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"Agent of the Shadows"
Previous posts (ANU) "Darkness Inside The Void" / (BAS) "Crowded Mind"
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"All life is transitory. A dream. We all come together in the same place at the end of time. If I don't see you again here, I will see you in a little while, in the place where no shadows fall.”
― Ambassador Deleen
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Setting: ISS THUNDER COMET, Guest Quarters
Stardate: 33112.1015
"Miss Mordana," a crewman said as he poked his head through the open doorway. "We will be reaching RELAY OUTPOST SIGMA 385 in about 15 minutes."
"Thank you," the woman with the long straight jet-black hair politely acknowledged. "I will be ready long before we arrive," she confirmed as she placed the last of her personal items in the small hand-held bag that she had brought along for the journey.
"If I may be so bold," the man nervously added. "I have never seen anyone travel as lightly as you do. Most people tend to bring along a lot more than you have, especially on a trip this far from any known civilized world. On a relay station like the one we are heading for, there are not a great many luxuries to be enjoyed, even basic necessities can be lacking, so people tend to come prepared."
"I am a simple person with simple needs," the woman with the gray-shadowed soul clarified. "The luxuries of this universe are not what I enjoy. I much prefer a good conversation, like the one your Captain and I shared over dinner last night in the mess hall. It was interesting to hear his views and opinions on the Federation and the impact it has on the worlds it touches. I found his accounts of the help offered to less technologically advanced worlds to be most intriguing. I also noted the way the crew seemed to align themselves with those same views, everyone appearing more than happy and willing to help those less fortunate then they are."
"Captain Jonas, as well as most of us, would love to be on one of those fancy Federation starships, going from planet to planet and helping everyone we came across," the crewman said, offering an agreeing smile to the stoic woman. Had it not been for her appearance, and the fact that she did smile once in a while, the crew of the transport vessel THUNDER COMET would have sworn that the woman was of Vulcan origin.
"Yes," Mordana quietly nodded. "I did get that feeling from him and those in the mess hall during dinner. Captain Jonas' greatest wish, as he voiced it to me, is to one day be free of the limitations of this transport vessel in order to embrace the larger expanse of space. He believes that this would permit him to explore unknown worlds to see and help people from races never before seen."
The crewman laughed. "Yup, our Captain is a dreamer all right. Now, I will let you finish getting ready for disembarking. I hope that your journey to the relay outpost in the middle of nowhere will prove to be as enjoyable and fruitful as you hoped it would be."
"It already has been," Mordana said adding a gentle nod of her head followed with a smile that hinted at something the crewman could not even come close to understanding. As curious as this last exchange was, he dismissed the entire affair, knowing that he had neither the time nor the patience to try and figure out what the woman had meant.
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Setting: RELAY OUTPOST SIGMA 385, Transporter Room
Stardate: 33112.1035
"Welcome aboard," the Transporter Chief said, greeting the one and only passenger to have beamed over. After having glanced at the transport manifest sent by the THUNDER COMET, the man looked back at the exotic yet clearly humanoid-looking black haired woman with visible puzzlement. "Miss Mordana?"
"That is me," she acknowledged with a politeness that seemed oddly fitting for a person like her.
"My apologies, I am not used to seeing a Terran without a last name."
"I have not been on EARTH for many, many years now, and I just found my last name to be an unnecessary burden, so Mordana became the only name I needed," the woman explained as she stepped off the transporter platform.
"Shall I have your belongings brought to your quarters?" The Transporter Chief asked, realizing only after the fact that the only baggage that had come with the woman had been her handbag.
"No need," the slender woman smiled, patting the bag with one hand. "I have everything I need right here."
Leaving the Transporter Room and the somewhat puzzled Chief behind, Mordana made her way into the small relay station with an assurance and mannerism that seemed to indicate that this had not been her first time here, a fact that the station's logs could not support no matter how far back they went.
Casually making her way down one of the corridors, the latest and only guest of the relay station encountered to her great surprise two small Humanoid females. "Hello there," Mordana cooed as she lowered to one knee in order not to present herself to be an imposing figure for the girls to fear. "What are your names?"
"I'm Tristan and this is my sister Cordelia," the elder of the two sisters replied. "You are not a member of the crew. Who are you?" The sweetness of the girl's question was offset by the demanding tone she used, almost challenging the unknown woman to provide an answer that she would evaluate to see if it was acceptable or not.
"I am so sorry," their father offered in a hurry as he caught up with the girls. "That was very rude," he scowled the elder, matching the woman's posture by doping to one knee.
"The honesty of children can be very refreshing," the woman offered, clearly not having taken any offense to the interrogation she had been subjected to.
"My name is Ensign Ashton Dean, and this is..."
"Tristan and Cordelia, I know," she completed with a smile. "My name is Mordana. I was on my way to my quarters."
Ashton returned to a fully upright posture and offered the woman a helping hand which she politely refused. Following that, the Ensign returned her smile before shifting his attention back to his daughters. "Take your sister to our quarters while I show Miss Mordana the location of the guest quarters."
"No need," the woman with the long jet black hair stated, a polite smile dancing on her lips. "I know the way," and with that, she resumed her course for the room leaving the family behind.
"She's weird," Tristan announced with a grimace.
"There is defensively something strange about that woman," Ashton agreed. "And that's above and beyond the fact that she came here on her own accord while everyone one else on this outpost would be happy to be anywhere else but here."
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Setting: RELAY OUTPOST SIGMA 385, Guest Quarters
Stardate: 33112.1055
The room was small, and the ambient lights set to the lowest possible illumination. As Mordana completed her survey of the room, she turned to face one of the empty corners and began speaking as if some invisible being had been there.
"I have been able to confirm the reports from TAU OMEGA. The secret Federation's underground facility has discovered one of our lost scouts. They have not yet been able to excavate it from the cave in which it was found. Measures have been taken to ensure that they do not succeed."
A strange, barely audible sequence of high pitch squeals and clicks filled the room, the sound would have been enough to give anyone nightmares for weeks and more, but the woman remained calm and composed. To her, the eerie sound emanating from the shadows were as normal as could be, the reason for this being that she was more than she appeared to be, much more.
"No," she replied to a question that only she could hear and understand. "No one on board the THUNDER COMET is worthy, they can be disposed of without worries to our cause."
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Setting: SPACE
Stardate: 33112.1115
The attack was swift and the transport vessel proved to be no match for whatever it was that came after them. Sensors showed nothing, and by the time the damage reports began to come in, it was already too late. For the most part, the THUNDER COMET had been reduced to space dust, its Captain blown into space when the bridge was ripped in half as if it had been made of paper.
Now floating in space, his body as cold as the icy void that surrounded him, the man had been given his wish. He was free of the physical limitations of his ship and could now explore space freely. His personal desires were granted even more as his wide opened eyes stared into the emptiness of space to see the nightmare that had ended his life as well as those of his crew. Even in death, his eyes reflected fear as the black skinned vessel shimmered and vanished from sight as if it had never been there, the only hint of its presence being the small debris field that had once been the THUNDER COMET and its crew.
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Setting: NEW ALEXANDRIA, Section A, Level 6, Admiral Koniki's office
Stardate: 33112.1300
"Here are the latest reports Admiral," Allyson said as she handed over several PADDs to the man sitting behind the imposing onyx desk. The blonde haired secretary to the senior most officer of the ultra-secret station always smiled, even when bringing bad news in whatever form they might present themselves in.
"That three ships that have suddenly gone missing," Koniki sighed, clearly annoyed by what he was reading.
"Actually, there are now four ships, Admiral," Allyson corrected. "The ISS THUNDER COMET vanished from long-range sensors over an hour ago. Sensor logs from the nearby RELAY OUTPOST SIGMA 385 show the exact same readings as the previous three vessels which suddenly vanished."
"Only one explanation for this... It has begun. The sisters warned me but I didn't listen. Why would they be wrong now when they had never before been wrong?" Koniki demanded of himself as he slammed a closed fist onto his desk.
"The sisters only provide likely possibilities, never certainties. You decided to play the odds against."
"And look where that has led us. The attack on CAIT was a failed attempt to establish a foothold in our galaxy, but I should have known that they would not wait too long before trying something else. As patient as they might be, they have been planning this for countless centuries," the Admiral paused as he considered his options. "What is the status of the main response fleet?"
"The crew of the BASTET is still out on the HATHOR, and no news or signal has been detected. Wherever the Blink Device took them, it is well outside of our ability to detect them," Allyson reported.
"Selene will find a way to get back, the problem is that the moment she does, I will need her back on the BASTET and out there. We can't afford to have that ship sitting here without her captain. What about the others?"
"Captain Harris reported that the USS HORUS has not had any luck with discovering the recent destruction of the Cardassian listening outposts. According to all witnesses, whoever few there are, no one saw anything other than shifting shadows between the stars," the blonde-haired woman explained. "Captain Sangolo is still waiting for the repairs on the SEKHMET to be completed which he estimates will take another week or so. Whatever they encountered destroyed one of the warp nacelles and without a nearby space-dock to help with repairs; they are doing the best they can. As for Captain Morningstar and the crew of the ANUBIS, they are still waiting for you to release them back to active duty. Everyone has passed all physical and psychological exams they have been subjected to since their return from that temporal event."
"Fine," Koniki relinquished, the situation clearly having placed him in a situation where his options had been very limited. "Tell Erik that the ANUBIS is cleared for departure. I want them at the TAU OMEGA research facility yesterday. They are to investigate why the orbital station has lost contact with the underground facility. Last we heard from them, they discovered something, I need to know what that something is without risking the orbital outpost."
"I will relay the message right away Admiral."
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Setting: USS ANUBIS, Captain's Ready Room
Stardate: 33112.1330
"Captain's log, supplemental. After 109 days of endless tests, we have finally been returned to active duty. The fact that the news came from Allyson only leaves me to believe that something bad happened and forced the Admiral's hand, otherwise, he would have found a way to rub this into our collective faces before we were allowed to leave. In any case, the ANUBIS and its crew will be heading to TAU OMEGA to investigate an underground facility that has done silent, all contact with the orbital station overhead having been lost. It may not be an action-packed mission, but I am sure that the crew will welcome any reason that gets us out of NEW ALEXANDRIA. End log."
"The crew has been notified Captain," Commander Shar'El reported, the First Officer having been permitted to enter while the Captain gave his verbal account for the official log. "Many amongst the crew are curious as to whether or not our mission has to do with the missing HATHOR."
"I seriously doubt it. Nothing points to another ship being anywhere near TAU OMEGA, and even Koniki would not come up with such a lame excuse to cover up our going there if it was to render assistance to the HATHOR and its crew. No, we are on an investigation mission, nothing more," the Native American sadly reported.
"Being able to look at the screens in the IGC and see something other than the inside of this base is going to be a huge bonus that will help me and several others get out of bed in the morning."
Shar'El and Erik laughed for a few moments. "We are to get on our way as soon as we are ready and cleared of all moorings," Morningstar stated to his First Officer.
"The moorings were disconnected before I walked in," Shar'El pointed out.
"Guess that means we are late for our departure. Let's go!" The Native American jumped out of his chair and quickly made his way around his desk. Like the other member of his crew, he had been more than anxious to get moving and be outside of the protective shell of the secret base. Only seeing the shadows cast by the internal lighting had been a rather depressing daily sight instead of the quiet beauty of the twinkling stars that filled the endless void of space.
--==(/\)==--
Francois Charette
Commanding Officer
USS ANUBIS, NCC 18501
AND
Robotics Engineering Officer
NEW ALEXANDRIA