Chapter 10
She had spent an hour musing over Khitomer and its aftermath, telling the crew of her little Runabout bits and pieces about the legendary James T. Kirk. *I wonder,* she thought, smiling to herself, *if any of them realize they're asking questions about a dead legend to a living legend, and a cross-species, living legend at that.* It would still be several hours to the relay station and another hour before they would leave the Badlands, since the Badlands limited their speed to impulse.
"Captain, I'm picking up a Cardassian Galor-class warship to our port side," Ensign Kovar relayed.
"All stop, shut down everything; including shields," Dana ordered immediately.
"Aye, aye, Captain," Ensign Papen answered.
"Shields down," Admiral Ventura answered. The Runabout started shuddering under the stress of the Badlands.
"How long before the hull buckles?" Dana demanded.
"About half an hour," Commander Makai answered.
"Have they spotted us yet?" Dana demanded.
"It doesn't seem that way, sir. They have not altered course or speed," Lt. Palermo answered.
"Palermo, start converting that nice program of yours for a Cardassian vessel," Dana ordered.
"Aye, sir," Lieutenant Palermo answered.
"Are you expecting trouble?" Makai asked.
"I'm always expecting trouble, but to answer your intended question, I hope that ship just passes us by, that it won't see us . . . and if not, then I'm thinking, 'we did it once, we can do it again'," Dana answered her first officer.
"The ship has changed course and is heading right for us," Lt. Palermo announced.
"Make it look as if we're drifting, Ensign," Dana ordered quickly.
"Aye, ma'am," Hans answered.
"Engineering, get a transporter lock on all of us. Get ready to beam us all to their bridge the moment I say so. Everybody else, if you're not armed, make sure you are, and get ready to fight Cardassians . . . and don't bother with a stun setting," Dana ordered after tapping her communicator.
"The ship is getting closer. ETA five minutes," Kovar announced.
"Tell me the minute they enter transporter range, and when their shields are being shut down. How long before the situation becomes critical if we shut down life-support?" Dana demanded.
"Three minutes, sixteen seconds," Admiral Ventura answered.
"ETA transporter range: two minutes, forty-two seconds," Kovar answered, anticipating their needs.
"Admiral, shut down life-support. Make it look as if it's failing, and turn it on briefly from time to time like we're busy trying to get it back on-line," Dana ordered quickly.
"Got it," he answered. Immediately the heat in the cabin started to rise.
Dana started to sweat. "ETA transporter range: two minutes," Kovar answered calmly, not a drop of sweat on him.
Dana started going through the actions of the other vessel: the boarding team would be assembled, they would move to their transporter room. They would wait until they're in optimal position before they transported, if their philosophy towards this sort of thing was the same, which it was most likely so, because it was simply the most practical.
"ETA transporter range: one minute, thirty seconds."
Dana went through every possibility, everything that they might transport.
"ETA transporter range: one minute."
"ETA transporter range: thirty seconds."
"ETA transporter range: twenty seconds."
"ETA transporter range: fifteen seconds, fourteen . . . thirteen . . ."
Dana closed her eyes and concentrated, she would feel instantly any transporter signals anywhere in the runabout, if they did it before the time she thought they would.
"Twelve . . . eleven . . . ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one. Transporter range, now," Kovar announced.
Dana waited. Mili-seconds seemed hours, hundredths of seconds seemed days, seconds seemed eternities. Time crept on ever so slowly. Dana felt adrenaline pumping through her system. She waited even longer, it had to be just right, right before the most experienced officer, except the captain, would transport over to them. "Transport!" she yelled, as she snapped her eyes open. The interior of the runabout disappeared from view . . .
. . .To be replaced by the interior of the Cardassian ship. To be precise, its bridge. Most of the Cardassians were stunned. "-ire!" the captain of the vessel bellowed, just as they appeared on the bridge. One and a half seconds later, the bridge lit up as the screen showed the runabout exploding in a brilliant ball of fire. By then though, most of the Cardassians on the bridge were already dead, and those that, weren't were almost dead.
"Guard every entrance. Make sure no Cardassian gets in here," Dana ordered as she started tapping the OPS console, beginning the beam-out process with the Cardassians in engineering. "Anybody who's left, start beaming Cardassians into space as fast as you can."
Over a period of five minutes, groups of Cardassians materialize in the Badlands, after which they were plasmatized by those very same Badlands almost immediately.
"They're all gone. Everybody to your respective stations!" Dana ordered. Some of them left the bridge immediately.
"Resume our old course, Ensign," Dana ordered as she placed herself in the command chair. "Perhaps this'll become even easier than I thought."
*****
Several hours later they arrived at the cone-shaped, fully automatic relay station, which meant nobody was on board all for the sake of efficiency. Having somebody on board every relay station inside your territory was madness - there were thousands of them. There are better ways to use all that personnel. It also meant it was rather easy to hijack one of them, since there was nobody on board who could shut the station down in case somebody unauthorized entered the station.
"Can you find this relay station's access codes in the computer, Ensign Kovar?" Dana asked.
A few seconds later Kovar answered, "Access codes found."
"Transmit them," Dana ordered, smiling.
"Its shields are down," Kovar stated.
"Good. Lieutenant Palermo you're with me," Dana said, then tapped her communicator, "Ensign Jarvis, please report to the main transporter room. Bring tools. You're going to need them."
"Aye, sir," Ensign Claudia Jarvis answered.
*****
"Oh, crap!" Claudia exclaimed as she got her left foot entangled in one of the many cables in the small maintenance tube.
"Be careful, but hurry up, Ensign," Dana told her.
"Yes, sir," Claudia said, looking back to her foot and seeing Dana and Palermo behind her. After a little struggling she managed to disentangle her foot, and the crawling through the relay station continued.
"How far, Ensign?" Dana demanded.
"Not very far now, sir, if I remember my Cardassian design correctly," Claudia answered, gritting her teeth. Claudia removed a panel and they crawled through, two more times did she have to do it, before they finally reached the nerve center of the station.
"Nice work," Dana commented. Then to Palermo she said, "Lieutenant, check te systems while I upload the viruses." Dana shoved the rod into the Cardassian computer, and started pushing buttons. Several seconds later 'Upload complete' flashed across a screen in Cardassian.
"That's the Dominion version, now the Cardassian one," Dana answered, tapping buttons again.
"Ma'am, I think I found something," Lieutenant Palermo announced.
"What?" Dana asked, still tapping buttons.
"The Dominion anticipated that this was part of our mission, they've cut off one of their warships from all communications. It has an escort of two other warships, and it's carrying the blueprints of the wormhole," Lieutenant Palermo explained.
"Shit! I guess we're going to have to destroy that ship," Dana stated as 'Upload complete' flashed across a screen a second time.
"I've got its flight-plan. It's not that far away," Palermo said.
"All right, we're ready here. Let's get back to the beam-out point," Dana ordered, and they started crawling back through the maintenance tubes.
Captain, came Makai's voice through her communicator, two Dominion warships have broken off their course and are coming right at us. They'll be here in about ten minutes.
"Understood, Commander. We'll hurry, and tell everybody strap themselves in. We're going to have to go hunting. Palermo?" Dana said.
"The Dominion has shielded a vessel with the blueprints from infection with a virus. Intercept course is 322 mark 041. They've got two escorts," Palermo explained.
Course is set. Anything else? Makai asked, urgency in his voice.
"Yes," Dana said, "Get ready for anything, strap yourselves in, allow 9 gs of gravitational force, get a transporter lock on everybody. The minute we beam over, accelerate as fast as possible. Reroute shield control to the pilot's seat, and tell Ensign Papen that I'll be taking over. This is going to require something extreme to get out of."
Yes, sir. Makai out.
"This is just like the spy holo-novels, always in the nick of time. How I wish this was just a holodeck now," Claudia said.
"You always do," Dana answered.
~~X~~
January, 2344
Caldos Colony
Dana looked across the Scotland-like landscape and felt touched, as she had been every time in the past six years that she had looked across it. She hadn't been to Scotland often, but every time she had been there she had felt as if she was stepping on Holy Ground . . . and now there was a whole planet that looked like it. Somehow, with gentle mists and rains all the through year, it had something ethereal. It seemed like the stuff of legends and myths.
*MacLeod must have really loved building this world,* Dana mused.
"Jennifer O'Connell?" a man's voice asked.
Dana turned around - her hair flying in front of her face courtesy of the wind - and answered, "That's me. Who wants to know?"
"That would be classified," the man answered.
"Aah, Section 31," Dana said and started walking down the hill easily. The man caught up quickly.
"How do you know about Section 31?" the man asked.
"That would also be classified," Dana answered him, taking a deep breath of the fresh air before continuing. "Let's just say that the secrets that deserve secrecy are safe with me. And Section 31 is one such secret."
"Three years ago you went to Romulus, and . . . succeeded in a mission for the head of the Tal Shiar," the man said delicately.
"Yes, that would've been me. And?" Dana asked, feeling the high grass flatten at every one of her steps.
"With that you've proven you're the best choice for being sent to Romulus again. We've got a mission for you which seems to also be connected to your mission three years ago," the man stated.
"And a perfect way to check on whose side I'm on, right?" Dana asked him, giving him a grin.
"To be blunt, yes," the man answered.
"So what's the mission?"
"We have intercepted this message. It has not been relayed to the recipient yet," the man said, and adding as he gave her the PADD, "What decrypted it was S179-276 SP."
"Ambassador Spock's old Starfleet registration number," Dana answered, understanding. She took the PADD from his hands and began to read.
'I would not trouble you, but there is no other choice. Honor on a certain world has been betrayed. The great cannot be trusted, nor the pyramid support its peak. Many are disgusted with Preator Dralath and at the twisting of everything Romulans hold honorable. And something dangerous is brewing, although one knows not what. A certain bloodline is hardly, after all, in the preator's confidence. You must look to the security of the many.
- Liviana.'
"Ambassador Spock will verify the truth of this message with a source on Romulus, which, since we already know this message is telling the truth, will verify it is true. At which point Spock will undoubtedly leave for Romulus in an attempt to diffuse the situation," the man explained superfluously.
"And you want me to arrive on Romulus first so I can keep our Ambassador healthy," Dana answered him, showing that she understood what he wanted.
"That is correct. Will you accept?" the man asked.
"Yes."
*****
The red building - that was the main terminal of Ki Baratan - stood in the distance. Spock stepped out of the building. This alley held an Tal Shiar assassin. He trained his gun on Spock's chest. It took some careful aiming to hit Spock and not the many people in between, but Spock still stood on the highest steps, perfect for a bullet to hit him in the chest. The assassin grinned.
"Uh, uh, uh, uh, hasn't your mother ever taught you it's not nice to play with guns?" The sarcastic remark, in broken Romulan, startled him, and he whipped around, gun trained directly on the hooded figure standing deeper in the alley. He couldn't see her face. He knew it was a she from her voice.
"Who the hell are you?" he demanded.
The figure took a step forward, and the hood came off. A Human face became visible. He was stunned. How a Human, without surgical alterations, managed to get on Romulus he couldn't understand. Then again, he hadn't heard or seen hide nor hair of her until she had made her presence known deliberately.
She grinned, a dangerous grin he noticed, and she started walking towards him slowly, and deliberately. "Guns, the perfect assassin's weapon if one knows how to use it. Long range, no sound if - like you - you use a silencer, no bright beam of plasma to betray your position, just one shot and your target is down. Everybody will be looking for obvious reasons. By the time they notice the bullet hole, you're long gone."
"Yeah, well this works in short range as well," he grinned menacingly, and pulled the trigger.
Dana felt the electrical signal coursing from his brain to his trigger finger. Immediately she jumped up while whipping her upper body backwards, starting a backwards flip. The bullet sailed over her harmlessly. Her foot kicked the gun high up in the air. She used the wide robes as air cushions to let her sail through the air. She wrapped her feet around his neck, landed on her hands and flipped him over her, smashing him on the floor. A quick, short jump backwards put her feet below his shoulders in a perfect condition to break his neck, which she did rapidly. Quickly, she stuck out her hand and caught the gun before it clattered to the floor. She looked upward, scanning the area to see if anyone in the not so far away crowd, or any of the guards, might have seen or heard something. Nothing.
She quickly pulled him back further into the alley, thinking, *Ninja training, you just got to love it.* She then dumped him and his rifle into the dumpster that was present there. The hood was pulled back up, hiding her face. She walked out of the alley and into the crowd, bending a little to look like an old lady.
"Excuse me, may I pass?" she croaked out once in a while.
*****
The high walls of Charvanek's - Liviana's - estate were rather daunting if she wasn't a trained Ninja. The tools to virtually walk up the wall were with her, but she didn't need to. She had calculated the chance that any of her staff would be traitors or infiltrated agents. The chance was too small; Charvanek had survived too long to be that lax.
A silent beep, a gentle vibration. She pulled out the special communicator, given to her by Section 31. The very newest of their creations, the message would piggy-back, like a virus, onto other messages until it would finally reach the relay satellites in Romulus orbit and send the message to her.
'Be advised, Starfleet Intelligence has sent in Commander Saavik disguised as Evaste, a colonial healer with gene-splicing abilities. Protect her as well.'
Dana grimaced. *Damn them! Section should have kept SI from sending anyone else! Of course, Uhura. She would defy an order, half or not, like that to keep Spock safe. This just got a whole lot more difficult. First things first, find out where 'Evaste' is. How I wish this was just a holodeck,* Dana thought, not liking this one bit.
*****
It was two days later now and finding 'Evaste' had not been difficult. Luckily the Preator had already brought her to him, which meant that the Tal Shiar either didn't know she was Saavik - *Yeah, right,* Dana thought. - or that defying the Preator's wishes was impossible. *Does Preator Dralath know? Nah, they would simply wait - until she either couldn't be allowed to continue, or she had given Dralath the cure - before eliminating her.*
Watching Saavik giving this scientific seminar on gene splicing therapies was almost ridiculous. Both Saavik actually giving it and her watching it with nothing more than black robes and hood to protect her identity. Surgical alterations, on account of her advanced healing capacities, were of course useless. The guards hadn't even bothered to ask her name. The sweet unthreatening old lady could never be anything else but that sweet old lady. If they'd only known who was really beneath those dark, Romulan-style robes.
Saavik rotated the helical projections on the display platform, then projected a simulation as modified by her prototype drugs. Spock, under the disguise of Symakhos the Academician, studied the simulation silently, as did most of the senators and the soldiers who were ordered to attend by Dralath the day before. The Romulan scientists, of course, were not.
"What about genetic variation?" a Romulan soldier called.
Dana decided to add her own. A little thrill of irony ran through her body as she called out, "Have you ruled out chance mutations?"
Dana's question, of course, was ridiculous. At least to her and apparently Saavik too, because she answered, "One can, by the very nature of 'chance', hardly predict what may or may not happen." Saavik spread her hands, smiled and said, "I make no claim to soothsaying abilities."
Dana didn't really care about the rest of the seminar, and she looked at the soldier who had called out. It was Spock's contact, Ruanek, she knew from the mission briefing. *Ouch, Ruanek. You're a soldier. You're not supposed to know about these things,* Dana thought.
The presentation was over, and Dana got up. She saw Spock walk to Saavik. Dana walked forward too, to get within earshot. She overheard the conversation between the two, straining her ears to hear the whispers. The things she picked up were, 'dining tonight', 'refuse', 'how else', 'not alone', 'how else' and finally the location of her suite.
*Good,* Dana thought. *If Spock comes there tonight, I only have to be in one location at one time. That makes things a lot easier.*
*Of course now I'll have to protect Saavik, not only from anyone who knows who she is but against people who don't want her to cure Dralath as well. That makes things more difficult,* Dana added as an afterthought.
*****
Dana was at Evaste's room, outside of it, on the outside of the building. It was dangerous since there were not many places and shadows to hide in. A voice called to Saavik and she turned back from the balcony into the room. Dana lowered herself onto the balcony and watched.
*Oh, no, not you Ruanek. You're an honorable man from what I've read. I don't want to have to kill you,* Dana thought, as she pulled out a throwing star, ready to end it if the time came. *Walk away, don't try to do it.*
*Thank god,* Dana thought as she saw Kharik - according to the briefing Ruanek's hated cousin – enter. That would remove the threat to Saavik, at least for the moment.
A few seconds later Ruanek and Kharik were about to start a fight when Spock and Charvanek entered the room and stopped them from fighting.
*That went well,* Dana thought.
*****
The night was dark. Dana sat in the garden outside the preator's office. She had just witnessed Spock apply the Vulcan nerve pinch to two guards and had maneuvered himself past security systems. She watched as he placed himself behind a stone ornament to her right. In the corner of her left eye she saw a guard walking along a path in the garden. She pulled out her Sig Saur, replicated especially for her by Section 31. She had requested it - nobody can trace the bullets unless they happen to look at Human guns from the twentieth century or know them all from memory. Plus, she was extremely familiar with it. This one was little different than the one she used four centuries ago. It had two additions - firstly a large silencer and secondly a laser sight.
*Come on, Spock, hide!* Dana urged silently, *You should be able to hear him.* When she noticed that Spock would not notice the guard on time, she took the shot. A silent pop and not even half a second later the guard sank to the floor. Hurriedly, but silently she sped to the dead Romulan and pulled him into the cover of the garden.
Dana looked at Spock, *Why had he not seen the guard?* She looked intently at him and was shocked. He was meditating. No wonder he hadn't seen nor heard the guard, but why would he be meditating now?
Dana looked around, making sure there were no other guards. There were none, at least not at this time. She centered herself, stretching out her sixth sense, the sense that warned her about others like her . . . A heartbeat. She twisted around swiftly but ever silently. She looked closely, and saw a little light flicker. No not a flicker, a refraction, from a little round glass of a sight.
*You're going to have to fend for yourself for a while, Spock,* Dana thought as she started running, making sure to encircle the assassin so she could attack him from the back. She, of course, made no sound as she ran. Finally she was behind him. It had taken not more than fifteen seconds, but those had been fifteen seconds - in every one of them the assassin could have pulled the trigger twice. Her left hand snaked around his neck, while her right clamped over his mouth.
"The Tal Shiar should have known, after I killed the first, that any assassin sent after Spock dies," she whispered in the gunman's ear before snapping the man's neck. Dana ran back to her old position and saw how Spock hid, just in time to be hidden from the two patrolling guards that walked by.
After a few minutes of not moving, Spock stood up and walked into the bedroom where Saavik and the preator should be. She followed, but not all the way inside. She waited on the balcony, looking inside. Dralath lay unconscious on the bed. The other sight chilled her to the bone. Spock and Saavik were acting too heated, too unrestrained. *No wonder he was meditating,* Dana thought. *Damn! They're going into Pon Farrr.*
Dana quickly disappeared back into the shadows of the garden, pulled out the communicator Section 31 had given her and whispered, "Be advised. Spock and Saavik are going into Pon Farr." The words appeared on the little screen, and she pushed the 'send' button.
She watched Spock leave. Saavik was still inside. What to do? Follow Saavik or Spock? They have what they came for, or Dralath would not have been unconscious. At least not unconscious and unhurt. *Saavik will leave, get the information out,* Dana thought. She wished she knew what it was. *Follow Spock,* Dana decided.
*****
Dana followed Spock back to Charvanek's house. *How many did the Tal Shiar send?* she asked herself. *After the death of the first assassin, surely not only one.* She decided this time she couldn't stay outside. She quickly made her way to the least guarded part of the high wall, and she ran up it using the grips on the soles of her shoes. Half-way up she jumped the last part, flipped over the wall and silently landed in the garden of Charvanek's compound.
She prowled the garden deathly silent, careful to avoid the sensors. There the expected assassin was, holding something in his hand. What was it? *A detonator!* Dana realized. *He's planning a small explosion, easily maskable as a gas-leak explosion.* She couldn't afford the walk toward him, he could push the button at any time. She needed to distract him. She quickly straightened up, and walked normally. She made just enough noise to get him to notice her. He looked at her. Only her eyes visible, the rest completely in the black, camouflage suit of the Ninja. She made no sound and walked at him. The silence and the fact that he could only see her eyes made the assassin nervous. He pulled a silenced gun from his belt, aimed, and fired.
Dana heard the silent pop after the lancing pain in her side, but - with a mild degree of difficulty - she managed to show nothing, not even a flinch. She pulled her sword from the scabbard on her back. The assassin scrambled backward, too afraid to even scream or push the detonator, as he should be. She ran her sword through his heart and grabbed the detonator from his hand before crushing it beneath her foot. She cleaned her sword of the assassin's green blood and disappeared in the shadows.
Charvanek and Spock left the compound with a car. She had to follow them, so she stole one of the cars that was parked in one of the side streets. She noticed they were going towards the Imperial Palace. She overtook them and drove to the Palace on her own, making absolutely sure they never noticed her. She parked the car close to where she thought Charvanek dared to go. Detection by the Preator's guards of course had to be avoided. The last part they had to walk in order to do that. Charvanek and Spock arrived, and Dana started to follow them. Ruanek arrived shortly after, talking about finding Charvanek and the disappearance of Saavik. They encountered a group of the Preator's guards. Charvanek left.
The squadron of guards eventually moved on. Almost two minutes later there was an explosion, almost certainly Charvanek's groundcar. *A diversion, very good,* Dana admonished only to her self. Spock and Ruanek started running, Dana followed.
It took a while, but finally they were here, wherever here was. They had maneuvered through alley ways, streets and whatnot rapidly. Dana watched and saw Ruanek rap a specific order of knocks on a door. Spock and Ruanek entered. Dana had a decision to make; follow them, which would require breaking down the door than incapacitating or killing the guard or guards behind it, or let Spock fend for his own. The decision was made quickly, as Spock would undoubtedly enlist the aid of the underground movement. He would no longer be virtually alone. Dana turned around. From now on, Spock would be on his own.
*****
A few days later
An nondescript bench in the main park
Night
Romulus's moons lighted the park in an eery light. It was all over. Dralath's plot to destroy the Klingon civilian outpost on Narendra III and then attack the Federation Melville colony had failed. Saavik had gotten the word out just in time, and the Enterprise C had helped the outpost. Narendra III was destroyed, so was the Enterprise C, but Charvanek had managed with her own ship to turn the few remaining Romulan Warbirds back and kept them from finishing their dishonorable act and attack Federation colonies as well. Preator Dralath was removed from office, and a new preator, by the name of Narviat, honorable, or so it seemed, had taken up the position. Ruanek had brought Spock to Vulcan - forcing himself to remain there as well - just in time for Spock and Saavik to mate before Pon Farr became fatal to them both. Dana would have to return soon so she could attend their wedding. Not that they knew her, but she knew them, and more importantly she knew - and knew them better - some of their friends and colleagues.
Dana seated herself on bench silently, "Hello, Palek."
Palek jerked and looked at her, startled. She smiled at him. "How do you do that? I was beginning to think you wouldn't show," he said. He looked even older than three years ago.
She smiled and said, "Thanks for allowing me in so easy."
"No problem. You were here to finish something I wanted finished anyway," Palek said, then added with regret, "I wish I had given you a shorter time span three years ago."
"Hindsight is always twenty/twenty," Dana said, smiling a musing smirk at him.
"So, is this Narviat any better?" Dana asked.
"Yes, but not much. Officially the Tal Shiar has always existed, it was just that nobody knew about it. Now he wants to make it a much more public organization taking over roles of the secret police, making it an organization to control Romulans and not just the enemies of the Romulans," Palek shook his head in defeat. "Officially, I may still be the Head of the Tal Shiar, but I'm no longer in control, and I'll probably be replaced soon."
"So from here on in . . ."
"All bets are off," Palek interrupted her.
"The circle is complete, eh?" Dana asked.
"I guess so. How old are you, really? Thirty-one?"
Dana snapped her head to the side and locked her gaze with his. Opposite of the Tal Shiar, Section 31 officially did not exist. Not even the people working for Section 31 existed. And he had known her for almost two hundred years and yet he asked her if she was 'thirty-one'. In other words, he asked if she was a Section 31 operative, and does Section 31 actually exist. She locked eyes with him and said menacingly, "In our culture it's considered impolite to ask a woman for her age."
He kept his eyes locked on hers, those blue eyes that promised certain death if he would ever tell a soul. He was not going to fail this test and put all his self-discipline behind his look and tried to convey to her silently that he would never tell the secret to anyone. He was just an old man, wanting this final piece of knowledge.
Dana finally relented and decided this time the part of her trusted him completely - as opposed to the part of her that knew he was totally untrustworthy - was given authority. "No," she answered his question, "I'm thirty-two."
Thirty-two was too close to thirty-one. So Section 31 really did exist, he thought almost staggering. The Tal Shiar had uncovered several clues that led to the existence of this agency, yet they were never able to come up with even one shred of evidence. Section 31 had thus become a myth in the Tal Shiar. Some of them saying that they existed, other people said that those who believed it did were delusional. Of course he would take the secret to his grave, but what about thirty-two? Why not thirty-one? It could only mean that she was not part of Section 31 but was working for them. Thirty-two, one step higher. Suddenly he understood. She must've been one of those who founded the organization. She was certainly old enough, he remembered.
He looked back up her. He hadn't noticed her starting to turn her head, seemingly looking for something. Now he did though, "Is something . . .?"
Dana held up her head to stop him. She turned around, and a male stepped through the bushes. "Well, who have we here? If it isn't Dana Katherine Scully. You're a hard woman to find, Miss Scully," the guy sneered at Dana.
"Well, hello, Mario. How's the neck?" Dana sneered back
"Still attaching my head to my body, which yours won't be doing in a few minutes," Mario Melvechi answered, pulling out his sword.
Dana pulled out her Katana and the swords clashed together in the silent night. After several seconds of fighting, Mario disappeared in a shimmering light.
"Who was that?" Palek asked, stunned, holding a little device in his hand that seemed to Dana as a portable transporter.
"Mario Melvechi. He has tried to kill me several times. Let him live in the battles before this one, hoping he might decide to better himself. I broke his neck last time we met," Dana explained.
Palek sighed wearily, not sure how he had to take that last remark. He had never thought Dana was anything other than someone with a long life span. "I wonder how he managed to get here alive."
"He probably didn't. He probably died several times," Dana answered him.
"I don't think I want to know," Palek answered. "I'm too old for this."
"Well, I guess this is goodbye then," Dana said, grinning at his last remark. They both knew it would be their last goodbye.
"Yes. Goodbye," Palek said. Both of them swallowed a lump in their throats. Dana disappeared into the shadows.
*****
Vulcan
A few days later
"Hello, T'Lar," Dana said as she stepped into the religious building. "Long time no see."
T'Lar, almost three hundred years old and Vulcan's prime religious figure, a priestess turned around slowly and looked at her. "Hello, Dana. Long time no see, indeed."
"It's Jennifer O'Connell these days," Dana answered, smiling and walking up to her. She held up her right hand in the traditional Vulcan greeting and said, "Live long and prosper."
T'Lar raised her hand in the same manner and said, "Prosper." When Dana looked at her quizzically, she added, "Wishing you long life is useless, since you're certain of long life."
Dana saw a little twinkle in T'Lar's eyes, and she laughed, "Let it never be said that Vulcans have no sense of humor. You've aged."
"And you have not. Were I Human, I'd probably say, 'Damn you.'"
Dana chuckled again, "But you're not Human, eh?"
"I take it you are here for the wedding?" T'Lar asked.
"What else?" Dana answered.
"Does Spock know you?" T'Lar asked neutrally.
"He knows me, but he does not know me," Dana answered.
"I see," T'Lar said.
Dana sighed. "It's been a long time, hasn't it? Since we first met, I mean."
"261 years, ten months, eleven days," T'Lar answered with perfect clarity.
"I joined the class you were in so I could learn how to suppress my emotions, forget a trauma," Dana said, wistful.
"You learned fast," T'Lar answered. "Although you were intrigued by the Vulcan mind meld, you never wanted to try it yourself even though other Humans did. That changed though. I can still remember the day clearly, when it did. I just happened to be alerted by the sounds of a sword fight. I followed it, and found you cutting off another man's head. And then, to quote a Human saying, 'all hell broke loose.'"
"After which I wanted more than just experiencing a mind meld," Dana answered, her eyes glazed over a bit. She shook her head and said, "I don't think I ever thanked you for teaching me the mind meld, and getting the Vulcan clerical council to approve it."
"Yes, you have, on multiple occasions," T'Lar answered, following their private little tradition.
"Well, at least I've never thanked you enough," Dana said.
"That can only you decide," T'Lar answered her logically.
Dana grinned, "Mind if I walk with you to the wedding?"
"Not at all I was planning on leaving now, you can join me," T'Lar answered her.
Dana looked up and slowly turned to the entrance of the building. Mario Melvechi stepped through it, sword drawn.
"Put away the sword!" T'Lar snapped. Dana didn't know for sure if she actually was angry or if was just an act to get Mario's attention. "This his Holy Ground," T'Lar finished.
"You know of us!?" Mario stated, half asking the statement.
"Yes, she does," Dana said, getting in between T'Lar and Mario.
T'Lar grabbed a communicating device and tapped a few buttons. "Not again!" Mario roared as he disappeared.
*****
Blistering heat fell on Mario's body as he reappeared in the middle of the desert, a large mountain to his right. Mario whipped his head around, fuming, and saw Dana standing there, looking around.
"If she had just beamed me away like your friend on Romulus did, I would've killed her," Mario stated angrily, as he put up his sword.
"Mount Seleya," Dana said, pointing to the large mountain behind Mario, pulling out her katana with her other hand. "The whole mountain is Holy Ground."
"I know, but the ground in front of it is not," Mario said, making his first lunge.
Dana parried it easily and looked at another mountain - smaller then Seleya, much smaller - almost two kilometers away. Even from this distance she recognized it immediately: the place where Spock's and Saavik's wedding would be held. T'Lar's message was clear; finish it quickly and you might make it to the wedding.
She was determined to do just that and attacked with great intensity. After two minutes, she found it had been a mistake. She was sweating profoundly and already tired, while Mario had only a few drops of sweat on his brow.
"I was born on Vulcan. I lived here my first twenty-four years." Mario grinned evilly as he explained and attacked with an equal intensity. Dana was forced on the defensive as she did her best to keep up with him, but she had never lived long on Vulcan. Certainly not her developing years, like Mario, and adapted to Vulcan's climate. The minutes dragged on, showing that Dana possessed a greater skill, but Mario's Vulcan adapted physiology compensated for that. Often Dana would fall down in the sand when she couldn't back up fast enough to avoid Mario's attacks. As time dragged on, Mario slowly gained the upper hand.
Dana finally made a desperate move. With a scream she ran straight at him and jumped. She collided with him. The desert sand didn't allow him to keep his balance, and he fell backward. Dana struggled up as fast as possible and stepped on the arm that was holding his sword. She brought her katana down, and it sliced easily through his neck. She was impressed. That was the first kill she made with the katana given to her by the Ninja. The blade worked better for her than she had ever expected, and as the lightning strikes started blasting into her she knew, that like many Immortals, she had found her sword. The sword that belonged to her, the sword that would be with her for centuries, the sword that made her complete.
*****
McCoy walked down the path back to the city, Ruanek to his left. The wedding was over. Other guests were walking there as well, either in front or behind them.
"So, this T'Selis is . . . beautiful," Ruanek said to McCoy. "How would one go about courting a Vulcan woman?"
"I think you should be very logical about it, like starting a conversation with her, preferably with 'Hello, I'm Ruanek.' I don't think saying, 'Fuck me,' will cut it," McCoy grinned at his remark.
Ruanek looked a bit shocked, then grinned and said, "Yeah, you're probably right . . . I think I'll go try that right now."
"You go, son," McCoy answered. Ruanek slowly moved off in her direction.
McCoy looked surprised as he saw Dana walking up the hill rather fast and sudden. She spotted him, walked towards him and started walking to his right side.
"Hello, Leonard," Dana said.
"No wonder T'Lar was expecting that lightning strike. She knows what you are, right?" McCoy asked the question very softly, hoping that none of the Vulcans were close enough to overhear.
"Oh yeah, we go way back," Dana said, gesturing with her hand how far back.
"I should say so. You were probably at her birth," McCoy remarked sarcastically, feeling awe creeping up on him. He still remembered the release of Peter Kalinsky's Quickening.
"Don't be silly. It's not that I'm that young, it's that she was born before First Contact," Dana grinned at him.
*Damn!* he thought. *If a Vulcan is listening in, he's going to think we're crazy.*
"You're almost as bad as those damn, green-blooded Vulcans, you know that?" McCoy snorted at her, liking their banter.
"Oh, no, we're worse. At least Vulcans die," Dana grinned at him. McCoy had the distinct impression that he was outmatched.
~~X~~
They stepped back onto the bridge. "Move it, Ensign," Dana said as she walked towards the pilot's seat. "Status," she demanded, as she placed herself in the pilot's seat and strapped herself in.
"Time to intercept shielded ship: two minutes and forty-three seconds, time for pursuers to intercept with us, two minutes and fifty-six seconds," Commander Makai answered. "This ship is at maximum speed."
"Well, now we wait," Dana said, drumming her fingers impatiently, looking at Hans as he strapped himself in another seat.
Almost two and a half minutes later Kovar called out, "Escort ships are breaking off and changing course to intercept us."
"Well, here we go. Everybody, hold on tight," Dana answered, as she prepared the ship for battle.
The two escorts came for them. They fired phasers and hit the Cardassian vessel. The ship lurched violently at the hits. Dana jerked the ship upward, going over them. Groans sounded from all over the bridge as the g-forces hit them. "Shields down to eighty-three percent!" Admiral Ventura relayed to Dana.
"Admiral, take out the ship's frontal shields and warp drive, but don't damage it too much," Dana ordered, lining the ship's weapons up with the targets as the ship lurched with hits coming from the four vessels behind her. The communications-silenced vessel was completely unprepared, as its crew never expected the normally low maneuverable Cardassian vessel to reach them.
"Frontal shields and warp drive of the target are out," the admiral said.
Dana swivelled the ship in a violent arch the other way to the four pursuing warships. "Admiral fire at everything with everything this ship's got, except the communications' blacked-out vessel."
"Aye, Captain," the admiral answered. The Cardassian vessel and the four Dominion ships who were still remaining at warp speeds all dropped out of warp. Dana ducked the ship downward. Two of the vessels followed. The ship lurched from several impacts.
"Shields down to forty-one percent," Kovar said.
Dana forced the ship into a full stop. Then as the Dominion ships zipped past them, she accelerated the ship forward. Torpedoes and phasers lanced at the Dominion ships. One showed explosions occurring along the hull. The other two Dominion vessels came at them from either side.
"Fire everything at the starboard vessel," Dana called, as she forced the Cardassian warship into a sharp roll, aiming its weapons systems at the mentioned warship. Mid-roll, Dana suddenly shut down the shields. The timing was perfect. Four torpedoes - two from either ship - and a phaser shot zipped past them, at places only meters away from the hull, where they normally would have impacted on the shields. Immediately after they passed, Dana raised the shields again, just in time to take the brunt of the impact from shots that came afterward. The starboard vessel, which took two Dominion torpedoes as well as weapons' impacts from their ship, exploded, sending debris flying everywhere.
"Shields down to twenty-percent, warp drive off-line, most primary systems are off-line, fires are spreading everywhere, no crew to put them out and fire-suppression systems are off-line, torpedo launchers inoperative, only frontal phasers left," Kovar coolly relayed.
"Captain, we've got the start of a warp-core breach. There's nothing I can do," Bolo's voice answered.
"Keep it together for a few more minutes, Bolo," she answered, dodging several shots while the ship jolted with an impact here and there. A grunt of acknowledgment followed her order. "Transporter room, get ready to beam us to the blueprint ship," Dana said and executed a daring move. She had followed the most damaged ship, the other two were behind her. As they fired, she flung the ship almost instantly into a vertical position and accelerated downward. She heard the poor Cardassian ship grunt, rupture and twist, and felt it shudder beneath her. The move worked though Two torpedoes and a phaser blast missed them and hit the Dominion ship, obliterating it instantly.
"Everybody get out your weapons," Dana said as she steered the vessel straight for the blacked-out Dominion warship. "Transporter room, when I give the order, transport me close to the ship's pilot console, and the admiral near the tactical console. The rest of us doesn't matter, as long as it is onto the bridge."
"Aye, sir," the answer from the transporter room came, as the ship bucked under another impact.
"Shields down to four percent, impulse power severely diminished. A third time?" Kovar answered, cool as ever.
"Like they say, 'three time's a charm,'" Dana muttered to him, then told everybody, "Two of you guard each entrance to the bridge, the others take care of the people on the bridge and get ready for if they beam Jem'Hadar onto the bridge," The determined silence told Dana they were all ready.
"Shields are down," Kovar answered, as almost everything on the bridge started to burn or sizzled.
"Transport!" Dana shouted, as she grasped the hilt of her katana on her back. They disappeared in an orange light, right before the whole ship disappeared in a blinding flash of light.
*****
"We've got them!" the Vorta yelled in triumph. Then his face paled as he saw twenty-five orange shimmering cones materialize into Humanoid forms. Two of them dropped to the floor, either unconscious, or dead. The next thing he knew, was a searing pain his chest and then nothing.
Scully ran her sword though the surprised Jem'Hadar soldier at the pilot's console and pushed him aside as she pulled her sword from him. He dropped dead to the floor. She turned the ship to bear down upon the remaining two Dominion Warships, using only the sensor readouts.
*That's right what to do now, eh? You can't destroy this ship, since you can't destroy the blueprints contained in it,* Scully thought, as she saw the last of the Jem'Hadar fall. One more Federation casualty could be added to the list, bringing it to three dead. Some of her crew were injured. The doctor started to tend to them as the rest all took up tactical positions. She heard phaser fire from behind her. Obviously fighting had broken out at the doors.
Dana laughed as she looked at the readouts she made appear with a few punches of buttons. Power levels were rising, including in the shields. "Sometimes you've really got love the Dominion's philosophy of no information. They're still repairing the shields and warp drive," Dana said out loud. Admiral Ventura luckily wasn't sleeping, and he fired a deadly volley at one of the two hesitating Dominion ships. It broke apart and exploded. The second learned its lesson and moved off. Dana followed it while the Admiral fired the ship's weapons at it.
Shimmering lights appeared on the bridge, but her crew was ready and phasered the Jem'Hadar soldiers down. One of them got of a lucky, shot and the fourth dead could be added to the list.
Dana decided - and so seemed the Admiral - to finish this. She banked the Dominion ship sharply in anticipation of the other ship's most likely movement. The ship was lined up for shots crossing its path. Four torpedoes and three quick phaser bursts destroyed the last ship. Scully stepped over to the operations console quickly and tapped in the same combination of keys she did the first time. The dead bodies of the Jem'Hadar and Vorta disappeared from sight. Dana turned on one of the small screens and saw them floating amongst the debris field of the four destroyed ships. No reason to vaporize them now.
"Ensign Papen, set a course for the Badlands. Bolo, get this ship up and running," Scully ordered as she walked to a side console.
"Aye, sirs," sounded. The bridge hustled with activity as most of them scrambled to get off it. She used the console to read the isolinear rod's information and downloaded the virus into the computer.
Dana removed the little screen and said, "Commander, you've got the bridge. I'll go check and see if there are any Changelings on board and if there are any hard copies of those damn blueprints."
"Yes, sir," answered Makai.