Transmutare Fabrica Chapter 1
Transmutare Fabrica
By : T'lar Sorrat
Preface: This story takes place in 2374 in the Star Trek universe , aboard the Nx-Garrack. The Garrack is a starship composed of mostly Caitian officers and crew. The Caitian's are a feline anthropomorphic race , that hail from the planet Ferasa ,better known to outsiders as Cait. Now Ferasa and the United Federation of Planets have had strained relationship . Certain issues on the planet itself has caused the Federation to become uneasy and very cautious.
Admiral Nechayev opened the door to her office, ushering Lilith in. "Sit down, Ensign," she said, closing the door behind them and taking her place behind her desk. Lilith did so, looking up expectantly. "You know, I assume, why I asked you to return."
"The boy," she said simply.
"Yes. They figured out you weren't just there to practice medicine."
Lilith looked at her incredulously. "They figured that out when I started patching up the syndicate's officers voluntarily!"
Nechayev narrowed her eyes at the ensign's slightly raised voice, but continued. "I'm assigning you to a Base."
Lilith blinked. That was not what she had been expecting. "I'm leaving SI?"
"I'm not trying to force you out, O'Neil. It's not safe for you. Not until the situation calms down," Alynna said.
"It's a crime syndicate! It's the bloody mafia! It's not like I pissed off the Romulan consulate!" O'Neil caught herself, took a breath, and continued more calmly. "You can't just station me somewhere else? Nerrick can't be the only place you need operatives." The agent was frustrated.
The admiral took a deep breath. "I want you on this project," she said slowly. "I want you promoted, and I want you to stay out of harm's way until things cool down because I want you back working for me. My people tell me that there's a massive underground manhunt going on for you right now on Nerrick that looks to be spreading to the surrounding worlds. They work with the Orions, you told me this yourself. And the Orions work with everyone. They'll be looking for you all over the quadrant before long."
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Lilith asked, biting her lip slightly. Alynna nodded, but the glint in her eye told the officer to watch it. "I think you're making a mistake. And I think you're just worried about losing this," Lilith accused, gesturing to her head. "How much research money did you put into this chunk of metal?"
Admiral Nechayev looked deadly, but then chuckled to herself. "I don't think I've ever had an ensign argue with me as much as you."
O'Neil looked up hopefully. "Did it work?"
"No."
"Damn."
"Lilith." The admiral paused, as if determining how much she was able to tell the agent. "Your. . . assets make you a very desirable operative. I can't take the chance that we'll lose you to this when SI needs you for other operations than just intelligence collecting."
She looked down at her lap before bringing her eyes back up to the admiral's. "Yes sir."
"You still work for me. I'm monitoring the situation on Nerrick. You'll be far enough away from there that if I really need you, I can still send you someplace. But I want you to lie low. There is a highly secretive scientific experiment being worked on Cemous 4 that needs your expertise in bio-genetics. Get promoted. God knows you've been an ensign long enough. I can't bump you up through SI, and you haven't had medical experience since that mission to Anaya 3.
"He blew your cover, Ensign. They haven't identified you yet, but you can't go back anywhere near there."
O'Neil nodded, resigned to starbase duty. She had known that there was no way that she was getting out of it from the beginning, but too long as an independently working operative had made her somewhat lax in regards to authority. Also, some part of her figured that if she put up a good argument, maybe she'd be back on SI duty a little quicker.
Still, she had one more point to make. "Respectfully, ma'am, he was your operative."
Nechayev paused, recalling a point earlier in their conversation. She then flipped open the cover of one of the two folders on her desk. She glanced at it, and then checked the other, confirming what she had thought. "Ensign, earlier you called him a boy. He's several years older than you," she said, awaiting an explanation.
Lilith shrugged. "He made a child's mistake," she said, and Alynna slowly nodded in agreement.
"He's not as good as you," the admiral said honestly. Anyone else would have thought this a great complement, but Lilith knew that she hadn't exactly meant it as one, and was just stating a fact. She didn't doubt that he wasn't as good as most operatives. Inwardly, she smiled all the same.
Nechayev opened one of the files on her desk again and pulled out a piece of paper, sliding it across the desk to Lilith. "Your assignment. Starbase 23. There will be a ship here to pick you up at 0900 tomorrow, you should be on the planet in 52 hours."
"Thank you, sir." The ensign took the paper.
"You know," the admiral said as they both stood up, "with that lovely skill of yours, you'd make an excellent politician. Or maybe an admiral."
Lilith laughed. "I think I'm going to have to focus on being a doctor for now."
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Chapter 1
DoctorSivari M'Taile stared out of the window in her quarters. The endless sea of stars seemed to emanate a bright radiant glow. M'Taile was and averaged sized Caitian, about 5'5 with creamy tan colored fur , golden auburn hair and piercing yellow eyes. She sat on the edge of her windowsill and gazed out at the endless void of space. She let out a sigh and cradled her face in her palms.
Ever since the Garrack had gotten off that.... planet , the amount of stress in her life had increased dramatically. In the constant hurry to repair the ship, the crew seemed to lose what little common sense they had. Just today M'Taile had treated to plasma burns from a careless ensign who calibrated a plasma torch incorrectly. She got up and walked over to her bathroom sink. She splashed some cool water over her fur and looked into the mirror. She was exhausted and worn down, longing for sleep. Just as she was thinking about letting her weary body rest, her door chimed.
"Come in." As the door opened a reptilian female stepped into her room. "Gattes , it's a pleasure." Chief Engineer Reana Gattes was the daughter of a Gorn and a Xarthen , a most dangerous combination. Reana's dragon-like features and voice, were angelic in quality, but her temper, however , would put a tempest's raging winds and destructive force to shame. "Doctor, there are two crew members in sickbay who need immediate help." M'Taile grabbed her coat off her chair, and headed towards the door. " let's go, you can tell me what happened on the way."
As they hurried down the corridor, Gattes began to tell M'Taile what happened . " A plasma relay on deck seven overloaded , while lieutenant's C'Atall and Dove were passing through. " M'Taile looked at Gattes with a surprised expression. "The relays on deck seven?! Wasn't a repair team assigned to work on those yesterday?" They reached the turbolift and stepped inside.
"Don't start with me M'Taile, Deck five; I've had my whole engineering team all over the ship for the past week! Once we repair one system another seems to break to take its place.!" M'Taile was a bit taken aback. "I didn't mean to offend Reana. I just meant that the ship seems to be falling apart at the seams. " Reana's shoulders un-tensed, and she relaxed just a bit. " Tell me about it."
The turbolift came to a halt, and the two women stepped off. "This is where I take my leave of you Doctor. Good luck." M'Taile nodded her head and rushed towards Sickay.
M'Taile ran into sickbay and was greeted by the sight her nurse, Amanda Gangie, with blood all over her yellow fur. The young Krioon was franticly running back and forth between the two patients. Amanda was not like other Krioons. The Krioon are a marsupial like race , resembling the ancient kangaroo from earth. They reside on the planet Krisus, which they share with the vulpine race ,Pethea. Krioons are usually very playful and full of life.
Amanda however, was always very serious in her manner. She would spend entire nights finishing reports and reviewing medical data for the doctor. The only time she ever seemed to break her icy exterior , was when she was with her boyfriend Brian Trot, a Pethean. Amanda's eyes were wide with worry, as she administered a hypospray to Lt. C'Atall. All of a sudden C'Atall's life signs started to plummet . "She's gone into vfib !" M'Taile hurried over to the bio-bed. "Amanda, give me the cardio stimulator!"
Amanda handed the instrument to the Doctor and watched as she placed it on C'Atall forehead. "Charging!" Amanda tapped a few keys on the bio-panel. "Clear!" M'Taile lifted her paws off of C'Atalls body. C'Atall arched her chest as the energy passed through her. She let out a gasp of air and laid back down flat on her back. Amanda let out a sigh of relief.
"She' s got a heartbeat." "Good, now give them both 20ccs of Dermaline and run a dermal regenerator over their burns." "Yes Doctor." "Right, you're in charge of sickbay. I'm going to get some sleep." Amanda nodded her head. "Aye sir, goodnight." "Night lieutenant."
M'Taile slowly walked out of sickbay and down the corridor. She stepped into the turbolift and slumped up against the side. "Deck three." The turbolift started to rise making a soft humming noise. M'Taile listened to the slow rhythmic hum of the turbolift, and started to drift off. All of a sudden, a loud screeching noise broke the rhythmic humming and the turbolift grinded to a halt.
M'Taile's whole body tensed as she dreaded what might be coming next. Suddenly the lift started to plummet down the shaft , moving faster and faster, before jolting to a stop , sending M'Taile flying into the ceiling. M'Taile crumpled to the floor. The last thing she saw was the communications panel explode , as she lost consciousness.