by Nicholas Lassiter
90604.1800
Concurrent with Help’s Not on the Way
-=Location, Unknown=-
90604.1800
Concurrent with Help’s Not on the Way
-=Location, Unknown=-
Nick Lassiter clutched an imaginary phaser in his right had, and he crept slowly around the long dimly lit corridors. He wasn’t even aware of the manner in which he was holding his hand, but subconsciously it did him some good to pretend that there was a weapon there that may somehow help him if one of the aliens showed up.
This place, whatever it was, was laid out in a massive grid like fashion. Each north south run intersected an east or west run every twenty meters or so. The east west runs were staggered evenly to prevent you from seeing any farther than one block.
The corresponding blocks formed by the grid all had identical unmarked and locked doors. There were no control panels, no door chimes, nothing to indicate what might be inside or how one was to get in. The huge grid offered a seemingly infinite number of corners to duck around if one was spotted, but at the same time offered no clues as to how the hell one was supposed to get out. Not to mention how easy it was to simply wander around in circles with no clearly definable landmarks to use as a reference.
He looked for anything that may have served as a turbolift, hatch, or some sort of command center, but all he found was identical doors. He could not have returned to his cell if he wanted to, having long since forgotten the way. As of yet, there were no signs of his captors, and that was fine with Nick. The farther away from those smelly monsters he could keep himself, the happier he would be.
However, thirst was beginning to become an increasingly noticeable problem that he would soon need to deal with. If he didn’t find a water source soon, hiding from his captors would do him little good when he died from dehydration.
The only thing he was able to discern from his surroundings so far is that the alien stench was not exclusive to their bodies. The humidity was palpable in the air and the walls clammy to the touch. They were stained with some sort of dark green mildew and smelled just as horrible as the aliens he had seen earlier.
From the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of a few pinpoints of light at the end of one of the east running corridors. It was as window of some sort. Nick approached it cautiously, keeping an eye open for any unwanted guests. He looked out over the starscape, then looked left and right. To the right, the facility he was aboard appeared to stretch on to infinity. He could not make out any sort of end point in the distance. To the left there was the same, along with a massive beam of some sort. He could not make out where the beam was coming from; but he could see that it ended at the center of a swirling vortex in space.
*maybe,* He thought, *If I head back in the other direction, I can make it to the other side of this station and see where that beam is coming from. If Gemini were here she’d have me out of this mess already.*
“Damn Nick, you want your mommy? Suck it up.” Lassiter whispered to himself, and he turned and headed back in the direction he had come from. At least that’s where he assumed he was going. After ten minutes he found himself growing ever more thirsty and frustrated. The sound of a door sliding open somewhere nearby caught his attention however, drawing his mind away from his body’s insistence that he find water. Again he clutched his imaginary phaser like a child would a beloved blanket or stuffed animal in times of fear.
This time he was more than aware that there really was nothing in his hand.
Again he heard the metallic scraping of a door sliding open, and peered around the corner in front of him. One of the aliens stepped out into the corridor and Nick realized in an instant that they were ever more terrifying out here in the light then he thought.
His heart raced and his survival instincts told him to run like hell. Before he had a chance however, the alien pressed one appendage against a device strapped to another, and vanished from his sight.
*Great, I sure hope there is another way off this thing besides a transporter,* he thought.
He approached the door and found it still unlocked, which probably meant that wherever the alien had gone, it did not intend to be gone long. The door slid open, and he squinted to see inside.
“Hello?”
Lassiter saw nothing at first, then saw some sort of lifeform curled up in the corner of the room.
“Hey! Wake up!” He whispered.
The lifeform began to slowly stir from its position, and rose up, unfolding at several different waists in as serpentine fashion until it stood about four meters tall in the room, and stared at Nick with glowing blue eyes.
“My bad.”
Nick stepped away from the door and let it close. Apparently some of the prisoners here were best left locked up. The only thing he could do now was go back to his original plan of looking for the opposite end of the facility.
That is, if he could remember which direction he had come from. He couldn’t recall which way he had turned to find this door, and realized now he was completely lost.
*Wait, wasn’t this door unlocked?* As soon as Lassiter completed his thought the lifeform he had just left charged through the door into the corridor. It turned, saw Nick, and began sliding across the floor like a snake towards him while emitting an ear piercing howl.
“Sonofabitch!” Lassiter’s words ran together, as he turned his back on the creature and ran like hell. He turned left, then right, then left, trying to lose his pursuer in the twists and turns. Fortunately for him as well, the lifeform was too big for the corridor, and was slowed by continually slamming against the walls and doors.
It didn’t take long for Nick to lose it. The howling faded in the distance and he hoped the creature decided to just make a run for it, rather then mess with him. He turned down a corridor and found one of the doors damaged, presumably from being slammed into by his pursuer. He look cautiously inside through the crack in the door, and heard the wonderful sound of federation standard.
“Commander Lassiter!”
Nick caught sight of the familiar blue of a Starfleet uniform.
“Hold on!” He shouted, and pressed his hands on either side of the crack in the door, forcing it open.
“I knew you wouldn’t give up on us sir!” The young Ensign exclaimed.
“Of course not, Ensign…” Lassiter racked his brain. This woman seemed familiar, like he had possibly hit on her before.
“Dallo, sir.”
She waited for him to so some sort of sign of recognition.
“I’m in medical.”
Nick shook his head apologetically.
“You met me in the transporter room when I cam aboard. Said I had lovely hair.”
“Yes! Ensign Dallo! You changed you hair. It was longer.”
“Commander Lassiter, do you have any idea what’s going on here. I’ve never sensed such hatred.” Dallo clutched her middle like she was going to be ill.
“Sensed?” Lassiter asked.
“I’m Betazoid,” Dallo clarified, now feeling particularly frustrated.
“Have you seen our captors?”
“Once,” Dallo shuddered.
“Yeah, tell me about it. I don’t know what’s worse the smell or the sight of them. The sound isn’t that great either. Do you have anything on you? Weapon, communicator?”
“They took it all. Commander, I can feel different species all around us. Some I’m sure are from the Zenith. I’ve felt several other telepathic species. They are all terrified and…”
Gallo pressed her hands to her temples, as if trying to block something out.
“And what? What is it?”
“Terror, everywhere. Some of the minds I’ve sensed since I’ve been here have simply vanished as well, after I’ve sensed intense fear. I think. I think those things holding us here killed them.”
“Maybe they were just transported away from here,” Lassiter offered to try and calm her down, but Dallo just shook her head.
“No, I can tell the difference. We need to get away from here, any way possible.”
Lassiter heard the tremor in her voice and was relieved, at least for now, to not be a telepath himself. He could only imagine what horrors she had felt in this place.
“Is there anything we can use in here?” Nick stepped past her into the room. The cell was exactly the same as the one he had been in. Nothing but a single light, and a table with straps for holding the prisoner. “Have they fed you at all?”
“Nothing,” She answered.
“Strange, they fed me. Not that I ate it. The food smells as horrible as they do.”
He looked all around the room and shook his head slowly. Indeed there was nothing here that could be of any use as a weapon.
“Do you think you could find any of our people if we looked?”
“Maybe if I was right outside their cell,” Dallo mused. “I’d have to be very close to pick out an individual mind.”
“Come on.”
Lassiter decided it was best to put as much distance as possible between themselves and this place, before their captors came looking for them. At each cell door Dallo would lean against the wall and shake her head, indicating it was not one of their people inside.
Nick scouted ahead as she searched, and a particularly bright corridor caught his attention.
“Dallo! Forget it. Look at this!”
The duo wound their way, and each corridor became brighter and brighter until they reached the edge of the station, opposite the one Lassiter had discovered nearly an hour ago. This time, he was looking out directly towards a star. Nick shielded his eyes against the bright light.
The star filled about a third of his field of vision and judging by the size of it from this vantage point, he estimated they were perhaps only fifty million kilometers from it. The same beam of energy he had seen before, disappearing into the vortex, was clearly being emitted from the center of the star itself.
“What is that?” Dallo asked, upon seeing the same thing.
“I have no idea, but I bet it has something to do with us being here.”
Lassiter’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of klaxons. The dim light changed to red flashing, and he knew they would have company soon.
“Damn! We have to move.”
Lassiter grabbed Dallo by the wrist and took off running. They did not get far however. Flashes of light signaled the arrival of the aliens. There was nowhere to run or hide, and the last thing Nick heard before a blow to the head rendered him unconscious was a scream from Dallo.
-=Undetermined Time Later=-
“Wake up Commander. Commander Lassiter. Wake up.”
The first feeling that came over him was surprise. He thought he was dead and would never be waking up again. The second was relief, that the light that was Nicholas Lassiter was indeed still shining.
His eyes focused on a familiar face as he began to come around. “Natalie? I mean, Ensign Grey?” He quickly corrected himself.
There we others here as well, perhaps a dozen of his crewmates.
“Where am I?”
“They divided the crew up a short time ago. We got put here, and I saw others being put into other holding areas. But…” Natalie looked away.
“Tell me, what is it.”
“They took some of the others off in another direction. All the Vulcans, Betazoids, anyone with any kind of telepathic abilities.”
“And?” Nick prodded.
“They’re gone.” Natalie said solemnly.
“I was with Ensign Dallo, she’s Betazoid. Did they bring her here too?”
“I haven’t seen her.”
“What about the Captain?” Nick asked, wondering if the human would have been spared.
Natalie shook her head again, the thought of her father bringing a tear to her eye. He looked at those around him, several humans, a Bolian, a Bajoran, and two Trill. It was enough to mount some kind of escape attempt, but his last attempt to get out had gotten him nowhere.
“When you were out of this room did you see anything useful? Any kind of command center or transporter room?” Nick asked.
“Nothing, they beam in and out using those arm bands.” Natalie replied.
“Then we need one of those arm bands,” He looked up towards the ceiling, trying to formulate a plan. Whatever happened to Dallo was not going to happen to him.
The only thing he feared more then these freaks was death itself, and Lassiter was determined to do anything to avoid it.
-=Thirty minutes later=-
The alien brandished a weapon menacingly as it opened the doors. It screeched and waved the weapon at the Zenith crew, signaling for them to back away. Each did so, backing into the corner to allow their captor to enter.
The alien extended another tentacle that held a large bowl of food, and dropped it on the floor. Natalie kept her eyes on the creature, no matter how repulsive it was to look at, she did not want to give Nick away.
Holding its weapon at the ready, the alien backed slowly towards the entrance. Just as it reached the door, it heard a scream from above, as Nick Lassiter dropped down from in between the ceiling beams above. The alien tried to raise its weapon, but it was too late. Nick’s weight knocked the beast to the ground, but it was still conscious.
Nick wrestled with the alien, holding snapping jaws just inches from his face, as his hands groped for the transporter band on its tentacle.
*What the hell am I doing?* He thought, as he realized just how close he was to a horrific death at the moment.
An instant later, his crewmates joined the fight and overwhelmed the creature.
Nick finally grabbed hold of the transporter band and ripped it from the alien’s arm. As he did, he heard the beep of the device being activated, and vanished from the floor along with Natalie.
“What happened?” She exclaimed, looking around at the empty room.
“I don’t know, I just grabbed the thing and it went off. We have to get back to the others.”
He opened the door and looked out into an empty corridor. “Come on!” He called to her, upon seeing another door nearby.
Unlike the cell block, nothing was locked here. Nick opened the door and found what looked like some kind of sensor display. He could not understand any of the markings on the readout, but he knew the shape of one of the vessel on the display well enough.
“Look! That’s the Zenith!”
*******************
Commander Nicholas Lassiter
First Officer
USS Zenith
Commander Nicholas Lassiter
First Officer
USS Zenith