Vampire Eyes

Posted on Fri 10th Apr, 2026 @ 1:14am by Commander Damion Ildaran & Commander Geraldine "Geri" Severide & Commander Mindo & Lieutenant Pampo Gnu

4,437 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: [TIE-IN] IBEX - In the Beginning...
Timeline: Concurrent with "Ashes" and "Dust"

"Your body's dying. Pay no attention. It happens to us all. Now look...with your vampire eyes. What did you see?"
"No words can describe it. Might as well ask Heaven what it sees. No human can know."

{IBEX- Bridge}

A secret little ship in its private little place napped quietly, awaiting the dawn. The only sounds on board were the exo-comps finishing the work of a whole crew in record time. The little bots had found something in their work on this secret ship, job satisfaction. Learning the technologies and working with such intricate and advanced systems had been a challenge, and to have the stipulation of no external communication had given them something else, agency. The IBEX was finished, the Omniblack paint had cured, the variable dish antennae aligned with its roulette wheel of configuration options... Peggy watch Zombie complete the final item on the checklist.

{[PEGGY]- [ZOMBIE]: Aztec striping application incomplete on 4x5xAb Hull plate.}
{[ZOMBIE]- [PEGGY]: Paint applied in accordance with supplied data. You can fix what you find wrong.}

The two bots quipped in a light speed way, the four of them shared a quantum link and enjoyed instant flawless communications. Zombie was a jerk, but they were a family so Peggy took the sharp tone as a machine would, a diagnostic indicator that Zombie was not being properly stimulated. Peggy didn't understand boredom, but acknowledged its effects all the same.

{[PEGGY]-[ZOMBIE]: I am unable to fix what is wrong, as you are the aberration to our joint task. The striping is 4 degrees off of the *TERMINATE/ {NEW STRAND} {IBEX RECALL}

Peggy stopped mid-message as the Station sounded Red Alert. Banshee was their resident systems expert and acted fast, tapping into station OPS. She understood immediately, and sent recall to the White room as well.

Duke, Makoto, Damion, all appeared on the bridge in an instant, the IBEX transporters pulling them in the recall.

Damion bit back the exclamation he almost made at abruptly finding himself on the IBEX's bridge when he'd been in the White Room. If he was on the bridge, he needed to be there. "Reggie, report," he said and then glanced at Duke and Makoto. "I just heard a red alert and evacuation order. No idea what's going on, but we'd better prepare to move."

Reggie flutzed into being, somehow happy in his general attitude and affect. A fit and confident Reginald Barclay now stood on the bridge, in its "closed mode" with a ceiling and traditional aesthetic. When they needed to plan a mission the walls retracted into the floor and a flat surface afforded them an open dome projection of whatever they needed. Kolor took the initiative to "retract the sunroof" as Alex had taken to calling it.

"Captain Ildaran, a pleasure. Red Alert is sounded due to Captain Francis ordering immediate Evacuation given a thirty-minute time frame." Reggie flutzed as he strained to take in the information and refine it to a single sentence. "The Station has put all of its resources as well into containment of a strange matter device in a junction attached to the Fusion Core. They believe removal of the entire core is the only way to save the station..."

Kolor put a three dimensional wire frame in the sky above them. Schematics of the device, as well as anything in the area appeared in scale form all around them.

Duke gave a whistle, "That's a Black matter device, weaponized strange matter. Good news, its more stable to handle and render inert, bad part is, the device is going to explode no matter what. I'll try to get a timeline."

Reggie flutzed again, cracking encryptions on communications like a candied apple. "It seems the device is charging on the power supply so they intend to cut main power in ten minutes, batteries will be insufficient for containment of the device and preventing systems collapse. Four hours of run time maybe with all theirs still running.

Kolor completed the report in awe, "They are strategizing to join the Ticonderoga Star Cradle directly to 109's mains, it can work for a stable grid. They only have six hours at most to get it done, I don't think they are being realistic on their estimations, this work cant be done quickly, safely."

Makoto added, "Once the evacuation is done, Starfleet would drop the safely requirement for the quickly."

"What would happen if we beamed the device out and rematerialized it outside 109 at the widest angle of dispersion?" Damion asked as he peered at the schematics. He sighed. "Never mind; they'd have done that already, if they could have. That leaves assisting them with containment and providing back-up power. I have a feeling drawing power from the Ticonderoga for too long will fry it. If we provide power as well as Ticonderoga, how much time would that buy them?"

Kolor shook his head, "We can provide power; it's their capacity to receive it... If we launch, I can use our pulse energy nodes to provide palatable doses of power. That will only help by half an hour at best, but it won't overload the EPS trunks. However, I have another idea, but it will also require us to be outside the station. We can expend an Omega fragment, and place chronometric shielding around the containment unit, this will allow us to phase power in from the future, and change their rates of power decay without them noticing a thing. We will lose an enormous amount of power to inefficiencies."

Makoto called out, "Got the device, Gravimetric Distortion Analyzer places a likely compression of matter occurring in a primary EPS junction attached to the Fusion core housing, swapping to Dark Matter Pattern enhancer... Well I presume this to be Black Matter. Shall I forward these results to Commander Mindo?"

"Makoto--yes, do it," Damion said. "Anything that can help them--though, if Black Matter is different from dark matter, that might be moot. Kolor--If we use an Omega fragment and chronometric shielding, how much power would that leave us? Would we still be able to go to warp before an explosion occurs--if it occurs?"

Makoto sent word to Mindo, as much of their information as had been gathered, compressed and encrypted.

Only a few minutes later, a message from Mindo appeared on Makoto's screen. "Found it. Thanks for the tip."

Kolor answered Damion, "We would be focusing most of our power to the shielding 61% or so, with fourteen allocated for vital systems at minimum and our own Temporal restrainer would likely put us near maximum. No sir, while we beam the power into their batteries we are over tasked. They only need the power until Ticonderoga completes its linkages."

Reggie buzzed into appearance, changing from Engineer smock yellow, to Command Red. "We would also be exposed for all to see. Regulations state clearly Captain."

Damion now had an inkling of how Reggie could become extremely annoying, extremely quickly. He also didn't want to expose or destroy the ship on his first day of command. That would be a record I don't want to hold, he thought. Aloud, he said, "Before we feed the base any power, get us into freighter configuration, Kolor, and request that the docking bay doors be opened. Once Ticonderoga completes its linkages, we'll need to unlink our own connections, undock and get out of this bay with whatever power we have left."

Then he glanced at the hologram. "Reggie, rhetorical question. If everyone is busy evacuating the starbase, who's going to notice or care if they see a Saladin-class starship departing a docking bay?"

Reggie looked on in faux confusion trying to illustrate the point, "Well if one was looking over this incident later the sudden appearance of one would be noteworthy. We can convert into a single-hulled freighter as you suggested. Shall I generate an identity for us?"

Damion restrained the urge to roll his eyes at Reggie; the hologram was simply pointing out the obvious. Any Saladin-class ship was an extremely old vessel whose presence would be noticed if anyone reviewed camera recordings or scans later. "Noted, Reggie. Thanks."

Grazia had entered the main bridge, pointing to a group of twelve small pleasure yachts, "A Denobulan pan-Galactic Yachting convoy was just on station, we could easily mask as one of their vessels."

"That works beautifully. Thank you, Grazia," Damion said. "Reggie, please generate an identity for us consistent with the convoy vessels."

Reggie nodded and disappeared, a moment later the overhead real time laser light show above depicted a new ship, a Denobulan pleasure yacht. Kolor signaled his station was ready to begin the power phasing.

Makoto spoke in a stern tone to Damion, "Sir, Anslo Tol is being secured for prisoner transfer... I'd like to get some answers from him... if we can perform a Quantum transport I can snag him."

Damion nodded at Kolor to acknowledge his readiness and then thought about Makoto's request. He didn't think they should just be beaming people away without a by-your-leave whenever they felt like it, and the guy had already been jerked around enough in his life. On the other hand, if Anslo agreed to serve on the IBEX, that would solve some of his problems quite neatly. "What information do you think he can provide?" he asked Makoto.

She had a tone that suggested a familiarity and disdain for the man she had never met, "He's one of the reasons the Second Sons have been so famously hard to track, and successful in their raids. He also claimed to have defected upon being given the mission to place this charge in the Fusion core. Says he was shot down trying to escape and sent us a signal. I tasked Entaaro with a duty on his boards to find it and he came through, Anslo tried to contact us and telemetry from signal does support he was fired upon when the signal terminated. He has answers to question we dont know to ask yet, I feel it, and he definitely knows about this device."

Duke spoke up from the pool table mission planning suite at the rear of the bridge, "My analysis is showing the charge is nearly primed, two days or maybe a little more would have likely been enough. If he can tell us more about it we can mitigate the explosive or contain the black matter reaction. I've already consulted Engineering logs from the Pandora and begun a containment device project in the main computer."

Damion nodded. "Makoto, I think we should bring Mr. Tol onboard with an eye to possible recruitment, if he passes the personality assessment. So yes, beam him aboard into secured guest quarters. Kolor, begin the power phasing."

Yuma smiled, a part of her was pure mischief and the chance to inflict chaos was amusing to her. Anslo was being held in a prisoners transfer device, designed to stop beam outs, assassinations, escapes of all kinds. The Quantum Transporter bypassed all of it, and simply relocated the cell of space the target occupied. The technology demanded equivalent exchange of mass, so she gave the startled security guards 200 kilos of water to consider. The surveillance readouts showed the deluge from nowhere soaking three Starfleet security and she giggled to herself.

"Aye sir, Anslo's now in a spatial fold cell stored in C-5. Sending word to Captain Francis as well, so they dont presume Anslo has escaped."

Kolor reported, "Power phasing has begun, their time table will read as eight hours more or less now."

Grazia added, "Profile is strong, we are well hidden."

Duke gave his .02, "The Device will detonate if it's moved, it's at 92% charge, seems to be absorbing passively still, some entropic energy sponge. We can't stop the detonation, but we can help contain the black matter. Our Omega containment system is more than capable, but we would need to purge our Omega fragments and empty the chamber. A waste of years of development but I can guarantee it will work, with Commander Mindo's containment protocols as well."

Sure, we'll just 'purge our Omega fragments,' Damion thought. Twenty-four hours ago, this idea would have given me an arrhythmia. Now, I'm sitting here, thinking, 'Yeah, they can do that.' For the second time in his life, he felt like praying. "Go ahead, Duke. If we can capture more fragments later, we will. If this works, I'm buying all of you a round."

Duke acknowledged, but had to ask before proceeding, "Sir I can load them up in torpedoes. It's fast, contained, and easy to handle. It will however create eight weapons of massive destructive capability. I wont be able to pull the fragments once they are loaded, so I can take the extra step to render the warheads inert if you like? Or we can load them into the arsenal for a rainy day."

Grazia immediately pointed out, "Omega research is beyond classified and a controlled sector. Creating these will be a violation of four treaties and dozens of accords."

Duke fired back, "Ok, your plan to safely dispose of them?"

Grazia shook her head, "I am not arguing against, just informing of the consequences."

Reggie flutzed into being on his square near where the viewscreen was usually when not recessed at their feet.

"I cannot allow it. Such weapons being created would be a mission another of our number would be given to rectify. We would find ourselves become the enemy."

Duke scoffed, "Only if you tell them Reggie. This is our best chance, Commander Mindo's protocols and our containment chamber will prevent Sector-wide catastrophe. We can turn them over to Starfleet if you really want to play it safe, but I don't have any other rabbits or hats to offer."

"Duke, render the torpedoes inert, and then purge the Omega fragments into them so we can contain the black matter," Damion said. "Reggie, formulate possible solutions for safe disposal and preservation of the Omega fragments we have. Send the three best solutions you derive to my console. Makoto, once the Ticonderoga completes its power linkages and we've got the black matter adequately contained, begin undocking and get us out of here."

Kolor interjected, "I am sending the Exocomps to assist, it is up to Commander Mindo's team to get the black matter separate. The bots will bring it here."

Makoto smiled at the thought of being underway again. This ship was a lot of fun, and it was good to be back. "Aye sir, We are ready to launch at your orders. Our maiden voyage!"

Damion chuckled. "I guess it is, in a way. Set our heading for the Delavi Expanse, Makoto. Once you talk to Anslo Tol and debrief him about the Second Sons, we can refine our heading then. I'll get us ready for departure."

{IBEX-Brig}

One Hundred and Thirty people clustered in tight as can be to a space that could accommodate about a hundred if the walls and partitions were lowered. Reggie, a hologram who didnt experience claustrophobia, determined the security of the ship overrode comfort and maintained the brigs layout. It was tight, and people were shoving one another, trying to find a way out of the brig portion of the deck. The pseudo Federation aesthetic was present but what else was alarming was the lack of a door or window. The room was durasteel with white matte polish, and alcoves which had only a single bed/bench all facing a central walkway marked it as a detention center. Cooler heads among the evacuees knew this was an evacuation and any ship with space was taking on passengers, but the grumbling over the space was justified.

This last desperate group of people had been lead by Lt. Pampo Gnu, a semi retired diplomat from Halana. He had been trying to get them to shut up and listen for several minutes.

"Hey I found something!" Pampo called out, and finally got their attention. Halanan psychic projection creates a physical specimen which takes up space. With that ability also came the ability to sense for open space to project into, and Pampo found behind a wall with a smooth featureless flat look that now stood out. Interrogation rooms of old used two way mirrors, but this ship had some kind of metal to do the same thing. His void sense knew the space was large enough to stand in, and he used his imagination to create the empty room and project himself into it.

"Hob" manifested like a hologram within the space Pampo sensed. Projecting didnt require line of sight or anything like that, Pampo was just disabled while projecting. Barely able to stand, Pampo sat against the wall and closed his eyes to remote view from HOB's perspective.

His hunch of an interrogation room was correct, machines for discerning the truth surrounded Hob. Hob only lived for minutes at a time, and suffered from lack of education, but Pampo recognized what he saw. And there was a display, it showed the lifesigns of everyone in the room, 136 people, linked to a teleportation scanner. Pampo nearly pressed the button which would have sent everyone to the main deck, but the doors opened to a very surprised Makoto.

"Who THE HELL ARE YOU! REGGIE! Security in Interrogation room, we have an intruder!" Makoto was a woman of action, seeing anyone on the IBEX other than a crewmember meant the only response was swift violence. Hob was not a biological being, so Makoto firing a stunblast did little but mark the wall behind him as some of the energies passed through Hob's chest. On the other side of the wall, Pampo yelled out, and the bio-monitors showed a spike in one the brig occupants.

Makoto registered much of this, but was also vaulting over a seat and desk to place both feet onto Hob's chest and kick with the fury of a too stubborn mule making their stand. It might as well have been solid floor, her feet didnt even register the smoothness of a body, it was like kicking a forcefield. She nearly fell but caught herself in an agile twist and rolled to her feet to fire again. Hob disappeared in a flash.

"What?!" Makoto looked around, suspecting a shroud, as Reggie appeared in suite.

"Where is the intruder?" Reggie was scanning as well, he was the anti-boarding protocols first step but he saw only the phaser marks from Makoto's pistol. There were no other biological traces either, the scanners only registered Makoto having entered the room. A recreation from the surveillance feed showed Hob on the visual spectrum at least. Reggie noted the simultaneous phaser fire and perosnal distress and connected the two immediately.

"That man is a Halanan and a lieutenant of Starfleet. You saw a psychic projection."

Makoto calmed down immediately, understanding a Starfleet officer would absolutely try anything to help people in need. She looked at her display, and Pampo was standing up, seemingly unharmed.

"Reggie we can't leave those people gasping. We can give them more space if we lower the walls, let them come into the office we can lock it down they wont see a thing."

As a soulless hologram, Reggie could only reply, "They will live. I will not allow civilians on the main decks and if you override me Makoto it will be the end of your career I swear it."

Yuma Mukkai swallowed her pride, this wasn't the time for a contest, Makoto was always ready to fight, but Yuma hada life to start and Reggie could make that impossible.

"I came here for Anslo, not them, but now I'm doing something for them. Do Your Worst Hologram."

Reggie made an odd face, and simply disappeared. Makoto disarmed the alcoves, and sank the partitions to the ground. The space was expandable, the larger it was the more power it consumed but floor space was not in short supply. Their pocket dimension folded into a small alcove added 25% more universe to occupy.

As more space was made people breathed in great relief. Satisfied they were in decent shape, Makoto then pulled up the scanners of the Brig. With only one Trill, it was easy. She activated the QT, and Anslo immediately popped into existence inside the questioning seat of their interrogation room, which lowered restraints and applied sensors to the skin. The occupant was also blinded and sat in a shroud of silence, hearing and seeing nothing.

She knew the people in the brig would probably notice someone disappearing but she couldn't explain it to them and had no more time to consider. They were doing much better, room to lay down, space to breathe had helped calm them all. Pampo could be heard trying to rally them.

There wasn't time to do much more for them, they'd find a place elsewhere soon enough.

"Captain, prisoner is ready for questioning."

Makoto, status of the intruder? If the intruder is secured, proceed with questioning, Damion replied. I'll join you when I can; I'm waiting for the Exo-Comps to return. Passengers will be beamed to the Ehtevau beginning now.

She did not have to be told twice. For the last day, her readings had lead to a dearth of information on Anslo Tol, and she knew exactly what to ask him. The interrogation booth he was in had a single chair in opposition, and a small table with pad and pen. She took a seat, marveling at the bio-signs Anslo was showing. This would be very easy, intimidation was the play.

She lowered the visor, cut the light to Anslo's relief, and even relaxed the torso containment field to let him breathe easier. That woul dbe the end of his relief.

"Anslo Tol, you will tell me everything. H'tek, Second Sons, This device, your past, all of it. I will use every piece of knowledge you provide to destroy them, and if its not good info, I will destroy you. You will not see anything but my face until I am satisfied you are a fully spent informational asset. Mr. Tol, this will not be pleasant. Once we are through this, you will lead every mission we take against them. I plan to dismantle their entire network before they have a chance to rebuild."

She expected to see hatred, fear, outrage, those were normal and useful, but he showed something else, resolve. He almost looked happy to be pointed their way.

Anslo had just taken a breath to answer when the Station rocked violently and the ship was tossed nearly to capsize inside the bay.

***

(Bridge)

Damion took over the helm when Makoto went belowdecks to interrogate Anslo. "Stabilizing," he said as he righted IBEX's orientation inside the docking bay. "Computer, inform me when the Exo-Comps are back onboard."

Reggie would ordinarily have replied with a face on a screen, but this time, he only generated a bland version of his voice, "The Thunderchild has engaged the polarizing beam into the Station power grid. Bomb defusal is underway. Exo-Comp Quartet are on site assisting Lt. Kell. I estimate four minutes to their return provided Lt. Kell is able to separate the Black Matter according to plan."

"Computer, thanks for the status report," Damion said. "Duke, if I'm being a pest about wanting updates on the bots, just tell me."

There was a second where Reggie's face did appear, but was gone in an instant. A flash of something else was evident, a female face, young, and strange to anyone who looked at it in some undefinable way. The image was so quick that anybody not staring at their console would have missed it.

"Hello? Who's that?" Damion muttered under his breath before he sternly told himself to concentrate on the clock and his monitor. Seconds were ticking away.

Duke replied in a gruff hurried tone, "No complaints from me! I have the Temporal locker ready, and they'll need to carry the damn stuff here since we dont dare guess the QT counterweight wrong, so timing is crucial."

"Four minutes to get here, all the way from Engineering, is cutting it too close," Damion said, frowning. "Even if they command-override a tram and take it straight to this deck at blistering speed...."

The face suddenly reappeared; had Damion met Alidade the resemblance would have been an immediate association. The young Humanoid female at first made only sounds. Then,

"Party, travel, sycophant...petrichor," a moment passed and she seemed to rally to say a bit more coherently, "What is I, am I we, What is When, When what is wrong?"

The face disappeared from the console, as Kolor sounded the alert, "Captain, Reggie's program is growing in size...tripling at this point, I've isolated the system but we are on manuals and gel packs now. I already ahhh disabled the bridge projectors for them so good thing... I'll give answers when I have them but I recommend to take ECH offline for repairs."

"Do it," Damion said. He busied himself with lowering the "gangplank" and ensuring that everything else about IBEX was ready for departure. Then he tried not to tap his foot.

"Already done sir. I have backup programs in place, we are clear to launch."

An incoming signal from Cmdr. Severide lit up Damion's communications panel. Captain Ildaran, containment is complete. IBEX can depart station.

"Acknowledged, Ma'am," Damion replied. "Departing station now. Exo-Comps, you have our deepest thanks."

{Docking Bay Two}

The station was dark, and debris swirled all around following the activity of the dozen vessels holding more than a quarter million lives.

Damaged and frightened souls packed aboard myriad vessels huddled to windows to look out at the devastation. Silently, with an illusion cast over their exodus, the small secret nimbly rose up and out of the berth. To the most keen eyed among them there wasn't a single give away. Reborn, the IBEX had already proven invaluable, and earned its place among the crew and family of Starbase 109. Its mission, for now, was to keep the dream alive. If this base fell, the Triangle would fall into the hands of pirates and Ravagers for years to come. As long as this base was compromised, the IBEX would be here to defend it.

Without a ripple, svelte black slinked behind inky void to disappear entirely from view.

 

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