Star Trek Augustus: Parallax Incident Book One: Navis Mortum

Chapter 3

Megan Jenkins looked down at the readout on her tricorder. The doctor pointed her palm beacon at a nearby door. "Sickbay is through that door, can you give me a hand with it?"
Ensign Gregories nodded before approaching the double doors, prying open the control panel to access the manual controls underneath. After replacing a series of isolinear data chips and pulling an actuator control lever, the two doors slowly opened far enough for the lithe doctor to squeeze between them.

Like the rest of the ship, sickbay was dark and unpowered. Megan removed her medical tricorder from her belt and started scanning the room. "Nothing's online here. Not even reserve generators," she muttered as Gregories managed to force the doors fully open.
"That's not right. Even if main power is offline, the sickbay backups should last four weeks at minimal power, and the Concordia has only been off the grid for a week..." the security officer stopped as Megan approached an occupied biobed, "Ah Doc, what's that?"
Her shrug was absorbed in the darkness as she placed the tricorder's scanning device over the biobed's clamshell, "They're dead. Human, by the looks of it." She tapped her combadge, "Jenkins to Urquan. Commander, I've found something down here in Sickbay."
There was a brief pause before Lyra replied, she sounded out of breath. "Why am I not surprised? We haven't made it to the Bridge yet, with the power out we have to climb up through the Jeffries Tubes."

Handing the beacon to Gregories, Megan attempted to perform a cursory inspection of the body, "I've found a member of the Concordia's crew sitting on a biobed. Human, looks like they're in security. By my estimate they have been dead for about four weeks."
"That can't be right. No sickbay would leave someone dead that long out of the morgue, especially since the ship hasn't been quiet that long."
Megan nodded before gesturing to Gregories to help her force the clamshell open, "I don't know what to tell you, that's what I'm seeing in front of me, I can try and perform rudimentary autopsy if you like, but I'd like to beam the body to the Augustus for further study."
"Do what you can here. Until we know just what has happened over here, I don't want anyone heading back to the Augustus. Urquan out."
The doctor shrugged, before turning to face Gregories, who under the light of the emergency beacon was starting to turn a subtle shade of green, "Well you've just volunteered as a medical examiner. There should be a portable power pack in the equipment room as well as a basic surgical kit. Can you get them for me?" Gregories nodded before quickly moving, as if unwilling to be near the dead body. Megan shrugged before crouching beside the officer's face, "Now you are going to tell me why they left you out here."

***

The body Doctor Jenkins discovered was only the first one, the away team found.
Lyra forced a floor-mounted access hatch open, allowing Petty Officer Franklin and herself access to the Concordia's bridge. As they stood on the command deck, Lyra's heart sank. The captain's chair, normally in a place of authority atop a central elevated command dais, lay discarded near the rear turbolift. Each console and station was a pile of smashed circuitry.
"What the hell happened up here?" she commented while panning the beacon around the bridge.
"It looks like a battlefield," Franklin remarked as the two started hearing the sound of something wet hitting the deck plates opposite them.
Lyra pointed her beacon towards the source of the noise before carefully approaching it. A red and black uniform was split from neck to navel. The skin underneath was mottled and split in a similar state, showing a cracked and splintered ribcage. The deck was covered in blood and thick globs of meat. Four gold pips were clearly visible through the gore. A terrified expression was permanently etched onto a weathered face. Lyra tapped her combadge. "Urquan to Augustus, we've found the remains of Captain Dalton. He's been mauled by something we've yet to locate."
There was a brief pause before Captain King replied, "Have you found anyone else?"
Lyra panned the beacon around the bridge once more, "Negative, Captain. He's the only one on the bridge ma'am, but Doctor Jenkins found another body in Sickbay that she wants to beam over for study."

"If Doctor Jenkins can find no evidence that the body contains anything that is a threat to the Augustus, I see no issue with her doing so. Have you found anything that may explain what happened to the rest of the crew?" Lyra made a gesture to Franklin to relay the message.
"Not yet, ma'am, but with no main power or internal sensors, it's been difficult getting anywhere. Ensign T'kural reports that both fusion reactors and the warpdrive are forcibly offline."
"Do what you can, Commander, I'll arrange for Davis to send over a repair team. Augustus, out."

***

"Well, that's not normal," Megan remarked before removing an inspection probe from the open chest cavity in front of her. A third of the length of the probe was covered in a thick, viscous, black liquid. A cough opposite her caused the doctor to frown as she placed the probe in a collection device, "Gregories, if you're going to throw up, please go into the other room, I don't want you contaminating my field."
"Sorry, ma'am," he replied as Megan's combadge chirruped before Petty Officer Franklin relayed Captain Kings instructions.
Megan looked over to her tricorder and then to Ensign Gregories, before tapping her combadge, "Augustus, two to beam directly to sickbay. I want a level five containment field in place before I beam over."
"Understood, Doctor."
Megan looked over to the Ensign, "Gregories, meet up with one of the other teams." She tapped her combadge, "Augustus, energise."

Six bluish-white pillars materialised in the Concordia's main engineering, illuminating the expansive chamber momentarily before being replaced with six yellow-uniformed crewmen.
Lieutenant Sovan stepped forward as four engineers picked up the small piles of engineering supplies at their feet. The two security officers that accompanied them checked their phasers. "Gentlemen, your primary objective is to restore enough power to allow access to the main computer and internal sensors." The engineers nodded. Sovan turned to the security guards, adding, "While you will be joining me in searching this ship for the remainder of the crew."
The security officers nodded before Sovan turned to T'Kural, "I will leave engineering to you."
"Understood, Lieutenant, I believe the phrase, 'good luck' is warranted."
Sovan nodded, "Likewise, Ensign." Turning, the security chief led the security detail out of engineering.
T'Kural looked to the engineers, cabling and toolkits under arm, "Let us get to work. Our objectives are in this order: Main computer, internal sensors, air purification. The air quality on board is not satisfactory."
"Sir, what's the status of the fusion reactors?" one of the engineers asked as the team broke up to start tackling the issues of a disabled starship.
"The fusion reactors are non-functional. The cause is as yet unknown. It appears the Concordia's crew disabled them intentionally, we will have to use emergency generators to restore partial functionality to the ship." T'Kural started distributing padds containing assignments, "Move out." The engineers nodded before dispersing.

***

Lyra crossed her arms, staring out at the stars through the non-holographic viewscreen as the sound of recirculating air suddenly sprang to life. It was at that point that she realised just how quiet the Concordia had been. Turning back to the centre of the bridge, the only other sound on the quiet bridge was the sound of Petty Officer Franklin coughing. She noted that he had been doing that since the away team had beamed aboard.
"Greg, check in with Doctor Jenkins, I don't want you coughing up a lung."
The petty officer shrugged slightly, "Ma'am, Doctor Jenkins beamed back to the Augustus an hour ago, but I can try and find something in sickbay..."

He was cut off by a loud, bone-chilling noise that echoed through the ship. The sound was animalistic, raw and numerous. It reverberated from the bowels of the Concordia, gaining strength before reaching the bridge.
"Urquan to Sovan. Please tell me you heard that?"
"Commander, if you are referring to the unknown sound that appeared to originate in engineering. Then yes."
Lyra suppressed the feeling of embarrassment before responding, "Standby, Sovan," tapping her combadge once more. "Urquan to T'Kural, report." The Vulcan engineer's response was garbled, incoherent then went dead. Frowning Lyra turned to Franklin while tapping her combadge again to reinitialize the connection. When it went unanswered she reopened her connection to Sovan. "Lieutenant, recall your security team, something is wrong in Engineering. T'Kural appears to be having communications difficulties, I want you to investigate, Urquan out."