"The Brood"

[Luke]

Okay here goes nothing...

The Brood
==========

"Captain's log, Stardate 60178.2... USS Thermopylae is engaged in search operations for the civilian freighter Queen Charlotte, overdue for her run to colony LaGuardia III. We assume the vessel got lost through a navigational error, and we're checking out a group of unexplored systems in sector 23786."

1. The three pirate ships were ungainly-looking gray things shaped like mussel shells with ugly fins to either side and two prong-shaped laser batteries in front. But that didn't stop them from being deadly. The freighter had already been badly damaged and it wasn't capable of much of a fight. It left the M class planet it had been in orbit around and limped along in a straight line as fast as it could. Out here on the rimward sector there wasn't even any point in calling for help.

But suddenly another ship appeared at full impulse. It was a Starfleet vessel with a single warp nacelle suspended from a support pylon above its main saucer. Subspace radio frequencies came alive as the pirates were hailed. "This is the United Federation destroyer Thermopylae. You are ordered to cease your attack immediately! Respond!"

The Thermopylae's communications system picked up a series of unidentified grunts as the pirate ships talked among themselves but none of them responded. One of the pirates did a U-turn aiming itself directly at the Starfleet ship. The other two followed lagging a little bit behind like they weren't that keen on the idea.

Commander Luke Caeli captain of the Thermopylae gripped the arms of his command chair. "Any identification?" he asked the bridge. As if he had to ask.

Lieutenant Evangelina Solari was at the Helm station her bright red hair kept cut as short as a man's. "The computer identifies them as Ursans, captain," she said with her pretty Italian accent.

Caeli nodded. The Ursans were a bear-like race who had only discovered warp drive twenty years ago. They had declined to join the Federation and allied with the Romulans. But the Federation Council still seemed to think they were open to persuasion so even though they were a royal nuisance standing orders were to handle them with kid gloves.

"Armed with level three beam lasers, sir," Petty Officer Carol Gunnison said. He was at Tactical and was a man in spite of his name. "We are being targeted. Range 20,000 kilometers and closing."

"Raise the shields to 50%," Luke ordered. "Slow to 60. Arm ONE pulse torpedo. Set it to detonate at 500 meters. Target the lead ship."

Solari raised her eyebrow but she didn't turn around. "Pulse torpedo armed," Gunnison said.

"Stand by," Luke said. The three pirates bore down on the Thermopylae laser cannons blazing. Lt. Solari put the destroyer into a steep roll zig-zagging back and forth as the laser beams zinged off the ship's shields. Once past them she swung the ship sharply around to port as Luke said, "Fire torpedo."

The torpedo shot out the front of the Thermopylae and detonated right on schedule right in the midst of the three pirate ships. The energy burst overloaded their shields and sensors and the ships tumbling out of control. The two on the wings wobbled a bit and then turned tail. The one in the center drifted dead in space.

"Power systems overloaded," Solari reported reading from her sensor station. "But they're all right. Life signs are stable."

"Keep an eye on them anyway," Luke said, as he pushed a button on his command chair. "This is Thermopylae calling the freighter. Respond, please."

There was a little bit of static, but a man answered. "This is the Queen Charlotte. Thanks much, Thermopylae! We thought we were dead!"

"Not a problem," Luke answered. "How badly are you damaged?"

The captain of the freighter hesitated a bit. "Nothing that can't be repaired in a couple of hours. We're just shorthanded. There's only four of us left. Six killed in the attack. We got away but when it looked like the pirates were going to catch up to us I sent the other six off in the escape pod about an hour ago. They landed on that M class planet back there."

"Okay, stand by, Charlotte." Luke pushed another button and called up Engineering. "Miguel get together a repair party and take it over to the freighter."

"Will do, capitan," Chief Engineer Delgado said.

"Computer! What do we have on this planet?" Luke asked.

"Working," the pleasant female voice replied. "System PAA-565, planet number three. Class M, Oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. Last surveyed Stardate 50344. No other information."

[Luke]

2. Destroyers usually don't carry a full-time Science officer so Luke and Lt. Solari did the best they could with the sensors. They found that the planet had cities and infrastructure rated at about the twentieth century in technological level. But the electromagnetic spectrum was quiet. No radio or television. The cities were dead, no trace of power production at all. A few humanoids were found on the scan and they were scattered widely.

Something must have happened to the civilization here but there was no indication of nuclear war. The good news was the emergency homing beacon on the escape pod pinpointed its location in the middle of one of the cities. Luke left Lt. Solari in command and beamed down along with nurse Leigh Stratton and two security crewmen, Douglas and Hershel.

The four of them materialized in the middle of a city street. The sky was overcast and gray. All around them were empty cars just rusting heaps of metal. Skyscrapers loomed over them on all sides like silent tombstones. Trees and shrubs were growing in the street. "Judging from the amount of deterioration," Luke said, "I'd say whatever happened was less than a century ago."

Stratton looked around nervously. "What could have done this, captain?" she asked.

"No telling," Luke said, thinking about the Prime Directive and hoping they didn't run into any of the native inhabitants. "But it's not our problem right now. Let's find the escape pod and get out of here."

The pod had crashlanded in the middle of the street. Both its hatches were open and the interior lights were on. The two security men in gold and black uniforms fanned out to either side with their phasers drawn while Luke and Stratton cautiously approached it. "Empty," said the medic, going inside.

Luke peered through the door. The emergency food lockers were open the doors swinging on their hinges. The crew had apparently left in a hurry. But why had they left at all? The pod had lights and a roof. It would be cramped for six people but better than nothing while they waited.

"Captain?" said one of the security men about ten meters further along the street. "Over here!" Luke came running. There was a man lying there wearing the uniform of a freighter crew, with "Queen Charlottte" stitched across the breast. His clothes were ripped and there were several bite marks on his body and his neck. Food containers strewn on the pavement and there were signs of a fight.

Stratton knelt beside him and used her tricorder. "He's dead, captain."

"Looks like he was attacked by wild animals or something," Luke said. "Caeli to Thermopylae. We've found one of the Queen Charlotte's crew, dead. Beam the body up to Sickbay once we've cleared the area."

"Aye-aye, Captain," Solari said in reply. "Be careful, sir."

"We'll try," Luke said and clicked off his comm badge. "Okay let's stay together. Stratton, take some sensor readings."

The medic turned around on the spot, scanning with her tricorder. "I'm getting life readings all around us," she said, shivering.

"Concentrate on humanoids," Luke said. "We're not interested in the local wildlife."

"Oh right," she said flustered. "Humanoids less than a hundred meters bearing one four zero."

"How many?" Luke asked.

"I make it at least a dozen," Stratton said. "Captain, they're moving away!"

"Let's go then," Luke said. "Phasers on stun." He took off at a jog in the direction Stratton indicated which turned out to be in one of the buildings. Or the hollow shell of a building at any rate. It looked like the lobby of an office building. Luke pushed through a door and kept moving, with Hershel and Douglas on either side. He wanted to hurry but at the same time he was careful not to get far ahead of Stratton.

"We're getting closer," she said trying to read her tricorder on the run. They came out into what looked like a parking garage. There were lots of parked cars shrouded in dust and cobwebs. "Closer. Almost on top of them."

Luke slowed his pace a little. There was still no sign of life. Was she reading the tricorder correctly?

"Wait Captain!" Stratton cried, stopping. "We just ran past them! Oh no! I wasn't thinking about elevation! They're ABOVE us!"

Luke and the two security guys automatically looked up at the dark concrete ceiling overhead. That was when they got attacked.

[gtxpro]

really nice script..

[Luke]

I hopeyou like the next part too!

3. Stratton screamed. A number of men and women in dirty ragged clothing were on the parapet of the level above them. Their skin and hair were so filthy and rotten they hardly looked like live people. Their eyes were bloodshot. Grunting and growling like animals they started running down the sloping ramp but three of them jumped right over the railing apparently not caring if they got hurt in the twenty foot fall. The first one landed right on top of Hershel knocking him over. The two of them rolled across the floor wrestling. The second one landed on the roof of a car with a thump and jumped on Douglas. That gave Douglas time to get ready. He caught his attacker with a judo throw that landed him on his back on the pavement.

The third one had been aiming himself at Stratton but he misjudged the distance. His leg broke with a loud CRACK when he hit the pavement! The man howled in rage but amazingly he kept coming snarling like a wild beast and dragging the broken leg. Luke rushed over to put himself in between them raising his phaser. The stun beam got the savage in the middle of the chest and pushed him back like a water hose but it didn't stun him. He just growled and kept coming, dragging his broken leg behind him. Luke spun around with a side kick that caught him in the jaw and knocked out some of his teeth and he finally went down.

Douglas had dropped his opponent by slamming his head against the concrete wall. Hershel wasn't so lucky. The man fought more like an animal than a person. He crawled on top of the security officer clawing at his uniform and latched his teeth around his neck! They all heard his scream as he bit right through the skin and blood spurted everywhere.

Luke thumbed his phaser up to KILL and fired. The zombie took the hit and went rolling off. Stratton ran to Hershel's side but there wasn't much she could do. His jugular vein had been severed and blood was all over the place. She got a synthetic skin patch on him to stop the bleeding and gave him a hypo to keep him from going into shock. Luke and Stratton did their best but he had lost too much blood already. Hershel was shivering in fear as well as pain. "Captain!" Douglas called. They looked and they could see the other dozen or so crazed zombies already at the bottom of the ramp and running toward them.

Luke looked around for a way out. "Go! The two of you run!" He put Hershel's phaser in his hand and ran after them. As he ran he tapped his comm badge. "Caeli to Thermopylae!" he said. "Medical emergency! Lock in on Ralph Hershel's comm signal! Beam him directly to sickbay!"

"Understood, sir," Solari's voice said. "What about the rest of you?"

Luke was to busy running to reply. He heard the hum of the transporter and knew that Hershel was safe on the ship. But the zombies were right behind him.

Douglas and Stratton had gone down a shadowy corridor that came out next to a pair of doors that reminded him of a turbolift. The doors didn't open though. He saw the buttons next to it and tried pushing one, but the power was out. The zombies were howling behind them getting closer. "Over here!" Douglas said, and pushed through another door.

They were outside again under the overcast sky. All three of them were breathing hard now. They couldn't keep on running for long. Across the street was some kind of store with broken windows and a brick wall about waist level. "Get in there!" Luke said to the others. "Don't make a sound!" He kept running up the street tearing off the top half of his uniform which was covered with blood from tending to Hershel. "Keep talking, Lt. Solari!" he said and threw his shirt. Then he doubled back to where Douglas and Stratton were hiding. He jumped over the waist high wall and dropped flat.

Solari's voice was coming from the comm badge on his shirt. "Sir? Captain? What do you mean? What should I say?" From their hiding place they heard the zombies come out of the garage. They found Luke's shirt and fought over it like wild dogs.

Luke looked over at the other two. Douglas and Stratton were scared out of their wits but they held their breath not daring to make a sound. He looked arond for some other way out in case they had to run again. To his right was the entrance of the store. Another person was standing there flat against the door staring at him.

It was a boy not older than about fifteen. He was dressed in good clothes, boots, and a jacket. He had on a backpack and a wicked looking machete hanging from his belt. He was holding a bow and arrow in his hands, pointed straight at Luke.

The howling of the zombies as they fought over Luke's shirt sounded really close. Luke considered aiming his phaser at the boy but decided in the end that it wouldn't be worth it because the sound of the shot would attract the zombies. The boy realized that too because after what seemed like a whole minute he relaxed the arrow and brought his finger up to his lips. Shhhhh! he was saying!

Luke nodded.

[Luke]

4. On the Thermopylae Lt. Solari gave orders for Hershel to be beamed up. "Captain Caeli?" she said again. "What about the rest of you?" She sat there kind of flustered when he told her to keep talking. What was that all about? She did her best but then she heard growling noises as it sounded like a pack of wild animals attacking him! She put her fist to her mouth and bit her knuckle very tempted to beam them all up anyway. Then there was a crunching sound and the comm badge went dead.

Meanwhile down on the planet the zombies had moved on past. Luke breathed a sigh of relief. "Douglas, contact the ship and tell them we're all right," he said. "Tell Solari to stand by."

The boy had put down his bow and arrow but when Douglas clicked his comm badge he jumped at the noise. "It's all right," Luke said as he holstered his phaser and showed his empty hands. "See? We're friends."

The boy walked over and looked over Luke and Stratton. He seemed curious about their Starfleet uniforms. Then he looked at Douglas who had just finished sending his message. The boy suddenly pulled his machete and raised it.

"Hey stop!" Luke said as he caught the boy's wrist. "Friends!"

"He's been bitten," the boy said pointing at the secuirty officer. Sure enough under his torn sleeve there was a bleeding bite on his arm where he had fought the zombie. They could tell it was a bite because there were teeth marks.

"That's okay I've had worse," Douglas said laughing. Stratton came over and used her medical tricorder. "It looks like it's infected already," she said frowning. She took out a hypo and gave him a shot. Then she used her protoplaser to stop it bleeding.

The boy tried to pull out of Luke's grip. His eyes were wide with fear. "Are you crazy? He's been bitten! Kill him!"

"We don't kill people just because their injured," Luke said.

"What's wrong with you?" the boy said. "You know what will happen! He'll become one of THEM!"

"You mean those things that attacked us?" Douglas said.

"What about it, Stratton?" Luke asked. "Is the infection still there?"

The nurse looked at her tricorder again. "It's getting worse, Captain," she said. "The antibiotic had no affect at all!"

"My grandpa said it was germs," the boy said. "He said they it came out of a govament lavatory when he was a kid and spread all over the world."

"Lavatory?" Luke said. "Do you mean a laboratory? A government laboratory?"

"I don't know," the boy said and shrugged. "That's what my grandpa said. When somebody gets bitten all you can do is kill them. You guys must not be from around here."

"No we're from a different province," Luke said. He thought about beaming back to the ship but he still had those six people to find. "We're looking for friends of ours. They'd have clothes something like ours."

"I haven't seen them," the boy said. "I could take you back to our camp though. Maybe one of the other scouts saw them." As they walked he said his name was Edrik. There weren't many "real people" left. He and his mother were part of a group of about twenty that moved from city to city looking for canned food, clothes or anything else they could use. They were camped in a library a couple of blocks away.

"Captain," Stratton said, "I've been taking some more tricorder readings. Comparing readings I took of this kid with the readings I took earlier, the zombies have a much lower than normal body temperature, but a faster metabolic rate. I should be able to tell them apart now."

"That's good to know," Luke said. "Take a reading now. Is there anything within 500 meters?"

Stratton took the reading. "Traces, but no human lifeforms, captain," she said.

And we're getting further and further from the escape pod all the time, Luke was thinking.

[Luke]

5. On the Thermopylae Lt. Evangeline Solari wanted to be doing something but didn't know what. Lt. Delgado was still on the Queen Charlotte getting the freighter ready to go. The Captain was still searching for the survivors on the planet. Dr. Khalil was working on the crewman who had been beamed up. She pushed the intercom button. "Bridge to Sickbay. How is it coming, doctor?"

There wasn't any answer. She tried her own comm badge without results. "Dr. Khalil? Don't tell me the comm system has gone down again!"

Ensign Henry "Bo" Perry at Ops checked his console. "Should be okay sir."

Solari drummed her hand on the console. "Take over, Perry. I'll be in Sickbay." She hopped in the turbolift and rode it down to Deck 7. She walked along the curved corridor until she came to Treatment Room 1. There was nobody there. Dr. Khalil's office, the Chem Lab, the Supply Room... all empty.

The waiting room was ahead to the left. She saw something moving behind the ornamental plants that divided it from the corridor. She walked around it and froze! There was Dr. Khalil and Crewman Hershel, crouching over what looked like the body of an orderly. They looked up at her their eyes were bloodshot and blood was dripping from their mouths!

She didn't have a phaser so she turned around and ran. The zombies charged after her. As she ran, she realized even if she got to the turbolift ahead of them the doors wouldn't close fast enough to save her. Whatever was happening she had to keep them contained. "Computer! This is the First officer!" she said. "Seal off Sickbay!"

Solari darted down a side passage that led to the central computer annex just as the emergency doors closed ahead of her blocking her escape. Instead she turned down another passage and ended up in the Chem Lab breathing hard. She pushed the LOCK button on the door panel and then she had to stop to catch her breath.

Behind her she could here the two zombies pounding on the door trying to get at her. She wondered if Dr. Khalil would remember there was another entrance to the lab back around on the main corridor. She activated her commbadge. "Solari to bridge. Perry, get some security men down here to Deck 7 corridor D on the double. Tell them set their phasers on heavy stun." She went to the door leading to the main corridor. She was going to have to make a run for section D, where security would be waiting.

The door opened for her. The corridor looked clear. But just then the zombies came around the corner. Solari turned sprinting for section D but ran straight into the dead Queen Charlotte crewman they had beamed up earlier, only he was glaring at her with drool dripping from his mouth and grabbed a handful of her uniform.

Solari slapped his hand away pivoted on her left foot and kicked him in the solar plexus. He hardly seemed to feel it but it knocked him off balance enough she could get past him running for her life.

Meanwhile down on the planet, the Away Team had arrived at the library. Edrik told them there was be guards so wait for him to identify himself. He walked ahead of them holding up his hands. "Hey it's me!" he called. But nobody answered. The doors looked like they had been battered off their hinges.

"I don't like this," Luke said. "Stratton, do you have lifeform readings?"

She scanned. "Just one or two," she said.

Luke motioned at Douglas and the two of them moved forward across the street littered with junk cars and a couple of dead zombies. They walked into the lobby of the library and found more than twenty dead bodies. Edrik recognized six or seven as friends of his although he didn't see his mother among them. The other bodies were zombies. Douglas pointed out that a few of them had been killed by phaser fire.

Stratton found one of the dead ones who was wearing a uniform from the Queen Charlotte. Luke took an isolinear tag out of his pouch and put it on the body so they could lock onto it with the transporters. "But where's everybody else?" he asked nobody in particular.

Stratton scanned with her tricorder again. "I'm picking up two live people bearing zero four." The pushed through the doors into what looked like the media room, with rows of silent desktop computers. Stratton pointed to the door of a storage closet, but she couldn't be sure if the two people she was picking up were humans or zombies.

Luke grabbed the door handle and pulled, very nearly getting himself shot by a woman with a phaser. But she saw his Starfleet uniform in time. "Boy am I glad to see you!" she sighed. She and a man were huddled in there scared out of their minds.

Luke asked them what happened, and they said the six of them had been picked up by this group of survivors. But about a half an hour ago the camp had been attacked by the zombies. Their phaser had run out of power and they hid. They had no idea where the others were.

Luke gave them both isolinear tags then he borrowed Douglas's commbadge. "Caeli to Thermopylae. Come in please."

Ensign Perry answered. "Thermopylae here Captain. Are you all right? We were getting worried!"

"We could be better," LUke said. "We've found three of our people, two alive, one dead. Lock onto their tags and beam them aboard. Where's Lt. Solari?"

"Last time I heard sir she was on her way to Sick--"

"Captain?" Solari broke in. "We've got a problem sir! That man you beamed up brought an infection with him! It's already spread to Dr. Khalil and the orderly!"

Luke could have kicked himself. "You'd better beam us up Lieutenant."

"Aye-aye, sir." Solari hesitated. "All of you? My sensors are reading you, Stratton, Douglas, two people with tags, and another unidentified person."

Luke looked at Edrik completely bewildered by the sight of him talking to a disembodied voice. "Yes. You might as well beam him up too. At least he'll be safe on the ship."

At least that's what he thought.

[Luke]

6. Lt. Solari met them as they materialized on the transporter pads. Lt. Delgado the chief engineer was also there. Edrik looked scared to death but Luke put his hand on his shoudler. "Don't be afraid," he said. "We do this all the time." He stepped off the pad. "How many are infected?"

"Right now it's just Hershel, Dr. Khalil, the orderly Jacobs, and the dead body we beamed up," solari said. "I've got them trapped in Sickbay. But this is what worries me, sir. I used the lateral sensor array to scan them and try to figure out what the infection was. It's not an ordinary disease. It's nanites!"

"Oh stercus!" Luke said. Nanites were artificial micromachines that spread through the blood like crazy. That explained why the antibiotics didn't stop them. They would keep breeding as long as there was any energy to sustain them. It didn't even matter if you kill the body they were in. They could revive the dead body by constructing an artificial nervous system.

Delgado nodded in sympathy. "They're probably feeding off our EPS conduits," he said. "That's why they multiplied so quickly on the ship. On the planet all they would have is sunlight! But Captain if we don't stop them soon their going to go airborne. That means they won't need to bite you. They'll spread through the air vents. Everybody on the whole ship will be infected!"

"What do we do now, captain?" Solari said.

"We do what my Uncle Bene taught me to do in a situation like this," Luke said. "Drop back and punt."

Lt. Solari shook her head. "Sir?" She was from Italy and her game was soccer.

"Edrik," Luke said putting his hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'm going to ask you to stay here in the transporter room and wait for me, okay? I don't want you wandering around." The boy agreed to wait there for him.

The rest of them left the transporter room and took off down the curving corridor to Sickbay. "First order of business is clearing the ship of these things," Luke said as they walked. "How do you shut off nanites?"

"A gamma pulse would do it," the chief engineer said. "The trouble is too strong a gamma pulse will also kill the normal cells in the host body."

"So if we want our ship's doctor back we have to use a weak pulse."

"But Captain," Solari said. "That means you'd have to be right on top of them!"

"You can't have everything." They had arrived at the force field door that sealed off the Sickbay corridor from the rest of the ship. All four of the zombies were there, waiting for their chance to escape. When they saw the three live people, they moved toward them. Luke quickly reprogrammed his phaser for a wide beam gamma burst. "I'm counting on the two of you to get them off of me if this doesn't work."

Solari and Delgado drew their phasers, setting them on Kill. Stratton and another medical orderly were waiting a little further back. Luke took a deep breath reached over and pushed the button. The force field went off with a snap. The four zombies charged forward moving faster than he expected. Luke took a step backward and almost tripped. Khalil was clawing at him, grabbing at his phaser. He fired.

A blue flash lit up the corridor, and all four of the zombies dropped like puppets with their strings cut. The orderly, being farthest away, struggled for a few seconds longer, but then he dropped too. "Great that's one problem solved," Luke said. "Get them onto diagnostic couches and see if they're all right."

It took a little while but Stratton stabilized the four patients. Dr. Khalil, Hershel and Jacobs were alive but in not condition to move around. Even the freighter crewman who had been dead was alive but in a comatose state. Stratton put him in a stasis pod. Maybe Khalil would be able to revive him later. The nanites however, had been wiped out.

The bosun's whistle sounded. It was Ensign Perry's voice. "Captain, we're receiving a communication from the surface. LIsten to this."

There was a little bit of a pause before another voice came on almost drowned out by static. "Steinberg calling Queen Charlotte. Are you still there? Listen Joe you've got to pick us up. We're getting killed down here! Steinberg to Queen Charlotte. Answer me! You've got to pick us up!"

"Can you raise them, Ensign?" Luke asked.

"Negative, sir," Perry replied. "I think their transceiver must be broken and they can only send. I can't get a transporter lock on them either. I can triangulate to within say two hundred meters of their position but that's the best I can do."

"Feed those coordinates to the transporter room! Let's go!" Luke jogged down the corridor, followed by Solari and Delgado.

[Luke]

7. Luke and Solari beamed down into a huge room easily as big as a soccer field. The air smelled musty. Around them on all sides were rusting hulks of machinery. Straight overhead stars were shining through the broken panes of skylights in the roof. Luke was surprised to see it was nightfall. "It looks like some kind of factory," Luke said as he clicked on his flashlight.

Next to him Lt. Solari drew her phaser set like his for a wide beam gamma burst. With her left hand she flipped open a tricorder. "the magnetic flux of all this metal is making it difficult to read, captain," she said.

On her other side Edrik looked curiously at the lighted screen of the tricorder holding his bow and arrow nervously. LUke hadn't wanted to bring him. He had left Lt. Delgado in command and he wanted to keep the landing party to a minium. But the boy argued that his mother and friends might be here too and Luke didn't have the heart to make him stay behind.

"Let's try up here," Luke said as he spotted a staircase leading up to a series of catwalks. Maybe the elevation would help the sensor readings. Their footstsps sounded hollow on the floor. The stairs creaked with rust. As they climbed it seemed to be lighter or maybe it was just that his flashlight wasn't making so many shadows. The catwalk led they across to an open gallery looking down into another room full of machinery. Ladders led to another platform above them.

"I'm getting life form readings, Captain," Solari whispered. "High metabolic rate, low body temperature..." She suddenly froze. "Santa Maria they're all around us!"

"Don't panic," Luke said. "Any sign of humans?"

"I'm picking up seven... no nine human signs... two of them very small... elevation ten degrees... that direction." She pointed towards a big tower of machinery in the middle of the room.

Luke worked out a path in that direction. They'd have to turn off down the gallery to the right and then come back left to where there was another staircase. "Okay easy does it," he said quietly leading the way.

"Look out!" Edrik shouted suddenly spinning around and letting an arrow fly. A half dozen zombies had come out of the shadows behind them lurching awkwardly. His arrow caught the first one straight through the throat. he had another arrow nocked and fired before the zombies were on top of them, and then Luke pushed him aside and fired off a gamma burst. The other five zombies seized up and dropped to the floor.

But that seemed to be the general signal for an attack. Zombies were crawling out of the metalwork in all directions, even the railings above them. Ten or twenty were ahead of them on the gallery Luke had been leading them toward, so he said, "That way!" pointing to the left hand gallery. Firing burst after burst he held them off while Solari and Edrik retreated to the left.

Five of them dropped from the railing above and almost caught Solari. She brought down three of them with a gamma burst. Another one jumped on her knocking her phaser and tricorder out of her hands. She struggled with the savage thing desperately trying to hold its mouth away so that it couldn't bite her. LUke was too far away to help and besides he was kept busy fighting off a horde of zombies coming up behind them.

Once Luke was clear, he ran across the gallery. Edrik was on the ground trying to draw his machette but a zombie was on top of him. Luke couldn't fire the gamma burst or he would hurt Edrik so he holstered the phaser and drew his force saber. The meter long blade ignited, slashing through the zombie's body from behind and cutting it into two pieces. Edrik looked up and shouted. The zombie had been on Solari had changed its mind and jumped Luke instead. It's clawlike hands grabbed his shoulders and its face was right next to his about to bite him in the neck.

Just then Lt. Solari grabbed the railing above her and used it to swing her whole body across. She kicked the zombie in the head and it let go toppling over the edge of the railing and falling into the darkness.

"Thanks, Lt. Solari," Luke panted. "You weren't bitten, were you?"

She shook her head as she picked up her phaser and tricorder. "You may call me Eva if that is easier, captain."

"Thank you. I believe I will."

More zombies were climbing down the stairs from the upper level. This time Solari led the way along the gallery to a single rusty ladder. Luke stayed behind, holding off zombies with his force saber while the other two climbed.

Once the ladder was clear the zombies were close around him he couldn't climb after them because he'd be exposing his back and they'd be on him in a heartbeat. But just then a rain of arrows came down from overhead. The seven humans up there had heard the shooting and were trying to help. Luke took a final swing with his force saber then turned and jumped as high as he could. Even then one of the zombies caught hold of his right boot and would have started chomping into him but he kicked clear in time.

The zombies had trouble using the ladder because they couldn't seem to grasp the idea of taking turns. That alone gave Luke, Solari and Edrik time to climb the ladder to the platform. There they found the nine survivors from the camp in the library. Two of them were small children. The group included Edrik's mother and the two remaining crewmen from the Queen charlotte. But there was no other way off the platform.

"Caeli to Thermopylae. Wide scan. Beam us all aboard."

[Luke]

8. "Captain's log, Stardate 60179.4. We managed to rescue the stranded crewmen from the Queen Charlotte but in the process we had no choice but to beam aboard six natives from the planet. Our sensor scans show the zombies have taken over every major landmass on the planet so sending them back would be a death sentence."

Luke and Lt. Solari walked into the crew lounge that had been set aside for the guests. As he might have expected they were all clustered around the porthole looking out with amazement at the stars and at the planet below them.

"Right," Luke said. Prime Directive or not he was going to have to tell them something. "As some of you might have guessed we're not from your planet. Right now we're on board a spaceship."

"What's a spaceship?" Edrik said. Lt. Solari smiled and looked up at Luke.

"That's going to take a lot more explaining," Luke said. "What I need to tell you right now is that those zombies are all over your planet. We have located an island they haven't reached. We can set you down there if you want to. Or we can take you with us and settle you on another M-class planet. It's your choice."

"Can't you shoot them all with those light guns?" Edrik asked.

Luke shook his head. "One at a time? That would take forever." He had considered the possibility of using gamma torpedoes to clear whole cities at once but Lt. Delgado and Lt. Khalil had both agreed that any humans caught near the center of the blast would probably be killed. In any case that would be a major operation to pull on an entire planet and permission would have to be gotten from Starfleet command.

Edrik's mother whispered something to an older man that seemed to be their leader. He said, "We know of at least two other groups like ours. It is possible to save them?"

"We can stay around for a few hours while the Queen Charlotte completes its repairs," Luke said. "We'll use that time to scan for them and try to find them."

They all looked sadly out the porthole again. "All in all, captain," the older man said, "I think relocating to another planet sounds like the better plan."

"Very well. Lt. Solari will issue diet cards and show you how to use the food replicators. Make yourselves at home as best you can. It will be a ten day trip to Starbase 122. I'll warn you before we leave orbit."

Luke and Solari went back into the corridor on their way to the bridge. He noticed her looking at him out the corners of her eyes. "Were you going to say something, Lieutenant?" he snapped guiltily.

"Who me sir?"

"You were going to remind me of the Prime Directive," he said. "I know because it's exactly what I would have done when I was a lieutenant."

"Actually sir," she said shaking her head. "I have learned that you always know exactly what you're doing. I was going to ask if you had noticed that in Edrik's group there were no girls his age."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Luke said. They both stopped and looked behind them. Edrik was following about twenty feet back, his eyes glued to the pretty Italian first officer and her tight Starfleet uniform. When the boy realized he had been seen, he shyly tried to hide around a corner. Solari smiled.

Oh great! Luke thought. It was going to be a long ten days! The things you have to worry about when you're a captain!

*The End*