The Beginning of the End... (Part 5)

Posted on 25 Jan 2018 @ 7:04pm by Commander Rhyan & Ensign Jon Marshall (MIA) & Cadet Senior Grade Jody Scott

2,154 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Errand of Mercy
Location: USS Redemption, Science Laboratory 2
Timeline: ED7 0630

Commander Rhyan was caught completely off guard.

In the dim lighting of the laboratory Rhyan didn’t see his attacker approach. The first indication that something was wrong was the slight thud of something being dropped close to the entrance to the lab. By the time he had turned around to investigate, it was too late; an arm had wrapped itself around his neck and bore down on him in a strangling chokehold. As he felt his consciousness slowly ebbing away in a curtain of green and black, Rhyan thrashed against the unknown assailant in a futile attempt to break free.

Behind his attacker, Rhyan could hear the protestations of another presence within the lab: Jody Scott. “Stop. Stop! I told you I would do what you asked of me. Please, leave him alone!”

Immediately Rhyan knew who was attacking him: Jon Marshall.

His eyes danced across the workstation in front of him looking for anything he could use as a weapon against the ensign before he lost consciousness. A padd, a molecular scanner and an opened med kit were all that he could see within arms reach; then he caught a glimpse of his coffee mug sitting at the edge of the desk to his immediate right. Without much of a thought, Rhyan outstretched his right arm, grasped the mug, and brought it crashing down on to Marshall’s head. Immediately the ensign released his grip and stumbled backwards, swearing loudly as he did so.

“You will regret that, Vulcan,” the ensign shouted, twisting the word ‘Vulcan’ into some sort of insult. He raised his forefingers to his brow and pulled them back to see them painted in crimson. His expression changed into one of complete fury.

Still gasping from the attack, Rhyan pushed himself upwards and turned to face Marshall head on. He too placed his fingertips to his mouth and withdrew them to see the emerald-green residue of his own blood. He didn’t feel any pain at the time, but surmised that he must have bitten himself during the struggle against Marshall. He felt more of the warm liquid drip down his chin and on to his uniform tunic.

In the corner of the room, Rhyan caught sight of Jody Scott slumped against the bulkhead. The cadet appeared weak and struggling to get to his own feet; an unfamiliar device strapped around his temples. “Commander,” the cadet shouted, his voice sounding weak, “he is trying to get to Sarah. We have to stop him.” Jody collapsed once more to the floor, gripping what appeared to be a broken arm.

Rhyan’s eyes met with Marshall’s; there was no denial behind them.

“How many times must we do this Marshall?” Rhyan said without breaking eye contact. “Why is apprehending the hybrid so important to you?”

“The hybrid,” Marshall replied, “represents the pinnacle in genetic engineering. You may not appreciate its magnificence, but there are elements within Starfleet that desperately want to exploit the Ee method of reproduction to advance Federation science one- or two-hundred years into the future. Imagine what we could do with that level of genetic mastery? Creating life from death? Creating beings with the strength of a Vulcan and a Klingon combined? The applications of the science involved are endless!”

Rhyan sneered. “Do you want to know what else is endless? The death and destruction that follows the hybrid wherever it goes.”

“Exactly!” Marshall exclaimed, his hand slipping into his tunic pocket without Rhyan immediately seeing. “Imagine what an army of hybrids could have achieved for us during the Dominion war? Or what they could do for us now during these dark and troubled times!”

“What you are talking about is no different to what the Founders did when they created the Jem’Hadar. Is that what Starfleet has come to? Are we no better than what the Dominion was fifteen years ago?” Rhyan thought he caught a glimpse of something in the ensign’s hand, but he immediately withdrew it out of Rhyan’s sight. Blindly, the Vulcan searched behind himself with one of his free hands until the cold, uneven surface of the molecular scanner was within its grasp.

While the two science officers continued to stand off against each other, Jody started to writhe up against the laboratory bulkhead. Fear arose within his youthful features, his voice cracking slightly as he spoke. “She’s here, Commander. She’s…”

The cadet stopped talking abruptly. The fear on his face dissolved away until there was only a neutral expression. His brown eyes, always dark to begin with, seemed to get darker. He slowly and calmly pressed a palm to the floor and pushed himself upright with an unsettling ease that had eluded him only moments before. As he settled to his feet, Rhyan was certain that Jody Scott was no longer with them.

The cadet then spoke, his voice deep, cold and devoid of emotion. “Rhyan,” he said, tilting his neck ever so slightly to the right as he spoke the name, “It has been a long time.”

“Sarah.” Rhyan mouthed, the shock preventing him from formulating coherent speech. There was no doubt in his mind that his former lover – or at least, the hybridised mentality of his former lover – was now occupying the body of Jody Scott. He stuttered once more and finally found himself able to speak her name.

“Fascinating,” Marshall commented, watching Jody’s movements with an equal measure of excitement and caution.

“You have something that I want.” The Jody-hybrid continued, stepping forward and approaching the two science officers. His movements were uncharacteristically fluid; almost feline in character.

Rhyan glanced sideways to Marshall and backed himself towards the furthest bulkhead within the laboratory. “What have you done?” Rhyan asked, fear slowly creeping into his voice. Why had he never mastered control over his emotions?

“What I had to do in order to achieve my mission,” Marshall said, grinning as though all his Christmases had come at once. Unlike Rhyan, the human stepped cautiously towards the cadet. He continued to speak, but addressed the hybrid that was telepathically occupying Jody’s body. “I want to make you an offer.”

“I don’t bargain,” replied Jody, his dark eyes penetrating Marshall.

Something about the way Scott delivered the statement made Marshall take a few steps backwards so that he was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Rhyan. The excitement in his features seemed to give way to concern. Rhyan knew that Marshall’s last experience with the hybrid was not pleasant and perhaps some of the memories of that encounter were now entering his mind.

“But if you help me,’ Marshall continued, ignoring the hybrid’s reluctance, “I can give you what you want. I can provide you with a ship capable of taking you home.”

This time it was the Jody-hybrid who sneered. “I have no home any more. You and your doctors made certain of that when you stopped me from becoming all that I could be.”

“Sarah,” Rhyan interrupted, hoping to reason with what was left of the young Starfleet officer inside of the hybrid. He knew that previous attempts to do so had failed, but he refused to believe that nothing of Sarah remained in the hybrid.

“I am not Sarah!” Jody screeched, stepping forwards, and wrapping his hand around Rhyan’s neck. The Vulcan was immediately pushed against the bulkhead behind him and lifted off his feet. The molecular scanner fell from his grasp and clattered against the deck plating as he struggled against the hybrid-controlled Jody Scott.

Jon Marshall did nothing to help the Commander.

“I don’t need your help,” Jody said as his free hand shot out with inhuman speed and grabbed Marshall’s previously hidden arm. Within the ensign’s grasp was a Starfleet-issue hypospray with an unfamiliar canister loaded into it. Rhyan had little doubt in his mind that the contents of the hypospray had been intended for him.

“What is this?” The hybrid eyed up the hypospray and considered both it, and Marshall, for a few moments. The neutral expression on the cadet’s face changed to one of curiosity. “Have you succeeded where I failed?”

“Failed?” Rhyan said, the words difficult to articulate through the pressure of Scott’s hand on his neck.

Jody’s eyes now regarded Rhyan. He could feel the cadet’s grip strengthen around his throat. “In creating a new Ee race. In recreating the virus that created me.”

“Is that what you want now?” Marshall exclaimed excitedly, possibly with the hope that he now had another bargaining tool to use against the hybrid.

The hand around Rhyan’s neck withdrew and his feet landed on the deck plating loudly. For the second time that morning he was panting furiously to replace the lost oxygen in his lungs. As he gasped for breath he nearly missed the sequence of events that followed his release.

Jody immediately pulled Marshall’s curled hand closer towards him, regarding the green-tinged liquid within the hypospray with great curiosity. With no warning the hybrid then twisted Marshall’s arm in an unnatural direction, leading to the unmistakeable crack of bone. Following the swift movement, the hypospray was now millimetres away from Marshall’s neck, still held firmly within his own grip. Tears of pain started to stream down the ensign’s bloodied face.

“Yes,” was all the Jody-hybrid said as he pressed the hypospray against the ensign’s neck and activated the medical device. A familiar hiss could be heard as the contents of the canister emptied into his jugular vein. The almost instantaneous look of fear in Marshall’s eyes told Rhyan all that he needed to know: the canister had indeed contained the original Ee virus, or at least something very similar to it.

Jody released Marshall, but nothing happened.

“W- What have you done?” Stuttered Marshall, dropping the empty hypospray from his hand and drawing his fingers up to the spot where he had been injected.

“Did you not say that you wanted to help me?” Questioned the Jody-hybrid, stepping backwards and regarding the ensign in the manner an artist might consider a masterpiece creation in the making.

“N- Not like this!” the ensign replied, his breathing coming in ever-more frequent gasps as he started to panic. His eyes searched for Rhyan’s. “Commander, please – Dr Afton’s antidote.”

“No!” Jody shouted as his outstretched arm swept Rhyan out of the way and back towards the laboratory door. Rhyan hit the decking with intense force but he fought to stabilise himself as he slid across the floor. When his eyes found Jody and Marshall again, the cadet had his hand around the ensign’s neck in the same manner that he had gripped Rhyan’s. Only, this time, there was an unmistakable crack followed by Marshall’s body going limp and falling to the floor at the Jody-hybrid’s feet.

Rhyan immediately scrambled to his feet, turning away so that he didn’t have to look at the dead eyes of Jon Marshall staring back at him. He clamoured towards the door of the laboratory but felt the grip of the Jody-hybrid around his ankle, pulling him back towards the rear of the lab. With his free leg he kicked back at the cadet, but was unable to break himself free.

His hand brushed past something on the floor: the molecular scanner that he had dropped when Jody had attacked him. Rhyan wrapped his fingers around the tricorder-sized device, rotated himself on to his back and launched the scanner directly at Jody’s head.

The sound of metal clattering to the floor was immediately followed by the release of Jody’s grip on Rhyan’s ankle. As Rhyan righted himself on to his feet he saw Jody collapse to the floor with the headband device lying shattered beside him. Somewhere nearby he knew that Sarah was going to be pissed – a fact that was almost immediately confirmed by an explosion eruption from somewhere outside of the laboratory and an intense shuddering of the Redemption.

As if on cue the red alert claxon erupted from everywhere around Rhyan.

The Vulcan stood momentarily in disbelief at what had just happened. He stared at the unconscious, but breathing body of Jody Scott first, then adjusted his gaze so that he saw the surprised expression and dead eyes of Jon Marshall. Despite whatever was going on outside of the ship, his only priority now was to get Marshall off of the Redemption before the same process that created the last Ee-hybrid started anew with the ensign’s corpse.

Tapping bloody fingers to his comm badge, Rhyan announced “Commander Rhyan to security. I need a team in science lab two immediately. I need urgent medical assistance also. Please respond.”

OFF: I think this ends my series of posts entitled “the beginning of the end”. I finally got there!

 

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