Lieutenant JG Tholin ch’Clex – This needs to end

[johanssonted]

((Engineering Corridor – Beyond the Hatch))

Tholin kept his phaser trained on the fallen creature until he was certain it wouldn’t move again. Tholin’s jaw tightened.

 

ch’Clex: This needs to end, that thing did not deserve to become that.

 

Williams: Couldn’t have said it better myself. This ends now. Whatever is orchestrating this… we shut it down. No more innocent creatures turned into weapons. Not on my watch.

 

Stapledon: Agreed.

 

Williams: Let’s see if we can find what’s getting power in here. If we can shut it down, it might stop these attacks, and hopefully the explosion will offer some kind of position marker to the Eagle.

 

Williams: Only problem is, we have to find a way to keep ourselves out of harm’s way.

 

Stapledon slowed, tricorder still up, eyes narrowed as if she were listening to patterns more than sounds.

 

Stapledon: I have a feeling we're the reason these attacks keep happening... And...

 

She didn’t finish, but Tholin didn’t need her to. If they were the variable, then the system would keep throwing “solutions” at them until they were removed.

 

Tholin’s antennae angled forward.

 

ch’Clex: I agree. That’s why we need a way out of here.

 

He rolled his chair forward, following the thicker power lines toward the deeper hum.

 

(( Int - Main Reactor Enclosure ))

They reached the edge of a transparent aluminium wall and an access door set into it. The door opened with a hiss, then sealed behind them the moment they passed through.

 

The space beyond was massive, an enclosed chamber that swallowed their lights. Platforms, gantries, and old Starfleet-era machinery rose in layers around a central mass.

 

Williams swept his flashlight along the walls until the beam caught something larger, the true source of the hum Kim had heard earlier. A machine.

 

It was bulky, roughly three cubic meters, casing obscured by odd tendrils that clung and branched like living cables.

 

Williams: If this is the heart of the system… we might have an opportunity.

 

Williams: Reinforced casing. Minimal access. Probably trapped.

 

Tholin rolled to the side instinctively, angling himself where he could cover the room’s widest approaches. If anything tried to rush them, he wanted a clear firing lane.

 

He set the wheelchair brakes and steadied his phaser.

 

Slowly Stapledon angled her light up, following the contours of the reactor and its many sprouting tendrils. They expanded, following their own paths like branching blood vessels.

 

ch’Clex: I’ll cover you as good as I can.

 

The hum in here wasn’t just sound. It was pressure. A vibration that sat in Tholin’s ribs and made his antennae twitch with every pulse.

 

Williams stood close to the altered unit, tricorder in hand, voice tight with concentration.

 

Williams: Its producing power roughly 10 times more than it should… It still a federation power unit in origin. But the inside is altered in so many ways. Pick up all kind of elements and chemical processes… its hard to say WHAT its doing. But its surely creating a lot of power.

 

Stapledon: Generating chemical energy... maybe.. Could be partly how the animals are getting produced -- or at least fed -- inside this place.

 

Tholin kept his wheelchair locked at an angle that gave him the best coverage the room. He didn’t like the way the floor vibration had started to change, something was wrong.

 

ch’Clex: Lieutenant, perhaps we should speed thing up. I’m hearing things.

 

Stapledon glanced up from her scans, uncertain.

 

Stapledon: Something we haven't seen yet, I assume?

 

Williams: Response

 

Tholin’s antennae angled forward, catching a faint scrape through the hum, like metal rubbing against metal.

 

ch’Clex: Something we haven’t seen yet, yes. And I’d prefer we keep it that way.

 

Stapledon drew in a breath, then forced it out.

 

Stapledon: If I can get into the main assembly again, I should be able to short the intermix connectors again and cause a thermal overload. We'll need to leave quickly after I've done it though.

 

ch’Clex: Do it. And I would to it fast, something is coming.

 

He lifted his phaser slightly, sighting down the barrel at the chamber entrance.

 

Stapledon: The maintenance hatch is clear.

 

She pointed with her phaser and pulled down the access lever.

 

The lever clanked, and the sound bounced around the chamber like a warning bell.

 

Stapledon: I can see the intermix connector, I just need to--

 

A dull thump hit the enclosure wall behind them.

 

Tholin’s head snapped toward it instantly, phaser already tracking. The lights caught movement through the transparent aluminum, bone and spots, brown and white, slender red tendrils.

 

Williams: Response

 

The massive upper and lower bones of the creature’s skull smashed against the transparent aluminum. Chips flew. Tiny cracks spread like spiderwebs with each impact.

 

Meters above them the ceiling vent finally gave way. It dropped with a shriek of metal and crashed down into the chamber.

 

Tholin’s antennae jerked upright.

 

His voice cut through the room, sharp with pure urgency.

 

ch’Clex: That’s the animal we put down. ::A beat, bitter:: They didn’t stay down. Of course they didn’t.

 

He tightened his grip, phaser tracking the dark hole where the vent had been.

 

Stepledon / Lim / Williams: Response?

 

ch’Clex: Bring the dampening field down Lieutenant, we will cover you.

 

The smell hit first. Burnt fur, rancid meat, old blood. And then the grizzly dropped, slamming into the deck with a bone-rattling impact. It rose in the same motion, faster than its size should allow, eyes fixed on them.

 

It roared and charged.

 

Tholin slammed the wheelchair brakes harder and fired a sustained beam into the joint to break its momentum, trying to drop its front end before it could get leverage.

 

ch’Clex: Commander didn’t you kill and cripple that thing?

 

Stepledon / Lim / Williams: Response?

 

The beam hit. The bear staggered, but it didn’t go down.

 

The wall behind them cracked again now louder. The giraffe-thing seamed to had found a weak point. They were being squeezed from two sides.

 

Tholin snapped his aim lower at the front legs, he shots them in quick succession.

 

ch’Clex: We got to hold it of Kim…

 

Tholin wished he could move, but the chair kept him at place. He would have to hold his position no matter what.

 

Stepledon / Lim / Williams: Response?

 

The bear finally faltered, weight dumping forward, shoulder collapsing half a step.

 

It swiped. Claws screamed across the deck, forcing Tholin to tip himself out of the chair and on the the floor. Missing Tholin by a handspan.

 

Tholin scrambled to move out of its way, it was too close.

 

And then the transparent aluminum behind them shattered, they were seconds from being overrun.

 

Tholin’s eyes flicked to Williams, is this going to be it…

 

Then a sharp, muted whump from inside the generator assembly. The lights flickered. And the deep hum stuttered and stopped.

 

Tholin’s combadge chirped, alive again. Tholin felt a surge of relief so intense it almost made him dizzy.

 

He slapped his combadge hard enough to sting and shouted over the chaos, phaser still firing one-handed to keep the bear from regaining its feet.

 

ch’Clex: =/\= Eagle! Lock on our signals, Emergency beam-out, now! =/\=

 

Stepledon / Lim / Williams: Response?

 

The bear surged again, trying to rise on ruined limbs. Tendrils from the shattered wall reached into the chamber like fingers.

 

Tholin fired one more sustained burst straight into the bear’s face, forcing it back and then the world turned to shimmering light.

 

The chamber, the monsters, the cracks, the hum, the stench gone.

 

Tholin dematerialized in the instant before the bear’s claws could find him.

 

TAG / End of Act 2 for Tholin

 

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Lieutenant Junior Grade Tholin ch'Clex
Tactical Officer
USS Eagle-A
D240112TC4