Veloras Itana

Beneath The Darkness Between The Stars Pt. XIII "The End Of The Beginning" "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And, if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~Friedrich Nietzsche "Thirsty." Everett whispered. I brought him another pitcher of water, and filled the basin to wash his hands and face. He was so dry. His skin had begun to flake off with every movement. A thin, fine layer of snowy skin pooled at the crease in his neck and between the bends in his arms. I guessed it was some form of psoriasis, but what did I know. I was no doctor. No, the "doctor" was dead. I started to cry, remembering the way Danella Sil had killed Jai. I was so tired. Quickly, wiping away the tears, I turned back to face Everett. I was all he had now. Such as I was. I did my best to make him more comfortable, but nothing seemed to work. The attacks started shortly after I'd dragged Jai's body to the hold and laid him out with the others. They were subtle at first, some coughing and complaints of dryness. As the hours (days?) passed they grew steadily worse. Complaints of joint and muscle pain that I believed were due to dehydration began almost immediately. There were steps listed right in the emergency med kits to combat such an occurrence, but despite my following them to the letter he continued to deteriorate. Everett seemed to age right in front of me, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. His hair took on an ashy tone, and began falling out in large clumps. His fingernails yellowed, as did what skin still clung to his bones. I don't know why I did it, but I can remember saving the hair and some of the shed skin in specimen containers. Who knows, maybe someday someone could figure out what killed him. "What killed him." I muttered to myself as I stood listening to Everett's laborious rattling breaths dwindle along with my hope. I was numb by then. I felt nothing. I thought nothing. I watched it as if watching a projected image on a wall screen. He was already dead to me, they all were. Alone. He died quietly, in a very unassuming manner a short time later. His body seemed to reject his life much in the same way the immune system rejects a virus. By the end he was bone dry, shriveled and withered like a dead leaf. I know how strange that sounds, but it is the only description I can give which is even remotely accurate. He appeared to mummify from the inside out, squeezing the last vestiges of life from him as it progressed. He opened his eyes once in the final moments before he died. He reached for me, and held my hand with a strength I no longer thought him capable of. His lips moved, but there was only a barely audible raspiness coming from them. His eyes widened, as if he knew the end was here, and then he spoke. Five words were all he managed in the end. But, those words haunt my dreams. Coming in a swirling wind of voices as I try to sleep. Morton, Christiansen, Danella Sil, Benjamin Artel...poor sweet Jai. I hear them all in my sleep. All saying the same five words. "We did this to ourselves." He exhaled sharply in a hail of weak, dry coughs. Then I was alone. I could hear the sounds one normally takes for granted aboard a starship. I could hear everything. Every creak, every groan, every whimper of sound the ship generated, and I jumped at all of it. My mind magnified even the slightest sound from a whisper to a roar in my ear. I never slept until unconsciousness took me against my will. I rarely ate, and when I did nothing had taste. It was a means to an end, no more. Food was nothing more than a way of keeping me alive for one more day. Primal instinct and not an intellectual desire to survive was all that kept me going. I will spare you the more torrid details of this time. Mainly due to the fact that I am loathed to relive them. Suffice it to say that I had reverted in almost every way to an earlier stage of sentient development. A creature driven by fear and consumed by only one purpose. To stay alive. Sometimes the predators that stalked my existence were creations of my own mind. Sometimes they were not. Over time the two threats merged into one, and for the longest time, I assumed it all to be hallucination. How long was I out there? I know only what they told me. The Star Fleet search and rescue teams that were dispatched to search for the Antioch had long since given up by the time I was found. And, I can tell you that according to every chronometer on Terra, almost nine months passed between the time we left Deep Space Nine and the time I finally arrived in San Francisco. But, those figures seem somehow transitive to me. For all I know all of these events could have happened in the expanse of one long never-ending day. Inside my mind, when I'm alone like I am now, it remains a concern that even those who rescued me were lying. They weren't even real. None of these events ever really happened. My entire life from that point to this is a farce generated in a laboratory for some reason known only to those who were generating it. How's that for irrational? But, is it? When you spend months of your life in an hallucinatory state, how do you truly know when the nightmare mirage ends and real life begins again? That's where I live sometimes. It's a scary place that I wish I'd never seen. A place that I may never truly escape thanks to...who? I don't remember. That's the one snag in all this, and what terrifies me more than anything else. To this day I have no idea who it was that held us there. I don't know who was behind those murders. I don't know who it was that tortured me ceaselessly, driving me mad in the process after Everett was gone and I stood alone in the cockpit of the Antioch staring out into the crimson-flecked darkness. And, you know what? The Prophet's be willing, I never will. ...To Be Concluded. Blind your eyes to what you see You can't embrace it Leave it well enough alone And don't remember Cut your pride and watch it bleed You can't deny it Pain you know you can't ignore I don't remember If I can Remember To know this will Conquer me If I can Just walk alone And try to escape Into me ~Disturbed

From: Lieutenant Junior Grade Veloras Itana To: Lieutenant Commander Marris Krax, Lieutenant Junior Grade Chris "Trichon" Trinecar, Ensign Zackary Yuuko-Chen, Ensign T'lan "Elaine" Delgado, CC: Captain Kristopher J'cin, Captain Sorehl Re: Passive Weapons Project: Design Specifications and Computer Simulated Mock-up Hardware Design System Functional Overview: The EMP or Ionic Pulse Cannon is designed to be the first integrated passive weapon designed for ship to ship or ship to surface combat. A focused high yield electromagnetic pulse is emitted from the primary turret array which disables shielding and deflector capability. The secondary cannon can then be fired to disable the enemy vessel's internal systems and temporarily incapacitate its inhabitants should such an action be deemed neccessary. Affected systems would then need to be reconfigured and restarted before returning to normal operation which will allow for total incapacitation without destruction, severely limiting loss of property or life on either side. Each cannon would be installed on opposing sides of the saucer section in shielded bays behind isolation doors to protect the rest of the ship against malfunctions and residual electro-magnetic energy. Both hardware and software designs follow. Hardware and Connection Hardpoint Design: Hardware for the Ionic Pulse or EMP (Electro-magnetic Pulse) Cannon consists of two retractable turrets mounted within recoilling or roll-bar hard point connectors to either side of the saucer section. These hardware and software systems will be contained in independent shielded bays during normal ship operation. Since these bays will be highly shielded the turrets may remain retracted during the hot stand-by and initiation sequences and allowed to remain within the bays until the beam generators reach critical mass. However, the cannon turrets MUST be deployed prior to initiation of the firing sequence to avoid disruption of the ship's primary systems including but not limited to the primary shields, deflector array and navigational deflectors as these are the weapons primary targets. Due to the nature of this weapon and the massive electromagnetic field that it will generate, energetic electroplasma power will be supplied to both primary and auxilliary systems through a network of nitrium power transmission waveguides installed inside the generator bays allowing for independent power regulation to the cannons and isolating the system from the rest of the ship. Hard point connectors to the firing aparatus MUST be segregated from contact with any portion of the ship during the firing procedure and can not be used while the ablative armor is deployed. Primary electroplasma supply will come from EPS taps one and three, on the main power transfer conduits but never interact with any of the ship's pre-existing tactical systems.. Secondary supply comes from the Auxiliary EPS taps on twelve fusion reactors on deck 6 in the Primary Hull. No portion of this system should be installed or operated from reactors in the engineering hull as a fail safe in case of weapons system overload or in the highly unlikely event of a feedback burst. System Crossover Exception: Two parallel molybdenum-jacketed tri-phase waveguide conduit networks distribute the field energy to the conductivity elements built into the turret framework. However, crossovers between the Primary Hull and the Engineering Hull permit field generators in one hull to feed the entire spacecraft if necessary. Cruise Mode operating rules require at least one field generator to be active at all times in each hull, although the CONN Officer may call for activation of a second generator when extreme maneuvers are anticipated. During Alert modes, all operational units are brought to hot standby for immediate activation. Reduced Power Mode rules permit a single field generator to feed the entire spaceframe using the field conduit umbilical connects between the Primary and Engineering Hulls but should be physically terminated prior to reaching EPS tap junctions designated for use by the EMP Cannon. Software System: Data transmission is accomplished with a network of multiplexed bio-neural monofilament fiber lines. A series of three redundant major bio-neural trunks (two primary, one auxilliary), link each of the computer cores that regulate the system to the primary computer core but remain on an isolated circuit, shielded from direct interaction with any of **Excalibur's primary systems. Any individual trunk is designed to be able to handle the total data load of the targetting and firing mechanism. The primary BNR trunk will also provide information links to the 380 bio-neural gel pack subprocessors located throughout the ship allowing for weapon activation from remote locations should primary bridge functions be compromised. From these subprocessors, additional BNR links connect to each control panel or display surface. Two secondary optical data networks provide protected linkages to key stations; these backup systems are physically separated from the primary bio-neural system and from each other negating the possibility of a feedback loop. Additional design notes, schematic design specifications and simulated design mock-ups are contained on the attached file. End Report **Excalibur's design specs were used for frame of reference points only. EMP cannon designs can be modified for installation on most existing starship designs.

Beneath The Darkness Between The Stars Pt. XII "The Executioner's Waltz" We searched the ship from top to bottom, every square centimeter of it but, Everett was gone. Internal sensors only showed three life signs. Mine, Jai's and Danella Sil's. Neither Jai nor I was exactly certain when he had gone missing. It was strange though, the panic we all shared the first several times this happened seemed to have lost its edge. We were getting used to it. One of the first signs of imminent defeat. Complacency. Danella was, of course, still asleep. Leaving Jai and I to search alone. We knew we wouldn't find him but, we tried anyway. If for no other reason than to feel as if we were doing something. To feel as if we still had a modicum of control over our situation. That effort was as futile as the search itself. After several hours combing the ship, I sat at navigational control in the cockpit fighting sleep myself now. I can remember dreading sleep even in the early days of our capture. In many respects I still do. I never quite recovered from that aspect of our captivity. That was when I developed my affinity for Terran coffee. I drank it by the gallon aboard the Antioch, clinging to my coffee cup the way a drowning man would cling to a reed in a flood. "No sign of him I take it?" Jai came into the cockpit and rested his hand on the back of my chair. "No. Did you really think there would be?" I replied, still staring out at the eerie crimson ribbon that streaked through the blackness beyond the forward view-screen. "I guess not." Jai sank into the chair next to me, putting a hand on my knee. I laced my fingers around his and we sat there for quite a while staring out at the darkness without saying anything. By that point there was little left to say. "Fish in a barrel." Jai finally spoke and, I remember looking at him with a mixture of amusement and confusion. "What?" "My grandfather used to take us fishing when I was little. There were two popular "fishing holes" in our village. One was huge, almost ten kilometers around. The other one you could swim from one side to the other in under ten minutes. He never took us to the smaller one. He used to tell us if we could wade in a pluck the fish out with a net it wasn't fishing. "You might as well fish in a barrel." He used to say. I was just thinking how right he was. And, how much I feel like a fish in a barrel." "Oh, 'glow bugs'." I replied with a smile. "I feel like a glow bug in a jar. Same basic story though. We're dead aren't we?" I looked over at him hoping to hear something reassuring. "Yep. We probably are." He winked. "At least you're honest." I don't know why but, that struck me so funny and I laughed so hard my sides hurt. After several minutes of staring at me like I'd lost my mind, I guess Jai got the joke too and burst into laughter as well. The indicators on the con panel lit up suddenly for the first time since we'd been abducted. The ship shook violently and for a moment, outside in the blackness, there were stars. The comm, which had been left open since the moment we arrived here, crackled and sputtered with static. The ship lurched violently once, then a second time, sending both Jai and I to the floor. We clammered back to the seats, shouting into the comm at the top of our lungs. The panel popped twice with two loud cracks and, for an instant we heard voices, human voices. We shouted again that we were here, we were alive. Then it went dead. The stars disappeared and the ribbon-shot blackness returned. I heard the clicking again. Intense for a moment, gradually retreating behind the background noise of the instrument panel. There was a noise from behind us and, we turned around to see Danella Sil standing in the doorway. She was ashy and pale but her remaining eye was clear and sharp. I don't know where she'd been since all this started but, for right now, she was here with us. "I heard them." She muttered through cracked dry lips that had been nearly cut in half by whatever damage was done to her face. "They can't hold us much longer." She giggled maniacally. "It's all falling apart on them. Too soon. They tried too soon." She wobbled slightly, leaning forward. "I can't go with you." She said staring directly at me. "You can't let this get out." She grabbed her head and screamed, doubling over. "hu ..hu.." Her body arched backward again as she tried to speak. Her spine cracked noisily as the vertebrae were bent out of shape then snapped back into place. She screamed. "Oh God! PLEASE! Make them stop!" She shrieked, jerking backward into the wall. Her body whipped sharply upright with such force I could hear the bones in her neck crackle painfully. When her head leveled off again her mouth hung open and that sound returned, coming from somewhere inside her. That chittering insect-like click rose in volume till the sound was nearly deafening. She convulsed violently but, stayed on her feet, as if she were no longer in control of her own body. After what seemed like an eternity, she fell silent and slumped to the floor. Motionless but breathing shallowly. It was a sickening sight but, both Jai and I watched it seemingly unaffected. We were more concerned with what had happened outside the ship. There had been stars out there for a moment, we'd seen them. Escape may still be possible. Survival was still foremost on our minds, even on this irrational level we knew there was next to nothing we could do for this woman while we remained trapped here. Getting out had to be the priority. "See what you can do with this panel." Jai stammered, unable to take his eyes off Danella. "I'm going to take her back to bed." "You heard that, didn't you?" I asked, pulling the console apart from underneath. "That sound." I smiled with relief as Jai nodded mechanically. Until then I had been the only one who had heard it. It was a small comfort to know that it wasn't all in my mind. The noise was real or, at least as real as anything else that was happening here. Jai and Danella disappeared into the back while I tried to get the comm signal back on. The panel had shorted out but, it wasn't fried like the environmental systems had been. It was only a matter of bypassing the primary circuit to restore the signal and keep it transmitting. Or at least I think it was transmitting. Without knowing what the field we were suspended in was comprised of, I couldn't be sure if it was transmitting or not. But, any hope was better than none. I was alone for quite a while. I remember that only because I noticed how long it had been since Jai had taken Danella back to the crew quarters. I was just contemplating going back to check on him when I heard someone behind me again. I turned and jumped in startled shock as I saw Everett fall into the wall. He was sweating profusely but shivering as if he had just been out in the snow. He coughed hoarsely, falling forward into the back of my chair, clutching at my shoulder. His eyes were filled with terror and his grasp was so tight I thought he may shatter my scapula. Jumping to my feet, I wrapped both arms around Everett's waist and helped him against the wall. "C-c-c-cold." He shivered violently. I had no clue what to do. "Jai!" I called into the back, trying to move Everett back toward the doorway. "Jai! Help!" Nothing but the whirring of the instrument panel in the cockpit and the underlying hum of the ship's main reactor. It took most of my strength to half drag, half carry Everett toward the crew quarters. I remember stopping several times to allow him time to catch his breath from the constant fits of coughing he went through as he struggled to breathe. I called to Jai the entire way through the main cabin but never heard a response. I was dreading what I'd find when I finally reached the bunk area but, no amount of dread could prepare me for what I found. You know how it is when you're in the midst of what my mother used to call a 'bad patch'? There will be periods of time where absolutely nothing happens but, even the absence of trouble breeds its own form of anxiety because you know, somewhere inside you, you know that WHAM, waiting just around the corner is another problem looking for somewhere to thrive. Well It seemed I lived there now because every time we turned a corner, things got worse. Shoving Everett ahead of me through the bulkhead, I stepped into the crew quarters, shouting Jai's name. Everett slid down the wall, coming to rest on the floor, his head bobbing at an odd angle. He was still breathing but, only barely. I looked up to see Danella Sil holding Jai almost a foot off the ground by the throat. She pulled him tightly to her and spun in an odd dance, her head bobbing off to one side to avoid his. The clicking sound returned as they whirled about in their erratic waltz. Chittering like locusts, millions of them, as their heads bobbed back and forth. Her fingers had sunk beneath the skin in his throat. Blood oozed out of the wounds and down her knuckles as she pulled him tighter against her, pressing her face to his. I saw his cheeks puff out, as if she were trying to breathe life back into him. Then his throat puffed out around her fingers, pressing them deeper beneath his torn flesh. Her head fell backward suddenly and it became clear that her neck was broken. She released her grip on Jai and they both slumped to the floor. The ship began to shake violently again as I watched some form of yellow liquid flow from Danella's now lifeless lips. Her eye was open, staring straight up at me in an accusatory manner that still sends chills up my spine. Jai's hand fell to his side, brushing the tip of my boot, the last contact I ever had with him. The ship shook again, tossing me to the floor beside Everett. There was a blinding flash so bright I had to look away. I lost consciousness, I think, but only briefly. When I opened my eyes, Jai and Danella were gone. Everett lay beside me on the floor, still alive but unconscious and running a very high fever. I never saw Jai or Danella again and, to this day have no clue if what I saw really happened or if it was just another twisted trick played on my mind by whatever sick demented creature had abducted us. I slowly pulled myself to my feet and dragged Everett to a bunk. I covered him with a few blankets and gave him a shot of something (that I hoped) would alleviate his pain and lower his fever. He was rigidly stiff and so hot that waves of heat came off of him whenever he breathed. He seemed to relax a bit and his breathing got a bit more regular after the shot took effect. I remember the relief I felt as some of the tension left his face. As selfish as it sounds, I was thinking of myself now more than him. As I stood there, looking down on him, it came to me. If Everett Yung died, I would be alone. I started to cry then, wiping futilely at my tears. How could I be so selfish? But, the inescapable fact that I would be alone here if he died, never left my mind until the next day...when Everett Yung did die and I was left to face our captors all on my own. ...To Be Continued

Ent

Journey

Enya (the sound your throat makes right before you get sick)

Barffolemew!

May the Schwartz be with you

Martha Stewart

Thank you. That image will now haunt me well into eternity. :::will never sleep again::: ~Itana

right wing politics. (the world we live in)

Vin Diesel

mmm veal

I think I would definitely choose intelligence over mobility. Especially Stephen Hawking's brand of intelligence. After 30+ years of supporting and defending his theory that nothing escapes from a black hole, Stephen Hawking announced at a conference in Dublin Ireland in July that he now believes he was wrong. The smartest people are the ones wise enough to know when they're wrong and he admitted it in front of a world wide audience. I'd take that over mobility any day. Hope the link works. It's an excellent read. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/...-672605,00.html

shrubbery!

Frank N Furter

conmen

hypo-spray

Rubber pecs

fertilizer

Kung Pow Chicken. We've sorta gone in a circle here.

The Undertaker

Chicken dance Elmo (for this someone will surely shoot me) :P

[The following contains mature themes and adult language, reader discretion is advised. If you read further and get offended anyway, kindly remember that you were warned.] Beneath The Darkness Between The Stars Pt. XI "Benjamin Artel" "...And the rest is silence" ~Hamlet Act V. When I was a child, my sister and I would spend summer evenings catching what we called "glow bugs" in jars and making "lanterns" out of them. These tiny flying insects with phosphorescent fannies were the closest things we had to toys, growing up under Cardassian rule. I can still remember how much fun Itara and I had racing through the darkness by the light of our bug lamps, shaking them on occasion to make them glow more brightly. I never understood the disdain my mother had for this ritual until I was aboard the Antioch. Her scornful reproaches came back to me with haunting clarity after Elise Mallory had dragged that other man to his death. I became keenly aware of how cruel it was to trap something so much smaller than you, just to see what it did when you shook the jar. I was the insect now and, the Antioch was my jar. Awaiting that next shake became a permeable feeling that was shared by everyone who was left alive. There were only five of us left now. Commander Everett Yung, Ensign Isaojai M'Baru, Lieutenant Junior Grade Benjamin Artel, me and Danella Sil, the Beta Zoid woman we'd "rescued" from the Tobias. She remained unconscious but, stabilized. Efforts to revive her with stimulants and maybe get some answers about what was happening were fruitless. It was as if she was willing herself to remain asleep. Jai could find no physical cause for the unconsciousness. According to him, the instruments he had showed her to be in normal REM sleep. It was strange to us but, we ultimately agreed on the fact that she was probably better off. She'd been exposed to this whatever it was for much longer than any of us had. That had to have taken its toll on her health as well as her sanity. The silence in the aftermath of Brian Mallory's death was suffocating. No one spoke about anything that had happened. No one made eye contact. We mulled about the ship in a daze, bumping into the walls and, occasionally into each other. The only conversation that took place during that time had to do with how we might escape. Each effort seeming more futile than the last. Eye contact and conversation became nothing more than reminders of how hopeless the situation seemed so, they were avoided by everyone. Our only remaining defense against our damnation. I can't be sure but, I believe several days passed before anything else happened. I can remember looking at the chronometer periodically as a frame of reference for how long we'd been there. But, before long, I realized that that too had become pointless. There was one curiosity about that time though, and that was Benjamin Artel. Benjamin Artel had been the bane of our captivity. From the moment this started he'd wavered between belligerence and banality. In the beginning he'd been kept sedated but, we were out of sedatives by this point so, we had resorted to threats against his person as a means of keeping him from ranting like a lunatic whenever he was awake. He remained sullen and silent after that, refusing to come out from under his blanket or help in any way. Which, based solely on his behavior to that point, was just fine with us. He was awake now though. What's more his erratic and unpredictable outbursts seemed to have stopped. He began, quietly at first, asking if there was anything he could do. Something to keep him busy until we figured a way out. He even apologized for his behavior. He seemed sincere enough but, something in his eyes still bothered me. His smile seemed rehearsed and completely in-genuine. Whenever he looked at me I felt very uncomfortable as if there was something lurking beneath his sincere overtures of help. A malignancy that lurked just below the surface of his otherwise innocuous features. The others seemed skeptical of him as well and, I remember his first few suggestions being met with a mixture of annoyance and open patronization. Still, any help was better than none and after those first tenuous hours, he was once again one of the crew. "How is she?" I stepped into the crew quarters quietly causing Jai to jump, spilling a tray of instruments that he had been using to treat her wounds. "Damnit!" Jai whirled in surprise barely catching himself on the edge of the table. His hands were trembling and his face had gone pale. I jumped too, backing into the wall, startled by his anger. Seeing my reaction, he quickly tried to regain his composure. "I'm sorry Tana." He smiled wanly. "It's ok." I smiled back. "Maybe we should all wear a bell around our necks so we stop scaring the pants off each other?" I laughed, coming to his side to check on Danella. "Somehow I get the feeling this isn't the first time in your life you've had to jump at shadows." He replied absently while changing the dressing on the wound on her face. "No, it isn't." I hadn't thought about it like that before but, he was right. I'd spent a good portion of my life ducking shadows. The time I spent in the caves of the Kohlar mountains came vividly to mind. I had been thirteen years old then and responsible for half a dozen wounded and injured Bajoran villagers, staying one step ahead of Cardassian patrols. "I don't think I've ever been this scared though. Cardassians I could see. I knew who my enemy was then. But this..." Jai took my hand and pulled me into his arms. I felt comforted and safe for the first time since leaving Deep Space Nine and, I can clearly remember never wanting to let go. We held the embrace for a long time each taking the only comfort left to us from the other. "When this is over, I want to show you San Francisco." He whispered into my ear, smiling down at me, gently brushing my lips with his. "The unofficial tour." He smiled thoughtfully for a moment. "God did that sound like a line." He laughed. "Well, line or not," I chuckled. "It worked and, you're on." As if on cue the tenderness of that moment was cut short by something I am certain was no more than hallucination. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement from the direction of the doorway. I turned to look but, there was nothing there. "Did you see that?" Jai asked and, I nodded to him rather surprised that he'd seen it too. We stepped to the doorway, looking in both directions. There was nothing there. "Artel and Everett were down below last time I saw them." I said with the slight hint of panic welling in my voice. "There's no one up here but us." Jai looked back over his shoulder toward the motionless form of Danella Sil on the bunk. His lips pursed and there was a hint of dread in his otherwise piercing green eyes. By the Prophets he had beautiful eyes. I shook my head snapping back myself out of it. There was no time for that now. That would come later, in San Francisco, when I held him to his promise to show me the city. "Ok," He said breaking the silence. "I guess we have no choice." He added with mock sarcasm. "Let's go see what that was." He took two phasers from the small locker on the far wall and handed one to me. We walked carefully toward the hatch that led below, to the engine room. There was no sign of Everett or Benjamin Artel anywhere. We called to them several times but got no response as we climbed the ladder into the core room. It was dark in there. Someone had cut the lights and we found ourselves, fumbling in the dark, guided only by the pulsating light from the engine's main reactor. I indicated the opposite side of the core to Jai then pointed to myself and pointed to the right. He shook his head vehemently in objection. Honestly, I couldn't have agreed more. I didn't want to split up either but, something was going on and, from a tactical standpoint (yes *I* said tactical) it made more sense to come at the rear of the room, behind the core, from both sides. Reluctantly, he nodded agreement and slowly moved from sight. Now, don't get me wrong. I do know more than someone my age should about covert reconnaissance missions and guerrilla tactics but, when it came to putting that knowledge to practical use I am, for all intents and purposes, a big sissy. I hate violence. I hate phasers and I hated making my way along that wall alone, holding the phaser out in front of me more as a talisman to ward off evil than as a weapon intended to defend my life. I'm sure I looked twice as ridiculous as I felt. But, growing up on a planet like Bajor during the war, the overwhelming pull of the fight aspect of 'fight or flight' usually takes over and the survival instinct becomes second nature. It's a trait many of my people have adopted as a way of life and, I guess, I am no different. Anyway, I crept along the wall, moving toward the rear of the engine core. A small alcove housed the equipment locker and, I strained my eyes to see inside. Fumbling around in the dark, I managed to find a small hand-held beacon and quickly scooped it up. Even the small amount of light it provided was a great comfort. Anything beat the complete darkness. I shined the light toward the corner of the room where Jai should have been coming from but, he wasn't there. Huddled in the corner with an eery, uncomfortable half-mad grin on his face was Benjamin Artel. His eyes never met mine as he started to speak. He slid up the wall like a serpent and with lightning rapidity quickly pressed me into the wall. He had something in his hand, I couldn't see what it was. He quickly tucked the hand behind his back, pressing me into the wall with the weight of his body. His free hand squeezed my wrist, forcing the phaser free and I remember wincing as it clattered to the floor, struggling to break free and retrieve it. He was drooling, obviously insane and there was a smell coming off him that I couldn't identify. Was it alcohol? No. I'm not sure. All I know was that the look in his eyes was so crazed that it seemed as if he were staring at me from within the bowels of hell. He was no longer a file clerk. He was a demonic presence with an evil lascivious sneer permanently etched into his skin and burned into his eyes. "You want him." He spat in my face. "They told me. Morton and the others." His voice was high pitched, almost shrieking. A lunatic's rant that assailed my ears and bore into my mind with such force it didn't seem to come from him at all but, from all around me. I tried to cover my ears or scream or something but, the weight of his body held me in place and the stark terror I felt as his eyes burned through me prevented my voice from ever reaching my lips. All I could do was stand there and listen to him continue his disgusting, insane diatribe. "They told me you want him and I have to stop you. Your heart is strong, strong enough for what they want. You will be a doorway." His eyes narrowed and his voice grew quiet. "They think you might survive." He smiled at me as a thin stream of fresh drool breached his lip and ran down his chin. "They'll let me live if I keep him from you." "You need help, Benjamin." I pleaded with him meekly but, there was no sign of humanity left in the man. It was as if he were possessed. "Please, let me get Jai or Everett..." "NO!" He howled and forced me harder into the wall. "I will be free. All I have to do is give them you... unspoiled. Alone and afraid." His free hand came up my arm in a nauseating caress and he leaned in close, trying to press his lips into mine. That was all it took. I screamed with every ounce of strength I had and bucked my body outward, slamming my forehead across the bridge of his nose. "Don't you ever touch me again!" I howled wildly bring my fist, still holding the hand-held, across his jaw so hard I felt one of my knuckles snap under the pressure of the impact. "EVER!" He lunged at me, the hand that he'd carefully kept behind his back, falling to his side. That was when I saw the welder come to life. A thin stream of plasma flared at its tip. He dove into my midsection, pinning me to the floor, holding the welder inches from my cheek. "Not good enough for you am I?" He drooled again, turning my stomach. "You're all the same. Snotty bitches. You'll learn. I'll teach you." He started moving the welder closer to my face . I heard a stomach churning crack from somewhere behind him but couldn't see over the glare of the welder near my eye. I could feel the heat from it burn my skin and, something else...something warm and wet. More drool? No. Blood. There was blood pouring off his face as he slumped over my shoulder, dropping the welder, still alight, by my side. I screamed hysterically, wiping at my face, trying to get him off of me. I continued to scream as I saw Everett, standing over me with a section of conduit in his hand. The conduit had strands of hair mixed with blood still clinging to the curved edge of it. He saw my face as I looked from the bloody piping back to him and quickly dropped it, sending it noisily to the floor. Jai came running from the opposite direction, leveling the phaser on Everett. "Get away from her you son-of-a-bitch!" He shouted, pointing the phaser squarely at Everett's head. "Move away now or so help me you're a dead man!" All I could do was scream as I looked to the cavernous hole in the back of Benjamin Artel's head. Instinctively, I rolled him over. He made a strange burbling noise as foam poured from his lips. A cracked harsh sputter sent spittle and blood into the air like a sickly fountain. He convulsed several times until there was nothing but a slight twitch in his legs and then, he was dead. I looked up at Everett, who I could now see was bleeding from the lip and cheek himself. "It's all right Jai." I said almost absently. "Everett just saved my life." The fact that he had saved my life was almost an after thought. I couldn't seem to get past what Artel had said to me. It played over and over in my mind. What had he meant? A "doorway?" What the hell was that? "I'm sorry." Everett said, helping me to my feet. "I don't know what happened. One minute we were working on trying to get the internal sensors to try and give us some kind of readings from the outer hull and, the next..." His voice trailed off as he stared down at the body. "I have never killed anyone before in my entire life." No one spoke after that. The deafening silence returned and, would stay for almost two days. Jai helped me back to the main cabin to lie across the seats. He helped Everett move Artel's body in with the other corpses in the cargo hold and then he brought me water and a clean towel so that I could wash the stench of Artel away. But, after that point, I don't think I ever felt clean again. Not until long after my rescue. ...To Be Continued

Chick-chicky boom (God I love that song. LOL)