STANDARD
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by
THE
WEAKER OF THE SPECIES
Part One
Captain’s Log Stardate 13.09.25.
The Dominion War is
over.
Less than a week ago,
the Founders signed the declaration of surrender on Cardassia Prime after
fighting the largest military battle the Alpha Quadrant has ever seen. The
allied forces of the Federation, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire
converged upon Cardassian space and fought their way back to Cardassia Prime
and engaged the forces of the Dominion, consisting of the Jem Haddar, the Breen
and the Cardassians. The Cardassians whom had been more slaves to the Dominion
then they were allies, chose that moment to throw off the shackles of their
oppressors and joined the fight on the side of the Alpha Quadrant. They paid a
heavy price for their show of defection and out of sheer spite, the Founders
ordered the orbital bombardment of Cardassia Prime.
Three thousand years
of civilization and achievement was reduced to rubble in less than an hour.
The
The Maverick came out of
the battle well enough. We suffered minor damage, which was all but rectified
at Deep Space Nine. There were casualties but fortunately, no fatal ones. We
remained on DS9 for a few days following the surrender as Lieutenant Travis was
recruited to aid the diplomatic core in the construction of the new treaty
between the Dominion and the Alpha Quadrant. Most of the crew has requested
shore leave and under Counselor Sanchez’s recommendation, not to mention his
endorsement, I have decided that a little detour to
Captains orders until then?
Rest and relaxation
*********
“I don’t know Alex,"
Mary Travis said dubiously as both women waited for the turbo lift to deliver
them to the bridge of the Maverick. "I mean what about Billy? I wouldn’t
feel right about leaving him."
"Oh God not this
again," Alex groaned, wondering why they were having this conversation yet
again.
It seemed that ever since
she had suggested it, they had been discussing their trip to the Tethys Tourist
Resort on
"Didn’t you tell me
that Audrey King is organizing a field trip to the Oceanic Reserve for his
entire class?" Alex looked at her critically. "He’ll be up to his
ears in pink nosed leviathans and all kinds of marine life with kids his own
age. Didn’t you tell me you wanted him to make more friends? Well I can tell
you that boys his age don’t tend to appreciate their mothers hanging around
when they’re trying to do that. It’s a sure way to get beaten up."
Mary’s jaw dropped open in
horror. "It is not! My son would never get into a fight!" She
declared indignantly
"Is this the same
child that tried to rewire the replicator to produce nothing but Rigellian
triple fudge sundaes? The same child who caused that same replicator to
malfunction creating a continuous flow of green goop into your quarters until
the Chief Engineer had to shut it off manually?" Alex looked at Mary
smugly.
"Don’t remind
me," Mary shook her head in embarrassment. "Julia had to take the
panel off while it was still oozing all that stuff and let me tell you, she’s
got a temper on her when she’s properly upset."
"Being covered in
green goop will do that to you." Alex pointed out.
"Okay," Mary let
out a sigh of defeat. "You’re right, he’ll be fine."
"Good," Alex
replied with a smile, aware that she would have to tackle this issue again at
least a dozen times before they actually reached the resort.
"Besides," she continued speaking as the doors to the turbo lift slid
open and they stepped. "Think of it, room service for five whole days.
Half naked men bringing you drinks with those little umbrellas in it, massages,
moonlight swims…."
"Not to mention the
midnight activities," Ezra Standish remarked playfully as he came up along
side them and with a grin of pure mischief.
"We’re going there to
relax." Alex bristled, even though it was not entirely a lie.
"Sure you are."
Buck Wilmington said with a completely straight face as he looked over his
shoulder at them and then flashed a more knowing grin at Chris Larabee who
sniggered in complete awareness of his meaning.
The entire senior staff was
at present on the bridge as the Maverick closed the distance between itself and
the pleasure world of Pacifica and the idea of rest and recreation had put
everyone in a playful mood, quite understandably considering the trials they
had faced recently. The view screen before them revealed the stars ahead and the
ship was cruising towards it destination at a comfortable speed of Warp 7. At
the rate they were traveling, they would arrive at Pacific in little more than
a day. Although it was possible to get there faster, Chris saw no reason to
push the ship to its limits. Besides, there were some that wished time to make
their vacation arrangements and other details needed to be worked out, like
crew rotations for one.
Even the atmosphere on the
bridge seemed similarly relaxed as evidenced by the banter and the subject of
conversation that was currently being bandied about. Tethys Resort like many
others in
"Mr. Wilmington,"
Mary gave him a look as she and Alex split up. The science officer took her
usual posting while Mary returned to her seat next to the command chair at
Chris’ side. "Unlike your last trip to Risa, we are going to the Tethys
Resort for a vacation, not a seven day orgy." She said with a hint of
haughtiness in her voice.
"Hey," Buck
shrugged with no sign of repentance having come away from that particular
holiday very rested. "An orgy is an overstatement." He looked at Mary
oozing pure innocence.
"Not according to the
number of women who communicated with the ship to say goodbye when we went to
get you." JD quipped from his place at navigation control.
"Shouldn’t you be
making sure we don’t crash into a star or something?" Buck retorted giving
the young man a glare of annoyance. However, JD appeared equally unrepentant
and responded with an even more infuriating grin then he had when he made his
earlier statement.
"Face it Buck,"
Chris Larabee who occupied the centre seat responded. "Your exploits are
known far and wide throughout the ship."
"And written across
bathroom walls in a dozen star systems." Alex chuckled.
"What can I say, it’s
my animal magnetism." He grinned devilishly and exacted a groan from the
women present and ripples of laughter from the men. "Women can’t resist
me."
The women in the room
rolled their eyes in collective sarcasm before Alex found herself saying.
"And that ranks up there with the mystery of Atlantis and riddle of the
Sphinx."
Buck however, was not about
to be put down so easily and added cockily. "Don’t worry, one day it will
come to you girls too."
"Unless you want to be
cleaning EPS conduits for the rest of your term as my first officer, you better
pray not." Chris drawled, giving Buck a look that bordered on mischief and
menace that Buck had to think about it for a second as he tried to guess
whether or not Chris was joking.
"Thank you for the
vote of confidence." Mary gave Chris a look of mock hurt. "Do you not
think I’ll be able to resist Mr. Wilmington’s considerable charms?"
"Well…." Chris
started to stammer.
"Come on Mary,"
Vin Tanner interjected, wishing to save his captain. "Its not that hard to
resist Buck, all you need is a good flea collar."
"Hey!" Buck
exclaimed.
"Nice save Mr.
Tanner," Mary returned her gaze to Chris, indicating that he was nowhere
out of trouble yet and that they would discuss this later.
"So where are you and
Julia going Ezra?" JD inquired, deciding that it was necessary to move to
a less volatile subject in order to save his captain.
"Oh there’s a nice
romantic little inlet on the far side of the planet. Remote, luxurious and
definitely made for two individuals who want to bask in each other’s
company." Ezra said with a grin, believing this time he had picked the
perfect getaway for himself and the lovely Miss Pemberton.
"That’s not all."
Buck sniggered under his breath.
Ezra glared at him.
"Unlike you Commander, the sole purpose in my life is not to bed Julia.
Engineering took the brunt of the damage during our engagement in the last
battle of the war and I believe she needs a perfectly restful place to
recuperate."
"I’m sure," Buck
said with a wicked glimmer and then rose from his chair. "Well since our
able science officer is here, if you don’t mind I’ll make myself scarce."
"Please." Ezra
remarked and shook his head in a mixture of resignation and amusement when Buck
took himself off the bridge.
Mary was still staring
after him like an unruly child making his escape before turning back to the
conversation at hand. "I think it’s a nice idea." Mary commented.
"I know she’s looking forward to it." In truth, Julia had speaking of
nothing else since they had discovered that
"What about you
Captain?" JD asked, always burning with curiosity over what was happening
on the ship.
"We’re going white
water rafting on the
"I can never
appreciate how you two willingly indulge any recreational time you have to such
pursuits." Ezra frowned in disapproval, even more so than usual.
The
"Ezra," Chris
wished he did not have to go through this every time he left the ship and went
on vacation. He never had to worry about such things when he was first officer.
Why was it such a big deal because he was now Captain? "We will have our
com badges on us at all times."
"I still have
reservations on how effective they will be if any misfortune should
occur." Ezra persisted.
"Well you can always
come with us," Vin grinned at him mischievously. "You know, keep an
eye on Chris for yourself."
Ezra merely looked at the
officer of the con and replied simply. "Have a good trip."
**********
She should have gone
home.
If she had been
smart, she would have.
However, when the time had
come to make that decision, Inez Recillos found that she could not. The pain
inside her was still too raw and she did not want to face her family’s
condolences because all that would do was make her remember him. She was barely
holding herself together, trapped inside this darkened room where she did not
want to hear of or speak to anyone. How could she be expected to cope if she
went home? They had grown up in the town of
There was this ache inside
her breast that was so sharp that she could not breathe at times. The feeling
would not go away and as Josiah had said when he came to visit her a day or
more ago, she could not remember for sure because Inez seemed to have lost any
sense of time. In space that was easy enough to do when there was no sun to
mark the passage of the days. Outside the window of her quarters, there were
only stars that seemed to pass by as the ship continued on its journey,
speeding past with complete indifference to her pain.
She always knew it could
happen. She had heard about the women who had suffered the loss. As a
bartender, she had heard all the stories from men and women alike who had
suffered the same tragedies, she thought then that if it came to it, Inez Recillos
was capable of handling the possibility of a losing Raphael in the line of
duty. What she thought and what was were too completely different realities. It
was unlike any pain she had ever experienced in her entire life and it sapped
away at her strength and her will to live like a hole in her soul that was
letting that she was escape into oblivion.
During the first few days,
it was Mary who had been her most constant supporter, having lost her husband
in the same manner during the last battle with the Borg over Earth. Inez had
drawn comfort from the widow but eventually not even Mary’s words of
understanding could penetrate her grief and she had withdrawn, appreciating
that Inez needed solitude to deal with her sorrow. Inez did not know whether time
would be enough. Although friends dropped into see her, she could not seem to
get her mind wrapped around their presence and their attempts to help had
little or no effect.
She had emerged from her
quarters long enough to be present at the memorial that was held for the
Venture and all its crew. It was one of many such events that filled the
calendar at DS9 following the battle at Cardassia. Inez had gone through the
ceremony in a stupor, barely aware of anything as her friend converged upon
her, offering support even though she was too racked with guilt to be aware of
very much. A part of Inez could not associate the cold surface of the torpedo
tube he had been encased in for his burial as Raphael, not when it was little
more than two weeks ago they had made love inside this room when he had come to
see her.
All the plans they had made
for after the war, how she was going to finally come on board the Venture. She
understood his reasons for not wanting her on the front lines. In truth as
risky a mission as it was to stand in the frontier between the alpha and delta
quadrants, it could not possibly be as dangerous as one that the Venture had
undertaken in maintaining the front lines of a war zone. Raphael knew that
dying was a possibility. Too many starships had been destroyed during the war
and it was a fate he would not allow her to risk and so he had asked her to
take something out of the way.
Inez obeyed because she
loved him, never really believing that he would die. Apart of her still refused
to believe it and another part who knew better, was twisting up inside with
despair.
She had been sitting in her
quarters since then, doing nothing, moving through the set of rooms like some
ghost, wallowing in sorrow, with no wish to do anything else when she heard the
gentle trill of someone at her door. Inez groaned inwardly, having no wish for
company and yet not possessing the lack of regard to ignore her caller.
Dragging herself out of the bed she had been trying to hide in for as long as
possible, Inez padded to the door, grabbing her silk robe at the same time and
pulling it over herself.
Inez resolved to herself to
get ride of whoever it was at the door as quickly as possible for she had no
need for visitors or well meaning friends at this time. She did not wish to be
rude or hurt anyone’s feelings for simply trying to help but she had little
tolerance for intrusion either. However, upon opening the door, Inez found
herself faced with the one person she had least expected to see throughout all
this.
"Buck?" Inez
exclaimed with genuine surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Hi Inez," he
said with a sympathetic smile. "I came to see how you were
doing."
Inez was still too
astonished by his presence to do anything more than invite him in.
Her relationship with the
first officer of the Maverick was strange to say the least. She knew he was
interested in her romantically but then that was not saying much because there
was not a single woman on board the Maverick that had not at one time been paid
attention by Buck Wilmington. What made him different from most philanderers
she supposed was the fact that he never considered his dalliances with the
opposite sex as something to be discarded when his interest had waned. They
always parted as friends and almost all the women whom she spoke to, talked
about the relationship with affection. Which confused her immensely about why
he would be so determine to add her to his collection? While he had a shocking
attitude to his relations with women, he was also surprisingly sensitive and
genuine cared about how they felt and he was always careful not to hurt them.
If she had not known this for a fact, Inez would have looked upon his presence
here as being in the absolute worst taste.
"How have you been
Inez?" Buck asked as the doors slid close behind him and he let his gaze
sweep across the room. If it was not for the air recyclers, he was certain the
room would smell stale. Looking at the uneaten food on the pile of plates on
the side of her bed and the fact that almost everything else remained untouched
except for that part of the room, Buck had a very good idea just how she was
doing.
"My fiancé just
died, how do you I think I feel." She did retorted and immediately
regretted her words.
"I’m sorry," he
immediately apologized wishing he had managed to put his question forward
better. Of course she was not going to be feeling well. "I didn’t
mean…"
"No, it’s
alright." She remarked, feeling more guilt than he did. "I’m not
doing too great as you can see."
He could see but he refused
to pass judgment. He had no idea how she felt but his experience with Chris
years before had helped him understand the grieving process to some extent,
enough to know that it was the people close by that made the difference.
"You’re entitled."
"Thanks." She
smiled faintly at him, pleased that he was not unloading on her with advice and
platitudes. "To tell you the truth I’m not really in the mood for
company."
"I know," he
answered making no move to enter the room any deeper than where he was. In
truth, Buck was here more for his own sake than anyone else’s. He was going
crazy not knowing how she was faring and needed to see for himself that she was
alright. Of course, this was not far removed from what he had expected. She was
naturally going to be shattered following Raphael’s death. He had seen how they
had been when the captain of the Venture had come aboard enough to know that
she had loved him deeply and perhaps always would. "I’m not going to stay
long. I just wanted to see if you were alright and if you needed
anything."
"Always the
first officer huh?" She teased a little.
"Something like
that." He remarked not meeting her gaze and averted his eyes so that she
could not tell what was truly running through his heart. At this point, it
would not be well received.
"Thank
you." She said quietly. "I’ll be okay in time." Inez confessed
and surprised herself when she found herself believing it to be the truth.
"If you need
anything….." he started to say, letting his emotions escape a little more
than it should have. "I’ll even listen."
Inez was touched by
the sentiment even though she was unsure what motivated it. Before this point,
she had been less than subtle in her belief about his conduct with so many
women. There was no reason for Buck to bestow kindness upon her and yet she
sensed it was not some tasteless effort to impress her.
Whatever else it might be
was something she was not equipped to deal with right now, no matter how much
the idea surprised her.
***********
"Audrey!" Josiah Sanchez said with an exclamation of pleasant
surprise upon seeing the suite of rooms he used as his office in the capacity
as ship’s counselor. While the Counselor was accustomed to seeing Lilith King
dropping in at random intervals to see him, it was the first time he had ever
seen her mother in these offices. Not that he did not mind seeing Audrey of
course. Since meeting the lady in the thick of the recent Dominion attack on
this ship, Josiah had occasion to run into her during their day to day existence
on board the Maverick. "What a nice surprise. What can I do for you?"
Audrey seemed nervous and
on a woman of her vintage, it seemed particularly endearing. Of course Audrey
may have been in her early forties but she still looked every much the beauty
with dark auburn hair and inquiring blue eyes that seemed to reach into the
soul and grab you by the throat if you were not careful. Josiah as rather
stunned by his description and had not realized that he thought so much of her
before this point. Feeling somewhat unsettle by that thought, Josiah shook the
notion out of his head and decided to focus his mind on why she was here.
"You know that I am
organizing a field trip to
"Yes," Josiah
nodded. "Lilith mentioned something about it. I think it’s a wonderful
idea."
"Thank you," she
smiled nervously and Josiah found himself admiring the way it seem to light up her
face before being revisited with the same discourse that had impressed itself
upon him earlier. "The problem is we’ve seemed to hit a little bit of a
snag. Lieutenant Holden was going to assist me in chaperoning the children and
it appears she’s come down with a case of the Kaltorian flu and needs to be
quarantined for the duration. I’ve tried the other teachers but they’ve
organized outings of their own for their classes and I really did not want to
disappoint the children. They had their heart set on going."
Josiah could attest to
that. Lilith who was almost always accompanied by Billy Travis these days, had
talked about nothing else and would be terribly disappointed if the trip were
cancelled. "That’s unfortunate, I know she was really looking forward to
it."
Audrey cleared her throat
and then got to the point of her visit to his office. "I was hoping that
perhaps you would consent to coming in Lieutenant Holden’s place."
"Me?" He
exclaimed.
"Yes," Audrey
replied. "You’re wonderful with children and Lilith said you have been to
"Yes," Josiah
nodded, his mind whirling at the idea. In truth, he had no plans for the
furlough and vacation was not something he had really given much thought since
Ayla’s passing. This was mostly due to the fact that time spent doing nothing
would usually caused him to start thinking about his wife and by extension,
remind him how much he missed her. "I used to vacation there with my wife
and our children when they were young enough to appreciate it."
"I’m sorry,"
Audrey looked dismayed at being the reason for dredging that pain. "I
understand if you don’t want to do it. I just thought….."
"No, it’s
alright." Josiah moved quickly to allay any such fears she might have at
bringing him pain. It had been a year since his wife had departed from this
life and he could not avoid the places where they had been forever. After all,
did he not tell his patients who suffered the same loss, when it was time to
move on. This time the advice was for a patient closer to home. Physician,
heal thyself. Josiah thought.
"I’ll be happy to do
it." Josiah announced taking a deep breath and deciding to let nothing
hold him back.
"Really," she
beamed radiantly at his acceptance. "The children will be so pleased. I
know Lilith will be."
Somehow Josiah had a hard
time trying to distinguish whether or not she was not a little happy herself
that he was joining her and did not have time to ponder the issue before she
had left his office again. However when she had gone, Josiah was suddenly
struck with the idea that he was going to one of the most romantic places in
the quadrant with a woman who unsettled him.
Physician, heal thyself
suddenly meant very little.
Part Two
The object floated it in space.
The vacuum of deep
space had kept it perfectly preserved for the eternity that it had wandered
through the void. A shape of geometric lines, fashioned out of a crystalline
substance whose sculptors had long since passed the veil, it remained hurtling
through the black with no destination to reach and no end in sight. It joined
the throng of so many others like it, traveling the space between the stars in
its nomadic existence, all the while waiting for its time. Sometimes the end
would come abruptly when it became caught in the gravitational field belonging
to a planet or a star and would remembered as nothing more than a shooting star
in the night sky before it was burned up forever.
Over the centuries, ships
had passed by it, some had paused long enough to look before continuing on
again but none had decided to salvage it from the wilderness. It had seen all
kinds travel by, some in ignorance and others in just plain indifference. It
had watched them come and go, all the while waiting, hoping and in some
instances, praying for salvation. Time lengthened, stretched and finally
disappeared into the distance, leaving behind despair and more waiting. Hope
had dwindled like patience even though the need was just as strong, just as
fierce as the day it had begun its imprisonment. Those who desired immortality
had no idea how long it could be when one was sentenced to wandering aimlessly
through nothingness for all time.
Then one day, a ship
appeared and instead of veering away as others before it had done time and time
again, this one slowed and closed in on it.
*********
"What is it?" Chris
Larabee asked from the bridge of the Maverick.
The object was
beautiful, whatever it was. On the viewer before him, it hurtled in silent
grace through the void, almost invisible because it had been drifting between
stars and there was no illumination to allow anyone to see it, let alone be
able to admire its inherent beauty. Illumination was hardly a problem when
several million tones of warship closed in on it. A thousand points of light
from the numerous windows, portals, observation decks and other pexiglassed
view stations on board bounced off the smooth, crystal surface. It hit the
object like the light of sunrise, gradual but nonetheless breathtaking when silhouettes
came into feature and facets of its crystal surface reflected it back at them.
For an instant, it looked like the brightest star in the sky.
"Unknown," Alex
shook her head in response, her eyes being the only one the bridge that was not
focused on the scene beyond the port bow of the Maverick. Across the bridge,
activity had slowed to a crawl with only Alex working quickly to produce
answers as to what it was they were all gaping at with such awe. For the
present however, it still eluded her. "It could be a probe." She
ventured a guess but the doubt in her voice was clear.
"I don't think
so," Vin shook his head, his cobalt colored eyes fixed on the view screen,
admiring the glimmer of light that illuminated off the surface of the thing
each time it moved across the nose of the ship. He only needed to nudge the
controls gently to keep the object at its constant position on the nose of the
ship, using the ship's thruster control to maintain that slow speed. "Its
drifting and I don't see anything that could be propulsion systems."
"Vin's right."
Chris tended to agree with the helmsman statement and knew that in seconds,
Alex would come up with a better description. With a little smile, he knew that
his science officer hated puzzles and one she could not solve would occupy her
time like her very own demon until she had cracked the mystery surrounding it.
In that way, she was like every other science officer he had ever met and more
to the heart of an explorer than anyone else on the ship.
"Still it's out here
and it's not natural, is it?" He mused once more and also looked over his
shoulder at his science officer for confirmation on that fact. The wonder of
space made it difficult to make any statement even one for such a simple
question difficult to ascertain without scans, examination and theory. Too many
times had they come across objects, life forms, spacial phenomenon's that by
all rights should not exist, either in nature or man made but the fact was,
they were there and the rules usually got thrown out the window at that
point.
"Without more specific
scans, to say otherwise, I'd say that thing is a construct of some kind."
Alex was glad to be able to give the captain something more than a muted
response telling them nothing and felt relieved that she had been put forward a
question she could answer. Sometimes, people tended to confuse the science
officer as being the fountain of all information regarding everything. Science
officers were only as good as the data they were allowed to work with and the
current situation did not give her little more than a meager portion. "The
cut of the object is too precise to be a natural formation and judging by the
measurements which are identical in some sections, I would say that it was cut
to size, probably out of a single block of crystal."
"Amazing," Mary
commended, her blue grey eyes sparkling with curiosity. The object was a
tribute to craftsmanship and appeared like something that ought to be enjoyed
by thousands, not left to languish in the frozen gaps of stellar space.
"It's so
beautiful." She could not help but remark and though they were not as open
with their opinions as she was, no one on the bridge could refute that
statement. Mary's experience with space exploration was limited. While the
others had prepared for life out in space and some had spent most of their
career in it, Mary had spent her career in conference rooms, debating with
diplomats and exploring new cultures as far as their traditions went not the
space around their worlds. Being protocol officer for the Maverick had placed
her at the heart of Starfleet's charter, to seek out and explore new life and
was far away from what she had been accustomed to as one could possibly get.
However, the advantage to being in this new environment was the fact that she
was allowed to view every discovery with the fresh eyes of a child in a new
playground.
The Maverick had been
traveling to
"Could it be a
weapon?" Ezra Standish asked, not at all taken by the beauty of the object
as the rest of his crew and more capable of viewing it with an objective eye.
Their reaction to the thing was half the reason for his concern and he wondered
whether or not the object had been sculpted in such a way to engender the response
he was seeing in his comrades right not. Ezra could think of nothing more
disarming than masking something lethal around a veneer of something so
captivating in order to draw in potential victims before attacking with
ruthless efficiency when it was all said and done. The term flypaper seemed to
apply in this instance.
"I don't think
so," Alex glanced at Ezra and saw that he was deadly serious about the
question. In all honesty, she could not blame him for he was after all, the
security officer. "It appears to be a solid block of crystal. There is
nothing inside it at all to make it anything, let alone a weapon." Still,
as her eyes studied the readings on her console, she wished she could be
entirely certain about that. "Unless they're using a kind of technology
that is so far unknown to anything in the Alpha Quadrant."
"That is what I
feared." Ezra let out a deep sigh, not at all willing to shake the belief
that there was something amiss at the spectacle of debris they were so
fascinated with.
"Actually," she
said after a moment of studying the things. "If I did not know better I
would say that its some kind of storage crystal, not unlike the ones used by
the Cardassians."
"Cardassian security
crystals are 30 centimeters long," Vin exclaimed. "That thing is
almost 10 meters long and four across."
"Yeah but I think she's right," JD agreed, having come to the same
conclusion. Although it was obvious that there were no signs of life on the
object, Alex had instructed JD when the object had first come into their
sights, to conduct such a frequency sweep. Being a crystal, Alex suspected that
it was extremely sensitive to any kind of atmospheric changes even in an
airless environment as this and might be capable of producing sound. "It's
giving off some kind of resonate harmonic frequency the closer we get to it,
like some kind of beacon."
"So what's it doing
out here?" Chris asked out loud, not really expecting an answer. "As
far as I know there is not space faring race in the immediate vicinity. It
could have come from
"Captain," Alex
said suddenly, the tone of her voice changing enough that Chris swiveled around
in his chair to face her. She wore an expression on her face that could have
been disbelief but mostly awe and that was an emotion Alex rarely displayed.
"What is it?" He
demanded, wanting to know what she had discovered as her eyes darted from the
screen to the console, her hands flying across the panel as she tried to
reconfirm what she found.
After a moment however,
Alex had no choice but to settle with the idea that what was before her was
real. "According to my scans that thing is almost half million years
old."
A low whistle escaped
someone behind them. Chris thought it might be JD.
"My god!" Mary
exclaimed, not so restrained with her own astonishment. "How long do you
think it's been out here?"
"Its impossible to say
without more detailed analysis," the science officer answered, still
somewhat stunned by her discovery over the age of the thing. She raised her
eyes to it as if a visual study would give her the answers that scans would
not. "I need to be able to examine it with more specialized equipment that
this."
"You want to bring it
on board?" Ezra looked at her, not at all liking the idea of bringing the
thing onto the Maverick, not when they did not have the slightest idea of what
it was. The way it had captured the attention of everyone who saw it made Ezra
very nervous and this had all the earmarks of a very bad idea. "Captain,
that is unwise. As far as we know, that appears to be quite benign but we know
very little about it, what its purpose was intended to be. With all due respect
to Commander Styles, everything we know about it is speculation, not hard data.
For all we know, it could still be a weapon that was left here for any
unsuspecting person to find."
"Captain," Alex
sighed, understanding Ezra's objections but disagreeing with him on the most
basic level. "That is a significant piece of construction floating out
there in space. Its never been encountered before by any Federation ship before
now. We cannot just keep going and ignore it simply because we have no idea
what it is. Granted, Ezra is right, we cannot determine exactly what purpose
that object was originally intended but I believe it some kind of data storage
device. The entire history of a civilization could be contained inside that
crystal, perhaps stored because they wanted someone to know who they were. It
seems terribly short sighted of us if we just ignored it and let their voices
go unheard."
"Okay, okay,"
Chris conceded defeat and because he was a little moved by her impassioned
plea. Sometimes Alex could be a hard-nosed, pain in the butt but she was a good
officer and a true explorer, a trait Chris had to confess he shared with her.
In all honesty, he did believe that object had been left behind by someone that
wanted to be heard and he wanted to know what that object was as much as she
did. "You convinced me commander. Transporter..."
"Captain....."
Ezra interrupted quickly before he could carry out that order, still having a
multitude of reservations over this course of action.
"Ezra its coming on
board," Chris said firmly before adding in a more conciliatory note. "However,
you will take full measures to see to it that the possibility of any danger to
the ship is negated by putting that thing through its paces, Level 5 force
field, the works. I want it cleared technologically, microscopically and any
other way a talented security officer like yours can throw at it. Until we
assess that there is no possible danger to the ship, no one gets near it. Is
that understood?" Chris looked over his shoulder far enough to meet Alex's
gaze to show her that he was absolutely resolute on this particular point.
Alex nodded and exchanged a
glance with Ezra, indicating that she understood his authority in this matter
and would adhere to whatever he decided would be the best way to proceed.
Although she was a scientist by nature, she was also a Starfleet officer and
the welfare of her crew had to come first.
"Transporter
room," Chris spoke out loud.
"Transporter Chief
Rain here Sir."
"There is an object on
our port bow, science station is sending coordinates right now." Chris
asked, confident that Alex was already moving to fulfill that order. "I
want you to lock and transport to Cargo Bay 1. I want it placed in Level 5
containment."
"Aye Sir," the
unseen voice of the Trill lieutenant responded.
All eyes turned to the
screen as they watched the construct in the view screen, still tumbling through
space with no particular agenda in mind, looking not unlike a Catherine wheel
when the light bounced off its flawless surface against the jet colored sky
behind it. As the transporter beam locked on to it, the objects spectrum of
color changed all together as a shimmer of gold encompassed it in all totality
before it vanished off the screen all together.
A moment later, Transporter
Chief Rain's voice sang through the bridge in all its melodic tones. Those who
were accustomed to her voice found it strangely reassuring for some unknown
reason. "The object has been beamed directly to Cargo Bay 1 Captain, under
Level 5 containment."
"Thank you
Lieutenant." Chris smiled and then swiveled around in his chair to face
Alex and Ezra again.
"She's all
yours."
**********
Ever since coming on
board the Maverick, Josiah found that the one person he could truly call a
professional colleague as well as a peer of equal was Nathan Jackson. It was
not easy to get to know the doctor even though outwardly, he was a friendly
sort. However, Nathan's personality, the one he hid away behind the stock
standard facade of the Chief Medical Engineer was not so easy to discern. He
was a man of surprising sensitivity, who would have been a more than able
Counselor if it was not for the fact that healing was what he was born to
do.
And he truly was born to
it.
Josiah had watched him mend
bones, cure ailments and regard patients with such care, it was almost a
pleasure to see. Children coming in with scraped knees and teary eyes usually
left with smiles that had little to do with Nathan's treatment of their wounds
but rather how he had made them feel about the whole thing. Josiah's friendship
with Nathan had been slow to form. Their offices were down the corridor for one
another so it was inevitable they would see each other a great deal. Although
they were senior staff, they were not required on the bridge. Thus, whenever
the situation got tense, both men usually rode out the storm when there were no
casualties of course, sharing a bottle of Romulan ale which apparently Nathan
had a taste for and Josiah had contacts to acquire, since Romulan ale was
contraband.
It was only after Josiah
had to gotten to know Nathan very well did he understand why the man took his
patients and his ability to heal so seriously. Until the age of seventeen, his
only family had been his sister Rebecca. Growing up on one of the outer colony
worlds where medical treatment was scarce, Rebecca had been struck by
Andulusian Fever, an ailment whose symptoms were so slight they could be easily
mistaken for the common flu. The doctor on the colony had dismissed it as such
and despite Nathan's protests to the contrary that it was something worse
because he knew his sister, treatment for the deadly disease was not
forthcoming. The pathology of Andulusian flu may have had slight symptoms but
when it flared, its effects were nothing less than devastating. Within a day,
nearly all her body functions had shut down and in a little more time than
that, she was gone.
It was a loss Josiah
suspected Nathan had never recovered and it showed in his attitude to his
patients. He never dismissed anyone out of hand and what made him truly an
exceptional healer was his ability to diagnose with incredible accuracy was
that same reason. It was difficult to say at what point Josiah and Nathan had
become friends but their friendship soon reached a point where Josiah found
that there were times when he needed counsel himself and Nathan had the same
sensitive approach to his problem that the doctor had for his patients.
"So let me get this
straight," Nathan said to Josiah inside the confines of the doctor's
private office in sickbay. "She asked you to join her on this field
trip."
"Yeah," Josiah
nodded. "I said yes but I don't think I'm ready."
"To go on a field
trip?" Nathan looked at him over the cup of ale in his hand of which he
was about to take a sip.
Josiah who was sitting
across his desk, nursing his own glance gave the doctor a look. "No, for a
relationship." He growled
"Woah," Nathan
said putting down the glass and staring at the Counselor. "When did we go
from field trip to relationship?"
"Well I'm sure that's
where its going." Josiah said somewhat annoyed that Nathan could not see
anything so obvious. "I mean out of the people on the ship, she came to
see me? Obviously, she wants me."
Nathan chose not to make
too much comment about that and rubbed the bridge of his nose as had to
consider his reply. "Obviously. What about you? Do you like
Audrey?"
Josiah hesitated now,
uncertain about his answer. "She's a nice woman. Reminds me a lot
of...." he paused a moment as it became a little difficult to continue. He
thought he had become used to Ayla being gone, that missing her was only
natural. They had spent so many years together that it was natural her being
gone was going to be with him for a long time but until Audrey came into his
life, Josiah had never been as uncomfortable about her as he did now.
"Of your wife?"
Nathan ventured a guess.
"A little."
Josiah had to confess. "But its not just that she's like Ayla but there's
something about her personally. I could care about her."
"Josiah," Nathan
took a deep breath, knowing what exactly the problem was. "Its okay for
you to go on with your life. I know you loved Ayla very much but ask yourself
would she want you to carry on alone?"
"Of course not."
Josiah said automatically even though he and Ayla had never even discussed the
possibility, mostly because they could never imagine their lives without one
another. Perhaps that had been too much of an assumption that he could not
overcome now.
"You don't have to
feel guilty about liking this woman Josiah." Nathan responded and wondered
what it must be like to love someone nearly twenty-five years and then suddenly
have her disappear. What kind of void did that leave behind? Nathan had
relationships in his past but good relationships were hard to maintain when one
was a doctor as dedicated as he. At what point did caring for one's patients
take a backseat to a more personal love? Nathan always found he had difficulty
making that choice which was why he was still alone.
"I know," Josiah
agreed, having come to the same conclusion although it was nice to hear someone
else tell him. "I guess I've been so happy on this ship the last few
months that I started to forget how much I missed Ayla and all this just
brought it back."
"Josiah," Nathan
took a moment to consider what was the best thing to say to the man. "If
you had a patient, someone who lost his wife a year ago and is now starting to
feel as if he might be ready to care about someone else again, whom perhaps
felt a little trepidation of taking such a step, what would you say to
him?"
Josiah swallowed and let a wan
smile curled the edge of his lips. "Probably that it is natural to feel
this way. To take it one day at a time and see how he feels about it and not
assume too much and just play it out, keeping in mind that life goes on and
sometimes the past needs to take a backseat to the future."
"Well there you
go," Nathan grinned. "Good advice coming from the best Counselor I
know."
"Sneaky but
helpful," Josiah let out a slight chuckle when suddenly, their
conversation was interrupted by a message across the com system.
"Doctor Jackson
please report to
"Looks like you're
on." Josiah replied as Nathan sighed and put down his glass. Technically,
he was off duty but Nathan like most CMO's tended to live inside their
offices.
"The life of
star." The doctor laughed as he stood up from his seat and started to walk
towards the door.
"Hey Nathan,"
Josiah called out before the man could reach the door.
"Yeah?" He paused
and met the Counselor's gaze.
"Thanks." Josiah
said with heartfelt sincerity.
"Any time
brother." Nathan grinned and kept going.
***********
Ezra had been determined
that the object be put through its paces as the captain had ordered and so it
was a good few hours before he felt that it was safe to deactivate the Level
5-containment field that surrounded it since its arrival on board the Maverick.
Ezra knew he was being overly cautious but while the unknown might sometimes
translate into wonderful marvels awaiting discovery, to the Chief Security
Officer it mean that they were stumbling onto something that was potentially
dangerous. As much as he would like to be fascinated by this crystal sculpture,
he could not do so and expect his objectivity to it to remain. The lives of one
thousand people counted on his neutrality to it and so he was not about to fail
them.
Julia's engineering team
had gone over it micron by micron and confirmed what Alex had guessed when they
had first viewed it from the bridge of the Maverick that it was a solid block
of crystal. The properties of the crystal seemed to indicate it was some of
storage device although what it could contain was beyond their understanding
since it had no mechanism that might allow such a thing to be. It was like a
huge shard of crystal floating in space, shaped like a thin wedge apart of a
larger object. Under the gleam of the cargo bay lights, the object lost much of
its spectacular radiance but was nonetheless an oddity worthy of much
interest.
After Julia had completed
her work, Nathan had conducted the same strenuous examination, ensuring that no
space borne microbes had penetrated the screening process of the transporter
system to endanger the ship. His inspection of the object was just as laborious
and he remarked that aside from it being nothing more than a solid block of
crystal, the patterns of its molecular formation resembled those found in
Ferengi thought makers, devices which apparently had the ability to supplant
brainwaves with others. While that had given Ezra some cause for concern,
Nathan had assured him that if this device was meant to be for the purpose of
data storage, it would make complete sense.
"So can I get a crack
at it now?" Alex asked hours later. By now, the only ones left in the room
with the strange construct were herself and the chief security officer.
"I suppose." Ezra
frowned. "I still believe this is a bad idea."
"Of course you
do," Alex replied, rolling her eyes as she walked towards the object that
was lying on its side in the middle of the cargo bay. "You're chief
security officer, you have to be a pessimist."
"My dear lady,"
Ezra retorted, deciding that he had done all that he could and it was time to
leave Alex to her new toy. "I am not a pessimist. I am merely being
careful and saving those of you who are in the pursuit of scientific discovery
from yourselves, as you require me to do on some occasion."
"And we all admire the
way you handle the responsibility." She threw him a playful smile as she
reached the object and started programming the tricorder in her hands.
"I think I shall leave
you two alone." Ezra sighed and noticed that remark had not even raised
the slightest bit of attention from her as her only response was a slight wave
of her hands telling him to go while she continued her work. Without further
comment, the security chief left the room.
Alex let out a sigh when he
was gone and hoped that Julia would soon put the man out of his misery by
consummating their relationship. The lack of sex was obviously driving Ezra up
the wall and back since the man had been particularly testy lately. Fortunately
for Ezra, Julia had told her and Mary that such was the plan when he whisked
her away for this romantic vacation on
She put down her tricorder
after she had programmed it and cast another meaningful gaze at the object
before her, admiring the flawless finish of its polished surface.
Instinctively, Alex placed her palm flat against the top of the crystal,
feeling its cool bleed into her skin. When it had been brought on board, the
object would have been freezing to touch because of the 250-° C temperatures of
vacuumed space. The heat from the atmosphere inside the ship had gone a long
way to warming it up but not fast enough because crystal was not the best
conductor of such things.
Alex was suddenly about to
remove her palm when suddenly, she felt the jolt of something that was not
unlike electricity making contact with her skin. The overload to her senses was
so powerful that it blinded all thought from her mind before she was enveloped
in cool, comforting darkness.
[center[Part Three
When Mary Travis was
summoned unexpectedly to Cargo Bay 1 at the request of Alexandra Styles, she
confessed to finding the whole thing a little odd. After all, she was a
protocol officer whose expertise lay in linguistics, xeno-anthropology, not to
mention a healthy knowledge in Federation, Klingon and Romulan constitutional
law. What contribution she could make to the study of the alien artifact that
the Maverick had sighted floating in space would be minimal but she had to
admit that her curiosity was more than a little piqued by the possibility.
Besides, she could not lie that she would not mind a look at the object beyond
the view she had garnered through the view screen earlier.
Mary could not deny that
despite all the dangers she had faced during her time on the Maverick, there
was something inherently fulfilling about the exploration of uncharted space.
They had encountered more alien species last month with the Maverick initiating
first contract protocols to a small dozen, then Mary would ever had come across
after a year at the Vulcan Embassy where she had been posted. With the Borg
attacks and the recent Dominion War, Starfleet had been struggling to find
experienced officers and she could now understand the reasoning that saw her
posted here. An officer of her experience could not be left to languish on a
diplomatic posting when a starship was in need.
Despite her initial
apprehension at accepting the post, Mary knew that she could not imagine being
anywhere else now. She knew much of this had to do with Chris and with their
relationship slowly inching towards apogee, she had also come to understand
that he was going to be in a permanent fixture in her life. Chris was already
taking the space left void in her son’s life at the death of her husband Syan
and even Mary had started calling her child Billy instead of William. Syan’s
family would never approve of course and Mary had this terrible premonition
that one day, she was going to be faced with a situation where she would have
to fight for Billy’s right to grow up, as he should.
Mary continued her
ruminations inside the turbo lift that was taking her to the cargo hold decks
when it came to a comfortable stop on the engineering deck. As the doors slid
open, Julia Pemberton stepped inside.
"Hi Mary," Julia
greeted as the doors closed behind her. "Computer,
Mary stared at her.
"You too?"
"You’re headed there
as well?" Julia reacted with a hint of surprise.
"Yes," Mary
nodded, "Alex asked me to meet her down there. I assume it has something
to do with that crystal artifact that they beamed on board earlier today."
"I heard we picked
something up." Julia remarked. "Do we have any idea what it is?"
"Not really," the
protocol officer answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "Alex claimed
before we brought it on board that it was almost half a million years old. It
is beautiful though," she said with a hint of awe still left over from
when they had seen it on the view screen in all its resplendent beauty.
"So why does she need
us?" The engineer’s brows knotted with confusion. "Lieutenant Potter
is the archaeological expert on board."
"Who knows?" Mary
responded. "Maybe it has nothing to do with the object at all. Perhaps she
wanted to see us for something else. She and I are going to the Tethys Resort
when we get to
"Maybe she needs a
neutral opinion on how to expend your time while you engage in your debauch
down there." Julia teased.
"Very funny,"
Mary gave her a look. "I’ll have you know that there will be no debauchery
going on. I am there for the rest."
"Uh huh," the
petite read head responded with a look of pure skepticism.
"I would not cast
stones from my glass house," Mary replied with a glimmer of mischief in
her own eyes as she regarded Julia in the narrow confines of the lift. "I
mean you and Ezra in isolated resort away from the world and the ship. I
seriously doubt you two would need any more than one room."
Julia blushed involuntarily
and gave herself away completely. "Okay," she threw her hands up in a
gesture of defeat. "I admit it, sex is on the agenda."
"Thank god," Mary
let out a sigh of relief. "I think the man is about to snap."
"Well I wanted to take
it slow!" Julia said exasperated. "He means a lot to me and I just
don’t want to go rushing into things. I mean Ezra is complex."
Mary gave her a sidelong
glance. "That’s one way to put it."
"You know what I
mean." Julia retorted, finding nothing amusing about the situation.
"I know what you mean
but you’ve been together for months now. I think its obvious how he feels about
you. He can’t help it if he just so happens to be the most cynical human being
to ever emerge from the primordial soup." Mary declared.
"I know," Julia
sighed. "But a man who wears a poker face like his is hard to read and I
didn’t want to get hurt."
"Unfortunately,"
Mary sighed, offering the younger women the benefits of her experience.
"That’s the risk you take with relationships. There is no way to play it
safe, believe me I know."
Julia glanced at Mary and
nodded in understanding. For a few seconds, a deep silence lapsed over the
conversation until the turbo lift doors slid open and they emerged into the
corridor where the cargo hold was situated.
"Maybe Alex cracked
the thing open and found the body of a 20th century movie star,
alive and well but completely brain dead and starving for female company."
Julia joked in an attempt to move away from the somber subject they had touched
upon earlier.
"You know," Mary
looked at Julia with a wry smile. "I always had a thing for Michael Biehn
myself…."
*********
She could sense the coming
of the two.
She felt their life force,
resonating down the hallway upon approach and was able to assess whether or not
they were suitable to complete the triumvirate she would need to unseal the
others. After so long, drifting in the nightmarish void of space, unable to do
anything but watch helplessly as they were trapped in their prison, powerless
to awake from the horror that they had been forced to endure, she was eager to
begin. Every second of their long imprisonment was burned into their memory and
held in abhorrence. She would never go back to it again and she would free the
others so that they may know what it was to breathe air through lungs once
again, to feel blood pumping through their hearts and souls and feel the
passion of life surging through flesh and blood bodies. When she had first
claimed this vassal as her own, her mind had swum with the sensations of touch,
of sight and sound. After almost half a million years of existing as nothing
but energy trapped in a glass coffin, the feelings were as close to ecstasy as
one could imagine. She had to share it with the others.
She would share it
with the others.
The doors to the cargo hold
bay slid open and the two remaining for there to be three, entered the room.
They saw the vassal and found nothing amiss as they advanced deeper into the
room, making comments as to the beauty of the object that she could see as
nothing but the coffin for innocents who had been buried alive. They called it
beautiful; she would have snorted in derision if it did not mean shedding the
façade she had to maintain until the joining was complete.
"So what’s up?"
Julia asked as she approached Alex who was standing next to the artifact. As
Julia approached it, she had to admit that Mary’s description of it being
beautiful did not do it justice. The engineering that had taken to shape this
block of crystal did not exist even in this time and Julia wondered what race
had inspired its creation. She was almost eager to take an engineering tricorder
to it herself and make a study of the artifact. She could understand why Alex
had insisted this be brought on board since it did certainly appear to be an
astonishing find.
"I needed you both to
see something." Alex said stiffly.
"Its even more
beautiful up close," Mary exclaimed, already crossing the space between
herself and the artifact. "Its amazing that it’s remained intact as it
had."
"Space is a big
place," Julia remarked joining her advance. "Its not like it could
not drift indefinitely. There are probably objects like this scattered
throughout the quadrant, waiting for someone to pick them up as we did for this
one."
"Yes," Alex said
giving them an enigmatic smile. "It was fortunate."
"So what is it?"
Julia questioned again.
"There is something I
require your opinion on," Alex answered stiffly, placing her hand on the
smooth surface of the artifact, her palm resting flat against it. "I
believe it is warm."
"Warm?" Julia
looked at her incredulously as she regarded the artifact with astonishment.
"How can it have a temperature? It's been out in a vacuum?"
"I do not know,"
the science officer replied. "It just does."
"And why am I
here?" Mary inquired, starting to wonder if there was not something odd
about Alex’s behavior. The science officer could be detached at times. That was
the nature of her personality that it had taken her crew mates time to accustom
themselves to. It was an effort that was well worth the trouble for beneath her
somewhat mercurial and dry nature was a woman who was softer in the centre than
she would have most believe.
"I thought you might
like to see it close up." Alex replied. "Touch it," she urged
keeping her hand against the crystal surface. "You’ll see why."
Mary and Julia exchanged a
curious glance and decided there had to be something extraordinary for Alex to
make such an effort for them to experience it. Usually whenever the science
officer stumbled onto such oddities, she could not broke the interference of anyone
in her investigation and was absolutely relentless in protecting what she
called the scientific integrity of the study.
"This had better be
good." Julia said with mock annoyance and put her hand against the
artifact as the same time that Mary did.
The effect was almost
instantaneous with tendrils of energy surging away from the crystal, enveloping
all three in brilliant white globe. It did not effect Alex as much as it did
Mary and Julia who jerked in uncontrollable spasms as their bodies were
bombarded with alien power. Alex seemed more prepared for it since she had
already undergone the process and she watched dispassionately as her friends
went through the same trial although her mind was not present to be able to
offer any feelings or sympathy or even prevent it for that matter. The dance of
light and body took place for only a moment and the glow that had turned the
artifact into a brilliant spectrum of color soon darkened, its energies now
sapped out of the many facets in its crystalline form.
Mary and Julia tumbled to
the ground soundlessly, boneless as they impacted on the cold floor of the
deck. As Alex stood and continued to watch, she felt no fear about their well
being. The process was no good if the vassals that were required to carry the
many were to die. There was so much to do and the patience, which had borne the
many through the years in space, had dwindled to almost nothingness. For the
first time in too long, they lived and breathed again. The chance for the
accomplishment of what was left undone was too good to waste and they wanted to
move quickly before the ones like those who had done this to them became aware
of their presence and tried to interfere.
Mary stirred first;
groaning first in pain as her body became accustomed to itself after what had
transpired. She pushed her self onto her hands and knees and then stretched
languidly, like a cat that had been curled into a ball of sleep for hours.
Groans of aches quickly dissipating soon evaporated into the laughter of
delight.
"Lords," Mary
laughed out loud in a voice very much like the vassal’s but full of playful
mischief. " It has been too long!"
"We have been trapped
in this prison," Alex glared viciously at the crystal artifact with
obvious hatred. "For almost half a million of years!"
"Half a million!"
The exultation of being alive drained from Mary’s face. "I thought it
might have been long but not for so long…."
"We must return home
immediately," Alex declared firmly.
"Yes," Julia, who
was the last to recover, spoke in a low voice, colder and far harsher than that
of her normal self. "We must go home and find out what it is those animals
that did this to us have done to the home world, if there is one even left for
us to return to."
"We have no other
choice but to try." Mary responded, agreeing completely with that
statement. "We have no where else to go."
"We have more
immediate problems to deal with." Alex replied, staring at both of them.
"We must free the others. This knowledge of my vassal indicates that there
are more than enough on board this ship to play host to the others."
"This ship is governed
by the hated ones." Mary declared, her eyes narrowing into slits as if the
words were so distasteful and the hatred she felt for them was something
tangible they could see and touch as opposed to just a feeling inside her
breast. "They will not take us home." She almost spat the
words.
"The combined
knowledge of the vassals we now inhabit and the ones that we will soon take
will not make that a problem." Julia said coldly.
"We must keep them
occupied." Mary added her voice to the discussion.
"With the hated ones,
the usual way will suffice." The entity residing inside the Chief Engineer
responded with clear of derision in her voice. The seemingly eternity of time
had robbed her of whatever compassion that might have existed once. Years of
praying and futility had driven everything that cared and felt into the
oblivion of vengeance. It was that way for many of them and until they saw the
familiar skies of home, there would be nothing that could assuage that terrible
rage at the injustice that had been done to them.
"The knowledge of my
vassal tells me much about these species," Julia continued to speak.
"They are no different from the ones we knew from our time. They claim
benevolence, these Federations, but their kind always dominates, always seeks
to remain above those like us. They will underestimate us in the beginning but
by the time their complacency is shed, it will be too late. We will have this
ship."
*********
They left the cargo
bay hold at the same time, fanning out to different parts of the ship, like
soldiers extending the battle lines as they moved off the cargo hold deck and
entered the general population of the Maverick’s complement. Once the
triumvirate had been completed and the essence of self had been sucked dry from
its crystal confinement, the accumulation of new vassals would be nowhere as
spectacular as it had been when the three had been taken. From this point on,
it would be require nothing more than a touch and the vassal would be filled
with the souls of the many.
Julia made her appearance
in Engineering and acquired everyone there that was useful for the purpose.
Upon passing the many to them, they were able to do the same as they expanded
the scope of conquest beyond the walls of Maverick’s heart and spread out even
further like a cancer in its most virulent phase of devouring. The hated ones
suspected nothing and went about their business as always, so confident that
nothing was going on, unaware that the seeds for their surrender was being laid
as they continued down the corridors of the ship, thinking that those in
submission would always remain that way.
Mary Travis went to visit
her son at school and in the process made everyone there, vassals for the many.
The many did not wish to inhabit children but there were many of the kind that
was acceptable to them and so their numbers grew yet again. A pat on the back,
a brush of fingertips against skin, its passage through the ranks of the crew went
completely unnoticed and there would be other forms of attack as well, not just
the possession of bodies. The enemy was hated but he was not stupid and the
oldest of the arts had to be employed most fully in order to give the conqueror
the advantage. The many were not prepared to take any chances and as they
continued their silent revolution, they gave no indication of their existence.
Alexandra Styles did not go
to the bridge, for at the moment the cause was still too vulnerable for her to
attempt infiltrating that vital system of the ship. The battle there would be
fought soon enough; instead she traveled through the ranks of the science
department, acquiring new soldiers to the cause from the selection to be had in
astrophysics, stellar cartography and astrometics. By the time she had set her
sights for
It was time to put their
plan into motion for there was nothing on board that could stop them now.
********
There was something very
strange going on.
Upon concluding her duty
shift, Transporter Chief Rain had decided upon a very definitive course of
action. She would go to her quarters and soak in her bath and should anyone
chose to interfere with that plan, which she had decided most strongly was a
good plan, she would simply have to beam them onto the bridge nude when they
were not looking. She was not joking. She had done that before. Anyone who
heard the threat and wanted to verify the truth had only need to read her
service record to know that she had done it to an instructor at the Academy who
would never sleep easily again. Rain suspected that she had gained the posting
to the Maverick despite that official reprimand in her service record, was
because Captain Larabee believed that anyone who could manage to beam someone
out of their bed and plant them in the middle of the Academy mess hall could
most likely beam his crew anywhere and back again.
Whatever the reason, Rain
did not care and she cared nothing about the blight on her service record
either. There was something about being a Trill that was intensely liberating.
Perhaps it was the fact that having a symbiote inside her body which allowed
her to remember the past lives of everyone who had played host to it, always
gave her a bright perspective on things. Not even death frightened her really
because when she passed on, what she was would remain alive in the symbiote,
alive in someone else and to whom she could transpose all her eccentricities.
The other advantage of having the memories of all those people and their life
experiences was being able to call on those images to shape her present life.
At the moment, the Trill
named Rain was finding that experience did not quite cover this. She was not
telepathic and other then the memories of those before her, Rain had nothing
extraordinary to recommend herself, however, she could sense that something was
wrong. People walked past her, looking no different than they did everyday and
yet, there was something about them that was not right. She could not place
what it is but it was there, lying in wait like the stink of dank water at the
bottom of an old well.
She saw friends and
colleagues walking past her in the corridors, as she made her way to the saucer
section of the starship where the living quarters were situated, in particular
for that bath she was willing to go any lengths to enjoy. They looked at her
but did not see her. If anything, they seemed somewhat glazed and detached. The
same look was worn by those who wore Starfleet uniforms, by maintenance staff
and even to the civilians who were family members of officers and crew. Rain
wondered if it was just her as she approached the turbo lift that would take
her to her quarters. Having so many experiences to draw upon could sometimes be
confusing and mixed signals from too many voices was not uncommon.
However, Rain's gut
instinct told her that it was not so.
She tried not to ignore the
gut instinct especially when it was the one thing in her mind that was truly
unique to she who was Rain not the symbiote or the lives it had shared but
herself. She relied upon it like the Captain relied upon its ship and when it
said something bad was going down, Rain believed wholeheartedly.
"Rain." A voice
said behind her as the doors to the turbo lift slid open and Rain found herself
jumping a little, startled easily because of the chill that ran down her spine
from her observations and this creeping sensation that something sinister was a
foot.
"Commander
Styles," Rain turned to Alexandra Styles and was glad to see the science
officer. "I'm glad to see you." She let out a sigh of relief. Alex
Styles was the most formidable intellect on the ship as far as Rain was
concerned.
Well, the Captain and
Commander Wilmington didn't really count. They were men.
"Something
wrong?" Alex asked somewhat icily and Rain decided that the commander must
not be having a good day. Considering that she herself was having an odd one,
she supposed they could almost have something in common but chose not to
mention that.
"Do you notice people
behaving strangely?" Rain asked looking at some of the faces passing them
by in the corridor.
"No," Alex shook
her head, her expression looking stonier than ever. "Perhaps it is just
you." With that, Alex placed her hand on Rain's shoulder just as the door
to the turbo lift opened.
Rain felt the contact of
skin and then felt something pass through the fabric of her clothes to strike
at her with the sharpness of an icicle being driven straight into her mind. The
young woman staggered forward, unaware that Alex did not follow her into the
turbo lift and watched dispassionately as the doors closed behind her. The
agony was so intense Rain could feel the others who shared her thoughts scream
with the same excruciating pain and she fell to her knees, clutching her head
and trying not to scream.
The tendrils of fire
resonated through her mind, like someone had struck a tuning fork inside her
head and the effects of it was vibrating itself into exhaustion. She did not
know how long she remained on the floor of the turbo lift, gasping out in pain,
trying not to let those strained groans become shrieks, until the torture had
finally dissipated to tolerable levels. When she finally felt it ease and then
recede all together, Rain was still breathing hard unable to understand what
had happened to her.
"Oh girl," Rain
swallowed as she struggled to her feet. "I think its about time you made a
trip to see a doctor."
[center[Part Four
A starship
was a place of mysteries.
The most obvious mystery
being the space whose exploration it played such a vital part of. However,
there were little enigmas and conundrums that lurked in very corridor, which
whispered in the narrow conduits that ran behind the walls. For instance, why
was it that Jeffrey’s tube 3 always took a little longer to get its occupants
where they were going than all the other turbo lift tubes. Or why the EPS relay
on Deck 13 resonated with a low hum that sounded very much like a Klingon folk
song. And of course, the possibility that two people who had served on a
starship together for months had until one defining moment in time never laid
eyes upon each other.
This was such a moment for
Nathan Jackson.
He had heard about Transporter
Chief Rain in discussion, had seen her files, had even assigned junior staff
members to run physicals on her from time to time, however, the opportunity to
actually meet her face to face had not eventuated. This was hardly unusual of
course, in a ship full of people and his being the Chief Medical Officer, who
aside from ensuring everyone’s health on the Maverick was perfect, was also
required to be the leading authorities in researching the Borg assimilation
process to find a medical cure. This did not leave much time for socializing
and other than a few holodeck visits with the senior staff and the dinner he
shared at the Captain’s table on a weekly basis, Nathan was more or less buried
in his work.
He knew there was no reason
to push himself so hard but that was the nature of him. Shattering the Borg
ability to immediately assimilate life forms was the best protection they had
against the Collective, if only the Herculean task of deciphering how it was
done and devising a preventative measure could be achieved. Nathan knew how
many lives could be saved by the discovery and thus it was excellent motivation
as well as justification to push himself so hard. However, he came to realize
that he was spending entirely too much time on his own when he saw the
Transporter Chief, whose full name was Rain Nal, Nal being the appellation of
the symbiote inside her, enter his SickBay.
"So what can I do for
you?" He asked politely, trying not to notice the amazing length of her
hair that fell around her shoulders. She did not wear it up and Nathan could
not deny that he thought it would have been a crime against men everywhere if
she did. He reminded himself that he was a doctor and he should not be thinking
like this when it was a necessity that he remained professional.
"I am not entirely
sure Doctor Jackson," she remarked as she walked to the examination table
he was guiding her to. Like Nathan, this was the first time that Rain had ever
seen the doctor since every time he was required to make the journey off the
ship, it was always someone else at the transporter controls. She was mildly
surprised by how young he looked and found herself thinking that he had nice
eyes that made everyone who looked into them, compelled to trust him. "I
was on my way to my quarters and I had this attack. A sharp stabbing pain in my
head. I’ve never felt anything like it before."
A frown of concern crossed
her lovely features and Nathan found himself involuntarily thinking that it had
no business being there. "Well let’s take a look shall we?" He said
showing none of the personal interest he was feeling the moment he put his hand
on the medical tricorder and began his work. He took his patients’ health too
seriously to be anything but single minded when working.
There was an awkward pause
for a few seconds as he made his examination of her and Rain found herself
observing him and found that he was rather self conscious about her close eye.
His coloring made it difficult to see his embarrassment but Rain had enough
experience to sense it and she could not deny that she found it rather
endearing really. Suddenly, she had a picture of him confined in a laboratory
most of the time, working in solitude and she found herself thinking that it
was a state of affairs that would not at all do.
"Do I make you nervous
doctor?" She asked suddenly.
"Why do you ask
that?" Nathan responded coolly, quite amazed by his ability to not come
unglued by that statement because he was very nervous around her, very nervous
indeed.
"I just get that
impression." She looked at him with a smile of mischief.
"I think you’re a pretty multi-faceted
guy," Rain gave him a wink. "You’ll handle it."
Nathan burst into a grin
and Rain decided she liked his smile just as much as the rest of him and chose
to give him a moment’s peace as he continued his scans. He was utterly
confident when inside this room, of this she had no doubt but could be a little
on the shy side once he was forced to venture out of its protection. For Chief
Medical Officer, he was young and Rain was certain it was because he was very
good at what he did. In any case, she made a professional note to see Nathan
Jackson again and this time it would not be a professional visit either.
"So?" She looked
at him when he had stepped away and was staring at the tricorder in interest.
"Am I okay?" She waited for him to answer expectantly, not liking the
pause that was stretching into more than a few seconds as he deliberated the
readings he was seeing on the small device.
"It looks like you’ve
had some kind of neural surge." Nathan replied, not understanding how such
a thing was possible but then with so many alien physiology there were, it was
not entirely impossible either.
"How is that
possible?" She exclaimed with genuine shock.
"I don’t know."
Nathan shook his head clearly disturbed himself. "I may have to consult my
medical database and see if this is perhaps a condition that is specific to
your Trill physiology
"I can tell you its
not." Rain started most firmly. "Misa Nal, three hosts back was a
doctor and she doesn’t feel it is. Besides, when it happened. We all
felt it. Not just me but the other past hosts and it was sudden. I was just
talking to Commander Styles and it just hit me out of nowhere."
"Commander Styles was
with you at the time?" Nathan asked automatically although his mind was
more focused on the cause for the attack she had suffered.
"Yes she was."
Rain recalled the incident and upon examining the encounter, wondered if there
was not something a little odd about the entire situation. "It was
funny," she mused, recounting to the doctor what had happened as she
played it over in her mind. "We were talking and I mentioned that I
thought people were behaving a little strangely."
"Behaving
strangely?" Nathan looked at her sharply. He had been working in his lab
for most of today and either than a visit from Josiah, he had not really been
outside or met anyone else other than his own staff to be aware of
abnormalities in the crew’s behavior.
"The women
mostly." Rain continued to explain, still unsure of that what she had seen
were not her perceptions clouded by a bad day instead of something genuine.
"It was like…." She hesitated, unable to explain a feeling even one
as strong as this. "They were there but not."
"Well," Nathan
did not wish to say this to her but he believed in being honest with his
patients. "You did suffer something of an episode. Perhaps your view of
things was only the initial symptom of the more physical attack." He
pointed out.
"You mean that I was
thinking that way because of what was wrong with me was preparing to manifest
itself in that hell I went through in the turbo lift?" She looked at him;
not so fragile that such a thing would offend her. The doctor that existed
inside her was not about to discount the possibility even if Rain had trouble
believing that it was all to do with her, although it was the second time today
she was told that her suspicions were in her head.
"What do you
think?" Nathan looked at her.
"I think that despite
the fact that my gut instincts tell me that something is odd is going on around
here," Rain said with a visible huff. "I have to at least consider
the possibility that what you say might be possible."
"Good," Nathan
offered her a smile. "Now that a side," he replied. "I would
like to conduct a few more deeper scans and see if we can work out what
happened to you in the turbo lift."
Still, despite her outward
agreement that the episode in the lift might be due to some problem she was
suffering personally, the gnawing feeling that more was at work still lingered
in the back of her mind. How was it that she had collapsed inside the lift
without Commander Styles lifting a finger to help her? She and Alex were almost
friends even though as the third ranking officer, there was much that kept
their worlds apart but not so much that Alex would just leave her there.
"Only on one
condition," Rain replied, not about to admit that she was entirely wrong
about her assertions just yet. "When we’re done, you come out of here with
me and take a look for yourself."
"I thought you said
you were open to the possibility." He regarded her with a little smile,
admitting secretly that he thought she had too much spirit to let it go so
easily.
"I am," she
stated with a hint of defiance in her voice as she spoke. "Just as long as
you are open to the possibility that people are acting strangely."
"Okay," he
nodded, conceding that much if it meant she would allow him to run his tests
because he did want to know if there was something seriously wrong with her.
Neural surges of the type she had were not common and if allowed to continue
without treatment, damaging over long periods of time. "You got a
deal."
"And perhaps if after
all that investigation, we decide that perhaps we might stop at
"You always this
forward?" He looked at her.
"You always this
shy?" Rain returned just as quickly.
"Touché." He
cried defeat and decided that even if there was nothing going on beyond the
walls of his sick bay, he would not mind having dinner with her.
To begin with.
*******
"We have a
problem." Alexandra Styles or the entity that possessed her body announced
upon entering the inner sanctum of Julia Pemberton’s workroom in the
Engineering deck. The room was small and contained a workbench and an
engineering terminal, which gave the master of the deck full access to all
systems on the ship. Julia could be found in the confines of this small space
whenever she was not out of the main floor of the Engineering Deck, supervising
things and used this room whenever she needed a little bit of peace and quiet.
When Alex arrived, Julia
and Mary were already waiting for her. It was late in the day and all three
women had skillfully navigated the Maverick avoiding all the command officers
other than themselves as they converged to decide upon their next course of
action. By her reckoning the disbursement of all the many through the chosen of
the Maverick was complete and all their number seemed to have found new hosts
and were awaiting their instructions. The new inductees were ingrained in every
part of the ship now, laying in wait for the moment when it was time to move
against the hated ones.
Once the door closed behind
Alex, sealing them inside the room and away from the listening ears of those
who might pose some threat to their plans to the Maverick, could the
conversation resume after Alex's startling announcement. She joined her sisters
in the center of the room as they stood before each other, like the triumvirate
that they were who had set into motion the instrument for their revenge. Like
of stones circling a place of counsel in times past, they stood facing each
other like soldiers taking instructions for the battle ahead.
The analogy was not all
that preposterous.
"What sort of
problem?" The Julia entity returned sharply. Her emerald colored eyes
narrowed in calculation and suspicion. Among their number it was she who was
guardian and protector, the one who saw suspicion everywhere and kept them one
step ahead of the enemy. She was the thinker.
"I attempted to pass
one of the many to the chosen and the transference was halted. I had not
encountered this before. We are able to pass the many to numerous species, far
more different that the one with whom I attempt to bond one us. Its is
unprecedented." Alex answered immediately, aware that the Julia entity
would broke no delay in the expectation of an explanation. Despite herself, she
felt some concern about the incident. Information was what she craved. It was
the reason she had selected the host that she had. In the past she had always
gone first, to seek out information and gather intelligence in order to
determine whether or not it was safe for other. Half a million years after the
fact and it was still the same. She did not like that she had no answers, even
for something unprecedented.
"It is." Julia
agreed. "Explain why this might be so."
Once again, she did not
expect to be kept waiting.
The gatherer considered the
information stored in the memory of the host mind and searched for an answer.
"I am uncertain of why this might be so but the species of the subject was
Trill. As a race they are something of a curiosity. There are divided into two
distinct species, host and symbiote. The symbiote, which is a larval life form,
lives within the host. Their physiology is composed almost entirely of neural
matter and this allows them to imprint upon themselves, the memory of all hosts
previous inhabited. Therefore while the host might day, the essence of what
they are remains alive in the symbiote, which is apparently very long lived.
Perhaps the rejection was caused because of the numerous personalities already
inhabiting the subject." Alex finally came to a conclusion. "In any
case, we should take steps to neutralize her. She may notice what is happening
to the others of her kind and may bring undue attention to us before we are
ready for it"
The Julia entity nodded
slowly in agreement with her recommendation. "We must attended to that
matter before all else. However, we can delegate that task to our sisters on
the ship."
"Yes," The Mary
entity, the infiltrator of the group declared. It was always her task to keep
watch upon the enemy, to learn its ways and exploit. In truth, the choice of
host for her was also equally suitable since the host mind had much knowledge
on the customs and traditions of the races that they were now forced to walk
amongst.
"We are the three
senior most female officers on board this vessel and we have not reported to
our superiors in some time. You," Mary glanced at Alex. "Are meant to
be studying our prison, the captain will expect a report of some kind from you
and no doubt they will be wondering where we are. At some point we must face
them."
"She is correct."
Julia agreed begrudgingly, deciding the time had come to deal with that
particular situation. It had been avoided long enough and the time was fast
approaching when such evasion would not longer be possible. "We must make
things ready for the trip home and we need to do it sooner rather than later so
we must take appropriate measures to deal with the command staff of this
vessel. From the memories I hold, I am in a perfect position to deal with the
one who maintains security. He has feelings towards the host." She
said the word 'feelings' as if it left a bitter taste in her mouth. After so
many years of confinement, belief in the fact that such emotions may exist
between two such different creatures was not something she could readily
accept.
"I had forgotten what
it was like to have such emotions," the Alex entity mused in something
that was akin to regret and similar dislike. She could feel the warmth that the
host felt for one of the hated and though she understood what it was like, she
could not condone it. It was a folly that had destroyed too many. It was a fate
she would spare the mind that shared this body with her.
"Do not dwell on them
too much." Julia hissed. "Its what the enemy uses to make you bleed
inside. It held us in chains for too long and allowed them to imprison us for
an eon."
"I know," Alex
said brushing away the conflict inside because there was no time for such
reflection when there was so much to be done. "My vassal has her closest
links to the officer of the con, unfortunately the usual methods will not apply
with him." She stated firmly, shrugging the thoughts that had been in her
mind a short time ago.
"Why is that?"
The infiltrator inquired with curiosity.
"It appears that he is
of a species that matures differently from the others on board. They are called
Vulcan they are long lived as well but not to the same extent as the Trill. He
is as measured by the inhabitants of his world, in the pre-adolescent stage of
development. Although he has deep feelings for this host, we will not be able
to distracting him using the usual methods of coercion. He does not have the sexual
maturity to understand it and our attempt to use it will only provoke his
suspicion." The entity using Alexandra Styles intellect responded, proving
that it was quite capable of using all that knowledge against the Maverick as
she was now displaying most spectacularly. "However," she turned to
Mary. "I think it should be you that approaches him."
"Why me?" Mary
countered. "I had believed my relationship with the Captain would make me
more useful in that regard. He has deep feelings for my host, that makes him
extremely susceptible to manipulation."
"That may be so but
you are required for the Vulcan." Alex returned promptly. "Your
vassal possesses minor psi-ability, barely passable by any standards but enough
to effect him if necessary. He has very limited understanding of his own psi
ability even though by nature the species tends to be highly telepathic. Your
vassal has been teaching him how to build shields but even that is rudimentary.
You should be able to interfere with him very easily."
"And that will leave
you free to deal with the First Officer." Julia nodded in understanding of
Alex’s reasoning.
"He desires the vassal
I inhabit," Alex responded with more than obvious dislike on her face at
the possibility of having to indulge the hated one with her favors. "In
fact, judging by the vassal's memories of him, he would desires any woman he
lays his eyes upon which will make it exceedingly easy to neutralize him. Once
we have the bridge crew, we should be able to take control of the ship easily."
"What about the
captain?" Mary asked again. "He has authorization codes to lock us
out of the ship. If we do not deal with him first, this situation may
escalate."
"Do not trouble
yourself." Julia said with a little smile. "The captain is being
dealt with."
[center[Part Five
Chris Larabee hated
paperwork.
He hated it with a passion.
The only drawback to being the Captain of a starship was the fact that the
bureaucracy and paperwork that came with the job seemed to expand
exponentially. He remembered the carefree days when a report of duty was all
the paperwork he was required to do because his responsibility ended the moment
he submitted it to his immediate superior. Now that he was at the top of the
food chain so to speak, there was no one to whom he could do the same since he
was about as superior as one could get on a starship. Worse than that, he did
not just have to write the things himself, he also had to make sense out of the
reports, sub-reports, addendum’s, memorandums that were submitted by all
department heads in order to create an analysis from all of the above to make
his log entries.
Personally, he would rather
be facing the Borg.
Although the paper was
technically digital data on a console screen, that did not make the tedium any
less and he wondered where Casey was since it was her job to keep him from
going insane while doing this. He knew that he was over reacting a little
because his paperwork was only this prolific because of their
involvement in the recent Dominion battle and the influx of shore leave
requests now that they were approaching Pacifica. Deciding that this was a task
that could only be accomplished with coffee and lots of it, Chris went to the
replicator in his Ready Room and programmed himself a cup of hot Jamaican
blend. With a little smile, he gave Casey silent note of thanks for programming
it in for him as well as the presence of several of his favorite foods stored
in the replicator memory banks amongst the stock standard fare of the
replicator menu.
For a Yeoman and girl of
her age, she was extremely capable even though there were times when she showed
her age. Casey was not content with living the hard military life of a career
Starfleet officer but she still wanted to be apart of the exploration of
unknown space. She had been somewhat reflective of late, no doubt because of
the Maverick's recent stopover in Deep Space Nine. Casey had returned to Bajor
for the first time since she was an infant. Although she made no mention of her
feelings upon her return to the ship, Chris was certain the trip had affected
her on some level emotionally. After all, this was the home that she and her
parents had fled during the occupation and while they had not survived the
trip, the Starfleet Captain who had rescued her on the other hand had adopted
her. The captain who was then known as Annette Wells but was now more familiar
to most as Admiral Nettie Wells.
Chris returned to his desk
once he had the steaming cup of aromatic coffee in his hand and nestled into his
chair once again, resolved to put a sizeable dent in the workload facing him in
the form of data pads with its columns upon columns of statistical information.
He was just to reach for the first pad when he heard the gentle trill of
someone at his door.
"Come in." Chris
grumbled with a frowned, wishing that if he was set to do a job he loathed, the
least fate could do was let him get on with it uninterrupted.
The door slid open and
Casey walked into the room. Inwardly, Chris let out a sigh of relief knowing
that she could probably sort through this mess in a hot second and he was not
above admitting that he needed help. "Just in time," he said with a
rare smile. "I could use your help working through this."
"No problem
captain," she smiled and Chris noticed that instead of wearing her hair up
like she often did, the long sheeny brown hair was hanging loosely over her
shoulders. She came along side of his desk and looked over his shoulder as he
went shuffling through the pile of data pads in front of him, trying to decide
where they could start first.
"I’ve got all these
forms to fill and a dozen reports to get together." He said quickly.
"Don’t worry
Captain," Casey leaned over his shoulder until he could feel her breath in
his ear, soft and uncertain, everything a young woman was. "We’ll get
through it."
Chris shook the thought out
of his head, knowing that he was mistaken by her tone of voice. What it sounded
like could not possibly be and told himself not to start fabricating excuses in
order to avoid getting this work done. Shaking the memory of that pleasant
sensation against his skin out of his head, he turned back to the pads once
again. "Okay, first up we have at least a dozen requests for personnel
from stellar cartography,
"Captain," Casey
put her hand on his as he was about to pick up a data pad, her soft palm
enclosing his. "Let’s forget about this today."
"Excuse me?"
Chris managed to respond while turning to look at her in nothing less than
astonishment.
"Captain I can’t help
it." She said breathlessly, dropping into his lap. Her arms encircled his
neck and Chris did nothing to stop it because his mind was still stupefied from
shock at what was happening to him at this moment. "I want you."
That did it. Like a splash
of cold water against his face, Chris stood up abruptly almost toppling her off
him and took a good long step backwards when he was on his feet. "Yeoman,"
Chris stuttered in something that could have been language or gibberish, he was
not quite sure. "I think we need to talk."
"We don’t need to talk
Chris," she retorted and closed the space between them once more, wrapping
her arms around his neck and crushing his lips against hers in a kiss of
passion. For a moment Chris was so stunned that she had actually crossed that
line between them, that she had dared to breach a thousand protocols not to
mention the fact that he was old enough to be her father, that he could do
nothing but stand there dumbfounded. However, as her tongue demanded entrance
into his mouth, Chris senses returned to him and he grabbed her arms from
around his neck and pulled Casey away from him.
"Yeoman," he said
in his most authoritative voice so that she would be reminded of the fact that
he was her commanding officer. Chris still had trouble believing what just had
happened. How had he been so dense that he had not even the slightest
inclination that Casey was harboring such heated passions about him? It was
incomprehensible how this could be when she was supposedly in a relationship
with JD Dunne. Oh Jesus! JD! Chris groaned inwardly. What would the kid say to
all this if he found out! This was getting worse by the minute. "I am very
flattered by your affections but this is not the way I expect you to behave. I
am your commanding officer…." He tried to assert himself, searching for
the voice normally reserved for the Jem Haddar and Cardassian Guls who had a
penchant for commanding rape camps.
"Don’t you think I’m
pretty Chris?" She asked, her voice girlish as her lips curled into a
seductive pout. Her eyes looking at him with that youthful innocence, while
biting her lip in the most erotic way she could possibly manage that had the effect
of making Chris actually considering taking her as she wanted to be taken until
one word stopped him dead in his tracks.
Mary.
What are you thinking? He
blinked and asked himself in exasperation, cursing at his body’s lustful
reflexes, which had nothing to do with the turmoil taking place inside his
head. He was not going to take advantage of a child and she was a child still.
He cared about Mary a great deal and though Casey was young and unsure of
herself and coming onto him so strongly that it was near impossible to resist,
Chris was not about to allow her or himself, for that matter, to
make a terrible mistake.
"Casey," Chris
placed his hands on her shoulders and made her look at him. "I think you
are very pretty and if you were ten years older, I wouldn’t be able to say no
to you as I am doing now. You need someone your own age, someone who can share
the years with you, not watch you experience it from the sidelines."
"I love you
Chris." She gushed breathlessly, obviously having heard nothing that he
had said in the last few minutes and moved towards him again.
Chris rolled his eyes in
exasperation, wondering if slamming his head on a brick wall would engender
more reaction, since this was doing squat. "You don’t love me Casey!"
He exclaimed.
"I do Chris!" She
came towards him and Chris found himself doing a quick step in order to keep
out of her reach. He had not thought he was that agile.
"Well you stop saying
that!" He growled before his back slammed into a wall. The obstruction
gave her all the time she needed to close the distance between them again and
press her body against his. Giving him no time to protest, Casey slid her arms
quickly around his neck once again and craned her neck to match his height to
kiss him, now that he was resisting so forcefully.
"Casey!" Chris
pushed her away as she tried to kiss him.
Suddenly, the door slid
open and Ezra Standish entered the room before stopping short in mid stride at
the sight of his Captain with his back against the wall and his yeoman
attempting to do what Ezra was certain was not in the Yeoman’s job description.
As always, the security chief managed to wear the perfect poker face even
though he saw relief drained into Chris eyes at his appearance. Casey, who
seemed more amused than any thing as she pulled away, gave Chris a coquettish
look.
"Am I interrupting
something?" Ezra asked with absolute indifference in his voice.
"NO!" Chris
barked, wondering if things could get any worse and then it occurred to him
that it could have been Mary that walked in and started becoming very religious
as he thanked and any other deity that might be listening. "Yeoman,"
he turned a sharp eye on Casey, hoping Ezra's presence would cool her ardor for
the moment. "You are dismissed."
Casey delivered upon him a
truly devious look before she responded. "I’ll see you later
Chris." Casey sauntered out of the room, oblivious to the awkwardness of
the moment. She left her captain with an expression on his face that clearly
bespoke a desire for the floor to open up and swallow him whole, while Ezra hid
behind his neutral façade as always, betraying nothing of the urge to break
down and start laughing like a loon.
When the doors slid close,
Chris finally willed himself to move before he dropped into his chair heavily,
breathing a sigh of relief. "Commander, there are no words to describe how
grateful I am to you at this moment."
"Captain," Ezra
said with a perfectly straight face. "There are no words to describe this
moment."
Chris glared at him with one of those patented Larabee’s stares but after what
Ezra had just seen, its power to incinerate him on the spot was not quite up to
scratch today. "I have no idea what just happened." He replied with
bewilderment on his face.
"Well if I may be
permitted to comment…." Ezra spoke up before Chris gave him a ferocious
glare and this time, it penetrated enough for Ezra to discontinue his intention
to voice that remark.
"The girl just about attacked
me!" Chris declared. "I haven’t felt that fearful for my life since I
was captured by the C’kaia!"
"I was under the
impression that Miss Wells was quite smitten with our Mr. Dunne." Ezra
responded seriously this time. Amusement aside, the Captain had a rather
explosive situation on his hands and this could be a serious problem if left to
escalate any further than it already had.
"So was I but then she
start sticking her tongue down my throat and telling me she loves me!"
Chris exclaimed with confusion as well as something Ezra never thought he would
ever see in his captain who had once bluffed a Romulan war bird into being
blown to smithereens.
Panic.
"Well young ladies at
her age are flighty," Ezra volunteered, genuinely trying to help before
the absurdity of the situation got the better of him and no amount of restraint
could keep it in check. "Perhaps it was your good looks and masculine
charm." The security chief’s amusement with the whole situation began to
crumble and he could not hold the mask of indifference any longer. A snort and
a snigger escape him as he fought to keep his lips from expressing a smile and
the loud guffaws that were sure to follow.
"OUT!" Chris
roared.
"I apologize
Captain," Ezra began to laugh. "I am certain that being the
resourceful commander that you are, you will extricate yourself from this
situation without loss of limb or," he added with a devious snort.
"Virtue."
"GET OUT AND STAY
OUT!" Chris growled, smoldering as Ezra walked out of the room with that
damnable smirk on his face.
*********
"Do you see it?"
Rain asked as they sat inside the dimly illuminated confines of
Every darkened corner of
the place seemed filled with couples who were, well a little more than amorous.
Females were lavishing all kinds of tender care on the males in their company,
regardless of species. Nathan spied kisses being traded, earlobes being nibbled
and men who completely enthralled by the lady in their presence who was
adorning them with sensual delights that almost bordered on scandalous. Yet
despite all the affection being bandied about and Nathan could not deny that he
was starting to feel a little cheated being the odd man out, he noticed that
there was something very mechanical about the entire situation.
"It's hard to
miss." He remarked, his eyes sweeping across the room once again before he
turned to her once more. "Its not Valentine’s Day is it?" He joked
and saw the stern expression on her face before deciding that it probably was
not the best time for humor.
"I knew that there was
something wrong but it was not this bad before." Rain explained, now that
he was a little more open to believing that something was afoot and not some
side effect of the mental attack she had suffered earlier.
"Exactly what was it
like before?" He asked firmly not as her dinner date but as the Chief
Medical Officer. The doctor in him had all but eradicated the shy, somewhat
reserved man he had been a short time ago.
Rain considered the
question and knew that to her it had been little more than a feeling really but
if she had to put a definitive answer forward, she had to say those around her
looked somewhat disconnected. "I can’t really explain it," she spoke
after a moment. "But it felt like the women were there but not quite
there. I guess if I have to be specific, I would say they looked very detached,
almost indifferent to everything going on around them. I mean I see Alex Styles
walk into the room and I can tell when she has had a bad day. Julia Pemberton
always wears a smile, even a little one. You can feel it when she’s happy. Mary
is harder to read but she always looks cool but you can see things dancing in
her eyes which tell you exactly what sort of mood she’s in. I’m looking at
people and I can’t tell what's going on with them. There’s nothing in their
eyes that tell me what’s going on inside them and I know it's not me. I’ve
always been able to do it. It comes with being Trill, living so many lives and
observing behavior that becomes second nature to you."
Nathan nodded in
understanding not about to discount the opinions of someone who had the
knowledge of dozen life times inside her head. However, he did know what she
was talking about to a slight degree. One could sense the mood of people one
associated with on a daily basis and on a starship where the thousand people on
board had only each as company for periods that extended as much as months at a
time, it was even more intense.
"Okay," Nathan
nodded contemplatively, trying to decide what was the best course of action to
get a definitive answer. "Let's just say that you're right and something
strange is going on. Why wouldn't it effect you?"
"Well it seems to be
only the women." Rain remarked.
"For the moment,"
Nathan retorted. "It might simply be that it takes longer to effect them
although whatever it is, does not look dangerous." He could not help
saying that with a little smile but Rain did not find the remark all that
amusing. Nathan faced her to see the darkened expression on her face before
gulping visibly. "Sorry."
"I don't like it"
She answered, her eyes studying the actions of women trying to distract the men
with sexual camouflage and had this feeling pressing up against her spine that
something else was on the horizon. "The number of female officers on board
the Maverick is about 350 compared to the some five hundred men, not including
the civilians. If something is affecting them then you count on the Maverick's
manpower being halved. If we're under attack, we're going to notice those
absences."
Suddenly Nathan understood
the enormity of what she was suggesting. If this was an illness or an attack of
some form, then she was right. The Maverick would be seriously undermanned and
with 350 officers who played a vital part of the ship's operation being out of
commission, it would be difficult to maintain shipboard functions at all. It
was time to do something.
"Alright," Nathan
stood up and looked at her. "You finished?" He gestured to the meal
in front of her.
In truth, Rain was not that
hungry and she had been picking on the contents of the dish for most of the
evening anyway. Besides, she did not want to leave him mostly because there was
this fear inside of her that perhaps if she were alone, whatever happened to
the women on board the Maverick would also happen to her. "I'm done."
She lifted herself off her chair and looked at him. "What do you have in
mind?"
Nathan, who had the same
idea in mind about Rain being alone, quickly responded. "I want you to
come with me." He replied. "We're going to
Rain was not about to argue
with him, especially when Nathan was starting to believe that this was more
than just a figment of her suspicious mind. Judging by the cautious look in his
eyes, it appeared as if she had succeeded in convincing him that something was
wrong and his instincts as a senior officer of the Maverick had taken hold of
him. They left
Nathan and Rain stepped out
into the corridor, noticing that things were no different in the hallways
either. Female crewmembers were affecting their male counterparts with
seductive smiles and touches. It would have almost be funny if Nathan did not
know that this was forced and the women were most likely unaware of what they
were doing while the men had no knowledge that they were being manipulated.
"This is starting to
get scary." Rain remarked as they moved through the corridor, suddenly
very self- conscious that she and Nathan were the only ones not affected. A
shudder of concern ran through her at the thought of what the others would do
if they suddenly noticed this little detail As it was, the women's eye strayed
from the men they were attempting to seduce each time Nathan and Rain passed
by.
Nathan tended to agree and
suddenly the idea that this was an affliction became more and more distant.
This was too rapid and coordinated to be a disease and no viral agent he knew
of had communicability so specific to include every species but one gender
only. Tapping his com badge, he spoke out loud. "Doctor to the
bridge."
There was no response.
Nathan swore under his
breath and repeated to himself. "Doctor to the bridge, come in."
"Let me try,"
Rain said apprehensively and repeated the same action on her com badge.
"Lieutenant Nal to Bridge, please respond."
Once again, the same silence greeted her.. "Lieutenant Nal to the bridge.
Please come in."
"They can't hear
you." A voice declared behind them causing both Rain and Nathan to swing
around.
Inez stood before them.
Next to Inez were Lieutenant Charlotte Richmond and some other officers they
had seen around the ship but did not know by name. Without even one of them
making a threatening move, Nathan and Rain knew that they were both in a lot of
trouble. Nathan unconsciously took Rain's hand in his as a signal for her to be
ready. She did not have to hear the words to know that his signal would be to
run.
"You girls don't look
well." Nathan remarked first, hoping the conversation would distract them
as he tensed and prepared to move. "How about one of you joining me in
"We are fine
Doctor." Inez answered with a little smile. "However, you and your
companion." Inez turned her attention to Rain with narrowed eyes.
"Seem unwell. Perhaps we may assist you?"
"Oh no," Nathan
shook his head with a self depreciating smile. "I have staff that will
handle that quite well."
"I think we would like
to try."
"RUN!" He ordered
and bolted, dragging Rain along as the group rumbled into motion, falling into
pursuit as they tore down the corridor at top speed. Someone leapt out at them
when the duo came to a junction and Rain was forced to shove the woman aside
hard, causing her to fall backwards while Nathan braced himself to repeat the
same maneuver on anyone in front of them. He slammed into a crewman and threw
her into the wall, sparing enough time to see Inez and the others gaining on
himself and Rain, their eyes cold with rage. Nathan did not doubt that both of
them were in mortal danger.
"Nathan!" Rain
shouted as they neared the end of the corridor where the turbo lift waiting was
the only way she could see to escaping this insane mob of friends who would
tear them to pieces otherwise.
Accelerating at fast they
could to gain a few more second of space in order to reach the turbo lift, Rain
and Nathan were panting by the time they got to the control panel that
activated the doors. He slammed his palm against it and the door slid open
soundlessly. Thankfully, the turbo lift was empty as they tumbled into its
confines. Rain stumbled to the floor as Nathan immediately activated the voice
command.
"Computer,
bridge!"
The doors closed as the mob
were less than a foot away from them and Rain let out a sigh of relief as those
indignant and enraged faces disappeared when the turbo lift started on its way.
She could hear their fists pounding against steel further down the tube as the
lift spirited them away from that particular deck. For a minute, neither spoke
as they regarded what had just happened.
"I think we are in a
lot of trouble." Rain announced in what was the understatement of the
year.
Nathan looked at her.
"I think you're right."
********
"Where are they?"
The thinker who inhabited Julia Pemberton's body asked when she was told that
the two hostiles that the rest of the Many had attempted to apprehend had
escaped.
"They're making their
way to the bridge." Inez's voice spoke quietly through Julia's com badge
as the Chief Engineer listened within the confines of her work room.
"I'll handle it."
Julia said firmly. "Continue as planned."
There was no further
comment needed because Julia knew her orders would be carried out without
question. Instead, she had to deal with the problem at hand. Ever since the
Alex entity had told her about the possibility of danger in the shape of the
Transporter Chief, the woman had been watched by the Many. Unfortunately, it
now appeared as if she had involved the Chief Medical Officer in the truth and
thus more extreme measures needed to be taken. She had already taken the
liberty of disrupting the signal from both their com badges to keep them from
contacting the bridge.
"Chano." Julia
spoke to her second in command as she stepped out into the main deck of
Engineering. "Turbo lift 3 on Deck 34 is showing a systems malfunction.
Shut it down."
Chano who was at his
station immediately move to comply when he noticed something that made him
object. "Lieutenant. It reads as being occupied." He looked at her
with question.
"Its unoccupied."
Julia responded coolly. "Security is going mad trying to figure if there
is some kind of intruder alert so shut it down until we can assign someone to
take a look at it."
Sensors were prone to give
off false readings in event of a systems failure so her explanation was
plausible and Chano was not about to question the Chief Engineer of the
Maverick. "Okay," he nodded. "I'm shutting it down. It won't be
going anywhere for awhile."
"Good." Julia
answered. "That will do very nicely for now."
[center[Part Six
When Mary Travis turned up
at Vin Tanner’s quarters, the helmsman had to admit he was not surprised even
though he did wonder why she was here. Mary had been a frequent visitor to his
private sanctum ever since she began tutoring him on mastering Vulcan mental
disciplines. Although was not as telepathically inclined as he and if truth be
known, he was nowhere as good as he ought to have been, it was still Mary who
managed to make the most of his potential as far as could be attained without
years of training. Most Vulcans began this kind of training almost out of
diapers and at his age, the best he could hope for was some rudimentary
understanding of mind melds and the ability to keep his consciousness from
invading others. This suited Vin just fine because the Vulcan way was not his
way and as Alex often told him, there was something liberating about not being
expected to be any thing particular because one was so different.
Nevertheless there were
still some things about being Vulcan Vin simply could not do without knowing,
especially when one came equipped with more telepathic ability than he liked.
Mary had been pivotal in the questions he had needed answering from time to
time and it was rather comforting to know that had he any quandaries of being
what he was, he had her to turn to for assistance. Having been married to a
Vulcan, Mary had an insight into the culture that he was unofficially exiled
from and since most Vulcans found him to be something of an aberration any way,
she was also his only source of information.
"Mary, what can I do
for you?" Vin, who had just stepped out of the shower, asked when he found
her standing at the door. The helmsman had fortunately slipped on a bathrobe
and could confess to uttering a number of expletives when he was forced to
emerge prematurely from his shower. Despite the fact that most of the
Maverick’s crew preferred to use the sonic showers, Vin felt that there was
nothing more refreshing than the old fashioned method of soap and water.
Toweling the wet strands of dark hair that were still plastered to his face as
he invited her in politely, Mary said nothing as she made her entrance into his
quarters.
She waited until the doors
had slid to a close behind her before she chose to answer. "I just thought
I’d drop in and see how you were doing." She said with an enigmatic smile.
Wrinkling his brow in
confusion on why she would find that inquiry necessary when it was only a
number of hours ago that they had last seen each other on the bridge, he
supposed that some women’s reasoning was hard to understand. Until coming on
board the Maverick, Vin had not known all that many and thus chalked up his
confusion to lack of experience. "I’m fine. Thanks anyway." He
remarked a little bewildered as she sauntered deeper into the room before
taking a seat on the sofa that was half covered with his clothes.
A typical bachelor, Vin
immediately made a beeline for the chair and removed the garments hastily,
rolling them up into an untidy heap in his arms before tossing them away
somewhere unseen, hoping that she did not think him too much of a slob. Mary
seemed bemused by his efforts and patted the space next to her in a gesture for
him to sit. Something about her manner made him wary but he nevertheless
complied, not having the understanding to appreciate the minefield he was
walking into with that one obligatory gesture.
"Mary," Vin asked
again, suddenly feeling a little anxious about the glimmer in her eyes and
feeling something that was akin to alarm even though he could not understand
what it was that concerned him so much. Something about her felt different. He
wished he could explain it but his ignorance allowed him no further than that.
"What’s on your mind?"
Vin wished that she would
just tell him and put an end to his speculation. He had just put in a rather
lengthy stretch on the bridge and the truth was he was looking forward to
having some dinner with Alex. Despite the fact that he liked Mary well enough and
always had time for the lady, since she had so often returned the favor when he
needed her help, Vin still could not shake the feeling that he ought to be
worried.
"You’re a handsome man
Vin," she said silkily. Her hand moving to his brow where she flicked an
errant stand of wet hair from his eyes. "I wonder if you know how
much."
Oh hell.
This was the first thought
that came into Vin’s mind upon hearing that statement. He started to
move away abruptly when he felt her other hand on his thigh, her fingertips
brushing lightly against the skin. It was meant to be seductive and for a human
male it would have been extremely arousing but for Vin it was rather ticklish.
However, the physical sensation he felt was nothing in comparison to the blind
panic he felt at recognizing the intimate overtures being made to him by the
protocol officer, not just the protocol officer but the love of his best
friend. He gulped visibly when another sobering thought entered his mind.
He was messing with the
captain's girlfriend.
"Mary, this isn’t
right." Vin stuttered and started making a fresh attempt to pull away when
Mary placed her hand on his cheek.
"Of course it
is," she whispered. "You know deep inside that I am the only one who
can show you the delights you long to feel." She drew closer until he
could feel her breath on his skin and it prickled his skin and caused a tingle
to ripple through his spine. He could not say whether or not it was pleasant,
it was equal parts that and blind terror.
"Nobody can show me
any delights," he stammered once more but Mary maintained her grip on him
as Vin felt her fingers pressing against his cheekbone and temple. He was
thinking fast and furiously on how to extricate himself from this situation
without offending her and at the same time, not to have the practice of
keelhauling revived should his captain found out what was transpiring at this
moment between Vin and the woman he obviously loved. "I’m not old
enough."
"Silly boy," she
offered him a smile and a look that made him feel like a dumb, ignorant child.
"You may not be able to partake the carnal pleasures of the flesh endemic
to humans but for Vulcan's sensation does not end with touch. It transcends the
physical and seduces the mind. You think that Vulcans know each other’s pleasure
simply by exploring the flesh? There is a more sensuous experience to be had
Vin, you have just never met another Vulcan to experience it."
It was too late that he
realized what she was doing when he felt the warmth pulse flooding his body.
For an instance, he felt disorientated by the link that was being established
and focus came when he discovered, he was not alone in more ways than mere
physical presence. Vin felt his head swim as the meld took hold. She was barely
able to rate as a telepath but Mary knew how to push into his mind. Mary knew
how to let the raw power of his abilities in order to extend her own as she
began a warm deluge of images inside his head. Pictures flashed in his mind
like a kaleidoscope. At first, they appeared in his mind so rapidly that he had
no time to register them. However, the images became incidental when the
substance of them entered his mind.
Pleasure.
Beautiful, seductive
sensation seared into his mind the likes of which he had never known. Vin
stopped resisting immediately as he felt himself drift through Mary’s thoughts
about her heated couplings with her husband Syan. How she had done this, he had
no idea but he could see Syan making love to Mary, not only could he see it but
he could also feel it. Whispery touches against the skin, lips tasting,
tongues dueling in heat. He felt hands running through his hair and was unaware
that he was leaning back against the sofa as she started to ravage his mouth,
oblivious to what was real and what was false. He wanted to fight her but it
was impossible. Vin had ached to know what this was, every time he looked at
Alex, he wanted to know what it was to have her touch him, to really touch him
as she would touch a lover.
Headlong he felt into the
ecstasy of what it felt like to be coupled with another body, to feel the
incredible pressure of beatific sensation making him throb so hard, he groaned
out loud. He was conscious of legs straddling him, of hands running over his
face and bare chest when it splayed open his robe. He knew his mouth was being
plundered this but none of it had as much effect as the mental stimulus that
was slowly overwhelming him. He had no idea that his hands had snaked up her
back, that his fingers were running through her golden hair, relishing the feel
of every golden strand in his finger tips.
"Mary." Vin
groaned once again. "How?" He managed to ask as she desisted a moment
to not overload his mind.
"Does it matter
Vin?" She responded before covering his lips again and used the memories
she held captive as easily as she held Mary Travis herself, to bombard the
inexperienced Vulcan again.
Pon Farr.
The word screamed louder
than most in Mary’s thoughts. The infiltrator who held control over her mind
immediately latched on to the memory, forcing it to the surface until there was
nothing left of the seductive sensations she was imprinting directly into Vin's
mind. Although he was not mature enough to enjoy what she was doing physically,
mentally he was fully developed and completely open to the onslaught she was
delivering upon him with brutal intensity. He was gasping beneath her; unable
to cope with anything she was forcing him to endure simply because he had never
even imagined it let alone had any idea how to fight it.
Pon Farr.
Raw. Fire. Heat. Power. It
flowed in through him like molten lava. It made his heart pound in his chest
and the blood boil in his veins. His brain began to cook and suddenly, suddenly
this was not longer pleasurable and the pain slammed into him like a thousand
knives digging into his flesh. Vin’s eyes opened wide and he shoved Mary off
him, unaware that he had swatted her away like a flying in the doing. He stood
up abruptly and felt the air escape his lungs. His thoughts shredded inside his
head and all he could feel was this blinding rage as well as this overpowering
need he could not control. He wanted…he needed….
Vin looked at Mary barely
registering her and seeing only Alex.
The Mary entity realized
that he had been pushed to far. His mind was not ready for the most turbulent
chemical change of his species’ biology and the meld had forced it to surface
far earlier than its time. Assessing the knowledge inside her host’s mind, she
realized that he was going into shock unless the link was broken but not before
he vented the full desire for flesh that Pon Farr was meant to engender. His
mind had to be rendered unconscious. Instinctively, she grabbed the first thing
she saw in this case, a rather heavy book end and slammed it against the back
of his skull. She ensured that she applied enough force to incapacitate him,
not kill him, which the object was heavy enough to do. Vin who had dropped to
his hands and knees hit the floor without uttering a cry of pain when Mary brought
it down on him.
Her determination to save
his life was purely self-serving. Had he been allowed to lapse into neural
shock, there was the possibility he might die and the ship sensors would
undoubtedly detect the termination of one life reading which would be relayed
to the bridge. At this time, that did not serve the needs of the Many. Until
they finally decided to take the nerve centre of the Maverick, nothing could
alert the captain to their presence. He and the first officer had the power to
shut down the ship with a word and halt their journey home in its tracks. The
Many had waited too long to allow that to happen.
She stood over the
unconscious Vulcan dispassionately, dropping to her knees in order to see if he
was still alive. The pulse she felt confirmed that soon enough. No doubt he
would wake in a few hours sporting an intense headache but then that was a few
hours away and by that point in time, the Many would already have seized
control of the ship so it mattered little what stories he had to tell regarding
this incident. Smoothing her dress and fixing her hair back into place, Mary
Travis stepped over Vin and made her way to the door. She only hoped that that
the others were moving against their assignments with as much success as she had
neutralized her target.
************
Buck Wilmington was
starting to get exasperated. He had been on the bridge for some hours now,
unable to contact the Captain who always seemed to be unavailable whenever the
first officer made some attempt to contact him. Chris had disappeared some
hours ago and seemed to be hiding out in the holodeck with specific
instructions that no one was to bother him. When Buck had tried to make some
sense as to the reason for such an extreme order, the response he got in return
convinced him to let the matter rest until Chris was ready to talk about it
whenever that might be. Despite Chris' odd behavior, things seemed to be
running smoothly. Engineering had reported a malfunction in one the transporter
tubes and was presently taking steps to repair it, necessitating it being taken
off line for the duration. However, other than that minor hiccup, the Maverick
was running business as usual.
The bridge was actually
rather quiet. Ezra had ended his duty shift a few hour ago, not long after
Chris had decided that it was time for him to get some time in the holodeck.
Vin had been relieved of the con and was no doubt getting some slack time in
his quarters. Alex had not been seen of or heard from since she had begun her
study of the alien artifact although this in itself was not unusual. The
science officer was known to disappear into such mental sabbaticals when a
particularly difficult problem pitted itself against her formidable acumen.
Buck had no doubts that she would turn up after learning everything one could
possibly ascertain about the artifact with an equally lengthy report. With the
exception of himself , JD was the only other member of the senior staff on the
bridge.
"So how long until we
get to
"She's nine hours away
Buck." JD responded with a sigh.
Buck could tell that the
young man was bored and itching for something to happen. Unfortunately, it did
not look like much in the way of excitement would be coming at them when their
course heading was taking them to a pleasure palace. It appeared that the only
excitement they were going to be enjoying this trip was the recovery of the
artifact they had found earlier today and somehow Buck did not believe that JD
would be terribly enthused by that. However, Buck supposed no ensign truly
could be satisfied with anything that did not echo trumpets of glory and
mystery. All young ensigns had their time to learn patience. Buck had endured
his, just as Chris had and even Ezra. Now it was JD's time.
"Get used to it
junior." Buck said with a hint of affection, remembering how young JD was
despite his ability to handle himself. "The problem with the exploration
of space is a lot of time there's nothing but just plain old space in between
the big discoveries."
JD frowned and nodded
begrudgingly. "I guess so." The younger man accepted that he had to
pay his dues and found himself glad that they would soon be at Pacifica where
he could feel sunshine on his skin and fresh air in his lungs that was not
recycled or ventilated but just the pure natural product.
Suddenly the turbo lift
doors slid open and deposited Alexandra Styles onto the bridge. The science
officer scanned the bridge, no doubt wondering where everybody had gone while
clutching a data pad in her hand. When she realized that it was only Buck in
the room, she made her way down to the floor of the command chair and addressed
him.
"Commander, I've
finished my analysis of the artifact." She announced.
"Oh good," Buck
said with relief. At last, something to break the tedium. This day was
getting to be too much of a crawl for his liking and though he hated to show it
to the other members of the bridge crew, he was getting bored out of his mind
too. "I'm all ears Commander, lay it on me."
"Actually," she
met his gaze with an expression in her eyes he could not quite read. "I
think I should do this in private."
Buck tensed. Such a request
was not made lightly and usually indicated trouble. Instinctively, he began to
feel guilty asking for excitement when it usually turned out to be a gift not
worth the trouble it caused. "Something wrong?"
"No, not at all."
She said pleasantly. "However, I would like to see you alone."
His brown furrowed in
confusion as he tried to make sense of her request and decided that this was no
nonsense Alex who did not know what trivial meant even if it came and bit her
on the butt. She did not waste people's time with incidentals and if she
requested of him an audience in private, then she usually had a very good reason
for doing so.
"Alright," he
nodded and glanced at JD who appeared to be burning with curiosity to know what
it was that Alex had found and looked somewhat disappointed when Buck had
conceded to her request to make her report in private. "Let's take it to the
Captain's ready room, I'm sure he won't mind." Buck rose to his feet and
gestured Alex to the Captain's inner sanctum.
Alex nodded and strode
across the floor with Buck following close behind as they disappeared into the
confines of the captain's ready room in order to have their little talk. Buck
was somewhat curious himself as to the reason for her enigmatic request and
then told himself to give up trying to figure out Alex because that was one
woman he would never understand. The only one who was at all equipped to
unravel that particular riddle of the female gender was Vin Tanner.
"Okay Alex," Buck
said once the door had slid close behind them giving the two most senior
officers of the Maverick after the captain himself, the privacy that they
required. "What's going on?"
What was going on was
beyond Buck's ability to comprehend when Alex turned around, closed the
distance between them into two short steps before grabbing hold of his collar
and pulling her to him just in time to catch his mouth with her own. As he felt
her tongue slid past his teeth, exploring the moist cavern of his mouth as she
guided him to the nearby wall, Buck felt his breath literally stolen away by
the power of those incredible lips devouring him with unbridled passion.
"Alex!" Buck
recovered his senses enough to push her away so that he could regain his senses
and ask someone if hell had indeed frozen over by the fact that she was here
now, doing what she was. This was Alex whom he considered one of his best
friends, whom since the day she arrived on the Maverick had revealed to him
that while she valued his friendship, it was clear that she thought him to be a
womanizing pig. "What's gotten into you?"
"Nothing yet,"
she said with a husky voice. "Give it another five minutes and who
know?" The suggestive gleam in her brown eyes left no doubt as to what she
was intending to happen between the two of them.
"Weren't you the one
who said this morning that...." He stammered, still too commingled with
astonishment to offer any other comment then that muted response.
"I know what I
said." Alex responded kissing his neck lightly as she pinned him up
against the wall, her body pressing against him as her hand molded to his
rapidly hardening member.
"Oh god," He
groaned slightly when she found it and started stroking it gently through the
fabric. What she was doing with her hand was magical and his cry of pleasure
only forced her mouth against his again as she plundered his lips with even
greater intensity. "Alex, stop. This isn't right." He moaned as her
moist lips moved down his neck and began nibbling at the skin there, all the
while her hand gliding over his erection, coaxing it to reach a point where he
would no longer be able to pull back until he had taken her. "Vin is my
friend."
She stopped and met his
gaze. "Vin can't give me what I need." Her eyes burned with hunger
and there was something about her manner was animalistic, menacing, inherently
dangerous and so goddamn sexy that she damn near capable of shattering his resolve
with just the promise of what he saw there. "I need you Buck." She
whispered in his ear. "I need you to ride me so hard, I'll never remember
what happened to me with those Cardassians. Show me how love is made properly
Buck. Touch me the way you always wanted to touch me and I'll make you scream
with pleasure by the time we're done."
As she slid to her knees
and he felt the beginnings of ecstasy being delivered to him by way of those
heavenly lips, one errant thought flashed through his mind when he felt himself
plunged head long into exquisite sensation.
How the hell was he going
to tell JD what the report was about.
*********
"Any luck?"
Nathan asked Rain after she had pried open the panel of the turbo lift they
were presently trapped within. It had been almost two hours now since they had
been locked inside the lift following their short-lived attempt to escape from
"No," Rain
slammed the panel shut with a huff, clearly disappointed by her lack of
success. Their com badges did not work and by the looks of it, someone had
completely disengaged the turbo lift from the rest of the ship. There was not
even power enough for the lights and both of them were sitting on the floor of
the lift, bathed in the reddish glow of emergency lighting. "We've been
taken off line."
"They have
engineering." Nathan retorted.
"They?" Rain
looked at him.
"Whoever it is that
has taken over the ship." He answered, having spent considerable time
trying to unravel the mystery of what was going on while Rain had been trying
to reactivate the lift. As a scientist, his creed was logical deduction and as
he replayed the events in his mind, trying to discern just when the trouble had
started, he found that it all seemed to coincide with the arrival of the
artifact. Everything seemed to coincide with that one event. Suddenly,
something else made sense to Nathan to and the flash of insight that came to
him at that instant explained everything else as well.
"You're a Trill."
He stared at Rain.
"I'm glad to see those
years at doctor school didn't go to waste." She grumbled and not really
listening because she was searching their prison to find an alternate way of
escaping if they could not rely upon someone coming to help them.
"Thanks," Nathan
deadpanned and continued. "Let's assume that it's not a virus or some
strange disease and something has taken over the ship. An alien entity
perhaps."
"Not perhaps,"
Rain retorted. "Most likely. Where did it come from?" She asked, since
they were playing 20 questions.
"The artifact that we
beamed on board earlier today." Nathan replied automatically. "It was
some kind of storage device, we worked out that much before we got it on
board."
"Okay," she
nodded, becoming more and more interested in what he was saying. "What it
would have stored?"
"Not what,"
Nathan replied. "Who."
Rain turned sharply to him.
"You mean you think something was alive in the artifact and it's taken
over the crew?"
"Not alive as in
having a body," he quickly responded, not wanting to mislead her.
"Alive as in consciousness. If a symbiote can store the personality of
every host its lived in why cannot the same be done in a different manner?
Whatever that artifact is, we know that it was for storing something. What if
by bringing it in contact with flesh and blood life, we gave it access to use
our bodies?"
"But why just
women?" Rain demanded because what he was saying did sound plausible to a
certain extent. "And why not me?"
"Because you are not
alone in your mind." He explained and it was this point that
allowed him to deduce the rest. "You are several personalities in one
mind. An invading entity may not have been able to defeat all the minds you
carry inside you. That's why you heard all the host voices scream, that's why
when Alex....." his voice drifted off as things became clearer. "Alex
would have been the carrier. She was assigned to examine that thing. Chances
are she would have been the first to make contact with it."
"When she touched me,
she was trying to pass it, whatever it is, on!" Rain exclaimed,
understanding now what happened. "That's why she did not follow me in when
I collapsed in the lift!"
"That's right,"
Nathan nodded. "That's why they're after us now because they knew it did
not work with you when they tried to infect you."
"Oh damn Nathan,"
she swallowed truly appreciating the magnitude of the crisis the Maverick was
facing. "We have to get out of here. We have to warn the bridge."
"Well I am open to
suggestions." He frowned gesturing to their surroundings. "This isn't
exactly my field of expertise. I'm a doctor, not Harry Houdini."
"I have an idea,"
she confessed after a brief pause. She had not wished to take this course and
hoped to use it as a last resort but clarification by Nathan regarding their
situation told Rain that this was the only way out and they would have to take
it. "How good a climber are you?"
"I can do trees."
Nathan answered automatically as he saw her gaze shifting to the service hatch
on ceiling of the turbo lift.
"We're going to have
to climb up the Jeffrey's tube and several decks to get to the bridge."
She said with a sigh. "Can you manage?"
"Rain," he said
putting his hands on her waist and lifting her up towards the hatch. "We
don't have a choice. I'll manage."