DISCLAIMER: Try me...if you sue me you will be shot with paintballs and phasers. Just kidding.

Sorry these have been so short, but I have literally NO reader input! Thanks again to Amorcia for helping me out here, but please... if you read, you review. Easily done. Please...we'll give you cookies...

Every twentieth reviewer will get their name as a character in Azrael...read and review!

Warp nine into the next chapter!

"...MEN HERE HAVE DAGGERS IN THEIR SMILES."

-from Macbeth

"You saved them."

Enaren stood before his commander, and felt a shiver go down his spine. He didn't acknowledge that he had, or that he hadn't. He simply stood against Jayvin's rage.

"You warned them. You kept them alive. We could have eliminated a powerful enemy. But you saved them," Jayvin said. Her voice quivered with barely supressed fury. She was right in his face, angry beyond belief. And then, just as quickly as it had started, she stopped. Thought about it. And immediately began to calm down.

"Sub-Commander, you realize we will never have another opportunity for this, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"And what do you have to say for yourself?"

"Nothing, sir," he replied, nervous now.

"It makes me wonder...can I really trust you..." she trailed off, no doubt thinking over the events that had already transpired. When he didn't respond, she ordered him away, sending a message to him over a private text line.

Sighing sadly, he left for his quarters.

Ordered to my quarters.

That was all he could think. He was the first officer, but now was confined to his quarters. Not that it was too hard to live here. He had a replicator, a bed, and everything else he would need. But...there was something that was troubling him. Why were the main officers treated so well? They didn't get shot. They weren't ever threatened by the commander. Jayvin thrived on the terror in her 'reign', if you could call it that. Why did he still follow her?

Because she's the voice of reason in this universe.

That was a scary thought. If Jayvin Belar was the voice of reason, then why would anyone bother living? Here, the rules were simple. Shoot, don't be shot. Follow the commander everywhere she wants you to. Listen to her and you live.

Why, then, did nobody else listen?

Maybe she's wrong. Maybe she miscalculated. Or maybe we're the ones that are wrong...we're the ones following her.

All in all, a terrifying conclusion, Enaren decided as he retreated into sleep, a phaser set at stun in his palm.

"People!" Jayvin briefly shouted to the darkened room. The bridge crew stiffened and quieted almost visibly. "Anyone bothered to scan the area?" When no one responded in affirmation of her query, she sighed loudly, stalking over to her command chair. "Lieutenant, please do so," she remarked, supressed anger in her voice.

"C-Commander...one ship in the area," a young lieutenant (who was, ironically, older than Jayvin anyway) stammered. "Designation NX-20341...Defiant class. Downloading specs."

"Good..." she muttered, unholstering a disruptor and reholstering it absently, thumbing the trigger to 'vaporize', and back. "It seems to be abandoned. Lieutenant?"

The same young man at this point looked up.

"Commander, the vessel is indeed abandoned, but for one life-form. There seems to be no reason for the abandonment, though. Air containment has not been lost, and it appears power has simply been...shut off. Escape pods have been ejected, though."

"All right then, we're going exploring," she remarked casually. "And this time, I'll go."

Tapping her combadge, she ordered her away team. "Away team please report to Transporter room six, I want four security guards, Lieutenant Hope, Sub-Commander Tapel, and I'm leaving control to Sub-Commander Lak'tran. Belar out," she finished with a deep breath. Heading out to the armoury, she went off to get weapons for her away team. She had a feeling that they might need them.

The away team waited impatiently for their commander in the transporter room, with the new transporter chief attempting to find out what he could about the Commander and the bridge crew in general.

"Sub-Commander Keanu, I realize this may not be my place, but the entire bridge crew, regardless of rank, holds more influence and authority than you. Kindly stop prying," Hope said, wording it carefully.

"Of course, Lieutenant. I was just attempting to find out who I'm working for," Cairteal Keanu said, equally careful with his words. "I can always set up a meeting with Commander Belar, I suppose."

"I would suppose you'd have to," Enaren's voice drifted across the room, coming out more as a drawl than anything else. His tall, muscular stature made for quite the intimidating person. And intimidate he did. Keanu visibly stiffened at that tone.

"Yes sir," he said, just in time for Jayvin to come in. Behind her came two or three yeomen bearing the weapons. Most were disruptors, one for each crewmember on the away team, but there was also an assortment of different weapons for random purposes. The tharalon radiation weapon was one of them; it was handed to Hope immediately. A bat'leth was handed to Sub-Commander Tapel, who strapped it to his back immediately.

A moment later, they were ready to go. Until a girl entered. Just a child, she had never been seen by most of the bridge crew before.

"Conammder!" called the girl, mixing up the letters. "You forgot Miral!"

"Oh! Thanks...what was your name again?" she asked, taking her sword from the child and looking confused. She knew the child was one of the security guards', and had come to say good-bye.

"Anni," murmured one of the female guards. She bent down and hugged the girl. "Now go back to your room, ok? Stay there or go to the bridge if you get scared. Lak'tran will take care of you, like she usually does. I have to go for now but I'll be back later...I promise." Nodding to the big-eyed child, she moved away, shooing her off. The little girl scrambled out the door, eliciting smiles from almost everyone, even Enaren. It was already seeming like an easy mission. Beam over, get technology and come back. All in a day's work, right?

Beaming over, they came to a place where everything was in working order. Nothing had been destroyed, with the exception of a panel for engineering. And another. Moving into the main engine room, everything had been destroyed. Only engineering had been destroyed though, further inspection found. Only things related to transportation. Unsheathing her sword, Jayvin began to pace, calling all of her people to her.

"Something's not right here.." she murmured, now almost afraid to raise her voice. "I keep getting the feeling that I've been here before... yet I haven't. We need to go..."

"Sickbay," Enaren finished for her, equally ill-at-ease. He looked like a cat more than anything, his slitted eyes glowing a bit in the relative darkness. "That's where we all need to be... that's where what we're feeling lies," he said, an obvious under-purr in his voice. With cat-like agility he sprung to a panel and opened it, leading the away team in on all fours.

A few minutes later, they had arrived. The one lifesign was standing guard, but at the sight of them, advanced immediately. The other life-forms were found on stasis beds, gruesome implants and mechanical parts protruding and reinforcing weak flesh. At a signal, they all awoke. And then they were trapped. The away team had been surrounded.

Surrounded and captured by Borg.

Meep!

Yes, okay, so I didn't update that much. But isn't it always worth the wait? No, just kidding. I'm getting there...and I think I'm high on cold medicine...I hate Spring...and flowers, at least for now... I HATE BENADRYL!

Good lord...I need help. Why don't you review? That always helps...

And Yavie's out of town without Internet access, send the Force, or whatever, to her.

-Anij Jinn