Hello! It's me again! Hey, you know I got many reviews for this chapter. Thank you all, I'm glad you like this story :-)
Firebirdgirl: Thank you.
Aditu: you know, Tuvok is just too fun to make fun of. He's just calling for kind teasing with his stoicism. And you will have answers to some of your questions here, and others later on. ;-)
Corky: Thank you.
Anthro-Angel: was that soon enough for you (flutter my eyelashes) ?
Odairu… hm, well… glad you both like it…?
So… here we reach the Horse's head nebula… or almost.
Chapter VII. Mysterious attacks
She woke twenty hours later. She felt limp, relaxed, satisfied and incredibly rested. She languorously stretched in her bed for a long while before she stood and dressed, after a good sonic shower. She tied her "hair", merely fur longer than on the rest of her body, with many hairpins, giving herself a mischievous and ruffled air.
She went to holodeck two… to find it occupied by B'Elanna and three technicians.
"Oh no," she said. "Maintenanche day?"
"Yes," B'Elanna said, grinning.
Merrrshika burst out laughing.
"I thought you werre deterrmined to let me get rrid of the bugs. And I guessh that the otherr holodecksh arre occupied?"
B'Elanna nodded her head in mock agreement.
"I guessh Tuvok told you which one I was using. And I guessh Kim told you what a long night of shleep meant forr me. And maybe Chakotay gave you yourr shift off prropulshion rregenerration."
B'Elanna made a thin smile, then declared:
"Impressive. You never thought about becoming a security officer?"
"No, I didn't," Merrrshika answered with a very forced smile. B'Elanna did not appear to realize the question she had just asked a hacker. The Mirrresh tapped her Starfleet icon. "Merrrshika to the brridge."
"Go ahead," Janeway answered.
"I would like to have acchessh to the brridge, to have a look at shenshorr's rreadings."
"If you wish, but there is nothing particular at the moment."
"I'm on my way," Merrrshika eluded.
She wished a good day to B'Elanna, then took the corridor and turbolift that would take her to the bridge. When she entered, she joyously exclaimed "good morning", bringing a smile to Janeway's lips to see her exuberant disrespect of Starfleet-protocolled obligatory discretion on the bridge. Her enthusiasm also caused a silent reprobating shaking of a Vulcan head.
Once she had the captain's permission, she walked over to Harry's console, who gestured her forward, but made a show of staying close enough to peep over her shoulder. She began by asking the list of the running scans. As she had thought, those she wanted were among the routine operations. She displayed and zoomed the results of four on the console: polarization, xenon detection, ionization and hyper-low radio frequencies. After a while, Tuvok did not resist his curiosity – I mean, his duty as a security officer, and asked:
"What are you looking for, Merrshika?"
"Mirrresh shipsh," she answered.
"Ships? Warships? What are they doing here?", Tuvok exclaimed.
Janeway was grinning so much that the shrewd Vulcan was forced to admit defeat. The captain had withheld information from him, and she surely knew what Merrrshika was planning with the holodeck programs too. It could only make sense that Merrrshika was doing so much by herself on the ship since her arrival because the captain knew of her plans and had agreed to them. Tuvok recognized the flaw in his logic to have overlooked such obvious evidence before this moment. It was a serious overlook on the part of a security officer, he admonished himself. He had to be more careful and attentive in the future.
However, Merrrshika explained herself with good patience:
"Not warshipsh, motherr shipsh. Females. They come herre to give birrth to theirr child because of the ionisation and polarrisation coming frrom the shtars herre. They need it to initiate communication with the babies. Therre arre jusht a few males, generrally. All those shipsh arre alone, except the males who have a rregularr crrew onboard. The motherrs arre left alone and frree with theirr child forr two orr thrree weeks beforre they accept crrew onboarrd, when they have childrren."
Being the highest ranked officer that was not aware of her plans, Tuvok felt compelled to ask for the benefit of the other bridge officers:
"Very well, but why are you trying to find them?"
"I want to buy a ship."
"What?", Kim asked with surprise, and more than a little displeasure.
"I'm not planning on leaving the ship this way and breaking our agreement with captain Sherrrim," Merrrshika hastily specified.
"If it is not to leave, then why do you want to buy a ship?", Tuvok asked again, after Janeway made a theatrical gesture of the hand to encourage him to continue with his interrogatory.
Merrrshika let her hands fall from the console, and turned to look solemnly at Kathryn.
"Captain, it was sho generroush to take my onboarrd Voyagerr. I shee Sheven helping you everry day with herr mapsh and Neelixh as a morrale officherr. I want to help you too, Captain, I want to deserrve to be a memberr of yourr crrew." Then, she turned to Tuvok. "What I want to buy, in fact, is two shmall shuttles, one male and one female. They arre shmall warr shuttles, light and nimble. They could be used as a shecond type of attackerr, in battles wherre hackerrs arre giving you trrouble, orr when you have prroblems with yourr computerr. And onche in the alpha quadrrant, I'm surre therre's a U-classh shtarr giving the rright polarrisation forr theirr rreprroduction."
There was a moment of silence as everyone took in what she had just offered them.
"This is an ambitious plan, Merrshika," Tuvok remarked. "It is also very generous of you."
"It'sh the leasht I can do, Lieutenant-Commander," Merrrshik answered, "to rrepay everryone's generrosity with me shinche I'm herre. Beshides, I have fun to pilot light shuttles. Therre!", she exclaimed excitedly out of a sudden. "Therre is a herrd there."
Polarization and ionization were favourable, there was a pattern of many concentration zones of xenon and an incredible quantity of hyper-low frequencies.
"What arre they doing?", Merrrshika wondered aloud.
"What's wrong?", Janeway worried.
"Either it'sh theirr firrsht communication and they'rre howling to the moon, or they arre underr panic. They'rre yelling all at the shame time."
"Yellow alert," Janeway commanded.
Merrrshika requested permission to listen to an audio conversion of the hyper-low frequencies, which she was given immediately. She checked if the conversion would give the levels of volume and wavelengths as she was used to ear them, changed a few parameters to adjust it correctly, then put on audio the Mirrresh vessels' communications. She needed no more than two seconds, and she closed the communication.
"What a strange sensation," Kim observed. "I could feel the vibration in my body, but I didn't hear anything."
"They'rre crrying," Merrrshika stated, not paying attention to Kim's remark.
Janeway asked, preoccupied: "Do you know why they are crying?"
"No… They werre complaining about lotsh of deathsh, and that they arre losht."
Janeway turned to the pilot. "Ensign Murphy, how long until we get to the coordinates pointed by Merrrshika?"
"Two hours thirteen minutes, Captain," he answered.
"Stay on yellow alert. Call me and the other senior officers in one hour, or if there is any change."
As she was talking, Janeway had started to walk around the bridge towards her ready room, leaving the bridge to Tuvok.
"Yes, Captain," the Vulcan answered, taking place into the commanding seat.
"Merrshika," Janeway called her. The Mirrresh quickly realized she had been supposed to follow the captain. She sighed; how was she supposed to react correctly to these strange Starfleet customs if no one told her about them? She followed the captain into the ready room, and the door closed automatically behind her, which did not fail to make her nervous even after all this time.
"Merrshika, do you have any idea what is their situation and what happened?"
The hacker sighed slightly, and explained in a weary tone: "Motherrshipsh want to be quiet to give birrth. They don't want a crrew to be on theirr boarrd forr the thrree weeksh needed to come herre, deliverr, initiate communication with the children and go back. All thish time, they arre eshcorrted by a few males. The deathsh they arre complaining about can be vesshels orr Mirrresh crrew. The fact that they arre losht… it makesh me feel like therre is no morre crrew… They don't know what to do, they'rre afrraid to do anything."
"The Mirresh people, on your home world, don't they have contacts with the motherships?"
"Not while they arre away. Because they arre sho vulnerrable, we keep shecrret the place wherre they give birrth. Ourr shipsh have a biochemical shield that gives them ashterroids shignaturres on yourr shensors. They'rre hidden."
"But if they were under attack," Janeway insisted, "wouldn't they send a distress call?"
"To tell everry prredatorr arround that therre is an easy prray rright therre?", Merrrshika countered. "Shpache has not been sho kind on Mirrresh that we got help each time we rrequeshted asshishtanche. Ourr shipsh arre harrd to contrrol; even if an attackerr kills the males and theirr crrew, they can't capturre all the shipsh. It alrready happened many times beforre, and each time we rrebuilt ourr fleet with the shipsh that werre left."
"So, the males let themselves die without asking for help?"
"Yesh," Merrrshika confirmed. "But they don't give up beforre a hell of a fight, I can asshurre you."
Janeway calculated for a while the advantages and flaws of such a tactic, and decided she preferred Starfleet ways and the relative respect of distress calls in the alpha quadrant. Then, she asked: "What do you think we will find once we get to the birthing sanctuary?"
"I don't know," Merrrshika admitted. "I jusht hope we won't find a pack of thief vesshels."
