“Degen”
written by David Moody
Captain Lenti Utex

Rhea’s consciousness slowly returned, and as her eyelids slid languidly apart, the commander found herself sprawled on a stone floor. She pulled herself to her knees, reaching out to feel a wall of the same material she had awakened on.

Marisa Torme, a mere meter away in the darkness from Rhea, attempted to rise, but her head seemed to spun uncontrollably, so she laid back down, flat on her back.

Rhea raised her head, hair falling about her calf and leaned it on her knees. Using this position as the first pose of a maneuver, she pulled herself upright, perhaps a bit faster than she had intended. The longhaired woman rushed toward corner as fast as she could, using her hands to guide herself along the wall, and clutched her stomach as she vomited. She sank to her knees, weak and shaking.

“Hello,” Marisa managed to say weakly, questioningly, upon hearing the distinct sound Rhea had just emitted.

Rhea’s head whipped toward the voice. “Who is it,” she eked, crawling toward the sound. She found instead, a wall, and leaned against it.

Without warning, a door opened feeding semi-light into the pitch. From the half-light, a massive dark form muscled its way in. The dark shape grunted, a sound ominously familiar – but for the life of her, Rhea could not remember where she had heard it before. Wordlessly, the menacing hulk grabbed the woman's arm, pulled her to her feet, and dragged her free of the chamber she had awakened into. Her stomach, mind, and body reeling after vomiting, Rhea could offer no resistance.

The dark form dragged her along the floor roughly, and Rhea fought weakly to stand, nearly reaching her feet. At that last moment of struggle, when the triumphant moment should have taken place, a door opened beside her, and she found herself catapulted into it. Bracing for the impact of the floor and her body with her arm, she grunted a heavy, “Ooof,” and grit her teeth.

Moments passed, and nothing more happened, so Rhea gathered herself, and stood. She surveyed the chamber she had been brought to, saw the door through which she had been flung, and, apparently spun through. She turned to find that she had arrived in a fairly well lit room with a desk and a small computer on it. She stood up straight and a human looking woman walked into the room. Rhea gasped when she saw the woman. She had blonde hair and deep drown eyes. Her hair was in a flowing braid that hung between her shoulders.

Realization dawned on Rhea. "Degen," she whispered to herself. Rhea found herself face to face with a star-tossed crewmate she had last seen aboard the USS Stingray. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Elise Degen had been dead at the time, making this particular moment a statistical improbability.

Rhea was unaware that the resemblance was only a thin veneer of the truth as the woman began to speak. “Lieutenant Commander,” Degen spoke.

Rhea cut in before the charade could proceed any further. “Where is this place?” she demanded. “How did I get here – who are you,” she asked in consternation. “Where is my Len—my ship,” she requested harshly, correcting her freudian slip before it became a fatal one.

"We asked you first."

"I don't care, Degen." Rhea found herself caught up short. As her eyes narrowed to slits. “We?” An eyebrow placidly arched. She was beginning to feel more like herself.

The woman walked up to Rhea and smacked her so hard that she spun. Her momentum carried her to the floor. Rhea twisted her head back toward Degen and simply stared through her, stunned. She defiantly pushed herself to her feet in one rapid motion, and stood mere inches from the woman she had seen lying dead in a torpedo casing and now stood before her, just as alive as Rhea herself.

"Now, will you tell me your name or do I have to demonstrate again what will happen if you do not comply?"

"Rhea Kennit."

"Elise Degen, scientist, discoverer of The Shroud. I am sure you will recall invading it."

“Invade?” Rhea was stunned for a moment, her memory hazy at best of the past few hours. The facts resolved a bit, and she grabbed at them. “We had to,” the words came in a rush. “We didn’t know—we weren’t invading.”

A dark form detached itself from the shadows. Though she had never seen the individual before, she knew, almost as if by instinct that it was the entity known as Krannik. "He's the one who took me off the ship," Rhea pointed. She shook her head slightly, her brow parsing. “This makes no sense,” she admitted. “Why am I here?”

"Quite simple, Lieutenant Commander," Degen said, circling Rhea like a vulture. "You intend to arm the K’Abithan General Pluralistic so that they can crush us. We do not intend to let that happen."

"We had no intention to assist the Bith in destroying anyone,” Rhea balked. “What are you talking about? We have a rule called the Prime Directive that straight up forbids that kind of thing."

"Then why are you here?"

"We were negotiating our way around the nebula." The answer did not seem to satisfy the large, dark figure. He reached an appendage toward her. “Oh—” she exclaimed, “– you mean in Sector 416DD? They asked us to come.” No sooner than the honest answer had flown from her mouth did she realize the error of the truth. These people were against the Bith for some reason, and she had just freely allied herself with the group that was apparently their enemy.

“Then you admit,” came a gravel laden groan from the rocky creature of shadow from behind Degen, who stared vehemently into Rhea’s eyes,” that you have been supplying the Bith.”

“They’re Federation members,” Rhea retorted. “Or course we have.”

"What kind of supplies?"

Leaning past the dead woman to look at the hulk behind her, she answered plainly, obviously. "Food, dilithium, trade, engineering assistance; they’ve been adding their resources to the whole in return." She looked at Degen pointedly; “You know how it goes.”

"You do realize that their Ambassadors have been hiding the fact of their war with us since the Federation’s appearance at their side." The hulk told her. “That your people have been aiding their side of the war.”

"No, I didn't. If I had, we'd have left and been on our way."

"Your lies are so transparent, Lieutenant Commander," Degen hissed. "We have ways of getting you to talk."

Before Rhea could respond, a device was pressed against her arm and a searing shock etched its way through her. She yelped in pain.

"Now, when will the Bith government receive the weapons?"

Rhea spoke harshly as she gritted her teeth against the intense pain; “Receiving weapons? I don’t know,” she said. “As far as I know, there are no special shipments of any sort on their way to the Bith homeworld or Starbase 416,” she said.

That was the last thing Rhea felt before a blunt object hit her head and her world went black.