Plague Ship

Posted on Tue Jun 10th, 2025 @ 8:27pm by Captain Rylan Gray & Lieutenant Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Daegan Baas & Lieutenant Ayryn Trynn M.D. & Lieutenant Stormy Knight & Ensign Kivo Dak & Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox

2,339 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: A Silence of Friends
Location: USS Thunderbird

Word spread, mouth to mouth, through the crew about what was happening in Sick Bay. The enemy had a name now, Velrith Plague, and, as it had on Guran III, it was winning. The archeological team and the ship's First Officer were dead. The Captain and their Chief Medical Officer were ill, status unknown, which left medical in the hands of the counselor. Yes, word was spreading. And now the crew turned their eyes toward the Bridge where ship's former First Officer, recently back after having been removed from his position, was in charge. The question on everyone's lips was whether the Thunderbird would suffer the same fate as the Gurani people.

The bridge of the USS Thunderbird was unnervingly quiet, broken only by the soft thrum of strained systems under red alert. The Velrith Plague had claimed the life of First Officer. It was not looking great for Rylan or the Ship's Physician.

Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox sat in the Captain's chair though not from desire nor ambition, but necessity. The Thunderbird was a formidable starship built for tactical engagements, but this threat required a different mindset.

Knox’s eyes lingered about the bridge. He was weighing the decision to launch a Class-3 warning buoy, a beacon that would transmit a clear subspace message: Quarantine zone. Do not approach. Launching it meant potentially surrendering, cutting off any chance of rescue, but refraining might doom any responding vessel to the same horrific fate that the Thunderbird was experiencing.

"Time is running out" stated Knox. He knew that if the Thunderbird was destined to be lost, he couldn’t allow it to take others with it. The burden of command had fallen on him, unasked for and heavy; this was his burden.

Stormy had run a few tests and learned that she was not one of those most susceptible to the plague, which was a relief, but she could still get sick--as could the rest of the crew. While she'd given the information she had to the doctor, she couldn't just sit idle and wait for something to happen. So, she headed for the bridge to talk to the commander.

She paused when she stepped off the turbolift to look for Tyler and reassure herself that he was safe. Then she went over to Commander Knox. "Welcome back, sir. is there anything I can do to help?"

"I need some miracles and I need them soon" replied Knox. He was genuinely happy to see her. It was reassuring. "What can you tell me? I am sincerely worried that we have put ourselves in a bad situation here."

She handed him a PADD. "Here are the details on the plague. I already gave it to the doctor, but they're likely swamped with those who are sick." Stormy nodded to the PADD. "It also lists how to tell who is more vulnerable to it. I'm not a doctor, but I am a scientist. Is there anything I can do to help? Research I can do? I'm running an analysis of everything we have on the planet to see if I can find anything that will indicate where the virus came from and how it manifested, but so far I've found nothing."

"Our Chief Medical Officer has also fallen victim," Knox informed her. "He relinquished the administration of Sickbay to the Ship's Counselor. I am not sure if that was in sound judgement or not, but I believe in her ability to organize and coordinate. Get your people researching every aspect that they can regarding this virus. If we have anything at all... clearly this civilization fell, but we may have something they did not. Let's try to find it."

"Yes, sir. I'll do that right now." Stormy knew there was little time to waste if they were to stop this plague. She thought the doctor was on it, but now... She hoped that between science and counseling, they could find something.

Tyler sat at the Operations station and worked feverishly to keep up with the environmental controls. He attempted to keep the plague from spreading by using the bio filters to clean the air. The problem was he was not sure what to look for. Then all at once an idea hit him. He turned toward Knox. "Commander with your permission I would like to initiate a quarantine protocol of sorts for the Bridge. As of this moment we know that everyone here is not infected, so we remain at our stations. I can isolate the Bridge from the rest of the ship's environmental controls. This would prevent the plague from entering the Bridge. At the very least it would give us a safe zone to keep the ship running. This can be done for a limited number of other areas on the ship." The fact that Stormy was there was not lost on Tyler. He was relieved to see that she was still among the healthy.

"Make it so" replied Knox. "Lieutenant Knight can coordinate her people from here. We can use the bridge as a base of operations, communicate with the rest of the ship and have the departments check in regularly."

"Aye sir." Tyler tapped in a series of commands. Among them was a message sent to all stations informing them of this quarantine. He also routed the bridges bio filters through the transporter buffer. As of now the transporter scanned the air as it entered the bridge if there are any foreign organisms present the transporter will beam them away. "Quarantine is in place Commander Knox."

"Thank you, Lieutenant" replied Knox.

[On the Surface]

So far there had been no reply from the city's AI as he moved deeper and deeper into the city. Nothing. "Striel!!! STRIEL!!!" Why was it ignoring him? There were drones moving about seeing to who knows what but know response came from that damned AI. The last time it acknowledged them it thought they were a threat. Speaking to no one, "Well lets turn up that heat then." Daegan drew his phaser and aimed it at one of the drones.

The drones responded at once, shields went up and several larger, heavily armed drones made their presence known, while Striel's impassive voice boomed. "Put down your weapon at once."

Slowly lowering his phaser, the corner of Daegan's mouth curled. "I thought that might get your attention. Why were you ignoring me for so long? Ya know...never mind that. There's no time. We need your help! The plague that wiped out your people has spread to my ship. Our science and medical teams are working on the problem but if your memory has any information they need it."

The drones did not stand down but rather, remained trained on him. "You have violated the terms of the agreement," Striel said. "You will leave this world now. Do not return."

Daegan stepped towards the nearest drone. "Your agreement be damned, especially since you broke the deal before we did anything. The plague that killed the people you were supposed to protect years ago is still here isn't i? The science team you said you would protect are DEAD...you failed to keep your promise to Captain Gray. Now people on my ship is dying. I don't care what happened in the past, but there are people now people that that need your help."

"Leave now," Striel said. "There will be no further warnings." All around the city, things were changing; shielding was being activated and a different class of drones was coming online while Striel analyzed the situation and waited, already planning twelve moves ahead, for the man's answer.

Daegan knew the AI could transport him away if it wanted. It didn't need to threaten or make demands as it could've sent him away at any time, but it hadn't. Why? Tossing his phaser to the side, his hands spread. "I'm not here to delve into your past...I don't care what happened. We need your help. Keep your secrets if you must but if something happens to the Thunderbird, Starfleet will send ship after ship to investigate until they have their answer. The choice is yours."

"Acknowledged," Striel said. Two things happened nearly simultaneously; the first was Daegan being returned to the bridge of the USS Thunderbird and the second was a shield going up over the city. In the factories, drones worked on creating drones, some to do repair work, others to build a defense force. Threats he understood and he excelled at defense. Speaking first in Gurani and then in Federation Standard, Striel addressed the ship. "USS Thunderbird. Access to this world has been withdrawn. Do not approach. Guran III is off limits."

Knox was taken aback by the sudden appearance of Baas, but the warning from this Striel artificial intelligence have Knox all the answers he needed. "Went well I see," commented the Acting Captain.

"Who gave you permission to go down there anyways? We don't have many options now, Lieutenant. I would have preferred if you had not gone down there alone, but Striel has made it clear" Knox stated.

Looking at his with a wrinkled brow as he was taken back by the question. "You did."

Did I? thought Knox. There had been so much chaos since his arrival back aboard. This was not the time to figure that out. "I'm just glad you are back in one piece."

"Helm, take us out of orbit of Guran III. I want some distance between us and any potential defensive systems it has" ordered Knox. I am not going to war with AI today.

Ensign Kivo's fingers grazed over the controls of Flight Control. Swooping and circling, he set a course away from the planet, first breaking the gravity pull of orbit with a renewed push by impulse. Knox wasn't specific about where and how far from the world, so Kivo chose to head toward the planet's LaGrange point between it, and its sun.

"Daegan, resume your post and man your station. I want a buoy launched. We're placing a quarantine on the planet."

As the ship broke orbit Daegan's hands moved over the console as he programmed and launched several quarantine beacons into a higher orbit. "Let's hope that AI doesn't shoot them down." Under his breath, "...and here I was giving it the benefit of the doubt."

“Sickbay to Bridge,” Lt Trynn’s voice filtered through the comm system. “Commander Knox, I don’t know exactly what is happening up there but I strongly advise we try to resolve this situation with Striel. As I’m sure Lieutenant Knight will agree, the more information we can gather the better and the answer to this may be on that planet.”

Though she could not see him, Knox was shaking his head. "We're at a standstill. Daegan paid Striel a visit, and it did not go well. We've been evicted. I have taken us out of orbit for now."

“An unfortunate turn of events,” Trynn responded after a moment, an upbringing around diplomats kicking in to keep her exasperated tone locked up tight. “My recommendation is to open diplomatic channels - apologise for whatever we did wrong or whatever Striel perceives we did wrong and go from there. Perhaps if we point out its help may mean we leave and Starfleet never comes back - it may consider the outcome worth an initial sacrifice.”

"I agree with you, Counselor. That is part of the reason why I've broken orbit. I am following Striel's demands for now. Going back down may escalate matters and jeopardize the ship" explained Knox.

“Agreed,” Trynn replied. “If you need me, you know where to find me.”

Knox, standing and looking around the bridge, locked onto the science officer. "Knight continue coordinating with science branches. Research anything and everything relevant that we can. In an hour, we can try to contact Striel, but I'm not setting foot on the surface. We lost that privilege and overstepped boundaries."

"I have been, commander," Stormy assured him. "I also agree that we should not leave here until we can at least get Striel to understand what is going on and why we are taking the actions we are. If not, we may never have the opportunity to return." She took a breath and continued. "And I also believe the answers we need to find a cure for this plague are on the planet." She didn't need to tell him what would happen if they didn't find a treatment--or cure.

Knox agreed. "Then we will contact Striel in an hour and see with can negotiate with words and logic rather than phasers" he said firmly. "We will be careful about it. You, the Counselor, and I will speak to Striel if the AI will listen."

Stormy nodded in agreement.

Lieutenant Commander Knox looked at Daegan. "Stay alert, but no actions are to be taken that would cause us to be seen as a threat. We're on thin ice."

"Understood. Though while on the surface I asked for it's help; multiple times. And all it did was get more and more adamant that we were in the wrong."

Knox nodded. "To Striel, we probably are. That very well may be our way in" added Lieutenant Commanding Knox. "If I have learned anything from these command classes and lectures, it is how fragile negotiations can be. Thank you, Daegan." Though it was clear that Striel did not take well to what Lieutenant Baas had said or done, Knox saw it as a lesson. He could learn from that.


Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Thunderbird

Lieutenant Daegan Baas
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Thunderbird

Lieutenant Juliette Barnes
Chief Engineer
USS Thunderbird

Lieutenant Stormy Knight
Chief Science Officer
USS Thunderbird

Lieutenant Ayryn Trynn
Ship's Counselor
USS Thunderbird

Lieutenant Tyler Malbrooke
Chief Operations Officer
USS Thunderbird

Ensign Kivo Dak
Flight Control Officer
USS Thunderbird

and Striel of Guran III
(written by Capt. Rylan Gray)

 

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