Chapter Text
Captain Aeris - U.S.S. Zephyra, Sickbay
Aeris took notice of Javan. "Unfortunately, we don't have any formal way of communicating with the Undine. I sent out a general distress signal from my short few moments on the Bridge, but, like before, it will probably not bring anything."
Winry approached from her end of the room. "Like before?"
"Yeah," Aeris sighed, not happy about recalling past events. "A while back, the Zephyra discovered an Undine ship, next to a portal, in distress. Something had gotten to its crew, but we weren't sure what. Since the general mission for our ship is to support those in need, especially medically, the crew and I decided we wanted to help the Undine-- despite the war."
The engineer shook her head. "Crazy!? But, who am I to judge? I once engineered neural stimulators onto an army of dead Vorta. Oh, I lost a bet."
"We determined the Undine ship would be no threat if the crew was revived and had hoped our gesture would actually help the war. Unfortunately, our efforts were failing and we got so desperate we entered Undine space to find their nearest bio base for support. We finally found something. It was small. It was... unnerving. But in the end we succeeded."
She tried to gage Winry's reaction who felt Aeris may have been hiding more than she let on.
"Anyway, we're heading there now, based on my recollection and Zephyra's existing charts of general interplanetary fluidic patterns. Hopefully, they'll send us back. The weaponizing was just a thought I had. It's probably nothing. It may be a while before we get there, so sit tight."
---
Captain Oroku Seifer - Earth Spacedock, Infirmary
Cetra pulled out Alyce's body from the storage shelving, bringing with it a mass of cold air which was not enough to mask the smell. Seifer recoiled in horror.
"Ugh!!!" he tried squeezing his nose, but it was not enough.
The medical officer continued. "After further investigation, by your orders, we did discover something interesting. We found a single nanite in her bloodstream. But instead of it being completely mechanical, it's mostly organic."
"You had to pull out her body just to tell me that??"
Cetra shrugged. "I just thought you'd want to see it again. Were you close with her?"
"You're thinking of a quadruple hybrid!" He began to take imaging scans of Alyce's tattoos. "Anyway, I'm shocked the first scans didn't discover the variant nanite?"
The woman nodded in appreciation. "Ah, classic need-for-explanation request. You see, not only does our find consist of her own DNA, but it's extremely small. It's much smaller than a nanite."
"Hopefully this helps Elihu. Thank you, Doctor."
She pushed the body back into storage. "Oh, I'm not a Doctor."
"Help! I need medical assistance!" came the howling cry of a grown man. Trelane stumbled into the Infirmary with a pulled arm muscle.
Seifer turned to criticize him. "Dammit, man, that's nothing!"
"Hey, you're not the one in pain!" Trelane argued. "Ever since Terry turned and ran like a little baby at our encounter at Risa, the Kitana's been dry-docked and locked down at ESD. He's nowhere to be found, so I've been trying to take command by repeatedly doing the 'Engage' gesture on its Bridge. Unfortunately, no one on crew will listen to me."
The Captain sighed. "It's possible he's another missing persons case. I'll add it to the list." He took out a PADD. "Anything you can tell me about his last whereabouts?"
"He was last seen boarding ESD. And something, I and some other crew have noticed... Terry is struggling with something. A sickness perhaps. But his eyes were witnessed to have glowed green."
Cetra began running a muscle relaxer device on Trelane's arm. "Green-eye syndrome. That could be the Romulan flu."
"Unlikely. He didn't show any signs of Plomeek soup addiction."
Seifer placed a hand on Trleane's shoulder, unconsciously causing him pain. "I'll find him, whatever you are." Then, attempting a guess. "Some kind of a space hipster?"
"I'm the under-powered version of an over-powered being! Everything in me is always in pain."
Eyeing him awkwardly, Seifer left the Infirmary.
---
Captain Aeris - U.S.S. Zephyra, Bridge
The Captain had been staring, seemingly unblinking at the viewscreen for hours as fluidic space flung by at incredible speeds. Winry had taken control of sensors, picking up something odd.
"I believe I'm reading three distortions in fluidic space. They may be Undine bio cruisers who are making themselves obvious on purpose," Winry reported.
Aeris sat up. "What!? Are you saying we lack the ingenuity to detect something without another's consent?"
"Well, I kind of just got off break with no intentions on making any statements, so, probably not," the engineer replied. "Anyway, do you want to hail them?"
The Captain nodded. "Undine vessels, this is Captain Aeris of the Federation starship Zephyra. We were brought to this dimension against our will."
T'Vix answered the hail. "Yes. I know. Fortunately for you, you have been located by a vessel under The Infamous' influence, rather than an opposing faction, such as the one that attacked Earth Spacedock a couple weeks ago. You will beam to my ship immediately to discuss the terms of your surrender."
"While I appreciate your restraint and that you have the ability to speak, surrender is not something we have time for. Though, I will discuss the situation with you," Aeris replied.
But before she could give the order to transport, the Zephyra was pulled out of fluidic transit by a large, disgusting green and veiny tentacle. It suctioned its end to the hull, followed by another one. The Zephyra was pulled toward a giant organic Undine biobase.
"Damn!" Aeris recognized the biobase. "It's the same one from before, only it's bigger?"
Winry got up from the floor at her console. "Well, I think we found what we were looking for."
"Prepare the environmental suits. We're going into that thing."