Red Rain
By Thalia Drogna
Trip awoke with a start, his eyes snapping open. There was no feeling of wellbeing this time, just a horrible sense of foreboding.
"Damn. We're being hunted," said Trip. Then he realised that the Red Alert was sounding. Darwin had already moved to the com to find out what was going on.
"Colonel, we've just detected a ship approaching," said Hathaway. "It's only on long range sensors at the moment but it's coming in fast."
"Just one?" asked Darwin.
"So far," said Hathaway.
"The Hunters have always attacked in threes. Enterprise?" asked Trip, sitting up on the biobed.
"Maybe," said Darwin, "I really hope not," and turned back to the com, "I'm on my way, Captain. See if you can get an ID on it." He turned back to Kanatova and Trip. "I want you two to carry on. We need to know the whole story of what happened on Karavia. I don't like the idea that I'm carrying around information in my brain and we don't know why the Hunters want it or how to get it out again."
"The Hunters don't want it," said Trip, "they just want to make sure that no one else has it."
"Which leads to a whole new set of questions," said Darwin. "Let me know what you find out."
"Yes, sir," replied Kanatova and Trip. He settled back on the biobed and waited for Kanatova to put him back to sleep. Maybe this waking nightmare would have some answers in his sleep.
"We're not leaving until we've got what we came for," replied Darwin to Hathaway's suggestion that they should leave before they got caught up in the Jarnan's attack. "I want you and your team to join us inside the complex. We're going to need all of us for this."
A few minutes later Hathaway and her team had joined them in the lab. Darwin had given a hurried explanation of what was going on.
"Rob, this is crazy. There has to be another way," said Hathaway, in little more than a whisper. The two officers were talking softly off to one side of the room but Trip was close enough to hear what was being said. He had noticed that Hathaway hadn't been surprised at the mention of the Quantum Computer so he guessed that she'd been in on that part of the mission. "We have no idea whether this will even work. How do we know it's safe or what it will do to us?"
The room shook again as the Jarnan attack neared their position.
"Ellie, we don't have any other options and we're running out of time," said Darwin. "This is the only way to complete the mission."
"Screw the mission," said Hathaway. "The data that Didier and Trip downloaded should be plenty to satisfy the boys at R and D. This is becoming a very dangerous situation, we could all end up getting killed for this damned computer."
"We can do this Ellie, it's just going to be more complicated than we originally thought. I've made my decision, we're completing this mission," said Darwin.
"One of these days, Rob, you're going to push things too far and I seriously hope that I'm not around to see it. This unit may be the best there is but even we're only human," said Hathaway.
"There will always be bad situations, Captain," said Darwin. "In our line of work, we can't avoid that."
"Yes, but what we do is all about managing risk, not increasing it," said Hathaway.
"The sooner we get started the less time we have to spend on this godforsaken planet. The longer we talk about this the more risk we're in," said Darwin.
"Fine, you're obviously not going to listen to me. Let's get this over with and get out of here," said Hathaway.
They could now hear the almost constant sound of explosions from the attack. The lights flickered, plunging everyone into darkness for a moment before they returned to brightness. Darwin knew that time was getting short if they were going to complete their mission.
Darwin turned to Gliu. "How do we do this?" he asked.
"It's a simple, painless, procedure. The apparatus is in the lab next door," said Gliu.
"How long will it take?" asked Darwin.
"It's a concentrated data burst. It should take less than a minute for each of you," said Gliu.
"How do we get it out again?" asked Hathaway.
"With the weapons data that you downloaded from our computer core there's also the specification of the memory download and retrieval system," said Karod.
"Just how well tested is this system?" asked Kanatova.
"We've tested it extensively, both Karod and Trian have tried it themselves," said Gliu.
"But you're not human," said Kanatova. "Major, this may not be a good idea."
"From what I've been able to ascertain about your biology, there shouldn't be any problems," said Gliu.
"I'll go first," said Darwin.
"Major, I really can't guarantee that this is safe," said Kanatova. "Even if it doesn't damage our brains immediately, there could be long term damage."
"All we need to do is get the information off the planet. We'll retrieve it once we're away from here," said Darwin. "This is the only way. If it doesn't work or anything happens to me then get yourselves out of here and back to the Thak Tikh. We all have to agree to this or it won't work. I'm not going to order you to do this, but the mission is at stake here."
"I may not agree exactly with your methods but we're a team, we'll do it," said Hathaway. The others nodded their assent. Kanatova hesitated but also agreed.
"Very well," said Gliu and led them through to the lab next door. The apparatus looked simple enough. It consisted of a chair with a headset containing electrodes which were hooked up to a computer. Darwin sat himself down in the chair and Gliu slipped the headset onto him. The scientist set up the computer and flicked a few switches. The Special Projects Unit stood around waiting to see what would happen.
"It's done," said Gliu, after less than a minute had passed.
"That was it?" asked Darwin slightly surprised. Nothing felt different. Kanatova took out her scanner and moved it over Darwin.
"How do you feel?" asked the Medic.
"Fine," said Darwin.
"I told you, it's perfectly safe," said Gliu.
"I can't find anything wrong," said Kanatova.
"I guess the rest of us better take our turn then," said Trip, stepping up to take Darwin's place.
One by one the MACOs were hooked up to the machine and the information was transferred to them. When all the MACOs had gone through the procedure with no ill effects they got ready to leave.
"Don't worry, Doctors, we do this sort of thing all the time. We'll get you out of this," said Arroya to the nervous looking scientists.
"Let's just hope that we can get ourselves out at the same time," muttered Rush.
The MACOs moved down the corridor not caring now if they were seen. They took out several guards as they made their exit, protecting Gliu and Karod. The pitch black of night was lit by the dirty orange glow of burning fires in destroyed buildings, ruined in the Jarnan attack. Stood in front of their escape route, silhouetted against the flames were twelve men, dressed in black. They had no visible weapons but Darwin certainly wasn't going to give them the benefit of the doubt when it came to hidden weapons.
"Hand over the scientists and the information, we will let you leave unharmed," said one of the men in perfect, unaccented Karavian dialect.
Didier translated for the Major. He'd been up most of the previous night learning the Karavian language but this was the first time he'd been called upon to speak it. The scientists had some sort of translator which had meant his linguistic abilities weren't required except for decrypting and reading the computer files.
"Why don't you come and get them," said Darwin. His phase rifle was pointed right at the man who had spoken.
They didn't wait to be asked twice but began to advance on the MACOs' position. Darwin gave the signal to fire and the men advancing upon them found themselves knocked backwards from the force of the phaser fire. However, it didn't stop them. The men kept coming for them, except now they had their hands raised and they were emitting small white lights which exploded on impact with an object. The MACOs ran for cover, dragging Gliu and Karod with them.
"Goddamn but they're tough," said Trip.
"I'd noticed," replied Darwin, dryly. "Any ideas, people?"
"We could try concentrating all our fire on one individual," suggested Carter.
"I've got some C4 that I could throw in their direction," added Rush with a slight quirk of his lips.
"Last resort, Rush," said Darwin. "Everyone concentrate your fire on the leader."
The ten members of the Special Projects Unit fired their weapons simultaneously on full power and watched as the man kept on walking.
"Damn, these things just won't die," said Fenner, after Darwin had given the order to cease fire. This was futile and just using up their energy packs.
"New plan," said Darwin. "Let's get the hell out of here. Split up into pairs, usual buddies. Everyone take a different route, we'll meet back at the shuttles. Gliu, you're with me and Fenner. Hathaway, take Karod with you and Trip. Rush I want you to rig this place to blow, even if it only slows them down at least it will have bought us enough time to get into the city streets and lose ourselves."
Rush rapidly rigged the explosives and added a small trigger that he could activate remotely. Then the MACOs took off in different directions, melting into the dark city streets as Rush detonated his explosives.
"I get the impression that you really enjoyed that," accused Arroya as her and Rush ran through the streets, Trip, Hathaway and Karod running beside them until they could head off in a direction of their own.
"There's beauty in destruction," replied the explosives expert. "I'd be happier if it had actually taken more than two of them out of the game though," he said looking over his shoulder at the figure that was unmistakably following them at leisurely run.
"Damn," said Trip, as he too looked back and saw more Hunters behind the first, it looked as if five of them had followed this particular group of fleeing MACOs. They came to another street that branched off and Trip, Hathaway and Karod peeled off. The scientist was breathing heavily, obviously unused to the physical exertion that they were currently engaged in.
"We can't keep this up," said Trip to Hathaway. "He's not going to make it."
"I know," said Hathaway. "But I don't want to take my chances with them back there either."
Trip knew that there had to be a way to dent their enemy but he couldn't think straight while they were running for their lives. "I think the C4 got a couple, so they can be hurt," said Trip out loud. "Maybe we're thinking too high tech here. Karod, do your military use projectile weapons?"
"Some, they've been moving towards energy weapons like your phase rifles," said Karod. "There's a barracks near here, they might have some projectile weapons there."
Three of the Hunters continued to follow them. Trip guessed that there was one Hunter for each fugitive and every pair would have two Hunters following them, unless they had been lucky and their Hunters had been destroyed in the explosion. They made it to the barracks which were thankfully deserted although they had been damaged extensively in the Jarnan attack. They moved quickly through the ruins trying to find the weapons store room. Their searching was rewarded a little later with a stash of shotguns and machineguns. Trip picked up a couple of each hanging them over his shoulder and then grabbed a couple of boxes of ammo for both types of weapon.
"I think we should make a stand here," said Hathaway. "If this doesn't work we'll just have to try and escape out the back." She had also armed herself, except had managed to find herself something which looked very like a rocket launcher.
"It's as good a place as any to try this," said Trip. They moved back to the front of the barracks, positioning themselves behind a low wall that encircled the front lawn. The three men running towards them were almost in range of their weapons. The waiting was agony.
Finally Trip was able to let loose a volley of bullets from the machine gun. It slowed their attackers who let loose their own volley of white stars that impacted on the wall of the building behind them as Hathaway and Trip threw themselves to the ground.
"I think this needs a woman's touch," said Hathaway to Trip as she loaded the rocket launcher. She pressed the trigger after carefully lining up the sights on her target. The result was spectacular. The man approaching them disintegrated into hundred of pieces in an explosion of blossoming flame. They had expected charred flesh however what they got was metal and plastic scattered across the road.
"It's a robot!" said Trip with disbelief. Hathaway took down a second Hunter in exactly the same manner.
"Where'd the other one go?" asked Hathaway.
"I have a really bad feeling about this. And where's Karod?" said Trip. He didn't want to shout out for the scientist and alert their enemy to their position but he was very worried. Then he heard an ominous sound, of someone trying to catch their breath, a choking, coughing, gurgling sound. He turned around to see the other Hunter lifting Karod up off the ground by his neck. The Hunter was squeezing the life out of the scientist.
"Put him down!" shouted Trip, pointing his weapon at the Hunter.
The Hunter said something in Karavian that Trip didn't understand and snapped the neck of his prisoner with little more than a flick of his fingers. Karod dropped limply to the ground, obviously dead. Trip and Hathaway simultaneously opened fire and the Hunter eventually fell to the ground, cut in half by the rain of bullets. They had both had to reload in order to kill the machine that lay ruined on the ground in front of them. Trip drew in a shuddering breath, this had been too close for his liking.
Hathaway pulled out her communicator and relayed what they had discovered to the other teams. Arroya and Rush had managed to dispense with their pursuers by dropping a building on them, using some well placed explosives. Carter and Kanatova had persuaded their attackers to play catch with a grenade. That was nine down so far out of the original twelve, including the two caught in Rush's opening explosion back at the weapons research complex. Didier and Dempsey had managed to get away without being chased, which left three tailing Darwin, Fenner and Gliu.
"Major, what is your position?" asked Hathaway, into her communicator. There was no answer. "Did any of you see which direction the Major and Fenner went?"
"They took the direct route," said Dempsey, his voice crackling over the communicator.
"Everyone get back to the shuttles," said Hathaway. "Trip and I will see if we can give the Major a hand."
It was then that three sleek, arrow shaped, black ships flew over their heads.
"They're not Jarnan," said Trip.
"No they're not," said Hathaway, her voice thoughtful. "Must be the Hunters' ships."
"Have you noticed the way they seem to hang around in threes?" asked Trip as they began to move towards Major Darwin's last known position. "Three ships and there were twelve Hunters."
"It could be coincidence," said Hathaway as they broke into a run.
"Or it could be design," said Trip. "Coincidence sometimes just means there's intelligence behind it."
Trip and Hathaway arrived at Darwin's position just in time to see Gliu thrown against the wall by one of the Hunters. There was a sickening crack as the scientist hit the wall and then fell to the ground. Trip and Hathaway dealt with the remaining Hunters but the damage had already been done. Darwin ran to Gliu's side but it was obvious that he was dying.
"Listen to me," said Gliu. "No one can know that you possess this information or the Hunters will come again. You have to tell your superiors that the mission was a failure or they will suffer the same fate as we have. Just remember that one day the Hunters will come looking for you. I've left you a reminder of that, but don't forget it."
The Special Projects Unit made their way back to the shuttlecraft, moving through dark streets, constantly expecting to be followed by the Hunters. Outside the city, Trip looked back to the towers silhouetted against the glow of the fires. He saw three black ships scream across the sky, bombing the city as they went. The MACOs ducked automatically as the city exploded into flame,throwing themselvesto the ground.
"What the hell?" asked Trip
"The Hunters destroyed the city," said Arroya.
"I don't understand," said Trip, "they killed the scientists and destroyed the computer, why did they need to destroy the city?"
"To get rid of any loose ends," said Hathaway.
"Let's get out of here," said Darwin, who was the first to recover his feet.
They flew back to the Thak Tikh. Darwin contacted Earth and lied to them about what they had found. As far as Earth knew, the mission had been unsuccessful. Then he deleted every reference he could find to the Karavia mission in the files, and arranged for the same to happen back on Earth. In short the only people who ever knew that Special Projects had been to Karavia were the people who had actually been there. They broke orbit immediately not wanted to risk meeting up with the black ships that they'd seen flying over the city. They were on their way to their next mission.
Everyone went to sleep that night, they all dreamt the same dream of dark twisting streets and men in black chasing them through those black streets. In the morning they awoke to a new day and had no memory of Karavia. Although none of them knew it yet, the night's sleep had wiped their memories of all the events on the planet.
Waking up wasn't any easier this time than it had been before. In fact it may even have been worse because he'd just realised what they were up against.
"Carter was right, we're being hunted by robots," said Trip.
"Yes, and we still have no idea who sent them or why," said Kanatova.
"Let's get to the War Room, we need to let the Colonel know what we're up against," said Trip. "And I have a few questions for him."
They made their way through the empty corridors of the station and up to the War Room. The MACOs were grouped around the scanner looking at the approaching contact.
"What else did you find out?" asked Darwin.
Trip filled the MACOs in on the rest of the story.
"What I want to know is how long have you known?" said Trip, angrily looking at Darwin.
"I don't remember any of this either. What I did remember was that we needed a sanctuary because someone was going to come after us one day. I didn't know why I was so sure that we'd need it, I just knew we had to have somewhere," said Darwin.
"It was after Karavia that you added Red Rain Alpha to the code list. You have to have remembered something," said Trip.
"No, I didn't know any more about what happened down on Karavia than you did, until today. I think we can guess that Gliu was aware that our memories would be wiped but he protected us by sending me a message to plan for trouble. I just assumed it was my natural paranoia," said Darwin.
"And because we know you, none of us guessed that you were being influenced by someone," said Trip.
"But what else did he put in our heads?" asked Hathaway. "We could be carrying anything."
"I don't think he was being malicious," said Trip. "It didn't feel like that. He just wanted to save himself and get his research away from people who wanted to destroy it."
"So maybe he didn't intend for us to forget everything," said Fenner.
"No, he did," said Trip. "He didn't want us to build a Quantum Computer. He didn't think the Karavians were ready for the power it would give them and I'm not sure that we are either."
"How do we get this information out of our heads?" asked Rush. "I don't like the idea of having something in my head, especially if we don't know what it is."
"The instructions on how to get the information out were in the Karavia files, and they've been deleted," said Kanatova. "I'll work on it but I cannot guarantee that I'll ever find the way to download this information."
A warning beeped at them urgently from the scanner.
"We'll have to pick up this later," said Darwin. "We've got company and it's just entered weapons range. Carter, fire a warning shot, I don't want them getting any closer."
Carter nodded and moved to the weapons console. He loaded a torpedo and set it to explode short before firing it on the approaching ship.
"Is it Enterprise?" asked Trip, urgently.
Hathaway checked the scanner, looking for an ID. "It's definitely Starfleet. Registration is NX-01, it's Enterprise alright."
"Damn," said Trip. "T'Pol found a way to follow us. I thought we'd covered our tracks better than that."
"We covered them as well as we could," said Hathaway. "Enterprise has the best of Starfleet crewing it, if anyone was going to find us then it was them."
"They've come to a full stop," said Carter. They would have been mad to have approached any closer given the station's armaments.
"Rush, hail them," said Darwin.
"Yes, sir," said Rush. "This is Water's Edge Station, come in Enterprise."
Hoshi's voice sounded over the speaker. It reminded Trip just how much he missed Enterprise.
"This is Enterprise, stand down. We have authority to arrest Commander Tucker and those responsible for the theft of the NX-Theta," said Hoshi.
"Great, so the Captain's decided to do it by the book," groaned Trip. He was aware of the enmity between his former commanding officer and his current commanding officer, and this would just put Darwin's back up. The Colonel was very protective of his men, even when they were no longer under his command. He'd always been especially protective of Trip, knowing the demons that haunted him and how naïve he'd been when he'd first become a member of Special Projects. Archer was probably very unhappy that Trip was with Darwin again.
"I want to talk to Archer, now," said Darwin.
"Darwin, I want Commander Tucker and whoever is responsible for the theft of the NX-Theta," said the voice of Captain Archer.
"You don't know what you're getting into, Archer," said Darwin. "This isn't some game we're playing here. There are lives at stake, the lives of my men."
"If you're trying to convince me that you're protecting your men, give it up. I know who you are. What is this all about? What are you hiding?" asked Archer, accusingly. "Put Commander Tucker on."
"Hey Captain," said Trip, trying to sound nonchalant, as if he spent every day on a Tellarite space station with a group of black ops MACOs.
"Commander, the way I see this you have two choices. You come back willingly or we come over there and get you," said Archer.
"Captain, please don't do this. Get Enterprise out of here, it's for the best. Just leave me here and go," said Trip.
Suddenly alarms were sounding around the War Room. "Colonel, long range sensors, we've got incoming," said Carter. "Lots of incoming."
"They led them to us," said Hathaway.