Star Trek: Season 7 - Masquerade

[Meds]

On the penal planet the old man watched a small army of men search the near by huts. They were quick. He stroked his beard and for a short amount of time had clarity. This would wear off soon, his drugs were beginig to fail him. He looked down at the bodies.

"I'm so sorry, i'm so sorry to you all. I need to find you boys, i need your help"

He began to twitch, and his schizophrenia began to kick in. Talking to himself ws the first sign that the madness was returning.

"You want to experiment on them"

"No, no i've done my work. I want to rest, please."

"We do not have results. You're failing us. Use them, use the wretched humans"

He held hid head trying to fight off the demons.

"Noooooo!, Leave me alone damn you"

The evil side to him began to take hold, his finger nails dug into the rock causing them to split opne.

"YOU WILL LISTEN, KILL THEM. KILL THEM ALL!!!!!!!!"

[Jen]

Commander Sevryll examined her reflection in a mirror that Doctor Peterson held before her. The Vulcan's fair, olive tinged hue, was now a deep jade green. She turned her head to one side and observed a series of delicate tattoos winding their way from her long, tapped ear, over her jaw, down her neck and across the top of her shoulder. Apparently, the decorative art only graced the right side of her face. She blinked copper colored eyes and brushed a lock of long, copper colored hair away from them to study her features in greater detail. Her eyebrows were no longer Vulcan, they were somewhat Terran in appearance. She arched one experimentally before nodding to Peterson. "Thank you doctor."

Her ordinarily svelte stature was now more athletic, yet not at all masculine. The doctor helped her off the biobed as she glanced to the Captain. Doctor Drett had completed his alterations, and he waited nearby for his first officer. Nathan's turquoise toned cheeks pushed upward in a smile upon seeing her alien appearance. "Green looks good on you," he said as they exited Sickbay together to continue their preparations.

[Omra]

After wandering the corridors of the ship for hours deeply lost in thought, Korridan looked up and found himself way down on a lower deck of the ship he did not recognize.  He ran a hand through his white hair and looked around, there was not a soul to be found.  It was almost eerie.

He tapped the display on his PADD to bring up the chronometer function,and when he saw how long he had been wandering he felt suddenly tired.  He rubbed his tired eyes with his left hand, then heard a cheerful beep from his PADD.  When he opened his eyes and looked at the display it was back on the schematics for the surveillance satellite he was designing.  He looked at it with a puzzled expression and then turned it off.  He could hear a sound like glass beads being mixed together.

He looked over his shoulder seeking out the unusual sound, it seemed to be coming from behind him but there was nothing to be seen.  His PADD beeped once more, and when he looked back to it, it was on again and displaying the schematics.  He muttered, "What in the..."  As he stared at the screen the sensation of being watched became unmistakable.  The unwelcome sensation coupled with the eerily empty corridor caused goosebumps to form on his darkly tanned skin.

He quickly turned around hoping to suprise whoever was watching him, but no one was there.  But he thought he could hear something move when he did.  Frustrated he quickly turned back the other way, but again no hidden observer could be found.  Be began to doubt his instincts and wondered if he was just tired and edgy.

He tapped the side of his head with the PADD and quietly chuckled to himself, he was just starting to relax when he felt the PADD vanish from his fingertips.  He frantically looked around, his eyes seeking out the thief.  But none could be found. 

He was beginning to think the ship was haunted when in his peripheral vision he caught movement.  He turned to see a crystalline spider scurrying across the ceiling, it disappeared around a corner.  And by the time he peered around the corner he could only faintly hear it ascending in a Jefferies Tube.

He shook his head and laughed, "Nobody is going to believe this..."

[institches]

Spring was rhythmically flicking the long indigo ear-tips Dr. Petersen had attached to the sides of her head. She enjoyed the vibration. As Fertillians had no auditory organs, ears were a novelty. The blonde wig she usually sported had been tucked into a drawer in her quarters, replaced instead by lighter blue locks, subdermally implanted.

She tapped her comm-badge. "Farmer to Sykes. Five minutes."

Ginny's nut-laden tone came through the translator, unusually terse: "Gotcha."

The ears were fun but one thing she did not enjoy: she still felt a little light-headed with her gill-slits sealed. It was not dissimilar from the symptoms she had felt immediately after the surgery that moved them from her face to just below her jawline, shortly after her arrival on Earth. The reasons for that surgery were similar, too: Spring wanted to blend in, to be like everyone else. The wig and flattened face allowed her to appear human; the ears and blue-almost-violet skin-tone would help her to imitate the denizens of Ter'Oss.

A turbo-lift ride and a long corridor later, Spring arrived at her shared quarters. She entered. All seemed normal, excepting a slight squishiness to the carpet and the lingering scent of plankton.

Ginny sat at the table, working on a strange piece of equipment. "You finally got here. I'd say that took more like five-point-seven minutes, but who's counting? See, I lived up to to our agreement. Nothing weird." She looked around the common room and noticed a crystalline tendril dangling from the ceiling. She snatched it and stuffed it in her mouth.

"So I've been working on a project that might be useful during your away mission, but I still have to run it by Cheif Ka'rath. It's something that I came up with, based on the holodeck training you've been on." She picked up an ivory horn from the table and tossed it to Spring. The finger-length horn had a complicated spiral groove running down it. Spring sniffed it, but smelled nothing.

"It's a unicorn's horn. Ancient Earth myths call for a unicorn's horn to detect poison. You were supposed to wave it over your food and it would turn purple if it was no good. I figure tricorders are kind of out, but you still have to eat, and you'll want to mix in,  so... Pretty fun, huh?" She hopped up and went to the food replicator. "Mistletoe, one ounce." As a sprig of the round-leaf poisonous plant appeared, she continued talking. "I had to rig it to give me anything useful. I tried arsenic and wormwood. I couldn't even get nicotine." She set the sample on the table. "Try it."

Spring waved the horn over the mistletoe. It remained its pure ivory color, but began to grow warm in her hand. "See, color change might be too obvious, but I thought heat would do the trick."

The horn became uncomfortably hot. "Ow!" Spring gingerly set it down and blew on her blue fingers.

Ginny nodded. "Yeah, I have to work on that. Have you ever tried Antedean vermicula? It's not so bad if you eat it dead. My father worked on Antede III when they were petitioning to enter the Federation: just as well that didn't work out.  I like blue hair on you--you should keep it."

[X]

Joint post by Wraith1701, HawkeyeMeds, and Just X

As K'Tan headed towards sickbay for his surgical alterations, his commbadge gave off a chirp.  After tapping the badge to open a channel, he was mildly surprised by the voice that greeted him.

"Ensign James to Lt. Commander K'Tan."

"K'Tan here," he replied. "How may I help you, Ms. James?"

"I have recently completed an interactive analysis of the aliens' physiology, and believe that I have come up with a few techniques to incapacitate them without causing permanent damage.  In keeping with the prime directive, I feel that it is vital that we cause the natives as little harm as possible."

The hint of a smile lit K'Tan's face as he slowly nodded in approval.  "Outstanding, Ms. James, and I agree; we don't want to cause any undue damage.  Would you be willing to brief the security team on your findings?  I can have a group gathered within the hour."

"Certainly, commander.  I'll see you shortly."

K'Tan headed back to tactical, his smile growing.  Any information that would improve the chances of successfully completing the upcoming mission was more than welcome.  'I have to figure out a way to convince Ms. James to join the tactical department,' he thought to himself.  'She would be a definite asset.'

K'Tan tapped his combadge once again.  "K'Tan to Lt. D'Callan.  Please gather your away team candidates and meet me in the exercise room in one hour. We have a guest who may have some valuable information to pass on."

An hour later, K'Tan and Aria stood before the assembled officers.  "Thank you for your prompt response," K'Tan said to the team.  "Ms. James here has some techniques that may come in handy should we have to resort to physical force on the away mission."  K'Tan stepped aside, making a sweeping gesture with his left arm.  "Ms James?"

Aria gave a slight smile as she brought a visual of the new species into view using the room's holographic emitters. Next to the youthful looking acting Ensign, now stood one of the green hued members of the species.

"Due to the time restraints of the launch of the mission, I believe that it is best that I quickly move to the point of this briefing."

Pressing another key on her PADD, six blue and three red points appeared on the unmoving hologram.

"Each of the blue points on the body represents a nerve cluster or pressure point that when struck with moderate human force will disable the target through a non-fatal attack. If you note the target on the elbow, one strike there will cause the target to release a possible weapon. If followed by a second strike to the elbow itself, it will result in breakage."

Aria continued to explain each of the blue points, their locations, and the amount of force needed for the desired effect. She only paused in her presentation when it came to the red dots. Located slightly below the sternum, the left side of the neck, and under the right arm were the three locations that she determined could cause fatal damage to the new species.

"The locations depicted by the red points with more than likely be a fatal strike when similar force in applied to these points. We should avoid targeting those points."

She gave a look over the gathered then continued.

"This is only a partial list of places that will cause incapacitating pain or terminal damage. There are more than likely many more points of interest that could be used to the same effect or kill the target if applied incorrectly. Time has not permitted me to discover more of those locations, but I believe that this might give the away teams a tactical edge when it comes to unarmed combat."

D'Callan un-crossed his arms and walked away from the wall.

"This is excellent information Ms James"

He turned to his security team and looked quite stern.

"Take this information and make sure you use it. We have no excuse for mistakes. Understood?"

His team nodded, and D'Callan himself nodded to Aria and smiled slightly with approval.

D'Callan's team converged on the holographic image of the alien, and Aria turned to leave.   As she approached the doorway, the young woman paused, adding over her shoulder, "All of the information that I have gathered is on file for your team to pursue at their own pace.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I will be in medical getting my alterations." 

As the doors slid closed behind the departing woman, K'Tan turned to address D'Callan. 

"That girl is impressive," K'Tan said.  "She's a good fighter, and has a sharp mind to boot."

"I agree," D'Callan replied.

K'Tan gazed at the holographic display, trying to commit the indicated pressure points to memory. 

"Do you have any openings for combat instructor on your security team?"

D'Callan turned his head to look at KTan.

"You seem to be having some fine ideas for promotions and team building my friend. And once again you've hit the nail on the head. I beleive our good capatain is going to be busy with recommendations at this rate."

[Bryancd]

K'arath sat up from the biobed, his surgical alterations complete. He glanced over towards Dr. Drett who had a bemused look upon her face.
"Well," she said,"try not to frighten any small children while you are down there."
K'arath stood and strode over to a surgical equipment cart and grabbed a small mirror. Even he was startled by the visage. His normally dark tan colored skin was pure black. His brow ridges had been completely masked. His light hazel colored eyes were now a bright gold which contributed to his aggressive and startling appearance. His hair was black as well, indicating he was to be part of the "Blate" class of the native society. It was hoped that being perceived as part of the ruling aristocracy would provide the Engineer with access to all area's of Ter'Oss society. He really did look very intimidating.
"Thank you, Doctor," he smiled at Drett and made his way back to his quarters to get into costume.

[Omra]

Korridan walked in to Logistic's and stood before the clerk who wore a welcoming expression, "Hello I am afraid I need a new PADD, I seem to have...a...misplaced mine."  The clerk smiled and glanced at Korridans uniform, noting it was a operations uniform and chuckled, "let me guess; a Hamalki took it?"   The Bajoran's expression changed from embarrassed to puzzled," a what?"

The clerk walked over to a storage locker and entered a code, he answered over his shoulder, "a Hamalki... we a have a rather spirited one on board."  Korridan replied, "Do they look like glass spiders?"  The clerk laughed as he pulled a PADD from the locker, "they sure do..."  He eyed the clerk, "Thank the Prophets I thought I was going mad; I gather I am not the first one to come in here about this."  The clerk shook his head chuckling as he returned to the counter, "No there have been a few others."

Before Korridan could ask another question the clerk pointed to a slot in the counter, "Please insert your chip."  As the clerk assigned the serial number of the PADD over to Korridan he said, "you must have had something really interesting on your PADD."  Korridan only answered with a quizzical look.  The clerk smiled and explained, "Hamalki's are Engineers and Theoreticians by nature, and K'il'tik has a voracious appetite for knowledge and problem solving, and she only sleeps for 2 hours every 30 hours; she was probably reading over your shoulder for a long time before you ever noticed her."

The clerk snapped the PADD into an interface and downloaded Korridans personal settings and work files from his account.  He looked at Korridan and continued, "She probably only took your PADD because you kept turning it off, and she is very shy."  The expression on the Bajoran's face made the clerk laugh, "to a Hamalki an engineering conundrum, is like waving candy in a little child's face."

The interface beeped, and the clerk pulled Korridan's PADD from the port.  He handed it to the baffled Bajoran, "see you in a couple of days..."  Korridan looked at him with a worried expression, "Why, is she building a nest?"  The clerk laughed and explained, "No; once she solves the problem, she returns the PADD," he gestured to the new PADD, "in a few days your old PADD will probably mysteriously reappear, just like all of the other ones."

Korridan left the Logistics Office weary, tired and confused thinking, "This is really shaping up into one strange day..."

[X]

Aeric smiled as he looked at his almost unrecognizable daughter before him. She retained many of her physical traits, but her skin hair and eyes had been drastically altered. Gone was the lightly tanned skin and black hair. Her skin was now a perfect turquoise with long lavender and almost hypnotic silver eyes. While many of the enhancement had been done of the well train hand of the medical staff, the eyes were her own. It was a simple trick of the nanites that brought more of them to the surface and bringing out a more metallic color.

"Well?" she ask, using her internal translator to speak in the flowery tongue of the Ter'Oss.

"It looks nice on you, but do me a favor and don't get hurt." Aeric replied as he tried to see his daughter in all of the changes that were made. "Is there any signs of rejection with the cosmetic implants?"

Aria shook her head. "No, I updated the protocols of my system to factor in and ignore the additions."

"Speaking of additions, I'll almost done with your medical kit. The good news is that I've been able to disguise several single dose injection devices in metal cylinders and give them a digital lock." Aeric said.

"What's the bad news?"

"They need to be activated to use the hypospray device and there is no external activations points. You'll have to use your abilities to activate them and that limits the use."

"One person with a few tools is far better than no one with any tools."

"I have half a dozen of the tubes with preset compounds that I'll have in a leather case for you. I can't give you anything else like a tricorder, but we might be able to disguise a sensor that you can link to a small database unit stitched into leather."

"I'll have to link to it to actually understand the readings, but that would limit them discovering any usable technology." Aria finished her father's briefing.

"It's not much, but it might be the difference between life and death." Aeric concluded. "I'll have it ready before you depart and the patterns added to the Aurora's replicator file."

"Thank you." Aria said and kissed her father's cheek before slipping out of his quarters.

[institches]

Joint post with Bryancd


"So you see the horn would just heat up if the substance was poisonous to the holder. It passively scans your race and then reads the substance it's pointed at." Ensign Ginny Sykes scampered down the ladder to hand Ka'rath the eight-centimeter long ivory horn.

K'arath held what for all what looked as much as an oversize Targ tooth as anything else. "Ensign, are you saying this....enamel....spear....has the ability to detect poison? Like a medical tricorder....somehow gone wrong?" He hoped his new black complexion and golden eyes hid his bemusement. Ensign Sykes, along with Lt. Took, were his new favorites in Engineering. "And you spent last night building it?"

She shifted her weight, uncomfortable with standing still. "Well, part of the time. I para-sailed in the holodeck, did a small comparative study of Antidean underwater engineering techniques, recorded a letter to my brother, and knitted a pair of socks for my roommate. But the knitting was just to keep my hands busy while I read." She popped a sweet into her mouth and continued talking. "I was going to recalibrate the warp core when it's offline tonight, but I figured I'd better check with you before I start. Since you had me review command etiquette, I mean. So can we use it?"

She very deliberately stopped talking. It was hard, holding herself back. There was just so much to talk about, so much on her mind, so much to contribute! The diminutive ensign looked eleven inches up, meeting the confused look in the chief engineer's now golden eyes. She nodded at the object he still held. "The unicorn's horn?"

K'aratrh allowed a smile to creep across his face as he handed the horn back to the nervous Ensign. He was going to enjoy keeping an eye on this one. "Permission granted, Ensgin."

"Good. I'll make three, one for each away team and a spare, just in case." She bit her lip and held her breath, a technique she had developed in the academy to keep her teachers from getting dismissing her in exasperation.

[wraith1701]

K'Tan couldn't tear his eyes away from the mirror.  His normal brown skin tone had been changed into a brilliant bright red.  The medtechs had also stimulated his hair follicles; as a result, his hair had returned to the length that he had worn before arriving aboard the Arabella.  His thick, braided locks were once again confined by a pony tail that  hung down to just past his shoulders, but his hair's normal black color had been changed into a vibrant, liquid silver.

The hair was tied back in a manner that left his new ears entirely exposed. They were tapered and pointed like a vulcanoids, but were several times longer,their tips extending to just beyond the top of his head and tilting slightly back.  An intricate pattern of minuscule, squiggle-like marks covered the outer edge of each ear.  On his right ear, the pattern continued on to his face; the entire right side was covered with slightly larger versions of the indecipherable writting.  The pattern went down to his chin and up to his hairline, and ended at the edge of his nose.

K'Tan stared into the reflection of his eyes.

His iris color had been changed to a piercing green that strongly contrasted his new hair and skin, with a thin black border that separated the iris from the whites.  His pupils remained black, but seemed elongated and almost catlike.

The Chief Tactical Officer set down the small mirror, and turned to his desktop LCARS display.  Pulling up the roster of away team members, he began to move names around, trying to come up with a scenario that would provide the most balance to each of the two teams.  It was a given that Commander Sevryll and Captain Quinn would have the final say on the composition of each team, but he felt confident that they would consider his recommendations. 

[Meds]

"Jade?"

D'Callan sat alone in his room looking at his image.

"I'm Jade!"

He couldn't believe his skin colour was Jade. Looking to the side he flicked his pointy ears, his eyes were both blue, the contact lens now hiding his grey eye. This he liked, it had been a long time since his eyes matched. The hair though, no. D'callan did not like the blue hair.

"I look like bloody football freak."

Standing up he looked at himself in the long mirror and turned round.

"No wonder i'm still single"

He smiled slightly and bowed to his reflection. Looking around his room he suddenly thought of something.

"Computer  what is the location of Lt K'tan"

The computer answered back.

"Lt K'Tan is in his quarters"

D'Callan laughed at the thought of K'tan staring in the mirror in disbelief. D'Callan sat on his bed chuckling to himself and gazed at the photo of his wife. The smile stayed on his face.

"You'd have enjoyed this love"

[wraith1701]

Lt. (JG) Akhibar Otak sat alone in his quarters, the desk in front of him illuminated by the adjustable spotlight shining down on it.  Laying across the desk was his prosthetic right arm, a coldly gleaming reminder of his life-altering mishap in the engineering room so long ago. 

While serving as an engineer aboard the USS Antilles, Otak had foolishly tried to singlehandedly stem a reactor coolant leak.  Ironically, the attempt, while successful, had left him literally 'single handed'.  Just a few stray drops of the violently corrosive fluid had splashed onto his right arm, and within moments, the arm had melted away into a mangled bit of flesh that even the Federation's most brilliant minds had no hope of saving.  While he had recovered physically over time, the incident had been so emotionally scarring that it had cost him his marriage, and had instilled in him a deep seated fear of starship engine rooms.  The incident had opened a new door for him, however; he had discovered within himself a talent with ship-mounted weapons systems.  But although he had come to accept his new role in Starfleet, he still had occasional trouble accepting the plastic and metal replacement arm that had been given him.

Otak gripped a pair of micro-scaled pliers, and pried open an access panel over the arm's bicep.  Beneath the panel lay several bundles of steel-like cables, each composed of hundreds of strands of strong yet flexible elastic polymer.  These synthetic strands were electro-conductive, and acted much like the real muscles of his left arm.  When exposed to a minuscule electric charge, the strands would shorten and contract, pulling the firmly anchored ends of each bundle closer together and causing the artificial limb to bend. 

After some gentle probing, he discovered a strand that had frayed; bits of the damaged wire had unraveled to mingle with the surrounding fiber strands.  As his probing continued, the arm twitched, and the hand at the end of it began trembling uncontrollably. 

Otak sighed, and grabbed a molecular welder.  Slowly running the beam of the welder over the offending fiber, he eventually managed to repair the damage, returning the strand to a factory-new condition.  The trembling of the hand gradually ceased.

Satisfied with his work, Otak lifted the limb and guided it back into the metallic housing at the end of the stump of his right shoulder.  With a soft clank and whirr, the mechanical and electrical fittings sealed, locking the artificial limb into place.  The Junior Lt. stood, absently smoothing down the sheath of synthetic skin that covered the arm.  After a quick glance in the mirror, he decided that he was presentable.  He slipped on his uniform tunic, and headed out into the corridor of the Arabella.  His duty shift in Tactical was scheduled to begin in thirty minutes. 

[Bryancd]

Ensign Dunn walked out of sickbay feeling completely out of sorts. The surgical alterations has been brief and painless, but he just couldn't get beyond the dramatic change, although temporary, they had made upon him. Why couldn't he have been black like Lt. Commander K'arath, intimidating and fierce? Or red like Lt. K'Tan, he looked a warrior from an ancient Indian culture on Earth. Instead he was....
He ran directly into Counselor Margon who was exiting a turbolift. The Counselor looked at Dunn and burst out laughing in that good natured way he always seemed to have.
"Ensign! Why, you are.."
"I'm blue," he replied sheepishly.

[Omra]

Korridan was walking back toward his quarters in the hope of catching some sleep when he spotted Hooch merging into his hallway.  He called out to him, "Hey you old redneck, whats with the Dufflebag?"  The grizzly old man looked startled, "Oh there you are, I was hoping I would catch you before I go..."  The Bajoran raised an eyebrow, "Go where?"  Short of breath he answered, "Starbase 35, Commandeer Brennan asked for me by name," the tall grey haired man smiled, "can you believe that?"

They walked in silence for awhile neither saying anything, words were not really necessary.  They both shared a deep respect for each other and had each suffered a hard lot in life, which gave them an even deeper bond.  Finally the gravely voice of the mountain man broke the reverent silence, "your not going to get all mushy on me are you?"  The Bajoran smiled, "Nah, I thought I might just grab ahold of your leg and cry and beg for you not to go when you try and board the runabout."  They stood in front of the turbolift doors and laughed.

Their laughter ended when the doors opened, and a blue elflike creature exited the turbolift and walked past them.  They stared in wonder at it until it rounded a corner, it must have encountered others down the hall because they could hear giggling.  Hooch looked to Korridan, "PLEASE TELL ME YOU SAW THAT!"  Korridan smirked, "What?"  He turned to the nervous moonshiner, "The Blue Elf?"

  The tall mountaineer relaxed, "What is it with this ship?"  He entered the turbolift,"First it was Knights and Damsels," he leaned on the wall of the turbolift, "now it is technocolored Fae..."  Korridan entered and stood beside the him chuckling.  Hooch droned on, "what is next?" he rolled his eyes, "giant spiders?"  Korridan groaned, "Oh, don't even get me started on the spiders..."  The bearded hunter turned to Korridan with his eyes wide, "Man I'm getting out of here just in time..."

As the doors closed Hooch could see a Jade colored elf walk by swinging a cricket bat in his hands, "Jesus, Mary and Joseph!"  His voice could be heard as the turbolift descended, "It is one thing to see elves when you are drunk, but when you are as sober as an Amish Librarian..."

[X]

Lieutenant Commander James slowly walked the deck of the lower shuttle bay as the shuttle bay teams finished loading supplies onto the three ships that would serve as foundation of the away mission.

Rina Grant, now disguised as a ebony skinned elf, sat aboard the Tiberius runabout and completed that last of her preflight checks. While her time on the planet would be confined to the runabout and communications between the base sites, the modifications were made in the even of some sort of emergency that would require her to depart the ship.

Rory James, still in her normal appearance, readied the Aurora and double checked that her own modification program was ready to activate. As a photonic lifeform, she was one of the few people on the ship that had the ability to quickly adjust her visual look, once the new look had been properly programed into her matrix.

"Computer, notify the captain and XO, that all ships are ready to depart and ready for away teams to board." Aeric said aloud. The flight crew had done their jobs well and it was now up to the pilots to get them down to the surface. With limited sensor ability, he had to rely on the people that he knew had a better chance to get the ships into suitable landing sites.