Star Trek - Zombies

Chapter 02: Stranded

As the away team progressed ever closer to the lifeless colony, the blue soil began to be disrupted by craters. The indentations were of varying dimensions from the width of a clenched fist to the size of a person's head. The ground was blackened and scorched, and fragments of debris had been flung in all directions from the center of each depression.

"Spock, what do you make of these?" Kirk asked.

The science officer knelt beside one of the craters and scanned it with his tricorder. "Picking up trace elements indicating the use of a crude explosive. I'm also detecting a magnetic resonance pattern nearly identical to what was found in the storm."

"Theorize, could the two be related?" Kirk instructed.

"Unknown," Spock replied. "The electromagnetic storm responsible for bringing down the shuttle might have caused these blast points if the bolts had touched the ground, but it wouldn't account for the explosive residue. It seems far more likely to have been caused by either the colonists or whatever they were firing on with their phasers."

"This place is showing all the evidence of a battle," Kirk stated. "Phasers used until exhausted and the improvised explosives both point to something happening here, but how did it end? Who won? Who were they fighting?"

"I cannot say at this time," Spock answered. "An oddity of note is my tricorder is not picking up any signs of either human cellular debris or blood traces. If not for the discarded phasers and craters across the landscape, it would be impossible to tell a battle had even occurred."

"Let's keep moving," Kirk insisted. He rubbed a hand over the small hairs on the back of his neck in an attempt to remove the prickly feeling they were giving him.

The suns were setting, but the storm cloud overhead was luminescent, casting everything in shades of electric green and allowing the group to see without the need for additional lighting. The away team was quite close to the edge of the colony, the darkened buildings looming above them. Standard construction techniques of Starfleet engineers made all the structures seem similar. They possessed a rounded smooth appearance similar to the polished stones at the bottom of a river. No lights showed in the windows, leaving them dark voids in the sides of the buildings.

Spock's tricorder whistled rhythmically as he inspected the outer buildings of the colony with the scanning device.

"Anything?" Kirk prompted.

"Negative," Spock denied. "Colony structures show no sign of recent habitation. They appear to have been abandoned for some time."

"Does anyone else feel like they're being watched?" one of the security men asked. Several other men quickly agreed with him.

"Enough of that!" Kirk snapped. "We're not going to start jumping at shadows. If there are any colonists still around, I don't want to start shooting them by accident. Focus on our mission. We need to reach main environmental control, so stay alert and stay calm. Let's move."

As the away team turned the first corner of the street, they found the security headquarters for the colony. The front doors had been hastily barricaded with crates, duranium panels, and various metal bars and supports seemingly pulled from other buildings. The barricade had been breached and the front doors broken down.

Kirk directed his security teams with hand gestures, dividing them into two groups and having them spread out to either side of the entrance.

"No life signs, no movement or thermal signatures detected," Spock reported after performing a scan of the interior.

"The security computer might have records of what happened here," Kirk guessed. He swallowed before giving the order to enter the building.

The security men led the way into the darkened interior. The lights were not functioning, and the only form of illumination came from the green glow of the storm clouds showing through the windows. Deep shadows clung to the walls and corners of the room. Computer panels flickered unreliably, their switching on and off causing a raspy buzzing sound to echo off the walls.

"Same readings as before," Spock reported quietly. "No sign of recent habitation, no bodies, blood, or cellular material. Other than the barricade, I'm not picking up anything to prove a fight took place here."

"See if you can get the power back online to these computer terminals," Kirk ordered. He turned to his security men, dividing them into two groups. "Baker, take your half of the men and search the building. Make sure there are no surprises waiting for us. Mills, have your men secure the doors. Try and get that barricade in functioning condition again."

"Yes sir," the two security men said in unison. They split up to carry out their assigned tasks while Kirk and McCoy joined Spock at one of the flickering computer terminals as the science officer worked on getting it restored.

"It would appear significant damage has been done to the primary power unit," Spock said after several tries to access the computer. "I will attempt to switch to the auxiliary systems."

The lights from the computer panel stopped flickering and stayed steady. Spock typed on the various keys to access the main databanks. A long list of files appeared on the console display screen.

"That one," Kirk said, pointing to the final entry.

Spock worked the console to open the file. As a man in the red uniform of security appeared on the screen, his voice came through the speaker mounted in the terminal. The man looked as if he'd been without sleep for days.

"This is Commander Grant, head of security for the Kaleebus colony," the man in the recording stated. His voice carried the weight of extreme exhaustion. "My fellow officers and I are all that remains of the colony. The rest have fallen to a sickness. Nothing we could do to prevent it. We've barricaded ourselves in, but we can hear them pounding on the doors. They know we're here, and they know the doors won't hold. I've only got a few minutes to..."

A loud boom resounded in the background of the video. Commander Grant moved away from the terminal and out of view. Phaser fire could be heard filling the air in rapid succession. The sound of the phasers diminished, covered over by screaming before everything went silent. The auto-timer on the console automatically switched off the recorder after a few minutes passed with no input from Commander Grant, ending the available data for playback.

Spock, McCoy and Kirk stared at the console; no one moved or spoke for several long moments.

"I, uh," McCoy began hesitantly. "Let me see if I can tie into the medical files from here."

Spock stepped aside and let the doctor work.

The communicator on Kirk's belt signaled him twice with a soft pulse. Kirk took the unit out and flipped it open. "Kirk here."

"Captin'," Scotty's voice said hurriedly. "We're under attack!"

"What's happening?" Kirk asked.

"The electrical storm from the planet is," the message broke up in a hiss of static.

"Scotty, do you read me?" Kirk asked, adjusting the controls on the communicator in an attempt to overcome the interference. "Scotty!"

Spock took out his tricorder and was taking an atmospheric scan when a different reading caught his attention.

"I'm detecting movement from the city," Spock reported.

"I thought you said there weren't any lifeforms," Kirk reminded. Unable to hear anything but static, he flipped his communicator closed and returned it to his belt.

"There are still no life form readings," Spock confirmed. "Nevertheless, I am picking up movement from the city, and it is approaching us."