a/n: Glad to hear people are still reading if not always reviewing this, but thanks to those who have!! (Na, thanks to the silent readers too, I'm glad you find this worth your time!) I'm gonna try to get it finished up before I head back to the university.

Trip was in hot pursuit of Malcolm as they rushed to what he assumed was safety. Trip felt his side burst into fresh pain and his lungs began to sear; he found, to his dismay, he couldn't make them fully expand. He let out a slight gasp as he ploughed into Malcolm, who had slowed a bit as he anticipated opening the door. Rather luckily, it sprang open as if by its own accord. They both went tumbling into the room filled with dazzling light. The door clanged shut loudly immediately behind them. It must have been quite a heavy door, Malcolm thought noting the resounding echo. For the first few moments they just stood there, utterly blinded by the brightness, blinking.

"W-we need to start being careful what we wish for," Trip panted, sinking heavily to his knees on the hard floor.

Gradually, his eyes adjusted. Still squinting a little in the intense light Trip could see Malcolm leaning up against a pure white wall. He noticed how completely odd it was to see the normally neat and pressed Lieutenant so scuffed up. His uniform was tattered; his hair either stuck up at odd angles, or drooped a little over the bandage wrapped round his head. It did not escape him that the once white bandage was now a dark, rusty color over the wound.

"Ya, okay Malcolm?" he asked dropping down into a sitting position, closing his eyes as the room started to spin.

Malcolm swallowed, and nodded, "Yes." He looked over at Trip who now had his head between his knees. "And you?"

Trip coughed noisily, but shook his head yes.

Malcolm looked about the sterile white room. He saw large control panels, and bland gray cabinets. The control panels were labeled with a tiny, delicate, alien script. Simplicity seemed to be the general theme.

Trip noticed the floor was cold, mostly because he was still having trouble getting completely warm again. From what he had seen, most of this place had been carpeted, not to mention once finely decorated, this room was tiled and void of décor.

"This place seem...cleaner to you?" Trip asked.

"Now that you mention it, it is a little less dusty."

"And less moldy," Trip added, rising to his feet with a grimace, hand pressed to his side as he unsteadily made his way to one of the consoles. But just as he raised his hand to the screen full of, what he thought might be, control switches; when the room dimmed and all the glowing alien lettering faded from the panels. The computer screens went a blank blue.

"What happened?" Malcolm asked, staggering to his feet. Hadn't Parialter told him it was possible for them to make contact with Enterprise from somewhere within this building? This was probably the place they needed to be. But of course nothing had gone smoothly since they had ended up on this weird planet, why should this be any different? "What did you touch?"

"Nothing!" Trip exclaimed, studying the now blank console curiously.

"You are where this edifice's main frame is located," came the calm familiar voice. Both men tensed.

"Is this where we might transmit a message, like you said?" Malcolm asked quickly. Trip quirked an eyebrow, he didn't remember Malcolm having a conversation with this being about transmitting something to Enterprise. The Lieutenant noticed the look but chose to ignore it, he hadn't explained to Trip about how he'd spent the better part of a day on a rock in the middle of the ocean and didn't think it was vital to disclose that particular unpleasant event.

"Yes, this is where such a message could be sent," glided the voice.

"Well why'd ya turn off the systems?" Trip asked bluntly. Malcolm felt the hair on the back of his neck rise, something wasn't right.

"Are you going to help us?" Malcolm asked coldly. His tone startled Trip, and he shook his foggy head, what did Malcolm suspect that he didn't see yet?

Silence answered him. Trip looked at Malcolm giving him a brief shrug.

"Haven't I?" the delayed response floated across the air.

"I'm talking about now," Malcolm said gritting his teeth a little.

"You don't understand where you are yet, I'm afraid. So, if I have seemed cryptic, you must forgive me."

"You've always seemed a little cryptic," Trip muttered. Malcolm frowned at him.

The voice continued, "You are standing in the room in which I first came into being as Aetas Ferreus."

"This is where you were created?" Trip asked.

"No, I, we, were created in a laboratory. Not here. However our purpose was to be fulfilled in this room. Can you imagine? A room like this, and to have no choice but to spend eternity in it?"

"Are you telling us you were a slave?" Malcolm asked suspiciously.

"No more a slave then a beast of burden really, but that is not how Diluculo saw it. He saw it as you have suggested."

"I don't mean to interrupt," Trip interrupted, "but you haven't told us yet what exactly you are."

"That is a difficult question, the answer is not...simple."

"I wouldn't expect it to be," Trip said.

"I am, if you mean the physical nature, the height of this planet's biological engineering program. I am the result of an experiment."

"An experiment?" Malcolm asked distrustfully.

"Diluculo and I came from the same beast that was the product of our creator's decades of genetic engineering. We were designed to be integrated with a city's main frame; the animals the creators used to breed what eventually resulted in us were carefully selected. They looked for creatures who had naturally tendencies to use large amounts of electricity within their tissues for defense mechanisms or otherwise."

"What was the purpose you were gonna serve?" Trip asked, voice gone slightly softer then it had been.

"To regulate and delegate the requests made to the main frame. Nothing more. We had a brain, and it was the brain and it's tissues that the creators had so carefully coaxed into existence. For, though we had to be a live creature, those tissues inside of our head were that which would delegate the tasks once we were integrated with this machine. We were intended to be a longer lasting, more durable and highly flexible alternative to pure mechanical technology. Truly, I doubt they ever anticipated what happened."

The two officers were silent, not sure how to respond to this.

Malcolm collected his thoughts first. "And what happened, precisely?" he asked steadily.

"I have recounted this part to you before. Ferreus is the beast in which we both exist. It's mind awoke when it was integrated with the city's systems. Once this mind was conscious it tended to...wander from the tasks given it to perform, exploring, learning. The creators had not anticipated this. The beast that they had made was not intended to be a conscious being, nor did they believe they had the abilities to create such."

"So you were supposed to be sorta comatose?" Trip asked.

"Yes, alive, but to what point?" Parialter said softly. "They thought there were errors in the computer's communication with Ferreus, they couldn't fathom why It would not respond. So they began to block It. Box it in, just as a precaution, so it wouldn't bring down the city. That is when It became Diluculo." Parialter paused. Trip and Malcolm waited.

"Diluculo had know so much freedom in those first weeks of Its trial run. To have it ripped away was a shock. Then to be bombarded with new signals designed to force it into doing only what the main frame requested, infuriated It. It began to comprehend that there was a world outside of itself, and quickly It identified and labeled the creators as enemies trying to trap It.

Diluculo was stronger then they had imagined. It learned quickly. It soon had access to all the technology that ran this city. Rapidly, it learned to use transporter technology to move things.

But then we turned into something else, not explainable by the creators or even myself. Diluculo began to project Itself outside of technology's restraints, manipulating them, advancing them, evolving them. It is one thing that Diluculo is more apt at then I. But then, perhaps It felt it was of utter most importance at the time. It felt threatened by these creators, and began to kill, as a way of self preservation. It was easy. But it was during this time, when Aetas became Diluculo, what was happening went against something deeply innate.

I fought Diluculo, and argued with what It was doing. We came to such a deadlock that neither of us could function and then...I became I. Separate from It's mind. I was not Diluculo, not even Aetas, but something completely new. Parialter It called me.

"You tried to help this world's people," Malcolm said.

"Yes, but I was not strong enough. And there was not an argument in the world that could dissuade Diluculo from abandoning Its position on the matter. It took only about one hundred years for Diluculo to annihilate the creators and all other beings with any hopes of evolving. It wants no threats. And It hasn't had any for centuries."

"Until we showed up," Trip said glumly.

"Yes. You resemble our creators, but it is quite obvious that you are not. And while It is stronger then me in shear ability to manipulate technology, Its mind cannot fathom who you really are. You are something quite impossible to it."

"Then why did It block our beacon?" Malcolm asked.

Trip gave him a quick glance, again something he hadn't heard about.

"It accepts that even though you are not possible, that you are."

"Then It admits you are right?" Malcolm said.

"No, It just knows you are."

Trip squinted through the new dimness in the room towards where the voice was coming from.

"So do you have any physical form? I mean how are you...there?"

"I can't answer that. I am, that is all I know. I can manifest as a physical being, but when I do it I must rely heavily upon the observers mind to create something solid. At most I appear a shadow."

"Apparently that rule does not apply to Diluculo," Malcolm said.

"To some extent it does. But It is much stronger in that area."

"Strong enough to kill," Trip said looking at the tattered front of Malcolm's uniform where it had been slashed by the creature when they had been in the cave.

"Yes. This room is where Diluculo and I exist. It is the only place harm can come to us. This network is as much a part of us as the hybrid creature from whence we came, the two are one. And now we come to an interesting place," Parialter's voice slid smoothly. Malcolm's eyes narrowed, and Trip stiffened, there was something in his tone that hinted at some darker motive.

"I have seen you safely this far have I not?"

Trip grunted, Malcolm crossed his arms over his chest.

"Now, allowing you to access the network to broadcast a message is risky. Not only to you, but to me, if Diluculo were to discover this...it would not end well. So I would like you to do one thing for me before I send off a transmission."

"Look, we're grateful for your help and all, but we need to send that message now! Every minute counts! Enterprise might leave the system completely giving us up for dead, then we'd be stuck here!" Trip spouted off at the shadows.

"I understand your situation," replied Parialter calmly.

"I'm beginning to think you don't!" Trip said loudly, Malcolm touched the Commander's sleeve.

"What do you want us to do?" he asked hardly, almost bitterly.

"A simple adjustment."

Malcolm looked at Trip, who looked curiously about before responding, "What kind of adjustment? One to this mainframe?"

"Exactly. You see, Diluculo and I cannot remain like this. I long to be rid of him as much as he longs to be rid of me, and separating the network's hardware would be the freeing step. And I would have that much more protection if I am to perform this task for you."

"But you would still be connected through the creature right?" Trip asked.

"Perhaps. But then, maybe not. It is my hope we have out grown the need for the beast. The necessary tissues have spread."

"How do you propose we do this without Diluculo knowin'?"

"Leave that to me."

Trip glanced over at the mainframe's structure with some trepidation. "Maybe you don't know this, but we're not exactly familiar with equipment like this. I'd have no idea where to start."

"I will guide you."

"And if we refuse?" Malcolm shot.

"So shall I refuse to send your message."

"This isn't asking for our help then, it's blackmail!" Malcolm said dangerously. It was Trip's turn to give the Lieutenant a meaningful 'calm down' look.

The commander drew a breath, "Okay, it doesn't seem like yer goin' give us a choice, so what do you want us to do first?"

"Start over there, remove the gray panel," instructed Parialter. Malcolm swore he detected giddiness in the smooth voice. It unnerved him. Trip popped the panel off.

There was a sudden low growl, Trip and Malcolm froze and turned away from the exposed wiring. The sound was near. Startlingly close, the huge violet eyes stared at them in their unblinking manner. Unable to move, they just stared back. Trip could feel the thing's hot breath on his face. The orbs narrowed, and Trip flinched as the creature sprung, but with an unexpected gust of air the eyes vanished, the room's lights came back up, and they were alone.

"Now what," Malcolm whispered in nervous irritation. Trip let out two unsteady breaths and leaned back against the still intact coverings. Malcolm saw three great slashes through the front of the Commander's quickly darkening uniform.

TBC...

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