Nice ship building. And a fun riddle in an ancient language. All in the cadence of rising action... This is going to be fun...
Thanks!! rbs
Thanks!! rbs
Star Trek: Into the Void - Season One
- Thread starter admiralelm11
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Chapter Four
Blux was fascinated by the view out of the Conference Lounge windows. He kept shaking his head in disbelief while he watched his own ship hang in the distance.
“Midnighter Blux,” Captain Cardonez said,” I appreciate that it’s a nice view but we only have just seventy minutes until those Mutuality ships arrive.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, turning away from the view and taking a seat opposite her and Kandro. “It’s just that this room is more impressive than our whole ship. In fact, Testudo is the most impressive ship that I have ever seen. And I have been aboard a Mutuality Prowler-class ship.”
“Prowler-class?,” queried Cardonez.
“The small silver ships that they utilize. Of course, I never got aboard one of the bigger vessels but I can’t imagine them as being more impressive.”
Cardonez nodded to herself. Prowler-class. At least, they had an identifier for those ships now. “We try our best,” she said. “Now then, your ship. Why is the Mutuality pursuing you?”
“We escaped from Parna, seven months ago, after stealing that freighter,” said Blux. “We’ve been careful. We’ve avoided all of the major trade and patrol routes but they’ve still found us. A Prowler jumped us, a week ago, but luckily, it was alone.”
“You destroyed it?,” asked Kandro.
Blux shook his head. “No. As you have seen, our weapons are quite decrepit. However, what we did have was half a cargo bay full of thermacett, a very powerful explosive. We let the Prowler make a run at us, just so he could see how pathetic our shields and weapons were. When he came around for a second pass, we released the thermacett and jumped to warp. It was a ridiculously lucky maneuver but his weapons fire ignited the explosives, heavily damaging his warp drive and so he wasn’t capable of pursuing us.”
“So he sent a message, telling the others where you were?”
The Selvee nodded. “Yes. Our Captain wanted to destroy the ship but I overruled him. I wasn’t a murderer at the time.”
“‘At the time’?,” parroted Cardonez. “You spoke of a Captain and when we first scanned your ship, there were two more lifeforms aboard. What happened?”
“The two lifeforms were our Captain, Ferk, and his engineer, Drot. We were forced to kill them when I took control of the ship.”
“You were forced to kill them. Why?”
“The Selvee are a religious people, Captain. We all worship the same three Gods. However, some of us worship them in different ways. There are four Kilns, faiths if you will. Myself and the others still aboard belong to the Drak Kiln which is probably the most liberal and hedonistic of the four Kilns. Ferk and Drot… they were Tyus.”
“Tyus?,” asked Kandro. “Another Kiln?”
“Yes, yes. Although those who follow their ways are the most devout.” He shook his head. “No, we are all devout. They are the most…” He paused to search for the right word. “Fanatical. They are, sometimes, a little too fundamentalist for the rest of us but under the circumstances, we couldn’t afford to be choosy. So we left Ferk act as Captain. He had experience on Mutuality freighters, you understand.
“As I have said, it took a lot of persuasion to convince him not to destroy the Prowler that we incapacitated. When we became trapped here, twenty-four hours ago, he made it perfectly clear that he rued that decision. When you showed up, he refused to listen to reason and he decided to blow up the ship, rather than let you take us prisoner. There really was no reasoning with us. When we tried to stop him from overloading the warp core, he drew a weapon and shot at us. I was the closest to him and I had a wrench in my hand. I had no choice.” Blux emphasized the last part Cardonez detected guilt in his words. “Drot tried to continue his work but one of my comrades had picked up Ferk’s gun and…” He let the sentence hang in the air.
“I understand,” she said. In her long and occasionally distinguished Starfleet career, she had discovered that it was sometimes necessary to take a life to save dozens or even hundreds more. It wasn’t a choice that came easily and it wasn’t a choice that was easy to forget but you could live with it. You really had to.
“Midnighter Blux, we hope that we can find a way to release the tractor beam that is holding our ships here before the Mutuality ships get here. Even if we do, Testudo will have a hard time evading them. I’m afraid that your ship will have even less of a chance.”
“Are you suggesting an alliance, Captain? That we abandon our ship and take our chances with you?”
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” said Cardonez. “We have more than enough room for the ten of you and Testudo is a lot more comfortable.”
Blux seemed to consider this proposal for a moment. “It would be difficult. Several of my people suffered at the hands of the Chobraq. Being on a ship of Human-like beings might bring back unpleasant memories.”
“Being captured by the Mutuality might do that too,” said Kandro.
Blux nodded at this. “You would take us to our destination?,” he asked.
“That depends,” said Testudo’s Captain. “Where is your destination?”
“We were heading for a world known as Swath,” he replied. “It is a free world where the Chobraq and the Selvee live together in peace.”
“Such a place exists?”
“Indeed, it does,” Blux said, nodding furiously. “It is only through the grace of several nearby worlds who are strong enough to protect it from the Mutuality.”
“Then the Mutuality doesn’t completely control this area of space?,” asked Kandro.
“Not all of it. There are the Tahi’nolet and the Wilith. They do not have large empires but they have trading agreements with the Mutuality. It is they who protect Swath. I have heard of another power that threatens the farthest borders of Mutuality space but they are a mystery to us beyond that.”
“Well, it’s nice to know that there are other powers around, anyway,” said Isabel. “So, if we agree to take you to Swath?”
“Then we will come with you,” said Blux. “Assuming that you can release us from this trap, of course.” He smiled and his teeth glinted like small fangs in the light.
“Don’t worry. We will,” said Cardonez, her face darkening. “One way or another.”
****
Louise Ramblin’s throat was dry while she adjusted the yield on the tricobalt device sitting in front of her. It was cylindrical, perhaps a third of a meter tall and ten centimeters in diameter. Painted a bright yellow, it was stenciled with several different warning labels, leaving no one in doubt about how dangerous it was. At the moment, the lid rested on the floor next to her while she sat cross-legged before it. Another device, this one being fully armed, sat nearby.
She heard movement behind her but she didn’t turn around. She was too focused on the task at hand.
Ensign Walden gently placed a third cylinder next to her and proceeded to join her on the floor. “Will three be enough?,” he asked her while he began to carefully unscrew the cap of the latest cylinder.
“Trust me,” Ramblin said, not looking up from her task. “Three of these won’t leave much behind.” She paused in her ministrations and added. “Let’s just hope that we don’t have to use them.”
“Amen to that,” said Walden before he added wistfully. “We’ve lost enough people already.”
Ramblin sighed and put down her tools. “This one is ready,” she said before screwing the cap back on. Once she was done, she turned towards her subordinate. “Look, John, if I’m out of line, then tell me, but I think you need to talk to someone. Counselor Dayle, a friend, or even me.” She smiled sadly. “Bereavement is a hard thing to deal with, especially when you try to do it alone.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said Walden, although his eyes lifted furtively up from his work for a moment.
“Come on, John. It isn’t easy to keep secrets on a ship this small. I know that you were seeing Wyndra Chura,” she said, referring to the young crewman who had been killed when the Testudo’s war game with the USS Lusitania turned out to be too real.
For a few seconds, Walden kept working but soon he put his own tools down and visibly slumped. For a minute, there was an uncomfortable silence. “We were trying to keep it a secret,” he said at last. “You know what it’s like on this ship. You start seeing someone and by the time you realize that you have nothing in common and you’re not going to see each other again, half of the ship knows.”
Ramblin said nothing but she knew what he meant. Her fling with Valian Kandro sprang quickly to her mind.
“We had only been going out for three weeks…,” his voice faltered slightly. “We hadn’t even…” He suddenly stopped talking and nodded his head forward.
Louise half-expected him to start crying but he held his tears back in check. She was glad in a way. She had wanted him to open up but she had never been good with people crying. She never knew what to say.
Silence permeated the room again and she was glad that they were in a side annex off of Main Engineering. After another minutes, she steeled herself and rested a hand on his shoulder. “If you need anything,” she said. “If there’s anything that I can do…”
He finally looked up. His eyes were pools of sadness but there was a smile on his lips. “Thank you, sir.”
“Screw the sir,” Ramblin told him. “At times like these, you can call me Louise. That’s an order.”
His laugh seemed to be forced but, at least, it was a laugh. Ramblin took it as a cue to remove her hand. “Come on. We’ve got less than an hour now,” she said. “We need to get this last one ready.”
They quickly returned to work.
****
Adam Huntington pressed a tile twice in succession and then the one next to it, three times. After a second, there was the burping sound again and both tiles relit themselves.
“It’s no good,” said Yashiro Masafumi.
“You don’t know that,” replied Testudo’s Tactical Officer. “I might get lucky.”
Huntington was hanging by the outer wall that was close to their original beam-in point. A few meters away, the rest of the away team hung in a tight huddle. Since the countdown had ticked down to less than forty-five minutes, the group had drawn together. No one said anything but they all knew that these might be the last minutes of their lives and they wanted to share them with each other.
“Adam, there are over twenty thousand tiles here. Do you have any idea how lucky you would have to be?,” asked Masafumi.
“As a famous man once said,” ‘Never tell me the odds’,” Huntington replied before he tried again on two tiles to the left. “At least, I’m doing something.”
“So are we. The answer is in the doctor’s rhyme. I’m sure of it.” Masafumi twisted slightly to see Hollem. “Read it again, please.”
“Okay,” the Bajoran said,” but I don’t know what you expect to find different from the other fifteen readings.” He coughed slightly, clearing his throat before he recited the Wadi nursery rhyme in full.
“Kala-Maraine, hit it twice. Sala-Maru, this one thrice.
Do it again, do it again. Release your soul, release the chain.
If yourself you wish to follow, double tap the Susmet Sollow.”
“Well, hearing that again, helps,” said Kehen.
“Actually, it does,” said Masafumi. “The reference to hitting things twice must refer to these controls.” He gestured towards the wall nearest to them. “We just need to figure out which control that it means.”
“It’s easier said than done,” said Huntington.
“Indeed. Each tile is exactly the same size and shape. They are all lit exactly the same way. In every way, they are identical.”
“What about the words in the rhyme that you couldn’t translate?,” asked Kehen. “Are there any common themes?”
“Good question,” said Hollem. “I didn’t actually check.” He quickly thumbed his tricorder back on. After a few seconds, he nodded and smiled. “Yes, there is. They could all represent foodstuffs.”
“That doesn’t really help though, does it?,” asked Huntington.
“Sorry,” muttered the doctor.
“Damn it,” said Leong. “I never figured that I would die in a giant aviary.”
“I never figured I would die,” said Zia.
“Doctor, try repeating the…,” Masafumi began before he was interrupted.
“Wait!,” shouted Huntington and he stared at Chief Leong. “What did you just say?”
“I said I never figured that I would die in a giant aviary.”
“I’m sorry. I misheard you. I thought you said apiary. For some reason, that seemed to be important.”
“What have monkeys got to do with anything?,” asked Kehen.
Masafumi laughed. “You misunderstand. An apiary is where bee live.”
“Bees,” said Hollem. “That’s it!”
“What is?,” asked Huntington.
Hollem didn’t answer him. Instead, he jetted over to the wall. As everyone watched, he leaned in and licked one of the tiles.
“Doctor, have you gone mad?,” asked the Commander.
Hollem pulled back and made a face. “Not yet but I do feel sick now,” he said before he proceeded to spit several times into the air. “It tastes like mold.”
“Well, I expect that they all do,” said Masafumi. “This ship is quite old and…” He paused. “I’m so stupid. It’s really obvious.”
Huntington took a deep breath. “In for a penny, in for a pound,” he said before he licked a different tile. “Oh, God!” He jerked back, choking and spitting. “Yuck!”
“What is it?,” asked Hollem.
“Cold custard, I think.”
“Would somebody please explain to me why we’re trying to lick our way out?,” asked Zia.
“Insects,” said her boyfriend. “On Earth, some insects have different ways of sensing things. Some of them even have taste buds in their feet.”
Realization dawned on her now. “So, you’re telling me that this ship is controlled by taste?”
“That makes sense,” said Leong. “One of the first jokes that I ever heard at the Academy was the old ‘Not everyone keeps their genitals in the same place’ one. Why shouldn’t an alien species have taste buds in their feet?”
“It’s more likely the hands,” said Yashiro. “We’re so damned arrogant. Even after all of these centuries in space, we still make schoolboy errors and assume that every race is just like us.”
Huntington looked around the sphere. “I can almost see it now. The crew buzzed around at high speed. Punching the controls as quickly as we would. Only instead of seeing them, they were tasting them.”
“Their taste buds are probably so well developed that they can taste from some distance,” suggested Hollem.
“Okay, I get it,” said Kehen,” but does this mean we’re going to have to lick every tile to find the right controls?” She didn’t look too happy at the thought.
Hollem shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I can convert my tricorder to register taste. It’s something that I’ve done before with patients who have lost their sense of taste. When all else fails, it’s possible to use a micro-tricorder to bridge the gap between food and the brain to fool it into thinking that the taste buds are still working. I’ve seen some quite interesting experiments on it. A subject who is obviously eating an apple but still tasting strawberry ice cream.”
“Very interesting, Doctor, but time is scarce,” said Masafumi who was tapping on an imaginary watch.
Hollem stopped talking and looked down at his tricorder. “It was a very interesting experiment,” he muttered.
****
Captain Cardonez sat stony faced in his chair on the Bridge. Her gaze was focused on the seemingly empty space ahead of her when she knew that five members of her crew were desperately racing for their lives. As she sat there, the nails of her right hand beat a tattoo onto the armrest. In the little used chair on her left side, Blux watched here with amused interest.
“Time,” she barked.
“Ten minutes to firing range,” reported Kandro.
Cardonez licked her lips and tapped her combadge. “Commander Masafumi, we have ten minutes. That means you have about nine and a half.”
****
“Understood,” replied Masafumi. He looked around at the others. They were grouped in three teams. He floated with Kehen near the equator of the sphere while Hollem and Huntington were ten meters higher up and off to the left a little. Michelle Leong was almost to the ceiling, directing above where the Commander and his girlfriend were. “Did you hear that?,” he asked.
“Unfortunately, yes,” said Huntington.
“Well, there’s no time like the present,” said Masafumi with a smile. He pushed a certain tile twice.
-Kala-Maraine, hit it twice-
After he did, Huntington reached out to another tile and hit it three times.
-Sala-Maru, this one thrice-
Almost as soon as Huntington had done, Masafumi repeated his actions. The Englishman did likewise and then both men did it again.
-Do it again, do it again-
Five seconds passed by them and it felt like an eternity. Suddenly, there was a dull chime that seemed to emanate from all around them and a jagged but unbroken row of tiles running around the sphere near the equator changed from white to a dull green.
Masafumi activated his combadge. “Captain, we have something. Is there any change out there?”
****
“Bear with me, Yashiro,” the Captain said, glancing at the helm. “Anything?”
Ensign Alec Carter was manning the helm station now and with some trepidation, he input a command to the ship’s thrusters. “We’re moving!,” he shouted. “The dampening field is down and I have warp drive at your command!”
-Release your soul, release the chain-
Cardonez grinned. “Commander, did you hear that?”
****
“We did indeed,” he said, swinging his arms around Kehen and not caring who saw
“Yes!,” Hollem shouted and made to slap the wall next to him.
Huntington’s hand moved like lightning and gripped the doctor’s wrist before he could make contact. “That’s probably not a good idea, Doc,” he admonished him.
Masafumi nodded. “Chief!,” he cried out. “Do it!”
Leong closed her eyes tight and tapped her tile, twice.
-If yourself you wish to follow, double tap the Susmet Sollow-
Despite the lack of acoustics inside of the sphere, every member of the away team heard the dull burp.
“Did you hit the right one?,” asked Kehen.
Leong opened her eyes with disappointment lining her face. “Hell, yeah,” she said.
“Captain, try beaming us out,” Masafumi said before whispering to Zia. “Just in case.”
“It’s no good.”
“Damn it!,” shouted the Security Chief. Almost, as if it was on cue, the row of green tiles abruptly went white again.
****
The Bridge of the Testudo shook.
“We’ve lost thrusters,” reported Carter.
“The dampening field has re-engaged,” said Ra-Moveii.
Cardonez scowled before the communications channel once more. “Commander, it looks like the control is only temporary.”
****
“Understood,” said Masafumi before he looked at the others around him. Each of them were looking at him with expectation. “Captain, I recommend that we deactivate it again and that you take the Testudo and run.” Ignoring the daggers emanating from Huntington’s eyes, he continued,” We’ll be okay. Perhaps the Mutuality can free us. In any case, the ship will be safe.
****
Aboard the Testudo, Cardonez narrowed her eyes. “Like Hell,” she said. “Valian, how long?”
“Six minutes.”
“Ready weapons. Standby to raise shields.”
“Captain, there are four Prowler-class ships heading our way. Even if we can maneuver again, we’ll be outclassed.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time, Valian,” she replied. “Commander, you have six minutes to figure out a way to escape.”
“Captain, it isn’t that easy,” Masafumi replied over the intercom.
“Make it that easy,” Isabel snapped and closed off the intercom. As she gripped the arms of her chair and gazed dead ahead, she nonetheless felt Blux’s gaze upon her. She glanced sideways. “You have something to say, Midnighter?”
He smiled and it lit up his expansive eyes. “Only a query, Captain. Do you, by chance, have Selvee blood running through your veins?”
Blux was fascinated by the view out of the Conference Lounge windows. He kept shaking his head in disbelief while he watched his own ship hang in the distance.
“Midnighter Blux,” Captain Cardonez said,” I appreciate that it’s a nice view but we only have just seventy minutes until those Mutuality ships arrive.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, turning away from the view and taking a seat opposite her and Kandro. “It’s just that this room is more impressive than our whole ship. In fact, Testudo is the most impressive ship that I have ever seen. And I have been aboard a Mutuality Prowler-class ship.”
“Prowler-class?,” queried Cardonez.
“The small silver ships that they utilize. Of course, I never got aboard one of the bigger vessels but I can’t imagine them as being more impressive.”
Cardonez nodded to herself. Prowler-class. At least, they had an identifier for those ships now. “We try our best,” she said. “Now then, your ship. Why is the Mutuality pursuing you?”
“We escaped from Parna, seven months ago, after stealing that freighter,” said Blux. “We’ve been careful. We’ve avoided all of the major trade and patrol routes but they’ve still found us. A Prowler jumped us, a week ago, but luckily, it was alone.”
“You destroyed it?,” asked Kandro.
Blux shook his head. “No. As you have seen, our weapons are quite decrepit. However, what we did have was half a cargo bay full of thermacett, a very powerful explosive. We let the Prowler make a run at us, just so he could see how pathetic our shields and weapons were. When he came around for a second pass, we released the thermacett and jumped to warp. It was a ridiculously lucky maneuver but his weapons fire ignited the explosives, heavily damaging his warp drive and so he wasn’t capable of pursuing us.”
“So he sent a message, telling the others where you were?”
The Selvee nodded. “Yes. Our Captain wanted to destroy the ship but I overruled him. I wasn’t a murderer at the time.”
“‘At the time’?,” parroted Cardonez. “You spoke of a Captain and when we first scanned your ship, there were two more lifeforms aboard. What happened?”
“The two lifeforms were our Captain, Ferk, and his engineer, Drot. We were forced to kill them when I took control of the ship.”
“You were forced to kill them. Why?”
“The Selvee are a religious people, Captain. We all worship the same three Gods. However, some of us worship them in different ways. There are four Kilns, faiths if you will. Myself and the others still aboard belong to the Drak Kiln which is probably the most liberal and hedonistic of the four Kilns. Ferk and Drot… they were Tyus.”
“Tyus?,” asked Kandro. “Another Kiln?”
“Yes, yes. Although those who follow their ways are the most devout.” He shook his head. “No, we are all devout. They are the most…” He paused to search for the right word. “Fanatical. They are, sometimes, a little too fundamentalist for the rest of us but under the circumstances, we couldn’t afford to be choosy. So we left Ferk act as Captain. He had experience on Mutuality freighters, you understand.
“As I have said, it took a lot of persuasion to convince him not to destroy the Prowler that we incapacitated. When we became trapped here, twenty-four hours ago, he made it perfectly clear that he rued that decision. When you showed up, he refused to listen to reason and he decided to blow up the ship, rather than let you take us prisoner. There really was no reasoning with us. When we tried to stop him from overloading the warp core, he drew a weapon and shot at us. I was the closest to him and I had a wrench in my hand. I had no choice.” Blux emphasized the last part Cardonez detected guilt in his words. “Drot tried to continue his work but one of my comrades had picked up Ferk’s gun and…” He let the sentence hang in the air.
“I understand,” she said. In her long and occasionally distinguished Starfleet career, she had discovered that it was sometimes necessary to take a life to save dozens or even hundreds more. It wasn’t a choice that came easily and it wasn’t a choice that was easy to forget but you could live with it. You really had to.
“Midnighter Blux, we hope that we can find a way to release the tractor beam that is holding our ships here before the Mutuality ships get here. Even if we do, Testudo will have a hard time evading them. I’m afraid that your ship will have even less of a chance.”
“Are you suggesting an alliance, Captain? That we abandon our ship and take our chances with you?”
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” said Cardonez. “We have more than enough room for the ten of you and Testudo is a lot more comfortable.”
Blux seemed to consider this proposal for a moment. “It would be difficult. Several of my people suffered at the hands of the Chobraq. Being on a ship of Human-like beings might bring back unpleasant memories.”
“Being captured by the Mutuality might do that too,” said Kandro.
Blux nodded at this. “You would take us to our destination?,” he asked.
“That depends,” said Testudo’s Captain. “Where is your destination?”
“We were heading for a world known as Swath,” he replied. “It is a free world where the Chobraq and the Selvee live together in peace.”
“Such a place exists?”
“Indeed, it does,” Blux said, nodding furiously. “It is only through the grace of several nearby worlds who are strong enough to protect it from the Mutuality.”
“Then the Mutuality doesn’t completely control this area of space?,” asked Kandro.
“Not all of it. There are the Tahi’nolet and the Wilith. They do not have large empires but they have trading agreements with the Mutuality. It is they who protect Swath. I have heard of another power that threatens the farthest borders of Mutuality space but they are a mystery to us beyond that.”
“Well, it’s nice to know that there are other powers around, anyway,” said Isabel. “So, if we agree to take you to Swath?”
“Then we will come with you,” said Blux. “Assuming that you can release us from this trap, of course.” He smiled and his teeth glinted like small fangs in the light.
“Don’t worry. We will,” said Cardonez, her face darkening. “One way or another.”
****
Louise Ramblin’s throat was dry while she adjusted the yield on the tricobalt device sitting in front of her. It was cylindrical, perhaps a third of a meter tall and ten centimeters in diameter. Painted a bright yellow, it was stenciled with several different warning labels, leaving no one in doubt about how dangerous it was. At the moment, the lid rested on the floor next to her while she sat cross-legged before it. Another device, this one being fully armed, sat nearby.
She heard movement behind her but she didn’t turn around. She was too focused on the task at hand.
Ensign Walden gently placed a third cylinder next to her and proceeded to join her on the floor. “Will three be enough?,” he asked her while he began to carefully unscrew the cap of the latest cylinder.
“Trust me,” Ramblin said, not looking up from her task. “Three of these won’t leave much behind.” She paused in her ministrations and added. “Let’s just hope that we don’t have to use them.”
“Amen to that,” said Walden before he added wistfully. “We’ve lost enough people already.”
Ramblin sighed and put down her tools. “This one is ready,” she said before screwing the cap back on. Once she was done, she turned towards her subordinate. “Look, John, if I’m out of line, then tell me, but I think you need to talk to someone. Counselor Dayle, a friend, or even me.” She smiled sadly. “Bereavement is a hard thing to deal with, especially when you try to do it alone.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said Walden, although his eyes lifted furtively up from his work for a moment.
“Come on, John. It isn’t easy to keep secrets on a ship this small. I know that you were seeing Wyndra Chura,” she said, referring to the young crewman who had been killed when the Testudo’s war game with the USS Lusitania turned out to be too real.
For a few seconds, Walden kept working but soon he put his own tools down and visibly slumped. For a minute, there was an uncomfortable silence. “We were trying to keep it a secret,” he said at last. “You know what it’s like on this ship. You start seeing someone and by the time you realize that you have nothing in common and you’re not going to see each other again, half of the ship knows.”
Ramblin said nothing but she knew what he meant. Her fling with Valian Kandro sprang quickly to her mind.
“We had only been going out for three weeks…,” his voice faltered slightly. “We hadn’t even…” He suddenly stopped talking and nodded his head forward.
Louise half-expected him to start crying but he held his tears back in check. She was glad in a way. She had wanted him to open up but she had never been good with people crying. She never knew what to say.
Silence permeated the room again and she was glad that they were in a side annex off of Main Engineering. After another minutes, she steeled herself and rested a hand on his shoulder. “If you need anything,” she said. “If there’s anything that I can do…”
He finally looked up. His eyes were pools of sadness but there was a smile on his lips. “Thank you, sir.”
“Screw the sir,” Ramblin told him. “At times like these, you can call me Louise. That’s an order.”
His laugh seemed to be forced but, at least, it was a laugh. Ramblin took it as a cue to remove her hand. “Come on. We’ve got less than an hour now,” she said. “We need to get this last one ready.”
They quickly returned to work.
****
Adam Huntington pressed a tile twice in succession and then the one next to it, three times. After a second, there was the burping sound again and both tiles relit themselves.
“It’s no good,” said Yashiro Masafumi.
“You don’t know that,” replied Testudo’s Tactical Officer. “I might get lucky.”
Huntington was hanging by the outer wall that was close to their original beam-in point. A few meters away, the rest of the away team hung in a tight huddle. Since the countdown had ticked down to less than forty-five minutes, the group had drawn together. No one said anything but they all knew that these might be the last minutes of their lives and they wanted to share them with each other.
“Adam, there are over twenty thousand tiles here. Do you have any idea how lucky you would have to be?,” asked Masafumi.
“As a famous man once said,” ‘Never tell me the odds’,” Huntington replied before he tried again on two tiles to the left. “At least, I’m doing something.”
“So are we. The answer is in the doctor’s rhyme. I’m sure of it.” Masafumi twisted slightly to see Hollem. “Read it again, please.”
“Okay,” the Bajoran said,” but I don’t know what you expect to find different from the other fifteen readings.” He coughed slightly, clearing his throat before he recited the Wadi nursery rhyme in full.
“Kala-Maraine, hit it twice. Sala-Maru, this one thrice.
Do it again, do it again. Release your soul, release the chain.
If yourself you wish to follow, double tap the Susmet Sollow.”
“Well, hearing that again, helps,” said Kehen.
“Actually, it does,” said Masafumi. “The reference to hitting things twice must refer to these controls.” He gestured towards the wall nearest to them. “We just need to figure out which control that it means.”
“It’s easier said than done,” said Huntington.
“Indeed. Each tile is exactly the same size and shape. They are all lit exactly the same way. In every way, they are identical.”
“What about the words in the rhyme that you couldn’t translate?,” asked Kehen. “Are there any common themes?”
“Good question,” said Hollem. “I didn’t actually check.” He quickly thumbed his tricorder back on. After a few seconds, he nodded and smiled. “Yes, there is. They could all represent foodstuffs.”
“That doesn’t really help though, does it?,” asked Huntington.
“Sorry,” muttered the doctor.
“Damn it,” said Leong. “I never figured that I would die in a giant aviary.”
“I never figured I would die,” said Zia.
“Doctor, try repeating the…,” Masafumi began before he was interrupted.
“Wait!,” shouted Huntington and he stared at Chief Leong. “What did you just say?”
“I said I never figured that I would die in a giant aviary.”
“I’m sorry. I misheard you. I thought you said apiary. For some reason, that seemed to be important.”
“What have monkeys got to do with anything?,” asked Kehen.
Masafumi laughed. “You misunderstand. An apiary is where bee live.”
“Bees,” said Hollem. “That’s it!”
“What is?,” asked Huntington.
Hollem didn’t answer him. Instead, he jetted over to the wall. As everyone watched, he leaned in and licked one of the tiles.
“Doctor, have you gone mad?,” asked the Commander.
Hollem pulled back and made a face. “Not yet but I do feel sick now,” he said before he proceeded to spit several times into the air. “It tastes like mold.”
“Well, I expect that they all do,” said Masafumi. “This ship is quite old and…” He paused. “I’m so stupid. It’s really obvious.”
Huntington took a deep breath. “In for a penny, in for a pound,” he said before he licked a different tile. “Oh, God!” He jerked back, choking and spitting. “Yuck!”
“What is it?,” asked Hollem.
“Cold custard, I think.”
“Would somebody please explain to me why we’re trying to lick our way out?,” asked Zia.
“Insects,” said her boyfriend. “On Earth, some insects have different ways of sensing things. Some of them even have taste buds in their feet.”
Realization dawned on her now. “So, you’re telling me that this ship is controlled by taste?”
“That makes sense,” said Leong. “One of the first jokes that I ever heard at the Academy was the old ‘Not everyone keeps their genitals in the same place’ one. Why shouldn’t an alien species have taste buds in their feet?”
“It’s more likely the hands,” said Yashiro. “We’re so damned arrogant. Even after all of these centuries in space, we still make schoolboy errors and assume that every race is just like us.”
Huntington looked around the sphere. “I can almost see it now. The crew buzzed around at high speed. Punching the controls as quickly as we would. Only instead of seeing them, they were tasting them.”
“Their taste buds are probably so well developed that they can taste from some distance,” suggested Hollem.
“Okay, I get it,” said Kehen,” but does this mean we’re going to have to lick every tile to find the right controls?” She didn’t look too happy at the thought.
Hollem shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. I can convert my tricorder to register taste. It’s something that I’ve done before with patients who have lost their sense of taste. When all else fails, it’s possible to use a micro-tricorder to bridge the gap between food and the brain to fool it into thinking that the taste buds are still working. I’ve seen some quite interesting experiments on it. A subject who is obviously eating an apple but still tasting strawberry ice cream.”
“Very interesting, Doctor, but time is scarce,” said Masafumi who was tapping on an imaginary watch.
Hollem stopped talking and looked down at his tricorder. “It was a very interesting experiment,” he muttered.
****
Captain Cardonez sat stony faced in his chair on the Bridge. Her gaze was focused on the seemingly empty space ahead of her when she knew that five members of her crew were desperately racing for their lives. As she sat there, the nails of her right hand beat a tattoo onto the armrest. In the little used chair on her left side, Blux watched here with amused interest.
“Time,” she barked.
“Ten minutes to firing range,” reported Kandro.
Cardonez licked her lips and tapped her combadge. “Commander Masafumi, we have ten minutes. That means you have about nine and a half.”
****
“Understood,” replied Masafumi. He looked around at the others. They were grouped in three teams. He floated with Kehen near the equator of the sphere while Hollem and Huntington were ten meters higher up and off to the left a little. Michelle Leong was almost to the ceiling, directing above where the Commander and his girlfriend were. “Did you hear that?,” he asked.
“Unfortunately, yes,” said Huntington.
“Well, there’s no time like the present,” said Masafumi with a smile. He pushed a certain tile twice.
-Kala-Maraine, hit it twice-
After he did, Huntington reached out to another tile and hit it three times.
-Sala-Maru, this one thrice-
Almost as soon as Huntington had done, Masafumi repeated his actions. The Englishman did likewise and then both men did it again.
-Do it again, do it again-
Five seconds passed by them and it felt like an eternity. Suddenly, there was a dull chime that seemed to emanate from all around them and a jagged but unbroken row of tiles running around the sphere near the equator changed from white to a dull green.
Masafumi activated his combadge. “Captain, we have something. Is there any change out there?”
****
“Bear with me, Yashiro,” the Captain said, glancing at the helm. “Anything?”
Ensign Alec Carter was manning the helm station now and with some trepidation, he input a command to the ship’s thrusters. “We’re moving!,” he shouted. “The dampening field is down and I have warp drive at your command!”
-Release your soul, release the chain-
Cardonez grinned. “Commander, did you hear that?”
****
“We did indeed,” he said, swinging his arms around Kehen and not caring who saw
“Yes!,” Hollem shouted and made to slap the wall next to him.
Huntington’s hand moved like lightning and gripped the doctor’s wrist before he could make contact. “That’s probably not a good idea, Doc,” he admonished him.
Masafumi nodded. “Chief!,” he cried out. “Do it!”
Leong closed her eyes tight and tapped her tile, twice.
-If yourself you wish to follow, double tap the Susmet Sollow-
Despite the lack of acoustics inside of the sphere, every member of the away team heard the dull burp.
“Did you hit the right one?,” asked Kehen.
Leong opened her eyes with disappointment lining her face. “Hell, yeah,” she said.
“Captain, try beaming us out,” Masafumi said before whispering to Zia. “Just in case.”
“It’s no good.”
“Damn it!,” shouted the Security Chief. Almost, as if it was on cue, the row of green tiles abruptly went white again.
****
The Bridge of the Testudo shook.
“We’ve lost thrusters,” reported Carter.
“The dampening field has re-engaged,” said Ra-Moveii.
Cardonez scowled before the communications channel once more. “Commander, it looks like the control is only temporary.”
****
“Understood,” said Masafumi before he looked at the others around him. Each of them were looking at him with expectation. “Captain, I recommend that we deactivate it again and that you take the Testudo and run.” Ignoring the daggers emanating from Huntington’s eyes, he continued,” We’ll be okay. Perhaps the Mutuality can free us. In any case, the ship will be safe.
****
Aboard the Testudo, Cardonez narrowed her eyes. “Like Hell,” she said. “Valian, how long?”
“Six minutes.”
“Ready weapons. Standby to raise shields.”
“Captain, there are four Prowler-class ships heading our way. Even if we can maneuver again, we’ll be outclassed.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time, Valian,” she replied. “Commander, you have six minutes to figure out a way to escape.”
“Captain, it isn’t that easy,” Masafumi replied over the intercom.
“Make it that easy,” Isabel snapped and closed off the intercom. As she gripped the arms of her chair and gazed dead ahead, she nonetheless felt Blux’s gaze upon her. She glanced sideways. “You have something to say, Midnighter?”
He smiled and it lit up his expansive eyes. “Only a query, Captain. Do you, by chance, have Selvee blood running through your veins?”
Love the creativity of your stories... licking the controls... and with a clock. And they're not licked yet...
Also enjoying the critter-design and culture building with the Selvee and how religious factions play into it.
Looking forward to how Masafumi plans to let it bee... Thanks!! rbs
Also enjoying the critter-design and culture building with the Selvee and how religious factions play into it.
Looking forward to how Masafumi plans to let it bee... Thanks!! rbs
Epilogue
“Come on, Michelle,” said Kehen. “There must be something that you missed?”
Leong shook her head. “Nothing. I know that I haven’t had long to peruse the data but in truth, there isn’t much out there anyway. What there is, it’s fairly conclusive. There is no possible way to beam through quizitanium.”
Suddenly, Huntington drew his phaser and began to adjust the settings. “Okay, if we can’t beam through it we’ll do this the old-fashioned way and blast our way through.”
“Nice idea, Adam, but unfortunately impractical,” said Masafumi. “Phaser fire from this side of the material would be as effective as trying to transport.”
“What about Testudo’s guns?,” asked Hollem. “They’re on the other side after all.”
Huntington shook his head. “You’re forgetting, Doc,” he said, holstering his weapon. “The ship is shielded from the outside.”
Hollem threw his hands up in exasperation. “What the hell was this thing designed for? Some kind of experiment? A weapon? A fucking joke?” He looked imploringly at the ceiling and screamed at the top of his lungs. “What are you?!” His words seemed empty in the echoless chamber and there was no reply.
“The sad thing is that we may never know,” said Masafumi after a moment. He looked over at Leong, seeing the exasperation on her face. “Chief. You’ve done the very best that you could do. As you said, minds smarter than any of us have never solved this riddle. There is no shame in failing.”
“I know,” she replied. “I just keep thinking that maybe if you had brought Lieutenant Ramblin along, she would have figured out a way to do it.”
“Ramblin has been doing her own thinking aboard the Testudo and she hasn’t come up with any solutions either,” said Huntington. “We need Alexander the Great on this.”
“Alexander the whosit?,” asked Kehen.
“Huntington shook his head sadly. “Don’t you know any history?”
“I know Yulani history. Do you?”
“Hmm,” he said,” you’ve got me there.”
“Why do we need this Great Alexander?,” asked Hollem.
“He was a legendary warlord who conquered most of Asia, centuries before Jesus Christ was born,” explained Huntington. “He was once faced with an unsolvable puzzle. The Gordian Knot. a knot that was impossible to unravel.”
“Like a Rubik’s Cube?,” asked the Bajoran and everyone looked at him blankly. “Kandro replicated me one for my birthday. I can get one side the same color but –”
“No. It’s nothing like a Rubik’s Cube,” said Huntington. “More like a Rubik’s Knot.”
“So, this Alex guy untied it, right?,” asked Kehen.
“Actually, he didn’t. He merely cut it in half with his sword.”
“Lateral thinking,” said Masafumi.
“Cheating,” said Kehen.
“Either way, the Knot wasn’t a problem anymore,” said Huntington. “We could use some lateral thinking about now.”
“Yeah, but we can’t destroy the quizitanium and we can’t beam through it. What else is left?,” asked Kehen.
“Magic,” said Hollem. “We can say abracadabra and make it disappear.”
Michelle Leong laughed.
“Chief?,” asked the Commander.
“It’s okay, sir. I haven’t flipped out. I’ve solved it,” she replied. “I’ve solved the puzzle.”
“Please enlighten us?”
“We can’t beam through the quizitanium. We can’t destroy it but there’s nothing that says that we can’t simply move it somewhere else.” When her smile wasn’t immediately reflected in the face of the others, she shook her head. “Trust me,” she said and tapped her combadge. “Leong to Transporter Room Two. “Bernie, are you still there?”
“I sure am, but it’s kinda lonely here. If you guys could hurry up and get over here, that would be great.”
Nannup’s enthusiasm was infectious and everyone smiled, despite the situation. “Bernie, I want you to lock onto a section of the quizitanium, about ten meters square and beam it out.”
Masafumi shook his head, annoyed at himself. Like all great puzzles, the answer was the simplest one of all.
“Then I can beam you out through the gap. Genius!,” said Nannup.
“Just stick to the quizitanium,” said Leong,” and leave the rest of the hull where it is.”
“Will do,” replied the disembodied voice. “What do I do with the stuff once I dematerialize it?”
Leong looked at Masafumi but it was Huntington who answered him. “Stick it in a Cargo Bay,” he said. Glancing at the Commander, he added,” It might come in handy, someday.”
“Good point,” said the Testudo’s First Officer.
“Bernie, did you hear that?,” asked Leong.
“Roger,” replied Nannup,” transporting now.”
****
“Has it worked?,” Cardonez asked, nervously.
“It had,” replied Ra-Moveii. “Ensign Nannup reports that he can now get a firm lock on the away team.”
Cardonez smiled. “Excellent. Valian, how long before those ships are in weapons range?”
“Two minutes.”
“Cardonez to Masafumi. Time to get out. Deactivate the dampening field again and then get back to Testudo.”
“Will do,” came the reply.
“Ensign Carter, the moment that the away team is aboard, set a course in the opposite direction, maximum warp. Keep the alien ship between us and them. Hopefully we can lure them into becoming trapped when the dampening field reactivates.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Cardonez looked up once more. “Valian, are the tricobalt devices set?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Kandro from his lofty new perch. “All three of them on the Selvee freighter are set to go off once we’re a safe distance away. You’re sure that you don’t want any on the alien ship?”
“I’m sure,” she said. On the one hand, leaving advanced technology around for the enemy was a bad idea, but luring the Mutuality ships into the alien vessel’s trap might be the only thing that ensured their escape. Besides, she got the feeling that the ship had been traveling for a long time. Who was she to destroy it?
“I’m sorry about your ship, Midnighter,” she said to Blux.
He shrugged. “Don’t worry. I can always steal another,” he said and she wasn’t sure that he was entirely joking.
****
As the jagged row of lights changed color once more, Commander Masafumi tapped his combadge. “Away team to Testudo. Five to beam out.”
In the last few seconds before they dematerialized, he looked fondly at the ship around him, knowing that he could have spent years unearthing its secrets and feeling quite disappointed that he wouldn’t get the chance.
As they materialized once more unto their own ship, they were greeted by Bernie Nannup’s wide grin. Masafumi decided that it was good to be home and he was glad that he held Kehen’s hand tightly in his own.
****
“We’ve got them,” reported Ensign Ra-Moveii.
Cardonez didn’t even have to say the order. Alec Carter was ahead of the game and Testudo spun around on her axis and sped into warp.
As she watched the four Mutuality ships draw closer on the viewscreen which showed a rear view, she held her breath. In her head, she was already anticipating that their trap would fail and she was already planning their attack strategy to deal with four opponents.
The picture was quickly lost when a large explosion lit up the sky.
“There goes the freighter,” said Kandro.
After a second passed by, the view cleared up once more. Isabel saw three Prowlers now. One of them had vanished. She let out a breath when she saw that one of the three ships appeared to be moving. “Report.”
“The explosion took out one of the ships,” the Betazoid said from Tactical. “Two of them got snagged by the dampening field, and the last one is still pursuing us. He’s at Warp Eight and closing.”
“He just doesn’t realize that he’s bitten off more than he can chew,” muttered Cardonez. “Fire a spread of torpedoes in his path. Let’s see if we can dissuade him.”
“Captain, we only have twenty-eight torpedoes left.”
“I’m aware of that. Fire.”
Kandro didn’t question the order again and four small flares of amber light flew from the aft section of the Testudo hurtling through space towards the Prowler that grew even closer on the viewscreen. The enemy ship wasn’t quite in range yet and so the four quantum torpedoes detonated at their maximum range which was some distance short of their target. They still have the desired effect.
“He’s got the message,” Kandro said. “He’s turning around and heading back towards his comrades.”
“Smart guy. Mister Carter, lay in a course for the planet Swath, Warp Seven.”
****
Captain’s Log, Stardate 55641.3;
Thanks to Blux’s coordinates, we’re on course for the planet Swath and we’ll arrive in less than three days. That’s more than six months faster than our Selvee guests would have managed it in their freighter. So far, they’re adapting to life aboard quite well with all things considered. It’s hard to know quite what to believe but some of the stories that they tell about the enclave on Parna are more than a little disturbing. I hope that they’re lying because I would hate to believe that Starfleet officers were partially responsible for the creation of such ghettos.
On the plus side, there are no signs of any Mutuality pursuit and given that no one has had much fun lately, I have tentatively allowed Lieutenant Ramblin permission to re-engage the holodecks. Just until we reach Swath…
****
“This is what your species does for fun?,” Blux asked and Cardonez was pleased to see that the giant of a man had a weakness. Even if it was only seasickness.
“Are you kidding?,” Isabel Cardonez asked from the prow of the Titanic, gesturing towards the large expanse of ocean ahead of them. “This is fantastic.”
As far as the program was concerned, it was midday on Sunday on April the 14th in the year 1912. Titanic had a date with an iceberg that evening but for the moment, everything was calm. It was cold but the sky was clear. The sun was bright and the ocean was calm. As she turned back around towards the rest of the ship, Cardonez saw officers in Starfleet uniform mingling with holographic passengers. The program was designed so that incongruous persons didn’t register as such to the holographic characters. So the likes of Blux, Dru’sk, and Giren Ra-Moveii caused not a single raised eyebrow.
“This is really making me quite sick,” the Selvee said.
Cardonez laughed. “Come on then, Midnighter. I’ll take you to see a movie instead,” she said before heading off.
“A movie?,” replied Blux before shivering and quickly following after her.
****
At the other end of the ship, on the Poop Deck, Hollem Azahn sat on a beach with a look of intense concentration on his face. His hands moved as fast and as skillfully as though he was performing surgery.
“Still no luck?,” came a voice as a shadow loomed over him.
Hollem looked up to see that it was Huntington. “It’s impossible,” he said.
“Here, give it to me,” Huntington said and he reached down, grabbing the Rubik’s Cube from the Bajoran’s outstretched fingers.
“Hey!,” shouted the Doctor.
Huntington ignored him and he proceeded to begin turning the ancient puzzle. In less than a minute, he tossed the now completed Cube back into Hollem’s lap. “It’s nice to know that you’re not a genius at everything,” he said, turning and walking away with a mischievous grin on his lips.
Hollem sat, gazing at the solved puzzle for a few seconds. Then he stood up and threw the Cube in a high arc over the side of the ship.
****
Leaning on the rail nearby, Valian Kandro, Michelle Leong, and Bernie Nannup watched while the Rubik’s Cube was swallowed up by the Atlantic Ocean. “Now that’s a waste of a good puzzle,” said the Betazoid.
“What waste?,” asked Nannup. “It’ll be on the floor when we turn this thing off.”
“Good point,” he said, sagely, although he was distracted. He wondered what time Isabel would likely be in her cabin later.
“Well, I, for one, are quite happy to see a puzzle sink to the bottom,” said Leong. “I’ve had enough puzzling for one day.”
Kandro looked up from the sea. “So, do you still want to rejoin Engineering?”
She shrugged. “Who knows? My brain still hurts so I’m not going to think about it anymore. At least, not for several days.”
“I guess a game of chess is out then?,” Nannup asked with a grin. Kandro managed to duck out of the way, just when Leong took a good natured swing at Bernie.
****
Hidden away in a luxurious stateroom, two more officers were conversing. Although their method of communication was slightly different.
“Damn, I love you,” Yashiro said while he nuzzled Kehen’s bare neck. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.”
Zia ran her nails down his exposed back and pulled the sheet up over their heads. “Just shut up and fuck me!,” she moaned.
****
Outside of the Holodecks and centuries away from the North Atlantic Ocean, John Walden sat along in his quarters. His roommate was happily larking around aboard the Titanic but he had no interest. He knew that he was being self-pious and he knew that his parents would have been disappointed in him. Looking up at their separated smiling faces on the wall, he really didn’t care. The tears had dried up now and he had no more left to shed. At least, not tonight. All there was left was emptiness.
When his door chimes rang, it took him by surprise. “Come,” he said, expecting it to be someone looking for his roommate.
When the door opened, he was amazed to see Lieutenant Ramblin standing there.
“Lieutenant, I’m sorry,” he said, jumping to his feet.
“At ease, Ensign,” she said. “May I come in?”
He nodded, furiously. “Yes, of course,” he said, although conscious of the mess that his shared quarters were in.
She stepped inside and the doors closed. “Thanks.”
“What can I do for you?,” he asked her.
Ramblin had her hands folded behind her back but now she brought them forth. In one hand was a bottle of red wine and in the other hand was two glasses. “I thought that maybe you’d like to talk,” she said,” about Wyndra.”
Suddenly, John Walden didn’t feel quite so empty anymore.
The End.
“Come on, Michelle,” said Kehen. “There must be something that you missed?”
Leong shook her head. “Nothing. I know that I haven’t had long to peruse the data but in truth, there isn’t much out there anyway. What there is, it’s fairly conclusive. There is no possible way to beam through quizitanium.”
Suddenly, Huntington drew his phaser and began to adjust the settings. “Okay, if we can’t beam through it we’ll do this the old-fashioned way and blast our way through.”
“Nice idea, Adam, but unfortunately impractical,” said Masafumi. “Phaser fire from this side of the material would be as effective as trying to transport.”
“What about Testudo’s guns?,” asked Hollem. “They’re on the other side after all.”
Huntington shook his head. “You’re forgetting, Doc,” he said, holstering his weapon. “The ship is shielded from the outside.”
Hollem threw his hands up in exasperation. “What the hell was this thing designed for? Some kind of experiment? A weapon? A fucking joke?” He looked imploringly at the ceiling and screamed at the top of his lungs. “What are you?!” His words seemed empty in the echoless chamber and there was no reply.
“The sad thing is that we may never know,” said Masafumi after a moment. He looked over at Leong, seeing the exasperation on her face. “Chief. You’ve done the very best that you could do. As you said, minds smarter than any of us have never solved this riddle. There is no shame in failing.”
“I know,” she replied. “I just keep thinking that maybe if you had brought Lieutenant Ramblin along, she would have figured out a way to do it.”
“Ramblin has been doing her own thinking aboard the Testudo and she hasn’t come up with any solutions either,” said Huntington. “We need Alexander the Great on this.”
“Alexander the whosit?,” asked Kehen.
“Huntington shook his head sadly. “Don’t you know any history?”
“I know Yulani history. Do you?”
“Hmm,” he said,” you’ve got me there.”
“Why do we need this Great Alexander?,” asked Hollem.
“He was a legendary warlord who conquered most of Asia, centuries before Jesus Christ was born,” explained Huntington. “He was once faced with an unsolvable puzzle. The Gordian Knot. a knot that was impossible to unravel.”
“Like a Rubik’s Cube?,” asked the Bajoran and everyone looked at him blankly. “Kandro replicated me one for my birthday. I can get one side the same color but –”
“No. It’s nothing like a Rubik’s Cube,” said Huntington. “More like a Rubik’s Knot.”
“So, this Alex guy untied it, right?,” asked Kehen.
“Actually, he didn’t. He merely cut it in half with his sword.”
“Lateral thinking,” said Masafumi.
“Cheating,” said Kehen.
“Either way, the Knot wasn’t a problem anymore,” said Huntington. “We could use some lateral thinking about now.”
“Yeah, but we can’t destroy the quizitanium and we can’t beam through it. What else is left?,” asked Kehen.
“Magic,” said Hollem. “We can say abracadabra and make it disappear.”
Michelle Leong laughed.
“Chief?,” asked the Commander.
“It’s okay, sir. I haven’t flipped out. I’ve solved it,” she replied. “I’ve solved the puzzle.”
“Please enlighten us?”
“We can’t beam through the quizitanium. We can’t destroy it but there’s nothing that says that we can’t simply move it somewhere else.” When her smile wasn’t immediately reflected in the face of the others, she shook her head. “Trust me,” she said and tapped her combadge. “Leong to Transporter Room Two. “Bernie, are you still there?”
“I sure am, but it’s kinda lonely here. If you guys could hurry up and get over here, that would be great.”
Nannup’s enthusiasm was infectious and everyone smiled, despite the situation. “Bernie, I want you to lock onto a section of the quizitanium, about ten meters square and beam it out.”
Masafumi shook his head, annoyed at himself. Like all great puzzles, the answer was the simplest one of all.
“Then I can beam you out through the gap. Genius!,” said Nannup.
“Just stick to the quizitanium,” said Leong,” and leave the rest of the hull where it is.”
“Will do,” replied the disembodied voice. “What do I do with the stuff once I dematerialize it?”
Leong looked at Masafumi but it was Huntington who answered him. “Stick it in a Cargo Bay,” he said. Glancing at the Commander, he added,” It might come in handy, someday.”
“Good point,” said the Testudo’s First Officer.
“Bernie, did you hear that?,” asked Leong.
“Roger,” replied Nannup,” transporting now.”
****
“Has it worked?,” Cardonez asked, nervously.
“It had,” replied Ra-Moveii. “Ensign Nannup reports that he can now get a firm lock on the away team.”
Cardonez smiled. “Excellent. Valian, how long before those ships are in weapons range?”
“Two minutes.”
“Cardonez to Masafumi. Time to get out. Deactivate the dampening field again and then get back to Testudo.”
“Will do,” came the reply.
“Ensign Carter, the moment that the away team is aboard, set a course in the opposite direction, maximum warp. Keep the alien ship between us and them. Hopefully we can lure them into becoming trapped when the dampening field reactivates.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Cardonez looked up once more. “Valian, are the tricobalt devices set?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Kandro from his lofty new perch. “All three of them on the Selvee freighter are set to go off once we’re a safe distance away. You’re sure that you don’t want any on the alien ship?”
“I’m sure,” she said. On the one hand, leaving advanced technology around for the enemy was a bad idea, but luring the Mutuality ships into the alien vessel’s trap might be the only thing that ensured their escape. Besides, she got the feeling that the ship had been traveling for a long time. Who was she to destroy it?
“I’m sorry about your ship, Midnighter,” she said to Blux.
He shrugged. “Don’t worry. I can always steal another,” he said and she wasn’t sure that he was entirely joking.
****
As the jagged row of lights changed color once more, Commander Masafumi tapped his combadge. “Away team to Testudo. Five to beam out.”
In the last few seconds before they dematerialized, he looked fondly at the ship around him, knowing that he could have spent years unearthing its secrets and feeling quite disappointed that he wouldn’t get the chance.
As they materialized once more unto their own ship, they were greeted by Bernie Nannup’s wide grin. Masafumi decided that it was good to be home and he was glad that he held Kehen’s hand tightly in his own.
****
“We’ve got them,” reported Ensign Ra-Moveii.
Cardonez didn’t even have to say the order. Alec Carter was ahead of the game and Testudo spun around on her axis and sped into warp.
As she watched the four Mutuality ships draw closer on the viewscreen which showed a rear view, she held her breath. In her head, she was already anticipating that their trap would fail and she was already planning their attack strategy to deal with four opponents.
The picture was quickly lost when a large explosion lit up the sky.
“There goes the freighter,” said Kandro.
After a second passed by, the view cleared up once more. Isabel saw three Prowlers now. One of them had vanished. She let out a breath when she saw that one of the three ships appeared to be moving. “Report.”
“The explosion took out one of the ships,” the Betazoid said from Tactical. “Two of them got snagged by the dampening field, and the last one is still pursuing us. He’s at Warp Eight and closing.”
“He just doesn’t realize that he’s bitten off more than he can chew,” muttered Cardonez. “Fire a spread of torpedoes in his path. Let’s see if we can dissuade him.”
“Captain, we only have twenty-eight torpedoes left.”
“I’m aware of that. Fire.”
Kandro didn’t question the order again and four small flares of amber light flew from the aft section of the Testudo hurtling through space towards the Prowler that grew even closer on the viewscreen. The enemy ship wasn’t quite in range yet and so the four quantum torpedoes detonated at their maximum range which was some distance short of their target. They still have the desired effect.
“He’s got the message,” Kandro said. “He’s turning around and heading back towards his comrades.”
“Smart guy. Mister Carter, lay in a course for the planet Swath, Warp Seven.”
****
Captain’s Log, Stardate 55641.3;
Thanks to Blux’s coordinates, we’re on course for the planet Swath and we’ll arrive in less than three days. That’s more than six months faster than our Selvee guests would have managed it in their freighter. So far, they’re adapting to life aboard quite well with all things considered. It’s hard to know quite what to believe but some of the stories that they tell about the enclave on Parna are more than a little disturbing. I hope that they’re lying because I would hate to believe that Starfleet officers were partially responsible for the creation of such ghettos.
On the plus side, there are no signs of any Mutuality pursuit and given that no one has had much fun lately, I have tentatively allowed Lieutenant Ramblin permission to re-engage the holodecks. Just until we reach Swath…
****
“This is what your species does for fun?,” Blux asked and Cardonez was pleased to see that the giant of a man had a weakness. Even if it was only seasickness.
“Are you kidding?,” Isabel Cardonez asked from the prow of the Titanic, gesturing towards the large expanse of ocean ahead of them. “This is fantastic.”
As far as the program was concerned, it was midday on Sunday on April the 14th in the year 1912. Titanic had a date with an iceberg that evening but for the moment, everything was calm. It was cold but the sky was clear. The sun was bright and the ocean was calm. As she turned back around towards the rest of the ship, Cardonez saw officers in Starfleet uniform mingling with holographic passengers. The program was designed so that incongruous persons didn’t register as such to the holographic characters. So the likes of Blux, Dru’sk, and Giren Ra-Moveii caused not a single raised eyebrow.
“This is really making me quite sick,” the Selvee said.
Cardonez laughed. “Come on then, Midnighter. I’ll take you to see a movie instead,” she said before heading off.
“A movie?,” replied Blux before shivering and quickly following after her.
****
At the other end of the ship, on the Poop Deck, Hollem Azahn sat on a beach with a look of intense concentration on his face. His hands moved as fast and as skillfully as though he was performing surgery.
“Still no luck?,” came a voice as a shadow loomed over him.
Hollem looked up to see that it was Huntington. “It’s impossible,” he said.
“Here, give it to me,” Huntington said and he reached down, grabbing the Rubik’s Cube from the Bajoran’s outstretched fingers.
“Hey!,” shouted the Doctor.
Huntington ignored him and he proceeded to begin turning the ancient puzzle. In less than a minute, he tossed the now completed Cube back into Hollem’s lap. “It’s nice to know that you’re not a genius at everything,” he said, turning and walking away with a mischievous grin on his lips.
Hollem sat, gazing at the solved puzzle for a few seconds. Then he stood up and threw the Cube in a high arc over the side of the ship.
****
Leaning on the rail nearby, Valian Kandro, Michelle Leong, and Bernie Nannup watched while the Rubik’s Cube was swallowed up by the Atlantic Ocean. “Now that’s a waste of a good puzzle,” said the Betazoid.
“What waste?,” asked Nannup. “It’ll be on the floor when we turn this thing off.”
“Good point,” he said, sagely, although he was distracted. He wondered what time Isabel would likely be in her cabin later.
“Well, I, for one, are quite happy to see a puzzle sink to the bottom,” said Leong. “I’ve had enough puzzling for one day.”
Kandro looked up from the sea. “So, do you still want to rejoin Engineering?”
She shrugged. “Who knows? My brain still hurts so I’m not going to think about it anymore. At least, not for several days.”
“I guess a game of chess is out then?,” Nannup asked with a grin. Kandro managed to duck out of the way, just when Leong took a good natured swing at Bernie.
****
Hidden away in a luxurious stateroom, two more officers were conversing. Although their method of communication was slightly different.
“Damn, I love you,” Yashiro said while he nuzzled Kehen’s bare neck. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.”
Zia ran her nails down his exposed back and pulled the sheet up over their heads. “Just shut up and fuck me!,” she moaned.
****
Outside of the Holodecks and centuries away from the North Atlantic Ocean, John Walden sat along in his quarters. His roommate was happily larking around aboard the Titanic but he had no interest. He knew that he was being self-pious and he knew that his parents would have been disappointed in him. Looking up at their separated smiling faces on the wall, he really didn’t care. The tears had dried up now and he had no more left to shed. At least, not tonight. All there was left was emptiness.
When his door chimes rang, it took him by surprise. “Come,” he said, expecting it to be someone looking for his roommate.
When the door opened, he was amazed to see Lieutenant Ramblin standing there.
“Lieutenant, I’m sorry,” he said, jumping to his feet.
“At ease, Ensign,” she said. “May I come in?”
He nodded, furiously. “Yes, of course,” he said, although conscious of the mess that his shared quarters were in.
She stepped inside and the doors closed. “Thanks.”
“What can I do for you?,” he asked her.
Ramblin had her hands folded behind her back but now she brought them forth. In one hand was a bottle of red wine and in the other hand was two glasses. “I thought that maybe you’d like to talk,” she said,” about Wyndra.”
Suddenly, John Walden didn’t feel quite so empty anymore.
The End.
https://assinninewriting.wordpress.com/2024/02/22/star-trek-into-the-void-episode-twenty-two/
Episode Twenty-Two is complete.
Episode Twenty-Two is complete.
Can't go wrong with Iskinder and the knot. Nicely done.
Special award for most tasteful use of the word "fuck" in a trek fanfic.
Thanks!! rbs
Special award for most tasteful use of the word "fuck" in a trek fanfic.
Thanks!! rbs
Why, thank you, @Robert Bruce Scott. I'm onto my next ITV story.
Star Trek: Into the Void
Episode Twenty-Three - ‘Crossing the Line’
By Jack Elmlinger
Prologue
Captain’s Log, Stardate 55652.2;
We arrived at the planet Swath several hours ago and everything that we’ve been told about the place is true. The Selvee and Chobraq live side-by-side on this world and, after an initial wariness, we have been welcomed as honored visitors.
It’s nice not to be looking over our shoulders anymore.
Lieutenant Valian Kandro sat in the Captain’s chair on the Testudo’s Bridge. Despite the fact that the ship was in a stationary orbit, he was alert to the point of paranoia. Every few seconds, his gaze would shift from the viewscreen to the console by his right hand and then back again.
“Would you relax a bit?,” said Lieutenant Paul Carson from above him at Tactical.
The Betazoid craned his head around to look upwards. Carson was a powerfully-built black man in his mid-fifties, sporting short iron-gray hair. The first impression that people got upon meeting him was one of awe. He could be quite intimidating. A few minutes in his company and most people discovered that he was a teddy bear at heart.
“I’ve been left in command and if I want to be paranoid, then I will be,” said Kandro. His tone wasn’t arrogant but merely concerned.
Lawson shrugged. “Okay, then. You’re the boss, but I’m going to have a nap. Wake me if I start snoring.” He grinned at his own joke.
“Funny,” Kandro began,” is my business.” He grinned as well.
Turning back towards the viewscreen, Kandro sighed. Much as he loved being the Third Officer aboard the Testudo, he did always seem to get left in command while the ship was in orbit. He couldn’t remember the last time that he had even managed to command a nightshift. He ran a hand through his thinning blonde hair and sighed again, deciding that it didn’t bother him that much really. It wasn’t as though he really had a career path that he foresaw ending in a captaincy of his own. For the majority of his career, he had simply followed his friends from ship-to-ship.
No, strike that.
He had followed Isabel Cardonez from ship-to-ship.
He had left Starfleet Academy, almost ten years ago and his first posting had been aboard the USS Galaxy where he had served under the then-Lieutenant Cardonez. Security hadn’t been his forte and with her as Chief of Security, it had been quickly realized. Within two years, he was shunted over to Operations and he finally found his calling. It was strange but considering that he and Isabel hadn’t shared that many non-work conversations while both in Security, they became friends once they were in different departments. Two years later when she gained command of the USS Osprey, she asked him to go with her and he was more than happy to.
Fifteen months ago, he followed her again to the Testudo.
Alongside Liz Tennyson, Cardonez was one of the best friends that Kandro had. So much so that, despite his near pathological womanizing, he had never made so much as a move on her. Of course, that had all changed within the last few months.
In retrospect, he still hadn’t understood why after ten years of platonic friendship, the two of them were now lovers. The worst part was that he had finally admitted to himself that he had something of a crush on her from the first day that he saw her. That confused matters now because, as far as she was aware, it was a purely physical relationship. Kandro didn’t quite know how to broach the subject that he was falling for her.
He was so caught up in these thoughts that he didn’t hear the turbolift doors open and he wasn’t aware that the Bridge had a new arrival until she sat down heavily into the chair on his left side. “So, that’s the Swath, eh?,” asked Lieutenant Louise Ramblin.
Kandro scowled at her. The last thing that he needed right now was a cheerful Ramblin. “We’ve been in orbit for over two hours and this is the first time that you’ve taken a look?”
“I’ve been busy,” she replied defensively.
Kandro faced forward again. “First time for everything.”
His comment had been obvious bait but, for possibly the first time in recorded history, she didn’t take it. “It’s an interesting place by the looks of it,” was all that she said.
He looked at her again. She was focused on the viewscreen and he narrowed his eyes, wondering if she was merely thinking of a really good retort or she genuinely didn’t want to play today.
If she was aware of his gaze, she didn’t show it. “Why are the oceans so yellow?,” she asked him.
Kandro looked quizzically at her for another second before he returned his gaze to the planet.
The planet was mostly ocean with a single large continent traversing the surface from North Pole to South Pole. This landmass was irregularly shaped and quite thin near the northern icecap but growing fatter around the equator before tapering back again and growing ever thinner as it approached the southern icecap. As Ramblin had seen, the oceans were blue but with a distinct yellowish tinge.
Swath was quite small and approximately the size of Mars. A heavy iron core and a fast rotation meant that its gravity was almost Earth normal. Kandro remembered this face from Commander Masafumi’s impromptu briefing earlier. Now he trotted out what else he had learned.
“There’s a large chain of active undersea volcanoes that pumps excessive amounts of sulfur into the oceans,” he said, gesturing towards the viewscreen. “See how the lush areas are all inland?”
“Yeah, I see what you mean,” she said. The landmass was covered in large tracts of jungle, especially near the equator and yet by the coastal areas, it seemed to be predominantly desert. “I take it that the seawater serves to kill off any coastal plant life?”
“You’ve got it. There’s a desert zone stretching approximately three kilometers inland from the coast around the whole continent.”
“Population?,” Ramblin asked.
Kandro checked his console. “Over seventy-three million. Sixty percent of those are Selvee, thirty-five percent are Chobraq, and then there are a smattering of other races.” He pressed a button and the viewscreen reset itself to a tactical display.
Ramblin saw this. “Why do you have Tactical routed through to your console?”
“Because he thinks I’m going to fall asleep,” said Carson before Kandro could reply.
The Betazoid ignored him. “I’m just being cautious.”
“Come on. The Swath government welcomed us here. Why be worried about them?”
“It’s not them that I’m worried about,” said Kandro. “Paul, switch to aft sensors.”
Carson sighed but he did as he was ordered. On the viewscreen, Ramblin saw the planet from a slightly different angle where she saw another ship in orbit.
It looked impressive, powerful, and intimidating. Suddenly, Ramblin could understand why Kandro was somewhat on edge.
The ship was easily five times the mass of Testudo. A huge elliptical mass sat at its center with four pylons splaying out and upwards to four smaller ovoid-shaped protrusions. From beneath the main structure hung a single cylindrical structure as long as the main section. It throbbed purple in color looking for all of the world like a warp drive and it probably was, she decided. The ship was coal-black in color with only a few small lights dotting around its superstructure.
“Oh,” was all that she could say.
“It’s not as impressive as it looks,” said Carson.
“Who are they?,” asked Ramblin.
“That is a Wilith Battle Cruiser,” said Kandro. “They were the first to greet us when they entered the system. Audio only. It seems that they don’t like to be seen.”
“The Wilith are one of the races that protect Swath from the Mutuality, right?”
Kandro nodded. “Paul’s right. It isn’t as powerful as it looks. The four protrusions are reactors. It seems that it needs a lot of juice to run its warp drive. It’s faster than us by quite a wide margin but its weapons system isn’t overly impressive.”
“One phased compression pulse ring around the main section and a complement of plasma missiles,” said Carson,” plus a few disruptor type weapons located in turrets at strategic locations on the hull. We could probably take her in a fight.”
Louise frowned. “They why so worried?”
Kandro took a deep breath. “I don’t honestly know. Maybe because they’re sitting behind us or maybe because, even if we’re well-matched, orbital combat has a tendency to be unpredictable. Mostly because I’ve had a funny feeling that something bad is going to happen ever since we entered this system. It’s not logical, I know, but I can’t shake it”
Ramblin looked at the behemoth that sat between them and shivered as though someone had walked over her grave.
****
On the planetary surface below, an odd open-topped vehicle moved through streets thronged with market stalls and a myriad of people. Both Selvee and Chobraq were buying and selling a variety of wares from fruit to electrical items. The vehicle had six wheels but their arrangement was curious. Four of the wheels sat under the center of the vehicle in one long row from the front to the back, making it seem like a giant roller skate while the last two wheels were set on either side at the front of the vehicle like forward-facing stabilizers. The main body of the vehicles looked like the hull of a boat, sweeping upwards in a gentle curve and it was painted in what Isabel Cardonez had learned was official Government Green. Although Adam Huntington insisted that it was something called British Racing Green.
At the front of the vehicle, a single Chobraq female drove steadily along while being careful to avoid plowing into people. In the larger rear compartment, there were six seats but only five of the seats were taken.
Cardonez sat beside an impressive-looking Selvee woman. Behind them, Huntington and Yashiro Masafumi sat side-by-side and a serious-looking Selvee male sat alone in the rear seat.
“It’s a wonderful place that you have here, Domni Elni,” she said and she had to raise her voice to make herself heard over the noise of the vehicle’s engine, coupled with the throng of people around them. She had to take an unusually large gulp of air after speaking since she still hadn’t adjusted to the thinner atmosphere.
The Selvee woman smiled sweetly. She was old. Her once black skin had turned gray over the years but her hair was still a vivid lilac. It was cut asymmetrically, short on the left side but falling almost to her shoulder on her right side. Her large eyes swept left and right and the smile on her thin lips grew wider as she breathed in her world.
“You honor us, Captain Cardonez,” she said,” but we have merely done the best that we can with what the Gods provide.”
“I was wondering,” shouted Huntington, who was squinting in the midday sun which was made brighter by the planet’s thin atmosphere. “How did Swath come into being? How did Chobraq and Selvee first work together?”
Elni nodded to herself as though it was a story that she had to tell many times. “Swath was always a backwater world. Even during the First Mutuality over half a millennia ago, it was hard work to live and raise crops here. Even the dilithium buried under our feet didn’t attract more than a few thousand Chobraq colonists. With the fall of the First Mutuality, five hundred odd years ago, very little changed. The Selvee Empire sent its outcasts here. They were soldiers who had failed in their duty and were considered criminals. A few adventurous souls followed suit. When they arrived here, they found it as difficult as the Chobraq had. The advantage that they had was the existing colonists. Because we were so far flung from either spheres of influence, the Chobraq and the Selvee worked together, taming this world between them. As the years passed by, the Empire heard about what was happening here but Swath was too small for them to bother with. When the Ranger’s crew overthrew the Empire and the Second Mutuality was born, Swath managed again to slip under the radar. Although this time, we were aided by our allies, the Wilith and the Tahi’nolet. Over the years, under both the Empire and the Mutuality, Swath gained a reputation as a place where, first, the Chobraq and then the Selvee could be treated as something other than second-class citizens.”
Elni shook her head sadly. “No. A few diplomatic meetings have taken place over the last twenty years but it is usually all for naught. They offer us a place within the Mutuality but only if we reduce our planetary government to one domni, not three, and, of course, to ensure that the domni is always Chobraq.”
“A great shame,” said Masafumi. “They could learn a lot from you.”
Silence passed now while the vehicle moved past the markets and onto a clear street. The buildings on both sides of the street were an eclectic mix of old and new and of Selvee and Chobraq design. There was square-built Chobraq houses sitting side-by-side with spherical buildings that Elni had described as classic Selvee designs. The buildings were all composed of the same yellowish stone and they were all suffering from varying degrees of sun bleaching.
“This is the Temple of Drak,” she said, gesturing towards a large spherical building on their left side. It was the largest building that they had seen so far. Three twisted golden spires reached up from the top of the structure and into the sky.
“Fantastic!,” said Cardonez. “May we go inside?”
Elni looked taken aback by such interest but she ordered the driver to halt their vehicle. They were now sitting on the road directly outside of the temple. A long and winding path led towards the building’s single arched door. “I don’t see why not,” she said. “The other Domni are eager to meet you but what harm can a few minutes make?’
“Tell me, Domni,” asked Masafumi,” what Kiln do you belong to?”
“Ah,” she replied when they began to stand in preparation of exiting the vehicle,” I belong to the –”
If Domni Elni finished her sentence, no one was able to hear it as a large thump, louder than any sonic boom, echoed over them. An instant later, the Temple of Drak vaporized into a swirling cloud of yellow dust that swept outwards with the speed of a hurricane that tossed the vehicle over onto its side as though it was a child’s toy, choking the occupants with its thick cloying particles.
Episode Twenty-Three - ‘Crossing the Line’
By Jack Elmlinger
Prologue
Captain’s Log, Stardate 55652.2;
We arrived at the planet Swath several hours ago and everything that we’ve been told about the place is true. The Selvee and Chobraq live side-by-side on this world and, after an initial wariness, we have been welcomed as honored visitors.
It’s nice not to be looking over our shoulders anymore.
Lieutenant Valian Kandro sat in the Captain’s chair on the Testudo’s Bridge. Despite the fact that the ship was in a stationary orbit, he was alert to the point of paranoia. Every few seconds, his gaze would shift from the viewscreen to the console by his right hand and then back again.
“Would you relax a bit?,” said Lieutenant Paul Carson from above him at Tactical.
The Betazoid craned his head around to look upwards. Carson was a powerfully-built black man in his mid-fifties, sporting short iron-gray hair. The first impression that people got upon meeting him was one of awe. He could be quite intimidating. A few minutes in his company and most people discovered that he was a teddy bear at heart.
“I’ve been left in command and if I want to be paranoid, then I will be,” said Kandro. His tone wasn’t arrogant but merely concerned.
Lawson shrugged. “Okay, then. You’re the boss, but I’m going to have a nap. Wake me if I start snoring.” He grinned at his own joke.
“Funny,” Kandro began,” is my business.” He grinned as well.
Turning back towards the viewscreen, Kandro sighed. Much as he loved being the Third Officer aboard the Testudo, he did always seem to get left in command while the ship was in orbit. He couldn’t remember the last time that he had even managed to command a nightshift. He ran a hand through his thinning blonde hair and sighed again, deciding that it didn’t bother him that much really. It wasn’t as though he really had a career path that he foresaw ending in a captaincy of his own. For the majority of his career, he had simply followed his friends from ship-to-ship.
No, strike that.
He had followed Isabel Cardonez from ship-to-ship.
He had left Starfleet Academy, almost ten years ago and his first posting had been aboard the USS Galaxy where he had served under the then-Lieutenant Cardonez. Security hadn’t been his forte and with her as Chief of Security, it had been quickly realized. Within two years, he was shunted over to Operations and he finally found his calling. It was strange but considering that he and Isabel hadn’t shared that many non-work conversations while both in Security, they became friends once they were in different departments. Two years later when she gained command of the USS Osprey, she asked him to go with her and he was more than happy to.
Fifteen months ago, he followed her again to the Testudo.
Alongside Liz Tennyson, Cardonez was one of the best friends that Kandro had. So much so that, despite his near pathological womanizing, he had never made so much as a move on her. Of course, that had all changed within the last few months.
In retrospect, he still hadn’t understood why after ten years of platonic friendship, the two of them were now lovers. The worst part was that he had finally admitted to himself that he had something of a crush on her from the first day that he saw her. That confused matters now because, as far as she was aware, it was a purely physical relationship. Kandro didn’t quite know how to broach the subject that he was falling for her.
He was so caught up in these thoughts that he didn’t hear the turbolift doors open and he wasn’t aware that the Bridge had a new arrival until she sat down heavily into the chair on his left side. “So, that’s the Swath, eh?,” asked Lieutenant Louise Ramblin.
Kandro scowled at her. The last thing that he needed right now was a cheerful Ramblin. “We’ve been in orbit for over two hours and this is the first time that you’ve taken a look?”
“I’ve been busy,” she replied defensively.
Kandro faced forward again. “First time for everything.”
His comment had been obvious bait but, for possibly the first time in recorded history, she didn’t take it. “It’s an interesting place by the looks of it,” was all that she said.
He looked at her again. She was focused on the viewscreen and he narrowed his eyes, wondering if she was merely thinking of a really good retort or she genuinely didn’t want to play today.
If she was aware of his gaze, she didn’t show it. “Why are the oceans so yellow?,” she asked him.
Kandro looked quizzically at her for another second before he returned his gaze to the planet.
The planet was mostly ocean with a single large continent traversing the surface from North Pole to South Pole. This landmass was irregularly shaped and quite thin near the northern icecap but growing fatter around the equator before tapering back again and growing ever thinner as it approached the southern icecap. As Ramblin had seen, the oceans were blue but with a distinct yellowish tinge.
Swath was quite small and approximately the size of Mars. A heavy iron core and a fast rotation meant that its gravity was almost Earth normal. Kandro remembered this face from Commander Masafumi’s impromptu briefing earlier. Now he trotted out what else he had learned.
“There’s a large chain of active undersea volcanoes that pumps excessive amounts of sulfur into the oceans,” he said, gesturing towards the viewscreen. “See how the lush areas are all inland?”
“Yeah, I see what you mean,” she said. The landmass was covered in large tracts of jungle, especially near the equator and yet by the coastal areas, it seemed to be predominantly desert. “I take it that the seawater serves to kill off any coastal plant life?”
“You’ve got it. There’s a desert zone stretching approximately three kilometers inland from the coast around the whole continent.”
“Population?,” Ramblin asked.
Kandro checked his console. “Over seventy-three million. Sixty percent of those are Selvee, thirty-five percent are Chobraq, and then there are a smattering of other races.” He pressed a button and the viewscreen reset itself to a tactical display.
Ramblin saw this. “Why do you have Tactical routed through to your console?”
“Because he thinks I’m going to fall asleep,” said Carson before Kandro could reply.
The Betazoid ignored him. “I’m just being cautious.”
“Come on. The Swath government welcomed us here. Why be worried about them?”
“It’s not them that I’m worried about,” said Kandro. “Paul, switch to aft sensors.”
Carson sighed but he did as he was ordered. On the viewscreen, Ramblin saw the planet from a slightly different angle where she saw another ship in orbit.
It looked impressive, powerful, and intimidating. Suddenly, Ramblin could understand why Kandro was somewhat on edge.
The ship was easily five times the mass of Testudo. A huge elliptical mass sat at its center with four pylons splaying out and upwards to four smaller ovoid-shaped protrusions. From beneath the main structure hung a single cylindrical structure as long as the main section. It throbbed purple in color looking for all of the world like a warp drive and it probably was, she decided. The ship was coal-black in color with only a few small lights dotting around its superstructure.
“Oh,” was all that she could say.
“It’s not as impressive as it looks,” said Carson.
“Who are they?,” asked Ramblin.
“That is a Wilith Battle Cruiser,” said Kandro. “They were the first to greet us when they entered the system. Audio only. It seems that they don’t like to be seen.”
“The Wilith are one of the races that protect Swath from the Mutuality, right?”
Kandro nodded. “Paul’s right. It isn’t as powerful as it looks. The four protrusions are reactors. It seems that it needs a lot of juice to run its warp drive. It’s faster than us by quite a wide margin but its weapons system isn’t overly impressive.”
“One phased compression pulse ring around the main section and a complement of plasma missiles,” said Carson,” plus a few disruptor type weapons located in turrets at strategic locations on the hull. We could probably take her in a fight.”
Louise frowned. “They why so worried?”
Kandro took a deep breath. “I don’t honestly know. Maybe because they’re sitting behind us or maybe because, even if we’re well-matched, orbital combat has a tendency to be unpredictable. Mostly because I’ve had a funny feeling that something bad is going to happen ever since we entered this system. It’s not logical, I know, but I can’t shake it”
Ramblin looked at the behemoth that sat between them and shivered as though someone had walked over her grave.
****
On the planetary surface below, an odd open-topped vehicle moved through streets thronged with market stalls and a myriad of people. Both Selvee and Chobraq were buying and selling a variety of wares from fruit to electrical items. The vehicle had six wheels but their arrangement was curious. Four of the wheels sat under the center of the vehicle in one long row from the front to the back, making it seem like a giant roller skate while the last two wheels were set on either side at the front of the vehicle like forward-facing stabilizers. The main body of the vehicles looked like the hull of a boat, sweeping upwards in a gentle curve and it was painted in what Isabel Cardonez had learned was official Government Green. Although Adam Huntington insisted that it was something called British Racing Green.
At the front of the vehicle, a single Chobraq female drove steadily along while being careful to avoid plowing into people. In the larger rear compartment, there were six seats but only five of the seats were taken.
Cardonez sat beside an impressive-looking Selvee woman. Behind them, Huntington and Yashiro Masafumi sat side-by-side and a serious-looking Selvee male sat alone in the rear seat.
“It’s a wonderful place that you have here, Domni Elni,” she said and she had to raise her voice to make herself heard over the noise of the vehicle’s engine, coupled with the throng of people around them. She had to take an unusually large gulp of air after speaking since she still hadn’t adjusted to the thinner atmosphere.
The Selvee woman smiled sweetly. She was old. Her once black skin had turned gray over the years but her hair was still a vivid lilac. It was cut asymmetrically, short on the left side but falling almost to her shoulder on her right side. Her large eyes swept left and right and the smile on her thin lips grew wider as she breathed in her world.
“You honor us, Captain Cardonez,” she said,” but we have merely done the best that we can with what the Gods provide.”
“I was wondering,” shouted Huntington, who was squinting in the midday sun which was made brighter by the planet’s thin atmosphere. “How did Swath come into being? How did Chobraq and Selvee first work together?”
Elni nodded to herself as though it was a story that she had to tell many times. “Swath was always a backwater world. Even during the First Mutuality over half a millennia ago, it was hard work to live and raise crops here. Even the dilithium buried under our feet didn’t attract more than a few thousand Chobraq colonists. With the fall of the First Mutuality, five hundred odd years ago, very little changed. The Selvee Empire sent its outcasts here. They were soldiers who had failed in their duty and were considered criminals. A few adventurous souls followed suit. When they arrived here, they found it as difficult as the Chobraq had. The advantage that they had was the existing colonists. Because we were so far flung from either spheres of influence, the Chobraq and the Selvee worked together, taming this world between them. As the years passed by, the Empire heard about what was happening here but Swath was too small for them to bother with. When the Ranger’s crew overthrew the Empire and the Second Mutuality was born, Swath managed again to slip under the radar. Although this time, we were aided by our allies, the Wilith and the Tahi’nolet. Over the years, under both the Empire and the Mutuality, Swath gained a reputation as a place where, first, the Chobraq and then the Selvee could be treated as something other than second-class citizens.”
Elni shook her head sadly. “No. A few diplomatic meetings have taken place over the last twenty years but it is usually all for naught. They offer us a place within the Mutuality but only if we reduce our planetary government to one domni, not three, and, of course, to ensure that the domni is always Chobraq.”
“A great shame,” said Masafumi. “They could learn a lot from you.”
Silence passed now while the vehicle moved past the markets and onto a clear street. The buildings on both sides of the street were an eclectic mix of old and new and of Selvee and Chobraq design. There was square-built Chobraq houses sitting side-by-side with spherical buildings that Elni had described as classic Selvee designs. The buildings were all composed of the same yellowish stone and they were all suffering from varying degrees of sun bleaching.
“This is the Temple of Drak,” she said, gesturing towards a large spherical building on their left side. It was the largest building that they had seen so far. Three twisted golden spires reached up from the top of the structure and into the sky.
“Fantastic!,” said Cardonez. “May we go inside?”
Elni looked taken aback by such interest but she ordered the driver to halt their vehicle. They were now sitting on the road directly outside of the temple. A long and winding path led towards the building’s single arched door. “I don’t see why not,” she said. “The other Domni are eager to meet you but what harm can a few minutes make?’
“Tell me, Domni,” asked Masafumi,” what Kiln do you belong to?”
“Ah,” she replied when they began to stand in preparation of exiting the vehicle,” I belong to the –”
If Domni Elni finished her sentence, no one was able to hear it as a large thump, louder than any sonic boom, echoed over them. An instant later, the Temple of Drak vaporized into a swirling cloud of yellow dust that swept outwards with the speed of a hurricane that tossed the vehicle over onto its side as though it was a child’s toy, choking the occupants with its thick cloying particles.
Someone doesn't like Drak.
Typical... Testudo and crew finally end up in a halfway decent place and someone has to come along and blow it to kingdom come...
Again really nice world-building. Followed by a bit of world-blowing-up.
Thanks!! rbs
Typical... Testudo and crew finally end up in a halfway decent place and someone has to come along and blow it to kingdom come...
Again really nice world-building. Followed by a bit of world-blowing-up.
Thanks!! rbs
I need to stop playing with plasma grenades.
Chapter One
Cardonez was blind, deaf, and she was disoriented but her primary concern was the choking smoke that she had inadvertently sucked into her lungs each time that she drew a breath. As she coughed and hacked, she suddenly heard others in similar predicaments around her as her hearing started to clear.
She was lying on her side, winded, and with an ache in her left side that she hoped wasn’t broken ribs. She was wheezing now. The air had been thin to begin with but now she was really having trouble with breathing.
A hand suddenly gripped her shoulder. She tensed but a familiar voice relaxed her. “Captain?,” said Commander Masafumi, his voice strangely muffled.
“It’s me.” She squeezed out the words, barely recognizing her own voice. Suddenly a hand clamped something to her mouth.
“Breathe through this.”
She brought a hand up and took the object, a thin piece of material that, although not filtering out all of the dust, it, at least, helped her to breath easier. “Where’s Hunbtington?,” she asked.
“Here,” came a muffled reply. “I’m with the Domni. She’s alive but unconscious. There’s no sign of the driver or her bodyguard. I think my ankle is broken.”
Stilling holding her makeshift filter to her mouth, she tapped her combadge. There was no reply. “Can anyone else reach the ship?,” she asked the darkness surrounding her.
“No,” said Masafumi. “The dust…” He coughed now with a horrid, retching sound. “The dust … must be interfering.”
Now Isabel heard a new sound. It was distant, although that might have been her hearing which still wasn’t back to being normal. Weapons fire.
“Could it be security personnel?,” asked Masafumi.
“Or it could be whoever blew up the temple,” said Cardonez. Instinctively, she reached for her hip, despite that there wasn’t any phaser there. It wasn’t the right thing to go armed on a diplomatic mission, but there was still always hope. “Adam!,” she shouted. “Can I assume that you have a weapon?”
“You can, indeed,” he replied. “A Type-One phaser hidden in my boot.” There was a pause. “I’m sorry. I know that it’s against your orders…”
“Screw that. It might be all that keeps us alive.” Her vision was starting to clear. Now, instead of a dark blur, she saw a light blur. As the dust settled further, her eyes began to water and she began to make out crude shapes.
The vehicle was on its side beside them and Masafumi was crouched by her side. Looking further, she made out a body that lay a few feet away.
“The bodyguard,” she said and turned over onto her front before crawling over to where the Selee layed. Her sight was nowhere near perfect and all that she saw was a vaguely humanoid shape but she still saw the blocky shape of a weapon at his hip. Tearing it from his holster, she made her way back to Masafumi.
“This is something,” she said, hefting the heavy pistol. “I suggest we move over to Adam and the Domni.”
“Good idea,” he said and the two of them gingerly shuffled across the road, using the upturned vehicle almost as a guide rope.
It was only a few steps but still they both fell to their knees, short of breath, beside Huntington and the unconscious Domni.
Most of the dust had settled now and Cardonez could see fairly well, although her eyes stung like crazy and she suspected that her retinas had been scratched. The tears were helping to ease the pain. She threw the cloth that she had held across her mouth to one side – it was so clogged with dust that it was almost useless now – handing the pistol to Masafumi before she stripped off her uniform jacket.
Huntington was propped up uncomfortably against the upturned vehicle and she folded her jacket in two, creating a makeshift pillow for him.
“Thanks,” he said when she leaned forward and placed it behind him. He winced when he leaned backwards. “I think I might have busted a few ribs.”
“You’ll be okay,” said Isabel. “We all will. Doctor Hollem will fix you up.”
“Oh, of that, I have no doubt.” Huntington glanced at the small hand phaser that he held in his hand. “You should take this. I’m not exactly mobile.”
“I don’t think so,” Masafumi said, passing the pistol back to the Captain. He looked down at Huntington. “If we’re in a combat situation, I feel safer with one of you armed than me.”
“Me and my bloody reputation,” said Huntington with a laugh that made him wince in pain again.
“The weapons fire is getting closer,” said Cardonez. “Yashiro, see if you can locate the driver.” Suddenly, there was a tattoo of weapons hits on the other side of the vehicle, echoing like a tin drum around them. As it ceased, she added,” Maybe she had a weapon.”
“Will do,” said Masafumi and he set off towards what had been the driver’s section.
Cardonez tried her combadge again. This time she was rewarded with the dulcet tones of Lieutenant Kandro. “Captain, are you all right?”
“Just about,” she answered him.
“What’s going on? Radio chatter is talking about explosions and gunfire.”
“We’re right in the middle of it. We need a beam out. Lock onto my signal and prepare to beam – “
“I’m sorry,” he replied. “I can’t do it.”
“Why the hell not?!”
****
“Oh, a really good reason,” Kandro said from the command chair. Almost as soon as he had finished speaking, a dark-gloved hand reached across him and deactivated the intercom. The hand had four thick fingers.
The Betazoid looked up at the being that stood by him. “Look, I’m telling you. We’re not responsible – “
“Silence,” came the modulated reply from a silver voice box mounted on the chest of the Wilith soldier. He was short and squat, encased in dark armor that seemed to flow over him like a sheet over a fake ghost. A thin band of silver wrapped around his head and Kandro wondered if he could see in three hundred and sixty degrees around him. Two stubby arms protruded from his torso. In one of them was a collection of crystals of varying colors held together by thin wires.
It was a weapon.
Kandro knew this because, seconds after they had beamed aboard, this particular Wilith had used it on Louise Ramblin. Testudo’s Chief Engineer now lay on the deck nearby. He had tried to reach her but a quick gesture from the crystal weapon had made him retake his seat.
So far, she was the only casualty. No one else had made a hostile move. To be honest, it would have been futile since there were twenty of the tiny Wilith clustered around the Bridge.
“Valian, we have to do something,” said Lieutenant Zia Kehen from her place at the helm.
“You will be quiet as well,” said the Wilith who stood beside Kandro. He appeared to be the leader, although in truth, there was no way to tell them apart.
Kehen scowled at them and then she scowled at Kandro.
He shook his head, trying to communicate that it wasn’t time to antagonize their guests. Not yet at any rate.
****
Commander Masafumi had found the driver. Or rather, he had found part of her. When the vehicle had tipped over, she had obviously been half-thrown out and it had fallen down on her. Everything from her chest upwards was gone. He swallowed hard, trying to settle his stomach. What was left of her included her weapon. He reached down for the pistol but hesitated, feeling like a grave robber. He took it anyway.
There was more weapons fire and curiosity got the better of the Commander. He was near the front of the vehicle and now he shimmed up to it. Crouching, he peeked quickly around the corner. There was still enough dust in the air to make vision limited but he made out several large, dark forms moving quickly towards them.
Selvee…
Ducking back, he returned to the others. As he approached, he heard Cardonez sweating.
“What is it?,” he asked her.
“It’s Kandro. HE won’t beam us up.”
“Any idea why?”
Cardonez shook her head. “None at all.” She gestured at his pistol. “You found the driver, then?”
“What’s left of her. There are people heading this way.”
“You should get out of here,” said Huntington. “You’re safer on the move.”
“Perhaps, but we can’t move you or the Domni,” said Cardonez. “We’ll make a stand here. Hopefully, some kind of security force is on the way. “Commander, you’ll take the front. I’ll take the rear and – “
She was caught short as the vehicle shook under another impact. However, this wasn’t from weapons fire. The loud clang that accompanied the impact came from above.
At the same time, the three Starfleet officers looked upward. The dust had almost completely settled now, covering them all in a thin layer. Perched on top of the upturned vehicle was a single Selvee woman. Her purple hair was shaved within an itch of her skull. Her eyes were wide and gleaming. Selvee mouths were small and thin-lipped but the insane grin that lit up her face was clear for all to see.
As was her nudity.
Her breasts hung low, lower than they would on a Human and the triangle of purple hair between her legs seemed to be incongruous. If it wasn’t for the look on her face and the knives in each of her hands, she might have seemed foolish. Instead, she was like some kind of hellish dervish.
That was all that they had time to see as with a scream, she leaped at them.
Cardonez and Masafumi reacted immediately, raising their pistols and firing.
Their weapons were quad-barrelled and plasma firing pistols and a single pull of the trigger was enough to send four bolts of white-hot plasma from each gun at the falling assailant.
Huntington ignored the Selvee woman. With a scream of agony, he lurched forward and over the top of the unconscious Domni. His phaser was tracking from the front of the vehicle when he uttered a single word,” Decoy!”
Neither Starfleet officers’ aim was particularly good but the scattershot effect of eight bolts ensured that two of them hit the Selvee woman when she plummeted towards them. One shot lanced through her right wrist, several her hand. The second punched a hole through her throat, killing her instantly.
As her body hit the ground, both Masafumi and Cardonez dived out of the way, hitting the ground hard.
Meanwhile, Huntington was proven correct when two Selvee came hurtling around the corner. They were both male and naked, holding up plasma pistols of their own. The surprise of their attack wasn’t what they had wished for. The Security Chief’s phaser was set on Level Eight, its maximum setting, and it was set for a wide beam. One blast was enough to vaporize both of the attackers. He knew, in his moment of victory, that this was unlikely to be their only attack. He began to twist around to face the rear of the vehicle, knowing that if they had timed it right, he would already be too late.
With her side aching more now since she had thumped down hard on it again, Cardonez watched Huntington vaporize the two Selvee. Her mind worked almost as quickly as his and when she looked towards the rear of the vehicle, she wasn’t surprised to see two more attackers, one man and one woman, come around the corner. She raised her gun and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
The plasma pistol was powerful but at a price. Its charge only held enough power for four shots and their guns had been set to fire all four barrels at once.
The Selvee hadn’t made that mistake, she realized, when the man opened fire on her, a single bolt of plasma heading her way. She rolled towards the woman that she had helped to kill, hoping to reach for a knife. The plasma bolt struck the ground when she had lain and she felt the heat from it.
She grabbed for the knife that was still gripped in the severed hand. Looking up, she saw her assailants close on her with the same insane look of homicidal glee in their eyes.
She wasn’t going to get the knife in time and she knew it. Both of the Selvee were targeting their weapons on her.
Game over, she thought to herself.
Then a pistol sailed into the man’s face, knocking him momentarily to the ground. The female Selvee looked to the right side of Cardonez now when Masafumi ran headlong into her, knocking her off of her feet.
However, the male was rising to his feet and Cardonez still couldn’t get the knife.
“Captain, here!,” shouted Huntington.
Cardonez twisted to one side and Adam tossed his phaser towards her. She reached for it but her aim was off and it sailed past her fingers before it clattered onto the ground, a meter away.
The Selvee laughed with a guttural sound. “No time for your weapon, little Chobraq girl,” he mocked her.
Cardonez still had her left hand on the severed hand and knife combination and now, in desperation, she hurled it at her attacker.
It was a feeble weapon and she knew that there was no chance of the knife inflicting any damage but it served its purpose. The Selvee swatted it away with his gun hand, giving Cardonez vital seconds to dive for Huntington’s phaser. She reached for it, rolled over and fired.
The last words that the Selvee heard before he was disintegrated were Cardonez’. I’m not Chobraq!”
Meanwhile, Masafumi was desperately trying to gain leverage while he wrestled with the Selvee woman. It was proving to be difficult. Her obsidian skin had the texture of glass and his grip faltered too many times. She was stronger than him as well. As strong as a Klingon warrior. She punched him twice in the face and he let go of what feeble grip that he had while she sprang to her feet in time to see her companion vaporized. She grabbed for a fallen pistol and moved behind the rear of the vehicle. She was out of the Captain’s line of fire but the Commander was well within hers.
As he got into a shaky half-crouch, he saw her draw a bead on her. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. In the instance before she fired, Yashiro Masafumi thought about Zia Kehen, the woman that he loved. He thought about his son William and the daughter that he wouldn’t ever see born.
“Die!,” screamed the Selvee and pulled the trigger.
Masafumi smiled. “Wrong pistol,” he said while he watched it dawn upon her that she had picked up the empty weapon that he had thrown at her companion. There was another gun to his left. He picked it up and aimed it at her. “Right pistol,” he said with a nod towards the gun.
If he expected her to meekly surrender, he was wrong. She screamed and ran at him.
He didn’t flinch.
Dropping his aim, he fired once. The single bolt of plasma hit her left leg, severing it just above the knee. When she fell to the ground, her scream altered to one of pain rather than anger and frustration.
“Yashiro, are you okay?,” asked Cardonez.
He nodded. “Yes, Captain,” he replied before seeing several shapes drawing closer in the distance,” but we have more on the way.” He quickly joined her.
“Can you figure out how many shots that you have left?,” she asked him.
Masafumi looked at the weapon, quickly finding an energy level indicator. “One, I believe.”
“Great.”
“I’m afraid I vaporized the other guys’ guns along with them,” said Huntington.
“Me too,” said Isabel, tapping her combadge. “Kandro, I don’t care if you reply or not. We are in some serious shit down here. We need beaming out, now!”
****
High above the planet, Valian Kandro wrestled with his conscience. He knew that his first duty was to the crew but he couldn’t leave the Testudo’s senior officers to die. He couldn’t leave Isabel to die.
“Ah, screw it!,” he shouted and leaped out of his chair, throwing himself at the Wilith soldier and hoping to knock him to the deck. “Get them!”
It was like running into a brick wall.
The squat creature barely moved when the Betazoid rammed into him. On the other hand, he slid down the Wilith’s slick armor to the deck before rising up and trying to bear hug him.
Kehen stood with her back to her station now, facing the command area. She wasn’t getting involved with the fighting, despite the chaos around her. Starfleet officers fell to the ground under Wilith weapons fire to her left and right sides. On the upper area of the Bridge, Paul Carson had somehow managed to lift a Wilith in both hands and he was preparing to throw the creature over the horseshoe-shaped railing. It wasn’t that she wanted to fight back. It was just that she was concerned for her baby. Besides, this wasn’t exactly what she had in mind when she told Valian to do something.
She had expected a cunning strategy, not a bar room brawl.
As she watched, Carson fell under the weapons fire of four Wilith. His captive fell onto his crumpled form.
Kandro was frustrated when he failed again to come to grips with the Wilith, finding himself on the deck once more. He tried to adopt a different strategy. Feeling somewhat comical, he went for the helm of the - man’s - armor.
It was impossible.
He couldn’t even get his fingers beneath the material. Whatever it was made of, it was heavy and Kandro began to realize that the Wilith probably possessed a strength that belied their size. Giving up on this new course of action, he saw that the Bridge had gone quiet and he knew that his little insurrection had failed.
He looked up. The Wilith was looking down at him with the array of crystals now pointed in his direction.
The battle was over and Kehen realized that she was the only Starfleet officer still on her feet. There wasn’t a single Wilith down. Even the one who had fallen onto Carson was now on its feet again. As she watched the lead Wilith target its weapon on Kandro, she knew that she couldn’t stay neutral no longer. Grabbing a PADD that had been lying by her console, she strode over and brought it down with all of her might on the Wilith soldier’s head.
He didn’t even flinch when the boronite casing shattered into a thousand fragments. Slowly and agonizingly, he turned around to face her. The crystals were now starting to glow.
****
They had enough time to shoot down their attackers at a distance but they hadn’t done so as Adam Huntington pointed out. “If we shoot them out there, we can’t take their weapons. Let them come to us.”
So the three Starfleet officers sat, clustered in a protective circle around the still unconscious Domni. Isabel still had the phaser and Yashiro had his single shot phaser. The Security Chief had acquired a knife which he had weighed up in his hand before flipping it so that he held the blade in his palm, all the better to throw it.
They came from the front and the rear like before and in groups of two like before. The Captain shot the two at the rear. At the front, Masafumi used his last shot to disarm the first attacked while Huntington’s broken ribs didn’t put his aim off at all and the blade was soon embedded in the face of the second attacker.
Masafumi scrambled to grab the two fallen pistols but Isabel didn’t get the chance to go for the two attackers that she had downed before another Selvee leaped from the top of the vehicle. She just had time to fire upwards and duck out of the way before the dead body fell beside her.
Already they could hear more footfalls as more attackers approached.
Cardonez hit her combadge once more and sent another message to Testudo, even though she doubted that it would have any further effect.
****
While Zia Kehen waited to be fired up, she faintly heard the intercom activate again and Captain Cardonez’s voice echoed across the Bridge once more.
“For God’s sake, Valian! Help us! If not us, then, at least, beam the Domni out of here! She’s injured and needs medical attention urgently.” The tremor of fear that was evident in the Captain’s voice was something that the Yulanian rarely heard and it scared her more than her own impending death.
Surprisingly, the Wilith lowered his arm. A moment later, the silver voice bow on his chest flashed several times, although no sound emerged from it.
Suddenly the Bridge was lit up by a bright yellow flash of light when four figures appeared on the deck by Kehen’s console. It was unlike any transporter beam that she had ever seen. The four individuals appeared almost out of a yellowish mist, slowly forming into substantial, not to mention recognizable forms.
“Yashiro!,” she cried out and dropped to her knees, swinging her arms around Masafumi.
“It’s nice to see you too,” he said with a laugh that belied his dirt-encrusted exterior.
“Medical emergency! Medical teams to the Bridge,” Lieutenant Kandro said upon seeing the injured Selvee politician. Still lying on the ground, although propped up on one elbow, his dark eyes met Cardonez’. “I’m sorry. They arrived just after the shooting started.”
She nodded that she understood before she rose to her feet, her phaser still in her hand.
The Wilith leader approached her and bowed his head. “Apologies,” he said while his voice box flickered. “A misunderstanding.”
Isabel didn’t even get a chance to open her mouth in reply. The Wilith leader’s voice box silently spoke again and every Wilith on the Bridge faded into a yellow mist and then into nothingness.
Wincing while he maneuvered himself into a more comfortable sitting position, Huntington looked up at his Commanding Officer. “Captain,” he said with a gentle smile,” next time that we go to meet with any important planetary dignitaries, let’s take a security detachment with us. Just in case.”
Cardonez was blind, deaf, and she was disoriented but her primary concern was the choking smoke that she had inadvertently sucked into her lungs each time that she drew a breath. As she coughed and hacked, she suddenly heard others in similar predicaments around her as her hearing started to clear.
She was lying on her side, winded, and with an ache in her left side that she hoped wasn’t broken ribs. She was wheezing now. The air had been thin to begin with but now she was really having trouble with breathing.
A hand suddenly gripped her shoulder. She tensed but a familiar voice relaxed her. “Captain?,” said Commander Masafumi, his voice strangely muffled.
“It’s me.” She squeezed out the words, barely recognizing her own voice. Suddenly a hand clamped something to her mouth.
“Breathe through this.”
She brought a hand up and took the object, a thin piece of material that, although not filtering out all of the dust, it, at least, helped her to breath easier. “Where’s Hunbtington?,” she asked.
“Here,” came a muffled reply. “I’m with the Domni. She’s alive but unconscious. There’s no sign of the driver or her bodyguard. I think my ankle is broken.”
Stilling holding her makeshift filter to her mouth, she tapped her combadge. There was no reply. “Can anyone else reach the ship?,” she asked the darkness surrounding her.
“No,” said Masafumi. “The dust…” He coughed now with a horrid, retching sound. “The dust … must be interfering.”
Now Isabel heard a new sound. It was distant, although that might have been her hearing which still wasn’t back to being normal. Weapons fire.
“Could it be security personnel?,” asked Masafumi.
“Or it could be whoever blew up the temple,” said Cardonez. Instinctively, she reached for her hip, despite that there wasn’t any phaser there. It wasn’t the right thing to go armed on a diplomatic mission, but there was still always hope. “Adam!,” she shouted. “Can I assume that you have a weapon?”
“You can, indeed,” he replied. “A Type-One phaser hidden in my boot.” There was a pause. “I’m sorry. I know that it’s against your orders…”
“Screw that. It might be all that keeps us alive.” Her vision was starting to clear. Now, instead of a dark blur, she saw a light blur. As the dust settled further, her eyes began to water and she began to make out crude shapes.
The vehicle was on its side beside them and Masafumi was crouched by her side. Looking further, she made out a body that lay a few feet away.
“The bodyguard,” she said and turned over onto her front before crawling over to where the Selee layed. Her sight was nowhere near perfect and all that she saw was a vaguely humanoid shape but she still saw the blocky shape of a weapon at his hip. Tearing it from his holster, she made her way back to Masafumi.
“This is something,” she said, hefting the heavy pistol. “I suggest we move over to Adam and the Domni.”
“Good idea,” he said and the two of them gingerly shuffled across the road, using the upturned vehicle almost as a guide rope.
It was only a few steps but still they both fell to their knees, short of breath, beside Huntington and the unconscious Domni.
Most of the dust had settled now and Cardonez could see fairly well, although her eyes stung like crazy and she suspected that her retinas had been scratched. The tears were helping to ease the pain. She threw the cloth that she had held across her mouth to one side – it was so clogged with dust that it was almost useless now – handing the pistol to Masafumi before she stripped off her uniform jacket.
Huntington was propped up uncomfortably against the upturned vehicle and she folded her jacket in two, creating a makeshift pillow for him.
“Thanks,” he said when she leaned forward and placed it behind him. He winced when he leaned backwards. “I think I might have busted a few ribs.”
“You’ll be okay,” said Isabel. “We all will. Doctor Hollem will fix you up.”
“Oh, of that, I have no doubt.” Huntington glanced at the small hand phaser that he held in his hand. “You should take this. I’m not exactly mobile.”
“I don’t think so,” Masafumi said, passing the pistol back to the Captain. He looked down at Huntington. “If we’re in a combat situation, I feel safer with one of you armed than me.”
“Me and my bloody reputation,” said Huntington with a laugh that made him wince in pain again.
“The weapons fire is getting closer,” said Cardonez. “Yashiro, see if you can locate the driver.” Suddenly, there was a tattoo of weapons hits on the other side of the vehicle, echoing like a tin drum around them. As it ceased, she added,” Maybe she had a weapon.”
“Will do,” said Masafumi and he set off towards what had been the driver’s section.
Cardonez tried her combadge again. This time she was rewarded with the dulcet tones of Lieutenant Kandro. “Captain, are you all right?”
“Just about,” she answered him.
“What’s going on? Radio chatter is talking about explosions and gunfire.”
“We’re right in the middle of it. We need a beam out. Lock onto my signal and prepare to beam – “
“I’m sorry,” he replied. “I can’t do it.”
“Why the hell not?!”
****
“Oh, a really good reason,” Kandro said from the command chair. Almost as soon as he had finished speaking, a dark-gloved hand reached across him and deactivated the intercom. The hand had four thick fingers.
The Betazoid looked up at the being that stood by him. “Look, I’m telling you. We’re not responsible – “
“Silence,” came the modulated reply from a silver voice box mounted on the chest of the Wilith soldier. He was short and squat, encased in dark armor that seemed to flow over him like a sheet over a fake ghost. A thin band of silver wrapped around his head and Kandro wondered if he could see in three hundred and sixty degrees around him. Two stubby arms protruded from his torso. In one of them was a collection of crystals of varying colors held together by thin wires.
It was a weapon.
Kandro knew this because, seconds after they had beamed aboard, this particular Wilith had used it on Louise Ramblin. Testudo’s Chief Engineer now lay on the deck nearby. He had tried to reach her but a quick gesture from the crystal weapon had made him retake his seat.
So far, she was the only casualty. No one else had made a hostile move. To be honest, it would have been futile since there were twenty of the tiny Wilith clustered around the Bridge.
“Valian, we have to do something,” said Lieutenant Zia Kehen from her place at the helm.
“You will be quiet as well,” said the Wilith who stood beside Kandro. He appeared to be the leader, although in truth, there was no way to tell them apart.
Kehen scowled at them and then she scowled at Kandro.
He shook his head, trying to communicate that it wasn’t time to antagonize their guests. Not yet at any rate.
****
Commander Masafumi had found the driver. Or rather, he had found part of her. When the vehicle had tipped over, she had obviously been half-thrown out and it had fallen down on her. Everything from her chest upwards was gone. He swallowed hard, trying to settle his stomach. What was left of her included her weapon. He reached down for the pistol but hesitated, feeling like a grave robber. He took it anyway.
There was more weapons fire and curiosity got the better of the Commander. He was near the front of the vehicle and now he shimmed up to it. Crouching, he peeked quickly around the corner. There was still enough dust in the air to make vision limited but he made out several large, dark forms moving quickly towards them.
Selvee…
Ducking back, he returned to the others. As he approached, he heard Cardonez sweating.
“What is it?,” he asked her.
“It’s Kandro. HE won’t beam us up.”
“Any idea why?”
Cardonez shook her head. “None at all.” She gestured at his pistol. “You found the driver, then?”
“What’s left of her. There are people heading this way.”
“You should get out of here,” said Huntington. “You’re safer on the move.”
“Perhaps, but we can’t move you or the Domni,” said Cardonez. “We’ll make a stand here. Hopefully, some kind of security force is on the way. “Commander, you’ll take the front. I’ll take the rear and – “
She was caught short as the vehicle shook under another impact. However, this wasn’t from weapons fire. The loud clang that accompanied the impact came from above.
At the same time, the three Starfleet officers looked upward. The dust had almost completely settled now, covering them all in a thin layer. Perched on top of the upturned vehicle was a single Selvee woman. Her purple hair was shaved within an itch of her skull. Her eyes were wide and gleaming. Selvee mouths were small and thin-lipped but the insane grin that lit up her face was clear for all to see.
As was her nudity.
Her breasts hung low, lower than they would on a Human and the triangle of purple hair between her legs seemed to be incongruous. If it wasn’t for the look on her face and the knives in each of her hands, she might have seemed foolish. Instead, she was like some kind of hellish dervish.
That was all that they had time to see as with a scream, she leaped at them.
Cardonez and Masafumi reacted immediately, raising their pistols and firing.
Their weapons were quad-barrelled and plasma firing pistols and a single pull of the trigger was enough to send four bolts of white-hot plasma from each gun at the falling assailant.
Huntington ignored the Selvee woman. With a scream of agony, he lurched forward and over the top of the unconscious Domni. His phaser was tracking from the front of the vehicle when he uttered a single word,” Decoy!”
Neither Starfleet officers’ aim was particularly good but the scattershot effect of eight bolts ensured that two of them hit the Selvee woman when she plummeted towards them. One shot lanced through her right wrist, several her hand. The second punched a hole through her throat, killing her instantly.
As her body hit the ground, both Masafumi and Cardonez dived out of the way, hitting the ground hard.
Meanwhile, Huntington was proven correct when two Selvee came hurtling around the corner. They were both male and naked, holding up plasma pistols of their own. The surprise of their attack wasn’t what they had wished for. The Security Chief’s phaser was set on Level Eight, its maximum setting, and it was set for a wide beam. One blast was enough to vaporize both of the attackers. He knew, in his moment of victory, that this was unlikely to be their only attack. He began to twist around to face the rear of the vehicle, knowing that if they had timed it right, he would already be too late.
With her side aching more now since she had thumped down hard on it again, Cardonez watched Huntington vaporize the two Selvee. Her mind worked almost as quickly as his and when she looked towards the rear of the vehicle, she wasn’t surprised to see two more attackers, one man and one woman, come around the corner. She raised her gun and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
The plasma pistol was powerful but at a price. Its charge only held enough power for four shots and their guns had been set to fire all four barrels at once.
The Selvee hadn’t made that mistake, she realized, when the man opened fire on her, a single bolt of plasma heading her way. She rolled towards the woman that she had helped to kill, hoping to reach for a knife. The plasma bolt struck the ground when she had lain and she felt the heat from it.
She grabbed for the knife that was still gripped in the severed hand. Looking up, she saw her assailants close on her with the same insane look of homicidal glee in their eyes.
She wasn’t going to get the knife in time and she knew it. Both of the Selvee were targeting their weapons on her.
Game over, she thought to herself.
Then a pistol sailed into the man’s face, knocking him momentarily to the ground. The female Selvee looked to the right side of Cardonez now when Masafumi ran headlong into her, knocking her off of her feet.
However, the male was rising to his feet and Cardonez still couldn’t get the knife.
“Captain, here!,” shouted Huntington.
Cardonez twisted to one side and Adam tossed his phaser towards her. She reached for it but her aim was off and it sailed past her fingers before it clattered onto the ground, a meter away.
The Selvee laughed with a guttural sound. “No time for your weapon, little Chobraq girl,” he mocked her.
Cardonez still had her left hand on the severed hand and knife combination and now, in desperation, she hurled it at her attacker.
It was a feeble weapon and she knew that there was no chance of the knife inflicting any damage but it served its purpose. The Selvee swatted it away with his gun hand, giving Cardonez vital seconds to dive for Huntington’s phaser. She reached for it, rolled over and fired.
The last words that the Selvee heard before he was disintegrated were Cardonez’. I’m not Chobraq!”
Meanwhile, Masafumi was desperately trying to gain leverage while he wrestled with the Selvee woman. It was proving to be difficult. Her obsidian skin had the texture of glass and his grip faltered too many times. She was stronger than him as well. As strong as a Klingon warrior. She punched him twice in the face and he let go of what feeble grip that he had while she sprang to her feet in time to see her companion vaporized. She grabbed for a fallen pistol and moved behind the rear of the vehicle. She was out of the Captain’s line of fire but the Commander was well within hers.
As he got into a shaky half-crouch, he saw her draw a bead on her. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. In the instance before she fired, Yashiro Masafumi thought about Zia Kehen, the woman that he loved. He thought about his son William and the daughter that he wouldn’t ever see born.
“Die!,” screamed the Selvee and pulled the trigger.
Masafumi smiled. “Wrong pistol,” he said while he watched it dawn upon her that she had picked up the empty weapon that he had thrown at her companion. There was another gun to his left. He picked it up and aimed it at her. “Right pistol,” he said with a nod towards the gun.
If he expected her to meekly surrender, he was wrong. She screamed and ran at him.
He didn’t flinch.
Dropping his aim, he fired once. The single bolt of plasma hit her left leg, severing it just above the knee. When she fell to the ground, her scream altered to one of pain rather than anger and frustration.
“Yashiro, are you okay?,” asked Cardonez.
He nodded. “Yes, Captain,” he replied before seeing several shapes drawing closer in the distance,” but we have more on the way.” He quickly joined her.
“Can you figure out how many shots that you have left?,” she asked him.
Masafumi looked at the weapon, quickly finding an energy level indicator. “One, I believe.”
“Great.”
“I’m afraid I vaporized the other guys’ guns along with them,” said Huntington.
“Me too,” said Isabel, tapping her combadge. “Kandro, I don’t care if you reply or not. We are in some serious shit down here. We need beaming out, now!”
****
High above the planet, Valian Kandro wrestled with his conscience. He knew that his first duty was to the crew but he couldn’t leave the Testudo’s senior officers to die. He couldn’t leave Isabel to die.
“Ah, screw it!,” he shouted and leaped out of his chair, throwing himself at the Wilith soldier and hoping to knock him to the deck. “Get them!”
It was like running into a brick wall.
The squat creature barely moved when the Betazoid rammed into him. On the other hand, he slid down the Wilith’s slick armor to the deck before rising up and trying to bear hug him.
Kehen stood with her back to her station now, facing the command area. She wasn’t getting involved with the fighting, despite the chaos around her. Starfleet officers fell to the ground under Wilith weapons fire to her left and right sides. On the upper area of the Bridge, Paul Carson had somehow managed to lift a Wilith in both hands and he was preparing to throw the creature over the horseshoe-shaped railing. It wasn’t that she wanted to fight back. It was just that she was concerned for her baby. Besides, this wasn’t exactly what she had in mind when she told Valian to do something.
She had expected a cunning strategy, not a bar room brawl.
As she watched, Carson fell under the weapons fire of four Wilith. His captive fell onto his crumpled form.
Kandro was frustrated when he failed again to come to grips with the Wilith, finding himself on the deck once more. He tried to adopt a different strategy. Feeling somewhat comical, he went for the helm of the - man’s - armor.
It was impossible.
He couldn’t even get his fingers beneath the material. Whatever it was made of, it was heavy and Kandro began to realize that the Wilith probably possessed a strength that belied their size. Giving up on this new course of action, he saw that the Bridge had gone quiet and he knew that his little insurrection had failed.
He looked up. The Wilith was looking down at him with the array of crystals now pointed in his direction.
The battle was over and Kehen realized that she was the only Starfleet officer still on her feet. There wasn’t a single Wilith down. Even the one who had fallen onto Carson was now on its feet again. As she watched the lead Wilith target its weapon on Kandro, she knew that she couldn’t stay neutral no longer. Grabbing a PADD that had been lying by her console, she strode over and brought it down with all of her might on the Wilith soldier’s head.
He didn’t even flinch when the boronite casing shattered into a thousand fragments. Slowly and agonizingly, he turned around to face her. The crystals were now starting to glow.
****
They had enough time to shoot down their attackers at a distance but they hadn’t done so as Adam Huntington pointed out. “If we shoot them out there, we can’t take their weapons. Let them come to us.”
So the three Starfleet officers sat, clustered in a protective circle around the still unconscious Domni. Isabel still had the phaser and Yashiro had his single shot phaser. The Security Chief had acquired a knife which he had weighed up in his hand before flipping it so that he held the blade in his palm, all the better to throw it.
They came from the front and the rear like before and in groups of two like before. The Captain shot the two at the rear. At the front, Masafumi used his last shot to disarm the first attacked while Huntington’s broken ribs didn’t put his aim off at all and the blade was soon embedded in the face of the second attacker.
Masafumi scrambled to grab the two fallen pistols but Isabel didn’t get the chance to go for the two attackers that she had downed before another Selvee leaped from the top of the vehicle. She just had time to fire upwards and duck out of the way before the dead body fell beside her.
Already they could hear more footfalls as more attackers approached.
Cardonez hit her combadge once more and sent another message to Testudo, even though she doubted that it would have any further effect.
****
While Zia Kehen waited to be fired up, she faintly heard the intercom activate again and Captain Cardonez’s voice echoed across the Bridge once more.
“For God’s sake, Valian! Help us! If not us, then, at least, beam the Domni out of here! She’s injured and needs medical attention urgently.” The tremor of fear that was evident in the Captain’s voice was something that the Yulanian rarely heard and it scared her more than her own impending death.
Surprisingly, the Wilith lowered his arm. A moment later, the silver voice bow on his chest flashed several times, although no sound emerged from it.
Suddenly the Bridge was lit up by a bright yellow flash of light when four figures appeared on the deck by Kehen’s console. It was unlike any transporter beam that she had ever seen. The four individuals appeared almost out of a yellowish mist, slowly forming into substantial, not to mention recognizable forms.
“Yashiro!,” she cried out and dropped to her knees, swinging her arms around Masafumi.
“It’s nice to see you too,” he said with a laugh that belied his dirt-encrusted exterior.
“Medical emergency! Medical teams to the Bridge,” Lieutenant Kandro said upon seeing the injured Selvee politician. Still lying on the ground, although propped up on one elbow, his dark eyes met Cardonez’. “I’m sorry. They arrived just after the shooting started.”
She nodded that she understood before she rose to her feet, her phaser still in her hand.
The Wilith leader approached her and bowed his head. “Apologies,” he said while his voice box flickered. “A misunderstanding.”
Isabel didn’t even get a chance to open her mouth in reply. The Wilith leader’s voice box silently spoke again and every Wilith on the Bridge faded into a yellow mist and then into nothingness.
Wincing while he maneuvered himself into a more comfortable sitting position, Huntington looked up at his Commanding Officer. “Captain,” he said with a gentle smile,” next time that we go to meet with any important planetary dignitaries, let’s take a security detachment with us. Just in case.”
Nice critter design with the Wilith - and cool transporter tech. Nothing like a bunch of naked plasma-blaster wielding, doped up insurrectionists to make your day... very fun installment and great action writing.
Thanks!! rbs
Thanks!! rbs
Security detachments are now a must, according to Huntington, @Robert Bruce Scott. LOL!
Chapter Two
Three hours had passed by and the Testudo’s three most senior officers were back down on the planetary surface.
They were clean of any dust now with freshly-showered bodies and clean uniforms. Their injuries had been mended. Commander Masafumi had been the least injured of them with nothing but a few bruises and cuts. Captain Cardonez had the same injuries but she also had a cracked rib. Lieutenant Commander Huntington had taken up most of Doctor Hollem’s time with three broken ribs and one broken ankle. Despite orders to stay in Sickbay, he had insisted on beaming back down with the others. The Bajoran Chief Medical Officer had gotten one concession out of him. The Security Chief now used a walking case to support his left leg.
The cane wasn’t the only difference from a few short hours ago. Each officer now had a Type-Two phaser attached to their hips and standing by the door to the octagonal room that they were in were two Starfleet security officers, the red-haired Ensign Corrine Leland and the Klingon, Crewman Dru’sk. They were armed as well, trading uncomfortable glances with the three local security officers who stood with them. Two Chobraq and one Selvee who were male.
“Is there any news on Domni Elni?,” asked Cardonez.
It was the Chobraq Domni who answered her. She was a short, middle-aged woman who had introduced herself as Hevlona Lott. Her prematurely gray hair was cropped short and blue veins swept over each of her piercing blue eyes. “She is doing well. Our medics tell us that she should regain consciousness within a few hours.”
“How does your political system function in her absence?,” asked Masafumi.
“It functions just fine,” said the Selvee Domni, a man named Krev. He was young, and tall, even for a Selvee, standing over everyone in the room. His dark head was topped with a short, neat crew-cut of pale lilac hair. “Domni Lott and I usually agree on most matters,” he added with his large pale eyes flickering over in his comrade’s direction.
“Usually,” Lott said but her tone spoke volumes. There was little love lost between them.
“Are you all right?,” Krev asked while Huntington fidgeted, transferring his weight from one foot to the other. Despite the illusion of concern, there was nothing in the domni’s tone to indicate anything other than forced politeness.
“It’s just my ankle,” the Security Chief said. “I would be better off if you had some chairs.”
“We don’t use chairs,” Krev said. He wasn’t even striving to keep the arrogance out of his voice now.
“We found, decades ago, that our meetings lasted longer and achieved less when we were comfortable,” explained Lott.
“Don’t even think of introducing that one aboard Testudo,” warned Huntington.
Cardonez gave him a mischievous grin before she returned her attention to their hosts. “Your message indicated that you wanted our assistance?,” she asked them.
“Yes,” Krev said, with frustration etched onto his face.
“No offense, but why us?,” asked Masafumi. “Surely the Wilith are every bit as capable as we are and you do have a treaty with them.”
Lott nodded. “Yes, we do, Commander. However, the treaty is specific. Both the Wilith and the Tahi’nolet will defend Swath from any external force, including the Mutuality.”
“That’s why they stormed the Testudo?,” Cardonez interjected. “Because they assumed that we were working with the Mutuality and that we were behind the attack?”
“Correct,” said Krev. “Now, if my comrade could be allowed to finish her sentence…”
“Of course. I’m sorry.”
“It’s quite all right, Captain,” Lott said, although Cardonez knew how forgiving she really was and whether she just wanted to score points off of her comrade. “Now then, as I was saying, the Wilith-Tahi’nolet treaty only applies to external enemies. Unfortunately, the ones who were responsible for the destruction of the Temple of Drak and the deaths of almost thirty of our citizens wasn’t an external foe.”
“They were Selvee,” said Masafumi,” and from what little that I know about your culture, I would imagine that they belonged to the Tyus Kiln. I believe it is the Tyus whose creed is to martyr themselves naked?”
“You are well informed for someone who apparently only arrived in this part of the Galaxy, a few weeks ago,” said Krev.
“I study. And I have also asked questions of the Selvee that we transported here.”
Krev stared at him for a moment, anger rising on his face. He looked like he was about to say something but instead he sharply looked at Lott before he turned his back on the table.
“You are somewhat correct, Commander Masafumi,” said Domni Lott. “The attackers were from the Tyus Kiln. However, it is not the way of all of the Tyus Selvee to commit acts of terror. Those who worship the Tyus Kiln make up about twenty-two percent of our planet’s population, spread across the Selvee and the Chobraq.” She glanced at Krev. “They hold important positions within every strata of our society.”
Masafumi nodded. “I meant no disrespect to your beliefs, Domni Krev.”
Krev lowered his head and took a deep sigh. Then he turned around once more. “There is no apology necessary, Commander. If it weren’t for the actions of the violent minority, it would be impossible for anyone to make those misinterpretations.”
“I take it that this is not the first such act?,” asked Huntington.
Krev shook his head. “No. They have been going on for several years now, although never on this scale. Before now, there were minor bombings and a few assassinations.” He shrugged. “Never an attack on a temple or on the life of a Domni.”
“In fact,” Lott began,” the last six months has seen a decline in their actions. We have cracked down rather hard lately and it seemed to have been making an impact.” She shook her head sadly. “Instead, it appears that we might have spurred them onto more dangerous levels.”
“I don’t agree,” said Krev. “The measures that were agreed on in this very room – “
“By you and Elni,” Lott snapped at him. For the first time, Isabel saw that the pleasant middle-aged woman had quite a temper. “If you recall, I argued against such measures.”
Krev merely snorted.
Although it wasn’t really her place, Cardonez decided to break up the argument fermenting between both Domni. “What do these terrorists seek?”
Krev shrugged. “Anarchy,” he said. “They want to destroy everything that we’ve built here.”
Cardonez frowned. “I don’t understand. Surely this is the most free place in the quadrant for the Selvee?”
“You are correct,” said Lott. “Certain members of the Tyus Kiln don’t like who they have to share it with.”
“Meaning the Chobraq?”
“And certain other Kilns,” said Krev. “During the time of the Empire, the Tyus Kiln wielded enormous power. Power is hard to let go of when you no longer have it.”
“I have to tell you, Domnis, that the Federation isn’t in the habit of getting involved in the internal affairs of other worlds.”
“Even when thousands of lives are at stake?,” asked Lott.
Cardonez frowned again. “All that I’m saying is that we’re not about to start implementing counter-insurgency operations on Swath. It might be that we can help without compromising our duty as Starfleet officers. However, the question remains. What is it that you exactly want from us?”
Krev didn’t answer. Instead he nodded towards the three guards standing near the doors and in response, one of them came over. He was a short, squat man who was perhaps forty years old. A Chobraq with ginger hair and beard. Faint blue veins were visible beneath the hair on his face.
“This is Chief Constable Loso Makkon,” said Krev,” and he’s in charge of our security.”
“Greetings,” Makkon said. For the first time since beaming down, Isabel saw that someone seemed pleased to see them. The smile on his face seemed to be genuine and the tone of his voice upon uttering that one word was more inviting than anything that either Domni had said.
“Hello,” she said. Masafumi and Huntington followed suit.
“Chief Constable, if you could explain the situation?,” asked Lott.
“Of course,” Makkon said. He was dressed in a green outfit with a triple-looped silver rank insignia upon his left upper arm. He removed a small silver box from his belt and placed it in a slot carved into the table. Holographic pictures appeared, almost immediately, reaching out from each of the three edges and tilting back until they converged to turn the table into an amber lit pyramid.
On each screen was the same list of names. Cardonez took them to be Selvee since they were all single names that were three or four letters long.
“These are the fifteen individuals involved in the attack on Domni Elni and the temple. All of them were killed. Some of them by yourselves but by the majority of security forces who arrived on the scene after you had been beamed away by the Wilith. Of these fifteen people, almost two-thirds of them were already known to us as members of the terrorist organization. The rest were known sympathizers. One of our first acts upon ascertaining their names was to search their domiciles for further evidence. We found a variety of weapons and explosives.”
He reached over and swiveled the silver box forty-five degrees to the left inside of the indentation. The picture displayed on the three screens changed and now there was an organization chart with several boxes linked by single red lines. Each box was filled with three names.
“Initially,” he continued,” we believed that the events of today, while horrific, might have been a blessing in disguise. In order to pull together the numbers needed for today’s attack, the terrorists utilized five of their most experienced cells with each of them having three members in size.
“It’s a common tactic all over the Galaxy,” said Huntington. “Small disparate groups, each of them having no real knowledge of the others. So if they’re caught, they can’t compromise the whole network.”
“Exactly,” said Makkon. “This has always been our problem. In fact, in the last six months, we’ve captured the members of only one cell and we learned very little from them about their organization. To be honest, to wipe out five cells in a single day was… a miracle.”
“Do you have any idea how many cells there are in total?,” asked Cardonez.
Makkon shrugged. “Our intelligence is sketchy at best but we estimate that there are no more than ten cells, including those destroyed today and the one that we caught several months ago. Plus several hundred sympathizers who aid the terrorists without involving themselves in actual attacks.”
“So, theoretically the organization had suffered a severe blow,” said Huntington.
“Theoretically, yes,” said Makkon. “Especially given the amount of armaments that we recovered. It was something that we discovered in the house of an activist that has us frankly terrified.”
Cardonez raised her eyebrows questioningly. In reply, Makkon swiveled the box once more. Now on the screen was the face of a Selvee woman who was young, perhaps twenty-five in Earth years.
“This is Nal. Until a year ago, she was a science teacher at one of the Tyus religious colleges. She had certain sympathies with the terrorists but she wasn’t considered to be any kind of real threat. Thirteen months ago, her mate was shot and killed by security forces when a demonstration turned into a riot.”
Makkon looked shame-faced before he continued.
“It was a dark day for our security forces. We killed over a dozen protestors. Even some thought that it was an important demonstration of force.” He glanced quickly over at Krev before he returned his stare to the screen. “A month later, she quit her job and she disappeared. We suspected that she had joined a cell but this was only confirmed when she was killed today.”
“She wasn’t killed today,” said Masafumi. “I should know. I shot her in the leg. She was alive when we beamed out.”
Makkon looked the Commander square in the eye. “She was dead when we found her.” He pursed his lips and shrugged. “There was still a lot of dust flying around, not to mention all of the weapons fire. A stray shot probably got her. Or she may have killed herself to save herself from the ignominy of being captured.”
Masafumi returned his stare. “Convenient,” she said softly.
“Are you accusing my men of something, Commander?,” asked Makkon.
“Commander,” Cardonez said, flashing him a stare,” leave it.”
Masafumi nodded in acquiescence.
“Please, Chief Constable, continue,” said Cardonez.
Makkon stared at Masafumi for a few seconds more before he turned his attention back towards the screen. “What we found at her dwelling was this,” he said, twisting the silver box for one final time. On the screen, a crude diagram appeared.
“A bomb?”
It was Masafumi who answered her. “Indeed, Captain. A bomb,” he said, examining the design closely. “It’s something quite archaic but still particularly deadly. A fissionable device.”
“An atom bomb,” said Huntington.
Masafumi nodded. “It’s small and quite dirty by the looks of it.” He looked closer at the design specifications. “Judging by the size and its usage of uranium 235, I would gauge that it would have a yield of approximately thirteen kilotons.”
“What kind of death toll would we be looking at?,” asked Cardonez.
Huntington looked at the drawing for a moment. “That’s roughly the size of the bomb that the Americans dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. It’s probably slightly smaller,” he said. “That one had a blast radius of around three kilometers. If I remember correctly, about three hundred and fifty thousand people were killed.”
Cardonez shook her head. “How did we ever make it this far?”
“Man is a natural survivor,” said Huntington. “Look at the way that we climbed back out of the pit after World War Three.”
“And if Zefram Cochrane hadn’t invented the warp drive and the Vulcans hadn’t happen to come along?,” asked Masafumi.
Huntington smiled. “I don’t do ‘what if’ history. Only ‘what was’.”
“You can see why we were concerned,” said Lott.
“Yes, I can,” said Cardonez. “What about the radioactive after-effects?”
“It’s nowhere nearly as pronounced as they would have been, centuries ago,” said Masafumi. “Hyronalin would be able to retard most, if not, all of the radiation damage suffered by survivors. We’re still looking at a very large explosive device.”
“Can you help or will it compromise your precious principles?,” asked Krev.
Isabel had been patient with Krev, but not, just for a second, she uncorked her temper. “You should give more respect to our principles, Domni,” she said. “If the crew of the Ranger hadn’t disregarded them, a century ago, the Selvee would probably still be the dominant force in this part of the Galaxy.”
Krev’s face fell but he kept silent.
“Now then, as to helping you, I don’t see any major violations of the Prime Directive here. Do either of you?,” she asked, looking at her two most senior officers.
“Not at all,” said Huntington.
“I agree,” said Masafumi,” but only if we limit ourselves to locating and disabling the bomb.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t go beyond that,” said Cardonez. “Can you find it?”
Masafumi nodded. “Potentially and quite easily. The ship’s sensors are sensitive enough to pick up on that level of radiation without the need for modifications.”
She nodded. “Do it.”
“And when you locate the bomb?,” asked Lott.
Cardonez smiled, half-admiring the cheek of the politician who would, with no doubt, ensure that she took the credit for Testudo’s success. She looked at Huntington. “Commander?”
He smiled. “I’ve defused worse.”
****
High above Swath, Testudo seemed to glide in a gentle meandering arch above the planet as though it hadn’t a care in the world.
The reality on the Bridge was somewhat different.
“Maneuvering towards the next set of search coordinates,” Zia Kehen reported from the helm. “We’re on station in three… two… one. All stop.”
“Okay, then,” Valian Kandro said from the forward Science station. “Beginning initial sweep of the area.”
“Where is it this time?,” Louise Ramblin asked from the chair beside him.
“The southeastern coastal region,” replied Kandro. As the sensors proceeded to laboriously check over every square centimeter of the search area, he looked over to his left side. “How are you feeling?”
“I told you already. I’m fine. Whatever kind of stun effect that the Wilith used on me, Doctor Hollem said it wasn’t too harmful.”
Kandro smiled. “That wasn’t what I meant,” he said, looking back at the telemetry.
“Well, I don’t know what else you could mean,” she said, far too quickly. “We should reset the sensitivity of the sensors by a micron either way to compensate for the sulphuric fumes coming off of the ocean,” she said, trying desperately to change the subject.
“I already did,” he said, turning back to face her again. “So stop changing the subject.”
Ramblin kept her face forward, not daring to look at him. “Kandro, you’re imagining things.”
The Betazoid lowered his voice so that Kehen and the other Bridge crew members couldn’t hear him. “I’m not imagining that you’ve been nice to me for the last day or so. Even when I got out of my way to be mean to you.”
Ramblin licked her lips nervously.
“Nor am I imagining the fact that you are now blushing.”
She closed her eyes and knew that he wasn’t going to go away. He was the last person that she wanted to say anything to but in a perverse way that made him the perfect confidant and she had to tell someone. She turned to look at him.
“Okay, Valian, but if you breathe a word of this to – “
A shrill beeping from the console in front of them cut her off.
“Have we got it?,” she asked him.
Kandro manipulated the controls. “Running a second scan of the same area.” He nodded. “Yeah, we’ve got it. There’s a ninety-nine percent probability that we’ve found an atomic device.” He turned towards Louise, all thoughts of uncovering her secret temporarily thrust out of his mind now. He laughed nervously. “Well, that’s the easy part over with.
Three hours had passed by and the Testudo’s three most senior officers were back down on the planetary surface.
They were clean of any dust now with freshly-showered bodies and clean uniforms. Their injuries had been mended. Commander Masafumi had been the least injured of them with nothing but a few bruises and cuts. Captain Cardonez had the same injuries but she also had a cracked rib. Lieutenant Commander Huntington had taken up most of Doctor Hollem’s time with three broken ribs and one broken ankle. Despite orders to stay in Sickbay, he had insisted on beaming back down with the others. The Bajoran Chief Medical Officer had gotten one concession out of him. The Security Chief now used a walking case to support his left leg.
The cane wasn’t the only difference from a few short hours ago. Each officer now had a Type-Two phaser attached to their hips and standing by the door to the octagonal room that they were in were two Starfleet security officers, the red-haired Ensign Corrine Leland and the Klingon, Crewman Dru’sk. They were armed as well, trading uncomfortable glances with the three local security officers who stood with them. Two Chobraq and one Selvee who were male.
“Is there any news on Domni Elni?,” asked Cardonez.
It was the Chobraq Domni who answered her. She was a short, middle-aged woman who had introduced herself as Hevlona Lott. Her prematurely gray hair was cropped short and blue veins swept over each of her piercing blue eyes. “She is doing well. Our medics tell us that she should regain consciousness within a few hours.”
“How does your political system function in her absence?,” asked Masafumi.
“It functions just fine,” said the Selvee Domni, a man named Krev. He was young, and tall, even for a Selvee, standing over everyone in the room. His dark head was topped with a short, neat crew-cut of pale lilac hair. “Domni Lott and I usually agree on most matters,” he added with his large pale eyes flickering over in his comrade’s direction.
“Usually,” Lott said but her tone spoke volumes. There was little love lost between them.
“Are you all right?,” Krev asked while Huntington fidgeted, transferring his weight from one foot to the other. Despite the illusion of concern, there was nothing in the domni’s tone to indicate anything other than forced politeness.
“It’s just my ankle,” the Security Chief said. “I would be better off if you had some chairs.”
“We don’t use chairs,” Krev said. He wasn’t even striving to keep the arrogance out of his voice now.
“We found, decades ago, that our meetings lasted longer and achieved less when we were comfortable,” explained Lott.
“Don’t even think of introducing that one aboard Testudo,” warned Huntington.
Cardonez gave him a mischievous grin before she returned her attention to their hosts. “Your message indicated that you wanted our assistance?,” she asked them.
“Yes,” Krev said, with frustration etched onto his face.
“No offense, but why us?,” asked Masafumi. “Surely the Wilith are every bit as capable as we are and you do have a treaty with them.”
Lott nodded. “Yes, we do, Commander. However, the treaty is specific. Both the Wilith and the Tahi’nolet will defend Swath from any external force, including the Mutuality.”
“That’s why they stormed the Testudo?,” Cardonez interjected. “Because they assumed that we were working with the Mutuality and that we were behind the attack?”
“Correct,” said Krev. “Now, if my comrade could be allowed to finish her sentence…”
“Of course. I’m sorry.”
“It’s quite all right, Captain,” Lott said, although Cardonez knew how forgiving she really was and whether she just wanted to score points off of her comrade. “Now then, as I was saying, the Wilith-Tahi’nolet treaty only applies to external enemies. Unfortunately, the ones who were responsible for the destruction of the Temple of Drak and the deaths of almost thirty of our citizens wasn’t an external foe.”
“They were Selvee,” said Masafumi,” and from what little that I know about your culture, I would imagine that they belonged to the Tyus Kiln. I believe it is the Tyus whose creed is to martyr themselves naked?”
“You are well informed for someone who apparently only arrived in this part of the Galaxy, a few weeks ago,” said Krev.
“I study. And I have also asked questions of the Selvee that we transported here.”
Krev stared at him for a moment, anger rising on his face. He looked like he was about to say something but instead he sharply looked at Lott before he turned his back on the table.
“You are somewhat correct, Commander Masafumi,” said Domni Lott. “The attackers were from the Tyus Kiln. However, it is not the way of all of the Tyus Selvee to commit acts of terror. Those who worship the Tyus Kiln make up about twenty-two percent of our planet’s population, spread across the Selvee and the Chobraq.” She glanced at Krev. “They hold important positions within every strata of our society.”
Masafumi nodded. “I meant no disrespect to your beliefs, Domni Krev.”
Krev lowered his head and took a deep sigh. Then he turned around once more. “There is no apology necessary, Commander. If it weren’t for the actions of the violent minority, it would be impossible for anyone to make those misinterpretations.”
“I take it that this is not the first such act?,” asked Huntington.
Krev shook his head. “No. They have been going on for several years now, although never on this scale. Before now, there were minor bombings and a few assassinations.” He shrugged. “Never an attack on a temple or on the life of a Domni.”
“In fact,” Lott began,” the last six months has seen a decline in their actions. We have cracked down rather hard lately and it seemed to have been making an impact.” She shook her head sadly. “Instead, it appears that we might have spurred them onto more dangerous levels.”
“I don’t agree,” said Krev. “The measures that were agreed on in this very room – “
“By you and Elni,” Lott snapped at him. For the first time, Isabel saw that the pleasant middle-aged woman had quite a temper. “If you recall, I argued against such measures.”
Krev merely snorted.
Although it wasn’t really her place, Cardonez decided to break up the argument fermenting between both Domni. “What do these terrorists seek?”
Krev shrugged. “Anarchy,” he said. “They want to destroy everything that we’ve built here.”
Cardonez frowned. “I don’t understand. Surely this is the most free place in the quadrant for the Selvee?”
“You are correct,” said Lott. “Certain members of the Tyus Kiln don’t like who they have to share it with.”
“Meaning the Chobraq?”
“And certain other Kilns,” said Krev. “During the time of the Empire, the Tyus Kiln wielded enormous power. Power is hard to let go of when you no longer have it.”
“I have to tell you, Domnis, that the Federation isn’t in the habit of getting involved in the internal affairs of other worlds.”
“Even when thousands of lives are at stake?,” asked Lott.
Cardonez frowned again. “All that I’m saying is that we’re not about to start implementing counter-insurgency operations on Swath. It might be that we can help without compromising our duty as Starfleet officers. However, the question remains. What is it that you exactly want from us?”
Krev didn’t answer. Instead he nodded towards the three guards standing near the doors and in response, one of them came over. He was a short, squat man who was perhaps forty years old. A Chobraq with ginger hair and beard. Faint blue veins were visible beneath the hair on his face.
“This is Chief Constable Loso Makkon,” said Krev,” and he’s in charge of our security.”
“Greetings,” Makkon said. For the first time since beaming down, Isabel saw that someone seemed pleased to see them. The smile on his face seemed to be genuine and the tone of his voice upon uttering that one word was more inviting than anything that either Domni had said.
“Hello,” she said. Masafumi and Huntington followed suit.
“Chief Constable, if you could explain the situation?,” asked Lott.
“Of course,” Makkon said. He was dressed in a green outfit with a triple-looped silver rank insignia upon his left upper arm. He removed a small silver box from his belt and placed it in a slot carved into the table. Holographic pictures appeared, almost immediately, reaching out from each of the three edges and tilting back until they converged to turn the table into an amber lit pyramid.
On each screen was the same list of names. Cardonez took them to be Selvee since they were all single names that were three or four letters long.
“These are the fifteen individuals involved in the attack on Domni Elni and the temple. All of them were killed. Some of them by yourselves but by the majority of security forces who arrived on the scene after you had been beamed away by the Wilith. Of these fifteen people, almost two-thirds of them were already known to us as members of the terrorist organization. The rest were known sympathizers. One of our first acts upon ascertaining their names was to search their domiciles for further evidence. We found a variety of weapons and explosives.”
He reached over and swiveled the silver box forty-five degrees to the left inside of the indentation. The picture displayed on the three screens changed and now there was an organization chart with several boxes linked by single red lines. Each box was filled with three names.
“Initially,” he continued,” we believed that the events of today, while horrific, might have been a blessing in disguise. In order to pull together the numbers needed for today’s attack, the terrorists utilized five of their most experienced cells with each of them having three members in size.
“It’s a common tactic all over the Galaxy,” said Huntington. “Small disparate groups, each of them having no real knowledge of the others. So if they’re caught, they can’t compromise the whole network.”
“Exactly,” said Makkon. “This has always been our problem. In fact, in the last six months, we’ve captured the members of only one cell and we learned very little from them about their organization. To be honest, to wipe out five cells in a single day was… a miracle.”
“Do you have any idea how many cells there are in total?,” asked Cardonez.
Makkon shrugged. “Our intelligence is sketchy at best but we estimate that there are no more than ten cells, including those destroyed today and the one that we caught several months ago. Plus several hundred sympathizers who aid the terrorists without involving themselves in actual attacks.”
“So, theoretically the organization had suffered a severe blow,” said Huntington.
“Theoretically, yes,” said Makkon. “Especially given the amount of armaments that we recovered. It was something that we discovered in the house of an activist that has us frankly terrified.”
Cardonez raised her eyebrows questioningly. In reply, Makkon swiveled the box once more. Now on the screen was the face of a Selvee woman who was young, perhaps twenty-five in Earth years.
“This is Nal. Until a year ago, she was a science teacher at one of the Tyus religious colleges. She had certain sympathies with the terrorists but she wasn’t considered to be any kind of real threat. Thirteen months ago, her mate was shot and killed by security forces when a demonstration turned into a riot.”
Makkon looked shame-faced before he continued.
“It was a dark day for our security forces. We killed over a dozen protestors. Even some thought that it was an important demonstration of force.” He glanced quickly over at Krev before he returned his stare to the screen. “A month later, she quit her job and she disappeared. We suspected that she had joined a cell but this was only confirmed when she was killed today.”
“She wasn’t killed today,” said Masafumi. “I should know. I shot her in the leg. She was alive when we beamed out.”
Makkon looked the Commander square in the eye. “She was dead when we found her.” He pursed his lips and shrugged. “There was still a lot of dust flying around, not to mention all of the weapons fire. A stray shot probably got her. Or she may have killed herself to save herself from the ignominy of being captured.”
Masafumi returned his stare. “Convenient,” she said softly.
“Are you accusing my men of something, Commander?,” asked Makkon.
“Commander,” Cardonez said, flashing him a stare,” leave it.”
Masafumi nodded in acquiescence.
“Please, Chief Constable, continue,” said Cardonez.
Makkon stared at Masafumi for a few seconds more before he turned his attention back towards the screen. “What we found at her dwelling was this,” he said, twisting the silver box for one final time. On the screen, a crude diagram appeared.
“A bomb?”
It was Masafumi who answered her. “Indeed, Captain. A bomb,” he said, examining the design closely. “It’s something quite archaic but still particularly deadly. A fissionable device.”
“An atom bomb,” said Huntington.
Masafumi nodded. “It’s small and quite dirty by the looks of it.” He looked closer at the design specifications. “Judging by the size and its usage of uranium 235, I would gauge that it would have a yield of approximately thirteen kilotons.”
“What kind of death toll would we be looking at?,” asked Cardonez.
Huntington looked at the drawing for a moment. “That’s roughly the size of the bomb that the Americans dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. It’s probably slightly smaller,” he said. “That one had a blast radius of around three kilometers. If I remember correctly, about three hundred and fifty thousand people were killed.”
Cardonez shook her head. “How did we ever make it this far?”
“Man is a natural survivor,” said Huntington. “Look at the way that we climbed back out of the pit after World War Three.”
“And if Zefram Cochrane hadn’t invented the warp drive and the Vulcans hadn’t happen to come along?,” asked Masafumi.
Huntington smiled. “I don’t do ‘what if’ history. Only ‘what was’.”
“You can see why we were concerned,” said Lott.
“Yes, I can,” said Cardonez. “What about the radioactive after-effects?”
“It’s nowhere nearly as pronounced as they would have been, centuries ago,” said Masafumi. “Hyronalin would be able to retard most, if not, all of the radiation damage suffered by survivors. We’re still looking at a very large explosive device.”
“Can you help or will it compromise your precious principles?,” asked Krev.
Isabel had been patient with Krev, but not, just for a second, she uncorked her temper. “You should give more respect to our principles, Domni,” she said. “If the crew of the Ranger hadn’t disregarded them, a century ago, the Selvee would probably still be the dominant force in this part of the Galaxy.”
Krev’s face fell but he kept silent.
“Now then, as to helping you, I don’t see any major violations of the Prime Directive here. Do either of you?,” she asked, looking at her two most senior officers.
“Not at all,” said Huntington.
“I agree,” said Masafumi,” but only if we limit ourselves to locating and disabling the bomb.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t go beyond that,” said Cardonez. “Can you find it?”
Masafumi nodded. “Potentially and quite easily. The ship’s sensors are sensitive enough to pick up on that level of radiation without the need for modifications.”
She nodded. “Do it.”
“And when you locate the bomb?,” asked Lott.
Cardonez smiled, half-admiring the cheek of the politician who would, with no doubt, ensure that she took the credit for Testudo’s success. She looked at Huntington. “Commander?”
He smiled. “I’ve defused worse.”
****
High above Swath, Testudo seemed to glide in a gentle meandering arch above the planet as though it hadn’t a care in the world.
The reality on the Bridge was somewhat different.
“Maneuvering towards the next set of search coordinates,” Zia Kehen reported from the helm. “We’re on station in three… two… one. All stop.”
“Okay, then,” Valian Kandro said from the forward Science station. “Beginning initial sweep of the area.”
“Where is it this time?,” Louise Ramblin asked from the chair beside him.
“The southeastern coastal region,” replied Kandro. As the sensors proceeded to laboriously check over every square centimeter of the search area, he looked over to his left side. “How are you feeling?”
“I told you already. I’m fine. Whatever kind of stun effect that the Wilith used on me, Doctor Hollem said it wasn’t too harmful.”
Kandro smiled. “That wasn’t what I meant,” he said, looking back at the telemetry.
“Well, I don’t know what else you could mean,” she said, far too quickly. “We should reset the sensitivity of the sensors by a micron either way to compensate for the sulphuric fumes coming off of the ocean,” she said, trying desperately to change the subject.
“I already did,” he said, turning back to face her again. “So stop changing the subject.”
Ramblin kept her face forward, not daring to look at him. “Kandro, you’re imagining things.”
The Betazoid lowered his voice so that Kehen and the other Bridge crew members couldn’t hear him. “I’m not imagining that you’ve been nice to me for the last day or so. Even when I got out of my way to be mean to you.”
Ramblin licked her lips nervously.
“Nor am I imagining the fact that you are now blushing.”
She closed her eyes and knew that he wasn’t going to go away. He was the last person that she wanted to say anything to but in a perverse way that made him the perfect confidant and she had to tell someone. She turned to look at him.
“Okay, Valian, but if you breathe a word of this to – “
A shrill beeping from the console in front of them cut her off.
“Have we got it?,” she asked him.
Kandro manipulated the controls. “Running a second scan of the same area.” He nodded. “Yeah, we’ve got it. There’s a ninety-nine percent probability that we’ve found an atomic device.” He turned towards Louise, all thoughts of uncovering her secret temporarily thrust out of his mind now. He laughed nervously. “Well, that’s the easy part over with.
I've moved from playing with plasma grenades to playing with atomic devices. Do I have a problem?
Terrorists with dirty bombs... Yeah - that's our big nightmare.
But why would they have to defuse it instead of just beaming it into space? Looking forward to learning how that knot is tied... Thanks!! rbs
But why would they have to defuse it instead of just beaming it into space? Looking forward to learning how that knot is tied... Thanks!! rbs
Willard Patrick Devonshire.
https://assinninewriting.wordpress.com/2024/03/02/star-trek-into-the-void-episode-twenty-three/
Episode Twenty-Three is finished. Please leave your comments there or here.
Episode Twenty-Three is finished. Please leave your comments there or here.
Superb ending - potential plot-hole very successfully paved over and no pat answers. Their failure makes for a much better story. Thanks!! rbs
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