Chapter Sixteen
"Of Spiders and Starships"
Captain Sisko frowned as he drank the last of his coffee. Oh-three hundred hours was not a decent enough time to go to war, but then no time every really was. The Shadow vessel they were shadowing had cloaked itself. It was possible that it had given up, but he didn't believe that for a second.
"We're receiving a hail," the Comms officer said.
"Onscreen."
A moment later: "So Captain, how does it feel to be on your first mission?" It was Garrett smiling at him onscreen. "I see you have your coffee."
"Extra strong," he admitted. He found that he could not keep that knowing off his face either. But the smile was only half-hearted as the memories came flooding back into his mind. It all seemed so real!
Before red alert, he had been asleep and dreaming. In his dreams someone had called to him and when he turned to see who it could be, he discovered that it was his wife Jennifer. She was telling him to come back and his heart soared at the sight of her once more. She had that same radiance that he remembered when he had seen her for the very first time. She was the one woman that had made him forget the pain of the war. His beloved was the one who had made his life complete. When she died and his son Jake had died, he discovered several months later, to his horror, that he could not quite remember her face any more. He had her holo-photos, her vid-letters, their wedding images, everything that he could keep with his personal belongings, but at night-
-At night when he closed his eyes, he could never quite remember her. It was as though his brain was beginning to close off those regions that contained her images, her voice, and her scent, everything that she was, because of the pain.
But the woman in his dream, the Jennifer that he loved, was different. This Jennifer's body movement, her voice, everything that made her unique, was not there any more. He did not know any other way to put it. She kept calling him 'The Sisko'. Come home she had said. You are 'The Sisko'. You are incomplete. You must become complete. You are far from home. 'The Sisko' must return. The barrier closes. The barrier closes. 'The Sisko' must return. You are 'The Emissary'.
She faded from his vision and he had awoken in a sweat. The dream was so real! It was as though she was calling him. Now, as the aftereffects of the dream finally faded, he could still feel the pulling, the calling of Jennifer Sisko.
"Our sensors picked up a spike just before that ship or whatever the thing is, cloaked," Rachel said.
"We noticed it also," he said being pulled back into the present. "It didn't seem like a standard cloak."
"Agreed." Garrett turned away for a moment listening to a report. "I suspect we're going to be out here for a while," Rachel announced, her attention again focused on the new Captain. "Stay on your toes. I don't want it to catch us napping."
Words for the novice Captain to live by, thought Sisko. Words to live by. "Yes, Ma'am." If the Captains felt like babysitting him until he was comfortable in the big chair, especially in their current situation, he wasn't about to complain.
On screen he could see the Enterprise still undergoing evasive maneuvers, an obvious indication that Picard didn't believe for a moment that he had shaken his pursuer. The starship's actions continued for another five minutes until the Yeager's sensors lit up. A jump point, invisible to the naked eye, appeared a five thousand kilometers to the portside of the Enterprise before they could react. The shadow combat vessel literally screamed, firing it main gun, which impacted violently on the Federation ship's shields. Even from this distance he could see the ship shudder from the vicious blow as its shields glowed like a nova dissipating the heat had energy from the blast. The Enterprise-D returned fire with its phasers, hitting the Shadow vessel which itself trembled from the impact. Apparently, the spider-like vessel possessed no shields to speak of, but its armor was another matter entirely.
"Chief O'Brien, engineering's in your hands now. Mr. Carter," Sisko said quickly. "Warp two. Engage."
The Saber-class ship jumped to warp, weapons hot eager to relieve the pressure from its big sister's tormentor.
Rare was the occasion that Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D had been caught unawares. However that was exactly what happened when the Shadow cruiser executed a micro-jump instead of simply cloaking itself and landed in front of the starship. Those that controlled the Shadow vessel had felt their companion die and their purpose was clear. They wanted revenge, pure and simple. Plus there was the added incentive to explain to these interlopers that no member of their race could be killed without the severest of consequences. The lesson had to be clear and to the point.
The Shadow beam that was emitted from the living vessel attempted to perform the classic lets-slice-that-ship-in-half attack, cutting across the Federation ship's main hull intended to cleave the ship in half. Conduits blew in just about every deck inside the saucer section and the ship had shook violently from the attack.
"Phasers, fire!" yelled Picard. And he watched as phasers burned into the Shadow vessel scoring its hull with deep, red lacerations. "Evasive pattern Sigma!"
The Enterprise rotated on its Y-axis and increased to full impulse with the shadow vessel in cautious pursuit. The Shadow fired again, missed and rotated violently as phasers tried to reach out and touch it once more. Obviously, it had not expected such fierce resistance and was now readjusting its attack strategy. It vomited a large number of small attack craft, each resembling a large black tick, to assist in the attack and its defense. Then it proceeded again to strike out at the Enterprise.
"Sir, shields are down by fifty percent."
"Ignore the smaller ships," Picard yelled over the increasing din. "Concentrate you fire on the main vessel!"
Once again the Enterprise shuddered and once more she lashed out at her attacker. This time, the phaser connected with the Shadow vessel and a small portion of its extension was phased into non-existence. But the Federation vessel's shields were almost gone.
Inside the brig, Bester and his companion were once more bounced violently around inside their cells. It took him a few moments to understand that they were under attack and a few more to identify the attacker. The ship-wide comm system had informed them of an intruder alert and Picard's announcement of a Shadow creature had made his heart dance a jig-for an instant. Then his heart skipped a full beat, as he understood that the Feds were hunting it down. If they killed the creature then they would certainly be targeted for destruction. Didn't they understand the danger?
Obviously they hadn't. And now they were paying the price. The two of them shared a mutual thought of forlornness. Those ships were too powerful to confront head on. After the first strike, Bester was thrilled that he wasn't being burned alive or floating in vacuum. Then the ship rocked again, but again he still lived. As difficult as he found it to be, he acknowledged to himself a grudging respect of the power of the Enterprise. Psi-Corps would spend years dissecting it once they got a hold of it.
Despite the fear of impending death, the attack gave him and Jackie a significant advantage. None of the Federation telepaths were focused on them and now he could passively allow the thoughts of the crew to come to him without arousing the ire of the Betazoids or the alien Vulcans. Most interesting was what he had come to understand was the engineering section. The phrases they used were intriguing and incredibly exasperating. Warp coils, trionic initiators, inertial dampers, matter-antimatter containment, most of the words were lost to him but one thing stuck in his mind.
"The shield frequency harmonic is eight-seven-two-one-three-six-seven," he repeated to himself and to Jackie. That was clearly of utmost importance on one of the minds of the engineering staff. He kept blasting that thought into the nether sphere. "That is their weakness," he sent to her. Thank God for mundanes he thought even while he cursed their Betazoid watchdogs.
Bester understood that even though he was one of the top echelon members of Psi-Corps, he was ultimately expendable. It was something to be expected. They all were. The plan was everything and they were simply players in the game. But the second those carefully laid plans were exposed he became non-expendable. Now, he and Jackie were the only ones in a position to stop this oncoming catastrophe. If they couldn't everything they worked for a generation would be lost.
They thought I couldn't do anything trapped here. But the longer they keep me locked up, the more I learn. He still seethed each time he remembered how they treated him. They considered him less than dirt. That little fact was the one thing that he was able to glean from Picard's mind. He was in some ways worse than Sheridan. The man was shear arrogance! They thought that I was no longer a threat. I'll show them. Free me Picard and I will ruin you…provided we're not killed in the next few moments, he thought nervously as the ship rocked once more.
The Shadow Commander was rudely surprised as the USS Ambassador and Yeager warped into the middle of the firefight in a classic pincher movement, catching the unprepared Shadow vessel with the full fury of their phasers. The Ambassador drilled deep into the armored skin while the Yeager proceeded to engage the smaller, extremely hostile support vessels. Analysis from the ship's sensors indicated that the Federation ships were using some sort of phased energy against them, literally causing molecular structures touched by the beams to phase out of synch, therefore causing molecules to fly away from one another. It was not quite as efficient as their LASED-particle beam, but it was nothing to sneer at either. And there was no need for a long exposure to the beam to be lethal.
The surprise attack, the classical technique of Shadow tactics, was accomplished with perfection. But that attack failed to kill the Federation ship responsible for killing one of their people with the first strike, something almost unheard of. Then it returned fire and the ship could not evade being hit in time. There was pain. Twice the alien ship had hit the Mother, making her scream. She was wounded and her Human telepathic control computer writhed in pain as he fought to maintain and repair damaged systems. For a moment, the Shadow Captain feared that the Human would burn out, so a replacement was brought up just in case. So far, they were just holding their own against this diabolically evil ship when abruptly two more of its kind arrived adding their weapons in the battle. Mother returned fire with everything she had at the second largest ship and fumed is it too survived it attack. It was those accursed shields keeping them alive when they should have died seconds ago. Ship's scans revealed a lowering of the primary Human vessel's shield power rating by almost half, but that was not yet enough to kill it. The strangely designed ship was fast, its phased stinger reeked of danger and now it had support as well. Their fighter support was checked by the smaller Federation ship cutting through the defense screen like a scythe while avoiding death by its speed and again by those hated shields. The smaller ship identified as the Yeager used independent multiple weapons to kill the smaller fighters that were now on the defensive.
Being far too busy to help the smaller ships out, Mother once again concentrated on the two larger warships and again scored on its primary target, causing it to quiver violently. Mother's weapon had scored flesh this time and there was a great gash on the ugly, white primary hull. Then there was something new. Its companion, the smaller one, fired some type of terrible, fast moving, antimatter missiles at it, barely missing a now rapidly evading Mother. She succeeded in avoiding the torpedoes but in the process turned right into the larger ones' beam weapon. It slashed her deeply with its phased weaponry and Mother began to bleed. Accepted Shadow tactics centered on the rule of first strike and it was rare to have a prolonged fight on even terms with another vessel. Here the element of surprise had been lost. The crew onboard Mother didn't like it by any stretch of their considerable imaginations. By now, several crew-beings had already died and many were wounded. One to one was a battle; here, two to one would lead to defeat and death. If they were to survive then it was time to disengage and run for it. Once locked onto a target a Shadow vessel never, ever ran. But in this case…
They would come back later with larger mothers and finish this with superiority of numbers if necessary. It created a jump-point and she and her support ships escaped, leaving the partially damaged Federation enemy ship and its own dead and dying shipmates in their wake.
Inside the main medical bay onboard the Enterprise-D,
Drs. Crusher, Franklin, and Selar along with the rest of the medical staff were
busy treating almost two score number of patients whose injuries ranged from
critical injuries to broken bones, abrasions, and minor radiation burns.
The loss of seventeen crewmembers had been a terrible blow to them all.
Even prepared, the onslaught of the Shadow vessel had caught them by surprise
and most of the major injuries and loss of life had occurred during that first
attack. The shields had held barely and Beverly's heart plummeted at the
thought of a one-to-one battle against such a powerful foe. But at the
same time she had faith in Captain Picard, if anyone could have saved the ship
and come out of this battle in one piece it would have been him. However
she was glad that they had had help.
It was good to be again working with Dr. Selar, now
chief Medical officer of the Ambassador, once more she thought.
And watching Stephen's professionalism and growing familiarity with her ship's
equipment made her more comfortable as she let him have more free reign in
treating her patients. He was still not well and both Chief Med officers
watched-from he corners of their eyes- their Chief Medical
colleague. This was exactly the type of stress they did not want him
to encounter so soon, but at the same time he was going to have to deal with
that pressure. And then he was going to have to learn how to quit and
leave that tension behind. Therefore, this was a spur of the moment
test to determine how far he had come even if it were less than a two
days. Physical treatment was easy but the mind controlled the body. That control needed to be re-established
quickly. Besides, they needed someone
who was familiar with Kosh's bio system and anatomy.
Despite their hopes, they had soon discovered that he
didn't have a clue about Kosh's anatomy. There were records, true but the
data had been sealed and removed to Earth along with the original doctor who
worked on Kosh to save his life from the poison that he had been injected with
during that assassination attempt. The data was under tight security and they
all had no doubt that EarthGov would not hand over those documents.
Now Beverly had the horrible job of detailing the
deaths of so many fellow crewmembers to the Captain. It was a dreadful
duty, one that she hated performing especially since it had become her close
friend. Informing the Captain of losses in battle was
horrible and the only job that she could imagine was worse was Captain Picard's
duty. Letter writing, informing family and friends that a loved one was
dead was bad enough. Composing a multitude of letters to those who may
never receive them seemed somehow futile. Crusher was a doctor. She
understood how he must feel.
"Dr. Crusher to the bridge…"
Captain Picard glowered over the latest reports on
the condition of his ship. A five-minute running battle had severely
damaged it and his only satisfaction was that he had equally damaged the
enemy. It retreated into hyperspace, trailing what for the life of him,
looked like blood. A piece of the ship
had been tractored in for further study.
He looked even grimmer as he reviewed the damage reports. The EPS conduits all over the ship had blown out. Over half the deflector and defense shield generators had burned out. The outer hull was discovered to have at least seventy micro-fractures that required immediate attention. There had been a secondary coolant leak and the enemy beam had actually scored the ship's outer hull. Defensive shields were stable at thirty-five percent and Lieutenant LaForge was strongly suggesting that they travel no faster than warp one-point-five back to Babylon Five while the damage could be accessed and repaired. As they turned towards home, the White Star and several Minbari heavy warships along with a full detachment of the new updated and as yet untried Star Furies emerged from a Minbari pinpoint jump in hyperspace and now escorted them. Everyone felt relieved. Even the K'mpec's Honor cruised the immediate area-cloaked of course.
With everything secured, Picard rushed to the medical bay. Before he checked Kosh, he saw to it that he made his presence known to those who had been injured during the fight. Like it or not he was being seen as somewhat of a father figure. Quickly, an ugly image flirted passed his mind. Did that mean that Garret was 'the mother'?
Growl.
The room where Kosh had been interned was surrounded by a force field complete with it's own environmental conditions as specified by Dr. Franklin. Inside were both Drs. Crusher and Franklin working on Kosh. Next to them stood Guinan. He was surprised that she was there but and he was astounded by the two radically different reactions the doctors were showing their patient. For some reason, Beverly was disturbed. Every time she looked at Kosh's body, she gave the impression that she wanted to throw up. But what was even more interesting was that Stephen seemed to look at Kosh as though he was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. How could their reactions be so radically different? Dr. Crusher was a professional, one who had treated hundreds of patients of various species and never had he saw this reaction from her. What exactly was she seeing at this moment? And what was Franklin seeing?
Beverly suspected beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this was the most disgusting alien she had ever seen. Moments ago, Stephen had told her about the genetic experimentation done on this Earth and the other surrounding inhabited worlds by the Vorlons. To them, these creatures for the most part appeared beautiful because that's how they had manipulated Humans to see them. But to Beverly, Kosh was butt ugly; nevertheless, his appearance wouldn't stop her from treating him. The only question was how to do so?
"You don't have any medical records on his species?" an exasperated Crusher asked an equally frustrated Franklin.
"Vorlons are a secretive people," he explained. "We know almost nothing about them. For example, do they even require these protective suits or are they just for show? And what about the atmospheric conditions? Is it for them, or simply to keep us from discovering their true nature as a whole?"
"I suspect the gases are native to his home world," Beverly said checking her medical scanner once more. "The problem is that I have no equivalent database that can even remotely be compared to the physiology that we're looking at right now. The scanner isn't even sure if he's really carbon-based. Unless the other Vorlons come to treat him, the only thing that we can do is to monitor him and hope that his regenerative powers can restore him. Do you have any other suggestions?"
"No," answered Stephen after moment. "I believe that what we believed are poisons inflicted by his attackers,have been neutralized."
Dr. Crusher shook her head in agreement. Ensign Thomas, the first Human to be attacked by the alien had died from exposure to at least three poisons designed to paralyze and destroy the nervous system. The med tech team got there too late to save him, but the cause of death was definitely determined to be toxin injected into his lungs. The fast-acting venoms were fairly easy to counter and an antidote was synthesized quickly, but not quickly enough for Thomas.
Next to them Guinan said nothing. The doctor's initial assessment of his condition were correct. There was nothing that they could do. Nature would take its course one-way or the other. But there was something else happening here also. There had been a fundamental change in this universe. She could feel it. Kosh had been right she mused. Not only would his circle would be closed, but also it would be distorted beyond recognition. Some small part of her believed that Kosh's death would have served a grand purpose, but now he would live-she had no doubt about that. There was no way that she would stand by and watch him be torn apart. Change? So be it.
Outside of the containment area Picard tensed. "Doctors, will the Ambassador survive?"
Beverly and Stephen looked at one another before answering.
"We think so."
"Good. We will be returning to Babylon Five in an hour," a satisfied Picard said as he turned and walked out of the medical bay. There were a lot of things he had to attend to, including dealing with two prisoners. Already, he had decided as to what he would do with them.
Three days later, security was heightened to a level that hadn't occurred since Earth Force had tried to take over B5. The station was beginning to get small numbers of refugees from the fringes near Vorlon space. Something was going on in that sector of space and as per usual no one had a clue as to what that was, however the surrounding edges of their territories were in a turmoil about something. There were rumors of fighting occurring in their space but no one knew for sure except Kosh and he wasn't talking.
But the Vorlons had not sent a doctor or even requested that Kosh return to the home world for treatment. Only Lyta had returned with several treatment kits for Kosh that she delivered personally to Dr. Franklin onboard the Enterprise. Although the Earth telepath had met Dr. Troi some time earlier, she was unprepared for the number and types of telepaths onboard the Federation starship. Lyta was considered by many as a renegade telepath, outside the reach of Psi-Corps, protected by the Vorlons and the leaders of Babylon Five.
Her time in Ten-Forward was a revelation. She would spend as much time as possible, simply luxuriating in the overall freedom and several times she openly remarked about her astonishment that Humans and telepaths could interact so completely with one another without fear or suspicion.
And it was quickly discovered by the Betazoids that she had been somehow artificially modified and was far stronger than even she knew. For her part, she was amazed that line of sight wasn't necessary for Betazoids and that they didn't need to concentrate to read others. Only a few of them could project in such a way to inflict pleasure or pain to another, but those who could were supremely dangerous. Their telepathy worked on an entirely different principle than what she was use to. Moreover, establishing a psychic connection was harder than she'd assumed. She had to touch them to get a cognitive reflection from them whereas with the Betazoids she had no need for direct contact unless they chose to.
Then, Vulcan telepathic traits worked differently from everyone else's. No matter how hard she tried, the Vulcan minds slipped through her thoughts. They had a type of direct blending, a 'my thoughts to your thoughts' thing going on. They had a phrase for those differences. It was infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Personally she loved it. And best of all, she loved seeing Bester imprisoned, sweating it out as Picard prepared to meet out justice.
What she didn't love was the way Kosh refused to answer any of her questions. He was healing-slowly but he had become very secretive even for a Vorlon. Since the attack, he refused to talk to anyone-except Sheridan and Guinan. She had the Vorlon's ear, so to speak and that woman never revealed anything beyond an occasional scowl or a smile. Further, she was one of the few people that she could not even begin to read. Lyta couldn't tell if she were being blocked or that her probes were somehow being reflected. However, like the Vulcans the only way she would have to get to know Guinan would by talking to her, a novel experience. Lyta determined to ask if she could stay, maybe even become a part of the crew if she decided to finish her internship with Kosh. Who knows she thought. He might even let me leave. It all depended on the coming war of light versus dark.
The next day, Captain Sisko and Captain Garrett were having their daily, morning talk on the Ambassador's version of 'Ten-Forward.'
"A penny for your thoughts, " Rachel said. That was her usual greetings in the last three days when they were together in the mornings.
"Exactly what does that mean?" Intellectually he knew but in his time there was no solid point of reference for that phrase.
"It means I want to know what's going on, on that bald head of yours, dear Captain." She laughed at the impertinent look he bestowed on her. Actually, it looked quite impressive with the goatee. Idyll she smiled when she remembered how Picard reacted when Ben had shaved his head.
Why did he have to do that? He had said that to her later when the two of them met for dinner. She responded by saying that Sisko did it because he could and it could always grow back if he wanted it to. Why did she have to say that? Picard had scowled and she laughed.
Now he wasn't speaking to
her. Oh, he said he was busy but she
knew the truth. Again she smiled. He was so sensitive with the little stuff! He even got angry when she had casually
called French an archaic language that should have ceased to exist by now.
"It is not a dead language and I thank you not to say that again!"
So touchy! She rather liked tormenting the old, stiff-upper lip, Captain of the Enterprise-D, especially since he kept insulting her music. How dare he! Listening to Grover Washington Junior's classics like Winelight on the bridge was far superior than listening to Giordano's Fedora Amor Ti Vieta. Talk about music to fall into unconsciousness by! And if she felt like gyrating-his phrase- on her bridge or wherever, IT WAS NONE OF HIS BUSINESS! Besides she'd caught him bobbing-you wouldn't call that dancing! It was more like, I can actually move, see! -once or twice himself. She was rubbing off on him and he hadn't noticed it yet. It took everything she had not to-
"Rachel?"
She shook herself. "Sorry."
"You looked lost for a second," Ben remarked.
"Just remembering something," she answered casually coming back to the conversation.
"I just liked the idea of actually having currency. You don't have any and that strikes me as insane. You people actually trust your bankers to handle everything?"
"Computer banking has taken much of the difficulty away from maintaining a stable economy," he said blandly. Computerized banking was nice but if you lost it all by some type of error or more importantly larceny, the trail could be covered up and you would never really know what happened or how badly you got burned.
"But I was thinking of the mission. Sheridan sure liked its content. I really like Captain Picard's little speech to President Clarke. I am sure that it will be guaranteed to stir up a hornet's nest of trouble."
"He needs a little grief." President Clarke's personal little propaganda network, ISN, commented daily on the horrors of the Federation occupied territories. The reporters implied that the Federation was a cultural, barbaric wasteland whose people indulged in debasement, conquest and slavery. They talked about the Betazoid slave labour camps and the ruthlessness of the Starfleet war machine. By all indications Starfleet was poised along with Sheridan and his alien influencers to sweep across the sectors, destroying everything in their paths. And those ten White Star frigates didn't help matters either. Crews had yet to be fully trained but their simple presence gave comfort to some and consternation to others and even more for ISN to rant and rave about.
The half- truths, subjective reporting and outright lies were ludicrous and even the Klingons were impressed by what was said. It appeared that Humans did indeed lie well. However to those on B5 it was also sobering because there were those who would believe the lies. Already there were doubts being expressed by some.
"But we don't want to lose you either. So be careful."
"I will. The Yeager's a tough little ship."
"With small and one being the operating words here. No heroics."
"Captain, I have no intentions of performing any heroics. In and out, that's it."