FREE ORDER
PART I
Marcus sighed briefly as he gazed at the screen in front of him. On it were the images of the six Under Directors of Section 31, the people who helped him to insure his organisation kept ticking. Right now he sat in Slone's office (The said Agent standing at his side, looking over his shoulder) using the highly secret frequency that only the six directors and himself knew about. Slone was forced to have this knowledge given to him in order to be of continuing use.
"So…" Kyle Mantra, a relatively young Director with a shock of blond hair mused, "The Ryvius managed to defeat the Impulse? Judging by the data I've received, it appears as though it will take at least a year to build a new Vital Guarder from scratch,"
"That is a minor complication compared to the large problem we now face with the total destruction of Hyperion V…" Albert Connings, an elderly main with little hair left and an almost pure white beard, wheezed, "There was simply no cause for the loss of over two thousand lives,"
"The initial plan was the capture of the Ryvius," Tucker sighed again as he rubbed his eyes, "With it, Section 31 will finally be able to take control of the Federation. I think we can all stand the sacrifice of one rogue Terraforming Station, if it means control of one of the most powerful empires in the Alpha Quadrant,"
"I must apologise for the loss of Hyperion," Jon lowered his head slightly as he turned to the window behind his desk, watching as the remains of the Impulse was towed away, out of the Patch, while another ship, a larger crimson one, slowly pulled up next to the Starbase, "If you want my opinion, I would blame the incident on a lack of information. With eighteen years of experience, we did not expect Agent Cooper to be as greatly affected as he was.
Tucker closed his eyes as the Under-Directors winced collectively. They had all seen the footage captured from Tobias Cooper's padded cell. The damage he was causing himself, throwing himself against the walls of the Brig, screaming about destroying the Ryvius and how the Impulse was the ultimate killing machine. In the end, he was restrained and sedated, before being sent back to Earth for medical treatment, branded by Deep Space Twelve's Medical Officer as 'Mentally unstable and a hazard to himself and those around him,'.
"Close proximity to the Sphix had obviously warped his mind," Natasha Clarkson, who had been a doctor before joining Section 31, muttered darkly as she remembered the footage.
"Perhaps a battle between two Vaea ships was what drove him round the bend," Connings mused as he steeped his fingers, "If that is the case, then perhaps the Dicastia will not be enough,"
"The Geshupenste is being prepared as we speak," Slone said quietly, continuing to stare out over the Patch, "She will be ready in approximately three standard Earth months,"
"The only concern there is personal," Tucker muttered, "We need someone who will be able to remain on a Vaea ship for a short amount of time without going the same way as Agent Cooper. Maybe someone whose encountered them before,"
"What about…you-know who?" Kyle asked carefully.
"He would be qualified," Natasha agreed, "But he does tend to let his emotions get the better of him. It would be too great a risk,"
"Lady, Gentlemen," Marcus smiled down at his console, "We are Section 31. Risk is part of our game. Besides, if we worry to much about the risks involved, we'll never get anything done, and are mission will never be completed. The time is ripe for decisive action.
We must make a move…now.
Send out the Dicastia,"
I sighed as I stared out of the window of my quarters, watching sadly as various shuttles and work pods went about their work. Some repairing the ship, others launching probes.
"All these probes," I sighed to myself, "You'd think someone would have discovered we're out here by now. Why hasn't anyone come to rescue us yet?"
"Daniel? Sir?"
I turned slightly to see Akihiro watching me from the front door.
"I erm…think we have a training session scheduled," The chubby Lieutenant said quietly, as though afraid of invoking my wraith.
"Really?" I blinked at him, before heading for the table in the centre of the Lobby to collect my jacket and Zwei Medallion, "Do we? I didn't realise. Thanks for reminding me, Aki,"
Akihiro merely smiled with a nod in return.
"Guys with unlimited points sure do have it easy in life," Nicks muttered darkly as he exited his bedroom.
"Hey come on," I scowled at the departing Ensign's back, "I work hard to earn my points. I'm no different from anyone else on this ship,"
"Uh-huh," Nicks smirked, "Yeah, and Juli just announced me as the New Captain,"
"Oh, there's a scary thought," I muttered under my breath as I watched my two roommates disappear from the doorway, "Why can't that kid ever give me a break? Can't he just see I'd rather be in his shoes?"
I sighed as I watched Rafra curl around my legs, making ferrety noises as he looked up at me, begging for attention.
As I stared down at the pure white animal, he made me wonder what Fina was doing right about now.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Kurt lashed out angrily, "Why do I have to look after my brother!?"
Ami didn't bat an eyelid. She had expected this.
"Because Daniel always finds a way to screw up everything," She smirked, "Just ask that Zwei Helmsman, Swile. According to him, the Helm hasn't worked as well since your brother left the Bridge,"
"If Daniel's a screw-up, then he should take responsibility for his actions," Kurt sneered, turning suddenly to try and intimidate her, only to find her staring back at him hard, her fists on her waist, "What? What is it?"
"You know you could be a little nicer,"
"Errr…." Kurt's mind went suddenly blank as he stared at her. She stared back, a smirk starting to appear on her face.
"Kurt!"
The younger Wayneright's eyes widened with surprise as Catherine's voice penetrated his mind.
"We have training session in five minutes," The Ba'ku came up behind him, glancing briefly at Ami with curiosity, "We should be going,"
"R…right," Kurt nodded to himself, before turning away and walking slowly up the corridor, looking as though he was in a bit of a daze.
Catherine stared after the confused Guarder Pilot, before turning back to Ami, an apologetic smile on her face, "Sorry about that,"
"Don't be," Ami returned the smile, "I really shouldn't butt into his affairs,"
Catherine nodded, "Well, see ya around,"
Ami nodded her goodbyes as she continued to walk down the corridor, while the female pilot ran after Kurt, who was still ambling down the corridor with an unsure look on his face.
"That was Amelia Housen wasn't it?" She asked innocently, finally pulling the younger Wayneright out of his bewildered state.
"Yeah?" Kurt eyed his friend suspiciously, "What of it?"
"Just curious," Catherine smiled as they continued to walk down the corridor, "Just curious,"
Blue stared down at the phaser with disbelief.
He'd shot her. Five times. Each time more devastating then the last until he'd reached the highest setting, and yet each blast passed through her like she wasn't there, demolishing the bulkhead behind her.
And then, to disorientate him even more, that girl in pink just…phased, through the wall.
Blue had never been a believer of ghosts. A load of alcohol induced nonsense in his opinion. But he had run out of Romulan ale a while ago, and he never drank himself into stupor anyway.
"We detected phaser fire down here a second ago,"
Blue looked up from his thoughts as he heard the sound of running feet coming in his direction.
"Time for me to make like that girl and disappear," he thought quietly to himself, before glancing down at his weapon, "And carrying this around with me is only going to draw attention to myself. I have to get rid of it, fast.
But how am I going to do it?"
"What we need is more people," Kevin sighed as he ran a hand through his hair, "Videll's still locked up in the Brig…even Charlie would be better then nothing at all…"
"I don't think the crew would approve of a deserter or a snitch returning to active Zwei duty," Juli sighed as she fiddled with her bangs.
"So we don't tell them," Chris smiled from the Helm, "Whose gonna know?"
Juli scowled, "That's your answer for everything,"
"What?" Chris cringed under the Captain's glare, "It works doesn't it?"
"Captain," Kevin suddenly called out as Juli opened her mouth to reply, "System checks report that internal sensors are down in section fifty-seven,"
"Fine, fine," Juli now held her head in aguish, "Ran, get a free team to go take a look at it,"
"We don't have any free teams," Ran glared angrily at her screen, "Let alone the fact that overall maintenance is down by thirty percent as it is!"
"We need to find something to motivate the crew," Kevin sighed as he rubbed at his eyes, "if we don't do something soon, we're all going to hell in a hand-basket,"
"You said it," Chris smiled as he leant back in his seat, "Send all the slackers to the Brig, that's what I say,"
"Maybe I should throw you in the Brig then," Juli muttered under her breath.
"I've just received a message from supervisor Radan," Fina suddenly reported, "They discovered evidence of phaser fire down in section ninety-two,"
"Blue's the only one with a phaser," Juli muttered to herself, "Has he been caught?"
"Don't you mean, 'did we catch him?'" Chris looked at her questioningly.
"Does it matter?" Juli spat back, "Did we get him or not?"
"The message only reports evidence of phaser fire," Fina shook her head, "A rather large phaser burn on one of Section ninety-two's bulkheads. That's all it says. What do you want to do?"
"Have…have a science team head down to Section ninety-two to determine how long ago the burn was created," Juli began hesitantly, "Then send the supervisors team to search the surrounding sections,"
"Yes Ma'am," Fina nodded solemnly as she returned to her work.
Juli nodded to herself as she sat back in her chair, steeping her index fingers as she did so.
"You have to be firm in your decisions," Juli jumped as Serek addressed her from behind, "If you are not, the crew may begin to waver,"
"If you're so smart, why don't you take command?" Juli shot.
Serek merely raised an eyebrow, "I am more suited for an advisory position," He replied simply, "I do not take well to leadership,"
"Are you kidding us with this!?" Katy stared at the stack of dirty dishes in the sink, "Why do we have to clean all of these? Why not shove them back into the replicator?"
"Oh, that would be too easy," The head chef smirked as her friends giggled, "Besides, seeing as your boyfriend has special status, we think you should work a little bit harder. So you have to clean all these dishes before you put them back in the Replicator, understand?"
"Why you little…"
"Don't let them get to you," Rachel put a hand on Katy's shoulder, "Like Daniel said, you'll only get hurt otherwise,"
Katy clenched her fists angrily as she spun to her work, brushing angrily at the dishes.
"I'll show them," she muttered darkly, "Just wait until Carlos hears about this. I'll show them,"
"Alright guys," Carlos breathed a sigh of relief as he shut down his console, "That's all for tonight,"
"Alright," Marco got up as he stretched, "Time to catch some z's!"
"Come on Dan," Carlos came up to the supervisor's chair where I was working, "Time to go see the wife and kids!"
"Wife and kids?" I smirked as I continued to work on the tiny console.
"You know what I mean, Ami and crew,"
"Yeah I know," I smiled, "Just go ahead without me okay? I just have to finish this report, I won't be long,"
I heard Carlos sigh as he headed off, "If you say so. Just be sure to lock up after yourself okay?"
"You're the boss,"
I heard him chuckle as his footsteps faded away, leaving me in the silence and darkness of the VG Bridge. I continued to work for a few moments more, before stopping suddenly, leaning back in my chair as I did so.
"How much longer do I have to keep living like this?" I sighed, tugging at my Zwei medallion, "How much longer to we all have to live like this?"
"Well I got news for you punk," I looked up to see the dark shadow of a pair of bulky cadets baring down on me, one of them carrying a fire extinguisher, "Thanks to us, You won't have to live like this any more, cos your not gonna be living any more!"
Then the fire extinguisher came down, and I was plunged into a world of pain.
Neeya watched from the other side of what the inhabitants called the VG Bridge, curled into a ball from the pain the two beings were causing Daniel. For whatever pain he endured, she shared. It was the way their connection worked. They continued to pummel him, one with his feet, the other with a large cylinder. All the time screaming things like "You hardly have any skills!", "You were one of those supervisors, yet you remained in the Zwei's good books!" and "You piss me off!"
She wanted to reach out, push them away, but she was paralysed by the feeling she had come to know as pain. She wanted to pull Daniel onto her plane, for perhaps this was his time, but she remained in a shivering ball on the other side of the Bridge, the pain coursing through her veins, leaving her nothing to do except wait for it to fade away, as it had done so many times before…
Juli sighed as she rubbed her tired eyes, searching the reports of various sightings of Alan Blue.
"Section Ninety-Two, Section forty-one, Section nineteen…I'll give him this," she sighed as she stared at his profile picture, "he sure knows how to throw people off his scent,"
"Juli?"
The young Zwei looked down to see Pat staring up at her with tired blue eyes, "I have to go to the bathroom,"
"Pat, you're eight years old," Juli rolled her eyes, "I'm sure your old enough to go to the bathroom by yourself,"
"But…"Pat winced slightly, "But you…I…,"
The truth was Pat had been lying in bed, wide awake, Juli's depressing thoughts running through his head. He had just come to see her to try and make her feel better.
"Why don't you ask Ran?" Juli tried to go back to her work, "I'm a bit busy here,"
"Ran's asleep," Pat pointed out. He should know, he checked, "Besides, I don't wanna…"
He glanced at the computer screen with intrigue, only to raise an eyebrow with surprise at the sight of Alan Blue's profile and sighting reports dotting the screen. He was also interested to see that an admittedly smaller window was currently showing the location of Lucson. Apparently he was in the Observation Lounge down the corridor, pacing.
"I guess that explains why she's so depressed," he thought to himself.
"It's time that you started doing things by yourself Patrick,"
Pat turned to Juli with surprise at the tone of her voice. That, and the fact she'd called him Patrick, "You must understand that things are changing for all of us don't you? In this time and place you have to stop acting like a spoiled child!"
Pat retracted slightly, before pulling his wrist out from her grip.
Juli suddenly realised what she'd said, "Oh Pat I…"
But too late, the small boy had run off to Ran's room, sniffling as he went. A moment later the dark haired Betazoid appeared in her doorway, a dark scowl on her face.
"What did you say to him?" She spat, "The poor guy's in tears!"
"I didn't mean…I just said…" The Captain stammered.
"Forget it!" Ran turned back to her room, "You're the worst sometimes, you know that?"
Juli stared after her, listening to her soft cooing mingling with the sobs of an eight-year old boy through the wall.
"She right," She realised as she leant on her desk, "And the worst part of it is, Even I think so myself,"
She looked up suddenly as the doorbell rang.
"Now who could that be?" She frowned as she exited her quarters and headed for the door, "Computer what time is it?"
"THE TIME IS 2321 HUNDRED HOURS,"
"Who would be calling at this hour?" she wondered again as she opened the door, only for her heart to stop at the sight that befell her.
Daniel was leaning up against the doorframe, looking a complete and utter mess. His nose was bleeding, and one eye was swollen up. His uniform was tarnished and dirty, stained with blood, and he looked like he had a slight limp in his right foot, one arm across middle, doubled up in pain.
"D-Daniel?" the older Wayneright looked up at her with hazy eyes, "What…what happened?"
"Juli…" he began to talk, coughing up some blood on the carpet, "I'm…sorry…"
And then his eyes rolled up into his head as he suddenly collapsed, unconsciousness clouding his mind as Juli knelt by his side with alarm, calling his name in vain as she tried to shake him awake.
