Star Trek: Phoenix-X
"Duplicitous Dispossession, Part I"
The agrarian, bucolic, run-of-the-mill Prometheus-class U.S.S. Phoenix-X trekked steadily and solemnly in dispersion of the stars along the receded Federation border. Captain Seifer was in Sickbay getting his teeth checked by Doctor Xyrenia when the dental monitor clicked from vital medical data into a viewscreen-untraceable-communique from two Section 31 agents: Elena and Nelkast.
"It's been a while, Phoenix-X," glared Elena, from behind the shared desk. "We hope you enjoyed your irreverent gallivanting, but I expect you knew a follow-up was inevitable."
Seifer coughed away Xyrenia's final enamel exam tool. "Ugh! You guys? What I knew was that I was never going to force a wannabe ghost ops orthodoxy ever again. Briggs, terminate this contrivance, post-haste!"
"Every attempt at disengaging only reinforces the connection?" the Operations officer panicked, sitting up from his regular checkup, on the next biobed, and tapping frantically at its surgical bridge controls.
Nelkast arched his brow from the tiny viewscreen. "We know you feel we abandoned your ship's previous Captain to the annals of Starfleet bureaucracy, two years ago, but active clandestine remodeling in Starfleet's dark era is not as efficient as it used to be."
"Goddammit, they're still talking," Seifer gritted as he found a nearby console and began hitting it randomly. "Make them stop. Make them stop!"
Elena pushed, "Due to said-times and our audacious forced existence, it should be clear our desperation requires a mandatory mission, if you choose to accept, of your upcoming Ba'ul/Trill facilitation."
"Sir, as a Doctor, my kind does come into work armed with lobotomy and amputation laser guns, coupled with an experimental temperament?" Xyrenia offered with rising hope and Seifer's quickly nodded permission.
While the Deltan haste-burned a hot laser beam into the dental monitor, a picture-warping Nelkast rushed to finish his excitable-black ops pitch. "Section 31 is still relevant! You are to report on any anti-Federation intents by the Ba'ul or their Kelpien counterpar—"
"They're gone, but not before an enervated off-the-books lament," leaned Briggs in relief. "Are they insomniac by nature? You did this a lot with your old crew, right?"
Seifer slumped in the dental chair, relieved. "I would destroy ten non-recoverable life-saving medical devices if it meant snuffing them out. The Phoenix-X used to accept their implausible missions and far-fetched technologies all the time out of misplaced, immoral obligation. We were bred from the Dominion War, so we the-ends-justified-the-means'd all the time for the greater good."
"Then you woke up from their perpetual infractions and now you abhor them," Xyrenia surmised. "Like a terrible version of yourself you suppress through constant social media addiction. If we even still have that in the 24th century?"
The Captain nodded. "We do and, exactly right. Perhaps we're too deep under our Section 31 history by now for moral high-grounding, but the consolation is our Starfleet-level altruistic climb-out from regular chess-gaming and illegal black badge sweatshops."
"Yeah, the badges exposed them every time. Why were some of those guys so bad at undercover?" Briggs wondered. "They recruited a Boimler once?"
Seifer waved it off. "They recruited misfit Nanokins and horribly organized, unageing Terrans with a Captain Garrett kink. But we don't talk about that."
---
Later, the Phoenix-X dropped transwarp to approach the gas giant Nehvia and one of its moon colonies Tivien before transporting several crew and then jumping back out of there.
"Appreciate you joining us, Captain," opened Admiral Cloud as Seifer, Veker and Elly stepped off the transporter pad and walked with him through the corridors. "You’re still a Captain, right? Your symbiont hasn’t rejected the promotion yet, has it?"
Seifer shook his head. "Still frozen and unrecallable. I even went back in time and fought Ensign Chekov to see if his multi stomach punches would do anything. Nothing."
"He tried that on Klingons once. It was hilarious. Anyway, what concerns me most about this mission is your claim of Section 31 intentions. We were supposed to be done with that overused cloak-and-dagger mishmash on grounds of them never doing themselves right. I regret ever being brainwashed by them so, if you see anything, get us the evidence we need to condemn them once and for all."
The Captain perked. "But they would just cover that up?"
"You know not to contradict your superiors! Now, I’m off to appease the science and Trill dignitaries who will be watching all of you from the viewing windows, like a creepy Talosian marketplace or something. You get analogies."
---
Seifer, Veker and Elly entered a large rocky cavern with three functional Trill symbiont pools and several Trill and Ba’ul engineers working on attached tech near a large audience viewport.
"This is weird. Science is not entertainment and is to be done in the darkness of shame," Veker noted. "At least, that is Kelpien practice."
Elly looked around at all the black-gooey Ba’ul, walking everywhere at work. "The floors are a mess! This is the worst security job I’ve had since that horta ball-pit for adults."
"Rumor is their heat causes appreciation. You know what I mean," came the sly intersection of Elena in a Starfleet uniform. "Ensign Elena of the U.S.S. Ragnarok. Nice to see you, Captain."
Seifer pointed. "Dammit, Section 31. If you're already here to weed out anti-Federation detriment, what do you even need us for?"
"Your frozen symbiont affords you mental clarity in this thick neurological patchwork of telesthesia. Without a proper pool balance, all those messed up Trill symbiont visions hit even the non-Trill."
Veker held a hand to his head. "She's right. I'm sensing embarrassing 'thanks, you too' memories of symbionts at worm restaurants responding to their 'enjoy your meal'-wishing waiters."
"Oh, that is the worst," Elly agreed as she followed him to a workstation. "I just heard a symbiont misread a taxi hail as a hello."
Seifer sighed. "They have this whole weird life in those pools before joining. No one ever talks about it. Also, didn’t the Ragnarok go rogue and start patrolling outside Federation space?"
"We were in the Qiris sector, walking a fine line between the surreptitious protection of Vashti and covert support of the Fenris Rangers," Elena splurted in disgust. "Both, a complete waste of resources but, at some point, the Captain has to rein it in to maintain some semblance of jurisdiction."
The Trill looked at her. "How is helping others a pain point for you? Who are you?"
"I’m sure you’d like to hear that my trust issues stem from officer betrayal to bluegill parasites when I served the Renegade, but a clear-cut back story would be somewhat provincial, wouldn’t it?" Elena jabbed.
Seifer rolled his eyes. "It would be a backstory. That’s the point."
"The point, Captain, is that this whole operation is bogus," came the approach of Trill Ambassador Krenok, wearing long robes and prompting Elena to operate elsewhere. "Your Admiral reassures us that working with the Ba'ul's expertise in fluidic control will secure proper symbiont pool balance but I say this whole endeavour is an unholy blasphemy that crosses the line ten times over."
The Starfleet officer shrugged. "It's my understanding the progressive side of Trill politics seeking surrogate forms of longevity has been improving the betterment of symbionts. The government agrees."
"Like the way you've treated your symbionts? Losing Gotens, defying science through embezzling Seifer, mutating Seifer and then freezing Seifer? You know you're banned from the home world, right!?" the Ambassador ravished before walking away.
Veker took notice of Seifer when he walked over. "I can't return to my Kelpien home either, Captain," Veker reassured while at work. "With the taste of Starfleet operational culture, I just can't deal with the weird, flouty, over-dramatized side of it all."
"I'm fine. We all learned to appreciate imperfection after the whole Borg thing came back several times over until it was done to death," the Trill Captain waved. "Like, get it right the first time, am I right?"
The Science officer’s eyes went simultaneously wide at what he was likewise reading off his console. "In this case, I wholeheartedly agree. You see, the Ba’ul chemical and gravimetric optimizations of these Trill pools are thorough and sensitive, indeed, but I’m reading a rising harmonic distortion of some kind."
"Don’t tell the Trill elders yet," came the approach of the wet, black-goo, drippy lead Ba’ul technician. "My name is John and fixing this unexpected issue is tantamount to proving our successful relationship here."
Seifer moved his foot away. "Ah! You’re getting splur all over the place. Also, John? A human name?"
"The splur is their way, Captain," approached Yenzin, a Kelpien engineer. "Some take off-world names as a show of appreciation for the larger galaxy but also spludge around in a maintain of their gooey cultural identity. Also, his uncle was named John."
Veker recognized the other Kelpien. "Yenzin! My grade school classmate and friend? It certainly has been some time and, before you ask, no I have not engaged the vahar’ai yet."
"Well, that explains your threat ganglia going crazy right now," Yenzin blinked. "Bro! Didn’t you get my long-range messages when you were at the Academy? We have to on that puberty-like evolution-jump, STAT, right after drinks, parties and strippers!"
Seifer did a double-take. "Hold on a second. That evolutionary thing the Ba’ul nearly genocided you over, a century ago, is now akin to a bachelor/Bar Mitzvah party? Is that why you won’t return to your home world? Also, are the pools supposed to be bubbling like that?"
The group looked to find the swimming symbionts morphing and flinging tentacles around and out, nearly whipping some of the walking-passed engineers. Upon realization, every engineer, including John and Yenzin, rushed to a control to investigate in panic!
"Reading a destabilization of the Primary Habitation Pool," Veker reported in a tizzy to Seifer. "The harmonic distortion has increased and is effecting every balance system they have going. Unable to locate its source thus far."
Elena approached. "This is clearly sabotage by the Ba’ul. I say we book them. Also, we should bring back the booking of people."
"Why are you worse without Nelkast? Is this separation the result of the dark times? John and the Kelpiens have every reason to succeed here to prove unity of their people to the rest of the galactic community. No, this is clearly Ambassador Krenok."
Suddenly, Elena was grabbed by the waist by a flinging symbiont tentacle and dragged toward the pools. Several other Kelpien and Starfleet engineers were also snatched and each humanoid struggled under the sudden super-symbiont strength.
"My deduction is based on his animosity toward any kind of symbiont pool expansion and this turn of events confirms his derelict amplification and betrayal of Trill culture," Seifer concluded as Admiral Cloud rushed over.
He rubbed his head. "Alright, I retract the Section 31 grind in favor of the immediate threat. As a Captain, your versatile skillset surely includes peril management."
"Yeah, I know. I was getting to that. I was just adding depth before action. It’s called good writing— That is, if one were to transpose real life events as narrative. Which, I don’t. I’m not weird," he chuckled, unconvincingly, before Cloud’s neck was slapped with a gripping tentacle. "Elly, cut the tentacles. Don’t worry. They’re retachable."
The Admiral wedged fingers to prevent choking as Elly phaser beamed him free. "Thank you! Tell me, you don't think Section 31 still brainwashes me, do you?" But, before he could get an answer, his feet were pulled away by the loose tentacle, dragging him toward the pools, along side Ambassador Krenok.
"Wait a second. Section 31? Veker, by chance, is this harmonic distortion just a reconfigured Myriad codec?" the Captain queried as he dodged a tentacle that, instead, grabbed Elly and pulled her away. "That covert plod once accidentally turned said-codec into a distortion on Rigel VII when they tried to re-purpose it as a search string."
Confirming, Veker replied as his waist was wrapped in a tentacle, "Yes, a codec is a tool and not signal and why does it sound made up and only ever mentioned right now for plot purposes?"
"That’s how deus ex machinas work! Nothing is really connected to anything, nor has any actual meaning, unless it facilitates surface-level action or special effects," Seifer said, taking over the console as Veker was pulled away. Seconds later, the distortion was stabilized and all the tentacles let go of their attempted hosts.
Krenok stumbled over. "Your people did this, Captain. Now it's going to take forever to reverse the symbiont mutations and speak to each telesthesian manager about the food here at this restaurant. The Trill government will hear of this! Actually, this looks good for my shut-down intents and conservative values. Thanks for that."
"Please offload this so-called Myriad codec from our systems," John requested as Krenok exited and John squeegeed over, joined by Yenzin. "It looks like the distortions caused the symbionts to adopt Ba'ul aggressive tendencies from our gravitic and chemical alterations, and that reflects poorly upon Kelpien-Ba'ul delineation. Also, I'm working through my own Kelpien-targeted annihilistic suppressions."
Yenzin halted in momentary shock for his life. "Yeah, that. Soon, please. As well, I'm glad to see you were not Trill-hosted like a few of the other Kelpiens here, Lieutenant Commander Veker."
"You know what? Between potential Ba'ul suppression and Trill life-extending, life is too short to indulge doubts. Let's do the vahar’ai. Science is entertainment!" Veker announced.
The other Kelpien did a double-take. "Bro, we are going to do so many shots, so much powdered-based illegal drugs off strippers and chair lift you at the peak of our family-friendly, traditional folk dance! Ree-joo mayzka!"
"I'm so confused about what you guys are now in the 24th century," Seifer blinked as he moved the codec to an isolinear chip and Yenzin and John exited before Elena limped over. "But I did figure out what Section 31 was doing here. You were searching the database for Mayhem."
Elena gritted her teeth. "Using the Myriad codec was an escalation of need, worth the potential expenditure of whatever was going on here. You were supposed to provide us plausible deniability. Damn. I guess I really did need Nelkast."
"Mayhem was a bitter virus and hologram that served the Phoenix-X as an Intelligence officer before taking on a Section 31 mission to Sigma Iota II, three years ago," Seifer explained to a confused Veker. "Perhaps Section 31 can do some semblance of relevancy after all."
The cover-Ensign added, "Our asset was later extracted by a Ba'ul/Kelpien starship and the technology within this facility matched that. Your new mission is to follow through and support Veker's vahar’ai for clandestine purposes."
"I'm not sure I like being used by the unsanctioned, disreputable organization that you've been railing against since we started, Captain, but I'm so revved up in excitement of biological character change that I do not care," Veker admitted to Seifer after Elena was apprehended by security and Elly. Next, Admiral Cloud approached.
Captain Seifer sighed. "I just wanted to be done with those guys and not uncover an even further thing with them. You let her do this, didn't you?"
"It was the only way to keep them in my sights!" Cloud countered. "Besides, we can still squash that force-fed reclusive cockroach-like institution if we can secure the unsuppressable evidence of their virus Mayhem and get his testimony." He shifted, uncomfortably. "None of our own testimonies would work because of all the copyright music strikes on our Starfleet log accounts."
Seifer shook his head. "Why is everyone so obsessed with gaining followers on those? And tagging sponsors and getting monetized? We're supposed to be a cashless, carefree utopia! Never mind. The lesson here is, we're the problem and, because of these dark times, everyone else is going to suffer more from us if we don't do something about it."
"Very poignant and heart-wrenching to my missteps, Captain," Admiral Cloud noticed. "But, diluting perceptions of paradise and self-ego is what this is all about. So, carry on. The success of this moon Tivien means there may be hope for those affected by our organizational deformities after all." He walked on as the entire facility got back to Ba'ul pool stabilizing and Kelpien symbiont therapy.
TO BE CONTINUED