Star Trek: Dark Remnant CH-1

Posted on Tue Jun 11th, 2024 @ 3:38am by Lieutenant JG Kate Kono

Mission: Man & Machine
Location: USS Aphelion
Timeline: Between episodes (Mini-Novel)

Chapter One

The shuttlecraft's thrusters hissed as Ensign Kate Kono expertly maneuvered it into the gaping maw of the USS Aphelion's shuttle bay. The metallic clank of the landing gear meeting the deck resonated through the cabin, a dull punctuation to her arrival. She killed the engines, and the whirring of machinery faded into an oppressive silence that seemed to hang in the air like a bad omen. The Asian Ensign continued placing the shuttlecraft into standby mode just in case it needed to be moved later before shutting the system consoles off in the cockpit. Kate looked out the window to see that the crew members aboard this ship had black uniforms with gray shoulder stripes, with only a slight sliver of extra color to indicate their department specialty.

The doors in front of her in the bay opened again and a tall, dark haired man in his forties stepped out and regarded the shuttle with a sneer as he adjusted his collar that contained four pips indicating his rank. He vanished around the side of the cockpit windows and Kate unstrapped her lithe body from the chair as the back door opened without her consent.

"Ensign Kono," Captain Eman Braddock’s voice was like gravel scraping across durasteel as he approached, his broad figure casting a long shadow over her cockpit. "I didn't want you on this mission."
Kate blinked rapidly in disbelief as she side-stepped the man to his disapproval. As far as she was concerned, any disrespect he perceived was on him considering the first thing he did was invade her space. Kate stepped out of the shuttlecraft, her boots echoing off the floor as she stood to face him shortly after he followed her out of the shuttle with USS Washington markings on the side. His eyes were steely, unyielding, like the vacuum of space itself.

"Section 31 is the unsung sentinel of Starfleet," Braddock continued, his words laced with conviction. "It's because of them we're still here."
His opinion was clear, unwavering, and unasked for,—and Kate felt the weight of it pressing down on her. She bit back her own thoughts, knowing now was not the time for debate.

"Cool story, bro…” Kate quipped before straightening her uniform out. She tried to sound more professional with her next reply as he stood in front of her in complete shock at her last comment. “Sir, I'm fully aware of my role," she replied, her voice steady despite the captain's domineering presence. "Starfleet Intelligence requires an officer on board for missions of this nature."

"Exactly," he grunted, turning to gaze at the viewports where stars streaked by, indicating their warp speed. "But we shouldn't even be here. We had a moore important, classified mission to chase, but command had other plans—a mystery ship and a mid-warp transfer."
The unnatural calm before a storm settled over them as the crew prepared for the unprecedented feat. The Aphelion came out of warp just long enough to align with the enigmatic alien vessel’s projected course before going right back to warp.

Kate looked out the windows to see if she could see anything relative to their position as they prepared to suit up for the encounter. Sure enough, there it was. The Aphelion shook as the ship struggled to match the same warp speed to make their speed stationary. The mystery ship was immense, —a dark, silent monolith against the backdrop of distant streaking stars. It was as if the very cosmos held its breath as their warp fields merged together as one.

"Let's get this over with," Braddock ordered tersely over the intercom in the transporter room.

The air hummed with energy, and Kate felt her pulse sync with the vibration. She stood beside Commander Richard Vale, Ensign Paxton, Crewman Taggart, and Ensign Valora, ready to beam across the void. Their reflections flickered in the glossy surface of the console, distorted and ghostly.

"Initiate transport," Braddock commanded.

A high-pitched whine crescendoed around them as reality blurred into streams of light and color. Then, abruptly, there was silence.
They rematerialized within the alien ship, the air buzzing with residual transporter energy. But something was wrong. A quick headcount confirmed their fears—Vale was missing.

"Commander Vale?" Paxton's voice quivered, barely above a whisper.

"Something went wrong during transport," the operator said grimly from the communicator in Kate's helmet that protected her from the vacuum of the dead ship. His next words were almost too surreal to grasp. "He's...he didn't make it. Scattered across deep space."

Behind her temporary crewmates thick glass faceplate, Paxton's complection paled, his eyes wide with shock. Kate felt a cold shiver crawl up her spine. Vale, the man who had been both comrade and mentor to Paxton, was gone, his atoms strewn amongst the stars they had all vowed to explore.

"Let's... let's keep moving," Kate finally managed, her voice betraying none of the turmoil inside her. "We have a mission to complete."

The desolation of the alien ship whispered of secrets and horrors untold, its shadows reaching out with icy fingers. As they ventured deeper into the bowels of this cosmic crypt, the sense of foreboding grew ever more palpable, a dread that feasted on the fringes of their minds.



*


The hiss of the life support systems in Kate Kono's EVA suit was a constant reminder of the alien atmosphere beyond its protective layer. The ship, an eldritch mausoleum adrift in the void, seemed to protest their presence with every creak and groan of its twisted metal corridors. She moved cautiously, her eyes scanning the eerie shadows that clung to the walls like dark omens.

"Gods," Paxton muttered as they entered what appeared to be the crew's quarters, his voice tinny through the suit comm. "Look at this place."

Kate followed his gaze. The compartment was a charnel house; bodies—or what remained of them—were strewn about in macabre disarray. The unknown alien species lay mutilated, limbs torn from torsos, innards spilled in viscous piles upon the deck. Their faces, frozen in silent screams, were a tableau of unspeakable violence.

"Whatever did this... it wasn't human," Valora observed, her calm tone at odds with the carnage surrounding them. Her words echoed hollowly within their helmets.

"Keep your eyes open," Kate instructed, her gut clenched tight. "Whatever took place here happened long ago but who knows how long the evil that did this can wait."

They continued their grim exploration, the silence around them more oppressive than the weightlessness of space itself. Every so often, the ship would shudder, metallic echoes resonating through its structure, as if it too were alive and suffering.

Kate worked her way through the endless expanse of the hull, finding more tightly compact machinery the deeper in she went. It made sense that, Engineering on any vessel would be located through the omnipresent concentration of mechanisms, even if she didn’t know what they were used for.

Kate used her Tricorder to tap through the energy signatures and make some sort of a primitive connection between the ship and her computer. She tapped her helmet.

“Ensign Kono to Captain Braddock, go ahead and back off. I’m going to attempt to drop us out of warp.” Kate tapped a button to put the ships warp drive into reset mode. It wouldn’t permanently place the ship in normal space, but it would be well enough to keep the ship safe enough to transport back. She had her tricorder scanning the warp core of the ship as much as possible as this was the kind of technology she knew the crew would want. For now though, she knew that the USS Aphelion was exhausted from following at high warp and they all needed a safe ‘out’ so that they wouldn’t have to risk ending up like poor Commander Vale. Kate tapped the overload key and the streaks of stars around the ship turned once again to finite points in the black.

Suddenly, Taggart's scream pierced the comm, a raw sound of pure terror that cut through the stillness like a knife. Frantically, they retraced their steps, rushing towards the source of the scream.

"Taggart!" Paxton's voice pitched high with panic. "Respond!"
But when they reached him, words deserted them. Taggart lay in two distinct pieces, his body severed at the waist, his expression fixed in a rictus of agony. Blood painted the bulkheads, a grotesque splash against the cold sterility of the alien metal.

"Wh-what could have done this?" Paxton stammered, his usual warmth extinguished by the horror before them.

"Nothing we want to meet," Kate replied tersely. Her mind raced, tactically evaluating every shadow for threats. "We need to get out of here."

Her eyes flicked to the ship's control interface—not that she could understand the alien script—but the pulsing lights and escalating hum of the engines spoke a universal language: the vessel was preparing to warp.

"Captain Braddock, this is Kono. We've got a situation," she reported, opening a channel to the Aphelion. "This ship is going to jump to warp any minute."

"Stay put, Ensign," Braddock's voice came, distorted by static. "We can't risk another transport."

"Sir, with all due respect, we'll be stranded," she countered, urgency sharpening her voice. "Taggart's dead, and whatever killed him might still be here."

"Stand down, Ensign. That's an order," Braddock insisted, the edge in his voice leaving no room for argument.

"Kate, we should listen to him," Valora said quietly, though her eyes betrayed her fear.

"Negative. I'm not dying in this forsaken crypt," Kate declared, her resolve steeling. "Paxton, you with me?"

"Always," he replied, his loyalty overriding his fright.

"Valora, let's go," Kate urged, but the other ensign stood rooted, conflicted between obedience and survival.

"Captain said stay," Valora murmured, her voice small amidst the gathering storm of energy within the ship.

"Then Godspeed, Ensign," Kate said, a tinge of sorrow in her tone. She couldn't afford to wait. Kate knew she couldn’t grab onto her either because if the ship went to warp at the moment they transported, she’d be scattered amongst the stars atom by atom just like Vale.

"Kono, don't you dare—" Braddock's admonishment was cut short as Kate initiated the emergency return sequence on her suit.
"See you on the other side," she whispered, and with a rush of light and sound, she and Paxton vanished from the alien ship's embrace, leaving Valora alone with the dead and the darkness.

“Valora, I want you to find a way to shut that ship down so th---,” the communications cut off and she felt the rush of energy course through the dead ship as she accelerated to high warp.

The ship had pulled the USS Aphelion with it in its wake as it jumped back to not just warp, but beyond known warp speeds for only just a moment. The stars around them seemed to be distant and panned out in only one direction as the monolithic monstrosity vanished into the blackness, never to be seen again.

Kate and Paxton materialized to a scene of chaos on the Aphelion as the transporter chief struggled back up to his feet as if he had just been thrown to the floor. The red alert claxons blared through their helmets. Kate couldn’t make out what the chief was saying until she pulled her helmet off.
“The alien ship went into -- some sort of high warp. There’s no way we can catch up with it,” the Engineering Chief’s voice entered through their combadges.

“I have no lock on Valora… She’s gone with the ship, sir,” the Chief said. It was at that moment, Kate knew the worst had happened.

“Valora…” Kate murmured.