Log #23: The Guardian

Stardate: 7.28.14

Subject: The Guardian

• CPO Kelsey Timmons

Comms Duty Log: I’m honestly not sure where to start. So much has happened in such a short amount of time that it all blurs together.

Since I have not had a chance to enter a log since my debacle with the Chief - I will start there.

After we rebuffed the initial Treadstone attack, I sent my crew off with a myriad of orders. I then spent the next several minutes reprogramming the comms. When I looked up, there were two figures in the room. One in the chair in the corner, and Borris. A sharp chill in the air forced me to close my eyes. When I opened them again, only my second was around. I had intended to inquire of her what had just happened - but she looked at me with the strangest expression and asked if I could repeat myself in english. Fearing the worst, I instead scrawled across a piece of paper “What language am I speaking?” I didn’t dare speak more than I had to. Her response showed my paranoia was probably correct. “Some dialect of Enochian, ma’am.” “Delastrian” I responded before informing her to call Sarah. Soon thereafter, the XO engaged the shields and I was able to speak english again by the time Sarah, accompanied by Sam, burst into the room and literally dragged me, chair and all, to the med bay.

There, I saw the man again. He was tall with dark hair and eyes. Upon his hands were the same markings as Danny. I learned this when he showed them to me with a smirk, before silently chastising me for calling attention to his presence. No one else could see him, and he vanished just like that. Later, after the battle for who was to be taken care of first - I have an understanding with Sara Goldstein and Sam is almost as stubborn as myself - we were referring to him by various names of archangels in Christian mythology. That was the first time I heard his voice. “That’s a silly name - my name is Cyrus.”

Officially creeped out, I told Sarah, who relayed my findings to the Captain. His news wasn’t reassuring. The man I was seeing was a ghost from Danny’s past. Literally. Our dear Danny Boy had pulled his body out of rubble shortly before joining us. I wasn’t pleased with the news.

The next day I awoke to Boris steadily filtering the voice announcing Treadstone’s initial attack. Sending a request to Sara Goldstein for my release from her dungeon, I sat back and began to translate what I assumed was Delastrian. Luckily Boris had thought to record me. About twenty minutes later I was kicking myself for not having spoken more - as vocabulary was all I needed to finish a complete translation of the language like I had with Enochian.

As I was officially stuck in my research and still unallowed to leave - I turned to inquire after Boris’s progress. She had found a female voice along with the males - that was all I managed to get out of her before she dove back into her worked. With nothing else to do, I replayed the recording over and over. Finally, I discovered a word that managed to lower my body temperature. When I said it allowed, I was informed by Sarah that she felt the same thing. It wasn’t long before we came up with the word that had the opposite effect - even Boris noticed the sharp spike in internal temperatures. The three of  us silently agreed to let that thought process drop. Voodoo - as Boris called it - always had consequences.

Just before I could secure my release from the Dungeon Mistress, Sarah and I both had the same disturbing thought about the female voice Boris had found. After running tests our fears were confirmed twice over. The voice belonged to the Dakota who had served with me, but not the Dakota who was up for trial that day. With a sinking feeling, I walked back to the comms lounge, noticing as I passed that Sciences had locked down my Liar. My day only got worse. There, on the television, was a report of a court bombing. Dakota was dead - and it was my own fault for not covering my tracks.

In a fit of temper, I left C deck for the shooting range - where I planned to spend the rest of the day trying to cool off enough to think rationally. My crew was still in danger and, as the Captain told me, the Enochian safe zone had been attacked and the 5 humans who worked there - all transfers from my department has been killed.

But apparently the fates were not done with me yet. A broadcast rippled across all internal channels. Treadstone had hacked our systems - all of them. The only possible way to get our ship back under our control was to shut it down and restart it again. That meant I had to get to the Warp Room.

It took seven or eight of us to pry the door open and shut it down. We had not managed to block Treadstone like we had originally assumed. What is more, I heard the XO report that the rear shields were down. One look at the captain was all it took to confirm my suspicion - someone had gotten aboard the ship. And, since Demons were most feared for their shapeshifting power, we were probably not going to find them before they found us.

Danny was the assumed target - but the Captain was on Danny detail. He didn’t need me to get in the way. A few other personnel came to mind, namely the ones who had been working so closely with the case. With these in mind, I returned to the shooting range. On the off chance that Cyrus wasn’t a fiction of my imagination and I was a target for some god unknown reason, at least I would have homefield advantage and a gun in my hand. Thankfully no one came.

Later I discovered that the Captain had gotten into a sword fight with one of them. During the fight, Sam had grabbed Danny and Lt. Marcus and escaped in the Demon Hunter. The cave that they had hidden themselves in was sent to me the next day - holographically. It was full of Enochian sayings and quotes - later determined to be from a sermon - but none of it was written by the Enochians.

Now armed with a healthy fear of all things technology, I fell back to my Anthropology roots. I ordered everything to be taken down in books. I didn’t trust the holograph to stick around, and I didn’t trust Treadstone not to hack us again. It took all night and most of the next day. Tiger and Boris transcribed while I translated what I could. Most of it sent shivers down my spine.

When the book was finished, I went to hide it. I had barely gotten out the door when I was confronted by Cyrus, who demanded the book. My hand fell naturally to my phaser as I ordered the seconds, who had followed me out, back inside with Sarah. That was when weapons were drawn and aimed. After hearing of the Captains sword fight, I was doubting the use of my phaser against him. Knowing the people behind me were likely at risk, I decided a game of words was my best chance for getting all of us out of there alive.

"Because it is time that this conflict dies. The words of the Great King are the last thing we need to end it." He told me as he approached. "I do not mean to threaten you or your crew. Innon was foolish for getting you involved in all of this. Choosing a human arbiter. Cyrus was to be the first human arbiter, but his death forced us to find a new one. There are more factions now in this war than ever." In response, I lowered my phaser and asked, “If I lower my weapon, will you put away your sword and let us talk like civilized beings?” Luckily, he sheathed his sword and I holstered my own weapon. We traded questions and answers for a few moments. Here is what I learned from him:

"Innon chose Danny because he has the weapon that can force the Enochians and the Delastrians to the negotiating table, he is just the first one who has a weapon capable of doing so.  As far as sides, I am of the Guardians, the Delastrian and Enochian group sworn to protect the sermon and find the Arbiter. I was trying to get a message to you when the Treadstone Delastrians attacked. I have been trying to protect Danny, I need this war to end, it is escalating too quickly. Treadstone killed the Enochian Colony near Earth and have their eyes set on this ship. We have too little time"

"Because like this ship I am a target for every side of this conflict. Not everyone wants peace.  I have no message for you now, I was going to warn you of all of this before it took place, but your shields cut me off.  The cave is where Cyrus and Terra hid their findings until they could find the Arbiter."

"I cannot read minds, I can send messages telepathically, but unless you can communicate telepathically, I can't hear your thoughts. Only high ranking members of the Enochian church are able to do that. Talking doesn't make you trustworthy. Some of the worst people are very good at talking. "

Finally, the inevitable question of trust came up. I once again fell back to my roots. My mother was infamous for her distaste of lies - in any and all forms. As such, she developed an unbreakable vow of sorts. Its the only one I’ve ever come across that is guaranteed to never be broken. "Then swear on the souls of everyone you've ever loved that if you break this vow they will spend eternity in the deepest circle of hell in your place." He swore that I could trust him, and I returned the favor. Although - it must be noted neither of us, in the course of our word games, said exactly what we could trust one another for.

Just then, the captain received notice that Sam and her companions were in trouble. The force of the U-turn threw me against the wall - Cyrus however did not move. As the a summons echoed over the intercom, I remembered how useless I felt when Cyrus had drawn his sword on me. I made a side trip to the armory to grab myself a sword, as I had a feeling my training would be needed before the day was out.

When I arrived on the bridge, we pulled out of warp just in time to see three other ships square off. the USS Dover, the Black Dragon and the Treadstone of Damnation. Treadstone was bigger than all the others combined. It didn’t take five minutes of my standing there to figure out that something drastic would be needed to win. I had intended to find my crew and tell them to find a safe place - I didn’t want them to get injured. Cyrus was waiting for me again. “Your ships will never pierce those shields... we must disable them."

My decision was an easy one to make - despite the obvious possible traps. I could go and have a chance of saving my friends, or I could wait and watch us fly toward our deaths. With a nod, I lead him to the Delphi, the comms shuttle as I inquired after his plans. He wanted to take the shields down from the inside - looks like it was a good idea to grab a blade after all.

We crashed landed in the Treadstone. I had to dive off the shuttle as it skittered across the decks. It exploded shortly after.

By the time I jumped back to my feet, there should have been Delastrains crawling all over the place. The only movement came from the flaming wreckage and the robots moving supplies. Our first clue that something was wrong. Not a minute later we discovered that the ship was a fake - a shell meant to hold something. Our third clue that we were in even more trouble than we imagined came from a rhythmic beeping. The entire ship was rigged head to toe in explosives - set to go off any time.

With no options left I repelled down the makeshift elevator shaft to look for a consul. It was below in the dark, glowing faintly. By the time I reached it, information was pouring in about what would happen should I fail. I was less than happy.

The screen was a combination of Enochian and Delastrian. Within a few minutes, I had translated a phrase. “By the Light of Dawn.” It triggered a memory of the Captain’s coin. “By the light of Dawn her face will be renewed.” I called up to Cyrus, inquiring about half of the phrase while looking for the rest. Then the ship shut off - just like that. The explosives were disarmed, weapons disabled, everything. As I was informed, this included our life support.

Scrambling back to the deck, I called Sarah and the Captain, telling them what I found and asking for an evac. The next thing I know we landed in the medbay - where Sam’s squad was under intensive care. With my adrenaline still pumping, I barely managed to listen to Andrew confront the pirates, who were actually Delastrians in disguise. A short time later, they were gone and we had won. I’m still not entirely sure how.

Personnel Log: Not to self - never ever wait so long between duty logs again. Even if I’m hopping between life and death situations.

Stardate 7.28.14

Subject: Close Encounters

• MID Samantha Staffer

Duty Log: Upon destroying Terra’s cave, we were set upon by 15 fighters. They were set to autopilot, and seemed to be custom-made, so no identification was possible. Fleeing, we took refuge around a rocky outcropping, shooting them down with our phasers as they shot past overhead. Following this encounter, a personal shuttle approached at Mach 2. We removed ourselves from vision by retreating around a mountain peak, but the shuttle turned the corner sharply and rammed the Demon Hunter.

           All systems went down. Spiraling out of control, we crash-landed on the mountainside. Terra sustained head trauma while Talyard, Marcus, and myself were bruised and scraped up. The man piloting the shuttle landed and disembarked, making his way to the Demon Hunter armed with a sword. I moved to meet him, ordering Talyard to get communications systems back online.

         The man, cloaked all in black and hooded, drew his sword on me when I ordered him to identify himself. He claimed to be the “Executor of Judgment.” He swung a blow meant to kill me, but Lieutenant Marcus pushed me aside and caught the blow on his chest. Firing a phaser at the man, I found he was unaffected. I drew my daggers and engaged him in close range combat, blocking and slashing at his sword hand. The slash did not affect him either.

        These circumstances identified him to be a Delastrian assassin, no doubt sent for Talyard. My suspicions were confirmed when he, slashing me across the thigh, turned his back to strike at Talyard, who blocked. I took the opportunity to come in from behind, too close for a sword to be used, and stab upwards in between the assassin’s ribs. I stayed close up next to him, winding my arms under his own and entwining my fingers behind his head to keep him from injuring anyone further while we were beamed aboard the USS Alaster.