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"Hell Froze Over"
[Previous post: "Getting to Grips", written by the dedicated Craig]
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Setting: USS LANCELOT, Corridor
Stardate: 63072.1310

Lea stood in the middle of the deserted corridor, still unsure as to how she had arrived there. The last thing the CMO remembered had been sitting at the back of the transport craft. Quiet, her thoughts lost of things that mattered not. The next thing she knew Lt. Summers had been here, in a frozen desolate hell the likes of which she could not have imagined. As hard as the Doctor tried to recall how she had gotten here, all that she could focus on had been the here and now.

The red glow from the emergency lights only served to make the scene that much more unsettling. Stale cold air filled the CMO's nostrils and made her take a few steps back. This ship reeked of death and Lea wished that she had been somewhere else, anywhere.

The CMO's retreat was stopped when her back landed against one of the emergency bulkheads. Lea had not needed her tricorder to know that this had been the only barrier between her and open space. Despite its thickness the wall radiated a chill that made its way into the Doctor's soul. The only thing that had kept Summers from a full panic attack had been the lights on the Marine's riffles. Lights that rapidly moved away through chilling darkness as per the ILO's instructions.

A quick decision had been required; either Lea stayed put, alone, or she needed to catch up with those lights. As scared as she had been the CMO managed to get her feet moving to her great relief. All that had been left to do for the Doctor had been to regroup with Enaii and the Marines.

Nervously the CMO reached for her tricorder and scanned her immediate surroundings. Fourteen life signs registered on the small instrument, fourteen reasons for Lea to be thankful for.

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Setting: USS LANCELOT, Corridor, other side of the bulkhead
Stardate: 63072.1312

The absolute cold of space did not bother them for they had no blood. The vacuum that embraced their metallic forms did not bother them as they had no flesh. The absence of any light did not bother them as they had no eyes. Yet the Imperians pressed on, their scanning red eye* seeing beyond the bulkhead in front of them.

Fourteen life signs registered on their internal scanners, fourteen reasons for them to continue on.

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Setting: USS LANCELOT, Corridor
Stardate: 63072.1315

Lea suddenly felt a forceful hand land on her shoulder which caused the Doctor's heart to stop. It was only when the CMO saw to whom the hand had belonged to that her heart restarted.

"ENAII!" Lea gasped, "Are you trying to kill me?"

The ILO said nothing, but instead of the anger Lea had expected to see in her eyes, the CMO saw something else; concern.

"We are the only ones in this section of the ship," Doctor Summers said. The tricorder had detected only fourteen life signs, those of the away team, so they had been alone. The CMO believed this without question until a loud blast echoed throughout the deck. Like the hammer of a titan having impacted against one of the LANCELOT's walls.

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Setting: USS LANCELOT, Corridor, other side of the bulkhead
Stardate: 63072.1317

Their weapons were designed to destroy living matter, to exterminate life in all of its forms. Their sensors showed fourteen targets beyond the large wall in front of them. So they would pound this structure until it gave way. The time it would take them to accomplish this did not bother them for they were ageless. To kill creatures bond by courage, one frozen in fear, or a wife and mother did not bother them for they were soulless.

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Tiffany Rose {lady.tiffany.rose@gmail.com}

Lt. Lea Summers
Chief Medical Officer
USS ANUBIS