Stunned (Hushed II)

Posted on Tue Nov 21st, 2017 @ 9:23am by Commander K'Niras Sh'howul & Lieutenant Junior Grade Shras th'Zarath

Mission: S01E02 D-8 With the Devil
Location: Elba II Orbital Transit Station

ON:

With the away team mostly hidden from the main hallways, K’Niras signaled the minute he could see the Le-matya was coming and hoped that they could get it stunned before anyone else was hurt. The creature that came into view out of the darkness was long and lean. Its yellow coat was slick and sleek and its catlike eyes glowed, reflecting in the light. It looked very similar to a large earth cat but its features were more angular. He could see it lifting its nose into the air to scent for them.

K’Niras only knew a little about the cats but what he did know was rather frightening. They were not a species that the Vulcans even allowed on their nature preserves because of their violent and unpredictable behavior. They attempted to kill anything they ran across to drink its blood. Their claws were very poisonous. Even the smallest scratch could spell death. He prayed everyone would be okay when this was over.

They were staggered back and forth across the room with K'Niras, Shras and Vanessa closest to where it was approaching.

Vanessa watched her tricorder to gage its location. As soon as it reached the middle of the entrance, she would fire. Maximum stun, tight beam and then get down so the others could also engage the creature. She could hear it's dangerous talons on the deck of the station as it cautiously approached the bridge entrance. Vanessa took aim quickly, fired and returned to cover. She knew she hit it but it was still moving, and now toward her position. If that was the case, she would have to change weapons. She quickly drew her 45. And waited to be attacked, but it never came. Phaser fire could be heard from other directions.

K'Niras stood next. He turned quickly and fired. He had always been a good shot and was certain that he had hit the creature as he spun back into his hidey hole, his phaser still raised. The Le-matya gave a roar of protest and staggered, but it was still coming, although it's progress had been slowed by the multiple stuns and its own uncertainty as to whether or not it should proceed.

Sensing hesitation via his antennae, Shras ducked out from behind the cover that he was using. He leveled his phasers and fired two or three shots at the Le-matya. Missing one out of three. To him, the animal was looking groggy, but still on the mad side.

Crewmen Mulholland came running down the corridor with his phaser drawn. The crewmen had been working on data transfer to the USS Musashi when he heard the shots being fired. His security training had pushed him to drop everything and come running. He saw the Le-matya, not knowing what the heck it was, but knowing it was injured and pissed. It was clearly what everyone was shooting at. "Bad kitty," said Mulholland as he set his phaser to kill, giving the barrel a quick twist and unleashing a blast at it.

The Le-matya roared in protest, struggling against the constant barrage of fire and finally gave up, collapsing to the deck and finally laying still except for it's breathing. K'Niras cautiously stepped from his hiding place and started to move towards it, his phaser still out. "This thing must have an incredibly thick hide..." he said softly to no one in particular. "Let's find out where it's supposed to go and I'll contact the ship... if it can't go back where it was it needs to be contained somehow... so another appropriate option might be necessary. I want someone to stay with it while we work... volunteers?" He didn't look at the away team at all, his eyes remained fixed on the Le-matya. He didn't want any more surprises.

Vanessa chimed in; "We need some steel cable. Then we make a lasso for its mouth. And wrap that around its mouth so it can't bite. And we put several pieces of a strong material over its feet or claws so it can't accidentally on purpose scratch a fellow crewman. And then we hog tie its legs and body tight and put it in containment somewhere until we have a place to send it," she said, not moving anywhere near the beast, weapon still in hand.

K'Niras frowned and thought about how painful it would be to have a cable around his muzzle. "I'm not sure I want to risk damage to the beast with metal cables, Crewman. If it was headed for research or a zoo they might wish to have their specimen undamaged. I think a containment field will do for now, but I want to make sure it can't tear its way through the deck plating. Make it a level 10 containment field in case it has any other hidden talents." He didn't get any closer to the unconscious beast but he did pull out his communicator, still not taking his eyes off the Le-matya or lowering his phaser. He flipped it open. "Lieutenant Sh'howul to Musashi. Please come in. It's rather urgent."

"Musashi here," came the response. "Something to report, Lieutenant? The Captain should be returning within the hour. They have just reached the surface," reported Jakku.

"We're going to need a level 10 containment field. We have stunned the creature, which appears to be a Vulcan Le-matya. I'd like to keep my team from getting poisoned if possible and I'm not sure how long it will remain stunned. It took quite a bit to take it down. We will try to discover where it was supposed to be, but for now it either needs to be beamed back to you for containment or someone will have to come with equipment to set up the containment field here immedately," K'Niras spoke into the com, his eyes still on the creature. If it even twitched he was prepared to stun it again.

"Jeez" came the response from the Musashi's communications personnel. "Level 10 containment field, you got it" added the Trill as he proceeded to coordinate with the necessary departments to make it happen. A Le-matya? That's something you don't see every day, he thought. "One moment and you will have it, Sir."

"Now that we've got that under control, for the most part." K'Niras' tail was still a bit puffy from the experience. He tried not to think about it and took a deep breath to steady himself. "Crewman Strong? Are there any more surprises like that? And I think we should start searching for survivors, try to figure out how this animal got loose and continue with repairs. I want to make sure a repair team would be safe here. Volunteers? Anyone? Possibly two teams, one here and one searching."

Vanessa could tell from her readings that the station was coming back online. "If you don't mind, I'll start combing through data to see if I can find out what happened and where this thing came from," she volunteered

Mulholland cleared his throat. "I was able to work with the Musashi and recover some data. It's pretty scrambled as if someone were trying to cover something up or cover their tracks. The Musashi has it and are working on it as we speak. However, from what I was able to gather on my end, there were three vessels that checked in here in the past 24 hours. I took some scans of the bodies we passed by and sent them to the Musashi to have medical have a look... and I think it might be best if we um well, if we bring back a body for them to examine," he said with a shrug. "There's probably only so much that they can tell from a scan."

K'Niras nodded. "Thank you, both of you. Good job team. Alright... These people need a proper burial anyway. One of them can definitely go back to the ship. Crewman Mulholland please take care of that. Crewman Strong and Lieutenant th'Zarath, why don't you come with me and we'll make a sweep of the station and make sure we aren't leaving anyone behind. Sorry Crewman Strong, I'd rather have you with me." He grinned. He wanted Vanessa with him because he knew she was sharp and would effectively keep them safe.

Vanessa looked relieved. Anything to get away from this beast, who she assumed would be taken care of by a Musashi security team, now that the animal was down and out of it. She calmly slipped her 45 back into the sleek mid of back holster that Philips had given her and clipped her small hand held phaser to her belt. "I'll be happy to sir," she replied and began sweeping with her tricorder in the direction that her team leader had indicated. One thing Vanessa had never had a problem with was following orders. And also reading people, and she was sure that K'Niras wanted the same thing she wanted. Off this tub as soon as possible.

They made their search. Fortunately the station was only manned with a small staff, unfortunately, they were all deceased, but not all were deceased equally. Wounds on the bodies suggested that perhaps something other than the Le-matya had been at the crew and there was particularly no way that the Le-matya had done the damage to the station's systems, nor encoded or scrambled the station's logs. Searching the creepy, now silent station, raised more questions than it answered. Something besides the deadly cat had had it's way with the station and its small compliment. When his team was back together in the control center K'Niras looked around at them. "You've all been an excellent team. Thank you so much. We should return to the ship and make our reports and get these people a proper burial. Does anyone have anything to add? Opinions?"

“Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but once I get back to the ship, I’m scrubbing myself clean and then I’m heading to the Roosevelt lounge for some drinks,” commented the crewmen.

"Good plan," Shras thought.

K'Niras flipped his comm open. "Lieutenant Sh'howul to Musashi. We're ready to come back when you're ready."

END