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Your Side, Their side, and the Truth. (Joint story with Patrickngo)
knightraider6
Member Posts: 396 Arc User
part 2 of ‘Understanding is a Three Edged Sword
Vacuum Sucks. Lisa could feel the tug on her skin, as the cascade of energies wrapped around her.
It wasn’t really cold-vacuum is an insulator. She could feel the water trying to boil out of her cells and it hurt. It hurt a lot. More than she’d ever hurt before.
The energies were gone, and it was just like McCoy said in the movie-blackness and silence. A shadow passed over her and she felt the hair on her skin freeze in the darkness.
The stars were pretty though.
I should be dead now.
The thought was one she had a lot since Iraq. When she’d tried to drown, when she broke the rope trying to hang, when she tried the gun…I should be dead now...why am I still alive?
Impact
Starbase 132…
The anomaly that had just broken through the base’s shielding, then penetrated the hull and four decks, came to rest in a naked heap near the primary power plant.
She was naked, and looked human.
“Holy TRIBBLE.” Ensign Preston breathed, and somehow, she got to her feet. She was muscular, like a female body-builder, her blonde hair was slightly scorched, to Preston, she looked like a holo-suite version of a barbarian queen as envisioned by some fantasist shut-in.
“WHere am I?” she demanded, then her eyes focused, and she slumped a little ”TRIBBLE hell!!” she grabbed a piece of glowing debris, and there was a slight hiss, and a wince. She looked at her hand wonderingly, “well TRIBBLE me...that actually hurt…”
“Please keep your hands where I can see them, miss.” Preston said, gathering his professionalism, and levelling a phaser at her.
“NO problem..holy TRIBBLE, that actually hurt…I can get hurt…” she started to smile, “I can die!”
It took three shots at maximum stun before he stopped her charge.
Sick Bay, secured holding…
“...some minor bruising, how did she get here, was there a pod or transporter signal?” Dr. Feathers asked.
“No sir. Engineering found...scraps of clothing in the hole though. Nylon, mostly, some leather, a belt buckle...and what is left of a shoe.”
Lisa opened her eyes, “superpowers make physicists cry while they TRIBBLE.” she said it clearly. “Where am I?”
“You’re in a Federation Starbase, miss…”
She sat up. “Clothes would be nice.” She said, “ANyone know how the TRIBBLE I got here? This looks like the set from season two of Voyager, the sickbay, but you’re not a snarky bald dude so I don’t think it’s a dream…”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Dr. Feathers asked, as she ran a scanner over Lisa with a frown.
“Getting hurt.” She said, “It was awesome...oh, you mean before that? Kind of a blur.” she shook her head, “Like a tunnel of lights and I couldn’t breathe.”
“How did you get into the tunnel?” the doc asked.
“Frankly, I have no idea.” she said, “One minute, we’re negotiating with these greaseball aliens who want to TRIBBLE with time-travel, next, I’m here...I think I saw John DeLancie for a minute at one point while I was hallucinating-TRIBBLE, that’s what this is, right? A hallucination? A dream where I get what I want?”
“I don’t understand.”
She held up her burnt hand, “I can get hurt, means I can finally die.”
“The burn is just surface, miss…”
“Quentin.” she said, “Lisa Quentin...and I’ve been in a spacetrek set before…”
“Space...trek?”
“Science fiction show I grew up with.” she said, “Up until I met Rhonda Evans, I thought it was all-fiction, but…what?”
“You don’t...That is, I think there’s a problem with my scanner.”
“Well, I could just be insane.” Lisa commented, “that makes as much sense as being dumped out into a science fiction show...for the second time...wait, you had a question.”
“What is your name?” the scientist asked.
“Lisa Quentin.” Lisa finally said, “ANd yes, I’m mentally ill, so my sense of reality is a little shaky...but this..” she held up her hand, “Means it might be treatable now.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I don’t get burns. I don’t get burns, I don’t drown, didn’t suffocate or explode or whatever it is kills you on exposure to hard vacuum, and while my clothes didn’t make it, I went through your starbase the hard way, but no broken bones.”
Feathers looked dubious, “I think we need a counselor…”
“Great! Another Shrink! Maybe this one will give me a prescription that works.” Lisa snarked in response.
“Another prescription?” Feathers asked.
“VA put me on antidepressants after Iraq, see, that’s kind of the response when you try to suicide with a shotgun-and all you get is a mouth full of flattened buckshot and an aftertaste that smells like an open sewer.” she paused, “Wait, that’s all I got, it would take the top of YOUR head right off and put a pattern on the backstop.”
“Do you mind if I take a sample?” Feathers asked.
“Sure, go ahead. Right arm or left?”
“Either one...hold still…”
The device hummed, and smoked, and Feathers dropped the sampler on the deck.
“Didn’t work, huh?” Lisa asked.
Command deck Starbase 132
“When security brought her in, there was some distortion on the scans, but by the time she was up and talking…” Doctor Feathers brought up the image, “it was like turning off a light-she steadily became opaque to my instruments.”
Captain Gearing studied the recorded monitoring scans. “Like a shield went up.” he noted, “You know, when I did my five year mission, we saw some crazy stuff-but I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this...some kind of alien...and she freely confessed to being mentally ill?”
“She mentioned prior suicide attempts, and seemed...happy at the prospect of, in her words, being ‘finally able to die.’..then she said she was prescribed anti-depressant medications.” Feathers said, “I ran her through a battery of personality testing, she’s definitely suffering from a variant depressive state...she also demonstrated lingering post traumatic stress-but if her story is right-she would be. Being ripped from her own reality? Though I kind of suspect that’s more of an onset schizophrenic reaction.”
Secure quarters…
There was a guard outside, and they had powered locks on the door, so it was kinda like a cell, but it wasn’t like the cell the government kept her in at Yucca Mountain, and nobody yet had seen fit to fit her with the stylish jacket with the sleeves that buckle in back.
They did however, give her access to a replicator for her clothing, and an allowance for food items, and there was a computer voice with a display terminal that had unclassified information.
Lisa never used an Alias or ‘codename’-not even when she was raising hell across the western United States before she surrendered to Kelly Lamb. Thus, she didn’t feel much need to make a ‘costume’. Some of the civilian fashions in the Federation would’ve qualified right up there with the sort of Stripper-floss outfits the West Coast Champions used.
“Historical clothing, mid-twentieth century.” She finally said in frustration.
Not a single spacetrek reference. Nobody, apparently, had ever seen the show.
“Why would they make a show?” she muttered, “Okay, TRIBBLE this. Um...entertainment, television, late nineteen nineties..farscape?”
That annoyed her-the system didn’t have TRIBBLE Farscape either.
She frowned, then, she said, “Did anyone make a show called ‘Firefly’ in the 1990s to 2000’s?”
”Which season?” the computer asked.
“Awesome, um, season one?”
Lisa browsed episodes and went back to choosing items for her wardrobe.
She picked a ‘lisa shaped and sized’ browncoats outfit, a girly version of Han Solo’s costume from the first Star Wars movie, a leather ‘viper jacket’ from the original Battlestar Galactica show, a few actual dresses for ‘formal occasions’ and lots of bras and underwear. In the end, it came out to a closet that would’ve cost her six months wages at a decent job back on (her) Earth-but none of the luchador-stripperfloss-spandex outfits.
Then, she settled in to wait for someone to tell her what’s happening. She did so with replicator-beer, and ‘canned’ flatscreen entertainment.
Jeans and a tank-top watching teevee and drinking beer.
The door chimed about six hours into a Firefly marathon.
“Come in.” she said, and the door opened.
“I’m Medra, the station’s counselor.” the woman introduced herself with an almost-greek accent.
Lisa gave her a look over. “Mmm...so the show was right-Betazoids have black eyes.” she said, “Hi, I’m Lisa...want a beer?”
Medra accepted the beer, and joined Lisa in front of the display screen.
They sat in silence for a while, as season two of Firefly-one and a half more seasons than the show had gotten in Lisa’s timeline, opened on the screen.
“I love this show.” Lisa said, “It’s awesome your reality had more than the half-season we got.”
“You don’t feel...happy.” Medra replied.
“Yeah. that’s ‘normal’.” Lisa told her, “It gets better or worse randomly, but no, I’m not happy. Happiness is little doses, you know? They don’t last long and they don’t stick around.”
“Parts of your...story…” Medra began, “May I Probe you?”
“Sure.” Lisa told her, “you’re a shrink, it’s probably faster to probe me, than it is to interview me awkwardly.”
“You were a criminal.” Medra said after a moment.
“Yes I was.” Lisa said, “confessed, convicted, imprisoned and released…”
“And you have killed people.” Medra added.
“I did.” Lisa said, “Not all of them bad people either. Not really a lot I could do to make up for that…”
“But you tried.” Medra stated.
“I tried-once they decided to let me out.” Lisa agreed, and sipped her beer. “We took on monsters from this side.”
“The borg.”
“Yep. The Borg.” Lisa said, “got lucky that Overlord was a Technopathic super, or I think we’d have had to kill a lot of innocent people to stop them.”
“What are ‘supers’?” Medra asked.
“You’re reading my head, you know what we are.” Lisa said, “Overlord, me, Kincaid, we have powers, get it? Abilities that make physics guys pull their hair out in frustration.”
Medra nodded, and experimentally prodded Lisa.
“It doesn’t work that way...here, a little demo.” Lisa stood up, and went to the door, knocking twice “Yo, HAT!!” she shouted using a television prisoner-term.
The door opened with a very confused looking security officer.
Lisa grabbed him by his shirt, and pulled him into the room. “Okay, take your phaser there, set it REAL high, or I’m going to beat you to a pulp, savvy?”
He looked confused, so she punched him-pulling it just enough that her reactive power didn’t actually break him, and took his phaser away.
She set it like she saw on the show, and tossed it back, “Shoot me, or I’ll punch you again until you do.” she said.
“I-” he said, “NO.”
“Look either it’ll do nothing but TRIBBLE up some replacable clothing, or you’ll have me explaining to your chief that you were forced to because I was having an Afghanistan flashback and the counselor here was in danger.”
“Is she?” He asked, tense and ready to subdue.
Lisa inclined her head, “Just Shoot me, we’re like one floor down from medical!”
He wasn’t convinced.
“DUDE! I’m a TRIBBLE felon and we’re millions of miles from my probation officer, I’m in violation of a whole ton of laws back home, and I was counted something of a dangerous person-You’re a cop, I’ve killed cops, don’t you want to get some back for those guys? Shoot me.”
The Counselor spoke up, “you’re not afraid-you KNOW what those can do, and you’re not afraid.”
“Nope. Been shot by one before.” Lisa said, “Didn’t do anything but ruin a shirt.”
“You’re insane!” the security man said.
“Right, dangerous crazy, you’re in danger, I’m a danger to others and myself, so do your duty...here, I’ll make it easy for you…”
She stepped forward and threw a full roundhouse punch-and the young ensign’s reflexes did what training taught him when facing a dangerous melee attacker. The beam lanced out, and Lisa’s tank-top caught fire.
But it didn’t even phase her skin.
She stopped mid step, relaxed, and looked at the Counselor while the weapons alarm went off, “See?...You’re alright, dood, not gonna hit you again, and if you want to take me to the brig for it, I’m good with that.”
The door opened and a tac-team of security men rushed in.
Medra announced, “it’s alright boys!”
Lisa was already putting her hands behind her head and kneeling.
“It’s alright, just an accident.” Medra continued.
The benzite security officer looked at his weapon, and almost hyperventilated, “Aah! You ARE insane!” he said.
“Just ‘remember to set it back to stun.” Lisa said, “maybe have your armory guy look at the unit to make sure I didn’t TRIBBLE with the internals.” she raised her chin, “I am under arrest, right?”
“THAT isn’t necessary, Miss Quentin.” the Captain announced as he stepped between the Security men. “Not that I think it’d do much good anyway..you realize that I expected to find a pile of ashes or a hole in the deck, right?”
“Well duh-I watched every Space Trek they made up to 2009 when Enterprise finished its run, got a lot of chances to see how the writers thought the stuff worked...though I thought your security guys were better at hand-to-hand.”
“Could you stand up, please? We just got a copy of a file from Starfleet Intelligence.” Captain Gearing told her, “It makes interesting reading.”
“So I did exist here?” Lisa asked.
“Not exactly-but the USS Heinlein does, and your personnel file was among some anomalous items found aboard two months ago.”
“Damn, only two months here? Back home it’s been about six years.” Lisa observed.
“Um, you mind changing your shirt before the group from Starfleet Command get here, Miss Quentin?” he asked, “I’d rather not have to explain why you have a charred hole in that spot…”
“No problem, sir.” Lisa said, “So how much trouble am I in for punching ensign redshirt there?”
“I’m not going to press charges…” the Benzite said, marvelling at his phaser again, “I...just...wow…”
“Looks like you got a little sunburned there.” Medra observed.
Lisa checked her torso as she took the ruined shirt off, and put on a brown one with the logo from Wormhole Extreme! she’d found in the database.
“Apparently, not as tough as I was back home.” Lisa said brightly, “You have NO idea how much that pleases me.”
“You hate your ‘superpower’.” Medra noted.
“Well yeah.” Lisa said, “They always make the invulnerable heroes look so f&cking happy, but you know what? It sucks in real life. I can’t get hammered, or high, and since I ‘turned’ before I got laid, I can’t have-”
“TOO much information!” Gearing overrode her, “but apparently you are more vulnerable here.”
“Which is TRIBBLE awesome.” Lisa said, turning back around so that she could face the Captain and his escort of security troops-who looked decidedly hesitant now that they had confirmation that their phasers weren’t going to be ‘enough’-even taken off of stun.
“So! I’m in a fantasy again-second time, that I had as a kid...” she eyed them with a half-smirk, “Anyone have ideas on why I’m inside a movie?”
“Do you?” Gearing asked.
“Not a f&cking clue.” Lisa said, “Just happy that this ‘gift’ of mine is wearing off…”
“She’s still a suicide risk.” Medra intoned.
Lisa shot her a glare, “what the f%ck doc? I thought that TRIBBLE was confidential!”
“Forty three national guardsmen, two accredited superheroes, and the staff of a physics station would agree that your suicide attempts tend to generate casualties-poses a risk to the station, so, no, that’s not something covered by counselor-patient confidentiality rules.”
Lisa sighed, “I promise I won’t try to off myself in some spectacularly destructive way, okay?”
Gearing looked to his counselor, who looked doubtful, but nodded, “Verified-she won’t intentionally damage or endanger anyone else.”
His frown didn’t relax, “No more suicide attempts.” He said, “Period.”
Lisa closed her eyes, “Sure, why not? No more suicide attempts, no more risky behaviours...fine.”
He measured the Counselor’s reaction, and Medra nodded, “Verified.”
And then, he relaxed, “Good...good enough, anyway...and Ensign Falos, take your phaser to the armorer and have it looked over.”
“Aye sir!” the Benzite security officer snapped to and hurried out.
“So...why are you here?” Gearing asked.
“I have no idea.” Lisa said, “I had some memory loss, I think, because there’s bits and patches missing like how I wound up hitting your space-station, and more important, why.”
Gearing stepped fully into the room, took a chair, and sat down straddling the back, arms crossed in front of him. “That, I actually believe.” he said. “What do you think is the reason?”
“Hmmm...making me guess? I’d guess it was some kind of cosmic accident, but Doc S recruited the team to help fight some kind of monsters from beyond space and time, and it’s pretty convenient that I ended up in the same ‘verse that the Heinlein came from-too many coincidences-someone put me here.”
“You mentioned your powers might be ‘fading’, could that be the reason?” Gearing asked.
“Hell of a favour to me-maybe.” Lisa accepted, “Being immortal kinda sucks big rocks, Captain-but I was kind of the brute muscle for the team. Overlord and Kincaid do the planning, Ryan was the long-range punch, but I was the ‘tank’ in the party-the one that gets in and mixes it up in close quarters, I could easy see someone wanting to remove that from the team’s dynamic and force them into a mix of ranged and terrain control. If they have to rely on Lizzie for that now, it could hurt the team’s effectiveness, and Kelly has lots of obligations earthside.”
“Huh…your MOS background I thought you would be the team’s medic.” he said.
“Liz handles that stuff better than I could learn to do.” Lisa said, “Plus we’ve got a couple of others with more advanced training than I got as a Corpsman.”
Gearing reached into his pocket, and produced a PADD. “Must be good-you have a lot of citations on your record...at least, this one.”
“Yeah. fat lot of good it did me. I got home, and went from inpatient to homeless vet without skipping a step.” Lisa cracked, then she looked around, “And now, back to being a Homeless vet-only it’s in a Space Trek future and I have exactly jack-TRIBBLE for marketable skills here.”
Gearing shot her a wry look, and grinned, “We can fix that.” he told her, “Your record mentions you were fast to pick up on languages, and scored high on your MOS training. What bothers me, is the references to your service-related disability...and the idea that you’ve been going back into combat for the last ten years with only a four year break while you were incarcerated.”
“Solitary with padded walls, yeah.” Lisa said, “More for their safety than mine, I don’t think this is going to be the problem here.”
“Except that you’re medically listed as a suicide risk.” Gearing told her, “the profile in this copy makes it pretty clear, you know-the standards of the twenty first century were pretty loose on the mental-health front, for them to have these codes on your discharge papers, you had to be pretty bad off.”
Lisa shrugged, “I’m better now.” she said.
“We’ll have to see.” he told her, “In the meantime, you’re not going anywhere without an escort until you’re medically cleared, you understand why, right?”
“Because I’m nuts?” Lisa said, “Or because I’m an alien in this dimension and there’s a risk I could get into accidental trouble, or worse, disrupt things and people get hurt.”
“You understand.” He said with a firm nod, “Good. Makes this all easier.”
end part 1
I took a walk around the world
To ease my troubled mind
I left my body lying somewhere
In the sands of time
But I watched the world float
To the dark side of the moon
I feel there is nothing I can do, yeah
I watched the world float
To the dark side of the moon
After all I knew it had to be
Something to do with you
I really don’t mind what happens now and then
As long as you’ll be my friend at the end
If I go crazy then will you still
Call me Superman
If I’m alive and well, will you be
There a-holding my hand
I’ll keep you by my side
With my superhuman might
Kryptonite
You called me strong, you called me weak,
But still your secrets I will keep
You took for granted all the times
I never let you down
You stumbled in and bumped your head,
If not for me then you'd be dead
I picked you up and put you back on solid ground
If I go crazy then will you still
Call me Superman
If I’m alive and well,
Will you be there a-holding my hand
I’ll keep you by my side
With my superhuman might
Kryptonite
If I go crazy then will you still
Call me Superman
If I’m alive and well, will you be there
Holding my hand
I’ll keep you by my side
With my superhuman might
Kryptonite
Yeah!!
If I go crazy then will you still
Call me Superman
If I'm alive and well,
Will you be there a-holding my hand
I'll keep you by my side
With my superhuman might
Kryptonite
Oh, whoa, whoa
Oh, whoa, whoa
Oh, whoa, whoa
3 Doors Down, KryptoniteTo ease my troubled mind
I left my body lying somewhere
In the sands of time
But I watched the world float
To the dark side of the moon
I feel there is nothing I can do, yeah
I watched the world float
To the dark side of the moon
After all I knew it had to be
Something to do with you
I really don’t mind what happens now and then
As long as you’ll be my friend at the end
If I go crazy then will you still
Call me Superman
If I’m alive and well, will you be
There a-holding my hand
I’ll keep you by my side
With my superhuman might
Kryptonite
You called me strong, you called me weak,
But still your secrets I will keep
You took for granted all the times
I never let you down
You stumbled in and bumped your head,
If not for me then you'd be dead
I picked you up and put you back on solid ground
If I go crazy then will you still
Call me Superman
If I’m alive and well,
Will you be there a-holding my hand
I’ll keep you by my side
With my superhuman might
Kryptonite
If I go crazy then will you still
Call me Superman
If I’m alive and well, will you be there
Holding my hand
I’ll keep you by my side
With my superhuman might
Kryptonite
Yeah!!
If I go crazy then will you still
Call me Superman
If I'm alive and well,
Will you be there a-holding my hand
I'll keep you by my side
With my superhuman might
Kryptonite
Oh, whoa, whoa
Oh, whoa, whoa
Oh, whoa, whoa
Vacuum Sucks. Lisa could feel the tug on her skin, as the cascade of energies wrapped around her.
It wasn’t really cold-vacuum is an insulator. She could feel the water trying to boil out of her cells and it hurt. It hurt a lot. More than she’d ever hurt before.
The energies were gone, and it was just like McCoy said in the movie-blackness and silence. A shadow passed over her and she felt the hair on her skin freeze in the darkness.
The stars were pretty though.
I should be dead now.
The thought was one she had a lot since Iraq. When she’d tried to drown, when she broke the rope trying to hang, when she tried the gun…I should be dead now...why am I still alive?
Impact
Starbase 132…
The anomaly that had just broken through the base’s shielding, then penetrated the hull and four decks, came to rest in a naked heap near the primary power plant.
She was naked, and looked human.
“Holy TRIBBLE.” Ensign Preston breathed, and somehow, she got to her feet. She was muscular, like a female body-builder, her blonde hair was slightly scorched, to Preston, she looked like a holo-suite version of a barbarian queen as envisioned by some fantasist shut-in.
“WHere am I?” she demanded, then her eyes focused, and she slumped a little ”TRIBBLE hell!!” she grabbed a piece of glowing debris, and there was a slight hiss, and a wince. She looked at her hand wonderingly, “well TRIBBLE me...that actually hurt…”
“Please keep your hands where I can see them, miss.” Preston said, gathering his professionalism, and levelling a phaser at her.
“NO problem..holy TRIBBLE, that actually hurt…I can get hurt…” she started to smile, “I can die!”
It took three shots at maximum stun before he stopped her charge.
Sick Bay, secured holding…
“...some minor bruising, how did she get here, was there a pod or transporter signal?” Dr. Feathers asked.
“No sir. Engineering found...scraps of clothing in the hole though. Nylon, mostly, some leather, a belt buckle...and what is left of a shoe.”
Lisa opened her eyes, “superpowers make physicists cry while they TRIBBLE.” she said it clearly. “Where am I?”
“You’re in a Federation Starbase, miss…”
She sat up. “Clothes would be nice.” She said, “ANyone know how the TRIBBLE I got here? This looks like the set from season two of Voyager, the sickbay, but you’re not a snarky bald dude so I don’t think it’s a dream…”
“What’s the last thing you remember?” Dr. Feathers asked, as she ran a scanner over Lisa with a frown.
“Getting hurt.” She said, “It was awesome...oh, you mean before that? Kind of a blur.” she shook her head, “Like a tunnel of lights and I couldn’t breathe.”
“How did you get into the tunnel?” the doc asked.
“Frankly, I have no idea.” she said, “One minute, we’re negotiating with these greaseball aliens who want to TRIBBLE with time-travel, next, I’m here...I think I saw John DeLancie for a minute at one point while I was hallucinating-TRIBBLE, that’s what this is, right? A hallucination? A dream where I get what I want?”
“I don’t understand.”
She held up her burnt hand, “I can get hurt, means I can finally die.”
“The burn is just surface, miss…”
“Quentin.” she said, “Lisa Quentin...and I’ve been in a spacetrek set before…”
“Space...trek?”
“Science fiction show I grew up with.” she said, “Up until I met Rhonda Evans, I thought it was all-fiction, but…what?”
“You don’t...That is, I think there’s a problem with my scanner.”
“Well, I could just be insane.” Lisa commented, “that makes as much sense as being dumped out into a science fiction show...for the second time...wait, you had a question.”
“What is your name?” the scientist asked.
“Lisa Quentin.” Lisa finally said, “ANd yes, I’m mentally ill, so my sense of reality is a little shaky...but this..” she held up her hand, “Means it might be treatable now.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I don’t get burns. I don’t get burns, I don’t drown, didn’t suffocate or explode or whatever it is kills you on exposure to hard vacuum, and while my clothes didn’t make it, I went through your starbase the hard way, but no broken bones.”
Feathers looked dubious, “I think we need a counselor…”
“Great! Another Shrink! Maybe this one will give me a prescription that works.” Lisa snarked in response.
“Another prescription?” Feathers asked.
“VA put me on antidepressants after Iraq, see, that’s kind of the response when you try to suicide with a shotgun-and all you get is a mouth full of flattened buckshot and an aftertaste that smells like an open sewer.” she paused, “Wait, that’s all I got, it would take the top of YOUR head right off and put a pattern on the backstop.”
“Do you mind if I take a sample?” Feathers asked.
“Sure, go ahead. Right arm or left?”
“Either one...hold still…”
The device hummed, and smoked, and Feathers dropped the sampler on the deck.
“Didn’t work, huh?” Lisa asked.
Command deck Starbase 132
“When security brought her in, there was some distortion on the scans, but by the time she was up and talking…” Doctor Feathers brought up the image, “it was like turning off a light-she steadily became opaque to my instruments.”
Captain Gearing studied the recorded monitoring scans. “Like a shield went up.” he noted, “You know, when I did my five year mission, we saw some crazy stuff-but I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like this...some kind of alien...and she freely confessed to being mentally ill?”
“She mentioned prior suicide attempts, and seemed...happy at the prospect of, in her words, being ‘finally able to die.’..then she said she was prescribed anti-depressant medications.” Feathers said, “I ran her through a battery of personality testing, she’s definitely suffering from a variant depressive state...she also demonstrated lingering post traumatic stress-but if her story is right-she would be. Being ripped from her own reality? Though I kind of suspect that’s more of an onset schizophrenic reaction.”
Secure quarters…
There was a guard outside, and they had powered locks on the door, so it was kinda like a cell, but it wasn’t like the cell the government kept her in at Yucca Mountain, and nobody yet had seen fit to fit her with the stylish jacket with the sleeves that buckle in back.
They did however, give her access to a replicator for her clothing, and an allowance for food items, and there was a computer voice with a display terminal that had unclassified information.
Lisa never used an Alias or ‘codename’-not even when she was raising hell across the western United States before she surrendered to Kelly Lamb. Thus, she didn’t feel much need to make a ‘costume’. Some of the civilian fashions in the Federation would’ve qualified right up there with the sort of Stripper-floss outfits the West Coast Champions used.
“Historical clothing, mid-twentieth century.” She finally said in frustration.
Not a single spacetrek reference. Nobody, apparently, had ever seen the show.
“Why would they make a show?” she muttered, “Okay, TRIBBLE this. Um...entertainment, television, late nineteen nineties..farscape?”
That annoyed her-the system didn’t have TRIBBLE Farscape either.
She frowned, then, she said, “Did anyone make a show called ‘Firefly’ in the 1990s to 2000’s?”
”Which season?” the computer asked.
“Awesome, um, season one?”
Lisa browsed episodes and went back to choosing items for her wardrobe.
She picked a ‘lisa shaped and sized’ browncoats outfit, a girly version of Han Solo’s costume from the first Star Wars movie, a leather ‘viper jacket’ from the original Battlestar Galactica show, a few actual dresses for ‘formal occasions’ and lots of bras and underwear. In the end, it came out to a closet that would’ve cost her six months wages at a decent job back on (her) Earth-but none of the luchador-stripperfloss-spandex outfits.
Then, she settled in to wait for someone to tell her what’s happening. She did so with replicator-beer, and ‘canned’ flatscreen entertainment.
Jeans and a tank-top watching teevee and drinking beer.
The door chimed about six hours into a Firefly marathon.
“Come in.” she said, and the door opened.
“I’m Medra, the station’s counselor.” the woman introduced herself with an almost-greek accent.
Lisa gave her a look over. “Mmm...so the show was right-Betazoids have black eyes.” she said, “Hi, I’m Lisa...want a beer?”
Medra accepted the beer, and joined Lisa in front of the display screen.
They sat in silence for a while, as season two of Firefly-one and a half more seasons than the show had gotten in Lisa’s timeline, opened on the screen.
“I love this show.” Lisa said, “It’s awesome your reality had more than the half-season we got.”
“You don’t feel...happy.” Medra replied.
“Yeah. that’s ‘normal’.” Lisa told her, “It gets better or worse randomly, but no, I’m not happy. Happiness is little doses, you know? They don’t last long and they don’t stick around.”
“Parts of your...story…” Medra began, “May I Probe you?”
“Sure.” Lisa told her, “you’re a shrink, it’s probably faster to probe me, than it is to interview me awkwardly.”
“You were a criminal.” Medra said after a moment.
“Yes I was.” Lisa said, “confessed, convicted, imprisoned and released…”
“And you have killed people.” Medra added.
“I did.” Lisa said, “Not all of them bad people either. Not really a lot I could do to make up for that…”
“But you tried.” Medra stated.
“I tried-once they decided to let me out.” Lisa agreed, and sipped her beer. “We took on monsters from this side.”
“The borg.”
“Yep. The Borg.” Lisa said, “got lucky that Overlord was a Technopathic super, or I think we’d have had to kill a lot of innocent people to stop them.”
“What are ‘supers’?” Medra asked.
“You’re reading my head, you know what we are.” Lisa said, “Overlord, me, Kincaid, we have powers, get it? Abilities that make physics guys pull their hair out in frustration.”
Medra nodded, and experimentally prodded Lisa.
“It doesn’t work that way...here, a little demo.” Lisa stood up, and went to the door, knocking twice “Yo, HAT!!” she shouted using a television prisoner-term.
The door opened with a very confused looking security officer.
Lisa grabbed him by his shirt, and pulled him into the room. “Okay, take your phaser there, set it REAL high, or I’m going to beat you to a pulp, savvy?”
He looked confused, so she punched him-pulling it just enough that her reactive power didn’t actually break him, and took his phaser away.
She set it like she saw on the show, and tossed it back, “Shoot me, or I’ll punch you again until you do.” she said.
“I-” he said, “NO.”
“Look either it’ll do nothing but TRIBBLE up some replacable clothing, or you’ll have me explaining to your chief that you were forced to because I was having an Afghanistan flashback and the counselor here was in danger.”
“Is she?” He asked, tense and ready to subdue.
Lisa inclined her head, “Just Shoot me, we’re like one floor down from medical!”
He wasn’t convinced.
“DUDE! I’m a TRIBBLE felon and we’re millions of miles from my probation officer, I’m in violation of a whole ton of laws back home, and I was counted something of a dangerous person-You’re a cop, I’ve killed cops, don’t you want to get some back for those guys? Shoot me.”
The Counselor spoke up, “you’re not afraid-you KNOW what those can do, and you’re not afraid.”
“Nope. Been shot by one before.” Lisa said, “Didn’t do anything but ruin a shirt.”
“You’re insane!” the security man said.
“Right, dangerous crazy, you’re in danger, I’m a danger to others and myself, so do your duty...here, I’ll make it easy for you…”
She stepped forward and threw a full roundhouse punch-and the young ensign’s reflexes did what training taught him when facing a dangerous melee attacker. The beam lanced out, and Lisa’s tank-top caught fire.
But it didn’t even phase her skin.
She stopped mid step, relaxed, and looked at the Counselor while the weapons alarm went off, “See?...You’re alright, dood, not gonna hit you again, and if you want to take me to the brig for it, I’m good with that.”
The door opened and a tac-team of security men rushed in.
Medra announced, “it’s alright boys!”
Lisa was already putting her hands behind her head and kneeling.
“It’s alright, just an accident.” Medra continued.
The benzite security officer looked at his weapon, and almost hyperventilated, “Aah! You ARE insane!” he said.
“Just ‘remember to set it back to stun.” Lisa said, “maybe have your armory guy look at the unit to make sure I didn’t TRIBBLE with the internals.” she raised her chin, “I am under arrest, right?”
“THAT isn’t necessary, Miss Quentin.” the Captain announced as he stepped between the Security men. “Not that I think it’d do much good anyway..you realize that I expected to find a pile of ashes or a hole in the deck, right?”
“Well duh-I watched every Space Trek they made up to 2009 when Enterprise finished its run, got a lot of chances to see how the writers thought the stuff worked...though I thought your security guys were better at hand-to-hand.”
“Could you stand up, please? We just got a copy of a file from Starfleet Intelligence.” Captain Gearing told her, “It makes interesting reading.”
“So I did exist here?” Lisa asked.
“Not exactly-but the USS Heinlein does, and your personnel file was among some anomalous items found aboard two months ago.”
“Damn, only two months here? Back home it’s been about six years.” Lisa observed.
“Um, you mind changing your shirt before the group from Starfleet Command get here, Miss Quentin?” he asked, “I’d rather not have to explain why you have a charred hole in that spot…”
“No problem, sir.” Lisa said, “So how much trouble am I in for punching ensign redshirt there?”
“I’m not going to press charges…” the Benzite said, marvelling at his phaser again, “I...just...wow…”
“Looks like you got a little sunburned there.” Medra observed.
Lisa checked her torso as she took the ruined shirt off, and put on a brown one with the logo from Wormhole Extreme! she’d found in the database.
“Apparently, not as tough as I was back home.” Lisa said brightly, “You have NO idea how much that pleases me.”
“You hate your ‘superpower’.” Medra noted.
“Well yeah.” Lisa said, “They always make the invulnerable heroes look so f&cking happy, but you know what? It sucks in real life. I can’t get hammered, or high, and since I ‘turned’ before I got laid, I can’t have-”
“TOO much information!” Gearing overrode her, “but apparently you are more vulnerable here.”
“Which is TRIBBLE awesome.” Lisa said, turning back around so that she could face the Captain and his escort of security troops-who looked decidedly hesitant now that they had confirmation that their phasers weren’t going to be ‘enough’-even taken off of stun.
“So! I’m in a fantasy again-second time, that I had as a kid...” she eyed them with a half-smirk, “Anyone have ideas on why I’m inside a movie?”
“Do you?” Gearing asked.
“Not a f&cking clue.” Lisa said, “Just happy that this ‘gift’ of mine is wearing off…”
“She’s still a suicide risk.” Medra intoned.
Lisa shot her a glare, “what the f%ck doc? I thought that TRIBBLE was confidential!”
“Forty three national guardsmen, two accredited superheroes, and the staff of a physics station would agree that your suicide attempts tend to generate casualties-poses a risk to the station, so, no, that’s not something covered by counselor-patient confidentiality rules.”
Lisa sighed, “I promise I won’t try to off myself in some spectacularly destructive way, okay?”
Gearing looked to his counselor, who looked doubtful, but nodded, “Verified-she won’t intentionally damage or endanger anyone else.”
His frown didn’t relax, “No more suicide attempts.” He said, “Period.”
Lisa closed her eyes, “Sure, why not? No more suicide attempts, no more risky behaviours...fine.”
He measured the Counselor’s reaction, and Medra nodded, “Verified.”
And then, he relaxed, “Good...good enough, anyway...and Ensign Falos, take your phaser to the armorer and have it looked over.”
“Aye sir!” the Benzite security officer snapped to and hurried out.
“So...why are you here?” Gearing asked.
“I have no idea.” Lisa said, “I had some memory loss, I think, because there’s bits and patches missing like how I wound up hitting your space-station, and more important, why.”
Gearing stepped fully into the room, took a chair, and sat down straddling the back, arms crossed in front of him. “That, I actually believe.” he said. “What do you think is the reason?”
“Hmmm...making me guess? I’d guess it was some kind of cosmic accident, but Doc S recruited the team to help fight some kind of monsters from beyond space and time, and it’s pretty convenient that I ended up in the same ‘verse that the Heinlein came from-too many coincidences-someone put me here.”
“You mentioned your powers might be ‘fading’, could that be the reason?” Gearing asked.
“Hell of a favour to me-maybe.” Lisa accepted, “Being immortal kinda sucks big rocks, Captain-but I was kind of the brute muscle for the team. Overlord and Kincaid do the planning, Ryan was the long-range punch, but I was the ‘tank’ in the party-the one that gets in and mixes it up in close quarters, I could easy see someone wanting to remove that from the team’s dynamic and force them into a mix of ranged and terrain control. If they have to rely on Lizzie for that now, it could hurt the team’s effectiveness, and Kelly has lots of obligations earthside.”
“Huh…your MOS background I thought you would be the team’s medic.” he said.
“Liz handles that stuff better than I could learn to do.” Lisa said, “Plus we’ve got a couple of others with more advanced training than I got as a Corpsman.”
Gearing reached into his pocket, and produced a PADD. “Must be good-you have a lot of citations on your record...at least, this one.”
“Yeah. fat lot of good it did me. I got home, and went from inpatient to homeless vet without skipping a step.” Lisa cracked, then she looked around, “And now, back to being a Homeless vet-only it’s in a Space Trek future and I have exactly jack-TRIBBLE for marketable skills here.”
Gearing shot her a wry look, and grinned, “We can fix that.” he told her, “Your record mentions you were fast to pick up on languages, and scored high on your MOS training. What bothers me, is the references to your service-related disability...and the idea that you’ve been going back into combat for the last ten years with only a four year break while you were incarcerated.”
“Solitary with padded walls, yeah.” Lisa said, “More for their safety than mine, I don’t think this is going to be the problem here.”
“Except that you’re medically listed as a suicide risk.” Gearing told her, “the profile in this copy makes it pretty clear, you know-the standards of the twenty first century were pretty loose on the mental-health front, for them to have these codes on your discharge papers, you had to be pretty bad off.”
Lisa shrugged, “I’m better now.” she said.
“We’ll have to see.” he told her, “In the meantime, you’re not going anywhere without an escort until you’re medically cleared, you understand why, right?”
“Because I’m nuts?” Lisa said, “Or because I’m an alien in this dimension and there’s a risk I could get into accidental trouble, or worse, disrupt things and people get hurt.”
“You understand.” He said with a firm nod, “Good. Makes this all easier.”
end part 1
"It may be better to be a live jackal than a dead lion, but it is better still to be a live lion. And usually easier." R.A.Heinlein
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
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USS Heinlein, …
“Captain, I’ve got a priority one Alpha from...one of the exploration commands, and it’s addressed to you specifically under protocol Echo-seven-Roger.”
Eyes only? From an exploration command? that was weird enough to interrupt routine.
“I’ll take it in my ready room.” Captain Rhonda Evans said, getting up from her seat, “Stone, you’ve got the Conn.”
She walked to her ready room, closed the door, “Johnny, you know the protocol on these, lock the door and enable privacy fields.”
Then, she sat down, and opened the channel on her comm-panel using a sixteen digit access code.
Vice Admiral Job Cartwright appeared on the screen. “Morning Captain.”
“What’s with the secret squirrel stuff, Admiral?” Rhonda asked, “Seven rogers aren’t normal for Exploration Command, and I’m tasked to a different group.”
“Lisa Quentin fell through the hull of Starbase one-thirty-two.” he told her, “One of your extradimensional pals just showed up. That would make it a security issue, and the Federation’s oversight committee is sending someone to check her out-since you’re the captain with first-contact and know her best, AND because you’ve got familiarity with the material, I talked the Chief into cutting you loose to look into this.”
“While I appreciate the chance to get out of this goat rope for a little while, are you sure it’s her and not a version from the Terran universe or something?”
“If we were sure of that, we wouldn’t need you.” Cartwright noted, “You’ve met her and worked with her, you should be able to tell the difference and adjust accordingly.”
TRIBBLE. just once she’d like to get something assigned to her for some reason other than being a ‘weirdness magnet’. “Copy that Admiral. How soon do you need us there?”
“At best possible speed’ seems to be a reasonable time-Starbase 132 is fairly close by to where’ you’re operating-they’re on the rimward side of the quadrant, one of our forward staging bases for deep range explorers, the CO is someone I think you went to the Academy with, Josh Gearing.”
“I remember him. All right, we should be able to be there in,” she glanced at her screen, where Johnny helpfully had the information there” about 3, three and a half days, God willing.”
“Keep your eyes up while you’re there, the civilian oversight agency’s sending a ‘fact finding’ group out there at the same time, so you’ll have to deal with politicos, one of whom doesn’t like Starfleet and the other one doesn’t like Starfleet personnel.”
“This just keeps getting better and better” she replied with a shake of her head “I’ll watch myself when i’m around them.”
“Alright, and I don’t have to tell you-be careful out there. Briefing packet’s on the subchannel, Cartwright Out.”
“Captain, I’ve got about six megabytes of data here.” Johnny chimed in, “Do you want to open it?”
“..uh.” She paused again, in the system the AI cursed. There, again. The indecisiveness… This was not like her. He went ahead and put the information in a file on her terminal, while inwardly both worrying and panicking. Quentin, here? That wasn’t supposed to be possible, both that universes Schrodinger and Q had resealed the breach between the two timelines.
I hate to do it, but if I can’t figure out what’s causing her mood shifts and freezing since we returned from that mission..I may have to pull rank and relieve her-which would abort my mission.
Staff call, Starbase 132..
“Alright what’ve we got?” Captain Gearing asked.
“USS Kiowa’s due in at eighteen thirty from an exploration mission, they’re picking up resupply, then heading back out. The Alderian Ambassadorial party is meeting with the H’kkraank][ delegation at noon today, to discuss a mineral rights dispute over PXY7523Z, The USS Hood is coming in for repairs, seems they ran into a Tholian task force that weren’t interested in talking. On the freighter schedule we’ve got a convoy at thirteen hundred, fifteen hundred, and twenty hundred hours, a colony group from Andoria bound for a recently surveyed world...and Starfleet’s Oversight sub-Committee is sending a fact-finding team to talk to our new boarder.” Katran Nerys, the station’s XO and Ops officer finished her list, and looked up, “They’re going to get here ahead of the Heinlein, by the way-which Starfleet Command dispatched from the Moab blockade.”
“How much ahead, and who’re they sending?” Gearing asked.
“About nineteen hours, the Heinlein was dispatched from Risa, but the oversight team is coming from Sol via Transwarp network gates.”
Gearing frowned, Oversight is sending civilians awful damn fast “who’s the Oversight Committee sending?”
“Um...Doctor Zh’allas, Representative Heidl.”
Gearing’s headache returned, Rep. Heidl was one of those politicians who seemed deeply intent on finding ways to reduce Starfleet’s influence, and Dr. Zh’allas was a proponent of automated exploration initiatives to avoid ‘polluting’ discovered cultures.
Both were well known for their opposition voices whenever a new race applied for membership in the Federation.
They couldn’t have sent two more ignorant and bigoted people if they searched through the welfare complexes in Albuquerque. “How long are they staying, I mean-”
“There is no set return date, Captain.” Commander Katran told him, mirroring his disappointment.
“Assign them quarters on level five, then.” Gearing stated, “It’s far enough from Ops that maybe we can avoid the hassle, and there are some good conference rooms on that level. How many staff is Heidl bringing this time?”
“Fifty three staffers, sir.”
“DO we have space on that deck?”
“Should be enough, sir.”
“Good...you know, why couldn’t this be an election year?” Gearing asked.
Promenade, Replimat area…
Lisa slid a chit in, and tried mentally to sort what might actually taste good from the thousand or so recipes in the public replicators.
“It’s easier if you just tell it what you want.” a familiar voice instructed.
Lisa turned on her toe to face him. “Q...are you here to get me home, or is this one of your games?” she demanded.
“No...and no.” Q told her, “If I took you home, it would break the rules.” he said, “and your being here is not my doing.”
“Who set it up then, and why?” Lisa asked, “I can’t believe Doc would do it-not without telling me.”
“Our blue-furred friend is just as upset at your absence, as you are.” Q told her, “but she, too, can’t pull you home-you have to make it back on your own.”
“So who set it up? Who sent me here?” Lisa asked, “I mean, I didn’t entirely sleep through all of Doc Schrodinger’s lectures on parallel timelines, me landing in one I’ve had contact with natives of before-that’s unlikely, right?”
“Shockingly, no.” Q told her, “Try the Hasperat, it’s supposed to be something your species enjoys.”
Lisa ordered the Hasperat, and tea, and then joined Q at a table as activity returned to something like normal.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Lisa observed.
“That, is because you don’t really need me to answer it.” Q told her, “You should already have a hint since it was neither myself, nor Schrodinger.”
“Why?” Lisa asked.
“To create chaos, to put ‘our side’ off balance.” Q told her, “it’s a minor thing-like letting the Borg find an unsecured transuniversal wormhole by accident. They can’t act directly any more than we can, but acting Indirectly is something they can do...and they have-without their indirect influence, that alien experiment would have simply destroyed you.”
“I can get hurt now.” Lisa confided.
“Physical laws are different here.” Q told her, “Your powers are adjusting, to conform to them-don’t be so happy, most beings would kill to be as durable as you are.”
Lisa snorted. “Yeah, but there’s the side-effects.” she said, “Mental and physical. As much as this-” she gestured around, including the starbase, “Is the kind of stuff I used to fantasize about...you’re sure you can’t get me home?”
Q shook his head, “No, sorry. It’s in the rules-I can’t get you out of this situation, and I can’t tell you how to get yourself out.”
“So why talk to me at all?” Lisa asked.
“It’s a favour-for a friend.” Q told her, “Checking up on you, that sort of thing. Be aware, your alternate in this universe was never born, that is part of how you could exist here at all given the way you arrived.” he smiled, “I would suggest learning everything you can about what is happening with your abilities, how they work here, and why.”
“Metahuman powers are the kind of thing that makes physicists cry while they’re masturbating, Q.” Lisa said, “I’m not that smart-”
Q thumped her forehead with a finger, “Don’t sell yourself that short, tadpole. Lazy? Yes...you won’t like things if you keep up your intentional ignorance. Learn something.”
And he vanished in a muted flash.
Lisa tried to enjoy the Bajoran dish, but for some reason, a vegetarian horseradish burrito wasn’t appetizing.
For some unpleasant reason it reminded her of when she was homeless after her discharge. “Taste’s like the dumpster of a taco bell…” she frowned.
“It’s better when it’s fresh. Replicators just don’t seem to get it quite right.” a bajoran with Commander’s pips sat down at the same table, “Mind if I join you?”
“No issues.” Lisa said, “I think I’ll turn this in and see if the hamburgers are edible at least.”
‘You might try the chicken.” Commander Katran said, “The other humans seem to think it’s fairly decent.”
“Thanks.” Lisa said, “You’re the XO here?”
“Paying attention! That’s good. Yes. Captain Gearing thought you might appreciate the company-and I need my security teams.”
“Babysitting duty?” Lisa asked, changing in the plate for what the menu insisted was lemon chicken.
“Something like that-I read your file, including the parts that didn’t make sense. what are you?”
Lisa sat back down, “I’m Lisa.” she said, “or at least, that’s my name. I was born in Oregon in 1986, I did two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, where I was a Navy Corpsman attached to a marine unit-most of my boys didn’t make it out of Iraq alive...I’m an outpatient Vet, I did a short stint as a vigilante, followed by a stretch where I was a rampaging supervillain, I’m also a convicted criminal.” she shrugged, “but I was paroled and pardoned. My last job was ‘troubleshooting’ with a group of supers on a pretty big scale...and right now, I’m unemployed, stranded in a world that bears a remarkable resemblance to the one I used to fantasize about as a little girl.”
“That’s not really what I was asking. Medical scanners can’t see past your skin, you punched through the hull, and three decks of this starbase through full shields and landed unharmed, but naked, less than five meters from the main power core.” Katra said.
“Well, it’s not like I could control that.” Lisa said, “I don’t have flight powers, so it’s more like I fell through the hull and three decks of the station.”
Katran sighed, “What I’m trying to ask you, is how do we know what you are? You could be an android-all we have is your word that you’re human.”
“Metahuman.” Lisa corrected her, “Yeah, you’re not asking me anything I haven’t worried about since I woke up after that IED-but I remember being human, I still eat, defecate, breathe..sleep, someone said I snore...it’s the best I can do-as far as I know, and I can’t prove it to you if you don’t believe me, I’m at least someone who was born human...I even have human mental problems-bipolar depression, PTSD, a little bit of attention-deficit, I’ve seen my medical files back home, what the VA shrinks wrote up on me, and what the FBI profilers wrote up after I started my one-person crime wave..I mean, I didn’t want to take over the world or change the world, I just wanted to die because not only could nobody fix me, the stuff they were prescribing for the depression wasn’t working and the nightmares didn’t stop.”
“I was going to get to that-My original career path was in the Sciences-specifically mineralogy.” Katran said, “WHat in the hell is ‘Questionite’?”
“It’s a purplish crystal formed from isotopes of Lithium that form binary chains, then assume a crystalline struc-”
“Dilithium?” Katran gaped.
“Yeah, I guess it would be. It’s ‘questionite’ because in MY reality, binary lithium atoms only form crystalline structure at extreme pressure and temperatures normally-but Questionite does it at room temp-”
“Dilithium.”
“Right, and when you smack it with particles in a supercollider the byproduct is explosive.” Lisa continued, “The two big crimes on my docket were a very complicated suicide attempt-see, the unstable substance is yellowish…”
“PROPHETS!! You were making Trilithium Resin??”
“Made it. Past-tense.” Lisa said, “I put it on a meatball sub with extra cheese and washed it down with orange drink-the villain I stole the recipe from was pretty sure it would kill me, but instead, it gave me gas that was hazardous for a twenty mile radius.” she spread replicated brown mustard on the top bun of the hamburger, “Which is why I turned myself in and let them toss me into the bottom of Yucca Mountain with the rest of the hazardous waste. The cell was kept at oxygen-minimum stratospheric pressure to keep the residues contained and flush them into hazmat containers that Kelly Lamb had to drop in the sun for about six months until the aftermath waste material was flushed out of my system.”
Katran stared for a moment, then, “You’re joking.” she said.
Lisa took a bite of her hamburger, chewed slowly, then swallowed, “No joke. See, they listed me as a ‘brute’ class super-but I’m not any stronger than a woman of my height, weight and build. What my power did, was make it so that anything that could break me, broke instead. My cell was padded because the padding could keep me from punching hard enough to beat my way out. I had the ‘hugme’ jacket-the strait-jacket-so that my guards would be safer if they had to move me through the corridors-it was padded too, damn near impossible to run into anything hard enough hurt a normal person-so my power didn’t activate and break stuff, or people, and I lived like that for five years.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew, without a single doubt, how dangerous I was.” Lisa told her, “I knew that my mental problems made me a danger to other people, not necessarily intentionally, but because my escalating attempts to end the nightmare I was living with had put a whole lot of innocent people in mortal danger...and I felt guilty about a couple heroes who died trying to stop me, and the teammates of theirs that were injured in the same fight. Two heroes dead, four so maimed they had to retire, and forty three California National Guardsmen that wound up disabled vets when they tried to stop me with a reinforced battalion that included armored vehicle support.”
She sipped her drink, and Katran cocked her head, “That’s...I don’t think that’s really possible.” she said.
Lisa shrugged, “Metahuman abilities violate physics a LOT.” she said, “Enough that respectable scientists have outright lost it trying to figure out how-and more important, why they work. You can relax though-here I can at least get hurt-which means it doesn’t seem to work the same way, I won’t accidentally fall through a wall if I trip while running, and I probably won’t break an armored plate with my fist by simply punching with all of my strength.”
“You still ate a Phaser set at maximum power without significant harm.” Katran stated, “We tested it-you had that phaser set to levels necessary for tunneling through pure ferrite-if that Ensign had missed, there would be a hole through the side of the station.”
“Got a patch sunburn.” Lisa said, “First sunburn I’ve had since 2004...and maybe it’s fading away.” she smiled toothily, “Which would be like getting one fantasy piled right on top of being in Spacetrek.”
“Why would you want to be rid of it?” Katran asked.
Lisa gestured, “You’re married, right? I mean, the earring suggests it..”
“Yes.”
“To a man?” Lisa asked.
“I have a husband, yes.” Katran stated.
“And you can have kids?”
“Two.”
“Right, okay, as long as I have this ‘metahuman ability’ I can’t.” Lisa told her, “I can’t even have sex. I manifested before I’d got up the guts to get laid for the first time, ‘cause I was saving myself for marriage, and this ability? It covers everything but body-hair and fingernails, and I don’t have kinky urges and I don’t dig girls that way.”
Katran flinched visibly, “ew…”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
(part 3)
USS Heinlein, 1 day out from Starbase 132…
Lt. Summerfield finished prepping the morning reports, and brought them up to Captain Evans. “Captain-why are we going to an Exploration base?”
“Because it’s in our orders.” Rhonda told her, signing off the reports after reading them. “Admiral Cartwright himself contacted me and said not to waste time but get out there.” she handed the PADD back. “So we’re getting out there.”
“Aye ma’am…” Summerfield seemed distracted this morning. Rhonda noticed.
“Relax, this is going to be easier for you and the crew than blockade duty.” She told the young adjutant, “One thirty two is an exploration command base, so there’s shore leave facilities, they’re in orbit over a class-M uninhabited moon, so there’s plenty of outdoors time and supplementary surface training too.”
“Sounds...nice.” Summerfield said without enthusiasm.
“Hey look at it this way-yeah we just got done with a bit of leave on Risa, well with a bit of a detour-but one thing I’ve learned in starfleet. Never turn down a chance to eat, sleep, or get some shore leave time, cause you never know when the next one is coming.”
“Yes ma’am.” Summerfield said, “I wasn’t on that detour.”
“Oh, don’t worry, we’ll be ears deep in excitement when we get back. I forgot you weren’t with s for the last bit.” Rhonda said lightly, “check with Stone and schedule an officer’s brief at twelve hundred, okay? It’s going to be a classified briefing, after that, I’ll be preparing an announcement to the crew.”
“Aye Ma’am.” what are you hiding? How are you hiding it?? “I’ll get right on that.”
Interview room, Starbase 132…
“That...is a montage of cutscenes from a HALO game, right?” Lisa commented, watching the action on the screen.
“What’s ‘Halo’?”
“It’s this game Ryan likes. The armor is a dead giveaway-those are Spartan 2s or 3s, Some interesting player selections for the appearance options-” She stopped, and looked at the XO. “It’s not from a videogame, is it?”
Katran shook her head, and stopped the playback, “Nope. Not from a videogame. That armor’s in use...a breakaway group of colonies have been making, and using suits like those for the last four years.”
“Groovy.” Lisa said, “What made them leave the Federation? Was it something like the Maquis then?”
The Bajoran sighed, “It has some resemblance-how much do you know about that?”
“Only what I saw on Spacetrek: Wormhole Station.” Lisa told her, “That, and what I saw on Spacetrek Legacies-the Federation told them to move, and they said TRIBBLE off, then they started fighting everybody, beginning with the Cardassians, until they pissed off so many people that when the Dominion mudstomped them, they didn’t have any allies and the last surviving leader wound up being sent to a rehabilitation center.” she paused, dredging her memory, “I seem to recall that the Maquis in the show got some covert aid from the Klingons for a while before that happened.”
“The initial leaders were mostly children of survivors from the Maquis.” Katran filled her in, “But the colonies have been Federation colonies for generations, and again, they had some help from the Klingons shortly after declaring independence.”
Lisa frowned, “Seriously? The Klingons? The show made a point that after Worf aced Gowron and Martok took over, TRIBBLE was back to friends with the Federation and the Klingons.”
“So...you don’t know much about what’s happened in the last forty years since the end of the Dominion war?” Katran asked her.
“Not a TRIBBLE clue.” Lisa said.
“We had a war, from 2400 to 2409, with the Klingons, the Romulans are broken apart and there’s a Republic now-which is a Federation and Klingon ally...and there’s the Moab Confederacy.”
“Moab Confederacy being these breakaways?” Lisa asked.
“Yes.” Katran told her, “The Moabites have been...well, initially their secession was legitimized, but a ruling by the Federation Supreme Court found that the secession was illegally carried out, and recently a vote put a pro-reconciliation group in charge on the main world-only to have things erupt into a civil war.”
“Is that where the imagery is from?” Lisa asked.
“No. That’s from Goralis, a Cardassian held world-”
“Where they grow Meya leaf, which is a major ingredient in the only treatment for Yarim Fel syndrome.” Lisa interrupted, “okay, so the suits are humans, what’re the monsters then-because that ain’t no Cardassian animal.”
“Those are Fek’Ihri, and the Moabites were fighting them on Cardassian soil as part of a multinational task-force.” Katran explained, “their actions there have been a pretty significant reason that the Federation is maintaining a blockade over the Confederacy’s planets instead of sending in forces to arrest the independents-they impressed a lot of people on all sides, and the squad on the recording there, only two of them made it out alive-but they stopped the invaders.”
“So it’s politically shaky to just move in and crush the rebels like a big ole empire.” Lisa said, “Because the Cardies and the Klingons like them and the Federation is trying to make nice?”
“Roughly put, but accurate. Right now we have monitoring teams in the four systems, joint observation with the Klingon Empire...which could get sticky. Not to mention the third parties, like the Romulan Republic and the Denali.”
“Oh TRIBBLE, don’t tell me-your guys and their guys are wearing blue helmet covers with three shots and hellish ROE, while the local insurgents feel free to take potshots?” Lisa groused, “I’ve had that job.”
“Not that dramatic. There’s dramatic-Berun’s world is pretty bad, but most of it is, from reports, boring.” Katran told her, “We’ve managed to pry the USS Heinlein loose from blockade duty to come check you out.”
“Seriously?” Lisa asked, “Well, at least there’ll be some familiar faces…”
USS Heinlein, 1200 hours…
The conference room door closed, leaving only Rhonda and her senior staff. “Okay, here we go.” she said, bringing up the displays. “Guess who showed up out of nowhere, punched through the hull, shields, and three decks of an exploration base, and is waiting at 132 for us?”
“Um...who?” Nix asked.
Rhonda gestured, and the image appeared. “Lisa Quentin. She showed up out of nowhere, crashed into a starbase, and we’ve been tasked to look into why, how, and why here and now.”
Stunned silence.
“This isn’t a joke, is it?”
“Nope.”
“Parallel?”
“Could be. Could also be the same Lisa-according to the interview, she remembers us.” Rhonda said, “Which could be a good thing-but it could also be really bad.”
“Because the question of how she got here?”
“Among other things, yeah.” Rhonda counted off, “How she got here, what she remembers, how being here is affecting her powers, and of course, her mental state.”
“You think she remembers the details about the Borg incident?” Nix asked “cause even after Q took everyone from the conference room to the beach, they were still pretty insistent on finding out what happened.”
The Captain shrugged “I dunno. Q said he’s why we don’t remember, I’d like to think that he’s on the ball enough that if Lisa got brought over, she wouldn’t either. Assumin he’s the one behind it.”
“What if he’s not?” Thyl, her andorian weapons officer asked.
“Then we may have bigger problems.”
Starbase 132…
“I want to see it.” Representative Heidl insisted, “For myself. The record report doesn’t seem credible to me.”
“It?” Captain Gearing asked.
“The Anomaly, Captain, this...alien person.” Rep Heidl was human, female, and had a sort of powerful charisma derived from a huge chip of self-righteousness. She’d won her seat on the back of the Starfleet Academy incident by using that innate charisma (Which, Gearing thought, had to be innate-the woman was the antithesis of attractive) and a large amount of ‘scare the voters’ rhetoric.
“She’s a person, Representative.” Commander Katran, the XO, said, “ANd she’s currently...busy.”
“Doing what, precisely?” the politician pressed.
“Computer! Where is Lisa Quentin currently?” Gearing asked.
“Lisa Quentin is currently in Holosuite nine.” the computer answered.
“What program is she running?” Katran asked.
“Exercise Gearing Three.”
As they escorted the politician, Katran leaned to Gearing, “Isn’t that the ocean swim?” she asked.
“English channel, yes.”
“Might be a bit wet, in there, madame Representative. The arch opens on the chase boat.”
“Chase...boat?”
“It’s a practice for the Iron Man Europe triathlon, starts with swimming the english channel, then a run to the south of france, followed by-”
“I know the route of the Ironman Europe games, Captain...I didn’t know you were a competitor.” Heidl said.
“Every year I think I will be…” Gearing noted, “and every year, friends and colleagues talk me out of it.”
The arch opened on a platform that was similar to the hover-boats used to monitor competitive swimmers crossing the English channel, complete with salt spray.
Below them, Lisa struggling against the waves with a holographic Hikaru Sulu shouting instructions at her.
Gearing barked, “Freeze Program! End Program!”
And the holodeck was restored, leaving Lisa to get up, soaking wet and shivering. “Geeze guys!”
“You were less than five kilometers into the swim and already foundering.” Gearing told her, as he helped her to her feet. “Maybe you should try something less...challenging?”
She spat up some water, “Still getting used to things.” she admitted, then she noted the rest of them.
“Who’s the suit?” she asked in a lower tone.
“Representative Tami Heidl, Western European district.” Heidl said crisply.
“Lisa Quentin.” Lisa accepted the politician’s hand. Heidl’s grip turned white-knuckle. Lisa’s expression remained neutral-curious,but she did not return the squeeze.
After a moment, the handshake dropped, “So, you’re from which agency?” Lisa asked.
“I’m here on behalf of the Federation Council’s oversight and governance committee for Starfleet Matters.” Heidl said, “We’re all very curious about your...arrival.”
“You mean my provenance.” Lisa said, “as in security matters-right?”
Katran spoke up, “Lisa, where is your security escort?”
“Joe and Klaine are getting lunch.” Lisa said, “Kind of why I picked the program-it’s a long one, so they could get a break. It’s not like I could open the door without help-at least, without breaking stuff, and I’ve got zero security clearances.”
“Ahem!” Heidl harrumphed self-importantly, “WE have business, you and I.” she said, “debriefings, among other things.”
“I thought we were waiting on Evans?” Lisa directed the question at Gearing.
He looked uncomfortable, “Starfleet is an organization overseen by civilian authority, miss Quentin…”
“Oh, right, and you guys say you’re not military!” she smiled at him, then dropped it and faced Heidl, “Okay, let’s do this, what do you need from me to keep things peaceable?”
“My aide, Mister Laor, is from Betazed, he will be verifying your answers.” Heidl told her, then to Gearing, she said, “Please configure the room for a standard conference with enhanced privacy field, Captain.”
“We should step outside for that.” GEaring said, “It’s one thing to terminate a holoprogram that’s running, it’s another thing entirely to be in the room while the fields are activating.”
“Miss Quentin’s invulnerability is a matter of record, Captain.” Heidl stated, “She can remain.”
“are you out of your goddamn mind??” Gearing burst-to lisa, it was clear that he’d been holding back on something.
“Will it hurt the gear?” she asked.
He shook his head.
“Okay, sounds like a reasonable test.” she said, adding, “Come on, I hit the station at relativistic speed-it’s not like this is going to kill me..?”
“Agreed, Captain, see to it.” Heidl ordered.
“NO sweat guys.” Lisa said, “Science is all about learning stuff!”
Gearing followed the Representative out the door, and the arch vanished temporarily.
To Lisa, it was like looking in the fridge as a kid. The end result was a conference room with a destroyed table, and in this case, the skin-tight swimming outfit ripped at mid hip.
“Dammit! It didn’t WORK!!!” she shouted, and the door opened. She composed her appearance, and sat on the free-standing end of the broken conference table. “That was fun, but not so much that I’d want to do it again.” She said, “are we done with the freakshow TRIBBLE yet, Representative?”
“You appear unharmed.” Heidl noted.
“DOesn’t mean it didn’t HURT.” lisa snapped, “It hurt, it hurt a LOT...I still feel pain, okay?” she was overselling it, both to try and embarrass the politician, and give Gearing some kind of leverage from a limited pool.
“We’ll begin with your name.” Heidl stated, “For the record…”
Nineteen hours later, Ops level, Starbase 132…
“Permission to dock, Granted, Heinlein.” Commander Katran announced, “And not a moment too soon. If you could, could you meet Captain Gearing asap? He said he’d appreciate your stopping him from doing something he said was ‘possibly career ending’.
Rhonda just chuckled “rodger that, ah’m on my way.”
Gearing was coming out of a meeting with the review team from Oversight as the captain of the Heinlein arrived.
“...mentally unstable and physically dangerous, Captain!” Heidl was insisting.
“Did she even threaten you?” he asked.
“No, but that’s not the point! Her responses-I can’t tell if the woman is a fascist or an Anarchist! her ideas! They are a threat to peace and social stability!”
The Captain stopped, “Katran! What’s your impression of Miss Quentin’s moral fiber?” he asked.
“She’s normal.” Katran said, “Maybe a little old-fashioned, like my parents. She would fit in with just about all the ex-Resistance people I grew up around.”
Gearing looked at the blonde from Earth. “See? Sounds normal to me.”
to be continued
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
Pretty fun so far.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
Infinite possibilities have implications that could not be completely understood if you turned this entire universe into a giant supercomputer.
association with an image
just credit time for showing up again
attention wandered I'm left with it
gone by sin too slowly
can't pass it up
then i thought nothing is right
i turned it off
to die unsung would really bring you down
although wet eyes would never suit you
walk through no archetypal suicide to
die young is far too boring these days
your will to speak clearly
exposed too much
unsung once too often
could not rub off
Heinlein
Maureen nodded as she fished a key on a chain from around her neck, fitting the crystal into a slot on the captain's chair, she pressed down, and an indicator lit on the helm station. “Continua drive active?” Nix said in confusion.
There wasn’t time-there were two wings of fighters and a Fek cruiser closing in, torpedoes were in the air. Johnny just took a deep breath, even though he didn’t need to breathe. “Execute.”
There wasn’t even a flash, one minute the ship was there, the next-empty space.
Deck Three, outside the Cargo bay…
“Clear, Let’s move it, secure the access!!”
The inner bay doors opened with a pneumatic whoosh of displaced air, and the rag-tag band of survivors peered in.
A massive pneumatic ‘thump’-the sound of air suddenly compressed with mass where there had been none, bowled over a couple of security officers before Rhonda had a chance to tell them to step back.
The far side of the bay-the entire far wall, was taken up with the side of the USS Heinlein.
“Ensign Bowman, Your security men need to secure the number three and four transfer doors-this bay has access to the number two and four bays, those are points of entry we can’t lock up without additional people.”
“Aye Captain.” the young man saluted and started detailing gold-shirt security men to cover the exits.
Lisa was looking at a console with her arms crossed.
“What’re you thinking?” Rhonda asked.
“Transporter pad.” Lisa said, “They’ve got ops, and that’s a transport pad for cargo and freight.”
Some of Rhonda’s crew from the Heinlein were assisting the wounded into the ship.
“We can jam it.” Rhonda said, “I think Johnny’s already jamming it.”
“How many people are on one of these stations?” Lisa asked.
“About ten thousand, why?”
Lisa turned to her, “We’ve got maybe ninety survivors here, we don’t have Ops, and the station’s compromised top-to-bottom.” she cradled the phaser carbine moodily, “I’m not going with.”
“What are you going to do instead? You’re one person...unless I stay, then it’s the two of us.” Rhonda noted.
“Invulnerable.” Lisa said, “I can fight indefinitely. You can’t. Way I see it, you’ve gotta get these survivors out and bring help.”
Rhonda tapped her on the forehead, “Flaw in your plan number one-you don’t know how these bases are laid out. Flaw two, you don’t really know how the technology works, flaw three, this isn’t Millennium City-a lone hero can’t retake the station single handedly with her fists, flaw four, if you think I’m going to let you try on your own, you’re sadly mistaken.” she checked the powerpack on her own weapons, “Flaw five, I’m the current able-bodied ranking officer at this post, and I’m not going to let this station fall. JOHNNY!!!” she tapped her combadge, “Situation report-keep it short.”
”Wounded are aboard, and Representative Heidl’s staff are situated in temporary quarters, Captain. We have inbound enemy forces and we need to move fast.” Maureen Stone’s voice came from the communicator, ”And Johnny’s kinda busy calculating our evacuation route. Are you ready to beam up?”
“Negative. Close locks and get out of here.” Rhonda ordered, “Get those civilians clear of the system. That’s your first order of business, I’m staying to assist in recapture of the station, acknowledge the order!”
”Order Acknowledged, Captain Evans. We can squeeze a few more in if we dump some of the combat supplies in the hold…” Johnny’s voice on the Communicator was cooler, less flustered than Maureen’s.
“Do it. Also give me everything you have in the consumables locker of the armory. We need charge packs, rations, shield charges and hypos...and I’ll take any volunteers from the security department. And that blue duffel bag from my quarters.”
“Plan?” Lisa inquired.
Rhonda nodded, “Auxiliary control is at the base of the ‘stem’ for the station. We retake that, we can lock out ops, activate the automated measures, and control deck-to-deck movement...including point to point transporters...here comes our firepower.”
Ivar Thorssen kept his visor open as he walked up, axe in one hand, rifle in the other, shield across his back like some kind of ancient champion, carrying a faded blue duffel bag in one hand.
“Captain!” he greeted Rhonda, then he looked over Lisa with a critical eye.
There was a pause, then, he reached out gingerly, and traced Lisa’s chin. “You’ve got a cut.” he said.
“I’m fit.” Lisa countered defensively.
For Rhonda, the observation was electric. “Are you sure?” and then she looked closer.
Lisa had a thin, reddish line, seeping blood slowly along the lower edge of her chin. It wasn’t so much a cut, as a shallow scratch-but even Kelly Lamb hadn’t done that much damage.
“I also had a first-degree burn when I got here, it’s nothing!” Lisa said, “R’member, powers don’t work the same here…”
Ivar sighed theatrically, reached into an equipment pouch, and produced a white box. “Bandaid?” he asked, offering it to Lisa.
The joke was lost on the station crewmen nearby, but Lisa chuckled.
“Alright, our first objective after the dust-off, is Auxiliary control.” Rhonda said, bringing things back to the mission, “We need to gain control of the station’s systems and services-or at least, overcome the sabotage being run from Ops...”
“Wait” said one of the station crewmen “ you're sciences-” he said, pointing at the blue stripe on her uniform.
Rhonda just nodded as she opened the bag Ivar brought her. “Good, brought the full kit” she said,, pulling a well cared for Sig Sauer P226 from the holster before sliding a fresh magazine in and racking the slide. “Medical actually” she said as she strapped the holster to her thigh, the spare mag pouch on the other side. Sliding the pistol into the holster with a click she just grinned at the security crewman “I wasn’t always a doctor you know.” she hit her combadge “Johnny you ready to get them out of here?”
“Yes and no. We can get back out of the station...but due to damage that’s as far as a rotation as I can make. We’ll have to fight our way back out and warp as normal ships do”
“Damn. well don’t take any unnecessary risks. The Cavalry is coming, just get yourselves and the civics clear.”
“Affirm. Good hunting Captain.”
Brig Cell 15, Starbase 132…
“Do you love?” she asked, kneading his shoulders.
“Yes.” Joshua replied in a mumble as his captor worked over his back with skilled hands.
“And Truly, love will never die.” she whispered to him, “You’re my Lover, the one who loves.” she intoned.
“but ...my crew…” he said, as a troubled feeling passed through him.
She sighed in his ear, and he felt her bosom press into his back like electricity. “Enough time for them soon.” she told him, “You love them...which is why you are the Lover, my Lover.”
His mind jumbled in fogs of pleasure and desire.
And truly, love will never die.
Operations, Starbase 132…
“Has she broken his conditioning yet?” Medra demanded, “We need those access codes!”
“He is proving resistant.” Gallau-sih Nural Tzohs, a full Priestess stated, “This is not the days of old, and this man Gearing is no John Archer, it takes time to crack the conditioning that a Federation Captain receives-at least, if you want to use him afterward. Liiri was bred by the Masaana, she’s an expert at breaking in ferals, but it does require time...and finesse, patience, the Masters will not be delayed by this-the Return will come in time.”
“And you say you can’t help her with this?” Medra insisted, “to speed things along?”
“I trust Liiri’s training above my own when it comes to breaking in the Ferals.” Nural told her, “He will be ours-and with him, the access to further our endeavours here...if not, he will be well prepared fodder for the Masters’ pets...speaking of which, you have the schedule for feedings prepared? They hunger.”
Medra sighed, and brought up a listing of captured levels, divided by population, “Segregate male from female-males are to be used first.” she said, “Until we have reduced their numbers to one in ten, I have a list of those with genetic traits that are...desirable, size, strength, passivity.” she said, gesturing, “These are to be ‘saved’ for later breeding purposes-once the Masters’ pets have reduced the remainder, we can review which females should be added to the larder.”
“Excellent.”
“Now, if you will excuse me, there remains resistance in several areas not currently under our control…”
As if that were a cue, damage alarms sounded and everyone’s attention was brought to the internal monitors.
Medra swore loudly as her carefully prepared population figures went into chaos. someone had managed to remove the civilians, and there was venting in cargo bay 3…
“Pursue that SHIP!!” Medra commanded, “I want it intact and the commander brought before me in chains!”
On the situation display, the USS Heinlein was pulling out from the shadow of the starbase at full impulse.
On the move…
“So the sensors stopped being able to see past my skin?” Lisa asked.
“So it would seem.” Thorssen confirmed, “I’m getting surface on millimeter wave, and you’ve got a heat signature-but nothing else.”
inside the suit…
Ghost listened to her partner’s tone, and remembered her instructions not to make her presence known-but it was difficult.
There’s a hell of a lot more than thermal. Electromagnetic and gravitic anomalies all over the place. She’s like standing next to the dummy load of a shield generator. he’d been the ‘impulse choice’-Johnny had forced her to choose. Absently she adjusted his suit’s balance and the grapples to ease his movement, accounted the inputs from sensors to clarify his vision in the faceplate, and scanned for threats passively through analysis of vibration.
in the passage…
“...my powers also started fading when I got here.” Rhonda told her, “you can’t rely on them.”
“Bonus.” Lisa said bluntly, “They’ll last long enough one way or the other-we either win, or my nightmare ends. That’s win-win.”
“And what about the rest of us?” Rhonda demanded, “Ivar, back me up here, soldiers that want to die are a bad idea, aren’t they?”
“They take stupid risks, and put everyone else in danger.” Ivar agreed.
“If I get the choice I won’t.” lisa said, “Not until this is over-I won’t let you guys hang.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
I'll let you know
That all this time I've been afraid
Wouldn't let it show
Nobody can save me now, no
Nobody can save me now
Stars are only visible in darkness
Fear is ever-changing and evolving
And I have been poisoned inside
But I, I feel so alive
Nobody can save me now
The king is crowned
It's do or die
Nobody can save me now
The only sound
Is the battle cry
Is the battle cry
Is the battle cry
Nobody can save me now
It's do or die...
Oh
Nobody can save me now
The king is crowned
It's do or die
Nobody can save me now
The only sound
Is the battle cry
Is the battle cry
Is the battle cry
Nobody can save me now
It's do or die...
Just one more time before I go
I'll let you know
That all this time I've been afraid
Wouldn't let it show
Nobody can save me now, no
Nobody can save me now
Operations, Starbase 132…
Medra had enough compromised officers to man some of the systems...but not all of them.
A few of the Cult’s personnel were conversant with Starfleet procedures to man the rest.
“Status?” she demanded.
“Three sectors of the station remain out of our control, they’ve managed to physically separate those areas from environmental and security networks along decks 36 to 61, port side.”
“Those decks are waste reclamation, secondary power plant, and raw material storage for the replicators.”
“So we can’t see what’s going on there?” She asked, leaning over the Orion’s shoulder to look.
“No, dominant one, from here we can not. However, something is-”
An alert scrolled across the LCARS screen. spacetime anomaly detected.
“So what is that, then?” she asked, pointing at a red-highlit portion of the layout map, where a blue ‘tic’ marker was moving.
“It’s in one of the maintenance ways off of Turbolift shaft sixteen, It’s appeared before, but I can’t lock it down…”
Jefferies 37-17…
“Lisa...question.” Ivar asked.
“What?”
“Why do you look the same as you did before-you said it was six years, but you don’t appear to have aged a day?” He asked.
“Dunno.” Lisa shrugged, “Got one of those faces, I guess.”
“That’s not what I mean.” he told her, “you look the same-aside from your hair and the scratch you don’t have anymore.”
She shrugged, “Can’t tell you...uhg,, this thing is heavy.” she hauled back on a maintenance hatch.
“You said you were working out...before.” Rhonda chimed in, “Shouldn’t you be stronger?”
“Can't seem to put on weight or muscle.” Lisa agreed, “Must be my metabolism...can’t lose it either...what brought this up?”
“Time.” Rhonda told her, as the crewmen with them dropped through the hatch and into the corridor below. “Even regenerators age a little…”
“I don’t regenerate.” Lisa reminded them.
“True, but ...Ivar, what brought it up?”
“My suit sensors are showing a Lisa-shaped and Lisa-sized spatiotemporal anomaly.” he answered, “Dressed in what they are insisting is a mix of Starfleet issue personal body armor and civilian clothing.”
‘You mean I’m not really here?” Lisa asked, “WHat a relief! I was thinking I was really here…”
“You are.” Rhonda told her.
“Not exactly here.” Ivar said, “Not exactly not here, I don’t understand what the computer in my suit is trying to tell me.”
“What kind of anomaly?” Rhonda asked, “is she here or not?”
“It’s like...like time simply doesn’t continue-and it bends around her.” He said, “There are a lot of strange deflections…”
Lisa dropped to the next deck. “I’m sure it’s nothing.” She snapped, “Let’s keep moving, and less of that treknobabble TRIBBLE until things are under control again.”
Yellowknife city, Provisional Capital of the Moab Confederacy, Cold Butte…
“It’s confirmed?” First Minister Debra MacAulliffe asked, “It isn’t some kind of sick trick is it?”
“I’m pretty sure it’s not.” her intelligence chief told her, “Our operative on the station managed to get a Q com with imagery, It’s the Fek’ihri, the Klingons intercepted a distress from the USS Hood at a listening post that was undergoing pre-shutdown renovation as part of the Armistice with the Federation-they’re taking it seriously, General K’Ragh was recalled from his trip to Boreth to assemble a relief force under General Ssharki.”
“So that confirms the data stream from the USS Heinlein...does Odelaw know? Is he preparing to do anything about it?”
“Hard to say, but our operatives on the ground on Nha Tranh say that Huntington’s recalled all passes and is pulling ships from the blocka-I mean, ‘stabilization operations’.”
“So if it’s a bluff, either they’re hoping we pull something, or that we strip the fleet we’ve got to go fight and open up for an assault.” Debra said, “Which, if it’s the fek, is what we’d do. We’re already in a wartime status, what with this being a civil war and all. Do we have any offensives planned?”
“Well, there’s the relief mission to retake part of Base Alpha, and I think Carlos LaRoca has some covert operations going on Moab…”
“Every available ship, marine, and spacer.” Debra told him, “And I guess I need to try and open a dialogue with Odelaw-if it’s a force big enough to take a Federation starbase, it’s likely just the vanguard of a larger fleet. It’s National Security and higher priority than internal matters. Foreign enemies take precedence over domestic enemies-the last time the Fek were in the neighbourhood, New Saigon was turned into an uninhabited hell, and hundreds of millions of people were eaten alive. It doesn’t matter who calls themselves First Minister, or who supports them, everyone has a duty to fight against that.”
Deck 54, Starbase 132
“Aww TRIBBLE.” of all the news that she had so far, this just made things worse. “What do you mean there’s kids on this deck?”
The wounded security officer just grimaced as Captain Evans did a quick triage. “There’s a lot of civies on an Exploration Command base, lot of them bring their kids...they’re all here-it’s where the school is and it’s also where they’re brought when red alert is sounded.” The security had already fought off one wave of hordlings, though at great cost. Even being mostly a medic, Evans could see they wouldn’t survive a second assault. “How many?”
“One hundred ninety two, ages 13 months to 17 years.”
She’d read the reports of New Saigon. Shuddering she turned to Lisa “you and the Lt guard that accessway. It’s five hundred meters and one level down to the bay.”
“I don’t know if we can get them that far…” the Lt said, then paled, as a chittering moan came from the far end of the corridor.
“Frack me with a chainsaw…”
“Hold up.” Ivar said, “I’m getting a weird alert.”
“What kind?”
“I’m getting...messages?”
“The suit’s trying to tell me not to look.”
“Wait, your armor talks to you?” Lisa scoffed, “Like in HALO or something?”
“Is this thing defective?” He reached for the helmet and started to take it off.
A holo image the size of his hand appeared. The girl was dressed in similar armor to his, but with her head uncovered, rendered in light blue lines of projection that his eye picked up strings of numbers...
“Suit’s not defective-you’re a good man, Ivar Thorssen, that’s why Johnny let me pick you-and you do not want to see what’s in there!”
“Identify yourself.”
“I’m the infiltration and systems coordination software for your suit...look, seriously, you don’t want to see that.”
Even at that scale, Ivar could recognize who the image was modeled on. “Overlord? You’re one of Overlord’s programs-how did you-”
“Not overlord. She’s too old-looks like Phoebe when I left more than when you did.” Lisa contributed, “Must be native to this timeline.”
“It’s one of our Phoebe’s then.” Rhonda chimed in, “What’s on the other side of the door, program?”
“We can’t save them.” the hologram said, “they’re already infested, it’s a nesting site...a meatlocker.”
“Okay, what?” Lisa said, confused.
Rhonda shuddered. She’s read the reports “it’s a nesting site. Like some kinds insects lay eggs in something else...then consume that from the inside out.”
“What, like Xenomorphs from Aliens or something?” Lisa asked.
“Exactly-only more horrifying…” she frowned, shaking her head.
USS Heinlein
The ship was still in system, and still in combat-though with the link she had, she was still in range, especially with someone with as weak mind-defenses as Evans. Summerfield was furious-she should be with her target! She tried to force her to come back to the ship...unfortunately the Captains stubbornness had kicked in. The undercover Betazoid knew exactly what was on the other side of that hatchway-precious new troops to herald in the Masters.
<NO. Leave what’s on the other side alone, you can’t help them, grenades won’t work, just leave them be> she sent, as forcefully as possible. They had a higher purpose now than mewling brats.
Deck 54
“So there’s kids in there.” Lisa said.
Rhonda blinked… “NO. LEave what's on the other side alone, you can’t help them. Grenades won't work just leave them be.” she said, uncertainly..her eyes unfocused.
“”TRIBBLE that!” Lisa got to her feet, “not doing it again.” she said it softly, like she was speaking to some invisible audience.
Ivar was standing slightly behind and to the left of the Captain. As Lisa stood up distracting her, his hand shot out, the hypospray he’d quietly pulled out of a pouch on his armor hissing as he injected Rhonda. Her eyes went wide for a second then closed as she collapsed to the deck with a thud.
USS Heinlein
The dangers of controlling someone long distance..is you miss what is going on in the minds around them. Summerfield screamed loud enough that even in combat someone heard her, the betazoid collapsing to the deck with a thud.
Deck 54
Lisa froze in mid rant. “Ivar, what the ****??”
The security chief just held up his hand “Tis harmless-a sedative that affected the mind witch that was controlling her worse than it would the Captain.”
“Wait, what?”
He rolled Rhonda over on her back “We suspected for some time that something was off about her, did you not notice that she was different from the last time you met her?””
Lisa frowned for a moment, then, “no.” she said, “maybe a little colder-but remember-that was six years ago my-time, and I didn’t know her, or you more than a couple days-and it wasn’t in your element. Liz might’ve spotted it, but I’m not exactly a people-person.”
Pulling out another hypo, he injected her with that “this should have sent a nasty feedback to whoever was behind it, and this will boost her mental defenses so we don’t have to worry about it again” he said, the Kironide injector hissing.
“Right...well while she’s waking up…” Before anyone could stop her she was through the hatch at the end of the corridor.
Rhonda sat up, “Lisa-wa-dammit, Ivar! She has nO preparation for-”
Sickbay, USS Heinlein
“Put her there” the corpsman said as the ship rattled again. “What happened?”
The edosian crewman shrugged as he hoisted Summerfields unconscious body up onto the bed, his third arm shrugging. “No Idea-she just screamed and hit the deck head first.”
There was a shimmer in the air as the ship's computer materialized a hologram in sickbay. “Really now?” He asked, as the corpsman checked her vitals. “Wait what? “ he said curiously, looking closer at her eyes. Reaching for a tool he gingerly pulled something that had come loose from her eye, blinking “she’s wearing some kind of contact lens…”
“Let me see” Johnny said. The crewman shrugged, Doctor Tarl was in surgery at the moment, and the AI also did have medical files. Johnny picked up a medical tricorder and scanned.. “Betazoid. Now it makes sense.” Seconds later the sickbay door opened and the security personnel stationed in the hall entered at his summons. “She is safe to be moved-she is suffering mainly telepathic backlash, and a mild contusion where she hit the deck. She is to be kept under heavy sedation at all times.”
“Wait, whats going on?” The corpsman asked in confusion.
“I think we have found who’s be messing with the captain’s mind.” he said, looking up as if concentrating on something else as well.
Bridge, USS Heinlein
“Warp is back online” Commander Daniels voice echoed through the bridge from Engineering. In the Center seat Maureen just nodded as the Heinlein dodged another salvo of plasma torpedos-it was getting harder though. The Fek had realized the wells class ship could jam their targeting sensors enough so that they couldn’t aim. They could however simply fill the sky with torpedos hoping at least one of them would hit. “Just in damn time too, I wish we could have gotten the captain to come with us.” The ship rocked as another near miss scorched the shields.
“Well at least I think we have our saboteur in custody” Johnny replied from his holographic avatar. “Shields at 15.4 percent, as the captain would say it’s time to ‘git while the gittin’s good.”
“Not just yet” Maureen replied, turning her head to the Lt at the countermeasures station. “You got that package ready Bannon?”
The young Lieutenant nodded “all set, ready to execute.”
“Then do so.”
Fek carrier Nest of Servants 63
He was on his fourth weapons officer-the previous three’s corpses cooling on the deck plates. From the look of his inability to hit the small ship, he may need a fifth before the hour was out. They had three thousand troops ready to take the station-but they couldn't drop shields to beam them over while this prey.. gnat kept annoying them-and his crew seemed to be totally inept in destroying them.
He was just about to reach for his blade to remove the fourth weapons officer's head when the doomed officer cried out “Lord-the prey has dropped their jamming of our targeting systems-they are now jamming our scientific sensors.”
The slavemaster blinked “Madness! Do you have weapons lock?”
“I do now sir!”
“Then USE IT!!”
The carriers massive weapons were brought to bear, systems were charging...the slavemaster salivated. Any second now….
“What? Sir!”
He turned-but never got a chance to ask what as the projected Singularity from the Heinlein grabbed the ship in its gravity well, pulling it off course, and directly towards his other ships.
“EVASIVE!
“Not responding !” the helm announced, as another smaller object from the prey ship appeared on the screen...it detonated as the carriers made contact, the the last thing going through the Slavemasters mind was part of an antenna array from another carrier..
USS Heinlein
Maureen watched the carnage with satisfaction. Between the singularity and the Temporal Disruption Device…”how bad did we get them?”
“Doesn’t look like the carriers are destroyed-but they’re badly damaged, one’s lost it’s bridge, another is missing a nacelle..none of them is going to be a problem for a while.”
“Ya know” Nix said..”we could..”
“No. even with them wounded we’re not up to finishing them off. Reinforcements are inbound, Lay in a course and get us out of here, best possible speed.”
Nix sighed, echoing everyone else, including Maureen. He knew it made sense to run leaving the captain behind...but didn’t mean he had to like it. “Aye sir, rendezvous course locked in.”
“Let's go.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
Last fire will rise, behind those eyes
Black house will rock, blind boys don't lie
Immortal fear, that voice so clear
Through broken walls, that scream I hear
Cry little sister (thou shall not fall)
Come, come to your brother (thou shall not die)
Unchain me sister (thou shall not fear)
Love is with you brother (thou shall not kill)
Blue masquerade, strangers look up
When will they learn, this loneliness
Temptation heat, beats like a drum
Deep in your veins, I will not lie
Cry little sister (thou shall not fall)
Come, come to your brother (thou shall not die)
Unchain me sister (thou shall not fear)
Love is with you brother (thou shall not kill)
(Last fire, come to me
Cry, little sister, cry for me)
My Shangri-la
I cant forget
Why you were mine
I need you now
Cry little sister (thou shall not fall)
Come, come to your brother (thou shall not die)
Unchain me sister (thou shall not fear)
Love is with you brother (thou shall not kill)
Dependent’s lounge, deck 54, Starbase 132…
A fanged maw clamped down on Lisa’s arm, but the crunching sound didn’t come from her bones, and the female-parody looking thing groaned in shock, pulling back with a mouth full of broken teeth. Lighting flickered in here, and the whole place was webbed up like a halloween rave in Portland. Acid from the thing’s bloody spittle stripped right through her borrowed shirt and the borrowed body-armor underneath, but it just felt kind of warm and wet on her bare skin.
It raked her with it’s claws-and the claws broke away, spattering more of that acid fluid, Lisa stepped into the punch-all of her strength, and the fist went through the thing’s chest, right between the phoney boob job it had.
She was sure the what-ever it was was confused even as it died.
Worm things slithered among the webs and across the floor, and Lisa felt her boots dissolve as their juices spattered materials that were made to be acid-resistant, long-wear future stuff, until the grub things were squishing between her toes.
The rational part of her mind noted how very quiet it was in here. The only sounds were the whimpers and sighs, quiet misery. In the webs, a human-shape loomed, suspended.
She brushed the webbing away, to reveal a vulcan face, drawn tight, eyes half-lidded with a grimace of pain. “You hear me?” Lisa asked.
The vulcan raised her head, “you...should run. While you can.”
The vulcan’s eyes widened suddenly before Lisa could reply, and her neck swelled as something came up, accompanied by a flood of green blood that spattered on her as something dropped out with a wet ‘thud’ to the deck.
The grub tried to snake up her leg, and Lisa swiped it off with a grimace of disgust, spattering more fluids as the thing burst under her hand.
A shape rushed through the webs, hissing, and another one of the weird almost-human looking piranha-faced creatures was on her.
Just like before, in the entrance way, it was hardly a fight. More noxious stuff splattered and sprayed. The thing shrieked incoherently and Lisa beat it down with the Halligan tool, the corrosive-resistant material rotting under the fluids in her hands.
A voice called out, “Help me!” it was a young voice. Lisa homed in on the noise, forcing her way through the webbing on pure adrenaline.
“AAAIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE” and she found the voice-and the sound of crunching as the goblin-looking things were already ahead of her-eating someone-alive.
Hopelessness washed over her and the magnitude of her failures crashed down upon her as she tried to save the person at the bottom of the dogpile.
She was still kinda dizzy, and Rhonda could hear Ivar yelling something as she followed Lisa. It was worse than the reports-they always used concise, scientific terms to describe what was going on. Seeing it first hand...Still, she felt..something...something familiar as she gingerly stepped over the twitching body of a ravager, looking over the soon to be devoured compartment of children.
I...see what's happening...can see the dna being overwritten… She was almost in a daze as she walked up behind Lisa, having to duck when the younger woman whirled, nearly taking her head off with her Halligan. “Woah, calm down..”
In the flickering light, Rhonda could see Lisa’s face was streaked with tears. This close she could see how the spatter from the Fek had shredded everything Lisa was wearing, leaving untouched skin beneath the gore. This close Rhonda could also see something was gone in those eyes. as dead as the stare in the prison. then, deader. “Lisa?”
The young woman didn’t say a word, instead she threw the halligan bar like a hatchet-it whizzed past, and something inhuman gurgled barely a pace behind her.
“It never ends.” Lisa finally croaked. “I died and I’m in hell.”
Ronda could feel it. “I can fix this.” she said..”cover me.” She crouched down, picking up something..no someONE...a girl, maybe two. At least she had been at one time.. One of the side effects of the tranquilizer that Ivar had shot her with earlier was impaired judgement. Otherwise she would have known that her powers were gone...but then Kironide did have other effects..
She could feel things..down to the quantum level. See the DNA...without even realizing what she was doing she clasped the child close to her, as her eyes began to glow a faint green…
Deck 54, another plane of reality…
Three beings watched the scene. Two of them, indistinct, shadowy, malevolent. The third...looking oddly human, with dark hair and what looked to be a Starfleet Admiral uniform.
{This is wrong. She can not accomplish this} one of the shadowy figures muttered.
“Probably not-I don’t think she realizes what she is attempting” Q agreed.
{But..she will kill herself for no reason!}
“Oh there is a reason. One of the few admirable characteristics of this species, is their willingness to sacrifice themselves, if even the chance of saving someone else.” Q smirked
“probably why we tolerate them.”
They could see-that it wasn’t going well. Whatever Evans was trying to do...she didn’t have enough energy. As she dropped to her knees, her companion reached out and touched her-only to cry out as well in confusion and pain. {she is siphoning the energy from the brute} the second barely visible figure muttered.
{it will not be enough though...they will both die.}
“More than likely, “ Q agreed.
{surprising you would let your creation be destroyed.} the quieter of the two hissed, {The Embryo is strong, but not strong enough...or is…?}
“Well if life didn’t have surprises, what would be the fun of that?”
{But..} the first one looked...Evans was now visibly withering, and her companion did not look well either. {she is necessary to your plan, is she not?}
“And yours too. But..as they say, Graveyards are filled with important men, could not be spared, but were in the end”
On spectrums impossible for humanoid eyes, perceptions that see into the nature of spacetime itself watched as the knot of altered reality that was Lisa Quentin, began to unravel. Energies 25th century man had no name for were flowing into Rhonda Evans.
“I did NOT expect to see that.” Q commented.
{it..will not suffice. They will both fall.}
“What are you looking at ME like that for?”
{we cannot interact directly in that reality} the second Master said {YOU can}
“And that would break our agreement, and bring you in direct conflict with the Continuum. If you’re ready for that, I’m game” Q replied dangerously
Lisa
Pain. there was pain at last. Her skin sizzled under the alien blood, she could feel the connection with Evans. can it end? Or is this just the next step in my damnation?
in the side dimension.
The two Masters looked at each other as Q continued “We’ve stayed out of your pets attempts to invade this reality. Didn’t lift a finger at Betazed, watched from afar at Goralis. Because we both know, that if you and we come to blows, it could, would end everything.”
The quiet one inclined its head, [you stayed out of it? Surprising...unexpected.]
Q smirked, “we have honoured our agreement item by step...which has kept things very predictable...you...one of you, at least, has not. And thus, things are less predictable. Observe-one of you sent her here...witness your mistake.” Q smiled airily, “I don’t need to intervene...and you can’t.”
{but..we thought you were fond of that one}
“I am...but as I said, I don’t have to intervene.” Q’s expression on all levels of existence broadened into something predatory. “You sent the Embryo, hoping it would be killed by the strain before it could waken, you placed Her in it’s path...now, take a look....you have made a grave error.”
Dependent’s Lounge, Deck 54…
Ivar Thorssen came through the door at a dead run, and stopped, starring, as Rhonda struggled with so much raw power...until it tapered off. From out of a side passage a Ravager screamed and leapt-only to be intercepted by Ensign Heraz. He could move rather rapidly when he felt the need, the Horta steamrolling right over the Fek.
“What the hell?” one of the crewman said, trying not to be too obvious in his retching. Ivar looked a bit green himself. “Watch the passages, and cover the captain..don’t get too close to her either.”
in the side dimension
The two Masters conferred. Even with Evans stealing Lisa’s energy...it would not be enough.
Q’s smirk widened, as the two beings argued on planes of existence exotic even to the continuum. He knew the quiet conversation he was witnessing was a front for something far more violent just out of sight. It was the way of them…
{INTERVENE!!} one entity where two had, a moment before, existed.
Q shook his head, “No. I like this outcome.”
There was more panicked discussion “you rely too much on prophecy” Q sneered. “Rather than trust your minions will rise to the occasion. One of you foresaw Evans being essential, while I will miss her, by agreement I can not intervene.”
The shadowy shape flickered, dividing and uniting as on other levels, galaxies were born and died.
“You have something to confess?” Q asked innocently.
{Intervene. Save Her. Evans is irrelevant.}
For Q, it filled in the gaps. “You...oh no...no...that would be too..” he started to chuckle, “You didn’t…” he peered at the entity, “You DID!! Then you TRIBBLE up and sent her to THIS reality?? And now you want me to...Oh, this is very funny…you thought you could cheat-and now it’s all falling apart? Is that Maternal instinct??”
The entities were silent.
Q twisted the knife, “Schrodinger even wondered what caused her to be that way...quite a trick you pulled, doing that...trying to bypass the agreement through blood and birth...she’s nothing like you, you know, perhaps you should be asking me to let her die.”
{Intervene! Save Her.}
“What do you say?” Q asked teasingly.
{We offer concessions!}
“Not what I’m looking for. Try again.”
Government House, Nha Tranh, Moab III..
Odelaw was a slight man, balding, with a natty goatee and a mild demeanour-still capable of fiery speeches, He’d been a moderate Social Democrat Reformist before the break with the Federation, and he’d been the compromise candidate for the Reconciliation Coalition that had finally gelled into a political party in the wake of a particularly disastrously bungled colonization effort on the Pentaxian border.
The electoral victory that placed him as head of state for the Moab Confederacy had seemed like a popular mandate to repair relations with the Federation...until three out of the four worlds that joined Moab III and New Saigon in breaking away, had summarily rejected Reconciliation and their governors voted to declare war on what they claimed was an illegally seated government.
These “Ultra Nationalists” had chosen a different First Minister. A fire-tempered redhead who’d been drafted to serve as Governor through the arcane system Cold butte employed. As an opponent, Debra MacAulliffe was everything Don Odelaw was glad not to be-her career had been built as a free-trader first, public service was a thing she was notorious for seeing as a burdensome duty. He had to admit, the woman was very good at governing...and that rankled him-as a career civil servant working to better life for everyone, to be outdone in keeping order by a rampant Capitalist.
“Let’s get this over with.”
The imager popped up crystal clear, and Don Odelaw, the elected first minister of the Moab Confederacy found himself face to face-via Quantum-network communication, with Governor Debra MacAulliffe, who also claimed to be the Legitimate First Minister of the Moab Confederacy.
“Governor.” He said icily.
“Mister Odelaw.” she inclined her head slightly, “I was expecting your call later than this-I must speak with my spymaster about underestimating the networks you have available-clearly someone has your External Security Bureau in good order these days.”
He folded his hands, “We do well enough...the matter of events at Starbase one-thirty-two...I wonder if I could persuade you to sign off on a cease-fire, so that my forces aren’t tied up fighting yours while our common enemies come pouring down on everyone?”
“Funny...I was going to call you and offer that...very...thing.” Debra stated, “We’re sending eight ships now-to join the Klingon operation in relieving the station and rescuing...whoever survived.”
“I’m pulling twelve off of the offensives at Base Alpha to join Admiral Huntington’s force.” he told her.
“I’m also activating reserves.” Debra countered, “We can have twelve more ready by wednesday the 13th.”
“I can beat that without even trying.” he countered her counter, “We have over sixty in commission, if we can agree on a cease-fire…”
“If we can agree on a cease fire, I think I can match your force.” Debra told him, “Thing is, do you trust me, and can I trust you not to take advantage of it to launch an offensive instead of sending a relief force?”
He bristled, “MY CHILDREN were in Canh Tho, Governor! This enemy-they’re the Fek’Ihri!!”
“Then we are in agreement.” Debra told him, still maintaining that cold stare, “I will order all counteroffensive operations suspended for the duration of this present crisis, if you will do the same in reining in your militants.”
“Done-for now.” He said, “For the good of everyone, but be aware, your blatant disregard for the will of the people will not be forgotten-you’ll face a trial, and punishment, for your treasons, madame governor.”
“Well, at least you’re not spineless. I look forward to reading your conviction in a court of law for domestic terrorism, electioneering, suppression of the vote, political violence, corruption of government operations, and unlawful use of military personnel for domestic, political purposes...I understand a few of those end on a rope, and I expect I’ll see you hang...but not until this is over. Have your people work through the Romulan liaison when coordinating with mine-the Federation bankrolled your coup, and while it’s a Federation station we’re going to save, I still don’t trust them...hell, I trust them less than I trust you.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
The burning was worse, Lisa lay on the deck, feeling the poisons as they worked through her body. am I free? Is this my reward, is this the end of the nightmare?
“Lisa, stay with me!” Ivar crouched over her, trying to wash the acid slime off and force the regenerator to work on her.
a few dimensions over…
“What do you say?” Q asked, smirking.
{we offer concessions! The agreement stands if you intervene!}
“I still have yet to hear the magic word.” Q stated, “What concessions?”
Frustration ebbed off the being(s), and Q could sense the conflict driving them, the building emotion. Fundamental chaos trying to come up with the right answer.
{PLEASE!!!} there was a tinge of desperation, and humiliation in the request.
Deck 54, Dependents Quarters…
A flash caused Ivar to blink, and a dark haired man in an admiral’s tunic was kneeling across Lisa from him, “I have this.” Q told him, “Not all of it, mind-but this part.”
“Why not more?” an ensign five meters back asked, Q shot the man a look, and said, “THIS is a request from...someone. They said the magic word.” he waved his hand along Lisa’s whole body, and burns, wounds, and cuts closed. “She will live.” he said, “and I’ve almost used up my leeway…”
“Best I can do. Be careful now.” and Q vanished.
Elsewhere
One minute she felt like every nerve ending was on fire, straining for breath-the next, she was standing in a featureless..room? No rooms had walls, everything was white. It was just a void, though it haid air and gravity. “Fancy running into you here.”
She spun around at the familiar voice “Q!” Rhonda said “what happened?”
“Happening if you will. I had to pull you out for a moment.”
“What?” she squinted...she could vaguely make out forms through the mist...there was Ivar, she was face down on the deck..and there was the rest of the Fek ‘meatlocker’. “TRIBBLE, Ah’m dead aren’t I?”
“Not yet, though that’s not that you haven't been trying your damnedest to get yourself to that state.” Q replied, shaking his head. “What were you trying to do?”
She sighed, looking down. “I don’t know.. I felt for a minute, that I had my powers back, and tried to do something stupid. Should have known better, they’re gone forever-”
“Haven’t you learned anything from schrodinger? Hers are gone-because she diluted them, bringing over duplicates from mirror universes. It’s a bit of a loophole...but if her sisters were to die..she’d be back to giving ME a run for my money.”
Seeing her confusion he continued “Starfleet Medical could no more remove your power-than they could make a horta tap dance. They could however make you think that they did..”
“That doesn’t make sense-the side effects were slowly killing me-”
“Those were easily dealt with-how many of your patients have cancers these days that can’t be treated?” Q stepped closer, looking down into her eyes. “And did you ever wonder why you were so vulnerable to telepaths?” the scene shifted...in front of here was what seemed to be a padlocked and chained vault.
“Admiral Crusher wouldn’t have-”
“No she wouldn’t. She’s a remarkable member of her species. But there are others who don’t have the same scruples.”
“But why? There were dozens, maybe hundreds of patients that I lost that ah could have saved-”
“Because they are frightened little beings who cling to what they think is power” Q replied “Really, I never had much of problem with Jean Luc, as fun as he was to tease at times. It was the ones behind him that nearly got your species banned from the stars.”
Q shook his head and laughed “if they only knew...that I needed to do nothing in order to ‘save’ you… you’re more than capable of saving yourself. You just had to be made aware of it.”
Rhonda wasn’t listening, moving towards the vault. She felt her power-stronger than it had ever been, reaching out across the chamber, filling it, reversing changes. things squealed and died, parasite entities were dying, their stolen life returning to their victims. She could feel them on a quantum level-she could feel all, she knew all, she was all (at least, within this space).
It was terrifying, exhilarating, insane. A cacophony of voices filled her ears...and the light was blinding but she was not blinded.
Deck 54
Lisa shuddered, the pain was gone..no wait. It was still there, just soreness. THAT was new.
“I’m alive?” she groaned. no!
“You’re alive, can you sit up?” Ivar Thorsen's accent asked. She opened her eyes.
“I think so…” she looked around, and her expression fell. “The...children…” she started to weep uncontrollably, and curled up in a fetal position.
There was a glow from behind them, as Rhonda opened her eyes. The damaged, where her body had withered repaired itself, a greenish cloud the color of new leaves starting to swirl around her. Still holding the child she sat-no, rose up off of the deck, until she was a full meter off of the floor. It was so clear now. The mist spread, swirling around her as it spread out, her eyes gleaming the same green as the energy surrounding her. She could sense the damaged dna from the fek infection...and what needed to be done to fix it.
“W..what the hell?” both Lisa and several of the station security stammered as everything began to glow the same green, grubs, infected, and even Ensign Heraz (though the horta was glowing more the color of Jade) They stared eyes wide, as stands of something was pulled from the children, a mass forming in the center of the room.
There were sounds of gasping, coughing, but that’s not what drew Ivar’s eye-it was the appearance of grubs throughout the commissary.
“Oh TRIBBLE.”
“I’m in hell.” Lisa said dully. “It all makes sense, the IED...I’m in hell…this whole time…”
The grubs crawled and writhed, drawing together in groups, avoiding the humans and humanoids, they swarmed over the dead...it was hypnotic. Dessicated corpses seemed to [inflate [/i], reshaping. A Hordeling crawled out of a cupboard, looking confused.
One of the reinflated corpses, a Vulcan in civilian clothing, likely a teacher from what remained of her outfit, moved, awkwardly, gurgling and hissing, skin distorting in unnatural ways with every movement.
“I’m in hell and it never ends…” Lisa whimpered.
The reanimated corpses formed a circle around Ivar and Lisa...and the Hordeling went to it’s knees, and laid its head to the floor, Ivar mentally drew a map...the others did the same.
And the creatures intoned, “Mistress….” over and over again, while Lisa curled into herself.
“Iminhellogodiminhell..”
Evans however wasn’t finished..her attention turning to the hordelings. She knew they had the RNA of what they devoured...this would actually be more difficult than the first part. She rose up another meter into the air, as the energy clouds encircled each of the hordelings...their features shifting..changing…
Ivar watched stoically, as his captain completed her work, standing by when she came back down, if it wasn’t for his arm she would have collapsed to the deck as the green energy dissipated.. The compartment was filled with semi conscious, confused students and teachers of the station school. The Vulcan, in shredded and stained clothing, shook her head in confusion “w...what has just happened?”
“We got here just in time” Ivar replied, as he helped his Captain sit down. “Are you alright Valkyr-I mean Captain?”
“Ah’m as weak as a newborn kitten for some reason…”Rhonda replied. “But other than that ah’m fine.” She started to say something then at Ivar’s glance shut her mouth.
Lisa was in a fetal curl, and there were half a dozen Fek around her, as if they were awaiting something, and Rhonda could hear her muttering over and over again- “I’minhellI’mninhelI’minhell…”
The monsters weren’t moving, and she could see their attention was fixed on the panicking woman.
They weren’t as…twisted as she remembered. One of them almost looked klingon. It turned it’s face to Rhonda, and said something that came through the combadge as “Help her.”
“Help me over there.” Rhonda told Ivar, “and ask your systems if her...shields are still up?”
“What is the plan, captain?” he asked. “And they’re not…”
“Sedatives, for now.” Rhonda told him. “Need to calm her down-hopefully the infil wasn’t lying about her mental state.” with a bit of surprise the hypo worked, and Lisa visibly relaxed.
Ops, Starbase 132…
“Deck 54 just went off the grid, we just lost internal sensors, maintenance sensors, feedback from auxiliary life support controls is also gone.” the Orion looked up at Medra, “It’s like the deck has been blown away.”
“What do you mean ‘gone’?” Medra demanded.
“Power feeds and monitoring from deck sixty is still present, but every query I put to the instruments insists that decks 54, 55, and 56 are simply not there.”
The breeding nests! she reached down, and brought up the environmental monitoring.
The only reason no hull breach would be recorded, is if the damage was sudden, extensive, and beyond the set range of the damage control systems.
or someone has compromised the central computer core.
Cold Butte
“Sixty ships!?”
Debra turned to look at Janice Qua. “Sixty ships.” she said, “We’ll be down to shuttles and hoping he’s not got an offensive in reserve, Commodore, I want the fleet under way in the next six hours. I got the cease-fire, you need to make use of it...but keep the yard workers busy with repairs-it might fail, and the twenty or so ships we’ve got laid up in the graving docks might be the only real protection we’ve got to cover Cold Butte and Arluna.”
“What about Berun’s world?” Janice asked.
“Who you gonna call? I think the only thing left that flies in that system belongs to the foreign peacekeepers, and which bunch claiming to be the government do I even talk to?” Debra asked rhetorically, “We don’t have any ships in that system by agreement with the Romulans, Klingons, and Federation, since nobody actually knows what the vote was, because some TRIBBLE set off an AM bomb in the capital during the vote count.”
Deck 54, Starbase 132…
Ivar nodded to Petty Officer Weatherly, who clenched down on the modified tricorder. Between the decks, the hard connections to the rest of the station’s utilities were severed by shaped charges, and Ensign Heraz. (with the added benefit that the Horta officer could get a snack out of it) Separate breaching charges triggered a damage control routine-sealing off the bottom of the station’s ‘stem’ with a barrier of hard vacuum on deck 53.
“Munin, Report.” Ivar ordered, the name he picked for the AI seemed fitting.
“Good girl.” he said.
Storage 3, Deck 56, near the secondary powerplant...
“Let me explain it for you, greenie.” Lisa hissed, “I’m a TRIBBLE supervillain, and these are my monsters, not yours.”
The Orion looked from her, to the twenty or so Fek’Ihri-two Ravagers and eighteen Hordelings, standing in v formation behind her.
“Now, Captain Evans isn’t a monster...but I am, I know it’s all a delusion, I know I really died on that street in Sadr city in Iraq in 2006, and nothing you say is going to convince me that I’m not in hell..and the demons? They’ve elected me their queen. If you try to escape, or to use your spaceman spanish fly, they will eat you, and I won’t stop them. Meals will be one per day, there is an improvised porta-potty over there-if you need toilet paper, it will be provided, but if any of you cross this yellow line? You’re lunch for the guards, because I’ve told them, they’re free to hunt and eat you if you leave this space, or attempt to make trouble of any sort.”
As she walked off, one of the station security nervously whispered “you wouldn’t really let them eat them would you?”
Lisa just shot him a look “you saw what they were doing...damn straight. And it would be kinder than what they planned for us.” she paused, “Besides, we’re all damned souls except the ones that are delusions, anyway, it’s not like it would be killing them for real.” and stalked to the turbolift..
Reactor control, Auxiliary reactor, deck 56…
“Ma’am, I’m gonna fail a sensitivity course on this, but…” Lt. (Brevet) Bowman stood there with a look Rhonda had seen before.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Quentin is crazy, ma’am.” he said, “and I’m not sure letting her ‘keep’ those stray Fek is a bright idea-She just told Rodgers she thinks we’re all dead, been dead, and this is some kind of afterlife psychodrama punishment in hell.”
“Mister Bowman, given her history, her...mental state is completely understandable...it’s even reasonable given where she’s from. Her home dimension, this is all taken from a science fiction television program-one that she loved as a child...you ever subscribe to the Captain Fury children’s program on your homeworld?”
Bowman shrugged, “My parents did.” he said, “For my little brothers. Kyle loved that show until he discovered girls in seventh grade...why?”
“Imagine waking up in the middle of an episode of Captain Furious, only there’s no holodeck arch, the plotline is randomized and the whole setting is both darker, and more dangerous than anything that was ever in the programs you grew up with.” Rhonda told him, “Would you think you had gone a little bit mad? Lisa Quentin’s home dimension dreamed of holodecks, but those, and full immersion virtual reality interface, doesn't exist where she’s from. Add in twentieth and early twenty first social and technological progress in her home environment, including religious indoctrination as a variant-christian, an ambush where she was the only survivor and a month being tortured by religious zealots and mercenaries before she got home-with the abilities you, yourself, have seen. What would be your logical conclusion if that was your experience? The most reasonable explanation...from HER perspective?”
The young man frowned. “So she reasons that she’s dead, that this is all...part of what, some kind of supernatural headgame?”
“Ah’m no counselor, but put y’self in her shoes for a moment, yes. She thinks she died in that ambush, and she’s been in Hell this whole tahm.”
“YOu forgot option Two.” Lisa said from the doorway, “That I’ve completely lost it and I’m in a padded cell going through delusions and hallucinations, or in a coma-dream with a side order of massive brain damage, or that all this time’s really illusion and I’m dying in an alley after a Jihadi set of a bomb under our Hummer...” she straightened her posture, “It’s a good theory, all of them are. A lot more likely than this is real-the prisoners are secured and the kids are eating.”
She walked over to an empty station and flopped into the seat.
“Anybody taken a look outside since we secured these floors?” she asked, “There’s a TRIBBLE-ton of spaceships outside-and I don’t think they’re friendly.”
“I..know.” Rhonda assented, “we’ve got some of the exterior sensors on line.”
Lisa nodded. “If there were seven of us, I’d say we were playing ‘The Magnificent Seven’, if we were by ourselves, Butch and Sundance. As it is, I’m thinking more ‘Fort Apache The Bronx’ off this vibe. They’re not going to let us camp too long here before they go from siege mode to Seige mode.” she paused, “Seems like a lot of work to take the station intact. I’m pretty sure there’s enough firepower out the windows to blow this place to atoms.”
“Hm. why here.” Rhonda murmured-something wasn’t adding up. “Why here?”
Lisa propped her feet up. “Think like a villain.” she said, “Something they want is here, they ain’t got it yet, they have to hold back until they get it….everything they’ve done is supervillain one oh one, except the monologuing.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because whatever it is, it’s small enough to contain in the station, fragile enough to need the station intact and whatever it is, it’s hidden.” Lisa speculated. “It’s not the people-if it were people, they could’ve kidnapped in the first minutes and blown the place. It’s not easy to recognize, because if it was, they’d have grabbed it and blown the station to cover their tracks, it’s not in their possession, or they can’t move it, or they’d have taken it and blown the station in place.” she ticked off, “SO they’re here for something small enough to hide, or mobile enough to escape, that they can’t risk too much damage and it’s not a person, or they wouldn’t have used the scaly people-eaters.”
She propped her feet on the console, “So...this is an exploration base, right? Labs, support facilities…holding areas?”
“You can’t know that.” Bowman spoke up.
“You’re right, but if this is my delusion the logic’s solid, if I’m in hell the torment’s gotta be relevant to me alone, and if I’m in the nut-hut drooling in a corner, then it’s part of my mental illness.” Lisa countered, “If it’s real then the logic still adds up-there’s something here they need or want enough to pull their punches, that they either didn’t or couldn’t get by stealth given how many of your colleagues wound up brainwashed and on the other side...and they’re in a hurry-they’ve got a deadline.”
“That’s awfully...rational.” Lt. Bowman allowed.
“Crazy usually means your reasoning bits work just fine-it’s the database you’re working from that is all TRIBBLE up.” Lisa stated. “They’re here for something-this is a hell of a lot of investment and the tactics are all TRIBBLE up.”
“SO...what are they looking for?”
Lisa swiveled her chair and snapped her feet to the floor, “Whatever it is, we can’t let them find it first.” she said, “lots of investment in this attack, they want or need it bad.”
USS Heinlein
The Fek had pursued them out to about five light year’s distance, then turned around. On the long range sensors, there were approaching warpfields that couldn’t be klingon or Federation-big noisy fields, the sort put out by large carriers or older orion ‘Barge’ type carriers-dreadnoughts that rarely made appearances.
NOT affiliated to Di’an’s government. Something big was coming up, something that wasn’t on Johnny’s historical database…
A subroutine processing sensor data along off-bands recorded weeks ago started begging for his attention.
“Oh frack me…” It wasn’t quite ‘omega’ level bad. It wasn’t even quite as major as a scan of a Q.
But it was disturbing.
I had that inside me??
No wonder things weren't going they way they were supposed to-not just for the denizens of the Alpha and Beta quadrants...but for the adversary as well. Did they even know what she was? No. probably not-or they wouldn’t have let her come anywhere near this timestream.
She could be the key he mused, parsing the data again to the alternate where the destruction of most of the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy never happened...where trillions didn’t die in the galactic wars of the 25th and 26th centuries...or she could be the match that lights the fuse.
He couldn't warn the Captain. It wasn’t exactly something he could warn Starfleet about for that matter. Well..not technically Starfleet.
He knew who could best use this information. It was a risk...and if he was wrong-he could doom them all. But it felt right...and when in doubt, trust your feelings. Under normal circumstances a subspace transmission would take days-fortunately, despite it’s still semi official prohibition, Starfleet had been quietly adopting the Quantum Tangle coms…if he could take deep breaths, he would have taken one as he heard the signal get answered by a Yeoman “Admiral Quinn’s office.”
He could tell it wasn’t a real person, most likely ATTICUS. Which could have made it even easier-but steamrolling over the Admiral’s AI was a poor introduction. “Prime, we need to talk.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
This is war
To the soldier, the civilian, the martyr, the victim
This is war
It's the moment of truth and the moment to lie
And the moment to live and the moment to die
The moment to fight, the moment to fight,
To fight, to fight, to fight
To the right to the left
We will fight to the death
To the edge of the earth,
It's a brave new world from the last to the first
To the right, to the left,
We will fight to the death
To the edge of the earth
It's a brave new world, it's a brave new world
(Whoa oh, whoa oh)
A warning to the prophet, the liar, the honest
This is war
To the leader, the pariah, the victor, the messiah
This is war
It's the moment of truth and the moment to lie
And the moment to live and the moment to die
The moment to fight, the moment to fight,
To fight, to fight, to fight
To the right, to the left,
We will fight to the death
To the edge of the earth,
It's a brave new world from the last to the first
To the right, to the left,
We will fight to the death
To the edge of the earth
It's a brave new world, it's a brave new world, it's a brave new world
I do believe in the light, raise your hands up to the sky
The fight is done, the war is won, lift your hands towards the sun
Towards the sun, (it's the moment of truth and the moment to lie
It's the moment to live and the moment to die, the moment to fight)
Towards the sun,
Towards the sun, (it's the moment of truth and the moment to lie
It's the moment to live and the moment to die, the moment to fight)
The war is won (to fight, to fight, to fight, to fight)
To the right, to the left,
We will fight to the death
To the edge of the earth,
It's a brave new world from the last to the first
To the right, to the left,
We will fight to the death
To the edge of the earth
It's a brave new world, it's a brave new world, it's a brave new world
A brave new world
The war is won
The war is won
A brave new world
Songwriters
LETO, JARED, 30 Seconds to Mars, “This is War”
MCDF Jenna Perkins, 30 minutes out from Starbase 132…
“I’m picking up an object sixty seven degrees off the ecliptic, she’s running a Federation core and there’s trace of damage on the spectrum.”
“Friendly maybe?” Ivan asked.
“Could be the Heinlein or the Hood, whoever they are, they’re limping.”
oh god-dammit! “bring us to visual confirmation range.” he ordered, “if it’s either the Heinlein or the Hood pull up alongside and we’ll offer them an escort out, and forward everything to the Ia Thuc’s group.”
“Aye Sir.”
USS Heinlein
The AI spotted it first-but not by much. “Contact, heading 134 mark twenty three. Running cloaked.” Normally the Heinlein wasn’t able to detect cloaked ships until much closer-however under the circumstances, a lot of the more advanced gear that the ship was built with several hundred years in the future was now online instead of locked off, on Johnny’s authority.
“Wish we had this gear back when I was on the Trafalgar back during the war.” Lt Commander Thyl muttered, “or two hours ago.”
Johnny didn’t sigh, though he wanted to, AI or no. Fortunately the XO handled that. “Yes it would have been-but until Mr Rico had proof that someone had changed the timeline, he couldn’t even hint we had that capability.”
The AI kept silent. The timeline wasn’t changed-it wasn’t there. None of this was supposed to happen, they were in a total grey area. He suspected Quentin, or whoever was responsible for sending her here was a big cause of that-but without more data...Well. he shrugged his digital shoulders. The contact was something he did know what it was as more data came in.
Norgh-class, looks like a series of updates based on Romulan and Federation components… Johnny peeled back the residues of her cloak using analysis tools that hadn’t even been designed sixty years from now. Haze gray paint, yeap, Moabite. Late-civil war, the Confederacy’s breakaways were building those ships from whatever could be fabricated or scavenged, and the ‘home yard’ of the MCDF was firmly in the hands of the Odelaw government and trying to survive adaptation to build sabers instead of Birds of Prey.
This one had all the signature traits of the Nooksak yard on Cold Butte-which fit the roundel markings.
“Incoming hail Ma’am.”
Maureen leaned forward, “On screen.”
The CO of the Cold-butte built Norgh was clearly ethnic-Klingon, and could probably pass anywhere in the Empire. A medical prosthetic eye glittered on the left side of his face-klingon aesthetics and human technology trumpeting how artificial it, and the ‘medical vat-skin’ covering half his face were. “Hey, Heinlein, you guys still up?” he drawled through a mouth half-full of ceramic teeth-the dull gray of unbleached resin rammed and no doubt pinned into his gums.
“You have any room on that boat?” Maureen asked, “We’re up to our ears in wounded over here.”
“Lemme get into transport range, I’m gonna send you rendezvous coordinates for the main battle group on a packet-you got a cryppy over there?”
“We’ve got the best Crypto you’ve ever seen...so was that a ‘no’?”
The Lieutenant (she could see his rank on the collar of his khaki oversuit) shook his head, “Not so much. We’re pulling recon and you need to get the wounded out, Over.”
“Didn’t think you had the room but had to ask.” she replied, sending over all the tac data they had of the situation. “We chewed them up as best we could, sunk a Fer’Jai and damaged three Kar’Fi’s. Not much I know.”
The Klingon just laughed “Heinlein, the fact you did that much with a ship not designed for battle, AND got out of there intact with wounded from the station is more than impressive.”
Sensors pinged for attention.
“Captain, a ship’s just been decloaked and is hot-barrelling along a vector parallel to ours-with a whole lot of Fek on her tail.”
”must be our lost cousins...yep. Recommend you guys shake tail for the fleet right now, while they’re distracted, over.” he said it laconically, like a fighter pilot, but then he added, ”By the way, I’m sending you our data now. Get moving while you can, we have to go save some of Odelaw’s incompetents. Jenna Long Out.”
What Johnny got on the last burst packet included something unpleasant.
File: Last Will and Testaments filed by crewmember and rank
He wondered if he needed to mention it…
“You heard the man.”
The warp engines were ‘on line enough’-able to make warp five, at least, and Stone ordered the ship to warp as the MCDS Jenna Long sped in a stooping dive at the Fek that were overtaking the unknown Defiant class vessel that had discovered their cloak wasn’t as good as they had thought.
The Bird of Prey decloaked right before the warp drive fully engaged.
The move would buy time-but only if they actually made use of it.
Looking at the tac plot Maureen sighed “They’re going to get slaughtered, can we do anything to help?”
“Not without losing life support-it’s already overtaxed by having this many on board, on top of the damage.” ChiefEng Daniels replied. “The Jenna Long knew that when they scanned us...let's not let their sacrifice be in vain commander.”
“Roger that. Helm, get us to the rendezvous point.”
The overcrowded ship limped off, leaving the battle behind them.
MCDS Ia Thuc, retrofit D-7 class (export)
Commodore’s Log, Stardate [stardate]
Skirmish line is forming at 15 minutes out from the Starbase. So far, the occupiers are content to lay minefields and fortify. Admiral Huntington is insisting on taking point for the assault, something about it being ‘starfleet property’ and the impropriety of having Klingon Allies taking the lead.
So far, General Cherenkov seems sanguine with letting the USS Suharto take the point on this, with Denali SDF and MCDF marine ships forming flank and reserve positions for when, not if, things get too hairy for Starfleet.
Got good news over the QT. Admiral LaRoca is due to arrive at Cold Butte in just under two more hours. That means our fallback is secured...
Janet Qua stopped her log, and looked at her Ops, “Do we have a go from the taskforce lead yet?” she asked.
“No, mum.” Major Alford shook his head, “They’re still analyzing the threat data the Heinlein was carrying, and there’s some chatter on sideband between the other seniors about what to do.”
“TRIBBLE me running-this is exactly why you don’t form a task force with this many Flag ranks!” she snarled.
“Incoming orders from the SDFVancouver, Mum.”
“Go ahead.”
“Stand by to initiate assault Plan Alpha One Zero in ten minutes.”
Janet relaxed, “Send to all wings-Alpha one Zero, execution ten mikes,then send acknowledgement to General Cherenkov with my compliments.”
“What about the boarding party transports, mum?”
“They’re ordered to hang back-we’re going with the Alpha One Zero plan-which means Starfleet gets first crack on retaking the station, while we’re reserve. OUR focus, is clearing them a path in, and holding the space around it.”
SDF Vancouver
HE was up to something. She knew it. Huntington had been working for the other side when the gates were destroyed at Objective K several years ago. Despite Starfleet’s claim that it was merely an undercover operation gone bad...too many good people died to the Orion cultists, with the overt help of the USS Suharto.
And now here he was..in charge of the relief force against another force of cultists, along with the Fek’Ihri hordes. Miska Chernkov trusted Huntingtion as far as she could throw his ship. Schrodi would have let him know she knew. But Schrodi-well, Nova now, wasn’t here. This was a matter of state security-and letting him know that she suspected he would betray them would negate her advantage.
Still, not all of her crew had the ‘benefit’ of her training from her time in the Soviet 17th Science Fleet. “I don’t understand, why are we setting up another tacnet?”
“Because, it may be necessary-I hope not-but one does not prepare for the wolf by letting the sheep stay in the pasture.”
“Fair enough General” the com officer replied, the andorian setting it up. “We’re linked with the Vikrant and the MCDF ships.”
“Good for now. “She replied, looking on the viewscreen, the commander of the other SDF ship in the flotilla didn’t look happy.
”Damnit he’s up to something General.” Colonel Travis said “their tacnet was asking for shield frequencies. That isn’t standard, and I haven’t been out of starfleet that long.”
“I agree-but until the hammer falls, we have to lie to them that we trust them.” she shrugged “perhaps I am being paranoid-but I think not.”
”He’s been with those MCF ships for months, I’d say it’s fair to say they might be a threat as well if that station needs to be neutralized.
“Probably, as well as the starfleet ships that accompanined him. With the exception perhaps of the Heinlein and the Birmingham. The latter only just arrived to the blockade and the former...well, I have my reasons.”
”understood” Missy knew quite well where some of Miska’s knowledge came from “Well we’ll be ready over here-at least I know all the weak points of the Suharto, unfortunately he also knows the vulnerabilities of our ships.”
“Then we will just have to ensure that he does not expect or can foresee our tactics.”
“Rodger that General. Vikrant out.”
Miska leaned back in her chair and sighed. What could the masters have offered you David, to make you betray your oaths? And Can i trust your words that you’re now working for the greater good? She shook her head, there was an old Russian proverb. Trust, but Verify. And right now..she couldn’t really do either. There had to be a way to get someone on the station…
MSF hospital ship Phlox
General Chernkov wasn’t the only person thinking fast. “so , Starfleet isn’t going to allow anyone but their own people to land on the base.” Jake Evans said as he looked over the report. Of course being a civilian hospital ship, from an organization that Starfleet didn’t really care for (not that Medicins Sans Frontiers really cared about Starfleet’s opinion) they were left out of any planning other than ‘stay clear’ from the Suharto. Fortunately not everyone shared Admiral Huntington's opinion of them, the ship plugged into the tac net from the SDF Vancouver.
Captain S’tarak rubbed the scales on his chin thoughtfully. “You know.. That is isn’t technically a Starfleet base. It’s Exploration Command.”
Jake looked up from where he was sitting out of the way on the bridge. “What exactly does that mean?”
“That technically, Admiral Cartwright has jurisdiction. And due to the nature of Exploration Command’s duties...well MCF does have an agreement to be able to use their facilities, and provide support to deep exploration missions when needed.”
“Meaning legally, if we were to send in some medics to help...they can’t really stop us?”
The Gorn nodded “Legally no. and we do have some of the best doctors in dealing with Fek’Ihri inflicted wounds, after the debacle between the Moabites and the Pentaxians. Unfortunately, we don’t carry weapons..and I can’t let our people go into an environment overrun with them without security.”
Jake however was already two steps ahead, first checking the list of ships that were in the flotilla, then pulling out his QT com. “I think I might be able to do something about that.”
MCDS Saul Ian Moskowitz
Captain Gaxnox was tired. The Iotian had basically been drafted ever since the Civil War began. Even though he was pro star fleet, he didn’t care for how they tried to manipulate things, so instead of a comfortable retirement running his security company Justice Incorporated on Cold Butte, he’d gone from xo to Captain, this being his third ship thus far.
Still, he’d been involved in the New Saigon cleansing efforts after the Fek invasion, and like many hated them with a firey passion. This at least was a mission he could feel good about-assuming that Starfleet let them do anything. “How many of those mooks on the station you think turned by now?” he asked his XO.
The female Klingon shrugged “at least half, if not all-though supposedly there are a half dozen decks holding out still.”
“That’s still, at least five thousand, if half. O’l Dave has fifteen ships with him, mostly Sabers an the like. That gives him , what, 500, maybe 750 pairs of boots he can put on the ground?” Gaxnox shook his head “just don’t make sense him turning down help-hell the Empire has over a thousand ground troops alone on that big boat they brought.”
His XO’s answer was interrupted by an unexpected hail.. “Who the heck..” Gaxnox said as he looked at the console. Still, not like he had any reason not to answer it, punching it through to his console. “Mister Evans? This really isn’t a good time.”
”yes I know. I’m on the MSF Phlox about twenty three kilometers behind you. Listen, I have something I need to run by you…”
He listened, his eyebrow raising “Intriguing concept. Let me run it by my boss and I’ll get back to you.”
”Thanks, I’ll be here.”
He was grinning as the connection was cut “get me the Ia Thuc.”
MCDS Ia Thuc...
“...he wants to do what?” Janet Qua cocked her head, “Yeah, ask if he wants more…assistant contractors for this...or if he needs spare suits.”
“Mum?”
“Tell the Sergeant Major to prepare the Battalion for ‘special deployment’, and have them report to the transfer lock-they’re going in with the Medics.”
“Aye mum.”
Brig, Starbase 132…
“Sshh...come.” she told him, “Soft!”
Joshua felt high-like the time Garzon got him to try some cactus buttons in Mojave. The Orion girl was putting out some kind of...something-it made the Fek nest clear ahead of her, and behind him, as she dragged him past the security station.
“But...my men…”
“We can’t save them now.” she scolds softly, pausing, she kisses him with urgency, “You need to do exactly as I say, Joshua. Now come, soft!”
He followed her through the double-lock hatch, into a corridor.
“You! Clear that turbolift, Captain Gearing here is going to meet the Matron!” she barked the order to a pair of guards-he recognized one of them as Lt Bob Ornton, the other was an Orion male, both bowed their heads and stepped aside.
“Milady, you should be escorted!” the Orion argued.
“Don’t dare question me!” she snapped, “I have him well-in-hand!”
“But…”
She clenched his hand in hers, pulled him close “See? Harmless.” she said, then leaned up to Gearing’s ear as if administering a sedative kiss, and whispered, “Kill them, now, with the phaser I gave you.”
Joshua reacted to the order instantly, and gunned down the Orion male, and his former crewman without a thought.
“Good boy. Into the turbolift, we’re going down” she told him.
Joshua nodded, and asked, “Which level?”
“Level fifty six has a few escape pods.” She said, “We will go there.”
“Who are you?” he asked, the turbolift doors closing.
“I am the person leading you to freedom.” she answered.
“But who do you work for?”
“That would be telling, now hush, we have much work to do.” she told him.
Starbase 132…
Operations Level, Starbase 132…
“...Captain Gearing is missing from his cell, two guards and the under-matron supervising his breaking are among the dead.”
“What about the Breaker?” Medra asked.
“We can assume he somehow has overpowered her-she was conditioned by Massaana herself, there is no possibility that she has gone-”
“FIND HER!! Find him, but find her as well. The Massaana syndicate is famed for their slave conditioning but there are two Ohn’Gallau in that House, and that syndicate is broken!” Medra snarled, and Noya Tozh cowered.
“Yes mistress. She will be found.”
Medra used her Betazoid powers and inflicted fear on the Orion Priestess, fear, and awe. “See to it, or you will not like what happens to you.”
Deck 50…
She led him out of the turbolift and across the sewage reclamation deck to an exterior airlock. The Fek in this level avoided looking at them both, and she closed the inner door, before opening an equipment locker.
“Now, you don’t have to believe me, but hold still, this will clear your head.” She told him, and administered a Hypospray, “I hope that it’s enough antidote….”
“What are you DOING! My Station is under occupation!!” he started.
“YES, and there are four thousand enemy soldiers between you, and either Ops or the shuttle bay!” she barked, “I’m getting you out of here, because that’s my job.”
“Who are you!?”
“Look, Captain, this is not the time, you need to put this pressure suit on-some of your folks have managed to secure the lower end of the station’s stem, from deck fifty two to the tip, but they did it by blowing out deck fifty one, opening it to space and knocking out turbolift shafts between where they are, and here. That means Auxiliary control, a few cargo bays, some airlocks, and the escape pods for the engineering teams stationed around the auxiliary reactor-you’re the station commander, so we’re either going to evacuate, kill, or put you in position to fight for your station.”
“Klingon Intelligence.” he said in dawning realization.
“Nice guess, keep it to yourself, this was a contingency, I don’t have backup coming.” she snorted, “My J’urulo control officer is fifteen light years the wrong direction, too, so either suit up or kill yourself, because the information in your head must not fall into enemy hands.”
“There’s...only one suit.” he said.
“That’s because I have no intention of being taken alive, Captain.” she snapped, “I will not let them Geld me.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
I don't wanna be me anymore
Ever throwing at his home
Two glass houses, twenty stones
Fourteen yellow, six are blue
Could it be worse?.. Quite doubtful.
I don't wanna be me anymore
I don't wanna be me anymore
1-2
1-2-3-4.
Two steps forward, three steps back
Without warning, heart attack
He fell asleep in the snow
Never woke up, died alone
I don't wanna be me anymore
I don't wanna be me anymore
1-2
1-2-3-4.
[x2]
Please don't dress in black
When you're at his wake
Don't go there to mourn
But to celebrate
I don't wanna be me anymore
I don't wanna be me anymore
1-2
1-2-3-4.
I don't wanna be me anymore
I don't wanna be me anymore
-Type O Negative, “I don’t wanna be me”
Deck 54
“Well there’s someone out there at least. Be nice if we could actually talk to them.” Captain Evans groused as she looked at the display in Aux control. They had control of life support for the station, power, gravity and shields, and could see what the main sensors saw. What they didn’t have was communications. Someone was jamming, and the fleet that was converging was out of communicator range still.
“I don’t understand why there is a MSF ship in the mix” Lt Pittman, who normally was one of the stations hydroponics engineers.
“Because MSF goes where trouble is-AND they've done some of the best work on Fek infected, with that Pentaxian crisis a couple years back.” Rhonda replied. “Plus they’re some of the best medics in the galaxy. Makes sense when news broke about this they’d send someone.”
“Well hope they’ve got good shields, another ship just popped in by the station, another Orion barge it looks like.” Pittman groused.
“That makes eleven, plus the fek reinforcements. Not to mention the support ships and fighters.”
“They have more than we could hold off. Just on the station alone, not counting all these reinforcements. Why are they waiting?” Thorson mused.
“Especially when we’ve got reinforcements showing up.” Rhonda chewed her bottom lip, a bad habit of hers “Ivar, go find Lisa. I’ve got an idea i want to run past her.”
Common Room…
The kids were scared, and a lot of them were now without parents. Lisa felt awkward-some of them remembered and some didn’t. She bit her lip, and looked through the replimat menu for something-anything, she could recognize.
“Miss?” a little voice beside her interrupted her trying-hard-not-to-be-noticed, and a small hand tugged at her jacket.
Lisa looked down.
“Are you gonna save my mom?” the girl asked.
Lisa wanted to cry. “I’m sorry, I’m not a hero.” she told the girl.
“You saved us.” the girl insisted, “I saw.”
“Captain Evans saved you.” Lisa argued as if she were speaking to an adult.
“You fought the monsters, I Saw.” the girl insisted, and Lisa realized more of the kids were around her.
“I-I’m not a hero…” I’m a convicted criminal! I’m a Villain dammit!
But they wouldn’t stop staring at her. Lisa felt the kind of pressure that the Heroes must’ve been under back home-a Public that insisted on needing them, looked up to them, looked to them.
I’m not your hero!
“LEAVE ME ALONE!!” she abandoned the food replicator and ran from the commons, finding her way into a guest-quarters, where she flopped on a bed with her arms crossed over her eyes.
“You know,” another voice said “the thing about ‘heroes’. Is that those who are called that by the Skalds, none of them ever think they’re worthy.”
Lisa looked up, Chief Thorson had come in quietly, and was getting a mug of something from the replicator. “Heroes aren’t perfect. Far from it. They’re men, same as you or I-who do the right thing even though it terrifies them.”
“But I’m not like that!”
“Aren’t you? Your actions speak differently.” he shrugged as he drained the cup with one long gulp. “Bah. Syntheol mead is not the same, not a fitting drink before battle.” He put the mug down and sat down by the bed. “You’ve been battered for years by forces you don’t understand. Given abilities that you don’t want. But the Æsir, they don’t ask what we want. They give us what we need to keep the darkness at bay, and trust that we mere inhabitants of Midgard will do what is necessary.” he looked about at the walls of the cabin “I never asked to be here either. Would have been happy, getting off my brother’s boat after that last run, going back to work as a smith, maybe finally marrying Svanhild…” he shook his head “but the Norns sent me here, over a thousand years away. Maybe to talk sense into you might be the only reason I am here right now.”
Auxiliary Control, Deck 56…
“Where’s Lisa?” Rhonda asked.
“She went to get a snack-”
The turbolift doors opened and one of the civilians was standing there. “Captain-”
Rhonda turned and two of the security team were escorting a Mark I pressure-suit-the type used for exterior maintenance.
The suited figure took his helmet off, and revealed an old classmate. “Captain Evans.” Josh Gearing said, “I believe you’re in charge?”
“Josh! How the hell?” She said, dropping her coffee. “I thought they had you?”
“They did” Gearing replied grimly. “Doped up, high as a kite on Orion funk-until they left me alone with one of their people-who also happened to work for Klingon intelligence.”
Rhonda noticed the expressions on the crewmen “Where are they?”
“Her..and she didn’t make it. She couldn’t go back, broke cover to get me out, and if they recaptured her...well you know about Orion gelding right?”
She winced “yeah..”
“She tranq’d herself..and had me bring her over. There was only one suit…”
“Dammit...where is she?”
“Rhonda, she’s dead-we were in hard vac for over four minutes-she’s a corpsesicle.”
“Ah’ll be the judge of that”
Gearing shrugged “she’s in the airlock, listen-”
Evans didn’t stop as she flew down the corridor, her feet almost touching the floor. Gearing blinked, then followed, along with the others.
Inside, the orion woman looked almost peaceful..and definitely the wrong color, a purplish shade instead of the normal healthy green. There was frozen fluid around her face, and she was hard and cold to the touch. When Captain Gearing caught up, Rhonda was scanning her with a medical tricorder, then put it down. “Eyes froze and burst, severe frostbite, vitals-”
“Like I said…” Gearing said sadly “she’s gone. She didn’t want them to get her body, which is why she had me...bring….it…”
He took a step back, as Captain Evan’s eyes glowed a soft green. “Thing about Orions, is they’re hardier than us humans” The black furred woman said “ya’ll might wanna stand back though.”
SDF Singh, Denali System
The revelation of the name of the ex ISS Stadi didn’t bother Admiral Jesu La Roca as much as the revelation on just where the ship was. A lot of the damage had been repaired over the last few years but the scars from the Terran Empire's bombardment were still raw in the ruins of what had been the Denali Republic’s capital city of Vancouver. The bridge was staffed with a mix of Denali, Klingons and Andorians, with a vaguely familiar looking human in the center seat.
Captain Jason Murnau stood as the Admiral finished stepping out of the turbolift-the sight of Denali from a standard orbit causing Jesu to momentarily pause. “Admiral on the bridge!”
“...as you...we’re at TRIBBLE Denali?! That’s Months away from where I need to be!”
“Actually, once preparations are complete, more like nine minutes or so Sir.”
It was the second time in as many minutes for Jesu to be stunned by information. “Look, I’ve had a rough couple of months, on top of a TRIBBLE year. So could you kindly explain just what the hell you’re talking about?”
The blonde woman who met him at the transporter just grinned “Remember when the mess in Moab just started? And a couple weeks after the Election and the violence starting, Odelaw, and Huntington attempted to blockade Cold Butte to bring things to a quick end?”
“Yeah-then something spooked Dave, he pulled back and you dropped a dozen ships in between them.” Jesu said with a bit of a chuckle, remembering the panicked transmissions that RTN news had picked up and broadcast. “Of course they didn’t know at the time that only two of the ships had working weapons.”
Captain Murnau just nodded “A Galaxy-X does make a rather impressive taxi.” he said “we got most of the Regiment we sent to Cold Butte easily on board.”
“Which you then proceeded to land five kilometers outside of Yellowknife and then had a goddamned parade through the center of the city.”
“That was General Cherenkov’s idea, she said it would be good propaganda, and a boost to the morale of the population of Cold Butte to know they weren't alone.”
“It was” Jesu admitted “Odelaw would have pushed through without that support to Debbie Mac’s government. That still doesn’t explain how the Vikrant and the other ships got there so fast.”
The Captain just grinned “That’s a State secret-one that you’ll get to see in a few minutes.” He turned to the blonde woman “Michelle, is the Jumpgate charged?”
She didn’t even look at one of the stations on the bridge, but at something in her hand “soon, depending on-oh hell.” She paused, her eyes going unfocused as if she was looking off into infinity.
“What do you mean? Do you have confirmation?” she said, seemingly to no one.
“Who is she talking to?” Jesu snapped-when it hit him. He’d seen this before...except not from a human, but a Caitian. “Her last name is Schrodinger isn’t it?”
“Dr Michelle Schrodinger, yes Admiral” Captain Murnau replied “she built the jumpgate system-so far now it only goes to Cold Butte-but on larger ships, like the Vancouver and the Singh, they can jump farther than that.”
Jesu sighed, knowing that the Dr would be lost in mad science for a few minutes from experience. “And just why did you name this ship after Khan?”
“WE didn’t name it for Khan, it’s named for Noonien Singh.”
“Same difference.”
“Perhaps. Khan was a flawed, brutal man. But he was also a flawed, brutal man, from a flawed, brutal time-who he did the best he could to protect his people. And frankly, Admiral, if you’ll pardon the expression-after the events of the last couple of years, we are completely out of TRIBBLE for hurt feelings in Paris over our history.”
He was about to respond when Schrodinger came back “Goddammit, those Fracking IDIOTS!”
That drew confused looks from both the Admiral and Captain. “What happened?”
“Eisenberg. The MCDF sent everything that could fly to help with Starbase 132. He sent a token force, and has over thirty ships less than an hour from Cold Butte.”
“Son of a TRIBBLE! Did Odelaw authorize that?”
“No-he let Debbie Mac know as soon as he did-and let the press know as well. Eisenberg started with over forty ships, but once word got out that the Fek attack wasn’t a ruse, a half dozen or so split off and headed for the Starbase.” She looked at the Admiral “Cold Butte was supposed to be where the fall back position was if things went south-this really screws us over.”
Jesu just nodded angrily “how soon can you get us there?”
“Jumpgate is almost-there, it’s ready. Can be there in under an hour.”
He chewed his lip, thinking. “We’ll go there. That TRIBBLE has to be stabilized...K’ragh can handle the fek with the assets that are enroute.”
Captain Murnau nodded “right, inform departure control we’re leaving. Admiral, the ship is yours.”
Jesu just shook his head “you know about the ,jumpgate you called it? I don’t. Who else do we have going with us?”
“We’ve got the SDF Khukri, it’s a Somraw raptor commanded by Lt Sanjit Taylor-”
“So that’s where she ended up” Jesu said, brightening a bit. “I know her husband left Starfleet after things went to pieces…”
“He’s not KDF, but is in the SDF-he’s her tac officer.”
Having backup he knew and trusted helped a bit “anyone else?”
“Two B’rel Bop. We were going to have a carrier..but that Orion built pig is still having power issues.”
“So no fighter support then…”
“Actually-” Michelle just pointed at the viewscreen-which showed the fighters waiting in formation, next to for kilometer long pylons, one ‘north’ ‘south’ ‘east and ‘west’, with V shaped panels going along their length. Lights began to pulse down the pylons, flashing brighter and brighter, as a blue vortex began to form in the center.
“Gate is ready, all ships assume formation.” on the tactical display the fighters arrayed around the Galaxy Class, with the Raptor and Birds of Prey tucked in fore and aft. “All ships report ready.”
“Admiral?”
Jesu just nodded. “Let's go.”
Empty Quarters, Deck 54…
“I can’t do it, Ivar.” she said, breaking the long pause between them. “TRIBBLE, I can’t believe this-I’m not good enough. to give them what they need.”
Ivar scowled. “That isn’t it.” He scolded, “I can tell, I know things about situations like this, and about people-you don’t fear failure, and you know you have the ability!”
“Not for everything.” Lisa said.
“It has to be enough.” he told her. “You’re not fighting alone.”
She almost smiled, “You’re not here to talk sense to me, Ivar Thorson.” she told him, “You’re here because Rhonda needs you, and her husband, and their kid. I don’t belong here.”
“You have powers that make a physicist cry.” He reminded her of a long ago conversation, “If you don’t belong here...well, that is simply foolishness.”
“I can’t control them.” She told him, “Schrodinger tried to help me learn how-but it didnt work out..”
“What is life without a little risk?” he told her, “The Aesir don’t ever give gifts without a price...but you need to pull it together now.”
“What if I lose control again?” she asked him.
“I promise, I will stop you-and if I can’t then Captain Evans can.” He tossed the mug in the cycler, “Speaking of the Captain, she sent me to fetch you.”
USS Heinlein
David Huntington’s expression was wide eyed and joyful at first-”Where’s Evans?” he asked as the first thing in his hail.
“She’s still on the station, sir.” Maureen reported, “she ordered us to get the civilians out first, then the Fekkies closed the box behind us.”
“Fall in with the secondary line, then.” the Rear Admiral ordered, “It’ll give you time to make repairs. If we’re really lucky, you won’t see any more action until we’ve secured the station.”
Same time, different Channel
Johnny listened to the XO talking to Admiral Huntington with half an ear. He was on unfamiliar ground, none of this was supposed to have happened. A split, a new alternate line maybe. Either way, he had other photonic fish to fry as it was.
While the XO was debriefing the Admiral, and getting the wounded beamed off to the hospital ship, he was making a call of his own…
SDF Vancouver
The incoming QT signal from the Heinlein wasn’t expected. At least by the communications officer “Priority Alpha signal for you General?”
There wasn’t time, but “number one, you have con. I will be back in moment” General Cherenkov said, ducking into her ready room. “Da?”
She recognized the face-not that she’d ever talked with him personally. “General, we may have a situation” Johnny said, filling her in on the currently sedated Betazoid in the Heinlein’s brig.
“Damn, that is bad. And Huntington assigned her to you?”
“Yes. I know Dr Schrodinger said he is not to be trusted-”
“The last time she battled Orion cultists of the masters… Huntington and his ship were fighting alongside them. Starfleet said it was an ‘unfortunate undercover operation gone wrong..”
”I’m even more worried though why none of this is in my memory...at any rate, we need to find out what she knows-but we have no telepaths..”
“Has the Admiral been informed of your prisoner?”
“No-but if he has more than one agent aboard…”
The tall feline thought. “Her husband is K’Tirr’s mates cousin….he has claimed her as kin, of his house. Therefore…” she grinned ferally. “Let me contact K’Ragh. Keep her sedated, I’m sure he has what you need when he arrives.”
”Thank you General-I would ask him myself, but he has no reason to trust me, or even know of me.” The AI’s photonic avatar glanced over his shoulder at something “He’s ordering us to fall in with the secondary line as support as our repairs are finished.”
“How bad are you? Do you need assistance?”
”Nyet” the AI Replied ”the biggest issue we had was there were so many wounded people crammed on board-we couldn’t get to the systems. We should have most of it up in less than an hour. Which honestly, is odd… why isn’t the Admiral starting the attack-what is he waiting for?”
“I do not know-but do NOT let the Admiral suspect, or let him know that you’ll be interrogating the betazoid he snuck onto your ship.”
The AI looked insulted “There is no danger of that general-at least from me. And the XO won’t either..it’s the unknowns that worry me.”
“I know, am Soviet. Paranoia was our national pastime.” Mishka replied with a smirk.
”Even Paranoids have enemies General. If we can get the telepaths, and can get useful information i’ll let you know.”
USS Suharto, Admiral's Ready Room
He let the mask fall as soon as the communication with the Heinlein ended. “GAWDDAMMIT!” he bellowed, throwing a PADD across the room. She was supposed to be on the ship, not on the damn station! His agent screwed up somewhere...or was compromised. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.
She could have just been injured or even killed in the attack-they did take casualties. Can’t just assume that they know. He sighed and went over to the replicator, pulling up his favorite coffee. It never tasted the same though...a bit of a metallic aftertaste..due to his assimilation years before.
It’s not supposed to be like this..she should have stayed on her damn ship. Yeah, she’s a friend..but according to the Admiral...she’s important to the masters...I have to make sure she doesn’t get killed over there before I can recover her., Drinking the rest of the coffee with a grimace, he put the mug down. He had to contact his comrades anyway.
He had the list, and the codes. He heard the encryption buzzz, then a green face appeared on the screen, in the background other Orions, and the occasional Fek’ihri in the ops level of Starbase 132.
“Noya Tozhe? This is Huntington. We need to talk.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
And nothing bites like I do
Nothing screams out loud
In this empty night
Nothing can keep me from you
And you think that you know
The reason I'm alive
Truth is you only
Know the lies
Not of this world
And nothing can hold it back
I am the dawn upon your bloody beach
Come to pass
Not of this world
For I am nothing known
When the seasons shift
They call my name
To carry me home
And you think that you know
The reason I'm alive
Truth is you only know the lies
And I feel all the things
You could never understand
Choose where you stand
Am I mortal
Are you
Man
Not of this world
Nothing bites like I do
Nothing screams out loud
In this empty night
Nothing can keep me from you
Choose where you stand
Am I mortal
Are you
Man
Yea
Not of this world
For I am nothing known
When the seasons shift
They call my name
To carry me home
-Glenn Danzig, “Not of This World”
Starbase One, Sol System, Admiral Quinn’s office…
Q’uinn studied the relayed report from the task-force...and nearly lost his shape at the implications. Home is Stabilized now! There had been no new orders, nor promise of relief from years of this masquerade.
forgotten here, and now this? The Undine that had been Jorrel Quinn in public for more than half of a local decade did not really feel alarm...but irritation. Yes, Irritation.
The Masters, despite promises, had not been what saved his home. It was a human, and a Caitan-Doctor Schrodinger’s design, and the courage and sacrifice of Ngoc Trung, that had stabilized fluidic space and ended the contraction that threatened to destroy it...and with that, ended the war more decisively than the faction of that fool impersonating the Scientist.
His receptionist-Lt Commander Dolan, chimed him, “SIr, hail from Rear Admiral Huntington on Gold Three channel…”
“Take a message.” Quinn ordered. He has a strong force under him, if he can’t handle this situation on it’s own… “and inform President Okeg that duties do not, after all, prevent me from attending his charity event this evening.”
Quinn activated his office’s privacy field, and spoke, “ATTICUS!”
”Yes Admiral.” the AI manifested in black-and-white, a Gary Cooper face as seen in “To Kill a Mockingbird”-one of the few 20th century films to survive centuries of war and social change on earth.
“How is LaRoca doing? Will he be there in time?”
”Admiral LaRoca is currently en-route to Cold Butte. It would seem that Odelaw’s truce with the MacAulliffe government is about to be savagely broken by Commander Eisenberg’s forces.”
“I will tear him from limb!!!” rage surged, “I wanted that front stalemated!! Find resources and authorize LaRoca to do whatever he deems necessary to restore peace and order in those systems!”
Atticus blinked, “Sir?”
“You heard me.” Quinn growled, “I did not authorize Eisenberg to attack Cold Butte directly! LaRoca must be able to take control of that theatre-with it’s necessary assets intact-calculate probability-if Eisenberg succeeds, what will it do to the perception of Starfleet among the allies?”
”Significant damage to the reputation of the Federation at minimum, and violation of the peace with the Klingons seems likely.”
“Then do as I command. Make every public move to assure our allies we are totally opposed to this gross violation of mutual agreements.” Quinn stated, “ANd make sure Admiral LaRoca succeeds in pacifying the situation and maintaining this temporary armistice!”
“So the plan has changed?” ATTICUS Prime asked.
“It has.” Quinn stated, “though not so much as you might believe-my mission here is to be Jorrel Quinn, and absent directives to the contrary, that is who, and what, I am going to be.”
Quinn turned to look at the situation plots, and thus, did not see the satisfied and grim smile cross the AI’s expression. “Executing.” ATTICUS intoned.
Operations, Starbase 132…
“I know what you’re looking for, Noya Tozh. Send the Fek’Ihri away and I can give it to you.” Admiral David Huntington’s face showed a few marks of the time he’d spent as a drone-a renewed pallor, and the flesh-coloured plugs where prosthetics had been removed contrasted healthy-pink patches.
“I can not.” Noya said, “we are all guests of Medra firstly, and second, I do not command them. Third, they most of all wish to be here when the door is opened for our Good Masters to greet and serve them as is their deepest desire-if we tried to send them off, they would turn on us!”
”I will be arriving in ten minutes. Have your forces detain or destroy the ships escorting the Suharto, but allow us to pass into transporter range, I will bring the needed information-and help in securing Rhonda Evans and the Harbinger.” said after a moment, ”Tell them to make a good show-it could be in our mutual interest not to reveal our...alliance too soon.”
“Of course...do you have any means to assure accidents are less...likely?” Medra interrupted.
”HOw about the keys to the Tacnet for the entire force?” he asked.
“That should work splendidly.”
”one more thing-try not to destroy the Hospital ship-we need sacrifices when they come.” David said, ”Sutra Len Ten-twenty-three. You lost control of the children, but there are bound to be innocents aboard the Phlox...so keep it intact.”
Deck Fifty Six…
Rhonda could feel the damage. The orion had suffered quite a lot in those four minutes, ruptured glands, dead tissue that could turn necrotic, broken bones and scar tissue around implants that were burnt out.
There were old scars too-places where someone had bridged across surgical brain damage to restore what some previous doctor had taken away in the woman’s forebrain, damage from hormone oversaturation…she was a criminal, but someone undid the Gelding process before… whoever did it, had been a surgical artist. Undoing deliberate brain-damage is something very few, if any doctors Rhonda knew of could even contemplate.
Rhonda could feel her patient slipping-and then, her own power surged.
The nearly-dead girl sucked in breath and activity raced along her nervous system. Skin faded from it’s publish bruises where blood vessels had frozen and burst, the temperature came up...the eyes weren’t much different from humans..and Rhonda had repaired them before many times, both using Starfleet Medical equipment..and before without.
Gearing took a step back from the doorway as the room filled with a green glow, the Orion woman almost lifting off the deck. Evans wasn’t touching the ground either, her hands spread out, the same green energy field surrounding the Orion glowing around her hands and eyes. “Now for the tricky part…” Rhonda muttered through gritted teeth…
NEILU….
sixty two years ago…
“...You can’t do this!!” she struggled, but the restraints held her. “I’m not a criminal!”
“You have been shown guilty, you betrayed your mistress.” the voice told her, “The punishment is clear, for one such as you-for running away, for rejecting your proper place.”
Lt. Commander Neilu Su’rial of the Federation Starfleet could see them gathered around her, the priestesses lowered a mask over her face. “NO!!”
“You will only remember what you once were, you will serve your purpose like an animal, and it will drive you.”
NO!!!
Darkness.
Deck 56, present time..
“NO!!!!” she was delirious and fear hormones were sloshing through her. Rhonda couldn’t help but feel some of it through the healing link, as parts of the old damage regrew, regenerated, linking connections that had only been rejoined crudely.
Six years ago, Ru’ra Penthe Prison…
“...found some suitable candidates for your research, Doctor.” the Nausicaan was sexy. All of them were Sexy and Animal wanted them-even the red-headed human woman looking her over, she felt tremors of wanting.
“This one first.” the human said, “She’s healthy enough I can possibly see if the process can be reversed. Thou hast data on her origin?””
“Orion, second generation Federation citizen, taken from the USS Hartford about fifty four years ago-the Federation listing has her as MIA.” the Nausicaan aide stated.
“What was her rank?” the woman asked.
“Lieutenant Commander, the Hartford was investigating a slaving ring near Cardassian space when she was taken.”
“So...good. Gather her records and forward to my terminal, the first experiments will focus on restoring higher brain function and memories, have a Lethean standing by for any deeper work once the theory is proven.”
The Nausicaan left, left Animal with the woman, who shined a light in her eyes. “Thou hast a vague glimmering of what I”m going to do to thee...good. I know part of thee hears this, I am going to make thee a person again...but thou shalt not be returning to thine old life, nay...not with thy federation kin at war with us. Thou shalt serve a higher purpose instead. Doctor Moriarty will make thee all better...”
This time, the scalpels hurt
Deck 56
Pain, or memories of that, Captain Evans could deal with. The greenish light in the airlock entry room flared brighter, as the Orions struggles calmed down, her breathing slowing down. Rhonda gently laid her down on the deck plates, as the glow faded. “Can you hear me?” she asked, the humanish woman panting for breath. “Took a bit more out of me than ah thought...beginning to think ah might have had help in the meatlocker.” she said, using the Moabite term for the Fek breeding chamber. Still she was steadier than she was after that, just winded.
“AHem.” Lisa and Ivar were standing in the doorway.
Below Rhonda, “Neilu, Suriel, Lieutenant Commander Starfleet, service number six one seven one three two alpha three two…” the Orion moaned.
Joshua Gearing stared, transfixed.
Lisa glanced at him, “Close your mouth, cap, you’ll catch flies.” she said, “Why’re we keepin’ the lingerie model alive?”
“B...be..” Gearing shook his head and took a deep breath. “Because she almost died getting me out of there, she’s not with them-she’s undercover from Klingon Intelligence.”
“That was a Starfleet ident.” Lisa said, “Number of digits sounded like from a run of Voyager or Deep Space Nine...if my fandom is correct...so she’s undercover huh?”
The Orion woman looked confused. “Give me a moment please…” she said, sitting up, then staring-even the scars were gone. At least the physical..
“Oh god, they gelded me…” she groaned.
“You’re fixed now...and welcome back to Starfleet, Lieutenant Commander. I’m sure your debriefing is going to be...interesting reading-assuming we survive that long.” Lisa said in a droll tone. “Do you remember recent events, or do you need to be briefed up?”
Rhonda shot Lisa a glare, but helped Nielu to her feet when she tried to stand up.
Ivar shoved an elbow into lisa’s side, “it’s called tact, you fuckhead.” he said playfully, “Show some sensitivity.”
“What? My mom got a hysterectomy…”
“Gelding means they cut your forebrain off enough to suppress higher functions, and overdrive the sex-drive.” Gearing explained, “The orions do it instead of a death sentence. The famous animal-slave girls? Those are convicts who were sentenced to gelding.”
“Oh god…” Lisa was genuinely horrified.
“And she suffered like that for decades.” Gearing added, “based on her service number. I think we’ll find her file in the archives at Starbase One, if she’s been missing as long as she would be.”
“I thought you said she was KI?” Lisa asked.
“I..am..was? I remember that they took me to Rura Penthe and let Doctor Moriarty try to restore my...mind. She managed enough but there were...enough gaps. I was conditioned and trained to work for Vishka’s people infiltrating the Cult.” her expression paled, “Oh god...the things I did...I ‘broke’ people as part of my cover!”
“We all do things we’re ashamed of, you’re a victim.” Lisa asserted, “You were compelled, forced. It’s going to be okay.”
“Trust me...ah know all about having someone make ya do something you normally wouldn't” Rhonda said darkly. Ivar had filled her in about the suspected telepath on board the ship. “End of the day-you didn’t really do it-as you had no control over your actions.”
“But…”
“But nothing. Listen, wanna get back at the TRIBBLE? For reals?” Lisa asked, “Revenge can be very...cleansing, trust me.”
The orion woman met her eyes, “Yes.” she said, “I want revenge.”
‘Do you know what they’re after?” Lisa asked.
She nodded, “I do, and so does Captain Gearing.”
“They’re looking for something I had my XO hide.” he said, ‘We were going to transfer it to the USS Hood for shipment back to Starfleet Command. It’s about the size of your hand, a cube, gold and black, ornate circuit pattern made of some kind of advanced biopolymer that’s lasted thousands of years…”
Rhonda swore “and your XO was evaced on the Heinlein, with life threatening injuries.”
“You couldn’t do the glowy thing?”
“Ah didn’t realize ah could at the time-it’s a long story, and involves Q...Short version is they never removed that ability...they just had a telepath put a block in my head that made me think it was gone...and also left me vulnerable to any wandering P-1 level” She replied bitterly.
“You know, I like the fiction version better.” Lisa cracked, “Starfleet in the show didn’t do that kind of ignorant TRIBBLE-this is getting too real.” she shook her head.
“Fiction...is fiction because it has to make sense.” Gearing suggested.
“Right, reality doesn’t work that way.” Lisa sighed. “Okay, so we’re looking for the box from ‘Hellraiser’...great.”
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."
No one paid much attention to the Risan Crusier/hospital ship as the other ships in the flotilla prepared for battle. And on the Phlox, it’s crew was already busy receiving wounded from the Heinlien, the worst of the cases had priority from the Heinlein’s medical crew on the trip in-which meant there were a lot of lesser injuries that needed immediate care. So the MCDF la Thuc pulling close and transporting people over didn’t raise any red flags. The Moabites did have experience with Fek’ihri injuries after all..
Hangar bay 11, MSF Phlox
Seeing the Marines in full armor, even if some of it was still dripping paint on the deckplates made Tan feel a little better. But not much. She should be the one going into danger, not Jake. Well at least he had some damn good security-wait a minute..
One of them was going no-helmet in the bay, handling the offload of equipment and supervising the troops.
“WENDY??”
The senior NCO turned around, “Nola Tan…” she said, her eyes widening and breaking into a grin “Son of a TRIBBLE! What the hell are you doing here, I’d heard years back that after you got the boot for age, you ended up in some cushy job making money hand over fist!”
“I did. You have no idea how much Mister Evans pays his pilots...geez, I haven’t seen you since that medevac out of Xiao Loc?”
“Hospital time, then a tour overseeing the security detail at the Cold Butte yard.” Wendy said, “got promoted though.” she gestured at the ranked chevrons on her left arm. “Now I make almost as much as boot Loot...so this is your cushy civilian job…”
“Yeah well it’s about to get a lot un-cushy.” Tan replied. “Jake’s going in with you, partially as legal cover, the other reason is his sister is still on board. So since I don’t trust anyone else to get him in and out of there…”
“Well, I’ll have to defer to my civilian pilot....how many lads you need covering him?” Wendy asked, “I still owe you for the extraction.”
“Honestly?” she said, remembering incidents on Cold Butte and elsewhere. “For a civvie..he’s damn good. He’s the one that brought in Stebbins a couple years back-just because that TRIBBLE hurt my friends.”
Wendy inclined her head, “Okay, he’s a good manhunter. Has he got any time against Fekkies?”
Nola frowned. “No.” she said.
“I’ll put a squad of vets on bodyguard for him then.” Wendy stated, “you don’t mind if I tell ‘em to listen to YOU before they listen to HIM, do you?”
Tan bit her lip “no, though hopefully they’ll find her quick and can get him and any other civies out of there. The MSF docs will be staying though no matter what.”
“Well I know how they did in that Pentaxian mess..honestly having them nearby does take a bit of weight off my mind.” She looked around “so where is this boss of yours? I hope he’s at least wearing body armor.”
Just then one of the bay doors opened, and an armored figure stepped out. It was White, as in the improvised colors for the ‘security’ for the MSF medical team. It was close to three meters tall, had two smaller arms close in to the body, and moved nearly silently, accompanied by a figure two and a half meters tall, metallic grey, though not like borg-more like the chassis was painted that way.
“Is that one of the new Denali environment suits that I read about in Janes?” Wendy asked, her eyebrows raising. “Whoever’s piloting it is pretty good” She nodded in approval as the suit walked almost naturally, casually slinging what looked like a pulse phaser cannon off of a runabout that had been modified to be a ‘hand’ held weapon by the suit.
“Yeah, we build those-they’re technically not weapons” Tan replied. “The other is…” she paused, not quite knowing how to explain the ex-starfleet android, new body or not. Not to mention as far as she knew he hadn’t picked a name yet.
”This is just a tool. The weapon is in the way it’s used and who pilots it,” Jakes voice came from an external speaker. The chest piece opened as the armor locked itself to the loading pallet. Dressed in a black bodysuit Jake Evans nodded at the Sgt Major “you must be Sgt Major Dien. Captain Gaxnox told me you’d be in command of this platoon.” He gestured with the small arm, the bigger one not following since the chest compartment was open. “This is Ageaeon-one of my tech people.”
“Got a J-16 adapter jack in that thing so we can link you to the tac-net?" Wendy asked, nodding. “And do you have armor?” she asked the smaller cyborg looking being.
“Ma’am, I Am armor” Ageaeon replied-not sounding at all like the standard Soong-type voice to Tan’s relief. In fact he sounded more like that scottish actor in those old Spy movies Jake liked.
“Already prepped to link in, and I’ve got a full sensor suite in here as well that your folks can feed off of. And yes, “ Jake said pointing with one of the smaller arms at the phaser canon “it’s tuned down-big guns can be handy-but not if they blow holes that you don’t want blown in the side of things.”
She opened her palm, and a cover slid open, “Pop the chip in, and you’re on the net.” she said, “you’ll pick your own access password.”
Tan noticed that there shouldn’t be enough space for that in Wendy’s suit as Jake picked it up and inserted it. “Synchronizing-there. I see you’ve got two tacnets running?”
“We’re not totally trusting the feed from the Suharto is what they told me” she said diplomatically.
“Fair enough-besides two is one and one is none. If one goes down we’re still good.”
“Exactly, mister Evans.” Wendy noted.
He could see in the eyepiece a full list of the biosensors of the Platoon’s suits as well, including…oh damn he thought, seeing what there was left of of the Sgt Major..He sighed, and shook his head. mental note-invest more in biotech. You’d think in the 25th century they could rebuild that. Too bad Rhonda doesn’t have her powers...she’s fixed worse. He forced a smile on his face. “Alright, I'm ready whenever you are Sgt Major.”
”Battalion’s formed up, sir, you’re the boss.” her voice on the comm relay was almost as clear as being next to him.
He just nodded “let's get everyone loaded up. Tan, Coordinate with the Vancouver, and when Miska tells us go, get us there.”
SDF Vancouver
She was more annoyed than usual. “Any word from the Suharto yet?”
“No General”
Miska didn’t swear-she wasn’t that angry. Yet. But they were just giving them time to extend their defenses...or find the artifact. Hopefully Gearing had managed to either get it off the station, or hide it well.
should have dropped it into Cygnus X1 she groused under her breath. Or destroyed the entire station. It was too dangerous-but doing so would be an act of War-especially if it wasn’t there.
“DO we know what they’re looking for?”
“We do...Commander Katran was able to describe it. A cube eight centimeters on a side, made of black and-”
“Gold material. A Gate key.” Miska finished, “Does the Admiral know?”
“I don’t know if it’s been forwarded-”
“Does he or doesn’t he?” Miska pressed.
“He probably knows what it is ,but it’s doubtful he knows where it is.”
She closed her eyes, “And where is it?”
Intensive Care Ward 3, MCS Phlox
“..NO, I need to speak with someone in charge.” Katran Nerys was barely out of surgery and still stoned on anaesthetic-or at least should have been. The Bajoran’s eyes darted from doctor to doctor, “NOW. Prophets! You guys are dense!!”
“Easy Commander, we just finished putting your guts back together…”
“Look, just give me a line to Starfleet Command and dont record. This is important...it’s real-life fate of the galaxy stuff.”
The Gorn medic looked frustrated. “Starfleet won’t talk to us at the moment…”she said, her eyes gleaming “but. We are on the net with the SDF Vikrant. Colonel Travis used to be in Starfleet-”
“Melissa Travis? I know her, I was on the Nighthawk five years ago, Put me through!”
“Fine fine, if it will calm you down so you can heal..”
SDF Vikrant
”...gatekey, not sure how they expect to use it, but we were supposed to transfer it to the Hood in a few hours when the attack happened and all hell broke loose.”
“So where is it now?” Missy asked.
”I hid it in the Atrium, inside the false ceiling panel at the peak of the dome. That put it far enough away that a betazoid or lethean wouldn’t pick up the telepathic signal from it.” Katran explained, ”Then I erased the logs and falsified the data on the base computers-it was part of the Captain’s orders-conceal it from a normal class one search.”
Katran’s speech was slightly slurred, and Missy felt a spike of alarm. “Check to see who’s-”
“Colonel! The USS Suharto just started moving in!”
Nobody had been thinking. Not on the Phlox and not here...and Katran was still clearly drugged out of her mind.
“He was listening, god-dammit!!”
“How-?”
“Subspace relay, it’s through the same system as the tacnet the Suharto is supposed to be handling.” Missy snarled, “Means if he was running a rider looking for keywords, he got a transcript real-time of this conversation. STandard Starfleet CSOI, TRIBBLE!!”
She paused the signal with Katran and opened another, untraceable QT one to the Vancouver.
“General, we’re humped. Suharto knows what the target is and WHERE it is” she said, transmitting the data from the stations wounded XO on the Phlox. Looking at the tactical display Missy swore under her breath. Due to the fleet spreading out to encircle the station and it’s attackers until more reinforcements arrived. Now..they were the only ship that would be close to in range of the Suharto for over a minute.
”ублюдку! All ships, disengage Starfleet tac net, list USS Suharto as possible hostile!
"he's as dangerous as a ferret with a chainsaw."