Midway Station, five minutes later; forty-five minutes to take-off.
The Pegasus gate on the Midway station activated just as Jonathan, Andrew and the Sikarian woman, Lianta, walked down the stairs and to the massive Gateroom. They stood at the bottom on the ramp with the Milky Way Gate behind them and welcomed the surprised Samantha and Naomi Wildman who spun around quickly as the Stargate shut down. They then looked around their surroundings while the six-foot-tall blue skilled Lianta walked up the ramp with a smile on her face.
"Welcome, Samantha Wildman, Naomi Wildman, to the Midway Station," she said as Naomi looked up and grinned while Samantha nodded her head before looking around once again. "I would like to introduce the both of you to Andrew Wells and Jonathan Levinson of Lantea."
"Hi," said Samantha in surprise, "so you're from… I mean the Captain just gave me a quick summary but… but you're from Earth?"
"Sunnydale, California," said Andrew motioning towards himself and Jonathan. "How about we show you guys around the place? The commanders of the stations over Lantea may say they have the best view, but the truth is that we're the ones with the best view of all."
"Come on," said Jonathan as he and Andrew accompanied the newcomers to the Mess Hall where the Federation citizens were awestruck by what they were seeing; on one side was the Milky Way, and on the other side was the Pegasus galaxy. Ensign Wildman simply stared at the beauty of the two galaxies while Naomi exclaimed that it was amazing.
"Ensign," said Lianta who was looked proudly at the Milky Way before turning towards Ensign Wildman, "it may take the fleet some time to complete their mission. In the meantime, we have some quarters ready for yourself and your daughter so that you may rest."
"Thank.. thank you," said Ensign Wildman while Andrew and Jonathan were hiding their excitement at speaking to the very same Ensign Wildman as on the television show. "But… but I'd like to.. I mean… is there a way to see how we're doing so far? I mean… the Captain said you have a listening post on the station and…"
"I am sorry but the listening post on the station is only open to authorised personnel given the sensitive nature of the sensors and scanners," said Lianta, "but we'll be giving you up to the minute updates. If that's acceptable."
"It is," said the Ensign while she held on to Naomi's hand tightly. Lianta, an empath, sensed worry emanating from the Ensign and sought to distract both her and her daughter. She asked for the Ensign's specialty, and was told that it was Xenobiology. Lianta seemed impressed before telling her that there were a combined team of Sikarians, Kobolians, and Asurans who were studying a recent discovery of a creature the size of a flea that fed on dark matter energy in the void. The Ensign told down at her daughter who nodded her head after Andrew offered to replicate a few Earth desserts while the Ensign was busy.
While the Ensign followed Lianta to the observation lab where the group was observing the creatures, Andrew began replicating some desserts while Naomi took a seat and watched the Milky way, and then looked behind her at Pegasus. Just as Andrew came back with a trayful of desserts from the energy-matter converter, Jonathan was already in the listening post focusing on the battles going on in the Milky Way.
Conference Room, Atlantis, at that same time.
Janeway was about to press her comm-badge and ask to be beamed back to Voyager when Dr. MacKay arrived in the conference room. It was only a matter of minutes ago that the Wildmans were beamed to the Conference Room from Voyager, and then Willow asked Daniel to brief them on where they were going, on the way to Stargate Operations. The Ensign looked at the Captain confused, and all the Starfleet officer could do was assure the Wildmans' that they were going to be safe and sound. It was then that Daniel ushered them out to the Operations room where they were briefed on where they were going, and how they were getting there.
Just before the Wildmans were beamed to the Conference Room, General Carter, Chakotay, and Tuvok left for the hologram room two levels down so that they could set up a realistic simulation. Back in the now, Mackay, who had a tablet in his hands, nodded at Janeway before giving her a double take. Janeway noticed the double take by the scientist and asked the man if he wanted to say something.
"Nothing, sorry," he replied while Willow looked away and smiled, "you just look like someone I know."
"Oh," replied the Captain while McKay was communicating with Willow mentally as he 'exclaimed' that they were actually talking to Captain Kathryn Janeway of 'Voyager'.
"Ahem," coughed Willow, "Dr. Rodney Mackay, this is Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager."
"Oh, hi," said the scientist shaking hands with the Captain. HE then turned to Willow and asked why she need to talk to him since he was still securing all his experiments.
"You know your assistants are doing that, Rodney," said Willow.
"I'm supervising," said Mackay as he pointed towards the lourved doors that had already closed.
"Well, they'll continue on without you. Listen, I need you to set our long range inter-galactic satellites so that we can send a message to Starfleet Command and…"
"What subspace frequencies do you use?" asked Mackay curtly as he turned to the Captain. She was surprised at his rudeness, and then looked back at Willow who frowned. The redhead told the Captain that Mackay had his peculiarities, but he was one of the most brilliant people she knew. The Captain however, didn't take to that explanation. What would have been an insubordinate attitude for her crew, had seemed to be more of a distraction for Willow… and it was that which was going through her mind as she said, in a joking manner, that things seemed to be too easy in the city.
"After you've been through everything we have," said General O'Neill who was standing next to Willow, "after you sacrifice everything we've sacrificed? Trust me, it's better to give our people some slack. They do get the job done."
"And I'm sure Rodney here has a way to use the Ancient long range satellite network to send a subspace message to…"
"Can't do it right now," said Mackay as he tapped on his laptop before Willow could finish saying what she wanted to say. He then looked up from the tablet, and handed it to Willow, "our satellite networks use a highly encrypted subspace frequency. Depending on the technology that Starfleet's using, it would take us anywhere from an hour to five hours before anyone could send a message."
Willow frowned and then handed the tablet to Mackay who then asked the Captain what frequencies, both secured and unsecured, were used by Starfleet for communication purposes. The Captain was hesitant in giving them any Starfleet communication frequencies or codes, and so she asked a question instead.
"Are you sure it'll take an hour at least?"
"A least," said Mackay.
"There's got to be something you could do to… you know… do your miracle stuff.. thing… you know the stuff you do when we were in a bind?" asked Willow, "I kinda did promise that we'd be able to send a message."
"You can send a message. It's just that one hour is the best I can give you, General," said Mackay. And from his voice, which had turned serious, Janeway knew that it was true. As did Willow and General O'Neil. Willow then apologized to Janeway, who looked as if her world was crashing around her at the thought of Earth being undefended, and at the thought of the armoured beings being unable to be affected by their phasers. She calculated in her mind the consequences of giving the Tau'ri the frequencies to the Starfleet communication protocols – meaning that the Tau'ri could very well find the location of every single Starfleet ship. She would, in other words, singlehandedly place the entire quadrant in danger.
"Are you absolutely sure?" asked Captain Janeway as she looked at Mackay, "it would take at least an hour?"
"At the minimum."
"We leave in forty-five minutes, Rodney," said Willow while a conflicted Janeway looked away.
"What's…"
"Captain," said Willow as she looked at Janeway, "I know something's wrong. I can sense your unease, and I can hear your thoughts…."
"You read my mind?" asked Janeway.
"No," Willow assured her, "that's one of our laws. Never intrude into another living mind without permission. It's what all our telepaths learn the very first day they learn the use of their powers. But it's hard not to miss out when you're thinking out really,, really loud."
"Oh," said the Captain.
"And we're not going to use your codes to check on the positions of your ships," said Willow, "we have absolutely no intention of attacking the Federation or its allies. And we have no intention of invading the Milky Way. I know you don't trust us because of who we are and this decision is completely up to you. But maybe we can find a way to help you.. maybe we could, based on the frequencies, finish what we need to do in less than an hour."
"But…"
"Rodney," said Willow as she arched at eyebrow at the scientist who then sighed and asked Janeway to input the frequencies. He told her that maybe he could perform some technological magic to send a message through.
"But no promises," he said as Janeway was handed the tablet. She stared at the space for inputting a range of frequencies, and thought back again to the fact that she was giving away the key to Starfleet's communication protocols. The Captain looked at the tablet, closed her eyes while shaking her head, and then gave the tablet back to Mackay while saying that she couldn't risk handing over Starfleet's communications codes to people she couldn't trust. "It's too much of a risk."
"Trust me, I wasn't kidding about needing at least an hour," said Mackay before turning back to Willow, "okay. Now, can I go? I mean is this the only reason I'm here or…"
Before Mackay could continue speaking, the lourved doors behind them opened again before Daniel and Teal'c walked in. The archaeologist then said "the Wildmans' are in Midway Station. Oh, and guess who dropped by?"
Vala rushed into the conference room behind Daniel and Teal'c, and headed straight for Willow who gave her a sad smile. With General O'Neill, next to the redhead, he watched the two women hug each other as Willow welcomed her back to Atlantis.
"I need to see her," said Vala as she stepped back and placed her hands on Willow's arms, "Willow, I need to see her."
Willow nodded her head as Daniel guided Vala to another screen while Teal'c told the redhead that the Jaffa Council authorised thirty Chulak class ships, the warships that replaced the Ha'tak class vessels, to join the alliance fleet, "they will be in orbit of Lantea within twenty minutes."
"Thanks," said Willow as Teal'c nodded his head respectfully before excusing himself. He said that he was returning to the homeworld of the Free Jaffa Nation so that he could ready himself for battle. The redhead nodded her head and watched as he walked off before turning to McKay and Janeway, who watched Teal'c leave before turning back to Willow. While Mackay was asking the redhead what exactly was going on, and the reason for the evacuation, Janeway looked over the redhead's shoulder at Vala staring stunned at the video of Adria from a few minutes ago. She saw the woman cover her mouth with her hands before Daniel placed an arm around her trembling shoulders.
Making a mental note to ask questions at a later time, preferably once they had saved Earth, Janeway turned her focus back to Willow and MacKay.
"We have a little problem," said Willow before McKay could say anything else. Willow, Janeway and McKay turned to the hologram as the redhead tapped on all of the engagement zones. The images then showed a Goa'uld fleet over Pluto, the Goa'uld ships over Vulcan, Deep Space Nine, and several other worlds. Upon seeing the ships, McKay's eyes went wide.
"The Goa'uld?" asked McKay.
"And the Ori," Willow said as McKay's jaw dropped, "Adria's still alive."
"Are you sure?" asked McKay.
"Yep," Willow said nodding at the gasp from Vala's mouth as she looked at her daughter. Willow and McKay looked at the woman, and then back at each other before the redhead said that Ba'al was back too, and that he placed Qetesh in Adria's body. "Ba'al has access to Goa'uld, and he already had access to Asgard technology after Anubis' downfall which is now augmented by Ori tech. He just devastated a planet, Rodney."
"How many people died?" asked McKay stunned.
"We don't know," Willow admitted, "we're guessing… maybe lowball estimates are at least a billion. What we do know is that they gave Earth an hour to surrender. And right now, we have about forty-five minutes… or less, to get to Earth and finish this war."
"Well," said McKay as he showed Willow his tablet while glancing at the Federation ships after tapping a few sections on the screen. He was surprised when Willow and Faith told him last night about the fact that Voyager itself was parked on one of the piers. He wasn't surprised about the existence of the Federation vessels since he was one of the first to see the scans of the earlier ships when the Tau'ri were placing satellites around the Sol system centuries ago. He then glanced at the Goa'uld ship that looked similar to the ship that Anubis once used to attack Earth and then turned back to the tablet in Willow's hands, "Atlantis has a full complement of drones. It should be enough to beat the shields, even if they are Ori enhanced."
"The Alliance will be taking no risks, Doc," said Willow as she returned the tablet to MacKay, "we're on a full war footing. An Alliance fleet of a hundred and fifty ships are on the way, we've mobilized the Slayers for the Kull Warriors attacking San Francisco and.."
"Wait, what?" asked McKay shaking his head, "the Stargates should be inoperative."
Willow tapped the hologram, of the Federation fleet over Earth, and then zoomed in on the planet the three of both of them watched the Kull warriors continuing to pour into the Presidio from the event horizon or the Stargate. McKay whispered to himself that it was impossible for the Stargates to work since he and General Carter worked on the Avenger Three virus that shut the entire network down. However, in the middle of his speech, MacKay stopped talking and frowned.
"The DHD's were used to conduct the correlative update which spread the virus," said McKay as he stared at the rippling event horizon as the Kull Warriors continued to arrive in twos, and were immediately attacked. It was about this time that Vala finished watching Adria finish her speech before she, Daniel, and General O'Neill turned and headed to Willow and McKay… Vala mentally telling Willow that they were getting Adria back alive, "but what if these Stargates weren't connected to their DHD's?"
"We know that Ba'al was trying to create his own network of Stargates after the System Lords fell," said Daniel, "but we stopped him. We got all his Stargates, didn't we?"
"I'm sorry," said Janeway as she raised her hand, "he's done this before? This Ba'al character?"
"Short story? Yes." General O'Neill said, "the long story? When we have more time."
"Agreed," said Janeway as she looked at the Kull Warriors coming through the Stargate. And she hoped she did the right thing. "But the people… I'm worried about innocent lives and…"
"Ba'al wants what every Goa'uld wants," said Vala as she stared at the still image of Adria on the screen at the other side of the hologram. She then turned to Janeway and, before she could say anything else, noticed the uniform. She hesitated for a second while looking on in surprise while Willow had to mentally tell her that the woman was really Voyager's captain. Shaking her head, Vala continued talking, "they want slaves. They want to be worshipped because they see themselves as gods. He and Qetesh won't harm the people unless they fight back. Like I said they want slaves and worshippers."
General O'Neill then interrupted by saying that they needed to take Ba'al and Adria alive if they were to ever find the location of the other Stargates… or at least if there were indeed other Stargates in addition to the one in the Presidio. And the one on the planet where the Kull Warriors were being sent from.
"First things first," said Willow looking away from the hologram to McKay, "I need to know how much power we need to use the wormhole drive, to place a subspace shell around all one hundred and fifty ships and…"
"Wormhole drive?" asked Janeway.
"Atlantis has a hyperdrive, and another method of faster than light travel using space folding technology that…"
"Oh my God," said Janeway, "we met a race that used space folding technology. But they had a limit of forty thousand light years. Are you saying we could head to Earth in one jump."
"It's risky, and needs a lot… and I mean a lot, of power," said Willow before turning to Mackay. "Rodney, do we have the power?"
"To get us to Earth?" asked McKay as he made the calculations on the tablet. He tapped the screen several times before transferring the finished data a few minutes later to the pedestal. The hologram changed to show the Milky Way and Pegasus galaxies, with the Midway Station in the middle of the void. Then a red line was drawn from Lantea all the way past Midway Station, to just outside the outer arms of the Milky Way galaxy.
"So we end up just outside the galaxy," said Daniel as he looked at the hologram, "not exactly where we need to be."
"Like Willow told Captain Janeway, the Wormhole drive uses a massive amount of power," said McKay motioning towards Willow, Janeway, and then at the hologram, "we'll be moving a huge number of ships, including Atlantis itself, to another region of space in one jump. And so, a lot of power is needed"
"How much power are we talking about?" asked General O'Neill.
"Our ZPM's will be at two percent," said McKay, "and that's dangerously low. When we first came to Atlantis, the power levels were only at one percent. And you know what happened after that."
As the Atlantis personnel spoke, Janeway listened as more and more questions started to swim in her head. The big question right now was, 'what's a ZPM? A power source?'
"The shield nearly collapsed and the city rose to the surface," said Willow as she looked at the hologram which zoomed into the projected location of where the fleet would complete it's jump. "So the big problem are the ships that're coming with us."
"Yep," said McKay.
"How long would it take for us to get to Earth from there?" asked Vala.
"More likely question is how long will we have shields?" asked Daniel.
"If we could have personnel in the power room with ZPM's ready," said McKay as he tapped in a few figures onto the tablet in his hands. He shook his head saying that the shield would need all three ZPM's to maintain itself. He explained that even if one was removed at that low of a power level, the shield would fail and all of them would have no atmosphere. "but, once we jump out, We could pull back the shielding to cover only Stargate Operations and the Gateroom. It would reduce power usage drastically and maybe… just maybe, mean we have shields for ten minutes."
"More than enough time for those in the power room, who by the way I suppose will be in environmental suits, to switch out the ZPM's one by one so that the rest of us in the city don't die." Willow then looked questioningly at MacKay to confirm her theory, and cracked a smile when MacKay nodded his head.
"We need a skeleton crew then," said the General as Willow looked at him and nodded her head, "leave only the essential personnel, especially the people in Stargate Operations. The Slayers, in case the Stargate doesn't disengage, can be beamed onto the ships heading for Earth."
"We can fit twenty people in Stargate Ops, and then activate a shield only in that area" said Willow, "then once the new ZPM's are inserted, we extend the shields and head into Hyperspace."
"It'll take ten minutes to get to Earth," said Mackay.
"So Atlantis, Voyager, and all of our Aurora-class ships; the Kobolians, the Free Jaffa Nation and the O'Neill class Asgard ships will head to Earth to take care of Ba'al's mothership," said Willow, "The Daedalus class ships will go along with some of the other vessels to the other engagement zones. I want Slayers on the Daedalus class ships too, just in case we have Kull Warriors on the other planets. General?"
"I'll take care of it," said General O'Neill as he and Willow nodded at each other, "think we can get everyone out of here in the next forty minutes?"
"We have to," Willow said looking at the hologram before turning to Mackay, "I want three cases of ZPM's on stand-by in the power-room. Just to be on the safe side."
"Got it," said Mackay.
"How about our short range comms?" asked Willow, "would those need to be…?"
"No," said MacKay, "just the long range communication satellites need to be modified to handle the Starfleet frequencies."
"Have someone on it, just in case," said Willow as MacKay nodded before rushing out of the room.
"Vala, I take it you'll be heading to the surface, or to Ba'al's ship?" asked Willow, "depending on Adria's location?"
"You bet."
"Suit up," said Willow as Vala nodded her head before turning to Daniel and General O'Neill. "All personnel on the front lines will have to have on the modified armour, and the Kull disruptor weapons. General, I know you retired, but…."
"Make sure everyone gets suited up?" asked General O'Neill.
"Yes, sir," said Willow with a smile as the older man patted her shoulder and then walked past while Janeway walked towards Vala and asked her about Adria; particularly if she knew her.
"She…. It's complicated," said Vala, "Adria's my daughter, a child of the Ori."
"You mentioned that name before, the Ori, who are they?"
"We'll explain everything later, Captain," said Willow as Janeway turned towards her, "all you need to know is that she is dangerous. Much more dangerous than Ba'al. The fact that she's under the control of a Goa'uld is amazing in at of itself. But the fact that she's alive means the galaxy is in danger."
"What do you mean by 'she's alive'? Should she be alive?"
"She died," said Vala as she looked back at the still image of her daughter, and then back at an astonished Janeway, "I should know. I killed her."
"And I finished the job," said Willow.
"Excuse me?" asked Janeway in surprise.
"We do have more pressing matters now though," said Daniel as Willow nodded her head.
"Everything else can wait. For right now?" said Willow looking back at the image of the Stargate in the Presidio, "let's get ready for one last battle."
Starfleet Command, two minutes later.
Laforge and Data were firing their phasers at the four armoured beings headed towards them and their unit. They were covering some engineers who were retrieving data on a prototype personal shield in one of the many secured buildings in Starfleet headquarters. The seven of them were firing from behind cover as the armoured beings continued to gain on them in the hallway. They heard the buzzing of shuttles outside the building as they continued to fire their phasers in the unpopulated areas of Starfleet Headquarters. From what Laforge was getting from Captain Picard on the Enterprise, the blasts weren't even able to faze the creatures. He confirmed as much when Data fired the Kull warriors from over Laforge's shoulder while he told Picard that one of the shuttles fired at the ground; but all it did was fling the armoured being backwards from the explosion. However, it still got up and started to fire at the shielded shuttle which continued to fire while the armoured beings avoided the shots easily.
That was only two minutes after the beings started to pour in just as shuttles were released from the Enterprise and the other ships in orbit to assist in repelling the invaders. More security personnel were also beamed in with phaser rifles before they took up covered positions to try and beat back the creatures.
So far, however, they were not successful – with Picard saying that the 'armoured beings' had left the confines of Starfleet Command and was now heading for San Francisco and Oakland. He added that the Federation Security Services had begun to try repelling the 'armoured beings' as well with Starfleet security officers. With the majority of the Admirals and the Federation Council having been evacuated to Paris, the Council was due to begin an emergency session on the next crucial step. Starfleet Command had witnessed the destruction of the ships over Andoria, Vulcan, and Tellar Prime… and knew that a larger force of their most powerful and agile sips was needed to even stand a chance of beating back Ba'al's ship.
"Captain Picard to the bridge, Captain Picard to the bridge," said the Lieutenant as Ensign Perim turned back towards her console and watched in stunned silence at the more than three hundred ships heading towards Pluto. And the ships were not Starfleet vessels; they were instead a combined Cardassian and Breen fleet that was twenty minutes away just as ten other pyramid shaped ships jumped in next to Ba'al's vessel. This was followed by twelve smaller ships, the design was the exact same as the one that appeared over Earth earlier that day.
The invasion fleet was getting ready to strike. And all Ensign Perim could do was helplessly watched as reinforcement where heading towards Earth at high warp; they would be in orbit over Earth in thirty minutes.
Back on the surface, Laforge knew that they were in a secured area, but the problem was that the armoured beings walked through any shields that were put up to slow them down. The smell of phaser fire was in the air as all of the Starfleet personnel continued to fire the directed energy weapons at full modulated power.
"Where's that shield!" yelled Laforge over his shoulder.
"Nearly there, sir," said one of the engineers, "I'll replicate a few for us before we have to beam up to the Enterprise to modify it."
"What do you mean 'modify it'?" demanded Laforge as he shot off a blast before taking cover from pulses of plasma that just missed his head.
"It's a prototype, sir," exclaimed one of the engineers shouting from the room, "the shield would eventually be able to give the user a three hundred and sixty degree coverage, but for the prototype, we only managed shielding for the front of the body. We have some… well… power issues."
"Great," said Laforge sarcastically.
"Geordie," said Data as he fired, "I believe the term is, 'we take what we can get'."
"I know," Laforge whispered, "we'll be facing these things anyway, but what we really need is something that can penetrate their armour."
He also hoped that the shield would at least be useful against the plasma bursts the armoured beings were firing at them. However, just as he thought about the plasma bursts, one hit an officer who was standing next to him. The young woman fell to the floor crying out in pain with a scorched plasma impact on her chest.
"Ensign!" said Laforge as the young woman looked at him before her cries of pained softened, and softened, until she just stared at him with empty eyes. Geordie looked away while firing his phaser while one of the other officers rushed out from under cover to grab her body and pull it back into the room where the engineers were still searching for the information on the personal force field.
"To all Starfleet officers," said Captain Picard as he stood alongside Riker, Admiral Paris, and two others, "modulate your phasers. The armour could work in a similar fashion to how the Borg adapts to our weapons. Since Ba'al somehow managed to gain access to our communication protocols, we believe that he also knows our weapons frequencies. So modulate your phasers, while we modulate the shield and weapons access codes on the Enterprise and the other ships in orbit."
Once the instructions came down from the Captain, the other officers continued to fire while Laforge and Data set their phasers to modulate between all available frequencies during each firing cycle. Once the others finished firing, Data and Laforge fired while the others set up the frequencies on their phasers. However, the beams didn't affect the beings who fired back. Everyone took cover in the hallway while the officers fired from cover as the beams modulated between one frequency and the next automatically with Data telling the Enterprise, that the frequencies weren't working.
"Captain, I suggest…." Laforge stopped when he noticed a bright white light behind the armoured beings. He looked on in stunned silence, as did the beings who turned back at the light opening a rippling red coloured rift in mid-air. Data took out his tricorder and scanned the rift from his area of cover and said that the device didn't recognize the energy signature. He said he wasn't getting any radiation signatures either. At the same time, the Captain's voice came over Laforge's commbadge asking if he was alright.
"Stand by, Captain," whispered Laforge just as a woman jumped out of the rift carrying what he swore was a red and silver curved blade at the end of a metallic staff; part of which was wrapped in cloth with sharp protrusions in the middle. And just below that, it seemed to end with a long-sharpened piece of wood.
However, it was what happened next the surprised him even more. The woman immediately stepped forward and kicked at one of the armoured beings. The kick knocked him into the second one before they fell onto the floor. The woman then swung the blade into the third creature's chest while ducking a blast of plasma fire. She then rolled behind the creature she stabbed and wrapped an arm around its neck using. She used the being as a shield to block the incoming plasma fire, while using her other hand to rip the scythe from it's chest.
The being she was holding onto was struggling while getting blasted from the other Kull Warrior as blood poured down the armour, and onto the floor. Josie smiled and threw the scythe towards the Warrior blasting her 'shield'. The blade cut through the air before slicing into the Warrior's head, and it dropped dead. Josie then reached around with her arms, and broke her 'shields' neck. While the body fell onto the floor, Josie saw the other two getting up to their feet. She ran to the scythe, removed it from the head of the fourth armoured being, and then leapt while swinging the blade. She beheaded the Kull warrior just as it fired a shot.. the blast hit the other side of the hallway leaving behind a scorch mark on the wall. Upon landing, her legs were alongside the head of the second warrior. She jerked her lower body and cracked its neck.
She then looked at the stunned Starfleet officers while picking up the bloody scythe, "I was just looking for the ladies' powder room. Let me guess, this isn't it."
"Who are you?" asked Laforge just as the engineers walked out with the prototypes and found that the battle was over. They saw the young woman standing with the bloody scythe as Laforge asked her how it was that she got into Starfleet Command.
"Oh… yeah, about that. You wouldn't believe me if I told you… trust me." The woman said before she introduced herself as Josie Charney.
"She's human, Geordie," said Data as he scanned Josie with his tricorder, "no genetic enhancements."
"No, that…."
"Oh," said Josie with her eyes wide open at Data while interrupting Laforge, "you're…. oh… oh… the famous Data, aren't you? The Android."
"Yes," replied Data as Josie grinned and walked around him while Laforge was examining her with the tricorder, and then the area of the rift. He then closed the device after staring at it with a perplexed look and turned to Josie, "Miss, please tell us how you were able to arrive here through a rift, and how was it that you were able to…."
"You mean the strength?" asked Josie.
"Yes," said Data and Laforge together.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," said Josie before she turned at more footsteps coming towards them. Josie then turned to the officers and asked them to get out of there. "I saw the news reports, phasers don't work against these things."
"But a… a.. medieval weapon does?" asked Laforge.
"Don't knock the old ways," said Josie before she glanced at the shadow at the end of the hallway. She then looked around and back to the officers before telling them to be beamed out of the area. It was then that Captain Picard contacted Laforge again to say that they were getting reports from all over the city that the modulated phaser frequencies were having a limited effect, but it wasn't stopping the Warriors.
"Captain," said Laforge as Josie raised her weapon at the shadows heading their way, "did the Enterprise sensors show a rift forming three meters away from my present location a minute ago?"
"No," said the Captain after Lt. Daniels shook his head, "have you found the prototype?"
"Yes, sir," said Laforge as he stared at Josie who looked as if she was tensed for another fight, "but… well… I'll explain everything to you. I need a beam-out for eight people, including one civilian."
"Civilian?" asked the Captain confused as Riker asked if he knew who the Civilian was.
"A woman named Josie Charney," said Laforge as Josie looked back and said that she wasn't going anywhere, that if she left.. then the other people in the building would be in danger.
"Check for a Josie Charney on the Federation database," said Riker while, back on the surface, Data was telling Josie that while she seemed to have unexplainable strength, she could not be able to handle the armoured beings on their own.
"But it gives you guys enough time to find a way to beat these things," said Josie, "this is what I do. Go, I'll try and kill as many of these as I can."
"Miss, I need you to come with me and…" Everyone ducked and returned to cover as three Kull Warriors fired at them from the end of the hallway. Josie peeked out from cover behind a piece of debris and threw her Scythe into the chest of the lead Kull Warrior. The armoured being stepped back and fell of one knee while the other two looked at him, and then back up while raising their arms at Josie and the officers. Taking the momentary lull as the Kull warriors raised their arms to fire their weapons, Josie rushed out of her cover while Laforge called out for her. Everything appeared to her in slow motion as she ducked the plasma blasts, one after another as she ran toward a wall. She ran on the wall for three steps, her stride closing the gap between her and the Kull Warriors while phaser beams hit the Warriors and distracted them. Using the distraction, Josie saw one of the Warriors aim its weapons at the Starfleet officer while the other one shot at her. Knowing that she'd be unable to avoid the shots heading for her from her current position, on her third step on the wall, Josie propelled herself over the beams of energy and landed on the floor. She then rolled to the scythe and rolled forward before eviscerating the Kull warrior that had been shooting at here.
Hearing Laforge telling the others to hold fire, Josie slammed her fist into the Warrior's abdomen, pushing it back, and then swinging the Scythe into the side of its head a blood spattered onto the walls. She screamed and then pushed the scythe clean through the neck. The head rolled off and fell onto the floor, with the body following suit. Panting, Josie turned and rushed back to the Starfleet officers, "see? You guys have to find a way to beat these things. I can save as many people as possible."
"We still need to talk," said Geordie, "I'm sure the Captain would want Dr. Crusher to see you and…"
"Believe me, this isn't anything medical or scientific," said Josie, "there are some things that exist outside of science. And I'm one of them."
"That's not possible," said Laforge.
"Maybe it's time you opened your mind," chuckled Josie before she turned.
"You will require a comm-badge and one of these prototype personal force fields," said Data as he walked towards Josie while Laforge was asking him why he was giving away his badge, and one of the prototypes.
"It is logical to assume that more people will die if we do not modify the personal force field within the next thirty minutes, Geordie," said Data as he placed his comm-badge into her hands, "while I am curious as to how she is able to perform these feats without genetic manipulation, she has shown to be able to handle these beings. And the transporters have been slow in evacuating people off the Starfleet Command complex. If she can hold back even a small percentage of the forces invading us, we can save a large number of people."
"Data…"
"I have done the calculations, Geordie," said Data as he looked back at Laforge, "this is the best way to save as many people as possible." Data then looked back at the young woman as she placed the badge on her shirt. He then placed the personal shield emitter on her arm and pressed a few buttons. One of the engineers told Josie to press the red button to enable the force field while he told her about the limitations. Including the fact that the shield would have to be recharged… however he wasn't sure how many hits it could take before it failed.
"You would have to find cover and listen to the audio cues from the computer," said one of the engineers, "it'll tell you when you can activate it again."
"Sweet," said Josie nodding her head before looking at the device. "I'll need a way to get to the hotspots though."
"Once we have beamed into the Enterprise, I will contact you through the comm-badge," said Data, "we will ensure that there is a sensor lock on you. If you need us to beam you out, then all you have to do is press the badge and contact the Enterprise."
"Thanks," Josie said looking at Data as the other officers and engineers picked up their injured and dead, " say, after this is over… I'm sure that my students would love to meet the famous Data from the equally famous Enterprise."
"I will have to clear the offer with Captain Picard," said Data as he looked quizzingly at Josie.
"Wait, did you just say students?" asked Laforge, "you're a teacher?"
"Sunnydale High," answered Josie before she smiled and walked away from them, "we're depending on you guys. Save us again, would ya? I'll hold the fort in the meantime."
"Enterprise," said a stunned Laforge as he pressed his Comm-badge, "seven to beam up."
Ba'al's ship, orbit of Pluto.
Adria walked into her chamber behind the curtain in the bridge of the ship. She saw Ba'al standing over their prisoner… the very one who had been forced to give them the access codes to Starfleet and the Federation's communication Protocols.
Captain Edward Jellico of the USS Cairo. His misfortune was to examine a series of subspace bursts from a planet twenty light years away from the Cardassian Demilitarized zone. Once in orbit of the planet, he was beamed to the surface with an away team. And that was the last anyone heard from them; the Cairo was destroyed by a mysterious ship that decloaked, and then cloaked again.
The man watched his away team be tortured. However, no one gave away any information. At least until Adria appeared in the torture chamber. The Captain watched the woman mentally break each of his crew with a glee that not even the Cardassians were capable of. Once of the crew was in so much pain that he screamed at her saying that Jellico would know everything.
However, that didn't save that young man, nor any of the other members of the away team. Adria mentally broke their necks before walking towards him. She said that she and her consort knew what was happening, and that it was time for her people to rise again… to reclaim their empire. The Captain withstood one mental assault after another… but he couldn't hold out. The man broke.
"My love," said Adria in her gravelly voice, indicating that Qetesh was in control.
"My queen," said Ba'al as he turned and glanced at Adria who was grinning maniacally at the Captain who was lying in a torn uniform, shivering on the floor with his eyes wide open in terror, "Starfleet is in a panic. We know that they would never surrender, but…"
"Then we must attack," said Adria staring at the Captain.
"They were given an hour my queen," said Ba'al, "I would prefer they surrender willingly, but if they do not. If they still intend to fight… then we will destroy their ships and technology while you beam down to where their leaders gather. We will kill them all, and then we'll be rulers of Earth. And when the Tau'ri arrive, they will py the price for what they have done to our empire."
"Very well," said Adria as she smiled and tilted her head at the Captain, "show me everything. Where your leaders meet. Any emergency plans…. I want everything you have."
"N…. no…" whispered the Captain who was trying to block the woman. He then gasped as he turned and arched his back while lying on his side. HE screamed out in pain as Adria forced herself into his mind and retried the knowledge she was looking for. Even though she found what they wanted, Adria/Qetesh, continued to probe deeper into his mind… and the screamed started to get louder and louder.
"Qetesh," said Ba'al. Adria stopped and looked at Ba'al with a smile. "if you want to kill him, kill him while I'm not here."
"No…" whispered the Captain.
"But do leave behind the body intact," said Ba'al as she turned and prepared to leave, "you can crush his organs one by one if you want, but I want to return the body to the humans to show that we can be merciful gods. We can help bring closure to this man's family."
"Oh yes," smiled Adria as the Captains screams increased while Ba'al walked out of the room. He heard the screams get louder and louder while Adria was screaming at him to give her everything he had. And then, just like that, the screams were snuffed out. And the bridge of Ba'al's ship was silent once again.
'Now to make certain the back-up doomsday weapon is ready,' thought Ba'al, 'if the humans launch a large resistance, then I don't need the humans on Earth. They will be punished. I just need the planet, and I'll have the entire galaxy bow down to me.'
TBC.