Chapter Five: Intruder, Infiltrator
Disclaimer: You're not stupid. You know I don't own TNG or YYH.
Author's Note: I'd really like to know how many of you reading this (I know you're out there) are actually familiar with both Yu Yu Hakusho and Next Generation and how many are just trusting me to explain stuff. It'll take just as long as it takes you to click the little 'Go' button at the bottom of this page and type 'both' or 'just TNG' although I hope you'll put more than that. (I do take anonymous reviews, by the way.) It'll help a lot with upcoming chapters, since it would be nice to know what kind of audience I'm writing to here. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks, Le'letha.
Kurama was bored, uncomfortable, and annoyed, in that level of priority. Bored, because he had nothing to do and no one to talk to; uncomfortable, because illusions were uncomfortable if maintained too long; and annoyed because he was bored and uncomfortable. A vicious circle, especially because the illusion problem generated the no-one-to-talk-to problem. But the biggest problem, he decided, was definitely boredom. There was only so many times he could run through an inherently simple plan in his mind, and only so many elaborate additions he could add to it. Besides, any extras wouldn't last long. They'd all be vetoed out-of-hand.
He sighed quietly and pillowed his head on his hands, leaning back against the wall. He found another reason to be annoyed; he couldn't even look annoyed. His current disguise wasn't capable of it. That irritated him, starting the whole stupid cycle over again.
I need someone to talk to, he decided to make his first priority. To that end, he rose and moved absently across the cargo bay. The few people who paid any attention to him merely brushed him off, seeing only the half-witted boy they called Sean.
Sean…how would they react if they knew he didn't exist? And does it really matter?
Of course it didn't. If all went well, they wouldn't have to.
"Sean? Where are you?"
Of course, life, fate, and the universe could be difficult about all this…
Stifling the impulse to laugh in Gunthar's face and make a run for an exit, he turned around, fixing a look of brainless vapidity on his illusory face.
"Ah, where have you been?" the large man boomed.
Not supposed to reply, Kurama nevertheless thought vindictively, How far could I go?
Gunthar barreled on. "The doctor wanted to take a look at you. She didn't get a proper reading on you last time she was here, so she came back. Wasn't that nice of her?"
Having listened to him talk like this for the last week or so, Kurama and Sean merely ignored it. He (possibly they) had other things to think about.
The red-haired doctor peeked around Gunthar, medical tricorder firmly in hand. She smiled professionally at him, and Sean smiled back. Part of the act. Luckily, he only had two widely different personalities to keep straight at the moment. The third persona hadn't been talking to the first for a couple of centuries, and the second was a figment of his imagination, and therefore didn't really exist, but he still had to keep an eye on it.
He thought about the odd nature of his own existence for a moment and then stopped before he got another headache, bringing his thoughts back to the problem (for such it definitely was, if not a very big one) at hand, which was talking at Sean patiently.
"I'm just going to point the tricorder at you for a few seconds. You've seen me use it before, remember. You liked the way it flashed."
Actually, I just wanted to swipe that report in your pocket. A good thing she couldn't hear him thinking, hm? The Betazoid would have been more of a problem, although he'd blocked her out without anything more than his normal mental shields.
"Look, see. You can touch it if you like while I scan you," Doctor Crusher kept on as she flipped her tricorder open and pointed at him.
Oh, no; I don't think so. Not a good idea.
He wasn't sure how the doctor's tricorder would react to him, but he knew it probably wouldn't show the brain-sickly twelve-year-old Sean. It might only register Sean, or it might just possibly show an at-least-partly-human who was probably pushing three hundred. Of course, it might just get confused. And most of the above would lead to stupid questions, and entirely too much curiosity on Dr. Crusher's part. Time to throw a scene.
Good, something to do.
Beverly kept talking soothingly to the blond little boy as she programmed her scanner. He probably didn't understand a word of it, but perhaps her tone was getting through. He was watching her directly but vacantly as always. She'd never seen a different expression cross his face.
She raised the tricorder slowly, not wanting to startle him as she'd done the first time she'd tried. Of course, it didn't work.
The instant it started flashing, his blue eyes went wide as saucers. It was like looking into two deep blue holes; there was nothing behind them except possibly…fear? Of the tricorder? He leapt back, stumbling over his own feet and ending up flat on his back on the hard metal floor, staring up at her tricorder like it had bitten him. Opening his mouth, he seemed to be trying to scream, although the fact that he was mute hindered him. He flailed about on the ground for a moment, trying to scramble away on his back without looking away from her, before Gunthar caught him and dragged him to his feet, pinioning both arms and stopping him from escaping by sheer muscle.
"Whoa!" he cried, restraining the still-struggling child. "What sparked this?"
"Must be the tricorder," Doctor Crusher replied, startled. A crowd was beginning to gather, standing a goodly distance away and staring concernedly. She lowered the scanner slowly, closing the flap to deactivate it. The instant it was out of sight in her pocket, Sean ceased his admittedly useless struggles and fell still, his vapid stare and air-headed smile returning as if they had never left.
Gunthar released him slowly, allowing him to find his feet before letting go completely. The child stood there blinking harmlessly before wandering off through the crowd, which parted away from him quietly. Not noticing, (or not caring) he smiled vaguely at them all before vanishing behind a goodly stack of barrels.
"That was strange," Dr. Crusher said. "He didn't react that extremely to my tricorder last time; he only jumped away. If I'd known he was that afraid of it, I wouldn't have even tried. I don't want to hurt him, just see if I could do something for him."
"First, do no harm, is that it, Doctor?" Gunthar said amiably, paraphrasing the Hippocratic Oath. "Admirable."
She sighed and shrugged. "So much for that."
"So much for what?"
"Thinking I could help him. Mental illness is probably my least favorite affliction—it makes me so sad to see people who could be thinking, normal beings…but if I can't even scan him, there's no chance."
Gunthar narrowed his eyes. "I wonder… how did the medical facilities diagnose him if you can't even point a tricorder at him?"
"I suppose they just didn't let him know they were scanning him." She sighed. "I'd love to stay and talk, but I told Alyssa I wouldn't be long."
"Go, doctor. Don't let us keep you from your duties."
She smiled goodbye back over her shoulder as she passed through the double cargo bay doors.
Kurama collapsed into a heap on the ground, safely hidden from the other forty-nine people in the bay, struggling to keep from laughing out loud and therefore ruining his disguise for good.
That was fun! he thought, trickster kitsune nature bubbling to the fore. I've not laughed so hard since… His mind presented several incidents within the last year alone.
Desperate for conversation, he decided the risk was worth it and shed his "Sean" illusion, regaining his natural form but keeping a sharp ear out for visitors.
Hell's flames, fox. What was that all about?
Kurama smiled. You were watching?
Just keeping an eye on you- he started, but got no farther before the fox interrupted, whooping with sudden laughter.
Why, Hiei, was that a joke? From you he teased, still unable to laugh aloud, but filling his partner's mind with chuckles.
All he got was stony silence, but he hadn't expected anything else. It wasn't intended to be.
Well, it was funny. And as to what that little tantrum was about, I didn't want her scanning me. I'm not sure what it would show.
I suppose that's a fairly good reason to make an idiot of yourself, Hiei replied.
Yes, well, if you have been watching, then you know there have been no problems down here. What about you? I see the blackouts have been doing their job.
I still think they were a little too obvious.
Yeah, well, your idea had its shortcomings too; considering it was pretty close to 'toss any witnesses out an airlock'…wait a second. What's wrong? he demanded.
The android's on to us…well, me, he snarled. He knows I'm on board, and he figured out that we're messing with the computer. The bridge just issued a level-three intruder alert and I can't spin illusions of empty wall like you can. They're searching with scanner and sight, and their entire security force is mobilizing.
Well, I certainly hope you can stay out of their way, Kurama replied steadily. Unless you get caught, they'll not be able to act until we tip our hand. And we won't do that until we're ready.
I won't get caught.
No, I suppose not. But still…be careful, Hiei.
How the hell am I supposed to work with security people underfoot all the time? Geordi La Forge thought irritably, looking up from the master situations monitor that dominated the entrance to Main Engineering. At his count, there were currently eleven phaser-rifle-toting men and women of at least four diverse species patrolling his engine room, getting in the way of his engineers and significantly slowing down repairs.
It would have been more of a problem if they weren't almost finished anyway. However, they now had a new and important job to do, and the security people were somewhat crucial to its success, even though every engineer now wore a type-two phaser clipped to his or her belt.
The Plan had been Commander Riker's idea, and although Geordi didn't like the idea of Main Engineering being both trap and bait, it was the most likely place on the ship for their own personal ghost to be caught.
"Commander!" one of his people called from the office nearest the warp core. "A blackout is approaching Main Engineering."
"How long do we have before we lose power?" La Forge asked professionally, setting aside his annoyance with the extra guards.
"If it maintains present course and speed, it'll be here in two minutes…mark," Lieutenant Hayes said calmly, unflustered by the chief engineer hustling across the room to stand just behind her left shoulder.
"All right, people," Geordi started, raising his voice and rubbing his hands together enthusiastically, caught up in the excitement of the moment now that his role was approaching, "this is it. Shut down all programs and prepare for Blackout Plan Epsilon."
"Aye, aye, sir," they chorused, turning to their consoles and wall panels to save and deactivate whatever varied projects they had been working on or monitoring.
A steady, heavy footfall announced the arrival of Commander Riker. "Ok?" he asked shortly. There really was nothing else to say.
Geordi gave him a grin and a thumbs-up, mouthing 'all set.' Riker smirked back, standing beside him and looking out at the rhythmically pulsing warp core, which lent everything nearby a blue radius.
"What happens to the core when the power goes kaput?" the first officer inquired curiously.
Geordi shrugged. "Last time it just went really dim, but there wasn't enough light to see by for anyone else anyway. Happened like that the time before that…and the time before that, too."
"So it's a safe guess that this time, it'll turn pink?" Riker joked.
"Yep, pretty good chance," La Forge kept it up.
Three and a half seconds all power went out in Main Engineering, and the warp core entirely failed to turn pink.
Geordi surveyed Engineering through his VISOR, seeing the entire large room despite the near-complete outage. Although every normal-sighted person in the room could see only complete blackness, his VISOR-augmented sight made darkness a non-entity for the chief engineer.
Born blind, Geordi had received his VISOR, a device that resembled two interlocked combs that had been folded around his head to conceal his eyes more than anything else, when he was five. It gave him better-than-human vision, allowing him to see in more varied ranges than any sighted human ever could. However, anyone not accustomed to the VISOR as he was would see only unfathomable swirls of bright color, whereas Geordi, who couldn't see any other way, easily interpreted the input, translating it into perception of color, presence, heat, radiation such as microwaves, and texture.
At the moment, he could see the engineers clustered in little groups around inactive panels, the slowly pulsing warp core, Worf's security officers stationed all throughout the room, and Riker waiting patiently for his signal.
What's that? La Forge thought suddenly as power flared suddenly across the room. Although the distant, half-obscured panel emitted no light or sound, he could see the energy charging it easily.
He could also 'see' the small figure standing beside it, fingers moving across the direct-contact PADDs with a speed and ease he actually envied. Without pausing, the chief engineer reached out one-handed and laid his hand firmly on the taller first officer's shoulder—the prearranged signal.
"Computer, initiate program Riker-six-delta-zero!" Riker boomed out so fast Geordi was surprised he didn't trip over the words.
Several things happened at once, so close together even Data would have been hard done by to put them in any coherent sequence.
Level ten security forcefields snapped up all around Main Engineering, isolating them completely from the rest of the ship. Nothing and nobody was coming in—and nothing and nobody was going out.
Recently installed, specially shielded spotlights came on all at once, flooding Engineering with bright light from every direction except from the ceiling and floor.
Phasers leapt into the hands of every engineer currently in the room, and bigger, more powerful, and definitely more intimidating phaser rifles appeared on the shoulders of security officers.
One small, startled, black-cloaked intruder spent not an instant being frozen into stillness, and leapt away quicker than even the best shot on board could follow him.
In less time than it had taken Riker to get out, 'Computer, initiate program Riker-six-delta-zero!' Engineering turned into a madhouse of people shooting phasers frantically. Red energy splattered everywhere.
"He can't get far," Riker said with the confidence of ignorance.
The trap was sprung!
Author's Note: Y'know, for a chapter I thought was going to be too short…sheesh! That was probably my longest chapter since 'Poor Wretched Creature,' from "Demons of the Mind." The filler got loose and ran away laughing at me, I guess. Yeah…anyway…please R&R all this unexpected stuff, and I'll see you next chapter, in which they shoot up Engineering.