Star Trek
To be continued
silent fear
by
Becky Miller
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
The To Be Continued series : Silent Fear
Copyright © 2005-2009 by Becky Miller
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
* * * * *
SILENT FEAR
* * * * *
Prelude
“Grandma! Grandma!” a young child exclaimed while it burst through the old woman’s bedroom door. “The storm, I’m scared. I cannot sleep.” the child wept as it climbed on the bed and crept in between the covers next to her grandparent.
“Oh, come here love.” the grandmother said soothingly and held the little girl close and pulled the covers up warm and tight. “It’s just a storm, nothing to be afraid of. You’ve seen such storms before, you know they will pass.”
“Yes, but the thunder is so loud; it must be really close this time.”
“Well, you are safe here; indoors.” her grandmother said and stroked the distressed girl’s hair gently.
Even though the woman felt like putting the young child back to bed and telling her to stop weeping and go back to sleep, like she used to do with her own children when they were young, she knew it would only result in a bad humoured and exhausted granddaughter next morning because of the frightfully stormy and sleepless night.
The young girl’s anxiety had not subdued and the old woman decided to use an old and trusted method to sooth children and perhaps make her doze off to sleep.
“Listen Zyllah, we’re both wide awake now and not able to get some rest again ‘till after the storm has passed. Shall I tell you a story to keep us entertained?”
“Yes Grandmother, please do.”
“Now let me think-“
“Are you not afraid of the storm, Grandma?”
“No love. A storm can’t harm you when you are safely indoors.” but the child clearly disagreed.
“Have you ever been afraid of something?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Can you make your story about that, Grandma, please?”
“Alright then.” the grandparent agreed and took a moment to recollect and think of a good way to begin the tale.
“Far away in the depth of space, at the border of Federation territory, lies a space station which was originally built by an alien race called the Cardassians. They occupy our neighbouring space and because of a big power struggle they lost control over their space station. The Federation became the station’s temporary guardians and peacekeepers. Now, exactly why and how this came about is another story altogether; one which I am sure you will learn about as soon as you get history lessons at school.
This story, however, is about a young ensign who came to work on board that space station when it had been governed by the Federation for just over a year. She was only nineteen years old and her name was Romyana Casparian--”
“That’s you Grandma!” Zyllah exclaimed.
“Yes indeed, but that was a long time ago; only a girl I was, innocent and naive, very eager too.” The old woman sighed and flicked a little smile as she remembered those old times. Then she began to tell Zyllah her story; in a way only grandparents can, with a dramatic but soothing voice that draws you in to the story like you are there to experience it yourself.
1 Nobody heard
One fine early morning in October 2370, Ensign Romyana Casparian got up from her bunk bed aboard the Deep Space station near the edge of Federation space. She looked out the little port hole window and with a slight smile she gazed at the stars for a minute. She’s so proud to be here. Many of her Academy classmates were very jealous and would only dare dream of visiting this station once, let alone being awarded a study placement here, but she has worked hard for it these past few years at the Academy, swotting to get top grades and persuading her teachers she was ready to venture out into the real world of deep space exploration.
The Ensign stepped into the little bathroom for a quick sonic-shower. A marvellous invention, this shower doesn’t use water to clean, but sonic sound waves. You could even keep your clothes on if you wanted to, but the effect would be less thorough.
The Ensign shared her quarters with another crew member who works night shifts. This rotation of shifts and sharing sleeping quarters saves space which is very precious on a space station and it means there is never a section of the station which is unused. Though, this former Cardassian station is big enough for each crewman to have their own chamber, the rotation system is used on all Starfleet ships and stations for the lower ranked crew members, and the station commander decided to keep to Starfleet standards as much as possible.
Because of her bunkmate’s sake Casparian was in a bit of a rush, because the sooner she shows up on duty the sooner her bunkmate is free to leave work. She also needed to hurry because she was planning to go see the doctor before starting her shift. Some days earlier the Ensign had contracted a 24th century variety of common cold from which she had to cough violently and was beginning to develop a temperature. She didn’t think it was a big deal though it had to be looked at; the sooner, the better.
In her haste she navigated the corner to the shower a bit too tight and bumped her head rather hard on a small shelf but she managed to carry on and step into the shower anyway. After rubbing her head a few times she felt more and more dizzy and realised she’d bumped her head harder than she first thought and it might have caused a concussion. To prevent herself from fainting and falling to the floor, she sat herself down at the bottom of the shower and rested her head against the wall concentrating on her breathing waiting till the dizziness would pass, but it didn’t help and she fainted after all. With a dull thud she slumped to the bathroom floor.
* * *
Three days earlier.
“Well, you’ve earned it!” Julian Bashir, the station’s doctor, said to Miles O’Brien who stood with packed bags in the airlock to the Runabout.
“I suppose, though I’d rather stayed here. First of all I feel like the minute I leave this place the systems will go haywire and the whole station is gonna fall apart, and secondly, I signed up to this station as a chief engineer, not a babysitter!” O’Brien said disappointedly to his friend who had come to see him off.
“Babysitter?” Julian wondered what Miles meant. He knew he had a little daughter, but surely Miles could not be upset by her coming along on the holiday with his wife. He loved her and his wife more than anything in the whole Universe. Julian’s question was answered by the sight of the two youths of the station, Jake and Nog, approaching the airlock laden with bags and talking animatedly about what they were going to keep themselves occupied with during their holiday.
“Ah, I see; good luck. Let Keiko take care of them two, she’s expert in handling children and don’t worry about the station: It will still be here when you get back.” Julian said trying to cheer him up a bit.
“It is the state it’ll be in when I return
that I am worried about – and the state I will be in...” O’Brien said eyeing the two teen aged boys boarding the Runabout. They were the only two children living on board the station, with the exception of Miles’ daughter who was only 3, and they were infamous for the mischief they spread around the station and its crewmembers.
Julian gave the chief engineer a pat on the shoulder and wished him a safe journey. When the airlock had closed, he returned to the infirmary to tend to his patients.
* * *
When the Federation was asked to govern the former Cardassian space station a year ago, it was given a commander who had the delicate task of supervising a mixed crew of both Starfleet crewmembers and Bajoran crewmembers. The Bajorans were a people that lived in that area of space before the Cardassians came to occupy it. The station was located near their home planet Bajor and whilst they rebuilt their lands, economy and political system, the federation promised to help them keep peace in the area.
Commander Benjamin Sisko was in charge of the station and he was appointed a liaison from the Bajoran government, Major Kira Nerys. She was a hot tempered and stubborn Bajoran woman, who had helped free her people from the occupation by playing a big role in the resistance and was now a member of the Bajoran Militia. Sisko made her his first officer.
The former policeman of the station, amicably called Constable Odo, is a changeling who prefers to take on a human form. He was kept on as chief security officer, because being a changeling made him impartial to the conflict and he knows the station better than anyone else.
Today the three of them, the commander, Major Kira and security chief Odo, were on a diplomatic mission on Bajor and were scheduled to return late in the evening.
Just at such a time, when most of the officers are away, any small mishap can get out of hand and become an accident of disastrous proportion.
This is exactly what happened today.
* * *
When some engineers were making repairs to a cargo vessel that was docked on pylon 2, a duct seal was damaged, without anyone noticing. When gas was transported though the duct it began to leak. The two engineers on duty quickly tried to repair it but when doing so they both fainted because of the odourless toxic gas that was escaping from the duct into the room. One of them fell onto the duct and it broke off due to the high load of his weight. The gasses began venting into the station with great speed. So fast that many people began to cough and faint before they knew anything was wrong. Breathing this toxin is poisonous, if inhaled in big quantities even lethal.
“Oh, my god. Stephen, what’s wrong? Wake up, Stephen!”
“I feel queasy too, Patrick. What is going on?”
“I don’t know, help me get Stephen to the infirmary.”
“Okay.”
“Keep up, Jim.”
“I’m sorry, Patrick, I’m—“
“Jim. Come on, Jim. Just one more corridor, we’re nearly there.”
“Patrick, leave them. It is no use, they are already unconscious. Get in here!”
“Help me doctor. Help me carry them, please.”
“Patrick, hurry; it is gas, I have to seal the door quick. Patrick!”
Only a few people manage to get to the infirmary where the doctor quickly takes measures to help them.
When communications officer Jadzia Dax realises what is going on she quickly sends a distress call before fainting too. But she wasn’t able to raise station wide alarm to evacuate or seal any doors to shield off some sections from the toxic fumes, so the entire station flooded with gas and everyone on board was overcome and were rendered unconscious.
With chief of security Odo, who is always over-alert, off to Bajor the danger was realised too late.
Usually this sort of mishap isn’t supposed to cause such a huge impact on the entire station but today lots of little mistakes coincided and what began as a small problem grew to a station wide emergency in a matter of minutes.
Some doors were locked and ventilation ducts sealed but not nearly enough. After a short period of about fifteen minutes the gas had already spread through the whole station and saturated the air. All inhabitants struggled to breathe and soon after dropped to the floor unconscious. Everywhere people lay sprawled on the floor, leaned on walls or hung over consoles. All was silent except for some computers which every once and a while beeped indicating they were waiting for input. No-one responded, not the slightest stir.
In Ops, the control centre of the station, a message was received that a nearby Starfleet vessel was coming to their aid in answer to the distress call. The monitor gave message it would take about one hour for help to arrive.
The message was not read, the USS Simona would be too late.
2 Quarantine
Back in the sonic shower, Ensign Casparian woke from her concussion. She still felt giddy but she got up and finished showering. The sonic shower had kept running while she was unconscious filtering most of the toxin from the air. The filtering capacity of the sonic shower meant she’d had enough oxygen to breathe, but did inhale some of the dangerous fumes which were now, unknowingly, slowly poisoning her. Of course Casparian knew nothing about this toxin because it was odourless and she had been unconscious as a result of the concussion.
She felt the bruise on her head. It was still sore but not bleeding. Even so, she wanted to have it checked by a medic before starting her shift and she had planned to stop by the infirmary this morning anyway. So she dressed in uniform, went to the turbolift and got out on the promenade deck. She had noticed it was very quiet for the time of day but when she looked down the promenade she was shocked by what she saw.
She saw fainted people scattered all over the floor, through the entire Promenade. The Ensign stooped to feel the pulse of a man close by the elevator. She became nervous; either she couldn’t find his pulse properly or he no longer had one. She hoped it would be the first.
Apparently the toxin had been filtered out of the stations air by the ventilation system for the Ensign had no more problems breathing and she didn’t smell any gas. She actually had no idea what was going on.
‘Was the station being attacked by some alien? Would they still be here? Was this some terrorist attack on the Bajorans?’ she wondered but had no way of telling. ‘What do I do now?’ she thought.
She decided to go to the infirmary which was around the corner.
* * *
At the time of the incident the Chief Medical officer, Dr. Julian Bashir, had quarantined the few people –most of them medical staff-- that had managed to get inside the infirmary. He had locked the doors to keep the gas outside but, just as the other crewmembers, they had not been quick enough either. Bashir wouldn’t close the doors while people were still coming in and when he finally did, the quarantine had no more effect.
Now, Ensign Casparian standing outside the infirmary, couldn’t come in anymore. The Doctor was inside, unconscious, and the medical officers are the only ones able to override quarantine locks.
Medical officers...and Engineering Advisors.
Ensign Romyana Casparian had gained a position on the station by request only a few months ago. She was still a second year student of the Academy but she wanted to get real life working experience in space. She was assigned to Deep Space Nine as an Engineering Advisor, a position created by Commander Sisko especially for her, because she was not able to do any real engineering duties yet.
Her duty now was to observe all the engineering works, do calculations and give ‘advice’. Also she was asked by Chief O’Brien himself to write the weekly duty reports. His excuse was that she observed the engineers anyway and would be no extra trouble to write what they did. But actually the Chief hated to do these things himself. Sisko didn’t complain because now he would finally get a weekly engineering report something O’Brien usually forgot do.
Because of this extra job she knew about some of the access codes ordinarily not known to ensigns.
Frantically she mani
pulated the console next to the door and succeeded in overriding the quarantine lock. She hoped she could wake the people inside to tell her what had been going on. She quickly felt all the pulses and shook them to wake them up but none responded. Last, anxiously she kneeled down near the doctor and felt his pulse.
Tears began running down her cheeks silently as she waited for a heartbeat, however faint. Then she broke out in tears, lifted Julians head and wiped off some blood from the cut in his brow.
She had felt his pulse and knew he was still alive. She was relieved to know there was still some hope. At least she was not alone anymore.
“I’m sorry, Julian. I cannot help you, I am no doctor.” she said softly. “But I can send a distress call from Ops and get help.” She stood up and left the infirmary.
When entering the command centre of the station called ‘Ops’, the Ensign heard the message sent by the Simona repeating itself over and over. By now Romyana was regularly coughing and she began to feel very warm and dizzy.
Carefully she removed Jadzia, who had dropped over her console after sending the distress call, and the Ensign hailed the USS Simona herself. She briefed the Captain on the situation on the station, as best as she could. The Captain in his turn told her know they had found traces of a toxic gas, which he suspected to be the cause of the incident.
The doctor from the USS Simona, a hospital ship very capable of coping with many patients at a time, let the Ensign know she was most likely being poisoned by small amounts of the toxin and would need treatment for it as soon as possible.
“The ship will arrive in ten minutes. Go back to the infirmary and wait there for our medical staff to arrive. Oh and...Well done, Ensign.” Captain Pierce said finally.
* * *
The Ensign returned to the infirmary coughing, sweating and extremely exhausted. She sat down next to doctor Bashir and stroked his forehead with her hand. The Ensign startled –the doctor felt so very cold! Did he die while she was calling for help in Ops?