Standard Disclaimer: All characters and situations related to Star Trek are wholly owned by Paramount Pictures. All the characters from the "Magnificent Seven" TV series are property of Trilogy Entertainment, The Mirisch Group, MGM Worldwide. All characters and situations related to the 'Alien/ Aliens and Alien 3' films are wholly owned by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. The story is mine as well.
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The fire had caused considerable damage.
Automated shipboard systems, designed to operate with the minimum of human interaction, immediately rallied to repair the damage. Although the ship contained nothing like the artificial intelligence that would power the starships four hundred years in the future, it too had its own kind of electronic minder. Meticulously programmed by engineers who wanted to chance nothing, the computers were equipped to deal with hundreds of possible scenarios, all including their own set of procedures of what was to be done when the situation arose.
In this instance, the machinery to combat the problem had taken a moment longer than anticipated. The cause of the fire was mostly the reason for this delay. The engineers had accounted for every life form known to man at this stage of their tentative exploration into space. Though human kind was spread out through the stars in the early twenty first century, its method of exploration was next to worthless prior to the creation of Zefram Cochrane's warp engine. The Eugenics War had come and gone, the post Atomic Horror was just on the horizon and at this brief junction of time where no one could be trusted, the faith of human kind seemed to fall into the hands of multinationals.
At the very top of this commercial pyramid was the Weyland Yutani Corporation. The business of space exploration because a commercial venture and Weyland Yutani, or the Company as they were most often called, spearheaded the move to begin large scale mining to satisfy the requirements of an Earth teetering on the brink of all out destruction. The ship, a product of Weyland Yutani's exploration of space, was a sleeper and the travel through stars took years, sometime even decades. Exploration was limited to the search for profit and while alien species were encountered, they were invariably primitive and not all considered intelligent. It was not until after Cochrane had breached the warp barrier, did humans learn that the galaxy was not all empty and teeming with all manner of intelligence, some vast superior to their own.
The ship had been carefully monitoring its human passengers ever since they entered into hypersleep, the state of suspended animation that would allow them to return to Earth oblivious of the journey. The ship's computer recorded three human life signs, a male with regenerative protocols in place to repair an injury sustained at their last known destination, a woman in relatively good health and younger female approximately eight years old. The ship also recognized one synthetic human in a state of severe damage, stored away for return to Company labs where it would either be retooled or scraped all together. When the ship's internal sensors detected movement, the computer banks immediately sought to identify the source of this sudden animation.
It was soon faced with something a dilemma for the life form that scrambled along the hallways, appearing as if it were a hand with too many fingers and an extended tail, was nothing it had identified as a life form. Even if it could place the strange creature, the ship was not equipped to do anything about it other than note the observation. The stowaway continued along its path, single minded in its purpose, towards the humans presently asleep in the hypersleep chambers. The ship was powerless to act until the alien's attempt to breach the glass capsules instigated the system safeguards. The break in the glass was immediately attended to by a force field, which would seal off the fissure until such time as repairs could be conducted. The creature who did not give up its attempt to penetrate the module was skewered by the surge of energy.
It should have been the end of the matter but it was not.
The creature's acidic blood immediately ate through the bulkhead, causing an electrical fire that threatened to consume the entire hypersleep chamber. The ship, still reeling from its disastrous encounter with the intruder, immediately turned its attention to the safety of the humans on board. The sleeper modules and their occupants both human and synthetic were quickly transported into an Emergency Evacuation Vehicle. In less than ten minutes after the breach, the humans were ejected into space, the EEV being programmed to take them to the nearest world that could sustain their type of life. Once its charges were safely away, the ship turned it attention to the fire. While the fire itself had been beyond its capability to prevent, the ship took efficient action to contain it and the code red was soon terminated with all systems reading nominal in a matter of hours.
As there were no more humans on board to be revived or to manually direct its program and purpose, the computer immediately referred to the guidelines left by Weyland Yutani engineers and proceeded to follow the path the EEV had taken. It soon tracked the small vehicle to a world on the edge of explored space. The computer identified the planet and discovered that it was indeed inhabited although it considered the situation critical since the facility was labeled a prison colony. Of course, the machinery had no personal feelings or independent thought, merely programming that considered a penal colony to be a high-risk environment. Automatic navigation systems engaged and a course was laid out for Fiorina "Fury" 361.
The trip in real time without the benefit of warp took approximately one year. By the time the ship arrived at the planet and began transmitting its presence to the EEV, there was nothing left of the installation which any human would have been able to realize had they been on board, was abandoned. The ship could not make such distinction and thus, reverting to its programming instructions once more, it transmitted its signal to Earth to await further instructions.
The instructions never came.
The ship called Sulaco and the computer intelligence that had guided it this far could not know that on Earth a social upheaval was taking place. Fascist organizations lead by Colonel Green and the like had seized control and was going to war with each other. Synthetics became outlawed and eventually every iota of engineering text about them was summarily destroyed. Artificial intelligence was suddenly considered illegal and had to be destroyed. The fascist were thorough in this respect and four hundred years later, Dr Noonien Soong, the foremost mind in robotics would create a synthetic that though impressive, would still look primitive compared to the artificial persons of the 21st century. Eventually the factions quarreled and the launch of nuclear weapons ensured a Dark Age for the next twenty years until Zefram Cochrane broke the warp barrier and changed the course of human history for something a little more optimistic.
Of course, the Sulaco knew none of this. It remained in orbit around Fiorina, waiting for someone to find her.
It waited for a very long time.
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Buck Wilmington was not a happy man.
He had good reason for his unhappiness, which was in itself a rarity. As the First Officer of the USS Maverick, he was inclined to display a brave face at all times for during a crisis, the crew and the civilians needed to look to him or the Captain and be assured that when all things were done, they would be safe. These days, that task was left to him alone for all was not right on his ship and no matter what he did, he could not alter that fact. Buck moved through the days, stamping out brush fires left by the Captain and his stormy moods. Suddenly, the volume of transfer requests was rising beyond normal frequency. Being posted to the Maverick was not exactly being on board the flagship of the fleet but it was an assignment on the cutting edge of space exploration and those who were here, wanted to be.
Until now.
The Senior Staff knew what the problem was of course, even if there was little they could do about it. For weeks now, they had been forced to watch the disintegration, being powerless to stop it and wishing that something could be done, which was of course impossible. Chris Larabee was not the kind of person who accepted help easily. Buck, better than all the others knew this, having experienced that rejection so many times before. Those who attempted to approach him on the matter soon learnt better than to try and the malaise that came from his disconnection from those around him, soon rippled throughout the ship and cast a pall on the atmosphere of the Maverick's day to day life.
Buck supposed it was hardest on Mary. She loved him even though Buck was certain that it had never been openly spoken and if Chris continued behaving the way he did, it might never either. Buck could see the dilemma she faced, trapped between her duty, bound to observing the articles of conduct between officers while at the same time, trying to reach Chris because she loved him. Unfortunately, Chris' attitude had been to shut her out and though it hurt her deeply, Mary showed no signs of it. In the meantime, the Captain when he did emerge from his Ready Room, was sporting the worst temperament that Buck had ever seen from the man.
That damn Q!
Buck swore under his breath for the hundredth time as he sat at the counter of the bar in Four Corners, lamenting the state of things on board his ship. He sipped his synthehol quietly and alone and tried not to pay attention to the fact that the crew was noticing his melancholy as prolifically as they had noticed Chris' dark, brooding mood of late. If only Q had not told him the truth. Buck still was not entirely convinced that it was the truth but Chris had snagged onto the idea like a man possessed and now he was a man obsessed. During their encounter with the alien entity a month before, Q who probably thought he was doing something selfless, had revealed to Chris that the accident that claimed Sarah and Adam, was no accident. Buck was certain that Q was wrong because there had been no evidence to support that claim but Chris would hear none of it.
Buck had hoped that the facts would speak for themselves once Chris looked into the matter but for every ambiguous iota of data he encountered, Chris' belief that something evil had taken place became more and more determined. He soon locked himself away in his Ready Room when he was not required on the bridge and since they were mapping for the last month, he was not needed all that much. Yeoman Casey Wells had informed him that his reports were backing up and she had taken to writing some of them just so the captain's administrative duties to Starfleet Headquarters would not be compromised. Efforts by Josiah Sanchez to talk some sense into him had failed, Chris was not listening to anyone and in the end, nothing could be done except to withdraw and let this situation continue on it course, no matter how damaging it was to morale.
"Hey." Buck heard a gentle voice precede a shadow that fell over him through the soft glow of the ambient lighting in the premises.
He looked up and saw Inez Recillos standing before him, looking thoughtful and a little concerned. Immediately, reverting to type in front of her, he straightened up on his stool and offered her one of those patented Wilmington smiles, oozing with schoolboy mischief. "Hello there darling, come to keep me company?"
Inez flashed him a little smile, telling him with a look that he was not fooling her. When Inez had first met Buck Wilmington, she had him beg as a womanizing little boy who was just as prone to breaking hearts as well as collecting them. It did not take long for her to realise that this was not the case at all. He loved women. He adored everyone he met and genuinely strove to make them feel better about himself. With her, she sensed it was more than just that and when her fiancée had died at the end of the Dominion War, Buck had been a close friend who had tried to help her through it. She saw him in a different light then even though she was not ready to take him to heart as any more than a friend. In caring about him, she also understood his moods and at present, he was not in a very good one. It took no clairvoyance to know what ailed him, since the entire ship was aware of it by now.
"Just for a little while," the bartender remarked as she made herself a synthehol through the replica and joined him. "You look kind of distracted."
"Really?" Buck feigned ignorance. "I thought I was hiding it well."
"Is he still the same?" Inez ventured to ask.
"Yeah," Buck nodded, feeling comfortable about talking to Inez about this since she as not in the command structure of the Maverick. "I don't know what to do Inez. Nobody can reach him. He's so focussed on this idea that Sarah and Adam were murdered that he's forgotten everything else. It's almost like it just happened, like he just lost them again."
Inez paused, feeling a sliver of pain when she realised how much it hurt to think about losing people because images of Raphael would inevitably remind her that she was suffering the same form of pain that the Captain was presently enduring himself. "Maybe that's exactly what it is for him." Inez offered. "Its one thing knowing that your loved ones were taken from you in a random act of fate but to know that someone out there had decided to kill them, that changes things a lot."
"I'm not blind to the possibility Inez," Buck returned, having already thought about this from that point. "But he has a life now. There are a thousand people on this ship who rely on him. "I've covered as much as I can, hell the entire senior staff is doing the same but we can keep going on like this and frankly, I'm worried he's gonna do something he'll regret however. He is the best starship Captain I have ever served and not because he's my friend either, he just is. I don't want to see everything he's worked for in the last few years be thrown away."
"Buck," Inez met his gaze. "What if he is right? What if they were murdered? If it were your family, wouldn't you move heaven and earth to find out who was responsible?"
Buck knew she was right but he did not think he was wrong either, which was made this entire situation so untenable. In one instance, he wanted Chris to find who had killed Sarah and Adam, if it was indeed murder and on the other hand, he wanted Chris back the way he had been since coming on board the Maverick.
"I don't know what to do Inez." Buck confessed. "I want to help him but I don't know how."
Inez placed her hand on his shoulder and said with a tender expression on her lovely face. "Sometimes, there is no helping a person. Chris has to do this, he has to do this or else he'll never get past their deaths. Perhaps Q was wrong in telling him, if it is the truth but I sense that part of the reason he found it so easy to believe is because he suspects on some level that the possibility may exist."
"I can't imagine who would have wanted to hurt them." Buck stated, giving the subject more credence after hearing Inez put it that way. "She was a school teacher for god's sake. She taught first graders. How could someone make an enemy doing that?"
"What about Chris?" Inez asked.
"Well he was a Commander back then but I didn't know he had any enemies to speak of that would warrant resorting to murder." He answered taking another sip of his glass. "The only thing going on at the time was that he was one of two officers being considered for taking up second seat on the USS Reliant. It was a plum assignment. The Reliant was one of the first ships to be sent through the Bajoran wormhole, long before we discovered that the Dominion was there. After the accident, he pulled himself out of the running and that was that."
Inez nodded in understanding. When the Bajoran wormhole had been discovered, she had heard Raphael talking about it with the same excitement. The possibility of charting an entirely new region of space without having to suffer the seventy years it took to make the trip to the distant Gamma Quadrant. She wanted to tell Buck about how excited Raphael had been about taking the Venture through the wormhole when he was finally assigned there and how he had personally visited several planets in that distant part of space. However the opportunity did not come because Buck's com badge began thrilling softly.
Instinctively, the first officer tapped the small piece of gold on his uniform. "Wilmington here. What's up?"
"Commander," Alexandra Styles voice transmitted clearly though the air. "We've come across an unidentified vessel directly in our course trajectory."
"I see." Buck answered. "Have you informed the Captain?"
The pause in her answer indicated that she had not.
"Its okay," Buck frowned, understanding completely why she had not. The way Chris was these days, interrupting him was a crime equal to mutiny. "I'll do it on my way to the bridge."
With that he stood up from his stool and gazed at Inez. "Thanks for the talk Inez." He said genuinely grateful to have been able to voice his concerns and for a moment, shed the responsibility of being First Officer.
"My pleasure," she smiled, hoping that it had helped as much as he claimed, even though she did not entirely believe him despite the fact he wanted her to believe otherwise Buck started to turn away when Inez thought of something and immediately called out. "Hey Buck, who did eventually become First Officer of the Reliant?" She asked, not knowing why.
"I think her name was Gaines," Buck called back as he made his way to the bridge. "Ella Gaines."
When she walked through the door, Chris Larabee sensed immediately that his behavior these last weeks was finally going to haunt him. Mary Travis entered the room with a mercurial expression on her face, barely registering him seated behind his desk. Her blue grey eyes scanned the table top of its contents and she raised them just long enough to meet his gaze and tell him in a look that the reason for what was about to happen had a great deal to do with what she was observing there. For a moment, she did not speak. They faced each other not as Captain and Protocol Officer but as man and woman with the chasm that was miles deep being represented by the plasteel desk between them.
For a few minutes, neither spoke but each could feel the distance between them growing deeper and wider with the passing moments. She was summoning up the nerve to speak her mind, telling herself that what she had decided was for the best even if he protested and the sad part was; she did not think he would because she would be one less problem he had to cope with now. Chris stared at her and remembered how easily she had captured his heart the first time he laid eyes upon her and knew that whatever happened from this point on, the blame would rest solely upon his shoulders.
"You ask to see me." Chris spoke first, feeling as if they were strangers again.
"Yes," she nodded, seeming more like the Vulcan wife she had been when she first came on board the Maverick. "I am requesting a leave of absence."
"A leave of absence?" He dropped his eyes onto the data pads before his desk, feeling as if he had been punched in the stomach. "Why?"
"Billy's grand parents have been asking me to take him home to Vulcan for a visit," Mary answered, her voice little more than a whisper. "I have decided to that."
"How long will you be gone." He asked softly.
"Indefinitely." Her answer was abrupt and rehearsed, Chris was certain.
"I need a definitive time frame Lieutenant," he retorted, feeling a little anger that she was abandoning him. "I need to know how long you will be gone."
"A month." Mary replied tautly. "After that, I'll either resign or return."
"Resign?" This time he did look at her. "Why are you doing this?"
"I am not doing it Chris," Mary took a step back, her eyes softening to the point where another word from him could physically hurt her. "You are."
"Because I want to find out who killed my wife and son?" Chris demanded. "Are you so petty that you would deny me that?"
As soon as he said it, he knew it was a mistake. Her eyes widened long enough for him to understand what a mortal blow he had delivered to her heart. He expected tear and angry words but neither came from her as he saw her hands at her sides, knot into fists as she composed herself. Mary took a deep breath and raised her chin, in that proud defiant way that only Mary Travis knew how to do and stared directly at him, keeping that tough mask in place as she began to speak. "I am in love with you. You know that don't you?"
Deflated because he knew he had done something terrible," Chris nodded. "I know."
"That's something at least," she whispered under her breath before clearing her throat of her anguished emotions. "When you told me about what Q said. I was angry Chris, I was angry that they could be taken away from you like that. I was prepared to support you in whatever you wanted to do, no matter where it led and I even understood the pain might make wish you to keep me at a distance for a bit but not like this. You've shut me out Chris. You won't accept help and you think everyone who tries to reason with you doesn't give a damn about the truth. We all do and it kills me that you think I am being petty or jealous of a memory because I care what happens to you. I love you Chris Larabee but I will not allow you to hurt me."
"Mary....." Chris started to say but the words would not come out. He had to find the truth about Sarah and Adam and he had to find it alone. Nothing else mattered in this world except for that and God help him, if it meant that he had to sacrifice Mary then so be it. So he remained silent instead of saying what his heart was demanding he reveal to her while there was still time. Instead he opened his mouth and replied; "Leave of absence granted. You may disembark this ship when we return to Deep Space Five."
Mary nodded slowly, feeling her insides crumble because she had just offered him her heart and he had thrown it back in her face. She had hoped for something, anything that would show her that he still cared. Mary prayed that there was something left of their love for each other that could survive this present situation but as Chris delivered his verdict on their relationship and then resumed the study of his data pads, she knew otherwise.
Swallowing thickly, she turned around and quickly went for the door, causing it to slide open just as Buck Wilmington reached it. The First Officer noted how Mary refused to look at him or Chris as she walked past and suddenly the executive officer had a premonition of the worst.
"What did you do?" Buck hissed as he marched up to Chris' table, forgetting all about their professional relationship.
"She wanted a leave of absence." Chris gazed at his friend and answered without hiding anything from him. Buck would find out soon enough anyway. "I gave it to her."
Buck closed his eyes and forced his rage to settle down. "You let her go." He stated, his voice little more than a whisper.
"She didn't want to stay." Chris said gruffly. "I saw no reason to keep her here."
"No reason!" Buck finally exploded, unable to believe that Chris could be so obtuse or cruel for that matter. "She's been bleeding at the heart for the last month trying to reach you, you arrogant bastard! l she wanted to do was to help you, to be there while you tried to find out the truth and you've treated her like she was nothing!"
"Commander," Chris warned, taking exception to the tone Buck was using and not caring that they had years of friendship between them. He was Captain of this ship and he had made his decision, Buck had no right to interfere. "Keep out of it."
"Keep out of it or what?" Buck roared. His rage had made him forget that Chris was his captain. "Will you kick me off this ship too?" He challenged. Be my fucking guest!"
Buck swung around and stormed towards the door, pausing long enough to add. "By the way, you're needed on the bridge. That is if you still give a damn."
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Ezra had only to see the storm cloud following Buck Wilmington when the First Officer stepped onto the bridge from the Captain's Ready Room to know that Buck's meeting with Chris had not been well received. The security chief was well aware of the worsening relations that Chris Larabee seemed to be fostering with the rest of his crew these days and had so far managed to stay out of the firing line because he refused to give any opinions on the matter. There was enough gossip murmuring through the ship without Ezra's voice being added to the mix. In the commander's opinion it was unseemly to discuss the captain's failings even though everyone seemed to be privy to Chris Larabee's mood these days.
Buck on the other hand had been valiantly defending his captain and friend to those who were unafraid of pointing out what the senior staff had been attempting to conceal, that the captain was disinterested in his duties, rarely venturing beyond his quarters or Ready Room unless absolutely necessary. Even Vin Tanner's efforts to coax him to the holodeck was met with refusal although the helmsman was smart enough to leave well alone, unlike everyone else excepting Ezra of course who agreed wholeheartedly with Vin's assessment. Still Ezra had to force himself not to feel angry when he saw Mary Travis similarly shunned. Of course, he knew what was at the bottom of it but his offer to assist the captain in his investigation had been refused which was a pity Ezra thought because if anyone could find some discrepancy in the records regarding Sarah and Adam Larabee's death, it would be himself.
Buck strode across the bridge and made a beeline for his seat next to the command chair. He was visibly smoldering and both Ezra and Alexandra Styles exchanged knowing glances, acknowledging the cause of this mood must have been his unsuccessful attempt to garner the captain's interest in the new situation the Maverick was presently facing. Buck's dark mood immediately dropped a veil of tension over the room and everyone seemed uneasy by what was progressing through the two senior officers. JD kept glancing at Buck, obviously worried but not knowing what to say to the man or being unable to decide whether or not it was his place to do so.
Mary's absence spoke volumes.
"This can't go on." Alex whispered under her breath loudly enough for only Ezra to hear.
"I know." Ezra frowned. "The situation is not improving. If anything, it is becoming progressively worse."
Alex who was in third in the chain of command seemed to agree but there was little she could do and in truth was unwilling to at this time. He did not envy her position. Ezra knew that as untenable as things may appear on the Maverick at the moment, the science officer and lieutenant commander was loyal to both her captain and her first officer but Ezra had to wonder just how long it would take before duty won out over friendship. Ezra worried just as Alex, that both senior officers were focussed so completely on personal issues at the moment that it was to the detriment of the Maverick's functioning. As much as Alex may hope that Chris might snap out of this malaise that seemed to be infecting the rest of the ship, there was going to come a point where she would have address Buck about seriously solving the problem if that did not eventuate.
"Report." Buck asked tautly after a moment of rumination where he calmed down following his scene with Chris. It appeared his disposition was almost a black as Chris' had been lately.
"We've picked up a signal from an unidentified ship." Alex announced, getting to business immediately because Buck did not look like he had much patience for small talk. Unfortunately, it did not look likely to improve when the Ready Room doors slid open and Chris Larabee stepped onto the floor of the bridge. It was the first time in all day that anyone had seen the captain on the bridge but no one dared to make comment on it.
Buck faced front with his eyes fixed on the viewer before him, suddenly becoming interested in the collection of stars on the screen. He left Alex to do the explanations, forcing himself to get his temper under control as Chris approached the captain's command chair.
"I thought we had detected a ship." Chris asked quietly as he settled into his chair.
"It was my mistake," Alex quickly responded. "I meant to tell Buck that we detected a signal from an unidentified ship. It was transmitted by carrier wave signal."
"Carrier wave." Chris turned to her sharply; stirrings of interest other in something other than in his investigation into Sarah and Adam's deaths, churned inside him for the first time in weeks. He was always partial to mysteries and this one had rightly inspired some measure of curiosity that detracted from his other concerns. "You mean radio."
"Not exactly Sir," Alex spoke up, encouraged by Chris' inquiry. He had been almost monosyllabic about anything concerning the ship of late and this animated response took her a little by surprise. Alex immediately composed her thoughts to deliver a coherent response. "It's a highly refined carrier wave signal with a focussed data stream. It is still considered radio by our standards but for its type, it's extremely sophisticated."
"I thought carrier wave signals went out in the late 21st century with the advent of subspace." Vin remarked from his helm station, glad to see that Chris was taking an active interest in what was happening. In fact, this was the most involved he had been with anything related to Maverick since Q's 'gift' to him.
"It was." Buck responded, uncertain whether or not his outburst had anything to do with Chris' behavior now but chose not to question it too closely. At present, Buck was happy to take what allowances he could. Very quickly, Buck reminded himself that until Chris was back to normal; he still had a responsibility to the Maverick even if he was madder than hell at the moment. Buck was a Starfleet officer who should know by now how to shelve his personal feelings when his ship needed him. "But that's not to say that this signal is Terran in origin. It could be another race using the same form of communication."
JD and Alex exchanged quick glances across the floor of the bridge that Chris caught immediately. "What?" He asked, wondering what that was about.
"It's definitely Terran in origin," Alex responded, remembering what she and JD had discussed prior to the arrival of both senior officers. "However, judging by the trajectory of the message, it was being sent to Earth not from it."
This captured both Buck and Chris' attention even more than the notion of a carrier wave signal floating so far out from civilized space. It was Buck who spoke first. "How can that be? We never came out this far."
"That's not entirely true," Chris quickly interjected. "During the period between the Eugenics War and the rise of the Optimum Movement, Earth was more or less in the purview of the conglomerates."
"Conglomerates?" JD asked, knowing the dictionary term but not the actual historical reference, much to his embarrassment.
However if Chris noticed his discomfiture or his lack of knowledge, the captain did not say and continued with his explanation. "Commercial organisations that financed large scale space exploration for profit of course."
"I do recall reading some of this," Ezra remarked from his security station. "In the height of their day, the multinational corporations became so powerful that they were almost like governments in themselves. Unfortunately as is the case of any person or organization that amasses too much power, it became susceptible to corruption and is largely responsible for the rise of the Optimum Movement and the Third World War."
The Optimum Movement, not unlike the Third Reich of Hitler's Germany had risen to power on the strength of a population who was thoroughly sick of genetically engineered supermen seizing power and large corporations that held the almighty dollar in more reverence than human lives. Led by the infamous Colonel Green, the fascist movement spread across the planet and eventually led to the Third World War that would bring Earth to its knees. Only through the united efforts of independent colonies scattered throughout the solar system and Alpha Centauri had Earth managed to survive this conflagration to evolve in the future they now enjoyed.
"So you're saying that these multinationals sent out ships this far?" Vin asked, still rather dubious about space travel to this remote part of space especially without warp technology. The journey had to take years at least.
"Yes, there were mining colonies scattered throughout a large area of the galaxy during the 21st century," Alex explained. "But when the multinationals began to collapse, cost cutting meant dismantling many of these outposts and with a war looming, no one wanted to be stranded in the wilderness when what ships available at the time would be engaged in fighting. Its possible that the signal we've received may have come from a ship of that era."
"What else do you know about the signal?" Chris asked Alex, finding himself more than a little intrigued by what they had stumbled across.
"Well JD is running it through decryption now," Alex replied automatically. "We'll have the content of the message transcribed and then we can make a determination on whether or not we should pursue it."
"Do we know where it came from?" Buck looked at her, just as encouraged by Chris' interest as she was and hoped that there was more to this mysterious signal than met the eye. His rage had started to bleed away and despite himself, he felt a little hopeful that his words might have had some effect on Chris after all.
"I calculate it at about five light years from here." Alex answered. "However, there are no records of any ship or outpost being in this vicinity."
"That doesn't say much," Chris mused, wrapping his mind completely around the puzzle and finding it oddly liberating. "After World War Three, there was not much in the way of accurate records. If there was an outpost this far out, we would have never have known."
"That's true." Alex answered.
"Alright," Chris eased back into his chair and allowing himself to be comforted by it welcome embrace. He felt a twinge of guilt at staying away so long and wondered if perhaps Buck was right, perhaps he was being unreasonable. An argument for another time, Chris decided. For the moment, he wished to concentrate on this. "Set a course for the source of the signal."
"Captain is that wise?" Ezra immediately interjected. "We do not know what the signal was intending to convey. It may be a warning or perhaps even a decoy."
"Its a four hundred year old signal Ezra," Buck spoke up quickly, not wanting to break Chris' momentum now that it was in driven by something other than his personal hunt for Sarah and Adam's killer. "I seriously doubt we're in any danger."
"Buck's right," Chris said tonelessly. "It's a minimum risk venture. Besides, I assume JD will be deciphering that signal soon enough?" He glanced in the direction of the young ensign.
However, JD was more than prepared for the inquiry this time. "Actually Captain, its ready." The young man beamed proudly.
"Good," Chris threw him a little smile. "Let's hear it."
"Aye Sir," JD said enthusiastically as his fingers flew over the console pad before him, instructing the ship's computer to carry out the captain's order.
As they were waiting for the message to play out, Chris leaned towards Buck and whispered loud enough for the First Officer to hear but no one else. "Buck, I'm sorry for how I've been but you have to understand, I do have to do this myself. I know it's not much of an excuse for my behaviour but it's the truth. I have to walk the path alone."
Buck swallowed, trying not to let Chris know how the apology was affecting him. Chris rarely made such gestures regarding his behavior and even though Chris was not ready to let go of his obsession, he was at least willing to concede that he was behaving irrationally. Where they went from there was anyone's guess but at least it was better than nothing. "I don't understand Chris but I won't press the issue. I just want you to remember we're here for you." Buck returned, not about to throw away the conciliatory effort his captain was making towards him and chose not to bring up the issue of Mary Travis at this time. "All you have to do is ask."
"Thanks," Chris threw him a faded smile. "I'll remember that."
"Here is it is Captain," JD announced, snapping them both to the task at hand rather abruptly as they sat up straight in their seats and were greeted by a loud burst of electricity, followed by a rather docile female voice. Her tone was not unlike the voice of the Maverick's own computer with its erudite and polite speech.
"This is the US Space Command Colonial Marine Corp vessel Sulaco to Central Command at Gateway Station, Earth." The sound echoed through the bridge of the Maverick, capturing the attention of all those present. It was like listening to a voice from the past, which in truth was precisely that, a verbal record from a more barbaric age in their history.
"Reporting present ship status as per Emergency Protocol 225.1 of 21st October 2070. Crew has been ejected from cryogenic chamber due to an electrical fire of undetermined cause. Crew roster consists of Corporal D Hicks, United States Colonial Marine, civilian, Ellen Ripley - Special Consultant to the Acheron mission on planet designated LV427, PDT scanned identified female juvenile - Rebecca Jorden and one synthetic - Bishop Model Hyperdyne Systems. Emergency Protocol 125.22 initiated with the danger to cryogenic chamber detected, all capsules were transported to Emergency Evacuation Vessel and ejected into space for travel to nearest planet exhibiting Earth type atmosphere. Auto navigation has tracked EEV homing beacon to planet Fiorina "Fury" 361, Class C Prison Unit 1237154. At present, no confirmation signal has been received from this location regarding status of ejected personnel. Initiating Emergency Protocol 1 - maintain position over planet until further instructions are received."
With that the message from the past halted abruptly, emitting another burst of static signalling the end of the ancient recording. "That's all there is Sir," JD volunteered. "It repeats every 5.2 seconds and I imagine that it has been doing so ever since the original transmission was sent some four hundred years ago."
"And no one ever answered." Vin sighed, revisited by those memories of his child when he and his family had been marooned on that distant world far from civilised space, sending messages of help that would never be answered until it was too late. In the case of the Sulaco, it was worse than late, it was never.
"Well according to the date, the message was sent in the year 2070, which was a year before the start of the Third World War." Alex explained automatically, accustomed to providing information on such things. "Since this is a carrier wave signal, by the time it reached Earth, the war would have well and truly happened. It was just a freak set of circumstances."
"Fiorina 361," Chris mused a moment before asking out loud to no one in particular, requiring only an answer. "Do we have any information about it on record?"
Despite his desire to return to his personal quest at the moment, Chris could not deny that he was tantalised by the thought of unravelling this riddle from the past. In a space of a century, Earth had seen the rise and fall of genetically perfect humans led by Khan Noonien Singh and then succumbing to the might of multinational companies like the Weyland Yutani Corporation before self destructing completely with the advent of the third world war. It was hard to imagine that out of this carnage would come a new age, an age of peace and exploration, heralded by the launch of a small ship built in a nuclear silo in Colorado. It was perhaps one of the most turbulent centuries in human history with billions dying with each new crisis. Like the rest of his contemporaries, Chris found the idea of such global disintegration unacceptable but could not help be intrigued by the mechanics of the day that had allowed it to happen.
Besides, a vessel of the Colonial Marines intact would be a prize to Federation historians. Chris in particular was curious to see the thing since he recalled that one of his ancestors from the period had served with the organisation. A great, great, cousin or something, he was not entirely sure which but was certain that amongst his father's paper in storage, there was probably a family tree somewhere which explained the association more clearly.
"There is nothing very detailed," Ezra answered a moment later after consulting the main computer. "Records dating back to that period are fragmentary so much has been lost. Fiorina 361 was a penal colony established for double Y chromosome offenders as well as a mining facility. Almost all the prisoners were serving life sentences but according to this, the mine was purchased by the Weyland Yutani Corporation and the prisoners apparently offered to remain at the facility to continue the work, rather than return to the core worlds for reassignment." Ezra paused a moment as he noted an addendum to that report and brought it up on his console before speaking again. "I have some further information but the data records transcribed from the source document was damaged so this is somewhat vague."
"This whole thing is vague." Vin remarked.
"Go on," Chris glanced in Ezra's direction for the security officer to continue.
"Well according to this, the mine was closed by the Weyland Yutani Corporation in the year 2070, possibly before the Sulaco arrived there. It goes on to say that there was some kind of situation that resolved itself after which the Company simply felt that it was no longer feasible to maintain operations and closed the facility with all personnel returned to the core worlds. All personnel being one prisoner."
Chris swung around in his command chair and stared at Ezra. "One prisoner? They closed down the facility and had to only transport one prisoner?"
"That is what it says." Ezra retorted just as perplexed.
"How many were there to begin with?" Buck asked.
"More than one I'm sure," Alex declared.
"I cannot say," Ezra confessed after a few seconds of unsuccessful wrestling with the computer to produce the information. "There was too much sector damage in the source document to yield that information."
"Curiouser and curiouser." Chris replied thoughtfully. After a moment he rose to his feet and announced. "Take us to Warp 8 Vin." He ordered. "We might as well see where this trail of bread crumbs leads."
"Aye Sir," Vin said more than happy to oblige because Chris was starting to sound remotely normal in comparison to what he had been these past few weeks and the helmsman was bored to tears with the tedium of star mapping. The possibility of unravelling a little mystery was a morale booster as far as he was concerned and perhaps, it might just distract Chris long enough for the man to forget his troubles. Unlike the rest of the crew, Vin was not inclined to force his help upon Chris Larabee in regards to his personal troubles. Vin was perceptive enough to know that those who offered it were more than likely to have their head bitten off. If there was one thing Vin Tanner knew about Chris Larabee, the man was fiercely private even to the point of obstinacy.
While the main body of the Maverick's crew was unaware of what had been occupying their captain's thoughts of late, the senior staff knew otherwise. Vin could not blame Chris for being so determined to learn the truth about his wife and son's death. If it were Vin, he did not think he would have behaved any differently. Although the rest of the senior staff was determined to help Chris through this difficult period, Vin was firmly of the belief that any gesture made in that regard would not be accepted as anything but interference. It was not to say that Vin had sat by and done nothing in the meantime, he tried to give Chris a break from his quest by urging him to the holodeck and provided an ear to listen whenever the captain felt deign to talk about the subject, which was not often.
The only thing that Vin did find objectionable was his behaviour towards Mary Travis but unfortunately, it was a subject almost as capable of provoking a volatile response as advising Chris that his desire to learn the truth about his family was bordering on obsession, if it had not passed that point already. However, at present, Vin hoped that their present situation with this mysterious message from the past was enough to offer the captain some respite from his private troubles.
Besides, who could say no to a riddle?
"I take it things did not go well with Chris." Josiah Sanchez asked of Mary Travis when he sighed her in Four Corners at the same time the Maverick was altering course on a heading towards Fiorina "Fury" 361.
"It did not." Mary said stiffly, not wishing to talk to the Counsellor about this but finding no way of leaving the table without seeming rude. It was not that she was averse to seeking his advice; it's just that there seemed no solution to her current predicament. She had thrown down a gauntlet before Chris thinking that he would see reason. Mary had hoped that if he saw that she was serious enough to leave, then he might be prepared to discuss the matter but instead, he had done what she had prayed he would not do; he had called her bluff and she had no choice but to go or lose his respect entirely.
"What happened?" The Counsellor said taking a seat at her table even though he had not been invited. However, she was clearly distressed and Josiah could tell that she was barely managing to keep the tears from coming. He could not fathom why she was here and not in the privacy of her quarters were such disappointments were best endured.
"I told him I was leaving." Mary said softly, feeling another lump form in her throat and quickly picked up her glass of synthehol to take a large sip in order to force it away.
Bad idea. Josiah thought automatically even the words left her lips. Chris was not someone who received such ultimatums well and he could just imagine how the captain had responded. Still Mary had a valid reason for what she had done and Josiah only wished it could have gone better for her. Unfortunately, no was able to reach Chris in the place he had driven himself. Josiah knew that if Captain continued with this behaviour there would come a point where as ship's Counsellor he would be forced to act. To say Chris had been less than cooperative so far would be an understatement. The idea of his wife and child being murdered had become Chris Larabee's Holy Grail and Josiah feared that he might abandon everything else in his life, including Mary Travis to pursue it.
"He granted me the leave of absence." She replied bitterly, her eyes welling up with tears but Mary managed to hold it in.
"I'm sorry Mary." Josiah started to say. Counsellor or not, there were no words to ease the pain and he was not going to reach into his bag of professional tricks to make the attempt. She was more than just a crewmate, she was his friend.
"I've no one to blame except myself," she sat up in her chair and raised her chin in an effort to be brave about this. "I pushed and he reacted."
"That is true," Josiah conceded that point. "But you ought to remember that you were driven to this course of action because of his behaviour as well. You are not alone in being at fault, if I'd call it that at all."
"I try telling myself that but I think of what he must be going through despite the fact that he's shut me out and I can't entirely blame him. If I found out that Syan was taken from me by murder, I can't say that I would be as reasonable. I would probably do the exact thing he is doing. Unfortunately, its empathy that has come too late."
"Mary," Josiah frowned, not at all believing that what was done was as irrevocable as that. Chris did love Mary, there was no doubt in Josiah's mind about that at this time but the captain was a place where the present had very little impact on him, not until this haze he was currently experiencing relinquished its hold upon him. Only then would he take stock of what he had been doing and most likely regret it. "I don't think Chris will think of you any less if you chose not to go."
"I would think less of me," Mary said firmly. "Call it pride but I can't go back on my decision to leave, even for a month." She paused a moment and resumed speaking, her voice a little less steadier than it had been when she made that defiant statement. "The only problem is that I just can't bring myself to go to my quarters because I'll just keep thinking I have to pack."
Josiah felt the same pang of sorrow as she said those words and wondered what it would take for both of them to lower their pride. Whatever it was, he hoped they discovered it before it was too late for either of them.
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Although the source of the transmission was not far away, owing to the limitations of carrier wave communication, it was still a good hour before the Maverick would arrive at the present location of the vessel called Sulaco. Chris retired to his Ready Room once more, more than aware at the disappointment being displayed by his senior bridge officers who had for an instant, thought he had forgotten the quest which had fractured their close knit group. Chris was not blind to what was going on. He was not so arrogant that he could not see that he was pushing the boundaries of acceptable behaviour in a Captain.
That still did not mean he would stop.
The question of whether or not Sarah and Adam had met their demise naturally was something that plagued him constantly since he had learned otherwise. He wanted to believe what the others were telling him; that Q was playing tricks with him and even now, enjoying his torment and anguish with glee. However, Chris knew it was not a trick. When the entity had imparted the knowledge to him, Q had believed it to be an act of kindness, not scorn. Chris too felt it in his bones, the more he read the reports over and over again, that someone was responsible for taking his family away from him. The very idea that that someone was still out there at large, with no sign of retribution for their horrific act in the coming made Chris sick to his stomach and he refused to accept that as something that could be allowed to continue.
No, whatever the cost, he would pay it to learn the truth. If it meant sacrificing everything, then it was a price that Chris would gladly pay because the taste of revenge was in his mouth, he craved for it and dreamed about it at night and until he had someone upon whom to focus that fury, he would go on. He would be relentless. Until he resolved this need, he could not continue as he had. His waking moments were spent wondering why? Why would anyone wish to hurt them? The only conclusion he had come to was that it must have had something to do with him because Sarah had never harmed anyone in her life. Chris on the other hand was a Starfleet officer and though it was unlikely, he knew it was possible for him to make enemies. When was one a ship that often faced perils on a regular basis, the instinct for survival created attrition and who knows, he might have come away from a mission earning someone's enmity.
Perhaps that was what drove him so, knowing that they had died because of something he had done.
The door to his Ready Room trilled softly, snapping him out of his tortured thoughts and reminding him that there were still people who were deeply concerned about him, even if he did not want to face them. To face them would be to acknowledge his behavior and if he started to waver in his single-minded purpose to find out the truth, then it was all over. Chris sighed and took a deep breath, wondering if he wanted to see anyone right now and supposed he could not hide in here forever.
"Come in." He called out reluctantly.
The door slid open and Chris cringed inwardly when he saw Josiah walking into the room. Next to Buck, the Counsellor was the only person on board who would not take no for an answer and in truth; Josiah had the authority behind him to force Chris to talk if he felt it was necessary. The mental health of a Captain gave Josiah some rather extraordinary powers over him as far as Starfleet was concerned. The Counsellor's eyes narrowed as he approached the desk and thought it was subtle, Chris could tell that he was examining everything in the room closely, including his captain.
"Chris." He said simply and sat down.
He was not happy, Chris thought silently. Whenever Josiah was reduced to single word sentences, it usually meant that the Counsellor was not impressed and Chris supposed with his behaviour lately, it was probably not unjustified.
"Mary is leaving." Josiah sat upon sitting down in front of his desk.
So that was it. Mary was a subject Chris was not prepared to discuss under any circumstances but admitted begrudgingly that Josiah would not go away even if Chris ordered him too. Still, he did not wish to resort to that if he could help it because he had behaved badly towards Mary and Chris knew how close Josiah and the protocol officer were. It did not surprise Chris that Josiah would be here to champion Mary's cause, for all the good it would do. "I know." He said coolly, rubbing the day's growth of stubble on his chin as he eased back into his chair. "She asked for a leave of absence."
"Only because you forced her to it." Josiah pointed out.
"This is none of your business Josiah." Chris warned.
"Your state of mind is my business Chris," Josiah returned promptly. The Counsellor had told himself all the way up here that he should not push too hard. Unfortunately upon entering the room and seeing Chris unshaven, with circles under his eyes indicating that he had not had much in the way of sleep, his desk covered with a data pads containing a litany of information regarding the accident, Josiah knew he was not going to keep that promise. "Captain, your behaviour is affecting ship's morale. The crew hasn't seen you in weeks and when they do see you, you're hardly in a state that could be considered amicable. I think this situation is past the point where it can be allowed to continue. We need to talk about it."
"No we don't," Chris replied, starting to get angry. "The crew is just fine. That's why I have a senior staff, so they can take care of things. If the crew has difficulties with morale than it is your job to deal with it. Leave the ship to me."
"Chris, let us help you." Josiah responded, almost pleading. "It's killing your friends to see you this way. Don't you know that? Why do you think Mary is going? It was a desperate act to get your attention, to show that she was willing to risk losing you to reach you." Josiah wished he did not have to plead Mary's case in this way but he refused to let pride from either of them destroy what they had together. It was too good to be discarded so carelessly.
"I know that." Chris sighed, conceding that point. In truth, he knew that he was guilty of a great deal and his friends were reacting in inverse proportion to his behaviour. "But I think its best that she go."
Josiah stared at Chris in shock, unable to believe he had actually said that. "She is the best thing that's happened to you in recent years, you know that don't you?"
"I do," Chris nodded somberly. "But if she stays, she's going to get hurt and I don't want to hurt her."
"You've already done that Chris," the Counsellor retorted. "Don't you understand? You've already hurt her."
"I don't want her to hate me as well." He whispered softly, finally revealing what he feared the most, even more than losing Mary. He felt like man driving towards a cliff, seeing the edge coming straight for him and though he had the power to veer away from the disaster and the dying that followed, he was mesmerised by the journey, even though he knew he would pay dearly for it. Chris felt that way with Mary and his quest and knew what was coming even if he did not wish it so. Everyone assumed that he had a choice in the matter, when in truth he was as much the victim in this as Sarah and Adam had been. He just did not have the misfortune of dying with them.
"Then pull back," Josiah implored empathically. "Pull back or the very least, let us help you. We're watching you spiral away from us towards self destruction and we can't help you because you won't accept it."
"I have to do this alone." Chris repeated himself, feeling like a man grasping at straws only to find that they were made out of smoke. He had no reason to shut the others out but this had affected him on such a deeply personal level that Chris did not think there was anyone on board who could possibly understand or comprehend for that matter, what he was going through.
"Why?" Josiah demanded, refusing to let it go even thought it was wiser if he did. "Why can't you let us help you?"
"Because I have to!" He snapped. "For all those years, I never thought that there could be another possibility!" Chris glared at Josiah wondering whether or not the man could ever know what it felt like to be so blind. "I should have known Josiah! I should have suspected something! All this time, I let their murderer go unavenged! I never even suspected that there could have been a murderer! What kind of fool lets that happen?"
"You're human Chris!" Josiah exclaimed with anguished exasperation, unable to fathom how Chris could blame himself for something like this. "You were grieving for a wife and a son! You could not have been expected to notice every detail to suspect that there might have been some form of foul play! You have no reason to be guilty!"
"But I am!" Chris returned. "That's the truth of it! That's the thing that keeps me awake at night that if I could miss that, what else may I let slip by me in the future? I'm a starship captain for Christ sakes! I can't be that lapsed!"
"You have never been lapsed." The Counsellor responded, finally understanding the real extent of the problem. "You have been commander of this ship for quite some time now and you know yourself and your competence by the fact that everyone on this ship is willing to die for you if asked!"
"Until it happens again!" Chris pointed out, not prepared to be deterred so easily. He had to find out the truth himself, he had to sift through the vague clues and the possibilities to find out the truth or he would never be able to be completely sure about himself again.
Unless he could do that, Chris Larabee could never be sure of anything.
Josiah was about to offer Chris' argument a strong rebuttal when suddenly Buck Wilmington's voice unknowingly interrupted their heated debate.
"Captain," the first officer's voice spoke through the com unit. "We're approaching Fury 361. We are coming into visual range of the planet."
Chris tapped his com badge, relieved that Buck had provided him a graceful way of exiting this discussion before things escalated or in this deteriorated much further. It was not lost upon him that he seemed to be bringing out the worse in everyone lately. "Maintain approach," Chris said abruptly, not looking at Josiah as he spoke. "I'm on my way."
"Aye Sir," Buck response preceded the end of their communication.
Chris glanced at Josiah who was appeared no means ready to let the matter go but had no choice but to do so in light of the developing situation with the Sulaco.
"We'll talk later." Chris replied, feeling a little guilty at the way things stood between them.
Josiah nodded and stated firmly. "Count on it."
When Chris stepped onto the bridge, the first thing that caught his eyes was the view screen.
Amidst the stars in the black canvas of space was the planet Fiorina 'Fury' 361. As worlds went, it was hardly impressive with a watered down color of sulfur yellow that appeared duller when it ought to have been vibrant. There was nothing redeeming about it and Chris could not help think that it was a most appropriate place to forget about a group of prisoners. Fiorina seemed to radiate its colorless glow into the surrounding space, quashing vibrant indigo blues into lusterless amber. However, as if placed to redeem the planet's less than spectacular first impression on visitors, the Sulaco suddenly sailed into view.
She was a huge ship. Even by the standards of the 24th century, her size was impressive. Devoid of the sleek lines and artistic design of her contemporaries, it was impossible not to look at the Sulaco and think that she was built for anything but combat. Thick titanium strength plates covered the hull. The metal gleaming under the light of the near by sun from which Fiorina drew its life. Appearing like an extended piece of metal with a jagged mouth, there was only darkness emanating from their few portals that had been constructed in the ship's design. This was not a ship built with aesthetics in mind, she was made to last. In her day, she was expected to carry sleepers to the furthest reaches of space, sleepers would were trained to do a job, not like the members of the Maverick, sleepers who when awoke would not be overly concerned about comfort or luxury.
It was fully intact. Four hundred years had done nothing to injure the vessel. In space, degradation was difficult when there was almost no atmosphere to allow it. The Sulaco may be been silent and dark but she appeared just as vital as she had been the last time she had left Earth for parts unknown. Large fusion generators no doubt kicked in periodically to allow the vessel to maintain its orbit. The computers on board had been left to run in a continuous loop and that meant that it was still waiting for its instructions to come from High Command at the non-existent Gateway Station on Earth.
"She's a museum piece." Chris heard Chief Engineer Julia Pemberton comment softly. No doubt, she had been asked to the bridge in order to give her expert evaluation from this visual sighting of the ship. Whatever the reason, the Sulaco definitely met with her approval for Chris could see her emerald eyes vibrant with awe as the she stared at the view screen, taking every inch of the Sulaco into her consciousness. "A perfect Colonial Marine Transport Carrier. I've seen pictures of these in the historical records but they don't do her justice." Julia smiled, her eyes gleaming with the anticipation of getting on board, Chris was certain.
"She has survived the centuries rather well," Ezra remarked but he was not as enamoured by the ship. If anything, he had a terrible sense of foreboding as he saw the ghost ship and had a premonition that in the labrynthian walls that meandered through its innards, there were dark stories to tell, especially of the crew that was long gone. "However, I suggest a full sensor scan and sweep prior to making any attempt at boarding."
"Good idea." Buck agreed readily. The first officer was just as fascinated by the ancient relic by he was not about to risk going on board, until they had more information. "Have you pinpointed the source of the transmission?" He asked, looking at JD when he voiced the question.
"Yes," JD answered without looking up from his console as his nimble fingers flew across the console screen of his station. "As we suspected, its an automated signal being sent on an infinite loop until given a corresponding transmission that will tell it to stop. Not unlike a distress beacon."
"So in theory," Vin spoke up. "If we find the proper authorization codes, we should be able to get the vessel to transmit the contents of its data banks and find out what the hell she's doing here."
"More or less," Chris nodded. "Unfortunately, I doubt that we're going to get that lucky. During the Third World War, a lot of military installations were destroyed. If the records for a specific frequency did exist, it would be long gone by now."
"So no matter how it goes," Julia spoke up with more than a hint of eagerness in her voice. "Someone is going to have to go down there."
"Just hold your horses," Buck gave her a look. "We have no idea what is on that ship. We don't even know why the crew had to be ejected."
"I thought you said it was a fire." Julia replied, disappointed by the counter point because she really did want to examine the Sulaco closely. It was the find of a lifetime, not to mention a tremendous opportunity to touch a piece of history.
"We know a fire was started," Alex explained. "We don't know why. Fires just don't start on ships, especially ones that have its passengers cryogenically frozen at the time. I seriously doubt that it was spontaneous combustion."
"I seriously doubt they'd still be around though," Julia retorted, not about to abandon the idea of going on board such a prize.
"And why not?" Buck looked at her. "We've come across floating pieces of crystal that appeared to be harmless only to have them turn out to be the receptacle for some form of alien consciousness that almost destroyed the Maverick. Now that," Buck glanced at the screen, "is no doubt a fascinating piece of history but until we find out a little bit more about it, we're going to do this by the book. Right Captain?" Buck turned to Chris, wishing his support on this point.
"Yes," Chris nodded, his gaze still fixed on the vessel. "But conditionally."
"Conditionally?" Ezra exclaimed before Buck could. However, it was just as well as he did. The first officer seemed unimpressed that Chris had only partially supported what was in Ezra's opinion, a cautious approach to their problem.
"Conditionally," Chris turned away from the screen and stared at both Buck and Ezra. Once again, the tension levels on the bridge started rising steadily, like steam from boiling water. "First of all, Lieutenant Pemberton is correct. That ship has been there for a long time, if anything is waiting for us, its either dead or really, really bored. However," he added giving Julia a quick glance ."That does not mean that we're going to ride in there like a bunch of cowboys either. Ezra, I want a full sensor sweep of that vessel before I even consider letting anyone on board."
"Yes Sir." Ezra nodded, deciding that was a compromise he could live with.
"Alex, I want you to work with JD and see if you can't find someway to get that ship to transmit its log. I'd rather know what we'd be facing before we board her."
"Board her?" Buck stared at Chris.
"You heard me," Chris said abruptly, retreating to his command chair. He placed himself in it before regarding his bridge crew once more. "In two hours, I expect to have these answers because in two hours, I intend to be on that ship. One way or another. Is that understood?" He stated, challenging anyone present to say otherwise.
Deciding that this was one argument he was not going to win, Buck kept his thoughts to himself and responded. "Yes Sir." He said mutely.
"Hey Chris," Vin quickly made himself heard, sensing that things were quickly coming to a head between the two senior officers and thus felt a change of topic was required. "You up for some company when you go over there?"
Chris let a small smile cross his lips. "You wouldn't be trying to baby-sit me would you Vin?" The captain gave the helmsman a look.
"Sure I am," Vin said unprepared to lie about it. "Don't you know I'm after Ezra's job?" The helmsman looked over his shoulder at Ezra with a glint of mischief in his cobalt colored eyes.
He hoped Ezra would understand that he was attempting to diffuse the situation between Buck and Chris and would play along with his attempts to make the atmosphere on the bridge a little friendlier. Like the rest of the senior staff, he was not happy at the relationships that Chris was demolishing with those close to him. While he had so far been spared that, Vin knew the only reason Chris had not been so difficult with him was because Vin had chosen not to involve himself in what Chris believed to be his personal business. Despite himself, the Vulcan could not help but wonder whether or not he was respecting the captain's wishes or was he merely being a coward. Whatever the reason, he was through sitting by and watching things get even worse than they already were were.
"I am not a babysitter." Ezra remarked with a hint of offense. "I am a security officer. A highly trained expert in tactical and strategic defense."
"Wasn't it you who had to go find that gerbil lost in conduit 32?" Vin teased.
The look Ezra gave him spoke volumes.
"Very funny." Ezra recouped enough a moment later to retort just as smoothly. "Yes and I was glad that you were able to sleep well once you had him back again."
A small titter of laughter rippled through the bridge and for a brief time, it felt like old times again, when everyone were not so much at odds with each other.
"Captain," Alex spoke up. "I've just done a preliminary sweep of the planet."
"And?" Chris turned around in his chair to give her an expectant look of demand.
"It appears that there is some form of ionic dispersion in the upper atmosphere." She replied with a frown on her face as her fingers flew over her console panel and attempted to work the problem. "Its highly disruptive to all energy forms, my scans are bouncing off it and being reflected back as static."
"Is it natural?" Buck asked, not liking the possible difficulties that was rearing its head over such a phenomenon.
"It appears so." Alex nodded.
"Oh hell." Julia swore under her breath. "Does that mean what I think it does?" She stared at Alex for confirmation. Unfortunately, she was an engineer and she knew more about aberrant dispersions fields better than even Alex herself and thus knew what was coming next.
"I'm afraid so." The science officer nodded and turned to Chris. "We're not going to be able to use the transporters or tell if anything is alive down there."
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Despite the less than encouraging news about the atmospheric properties of Fiorina 'Fury' 361, Chris was still determined to carry out his desire to board the Sulaco in two hours. Ezra's sensor sweep of the ship gave him little reason for pause. The results of the detailed examination seemed to indicate that the Sulaco was exactly what she appeared on first sight; a ghost ship. Still, Chris could tell the security chief was not at all happy about permitting his captain to traverse what Ezra considered an unknown. Fortunately as far as Chris was concerned, the decision was not Ezra's to make. It was his.
Even though the Sulaco had remained in its own kind of suspended animation trapped in orbit around Fiorina, the ship was not as dormant as it appeared. While all shipboard functions had been deactivated, a few primary systems had been left in operation by the mechanical intelligence that had kept the ship intact so far. The autonomous systems were kept alive by way of back up programming, allowing them to draw minimum power from the old style fusion generators that powered the space ships of the 21s century. According to Julia, the fusion generators with its inexhaustible energy supplies could have kept the Sulaco in place for another four hundred years if they had not happened across the weak signal it had been attempting to transmit to Earth.
Unfortunately, Alex and JD were unable to download the contents of the ship's data banks for fear that the data could be lost in transit without the proper authorisations codes. As suspected, the records for such codes had not survived the Third World War. Still, all was not lost. While they could not effect a down load from ship to ship, Julia saw no reason why a portable tricorder could not do the same in a direct interface with the Sulaco's computer system. In the meantime, Julia had managed to trigger the life support systems on board the ship and by the time the Away Team finally transported to the derelict vehicle, there would be sufficient atmosphere to sustain them for the duration of their visit.
Chris could not understand why he felt this need to immerse himself in the mystery of the Sulaco but guessed after careful reflection that it probably had to do with the problems he was facing in his personal life at the moment. Perhaps a temporary distraction was what he needed to regain his focus and perhaps get a fresh perspective on his ongoing investigation into Sarah and Adam's death. Lord knows he was not making much progress now because those data pads had brought him quite conclusively to a brick wall he could not get past, despite the fact that he had devote considerable time and energy to the endeavour.
For the moment anyway, Chris wanted a problem he could solve.
"Sure I can't talk you out of this?" Buck asked as Chris, Julia, Ezra, Alex and Vin prepared to transport to the Sulaco once all the precautions, at least the ones that could be taken in the meagre amount of time Chris had given them before his intended time of departure. Although every thing about the Sulaco had indicated there was no danger to the personnel about to board the ghost ship, Buck could not shake this feeling that they were walking unprepared into a possibly hazardous situation. It was part of the reason he had opted to remain on the Maverick, just in case something did go wrong, he would be able to utilise the resources of the ship to retrieve his crewmates.
"Isn't it enough you've got both Ezra and Alex coming along to nursemaid me?" Chris retorted, impatience oozing from every word.
Buck tensed, aware that Chris was being antagonistic but reminded himself that Chris was his friend and captain, even if the man was being an unmitigated pain at the moment. Besides, Buck was certain that Chris' annoyance had much to do with the fact that on some level he knew that Buck was right that they take precautions prior to boarding an unknown. "You're the captain of this ship," Buck said evenly, struggling to keep his good-natured disposition in check. "I would not be doing my job if I let you go on to a questionable situation without taking adequate safety precautions. Alex is the science officer, next to Julia, she's probably the most qualified person to go on this mission."
"And the fact that Alex has some security training has nothing to do with it?" Chris looked at Buck sceptically.
"None whatsoever." Buck retorted, lying through his teeth.
Chris gave him a look that spoke volumes regarding his disbelief and stepped onto the transporter pad where the rest of his crew were waiting for him. Buck said nothing as he drew away and Chris knew that Buck was seething under the skin. A twinge of guilt ran through him as he saw Buck turning to Rain in order to give them the signal to transport to the Sulaco. He knew inwardly that everything that Buck had demanded of him since he had made the choice to go on board the ship himself was not at all unreasonable. It was the duty of the First Officer to safe guard the captain's life, even if that same Captain was behaving contrary to good sense.
Wisely, the others on the transporter pad with him, chose to feign ignorance at the exchange between Chris and Buck, busying themselves with the trivialities that were necessary to an Away Mission. No one wanted to meet his gaze except Vin and the Vulcan did not look at him reproachfully. This was hardly surprising of course. From the onset of all this, Vin was the only person on board who did not feel it necessary to tell Chris what he ought to be doing and who he was neglecting. Vin did not inundate him with advice and for that Chris was grateful. He wished everyone else would follow Vin's lead. At the moment however, the senior staff accompanying him to the Sulaco were busy carrying out last minute preparations for the transport to the old Earth ship.
Ezra was examining the phaser rifle in his grip, ensuring that it was primed and ready for use if the situation arose. While Chris considered the rifle to be rather excessive for a simple exploratory mission, Ezra would not be deterred and Chris finally conceded the point, since Ezra's nose for trouble was most often accurate. Chris may have been eager to see the inside of the Sulaco but he still had presence of mind to put the safety of his people before hand and allowed the compromise. He himself was armed with a hand phaser as were all the others with him. Julia and Alex both had tricorders and he could tell that the Engineer was eager to go. Alex however, like Ezra seemed tense.
"Are we ready?" Chris asked no one in particular but received a chorus of responses to the affirmative. Receiving the answers he wanted, he raised his eye to Buck who seemed clearly troubled. Once again, Chris was visited by feelings of regret at the relationship between them of late.
"Hey Buck," Chris said in a conciliatory effort he hoped his old friend understood. "I'll be careful."
Buck's eyes widened enough to show his surprise at the sudden gesture and for the first time in days, the First Officer managed to crack that familiar smile that said to him all was forgiven even if it was not forgotten. "I'll hold you to that Captain."
"You can count on it." Chris smiled back and for a moment, the last few weeks seemed to disappear. Chris could see the old friend who had stood by and made sure he had not gone to pieces when he had first lost his family, who was riding out the storm with him this time round as well, no matter how much he may not wish the company. Whatever he might say to Buck to provoke him, Chris could always count on the fact that Buck would always be there to watch his back and to ensure that he never gave up on anything, even himself. It was a good feeling.
Delaying no more with such introspecting thought, Chris decided it was time to go and gave the order to transport.
"Engage."
The first thing that Chris was aware of when he materialised on the deck of the Sulaco's main hangar bay was that it was cold.
This of course was hardly surprising since the ship had been devoid of warmth for the past four hundred years it had been waiting discovery. While its life support systems were fully operational, it would take some time before the environment on board became completely comfortable for its human visitors. After all, warming up four centuries of cold was not a task that could be accomplished immediately, especially with the limitations of the technology at hand. The iciness however, did serve to remind them that they had arrived at their destination intact, even if the pinch of cold on their skin was far from pleasant.
Internal sensors, detecting movement in the area immediately kicked into action, programmed centuries before by engineers who were long dead to respond to the stimulus provided by human beings. Lights flooded the hangar bay, illuminating every corner of the wide deck. When they had seen the Sulaco from the bridge of the Maverick, they were ready to concede that the transport carrier was a large ship even for by modern standards. However, nowhere was that scale more apparent than from the interior of the hangar bay that seemed to stretch into a space that made their shuttle bay look cramp in comparison.
They materialised just before the main hangar doors, a massive construct forged of solid titanium and would give any craft entering with authorisation good reason to regret it. It did not take them long to realised that the reason for the doors was dark grey ship that hung suspended above the steel by a large clamps on a mobile conveyor. The end of the journey when the small craft was being transported was another set of doors at the far end of the deck, only these were on the floor and large enough to allow the vessel to pass through if those clamps were released.
"Something happened here." Chris said first, breaking the silence.
"I see it." Ezra nodded in agreement. The security officer was studying the surrounding area almost as deeply as Chris.
Four hundred years ago, something had happened inside this hangar. The way objects were being strewn across the floor and this included everything from small tools to large crates, seemed to indicate that much. There ought to have been two dropships but one only occupied the docking clamps. Large gaping holes appeared in the floor where floor plates should have been, exposing maintenance conduits and electrical access tunnels. There was a pattern to the disarray however, it seemed to be reaching or surrounding the airlock doors.
"Someone decompressed the hangar." Chris stated after a moment.
"Why?" Julia mused.
"I don't know," Chris responded, his voice tensing considerably as he let his gaze sweep across the space to see if there were any more clues that might have lead them to understand what had taken place here. Suddenly, the need for answers became more urgent and Chris wondered if Buck had not been right after all, that coming here without all the facts was perhaps erring on the side of caution. "Alex, you and Julia go find the bridge. We need that log."
"Yes Sir," Alex nodded and glanced at Julia to follow. Despite the possibility of danger, Julia was still enthusiastic about taking a tour of the ship and Chris hoped her eagerness did not translate into recklessness that might allow her to miss something important. Fortunately, with Alex in her company, Chris could be assured of one of them maintaining an objective view of their situation. They progressed across the steel floor, side stepping the fallout from the decompression of the landing bay before finally disappearing out a set of smaller doors at the far end of the bay. Chris watched them long enough to see that it emptied into a lit corridor. He guessed that very soon the computer intelligence running the ship would make the entire vessel hospital to its human passengers.
Once they were gone, Chris tapped his com badge. "Larabee to Maverick."
"Chris." Buck's voice filled the room a second later. "What's your status?"
"We're here and we're fine for the moment." Chris answered automatically. "However, there have been signs of some sort of trouble on board."
"What kind of trouble?" Buck's voice became hard with that one question.
"We haven't determined that yet," Chris asked as he saw Vin and Ezra spreading out to examine their surroundings a little more closely. "But for some reason, the crew found it necessary to decompress the landing bay. Judging by the debris scattered around the place, rather suddenly too."
"Perhaps you should get back here.' Buck responded automatically, with more than a hint of concern in his voice.
"No," Chris shook his head in response but he was more considerate of Buck's concerns now. "However, maintain a transporter lock on all of us until I say otherwise. If something goes wrong, I want a quick way out. Understood?"
"Yes Sir." Buck replied. "Mind keeping an open channel?"
"Sure," Chris retorted, feeling that to be a sensible course of action as well. "I'm not taking any chances until I know what happened here."
"Thank you Captain," Buck said gratefully, glad that Chris was finally seeing some sense.
Chris took note of what Ezra and Vin were doing and saw the Vulcan making a beeline towards the dropship. Somehow, that did not surprise the captain in the least. The helmsman's eyes had lit up the moment he had cast his gaze on the armoured carrier and Chris could tell that the young man was itching to get a closer look at the vintage piece of machinery. Vin had a fascination for all types of flying vessels, the older the better. One of his hobbies was building them as models and Chris supposed that a drop ship from the 21st century certainly counted as something of a find for a connoisseur.
However, Chris was more interested in what Ezra was doing at this time and crossed the floor to join the security chief who was kneeling down on the floor of the landing deck, focusing on a section of floor with intense scrutiny. If there was one thing that Chris knew never to do, no matter how obstinate he may get about his personal demons, he knew never to underestimate Ezra Standish's skills as an investigator. If he were not so hell bent on solving this problem of Sarah and Adam on his own, he might have even employed the security chief for that very purpose. Perhaps what made him such an exceptional card player as well was his ability to see through the obvious, finding clues in the subtle and often obscure.
"What have you found Ezra?" Chris asked as he reached the security chief who was running a tricorder over what he had found. From experience, Chris knew that Ezra would only use the tricorder to confirm his own visual findings. He remembered the man once saying that too much technology was a hindrance to an investigator, that certain things were best deduced by leaps of logic.
"Acid burns." Ezra answered automatically, not looking up at Chris as he answered. His fingers were tracing the sides of the corroded niche in the metal floor. As Chris turned his attention to it, he could see why Ezra was so interested. It was a good three inches in depth and though time had cooled the metal where it had been eaten away, there was no doubt that the reaction had been extremely severe.
"Acid did this?" Chris said with a hint of surprise. The section of the floor where the corrosion had taken place was made of solid steel, it had to be because it was the landing bay where the Sulaco's dropship had to set down before it was extracted by the mooring clamps that would place it into its proper berth. These days, it would require a phaser to burn through like this.
"Unlike the kind of any I have ever seen before. It is easily the most corrosive variety in existence. It is almost like raw plasma." Ezra remarked. "I have scanned the area for any kind of residual traces there may be left and it appears to be some form of molecular acid with a more than likely biological source."
"Are you telling me this acid came from some kind of a life form?" Chris exclaimed, unable to imagine what kind of creature would have acid as a part of its biological secretions. "That's not possible. No carbon based life form can produced molecular acid."
"Assuming of course, we are dealing with a carbon based life form." Ezra returned promptly.
"Silicon based?" Chris looked at his security chief, venturing a guess. The universal standard for the basis of all life was usually carbon although, on rare occasions, nature felt the need to throw a curve ball of them by putting forward a creature whose basic matrix was not composed of carbon but some other material. Silicon based creatures were known to exist by way of the Hortas, discovered in a mining facility by the USS Enterprise under the command of James Kirk. Later on Jean Luc Picard discovered the same thing, when a life form composed of what appeared to be phosphorous almost took over the Enterprise D.
"Possibly," Ezra remarked taking a long look of the hangar bay and suddenly realising in a flash of insight what had transpired here on the basis of the evidence before him. Ezra was still staring at the air lock, a terrible suspicion forming in his mind that was becoming solid the more and more he thought about it. When he turned to Chris, his expression became very still before the words left him.
"What concerns me Captain is why someone found it necessary to blow it out of the air lock."
Such questions did not concern either Julia Pemberton or Alexandra Styles at first because the task they had been asked to undertake was simple enough. The technical schematics on the transport carriers employed during the 21st century had survived for Julia to peruse and have a fairly good idea where the bridge of the Sulaco might be following the captain's orders to them to find it. The Engineer had moved through the silent corridors like a child in a candy store, admiring the old wiring, the welded steel plates and amusing herself at the finished joints of the walls. Alex herself could help but be infected by such enthusiasm although inwardly, she was experiencing a growing feeling of unease as she moved through the deserted paths of the ship.
Despite Julia's eagerness, Alex soon felt uncomfortable. The signal they had deciphered from the Sulaco spoke clearly of three humans being on board and yet everything that Alex came across indicated that this entire ship could not have possibly been utilized by so few. That question hung in the air like a meteor about to drop on her head. As they sought out the bridge, they had come across communal showers, mess halls that were made to accommodate more than just three people. Then there were the lockers. She knew that she probably had no business opening them but upon doing so, discovered that more than thee were being used. When she and Julia were finally done counting, they had discovered fourteen lockers had been occupied, which meant fourteen crew members. Not three.
Alex stared at the red bandanna in her hand, the one she had liberated from the locker belonging to a PFC Vasquez and wondered what had happened to the woman. Despite the fact that the garments inside the locker were terribly asexual, there were pieces of femininity tucked away amongst the military issued items. A bottle of skin cream whose contents were desiccated by now, not to mention the tell tale soft, lacy underthings tucked away beneath khaki boxers, almost as if Vasquez had been attempting to hide them. Alex did not know why she had kept the bandanna when they left the locker room filled with belongings that would never be claimed but illogically, Alex was started to think that she owed it to Vasquez to find out what happened here.
Eventually, they arrived on the bridge and it was nothing like what Alex considered the bridge of a ship this size, not when compared to the sleek beauty of the Maverick of course. It was made for no more than two people and the confines were cramped with machinery pressing at ones side no matter where they turned. Most of the panels were dark and inert with a few blinking lights in one particular section to indicate that the ship was functioning. It did not take Julia very long to activate this dormant system and at the disposal of a human operator, the bridge suddenly took on a life of its own as panels and screen illuminated throughout its confines. Suddenly, the room was filled with an ambient glow and all systems, though somewhat cool to the touch after spending four centuries in frozen inertia waited for eagerly for human interaction once again.
"It might be an idea for us to go after what we need slowly." Julia advised as she sat before the screen and keyboard. "The computer has not been used in almost four hundred years, I'd like not to overload its operating system and have a burn out. God help us if it's still using that antiquated Windows system."
"That's not funny." Alex retorted, remembering that nightmarish software program of ages past.
"Who's joking?" Julia retorted. "Now I'd recommend that we'd work our way through the data banks. We should make a gradual progression through the data stream before attempting to access the ship's logs. These old systems usually devoted considerable resources to passwords and security lock outs, so I want to take it easy. Don't forget, this is a museum piece. If it handles the simple commands without any difficulty, then we'll attempt to interface the main data banks with the tricorder."
"Understood," Alex nodded, taking up the seat next to Julia. "Okay, something simple. How about a crew manifest?"
"Crew manifest." Julia mused as her fingers started flying over the keyboard and Alex watched the screen come alive as Julia entered the request for information. Words flew across the digital screen before a short abrupt beep escaped the speakers and signaled that they had been granted access. A list of names appeared before them. As Alex had suspected, there had been 14 people on board the Sulaco when she left earth. Out of those, two had been civilians, the others had been military personnel.
"You want a display?" Julia looked over her shoulder at the science officer.
"Yeah," Alex replied, not seeing why not. "Let's have a look at them."
The commanding officer was not at all impressive or perhaps it was the way the image of him appeared on the screen that made him look that way. In any case, he was a poster boy recruit of what it was meant to be a soldier back then, clean cut and somewhat dull looking. There was little or no intelligence about him and he did not look particularly seasoned. His rank had him placed as a Lieutenant.
"Says here, he's name is Lieutenant RC Gorman." Julia replied. "Christ, he's just a kid. What's he doing in charge?"
"Who knows," Alex shrugged, more interested in seeing the image of PFC Vasquez more than some fresh faced kid who probably got more people killed by being put in command too soon than the enemies they were sent to face. "Whose next?"
"Moving along." Julia quipped and brought he cursor down to illuminate the next name on the list.
Alex shuddered as she saw the faces appear before her, wondering whether it was the cold or the knowledge that they were all dead. That something had happened to them that ensured they never returned to the Sulaco or if they did, not in a condition that would do them any good. The man whose face appeared before them was granite. He was in his forties, Alex estimated, a combat veteran through and through. He had the visage of mean junkyard dog and she had no doubt that he'd give a Klingon a run for his money if faced with one.
"Master Sergeant Apone." Julia announced. "And boy does he look it."
"Give him a bathlet and run for cover," Alex joked. "Damn, I hate to meet what it was that took him out."
Despite herself, her statement was not meant as a joke, Alex really meant it. She looked into the screen at the man's hard eyes and knew that he was someone who did not get frightened easily, who could bellow his platoon into submission and was probably the glue that held entire unit together. Such men usually made up for the shortcomings of their inexperienced commanders. Alex had served with such soldiers during the Border Wars with Cardassia, met a few Bajoran freedom fighters with the same kind of eyes and knew that whatever had killed this man, was something they had all better fear.
"I'm going to keep going." Julia announced and highlighted the next name on the list; Senior Corporal D Hicks. She pressed the enter button on the old keyboard and froze when the face appeared on the screen.
"Holy shit." Alex found herself saying without even being aware that the words left her mouth.
"Oh my God." Julia's eyes widened once her shock evaporated; though not entirely, it had just receded to manageable levels. "Its impossible......" She stammered.
Alex did not answer her. The science officer was similarly stunned but she had presence of mind enough to tap the com badge on her uniform.
"Captain." She spoke out, her eyes still fixed on the screen.
"Alex," Chris Larabee's voice returned in response. "What is it? Did you access the ship's logs?"
Alex paused a moment, wondering how she was going to say this and decided that the best way to tell him what they had discovered, was to simply show him.
"Captain," Alex took a deep breath. "I think you'd better come see this for yourself."
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Buck Wilmington stared at the view screen before him and decided one thing quite readily; he did not like this ship called the Sulaco. Everything about the vessel suspended in the canvas of blue, told him that it was a secret best left unexplained. Letting his eyes run across the dark metal shell of the vessel, Buck found a sense of foreboding building up in his chest regarding the ship, even though for all intensive purposes there was nothing about it that was outwardly threatening. The Sulaco was a troop carrier with very little in the way of armaments that could be considered a danger to the Maverick with its multiple torpedoes bays, multiphasic sensors and phaser banks. Still, as he continued to stare at the ship, he could not help but feel a sliver of unease.
Chris and the Away Team were still conducting their preliminary investigations of the Sulaco and so far everything that they learnt gave Buck more and more reason to think that perhaps they just ought to get a science vessel out here to deal with the ancient relic. Still, the enthusiasm in Chris' voice even though the captain was as wary as he was, could not be mistaken. Buck had not heard Chris sounding so animated or interested about anything other than the idea of Sarah and Adam being murdered in weeks. He supposed as a distraction, the Sulaco was about as tantalising as any could be. An old ship from a period centuries in Earth's past, a mystery surrounding its purpose and the fate of its crew, it was just the thing for Chris at the moment.
His attention shifted momentarily from the view screen to the turbo lift doors, which slid open to allow Mary Travis entry onto the bridge. It was the first time he had seen her since they had passed each other in the doorway, following her request for leave of absence from Chris. It was good to see her on the bridge because she was usually such a part of things that took place here. Mary's insight as a negotiator, diplomat and her knowledge of varying cultures made her a valuable asset on the bridge and though her presence was not especially demanded all the time, Buck still liked to see her there.
"Are they still there?" Mary asked as she made her way towards him and took a seat at her usual place by the captain's chair.
"Yes," Buck nodded. "I think they're going to be there awhile. Chris is pretty intrigued by the whole ship."
Mary nodded slightly, as if the mention of Chris suddenly surfaced their personal problems and made the emotions churning inside her all the more difficult to hide.
"You okay?" He asked softly, placing a gentle hand on her arm.
Mary met his gaze and nodded again. "Yes I am," she responded. "I think the time apart might do us both some good. We've been living on the same ship for the last few months. Perhaps what is needed is a step back to gain some perspective on things."
Buck did not think that would help at all but he did not voice it. "Mary," he considered what he would say and decided that if he was told to mind his own business, at least he said what he needed. "Don't give up on him. I know he's behaving like a prize ass at the moment but don't give up on him. I know he loves you but sometimes when he gets his mind set on something, he can't let it go no matter how much he may want to. Trust me, I've seen this before and the best thing you can do is to ride it out."
Mary offered Buck a warm smile, wondering if Chris knew how lucky he was to have someone like Buck Wilmington in his corner. Buck was loyal to the last and he knew people much more than anyone gave him credit. Some men had the market cornered on strategy and intuition but Buck's fortune seemed to be made in knowing how to look at someone and knowing instantly what they felt and what they needed. It was a wonderful gift and not enough people appreciated it.
"Thank you Buck." Mary answered, sincere in her thanks and touched deeply by his plea. "I don't intend to give up on him, I just think that perhaps I need to wait him out somewhere else."
Buck nodded in understanding, wishing it was other wise but perhaps that was what Chris needed. Maybe he needed to lose her a little while to know just how much she meant to him and Buck guessed that Chris needed her quite a great deal. Ever since she had come on board, the two had forged a smouldering relationship though not physical, seemed adequate in passion to convey that they cared very much for each other even if the loss of the loves in their life still kept them at bay. Buck was trying to think of something to respond to Mary's statement when suddenly JD spoke up.
"Buck, I'm getting an incoming transmission from Starfleet Command. Its on standard channels." The young communications officer volunteered, indicating that it was probably something routine that could be relayed to the First Officer instead of the Captain.
"Transfer it to the Captain's Ready Room," Buck retorted standing up. "I'll take it in there."
"Aye Sir." JD nodded and returned to the console pad before him to carry out just that order.
Buck excused himself and headed towards the Captain's Ready Room. Upon entering its confines, Buck slid into the captain's chair and swung around to face the com screen on the wall behind it. The words incoming message was blinking on the dark screen and Buck sat up straight as prepared to receive it.
"Computer, open channel." He instructed.
The image of Admiral Donaldson appeared on screen a moment later. Buck knew Donaldson from the few times they had encountered each other over the years. While Buck could not say he knew the man terribly well, Donaldson was an amicable fellow mostly attached to the diplomatic arm of Starfleet. He smiled upon seeing Buck, having dealt more with the First Officer than he did with the captain of the USS Maverick and appeared pleased to be seeing someone he knew.
"Buck." Donaldson said genuinely pleased. "It's been a long time."
"A year I think," Buck returned his greeting with similar warmth. "How's Utopia Planatia these days?"
"Still hot and dry." Donaldson responded, more than happy to indulge in a little small talk, which told Buck that, whatever reason he had contacted the Maverick, was not terribly urgent. "And the frontier?"
"Quiet for the moment." Buck grinned. "Though that may change at any time. Always seems like something is going on out here that usually finds it way to us."
"I was hoping to speak to your captain but I gather he is indisposed by the fact that you're taking this call." Donaldson guessed accurately.
"Yes Sir," Buck answered, not about to lie. "We've discovered a derelict ship that might have been from Earth. So far we have a chronological date of 400 years. The Captain is investigating it right now."
The discovery piqued Donaldson's curiosity and it showed across his face. "Really?" The man declared, "I would not mind taking a look at her myself unfortunately, I have to tear your ship away from what looks like a very interesting find."
"I guessed as much," Buck remarked and suddenly the casual note in his voice withered away to be replaced with a more business like and official tone. "What can the Maverick do for you Sir?"
"Its nothing high risk," Donaldson answered quickly, taking on the same tone as Buck, now that they were getting to the heart of his purpose for contacting the Maverick. "I need the Maverick at Sector 29, specifically the Vorlis system. We are presently negotiating their entry into the Federation but apparently one of their outer colonies have sustained an ecological disaster of some kind. They have the personnel and the equipment to take care of the problem but they need a ship with maximum warp capability to get there. As a gesture of goodwill, I've offered Federation assistance in this matter, just to let them know that we'd pull out all stops to help if the situation called for it. The whole mission take you four days, five at the most round trip so your derelict will still be waiting for you when you get back."
He was right, it was extremely routine and not uncommon for starships to be used in this way, especially when courting a new entry into the Federation. The goal was to make the new arrival feel that Federation membership was worthwhile.
"I'll inform the Captain," Buck declared. "We'll see you soon Sir."
"Thank you Buck," Donaldson smiled. "I'll buy you a drink when you get here."
"I'll hold you to that." The first officer answered before terminating the channel between them. Buck leaned back into the chair for a moment and let out a deep sigh. While he did not begrudge the mission ahead, he wished it could have come at another time. The Sulaco and its mysteries seemed to be just the thing for Chris' disposition at present. He hated to think that this trip to Vorlis would send the captain back into his obsession about the accident. Unfortunately, neither of them had any choice. They were both creatures of duty and right now, their duty required them to abandon the Sulaco. Still Buck did not relish the idea of having to recall the captain.
He had a feeling, this time Chris was not going to take it well.
"Jesus," Vin Tanner whispered under his breath as he stared at the screen displaying the discovery made by Julia Pemberton and Alexandra Styles when they had searched the Sulaco's data banks for the records about its crew. The face on the screen was without doubt the splitting image of Chris Larabee. The hair was different and the face was definitely younger but even those who knew the Captain well marvelled at the resemblance. "He looks exactly like you."
"Corporal Dwayne Hicks." Ezra read the data next to the image as he stood next to Chris who was staring at the screen with an unreadable expression on his face. "At the time of his arrival on the Sulaco, it would appear he was not much more than 25."
Chris could only stare at the face on the screen and feel the same astonishment. He knew that he had an ancestor in this period, perhaps not directly connected to the Larabee line but then time had a way of twisting the lineages with such complexity that it was hard to say for certain where the genetic branches would end up. A few hours ago, he had remembered that he had a distant relation who was a Colonial Marine in the 21st century and had thought no more of it than that. However, seeing the man before him, Chris felt as if there was some sort of serendipity at work here that made him the one to discover this ship which had once ferried someone from his own distant past.
Hicks wore his face, although the image portrayed him as a man just a little younger than Vin. The eyes of course were always the same on the Larabee men but there was something in Hicks' eyes that told Chris that the Corporal had seen much in his short life, perhaps too much. There was some personal information about his life on the screen and it almost served as an epitaph to who Dwayne Hicks had been. Chris wondered what forces had shaped his life to put that same look of premature age in his eyes? Did he suffer the same sorrows? Chris hated to think that someone so young could have become so used to his mortality.
"I had a distant relative in the Colonial Marines." Chris found his voice at last. "I guess this is him."
"No kidding." Alex remarked, "I can believe the resemblance." She leaned closer once again, as if taking another look to confirm what her mind had such trouble accepting.
"So do we have some idea of what happened to these people?" Chris asked, wishing to move off the subject of Hicks for the moment. Chris was still a little shocked by all of it and preferred to move on since this could not be any more than just mere coincidence and probably had little to do with the reason the Sulaco was stranded above the skies of Fiorina.
"Well I managed to open the log," Julia answered quickly, aware that despite this interesting turn of events with his ancestor, Chris would be more interested in learning why the Sulaco had been here in the first place. He probably even had questions about what his ancestor's role in all this might have been. She turned to Alex who had scoured through the log while waiting for the Captain and the others to arrive. "Alex?"
"Yeah," Alex shook the thoughts of Hicks and Chris' similarities out of her mind and returned to the issue at hand. "According to the logs, the Sulaco was sent to check on a mining colony on planet LV 427, called Acheron. Apparently, they were out of contact for almost three months and as per standard procedure, an investigating team was dispatched to see what had happened."
"And they sent a fully armoured military vessel with a platoon of Colonial Marines?" Ezra asked sceptically, finding that somewhat extreme for what could simply be a malfunctioning transmitter on the colony's part. Even a medical rescue ship made more sense than sending the troops in. "That seems somewhat unusual."
"It is." Chris agreed but wanted to know more and prompted Alex to continue speaking.
"According to the log," Alex explained. "There was a concern of there being some form of biological threat on LV427. A report from a Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley who was part of the crew of the Sulaco as a consultant a year earlier, indicated that there was some hereto, unknown life form on the planet that might have been a danger to the colonists. Now there is information regarding the organism attached to the log but its been encrypted and Julia is trying to get through the decryption codes without corrupting the data. However, whatever this thing was, it was considered highly classified. Perhaps even classified enough for the Weyland Yutani Corporation who owned the colony at the time, to omit the information from the colonists."
"There was a dangerous organism on the planet and no one even bothered to tell the people living there?" Vin asked, his disgust showing.
"The Weyland Yutani Corporation was infamous for such practices Lieutenant," Ezra remarked. "One would say they had an almost Ferengi approach to commerce."
"So they went to the colony and found?" Chris asked impatiently, wanting to know the rest.
"That's as far as the official log goes Sir." Alex responded. "The Sulaco arrived at Acheron and fell into standard orbit around the planet, at which time everyone on board was revived from cryosleep. Since there was continued radio silence from the colony and no way to confirm the situation without a surface landing, standard procedure required them to do just that. Lieutenant Gorman, the officer in charge makes the final log entry in which he states that the entire crew preparing to depart from the Sulaco on board one of the drop ships."
"And that is all?" Ezra asked, hoping there would be more, particularly about this life form that was meant to exist on LV427.
"Not quite," Julia replied automatically, giving her lover a little wink as she did so. "I'm reading a lot of information coming through to the Sulaco after the departure that had not been processed. I'm assuming that these were from the squad while they were on the surface, probably from personnel recorders."
"That would follow," Chris agreed. "I am sure at the time, most of the military were required to wear such devices, mostly to monitor their performance in the field and as a record of how they conducted themselves for future reference. Can we access those?"
"Yes we can," Julia answered promptly but she was more focussed in accessing Ellen Ripley's report that had been deemed classified, released only to the Marines with huge tracts of it being omitted. Julia wanted the entire document because like the captain, she sensed that it had the answers that would lead them to understand what had ultimately happened to the Sulaco and its crew. "However, none of those recording have been processed, so we'll get a lot information from varying angles, depending on the perspective of the person wearing the camera." She paused a moment as she continued her assault on Ripley's classified report, determined to penetrate it when finally, a burst of static appeared on the screen before her and Ellen Ripley's face materialised.
"However, I think you'll find this of more interest Captain." Julia glanced at Chris, who had squeezed next to her and was studying the face on the screen with almost as much interest as he had first observed that of Corporal Hicks.
It was a face of quiet dignity. She was not the kind of woman that would be considered especially beautiful but there was something about the eyes that reached inside Chris Larabee and touched him on a very personal level. Her dark red hair had been cut short and Chris sensed that there was a time when she would have worn it over her shoulders, though it would have looked curlier, he suspected. She wore little make up if any at all and when she looked at him, she did so with the eyes of someone whose soul was just as ravaged as his. He wondered what tragedy had made her appear as if the idea of life was so elusive that she walked in perpetual readiness to die.
Then she spoke. It was a sad voice, a voice so hard done by life that he could not imagine her using it to laugh or expressing any of the more joyful emotions. Where she lived was a place he knew all too well, mired by the darkness of so much pain until it was impossible to see past the tragedy that had made it happen.
"My name is Ellen Ripley, formerly Warrant Officer Ripley. Burke wants me to make this tape for you Marines to get a fair idea of what you may be dealing with on LV427." She paused a moment, unaware that her audience from four hundred year in the future was utterly riveted. "I can't do this without a cigarette," she muttered and her hand disappeared from the view of the milky screen to produce a stick of white recognised by those present as a cigarette, a vice long since forgotten by history. She lit the cigarette in her mouth and took a deep puff. When she exhaled, rings of smoke swirled around her before disappearing completely from sight. She appeared clearly to be delaying what she was required to do but then she swallowed, blinked slowly and faced the camera again, a resolve settling over her that no one doubted was iron hard will.
"I don't know how much you were briefed or what I'm supposed to tell you so I'll just start from the beginning. I was the second officer of Commercial Carrier Nostromo. We were on our way home to Earth with a full cargo of ore from the Rim when we were awakened from cryosleep by the ship's computer. There were seven of us, Dallas, Cain, Ash, Lambert, Parker, Brett and myself. Oh, of course there was Jones but he was Brett's cat, so I guess he didn't really count."
None of the Maverick spoke because there was something in the way Ripley spoke, even from four hundred years in the past that demanded silence and some measure of respect. Chris could not stop looking at her, wondering what path her life had taken, had it begun with the Nostromo or had there be previous sorrows that contributed to what she became? Chris pondered this briefly and then put the idea away because he wanted to hear the rest of her story.
"When we woke up, we found that we were nowhere home," Ripley resumed her narrative, breathing more smoke from her slowly depleting cigarette. "The ship's computer had woke us up early because it had detected a signal of unknown origin and bound by our Company contracts, we were required to investigate." Her eyes drifted away a second as she saw something only she could before clearing her throat and started speaking again, her voice growing softer, colder even .
"The source of the signal came from LV427, an uninhabited and previously unsurveyed planet. The content of the signal was odd so while Captain Dallas, First Officer Cain and Lambert went to find the source which was some 1500 metres from our landing site, I examined the message more closely." Another pause, longer this time and Chris could see her jaw tensing, as if the anger was resurfacing and the cigarette continued to burn for a few seconds before she started again.
"I discovered that the message was not a distress beacon as we thought but rather a warning. I wanted to go after Captain Dallas and tell him what I found but Ash, our science officer told me that it was pointless, that by the time I reached the others, they would have already found out what was at the source. Foolishly, I listened to him."
"I can imagine a science officer deciding to omit that kind of information." Alex retorted, being one herself, she of all people knew how important it was to have accurate information or at least providing it to those who would require it most.
"We soon found that the source of the signal was coming from a derelict space ship of a design that was definitely beyond what we knew of ship building. It was not a large clunker like we have but rather something with smooth lines and curves. Whomever they were that built it were still not match for their cargo." Ripley replied. "Cain, Dallas and Lambert went into that ship and discovered the dead pilot still in his chair, his sternum had erupted from the inside. It looked as if he had been there for a very long time. Dallas assumed because of how old the ship had been there, there was no danger to the ground team so they pressed on and found the cargo hold."
She paused again and Chris sensed Ripley was finally reaching the part of the tale she found hardest to speak of. Had she been alive, he might have been inclined to take her hand but of course that was impossible, she was long gone and those sad eyes with her. "There were eggs, a foot maybe more, translucent with spores inside of them. Cain who went into the hold said he saw thousands of them. We never really knew for sure because it appeared whatever was inside them was still alive and upon detecting the stimulus of life, the egg unsealed. Upon emergence, the spore attached itself to Cain's face. It managed to burn through the plastic of his visor to reach his skin but it did so nonetheless. By the time Dallas and Lambert got to him, it was too late for Cain. Of course we didn't know that yet."
"They got him back to the ship and the decision was made to get it off him." Ripley took a breath and resumed speaking after discarding her cigarette, now burnt all the way back to the filter. "As soon as we tried cutting it, we found out the alien bled molecular acid. A drop of it ate through three levels of the Nostromo before it finally stopped. We found out we couldn't take it off without killing Cain, so we decided to freeze him and let ICU Quarantine deal with him on Earth. However, before we could do that, the alien came off Cain itself and died. He woke up fine, just a little hungry but nonetheless lucid and physically recovered."
Ripley lit another cigarette and Chris noted her hands were shaking when she did so this time. Her expression seemed fearful and her skin had become pale. "We were in the middle of dinner when Cain started having these convulsions, he started screaming. We thought he might have been choking on something but soon there was blood, a lot of blood. The spore had laid some kind of an embryo inside his throat and the alien once past gestation exited through the sternum."
"Jesus ChristÖÖ" Vin exclaimed visibly shaken to his Vulcan core. Ezra who was always so practised at hiding his emotions was no less horrified. Alex tried to find precedents for such a life cycle and found the closest thing to be the manner in which spiders laid its eggs on a host animal for the new born to feed upon on emergence. Julia's hand covered her mouth, agape with horror. Chris could only feel empathy, understanding now the reason for Ripley's eyes after what she had seen in her lifetime.
"Once the alien emerged, it matured very quickly. In a space of 24 hours, Captain Dallas and the rest of the crew except for myself were dead. We had been receiving no help from our science officer before that but then there was good reason for it. I learnt that the Company had diverted us to LV427 specifically to get the alien, that we were expendable as long as the alien was brought back to Earth. Our science officer was a goddamn synthetic and he had sacrificed the others so he could take the fucking thing back to Earth. Can you believe that?"
No one could although everything that Ripley was alleging was known historical fact about the conglomerates of the time that had led to the rise of global fascism and the outbreak of the Third World War.
"I set the Nostromo for self destruct after the others were gone and abandoned ship. Other than myself, no one else got off the Nostromo and I took my chances in the life pod. I hoped that I'd be picked up when I approached the core worlds but that didn't happen." Ripley let out a rueful laugh, devoid of humour. "I woke up can you believe? 57 years after I blew up the Nostromo and the alien. My eleven year old daughter had died by the time I got back to Earth." For a moment, the lady went very silent and for a minute the sadness that crossed her face was so profound that it touched everyone who was watching her silently in the confines of the Sulaco's small bridge.
Ripley composed herself for a few seconds and then raised her eyes to the camera once more, the same resolve on her face. "When I got back, they didn't believe me. There was no corroborating evidence that there was ever a life form and so they blamed me for the destruction of the Nostromo, a rather expensive piece of hardware as one of those corporate assholes put it. They didn't believe me even though LV427 was now populated with a colony of at least 80 to 90 families. They didn't believe me even though I told them that Cain saw thousands of eggs there, capable of producing thousands of those things like the one that wiped out my entire crew in a space of a day." The sardonic tone of her voice was deserved in Chris' opinion.
"Now you Marines are expected to clean up the mess," Ripley retorted almost derisively. "If those colonists have found that ship and exposed those eggs then all of them could be potential hosts. These things are beyond vicious. They move fast and they're strong. Most of the time, the alien came up and took the others in Nostromo before we even knew what hit us. Ash said that they had no morality, no conscience. He's right. They have one purpose and that is to reproduce. When I was leaving the Nostromo, I found what I was pretty damn sure was its nest. It was using Dallas as a host. I hope to God I'm wrong. I hope to God that when we go down to that planet, we'll find that a down transmitter caused the radio silence because the alternative is a hell you can't even begin to imagine. Jesus, I really want to be wrong."
But she was not. Even though none of the Maverick officers had viewed the rest of the data in the Sulaco's memory banks, they knew that everything that Ellen Ripley had predicted had taken place and more. Much, much more.
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