CHAPTER SEVEN
Doctor Simon Tarses frowned as he read the
results of the scan conducted on the body of the late captain of the Nightshade.
He shook his head: "That's impossible..."
The nurse, who was
standing over the body, asked: "What is it, doctor?"
Tarses folded his
arms across his chest and said: "The results of the full bio-scan have
come in...And it's found the cause of these micro-cuts all over the captain's
body, as well as for the disintegrated arm."
"And...?"
She urged.
He turned to face
her: "I need to see Sutter."
He rushed out of the
sickbay, leaving the confused nurse alone.
* * *
Tarses emerged onto
the bridge of the Eagle, Sutter turned and said: "Doctor. And
progress?"
"Yes,
commander." He said, slightly winded from his run through the
corridors of the ship. "The damage caused to the Nightshade's crew is due
to exhibition to highly disruptive interphasic
particles."
"Interphasic..." Sutter frowned.
"Yes...I
believe this has something to do with the disturbance that is blocking our
sensors and keeping us from communicating with our away-teams…Somehow, an interphasic rift opened up within the planet's core
itself...Creatures have been known to live in a constant interphasic
environment, continually "phasing" from one phase--theirs--to another
phase--ours--. The interphasic rift must have brought
creatures from another phase into ours...The creatures attacked the Nightshade."
Sutter suddenly
jumped: "And the planet..."
Tarses nodded
slowly: "Probably..."
"So the away
teams down there are dealing with the same creatures that killed the crew of
the Nightshade." Sutter said. "We have to get them out of
there and seal that rift."
"But the
question..." Tarses said. "...is: How do we do it?"
"That's the
answer I want you to find, doctor...The science team will help you."
"Aye."
Tarses nodded, and he left the bridge.
Sutter sat down in
the command chair and shook her head: "Captain...we're coming to get
you."
She began biting her
fingernails...
The pilot of the
shuttle was flying on sensors alone; the blinding white of the blizzard was
making it impossible for him to fly by sight. Eskina sat in the co-pilot's
chair with
"How are
Kaufmann and
"Kaufmann is
fine now, but
Eskina smiled:
"That's good."
The pilot reported:
"We're approaching New Everest."
Eskina frowned:
"New Everest?"
"I see."
Eskina said.
Suddenly, a grey dot
appeared in the blizzard a few hundred meters away from the shuttle.
"What's
that?"
"Sensors are
still down..." Eskina said.
The dot suddenly
began moving towards them at great speed, as it came closer Eskina recognized
it.
"It's one of
the creatures! Turn the shuttle!"
The pilot tried to
comply as fast as possible but it was too late. The creature went right through
the window of the shuttle, pieces of glass flew all over and snow fell into the
shuttle. Eskina was blinded by the falling snow and a piece of glass cut his
cheek open. He heard a scream and saw the pilot envelopped
in the cloud of smoke that was the creature. He stared in horror, unable to
move, until a red beam transperced the beast and made
it disappear.
With no pilot, the
shuttle was now beginning to fall; it tumbled down towards a mountain. Eskina
watched as the mountain was getting closer and closer. He tried to gain control
of the shuttle but it wouldn't acknowledge.
"Come on you
piece of garbage! Move!" He shouted in rage as he
tried to reactivate the engines.
They wouldn't
respond.
The mountain was
still getting closer as the shuttle fell towards it.
The mountain was now
only a few dozen meters away.
"Eskina!
Hit the blue button!"
Eskina lunged for
the button and pressed it.
The top of the
mountain was only ten meters away now.
"Emergency
thrusters starting!"
The shuttle's
thrusters roared to life and the shuttle began to stabilize, but they were
still falling.
"Activating
the aft thrusters now!"
Eskina braced for
the impact of the shuttle against the snow.
In a smooth motion
the shuttle's front section jumped upwards and the engines roared. The
shuttle's engines had reactivated! Eskina could feel the air coming through the
broken window.
They were safe.
"There!"
Davies pointed to a moving object through the blizzard.
It was a shuttle.
Kline stared as it flew down from the sky and began destroying the creatures
with precise and deadly phaser blasts. The creatures fled in all directions,
trying to escape the fiery wrath that was descending upon them. Soon enough,
there were no more creatures around Gamma station.
Kline deactivated
the polarization fields and then rushed out of the station with all the others
and watched as their savior landed a few meters away.
The aft doors opened
and Gregory Eskina stepped out of the shuttle, wearing a large smile:
"Captain! Glad you're still in one piece."
"You're not
alone...I'm also glad." Kline said as they all entered the shuttle.
Kline met Commander
Sheridan and thanked him for their quick intervention. And while they exchanged
pleasantries, Eskina, who was seated at the pilot's seat, suddenly said:
"Uh...I'm reading something coming out from the mountain."
"What?!"
Eskina quickly
engaged the shuttle's engines and accelerated away from the mountain. When they
were a safe distance away, Eskina turned the shuttle and they observed the
mountain.
At first, the only
thing they could hear was a slight buzzing sound. Then, the sound got louder
and louder until it was almost unbearable to listen to.
Then, the mountain
literally exploded.
Gamma station was
vaporized in the massive explosion, pieces of debris and rock flew in all
directions. Eskina managed to raise the shields of the shuttle before they were
hit by the rain of boulders that was bearing down upon them.
Then they saw it...
The huge vessel came
out from the place where the mountain had been a few minutes before. It was
three times the size of a Galaxy-class vessel; it had a central section
made up of several cylindrical sections attached together with large tubes.
Long spidery claws came out of the aft section and were pointing towards the
front of the ship. It was of the same colour as the
creatures and was translucid. One could see some
remaining mountains through the ship itself.
"My
god..." Kline stared in awe at the massive ship as it rose into the sky.
"Sir, that ship
was the source of the disturbance that blocked out the communications. It had
been waiting in the center of the planet...It gives out an enormous amount of
scrambling readings." Eskina said.
"Where's it
heading?" Kline asked.
Eskina checked his readings and his eyes grew
wide with fear. He turned to face Kline and said: "It's heading straight
for the Eagle, sir..."