(Note: Imre recovering from surgeries and playing starship in the chapter, and T'Kel doing the same with the family rocking chair in an earlier chapter, are a tribute to Gene Roddenberry. I heard a recorded interview where Gene talked about how he was ill for awhile as a kid and couldn't run around with other kids. He put a chair in the family backyard and dreamed of a man who sat on the bridge of a starship and had great adventures. Of course, little did Gene know - or us - but Star Trek was born.)
USS Enterprise, Hangar Deck (Shuttle Storage)
Imre checked the gas mask Stewart just gave him. He, Ssaalz, and Bimojigar had vetoed the idea of wearing full environmental suits because they were bulky, and none of them could see a reason for them.
Holding the gas mask, he got the idea he would find out.
Saavik came up for a final briefing and Tran with her. She wore a phaser rifle as well now, slung to her back. She kindly remembered his discomfort with her height and new dress length and crouched down.
"Commander," she said. "you understand the plan."
"Of course. I'm going to be a Sozon," he said grandly.
Rhinar had inadvertently created Bimojigar's native environment and thrown himself and Setik into the middle of it. Eyes meant nothing now; they needed the blind. With her whiskers and the sensitive hairs covering her body, plus her acute hearing and sense of smell, she stood ready to dash into the hangar deck turned burrow. The only thing missing was her eusocial colony which was how she would get Imre and Ssaalz through: by treating them as Sozons.
"Has Bimojigar gone over the body language with you?"
"In a crash course. It's tougher for Ssaalz since she'll be running on the side. She said she plans on keeping her tail on us. We'll be good. Bimo will never lose either of us and moving together cuts down on me leaving a trail of my own."
Saavik agreed. "From there?"
Imre repeated his orders. "She takes me to the shuttlecraft and I go to the aft service compartment." He tapped the tricorder secured to his body. "I get the new shield frequency, transmit it to you, and you have it to beam out Rhinar and Setik once we can get sensor locks." No one mentioned they'd also be able to fire on the shuttle. "We then scout the area and get information to make any necessary next attack. I'd love it if we can move in while you pump out this fog so sensors can get those locks."
Saavik corrected only one point "We must triage Setik before transporting him. I do not want the neural paralyzers to have harmed him and make beaming him out dangerous." How that thought must be killing her. "If we're fortunate, he will transport out immediately afterward. Now, we have new information you need to know."
That didn't sound good.
"Mr. Scott's people cannot account for one of Rhinar's force field emitters. He could have it around the outside or on the inside protecting him."
"If it's around the outside," Imre said, "our plan is thrown out."
But Saavik disagreed. "If that positioning becomes true, Bimojigar will locate the emitter and you stand better odds of deactivating it before Rhinar can react. If it covers the interior, that is the greater danger."
"Captain," Imre suggested, "why don't I cut the power while I'm there at the compartment?"
"It is a feature unavailable in this shuttle class. At least, not as a standard. If you discover a way, it announces the attack and how close it is." Putting Setik in worse danger as a hostage. "However, we may not have a choice. I leave it to your discretion. I will be in direct contact with you," she tapped the mask, "but you are in command. It is your team."
He knew she entrusted him with her son's life. He moved the ideas of the aft service area and the force field around in his head. "Yes, ma'am."
Saavik glanced up to her Security Chief. "The briefing for the shuttlecraft."
Imre started with, "Class F, right?"
Tran replied, "Yes, sir. So, it has no phasers and not a full ship's shield."
"Enough of one," the first officer said in an equally deep voice. He thought of how they couldn't beam Setik out even if the sensors could penetrate this soup.
"Yes," Saavik interceded, "but enough difference that we can defeat it quickly once we have the frequency. Also, you obviously can penetrate it including any equipment you carry."
"That part sounds good. It's still a Starfleet shuttlecraft, though. It must give him some weapons."
Tran answered, "Yes, sir. It has a weapons drawer with six Type 2 phasers already armed, plus four Type 1 phasers and four extra battery packs. But. That's if he knows you're coming. He doesn't. Ambassador Sarek's got his attention locked up and Bimo's getting you there under his sensors. Almost literally. You're armed too."
But if he does figure it out, it's not me. It's him using one of those phasers on Setik.
He bet Saavik thought of that too. So had Tran.
The Security Chief went on, "I've got this area covered, sir. Down here, up on the flight deck, even on the observation deck."
Yes, he did. Imre had gone into full battle with the number of people they had hustling into positions in the corridor here and above.
Tran watched them too. "Say the word and, fog be damned, we're there. That shuttlecraft is a big target and we'll aim high at the forward windows and hatch. He'll give his position away anyway and we'll also activate the shuttle turntable. That will give us light and draw out this fog. No matter what, you, Bimo, and Ssaalz will get out easily."
Imre's eyes came up to Tran's and he spoke one commander to another. "If we get so lucky that Rhinar makes another mistake like this, we're going in, Tran, not out. I've got a Carreon armed with talons on every extremity, and a Sozon who not only doesn't need to see to take out her opponent, but she has a Roman gladius for each incisor. I'll be closer to the shuttle than you too. We will head for the hatch under the fog. So, please do, keep your shots high until you can see me."
Tran flashed his teeth in a big grin of approval and esteem. "Yes, sir. We'll be right behind you."
"You better be fast or the captain will run you over."
The large grin got bigger as the Australian looked down into Saavik's upturned face. "Right on your heels then."
Imre nodded as he put a mental image of everything together with the hastily memorized blueprints and vids of the Enterprise's shuttlebay. "As soon as Bimo knows which shuttle he's on, we'll obviously send coordinates. That'll help with targeting."
Saavik said, "She already has."
She indicated with her head where Bimojigar lay flat on the floor, her nose and hands at the sliver of space as her head swiveled where they'd opened the door a minuscule amount. Anything more would let out the light they used right now.
One of Tran's men knelt next to her holding a minican; he pulled the flexible filter tip from under the door and was on his feet, running for the lift and the bridge as he sealed the air sample for Spock. Another Security guard ran with him; people still didn't travel alone.
Saavik suddenly grabbed her earpiece. "Yes, I see what you have done. You have been quite… thorough."
Imre started to say something, but she signaled he should wait. Then she nodded.
"What was that?" he exclaimed.
"My pretense of being on the bridge. I acknowledged to Rhinar what he has accomplished here."
"He's not using visual –? Of course, he opened the blast shutters so he can watch the deck." Video would let out light and give his position. He doesn't know we already have it.
"Correct. Bimojigar easily found his location. His canisters create a current as they spray their contents. They also have a concentrated smell and a sound. None of these are apparent to us. Her senses, however, are the difference."
"Impressive," Imre said.
"Yes, because she has also heard him moving inside the shuttlecraft and speaking with Sarek. While you work at the outside engineering access to find the shield frequency, she will provide reconnaissance on the shuttlecraft and surrounding area."
"Captain, I want to hear that channel. What Rhinar says and does affects us."
She agreed and worked it out with Uhura: he would hear Rhinar's channel and the second one between her and the bridge. He didn't need to speak on them. A third, however, was restricted to her and his team.
Ssaalz crouched almost as low as Bimojigar and she leaned forward in her stance. She wore a belt with multiple compartments over her blue Medical uniform dress. Stewart wanted to go with them, but despite being shorter than Saavik, the Carreon medical officer was all around smaller. Her black skin was a bonus too, the dark making even her bright green stripes invisible, and added to all of that was her greater strength. Both she and the Sozon were also armed.
Imre got the feeling that Ssaalz and Bimo mentally left five minutes ago.
Saavik indicated Frances should give her briefing now. "Imre," the doctor began, "I'm okay for the most part with you turning down the environmental suits, but wear those masks. Rhinar didn't just spray this concoction as airborne materials, it's a constant, concentrated mist. It will coat your skin and eventually burn it. Fortunately, your uniform covers most of you."
He looked down at his Command gold tunic that he had been wearing since Saavik contacted the Enterprise saying she couldn't beam over. The other two members of his team, though, were uncovered from the waist down in the uniform dresses.
"The mask will protect your face," Stewart continued, "and you can put on gloves. You'd have to be exposed for a long time anyway before it became a problem, but breathing? I don't want this in anyone's lungs. Not to mention, Ssaalz has no eyelids and I want her eyes protected. But the big problem is Bimo."
He immediately swung his head to the Sozon. "Why?"
"She is literally thinned skin, so it's more susceptible to damage. She's also impervious to pain, so she won't know she's getting hurt. You and Ssaalz will have to be her pain receptors for her."
"How do we do that in the dark? I can only play Sozon so much."
Stewart pointed with her chin to the tricorder belted tight to his ribs. "You're going to be using that, right? Put an alert on it. In fact, I'll set it for you."
He stopped the hand reaching out. "No, I can't risk it going off and Rhinar sees it. I'll scan her when it's safe, don't worry. And knows her job."
Frances glanced over to the Carreon. "Right. I have only one more thing. I've got a gurney and a full triage kit standing by. I can be there in seconds once you get to Setik. If he needs it."
That was more for Saavik's benefit and she nodded in response.
Stewart asked her, "I'd like a word with the commander before they go."
Saavik agreed and took Tran with her.
"Risteárd," Frances started and Imre caught the tone. "Have you ever been in a situation like this before? In total darkness for so long? Let alone Bimo becoming claustrophobic."
He remembered her file: her field had been psychiatry. Still was. "Something similar. I was in complete blackness, but no, not for long. And certainly nothing like a Sozon."
"Your mind can work against you, so can your instincts. It's not easy going blind or to have Bimo on top of you. Find a way to stay grounded. Sound, touch - Ssaalz is with you and going through the same thing. Let your responsibility to her keep you settled or at least share it. And keep this in mind. Remember when Bimo almost left Starfleet?"
Surprised at the switch, he said he did.
"But you don't know why, right? Her queen thought she had been replaced as monarch in Bimo's mind because she served with Saavik. The captain isn't only female – that's easily set aside as a secondary like Bimo herself – but she has a mate and children and that right belongs only to a queen. So Bimo gets recall orders for her to return home permanently, and Saavik insists she'll go too so she can explain."
The Vulcan in question was talking with Ssaalz. Imre always suspected some connection was there – the name spelling couldn't be a coincidence – but if it existed, they kept it to themselves.
"Saavik sat tucked up in a ball, Imre," Frances finished, "in the colony's main chamber with her knees and chin against her chest because it was the only way she fit. She stayed that way in the pitch dark, hundreds of meters underground, and other Sozon crawling all around and over her. The discussion lasted for hours."
He wanted to say, Good god, she did that?! But it seemed insulting somehow: to Bimojigar and to Saavik's respect for their ways. "You're saying I need to keep things in perspective if it starts to get to me."
"No, I'm saying suck it up, soldier, and bring Setik back." She smiled at him, a wicked gleam mixed in with her concern.
He deliberately didn't smile in return and turned to walk to his team. "I am so having you transferred when we get back."
The smirk got bigger. "Can't. I saved Saavik's life and Spock's indirectly. Ambassador Sarek himself takes my side. I am dictator for life, just accept it."
Saavik now sat on the floor next to Bimo; the captain reached out and laid a hand on that wrinkled, blind head, a huge gesture for a Vulcan. Bimo had a tail, but skinny and with little muscle control unlike Ssaalz's; in spite of that, she managed to wrap it around her captain's boots.
He bobbed his head in their direction. "Probably talking about that same trip to see the queen."
Frances watched them and her eyes welled up. "Guess again."
They got close enough that he could hear Saavik's, "It is fine, Mr. Bimojigar. You may say it. Mr. Nachson would be warmer in body temperature than me."
Imre swallowed. "She's keeping Bimo warm because that's what Kyle would do. He always had a soft spot for her."
Stewart's voice rasped, "And the captain knows it."
They got up to everyone else and Saavik gave him an expectant look. He wanted to say something to her, something heroic and reassuring, but he wasn't sure what it was. He had to settle for, "Ready, ma'am."
The familiar itch of heading into a situation and knowing what he had prepared could go to hell in a nanosecond started in his fingertips and settled in his belly. The old fashioned fight-or-flight response doing its job.
Action would help.
Two Vulcans, both male, one with the typical ectomorphic build and the other barrel-chested, made up the team at the door along with Olivia Trujillo and Aban Suhayl-Wajih. They took the door off automatics for manual control. Tran sent one of the Vulcans to the station where they controlled the lights too.
Imre touched Ssaalz and Bimojigar each on a shoulder. For the Carreon, it was a friendly, supportive commander's gesture that things were good. For the Sozon, it was a partner to partner thing. "Well then, Mr. Bimojigar. You live in my environment every day. I think it's time I live in yours for a while."
He told them both to put on their gas masks and did the same. Finally, he dropped to his hands and knees and crouched down further than that.
That imperceptible muscle and mind connection snapped into place. The one that said Now. He signaled Tran.
The big Australian nodded and swept his people. "Remember, no light or sound from my mark. Ready?" He held his hand up as a further sign and then chopped the air at the same time he called, "Mark."
Imre looked at Saavik one more time and that steady answering gaze was the last thing he saw before the blackness.
How much does she wish she was in my place? How much did Spock? Imre couldn't imagine what they were going through.
He didn't hear Tran or the Vulcan officer move on the door, but he pictured them lifting it with their hands to just the level of he, Bimo, and Ssaalz on all fours. He knew it was open when Rhinar's fog crept around his mask and licked his neck. Any further height would change the fog's currents which their enemy might notice.
He scurried under the door and felt it graze his back. He needed to be lower, so he tried to go to the point where his chest brushed the ground. He felt the door close behind them and instantaneously lived the expression, I can't see my hand in front of my face. Normally, sighted people walked into a dark room and waited until they could make out something from the light they weren't conscious of: the moon or a light outside or a device with a lighted face. He would never be able to make out something here.
He had been in something like it once before, like he'd told Stewart; the same feeling of nonexistence came over him then too. Like he no longer existed physically, that his body and the world around him had gone because he couldn't see them.
It coupled with the only thing that existed: sound. A 'healthy' starship always made sounds. Even with its complement of shuttlecrafts and the stations shut down, the hangar deck made low pulsing noises from systems in its walls, while the fog writhed against his skin. It was like the Enterprise had swallowed them whole and they had landed in her belly.
Ridiculous feelings, but his brain's neurons weren't working on intelligence.
Imre's breath in the mask, however, stayed a steady rate, true to his training and experience. A Starfleet officer of his years didn't freak out in the dark.
A sudden whisper in his ear almost made a liar out of that. "Are you lecturing me on right and wrong, Sarek?"
Rhinar.
Imre slowly let out his breath. It was just the verbal battle the Vulcan ambassador waged against the man threatening his grandson and Coridan. Actually, both Vulcan ambassadors because the older Spock, Ambassador Spock, fought alongside his father, but no one in the Enterprise crew knew that. It put the outside world back into place in the clinging, muted blackness.
Sarek said, "Genuine tragedies in the world are not conflicts between right and wrong. They are conflicts between two rights."
"Is that yours or another Vulcan who said that?"
"Neither. It was an Irish philosopher named Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. I thought you may prefer someone of your species."
Imre grinned.
Next part of the plan.
Bimo scuttled over, completely silent. He simply registered her body heat which felt wonderful in the mist. No wonder she huddles next to people. I underestimated how she must be freezing on her own.
Imre felt the Sozon slide over him, so they'd crawl together. Bimo had explained it was the best way for her to get him to the shuttlecraft around the maze of other shuttles, containers, and barrels stacked around the deck. He would have slammed into plenty without her. And as he told Saavik, they cut down on trails through the fog for Rhinar to see: one instead of two.
Now Imre understood her fear of losing Ssaalz. But if they did, the Carreon could always sit tight while Bimo got him to the outside engineering panel. Then she could go back for the medical officer while he worked.
He did suddenly feel the tip of Ssaalz' tail work its way between his and Bimo's arms, and then she pressed against them. One unit now. The blind leading the blinded. He gave the order: "Mr. Bimojigar, lead us into the Briar Patch."
We're coming, Setik.
They leaped forward together. Thankfully, Rhinar kept pumping out the fog; it meant it swirled on its own. If it had been still, they'd be noticeable no matter what, in the same way the bridge's main viewscreen managed to pick up swirling in the dark. Now, with their smaller footprint, they blended in with the natural movement of the mist.
Rhinar still talked, "None from home, Sarek? I know your people have a number of quotes on right and wrong, and waging war on one's enemies, in a spectacular quantity of ways."
Saavik replied to him instead. "May I wake to see a day with the sands unstained and my people with empty hands. That day will mark us finding peace."
"Ah! It wouldn't be Vulcan without a lecture on peace and control. Who said that particular jewel? Must be Surak."
"No." Sarek's tone sliced the man's arrogance down to a blink. "She quotes my great-grandfather, Aevrauk."
"He is worth quoting, Ambassador."
He is so good, Imre thought about Sarek. And the captain so fits Spock, let alone his family.
"We're in, Captain," he reported.
It was a bizarre situation. Dangerous and flat out bizarre. In holovids, heroes crawled through duct work with torchlights and grates to see by. Here: Join Starfleet. Meet new life forms. Crawl under your communications officer. Imre had a sadistic drill instructor in the Academy who would love this. He'd be stacking trainees five high, going through San Francisco's fog in the dead of night with packs of extra weight, and firing live ammo only a foot off the ground. Bellowing, "You wanted a life of adventure, Cadets!"
Bimo had said they were in a Sozon sweeper's position like they followed a digger. Because she missed Nachson so much already and Saavik hadn't been there, she had said mournfully how Kyle would have joked about getting a new job skill for his record.
Nachson again.
Imre couldn't help it; Kyle's death was too new. He automatically thought of the man, then the pain hit, but the thoughts flowed anyway.
Nachson would have been one self-contained attack as he hovered around the captain. He would have waited for Saavik's briefing to be done, then he'd have jabbed a finger into Imre's chest, his tight upper lip pulling back from his teeth. "I always said I'd be your longer legs if you need them. Now you got to be my shorter ones. I took an oath as an officer and I made a declaration and I failed both, Imre! So, you go be everything you are and fix this!"
I will, Imre promised the air.
He focused on moving. Bimo was perfectly comfortable racing along on all fours, and she could go backward just as fast. Ssaalz' people had evolved away from it, like Imre's, but she was still more comfortable with it than him because she didn't have to resort to hands and knees like a human. He worried he slowed them down when Bimo reminded him that she couldn't go at top speed because it would swirl the fog too much into a trail of their movements.
Still, she moved quickly.
Saavik's voice came through the captain-to-captain channel. "Bridge, status report. We have a team inside the hangar deck. Additional Security teams have been added to the surrounding area."
Bimo's weight pushed down on his left shoulder, so they made a smooth, hard turn in that direction. Ssaalz never lost them since she kept so tightly to them.
"You have a team inside?" Kirk said in disbelief. Imre pictured them looking at the darkness and fog on the main viewscreen. "Your people are good. We didn't see them go in and nothing registers anywhere on the deck."
Excellent. Imre thought of patting Bimo and Ssaalz as a silent compliment, but decided later was better.
"We have another accomplishment," Saavik agreed. "Rhinar has been identified on the Copernicus."
He imagined Kirk ordering a diagram of the hangar deck layout be put on screen. It was what he'd do.
"Captain Saavik." Imre talked very low into the mask's built-in communicator. Bimo, Ssaalz, and Saavik all had excellent hearing, and his captain would be able to filter out his report amidst the other two channels' chatter. "We are passing the Galileo. Our progress remains steady."
The mechanism of the turntable's rim bit into his right hand and knee. It was actually a good thing; it confirmed to his own senses that they were on track.
Saavik acknowledged and passed the report up to the bridge. To her Spock really.
The same Spock – Imre thought it had to be the older one because of what he asked. "Who constitutes your team?"
The names would mean nothing to anyone else. "Commander Imre, Lieutenant Bimojigar, and Dr. Ssaalz."
"They got a doctor in there." McCoy. He sounded like one of his hundred billion overwrought nerves calmed down at the thought. "Good, that's good."
Spock said, "As can be said for the entire team. All excellent skill sets and well suited for the task. As my younger self recently told Mr. Scott, 'Intelligence does not necessarily require bulk.'"
That came not just from Starfleet legend Spock, but the abducted boy's father. Thank you, sir.
Kirk said in an aside that he hoped he understood that later. Unfortunately, he probably wouldn't, although he most likely guessed part of it already. So would the younger Spock since he had made that statement to the engineer. But Imre and his team were branded with time's warning label of being Off Limits. Damn shame. Imagine if I got a tour of this Enterprise from Captain James T. Kirk.
He would keep to himself that he had a model of the ship when he was a boy and flew it around his room, devising adventures where he somehow was part of this crew. Then, one summer when he was a little older and required a series of surgeries making him unable to move around much, he heard Sarek speak and learned the power of mind, will, and words. It taught him a lot and his dreams of adventure as he sat at his family's house, confined, expanded to how much a captain can do from his all-important chair.
These thoughts combated the darkness beginning to play with his head. His human instincts and social morays rejected the whole situation as Stewart warned. The muscles in his back, legs, and arms stayed in a state of constant recoil where Bimojigar touched him. Something primal yelled he needed to break away, shake her off, restore dominancy, and find a damned light!
But that was not going to win. Bimo kept him alive in here; Bimo meant getting Saavik's son back to his mother and father. Imre sacrificed a step to touch Ssaalz on the arm, the cooler pebbled skin slick from the mist, and grounded her in case her own mind started being eaten by the dark.
Bimojigar suddenly pushed all her muscles against his back, arms, and legs. That meant drop! Imre tugged at Ssaalz as he flattened to the floor.
What the hell?
Bimo covered his ears, the sign for dangerous noise. He wished fiercely he could hear what she did because he couldn't make out anything but the ship.
That was it.
"Captain," Imre said as low as he could, "can you confirm Rhinar's stopped talking?" And might be looking right at us?
Saavik didn't have to do it; Sarek already noticed. "Mr. Rhinar, you have said nothing for 6.8 seconds. In our current situation, I question the reason why."
Nothing.
"Confirm," Imre asked. "We're certain he's blinded himself too with this vapor?"
Nothing except… faint noise like… a bridge station.
Spock, one of them, answered him. "To our knowledge, yes."
Meaning that's what we hope.
He slowly drew his phaser and felt Ssaalz and Bimo do the same.
We're so close!
"Well, well." Rhinar, at last. "Talking about me behind my back, I see."
No one understood and Sarek said so.
"No? Maybe if I stopped talking to you here—" Just a pause. "—and talk to you here."
It sounded no different, so Imre didn't understand until Uhura said, her voice in a tight, professional tone, "He is now using the second channel."
Imre let out his breath quietly. "Captain, are we clear?"
If Rhinar found his team's channel to Saavik, that was a big loss but they could go forward. It'd only hurt if things changed or extended from the plan.
"We're clear," she confirmed. "Our source is managed by the Contact. However, we have lost private communications with the bridge. Continue, Commander. I will resolve that issue."
But Bimo shoved him down when he tried to rise. "Explain," he said firmly.
"Imre?" Saavik asked.
It was still his team. "Hold, Captain. Bimo?"
The Sozon whispered, "Rhinar moves inside the shuttle. He has since discovering the other comm channel." Imre reminded himself she could hear the man's voice, which was how she knew what was going on. "I want to make sure he settles rather than making a move that risks us or Setik."
"Good call," he agreed. In a few more seconds, she gave the all clear, Rhinar having sat down at the shuttle's controls. That put him at the windows too. Imre automatically tried getting even lower as he moved and slowed their speed.
"We're going forward, Captain."
As they crossed the last part of the deck to the Copernicus, Saavik let him know she had sent two communicators to the bridge so they could hear and talk with the team without it going through any Enterprise's communication's equipment.
Kirk and Uhura were on the full-blown warpath over all the ship's communications being comprised.
Bimo gave him the sign to stop and lifted his right hand to touch something right ahead of him: the Copernicus' forward landing gear. That meant the slope of the shuttlecraft's nose was right over him.
So was Rhinar.
Something else: the bare bits of light coming from the shuttle's controls didn't brighten the dark. They were more like faded spots before the eyes – and they faintly caught movement.
"Captain Saavik," he reported, "we're here. Moving aft."
He imagined he heard everyone on the bridge take a breath and hold it.
Bimojigar slid off him - they couldn't fit under the shuttlecraft doubled up - and took the lead. He and Ssaalz belly crawled behind her, now on much more familiar ground. Every Starfleet cadet did more than their share of it through a slew of conditions they never dreamed existed. He kept his right foot lightly on the nacelle to give him another sense of direction. It got to be that his left elbow touched Ssaalz' right and they moved in unison. They didn't crawl as fast as they did on all fours, but they did well. The Copernicus over them and their smaller size still kept down their movement in the fog.
But.
A belly crawl meant they dragged their bodies and that made sounds: the rubbing of their boots at the toe, the tapping of the tricorder when jiggled… Fortunately, these style belts were quiet: soft closures, and underneath the shirt for him. But the rest – it meant a low noise level they didn't have before. It was why they didn't do it earlier.
The older Spock, again Imre guessed by what he said, came over the line. "I know the Contact locked down torpedoes as well as further securing the tactical systems. Has that plan been extended here?"
Scotty responded, "He shows no signs of being anywhere near them."
They must have called him to the bridge. Imre and his team reached the shuttlecraft's aft section. He kept it to himself just how good it felt to stand up. Ssaalz stretched next to him and her tail rattled quietly in the air. Bimo took his hands and ran them around the panel he needed. He kept one hand there and reached for his tricorder.
Saavik was answering the engineer, "A valid point, Mr. Scott. No reports show him doing so on the Contact either. A report, however, may not show his changing programming in the weapons systems or the removal of the matter/antimatter core from a photon torpedo. If Rhinar does not obtain his mission's goal in his current manner, he will substitute it for another way. We tried preventing it through those measures. Your captain and I spoke of it."
Kirk snapped his next statement; Imre automatically tensed at his captain being yelled at, but he realized that wasn't it. "I discussed it when we thought Rhinar was on your ship. We didn't extend it to here. His next step could be to blow up the Enterprise, not the Contact. It will take months, maybe a year, before the Federation Council can organize another vote on Coridan. Spock! Start scans and Scotty, I want Security going over the ship inch by inch! Check weapons systems including all armory lockers and see if he's gotten into Torpedo Control!"
Saavik insisted, "Captain Kirk—"
Kirk interrupted firmly, "If he blows up the Enterprise, we won't have to worry about if we disturbed something in the timeline by looking for it. Scotty, Spock, go!"
He meant the younger Spock who confirmed. Saavik immediately ordered Tran to spare men to help and protect the search teams.
Imre, meanwhile, curled his body around the tricorder before he switched it on. The light hit his eyes like he put his face inside a nova. He squeezed them shut and saw burned images on his eyelids. When they passed, he slowly opened his eyes; it took a lot of blinking before he could look.
You wanted light.
Blinking. Blinking took eyelids. He swung to check on Ssaalz; she had her head turned away and carefully moved it back in stages. Her green eyes glowed inside her mask.
Their Spock kept Rhinar busy by asking how he had managed to abduct the children. That's not it. Keeping his enemy busy would be Spock's secondary agenda; finding out how his family was harmed so it would never happen again would be primary.
As Rhinar talked about drugging a human aide to gain the children's security phrases, Imre still worked the engineering panel blind for the most part. If he used the tricorder for light, it would splash inside the shuttlecraft.
Imre got the panel open and pushed inside. Now he risked the light – and the controls inside Copernicus showing what he was doing. He practically slammed the tricorder against the shuttle components as he snapped one into its second setting. The recessed area and having the device right against the mechanisms should protect it enough from the fog to scan.
Come on, you trusty thing, come on.
It answered his plea. One number after another came up for the shield frequency. He shot it off immediately to Saavik who as quickly informed Spock, Kirk, and the Contact.
All right, think.
"Captain," he whispered, "I can't shut power down from here. We can't rush him that way."
A beat. "Logical and as we expected. We would not want an enemy to do so. The engineers, therefore, prevented it."
Bimo disappeared from Imre's feet, where Ssaalz hurriedly scanned her, to duck under the shuttle. She was back in seconds. "Rhinar continues to sit by the controls. However, he repeatedly goes to the last seat on the same side as the hatch. I believe that is where Setik is."
"He could be getting equipment or going to the weapons drawer."
Her head swayed. "If he had picked up equipment, I would hear the difference in weight. It is also not phasers."
"You can hear that little difference in weight?"
"No," Saavik interrupted. "It is simply illogical to repeatedly go to the weapons drawer. It is the mark of a fearful man giving into his panic. Taushan Rhinar is not such a man. He would have taken what phasers he wanted by the second trip at most."
"However," the older Spock said, "it has been over twenty minutes since the last neural paralyzer."
Imre cursed silently. Bastard!
A Spock – Imre wasn't sure which – added, "Scanning a sample of the fog, provided by members of Captain Saavik's crew, reveals its composition. A portion of the metals used will interfere with the transporters. Therefore, if we were considering simply beaming out that section of the shuttle as a means of retrieving Setik, we risk a severe transporter accident."
McCoy could be heard in the background. "Who was thinking of that?"
"I was," the older Spock and Saavik said nearly in chorus.
Ssaalz may not have eyelids, but her eyes could widen like Imre's as they stared at each other. That couldn't be enough to give away their captain, could it?
Thankfully not, especially when McCoy shouted at who had to be the younger Spock and took people's attention away from the secret husband and wife. "Why can't you ever give us good news?! In short sentences!"
Kirk said, "Bones, enough. This means what we were afraid of. We have to empty that fog to beam Setik out and Rhinar will notice."
Imre asked, "Have we found that emitter?"
Scot answered him. "Not a sign of it."
Kirk turned to the engineer. "What do you think, Scotty?"
"If he has it and he's smart – and unfortunately he's proved he is – he's installed it in the center before the aft section. He's got the power transfer conduits under the deck there. It puts it right by the lad's feet so it's concentrated around him and the weapons drawer. Anywhere else, with that configuration, would weaken it."
Imre was about to talk when Kirk did. "All right, here's what I propose."
He didn't get further when Imre now asked him to hold on. Something…
Suddenly, rays of light came from the ceiling, like gods descending, making him squint tightly all over again. The way it struck the mist blurred everything about it.
"Bimo," he asked with just her name.
She listened. "It is the turntable. It is lowering from the flight deck."
"Tran!" Saavik snapped. "You were not given that order!"
But the Security Chief was as surprised as her.
Before anyone could say more, Sarek told the older Spock, who relayed it, that Rhinar was rambling. "Most likely a distraction as he has never spoken this way previously."
Saavik asked, "Why lower the turntable? He surrenders all his advantages."
Kirk sounded grim. "Then he has better ones."
Imre heard Sarek on the open channel now, trying to draw Rhinar out. The Copernicus shuttered under his feet as it began its slide to the center.
He made a decision. "Captain, I'm taking Ssaalz and Bimo and going forward. The only difference is he's clearing the fog instead of us doing it. We still have the element of surprise. We'll take out the windows and rush him. He's at the controls which means he's not by Setik. We'll have him down before he can."
Before she answered, Kirk spoke. "Saavik, I know you're their captain, but Spock should have final say. He's an experienced commander and the father."
Imre heard Ssaalz's sharp warble in her throat sac and felt Bimojigar's head swaying increase as they all bit down on what they wanted to say on their captain's behalf.
Instead, Saavik said what she had to. "Agreed."
She had given Imre the right to that decision and he wondered if he should fight for it. He would have if Kirk had named anyone other than Spock.
Kirk kept the communicator open. "Spock, it's a good plan and probably our best bet. You said these were good people."
In that pause, Imre signaled his team to start moving instead of losing more time if the Vulcan said yes.
Which he did; Saavik came right on the heels of it. "Imre, the word is given."
Imre gave himself less than a second to confirm his plan as their best option. A ground attack gave Rhinar advantages that Imre didn't want him to have. He grabbed one of Ssaalz's and Bimo's hand and made a sharp gesture. They got it.
He dropped and drew his phaser. The turntable light splashed on the ceiling in a sunrise and did not yet brighten the room much; it instead made the fog appear almost… solid. He took the port side and Ssaalz went up the starboard. Bimo galloped underneath the few feet to join the Carreon on the side. Imre's one hand felt along the wide ledge or fin midway above the nacelle. He secured his phaser again and pulled himself silently up onto it right before the hatch. Crouching like his teammates most likely did on the other side, he leaped and caught the lip running along the roof. He chinned himself and slid over on his belly.
Finding Bimo and Ssaalz once more to reconnect the team, he kept his orders through touch: they'd keep their positions to the bow – him, then Bimojigar, then Ssaalz –and that was the window they'd each take. He didn't trust running on the roof or the belly crawl; he crawled regular, trusting Bimo to correct him if he went wrong.
At the bow, they spun to face aft. They bent their knees and grabbed that lip running around the roof. "Captain Saavik," he whispered. "We are going in…" He waited for either of the two to stop him since he couldn't see if there was a problem.
Rhinar suddenly announced. "I'll be damned."
"Hold," Saavik ordered the team.
Sarek, meanwhile, answered the enemy. "To what do you refer?"
"Everything I've studied pointed to all of you trying something, even though I prevented you from doing it. That's why I've been talking like I have and using the turntable. I attempted drawing you out. I swore you had someone out there in the corridor, Saavik. Kirk, you would want to do it yourself, but she wouldn't want someone of this time hurt. I believed sooner or later you'd risk it, Saavik, despite the odds. Or Spock would insist on it. Your mindless meat and his like would come lumbering through the fog. Easy targets."
Saavik responded, "If you refer to Jaxon Tran, he has an IQ of 160. No one mindless serves under my command."
"So," Rhinar went on like she hadn't talked, "I either miscalculated on the length of time it would take to draw you in or I was wrong about you sending him in at all."
"The latter."
He muttered to himself, "How? The composition of the fog is perfect, but none of you…"
"Captain," Imre asked, "we're standing by."
"At least I can take pride in the greater calculated move," Rhinar commented. "You can't come in. You are instead thwarted by my miasma turned security field."
Imre got an idea. "Captain, if he can control the turntable, then he's pulling in power to the hangar deck. That means you can get the remaining power back on. But listen, the Copernicus still faces Galileo, Columbus, and Magellan and this is a workshop area." He reached out so Bimo and Ssaalz readied. "Blind him."
"Excellent idea," Kirk came in. "We're cutting power to the flight deck first. Wait for it."
The light spilling in from the opening turntable suddenly snuffed out. At this point, Imre almost proudly welcomed it.
Rhinar only laughed. "My own tricks! Interesting. But I don't need those lights to fly."
"Bimojigar, Ssaalz?" Imre questioned, asking if they knew a reason to stop. They said nothing to halt his command. "Now."
Lights from half the deck slammed into the shuttle's windows. Even the dimming from the fog couldn't stop the blinding effect. But Imre and Ssaalz faced away from it, and Bimojigar didn't care.
Rhinar yelled.
Imre slid with a small jump, letting go of the roof, and timing it from the blueprints in his head on where the bottom of the window was. A frame ran around the whole thing and his feet found a purchase, his left hand immediately clamping at the top. His phaser lay in his other hand and aimed at the window to Rhinar.
The enemy made a strangled noise in his chest. Imre heard that through the channel, but he couldn't imagine what they looked like. Three figures dropping out from the dark and then arresting light, they themselves nothing but murky forms and then silhouettes. Even the masks disguised and misshaped their faces.
Saavik spoke for her crew. "Mr. Rhinar, stay away from the controls of that shuttlecraft, and most of all, do not go near that child again."
All anyone heard was Rhinar's surprised bursts of breath like… amazement.
"I don't believe it," he spoke at last. "I do not believe it. You surprised me again. That is… excellent. I knew, I knew you had someone out there, Saavik. But this."
She repeated, "Rhinar, you will shut down the shuttlecraft. If you attempt any other action, my team will find it necessary to fire."
Air from the turntable lowering and Copernicus drawing closer to it made the mist thin and Imre began to see Rhinar. He was smiling.
"Ah well!" he said to Saavik, "I would not go that far. Still, a truly remarkable accomplishment. I do mean it sincerely. I never saw this coming, and, I must tell you, even if I knew about it like I do now, I wouldn't have any defense against it. Sarek, you must be listening. I hope you see the level of commander protecting your world."
"Imre," Saavik ordered over the private channel.
He braced his left foot on the window and fired his phaser. It came down on the third shot and he cursed it for lasting that long. Rhinar was backing up, so far with no weapon, but that drawer was right behind Setik.
He immediately reported, "I have a visual. Lieutenant Bimojigar's report on Setik's location is confirmed!" He ran through the open window and heard the Sozon at the same time. "Stop!"
He couldn't stop that quickly, no one could, and he slammed into the force field. He shot out backward and landed hard on the deck. His breath slammed out of his lungs and he couldn't say anything. His mouth contorted with pain and his body arched.
Ssaalz had leaped down when he fell. She had her scanner out as she called, "Commander Imre is down!"
"A reminder," Rhinar continued, "I did say I knew one of you would attack. Surely, you knew I'd be prepared."
"Why," Scotty sounded incredulous, "did he take the weaker configuration?"
"Because," the older Spock replied, "he reasoned we would surmise he would do the other. It did draw in our attack, as he said, while the force field still prevents us from reaching Setik, even in its weaker state."
Imre rubbed his aching chest and cursed himself for letting the enemy outthink him. Ssaalz helped him to his feet and relax so he could breathe. She took off as he let Saavik know he was back.
What do we do now? Get everything necessary and make the next attack possible.
"Sarek," Rhinar called, "we are nearing the final line to cross and I believe you may have done so already."
Copernicus resumed moving towards the turntable.
Sarek spoke. "Do you prepare to leave, Mr. Rhinar? An unexpected action when you do not have what you came for."
Kirk suddenly came over the restricted line. "Saavik! Listen!"
But a voice broke into the middle of whatever he was saying. Rhinar again. "A third channel! That does seem to be the end of them. Sarek, I do not believe this is how you work. Idle chatter while others use brute force for the real tasks."
Imre ran for the shuttle, Ssaalz, and Bimojigar with him, and climbed hurriedly back on the sides when the flight deck went black.
Are we doing this again? And throw off Rhinar with it over and over? Or keep him from seeing something?
No word from the bridge but muffled sounds of a conversation.
Kirk came back online just as suddenly as before and rattled off… something.
Imre hoped his captain understood what Kirk meant because her first officer had no idea.
She did. "Mr. Imre," she stated calmly. "I am coming in."
