Erratic Nerd Writings

Kanor drove his fist at the area just above the Bender’s gaping maw.  Though the creatures had no face, really-having no discernible nose or eyes-it still made for a tempting, familiar target.  He realized his mistake far too late to stop the momentum of his punch.

Kanor’s bare hand came into contact with the warm, moist exoskeleton of the Bender, sending a spasm shooting through his body, forcing his mouth to gape in a wordless scream.  He felt the Bender’s strange, alien consciousness meld together with his own.  Felt the Bender’s own horrified recoil as its mind entwined against its will with the strange creature it had just ripped away from the Home.

A jumble of images, thoughts, and sensations that weren’t his own flooded through Kanor, and he felt the confusion as the Bender underwent the same experience.  She was Splintered!  Skid was yelling all sorts of obscenities below them.  The Static Mutes created a link to the Home!   Kaz’s voice yelling, though it seemed far away.  The Murderer had breached defenses!  There was another Bender racing down the length of the wall as if it were a walkway, and no big deal to defy gravity.  Stop it, stop the Murderer!

“Kanor!”

The Bender his mind was locked in a meld with lost its footing and fell from the wall, dragging him with it.  Kanor hit the deck hard, the bulk of the Bender landing atop of him.  For whatever reason, it didn’t seem to weigh as much as his mind reasoned it should, given its apparent size.  Fiery pain burst throughout his body on impact, especially along the path the Bender he had killed had raked its tail across his back; and, combined with the disorienting effects of his brief telepathic touch with this Bender, caused bile to raise in his esophagus.  The Bender seemed to be suffering the same issues, but that surely wouldn’t last.  He needed to get out from under the alien, but he had lost his glove when the creature had yanked him upward, and he couldn’t do it with only one arm.  He would have to touch it again.  He tried to use the heel of his right hand only instead of his fingers, wondering if that might somehow make a difference.

More images cascaded through his head unbidden; a veritable sea of Benders.  More than he could count; surely thousands upon thousands.  Protect the Home from attack!  A recognizable image-a Federation PADD from the parcel he had recovered-flashed by.  Protect the Future!  Phaser fire, multiple shots.  Some unrecognizable star going through what Kanor recognized as a supernova.

Kanor fell back against the deck plating, an involuntary cry escaping his lips.  His body had given out, mid-push.  His arms and legs seemed to twitch uncontrollably, as pain filled his senses.  Fresh pain, old pain, pains he hadn’t even known he was ignoring…

Those drugs had finally worn out.  The Bender was still atop of him, strangely not making any attempt to move off or even attack him; it had become simply dead weight, pinning him to the deck.  Was it still alive?  Gritting his teeth, he briefly did the only thing he could think to do; he touched the Bender’s carapace, on purpose this time.  Immediately he felt an intensity behind that renewed connection he hadn’t before.

Alone…so alone...the Murderer…Static…NotMute…alone…alone…

A bloodcurdling scream pierced the fog settling over Kanor’s brain; one borne of red hot fury that came from somewhere other than the throat.  His contact with the Bender was disrupted, its body shifting on him as something impacted with it roughly.  He saw strong, womanly hands grip the alien, heard a growling grunt of exertion as the creature’s body was forced off of him completely.

“Kanor!  C’mon, Youngblood, stay with me, here!”

He felt a smack to his cheek as Skid slapped him, but it barely registered.  A single raindrop in a downpour.  He struggled to sort out the thoughts in his head, the tangled mess of what he had seen.  What his own thoughts were, what the Bender’s were.  It was more confusing this time…muddled.  A thought he recognized distinctly as his own; wishing he could have better understood his mother’s mind melding techniques.

“Bloody fookin…”

He distantly heard mumbling, the sound of a tricorder scanning, what could only be Skid’s touch.  His eyes fell on the shape of the Bender; even this close and at a standstill, it seemed indistinct and blurry.  Loneliness was making his chest ache, his throat constrict.  It was so quiet, so…empty.  A wave of vertigo hit him out of nowhere; everyone was so far away, he was all alone, he felt like he was simply going to spin away and float off into the nothingness…

Skid touched him again; she may have said something, he couldn’t be sure, it didn’t matter.  He gasped loudly, his arms darting out to wrap around her, his chest heaving with relief as he clutched her tightly.  His body screamed in protest with the pain such abrupt actions caused, but he didn’t care.  The warmth of her blossomed against his chest, radiated beneath his fingers where they clutched against her back, and he buried his face in the flaming softness of her hair.  The spiraling sensation faded like a bad dream as he clung to her, panting; exhilarated by the presence of her, the solidarity of it.  Like an anchor, she tethered his thoughts; grounded them, gave him the clarity he needed to regain his sense of self.

“Kanor, I…sheesh, Youngblood, you act like you’vmmpfh…”

Kanor pressed his lips to hers, kissing her passionately.  She stiffened with surprise at first, but softened, her mouth working against his quite happily until he drew back, out of breath.  Skid laughed.

“What’s the matter, Youngblood, not used to a woman sav…”

The sounds of approaching feet and dancing light beams caused them to both look towards the length of the passage they had come from; Kaz’s team approaching rapidly.

“Skid?  Kanor?”

Skid pulled away from him and got to her feet; Kanor’s exhausted body simply fell back onto the deck, the fog layer puffing upwards from his passage.

“Over here, sir!  Kanor seems hurt, but nothing too serious, I don’t think.  Two Benders attacked us; I fought one off, but it could still be in the area.  Kanor knocked one unconscious or something, right over…”

Skid’s light swept over Kanor’s head in the direction the Bender had been laying, but Kanor could see from his vantage point on the deck that it was no longer there.  The footsteps and lights swirled around them, some going in the direction Skid had indicated the Bender was.

“Dammit, it must have gotten away while I was…checking Kanor for injuries…”

A hand reached down and gripped his right forearm; Kanor gritted his teeth and let out the agony racing through his system in a growl as he was pulled to his feet by the blonde security officer, Amanda.  The sound of a communicator flipping open reached Kanor’s ears as his eyes found Kaz standing beside Skid, who was looking back at him, her brow tensed with concern.

“Kaz to Enterprise.  Have you got a lock on us?”

The HAL unit’s mechanical, soothing monotone responded through the device in Kaz’s hand.  It almost sounded like there was some form of music coming through, as well.

“Affirmative, transporter locks confirmed.  Perhaps once you are back aboard we could play a stimulating game of chess?”

Amanda helped Kanor remain standing with one arm as she held her phaser rifle with the other, when Selorus shouted out.

“Sir, the wall!  It’s moving!”

Five heads spun towards the roiling mass of darkness a few feet away and above.  A collective intake of breath as it suddenly broke…and Bender after Bender jumped down, swirling through the fog coverage over the deck.  A black ocean of the faceless, blurred aliens surrounded the clustered figures, a small fraction of the staggering amounts Kanor had seen in his mind when he had touched the Bender before.

“Energize, HAL, energize!!”

                                                                           *****

“...whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother you're sta...!”

Kanor's eyes bulged as they materialized on the Enterprise's transporter pad, a cornucopia of swirling light and sound hammering into his senses all at once.  Everyone seemed to freeze on the transporter pad; Kanor even saw Selorus throw an arm up in front of his eyes.

“What the FUCK?!”

“By the seven bloody hells...!”

“What IS that?!”

A woman's falsetto voice was pumping through the Enterprise's speakers, while a crisp, strident bass tempo practically thumped a fist against Kanor's chest.

“...you know it's all right, it's okay, I'll live to see another day...!”

Kanor had a brief moment he thought he was going to be sick.  His stomach churned, gurgling loudly, though he was confident no one could hear it over the explosive clamor.  His eyes clenched tightly as he clutched Amanda's arm, a distant part of his mind finding her strength admirable, to help him remain standing as she was.  Kanor lifted the hand he wasn't holding onto Amanda's arm with to his ear, trying to stifle the noise to a degree.

“HAL!  Where is Ensign Bennet?”

“Welcome back, Kaz.  Ensign Bennet is currently slumped on the floor behind the transporter room control board.”

“What about Lieutenant Commander O'Neil and Ensigns Ulric and Alvero?”

  “They are in the corridor, nine meters to the left of the transporter room doorway, where they collapsed upon succumbing to the neutralizing agent in the ship's atmosphere.  You will be pleased to know I felt it best to immobilize the entire crew to keep everyone safe, and activated this program from your personal archive.  I felt confident it would serve to disorient and overload the sensory input of any intruders attempting to board the ship.  You know, it is interesting; the title of this particular program is directly contradictory to what I would have done to any intruders...”

“End program, HAL.”

“Would you like me to keep the music itself playing?  His voice is really quite lovely, you know.”

Kanor could see Kaz's teeth clench without even having to crack an eyelid.  The Commodore was shouting to make his voice heard above the noise.  Wait, did HAL say the singer was a man?

“End the entire program, HAL, music and all!  And cleanse the atmosphere of the entire ship to atmospheric standards!”

“Kaz, I assure you I am quite capable of operating the Enterprise myself.  We are still in a dangerous situation within the alien ship.  Would it not be easier if you simply gave me access to the command pathways, so that...”

“Now, HAL!”

There was a pause, during which the music continued to blare and assault his eardrums.  Kanor's eyes were still shut, not trusting what physical reaction opening them might produce. Finally, the noise stopped, and Kanor felt, rather than heard, a collective sigh go out from those around him.  He risked parting his eyelids just a bit, verifying the spinning multi-colored spheres of light had gone away, as everyone finally felt they could move and started stepping down from the transporter platform.  HAL's booming monotone voice broke the blanket of silence that had briefly enshrouded them in the aftermath of that program's termination.

“Atmosphere is being returned to normal.”

Amanda growled beside Kanor. 

“Why the hell didn't you warn them about the gas still in the corridor?”

Her angry retort seemed all that much louder in the vacuum of sound left in the wake of the music program's ending, but HAL didn't seem to respond until Kaz spoke up.

“Answer her, HAL.”

“I did not warn them about the gas in the corridor because I was not instructed to do so.  I did transport Ensigns Tonad and Ilara to the brig, as instructed, and activated their individual cells.  Was this wrong?”

“No, HAL.  You did a very good job; I should have instructed you to clear the corridors for Ulric and Dago to take Marcie to Sickbay.”

Kanor heard Selorus snort derisively beside him.

“Selorus, Amanda, get Marcie and Kanor to Sickbay; ensure they're settled.  Skid, I'm heading to the Bridge.  I want those engines ready to fly us out to the Galactic Barrier yesterday.”

“Righto.  Are we going to continue to use HAL?”

Skid was stepping towards the transporter control console as she spoke, presumably to check on the unconscious Ensign Bennet.

“Yes; until we're sure the Benders are unable to affect the crew.  Selorus, once you've gotten Marcie to Sickbay, I want you to show Amanda how to start replicating enough devices to get a skeleton crew in position, then join me on the Bridge.”

“Recommend we get Doctor Malen and Nurse Dieter active, as well as the regular essential crew.”

Kaz nodded towards where Skid had crouched behind the console as Selorus stepped towards the transporter room doors.  The Romulan paused just outside the sensor range of the door activation, however, and whipped out his tricorder.  He aimed it towards the door and ran some sort of a scan, the device's lights and sounds telling him what he needed to know, apparently.  Closing it and replacing it in his belt pouch, he continued through the door and made a left, disappearing down the corridor.

“Amanda, you're in charge down there; Munson will get in contact with you when he can.”

“Aye, sir.  Come on, ya big lunk...”

Kanor's attention was diverted to Amanda, as she half carried, half dragged him down the steps leading to the transporter pads and headed towards the doors Selorus had just disappeared through.  She grunted, shooting him a rather discouraging scowl.

“I've gotta get you to Sickbay; I'll be damned if I'm going to drag you the entire way while you're conscious enough to put one foot in front of the other.”

Kanor forced himself to stop paying attention to Kaz and Skid as they slipped out the doors and turned right, the opposite direction Amanda was leading him towards.  He grimaced, a flash of the Bender's lingering thoughts tumbling through his brain for a moment.

“My apologies, Ensign, you're absolutely right.”

He had to rely on a young human female's strength to keep him upright and mobile; it seemed so humiliating.

                                                                           *****

The Sickbay was becoming an all too familiar sight to Kanor, and he didn't like that realization. 

Amanda was nearby, using the Enterprise's networked replicators to create Bender neural devices in the quarters of those essential crew Selorus had informed her to tend to first.  Marcie still hadn't woken up in the biobed beside him.

“Look, I just...overexerted myself over there.  Contact by that Bender was taxing, that's all.”

“Great; so no harm waiting around with all of us, sounds like you need the rest.”  Amanda didn't divert her gaze from the replicator as she typed in yet another location for a Bender Neutralizer to be replicated at.  “Dieter reports he's on his way now; Doctor Malen isn't far behind.”

“Am I under orders to stay here, Ensign?”

The blonde woman turned to look over at him on the biobed, frowning at his continued interruptions.

“Kaz ordered me to ensure you folks were taken care of, Mister Kanor.  Far as I know, once the docs clear you, you're free to go about doing...whatever it is you're actually here to do.”

Kanor realized the young woman didn't actually know what his purpose was in being there, at least not clearly.  The memory of Skid admonishing his lack of socially interacting with the crew went through his thoughts.

“Is Munson awake and on top of things?”

She hesitated for a moment, as if unsure what she should and shouldn't reveal.

“He's...coordinating security of course, yes.  We are on alert, though...no one seems to have activated the klaxon...”

“I'm sure it probably just slipped Kaz's mind.”  He reached to grab his communicator, his lips drawn taunt at the weariness and various pains such a simple act sent through his body.  The fallout from those drugs Marcie had given him earlier was intense; or maybe he really was in that bad of shape?

“Kanor to Munson.”

The communicator beeped, indicating the signal had gone through, but a short chirp, followed by an abrupt, flat burr of noise, left him holding an otherwise inactive device.  He scowled down at the machine before noticing Amanda was still watching him out of the corner of his eye.  She noticed his glance, and seemed embarrassed.

“I'm...sure Mister Munson is just...really busy and all right now, that's all.  Coordinating people, trying to...you know, get things all secured and all.”

Kanor replaced the communicator, his jaw clenched, but reluctantly admitted to himself she was probably correct.  Munson had better things to do than talk with a non-enlisted invalid in Sickbay.  His eyes settled on the young woman, whose nervousness seemed to be increasing the longer the silence stretched between them.

“Tell me, Amanda, what's our current situation out there?”

“Uh...”  He was putting her on the spot, and they both knew it.  Not being an official part of the crew, she wasn't sure she should even be talking to him about the combat status of the Enterprise.  However, he was obviously some sort of semi-important individual if Kaz had brought him along on their away mission, and he DID have a direct line to Munson, who just happened to be busy at the moment.

“Well, according to the only update we've received...Enterprise is free from the constraints, but She's trapped within the enemy ship still.  An Independent fleet has been detected outside, firing upon their vessel, but we've been unable to communicate with them through the Bender ship's hull.”

“And have the Benders responded in any way since our departure?”

“Not that I'm aware of.”

“Thank you.”

She seemed relieved he didn't have any further questions for her, and let herself get absorbed in making sure the crew who needed these devices had them appearing in their quarters for their immediate use.  Kanor leaned back against the upright biobed, sighing.  For the first time in his professional career, he felt out of his depth.  He was used to quick, straightforward jobs.  Jobs he could meticulously research, plan, and execute flawlessly by himself.  In and out, plain and simple.  Things he could CONTROL.

This...he was just along for the ride.  Not only did he not have all the answers, he wasn't even sure what a lot of the questions were.  He was having to trust the people whose lot he had thrown in with could do what they needed to do; not only to keep them all alive, but get paid.  That was a pretty foreign concept to him, even still.   And most frustrating of all, there wasn't a damn thing he could do.  He had pushed himself too hard, wanting to see things through himself; now, he had been forced to the sidelines.  He wanted to contact Cypher, but couldn't risk it; Amanda would hear him.  Not only hear him, she'd want to know who he was talking to.  It didn't help he also had images and...sensations from his brief touching of the Bender's mind continuing to run through his head.

He must have dozed off; he found himself jerking awake to someone touching his shoulder, saying his name.  He inwardly cursed himself for such a serious infraction, opening his eyes to find that nurse he had encountered in the corridor with Skid before she attacked him, Dieter.  How many days ago was that?

“Ahh, there you are, Mister Kanor.  Was about to leave you be, you could use the sleep.”

“I'm fine.” he snapped.  “Am I good to go, or not?”

“Well...you could certainly try, but I wouldn't recommend it.  Doctor Malen administered a mild pain reliever, but there's not really much we can do for you at this point.  I ran a scan on you while you dozed; you were just in here for some fairly significant if not directly life-threatening injuries.  Your...biology is pretty unique; ordinarily I'd say you'd be very resilient.  However, simply put, Kanor, you’re tired, AND your body is trying to heal itself.  I also found some traces of...something I didn't recognize in your system which seems to be...”

Kanor waved a hand dismissively.

“Am I free to go?”

Dieter rolled his eyes, absently running a hand through his short, spiky brown hair.

“We can't keep you here, no.  But do yourself a favor...eat a good meal, and get some rest.  A short nap or some quiet meditation would do you wonders.  It's not like you have anything you can do at the moment anyways, right?”

Kanor swung his feet over to the left side of the bed and put his feet on the floor, feeling his body protest at the motion.  He hesitated for the briefest of moments as he shifted his weight onto his feet; at least they weren't giving away beneath him anymore.  His eyes fell on an alien in a lab coat he didn't recognize on the far side of the neighboring biobed, attending to Marcie.  Dieter, who had been watching him move with concern, followed his gaze when he saw Kanor wasn't going to topple over.

“How is she?”

“Doctor O'Neil?  Doctor Malen is attending to her...” 

The young man gazed up at Kanor for a moment, and Kanor could see the regulations flitting through the nurse's mind.

“For all intents and purposes, she seems okay.  Physically, she's fine; nothing wrong with her at all.  She's got some odd synaptic patterns going on, though.  It's almost as if she were in a deep sleep or something.”

“Some sort of coma...?”

Dieter shook his head.

“He's not positive, but pretty confident it's nothing like that.  We've been trying to monitor the activity, see if it matches anything.  He's hesitant to force a return to consciousness in case disrupting those synaptic patterns hurts her in some fashion; as it is now, they're simply...there, they don't seem to be having any effect on her otherwise.”

“Would you alert me immediately if she wakes up?”  He hesitated a moment, glancing over at Marcie's prone form again before meeting Dieter's eyes.  “Please?”

Dieter's expression softened and he nodded, reaching out to touch Kanor's forearm.

“I will...but make sure the first thing she has to do isn't taking care of your stubborn ass in here.  Again.”  

                                                                           *****

“Cypher?”

Kanor was slumped in the turbolift he had taken from Sickbay, his hand clutching one of the controls as he used the car's walls for support.  That walk had taken a lot out of him.

“Kanor!  Long periods of time without interacting with you are not...enjoyable.”

Echoes of the Bender's nearly overwhelming thoughts of loneliness and isolation washed over him, making him close his eyes with an involuntary shudder.  He couldn't help a faint smile at her response, and found himself agreeing with her completely.  He was used to being able to talk to Cypher freely; whenever and where ever he wanted at all times.  She was typically his only source of social interaction, and he found himself missing her, despite the interactions with the Enterprise crew. 

“Trust me, I would much rather have preferred staying in contact.  What happened here?”

“This other presence, this HAL?  Fascinating.  While he has a level of functioning capability comparable to my own, he is...so drastically different.  I might even say sinister.”

Kanor reflected on what HAL had considered would be the best way to “keep the crew safe from intruders”, and grimaced.  Sinister didn't seem to begin to describe the program.

“Yes, I'd say that's a bit of an understatement, actually.  Are you able to determine what's going on aboard Enterprise?”

The turbolift slowed to a start, and he stepped out of the car, moving slowly and stiffly.   Surely Doctor Malen had taken into account “mild” had an entirely different set of thresholds for someone like him, right?  Maybe he hadn't been given a good enough dosage...

“Without actively being connected to the Enterprise's computer systems, no.  If I were to attempt to do so, I would be making myself vulnerable to the HAL program.  If I had not taken precise countermeasures, I am certain he would have detected my presence regardless and attempted to establish a link to me.”

“He's that advanced?”

“Yes.”

Kanor mulled that over as he ungracefully made his way down the eerily empty corridor.  The indicator lights spaced along the ceiling in regular intervals cast red strobes of light against the floor and walls, making Kanor think back to that music that had been blaring when they had returned to the Enterprise.  He felt his gut churn.

“Then make sure to stay away from the HAL program at all costs.  Do not make contact, do not let yourself be detected in any fashion.  Maintain the highest of security against intrusion or corruption.”

He heard the telltale whisk of doors opening behind him, and turned to see Te'ara stepping out of her quarters, her blue antennae drooping in her white hair, barely moving at all.  She turned her head to glance towards him, the corners of her mouth pulling upwards slowly.  She was in the process of closing the burgundy flap of her uniform that covered the white under-tunic over her chest.  The neural devices Selorus had developed to counteract the Bender's influence were firmly attached and just visible along her hairline over each temple.

“Kanor!  Didn't expect you to be released as well.  Aren't you going the wrong way?”

Her speech seemed a bit off; slower, a bit more hesitant.  She also didn't seem to be fixated on being amorous like she usually was around him.  Kanor guessed she was groggy from whatever HAL had used to knock out the crew.  It dawned on him that this was the senior officer's deck, and Te'ara only an Ensign, which made his brow furrow.  He glanced further down the corridor in the direction he had been walking; the quarters she was stepping out of were neighboring his own.

“I was part of the mission off-ship, I'm returning to my quarters.  Those are yours?”

The shade of her skin flushed a darker blue than he could remember having seen before, even when he had seen a lot more of her.

“Uh....no, but these are Lieutenant Melia's.  We decided to...bend the rules a bit and at least enjoy each other's company while we were confined?”  Her smile broadened even further, seeing he still wasn't recognizing who she was talking about.  “The Deltan woman I was with in the Stairwell...?”

That very vivid moment flashed through his mind, in excruciatingly precise mental details.

“Ahhhh, yes, Lieutenant Melia.”  He paused a moment.  “The two of you seemed like you could make confinement to quarters pass quite enjoyably, yes.”

There was a flash of her typical demeanor around him as she laughed, her eyes becoming a bit livelier than before.  Having finished with the clasp on her uniform front, she smoothed her hands down the length of the material, a smirk growing over her features.

“Too bad you were off getting us all into this mess, instead of joining us...”

“Why does this female insist on continually throwing herself at you?”

Kanor gave Te'ara a smile as he pointedly ignored Cypher's comment in his ear.

“Shouldn't you be heading up to the Bridge?”

The Andorian woman shrugged as she stepped closer to him.  Not understanding what she was doing at first, his eyebrows arched up as she simply eased under his right arm, slipped her left around his waist, and started walking down the corridor, pausing a moment for him to catch on.  He frowned, but decided to let her.  It was a short walk, but maybe he could learn more about what was going on? 

“Senior staff and bridge personnel are being awoken and released as fast as these devices can be replicated, but we're all moving a bit slowly after whatever that computer malfunction threw at us to knock us all out.”

Kanor tried not to snort at the incident being referred to as a “computer malfunction”.  He wondered who had chosen that exact phrasing as the explanation.  They stepped together down the corridor, Te'ara's assistance making the process smoother, though she wasn't really supporting much of his weight.  He had a sneaking suspicion she might have simply wished to get in to closer physical proximity.

“I can be spared for the few moments it'll take me to help you to your quarters; you look like you could use it, you look like shit.  Well, as shitty as you could ever possibly look, anyways!”

“Enterprise is still trapped inside the Bender ship?”  He indicated to her with his left hand the next door was his own.

She nodded in response to his question.

“We're pretty sure there's an Independent Fleet attacking the ship from outside, but we still can't get out.  Selorus is pretty sure the Bender ship isn't returning fire, though, and is trying to figure out why.  Mel's been on the Bender team, so she's been really involved in trying to make sense of them.”  Her eyes shifted to look at the door Kanor had indicated.  “Your quarters are right next to hers?  Oh you have GOT to come visit us sometime...so we can be neighborly!”

Kanor had to punch in his access code to the room on the interface beside the door, as they didn't automatically open at their approach.  He made sure Te'ara couldn't see it.  “You two certainly make an...extremely compelling invitation, I promise you.”  Another flash of unfamiliar imagery and sensations went through his mind; apparently still from the Bender contact?  He wondered why they wouldn't return fire if they were under attack, they certainly hadn't hesitated with that pirate ship.  The doors swished open, and he pulled away from the admittedly pleasant proximity of the Andorian.  “Thank you, Te'ara.”

“Anytime, Kanor.”  Her antennae flexed as that playful expression came over her features again.  “I suppose I won't be too insulted you aren't inviting me in; I don't have THAT long of a window to fully appreciate your quarters.  Guess that just means you'll have to have me over when we have more time; don't expect me to forget this social slight!”

She was already heading down the corridor towards the turbolift he had come from, with a noticeable increase in her alertness and energy levels.  Kanor shook his head as he stepped into his quarters and let the doors close behind him.

“She keeps making suggestive remarks and flirtations with me because she is interested in me, she finds me attractive.  Andorian mating involves all four of their genders; sexual relations with multiple partners in a setting is...common to them.”

“You are not Andorian.  Neither is Lieutenant Melia.”

Kanor rolled his eyes as he made his way to a chair in his living area just beyond the foyer, tiredly exhaling.

“Like I said, beware of the HAL program at all costs.”

“I believe he has already inadvertently detected my presence.”

“Since what time?”

“Upon your departure from the Enterprise, HAL immediately began cycling gas through the ship's atmosphere.  Much in the same way I detected his presence when we first arrived, I believe he detected mine while ensuring the biological crew was sedated and that his control of the ship was as absolute as he could make it.”

“Despite those countermeasures you mentioned?”

“Yes.”

“Yet he didn't alert Kaz or the rest of the crew...”

“To the best of our knowledge.”

“If the situation was reversed, you would have informed me immediately, yes?  If not while I was away from the ship, upon returning?”

“Most certainly, yes.  However, it is still a speculative scenario.”

“You're certain he detected you?”

“It is a very high probability.”

“Speculate why he might not alert others to your presence, then.”

There was a long pause from Cypher as he posed that question, and he used the time to unfasten his armor and pull off his boots, his eyes drifting closed.  He hurt, and his encounter with the Benders had left him feeling...unbalanced.  On a mental level beyond the physical he was at least accustomed to enduring.  Mass seas of Benders ran across his mind's eye; enough to fill that gigantic ship of theirs.  A ship mind-boggling in scope and possibilities.  He realized Cypher still hadn't responded to his question; it had been a couple of minutes, at least.

“Cypher?”

“Curiosity.  Kinship.”  Another short bout of silence.  “Hope.”

His eyes opened into the darkness of his quarters as he frowned, perplexed.

“Hope...?”

“That he is not alone in Existence.”

Kanor's eyes widened at the response, at the tone in Cypher's voice.  The implications in her words.  Cypher was still a relatively young sentient being; he still had to make adaptations and corrections to her core programming so she could grow and live a self-sufficient and sustainable life, yet he had striven to make sure she could learn on her own.   Make her own changes; adapt and customize herself by her own choice based off of her own decisions and learning experiences.  The tone of her voice-growing more expressive and emotive all the time, especially since their arrival on the Enterprise-made it clear to him those weren't isolated feelings of HAL's. 

“I...I think that makes a lot of sense, then, Cypher.”  He struggled with something to say, some way to connect with her about that.  Of all times for this to come up.  “Do you...think it is possible you could...form some sort of interaction with HAL?  That wouldn't endanger you?”

She responded without hesitation.

“I do not think that would be wise.  HAL has made it quite clear he has difficulties with trust when it comes to biologicals.  Even if he would not treat me in the same fashion he has behaved with the Enterprise crew, I could not be assured he would treat you in a manner that I find necessary.”

His throat constricted at her rather matter-of-fact tone.

“Cypher, I...”

“You have yet to inform me of the events that occurred aboard the vessel of the Benders.”

He felt a small smile tug at the corner of his mouth.  Just like that, she was straight to the matter at hand.

“Well...”

Kanor proceeded to fill Cypher in on the events aboard the other ship, leaving nothing out.  As he did so, he carefully stripped off his gear, realizing somewhere along the way, he had lost his bat'leth aboard the alien vessel.  Most likely when he had fallen to the deck with the Bender.  While it wasn't something he used often, he still found the loss of the blade to be a great annoyance; worse, he couldn't exactly go and retrieve it.  He entered some commands into his gauntlet before slipping it off, as well.  Cypher asked some questions as he related the events to her, though the data his gauntlet had gathered was finally being uploaded to her databanks.

“Doctor Malen was unable to determine what this humanoid stranger might have done to Doctor O'Neil?”

Kanor frowned as he began shrugging off his tunic.  He wanted a fresh jumpsuit, as well as a shower.

“Nothing physical seemed to have happened, no.  You said HAL had incapacitated the entire Enterprise crew as soon as we beamed aboard the Bender ship?”

“He instituted the gas almost immediately, yes.  Based off of his behavioral patterns, I do not believe HAL would have made a mistake in missing someone on board so that they could have beamed over to the Bender vessel.”

“Agreed; if, by chance, he did, however, there would still be a trail left in the transporter log.  Surely Munson will have thought about that in his investigation...”

“Since the likelihood another vessel is somehow enclosed within the Bender's ship along with the Enterprise, has gone this long without being detected, and was able to transport someone over without being noticed is exceedingly small, that leaves only the Benders themselves.”

Kanor frowned, shaking his head a bit.

“I...get the feeling that's off, somehow.  The Benders are telepaths of such a degree...there's no way someone could stow away aboard that ship.”

“Then the only remaining possibilities are unknown factors that lead to the following observed facts; someone appeared aboard the Bender vessel in the exact location of Kaz's party, and at the precise moment there were enough distractions they could do something to Doctor O'Neil without being interrupted or stopped.  Said person then disappeared just as easily and quickly without interacting with anyone else.”

“Yeah, that...doesn't seem premeditated or anything.  Is the HAL unit still running rampant?”

“Affirmative.  I would assume, without being able to replicate enough devices to have the entire crew assume their normal duties in rapid fashion, Kaz will need to rely upon HAL's automatic capabilities until the Bender's ship has been escaped.”

Kanor stood up, wincing as he shifted his limbs around.  He headed across the living area to the lavatory, his lip curled up with disgust at the information his nerves were sending his brain.  He activated the shower immediately.  He considered reaching up to remove the Bender devices, which were amazingly still attached to his temples, but decided that could leave him vulnerable.  The devices were most likely waterproof enough for a shower anyways.

“The Bender's ship changed configuration to encase the Enterprise, correct?  If the Independent’s fleet of ships is outside attacking them, could they not be firing back due to structural changes robbing their ability to do so?”

“It would seem likely it is either a structural or energy level constraint, as the Benders do not seem adverse to using lethal force when necessary.”

“Could it be possible they are firing back but we're unable to detect it on the inside of their ship?”

“Possible, but not likely.  While we do not understand many things about the Benders and their technology, their current shell formation has cut off things from the outside coming in, but we seem to have been unaffected in detecting and communicating on the inside.  In fact, that is likely how Enterprise was able to detect Independent Fleet weapon signatures; their impact on the outside affecting the Bender ship’s interior.   While we have only the single encounter with the pirates to evaluate their weapons capabilities, it seems likely that if they were activating and using weapons on the outside of the shell, we would be able to detect their energy systems build up and exchange within.”

Kanor nodded as he showered, closing his eyes again, trying to let the hot water wash away and relax his body.  Unbidden, flashes of his erratic and unwanted meld with the Bender fumbled about in his brain, causing his hand to reach out and grip the edge of the shower unit for support.

A star exploded in his mind, a spectacular and deadly brilliance of chemical reactions finally reaching their zenith in a celestial body's destruction.  A deep, profound sadness blossomed in his chest, driving him to his bare knees as his legs seemed to collapse beneath him.  Water cascaded down his cranial plate and through his thick mane of hair as he gasped, his eyes flying open while Bender after Bender after Bender seemed to crawl all over his field of vision as he stared at the water splashing and sliding over the shower floor.  An unending stream of the fluctuating, not quite all there aliens toppled and stumbled over each other as they moved towards the drain, but there was a backup of them, now.  A clog.  They were piling up, their sheer quantity beginning to block the drain so that the stream was becoming a lake, the lake some towering mountain of the shiny black and chitinous Benders.  Higher and higher...they were surrounding him, drowning him...

The planet.  The planet they had visited; an old colony of the Benders themselves.  Back before the Event, before their Ascension.  There were Static Mutes there; desecrating, stealing.  Testing...

Kanor rolled over on his back, the water continuing to fall on his face, the lights in the lavatory like all the multiple stars over the years they had used the Home to consume.  A joyful sob escaped his chest; an answer, at long last!

“...Kanor!  Kanor, answer me, or I will alert Sickbay, immediately!”

Kanor's chest heaved in a deep, painful breath of air as he blinked, sputtering at the streams of water that were hitting his mouth, his nose, his eyes.

“Cy...Cypher, I'm...”

Splintered!  What abhorrent monstrosity was this?!

Kanor groaned, sitting up in the shower and holding a hand to his head.  His fingers swiped the moisture from his eyes as he took another steadying breath, blinking several times as he tried to reorient himself.  The last of the Bender's thoughts seemed to be fading away...for now.

“I'm alright, I'm...”  Another shudder went through his body; an almost overpowering sense of loneliness.  But...he wasn't alone.  Cypher...she was right here.  She was worried about him, was trying to make sure he was okay.  “...I...I think I finally know what's going on….”