lifesigns,” Taka said.
“A trap long passed or someone not wanting people to know what happened?” Erra offered without her usual sarcasm. “I think we can all agree, this was an attack.” As if to punctuate her statement, a bolt of lightning ripped through the sky.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions about that much, Ensign,” Korolevna said, though Taka could sense even the Captain was agreeing with Erra’s assessment.
“Respectfully, Captain, I have to agree with Ensign Netu, this was likely an attack and the use of a biosign emitter would only serve to solidify that,” Taka stated. “However, sir, I think we should probably get out of here before the planet becomes too inhospitable.”
Korolevna nodded, tapping her commbadge. “Adventurer, four to beam up.” Silence was her only response. “Watson, four to beam up!” Another bolt of lightning cleaved the sky.
“We need to get to cover, Captain,” Tanis stated. “That lightning’s charged enough to vapourize any organic matter it comes in contact with.”
“This way,” Erra motioned, leading the group towards a collapsed building. “This should provide some cover.”
The four women clambered over debris, entering a smaller room tucked within it. Furniture long covered with dust sat around it, walls half crushed by the weight of the building toppled over on it stood defiantly against the force, and it looked as though the entire thing was about to be crushed, but Taka admitted it was better than being vapourized by the lightning outside. She stared at the room as the others moved into it.
“So, who wants to be the first to try this place’s amenities?” Erra asked sarcastically, staring at the couch.
“Fine, I will,” Taka stated, sitting on it. She let out a very audible sigh of relief when nothing happened.
“Crazy koktah,” Erra muttered.
“Let’s just hope this storm passes quickly,” Korolevna muttered. “It’s the only thing I can see blocking comms.”
“A sound and logical reasoning,” Tanis said, leaning against a wall. A bleep sounded, startling the Starfleet officers. Taka and Erra raised their pistols as Korolevna pulled Tanis away from where she’d been standing.
A door slid open and a body fell from inside. Tanis scanned it with the tricorder, kneeling down next to it with her innate and often insane curiosity taking hold of her. She closed her tricorder before facing Captain Korolevna.
“He’s dead, Captain. Been that way a long time, though he’s perfectly preserved thanks to the environment created by the bomb,” Tanis shook her head. “Never thought I’d say that.”
“But who is he? What is he?” Erra asked nervously. Taka glanced in the Bajoran’s direction; it wasn’t normal for Erra to be nervous. “Flip him, Tanis.”
She did so. None of them recognized the features on the man, though they all silently agreed with one another that the man’s neck ridges reminded them of an Earth cobra and that didn’t settle their nerves at all. They looked at Captain Korolevna, as though expecting the Russian Captain to have all the answers they were looking for.
“I… There’s something familiar about the features, but I can’t remember,” Korolevna admitted.
Taka and Erra maintained their weapons’ watch on the corpse, as though expecting him to sudden come back from the dead now that they had opened the door for him, even as the stormy light turned to darkened night with only sporadic light from bolts wreaking havoc. Somehow, Tanis found a way to drift off into sleep and Taka envied her for it.
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Star Trek Adventurer