CHAPTER ONE
THE INIMICAL

Crewman Ronald Ware and Jamie Madison had been listening intently at their Commanding Officer, Charles "Trip" Tucker, III, Chief Engineer of the Star Ship Enterprise. He was a brilliant engineer and an exceptional CO. They had been literally stumped trying to get the repairs and upgrades done on the shuttle pod in launch bay two. Jamie was one of Trip's engineers and Ron was a part of Lt. Malcom Reed's Security team. They had been assigned the task of installing the minimal weapons systems on the pod. Trip had taken pity on them and lent a hand after two long shifts and little success.

"Commander, I don't know how to thank you," Jamie blushed, "we would have been here all night if you hadn't helped us out."

"No problem Jamie," Trip smiled, "but in the future, if you get in trouble, remember, there is no shame in askin' for a little help."

"That's my fault sir," Ron confessed. "She wanted to a couple of times, but I guess I wanted to impress you and Lt. Reed and get it done without any help from you guys. Guess that was pretty dumb huh?"

"Don't beat yourself up Ronnie," Trip replied. "I can appreciate the initiative, but I'd rather not see you have to work through two straight shifts, miss dinner and get to bed late to try and impress me. Next time just ask for help, nobody will think any less of you for it, alright."

"Aye sir," the two crewman said at the same time.

"Now you two go get somethin' to eat and get to bed, I'll clean up here," Trip said.

"Oh no sir," Ron replied. "There's no way I can let you do clean up after you saved our carcasses. If it's all the same to you I'd rather see you and Jamie get food and sleep and I'll take a few more minutes and clean up. I'll be along after that." Jamie and Trip looked at each other.

"I'm really starving Sir," Jamie said. "I'd really like to see what's left in the mess to eat."

"Okay sure," Trip replied. "I'll save you a seat, cause that's directly where I'm headin'. But don't be too long, cause I'm pretty beat, I'm hittin' the hay directly after that. Later Ronnie, Jamie."

"Nite Sir," and thanks again," Ron said as he and Jamie watched Trip walk away.

"He is just so cool," Ron said.

"He's cool alright!" Jamie beamed. "But hot as hell on top of that!"

"Ppsshh," Ron said, "You women."

"I mean look at him!" Jamie grinned, "those eyes, that smile, and that ass!"

"Jamie!"

"You know what, think I'm gonna skip dinner after all. I couldn't eat a bite sitting at the same table across from my CO. I'd be way too nervous, and besides, got other things on my mind right about now," she said fanning herself.

"Hey, if you need some assistance, I'm available," he grinned as Jamie rolled her eyes.

"Good night Ronnie," she said waiving him off as she walked toward the exit.

"Nite J," he said and returned to his duties.

Trip's Quarters. 2300 Hours.

Trip was exhausted. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed after he had finished his hot shower and pulled on Starfleet issue sleep wear. He had not planned on pulling that extra shift but just couldn't leave those two crewmen alone with that disaster in launch bay two. He had not said it, but Jamie and Ron had made a royal mess of things and he was just too tired to read them the riot act or to even take them through the step by step corrective action plan. He would pull them aside another day and go though it with them, but had just been too tired to do it tonight.

Trip started for a moment to check his messages one last time, then waived that thought away. It could wait. Sleep, that's all he wanted, a few hours of peaceful, blissful, uninterrupted sleep. He usually slept no more than four-five hours a night anyway, but many times he functioned off of just three hours of sleep, especially when there was a crisis or something going on. Needing less sleep than the average person was not uncommon for people like Trip Tucker-brilliant, over-achieving, genius-types.

Trip flopped down on the bed and within moments had started to drift off into a wonderland of restful sleep. But then something startled him, as if someone had entered his room. He felt what seemed like a rush of wind which made him jump and quickly turn around.

"What the hell," he muttered, looking around his quarters. But there was no one there. "Must be more tired than I thought," he whispered to himself and lay back down. A few moments later, there it was again; a sensation, or a feeling that someone or something was watching him. All of a sudden he felt cold, really cold.

He reached for his blanket at the end of his bed and covered himself, but by now he had begun to shiver. He sat up in the bed and looked around. "Ah hell," he sighed out loud. "Something must be wrong with the environmental controls," he said, thinking that he better get down to engineering and take a look before the complaints started rolling in. But as soon as he swung his legs over the side of the bed, something grabbed his right foot.

All of a sudden he was on the floor and being dragged by an unseen assailant. "Hey! What's going on! What the hell is this! Stop it!" he yelled to no one. All of a sudden he felt something or someone grab him around his neck and lift him up against the wall. Whatever it was had its hand around his neck so tight he couldn't breathe. Just when he was about to lose consciousness, it let him go and he slid down the wall onto the floor. Gasping for air, Trip tried to get to his feet and make a run for the door. It was one thing to stand and fight, but quite another to try and fight an enemy he couldn't see.

That's when she appeared. A woman. She looked no more than about 40 years old or so. She had dark hair, a short cropped hair cut and pointed ears! She wore a closely fitted black cat suit and a multi-colored see-through robe on top of it. "T'Pol?" he asked. 'No, it couldn't be, could it?' he wondered. "Who are you?" Trip shouted when he finally found his voice. "How did you get in here? What do you want?"

"Isn't it obvious what I want," she said in a slithering voice. "I want you!"

With that she sprang on him knocking him over backwards, hard onto the floor. He hit his head and it started to bleed. Then she sprang on top of him and began to tear his flesh with her bare hands. She ripped his chest, his arms and his face as he tried to struggle beneath her, but she was too strong. Plus he was dazed from having his head hit the floor so hard. But that didn't stop the assailant. She laid her hands on his heart and created a sensation inside her victim's body as if his heart were going to burst from his chest. He screamed but no sound came out.

When she released him for a few seconds, he found his strength and punched her in the face as hard as he could several times. She was dazed for a few minutes and fell backwards. He then scrambled to his feet, holding his chest, bleeding and struggling to breathe. He grabbed a chair and flung it over her head as hard as he could, but she simply deflected it and it crashed against the wall. Then she grabbed him and flung him against the wall.

"You are afraid, aren't you! You are terrified! I can smell the fear! Tell me, tell how much you fear me!" she shouted. But Trip could not speak, so she grabbed him and threw him against the wall again.

When he slipped to the floor this time, she straddled him and placed both her hands against his temples, invading the deep recesses of his mind. Again, he tried to scream, but couldn't. When she had finished assaulting his mind, she ripped his clothes off of him- and assaulted his body, against his will, forcing him to perform vile sexual acts over and over again all the while causing him to see the worst violence he had ever experienced and implanted other gruesome violent acts in his mind.

"Please stop!" he cried out when he finally found his voice. "Please, I don't wanna do this, can't…do this any…more!"

"You hate it!

"Yes!" he replied.

"You hate me!"

"Yes!" he cried and pleaded for his assailant to stop her abuse of him as he had no desire for this creature. But she was relentless, and he had no control over his own body, so he vomited, then spewed out blood when the contents of his stomach was empty. But still the assault continued...

Jamie Madison's Quarters 23:43 hours.

Jamie Madison jumped out of the shower and toweled herself off quickly. The shower had been purposely cool considering the condition she had been in when she got into it. Now she was thinking it had been a bad idea because now she was shivering. She patted her hair dry and quickly pulled her robe on and tied it in front of her. No sooner than she had done so than it was ripped off of her. Before she could react something grabbed her and flung her across the room. She landed against the far wall and slid onto the floor. Nose and mouth bleeding and feeling pain all over her body, she slowly tried to push herself up from the floor and face her attacker, but there was no one there. She screamed a terrifying, blood curdling scream.

Jamie started to drag her broken body across the floor of her quarters desperately trying to reach the door to the exit. But something grabbed her from behind and abruptly turned her over. Then, she felt something or someone straddle her. Suddenly it appeared. It was a woman. Jamie tried to struggle, but this woman, or creature, or thing, whatever it was, was incredibly strong.

"Do you fear me?" it spoke to her in a hideous snarl. "Of course you do! I can feel the fear, sense it, smell it!" She licked Jamie's face and kissed her on the lips with a violent kiss that made Jamie sick. Then she bit the young woman's lip and face until it bled.

Jamie struggled to get free and the assailant laughed. With that the creature began to rip Jamie's flesh. She writhed and screamed from the assault. Then the creature laid her hands on Jamie's face and entered her mind conjuring and implanting images of the worst kind, rape, mass murders, death and destruction. The violence caused the young woman's mind and heart to feel as if it would explode all the while she could feel the thrusting motions and the pressure of the rape. The horror of the experience caused Jamie's body to convulse violently. Suddenly, she heard a loud thud as if something had crashed into the floor. She smelled blood. She felt something warm about her head. She saw darkness. Then there was only a dead …silence.

Shuttle Bay Two, 2400 Hours.

Ronald Ware was just finishing up the assignment in launch bay two. It had taken him longer than he thought. But he didn't mind. He really did want to do a good job since Commander Tucker had been so gracious about helping out and had not been the least bit of a jerk about it. He hadn't yelled at them or even chastised him and Jamie a bit about making such a mess of a fairly simple project. But now he was dead tired. It was late and he wouldn't get much sleep before he had to report to duty again, and Lt. Reed wasn't as lenient as Commander Tucker so he knew he had to be on time and sharp as a tack to boot. Just as he was turning to leave he suddenly felt a cold burst of wind.

'What was that?' he thought looking around. 'There're no windows in here.' Then it happened again. But this time the temperature in the room dropped to a freezing cold. It was as if someone modified the environmental controls down to zero below. Ron began to shiver and his teeth began to chatter. He made a mad dash to the exit and pushed the control button but nothing happened. He pressed it again, then again.

"Hey!" he called out. "Is this some kind of a joke?" But, no one answered. "Jamie? Jamie, stop messing around will ya and open the door."

"There is no Jamie here," a snake-like voice slithered. Then a strange woman appeared in a shadow-like form. Ron was startled.

"W-who are y-you? W-where d-did you come from!"

"That is of no consequence Ronald."

"H-how d-did you get in h-here?"

"That is not the question. The question is, are you afraid?"

"What do you want? Who are you?"

"I'll answer for you," the creature snarled, "Yes you are afraid! You are terrified!" With that she leapt on him and began to tear his flesh as she dove into his mind bringing forth and implanting violent images of death and destruction. She ripped his clothing from his body and straddled him causing him to quench her sexual desire as she continued to violate his mind until it became a desert waste land. When she left him, he lay naked, body convulsing…eyes staring blankly… at no one.