Chapter Text
Drozana Station—STO Universe Falkayn1
As Belen and his companions crossed the threshold into his nightclub, the lights flickered, bathing the club with blue illumination. Spotting movement out of the corner of her eye, ex-Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams exclaimed, “Is this place haunted or something? Cause I think I saw a ghost. Am I going crazy or did someone else see it too?”
“You’re not going crazy.” Twesata replied, chewing her lower lip. “I felt a…presence. I don’t think it was a ghost, but it was something alien.” Turning to the asari woman standing next to her, the lovely Betazoid inquired, “Did you feel it too, Rana?”
“I felt something.” The asari scientist Rana Thanoptis affirmed as she repressed a shiver. “Whatever it was…it didn’t belong here.”
Surreptitiously taking out her tricorder, Twesata quickly scanned the bar. “Hmm…that’s odd.”
“What’s odd?” Ashley replied as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.
“I’m picking up triolic energy.” The Betazoid science officer explained, “Triolic energy isn’t used by many species because of its effects on living tissue. However, it is used by some species such as the Devedians to open up temporal vortexes.”
“I remember attending a lecture that Captain LaForge was presenting at the Academy in my junior year.” Shelana recalled, “During the talk, he brought up the Enterprise’s experience with the Devedians.”
“Right.” Twesata nodded her head in agreement, “I was at the lecture with you—remember?”
“You mean you were in the back row making out with that Trill cadet.” Shelana bantered back.
“I caught a little bit of the lecture between make out sessions.” Twesata smoothly riposted. “Anyway…” The lovely Betazoid said as she got serious again, “…the Devedians subsist off of the neural energy…life force as it were…of humanoid species and are capable of time travel—making them especially dangerous because not only do you not know where they’re going to strike…”
“You also can’t tell when.” Shelana interrupted, finishing her friend’s explanation.
“Damn.” Ashley sighed, “And I thought Saren’s geth and the Reapers were bad news. At least Saren hasn’t figured out how to travel through time.”
“Yet.” Rana cautioned as her human friend rolled her eyes.
“Thanks, Rana. You had to completely ruin my day.”
“Looks like you really do have a problem, Bel.” Nelia declared as the Ferengi casino owner led her and her team to the bar behind which Qwixo, Belen’s assistant manager, nervously tended bar.
“Told you.” Belen replied as the tiny group sat down at the bar. Speaking to his employee, the Ferengi commanded, “Get drinks for everyone, Qwixo.”
“Right away, Belen.” The bartender responded, moments later returning empty-handed, “Sorry, Boss…the replicators are malfunctioning again.”
“That ERH still hasn’t come back yet?” Belen inquired with an irritated look on his face as he stepped behind the bar and began mixing drinks by hand.
“ERH?” Ashley muttered to the statuesque Andorian seated next to her.
“Emergency Repair Hologram.” Shelana answered back, “Cheaper than hiring a real repair person.”
“And I don’t have to put up with demands for pay increases or benefits either.” Belen interjected with a smirk.
“One of the dabo girls didn’t show up for work this morning either and Lorox is still missing.” Qwixo declared with a worried frown. “Lorox has been gone for two weeks and Ara never misses work.”
“I didn’t know that you hired real dabo girls, Belen.” Shelana commented with an approving tone of voice. “I thought you were like all the other casinos…you know…using the Holo-Leetas…”
“We use Holo-Leeta too....” Belen explained, “Have to…it’s part of the licensing agreement. But I only use it when the girls are off shift. Customers react better to live dabo girls and when they’re happier...”
“They’re spending more latinum.” Nelia grinned as she gave her Ferengi friend a quick caress on his lobes. “He also does it to help girls like Ara. Even in the Federation latinum talks and not every world can take care of its people as well as the core worlds, nor is every world in the Federation as tolerant or wealthy as Earth, Betazed, or Trill.”
“She came here looking for a job…” Belen recalled, “And I needed a dabo girl…so it worked out well for both of us.”
Nelia laughed merrily as she complimented her friend, “You’re not fooling us, Belen. We know that you’re really a big softie.”
“Yeah…well…” The Ferengi businessman squirmed uncomfortably, “Just don’t let it get around…okay. I’ve got an image to protect.”
“We promise, Bel.” Ashley chuckled as she drank her beer. The lights again flickering as blue lighting filled the room, the former Alliance marine sputtered, “I saw it again! Out of the corner of my eyes.”
“I did too.” Shelana replied with a grimace as she turned to Twesata and Rana, “You two?”
Rana answered for the pair as her telepathic teammate nodded her head in agreement. “We felt them. They’re here and they’re hungry.”
“Shit.” Nelia swore under her breath, “What’s going on here Belen?”
“Hell if I know.” The bartender replied as customers looked about nervously, a few of them beginning to make their way out of the casino. “But something’s got to be done fast if I’m going to stay in business.”
“Maybe it has something to do with that repair holo-thing?” Ashley suggested. “They’re AI’s aren’t they? Think it might have gone crazy?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time a hologram went psycho.” Shelana concurred with a frown. “We might want to check it out.”
“We’ve been having problems with the power before all this happened.” Belen confessed, elaborating further. “This is an old Starfleet K-class station I bought third or fourth hand, and…well…replicators and holosuites eat up a lot of power so I had to do a lot of rewiring. I sent the ERH down to station’s core to see what the problem was and fix it.” Turning to his employee, the Ferengi station owner demanded, “And you’re saying you haven’t heard from him since he went down there?”
“Right, boss.” Qwixo obsequiously acknowledged with a nod of his head. “His last comm was shortly after you left. And it’s been getting worse since. The customers come here wanting to see Driffen’s Comet but they get scared once the lights start flickering and changing colors. I’ve had to offer discounts and comp spins at the wheel to keep them from checking out. Sorry, Belen.”
“When a customer dies ..or runs away the latinum stops coming.” Belen replied with a frown. “I hate giving discounts…it sets a bad precedent. But I’d rather lose a little latinum through giving a discount rather than lose everything because guests check out and don't come back--and worse--tell their friends not to come.”
“The 205th Rule of Acquisition.” Nelia interjected, explaining to her new crewmembers, “Ferengi society is profit-driven with the Rules of Acquisition essentially being a holy text.”
“Like the Bible.” Ashley acknowledged with a nod of her head.
“Correct.” Nelia affirmed. Speaking to her Ferengi friend, the green Orion rogue promised, “We’ll check up on what’s going on and if we find Lorox, Ara and the ERH, send them back to you.”
“Thanks.” Belen sighed with relief, “I’m going to stay here and try to get things at the hotel and casino back on track again.” As the women finished their drinks and walked away, the Ferengi bartender cautioned, “Be careful.”
Responding with a laugh and a wave, Nelia quipped, “Aren’t we always?”
“No.” Belen muttered under his breath as he opened the accounts ledger on his computer and frowned, “And that’s what frightens me more than anything else.”
“I still feel funny in this armor.” Ashley complained as she saw her reflection in the mirror.
“Why?” Nelia replied with a teasing grin as she did a pirouette, showing off the dark midnight blue skinsuit that she, Ashley and the rest of her team wore. “It’s designed for both stealth and protection. The armor’s shielded against most known scans and, with its attached hood, has the ability to blend into whatever environment you find yourself in.”
“So…” Ashley conjectured, “If I’m in a snow drift…”
“It will change color and texture to mimic that.” Nelia finished, further outlining the armor’s advantages, “It, and the personal shield that comes with it can stand up to most energy weapons in a sustained firefight and hold up against kinetic and bladed attacks until you either win or can get the hell out.”
“It’s just so…” Ashley shook her head, “I feel like I’m naked when I’m wearing it.”
Laughing, Rana interjected, “Don’t tell me you miss that bulky heavy armor you used to wear!”
“Yeah.” The former Alliance marine replied with a mournful sigh, “I do. It saved my ass on more than one occasion.”
“Your old armor might take a hit or two from an energy weapon.” Shelana explained, “But anything more than that…or against something like an antiproton or polaron weapon…” The Andorian tactical officer shook her head, “You’d be nothing but scattered atoms.”
“Yeah.” Ashley sighed, “I know. It’s just…well…I’d never hear the end of it if Joker were to ever catch me wearing this.”
“Not much chance of that happening in the near future at least.” Nelia quipped as she inclined her head in the direction of the turbolift. Then, seeing the somber look on her human teammate’s face, apologized, “I’m sorry. I have a bad tendency of putting my…what is it you human’s say? My foot up my ass?”
“It’s foot in your mouth.” Ashley grinned before letting out a sigh, “And it’s okay. I know you didn’t mean anything bad by it. I guess it’s just going to take some time for me to get used to things here and to the fact that I’m probably not going to go back home. Anyway…” The former Alliance marine let out a breath of air as she doublechecked her phaser pistol, “We’ve got work to do.”
“Right.” Nelia nodded her head as she gestured in the direction of the turbolift, “Let’s get moving, girls. Time’s wasting.”
“So…what’s the story on this station?” Ashley asked as she and her teammates exited the turbolift.
“Like Belen said, it’s a K-class station.” Shelana explained to the two newcomers, “Starfleet built it in the 23rd century to keep an eye on the Klingons and over the years it swapped back and forth between the two.”
“When tensions eased between the Federation and the Empire during the 24th century, this sector became more of a backwater as more attention was focused on the Alpha Quadrant.” Nelia interjected, joining the conversation. “Eventually Starfleet decommissioned it and the Klingons took it over for a while until they pulled out. After that, it became something of a hideout for raiders and pirates. A couple of years ago Belen bought the station and he’s been trying to turn it into a neutral port of call.”
“Its location makes it a good place for the powers to meet unofficially.” Shelana commented, once again picking up the narrative.
“So they provide security for Belen from any raiders or pirates wanting to take the station over again—right?” Rana queried as she entered the discussion.
“Right.” The lovely Andorian nodded her head. “You’ll almost always see at least one Federation, Klingon, or Romulan starship in port and usually more than one from each power along with the odd Ferengi, Tal’Shiar, Imperial Romulan Navy, or other minor power’s ship.”
“It’s all about location.” Nelia quipped, shaking her head as she and her team approached the maintenance elevator door. After a vain effort at calling the elevator to their floor, the Orion engineer remarked as she opened a panel next to the doors. “Give me a moment to bypass these power conduits and I’ll have the door opened. You girls might want to turn on your lights—I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be dark where we’re going.”
Letting out a breath of air as she exited the maintenance lift with her team, Nelia joked as her eyes registered the cluttered debris and scurrying insectoid life, “Damn! This is a mess.” Glancing at the Betazoid science officer beside her, the roguish Orion queried, “Are you picking up anything?”
After scanning with her tricorder, Twesata replied with a frown as she gestured towards a door on her left hand side. “The damned triolic waves are making it hard to get any good readings. I’m picking up something to the left though—behind that door.”
Setting her phaser, Nelia murmured to her teammates who were also drawing their weapons, “Get ready. I’m opening the door.” As she opened the door, two ghostly figures glided past the team, disappearing into the dark hallway. “Tell me you girls saw that too.” The green Orion gasped as she pointed in the direction the phantoms had vanished.
“I saw it. Felt it also.” Rana muttered, adding, “A…coldness…coming from them. Like they didn’t see us as anything but…”
“Food.” Twesata grimly finished, echoing her asari friend’s thoughts. “I got some scans of them before they disappeared. They’re definitely Devedian. Their readings match those the Enterprise took that are in our database.”
“Why do they look like ghosts?” Ashley inquired as she and the rest of her team entered the large room just vacated by the phantoms.
“They’re phase shifted.” Twesata responded.
“And that means…”
Letting out a breath of air, the science officer attempted to explain, “To put it simply, Devedians exist in another dimension. However, they have the ability to shift themselves into our reality given enough energy. That’s where the triolic energy comes in—they’re opening up portals into our reality. That same energy also permits them to open up time portals.”
“Well…shit.” Ashley cursed before inquiring pragmatically, “So…how do we beat them?”
“There has to be a lot of them to open up portals like this…” Twesata speculated as her Orion companion interjected.
“That means they probably have a nest or something further down into the core.” Nelia concluded ominously as she adjusted the settings on her phaser. “Let me have your phasers, I’m going to adjust them so that they’ll emit a proton burst. That should help against the Devedians’ phase shifting.”
“Over here!” Rana called out, pointing to a body lying motionless on the floor. “I think we’ve found one of our missing people.”
“Damn.” Nelia cursed as she and her Betazoid friend knelt down beside the bodies. “That’s definitely Lorox.” The green Orion groaned, pointing first to an ashen hued Ferengi and then speaking to her friend. "Twes? Did the Devedians do this to him?”
“No. At least not directly.” The Betazoid concluded, “It looks like he was killed by all the triolic radiation in here.”
“What about Ara and us?” Ashley queried worriedly, “Will that radiation affect us?”
“Our suits protect us short term.” Nelia responded, “Long enough for us to do what we have to do, but we can’t afford to play around. Unfortunately, Ara’s not wearing a suit. Also, the triolic radiation makes it impossible for us to beam the body…or ourselves or anyone else…out now. We’ll have to let Belen know when we get back so that he can send someone to recover him.”
“Right.” Shelana nodded her head, “Let’s find Ara and then that damned nest and take it out before more people get killed.”