"It really depends on the diet of the parent tribble…" Nolan elucidated, whipping out his tricorder, which never left his scientist side, as he scanned the sea of tribbles beneath them. "But we're looking at hundreds of generations here."
"Regardless," Anzyl added, "'Death by Tribble' is not on anyone's list of life goals." Observing the sea of fur balls before him, he tapped his combadge. "Captain to senior officers, I need ideas and eyes on the situation."
"First things first, we need to get you, the Nexus crew, and civilians off that station," Neil replied from the Captain's chair. "Keten, do you have a lock yet?!"
"Sorry, sir!" Keten frantically typed on his console. "There are still too many organic targets. The computer is struggling to establish individual locks."
"Can you sort them out by species?" Neil cried. "Look for a Trill, Voth, and Illyrian in that arena."
"I'm already trying, sir," Keten replied, continuing his frantic typing. "But the sheer number of individual targets in that small area is overwhelming our scanners."
"There are over 12 billion individual lifeforms on that one space station, sir!" Zide'Mok called out. "And the number is growing exponentially by the second!"
"That's an entire planet's worth of population crammed into this single space station…" Anzyl gasped, his grasping at the tumultuous sea of furballs before him.
The windows and promenades of the space station began to darken and blacken as they were covered from floor to ceiling with tribbles, their numbers continuing to multiply rapidly.
"There's a reason the Klingon Empire declared war on the species as a whole!" Eroga roared, her frustration evident. She turned to Neil in his chair. "I say we just vent them out into space!"
"It's not our space station, and we don't have control of their airlocks," Neil replied.
"But she has a point, Neil," Anzyl interjected, "Has anyone managed to contact the station's bridge yet?"
"Station command is not responding to our hails, sir!" Heluna reported. "And from the subspace chatter, it seems they know they have their hands full and all station security teams are overwhelmed."
"I have an idea, sir, but you may not like it," Veirik contributed to the conversation. "We could convince the bridge to vent out the most heavily affected sections."
"But there are civilians and Starfleet officers on those decks!" Anzyl objected. "Including us!"
"Yes, and the Nexus can stand ready by the airlocks to teleport any non-tribbles aboard," Veirik explained.
"That could work, sir," Neil agreed. "But we can't handle this alone." He turned to Heluna. "Keep trying to reach the station's bridge. Let them know that the Nexus has a plan."
Determined, Heluna nodded and continued her efforts to establish contact with the station's bridge.
—
Moments later, the Nexus came to a full stop, aligning perpendicular to the main gangways and airlocks of the Jouret Space Station. Other Federation and non-Federation ships hovered outside various airlocks.
"Station bridge acknowledges and is ready when we are, sir," Heluna reported, turning towards Neil.
"This is the First Officer to all engineering teams," Neil commanded from the captain's chair, "I want every single transporter pad hot and ready. Lock on and identify any non-Tribble species passing by us. Engineering, feel free to reroute engines, shields and weapons to auxiliary to maximize transporter computing power."
"All transporter rooms and cargo bays are standing by, sir," Keten declared from the engineering station on the bridge.
"Sick bay, be prepared for incoming casualties," Neil added, "Who knows how many poor people were crushed under the weight of these tribbles, not to mention being in the void of space."
"Acknowledged," T replied promptly over the comms.
Neil tapped on his combadge, "Neil to away team, I suggest you hold on to something and take a deep breath!"
Anzyl, Nolan, and Veirik were busy climbing to the very top rafters of the arena as the huge facility filled rapidly with chirping and cooing Tribbles. The air grew thin from the abundance of oxygen-breathing organisms, leaving little room to maneuver. "Don't have to tell us twice!" Anzyl shouted, "Do The Thing whenever you're ready Commander!"
Neil nodded to Heluna, who immediately relayed the message through her communications earpiece, "All are a go, I repeat, all are a go!"
—
Outside in the vacuum of space, the space station's gangways, airlocks, and emergency hatches swung wide open, expelling air along with the inner inhabitants of the station into the vastness of space.
Like a colossal aerosol can, the federation station vented out billions upon billions of tribbles into space in all directions. However, scattered throughout the cloud of tribble furballs were members of the Khitomer alliance, helplessly being swept into vacuuming void of space.
"Anytime engineering!" Neil's authoritative voice echoed from the captain's chair.
As the dense cloud of vented tribbles spread out and thinned into space, specks and sparkles of light emerged as the helpless citizens of the alliance were rescued and teleported aboard various starships stationed just outside the airlocks.
Just like a spray can, billions upon billions of tribbles were ejected into the vastness of space, enveloping the station in a growing cloud of furry dust.
"It's working, sir!" Eroga declared from her station. "The number of life forms on the station is rapidly decreasing, but so is the oxygen and air supply."
"Ship's sensors are now able to sift through the biomass, sir!" Keten reported from his console. "I have a lock on Captain Praxas, Rivas, and Veirik. However, there's a queue for the pattern buffers with all the civilians being transported aboard."
"Neil to Sickbay, T, can you teleport Captain Praxas, Rivas, and Veirik directly to Sickbay? They may be suffering from hypoxia by now as well."
"Sending Sickbay their coordinates," Keten added.
"Acknowledged," T replied swiftly.
—
In Sickbay, Chief Medical Officer Two of Three, also known as Tegris, or just "T" for short, quickly moved to the medical transporters and, after receiving the coordinates, pressed a few buttons.
And in a flash of white, Captain Praxas, Science Officer Rivas, and Tactical Officer Veirik materialized on the pads, immediately collapsing to the ground, gasping for air.
"We have them, sir!" T replied, kneeling beside the captain and administering a hypospray to alleviate his asphyxiation.
"Well done, everyone," Neil grinned with pride at his crew. "Engineering teams, keep up the good work!"
Outside the Nexus, the cloud of expelled tribbles drifted into the vastness of space, obscuring the space station from view.
"That is…" Neil began, shock evident on his face as he observed the main display screen, "a LOT of tribbles…"
"There IS a reason they were declared an enemy of the Empire," Eroga added firmly.
"What a mess…" Lusaalli remarked from her helm chair. "To think a species like this exists in space," she shook her head in disbelief.
"You Lukari folk are brand new to the galactic exploration scene, and still have so much to learn about our galaxy," Neil said with a grin, "The vastness of life out there is… vast."
"Sir," Heluna's voice cut through the tension, "I have detected a strange electromagnetic signature approaching the station at high warp."
"So? Can you identify it?" Neil asked, leaning forward in his captain's chair.
Before Heluna could respond, her monitor began flashing red, indicating the anomaly. A large, peculiar snowflake-like shape materialized on her screen, mirroring what appeared on the main viewscreen.
A flash of blue as it exited warp, a massive, two-kilometer-tall crystalline blue structure, resembling a gigantic snowflake, loomed before them.
"It's a Crystalline Entity, sir!" Heluna cried out to the commander, her expression filled with terror.