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Posted on Fri Jan 2nd, 2026 @ 9:27am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Jennifer Baldric & Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Ensign Kitiuas Thenis ie-Jia'anKahr & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Lieutenant Alison Haldeman
3,179 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
Beholder
Location: USS Sunfire
Captain Kaylen Rhenora sat comfortably in the command chair, a half finished cup of coffee resting casually on the arm rest. The Sunfire had been on a survey mission for the past few weeks, having finished their repairs at DS9 and having restored the natural weather patterns of her beloved Bajor. Things were going smoothly, and the Sunfire was cruising through a region of space Starfleet hadn't visited in nearly two hundred years.
"Captain, we have a communication from Command incoming" the junior Ops officer announced.
"On screen" Rhenora replied with missing a beat.
Admiral Benyan appeared, her white hair contrasting with the red and black of her uniform.
"Captain Kaylen, we have a new mission for you, one of utmost urgency" the Admiral started. "I'm transferring the detail to you now. But the short of it is - we have received an urgent request from Skygowan. The Beholder statue is failing and the Vezda may escape. You are to make for Skygowan at best speed and assess the situation and take any action necessary to keep the Vezda contained."
"Aye Admiral, we'll set a course there now. Let them know we're on our way" Rhenora replied.
"I'm happy to report if I have to put some sass on some ass, I'm ready." Dean gave a wink, setting up a line of information on his Tactical console for that sector.
Kit shook her head, she was currently manning the science station on the bridge. She knew the commander was definitely feeling better. She too was feeling better, her daughter was back with her, as well as her sister. Both fussing about their shared quarters for now.
The Sunfire shifted trajectory and Rhenora did a rough calculation at 20 hours flight time until they reached their destination.
"Senior officers, to the briefing room in 10 minutes" she ordered before heading to her ready room to read through the data packet command had sent through.
"Commander Savar, with me please" she nodded to the XO, handing the bridge over to Commander House.
"Of course captain." Savar replied crisply falling into step beside her.
Jenna was in the Flight Control office when she heard the call. She quickly wrapped up what she was working on, stood and head out of the bay, entrusting her duties to Rosa who would keep the flight deck in check.
Bonnie had her head underneath her project Subspace Transporter, grease lines clearly darker than her skin, coupled with soot from the electrical fire. She slid out, grunted, and stood up. Her hair, a bushy mess, was something she would attempt to tame enroute to the conference room.
Kit signaled the science department to send up relief personnel. She then sent a quick message to her sister =*=Most likely will be late. Milk is stored for Astraea. Keep dinner warm for me.=*= Her sister had adapted remarkably well to ship life in Starfleet. Kit knew she would see the computer message, most likely curse her in Orion and adjust the routine.
Aurora was up out of her seat ready to head straight to the conference room, she was curious to say the least.
Precisely 9 minutes later Commander Savar and the Captain strode into the briefing room, their expressions determined. Rhenora surveyed the room, the best of the fleet were seated before her, and they would need any and all of that expertise for their next assignment.
"Thank you all for coming, we have had word from Command, that the people of Skygowan need our help with a very unique problem." She began, walking over to the viewscreen and bringing up a visual recording obtained from the Vadia 9 prison. She began the playback, showing the battle between Captain's Pike and Batel, and the Vezda and the subsequent imprisonment of the Vezda.
"This occurred several hundred years ago. The Beholder statue - Captain Batel, has been guarding the prison since that day. Until two days ago - the local high priest noticed cracks in the statue. They believe the statue is failing, and the Vezda will be released. Our mission - is to stop that from happening, and if possible, recover Captain Batel." Rhenora explained, casting her eyes around the room.
"As you have possibly surmised. Time is of the essence in both stopping the statue from failing completely as well as locating Captain Batel." Savar added.
Bonnie spoke up, brow furrowing as she threaded memory with theory. “Last time we saw anything like this was pre-Kirk, and if I’m remembering right, it was preceded by a massive uptick in Gorn Homogeneity. Do we have any indication the broods are active again?”
"At this time there is no evidence or indication of the broods becoming active." Savar answered and added, "We are however monitoring the situation."
Rhenora paused for a moment "We are close to that region of space, let's keep a fair eye out for any indication the Hegemony may be becoming active" she regarded the monitor again. "What do we know about the Vezda? Other than the fact they've been kept in the box for the last 120 years."
Bonnie didn’t answer right away. Her fingers stilled on the table, the way they always did when a name carried weight. “The Vezda aren’t just kept,” she said carefully, voice lower now. “They were contained because nobody ever figured out how to coexist with them. Archaeological records, pre-Federation, pre-warp even, treat them less like a species and more like a recurring catastrophe. Energy beings, volatile, self-aware, and smart enough to learn from every prison built around them.”
She glanced back at the readout, swallowing. “They hate the Gorn, and the feeling’s mutual. If the Hegemony’s stirring near their old containment zones, that’s not coincidence, it’s calculated. And if a Vezda gets loose…” Her jaw tightened. “Tech fails. Bodies fail. History says they don’t invade so much as overwrite. Which is why the box stayed shut for so long, and why we should be very nervous if the seal is starting to break.”
"Are you saying we should communicate with them before we do anything?" Rhenora asked, interest in her expression. "From what I understand they need a host body to communicate"
"I don't recommend letting them out of their glass bubbles if we can help it. The only documented host, a young nurse, failed to survive the encounter. Or so I remember reading."
"Unless we can determine another method of communication that doesn't require a host...or letting them those. The reports from the Enterprise during their original encounter mentioned they were manipulative, coercive and without remorse. " Rhenora mused. "Perhaps we can communicate with the Beholder?"
Savar listened in silence as ideas were bandied about. One thing was certain, they needed more information than they currently had and they needed a way get it without putting anyone's life at risk.
Kit was taking notes when she paused "Captain may I suggest Lieutenant Alison Haldeman be brought in to this mission brief. She has specialty in Alien Archaeology and Anthropology. Perhaps she will have better idea and history on this situation."
Rhenora nodded and sent the request through to the young lieutenant, before continuing with the briefing. "We still need a plan to secure the Vezda, should any attempts at communications fail or be unsuccessful. We have limited and outdated information on Vadia 9, the link to Skygowan and the people there puts the entire planet at risk."
On the bridge Alison was surprised to get a message requesting her presence in the briefing. Making her way to the conference room she offered a smile. “Reporting as requested Captain.”
"Commander Savar, please work with Lt Halderman and Engineering in finding out as much as you can about Vadia 9 and containment options" The Captain continued. "Bonnie, Dean and Jennifer, you're on a deep dive into history and pulling all the data from the archives. Kit and Aurora, you're on communications, and everyone else, security enhancements should we need to gain control of the situation.
"Certainly Captain, we will get started right away on obtaining said information on containment as well as Vadia 9. We will keep you apprised of our progress." Savar replied evenly.
"Thank you Savar. Are there any questions before we get started?"
Aurora shook her head, she had no questions at present.
Savar nodded politely to Alison as she joined the meeting. "Lieutenant." he intoned, "I look forward to our working together."
Alison nodded. “Thank you Commander.”
"I can work with that," Dean nodded, leaving his station for one of the auxiliary ones to start digging into the archives.
Baldric moved over to join Dean and Bonnie at the console, intent in combining their skills. "Want me to start with the old Enterprise logs?"
"You could do that, I'll start looking into references from other factions to see if there's something there." Dean nodded.
"Bon, there's a reference to a Dr Korby, you want to follow that one?" Jennifer mused, pulling up the centuries old file. Some were visual captains logs, many written, and the occasional audio file. It was going to take time to go through them all.
"I can do that Commander." Bonnie typed in the inquiry and skimmed the copy. "Once referred to as 'Pasteur of archaeological medicine', he enumerated three foundational principles in his field of science and medicine. He published several papers on molecular memory and corporeal transference among forgotten tech... basically resurrection and reincarnation through technology."
She looked at Baldric, "This dude was really into death and the afterlife." She kept reading. "There is mention here of a translation textbook that was found on the Orion homeworld. Hey! I remember reading that text at the academy." She kept digging.
"That's pretty cool" Jennifer submitted as she extracted and segregated and and all Enterprise logs relating to Vadia 9. She came across a large portion of classified files, but they were personal logs and medical records plus a handful of ships logs. "This is weird, level 10 clearance needed to unlock this set" she mumbled and sent a request through to the Captain to unlock the files. "Why would medical records and personal logs be classified?"
Bonnie shrugged, and continued skimming the text before finding a block she read verbatim, "Looks like Korby and Nurse Chapel conducted excavations on Vadia IX and found evidence that the M'Kroon were the direct descendants of an ancient, highly advanced civilization capable of traveling across multiple galaxies, and who claimed to have discovered immortality. The M'Kroonian alphabet shared similarities with an older language found on distant worlds such as Polaris XII and Praetorian."
"Unfortunately, Korby later went to EXO III where he was exposed to the elements and mostly died." Bonnie finished on a down note.
"Oh.....RIP Roger Korby" Jennifer added before returning to her logs. The Captain had quickly granted her security clearance to view the restricted logs and medical files, and a whole new perspective was opened up with them. "Whoa....this is nuts" she breathed as she devoured the files.
"I say mostly, though no one asked," Bonnie continued, fascinated. "It says here, he found an underground civilization on EXO and transferred his consciousness into an android body before his corporeal form expired. He managed to live another five years in an android body. He was intelligent. Makes me wonder if we will ever do something like that again. Imagine, living forever inside a synthetic body."
"So kinda like an android but kinda not. That's is so weird" Baldric agreed as she continued to read. " From what I can see, everything started with a Gorn attack on Parnassus Beta..." She read through the files. "The Cayuga was destroyed by the Gorn, but some of the crew were on the planet and were infected with Gorn eggs. They were stranded along with some colonists and some of the Enterprise rescue crew" She read on. "They treated Captain Batel - the lone survivor with Illyrian plasma and something called a chimera blossom, and there was a weird ass mind meld in there as well" She reviewed the sickbay footage and flinched at the screaming.
"Poor Captain Batel must have been going through Hell. By mixing and messing with her DNA like that, by the end I bet she didn't know who she was or whether she was coming or going." Bonnie caught sight of the screaming woman, her skin bruised along with the suffering in her eyes, and she flinched as well. "Ooof."
"Yet somehow she's connected with the Beholder Statue, and Command want us to bring her home. What's left of her I assume, I mean she's gotta be over 120 years old by now unless she's caught in some time paradox. Although I have another zillion log entries that the Captain has kindly provided access to... the answers may be in there. And what are these Vezda??'" Baldric raised an eyebrow at her two teammates. "And how does this all tie in with Vadia 9 and Skygowan?"
Bonnie leaned closer to the display, head tilting the way it always did when a problem stopped being technical and started being layered. The humor drained from her expression, replaced by a quiet, inherited focus, one she’d learned at a cluttered table surrounded by brittle maps and too much tea. “Okay,” she said gently, tapping the edge of the console as if it were an old tablet pulled from the dirt. “Time to stop reading this like engineers and start reading it like ruins.”
“My Papa used to say the trick with ancient messes was figuring out what survived on purpose, not by accident. Patterns. Repetition. What people keep rebuilding even when everything else burns.” A faint, wry smile touched her mouth. “Lucky for us, archaeology is just engineering that learned patience.”
"That's a very unique way of looking at it" Baldric smiled, thankful not for the first time that Bonnie was on her team. "What have you uncovered so far?" She asked, curious.
Bonnie leaned in, fingers dancing once more as she pulled several data streams together, her tone shifting into something grounded and precise. “Korby, the M’Kroon, and the Beholder all point to the same problem,” she said. “Not immortality for its own sake, but long-term containment. The repeated language patterns across Vadia 9, Polaris XII, Praetorian, those aren’t myths drifting across space. They’re instructions. Someone meant this knowledge to survive, even when civilizations didn’t.”
She brought Batel’s medical scans alongside Beholder telemetry. “Captain Batel isn’t important because she lived. She’s important because she fits. Her altered biology mirrors what Korby tried to solve synthetically, a consciousness capable of interfacing with an ancient system over centuries. Skygowan and Vadia 9 are likely anchor points in that system, and the Beholder is carrying the load. That crack isn’t just age, it’s strain.” Bonnie exhaled. “If I’m right, we’re not just bringing someone home. We’re moving a keystone, and the structure may likely already be failing.”
"Well that puts things into perspective" Baldric mused, looking over to Bonnie's complex series of streams. She frowned a little "So if that's the case and the keystone/Beholder is failing under the load of keeping the Vezda in the box for so long, how do we, as the next and current generation rectify this so that 'evil' as Sam Kirk once put it, isn't set loose?" It was a conundrum if ever there was one.
Bonnie shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know. That is something we'll have to figure out as we go. The things that happened to Batel to make her the keystone Beholder, happened over the course of months. I doubt we will want to take the same route." She rolled her eyes as realization dawned. "Would also mean someone from the crew would have to sacrifice themselves if we followed the same pattern." She then shuddered and shook the thought off. "Not a pleasant thought."
"I don't plan on letting anyone sacrifice themselves" Baldric said firmly as though the statement itself would make it happen. "But there's gotta be something that we can use with our modern technology that would do the same thing. Or could we appeal to Q? I read somewhere Vadia 9 was their old homeworld" she shook her head at the mere thought of Q. "No that's a bad idea"
Eyes wide, Bonnie shuddered, "Asking any favor of Q is like asking a favor of the An Diabhal himself." She half expected him to appear behind them just at the mention of his name, causing her to shudder again.
"Yeah, forget I even mentioned it" Baldric blushed a little at the thought of making such a mistake. "Commander Savar's team are working on containment options, so let's not step on their toes. She rubbed her eyes, they had been going at this for hours. "Take a break?" She suggested.
Bonnie didn’t look up right away. Her fingers hovered over the console as if the answer might be hiding between the lines of data, waiting for her to bully it into existence. She blinked a few times, eyes gritty, shoulders stiff, and then let out a breath she’d clearly been holding for far too long.
“Yeah… yeah, a break’s probably smart,” she said, the words dragged out by exhaustion more than agreement. A faint, crooked smile followed. “Not because I’m tired,” she added quickly, stubbornness flaring on instinct, “but because if I keep staring at this any longer I’m going to start arguing with it, and that never ends well.”
"We still have 15 hours until we reach Skygowan, say we catch some Zzzs for 6, then resume? We should have some solid intel by then. In the meantime I'll send what we've found to the other teams" Baldric sent off the condensed files and rose, listening to her spine and shoulders pop in protest.
Bonnie pushed herself up from the console a beat after Baldric did, wincing in sympathy at Baldric's audible protest of joints. “Oof, yeah, that sound right there?” she said, gesturing vaguely at Baldric’s shoulders. “That’s your body filing a formal complaint. You should absolutely tell the Doctor about that snap-crackle-pop situation before it upgrades to a mutiny.” The concern was real, even if wrapped in dry humor. Bonnie stretched, badly, like someone who had forgotten how limbs were meant to work, then nodded. “Six hours sounds… responsible. I hate it, but you’re right.”
Bonnie made it to her quarters on momentum alone. The lights barely finished brightening before she started peeling off layers with all the grace of a dropped toolkit, boot kicked free, jacket half-removed, shirt still stubbornly clinging to one arm. Somewhere between balance and gravity, gravity won. Bonnie tripped, lurched, and fell face-first onto the bed with a soft whumph, limbs tangled, still partially dressed. She lay there for a second, unmoving, cheek pressed into the pillow. “Good enough,” she muttered to no one at all, and was asleep almost immediately.
TBC
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