J. B. Tilton/Page 5
TWELVE
Three security guards and Malcolm stood outside engineering as Trip and the girls approached the door. Malcolm handed Trip a phase pistol.
"It just suddenly appeared in there," Malcolm said. "It went directly for the warp core."
"How did you stop it?" Trip asked.
"I set up an electro-magnetic field around it," Malcolm said. "It won't hold long but it should keep that thing at bay for a bit. And it's as resistant to the phase pistols as it was in the corridor outside the situation room."
"Where is it now?" Archer asked, walking up to the group, T'Pol close behind.
"It's in the tool room," Malcolm said. "Ensign Parker locked it in there. We got out as soon as she did. Captain, I don't know what we're going to do. That thing is resistant to all of our weapons."
"We'll take care of it," Piper said. "It's what we do."
"Attempting to subdue the creature without weapons would be suicide," T'Pol said.
"Do you have a better idea?" Paige asked. "Your phase pistols or whatever you call them didn't even hurt that thing. You saw what we did to it outside the situation room. At least we scared if off."
"Captain," T'Pol said, "their suggested course of action is not logical. There is no evidence to suggest they would be any more successful than we have been. Allowing them to confront this Klingon unarmed is not a wise decision."
Archer looked at T'Pol, then at the sisters. T'Pol had a point. This Klingon was certainly no ordinary Klingon. Rushing in headlong with no weapons was foolhardy. But he had seen what Piper and her sisters had done outside the situation room. Human or not, they obviously had some sort of power that affected this thing.
"Trip," Archer said, "get to the transporter room. We'll keep it trapped here as long as we can. See if you can get a transporter lock on it and beam it into space. Demon or not it shouldn't be able to withstand that."
"Good idea," Trip said, turning and hurrying to the transporter room.
"This is going to take a few minutes," Archer said. "We have to keep it distracted. We're going in. You three stay behind us. I won't risk your lives on some hunch you can take it out."
"Captain, it's not a hunch," Piper protested. "Believe me, we can…."
"I've made my decision," Archer said forcefully. "You can help with those powers you seem to have. But our main concern right now is to get that thing out of engineering. Everyone ready?"
The security men nodded and Archer pulled a phase pistol out. Cautiously, he reached up and pressed the button on the wall that opened the door. The door opened silently and the group stepped inside.
Engineering was totally deserted and other than the machinery it was completely quiet. The tool room was near the back of the room. The group fanned out making sure to keep Piper and her sisters behind them. Cautiously they made their way across the room.
The door to the tool room was ripped off its hinges. The Klingon had apparently escaped its confinement. Archer looked around trying to determine where it might be. One mistake could prove disastrous to one or all of them.
Suddenly a movement behind them brought them all around. The Klingon demon stepped out of the shadows directly behind Paige. As she spun to face it, the demon reached out and grabbed her by the throat. It lifted her off the deck of the ship suspending her in midair. It raised its dagger high and was about to plunge it into her. Paige was struggling to breath and couldn't concentrate enough to orb away.
"Klang DichDaq ghaj Daj," the demon howled.
"No," screamed Piper.
Standing only a few feet away Piper raised her hands and brought her explosive power to bear. The demons hand holding the dagger exploded and Paige dropped to the deck. Piper and Phoebe rushed to their sister as the demon howled in pain. Almost instantly the demons shattered hand reformed and it turned on the three.
Archer and the others didn't hesitate. They brought their phase pistols to bear and fired at the demon. Four beams struck it full in the chest driving it back slightly. But they were having no more affect than they had before. It turned and began to move on the three sisters.
"I've got a lock," Trips voice sounded over the intercom.
"Trip, now," shouted Archer. "Beam it out into space."
As the transporter beam took hold of the demon, Piper and her sisters looked up at it. It was only a couple of feet from them. In unison, the three sisters began to recite the spell Phoebe had written.
In a blinding flash of light the demon vanished from the Enterprise. Archer looked at the deck where it had stood no more than a foot from the sisters. The demon was gone. But so were Piper, Phoebe, and Paige. They had vanished in the same blinding flash that had taken the Klingon.