—- The Dark —-

Assistant Chief Security Officer William Hume searched the belongings of another dead Romulan. There was no telling what killed him with their tricorders. Maybe a more sensitive medical device would have worked, but they had not anticipated finding a station full of dead Romulans when they’d beamed over. He managed to find a flash light which helped cut through the darkness. He handed it to S’anra Navan the Romulan Officer who was accompanying the Luna through Romulan space, as he needed to keep searching through the dead.

“This is taking too long,” Lieutenant Junior Grade Rosa Flores said as she did her own search. The two security officers had divided the hallway into left and right and were tackling it methodically. Person by person, or rather body by body.

”It is hard to go fast with no power for turbo lifts,” S’anra Navan said, ”Normally our stations are much more efficient.”

Hume found a phaser on one but its battery was drained. He left it for now, there was no point in encumbering himself with non-working weapons. They were heading first to Engineering to try to restore the power to the station and then to the weapons locker and the armory, there would be something there that they could use besides flashlights.

”Romulans are like vulcans, stronger than humans,” Flores said.

”So?” Hume asked.

”So what could kill nearly two thousand of them without leaving any trace?” Flores asked.

Hume did not want to know the answer to that. He searched the next fallen Romulan and then moved on. After they had all gotten flashlights they had given up searching as they were finding too little to make the delay in getting the power restored worth it. Three beams cut through the darkness as the paid of yellow and black clad security officers followed the Romulan down into the station‘s bowels. When they had finally gotten to the Engineering room it had taken two hours. 

“Hume to Captain Cruz we’re at Engineering, trying to restore power,” Hume said tapping his comm badge. 

For a terrible minute he worried that there would be no response, but the CO’s voice came through after a second, “Good, we’re waiting on the bridge.”

Looking around Engineering Navan spoke up, “Someone put neurocine gas in the air supply.“

The Romulan gestured to a dead Romulan holding a canister. In small dosages it was not lethal, the Cardassians had used it for crowd control, but in an enclosed space like the station enough of it would be. 

Flores opened her tricorder and scanned for the gas, “No sign of it in the atmosphere.“

Tapping his comm badge again Hume called the captain, “Ma’am we have a supply of neurocine gas that an officer emptied into the environmental system. Seems to have faded now, but that may explain the deaths or at least the majority of them.”

”Get the power on, I want to get back to the Luna as soon as possible,” Cruz said over the comms.

The line went dead, an unfortunate phrase given the situation in Hume’s mind, but he did not share the thought with the other two. Flores would likely have heard it, but not knowing human idioms Navan would likely not have. Better to leave to comment unsaid then.

”Why would an officer gas the whole station?” Flores asked and both humans looked at the Romulan. She shook her head as she powered on the station’s systems, Navan had no answers. Romulans were not Vulcans but neither were they irrational and prone to violent outbursts like Klingons. Yet even a Klingon would have found no honor in this course of action.

Lights flickered back on and slowly the station awoke from its slumber as its systems restarted. Though it was missing the Luna’s hum of the engines, most of everything else was recognizable to Hume. It felt good to get things working, as though it was a step in the right direction. 

—- Station Bridge —-

The lights flickered and then came on as the station came to life. Captain Adriana Cruz began resarting the Romulan systems as best she could given that her Romulan was a bit rusty and the way these old systems worked was not as intuitive as Starfleet’s computers. 

“Check the office see if there’s instructions,” Cruz told Chief Diplomatic Officer Lieutenant Diya Acharya.

”Ma’am,” the woman nodded, and entered the office where the body of the station’s commander who they had meant to be meeting right about now, sat at his chair. She searched the bookshelves looking for something about station operation.

”Lieutenant,” said William Hume behind her. Acharya had not heard him enter the office and as far as she knew he was still on the other side of the station. Still it was good to see him.

”I’m looking for a guide to running this place,” Acharya explained.

Hume nodded, “Well keep looking. You would not want to disappoint the captain.”

Acharya nodded, “Anything that looks like an instruction manual, I know a bit of Romulan so I can translate if you find anything.”

Focused on finding the right text she did not hear Hume approach her until his hand grabbed her covering her mouth. Acharya began to twist trying to break free but he was strong, stronger than any human. His grip was like steel as he whispered, “Normally I’d like to hear the scream, but I don’t want to reveal myself yet.”

Acharya felt a sharp pain in her side, then it went numb as she slipped into shock. She felt a warm liquid oozing down her and felt suddenly weak and faint. The world went dark and she felt herself fall from Hume’s grasp.

Cruz was able to get the communications system online as Lieutenant Acharya exited the bridge office. Lieutenants Junior Grade Hume and Flores returned with Navan as well. 

“This is Captain Cruz to the Luna, please respond,” Cruz said as the crew joined her, using the Romulan system to reach out to the ship. 

“Klar here, I am glad to hear from you, we lost contact,” Klar said.

”Something’s gone wrong here, beam us back and we’ll assemble an away team to investigate,” Cruz said, “I’ll explain more when we’re back on board.”

The team assembled and the world dissolved into blue white light once more.