CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ship's log, Stardate 51842.7:
After running surveillance on two Jem'Hadar warships, they and two others engaged us when we scanned a Cardassian freighter with which the Jem'Hadar rendezvoused. Commendations for all aboard; they performed...
Apollo allowed himself a little smirk as he realized the word he was going to use.
...admirably. I have often been exposed to situations where crews had just been put together, and served aboard a new ship. I have never ceased to be impressed by the way these crews have come through with flying colors, nor do I ever hope to. The Highlander suffered only light damage, despite the reputation of the Jem'Hadar weapons; must have been because of the new shields Admiral Nechayev spoke of. I am now leading an away team to the crippled Cardassian ship to see if we can discover anything about their mission in this sector.
Six columns of light shimmered into existence aboard the Cardassian ship, then coalesced into Apollo, Kellara, two medical technicians and two security officers. Apollo and Kellara both had tricorders out, while security fanned out with their phaser compression rifles. Kellara noticed that Apollo didn't have a phaser on him, yet there was an odd cylinder hanging from his equipment belt where a phaser holster would be. At the time, she didn't comment on it. "Admiral," she said, "the best place to start would be the cargo bay."
He nodded. "I agree, though we should check toward the bridge, too." He looked at his readings and frowned. "There's no life signs anywhere forward of us."
Kellara wore a similar look. "The readings we received aboard the ship confirm what I'm getting; organic residue and DNA traces in the cargo bay."
"Very well. We'll head that way. Tompkins, take the point. Williamson, cover our backs." As both security officers confirmed his orders and took up their positions, they slowly made their way aft. In some areas, it was completely dark, as power conduits had ruptured and there was nothing running the lights. In one particular spot further aft, where there was power, the hull had been breached, which would have exposed the interior of the ship to space if automatic forcefields hadn't kicked in. As Apollo moved by the gaping hole, he saw the Highlander framed by the opening. He took a second to admire her lines, then moved on.
Once they were in the cargo bay, the three medical people covered the entire area with their tricorders, taking preliminary scans. Once that was done, they moved to random areas of the bay, taking samples. Kellara's hooves echoed in the bay as she clopped around.
The moment they had entered the bay, Apollo sensed that something wasn't right. Now he was getting that familiar tingling. He remembered as a boy reading a comic book about a superhero who had a similar ability. Since that memory became clear, he muttered a line he always read the hero using.
"Spider-sense tingling. Stand ready, guys."
Suddenly, from what seemed to be out of nowhere, four Jem'Hadar soldiers came into view and drew their swords. Tompkins was caught off guard, and the Jem'Hadar closest to him drove his blade deep into Tompkins chest. He fell and didn't rise again.
Williamson was almost caught napping, too. But he was far enough away from the soldiers where he could defend himself as soon as he spotted them. He pushed back his opponent with his foot and then shot both that soldier and one that killed Tompkins. Kellara reared back and attempted to kick one of them with her front hooves.
The fourth soldier went straight for Apollo. Just as he reached him, a fifth appeared. "No," he shouted, "the leader is mine!" But the fourth soldier wasn't listening, the lust for battle coursing through him. Apollo took a defensive stance and beckoned his opponent forward. The soldier obliged, weapon raised to strike.
Kellara had dispatched her foe, and was watching Apollo. She was about to yell a warning to him, but what she saw caused her voice to catch. The cylinder was suddenly in Apollo's hand; she was sure she didn't see him reach for it, so much as it leapt into his grip. Then he ignited the sword, and a bright sapphire beam extended out. Apollo caught the Jem'Hadar's sword with his, cutting through it with a shower of sparks and no other effort at all. The Jem'Hadar looked at his blade for a moment, then charged again toward the admiral. Apollo brought his sword up to block, and the soldier reached to grab it.
The Jem'Hadar quickly realized he made a mistake when his hand closed around the beam and he burned his fingers off. The soldier howled, but was cut short when Apollo backhanded him, sending him flying into a nearby bulkhead. He then turned his blazing eyes on who seemed to be the Jem'Hadar leader, who was now clearly having second thoughts about claiming Apollo as his opponent.
Kellara walked up carefully behind Apollo, stopping a couple of paces away. "Admiral, what..."
She was interrupted by the Jem'Hadar, who beat her to the question. "What manner of weapon is that?"
"This?" Apollo said, gesturing with the weapon. "This is a little something I picked up while searching through the ruins of an ancient civilization. It's called a lightsaber. Quite effective, actually. I prefer it to a phaser. Now," he advanced on the soldier, who would have stood his ground, except he saw what had happened to the other soldier's hand, and he glanced at his unconscious comrade. He backed up until he was against the bulkhead next to the door. He could hear the hum of the blade as Apollo brought it very close to him. "Are you going to tell me what was in this freighter and where it was coming from, or do I have to start lopping off body parts?"
The soldier defiantly stared into the lights of Apollo's eyes. "I am not afraid to die."
"Admiral, you wouldn't!" Kellara choked.
Apollo seemed to consider her plea. "You're right, I wouldn't." Just as the Jem'Hadar relaxed, Apollo flicked his saber in front of the soldier in a precise move that cut through the tube that supplied the soldier with ketrecel white. The look of shock on the soldier's face was plain. "Oops. How careless of me," the admiral said sarcastically.
The Jem'Hadar fell to his knees, watching as what may as well have been his lifeblood flowed out of the severed tube and onto the floor.
Kellara's people, true to their training, and recognizing no threat to them anymore, finished their tasks. "Doctor," a small lieutenant named Fischer called out, "we're finished collecting samples. Found something odd, too."
"Oh?" Kellara met her people on their way towards her.
"Yes. We found human DNA."
"This ship could have had Starfleet prisoners, right?"
"Well, yes, ma'am, but it's rare to find a ship with only one human on board."
Kellara's interest was definitely piqued. "Only one person? Are you sure? May I see it?"
At that moment, Apollo's sense triggered again, though it seemed... different, somehow; it wasn't warning him of danger, as he was in danger from the moment he entered the cargo bay, but it did seem like it was trying to tell him... something. He turned to briefly ask Kellara a question, but didn't get the chance. The Jem'Hadar, already starting to suffer the effects of the loss of his life-sustaining drug, roared savagely and pounced. He slammed into Apollo. The lightsaber was knocked loose from Apollo's hand, deactivating it, and it skittered across the floor, coming to a rest against the wall.
Apollo was far from defenseless, though. He immediately backpedaled, adding momentum to the Jem'Hadar's advance. He then dropped to the floor, pushing up and back with his feet, lifting his opponent off the ground and using that momentum to send the Jem'Hadar soaring through the air to crash into some of the storage bins in the cargo bay. The Jem'Hadar quickly got to his feet, but it wasn't fast enough. In a blur, Apollo was on him, and this time there was no mistaking the fact that the lightsaber sailed from its resting spot, through the air, to be snagged by the admiral. Apollo brought the saber to bear, crashed the Jem'Hadar into the far wall, and sunk the reactivated weapon into his gut. The end of the saber exited out the back of the soldier, and plunged into the wall. Apollo brought his knee up to hold the Jem'Hadar in place.
Putting his face a scant inch from the Jem'Hadar's, and raking his illuminated gaze over the dying man's features, he hissed, "Where did this freighter come from? Where did it pick up a lone human?"
The Jem'Hadar simply looked at Apollo, and managed to rasp, "I shall die, with the small victory of denying you that information."
Apollo bored into the Jem'Hadar with his glare, almost as if willing the soldier to live long enough to give him the information he needed. But his opponent exhaled his last breath in a ragged wheeze. The admiral's eyes narrowed to slits and his mouth stretched in a grim line. Then, in a move that shocked the other members of his away team, he removed his knee, allowing the Jem'Hadar to slide down the bulkhead. The lightsaber, remaining where it was, cleaved the corpse from abdomen to collarbone, exiting out the left shoulder. "So be it," Apollo said quietly, and deactivated his saber with a hiss. Clipping his weapon to his belt, he turned and headed toward the cargo bay's exit.
Dr. Kellara was shifting her weight from one side to the other, nervously making scuffling noises with her hooves. Finally, she was able to rip her gaze from the half-bisected body and look at Apollo. "Sir, where are you going, now?"
Apollo stopped before walking through the open doorway, and turned to face her. He pointed at his opponent. "He wasn't keeping anything from us. Just making it more difficult for us to get the information we want. The computer will have all the necessary details we need."
"Assuming, sir, that they haven't wiped that information from the computer," Williamson said.
Apollo gazed at the security guard for a moment, then the corners of his mouth upturned. "Very astute, Lieutenant. Let's just hope we find what we're looking for. You're with me. Doctor, I'm not sure we'll need your skills here anymore, but if you'd like, you may leave one of your people behind, or stay behind yourself. Either way, have two people bring Tompkins' body back to the Highlander. Let's go." Apollo led Williamson through the corridor while they prepared Tompkins for his return to the ship.
Going through the corridor, it was quiet as they passed through the unpowered section. Behind him, Apollo heard the telltale whine of a transporter beam; then he heard the even more distinctive footfalls that told him that Kellara had opted to stay behind. He continued toward the front of the ship without looking back.
By the time they reached the Bridge, the doctor had caught up with them. She swept the room with her medical tricorder, to get a second set of readings to confirm the first set they took when they arrived aboard. At his questioning look she shook her head solemnly. He slowly nodded once and headed in.
The Bridge was a mess. The freighter apparently wasn't meant to take as much punishment as Apollo thought it was. Consoles had blown wide open. Chairs had literally been ripped from the floor. At one point, their inertial dampening field must have failed, because one hapless Cardassian caught unawares was nothing more than chunky salsa decorating a wall. The three of them combed the bridge. After a short while, it was clear that they wouldn't find anything functional there, so they left the bridge and headed aft again. After consulting with the ship's layout on Apollo's tricorder, they found the engineering section. It wasn't in any better condition than the bridge; in fact, one look at the warp core told Apollo that they'd better step up their efforts.
"Admiral! Over here!" Williamson called out from the other side of Engineering. He really didn't have to call out; the room wasn't that big, and the warp core and computer stations took up most of the room. Apollo made his way under fallen conduits and over bodies to reach Williamson. Kellara had wisely stayed out of Engineering; the clutter could too easily cause her to trip up.
When Apollo reached Williamson's position, he saw a still-working console. "Good work, Lieutenant," he said, resting a hand on his shoulder in praise. He experimentally tapped a few controls to test the function of the panel. Satisfied with his results, he set to work searching for the information he needed.
After about half an hour, Apollo muttered, "Eureka." The screen came to life with the ship's log and navigation records. As he downloaded everything into his tricorder, he heard an ominous groan come from somewhere within Engineering.
"Um, Admiral, will it take too much longer?" Kellara asked. The tension in her voice stated the need for urgency.
"Almost done," Apollo replied. "Why don't you and Williamson head back now. I shouldn't be too far behind you."
Williamson nodded and went to leave. As he did, another groan was heard. The conduit Apollo had just previously walked under gave way and fell the rest of the way down. Unfortunately, Williamson was under it at the time. "Admiral!!" Kellara yelled.
Apollo's head whipped around to see what happened. He looked at the tricorder a moment, then set it down on top of the console to complete its download. Turning and leaping over debris, he quickly reached Williamson. "Lieutenant! Are you all right?"
"I... I think so, sir. I'm trapped here, though," he groaned. Apollo attempted to move the conduit, but it began to buckle under its own weight.
Apollo growled under his breath. "Doctor, I could use your help here."
She hesitated. "But sir, I don't think I can..."
"Move it, Doctor!! Or we're all dead!" His eyes glared intensely at her.
His tone seemed to galvanize her into action. She made her way carefully into Engineering and came up on the other side of the conduit. "Sir, what do you want me to do?"
Without releasing his grip, he gestured with his head. "Grab that other end of conduit so it doesn't fall on us while I'm taking him out."
They both grunted and strained audibly, and together they moved the conduit. Unfortunately this further destabilized the ceiling, and more debris rained down. As if to make matters worse, Apollo's combadge chirped. He slapped it. "Racer here!" he shouted to be heard over the loud crashes in the background.
"Admiral," came Circe's voice over the badge, "we're reading a buildup to a warp core breach. You need to get out of there NOW!"
He rolled his eyes to the ceiling. As if that wasn't what we were trying to do. "Look, Commander, hold your horses. We're getting out as fast as we can. We just sustained another injured party. Rest assured we will be out of here in time. Just have the transporters standing by. Racer out." As the connection closed, he looked at Kellara. "No offense, Doctor, about that statement."
She smiled. "None taken."
They managed to get Williamson to his feet, at which point he immediately cried out in pain. Glancing at Williamson, to Kellara, and back to Williamson, he made a split decision. "Again, my pardons, Doctor." He unceremoniously picked up the security guard and slapped him onto Kellara's back. She grunted more in surprise than in protest, but she held firm. "Get him out of here!" He snapped, though he resisted the urge to slap her on the rear to get her going.
Kellara made it out the door, with Apollo right beside her, when she turned and said, "Admiral, the tricorder."
"We don't have time, Doc..."
"Use whatever you used to bring your weapon to your hand."
He looked at her, then to where the tricorder rested on the console. He started to go back in, but more ceiling collapsing in convinced him not to. The ship was also very obviously shaking itself apart. Using his enhanced vision, he focused on his instrument, which told him the download was complete. Giving it no further thought, Apollo snapped his arm out toward the tricorder. It jumped off the console, and was deflected by a piece of falling debris. Though it remained in midair, Apollo winced at the impact, wondering if the tricorder was damaged in any way. Then he concentrated again, and the tricorder sped through the room to slap firmly into his hand. He then used his other hand to slap his badge again. The explosions coming from Engineering and other parts of the ship caused him to really raise his voice. "Highlander!!! Three to beam up... NOW!!!" They vanished in shimmering pillars of light.
Reappearing in the transporter room, and keeping his combadge frequency open, he said, "Bridge, get us away from this ship immediately!" They disappeared through the doors, Kellara to sickbay with her patient, Apollo to the bridge.
The Highlander pointed itself away from the freighter, as explosions dotted its surface, and shot into warp as the Cardassian ship was engulfed in a fireball. Apollo entered the bridge, heading for his chair, while Circe vacated it. "I'm assuming that since we're still here, we made it safely from the ship before it exploded."
"You have a knack for stating the obvious, Admiral," Circe said, smiling. "We finished any repairs that needed making while you were over there, sir," she added.
"Excellent," Apollo said, sitting down. He tapped away at the tricorder he still held, first to ensure that it was undamaged from its wayward flight through Engineering, then to pull up their first destination. "Mr. Gex. Come around to a heading of... 312 mark 26. Proceed at warp factor five."
"Aye sir," Gex said, making the course adjustments.
Apollo then handed the tricorder to Circe. "I need the information in here analyzed so we can recreate the freighter's journey and see if we can find out if any of its destinations were a supply base or anything. We also found evidence that they had transported prisoners... I'd like to know if the ship made any stops to inhabited planets to pick up any. I'll call a meeting of department heads in two hours to go over your findings."
"Yes sir," Circe said. She took the tricorder and headed to a science station in the rear of the bridge. Apollo rose and headed for the turbolift. "I'll be in sickbay." He entered, and the doors closed behind him.
~ * ~
She awoke in pain... pain in her head, from where she had been struck unconscious, and pain all over her body, as though someone had driven spikes through her wrists and hung her like a slab of curing meat. As it turned out, her assessment wasn't too far off. As she regained her full senses, she examined herself. Her wrists had been shackled to the top of a large, metal, circular frame. She was left hanging there for who knows how long... certainly since she was rendered insensate. She also noticed she was naked. She briefly considered being offended, but then figured if she was hanging there as long as she thought she was, then it wouldn't matter how she felt now, anyway. So she filed it in the back of her mind, close to where all the haziness was.
Through coincidence, she adopted an attitude of smoldering indifference just as a Cardassian walked through the door. He went to his desk without looking up at her, which was just as well, and started doing paperwork. She was just about able to block out the outside world from her mind when she suddenly realized that the Cardassian was speaking to her. At first, she considered not giving him the satisfaction of responding. But then she realized that upon looking at him she remembered that she had, in fact, awakened at some point, but that she was barely conscious when he pulled a device from his belt and pressed a button, sending waves of pain coursing through her. She finally couldn't take any more, and passed out. So now, while she wasn't going to go all out to acknowledge his existence, she did keep the same expression, and just moved her eyes in his direction to indicate that she heard him say something.
"I see you're finally awake, Prisoner 90210," the Cardassian said in greeting. Her response was to shift her gaze back to the front. "Not very talkative, I take it. Don't tell me you're holding what we've done to you against you." He took on a pitiful look, and feigned a hurt tone of voice. "Well, we wouldn't want you to do that, now would we? Of course, that would imply that we don't hold the deaths of several Cardassian and Jem'Hadar soldiers against you." He moved around his desk and sat down. "I am Gul La'Brel. I hope you find that position comfortable... you'll be spending an awful lot of time in it."
"Go to hell," she mumbled.
"I'm sorry. I didn't quite catch that," he said. However, he took the device from his belt and used it, indicating that he had, indeed, heard her. Unbelievable torrents of pain cascaded through her system. He cut it off just before she could pass out again. "Interesting little device. This control, along with the implant at the base of your skull, allows me to administer as much pain as I choose."
"Why don't you just kill me and get it over with," she spat at him.
"Oh, no no no. I can't do that. You see, if I killed you, you would become a martyr, and I would have a revolt on my hands."
"Oh, well, we can't have that now, can we?" She earned another jolt of pain for her sarcasm.
"What I plan on doing is showing your pathetic looking body over the com-net so that the rest of the workers can see what is in store for them if they resist as you did," La'Brel said.
She glared at him in her semi-conscious state. "You can just bet I won't cooperate with you. You may have wired my mind to feel pain, but you'll never control me."
La'Brel was obviously quite upset by that remark, as he zapped her again with the device.
"What are you doing!?" came a voice from her periphery.
"I'm teaching her a lesson," La'Brel replied.
The person who spoke came into view. He looked like a normal humanoid, except he had deep black hair, and his ears were ribbed, and stretched along the entire side of his head. He was flanked by two Jem'Hadar. "You'll cease your games at once! She is to be taken down, cleaned up, and returned to the mines!"
"You're actually going to let this... this rebel back into the mine? After what she's done?"
"She will be watched more closely." The man came closer, and she could instantly tell from his ice-blue eyes that this man could not be trusted; he was as much a snake on the inside as these Cardassians themselves were on the outside. "And rest assured, human, you will be more severely punished if you try something like that again." He returned to La'Brel. "But we need every available worker in the mines to gather and process the ore for ketrecel white. Starfleet has hit another transport convoy, and our supply has suffered severely from it. We need to restore what we lost. If this keeps up, we'll even have our own men working in the mines."
When Jem'Hadar-flanked person spoke of Starfleet, fragments of images threatened to clear in her mind, though they stayed tantalizingly vague. Especially one of a man... when the humanoid looked at her with his eyes, she though she saw a different pair, though she couldn't be sure.
La'Brel snorted. "That's preposterous. Cardassians? Working alongside the slaves?"
The humanoid glared at Cardassian. "You will do as the Dominion commands."
La'Brel looked as though he had just swallowed a frog, though for all she knew, that's what they ate. "Of course. We... live... to serve the Dominion."
"You would do well to remember that. I want her back in the mines, working, under heavy guard, within an hour." He stopped and looked at her gaunt frame. "Make that two hours. You've obviously been underfeeding the workers. Again. See that she's fed as well as clothed." He and the guards left.
"Vortas," La'Brel mumbled under his breath. "It's almost as if they think they're the real power in the Dominion." He called for someone to come collect her. "You're really lucky, you know that? If we didn't need the help, then yes, eventually, you would have wound up dead. As it is, you'll probably die in the mines. But at least," the next part he said with sarcasm, as two Cardassians showed up to take her away, "you'll die serving the Dominion."
In spite of the contempt the Cardassians had for the Vorta, they remained true to his orders. She was cleaned up and fed... she hadn't even realized how hungry she was until she had noticed that the huge plate of food they had put in front of her was empty within ten minutes. She then had just enough time to inadvertently let out a loud unladylike burp before she was led into the mines to work. At the end of the day, when they returned her to her cell, one of the women of the world from which they were taken came to her and held her close.
"You poor girl," she said, rocking the woman back and forth. After several minutes of sitting that way, just before their scheduled sleep period, she asked the woman, "You still remember nothing of who you are; where you came from?" When she shook her head, the matronly woman said, "Well, I remember a story my grandmother told me. Of how these people from Starfleet had arrived to help our people. They even helped my mother, who... well, she was horribly mistreated. My grandmother had a powerful wisdom, and she used it to decide to let Starfleet help them." She held the young woman back and looked into her eyes. "I'll tell you what. You need a name, and I can think of none better than my grandmother's. From now on, I shall call you Brekkan. How does that sound?"
She thought for a moment, then smiled a little and said, "Okay. Brekkan it is."
The other woman smiled. "And I am Lilta. Now, Brekkan, we should sleep, before the guards get suspicious."
~ * ~
The doors to sickbay opened, and Apollo walked through. He immediately spotted Kellara tending to Williamson at one of the biobeds. "How is your patient, Doctor?"
She looked at Apollo and smiled. "He'll live, though he won't be running a marathon for about a day or so."
Williamson shook his head. "It was my own dumb luck, sir. I zigged when I should have zagged."
Apollo waved him off. "Nonsense, Lieutenant. We were just lucky to have kept our losses to a minimum, and that you were the only one injured. That whole room was falling apart around us." He patted Williamson on the shoulder for emphasis. Seeing the young security officer's spirits brighten, he walked toward the door. Kellara followed him.
"Admiral. When we have a free moment, would you mind telling me how you were able to pull off the stunts you did back on the freighter, with the tricorder and the... the lightsaber? I'd be real curious to know," she said.
He smiled at her. "Trying to find out what makes me tick, eh, Doctor? Well, perhaps on an off-shift one day, you can corner me, and I'll tell you."
He walked out of Sickbay, intending to head to Engineering. It registered to him that the holodeck doors opened ahead of him, but he didn't think anything of it. But as soon as he reached the doors, a pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him in. "Urk..." was all he could get out.
He expected to hit the floor. However, as he passed the holodeck's arch, he sped through the air, unencumbered by gravity. Instincts took over, and he came hovering to a halt shortly before he hit the far wall. Once he got his bearings, he looked toward the doors, which transformed into part of the wall. Circe was standing there dressed in a form-fitting leotard that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. She walked to a spot just inside the arch. "You owe me a rematch," she said.
He floated there, trying to decide how to take the tone of her voice, the slight smile on her face, the equally slight quivering of her antennae. A part of him thought that this was senseless, that it was the last thing he needed right now. Another part of him, the part that won out, thought that this distraction was exactly what he needed. He grinned mischievously. "Far be it for me to stand in the way of training."
Her grin spread. "Well, then. I've seen you at times. You're able to change your clothes into something else, so why don't you get ready?"
In the blink of an eye, his uniform morphed into his black-and-red costume. He held his arms up and waved his hands toward him. "Okay. Bring it on."
She licked her lips, crouched, and pushed off, sending herself shooting through the room towards him. He started to drift out of her reach, but she somehow maneuvered in a way where she could grab his leg. "Oh, no. No flying. You can only use your zero-g training." Using his momentum, she swung him around and sent him toward the far wall.
"But... that is how I train," he said in his defense. However, he allowed himself to contact the wall. Judging the proper trajectory, he shoved off at a different angle.
She was ready for him, though. On her next bounce, she started spinning. When he got close enough, she lashed out with her foot, catching him across the back of his neck. He landed face first on the floor. "Ha!" she barked.
He wouldn't allow her a second strike. As she came down for a follow-up blow, Apollo gripped the floor with his hands and shot himself across it. Reaching a wall, he rolled and bounced back toward Circe. Using his momentum, he stretched his arms out and caught her in the midsection. He heard a satisfying, "Oof!" from her as he knocked the wind out of her. But she must have recovered quickly, because she gripped him by the shoulders and spun him around.
When the holodeck was transformed into the zero-g exercise room, mats appeared on all the walls, the floor, and the ceiling to cushion any impact. Also, there were recessed handles situated three feet from each other all around the room. When Circe brought Apollo slamming into the wall, she grabbed two handles and hooked her feet in two more, effectively pinning him.
"What are..." Apollo began to say, but couldn't get any more out. She was too busy kissing him. He blushed. "Uh, Circe, are you sure..." She cut him off again with another kiss.
"Just be quiet and enjoy the moment," she said. She began kissing him hungrily. Apollo, for his part, didn't resist. His hands were all over her back, her arms, her hair, while she pressed her body tightly to his. "Have you ever done this in zero-g before?" she purred. She released her footholds on the wall to wrap her legs around his back. They started floating away from the wall, held only by her grip on the handles; and then she let go of those, too, and they started spinning slowly through the room in an intimate embrace. She whispered another question in his ear. "If the uniform can change, can it disappear completely?"
He was about to answer her, one way or another, when they heard the familiar twill of the ship's com system. "Bridge to Admiral Racer."
"Ignore it," Circe half-whispered, half-growled into his ear before nibbling on the lobe.
Apollo was lost, overwhelmed by the flood of pheromones she was producing. She was practically writhing all over him, massaging him, caressing him. The page echoed through the holodeck again. Finally, with some effort, he managed to find his voice. "Racer here."
"Admiral, we've picked up a message from the Scarlett. Captain Belanger believes she found a lead to a nearby Dominion outpost." There was a moment's silence, then, "Uh, sir, are you all right?"
He realized that when he responded, he was breathing quite heavily. Her own breathing didn't help any. "Just... an intense workout. I'll be on my way... shortly. Racer out."
She smiled when she thought he meant he would be there when they finished what they were doing here, but he told her, "I have to go."
"Awww, don't tell me you're one of those officers who would abandon a girl for duty." During their passionate interlude, she was slowly undressing herself, in hopes that he would follow suit.
"Commander, don't make me use force."
"Oooo, I love forceful men..." She was about to continue, when suddenly she saw a bright flash of blue light, and she was knocked backwards to the wall. Though the zero-g environment was on, she was pinned there. Mixed emotions fought their way across Circe's face as she stared at Apollo. His aura was in full light now, and his costume changed back into a normal duty uniform. His face could hardly be seen behind the light his eyes were giving off.
"I... said... knock it off, Commander." Despite her struggling, he held her pinned to the wall as he hovered in the middle of the room. "Computer, end program." The walls disappeared, to be replaced by the familiar yellow-on-black grid. Gravity slowly restored itself to the room, but Apollo remained in mid-air, and Circe remained against the wall. He closed his eyes to regain himself, and Circe could then see his face. It was flushed, and he did not look amused. He lowered himself to the ground, and contemplated her. When he was finally satisfied that she had regained her composure, he asked, "I know about the Andorian mating drive. Quite powerful, but don't let it get out of hand. Are you under control, now?" She nodded, and he noticed that she had bitten her lip... a tiny drop of bluish blood rested near the corner of her mouth. He released his hold on her, and she slumped down to the floor. He looked at her for a moment longer, before tapping his com badge. "Racer to bridge. I'm on my way." He spun on his heel, and as he walked out, he glanced behind him to see Circe hang her head just before the doors closed in front of him.
~ * ~
As soon as the turbolift deposited Apollo onto the bridge, he said, "On screen."
The cheerful features of Captain Belanger appeared on the screen. "Greetings, Admiral". She gave him a nod of respect.
"Captain," he said in return. "I understand you have something for me."
"We do, sir. We had passed through a system where a number of warp signatures appeared to converge upon a central point. The Orion and the Phoenix have gone to positions on the other side of the sector. It is our hope that we can triangulate our positions and see if there's a central point for these signatures."
Apollo's eyebrow shot up in a very Vulcan manner. "Very good work, Captain. The Highlander will be there shortly."
Belanger smiled. "Thank you, sir. We'll be waiting for you. Scarlett out." She winked out, and the image cut off.
Apollo immediately turned to Gex. "Set coordinates for the Scarlett's position, and get us there at our best possible speed." We waited until he was sure Gex was finished before adding, "Engage."