S02 E06: Chronicles of T'Avaya: Trash Tosk

 

S02 E06: Chronicles of T'Avaya: Trash Tosk

            Mission log. Stardate 45132.4. Agent T’Avaya reporting. I am on a mission to find and capture the being that Starfleet has labeled “Tosk 2.0”. The Tosk are a race from the Gamma Quadrant. They were bred just to be hunted by a Gamma Quadrant race known only as the “Hunters”. The Tosk in question had been hiding on Starbase 412 for five years and was just awakened from some type of suspended animation. He managed to escape the Starbase on a runabout and is headed for Subspace Relay Station 1814. He is called “Tosk 2.0” because he seems to have more abilities than the Tosk previously encountered by Starfleet on Deep Space Nine. Tosk 2.0 is physically stronger, more intelligent, and more belligerent. He thinks everyone he sees is a Hunter who is trying to kill him. Starfleet Intelligence believes he is headed for the Relay Station to commandeer a ship that is currently docked there—a ship that has a weapon of immense destructive powers; he intends to take the ship to the Gamma Quadrant and destroy the Hunters’ homeworld. My mission is of grave import to SI, not just because of the Tosk and the ship, but also because the Relay Station is secretly used by SI to send and receive intelligence reports.

            Section 31 has contacted SI and sent Agent Cassandra Chand to assist me on this mission. Cassandra and I have met on a previous mission. She is the offspring of genetically engineered humans and should prove most beneficial in capturing Tosk 2.0.

           

“I was on a mission on this same relay station four years ago,” Cassandra told T’Avaya.

            “Interesting,” said T’Avaya. “Please elaborate.”

            Cassandra explained that her mission four years ago was to find an Andorian named Achesh. He was a Section 31 agent who was suspected of being a double agent. The station commander, Captain Ares Amondola, while showing Cassandra around the station, escorted her to the station’s waste management center, which had one of the Federation’s most advanced systems of recycling waste and using it to generate raw power. Knowing about her genetically enhanced abilities (which he was only informed of because he was the station commander), Amondola asked Cassandra to lift some heavy barrels of a certain chemical and pour them from one barrel to the next. Amondola said he had tried to requisition the proper equipment from Starfleet to do the heavy lifting—anti-grav units and industrial replicators--but it was taking too much time to ship them. As she was lifting, she found Achesh’s dead body between two barrels, a knife in his chest. After several days of investigation, she and the station security chief had been unable to identify the murderer. They knew that the murder had occurred in the waste management center.

Not only was there the mystery of the unsolved murder, but ever since the incident the waste management center had had a strange magnetic resonance. The resonance caused instances of light to appear, spurring rumors that the room was haunted by the dead Andorian.

T'Avaya had heard the rumors about the station being haunted. She dismissed the rumors as idol gossip. Cassandra also dismissed the rumors, but said she was glad she was now going to get another opportunity to investigate the unsolved murder. Thinking back on the murder had brought up feelings of anxiety in Cassandra. She petted Chio as he lay contentedly in her lap, helping to calm her. “What a nice pet,” she told T’Avaya, her Vulcan host aboard the Shavokh. “He seems to like you,” T’Avaya answered. The Kt'Chraann raised his furry beaked head and chirped softly.

 

            A few hours later, the Shavokh was granted permission to dock at the Relay Station. T’Avaya and Cassandra walked onto the station and were greeted by the station CO, Captain Ares Amondola. He said to Cassandra, “Cassa, it’s good to see you again.”

            Cassandra smiled. “Good to see you too, Ares. How’s the garden?” Amondola had set up his own flower garden in the station’s hydroponics bay. Cassandra had always been fascinated by gardens. She had grown up on Ceti Alpha V, a world where nothing would grow on the surface, and she had had to live underground where very little could grow.

            “Very well,” he said. “You will have to see my new kaferan blooms. They’re quite beautiful!” Cassandra agreed that she would have to see it sometime while she was visiting the station.

Just as they entered the Operations Center, they were informed that Tosk’s ship was approaching the station. Sensors picked up only one lifeform aboard. Amondola ordered the Tosk to stop and prepare to be boarded. There was no reply. Then station security picked up a transporter signal. The Tosk had beamed to the station. Amondola ordered security to find out where Tosk was on the station. Right after he gave the order, Tosk’s stolen runabout exploded. Captain Amondola called the starship USS Blue Djinn--the Tosk’s intended destination--which was currently docked at the station, and alerted them that Tosk was on the station. The ship was ordered keep its shields up so the Tosk could not beam over.

Someone had reported seeing Tosk outside the waste management center. Captain Amondola led Cassandra and T’Avaya there. It was a large room that was three stories high, with a large vat in the middle. There were walkways circling the vat at each level, with an empty space between the vat and the walkways. There were many laborers on each level going about their business. T’Avaya looked down from the precipice on the top level. Cassandra was also looking around. The captain was asking his workers if they had seen anything suspicious. No one had actually seen the Tosk enter. The room was full of different types of chemicals, making sensor readings difficult. The main thing T’Avaya’s tricorder picked up was the magnetic resonance that Cassandra had told her about that had been there since the murder four years ago. The resonance was strong. Amondola also mentioned the constant resonance in the room.

One of the workers screamed. T’Avaya looked across the room and saw the Tosk. He rammed his fist into the giant vat. Under his great strength, the vat cracked, and waste started slowly seeping out. Then she saw the Tosk jump over a railing. He landed on his feet two stories down. Amazing, T’Avaya thought. Most humanoids would not have survived that jump. Cassandra, with her genetically engineered body, was not most humanoids, and jumped over the railing and landed on her feet two stories down, just like the Tosk. Then she ran in the direction of the Tosk.

            Cassandra saw Tosk jump over a console and then seemingly vanish into thin air. He had used his personal cloaking shield that all Tosk seem to have. Cassandra looked around. Even though her eyesight was better than that of most humans, she could not see beyond a human’s visual EM band. She heard someone gasp. She turned around. There was a person whose head had suddenly impacted the floor, as if being pushed by an invisible force. It was in the direction Cassandra had just come from. The Tosk unshrouded and ran past several of the workers who were too scared to move. She chased him into another room that had large storage containers. Tosk pushed over the containers and kept running. As the containers fell over, they came open and ooz started running out. They had been filled with waste—fecal waste mixed with chemicals. The smell was almost unbearable to everyone, but was even more vile to Cassandra with her enhanced sense of smell. Still, she kept chasing Tosk, running through the ooz.

            Tosk ran across the room and through a doorway. Then he saw two station security men waiting for him, aiming phaser rifles at him. He quickly turned to his right and ran toward another doorway. Cassandra was still running after him when she saw him shroud again. She was now in a large room that had several archways. The invisible Tosk could have gone in any direction. Amazing, thought Cassandra, that even with the trash all over him, the Tosk could still render himself completely invisible, even the stench of the trash on him was gone.

 

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            Tosk made his way to one of the Relay Station’s many comm rooms. There was only one person in the room. Tosk threw the human woman against a wall. She lay there unconscious. Tosk went to the console where the woman had been. He sent a message to the ship docked at the station, telling them to beam over an extra security team to help apprehend the intruder. The message was acknowledged. The ship lowered its shields to commence beaming. Good. All the Tosk wanted was for the ship to lower shields so he could beam over. He shrouded and ran out of the room and ran twenty meters down the hallway to the station’s transporter room. He entered the room and unshrouded. As he walked behind the console, he saw T’Avaya enter the room holding a phaser. There were two security men behind her, also wielding phasers.

            “How did you find me?” asked Tosk.

            T’Avaya answered, “We knew you would find a way to get the ship to lower its shields and try to beam over. We monitored all the transporter rooms until we found you.”

The security men cuffed him and took him to the brig.

 

 

            Now that the intruder had been apprehended, Captain Amondola was concerned with getting the waste cleaned up. T’Avaya saw the workers with portable machines. Amondola said the machines were isomiatic particle discriminators. They were used to clean up whenever they had a waste leak.

            “Isomiatic particle discriminators are normally used for interspersement of neuronic matter,” T’Avaya said.

            Amondola shook his head at the Vulcan. “Normally, yes. But they have proven very effective with our waste here. Not that we usually have much to clean up. It’s usually very well contained. But I assure you, we can manage.”

            The Vulcan let the captain handle it. He was the station commander, after all.

            There seemed to be a blinking light in a corner across the room. She walked over for a closer look. The wall flashed green, then red, then blue. She did not see a source for the light. One of the workers noticed her interest and said, “That is the magnetic resonance that appears now and then. If you walk in that direction,” he pointed to his left, “it will follow you until you leave the area.” T’Avaya scanned it with her tricorder. It registered the resonance. Then she walked in the direction the worker had pointed. He followed her. She also noticed the resonance moving with her. “It follows, but it doesn’t leave the room?” she asked.

“No. It stays here.”

            T’Avaya looked at her readings again. “It seems to be attracted to heat and movement.”

            “It is the ghost of the Andorian that was murdered here,” the man said. T’Avaya did not believe in ghosts, but this was most assuredly a strange phenomenon.

 

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            The Tosk had tried to ram the walls of the brig, so the guards restrained him. The station doctor, a Tellarite named Dr. Bloss, ran a medical scan of the Tosk. Then Bloss took a small epidermal sample and blood sample from the Tosk.

Once the doctor was back in the infirmary, he uploaded all his scans. He also ran genetic computer scans of the biological samples he took. Just as he saw a medical alert appear on his screen, the Tellarite was hit on the head with a blunt instrument. He fell to the ground. Dr. Bloss managed to get up. The intruder raised his arm to strike again, but the doctor was able to block him. The intruder struck him in the face with his other hand. Bloss fell to the floor. The intruder hit him several times with his weapon, making sure he would never get back up again.

Minutes later, T’Avaya entered the infirmary to ask Bloss what he had learned about the Tosk. She found his dead body. Someone had beaten him several times to the head. T’Avaya looked at the scan results on the doctor’s computer screen. It flashed the word “trablanche”, an illegal chemical that was virtually untraceable by conventional tricorders. It had been found on Tosk’s epidermis. Trablanche had been banned on Federation worlds because it could be processed for use as a potent hallucinogen. But in its pure form, it was a good source of energy.

She quickly ran back to the brig. She got there just in time to see Tosk jerk his head back and gasp. Then his head fell to his right shoulder and his eyes closed. She knew he was dead. The illegal chemical trablanche had penetrated his outer skin layer and restricted his blood flow, causing his death. The trablanche must have been mixed in with the waste from the waste reclamation center. The guard immediately called Captain Amondola.

A few minutes later, Amondola entered the security chamber and saw the dead Tosk. Its face and body appeared burnt, melted. “How did this happen?” the captain asked the guard.

“He just died while he was sitting in the restraints,” the guard answered.

T’Avaya said, “Dr. Bloss discovered an illegal chemical, trablanche, on the Tosk. It had permeated his skin and cellular structure. It was part of the waste that was all over his body.” Amondola could still smell the stench. The Tosk had never been cleaned up after running through the waste. “None of my workers have been so adversely affected by the waste as he has,” the captain said. “The Tosk had a different cellular structure. He must have been more susceptible to it. Doctor Bloss is also dead,” T’Avaya said.

“What?!” the captain said. “Bloss is dead too? Why wasn’t I informed?”

T’Avaya said, “I found him dead when I entered the infirmary a few minutes ago. When I saw on his console that he had discovered the trablanche, I immediately went to check on Tosk.”

“You mean he was murdered because he found the trablanche?” Captain Amondola asked.

T’Avaya looked at him. “I never said he was murdered.” The captain stuttered, “I…I just…assumed.”

            Then T’Avaya realized what the isomiatic particle discriminators had been used for. They could parse out the illegal chemical. Captain Amondola must have known about the chemical. He had had Cassandra instill it into the waste system four years ago without her knowledge. All this time, the illegal chemical was the reason their waste recycling system worked so well. None of the station workers nor Bloss had known about it. Bloss wouldn’t have known to look for it until had had seen its unusual reaction to Tosk’s epidermis. Achesh had learned about it and was murdered by Amondola. The magnetic resonance had been caused by the mixture of the chemical and the waste products. The magnetic resonance “ghost” had nothing to do with the Andorian’s murder. The chemical had been added just before the murder, making it appear related. She explained as much to the security guard and the captain. Then she took out her phaser and told the captain he was under arrest for the murders of Ashech and Bloss.

 

            On the one hand, Cassandra was glad to have the murder mystery solved. They would never have been able to detect the chemical if it hadn’t been for the Tosk. On the other hand, Cassandra was sorry to have lost a friend in Amondola. She had loved hearing his gardening advice. She had started her own garden on Tridactus II because of him. T’Avaya said she understood the loss of a friend, and that perhaps Amondola could be rehabilitated. Cassandra wondered if he had only been using her because of her enhanced body when he had her lift the barrels to instill the trablanche. Perhaps that was the only reason he had pretended to be friends with her. T’Avaya admitted that with their type of work, being a secret agent, it was hard to make friends. The Vulcan thought of those she had left behind when she became an SI agent—her father, her uncle, her friends Emac and Luruwa and everyone else on Station Tyrellia. She still heard from them now and then, but she could no longer share her life with them. Her life now was filled with subterfuge and top secret missions. But then, this was the life she had chosen, and she had no regrets.

            Cassandra said, “Interesting. You chose this life. My parents made me become a Section 31 agent. They said it was the best use of my talents.” T’Avaya said, “You were not allowed to choose what you wanted to do? That is regrettable.”

T’Avaya knew that Cassandra had been found by Section 31 when she was a child on Ceti Alpha V almost a century ago, her parents having been stranded there by Captain Kirk of the USS Enterprise. When her people had been discovered by the USS Reliant, some of them left on the Reliant, while others, including Cassandra and her parents, were left on Ceti Alpha V to keep the Reliant’s crew as hostages. Her people’s leader, Khan, had planned to come back for them. As it turned out, Khan and the others on Reliant were killed. The Enterprise had been sent back to Ceti Alpha V to pick up the Reliant’s crew. Before the Enterprise made it back to the planet, Section 31 intervened. Thirty-one had suspected that some of Khan’s people had been left on the planet, and of course, they were right. S31 sent a ship to rescue Reliant’s crew and Khan’s people. Cassandra and the rest of her people were taken in by Thirty-one. They were kept in hiding.

            “I am only the second generation of my people,” said Cassandra, “so it’s not as if we have traditions. But my parents said that for a superior race, we should be proud to be the caretakers of those who are weaker. Section 31 is seen by them as the secret caretakers of the Federation.”

            “A most fascinating viewpoint,” T’Avaya said. “Not one that some would share.” She went on to observe, “The Tosk was bred just to be hunted. He had only one task, one life path. Your people were genetically engineered to be superior, to be leaders and rulers of earth. Tosk was not born with the ability to choose his own path. But you were. You have your own free will. Consider that.”

            It had never once occurred to Cassandra to defy her parents’ will. She simply answered, “I will.”

 

-by the Honorable Kavura

Thank you for reading my Star Trek Adventures: Captain’s Log mission report. Captain’s Log is a solo role-playing game by Modiphius Entertainment. This adventure is based on the Lower Decks Mission Brief “Tosk 2.0” by Michael Dismuke.