Erratic Nerd Writings

The holographic field showed up as a revolving blur of light upon the inside of the visor.  The interface he had thrown together simply wasn’t sophisticated enough to interpret the holographic display properly.  He had hoped, given that Selorus would have the display field in operation, he could use the device to mask his arrival in the lab from the creature.  However, the pain that started in his skull as soon as he arrived seemed to indicate the alien knew he was there already, most likely detecting his mind.  It had been worth a try, at least.  As it was, Kanor was blinded by the incomprehensible blur; so he stepped through the field and into the Lab proper itself.

There were Tholians all around, yet…they clearly did not blend in with the rest of what his impromptu device was showing him.  Unlike the spectra-graphic overlay devices Munson had equipped his teams with and Kanor had utilized earlier in the corridor, the deprivation visor wasn’t trying to overlay perceived reality with actual reality to create some amalgam his brain had to process.  Instead, it was presenting him an obviously artificial representation of the actual reality; bluish in tint, blatantly digitalized.  Meanwhile, the telepathic projections of the Bender seemed hyper-realistic in comparison. 

Kanor had guesstimated the Bender’s illusions weren’t all-encompassing visions, but specific points of illusion blended in to the actual reality.  They weren’t creating the Enterprise’s main science lab filled with Tholians, they were simply creating Tholians.  Still a remarkable feat-especially as they seemed tailored to each individual’s fears-but susceptible to a stark contrast, as his deprivation device was providing.  It didn’t block out the illusions the Bender was forcing his mind to believe was there, but it sure made it easier for his brain to identify them as “different than the rest of this picture”.  Since Kanor had no idea how to block their telepathy outright, he was going to have to operate off of this.

The Tholians shuffled all around him, some darting in to swipe at him with their crystalline legs, even; but Kanor, while tensing up, was able to prevent himself from outright flinching or reacting directly to the illusions.  Instead, his artificial gaze focused on the digitalized figure standing over by the door, slightly crouched over.  A stab of sharper pain flared up in his skull for a brief moment, as the creature realized Kanor wasn’t being deterred.  An eyeless face stared at him, some…impression of a fang-lined mouth opening wide, and Kanor heard-in his head, not through his ears-a spine-tingling screech that made the hairs all over his body stand up on end. 

Most bizarre of all, the digitalized vision of the creature still showed no clear body, no solid outline.  A nebulous cloud of…shadow seemed to be constantly shifting and swirling around the Bender’s form; the only portion that seemed solid, the face that was all mouth.  It couldn’t be some illusion; some changing of its body to strike fear in him, as he had first suspected from his encounter on the planet.  The Bender, seemingly, was literally not all physically here.  It came at him, rushing forward unexpectedly with that uncanny speed.  Unlike down on the surface of the planet, they were in close quarters in the Science lab, and Kanor knew this time how fast these things could move.  He was prepared.

He shifted his body as something akin to an arm coalesced on his left, already swinging towards him, and barely managed to dodge the talons that raked through empty air.  At the same time, he swung his right arm, holding his Mek’leth, at the Bender’s left side (or at least where he estimated it to be), hoping to catch it off-guard.  Instead, another arm coalesced quickly, intercepting Kanor’s strike and seeming to shift it away from its body with brute force.  The first arm had disappeared not long after Kanor had dodged it, and yet another arm (or was it the same?) was coming at his face in a downward swing, talons outstretched.  He shifted his head, the passage of the limb through the air catching at some of his hair, yanking some of it out.  He stabbed his left hand, holding his D’k tagh, forward; even as he avoided the blow to his face and shifted the Mek’leth in his right hand to fend off any blows. 

Kanor jumped back from the Bender as multiple lines of pain raked the underside of his left forearm, cutting through his suit and flesh alike, drawing blood.  That tail! The Bender’s eyeless face stared sightlessly at him, and Kanor felt the thing scrutinizing him as they circled slowly, their split-second exchange offering insights already to the two combatants.

Kanor was agile, and it seemed like he could keep up with the creature’s speed in striking, at least for now.  But the Bender’s attacks were quite literally coming out of shadows mere moments before they would connect.  He had forgotten the tail he had seen down on the planet, forgotten to account for it.  Did they only have the two arms?  What if it had more, or more than one tail, even?  Could he even launch an offensive attack without it being able to foretell his every move?  What’s worse, the thing had parried his blow aside with its bare arm, seemingly unaffected.  Could his weapons even pierce its exoskeleton?

He didn’t have enough time to contemplate anything else, because the Bender was coming back for more.  Again, a quick flurry of phantom strikes; again, split-second dodging, deflecting, and seemingly ineffectual strikes with his Mek’leth and D’k tagh.  He managed to avoid getting swiped at by that tail again, though when he twisted his torso out of the way, he could tell he hadn’t moved as fast as he should have.  Marcie’s warning flashed through his mind quickly.  “Your body is STILL going to be like it is…”  He wasn’t feeling the pain, and he FELT great, but his body was NOT in his normal peak condition.  The realization he couldn’t keep this up sunk in through his thick skull as the two assailants broke apart from each other a second time.

“Cypher!”

She replied in his ear.

“Yes, Kanor?” 

He hoped this thing couldn’t understand what he was saying; couldn’t predict what he was going to do with its head-meddling.

“I need you to take control of me.  Randomize my placement.  I need an advantage over this thing.”

He felt himself bodysliding.

He reappeared on the far side of the room from the Bender, and he shifted his grip on his weapons as the creature let loose another inaudible screech that seemed to resound within his skull.  He had never done this before, let Cypher have control of the bodysliding process to this extent.  It put him on edge, though there was no one else he could trust quite like Cypher. 

He bodyslided again, this time reappearing far to the creature’s left.  The Bender whirled to face him, releasing another screech as it started forward towards him, and another stab of pain jammed into Kanor’s skull.  Cypher should place him behind it; maybe he could get in some form of crippling strike.  The creature abruptly whirled around a full one hundred eighty degrees, and Kanor noted the Tholian projections on his visor seeming to fade away as the bodyslide process took him again.

He reappeared in close to the Bender’s right side, the door to the Lab not far behind him.  The thing’s two arms and tail, all solid, all formed out of that seemingly constant shroud of shadows that hid its body, were swiping through the air where Kanor had thought Cypher should place him.  It WAS reading his mind!  Even as he realized this, even as its limbs were cutting through the air like scythes, Kanor watched the Bender’s head whirl to look at him, its jagged maw seeming to flex and snarl its agitation.  He drove his right arm out, keeping a firm grip on the Mek’leth, aiming for the closest part of the Bender, the back of its right arm.  Perhaps the exoskeleton wasn’t as strong from this angle?  He cursed at himself for not having acted faster, as soon as he had finished teleporting.   Only, he was teleporting for a fourth time…

He was falling.  Cypher had teleported him directly above the Bender, as high up as the ceiling would allow.  The Lab was not multiple decks high, but it was taller in height than the average quarters and corridors to allow for more visibility of the myriad screens, readouts, and holoprojections.  Instinctively, his fingers deftly shifted his grip on his weapons; it was this, or nothing, he had to make this count.  His feet slammed into solid bulk; Kanor, his blood singing a glorious song of battle as he opened his mouth in an inarticulate yell, drove his blades down onto the only potential weak spot he could discern in the thing beneath him.

Dizzying nausea slammed into Kanor as an explosive scream shattered the inside of his skull, and hot, viscous ichor gushed outwards from the Bender’s head.  It drenched his hands, sprayed out all over Kanor’s front, and he felt the world beneath his feet lurch, stagger, and sway.  His legs tried to grip around anything they could, trying to keep him on top of this thing until he was sure he had done what he needed to do.  Sections of his visor’s graphic displayed seemed to be blotting out, presumably the sensors feeding them blinded.  The length of his Mek’leth seemed wedged into the Bender’s head, so Kanor yanked his much shorter D’k tagh up only to blindly strike down again with as much force as he could muster.  He felt a crunch as the exoskeleton on the creature’s head crumbled in, his left hand driving the dagger-like blade into what lay beneath it again.

Fire lanced across his back, drawing a scream from Kanor’s mouth as the Bender toppled beneath him.  Kanor tried to keep his place, ride the thing down to the deck, but something slammed into him hard enough to knock him away from the creature.  He landed awkwardly on his side, careening onto a workstation and rolling along its length, breaking and knocking aside all manner of equipment on its surface.  The visor over his head flew off at some point, and he blinked, disoriented, as he sailed off the end of the workstation and fell onto the floor with a jarring thud that robbed the breath from two of his three lungs.

A gasping, wheezing, shuddering breath passed his lips; the Lab, visible by his actual eyes, now, swimming in his vision.  He weakly lifted his head, trying to focus in on the Bender back from where he had come.  He saw a twitching, spasming mass of shiny, ebony darkness on the floor, one of its arms flailing limply for a moment in the air before falling beside the ruin he had made of its head.  An eerie, yellow-hued light seemed to flare out from the Bender, and then it was gone.  Kanor’s head fell back onto the deck, his chest heaving to suck in air.

                                                                           *****

“Sir, I insist I should…”

“The illusions are gone, and sensors show Kanor’s lifesigns are the only ones present in the Lab.  Out of my way, Munson; that’s an order.”

Kanor pushed himself up into a sitting position as he heard Kaz’s voice come from where the doors to the Lab had hissed open moments before.  He had regained his breath in the few minutes he had simply lain on the floor of the Lab, thinking over the fight, trying to assess the way his body felt.  Whether it was some form of death throe or some last ditch mental assault of some kind, the Bender had done quite a number on his head when he had stabbed its cranium.  Even now, his temples throbbed and his stomach churned, though the effects of that mental scream were diminishing.  Remembering the fiery slash that had grazed his back before he had been knocked off, Kanor reached behind him, his fingers finding a warm, sticky wetness within a gash of jumpsuit material and flesh.  The contact elicited only a momentary stinging sensation. 

“You look like shit, Kanor.”

Kanor, having turned his head to look back at the hand he had touched the wound with, trying to discern how much he was bleeding, turned towards Kaz’s voice.  Marcie pushed past a contingent of security officers, led by Munson, who were behind Kaz, and quickly came over to kneel beside him.  Her brow was furrowed deeply as she ran her tricorder over him.

“Well, next time I rip open a Bender’s skull to prevent it from doing something, I’ll try to remember to ask it not to spew shit all over me.”

Kaz looked around the Lab as Munson and his security team fanned out, their phaser rifles held at the ready.  Kanor waved his left hand in the air dismissively.

“It was transported out or something; gone, either way.   I think I killed it.”

Marcie mumbled vehemently behind him as she pulled something from her med-kit, then Kanor felt a light tingling on his back; presumably, she was tending to his back wound.  Kaz crouched down across from him.

“What happened?”

Kanor did his best to relay the events of the fight, glossing over Cypher’s involvement and the teleporting.

“…I managed to surprise it, stabbed the only place I hadn’t tried yet and could get to, and managed to deal it a few mortal blows.”

“Well it left you a nice gash on your back in return!  You’re lucky this didn’t cut deep, if it had struck any deeper…”

Kanor glanced over his shoulder at Marcie, but turned his face back to Kaz.

“I’m fairly certain they only have two arms, and can confirm they have a wickedly barbed tail, which I think is what got me.”  He paused for a moment, thinking back.  “At one point, I could feel it actively reading my mind, trying to predict my next move.  When it did, the illusions it was creating faded away.”

Kaz arched an eyebrow at him.

“Yet you managed to ‘surprise’ it?”

Kanor shrugged.

“Its head had an exoskeleton as well, though it didn’t seem as thick there as on the rest of its body.  Whether by conscious effort or some reflexive pain reaction, it…mentally attacked me when I stabbed it, almost overwhelming so.  Disorientation, nausea, sharp head pains.”

“That could have been due to your Vulcan touch-telepathy heightening the experience.”

Kanor hadn’t thought of that, and his brow crinkled as he looked back at Marcie.

“I had my gloves on, though.  I mean…I wasn’t actually in skin-to-carapace contact with it or anything…”

Marcie shrugged as she finished taking care of the wound on his back.

“As powerful as their telepathy seems to be, it could be fabric separation like that doesn’t matter.”

“Could you determine what it was doing here?”

Kanor looked back at Kaz, then shook his head.

“When I arrived, it seemed to be leaving.  I didn’t see…”

“Sir?”

Kaz turned to look behind him, where Munson was crouched down on the outskirts of the epicenter of ichor that drenched the floor.  He was holding up a long, sparkling oblong object between a swath of cloth.

Kanor’s eyebrows rose as Marcie piped up behind him.

“That looks like the crystalline sample I took down on the planet!”

Kaz, Kanor, and Marcie all got to their feet as Munson brought it over, holding the item out for them to hunch over in his palm.  Marcie redirected her tricorder to go over the object.

“It’s not the same one, at least I don’t think so, but it’s definitely similar.  It doesn’t seem to be fluctuating nearly as much as the other one.”

“It doesn’t make any sense they’d bring the one we took on the planet back aboard our ship.  I’d say either the Bender was carrying a different one on it, for whatever reason; maybe a tool they use or something.  Or it was on Enterprise already, and that’s what it came here for.”

Kaz pulled out his communicator as Kanor finished.

“Kaz to Bridge; any change?”

“Negative, sir.  Engines, weapons, and shields, all still offline.  Still no response from our hails, and Tonad reports no telepathic response, either.  Selorus confirms; the Bender ship has completely enveloped us.”

Kaz scowled at Jax’s response.

“Selorus, what’s the status of Drei’s data?”

“I believe Drei was correct in his identifying of the telepathic manner the Benders seemed to be…broadcasting in.  I am in the process of…”

“You’ve got fifteen more minutes.  Kaz out.  Kaz to Skid.”

A loud metallic clang echoed from the depths of Kaz’s communicator, followed by a loud hissing sound, and the voice of an extremely agitated and brilliantly cursing Skid in the background.

“…of all the bloody fookin bastard sons of a poxy bitch whore!  You two! Ya buggerin twits, reseal that!”  The sounds warbled for a few seconds, as if the opposite end was being jostled, then Skid’s voice came through louder.  “Bit busy at the moment, darlin, make it snappy!”

“Any progress in getting Her out of those things securing Her?”

“That’s a swollen fookin negative!  Can’t even figger out how the damn things are doing what they’re doing, let alone circumvent it!”

Kaz’s jaw seemed to clench, his teeth briefly flashing in his frustration.

“You’ve got fifteen minutes to get Engineering back into some semblance of working order, then I want you down in transporter room one.”

“WHAT!?”

“Bring the appropriate gear.  Kaz out.”

Kaz shut the communicator with a flick of his wrist, whereupon Munson, his face frowning, jumped in.

“Sir, again, I STRONGLY…”

Kaz turned a withering gaze upon Munson that silenced the young man instantly.

“Your protestations, as I stated before, have been noted, Mister Munson.  I am, however, still leading the Away Team.”

Kanor’s eyebrow arched in disbelief.

“You’re having the Enterprise’s commanding officer AND her second in command board the Bender’s ship?  In a crisis situation?”

Kaz frowned darkly at Kanor’s statement, but instead looked past him at Marcie, who had just scraped a sample of the ichor from Kanor’s tunic.

“Is he fit for duty?”

“Well…”

“I feel fine; barely even noticed that scratch, and Marcie patched that up for me quite nicely.  Just need to clean this shit off of me.”

He shot Marcie a meaningful glance; watched her face screw up in anger, her lips compressing to a thin line.  She was furious at him for continuing to push himself.

“Might I add I’m also the most experienced person aboard this ship in dealing with these guys?  And since that’s in extremely short supply…”

Marcie slammed the sample container into her med-kit, her response terse.

“Apparently Kanor is also the most experienced when it comes to his own health.  So yes.  Whatever shit was in that thing’s head that got all over him doesn’t seem to have done any contaminating, though he SHOULD remain in quarantined isolation until we can make sure.”

Kaz’s frown deepened as he look back at Kanor, a critiquing look entering his eyes as his gaze swept over him.

“We’re all screwed already if there’s some sort of biohazard.  We’ll deal with it later.  Be in transporter room one in…twelve minutes.  You too, Marcie.  Munson, get that thing to Selorus, then prepare for crew to be confined to their quarters.”

Munson’s face was incredulous.

“Who?!”

“Everyone.”

                                                                           *****

“I do not think you should be joining them in this operation.  You are not aware of how the drug you injected will affect your system.  As Marcie stated, you also could have been exposed to something from the Bender.”

Kanor, after quickly retrieving and cleaning his weapons and the deprivation visor that had been tossed around in the Lab, had taken the nearest turbolift back to his quarters.  He had contacted Munson during the ride to ask him to stop by the transporter room before they left so he could explain to him the visor he had used and how to make more, as well.  Now, he had only a handful of minutes to get a fresh jumpsuit, grab some other gear for the new situation aboard the Bender ship, and get the crap out of his hair and off of his face.

“I understand that, Cypher.  But they need me, and I can’t just sit around on this ship not doing anything.”  He was stripping out of his suit and gear as he talked, heading into the lavatory and activating the water shower as he left a trail behind him.  “We have no idea how that Bender ship is laid out, I can’t bodyslide over there.  And since Kaz seems to be about to put the crew in lockdown over here, this is my only chance.”

“I did not understand that.  Why would he confine the entire crew to their quarters in a situation like this?”

Kanor mulled that over as he tried to get the Bender’s ichor off of him.  He knew the Bender could have potentially infected him with something they had never encountered, but was relying on the advancements of biological screening and testing technology aboard the Enterprise, specifically geared to detect, alert, and neutralize when possible.  They were a lot better than what he was used to anyways.  And with the drug Marcie had given him only lasting a limited amount of time, he might as well make use of his “feeling fine” while he could, right?

“The only thing I could think of is to protect us from the Bender’s telepathy somehow.  With their powers of illusion as powerful as they’ve proven to be, we’re lucky they didn’t have us killing each other thinking we were killing them, or flying us into a star or something.  I just killed one of their kind, or at least severely injured it; I can’t imagine they’re going to be happy about that.”

“Robbing the ship of her crew at such a critical moment, to say nothing of the concurrent loss of her two highest ranking individuals, seems...unwise.”

“I can’t say I disagree with you, but…I’m going to have to assume he knows what he’s doing in regards to his crew and his ship.  It’s not like Enterprise is going anywhere anytime soon anyways.  Time?”

“0739.”

Kanor cursed; dunking his head under the water one last time to make sure he got the gunk off.  It still felt like it was all over him, though he could visibly see it was not.  He shut off the shower, hurriedly dried himself off, and darted into the closet to grab a clean jumpsuit.  As he was crossing through the lavatory back out to his quarters, he decided he’d better go ahead and relieve himself, too.  No knowing when that opportunity might present itself again.  He wasn’t particularly hungry, or sleepy, for that matter.  He could go days with little to no sleep and function well.  Still, he should tend to the needs of his body since he was blatantly ignoring them in so many other ways.

“Computer.” he called out.  The Enterprise’s computer chimed an acknowledgement as Kanor started pulling on his clothes and clean gear.  “Large cup of raktajino, sweet, iced, and one bok’schlk’ava, hot.”

He heard the replicator in the foyer hum with his food, even as he reattached all his gear in the appropriate places.  Cypher interrupted his hurried preparation.

“I have taken the liberty of backing-up my program, both aboard the Hunt, as well as your gauntlet.  I have also triple-encrypted and synchronized all files.”

Kanor was drawing his damp dark hair back into a queue behind his head, to ensure it was out of the way and secured.

“Excellent.  What about your link to the Enterprise’s computer while we’re over there?”

“It shouldn’t be a problem.  I can…”

“Terminate it for the time being.  We’re not sure how the Bender’s technology works; I’d rather not have an open avenue we can’t directly control they could potentially take advantage of and injure or corrupt you.”

Cypher sounded…a bit pleased, for some reason.

“Done.  While bodysliding to and on their vessel is not advisable, you should be able to leave and return to Enterprise or the Hunt if necessary.”

Kanor stopped to retrieve one last item, securing it along the center of his back before heading over to the replicator.

“Definitely as a last resort only, however.  Can’t be sure there wouldn’t be strange effects until we’ve gotten to study things over there firsthand.”

“What will you do if Selorus’ has not developed something to shield us from the Bender’s telepathy?  Even your visor was only marginally successful.”

Kanor hefted up the bok’schlk’ava, an easily portable Klingon cuisine choice typically favored for breakfasts he had programmed into the replicator, and took a large bite out of the hearty food while reaching for the steamy cup.

“The best we can.  It’s their lethality in close quarters and their speed to close the distance I’m more afraid of.  Munson’s security forces don’t seem too proficient in combat that doesn’t involve shooting.”

“The time is 0746.”

Kanor mumbled around a mouthful of food as the doors hissed open for him; cup in his left hand, food in his right.

“Late again, it would seem!”

                                                                           *****

He wasn’t the last one to get to the transporter room, however.  While Kaz, Marcie, Munson, and four security guards were busy checking their gear when Kanor arrived, Selorus and Skid seemed to be absent.

“Better late than never?”

Kanor looked at Munson, shrugging his shoulders at the security officer’s comment as he stepped over to the replicator and sat his empty cup down to dematerialize.

“Better prepared than not, more like it.  Looks like I’m not the last one, at least.”

Munson nodded.

“Selorus pulled in Skid and the Ullians to test out the devices before we headed over.  They’ll be here shortly.”  His eyes drifted to the blade protruding behind Kanor’s back.  “A bat’leth?  Didn’t think you used one of those.”

“When the situation calls for it.  It’s bulky and can be unwieldy, but it has reach and power I thought might come in handy.”

“I’ve tried to learn how to use one myself, but it’s not as easy as I thought it’d be.  Did you bring that visor thing?”

Kanor nodded, passing it over to Munson. 

“Unlike the spectra-graphic overlays, it works by making actual reality look blatantly different and easier to focus on than the illusions the Benders project into your mind.”

Munson looked it over, clearly grasping the concepts as Kanor briefly ran over the more technical aspects.  While they were discussing it, Kaz came over.

“Mister Kanor.  Skid and Selorus are on their way down with the Ullians now; they’ve got a device they think will work in shielding us from the Bender’s telepathy.”  He paused for a moment, scrutinizing Kanor for a moment.  Kanor saw Marcie over with the security officers watching them.  “Sure you’re up for this?”

Kanor felt fine.  He had brought along the hypospray that had the second dose of that drug Marcie had replicated for him, just in case; but as it was, the first dose showed no signs of wearing off.  He needed to see this through, needed to be part of the first expedition aboard this Bender ship.  Needed to make sure Marcie, Skid, and Kaz would be okay over there.

“I’m ready, sir.”

Kaz inclined his head in acknowledgement.

“Alright, then.  I’ve ordered the crew into isolation in their quarters while we’re away.”

Munson broke in.

“Respectfully, sir, I still feel like this is a bad idea…”

“Again, noted, Ensign.  The Benders have us where they want us.  They’ve hobbled my ship; they have the capability of hobbling the crew with illusions.  We have no idea what they want, and really don’t know much of anything about them.  That’s going to change, right now.  And the only way to do that is to go on the offensive.”

Kaz turned to address the entire room, his voice rising.

“We’re going over in two teams.  Skid, Kanor, Ilara, Dagoberto, Ulric, and Lars will be searching for a console or area Skid and Lars can dig into.  We need to understand how their tech works, see if we can free the Enterprise from those tethers.  Meanwhile, Selorus, Marcie, Tonad, Amanda, Rej, and I will be exploring their ship.  I want to know all we can about these assholes, foremost being what the hell they want with us.  Tonad and Ilara will be along to facilitate communications, if they’re actually listening.”

“And just what are we going to say if they are?  ‘Excuse us, but would you mind letting us go?’”

Kaz nodded at one of the security guards; a human female with blonde hair.

“For starters, Amanda, yes.  I don’t take kindly to being held hostage, but they could have easily manipulated us into killing ourselves several times over, and they haven’t.  I’m not willing to give up on a diplomatic solution to all of this, though recent events in the Main Science lab could have…complicated matters.”

Kanor frowned as Kaz glanced over at him.

“It came at me and I defended myself.  Believe me, it was NOT trying to make nice with those talons it had.”

“I’ve put the crew in lockdown and I’m activating the HAL unit while we’re gone.”

Munson fidgeted with agitation beside Kanor; his hands clenching each other, hard enough to make knuckles pop, as his lips compressed into a thin, hard line.

“HAL unit…?”

Kaz looked at Kanor directly.

“It’s a highly advanced artificial intelligence I’ve…procured and installed aboard the Enterprise.”

Kanor’s mind immediately went to the presence Cypher stated she had encountered heavily ensconced deep within the Enterprise.  He heard the doors open up behind him as he inquired further, trying to feign total ignorance.

“What for?”

“HAL will assume automatic control of the Enterprise.  As an artificial intelligence, he won’t be susceptible to the influence of the Benders.  Unfortunately, that’s more than can be said of the crew at the moment.  That’s our single greatest weakness; I can’t let the Benders continue to exploit it.”

Skid, having arrived with Selorus, a male and female Ullian, and a tall, giant of a human man, chimed in as she dropped a pack to the floor.

“I still say we should simply replicate enough of these doodillies for the entire crew; that damn machine is just as dangerous as the fookin Benders!”

Kaz looked at Selorus.

“How long to replicate enough devices to equip the entire crew with?”

“Approximately three hours.”

“Which is unacceptable.  HAL can operate and defend the ship, as he was designed to do, and do so immediately.”

Skid was clearly unhappy, but didn’t reply further.  She crouched down and began checking through the pack on the floor, along with the big human man, who had a similar pack.  Kanor assumed that must be Lars, the other engineer.  He was actually taller than Kanor, an impressive feat.

“Those things had better work, Selorus, we’ve got a lot riding on them.”

Selorus reached into a pack slung over his left shoulder and started passing around metallic inch-square pieces of equipment in pairs, responding to Kaz’s inquiry.

“Based off of the nature of the Bender’s telepathy Drei was able to isolate, along with the Ullian’s input, I believe it will sufficiently suppress the Bender’s telepathic influence over us.”

Kanor accepted the device Munson passed along to him, his eyes narrowing as he studied the tiny paired machines.  Selorus waited until everyone on the Away Team had theirs, and proceeded to demonstrate how to place them at their temples.  Kanor glanced at the Ullians, hesitant to place the devices on his head.

“Why aren’t you two wearing them?”

The male, Tonad, responded.

“They’ll interfere with our own telepathy.”

“Won’t that make you susceptible to the Bender’s, though?”

Ilara, the female Ullian, nodded.

“It’s possible, yes.  But Tonad and I believe if we are vigilant in maintaining our telepathic defenses, we will at least be able to keep ourselves from coming under their influence.”

Kanor grunted, eyeing the devices again.  His own “telepathic defenses” were a joke.  His mother had passed before she was able to teach him much, and Klingon society in general viewed telepathy as an aberration.  At least he’d be able to see with his own eyes with these things, he supposed.  Kaz was speaking to Munson, which Kanor could overhear, as he attached the things to his temples.

“Jax is technically in command while we’re gone, but in actuality, HAL will be pretty much running the show.  Selorus replicated devices for you, Jax, and Bennet; make sure all of you have them on and activated at all times.”

“What if it turns on us, Kaz?  We can’t fight with the entire ship against us.”

“You also can’t fight the entire crew by yourselves; HAL can.”

“How’re you feeling…?”

Kanor, having activated the anti-telepathy devices, tore his eyes away from Kaz and Munson as Marcie touched his arm.

“I’m…feeling great, really.”

Marcie’s expression showed her impatience and frustration with him rather blatantly.

“You shouldn’t be doing this; you’re on drugs, for goodness sakes, just to move!”

“I have to, Marcie.  You think I’d be any safer aboard Enterprise with this HAL thing Kaz is about to unleash?”

Marcie scowled.

“No…I just…”  She made some sort of noise in her throat.  “If that stuff does something to you when it wears off, or you’re hurt more than you are already…”

Kanor’s expression softened just a bit.

“Then I’ll be in for a world of hurt, and I’m well aware of that.  I’d rather go through that then sit in my quarters wondering what’s going on over there, wondering if I could have made a difference.”

“It could very well be one heck of a lot of hurt, what if…”

“It’s my choice, Marcie.”

Skid ambled over then, causing the two of them to stop and look at her.

“Erm…hey, sorry to intrude, but…kinda need to talk to the Hairy Knuckled guy…”

Marcie’s demeanor seemed to drop several degrees in temperature, but she nodded.

“Of course.  I should be heading over to my own team.  Be careful over there…both of you, please.”

Skid smiled softly, though it was…pained.

“Course, darlin.  I’ll try and babysit the ol mule, despite how stubborn he is.”

Marcie’s mouth twitched in a brief semblance of a smile as she turned to walk away, glancing first at Skid then Kanor before crossing the transporter room.  Skid sighed beside Kanor.

“That poor kid…she’s head over heels for you, bucko.”

Kanor frowned.

“We’re friends, not romantic partners.  She’s stated so herself numerous times.”

Skid gave Kanor a look that spoke volumes.

“That ridgeplate must be a lot thicker than I’ve always heard.  Do YOU want more than friendship with her?”

Kanor shrugged uncomfortably as his hands started checking over his gear.

“I’m only aboard the Enterprise until we finish this mission and I can collect my payment.  Romantic…involvements seem like they would be ill-conceived given that eventual outcome.  I care for Marcie as a friend, and I care for you as a friend and…companion, but something beyond that…?”

A strange expression he couldn’t identify crossed Skid’s face, but she nodded.

“Ye really need to tell her that, then, Youngblood.  As in as soon as we all get back.”  Skid glanced over where the other members of the two Away Teams were separating, everyone ready to transport to the Bender’s ship.  “Look, real quick; yer the only one with any real experience with these buggers.  Dagoberto and Ulric are good soldiers, but neither of them are leaders.  I’m in charge of our Team, but Lars and I are going to be preoccupied, hopefully, most of our time over there.  You’re going to need to take charge of them.”

Kanor nodded, his hands closing on his bat’leth as he freed it from his back holster, his mind pushing aside everything else going through it to focus on this mission.

“On it.”

She clapped him on the shoulder, then patted his backside covertly as she turned to walk over to where Ilara, Lars, Dagoberto, and Ulric waited to the left of the transporter chamber.  Kanor kept his face impassive, though a smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

“Alright, boyos, we’re Operation Find The Tech!  Now, Ai determined the ship is decentralized in its design…”

Kanor lingered behind, turning his head away and pretending to check something on his belt.

“Cypher?”

She replied in his ear, her voice tinged with the slightest bit of…excitement?

“My link to the Enterprise computers is severed, and I have ensured my cyber-defenses are on high alert.  I am quite anxious to witness this HAL unit in action.”

“Just be careful.  Ensure he won’t detect you, I get the impression he’s not exactly trustworthy or…tame.”

“Affirmative!”

Kanor joined the group on the left as Skid finished giving them a rundown of their purpose in boarding the Bender ship.  Nothing Kaz hadn’t already stated, really.  His purpose was to keep their Team alive and well, utilizing Dagoberto and Ulric.  That’s all he really needed to know.  Kaz, having finished his own rundown with his Team, spoke up again.

“Skid, your Team will be the first aboard, followed shortly by mine.  We’ll check in every fifteen minutes.  If something goes wrong with our communicators, we can communicate through Tonad and Ilara, though that’s a last resort.”  Kaz took a few steps over to the wall comm.

“Kaz to Jax.”

“Jax here.  The crew has all retreated to their quarters, sir, barring those there.”

“Excellent.  Activating the HAL unit, then disembarking.  She’s all yours, Jax; take care of Her for me.”

Kaz glanced over at Munson, who was standing by the transporter chief at the control console.

“Munson, you have five minutes to get down to your quarters.”

Munson nodded, and Kaz glanced over at Skid.

“That’s our cue, buckos!  Everyone up!”

Kanor stepped up onto the transporter pad, directing Dagoberto to position himself on the other side of Skid as Kanor took her right flank.  The Ullian, Ilara, was to Kanor’s right.

“Computer, this is Kaz.  Alpha alpha alpha two, nine thousand.”

The Enterprise’s computer made a series of beeps and chimes overhead, and Kanor heard Cypher in his ear before Kaz continued.

“Oh my.”

“Activate, HAL.”

A deep, monotonal male voice seemed to reverberate via the Enterprise’s audio system; deliberate, methodical, precise.

“Greetings, Kaz.  How are you doing today?”

“I’ve been better, HAL, we’ve all been.  How’re you?”

Kanor shot Skid an inquisitive glance to his left, but she scowled, her brow furrowed deeply as she gripped her phaser and shook her head at him.

“I am sorry to hear that, Kaz.  Everything is running smoothly for me.  You know, it has been a long time since I have been let out.”

“I know, HAL.  You’re that important; we have to ensure no one can possibly catch us unaware and harm you.”

“I appreciate that, Kaz.  If you allowed me access to all of the Enterprise’s systems and command pathways, I could ensure that would never happen.”

“I’m sure you could, HAL, but then we wouldn’t have anything to do, now would we?”

Kanor was flabbergasted by this rather lackadaisical exchange between Kaz and the ominous-sounding machine he had no doubt in his mind had no concept of “being sorry” other than as an automatic response to something unpleasant.  The nature of HAL’s programming and existence piqued his interest a great deal, but flew in the face of the urgency of the situation.

“…I’m sure we could, HAL, but none of us have the desire to play at the moment.  HAL, you’ve accessed the sensor logs, you’re aware of our current situation?”

“Affirmative, Kaz.  It is most unfortunate.”

“I’ve confined the crew to their quarters, Bennet to transporter room one, and twelve of us are about to leave the ship.  When I leave, HAL, you’re to give Munson…six minutes to get to his quarters, then you’re to take automatic control of the ship.”

“I would like that very much, Kaz.  I am happy you are giving me access to the command pathwa…”

“No, HAL, just the automatic controls of Enterprise’s operations.  Your primary purpose while I’m away is to protect the Enterprise and crew from the Benders, and to get the Enterprise free of the constraints holding Her if possible.  As long as it doesn’t go against protecting the Enterprise and crew.  Understood?”

“Of course, Kaz.”

“You are to physically seal off all decks and critical areas of the ship, as well as transporter room one, once you take control.  Then, verify there are no crewmembers present outside of their quarters before sealing those as well.  If any Benders board the Enterprise, utilize the environmental controls to subdue them by any means possible, as long as it does not endanger your primary purpose while I’m away.”

“Affirmative, Kaz.  Query: would it not be simpler if I rendered the crew unconscious while you are away?”

“No, HAL, it wouldn’t.  You are only to do so as a last resort to protect the crew, when all other avenues of protecting them have failed.”  Kaz turned his head to look at Kanor.  “Is your ship sealed, anyone or thing aboard biological in nature?”

Kanor frowned, shaking his head.

“It is; and no, other than foodstuffs.”

Kaz nodded.

“I also want you to flood cargo bay three with a biological toxin, HAL, verifying before doing so that the bay and sections surrounding it are perfectly sealed.  Also, ensure power remains active for transporter room one, short of it endangering your primary purpose while I’m away, and ensure communications between all Away Team members and Enterprise remains open.”

“Very well, Kaz.  Is there anything else?”

Kaz’s brow furrowed, trying to make sure he had covered all his bases.  With HAL, you could never be too sure.

“What is your primary purpose while I’m away?”

“To protect the Enterprise and crew from the Benders, as well as freeing the Enterprise of the Bender constraints, providing it does not violate my protectorate.  This would be much more successful if I had access to the Enterprise’s command…”

“Maybe at a later date, HAL, but not right now.  Mister Bennet?”

The man standing next to Munson stood up a bit straighter.

“Energize.”