Silent Prey - Vasuki indicus
Posted on Mon Apr 27th, 2026 @ 10:31pm by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Jennifer Baldric & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Lieutenant JG Jacob Rosen & Lieutenant JG T'Lar & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Remal Kajun
2,446 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Beholder
Location: USS Sunfire
“A serpent does not chase. It lets the world come just close enough to strike.”
USS Sunfire
The stars thinned as the Sunfire approached the asteroid field, light breaking against drifting stone until space itself felt crowded with silence. Fragments of rock turned in slow procession, some massive enough to eclipse distant suns, others no larger than dust caught in an unseen current. The ship eased forward with a predator’s patience, her engines held to a restrained hum that pulsed softly through the hull like a measured heartbeat. On the viewscreen, the void narrowed into corridors of shadow and motion, every path a question, every turn a quiet calculation of risk and intent.
At the helm, Jenna moved with deliberate precision, her hands guiding the vessel along the narrow threads Jacob had plotted while her mind held the pattern in perfect clarity, each vector etched into memory as though it had always lived there. The controls responded to her with a familiarity that felt almost intimate, the ship answering the smallest adjustments with a grace that bordered on instinct. She leaned slightly into the motion, eyes tracking the drift of stone and the subtle interplay of gravitational pull, her breathing steady as the field unfolded before her in layered complexity.
Beyond the transparent aluminum, an asteroid the size of a city rotated slowly across their path, its surface scarred by ancient impacts, its shadow stretching long and cold. Jenna shifted their trajectory by degrees, sliding the Sunfire along its edge where darkness pooled deepest, where even starlight struggled to reach. The ship followed her lead without protest, gliding through the narrow margin between mass and momentum, the hull whispering against the tension of proximity as smaller fragments scattered in their wake.
Around her, the bridge settled into a quiet intensity, voices lowered, movements measured, each officer attuned to the fragile balance that held them together within the field. Data flowed in controlled streams, partial sensor returns painting an incomplete picture that Jenna completed within her own mind, instinct and memory weaving together into something sharper than instrumentation alone could offer.
The tachyon lattice lingered ahead, faint and intricate, a web drawn through stone and vacuum alike, waiting with a patience that matched their own.
Bonnie leaned in close to her console, shoulders drawn tight as if she could make herself smaller along with the ship, her voice barely rising above the quiet hum of the bridge. “Tachyon grid is still there… threading between the larger bodies,” she murmured, eyes flicking across the faint returns as they pulsed in and out of clarity. “It’s… stable. No shift in pattern yet.”
Her fingers hovered, then adjusted a control with careful restraint. “Shield inversion is holding,” she added, softer still, the words measured through a breath she didn’t quite release. “Scatter’s clean... for now. So far... we’re… we’re slipping through the gaps.”
Savar nodded at Bonnie's statement. "Very good. Keep pursuing. maintain contact but do not press. However be watchful of any... .tricks our quarry may try to use on us."
Rhenora watched, the gut feel of a potential trap present in her mind. They knew about it though, the net, it had to mean something or someone wanted to keep something hidden, or protected.
"Steady as she goes, be ready for whatever they throw at us" Kaylen cautioned as she interred the void where the trading post was. The port was dark, derelict almost. The perfect hiding place.
"Where's our friends gone?"
“Oh they’re out there” Aurora added as she sat looking at the viewscreen. “They can hide from the ship, but they can’t hide from my senses.”
"Are they hiding from fear, or hiding out of deception" Rhenora asked carefully, knowing there was a world of difference between the two.
Bonnie’s console flickered with a soft, almost hesitant return, something registering between the moving stone and background tachyons, “I... I’ve got something,” she whispered, eyes narrowing as the shape resolved just enough to hold form. “Small... about three meters, maybe the size of a torpedo. It’s drifting, low emissions...” Her fingers stilled.
The data aligned in a way that felt wrong before it felt right. Her breath caught, the realization hitting all at once. “That’s... ” Her voice lifted without permission. “That’s her.”
Bonnie froze, eyes widening slightly as she became aware of the volume, shoulders drawing in as if she could pull the sound back. Her next words came quieter, almost reverent, like the space itself demanded it. “It’s Captain Batel... her casket.”
Savar looked at the image on the main viewscreen. It was indeed a casket. "Is there a body inside?" He asked.
As much as Rhenora wanted to believe the pirates had abandoned the body for fear of being caught, she had s fair inkling something something more was going on.
"Caution, if they've abandoned it, you can bet it won't be without a surprise".
T'Lar analyzed her readouts.
"Captain, I'm getting a lot of ionic interference, but I can confirm that there are human remains in that capsule. It seems as if the torpedo casing has been deliberately tampered with to disrupt our ability to scan it. I would conjecture that it is being done to prevent us from being able to beam the object aboard."
"So they don't want us to beam it on board - why would that be?" Rhenora mused aloud, acutely aware all eyes and ears were on her waiting for the next order.
"Move to within 100 kilometres and run another scan. No taking chances here. Shields up, I'm expecting it to blow... or something else"
Jenna’s hands moved with quiet restraint, guiding the Sunfire forward on minimal thrusters, each adjustment no more than a careful nudge through the drifting stone. “Bringing us in,” she said softly. “Minimal thrusters. Holding tight on vector.”
The casket took shape ahead, suspended in the dark, and she eased them closer by degrees, eyes tracking every shift in motion. “Closing to one hundred kilometers,” she added, voice steady with a trace of tension beneath it. “Drift is stable... asteroid density increasing."
Jacob kept his eyes on the scanners while boosting a bit of extra power into the shields. A bead of sweat slowly made its way down his temple, the tension on the bridge was palpable and he did not feel up to his typical method of mitigating anxiety by telling a joke. Jacob annotated the various extrapolated paths of all the larger moving objects on the helm's readout for the Commander. As they approached the lone object, he focused the detailed short range scanners on the casket and sent the data to the Commander Durnell and Counselor T'Lar.
Dean raised an eyebrow, "Then we take a team over to it and get out in EVA suits. Give it a look over and if there is anything nefarious, we can disable it that way. After that, we can beam it aboard. Or..you know, I'll go alone if necessary. I know the risks, no one else need go."
"You are NOT going alone" Baldric countered assertively, standing as Dean did. "I'll come with you" she looked towards Kaylen for the yay or nay.
"Go, but be wary of traps and other hinkiness" Rhenora ordered, nodding towards the two of them.
"We will attempt to provide you with more detailed readings on both the casket and what is within it. I agree with the captain and urge you both to use restraint in dealing with this." Savar remarked in a unruffled tone.
I.S.S. Sunfire - Mirror Universe Vessel
On the shadowed bridge, the waiting stretched thin. A Nausicaan at the forward station shifted, claws tapping once against the console before he forced them still, his eyes flicking between the distant telemetry and the silent shapes of their hidden allies. “They are distracted,” he said at last, unable to keep the edge from his voice as he leaned forward. “Focused on the casket. We strike now, we catch them blind. Why wait?”
Remal did not answer immediately. He stood where he had been, half-turned toward the display, the faint glow of the asteroid field tracing along the edge of his profile as if the void itself deferred to him. His gaze remained fixed outward, unhurried, as though the question had already been considered long before it was spoken.
“Vasuki indicus,” he said at last, quiet, deliberate, the words settling into the room with unfamiliar weight. A pause followed. He shifted his attention then, slow and measured, letting it pass across the Nausicaan, then beyond him, as if addressing not just the bridge but every ship waiting in the dark beyond the rocks. “An ancient serpent,” he continued, his tone even, controlled, each word placed with care. “It waits days without movement. It studies breath. Rhythm. Pattern.”
Another long breath. “Then it strikes.”
The Nausicaan stilled. Remal’s gaze returned to the display, where the distant shape of the Sunfire edged closer to the drifting casket, their focus narrowing exactly where he wanted it. “They are cautious,” he said, softer now, almost thoughtful. “Disciplined.” A slight tilt of his head, consideration sharpening into something colder. “That is why they survive.”
He let that settle. Then, quietly “Knowing thine enemy is not about seeing them clearly.” A pause, “It is about letting them reveal themselves...” Silence followed, but it held differently now.
Outside, among the broken stone and the husk of the old trader outpost, the Nausicaan raiders waited. And Remal let them.
USS Sunfire
The viewscreen tightened on the torpedo, drifting on the eddies of space like a stick in the ocean. Slowly and carefully two figures approached, clad in standard EVA suits. One could be seen opening a tricorder, scanning closely but not too closely. Caution was the name of the game.
"Status?" the Captain asked.
"What we are seeing captain. Commanders Baldric and House have reached the casket and are scanning it while taking proper caution." Savar replied.
Bonnie leaned forward, her eyes locked on the two faint signals moving against the drift of stone. The asteroid field pressed in around them, shadows shifting, mass sliding past in slow, indifferent motion that felt far too close. “We’ve got you,” she said, voice tight but controlled, threading through the comms with careful precision.
“We’ve got a tight transporter lock on both of you,” she added, her voice steady but drawn thin with the strain of it. “Every sensor we have is on that casket...” Her eyes flicked between the readings, tracking minute fluctuations.
A larger fragment rolled through the edge of their perimeter, close enough to make her breath hitch before she forced it back under control. “Just... talk us through it, okay?” she added, softer now, the tension threading through every word. “Step by step. We’re with you.”
A faint tremor rang through the deck, followed by a sharp ping against the hull, then another, light impacts, scattered, like pebbles cast against glass. The Sunfire held her line, though the sound lingered longer than it should have.
Jenna’s fingers tightened slightly on the controls, compensating with a subtle correction as another fragment glanced off the port side. Her eyes scanned across the readouts, already tracking the drift patterns. “Minor debris contact,” she reported, voice steady, though her attention sharpened a degree. “Hull integrity holding. Shields absorbing the rest.”
Another soft strike echoed, quieter this time, almost deliberate in its timing.
This doesn't smell right Jacob thought to himself, watching the display he had dedicated to drifting objects. The predictive algorithms were off ever so slightly causing the program to repeatedly recalculate their predictive paths. With all sensors aimed towards the away team, Jacob had limited eyes to devote to a hunch.
Looking around at the entire bridge team focused on the task at hand, Jacob had a momentary second thought. Was he letting something distract him from his duties? No. Not this time. Taking out his personal PaDD he initiated a separate manual check on his math.These weren't rocks. They were autonomous remote probes? Nanites? Jacob could feel the noose tightening.
"Captain, respectfully I recommend mission abort and emergency recovery of the away team." Jacob said urgently right as a cascade of alerts of small object collisions began to ring from the con.
Jenna did not speak. Her hands stilled on the controls for the briefest moment, then resumed with sharper precision, fingers adjusting their position as if the ship itself had suddenly become something more fragile. Her gaze flicked once toward Jacob, then back to the field ahead, jaw tightening just enough to betray the shift in her thoughts. The next correction came quicker, cleaner, ready.
Rhenora's head snapped around, hearing the concern in Jacob's voice.
"Talk to me Lt., what do you see that we're all missing?"
"Captain, it's as if the micrometeoroids are making small adjustments to their trajectories to continue collisions with Sunfire even with course adjustments made by Commander Ramthorne." Jacob paused, looking back. "I think our quarry is preparing a trap from more than one vector."
"You don't think they are asteroids? Helm all stop." she ordered, bringing the Sunfire to a graceful stop. She turned to Jacob. "Hypothesise would they could do Lt?"
Jenna nodded without interruption and brought the ship to a stop. In their current position they were hovering just over the casket and the forms of Baldric and House in the rock strewn void of asteroids.
"Truthfully Captain, I don't know what it is. What I do know is that these asteroids are not moving naturally. That they are altering course immediately after we do, and they are coordinated. This is technology that I have never seen before at this scale, and for that reason it gives me cause for pause." Jacob replied respectfully and honestly.
"If Lieutenant Rosen is indeed right and the asteroids are not, then every moment we stay here brings our quarry closer to springing their trap. Recommend we recall Commanders Baldric and House immediately and withdraw as soon as they are back aboard." Savar proposed.
Dean sighed, "Jenn, just take the arm if we can't figure this out. We're not loosing her again, or you. I'll be fine with a prosthetic. For all we know the forearm and hand might grow back."
" We are NOT cutting your arm off, OR losing the body....." Baldric retorted as she scanned the casing for any kind of release.
TBC
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