2: SEND ME AN ANGEL

It's been 2 years since I left section 31. As expected, they tried to take me out. Four times. Eventually we came to an uneasy truce – they would stop trying to kill me, and I would stop killing their agents. Not like they were paying attention to who I was, or what I knew, mind you, they just started throwing assassins at me. The first one was a moron. Ok, so he got the drop on me and used my favorite motto: 'If you want it dead, lob a torpedo'. Unfortunately for him he should have paid attention to those engineering files. I would have loved to see the look on his face when his engines overloaded. Apparently all the Mission type ships in service of Section 31 have the same back door logic bombs. He lasted all of 30 seconds until he became an expanding ball of plasma. The second and third agents were a little more difficult. They were probably my siblings on Project Icarus. If they took the time to study their notes they would have realized that all the 'ninja stuff' was largely negated by a Section 31 tricorder. The last group was the hardest – an entire Specter class destroyer. It might have been the same one that was at New Psychonia, but in any case I sent it straight to hell with a prefix code command shutting down main systems. Two torpedoes into its mid-ships convinced them that I wasn't worth the trouble.

I don't think Admiral Cartwright knew just what he gave me with the auto-teacher. I had the prefix codes and back doors to all of Section 31's ships, unless they changed them. They should have by now. Also, Admiral Cartwright got himself publicly busted for his involvement in the Khitomer affair and is going to spend the rest of his 'retirement' in a penal colony. Now I was truly my own person, and I chose my missions and jobs as I saw fit. How ironic that I found myself working again for Section 31.

But at least it was on my terms. I would do odd jobs for Section 31, and retain Section 31 privileges. No assassinations. My choice of missions and the only payment from the Section was an occasional re-supply of torpedoes. It worked out for everybody. I just didn't realize how much stuff section 31 investigated to see if it warranted sending out agents to deal with. I still had all that money in the numbered accounts, as well as a stash of latinum hidden in my secret room. I had it made. I was rich enough to keep my ship going indefinitely, and my special needs – type 5 torpedoes, were supplied for odd jobs. I was set. Then I was truly surprised by the next mission that came up on the galactic net. There was this planet, which showed, briefly, strange gravitational anomalies, which have since ended. The planet was close to the Romulan border, which peaked Section 31's curiosity, and thus they wanted to investigate. The only "agent" they had nearby was I. "Free torpedoes." They claimed, and since I wasn't busy doing anything else, I thought 'why not'. My ship was fully supplied, so I figured an extra supply of torpedoes would set me up for quite some time. All I had to do was go to this planet and perform some scans. Report back with anything that I found, and collect a set of torps. What could be easier?

Of course if you read between the lines the message was: "get there before the Romulans do", just in case. Just the fact that monster gravitational waves emanated from the planet was intriguing enough. Something important happened here, and nobody knows what. Hopefully, I would get there in time to see what had transpired in the last month.

I dropped out of warp around the system. Running scans, this nameless system had a single star, of type F8. 6 large planets orbited the star; two were terrestrial type, with the second one class M. That's where I headed first, putting my little ship into standard orbit, and beginning my sensor sweep. The first thing that came to mind was just how odd the planet was. Lots of plant life, but apparently no animal life. Not even insects! Great place for a camping trip, I thought. The scan completed with 3 or 4 anomalies. That got my interest. There was a power source on the planets southern hemisphere! Unfortunately the other anomalies were all clustered together in the northern hemisphere, almost exactly on the opposite side of the planet. The power source wasn't going anywhere - I headed into the planet's atmosphere over the northern continent. The scans seemed to be intermittent there.

I landed the ship in a vast plain. I stepped out of the airlock – into a pool of dried blood. No wonder the readings were intermittent. Whatever happened here, I thought, I missed it. Apparently an epic battle was fought, and the still rotting remains littered the battlefield. I was glad for the full spectrum antibacterial injection I received as a field agent: Bacteria were alive and well on this planet! Other than rotting body parts, there was no witness to the events that transpired now 52 days ago, according to my tricorder. Were they the cause of the gravitational anomalies, or their victims? Much of the weapons were medieval looking, yet there were distinct hits from energy weapons. There was no absolute answer. They all had taken their secrets to their graves. This is going to be a quick mission, I thought to myself as I boarded the 'Sister. The next sensor signature was less than 100 km to the southwest, and I would reach my next stop in less than ½ an hour.

A Mission class courier does not pass through an atmosphere silently. Even at subsonic speeds, the scream of the thrusters makes it sound like a jet going by. And its size, though small for a starship, made it easily track-able for some distance. A lone figure watched the ship fly past. When the pyramidal hull landed some kilometers away, that figure took to the air, flying in the direction that the ship went.

The plains had given way to forest, and the ship landed in a clearing, with its nose resting on a hillock by the edge of the forest. I stepped out into fresh air again, and crossed to the other side of the clearing, where some ancient ruins sat. A round structure, of intricately carved stone, used to sit here. From the sloping of what remained of the walls, the building was originally cone or dome shaped. A passage into the ground had caved in long ago. My tricorder indicated that the symbols on the remains were Iconian. But that made absolutely no sense. It only muddied the waters with respect to those gravitational anomalies. The Iconians are a myth! Known as the "demons of air and darkness," the Iconians could appear on any planet – without the use of starships or any other apparent technology. According to some ancient texts, they were supposedly destroyed about 200 000 years ago, if they existed at all. Could there still be Iconians? And what of the power source, located exactly on the opposite side of the planet as these ruins. I was thinking that unless I'm going into the excavating business that's where I'm headed next when my tricorder beeped.

I looked at it. Proximity Alarm. Proximity alarm! There is no animal life on this planet! Yet my tricorder says that a large flying animal is headed this way and will be here in about 2 minutes. All right, I'll just deal with this and be on with my mission. I pulled out my handy phaser, set the sighting laser for maximum distance and set it on 'heavy stun'. With my tricorder I knew the creature should be clearing my ship and coming into visual just ... about ... now. I fired three times. The first two shots were right on target. But with the second shot the creature lurched to the left making the third shot miss. But that didn't matter. The creature fell out of the sky and bounced off the top of the 'Sister with a hideous crunch, then landed about half way between me and the ship, also with a hideous crunch. That's when I got my first look at her.

"Oh shit. I'm going straight to hell, aren't I," I muttered. I had just shot down an angel! She looked beautiful lying there, with 4 wings and long flowing red hair. THUNK! 2 meters in front of me lands this sword, with a large bronze hilt meant for a two-handed grip. It buried itself about halfway into the soft ground, and broke me out of my mesmerization. I walked over and picked up her limp form. She was surprisingly light for her size, about 60 kilos. Her left arm was obviously broken, and her wings were no longer symmetrical. I carried her into the 'Sister, and entered the small sickbay, placing her on the auto-doc table. I started the auto-doc's trauma scan.

-BEEP- Manual intervention needed, I read on the auto-doc's screen. "Unknown Avian Species – Female, with 2 broken limbs; 1 forearm, 1 unknown. No concussion, no internal injuries. Manual advice needed on unknown limb." I clicked on the opposite wing on the display and picked 'Mirror this limb'. The auto-doc hummed for a minute and came back with –BEEP- Manual assistance needed. Then followed a string of recommendations about positioning the limbs so the auto-doc could commence repairs. "Repair time – 3 hours. Sedation time: 5 hours. Recommend light duty for following 72 hours. Commencing repairs." And that was it. I went outside and retrieved the sword that was stuck into the ground. It was of very fine craftsmanship, and of a tri-titanium alloy, which should be well beyond any medieval culture that would use swords as weapons. I put the sword in sickbay with the angel's armor, also made from tri-titanium. Somebody had access to starship level technology to craft these. The auto-doc would keep her sedated until it was finished. In 3 hours we will find out just how good the auto-doc really is.

I returned to the ruins and spent the next 3 hours determining that there was absolutely no information to be found here. If there were any answers on this planet, the facility on the other side would furnish them, unless I planned on digging. I might just spend an extra day and do that. Time to check on my patient. I walked back into the ship and entered the sickbay. The auto-doc bed was empty. Then there was a flurry of white to my right, and then – BAM – I was flat on my back on the sickbay floor, with this two meter tall angel standing over me, with her right foot on my chest and her sword at my throat. She had managed to drop me with a single stroke, belying strength well beyond expectations. Maybe there was something to this ninja stuff after all...

"Who Are You? Where am I?" She asked.

"Well I'm Stephen Michael, and you are aboard the 7th Sister." I replied.

"Is that the flying ship? And what happened to me?

"Yes it is. As to what happened to you, um ... well ... I kind of shot you down." I answered sheepishly.

"You attacked me! Why shouldn't I just kill you now!" She roared.

"Well three reasons come to mind..." There was a pregnant pause.

"And they are?" She inquired.

"Well, ... number 1, I'm truly sorry about that. I didn't know who was inbound and I rather have this shoot first ask questions later policy, while I'm alone on some alien planet. Besides, it was only a stun blast – I wasn't expecting you to crash into my ship like that. I did fix the damage after all, you must admit. And secondly, if you do kill me and manage to get away, you will still be stuck on this ball of rock all alone. I'm pretty sure that you're not from around here and you need to get home." Another pregnant pause. I decided not to mention that the 'getting away' part consisted of outrunning a self-destruct when my wrist computer registered a zero pulse for a certain length of time.

"You said there was three reasons."

"Yeah about that. If you look down at your left foot, you'll notice that I have this phaser aimed at it. And unlike your sword, which I'm pretty sure that you'll have to take a back swing to lop my head off, this phaser is as effective when it's pointed at your toe as pointed at your head. So it seems that I actually have the drop on you from down here, even if it doesn't look like it." I explained.

"Very well." She said. And then she took that back swing. And I pressed the firing stud. Then, with a clatter she fell on top of me, her sword dropping to the deck. Now I expected to feel some contact shock from the phaser blast, but none came. I checked my phaser, and it was set on its usual setting of stun. That's why there was no contact shock, but she was out cold. Something was wrong here, she should be coming around by now, given her strength. So back into the auto-doc she went. Full scan this time...

When she came to this time around I was waiting patiently in a chair, her sword and armor parked in my armory. 4 hours had transpired before she awoke this time. The full scan had revealed some interesting facts about my guest. First of all she was tough – a shock that would kill a human or even a Klingon, she could shrug off. She had metabolized all the sedative and came to just after the surgery. Second she had actually fainted. She wasn't drawing back the sword at all! Apparently she is suffering from fatigue, thirst, and malnutrition simultaneously.

"What happened?" She asked.

"Actually, you fainted. Then I shot you. Again," I replied

"I wasn't going to kill you, you know." She retorted.

"Yes unfortunately I do know. And when was the last time you had a good meal, drink and sleep? I asked.

"I'm the Boros Archangel. I neither require food, water, or sleep." She replied.

"Well, I have a news flash for you. That may be true wherever you came from, but here that's not the case." I stated. "Take a look at this scan. See these organs here, here, and here? They're dormant. The auto-doc says that they receive power from an external source. I'll bet that's what you normally rely on for your life's energy. Here you must rely on your backup systems. That's why you have a digestive tract, you know." I tried to explain. It's true. She had a digestive tract, lungs, heart, most of the systems I associated with life, even if they weren't used all that often. Here, apparently they would be.

"No mana." She stated.

"What?"

"There's no mana here. Anywhere. That's why my sword won't alight. You wouldn't have gotten away with that so easy had I been in all my glory!"

"Tell you what. It's getting late. How about we have dinner about 8, and then we settle in for the night?" I avoided answering her statement.

Eventually she said "OK, but no flesh from animals! If I have to 'eat' it will be from plant life." She replied

Oh great, a vegan, I thought. What to prepare? I've got it, my special mac-and-cheese. It will have all the necessary protein, and will not have any meat or meat products in it in it. The cheese was synthetic anyway.

8 o'clock came and dinner was served. I made this as formal an occasion as I could. At least she appeared to appreciate the effort and thanked me. During dinner, she told me that she was dimensionally summoned here by a powerful being called a 'Planeswalker', who dragged her from her universe to fight in an epic battle (the remains of which I had already found). She was the only survivor of that battle. When the battle was over that Planeswalker told her lastly, "her way home was mapped out on this planet." That's when that being disappeared, Leaving this angel to her own devices. She had been stuck on this planet for 52 days without sleep or sustenance. Apparently she did pass out a few times, which I realized was probably due to fatigue. No human could run 52 days on empty! I also found out her name: Razia, Parun of the Boros (whatever that meant), and that she was a mana-verse angel, a physical, winged humanoid. After eating about half of her small plate, she tried to stand up, sat down again, then stood up.

"What did you just do to me?" Razia accused.

I burst out laughing. I couldn't help myself. When I calmed down, "Sorry about that, but I'm so used to eating for a living, I forgot it's your first meal that counts. The auto-doc rebalanced your electrolytes and blood sugars, but you now have to eat for sustenance. What you're doing right now is called 'digesting your food'! Blood is being diverted to your formerly unused digestive tract to extract the nutrients from your food. That's what's making you feel that way. And yes you should stop eating now. Let your body adjust to the changes slowly."

"I have eaten, before, on special occasions, such as the Guildpact Festival." She explained impatiently. Razia definitely didn't like being laughed at!

"Yes but not for effect. You ate for ceremonial reasons while getting your energy from elsewhere. 'Bet the food passed right through you."

"Well, yes. It did."

"Then you are going to have an unpleasant surprise in a few hours." Realization dawned on her face. "I think the next thing you should do is get a good night's sleep. It will probably take a while for you to attain proper sleep regulation too." I showed her to the unused captains' cabin, explained all of its features, bid her goodnight, and returned to my cabin.

Time to start a report. Just how was I going to explain that gravitational anomalies on an interplanetary scale were caused by two powerful beings, which had left for parts unknown? And who could possibly show up at any time. Then it hit me. The Squire of Gothos: Apparently "Trelane" was an adolescent of a powerful energy being. Like the brains of Triskelion, he could manipulate space-time as well. Perhaps they were the descendents of the Iconians: Two teenagers slugging it out on an old Iconian outpost? Section 31 is definitely not going to like this. This was a problem well beyond their ability to handle. The last thing I did before retiring for the night was to send off my report by subspace radio. "Captains log, Stardate 12528.1..."

Razia stepped out of the cabin mid morning. I guess she was really tired. She was still wearing the medical gown from yesterday.

"You know, I can fabricate up some clothing that will fit around your wings." I offered.

"Thank you, but I prefer my armor."

"Sure, but do you really want to be parading around in it? It's rather revealing and I do have a Y-chromosome, you know."

"For all its looks, that armor is quite magical ... Oh. Right. No mana. I see your point." Razia acquiesced. "What is that I'm smelling?"

"Coffee. Real coffee. Made from actual grown beans. Ground and roasted. Prepared properly, in a stainless steel percolator over a hot plate. The bagels, however, are synthetic. Have some breakfast." I beamed. It was one of the few luxuries worth paying for. At least there is a small plantation on Baker's World. I also get my other non-synthesized beverage there as well, real potato vodka.

"How many times a day should I eat?" Razia asked, looking over a bagel.

"Well most humans eat 3 large meals a day with some snacks thrown in. You may want to start with a larger number of smaller meals until you break in your digestive system." Razia pondered that, and then ate her breakfast in silence. When she finished there was yet more silence as we stared at each other.

"How long are you going to keep me prisoner?" Razia finally asked.

That was unexpected! "Uhmn ... I'm not keeping you prisoner here! I was just trying to help! You helped me learn what happened here, and I merely wanted to help you out. I have another investigation on the other side of this planet and them I'm out of here." I managed to get out.

"Then if I'm not your prisoner, why can't I leave this ship? The door wouldn't open. I would like my possessions back and to go." Razia replied.

Realization dawned. "That's because you have to cycle an airlock door to get out, and I haven't shown you how. The inner door has to be closed airtight before the outer door will open. That way you can't accidentally open the ship up to a hard vacuum."

"Then can I get my things now?" Razia asked impatiently.

"Yes, if you wish." I replied. I led Razia to the small armory just aft of the captain's cabin. There was an impressive array of phaser firepower, as well as a few fusion and plasma grenade launchers. On the table was Razia's armor and sword. "I'll wait outside." I finished.

A few moments later Razia entered the corridor in all her original angelic splendor. I then led her back to the turbo lift. You'd be surprised just how full the elevator seemed with a 4-winged angel in it. Razia was thrown off when the lift moved horizontally and rotated 180 degrees. We stepped out into the cargo bay. I walked up to the larger shuttle that was stored there.

"What's that thing, and why are we in here?" Razia asked.

"That's a shuttle. Think of it as a miniature spare starship. And were here to get this." I responded, picking up a backpack from the shuttle. "This is one of the survival kits the shuttle carries in case of a crash. You might find this stuff useful." We walked forwards to the airlock while I explained what the devices were. First was an evaporative canteen, which could extract water from any atmosphere with humidity in it. An inflatable shelter came next. It even had a miniature airlock and a life support pack that would last about 1 person-month in total vacuum. A multi-tool, blanket, and other camping goods were explained. But food and water took up much of the bulk of the pack. "And finally we come to this." I held up a small box about the size of a small pack of cigarettes.

"And what's this?" Razia queried.

"It's a type-1 hand phaser. Older style. Here. Stick your finger on here and press this." The phaser emitted a beep when she did.

"What did that do?

"Take a look at the wall. See that red dot?" I answered with my own question.

"Yes."

"Good, that's your aiming sight. This button on top is the trigger. The other one was the safety. You have to turn off the safety to get the sighting laser. This wheel here is the power setting, and this last adjustment here is the beam width setting." I cycled the airlock doors, and the clearing spread out in front of us. "Aim at that tree."

Razia aimed and fired, hitting the small tree dead center. The tree appeared unaffected by the blast. "Nothing happened." Razia accused.

"That's because you can't stun a tree. See this setting here. That's medium stun. It's standard for knocking out a human for about 15 – 30 minutes. The next one up is heavy stun. On wide beam you can knock out a small group of people, and on narrow beam, it works on a larger or tougher creature."

"Like you did to me yesterday! Twice!"

"Yes." I replied shamefacedly, "The settings continue. The next two are heat 1 and 2, disrupt 1, 2, and 3, and disintegrate 1 and 2. Each setting generally consumes more power than the last. The higher up you go the faster you drain the power cell. There are spare cells in the pack, this phaser, the canteen and shelter all use the same type."

"Thank you. I will go now."

"If you change your mind and want my help, this is where I'll be for another day. Then I'm off to the other side of the planet. I doubt you could fly that far on your own."

"Goodbye then." With that, Razia took to wing, flying northeast, back the way she came.

I watched her fly out of sight, and returned to my ship. I pulled out a phaser rifle and my tricorder, and headed back to the ruins. I was going to do a little excavating, phaser style. Shovels are so 20th century. After blasting my way into the earth, I found out why there were only ruins here. The power plant apparently suffered an overload. Only the bottom of the housing was left, made of a phaser-resistant material. The blast had gone straight up, removing the top of the building, and destroying everything in its path. 200 millennia of rains filled up the hole with dirt, and the plant life reclaimed the site.

I was done here. Now for an evening among the stars, and tomorrow I'm gone. The ship was quiet once again. I set up a small campfire, synthesized a raw steak, and some spuds, and had an old-fashioned barbeque dinner. Then as night fell I grabbed a self-inflating sleeping bag and some cordage. I had an idea. I was going to have a 'kid attack'. I climbed up the aft service ladder to the top of the ship. I tied the sleeping bag to the aft running light and made a great little 'nest' or myself. I lay down and I watched the constellations reveal themselves one star at a time, just like the Tragically Hip song. There are mosquitoes in Bobcaygeon – but not here! This was an insect-less world. Thoughts drifted back to some old movies. "You know they really are beautiful." I said to no one in particular, "I don't' look at them anymore" quoting Men in Black. I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up when the star rose over the horizon. It was a silent and peaceful morning. Too peaceful – There were no nature sounds, just the rustle of the breeze through the trees. I pulled the cord holding the sleeping bag, and down I slid like a toboggan. I sailed off the nose of the ship and landed on the hillock. That was fun. But the 'kid attack' was over. I hit the deflate button on the sleeping bag and watched it roll itself up. I headed back towards the airlock, but something was wrong. The alert bar was flashing. I cycled through the airlock, and ran to the bridge. The alert monitor on the navigation console was flashing. I checked the scanners. Sure enough, there was a ship in orbit. A Romulan scout ship from the scans. An older type, the ship is a S-3 "Revastal" class scout, and an odd choice of a vessel for this mission. I expected them to send the latest and best model. Perhaps the Romulans would claim that this is an old ship sold off to other parties. Otherwise its presence here is an act of war, and that would give them an excuse to say, "It wasn't us!" The worrisome data was that this ship suddenly appeared already in orbit. That meant that they were equipped with a cloaking device. How long have they been here? And just what do they know?

Then I thought of Razia. That scout has a crew of about 15 – 20, and Romulans aren't known for their sympathy when interrogating someone. Even with a phaser 1 doubt she'd be able to hold her own. And when they figure out why an angel has a phaser they will be after me next. But how can I warn her without lifting off, and tipping the Romulans off that we are not together? My Section 31 tricorder has a scanning range of many kilometers, and picking out the only life form in the middle of an empty forest...

Back out of the airlock and down the ramp. Don't look up; you should never look up, I thought. But that's stupid. They should know that I could easily scan them while they sit in orbit un-cloaked. Better concentrate on my tricorder readings. Searching ... Scan complete. 1 life form found, range zero. Range Zero? But the tricorder is programmed to exclude the operator!

I turned around, and walked straight into Razia. How long she was standing right behind me, I couldn't tell. So I gave her a hug. "Don't look up. We're on candid camera." I whispered.

"I have no idea what that means but I'm not looking up. I have decided to take you up on your offer of help. I was worried when you ran inside earlier." Razia whispered back. That meant that she'd been here for over ½ an hour.

I continued to hug her. "That means there's another ship in orbit, a Romulan scout ship, and they are watching us. If they figure out who you are or what you may possibly know, they will try to interrogate you, and they won't be nice about it." I was still whispering. "Here's what we'll do. We'll go back onboard arm-in-arm, And then I need to whip you up a uniform and quick." So that's how we boarded the 7th Sister.

Once on board we could talk normally. "How many of these Romulans are on board that ship?" Razia asked.

"15 – 20, depending on the ship's sub-class and mission." I answered. "And before you ask, that ship is about 3 times the size of this one. Stand still." We were back in the sickbay, while I took her scanner readings. Then it was upstairs to the fabricator, programming it with the scan data, for one uniform, black, SS Pleiades insignia.

"So what's next?"

"Now we wait for your new uniform to be made. It'll be about fifteen minutes. We might as well have another coffee." I mentioned while starting for the crew lounge. "Then we wait, and see if they decide to contact us. They might just decide to ignore us, and just watch what we do."

We didn't have to wait that long. Three coffees (I had 2), one uniform, and a half hour later the hail came in. We were on the bridge by then, in our matching uniforms. Well, OK, almost matching uniforms. Mine didn't have any wing sleeves! I crossed over to the communications panel and hit a button. "SS Pleiades, Andrew Sandor here." I hoped Razia didn't scowl at that.

A tall, gaunt, square shouldered Romulan commander filled the view screen. "Why are you here?" He demanded.

"Last time I checked this planet is in Federation space, and you commander, seem to be way off course." I retorted. While true the planet is inside the Federation's Treaty Exploration Zone, its closeness to the rim and Triangle Worlds meant that there was little Starfleet presence here. Was I pushing my Luck?

Apparently not. "We are private explorers too. We detected some weird gravitational fluxes and decided to investigate. If you care to check our transponder, you will find we are the SS Researcher out of Freeloader. We don't work for the Romulan government. Our employer is much wealthier; Tali Lithan."

"Who's this Tali Lithan?" Razia asked.

Before the Romulan could answer, I replied, "Tali Lithan is the de facto owner of the planet Freeloader, part of the Orion Frontier Mercantile Association. And if these good folks are under his employ with a scout ship, that'd make them relic hunters."

"How very astute." The Romulan seemed to be glaring at me. "Answer me this: when we arrived yesterday, you were sleeping on the top of your ship. Why?"

"Because the two of us were cooped up in this ship for too long. I needed some fresh air, and my avian companion needed to spread her wings. Can't do that in this little ship you know. We are finished here and are about to head to the other side of the planet."

"I see." The Romulan replied. "You will find an intact Iconian building there. You won't be able to enter it, however. We tried. We are now sending a team to your location to look around, if you don't mind."

Well that explained what they were doing since they got there, and why the de-cloaked. They were dropping in anyway. "I got two slips of latinum here that says you have an extra case of Ale in your stores," I hinted. Two slips was a good price for Romulan Ale, but you could easily get 10 slips or 100 credits if you could smuggle it in to the heart of the Federation.

"Make it three and you've got a deal. Our supplies are running low."

"Sold. Bring it with you when you arrive. Are you still exploring the southern site?" I asked. I would have been easily talked up to 5 strips for a case of Ale. I was getting thirsty.

"No. We have given up on it."

"Then I claim rights to explore that site. If I find a way in," I demanded.

"Good Luck. You may have that site. On the condition that if my some miracle you gain entry, we reserve the right to take what you don't."

"Deal. I look forward to quenching my thirst," I signed off and shut down the comm. Panel.

"You LIED to them!" Razia accused.

"Yeah, and they were lying right back. It's bullshit that they're not working for their government. They're navy and don't hide it well. He didn't even flinch when I called him commander. And what the hell is a full commander doing on a small scout ship? They might even be taking Lithan's money, but their loyalty definitely lies elsewhere. Freeloader is just a convenient excuse for being caught in Federation space. The only advantage in accepting that excuse is that there is less shooting. Besides the lying is not over. Take a look at your own uniform."

Razia looked down, "SS Pleiades. You said this ship was called the 7th Sister? And you told me you were Stephen!"

"It is. And I am. Andrew Sandor and the Pleiades out of Deneva are just one of my alter egos." I explained. "When you're a zero it's quite easy to assume any identity. There are disadvantages, however." I decided not to explain what a zero was.

"What now?"

"I go out and buy some Romulan Ale, that's what." With that I stepped outside and greeted the Romulans who were already here. Hopefully they would assume my partner was manning the weapons console, 'just in case'. The brief meeting went without any problems. Latinum and Ale changed hands, and I returned to my ship. Entering the bridge and putting the case down on the command chair, I walked over to the engineering panel. "Time to go." I fired up the impulse reactors, returned to the navigation chair and engaged the thrusters. As soon as we lifted off I engaged the shields, on minimum. Just enough to scramble a transporter, if anyone would be foolish enough to try one. The course didn't matter as I was flying to the exact opposite side of the planet. The direction the ship was pointed would be fine. I decided to make it a sub-orbital flight with passive scanners running all the way. I might as well learn anything I can about that Romulan ship. What I found out was not reassuring. The scout had all the refits of her type and was further modified. It looked like she may be torpedo armed after all. That's not good, I thought to myself.

"Centurion report." Commander Relar of the Tal Shiar demanded of his subordinate.

"They are on a sub-orbital approach to the southern structure. They will arrive in 15 minutes. They are running with minimal shields, just enough to block internal scans," the centurion replied.

Or transporters, Relar thought. This one's shrewd or paranoid, and that will make my job a little harder. "That one had been here longer than we have. We will find out what he knows. Let me know when they give up and leave the planet." With that Relar left the scout's bridge.

Relar thought, soon, very soon, I will have my answers!

Two hours after landing, and entry into the structure really looked hopeless. The cone shaped building was intact, even after 200 millennia. The buildings structure radiated the energy signature, but blocked all scans, active and passive. I had even landed the ship right beside the structure and used the ships scanners at full power. All that told me is that the field passes through the stone at a depth of about 8 centimeters. That's where the readings on the stone's edges simply stop. There were no doorways or even signs of a doorway into the structure, just a smooth stone cone.

"Just what exactly did that being say to you about the way home? And I mean everything." I asked.

"He said that the map to my way home was on this planet, but the path is narrow and un-marked. That was it," Razia responded.

"Hmm, the path is narrow and un-marked. Let me think about that for a while." I pondered the riddle. Time to step back and take a look at this problem anew. Just what do we have in front of us?

The building was a stone cone, about 30 meters wide at the base, and about 25m tall, exactly the same diameter as the one in the northern hemisphere. This one was set into a gently rolling hill in what looked and felt like an African savannah, sans insects of course. If it were an identical structure, the walls would change to cylindrical just below the ground. The stone cylinder would continue into the ground for another 12 meters. It would have a flat bottom, and in the lowest level would sit the power source. Whatever that source was, it was running all by itself for at least 200 millennia! And it was powering an impregnable shield...

Come on, there's got to be a chink in the armor somewhere, I thought. Dejected I walked down the gentle slope to where I parked my ship after the abortive sensor sweep. Then the tricorder beeped. What now? I looked at it. Here was a complete scan of the interior if the structure. "Razia, over here!" I yelled up the hill. As Razia flew down the slope to my position, but I had a puzzle on my hands, as the next scan gave the blank shielded view as all the others had.

Razia landed beside me. "What did you find?"

"I'm not sure. This," while showing the tricorder scan. "But now it's gone again." She took the image and stared at it intently, then stared at the structure intently. Then she crouched down, holding the tricorder at about waist height. It beeped and showed a live image of the building's interior.

"This is where your view came from," Razia finally said triumphantly.

"The chink in the armor," I replied.

"But how do we get inside the building? At this distance the gap is only this wide." Razia inscribed a circle about ½ meter in diameter. "It will be smaller when we get closer."

"That's what transporters are for," I answered. I headed for my ship, Razia towering over me as she walked beside. Looking down the slope, I mentioned, "That's going to be one tricky parking job." I left her puzzled look unanswered.

On the bridge I put up the scans of the structure and surrounding terrain on the main viewer as a schematic. I plotted the pencil thin crack in the shields as an outbound cone. Then I explained to Razia that I had to park the ship with the transporter emitters (and only that part of the ship's hull) inside the thin cone. Then all we have to do is beam in.

"Exactly how does one 'beam in'?" She asked. I held up a hand, and fired up the thrusters, side slipping the starship over the ground and rotating it ever so slightly. I drifted down the hill until I had both the transporter emitters and the communication antennas within the cone. I had basically turned the ship into a hovercraft. The 20 centimeters that the ship dropped to landing didn't affect my aim.

"Let me show you a room that you haven't seen yet," I stated as we went down the main corridor. We took the second door on the left. The transporter was a half-sized version of those found on larger starships. This pads normal capacity was 4 people, not 7. There was only the two of us, but those wings were rather large. I powered up the console and sure enough an interior scan came up. There was one clear area inside the structure that we could beam to from here. "What you need to do is stand on that pad over there," I nodded in the direction of the transporter pad while setting the coordinates. "I'll set the delay, and after pressing this button we will be inside that structure. I just have to program in our return trip..." With that I joined Razia on the pad and waited, holding in her lower wings. The look on her face was priceless when the transporter effects started.

"How are we ...what is this ..." YANK "Oh my." And we were standing inside a dimly lit room surrounded by control consoles. Contrary to popular belief the transporter does not chop you up into little bits and try to reassemble you somewhere else. Nor does it convert you into an energy stream. Converting the mass of one person into energy would create a blast that would make thermonuclear weapons look like firecrackers. What it does do is create a small wormhole, stretches it across the transporter pad, squeezes you with an anti-gravity compression field so the wormhole's tides don't rip you apart, then passes the wormhole from floor to ceiling. Whatever is on the pad drops out the other side of the wormhole at the destination coordinates. It's still a weird feeling though.

The consoles appeared to be powered by the ancient power source. There was little illumination, but that mainly came from the consoles themselves. Then Razia pointed out what individual consoles were for.

"You can read this language?" I asked, incredulously.

"Yes. The language is composed, partly, of white mana." She replied. Apparently the Iconians knew about mana. There might be some connection between 'planeswalkers' and Iconians after all. But it turned out that the gate, which the building originally housed, was damaged beyond repair. With Razia's reading and my piloting abilities, we parsed out the consoles. The mapping computer was still functioning, and with Razia's help we determined that we were looking at a map 200 millennia old. We needed a new map!

It didn't take us long to determine which console and set of controls would update the map. After touching the controls in a proper sequence, a massive gravitational pulse was generated by the building.

That's definitely going to be noticed, I thought.

The Romulan vessel rocked in its orbit, nearly tumbling from orbit and crashing into the planet. "What was that?" Relar demanded of his bridge crew.

"Gravity wave. A big one!" the centurion exclaimed. "Someone has initiated a large gravity wave. Purpose unknown."

"So, they managed to get inside that building. Now who would be able to operate an Iconian facility?" Relar mused. "Put an active scan on that ship. If anything changes, I want to know about it yesterday!"

So one of you are not what you want us to believe you are, Relar thought. And I'll bet it not you, "Andrew".

It was an agonizingly slow process watching the expanding gravity wave reset the map. Even at subspace radio speeds the return took a while, looking like an old-fashioned sonar picture. Eventually the expanding circle corrected the data to the current era. It was the rifts that we were waiting for. Since Razia was not of this universe, she would need to return to her own. We needed to find that 'plane of existence'.

When the updated map reached past the Rim Worlds and Tholian space, rifts appeared on the newly updated map. Three came up with one title, while the other two came up with another.

"So what do those tags there mean?" I asked Razia. I was pointing at the 5 rift symbols.

"These say that there is data on file, while the other two say that the destination is unknown. Those two rifts open up to unknown universes."

"Or to other parts of this universe," I replied, thinking about the Enterprise and Defiant in Tholian space.

"Yes, your universe is unusually vast. Those points of light at night ... that flow."

"You mean stars?" I asked, incredulously.

"Not quite. Ravnica has a few stars, at night," she replied. "There are lots of them here, and they flow into a ribbon across the sky."

"You mean the Milky Way," I responded. "And if you think that's big, wait till I show you all the other galaxies in this universe. By the way, what do those records say?" I asked.

"Each of these shows what is on the other side of the rift ... There's Ravnica!" She exclaimed.

One of the file pictures showed enough of the planet that Razia recognized it as her home. She mentioned that the planet no longer looked that way, but the continents matched. So I had to ask just how she knew that.

"You do know that I'm over four thousand years old, right," she answered.

"Wow. You look absolutely awesome for a quadra-millennian," I responded. "I wouldn't put you a day over 30."

"Thank you." She replied, missing the innuendo.

"Well, I guess that 'planeswalker' was right. There's your map home."

"But how do I get there?" She asked.

"That's where I come in. You definitely need a starship to get home. And you need some special equipment on that starship to do it too," I answered.

"So, you were right." she replied. "And my gut feeling was right after all." I grinned at that last statement. With a press of a button on my wrist communicator, we were beamed back aboard the 'Sister.

"Relar! Status change!" The centurion exclaimed.

"Explain centurion," Relar replied.

"The other ship just lowered its shields. Then there was a transporter signature. Now the shields are back up. The ship is lifting off from the planet's surface," the centurion answered. "Incoming communication," the centurion finished.

"On screen," Relar replied. An image of the southern structure, with the 'cone of entry' appeared on the view screen.

"Sir. The way into the southern structure..." the centurion queried.

"Is just a diversion," Relar cut him off. "They want to delay us with this building. The real treasure is onboard that ship." Shrewd, captain, very shrewd, but I won't fall for it you know. I will have my victory, and neither you nor the winged one will get in my way. I will have my answers! Relar thought. "Prepare to leave orbit. We will be following them, under cloak," he ordered

"As you wish commander," the centurion responded.

We were leaving the planet behind. Razia probably assumed that I would be heading straight for the proper rift, but I had other plans. You just don't sail through a rift to your destination - rifts usually are way too small. One needed to turn a rift into a wormhole, and that required a gravitic array, built to the proper specs. We needed the array, but even first, we needed the specs! So we needed a planet with both a good university and a subspace transmitter, so I was returning to Gamma Eldebron.

3 days later I was jarred out of bed. An alarm was screaming for my attention. I ran to the bridge, while Razia joined me from her cabin on deck 2. The scanners recorded what had occurred. The Romulan scout had snuck up on us, and they did have a plasma torpedo launcher! They were going for the quick disable and board. My standing programming had saved us. As soon as the Romulan had lobbed their torpedo, our scanners detected it and redlined the warp drive. We went from warp 7 to warp 12 in under 30 seconds. That's what knocked me out of bed. We were outrunning the torpedo, but just barely. "Brace for impact." I stated. Boom! The torpedo had impacted the rear shields, but they held. I decided to keep running at warp 12 for the moment.

"We should turn around and attack!" Razia stated. Her ire was definitely up.

"No, that's not a good idea." I replied.

"Why? You have weapons, we should fight!" Razia almost yelled.

"They outgun us by a factor of 3. That torpedo had lost most of its punch by the time it reached us. Flying straight into one would cripple this ship, and leave us open to boarding or destruction. Would you want to spend the end of your days as a Romulan prisoner?" I explained.

"No," Razia had calmed down a little.

"Then lets get to Gamma Eldebron. We will be safe there. They won't dare attack us from space and planetary law forbids ranged weapons. The local pork is a lot like your 'wojeks'. They don't put up with any bullshit, and the spaceport has scanners to detect anyone trying to smuggle in an energy weapon." I continued.

"All right then." Razia had her fiery temper back under control. "We will get the equipment that I need, and then I will go home." After I had left them in my wake, I throttled back to warp 9, at my safety limit, and at their maximum limit. Then the long chase to Gamma Eldebron began.

We landed on Gamma Eldebron, the remainder of our trip being uneventful. My Section 31 ship could easily outrun the Romulan scout. I had the advantage in engines this time. I decided for a ground-based docking bay. Ironically, I was assigned docking bay 13. The second day planetside, while we were at the university doing research, the Romulans showed up. They must have been redlining their engines all the way, trying to keep up. They took up an orbital berth. As soon as we returned to the 'Sister, I broke out Razia's sword, and dug up a bowie knife out of one of the survival kits. Knives and swords were perfectly legal on Gamma Eldebron. It looked like we needed to spend two or three days at the university researching, before we could send out our specs. We decided to call it early, and left the passive scanners up. I wanted to know what the Romulans were up to.

When do you make the mistake that kills you? I had just found out. On the second afternoon after their arrival, the Romulans decided to strike. As Razia and myself were passing through an open market, shots rang out. The Romulans were using ranged weapons! They had fabricated some old-fashioned revolvers, firing bullets propelled by chemical reactions. With no energy signature they simply walked them past the scanners. I wasn't expecting that. A bullet struck me in the back, shredding my left lung and exiting out of my chest. I stumbled through a doorway and crashed to the floor. Razia was no longer beside me. I was gasping and bleeding out, the Romulan's weapons were at least .50 caliber.

I was pretty sure I was dead again, and I didn't like it the second time around either. Then I awoke in my own sick bay. The auto-doc had closed up the wound, but cloning up a new lung would take a few months. I should have difficulty breathing, but I some how didn't. I also had a strange static-y feeling about me as well. That's when I learned what had happened. Razia went ape shit on the Romulans with her sword, killing all six of them in the raiding party. Then she flew me back to the 'Sister, and put me into the auto-doc. The reason that I didn't die on the way and could breathe fine now while missing most of my left lung, was that Razia had "life-linked" with me. That angelic ability, possible even in this universe, had saved my life. The remaining Romulans were driven out of the system for their misdeeds. But that just meant they were left to lick their wounds and lurk just outside of the system.

Relar, was pissed. The centurion was dead, along with the rest of his landing party. That winged one could move, and sword fight! The centurion's plan backfired, but he paid the price. As soon as word got out that the Romulans had brought guns to a knife fight, their ship was surrounded by patrol craft, and was ordered out of the system. Their shot at a clean kidnapping was gone. He ordered the sub-lieutenant to maintain a cloaked patrol just beyond the planet after sneaking back into the system. Since I can't outrun them I now must wait until they stop somewhere else before I can strike. But just where are they headed? Perhaps we should investigate that building after all.

We had our design and lined up a shipyard, with a few subspace calls. My wound healed up and my cloned lung was on 'the grow'. When it was ready I would have to line up a surgeon. We would have a run to New New Aberdeen, in the Triangle. The A.O.F.W. probably would put up with a Romulan ship showing up at their major shipyard, especially one registered to Freeloader. On New New Aberdeen they would definitely have to keep their noses clean, for we had no plans to really leave the ship without anything less than a phaser rifle. To try to throw them off, I was going to make a high speed run to Baker's World and veer off at the last minute. To avoid any departure hassles, I took the ship out on a random heading at maximum impulse. As soon as we crossed the warp wall, the warp drive spooled up to warp 10 and I made a slow sweeping arc towards Baker's World. Unless we ran over the Romulan on the way out we planned on leaving him behind. He was nowhere to be found. We kept up the speed for an entire day, and then backed off to warp 9. I needed to save my engines for later. This was another medium haul trip. I doubted that the Romulan could keep up the entire way without burning up his engines.

The fourth evening out of Gamma Eldebron, I was in my quarters after my usual vegetarian dinner with Razia. We had retired for the night, but ½ hour later there was a door beep. I answered the beep to my door. Stepping out into the corridor, there was Razia, buck-naked.

"Razia?" I asked, dumfounded.

She was in tears. "I require ... I need ... Companionship." Then she embraced me, in desperation.

That was unexpected. I thought.

I awoke to a living feather bed. Razia was still holding on to me after last evening's activities. I learned a lot about angel physiology, whether that information was destined for mortals or not! Apparently, the 'life-link' that Razia initiated, included a telepathic link. She was dreaming my dreams, which included standard male fantasies! Since Ravnican angels don't normally sleep, they don't normally dream either. Life-linked to a mortal, Razia began to 'dream the impossible dream'. And unlike myself, Razia had an eidetic memory, and she remembered everything. I also learned about a few pressure points, sure to get any angel's attention!

We crossed the 44 remaining parsecs between Gamma Eldebron and Baker's World, in 11 days. Razia had moved in with me, leaving deck 2 unoccupied again. As soon as we were 3 hours out I changed course and dropped the hammer on the drives - warp 12. The little ship was slicing through the eternal dark at over 8500 times the speed of light. We were crossing a parsec just under every four hours. Just over a day to go, and we may have shaken the Romulans. Upon arrival at New New Aberdeen, we found out that the fitting of the gravitic array into the starboard aft of deck 2 would take two weeks, and require cutting into the hull. We were expecting the Romulans to show up, but there was no sign of them.

That was either really good ... or really bad.

Refitted, we were heading up out of the galactic plane towards the rift that led to Ravnica. The ship was humming along at warp 9, and the 157-parsec trip would be our longest one, 6 weeks. Then Razia could go home, hopefully before her fall from grace was complete. We spent the time together, training her on the shuttlepod, when we weren't simply enjoying each other's company. We weren't guaranteed to be able to open a large portal, if we could open one at all. All was quiet on the aft scanners.

The ship rocked with the torpedo hit. I was jarred out of the engineer's chair and onto the deck of the bridge. The lights and gravity went out briefly and came back on. Red lights were flashing all over the engineering panel. It wasn't good. But Razia had just entered the rift in the shuttlepod, as the portal that we opened was only 6 meters wide. Unfortunately I had to stop with the aft array pointing at the rift to open it. Razia's job was easy. Fly out of the cargo bay and through the portal, which she did. It was during that action that the Romulan de-cloaked on its attack run and fired. Apparently they had found out our final destination and were camping out on the rift. They overran me and re-cloaked. I don't think that they figured out just how short a time we were going to be here.

I had Razia in the shuttlepod and the aft cargo hatch open. As soon as I stopped, I 'fired' the gravitic array, and Razia flew into it. It was all over in seconds. There was nothing the Romulan could do. I looked at my board.

Fore port shield gone. Phasers were down, main computer down - we were running on the engineering computer. Life support damaged - goodbye cheeseburgers for a while. Hull damaged - structural integrity was down 56%. I still had my engines and my photon torpedoes. Time to go! As the warp drives spooled up I waited for the Romulan to show up, then I remembered his torpedo took a full minute to cycle. I set up my ship for a Sunday punch. I reprogrammed the ship to divert power from one of the torpedo tubes immediately to the other. I had two rounds rapid, and then I had to wait for the plasma conduit to cool. I started a straight line run. Sure enough the Romulan had swept around in a wide arc, recharging his weapon. As soon As I had a lock I fired, cycled the conduit and fired again. The first round slammed into his shields, and the second hit just after he fired. We both broke to our Starboards. I had a torpedo to outrun and he had no front shields left. Time to go! Go go go go go! The ship rocked with the impact just barely absorbed by the aft shields. The Romulan had decided he had enough, and was moving off un-cloaked. Maybe I had hurt him a little, and he definitely wasn't expecting a pair of photon torpedoes in the face. Besides Razia had made it home, and there was no point on staying here for either of us. My job was done and I headed for home.