Chapter Text
i.
it was a cry
meant for no one
but the moon—
― Sujata Bhatt
“Hey, Bridge to Caleb,” Beau’s voice is lazy and sounds slightly annoyed. A bad morning then, “Did you manage to decrypt that message yet? Or find anything? The captain’s bitching—Sorry, wondering .”
Not for the first time, Caleb wondered how Beauregard got away with being so… Beauregard. In front of him, the main computer of the sensor analysis lab beeped softly, displaying its result in a holographic screen. He pressed the golden insignia on his chest gently, activating his combadge.
“There’s not much, Beauregard. Eiselcross and its moons are all Minshara-class. Habitable, but strangely uninhabited by any humanoid forms… with the exception of our friend down there.”
This time the captain’s voice boomed through, almost startling him, “Caleb. About that, did our sensors pick up anything else about them or their distress call?”
Caleb considered his odds. He disliked lying to Fjord, but he had a feeling it was necessary, now. He steeled himself.
“We are receiving a standard SOS from one of its moons, Foren. No message attached to it, unless there is something here even I can’t decrypt. In any case, the satellite in question is going through a magnetic storm that has lasted for a long while. There is no way for a ship to land or take off, which I believe is why we are being signaled. Using a transporter would be the only way to get someone out of there.” Caleb hesitated.
“I sense a but, Commander Caleb. What is it?”
“Even so, the storm still might mess up our transportation. I doubt we'd be able to lock the target from here, and I would hate to scramble the molecules of the person we are trying to save,” With the kind of equipment they had in the USS Mighty (registry NCC-09) Caleb was mildly surprised they didn’t have their atoms scattered back and forth across space on a daily basis, even without such storms. The Mighty Nein, as it was fondly called, was a reliable research vessel, but not a very new one. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Veth crossing her arms at him.
He licked his lips nervously, “If I can get down there, I can set the coordinates manually. I can get them out, captain.”
Veth groaned.
“If there’s no other choice... Caleb, prepare to beam down to Foren. Beau, Jester, you're with him. Let's make this quick, I don't like this place.”
Despite his eagerness to venture through the moons of Eiselcross, Caleb would be the first to admit that away missions were not his thing. On the bridge, his trusted science station offered all he needed usually, and in the off chance it didn’t, the large labs the M9 offered were already a second home to the human.
He walked briskly to the appointed transporter room, considering the strange message they received. It wouldn’t leave his mind and he didn’t feel inclined to tell Fjord (or Beauregard, even) about it yet, afraid they’d deem it too cryptic and leave the large moon behind. Veth knew, of course, but he trusted her not to tell on him.
“S’up, nerd. Ready for some action?”
Beau rounded the corner with a smirk on her lips. The dark-skinned woman wore her blue uniform undone on the neck and pushed up on her forearms, creating the strange look of an unruly science officer. Not that she was one, of course. Beauregard wore the blue colors of the exploratory division, but the mix-up was common enough.
In contrast, Caleb himself wore red, adding to the confusion of the crew. A science officer wearing command colors wasn’t impossible, but for the chief science officer in a vessel to do so was definitely uncommon. Still, he had both tracks under his belt, and Caleb liked the color.
“So?”
“I am hoping this mission will feature no action at all, actually.”
She smirked, “Wanna bet?”
They walked together towards the transporter, finding Dr. Jester Lavorre already on the platform. The field medic jumped in excitement.
“Hiiii, Beau, Cay-leb ! I can't wait to beat up some weird kind of monster or something down there with you two!”
“Ditto. It's been too calm here lately,” said Beau, stepping up on the platform.
“Jester, you're a doctor, not a tactical officer,” said Caleb gently, “Plus this is a rescue mission. Let's try not to… beat anything up unless strictly necessary.”
She deflated a little, “Alright, alright.”
Foren was not a happy place. Suffice to say, the magnetic storm was as terrible as they imagined and it did throw their transportation off-course, and they would have to spend a couple of hours walking to reach their mark. The local geography did not help out either, with plasma geysers that erupted periodically, making them thread unsteadily through rocky terrain. The entire place seemed to be made of frosted mountains and dark boiling rivers, creating a terrifying contrast with the cloudless maroon sky.
The little satellite seemed to be angry at them, thought Caleb irrationally as he barely managed to sidestep another dangerous geological feature. Still, their tricorders were still connected to the ship perfectly, and Caleb could see that they were approaching the place originating the distress call, the low beep on the device picking up its pace.
Sure enough, there, on the corner of another frozen mountain, was a small vessel that seemed to have crashed violently.
“Oh shit,” whistled Beau, “That looks bad.”
Jester rummaged through her pack producing a tricorder, “Ok, it's going to be ok. I have my med kit, I have my tricorder. It's going to be ok, right?”
“ Ja , Blueberry, we will do all we can.”
Even as he nodded, Caleb couldn't help but notice that the ship in question was not one of a make he recognized. Definitely not Starfleet. The hull was painted a shocking magenta, with strange details offset in green and orange all throughout the vessel. As they came closer, it became clear that it was civilian, holding no visible weaponry. Caleb scanned it while Beau approached the structure.
The reading was surprising, to say the least. Caleb tried to calm his voice, “Whatever this is, it doesn't have life support.”
“What?” Jester turned to him, “But that makes no sense, Cay-leb .”
Caleb frowned, “And there is a humanoid lifeform in there. Alive.”
“Shit, that's some heavy debris we gotta move, though,” Beau eyed the entrance as they approached, “Should have brought Yasha.”
Jester grinned, “You always think we should bring Yasha, though.”
“Shut up, Jester. Help me lift these rocks, ugh.”
As the two started with the heavy lifting, Caleb pressed the combagde on his chest.
“Commander Widogast to Mighty Nein. We have eyes on the fallen ship. Looks civilian, of unknown make. No life support, weirdly enough. I am sending the data over right now.”
“Good to know. I’ll have Veth analyze it,” Fjord hesitated.
“Captain?”
“Uh. I know she can handle herself, but keep an eye on Jester for me, will you?”
Caleb smiled, “Of course, captain.”
Finally, with the entrance unimpeded, the three of them made their way in quietly. The ship was just big enough to not be called a shuttle, though it was a close thing. The insides of it were similarly painted with strange, outlandish motifs, including too many intimidating red eyes for his taste. It was quiet, mildly destroyed, and dark, seeming completely deactivated.
They walked forward carefully. Jester and Caleb carried their phasers at the ready, while Beau led them holding her quarterstaff, a ruthless weapon doubled as a tasing device. Not something fun to be hit with. Caleb knew by experience. They managed to ignore most of the debris easily and made their way to where Caleb's tricorder pointed as the origin of the SOS.
“Veth to Caleb, I found something,” the halfling's high-pitched voice filled the dark hallway as his combadge came to life, “This is not an ordinary ship. It's more of a coffin. You can reply to this message.”
“ Was ?”
Beau grabbed her own comm, “What do you mean a coffin ?”
“I mean… No one should be alive in there. It's a funerary pod, this thing. The paint job on the ship means it's used by a cultist group! They’re dangerous, been on Starfleet’s radar for a while,” she paused, “They dispose of bodies like this, it's all very ceremonial. Creepy shit. Could be a trap, be careful.”
The three of them looked at each other in the dark of the abandoned hallway. A shiver ran up Caleb's spine.
“Our sensors wouldn't lie, though. There's only one person here.”
Sure enough, his tricorder kept beeping steadily.
Veth's voice came to life again, “Maybe whoever is in there was a victim of the group. The Tomb Takers, they call themselves.”
“Cool name. Retro.”
“No one is supposed to survive in these things. So I don't know if there's something wrong with our sensors or if someone's really down there?”
“It is a mystery. Thank you Veth,” Caleb turned to Beau, raising one eyebrow.
Beau cursed inwardly before cursing again, outwardly. “Fuck. Only one way to find out. Caleb behind me, Jessie take the rear. Let's go.”
The mechanical sliding door they needed to get through was jammed, but Beau managed to open it after a while, using her staff as a lever.
More red eyes followed them inside the strangely decorated room. The walls were of a deep, sickly pink color that reminded Caleb of the insides of his organs. At the center of the room sat a large metal coffin, the kind that would preserve a body continuously for many years to come.
The lid was half-open, though, and as they approached Caleb confirmed their fears. Empty. He barely turned to communicate this to Beau when her eyes widened at something just over Caleb's shoulder.
“Duck!” she yelled, and he obeyed quickly, letting his knees take him to the ground as she swung her staff viciously through the air.
It hit something with a dull crack and then released a shocking sound, as it paralyzed whatever it was that she hit. Caleb was breathing heavily, hands up to his head for a few moments until he heard the final thump of a body hitting the floor.
Silence, and then a cheerful voice:
“Beau, I think you technically knocked out the person we should be saving. Technically .”
The stranger was a tiefling. Mostly.
All the features of devil descent were there, horn and tails and the elevated temperature (not something all of us experience, said Jester with a tut). Their lavender skin and red sclera were rare, but not unheard of, and despite the blow that Beau dealt to their head, they were stable. They were safely deposited on a biobed at the ship’s ICU and seemed to be breathing calmly, unconscious.
“Hm. This is weird,” commented Dr. Caduceus, moving his fingers through the holographic exam results. Jester immediately pulled him to the side, so that she could see what it was that made the firbolg frown.
“Wha—Oh,” her eyebrows shot up, “I’m not saying the computer is totally broken but, like, it is, because that’s not possible.”
Caleb watched quietly for a while as they discussed among themselves in terms he didn’t quite follow. Clearing his throat quietly, he brought the attention of the medical team back to Beau and him.
“Okay, so. You know how, like, Trill symbionts look like, um, large worms, and they'll join their hosts and become one person with all the memories of their previous lives? And after ninety-three hours or so they’re like together forever ?”
He did.
“So. Yeah. This person, whoever they are, used to be a host for a long time period. Probably years. See here?” Caduceus pointed to a strange shape in the imaging of the exam, “That empty space around their organs is where the symbiont used to be.”
“They shouldn’t be alive,” breathed Beau.
“Nope!” said Jester happily, “It’s a miracle!”
Caleb sat quietly thinking this over. They had been wearing what seemed to be funeral attire, gauzy and black, but the medical team had since changed them into the standard sickbay gown. It seemed obvious that whoever sent the tiefling to Foren had not expected them to survive.
He took a moment to commit the stranger to memory. They sported a dark purple bruise on their forehead, the only thing tarnishing their otherwise breathtaking visage. Caleb shook his head. This was not the time to be thinking about that, but he couldn't deny that the full, violet lips and the silky dark curls were quite becoming on the sleeping tiefling. The bruise looked out of place, but Caleb couldn't help but notice a myriad of scars on the stranger's chest. Thin cuts that had made Caduceus frown strangely. Jester had even asked about taking care of them, but the firbolg shook his head gently.
“Nah, not our call. We should get going anyway, the swing shift is over. We’ll ask some questions when they wake up.”
Silently, the emergency medical hologram came to life. A round-faced firbolg smiled at them.
“Dr. Nila, good to see you. Keep an eye on this one tonight, okay?”
“I will, Dr. Clay. Rest well,” she said, taking the PADD assigned to the tiefling and sitting down at her desk.
Caleb settled next to the tiefling’s biobed. When Caduceus raised a gentle eyebrow he shrugged, “Ah, I will stay a while longer. I have some light reading to do, no reason not to do it here in case they wake up. I bet they’ll need an explanation.”
“Well, alright, commander, don’t stay up too late.”
Caleb bid Caduceus good night and refrained from acknowledging that last sentence. He planned to spend the entire night shift right there, next to them, anyway. The sickbay’s main ICU was thankfully deserted, only Caleb and Dr. Nila remaining, apart from the unconscious lavender tiefling. Veth had even asked if he needed anything through their comms, but he had declined, opting to use the replicator on the sickbay to have a quiet dinner. She thought it a bit odd, but let it go.
He didn't tell her about the words that kept repeating on the back of his brain. The words that were the actual message encrypted in the distress signal he had elected to keep a secret.
Empty. Empty. Empty .
He couldn't leave. He wanted to know.
They woke up kicking and screaming and pulling at their patient gown with obvious rage. The tiefling managed to elbow a very surprised Caleb on the chin, toppling his chair over and almost making it out of the sickbay before Nila sealed the door quietly. They turned back looking for something else to hit. Nila was the first option, but she didn’t budge at their attempt. Their fist went clean through her form—she had been given enough control over her holographic form that a physical hit was not an issue. Seething, they turned back, locking eyes again with the scrawny redhead on the ground.
Caleb's hands were raised up in an attempt to keep any other blows at bay, and his blue eyes were wide. He winced, waiting for another attack, but it never came. Instead, the tiefling came closer, examined his form and simply turned away, apparently deciding that Caleb was not a threat. A look at the stranger's biceps made Caleb understand their reasoning. He cleared his throat from his spot on the floor. Time to give diplomacy a try.
“ Hallo . I'm Caleb.” he paused, “I heard your distress signal. We were just treating your injuries here.”
If the tiefling heard, they didn't respond. Instead, they started their onslaught of attacks again, only now, directed at the door.
Caleb got up with a hiss, feeling pain shooting down his jaw from the blow. “Ach. Doc, call Caduceus, please. And Yasha, if you could. Tell them this is time sensitive.”
“Already done, commander,” the firbolg frowned, “Should I restrain them?”
The snarl the tiefling gave her was indication enough that they would not like that. It also indicated they understood what was being said.
“No. No, I don’t think so.”
Satisfied, the lavender tiefling went back to their attack, unperturbed by their audience. Caleb decided to wait from his corner, knowing he wouldn’t be capable of stopping them physically but that the door also would not budge with a few punches. Better wait it out.
They kept at their attempts to break the door for a good ten minutes until the blows decreased in enthusiasm. The tiefling simply slid down to their knees in front of it, chest heaving from exhaustion. Their knuckles looked bloody, and Caleb found the necessary items to patch them up quickly. He spoke softly.
“These doors are pretty sturdy, my friend. Perhaps I could help you out a little? I think you hurt your hands.”
Caleb came closer slowly, simple bandages and a tube of salve on his hands while Nila watched. The stranger didn't seem to react at him coming closer but looked at their own hands in confusion as if just noticing the bruised knuckles from the war waged against the door.
“Um, you are quite strong. But you need to be careful, or you'll hurt yourself.” Cherry-red eyes met his and he gestured at the salve, “May I touch your hands? This is, ah, made from Lyssarian desert larvae… I know how that sounds, but it is quite good for cuts and bruises alike. We used it on your forehead, and it's almost better.”
He wondered if his new friend understood him at all for a moment, but saw Dr. Nila nodding at his delivery. Slowly, the stranger turned their body to Caleb’s and offered their bloodied hands.
He took them and started to clean them first, before applying the salve. The tiefling watched with curious eyes.
“ Gut . Now, since you can understand me then I will tell you where you are. This is a Starfleet vessel, and our mission is one of research and exploration. Are those terms familiar to you?” he waited until the tiefling shook their head with wide eyes, “Okay. Well, at least we are communicating, that is good too,” he paused, “How about this. We heard a distress call coming from the moon you were stranded at. Our mission was to save you from that crash site. Does that make sense?”
Understanding dawned on the tiefling's face and they nodded. Caleb continued.
“We managed to take you back to our ship and patch you up, like I am doing now, ja ?”
The stranger narrowed their eyes and cocked their head in the direction of the sealed door.
“Ah, well. That is standard procedure when someone gets… violent. I am sorry. But Caduceus and Yasha are almost here, and they'll help you out too. And soon there will be no more closed doors for you, I promise.”
He finished bandaging the tiefling's hand up, giving them a friendly pat.
“There, all done. Not so bad, ja ?”
And at that moment, right before the door whooshed open and their large chief of security came through, followed by Caduceus, the tiefling took another good look at their hands and at Caleb and gave him the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.