Star Trek: Theurgy

Re: Chapter 07: All or Nothing [ Day 03 | 1555 hrs. ]

Reply #50 – September 18, 2021, 04:36:28 PM

[ CPO Mickayla MacGregor | Klingon High Council Chamber | The Great Hall | First City | Qo’noS ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan
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It was over. The relief that flowed through Mickayla was muted by the pain that emanated from her shoulder. Gorka’s d’k tagh was still embedded there, the crest of the House Mo’Kai glistening in the firelight as it stared back up at her. Mickayla imagined that it was both crestfallen that its owner had died while also happy that another Mo’Kai was now in possession of it. The Chief couldn’t decide which it was. Both perhaps?

She stayed back, next to Gorka’s corpse as Martok, at Captain Ives’ urging, addressed the council. She had understood the importance of the roar that the gathered Klingons had bellowed at the ceiling but had not joined in despite her blood calling for her too. It was a foreign act to her, no matter what her body was telling her. Then she had watched as Martok had carved the body open, revealing the fused parasite within that had controlled the fallen warrior and manipulated the Klingon Empire to the brink of civil war.

Blood seeped through her fingers where she held her wound, not daring to withdraw the blade knowing that it could be keeping her from bleeding to death. As Martok addressed everyone, thoughts rippled through Mickayla’s head at what the future might hold for her now that Gorka lay dead at her feet.

“What will become of House Mo’Kai? I have uttered the challenge and Gorka now lays dead at my feet,” she wondered. “Will my father come to claim his birthright? Is he even still alive? And if he does come, do I want to meet him?”

These and more thoughts swam through the security officer’s mind as she also considered if she would return to the Theurgy or nor for medical treatment.

Re: Chapter 07: All or Nothing [ Day 03 | 1555 hrs. ]

Reply #51 – October 05, 2021, 04:03:03 AM

[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Secluded Office | The Great Hall | The First City of the Klingon Empire | Qo'noS ] Attn: @Auctor Lucan 
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There was never a good time to have an episode. Sarresh knew this well. There were however, bad times to have one. Secluded in an office in and of itself was not the worst thing ever for one of these, even if there was a Klingon audience, the same Intelligence officer that had helped lead the Starfleet team into the Great Hall from the landing platform to begin with. Having it while watching the Captain be stabbed, however, was less than ideal by a considerable margin.

Sarresh had taken such a visceral satisfaction as he watched the Klingon Kopek crumple in upon himself, the insidious parasite that had taken over the council member's body succumbing to the Anyonic waves triggered by Sarresh himself. There, before him, had been visual proof that he, Sarresh Morali, had struck back at the unseen enemy haunting the ranks of not only Starfleet Command, but every major power in the quadrant. That unspeakable force bent on the end of all things, and the sole reason that Sarresh had returned to his native time instead of remaining where he preferred, aboard the Relativity.

For a long moment, Sarresh indulged his hate for those parasites, reveling in the creatures pain. The smile on his face might have rivaled any of their Klingon host's after a good, hard won fight.

But then, to his surprise, he felt his smile fall away, replaced with something much closer to remorse. It was not Kopek's fault that he had been infested. As far as Sarresh could tell, no one had a say in what happened to them. The odds of someone willingly turning to such a creature was odd, and perhaps for the first time, Sarresh was being remind of this with his own two eyes. Thus, while he was eminently satisfied to deal a direct blow to the enemy, he found himself feeling sorry for the host. The wind had come out of his sails, and he sunk back, sparring half a glance toward Tavek. Unlike Sarresh, Tavek had, to that point, seen no true proof. But now....now he saw the final gasps, the struggle of Kopek to get out that last message of warning and let the entirety of the Great Hall know of the remaining threats. That was what a true hero did; to die a warriors death, fighting to the end for the Empire, now freed of the shackles of the parasite that had wrapped around his very core essence and used him for who knew how long.

The news that the departed Kopek had managed to deliver before drawing his final breath was dire, and needed passing along, something Tavek seemed already primed to do, reaching past Sarresh to utilize some of the other consoles in the room. This left Sarresh momentarily alone with this thoughts. Though it seemed to drag on forever, in truth, naught but seconds passed. Sitting back in the chair, Sarresh made the key mistake of opening his mouth, and saying, "Well, that's that then."

Which was the exact moment that everything fell apart once more.

"That stinking, honorless P'taq!" Tavek spat, seeing as Gorka rounded on the Chancellor. For good measure, Sarresh hit the button to discharge the Anyonic Emitters once more (to no avail this time). He supposed it could have been possible that another of the infested, in the body of a telepath perhaps, had some how pushed Gorka over the edge. But no one dropped from the array, its discharge unnoticed in the fray that was developing. No, all that could be seen was the hulking brute lunging at Martok -

- And Ives getting in the way.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me!" Sarresh spat out, coming out of his seat and bending over the station, to better see Ives, a blade buried in their chest, starring down Gorka as the crew lept into action. But he did not see the fight that followed , for at the same moment that the Theurgy's captain spat defiance in the face of the cowardly Klingon usurper whom had tried to stab Martok in the back (literally). Of course Ives would interpose themselves between the two belligerents. But no sooner had the words let his mouth, than everything around him changed.

Cries filled his ears, and the smell of something electric and burning filled his nose. Followed shortly by a sickening, organic snap, and the earthy stink of death. More yelling, now, as Sarresh felt deck plating under his cheek. His body tensed, and curled in on itself, eyes open, watching, hearing. Two voices - the same voice - yelling at...each other? A blink, and there was a moon. There was a corridor. There was a...Human...with a punch-able face. Not Ducane? But....familiar.

Another blink....and he found himself someplace warmer. Too warm. Too humid. The thump of feet, stepping in unison. There was the alien voice of the collective in his hears, distant, steady. A face, too familiar. With cords pulling in and out of her head. A new voice of the Collective that seemed to fade into nothing. A glimpse of another time? Another place? What should have happened? What had not? He knew everything, and nothing, and it terrified him.

The images came faster and faster, one after another, each making less sense then the last, and yet more sense. Things that were. Things that are. Things that had not yet come to pass, but might. Or might not. Ives, dead on the floors of the Great Hall. Martok Dead. Gorka Dead. All of them dead. All of them living. All the images, hurling through his mind until all that Sarresh could hear was a keening wail. Unbeknownst to him at the time, it was his own voice, as he lay seizing on the floor of the secluded office in the center of the Klingon Empires governmental political heart.

Tavek had not been idle during this sudden collapse of the scientist assigned to asisst K'Tal in ridding the Empire of an infestation. Even as a fight unfolded on the monitors before them, a different kind of fight played out in the confines of the sporadically convulsing human. Leaning out the door, the warrior bellowed down the hall, "yIghoSchoHQo'!"

There was little else he could do not being a trained medic himself. The spy dropped to his knees and turned Sarresh onto his side, as foam bubbled up between the mans lips. "I do not know if this is something humans do for amusement to worry other races but you will stop this now, do you hear? There will be no dishonorable deaths on my watch."

Sarresh's only response was to spit out a ragged warning, in a mad giggle:

"He broke through..."

- FIN