Lifeforce: A Star Trek Discovery Horror Story

A Horrific Communion

The shuttle tore through a veil of smoke as it soared over a society seemingly tearing itself apart. Below them, she could see tiny blue flashes dotting the streets and buildings becoming curling comets of energy that zipped through the air.

"We're too late, aren't we?" Landry asked. "At the rate this colony is devouring itself, help won't get here in time."

"Maybe. Maybe not," Paredes said. "If there's a starship nearby—a formidable one like the Yeager, she's a Cardenas-class ship. I think she's in the area. They might be able to contain or reverse this."

"Color me skeptical," Landry said as she brought the shuttle in to land on the array's vehicle pad. The array itself was a cluster of four massive deep-space sensors that pointed to the night skies like four enormous, silos.

"We need to get to the control room!" Paredes shouted and ran for the turbolift. Landry barely caught up and wondered if the woman would leave her behind. She suspected that she would.

The turbolift deposited them in an enormous, high-ceilinged room dominated by a multi-sided console in the center. The ceiling was transparent, Landry noted, and she guessed would display whatever the sensors were fixed upon. An entire quadrant could be displayed in this room, she thought, with the control room staff in the center.

"I think this is the master control module," Captain Paredes said as she hurried over to one illuminated panel. Landry shot it out from over Paredes's shoulder. It melted in a cascade of sparks, causing the Starfleet captain to leap back a step.

"I don't know what that does, but I'm pretty certain it's not contacting the Yeager," Landry said, keeping her gun trained on Paredes.

Captain Paredes opened her mouth to say something, then just asked. "What do you know?"

"The logs don't match the story you gave me. You tried to erase the ones that flat-out contradicted your version of events, but you weren't thorough enough. There was still plenty of evidence that didn't add up. The better question is why try and destroy the logs at all? And that answer's simple: you set them free. Not Lieutenant Chien. You did."

Paredes's expression was like a building collapsing. "Yes."

"And once you got those things back from the ship they started to devour your crew. Yamanaka's compliment is less than a hundred people. A ship that size would need a lot more life energy, so you brought them here. To the closest inhabited world."

"I know there's nothing I can say that will make you understand, but you felt it back on Yamanaka when I had to drag you out of the transporter room. If I hadn't wouldn't you have stayed?"

Landry said nothing, just concentrated on keeping the gun level as the memory of that alien desire flashed through her.

"It's more than desire, Landry. It's love and terror on a scale that's unimaginable. She's in my mind and my soul, and I think she has been since before we even discovered the ship. There's some connection between us from when I opened her coffin and gave her some of my life essence. I hear her in mind. I hear her! And I can feel her touch...Landry, it's all I can do to keep my mind together and function as a Starfleet officer."

"You think you're still a Starfleet officer? After what you've done?"

"Landry, please!" Paredes pleaded. "You need to get out a warning beacon. The ship is almost here. We can't stop it, but you can warn the others!"

Abruptly the air in the room seemed the electrify and crackle around them. Blue streaks of energy swirled around them like poltergeists from ancient folklore. "Oh god, they're here!" Paredes screamed in despair. Then the fabric of reality seemed to tear open like the flap of a tent, and in a blaze of blue/white light, the three humanoids appeared near the center of the room.

Paredes screamed. Landry thumbed the gun's intensity tab to maximum and fired. The laser's blinding beam lanced out and struck one of the naked men squarely in his perfectly sculpted chest. The man glowed intensely as the gun's energy surrounded and engulfed his body...and then fell away like water.

"They're not human, Landry!" Paredes shouted. Landry felt her heart hammer as panic threatened to overtake her. She fired again—a headshot this time—but got no more effect.

"It will be much less terrifying if you just come to us," one of the males said in a similar, reverberating voice as the female, only deeper and more resonant. The gun grew heavy in her trembling hand and threatened to fall from her fingers. She suddenly felt overwhelmed by the enormity of the realization that surrender was the best option now. Her obligations as a Starfleet officer—her oath of service and her own personal code as a security officer—they all felt leaden and exhausting.

She took a step toward them.

"No!" Paredes shouted. "Landry, go! Get out of here!" Then she turned to the naked triad in the center of the room. The woman extended her arms.

"Paredes..." her voice, ringing in Landry's mind was like an invocation. The Starfleet captain stepped into the nude woman's open arms and kissed her passionately. Energy swirled and crackled around them as they embraced, and Paredes tore her clothes away, never breaking from the perfect woman. Soon, she was naked too, her carmel flesh a contrasting gloriously with the woman's ivory. Soon the two women joined in a column of power that tore through the domed ceiling and reached into the inky darkness of the nighttime sky.

Landry ran for the shuttle.