Series: Star Trek: Phoenix
Author: Magnum Infinitum
Book: #1 "Lost"
Chapter: Seven
Author's Notes: Another episode of S1E1. Very close to the end! Please review your thoughts, I'd like to hear them. The last chapters will come soon, promise! Don't forget to check out my other books (not much though) when you have the time. By the way, since I updated this chapter a few days from Christmas, I just want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!
Chan was shoved hard as the turbolift's strange doors, sort of like flat climbing vine plates, opened in four directions. He looked around apprehensively, looking for a way to escape if the time comes. In the long, dark corridor of a bridge, a lone humanoid stood at the other end. The dark figure in the shadows slowly turned around as if to give a dramatic effect. A rifle's barrel from behind came jabbing Chan between his shoulder blades, forcing him to move further into the chamber. Approaching the humanoid, the figure stepped out of the shadows to reveal a scarred face of Chan himself. Chan looked at him wide-eyed, but concentrated in keeping his emotions in check, imitating a perfect Vulcan.
The Nylock armored version of Chan approached him, smiling warmly, surprisingly. His arms opened wide, attempting to hug Chan, but Chan stood back, staring at the duplicate nervously, yet curiously. The duplicate shook his head in disappointment and stepped back.
"Admiral Benedict Chan, welcome aboard the Eye of the Storm. I'm quite certain you are very curious how a duplicate of you happened to be here," he chuckled, rubbing his thin, bearded chin. Chan continued to study the duplicate, unsure whether to believe anything he saw. "Oh yes, Admiral... Don't believe in anything you're seeing," the duplicate said suddenly, cocking his head to peer into Chan's eyes, as if knowing what Chan was thinking.
"Who are you?" Chan asked simply, keeping his facial expression cold and calm. The duplicate smiled, he stood back even further, opening his arms wide to give Ben a good look at him.
"Who am I? The question should be... Who do you think I am?"
Chan took a step forward, the Nylock soldiers behind brought their rifles up suddenly. The duplicate gestured a hand to stop them, looking confident. Chan hesitated, then took another step. "You're me from a different universe. You're Nahc Neb," Chan announced, keeping an eye at the soldiers while focusing his attention at the duplicate.
The duplicate laughed, "Oh Ben... That is a very good deduction. Now... Let's play a game of tag. You're going to run and rescue your men and escape this ship, while I," he pointed at himself for effect, "will chase after and kill you... How's that?"
Chan looked at him surprised, suddenly, Nahc Neb raised his hand, an old Earth western revolver appearing in his hand. Bang! Bang! The soldiers around Chan fell onto the ground, their white blood flowing out, making puddles across the floor. Chan looked around in confusion, quickly crouching in defense, balancing lightly on the balls of his feet. Nahc Neb lowered his arm and frowned at Chan.
"What are you waiting for?" He gestured for him to run along, "Run!"
Chan quickly turned and ran for the turbolift, glancing behind him, he watched Nahc Neb bring the revolver to his head, his grin fixed in his face as the revolver blew a messy hole through it. The face of the falling figure changed into that of a Nylock general.
"Run Ben... Run for your life! Haha!"
Chan flew into the turbolift, the doors quickly closed behind him. Looking around him, he found the control pad by the wall and quickly pressed random numbers, deciding to gain distance from his nemesis. He gulped in multiple breaths, looking around frantically. Where the hell am I going? He thought as he watched the doors opened to reveal McCoy, Kolez and Turner, surrounded by a group of Nylock soldiers.
"What the hell Ben?" McCoy reacted. The soldiers immediately apprehended Chan, pushing him towards the group. "What happened to you? You look like you've seen a ghost!" The soldiers nudged McCoy to remain silent as they began guiding the group into the turbolift. Suddenly, the lights flickered off. The soldiers began murmuring curses at the Kor'Goth for their EMP, when suddenly, a flash of white as all the heads of the Nylock soldiers burst within their helmets. The dull thud of the bodies falling to ground made Chan sick, wanting to hyperventilate. The lights suddenly flickered back on, yells and screams could be heard echoing throughout the corridors.
"Admiral! What's happening?" Kolez whispered as he, from habit, crouched into a defense position. "Is it the Kor'Goth?"
Chan looked around him as the lights began flickering erratically, "No... Not the Kor'Goth..." Suddenly, the far end of one side of the corridor went dark, the lights flickered a quick burst before the bulbs blew. The four Starfleet officers watched the dark hole nervously. A black mass of thick clouds came out of the dark hole, small sparks of light tried to escape the cloud. Chan reached out to his companions, pushing them the opposite direction from the anomaly. "Run! Run!"
All of them began a mad dash across the corridor, not even thinking of turn into another one but to keep running forward. Crew members of the Nylock flagship appeared in front out of nowhere, but the four of them just pushed past them, nothing but contemplating to escape in their minds. McCoy glanced behind him, the Nylock crew members were devoured by the anomaly, their bodies blowing into many fragments just before they went out of sight.
"Holy shit!" McCoy cursed as he turned around to quickly catch up with the others, "What is that?!"
The flickering lights revealed a large door in front of them, ending the long corridor. Kolez ran faster to open the doors, frantically calling the others to hurry. McCoy barely made it as Kolez shut the doors, narrowly missing his foot. Loud thuds could be heard as the entity attempted to destroy the door. McCoy went up to Chan and held him by the shoulders, shaking him as he said:
"Ben! What was that?"
Chan didn't answer however, as he noticed several prison cells and realized where they are. Quickly running down the corridors, he began peering into each cell briefly, all of the cells were empty until he reach one that had three Kor'Goth officers occupying the tight space. The only female of the trio approached the doors, "You're Admiral Chan?" She asked hesitantly.
Chan nodded, "Chief! get this door opened!"
With sparks of light and a loud crash, the doors were finally opened. Chan quickly pushed Turner to a computer terminal near one of the empty prison cells, "Find us a route to the Delta Flyer! Quickly!"
Turner's fingers began flying across the terminal, he glanced once toward the doors as loud bangs could be heard coming from it. The female Kor'Goth watched the Starfleet officers' nervous movement in confusion. "What is wrong, Admiral? What's happening?"
Chan stopped pacing to face the female Kor'Goth, "You're the General's daughter?"
The female nodded, "Yes. My name is Riinna. But Admiral–"
"Skipper! I got the schematics! I have the quickest route to the landing pad!" Turner interrupted, leaving the terminal behind him to rejoin the group. A chuckle could be heard from the other side of the chamber, opposite the doors. All eyes turned to find the scarred, thin bearded image of the evil Chan. His eyes completely black, he began walking slowly towards the group.
"To the door!" Chan yelled, pushing Riinna to join the already running Starfleet officers. The other two Kor'Goth officers followed behind. One began to slow down, losing his breath as Turner opened the large doors. Nahc Neb reached a hand out as he passed him, his arm turned into a spike, and stabbed the Kor'Goth through the chest. The officer made a gurgling noise as he dropped with a thud to the ground. Nahc Neb ignored the dead Kor'Goth and continued following the group, focused on killing them all one by one.
"This way!" Turner suddenly announced as he glanced at his tricorder and turned right down another corridor. Another large door was seen to their right, which everyone recognized as the landing pad's. Turner and Kolez rushed to open the massive doors and ran with the others across the open pad and into the Delta Flyer.
"Start the shuttle! Let's get the hell out of here!" McCoy yelled frantically as he watched the dark figure come out of the opened doorway. The Delta Flyer lifted roughly, one of its thrusters damaged, unable to balance the shuttle. Nahc Neb stopped short and watched the group of escapists struggle with the vessel. He cocked his head and smiled, Maybe... To make the game much more fun... I'll let you have a head start...
The shuttle wheeled around 180o and made an irregular beeline for the hole the Kor'Goth made in the Nylock flagship's hull. Nahc Neb watched them disappear, grinning from ear to ear, "Let's change the board..." He muttered as he suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke, causing confusion to the Nylock soldiers that arrived at the landing pad to find him gone.
"Red alert... Warp Core breach imminent... All hands abandon ship."
"Damn it! What happened?" Hadley yelled as the ship's lights began flickering on and off, the floor beneath them shuddering. An explosion blew an officer from his station across the room, dead before he even hit the ground. Xerx bent to close the officer's eyes.
"It just happened! For a second, the Warp Core was fully functional, then suddenly, we got a breach in the Core!" Lyhla said angrily, kicking her station when the console suddenly went dead. "We're losing power rapidly!"
"68% of the escape pods have been ejected. Kor'Goth vessels are intercepting for pickup," Kudak'Atar announced calmly. How does he do that? Hadley thought as she admired Kudak'Atar's cold countenance.
"Shuttle Bay is reporting that the Delta Flyer has landed," T'Lera announced, her eyes darting all over her board. It looked like her Romulan side was beginning to show, revealing her fear of dying on board the U.S.S. Phoenix. "Admiral Chan is on his way to the bridge."
"Red Alert... Warp Core breach imminent... All hands abandon ship."
"Eject the Core! Seal off Engineering and eject the Core!" Hadley ordered as she got up from the command chair to check the navigator's console, which exploded into the face of the officer occupying the station.
"Wait!" Hadley turned around and sighed in relief when she saw Chan approach the center of the bridge. "I have an idea. Continue the evacuation! I want even the bridge crew to evacuate!"
Hadley's heart flew into her throat as she guessed what Chan's plan was. T'Lera, Constantine and Kudak'Atar helped carry the wounded into the turbolift, while Lyhla and Xerx followed behind. Hadley left the dead console and ran into Chan's arms, "Don't do it... Please don't..."
Chan smiled grimly, "Hey, look on the bright side. I came back, just as I promised. Rose, promise me you will let me go and get the crew home. Promise me, Rose."
Hadley nodded, sniffing, "I will." She quickly grabbed his face and kissed him warmly. Chan quickly responded, adding more pressure as the kiss became more intense.
Suddenly breaking the kiss, Chan ran for the ready room. Hadley stared after him in confusion, her eyes streaming with tears. Chan came out again with his cat Daisy and passed the striped feline pet to Hadley. "Remember to feed her daily," he said with a smile. Hadley sniffled a laugh and nodded. Hadley turned around and headed for the turbolift, which had returned from sending the rest of the crew to the escape pods. Turning around she stared longingly at Chan.
"I'll miss you..."
Chan stood by the helm station, the bridge was a mess with all the debris from the consoles and ceiling scattered all over the floor. "What do you think Ann and the others would say?" He asked suddenly.
Hadley smiled sadly, "They'd be proud of you, Ben."
Chan smiled, "I'm proud of you, Rose. I'll see you on the other side."
Hadley nodded, paused as she sniffed another tear, "Deck 15." The turbolift doors closed behind her. Chan looked around the bridge and nodded to himself. Captain always goes down with his ship.
Grabbing hold of the helm station, he sat at the chair and studied the controls to familiarize himself. "Computer, status report."
"All hands have been accounted for and evacuated. Captain Rose Hadley has departed in the Delta Flyer."
Chan nodded and grinned from ear to ear, thinking of some 20th century song he remembered hearing when he was a kid in the Eugenics War. "Computer, manual override the helm controls."
"Affirmative. Warning: Warp Core breach imminent... Calculated breach in 3.2 minutes." Pulling out the throttle that appeared from the console, he slowly brought the Phoenix to face the Nylock flagship. He could imagine the Nylocks watching the Phoenix coming at ramming speed in horror, which made him smile in amusement. "Take this you bastards," he muttered as he pushed the Sovereign-Class starship at full impulse towards the massive behemoth.
"Warning: Warp Core breach in .56 minutes. Calculated collision course in .24 minutes."
Chan closed his eyes tightly, thinking of each face he had the privilege to meet during the Eugenics War and on board the Phoenix. Rose. Joe Baker. Ann. Tom. Max. Lyhla. Connor. Robert. Kolez. T'Lera... It was endless. Watching that theorized, and now fact, where life flashes pass your eyes as you are about die, he breathed one last breath before he felt a familiar tingle around his body, but can't seem to place it. The searing heat of the Warp Core's explosion alongside the collision of metals between the two ships came close to his skin and he waited for that final moment of pain.
