"Captain ka'Sharren," the man in the centre says. "You are familiar with The Inflictor. Or rather, I believe Starfleet knows it as the Biophage?"
"The Ulith III Biophage, yes," answers Nash ka'Sharren. "Named for the planet we first encountered it on."
"That you first encountered it on...," repeats the man in the center. He chuckles dryly for a moment. "Would that we could say the same. I am Praetor Camir. You have been brought here to discuss this Biophage, and the threat it represents to the galaxy at large, not just to this Star Empire, or your Federation."
Nash's brow furrows as she digests those words. "Is this a Romulan weapon?"
"Over a thousand years ago, we encountered what we came to know as the Inflictor, busily consuming a colony world of ours," explains the Praetor. "We destroyed the colony world, and tracked it back to a derelict, extra-galactic ship that had been drifting through our space. We took a sample of this creature, and after realising it was intelligent, we attempted to harness it." He sighs and reclines back in his chair. "It failed, with great loss. Nothing can alter the mental template of the Inflictor, it is ruthlessly self-correcting. The Inflictor, is the Inflictor, is the Inflictor. So we buried the project in bases on inhospitable worlds and the project was lost to time."
Nash continues to look up at the Continuing Committee, stony-faced and still as the grave. "So it got loose from those bases?"
"Knowledge of those bases became known to only a very few, as hundreds of years of political cut and thrust passed," continues the Praetor. "And eventually, they were lost in the treaty that ended the Earth-Romulan War, now on the wrong side of the Neutral Zone." He glances pointededly as the mural on the floor of the Senate. "It appears that those bases were improperly cleared."
"Ulith III was one of them," guesses Nash.
"That facility was destroyed. You built your science outpost above the remains of our outpost, placed for the same observation reasons," confirms the Praetor. "When we intercepted the news of the outpost's fate, it triggered memories and we investigated further. It seems that a sample of the Biophage slipped containment, and was frozen in the ice."
"So it escaped from Ulith III when the researchers thawed the ice?"
"No, it escaped from the intact, abandoned Korlonia II base," corrects the Praetor.
"...there was an intact Romulan base on Korlonia II?" blurts ka'Sharren, eyes wide.
"That was my own reaction," muttered the Tal Shiar officer from behind Nash.
"Why don't you explain this part, Temon, as it was your organisation's failure," drawls the Praetor.
Nash imagines that she can hear the grinding teeth as she turns to regard the much higher ranked than expected Tal Shiar officer. "Failure? Ouch. Don't take it personally, Temon, we all know the Tal Shiar doesn't have failures," she says in a mock-compassionate voice. "Just call it 'outcomes other than success'."
The Tal Shiar official glares at her with a white-hot rage. His voice sounds like a whetstone on a blade, grinding and metallic. "Unlike the Ulith III base, Korlonia II was abandoned intact but cloaked, and still carried a number of research elements that needed to be ... handled. We did not want to attempt to destroy the Inflictor while on a planet, preferring to attempt so in deep space. However, from long experience the Inflictor has learned how to compromise their isolation vessels without betraying the rewiring. We had to take ... unusual steps to sanitise an escaped sample. We then spent time preparing and attempted to clear out the last remaining site on the planet."
"What went wrong?"
"It is unknown," admits Temon after a long delay. "Contact with the clean-up crew simply ceased."
"What happened at Dunwich IV? Another base?"
Temon looks like he's swallowing a lemon whole. "The clean-up crew on Korlonia landed via a cloaked shuttle."
Nash and the other Federation officers stare at the Tal Shiar man in horror. Eventually the captain repeats in a mumble, "The Biophage has a cloaked shuttle. Wonderful."
The Praetor clears his throat. "Not anymore."
"Well, that's a relief."
"Because the Inflictor used it to launch a sneak attack on the Heavy Warbird T'Seren, which is now serving as the mothership of the plague ravaging the Neutral Zone."
Nash gives an involuntary squeak.
"You may have noticed all the refugee ships in orbit?" The Praetor drums his fingers as that sinks in. "We have been evacuating the colonies and outposts near the Neutral Zone, and have destroyed a number of minor shipyards."
"Why have you brought us here?" asks Nash in a haunted whisper.
"The Federation and the Romulans must both invade the Neutral Zone and destroy this threat before it grows too great. There are species and infrastructure within that zone, and if the Inflictor finds them before we can, then it will grow exponentially. The urgency needed to be impressed upon Starfleet. And we need the sensors of an E-type like your own to help us track down this mothership."
-
The beep at the door startles you out of your thoughts. You look up from your paperwork to the door, then glance at the still silent intercom. Who dared simply barge through your office?
"Enter."
The outgoing head of Starfleet Ops, Vice Admiral Hamsfeld, storms into your room and comes up to your desk. You're about to excoriate his unprofessional behaviour, when he abruptly speaks up. "Computer, replay recording 'Miracht-21313.9'."
You hold your tongue, simply folding your arms and looking up at the Vice Admiral balefully. If this turns out to not be worth your time...
He glances down as the speakers in the room beep for a moment and quickly adds, "Miranda-class, RBZ posting."
"I know what the Miracht is, Donald."
The log begins to play, slightly scratchy from the low-gain subspace frequency used.
"Alright, Sector Command, we've finished the sweep of the Indus system, nothing here but rocks, really. We have secured from Red Alert and are preparing to move on to the next system."
"Good to hear, Miracht, let us kn-"
A new voice, distant from the recording, jumps in. "Ship decloaking! Romulan heav-firing! We're hit!"
"Got us before shields went up!"
"Tactical, damage report."
"Superficial damage only, Captain. Some manner of particle beam, but it appears to be ineffectual."
"Call for reinforcements, give me full power to Shields and Engines, we can't take that thing head on, we need to play for time."
"Captain, the Warbird is turning away ... it's cloaked."
"What? What was that about, 'tag you're it'?"
"Captain, I have reviewed Sensor logs of the Romulan Heavy Warbird, and I must conclude that it was contaminated by the pestilence currently designated the Ulith III Biophage."
You feel your gut tighten, wrench itself about. A long silence follows on the replay. Finally, "Deploy security teams to the impact area. Put up force fields on all corridors. Engineering, this is the Bridge."
"Engineering here."
"That ship that just fired on us was infected with the Biophage. I don't know what that shot did, but I want your people on high alert."
"Understood, Captain. We'll keep an ... hang on." You can hear a distant alarm sounding.
"Traynor, what's happening?"
"I don't know, there's an alarm, I'm no sure..." Screams begin to become audible through the broadcast from Engineering.
"Captain," one of the bridge crew cut in. "We are getting biohazard warnings from Engineering."
"Traynor, my crew tells me there are biohazard warnings in your area, get out of there!"
"By the ... oh no, Captain, get whoever you can to escape pods! It's coming up the core, it's killing-! I've got to start a breach before it's too late!"
"Computer, cease playback," interrupts Hamsfeld. "The rest of the playback is futility and screaming. They don't get the warp core breached in time, and mains power loss prevents use of the transporters to beam a torpedo to the core. The whole craft is infected within a few minutes."
"I thought Medical's estimates said half an hour to an hour?" you ask, aghast.
"The infected Warbird used a particle beam after it dropped out of cloak. It created a much larger initial dose of Biophage than Medical expected." You lean back in your chair and let out a long, slow breath. Hamsfeld swallows, taking the moment to calm his nerves. "When the Kumari arrived, there was no sign of the Miracht, or the Romulan."
"Issue a new Starfleet General Order, all ships are to run with shields raised at all times unless explicitly required to be dropped for operations," you reply in a rush. "Until Medical can give us something, instruct all Captains and Chief Engineers: ships that are infected are to immediately induce warp core breaches until we can find an effective counter. And contact the Enterprise to get an update, let them know that there's an infected Heavy Warbird out there."
