Aboard the planet killer (2)

Aboard the Planet killer, a figure barely resembling a man dragged itself against a wall of the room. He didn't know why he did it really, and it did hurt... a lot. He just felt like he needed to get out of the way for... something...

When the suited figures started beaming in, he remembered why... and what might have been a smile came to his face...

Then, he was gone.

As McGregor started putting his troops into position, the medic discovered Redding'  body. He could barely look at it, but managed to run his medical tricorder over it anyway. To no one's surprise, it showed no life signs.

He turned it off and covered the body with an emergency blanket.

Major McGregor spoke with a loud, dry, autoritative voice.

"Okay, this is as close to a choke point as were going to get. Latest intel shows them reaching this point in approximately three minutes! So get into position, move it!"

McGregor's voice pushed his men out of the daze they had been about to freeze in. The time for feeling bad about it would come later.

The sound of a transporter again filled the room. The other MACO team, the one from the Polaris, had arrived.

Jureth scanned the room as they materialized and picked out Major MacGregor immediately.

"Status Mac?"

"A sorry state Sir," the Marine replied indicating the body in the corner.

"The Commander?"

"I'm afraid so Sir," the Marine said solemnly

"What happened?"

We couldn't beam in wi'out enhancers Sir...he placed them himself"

Guarding the perimeter, Somers team was already in position to take point, all looking even more grim when they heard the tragic news.

"We lost comm with the outside," then reported Palos, his face a mask of marble, not even glancing once at the covered body. "They will be able to follow us on their sensors only."

"I still have a mindlink with Lieutenant-Commander K'Leysha on board," corrected T'Lana. "But that also means that the Undines will be aware of us the moment we use it."

With a poise that only a Vulcan could show in such circumstances, T'Lana then showed her tricorder to her commanding officer.

"Eight Undine boarders, Sir... moving fast towards the bow. It looks like only the sphincter-like doors dividing this bioship's compartment are slowing them down; that and some kind of bio-agent in the air. I read twelve bodies lying on their trail. It's dissipating before us as we speak through some kind of breathing ventilation system that is bringing the interior of the vessel to standard levels of life support. Calculating the rate of their progression under those circumstances, at least three of them should reach the command center in five point three minutes. We can overtake them in four point seven minutes... if we move now."

"See that he gets back to the Horizon. Pierce and I are headed for the bridge."

"Aye Sir."

"Request permission to join you, Sir," Somers then said with a resolve in her eyes that was a match to that of the Bajoran.

Oseno circled one finger in the air, and then took the point holding his tricorder out to guide them through the corridors toward the heart of the Undine vessel. They hadn't gone more than fifty yards when Oseno halted the group with a hand gesture and then closed his tricorder and raised his phaser rifle indicating "indicating enemy seen."

"Four lifeforms, just ahead." he whispered

Indeed at that moment the four Undines emerged from a cross-corridor. Before they could identify the Starfleet boarding party, Oseno had fired his first shots with Pierce, Somers and Palos joining in. The Undines were down before they could react and Jureth extracted his tricorder once again.

"Let's move."

The monstrous living vessel was several kilometers long but they were easily moving at a fast pace in the smooth, round walled corridors large enough to accomodate much larger and wider Undine bodies. The lighting was dim but they could still see well enough to move at a rapid pace; and if the air was a bit stale, smelling of something acrid and salty, it was not impending their measured breathing as they moved swiftly through openings visibly torn apart with savage strength.

After barely a couple of minutes, not even halfway through their journey towards the other end of the colossal bioship, they found the first bodies. 

Three Undines were lying on the floor, their bodies contorted into grotesque postures, limbs twisted and whitened, faces livid and stretched in pain, eyes a mass of bloody pulp. The vague smell in the air was most perceptible coming out of the cadavers.

"I know what this is... this is Andorian Flu!" said Somers with a new light in her eyes. "I saw something like this once in a Gorn prison camp; one of their prisoners had been an Andorian struck down with the desease... and many of the guards had died looking just like this. It's severely debilatating to Ghelnoid, Insectoid and Mammalian types of lifeforms... but potentially deadly to any other."

She looked at Oseno with uncaracteristically blinking eyes.

"I can imagine a bioship using some biochemical defense measures against intruders... but this? Sir, this would mean..."

She didn't finish her thought. But it was easy to guess.

"The Captain.." Oseno finished for her "Only one way to go..."

He pointed forward and they moved out again keeping their quick pace, even increasing their pace if that was possible and all the while Jureth was hoping the Marines behind them were going to hold off the enemy boarding party so that they didn't get ambushed from behind. They passed more Undine bodies as they drew closer to the bridge, or at least what passed for a bridge, and nearing the ending point of their trek they came upon a scene that Oseno hadn't been prepared for. There was a group of several Undine trying to get through an aperture but they seemed to be unable to do so. The Bajoran brought his team to a halt unsure of what to do, as the Undines didn't seem to notice the Federation team or if they did they didn't care. 

"Somers," he hissed barley above a whisper "I'm inclined to open fire, but I'm open to opinions." 

In response, she showed him a small disc she had in one pocket of her combat suit. It was a portable transporter device, capable of transporting once one individual to about ten thousand kilometers to preset coordinates. It had a molecular bonding surface so that it would instantly stick on the body upon contact and at that moment activate itself. With her fingers, she changed the numbers from those of the Polaris to a higher elevation point from their point of arrival; outside of the planet killer's hull. While she was doing this, she had tapped a short coded signal and her team came to join them silently seconds later. She took similar devices from each one of them and made the same adjustments. Now, she had six of those small discs, as many as the Undines still trying to tear the door apart.

She offered one to Oseno.

"How good is your throwing arm, Sir?" she finally whispered.

Then, she gave the others back to her teamates who readied themselves. Nodding to Palos and Pierce, she made sure her phaser rifle was at maximum setting and aimed at the unsuspecting Undines to offer cover fire in case things went wrong. Both men looked at their commanding officer for his order.

"On my mark..." Oseno said quietly "Now!"

The transporter discs hurtled through the air and as they made contact the transporter beams energized and the Undines disappeared leaving only the aperture in front of them. Oseno approached it and scanned it briefly with his tricorder which only showed it to be just like every other Undine aperture they had encountered and beyond it the heart of the massive vessel with at least one lifeform present though the tricorder seemed to be having trouble all of a sudden penetrating the ship's hull. 

"Undines being able to whistand being spaced for some time, and here being their own organic universe, they should be fine... but it will take them a long time to find a way back aboard," commented Somers in a cold voice.

"Never tought a Marine could be this... diplomatic," Palos retorted with a grin.

"Just following the captain's orders," shot back the red-haired woman. "We're Marines, yes... but we are Starfleet first."

"Okay, now...how do we get in?" Jureth asked the general group.

"Chief..." said Somers and Chief Warrant officer Chris Kildare answered her summon. From a backpack taht seemed to have almost grown out of his own body, the man extracted a peculiar egg-shaped object with studs all over and a flat contact surface on both ends. He showed the grenade to both officers.

"Concentrated biochemical acid with a molecular decay detonator," the demolition specialist explained. "According to our preparation research, this bioship should react to it like you would a bee sting."

The look Palos and Pierce gave him brought a small tight smile to Alex' face.

"It pays to be prepared."

On a nod from their leader, Kildare went to the door and stuck one end of the device right in the middle of the door. He was barely adjusting the mecanism when it suddenly fell and he caught it with the lightning fast reflexces of someone intimately familiar with explosives.

The door had opened.

All their weapons rose like one to cover the back-rolling Marine ant the entrance. Then a voice came from beyond the opened doorway.

"Come... It is over."