A/N: Hang on...here we go! Again, thanks to those who have taken the time to leave reviews. They help feed my muse.
CHAPTER 12
The hunt for hidden Suliban was about to begin.
Hoshi and Malcolm had returned to her cabin, gathered up Torpedo and Warp Core, and hurried back to the bridge. T'Pol had gone to her quarters and returned to the bridge with Batty. Since the warp engine was now operable, Trip had been called to the bridge because of his familiarity with a certain member of one of the proposed search parties. Warp Core, cradled in the chief engineer's arms, was taking in the proceedings with wide green eyes.
"This is going to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever done," Trip complained to those standing around the situation table.
If it weren't for the cat he was holding, Hoshi thought, he'd be waving his arms in the air.
Next to Trip, T'Pol was calmly adjusting the red harness on Batty, who was sitting alertly on a corner of the situation table. "I tend to agree," T'Pol said to Trip. "However, we have no other choice but to wait and see what the Suliban do next." She shot a glance at Malcolm. "If there are any more of them on board."
"There are more," Malcolm said confidently. "And from a tactical standpoint, it's better to take a proactive stance than a defensive one." He slid Torpedo, who was lounging on top of the schematic of the ship on the table's screen, to one side so that he could look at the display.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Trip asked querulously. "What if the cats don't see anything?"
"Then we're back to where we started," Jon told him, "but there is the possibility that, if you walk the corridors with the cats, at least one of them is going to have the same kind of reaction that Malcolm and Hoshi described that led to the capture of the Suliban who's now in sickbay. What have we got to lose?"
"Besides the respect of the rest of the crew, you mean?" Trip asked.
Jon frowned at him. "Have you got a better idea?"
"Well," Trip said. He looked away, made an unhappy face, then looked back. "No."
That ended the discussion. Jon walked over to his chair in the command well and sat down. He and Travis, who had been piloting since the engine had come back on line, would be staying on the bridge during the search. Ensign Kilpatrick was at communications, assigned to do the quantum beacon sweeps since T'Pol and Hoshi would be members of the search parties.
There were three cats, so there would be three search teams. Each cat would have a handler with whom they were comfortable: Warp Core with Trip, Batty with T'Pol, and Torpedo with Hoshi. Each team would be accompanied by a member of the security staff who would deal with any Suliban they encountered. In Torpedo's case, Malcolm had opted to be the armed escort as opposed to the handler. That left Hoshi to keep the big gray cat under control.
The turbolift door slid open, and two security personnel stepped out.
Malcolm motioned them over. "Foster, you're with Commander Tucker. Welsh, you're with Subcommander T'Pol. We're going to be looking for Suliban that can blend in with their surroundings, just like the one you saw, Foster. Don't wait to get a visual. If one of the cats goes into stalking mode, shoot whatever they are staring at."
If the two security men thought that cat-led search parties was a crazy idea, or that shooting at something they couldn't see was questionable, neither one voiced those opinions. One look at their departmental chief was enough to convince them that Malcolm was serious.
Hoshi picked up Torpedo. The gray cat tilted his head back to look at her face. He stuck one front paw up to lightly touch her cheek. Despite the gravity of the situation, Hoshi had to smile. "Looks like he's ready," she said.
Malcolm nodded brusquely. "Let's get started. We're going to check the bridge first before we start working our way down one deck at a time." He gestured for Trip to begin moving clockwise around the upper walkway.
As Trip carried Warp Core in the direction of the forward viewscreen, T'Pol picked Batty up from the table, placed her on the deck, and, holding onto the cat's leash, began slowly walking in the opposite direction.
Hoshi didn't wait for instructions. Holding Torpedo, she stepped down into the command well and began a slow circuit of the area. As she passed Jon in his chair, she said quietly, "We may be expecting too much from the cats, sir."
"I'm surprised at you, Hoshi," Jon said just as softly but with a slight smile. "I'd expect to hear something like that from T'Pol." He glanced at the upper level where Batty was sniffing the edge of the science console. T'Pol, watching her charge intently, seemed even more serious than usual. "Then again..."
"This is going to take some time," Hoshi said. "You can't hurry cats when they don't want to be hurried."
"As long as Enterprise is still heading for Rigel IV, I won't consider it wasted time," he told her.
Trip's exasperated voice cut through the relative quiet of the bridge. "Oh, for pity's sake!"
Hoshi turned to see Trip in front of the main viewscreen. He standing close enough to it that Warp Core, still cradled in his arms, was licking it.
"There's nothing there, you silly cat," Trip said, taking a step back. "If there was, we would have bumped into it."
Batty and T'Pol, meanwhile, had slowly but steadily made their way around the upper walkway. As they reached the front of the bridge, Batty leaped down onto the helm console in front of Travis. She curiously sniffed some of the buttons -- without stepping on any, Hoshi noticed -- then turned toward the viewscreen. When she spotted Warp Core in Trip's arms, she let out a loud hiss. The orange cat stared back unblinkingly.
"It's probably a good thing we'll be splitting up when we leave the bridge," Hoshi muttered.
T'Pol and Batty, with Welsh trailing watchfully behind, climbed down the emergency stairwell located near the ready room. At the same time, Hoshi and Trip, their feline Suliban detectors, and their security escorts crowded together into the turbolift. Their destination, as was T'Pol's, was the deck just beneath the bridge. When they reached B deck, they would lock down the turbolift so it couldn't be summoned to another deck, then they would separate into their two teams, going in opposite directions around the circular layout. T'Pol and Batty would remain at the bottom of the stairwell so that no Suliban could slip by them and reach the bridge while the other two teams were searching.
As an extra precaution, all crew members were ordered to remain at their posts or in their quarters. No personnel other than the search teams would be moving around the ship.
"I wish we'd had time so we could have outfitted Torpedo and Warp Core with harnesses and leashes," Malcolm said as he and Hoshi moved off along the starboard section of B deck. He eyed the large gray cat she was carrying. "This would have been a lot easier, especially on you, if we had."
"I'm not sure that would have worked," Hoshi replied. "Have you ever seen a cat that didn't want to wear a harness?"
That brought a ghost of a smile to Malcolm's lips. "I suppose it would be much the same as when Batty didn't want me to touch her when we found her on the Southern Cross."
"There is that," Hoshi conceded. "But even if you could get a harness on an unwilling cat, chances are it would just keel over and lay on the floor until you took the harness off."
"Really?" Malcolm checked behind them, then looked forward again as they continued their slow pace down the corridor. "It doesn't seem like T'Pol had any trouble training Batty."
Hoshi snorted, although it came out more like a gasp. As Malcolm had pointed out, letting Torpedo walk would have been a lot easier on her. The cat felt like he was becoming heavier by the minute. She shifted him so that his front paws were over her shoulder, taking some of the strain off her arms. "It does seem remarkable how fast T'Pol trained Batty to accept a harness and leash. I wonder if maybe Batty was already used to it. Somebody on the Southern Cross may gotten her used to it before T'Pol tried it."
Malcolm poked his head around the corner of an intersecting corridor and took a long look. When he looked back at her, he said, "I overheard some of my staff talking about it. They likened T'Pol to a witch, and called Batty her 'familiar'."
"Malcolm!" Hoshi said. "I can't believe anyone on this ship would say something like that."
"They were joking, but I shut that line of talk down very quickly, of course," he assured her. He leaned forward so that he could see past her in the opposite direction down the intersecting corridor. "We should walk both these segments, but let's wait until Trip's group catches up with us."
Hoshi stroked Torpedo's back as they waited. The gray cat seemed to be taking this experience well. He was interested in what they were doing, but not overly interested. Apparently no Suliban yet, Hoshi thought.
After a few minutes of waiting, Malcolm said, "I've heard that Vulcans have some unusual mental abilities. Maybe T'Pol is telepathically controlling that darned cat."
Trip thought using cats to find Suliban was a stupid idea, but he hadn't been able to come up with a better one. He seriously doubted they'd find anything, but he was resigned to walking the port half the ship, from top to bottom, carrying a ton of dead weight disguised as an orange furball.
Warp Core wasn't helping matters. Normally the most placid of creatures, he couldn't seem to settle down in Trip's arms. He kept wiggling around, alternately uttering small meows and high-pitched chirruping noises.
"Do you think he sees something, sir?" Foster asked.
"I doubt it," Trip answered. "He's not looking at anything in particular, at least not that I can tell. I think he just wants down."
They walked a few more steps, Warp Core squirming the whole way. Trip was beginning to wonder if he'd be able to hold on to the cat for all seven decks.
"Sir?"
"What is it, Foster?"
"It seems to me that he's not used to being held."
If there had been a light bulb above his head, it would have just lit up, Trip thought. Of course Warp Core wasn't used to being held for a long stretch of time. Nobody held him for long -- he weighed too much. For all Trip knew, it was just as awkward for Warp Core as it was for him.
He shifted Warp Core around in his arms so that he could look the cat in the eyes. "Warp Core, we have an important job to do. I'm going to put you down on the deck, and you're going to walk along with us, and not take off running somewhere else. Okay?"
As if he understood every word that Trip had said, Warp Core let out a strident meow and squeezed his eyes shut once.
"Sounds like a 'yes' to me," Trip muttered.
He bent over and put the cat on the deck. When he straightened, he caught Foster grinning at him.
"That little conversation I just had with Warp Core? It stays between you, me and the cat," Trip warned him.
If T'Pol had been human, guarding the stairwell to the bridge while waiting for the others to finish the search of B deck would have been tedious. But she was Vulcan, so she patiently spent the time observing her surroundings. She watched Batty, who was nosing around as far as the leash would allow. She watched for activity in the deserted walkway leading away from the stairwell, but there was none. And she occasionally watched Welsh, whose fidgeting would have provided a distraction for a less-focused individual than herself.
Since the security officer was not well-acquainted with her, and more importantly, since she was his superior officer, he did not attempt to engage her in the human custom of small talk. That suited T'Pol, for she was also using her hearings as a tool of observation. Conversation might prevent her from hearing other sounds. As it was, she could hear muted activity on the bridge through the stairwell behind her. The noises were in keeping with the normal operation of the ship, so she noted them, then ignored them.
They had been waiting approximately six minutes when Batty suddenly tensed with her ears, eyes and whiskers all pointed upward.
"Ensign," T'Pol said to alert Welsh to the change in Batty's demeanor.
Welsh drew his phase pistol and took a step toward the cat, trying to see whatever it was that had her attention.
Batty leaped into the air, swatted at something with her paw, and landed clumsily on the deck. Another swift swat, and Batty was crunchily chewing on something with catly gusto.
Welsh, not relaxing his guard, took another step closer to the cat.
"There is no need for alarm," T'Pol informed him dryly. Her nose wrinkled in distaste. "I believe Batty has found one of Doctor Phlox's missing Lavarian flies."
Warp Core let out a chirruping meow. He had just rounded a curve in the corridor and had spotted Torpedo's search party. Tail straight up, he trotted toward them in a manner that could only be described as prissy.
"I swear," Trip said as he followed behind the cat, "with all that fluffy fur, from this angle he looks like he's wearing pantaloons."
Malcolm frowned as Trip and Foster joined them. "I get the impression you're not taking this seriously, Commander." If Malcolm's comment, delivered with a more pronounced British accent than usual, wasn't enough to indicate that he wasn't pleased with Trip's attitude, the use of the engineer's rank was.
"Can you blame me, Loo-tenant?" Trip rejoined sarcastically, then seemed to catch himself. He exhaled heavily. He kept his eyes on the orange cat, which was twining around Hoshi's ankles. "I'm sorry, Malcolm. I know this is important. It's just... Can you imagine when this gets out to the rest of Starfleet? It won't be too bad for me, 'cause I'm just following orders, so I can take any teasing or jokes. But this whole idea was yours -- and you're a security officer!"
Malcolm managed a rueful smile. "Ah, but imagine the reaction when we're successful."
"Don't you mean 'if'?" Trip asked.
"Uh, guys?" Hoshi put in. "We really should concentrate on what we're doing." She turned to Malcolm, Torpedo peering down from her arms to watch Warp Core who was now rubbing against the tactical officer's legs. "Shouldn't we check the intersecting corridors?"
"Right," Malcolm said. "First things first, though." He pulled a communicator from one of his pockets and flipped it open. "Reed to Commander T'Pol."
A moment later, she acknowledged his hail.
"Please join us at the main corridor intersection on B deck," Malcolm said into the communicator.
"On our way."
By the time Malcolm had walked a few steps down the corridor to a com panel, T'Pol's team was coming towards them from the direction of the bridge access stairway. He thumbed a button on the panel. "Reed to the bridge. Shut emergency bulkheads for Section B-one."
"Understood," came Jon's voice over the com.
Within seconds, there came a rumbling strong enough that it could be felt under their feet.
Malcolm turned away from the com panel to face the others. "The sections we've just searched have now been sealed off. Nothing should be able to slip past us."
A/N: Stayed tuned for more of the search!
