The Cold Light of Day (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 20 Jul 2023 @ 7:35pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Rafe Caradec & Ensign Amanda Turell & Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeysa Zeror & Lia Quil & Marcus Mulder

4,687 words; about a 23 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 1, Bridge; Conference Room
Timeline: MD 11, 1237 hrs

[ON]

In space, USS Galileo loitered at stationkeeping while the backdrop of the surrounding Pleiades Cluster's robust stellar nurseries shone bright and colorful hues across the vessel's hull. Green, purple, cyan and crimson sparkles highlighted the distant cosmos and glazed the small starship with uncanny elegance.

Within the Nova-class, one of the bridge's side entrances hissed open. Commander Morgan Tarin appeared then slowly walked to her seat within the command center. The half-consumed sandwich clutched in her right hand complimented the large PADD she held in her left, yet one offered sustenance while the other contained ostensibly dire intelligence information. Food and sleep had both been in short supply for the duration of the past few days. The acting captain methodically dropped into her chair in front of the main viewscreen then pressed her commbadge while swallowing the remainder of her mouthful. The small silver and gold Starfleet emblem chirped to indicate an open intracomm channel within the vessel.

"Tarin to all officers and away team personnel. Report to the conference room at 1300 for debriefing." Thirty minutes. Her knowledge of what had transpired aboard the cold station was fleeting, yet the extra time allowed for the starship's medical personnel to treat the wounded was hopefully sufficient.

Less than a minute later Jeysa emerged from out of nowhere several PADDs in hand. "Captain." She greeted Tarin and started to dish out a PADD near each seat.

He had been cleared by medical a few hours earlier, so he made his way to his newly assigned quarters. Rafe couldn't wait to make full Lieutenant so he could have his own. But, until then, he would have to get along with his roommate, whoever that was. He quickly showered, but then sat down and just let the hot water run over him and relax the tension in his muscles. This last mission was one of unexplained horrors and he just wanted to calm himself and be clear headed. He eventually got out, dried off, and climbed in bed for some much needed sleep.

Only partially asleep herself Amanda was awoken by the announcement, she instinctively rolled over onto her left side instantly regretting it as pain stabbed up her arm, laying back down she took a deep breath and pushed herself to a seated position before clambering off the bed. Gingerly dressing she slipped the support sling sickbay had given her over her head and under her left arm and partially put her uniform jacket on before heading out the door.

Caradec was rudely awakened by Commander Tarin's announcement after just three hours of sleep. He slowly sat up and put his feet on the floor. "Computer, what time is it?" The computer responded with 1231 hours. He sat there with his head in his hands. How in the world did they make it? Visions of bodies coming through walls, blades for arms, Starfleet personnel out of their minds played on a loop in his brain. In trembling silence tears flowed down the young lieutenant's cheeks. So many good people... Whoever is responsible for this should pay. He's got to reach out to Mira. She has to know. No, he thought. This has to go through the proper channels, he has to trust those above him. He got up, washed his face and donned a new uniform. With three minutes left he left his quarters. He would get a hot espresso from the conference room replicator so he could be awake and clear for the debrief.

Blake arrived a couple of minutes early, patched up, in a fresh uniform, but in need of a real sleep. Half an hour had been enough to get herself in focus though, and reassure her that Lily was okay after the battle that had raged in her absence. She took her seat, setting the coffee on the table in front of her. She hadn't managed to eat yet. That place had somehow eradicated her appetite.

It wasn't often Amanda got called to the conference room for anything other than 'stand there and look mean' security jobs so when she walked in the looked around at the assembled officers for a few moments before heading straight to a seat.

By the time Rafe walked in, just about everyone was there. He quickly went to the replicator and got himself the espresso. He turned and started walking towards a chair kind of facing the windows, as much as possible. He didn't trust anything out there at this point and wanted to keep his eyes on space. He knew he was being paranoid, but he didn't care. The fact that they even made it back was a freakin' miracle and he wanted answers as to why this happened in the first place. He had felt it begin once they got in the shuttles and clear of the station, that slow burn of indignation of what happened and the unnecessary cost of so many lives. He was mad! He was mad clear through.

Though she was normally one of the first, it appeared that today Allyndra was going to be one of the last to arrive. She took her traditional seat at the end of the table opposite that of the captain. Normally it would be the captain, the first officer to her right, and the counselor to her left. The chief medical officer, second officer and another officer or senior enlisted would be the counter. The rest of the officers would then fill in between. She knew they didn't always follow such a strict protocol but it was something she was quite used to by now.

The fatigued faces of several familiar senior officers presented themselves to Commander Tarin. The away teams had been successfully recovered, and along with them, the ship's first officer, chief medical officer and chief counselor. The junior security officer Turell was also present alongside Yeoman Zeror. Yet one face was new; that of a tall and well-built Human man seemingly in early-thirties. Blue eyes and a head of brown hair complimented his red-collared uniform which bore the single silver and gold rank pips of junior lieutenant. He was a stranger to the Nova-class' official manifest yet Morgan quickly deduced who he was based on the ship's biometric scanner. She approached the man, standing just short of his own height. "You must be Lieutenant Caradec," she stated with neutrally dry tonality. The acting captain waggled a PADD in her hand to indicate her brief research of his presence.

"Captain, yes,", Rafe smiled as he extended his hand. "It's good to meet you. I just wish the circumstances were better. Any word from Starfleet yet or are we getting our facts together before reaching out to them? I am here to help in any way I can."

The formal courtesy was returned when Tarin clasped his hand and gave it a firm shake. "Commander Morgan Tarin, captain of Galileo," she curtly introduced herself. "Considering your involvement with Cold Station 31 before our arrival," she continued, "think of this meeting as a fact-finding session." She held his eyes with her own for a long and silent moment. Interpreting and evaluating. "You're not a member of this crew so you'll have to forgive the lack of reception." She released his hand then let out a soft breath. Her other pale hand holding the PADD gestured to a vacant chair. "For now, however, you're in my care and I will no doubt have more questions for you. Take a seat. If there's anything you're able to contribute during this debriefing, speak up. Understood?"

"Aye, Captian.", Rafe responded briskly. "You'll get straight answers from me. I'll add to my initial answers if I feel the need to clarify. If I'm speculating, I'll let you know that too." She was in great shape, which spoke to her discipline. If she kept herself in that good of shape, she expected nothing less in everyone's performance. Of that, he could be sure. Her clear gaze and analytical nature came through quite clear. "I'll be there for you, mam."

Morgan brushed a bundle of stray curly brown locks from her cheeks and back behind her ears while she settled into her chair at the head of the conference room's medium-sized table. Her head buzzed with a multitude of thoughts and priorities pertaining to their starship's current situation. Prioritize. Her hazel eyes briefly scanned the briefing chamber's occupants before she spoke. "It's good to have you all back. Alive," she began without betraying any emotion. "The past 36 hours were...eventful, for both of our parties. We have a lot to discuss." Her attention shifted to the winged doctor in order of immediate importance. "Commander Warraquim, I received the initial casualty report from your expedition. How's the rest of the teams' personnel and our 'guests'?"

"Yes, Captain. Most of the injuries on the ship have been taken care of except for Ensign Mimi. That case remains in serious condition. The away team mostly dehydration, hypothermia, and some wounds. The worse is Mulder with a missing eye and infection, which is being dealt with. Some burns and other minor wounds. Darius is the worse, in my opinion, with a stab wound going through the torso. Luckily it didn't hit anything immediately vital, but I would still class it as a serious condition." She fixed the captain with her gaze. "Considering what we all experienced there and what has happened, I'm surprised you have what you have back."

What I have back? Tarin repeated that phrase in her head which sounded about as foreign as the Akkadian doctor appeared. The away team members were all people - Starfleet officers and enlisted crew - with their own lives, histories and loved ones. Each one was a valued member of the ship's crew, not some semblance of an object to simply be returned and categorized. Morgan resisted the urge to correct the senior officer's language on the spot and dress her down in public. Privacy would be afforded later. Instead, she cracked the knuckles on one of her hands and bit her tongue. "As soon as we get done here, I want you back in sickbay and tending to our wounded. Locksley and Inaros will tend to Mimi. That situation is currently...sensitive."

"Very good captain."

Commander Tarin's hazel eyes shifted to the fellow red-collared commander in the room. "Blake, report. What did you and your teams find at that science facility? You were out of contact for almost 36 hours... What happened there?"

It took all of Blake's willpower not to just reply that they'd found Hell. She took a sip of coffee, swallowing back that stab of cynicism and allowing her a couple of moments to gather her words. How did she even start. "Pandemonium. It seems that the scientists there were able to use a transporter to open some kind of...portal. To another reality. A...horrific reality. We took what data we could, secured the few survivors we found...Mulder, Quil and Caradec...and then blew up the transporter on the way out, to make sure nothing could follow."

Tarin's eyes narrowed. A portal? Different realities? "Elaborate," she replied with a sense of urgency. The cliff-notes the first officer had just presented to the room were hardly a sufficient debriefing or analysis of what had transpired.

Blake spread her hands in a measured gesture, shaking her head ever so slightly. "You would have to discuss the scientific details with the researchers. They were...less than forthcoming," she glanced across to her fellow team members with an arched eyebrow. In retrospect, it was understandable, given the trauma of their situation, but at the time, the frustration had been palpable. "As we moved through the base, it became apparent that the power was down and it seemed deserted. But other than that, there was no obvious warning signs that we'd crossed into another reality.

"Things became stranger as we went deeper though. There were creatures with tendrils that were able to attach themselves to people and manipulate their reality, resulting in heightened fear. We encountered personnel from the base who had been mutilated, and extremely disturbed. And...hostile creatures we had no choice but to fight. When we restored power and found the survivors, it became apparent that their experiments had caused some kind of portal or rift, and we were no longer in our universe. Not as we know it. But they were able to use the transporter to beam us back."

Morgan's heart rate subtly increased while she listened and evaluated the new information. She subdued her first instinct to lash out at the invisible forces of Starfleet's Science Division; those who bore the ultimate responsibility for broaching into something which seemed unnatural. But was this considered 'exploration' as defined by the fleet's mission statement? Had it been intentional? The unknown was sometimes cruel and terrifying yet lives had been lost and even more jeopardized. "These survivors you found," Tarin queried, "How many did you rescue? There was an entire compliment of scientists on that station - are you telling me the only ones you recovered were two of the three senior researchers?" she glanced to Rafe, the new conn officer, "and Mister Caradec?"

"I'm afraid so, Captain," Blake replied quietly. Her features remained as cool as ever, but the phrasing of her response made it clear that she wasn't happy with that outcome either.

Rafe could clearly see that Captain Tarin was appalled at the report. But it was the extreme details that she needed to hear. While Rafe could see every image in his mind, he just couldn't bring himself to tell her. It wasn't just terrible, it was beyond his ability to convey the absolute horrors he saw, that they experienced, and ones they never wanted to experience again. Unfortunately, some of these images he would not only take to his grave, but quite possibly, and even likely, to bed every night.

"As stated, it was something that no one wanted to experience. That we survived and that a few there survived is a miracle." Allyndra decided to offer one more piece of information. "I will take responsibility, but I ordered the station destroyed as we made our escape."

The acting captain became silent then looked down at her large silver PADD. Her long fingers quietly scrolled through the dossiers of each dead scientist stationed aboard the facility, manipulating the yellow, gray and blue LCARS display with muted precision. She finally glanced back up to the doctor then shook her head with disappointment. "I would have ordered the same," she consoled Warraquim with a rare expression of comfort. The PADD clicked against the table's surface as Morgan dropped it with disgust at the situation. Her hazel eyes locked on to Blake. "Where are the two other survivors right now? Mulder and Quil."

"They're still in Sickbay, for observation," Blake replied lightly, glancing to the time. She'd assigned quarters, but medical had insisted they stay at least into the afternoon.

"Bring them here. Right now, and under guard," ordered Tarin. She turned her head to Turell, the security officer, then gave the tall brown-haired woman a nod of permission to personally oversee their escort to the conference room.

Blake nodded to Turell, pushing away from the table to lead the way out. She wasn't sure how useful it would be. They'd gotten little sense and even less information from them before. After approval from the doctor on duty, she asked Mulder and Quil to accompany them back to the meeting. She ignored the looks they gave each other, just turning to lead the way with no further discussion.

Amanda had followed Blake out of the briefing room glad that although she wasn't on duty she'd tucked a Type I phaser into her jacket pocket. Hopefully she wouldn't need to use it and the two scientists would come peaceably.

Lia followed Blake into the conference room, her gaze going to the view rather than the people gathered. She sat down awkwardly, her arm in a clean sling, keeping it tight against her chest. She could feel the mixed, tumultuous emotions around her. This was definitely not a science briefing.

Mulder walked beside her, looking around for a moment. He sat down after a moment, wearing an eyepatch...the missing eye was still missing after all.

A curious yet chastising glare spread across the tall commander's brow. Tarin's eyes creased at the two civilian scientists who, as far as she could discern, were directly responsible for the cold station's calamity. That they were both still alive was a small miracle. Perhaps less than a coincidence. The testimony of Galileo's away teams demanded answers from those responsible, and that was her current priority.

"Doctors Mulder and Quil," Tarin acknowledged both Starfleet civilian scientists with restrained formality. "Welcome to Galileo. I'm Commander Morgan Tarin, acting commanding officer and strategic operations officer aboard Regula I. I understand you've already met many of my crew." She subtly opened her palm to gesture to the others in the room. "Their reports from our cold station investigation are...disturbing. Reports that implicate both of you in the recent disaster within your facility."

Mulder looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Implicate? Quite a word to be using," he said, lightly, before folding his hands on the table. "I can of course, if you and the people in this room have clearance, give you an idea of what we were working on when an...incident caused some trouble." He turned his head, looking over at the Yeoman. "Could I trouble you for some water, Petty Officer?" he recognised ranks easily enough, even with one eye. And he'd need water if the Captain wanted to hear him.

Jeysa glanced in Tarin's direction before turning towards the two scientists. "Of course Doctor." She headed to the conference room's replicator and ordered a cold water for both of them. Returning quickly she placed both glasses beside them.

Galileo's freckled captain bit her bottom lip then turned her back to the two scientists. It required a heavy dose of willpower to withhold her current emotions and keep them at sub-surface level. Morgan was a woman who wore her feelings on her sleeve, but the current debriefing required a certain level of decorum. The man's coy response in the face of the recent calamity had used up most of her remaining patience.

Taking a deep breath while staring out through the window into the colorful Pleiades Cluster, Tarin turned back around then folded her arms across her chest. "I," she gestured to the rest of the crew present, "we were briefed about the nature of your research before we left port. I'm aware of Starfleet's investigations into transwarp transporter technology." Her hazel eyes cut past the unnecessary formalities. "So we can do this the easy way, or the hard way," she offered.

"You can tell my senior officers and I exactly what experiments you were conducting and how they led to the fatalities of over a dozen of your colleagues, the loss of the cold station, and injured several of my crew members -- or I can put both of you in the brig with only bread and water, until such time that I decide to return Galileo to Regula I." Tarin stepped behind both of the civilian scientists to punctuate her presence. "I don't think you'll find many friends and advocates for you at a Starfleet tribunal."

"We're not Starfleet, we're civilians. And our work was sanctioned by the government..." Mulder said, looking at her with calmness. The threat of bread and water didn't bother him, physical discomforts were nothing...special. "We signed several nondisclosure agreements, and did what we were instructed to do." He took a moment before offering her something, because the situation seemed to require it. "We were working on transwarp, with the resources we had been given. Which, you will have gathered, were limited. There was an accident, and thankfully your crew members saved us."

"And we did not lose the station," Lia added, quietly, but firmly, her gaze still on the view rather than the people around her. She might seem distant, but she heard everything. "We wished to leave it in tact. It was valuable, as was the data therein. We discovered something new, something entirely unknown. We never would have destroyed that."

Tarin leaned down between the two scientists and retrieved each of their glasses of water, plucking them from their reach. She gave her yeoman a quick head gesture to indicate for her to come take them away. "I asked you once and I won't ask you a third time. This is your last chance to answer my questions." Her terse voice was now authoritatively icy. "Exactly what experiments were you conducting? What did you discover? What's this 'accident' you're referring to?" She bit her lip again, "...And how the hell did the facility's entire compliment die?!" If it wasn't clear to anyone with a pulse by now, Tarin's fuse had just burned out. "Give me direct answers; not pretentious vagueities."

Alllyndra hated to interrupt but as she listened the to blithe way the two talked and what had happened she couldn't hold back. "Whatever secrets or new technology you developed had obviously gone too far. You were blind to not if we can do, but should we do it. Anyway, it was me, if you want to be upset about, that ordered the place destroyed."

Lia shifted her chair, to be further away from the Captain, uncomfortable with the proximity, but her eyes remained towards the view. "I am upset about it...but I understand how you reached the decision, given the limited data you had to hand," she replied honestly, but almost distantly. She was processing the Captain's questions, her mind fixed to Mulder's rather than the emotions and thoughts of the strangers in the room.

"Cold Station research clearance is above Top Secret, there is little we can tell you without permission from the Admiral in charge. Your best course of action would be to contact them for information," she paused, her head tilting as she jumped through the logic hoops of what questions they could answer given the secrecy of the project. The young woman was more comfortable with fact than emotion, and working through the process as a logic puzzle was the only way she could navigate the situation.

"You already know what we were working on," Lia began, matter of factly. "Our experiments were unsuccessful, we did not achieve transwarp. The accident was not so much accidental...more unforeseen results of a quantum theory we were pursuing. We don't know how everyone died, only those we witnessed. Two scientists and two security are presumed dead after participating in the experiments. One security died protecting us from a creature with tentacles and no eyes. The last of the security died when the station was blown up, it was the man your staff fought with the blade for an arm. We witnessed three scientists and an operations aide die in combat with unknown beings. One was a serpent like creature, with teeth running most of the length of its body, another was barely visible and phased in and out of vision, another could only move in shadow and burned in the light. The doctor and another scientist killed themselves, one by hanging, the other by forcing their head into a power conduit. We came across the disfigured bodies of three more scientists. The rest, including the lead scientist, are all missing, from our perspective."

Tarin blinked with mild shock after listening to the abbreviated casualty report. Somehow, even her worst presumptions of Quil and Mulder's conduct had been underestimated. "You experimented on your own scientists? Including Starfleet personnel?!" There wasn't a more damning statement she could conceive of.

"They volunteered," Mulder said, his voice calm as he watched her. She seemed to get terribly worked up over it all, considering where her crew had picked them up from. He considered comparing those who had volunteered to Yuri Gagarin, but felt that comparison may not be understood. "They wanted to be part of something new. Don't your officers every volunteer for dangerous missions to be part of exploration? It is the same thing."

"No, it's not. And you're a fool for thinking so," replied Tarin with cold and prudent conviction. "Entire Starfleet vessels and their crews are not lost because of some misguided definition of 'exploration'. From what I can deduce, everyone - except the two of you and Lieutenant Caradec - died because of your actions and research. Now the two of you sit here, in front of us, expressing no remorse or solitude; accepting no responsibility for your actions. No, we're not the same." Morgan had now heard enough. In her opinion, the two civilian scientists possessed disgusting morals and a severe lack of personal fortitude. "Ensign Turell and Commander Blake, escort both Doctor Quil and Doctor Mulder to separate quarters. They're to be confined there until further notice."

"Captain, if I may," Allyndra spoke up once more. "I would suggest before we arrive that both individuals undergo a full psychological examination." She eyed the two scientists. "We cannot be sure that they have not been affected by the prolonged exposure to whatever realm they opened up at the station. We can compare records from previous exams. At best it might explain their detachment, at worse it becomes another record to show that they should never be near a lab again."

If Lia heard the suggestion of an examination, it didn't sink in. Her mind was still fixed on what the Captain had said. "Tickling the dragon's tail," she said softly, the term Mulder had introduced her to, about the 20th century scientists who had knowingly taken part in risky nuclear experiments in order to learn more. The name seemed apt. and she finally understood it. She finally looked to Tarin, shaking her head gently. "How many astronauts were lost when developing spaceflight? And how many willingly continued to go into space knowing the risks, only to perish in the primitive years of space travel? How many scientists died horrible deaths, willingly conducting volatile experiments on splitting the atom and further on when harnessing the power of nuclear materials? How many people were lost when they were developing regular transporter technology? And how many willingly used the technology in its primitive form despite the risks, in the name of exploration? And warp technology for that matter. And that's not even mentioning medical experimentation. All of those willing sacrifices have led to the technology around us right now, in this ship, that allow Starfleet to be what it is. And it seems your government agrees. The Admiral not only sanctioned human test subjects, they ordered us to use them."

"Operation Paperclip. Wernher von Braun," Mulder said, looking at Lia for a moment a small smile coming to him. At her. At her remembering their conversations. "One of many scientists who worked for the Nazis that was then taken in to work for the Allies. Who was the father of space travel for Earth...whose bombs ruined lives, took them, used slave labour to build them and 20,000 human lives, yet got a man on the Moon. You do not strike me as a naïve person, Captain. There as always been sacrifice with exploration, with invention, with discovery."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

PO3 Jeysa Zeror
Yeoman
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

LTJG Rafe Caradec
Conn Officer
Cold Station 31

ENS Amanda Turell
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

CMDR Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A

Marcus Mulder
Head Researcher
Cold Station 31
[PNPC Rice]

Lia Quil
Head Researcher
Cold Station 31
[PNPC Blake]

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