Stardate: 71004:1121
Title: Three Down
Author: Scott Deadilus
Time: During / After "Lost Contact" & "Progress"
Scene: Renna


=/\= Somewhere beneath the planet's surface =/\=

As Lily and Autumn looked into the death room, scattered remnants of once-living beings at their feet, they both knew that something was horribly wrong; being an insectoid species the Rennas possessed a tough exoskeleton, much like an in-built suit of armour, but the bones at their feet were eerily human in nature and most certainly not from long-dead Rennas.

Grabbing one of the bones from off the floor, Lily's anger at the deaths of friends and family intensified. Given what they had seen here, there seemed to be no plausible way that the Rennas could be allowed into the Federation. Perhaps their mission had been a success, but still Lily longed for more proof, more evidence of the true nature of their insectoid hosts.


=/\= Somewhere else beneath the planet's surface =/\=

Gabriel awoke suddenly, strapped down to the large metal table, pain racking his entire body from injection after injection. As Plunk'Sel moved around, another large needle in his chitinous hand, Gabriel struggled, fighting his restraints.

It was a futile effort, and he cried out in pain as the needle entered his soft flesh...


=/\= Banquet Room =/\=

As Alex Ross continued to discuss the architecture of the Rennas with Nakra'Mel, his covert monitoring of the food samples managed to go unnoticed. With Lt. Comm. Falls out looking for Lily, Ensign Colón joining the Rennas physician Plunk'Sel to attend to a patient and the Captain's attention stolen by Darka'Tal, the few remaining crew were busy subtly gathering data for further evaluation upon their return to the Horizon.

With the chirp of his combadge, Scott politely excused himself momentarily.

The news relayed by Lieutenant Kehn was most disturbing - not only had they lost the combadge signals for Autumn and Lily beneath one of the expansive crystalline structures but they had also lost contact with Gabriel's too. Whilst the condition of the latter was unknown, a panicked Autumn had requested a beam-out moments before her signal had been lost.


=/\= Somewhere beneath the planet's surface =/\=

Autumn lay unconscious in the dark hallway, Lily's hand held in her own, small rivulets of blood emanating from their eyes, ears and noses, the nearby Rennas group now eerily silent.

A few chambers across, Heata'Zan sensed the uneasy sleep of the two Federation intruders, sensed the recent memory of a distress call placed to their ship and, through their 'hive mind', Darka'Tal immediately became aware of it too .


=/\= Banquet Room =/\=

Before the Captain could turn back to the Darka a multitude of silent messages had passed between the gathered Rennas and those females in the chambers below.

As the noise in the room grew suddenly louder, the Federation officers looked about, confused; the Rennas were chattering away loudly in their native tongue now, a cacophony of clicks and whirls bombarding their ears, but there was something more to it, something Scott couldn't place his finger on. Turning towards Ensign Ross to see what his tricorder might be reading he noticed the tiny bead of blood running from Alex's nose, quickly noticing a similar bead on two other officers.

The combadge link to the Horizon lay open, Lieutenant Kehn paused in his explanation of Lieutenant Remmick's focused graviton pulse as the sound had travelled up to the ship, when the Captain ordered their immediate beam-out...


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Captain Scott Deadilus
Commanding Officer
USS Horizon
NCC-72400
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