Erratic Nerd Writings

Kanor stepped onto the bridge of the Enterprise, glancing around to see who all was there. Selorus was to Kanor's right, at his Science station, and Drei was to Kanor's far left, past the second turbolift, at the Communication's station. The light of the viewscreen outlined Jax's head at the Helm in sharp contrast; the dark brown Trill spots that ran up and down along the sides of his neck in partial shadow. A splash of snowy-white where Te'ara sat next to Jax at Navigation. The mess of Kaz's dark brown hair was facing Kanor over the back of the command chair; the five of them were the only ones on the Bridge, and with the exception of Drei, who was staring intently at his station as he spoke to someone, they were all looking at the viewscreen. Kanor reached his left hand out to place against the wall for support as he shifted his gaze there, as well. The psychic backlash in the shower had sapped his strength even more, but he was nothing if not stubborn.

The Enterprise was in motion, as a vast expanse of mistiness seemed to be streaming around the edges of the viewscreen's view. It almost looked like they were cruising through a thin cloud layer in some planet's night side. Kanor couldn't tell how fast they were going, but it really didn't seem to matter; the vista was unchanging. Te'ara spoke up from her station.

“Still unable to detect any sort of egress point in the Bender's hull.”

“Once we've completed our sweep of this side of the ring, we'll move on to the other hemisphere. There's got to be some sort of weakness; these sides of the sphere were formed from those tendril appendage things, right? So they have to have connection and separation points!”

Selorus' response to Kaz was damnably succinct.

“Our knowledge of the alien's technology and mechanical processes is juvenile, at best.”

Kaz must have heard the turbolift doors open and shut upon Kanor's arrival, as he seemed to swivel his chair around to look at Kanor with complete aplomb. As if he were in his element now more than any other.

“Out and about, are we? We're pretty damn busy at the moment, in case you didn't know.”

Kanor raised an eyebrow at him, his face wry.

“You think I came here for my health? I think I've...uncovered something significant to our current situation.”

Kaz's eyes dropped down to glance at a small readout screen embedded into the end of the extended armrests. A finger shifted to punch a button along the left side before he looked back up to Kanor.

“Think you can handle our weapons console? We're pretty short on hands at the moment; weapons are currently offline, but Skid will have them up and running shortly, and you can fill me in on this information in the meantime.”

Kanor grunted, surprised at the offer, at first. He wasn't part of their crew, technically, and Kaz was offering him the use of their weapons system in a combat situation. Then again, deducing he was capable of operating a starship's weapons system wasn't a stretch by any means, and he was along for the same ride they were. He nodded.

“I can do that.”

Kaz swiveled his chair ninety degrees, gesturing to the station just to the left of the viewscreen, along the same side of the Bridge as Drei at Communications and the Engineering consoles.

“Have a seat; and start talking.”

Kanor frowned as he made his way around the circular room, noting Drei looking up from his console with a bewildered scowl that eventually shifted in Kaz's direction. He took some joy in getting a jab at Drei for whatever reason; he didn't like the Communications officer. His body protested the continued movement, but Kanor ignored it; letting his right hand grasp the hand railing that separated the controls-laden edge of the bridge with the sunken down center only once. He couldn't let it show.

“Aboard the ship of the Benders, I inadvertently initiated a mind meld with the Bender that attacked me. It was...brief; I believe it also took the Bender by surprise as much as it did me.”

Kanor had reached the Tactical station, and gripped the back of the chair there, frowning down at the plush black upholstery. How could one simply sit, relaxed and “comfortable”, when affixing weapons to a target and tracking enemies? The notion was absurd. However, he would have to make do; it was not his ship. He lowered himself into the seat, trying to ignore the relief that went through him at not having to stand any more. These were unusual circumstance; they didn't count, he told himself. He looked at the console in front of him as he continued, familiarizing himself with the layout. Fortunately, the controls were fairly straightforward; better, they were customizable to specific user preferences.

“Based on the Bender's confusion during the contact, I think it was unable to control what was going on; something I attribute to Selorus' device interfering with the Bender's otherwise powerful telepathy. Touch-telepathy, of the Vulcan style, the Bender was not accustomed to enduring, and the device was unable to prevent.”

“I must ask what side effects you have been experiencing since the event, as there is a strong possibility of your having been compromised.”

Kanor looked back, meeting Selorus' intense stare from the opposite side of the Bridge. As much as he didn't trust the Romulan, he grudgingly approved of the question. He had wondered if the Bender had somehow managed to get some sort of grip into his mind himself.

“Disorientation and weariness; not uncommon after a meld, especially with inexperienced melders. I of course have no proof to display my unaffected loyalties other than the fact I have not attacked or disrupted individuals or systems aboard the Enterprise, despite now being a most opportune time.”

His gaze shifted to Kaz, who had clasped his hands in front of him. After a moment, he inclined his head in Kanor's direction.

“Please, continue.”

“I was, of course, exposed to thoughts and images clearly not my own. There are still many things about the experience I am...unsure how to interpret.”

Drei spoke up from the Communication's station rather snidely.

“I'm sure that went both ways, which means you just gave the bastards all kinds of information about us they would have never had otherwise.”

Kanor shrugged.

“I'm quite sure; what that was, and what they can do with it, exactly...who knows. Regardless, it can't be changed, now.”

Drei muttered to himself, but didn't go on. Kanor continued, deciding to ignore Drei's interruption.

“I am almost certain the Bender ship we're currently trapped inside of is an Ark.”

Selorus frowned.

“An Ark?”

“I believe the star of the Bender's home planet went supernova, however many years ago that might have been. But they knew it was going to happen; they prepared for it. They built this ship- this massive, gargantuan ship-to house their civilization.”

“Why not just build multiple, smaller ships? Surely that would have been more efficient, as well as increasing their odds in the face of disasters or accidents.”

Kanor inclined his head a bit at Kaz's suggestion.

“This is true; if we were going to save our civilizations from imminent destruction, I'm sure that's how we'd do it. But the Benders aren't like us. They're telepaths on a magnitude I don't think the galaxy as we've known it has encountered before. We've encountered no written language in dealing with them. No signs of a verbal language; the only communication we've been able to observe is the unconventional signal they sent to the pirate ship, and shortly following, the Enterprise.”

“They have no discernible audio or visual sensory organs as we know them.”

Kanor nodded at Selorus before looking to the Tactical console, rearranging the layout of controls to his specific sense of logic. He began taking note of the information the readouts gave him.

“Something that came through my connection with the Bender more strongly than everything else was the sudden feeling of loneliness. It's speculative, of course; but I believe the Benders as a society have a sort of Hive-mind. They're in constant contact with each other. Not in the same fashion as, say, the Borg; there was no unifying voice that commanded them all. Just...a constant, communal interaction, that my unexpected meld interfered with.”

“Living that way, constantly in contact with everyone; it'd become so much a part of their very fabric of existence, that building separate ships to house their civilization, if it occurred to them at all, would be horrifying.” Kaz said.

“That's my guess, yes. I don't think their ship started off as big as it has become, either, it simply became that large over the multitude of years. I'm not sure, though.”

Kanor looked back at the rest of the Bridge again; he greatly disliked having his back to them all, he was discovering, for all kinds of reasons. Selorus was frowning, glancing down at his console as his fingers tapped in commands; doing who knows what. Kaz's brow was furrowed in concentration.

“The planet we visited, the site of the experimental tests by the Zaranites, was clearly connected to the Benders in some fashion. It seems highly unlikely such a location would have been the homeworld of the Benders; more likely, a colony. This seems to disprove the theory of such a deeply unified and interwoven societal structure, however.”

Selorus was still studying his screen as he spoke; possibly looking at all of the data they had on the Benders?

“There are several unknown variables that could explain the existence of that world as a colony, or even their homeworld itself. A splinter group, the range of their telepathy, the unexplained fashion their physical bodies seem to not always be there, the constant state of flux that makes sensor readings unreliable, the exact nature of their technology. There's just too much we don't know.”

“We've finished our sweep of the first hemisphere; still no signs of an egress or structural weak point.” Te'ara said.

Kanor shifted his gaze to look back to the viewscreen, where nothing had changed. The Enterprise flew through a misty haze of darkness that seemed to have no end, the reflection of their own running lights in the air's moisture and particle matter the only visual indicator they were moving at all.

Kaz's jaw was clenched.

“Continue on to the other half. Status of weapons?”

Kanor's eyes swept over the readouts Tactical was providing him. He was surprised at the Enterprise's arsenal of weapons; photon torpedoes and phaser arrays. That was it. No phaser cannons, no disruptors, no quantum or plasma torpedoes. They seemed to be more modern photon torpedoes and phaser arrays than the original line of the Federation's Constitution class ships-even the refits-had been equipped with, but nothing more. He filed that rather curious information aside and focused on the status readouts, direct from Engineering.

“Uh...phaser banks will be online and charged in five minutes. Torpedoes unconfirmed.”

“You're telling me we're trapped in a species' racial ark.”

Kanor looked away from the screen again to meet Kaz's gaze in the center chair. He saw Te'ara look up from her controls, her blue antennae flexing and curling forward slightly. There were a short set of steps breaking the railing that circled the Bridge, providing access to the lowered portion of the deck, just to the right of Tactical. The connected Navigation and Helm stations were elevated in that railed off area; Navigation being closest to Tactical. He had to look past her to look at Kaz; the expression on her face was inscrutable.

“I believe so, yes.”

Kaz was silent for a few more moments, the beeping and whirs of the Bridge, along with Drei's hushed conversations at Communications, the only sounds. His eyes were staring at the viewscreen, but Kanor could tell the Metron was looking well beyond it.

“In firing upon their ship, the Bender ship, I will be firing, for all intent and purposes, on a colossal escape pod.”

“Why are they so obsessed with us, then? What exactly have they been after all this time? They've got tech we can't even begin to comprehend, a ship that seems almost too big to make any sense, and bodies we can't even see fully. What could they possibly want from us?”

Kanor's eyes shifted to the left to look at Jax, sitting at the Helm, to the right of Te'ara. He hadn't had much of a chance to get to know the Trill so far, but it had always been clear he was an energetic youth that missed very little. The man's spiky black hair seemed to be a carefully constructed erratic hair follicle arrangement that was never quite out of place, and Kanor had always wondered just how much time he took to ensure his look conveyed a tousled, carefree air. He was supposed to be the best pilot the Enterprise, or the Independent Fleet, had ever seen (at least, according to Skid).

“Again, the nature of my meld with the Bender was hardly conclusive. However, I would speculate while the Benders may have knowledge of things beyond our grasp, it doesn't mean they are equal in all avenues of progress to us. The primary focus of the data I retrieved from the pirates was on terraforming.”

“They want to make a new home.”

Kanor nodded at Te'ara, his eyebrows rising matter-of-factly.

“Yes.”

Selorus had looked up from his Science station, a hand moving to grip the edge of the console as he looked to Kaz.

“They have passed up multiple opportunities to attack and disable or destroy the Enterprise and her crew. If we take their simple desire to acquire the terraforming technology as true, it would explain their actions consistently.”

Drei pulled the earpiece from his ear and lowered it, frowning across the Bridge at the Romulan.

“They certainly didn't pass up the opportunity to possess Tonad and Ilara; and isn't our Chief Medical officer in some sort of coma because of their 'friendliness'?”

Selorus seemed unperturbed by Drei's venomous attitude; Kanor wondered if the Science officer was accustomed to it.

“Doctor O'Neil's condition is not necessarily due to the involvement of the Benders. We do not know the identity of the individual that interacted with her. Furthermore, despite...invading the minds of Ensigns Tonad and Ilara, the Benders did not respond in a hostile manner until their invasion was detected. I would postulate they were observing us. If Skid's extrapolation of events is accurate, Ilara and Tonad were both taken over immediately upon our arrival. In which case, again, I would point out they had several opportunities to attack us and did not.”

“Yeah, probably because they were trying to learn how to operate our bodies to kill us all!”

Kanor interrupted Selorus and Drei.

“While I agree with Drei that this time lapse could simply be attributed to the Benders unfamiliarity with our physical forms, I also agree with Selorus. The Benders have, as of yet, done nothing to kill or seriously harm anyone aboard the Enterprise; all of their aggressive actions have been, in some fashion, a form of self-defense. Whether over a matter of their personal safety, or the safety of their ship and home; they have never taken overtly aggressive actions against us, though they have certainly had multiple opportunities to. In fact, we have inflicted more harm upon them by far; I killed one of their kind.”

Kaz took a deep breath, exhaled, then lowered his hands to the arms of his command chair.

“An act you committed in self-defense as well; however, I would agree that, from the Bender's perspective, we have been the more violent ones.” He shook his head partially, the line of his mouth firm. “Are phasers online?”

Kanor, having gotten caught up in the discussion, checked his board.

“They are.”

“Helm, alter course. Bring us back within range of the inner ring.”

“Aye, sir.”

Selorus' eyebrow arched up with surprise.

“Sir, we've barely surveyed this hemisphere of the Bender's vessel; there could be a weakness in their...”

“I highly doubt we'll find one, Selorus. And on the off chance we did, I doubt we'd be able to exploit it to our advantage. Tell me, is there a large concentration of information in the data collected by the Zaranites detailing...Federation society, political and military information, biological necessities...?”

Selorus paused for a moment before answering, mentally reviewing.

“Not a large concentration; but there are bits of all of that scattered throughout, yes.”

“I want you to create a copy; all of the files concerning the science of the terraforming project we have in our possession, excluding names, locations, and anything pertaining to biological needs or weaknesses, et cetera. Anything that could possibly give them a tactical advantage, while still retaining the essence of the terraforming breakthroughs achieved by the Zaranites. And make it fast.”

“Affirmative.” Selorus' eyes and fingers began darting across his control console.

*****

Shields were at half, with full strength “just 'round the corner”, according to Skid, when Selorus announced he had finally prepared the copy Kaz had requested. While more and more crew were being outfitted with the Bender telepathy-blocking devices, they still hadn't been able to make contact with the Independent ships. Kanor found himself grudgingly appreciating the Tactical station's chair, though he again dismissed it as purely circumstantial. He still wasn't feeling robust with vigor.

“Create hard copies and beam them aboard the Bender ship; try to get them in the same area we originally beamed aboard their vessel.”

Selorus arched his brow as he looked at Kaz over his console, but the Metron commander didn't seem to pay him any mind. Drei decided to speak up from Communications.

“We're just GIVING it to them?!”

The monotone of the HAL unit spoke up along with Drei.

“Kaz, why are you trying to help the hostile aliens? Is this not counter intuitive to our safety?”

Kaz shot a glance over at the Communications station, a look passing between the two Metrons Kanor couldn't quite make sense of, though it did not look loving by any means. Kaz seemed to direct his response generally overhead; to the HAL unit.

“They have the Enterprise held captive; from everything we've been able to determine, they could have easily destroyed us using multiple methods, and yet they didn't. If all they're wanting is a way to save their entire culture from extinction...I can't blame them for their actions. More importantly, we're not going to be the ones who attempt to keep that salvation from them.”

“Hard copies transported over, sir.”

“Thank you, Selorus.”

Kaz's hands lifted up in front of him as he rested his elbows on the armrests of his chair, his fingertips pressing against each other as he looked at the viewscreen. The misty expanse of darkness, illuminated solely by the Enterprise's running lights, went unchanging for several minutes. Kanor saw Jax and Te'ara sharing a few perplexed glances, Te'ara's antennae undulating, flaring up towards the back of her skull.

“Detecting multiple surges of energy throughout the Bender's ship; they seem to be originating from the inner ring and radiating out to all points.”

Kanor looked back to the viewscreen as the brightness coming from it changed, playing across Jax, Te'ara, and Kaz's faces. Eerie waves of multicolored lights flashed continuously on the viewscreen, corroborating Selorus' sensors. He felt the hair along his flesh pucker and rise as the scale of what they were witnessing bore down on his brain. The waves of light kept pulsing all around them, starting at the edges of the viewscreen in shifting, roiling hues, and moving inward, becoming less and less distinct as they made their way along the interior hull of the Bender's vessel, fading into obscurity. It was one thing to understand your giant starship, capable of carrying and housing hundreds of individuals, was trapped in a vessel so large, it was comparable to an individual insect on a planet. It was another thing entirely to have that visually put into context; the sheer scale was difficult to assimilate. The beeping, humming sounds of the Bridge seemed a horribly lacking soundtrack to the rather beautiful cornucopia of haunting colors that were going on outside the Enterprise.

“Wow...” Jax murmured in breathless awe.

A higher-pitched incessant beeping came from Selorus' console.

“Sir, the Bender's ship is...opening; input from normal space pouring in.”

Kaz pushed aside the thigh restraints of his chair and got to his feet, the excitement of the moment getting to him.

“Jax, get us the hell out of here!”

“Incoming transmission, Independent-coded.” Drei said.

“On screen, left corner.”

A window appeared in the top left of the viewscreen, where Kanor saw an image of a young human uniformed male appear aboard the bridge of a starship. Light brown hair clung tightly to his tanned skull in a short military-style buzz.

“This is Captain Somers of the I.S.S. Courageous; what is your status, Enterprise?”

Kanor heard a derisive Jax snort from his position at the helm, even as the Enterprise surged into motion. Jax's muttering was under his breath to himself, but Kanor could hear him.

“Somers...fucking prick...”

“This is Kaz. Enterprise is quite well, Somers, thank you for asking. We're on our way out of the Bender ship, and do not require assistance. I repeat, we are not under attack, and do not require assistance; break off hostilities against the Bender vessel.” Kaz, reaching back to clasp his hands together at the small of his back, made some sort of gesture Kanor couldn't entirely see. A red X appeared in the window where Somers' face was.

“Give me a quick tac breakdown of the situation, Kanor.”

Kanor, slightly startled at being targeted to provide input, quickly tapped commands into his console and looked at the readouts.

“Five starships; a Federation Defiant-class, Federation Akira-class, two Klingon B'rel-class Birds-of-Prey, and a Romulan interceptor. They all have their shields raised and weapons armed. The Bender ship is continuing to open into the formation we originally encountered.”

Again with the hand gesture to Drei, and the X disappeared from Somers' window. The captain of the other vessel hadn't paused while Kanor related the information to Kaz, but Kanor was only now paying attention to the drone of his voice.

“...which is clearly a declaration of war upon the entire Fleet. Seeking to rescue you, and protect our sovereignty, Admiral Stapes himself authorized me to use whatever force necessary against this...monstrosity.”

Kaz smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes. Kanor didn't believe Kaz had been listening to the man, either, but he seemed to play it off that he had.

“Of course, Somers; that's to be expected from you. However, as I stated, Enterprise did not come under attack. We were merely...consulting with the Benders. I'm afraid your actions could very easily be construed as an act of war against THEM. However, fortunately for all of us, they seem to have simply shrugged off your attack as a simple misunderstanding. Continued hostilities would make their gracious tolerance and patience wear thin, though.”

Kanor glanced down at the tactical readouts, where he saw the five Independent ships rallying around the Defiant-class vessel, which appeared to be the Courageous. When he looked back to the viewscreen, Somers seemed to be bristling with indignation. The man stood up on his bridge, his lips pursed tightly, and gestured off to the distance with one hand, the other held by his side in a fist.

“I am not going to stand down when a hostile force has...”

Kaz interrupted him, his jaw set firmly as he squared his shoulders.

“Then I'm afraid we're going to have a problem, Somers. I hereby ORDER you to STAND. DOWN.”

Somers' eyes narrowed, his lifted arm falling back to his side.

“My orders come directly from the Admiral himself. We destroy that vessel.” His head turned aside to talk to someone out of view. “Signal the rest of the fleet; resume attack on the...”

Kaz made a noise in his throat as he glanced back at Drei.

“Get that shit off of my viewscreen, and get me Stapes on subspace, immediately. Any reaction from the Benders?”

Selorus spoke up from the Science station.

“Negative, sir. Though the residuals of that energy surge are still present, even after we've cleared what was their internal space.”

“Combat status?”

Realizing this was directed at him, Kanor looked at his instrumentation for the most up-to-date information.

“Shields and phasers ready to go at full power. Skid reports a forward torpedo bay will still be ten to fifteen minutes.”

Jax spoke up from the helm as he brought the Enterprise around to face the Bender's ship, where the five Independent starships were starting their newest attack run.

“More than half of the crew is still locked up in their quarters, sir. We're not exactly in a great state for combat.”

“Combat doesn't wait for people to be ready, Jax. Even when it's our supposed allies.”