Phobophage's Terror

Posted on Nov 25, 2017 @ 11:40pm by Lieutenant Jasmine Yu
Edited on on Nov 25, 2017 @ 11:41pm

Mission: Fear Itself

“Phobophage’s Terror”
(contd from Shawn’s ‘Where It Hurts’)

Location: USS PHOENIX
SD: [2.17] 1125.1931
Scene: Deck 9 corridor
TI: Follows Shawn’s post ‘Where It Hurts’

Jasmine stood in tense silence, watching Crichton turn around and walk away, the anger strongly radiating through his body language. She was lost for words, her emotions taking control of her, leaving her unable to think of anything at the moment. She understood Jake’s anger after all she felt the same burning ire brewing inside her. Clenching her fists into a ball, the Asian woman inhaled a deep breath. Failure to stop the phobophage from taking Chaucer stung her in the worse way possible.

The Gorn engineer was the entity’s fifth victim, whom Yu believed in her emotional state, she could have saved him if only they got to him sooner. She mentally cursed herself for being too slow and as head of security, she should have been quick to respond. If she were in a much calmer state of mind, she’d have rationally concluded the entity was an unseen enemy that couldn’t be stopped by conventional means. However, Jasmine was feeling a flurry of emotions such as shock, anger, sadness coming at her all at once and that was making it difficult to think rationally at the moment.

Doubts were creeping into her mind, leading her to begin questioning her ability as chief of security. Did Starfleet Command make a mistake in assigning her to this position on the Phoenix, the Federation flagship no less? Was it a mistake for Captain Spankryz, her former CO on the CAMELOT to recommend her for a promotion to a department head position, prior to her transfer to the Phoenix? Or maybe Captain Kane should not have accepted her transfer and instead requested fleet command for a more experienced officer, like perhaps a security and tactical version of Malin-Argo? Maybe if that happened, such unnecessary loss of lives might not have occurred. But then again, she wasn’t thinking clearly right now.

“Lieutenant Yu,” the voice of Lynette Ryan, pulled Jasmine out of her thoughts, making the latter turn around.

“Yes, Ensign Ryan.” Yu observed the young woman seemed worse for the wear, well not surprising, considering she went through a harrowing ordeal. She was just caught up in a phobophage induced hallucination and lost a fellow officer, maybe even a friend. Jasmine didn’t know either Lynette or Chaucer well enough to understand their relationship dynamics. From what she had heard, Chaucer was brought into the engineering fold by Crichton himself so his anger and determination to kill the entity made sense.

Lynette asked, her voice cracking, “Did the Commander mean what he said that we have to kill this thing?”

Jasmine let out a sigh, closing her eyes for a brief moment before reopening them. Despite the turmoil churning inside her, she maintained a calm demeanor. “Well, all I can tell you is everyone here is working on getting rid of this entity and I know that I personally won’t be sleeping until this thing is no longer around to terrorize us.”

Though whether that meant killing the phobophage or just sending it back to its own dimension, remained to be seen. Maybe locking it within its own dimension might be enough but would it? With all the terror it had caused since its arrival, killing five people on the ship and two on the starbase, should it be really allowed to live? Perhaps Jake was right – they should kill the entity and not just return it home and lock the door. The entity attacked before on the Gateway station nearly a decade ago and could do so again in the future if it remained alive. If it got through before, it would do so again. As chief of security, Jasmine’s priority was ensuring the safety of this crew and she intended to do that, despite her self-doubts. Pursing her lips together, forming a thin line, she resolved to rid the ship of this entity.

Ryan nodded, still shaken from the ordeal. “I don’t think I can either not as long as this thing continues to kill.” At that moment, both women heard sounds of movement and dragging from the direction of the Jefferies Tubes. Tears welled up in the engineer’s eyes as two security guards managed to pull Chaucer’s body through the opening. They carried the large reptilian being and laid him on the floor, a few feet from her. The Gorn’s Vox kept relaying the message in an endless loop.

[[Help. My name is Chaucer. Help…]]

Jasmine’s jaw tightened - those last words from the Gorn’s Vox were going to be burnt in her memory for a long time. She briefly recalled having a ray of hope upon first hearing the message when she and Jake were moving through the Jefferies Tubes, only to have it dashed moments later. Chaucer was already dead when they reached him and it was his Vox that kept giving out the message.

A Benzite male stepped out from the opening and turned his attention to the Asian woman. “Lieutenant, the Jefferies Tubes is clear. No sign of anyone else in the vicinity.”

“Thank you, Petty Officer Boshlokh.” Jasmine nodded before she turned her attention to Lynette. “Ensign Ryan, what did you and Chaucer see?”

The young woman didn’t answer immediately, her eyes fixed on the Gorn’s body. She gulped before glancing at Yu, the shock still visible in her tear stained eyes. “Sofia Andersson….well her nearly decomposed corpse. She…it just appeared out of nowhere and came after us. I managed to get out but Sofia…or that thing just took Chaucer away.”

“Sofia Andersson’s corpse,” Yu repeated, suddenly having an uneasy feeling.

“The big question is why Chaucer’s fear involved Dr. Andersson’s corpse….” Her voice trailed, when she realized something. What if it wasn’t the Gorn’s fear but Ryan’s after all Sofia was her roommate. It was possible Chaucer might have been caught up in the nightmare induced by the entity feeding on Lynette’s fears.

“I’m not sure, Lieutenant.” Lynette shrugged.

“Anyway, medics will be arriving shortly to take Ensign Chaucer’s body to Sickbay,” Yu informed and turned to one of the security guards, a human man. “Crewman Shao, please accompany Ensign Ryan to wherever she wants to go.”

“Yes ma’am,” Crewman David Shao complied with a nod.

“I don’t think that will be necessary,” came a weak protest from the engineer but Jasmine insisted.

“Ensign, no one’s to be left alone, while the entity is here.” Jasmine sighed, watching Ryan leaving the area, escorted by the security guard. The medics arrived, a sign that it was time for her to leave the scene and make preparations for the big plan to send the phobophage back to its home dimension or kill it.

As the Asian woman was making her way to the turbo lift, she was recalling the fear induced hallucinations that led to the deaths of Carter and Chaucer. Both cases involved dragging others into the phobophage’s targeted victims’ nightmares and in Carter’s case, the victim himself was killed. But Jasmine wasn’t sure whether it was the case with Chaucer and Ryan – there was a possibility in that situation that one or both could have been killed by Andersson’s corpse and the same could be said with Carter’s nightmare where either she or Virgo could have died as well.

A terrible thought crossed her mind and the young woman halted. Jake mentioned the phobophage became stronger the more victims it claimed on the Gateway and the same was likely happening here as well. Maybe the next victim’s nightmare would encompass more than just one to three individuals. Jasmine sighed, resuming her walk towards the turbo lift. This plan had better work.

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~*~
Ranjani S.
Writing for

Lieutenant Jasmine Yu
Chief of Security and Tactical
USS PHOENIX