Chapter Text
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 1: Eye of the Beholder
Scene 12: Daimon Ubok
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Daimon Ubok
“All ships halt! Hold your fire! We’re following them. Keep your weapons hot!”
Daimon Ubok was the head of one of the wealthiest families on Ferenginar, which made him cautious, conservative, and the top choice for this assignment. Grand Nagus Rom did not want a hothead making decisions about what was apparently the greatest hazard in Ferengi space in the past several centuries. And he had made it clear this mission was under the joint discretion of Director Pel and Daimon Ubok. Quark’s brother could be quite terrifying when he wanted to be.
Ubok watched the viewscreen intently, noticing that the Star Fleet vessels organized themselves into flowing field tactics to keep the larger, Intrepid class U.S.S. Mako closest to the ferengi shipping - then the refurbished and rechristened antique vulcan cruiser, the U.S.S. Beagle - both ships conspiring to place the U.S.S. Escort farthest from the ferengi cohort.
“Daimon,” said one of the bridge officers aboard the F.M.V. Avretta, “Director Pel is hailing from the Mako.”
Ubok made a grunt which his communication officer correctly interpreted and within a moment the screen displayed Project Director Pel seated next to Captain Yui Song on the bridge of the U.S.S. Mako.
“Daimon, we have telemetry from the bridge of the U.S.S. Escort,” said Pel. “You will want to rebroadcast to all ships.”
Ubok found that he was pleased to see a ferengi in an official role for his government sitting confidently on the bridge of a Federation starship. Even though the seat was way too big for the unusually small project director, he owned it. It wasn’t lost on Ubok that it was the ferengi who spoke first, not the ancient Star Fleet captain.
Ubok came up with another grunt that everyone, including Pel, correctly interpreted and the image of the bridge of the U.S.S. Mako was replaced with a recording of the bridge of the U.S.S. Escort, with the ship’s vulcan first officer in the captain’s chair. A sphincter opened in mid-air in front of the camera and a large, reddish ball emerged, obscuring the face of the vulcan as he stood up. The ball moved toward the pilot, seated in front of the now standing vulcan, allowing a sense of scale - it was about the size of a baseball. The pilot got out of her seat quickly and stepped back. She had retrieved a hand phaser from under her console, but did not raise it.
The ball rotated, revealing itself be a baseball-sized eyeball - white, shot with a lattice of red blood vessels - the iris a mixture of hazel and grey. It surveyed the room as the bridge crew started locking their stations and arming themselves. Only the vulcan commanding officer was unarmed. “Remain calm and keep your weapons lowered….” At that moment, the eyeball slammed headlong into the vulcan’s forehead… And disappeared. Lt. Commander Straiv resumed his seat in the captain’s chair as if nothing had happened. He looked around at his stunned bridge crew. “Secure your weapons and resume your stations.”
While most of the bridge crew, reluctantly, obeyed, the bridge tactical officer did not, choosing instead to aim his phaser at his commanding officer.
Without turning, the vulcan said, “That is an order, Lt. Anderson.”
“All due respect, sir,” the tactical officer started, then a brilliant flash of the bridge’s weaponry blanked out the video feed for just a second, tripping the red alert klaxon, and when the picture came back, only the first officer was still upright. He rose, walked forward to the pilot station, shoved the inert pilot out of her seat, entered a few commands into the pilot console, picked up the phaser dropped by the pilot, adjusted the settings and without turning to look, fired it into the hallway behind the bridge just as the door opened, hitting the ship’s captain. He turned and fired again when he heard the ancient klingon who had pulled the captain back into the hallway calling for her to be transported out.
The vulcan returned his attention to the pilot console as the ship’s captain dissolved into a transporter beam. The klingon collapsed and was motionless for a few heartbeats, then suddenly, in a single motion, turned, came up to one knee and hurled a small knife that embedded itself into the vulcan’s temple just as he was turning back toward the hallway.
The scene of the chaotic bridge was replaced with the bridge of the U.S.S. Mako. “Did any of that look familiar to you, Daimon?” asked Pel. “I think you can understand why Star Fleet ordered a retreat of 50 light years. Currently, all systems on the U.S.S. Escort are under review to find out just how much they had been compromised. And Star Fleet is reviewing the other two ships in their task force for evidence of compromise. I strongly recommend you do the same with our ships and report back any findings,” Pel concluded.
Ubok emitted a rather sour grunt that the his communications officer correctly interpreted, and the transmission was cut.
“He’s ordering a review of all ship systems now,” Pel said to Captain Yui Song. “You should see them backing off and changing from a surround configuration to a ready-chase configuration.”
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