"Altered existence..."

- Occurrence, Part 1 -

(They notify Starfleet of their change in course. One Admiral whispers it to another Admiral, and another Admiral whispers it to another Admiral; until someone eventually whispers it to Admiral Theseus on Starbase 55)
Cid(whispering): [Sssp. Ssssp. Ssp]
Theseus: The Zeen changed their courts towards a mysterious Ritz? I love those crackers!
Cid(gives a padd with the info): No! Here.
Theseus: Oh.

(Commander Seifer enters Sickbay on the Phoenix-X, where the liquefied Captain is still unconscious in a Glass Tube)
Lox: I don't think there's anything we can do but wait to see when he recovers.
Seifer: We'd better not tell anyone about this.
(A transmission from Starbase 55 suddenly clicks on-screen in front of them)
*Theseus: Greetings! I need to speak to your Captain. Go get him.
(Lox and Seifer stand in front of the Glass Tube hoping to hide the view of the Liquid)
Seifer: --Uhhh. He's kind of busy right now... beating up the crew for being slackers!
*Theseus: I see. Well it's about time. Anyways, I know I dropped by on the Manila a couple days ago promising you a break from missions for a while, but I just realized I never keep my promises.
Lox: And they say corruption is dead.
*Theseus: There seems to be a strange anomalous Rift occurring in the Narendra Sector. It's unlike anything we've encountered before.
Seifer: What about the strange anomalous Rift we encountered the other day?
*Theseus: That was just a bunch of light bulbs stuck together in space.

(Later, the Phoenix-X stretches into Transwarp to the Nerenda Sector. The Conduit begins to undergo turbulence and the Phoenix-X is forced out to normal space. They approach the Xena)
Aeris: Our scanners are having a hard time with the Rift as we get closer. But I'm sure as soon as we're right next to it, we'll be able to scan perfectly.
*Seifer: What are you basing that on?
Aeris: ...Pointless certainty.

(As they near the Rift, they notice a very large gray alien Ship sitting beside it. It turns out to be a Gordarion Ship)
*Aeris: Aha! I knew our scanners picked them up. I have a score to settle with them for kidnapping me all those years ago...
Seifer: Someone's got personal issues.
Armond: With the Gordarions here, it can't be good nnews. They must be up to something.
(Seifer raises one eyebrow in a classic Star Trek expression of one eyebrow being raised)
Seifer: Yes... of course... they must be up to something... But what... The question is, what.....
Armond: Commander, what's with your eyebrows?

(Gewdeque enters Main Engineering where Ensign Dan is at a computer station sifting through image files)
Gewdeque: I can't believe you finally got a mission, Ensign Dan. I give you 10 seconds before you screw it up.
Ensign Dan: The Admiral wanted some of our more volatile technologies off the ship for our safety so he wants me to find a good location to store them.
Gewdeque(hands a padd): Well he just added the Xena's Timeship to the list.
(Ensign Dan takes the padd, accidentally elbowing a button on the control panel that deletes all his research)
Ensign Dan: Oh man!
Gewdeque: Hahahahaha.

(The large Godarion Ship suddenly fires torpedoes at the Phoenix-X and then the Xena)
King Gordon: What's all this? What's all this? Eh, mate?

(The Phoenix-X moves in front of the Xena to protect them. The Gordarion Ship fires twice as much torpedoes onto the Phoenix-X, weakening their shields)
Seifer: At least people will think we're heroic.
Kugo: What if they think we're stupid?
Seifer: You stop talking now.

(He's suddenly beamed out. Seifer re-materializes in the Surgery Chamber of the Godarion Ship where two Guards grab him and slam him against a medical bed)
Gordoneley: Sit still!!
Gordonahoue: Yeah what that guy said!!
(Tubules wriggle out from the sides of the bed and hook into him, another tubule cuts surgical lasers into his stomach)
Seifer: Aahh!!!

(Matt contacts the Xena to arrange a shield-integration technique)
*Aeris: Our shields aren't that well right now either. Over the past few weeks we've been fighting off a being called Klokian.
Matt: Look Lady, do you want to integrate or not?

(Lieutenant Kayl sneaks past Matt into a back-Control Room where she tries to contact the Gordarion Ship in hopes of making a deal with them to take her powers away)
Kayl: Come in. Please come in!
(She notices something crawl past in the shadows of the next room. She runs over with her silillian destroyer phaser, finding the crawler is no more than the infamous Klokian wearing nothing but a loin cloth)
Kayl: Get some clothes man.

(Klokian breaks out the doors into the next corridor, and Kayl runs after. She follows him into Sickbay, where Klokian dismantles the tall but thin Glass Tube containing the Liquid Captain inside)
Klokian: Klokian use Captain omni-powers to re-energize Timeship. Heh, heh, heh. Klokian so smart, sometimes Klokian surprise Klokian.
Kayl: Hold it right there!
(She phasers, missing him and hitting a glass of 9-armed squids in the back. Each of their 9th arms vapourize, rendering them normal again)
Lox: Oh man!
(Klokian leaps over another destroyer blast and runs off)

Borishnikov: Uh oh.
(People in the Torpedo Bay strolling by the Slipstream Torpedo casings, notice one or two casings suddenly beamed off by the Gordarions)
Yeltso: Uuhh... We'll just say we fired those.

(The Bridge is left with few people to control the Ship)
Armond: What do we ddo now?
Kugo: We have to get back the Commander!
Armond: Okay, I'll ttry not to gget in your wway.
(Armond statics on and off as if he was a hologram. Kugo takes out a silillian destroyer and aims it at him)
Kugo: What is this?
Armond: I, uhh... I have the hiccups!
(Kugo walks over to a panel and checks the ship's Systems Queue)
Kugo: You're not Armond. You're some kind of computer hologram... You're a computer Virus!
Armond: Hey, I have feelings you know.

(GoyCho grabs Matt and brings him to the Shuttle Bay where all the Jumpers are. Targon, Phinly, Don, Kortos, Grath, and Elly each get into a Jumper)
Matt: You don't really expect me to judge your flying techniques from here, do you?
GoyCho: No, you idiot. You're coming with us!

(Matt and GoyCho leap into a Jumper as they hover like the others off the floor. Their cockpits shut as the Bay doors open and all eight Jumpers jet out into space)
Phinly: Hey there's fuzzy dice in my Jumper.

(Klokian breaks through the doors into the Transporter Room and activates the transporter. He sets the transporter buffer to underrun after he's gone)
Klokian(beams out): Klokian devious.
(Kayl runs in too late and finds evidence of the sabotage)
Kayl: Argh!!

(She makes her way to the Shuttle Bay and finds the Angel Wing sitting alone. Kayl opens its doors and runs in, hovering it off the floor)
Holo: Hey you don't have authorization to use that! Oh well, I tried.

(The Timeship busts out the Bay doors of the Xena and tries escaping towards the nearby Planet, to the bottom right of the Rift. The Angel Wing changes course and follows the Timeship; they both get closer to the Rift)
Kayl: Kayl to the Phoenix-X. I'm in pursuit---

(The transmission is muffled on the Bridge of the Phoenix-X. While aiming the destroyer, Kugo taps at the panels accessing the intricate protocols of the Armond Virus)
Kugo: It says here you're supposed to infect most of our systems! I'm going to delete those protocols.
Armond: Fine then. See if I care.

(The Jumpers circle the Gordarion Ship, disabling their weapons and breaking in. Seifer falls unconscious as the two Gordarion operators have his Symbiont in a very experimental Hyper-Evolution Containment Chamber)
Gordoneley: If this thing doesn't work, we're selling it on Ferengi Ebay.
(The door busts down and Matt, Kortos and Elly run in. They find many dead failed experiments Trill bodies all over the floor)
Elly: Oh man.
Gordonahoue: Ah!! Don't shoot me. It was all his idea!
Gordoneley: No it wasn't. I'm not an idea person!

(Other curious Starships pass by the Rift, the two Federation Ships fighting the Gordarion Ship and the Planet nearby, but keep passing by because they're smarter than that)
Vennka: Some people just have to solve everything with violence.

(The Timeship is weak enough that Kayl beams Klokian and the Containment Glass onto the Angel Wing. The transport attracts a violent bolt from the Rift, knocking the Angel Wing's engines offline. The Angel Wing loses course and falls down towards the Planet)
Kayl: Aaahhh!!!!! Oh well. I'm sure nothing really, really bad is going to happen to me.
(The Angel Wing breaks through the atmosphere and harshly crashes onto the Planet surface)

Elly: We've got him.
(Away Team Guys in two Jumpers head back towards the Phoenix-X with Seifer's Host and Symbiont separate. They notice the Timeship and tractor beam it with them)
Phinly: What's this doing out here? Never mind. It's best not to speculate.
Seifer-Host: Uhhghghh....
Phinly: Yes, Commander.

(One of the many passing by Starships is brave enough to approach; it turns out to be the Silillian Starship Raptor. They hail the Phoenix-X)
*RaeLuna: Greetings.
Kugo: What do you mean by that!? Sorry, I'm just a little jumpy.
*RaeLuna: That's understandable Kugo. I hope Armond's wife is doing well.
(They look at each other, surprised at the fact a total stranger knows them)
Armond: I'm more befuddled than surprised.

(Things seem to calm down a little, with the returned Commander and Timeship, and with the Away Team continuing their infiltration of the weapon-disabled Gordarion Vessel)

King Gordan: Curses! Curses!!
(He slams his fists into a computer frame, causing a glitch in the circuitry)
King Gordan(looks at it): Oh great. Now this thing is broken!
(He opens the panel underneath the main-Bridge computer and starts fixing it)

-Matt: Heh, heh, heh. They can't even see us.
(The Infiltration Team of six guys move invisible on through Gordarion Ship wearing cloaking suits. They sneak past two Guards)
Gordge: Heh, heh, heh. This guarding job is so easy. All we have to do is stand here.
(The Team turns down the next hallway, looking for possible stolen technologies)
-Targon: We're not having any luck just walking around.
-Matt: Speak for yourself. I found two light fixtures mysteriously stuck to their ceilings...

(Meanwhile, back on the Phoenix-X, the Seifer Host and Symbiont are carefully brought into Sickbay. The Symbiont is still inside the small Containment Chamber)
Lox: I couldn't help the Captain, but maybe I can help the Commander.
(He takes the Containment Chamber and hits it repeatedly against the wall until the Symbiont falls out onto the floor)
Elly: Doctor! You know, there was an eject button on it.
(The Symbiont wiggles and starts moving around. It sprouts out two tentacles for arms, and two lumps for feet)
Elly: Oh well. The Symbiont seems to be fending for itself now.

Kayl: Uuugghggghhhhgg....
(The Federation Med-Ship Angel Wing is crash landed on the nearby Planet. Its structure in tact, as it sits smoking in an open dry field)
Kayl: Uuuhhhgg... Wait a second-- no, uuuggh was right. Uuuuuhhhgggghhh.....
Klokian: Klokian should stay and help, maybe.
(Klokian wakes up and uses this opportunity to escape. He goes out the back hatch to the outside and runs away)
Klokian: Klokian change his mind.

(The Bridge is left alone as Kugo transfers Armond's program to Holodeck 2 and meets him there)
Kugo: Now tell me. Who created you? Where's the real Armond?!
Armond: Can't you give me a minute? I just been transferred and I think I need to fix the wrinkles in my uniform.
(Kugo aims the destroyer at him without patience)
Armond: Okay I'll talk! ...I know I'm here to replace the real Armond, but I don't know who put me here. Those memory algorithms have been permanently deleted.
Kugo(puts the destroyer away): That sucks. I really wanted to shoot something.

(The Raptor sits a safe distance from the Phoenix-X as RaeLuna and her two Android crewmen beam over. She enters the Bridge of the Phoenix-X meeting with those who are left in command)
Ensign Dan: Greetings. I am the temporary Captain of the Phoenix-X.
RaeLuna: I heard about you, Ensign Dan. It's a good thing my Ship is sitting a safe distance from you.
(BOB walks over, intrigued by RaeLuna's explicit knowledge of everyone from the Phoenix-X)
RaeLuna: That's weird. I never heard of you.
BOB: I am temporary Commander of the Phoenix-X. There really isn't much to my command position; I'm just an extra guy for no reason.

(The Infiltration Team moves onto a lower Deck, deactivating their cloaking suits. They find computer control panels on the walls there)
Matt: We can use these to find out what else the Gordarions stole from us.
Targon: This Deck kind of looks familiar... Hey! They stole this Deck from our ship! However that's possible.
(Matt accesses some unknown Systems, which suddenly affect the control panel he's working on. He suddenly sees instances of his hand, from where it was tapping to where it is idle. He moves his hand around trailing more echoes of his hand in curiosity)
Matt: What the...?
Kortos: As they say in Klingon... "krgghmeftkh. Mrjkknffh. " Which means, "that don't look right. You need major help you crazy Human."

(The small Trill Seifer Symbiont seems to be moving around the floor of the Phoenix-X's Sickbay on its own. It gets onto a medical bed and starts humping the pillow)
Lox(scans): This is amazing! The Commander's Symbiont seems to be mutated, or highly evolved in some way.
(He takes the Symbiont off the pillow and puts it back on the floor)
EMH: We'd better try re-combining it back into Seifer's body.
(Lox glances over at the floor to where the Symbiont was, but finds it missing. He shakes his head in confusion and looks again, finding it actually still there walking about)
Lox: My eyes must be going in my old age...
EMH: You're not old. You use that excuse all the time and frankly I've had it up to here with it!

(Kayl pushes past a ton of internal ceiling and wall debris in the crashed Angel Wing, finding the Liquid Captain's Glass Tube. She fixes it on a chamber-pedestal in the middle of the medical room)
Kayl: I think we crashed, Captain. There's just something different about the med-ship that tells me that.
(She looks around at all the broken beams, burned out panels and other debris on the bridge)
Kayl: Oh man. I think this planet is uninhabited.
(She makes her way outside the wrecked Angel Wing just to make sure. She reluctantly looks up at the night sky for the bright Anomalous Rift, not finding it anywhere)
Kayl: That's weird... I should be able to see that Rift from here.
(She notices herself talking to herself and rolls her eyes)
Kayl: Oh great. I'm already going through one of those monologue things.

(Armond and Kugo both try thinking of what to do next. Kugo goes over to a control panel)
Kugo: Maybe I can do an intensive scan of your program.
Armond: Right. I'll try not to get in your way.
(He stands in front of Kugo, between her and the control panel)
Armond(moves): Oops, sorry.
(The control panel starts flickering. Kugo turns to see Armond static on and off. The flickering and static eventually stop)
Kugo: What just happened?
Armond(panics): I don't know! Please don't let me die!
Kugo: Well, I'll have to give it some thought.

(The flickering stops on the Bridge as well. RaeLuna introduces her two Android crewmen)
RaeLuna: This is Sub Zero and Trunks. You see; our lives are lost and astray, so we want to join your crew.
Ensign Dan: Yeah right. You brought those Androids here to kill us and take over the ship. Go ahead and try! I know I'm right.
(He hides head in his arms waiting to be killed when suddenly external sensors picks up the shadow of an unknown Ship, sitting in the Rift's corona of light. They view it onscreen)
BOB: That's probably one of their Ship's, waiting to destroy us when our guard is down!
RaeLuna: No it isn't. We've never seen that Ship before!
Ensign Dan: That BOB guy is right. You could be working with the Gordarions. We can't trust you so easily...
Sub Zero: What about me?
Ensign Dan: Yeah I could trust you.

(They notice at the back, the Turbolift doors opening and not seeing anyone walking out. They then look down and notice it's a little Symbiont)

Trunks: What is that thing?
Ensign Dan(annoyed): I don't know; what are you?
(The Turbolift doors open again as Lox and the EMH enter the Bridge)
Lox: It's the Commander! ...Or more specifically, his Symbiont-part. The Gordarions experimented on him. We think they advanced his Trill evolution.
Ensign Dan: Eeuu! Squish it!
Trunks(unfolds a plasma launcher in his forearm): Do you order me to destroy it?
-Symbiont-: No!! What is going on here?
(Everyone looks at the small Symbiont that just talked. A mouth has opened up on it)
-Symbiont-: Yeah, that's right. I can talk!
Lox(scans it): Unbelievable...
(Everyone watches as the Symbiont walks past their feet and hops into the Captain's Chair)
-Symbiont-: I'm in Command of this Ship. You will all take orders from me!
(Phinly walks by)
-Symbiont-: ...Hey, you, anonymous person, start scanning that Rift!
Phinly(goes to a station): Aye, sir.
Lox: He's very aggressive.
(They suddenly notice the Seifer Symbiont fading and disappearing, and then reappearing back to normal)
Ensign Dan: Hey! He just vanished!
Lox(scans closer): Something's not right here.
-Symbiont-: Yeah, you keep putting that stupid tricorder in front of my semi-face! Now, somebody give me a pillow.
Lox: Sir, are you experiencing any strange symptoms? We just saw you disappear to somewhere.
Ensign Dan(steps back): If this is some kind of government alien conspiracy, I didn't see a thing. I don't even believe in aliens!

(Matt leaves the control panel on the Gordarion Ship. The six of them re-cloak and move on through the Decks)
Grath: I think we have to go down this way.
Matt: Try not to think too much, it distorts the cloaking field on our suits.
(They all stop and hide against the walls in the shadows, as two Gordarion Guards carrying a stolen Slipstream Torpedo casing walk by)
Kortos: They're getting away! Follow them.
Matt(leaning): Hey, their walls are comfortable to lean against. You guys go on, I'll catch up.

(Kayl tries getting the systems on the Angel Wing to work, but they keep malfunctioning)
Kayl: Damn!
(The Captain's Liquid watches. He bubbles in anger of the situation aswell)
Kayl: Wait a second... I think I am sensing more beings on this Planet.
(She leaps over a broken computer frame and runs outside. She arms herself with a silillian destroyer and makes her way through the nearby rainforest)
Kayl: I've been searching for a whole 30 seconds. I guess I'm not going to find anything.
(She suddenly finds a similarly trenched area leading to some crashed alien Ship)
Kayl: Oh. I guess in my brain, my sensing abilities cancel out most of my attention span.

(The two Guards on the Gordarion Ship, carrying the heavy Casing, enter a larger hallway where their physical bodies begin to echo and trail instances of where they just were. They open a locked door and go into another room. The Infiltration Team de-cloaks, finding that they also are echoing and trailing instances of themselves when they move)
Targon: This is weird. Are we on some drugs we don't know of?
GoyCho: No. Perhaps this is what Gordarion sweat does to us. They were carrying that Casing pretty far.
(Matt tries accessing the panel on the wall in hopes of breaking the lock on the doors. Instead he finds the Ship's Active List)
Matt: Oh my God. The Gordarions are transferring energy from the Rift into the Ship!
Targon: Yeah I think we already knew that.
Matt: No you didn't.
Targon(sad): No... No I didn't.

(Kayl makes her way onto the crashed alien Ship, which turns out to be Larvekken. The five crewmen on it are hesitant, but let Kayl in. Most of their systems are coming back online as they try scanners)
Atekkaen: Where is that Rift that shot us down? It should be right up there, along with a couple other Ships.
Kayl: Well why don't you cry about it?
(She goes over to the communications station where they are unable to contact the only Larvekken Spacedock)
Frannek: Spacedock, come in! Spacedock, come in! ...I.... I don't understand. In the whole 15 years our people have been exploring space, we have never had trouble contacting the Spacedock.
Kayl: I'm very sorry. Do you want a hug?
Frannek: No.

(Armond helps Kugo with the Holodeck controls on the Phoenix-X. His holo-program is connected to a more sophisticated System in the computer's System Network)
Armond: My program is supposed to be immune to most computer faultiness.
Kugo: Yeah ...That's, uhh, pretty interesting there. Zzzzzzzzzz. --Oops, sorry. That was my lazy eye.

(She leaves the Holodeck and makes her way through the Turbolift to the back-Communications Room behind the Bridge. Armond appears beside her)
Kugo: I have to try to contact Admiral Theseus. He may have something to do with all of this.
Armond: I wonder if there are holo-emitters in the girl's locker room.

(Through the doorway is the Bridge, where Ensign Dan is taking the Commander's seat beside the Symbiont. The people there look at the dark and light image on-screen as RaeLuna walks over to the Captain's chair)
RaeLuna: I'm telling you, we do not have anything to do with that Shadow Ship.
-Symbiont-: I'll be the judge of what you have anything to do with!
Trunks: Please believe us. We are not evil, although my metallic eyebrows seem to point inwards.
Ensign Dan: You know, maybe they're right Commander.
-Symbiont-: No! You're relieved!
(RaeLuna tries compromising with the Symbiont, but the Symbiont leaps out of its chair and starts humping RaeLuna's leg)
RaeLuna: Hey, stop that!

(She puts him back and leaves the Bridge with the two Androids. They get into the Turbolift with Ensign Dan who is grumbling to himself)
Ensign Dan: Ggrrgh. I can't believe I got relieved. That hasn't happened for a whole year!
RaeLuna: Ensign Dan, you must come with me to the Shadow Ship. I have to find evidence that it has nothing to do with us. I really want to join your crew in honour of my mother.
Ensign Dan: No! You're probably going to kill me as soon as you gain my trust!
(He hides his head in his arms ready to be killed)
Sub Zero(shrugs): You trusted me and I never killed you.
Ensign Dan(looks at him): Hm, you're right... Have you ever played that ancient Earth-game Mortal Kombat?
Sub Zero: What?
Ensign Dan: Never mind.

(Inside the Shadow Ship, shadowed aliens walk around operating Ship functions normally. RaeLuna, Ensign Dan, Trunks and Sub Zero beam in. They seem rendered normal, in colour, compared to everything else in shadow)
RaeLuna: Okkayy... This is pretty weird...

(Kugo taps at the panels in the Communications Room, getting a hold of Starbase 55. Theseus appears on a floating view screen)
*Theseus: Yes, I did have that Armond hologram installed on your Ship. It's a test-run, and your Ship is an experimental Ship. But I didn't know it was a Virus? Perhaps you should speak to Captain Jet. It was his people that developed the Hologram for me.
Kugo: Aye sir. It is also my opinion that the title Starbase 55 has too many various numbers in it.
(The screen suddenly statics off. Lights and panels start flickering on and off all over the Phoenix-X. Kugo looks around in confusion)
Armond(staticing): Don't let me die!
Kugo: Why does the Ship keep doing that?
Armond: I don't know. But I hope it doesn't delete me! I was only born two days ago.
.

- Continued... -