Living Inventory [✱28]

Posted on Fri Aug 14th, 2026 @ 2:14am by Grandmaster M'Hum & Lieutenant Commander N'Tgni Creon & Senior Aerospace Specialist Mindo 'Riot' & Cadet Senior Grade Bellis & Crewman Thomas Callaghan & Captain Hadrian 'Sunshine' Palamas

1,503 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: UnderMind [4]
Location: Abandoned Underground Facility
Timeline: After 'Guests at the Hall'

As the door squealed closed, hiding away Saa and the treacherous Vulcans who carried her, another noise came from the opposite side of the room. Sound travelling down the steep descent. The sound of bugs.

"Everyone against the wall. Stay very still. No sudden movements." Creon instructed, moving herself into the position as ordered against the recently shut door.

Bellis did as she was told. The sound of the bugs made her wounds hurt.

Callaghan also obeyed. He knew there was nothing he could do.

Half a dozen of the warrior bugs appeared, between them carrying two more living but impaled Starfleet officers, both in the navy blue of the aerospace division. The first, an unusually thin, tall Tellarite was carried by a single bug. Strangely, she seemed unpierced, merely carried The second, a muscular humanoid with a golden crown permanently affixed to his brow, it took five bugs to support him, each had speared him in a different location. Evidently he had resisted.

Both were dumped on the floor in the centre of the room. The bugs paid no further attention tot he room's inhabitants, and skittered back up the entryway. As the autodocs returned and began to attend to the wounded man, it was obvious, this was Captain Hadrian 'Sunshine' Palamas and Specialist Mindo, callsign 'Riot'. They had survived the crash that his fighter had not.

"Palamas. Mindo. Hold still. We're not exactly clear on what's happening here but it looks like the Order and the bugs are working together. The autodoc will fix you up. Worry about questions later." Creon said, approaching now that she was confident the bugs were gone.

Palamas put on a brave face as both autodocs tended to his wounds. "What in hades do the Vulcans get out of working with bugs? Have they got a giant pin and a giant frame they're going to mount samples with?"

"They believe the bugs represent the fulfillment of some ancient prophecy. That they are the manifestation of 'divine harmony'. They seem to revere them like deities." Bellis explained, looking over Mindo. "How is it that you are not injured?" The Cadet asked the flight technician.

"I think they had their hands - well, talons - full with Sunshine. Took five of them to bring him down. But I don't know, the one that got me, it just didn't seem to really want to hurt me. It was almost... gentle. It probably could've speared me, it stabbed through my uniform, but missed me. Maybe it just couldn't see very well and I got lucky." Mindo said with a shrug, grateful as she noticed each of them had recently tended wounds.

"If it wasn't five on one they wouldn't have had a chance." Captain Palamas argued as the autodocs tended to his various wounds.

Creon watched them both with confusion. He was stupid enough to fight the things, and she'd somehow emerged unscathed. "We can wonder about why you're here later, let's just be glad that you are. Callaghan, let's get a look at that tricorder." She told the security officer.

"Aye." Callaghan fumbled in his pocket for a moment and removed the device, offering it to Commander Creon.

"Bellis, can you use this to try and interface with the bunker's systems? You're the most experienced here in comms." Creon asked the Cadet with clinical praise.

"Yes commander. You know Romulan data security however, it will not be quick if I can get in at all." Bellis said as she took the tricorder. It was damaged but not so badly that she could not use it. She began to scan for any sort of connection from the bunker's computers.

"If you need anything broken open Cadet, just let me know." Callaghan told her. He had an urge to smash things that had been building since they were brought here, and no way to use it constructively yet.

"Easy, Callaghan. When it's time for breaking stuff, we'll know. Romulan systems only get harder to access if you try to force your way in." Creon looked over to Palamas, the autodocs seemed to have finished with him. "How are you feeling, Captain?"

“Ready to squash some bugs, Commander.” Palamas said, trying to sit up. From his wincing and his inability to sit fully upright, it was obvious he was not.

"No squashing until I say so. That's an order. And I won't be saying so until we're armed with phasers." Creon said, softening her tone given his injuries.

"We're never getting out of here if we don't fight back, Commander." Palamas said.

"We don't all have demi-god strength, and it doesn't look to have gotten you far against opponents with knives for arms." Creon countered.

Palamas muttered something under his breath and laid back against the sand.

"We should all try and rest. I know relaxation won't come easily, but we should at least get off our feet. We're no good to each other exhausted, and we need to give the restoratives the autodocs shot us up with a chance to take effect. Creon said.

Callaghan quietly agreed with the Commander, his rage was unabated, but he knew that being stronger when the time came to act on it was the best way forward. He leaned against one of the cleaner walls and closed his eyes.

Bellis had no time to rest. She kept working with the tricorder.

A few hours later, the door squealed open again, shocking anyone asleep back into alertness.

“Everyone, up, back against the wall. Back. No sudden movements.” Creon told them all.

Callaghan did as instructed. Mindo helped Palamas to his feet, carrying him as best she could when he couldn't support himself. He was surprisingly mobile, despite his injuries.

She did not realize she had begun to fall asleep until she heard the sound of the door. Bellis hid the tricorder in her waist and stood by the others very still.

On the other side, a pair of phaser-armed Vulcans stood, accompanied by a trio of warrior bugs. "The one called Palamas will follow us. The rest of you will remain as you are. If you do not comply, we will not be the ones to enforce our instructions." They said, referring to the bugs.

Mindo’s eyes widened. “What? No.”

“Wait. I’m the Commanding Officer here. Take me.” Creon told the Vulcan without moving forward.

"The Grandmaster has indicated you will be next. For now, we will take Palamas." The Vulcan said.

“He’s a fighter pilot. He doesn’t know anything. I’m the Director of Strategic Operations. And a former agent of the Tal Shiar. I know things about this facility.” Creon told them, still remaining in place.

"Your knowledge will be of use in time, but the divine presence will first be sated by the one who claims to be the descendant of a God. He will have the privilege of being the first to be in the presence of the Great Undermind. He will be the first to become one with divine harmony."

Palamas gave a short, humorless breath that might have become a laugh in better circumstances. “Well,” he said, rolling one shoulder as though preparing for a bout he was not physically in condition to fight, “nice to know I make an impression.”

Two of the bugs were on him in an instant, not stabbing but boxing him in with their bodies. A third rose at his back. Palamas drove an elbow toward the nearest serrated head with admirable futility and managed, by strength more than leverage, to shove one of them half a step sideways. It was enough to make the rest of the room flinch.

It was not enough to change the outcome.

The bug behind him drove a spear-limb cleanly through the meat of his side and out beneath the opposite ribs. A second limb punched through his thigh before his knees had fully buckled. Palamas let out a broken noise more outrage than pain, though the pain followed a heartbeat later and hollowed the sound into a raw shout. Two more bugs caught his descending weight in the crooks of their free limbs with that same grotesque mockery of care the team had already learned to dread.

“Your species mistake individual resistance for significance,” the Vulcan said. “You will soon be corrected.”

“Palamas!” Mindo started forward one step. Creon's hand blocked her softly, pressing her back by the sternum.

Callaghan's anger could be heard in his heavy breathing, but he remained where he was.

Bellis wanted to put her hands to her face at the sight of the violence but she remained still as she was. She had seen worse things. And she knew she had to watch. Whatever these creatures were doing may happen to her or any of the others after Commander Creon. She had to find them a way out.

The bugs carried Palamas out, leaving a trail of blood as they went, the sand of the floor drank it greedily.

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