Herald of Light: Okay, I'm sorry I am late, but I had a long week, and I just collapsed Friday when I came home. I changed the ratingon the story, and I am sorry if that means that some people won't be able to view it, but when I wrote one of the later chapters, I realized just how violent and mouthy this story is going to get when I had Admiral Forest royally rip a group of people ( I think the final count on the f-bomb was was five times in link two sentences. That also doesn't count a few others. But anyway, that isn't until chapter 11 (yes, I have written that far, I haven't posted all of them because I still am proofreading them).

I'm going to continue posting about every two-three days, or when I get about 150 hits (whichever I feel is best).

Make sure to pay attention to the Doctor's report later in the chapter. If you really think about it, you could probably predict the end of the story, but then again, I doubt that there is enough there yet to give it away, but I'm sure there are enough smart people out there to put it together:)


Phaser fire flew across the bridge. T'Pol and Trip dashed through the turbolift door and stunned the bridge crew, before the vampress on the screen could try to put them under her control, T'Pol cut the transmission.

"Let's get the crew back up. I'll start with the Captain." Trip moved over to Archer and touched a hypospray to his neck.

"What the hell are you doing?" Archer growled at his best friend.

"Just saving your ass, like usual." Trip grinned. "We need to have a long chat before we deal with these people again."

"And why is that?"

"Because they have a spy on board Enterprise."

"How do you know that?"

"Because my family has been tracking his butt as long as he has been a sympathizer for the suckers."

"Your family? Trip, as far as I knew, your family has been from the southern part of the North American continent for the last four hundred years."

"That's true captain, but before that, our family name was Van Helsing."

"Van Helsing?"

"Yep, just like the movie."

"Captain, I have the location of the sympathizer." T'Pol looked up from the Internal Sensor display to his right. "He is in Engineering."

"Close off that section. Trip, come on. It's time that I get a little explanation for this." Archer went into his ready room and returned with a hand phaser. "Let's go."

"Remember, we want him alive. At least it would help us to find out what they would want." T'Pol shook her head, as though she wasn't able to think straight. Seeing his concerned look she nodded and said "It's the side effects from the accelerated healing. It would seem that my body is trying to become more human. I doubt though that it will succeed."

"Wake the rest of the bridge crew, then get your butt down to Phlox and have him run a scan on you." Archer said as the turbolift closed.

"Yes beloved." Archer heard her voice echo in his mind. It was accompanied with her emotions. She was concerned about him, but she knew that he wouldn't die. It almost seemed like the universe had a purpose for him that wouldn't let him die. She also loved him deeply. He smiled to himself.

"Something funny Captain?"

"No Trip. Just something that you'll understand maybe if you are lucky enough to find the right woman."

"Oh. Well, here we go. Deck E"

"Phasers to Stun." Archer retooled his weapon. The door opened to the corridor just outside Engineering. They worked their way down the corridor. Malcolm's MACO squad was on their way, but it would be a couple of minutes before they would arrive. Archer decided that that was too long. A couple of minutes and the sympathizer could overload the engines. "If they move, shoot. We'll sort it out later, okay Trip?"

"Aye Captain." Trip went to the other side of the door and put his hand on the door panel. He nodded to Jon and then keyed it to open.

Engineering was business as usual. Except for the fact that half the crewman were down on the floor, unconscious. Archer motioned for Trip to take the right side of the warp drive, he would take the left. As both began moving to either side, T'Pol came over their link.

"Jon, the sympathizer hasn't moved in the last minute. He is about three feet head of you and above. He may be unconscious."

"A lot of the Engineering duty crew is unconscious, any reason why that might be?"

"I had Lt. Reed flood engineering with cyclopropane. Since it is highly flammable, I had him remove it soon after."

Archer sighed then called to Trip. "It's okay; they flooded the room with knock-out gas before we got here."
"How'd you know---" Trip answered his own question. Even though Jon and T'Pol were considered the mother and father of the crew, no one had gotten used to them having a link that they could talk on at any time. Might be nice to have, but then again, no private thoughts, that could stink. Trip told himself.

He had had a thing for T'Pol once. But he had moved on. Ever since he had been impregnated by that Xyrillian, he just hadn't liked the idea of getting into a relationship that was that……demanding. Sure it wasn't something that he should worry about, but he still hadn't gotten used to any idea of .

"Here he is. Pass up the scanner." T'Pol had guided him to this crewman because of a signal that was being emitted from him.

Archer ran the scanner over the crewman's body. He was human, for the most part. There was a slight deviation in his blood's hemoglobin count, but that wasn't unusual for most people living in space. He would have Phlox run a more through scan to be sure though.

Phlox rushed into engineering and came to the captain's side. "Captain, I think I've found something, but I can't be sure unless I have a blood sample."

At this moment, the crewman's eyes shot open. Seeing Archer right in front of him made him hungry. He reached up and grabbed Archer's neck and pulled himself up in order to start feeding. Archer had enough time to pull out his phase pistol and hit him on the head with it, freeing himself of the vampire's grip. Phlox jammed a hypospray onto his neck and emptied the sedative into his system. It didn't work.

The vampire got up and jumped down onto the lower part of engineering. Archer got up and shot several shots at him. Three hit, but didn't even affect him. Archer didn't want to, but he keyed the pistol to the kill setting. But before he could fire, the MACO's arrived. They had phase rifles which were all leveled at the vampire. It took a total of twenty blasts from the five MACO's before he went down.

"Let's get him into sick bay, NOW!" Archer and Phlox said in unison.

"Trip, check the engines, make sure we have warp capability."

"Aye, Captain. Why? Are you worried about being able to escape?"

"Just call it a bad feeling Trip. Something that you wouldn't like."


Back on Earth

Admiral Forrest put down the pad with the list of abducted leaders. Enterprise had been out of subspace radio contact for the last six hours. Add to this the skirmishes that had erupted among the Earth's nations, and you had the formula for a very bad day.

"Any results on trying to get Captain Archer?" Forrest said into his intercom.

"No sir. Captain Hernandez of the Columbia asked if she could go investigate."

"Tell her that she needs to get back here ASAP. The situation is getting worse." He brought up the news feed on his private viewscreen. It showed reports of the Arab Coalition attacking the Jewish state of Israel. While there had always been tensions, shots hadn't been fired between the two for the last thirty years. Peace had been reached, until now.


"His body is remarkably similar to a human's, but there are still some differences," Phlox motioned to the screen above the bioscanner chamber, "his dental roots suggest that his incisors were altered in order not to appear long. His digestive system was also altered, and his skin was actually a graft. It seems that he has a biomechanical suit built onto his outer skin. His blood," he picked up a vial and passed it around the room. "is anemic, and has another feature." He moved over to the scanner's screen again and zoomed in. "His blood is full of nanobots, which actively defeat our passive scans. Only when I used the adaptations that Lt. Reed found when we fought off the cybernetic organisms," Phlox paused as the Captain winced. "was I able to defeat their actions. But they are far less advanced than those other organisms."

"Have you found any way to harm them?"

"Yes. It seems that they are extremely vulnerable to UV light."

"Any way we could use that?"

"It would be possible to rework the phase pistols to fire on the UV wavelength. That would definitely beat what we are doing now." Malcolm looked like his ego was bruised. He took it as his duty was to defend the ship, and this person had slipped right past him.

The ship shuddered and the power flickered. "Captain, we're under attack."

"Take us to warp, now."

"Where to?"

"Take us home Ensign, all possible speed."


cyclopropane is an actual chemical and is accuratly fitted into the story

Herald: Okay, see you in a couple of days!