Friday, July 26, 2013
{{Otherwise known as the Chapter from Gre'Thor, or the Chapter that Fek'lhr ate. This Chapter was an absolute bitch to get through. Momentum ground to a halt, and I found myself struggling to flesh out everything I wanted to have happen. Transitioning from where things were heading to where they needed to go. I'm still not entirely satisfied with how it turned out, and more than any other Chapter, this one will probably be edited in the future, if not rewritten outright. That being said...there's a lot of confluence of plot threads here, which is why I think I lost some steam, as I was juggling a lot all at once. Everyone's patience was certainly appreciated, and hopefully after this bastard has been birthed, I can get back in my groove and finish this.}}
Kanor hated the Bender ship as soon
as the transporter process had completed.
The Bender ship was a cold, moist
environment, and a thin fog seemed to perpetually exist above the deck up to
Kanor’s knees. The lighting was dim even
to Kanor’s heightened sight, and didn’t really seem to come from any particular
source at all. Worst of all, the ship’s
interior seemed excessively open. Kanor
couldn’t see where the one wall stopped; other than the solid surface they were
standing on, which was obscured by fog, it seemed to simply be there. There were no other walls. He narrowed his eyes, trying to make out some
sort of ceiling as he glanced above, but couldn’t discern one. He turned his head to the left to glance at
Skid, scuffing a boot purposefully on the deck.
The sound was distorted, but seemed distinctly metallic. The deck itself was a little slick, but
seemed oddly textured in a way that made passage easy enough. To the best of his ability, he couldn’t
detect anything else in the vicinity.
“Ai said the interior seemed
cavernous; she wasn’t jokin. And I can’t
see worth a piss in here. Lights!”
Kanor scowled; he didn’t want to
have to rely on artificial lighting to see in a situation like this, and was
irritated it would draw attention to their position. It couldn’t be helped, however. He wasn’t sure about Ullian eyesight, but
everyone else in their group would be having difficulty if he was. He reached over to activate the light in his
gauntlet, but hesitated; with the rest of the Team’s lights turning on around
him, he could see just fine. He left his
off.
“Permission to do a quick recon of
the immediate area?”
Skid’s brow furrowed as she noted
his lack of active lighting, but she nodded at him; she had her tricorder
flipped open in her right hand, her phaser still held at the ready in her left.
“Everyone hold position while Kanor
takes a peek around, lights to each side along the path of the wall. Immediate only, Youngblood, make it fast.”
Kanor nodded, adjusting his grip on
the bat’leth as his left hand drifted down to unclasp the strap of his Varon-T
holster. Keeping the wall behind him, perpendicular
to his direction, Kanor moved forward, his eyes narrowed as he tried to pick
out any details in front of him or find an end to the area they were in. The place had a slightly musty scent that
made his nose crinkle in distaste.
He had gone about nine meters when
his foot stepped out onto nothing. His
sense of balance faltered, his arms flying out as he attempted to counter the
unexpected end of the surface beneath him.
He cursed, managing to recover and take a few steps back as he shifted
his gaze down. He stabbed the light
button on his left gauntlet and directed it down, where he could see the fog,
now, seeming to lazily disappear a few meters ahead. No guard rail or ledge to indicate the end of
the deck; it simply stopped. Hesitating
only a moment, he directed the light directly forward, sweeping it around a bit
before shining it up.
Nothing. No opposing wall, still no visible
ceiling. The fog seemed to continue out
a bit from the ledge, but the air beyond it seemed fuzzy. Just a slight haze that seemed to permeate
the air. His scowl deepened even further
as he switched the light back off and turned back to the group, who were still
standing in the circular pattern, their backs to each other, they had beamed in
with. He explored to the right and left
of the team as he came back, but couldn’t find anything significant beyond the
reach of their beams of light. Skid had
her back to him, pointing her phaser and the light affixed to her wrist up the
length of the wall.
“Well?”
“The deck ends about nine meters
that direction, no warning or protection.
I can’t even see a ceiling or opposite wall.” He followed her gaze, the sound of her active
tricorder slightly distorted in the moist air.
“It looks…weirdly organic.”
The wall was heavily textured;
long, prominent ridges and valleys randomly spread over the surface that created
multiple deep, dark shadows big enough for a person to disappear into. All kinds of unease screamed at Kanor as he
imagined them doing just that; hiding things.
“Yup. Pretty sure it’s metallic, but definitely not
like anything I’ve ever seen. Ilara, picking
anything up?”
Kanor glanced at the Ullian woman,
who was standing next to Skid. She had a
vacant, distant look in her eyes that was disturbing to behold; her eyes not
appearing to be focused on anything. Her
voice was soft and just as distant as her facial expression, which didn’t seem
to change.
“No…”
Skid seemed satisfied enough with
the response. She holstered her phaser,
and withdrew her communicator, shaking her head with an annoyed expression as
she flipped it open, her eyes not leaving her tricorder screen.
“Skid to Kaz. Go.”
Moments later, the space beside
their group along the wall shimmered with blue energy as Kaz’s team transported
over as well. Kaz stepped up to Skid
after glancing around, a look of displeasure on his face.
“Well, this is certainly
ridiculous.”
“No contact as of yet; Ilara
reports everything fine and dandy. Kanor
discovered the deck we’re on has a drop about nine meters away from this wall;
other than that, it just seems…open.
Tricorder readings are a pain in the ass, and it’s damn nipply in here.”
Kaz nodded, glancing over his
shoulder to indicate his team should activate their lights as he switched one
on upon his right wrist.
“It’s a wonder Ai was able to
determine this place was stable enough for us to transport into.”
Selorus, his tricorder already open
and scanning, spoke, though he didn’t look up.
“This area of their ship is the
closest point of their ring’s interior to the Enterprise; I believe that may
have something to do with it. While the
physical structure of the ship seems relatively stable, we have witnessed them
literally alter its geometry and dimensions.”
“And yet…it’s in a state of flux,
just like the structures we discovered on the planet, and the crystalline
samples?”
Selorus nodded at Kanor, turning as
he continued to scan.
“Indeed. Chemical composition, temperature, density,
even…even molecular structure seems to change; though outwardly, there does not
appear to be a physical difference.”
Lars interjected, his voice thickly
accented, though not difficult to understand.
“How is that even possible?”
Selorus shook his head, looking up
at Kaz, his eyebrow quirked upward.
“I do not know.”
Kanor was surprised to see Kaz only
seemed to have a clipboard and stylus in his hand; he saw a tricorder along his
belt, but no weapons. Kaz seemed to make
some sort of notation on his clipboard.
“Alright, then, everyone, let’s
stay about four meters out from the wall at all times, and remember there’s a
ledge in the other direction just waiting for you to fall off of. And need I remind everyone our insurance
doesn’t cover hazardous falls? I don’t
think so. My team will go that way,
Skid’s the opposite. Skid, I’ll expect a
check-in fifteen minutes from…now.”
Skid tapped her tricorder display;
presumably to initiate a timer.
“Gotcha.”
“Just remember, the faster you get
my Girl free, the faster we can put HAL back under restraint.”
Skid snorted derisively as Kaz
turned to head off with his group, taking the lead beside the blonde security
woman. It wasn’t long before even their
light sources were out of sight.
“Alright, we’re headin off in the
following fashion. Kanor and I will have
point, followed by Ilara and Lars.
Ulric, Dago; you two bring up the rear.
First thing I see I think Lars and I can crack into, we’re stopping.”
“And make sure you keep an eye all
around; including above.”
Skid nodded in agreement to Kanor’s
additional comment, then, tricorder in hand and beeping steadily, she headed
off in the direction Kaz had indicated.
Kanor made sure to position himself on what he considered the outside of
their procession, between Skid and the yawning chasm he had nearly fallen
into. No telling what could come from
that direction, and this way he had more room to maneuver.
“I really have no idea what I’m lookin
for…I hope they have recognizable machinery.”
Skid was mostly paying attention to
her tricorder as she walked beside Kanor, though he noted she kept her left hand
on the butt of her phaser pistol when she wasn’t inputting directions to the
device. He wanted to draw his Varon-T,
but wanted to ensure both of his hands were free for his bat’leth.
“If it’s anything like the planet
we beamed down to, nothing really looked like machinery at all. My touch seemed to activate the door that led
down to that room, and Kaz is pretty convinced it was due to latent telepathic
ability mostly. I looked around, I
couldn’t even tell where the door disappeared or withdrew to, it was simply
just not there all of the sudden.”
“Well bugger…Ilara, you sensing
anything you can…I dunno, manipulate or something?”
“No…”
Kanor glanced behind them, where
the Ullian woman was walking slowly behind Skid. She seemed to be almost in a daze; eyes
unfocused, kind of shuffling along behind without really appearing as if she
were aware she was doing it, holding her phaser loosely. He shifted his gaze back forward, out into
the beam from Skid’s light and the fog it shown out over. He lowered his voice a little.
“Is she usually this…I don’t know,
catatonic?”
Skid shot him a sly smirk for a
moment.
“Tonad indicated they might be
pretty distant because of the duress they’d most likely be under. Remember, she doesn’t HAVE one of these nifty
thingies on her noggin.”
“It’s odd the Benders
haven’t…stopped by to say hello in any fashion yet. They must know we’re all here; if nothing
else, they have to sense Tonad and Ilara.”
Skid shrugged, directing the
tricorder around as she glanced upwards.
“Enjoy it while we can,
Youngblood. Maybe they haven’t, maybe
they’re preoccupied with something else.
Hell, maybe this is actually an empty ship and you killed the last
one! What matters is getting what we
came here for; if the Bendies want to stay out of our way while we do that, I’m
not going to complain.”
They continued for a while in
silence, without any interruption or change in the design of the corridor, best
as Kanor could determine. Skid would
occasionally shine her light directly at the wall, or reach out and touch it
for a bit while she studied her tricorder as they moved, but she gave no
indication she was getting much from the device. They checked in when Skid’s alarm went off,
and received the news that Kaz’s group was encountering pretty much the same;
although his team had discovered a small viewport in the wall that showed the
Enterprise off in the distance, still entangled in those cables inside the
now-spherical bubble of the Bender’s ship.
“Proceed as planned, report back,
same time. Kaz out.”
Kanor looked over at Skid as they
continued from where they had stopped to rest.
She still had her tricorder out, and was frowning down at the screen.
“Still no change?”
Skid shook her head, making a noise
in her throat.
“Not a damn thing. I can tell ye roughly where we are in their
ship in relation to the Enterprise-it would appear we ARE moving along through
the original ring area of the ship we initially observed-I can detect the
atmosphere is breathable, our lifeforms, and the lifeforms of Kaz’s party. I’ve even managed to determine there seems to
be some sort of…energy collection going on in the wall beside us. It seems responsive to light and heat.”
Lars chimed in from a few meters
behind Kanor, close to Ilara’s left side.
“It hard to be certain, but I think
ze wall is designed to absorb energy from ze outside, as well; ze area facing
ze Enterprise.”
Kanor looked at Skid with
understanding.
“That’s why you were doing that…”
“Yup, but I can’t figure out what
it’s doing with that energy or HOW it’s absorbing it; I can’t even determine if
it’s siphonin the Enterprise somehow we just haven’t picked up yet. The entire wall seems to soak it up and
redistribute it evenly until it fades away, though. Still no luck findin any sort of blatant devices
or machinery itself. You said you just
touched the floor on the planet and the door appeared…?”
“Yeah, all I did was touch it. I mean…I suppose I did kind of…I don’t know,
envision a door right where it appeared before it appeared…? I guess I never really thought about that,
but I did, subconsciously.”
“Ilara, can you maybe focus on
envisioning some sort of control panel or something right about…oh, in front of
my hand here?”
“No…”
“Ilara, do you love Jax?”
“No…”
Skid stopped in her tracks,
whirling around as she drew her phaser pistol and crouched down slightly, her
left leg out in front of her right.
That was also about the time Kanor
heard a phaser go off right behind him.
He spun around, his bat’leth at the
ready in front of him, his stance shifting to present a narrower profile to an
attacker, only to see the giant hairy human Lars tumble to the deck like a felled
tree. Ilara, demonstrating a feat of
acrobatics Kanor wouldn’t have expected from an Ullian scientist, was in the
process of leaping over the falling engineer; her body gracefully contorting
and spinning within the horizontal plane mid-air so that she would land feet
first on the other side of Lars, her body facing the wall. He saw Dagoberto and Ulric bringing their
phaser rifles to bear upon Ilara, but shouted out to them even as he shifted the
grip on his bat’leth in preparation.
“Hold your fire!”
He bent his right knee, dropping
the arch of his swinging right arm he had put force behind for a quick blow.
The curved outer tip of his
bat’leth sliced through Ilara’s legs about mid-calves, as she was in the middle
of immediately flipping back away from where she had landed on the other side
of the fallen Lars. Twin arcs of liquid,
presumably the Ullian’s blood, trailed through the air momentarily before Kanor
watched her disappear amidst the fog, along with a solid whump.
“Dammit, Kanor!”
He ignored Skid as he charged
forward to where Ilara had disappeared in the fog, finding the fact she hadn’t
made a sound upon being struck odd. He
found her soon enough, the bleeding and apparently disabled woman using her hands
to frantically pull herself along the floor towards the chasm. She tried to fire her phaser at him as he
closed in on her, but he was able to kick the weapon out of her hand before she
got a bead on him. It clattered off into
the fog, the sound echoing more than it should have as it grew fainter. He must have kicked it off of the ledge,
which had to be close. He bent down
against Ilara’s back, his knees pinning her to the deck.
“I’ve secured her!” he shouted,
looking over his shoulder.
Skid was crouched beside the spot
Lars had gone down, Dagoberto and Ulric on either side of her, looking towards
him while warily keeping an eye along each direction of the corridor. Skid’s mane of flaming red hair tossed
through the air as she looked up at him, her emerald eyes blazing.
“Did ya have te bloody fookin CUT
her?!”
Kanor scowled.
“She was going to get away unless I
acted immediately; probably suicidally so!”
“I COULD have stunned her if ya
weren’t in the damn way!”
“And we have no idea if she would
have truly been stunned and stopped, in her current state.” He paused a beat, his jaw tight. “What about Lars?”
Skid made a sound of agitation as
she stood back up.
“Just stunned, he’ll be fine. You two stay here.” She stalked over to where Kanor was keeping
his weight on the struggling Ilara, who still hadn’t uttered a word. Kanor noticed Skid’s hand was still holding
her phaser pistol, ready to fire. She
had reholstered her tricorder at some point.
“Ilara, are you okay? Talk to me, darlin.”
The Ullian didn’t respond at
all. Her eyes, wild-looking, shot back
and forth from Kanor to Skid rapidly.
“How did you know something was
wrong with her?”
Skid’s lips were tight as she
crouched down on Ilara’s left side, opposite Kanor.
“She hasn’t said a word other than
‘no’, in that same tone, since we’ve beamed over. She’s also had a huge crush on our beloved Helm
Jockey for as long as I’ve known her.
The Benders must have overwhelmed her mental defenses.” She shifted her position, slipping the phaser
into her holster as she pressed her hands against Ilara’s shoulders. “Let her up so we can turn her over and I can
see what you’ve done to her.”
Kanor frowned at the accusatory
tone of Skid’s command, but did as she instructed, helping her turn the struggling
Ullian over onto her back, then pinning her down again so Skid could examine
her. Ilara was still struggling to free
herself from their grasps, though her efforts were weakening. She still hadn’t said a word, not even a
sound of pain, even though blood was pooling under her rapidly.
“Dammit, Kanor, you did a number on
her…”
“I believe, given the assumption
the Benders are in control of her body, they’re unable to communicate
verbally. It must be a completely
foreign concept to them.”
Skid looked up from the tricorder
she had pulled out again as she examined Ilara with a strange expression on her
face, aimed at him. She shook her head,
then glanced over at Ulric as she holstered the tricorder again.
“Ulric, get over here.”
The security guard came over,
looking at Skid attentively.
“Put pressure on her legs…here, and
here.”
Ulric did as she instructed, then
Skid took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Kanor’s eyes slid over to look at her more specifically, wondering what
the redhead was up to, when she reached her empty hands out and placed them
against the Ullian’s wounds. A soft,
green light seemed to come from underneath Skid’s hands briefly, then it was
gone.
“What the hell…?”
Without responding to Kanor, Skid,
her eyes still closed, reached into her toolkit, withdrew a sharp instrument,
and proceeded to rip off the bottom edge of her uniform tunic. Kanor, his gaze dropping to study Ilara’s
legs intently, noted the blood flow seemed to have stopped; in fact, though he
couldn’t be sure from this angle, her wounds looked partially closed, even.
“How the fu…”
“Shut up. Soon as I’ve wrapped her legs, I’m sending
Ulric and Dago back to the beam in point with Lars and Ilara.”
Skid looked paler than usual, and
her voice sounded suddenly weary.
“What was that green shit; did you
HEAL her somehow?”
“I had to stop the bleeding, but
she still needs proper medical attention, and Lars is going to be out cold for
a while. We’re not turning back.”
Kanor realized abruptly Ilara had
stopped her resistance. When he tore his
eyes away from Skid, who was cutting her tunic into strips for makeshift
bandages, he saw the Ullian’s eyes were closed.
He tentatively shifted a hand to press against the side of her neck,
testing for a pulse. It seemed weak for
a Ullian, but it was still there. She
seemed unconscious.
“Ulric, you and Dago can carry
these two back to the beam-in point no problem?”
Ulric seemed a bit insulted.
“Of course, sir.”
Kanor didn’t like it, but saw no
other option.
“Keep your weapons drawn and ready,
be prepared for an ambush. Is your
phaser set to stun?”
Ulric looked at him quizzically.
“Sir?”
Kanor reached out, took the
security guard’s phaser, checked the setting, and promptly turned to shoot
Ilara in the chest at point-blank range.
“Was that REALLY necessary?!”
Kanor glanced over Ilara’s now
certified unconscious body at Skid as the engineer was wrapping the Ullian’s
legs as best as she could.
“An assurance to make sure our
unconscious enemy was truly unconscious?
Yes, that was quite necessary.
Always double shoot.”
“Ilara is NOT our enemy, she’s our
friend!”
“Possessed as it seems like she was
by the Benders, she is our enemy.”
Skid’s teeth flashed as she scowled
at him darkly, but she didn’t respond further, and simply finished securing the
bandages to Ilara. Replacing her gear,
she looked Ilara over, then stood up.
Kanor, who had kept a hand against Ilara’s shoulder this whole time,
even after shooting her, reached out for his bat’leth, which he had left on the
deck beside him, and got to his feet as well.
Skid’s midriff was now bare, which Kanor found exceedingly alluring,
despite the situation.
“Ulric, Dago; take your charges and
double-time it back to the coordinates as best as possible. Check in every ten minutes and when you
arrive.”
Skid shot Kanor a glare as Dago and
Ulric settled Lars and Ilara over their shoulders, got to their feet, and began
heading back the way they had come at a quicker clip, their phasers drawn. She withdrew her communicator, the device
chirping as she flipped up the grill.
She sounded tired.
“Skid to Kaz.”
There was no response, so Skid
repeated her page as her brow knitted together in growing concern.
“Skid to Kaz, respond please.”
The sounds of phasers came through
the speaker of her communicator, as well as sounds of Kaz’s communicator being
jostled, before the Commodore responded finally.
“Just a sec!”
Skid’s eyes met Kanor’s over her
communicator as the clear sounds of a fight came through, Kanor desperately trying
to distinguish what sounds belonged to who and what could be going on over
there. More jostling noises, more phaser
fire. The sounds seemed to die down for
an extended moment, only to be followed by a strange sound that caused both of
their eyebrows to rise and the transmission to crackle and snap erratically. There were a couple more solitary phaser
shots, the odd sound and its effects on the transmission were repeated again a
few seconds later, then a brief silence.
“Who the fuck was that?! Selorus, check on her to make sure she’s
alright. Amanda, report!”
They heard a breathless female, the
blonde security guard who had been at the front of their team with Kaz, shout
off from afar.
“Tonad secured, sir! Rej…Rej is gone.”
Several explicatives spewed from
Kaz’s lips, followed by a deep exhalation.
The communicator jostled again.
“Skid, what is Ilara’s status?”
“That’s why I’m calling, sir. Ilara seemed…affected by the Benders. She attacked us, Kanor…immobilized her, but
not before she stunned Lars. I’ve just
sent Ulric and Dago back to the beam-in site with them both. Ilara needs medical attention; can Marcie
meet them back there? And what the bloody
hell is going on?”
“Sounds like the same. Tonad randomly attacked Marcie, ripped the
telepathy nullifier from her head, then…”
Kanor interrupted, his grip
tightening on his bat’leth, the leather grips creaking.
“Is she alright?”
“…she screamed and collapsed on the
deck clutching her head. She seems
unconscious at the moment; Selorus is checking up on her. Some…individual appeared in a flash of light
and crouched over her for a few seconds, but they’re gone again.”
Skid jumped in.
“An ‘individual’? One of the Benders, one of our own…?”
“Neither, far as we could
tell. They were humanoid, dressed all in
black, but we were still trying to subdue Tonad. Amanda and Selorus got off some phaser shots,
but they didn’t seem to connect. Rej
fell off the ledge into the chasm during the struggle with Tonad.” He sighed.
“Stay where you are; going to assess the situation and call you back.”
Skid’s frustration showed on her
face, but she kept it out of her voice.
“Understood.”
Skid closed the communicator
grille, growling.
“This doesn’t make any fookin
sense!”
“I agree. We’re on their ship, and yet we’ve yet to see
a single Bender. Why haven’t they
attacked us?”
Skid snorted.
“Tonad and Ilara weren’t enough for
you?”
Kanor’s brow furrowed and he shook
his head.
“That seemed more like spying than
anything else. If the Benders broke
through their mental defenses shortly after we arrived, why didn’t they do
something sooner?”
Skid frowned as she mulled that
over, her right hand reaching up behind her head, followed by a quick burst of
sound as she popped her neck. Her left
was still clutching the communicator.
“Ya know, even when she was
discovered, Ilara seemed more intent on escaping than actually attacking us…”
“But why? She had the element of surprise; she could
have easily taken out the both of us before the rest of the group reacted. We’re on their turf; they know this ship a
hell of a lot better than we do. Why
aren’t they doing anything about us helping ourselves aboard?”
“Either they can’t, or they
won’t. Both of which lead to
‘why’.” She glanced over in the
direction of the gaping chasm, obscured by the fog pooled over the deck. “It sounded like Tonad was making a beeline
for that drop off, too.”
“The only real avenue of
escape. We’d follow them if they ran
down the corridor either way; if they attempted to scale the wall, they’d be exposed
to us, and we could potentially follow.
Which only leaves that way.”
“Which would seem to imply it’s not
as bottomless as it seems; there’s gotta be something down at the bottom.”
“At least they would know where
they’re going, however; we don’t.” Kanor
briefly considered having Cypher ping the Bender ship, since they aliens knew
they were there. It would mean revealing
Cypher’s presence, however; not only to the Enterprise crew, but most likely
the Benders, and the HAL unit in control of the Enterprise currently. All of which Kanor wasn’t comfortable doing
at the moment. “What about that other
figure who appeared?”
Skid strode over to the wall as
they talked, putting away her communicator to withdraw her tricorder
instead. Her lips were tight as she began
scanning the wall again, this time reaching out her right hand to touch it
experimentally.
“No idea. Scans showed we were the only ship inside
this…cocoon the Benders have put the Enterprise in. There haven’t been any lifeforms other than
ours this entire time on our scanners.
Kaz said it was humanoid, though.”
“Someone else on the ship,
then? Or someone from outside the
Bender’s sphere? Is the Independent
sending backup?”
Skid grumbled, shooting Kanor a
glance over her shoulder.
“Does it look like I know,
Youngblood? I can’t even find a bloody
power outlet on this damn scow!” She
punched her hand against the wall, closing her tricorder with a loud clap. “Kaz sent out a distress call; there should
have been some ships on standby, but even if they’re out there, we can’t
contact them. The Bender ship cut us off
from the outside as soon as it closed around us, you know that.”
Kanor, who had been keeping an
attentive eye around them as Skid attempted, again, to get some sort of
information from the Bender ship; glanced at her as she slammed her tricorder
closed.
“Sorry, I tend to…speculate aloud
sometimes.” He pursed his lips, his eyes
shifting to sweep over the expanse of wall.
“How about…”
Skid’s communicator chirped just
then, Kaz’s voice sounding out in the cavernous corridor; muffled, like
everything else, by the fog around their lower legs.
“Skid here.”
“Change of plans. I’m having trouble reaching Bennet aboard the
Enterprise, though HAL assures me transporter functions are perfectly operational. Rej was…unrecoverable. My team and I are heading back to the beam-in
site. We’ve re-affixed the Bender
nullifying device on Marcie, but she still appears unconscious. We’re going to leave Marcie and Tonad with
Dago and Ulric, who are going to beam back aboard the Enterprise, while
Selorus, Amanda, and I meet up with you and Kanor. We’ve got to secure a way to free our ship.”
“Agreed. Kanor and I are still working on it, without
success.”
“Keep at it. We’ll be there as soon as we can, don’t leave
that area. Kaz out.”
Skid sighed as she closed the
communicator and replaced it in her holster.
“Well, I suppose it’s time for us
to memorize every nook and cranny, we’re going to be here a bit. And I don’t have the slightest idea what else
to do, other than start firing.”
Kanor couldn’t help but grin at
that.
“As much as I would love to do
that, I had a different idea we haven’t tried yet.”
“Oh?”
Kanor guided the bat’leth behind
his back and secured it with the straps there.
“Why don’t I give it a try? Touch the wall and try to summon us up a
control panel of some kind or something.”
Just like the subterranean room on
the planet, Kanor was able to cause a reaction from the wall as soon as his
skin came into contact with it. He held
the glove he had taken off in his left hand as he fanned the bared fingers of
his right against the weirdly textured surface.
It was surprisingly warm.
“Bloody hell, would ye look at that…”
Skid murmured.
Kanor had closed his eyes, trying
to call forth some sort of panel by picturing it in his mind. He heard Skid activate her tricorder beside
him; heard her breathing accelerate in pace, her excitement evident even with
his eyes closed. His brow drew closer
together as he struggled to keep that mental image sharply focused in his head,
not really sure what he was accomplishing, but assuming it was something, based
off of Skid’s uncharacteristic silence.
It didn’t last long.
“You’re doin it, Youngblood…not in
any language I recognize, but I’m not going to be picky…”
Skid’s tone was hushed, almost
reverential. She was leaning in,
reaching past him to manipulate whatever had been formed from the wall. His nostrils flared as he caught a whiff of
her wild, earthy scent…the smell of a forest after a hard rain. The tricorder beeped along far to his left; Skid
trying to take as many readings of the phenomena as she could, most likely, even
while she was fiddling with the wall in front of him. There was a distant, thunderous booming sound
far off in the structure, followed by a tremor passing through the deck plating
Kanor felt through his boots, and an almost vibrational hum that made the hairs
on the back of his neck stand on end.
“Well, I don’t THINK that was me…”
A sweat abruptly broke out on Kanor’s
forehead, though he wasn’t really sure why.
Something seemed…wrong, somehow.
From the Bender ship…?
“Quickly, Red, something…something
isn’t right.”
Skid muttered an unintelligible
string of curse words, and he heard the tapping of her fingers in front of him
pick up in pace. Her tricorder stopped
beeping as she closed it, the casing scraping against the material of the
holster.
“Even I can’t really make heads or
tails over this blasted thing…!”
That thunderous boom again, from a
different direction this time; and again with the tremor, again with the hum.
“Dammit all to hell!”
Kanor felt Skid’s body shift beside
him, then heard and felt a meaty thud against the wall in front of him. The wall seemed to ripple outwards around his
hand. Had she punched it…?
“Well THAT seemed to cause some
blinkin…”
“Kaz to Skid!”
Kanor growled, starting to
distinctly feel his pulse hammering within his skull.
“Skid, I’m not a telepath, I can
NOT keep this up…!”
The beeping sound of Skid’s
communicator as she flipped it open.
“Skid here; make it fast,
Commodore, we’ve got…”
“She’s free, Enterprise is free!”
Skid let out a loud, exuberant
noise, her hand reaching out to clap him on the back.
“Way to go, Ka…fuck!”
Kanor sensed something about the
same moment as Skid’s exclamation was uttered.
His head flew upwards, and he found himself staring into the eyeless
gaze of one of the Benders directly above him.
Its mouth flew open in a soundless scream, and then Kanor felt talons
just pierce his flesh through his light armor as he was yanked up off the
floor.
Monday, April 29, 2013
{{The further along I go, the more complicated things seem to get. Quite an experience, dotting all these I's and crossing all these T's. :-P }}
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.”
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