Chapter Created On: - 18/03/2010
Chapter Beta Read by
: - Specter06.


Chapter 29 (The Trap)

Jasmine was the type of creature who liked to be alone. With a cup of tea on the table and a glass-computerised tablet in her hand, she sighed at the mountain of work Sam left for her. She expected some mountain of work but not two months worth. She vowed to shove him out the nearest airlock the first chance she got.

She placed the tablet on the table and continued with her meal. Jasmine could have done the work right there and then, but she was not the type of person to dwell on the hardships of work, she placed it to the back of her mind and focused on the delicious meal in front of her.

After a few minutes and when she was reaching the tastiest part of her meal, she noticed a familiar figure hovering around.

"In human society it is normally polite to ask a girl if it's OK to sit beside them." She Arched eyebrows and gave Kai-yu a ghostly stare.

He misread her body language and came closer, grinning. "May I sit beside you?"

Jasmine grabbed the handle of her fork and rolled it in her hand. She knew exactly what she wanted to do with it, but she held back her desire to inflict pain because this attractive creature was trying to chat her up and she decided to play hard-to-get.

"No you can't, go away." She barked, creeping away from him.

"I would like to get to know you a little better and the engine room was very noisy and inconvenient."

She watched him slide across the chair and now he was becoming an inconvenient person. Jasmine wrapped her hand around the fork and the desire to inflict pain poured into her like an open tap. She held back her desires just a little bit more.

"I left for a reason." Jasmine came to the end of the table and Kai-yu noticed her graceful skin colours and long slender legs were hiding a beautiful secret. Feelings began to race through his mind and he felt extremely aroused

When Jasmine noticed what he was gazing at, she lost her temper and slammed the fork onto the table just inches from his fine arm fin. The chill from the fork made his arm-fin twitch as he tried to regain his composure.

Angered at his lack of restraint, Jasmine decided to leave the mess hall like a vanishing tornado. She had enough of his sexual advances and decided to return to work. But she was unable to hide the secret grin that crept along her face. She liked him, but she wanted to know how much he liked her.

Kai-yu sat alone at the table with only her plate of food as company. He failed to understand why he was strongly attracted to her or able to explain the strange feelings he was experiencing. Every time he was near her he felt his heart race and butterflies take flight in his stomach.

A sharp stern voice bellowed out from the background chatter. "It's her mating cycle. She is producing hormones that attract males. You are being affected by it."

Kai-yu turned around to see McGregor staring at him from the table behind.

McGregor got up and approached him, but before he could say a thing, Kai-yu interjected. "Such a gorgeous person, I think I am in love… I don't need any hormones for that."

"I don't know why Jasmine is on my vessel, or you for that matter." He changed his tone and looked directly at him. "Why are you on my ship?"

Kai-yu felt a lump in his throat, "I'm staying because of Jasmine."

McGregor grabbed the fork that was embedded in the table and held it firmly in his hand. His anger exploded. "Listen to me you little shit! You tried to kill be down on that planet which is something I will not forget for a very long time. I want you to stop harassing my family otherwise I will toss you out of the nearest airlock!" Kai-yu eyes widened, not understanding what McGregor said. Family, what does he mean by that? Perhaps humans see their crew as family.

With a final outburst McGregor shouted. "You will leave my crew alone!" He slammed the fork on the table right in the middle of his arm-fin.

He straightened his uniform and marched off the mess hall, brushing off the idle stares from his crew. McGregor needed to put his foot down otherwise the situation would get out of hand, he had a deep emotional bond with Jasmine and it was his responsibility to protect her, from everyone.

With his head held high, he briskfully walked towards the command deck.

It was one thing to assist Janeway in her little problem with the Borg, but to be tricked into sending his ship into the firefight was something he was not pleased about.

"That two timing battleaxe!" McGregor murmured to himself as he stared at the starry field in the panoramic windows.

He was satisfied at how swiftly Starfleet paid their bill and assigned him a new mission. It was supposed to be a simple carry and drop cargo shipment of vital supplies and material for a 'Space Station.' However he failed to notice the missing name on the manifest at first.

But as long as he got paid for the huge task in rescuing the Cataline and the damages done to his vessel, McGregor had overlooked the mishap.

Halfway in his journey, when he was going over the manifest in more detail in his ready room, McGregor spotted the neglect. With some swift calculations and vector-calculations, the computer confirmed that they would be entering the Frontier Station Seven sector. A place he didn't want to go.

After giving Janeway what she wanted, the 1TW Cannon Control Microprocessor Cartridges and accepting some compromises, he did not anticipate being tricked to go there. The Borg conflict was with the Federation and not with his ship. McGregor had already given her the power to defeat the Borg and now she had taken advantage of him.

A casual voice brought McGregor out of his current thoughts, "Captain, we are receiving a message from the space station."

"Any identification on who it might be?" McGregor questioned.

"No sir, just a com channel."

"OK, on screen." McGregor looked at the screen and he wasn't sure who could be calling him all this way out. The Explorer was a simple trade vessel delivering goods, what point would there be in contacting them at the moment?

The image of a gruff and stern man appeared on screen. A strange resolution fluttered, but McGregor put that down to the subspace communications. But as he spoke, his voice sounded clipped and formal. "This is commander Paxton from Frontier Station Seven X-One-Seven-Five-Two-Three-Six. We understand that you have come to relinquish your supplies to us, we are happy to receive new shipments."

"That's correct; we have fresh shipments from Starfleet HQ." McGregor did not notice the strange tone in the station commander voice.

As the station commander continued, his expression did not chance. "I believe your identification is USS Explorer, Serial Number Zero-Zero-Zero-Three."

Still, the strange tone and direct script reading of his ship's serial number did not ruffle McGregor's thoughts. "That's correct; I understand you are in the middle of a battle yourselves, how's the fight?" He looked at his crew expecting a swift and clean response, after all, they'd been given the most powerful weapon ever created and it was about time Starfleet received some good news for once.

"Thanks to your adaptation, we have managed to resist the Borg and everything is peaceful now. But we still require supplies, you will be here soon?"

The man seemed more like an ID image than a real person. But still, he assumed it was down to the subspace distortions. A news flash flickered on his personal screen a few minutes before the transmission, indicating such a disturbance and he continued. "That's good, I'm glad to help in the efforts, we should be there in a few minutes."

On the screen, the station commander's image still did not change, as if someone had frozen him. So out of curiosity McGregor carried on, "So, I am happy to assist you anyway I can, do you have any injured personnel that need treating?"

Again, his image did not change and the audio track did not transmit any background sounds. McGregor scratched his head and looked at Tulack, who was equally baffled in his own Vulcan way.

"Captain, I am not receiving any real-time transmissions from him, I believe the image you are seeing is a false projection."

McGregor frowned and looked at the cold image on the screen, it looked like a still image and then he had an idea. He asked for a data link and a list of station personnel. It took a few seconds but the list appeared on his personal armrest computer and in response, he slammed his fist down on his command chair.

"ALL STOP, IT'S A TRAP!" McGregor roared as his bridge crew scrambled around to execute his commands. But the Explorer exited warp on its original set course.

The Explorer arrived in the middle of a battlefield. Damaged hulls and exploded ordinance drifted at random trajectories smashing into each other. Gasses and clouds of vented atmosphere orbited the larger chunks as the massive domed and spherical station resided in the background.

It all looked dead and nothing was active, Borg vessels were scatted in parts, as if someone tossed a load of junk into space with a shovel. It was a mess.

"Battle stations, red alert and activate the shields!" McGregor rushed to the status control panel that flashed, then crashed due to the large number of junk in space.

Suddenly alarms sounded and the defensive system spoke. "Attention, five hundred and forty seven intruders detected on the Explorer decks. Lockdown protocol has been initiated, please evacuate to safe areas."

Without warning, thick bulkheads slammed down locking the bridge. Each deck was closed off by the huge bulkhead doors and the crew knew what to expect and stayed well clear. But the would be intruders rushed through the doors only to be cut down by them

"Identification of intruders confirmed, Borg presence detected on all decks. Warning, ship is in lockdown mode."

McGregor looked in horror as his vessel was invaded by the Borg. How could this happen? How did they know? What is their goal?

But he knew all to well what the goal was, to capture and assimilate the Explorer. McGregor was not going to let that happen.

Suddenly before he had the chance to walk over to Tulack, a Borg drone materialized on the command deck.

Greenish transparent beams created the black deadly looking robotic creature that twitched and sputtered as its systems came online.

As if fate had a crawl side, two more drones appeared on the command deck. Then the hollow sound of the shields came online after being drained by some unknown reason, an indication that no more Borg drones could invade the Explorer.

"Attention, Borg intruders detected on all decks, five hundred and two invaders detected on the Explorer."

Even if the number was reduced, by fire fights or some being cut down when the bulkhead doors closed, he still had the Borg on the command deck to deal with.

Two of the three drones moved at astonishing speed. The nearest one spun around and its flesh-rotten robotic hand clamped around Kraile-li's neck. Before she could struggle free, the Borg's other hand extended and its wiggling worm-like tentacles moved in the air. They struck home, injecting the frightened Cataline in the neck. She fell to the deck with veins bulging out of her neck.

Almost the same instant, the second drone lunged forward towards the communications officer. The drone seemed uninterested in assimilating this crewman. So it rammed the individual's head through his console with the force of a jackhammer and exploded it, blood seeped through the controls indicating the crewman had been murdered.

No more than three seconds had passed while McGregor watched the entire command crew erupted in panic. Tulack backed away in worry as the third drone strolled towards him; it did not appear to be in a hurry, unlike the first two.

The first two drones moved away from there initial victims and homed on McGregor and Arania, as if they wanted to assimilate the commanders of the ship and they walked with staggered steps, as it was clear the two drones had been damaged in recent conflicts.

They razed their hands and tentacles wiggled around like worms in a can. The tentacles looked as if they could smell the fear in their victims; they wanted blood and to inject.

Arania clasped onto McGregor as if he could prevent the pain that was about to be inflicted. But McGregor had no idea what to do, there was so little time and he left his sidearm in his ready room.