He Who Fights With Monsters
By Thalia Drogna
Sharien explained that the cannon had been built around an inherently unstable power supply. It was a stable element from the Kriel universe, but when it was brought into the Tien universe it became unstable. They used the instability to create the power that they needed for the cannon, it was experimental and they hoped to be able to apply the technology to their inter-reality engines. The engines were as old as the Vor Devrees, they had no idea how they worked and therefore no way to repair them. But they knew they probably only had one jump left in them. They needed to find an alternate way to move between the universes.
The power supply was kept from going critical by a series of control fields. The fields were monitored and manipulated by the computer to keep the element from becoming unstable, and the computer was controlled by the Matriarch. When the Matriarch died, the control fields were no longer being adjusted to keep the element in check. As the control fields failed the element would go critical and whilst it was part of the weapon it would create a rift and suck the Vor Devrees back to the universe that the element came from. Sharien had outlined her plan, disconnect the power supply and jettison it into space where the radiation from its instability would do no harm.
Travis piloted the shuttle expertly towards the docking bay of the Vor Devrees. On their way to the Vor Devrees they passed the fleet of life pods that was the Tien evacuation. The remains of the fighter squadrons were flying escort duty, in case any Vor fighters remained. The Rel Sevanne was almost empty now, and the life pods were fleeing on full power to get away as quickly as possible.
The docking bay was completely open to space, so they had to put on the EVA suits before disembarking from the shuttle. They left Travis in the shuttle ready to make a swift departure if they needed it. Archer, T'Pol and Hayes carried phase pistols, but Archer had refused to give either Shar Jen or Sharien a weapon, although he had untied the Kriel weapons master. Archer had tried to persuade Shar Jen to stay with the Tien but she had refused, stating that they were trying to save her people and she couldn't let them do that without her. If she wanted to put herself in danger, who was Archer to stop her. They made their way to the exit from the docking bay, once again having to bypass the control panel in order to get the door open.
"We'll keep the EVA suits on," said Archer. "I'm guessing we may need them to get to the cannon, if some of corridors we need to use are open to space."
"Large areas of the ship are decompressed," said T'Pol, looking down at her scanner. "The superstructure, although damaged, seems to be holding."
"Life signs?" asked Archer.
"A small number of faint life signs, I detected some life pods from the Vor Devrees on our journey here, I would infer that most of the Kriel have already fled," said T'Pol. She didn't have to add that it was only the injured and dying who were left, the ones who were trapped without hope of rescue, abandoned by their Kriel comrades.
Sharien led the way through the dark, twisting corridors of the Vor Devrees. They were going towards the Vor Devrees Armoury, it was on the same deck as the docking bay but forward of their current position. Sharien had estimated that it was about twenty minutes' journey to the Armoury, it would then take another twenty minutes to disconnect the cannon from its power supply. It wasn't as easy as just pulling the plug, Sharien had explained to them that if the circuits were disconnected in the wrong order they would be sucked into the Kriel universe, in the same way as if the power source overloaded. That was how she had known that it hadn't been destroyed in the crash, if it had they would all have been dead. It was going to be like diffusing a bomb.
Not for the first time Archer wished that he had Malcolm and Trip with him. Hayes had proved himself an efficient soldier but he didn't have Malcolm or Trip's technical knowledge. Hayes certainly wasn't stupid, but there were days when Archer thought he'd cut himself on the sharp edge of those two officers' intelligence, and never more so than when the two of them were working together. They sparked creativity in each other, spurring the other on to do better and come up with the solution. It was partly friendly competition but it was also because he knew they recognised and respected each other's abilities. And above all, they were friends, not afraid to tease each other when the moment offered but always there for each other when the times weren't so good.
Archer didn't want to think about Trip at the moment though. He'd looked so ill and Archer was doing his best to push that image from his mind. Blood red eyes staring up at him without seeing and asking him to reconnect him to the computer that had been sucking the life out of him. That was how Archer regarded the Rel Sevanne, a monster that had taken his friend and used him up. The Rel Sevanne taken the soul of his friend and given him back a shell. There just wasn't time to think about Trip at the moment though or dwell on what the Tien had done to him, right now they had to concentrate on the task at hand.
"This is the Armoury," said Sharien, as they arrived at an ominously armour- plated door. She went to the door and entered a code into the pad beside the door. She pressed the door release and sparks flew from the control panel. Sharien pulled her hand away before it could get burnt and Shar Jen pulled a fire extinguisher from the wall to douse the flames. Archer had to admit he wouldn't have know that the alien device even was a fire extinguisher, let alone been able to use it. Sharien swore loudly in some colourful Kriel phrases that didn't translate into English, but Archer got the general gist. From the look on Shar Jen's face he gathered that the Tien and Kriel languages were quite close and she'd understood every word.
"Can we bypass the controls?" asked T'Pol, calm and businesslike as usual.
"This is the Armoury, it's the most secure location on this ship, bypassing the controls isn't easy," said Sharien.
"Then I suggest we begin," said T'Pol, with a slight tone of menace entering her voice.
Archer got the impression that she didn't trust Sharien, which was fine by him because neither did he. He didn't even trust Shar Jen but at least Shar Jen hadn't tried to destroy Enterprise with an inter-reality cannon. Which left him with the question that he'd been trying to put off asking himself, could he even trust Sharien to disarm the cannon, with her own life in danger. Corvas hadn't been afraid to commit suicide for her cause, why should Sharien be any less devoted to their mission. Sharien was all they had though, she was the only one who knew how the cannon worked. And Shar Jen's words echoed in his head "Should we fight until not a single Kriel or Tien is left standing?" Sharien had seemed to respond to that argument, but had she just been playing along? He'd soon find out, one way or the other.
"Over here," said Sharien, pulling a panel away from the wall. "There are three sets of two parallel circuits. The pairs need to be pulled simultaneously. You take one, Sub-commander, and I'll take the other. Pull it on the count of three. You'll need both hands, and be careful, if they're not pulled simultaneously they're rigged to explode," said Sharien and T'Pol nodded her understanding at her. "One, two, three!" T'Pol and Sharien pulled and the circuits came loose. Sharien threw hers to the floor. "Okay, again." They performed the same procedure with the remaining pairs.
"Good," said Sharien, "Now we can disengage the locking mechanisms." Sharien pulled our a couple of brightly coloured wires. "I had to cut the power to the hydraulics, we'll have to force it open. We need something to use as a lever to open the door."
Hayes and Archer sorted through the debris looking for anything that they could use as a lever. Archer found a long piece of metal and began to pry at the gap between the two doors into the Armoury. When the gap was enough to get a hand through, Hayes pulled on one side of the door and Archer on the other, gradually forcing them open enough that a person could fit through.
They entered the Armoury which was in poor shape, like the rest of the Vor Devrees. In front of them was an impressive array of control panels and to one side was what Archer took to be the inter-reality cannon. It was a fearsome looking weapon, as big as one of Enterprise's phase cannons but it certainly didn't look like a phase cannon. The smooth brushed metal bulged in rounded humps along its length and at the end was some sort of focusing apparatus, what looked like a huge quartz crystal. The crystal pulsed with a green glow, casting the same eerie green light around the room. A large piece of hull cut into the barrel of the cannon and it was obvious that there was other minor damage to the cannon.
"A durania crystal," said Shar Jen, walking towards the weapon. "Except I've never seen one this big before."
"It was grown in our lab," said Sharien. "They don't occur naturally at that size."
"We don't have time to discuss the weapon's design," said T'Pol. "How do we disarm it?"
"The circuits that we need are in the base, but we will also need to remove the crystal," said Sharien. She went to the weapon and knelt down beside it so that she could gain access to a maintenance panel. "I will need some help. Three people can do this far more quickly than one." Sharien looked pointedly at T'Pol and Shar Jen. "All the access panels are coded to my finger prints. Shar Jen should have the same finger prints as me, so she should be able to open the other access panels while we work on disconnecting the firing circuits. If anyone else tries to open the access panels then it will trigger the self-destruct mechanism immediately."
"I understand," said T'Pol. "I will not touch anything until you let me know that it is safe to do so."
"Good, I expect you both to do as I say. Failure to follow my instructions could get us all killed," said Sharien.
"You are the only one who knows how to disarm this weapon," said Shar Jen, "tell us what to do and we will do it."
Archer and Hayes were put on assistant duty handing the three women tools as they went to work on the inter-reality cannon, Sharien directing them. They worked quickly and efficiently. T'Pol began the delicate task of removing the crystal that focused the destructive power of the unstable weapon, while Sharien and Shar Jen disconnected circuitry in a carefully defined order. At times Archer found it difficult to tell the two blonde women apart, both wore identical space suits, but Sharien's hair was shorter than her Rel Sevanne counterpart. Sharien's estimate was that they had about forty minutes before the cannon overloaded and took the Vor Devrees back to its own universe.
Sharien swore and both Shar Jen and T'Pol turned to look at her.
"Is there a problem?" asked T'Pol.
"Yes, there is a problem, Sub-commander," said Sharien, with a bite of sarcasm to her voice. "It's not disengaging. Conduit five is completely locked down and I don't have the gear here to cut it physically. We can't remove the power supply."
"Then we've failed," said Shar Jen.
"Perhaps not," said T'Pol. "What will be the result if we disconnect the other power feeds but leave that one?"
"The cannon will still destroy itself and suck the Vor Devrees back to my universe. It doesn't need full power to do that," said Sharien.
"But if the other connections have been cut then the resulting explosion should be considerably lessened in intensity since the cannon will be receiving less power," said T'Pol.
"That makes sense," said Shar Jen. "Without full power the cannon won't be able to sustain the rift for long."
"I think you're right, but we don't have time to test it. If we can't stop the explosion then perhaps dampening it is the best we can do," said Sharien.
"Then we should work quickly," said T'Pol. "We will now require time to evacuate."
"T'Pol, it took us twenty minutes to get here from the docking bay," said Archer, who had been listening in to the whole conversation.
"Indeed, Captain," said T'Pol.
"There was a section of corridor open to space about ten metres aft," said Hayes. "We passed it on the way here, I noticed the sealed door."
"Good thinking, I'll get Travis to bring the shuttle round," said Archer. "I want you to make sure we can get through that door when we need to."
"Yes, sir," said Hayes and went to check their exit. Archer flipped open his communicator and told Travis to get the shuttle over to them as quickly as possible. He felt vibrations through the soles of his boots that told him the Vor Devrees was breaking apart from the stress of the crash even before the weapon could rip into it.
T'Pol finished disconnecting the focusing crystal, its green light dying slowly within, and removed it.
"Destroy it," said Sharien.
"Why?" asked T'Pol.
"Even without the weapon mechanism it could still act as a focus for the energy in the explosion and open a rift," said Sharien.
T'Pol placed the crystal on the floor, drew her phase pistol and fired, shattering the crystal into hundreds of tiny fragments. "Will that suffice?" she asked Sharien.
"That should be enough," said Sharien.
"I am finished," said Shar Jen. "Everything apart from the final locked conduit has been disabled."
"I'm done too," said Sharien.
"Let's get out of here," said Archer. "How long do we have until that thing goes critical?"
Sharien checked her chronometer. "About ten minutes."
"Come on," said Archer and led the way towards Hayes and the shuttle at a flat out sprint. Hayes had estimated that it was ten minutes walk to the open section of corridor, and Archer had rarely known the Major to be wrong about these details. Assuming that by running they were cutting that time by half, that left them five minutes to reach the shuttle pod and get far enough away that the blast wouldn't destroy the shuttle. Archer had already worked out that their odds weren't good.
They rounded a corner to see Hayes metaphorically holding the door open for them. He had already bypassed the door controls and just needed to complete the circuit to open their escape route. The away team replaced their helmets and Archer signalled to Hayes to open the door. The violent decompression of the corridor sucked the five of them into the cold of space, where Travis waited for them. The boomer pilot carefully moved the shuttle so that the space-walkers had the least amount of distance possible to reach the airlock of the shuttlepod. They used their jet packs to manoeuvre themselves as quickly and efficiently as possible, it was obvious that all of them had done this several times before. The airlock of the shuttlepod was so small that only two people at a time could enter.
"T'Pol and Sharien go first," said Archer. He was reminded of a problem a teacher had once set him in math class. A man has to cross a river in a boat that can only hold two people, he has a fox and two chickens. If he leaves the fox with the chickens then the fox will eat the chickens. The question was who here was the fox? Hayes and Shar Jen followed T'Pol and Sharien, leaving Archer last.
He climbed into the airlock, pulling the hatch shut behind him. "I'm in," he said over the com. "Step on it, Mr Mayweather."
"Yes, sir," came the determined reply. Archer felt the acceleration as he waited for the airlock to cycle and then it was as if a giant hand slapped the shuttlepod. Suddenly, Archer was thrown violently against the side of the airlock and then rocked back the other way, the shuttlepod was tumbling as it rode the edge of the blast. Finally the tumbling stopped and the airlock completed its cycle. Archer climbed out to find the shuttlepod strewn with pieces of displaced equipment and his officers sprawled on the floor.
Mayweather looked to be fine although a little shaken. Hayes was dusting himself off after picking himself up off the floor. T'Pol pushed herself up on to one of the benches, moving slowly which suggested she had been badly bruised at least.
"Everyone okay?" asked Archer.
There was a chorus of "yes, sirs" and nods from Sharien and Shar Jen.
"What about the life pods?" asked Archer.
"Looks as if they were far enough away," said Mayweather.
T'Pol moved to the station behind Mayweather. "The explosion was approximately one tenth of what we expected it to be. That is consistent with the cannon only being able to draw power through the single locked conduit."
Sharien went to the window of the shuttlepod and stared out at her former home. There wasn't much left of the Vor Devrees or the Rel Sevanne. The two ships were little more than charred pieces of twisted metal.
"Vor Devrees rel revorio ti miena. Ishtar cari sen Kriel protea shor dare sel unitas sanvigo, yu seten," said Sharien, and Shar Jen repeated the phrase "yu seten" with Sharien.
"What did she say?" asked Archer.
Shar Jen answered "She asked the goddess to unite her people with the saints in death, guide them to heaven, and return light to the path of their long night. It is an ancient prayer, in our ritual language. Kriel is slightly different to Tien, Vor Devrees doesn't mean darkness in Kriel, it only means long night."
"And "yu seten"?" asked Archer.
"May it be so," said Shar Jen.
Trip lay on a biobed in decon. Decon was well equipped to deal with seriously ill patients so Phlox had most of the supplies that he needed but he still would have preferred to treat the Commander in sickbay. Unfortunately he couldn't risk exposing the crew to the Vor Devrees virus, he hadn't had enough time to immunise the entire crew, and the good of the crew took precedence over the health of one man. Phlox pressed the hypospray filled with the anti-viral to his patient's neck. He looked up at the biomonitor above the bed, the readouts weren't looking good but he hoped that he was in time. No, he was confident that he was in time.
Trip was pale, sweat pouring off his skin and shivering violently. Phlox could feel the heat coming from the Commander's body as his immune system expended energy desperately trying to fight off the attacking virus. Phlox had him covered by a cooling blanket to try to keep his body temperature down but so far it wasn't working.
"How's he doing?" said a familiar voice from behind him. He'd been so intent on Trip that he hadn't noticed the door open.
"Slightly better," said Phlox. "He is still a very sick young man." He turned to face his visitor. "You shouldn't even be here, Captain."
"I just needed to check in, see for myself that he's in good hands," said Archer.
"He is," said Phlox, mopping Trip's sweat drenched forehead. "Perhaps you could reassure Mr Reed of that as well."
"Has Malcolm been giving you trouble?" asked Archer in an amused voice. The armoury officer's hatred of sickbay was legendary. Archer often wondered why, if Reed hated sickbay so much, he didn't try to make more of an effort stay out of it.
"A little. I think he's actually more concerned about Commander Tucker than himself," said Phlox. "When I left sickbay he was sleeping soundly, which is what he needs to do if he expects to recover quickly from his injuries."
"The qualities which make him difficult for you to deal with, also make him the finest Armoury officer in the fleet, Doctor," said Archer.
"I'm aware of that, Captain," said Phlox. "I just occasionally wish that he would listen to my advice. It is certainly not for the good of my health that I tell him these things, it's for his."
"What about Trip?" said Archer. "Is he going to make it?"
"I don't know," said Phlox, with a despondent sigh. "I'm doing everything that I can. His injuries are serious though."
"He didn't look hurt though, when we pulled him out of the Rel Sevanne," said Archer.
"Externally he may look unharmed but he suffered a huge shock to his nervous system which has caused considerable damage. It weakened him a great deal and allowed the virus to gain more of a hold than it would otherwise have done," said Phlox. "He is far from out of danger."
"Can you do anything to help him?" asked Archer.
"I've given him the anti-viral," said Phlox. "That should deal with the virus, assuming that he isn't too weak already but I think we caught it in time. It will be a few hours before we know for certain. The neural damage is more serious although less immediately life threatening."
"Can you treat it?" Archer asked.
"I can try. I've begun the treatment to regenerate his neural pathways, but I have only ever tried this therapy on my own species and Vulcans who both have significantly different biology to humans. I won't be able to tell how effective it will be on a human for a little while yet."
"And the implants? Can you remove them?"
"Yes, but not until his condition has stabilised. They aren't causing any problems at the moment so their removal is not urgent."
"What about the nanites?"
"They are still functioning and don't appear to have been adversely effected by the virus or the neural feedback," said Phlox. "They are in fact far more healthy than the Commander."
"Of course, they would be," said Archer, not bothering to hide his displeasure. He had dared to hope that the cause of all Trip's pain had been destroyed by the same forces which had placed Trip in Phlox's care again. Archer knew it had been too much to hope for that there could be a silver lining to this miserable situation. He knew Trip had started to view the nannites as an asset but he couldn't see them the same way, so far they'd been nothing but trouble for his Chief Engineer.
"You'll let me know if there's any change in his condition?" said Archer, turning to leave. "Either way?"
"Of course," said Phlox.