The Liris dropped out of warp near Barzan II, and quickly turned towards the wormhole.

Sh’ill was sat in his chair, looking out at the planet and wormhole that had just appeared near the ship, and was thinking about what was before him. “Hmm… isn’t that looking nice. And that… that is what Starfleet is relying on to get us to the Delta Quadrant. Doesn’t look like much, but it’s there.”Sh’ill got out of his chair, and walked over to the helm, where Lieutenant Junior Grade Delvok was sat, as Jatia and Xasin were making last minute preparations for the wormhole.

“Lieutenant, take us to within 500 kilometers of the wormhole, and then halt. I want us to stay there. Meanwhile, get out a star chart of what’s beyond that wormhole, and chart us a course to the Markonian outpost, to the staging area.”Sh’ill looked down at Delvok’s console, and watched as the Vulcan entered the course, and slowly approached the wormhole.

“Great. Hold here.” Sh’ill walked to the MSD, and looked upon it for just a moment, making sure that he had some privacy, and tapped his combadge.

“This is Lieutenant Commander Sh’ill to Lieutenant Erti. Come in, please.” He announced, and waited for a response.

Meanwhile, down in Engineering, the Bolian Ensign was finishing his check on the plasma injectors, while the Bajoran Lieutenant was checking the antimatter injectors.

Hearing the Captain pipe through on comms, Jatia tapped her combadge, and responded.“Lieutenant Jatia here. How can I help, Captain?” She said in her usual cheery voice as she continued to check the injectors.

Sh’ill responded in his usual gruff voice, not trying to sound particularly happy. “Lieutenant, when can we get underway? I understand that you want to get your… stuff together down there, but we’ve only been in space for a few days, there’s no need.

Jatia leaned against her console, and got a bit angry. “Captain, it’s better to check than to blow apart in the middle of that wormhole that Starfleet is sending us through.”

Sh’ill too got a bit angry, and carefully snarked into the comms channel. “Alright, but you have 10 minutes to finish up, and not a second more! I want to be through that wormhole in the next millenium, Lieutenant.”

Jatia snarked back a bit, and responded. “All right, all right, we’ll finish up soon. Erti out.” With that, she closed the comms channel, and turned to the Ensign. “We have 10 minutes, let’s get to it.”

Bok quickly turned around, and looked over at her. “Yes, ma’am. Right, we only have the main core left, that should be quick.” With that, he finished on the injector console, and walked over to the warp core.“Checking it all would take 3 hours, so let’s check out the dilithium unit and energy shunts only. Right, let’s do this.”

Jatia nodded, and started examining the warp energy shunts, making sure that they were all right. Meanwhile, Xasin was checking out the dilithium chamber, as agreed.

After a while, Sh’ill heard the familiar woosh of the turbolift doors, and turned over in his chair to look at the Lieutenant and Ensign that had just walked onto the bridge.“Ensign, take the helm, Delvok, by the tactical console, Lieutenant, report: Are we going to blow up as soon as we enter that wormhole?”

Jatia smiled, and walked to the MSD, where she looked at it for a few seconds. “No, we’re not going to blow up, Captain. We checked it all.”

“Well, in that case, let’s get moving. Ensign,” Sh’ill turned in his chair to face Bok, “take us into that wormhole, slowly.”

Xasin slowly nodded, and accelerated the ship, heading right into the wormhole. As they approached, the wormhole flared up, and revealed a gaping hole inside, into which the Liris entered.

Now in the wormhole, there was a whole light-show waiting for them all. The wormhole walls flared up and down at will, but it was all soon over, as the Liris exited the wormhole, and out into the Delta Quadrant.

Out in the Delta Quadrant, Sh’ill quickly stood up, and walked to the helm.“Ensign, there should be a charted route from here straight to the Markonian Outpost. Use that route, and do not deviate from it. We do not know who or what could be lurking here. Maximum warp, now.” With that, Sh’ill sat back in his chair, and looked as the ship sped up to warp speed.

His XO walked up to him, and leaned down to talk to him. “Commander, what are we planning to do at the outpost? We’re here, we have weapons, we’re ready. Why go there?”The Captain looked up at her, and smirked. “I want to have a talk with the people aboard the outpost, especially the Starfleet ones, and find out what we can do to help. That’s why we’re heading there. And I would appreciate it if you didn’t question my orders in the future, unless you feel that I have gone either insane or that they are stupid orders.”

“Alrighty then, cat man. I’ll take your word on that.” Jatia responded, and stood back up normally, and walked over to the helmsman, Ensign Xasin.

“Captain seems a little angry today, doesn’t he?” Jatia whispered to him, hoping to the Prophets that Sh’ill’s Caitian ears weren’t able to hear her.”

The Bolian didn’t even look up from his work, and only half-hushedly responded.“He has reason to be, I’ve seen that he likes taking things slowly when it comes to things that he doesn’t know very well.”

Jatia thought about that for a moment, and walked off to the side of the bridge, and leaned on the wall. “Thanks for the advice, kid.”

Sh’ill could do naught but raise an eyebrow at the two’s conversation, but that eyebrow was quickly raised even higher as they dropped out of warp near the Markonian Outpost, and quickly started approaching it.

The Liris quickly approached the station, maneuvering expertly between the larger docked ships, and to a free dock.

Right as it was making its final approach, Sh’ill got to the OPS console at the back of the bridge, to make sure that the docking was done right, he wanted to do all that was possible to make Starfleet a well respected organisation here that doesn’t have the reputation of damaging any docking ports or airlocks.

“Right… ENSIGN, SLOW DOWN TO ONE QUARTER THRUSTERS,” Sh’ill yelled out across the bridge in his signature deep bass, “AND STOP MOVING ON MY MARK!!”

The Ensign followed the orders exactly, and slowed. A deep “MARK!!” echoed across the bridge, the engines were immediately cut, and there was the signature damp thud of a docking port connecting to the ship.

Sh’ill moved to the centre of the bridge, and got everyone’s attention. “Right, this is an alien station, and even though it has been stated as safe, we go in in pairs, and no leaving your partner. Got that, people?” Sh’ill looked around, and saw the approving nods of everyone, and then walked to the turbolift.”Then let’s move, people. Computer, lock the ship down once everyone has left.”

With that, the crew stepped into the turbolit, out into the hallway, and out into the station.

Sh’ill and lot stepped onto the station ground, and looked around the outpost, but saw no species that they could immediately recognise. They were all Delta Quadrant species, making deals, having meet-ups, eating strange foods.

The Caitian Lieutenant Commander looked over the area, and turned to his crew.“Delvok, you’re with Jatia. I’m taking the Ensign. Now, Jatia’s team, I want you to find a proper map of the region. While we, Ensign, are going to search for info on where we could find that dilithium, and more so, if anyone needs our help.”

Erti nodded, and looked around. “We’ll do our best, Captain. Let’s go, Lieutenant..” She said, and waved Delvok over.

Sh’ill looked over at Bok, and looked him up and down.“Make sure to not touch or look directly at anyone, we don’t know how they could perceive that. Now, let’s move, Ensign.” Sh’ill split off in the other direction from Jatia’s team, and Xasin followed along in suite.

Walking through the busy hallways of the outpost made Ryoko miss her ship a bit more. She was instead moving, then stuck at a station. But this operation was essential for the improvement and well-being of all Starfleet officers operating in the Delta Quadrant. Ryoko noticed Sh’ill and smiled softly, “Captain Sh’ill, do you have a moment for me?”  

Sh’ill looked over at Ryoko, and immediately took a subtle, yet respectful stance.“Yes, ma’am. I’m here, looking for Starfleet officers who also have been ordered here, a map of the region… if you have any of that, please tell us, we’d appreciate it.”While talking to Takato, Sh’ill quickly put his hands behind his back, and began, rather foolishly as we shall soon find out, trying to signal to the Bolian Ensign to get in line with him, and to not just stand there, looking looking like an idiot.

Waving her hands downwards, “Calm down, Captain, my name is Captain Takato. I am the Starfleet Liaison for TF86 here. Seeing our Task Force CO is busy at the other side, it is only logical for the XO to step in. I believe you are part of that TF. So you are at the right address” Ryoko looked around noticing a bit the crowded space and then looked back at Sh’ill “I am here to give you your orders and the map”  

Sh’ill, still not calming down, slowly responded.“Mhm… and what, in that case, are our orders, madam? Also, if I may…” Sh’ill quickly grabbed his PADD from behind his back, and sent a quick message to Jatia.“Excuse the interruption, ma’am. Yes, what are our orders?”

“Right, in the north, just past Hazari space, there is a system named Droth 2V5. The anomaly hit it. Long-range scanners have detected the ice planet in the system to have blood dilithium growing on its surface. I want your ship to travel there and investigate it. But be on your guard. The area is plagued by other mining hunters.” Ryoko warned him as she warned Captain Praugol “If you have some crew members that are telepathic sensitive. Leave them here for their and your safety. Questions?”

Sh’ill looked at Ryoko for a moment, and responded. “Ma’am, I do have a crew member that is telepathic, however.. he is my only security officer, and my CSO. If I leave him here, my helmsman will have to both shoot and fly the Liris. If I take him with, well… I was hoping to bring some of the dilithium on-board, perhaps study more in depth why exactly it causes these.. effects on telepaths, and perhaps find out why it is crimson. If you order me, I’ll leave Delvok here, but I would rather not, ma’am.”

Her facial expression became more concerned and cold, but eventually, she sighted, “Just be careful and place a minimum of level 3 containment field around the dilithium. Or you will have a field day with a very aggressive CSO” Ryoko was not pleased about it, but this mission was not so much in close range of any Devore. So it was the Captain’s responsibility to take care of the crew. 

“Ah, so we have found something that can block the dilithium’s effect on telepaths?” Sh’ill responded.“Well, I am hoping to develop a cure of sorts for the dilithium’s effects, and I’m also hoping to find a way to purify it, and get rid of the blood in it, so as to make it usable on ships.”Sh’ill quickly took out his PADD, and noted down the planet info, including the fact that it was an ice planet, which Sh’ill did not like one bit.

“Well its not a solid solution, but you can do your work” Ryoko stated “Well you got your mission good luck on your journey and stay safe” She gave a soft smile at him and nods briefly before leaving

After talking with Takato and acquiring some really quite valuable info, Sh’ill turned to look and see what his companion, Ensign Xasin had been doing during the conversation.

He saw that the Ensign was standing at the corner of the corridor, looking over at a cafe across the hall. Sh’ill walked over, and looked over the Ensign’s shoulder to see what had captivated him so thoroughly that he hadn’t even moved when the Caitian looked over his shoulder.

Sh’ill saw a serene, truly beautiful woman sitting and reading from a PADD. Sh’ill instantly knew why the Ensign was frozen in place, and so he grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around.

“Ensign… you are on duty, so act like it. If you want to look at women, you are welcome to do so, but do that when you’re off duty. Now then, let’s go, before there’s another one, and that one lays eggs in you. Not a pleasent procedure to remove them.”

Bok was looking around, not able to focus on one single thing, but Sh’ill shook him a bit, and looked him in the eyes, and that seemed to calm him down for a bit.

“Y.. yes, sir. I’ll try.” The Ensign slowly nodded as he spoke, and once he had been released from his Captain’s tight grip, he took a slow breath in, and looked at the ground. “I should have been paying attention. I apologise, it won’t happen again, sir.”

Sh’ill walked in front of him, and indicated for him to follow.“Make sure of that. Now then, let’s see what else we can find here.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the outpost, Jatia and Delvok had come across a shop selling various specialty items, which included maps. The shop’s owner, a friendly Talaxian, had a tendency to try and sell as much as he could to customers, to varying degrees of success.

Delvok had found what they both had been looking for on the messy shelves, a more complete map of the Gradin Belt, and he brought it over to Jatia for inspection. She had a quick look at the starchart, and compared it to what was in the cartography database, and she had found it to be more accurate than what they had.

She brought it over to the shopfront, and sat it down, and looked over at the Talaxian, who was already moving his fingers almost like a Ferengi would, and walked over from the back, to see what had been set down.“Ah yes, the map of the Belt. I assure you, it is accurate, I have used it myself. Could I also interest you in a map of the wider region, or perhaps the illustrated map of Voyager’s journey home, together with a story book for children?”

Erti looked over him, and responded.“I know what you’re trying to pull, and it’s not working. Besides, do I look like I have children? Alright, how much for the map? We have a lot of spare supplies, you can have a look at our cargo manifest.” With that, she handed the Talaxian a PADD, while she herself was still looking down upon the map, seeing where corrections in the Starfleet map could be made.

The Talaxian quickly grabbed the PADD, and quickly scrolled through its contents, noting down various items that could sell for a lot.“You do have quite a lot of stuff. Could I interest you, perhaps, in a cargo itemiser which would make making cargo manifests much easier?”

Jatia just looked at him, trying to find out whether he was joking or not, and responded.“No, thanks, I’ll pass. Now then, what do you want…”Erti’s PADD beeped, indicating that there was something interesting for her on the PADD.A message, that was what had caused the beep, and from her Captain: “Lieutenant, we no longer require a map, I just got one from the Starfleet liaison here. We don’t need the Gradin belt map, but if you can find one of what’s north of Hazari space, get it.”

Jatia looked at the message for a few seconds, and then turned to the shopkeeper once more.“Right, we don’t need the Gradin map any more. Do you have one of what’s north of Hazari space, preferably something accurate?”

The Talaxian was caught a bit off-guard by the sudden change in requests, but quickly replied as if nothing had happened.“Yes, yes I do have a map of that. Let me just find it…”The Talaxian swiftly turned around, and began searching through the shelves behind him, with a few PADDs falling to the ground, but he paid no attention to that.

After about a minute and a half of the Talaxian searching through the shelves, he finally found something.“Ah yes, here it is. Hazari north map.” He brought over a PADD to the shopfront, and set it down.“For that map, I’ll take some of those spare medical supplies you have. I’m especially interested in that crate of cordrazine.”

Jatia looked into the shopkeeper’s eyes for a moment, trying to discern whether the offer was genuine, or he was pulling some trick.“Of course… I’ll have to talk to my Captain about that, he does all the inventories.” Jatia tapped her combadge, and quickly walked to the side of the shop, where the Talaxian couldn’t hear her.

Sh’ill was on the other side of the station, looking into shop windows, looking for anything that might be useful in their expedition, and right as his combadge beeped, he had been looking into a shop window selling impulse capacitators.“This is Sh’ill. How is your search for the map going?”

Jatia thought about her response for a moment, and responded.“Well, we have found the map, sir, and we have been offered a price of one crate of cordrazine for the map.”

The part of Sh’ill that was responsible for knowing what all the pharmaceuticals that he used did immediately fired off, and shot back on its own, without Sh’ill’s conscious mind even filtering what it was saying.“Lieutenant, my medical supplies are off limits when dealing with that merchant, and especially him. Cordrazine is a very powerful stimulant, and could be used to kill an entire ship or station in moments. Under no circumstances are you to give that merchant even a whiff of that cordrazine. Is that understood, Lieutenant? The most you will give them is a few holodeck waste removal units, we have plenty of those. Are there any questions?”Sh’ill had barked all this out in a few seconds, no more. He wanted to make sure that his point was driven home well.

Jatia quite audibly gulped at the sudden outburst of her Captain, and quickly and concisely answered.“Yes, sir. No questions. I’ll… offer those units.”

Sh’ill calmed himself down a bit, and responded.“Good. Sh’ill out.”

Jatia now quickly ran back to the shop front, and looked the merchant deep in the eyes.“The cordrazine and any medical supplies are off the table. My Captain has offered 3 holodeck waste reclamation units.”

The Talaxian smiled a bit, he knew that the jig was up, but he would still pretend to be a fool.“Alrighty then. I’ll take four of those units, if you’re not giving me the cordrazine.”

Jatia’s bargaining sense kicked in, but quickly shut itself off once more, she knew that there wasn’t much to bargain on.“Alright. They’ll be here by the end of the day. Send the transporter coordinates to the Liris.”

The Talaxian merchant gruffed a bit at his unsuccesful attempt to get away with some powerful drugs, but generally kept a controlled and happy outwards appearence, so as not to cause any more trouble for himself.“Alright. They shall be sent promptly. Thank you for shopping at Jamix’s Maps and Navigation.”

Jatia raised her eyebrow for a moment, but then turned to face Delvok, who had been standing in the corner of the shop, examining some trinkets that he had some interest in for some reason.“Let’s get out of here, Lieutenant.”

Sh’ill, meanwhile, had been window shopping with Ensign Xasin, just walking around the station, looking at all the different species that were here that neither of them had ever seen before.

Bok was quite excited to be just casually walking around with his commanding officer, and so was, very characteristically, practially jumping from all the dopamine that was flooding his brain.Sh’ill, meanwhile, was doing his best to ignore all of Bok’s antics, and was simply prancing around and keeping his thoughts and emotions to himself.

This is how all 4 of them spent the better part of 2 hours, one of the pair walking around and almost flying from the joy of being somewhere new, and the part of the pair simply walking around, looking at what the other was doing, and keeping to themselves.

Eventually, the four of them met up at the ship at the prearranged time, and entered into it, leaving the Markonian Outpost behind for today.

Sh’ill stepped into his quarters after the excursion on the station, and slowly sighed. It had been a long day for him: dealing with a superior officer, having to do a minor dress-down of one of his officers, then walking around with him for an hour.

He slowly sat back in his arm-chair, and ordered a synthehol from the replicator. Of course, he could have over-ridden several restrictions and gotten real alcohol, but Sh’ill was sure that Delvok would get very logically mad at him for that.

And so he picked up the synthehol glass up, and stood in the middle of his living room, while looking out into space. The stars flowed by like grains of sand in a river, and there Sh’ill was: alone in his quarters, a bit drunk and watching them flow by.

After emptying the glass in about 10 seconds, he placed it back into the replicator, and walked out into the corridor, in the direction of the mess hall, hoping to get some dinner.

Meanwhile on the bridge, an argument was brewing between Lieutenant Erti Jatia and Lieutenant Junior Grade Delvok.

“Ma’am, there is more to kal-toh than symmetry. And I assure you: it is more than Vulcan chess.” Delvok calmly stated, all while his eyebrow was reaching up to his hairline.

Jatia shot back. “No, the game is all about symmetry, you just have to find it, it’s that simple. I don’t understand what you are talking about.”

Delvok’s eyebrow had now reached his hairline. “Ma’am… I suggest that you educate yourself about the meaning of kal-toh before you attempt to argue with someone about it.”

Jatia defeatedly fell back in the Captain’s chair. “It’s… fecking impossible to argue with a Vulcan!”

At this point, Sh’ill had overheard their arguing from all the way down the corridor, and burst onto the bridge.“WHAT…. is all the yelling about?”

The Bajoran Lieutenant quickly stood up, and stood at attention.“Sorry, sir… we got into a small argument.”

Sh’ill squinted at them both, and leaned against the MSD.“Make sure that this doesn’t happen again, because I want to dine in peace. Now, Lieutenant,” Sh’ill stepped forward, and looked at the helm, “how much longer until Droth 2V5?”

Delvok quickly pulled up the charted course, and looked at the ETA. “Approximately 2 hours, sir. We should be there by 2245 hours.”

Sh’ill thought for a moment. “Put us into a geosynchronous orbit 3000 kilometres above the equator of the planet when we reach it. And if you start to hear any voices, immediately up the orbit to 10000 kilometres, and inform me. Perform a full scan of the planet once we get there, Got it?”

Delvok calmy looked at Sh’ill while he was explaining, and nodded at the end. “Yes, sir, understood.”

Sh’ill nodded back, and looked over the two of them. “Good. I’ll be in the mess hall if you need me.”With that, he walked backwards towards the door, and back out into the corridor of the ship, all while doing his best to keep a look on them all the way through.

Sh’ill slowly walked through the slim corridor, looking down at the ground as he walked.“Those two do not get along. That reminds me, I should make sure that their medical files are up to date.” Sh’ill thought to himself, all while slowly walking.

What he hadn’t noticed or heard while walking were the quickly approaching steps of Ensign Bok Xasin, who, by chance, was reading from a PADD while walking, and too hadn’t noticed the other approaching.

They bumped into each other, and the Ensign’s PADD fell on the ground, while Sh’ill’s perfectly set beard had been messed the hell up.“Ensign!” Sh’ill said in a half-voice. “Please, watch where you’re going. Are you alright?”

The Ensign scrambled to quickly pick his PADD up, and stand back up straight.“Y-yes, sir. I’m alright. I’m sorry, I hope that nothing was hurt.”

Sh’ill simply grinned, and looked him over, all while subtly combing his beard with his claws.“I’m alright, should live. Make sure to watch where you’re going.” With that, he nodded at the Ensign, and walked into the mess hall, hoping to god that he wouldn’t follow him.

Sh’ill looked over his shoulder as he walked up to the replicator, and quickly input the command for a whole, unsliced and cooked Caitian rabbit, together with a bottle of synthale and a large meat cleaver.

The requested half an isoton of food appeared in the replicator slot, along with a cleaver the size of a human forearm. Sh’ill quickly picked this all up, and walked over to the nearest table, where he put it all down, and sat down himself.

Sh’ill licked his lips as he looked at the beautifully glazed and still steaming rabbit. He picked up the cleaver, and chopped off one of its legs, and took a massive bite right out of it, right as Xasin walked in.

The Ensign was, quite predictably, disturbed at what he saw. A massive cat, sitting at a table, chopping off the legs of something pig-sized, and casually chowing down on them without any cutlery to be seen.

Sh’ill looked over at the Ensign, and downed the bite that he had in his mouth. “Can I help, Ensign?” Sh’ill raised his eyebrow a bit, and then looked at the cleaver that the Ensign had been looking at.“Look, I’ve ripped legs off before, it’s much easier with this. You want some?”

Bok couldn’t even speak for a few moments, and simply did a half-nod to indicate that yes, he did want some.

Sh’ill nodded back, and quickly spoke. “Grab a plate, and if you must, a fork.” He took another big chomp out of the rabbit leg, and dropped the femur down on the plate on which the rabbit had come. Sh’ill took the cleaver, and took off the other leg, and used it to shave some meat off the femur onto Xasin’s plate, who, by now, had sat down, and was awaiting his part.

As his tablemate chowed down on the second leg, Bok calmly took a few bites of the rabbit leg, and appeared to enjoy it quite a lot, as he quickly took another bite, and soon finished what had been given to him.

Sh’ill too had finished his leg, and had now stood up and was looking menacingly at the cooked animal which was before him. He took note of the empty plate of the Ensign, and nodded. He then extended his claws, and simply took off some other parts of the rabbit for himself, and some others for the Ensign, leaving only scraps and a few bones of the large animal.

They now both engaged in an unannounced race in who could finish his parts of the rabbit first, and they were pretty evenly matched: even though Sh’ill had more experience, Bok was really hungry and he loved the taste of it.

In the end, they both finished at about the same time, with no clear winner between them, only two men with full guts and a raised cholesterol level. Sh’ill took a swig of his synthehol, and grinned a bit at the taste, and slid it over the table to the Ensign.

Sh’ill laid back in his chair, and looked over at Bok. “You know… when you’re not jumping around, you’re actually tolerable. And you actually like the taste of that rabbit.”

Bok practicallly inhaled the contents of the bottle, and burped a bit after finishing.“That was a rabbit? I thought that it was 2 pigs served side by side.”

Sh’ill nodded, and slowly stood up with the two plates and cleaver in hand.“A rabbit, a Caitian rabbit. I’ve hunted a few of those back on Cait, clever little animals. Sharp teeth.”He placed the bones back in, and slowly started walking out of the mess hall.“Right, I want to be there when we enter orbit. Ensign, come with me.”

Bok nodded, and followed along with his Captain, and walked onto the bridge of the USS Liris.

Jatia spun around in the Captain’s chair, and stood up as she saw the Captain enter.

Sh’ill nodded at her, and sat down in his chair.“Lieutenant, did you change the seat settings? Let me just..” He moved his hand across the bottom of the chair, and found the lever to raise the chair a bit higher.“That’s better. Now, Ensign, take the Ops station, but be ready to head to engineering. Lieutenant, take the Science station and keep an eye on the MSD. Delvok, how long until the planet?”

Erti and Xasin took their stations, and signed onto their consoles.Delvok quickly responded, he had been keeping an eye on the ETA for a while now, anticipating the Captain’s question.“5 minutes, sir.”

Sh’ill leaned forward in his chair, and held up his head with his arm.“Go to yellow alert, and keep your hand over the charge weapons command. I want to make sure that we don’t get any surprises. Sensors, is there anything in the Droth system that would demand my attention?”

Jatia piped up, and read out her sensor logs.“5 planets, third one has the blood dilithium, one asteroid belt around the 5th planet, nothing special… nope, nothing.”

Sh’ill thought for a moment. “Hmm… perhaps there’s nothing, or maybe something’s hiding…”“Lieutenant, is there anything in there that could disturb sensor readings?”

Jatia scanned again, this time looking for any anomalies.“Yes… there are some asteroids in that belt that could disturb readings, but we won’t be approaching that planet.”

Right with that, the Liris dropped out of warp in the system, and started approaching the planet.Delvok quickly entered into a geosynchronous orbit around the equator, as per the Captain’s orders, and quickly scanned his mind for any voices.There was naught but the empty silence of a disciplined Vulcan mind, only mildly disturbed by the flow of information from his sensory organs. 

Sh’ill quickly looked over at Delvok, and quietly pulled out a tricorder to scan him.The scans didn’t pick up anything strange, only the usual.“Right, people. Phase one is complete: we are in orbit. Ensign, get down into the storage bays and prep winter clothes for three people. Sizes for me, the Lieutenant and yourself. Delvok’s staying here.”

Xasin quickly stood up from his console, forgetting to sign off it, which Jatia quickly spotted.“Yes, sir. Where should I put them?”

The Captain pondered for a moment, still as the statue of the thinker, and looked over at him.“Bring it to the transporter room, and wait for us there. You can get ready, I just have to give some final orders.”Xasin nodded, and stepped into the turbolift, descending deeper into ship.

Sh’ill stood up, and sprinted over to the helm.“Right, Lieutenant. Seeing as you are the only telepathically sensitive person on the ship and you’re going to be alone, if you start to hear voices or feel weird in an unusual way, ascend to a higher orbit, 10000 kilometres away from the planet, where it should be totally safe. Got that?”

Delvok nodded as Sh’ill finished.“Understood, sir. I assume that the unusual effects are caused by the strange form of dilithium, sir?”

Sh’ill stood up, and looked down upon the Lieutenant.“Yes, they are. Now, we are going to be beaming a sample aboard. While we’re gone, set up the a level 10 security field in sickbay, centered around the sickbay lab table. If all goes well, we should be able to get it aboard without any risk to you.”

Delvok was silent for a moment, pondering why his Captain had decided on such a course of action, but he did not voice his doubts about Sh’ill’s plans, he kept them to himself, and answered simply.“Yes, sir. Understood.”

Sh’ill sprinted to the back of the bridge, to where Jatia was standing, and spoke once more.“Good. Now, Lieutenant, let’s get to the transporter room. And Delvok… good luck.”

With that, Sh’ill and Erti rushed into the turbolift, and descended straight to the transporter room.

There, Ensign Xasin was already waiting, with his coldproof jacket and trousers already on.

Sh’ill quickly nodded to the cold suit with Jatia’s name on it, and quickly put on his own. It was hot inside, yes, but that was the point of the jacket and trousers: to keep you warm in the coldest of colds.

With that, Sh’ill nudged the two of them onto the transporter pad, and got on himself.“Computer, three to beam down to the coordinates input into the tranporter memory by Lieutenant Jatia.”

The computer thought for a moment, and responded.“Confirmed. Energizing.” The three of them disappeared into the blue-ish light swirls, and appeared down on the planet, where the cold was already seeping into their bones. In the distance: a mass of red dilithium.

Bok looked around at the planet, and shuddered. T’was cold, extremely cold. The young Ensign could feel the cold seeping into his jacket, but it was still keeping him warm.

Sh’ill had immediately spotted the blood dilithium, and looked to his landing party.“Right, you lot. We’re heading to that thing there, we’re going to take samples, and then we’re going to get the hell out of here. Understood?”

Bok simply nodded, and followed Sh’ill. While walking, he saw that the planet was not much more than a blizzardy snowball with almost no terrain except a few low hills far and wide apart. As he walked, he felt the cold slowly leave him, and now the only place where he felt it was his face.

The crazed winds rushed past him, pushing snow and bits of hale into the Bolian’s face, almost as if the winds were making fun of him, and trynig to stop his advance forward.“I’m going to push through,” Bok thought to himself, all while squinting and looking into the distance, “The cold isn’t that bad, I mean…. it really isn’t. I will… get there!” Bok yelled the last part out into his mind, right as he felt sensation leave his cheeks.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Erti Jatia was keeping herself sane by thinking about her warm quarters, and the warm cups of raktajino that were awaiting her on the Liris. No cold would keep her from the sweet embrace of the raktajino. Jatia looked at her people, hoping that at least one of them would keep her company all through this walk, but it did not seem so. 

Xasin seemed too focused on trying to hold onto his body heat, and Sh’ill was thoughtfully staring at the mass of red in the distance.

And now we finish off the thoughts of our brave landing party by peering into Sh’ill’s mind. He too was cold, but less so than his companions, his fur was keeping him warm. His mind was focused on keeping a brave exterior, so as to keep good morale within his crew, even though within he was scared of fucking up this first major mission of his, and was trying to do his best.

By now, their heroic triad had reached the foot of the blood dilithium mountain, and were looking up its slopes.The mountain was at least 100 metres high, 300 metres in diameter, and seemed to glow in a brighter red than a forest fire. It was truly massive.

Sh’ill looked to his companions, and especially to Ensign Bok Xasin.“Ensign… how shall we take off samples?” He said, with his voice half muted by the howling wind.

The Bolian hesitated for a moment, partly because his lips had frozen over a bit, and because he wasn’t totally sure if the phaser that he had brought with him would do it.“I was planning to use my phaser, though we may have to beam down a phase cutter if that doesn’t work sir.”

Lieutenant Jatia, as an expert in molecular topology, immediately piped in.“You should beam down a phase cutter, that phaser won’t do much to what is basically a mirror maze for particles.”

Ensign Bok considered his options for a moment, and slowly touched his combadge, to contact the ship.“This is… Ensign Bok Xasin to the USS Liris. Beam down a phase cutter to us.”

A few seconds after, the computer responded, “Confirmed.” and a phase cutter slowly appeared on the ground in front of the Ensign, who painfully bent down and picked it up.“How much do we need, sir?” He said to Sh’ill, and turned the phase cutter on, which seemed to give off some amount of heat.

Sh’ill got down on the ground by one of the small dilithium rocks by the slopes, and looked up at the Ensign.“Take the top off of that, and we should be good. 15 centimetres should do. Just… be careful, I don’t want to have to reattach any arms or pick up pieces off you off this rock.”

The Ensign nodded, and carefully started shaving off the top of the rock, taking care to not go anywhere near his limbs, and to do it with extreme care. He slowly got down by the rock, and moved the phase cutter no more than a few millimetres at a time, and finished within 5 minutes.“Here, sir. Should be good now.”

Sh’ill quickly picked up the hunk of rock, and moved it over a few metres, away from the dilithium mountain.“I’m surprised that no one’s come here yet. Maybe they just haven’t noticed. Oh well… Computer,” Sh’ill tapped his combadge. “Beam the rock of dilithium in front of me to the middle of the security field in sickbay. If needed, take off the sides if it won’t fit.”

The computer was quick to respond, and took the samples off the ground in a woosh of blue light, leaving the away team alone on the planet.

Sh’ill quickly looked around, and tapped his combadge to get them off this frozen-over hellhole too.“Computer, three to beam up, quickly. Beam Lieutenant Erti and Ensign Xasin to the transporter room, get me to the bridge.”

On the bridge, Delvok had spent the last 30 minutes carefully doing his duties, trying to keep his mind off the blood dilithium which might or might not cause hallucinations, and which might or might not cause him to go insane. But, in the end, he logiced his way to the conclusion that either way there’s not much he could do.

Suddenly, the young (at least by Vulcan standards) Ensign heard the familiar noise of something being beamed somewhere, and he turned in his chair to look at it. However, he did not have much time to look at what had been beamed on, as it was already running towards him, and was rapidly taking off its jacket.

Sh’ill rushed to Delvok, and immediately stood him up.“Lieutenant, are you okay? Any hallucinations, you hear voices? Answer the question.” Sh’ill yelled at him, and mildly slapped him around to make sure that he was aware of what was going on.The Lieutenant kept calm, and slowly explained. He did not even attempt to resist the mild slaps from his Captain, which felt more like laying down on a soft pillow than a slap.“No, sir, no hallucinations, and no voices. And yes, I am okay.”

Sh’ill put him back down by the helm console, and took a step back.“I hope that you will forgive me for the slapping around. I was making sure that my crew was okay. Anything interesting happen up here while we were down there?”

The Lieutenant quickly looked over his console, and turned back to face the Captain.“We did pick up some strange readings from the 5th planet, near asteroids that contain minerals that are disrupting sensors.”

Sh’ill walked across the bridge, and sat down in his chair, right on the winter jacket that had been thrown there by him.“Call the Lieutenant and Ensign to the bridge, and seal off the sickbay lab, no one with a lower security clearance than mine is to go in there.”

Just as Sh’ill had been beamed onto the bridge, so had Jatia and Bok been beamed to the transporter room. The two of them walked over to the console, and slowly took off their winter uniforms, revealing their standard uniforms which were underneath.

Jatia quickly got off all her stuff, and placed it into the lockers in the transporter room, and shivered a bit as the air of the ship hit her.“This is why I like Bajor, it’s much warmer, and you never need a winter coat. Here, you beam down and turn into an icicle.”

Meanwhile, Bok was a little more gentle with his winter armour, as he was with all Starfleet property, and neatly folded it all.”Down there, ma’am, it seemed cold, but now that I think about it… it was about the same as on Bolarus. Snow all the time, and ice as far as you can see.”

Jatia quickly closed her locker, and turned to face Bok with a raised eyebrow.“You enjoyed that frozen over hell? You must be completely insane. I’ll put in a request for the Captain to do a psych eval.” She said, as she did a small giggle, and walked to the door, waiting on Bok.

The Ensign saw Jatia walk over to the door, and he quickly ran over to the locker to place his stuff into it.“I didn’t say I enjoyed it, I just said that it felt like home. One of the reasons why I joined Starfleet, actually: to not have to deal with the cold.” With that, he closed his locker, and walked to the door.

The two of them stepped out into the hallway on Deck One, and walked to the bridge, to find their Captain with his winter pants still on and jacket placed on the backrest of his chair.

Sh’ill turned to face the two of them as they entered, and quickly spoke up.“Right, listen up you two. We just got a message from Starfleet that had specs for something that can get rid of this blood dilithium. I want you, Ensign, to build it, and get it ready within the next 24 hours.”“As for you, Lieutenant, I want you to analyze that thing that we shaved off that rock, and find out what it makes it do its thing. You are to work inside a containment field and to keep it in one at all times, because I’m not risking Delvok going insane right now. To work, people.”

Bok and Jatia looked at each other, and rushed to their respective stations, to quickly get to work.Jatia opened up the Starfleet file on blood dilithium, and started to take notes on it, to try and figure out how to even work with it as safely as possible.Bok rushed to open up the specs sent to him by Starfleet, and examined them closely. They seemed to be nothing like anything that he’d ever built, but he’d do his best. After all, it’s only a fancy bomb… or something like that, he wasn’t fully sure.

Sh’ill, in the meantime, looked to Delvok, and spoke up.“Lieutenant, chart a course to take us around the planets of this system. Chart it so that it takes us around every planet, but especially the fifth. I want to see what’s out there without it looking like we know what’s there. Also set up a torpedoe which will emit a large amount of tachyon particles once launched. I want to see what that is cloaked in there.”

The Vulcan Lieutenant nodded, and quickly pulled up a map of the system, and started charting a course. While doing this, he also slowly filled a torpedoe with the requested particles, and prepped it for launch.“Torpedoe is ready for launch, sir, the course will be ready momentarily.”

Sh’ill simply nodded, and fell back in his chair, trying to calm himself down a bit.

Bok was sat there at the ops console, looking at the anti-dilithium weapon in awe: he understood somewhat how it worked, but not completely. Eventually, he opened up the spec-sheet and list of parts that it would need, and copied it onto his PADD. T’was a long list, and all of it would weigh a Lot, with a capital L. And, of course, all of this would have to be fit onto a Class-5 probe, with every part in its specific place, or it all would blow up in his face.

With that minor revelation now in the back of his mind, he stood up, and ran into the turbolift, where he punched in the command for the cargo bays, and shot down.

Bok stepped off the lift, and entered into the lonely hallway of Deck 4, and walked into the cargo bay, and looked over its contents, and slowly gathered all that he would need onto an anti-grav platform, carefully lifting the lighter parts, and more or less throwing around the heavier components so that he wouldn’t have to deal with them for so long.

Bok placed the final component, 5 metres of wire, onto the anti-grav platform, and stepped back to look at it all.“Computer… beam the anti-grav platform to Engineering, preferably to somewhere on the side.”

In the span of a few seconds, it all had dematerialised into a swoosh of blue light, leaving the centre of the cargo bay empty.With the emptiness, Bok left the cargo bay, and stepped into the turbolift to head up to Engineering.

The young Ensign walked to the anti-grav platform, and slowly sat down on it all. He had a faint idea how he would assemble all of this, and worst of all: he had 24 hours to put all of this together.“Computer…” Bok hesitated to speak, but somehow pushed his words out, “beam a Class-5 probe to the middle of Engineering.”Almost instantly, just as before, a hunk of metal started appearing in the middle of the room, and finally landed in the middle of the room.Xasin walked over to it, and slowly walked around it, all while checking on the blueprints of the version that could get rid of the blood dilithium, and slowly started to work out how he would do it, but making that deadline of 24 hours would not be easy, it would take no less than 3 straight shifts to finish, and that would be if he made no mistakes.

And so, the Ensign took the first component, a heat sink, and walked over with it to the probe.

But now we must return to our friends on the bridge, and see how they are faring.

Delvok looked up from his console, with the course now charted, and spoke to the Captain in his completely emotionless, yet strangely soft voice which seemed to assure everyone around him of their safety.“Captain, the course is ready and laid in.”

Sh’ill shot up in his chair, and straightened out his back.“Good work, Lieutenant. Fly at half impulse, not to arouse suspicion, but also not too slow. I want to be sure of what’s out there.”

The Vulcan nodded, and turned back to his console, and quickly tapped the commands for half impulse, and the Liris quickly broke orbit, and set off for the next planet in the system.

Delvok carefully followed along with the sensor reading coming in from the front of the ship, all while keeping on course and trying to do his best not to rock the ship. He practically immersed himself in the sounds of the Liris as he flew it, and felt every little turn that he made with his body. Many Vulcans, including his parents, would disapprove of him steering a massive ship like this, but how would they know? The Lieutenant Junior Grade suddenly jumped up after an hour of flying like this in his chair, and the flight immediately became more Vulcan-esque.

The Captain, Lieutenant Commander Sh’ill, shot up, and spoke carefully.“Lieutenant, eyes on the road.. I think that’s what the humans say, can’t remember. No sharp turns, the armrests here won’t be enough to keep me in if you do a 180.”

Delvok quickly got himself back together, and quickly responded.“Yes, sir. I’ll keep it straight.” Delvok was on the verge of saying “distracted,” but somehow did not have enough courage to push the d-word out. It was hard for him to understand what really was going on, but he felt… odd. No matter, the ship needed to keep going, and so he shoved these thoughts into the back of his mind.

The Liris flew past the inner planets with ease, but then slowed down a bit near the gas giant at the edge of the system, the one with those mysterious readings on the sensors.

But none of that mattered to Ensign Bok Xasin, who was sweating profusely after carrying a lot of heavy machinery around Engineering. He had been hard at work to construct the probe that could destroy the blood dilithium, and so had been welding and attaching circuitry for the last hour of their flight.

Xasin walked over to the anti-grav platform, and looked down at the next piece, and down at his PADD. That indicated that this was the supplemetary power source for the probe, and would need to be welded at the back of the probe. With a heavy heart and even heavier eyelids, the Ensign picked the power generator up, and carried it to the probe, where he placed it on the back of the probe, and grabbed his welding torch and mask from his toolkit, put the mask on, and got to work. 

Now all he had to go was rudimentary go around the entire structure of the generator, and weld it in. But he had forgotten his gloves. After about 5 seconds of welding, a combination of sleeplessness and not having gloves caught up to him, and he fumbled the 3000 degree torch in his hands, and felt the torch sear through his skin, and into the bone.

Bok acted quickly, and kicked the torch to an empty place, and yelled out into Engineering.“Computer… medical to Engineeri-” with that, he passed out from the pain, and fell to the floor.

Back on the Bridge, Sh’ill looked to the console embedded in his armrest, and saw a half-assed request for medical to get to “Engineeri-”, and he immediately shot up.“Lieutenant Jatia, you take command.” With that, he rushed into the turbolift, and nearly destroyed the console with how quickly he pressed the command for the Engineering deck.

He rushed out into Engineering, and looked around quickly, looking for the Ensign.The Captain spotted him on the floor, with an active plasma torch near the wall.“Oh you..!” He yelled out, and grabbed the medpack off the wall, and ran to the Ensign’s side.

He looked over the wound, and made a quick decision: He would beam the two of them to sickbay, where he would then take proper care of it all.“COMPUTER, TWO TO SICKBAY, QUICKLY!” He yelled out, and watched the Ensign disappear into a shimmer of blue light as he saw his eyes do the same.

Now in Sickbay, Sh’ill acted quickly and precisely.He lifted the Ensign onto a biobed, and immediately placed him into a stasis field, and started immediate triage: The Lieutenant Commander got out some cordrazine, and shot it into the Ensign with a hypospray, hoping to get his heart pumping, because he knew that these types of severe burns could and would cause immediate heart problems.

Sh’ill looked over the biobed readings, and noted that the heart-rate and respiration had normalised. His next issue was the half a centimetre deep hole in Bok’s hand, which would need a lot of repair work. He sat down on the nightstand, and took a closer look at the wound.

It wasn’t bleeding, it had been immediately cauterized by the torch, but there was a massive hole in the hand. Sh’ill did not have even the slightest idea on where to begin, and he ran over the list of known procedures for stuff like this. Amputation and replacement with robotics could only be performed in a larger facility, he could grow new tissue, but that would take at least two weeks, and he needed an engineer now… it did not seem hopeful for him.

“Well, I could always take a bit of tissue, and a few rods of titanium for the missing parts of bone… yeah, but from where? Think, think!” He was talking to himself, all while leaned down by Bok’s side, and looking at the wound.“I could take a bit from the leg, take some titanium rods… mould them into the correct shape… I mean, it could work. But for now, Ensign… I have to deal with the mess upstairs. Computer, alert me if anything major changes in the biosigns of Ensign Bok Xasin.”

“Confirmed. Alert set up.”

“Good.” With that, he stood up from the nightstand, and looked to the blooded block of dilithium in the middle of his Sickbay.“And you better not go anywhere either.” With that, he walked out of Sickbay, into the turbolift, and shot to the Bridge.

The Lieutenant Junior Grade had been keeping on course around the planets of the Droth system, and he slowly manoeuvred past the planets, and slowed as he came upon the last planet of the system. He looked to his console, and saw where he was in the route: just past the fourth planet, and nearing the fifth, not near any of them, but not that far from either of them.

As he deduced this, he felt Lieutenant Erti creeping over his shoulder, and looked over: ”Lieutenant, if you are attracted to me, you should say so instead of invading my private space.”

Jatia jumped up from his side, and straightened out. “Uh.. I’m not.. I was just looking at your console, wanted to see where we are.”

Delvok raised his left eyebrow, and turned back to face his helm console.“Then I suggest, ma’am, that you use the console in the Captain’s chair, it’s much more convenient than walking here.”

Jatia damn near started yelling, but calmed herself down before starting.“You… ah, Vulcans. Alright, alright, I’m going.” She fell back into the Captain’s chair, and stretched a bit, right as she heard the turbolift door opening. “Captain!” She jumped up, and moved to the side. “What was the emergency?”

Sh’ill ruffly walked onto the bridge, and over to the MSD, which he stared at for a solid minute.“We’re out of an engineer, Jatia. A chunk of his right hand was burned off by a plasma torch, he went into a shock, and is currently recovering in sickbay. He’ll make it, but he’ll need extensive surgery, which I can’t provide here on the Liris. Well, I can, but I’d need additional medical personnel, and I have only myself. But that’s the least of our problems.”

He walked to his chair, and sat down in it.“Lieutenant Erti, you’ll be in charge of both ops and science for now. Delvok, ready that torpedoe for launch. Time to see what the hell is that thing in that belt. Follow the course, and when we are nearest that object in our course, make a sharp turn towards it and shoot that torpedoe. No more secrets shall be in this system.”

The Vulcan Lieutenant nodded, and continued following along the course, all while keeping a fniger over the weapons trigger, ready to fire at anything.“Understood. Maintaining course, making approach to Droth 5V5. Closest point above sensor anomaly in one minute. Maintaining speed of half impulse.”

The Liris soundlessly cruised through the system, t’was only a speck of dust on the cosmic scale, but for the crew of the ship it was their entire world, and they would protect it with their lives, whatever that anomaly turned out to be: a magnetite rock or a Devore fleet. Now only a few seconds to their turning point….5… 4… 3… 2…

Delvok nearly shook the Liris apart as he executed the 90 degree port turn with a pitch down. Now facing the anomaly, he hit the trigger to fire the modified torpedoe, and it shot off into space with a mighty red glow the like of which could not be recreated even by the finest of the fine red-shirts.

The tachyon torpedoe plunged towards the object, and only a kilometre from it detonated, coating the area in tachyons.The Captain shot up in his chair, and turned towards the ops station, and half-yelled at the Bajoran Lieutenant who was staffing it.“What is that? I want readings, now.” He made a 270 degree towards the helm, and looked to the viewscreen, trying to figure out what was it that he had just uncovered.

In the wake of the explosion all that had remained looked to be… a piece of metal? No, it couldn’t be, Sh’ill thought to himself.Jatia read over the sensors, and responded to her Captain’s inquiry.“Looks to be some hunk of metal that’s messing with sensors. I’m doing a deeper scan, but it doesn’t look dangerous. Hold for a minute, the scan is taking a bit.”

Sh’ill rushed over to the science console, and looked over the readings himself, somehow hoping that it was something interesting, but also hoping that it really was just an irradiated hunk of metal that had given him anxiety.

The readings seemed to confirm what the Lieutenant had told him, that it was just a hunk of metal that was messing with sensors.“Hmm. Delvok, keep us here, we’ll wait until we have better info about that thing.”Sh’ill walked back to his chair, and sat down on it as he looked out into the distance.

Delvok nodded, and took to his console to execute his orders, but the words of his Captain seemed to be repeating, and so he turned around to check what was going on: his Captain was sat quietly, and the Lieutenant was performing what looked to be a scan. The Lieutenant looked back at his console, and shrugged a bit. Something was off, and the voice speaking was not of his Captain.

Delvok was at his console, looking at the flood of data flowing from the sensors, both internal and external. Nothing interesting on either of them, but that was the most interesting thing in itself: they had hoped for something interesting, and now the lack of anything interesting was interesting in and of itself interesting. Quite interesting.

The Captain turned to face Lieutenant Erti, and spoke.“Any updates on that thing? If not, I’m sending you out there in a space suit to check it out., because I’m not leaving without knowing what that is, and why it’s there.”

Jatia, the CSO, fell back in her chair, and turned in her chair with a defeated face.“Nothing about that thing out there makes sense, Captain. It’s irradiated as hell for no discernible reason, it’s rusted which would suggest having been exposed to oxygen, but that planet has no oxygen, mostly argon, and what’s more: there seems to be some writing on its surface, but the computer can’t make heads or tails of it.”

Sh’ill got up, and stared at the viewscreen for a moment, before speaking to his helmsman, Lieutenant Junior Grade Delvok.“Take us in closer, and keep the shields up, I don’t want any surprises. Lieutenant, can you assure me that that thing is safe?”

The Lieutenant looked over at her console and the data on it, and defeatedly responded. “Well, the radiation seems to be the only thing dangerous about it, but I can’t assure you. If you want to bring it aboard, we’ll have to clear out the shuttle bay.”

Sh’ill pondered for a moment, and then looked to Delvok. “Clear out what you can from the shuttle bay with the transporter, and if you have to leave anything, put it behind a force field. I don’t want anything to be affected by that radiation. This thing might, of course, also be cursed, but what do I know?”

The Lieutenant nodded, and got to work with the transporter, beaming crates into corridors and various nooks and crannies, trying to maximise the space in the shuttle bay. The MSD, at which his Captain was looking, showed crates disappearing from the shuttle/cargo bay, and appearing everywhere, from Engineering to the Deck Two corridors by everyone’s quarters.

After some time of beaming stuff across the ship, the cargo bay looked emptier than ever, at least on the MSD, and only the shuttle that was stored there remained. Sh’ill walked across the bridge to the viewscreen, and looked out. “Anything new to report about that thing, Lieutenant?”

Jatia turned back to face him with an expression that couldn’t signal anything good.“Well, good news is that I know why it’s radioactive. Bad news is that I’ve found traces of that dilithium forming on top of it. It’s nothing big, no more than a few atoms, but their numbers seem to be growing exponentially every 10 minutes or so. I recommend destroying it immediately before it becomes a threat.”

The Captain nodded, and turned around to face his crew, all while attempting to hide his anxiety and dismay for this whole situation.“That’s the thing, we can’t. I have experience in Engineering and I could put the probe together, but I’ve only ever fixed rudimentary things that don’t require rewiring a whole Class-V probe. Any recommendations on that?”

Jatia nodded, and spoke with a more cheery tone this time, indicating that there were good news on that front.“Well, I have figured out how we could recreate what that probe is supposed to do on a smaller scale with our phasers, enough to destroy anything on that hunk of metal, but I can’t adapt it to work on that mountain on 2V5. I mean… I could, it just would blow the warp core up.”

The Captain’s eyes lit, and he shot over to his helmsman, and looked up at his CSO.“Send over the modifications to him, and you… adapt them into our weapons, and as soon as it’s possible, get rid of that thing out there. I will try to fix up our Chief Engineer. Lieutenant, you have the bridge, keep my seat warm…” He ran over to the turbolift at a lightning pace, “And don’t destroy the chair, I like it.”

The Bajoran woman smiled thinly, and slowly made her way to the Captain’s chair, and carefully sat down.“Don’t worry, Cap’n’, I won’t. Now then, the modifications should be simple…”

Her voice was cut out by the closing of the turbolift doors, and the quiet whirring of the lift. Sh’ill laid on the wall, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes: he was trying not to think about the massive responsibility that was weighing on him – 3 lives, 3 very fragile lives. But he would do anything to protect them, and that was what worried him most. There was no time to worry about that, however, as the turbolift doors opened, revealing to him the corridor of Deck Three, and the sickbay that was right there.

Stately, Ensign Bok Xasin had been laying in his biobed, unaware of the gaping hole in his hand, and unaware of his being observed by his Captain. He was also unaware of the hypospray that was approaching his hand, and in just a few short moments… he was aware and awake, and looked up to see Sh’ill’s furred face above his.

The Caitian looked into the eyes of his subordinate, and as calmly as could be, spoke to him. “I believe that you are aware of where you are and why you are here. Am I correct, Ensign?” He spoke, with not a hint of sadness or anxiety in his voice.

Bok slowly opened and closed his eyes, and looked around himself in confusion.“I think I’m in… sickbay, sir. What happened? And why does my hand feel weird, sir?” Slowly, he said these words, and very audibly gulped, and did not dare to look down at his hand, fearing for the worst.

Sh’ill mentally sighed, and calmly responded, knowing that he did not have much good to say to him.“Ah. While you were assembling the probe, you fumbled a plasma torch in your hand, and nearly cut it off. Not much good I can say. You’re lucky, Ensign, that you managed to get the computer’s attention before anything got much worse. You went into cardiac arrest, and were close to death. Now for the bad part: I can’t fix your arm with what I have here, I’d have to have additional supplies and more medical officers. I’m sorry, but you’ll be here for at least a week until we can get into contact with other ships.”

Now with a lot of anxiety in his voice, Bok sighed, and slowly turned a bit in his bed, trying not to move his half-missing hand at all.“I understand, sir. And… what’s with the probe? It’s sitting in Engineering, three quarters of the way there, and I know that you need it badly. I was putting on the supplementary power source for the emitter, when… all this happened.”

The Captain nodded with understanding, and straightened out his back and leaned on the wall behind him.“I know, and I’ll have to finish it. We have the specs and the materials, now I just have to put it all together. I’m pretty sure I know where you were in the process. And no, I won’t let you leave Sickbay to help me finish. You need the rest here for reasons mentioned previously.”

The Ensign knew that there wasn’t much that he could do to convince his Captain to do otherwise, and so he just decided to not even try anything.“Understood. I’ll be here. If you need a progress report on what I’ve done, I can write it.”

Now there was a mutual understanding of what would happen during the foreseeable future, Sh’ill thought, and nodded a bit as he got off the wall, and walked over to the door of the Sickbay.”Now rest, and don’t start walking around. Computer, take Ensign Bok Xasin off of active duty, and don’t let him leave Sickbay.”

The brains of the ship chirped a bit, and confirmed all that the Captain had said to it.

Now with a more casual walk which expressed Sh’ill’s state of mind, he walked into Engineering, and straight to the probe. He looked over it, taking note of the half finished welding on one of the pieces, evidently the supplementary power source. He looked over at the schematics, and frowned as he looked at the mess of wires that the schematics required him to build. A small shield emitter there, hooked into that, but that is… piece number 145, which is….Sh’ill spent a good few minutes looking at the schematics before he could even pick up the toolkit, and start welding.

Meanwhile on the Bridge, Delvok had spent most of this time twiddling his thumbs in idleness, not being able to figure out anything to do, and so he sat there, looking at the mostly unchanging numbers on his console. Occasionally, he even looked up to look out at the stars right beyond the viewscreen, and wondered what was past them in a very un-Vulcan fashion.“Quite lovely, yes, that they are…” he muttered to himself, unaware that the XO had noticed a while back, and was now sat looking at him.

Jatia stared into the back of his skull, weighing everything that could cause him to act like this, but could come up with no good explanation for what was going on. Finally, she spoke.“Lieutenant! Are you still here, or have you lost your mind?”

Jumping up at the sudden interruption of his murmuring and thoughts, Delvok turned to face his superior, and quickly logic-ed his way through his actions, and surprised himself at being able to find no cause for them. All there was was the murmuring, and not much else.“I have no plausible explanation for what has happened. I seem to have been talking to myself without realising.”

A bit surprised at his explanation, Jatia walked over to him and looked down into his eyes.“Lieutenant, are you sure that you’re alright? I can’t have anyone not alright piloting the Liris.”She asked, and waited for a moment for his response.

But Delvok did not have the heart to answer. He knew that the Lieutenant was speaking to him, but he could not answer. He felt his control over his body slip away and disappear into nothing. He saw himself rise up to face Jatia, and felt his arm rise….

Meanwhile down in Engineering, Sh’ill was just finishing up with the probe, looking it over to make sure that all the parts were in place, that no crucial wires or hunks of metal were missing, that all the minor and major emitters were in place. He circled the probe, looking both at his schematics and the probe simultaneously, trying not to miss anything that might cause it to fail.

All seemed okay, and so Sh’ill walked to the exit of the cargo bay/shuttle bay/whatever and tapped on his combadge.“Computer, erect a security field 1 meter in front of me stretching to the other security fields, strength level 10. I don’t want any air leaving any of this.”

The computer confirmed, and a massive field shot up in front of Sh’ill, making it impossible for anything to pass through.

Sh’ill looked the field over, as if he was trying to find holes in it, and tapped his combadge.“Sh’ill to Bridge. Open the cargo bay doors, the probe is ready for launch.” He received no response, he did not even hear anything.

He rushed out of the cargo bay, and into the nearest turbolift. He feared that the worst had happened…

Sh’ill wondered about what was going on on his Bridge in dreadful anticipation of bloodshed up there. He was almost certain of what had happened, but he did not have the courage to even consider how that could have happened. And now, the turbolift stopped. In a few moments, Sh’ill would see what had become of his two Bridge officers. He assured himself that it was probably just a comms blackout, just that something had gone wrong.

He stepped off to a truly dreadful scene. It looked as if though several murders had been committed right by the MSD. But, of course, there weren’t several. There was but one, and that was Lieutenant Erti.

Delvok was peacefully sitting in the Captain’s chair, using the console on it to command the ship. He either hadn’t noticed Sh’ill stepping off the turbolift or just did not care. The Lieutenant, with a bloodied uniform, was commandeering the ship and was steering it straight into Droth 2V5. He had no look of remorse on his face, in fact, he had no emotion, the only thing suggesting that something had happened just now was the blood all over him.

The Captain hurried over to his XO and quickly took her heartrate and blood pressure with his hands, hoping to anyone who was up there that she was still alive. And she was, but just barely. From what the Commander could make out from her unconscious body, she had been knocked around the Bridge a fair few times and was bleeding heavily.

Delvok, or at least whatever was inside Delvok, turned around to face Sh’ill. “I wouldn’t try, Sh’ill. There’s no point. This ship, if you can call it that, will be a wreck soon. It will be a part of the blood.” He smirked, as if though he was enjoying this whole situation, and turned back around to face the viewscreen.

The Caitian, in a gust of fury, anger and vengeance, shot up and grabbed the Lieutenant from behind. “I do not know what you are, but do not fuck with my XO.” He grabbed him from behind with the raw power drawn from his need for revenge and body-slammed the entirety of Delvok into the MSD, shattering the console and throwing bits of glass all across the Bridge and coating them both in green blood. Sh’ill threw Delvok down on the ground at the side of the Bridge and moved to get them away from the planet.

But Delvok hadn’t been knocked out, their people were used to physical near-torture like this. He rose behind Sh’ill and straight punched the Caitian on the side of his face, hoping to get him down so he could neck-pinch him more easily.

The Commander knew that something like this would happen, and he knew that he would take a few punches. Sh’ill, now even more enraged, pulled Delvok up to himself with his hand and socked him twice straight in the jaw, which was no longer in one piece. He threw him back down, knowing that he had now passed out from the pain. If the heightened synaptic activity from the entity hadn’t been enough to overload his brain, this would do it.

The ventral part of the ship, where the cargo bay was, slowly opened, and a probe dropped down. Conveniently enough, while attempting to crash the Liris into the planet, Delvok had gotten the ship close enough to also destroy the dilithium on it. And so Sh’ill steered the ship away from the planet, but kept it close enough so that he could make sure that the probe got everything.

The Caitian stood up from the helm, quickly setting a course and putting the ship on autopilot, and walked over to his XO, who was still laying on the floor. Sh’ill quickly got the med-pack off the wall and started treating her with utmost care. He looked to his medical tricorder, hoping that she had a good chance of surviving. She did not. Jatia had lost a lot of blood, and her life was hanging by a thread. “No, no, come on… stay with me, stay with me… Computer, access medical records and beam up a blood transfusion of the Lieutenant’s blood type, 1 litre. Do the same for Lieutenant Junior Grade Delvok.”

He picked the transfusions up off the floor and rather chaotically got them both some blood. Sh’ill was horribly afraid of what might happen, he did not want his first major mission with his new crew to end with major casualties. But he was also an excellent doctor, and that was improving their chances.

Jatia slowly opened her eyes and looked up to find Sh’ill standing over her, examining her with a tricorder. “Where… where am I, Captain?”

Sh’ill leaned in, trying to calm her. “You’re on the Bridge. You were severely injured and have lost a lot of blood. Don’t move, please. I’m getting us all out of this mess. Now, calm down. The next thing you will see will be Sick Bay.” And he injected her with a sedative just as he finished speaking, putting her into a deep sleep for a while.

“And now I will also take care of you, Delvok.” He slid over to him across the floor and injected him with the sedative and set up the blood transfusion, just to make sure that he doesn’t wake up before time, but does stay alive.”I’m sorry about bringing that thing aboard, I never should’ve done that. What was that Earth saying… “Curiosity killed the cat.” Quite true, quite true.”

Now having dealt with his dying officers, Sh’ill hurried back over to the helm console and readied the probe’s systems. He pressed the go button and beamed the rock of dilithium out of sickbay and into space. “Please let that thing work, I need this.”

And so it did. The probe lit up the skies, creating spatial rifts under every atom of blood dilithium within 3 light-years and illuminating the system with a mild emerald glow.

On Droth 2V5, if Sh’ill had been there, he would have seen the dilithium mountain shrinking into nothing, leaving nothing but plain rock behind it.

The rock of dilithium floating near the Liris slowly disappeared into the same emerald glow, leaving nothing but bad memories behind itself.

Sh’ill now hurried over to the two sleeping officers and began triage. He scanned them both with a tricorder, and chances still weren’t looking up for them. The blood was helping, but not nearly enough. Another bit of bad news was that they both had several broken bones and couldn’t be safely moved, even with the transporter.

Sh’ill crossed his legs as he sat and silently, through his tricorder, ordered that a large assortment of medical supplies be beamed up. While the beaming was taking place, he carefully moved them to more manageable positions so that he could treat them without having to jump around.

“Computer… send a distress call on every encrypted frequency Starfleet has. Include our coordinates and information about our situation.” Sh’ill sighed as he said this, he hadn’t expected to have to declare distress at any point in his career, but here he was.

And thus he was alone here, floating in space with every one of his crewmen incapacitated. Sh’ill laid down on the floor, resting his head on his med-kit. Sure, he could try to get out of the system, but what good would that do? He’d invalidate the info in his distress call and get himself farther away from stellar objects that might make it easier to spot where he was.

And so the blood had coagulated.