Chapter 2
Admiral Coulter sat at her desk, looking over the progress reports for the last round of experiments. They were disappointing, to say the least. The attempts to analyze the subjects' brains and determine how they manipulated matter had left the subjects trapped inside their own minds. They could not move or speak, but their brain activity was off the charts…They were screaming inside their heads. She did not know what had caused this or how to reverse it…Perhaps if she studied the brain of Subject 03-956-8…the child known as Striya? She pulled open the file on Striya. The Admiral read aloud her notes on the Endrean girl.
"Subject 03-956-8, female, 23 terran years old from Endrey VII, the largest planet of the seventeen planets that makes up the Endribar star system. Endribar has recently been accepted into the United Federation of Planets. Like other inhabitants of this planet, Subject exhibits mental powers greater even than the Vulcans. These abilities have manifested as telekinesis. The very powerful could control their ships with just a thought. Subject is an orphan, obtained by force, and brought to Earth. Subject is showing signs of resisting the control of the Device. Subject is perhaps the key."
It was this skill that the Admiral wanted, control of ships and other large objects. The child had not suffered the same paralysis as the others. She had somehow managed to deactivate the Device…How? Admiral Coulter tapped the surface of her data pad, opening the files on Khan's designs. The files had been confiscated and destroyed by Starfleet but Coulter had obtained copies beforehand. She opened the file on the Device. With a flick of her fingers, she sent the images and documents in the file to the six large screens set into the opposite wall. Manipulating the file with her pad, she studied the information that she had already spent many hours studying. She tossed her data pad down in frustration a few minutes later. She still had no idea how the girl had disabled the Device. When Becker returned with the girl, perhaps she would be able to get new information.
Striya coughed, chocking as dust clogged her airway. She struggled to rise. She lay pinned under a rather large slab of concrete. To her left, a meter away, laid the man, Becker. He groaned and started to stir. Striya struggled harder, lest he awake before she escaped. It was no use; she could never move such a large stone. She closed her eyes, willing her head to stop aching. She placed her hands flat against the rock. Slowly, it rose a few centimeters…enough for her to scurry out from under it. When she was away from her prison, she dropped the rock, rolled over and vomited violently. This Device…she would always be hunted whilst she wore it. She sat up, wiping her mouth on the back of her hand. She had fallen into some kind up disused tunnel. She stood and followed one tunnel, her hands on the wall to steady herself. She heard footsteps behind her and started to run. Becker was awake. The tunnel led to a hub of sorts. Tunnels branched in all directions. Striya looked around, unsure what direction to take. She chose one at random and disappeared into the darkness. She stopped about fifty meters inside the tunnel and listened. She could hear nothing. Maybe Becker had chosen a different tunnel? She hoped so.
She moved forward cautiously, afraid of running into Becker again if the tunnels crossed. She stumbled in the near darkness. The lights in the tunnels flickered more often than they shone. She peered into the dark. She jumped back and screamed as the lights flickered on, revealing the terribly white face of a man, mere centimeters from her own. The lights dimmed again and she could see nothing, but she felt large strong hands grip her around the waist and she felt herself lifted and tossed over a huge shoulder. The man carried her down the tunnel, moving quickly in the dark. As he moved she heard the soft whir of several motors and the hiss-hiss of hydraulics. He opened the door to a maintenance tunnel and walked through. Striya stayed silent across his shoulder, more afraid of Becker than of this strange fellow. Finally they came to the end of their journey. He dropped her on the ground and lifted a huge steel beam that had fallen across the tunnel. He grasped her and shoved her through the opening. She stumbled into a large room lit with soft white light. The gargantuan man followed with a resounding crash as he dropped the girder back into its former place.
"Who are you?" Striya asked quietly, her alien tongue speaking English in a much accented but perfectly understandable way. The man said nothing but merely grunted.
"I am Striya, from Endrey VII," she tried again. The man turned and looked at her closely, but still said nothing.
The man's skin was completely white and seemed to glow in the gentle light. And yet, half of his face looked dull and dead. Both eyes were blue but one shone brighter than the other. One huge cold dead hand grasped her roughly by the shoulder and slammed her up against the wall. The other pressed a strange metal device into her neck. She heard a loud hiss-pop, and her vision blurred as the most intense pain she had ever felt raced throughout her whole body. Her mouth contorted in a scream that bounced around the tunnels endlessly, never reaching the surface.
