"Curious Flash"/9812.18/PL

[Webmaster 20]

Subject: "Curious Flash"/9812.18/PL

Date: Fri, Dec 18, 1998 4:30 PM

From: Ens Xiang

Message-id:

 

 

9812.18, Personal Log

"Curious Flash"

 

A bright flash filled the shuttlebay. It blurred Xiang's vision and forced him to close his eyes. He heard a sensor node fall to the ground with a loud clang as the telepathic communication with his AGU was lost for a short moment. Xiang thrusted himself backwards quickly, as if the movement would remove him from the blinding light. Instead, he only suceeded in ramming his tail into the aft wall of the shuttlebay.

He squealed from the slight pain. The light continued for another second and Xiang's head responded with a sharp pain.

The light died down. Even so, Xiang could barely see around him. He had been facing the open shuttlebay doors, the source of the flash. A bright hazy cloud filled his eyes. Rapid blinking only worsened the condition.

After a few moments, the blur faded. The white haze faded to pitch black. In shock, Xiang darted in each direction, attempting to determine what had happened. An empty void surrounded him...and he knew he was not blind, because the ever-present hum of the starship's operating systems no longer filled his ears. He was alone...perhaps he had been transported to another ship.

Xiang called out, then waited for a response. It came. Out of the darkness a disfigured form emerged. He floated towards Xiang in a fluid motion that only a Delpin could perform. It was an Ancient One.

The elderly Delpin came to a stop in front of Xiang, a dim light surrounding the two of them.

It had been nearly two years since Xiang had spoken to the Ancient Ones. All his attempts at the vex'nar ritual had failed...the Ancient Ones did not speak to him in his thoughts, or in his visions. But now, one of them floated before him.

The Ancient One blinked slowly, his eyes glowing a fiery blue. A light purple haze surrounded his body, and he appeared indeed as a mystical figure. A ghost, was the most appropriate term. He floated silently, his mouth moving periodically but no sound emerging, and the comfortable presence of his mind within Xiang's was not there. It was as if the Ancient One was not even there.

Xiang opened his mouth to speak, but the Ancient One immediately responded by a deafening scream. He closed his eyes in response, unable to witness the terror within the Ancient One's eyes.

A sharp pain penetrated his side, then another near his snout. Xiang opened his eyes. He was in a small room, and though it's walls were roughly empty he knew exactly where he was...and he did not wish to be here.

Another pain, as a small cylindrical unit was inserted deeply into his breathing hole. He forced the hole open and a green liquid was slowly pumped into his respiratory system. He closed his eyes and squealed from the continuous pain. Gloves hands touched his thick skin only moments before inserting more probes and devices. Dominion officers stood against the back walls, monitoring the progress of their tests. Xiang could not move, he was helpless

against the control of the Dominion. Finally, from the unbearable pain, he lost consciousness.

 

"Network Complete...sensor grid 4 online," the computer announced, bringing a control panel onto the designated monitor.

Xiang looked up from his work, glancing out the shuttlebay doors into the seemingly endless nebula gases of the Badlands. A curious flash indeed.