Star Trek: Anachronisms, Chapter Four

STAR TREK: ANACRONISMS

By Tigris Euphrates,

and Sapph Blackstone

This is a crossover story is based on the Star Trek universe created by Gene Roddenberry and the Gargoyles universe created by Greg Wiseman and Michael Reeves. All vessels and characters that have appeared in Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Voyager and related movies are registered trademarks of Paramount Pictures. Gargoyles and related characters are registered trademarks of Buena Vista Pictures and Walt Disney Studios. The stories and characters not described above are original creations of T'Layna MacMathain, Tigris Euphrates, Sapph Blackstone and Poison Thorns Productions. Copyright (c) 2000 All rights reserved.

Chapter Four

Section 113

It was the transporter that was used to move the two Gargoyles from the surface to Space Dock. This was an incredibly bad idea. The moment the Gargoyles materialized on the platform, they roared and turned to stone.

Admiral Falcone, who had been selected as their reception committee was started, and checked the chronometer. It was still the middle of the night. He turned to the petty officer at the transporter room.

"Computer, what just happened? It's the middle of the night!"

"It's at least thirteen hours before Space Dock goes behind the earth again." The petty officer noted.

The admiral sighed. "What form of energy, given off by the sun, can pass through a building or even small layers of ground strata, but not through the earth's core?"

"Most bands of energy from Theta to Delta band emissions can produce this effect. Theta band radiation penetrates most forms of cold rock and strata, but cannot penetrate earth's mantle and core."

"Gargoyles absorb this energy in their regenerative cycle. It appears to be something Space Dock's deflectors do not block." the admiral deduced.

"A narrow band of Delta energy between the following Terahertz ranges..."

"Never mind the specifics, program two sub-dermal environmental compensators for me with a twelve hour release." The admiral ordered, and in the replicator, two devices appeared. They were oblong and had a series of controls on them. "And block those frequencies in the transport chamber."

With a crackle of energy, a force field appeared around the transport chamber, and the two Gargoyle's stone skins cracked and fell away - the two young Gargoyles coming to life with a roar.

"What happened?" Aria inquired with a yawn and a stretch of her wings.

"It seems being in orbit without the protection of the Terran night, you went immediately into your sleep state." The admiral advised. He walked through the force field barrier, and walked onto the platform. Placing one of the devices on Aria's arm, and it hissed once. He did the same with Adam.

"What's that?" Adam inquired.

"It's designed to block the frequencies of solar radiation that trigger your sleep cycle. It's sub-dermal - press on it, and it will shut off for twelve hours before reactivating." He instructed them. The two nodded, and stepped successfully out of the transport chamber.

"This is the USS Yorktown, she'll be dropping you off at your first posting." The Admiral explained. As they walked down the halls of the space station, some of the other people stared. Aria and Adam ignored the attention. "Your actual mission orders are top secret."

Outside the viewport was a midsize Galaxy class starship that was moored inside the station. Adam whistled.

Aria however, was turning pale.

"Are you alright, Ensign?" The admiral inquired, concerned.

"I think so. I may have to go see the doctor on board, though." She replied.

"It might be the Delta Emission blocking, you'll get your mission briefing later."

The two nodded, the admiral shook their hands, and they went their separate ways.

As they walked along the gangway to the ship, Adam put a hand on Aria's shoulder. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm just feeling waves of nausea all of the sudden." She explained.

"I know the layout of the ship, I'll show you the way."

The doctor was a kindly older Deltan man with a bald head. "You aren't feeling this nausea, Lieutenant?" he asked.

"Not a thing, sir." He replied.

The man nodded. Aria groaned.

"Have you thrown up yet this evening?"

She nodded. "Before we beamed up from Starfleet."

He closed his tricorder. "Could you step outside for a moment, Lieutenant?"

Adam nodded and did so respectfully.

The Deltan looked at Aria with a serious tone. "When was the last time you menstruated, Ensign?"

"About a week before I was changed. I'm not due for another one for a week or two. Why?"

"Let me rephrase the question." The doctor said. "Do you want to know the sex of the baby?"

, , ,

With a small case under her arm, Aria left sickbay with a flushed look. She felt so... embarrassed. She found Adam in the lounge, looking out the back of the ship at earth. Aria leaned against the railing, looking out the window.

"What did he say?" Adam inquired.

"Eh... it's nothing. I'm learning about... Gargoyle Feminine things." She lied.

"Oh." He replied, and dropped the subject.

Without any sense of movement, the stars shifted, and the earth began to fall away below them. Aria stared out at her home. She hadn't left earth for years, and before it was only for short vacations. Earth was her home. What was it that she was feeling? It was HER home. Protect - yes that was it, she felt protective of it.

The stars rushed faster and faster, as though they were leaving the galaxy in a great rush. Suddenly there was a flash of light, and behind it the stars were moving by at a steady pace - they had gone to warp. Adam was watching the whole thing with fascination. Aria felt guilty about lying to Adam.

"We'll... talk about it later." she told him.

, , ,

Their first post turned out to be guard duty on a fringe world on the border of Borg occupied space. The name of the place was completely lost on Aria. Since the defeat of the Dominion, ships of Romulan, Klingon, and Cardassian origin patrolled the Borg lines, afraid the Borg would take advantage of the Federation's reduced number of ships, and try to infiltrate the quadrant. Taking advantage of their previous alliance, they allied against their other common foe.

Thusly, this world had become a hive of warships and starships visiting, refueling, restocking and disappearing into space again. Specialized sensors were erected here to detect and possibly give early warning of Borg conduits. Security risks planetside were at an all time high.

It doesn't really matter when you are planetside if you enlisted as a yellow suit, blue suit, or red suit. If you are menial ranking officer, you do grunt work. Being political trump cards for the Federation, both Gargoyles were not given much choice in their department choice, and were both red suits.

The Borg were an imminent threat here - it was a tension that seemed to be constantly running high in the blood of people there. People were, for the most part, calm, cool, and collected, but very very tense. It wasn't exactly like in the past where some Starfleet sailor were drinking themselves to death in synthahol bars because of the impending doom - far from it, with their newfound allies spirits were riding high - they'd beaten back the Dominion, they could do it again.

However, when left alone in her quarters for a little while, Aria's thoughts prevailed elsewhere. She was staying in a barracks outside the spaceport, and was next door to Adam. For some reason the two of them were in an isolated wing away from the other human Starfleet personnel. It seemed Starfleet was afraid of another outbreak of violence between humans and Gargoyles, and Aria couldn't say she blamed them. Morning after morning she would lock the door after saying goodnight to her friend Adam, and stand in front of the mirror with her uniform off - turning this way and that - wondering if it showed yet. It didn't, of course, but Aria was felt so new still to this body, that she wasn't sure she would know what it looked like even when she saw it. Did Gargoyles have live births, or was she going to lay an egg or something? Did she even want to know at this stage of the game?

There was only one person to ask... and that was the father of her child.

They were assigned to security shifts on the orbital docking platform that served as a shipping and receiving warehouse for supplies being brought to the front lines and then shipping out to the ships that most needed them. There were a lot of disreputable types up there - going in and out, freighter captains, worker grunts of many races, sailors from various races of ships participating in the armada. Unfortunately, Aria and Adam were left to the unholy hours of the morning shift, which meant very few people were about. They would come on duty around midnight, and then go off duty around the time dock workers were starting to come onto shift, leaving them about thirty minutes or so to beam down and get to their apartments for the night before the sun rose. If they were distracted and didn't make it back in time, they usually woke up on an antigrav unit in a storage closet somewhere and would be hounded by someone to clean up the bits of gravel they left behind.

They had been through about two weeks of this when something happened. A rumor began to circulate that one of the lead federation ships, the USS Enterprise, had detected traces of transwarp conduits along the patrol route. Patrols remained unchanged, however, but the movement of goods increased.

About halfway into the third week, Aria's communicator blared to life. Out of habit, she immediately slapped at her left breast. "Maza here."

"This is Falcone - can you and your companion report to my office?"

Aria looked over at Adam. He was in the middle of a row of duranium crates, and their gazes connected. "Uh, sure admiral."

That was how both - an ensign and a lieutenant - wound up in the admiral's office with phaser rifles slung over their shoulders. Aria would have to admit that the thought of blasting the hell out of the admiral was an appealing notion, but she was not - by nature - an aggressive person.

The admiral began by turning to Adam. "You recall that discussion we had before?"

He nodded.

The admiral turned to Aria. "Maza, let's talk." He motioned the Gargoyles to a couple of plush armchairs in front of his desk. Aria was nervous, but did so, laying her sidearm very carefully across her lap, crossing her legs, and settling her wings around her shoulders. "Have you had much chance to loosen your wings while you've been here?" he asked Adam, with an almost sidelong curiosity

Adam nodded. "I have, but Aria hasn't, and she's the one that needs it, unfortunately, as her wings are still so young to life."

"I thought you said she had been given all the skill to use them?" he inquired.

"Habitual skills, yes - but not experience." Adam explained. "If I gave you wings, there would be two parts to learning to use them - the motor and nervous skills which allow you to move them, and second it the experience in how to use them to do what you want."

The admiral nodded in understanding. "Then hopefully you'll be able to write a holodeck program or something to do the same job, because time here is up. I can't wait any longer."

Aria interrupted. "Holodeck? Are we leaving here?"

"Yes, I'm transferring you ship side. I'm trying to see that you're assigned to one of the newer Galaxy class ships - perhaps the USS Gorbachev - but it was heavily damaged in the Dominion war. Adam - do you think you could settle with a Sovereign-class ship? They're harder to get onto, but I think it gives the two of you a higher chance of surviving, numerically."

"Us surviving? What about all the other people on the ship?"

Adam and the admiral exchanged a look. "Let me tell you a story, Ensign Maza. The following is top secret and does not go beyond this room, understood?" Aria nodded. "Let's go back ten years. I was put in charge of a secret project by the Federation High Council, code named Section 113."

"But... there is no section 113..." Aria started to point out, but immediately felt stupid for saying so.

"Precisely, Ensign. The goal was to scour the earth for any information regarding all the reports of Gargoyles in late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries - right in the beginning of the third world war and the eugenics wars. We scoured every possibly nook and cranny of this world, searching for sentient life outside of the oceans. We always found it strange that everywhere we went the only sentient life was human. Could humanity have really killed them all off?"

"Then we found Adam - and not far from us, either - right in the last place we would ever have expected to find a Gargoyle - near New Sacramento. We presented Adam to the High Council, and everything seemed great."

"I was a lab rat for a while, but they eventually got over that." Adam added. Aria said nothing, listening intently.

"We figured Adam was a sentient being and deserved all the rights that the Federation would any other sentient being. He elected to go the academy and study - even become a cadet, but we couldn't risk exposing him to the public - just yet. These last few weeks we have been keeping you isolated to study your effect on everyone else around you. We don't want to control your reentry into society, but we do want to learn as much as we can in the process."

"What is the goal of Section 113 now?" Aria inquired.

"Your protection and the growth of Gargoyles as a race." the admiral replied.

"We might be able to solve that question if we could locate Planet Wyvern." Adam pointed out.

"Adam, we don't even know if Planet Wyvern exists. There are one hundred and forty million unexplored worlds in the Alpha quadrant alone, and what with all the Borg, Dominion and other unknown hostile activity in the past decade alone, you have to admit that the likelihood we'll ever find this...Planet Wyvern...intact is remote."

"The Borg don't own the whole galaxy, Admiral. You know that as well as I. Besides - have you captured any Borg drones with wings and tails?"

"No. Nor have we encountered assimilated Vorta, Hirogen, Kazon, or Vidiians. But they're there. Besides, their grasp of genetic manipulation far exceeds our own abilities. They could easily remove a pair of wings and a tail so they can fit a particular alcove."

"You're forgetting the other half of a Gargoyle's makeup."

"What - magic?!" Admiral Falcone scoffed.

"The energy matrix that is inherent in our every cell is a symbiotic relationship that allows us to rest and regenerate every day - it would fight off any attempts at Borg genetic manipulation, just like any attempt you've made to return Ensign Maza's humanity!"

"All it takes is one Gargoyle for the Borg to assimilate, and they will have all data they need to adapt."

"But they can't assimilate even one - because they don't know how."

"You don't know they haven't already. Who's to say they haven't encountered similar things elsewhere in the galaxy?" Falcone pointed out. "You can speculate all you want. The issue remains - you are the last Terran Gargoyles left." Falcone looked directly at Aria. "We CANNOT afford to lose you. There will always be humans left after the next Borg assault, but we cannot guarantee that there will still be Gargoyles. I STRONGLY recommend that you go back to Earth and take a safer post."

"No!" Aria cut in. "I've worked too long and hard to just hand in my training and take a desk job."

"But a Starship is no place to raise the first rookery of Gargoyles..." Falcone began to protest.

Aria shot up out of her seat. "What?!!! First rookery? Is that what this is all about?"

Falcone looked at Adam. He turned red and looked at his knees. "Admiral, we have not even discussed the possibility..."

"Shut up and stay out of this, Adam." Aria snapped, angrily. "This is absurd! I don't care if it IS the Federation High Council that's saying this, but they need to stay out of my personal life!"

Admiral Falcone gave Aria a stern look. "Ensign Aria Maza, you are the LAST female Terran Gargoyle in existence. A personal life is a luxury you cannot afford."

"If I decide to become pregnant, than it's my own choice - isn't it?!!!" she exclaimed, tightening her fists in anger. "If I found out you've in any way violated my personal privacy, I'm going to take it to the Sentience Rights Commission!"

The admiral shook his head. "How can you possibly be so pig headed when there is so much at stake here? Can't you stop and think of all the lives that are resting on this meeting?"

Aria roared in fury, flaring her wings, her eyes ablaze with an amber hue. Without bothering with the door, she pulled out her phaser and melted a hole several meters wide in the transparent aluminum rear wall, and jumped out. She found herself several stories up, and used her wings to glide away, and into the mountains beyond the spaceport.

"Why won't she listen to reason?" Falcone sighed to Adam.

Adam looked at Falcone. "I warned you - look at her personal history. Let me go after her."

Falcone straightened up, still on his knees, staring slack jawed out the ruined window. He snorted, getting to his feet and brushing off his uniform. "Women," he growled under his breath, tugging on his jacket with finality.

, , ,

Aria caught an updraft, and landed in the hills and mountains outside the city, found a place between some trees that looked like very tall shrubs with four pointed leaves, and sat down, covering herself with her wings to make herself feel more isolated. She had spent much of her youth fighting to see that alien races enjoyed the same benefits as humans. Who would have thought she would have been changed like this? Aria cursed herself, that stupid Admiral had probably already gotten the records from the doctor and knew she was carrying Adam's baby. No, she chastised herself, don't be silly. If he knew about my baby, he'd never let me on a starship near the front lines. He'd lock me up in a cage somewhere and throw away the key. No, she had sworn to uphold the Gargoyle's purpose - to protect, and that included protecting her own kind. That meant - what was it they said in the Bible? "Multiply and replenish the earth"? This was a maddening situation, Aria thought in frustration. She had worked long and hard to fly a starship, and now she was being cornered and tricked into going back home to spend her life being - literally - barefoot and pregnant to a man she barely knew.

"ARIA!" came Adam's voice in the distance. Aria turned to see the bat-like wing span coasting on the nighttime skyline in her direction.

Gargoyles have a kind of infrared vision, so Aria was easy to pick out among the alien shrubbery below. He landed, folded his wings, and sat next to Aria. "I'm sorry about that."

Aria didn't reply. Lying to Adam anymore wouldn't get her anywhere - she knew she had a responsibility to tell him, there was no doubt he was the father - she hadn't had any relations of that kind many months before she found Adam. Keeping him from knowing the truth would get her nowhere.

"Look, I know you're upset at him, Aria - I can understand why - I would be too if I were in your place..." he started to try to explain.

"Adam, I'm pregnant." Aria cut him off.

There was a long silence.

Adam looked her directly in the eyes. "That was what the doctor told you this morning - those were the 'feminine things' you were discussing?"

"Yes." she admitted.

Adam paused again, doing his best to take this as gently and delicately as possible.

"How long?"

"No more than a week. Jack and I haven't had sex in month or two - our relationship was getting very stale, and I left on my trip for Paris. I wasn't pregnant then. The child has to be yours."

Adam nodded. "The child is probably a Gargoyle then. When the fetus is over a certain number of weeks old, the body will still consider the part of the fetus's DNA which comes from you to still be a part of you, and will change it along with rest of your body."

Aria could not face Adam and turned away, but Adam took her chin and turned her face back toward him. "How does this make you feel? Not good, I take it?"

"I feel cornered - trapped. If Admiral Falcone finds out, I'll never be able to fly a starship. Adam, I've worked and studied much of my life away just so I can do that."

"How do you feel about being a mother at the same time?"

Aria sighed, and thought for a long time. Adam did not stir, and patiently waited as the time passed. It was Aria herself that finally broke the silence. "I'm warming to the idea, but slowly. Maybe it will get Admiral Falcone off my back."

"I can assure you, Aria - it will." he smiled.. "But Aria, that's not a reason to have a child. You were right, Aria! Repopulating a species isn't a good enough reason either! You can always see one of the doctors about have the fetus reabsorbed, but in the end this is your choice. That is the Gargoyle way - in the end it is the female's prerogative."

Aria did not reply, but put one paw on her abdomen, sniffling.

Adam did the best thing he knew to do - he reached over and hugged her. Aria responded well - taking his hands in hers. She began to cry in earnest now. "It's okay." he told her. "Let it all out."

For the next half hour Aria fitfully cried, spilling everything she had been feeling since the day she had first met Adam in the form of her tears. Adam held her, watching the little glow-ants crawling around the sandy ground on the mountain path, the eerie and strange sounds the night creatures made, and the tinkling sound of the wind in the bushes on this planet.

"Let me tell you something." Adam finally said. "This isn't your fault, so don't you dare blame yourself. Magic is funny that way, and being a Gargoyle, you must take it into consideration. I doubt it was pure chance that we met, and somehow fate chose you to become a Gargoyle."

"I don't understand, Adam." Aria put in. "What is magic?"

"There's a very old saying that magic is nothing more than far more advanced science from the point of view of someone who does not understand it. It's a complex high level energy field that can be kinetically manipulated and controlled by someone with the correct training and channels. It's formed from basic forms of photonic energy, but takes large amounts of it to do things like change a woman into a Gargoyle. The pendant that caused this... effect... was a highly focused channel for that kind of energy, and was very densely packed with the stuff. It was your thoughts, however, that gave it a form and a purpose, and caused it to transform you. The theta band energy released from stars, for example, is what triggers out natural sleep cycle."

"Can you use it to help protect us?"

"Yes?"

"Including our baby... if I decide to keep it?"

"Especially the child, Aria. A young person can be impressed with protections that will last them their whole lives. It will become a part of them, just like turning to stone is a part of who we are." Adam explained.

Adam was quiet again, trying to gauge if he had said too much. He tried hard to be sensitive to her feelings right now, but he still didn't know Aria, let alone how to read her reactions.

Aria turned her gaze back to her abdomen, as if it were somehow the answer. She had stopped crying now, and she felt like her feelings were finally crystallizing into some semblance of understanding. What was it she was feeling? She couldn't abide the thought of destroying the little life that was growing inside her. Was it because of the Admiral, or her obligation to the Gargoyles as a race? No, it was something deeper. She wanted the child... because she wanted to be a Gargoyle... because she wanted to be a mother. Somehow in her mind the two had become inexorably connected - they had the same meaning for her. Being a Gargoyle meant being a mother of Gargoyles. She didn't know why, but it felt right to her.

"I want to keep my baby." she told him in a low voice. "Not for Admiral Falcone, but for me. I'm having the baby now, then I want to keep my child."

Adam sighed in relief. It had been a gamble, but it had paid off wonderfully. "Thank you, Aria."

They hugged again.

, , ,

As it turned out, they had been assigned to the USS Enterprise, registry NCC-1701-E, flagship of the Fleet. She was a Sovereign-class heavy explorer vessel, armed with all the latest ass-kickers, but that's not what intrigued Aria so much about her. It was the ship's crew. Captain Jean-Luc Picard was at least as giant a figure in starship lore as Captains Benjamin Sisko, Christopher Pike and James Kirk. He was also Starfleet's leading authority on Borg tactics, technology and culture. Aria suspected Admiral Falcone's connections to Section 113 had a lot to do with getting them here. This meant their chances of survival were good.

Best of all, Aria discovered, she was allowed to go back to the department she'd originally trained for - engineering. She was only an Ensign, but she was determined to prove her usefulness as an engineer, and maybe even work up the ladder a little. Adam was still on a security detachment, but he didn't mind that much. However Admiral Falcone did gang up on them in one matter - they made her and Adam wear a special electronic bracelet which each couldn't remove that acted as a homing beacon for the Section 113 people. Terrific. Falcone didn't know about her baby, Adam had revealed to her earlier - and to the best of his knowledge, the Admiral would not violate her privacy by looking up the results of her little medical exam from the Yorktown.

Commander Riker was there to greet them in the transporter room. He gave them the typical 'welcome aboard, if there's anything you need' speech before assigning their quarters and handing them off to a pair of duty officers. "Oh, one more thing," he called after them. "There's a senior staff meeting in the Observation Lounge, at 1200 hours. Captain Picard would like you both there."

"The Observation Lounge definitely was...roomy. They watched the stars, hanging silently against the backdrop of space, sit motionless in space. The Enterprise was currently holding position, on the lookout for Borg transwarp signatures.

A few minutes passed before the senior staff filed in through the door, taking their seats in the large, cushioned chairs. Some of the faces Aria recognized from her small hero worshiping phases, but there were one or two faces she didn't recognize. She knew Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Commander Troi, Commander Data, Chief Engineer Commander LaForge, and Doctor Crusher, but there was a chief petty officer and a security chief whom Aria had never heard of.

The two Gargoyles simply stood, their wings caped around their shoulders. As the officers began filing in, Aria's anxiety level went up, and she unconsciously unfolded her wings. Adam looked over at her, and did the same.

"Welcome aboard the Enterprise, Ensign, Lieutenant. These are my officers, Commander Riker, Commander Troi, Lieutenant Commander Data, Lieutenant Commander LaForge, Lieutenant Daniels, and Chief Petty Officer Stiles." Captain Picard said amicably, leaning forward and threading his fingers together, resting them on the table before him.

Adam nodded and smiled, adding only a belated, "Sir," that brought out a slight quirk of a smile from Picard. Riker on the other hand shared an amused look with Troi, who simply rolled her eyes, winked, and went back to the two standing officers.

"Ensign, from what I've read, you're straight out of the Academy - is that right?" Riker asked, fixing his gaze squarely on Aria.

"Y... Yes sir."

Riker looked back at Picard briefly, the obvious question passing between them. It was highly irregular for a junior officer fresh from the Academy to be assigned to the flagship of the Federation, while some officers waited for years to be assigned the same posts.

"Forgive me, Ensign, but this is somewhat irregular. Perhaps if you could shed some light on this matter..?" Picard put in, arching an eyebrow ever so slightly.

Aria coughed. "If I may be so bold sir, but I believe I'm up to the challenge. However being posted here is something of a surprise to me too, sir."

LaForge coughed. Loudly. A sharp kick in the shin from Troi shut him up.

Picard, however, seemed at least marginally satisfied with the answer. "Of course, Ensign." He checked the information on his PADD briefly before looking back up at them. "Well, Ensign, Lieutenant - it would seem I have a minor mystery on my hands. It says here that you're classified as...'Gargoyles?'" They both nodded. "But the information on the planet you originate from seems to be classified at the highest levels." He frowned, leaning back and crossing his legs, lacing his fingers over his lap. "I...don't suppose you'd be able to clear up this matter..?"

Adam spoke up, placing a hand on Aria's shoulder restraining her and stepping up next to her. "I'm sorry, sir. Even our clearance doesn't go that high. Perhaps Admiral Falcone could clear it for you, sir." Adam wasn't kidding either - the Admiral had explained that their planet of origin and any information about Section 113 was so secret that the only people who knew were the highest level of Starfleet intelligence, and anyone who was told would have their memories wiped. That was a pretty unnerving thing for them to hear.

Picard's eyes narrowed imperceptibly, and the temperature in the room felt like it just dropped a good ten degrees. "Indeed, Lieutenant. Unfortunately, the Admiral has told me the same." Their gazes locked for a brief moment, and the temperature felt like it dropped again. Picard broke the link abruptly, turning to Crusher and saying cheerily, "Doctor?"

"We've received their medical profiles from Aquilae station, and they do have some special needs. Night shifts only, and shifts should be kept to eight hours a day." Doctor Crusher read from her notes. "They have a metamorphic sleeping process, and are therefore very vulnerable while sleeping."

"Metamorphic?" asked the Petty Chief Daniels anxiety plain in her voice, "Do you turn to a liquid or something when you sleep?"

"Stone." Adam corrected her. There was a wave of surprise that ran through the officers, but none said anything about it.

"I'd like to witness that process, if I may." the Doctor requested.

Aria looked at Adam. "We should be able to arrange a demonstration."

Crusher checked her PADD again, then shifted her gaze back to Aria. "I notice also that you have another issue which has been marked confidential." Aria flushed red, turning her face a dark-violet color. She had the report on her pregnancy! "Can we discuss that?"

"I'd really... rather not. Not yet." Aria stammered. Crusher nodded, and the issue was dropped.

Picard looked around the table at his officers before nodding, looking back up at the two new officers. "Thank you, Lieutenant, Ensign. That will be all. You will receive your assignments later this evening. Dismissed."

Aria looked about ready to say something else, when Adam swatted her tail surreptitiously with his own. They nodded and exited the way they came.

Picard arched an eyebrow, leaning back in his chair and tugging at his jacket. "Well...impressions?"

Riker cocked his head briefly, looking over at Troi before shifting his gaze to Picard. "She's awfully headstrong. I didn't get much of a read on the other one...uh..." He looked over at Troi, craning his neck. "What was his name?"

"Wyvern, Will. Adam Wyvern." Troi snorted, shaking her head slightly, but smiling nonetheless.

"Right. I didn't get much of a read on him."

Picard nodded, pursing his lips thoughtfully. He turned to Troi. "Counselor?"

She inhaled, frowning slightly. "Ensign Maza definitely is confident in her work - I'd say to the point of being cocky. She may be overcompensating for some personal issues."

"Could've fooled me." LaForge muttered, reaching down to rub his shin. "That HURT, Deanna..."

She shrugged it off, continuing. "Lieutenant Wyvern, on the other hand, was telling the truth. Their clearance doesn't permit them to tell where they're from. But I think both of them are good officers. Strong, and loyal, and exceptionally protective of each other."

Picard nodded, slower this time. "Do you anticipate this to be a problem?"

Troi shook her head. "No. If anything, they draw strength from each other, and I can only view that as a positive right now."

He nodded yet again. Daniels spoke up immediately. "Sir, I have my...misgivings about this 'change' of theirs. It reeks of the Founders..."

"We're at peace, Mr. Daniels." Riker snapped, fixing him with an even gaze.

"Yes sir. Sorry, sir. If Dr. Crusher could have a complete medical profile on them before they take their first duty-shift, though..."

Picard inhaled deeply, mulling it over in his mind. "Doctor?"

"It's something I'd already planned on doing, Captain." Crusher shrugged her shoulders. "Lieutenant Daniels' concern just makes it more prudent."

Picard nodded quickly. "Very well. Report when you're finished, Doctor. Mr. Daniels, Mr. LaForge, assign them as you see fit. Thank you, everyone." He stood, as did the other officers. "That will be all."

, , ,

The Borg struck in the middle of the night - right at the beginning of Aria and Adam's shift. A transwarp conduit opened, spilling forth green light into the blackness of space, and spilling out of space and releasing a small sphere the size of a city block. The Federation ships were the closest, and attacked the cubes were their scientifically advanced warships, sending out the call to their allies down the line.

The Enterprise was on the front, and so met with heavy resistance. With its heavy firepower, and it's captain's experience, began to tear the sphere apart. The Enterprise swooped down like a hawk, took out their primary defense grid, and let the other ships pound them to pieces - giving the Federation ships more than a fighting chance.

Aria had not heard from Adam since the beginning of the attack, and she had to admit she was a little worried. If she knew Adam, though - she knew he found find a way to make it down to engineering to protect her. She knew how that Gargoyle's mind worked.

However, Aria had too many other things on her mind. If there was one thing the Borg were good at, it was making use of the information it assimilates. After having followed their prescribed battle plan for the first half minute or so, the sphere took a direct shot directly at the engineering section of the Enterprise. It left the shield generated toasted and would take a few minutes at least to get it back up and running.

The Borg did not miss their opportunity. The engineering staff, having been on high alert, were all armed using weapons with rotating wavelength and frequency settings based on an algorithm the Borg would take about an hour to deduce, at which point the algorithm could be changed.

The drones materialized around the core first, and the entire staff took cover. The bridge locked out all the controls in the engineering section, so there was nothing left to do here but survive. Aria had a phase compression rifle slung over her shoulder that was given to her at the when the conduit had first appeared and security went on high alert and every standing linesman because a foot soldier. Aria was no exception, but her reaction to the appearance of the drones was very different than other officers.

She attacked. Given over immediately to Gargoyle instincts, she lay down on the floor and opened fire. Between her and several others, the first wave was taken down immediately by phaser fire. However, that was when things got complicated. One of the drones kamikazed herself by running forward, slapping a device on an engineering console, and getting phasered to death. The device caused the engineering console to sputter to life, die, sputter to life, die, and so on.

"They're trying to take control of the computer!" LaForge's voice shouted from the bridge via the intercom. Aria spontaneously changed the computer in her rifle's position in the algorithm just to confuse the enemy, and fired at the device.

That was when one of the staff was hit from behind, and before anyone knew what was happening, they had been nanoprobed. Aria spun her weapon around, but it was to late, a metal tazer from the drone had been struck in that staff member's weapon, and the hive immediately knew the algorithm. Aria curled up behind a console, and put a small isolinear chip into her weapon, and threw it at her buddy staff member. "COVER ME!"

When the other weapons stopped having any effect, her reprogrammed phase compression rifle, kept brining them down. Aria grabbed the top of the console table in the center of the room, and flung herself into the air. Her eyes went red a molten metal, and she screamed like only a panther could. One foot came down on the nearest drone's head, throwing it backwards against the wall and sparking out. Her friend's phaser beam cut down one just behind her. Another one reached up to attack her, but when it turned into a contest of sheer strength, the drone found that it had found a match. Aria twisted the thing's bionic arm to one side and pelted it in the face. Reaching down, she found the phase-compression rifle dropped by their formed comrade, who by now had been shot by phaser fire in an act of mercy. Using it as a club, she turned and beat on her next attacker, first on it's arms, then on it's face.

"They have you cornered!" one of the other engineering staff shouted in warning. It was turning into a mugging. She hadn't been this closed in by attackers since grade school, and this time they wanted her blood. Aria momentarily thought of her unborn baby, and suddenly nothing else mattered. She swung that duranium rifle casing around like a baton, smashed out the face of one, shoved her barbed elbow back into the electronics of another, a phaser beam took out another, but they were transporting in faster than Aria could disable them. Then her cover went down - the friend she had given her reprogrammed rifle to taken down by the drones. She put both hands had been around the head of one, threw herself upwards, and shoved the drone forward into it's accomplices, causing a few of them to fall down like bowling pins. In the seeming clear of the reactor shaft, she grabbed unto one of the upper floors of the reactor shaft, and pulled herself up.

There was already a set of feet there, and there was a th-tock sound. Aria felt a stinging pain in her neck, and all her joints went numb. She felt like she was turning to stone - only that was a warm feeling like feeling sunlight on her skin. She was very cold, like she was turning into ice. She collapsed on the deck, feeling her skin begin to throb.

Security had finally arrived, and another firefight had begun. Their weapons had already uploaded Aria's new sequence. However, Adam was not letting any of the drones stand in his way. The greatest majority of them were gathered on the main deck of the reactor core. Adam threw himself on the wall, and climbed onto the ceiling. Here he forcefully ripped away a panel. A Borg hand reached out of the press below, but her batted it away with the piece of Duranium paneling he had removed. Delicately, he slid a few of the isolinear control chips in the junction he had just exposed.

A very annoying sound reverberated through the cabin - an alarm. "Warning!" exclaimed the computer. "Dry plasma breach in warp core - lockdown in five seconds!"

The security people caught on immediately, and formed a line to force the drones back into the reactor core. As the Borg fell to the new program, they stopped advancing, and held their ground as their bodies began to pile up.

Then Adam heard a snarl - panther-like, but with a familiar voice. "NOOOOOOOO!!!" Adam exclaimed, and clawed his way forward along the ceiling and into the reactor shaft. His timing could not have been worse, because the force fields along the core activated, and panels ejected on the top and bottom of the core as all the air was evacuated. The drones were fighting for their lives to hang onto something, but the force of the blast pulled them away into the vastness of space.

Adam dug his claws into the bulkheads, and crawled along, holding his breath. The pressure was starting to force the air from his lungs, and his skin was starting to burn as the outer capillaries began to explode outwards from the lack of air pressure. He found a drone still clinging to some of the railings, and separated the drone's arms from their sockets.

"How long can he stand it in there?" the security chief inquired.

"About 5 seconds before any human starts to black out." one of his aids answered.

"Quick - prepare to pressurize, but wait for my signal. Spread out along the doorway field - prepare to take down any other Borg that may still be clinging to the inside of the shaft. Bridge! I need a sensor sweep of how many Borg life signs are still in the core!"

"I can't have it ready in five seconds!"

"You'd better, mister!!!" threatened the security chief.

Almost as Adam was ready to pass out and let go of his holds in the core, the petty lieutenant on the other side finished his work. Fifteen seconds had gone by, and there was no more wind in the shaft, and with one final effort, Adam de-brained the last Borg he could find.

"I can't reactivate it - sir!" came the underling's report. "He's locked it out somehow!"

"Keep working!"

Adam was crawling on his hands and knees on a catwalk, when he reached an emergency medkit, mounted in the wall. Hoping for a spacesuit, he was disappointed only to find a breathing apparatus. His vision swam as he pulled the device over his mouth, and breathed in.

Arms as powerful as his own wrapped themselves around his neck, forcing the already weak and dying Gargoyle back onto the grate. Startled, Adam turned his head a little, and saw blue and a flash of red eyes. Seemingly without any need for air, she belted him across the face, and stood threateningly over him.

He saw her face - from the injection spot in her neck and spreading outwards, her skin had turned from bluish lavender to pasty white. Adam took in a sharp breath through the breathing unit. She was being assimilated! "ARIA! NO!!!" he shouted through the breather, but the sound did not carry through the vacuum. Aria took his arms and pinned him to the wall. There was the sheen of blood on his skin, from the lack of air pressure, which was beginning to coat Aria's claws.

That was when he noticed the implants. Small silver devices on the left side of her head, cheek, neck, and one on her hand....Her hand! As she slowly drew her fist encrusted with black devices closer to his face, he could see the spines on it.

Out of nowhere came a hand, female with long fingernails, and touched something under the skin of Aria's shoulder. Her eyes suddenly went wide and as her skin crackled, and she turned to stone.

Adam barely had time to make out Dr. Crusher's face before she activated his sleep cycle as well.

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They awoke on beds in sickbay eight hours later with the usual roar and casting of stone, only this time their awakening roar was followed by Adam belting out a load groan of pain. That's when the med teams stepped in. Assistants began to treat Adam's the few scars that remained from the previous night's encounter. Dr. Crusher, however, and half her team were busy with Aria, who was already sedated again, and laying on the main operating table. Adam glanced around at the other crewmen on beds, and on the floor, most covered partially in blankets, and equipment being scattered all over the place. Adam suddenly realized how tired he was, and drifted back into a peaceful slumber without turning to stone.

When he awoke again, a lot of the other patients had been cleared out, and nearly every one of them had a bed. Aria was still on the main operating table, but no longer in surgical mode. Her wings draped down below the table, and her coloring appeared to be normal with the exception of two small silver patches on her face, one over her left eye, one on her temples on the left side. She appeared to be sleeping without being stone as well.

"Welcome back to the world of the living, Adam." Came a voice.

Adam turned his head to find Admiral Falcone hovering over him. Adam sighed in relief. "Admiral - what are you doing here?"

"Watching my two Gargoyles recover from this. How are you feeling?"

"Lousy, obviously, but I think another day's sleep will be just the ticket."

"Those devices for controlling your sleep cycle saved both your lives."

"ARIA!" Adam sat straight up in bed. "HOW IS SHE?"

"WHOA!" Admiral Falcone pushed him back down. "She's going to be just fine. You were right about whatever energy matrix causes your sleep cycle, it fought off the Borg's attempts to assimilate her during her period of stone sleep, just like it fought off every attempt San Francisco General made to return her to her human self."

Adam smiled. "The magic knows the shape it gave her."

"I also noticed one other thing in her physical that she had decided to keep personal." the Admiral smiled a little. "If this were the old days, I'd have been told a long time ago, but even in Starfleet there are a lot more privacy a crewman has. Things like personal computer files, correspondence, sexual preferences, gender orientation, pregnancy..." the Admiral trailed off.

Adam looked at him. "How is the child?"

"The wonders of the placenta - the child was never even touched. It would have taken complete and total assimilation or a direct injection into the womb to hurt the child. Does she know yet about..."

"No she doesn't. I have a little time to talk to her about that still." Adam cut him off. "And please, let me tell her this time."

Aria awoke in a daze. For a moment she could have sworn she saw Borg drones everywhere, and lasers and tubes coming from her own body, but when she blinked, she saw Dr. Crusher's face. Several more blinks assured her the latter image was truth. She moaned sleepily, and touched her face in one paw. Her paw found the little metal patches there, but did not try to remove them.

"How do you feel?" the doctor inquired.

"I can still hear them..."

"Who..."

"The voices..."

The doctor's tricorder was busy, but it couldn't tell her anything helpful. "Aria, you've been altered by the Borg."

"Can't you help me?"

"I'm trying, but they've used some kind of electrochemical bonding on the cellular level I've never seen before. You're going to be fine, Aria - it's just going to take us some time."

With a gentle pat on her shoulder, the doctor went back to her work.

Aria began to cry softly. "Help......"

In the other room, Admiral Falcone and Captain Picard watched.

There was a dark look on the captain's face, as he watched the patient in tears. "Her humanity is slipping away from her, she can feel it." he observed.

"Captain, I don't need to tell what this means." Falcone whispered to him, his back to the Gargoyle woman. "You've read the same report I have."

The captain continued to watch the woman on the table. "They came specifically for the Gargoyles. That was only a small expeditionary force."

"Just as I feared to begin with." the Admiral sighed.

"What is so important about these two that the Borg would sacrifice a ship to get to them?"