Star Trek: Erin

Part 51: Gabriel Rising

     Starbase 14 was silent. Soft glows from monitors continued without their usual gentle beeping. Red emergency lights strobed the hallways. Gone were the squeak of purposeful boots and drone of light conversation. Gone was all sound.

     In a relatively plush office attached to the medical bay of Starbase 14, a chair slowly turned top over bottom while its once-occupant limply pinballed back and forth between sides of the room.

     Chief Medical Officer Gabriel clawed her way back to consciousness. She dimly felt her back connect with the wall, momentum bumping her forward. Instinctively she gasped for air, but rather than the sensation of lungs filling, all she felt was cold.

     She wondered if she was dead.

     A quick look around told that either she wasn't, or hell looked a lot like her office on Starbase 14.

     Gabriel stretched out her arms and swept them back in the swimming motion her uncle had taught her, aiming for her desk. No effect. She continued drifting towards the other side of the room. Her eyes narrowed, and as she drifted by a light fixture bolted to the wall, she snagged it with an elbow, drawing her legs around to shove off the wall. She rocketed towards the desk with a speed Gabriel hadn't experienced since zero-g training at the Academy. Instinctually she took the brunt of the impact with her shoulder, managing to grip a desk leg until her momentum was transferred.

     She nudged the pinwheeling chair away and hunched over the computer. It was then that she consciously noticed the lack of sound, from the lack of whirring of the long-distance core she'd installed to make communicating with the Enterprise easier.

     "What is this?" she whispered. Gravity buffers were out, that much was obvious, but something seemed wrong with her lungs. Gabriel tried once again to breathe in, but her chest didn't expand. She placed a hand in front of her mouth and exhaled as hard as she could. No rush of hot breath.

     Gabriel's hands were starting to shake, but they noticeably steadied as she checked her pulse. It was there, but sluggish. She didn't feel sluggish.

     She frowned and glanced at the computer. Sixty-one new messages. One was from T'Ariik, the Vulcan who was co-Chief Medial Officer with her. 'Are you awake?' The other sixty were from the head of Starbase 14, one every minute for the past hour with the same contents: 'We have been chosen.'

     It was at that moment the gravity buffers returned. Gabriel collapsed to the floor, one leg still awkwardly wrapped around the table leg. She gave a disgusted sigh and picked herself up, considering the room.

     In the moment of quiet, her hands started shaking again. What had those messages meant?

     She shook her head. First things first. Talk to T'Ariik. Gabriel stepped to her bed, where a holster and its occupying phaser waited. Strapping it to her hip, she flanked the door and pushed the manual open.

     Academy drills had come back over the past months. Attacking marauders had done that.

     The marauders hadn't been a problem when she received the commission, reason why Starfleet assigned two largely untested medical officers to the starbase, but in the intervening time, raiding parties had struck four times, with the latest being a stolen Federation vessel that had docked before anything was noticed to be wrong.

     The door to Medical swished open. Gabriel moved through, pointing her phaser at the room's only occupant. T'Ariik raised her hands. "It is me," the Vulcan said. Her white coat was fully buttoned, and her black hair was in a loose ponytail adjusted around lab goggles.

     Gabriel holstered her phaser and approached. The other woman was running tests on a single vial of green blood. "Do you know what's happening?"

     "No," T'Ariik said. "I woke ten minutes ago. The buffers' return is a blessing."

     Gabriel gestured at the blood. "Is that yours?"

     "Yes."

     "You didn't send it to Science?"

     "I do not know who has turned. You received the message from the commander?" T'Ariik glanced at Gabriel. Something she saw was a confirmation. "Have you looked in a mirror?"

     "No, I—" Gabriel noticed the same thing T'Ariik had. "Your eyes are the wrong colour." The Vulcan's eyes, usually a light grey, were a deep raspberry.

     "As are yours." T'Ariik squinted at the results slowly appearing. "We need to prepare for those who wake and come to us, but the sooner we know what is wrong with us, the sooner we can fix those who arrive. Could you?"

     Gabriel moved away immediately, prepping the med bay as best she could without knowing the injury type and only pausing to change her phaser to the stun setting. "You said 'turned.' Do you know anything else?"

     "I have theories, but they are not formed enough to share."

     Gabriel stood by as T'Ariik continued receiving information, knowing the Vulcan would be faster at interpreting the results. Momentarily at a loss for what to do, her hands started to shake again. Gabriel swallowed hard and went to the panel at the door, which had a little flashing light. She blinked and had to read the message again. "That was more than zero-g. That was vacuum."

     T'Ariik startled. "But we live."

     "Noticed that part." Gabriel read it a third time, just to be sure. "What are the results saying?"

     "Astronomical levels of radiation."

     Gabriel's heart skipped a beat. "Type?"

     "Unknown."

     Joining T'Ariik at the monitor, Gabriel squinted at the data still streaming in. "Something is very wrong with us."

     "Or," the Vulcan said slowly, "perhaps something has been righted."