It is a good day...
"MARY!"
Jhinis' impassioned scream mirrored the Gorn's as both females stared at where Mary had been. T'Ket just stood there, staring at the Meridian that lay on the table where the girl had been moments before. Then the Iconian swept a hand across her brow and a spray of golden droplets went across the room. They impacted a shield of golden energy that arced in front of the golden skinned form, separating him and Jhinis from T'ket. But-
Everything stopped as T'ket's arm, the severed one, started to glow blue, silver and purple! T'ket stared down at her wounded appendage and shook her head.
"No." T'Ket said savagely to no one present and her cut off limb stopped glowing. "I must remember. I must have vengeance!" If there was an answer, it wasn't verbal, and she all but spat words out. "I will not stop! I will never- I…" She paused in mid-rant. "No." Her tone changed to sad. "I know it wasn't my fault, but I am locked on this course. Same as you were, Child. Thank you for the thought, but no. My arm stays as it is. Rest now. I will see if my sisters can help you. And yes, I promise." That was both kind and gentle! From T'Ket? What the hell? The Gorn was staring at the Iconian in shock as T'Ket spun to face her. "Gorn, do not move."
The Gorn was so stunned by all this that she probably wasn't capable of movement as dark and terrible power roared across the compartment to slam into the golden forms that held her. T'Ket was incredibly powerful, but also incredibly precise! The Gorn's scales were not even warmed! All of the golden forms were vaporized and she felt nothing but a sudden lack of restraining hands!
"Is Mary dead?" R'Kerti swallowed hard as she stared at the table where Mary had been laid.
"I do not know." T'Ket's tone discouraged any further query so R'Kerti just bowed her head. T'Ket eyed her and then seemed to decide something that only she knew. Only then did the furious Iconian turn to look at the stunned man who had golden skin. He stood by the table Jhinis lay sobbing on. When T'Ket spoke again, it was cold, hard and merciless. "Surrender your hostage. Now."
"You are in no position to give orders." The man snapped right back. "I gave you what you wanted. Your sister lives."
"You lied. You did not bring M'Tara back." At T'Ket's words, the very air seemed to quake in fear. "You made a mockery of her for your own use. Your evils, I could accept until they hurt my family. This has." Her sole hand waved at the table where Mary had been.
"You got what you asked for." The man retorted, golden power started to glow around his fingers. "Now you deny me what I asked you for in return?"
"I knew you would betray me." T'Ket snarled, a sound more akin to a rabid canine than a sentient being. Her energy swirled darker and darker. "I underestimated your skill and technology. That will not happen again."
Both were incredibly powerful. Both cared nothing for quaint notions like 'ethics'. Both were furious with the other! This was not going to end well! R'Kerti wanted to flee, but she knew that any movement would likely draw fire from one or the other. Either of them could kill her with a thought. As if reading the Gorn's mind, T'ket spoke.
"Help them." A waft of pure blackness swept from T'Ket to swallow the golden man! He vanished with a cut off shout of rage. When R'Kerti blinked, T'ket was gone too! The shield that had surrounded the Aenar's table faded with the man's anger.
R'Kerti took a hesitant step towards Jhinis' table and then another when nothing happened. Then she was at the sobbing Aenar's side. The white skinned female seemed unharmed, except for a bulge in her stomach that was all too familiar to the Gorn. R'Kerti patted her own abdomen to reassure herself and then focused on freeing the Aenar.
"It is all right. It is all right. I am here." R'kerti said quickly as she sought a catch, a latch, something to release the Aenar's bonds. The Gorn shook her head, baffled. The golden metal seemed to be formed of one piece, as if it had flowed into that shape!
"I can't feel Mary!" Jhinis cried. "I can't sense her! She is gone!"
"You don't know that!" R'Kerti said sternly as she took Jhinis' hand in her own. "I am here. It is okay. You are all right. You are not alone. No matter what else happens, you are not alone. My name is R'Kerti. What is yours?"
"Jhinis." The Aenar said weakly. "I am Jhinis, but... I could always feel her before. I can't now. Is she… I couldn't do anything!"
"I know." R'kerti stroked the sobbing girl's arm carefully. Jhinis wasn't very old for her kind. Perhaps twenty Earth years. No more than that and oddly innocent feeling. "I was on a shuttle, heading for my posting on the Farragut. There was a flash of gold and I woke up here. I don't know how long it has been. I bet I am AWOL." She looked around at the pods and shivered. "He was busy, it seems."
"The AI." Jhinis pleaded. "I felt the AI. It was cold. Dark. She-" She paused and then gasped. "This last, that wasn't an AI!"
"No." R'kerti replied. "It was an Iconian that the golden man apparently enslaved like he tried to do to me. Like he was going to do to you and Mary." Jhinis gasped in shock at that and R'Kerti sighed. "I cannot undo these restraints." Jhinis slumped, but R'Kerti smiled a wide Gorn smile. "I am an idiot. I don't have to." She slapped her chest where her com badge still sat on one of the few tatters of her black and yellow uniform. There was no reply and R'kerti moved to a console nearby. What she found there was shocking. She was on a Starfleet ship, but it was abandoned? The computer shut down? There was a way around that though. She typed her identification into the terminal and it lit up. The computer was intact at least! "Emergency access. Denali Computer: This is Ensign R'Kerti. At this time I am declaring a Starfleet Delta Three Medical Emergency!"
"Negative." Came the response from a Starfleet computer system. "Ensign, your rank is not sufficient to declare such an emergency. Only personnel with the rank of lieutenant and above may declare such."
"Fine! Denali Computer, scan the ship!" The Gorn hissed in aggravation. "Are there any other Starfleet personnel aboard who are conscious?" She demanded as she looked at the pods, some of whom held figures in Starfleet uniform.
"Negative." Came from the computer.
"Then I am the ranking Starfleet officer on this ship and these personnel need medical attention immediately." R'Kerti said with a growl. "Transport all injured personnel to sickbay! My authority."
"Affirmative."
R'kerti grinned as she felt the familiar grab of a transporter and she, Jhinis and all the females who had been in the tanks materialized in a Starfleet sickbay. She frowned as Jhinis gasped and then lay still.
"Jhinis?" The Gorn asked and then slapped herself mentally, she knew what to do! "Computer: Medical Emergency! Activate Emergency Medical Hologram."
"State the nature of the medical emergency." The hologram was the old style, the bald headed Doctor who had been so instrumental in the return of the USS Voyager from her exile in the Delta Quadrant. He was a known factor and R'Kerti relaxed just a little.
"Doctor, I am Ensign R'kerti. I think I am the only Starfleet person conscious on the ship. I am engineer trained, not medical. You have multiple patients with unknown trauma." R'Kerti said as calmly as could as the hologram gawked at her. Either that she was a Gorn or her state of undress. Either was a bit unusual in a Starfleet sickbay. She smoothed the remnants of her uniform top a bit self-consciously as he shook his head.
"You seem a bit out of uniform, Ensign." The doctor said he grabbed a tricorder out of a locker and started scanning Jhinis with it.
"The next time I am abducted by a madman and experimented on, I will ask for better clothing." The Gorn said dryly and the hologram froze, his eyes turning concerned.
"You are not well." The Doctor said as he scanned her.
"No." R'Kerti slumped a bit. "But all of these need help and I think you and I are it. Am I going to die in the next five minutes?"
"No." The Doctor said slowly after a moment of checking his readings. "But you are not well."
"I am the least of our problems." R'Kerti said as the deck shook under her. A rumble sounded. T'Ket? If so, she wasn't happy.
"What was that?" The Doctor demanded as he lifted Jhinis off the floor and laid her on a medical berth. All of the other woman vanished in a haze of transporters and R'Kerti tensed, but then she saw them each appear in separate berths, each tended by a copy of the EMH.
"I don't know." R'Kerti admitted. "I have been out of touch." She admitted a bit sheepishly. "I am not even sure the stardate." The doctor gave it and she relaxed. "Two days. That is better than I expected. Maybe I am not actually AWOL after all. I wasn't supposed to get my ship before now." She slumped against the wall, her fatigue finally rising to embrace her. "Doctor. There is a malevolent AI loose somewhere. Ward yourself as best you can."
"This day just gets better and better. Thank you for the warning. Firewalls are at max." The Doctor said with a sigh as he finished whatever he was doing to Jhinis and stepped to scan R'kerti. What he saw on his scanners had him hissing. "You are mess, young Gorn. And what is that?"
R'kerti stared down at her hand that she had not been using. In it, Mary's Meridian was clenched. She hadn't picked it up, had she? She stared at it and grief came.
"I think this is all that is left of my classmate Mary." R'Kerti said weakly. "I think… I think she died."
"That looks like an Iconian symbol." The Doctor said very slowly and R'kerti nodded. "Their technology is far more advanced than ours. We do not know all of what they can do. We cannot. I can tend you, but you will have sleep after that." indeed, when R'Kerti looked at Jhinis, the Aenar was asleep.
"I… I have to help." R'Kerti said weakly. "Mary came on a ship. Can you contact them?"
"If there is a rogue AI…" The Doctor said reasonably. "...then they have likely forted up and are watching all data transmissions carefully. Any data intrusion will be met with the strongest response they can make. Any communication will be data transmission and seen as intrusion."
"Right." R'kerti said with a snarl. "I will go. Where is it?"
"You need medical attention as well." The Doctor said, moving to block her as the Gorn rose to her full height and started for the door.
"Even if you have a mobile emitter…" R'kerti said reasonably. Holographic beings were normally bound in once place. The holograms they showed were projected by emitters cleverly hidden in places like this sickbay. Said devices allowed the normally bound in place holograms to move about. "..., you are synthetic. No offense, but they will likely think the same thing and either attack or flee." The Doctor paused and then nodded, manifestly against his will. "I am organic. These people need help. I am Starfleet. I will help them." He would move or she would walk through him.
"Stubborn." The Doctor said softly and then he bowed his head and moved to the side. "Get back here fast. You will start hurting soon."
"I…" The Gorn slumped a bit and then nodded. "I don't even know what ship this is. Where am I going?"
"Port side hangar bay three." The Doctor pulled a map up on one of the consoles. She was on the Atlas class USS Denali. It was set up as a carrier. R'Kerti vaguely remembered the Denali had come for Mary to transport her to the Iconians? She and the others who had shared Mary's dorm had wanted to say goodbye, but all had been denied a last chance to hug their friend. Then again? Horta hugs were weird. An image appeared on the screen. That was not a Starfleet ship in that hangar. "I do not know the ship class. I am a doctor, not a tactical officer."
"Iconian ship." R'Kerti said slowly. "And… Mary had this…" She looked at her hand again and grief came as the Meridian seemed to catch the light. "Tend your patents, Doctor. I will talk to them."
"You might want to put some clothes on." The Doctor said a bit sourly as the Gorn stepped out of sickbay. She ignored him and he started to mutter behind her. "They never listen. Why do they never listen to the Doctor? I am just here to help and-"
She resolutely put his muttering out of mind as she started off down silent corridors. As she walked, she felt a twinge in her belly, but she ignored it. She trusted Mary. The girl had saved her life on that horrible night in the dorm! Mary had said she wasn't carrying eggs, and Mary would know. R'Kerti hoped so anyway. Everything was golden. The walls, the floor, the ceiling. All golden! She kept a wary eye out for any of the dead who were coated in gold, but none shone. There was another rumble, but nothing happened close by and no alarms went off, so R'Kerti entered a turbolift and spoke.
"Hangar bay three." The Gorn looked at the Meridian in her hand and stroked it with a gentle claw. "Ah, Mary. Please don't be dead! Please! I needed… I owe you."
There was no response and R'Kerti sighed as the turbolift stopped. The doors opened and the Gorn tensed, but the hall outside was a normal Starfleet corridor. Then she froze solid as an Iconian Herald stepped into view nearby. The form was straight out of nightmare, its energy all reds and oranges. Kind of like T'ket, if far less powerful. It wore the full heavy armor of the combat forms that had very nearly torn the Federation apart less than five years previous. R'Kerti did not move as it raised its staff to aim at her. She held up her hands and the Herald went utterly still.
She blinked. Where had it gone? It had been right there and now, it wasn't!
"Great." R'Kerti snarled at herself. "I am seeing things now!"
She gave herself a shake and started off, only to stop again as another Herald stepped into view. This one was very different. Her armor was white and she held no weapon. Said armor was far less heavy than the last one and her body was proportioned like a female human. Her helmet was on and she just watched as R'Kerti fought not to react. The Gorn's eyes went huge as the female form held out an empty hand, beckoning her close.
"I…" R'Kerti swallowed. "You want this?" She held up the Meridian and the Herald shook her head. "Then what do you want?" Her eyes all but bulged out of her head as the Herald opened her arms as if to invite a hug! "You cannot be serious!"
"It is the only way." R'Kerti jumped as a voice sounded from the side and an armored woman appeared. She too had no weapon in hand. "You need help and she is offering."
"Who are you?" R'Kerti snapped, backing away. The armor had no markings, but it was clearly Federation style. Not enough points or eagles to be Klingon or Romulan.
"My name is Valdyr, R'Kerti." The woman inclined her helmet when R'Kerti stared at her. "I know who you are. You have no reason to trust. Less reason to let anyone else take control. But you need help now. The Doctor didn't know what was done to you. He will discover it in the others in moments and help them. But you are in grave danger and he will not be able to contact you. Please let us help?"
"Us?" R'Kerti snapped, looking from the armored form to the Herald and back. "You are with the Iconians?"
"No." Valdyr had a smile in her voice now. "Right now? She is with me but I know better than to give her orders. I also know better than to get in her way." The pain R'kerti's stomach became a lance, but she ignored it. Both of the other females stared at her, clearly worried.
"What…" The Gorn gasped. "What is happening?"
"Mary was both right and wrong." Valdyr said quietly. "You are not carrying Gorn eggs but you are carrying an egg." The Gorn stared at the armored woman in horror and Valdyr nodded. "A kernel of energy was put inside you to grow. It will likely leave your body before it finishes growing, but in doing so, it will kill you. The Doctor just discovered that in his other patients and is trying to contact you, but the interference from the egg is blocking him."
"And I should just trust you?" R'Kerti demanded as the pain grew again! "I…"
"No." Valdyr nodded to R'Kerti. No! Not to the Gorn! To the Meridian in her hand! "Trust her."
R'Kerti screamed in agony as her belly seemed to explode, but white armored arms had her and gentle, metal covered hands cupped her abdomen. The pain faded! Something happened and a wail of pain and fear sounded. R'Kerti stared at the small golden thing that was now cupped in the Herald's gentle hands as she held the Gorn upright. The tiny golden boy was crying. He was maybe a year old and so thin as to be emaciated.
"What?" "R'Kerti stammered as the Herald stepped back, her arms cradling the sobbing boy. The Gorn stared around, but the armored form was gone. So was her pain!
"The AI was made with energy stolen from another being." The Herald spoke and her voice was soft, gentle as she held the baby close. "One that a golden man managed to kidnap from his family despite all the precautions everyone could make. It is all right." She soothed the boy. "It is okay. We will get you back to your mom, Rocky. This will just be a bad dream." She rocked him gently.
"So… The AI…" R'Kerti was stunned by all this and she did not react as three other Heralds stepped into view, all of whom held weapons. She had a moment of fear, but they shifted their aim instantly away from her! "What about the AI?"
"Mary's allies just blew its servers to hell." Came from the white Herald. "The eggs that were placed in you and the other women were backups. All made from this poor soul." She crooned to the still crying boy. "It is all right, Rocky. We will get the rest of you back and then we are taking you home." She cradled the boy in one hand and held out the other to R'Kerti. "Come. You deserve an explanation and you will need medical treatment as well. The sickbay is a good place for both."
"How…? Why…?" R'Kerti felt faint, but the white Herald took her arm and soothing energy wafted over her. The Gorn relaxed for the first time in a while. "What do I need to do?"
"You need to trust us." Came form the white Herald and R'kerti stiffened. "I know. It is hard after so much horror. We can and will help you, but please. Don't fight us. I know it is not a smart thing to listen to Iconians, but Mary meant well. If you had done what she said, it wouldn't have hurt you nearly that badly."
"I am an idiot." R'Kerti hissed in realization. "She told me to do nothing. If I had stayed in the sick bay…"
"If you had stayed there or the prison, we would have found you much sooner, it wouldn't have meant that Valdyr had to get involved in tracking you and it wouldn't have hurt you so badly. Even for us, this is a big ship to search." The speaking Herald said quietly. R'Kerti bowed her head in shame and the other was quick to reassure her. "You did what you thought was right and no permanent harm was done. Come, we need to talk to lots of people and you need to see what comes of that." She nodded to the Meridian in the Gorn's hand and R'Kerti stilled.
"Mary?" The Gorn begged.
"Mary."