Diorama

Posted on Sat Apr 4th, 2026 @ 8:32pm by Lieutenant Commander Elias Ford & Commander Rhiana t'Aegis & Ensign Abigail Gordon

3,265 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Flashbacks and Side Quests
Location: USS Valkyrie - Cargo bay 3
Timeline: Before Unwelcome Visitor

[ON]

Ford shouldn't be comfortable. The chair was too perfect. The fit was too exact. The worn velvet hugged the contours of his back and shoulders as if it had been molded to him. It was, without a doubt, the most comfortable chair he had ever sat in. His tricorder whirring uselessly in his hand. It registered nothing. No life signs. Just wood, cloth, and paper.

The room he was sitting in was not even a room. A large container usually reserved for carrying shuttle parts contained an unsettling recreation of a Victorian living room. Complete with a fireplace and a bookshelf filled with leather bound volumes.

Footsteps, at the entrance. The only part of this room in a bottle that betrayed that he was in fact on a starship.

"Ah, security, come in. Don't mind the anachronisms." A few more minutes in that chair and he could see himself defending the medical merits of leeches.

Rhiana stepped closer to the container the voice was coming from. Her usually brisk pace was slower now, almost hesitant. No, not hesitant. Careful. As if she was approaching a potential threat.

"Commander Ford?" she asked when she approached the open door to the cargo container. Glimpsing the interior, she stared. "Are you feeling alright?"

He certainly didn't expect her of all people to show up. But he also did not expect a Romulan to ask that of all things. "Well, as you can see I'd like to report I found some lost cargo apparently. And some missing." He referenced from the PADD he left next to the dusty teaset on the table. "There was supposed to be an Orbital Kinematic Asepsis Dome in here, disassembled of course. Instead I get a living room."

The chief of security blinked while her brain tried to process what was happening. The situation just seemed so bizarre. "Calling operations might have been a better idea," she said after a moment. "They are in charge of the cargo manifest. Maybe you were incorrectly informed about the location of the dome?"

Ford's smile was thin, a mere tightening of the lips that didn't reach his eyes. He picked up the PADD and tapped it against his palm. "I think Operations would call security as well, anything that's able to make the Dome disappear or create this little room in a bottle sounds like a security risk. The arms of the Dome alone are 800 kilograms each."

Rhiana suppressed a sigh. "Cargo manifests can be wrong. Cargo can be mislabelled. Cargo can be stored in a different cargo bay. Unless all of this has been verified, this is not yet a security matter." She gestured to the cargo pod Ford was sitting in. "The same is true for... this. Have you verified that the furnishings do not belong to someone of the Valkyrie's actual crew?"

He rubbed his eyes and forced a tired smile. "Well if it does belong to someone maybe he will let me keep the chair". He gestured around the room with the PADD. "This is a specialized container, made for the parts of the dome. The code I used to open it is part of the medbay's equipment manifest. I can assure you, this is the place." He left his PADD next to the tea set again before tapping his tricorder. "Although," gesturing over the readings, "The mass of everything in here is identical to the mass the Dome is supposed to have."

"Now I'm not one to jump to conclusions, but if I were to make a prognosis. I'd say our five ton piece of medical equipment has undergone an aesthetically pleasing transmutation into a tea set."

Rhiana's jaws tightened while she contemplated the situation in silence. The urge to just turn around and leave, secure in the knowledge that the doctor was trying to "prank" her, to use a Federation Standard term, was growing by the second. As was the question in her mind why she had answered this call herself instead of sending one of her people. At least the answer to that question was easy enough: she had been so busy with filling in for Commander Boyle, who was hopefully safely occupied with trivial busywork, that Rhiana had been glad to do some actual security duty. And now, here she was, in a situation she had certainly not thought possible when getting out of bed this morning.

Deciding to treat this in a professional manner, she pulled a small PADD out of a pocket and began to enter some data. "I am assuming that someone exchanged the container's contents prior to the container being brought aboard. That will make it difficult to find the culprit." She looked at the furniture and shook her head. "It must be a very particular kind of person."

"A very particular person" Ford repeated "Or a very particular phenomenon" Ford tried to stand. His legs didn't respond properly. He looked down. The velvet was darker where his hands rested. Wet. Not with sweat. The fabric held him. Like it had grown into him. "Commander" he said. His voice was steady. Clinical. The way he'd been trained to deliver bad news. "Are you armed?"

Noticing the slight change in the doctor's tone of voice and hearing this unexpected question, Rhiana's left eyebrow rose. "No, but that can be remedied if necessary." She was still standing outside the container but took a step closer to the entrance. "Are you feeling well?" The scepticism in her tone was gone and replaced by a hint of true concern. "Do you need help standing up?"

Ford braced his hands on the armrests and tried again to rise. This time he pulled harder. For a moment the velvet stretched with him, then refused. He felt a sharp resistance where his forearm met the fabric, a tug deep under the skin. He pulled again. A tearing sensation, brief, deep, and horribly wrong. A thin flap of skin and uniform remained stuck to the velvet.

He lifted his exposed arm, devoid of skin.

Blood loss becoming critical, circulation compromised. If he could summarize through the pain what the chair was doing to him. It would be exsanguination. He had very little time left. And he had to answer the commander's question.

“Commander,” he said, lifting the torn arm so she could see it clearly “I am being exsanguinated." The pain became sharper and he could feel his temperature dropping. What was the Romulan word for 'shoot' again? Aekhei? Aekhoi? Aknoy? He couldn't remember.

After the years spent aboard the Firebird - the Valkyrie was really just an extension of it - she really should know better than to ever be unarmed. Was it any consolation that Rhiana at least knew the location of practically all the hidden weapons' compartments all over the ship? Maybe.

Seeing the bloody patch of raw flesh on the doctor's forearm, she dropped her PADD and hit her combadge while turning to run to the nearest of those stashes. "t'Aegis to sickbay. Prepare to receive doctor Ford in critical condition. He will need a blood transfusion. t'Aegis out." While she was still speaking, her finger print unlocked the compartment several metres away from the cargo container. Tearing a phaser out of the holding clasps, she cut the communication with sickbay without even waiting for an acknowledgement. Time was of the utmost importance.

Seconds later, the chief of security was back at the open door of the cargo container. Entering it was out of the question. Her jaws tightened at the sight of the near unconscious doctor. She had no idea what would happen when she fired at what must be an alien inside the cargo container, but if she did not fire, Ford would die. And so she did. A neat shot of several seconds long at the lower part of the armchair, well clear of the doctor's form.

The chair screamed.

Not audibly. But Ford felt it, a vibration that traveled up through the fabric and into his bones, a frequency of pain that his nervous system interpreted as sound. The grip on his legs loosened for a fraction of a second. The chair lost its hold. He hit the floor of the container hard, his skinless arm striking the Persian rug beneath him. The pain was extraordinary. He heard himself make a sound. It wasn't a scream. Whatever the chair used to hold him in left multiple punctures throughout his body. His lungs were being filled with liquid. Each breath pulled something heavier than air into spaces that were meant to stay dry.

He pushed himself to place his back on the wall, keep it upwards, slow it down. The pain only showed him more places that now lacked skin. What was once a chair it now resembled a wild animal from Taryl 2. Visible muscle where the phaser hit its target. And erratic movements from limbs that were once assembled around to appear as a chair. He did not trust his eyes anymore. He knew he had little time left.

Whatever was happening inside the container - if it even was a container and did not also belong to whatever lifeform had been forming this interior - it was close to killing the chief medical officer. Without thinking of the possible consequences, Rhiana fired at the former chair again. Another beam sustained for several seconds. The smell of burning flesh began to fill the air. She fired a short burst at the "floor" of the container just inside the door. Stepped inside. Another burst. Another step. Ready to fire at anything else should it try to attack her or Ford.

She moved as quickly as possible and thankfully it was only a few steps until she reached the slumped form of the doctor. After firing another round of quick bursts to hopefully keep the creature at bay, she crouched down and hoisted Ford onto her shoulders in what Starfleet called a "fireman's hold". "Stay with me, doctor," she told him, not even certain whether he could still hear her and knowing that she was likely hurting him. But there was no way around it. This particular way of carrying him gave her a free arm and she made sure to fire at the creature again and again.

The ground had become uneven and rippled as the creature could not hold up the pretense of being a room any longer. It made Rhiana's task of getting out of this potential death trap more difficult. She stumbled once when a piece of "floor" suddenly was not where it had seemed to be and her foot stepped on a few centimetres of air. With the added weight of her colleague, she fell forward. Let go of her phaser trying to keep some of her balance and Ford on her shoulders. Somehow managed to take another small, staggering step. And another. The ground was soft by now, muscle instead of hardwood. Rhiana tried not to dwell on this and instead concentrated on surviving.

The few steps seemed to take an eternity, but eventually, Rhiana made it. She had not managed to regain her balance and one last upheaval of alien muscles sent her flying. The two officers landed in a heap outside of the container.

"Computer," Rhiana panted. The fall had temporarily winded her. "Two to beam... directly... to main sickbay... and... establish containment field... around cargo container..." The computer chirped and the two officers were engulfed in the blue haze of the transporter that brought them directly to the desired location.

Abigail had heard the alert, the call from Rhiana. As soon as the Doctor and Rhiana materialized into sickbay, Abigail quickly took note of the condition that Ford was in, giving a wincing but that was all. She'd address it later on.

"Let's get him on a bio bed stat." Abi called out to an orderly, the ensign moving towards the bio bed where Ford was now laying. The patches of skin that were missing, him bleeding. Need to stablize him.

"Also help t'Aegis to the bio bed nearby." Abigail already taking Ford's vitals. She glanced over towards the Security Chief.

"What happened?"

"I am fine, I do not need medical attention," Rhiana replied and waved the orderly away. She did indeed not seem to be harmed, though somewhat dishevelled. "Doctor Ford was attacked by an alien lifeform," she explained and walked to the other side of the biobed, across from the nurse. "It was a very subtle attack. He must have lost a considerable amount of blood before we noticed what was happening. I have not had time to examine his wounds, but he appears to have sustained extensive full-thickness skin loss on different parts of his body when he tried to separate himself from the lifeform."

Abi winced, as she examined Ford. "From what the scans show is that he had been sitting down on something..." she had the orderlies to help Ford out of his damaged clothing and having him on his stomach, to tend to the wounds.

Before the dermal regenerator had been activated, a solution had been utilized to stop the bleeding that Ford was suffering from. And aid in the skin regenaration. While the wide beam dermal regenerator was activated, Abigail had set up a transfusion to counter the blood loss of Ford.

"The alien lifeform took the shape of a --Chair?" Abigail shuddered. "Hopefully there aren't anymore of those on the ship."

"Doubtful," the chief of security replied while she kept a close eye on the treatment the doctor was receiving. "The lifeform had taken on the form of a room including furniture inside a cargo container. It is contained for now, but will require investigation." She looked around sickbay. "Are you certain that you are qualified for this procedure, Ensign? Is there no doctor on duty?"

Abigail looked Rhiana directly into her eyes. "I am here and I have been studying procedures. Waiting for another doctor to arrive, may have made it to where Doctor Ford will not survive. He can report me later on and so can you." she said firmly.

Commander t'Aegis left eyebrow twitched at the nurse's attitude. "I am not concerned about reporting you. I am concerned about the best possible care for Commander Ford," she stated. "Is the Emergency Medical Hologramme malfunctioning?" For her to inquire about the EMH meant that she was truly worried, even if the Ensign would of course not know how the Romulan actually felt about the hologramme.

Abigail's eyes softened. "Please trust me. I wouldn't do anything to harm the doctor. And I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't confident as to using this procedure. If you look, the skin is regenerating." she looked around at the medical bay. "I am also the one who is on duty. "

"That is what I am concerned about. I do not doubt your skills, but you are not a qualified medical doctor. Skin regeneration does not automatically signify that there is no further issue," Rhiana stated. "There could be deep-tissue damage you know nothing about yet. Nor have you investigated whether the creature injected any foreign substance into the Commander's body while they were linked together."

"The bleeding needed to be stopped and skin needed to be applied which is what is part of this. I will be checking on the other things. " Abigail was noticing that Rhiana must truly be concerned with how Ford was doing, in how she was questioning her.

"If you will feel any better, I will call upon the EMH or another doctor, to take over." Abigail giving an understanding nod. "As you pointed out it would be best for another Doctor to come into play. For now, he is stabilized."

"That is the most important, for now," Rhiana finally agreed. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have an investigation to run. Do inform me about Commander Ford's status." That said, the chief of security turned around and left sickbay.

"I will do so." Abigail said, as she watched as Rhiana left then settled herself down to keep watch.

---

Some time later

Time moved on, Abigail sat in a chair near the bio bed where Ford was. At some point she had drifted off, only to be woken up by another medical staff coming to check on Ford. She simply refused to leave, when a staff member had suggested that she do so. Abigail didn't feel that she should not yet.

Ford was cold, very cold. Did someone use tricordrazine, he thought. He hated tricordrazine. It made him feel cold. He opened his eyes only for them to get assaulted by the sickbay lights. His body was numb and his lungs felt like dried leaves. He lifted himself upward enough to rest his back on the back of the bed. It didn't happen at once. And his eyes started to hurt more than his back.

"Computer" his throat was dry enough to sand wood "decrease lights by 20%"

Abigail's eyes flashed open, she had fallen asleep once more.

"Doctor Ford, you're awake!" Abi managed to not be loud in her exclaim feeling the sting of relieved tears. "Here let me get you some water." moving to get it, along with a straw, and coming right back.

"Thank you" Ford took the water and drank slowly. He then looked up to read the upside down readings of his own vitals. He rubbed his eyes. ''Well, doctor. Am I going to live?''

A tired smile appeared, "From what the doctors say, yes you are going to live." Abigail assured Ford.

She reched for her own water, her throat feeling rather dry. taking a drink before she continued.

"Commander t'Aegis got you here just in time. " Abigail continued. "The medical staff did what they needed to do to save your life. I am glad that it was successful." giving a relieved smile. "You will be under the tender ministrations of the staff, and don't fight it okay, Doctor? Oh and they told me that I had better get to my quarters, sometime otherwise they would put me on notice."

"Did she now?" he groaned as he stretched his neck as far as it would go. His freshly regenerated skin was practically burning. 'Tender' might have been a gross exaggeration of the ministrations of the staff. He could tell from the pain alone how long his recovery would take. The pain, and the cracking sensation inside his lungs. He blinked slowly as if that would help and turned to her.

She slept on the chair. He could see the crease on her neck. He knew what sleeping on a sickbay chair did to a neck.

''There is no 'sometime' in sickbay, Miss Abigail"

Abigail gave out a little bit of a squeaky gasp, realizing the weight of what Ford just said.

"Of course Doctor, I will proceed directly to my quarters." her face reddening. "You are in good hands." with that Abigail stood up, almost knocking her chair over in her haste.

"Have a good night sir."

Her footsteps fading away as Abigail left medical.


[OFF]

Commander Rhiana t'Aegis
Second Officer / Chief Security & Tactical Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Lieutenant Commander Elias Ford
Chief Medical Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Ensign Abigail Gordon
Nurse
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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