Chapter Text
“Captain’s Log: Stardate 41826.27. We seemed to have caught an ancient SOS signal seemingly playing on loop for the past 208 years from the presumed destroyed vessel Columbia. We have no clue why Starfleet chose to ignore it, but we are going to investigate what state Columbia is in.”
Breezie sat on the bridge, leaning forward as the Unreliable dropped out of warp… Columbia was there, coated in darkness except for one light on the hull frequently flickering on and off, revealing the words ‘NX-02 COLUMBIA’ written on it.
“What do you think is on there, Alex?” Breezie asks, as the SOS signal was badly corrupted due to playing for 2 centuries.
“Scans do show there are life forms aboard. Along with life support being online. Perhaps we can take a shuttle to the NX-02?” Alex suggests.
“Good plan. I’ll go along with Devoid & Sutaba.” Breezie replies, getting up from the captain’s chair and heading to the shuttle bay via the turbolift.
On the way, she taps her combadge and tells Devoid & Sutaba to meet her in the shuttle bay. Soon enough, the shuttle takes off from the Unreliable, heading to the NX-02. The shuttle bay doors mysteriously open, allowing the shuttle to enter. The shuttle lands and the occupants exit. None of the lights were on, so Breezie, Sutaba & Devoid grab torches from a container within the shuttle.
"This is… rather mysterious. Most systems are offline except for life support, yet it seems rather pristine." Sutaba says, looking around.
Devoid seemed rather hesitant, his gut telling him this place was not somewhere they should be.
"Devoid? What’s up with you?" Breezie asks, noticing Devoid’s sudden change in demeanour.
“N-nothing!” Devoid lied, just wanting to get this mission done and over with.
Breezie knew he was lying, but now was not the place to try and disprove him.
As the crew left the shuttle bay they were in, they found the corridors flooded with darkness.
“Keep close, that is an order. I don’t want anybody dying!” Breezie says to Devoid & Sutaba, both of which nod in agreement.
The trio walked across the dark corridors, remaining close. Breezie looked at the walls, noticing black goop leaking from them.
“That’s odd… I thought we were long done with oil.” Sutaba assumed, looking at it.
Devoid stammered… This sight was all too familiar to him.
Breezie took out a tricorder and scanned the goop… and scans showed something. “This isn’t oil… This is a lifeform!” Breezie says.
“That’s odd… Perhaps there is more. If on the off chance any of the crew members happened to survive over 200 years.” Sutaba replies, all while Devoid was struggling to speak out on what this truly is.
The 3 walked across a corridor, before coming across someone in an old United Earth Starfleet uniform from that era. Specifically in the command division as they could tell from the yellow piping on the shoulders, 3 pips being on the left shoulder
“Excuse me! Would you happen to know what happened here?” Breezie asks.
The NX-02 crewmember turns around, revealing dark, soulless eyes.
Breezie, Devoid and Sutaba stepped back in shock.
The crewmember raised its arm, pointing at Devoid. “I̶̹͍͕̕ ̷͈̄̌k̷̡̆͑ń̵͖̥́̑ȍ̴͇̽̄w̵͍̥̔̅̍ ̴͉̇̔ẅ̷̠́͐͝h̸͎͍͗ă̵̮̯̝ţ̷͍̈́͛̋ ̵̠̈̒ÿ̶̲́̈́̊o̴̧̝̘̓u̴͙̜̬͛ ̶̫̹͊d̴̼͍̮̔̉͌ḭ̴͍̐̏͝d̶̨̳͘.̸̱̭͇́” The crewmember said, before lunging at Devoid.
“DEVOID!” Sutaba says, racing to Devoid.
Breezie seemed confused as Sutaba raced away, chasing after the crewmember. She decided not to likely become dead, so decided to follow Sutaba.
Sutaba & Breezie raced across the corridors, black goop stained on the walls and floor, showing the two of them where to go.
Inhuman hissing came from the crewmember, making Sutaba & Breezie anxious about what could’ve happened to Devoid. Just then, they find a dead end. The crew member had the unconscious Devoid in its arms, black goop dripping out of its mouth.
Breezie grabbed a 22nd Century phase-pistol, which thankfully still had some juice in it, and fired.
The crewmember screamed as if hell was opening right inside of it, before it dropped Devoid and scurried into a jefferies tube.
Sutaba rushed to Devoid’s unconscious body and lifted it up.
Breezie looked at Devoid and sighed. She tapped her combadge. “Breezie to Unreliable… We have an issue. I think we need to get out of here.” Breezie says.
On the Unreliable, Sally Sillington seemed worried. “Breezie, what’s going on?” She says, seeming worried.
“Devoid’s been knocked out… I don’t know how, but we need to get to sickbay.” Breezie replies.
Sally Sillington was shocked, rushing to the TARDIS and setting the location.
As Breezie & Sutaba waited with the unconscious Devoid, the TARDIS materialised around them.
Sally Sillington raced to the unconscious Devoid, she was severely concerned as she felt his forehead, feeling it heat up severely. “Have you seen this before, Sally?” Sutaba asks.
“I’m not sure… We should get to sickbay immediately.” Sally Sillington says, before running to the console and setting the destination to sickbay.
The TARDIS left the corridor it was in and materialised in sickbay.
As soon as it landed, Breezie, Sally Sillington & Sutaba (with Devoid in his arms) ran into sickbay with no time to waste. “Computer! Activate the EMH!” Breezie shouted, the EMH soon materialising.
“Please state the nature of the medical emergency.” The EMH says, walking to the bed Sutaba placed Devoid on.
“We’re not sure, he’s gone unconscious and his head is heating up like a fever!” Sally Sillington explains.
“Hm. Let me do a scan.” The EMH says, grabbing a nearby medical tricorder and scanning Devoid. The EMH’s face became one of concern. “Oh dear… This doesn’t look good.” He says, looking at the results on the tricorder.
“What’s going on?” Sutaba asks.
“It seems some sort of viscous substance has encased his brain…” The EMH says, showing Sutaba, Breezie & Sally Sillington the scans… It seemed to show a net made of a slime-like substance wrapped around his brain.
Sally’s hands went around her mouth in shock as she stepped back… She recognised it. “No… I thought it was destroyed…” Sally Sillington says, pulling her hands away.
“What?” Breezie asked, confused.
“That goo… It’s a parasitic, biomimetic lifeform. I don’t know what it’ll do inside of his head, but… we need someone with experience. I know who we must get.” Sally Sillington explains. Breezie and Sutaba looked at eachother, not knowing what she meant.