Part Twelve

"We have a problem."

When Julia Pemberton spoke those words, she simultaneously captured the attention of both hostage and kidnappers on the bridge of the Maverick. In his command chair, Chris saw the alien called X'hala who was presently inhabiting the body of Casey Wells swivel about to face the Chief Engineer. It was still taking some time for him to become accustomed to that hardened expression in Casey's face when Chris was so used to seeing youthful exuberance and a sweetness that had the power to touch even his jaded interior, so ravaged by grief he would not share with anyone. It had been even more difficult for JD Dunne when the young man had awoken and found the girl he cared presiding over the bridge and issuing orders with a personality that was not her own or anything closely resembling the person he knew.

"Clarify." X'hala ordered.

Julia's eyes moved over the console screen before her, the faint glow of the screen bouncing off her features as she made a further study and responded. "Someone is attempting to access the transporter pad in Cargo Bay 3."

"I thought you disabled all transporters." X'hala returned.

"I did but apparently they have the initialization codes to get the transporters back on line once more." Julia replied, somewhat confused about how this was possible because she thought that she had secured those sections earlier on.

"Can you lock them out again?" The impatience in X'hala's voice was growing and Chris could tell that she would not take another negative answer with any tolerance.

Chris gave Buck and JD a look, silent in his speech but his gaze spoke volumes as to the identity of the interlopers who were attempting to access the bridge. His gut instinct told him that it was most likely Ezra and possibly Vin. If anyone could override lockout codes it was Ezra Standish, the man was as gifted with bypassing secured programming as he was with his extra curricular gambling habits.

"I don't think so." The Julia entity lifted her eyes to meet X'hala's own before shaking her head.

"Can we identify them?" X'hala inquired sharply.

Julia returned her gaze to the computer screen once again and punched in a few more keypads to make that determination. "I am reading three life signs in Cargo Bay 3. One human, one Vulcan and one Trill."

"It's the one we could not take." The leader frowned. "I knew we should have done away with her when we had the chance." She said venomously.

"Decompress the cargo bay." Alex who was at helm controls suggested, immediately bringing all conversation to a halt for a few seconds.

"You can't do that!" Chris reacted immediately, knowing what that would mean. "You'll kill them!"

"Quiet!" Narita who was standing close by growled at him, brandishing the phaser just for effect.

Alex rose from her station at helm and ignored his outburst, focusing her attention on X'hala instead when she resumed speaking. "If we initiate decompression on Cargo Bay 3, we will disable transporter functions, will we not?" Alex pointed her question at Julia.

"Yes," Julia nodded somberly. "If we decompress the cargo bay, the safety protocols will interrupt any transporter routine in progress. Once full decompression takes place, the transporter pad will be functional again but we're talking about a three second time delay where the transporters will be ineffective, codes or not."

"Long enough for them to be blown out in the space." Alex said firmly.

"Yes," Julia nodded. "Long enough for that."

"Proceed immediately." X'hala ordered before glancing at Chris in anticipation of an outburst on the behalf of the crewmen about to die.

"You said you wouldn't hurt anyone!" Chris shouted at her, feeling impotent at being unable to help Ezra, Vin and Transporter Chief Rain. Any remaining goodwill he had for these creatures had evaporated with that threat and he vowed if those three lives were lost, he would have every one of theirs in return.

"If you cooperated. They are not cooperating." X'hala retorted coldly as Alex resumed her duties at the helm station. "Carry out the order."

"Don't!" Chris turned to Julia and tried desperately to reach her. "Julia, you're in there somewhere. You know as well as I do that bio signature is Ezra's! If you do this, you'll be killing him! You love him!"

"You waste your time Captain," X'hala's voice spoke instead of Julia's. "Julia Pemberton does not hear you. She is Salya." There was a hint of boredom in her voice as she spoke, almost as if the attempt was

Chris kept his gaze locked on Julia, refusing to give up. Somehow, he had to reach her. She returned his look of worry with one that was unfathomable. While he had expected to see abject refusal, he was greeted with uncertainty. "You know that this is wrong, Julia please." He tried again, hoping to use that hesitation in her features as a way of helping his comrades.

"Carry out the order Salya!" X'hala barked fiercely, annoyed that she had not done it yet for it seemed as if she was considering the captain's words.

"Julia!" Chris' voice rose.

The entity inhabiting Julia Pemberton's body was hesitating and she did not know why. In the milliseconds between the captain's desperate plea and the direct order given to her by X'hala, she had found her mind not focused on the journey home, but the heated passion exchanged between herself and Ezra Standish. He was the enemy. There ought to be no question as to what she should to do and, yet she felt herself torn between her duty and what she felt for this human. She did not want to hurt him and unlike the couplings with others of his kind before, he had been kind and tender. He had taken such effort to pleasure her and when he said he loved Julia Pemberton, Salya believed him. They were not just words of deception, but words from the heart.

"NOW, SALYA!" X'hala shouted this time, startling her out of her thoughts. The Thinker raised her eyes to the Leader, whose own were now blazing with anger at her inability to perform what was demanded of her.

Salya said all eyes on her, including that of the hostages and her sisters. They were all waiting in anticipation of what she would do and Salya knew that she had no choice but to act. She knew the cause and she believed in it. She would do so until her dying day. Thinking quickly, she pounded against the keypad and made split second preparations before announcing. "Proceeding with decompression."

Chris let out a breath that was almost a gasp and felt his heart constrict in his chest because he had failed and because he had failed, he had condemned his friends to die.

Rain was in the midst of bypassing the transporter lockout when she saw the warning that flashed on the console pad before her. Her head snapped up immediately while her eyes darted to the main doors into the cargo bay. The flicker on the control panel on the wall next to it told her that she was too late. It was already sealed. Rain faced front again and realized that they had less than two minutes before the cargo bay doors opened. The job of enabling the transporter pad would take three. They were in trouble.

"They're preparing to decompress the cargo bay!" Rain declared, trying not to panic even though they had less than two minutes which was plenty of time for her to begin if the need took her.

"What?" Vin exclaimed and started towards the door.

"Its no good," she shook her head. "The doors have already been sealed."

"They must have detected your attempts to override the transporter lockout." Ezra retorted, thinking fast as he decided how they would extricate themselves from this situation in the time the had. He had suspected something of the sort when they began the attempt, having nothing left inside him that could hope for success after what had happened to him today. "Will you be able to get the transporter functioning before our time dwindles away?" Ezra asked instead.

Rain did not answer and in her silence, did.

However, she still refused to give up on her attempt to access the transporters, hoping that her fingers might deliver to the magic needed to escape even though time was well and truly against her. Her digits moved with the kind of swiftness that came with being on intimate terms with the device of her vocation, after years of practice. Despite her stubborn determination not to give in, not even until the last minute, Rain was finding herself struggling in quick sand because there was a difference between hope and futility and it this case, it was that one minute.

Vin was also thinking but his thought processes were not geared towards recognizing their situation and continuing their intended course to escape the doom of decompression but rather how they would survive it. If the doors were sealed and they were not getting out through the transporters than there had to be another solution. Chris always said that there was always an angle to play and if there wasn't one to find it quick smart. Vin hoped that the captain was right because right now, they needed and rather desperately. His eyes were scouring the expanse of the cargo bay when suddenly; it came to him in a flash of inspiration or desperation, however one looked at it. He preferred to think of it as the former.

"Forget the transporters!" Vin shouted to the others he started running towards a compartment at far corner of the cargo bay. "This way!"

"What?" Rain stammered, looking up at him as she saw where he was running and realized what he intended.

Ezra who caught on just as quickly, grabbed her by the shoulder and tore her away from the transporter controls, forcing her into the run her mind was having such difficulty coping with. In a second, Rain matched him stride for stride as they saw Vin opening the compartment door. It slid open and no sooner than he had disappeared inside, the Vulcan helmsman began flinging out the enviro-suits stored within its confines for maintenance purposes.

"Hurry!" Vin shouted as he began to pull off his shoes to slip into the suits which now appeared to be their only means of survival.

"I hate space walking!" Rain complained as she pulled off her jump suit and proceeded to climb into her own suit, modesty forgotten in the face of the danger her body face if she should be ejected into a vacuum. Being exposed in front of a Vulcan who could barely appreciate it or a human, who was trying to decide what to explain to his lover when this was all over, would be the least of her problems.

"I am certain you would dislike explosive decompression even less." Ezra retorted as he pulled the thick cumbersome clothes over his shoulders and did the same to the gauntlets and boots when he kicked the preceding pair of his feet.

"Do you think you both could shut up and just get dressed!" Vin growled. They did not have time to banter. In fact, they would very little time for anything if they were not protected by the enviro-suits by the time those cargo bay doors opened. He snapped his helmet into place and saw the others almost as ready as he was for what was coming when suddenly red warning lights around the cargo bay doors signal their intention to open. The low whine of a warning beacon filled the room and suddenly, it appeared that had even less time than they thought in which to be ready for it when they opened.

Rain and Ezra exchanged looks for a split second before they resumed their dressing, snapping fasteners into place and securing vacuum sealed buttons and other protection to utilize the maximum protection of their new apparel. Ezra snapped his helmet into place and pulled down the visor, all the while keeping his eyes fixed on those doors. He was almost ready for it when he they opened and managed to register Vin's words when they finally pulled apart.

"Use your grappling hooks!" The Vulcan reminded, aware of how rough it was going to be.

Although air was meant to be invisible, the three occupants of Cargo Bay 3 were almost certain they could see it rushing past the doors when the starlight beyond the ship seeped into their view. At first, they felt little more than a slight tug pulling at them as the air began bleeding through the narrow crack of the widening doors. However, by the time they had pulled back to allow a picturesque view of the Maverick traveling at warp, they were being bombarded with something that had the force of a typhoon. Everything that was not bolted down went flying in all directions. Storage containers, loading crates and tools were flying like children's toys. All three were swept off their feet and through the chaos of flight, Vin's voice continued to shout instructions.

"Use your grappling hooks to stay with the ship!" Vin cried out as he narrowly missed being hit by a large container that went tumbling into space the minute it cleared the doors. "If we slip past the warp field, we'll be smashed into sub atomic matter!"

If they had been traveling at normal speeds, ejection from the ship in their suits would have allowed for continued existence at least until a rescue vessel was dispatched. However, no such allowance was possible while the Maverick remained at warp. If they were to drift out of the warp field, nothing would save them from the ravages of extreme velocity. It was a situation they were all painfully aware as they found themselves ejected outward from the cargo bay. Trying to keep their heads as much as they could, the displaced trio soon saw the doors of the cargo bay surrounding them before they were speeding away from the ship.

"Grapplers, now!" Vin shouted.

Wasting no time, three separate lifelines ejected from the utility belts contained in the gauntlet of the envirosuit. Surging forward with the power of chemical propellants behind them, the lines were not tethered to hook but rather magnetic fasteners that were attracted by the large of hulk of metal that was the Maverick. It took many seconds before all three magnets reached the hull and Vin could confess to that being the longest seconds of his life as he waited for the tension to pull him back towards the Maverick. In the soundless vacuum, he could see space moving past him in speeds to incredible to imagine by the first humans who had looked up at the sky to admire the stars. Space walks like these were persona non-grata according to the manual. While space walking had been a fact of life for traveler since the twentieth century, no commander in recent history sanctioned the practice while the ship was in warp.

While the person making the attempt might be safe whilst within the warp sphere that allowed the starship in question to travel at faster than light speeds, outside the sphere, the ship was being propelled forward by a velocity that could separate atomic bonds and death was an assured inevitability. All these thoughts bounced around Vin's head as he saw Ezra and Rain being pulled forward once the magnetic fasteners had done its work and felt a flood of relief through his entire being when he felt the same force tugging him towards the Maverick.

Vin did not realize he was holding his breath as he saw the familiar duranium plate of the hull overshadow the glass of his visor until he could see nothing but the polished steel of its surface. For once he was a drowning man grateful to allow its milky blue white exterior swallow him whole as he drew closer and closer towards the great ship.

"Mr. Tanner," Ezra's voice filled the inside of his helmet. "Are you still in once piece?"

"Pretty much." Vin finally dared to answer as he saw the hull only inches away. He was certain that Ezra could hear the relief in his voice. "What about you?"

"Oh, I am certain to be seeing my dinner again when this is all over." The Security offered an unusually graphic description for a man so refined.

"Uggh…" Rain groaned in disgust. "For a man who can turn a phrase when he needs to, that is something I did not need to hear." She grumbled and indicated her state of well being by that glib remark.

Vin saw Rain and Ezra already on the hull. They were evenly distanced from each other across the starboard section of the hull and when Vin finally made his landing, he and Rain would have to walk to reach Ezra who seemed to be the halfway point between them. He did not mind the walk. Free floating in space might have its attractions but Vin would have like to have done it while the Maverick was not speeding through space at high warp. As the soles of his boots touched the metallic hide of the ship, Vin activated his gravity boots and immediately felt the slid thud of landing. Utilizing the same principle as the magnetic fasteners, the soles of the boots were magnetically lined allowing the wearer to remain attached to the ship without any danger of being spirited away by the windless drift of cold vacuum.

"The eagle has landed." Vin remarked as he felt solid ground or in this case duranium under his feat. Vin cast a brief glance into the sky above him and could not help being lost in the wonder of the moment, if only for a second. He could see the stars moving past him like streaking comets. They moved through the expanse of space like a symphony of color and even though the danger he and the rest of the Maverick was by no means over, reveling in the beauty of what was before him was a luxury he would not deny himself.

"God, it so beautiful." He heard Rain speak softly, her voice filled with hush tones of awe.

"It is." Vin agreed out loud and wished silently to himself that Alex was here to share this with him. They had often watched this from inside the confines of the observation deck and knew that she would have loved to have seen this herself. Thinking about Alex gave Vin a renewed feeling of worry for the science officer, wondering what she was enduring while something alien stole away everything that she was and forced her to commit acts of violence against her friends. Remembering Alex snapped Vin out of his reverie of admiration for the beauty around him because he had to help her.

"Ezra, you hold position." Vin responded as he started walking across the hull. "Rain and I will meet up with you."

"Standing by, Mr. Tanner." Ezra nodded in affirmative and then asked a moment later.

"Hey, did either of you guys notice something strange?" Rain asked as she made the journey toward them.

"You mean other than being blown out of the cargo hold, being dragged by a ship going at warp and now crawling all over this ship like a bug on a windshield?" Vin retorted. "No, not really."

He could feel her glare from wherever she was.

"Very funny," Rain muttered and then spoke again. "I mean did you notice that we were given a two-minute delay between the doors sealing and the cargo doors opening?"

"Now that you mention Lieutenant, I see what you mean." Ezra nodded as he stood waiting for them to arrive. "Normally we are talking about a matter of seconds before the cargo doors opened not a full two minutes."

"That kind of a program specification can be carried out from the cargo deck controls but rather the bridge." Rain pointed out.

"You mean you think someone gave us two minutes?" Vin exclaimed, realizing what his two companions were alluding to. "Chris?"

"I doubt it." Ezra discounted that possibility immediately. The captain was a hostage. He would not have the time or the opportunity to access the controls require to give them that leeway although the intention of whomever had done it, seemed to be for keeping them alive. "Whomever it was gave us two minutes but also chose to continue with the decompression. If you could interfere with the programming that much why not disable the countdown as well?"

Vin had an answer. "Maybe one of them doesn't want us dead but can't see their way to helping us either without getting into trouble themselves."

"Precisely," Ezra nodded as he saw Vin and Rain appear over the curve of the ship from two different sections. "It might mean that the alien control may not be as intractable as we believe. We may be able to reach one of them."

"Which means, they might help us when we get to the bridge." Rain suggested once they were all together again, a few second later.

"We can only hope." Ezra smiled as he patted Vin on the back, relieved at seeing the helmsman in the flesh and returning the same warm gesture to the intriguing Lieutenant Rain. "In the mean time however, I see you are still in possession of your weapon." Ezra regarded the phaser rifle slung over Vin's shoulder.

"Yes," Vin answered, patting the leather strap that it secures during their forced ejection from the Maverick. "What do you have in mind?" He asked. Vin had a fair idea since he was having the same thoughts himself.

"We do what we had originally intended to when we first entered Cargo Bay 3. Except this time instead of taking the direct route, we might just take the scenic one." Ezra said with a hint of ice in his voice. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to the bridge."