Slumber Party

Posted on May 22, 2015 @ 3:36pm by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane

Mission: The Lights of Hyperion

"SLUMBER PARTY"

(Continued from "The Hyperion Expanse")

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Captain's Log, Supplemental - the Phoenix has entered the Hyperion Expanse, and we are charting our course steadily through its depths. I have seen nebulae up close before, but for all their beauty, none of them has come close to the spectacle of the magnascopic storm. And I have been using the time to brush up on old skills...

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Location: USS Phoenix
Stardate: [2.15]0522.1940
Scene: Bridge (Deck 1 - saucer section)


Michael Turlogh Kane looked down at the Tactical station, flexing his fingers and remembering where all the control panels were. Shields, weapons, communications, damage control - all the purview of the Tactical officer, and all looking back up at him from the large, sweeping control panel that dominated the upper tier of the bridge. The Phoenix's weapons systems were the most advanced he'd ever seen - gone were the shipboard phasers and photon torpedoes of yesteryear, being replaced by the much more devastating polaron beams and modern quantum torpedoes. The Phoenix was carrying enough offensive firepower to incinerate millions of people from orbit, and her tactical systems - designed to counter the starships of the Dominion and based on captured technology - were unique in Starfleet. The navigational shields were online, as they always were when the ship was travelling at warp, but everything else was offline.

Kane looked up and realised that the bridge crew were all watching him. He frowned, and they all got back to looking busy.

As soon as he looked down again, the comms panel chimed. It was a security alert. Kane frowned, selecting the panel and activating the alert. The display changed, showing the location of the alert - deck nineteen, drive section. One of the civilians had made a verbal call to Security, and the main computer had rerouted the call to the bridge because there was no-one in the Security Centre.

Aerdan Jos stood up from the centre seat. His antennae were all curled up like little spirals in the bed of his white hair. "Problem, sir?"

"A security alert. Deck nineteen, drive section. A disturbance in one of the guest quarters."

"The refugees?"

Kane nodded. "It appears so." He reached under the Tactical panel and opened the phaser locker. He took out a phaser and a tricorder. "I'll check it out."

Aerdan's antennae shot straight upward. "You will, sir?"

Kane set the phaser to stun. "I was a Security Chief for eight years, Commander," he said laconically. "I think I remember how to do this. Besides, we don't have any Security personnel aboard. If I get into trouble I'll call for marine backup." He headed for the turbolift. "You have thr bridge."

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Scene: Deck 19, drve section


The turbolift doors opened and Kane stepped out into the corridor. He had put the tricorder in his hip pouch, but kept the phaser in his hand - the weight of it was reassuring, and secretly he wasn't sure if his reflexes were good enough to draw quickly if he ran into trouble.

There were Limbo children playing in the hallway - dirty, grubby little things with bright eyes and smiles. They were drawing on the walls and playing some sort of throw-and-catch game, using a small rubber ball. When they saw him, they stopped what they were doing and stood in amazement.

One of them, a little Human boy no older than six years old, stepped forward. "What are you doing on my ship?" he snapped. The others moved behind him, soldiers falling into line behind a general.

Kane raised an eyebrow. "Where is the nearest adult?" he asked.

Slowly, deliberately, the little boy raised his middle finger. "Sit and spin," he said. His minute accomplices snickered behind him.

Kane had no idea what the gesture meant. I'll ask you again," he said.

"You'll get the same answer." More snickering.

That did it. The first rule of dealing when responding to security situations on a starship was to take control of the situation - mostly that meant making your presence felt and talking it out with whoever was behind the alert, but sometimes it was necessary to escalate the situation through intimidation.

Kane strode forward and grabbed the bratling by his shoulder. "What did you say to me!" he bellowed. Aghast at the sudden outbreak of potential violence, the boy's army squealed and scattered like rats down the corridor.

The boy squirmed in fear, but Kane held him firmly. "I asked you where the nearest adult was!" he roared.

Down the corridor, doors hissed open and a dark-skinned woman stepped out. Kane looked up and saw her shocked expression as she saw him manhandling the boy. He let go immediately.

"Go plow yourself, moob!" screeched the child, turning and fleeing down the corridor as the woman approached.

Kane gritted his teeth in annoyance. The black woman's face was clouded with anger. She was younger than Kane by a few years, but a life on Limbo seemed to have aged her ahead of her time. Her brown eyes were creased with worry lines under short, wiry hair. She was wearing a new suit of clothes - obviously not long out of a replicator - and by comparison to the children, looked fresh and clean.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" she demanded.

Kane fixed her with an authoritative look. "I'm responding to a security alert on this deck."

The woman looked unimpressed. "Just you?"

"Just me."

She shrugged. "Well, you'd better take a look." She beckoned him forward,and Kane fell into step alongside her. "We were using the room for children to sleep in. We use one of the other quarters to have a communal kids' breakfast in. When I dropped them back to their quarters, there was a stain on the wall the size of a bedsheet."

"You were the one who called it in, then?"

"Yes," she said. She stopped by the door she had come out of. "In here."

"Let me go first," Kane said. He moved past her, the doors opening to admit him, and stepped into the quarters.

It was a pit of chaos. Bedspreads and toys and clothes were thrown around everywhere. Someone had pushed several beds together, and half-a-dozen pillows were haphazardly thrown around on top of it. Several stuffed toys lay on the communal bed, watching Kane through black glass eyes.

But it was the large stain on the wall that worried him, that drew his attention. The woman came and stood behind him as he pulled out his tricorder and scanned the room. The stain was about thirty square feet, with jagged edges. It was coloured green, or variations of it - pale, sickly bile on the outside, darkening to a thick, viscous colour in the centre.

"What is it?" the woman asked, looking at the tricorder's data stream.

Kane was frowning. "It's a radiation burn. Specifically, it's the decay-effect of a beta particle explosion."

"Explosion?" said the woman in alarm. "But we heard nothing."

"Beta particles are high-energy, high-speed electrons or positrons emitted by certain types of elements," siad Kane, still studying the tricorder. "You wouldn't have heard or seen a thing. The explosion was silent, and the flash would have taken place outside the visual spectrum."

"Oh." She looked mollified. "Is it dangerous."

Kane shook his head. "No. Not this type, anyway. When the nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy, it emits ionized particles of various kinds. It's like a large formation of atoms suddenly became unstable and dissipated in mid-air. Unless one of the children touched the wall, they should be fine."

"I guarantee you they touched it," said the woman. "What could have caused this?"

Kane sighed. "I don't know. I'll tell someone from the Science department to stop by and do an in-depth scan later."

"You will?" said the woman. Her eyes narrowed. "Who are you to tell people to do anything?"

Kane turned to her and gestured to his collar. "I'm the captain of the ship."

"You?" she spluttered. "But you should be on the bridge!"

"I was," said Kane. "Now I'm here. Who are you?"

The black woman laughed at her own shock."Jane. Jane Hakeswill," she said.

"Hello, Jane. Let's round up those children and take them to sickbay. I daresay they're fine, but we should check them out, just to be sure."

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Scene: Sickbay (deck 12, saucer section)


When Kane, Jane, and seven children walked in to sickbay, Cade Foster didn't know what to say. When they started asking questions and trying top pick up unattended hyposprays, he looked like he was about to have a stroke. Lieutenant Suvek displayed a somewhat distant Vulcan affability as he organised the children into a line and scanned them all, one by one,while Jane encouraged them to keep still and to behave themselves as they pointed at his ears and tried to pull at them.

Cade sidled up to Kane. "More radiation checks?"

"Some of the refugees in the drive section reported a radiation explosion in their quarters last night," said Kane.

"Strange," said Cade. "What could have caused that?"

"I don't know. As soon as we can spare the hands we'll take a closer look."

Cade nodded. "Strange thing to happen here in the unknown magnascopic-stormy expanse, eh Captain?" he said quietly.

Kane looked at him witheringly. "Indeed, Doctor." He moved away from Cade and stopped at Jane's shoulder. "I'm returning to the bridge now, Miss Hakeswill."

"Thank you for coming to help us, Captain. The Vulcan doctor says that the children are all fine."

"I'm glad to hear it," said Kane. He lingered a moment. "And you? Are you alright?"

Jane looked at him in surprise. "Yes, Captain, I'm fine. Thank you for asking." She smiled at him.

"Good." Kane shrugged awkwardly and backed away. He looked down. The children were all watching him and Jane as they looked at each other. He frowned at them. The children snickered.

Michael Turlogh Kane turned around and headed for the turbolift.

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NRPG: Not very grim. Do you know how close I came to writing about seven radiation-incinerated mutant children with multiple limbs and a craving for human flesh?


Jerome McKee
the Soul of Captain Michael Turlogh Kane
Commanding Officer
USS Phoenix


"He speaks an infinite deal of nothing!"
- Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", Act 1, Scene 1.117

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