Paint and Powder
A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
Picard sucks. Let's keep fixing it with shipgirls!
Usually, Enterprise's reaction to Sela would be to just disable her starship and then laugh at her for a while. Unfortunately, Sela had the perfect counterargument:
"Do what I say or I'll give away your position to the entire Federation."
Enterprise hated being outmaneuvered by Tasha's punk daughter. But she had a point. And Captain Thane was interested in what the Romulan admiral had in mind.
So they followed her warbird to a few asteroids near the remnants of Romulus' primary. Though her sensors were obscured, Enterprise could at least resolve enough data to make out an orbital outpost of some sort-Romulan in design, obviously.
"So, is there a point to this?" Enterprise asked, "or should I just arm the quantum torpedoes now?"
"Of all the times for you to actually be suspicious," Sela grumbled over the comm link. "Now, I'm giving you transporter coordinates. You both can beam down and-"
"Why?" Thane asked. Sela sighed.
"Did the fact that we have a common enemy escape you two?" She demanded.
"You haven't proven that we do, yet," Thane stated. "You've just yelled a lot and been insulting."
"That's basically Sela," Enterprise contributed. Sela sighed deeply.
"You think you're so clever," Sela growled, "I could have just destroyed you both, you know! Just beam down!"
"Uh huh?" Enterprise asked. "Sure thing, I'll get right on it."
Sela very nearly rolled her eyes. But instead, she sent a transmission to the asteroid. And a transmission came back. Enterprise's eyes widened in disbelief. She checked it over, analyzing it over a billion times before she was satisfied.
"I believe that is a Starfleet authorization code. Alpha Ultraviolet level," Sela stated smugly. "Only accessible to high ranking officers."
"Uh huh," Enterprise deadpanned, "tell me another one."
"Listen," Sela said angrily, "I'm losing my patience. Beam down and hear me out, or I'll tell everyone in the Federation where you are! It's that simple!"
Enterprise paused, considering her options several million times. She didn't like them.
"Give us a moment," Enterprise stated. She switched to a private channel with Thane.
"Well?" She asked. Thane shook her head.
"You're the fugitive. Why are you asking me?"
Enterprise laughed.
"I like you," she said sincerely. It felt good to laugh. The captain smiled back, looking a bit shy. It was adorable on the hardened Andorian warrior.
"But the fact of the matter is that, whatever Sela wants, she's willing to show her secret base to us," Enterprise continued, "and she has the Alpha Ultraviolet code. It's a puzzle... And we need to figure out what it is."
The Andorian captain raised her eyebrows and antenna in some disbelief.
"Again, I would like to point out that you are a fugitive from the Federation," Thane stated, "and I am obligated to take you into custody."
"Fine then," Enterprise said, "you can take me into custody after I figure this out."
"Alone?" Thane asked. Enterprise shrugged.
"You're not going to beam down," she stated, "if she takes me over, you need to destroy me."
Thane's jaw dropped.
"You can't be serious!"
"I am serious," Enterprise replied, her voice hard. She shrugged. "After all, as you said: I'm the fugitive. And if something goes wrong?" She smiled.
"Just blow everything up."
"Then I hope this goes well," Thane stated, "because I really don't want to be known as the captain who destroyed the Enterprise."
"Not without captaining me first, anyway," Enterprise replied glibly. It kept her from showing any potential fear. Which she was certainly experiencing right now.
She beamed down her holographic avatar to the coordinates. It was typical utilitarian Romulan design-Spartan, metal, and drab. A few banners with the Romulan raptor decorated the hallways. Sela was waiting for her in person, looking impatient and unhappy.
But then she almost always looked that way.
"No security team waiting to hack me?" Enterprise asked blithely, "or is that next on the agenda?"
Sela sighed heavily.
"I see I'm going to have dispense with subtlety," Sela stated.
"Have you ever actually used it before?" Enterprise shot back. Sela scowled.
"I don't have time for this. You don't have time for this. I'm going to make it simple: Admiral Oh is a member of a splinter group of the Tal Shiar, called the Zhat Vash. She is a general in the Romulan Tal Shiar. She is also part of a Romulan cult, that seeks the destruction of synthetic life and to dominate the galaxy."
Enterprise stared in disbelief.
"That's simple?!" Enterprise demanded.
"There's more," Sela stated, "she's going to expose a synthetic dominated planet. Once created by two of your scientists, one of them Bruce Maddox. This world is in the Neutral Zone. But more than that, it's a trap. Luring Picard with promises of finding Data or his synthetic family." Sela stood up straight. "When Picard is killed there, Oh will frame the synthetics. She will lead a crusade to annex the Neutral Zone and destroy the synthetics and their Romulan backers."
Sela snorted.
"Including me. She will thus have total control over both your Federation, and what's left of my people. You have the chance to stop her. Save your Federation, save your captain, and save my people."
Enterprise blinked slowly. She then held up her hands, and slow clapped. It echoed mockingly in the wide metal corridors.
"I have to admit," Enterprise said, "that's a new one. That's a plot so convoluted, it's Romulan squared. You really expect me to believe any of that?"
"Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant," Sela stated, "it's what's going to happen. In forty eight hours, your captain will be dead and the Federation will be used by my rival to destroy any opposition to her takeover. My motives should be clear-"
"Right, you don't want her to rule over the Romulans, you want to," Enterprise said mockingly. "How did she accomplish her takeover?"
"Telepaths," Sela said, "the Zhat Vash have access to ancient Vulcan techniques and chemicals to allow them to reactivate their latent talents. It is costly to them, physically and mentally. But it works, and it would allow them to twist the minds of key Federation and Starfleet personnel. All to her ambitions."
"Betazoids would have picked it up. Vulcans would have!" Enterprise insisted. Sela shook her head.
"Not enough would," Sela stated, "and not enough did."
Enterprise huffed.
"Do you have any proof?" She demanded.
"This situation isn't enough?" Sela shot back. "Why would I expose my secret base to you?"
"And why me?" Enterprise asked. Sela shook her head.
"You presented me with an opportunity," she stated, "one I couldn't pass up. I was preparing for a defense, but you? You helping me? It's a delicious irony... And I knew it would irritate you immensely."
Enterprise narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms under her breasts.
"That I can believe," Enterprise stated, "but nothing else. See, there's a problem when you lie and deceive constantly: Nobody will believe you."
Sela scowled, about to open her mouth to release some new tirade. She was interrupted, however, by another familiar voice. This one though was so shocking that Enterprise's jaw fell as the speaker walked up the hallway.
"Then perhaps this will prove more convincing, under the circumstances," the man spoke, as he emerged into the light.
He was one point eight meters tall. His skin was alabaster white but textured like the real thing. His hair was brown and neatly coiffed, exposing his high forehead. His intelligent yellow eyes studied her intently. He stopped only a few meters away, in his gray shouldered Starfleet uniform with an amber collar.
Enterprise had had her tricorder on scan from the moment she'd arrived, and used her link back to her hull to confirm her findings. She checked them again, and again, thousands of times. Against every record she had.
In the blink of an eye, every scan told her the same thing. That this was a male Soong-type android, with a positronic brain. Its physical body was 61 years old, while its head was 476 years older. It showed extensive repairs to its structure made with Romulan derived materials and technologies that closely mimicked Federation techniques.
His existence was supposed to be impossible. She saw him die.
And yet...
"Data?" Enterprise whispered.
Data nodded.
"In the flesh, so to speak."
Here we go...