Garak enters the briefing room carrying two cups of tea, Early Grey, hot, and takes a seat across from its sole other occupant, Algernon. Garak smiles amiably and notes: “Forgive me, I’m a tailor by trade and can’t help but notice. That armor is magnificent. Hand-riveted and fitted to the man. I do admire a gentleman of refinement, especially one who’s had to make his way in a rough trade.”
“Kind of you to say,”replies the burly merc. “It has served me well in my travails through the Hadrion Sector.” Then, dropping the pleasantries: “If you’re here to repeat the Captain’s terms, I’m afraid my answer hasn’t changed.”
“Oh, I’m not here on the Captain’s behalf,”Garak informs him. “I’m here on yours. Your employer will, no doubt, soon be wondering what you’ve told us.”
Algernon is unfazed by the subtle threat: “Men in our trade are arrested every other week, old chap. Starfleet can announce we’ve sung like Vaborian string birds, and no one worth fearing will believe a word of it.”
“From Starfleet, certainly not,”agrees Garak. Then, leaning in conspiratorially: “But scurrilous rumors of that sort have a way of finding the whisper network of underground back channels. THOSE command the proper attention.”
Algernon’s eyes narrow: “And you claim to have such contacts?”
Garak throws his hands up in mock surrender and sits back, all smiles. “Of course not. I’m just plain, simple Garak. A humble tailor.”
Algernon relaxes. A beat.
Then Garak, as if struck by a thought: “Speaking of which, when you inevitably make your way back to the Hadrion Sector, give my regards to Glaxnor the Miscreant?”
Algernon shifts uncomfortably in his tiny chair. “Glaxnor? You know Glaxnor?”
“Only professionally. I made him a coat of Betazoid silk last season. He was thrilled with the results.” A knowing smile. “Please, do tell him I asked after him.”
Algernon considers. Then talks. He reveals that he and Mira were hired through a faceless go-between, but the payment came from a Klingon Great House. He lowers his voice: “Our employer was most insistent that this Harven Zax be taken alive. He’s carrying something of theirs, you see. A secret worth a war. And before they kill him, they mean to learn who else he’s shared it with.” He adds that they were given the coordinates of the cruiser transporting Zax, only to drop out of warp far too close to a black hole, which is where the Enterprise found them. Garak finds this odd. The cruiser’s engines failed without warning. So how did anyone know where to find it?
Meanwhile, on the bridge, Kirk is awaiting an update from Garak when, suddenly, the ship shudders. Scotty flags an energy drain which Data traces to the nacelles. Data uses the hull sensors to build a composite image of the ship’s exterior, revealing:
Both nacelles crusted with glittering green growth, creeping down the pylons and across the engineering hull, climbing the neck towards the saucer. Whatever it is, it’s alive. And growing.
Data finds a match in an old Vulcan survey entry: subspace organisms that feed on warp fields. Unfortunately, the entry offers no solution. The survey crew documented the infestation as it consumed their ship, but never found a way to stop it. Their log was recovered by a salvage crew that found the ship adrift and drained of all power, the organisms long gone.
How do you deal with them?
A) Starve them. Drop out of warp and let the nacelles go cold. It will cost hours the Enterprise can’t spare, and nobody knows how long these things can last without feeding.
B) Burn them off. Rig the ship to hit her own nacelles with a baryon sweep. It could strip them clean, but the sweep might also damage the warp coils the ship needs to deliver Zax on time.
C) Flush them off. Vent warp plasma through the nacelles and blast them loose. The ship will lose plasma it needs to stay at speed, and the trail it leaves will lead anyone hunting Zax straight to the Enterprise.
Choose!
Today’s entry is dedicated to the memory of the late great Sir Patrick Stewart.
Previously On Amalgaverse…
You and 19 others have been stranded in an amalgam universe of myriad SF realities. All 19 are sci-fi’s Best of the Best. And then there’s you, uniquely qualified given your encyclopedic knowledge garnered from your world where these characters, their technologies, and their stories are fiction, beloved t.v. shows you have watched time and again. Together, all 20 of you have set off on the Enterprise-D, tasked with finding a way home. On its first mission, the crew answered a distress call from a dead ship and found it was far from empty. Aboard, the away team awoke an android named Maia, discovered a “survivor” named Rhea who turned out to be something else entirely, and fought their way off as scavengers closed in. They came home to the Enterprise with two things: a new crewmember in Maia, and a fragment of the signature an entity left behind when it crossed into this reality. Colonel Carter believes it’s one piece of a much larger puzzle, and that the rest of it is still out there waiting.
For your second mission, you have elected to follow a Starfleet directive, traveling to pick up and transport Harven Zax, a dangerous intelligence broker, to a rendezvous point at the edge of the Expanse. Upon arrival, you discover his cruiser inoperable, drifting towards a black hole, the ship’s automated defense systems preventing Scotty from using the Enterprise’s transporter to simply beam them aboard.
O’Neill and Data take the jumper to the cruiser where they encounter four stranded passengers: the annoyingly flamboyant Harven Zax, his silent bodyguard Lucinda Shockley, his mild-mannered protege Milo, a Starfleet official named Robespierre, and the ship’s utility bot, Dunsel. Everyone piles into the jumper and launch, only to be caught by the black hole’s gravitational pull. The Enterprise uses its tractor in an attempt to reel in the jumper while, on the bridge, the crew must decide what to do about the two life signs in the mercenary shuttle headed for the event horizon.
The Enterprise escapes the black hole’s gravitational pull by using the deflector array to project a counter-field ahead of the ship and then jumping to warp.
You set off for the rendezvous point and your guests settle in: no-nonsense Lucinda, meek Milo, officious Robespierre and, of course, the bombastic Harven Zax.
While Data works on repairing Dunsel the robot, you check in on the mercenaries you beamed off the doomed shuttle headed towards the black hole’s event horizon. They offer to talk in exchange for their freedom.
Get caught up on our series, crew, and past missions at the AMALGAVERSE site.
Leave a Reply