Two hours later, Logan and the strike team waited in the large conference room two decks below the bridge. They were quickly joined by the senior officers. Q, of course, was late but he did bring Barclay, who was looking rather green from his transport from the Continuium.
"'Bout damn time." Logan growled. "Yer late."
"Had a little trouble convincing Mr. Dweeb here to travel." Q explained, jerking a thumb at Barclay.
"Whatcha got?" he asked the tall being.
"There's a white dwarf in this sector that has two uninhabited planets in orbit around it." Q told them. "The sun will nova within the next two millennia so it's a write off. We think Phoenix will go for that sun first. It has the largest available power and is still close enough for her to get back to the host and the baby quickly. We plan to open an array of portals around the sun as she feeds. When she tries to leave, she'll be transported to the Continuium where we'll grab her in a containment field. From there, we'll move her to another galaxy."
"So you're going to dump her on some other sucker?" Jubilee asked.
"Don't worry, little girl." Q sneered.
Logan had to hold her down as she went for Q. "Don't, darlin'." he murmured. "He's too powerful fer ya." He turned to Q. "I ain't dumpin' her on some galaxy that ain't gonna be able ta handle her."
"We've found a gravity well that should hold her." Barclay told him.
"Are ya sure?" Logan demanded.
"The only sure thing is to kill her but you won't let me." Q sneered.
"Where does she go between hosts?" Regina asked.
"She calls it 'The White Hot Room'." Logan told her. "Jeannie convinced her to go back once but Demetria ain't Jean."
"Where's this 'Room'?"
"Don't really know." Logan admitted. "Jean never came back after that death so she couldn't tell us."
"When can we move?" Roulard asked.
"We still don't know where she is." Q complained.
"We will." Logan said. "Gina, I need ya to come with me." He gave the others orders to rest and be ready to move within twenty-four hours.
Stellar Cartography was a huge, very round room. It gave Logan and Jubilee a deep feeling of nostalgia to be in the room. Cerebra, in their time, was very similar. The difference was that rather than psi enhancement panels, this room had holographic emitter panels. It was able to place one in the middle of any system allowing one to plot a course from anywhere to anywhere. It was a handy room to have in your ship. This day, however, it was being used as a huge sensor array. LaForge had wired the little helmet he had constructed into the control panel and routed the main sensors through it.
"I still don't understand how you're going to power this thing." he complained to Logan. "It isn't even hooked up to the cartography control power source."
"Took me a few years ta understand it too." Logan told him. "Gina's the power source."
"A human?"
"A mutant. She's gonna use it ta locate the brain waves of Phoenix."
Regina made herself comfortable in the center chair and lifted the head piece. "I haven't used this in a long time." she told Logan. "And I don't know what Phoenix's brain looks like."
"I've never looked into her mind," Logan said, "but Jubes has."
"I have?" Jubilee asked, astonished.
"Ya were linked with Jean after O:ZT. She was still Phoenix then. Ya should have a residual in yer mind. Ya need ta let Gina into yer mind so she can find the trace."
"Okay." Jubilee sad as she sat in the chair next to Regina.
"Close your eyes and think of Jean Gray." Regina instructed.
Jubilee's mindscape had changed since Regina had been there last. Now, there were numerous memories, complete and incomplete, that vied for her attention. Jubilee's latest night with Logan had Regina blushing as she passed. He was a very sensual man and she felt a pang of regret that she never followed up on their initial attraction.
Several areas were completely black. The memories around them were newer and not very clear. These were obviously memories that were destroyed in the attacks and would most likely never be recovered.
There were a lot of memories of Jean Gray. Most of these were from Jubilee's childhood and they always included Logan. Jubilee's view of his relationship with Jean was interesting. Jubilee saw him as a dog panting after a bitch in heat. It was not a flattering portrayal.
She moved past the anger and disappointment and into the actual memories she needed to see. Jubilee's memories of Jean were mixed. She obviously loved the older woman but envied her Logan's attention and her massive powers.
Jean had been in contact with Jubilee's mind several times over the years but only once was she Phoenix at the time. It was after a very violent memory that Regina was doing her best to shut out. She found the echo of the Phoenix force among the awful memories.
The violence in Jubilee's past appalled her. This poor girl had gone through too much in the past. The one thing that heartened her was that the memories of this horrible time did not stand out among the others. Right now, the predominate memory was making love with Logan the previous night.
She returned to her body, blushing bright red. Jubilee looked uncomfortable but Logan gave her a knowing smile.
"I got it." she said, ignoring the memory. She lifted the helmet and lowered it onto her head. "How far do you want me to look into her mind."
"Just touch it fer now." Logan told her. "I don't want her ta know we're lookin' fer her."
As always when she was connected to Cerebra, she left her body and let her mind expand to the limits of the machine. This time, however, she went farther than she had ever gone before. She could feel the life pulsing on the planets over fifty light years away, a confused muddle of minds and concepts. She closed them off and began to look for the one mind she needed to find.
It was close and, oh my God, it was powerful. Regina had never encountered a stronger mind. She felt the mind stir as she brushed it lightly, questioning, searching. She quickly slammed up her shields and withdrew.
She opened her eyes and a small red dot appeared on the star field. "There." she said shakily. "She's very close."
"Gina?" Logan asked, concerned.
"We won't have much time. She knows I was there."
"How could ya let her know?" Logan demanded.
"She seems to be hyper-aware." Regina explained. "I felt a back ground of pain. Demetria may be in labor."
"Dammit!" Logan swore. "I was hopin' ta catch her before she had the baby."
"Doesn't mater now, Wolvie." Jubilee said. "We need to move while she's distracted."
Logan tapped his comm badge. "Worf, call the team together. We're movin' now."
"Aye aye, sir." came the reply.
Thirty minutes later, the team assembled in the man transporter room, ready for battle. Logan was dressed in his blue and yellow. Jubilee was in black and red. Thompson dressed out in red and white and Finny, Roulard and Worf were in solid black. Regina, strangely enough, was in Phoenix colors of green and gold.
"Did you change your colors?" Jubilee asked her.
"Actually, this is the last uniform I had in school." she told her. "I wasn't comfortable in the one Logan had made for me."
"All it's missing is the emblem." Jubilee murmured to Logan.
"She ain't Jean." he told her. "Phoenix ain't gonna go fer her. Okay, everyone. Find the teleporter first and take 'em out. After that, go and find yer assigned target."
"There are five mutants and one human on board." Regina told them. "I'll blind the telepath as soon as we're transported in and let you know where your targets are."
Logan gave them their assignments. "Roulard, stay with Gina. Thompson, yer with Finny. Worf, stay with Jubilee. I'll go fer Argon first, then Phoenix. Gina, were ya able ta make a telepathic link with everyone?"
"All but Worf." she said. "Klingons are psi negative. There's no way to forge a link with them. The link I've opened will be two way for all of us except him."
"Okay." he said. "I expected that. If anyone needs ta talk ta Worf, tell Jubes what ya want her ta say."
They took their positions on the transporter platform. "Watch each others backs and don't get killed." he told them. "The paperwork's a bitch."
He waited for them to settle and nod. "Energize." he ordered.
They materialized in a small room in the middle of the small ship. Logan quickly took a sniff. "No one on this deck right now." he told the team. "Gina?"
"Engineering." she told him. "There are two there. Probably the techno mutant and one other." She cocked her head. "The teleporter is in his cabin on deck four. The telepath is on the bridge with Argon. I have him blinded to us but he's going to notice it soon. Phoenix is on deck three. She's alone right now and is in a lot of pain."
"Jubes and Worf, get the teleporter. Finny and Thompson go ta Engineering and take out the ones there. Williams and Roulard, yer with me. We'll meet on deck three. If ya hafta kill, then do it. If ya can knock 'em out and transport 'em back ta the ship, then do that but make sure ya get a bracelet on 'em before ya move 'em. Gina, who's our link back at the ship?"
"Counselor Troi."
"Hello." came the faint mental voice of Deanna Troi. "The only one I can't hear is Worf but I can see him."
"I gave her visuals." Regina explained.
"That's fine." Logan said. "Ya know what I want ya ta do, Deanna?"
"Yes." she said.
"Okay." he said. "Let's move out."
Finny and Thompson quickly made their way to the engineering deck and began to look for their targets. They crept down the halls to a Jefferies tube and down to engineering. The two men were sitting at a table playing cards. A tall black man threw in his cards in disgust and growled at the smaller man.
"You're cheating!" he said. "I don't know how, but you're cheating."
"It helps to have a telepath on your side." the smaller man grinned.
"Demetria's been helping you?" the other man asked angrily.
"Not today." he said. "She's been kinda quiet last few days."
The small man reached in for the chips while the tall man reached in for the cards. When their hands were inches apart, Finny appeared and clamped a hand over each wrist. He released them and teleported to the other side of the room. A flick of a switch and the bracelets he had locked onto their wrists activated and their powers were neutralized. He and Thompson made short work of them.
"We better not transport yet. I don't want to alert the computer that we're here." Thompson said as he placed them in a power cuff.
"Worf and Jubilee are having some trouble with the teleporter." Deanna told them in their minds. "Logan's heading that way but your help would be welcome."
"Let me take out his power supply first." Thompson told her. He found the panel that looked to add power to the internal systems far above what was needed and blasted it. The panel exploded in a flash of sparks and fire.
"Let's go." he said to Finny.
They found Jubilee and Worf pinned down in a short hall near a strange looking wall panel.
"We think he must touch this panel to use his powers on a broad scope." Worf told them. "He is moving too fast for us to catch him but he also cannot access his power supply."
"I killed the power." Thompson told him. "He's on his own now."
"Can you follow him?" Jubilee asked Finny.
"I've never met another teleporter." Finny told her. "I have no idea how to follow."
"I wish I'd paid attention when Nightie told me how he did it." Jubilee swore.
"You call Nightcrawler 'Nightie'?" Finny asked, scandalized.
"I knew Kurt a long time." Jubilee told him. "He was a good friend to me."
"But to call him 'Nightie!"
"Why not 'Nightie'?" she asked. "He never minded."
"Let's not argue about this now." Worf told them.
"Right." Jubilee agreed. "Can anyone kill the lights?" she asked.
"The techno is out so we should be able to get computer control." Finny told them.
"What's the hold up?" Logan demanded in a low voice as he slipped up behind them.
"He's too fast." Jubilee told him. "We have him cornered in that room." she said, pointing to a door near the small hallway.
"Every time we attempt to take him, he teleports away." Worf explained.
"I don't think he has much range." Jubilee said. "He can't seem to get off this deck. Finny's going to turn off the lights. When he does that, I can toss a paff in and blind him."
"Sounds like a plan." Logan said. "I'm gonna take Gina and head fer the bridge. Be careful." he said to them. He gave Jubilee a quick kiss and with a nod to Worf, he left.
"He loves you a great deal." Worf murmured to her.
"I love him a great deal, too." she said. "He's my life."
The lights suddenly were gone.
"Show time." she whispered.
Logan worked his way to the bridge in total darkness. Even his exceptional senses did not help. Finny had removed the emergency lights as well. He caught Regina's scent as he climbed the ladder to deck one.
"Ya ready fer this, darlin?" he asked as he found her.
"Ready as I'll ever be." she said. "Phoenix knows we're here."
"She gonna do anything?"
"I'm not sure. She's seems to be waiting."
"Fer what?"
"I don't know. Demetria's still in pain so I don't think she's had the baby yet."
The reached the bridge access hatch and looked up.
"Let's do it." Logan said.
Regina enveloped him in a telekinetic bubble. "You have enough air?" she asked.
"I'm fine." he said. "Just watch yer strength and don't shoot me through the top. Make sure ya let me go right away."
She nodded and began to concentrate. With a thought, she shot him through the hatch and into the darkened bridge.