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Chapter 6"We will not be able to help your colleagues if you do not allow us to leave."
Malcolm faced Jec. He kept his tone even as he responded, "I told you fifteen minutes ago that Lieutenant Hess is doing all she can. As you know, we are severely understaffed at the moment." And I'm sure you don't know anything about how we came to be in this predicament, he thought angrily.
Jec went back to pacing. His six Mr'lar companions huddled in various parts of the shuttlebay, staying as far from Malcolm's people as possible.
The door hissed and Captain Archer stepped through, followed closely by T'Pol. They had both removed their EV suits, and were dressed in the formfitting gray outfits that went under them. Seeing them, Malcolm removed his helmet, and nodded for his team to do the same.
Archer walked straight to Jec, towering over him. "We just had a look at one of your cameras," he said furiously. Jec made a little whining sound. Archer leaned into his face, saying, "We are going back to Sickbay. And you are going to undo it. NOW."
Malcolm watched the scene with great interest. He still didn't know what was happening, but he was relieved that Archer and T'Pol seemed to, and that they believed his friends could be cured.
Jec took a step back. "Captain," he wheedled, "my people have taken great steps to move beyond our…baser instincts. We are extremely uncomfortable with physical confrontation. I must ask you to remain calm."
"CALM? You use these things to infiltrate my crew's heads and steal everything inside, and you want me to be calm?"
"We had no idea our tools would have a permanent effect on humans!"
"Knowing did not stop you from repeating your attack on Commander Tucker and Ensign Sato," T'Pol pointed out.
Jec turned abruptly. "We are leaving." The other Mr'lar moved to join him on their shuttlecraft.
Malcolm and his team moved fast to block them, but they weren't as fast as Jon. He snatched Jec by his shoulder and yanked him upwards, saying, "What you're going to do is help my people."
Jec made a funny sound, drawing the attention of all of the Enterprise crew. A sickly, wet, squelching sound that Malcolm first thought was the result of Archer's manhandling. Until Jec's loose skin started to move.
Archer let go fast and stepped back.
The sound echoed through the rest of the Mr'lar crew. While Archer and his people watched, mystified, their skin stretched and warped to accommodate the growing size of the Mr'lar.
Before Malcolm could blink, each of the seven Mr'lar was twice his own height and girth. Their skin was stretched hideously thin, so that blood vessels, bones and organs showed through their pale hides.
The humans and T'Pol started to back up instinctively.
"You should have let us go," Jec said, his voice stretched as thin as his skin. "We only took a few—now we will take everything."
He extended a long, gristly hand towards the Captain.
Malcolm opened fire, striking the Mr'lar in the chest. Jec shuddered, but did not stop. The armory officer had a crazy thought that thin skin ought to make one vulnerable—it would only be fair. Before the Lieutenant could get off another shot, a Mr'lar was at his side, crushing his lower arm with one hand. Despite the protection of the EV suit, Malcolm shouted in pain and the phaser fell uselessly to the floor.
His four crewmen had already been disarmed and rendered unconscious—most of them by being bounced off the walls. Jec held T'Pol and Archer each by one arm, dangling them so that they were forced to stand on tiptoe.
Archer swung his leg up, connecting with the M'Lar's squishy skin. His foot seemed to sink into the soft tissue mass.
"OK. That is just disgusting," Archer said between breaths. Jec screamed at this and threw him into the wall. Jon slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Malcolm threw himself forward onto the phaser. Raising it quickly, he fired at close range. This seemed to stun the alien enough that he dropped T'Pol. T'Pol ran toward the door with one look at Malcolm, who nodded. She sprinted out into the hall.
Jec turned toward Malcolm and picked him up by the scruff of his collar.
"Where is the camera?" Jec asked, his rancid breath puffing into Malcolm's face.
"I'm flattered, but I doubt we'd make as cute a couple in pictures as you might think." Jec growled and dragged him out into the hall. Malcolm's head smacked on the doorway as they left, leaving a wide gash across his forehead.
As they rounded the corner before Sickbay they saw T'Pol dash inside. Jec hurried forward and crashed through the doors. Malcolm looked up to find T'Pol standing with a camera in her hand. Glancing over at the biobeds, he saw Trip and Hoshi's still forms, but no Travis.
Jec's henchman inched toward T'Pol. She backed up, holding the camera.
"Give me the camera, or I snap the little one's neck," Jec said.
Malcolm growled and used his sleeve to swipe at the blood oozing down his forehead. T'Pol handed the camera over to the henchman, who handed it to directly to Jec. The Mr'lar dropped the Lieutenant onto the floor so hard that it knocked the wind out of him. He rolled over, wheezing.
Jec raised the camera with a smile. He opened it and a blinding light poured out. T'Pol and Malcolm watched as Jec's size grew yet again while he sucked the light into his mouth. Jec breathed deeply, inhaling as his skin stretched even tighter.
"Bloody hell," Malcolm said.
The Mr'lar both ignored him. As soon as the light stopped, they both turned to the biobeds containing the still forms of Hoshi and Trip. They took a few steps towards them, clearly intending to finish their work. Before T'Pol or Malcolm could move to intervene, Jec stopped and shouted, "Where is the pilot?"
"I do not know to whom you are referring. Enterprise has several members who fit that description." T'Pol answered calmly.
Jec pointed a squishy finger at her. "Take me to the Bridge. We are taking control of this vessel."
He then pointed at Malcolm and said to his henchman, "Kill the little one."
He grabbed T'Pol and they headed down the hall.
The henchman turned back to Malcolm, who was struggling to rise, and pointed his weapon. He fired a shot but Malcolm dove clumsily behind an empty biobed. The shot scorched the wall behind him instead. Looking around fast, he grabbed a sharp instrument that Phlox had left out. He stood quickly, threw the weapon hard. It landed with a wet noise, sinking into the soft flesh of the Mr'Lar's head; the alien fell to the floor.
Malcolm hastily stripped off his EV suit. Dressed in the gray bodysuit, he walked over, took the Mr'lar's weapon, and darted out the door.
**
Travis crawled along inside the vents. His vision was no better—he feared it was getting worse—but it was so dark where he was that it hardly mattered. He was judging by memory and feel which direction he needed to go to get to the bridge. He thanked God and his parents one more time for his upbringing, which allowed him to know the inner workings of a ship inside and out. The Bridge needed to know about the severity of the situation. Coming to a fork he listened, trying to hear any sound that could indicate where he was going. He was sweating from nerves, heat, and exhaustion. He heard a scuffling sound to his left.
"That better not be a rat."
Reassuring himself that Enterprise probably didn't have rats—small comfort in the dark—he scooted to the left, hoping that he was headed in the right direction.
