âAnd The Stars Called Angels
XXX
Chapter Two
"It had been a perfectly normal day for Commander Will Riker. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. He had gotten up, showered, gotten dressed, had breakfast with Deanna and Geordie, and started his shift on the bridge. And it was then, half an hour into his shift that his day began to get a little less normal. He had been talking to Lt.Cmdr. Data about some modifications which the android and Geordie wanted to make to the warp core. Captain Picard had strode onto the bridge, and straight to Lt. Worf's station, looking more than a little ticked off. And then, without any notice or warning, there had been a big flash of light ™, and they had ended upâhere, wherever here was. He looked at the group of people standing around them with apprehension.
"This is it?!" a blond woman demanded. "Some super-powered version of my uncle with a superiority complex tells us he's sending help, and this is all we get? I mean, I always knew he was cheep"
"This day could not get worse," a blond man stated.
"Shut up, Harper," a dark haired woman, with exotic features rolled her eyes.
Suddenly, there was a pounding on the door, and the entire group went into panic mode. The blond woman's eyes widened, and she swore violently in quite a few different languages. "Damn it, they're here already? The Divine is not watching over us! Hell, I'd say the Divine hates us!"
"Can you blame it?" a tall, dark-skinned man with some kind of bone spikes protruding from his arms, asked.
"We can't keep running and hiding forever," a purple girl stated, looking scared.
"No, just till we get to the Maru, so we can get the hell out of here!" the blond woman exclaimed.
"May I ask where we are?" Picard asked anyone.
"Captain," Data called, "I am picking up no residual transporter effects. We did not arrive here by any conventional means." Worf growled.
"The door is giving way," aâstrange being with claws called.
"Oh God," the man identified as Harper muttered.
"I'm Dylan Hunt, welcome to the Andromeda," said a tall, brown haired man.
"Ok," called the blonde woman, "Harper, Trance, get behind us and try and find another way out. Tyr, Rommie, you're our first line of defense, theâuhâ.other people over there are our second, and Rev and I will come in from either side!" The whole group jumped into action, scrambling in to position. Captain Hunt did not look impressed.
"You and I are going to have a very long talk after this is over," he told the blonde.
"After this is over, we'll most likely be dead," she retorted dryly. Picard, Riker, Troi, 'Data and Worf moved to the open space between the dark skinned man and the dark haired woman and the blonde woman and the furry covered man. "Sir?" asked Riker of Picard.
"Number One, I think right now our best chance of finding out where we are is by helping these people defend themselves against whatever form of attack may be coming," Picard told him calmly.
"So, what exactly are we fighting?" Riker asked Captain Hunt.
"Maggog," the other man said shortly.
"What are Maggog?" asked Data curiously. "There are no references to such a species in my databanks."
"You're an AI?" asked the dark haired woman, turning to him.
"Yes, I" Data's response was cut off as the door exploded inwards. Hordes of fur covered, snarling, slobbering beasts that closely resembled the man standing behind the Enterprise crew burst into the room.
"Those," said the blonde, "Are Maggog."
"Lovely creatures," Picard murmured dryly, before being forced to pull out his phaser and begin fighting. The battle was long and hard, though most of the strange people seemed well adept at fighting the Maggog. Picard relied heavily on his phaser, a weakness that almost got him killed on more than one occasion.
To his surprise, Riker saw that Deanna was showing an excellent grasp of hand-to-hand combat, having lost her phaser near the beginning of the battle. In a way, he decided, that was almost a blessing. She didn't have the best aim with a phaser, however her skills without it were well beyond anything he'd ever thought the elegant betazoid capable of.
A Maggog came at him, and he jumped out of the way, allowing the blonde woman to take it out with her gun. "You looked a little zoned out there," she told him, using the moment of calm to catch her breath. He shrugged, shifting his phaser to his other hand.
"Nothing, it was nothing. I'm Commander William Riker," he told her, smiling charmingly.
"Captain Beka Valentine. Nice to meet you, how're you enjoying your stay onboard so far?"
"It's beenâinformative, to say the least," Riker shrugged.
"Oh shit!" Beka muttered, raising her gun and firing at a group of Maggog advancing on them. "So much for our rest," and with that, she was off, gone back into the fray.
He looked over to Data, where he stood, back-to-back with the dark haired woman, both moving faster than the Human eye could follow.
"Must be an Android," Riker muttered incredulously to himself, watching the woman's hair falling wildly about her face as she moved.
"I believe she prefers the term 'AI'," a smooth masculine voice commented from behind him. Riker could not turn to see who was speaking, too busy fighting off the lone Maggog who just refused to leave him alone or die.
"Interesting, so she is an android" he spoke over the noise of the battle around them.
"Yes. She is the ship's avatar."
"Theâship?" Riker slammed the butt of his gun into the Maggog's face, and it staggered back long enough for him to get off a killing shot.
There was no one behind him when he turned, but he heard the same voice of his unknown companion from the dark skinned man, now on the other side of the room. "Ascendant, your forcelance is not effective enough! Begin using your body as weapon. Remember the courses I have given you."
She replied with something that was just shy of a growl. "I've got hundreds of ways to kill and fight in my memory already, Tyr."
"You forget, those are strategy and skill only. Does your memory bank tell you that if you time it just right, a Than is open to attack after firing a weapon? Or show you how to read the facial expressions of a human so well that you can tell if they are bluffing or not without using any sensors?"
She didn't reply. Just then, Worf arrived near Riker. The Klingon's eyes were bright, and his face was split with a wide grin.
"Well, Mr. Worf, it sure appears that you're enjoying yourself," Riker said, jumping out of the way of a stray weapon blast.
"This is a good fight, Commander!" Worf slammed his fist into a Maggog's stomach, following it up with a kick to the beast's head. Riker heard the click of claws on the wall behind him, and spun, phaser already up to face the next Maggog.
"Don't shoot!" He blinked, staring at the orange robed
Maggog before him.
"OhâRev, is it?" he asked, phaser still up. The Maggog nodded.
"I am the Reverend Be" A swarm of Maggog piled onto the two men, and they were split apart before any more conversation could take place.
"Fun day, isn't it?" Riker asked Deanna the next time he saw her.
"Oh yes, just wonderful," she returned, flipping backwards to avoid a falling shelf.
"Just how I wanted to spend my last day before Shore Leave," he agreed dryly.
"I think Worf is enjoying himself, at least," she said.
"Yeah, I'd say so," he scanned the room, but the Klingon was nowhere in sight. Neither, he realized after a moment, were many of the others. Only Troi, himself, Beka Valentine and the purple girl were left.
"Where's everyone else?" he called across to Valentine.
"You don't think the Maggog would stick to med deck, do you?" she called back, flipping her hair, which he realized to his shock, was now a very dark shade of purple.
Suddenly, a woman's voice floated out from over their heads. "The Maggog have covered over half the ship. My internal defenses are doing what they can, but my main systems are being increasingly damaged by the fight."
Riker stared up in shock. "Who"
"Andromeda. The ship we're aboard" Valentine groaned, and jumped over a medical bed to join them.
"Q wouldn't have sent them if he didn't have a good reason," said the purple girl suddenly. "Don't worry, we're all going to be fine."
"Famous last words," Riker and Valentine said in unison.