"We Have Met The Enemy"

[Guest Vulcan3324]

"We Have Met The Enemy..."

Lieutenant j.g. James Eagle and Lieutenant Laarell Teykier

Joint Personal Log

January 2, 23--

 

Lieutenant j.g. Eagle entered the officers' lounge with a stack of PADD's under his arm, as he wanted to review them and make sure they were accurate.

 

Laarell was seated in the lounge, still reviewing her seemingly endless notes from their maligned alien spore. She rubbed her head, noting the signs of a headache coming on.

 

Eagle noticed Laarell sitting at a table and walked over. "Mind if I join you? You're just who I have been looking for."

 

She motioned to the table. "Please! Take a seat!" She set the PADD down carefully, reluctant to make the slightest noise that might aggravate her headache. "I've just been going over the scans of the spore. Anything from medical about it?"

 

He took a seat. Looking at her and noticing her movements and actions ... he knew what that look implied ... he reached in his pocket, pulling out a few pills. As he handed them to her, he added, "This may help. A brain buster, huh?"

 

"Heh. I guess you could call it that." Rubbing her eyes, she took the pills. "What's Sickbay's status?"

 

"Well, we're all in pretty good shape, with all things considered. Heh ... hell ... we are all lucky to be alive." He placed the stack of PADD's on the table.

 

She nodded. "I suppose you are right. After all, it hit so quickly, we didn't have much time to react."

 

"How is it going with the research on the spores ... anything yet?"

 

"Nothing yet. Impossibly frustrating to have so little to go on..." She sighed and sat back in her chair, frowning.

 

He took a sip of the drink the yeoman had brought and cleared his throat. "Well, I may have found a common thread in my research."

 

She raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

 

"Do you remember our discussion we had in the mess hall?"

 

"Regarding Al-Ucard?" She took a sip of the Raktajino before her.

 

"Yes, Al-Ucard. Exactly, and the various fables from different cultures and worlds.

 

"Ah, yes! Vampires!" She grinned and pulled out a PADD from the bottom of the stack, waving it about excitedly. "There's been some splendid Earth fiction about them."

 

"Well, I got a crazy idea they may be related somehow, so I spent the next three days on the station in the medical research library going over information. I disqualified the sheer fables, and instructed the computer to correlate and match real reports from medical personnel on record."

 

She took another sip of the coffee. "And your findings?"

 

He took on a concerned look. "I believe that the fiction may be closer to the truth than any of us have remotely imagined. The reports were scattered and not in the same time line ... or generation for that matter ... but there is evidence to support the theory that these beings have been around and migrated to other worlds long before we even began to take to the skies, let alone the stars." He waited for the possibilities of what he was proposing to take hold of her mind, looking for the realization to dawn on her as it did on him.

 

She stared at him. "You're joking." She chugged the rest of the coffee in the oversized mug before continuing. "Are you actually saying that these Al-Ucardians could be the demons and monsters in our species' mythologies?"

 

"Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Possibly a mutated form from the original. They seem to have spread to different life forms and adapted to their surroundings, so yes, I believe there is a connection.

 

"Incredible," she breathed. Realizing exactly what the implications were, her face turned a paler shade. "The spores."

 

"The spores ... they may have been around for far longer than we have even imagined, ever evolving ... adapting ... spreading. After all, they have had centuries to spread throughout the galaxy.

 

Laarell's throat was dry as she responded. "Yes, indeed they have."

 

"I wanted to talk to you before I took it to Elaine. She might have thought that I was just plain nuts, but I believe we may have a connection." He sipped on his drink. "Well, I need some rest. Get with me later after you have had the chance to think about this, ok?"

 

Laarell nodded as Eagle left the lounge, leaving her with the empty coffee cup and her PADD's. If indeed there was a connection, she mused, they could be dealing with a most dangerous foe...

 

END LOG