"Bug hunt" 
by Sogh T'Kang 
First officer - IKV Jachyoj 
http://come.to/tkang


*** Sickbay ***

The EMH holodoc was busy inspecting a sample of the goo 
that was covering Captain John Mec's face.   Using the high 
powered electron microscope, the Doctor was looking at the 
rapidly moving activity of the living cells that made up the 
goo. 

"Fascinating.  This substance seems to be teaming with an 
alien lifeform of some kind that I've never seen before. . ." 
the EMH stated out loud to himself while staring at the 
monitor.

Behind him, the Captain's body began to winch and convulse 
involuntarily.   Small, sharp, sudden twitches at first, but 
soon Mec was going into full seizures, gaining the Doctor's 
attention away from the electron microscope.

"My goodness, what is going on?!"  the EMH declared 
moving to check on Mec.

Three tentacle-like appendages began to literally start to 
grow out of the Captain's skull where the small, triangular 
puncture marks appeared on his forehead.  These 
disgusting, snake like 'arms' began wiggling around wildly as 
they began to grow.   Behind the Captain, the life support 
monitor was going wild, the metabolic rate was rapid and 
nearly off the scale as Mec thrashed around and began 
screaming in a high pitched, ear piercing moan.

"I must try to sedate him to slow his metabolic rate before he 
literally explodes from whatever is happening to him. . ." the 
EMH stated hurriedly while pressing a hypo to the base of 
the Captain's neck with a hiss.

The Captain continued his thrashing around, screaming and 
kicking like a spoiled little child throwing a temper tantrum 
even as the alien seeds that were planted in his body began 
to take root and grow from the projections in his forehead.

*****

The alert klaxon had sounded throughout D'Alaan station.  
Groups of fully armed Klingon warriors marched through the 
corridors in double time, securing the areas of the station 
that had been explored and battening down the hatches of 
the other areas until a thorough search could be properly 
conducted.  HoD Aram had been true to his word in raising 
the alarm and putting the station on full alert status.  Sogh 
T'Kang was sticking by his commanding officer through this 
ordeal.  The prospect of battling the huge, alien creatures 
that built this place was not one T'Kang relished, but it was 
looking more and more like that was the reality of their 
present situation.   It had been less than three days since 
T'Kang first stepped foot on D'Alaan station, and already 
most all of the crew had disappeared, died or had been 
attacked by the strange aliens that occupied this space port.

Heading back down to the secret shuttle hanger 'lair' where 
the alien that attacked the Captain had been found, T'Kang, 
Aram, Tumek, Roshka, Reshtarc and two other warriors the 
Sogh didn't recognize marched to sweep the area.  Each 
one holding their disrupter riffles at the ready.

Activating the doors, they opened with a sudden hissed.

Inside, Lieutenant Stanton sprang to her feet and drew her 
phaser in a hurry.  The Klingon warriors accompanying 
T'Kang growled in animal-like fashion, but the Sogh was 
quick you knock their disruptors upward with a swing of his 
tree trunk-like arm.  "Hold!  That is one of the Federation 
Officers."

Jane caught her breath upon realizing she was facing half a 
dozen Klingon warriors with their weapons drawn and not 
one of those aliens.  She shook her head at the thought of 
preferring facing so many Klingons, but it was true and how 
she felt.   Whatever these creatures were, they were large, 
powerful, and likely deadly.

"I am alright T'Kang.  The Doctor needed more of this alien 
slime that covered the Captain.  I was taking some samples."  
Stanton explained.

T'Kang nodded while looking around the shuttle bay.  
motioning with his hand, he signaled for the others to fan out 
and search to make sure the area was secure.

"How is the Captain doing?"  T'Kang asked.

Jane shook her head while scraping up more of the slimy 
goo off the shuttle bay floor.  "Not good I'm told.  The EMH 
doesn't know what is infecting the Captain or how to treat it, 
and there are no other Doctors left on the station."

Just then, a loud clunk could be heard, followed by a death 
curling scream.  T'Kang ran over, along with Aram and 
Tumek to see the body of one of the Klingon warriors be 
ripped apart by one of the alien creatures.  The sickly sweet 
smell was again present, only this time, T'Kang and the 
others could get a good look at this creature.  It stood nearly 
five meters tall, and had several powerful tentacles it used to 
propel itself.  Near the center mass of the creature was it's 
massive body, and it didn't appear to have any sort of 
distinguishable head, though it was covered with several 
protruding eye like sensors that you'd expect to find on a 
crustacean like a common snail.

Immediately, all of the remaining Klingon's and Lieutenant 
Stanton fired their weapons at the creature.  The combined 
fire of all of their weapons caused the creature's "chest" to 
glow as it hollered in pain.   Then as quickly as it appeared, 
the beast turned and zoomed away on it's speedy legs.

"We hurt it!"  Declared HoD Aram.  

T'Kang was unimpressed.  With that much disruptor and 
phaser power, any other creature would have been 
vaporized.  "Perhaps, or we have only wounded it and made 
it that much more dangerous. . ." 

"Look!  It bleeds!" Tumek called out, holding up a hand he 
scraped across the floor of the shuttle bay.

T'Kang, Aram, Stanton and the others gathered near Tumek.

"It is bleeding.  Look, it left a trail to follow. . ."  Aram pointed 
out.  "We may hunt it down and kill it now."

"I should get samples of the creature's blood.  It may help 
the Doctor diagnose the Captain's injuries and find a 
treatment."  Stanton suggested.

T'Kang nodded.  "Good thinking Lieutenant."

"Come, we should follow the trail now, while it is still fresh."  
Aram stated as he took a step to follow his prey.

T'Kang placed an arm out, stopping the HoD.  "I would not 
suggest that my HoD."

Aram frowned and grew annoyed at T'Kang's imposition of 
his arm between himself and the area he wished to travel to.  
"You dare question my judgement?!"

"Not at all my HoD.  But you just saw with your own eyes, we 
hit the beast with all the fire power we have and were only 
able to barely injure it.  Before we track a wounded animal, 
we should first prepare ourselves with greater numbers and 
more powerful weaponry."

Aram nodded at the wisdom of T'Kang's words.  The Sogh 
was right, he had allowed his battle lust to get the better of 
him.  The draw of the hunt had caused him not to think 
before acting.  Something that could have had deadly 
consequences.  "You are right.  This beast will be easy to 
track now that it is wounded and leaves a trail to follow.  We 
shall gather more warriors and better weapons and then 
track it down to it's lair where it hides."

Glancing over, T'Kang could see that Lieutenant Stanton had 
gathered up her blood samples and was ready to leave.  
"You are ready?"

Jane nodded, "Yes T'Kang, let's get out of here."

Quickly the warriors and Lieutenant Stanton exited the 
secret shuttle bay, securing the corridor once they exited 
with the samples of goo and alien blood.   Further analysis 
would determine exactly what it was they were up against, 
and the best way to stop it.