Nequencian Pitfalls

[Tachyon 0]

“Nequencian Pitfalls”

December 12, 2155

Lieutenant Dave Grey

--------------------------------------------------

 

Two important things of note had just happened, both of which involved their away mission to the Nequencian colony. When Grey had first arrived, he thought that the problem might have been a contaminated water or food supply, or maybe a local disease that the original survey had failed to locate. When Grey had first arrived, he thought that the problem would be easy to solve.

 

The disease did turn out to be in the water supply, although not for the reasons postulated by Grey. It appeared that a mutagen had altered a certain variety of ordinarily harmless bacteriophage, causing it to mutate into a pathogen that spread throughout the colony’s population. Unfortunately, the phage was now transmitted from person-to-person as well, which made it more difficult to cure.

 

This diagnosis meant nothing coming from a physicist. Both Doctor McCellan, an actual medical doctor, and his new assistant, Ensign Xiang, agreed. They also agreed that the next step would be creating a cure with the help of Challenger’s medical facilities.

 

Their egress from the colony site had been complicated by other matters. With Commander Cole and Lieutenant Giovanni investigating the mysterious shaft, Doctor McCellan and Grey had been left alone in the shuttlepod to puzzle over the pathogen. A mysterious woman, looking quite pale and clad only in white, appeared before them. Grey was not in the habit of experiencing hallucinations while in shuttlepods, and especially not shared hallucinations, so this troubled him.

 

To top off the day, they lost contact with Cole and Giovanni right after seismic events started occurring. And then an enormous alien device had emerged from the rift. It looked ominous, menacing, and dangerous. Obviously some sort of technology, it could easily be a weapon. And sensors had gone off the charts with energy readings.

 

Grey sat in the shuttlepod as it headed toward this device in order to find Cole and Giovanni. He felt the lump forming in his throat. “This . . . this is not good,” he said. It was just a generalised complaint about the state of things.

 

Grey had never mounted a rescue mission before; he had no idea how successful he might be. For all he knew, Cole and Giovanni were lying somewhere at the bottom of that bottomless shaft, dead or horribly injured. What Grey did know, however, was that he would at least investigate until he found out if they were indeed dead. If they were still alive, they would need retrieval.

 

Because somehow, Grey knew that the colony had suddenly become undesirable real estate, at least for the immediate present.