By Lieutenant Commander James Lionel Corgan Chief of Security, USS Galaxy
And
Lieutenant Commander Rose Isis MacAllen Science Chief, USS Galaxy
USS
Galaxy:The Next Generation Sim Log Stardate: 50212.16 - 50212.23 |
Sing for me, he had said.
And so she had. Under the threat of violence, of a further stay entombed in blackness, of never seeing her family again, she had sung for him. For hour after hour, she had sung him, for the lunatic who had called himself her biggest fan and his ape-like friend, the man who had grabbed her at the theatre, waiting beside him.
She had known that it wouldn't end well. She had been allowed to see their faces and there had been no ransom. So she had sung for them, hoping to delay the inevitable.
She sang now for the same reason.
They were been alike only in their criminal escapades. Her 'biggest fan' reminded her of her high school english teacher, with his tendency to correct every grammatical error and the hair that stuck out in odd places, only he was creepier and less in touch with reality. Her fan would babble to himself about music theory, ask questions of empty air, and constantly try to sing along with her.
He had apparently wanted to record her singing his favorite song and that recording had to be perfect.
The friend was like the incarnation of every thug that had ever lived, cracking his knuckles and scowling often, only less funny. He stood there like a visual reminder of what would happen if she didn't cooperate with her number one fan. Unfortuneately, she knew that he would do whatever he was ordered to do. Her cheek was already swelling from the casual swat he had delivered after her fan had grown frustrated with her tears and she remembered every moment of how this little story ended.
The song picked up its pace a bit and she had to try to focus to hit her notes.I'm singing, she thought dully. Her voice was shaky and hindered by an occasional sob. It was also slightly off key and definitely out of practice, how her agent would have screamed, but it was hers. She was singing again.
She wanted to shake her head. All those years of silence, she thought bitterly. All the times she had defied her parents' commands to talk, speak, or sing. The times she had seen the hurt look on people's faces because they couldn't understand why she was doing it. All wasted in a single moment.
She felt her independence being ripped away from her, like it was being pulled and shredded with each passing note.
She could only hope that someone would find her before her fan grew tired of her and ordered his friend to take her away, like before. It was just a matter of time. Unfortunately, she had the feeling her time was running short.
She finished the song and waited as he considered. She drew a breath as he opened his mouth to speak. Would this be it?
"No" The man shook his head. "That's not it at all. Start again, start again."
Ella exhaled in relief, ignored the soreness in her throat, and began again.
The halls were the same as ever before. Rotting visages of flesh and bone, rivers of blood coming from disgusting sores, it was a realm of the dead that James feared travelling. At the same time, as much as he hated going through a foreign realm, the back part of his mind realized he was still on the Defiant. Whatever blasphemous representation his mind was telling him to see was there, it was an illusion, real enough to fool, but just an illusion.
James' mind reasoned that the holodeck was illusion, yet it could harm someone easily enough. Illusion in the 24th century was a tricky business, and sometimes it was as dangerous as any reality. Even this illusion of death and decay could be harmful. The marine fireteam he saw slaughtered on deck five proved that the illusion was as deadly as reality.
Corgan was exhausted from all the running. He was fleeing from the terrors that chased him relentlessly. Death, the Borg, Jem'Hadar, rotted zombies of those he slew, of the most terrifying enemies he faced, all coming after him in a beyond the grave attempt to get their revenge. Though it did put into perspective all the lives James Corgan ruined as a result of his profession, it also enlightened him on his own guilt.
It didn't help that Death followed him wherever he went, his scythe bloodied with dark ichor, his wings ruffled and unfurled, his hood pulled over his ghostly head. Necessity brough on this reunion, and Death was milking it for all it was worth.
"This isn't right." Death spoke, frightened, "They shouldn't have appeared. Nothing is right on this ship. The darkness, the pain, its not a part of me. I can't use it. It's an independent fuction, a different kind of madness."
"It wanted to harm you too?" James asked, panting for breath, using his rifle as a crutch.
"Don't you understand? I'm a part of you, as you are a part of me. Your mind is the host, i'm just a fraction of it. Without your life... I die as well. And without you, even a you where your personality dominates mine... I will die. Hence my dilemma." Death explained vigorously.
James smiled, "Isn't that a b*tch..."
~"Ghosts or not... I have to find someone..."~ He panted, calling out to anyone, "Hello?" James called out to the lonely passageways of flesh and blood, "Hello? Anyone there? This is Commander Corgan.... hello?!?!!!"
Rose was walking around with her "husband" and Ensign Edwards an very young man who just started his career in Starfleet. This place had an deep dark past...an evil pass, something wasn't right.
Then the young Betazoid heared James calling out to her, "Come on he this way!" she told then while Rashid and Edwards started running towards her best friend.
An few seconds later then found James, he looked like he was in an bad fight or something worse. The young woman put the phaser down and kneel by him.
The chief of security looked worse for wear. While the Corina couple were decked out in clean, undamaged EVA suits, Corgan didn't even have battle armor to protect himself (being damaged in one confrontation). They looked unconcerned and fresh faced, while Corgan looked as if he crawled out of a foxhole after a major battle. He had exhaustion written all over his face.
"Rose..." James gasped for breath, leaning up against the hard, fleshy wall, resting, with his rifle pointed down on the floor, "...Rashid... thank God you're alright."
~"Did I ever tell you she's hot as Hades' @$$crack?"~ Death whistled at the unnoticing Rose MacAllen, ~"I tell you, if you let me do what I wanted, you would have her and so many others."~
"We can... talk about this later..." James grunted as he kept himself upright.
~"Fine, fine... but let me show you an example of how easy it is..."~
"Rashid, Edwards go and find some other members of the team, I will take care of James." Rose ordered while turning her head back towards him, Rashid and Edwards started running.
"Are you ok love? Damn...sorry." she told him looking a little mixed up for an second.
"Huh? What?" Corgan stuttered, confused and shocked at her words. Though his mind debated what exactly she meant, or even what she said, James couldn't fool himself for much longer. Rose was at him in a second, supporting his exhaustion wracked body with her own, helping him slide down on the flesh covered walls and floors. It seemed ironic to James, like any other female he meet, that they all had their own inner beauty, outer beauty, a wonderful personality, and a set of demons to haunt all three. Rose was a contrast to the background of chaos and decay. A beautiful flower in a garden of choking vines, an angel in the depths of hell. It was hard to believe that someone so merciful used the word 'love' in a place like this, to a person so damned as he.
But then she said 'damn... sorry', shooting it all down, taking his happiness back to sadness.
"Rose... what did you say?" Corgan asked, unsure and delirious with emotional pain, like his heart yearned to be close, feeling the starvation of being so detached from other beings for so long.
"Oh nothing James.."she asked while taking an a little white rage while pating his head with some nice cool water to calm him down.
"Oh... ok." He replied.
~"See my point, Broken Head?"~ Death pointed to Rose MacAllen, ~"She thinks highly of you. You practically help raise her child, for Christ sakes! The kid calls you Uncle James! And Rose calls you a friend, and even... her love. Do you know what you feel whenever you hear her speak kindly toward you, when her kid looks up to you?"~
"No... is it love? Lust? What?" James asked out loud, eyes diverted from Rose.
While Rose put some more cool water on the rage the young Betazoid looked back at him with an worried look,"James, did you say something?"
Death and James ignored Rose. ~"Didn't you already determine?"~ Death continued, ~"Love is dead. You found that out as a young man. Anything else is a shadow. No, you cannot love, but you feel something close. You hunger for it. What you really want is intimacy, and the last time you had it was when Lexa was normal. Now she's gone. Your other friends, who you wanted so desperately to be close to, left. Rebecca, Lysander... gone. They don't want to be close to you. But Rose... she's different."~
"Your point?"
~"My point is, I can bring her closer."~
Though tempted, James said again, "No. It isn't right. It's never right."
~"Alright, but I hope you've learned from this, James. You crave intimacy, been starved for it since childhood. You're afraid to go out there and get it. You could have found it in Rebecca, or Rose. But you're too scared. But me... i'm not. I have the balls to get what I want.Respect, affection... even love... is within my reach."~
Death disappeared in a puff of ash, before saying, ~"Remember... you had your chance. Prepare to suffer as you lose it."~
"NO! WAIT!" James, terrified, pleaded with his Conscience. The prospect of being left alone, without the ability to reach out to others scared him. Death was right, he needed intimacy more than ever, and during the last few years instead of making friends he isolated himself further, cutting off what he desperately needed. The offer was now obvious, he had to take it! It was flying away. "No... my last chance..." He fell to his knees, his eyes wide with fright, "Gone..."
Back to reality, he was still in the presence of Rose. He felt violated and embarrased with such a public display of desperation. He blushed deeply, stood up, and apologized. "Sorry you had to hear that, Rose. I've been mindf**ked all over this ship. I have to get out, soon."
"What in the bloodly hell was that all about?" Rose asked still wanted to say "my love" again, why she didn't know. The young woman was still sitting on the floor trying to get up.
"Oh... nothing Rose." James confessed, letting himself lay down his defences, leaving himself open to read, "Just a deal from the devil, that's all. Being chased through my past. My past wants to kill me, devil wants to make a deal to secure my future... if I would let myself do it."
Rose kissed him a little on the cheek and smiles, "Don't worry I will protect you."
Her hot breath caressed Corgan's cheek as she exhaled. James brushed Rose's face away from his, and said, "I was afraid of that."
Before Rose had the chance to feel hurt, James pushed himself up to standing height on his phaser rifle, and spoke warningly, "You can't protect me, not in this ship. I've experienced one major mindf**k after another, and believe it or not, they would use you against me, given the chance."
"Well who in the hell are they James?"
"I don't know." James tried to explain, "But it's not the interspace madness. I think... that is only part of their plan. It's used to suppliment their abilities. There is something beyond madness. Something that is driven by sentience, something that can read us and use that to play with us. Whatever it is, it knows us and knows how to attack us. We have to get off the ship and get away from it, right now."
Feeling hurt the young Betazoid woman rose from the ground, "What do you want to do?"
"Rose, gather your team. Follow me to the shuttlebay. Other groups are gathering there. In numbers, we may be able to stave off the attacks. If i'm lucky, I might get there before the Thorogen completely wears off. Please, we have to go, now!"
"I will but I coming back to be with you James..remember that." she told him with alittle hurt smile the runs down the hallway finding her team.
James watched helplessly, too tired to convince Rose of the danger that laid ahead. Bewildered, he started to wonder if the interspace madness was also affecting her. It's effects were read even by the unempathetic, and her actions suggested she wanted to cling to James like a lovesick puppy.
"What is wrong with Rose?" James asked himself, ~"She acts so starved for affection. I don't wonder how she was hurt to make herself so starved, but wonder how her actions just ask for her to be hurt by others."~
~"In other words, she wants you sooooooo much. She's a parasite, sucking the energy out of any man that shows her the slightest amount of kindness. Others would call her a flirt, a tease... but you know she does it because she's too afraid to be without what she deems as 'love'. And you know what? You can use that to your advantage."~ Death laughed.
"Shut up. It's not right. It's never right." James turned his back and left it at that.
While Rose was looking for Rashid and Edwards the young woman was grabbed by her "husband" and pulled towards the bulkhead.
"What was that all about my love?" Victor/Rashid said while touching her body roughly while Rose looked away.
What in the hell is going on here?
****
"We shouldn't have looked," O'Rourke whispered for the tenth time as she leaned, shaking, against the observation lounge's window. "I knew we shouldn't have looked."
"Calm down, Shelley," Marsh said as soothingly as he could manage. "You couldn't have known, no one could have known."
"But they were... were..."
"They were dead," Marsh finished for her. "Nothing more."
"But what could have done that?" she continued, slowly mastering herself. It was worse... worse that what Krieghoff found in sickbay." She shuddered, looking up. "They were... that was done to them while they were in their quarters, asleep. All those wires, and pins and the pieces of...."
"It was done over a hundred years ago, Shelley - there's no point I tearing yourself up over it now." Marsh looked towards the pale and shaking figure of Hanley, trying to rinse out the inside of his helmet at a nearby refresher station. "You've got to pull yourself together, there are people depending on you."
"People...?" She followed his gaze. "People." She closed her eyes, shuddered, and nodded. "You're right, I just... no, you're right." She drew herself up. "Okay," she continued, her voice stronger. "First new rule - we don't look in any more of the crew cabins. Period."
Marsh nodded, and from across the room Hanley added a weak, " Yes, ma'am."
"All right," O'Rourke said, her tone crisper and less shaky. "We've checked the Shuttlebay, and there are enough Marines moving around down there to handle any likely problems. After that, it starts to look bad. We're trapped on a ship that could phase out of this universe at any moment. Commander von Ernst is missing and presumed lost after that depressurization earlier, and no one's heard from Commander Corgan or Commander Reece since we last spoke to them. We've got people missing all over the ship, and every time we open a door there's someone dead behind it." She sighed. "What am I forgetting?"
"Krieghoff," Marsh supplied. "We haven't heard anything from him since he left to go with Lieutenant Kara'nin to check the Physics Lab up on Deck Three."
O'Rourke made a face. 'I was trying to forget about him."
Marsh frowned. "Shelley, you need to give that a rest. Okay, you don't like him; everyone knows that by now including him. Hell, *I* don't like him. But that hasn't got anything to do with whether or not I can work with him."
"Look," she snapped. "The man is insane - I have no idea who he paid off, or who he knows to get past the Academy psych boards, but there's no way he's qualified to be a member of Starfleet. He's probably not even qualified to be a member of the human race."
"Why?" Marsh asked. "He's never anything but polite no matter how violent his record says he is." At O'Rourke's look he shook his head. "What? You think you're the only one who's looked at his file?" he snorted. "Check the access logs. The man's had the entire Security Department from Commander Corgan on down inside that file, and that's not counting the people from Medical, Counseling, Command, and at least a dozen Marines as of the last time I checked."
"Then why is he still...?"
"Why is he still walking around and not locked up?" Marsh finished for her. "Because the people that get to make that call say he's more dangerous to the people they want him to be than he is to us."
O'Rourke blinked. "What?"
"You have to read between the lines, Shelley," Marsh sighed. "Whatever is wrong with Krieghoff - and I'm not disputing that *something's* wrong with him - doesn't set off any alarms because of the way he works. He might be violent, even excessively so, but never without a reason he can justify it with. And never, ever, to anyone that isn't a bad guy."
"So what you're saying," she frowned, "is that they let him stay in Starfleet because he's a psychopath that only hurts *bad* people? How does he decide who's bad and who isn't? What happens if he decides that you're bad, or I'm bad? What then?"
"You're worrying about nothing," Marsh sighed. "He doesn't work like that. Look at the way he handled the thing with Kragg. He could have gone off and picked someone, anyone, that fit the profile of the killer and dealt with them. Instead, he tries to figure out a way to help the rest of us in case the killer comes for us. He didn't do anything violent until Kragg ran and the Captain turned him loose. Now granted, burning him up in a plasma exhaust vent instead of just phasering him was a bit much, but after what the Klingon bastard did to Jody, I couldn't work up a lot of sympathy for him."
Shelley looked down at the carpeted floor. ~ But he did it because I asked him to! And I can't tell anyone. I *helped* him do it! ~ "I know," she whispered. "But I can't, I just can't deal with him. It's like... like there's something inside me that starts to scream when he's nearby. I don't even have to see him coming, it starts anyway, all on its own"
"Then maybe you need to talk to someone over in Counseling," Marsh suggested gently.
"What are they going to tell me? That I don't like him? I already know that. That I'm scared of him? I know that too. That I have nightmares about him?" She waved her arms for emphasis. "Guess what? I already know that too! I know all about it - I just can't make it stop."
Marsh sighed. "Then transfer, Shelley."
"What?" The head of steam that she'd built up evaporated. "What?"
"Transfer. If you can't deal with him being here, and you won't go get help, that's all that's left." He nodded towards Hanley, who was studiously ignoring the conversation as he dried out his helmet. "What kind of example are you setting for the others this way? Think about it. If you won't do what needs to be done to get over the problem, the only thing left is to leave. Run away." His eyes narrowed. "That's what you're really doing anyway, isn't it?"
~ He knows! He knows I signed up for those classes to avoid fighting in the War. He knows... I'm a coward. ~ "What... what are you talking about?"
Marsh's answer was interrupted by the chirp of an incoming communicator signal from O'Rourke's helmet where it sat on a table next to her. Both officers turned to look at it, as the chirp repeated itself, becoming clear enough to be recognizable as a garbled human voice. On the third repetition, O'Rourke reached out and picked up her helmet. "This is Lieutenant O'Rourke. Try again, your signal isn't coming through."
The transmission warbled for a moment as if being adjusted from the other end, and repeated itself, the interference gone. "Krieghoff to O'Rourke."
Shelley made a face, looked at Marsh, and sighed, raising the helmet up so she could use the microphone inside. "This is O'Rourke. Where are you?"
"Heading down to your position there in the portside Observation Lounge."
"Did you find anything?" she asked, then frowned. "How did he know where we were?" she asked Marsh. "We didn't tell him which side of the ship we'd be on - we didn't know. Are the tricorders working again?"
Marsh ran a scan with his and checked it twice. "If so, it hasn't cleared up here yet."
'Ahhh... roger." Shelley replied to the signal. "Did the interference clear up where you are? Are the three of you okay?"
'No."
O'Rourke's frown deepened. "No, what?" she asked back.
Hanley, having heard the conversational shift walked up. "What's happening?" he whispered to Marsh.
"Krieghoff's got a signal through, they're coming here," the older man explained.
'Pick one," Krieghoff replied in a flat tone.
~ Do not do this, you bastard, I'm not in the mood! ~ "Give me a straight answer, Krieghoff!" Shelley snapped.
'I did, you just didn't like it." There was a pause, and Krieghoff added, "Besides, does it really matter?"
'Does *what* really matter?" Shelley looked at Marsh and pointed to her helmet as if to say 'I told you so.'
Krieghoff's voice cracked back, "Does it really matter what you want, of course."
Shelley felt her face grow red. ~ Okay, that's it! ~ "What the hell are you doing?" she asked, knuckles white where she gripped her helmet. "Where are Lieutenant Kara'nin and Ensign So'ka? Put one of them on!"
"I can't," he answered back immediately. "They're a little busy right now."
"Busy doing what?" she returned, her embarrassment turning to anger.
"Dying."
Mouth already open to reply, Shelley stopped, eyes wide. "Wha-what?"
"They're dying, O'Rourke. It's a natural process, everyone knows how to do it."
Her mouth worked twice, trying to get a response out as she exchanged looks with Marsh and Hanley. "Repeat that, please. They're dying?" she finally essayed.
"Well, they were the last time I saw them," Krieghoff answered pleasantly. "I haven't checked in a bit, they may be done already."
"May be done already?" Hanley mouthed silently to Marsh, who shook his head in response, indicating he had no idea.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Shelley finally got out. "You just left them to die? Why aren't you helping them?"
"I am, O'Rourke. I went to a lot of trouble to help them along in ways that would make it special for them. I'm sure the appreciated it."
Speechless, she stared at the helmet in her hand. "You... you killed them?"
Krieghoff's voice was as calm as if he'd been talking about the evening dinner menu. "I just helped them along, they're really doing all of the work themselves. It's so much easier that way."
"You monster," she hissed. "How could you" They were your..."
"Friends?" Victor interrupted. "Oh come now, O'Rourke. You better than anyone should know I haven't got any friends."
Shelley turned on Marsh. "You were defending this psychopath! Look at what he's done! You see? I was right!"
"Well of course you were, O'Rourke," Victor answered, drawing a look of shock from Shelley.
"I... I didn't," she stammered. Looking back and forth at her companions and the helmet. "I didn't depress the switch to send."
"What?" Marsh shook his head. "You must have."
"Why worry about that," Victor continued," when there are so many other things to be afraid of instead?"
"What are you talking about you sick bastard?" Shelley glared at the helmet, her hand tightening on the smooth white plastic like it was Victor's neck.
Do you remember what I told you the last time you stopped by my room to threaten me, O'Rourke?" he asked in that infuriatingly calm voice
"I... no... wait... Commander Corgan? You said you'd tell me before you were going to kill the Commander if you ever decided to."
"That's right. Hmmm... well, he isn't dead yet, so I guess I still have time." The smile behind the words was as chilling as the sounds themselves. "I'm going to kill the Commander."
"What? Why?" Shelley gasped.
"Because I can?" Victor offered. "That seems to be the answer of the day, anyway. Oh, and just in case I forgot - I'm going to kill you too."
For an instant, Shelley thought her heart was going to stop as all the color drained out of her face. Beside her, Marsh turned just as white, and Hanley choked out a wordless gasp of shock.
"You... you're..." she stammered.
"Well it would hardly be sporting if I didn't tell you in advance, would it? It's ever so much more fun when my target knows I'm coming for them." He laughed lightly, once, the sound sending shivers down all three officer's spines. "I'll be seeing you - real soon now."
"Krieghoff!" Shelley snapped, shaking the helmet. "Answer me dammit!"
When the helmet remained silent, she looked up, panicked, and whispered, "What are we going to do?"
"The interphasic radiation," Marsh offered. "It must have gotten to him and sent him over the edge."
"I don't care what happened - I want to know what to do!" She threw the helmet down. "He'll be here any minute. For the communicator signal to be that strong, he had to be close, almost in the room with us." She looked up, eyes suddenly filled with horror. "Or right outside the door...."
As the three turned to look, a soft clapping sound filled the room. "Very good, O'Rourke," Victor smiled; standing in the open doorway in the uniform he'd worn under the EVA suit. "A little late, but not bad, considering." He stepped into the lounge, the door closing behind him. "Now, what game shall we play first?"
He looked from one to the next of the three expectantly as they all stood there, rooted to the spot. "No ideas?" He smiled, the expression changing his face, making it evil in a way that took their breaths away. "That's all right," he continued starting to walk forward. "I have plenty for everyone...."
"If you're pissed at me, don't take it out on her, sweetheart." replied an all too familiar, but long forgotten voice. Karyn whirled and confronted the woman in white, trying to find her voice.
The spirit smiled "Happy birthday, honey. I've missed you."
Dallas, who longed to meet the mother she never knew, greeted her in the only way possible. She screamed.
The only thing that stopped her from screaming was seeing the dead woman walk toward her, nothing but love and compassion in her eyes.
Karyn plastered herself to the wall and held up her hands as if to ward off a physical blow. Her breath came in ragged gasps and sweat beaded on her forehead. She screwed her eyes shut. "No! You're not real! You're not real!"
The apparition in white frowned, keeping the hurt out of her voice. "Lizzie, open your eyes."
The shock of hearing her father's nickname for her come from her hallucination's lips was enough to cause her eyes to fly open. "How did you..."
The woman known to her as Elizabeth Dallas held up her hand. "I've never left you or your sister's side, Lizzie. I regret having to leave you so soon, but it was not my decision. I'm so very proud of the women you've become despite the hardships you've endured." Elizabeth reached out to touch her daughter's cheek.
Karyn cringed from her touch, not quite sure what the hell was happening to her, but not wanting this woman patronizing her in any way. "Hardships? Oh, come on, Mom, you come all the way from the grave to talk to me and the least you can do is say it out loud. Your husband, your beloved, raped your daughters. So yes, I'm a little angry at mothers who allow the same. I am angry at Katherine Hays for leaving her daughter with a monster."
The woman's blue eyes softened, and the color was so bright, so alluring, Karyn could not take her eyes off them. "You're angry at me, Lizzie, and taking it out on her isn't going to change your life. It's your birthday for the gods' sake."
Karyn couldn't hold back the angry sobs. "No, mother, it's your death day. Today is the day I took you away from Daddy. Today is the day I ruined his life. Today is the day..."
"I left you and your sister with a drunk." Elizabeth finished for her matter of factly, but with clear regret, "How do you expect me to atone for that, Karyn? How do you expect the living to atone for that?"
Karyn paused, suddenly filled with a new sense of dread. "You're telling me he was an alcoholic during your marriage? That he hit you as well?" Karyn was grateful she was in a hoverchair because if she were standing, her knees would have hit the floor. She always thought her father had started drinking after her mother died, hence, she thought she was to blame.
"Your father always liked his ale, Karyn, and yes, sometimes he got too angry. But that wasn't my fault, and it wasn't your fault, Lizzie. I left because it was my time to go, but I never, ever, wanted to leave you. Please know that." Her mother's tears looked like icicles.
Like the breaking of a dam, Karyn's tears flowed freely. All the anger and anguish flowed freely from her heart. After twenty-five years, it was like she had finally received the validation she thought would never come. "I'm so angry, Momma. You-you don't know how hard I try to forget him, to forgive him, but I just.."
Elizabeth placed the crook of her finger under her daughter's chin which felt surprisingly warm. "I have no words to comfort you sweetheart. There is nothing I can say that justifies what he did. But I have dreams for you, Karyn. I want you to laugh. I want you to love. I want you to have beautiful babies and sing to them... Karyn, I want you to live, not merely survive. Don't let your father ruin that for you."
She nodded through her tears.
"I have to go now, Lizzie. I love you. Please tell Katie I love her too."
Before she could say a word, her mother was gone.
Three familes were having breakfast in Ten Forward: Human, Betazoid, and El-Aurian. Everything was going quite pleasant on the parent's end, but not the children's. Since they met, Maxil and Garren have had some unknown grudge against each other since they two months ago. Between the two of them, Jesse sat, looking at his silent friends as they ate with narrowed eyes and red faces...
"Uh-oh." Jesse said as he quickly ducked.
The pleasant part on the parent's end last all but five minutes as a food fight of epic proportions erupted between the two, with pieces of pancakes with syrup, sausage, eggs, and jellied biscuits went flying everywhere...
"My shift is in fifteen minutes," Adrian grumbled as the sonic shower came on. "And I have grape jelly, orange marmalade, and syrup in my hair, on my face, and with what great shots those kids were, I'm surpirsed none of it ended up down my shit!"
"Mommy," Maxil spoke as he sat on the couch. "Is Daddy mad at me?"
"We're both disappointed with you!" Zerhi declared as she motioned him to follow her to his room. "Come one, let's get you out of those sticky close for now."
Adrian had changed into a fresh uniform, as Zerhi took Maxim into the bathroom for a bath of his own. Maxim looked up at Adrian, trying to work a little magic with his beautiful blue eyes, but Adrian was to mad for that.
"Maxim, the next time you ever do that again, you're grounded until you reach my age! Is that understood?"
"But that's forever!" Maxim declared as he sat in the tub, then looked up at his father again. "Yes daddy."
"Baby, I'll see you later," He gave her a kiss, then licked his lips with a grin. "Mmmm, molasses flavored Zerhi, what a treat!"
"Get out of here!" She laughed. "Or you'll be late for sure!"
Adrian left thier quarters, entered and exited the turbolift at Counseling, and muttered as he walked in. "What a way to start off your day..."
Cutter landed in a thorn bush, which grabbed at his EVA suit as he tried to roll out and run. The jungle was crawling with thorns, sticking out and scratching away, ripping little gashes in the EVA suit. Nothing stopped him, he ran hard and fast, without thinking. Finally, the urge to flee had an escape, and it took full advantage of it.
Fruna'lin didn't run, they flew, they soared, but Cutter's wings were bound. His EVA suit was heavy and bulky and weighing him down. He tired quickly and stopped at an out of place wall, the hull of the Defiant, the border for the jungle; the infinite monolith halting him in his tracks. The scientist bent over, breathing heavily. There was something in his air, increased humidity, the smell of a forest, and Cutter realized that his EVA suit had been compromised. Cutter stopped, momentarily holding his breath, and listened, and could hear no sound; he stood up straight and looked and could not see Victor or So'ka. He was alone.
**************************************************************
"Hello?"
"Hello?"
"Ensign So'ka? Ka ... Lieutenant?"
There was no response. It was confusing, the jungle they had entered was supposed to last only a third of a deck, but it seemed to go on forever. He had lost Krieghoff and So'ka after the tiger had attacked, and now he had lost sight of the wall, the only confirmation he was still on the Defiant. His suit had been ripped open during his retreat, but he still kept it on.
"Ka! Thekh!" Cutter cursed as he stepped in a pothole, a hole filled with a wild, unkempt thorny bush. The huge, thorny claws scratched and grabbed at his ankle as he tried to pull his foot free. He looked down, to see how exactly he was caught, and was surprised to find the branches of the plant had coiled around his ankle!
"What the .... ?" He jerked his foot, trying to free it from the thorns, but the bush reacted. It jerked back, pulling his foot out from beneath him. Still standing, Cutter yanked forward again, the attempt to free himself more desperate, and again, the living plant reacted. It jerked back again, harder, pulling Cutter's foot behind him and causing him to fall forward.
He landed in the bush, and its huge, sharp thorns began tearing at all of Cutter's EVA suit. His helmet landed against a rock, cracking the transparent faceplate. The branches and vines of the strange alien plant began wrapping around Cutter's body, like ferocious, hungry tentacles, ripping at everything in their way trying to get at the flesh beneath.
Cutter screamed as the plant threw his body around, smashing him into a thick tree trunk, trying to stun him. The vines quickly got a grip around his legs and arms, and began pulling, like a torture rack. The claws dug deep into the suit, and ripped the thick fabric as the tentacles pulled, shredding it into strips, but as one vine lost its grip, another immediately replaced it. A hundred fingers were pulling at him, trying to rip him apart.
"HELP!!" he yelled out. The plant must have heard and understood because it quickly began beating against his helmet with knarled, wooden knob. The crack in Cutter's faceplate grew longer with each punch, until it shattered, imbedding tiny shards into his face. Several vines slithered in the now open faceplate and yanked the helmet off, ripping it from the chestplate anchor.
Suddenly, the EVA attachment binding his wings disappeared, ripped off by the insane plant, and Cutter's wings were free. He flapped once, trying to free his body from the clutching plant, but the vines caught the flailing feathered limbs and held them tight like his arms. Cutter could feel the tentacles punch through his feathers and encircle his wings, crisscrossing each other, tying him up tighter than the EVA suit held him.
Eventually, he was lifted off the ground entirely, strung up into the air like gutted prey. His EVA suit was gone, as was most of his uniform underneath, and he hung spread eagle over the edge of a small pond. He continued to fight, trying to pull and jerk himself free, but the plant was far stronger than he, and only got tighter the more he pulled. The wooden knob lifted up in front of him, and pushed his face around. Cutter snapped and cursed at it, helpless to do anything else, and it punched back. It lifted up higher and fell hard on the back of Cutter's skull, knocking him unconscious.
**************************************************************
"Cutter."
"Cutter."
"Cutter, wake up."
A warm, smooth hand lightly ran across Cutter's face, startling him back into awareness. He opened his eyes to another pair a few inches away. They were feminine, hazel green with a very unique pattern running through the iris, like flower petals. He could recognize those eyes anywhere. She stepped back slightly, noticing he was awake, and he could see her whole face. Her hair were as light green as her eyes, cut rather short, above her shoulders. A loose strand run down her face, past her eye, over her light skin, down to near her mouth. She was smiling.
"Zan!!" Cutter exclaimed. His joy was overwhelming that he forgot where he was and what had happened. "Zan, haha, ka! Zan, it's good to see you."
She laughed slightly, still smiling, and leaned in. Her lips embraced Cutter's in a kiss, the long missed sensation sent waves of pleasure through his mind, and he opened his mouth slightly. Zan's tongue lightly rubbed against Cutter's, but she retreated slightly, sucking his bottom lip between hers. Suddenly, she bit down hard, and pain quickly flooded his brain, washing away the pleasure.
"Ow. Thekh! Why did you do that," Cutter shouted, tasting the blood from his lip. He tried to reach his mouth, but he couldn't move his hand. It was tied with green, viney ropes, and he suddenly remembered what happened. The plant slithered up the side of his head, and forced it back forward, towards Zan. She shouldn't be here, he realized, how did she get here? "Zan?" he asked weakly, afraid.
She changed, suddenly, before his eyes. Her smile and her eyes became more sinister, darker. A shade fell across her face, darkening her eyes, and casting jagged shadows across her features. She was wearing black, and her dark green wings seemed to change into a color nearer to her clothing. "Yes, Cutter. It's me," she grinned, licking his blood from her teeth.
Cutter struggled against his bonds, but the vines just constricted tighter. He hung there, his arms and legs splayed out, his wings stretched up behind him.
"What's the matter, Cutter? Feel a little trapped?" she said, laughing evilly at her own joke.
"It's not right... It's never right." James trailed off mournfully, the sweat pouring like pulses from a phaser rifle. The ship became stifling hot, and he couldn't quite explain why.
For that matter, the ship lost it's decayed flesh background, and was back to normal. He was out of the realm of the dead, or rather, the realm of the dead disappeared and the USS Defiant came back to his reality. James scratched his head to figure out why, but couldn't come up with the answer.
Dammit, if that woman wasn't so stubborn and loyal. Corgan worried more for Rose than ever. Her unexplained behavior set him more on edge. It was part temptation, as Death pointed out, and part recklessness to keep her with him. It was then that James made up his mind. As soon as Rose and her party were at the shuttlebay, he would throw them on a shuttle, send them back to the Galaxy, and go back in to look for O'Rourke's team. It would wound her for the moment, but like James' restraint on how he treated her, it was for the better.
~"She acts so much like you, James. Sans aggressiveness, of course."~ Death mused, ~"She's loyal, and she would give her life for you if she could. Isn't that what you would do?"~
"I suppose so." James agreed. That was exactly what he had planned.
~"Hypocrite. You put yourself in danger, and don't allow your friends to do the same for you? Do you think their love for you is that shallow that they would willingly leave you to die?"~
"Prove me wrong." James challenged his alter-ego.
~"Very well. We'll see how far your 'friends' will go for you. Then, we'll see how much you truely care for them."~ Death forbodingly grimaced in anticipation.
James clued in right away, and angrily replied, "What do you mean by that?!?"
~"Didn't you know..."~ Death chided as if talking to a child, ~"The devil is a deceiver, and he has many faces. Evil is willing to tear itself apart in order to get what it wants. Clue in, Broken Head! You're in hell! I'm that sentience you worry about! It's not just death, but the amalgomation of all your fears and the fears of the Galaxy crew. I am one. I am alive. And I'll do whatever it takes to get you... even attack your beloved Rose."~
"If the devil's a deceiver, then how do I know you're not lying?"
"When everything you love... is dead. Think about it... I know I will." And with that, Death faded away again.
James looked down in fright, Death's words clinging to him like a frozen blanket. ~"Everything I love will be dead."~ He pondered, looking down at the floor. He saw on his belt loop the old security log. But for some reason it looked different. It was a musty old tome, bound in leather, etched in beaten gold, and worn from ages of neglect. He wasn't safe from interspace, not by a long shot. It was time he left, but there was so much more that had to be done.
"ROSE!" James called out, "Hurry up! We don't have much time!" Corgan waited a minute and repeated the call, but didn't hear her come. "Dammit." He cursed, "Where the hell did she end up now?"
**Meanwhile**
"Damn it Rashid, let go of me this isn't like you!" Rose yelled to her "husband" while battling to let her go.
"Oh, and why should I do that, my dear?" Rashid split a catlike grin, like he caught the canary in the act, "I see what happens when I leave you alone, my love... my heart... my only reason for living. I leave you alone, and you want to run away to the next man you find, all the while... you forget who you belong to. You conveniently forget that I am your love, your heart."
Rashid allowed the words to burn into her, enjoying the sweet power he held over her as her 'husband'. It came as an intoxicating wave, an erotic/neurotic sensation hard to beat. He was in a position of power again over his one true love. He could taste the fear as it slowly beaded down her furrowed brow. It was different however, as Rashid. This time, she was not as afraid as she would be with his old self. She still held some of that defiance that she displayed before he broke her. Victor/Rashid was going to enjoy breaking her and making her his own again.
"Damn it Rashid, my and James are just good friends that all. I do love you please."
Rashid went off on his rant again, the obsession in his eyes like hot pokers in her heart, "I cannot believe you can love that foul, boorish rogue of a man more than you love me, my love. I... I just can't see it, understand? You are supposed to love me!" He jostled her, shaking her as she tried to struggle out of his vice like grip, "ME! ONLY ME! How can you love those other men! Such low status, such barbarian intellect. Only I can love you the way you are meant to be loved!"
The young Betazoid won't put of with this, she have grown stronger in the last year of her life the young woman don't have to put up with this crap as she started to walk away.
*SWAT*
But spousal abuse didn't usually care about the victim's will to walk away. Rashid's powerful arm coiled back and slapped her with the force of a brick of latinum being hurled at her face. Rose was in shock, Rashid never hit her before not even an push, what the hell is wrong with him?
"DON'T YOU EVER... EVER... DISRESPECT ME AGAIN!" Rashid towered over the huddled, gentle Rose. He felt more hurt and betrayed than ever. His love was unfaithful. It was deep in her heart, so deep rooted that he couldn't yet drive it out. Couldn't she understand? She was his imzadi, and his alone. How many times had he tried to make her understand? What was going to make her understand?
Victor/Rashid wanted to slap her again, but felt it wasn't enough. He unlooped the belt from his uniform and coiled it into a crude whip. "Disobedient little sl*t. I'll teach you to..."
Something slammed into his back and pushed him up against the wall. He felt his face and chest slam into cold durasteel, but before he could turn around, his arm was pinned to his back and his hand was yanked all the way to his shoulderblades. A thin, lithe hand was pressed to his temple, and kept his head firmly pressed against the wall. He felt a foot kick his feet, forcing them to spread further apart.
"That's enough, Rashid." James Corgan's voice whispered like an avenging wraith, "Interspace madness is screwing with all of our heads, but that's no excuse to hit your wife."
The young woman got up from the ground with an brave look on her face and with an nasty bruies on her face and when over where James and her "husband" was.
"Rashid... go sit in the corner." James let go of the engineer. As soon as Victor/Rashid felt the urge to strike back, he found himself face to face with James' phaser pistol. He reluctantly backed off as James kept the phaser aimed, and checked on Rose. "Are you ok?"
"I fine, no man will ever do that to me again or touch my child. I am in control of my life and now more that ever since Karyn was born."
Rashid hated it all, hated that meddling James,he hated them all, but he still love his beloved Rose. "In control indeed..."
"Ok....... Where are the others?" James asked.
She wiped off the blood from her busted lip, "There in the shuttlebay with the other team members, but I'm not leaving I have an job to do here."
"We have to go get them and get off this ship. Now Rashid... calm down. Rose was just being affected by Interspace, that's all. You're being affected too. That's why we say and do things that are a bit strange. So cool your jets, gather the others, and get the hell off this ship. That's an order, engineer."
"Yes sir..." Victor/Rashid spat vehemously.
When Rashid walked off towards the shuttlebay, Rose looked at James.
"I'm staying with you, I'm not weak James and you know that I have my job to do."
"Rose, i'm not kidding. You're in danger here." ~"But no more than you would be with Rashid."~ James grumbled, making a cautious glance at Rose's fuming husband, "But I take it I can't convince you to leave?"
"Not even if you tie me up to an bed and send me back to the Galaxy."
"Alright then..." James sighed, seeing that another trait in common between the two was their stubborn streak, "We're going to have to go deep in the ship. There are four major landing sites on this ship. One of them was security, and I was already there. The bridge would be next, followed by the science department offices and arboretum. Sickbay is already clear, so we don't have to worry about that place, and engineering is nearby so we may not have to worry about that for awhile. Now are you sure I can't convince you to get off the fraggin' ship?"
She grins at him then the young woman shook her head no, Rose was too stubborn plus she would also like to show how much the young woman change since her younger days on the USS Galaxy under Price's command...no more been weak!
"I don't like this... but I can see I have no choice. Hope to God we can find the others before our Thorogen wears off. Lets move out." James spoke his prophetic words. Grim as a statue, he moved out, with Rose in the lead.
[OOC: Okay, fair warning folks, this one starts to toss out disturbing implications by the end, and Part 5 will be somewhat worse. Still withing the boundaries of the ratings, but... forwarned is forarmed.]
****
"Well, that certainly wasn't much of a challenge." The mirror-Victor looked around the room at the three occupants. "I was really hoping for something more. stimulating."
Marsh, pinned a meter up the wall facing the observation window by loops of extruded metal around his wrists and ankles that held him in an x-shape, made a soft groaning sound, but couldn't lift his head enough to focus on the animate reflection as he wheezed, ".bastard."
Hanley, held in a similar position to Marsh's left didn't manage that much and merely hung limply in his restraints.
"Oh well," the reflection sighed. "I guess we'll just try something else later. We have the rest of your lives, after all."
Turning, the reflection smiled at Victor, trapped on the other side of the observation window's reflective surface as he pounded away on it, drawing the same rippling circles at the point of impact as he had back at the mirror he'd been pulled into, but making no headway here either. "Oh don't be so impatient," it chastised lightly. "That was just something to whet our appetite, that's all. No permanent damage done. well, not yet, anyway."
Victor redoubled his efforts, making larger ripple-circles, but gaining no other advantage for his exertions. "Leave them alone you piece of."
"Leave them alone?" his reflection repeated, cutting off the rest of the words about to flow from Victor's mouth. "But we don't want to leave them alone." Taking a step to the table in the center of the lounge, he leered down at the third person in the room, Shelley O'Rourke, still unconscious but restrained by the same extruded manacles as the others. Her arms were held out from her sides and pinned at the wrists, and her legs were anchored at the corners of the table by the ankles. The reflection looked up, vile smile widening. "Especially her."
"I said leave them alone!" Victor snarled, never stopping his relentless hammering of the mirror surface in front of him. "It's me you want, not them!" ~ Got to keep him focused on me, got to, can't let him hurt one of the others. ~
'Well," his reflection paused, "that's not exactly true. I do want them - I just want you more. And the way to get you, the only way, is for us to hurt them." He blinked. "Quite terribly, I expect. Again and again and again until you break and learn to enjoy what we already know we will. It wouldn't be in our mind if we wouldn't, now would it?"
Shuddering, Victor glared at the personification of the thing he'd feared since he was old enough to understand what he was. "I'll never be what you are, what you're claiming I am. Never," he growled - even as a tiny thread of doubt trickled through him, making him wonder if he could, indeed keep that promise.
"Say you believe that all you want," his reflection laughed, dropping a hip on the table next to O'Rourke. "But deep inside we know that we're right, don't we?" He reached out and trailed a finger along her cheek, the unconscious girl stirring slightly at the contact.
Behind the glass of the window, Victor stopped in mid-word and stared at his right hand in horror, the tingle of contact with O'Rourke's face still present. ~ I felt that. ~ His eyes suddenly went wide as what his reflection had been saying suddenly sank in on a new level. ~ Feel what he does. he's really going to make me feel it! Every touch, every. And I won't be able to stop it, won't be able to turn it off, won't be able to. ~
"Keep from enjoying it?" his reflection finished from the table. "Of course we won't. Eventually, anyway." He laughed once, the sound barely penetrating the sick horror running through Victor's mind. "I'm so glad you came to visit, I haven't had this much fun in . forever." He clapped his hands once, happily. "Ready to start?"
"No," Victor whispered. "No, don't."
His reflection frowned. "Now that could get tedious. Why don't we just nip it in the bud, shall we? No more conversations for a while, it's time for us just sit back and enjoy the ride."
The surface in front of Victor shimmered, a wave of light running across it. "That should take care of that," the reflection nodded. "Sound passes in, but not out. For," he added, "everyone but me that is. We wouldn't want us to miss out on anything important, after all." He turned back to Shelley. "Now, where were we.?"
"Dammit!" Victor, clenched his hands into fists and pounded on the inner surface of the observation window, the sensation almost - but not quite - blocking the feel of O'Rourke's cheek under his fingertips as the reflection stroked it again. "You're dead, do you hear me? Dead!"
In the back of his head, a dull red warmth started to build, unnoticed in the anger and fear of the moment. More of a gentle stirring in the lake of his mind, as if a current had just shifted below the surface and released warmer water into the body of the lake, than a surface-disturbing phenomena, it began to slowly shift the temperature of the entire lake. "Leave her alone, leave all of them alone. Dead!"
Ignoring Victor, his reflection stroked O'Rourke's cheek again - and then leaned closer to whisper, "Wake up. Time to play."
"Mnnrrph."
"Wake up, O'Rourke. It isn't nearly as much fun if you're not looking back at me."
"Unnnh.?"
"That's closer, come on, just a little more."
"Hnn. Wha?"
"Ahhh. there we are!"
"What? Where am.?" He eyes snapped open. "Krieghoff you bastard!"
"Hello to you, too, O'Rourke." The reflection smiled Victor's pleasant smile. "All rested now?"
She started to reach for him, felt her arm immobilized - and then sucked in a gasp as she realized that the rest of her was immobilized as well. "No, what are you doing? Let me go!"
The reflection blinked, expression and voice still pleasantly cool. "Where would be the fun in that, I ask?"
"I mean it Krieghoff - let me go!" she snapped, the anger in her voice edged ever-so-thinly with fear.
"No, no I don't think so. You'd just run away again and then I'd have to go to all the trouble of catching you again." He brightened. "Maybe later though."
Eyes narrowed, Shelley started at him. "Run away?" ~ What is he talking about? He doesn't know, does he? ~
"Of course, run away," he nodded. "You're so very good at it after all. Lots of practice and all that." He leaned closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Personally. I'm just a little disappointed in you, O'Rourke. All of those people dying, all of them giving their lives for you - and you sat there and studied Federation law while they screamed out their last breaths into the silence of space as their ships did around them."
~ He knows! ~ "No," she whispered in shame. "No it wasn't like that. I."
"Of course it was, O'Rourke," he interrupted. "You were scared, afraid - so you ran away. Ran and hid behind your little law books. Ran and hid as they died by the thousands so you didn't have to."
"No," she replied, trying to defend herself even knowing that Victor was right. "No, it wasn't like that, not at all." The voice inside her, the one that spoke to her on the nights when she couldn't sleep under the weight of her shame and guilt, laughed mockingly as the words stumbled out of her mouth, adding to her shame. ~ Why? Why did it have to be *him?* Why did it have to be Krieghoff who found out? ~ "Damn you Krieghoff, I'm not a coward," she whispered, knowing the lie for what it was even before she spoke it. "I'm not!"
"Really?" His smile never wavered. "That wasn't very convincing, O'Rourke. Not convincing at all."
"I'm not!" she hissed desperately. ~ I am. He knows I am. Oh God, he knows. He knows, and he'll tell everyone; tell them all to get back at me for all the things I've said to him. And they'll all hate me, they'll turn their backs on me and I'll be alone, just like Krieghoff.. ~
"That's a delicious idea, O'Rourke," he nodded. "Shall we find out what happens? Your friends Marsh and Hanley are right here." He pointed past her head.
~ How did he know. I must have whispered it. Oh God, what am I going to do? If he tells them, they'll." She craned her head back, just able to see the upper half of Marsh and the upper third of Hanley as they hung there on the wall. "What've you done?" she whispered in horror. "Christ, what did you do to them?"
"Oh nothing really," the reflection conceded. "A few bumps and bruises. They 're fine - for now." He squinted at them. "I think Lt. Marsh is in better shape than Ensign Hanley though. He isn't drooling on himself anyway."
"Isn't."
"Drooling on himself, yes. That's what I said." The reflection peered at her closely. "Are you paying attention to what I 'm saying, O'Rourke?" His voice remained pleasant, despite the words he was uttering. "I wouldn't like it if you weren't paying attention to me. I'd have to do something to focus your attention." One finger reached out to trace a line down her cheek. "
She flinched away from his touch, a hint of panic in her voice. "Krieghoff you bastard! Don't touch me!"
"Don't touch you?" The reflection leaned closer; it's eyes staring into hers. "Why.? Oh. How amusing."
In the mirror-realm, Victor's ceaseless pounding on the surface in front of him continued as he focused his thoughts on getting out, freeing himself to try and bury the feel of O'Rourke's skin under his finger. ~ Have to get out. Have to stop him. Have to *kill* him! ~
The slow buildup of heat continued in the back of his mind, unnoticed in his fixation on escape. Beneath the surface, the currents grew hotter and hotter, starting to rise and swallow up more and more of the space around them, the heat spreading with a slow, inevitable pace.
"What's amusing?" O'Rourke snapped, trying to hide the slowly building fear inside her. ~ He's insane - even if he wasn't before, he is now. The theragen must have worn off like Marsh said. ~
"You are," the mirror-Victor laughed softly. "Poor little coward. Little draft-dodger. So scared and afraid inside."
"I am not a coward!" she lied. "I'm not!"
"Then why are you so afraid that I'll tell your friends here?" he asked, pointing to Marsh and Hanley. At her panicked look, he shook his head. "Oh, don't worry. They're both unconscious still, they can't hear us. It's still our little secret."
"Damn you," she whispered. "Damn you to hell."
"Why thank you, O'Rourke, that's one of the nicest things you've ever said to me," he laughed.
Pulling at her restraints, she tried to get free, the urge to hit him, to wipe that smug expression off his face almost overwhelming. "Dammit, Krieghoff! Let me go!"
"Oh no, O'Rourke, not yet. We have so many things to talk about first." Mirror-Victor's smile widened, turning his face into a mask of leering evil. "So many things to do, first." He regarded her for a moment, enjoying the slow, horror-filled widening of her eyes. "Now, where shall we begin, hmmm?"
O'Rourke simply stared at him, unable to speak, afraid that anything she said would lead to the horrors she'd seen in the reflection's eyes and heard in his voice.
"No ideas?" He laughed. "Oh, of course you do, O'Rourke, you're just full of them. You're just afraid to tell me one." He regarded her again. "How about this, then? I'll tell you one of yours, and then we'll see what we can do to make it come true - won't that be fun?"
~ Oh please, please no.. ~ Dozens of things flashed through her head, from the merely embarrassing to the speechlessly horrible, the images running so fast that she couldn't sort them all out. ~ Please, no. ~
The reflection leaned closer, eyes locking on hers. "Oh, so many to chose from, so many wonderful things to do together. However will I choose?"
~ What is he doing? Reading my thoughts? ~ A new wave of horror slipped through her. ~ But he's not. the interphase! It. maybe it's doing something to him, giving him powers - like the energy barrier at the galactic rim does to some people. ~ The idea, instead of slowing the flood of images dredged up from the dark depths of her mind, served only to speed them up. ~ Oh no - if he can really read my thoughts, then he knows. he can see what I'm thinking and he knows that I. ~
"Of course I can," he spoke up. "And I do. I know all of them; all the little thoughts and fears you keep locked away, all of the ones that you don 't want anyone to. Oh. Oh my." He stopped, his terrible, inhuman smile returning. "Now I never expected *that* from you. How. perfect."
O'Rourke's heart skipped in a sudden wash of panic. ~ Oh God no, he saw it. He knows! ~
"I certainly do." The reflection leaned closer, forcing her to draw back to the limits of her restraints, heart pounding. "And since you asked so nicely."
"No," she whispered, as a knife appeared out of nowhere in his hand and he started to lean forward. "Please, Krieghoff, don't."
OOC - Takes place between "A Mirror Cracked," Parts 2 and 3
"Zan, what's going on?"
She stepped toward his hanging body, "Can't you figure it out, Cutter?" Her tone was snide and degrading.
He sighed, whimpered and dropped his head. His gaze fell to the pond he was suspended over and he could see his reflection. Dark green black vines were wrapped around most of his arms and legs, and encircled his torso and neck. His EVA suit had been ripped off, only tatters remained covering his waist, knee and shoulder. The uniform too had been ripped in several places, revealing the scratched flesh of his chest and leg. His white wings were also tied by the vines, stretched out behind him, reflecting in the pool in an alternating pattern of dark and light.
"Can't you make sense of it all, Cutter?" Zan asked again, "Can you figure out anything?"
Cutter forced thoughts to form, trying to figure it out. He was aboard the Defiant, right? In the recreation decks? This was supposed to be an arboretum, but it was too large. The Defiant had been dead and lifeless for over a hundred years, but here a jungle flourished, thicker and denser than anything he'd seen before. Not only that, but the plants were alive, sentient or being controlled. And Zan. What was she? Was she real? A figment of his imagination? The blood still oozing from his lip was real, imagination can't do that.
"Hmmm? No? Ka, you're stupid, Cutter. Others have figured it out, by now. Even that brainless security officer Corgan," Zan said, lifting Cutter's head to meet her stare. "But you can't. You're a science officer, you're supposed to be able to figure anything out. That's your job. The ship's brain. But, you and your think tank haven't the foggiest clue, do you?"
Cutter turned his head away, trying to ignore his friend, but Zan persisted, "Do you?!" she demanded. A thin vine circled Cutter's head, its thin thorns scratching his scalp. It twisted, forcing him to face forward again, and held him there with surprising strength.
"I do," he said weakly, defiantly.
"Oh? Really? You do? Well, then, why don't you educate me? Let's start small. Where are you now?" Zan asked, stepping back and folding her arms.
"The Defiant."
"Oh? Do you see any signs of a starship? I don't. Surely you'd be able to see a wall somewhere. Hull plating, deck plating, a hand rail? Do you see anything like that?"
He tried to look around, but the vine around his head held it straight. "No."
"So, you have no proof to support your statement. You assume? By your own rules of science, can you truthfully say you're on a starship?"
"No."
"Then lets move on. What about me? What am I?" she asked. She began to touch herself, feeling her own solidity. Then she threw open her arms, and her wings unveiled to their full span, at least twice her height. The display was impressive, a demonstration of 'her.' But, it was more than that. She was teasing him. She was free, while he was bound.
The questions resonated in his skull, but try as he might, Cutter could not come up with an answer. "I, I don't know."
She stopped, letting her arms fall to her sides. Zan stepped forward again, inches away from Cutter's face. "I told you. Your too thick to figure anything out," she said, knocking hard on his head. "You cling desperately to your science. Find a problem, run an experiment, chart the results. Gravity pulls things to the ground, like charges repel, time constantly moves forward. Things repeat, cause and effect, always true. What happens when your science fails you? What happens when the results change from experiment to experiment? You're so dependent on this tool, Cutter, that your helpless without it. A machine could be trained to do what you do, you are useless."
Cutter didn't respond. He couldn't. He wasn't able to think, he wasn't able to remember anything, he constantly surprised by the existence of his bounds, each continuous discovery adding to this growing fear that was filling his mind. He couldn't remember anything except for Zan's insults. He was stupid, he was a failure.
Suddenly, there was a rustling nearby. Zan turned, startled, then returned her gaze to Cutter's. She smiled, knowingly, mischievously, and curled her wings in front of her, cloaking herself in the dark green. Like a ghost, she disappeared, and the rustling moved closer.
A figure stepped out from between the bushes, and Cutter smiled. "Lieutenant! Lieutenant Krieghoff, ka sema, help me."
Victor stepped forward into the light. He was wearing his full Starfleet uniform, all signs of his EVA suit were gone. He walked forward, smiling at Cutter. "Well, well. What have we here?"
"Help me, cut me loose, Lieutenant, please," Cutter asked again.
"But, you look so broken strung up like that. I only wish I had done it myself."
"Wha, what?" Cutter asked, confused. His breathing started to quicken as fear once again racked his body. Victor stood there, refusing to help him. He was smiling, a hideous, evil grin. The urge to flee fell over Cutter, he wanted to fly away from the predator that stood before him, hungrily contemplating his prey. Cutter struggled against his thorny bounds, thrashing about, trying to flap his wings, but the vines just gripped harder, strangling him.
"Look at you. Like a fly caught in a spider's web," Victor laughed. "You're trapped, and there's no one to save you."
"But, its your job to help me. Please! I've helped you."
"You've been no help to me! What have you done? What have you done but cause harm and slow us down?" Victor screamed. "You're a scientist, you were sent here to figure out what was going on, but have you done that at all? Could you explain why the water stood still on deck 4? Have you learned anything about the dimension we're trapped in?"
Not again. "No, I couldn't."
"You didn't even realize that ozone would ignite if we tried to burn through the door. We tried to phaser through to the lab you wanted in. You almost got us all killed! You almost killed me and So'ka like you killed Ensign Manley."
"I didn't kill Manley! That was an accident."
Victor reached up and backhanded Cutter, "You should have known! You should have warned him, you should have watched him. It's your fault Manley is dead! Its your fault we know nothing about this ship or this dimension. You've hurt us all."
Victor's attack loosened the vines around Cutter's head, and it dropped down. He was staring at the pool beneath him again. He could see himself hanging, and Victor standing next to him in his EVA suit. He was still talking, but Cutter wasn't listening any longer. Wait -- EVA suit? Cutter used the last of his strength to look up. Victor still stood before him, ranting. He still wore his crisp, clean uniform. Cutter looked back down in the pool, and Victor's reflection wore an EVA suit. It was looking at Cutter, directly into his eyes, pounding, like a man trapped beneath the ice.
Victor slapped him again, knocking the thoughts out of Cutter's mind. "Failure. I'd kill you, but it would hardly be sporting with you tied up like that. I think I'll let you hang there, until your strangled by one of these vines," he said finally before turning and walking away.
Laughing echoed from across the forest, as Zan reappeared, throwing open her wings and folding them gently behind her. "Your crew has deserted you, Cutter."
When he gave no response, she grew angry and stepped closer. "Look at you. I told you not to enter Starfleet, but you never listened to me. Now your hanging there, you'll hang until you die. You have no friends, not one! No one cares about you in Starfleet. You should have stayed home. You should have taught at the university, but you chose to leave and now, you have no life to speak of. You're a failure, admit it."
But, Cutter just hung there, staring at the pond below. "Admit it!" Zan screamed, "You're a failure, you're worthless. You're a waste of carbon. Admit it!"
It was true, all of it. He didn't have to admit it, he didn't have orally confirm what Zan was saying because it was true. Something died inside of him and he stopped fighting. It was true, he was a failure.
Zan sat quietly, slowing fading from visibility, but Cutter didn't notice. He was lost in his own grief. The vines relaxed their grip, and Cutter eventually dropped into the water below. A lifeless stone falling, causing nothing more than a ripple.
Chad Vicenik Lt. Cutter Kara'nin Chief of Astrophysics USS Galaxy
Ella tried to pull her hand away, dig her nails in, kick free. Nothing worked. His grip was unyielding, the thick fingers easily remained fastened around her wrist. She tried to use her other hand to pry free, while digging her heels into the ground to stop their progress, but that only annoyed him and earned her a quick backhand that had her seeing stars.
Well, I know what would have happened if I had tried that back then, a small part of her brain thought when she could focus again. There had been a time once when she had scoffed at women in theater or holo-novels who would always drop after the first smack. Later, of course, she had found out that they had had good reason. It really really hurt.
The tiny sliver of her brain that seemed to be firing synapses properly told her that it was impossible to escape, that they, the brain and Ella's body, had been down this road before. Literally. But the rest of her brain didn't care much. It was shrieking at her hysterically. Her body seemed to be in agreement, it had started shuddering nonstop since the first view of the alley.
Dark and grimy, there's no escape. No escape, her mind babbled to her.
Ella thought she would have given anything at that moment to be free, might have offered this man anything if he would let her free. Of course, he only wanted to beat her into a bloody pulp so the offer wasn't really worth much. But if she could have sold her soul to escape this, she might have. She would probably have even sold her own mother, although that really wasn't much of a loss...
Someone will find me, Ella thought desperately. Someone will find me like before.
Ella screamed as the first volley of fists descended.
Someone will find me.
"Legate, you have the conn. Don't start shooting before I come back. Don't scratch my ship either, or I'll flay you alive" Bhrode commanded.
Kylar settled himself into the central chair. He smoothed his sinewy fingers over the LCD panels detailing all ships functions at the ends of the concave arms. So much power at his hands. If he only had the signal from his contact to begin the conquest....
"Where will you be, Oh Captain-My Captain?" Dripping sarcasm rippled from the Liaison Oficer's mouth.
Brhode's voice echoed in the background.. someone asked him a question... then he was gone. Curran for all intents and purposses couldn't care less about the snivelling human.
He stared outside to the hanging Tholians, still cruising in with their cargo at a languished pace. The other XO, Von Ernst, was nowhere to be seen. She'd just been swallowed by a tear in space. Nothing remained.
"Kylar." The Kelvan's emotions flared up under the auspice of someone daring to use his name.
"You will address me as Legate." He tapped his fingers over the dormant tactical control at his right hand.
"Excuse me, sir?" Above him, where the voice had emanated, was the Andorian female as the Kelvan spun around to address the perpetrator who was obviously nearby...
There was no one near Soleri. He glanced past her to the Engineering console behind her, but it was yet another female. The voice he had heard was distinctly male.
"We are disappointed in you, Kylar." Behind him this time. He twisted his head back forward again, ire rising exponentially.
Standing in the middle of the command pit were two huge creatures, dangling a multitude of tentacles. They were a dark shroud, rippling in the dimmed emergency lights the bridge was housed under. A pair of tentacles reached out from one as it floated towards him, and wrapped their leathery grip around his throat.
"You have disappointed the Kelvan empire, Kylar." The tentacles writhing around the features drew itself closer. The scent of antiseptic grew strong in the Legate's nostrils.
"I don't understand?" He gasped as the crackle of the leather rubbing against itself imbued its deadly grip on his throat.
"Of course not! You have been among these infidels for too long. Their inferiority has dominated you. You are now human in every way. Why have you left us?"
His air intake was getting shorter. He could feel his windpipe crushing. He reached up to pull at the tentacle contracting under him. Vision was getting spotty. Why was no one helping him? Why didn't anyone on the Bridge help him?
"They cannot help you. They know superiority when they see it. Even they recognize failure and the need to reprimand. You have become a liability, Kylar. Unless you can alter yourself back to your original form." The grip relaxed itself and he felt the deathgrip loosen and pull away. He coughed and rubbed his reddened throat.
"I have been trying -cough- but it is difficult under these conditions." He coughed, and a spot of blood arose to brush his pale lips. He rubbed it off his cuff.
"See? Even your blood is human. You are weak, Kylar. You have failed us. Can you change form now and come back to us?"
Curran closed his eyes, and tried to see deep within his genetic encoding. He saw into the strands of RNA, and spotted the helix of his own Kelvan genetics. He grasped it with his minds eye and pushed it forward, like a General marching out to his troops to give orders.
He opened his eyes as he felt the genes fighting within him to gain control. He glanced to his hand, watched as what appeared to be hundreds of ants squirming under his skin. The comfort level was agonizing. He could feel the pain of change encompass him and his vision went red.
"Do it, Kylar. Prove your worth to the Empire!"
The skin churned under both of his hands. The layers bubbled like fire melting plastic. They turned black, charring away the flesh. Through the f ire of pain that assaulted him, he forced himself to look, almost morbidly. The ebony was grafting his way up his arms, and tentacles began to form, unfolding out from pleated folds within and under his skin. Blood dripped on the floor.
The pain was incredible! It was like a slow torture as the fingernails fell away from his dead tips... then it was gone.
"He has failed us." A great sigh. "Kylar Curran, you know the penalty for failure."
His eyes flared open, and his original hands had returned. He moaned. "I don't want to be human. I want to be Kelvan! I AM Kelvan! You cannot take that away from me!" He gripped the arms of the chair as he shot himself forward. Someone behind him was asking him a question. He couldn't hear it through the din in his ears.
"Your own human failings and emotions have defeated you, Curran. You are no longer Kelvan by your own decree. You have defeated yourself."
Kylar gripped his hnads together and rammed them against his temples. He tried again, without luck to bring his Kelvan genes together once again. They had retreated too far into the nuclei to be reached. The Generals had retreated from his command. They had mutinied.
The other being stepped forward. "Even your genes realize their host has failed them. They will not obey the command of one who cannot defeat his own failings and put the Empire before his own needs." Her female voice lilted over him, putting him at ease.
"You are no longer my son." He raised his reddened eyes, dripping with moisture. His knuckles had gone white. He was trapped within his own body and couldn't get out!
"Your individuality has receded. The penalty for failure and treason is death. If you have any trace of Kelvan remaining in you, perform your duties with whatever honour you have remaining." The male Kelvan had taken the lead once again. The female traced a livened tentacle over Kylar's cheek, then drew it away upon an angry gaze from the male.
"Exile...." The word hung inthe air, unspoken by any of the parties. Maybe it was Kylar's own subconscious mind delivering the message. He blinked hard, pushing down the bile that had risen in his throat. Upon opening them, the two Kelvan's had disappeared.
He pulled himself from his command chair, glanced at the Tholians making their way across the tactical portion of the screen, and deliberated firing on them. If he was going to die, he would take those who were at fault with him.
"Soleri, bring the phasers and photon torpedoes online. Target the Defiant and the Tholians in a widespread fusillade."
He stood, and marched forward to the viewscreen, trampling his broken and blackened fingernails on the carpet underneath.
"Excuse me, sir? Brhode ordered you not to fire!"
He spun on one polished heel and stared down the Tactical officer. Behind her stood the two Kelvans nodding in acceptance.
His fingers flew over the Ops console, activating the emergency weapons locker at its side, releasing the weapon. He cradled.
"Destroy every ship in this sector, Crewman!"
*****
Crikey! The Kelvan has lost it! I guess this makes up for the lack of posting on my part. :P
NRPG: We've taken the liberty of removing the fire suppression systems in this log due to the Alert status we are now in, and the possibility that Brhode would have them off in case he wanted to shoot someone himself. *neener* Kelly. :P
"Excuse me, sir? Brhode ordered you not to fire!" Sendi stated indignantly. Just who did that Kelvan think he was, anyway? Ordering the destruction of a Federation vessel with personnel onboard was against everything that the Federation stood for. Sendi's temper rose and she glared down at the Liaison officer.
He spun on one polished heel and stared down the Tactical officer. Behind her stood the two Kelvans nodding in acceptance. His fingers flew over the Ops console, activating the emergency weapons locker at its side, releasing the weapon he now cradled.
"Destroy every ship in this sector, Crewman!" he shouted, unnecessarily.
Sendi drew her own phaser in response, leveling it across the tactical arch. "Drop your weapon, Legate Curran. You have no authority to open fire on Federation vessels, let alone Tholian ones. Captain Bhrode left you specific orders not to. Now return that weapon to its locker and stand down." sh'Soleri snarled, leveling her weapon at the Legate. She relished the chance to take the high and mighty Liaison Officer down a notch. In her mind, the Liaison Corps was an evil perpetrated by warmongering admirals who didn't understand what really went on in the field.
A tension hung thick between them. Kelvan and Andorian. Two species bent on conquest and bred for war. Curran did not doubt the Andorian would fire at him, but she also would face the wrath of Brhode for firing the weapon on his bridge. If she missed, the viewscreen behind him would suffer damage, possibly irrepairable.
"I am not a Starfleet officer who falls under Brhode's command, Soleri." He drew out the icy words, feeling them roll across his tongue like molasses on a cold day. "Would you fire on the Liaison Corps, Lieutenant? It has been known to be career-ending for some, and I for one would make it my mission to end yours. Unless of course..." he nodded to the phaser now directed at him. "You have that set for kill."
"I don't like taking prisoners, but in your case, I'll make an exception." Sendi's lips contorted with just a twinge of malice and she looked upon the piteous cretin that dared actually point a weapon at her.
The Kelvans standing behind Soleri were becoming agitated. ~Kill her! She is interfering with your duty! Would you let this insolent species interfere with the superiority of the Kelvan Empire?~ The words echoed in his head, and they were thunderous. He tried to focus on the Andorian who was resolute in her duty herself. ~You have lost the Kelvan in you, Curran. You are too human.~ The disappointment could be felt in him, oozing over his own thoughts in despair.
His rage grew within him, determined to win the war that was fighting him from within. He rammed his free palm to his eye, rubbing it hard, trying and failing to push their thoughts out of his head.
~Failure... failure... failure... kill them all... destroy them... all must die... a Kelvan would not hesitate... You value your life over the Empire... failure... failure... failure...~
"NO!!!!! You will not tell me what I am!" His eyes, reddened with rage, took them over to the Kelvans behind the Andorian.
"How's this for the Empire? Does this sacrifice suffice for you?" He fired the phaser, its arc looping towards the Andorian at the Kelvan Judgement...
Sendi dodged to the side, realizing as she went, that his weapon was not set for stun, and that she could not possibly avoid it. The burst sliced across her torso and the pain shot through her entire body. She'd only been shot once before, by an esoteric ballistic weapon during a pirate-supession mission on the Relentless. And this hurt ten times as badly.
Behind her, an engineering console exploded, and a woman cried out as she was sent sprawling to the deck, covered in third-degree burns. Sendi made her decision as she steadied herself. Curran was preparing for a second shot, and in her injured state, she couldn't afford that.
A pulse of light stroked out between them, for a brief instant connecting her and Legate Curran. It lifted him up and dropped him to the deck behind his console, obscuring her aim. But the stun blast did not knock him out. Between his Kelvan blood and the sheer amount of adrenaline running in his system, he would take at least one more hit to down. He sprung to his feet, enraged.
She was fast.
But he was faster. Kylar's second shot shattered Lieutenant Soleri's left shoulder, but her dominant hand remained unimpaired. She pressed the firing plate, and her second blast knocked him against the viewport.
Lysander was finally beginning to react to the shootout, as were the rest of the bridge crew. "Security and medical to the bridge." Soleri said as the Legate staggered and finally collapsed.
The pain was overwhelming. Her shoulder was a mess and her uniform blouse was covered in blood in two places. Grasping futilely at her wounds, the beautiful Andorian went down, and curled into a fetal position. In the corner of her eye, she saw the medics coming onto the bridge, followed by a security team.
At least now she wouldn't have to obey Hawksley and Curran's orders to destroy the Tholian ships.
359