Chapter 7
Dr. McCoy "came to" face down. Someone was shaking him, silently, and wouldn't go away. "Star nova in my head?...tired..." He felt himself being raised to a sitting position, propped up against something. Almost immediately he flopped over. "What the...?" When he tried to open his eyes, the most he could manage was the barest flicker. Again he was brought vertical, and felt a familiar sting in his arm. There was a slight tingling that suddenly gained in magnitude to become unbearable. He desperately wanted to scratch, rub, or something to make it stop, but could do nothing. As the vibration and buzzing receded, he realised that there were now voices, and noise around him.
"Can you hear me? You'll feel better in a minute, sir."
"Oh, yeah?" McCoy tried to say, but realised he couldn't speak. He managed to get his eyes open on the second try. Through the blur he could see Captain Kirk being helped to a seated position, by a nurse whose name the doctor couldn't recall.
"No motor control, memory loss, sensory loss." McCoy's medical training and instincts were beginning to brush aside the fog. He tried to relax and work out what happened. The last thing he could remember was reaching into a desk drawer. For what, he had no idea. Why was Jim in Sickbay, on the deck of all places? It seemed very busy, and noisy around him. More people here than should be...patients? His vision was clearing, his hearing and comprehension improving.
"Can we put together any more triage teams? The Engineering decks need doing." Although he couldn't identify the voice, the doctor's instincts were definitely aroused. "Triage teams...a medical emergency...ship's in danger...need help..." He struggled to get up, but his limbs refused to co-operate. Someone noticed his movements, and knelt down beside him, scanner in hand.
"Doctor McCoy, please stay still. The neurotransmitters need time to work. You could injure yourself." The Ernatan nurse held McCoy steady.
"Status..." The doctor managed to slur.
"Triage teams have been sent to the Bridge, Defence and Ordnance, and Computer Ops. We're trying to get someone down to Engineering." Ensign S-Feshd looked away from his superior for a moment. "There appear to be a lot of casualties, sir."
Anger went a long way towards clearing McCoy's head.He saw Kirk slumped nearby, evidently experiencing the same lack of coordination as himself. Out of the corner of his vision, he saw Chris Chapel examining someone on a diagnostic bed. "Least she's OK. Need to get up. Help Jim. Spock." He gestured weakly in Kirk's direction.
S-Feshd correctly interpreted the movement. "The Captain will be better in a while, as soon as the drugs take effect." Then in answer to an unspoken question, "People have been affected differently. I can't tell you any more. Nurse Chapel and I were unconscious for a shorter time than some others. She put out the call for all medical personnel, before we attended to you and Captain Kirk." The Ernatan paused, still unsure whether they'd done the right thing.
McCoy nodded slightly, holding his head up with difficulty. The ship could function perfectly well without either a Chief Medical Officer or a Captain. It could not function with the majority of the crew incapacitated.
The Captain was trying to get up, with a moderate degree of success. S-Feshd clicked, annoyed at patients who wouldn't stay put. He excused himself from the doctor, and went to assist Kirk to a chair. The Captain tried to wave away the scanner being held to his head. "'M alright" he got out.
"Begging the Captain's pardon, but you are not 'alright', sir. We've all been affected by some sort of neurological disruption. Some more than others. Both you and Dr. McCoy have been unconscious for nearly thirty minutes. Nurse Chapel and I were out for about twenty. Before you ask, the cause is unknown, as is the possibility of permanent damage." S-Feshd all but dared Captain Kirk to contradict him.
The words "permanent damage" penetrated Kirk's confusion, chilling him. "The Bridge...Spock..." Speech was still difficult. "My ship...danger...must get to Bridge...can't move right..." he leaned back in frustration, nearly losing his balance. The nurse steadied him.
"They are being seen to."
Spock's consciousness returned painfully. He was on his back, the chair he'd been occupying overturned, and lying across his legs. He tried unsuccessfully to clear his head. There was something he needed to remember, important. "No vision...pain..." He didn't hear the lift doors open to admit a very pale and shaky Dr. M'Benga.
M'Benga was horrified by the scene on the Bridge. He was one of the fortunate ones, who had suffered less from the effects of the unidentified assault on the ship. After ensuring that Sickbay was functional, and treating conscious personnel with a neurotransmitter-antishock mix, he let Nurse Chapel summon triage teams while he attended to the Bridge.
He came alone, so that others could attend to parts of the ship containing larger numbers of crew members. He saw Mr. Spock shuddering under the fallen chair. A quick scan confirmed the Vulcan's status among the living. The doctor propped the Science Officer against the console, and injected the restorative. He then attended to Erhiennu who was sprawled over her Comms station. Mr. Scott had already come around, and managed to get himself into a chair. M'Benga gave him a slightly different mix, and left him to try to find out what was happening in Engineering.
It didn't take long for him to confirm that Deel was dead, badly burned, and irretrievably brain damaged. Sulu was also severely injured, but still alive. The doctor wasn't certain how long that would last. He stabilised the helmsman as best as he could, until he could get Sulu to Sickbay. Chekov was comatose, but didn't seem in any immediate danger. M'Benga arranged him more comfortably, trying hard to ignore the anguish still etched on the young Russian's features. He called Sickbay to see if there was any possibility of getting someone to transport Sulu.
He looked around to make certain he hadn't missed anyone. Spock was pulling himself up, so the doctor moved to his side to support him, while righting the fallen chair. He steered the Science Officer into the seat, and scanned him once more. Although a healing trance would be the best thing for the Vulcan at the moment, Spock had to remain conscious for the good of the ship.
"I believe I can function, Doctor." Spock said carefully. He turned stiffly, to see the others. He raised an eyebrow slightly, in enquiry.
The doctor answered "Deel is dead, Sulu could well be if I can't get him on life support soon. The others, and you, will recover in time.
Spock nodded, and was surprised at how much that hurt. He spent a few minutes in the Disciplines, to collect and clear his mind. The pain was unimportant, but he needed to focus, and to remember.
Doctor M'Benga returned to Sulu and Chekov. The navigator was twitching slightly, so the dotor decided it was time to give him the "coctail" he'd administered to the others. He busied himself with Sulu again, and was vastly relievd when the lift doors opened to reveal two people from Security with an emergency "crash cart".
"There's no one else available", one of them said apologetically. It didn't matter in the slightest to M'Benga. They helped him get Sulu onto the anti-grav gurney, and watched, fascinated, as the helmsman was connected to the portable life support system.
"Take him to Sickbay, please, I'll follow shortly." He paused for a moment. "What's it like down below?", referring to the rest of the ship.
"Bad. We'll be back as soon as we can," one of the redshirts replied, nodding in Deel's direction, as they guided the gurney to the lift.
M'Benga shook his head slightly. The dead can wait a little longer. He saw to it that Chekov was made as comfortable as possible, and had a last look at everyone else. There wasn't much more that could be done here, and he was needed urgently elsewhere.
Mr. Spock had emerged from his reorientation. "Doctor..."
M'Benga didn't need to hear the rest of the question. "The Captain will be fine. He happened to be in Sickbay, when this...this...whatever it was hit." At a raised eyebrow, he continued, "Doctor McCoy was with him. He'll be OK too." He smiled very slightly. 'So much for unemotional Vulcans.' "I want all of you down in Sickbay, ASAP. He turned and left.
Erhiennu had recovered sufficiently to start talking to other departments, and finding out the ship's status. She checked on the availability of damage control parties, as well as compiling casualty reports to send to Sickbay. Mr. Scott had already spoken with someone in Engineering. His grey face was grim as well.
"Mr. Spock, there's been a death...one of the lads checking dilithium crystals in the warp core. The crystals are badly damaged." he reported wearily. His "lads", male, female, and other, were his 'bairns' as much as the engines. "We're examining the spares, but they seem damaged, too." He got up, and descended to the open helm console. He scrutinised the crystals in the console with the engineering scanner the unfortunate Deel had brought to the Bridge. Then he gently removed the crystal from the dead woman's hand, and studied that as well.
"Now what the divvil made it do that?" he asked, puzzled.
Spock also descended, and took the ruined crystal from Mr. Scott. The formerly flawless crystal was hazed by spider-web fine cracks. Unusually, they didn't follow the expected cleavage planes of the crystal. Many of the cracks were quite distinctly helical, or smoothly curved."Fascinating." Neither of the two experts had ever seen anything like it.
"What's more, the dysprosium atoms used to "dope" it have all migrated to random sites in the lattice," Mr. Scott said with some wonder in his voice. The chief Engineer had no ideas on how that could have happened, so quickly, with no prior melting of the crystal. They were up against some unusual form of energy.
The lift doors opened again. The two Security officers had an anti-grav cargo pallet, which they towed down to the helm console. They lifted Deel onto it, and covered the body with a metallic sheet. Scotty looked slightly scandalised.
His expression was noted by one of the officers. "Sorry, sir. All the medical floaters are in use. Doctor McCoy has ordered that all the ah...deceased are to go into stasis until they can be autopsied." Mr. Scott nodded, and apologised. They carefully put the pallet into the lift and departed.
Chekov was struggling to sit up. Spock reached down, and helped him into a seat, positioning him so that if he couldn't stay upright, he would only slump onto the console in front of him. The Russian groaned and held his head.
"Sulu...light...where?" he croaked.
"Mr. Sulu is in Sickbay." Spock replied in a neutral voice.
"What happened?" came the next question. Chekov couldn't really remember anything but the light surrounding his two friends. 'Roan! Next to Sulu!" He managed to shift his head enough to look at the helm station. "Deel?"
"Roan is dead, laddie." Scotty replied softly. "The ship experienced some kind of energy surge. We don't know any more than that." Chekov nodded,and immediately regretted it. He started to do some breathing and centering exercises that Hikaru had been teaching him. The Enterprise could still be in danger, and he needed to be functional again. Mr. Scott squeezed his shoulder in encouragement, and resumed his study of the damaged crystals. He desperately needed some rest, but at the moment he needed some answers more.
Two hours later, a shaky, but essentially recovered Captain Kirk was sitting at a monitor in Sickbay, receiving status reports from all departments. Doctor McCoy refused to release him from custody, knowing full well that the Captain wouldn't return until he'd been found collapsed somewhere. Until the longer term effects of the "assault" were clear, he wanted Kirk under observation.
The crew were recovering gradually, but there had been deaths, and several critical cases. Most of the deaths were the result of being too close to the highly organised crystals that were used in many parts of the ship. The crystals had aligned and amplified the unknown energy surge, whether or not that was what they were designed to do. Even a few of the single crystal hull plates were damaged.
The hominid crew members had mostly suffered sensory overload and temporary disruption of coordination. Some of the rest of the crew had experienced circulatory collapse, or respiratory failure. Other deaths were the result of help coming too late, or individual species specific quirks.
What no one knew was who had done this and why. Mr. Spock had already eliminated any natural phenomena from his enquiry. They'd experiencd no unusual 'weather' in the sector, and no recorded natural disturbance generated the kind of damage the Enterprise had sustained.
Kirk was discussing the state of the backup dilithium crystals (all unusable) with his Chief Engineer, when Spock entered Sickbay. McCoy immediately ran a practised eye, and scanner, over the First Officer. The Vulcan bore it without comment, which of course raised concerns in the doctor's mind.
Spock also ran a practised eye over his Captain. Kirk looked decidedly unwell, as had every other crew member he'd encountered on his way to Sickbay. On the other hand, he knew McCoy wouldn't let Jim work if he were too ill.
"Are we getting anywhere, Spock?"
"All obvious damage has been noted and logged. Repairs are under way. Damage control parties are beginning inspections for hidden problems. All crew have now been accounted for." Here he looked to McCoy for confirmation.
The doctor nodded. ' Ouch! Damn. I've got to stop doing that.' "Everyone who's ambulatory's got orders to come in for a look-see. The others are here...or in stasis." He turned suddenly, and left to see to his patients.
Both Kirk and Spock watched him go, each wrapped in his own thoughts for a moment.
Spock broke the silence. "I have something which will be of interest, Captain." It had taken some time for his memory to return. The urgent need to recall something specific had helped, as had further application of the Disciplines.
The screen now displayed the automatically recorded sensor and visual scans made at the moment of the attack.
"The images are not of the best quality, and required significant enhancement. Some of the sensor data is also less than optimal, as a result of the short acquisition time."
The Captain just stared wordlessly at the display. He could hardly take in the figures for the estimated mass and dimensions of the ship, which had triggered no proximity alarms. He didn't recognise the configuration. The graininess of the image didn't disguise the fact that the vessel was beautiful, in a sinister way.
Kirk unconsciously took a deep breath to steady himself.
"Has Scotty seen this?" he said slowly.
"He has. Mr. Scott's only comment was 'impossible'. We are clearly dealing with technology of extreme sophistication. All other known methods of cloaking vessels are detectible by various means. We only have this data because the ship decloaked so fortuitously."
"What about the energy surge?"
"The analyses are in progress. All that is known at present is that it was a coherent pulse, and extremely effective."
Jim looked at Spock curiously. Was he being sarcastic? 'Effective' was hardly the word the Captain would have chosen to describe the devastation the unknown weapon caused.
"Could it have been inadvertent, something like a drive backwash, or skinfield discharge?" he asked, unwilling to believe the alternative.
Spock looked at Kirk with something slightly resembling the compassion he would normally reserve for the times when he was springing an elegant chess trap.
"Unlikely, Jim."
"Why do this?" the Captain asked.
Spock remained silent, correctly assuming the question to be rhetorical.
Kirk shook his head in puzzlement. There weren't many planets in this sector, and none had appeared habitable. No territorial warning had been given. None of the Federation's usual adversaries had anything like that ship, or the weapon. He couldn't make any sense of the attack. He ordered yellow alert to be maintained for the time being, although he suspected they would be helpless against any further strikes.
He looked up at Spock. "Why didn't it just finish us off?"
Spock had no answer.