Season 17: Episode 1: Step Into My Parlor

[Tekin Nevir]

torriam pressed her combadge  captian i request permission to beam over and join the away team its standrd protocall for any acting doctor to be apart of any and all away team mission i have field medic training and can get a go kit eady in a few seconds flat 

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

So protocol was not followed?  There had to be a reason... but the Captain did not have time to deal with it right now.

"We're not in a good position to use the transporter system and there is no guarantee you'll make it.  You can bring up protocol with the XO when he returns."

[Lt. JB Dersch - USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

JB's hands moved swiftly over the Tactical console as the ship shook under enemy fire. His eyes locked onto the green energy signature registering on the sensors. It was unlike any disruptor or phased energy weapon he'd encountered before, and that meant trouble.

"Shields holding at 62%, but that won't last if they keep hitting us with that frequency," JB reported, his voice steady despite the rising tension. "Adjusting modulation patterns—trying to dampen the energy absorption rate."

His fingers danced across the controls, sending targeted bursts of retaliatory fire toward the enemy vessel. "Direct hit to their forward section, but no significant damage," he muttered, frustrated. "That hull is absorbing energy like a damn sponge."

Hearing the order for a spectral sweep, JB nodded. "On it. Tying Tactical sensors into the scan—if this disruption is coming from the subspace tear, we might be looking at a feedback loop or an outside influence amplifying it."

Another impact rocked the ship. JB braced himself, eyes narrowing. "Sir, I recommend we alter our firing patterns. If this thing is draining us before we even fire, we need to cycle through rapid variations in our weapon frequencies. Give it too much to process at once, see if we can punch through its defenses."

His grip tightened on the console as he awaited further orders, ready to adjust their approach on a moment's notice.

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Main Bridge]

The Captain's response to his earlier recommendation still lingered in his mind. Not enough manpower to crew each hull individually? That didn't add up. In the Academy, they had been told that the Prometheus-class was designed to be operable in Multi-Vector Assault Mode with as few as four crew per sub-vessel. Had Starfleet been overselling their own technology? In a post-scarcity society, the idea of false advertising felt almost absurd—yet here they were.

Pushing his musings aside, he quickly initiated the requested spectral sweep. As the data came in, his antennae jerked back from the readings. "Son of a Preshava," he cursed under his breath. They were surrounded by thin, nearly invisible strands. The Momentary was covered in them, even the away team's shuttle had some. The Discovery was no exception, with a bunch of strings latched onto her hull, even connecting them to their new adversary. These filaments were crisscrossing between ships and nothingness of space—mostly disappearing into what he presumed to be subspace via microscopic sensor voids. Like a web. Back to spiders they were.

Trix's stomach churned. These strands semed to be organic, akin to the material they had observed on the hull of the Momentary and equally resistant to the probing of their sensor suite. But there was something else—something new. They appeared to sway in and out of phase. Not evenly, though there was a rhythm to it. A beat he still couldn't quite understand. Worse yet, these strands appeared to be acting as power taps, siphoning away their energy. After sending the information to the science labs for ideas on how to deal with this new problem, Trix pushed an overlay to the main viewscreen, highlighting the otherwise nearly imperceptible threads in a bright orange.

"Captain, I've overlaid the spectral data. We're caught in a web, for lack of a better term. These strands appear to be what is siphoning power directly from us, and some of them are linked to the alien vessel. Others vanish straight into subspace. They're phasing in and out, which is likely why our power fluctuations seem so erratic. I don't think we will be able to get a weapons lock on them either—they don't even show up on our normal sensors. Besides, any phaser fire would likely just drain our reserves and feed whatever they connect to. Luckily, there are too many of them to allow for the possibility that they are targeted in any way, shape, or form. If helm can avoid flying into more of them, it will likely prevent an even more rapid drain."

He took a breath, antennae tapping to the beat of his heart as he worked through possible countermeasures. "For power conservation, we should compartmentalize the grid as much as we can. Open every breaker we have to limit how easily the reserves can be drained. Further, I recommend shutting down our shields and phaser banks—they're just free food at this point. We need time to figure out how to counteract this web. In the meantime, we can fight back with our torpedoes. If we can get a lock on them, they should be susceptible to quantum torpedoes"

As he spoke, hoping for more detailed input from his colleagues who specialized in actual scientific analysis, he quickly outlined additional measures that came to mind. "We could evacuate sections near the outer hull and reverse the polarity of the inertial dampers in those compartments—it might make a mess of the interiors, but it should be enough to push off whatever got attached to us. We may not be able to target them precisely, but we can induce a gravity wave. Speaking of which, since these filaments seem to be energy-seeking, we could charge the deflector dish as an intentional lure, then release a graviton wave. With the right amount of force, the sudden shift should structurally overload the strands and cause them to snap under their own tension."

While he awaited the Captain's response, he had the computer run the calculations for the graviton pulse based on an estimated weight of the strings. Thankfully, their oversized calculator of a computer core still worked, sparing the Discovery and her crew from relying on Trix's arithmetic skills.

"Modulation...." Nevir stated, his mind racing. Their phasers were being absorbed, their shields were being drained quickly.  They weren't the first ship this vessel encountered. They were power hungry; they optimized their defenses and weapons to siphon.  And then with Trix, they had their answer. Strings.  Webs.  Why did it have to be spiders?

"Work with engineering to handle the power systems.  Bridge the holodeck power to add to our own, and divert power from the phaser banks. And... save the shields for now. Mr. Dersch, bring the Borg modulations online, and coordinate with Mr. Trix to activate them after we handled the outer hull.  Mr. Trix, prepare the inverse polarity field for the hull.  Ops, enact emergency power protocol; evacuate all officers not involved in battle stations to their designated refuge center and then shut down all power to non-essential locations."

"Prepare a full spread of quantum torpedo forward and aft, set to detonate at minimal safety distance from the ship, and fire on my order. And load up a second spread forward with a higher yield for our new friends." he gripped the chair.

"And you all better hold on... we're about to detonate a dozen warheads around an unshielded ship."

"All hands, this the Captain, evacuate from all outer sections and brace for impact."

"Fire!" he ordered, holding on for dear life.  It didn't take long for the shockwave to hit Discovery, and it hit it HARD. Panels exploded and Cordry rocks were disrupted, flying around the bridge.  The ship would end up taking massive damage, but the risk ended up working out.  Sensors calibrated showed a number of the strings were disrupted.  So they could work against the other ship.

"Fire!" he ordered, and watched the next volley fire away and at the ship.  The alien vessel did not seem to think it was a risk, but upon detonation, the ship was still hit, even in its semi-phased state. There was clear damage showing on the ship. Nevir breathed a sigh of relief.

[J.B Dersch]

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

So protocol was not followed?  There had to be a reason... but the Captain did not have time to deal with it right now.

"We're not in a good position to use the transporter system and there is no guarantee you'll make it.  You can bring up protocol with the XO when he returns."

"Modulation...." Nevir stated, his mind racing. Their phasers were being absorbed, their shields were being drained quickly.  They weren't the first ship this vessel encountered. They were power hungry; they optimized their defenses and weapons to siphon.  And then with Trix, they had their answer. Strings.  Webs.  Why did it have to be spiders?

"Work with engineering to handle the power systems.  Bridge the holodeck power to add to our own, and divert power from the phaser banks. And... save the shields for now. Mr. Dersch, bring the Borg modulations online, and coordinate with Mr. Trix to activate them after we handled the outer hull.  Mr. Trix, prepare the inverse polarity field for the hull.  Ops, enact emergency power protocol; evacuate all officers not involved in battle stations to their designated refuge center and then shut down all power to non-essential locations."

"Prepare a full spread of quantum torpedo forward and aft, set to detonate at minimal safety distance from the ship, and fire on my order. And load up a second spread forward with a higher yield for our new friends." he gripped the chair.

"And you all better hold on... we're about to detonate a dozen warheads around an unshielded ship."

"All hands, this the Captain, evacuate from all outer sections and brace for impact."

"Fire!" he ordered, holding on for dear life.  It didn't take long for the shockwave to hit Discovery, and it hit it HARD. Panels exploded and Cordry rocks were disrupted, flying around the bridge.  The ship would end up taking massive damage, but the risk ended up working out.  Sensors calibrated showed a number of the strings were disrupted.  So they could work against the other ship.

"Fire!" he ordered, and watched the next volley fire away and at the ship.  The alien vessel did not seem to think it was a risk, but upon detonation, the ship was still hit, even in its semi-phased state. There was clear damage showing on the ship. Nevir breathed a sigh of relief.

[Lt. JB Dersch - USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Dersch quickly acknowledged his orders, tapping into the systems with a practiced ease.

"Aye, Sir. Bringing Borg modulations online now. I'll coordinate with Trix once we've handled the hull. Working with engineering to ensure everything is redirected smoothly."

He focused intently on the control panel, his fingers flying over the console. The Borg modulations required precise calibration, but Dersch was confident in the systems.

"Modulations are online. Standing by for coordination with Mr. Trix. Shields are holding for now, but we're pushing the limits."

As the ship rocked with each impact, Dersch stayed steady, locking in the modulations and preparing for the next round of attacks. He suddenly noticed something strange on the console.

"Captain, I'm seeing ghost intruder alerts. Multiple points on top of the alpha hull—alarms are going off, but there's no message. We may have a serious problem if we don't act quickly."

His fingers moved quickly to the controls, keeping his focus sharp as the alerts continued to flash on the screen.

[TrikNarChRehllan]

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

"Work with engineering to handle the power systems.  Bridge the holodeck power to add to our own, and divert power from the phaser banks. And... save the shields for now. Mr. Dersch, bring the Borg modulations online, and coordinate with Mr. Trix to activate them after we handled the outer hull.  Mr. Trix, prepare the inverse polarity field for the hull.  Ops, enact emergency power protocol; evacuate all officers not involved in battle stations to their designated refuge center and then shut down all power to non-essential locations."

"Prepare a full spread of quantum torpedo forward and aft, set to detonate at minimal safety distance from the ship, and fire on my order. And load up a second spread forward with a higher yield for our new friends." he gripped the chair.

"And you all better hold on... we're about to detonate a dozen warheads around an unshielded ship."

"All hands, this the Captain, evacuate from all outer sections and brace for impact."

"Fire!" he ordered, holding on for dear life.  It didn't take long for the shockwave to hit Discovery, and it hit it HARD. Panels exploded and Cordry rocks were disrupted, flying around the bridge.  The ship would end up taking massive damage, but the risk ended up working out.  Sensors calibrated showed a number of the strings were disrupted.  So they could work against the other ship.

"Fire!" he ordered, and watched the next volley fire away and at the ship.  The alien vessel did not seem to think it was a risk, but upon detonation, the ship was still hit, even in its semi-phased state. There was clear damage showing on the ship. Nevir breathed a sigh of relief.

[Lt. JB Dersch - USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Dersch quickly acknowledged his orders, tapping into the systems with a practiced ease.

"Aye, Sir. Bringing Borg modulations online now. I'll coordinate with Trix once we've handled the hull. Working with engineering to ensure everything is redirected smoothly."

He focused intently on the control panel, his fingers flying over the console. The Borg modulations required precise calibration, but Dersch was confident in the systems.

"Modulations are online. Standing by for coordination with Mr. Trix. Shields are holding for now, but we're pushing the limits."

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Main Bridge]

The first detonation hit like a sledgehammer. The deck beneath Trix's feet lurched violently, and for a moment, his whole world spun. The shockwave tore through the Discovery, rattling his teeth and forcing the air from his lungs. His hands clung to the edge of his console, white-knuckled, as alarms screamed around him. Somewhere in the chaos, he heard the Captain's second order to fire, but the words were nearly drowned out by the gut-wrenching groan of the hull under stress. His antennae jerked from the inertia, leaving him with a sensation that was a mix of instinctive alarm and sheer force feedback from the blast.

Through the daze, he barely registered the console flashing in front of him. The first calculations for the inertial damper inversion were complete, ready to deploy. Gritting his teeth, he reached for the command input—only for a second explosion to slam through the ship. The bridge bucked like a wild animal, nearly sending him sprawling forward. A conduit behind him detonated with an ear-splitting crack, sending a searing shower of sparks cascading over him. For a moment, he tasted metal and ozone, the sharp tang mingling with the smell of his own singed hair. The world blurred. His vision swam. A dull ringing in his ears threatened to drown out everything else.

Trix forced himself back upright, shaking off the fog creeping into his mind. "Not dead yet," he muttered, slamming the command through. The inertial dampers in the outermost hull sections reversed polarity, and the results were immediate. Through the main viewscreen, he watched as most of the strands latched onto Discovery were violently torn free, slingshotted off by the abrupt and unnatural shift in inertia, left flailing aimlessly through the void. The ship still groaned from the residual forces, but at least physics was on their side for once. "Polarity inversion worked, computer estimates we knocked 75% of them off. Shall I charge another wave?" The words came out near automatic, barely filtering through his rattled brain. He had the computer start the calculations and sent over some additional permuations for their modulation attempts.

As his head cleared, he turned his attention to the enemy vessel. His heart pounded as he noticed something new. The shockwaves from the detonations had forced portions of the enemy ship into phase with normal space. His breath hitched at what was revealed—an entire structure composed almost entirely of the same biological material as the strands ensnaring them. It was all interconnected, a grotesque mass that looked more like a cocoon than a spacecraft. He felt an involuntary shudder crawl up his spine as his mind conjured images of what kind of arachnid horror might lurk within.

Whatever's inside, I don't want to meet it.

Worse, the data their sensors had egerly lapped up, now that there actually was something to scan for a change, confirmed a horrifying realization. This wasn't just a ship hiding in subspace—it had to be a vessel from subspace. These beings originated there. The web, the ship, all of it was part of a larger biological structure that had no true home in their reality. They weren't just advanced marauders. They were something far worse—something entirely alien to this plane of existence. They didn't belong here on a very fundamental level.

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck rise, he hesitantly glanced at the ceiling again—just to make sure. The dancing shadows caused by the flickering lighting and steady alarm pulses were NOT helpful in assuaging his concerns that some eldritch creature might drop on his head at any moment.

When he looked back down, his stomach sank. The damage they had inflicted on the enemy ship was already knitting itself back together. The biological hull was regenerating, sealing over the wounds with disturbing efficiency.

Trix exhaled sharply, forcing his nerves to settle. He let out a breathless, humorless chuckle. "Of course it regenerates. Of course it does. Why wouldn't it?" He muttered under his breath before his eyes narrowed in thought.

Then, as he started to help isolating their individual systems from further attack, another thought hit him—one that gave him just a little bit of hope. He murmured to himself, recalling an old Earth film, a simple truth wrapped in fiction.

"If it bleeds, we can kill it."

[Kalem Michael]

{USS Momentary|Bridge}

Kalem was just about to enter the bridge when suddenly his comm went off

"Ramort the Away team, please evacuate to the Shuttle immediately. Leave Tricorders sent to emit low frequency radio signals with important findings so we can lock onto them with our scanners easier but do not waste any unnecessary time." 

Kalem immediately changed directions and started to head directly toward the shuttle.

"Commander, I'll have the shuttle prepped and ready to go."

[Torrian Sh'riall]

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

So protocol was not followed?  There had to be a reason... but the Captain did not have time to deal with it right now.

"We're not in a good position to use the transporter system and there is no guarantee you'll make it.  You can bring up protocol with the XO when he returns."

"Modulation...." Nevir stated, his mind racing. Their phasers were being absorbed, their shields were being drained quickly.  They weren't the first ship this vessel encountered. They were power hungry; they optimized their defenses and weapons to siphon.  And then with Trix, they had their answer. Strings.  Webs.  Why did it have to be spiders?

"Work with engineering to handle the power systems.  Bridge the holodeck power to add to our own, and divert power from the phaser banks. And... save the shields for now. Mr. Dersch, bring the Borg modulations online, and coordinate with Mr. Trix to activate them after we handled the outer hull.  Mr. Trix, prepare the inverse polarity field for the hull.  Ops, enact emergency power protocol; evacuate all officers not involved in battle stations to their designated refuge center and then shut down all power to non-essential locations."

"Prepare a full spread of quantum torpedo forward and aft, set to detonate at minimal safety distance from the ship, and fire on my order. And load up a second spread forward with a higher yield for our new friends." he gripped the chair.

"And you all better hold on... we're about to detonate a dozen warheads around an unshielded ship."

"All hands, this the Captain, evacuate from all outer sections and brace for impact."

"Fire!" he ordered, holding on for dear life.  It didn't take long for the shockwave to hit Discovery, and it hit it HARD. Panels exploded and Cordry rocks were disrupted, flying around the bridge.  The ship would end up taking massive damage, but the risk ended up working out.  Sensors calibrated showed a number of the strings were disrupted.  So they could work against the other ship.

"Fire!" he ordered, and watched the next volley fire away and at the ship.  The alien vessel did not seem to think it was a risk, but upon detonation, the ship was still hit, even in its semi-phased state. There was clear damage showing on the ship. Nevir breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh trust me I will, but for now sir your orders do i stabilze the the cre that have been hurt if any or  come up with a toxican to kill whatever hurt our fallow officers?" torrian asked her deep voice having an tint of rage in it as she awaited orders.

[James Ramort]

"M'nia to ramort. it seems we're ut of options. I'll have to force the re-energizing. It probably will work but there is a risk if could blow the whole ship to well bits and pieces. If it works, I'd say maybe 5 minutes until power is restored."

[USS Momentary | En-route to Shuttle]

Running through the corridors, he paid little attention to all the small details that would have caught his eye before. All the remaining artefacts and dark lights. The creeping horror housing in this ship now was supplanted with another horror, one born from the short comm contact with the Discovery. Such a rushed evacuation order could only signify trouble, could only hint Discovery seemingly having encountered something that put the away teams life at risk too.

As he fell through a long maintenance shaft, he received a comm call from Lieutenant M'Nia

"I am very sorry Lieutenant we have to abort but we have to return to the Shuttle posthaste, hopefully we will be able to return and return power to the Momentary then, for now I need you back in the shuttle as soon as possible." 

{USS Momentary|Bridge}

Kalem was just about to enter the bridge when suddenly his comm went off
Kalem immediately changed directions and started to head directly toward the shuttle.

"Commander, I'll have the shuttle prepped and ready to go."

"Acknowledged, I want the engines hot so we can depart immediately, whatever discovery encountered, I want us back in on our posts as soon as possible."

As he finished speaking, his boots touched down on the metal floor and he fell into a sprint, or as much of a sprint as was possible with environmental suits. The suit he was wearing was specifically designed for humans and the proportions between the joints actually were of the perfect distance, but it was build for safety and comfort first, not speed and manoeuvrability. At times like this he coursed internally at Headquarters that they hadn't issued them with combat grade suits for tense encounters which would have offered more flexibility for the cost of being less comfortable to wear. but what was comfort if faced with the dangers of deep space.

[USS Momentary | Docking Hatch back at the Shuttle]

As he returned to the Shuttle and watched everyone getting back into their seats his questions as to what was happening with Discovery were answered as bright lights lit up the space surrounding Discovery. Lights that could only be created by high energy weapons being detonated. Lights which should have been deflected by their shields. But the shields were seemingly not working as they should and the ship was tumbling from the aftershocks of the last wave of explosions.

And Discovery was not alone. There was something else, something hanging in space, something so alien his brain had a hard time even coming up with a comparison. Large chunks of what seemed like biological matter were interspersed with small fragments of metal looking as having been broken from various spaceships and rocks which might be the results of impacting asteroids or the byproducts of alien bioprocesses he could not hope to discern.

As the last member of the Team boarded the Shuttlecraft he ordered their immediate departure to rejoin Discovery.

While they left the Momentary behind them he turned to their sensors and focused them on the alien structure.

Its surface was uneven and seemingly affected by the explosions to some degree, but there were signs of it possessing some form of healing, as parts looked partially regenerated. And there was movement. Shadows were moving along the larger superstructure as if tending to the wounds torn into it. Further increasing sensor magnification revealed one of their shapes. A large amount of legs mounted onto a central Cephalothorax and trailed by a greatly elongated Abdomen, the shapes could only be described as spider like. Their movement was even more alien than spiders he knew, though. Their legs seeming to partially climb in the ways of auto-locomotion, partially shifting between different spectral frequencies.

"Can anyone please tell me what I am looking at here?.."

As soon as he had spoken, a new sound broke through the silence in the cabin, a tap from the ceiling. A tap from outside the shuttle.

[Buck McNair]

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

"Return fire!  Monitor the shield output.  Trix, McNair, run a spectral sweep of our ship using the frequency of that subspace tear. I don't think the power disruptions are naturally occurring."  The ship shook again as their shields were being hit.

Buck was just about to conduct the spectral sweep when he heard Dersch chime up from the tactical control panel, tying the tactical outputs into the sweep itself as he began to run the data and monitor all the output of power they had currently being used. They had already drained a lot from the non-essential parts of the ship, so he could only hope that they wouldn't drain everything in its entirety.

"Captain, I've overlaid the spectral data. We're caught in a web, for lack of a better term. These strands appear to be what is siphoning power directly from us, and some of them are linked to the alien vessel. Others vanish straight into subspace. They're phasing in and out, which is likely why our power fluctuations seem so erratic. I don't think we will be able to get a weapons lock on them either—they don't even show up on our normal sensors. Besides, any phaser fire would likely just drain our reserves and feed whatever they connect to. Luckily, there are too many of them to allow for the possibility that they are targeted in any way, shape, or form. If helm can avoid flying into more of them, it will likely prevent an even more rapid drain."

He took a breath, antennae tapping to the beat of his heart as he worked through possible countermeasures. "For power conservation, we should compartmentalize the grid as much as we can. Open every breaker we have to limit how easily the reserves can be drained. Further, I recommend shutting down our shields and phaser banks—they're just free food at this point. We need time to figure out how to counteract this web. In the meantime, we can fight back with our torpedoes. If we can get a lock on them, they should be susceptible to quantum torpedoes"

"Work with engineering to handle the power systems.  Bridge the holodeck power to add to our own, and divert power from the phaser banks. And... save the shields for now. Mr. Dersch, bring the Borg modulations online, and coordinate with Mr. Trix to activate them after we handled the outer hull.  Mr. Trix, prepare the inverse polarity field for the hull.  Ops, enact emergency power protocol; evacuate all officers not involved in battle stations to their designated refuge center and then shut down all power to non-essential locations."
"Prepare a full spread of quantum torpedo forward and aft, set to detonate at minimal safety distance from the ship, and fire on my order. And load up a second spread forward with a higher yield for our new friends." he gripped the chair.
"And you all better hold on... we're about to detonate a dozen warheads around an unshielded ship."
"All hands, this the Captain, evacuate from all outer sections and brace for impact."

"Enacting emergency power protocols now, Cap'n." Buck responded, his ingers flying along the control panel as he enabled the protocols that would set up the ship for the worst-case scenario.

Ops to all officers, those not involved at battle stations, prepare for evacution to your designated refuge center. 

The message would be sent out to all those across the ships, as he checked each deck, manually trying to sut off power to those specific locations that were not in use and wouldn't be in use for the situation that they were in. Buck would monitor the movements of each deck, when they would clear out to area designated and he would shut down the power to ensure that they weren't going to be exposed any further with the power drainage. He would have to have a check of their armoury should they survive the salvo.

Buck's knuckles would turn white as he gripped onto the control panel, his teeth gritted as the captain issued his forewarning. This would hurt, certainly would rock the ship and he hoped that it would help them some. But none of his preparations would help as he found himself rocked violently to one side as the ship shuddered and screamed around him as the quantum torpedos exploded. He had managed to hit the side of the control panel on the way down, causing him to briefly lock up in pain as he clutched at his ribcage. Buck whined, coughing as he hauled himself back upright and to run a preliminary scan of the damage sustained by the Discovery and how much they were able to safely take without running into more complications.

His ears were ringing and he had to fight through the wave of nausea that had suddenly hit him.

The horrifying realisation of the enemy vessel being able to regenerate.

"We cannot simply continue to launch salvos at them without sustaining more damage than them..." Buck muttered to himself as he audibly spoke to himself, trying to work a solution as he stifled back a cough, wincing some. "At what speed is it regenerating at, Trix?"

[Tekin Nevir]

"Oh trust me I will, but for now sir your orders do i stabilze the the cre that have been hurt if any or  come up with a toxican to kill whatever hurt our fallow officers?" torrian asked her deep voice having an tint of rage in it as she awaited orders.

[USS Discovery - Deck 9 - Sickbay]

Before they got an answer from the Captain, an exasperated Russian voice sounded from behind her.

"Enshin! Ve need all hands!" he stated, as people began coming into Sickbay with injuries. Even with being told to brace, the ship did bomb itself as well as the enemy ship, and it looked like there were some major injuries to attend to.  Dr. Sluchaynyy was already moving around with a medical tricorder, scanning as officers arrived.

"Start triage, leave the bridge contact to the chain of command." he stated, as he started working on a broken limb.

[Lt. JB Dersch - USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Dersch quickly acknowledged his orders, tapping into the systems with a practiced ease.

"Aye, Sir. Bringing Borg modulations online now. I'll coordinate with Trix once we've handled the hull. Working with engineering to ensure everything is redirected smoothly."

He focused intently on the control panel, his fingers flying over the console. The Borg modulations required precise calibration, but Dersch was confident in the systems.

"Modulations are online. Standing by for coordination with Mr. Trix. Shields are holding for now, but we're pushing the limits."

As the ship rocked with each impact, Dersch stayed steady, locking in the modulations and preparing for the next round of attacks. He suddenly noticed something strange on the console.

"Captain, I'm seeing ghost intruder alerts. Multiple points on top of the alpha hull—alarms are going off, but there's no message. We may have a serious problem if we don't act quickly."

His fingers moved quickly to the controls, keeping his focus sharp as the alerts continued to flash on the screen.

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Main Bridge]

The first detonation hit like a sledgehammer. The deck beneath Trix's feet lurched violently, and for a moment, his whole world spun. The shockwave tore through the Discovery, rattling his teeth and forcing the air from his lungs. His hands clung to the edge of his console, white-knuckled, as alarms screamed around him. Somewhere in the chaos, he heard the Captain's second order to fire, but the words were nearly drowned out by the gut-wrenching groan of the hull under stress. His antennae jerked from the inertia, leaving him with a sensation that was a mix of instinctive alarm and sheer force feedback from the blast.

Through the daze, he barely registered the console flashing in front of him. The first calculations for the inertial damper inversion were complete, ready to deploy. Gritting his teeth, he reached for the command input—only for a second explosion to slam through the ship. The bridge bucked like a wild animal, nearly sending him sprawling forward. A conduit behind him detonated with an ear-splitting crack, sending a searing shower of sparks cascading over him. For a moment, he tasted metal and ozone, the sharp tang mingling with the smell of his own singed hair. The world blurred. His vision swam. A dull ringing in his ears threatened to drown out everything else.

Trix forced himself back upright, shaking off the fog creeping into his mind. "Not dead yet," he muttered, slamming the command through. The inertial dampers in the outermost hull sections reversed polarity, and the results were immediate. Through the main viewscreen, he watched as most of the strands latched onto Discovery were violently torn free, slingshotted off by the abrupt and unnatural shift in inertia, left flailing aimlessly through the void. The ship still groaned from the residual forces, but at least physics was on their side for once. "Polarity inversion worked, computer estimates we knocked 75% of them off. Shall I charge another wave?" The words came out near automatic, barely filtering through his rattled brain. He had the computer start the calculations and sent over some additional permuations for their modulation attempts.

As his head cleared, he turned his attention to the enemy vessel. His heart pounded as he noticed something new. The shockwaves from the detonations had forced portions of the enemy ship into phase with normal space. His breath hitched at what was revealed—an entire structure composed almost entirely of the same biological material as the strands ensnaring them. It was all interconnected, a grotesque mass that looked more like a cocoon than a spacecraft. He felt an involuntary shudder crawl up his spine as his mind conjured images of what kind of arachnid horror might lurk within.

Whatever's inside, I don't want to meet it.

Worse, the data their sensors had egerly lapped up, now that there actually was something to scan for a change, confirmed a horrifying realization. This wasn't just a ship hiding in subspace—it had to be a vessel from subspace. These beings originated there. The web, the ship, all of it was part of a larger biological structure that had no true home in their reality. They weren't just advanced marauders. They were something far worse—something entirely alien to this plane of existence. They didn't belong here on a very fundamental level.

Feeling the hairs on the back of his neck rise, he hesitantly glanced at the ceiling again—just to make sure. The dancing shadows caused by the flickering lighting and steady alarm pulses were NOT helpful in assuaging his concerns that some eldritch creature might drop on his head at any moment.

When he looked back down, his stomach sank. The damage they had inflicted on the enemy ship was already knitting itself back together. The biological hull was regenerating, sealing over the wounds with disturbing efficiency.

Trix exhaled sharply, forcing his nerves to settle. He let out a breathless, humorless chuckle. "Of course it regenerates. Of course it does. Why wouldn't it?" He muttered under his breath before his eyes narrowed in thought.

Then, as he started to help isolating their individual systems from further attack, another thought hit him—one that gave him just a little bit of hope. He murmured to himself, recalling an old Earth film, a simple truth wrapped in fiction.

"If it bleeds, we can kill it."

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

Buck was just about to conduct the spectral sweep when he heard Dersch chime up from the tactical control panel, tying the tactical outputs into the sweep itself as he began to run the data and monitor all the output of power they had currently being used. They had already drained a lot from the non-essential parts of the ship, so he could only hope that they wouldn't drain everything in its entirety.

"Enacting emergency power protocols now, Cap'n." Buck responded, his ingers flying along the control panel as he enabled the protocols that would set up the ship for the worst-case scenario.

Ops to all officers, those not involved at battle stations, prepare for evacution to your designated refuge center. 

The message would be sent out to all those across the ships, as he checked each deck, manually trying to sut off power to those specific locations that were not in use and wouldn't be in use for the situation that they were in. Buck would monitor the movements of each deck, when they would clear out to area designated and he would shut down the power to ensure that they weren't going to be exposed any further with the power drainage. He would have to have a check of their armoury should they survive the salvo.

Buck's knuckles would turn white as he gripped onto the control panel, his teeth gritted as the captain issued his forewarning. This would hurt, certainly would rock the ship and he hoped that it would help them some. But none of his preparations would help as he found himself rocked violently to one side as the ship shuddered and screamed around him as the quantum torpedos exploded. He had managed to hit the side of the control panel on the way down, causing him to briefly lock up in pain as he clutched at his ribcage. Buck whined, coughing as he hauled himself back upright and to run a preliminary scan of the damage sustained by the Discovery and how much they were able to safely take without running into more complications.

His ears were ringing and he had to fight through the wave of nausea that had suddenly hit him.

The horrifying realisation of the enemy vessel being able to regenerate.

"We cannot simply continue to launch salvos at them without sustaining more damage than them..." Buck muttered to himself as he audibly spoke to himself, trying to work a solution as he stifled back a cough, wincing some. "At what speed is it regenerating at, Trix?"

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

At least two officers ended up getting thrown, one of which had blood showing on her head.  The Captain ordered them to go down to Sickbay as he listened to the status reports.

"I really hope we don't ever have to blast our own ship again..." he muttered, but the most alarming report came from Dersch.

"Even if our security systems were losing power, they wouldn't be showing ghosts.  Which either means we have a virus in our systems... or we have a virus in our corridors.  Consider it legitimate.  Intruder alert." he ordered, then turning his attention to Trik.

"That one wave nearly ripped us apart and took an immense amount of power.  We have the modulated shields online, so we may be able to disrupt the rest.  Helm, once the shuttle is docked set a course out of the system. Try to put some distance so we can reestablish a warp field."

"Bridge to Engineering, we have found the cause of the power drain, and have shrugged off a good portion of the threads.  We need to get out of here and rendevous with Starfleet; get that warp core back online!"

"Load another spread... we should still have 3/4 of our complement of quantum torpedoes.  Their regeneration may be slow, but their ability to adapt weapons puts the Borg to shame."  The ship shook again, but it was more muted. The beam weapons were less effective now that they couldn't just absorb the frequency of the shields. With the amount of modulations the new shields would go through, it wasn't likely that they could adapt and drain them... right?

"Dersch, bring aft phasers back online. Trix, you seem to be talented at redirecting; work with Tactical and see if we can charge them with a modulated graviton beam."

Elsewhere on the ship, empty corridors with little to no life support in them were not so empty, as the skittering of feet sounded below decks....

[Lorut Vila]

{USS....uh, I forgot what the shuttle is called}

Vila dipped into the Ops console in a quick hurry, peeling off the biosuit helmet and tossing it aside. She hated the damned things, and she was happy to be back at a working console.

After a few moments, she had the console on and tapped into the Discovery's systems. She smiled lightly. Good, McNair had managed to keep them afloat. Nice. She liked it when her people could work independently.

Its surface was uneven and seemingly affected by the explosions to some degree, but there were signs of it possessing some form of healing, as parts looked partially regenerated. And there was movement. Shadows were moving along the larger superstructure as if tending to the wounds torn into it. Further increasing sensor magnification revealed one of their shapes. A large amount of legs mounted onto a central Cephalothorax and trailed by a greatly elongated Abdomen, the shapes could only be described as spider like. Their movement was even more alien than spiders he knew, though. Their legs seeming to partially climb in the ways of auto-locomotion, partially shifting between different spectral frequencies.

"Can anyone please tell me what I am looking at here?..."

"Standard is my third language, but I think your people call that a spider," Lorut answered. "Want me to kill it?" She wrinkled her nose. That had once been her ex-husband's job.

There was a tap on the roof.

"I'd wager a bet that that's also a spider," she said. "Orders, sir?" She asked.

She was of half a mind to not wait, and just fire the torps at it, but she supposed that it was a sentient being, and...outside. 

[TrikNarChRehllan]

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

"Dersch, bring aft phasers back online. Trix, you seem to be talented at redirecting; work with Tactical and see if we can charge them with a modulated graviton beam."

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Main Bridge]

Trix tapped into the optical sensor feed from the shuttle, and instantly wished he hadn't. The image magnified on his console was a writhing nightmare—dozens of spindly, multi-limbed creatures skittering over the biological hull of the enemy ship, methodically stitching its ruptured cocoon back together. Their motion was unnatural, fluid in ways that defied normal locomotion, some legs slipping in and out of different spectral frequencies as they moved. Why did there have to be so many legs in the first place?

He clenched his jaw, resisting the urge to gag. The creatures bore a disturbing resemblance to Glikar'ma—legendary monstrosities from Andorian folklore, symbols of evil and calamity. He had always dismissed such stories as exaggerated campfire nonsense, but now he felt their weight crawling up his spine like cold ice.

"I really, really hate folk tales," he muttered under his breath.

McNair's voice snapped him back to the present.

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

"At what speed is it regenerating at, Trix?"

Trix forced his bleary eyes to focus. "Regeneration cycle estimated at twenty minutes until full integrity," he replied, voice tighter than he intended. "But given the rate of adaptation... I'd say we won't get much reprieve during that time."

"Sending recommended settings for the modulated graviton beam," he announced, dispatching the data packet across the room with a slightly dramatic swipe of his left hand as he executed the Captain's order. The Discovery seemed to groan again under another hit, and his body swayed with the inertia as everyone else on the bridge remained in position. Odd. There were no sensor records of a hit, no change in shield status. Was he imagining things? He pushed forward, adjusting the final parameters.

But something felt wrong. The lights looked different for a second, and suddenly the world seemed to swim. His head throbbed violently, a sharp pain drilling into his skull, half a centimeter behind his right eye. He blinked rapidly, disoriented, and caught the telltale coppery tang of Andorian blood on his tongue. Reflexively, he wiped his upper lip—his fingers came away slick with bright blue blood. Oh.

He reached down to his belt, reflexively fumbling for his emergency hypospray. The weight and balance felt off as he lifted it to his neck, but he pressed the button anyway. Nothing. No hiss. No reprieve. He looked at the device in his hand and found the bottom half missing. Cracked, leaking, useless.

Panic rose in his chest, urgent and hot. Or was it his lunch? He tried to swallow it down—whatever it was—push through, but his breath got caught in his throat and for a moment he coughed like his life depended on it. Feared he would suffocate where he stood. His fingers went clumsy, missing keypresses, his vision tunneling as his heartbeat rumbled in his ears louder than the ceremonial artillery cannons at the Andorian Imperial Court. And why were there suddenly two captains now? His own body was betraying him, shutting down faster and faster, reducing his consciousness to an inept passenger aboard the USS Trix.

The last thing he saw before the darkness claimed him was a glance at some metal plating overlaid with flickering emergency lights. And for the briefest moment, he wondered what had happened to his console before he realized that he was looking at the ceiling. "I guess I'm falling."

And then, nothing.

[T'Rea]

"Ramort the Away team, please evacute to the Shuttle immediatly. Leave Tricorders sent to emit low frequency radio signals with important findings so we can lock onto them with our scanners easier but do not waste any unnecessary time." 

[USS Momentary | Hull]
Movement, energy, noise. Pannels of hard metal became not so underneath, icor flowed into where it was just to have it, but there were creatures here, intruders. A leap forward and another. Keeping to the shadows cast by the vessels head it moved and leapd closer to the form. It would not escape.

[USS Momentary| Deck 8]

As she leapt from the hull and scrambled to pull herself back into the Momentary by her tether, T'Rea had caught the briefest glimpse of something--perhaps nothing more than a moving shadow--on the starship's hull, but there wasn't time to consider it as Soreka helped pull her back in and onto the deck where she could activate mag boots again.

She was still trying to process the sudden appearance the hostile ship through some kind of null space void when Ramort's order came through to evacuate, but before they had even had time to disconnect T'Rea's tether her environmental suit gave another urgent ping about critical low power ('Power levels at 1%. Take immediate emergency measures.') and they had to pause to link their suits together via a power transfer cable so that T'Rea's suit could piggyback onto the relatively healthier power reserves of the security officer.

[USS Momentary | Docking Hatch back at the Shuttle]
As he returned to the Shuttle and watched everyone getting back into their seats his questions as to what was happening with Discovery were answered as bright lights lit up the space surrounding Discovery. Lights that could only be created by high energy weapons being detonated. Lights which should have been deflected by their shields. But the shields were seemingly not working as they should and the ship was tumbling from the aftershocks of the last wave of explosions.

And Discovery was not alone. There was something else, something hanging in space, something so alien his brain had a hard time even coming up with a comparison. Large chunks of what seemed like biological matter were interspersed with small fragments of metal looking as having been broken from various spaceships and rocks which might be the results of impacting asteroids or the byproducts of alien bioprocesses he could not hope to discern.

As the last member of the Team boarded the Shuttlecraft he ordered their immediate departure to rejoin Discovery.

While they left the Momentary behind them he turned to their sensors and focused them on the alien structure. Its surface was uneven and seemingly affected by the explosions to some degree, but there were signs of it possessing some form of healing, as parts looked partially regenerated. And there was movement. Shadows were moving along the larger superstructure as if tending to the wounds torn into it. Further increasing sensor magnification revealed one of their shapes. A large amount of legs mounted onto a central Cephalothorax and trailed by a greatly elongated Abdomen, the shapes could only be described as spider like. Their movement was even more alien than spiders he knew, though. Their legs seeming to partially climb in the ways of auto-locomotion, partially shifting between different spectral frequencies.

"Can anyone please tell me what I am looking at here?.."

As soon as he had spoken, a new sound broke through the silence in the cabin, a tap from the ceiling. A tap from outside the shuttle.

"Standard is my third language, but I think your people call that a spider," Lorut answered. "Want me to kill it?" She wrinkled her nose. That had once been her ex-husband's job.

There was a tap on the roof.

"I'd wager a bet that that's also a spider," she said. "Orders, sir?" She asked.

She was of half a mind to not wait, and just fire the torps at it, but she supposed that it was a sentient being, and...outside.

[USS Tereshkova]

Slowed down by the problems with her suit, a slightly breathless Soreka and T'Rea were the last to hurry onto the shuttle. T'Rea immediately found herself busy first connecting herself to the shuttle's power reserves instead of Soreka while they waited for the small ship to repressurize, and then connecting her near-dead tricorder as well. The scanner had been clipped to her belt since she'd started to flee from her exposed position out on the hull, but it had still been recording readings all the while and T'Rea was rather desperate to see if it had managed to take any readings of the hostile ship.

She was so intent on scrolling through the data there that it wasn't until Commander Ramort's question that she raised her head to look out the viewscreen. Lorut's answer and the following tap on the shuttlecraft's hull was enough for the Vulcan's eyebrow to raise at the same time as her eyes widened.

As a science officer her first instinct was to jump up to join Ramort at the display panel for the shuttle's sensor array, but not only was there not really room for two, sensor readings would be all but useless for something physically attached to the hull--it was inside their scanning range. "Can you pull up the exterior cameras, Lieutenant?" she suggested urgently to Lorut instead.

"I think it came from the Momentary, sir," she reported quickly to Ramort as she held up her tricorder towards their XO so he could see the stored readout for himself. "My scanner and I caught of glimpse of it while evacuating  her external hull. Readings are still fairly jumbled but... organic again, and it can move fast," she cautioned from a quick calculation of its path as recorded by her tricorder.

[Lorut Vila]

{USS (Uh, I forgot the shuttle name)|Ops Console}

The pressure had finally returned to optimal, and Vila was back in Ops mode. She was already fast at work, trying to access the Discovery's signals, to little avail. Power must be off.

"Sir, I think the Disco is out of power, or range, or both," she said. "I've got nothing," she said. Still, she tapped out a relay, and sent into the ether, hoping someone or something would find it. Quickly.

The...spiders? Beasts? incessant taps on the roof were getting to her, and she nearly plucked her phaser from her waist to fire it though the ceiling.

Can you pull up the exterior cameras, Lieutenant?

*Denai is the worst Bajoran swear word but has no English translation, so insert your favorite
Lorut nodded. "Yes," she said. A moment later, the scene played across all the console screens.

"DENAI..." she cursed in Bajoran. "That thing is..." she didn't need to continue.

[Tekin Nevir]

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Main Bridge]

Trix tapped into the optical sensor feed from the shuttle, and instantly wished he hadn't. The image magnified on his console was a writhing nightmare—dozens of spindly, multi-limbed creatures skittering over the biological hull of the enemy ship, methodically stitching its ruptured cocoon back together. Their motion was unnatural, fluid in ways that defied normal locomotion, some legs slipping in and out of different spectral frequencies as they moved. Why did there have to be so many legs in the first place?

He clenched his jaw, resisting the urge to gag. The creatures bore a disturbing resemblance to Glikar'ma—legendary monstrosities from Andorian folklore, symbols of evil and calamity. He had always dismissed such stories as exaggerated campfire nonsense, but now he felt their weight crawling up his spine like cold ice.

"I really, really hate folk tales," he muttered under his breath.

McNair's voice snapped him back to the present.

Trix forced his bleary eyes to focus. "Regeneration cycle estimated at twenty minutes until full integrity," he replied, voice tighter than he intended. "But given the rate of adaptation... I'd say we won't get much reprieve during that time."

"Sending recommended settings for the modulated graviton beam," he announced, dispatching the data packet across the room with a slightly dramatic swipe of his left hand as he executed the Captain's order. The Discovery seemed to groan again under another hit, and his body swayed with the inertia as everyone else on the bridge remained in position. Odd. There were no sensor records of a hit, no change in shield status. Was he imagining things? He pushed forward, adjusting the final parameters.

But something felt wrong. The lights looked different for a second, and suddenly the world seemed to swim. His head throbbed violently, a sharp pain drilling into his skull, half a centimeter behind his right eye. He blinked rapidly, disoriented, and caught the telltale coppery tang of Andorian blood on his tongue. Reflexively, he wiped his upper lip—his fingers came away slick with bright blue blood. Oh.

He reached down to his belt, reflexively fumbling for his emergency hypospray. The weight and balance felt off as he lifted it to his neck, but he pressed the button anyway. Nothing. No hiss. No reprieve. He looked at the device in his hand and found the bottom half missing. Cracked, leaking, useless.

Panic rose in his chest, urgent and hot. Or was it his lunch? He tried to swallow it down—whatever it was—push through, but his breath got caught in his throat and for a moment he coughed like his life depended on it. Feared he would suffocate where he stood. His fingers went clumsy, missing keypresses, his vision tunneling as his heartbeat rumbled in his ears louder than the ceremonial artillery cannons at the Andorian Imperial Court. And why were there suddenly two captains now? His own body was betraying him, shutting down faster and faster, reducing his consciousness to an inept passenger aboard the USS Trix.

The last thing he saw before the darkness claimed him was a glance at some metal plating overlaid with flickering emergency lights. And for the briefest moment, he wondered what had happened to his console before he realized that he was looking at the ceiling. "I guess I'm falling."

And then, nothing.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

"Fire when ready-" the Captain began when he saw his officer slide of their chair and to the ground.  No apparent damage, but with so many unknowns, he couldn't take chances.

"Medical emergency to the bridge!"

While he waited, the Captain jumped to the science station left vacated, seeing what the settings were set to.

"Is the shuttle docked?"

With the affirmative answer, he turned back to his tactical officer.  "Fire another round of quantum torpedoes." he ordered, turning to the screen in the front.  "Aft view."

The viewscreen switched from being a veritable window looking out from the bridge to looking at the rear view. The shuttle's sleek shape vanished from view as they entered the shuttle bay, showing only the engineering hull and all four of her powered-down nacelles.  The aft torpedo launcher fired another round, which impacted the husk-like ship.  Unfortunately for them, the damage inflicted was much, much lesser.  They were starting to adapt to it.  The comparisons to the Borg were both too accurate and too scary; at least the Borg just tried to remove your individuality.  These things...

"Prophets... we need a task force for this. And we need to figure out how to protect our ship.  These countermeasures are good, but not a long-term plan. We need something that doesn't threaten the ship or our remaining power.  Bridge to Engineering, where is my warp power, I'm still seeing inactive nacelles?"

Elsewhere on the ship, the sounds of tapping, scuttling, unsettling noises were sounding; since the outer sections of the ship were abandoned, they had no reason to stay, and moved to penetrate the ship further.  A security team walked down the halls, looking like they were searching for something that they didn't really think was there.  They were the perfect prey.

The four officers were taken care of rather quickly....

[James Ramort]

[Unknown Alien Ship]

As activity on and about the alien ship reached a critical level, something about it changed. As sensors would have picked up seemingly erratic movements before, what was chaos before became more ordered suddenly. Limbs or plenty moved in unison to get at their tasks at once.

Large bioforms emerged from openings in the ships body to place themselves into torn openings to seal them. Eyes on stalks, eyes in holes and eyes everywhere turned outward. Searching the space around them before focusing on the single target before them. The ship with the strange flat head and the solid space legs extending behind it in this freakish design.

As the movement around them died down, new activity sparked in a different place. The electromagnetic spectrum. An open channel was cast across the entire system to bring the thoughts of what is meant to pilot and eat to those meant to be eaten. The primitive minds were to be enlightened by their presence.

As the visual channel build its image, it offered insight into an irregular cavern, various bodies of giant black spider-like bodies moved across every surface. From among the various shades and shapes a shared image emerged. A shared voice, as alien as the translation circuits could barely still accommodate it.

"...ahsss, interlupers... prey. Staand down your feeble aattempts to damage our shaape. Your forms and powers will be used to service and feed our greater caause. Be happy and rejoice for your taastes will be remembered for the aages to come by our prodigy. shh"

[Lorut Vila]

{Shuttle}

"Sir...that thing wants to kill us," she said. She didn't know how she knew, she just...DID. They REALLY needed a Betazoid or something for moments like this.

Her militia training kicked in, and she called out orders. "T'Rea, you don't have any probes out, right? Think it's safe enough to set course for the Discovery?" She asked the science officer.

"Helm, set us up to dock. Fast," she said.

She was already at work, dialing up the shuttle's systems. She had an idea.

"Does anyone remember reading anything about the spider people that the Orions were working with when they were with the Dominion?" Vila did. Vila kept track of the Dominion's actions throughout the years. "They were killed by photon arrays. We have some," she said. "BUT...what if we did the opposite? T'Rea, would it work if we somehow made a stationary laser?" She asked. "Never mind, we don't have time," she said.

They had just arrived. "Helm, take us in," she said. "And hit the roof as you do," she instructed. "This would be faster with my phaser in a suit," she muttered.