Finish the "Star Trek" story: "The Pelleri Conundrum"

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“The Pelleri Conundrum”

Captain’s Log, Stardate 43107.7. After a brief refit and personnel transfer at Starbase 165, we are now en route to the Pelleri system at maximum warp. The Pelleri are a secretive race about which we know very little. Starfleet Intelligence has received fragmentary reports of Romulan subversion in the system, however. We have been sent to investigate and, if possible, to open diplomatic relations with the Pelleri government.

Evelyn Xiang had come to Starfleet relatively late in life. She had, in fact, been the oldest human in her Academy class, but had risen quickly through the ranks, proving her negotiating skills during first contact with the Trun, and her military prowess in her single-handed capture of Gul Sheket, among other noteworthy service during the Cardassian War. She had charted Cepheid variables and both played in and survived the brutal hammer-games of Felirin III. No one had been surprised when command of a starship had been offered to her.

Xiang was by nature smart, thoughtful, and stubborn, and was quietly but fiercely committed to duty, honor and Federation. She had few friends, and a husband on Earth about whom she rarely spoke. Her crew more respected than loved her, which troubled her not in the least. Now 62, she was small, rather wrinkled, her short black hair long since turned to gray. She was a calm and unflappable presence on the Bridge of the Nebula-class heavy cruiser USS Franklin, even in the worst of times.

And if not the worst of times, Captain Xiang acknowledged with a small sigh, they were not the best, either.

A month before, she had received orders from a Vice Admiral Samuel Rostow - a flag officer previously unknown to her, although his authorization and command codes had all been in perfect order - cutting short her ship’s long-planned refit at the Cirdan Fleet Yards, and sending them instead to Starbase 165. Xiang’s Chief of Security, whom she had hand-picked when given command of the Franklin two years earlier, had been abruptly reassigned. At the starbase, her new Security chief had personally supervised the installation of something in Airlock 4, and then arranged for the airlock to be permanently sealed. Vice Adm. Rostow had forbidden Xiang to inquire further about the installation, offhandedly - and infuriatingly - assuring her that her new Chief of Security would inform her when she had a “need to know.”

She disliked and, truth be told, resented not knowing everything that went on aboard her ship, orders be damned. Now she looked out her Ready Room’s viewport at the stars streaming past, lost in thought.

The door chimed. “Come,” she said, putting aside her PADD and wondering for perhaps the ninetieth time what awaited them in the Pelleri system…

2

…Lt Comm Jeremie Collins entered “Sir,” she began, then hesitated, not sure if her commanding officer would object to the traditional address.
“Come in, Collins” Xiang did not give any indication that being called “sir” irritated her no end.
“The airlock is secure. We may depart at your descretion”
“At least something has been left up to me,” thought the captain. Out loud she said “Thank you, Collins. Dismissed”
Lt Comm Collins returned to her station at tactical. She concentrated on her responsibilities as the Franklin left its moorings, but her mind wandered to the cargo she’d been given charge. She’d only just been promoted 6 months ago and now she was saddled with this enormous task. No, not saddled, entrusted. She smiled. Pretty good for someone who had been labeled a trouble maker her second year at the Acedemy. As the ship cruised to full impulse, she ran her left hand through her short red hair, and sighed. This was not going to be an easy mission, but if all went according to plan, she could make full commander by her 30th birthday, two years away.

3

The door chimed. “Come,” she said, putting aside her PADD and wondering for perhaps the ninetieth time what awaited them in the Pelleri system.

The door opened, and Commander John Ross entered. Ross had been Captain Xiang’s XO for two years now, and the captain depended on him to handle the routine administrative matters onboard ship. He was solid, dependable, and unimaginative, and the captain didn’t know what to do without him.

“Captain, I have here the week’s duty rosters for your review and approval.”, Ross said as he came to stand in front of the Captain’s desk. Do you have time to go over them with me now?"

“Of course, John,” the captain said, sighing internally, dreading the thought of yet more paperwork. “Have a seat and lets see them.”

Ross was about to hand them over to the Captain, when the intercom buzzed. “Captain to the Bridge”, it crackled. “We’re detecting spatial anomalies between here and the Pelleri system.”

“I’m sorry, John”, Captain Xiang said as she stood up from her chair. “These duty rosters will just have to wait.” She exited the ready room, her second in command following.

4

Ross was about to hand them over to the Captain, when the intercom buzzed. “Captain to the Bridge”, it crackled. “We’re detecting spatial anomalies between here and the Pelleri system.”
Collins waited for the captain and the first officer to emerge onto the bridge, then stated “We’ve detected over one hundred small pockets. Most of them are far enough away that we can easily avoid them. But the closest one is emitting a subspace signal. I can’t get a visual, but the sensors are showing a planet on the other side; as if we were looking thru some sort of window.”
Comm Ross came around to tactical to look over Collins’ shoulder at the readouts. “What type of planet? What are the conditions?”
“Class K, and according to the sensors, it’s about the size of Jupiter. Shall I launch a probe?”

5

“Ready a class 5 probe and launch,” commanded Xiang.

Moments later, the probe shot out from the foreward torpedo bay. The probe accelerated to .25 c and transversed the apeture’s event horizon, leaving a ripple much like a rock thrown into a pond.

“Captain”, announced Lt Scheitz, the science officer, " Preliminary scans indicate the anomaly has a stable threshold."

“I think the Pelleri system can wait for a little while. Helm, lay in a course of…” but she never finished her command.

“Belay that order, Helmsman, " Lt. Comm. Collins abruptly countermanded, " we don’t need to do that.” He locked eyes with his new captain, letting her know she wasn’t as totally in charge as she assumed…

6

The common cold wipe out the entire Pelleri race in 48 hours (Earth hours).

Damn.

7

Moderator Warning: Gatopescado: If you don’t want to play the game, don’t play. Grabbing the ball and running away with it so that others can’t play is called “thread shitting” around here and is frowned on. The other term we often use is “being a jerk” – please read the Registration Agreement … and you’ve been around long enough to know this. Enough.

Other players, disregard Gatopescado’s childish intervention and continue as you were. If it’s a dreadful distraction, I’ll delete it entirely, but I’d rather leave it up as a warning for others.

8

Lt. Scheitz spoke up again. “Captain, it looks like the Yosemite has noticed the same thing we did.”

9

“Fluctuations in the warp core, Sir! It just shut down!” reported Lt Scheitz.

“Chief Fisher!” Barked Xiang. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, Sir”, responded the voice on her communicator. “She just shut herself down.”
“Get into my ready room with an explanation man, now!”

The turbo lift opened and Xiang gestured towards her ready room. “Mister Ross, you have the con.”
Chief Engineer Fisher was not happy. No one was when the Captain started calling people “Mister”. Xiang followed him in and waited for the door to close.

“Good timing. How long have we got, Johnny?”
“Lt. Raines will find the fault and get us back up in fifteen minutes, Captain. The best she and I could do and keep it to two people.”
“Then let’s work.” Xiang responded. “What’s in my airlock?’

“It’s a Cardassian survival pod. Model G’lan IV. Carried by anything from a scout ship to a battle cruiser. Occupancy of one for an extended period of time, two individuals for a few hours before the life support equipment would run out. Some intermediate life signs. A very active rat, or a hibernating humanoid, Sir.”

Xiang thought a moment “You can’t tell anymore?”
“Not without entering the airlock, Captain. They’ll know it, one way or the other.” responded the engineer.
“Who will know? And why a Cardassian pod?”
“Perhaps they were in a hurry and it’s what they had on hand. Maybe it’s misdirection” John Fisher shrugged his shoulders. “I’m an engineer Captain, not a detective. About Collins, Sir.”
Xiang raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a lot easier to sabotage the hatch to the armory than the warp core.”
“Not yet, Johnny, but set it up. On the password…dreadnaught, you, Ross or I can lock down the armory. We can keep the bad guys out if need be.”
Fisher frowned. “Who are the bad guys, Sir? Collins? The Cardassians?”
“I’m a line officer, Johnny, not a detective.” Smiled Captain Xiang.

10

“Didn’t I hear something about anomolies?” asked the Chief Engineer.

“The Yosemite is in the neighborhood. She’s better equipped for any investigation.”

11

“Didn’t I hear something about anomolies?” asked the Chief Engineer.

“The Yosemite is in the neighborhood. She’s better equipped for any investigation.” Collins regetted her borderline insubordinate comment to the captain, but that pod was her primary concern right now, and any deviation from the course heading to the Perelli system could have dire consequences. She continured “We have a mission to complete as soon as Engineering gets the warp core operational again”

12

The Captain’s communicator sounded. “Xiang.”
“Engineering, Captain. A potential impurity in antimatter containment. Lt. Rains instigated new containment and we are ready to go. Warp drive at your descretion.” Fisher sounded apologetic.

13

“It’s an old ship, Johnny. Just hold her together and we’ll be fine. I’ll be in my ready room”

The next 90 minutes passed without incident. The Franklin was cruising at Warp 5; Captain Xiang reviewed the service records of her newest officers; the Yosemite filed its report on the subsapce anomoly and copied Xiang as she’d requested earlier; Lt Comm Jeremie Collins’ shift ended.
Xiang’s door chirped. “Come”
“Sir?” Collins stood in the doorway, not wishing to assume any familiarity
“Come in. Sit down”
Jeremie did as told “Permission to speak freely, sir”
“Granted”
“First, I’d like to apologize for my abrupt attitude earlier. I am not one to disregard the chain of command, however,”
“However, you have been given a specific duty to perform, on orders from a higher ranking officer than me. I understand. But you do have a reputation for being something of a renegade”
“Yes, Sir”
“Is there anything you are allowed to tell me about our cargo?”
Collins shifted nervously in her seat. She had been given permission to divulge only specific pieces of information, and was suddenly having trouble remembering what they were.

14

“What’s in my airlock, Commander?” prompted Xiang.
“The Medusae, Captain”.
“Excuse me?”
“That’s what Mr. Wolfe said it was, Sir. It’s a metaphor, of course. It’s an escape pod. He said I wasn’t to look in it, or to scan it. It’s dangerous, I’d be killed”
Xiang squeezed the bridge of her nose. “Who is Mr. Wolfe, Jeremie?”
“He said his name was Nero Wolfe. I think he works for Section 31, Sir.”
“Dear God,” she thought. She wasn’t dealing with alien enemies, she was dealing with the most unscrupulous bunch of spies, tramps and thieves that ever stole pap from a baby or gold pressed latinum from a Ferenghi and made him enjoy it. “What are you to do with it, Jeremie?”

“I have a transmitter and the self destruct codes for the Cardassian frigate Stellar Vengeance. They have several ships in the Pelerri system. I’m supposed to destroy Stellar Vengance and launch the escape pod into the debris field. But I can’t, I won’t kill hundreds of beings, even Cardassians at the whim of some nutjob with a false name from Section 31.”

Xiang touched her communicator. “Xiang to engineering. Johnny, we’re going to open my airlock. Bring a crowbar” She gestured for Collins to precede her out the door.

15

Fisher was waiting by the airlock when Collins and Xiang came around the corridor. Collins stepped forward.
“Let’s not rip apart our own ship, shall we?” Jeremie’s fingers danced across the key pad next to the airlock door but paused before finishing the sequence “Captain, I cannot go in with you. I can’t be party to any interaction with the contents of the pod. My mission, my life, depends on my not knowing.”
“Fine,” Xiang sighed with exhasperation, “finish unlocking the door then you are dismissed. But I will want to talk to you later”
Jeremie was in the turbolift and gone before the airlock door finished opening. Fisher preceeded the captain into the airlock, tricoder beeping and whirring noisily. “There is something very unusual about this pod, Sir”

16

“It’s cycling.” continued the Engineer. “Pressurizing the airlock triggered it.”
Indeed, a status panel became illuminated, mostly in red. Neither Xiang nor Fisher read Cardassian, so the symbols were meaningless.
“The pod will have the lowest possible pressure to support life.” Explained Fisher. “It’s increasing pressure to match Franklin’s atmosphere.”
Various indicators on the panel turned green, and the door of the pod swung open. A figure in the familiar leather of a Cardassian naval officer emerged with effort.
“Gul Sheket!” exclaimed Xiang.
“Gul Sheket ba’vak Asha, at your service, Captain Evelyn Xiang. Seeing you is a pleasure, but unwelcome at the moment. I am…not supposed to be here.”

17

“I am supposed to be aboard the Stellar Vengance. How is it that this is not the case?”
“That would be my fault,” Xiang admitted “I have this quirky need to know exactly what the hell is happening on my ship. Let’s get you some decent accomodations, and we can talk once you’ve had some coffee and I’m guessing you’re hungry as well?”
“I wouldn’t refuse a meal. I don’t suppose your replicators are programmed with any Cardassian dishes?”

18

Collins adjusted her PADD to a security node, entered her clearance and connected to the security sensors in the airlock,
“…Cardassian dishes?"
“You seemed rather fond of ham, biscuits and eggs when you were last my guest.” Xiang smirked.
“The sauce made with coffee is interesting.” responded Sheket. “I take it that we are in or near the Pilliri system?”
“What are you doing in my airlock, Gul Sheket?”
Sheket smiled, a gesture that would melt hearts or whatever organ pumped blood in Cardassian women. “Do you know why we…you and I…were sent to this deity forsaken place by our respective governments?”
“To critique the culinary abilities of my staff?”
“We are the only two of our different species who would implicitly trust each other…or so it is believed by our governments.” Honesty oozed from every poor of his ridged body; Collins was reminded of a reptile charming his victim.
“The Obsidian Order is near enough government, but not Section 31.” Responded an irritated Xiang. “What are you doing here?”
“I don’t suppose a ‘Mr. Wolfe’ is on board?” countered the Cardassian.
Xiang frowned. “Commander Collins mentioned someone who called himself after a literary character, Nero Wolfe.” She was giving a lot of information and receiving little. But she did trust the alien. There had been a hull breach while he was her prisoner; he had given his parole and rescued five crewmen.
“Ah!” brightened Gul Sheket. “Then if I might speak with Mister Wolfe’s representative?”
Damn.
Collins closed her PADD and walked back to the airlock.

19

Vice Admiral Howard Maurice Ellington, II–“Deuce” to his friends, “HoMo” to those not so friendly–was playing piano in his San Franciscan quarters when he received a subspace message on a private channel.

Ellington was 72, a widower, and a bit of a maverick. He and Xiang became acquainted when he was captain of the Morgan, the Ambassador-class starship that was sent to make first contact with the Trun. Ellington initially found Xiang intriguing; the intrigue turned into friendship when Xiang finished negotiations after Michael DePaula, who had initially been assigned the job, was injured as the result of a misunderstanding.

Ellington had been hearing rumors that someone in Section 31 had gone rogue. Upon learning that Section 31 had something in store for his friend’s ship, he had his own man placed on the Franklin to keep tabs on things, especially this Nero Wolfe fellow. He wished he could warn Xiang but first he wanted to be sure; this Pelleri business could turn out to be nothing. The spy on the spy was now reporting in.

20

"Gul Sheket ba’vak Asha was in an escape pod in the airlock. She seems to have some…familiarity with him.” Reported the spy.

“She captured him while leading a boarding party on the destroyer Dark Moon. He was manually setting self destruct charges. There was some difficulty later on Akron; life support failure of some sort; he gave his parole and rescued some crewmen.” Admiral Ellington explained. “he’s not necessarily a bastard. But don’t let him around your lunch money.”

“Sir.” The spy didn’t seem amused. “That would explain his speaking with Commander Collins. Collins was directed to use a transmitter to send destruct codes to the Cardassian ship Stellar Vengeance and place Sheket’s escape pod in the wreckage. She refused and opened the airlock for Xiang. Captain Xiang was mad as hell, but she let him speak to Collins alone.”

“Commander”, began Sheket, “Welcome to my humble abode. Do take the only chair.” He rummaged about under the seat and found a bottle of kanar. “Ah.” His continuing search failed to turn up a corkscrew. Sheket muttered something Collins believed to be a curse, and rapped the neck of the bottle across the hatchway. He took a sip, and spat glass onto the deck.
“There is a…creature that causes great trouble for your people and mine. We know his name; Aycharaych. We do not know his species, and use the male pronoun from convenience. We do not know his planet of origin. He appeared on Terok Nor…” Sheket bowed his head a millimeter. “I beg your pardon, Deep Space Nine, three years ago with a Ferenghi passport.” He offered the bottle to Collins. It smelled pleasantly of fruit, but there was an undercurrent of something rotten. She shook her head. Sheket shrugged. “The difficulty, my beautiful child,“ Collins winced. “Is that he is a true telepath. The only one known. He doesn’t read impressions, or communicate with other telepaths like a Betazoid, nor does he touch you, mutter some mumbo jumbo and read some thoughts like a Vulcan. No my dear, all he has to do is see you across a room, or from a hill top kilometers away, and he can read your every thought as though they were written on a PADD, be you human, Vulcan, Betazoid, Cardassian or Horta. He freelances in the espionage business. We do not know who hired him to work on Pilliri or why. He has worked for us, for your Section 31, for the Romulans, and we believe the Klingons. His usefulness has come to an end. Had you placed me as a survivor of the Stellar Vengeance, I would be able to work behind the scenes to provide for his capture. It is obvious that no one who might encounter him could know of my mission. Your Captain and her senior officers who may visit Pilliri must remain ignorant. You must convince my friend Captain Xiang of that.”
“You aren’t planning to capture him” inferred Collins. “It would be far too dangerous if he escaped. He would have all your knowledge and that of any of your or our agents he encountered.”
Again the Cardassian smile. Perhaps it did melt hearts. “What a beautiful and intelligent child. Of course not. I came here to kill him.”