Fifty-One: Transmission Complete

Author's Note: Hawkmoth puts the team to the test with his film-based akuma, testing Chat's knowledge of the Star Trek movie universe as he tries to protect Ladybug and the rest of Team Miraculous.

The turbolift quickly slowed to a stop and the doors snapped open, revealing a short corridor of angled metal accents in silver in white, lit from panels angled upward from the deck plating. Much as with the Bridge, I'd expected to see crewmembers dashing to and fro; they were, instead, eerily empty save for the notification panels hanging every few meters from the ceiling, blinking their notifications to no one in particular.

As I tentatively stepped out, I could see double doors every ten meters or so, most with symbols I recognized from having digested Mister Scott's Guide to the Enterprise. It didn't hurt, either, that I was fairly certain the turbolift tended to have access points convenient to major areas on the ship, like Engineering and Sickbay.

Or the Transporter Room.

"This way," I said, pulling out my baton. "I'm not certain if this will be exactly like the movie," I added as we paused outside a door with a stencil of a person being disassembled. The sign alone made the process seem a bit dramatic, but then again, it was converting matter to energy.

Suddenly I found myself agreeing with Doctor McCoy on the merits of the Transporter.

Stepping closer to the door triggered unseen sensors and they sighed open, revealing a space in utter chaos. Moving inside warily, I saw electrical shorts in the small control booth two steps up from the deck; hopping up them, I was quickly joined by 'Rion and Pegasus, with Carapace moving in front of the booth.

Looking through the protective glass, I could see a shimmering cylinder of energy, and just inside that, a shadow of a figure, partially formed. My heart skipped a beat before anger took over – anger that Hawkmoth would even play with our lives in this manner.

As if he were listening in on us, the tiny communications indicator lit up and our nemesis spoke. "Oh," he said with that icy cold voice. "Looks like you have a bit of a problem on your hands. I can help, of course… for a price."

I smashed a claw tip into the communications control, extinguishing the light. "Trigger Second Chance," I told Viperion. "We're going to need it."

"On it," he said as I heard him activate his secret power. I was a bit concerned with what he might see – and remember – if we were unsuccessful, for it was one of the more memorable scenes in the movie. Especially the screaming from the unfortunate souls who'd been trapped in the malfunctioning system.

Pegasus slid around me and took less than a moment to familiarize himself with the console. Multiple alarms were going off, and even an untrained eye could see the flashing red indicators all over the control panel – far too many for one person to deal with. It was easy to tell that a catastrophic error was in progress. "Can you do it?" I asked Pegasus over the growing din of electrical shorts and alarms.

"I need another moment," Pegasus said. "The math is a bit complicated."

Frantically I looked at the console as I sorted through every Transporter-related accident I could remember from the series. "Signal booster!" I had to shout, for the system itself had begun to whine loudly, reinforcing the fact that it was operating incorrectly. "What would it look like?"

Pausing for a moment with his own work at the controls, Pegasus looked at my side of the booth. "That!" Pegasus he said urgently, pointing to a dial with a gas tank like indicator.

I twisted the control as high as it went and looked up to see the shimmering of the beam itself become a little smoother. "That worked," I said before seeing another small display reading out a number that was falling fast. "I bought a little time," I continued, "but this number is going down, which can't be good." I leaned closer to see the label.

Pattern Stability.

"What is it at?" Pegasus asked before he started to mutter formulae while pressing buttons faster than he had a right to, given I was supposed to be the uber fan.

"Eighty-nine," I said. "Eighty-six."

"Engage the system again," Pegasus said. "Big red switch, turn it to the right."

I started to reach for it only to have Viperion appear out of nowhere.

"Let me," he said quickly.

Realizing we were in a Second Chance loop, I stepped back.

Viperion quickly pressed a flurry of commands into the console. "Beta over cosine of omega," he said to Pegasus. "Then take the derivative of the time-based decay over the transmission distance, accounting for our current orbital position."

"Holy—" Pegasus started before bending to his part of the console and entering another set of commands.

I looked up and through the window, and watched as the pattern of Ladybug continued to solidify. I didn't wait and dashed back down the steps and around to the edge of the Transporter platform itself. The high-pitched crystalline whine of the mechanics continued to change chords from something that sounded ill to the mellifluous sounds of a working system. In a final brilliant burst of blue energy, the beam vanished to reveal Ladybug standing there.

Leaping to her side, I caught her as she stumbled and slumped into my arms, unconscious.

Somehow, I managed to navigate us to Sickbay while carrying Ladybug through the corridors of the ship. The wild amazement of being aboard had receded now that I'd confirmed in the worst way imaginable that the possibility of any of us getting hurt was very, very real. A part of me was sad, but the hero in me knew it was time to get down to business.

I'd carefully placed Ladybug atop the biobed in the exam room, and the three of us were now watching readout on the massive screen just behind her. Fortunately, the space was just as automated as Doctor McCoy had decried; simply placing her insensate form on the transparent mattress had triggered a diagnostic routine, and the feminine voice of the ship's central computer had recommended a hypospray that had materialized on the table next to Carapace.

He frowned as he held the vaguely pen-like tool, for the computer had recognized him as the Chief Medical Officer, reinforcing my suspicion that we had all replaced key characters in the movie. "What is this, again?"

"It's a high-tech needle," I said. "Press it to her neck and it will deliver the exact dose the computer recommended."

Viperion looked as concerned as Carapace. "I don't like this," he said. "What if the akuma has changed this, too?"

My feline eyes shot to the snake bracelet on his wrist, which was chirping. "It's a feline," I said. "But we have one way to be sure."

"But—"

"Cap, let her sleep for a bit longer while I recharge 'Rion," I said as I tugged Viperion to the left double door that I knew led to McCoy's office. I was reasonably certain there was a replicator there, and I wasn't disappointed.

Pointing to the console, I said: "Tell that what you need for your kwami," I said before turning. "I'll step over here and keep my back to you so you can drop your transformation. When you're done, we can trigger Second Chance again. Just in case."

"Chat," he said as he snagged my arm. "You already know who I am."

"Do I?" I said, wearing my best confused expression. "I'll be right here."

As I turned my back, I heard Viperion drop his transformation and then quietly ask for something from the replicator. It hummed for a moment before I heard its tinnier version of the transporter effect. "Munching now," 'Rion said.

"Good." My masked feline eyes watched as one of the round monitors outside McCoy's office displayed some sort of cellular analysis. "How many times-?" I started to ask quietly.

"I lost track after fifty," came the soft reply. I heard him re-transform and turned once the flash had disappeared. "I… wish I'd not seen what could happen—"

I put my paws on his shoulders and looked at him carefully. "The important part is that, thanks in no small part to your efforts, it never did." I searched his masked eyes, knowing the boy beneath them cared deeply for Ladybug, too. "I know what she means to you."

He smiled a crooked smile that gave away his secret identity, if you knew what you were seeing. "Unrequited, it seems."

"She has a big heart," I observed. "I might be in first position, but that doesn't preclude her from having room for others in there."

Viperion smiled a bit more. "It's not quite the same," he said sadly.

I nodded slowly. "I know," I replied, having been in his very boots with Ladybug for what had felt like an eternity. "On the other hand, I think it's quite possible she keeps us around just to take the hits for her," I added with a wry smile, trying to lighten his mood.

It worked and he laughed. "You might be on to something there, Chat."

I smiled. "Come on, 'Rion. Let's go save her again."

We rejoined Carapace and Pegasus in the exam room only to find a smiling Ladybug sitting on the edge of the biobed. "I was in a Transporter?" she asked as the double doors sighed shut behind us.

"Yes," I said, looking to Carapace with an arched masked eyebrow. "I thought I said—"

"It's not my fault," he replied, looking guilty. "The computer kept after me until I gave her the dose."

"She can be very persuasive," Pegasus added with a nervous laugh. "I may have to adjust Markov."

"Ladybug could have—" Viperion started, his masked eyes flashing.

Thinking Viperion was going to tear the shell off of my best friend, I tactfully put myself between them. "'Rion," I said. "Stand down."

"But—"

"Stand down," I growled a bit. "This is exactly what Hawkmoth wants."

The snake themed hero nodded tightly.

"How do you feel?" I asked as I moved to the biobed and slid up beside Ladybug, wrapping her in a hug. "We were a bit worried."

"Like I've been pulled in a million directions."

"That's not far off," I said.

"Where are we?" she asked as she finally took in her surroundings.

I quickly sketched in what I thought had happened and was halfway through explaining what particular characters I suspected we were replacing when the communications panel whistled, followed by Rena's voice. "Chat?"

Pressing what looked like the obvious activation button with a claw, I said: "Rena? We're here with Ladybug."

"Good," she said, "but I've got something else. I'm starting to get the hang of this console, and unless I'm reading this wrong, I've got an incoming message again."

I looked to Ladybug. "Can you figure out how to send it down here?"

"Yeah, hang on – oh, damn – there?"

There was a click and then the very recognizable tones of Hawkmoth filled the small diagnostic room. "So, you managed to save Ladybug."

"Yes," I said, amazed at how he sounded like he was in stereo. "No thanks to you, I might add."

"Well… I can see that was a little too easy for you," he laughed, a cruel, cold affair. "Same deal applies: relinquish all of your Miraculous and I'll see you are returned to Paris unharmed."

"No deal," Ladybug said before looking at me.

"That's unfortunate, but not unexpected." Hawkmoth laughed again. "I'm becoming more and more a fan of this movie," he continued. "Let's see how you feel about the next challenge facing you."

And with that, the connection went dead.

Ladybug looked at me. "What does he mean?" she asked. "You know this movie inside and out."

Echoing what Pegasus had said earlier, I answered grimly: "It's not good." Then I smiled. "But the odds are better now that you're here."

"Flatterer," she laughed. "But seriously, what happens next?"

"The ship—" I started, then a wild idea popped into my feline brain.

Ladybug saw the change in my expression and the sly smile that had appeared. "What?" she prompted. "You suddenly look like you ate the canary."

"Maybe I did," I said thoughtfully. "We're inside a movie, right?"

"Yeah," Pegasus answered.

"And aside from a few minor changes, we're moved along nearly scene by scene."

"I'm not sure I'm following you." This was from Viperion, who was leaning against the far wall of translucent storage compartments. His folded arms belied his lingering anger.

"Ignoring our use of Second Chance, we've been moving forward through the story. Always forward," I emphasized, turning my feline eyes upon Ladybug. "We shouldn't play this game at Hawkmoth's pace."

"Time seems to be linear here, Chat," Pegasus reminded me. "It's not like you can skip to the end."

"Not the end," I smiled as I looked to Ladybug. "We need to get to the credits. That's when everyone leaves, right? When the movie is unequivocally finished."

"I should point out that you're the only one who sits through the credits," Cap reminded me.

"Humor me," I laughed, for I felt like I'd just unlocked our way out of the crazy situation we were in. "Milady?"

Slowly, Ladybug started to smile. "You know it doesn't always work that way, right?"

"I have faith, Milady," I smiled wider.

"All right," she said as she slipped off the bed. "Lucky Charm!" she cried, and the small exam room exploded in a burst of red and white light; a small square item resembling an old-fashioned floppy disk dropped into Ladybug's palm.

She arched a masked eyebrow at the polka-dotted wafer-thin item, then looked to me. "I hope this is what you were expecting."

I grinned. "It was. Come one, let's get back to the Bridge. We'll need Rena for the next part."