SIM:Varaan: Hidden in the Mind of an Amorph

Crew of Deep Space 26

Commander Varaan

Rank: Commander Starfleet Serial Number: SE-381-568 Station: Deep Space 26 Position: Strategic Operations Officer Species: Vulcan Gender: Male Age: 71 DoB: 233001.06 Birthplace: Khir Ahl, Kir, Na'nam, Vulcan Awards & Service Ribbons Starfleet Academy Graduate Ribbon 5-year Member 1-year Member Nebula Bar Department Chief Ribbon Strange Medallion Sarpeidon Award Explorer's Ribbon Lifesaving Ribbon Captain's Commendation First Contact Ribbon Legion of Merit Galactic War with the Borg Service Medal TOSMA Neelix Award Phoenix Award Purple Heart Badges Starfleet Records • Medical Records • Starfleet Academy Transcript Edit this nav User Page

This SIM was written and presented on May 26, 2002, (corresponding to the IC stardate 237905.26).

((USS Paladin, corridors))

::Varaan stopped suddenly at the junction of the two corridors and retreated around the corner. He was sure the group did not see him. He backed up into a doorway so they wouldn't see him when they walked past. The group consisted of Uri and two of Platt;s security officers, who flanked him about two steps behind.::

::Varaan must have been correct. They looked like they were coming from the main conference room. Varaan had thought he had remembered something about the senior officers being called there over the comm system. That had been his destination when he broke out of his room. Now it looked like the situation had changed. In his favour, no less.::

::He could hardly wait in his hiding place. The pon farr had taken a strong hold on him. His blood was virtually boiling within him. He felt as if he was about to explode. No, he had to contain himself, contain the emotion. He would use it; use it to gain the information he needed. Use it to take the information he needed.::

::The guards had passed him now, with Uri still in front of them. They looked like they were heading to the cargo bay where Uri's ship was. That infernal piece of archaic machinery! It should never have gotten that far out into space. There was more information he would extract from their visitor. Varaan stealthily made his move.::

::The two guards never knew what happened. Varaan quickly and quietly came up behind the pair and simultaneously with each hand utilized the Vulcan Nerve Pinch on the guards. Both dropped without a sound. In front of him, Uri twisted around to see what was happening. oO Very good. Oo Uri must have been aware of the cadence of the footsteps and noticed when it changed. Uri stopped walking and turned around to face Varaan.::

URI: What is going on here?

::Varaan never gave Uri another moment. With two quick strides Varaan put his plan into action. Solidly grabbing Uri's face in the fingertips of both his hands, Varaan began to speak.::

VARAAN: My mind to your mind. Your thoughts to my thoughts. Our minds are as one, our thoughts are as one.

::Varaan had wondered if this would work on Uri, being not entirely...alive, as most recognized life. But with all the medical information Varaan had researched by Dr. Greene just before Varaan made the "organic machine" discovery, he theorized that Uri was as close to being alive as anyone else on this ship. Alsone excluded, of course. If that was the case, his body and mind should work sufficiently the same as the Paladin's crew for the Vulcan Mind Meld to work on Uri. And it was working.::

::Varaan's consciousness was navigating through Uri's. It was making its way right to the core. Uri was not resisting. Either he was not afraid of what was happening, or with no previous experience did not no how to react. Varaan hoped it was the latter. Uri would have been hard pressed to resist anyway. Varaan was channeling all the violent emotional strength from his pon farr into the mind meld.::

::There it was, floating just above his subconscious. Like a dark cloud, there were thoughts that Uri was trying to keep secret from others. Varaan headed directly into the cloud. Suddenly Varaan's mind was almost overwhelmed. In any other circumstance Varaan would have succumbed to the pain. Only the extra strength he had kept him conscious and connected to Uri. Slowly the pain subsided, or Varaan got used to it. But he had found what he was looking for.::

::The suspicions he and his crewmates had were confirmed. Uri was not entirely being honest with them. He was using just enough of the truth to mask his well-crafted malicious intentions. Uri had told the senior staff at the meeting that his race was the keepers of the first ones, the Russian descendants brought from Terra. This was true. He said the Terrans were in a dark age and were dying off. This was also true. He said his race of beings had the ability to change their shape and to bend the space-time continuum to their will. Again, truth. He said they felt sorry for the Terrans and wanted to help them. This was the first lie.::

::Uri and his race were worshiped as gods. But they wanted it to remain that way. They did lack the knowledge needed to travel through space, and the Russian ships were too heavily damaged to be of much use to them. So they made the Terrans their servants, their slaves. They tried to get the Terrans to fix the ships, but there was not enough knowledge or technology left to do it. So over the course of the next hundred years or so, they managed to piece enough together to construct Uri's craft, and placed him on board.::

::Uri was not here to get the Paladin and her crew to take the Terrans back to Earth. Uri was here to bring the Paladin's crew to supplement the slave population, and to steal the Paladin so Uri's race could expand into space and conquer other races. Uri had not told anyone that the current distortion plaguing the Paladin was being generated by his ship. It was a dimensional portal, a gateway for his people to use to board the Paladin. It was almost near the threshold when the invasion force would gain access. Varaan had to stop it. No one else knew.::

::Using the mental connection Uri had with his ship, Varaan pushed his consciousness onto Uri's vessel as well. It was to late to shut down the portal. But an overload would collapse it. Varaan mentally manipulated the controls of the vessel. The power core was now on overload. In an instant the gateway would be no more and the Paladin would be safe from invasion.::

::Varaan had not counted on the intensity of the explosion, however. The Paladin rocked with the shockwaves from Uri's vessel exploding inside a cargo bay. Undoubtedly there would be massive damage to the Paladin, but it could be fixed. Varaan also had not counted on the mental backlash along the connection that ripped through Uri's mind and Varaan's. Varaan was pulling out barely ahead of the mental shockwave as it ripped through Uri like a raging fireball.::

::Both Varaan and Uri's bodies physically collapsed to the corridor floor. Varaan was breathing heavily, his head swimming. He had no idea about Uri's condition. Right now his mind was full of stray thoughts, some his own and some which were not. He could only assume they were Uri's. He barely had enough awareness to sense someone else enter the corridor where the (now) four bodies lay on the floor.::

::The crewman stopped abruptly when he saw the bodies. Checking the security guards first, he then moved to Varaan, then on to Uri. He returned to Varaan, knelt down and tapped his comm badge.::

PETERSON: =^= Peterson to sickbay. I need a medical team to deck six, section B3. And you'd better get Dr. Greene here too. =^=

VARAAN: ::in barely a whispering voice:: Crewman, what is the situation?

PETERSON: Well, sir, security is unconscious but alive. You seem to be in pretty bad shape. And I'm no doctor, but I think the other man is dead. I'm not getting a pulse, anyway.

VARAAN: Contact the captain. Tell her not to trust them. Tell her to fortify her position.

::With his last breath, Varaan collapsed into unconsciousness.::