Pink Blood

Posted on Sat Mar 8th, 2025 @ 8:49pm by Lieutenant Nixie Wilde & Lieutenant JG Kahlin & Crewman Vakra Kor

1,306 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Mission 3 - Discord of the Mind
Location: Transporter Room
Timeline: After Mangled

ON:

Security was securing the transporter room.. it was a crime scene and looked like a homicide.

As soon as Wilde walked in, they clicked heals, the NCO spoke, "This looks bad, ma'am."

"Story of the week..." Nixie quirked an eyebrow, barely containing her anger as she looked around with narrowed, darkened eyes. She pulled her tricorder free, starting to scan. "I take it the room is secure?" she assumed checking for any remaining threat would have been their first step, but it was good practice to verify. And frankly, the way things were going at the moment, she wasn't putting anything past anyone.

The Crewman nodded, "Yes, Ma'am. This room has the majority of the blood. That fight appears to have started in the corridor. The section is force fielded it off, once our badges leave, only your badge will get back in." His expression changed, "It is common knowledge that Kor's a fighter, but this. There are younger Crewman just out of boot that he teaches martial arts to. They are worried about this amount of blood. I got two decades under my belt, I'm worried." It was a lot of blood, more than the holodeck incident, a lot more.

Another Crewman spoke, "Holoplayback is ready.".

Nixie nodded briskly as she looked over the readings on her own tricorder, but they just confirmed what she was being told. "Can't never could," she murmured before looking back to the crewmen, her green eyes holding an edge of grit. "Kor is alive unless we find a body that tells us otherwise. Begin playback."

Kor gave as good as he got in the beginning. Eventually, he was outmatched. It showed him locking himself in the transporter room and putting commands into the system. He was heading for the sonic weapons area of the armory, but he never arrived. The changeling destroyed the system before the transport completed.

"Freeze playback," Nixie frowned as she moved for the console in question, holding back her disquiet at the pink blood smeared across the broken glass. She used her tricorder to take a full sweep of the panel to record the state of it for evidence before connecting to the datalogs.

Scrolling through the recent activity, her frown deepened as she came to the last entry. A site to site transport that corresponded with the timeline they'd just established through the playback. But...the cycle never completed.

Nixie used the connection to delve deeper into the recorded errors. Despite the failure, no loss of pattern was recorded.

Letting out a long, tight breath, Nixie lowered her tricorder, shaking her head slowly with disbelief. "He's still in there..."

The younger Crewman spoke, "Engineering can easily come down and get him out."

The older one spoke, "They have to repair the system before they can do that. That risks wiping the buffer."

Nixie tilted her head with a regretful sigh at the assessment. One thing was for sure, she wasn't capable of figuring it out herself. She at least wanted confirmation on the problem they faced. She tapped her badge, remembering the Engineer that had helped with the panel. "Wilde to Kahlin, do you have a moment? I could do with your advice down in Transporter Room 2."

"On my way," Kahlin said and cut the connection. She was quick though, clearly having run from Engineering to the Transporter room. She stopped and looked around, meeting Nixie's eyes. "How can I help, Lieutenant?"

Nixie stepped back out of her way, motioning to the cracked and battered console with a frustrated sigh. "It appears a crew member's pattern is stuck in the buffer...but the terminal looks shot to pieces. Is there a way to get him out now, or is this going to be a longer fix?"

Kahlin moved over to the console, grimacing before she started inspecting it. She took her time, wanting to make sure she was right, looking over at Nixie. "A couple of days and a sacrifice to the Engineering gods by the looks of it. It's...intricate work."

Nixie sighed, her hands finding her lower back as she rolled her shoulders to push down her irritation. It was clearly not the answer she'd hoped for...but it figured, with their luck so far. "Do you know how long we have to get him out before the pattern degrades?"

Kahlin stopped and looked at her, considering it. "I can give it some help, I'd say in the current state a day. I got enough power to do some minor rerouting, it won't fix the console but it'll keep the pattern from degenerate for a week. I'll have to...be creative."

"Then do it," Nixie confirmed without even a moment's hesitation, nodding as she folded her arms across her chest. "We need to give him the best chance we can. I'm not losing anyone else..."

"Yes Lieutenant," Kahlin said with a firm nod, reaching for her bag. "As long as you don't tell my Chief...we'll be alright. This isn't going to be Starfleet code."

"Trust me, I don't know the first thing about fixing transporters, I wouldn't know what to report, I'll be leaving that to you," Nixie assured, frowning as she logged her preliminary scan for evidence.

"Good, because this might break several regulations," Kahlin said with a small smile as she popped open the panel. "Now...what is going on anyway? I hear mutterings and whatnot, but should I start carrying my bat'leth?" she asked bluntly, even as she pulled out an extra external power source from the kit.

"I'm not sure more weapons on deck is what we need," Nixie let out a long, frustrated breath, shaking her head slowly. "What *does* scuttlebutt say right now? Intruder?"

"Let's see," Kahlin smiled at that, moving to slide closer to the panel, pulling her leg close. "Time traveller Romulan spy, Section 31, Mirror Universe incursion...and something in the replicator that makes us act irrationally. So..in short, intruder and bad food."

Nixie couldn't help but be somewhat impressed by the creativity of the rumourmill, but she made a tsk sound and shook her head either way. "Well, I can assure you it's nothing of that sort. But the intruder alert is still active, and they sure are showing their teeth."

"I can show more teeth. They might seem blunt but they aren't harmless," Kahlin said with the confidence of a Klingon, pulling out some isolinear chips that were inactive. She had marked what held the transporter pattern and she did not want anything to take up extra power. Not when she was going to ensure that it wouldn't degrade. "I'll submit a request to carry a weapon."

Nix nodded with understanding. She couldn't blame her. And she'd feel exactly the same way. She'd want some way of defending herself and her colleagues, if it came down to it. "Well hopefully it won't be a problem for much longer," she replied, a note of sharpness in her voice from it having gone on as long as it had.

"I am counting on it," Kahlin said with a firm nod before grimacing at a spark. She swore loudly and harshly in Klingon, her hands moving to stop it. She sighed and finished, nodding. "Alright, short of taking this transporter out of the ship-wide grid and plugging it manually into the power from the warp core...I've done what I can. It'll hold." She shifted to a seating position of the floor, watching Nix.

"Great work, Kahlin, thanks..." Nixie offered a hand down to her, to help her up onto her feet. "At least he'll be safe for the time being. In the mean time, I've just got to figure out how I break the news..."

OFF:

Lt Nixie Wilde
Security Officer

Security Personnel
[pnpc Walker]

Lt. JG Kahlin
Engineering
[pnpc Gaeta]

 

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