Chapter Three

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A cold sweat dripped down Lucas Tompkins’ brow as he stormed back up the slippery, wet access tunnel in search of the mysterious vessel’s bridge.  His phaser clanked against the side of the hatch with each step, and his tricorder jammed into his side. 

 

But with every moment he spent on board the mysterious vessel, the more suspicious he grew of it.  Something wasn’t right here.  Perhaps the bridge, now that it had power, would hold some answers.

 

As he ascended through the decks, the clammy air began to warm, and the slimy, cool liquid covering the ladder began to lessen.  Soon, he felt the warm residual heat left over from vaporizing the wall to access the hatch.  It felt good.

 

He hopped out of the access hatch and into the corridor, performing a quick visual survey of the area while he waited for Trinn and Johnson to emerge. Even in the light, the place was still eerie.  The few emergency lights that had activated on this deck still blinked intermittently, and in combination with the organic sounding groans from the engine, the sounds sent a chill traveled down Tompkins’ spine.  He let out a quiet sigh as Trinn emerged behind Johnson. 

 

“I still don’t like this place,” said Johnson as he headed for the bridge.

 

 

 

The bridge was barely illuminated by a few ambient violet lights on the ceiling.  Possibly alert lights, or something of a similar function, they provided barely enough light to see.  The stations, on the other hand, were fully illuminated, allowing any officers present to perform their work adequately.  But there were no officers—not now at least.

 

Tompkins slowly approached the aft section of the bridge, where his tricorder told him an engineering station as situated.  “Jayla, I want you to scour this ship’s database.  Find out as much as you can about it.  Preferably, why the Dominion left it here?

 

“Kendall, this ship’s computer systems are beyond anything we’ve ever seen.  Find out about them.

 

  Seeing Kendall’s weary nod, Tompkins turned to the nearest station.  “I’ll see what I can do about moving this hulk.”

 

As Tompkins set into work on the awkward Dominion controls, he had a very short wait before Trinn started spouting information.

 

“This is an Asirex-class destroyer,” she said, “commissioned in 2375 under the command of a Vorta named Braxis,” she read from the readout.   “According to this, it was the first and only vessel of its class.”

 

“‘First and only,’” Tompkins repeated under his breath.  “Why?”

 

To that, he got only a blank look from Trinn.   “According to this, the ship was abandoned because of a problem with the cloaking device,” she said.

 

“That’s hardly a reason to abandon ship,” said Johnson.  “From what I’ve read, the Dominion would never give up that easily!”

 

“Which means whatever happened hear is far worse than the Founders wanted us to know,” said Lucas grimly.

 

“What?” Kendall asked.

 

“It’s a false log entry, Lieutenant,” said Trinn, as if the thought was as clear as day.  “It looks as if the crew made haste to erase several other files.”

 

 “Can you restore the files the Founders are covering up?” asked Tompkins as he pounded away at the engineering station, hoping for even a shred of information, as nothing of any use was forthcoming.

 

“A parity trace scan should be able to reconstruct any deleted files,” Johnson said quickly.

 

“Do it.”

 

In the relative silence that followed, Tompkins was able to concentrate on retrieving data on the Dominion ship’s engines.  Like most every thing else, the data appeared to have been tampered with, as it showed specifications for a large Jem’Hadar battleship.  But unlike the data Kendall was retrieving, this data was completely wiped from the computer core, so there was no hope of getting it back.

 

For only the briefest of moments, the thought of going to the engine room crossed his mind.  But rapidly, the thought of what strange horrors were housed in the ship destroyed his curiosity.  Get in, and get out, he reminded himself. 

 

When suddenly, a burst of garbled noise filled the air for a fraction of a second; it seemed to emanate from every direction.  Tompkins quickly spun around to see what it was.

 

“The files are a bit fragmented,” said Johnson sheepishly.  “I’m recompiling the data.”

 

“While the computer is doing that, would you mind checking the volume?  The last thing I want to hear is a dreadfully boring Vorta commander ramble off his logs with the volume at full blast,” said Tompkins.

 

“It’s a little known fact that the real reason the Dominion abandoned ship is because they couldn’t find the volume controls,” said Johnson as he poured over the controls in search of the obscure volume controls.  Had he taken the time to learn how to speak in Dominion tongue, he could simply order the computer to adjust the settings.  But he didn’t, and the computer would acknowledge his commands as English, translate them into Dominion, and decide he didn’t have the authorization to make the changes.  “You think it would be such a simple task,” he said as he struggled with the controls.

 

“It undoubtedly is,” said Trinn flatly from her own station.

 

After a few more minutes of playing with the controls, Johnson finally accessed the volume controls.  Buried under a series of related subroutines, the actual task was, as Trinn had suggested, terribly easy.  “I think we’re ready to go.”

 

Tompkins turned away from his station and faced the viewscreen.  “Then let’s see what Braxis had to say about his ship.”

 

 

 

SHIP’S LOG, COMBAT DATE 52765.9:  Despite our best efforts to tame this vessel, we are continually plagued by system failures and power overloads.  Containment fields on decks forty-three and fifty failed earlier today, resulting in the loss of seventy-one crewmembers.  While the core continues to run at peak efficiency, I am less than enthusiastic about seeing the results when we tap into its vast energy.

 

 

 

SHIP’S LOG, COMBAT DATE 52770.2:  After engaging a small Federation fleet in the Sira Idun Cluster, Third Sel’metiklan has informed me there was a problem with the cloaking device during the battle.  Stray tachyon emissions may have allowed one of the Federation vessels to lock onto our readings and track us.  While the entire fleet was destroyed, word may have been sent to Starfleet Command.  Should that be the case, the time may be nearing for us to put this vessel to the test…

 

 

 

SHIP’S LOG, COMBAT DATE 52778.4:  Our greatest fears have been confirmed.  A Federation task force near the Trinexx Sector has set a course to investigate a strange tachyon phenomenon near the Lukarris System.  That phenomenon is us.  With the ship still not completely under our control, the usage of the vessel’s unorthodox weapons may prove to yield consequences deadly to both the Dominion and the Federation. 

 

Even before our commission, the war was going well for the Dominion, and it shall continue to do so after our destruction.  Technology of this magnitude should never have fallen into Dominion hands.  Therefore, I am bringing the ship into the nearby inversion nebula, where it will be destroyed.

 

On behalf of my crew, I should like to acknowledge their bravery and devotion to our haphazard mission.  May they die well.

 

 

 

The last log entry terminated in a sea of distorted lines and annoying distortions.  But all three sat in awe at the revelations.  They knew something was wrong.  This had only proven it.  But the Vorta commander was careful not to reveal too much.  He must have known the possibility of the ship falling to enemy hands was a real threat, and didn’t want to divulge much of anything to them.

 

Tompkins firmly decided that Braxis had not bequeathed any vital information to them whatsoever.  Even before he had seen the logs, Tompkins knew something on the ship was not right.  But at the very least, he now knew why the ship was here.  Now the only question that remained was, why didn’t the Dominion ever come and get it?  The war had gone on for three months after the given stardates…

 

But there was no time to consider those possibilities.  A sonorous rumble suddenly sounded from many decks below them.  It gently rocked the massive ship from stem to stern, and sent the already unstable lighting into a random flicker.  As his station faded out of existence, Tompkins sighed nervously.

 

“What was that?” Johnson asked.

 

“I don’t know, Kendall,” replied Tompkins.  “But I don’t like it,” he added slowly reaching for his phaser-rifle.  As he grabbed the phaser, he felt a firm hand grab his shoulder.

 

“That won’t be necessary,” said the voice.  It wasn’t that of Johnson or Trinn.  It was a deep, monotone voice, that of a changeling.

 

Quickly, Tompkins dislodged the Founder’s grip and turned about to see his face.  But the darkness prevented him from seeing anything more than a shadow of his metamorphic figure.  “Where did you come from?” he asked the Founder forcefully.

 

“Behind, obviously,” he replied in an eerie calm.  “I am called Seleyar.  Welcome to hell.”

 

Tompkins suddenly felt the cool clammy air from the lower decks rush into the bridge.  “What do you mean?”

 

Seleyar chuckled.  “This vessel harbors a dangerous secret which has the potential to destroy both the Federation and Cardassian Union,” he said quietly.

 

Again, Tompkins felt the ship rumble under his feet.  “What is it?” he demanded, wanting to know why the Founder had even bothered to mention the Cardassians.

 

To this, the mysterious Seleyar had no response.  Tired of the Founder’s silly games, Lucas stepped forward to grab him, but to his surprise, Seleyar was gone.  He quickly pulled out his phaser and swept the room with its flashlight.  There was no sign of the changeling.  “Where did he go?” Lucas asked himself. 

 

“I don’t know about you,” said Kendall nervously, “but I’m for getting out of here.”

 

“For once, I’d have to agree with him,” said Trinn.

 

This Dominion ship was possibly one of the greatest finds the Federation had ever made.  But given all they had experienced, and the grim platitudes spouted by the mysterious Seleyar, Lucas had to agree.  “Tompkins to Mollmann,” he said after slapping his comm badge.

 

After waiting several moments in silence, Tompkins repeated his hail.  Still nothing. 

 

“It’s still out there,” Trinn reported from the science station.  “Maybe there’s something wrong with the computer,” she suggested.

 

At the moment, Tompkins was unconcerned with what was wrong with the shuttle.  He just wanted out.  “Use the Dominion’s transporter and beam us over there,” he ordered.

 

“Sure,” Trinn responded.  She immediately went to work at accessing the Dominion transporter systems, when the computer erupted in a loud beep telling her she couldn’t.  “The ship has raised its shields,” she said in surprise.  “There’s some sort of lockout—I can’t lower them.”

 

Kendall joined her at the science station.  “See if you can reroute the transporter subroutines to the secondary systems,” he suggested.

 

Trinn shot him an icy glare and started his suggested course of action.  Only to be stopped dead in her tracks when the ceiling lit up in a blinding white light.

 

All three of them used their hands to shield the light as it slowly probed the bridge.  As it drew nearer to the trio, the light took on a reddish-orange hue and started making a vapid humming sound. 

 

“It’s a baryon sweep!” Tompkins realized as it started moving across the bridge with increased haste. 

 

“If we don’t get out of here, we’ll be toasted,” Kendall said quietly. 

 

Tompkins sprung into action, heading for the corridor they had traveled down earlier.  But the baryon sweep enveloped the door before he could get to it.  Quickly, he came about and headed for the other door near the engineering station.  “This has to be a turbolift,” he decided.  “It looks like this is a low-level sweep.  Any deck below this one should be unaffected.”

 

Trinn sighed.  “I hope you’re right,” she said as she and Johnson joined him at the doors.

 

“So do I,” he said, tapping the button alongside the door.  Nothing happened.  As the fiery red baryon sweep drew closer and closer, Tompkins started frantically pounding on the controls.

 

“It’s not coming!” Trinn shouted as the rushing noise of the sweep increased the nearer it came.  “Use the manual override!”

 

Tompkins looked back at the baryon sweep.  It was less than three meters away.  “It’s too late for that!” he decided.   “Stand back!”

 

Trinn looked at the ever-nearer baryon sweep.  “Are you trying to get me killed?”

 

Tompkins pulled his phaser.  “Shut up and do it!”

 

Without waiting to see if they complied, Tompkins set the phaser to maximum and pulled the trigger.  An intense stream of intense orange energy blasted outward and vaporized the door. 

 

“Let’s move!” Tompkins shouted as the baryon sweep consumed the last few meters of the bridge.  He dove into the turbolift headfirst, crashing into the floor beside Trinn and Johnson.  Quickly, he slammed his fist against the control panel, and the turbolift went into motion as the baryon sweep finished its deadly run.

 

Inside the lift, there was no sign of any continued baryon sweeps.  Letting out a sigh of relief, Tompkins slumped down on the side of the lift and tried to calm himself down.  Had they waited a few more seconds…

 

 

 

Proceed to Chapter Four