Threats
It was a known fact. Any piece of high technology, no matter how advanced, had its less than pretty parts. Mary had known this for her entire life. Even the Iconians, with all of their incredible breadth of knowledge and skill, had basically given up on making some aspects of their lives aesthetically pleasing. A trash dump was a trash dump no matter how carefully one tried to eliminate the need for it or hide it. The Denali was not a very old ship, but she wasn't brand new either. She smelled 'used'. Mary had been on many ships on her way to Earth that had literally stank. Some due to differing atmospheres, others due to lack of maintenance. At least on this one, the Jeffries tubes were not filled with trash or random things that no one had found a place for. Starfleet regulations were good for some things.
Now, if only she keep her mind on what she was supposed to be doing. It was hard. The Bolian was being a creep again and Jhinis was not taking it well.
"Horil, stop." Amet'a told the Bolian again as he made yet another course joke about antenna that Jhinis dutifully ignored. He couldn't use his huge cannon in the Jeffries tube, so had been relegated to 'escort' the pair of girls with a tiny weapon in hand that he clearly did not like. Some escort! No matter what he thought, he was not a comedian. He was making jokes at Jhinis' expense and it was grating on Mary. The link she shared with Jhinis made it easier for both to deal with the Bolian's course attempts at humor, but it had gotten old after the third time and now he was somewhere around number sixty in bad jokes. At least he couldn't rub up against either of them as he had promised to twice. The tubes were not large enough for more than one person to crawl through at a time. The team was making slow progress, but no one had attacked them, so that was plus. Now, however, they were moving into a larger room, clearly an engineering access to said tunnels. From the markings? Near the hangar bays. Good. "Don't make me shoot you."
"Please shoot him again." Came from the human in armor. It was impossible to tell if the wearer of said armor was male or female. The heavy armor obscured any physical attributes and the voice was odd. Modulated, clearly a disguise of some kind. But it was also very clear that these trusted each other. The Bolian affected hurt look but the armored human was unmoved. "You know he will just keep it up until one of us does."
The Lethean nodded, but didn't speak. He hadn't this whole time. A bit creepy.
"As tempting as that is, Lieutenant, we may need him and his cannon." Amet'a said with a growl as the Bolian started to smirk and rethought it as her glare landed on him. "While one of us can carry him out again like we have before, we may very well need his firepower. Tone it down, Horil. Now."
Odd that such calm words were such a distinct threat. Then again, she was a Klingon. For his part, the Bolian paused and then nodded, just a little.
"Phaser fire on sensors." Came from the Tholian and everyone stilled. Mary strained her ears but heard nothing. Jhinis shook her head silently when Mary looked at her. "From the scans? Just outside the hangar bay."
"I hope no one tried to board our shuttle." Came from the human and all of the away team winced. A story there. Mary would ask later.
"If they had, the screams would have been audible even here." Horil said and everyone glared at him. He shut his mouth and mimed zipping his lips. He gave himself a shake and made a motion to the cannon on his back. The Klingon shook her head and he pouted.
"None of us have seen any but Federation personnel and that has no stun setting. Starfleet would object." Amet'a's calm words were an order and Horil grimaced, but nodded, checking his hand held weapon. "If I had known you were scheduled for the team, I would have told you to leave it behind. The captain said 'stun'."
"You had no idea what I am or if I was sane." Mary said into the silence that fell and everyone looked at her. "Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it." The Klingon locked gazes with her and Mary met her eyes with a calm that she really didn't feel. She was tired, sore and really irritated with Bolian, but she was committed. "I do not like him, but we may need the firepower to break through if there are controlled beings out there. I think I saved one before, but that pushed me to my limits. I am not sure I can do that again. Not without a lot more training that I am not likely to get."
"What did you do?" The Tholian inquired as Amet'a digested that information.
"I injected the command network that held the woman with a program that made it compute the value of pi to the last decimal place. The nanites inside her shriveled up and died as it used all of its power to try and do that." Mary smiled a bit wanly as everyone stared at her. "Hey. It was all I could think of."
"Could you do it again?" Amet'a inquired. "Shooting our way out will cause a hell of lot of problems for Alliance HQ. I would prefer a simple solution, even Horil's methods." She made a face at the Bolian who bowed to her! "But the captain has enough headaches this week."
Odd. At that, all of the away team with visible faces looked worried! Even the armored human and Tholian radiated worry for a moment. It faded. Whatever Mary sensed wasn't visible or anything that humans had words for. Even Jhinis didn't feel the same, although from the link Mary shared with her, she felt the worry telepathically, so she felt it twice!
"Maybe." Mary hedged just a little. "I used up a lot of my energy to do it, but I did manage to free her. She was alive when we left, if hurt. I can't do it for many and I couldn't do it over a large area. Perhaps… five meters?"
"Mary." Jhinis warned as everyone looked thoughtful. "You drained yourself badly with that. You can die if you get drained too far."
"That is how M'Tara was killed." Mary said very softly and all of the away team stilled. She shook her head. "They um… The Academy did a lot of tests and they made me study everything Starfleet had on Iconians. They um…" She paused as the armored human stepped to her side and laid a hand on her arm. "Ma'am? Uh, Lieutenant?" Mary asked.
"You can do it." The voice from the armor held nothing but confidence. "Focus only on one thing. One thing only." Odd. None of the others were moving. Amet'a's disruptor was in hand and aimed at Mary, but… why? Her expression was protective? But of Mary or the human? "Disable them. Pi is a good choice but don't overextend."
"I don't know what I am doing." Mary protested. "I could fry the ship's systems! Overload life support or worse! I just…" She paused as the human's armored hand gripped her tight enough to hurt. "I want to help, but I may do more harm than good."
"That is always the way." The human was almost gentle as he/she released Mary's arm and stepped back. "Make it like a stun grenade. Keep it simple, low yield and make it short range. You can do it, Mary. I believe in you."
"I wish I did." Mary said sadly, but then turned to Amet'a. "I can give you a distraction, but someone may have to carry me to the shuttle after." The Bolian perked up, but both Jhinis and Amet'a growled at him and he subsided without comment. Wise.
"You won't hurt me." Jhinis said softly. "I will carry you if needed."
"I hurt you before even when I didn't mean to and I do not know the limits to this binding." Mary sighed and then started focusing herself. "Can you tell how many?" She asked Amet'a who looked at the Tholian.
"There is a lot of interference. I scan three groups of phasers firing." The Tholian said after a moment. "Two groups outside the shuttle bay and one group inside. There is no way to tell who is who. I cannot tell distinct numbers, but I can say that the ones inside are badly outnumbered. I would 'guess' that there are four phasers in the closest group, seven in another and three in the group in the hangar." The Tholian sounded a bit miffed. At the enemy or at the obscure data? Hard to say.
"Ekk'tik is the best sensor tech any of us have ever seen." Amet'a said when Mary glanced at her. "I will take his 'guesses' over anyone else's facts any day.
"I can only do one." Mary said after a moment's thought. "Where do you want me to throw it? It will fry any electronics, but most Federation systems will recover when their power systems reboot. The nanites didn't have time or power reserves." The armored human nodded approvingly.
"Hmmm…" Amet'a frowned. A holo appeared in front of her as the Tholian worked his controls. It showed the hangar bay with two red blobs outside its two entrances.
"Wait." Jhinis said slowly. "I can get a bit more information. "The corridor outside the door leads there, right?" She asked the Tholian who looked at her. The Aenar looked at the Klingon who was impassive. "I am Mary's now. I need to protect her. I can get you bit more information."
"How?" Amet'a demanded. "Your garment may contain sensor baffling, but anything high tech will be detected." Mary stilled. Jhinis was wearing cloaking tech? Then again, the group she had worked for had access to all kinds of stuff. Why was she feeling such amusement form the Aenar?
"No tech." Jhinis reached slowly down to her belt and produced a small cylinder. She held it out to Amet'a who took it gingerly and then paused, eyeing it. It looked like a simple tube. A twist and it extended in Klingon's hands. What looked like a pair of scopes unfolded on either end. Amet'a stared at it and then laughed. Jhinis shrugged. "Hey, it works."
"I thought I had seen everything from Federation. But this? A super secret spy periscope." Amet'a was chuckling hard now and the rest of the team looked decidedly amused.
"That is mine." Jhinis held out her hand for the device and Amet'a handed it back. "I didn't want everything I saw to be logged and the people who I worked for log everything their tricorders scan. So I needed a way to see without using the tech." There was no humor in her words.
"'Periscope'?"Mary stared at the thing. "I vaguely know that word, but wasn't that something used on ancient submarines?'
"Ancient or no, it works and there are no scanning beams to be picked up by high tech sensors." Jhinis looked at Amet'a who nodded. She moved slowly to the door ahead and it opened to the sounds of phaser fire. Lots of phaser fire. She laid the tube down on the floor before scooting it just past the edge of the door. "I see… Four shooters this side." She made a noise of disgust. "All of them are Starfleet and all look the same as the woman you disabled, Mary. Definitely controlled. None are talking and none are even taking cover!"
Everyone with visible faces grimaced at that.
"Four." Mary winced but then straightened as the armored human gave her a nod. "Say when." She said to Amet'a who made a gesture and the rest of her team formed up around Mary.
"Wait." Everything stopped as Jhinis held up a hand. "That is not Federation phaser fire coming from the other entrance. The wave shifts are all wrong. The beams look more white than red and there are more of them." She shook her head. "I don't know that type of weapon."
Amet'a was at her side in an instant and the Aenar made way for the Klingon who bent to look into the scope. A moment and the female alien snarled. "Those look Ferengi. At least six shooters. Probably seven like Ekk'tik believes."
"Ferengi?" Mary and Jhinis chorused as the others all groaned. "What are they doing here?"
"Looking to make money of course." Amet'a stepped back, her face sour. "I would love to know how they got aboard with the transport inhibitor up, but…" She paused as Mary inhaled. "What?"
"You said that before, but it didn't register. Someone else was here, just after I got hurt." Mary said slowly. "A Klingon, but not one like you. Her garb was old, at least hundred years out of date." Amet'a stared at her, eyes going wide, then her face blanked. "She transported away. If there was an inhibitor up… She couldn't have done that, could she?"
"Ekk'tikk." Amet'a's voice held command and the Tholian swept Mary with a scanning beam. Mary did not move even as Jhinis hissed, but two of the team had the Aenar in their sights. She froze when Mary sent her a command to.
"Chroniton particles." The Tholian said after a moment. "She has been near a temporal anomaly."
"So… Not just Klingons, but time traveling Klingons?" Mary put a hand to her face. "I am so screwed." No one seemed to know what to say to that.
"What did she do?" Amet'a finally asked. "We need to get out of here."
"She calmed me down." Mary said flatly and everyone stared at her but Jhinis who winced.
"And?" Amet'a prodded.
"She calmed me down." Mary said with a growl of her own. "That is all. She was nice." Everyone stared at her again and she shrugged. "I don't know how she got there, why she was there or who she was, but she calmed me down. I was about to lose my temper and she stunned the guy who shot me and then spoke to me, calmed me down. That is all!"
"And losing your temper is bad?" The Tholian inquired when no one else spoke.
"Very." Jhinis said as Mary looked at the floor. "She never lost her temper. Ever. She was splattered with vegetables twice, scalding soup once and had rocks thrown at her on four occasions that I know of. She never lost her temper with any of those so… In their infinite wisdom…"
"Jhinis!" Mary warned. "I can't talk about that."
"I can." Jhinis snapped. "They had no right. It served those morons right, what happened."
"They made you mad." Amet'a said slowly. Mary did not respond, still scrutinizing the floor. "A being composed of pure energy… They made you angry? What were they, insane?"
"They said they were curious. Most who were cleared for it said they were crazy to try a stress test to that degree. They learned not to do that." Jhinis said flatly as everyone on the team stared at her and then at Mary who looked ashamed. She moved to Mary's side, her posture protective. "Mary, it wasn't your fault."
"Did anyone die?" Came from the armored human. Jhinis shook her head. "Then it is all good. I assume they learned their lesson."
"300 million worth of energy credits to completely replace a fried holodeck and repair most of the surrounding building was a hell of a lesson. At least they evaced everyone in time when they realized she was going critical." Jhinis agreed and everyone winced. "Do not make her mad." She warned the Bolian who had frozen in place. "It is hard to do, but possible. It is also a very bad idea."
"They ordered you to do it, didn't they?" The human asked Mary who did not react. "I see. Then it is not your fault." The armored human reassured the girl who still looked at the floor. "No one blamed you, did they?"
"Everyone knew it had been me. Even my dorm mates looked at me funny after that." Mary said weakly. "I didn't want to! I warned them. I told them a stress test was a bad idea. Hell, even the Orions told them!"
"Orions?" Amet'a asked. "What do they have to do with this?"
"I impressed them when I worked for them." Mary said quietly. "They um… They wanted me to stay, offered me a place. But I had to get to Earth. Every so often, a delegation would visit and they always talked to me. Asked how I was doing. I don't know why."
"With them, who knows? They can be hard to impress, but they are much easier to scare." Jhinis said flatly. "I bet you did both if they offered you a place. They do not offer such to non-Orions lightly." Amet'a looked at her and Jhinis shrugged. "Another reason Federation Intelligence was so interested in her."
"I can see that." Amet'a sighed and then nodded. "We need to get out of here. Anyone who gets in our way…" She trailed off with a grin. The team nodded and even the Tholian had an odd looking crystalline weapon in hand now. "Horil, you are cleared to fire on anything Ferengi."
"Yes!" The Bolian smiled wide as he put away his hand weapon and unlimbered his cannon.
"Only Ferengi!" Amet'a snapped as he stepped towards the door and he froze as her disruptor covered him. "You even aim at anything else and I will shoot you." Not an idle threat. "Mary, we go on your distraction. When you are ready."
"Yes, Ma'am." Mary said as she focused herself and held up her hand to summon her 'toy' again. She could do this.
She had to.