Welcome Aboard (Part 4)

Posted on Wed Sep 30th, 2026 @ 7:59pm by I-402 & Commander Katrina Chance & Lieutenant Commander Andrew Star & Lieutenant Commander Lahki Bakshi Dr & Lieutenant Akira Kogami & Captain Jacob Rye & Ensign Toran Vos
Edited on on Wed Sep 30th, 2026 @ 7:59pm

2,307 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Ghost Starship
Location: USS Hindenburg
Timeline: After 'Welcome Aboard (Part 3)'

Previously, on Star Trek: Missouri:

"No... No, please, I'm not one of them!" The girl pleaded with an unseen adversary.

And now, the continuation:

Andrews ' engineering brain conjured up reasons for how this girl existed. His first was a hologram projection, but the more he thought, the more it became impossible. Galaxy starships didn't have the power grid to support it and Toran. He said he saw a little girl. The ship had been powered down; even if a portable holgrahic emiter was in use, it'd run out of juice by now anyway. This didn't make any sense.

Rye's attention never settled on the girl.

Not completely.

Everyone else seemed drawn to her words, to the impossible sight of a child standing aboard a ship that should have been empty for decades.

Rye found himself watching where she was looking instead.

The girl's gaze had lifted toward the bulkheads.

Toward something above them.

Something that had frightened her.

His helmet light snapped upward, tracing the engineering compartment's overhead conduits and maintenance accessways.

Nothing.

Just shadows.

Pipes.

Structural supports.

But his hand tightened slightly around his rifle.

"Commander."

His voice remained level.

Professional.

"I don't think she's warning us about herself."

The beam of his light continued searching the upper reaches of the compartment.

"Whatever she's afraid of..."

He paused.

"...that's what I'd like to find before it finds us."

Lahki had watched the goings-on and the voice. She had turned. Still no life signs she could pick up. This girl wasn't "alive." OR she had the skill to block the Betazeds, even though she appeared human. Odd.

At this moment, I-402 felt a sensation that could only be described as a searing pain. It was so harsh that she almost fainted, steadying herself against a console to keep from doubling over in pain.

"Something's wrong:" I-402 declared. "My connection to the Missouri's computer was just severed. Whatever it was that overpowered my firewalls, it's strong."

"No, no no no no!" Akira exclaimed as she reached up and tapped her comm badge. "Away team to Missouri; come in Missouri!"

All that answered Akira's coms was static.

"Shit," Akira muttered, before turning her attention to Katrina. "We have officially lost contact with the Missouri; looks as if we're on our own now, Commander."

The report from I-402 immediately sharpened the atmosphere in the compartment.

Communicators were tapped. Questions were asked. Attention shifted toward the possibility that something aboard the Hindenburg had just reached out and touched the Missouri itself.

Rye heard it all.

But his focus remained fixed on the girl.

Or whatever she truly was.

She wasn't looking at them.

She was looking past them.

Past the away team.

Past the engineering consoles.

Toward something only she seemed to understand.

Slowly, deliberately, Rye lowered his rifle until it hung harmlessly against his chest.

Not because the situation was safe.

Because she was frightened.

The gesture was small, but intentional.

Over the years he'd learned that terrified people rarely listened to armed men barking questions. Whether they were civilians caught in a firefight, refugees fleeing a disaster, or frightened children pulled from the rubble of a collapsed building, the first step was always the same.

Get them talking.

"Hey."

His voice was calm and measured, carrying through the compartment without being raised.

"Look at me."

He took a single step forward.

No further.

Just enough to show he was listening.

Around him, the restored systems of the Hindenburg hummed quietly as the old ship continued to wake from its decades-long sleep.

"You've warned us twice now."

His eyes briefly followed the direction she'd been staring before returning to her.

"You told us not to restore power."

A pause.

"You said we'd been marked."

Another.

"Whatever's happening here, I think you're trying to help us."

For the first time since she'd appeared, there was no tactical assessment in his voice. No suspicion. No challenge.

Just a simple question.

"What are you afraid of?"

His gaze remained steady.

Then, after a moment:

"And what happened on Index Day?"

Rye only found himself talking to thin air, as the girl had vanished once again. Just as mysteriously as she had appeared to warn them about their souls being marked.

Katrina watched I-402 closely, an unfamiliar sensation washing over her.

For once in her life, she was shocked. But she hid it behind her carefully neutral mask. She didn't think it was possible for an artificial lifeform to react as if it were in pain, as if it had been struck. Yet that was precisely what I-402 had just done. The lack of response from the Missouri only made things worse. She left Wry to the girl, but listened attentively as she approached Mr. Star.

"I need to know what systems we have control over," she vocalized, her translator deadpan and quiet. "No matter how small. And I need to know now."

Staring into the console as if it were a crystal ball. "Everything in the saucer section is coming back online. I'd need to get to the stardrive section to restore that section, warp engines. But..." There was always a but on ghost ships... Especially when Casper was around. "We didn't complete startup... We didn't even start it."

"Maybe startup requires us to be on the bridge?" I-402 suggested, starting to recover from the hit she took. "It is the command center of the entire ship- perhaps Commander Star is encountering some sort of lockout algorithm that's preventing us from starting the ship from here."

"Or it's a fucking trap that killed the Hindenburg's crew in the first place?" Akira contested.

"Even if it is, the only way we'll be able to get ourselves out of it is by restoring power," Toran pointed out bluntly, his jaw tight and rifle held ready. "We don't have a choice."

Katrina frowned, but nodded slightly. "There's no way for us to signal the Missouri from here if our communications aren't getting through, whatever the cause. If we restore this ship's systems, at least we can get creative."

The XO paused for a moment, considering. In actuality, they did have another option... at least on paper. Find the source of their communication problem. But aboard a Galaxy class starship with 42 decks, no turbolift access and no clear picture of what was happening around them? There was no way for them to easily track the source of the problem.

Katrina nodded sharply once, then gestured to I-402. "Alright. We're heading to the bridge as a group," she decided. "I-402 in front, please. Keep an eye out for structural danger zones. Same formation as before."

Lahki was a fairly good telepath, she could probably get the Missouri from here, actually, but she decided to not say anything. She was better used as a doctor. Just in case Ghosty McGhostface returned. She had had two sons, so she was used to kids' nonsense, but this seemed...not like that.

As the away team made their way towards the Hindenburg's bridge in the hopes to find a master control switch to power the ship up the rest of the way, I-402 led the way, constantly scanning the corridor around them for signs of structural decay.

However, as she did so, something within the Jefferie's tube turned up on her scans. She held up a hand to stop the Away Team.

Toran lifted his rifle, grounding his stance for whatever might have caught I-402's attention. After the crap they'd seen, he wasn't taking any chances. "What is it?" he asked in a near whisper across the comm. "Another sinkhole?"

"Not structural, per say." I-402 explained. "However, I am detecting trace amounts of Cardassian DNA within the Jefferies tube: Not life signs- so most certainly bodies. However, the presence of Cardassian bodies on board would indicate that we are not the first, and likely won't be the last, to be here since whatever happened on Index Day."

"We will be if I have anything to say about it,," Katrina said as she came to a stop. She was silent for a few seconds as she considered their options. On the surface, there wasn't much point in stopping. But if there was something aboard this ship that truly was a danger to them, an examination of those who came before might yield some important information/clues on what lurked in the shadows, and how they could survive it.

Katrina turned her headlight first towards I-402, then in the direction of Doctor Bakshi, asking, "Can you determine how they died from here?"

Lahki nodded. "If you can open the hatch," she said.

"There are multiple methods in which these Cardassians may have died:" I-402 replied. "The tube may have filled with a noxious gas that killed them, or the inside of the tube may have been too cold and dry for them, and they may have succumbed to hypothermia."

She nodded, and shut her eyes. She ran a scan of all the thoughts she could "hear."

"I can only hear one thing. Perhaps the...specter. Or someone, somewhere, is still alive. A...monster. That's all I can get..."

As I-402 turned back towards the away team, however: The head count that she automatically ran each time they were in her focus came up one short: They were missing somebody.

"However, I believe that the cause of these poor Cardassians' deaths is the least of our concerns right now." She declared. "Unless I'm mistaken... It appears Lieutenant Kogami has gone missing."

Toran swore under his breath, sweeping the light of his rifle across the darkness, trying to find any sign of the Lieutenant. He pulled his tricorder from his belt, shaking his head as nothing came up other than the team around him. "Captain Rye, if you stay and cover the team, I'll look for Lieutenant Kogami," he slotted his tricorder away, checking the setting on his rifle before heading towards the back of the team to walk past them, knowing the Lieutenant couldn't have gone in the other direction, or they'd have passed him on the way.

"Should he go alone?" Lahki asked, shaking her head. "I can go along if you need me to," she said. Of course, Toran had the same abilities as she, but two were better than one. She could phase while he telepathed, and vice-versa. If not, she'd just hang out. Doctors were extra, until they were necessary. She hoped she wouldn't be necessary right now.

"It would appear that something, or someone, wishes for us to split up." I-402 surmised. "If Ensign Vos were to proceed alone, he could be playing right into this force's hands."

Lahki nodded. "I'll go, then," she said, pulling her phaser from her medical kit, and heading off towards the direction that Toran and Lt. Vos had last been seen.

"I agree with I-402." Andrew chipped in. "It can be super dangrous, we should stick together."

Katrina's response was simple and to the point. "Where one goes, we all go. No one moves separately."

It was the strategy she had decided on from the very beginning. They moved as a single unit. It was one which seemed to have failed, somehow. If they were to be doomed, they would face it as a group. Katrina had no idea how anyone had managed to disappear, but she wasn't going to allow it to happen again.

Lahki moved foward, quickly but cautiously, in order to catch up with the errant Lieutenant. The doctor was always wary; she couldn't afford to be out of commission.

"He's just around the corner here," she said, quietly but audibly.

*Lt. Are you ok?* She broadcasted.

The broadcast was met with only silence. Whatever happened, Lieutenant Kogami had been rendered unreachable, and the only way to locate her would be to do a manual sweep. For the away team to retrace their steps meticulously.

Toran had put aside any attempts to seem relaxed in the possible face of danger. With a person missing, vigilance and readiness were key. He kept his rifle raised and aimed, ready to fire, as he pushed deeper into the dark corridor, lit only by narrow, skittering beams of light.

"Could the Missouri locate her combadge?" Andrew asked, his engineering mind thinking logically. Though he was wondering how safe it was for the rest of the away team now, Spock's needs of the many famous quote was swirling around in his head.

Walking slowly ahead with the group, Katrina looked to Andrew over her shoulder. With a frown, she shook her head slightly. "If we can't contact them," she droned,"It's likely there's some sort of interference at play here. That being the case, they wouldn't know she is missing, and we have no way of communicating that to them. We can search for a little while, but if we cover a reasonable distance and can't find her..." Katrina shook her head slightly. "We'll just have to see what we can find when we get power back here."

Lahki nodded. "Perhaps it's best to see if we can get power first. Then...we can contain...her," Lahki suggested. "And I can do some digging through the database as to why I can't hear anything here," she muttered. She hated not being able to use her psionic abilities.

A Mission Post by

Commander Katrina Chance
Executive Officer
USS Missouri

Lieutenant Commander Andrew Star
Chief Engineer
USS Missouri

Lieutenant Commander Lahki Bakshi
Chief Medical Officer
USS Missouri

Lieutenant Akira Kogami
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
Second Officer
USS Missouri

Captain Jacob Rye
Marine Commander
USS Missouri

Ensign Toran Vos
Security Officer
USS Missouri

I-402
Computer AI Interface
USS Missouri

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