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The labyrinths of Remus had been carved out over the course of centuries. Vast subterranean halls and cities had been hewn out of the stone. A Reman was born, lived and died in the stygian gloom of his cavernous environment. The entire native population lived in the scattered cities born from the original mining encampments.
One such city had risen in stature above the rest. Sharuz-dum was the home of the Commandant. Built from the original mining colony, Sharuz-dum served as the seat of Reman power. This truly meant it was the hub of Romulus' control over Remus' various mining settlements.
The dilithium ore lacing the crust of the planet negated the use of transporters within the passages. Orbital transports had to be conducted at selected sites. Most of the other passages cut into the rock were wide enough for two or three Remans to pass comfortably by. They were, however, too narrow for the use of repulsorlift or impulse driven vehicles like on the surface of Romulus. It generally made for a lot of walking.
The exceptions were the Romulan troops garrisoning Remus. They had access to motorcycles and quadrunners. Two motorcycles and four quads were parked in the passageway outside the transporter station. They all utilised high-density batteries so as not to pollute the Reman atmosphere.
The Remans mounted the motorcycles. P'ris and Daggit each took a quad for themselves. Koval mounted up behind Pretak on a quad, clearly intending to be driven about. Macen and T'Kir conducted a silent argument over who would drive and when Macen finally won, she snuggled up behind him on the last quad.
The Remans fired up their cycles and roared off down the passageway. Not to be outdone or intimidated, P'ris followed suit. Daggit followed on her metaphorical heels. Macen gunned the quad's engine and gave chase before the Romulans could respond. Lagging somewhat, Pretak began his pursuit of the briskly paced column.
The advantages of the Remans' natural adaptations to the conditions coupled with their familiarity with the passageways soon became evident. They repeatedly had to slow their progress down to allow the others to catch up. It was during the course of one of these games of "tag" that Macen noted the cut-outs regularly carved out of the wall. Pedestrians, alerted by the high pitched whine of the vehicles' engines, could safely step out of the way of oncoming traffic.
Macen was disappointed at the speeds at which they navigated the passageways and settlements of Remus. The halls and homes of the Remans were carved out of the very rock and displayed the talents of master craftsmen. Great care and sacrifice had gone into the building of each edifice. The scientist in Macen yearned to study the Remans' societal make-up and observe its familial structures in action.
The transporter station was built near the surface of the Reman crust. It took nearly an hour to navigate down into the "capital" of Sharuz-dum. Upon arriving, Macen was impressed. It reminded him of a site he had visited on Earth. The Edomite city of Petra had been carved out of the rock in similar grand scale. Although the Edomite culture had long been extinct on Earth, their city lived on.
Massive columns held aloft the ceiling above the grand courtyard of Sharuz-dum. Here, in the courtyard, the daily life of the city transpired. All the homes of the city were built around a central hall with an opening whose style could have adorned a Vulcan temple. This hall housed the Commandant and his staff. Ayrck and Khimar led them through the bustling marketplace that occupied most of the massive courtyard. They parked their vehicles in front of the Commandant's hall and waited for the others to do the same.
"This way." Ayrck said as he motioned towards the steps leading up to the hall's entrance.
By the Pools, Danan thought miserably, I am sooooo bored.
With Macen down on the planet, Danan was in command. Grace was at the helm, doing a lot of nothing. Everyone else on the bridge was a relief officer. Radil stood guard over Chekova. Dracas was in Engineering co-ordinating diagnostics to see of the recent repairs were holding. According to reports and complaints, Kort was holed up in Sickbay, haranguing anyone who happened to drop in.
There just wasn't much to do while sitting in orbit. Danan had already utilised the Shadow's formidable sensor array to run virtually every type of scan on Remus. Donatra had quickly gotten on the horn to yell at her but the bulk of the scans had been completed by then. The Federation's knowledge of Remus was going to be substantially increased upon the ship's return home.
Silence dominated the bridge. The crew had been overtly avoiding the SID team since Chekova's arrest. Several rallies and protests had been conducted in the messes. No one had come forward to demand Chekova's release so Danan assumed it would all remain subdued. Reports and complaints would be filed and a generally sullen atmosphere would prevail but things would get done.
It was to her great surprise when she heard Tennison, the relief Tactical officer, raise her voice; "Commander, may I have a word?"
Danan rose from the dual command station and turned around to face Tennison. The Security officer was aiming a phaser at Danan. Danan glanced about the bridge and discovered that every relief officer, Science, Ops, and Engineering, were all aiming phasers at her. Grace, slowly rising from her station, had obviously noticed it too.
"You've been relieved, Commander." Tennison said emotionlessly, "Commander Chekova will be assuming command shortly."
Mutiny! Danan thought dismally, Brin is going to kill me.
Dracas wasn't surprised to be staring down the working end of a phaser. He was disappointed, however, to find that it was wielded by his Assistant Chief Engineer. He thought that he'd established a better relationship with the young tech officer than that. Even as he raised his hands in surrender, Dracas was already seeking a means of escape.
Kort threw out yet another mutineer with a roar. So far, they'd come at him one at a time. He'd easily disarmed and ejected every intruder into Sickbay. Eventually, though, they'd rally and rush him en masse with heavy weapons but until then he'd face them like a warrior born.
The Commandant's hall was richly appointed with the latest styles from Romulus. The previous Commandant had been summarily executed and Shinzon had inherited all of her possessions. Although not Reman by birth, Shinzon held to Reman customs. Most of the items littering his hall showed little signs of use. In fact, his office was the first room to exhibit any Reman character.
The office was austere. It possessed a single desk and workstation terminal. Four simple, metal chairs sat before the desk. The room was dimly lit, right at the comfortable level for Remans. Seated behind the desk, awaiting them, was Shinzon.
His relative youth was the first striking feature that caught one's eye. He held himself with a mien far beyond his years. His shaved cranium, coupled with the fierce intensity of his eyes, granted him an elemental visage. He wore Reman armour but unlike the typically ebon armour worn by common Remans, Shinzon's was purple hued with a pearlescent gleam.
The origins of the Remans' armour lay in both aspects of their heritage: warrior and miner. It was durable enough to protect one from cave-ins and other hazards while being flexible enough to allow unrestricted movement. All Remans wore their armour with pride. Only Reman children were without armour and adolescents were given communally owned suits to practice wearing until they matured and received their own custom crafted set of armour.
Standing to Shinzon's left was a tall Reman in black armour. It was to be assumed this was the Attaché that Ayrck had thought of. T'Kir had relayed the stray thought via their telepathic bond. T'Kir had dampened their personal telepathic bond in order to broadcast a general "jamming" field.
The Attaché stirred as his efforts to read the minds of Shinzon's guest were repetitively thwarted. He continually redoubled his efforts and the others began to show signs of the increased mental pressure in the room. Only Macen and Shinzon appeared unaffected by the mental duel waging around them.
As the psychic backlash increased, P'ris clutched at her head and Daggit
struggled to keep his eyes open through the grimace he wore. Ayrck and Khimar were each staggered and sought support from the office walls. Macen and Shinzon calmly assessed one another as a fine trickle of sweat began to run down T'Kir's cheeks. The Attaché's lips began to tremble as he mounted his final assault.
As suddenly as it began, the contest ended. At first, the only visible signs of the cessation of hostilities was the sudden relaxation in T'Kir's shoulders and the renewed stiffness of the Attaché's posture. It took several more minutes for the others to begin to recover. Macen smiled coldly and crossed his arms over his chest as he levelled his gaze squarely upon Shinzon.
"Are we done testing each other's mettle or can we expect a repeat performance?"
Shinzon matched Macen's smile but a glimmer of respect shone in his eyes, "I believe we're done. You'll have to forgive my Attaché's... enthusiasm. He took me into his family when I was just a boy deposited on Remus to die. He moulded me into the man I am today. He will take any action he deems necessary to preserve my life. Since it is my life, I naturally concur with his judgement."
"Perhaps his concerns today were misplaced." Macen suggested.
"Perhaps." Shinzon allowed then paused for a moment's reflection, "My lieutenants made promising reports regarding you during the war. You advised your troops and then fought beside them on the front lines. That is a rare thing for one in your profession." Shinzon cast a withering glance towards P'ris, "As her comrades could tell you."
"Commander P'ris has comported herself beyond reproach during my association with her. I can't speak for any actions she has committed that I wasn't witness to." Macen replied.
"A legalism, Commander." Shinzon scoffed, "An evasive manoeuvre designed to avoid responsibility. Be bold, show that battlefield courage again and venture an opinion."
Without hesitation Macen responded, "P'ris is reliable. I've already entrusted her with my life and would do so again."
Shinzon nodded, "Good. That's all I needed to hear."
With that said, Shinzon spoke to the Attaché, who dismissed Ayrck and Khimar; "They'll await you outside." The Attaché informed them.
The team took the seats arranged before Shinzon's massive desk and he studied them over steepled fingers, "Now, Commander, How can I assist you?"
"Well, Commander, what's your decision?" Tennison demanded.
"You damn well know I can't surrender this ship to you." Danan answered in frustration, "So do what you need to do and be done with it."
Tennison straightened out her arm and took precise aim, "Sorry, Commander. It's nothing personal."
Oh yes it is, Danan thought bitterly. She waited for the shot but it never came. Instead the mutinous bridge crew vanished. To be more precise, they were replaced by little hexagonal spheres each with their own phasers lying beside them.
Danan cast about looking for a rational explanation and her eyes fell on Grace. Hannah had a rectangular device in her hand. In its centre it had an activation stud and to each side of the lengthways portions were three lights. Grace looked more terrified now than when the phasers had been trained on her.
"I couldn't let them kill you." She pleaded, "They're still alive, they're just recast in a harmless form. My grandfather told me about doing this to the crew of the Enterprise and it seemed appropriate for this situation too."
"Grace... Hannah, I'm not going to try and pretend I understand what you've done here." Danan informed her, "But I need to know, how many of the mutineers did you do this to?"
"All of them." Grace gulped.
"All?" Danan repeated in disbelief.
"Other than the team members, I couldn't determine who was on our side or not. It was easier and safer to transform them all." Grace explained.
"All of them." Danan whispered to herself. Earlier she had sought to delve deeper into the mystery that was Hannah Grace. Now she had received her first insight and it terrified her. What other secrets had Grace hidden from them?
Dracas blinked in surprise. One minute the Andorian Assistant Chief Engineer had been in front of him and then he wasn't. Theri'shran had been replaced by a small, hexagonal object. Shran's phaser lay beside the hexagon but the engineer himself was gone. Come to mention it, everyone in Engineering had been replaced by one of these... thingies.
Dracas momentarily felt a pang of regret. As a student of James T. Kirk's missions, he felt he might have a clue as to the fate of the assembled crewmen around him. The pang dissipated as Dracas recalled that although not everyone had been aiming a phaser at him, no one had exactly rushed to his aid either.
As the humans say, screw `em. Dracas thought. He tapped his comm badge almost as an afterthought, "Engineering to Bridge."
"Bridge here." Danan sounded shaken Dracas noted.
"Everything all right up there?"
"Compared to what?" Danan retorted.
"Commander, do you have any idea what the hells just happened to my engineering crew?" Dracas had to ask.
A deep sigh was transmitted over the comm line, then a resigned sounding Danan replied; "It's a long story, Chief. One we're still sorting out I might add. You might as well report to the bridge and get the details with the rest of the team."
"Just us?' Dracas inquired.
"Yup." Danan remained enigmatic, "Just us. Bridge out."
"And what the frinx is that supposed to mean?" Dracas wondered aloud.
Kort swung and... missed? His opponent just suddenly vanished. Kort found himself in motion and out of control. He felt, and heard, a strange and unexpected crunching as he regained his control. He looked to the deck to see what he'd stepped in. Half of a small hexagonal shape remained unbroken but the rest of it was shattered and crumbling to dust.
Kort braced for the next assault. Minutes passed and no one tried to force the Sickbay doors. Curious, Kort retrieved one of the multitude of phasers he'd been collecting from the various invaders into his domain. He'd maintained a practice of depositing the last fallen opponent out into the corridor to slow the next assailant. This last time, it hadn't worked that way.
The attacker had forced the doors before Kort had managed to dispose of the previous body. Since he couldn't find a trace of the man he'd just been fighting, he sought the unconscious form of the last woman to try her hand at besting him. Her body, too, was missing. In its place was an intact hexagonal sphere. Kort made a connection and grabbed a tricorder. The object contained all the essential mineral and elemental components of a humanoid body.
By Kahless, Kort mused in wonderment, It is her. Transformed but her nonetheless. Which means that other sphere I crushed...
Kort let that thought go and tapped his comm badge, "Sickbay to Bridge."
"Bridge." Danan's weary voice replied, "Come to the Bridge, Kort. Your questions will be answered there."
"How did you know..?"
"That question will be answered on your way here." Danan informed him, "Bridge out."
Radil ducked back into the brig. Just as quickly as the incoming phaser fire ceased, she spun on her heel, took aim with her pulse rifle and let loose her own volley. The corridor surrounding the brig had an independent forcefield system. Once activated by the watch commander, it could not be overridden by the Tactical station or the Security Office. Radil had activated the fields but several of the mutineers had been trapped within the confines of the electrostatic barriers.
She dodged another volley and relished the experience. This, in her experience, was when one felt the most alive. Radil's senses were aflame with sensation. She savoured every breath. Seconds ticked by slowly, each one a universe unto itself and relished like a conventional lifetime.
She knew of her planet's millennia long heritage of peace but she couldn't connect with that. She'd grown up during the decades' long Cardassian Occupation that had re-taught her people how hate and kill. Radil had tried peace. She'd returned to Bajor after the Cardassian withdrawal. That life had been stunted and dull.
When her former cell mates came to her and invited her to join them in pressing on with the war against Cardassia, she jumped at the chance. Having been loaned out several times to mercenary bands during the Occupation, Radil made a natural segue into professional soldiering. Despite all her protestations to the contrary, Radil had seen her involuntary enlistment as a natural progression in her evolution as a fighter. She saw more action now than she'd ever dreamt of as an agent of the Orion Syndicate.
Even her Syndicate deathmark merely spurred her on to enjoy life more fully. Caught up as she was in the moment's reflection, it took Radil a heartbeat to realise that her last volley had spurred on no return fire. Radil spun and took aim but found nothing to aim at. Everyone, including the stunned mutineers, was gone. Their weapons lay discarded on the deck but all that remained were a series of hexagonal spheres littering the floor.
Just on a hunch, Radil checked Chekova's cell. It came as no surprise to find another of those strange sphere's there. Radil deactivated the corridor forcefields and headed out for the bridge. Once there, she would either get the answers to the obvious questions or get steered in the right direction as to what transpired.
No sooner had the team sat down in front of Shinzon's desk than Macen's comm badge sounded, "Danan to Macen."
Macen's eyes rolled "skyward", "Please excuse me, Commandant."
Shinzon nodded his acquiescence and Macen rose from the chair he was seated in and proceeded to the nearest corner, "Macen here. This had better be damned important. I left instructions to be left alone."
"Does a mutiny count as important?" Danan asked flippantly.
Macen's blood froze, "Who's in control of the ship?"
"The team retains control of the ship."
"How'd you pull off that particular miracle?" Macen had to ask.
"Grace turned the mutineers into little hexagonal objects." Danan reported, "Kort says that each of the little 'spheres' contains the same basic elemental and mineral structure as your standard humanoid lifeform."
A memory tugged at Macen's mind, "Was Hannah holding a rectangular box with a central actuator stud and two sets of three lights to either side of it when she accomplished this feat?"
"Yes." Came Danan's bewildered reply, "How'd you know that?"
"I know what's going on." Macen assured her, "You and the others are in no danger. Right now I suspect she's more scared about revealing her secret than you are about learning it."
"I sincerely doubt that." Danan muttered.
"Whatever else, remember that she's still the same Hannah Grace that you've known since she replaced D'art at the helm and piloted the Odyssey into battle under your command. She hasn't changed into someone else. She's merely blossomed into a more complete picture of the totality of Hannah Grace."
"Smooth talker." Danan gibed.
"Just keep the crew calm until I get there."
"Shouldn't be hard. All that's left is the team."
"The whole crew mutinied?" Macen asked in disbelief.
"Yup."
"Damn." Macen sighed, "Do the best you can. We're about to get underway down here. Hopefully this away mission will proceed more smoothly than the last one."
"Do you honestly expect that to happen?"
"No." Macen admitted, "But there's always hope."
"Problems?' Shinzon asked as Macen retook his seat.
"Nothing my crew can't handle." Macen assured him, "They were just calling me to advise me of their current situation."
"Very well." Shinzon conceded, "Now if you may explain to me how I might be of use to you?""
"Milord," P'ris began, "I am uncertain if you are aware of it or not but Reman troops were recently used against us at Theridon."
"I am aware of it." Shinzon revealed, "How does this affect me?"
"The ultimate loyalty of every Reman is to you." P'ris reminded him, "If you were to order all members of the Reman battalions to forsake their orders to impede our investigation, they would listen to you to the exclusion of all others."
Shinzon rubbed his lower lip, "I see. You wish for me to contravene what may be legitimate orders from those that exceed your rank in order for you to pursue your own agenda."
"My orders come from the Senate." P'ris declared hotly, "No authority, save from the Praetor himself, exceeds that mandate."
"Except for me in this particular case it seems." Shinzon mused.
"There does seem to be this one exception." P'ris allowed.
"There's always one." Shinzon gloated, "And what do our Federation visitors have to say about these matters?"
"I'd have to say that you're too smart to be played for a fool." Macen said, "That leaves two possibilities: you're involved in what's going on or you're blithely unaware. You don't strike me as the blithely unaware type. Your comrades are going to face justice. I give you my vow on that."
"I won't ask you to surrender the names of your confederates. I merely ask that you give that aforementioned order, that and you provide transportation for us to the Tal Shiar base secreted on the dayside of this world. You can extract yourself from a situation that I strongly suspect was merely a diversion for you and your forces."
"You don't ask for much at all." Shinzon commented with a trace of a smile, "But I will accede to your requests." He steepled his fingers and continued, "You've made some very wise requests Commander. Your insights into the Reman motives are very perceptive, as are your expectations of a hostile welcome. The Reman Battalions across the Star Empire have indeed been ordered to kill you on sight. My orders, will of course, negate this danger. Here, the base you seek is guarded by a dozen plasma torpedo launchers and redundant shields. Any effort to breach its defences made from either, or both, of your vessels would only result in the loss of your ships."
"My men will escort you to the base in a small shuttle. They will allow you to pass through their defence perimeter undetected and access the base. Furthermore, my men will escort you on your assault of the base. They will have a mission of their own. The price for their assistance is to allow them to complete their mission without impediment. Is this acceptable to you?"
P'ris merely worked her jaw silently as Macen spoke for them, "We have a bargain."
Shinzon smiled for the first time, "Excellent! All depended upon your answer. I'm so pleased I won't have to kill you after all."
.
