Bloodhounds Pt. 2

Posted on Thu Sep 23rd, 2021 @ 9:01pm by Lieutenant Ayana Hillis & Lieutenant Commander Shoniara T’ghann-Travis Dr

Mission: Breen in Paradise
Location: USS Washington

Ayana walked through the corridor with Dex, her mind racing with possibilities that might be found when they arrived. She seriously doubted that it would be something as simple as the culprit waiting around for them to capture them. Likely they would have to do some detective work, and that was fine with her. She also considered the situation with Dex. She believed her to be a good person, but in her current condition she was volatile and somewhat unpredictable. She would have to watch Dex closely to ensure nothing got out of hand.

“You know Ayana, med lab 2 is the lab I have been using for my development of the pathogen In order to produce the vaccine for humans. Now we know the transporter can remove the virus then I still think I should vaccinate everyone in case whoever it is wanted to try again. Surak” she swore pulling her collar down away from her neck. “I swear someone has turned the heating up on this ship.” As they rounded the Bend approaching the lab Dex whispered, “just in case someone is in there do you have a weapon?”

Ayana tapped her fingers on the phaser holstered on her hip. "Always prepared doctor" she said with a smile.

As they neared the lab Shoniara began to feel something deep inside her akin to a feral animal stalking its prey. The sense of the hunt and the power of defeat began to grow inside her, flooding her logical mind.

“Doctor, Lieutenant “ a nurse acknowledged them in the corridor as he passed.

Dex turned to follow him not knowing she had done so her senses lost. The maleness of his smell filled her and there was nothing more she wanted to do than to take this being and mate, it felt like an imperative steeped in rage, lust, and the loss of all that made her who she was. Tears slipped from her eyes. “Ayana help me!” She whispered.

Dex turned to follow him not knowing she had done so her senses lost. The maleness of his smell filled her and there was nothing more she wanted to do than to take this being and mate, it felt like an imperative steeped in rage, lust, and the loss of all that made her Vulcan. Tears slipped from her eyes. “Ayana help me!” She whispered. “In my pocket, a hypo I need it, I feel rage, a killing rage. Hypo or stun me now I cannot control myself! Please” it came out like the whine of an animal in pain.

Ayana didn't dare reach for the hypo. She didn't want to, but she had little alternative at the moment. She pulled her phaser and stunned Dex, watching the doctor slump to the wall and down to the floor, incapacitated for the time being. Going into the lab alone was not what she had wanted or planned, but it was the situation at the moment.

She hit the door panel and entered the lab in a tactical fashion. She scanned the room quickly and found it empty. She walked around and noticed a console active. She took a closer look and found it had been used recently, quite recently. She pulled her tricorder and scanned, the data confirming her suspicions, they had just missed the would be assassin.

She hit her comm badge, =^=Ayana to sickbay. Medical assistance required outside science lab 2. =^= She walked out and looked at Dex who remained stunned. This would be an interesting explanation for the medical log.

Dex came too on the floor outside the lab. “You had to stun me?” she asked Ayana. ‘Stupid question’ she thought to herself. A medic she didn’t know was scanning her with a medical tricorder.
“I am fine,” she pushed him away and tentatively rose to her feet. She pulled the hypo from her pocket and gave herself the shot of Dolactovine to help control herself. “Ouch,” she said rubbing her hip. “She repeated herself to the medic. “I am fine …now. who exactly are you?” He spoke in an offhand manner as though she should have known who he was I am Doctor Perrim, Not officially on the staff any more and am waiting to be taken off at the next Starbase. I was in sickbay looking around and they needed someone to come out to see you.”
Dex smiled, whoever he was he had managed to get on her bad side, which was hard to do in most cases. She attempted to be pleasant. “Well thank you for coming, I know what is wrong with me and I will sort it out. I will notify the Captain about this….” She waved his concerns away. “Yes I know I should rest after being stunned and I will do, so…in a little while. Now go away….please.” She turned to look at Ayana a pleading look in her eyes.

"I'll get her back to her quarters. Thanks Perrim" said Ayana.

“Thank you for that and I am sorry you had to stun me. I am glad you did as I am far too strong at the moment. The delactovine will modify my symptoms for several hours then…I would like to know more about Voyager.”

"Your willingness to consider that treatment is admirable. How about I finish up my forensic investigation here and then I'll discuss it with you. Perhaps you can return to your quarters and meditate in the interim." Ayana held out hope that Dex would think logically on this with the medicine now in her system.

“No, I need to check the lab for myself. Did you check for DNA?” She did not know if indeed Ayana had been into the lab but presumed she had. She needed to know the samples of the virus were still in the cabinets. She also felt responsible and had a feeling that whoever had used science lab 2 had done so for a reason, possibly to taunt her but she was not sure that feeling came from the logical side of her. She waited for Ayana.

Ayana considered her options. They weren't ideal. She decided to relent. "Very well doctor. Please be careful about what you touch. I still have a few scans to run to try and determine if any DNA evidence has been left. The computers on all but one console are clean."

They entered the lab and Dex went straight to a locked container below the console at the back =/\= computer open med box Dex gamma 2059 =/\= there was a soft click as it opened. “It’s empty” she breathed. “Ayana Both RNA and DNA virus samples have been taken, I don’t understand, it should only respond to my voice and code Whoever has these, with very little knowledge could eradicate all life on this ship, human and non human. She sat down. “What are we going to do?”

Ayana didn't think twice. She hit her comm badge, =^=Computer, activate security protocol Shran 1-alpha. =^= Suddenly the red alert klaxons sounded as the sound of security fields activated nearby. Ayana looked to Dex, "The answer is simple doctor, we put the ship on complete lockdown and search every square inch of it. You'll find that access to all systems have now been restricted to the senior officers for everything except the most basic life necessity matters; food and water from the replicators, and internal ship communication. Crew are being allowed to return to their quarters as we speak, but in about 10 minutes those that aren't senior officers will be stuck where they are until released. The captain takes tactical and security matters very seriously." She smiled as she pulled her phaser. "Shall we begin our hunt for the stolen goods?"

Dex smiled “Now we find whoever took this and do some serious damage! But, I also have an idea. I would like to release my Sehlat, his sense of smell is greater than a pack of bloodhounds and If the scent is in here he will be able to follow it. She looked at Ayana. “Shall we?”

Ayana considered the suggestion. It was akin to the old Earth practice of using bloodhounds on a hunt, only this was like allowing a tiger to hunt someone down. It was a fun thought, but it presented some danger as well. "I'll have to set up a forcefield protocol so that it would be able to move about the corridors. As long as you can assure me it won't maul anyone."

“I can give you that assurance Lieutenant. He will not touch anyone else unless there is a threat to me and them only on order.” As they approached Dex’s quarters she slowed. “For the moment just stand still and then when he is ready you can approach him. Let him smell you and then, if you want you can touch him.. open Dex voiceprint beta 2059 blue.” The doors opened to darkness apart from a blue glint of eyes watching them. =/\= computer lights half =/\= the light came up and she smiled.

“Hello Puss Sehlat T’’lath platatich- t’ath, would you like to go for walk.” The giant golden Sehlat the size of a tiger growled in pleasure and approached her. He was a mass of muscle with long thick golden fur. His feet were huge each having five wicked looking claws on each foot. He stretched and yawned showing a mouth full of teeth, two elongated canines showed extending out from his jaw several inches on each side. Dex knelt and he licked her hand and rolled over. She scratched his abdomen. It was plain that there was a great love between the pair. “Come on then, meet my friend Ayana and let’s go. She stood and Puss approached Her.

Ayana remained fairly still, cautious of the creature that approached. She had never encountered a Sehlat in person before, but she could tell this was something a bit different than the images she had seen regarding the creatures. It appeared to be obedient and tame, or at least as tame as such a creature could be. She allowed the creature to sniff her, obviously the creature trying to learn about her. It began to nuzzle slightly against her hip and Ayana slowly moved a hand towards it, finally gently stroking the Sehlat as she might a Terran cat. She looked at Dex, "An interesting choice of pet. We should return to the lab though, get things moving. You only have so much time to be in complete control of you faculties after all."

As they returned to the lab Puss padding in front of them she talked a little bit more about their furry companion. “Puss is 120 years old and will possibly live until he is 200. The Captain gave me special permission to bring him aboard as he has been bonded to me since I was small, he is what used to be called a ‘service animal’. Because I am only half Vulcan he helps me with my meditation and a Vulcan unable to meditate is no use. My bond brother Ambassador T’ghrek of Vulcan helped me train him. Sehlats are notoriously difficult to train but his mother had been killed when he was only a week old. They used to be hunted for their teeth a vile practice which my people no longer practice.

They arrived at the lab “Puss!” She trailed her hand in front of the console the giant cat approached and smelled the area. Then he sat back on his haunches and licked his paws. “Any minute," they waited “any minute now..Puss P’lat Orr!” She commanded. He stood, sniffed the air and growled. She looked at Ayana, “I believe we have a scent. They set off down the corridor.

Ayana drew her phaser and followed, being cautious as they moved through the ship. They traveled through much of the deck, coming to a crossroads as the Sehlat took a moment to determine which way next. Finally it made a sharp turn to the right and rushed towards the turbolift doors. Ayana looked at Dex, "It appears we will have to go for a ride."

“Puss is not too keen on very enclosed spaces but he will be a perfect gentleman/ the door opened and she took a moment to realise that there were people inside. They entered and the three other passengers squeezed to the back and stopped talking. The female passenger knelt down and scratched him on the ear. Puss turned and rumbled his pleasure leaning against her. “I have always wanted to meet a Sehlat Doctor. My name is Helen Lear and I am a biologist.” Dex smiled, ‘always the women’ she thought. “You are always welcome to come to my quarters and play with him.”

They rode the turbolift until the Sehlat began to growl, indicating to at least Ayana that they had reached the right deck. She stopped the turbolift and opened the doors, allowing everyone to get out so they could follow the trail. Ayana noted they were on Deck 4, only a few decks up from the science lab. They continued to through the corridors until they reached a door to crew quarters. Ayana looked at it, berth 4-12, assigned to Ensign Boyer, an exobotanist who was on temporary assignment. Ayana looked at Dex, "Makes sense that we have come to the quarters of somebody on temporary assignment. Let me take the lead." She hit the door chime. "Ensign, this is lieutenant Hillis. I need to speak with you." She waited at the door for a response, none came.

Ayana hit her comm badge, =^=Computer, unlock berth 4-12, security clearance Hillis 22-gamma-echo.=^=

The door opened and Ayana entered slowly. The room was dimly lit. She took note that the room was cooler than expected, obviously the environmental controls had been used to cool things significantly. She searched the room thoroughly and finally in the bathroom she found something of note. "Dex! I believe we have found something." Ayana scanned the container with her tricorder. She looked back at Dex, "We found the right person, but they have taken something from this container. I need to know what is missing." She waited for Dex to reply.

“Dex frowned, “That Lieutenant is the container that held the DNA of the viral specimen. If it is out of the container then it must be in its liquid state, the cooler it is the more the virus will replicate so the effect would be larger by 1 billion parts. Enough to infect a large Starbase. Possibly they have infected him or herself with a view to infecting others. “Unless” Ayana looked at her. “If they intended to make a ‘bomb’ of themselves then the virus would travel throughout the ship immediately. Infecting everyone. “Her voice became more urgent. “We must find this person, they might not know what they are dealing with.
If we can find some personal effects Puss could smell. Don’t touch anything though, it might be infected. “I wonder where the RNA container is though and why they did not combine the two?”

Ayana hit her comm badge as you had a thought, =^=Computer, location of Ensign Boyer. =^=

The computer chimed, "Ensign Boyer is on Deck 15, section 12-alpha."

Ayana thought for a moment and her eyes widened. "Damn!" =^=Computer emergency transport of Ensign Boyer. Erect a security field and full biocontainment field. =^= She looked at Dex, "Boyer is headed to environmental control. Hope we got her."

Suddenly the transporter hue of a single individual began to appear in the living quarters as force fields activated. As the hue dissipated the human female appeared, a look of surprise on her face as she saw Ayana and Dex, and then fear crept over her as she saw the Sehlat. "Your too late. All you've done is infect yourselves" she said as a sinister smile came over her face.

Ayana looked at Dex as she scanned things with her tricorder. "Thoughts doctor?"

Dex was no longer smiling, “where is the RNA container?”

“Ensign Boyer looked bored and sighed dramatically, “ The RNA container has already been distributed. I must say Dex your work on the virus gave us some moments of trepidation.” She reached her hand out to touch the field and jumped back as she was shocked.” As she spoke Dex was scanning her. “ I know it’s up for me but you have still to catch my partner. We…” Dex interjected and looked at Ayana, “she is Breen!”

Ayana sighed. "It's never easy" she said in a dejected tone. "One down, one to go. Now we have to find this alleged partner. I have an idea to do that quickly, but we'll have to go up to the bridge. Perhaps we can leave this Breen here under your Sehlat's watchful care" she said with a smile.

Dex nodded, “Puss T’latch nir T’oti” she commanded. Puss nodded and settled himself in front of the force field licking his paws. “Surak help her if that force field goes down.” She said. If that RNA container has not yet been distributed we have a chance….. let’s end this Ayana, we have something else to discuss.”

Ayana nodded. She looked at Boyer, "For your sake you better hope we stop your partner in time, otherwise the Sehlat will be the least of your worries." She turned and headed out, moving quickly with Dex to the turbolift. As they made their way up to the bridge she continued her discussion with Dex, "Regarding the issue you are dealing with, I have a copy of the program you can use. All you need to do before using it is inputting a few details regarding your ideal mate and the program will handle the rest for you. You have to be willing to use the program though. If you are resistant, it won't cure your problem."

“Thank you Ayana, for caring. It is such a difficult thing to go through. I don’t want to have to use a holodeck program but if I do not there is no alternative. I will die.” She paused. “And that is not going to happen. I hope when this is over we can be …..friends?”

"I would like that" Ayana replied as the doors opened and they walked onto the bridge.