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ORIGINS: USS Hood June 2010: Difference between revisions
From StarFleet Bureau of Information
→by Brian V. Mansur
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FO, USS HOOD, NCC-1703 | FO, USS HOOD, NCC-1703 | ||
ASR ORIGINS | |||
==[ORIGINS] USS HOOD: Dreams Can Hurt== | |||
===by Brian V. Mansur=== | |||
SD 2261.176 | |||
MD 2.1510 | |||
Scene: Bridge, USS HOOD | |||
As soon as Sean had hauled a rather pissed Hemux out of her seat to help him rouse the others, he remembered to check the NAV console. He unceremoniously pushed Wheelie out of his seat, hoping it might jolt the man awake. No such luck. | |||
Sean seethed with a curious mixture of bitter anger and mortal dread. His instruments said that they had not moved a single micrometer from their original station keeping position off the RUTLEDGE. Moreover, the viewscreen controls had been switched to the aft quarter of the ship. Sean flipped them back to straight ahead. | |||
Although he'd half expected this, he nevertheless gasped. Dead in front of them hung the RUTLEDGE. | |||
//// | |||
On a secluded vessel several astronomical units away, Sarloff fought with all his mind's strength to bridge the ethereal distance between himself and his subject. The situation was rapidly spiraling out of control and his Overseers were starting to demand a report. If he had only been alert, he might have warded this off. Their task had been to lull the Neo Federation crew into quiescence and then quietly remove them from their ship into holding cells aboard the Talosian marauder for transport back to Talos. | |||
So long as the human Merrick remained enraged at his predicament, then he was free of Sarloff's control. It was time to switch tactics. He waited for the right moment. | |||
//// | |||
"They might still be aboard!" Merrick shouted excitedly. Hemux abandoned her attempts to wake the others and resumed her station to run a scan. The absence of any abnormal reading onboard left her with one conclusion | |||
"Whatever it is must be a form of psychic manipulation," she said. | |||
"What can we do to protect ourselves besides turn and run?" Sean asked. | |||
Hemux searched her encyclopedic memory. The field of telepathic science bordered on the spiritual, although it did contain a scientific unpinning. What they needed was a shield. Some way to disrupt the psychic attack against the ship. A few of the half ridiculous notions out there might just work, she thought, but only if they had time to prepare. That, in turn, left them with one possible course of action. | |||
"I recommend we retreat from this influence," Hemux said. "We need a defense before we can do any good here." | |||
Sean felt a well of despair fill within his heart. How could he leave his people behind? But if the HOOD couldn't fight, then neither could it rescue anyone. Rapidly he set the controls to warp them out at factor 5. The engine hum built and Sean pushed the silvery throttle forward. As the stars streaked into fishbowl distortion, the last of his bitter resolve drained from him. | |||
//// | |||
Elsewhere, Sarloff smiled wickedly. "Got you." | |||
//// | |||
The world shifted around Sean and he gripped the corners of his console for support. "What the ... aaaAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!" | |||
Pain. It was a world of unimaginable pain. Sean Merrick fell from his chair and screaming as only a being cast into hell could scream. And that was where he was: a real, unfathomably horrific, unendurable hell. | |||
Shaking as though shocked by lightening, he convulsed on the deck. He had no room in his senses for anything but fear and pain. Then a deep, satanic voice pulsed through his mind. | |||
"Stop the ship. Stop the ship and the pain will end." The pain lessened a touch. It was still like being in a lake of liquid agony, but suddenly he could think enough to understand what the voice was telling him. | |||
"Stop the ship and the punishment will end." | |||
At that Sean knew somewhere on an instinctually level what it would mean if he obeyed and what exactly he should say to the demon in his mind. | |||
"Frak YOU, you MOTHER FRAKING FRAKER!!!" | |||
//// | |||
Far away and falling further behind still, Sarloff wrestled and grasped at the slippery handles of Seans psyche, only realize that he had already lost. The resurgent anger that flowed through the Commander washed Sarloff away like a Niagra torrent. In an instant, it became utterly impossible for Sarloff to impose anything but the mere hint of a suggestion upon Sean. | |||
A mental alarm sounded. The Overseers now stepped in to take over from Sarloff. But they found the situation all but hopeless. Frantically they sent commands for all controllers to make their wards wake and halt the Neo Federation ship's escape. But Sarloff knew it was too late. Even as the Talosians scrambled, he felt their tenuous link to the HOOD snap. | |||
A burning fear rose inside his chest. It quickly turned into a fury of panic as he realized just what his colossal failure meant for him. It took naught but ten seconds before he found himself in the very same hell he had just created for Sean. But unlike Sean, Sarloff would not escape it until days later when his body, exhausted and withered from dehydration, finally quit functioning. | |||
Respectfully Submitted, | |||
Brian V. Mansur | |||
LCDR Sean Merrick | |||
FO, USS HOOD, NCC-1703 | |||
ASR ORIGINS | ASR ORIGINS | ||
