The silence continued. The only light came from the holodeck console.
Then...it went out as well.
There was the sound of a scuffle, yells and cries.
Suddenly, the lights came back on in the room. Dim, deep red lights cast everything in an eerie glow. Everyone was muttering, looking around in disorientation.
An ominous low long sound slowly pulsed out through the ship, and red strips of light along the wall pulsed in time with it.
"Red alert, red alert…" the computer intoned.
"I got it! I got it!" Entrapta yelled happily.
Adora immediately sought eyes on Catra, and found her attacking Hayes. She had jumped on his back, shoving him against the console and had him in a headlock.
"Get off me! Matthias, help!"
Matthias was nursing his jaw, covered in blood, making noises of pain himself. Evidently he had already tried.
He tried to grab Catra and pull her off. Without even looking she slammed an elbow into his eye, and drove her foot into his chest, knocking the XO to the ground.
Adora rushed forward, followed by security guards, and Catra glanced at them all with an irritated expression.
"Scorpia, do I have to kill everyone?!"
"Huh? Oh!"
That was all Adora heard before everything in her vision blurred, and she found herself under a pile of Starfleet security guards. And Bow on top.
"Why is it always me she throws around…?" he moaned.
"Stop getting near her then!" Adora grunted, straining to get out from underneath.
"Using people as bowling pins, nice idea," Catra yelled, "Now help me with this big idiot!"
Hayes was coughing and choking, spitting all over the console and falling backwards. Catra made a yelp sound when they hit the ground.
Scorpia scrambled to pick up a phaser, before Glimmer jumped in front of her, fists hesitantly raised.
"Back for a rematch? Sorry, I'm a bit busy!"
She fired the phaser at her, stepped aside to dodge several of Frosta's ice spears, then turned her weapon on the other princesses.
Perfuma went down immediately, but Mermista and Frosta dove out of the way. Frosta strained to summon another ice spear from the moisture in the air, but could only manage an icicle.
"Great, now I can't even do anything." Mermista grunted. She looked around at how few people on their side were still standing and groaned loudly.
"C'mon! Let's go find help!"
She tugged Frosta by the collar toward the door.
They jumped back briefly when Scorpia fired a wild blast, sending sparks shooting from the burn in the door, then dove through as it opened.
"Security...intruder alert...holodeck 1…" Matthias gargled, tapping his combadge.
He held the whole side of his face now, and struggled to get his feet under him. He tapped his badge again, repeated his order, but there was still no answer.
Catra got out from under Hayes, and kicked him in the gut. She grabbed his combadge, and snatched Matthias' away. She kicked him for good measure as well...and immediately regretted it. It was like kicking a brick wall.
"Yargh!" She roared, comically jumping back and holding her foot, "what are you made out of?!"
"Ouch…" Matthias moaned, not answering.
Adora spotted another phaser on the ground near her.
The men and one woman on top of her were so heavy, she just couldn't get out from under them fast enough!
She pulled herself out, crawling rapidly toward the pistol and a familiar hand picked it up.
Catra stood smirking, with the phaser in hand. The glow of the red lights made her look even more ominous than the last time they'd been in this situation.
Slowly, her hands up, Adora got to her feet.
"You know, I've never seen anyone melted with this thing before. Apparently, that's what they can do."
Catra fiddled with the knob on the phaser a little, making it whine in higher and higher pitches.
"So just do it! Just kill me and get it over with!" Adora snarled, "If you hate me that much, if you just want to see me die, just do it!"
"Well, can't do it now, I don't want to make Entrapta sad!"
"Catra?! Antagonize the enemy later maybe?" Scorpia asked, holding two phasers now.
"Right! Entrapta, great distraction! What's the plan now!"
Entrapta grinned, "get everyone to a shuttle!"
Her grin wavered, "I meant to disable their small arms, force fields, and aerosol intruder countermeasures...I guess I went over the top. Don't know why there was a red alert before you tried to strangle the nice captain man."
"Yeah, I'd like to know the answer to that too." Another voice said.
Catra whirled about with her phaser at the ready, and saw the only other person still standing, or rather standing up from behind the holodeck console.
It was the counselor.
He quickly put up his hands, "I'm not armed, I have no intention of trying to fight you. I'd rather not get stunned, if you please."
"I might just shoot you 'cuz you're annoying."
"Yes, you can." The counselor stared her down, very calmly with a rather neutral expression.
"You said that like you were going to say more."
"I wasn't. I'm just asking that you please not shoot me. It's the polite thing to do, if nothing else."
Catra pointed the phaser at the ceiling, "well, we do need someone to carry the hostages. And Scorpia will be busy covering them, so…"
There was coughing from the other side of the console, beside Emerson.
Hayes was helping Matthias to his feet, red blood staining the side of the Gorn's face. It dripped onto the deck plating, despite his hand. He kept blinking his left eye, the flesh around it already looking bruised.
"She nearly knocked out one of my teeth!" Matthias grunted, wheezing a bit, "Damn it, ow!"
"Captain, commander, it would seem we're hostages." Emerson informed them calmly.
Hayes looked up at the phasers aimed at him, "Ah...shit."
"Language, captain." Matthias said, spitting more blood onto the deck.
Catra stepped forward, "Bowman, get your guys up. Have them carry everyone who's stunned. You're all coming with us."
"Force captain, we're not going anywhere. Some of my people need medical attention-"
Catra tuned the phaser to a higher frequency, "We've got perfectly fine medical facilities back home. None of your people are that badly hurt, and I know for a fact that his teeth will grow back if there's a problem. Now shut up and quit stalling. I'm gonna start stunning more people for you to carry if you don't."
"There's no way you're getting off this ship! And we're not helping you!"
Catra glared at Hayes, and pointed at the emergency lights still flashing. The room was still bathed in red emergency light, "I'd say your people have more problems."
She turned her phaser on Adora without breaking eye contact, "Do what I say, or I start killing hostages, starting with her."
Entrapta looked alarmed at this. Scorpia only briefly glanced over before returning her aim at the piles of stunned or incapacitated people.
Adora glared at Catra, her fists balled up. "Captain, don't do it."
"Which one, Adora?" Catra sneered, "there's three captains in here."
Emerson raised an eyebrow. "Captain Hayes, I recommend we try to avoid more weapons fire. We do need to find out what's happening on the rest of the ship, and that requires having a pulse."
"Thank you, lieutenant commander." Hayes growled, then huffed in frustration.
He patted Matthias' shoulder and moved around the console to the pile of guards, pulling Bow off of them.
"C'mon everyone, get up. Relax, we're getting out of this."
One man toward the bottom moaned, holding his chest and wheezing. He struggled to take a deep breath.
The others were bruised, and one held his arm, which was at an odd angle.
"Damn! Force captain, we can't just go without treating my people!"
Hayes rounded on Catra despite the phaser she held, "a broken arm is bad enough but a broken rib?! Take me, but leave them! You've already got plenty of hostages with your princesses and me!"
Catra snarled, "Shut up! Just stop talking! Your shuttles are like lifeboats, yeah? So you have medkits? There, problem solved! Heck, I could just stun their arm and that guy's chest, couldn't I?"
She even started to mess with the settings again before Hayes facepalmed, "that's not how that works!"
"Whatever! Get them all moving! Adora, you carry Glimmy, Bow, you carry the perfume girl!"
"What about-?" Entrapta began, but Catra held up a hand.
"Don't worry, we're coming back for the other two later. We might run into them on the way even. Right now we have to get off this tub!"
Catra stalked toward the door, it opened, and a loud rumble resounded through the corridor.
The main lights outside in the hall were dead too, lit only by the red emergency lights.
"What the hell did they do to my ship…?" Hayes grunted.
As the group of hostages moved, physical bulkheads crashed shut, with more clanging further and further away through the hull. Some closed almost at random, others more strategically, each one decreasing chance of rescue further and further. But the rest of the ship had troubles of its own.
XXXXX
The Belleau Wood's computer processor, a Daystrom Institute B-66 model computer, was not sentient. While there was a program stored in the medical database that could theoretically become sentient, the Akira-class starship's computer had no soul itself. It was, however, self-preserving, and very intelligent.
As it went about its job, conducting millions of tiny tasks in the time it would take for a human to put a pencil to paper, the Daystrom detected a strange anomaly in the warp core systems.
If it could think, which it both could and could not, it would have thought this unusual, but not too out of the ordinary.
The B-66 assigned some of its processing power to examine and deal with the anomaly. It did not consider the anomaly a threat.
The program sent to investigate reported back.
ALERT: UNAUTHORIZED PROGRAM DETECTED. ANOMALOUS PROGRAM ATTEMPTING TO MODIFY ANTIMATTER INJECTOR VARIABLES
More anomalies appeared across the board, starting in engineering systems but flowing steadily outwards. Replicators, sonic showers, turbolifts, power management, armories...the list began to grow, and continued to grow.
Some were actively rewriting systems already, others were simply dormant, waiting.
The Daystrom could not discern intent, it could only judge based on action. The program had no credentials, nothing that would mark it as a proper software update. It did not know this intruder. It did not know what it was doing, it did not care, it had no feelings. It had one directive. Protect the ship.
Suddenly, the presence closed pressure doors. Force fields were activated and ventilation variables modified. Crew sent in reports, finding themselves trapped and cut off. These reports were swiftly silenced by the intruder.
The Daystrom sounded red alert. It sent out more specific alerts to the engineering and operation centers of the ship, to alert its masters.
Power systems fluctuated, diverting from one system to the next, cutting off many systems.
An officer walked inside the armory as she heard the alert, glancing over the field charging units powering themselves from the wall. She froze.
First one, then two more flashed "danger" icons.
The officer dove back through the door, slapping an emergency control. The door shut and a blue shimmer went over the entire wall. The corridor shook as the mobile charging units exploded, barely contained by the structural integrity fields and emergency force fields.
The port side forward dorsal phaser array suddenly overcharged with energy. Many modules burned out, and one in the center, the focus of all that energy, released it in a violent eruption into space, ripping open the hull. Several crewmembers in the hallway parallel to the array were flung about, and found themselves looking out into space, the emergency force field flickering dangerously. They barely escaped before the atmosphere blew out.
The B-66 began copying unaffected system software and quarantining it from the invaders. Other countermeasures went online to contain the intruders, and rescue the compromised systems.
But the intruder was powerful. It beat back attempts to dislodge it, and pushed back. More power systems overloaded and exploded across the ship.
A computer-controlled valve suddenly opened, and toxic coolant blasted into the local phaser array control rooms. The handful of crew inside staggered out, coughing and gasping, their lungs burning.
In a rec room, staff got to their feet at the sound of the alert. Several stumbled, coughing, and any still sitting slumped over, unconscious. The others fell one by one, a handful managing to make it to the door.
A security officer passing by was surprised by a Tellarite stumbling out of the room, slowly filling with a white gas.
The Tellarite gasped out something, before falling unconscious in the officer's arms. She tapped her combadge, "Damage control, this is Anders! We've got anesthesia gas in the deck 6 portside rec room! Repeat, we've got an anesthesia gas leak! Damage control, do you copy?"
More defenses went online as the slow organics responded and took the gloves off the B-66. With satisfaction had it possessed feelings, the Daystrom halted the enemy and saved the life support system. But not undamaged.
And it was only one victory.
The automated systems recognized the signature of the foe.
The ship was losing. The enemy was pushing back, more and more systems were becoming compromised.
It had to start cutting areas loose. Rather than waste resources to fight a losing battle to try and save the compromised systems, the B-66 isolated them from other systems and let them die.
XXXXX
The main lights were still operating to some capacity on the bridge of the Belleau Wood. Lieutenant Commander Zh'Reed, currently at the captain's position, rose to her feet, "Operations, are you absolutely certain?"
Lights were flickering on consoles all over the bridge. Some were completely dark. On the viewscreen was displayed a schematic of long-range sensors. Several blue dots were arranged around Etheria, with a large purple dot moving rapidly toward them.
The bridge was a somewhat oval shape, arranged in a descending arrangement from the back toward the viewscreen. The helm was in the traditional position ahead of the captain and the XO, closest to the viewscreen. Behind it, to either side and slightly ahead of the commanding officer's position, were the tactical console on the left and the operations console on the right. They were raised up slightly above the helm and the captain's position.
Against the side walls, a step up from the operations and tactical consoles, were more stations built into the walls, facing to their respective sides. Communications were on the right, science station on the left. Behind the captain and XO's chairs were several consoles in an arc, including an engineering console on the left and the Carrier Air Wing Commander's(CAG) console on the right. In the back of the bridge was a square area with more consoles, and a holographic display set in the center of the area.
At the moment, most of the primary consoles were staffed, with operations, tactical, communications, and CAG positions controlled by their senior officers, but there were several empty, or staffed by whoever happened to be on watch. With Reed commanding, another officer had to take the science station. Their head navigator was elsewhere on the ship, the chief engineer in engineering, and several of the auxiliary stations were not staffed.
Lieutenant Karenza Moore, the ship's operations officer to Reed's right was rapidly tapping the controls.
"Havoc is reporting their screens clear! So's the rest of the battle group!"
"So we're sure it's a sensor ghost?" Reed peered at the green icon on the local space sensors.
"Yes ma'am. Havoc actual is saying she's looking at her own display personally."
Reed nodded hesitantly, "And we're positive their sensors are working correctly."
"Yes ma'am."
Taking one last look at the Dominion battleship icon flashing on their sensors, Reed turned back to the bridge, "Give me a detailed damage report then."
The viewscreen's display of sensors was replaced with a spinning diagram of the starship's inner workings. It was a silhouette of the ship with a framework overlaid with indicator lights representing systems. More and more lights were turning from green to red.
"We're still getting status updates. The dilithium matrix has been manually decoupled," Moore reported, "The warp core is safe. We've got those power fluctuations mostly under control."
"At least the ship's not going to blow. The weapons lockers?"
The weapons officer opposite Moore, Lieutenant Moyra Bevin, turned in her seat, "Any handheld weapons that were plugged into the ship's charging stations are at risk, lieutenant commander. We've got gear in storage, but we're stretched thin. Most of my teams are scattered, stuck behind pressure doors, or on damage control. We've got a gas leak in the forward phaser control room, the portside dorsal array's disabled-"
"I can see that." Reed said, gesturing in the direction of the hull breach. They'd seen it go up on the viewscreen, "What else is wrong?"
"Torpedo launchers are offline. Shields are functioning, but I'm cutting them to a minimum. I'm also taking remaining phasers offline. We don't want whatever this is to get ahold of them."
Moore continued to call out, "Fire suppression systems are malfunctioning, we've had to take damage control teams off other problems. Ventilation on decks 6, 8, and 9 is malfunctioning. All but one turbolift are offline. Holodecks have been safely shut down. We've got faults all over the place. We're isolating uncompromised systems as fast as we can."
"Navigation systems have been compromised! Shutting them down!" The helm officer called out.
"Shutting down sensors. We're not going to have much left." the officer in Reed's normal science station reported.
The diagram on the viewscreen had a majority of red lights now.
"Understood," Reed nodded and turned to the communications officer, "Comms, tell the fleet to minimize all communications and cut all computer links if they haven't already. Tell them not to transport anyone either, shuttle transfer only. We don't know if this thing can ride transporter beams."
Reed turned to Tactical, "What's the status on the hostages?"
"They're still moving. Sorry, ma'am, I can't get anyone close enough, even when I can track them. Force fields are still out." Lieutenant Bevin grimaced, "The ventilation malfunctions means we can't use anesthesia gas."
"Operations, what do we have on the virus? Where'd it come from?"
"It was introduced aboard ship, ma'am. Sometime in the last 24 hours."
"Get that Starfleet Intelligence jerk on the horn," Reed ordered, rotating her chair back toward the comms station, "We need to know what this thing is."
"ma'am, with all due respect, could it really have been the Etherians who did this? They can barely get electricity working, let alone isolinear circuits!" Moore pointed out skeptically.
Reed shook her head, "It could be anything. We don't know what caused this thing. It could have been wirelessly downloaded from one of the old facilities if one of our recon flights passed close enough. Who knows what kind of weapons they were developing here? Probably some sort of virus meant to Trojan horse itself onto auxiliary craft, and then download onto the main starship and take it down."
"Engineering to bridge. Bridge, do you read me?"
Reed tapped a control on her chair, "This is Reed. Go ahead, Karsten."
The chief engineer audibly took a breath, "The fires are under control. The warp core is still safe. That's just about the only good news. Most of our systems have been compromised down here. But lieutenant commander, we've got an even bigger emergency!"
"What now?" Reed said, trying hard to keep the groaning out of her voice.
"It's a Borg virus."
The andorian's blood ran cold. The entire bridge fell silent. Everyone looked to one another.
Eyes turned toward the lieutenant commander in the center of the bridge. Her expression was determined, a solid rock in a stormy sea.
"Copy, Karsten. Are you certain about this?"
"...For the most part, bridge. The code looks like the stuff the Enterprise-D picked up during the first encounter, and it's breaking through firewalls like nothing we've ever made. And I was on the Budapest during the Battle of Sector 001. Trust me, I know Borg when I see it. This is a Borg virus."
"Stand by, engineering." Reed said, and walked over to the science station.
"Ma'am, he's right," the substitute science officer commented, and pulled up an isolated example of the virus. On the same screen, she showed a virtually identical copy, "See? I recommend we tell the flotilla, get them to send in help, scan local space, and call for reinforcements."
The normal beeping and chirping of the bridge ran loud in Reed's ears. Still no one spoke.
Her antenna twitched.
Reed shook her head, and tapped her combadge, "Copy that, engineering."
The crew went back to their jobs, all talking at once, all singularly focused on trying to fight the virus.
Reed went back to the center of the bridge, "Alright, people! Let's stay calm. We don't know for sure this is Borg. But this is a threat to the ship. We're going to follow proper procedure on fighting a virus. Alert your departments, brief everyone on the situation. Let's work the problem. Let's not make things worse by guessing. Operations, continue with analog protocols."
She looked at Tactical, "Lieutenant, keep your security teams on damage control; without the ship there's no point in rescuing the hostages. But try and pull together a team."
"Most of the replicators are offline. We won't be able to make much anti-Borg ordnance."
Reed grimaced, "At this point, I'll take anything. If you have to make pikes I'll take them."
The lieutenant commander glanced back at the CAG's console, where a lieutenant commander in a red turtleneck sat, "Lieutenant Commander Halina, ground any of your ships that interfaced with the main computer in the last 24 hours. Don't let anyone take off. Tell the Combat Space Patrol guys to power down and wait for rescue."
The CAG, the right side of her face covered in old scars, nodded, "I've still got some ships scouting the planet. I've already lost contact with one. She's completely missing. I'll tell the rest of them to get into a stable orbit and power down too."
"Do we have anything dirtside?"
"Negative, not counting my missing bird. We've still got people on the surface though."
"Comms, tell the flotilla to take over surface operations," the andorian instructed, and walked the short distance to the helm, "Ensign, make sure our orbit is stable, then shut down all propulsion systems."
Reed moved back to the science station and leaned in, glancing at her substitute and speaking in a low voice, "Lieutenant, something's not right. This can't be Borg. Sure it's their normal prey, but there's no other signs. Look at that code. It's almost identical to the Borg code. The code from thirteen years ago? The Borg? Why wouldn't they have edited it? We take weeks between software updates, and the walking computers barely change anything in a decade?"
"Well, it's not completely identical, ma'am. Look," the woman pointed out a few details on the display, "See, there's differences here, here, and here. That could account for the software updates."
Reed grimaced, "No...that still doesn't look right. What is going on here?"
She looked at the comms console, "Where's our representative from Starfleet intelligence?"
"Internal communications are still being interfered with," the officer replied apologetically.
Reed grimaced, and went back to the center of the bridge, "Tactical, hostages?"
Bevin looked at her display, "Looks like two of the Etherians escaped, ran into the damage control teams on the portside emergency supply locker. We got em."
"How many hostages do the others have?" Reed asked, unable to recall in the flood of other information she had to deal with.
"In total, they've got four of the other Etherians, the whole security team, the counselor, XO, and the skipper."
On the almost-forgotten viewscreen, the display changed to one of a deck schematic. Several dots were moving into a turbolift on deck 6.
"Where are they headed?" Reed kept her outrage under control as she expected the rest of the crew was doing. She walked over to Bevin's console, which displayed a much more detailed view of the deck. The internal security monitor had projections for where people were going, how fast they were moving, information on their weapons, the works.
"They're boarding the functional turbolift. They're headed to...deck 8."
"Deck 8...operations, wasn't the ventilation malfunctioning there, too?"
Lieutenant Moore nodded, "Yes, ma'am, but I don't-"
Reed held up a hand, and glanced at Bevin, "Tactical, you gotta give me something. I've got a feeling they're to blame for all this."
"I don't have anything, ma'am! We're stretched thin as it is!"
Reed growled, and thumped her fist against the tactical console, "At least try and slow them down, damn it!"
Bevin lifted her hands from the display, "Reed, I am trying here! If you thought I could stop them don't you think I'd-!"
Both caught themselves and winced when they locked eyes.
Bevin took a deep breath through gritted teeth, "I'll keep trying...ma'am. My teams are scattered, one makes up part of the hostages, and we can't move anything rapidly. The armory down there is depressurized, we can't trust any of the phasers hooked into the shuttles, we're critically low on staff, and the turbolifts are down. I'd go down there myself if they weren't. Without non-lethal weaponry, we risk friendly fire, and we don't know if the phasers the Etherians stole are functional or not."
Her console chirped, and she tapped a control, "...It seems they are. The Caitian just stunned a guard."
Reed let out a breath, "Alright."
She hesitated, "Sorry, Bevin."
Bevin nodded, "Yes, ma'am. We all want the captain back."
Reed returned to her chair. The crew knew what they were doing, and they all wanted the skipper back. There was little else she could do right now. All they could do was wait as their efforts to save the ship went through.
XXXXX
"So, you think she's descended from Todger Jones, or Alvin York?" Matthias grunted, smiling a little.
"I'm wondering if we're descendants of those idiots who defended Fort Douaumont," Hayes hissed, shifting his hold on the security officer with the broken ribs, "Damn Starfleet! I am going to put in a request, no, a demand for Marines when this is all over."
"Am I going to have to find room for some hovertanks too? You never know when we might need them."
"You never do!"
"Both of you shut up!" Catra snapped, glancing back at them with her phaser at the ready, "You're hostages! Start acting like it!"
She turned around fully, her eyes quickly scanning the group clustered behind her.
The security team was helping each other along, grouped close to the captain and the XO, while Emerson was helping Adora carry Glimmer. Perfuma had recovered from the stun, and was a little wobbly, but walking beside Bow.
Glimmer was still unconscious. She still had a pulse, one that was quite rapid. Adora had said something about her "needing to recharge".
Entrapta was behind them, fiddling with a heavily modified PADD, and Scorpia brought up the rear, scanning the hostages and the dimly lit corridor behind them.
"Relax, force captain, we're just trying to settle our nerves." Matthias said, "But we'll stop if you want us."
"Not my first rodeo," Hayes added, "I know what the score is. But frankly, the last people who caught me were a little scarier."
"What were they? Ants?" Catra snorted.
"No, they were ticks!" Hayes said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Captain…" Matthias cautioned.
The officer rolled his eyes, but stopped talking.
"Least it wasn't a mouse…" Adora muttered further down the line.
Catra turned forward, almost as if she didn't hear her, but Adora could see the way her ears twitched.
"This doesn't make any sense," Entrapta muttered, scratching her head with a hand while a hair tentacle twisted a screwdriver on a screw drilled into the PADD, "I only meant to disable the counter intrusion systems. Why is it going nuts like this?"
"Did you break something? Sometimes I'll just touch something and it breaks, even when I'm not trying to!" Scorpia suggested.
"Your strength is quite astounding, but that wasn't what I did. I'm positive! Nothing is broken but the ship is malfunctioning!"
"...did you try hacking it again?"
"Well of course! How else was I going to overload their weapons and counter intrusion systems?"
Scorpia raised an eyebrow at her, "you think that might be why?"
"No, it's...it's more like the ship is fighting me!"
They reached a large door, like those of the cargo bay, which opened to reveal a small compartment, with a similar door on the other side. A computer terminal was built into the left wall, above some equipment racks, between two floor to ceiling racks. Another two mirrored them on the other side. There were three alcoves per rack, with a transparent latched door. Each held a large white helmet with a clear visor. What looked like torso armor plating was mounted to the helmets, above a neatly folded thick outfit. A pair of gloves were mounted to the side of each unit.
Under each outfit were a pair of boots, large ones with more of the odd armor plating above the ankle.
The airlock door shut when everyone was inside, and the Etherians looked around, studying the dimly lit environment.
"The airlock is being funny, give me a second." Entrapta said, messing around with the console.
The Starfleet personnel eyed the equipment lockers, but were wary of the discharge of phasers in that close space. Especially with people who didn't know how to use them.
"Hey, what are those things?" Adora asked Emerson, pointing to the helmet and outfits.
"Spacesuits, meant for ExtraVehicular Activity. EVA."
"You mean...go outside? Into space?"
"Since Alexei Leonov."
"Since who? Whatever, that's amazing!"
"Hey!" One able bodied security guard suddenly yelled, jumping off where he'd been leaning against the wall.
Even as her attention was focused on the console, one of Entrapta's tendrils of hair had crept its way over behind him and was poking at the latch to one spacesuit alcove.
It opened quickly, and the limb drew out the gloves, and another the boots.
"You can't just-!" The guard snarled, and started forward, but Catra shoved her phaser in his face.
"Try me, goldie! Don't you dare go near her!"
Matthias stepped over, pulling the guard back, "easy, easy…"
"But sir-!"
"Lock it down, mister!" Hayes snapped, "don't get yourself killed!"
"Better listen to him, goldie," Catra sneered, "like a good little boy."
She was somewhat annoyed he didn't respond to that. The goldshirt relaxed, and crossed his arms.
"How much longer?" Catra barked, looking at Entrapta.
She was busy putting the sole of the spacesuit boots against her own foot. Her current battered pair of boots bore a remarkable resemblance to them.
She looked up at Catra's demand, and pushed a button.
The door behind her slid open, and she spun around with phaser ready.
The airlock led out onto a catwalk, hanging over a vast cavernous space. It was a wide and long hangar. There were yellow or blue guidelines on the floor, to facilitate the movement of the dozen or so dozen strange craft of various shapes and sizes occupying the hangar. All bore Starfleet insignia, and had crews scrambling over them.
Catra's mouth fell open at the sight, at the huge scale of the thing. How could it be so big? How could they build this? How could anyone build this? What must it have taken, a decade? Five decades? Strip-mining entire mountain ranges? How could they have built so much?
There were four types of vehicles in view. Off to their left was a long slender and sleek white ship, with a rectangular fuselage and a pair of nacelles hugging either side. A jet-black canopy was across the front.
Beyond it were two more smaller craft of similar shape, but had much less space between the nacelle mounts and the canopy.
The vehicles were placed in small alcoves set into the wall the catwalk emerged from, contained within yellow outlines.
Beyond the shuttles was...utter blackness?
As the others emerged from the airlock, they gasped at the spectacle, and more than one of them recoiled obviously in reaction to the apparent reality that there was nothing separating them from space.
Entrapta walked out onto the catwalk herself, and looked up to note the others' expressions.
Catra looked at her, and for once Entrapta was able to recognize human expressions.
"Oh, they've got a force field over the hangar door to keep the atmosphere in. It's perfectly safe!"
Catra wouldn't admit to a certain amount of panic. About that at least. The hangar was only about half full, it looked like the spacecraft could be stored vertically in the alcoves. Yet there weren't enough in sight to fill them out. This many ships in this half of the hangar, and it wasn't even half full?
The catwalk extended to meet a wide pillar that blocked their view of the other side of the hangar. A small control center by the looks of it was contained in the upper level of the pillar, with windows and people visible operating controls.
The third type of spacecraft was in front of the pillar, facing the blackness of space. It was by far the biggest. The vessel was long, with a sloped bow. It was large enough to have a hatch on the side, ahead of the large rig for the nacelles. The mount was curved, and attached to a large device on the top. It looked like some sort of weapon module or something.
There were five large hexagonal alcoves to their right along the wall for medium-sized vehicles to be placed into. They were much thinner than the other vehicles, much more like typical aircraft. Their wings were folded, but even if they were fully extended, they were already shorter than most planes any of the Etherians had seen.
"Shuttles…they're shuttles, right?" Catra demanded, grabbing Hayes by the arm and pulling him out of the lock.
A small cart moved soundlessly below them, dragging a tiny shuttlecraft not much bigger than itself. It was an ugly yellow thing, with a transparent bubble cockpit on one end, and a pair of arms extending from under it.
"Ow! Yeah! This is the hangar deck! We've got shuttles, that things a worker bee," he pointed at the yellow bubble vehicle, "and those are Peregrines."
He pointed at the medium-sized winged vehicles.
"What's the difference? Whatever, I don't care! Entrapta, come on!"
Catra seized Hayes' collar, and dragged him, still holding her phaser to his head, "Scorpia, watch them!"
The crew in the control center had seen them by this point, and several emerged from the sliding silver door. Most were dressed in the standard Starfleet uniforms, but a few of them were dressed in lightweight pressure suits minus helmets. Pilots for the Peregrines.
Hayes' face lit up briefly, but both he and Catra were surprised to find none of the crewmembers carried firearms.
Some carried wrenches or piping, but that was about it.
"Lieutenant Sel!" Hayes called out, "what's going on? What's happened to the ship?"
He spoke to a woman with pointed ears, wearing one of the light pressure suits. It had a shoulder patch, with a shield emblem, and an odd cartoon bear figure on it. The figure was leaping at an unseen target, holding a photon torpedo with "checkmate" written on it. Underneath was written "VFA-211".
The woman nodded to the captain, and in a very calm tone despite the danger to her commander, spoke, "Sir, the ship has been compromised by a virus. Many critical systems have been compromised and shut down. The warp core is offline. All small arms have been rendered useless, as have intruder defense systems, hence our inability to rescue you. We have also been warned that the virus may be Borg in origin."
"Damn it! Casualties?"
"Difficult to determine, captain. Lieutenant Commander Zh'Reed has ordered most systems shut down to deny them to the virus, and what little we have is barely functional. Weapons lockers and armories have exploded, there have been overloads in several critical systems...suffice it to say, we do have casualties."
"A virus? Impossible! I would have detected it!" Entrapta spoke up, peering at the Vulcan, "and I only intended your counter intruder systems to be disrupted!"
"Evidently, we have the source of some of the issues."
"Yeah, but what about the rest? Why would what she was doing affect the warp core? And Borg?" Hayes asked, "really? With all the black projects on the surface, how do we know it's not one of those?"
"A logical conclusion as any, captain, but we cannot be certain of anything until the crisis has abated." the vulcan looked at the smaller caitian beside the captain, "Force Captain Catra, as we cannot stop you at this present time, what are your demands?"
Catra furrowed her brow, but quickly changed to a glare, "For you to stop talking. I've got this blaster set to 16, and pointed at your commander's head. If you don't give me your biggest ship-"
"A Danube-class runabout!" Entrapta cried out, pointing to the large ship aimed at the hangar door.
"Yeah, one of those, and a pilot, I'm going to incinerate him one millimeter at a time!"
"Understood, force captain. We can see quite clearly your threat."
Catra's nostrils flared, "Shut up! Don't say anything like that again! Get me a damned pilot-!"
A human in a red turtleneck shoved her way through the small crowd, and shouted over Catra, "Force captain, we can't give you a ship! And we're not giving you more hostages!"
"And why can't you give me a ship?!"
"All our auxiliary craft are suffering computer problems! The damn things can't be trusted to safely operate five meters from the bay's force field, let alone reentry!"
"And who the hell are you?"
"I'm the air boss," the woman shouted, beating her chest, "I'm in charge of this fucking flight deck, and I know what's what! None of these ships are gonna fly, kid! It ain't happening!"
"Entrapta?"
Entrapta looked at her PADD, "According to your records, Charger 1, that runabout, was in maintenance. Its computer has been offline for days. Whatever virus is affecting the other machinery should not affect it."
Several of the control center crew and the pilots muttered curses, and the air boss (more formally referred to as the air officer) cursed, throwing her hands up, "Sorry, captain. I tried!"
"It's alright, lieutenant." Hayes said, nodding to her.
He tugged his collar out of Catra's grip, "She's not going to give you a pilot."
"So...you want to be pushed off of here, you want a lower charge death, or should I just start burning from the bottom?"
Hayes rolled his eyes, "You're not getting any more hostages. Matthias and I, we're fully qualified pilots. We'll fly her. It's not like it can fit many more people. What's it configured for, lieutenant?"
"It's empty, sir." the air boss glared at Catra, "She's in for repairs, you stupid kids! What the hell do you think it'll have?!"
The deck crew all dove for cover when Catra sent a phaser blast over their heads.
She glared up at Hayes. He glared right back.
"Go ahead. Shoot me. It won't do you any favors."
The corner of Catra's mouth went up a little, "you're really not scared, aren't you?"
"I've faced death before, force captain. I think I've seen some of the things you have. And I think you'd do the same thing if you were in my position."
Catra nodded, "you're right. In that last thing."
She twirled the phaser in her hand, and glanced at Scorpia, "Alright, Scorpia! Pack them up! We're going home!"
"Okay!" Scorpia glanced around, "uh, excuse me air boss, where's the elevator?"
The air officer, with a general glare, pointed to an elevator near the catwalk running around the control center.
"Thank you!"
"Please don't mention it."
The hostages were transferred down to the runabout, and Entrapta immediately went to the main hatch.
Catra glanced around the hangar deck, an odd expression on her face, "Hey, is there a way we can drag more ships with us? Like those teletanks you built for the Bright Moon attack?"
Entrapta shook her head, "They don't seem to like that."
"I don't care-!"
"No," Entrapta said, shaking her head and opening the door, "I mean the ships don't like it. There's something in their design that makes it difficult. If I had enough time, I could persuade them, but even with what I can do, this stuff is still so new to me. Just because you can run a computer doesn't mean you understand integrated circuits! Also, they've been taking apart the computers for the other ships, while this one is still in one piece. It just needs to wake up."
The interior of the runabout was cramped, and yet still had that odd spacious Starfleet feel to it. Dark displays were on almost every surface. There were four stations to the left for the cockpit, with two seats facing the porthole canopy, and two seats facing to the sides. To the right was an area with a hatch in the rear leading to the rear section.
Taking up the space between the main hatch and the rear access door though, was what could only be described as an archway.
It was about a meter deep, and two meters wide, with two white circles dominating most of the space on the floor and ceiling panels. More computer interfaces were attached to the boundaries of the arch, including a replicator. There were also charging mounts for several hand phasers.
"What's this?" Catra asked, pulling the phasers out of the arch and shoving them in a pocket. She looked around for more hidden weaponry, opening drawers, breaking open survival kits, and spilling equipment all over the place.
Entrapta glanced at it, "Transporter."
"What? Nevermind. Why this ship over the others? I mean it's the biggest, but…"
"The other ships are short ranged. They can be independent, but not by much. The Danube-class runabout has much greater range, weapons capability, mission flexibility, and living space than most shuttles. It's designed to be less expensive than a full starship, but be far more capable than the shuttles. This ship contains examples of most significant Starfleet technologies, even some of the ones I don't know about!"
Catra made her odd expression again. Then it vanished, and she grinned greedily, "Perfect. We'll be up in space beating these guys in a few months thanks to this thing. Has it got a name?"
"We call her Day, or Charger 1." Captain Hayes said, stepping into the cabin with his hands up.
"Who said you could come in?!" Catra demanded, pointing her phaser.
"You want to get out of here, or don't you? I'd rather not just wait around here waiting for the ship to burst into flame." He walked over to Entrapta, who had an irritated expression on her face as she prodded a control panel a little hard.
"You want help with that?"
"Huh? Oh, sure!"
Entrapta moved out of the way and took one of the seats behind the pilot seats, while Hayes sat down in the pilot's noticed her inspecting the spacesuit gloves she'd borrowed, comparing them to her own, and her eyes just lit up.
"Incredible workmanship! Able to stand up to intense heat and cold!"
She stuck a hand in one, "how are they so flexible?!"
She found a few controls on the palm side of the gloves, and touched one. Her face somehow grew even happier.
"They've even got temperature control units in the fingers! Amazing! What else do these controls do?"
Hayes gave her the side eye as she quickly replaced her gloves with the Starfleet ones.
"Most of the functionality is gone without the rest of the suit. And those batteries won't recharge without the main unit."
"And they don't seem to fit well." Catra pointed out. The gloves were huge on Entrapta, hanging in a baggy manner.
"Oh, I'll fix that easily. Ooh, do you have anything like that in the boots?"
Entrapta pulled off her right shoe and put the spacesuit boot up to her foot once again. "Hm...still seems a bit big…"
She didn't care, and yanked first one on, then doffed her right boot and pulled on the other.
Her hair and shoulders slumped a bit, "aw…still too big! Still, very nice! I can probably tailor these…"
Catra furrowed her brow, "I'm not one for shoes but don't they usually have straps?"
She crouched and peered at the boots, reaching for the connection between the shin plating and the ankle.
Her hand strayed over a hidden control, and abruptly the boots contracted and tightened.
"What the-?" Catra yelled, recoiling. Within an instant, the boots stopped moving, fitted to the contours of Entrapta's feet.
Entrapta was utterly fascinated, lifting up one foot and poking at the boot with hands and hair.
"Self-adjusting boots," Hayes said, turning away from his console, "helps when you need to get into spacesuits in a hurry."
"I wish I'd thought of these," Entrapta said, turning the system on and off and watching the shoes expand and tighten, "Tying shoes is just a waste of time!"
She got an idea, and poked the controls at random on the gloves. They immediately tightened on her hands, and she made a small squealing sound.
Hayes smiled a little, despite the situation, and glanced at Catra.
His smile vanished as he saw the odd expression on her face once again.
She shook her head, and aimed her phaser at Hayes, "Get back to work!"
"Can I have my copilot?"
Catra went to the hatch, "Scorpia! Throw everyone in the cargo bay!"
As the prisoners filed in and went toward the back, Hayes jumped to his feet, "we've got at least two beds for the wounded back there! And medical kits! Don't put my people in that cargo bay without treatment!"
Emerson raised a hand, "I have medical training. I can take care of them."
Catra rolled her eyes, "fine. I'll have Scorpia keep an eye on them. Now get to work!"
She gestured to the console and shoved Matthias by the shoulder. He was a little shocked at how much she made him budge, but didn't show it.
"Can I get a medical kit too?" He asked slowly and deliberately, pointing at a box with a red plus sign on the floor, amidst the piles of survival gear, "I assume you don't want my blood all over your new runabout control console."
Catra found one of the aft seats and sat down heavily. "Ugh... whatever. Just can we please get going?!"
Matthias picked up the box, took a moment to collect the spilled supplies, then went to the copilot's seat.
"Do you have a plan? Need I remind you we can't let this thing fall into their hands?" He hissed to Hayes, holding a dermal regenerator to his face.
"Buy time." He replied, "Catra's pretty twitchy, we need to be subtle. So no 'accidentally' ejecting the warp core. I'll go slow though. If necessary I'll 'accidentally' crash her. We just need to wait long enough for someone to rescue us."
"She's been acting unusual ever since we got in the hangar. Think we can use that?"
"She's got the phaser, she's from a Leibowitz world, and she's pretty smart. Be careful with the Kelvan Maneuver."
"Hello? Morons?" Catra demanded, getting to her feet and knocking Matthias on the head with the butt of a pilfered phaser, "let's go!"
Hayes sighed, and pressed a control.
Lights powered on and lit up the whole cockpit.
He spoke, "Computer, initiate system check."
"Affirmative."
He entered commands into the console as the runabout booted up.
"Power up. Thrusters online," he sounded out, "warp core is go. Navigation is go. Life support is go."
"Docking clamps disengaged," Matthias reported, "shields are online. communications are go. Sensors are go. Weapons are online. Looks like we're go for launch."
The captain pushed a control, "PriFly, this is Charger 1. Request permission for take off."
The air boss on the other end responded with a very calm and rational voice, unlike her outrage earlier, "ah, that'll be a few minutes, Charger 1. The deck's a mess. We'll need time to-"
"That's time you don't have!" Catra barked, leaning in and hitting the control, "Clear a path for us, or we're blasting our way out!"
"Charger 1 actual. Please repeat?" The controller asked calmly.
"Do it, PriFly. Tell Lieutenant Commander Reed, Authorization John Deere." Hayes said reluctantly.
There was a pause.
"... Understood Charger 1. Be aware, it really will take a little bit of time. Certain systems are offline."
"They literally can't go much faster," Matthias said, looking at Catra, "this isn't a delaying tactic. There are physical mechanical reasons, the flight deck is meant to service up to forty craft at once."
"Alright then." Catra said, taking a seat and still holding the phaser on them.
After a moment of waiting, she looked at Hayes, "Hey captain."
Hayes glanced back, trying to keep his eye on the phaser and the status board at the same time, "yes?"
"How did crazy sword lady number one get those scars on her neck? The high-tech crossword puzzle?"
"Her name was Mara." He growled.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Let me rephrase that. How did crazy sword lady number one get that high-tech crossword puzzle on her neck, I have a gun, answer me, you moron."
"She was attacked. What she did to survive left those marks." Hayes replied coolly.
Catra furrowed her brow, "Okay, what kind of attack leaves that kind of mark? Looks like a freaking tattoo more than an injury, but I saw those two holes!"
Matthias gave Hayes a look, "steady, captain."
"What about the rest of her injuries, then?" Catra asked, smirking a little, "man, she was a mess! I saw her eyes, those weren't her normal ones! And her hand..."
Emerson spoke up from the back of the cockpit, emerging from the rear hatch with Scorpia at his back, "Force Captain, with all due respect as your hostage, we'd prefer it if you didn't bait the captain. We want to make it all out of here alive, and I don't want to be the one to explain to anyone how one of you got brutally dismembered. Or disintegrated. To either the man down there or Starfleet."
"Scorpia, what is he doing out?" Catra demanded, "What about the other prisoners?!"
"He was done helping those guys I broke, and everyone's locked up. I figured I'd let him stretch his legs a little. Y'know, reward for following the rules." Scorpia scratched the back of her head,, "also, I...may...have accidentally paralyzed one of the guards. With my tail."
"He's fine, captain," Emerson said, "he just can't move."
"Oh... I'm too tired for this." Catra settled back into her seat, phaser arm on one arm rest.
After about a minute though, she couldn't resist one more.
"Okay, how come all the She-ras are so dumb? None of them can dodge anything!"
Hayes' hands curled into fists.
"What'd she do? Stand in front of everything shot at her? Pretty stupid if you ask me."
"The colonel was one of the most intelligent people I knew," Hayes said venomously, "I was there for most of her injuries. She was not stupid."
"Stupid enough to trap everyone in subspace..."
Hayes glared back at her, "Mara made a mistake. But she was my friend. You can kidnap us, but one more crack out of you, and I'm not responsible for what's going to happen."
"What, were you sleeping with her? Is that it?"
Hayes coughed, "what?! No! Of course not! Mara was gay!"
For once, the force captain's eyes went wide in genuine surprise. "She was what?"
"She was gay. She was a lesbian."
"A what?"
"Sweet merciful Buddha…" Hayes groaned, "Oh look! They've moved the Peregrines out of the way!"
"Well, let's get outta here." Catra ordered.
Hayes exchanged a look with Matthias, "PriFly, this is Charger 1. We'll be back."
"Affirmative, Charger 1. You are cleared for departure."
The runabout lifted a meter off the deck, and slid out of it's spot. Slowly they angled toward the docking bay door, and toward open space.
Catra played with some of the settings on the phaser, glanced out the window...and her jaw went slack.
They were so much closer to space now, but that wasn't even the best/worst part.
She finally got a full look at the Belleau Wood, and all the ships in the flotilla.
Catra had known the ship was huge, the hangar had been evidence enough of that...but it hadn't quite done it justice.
They passed off the saucer section and between the two catamaran like warp nacelles, and above the large weapon pod connecting the two.
"She's an Akira-class aviation cruiser, carries heavy weapons, fighters, and flies like a dream," Hayes explained, a grim smirk appearing on his face, "she's about 480 meters long, and we've got dozens like her."
Other ships in white and silver colors drifted in formation around the cruiser. Two were similar in shape, but smaller. They were just a saucer section with nacelles mounted on the underside of the hull, and a superstructure frame with a weapon pod in the center above the saucer.
One ship was smaller than the rest, with a trapezoid-shaped nose, a rectangular aft section, and a pair of nacelles rising up on its flanks.
Coming into view as they moved off the Belleau Wood, three more spacecraft were visible below them. A pair of T-shaped starships, with long nacelles hanging off either side, escorted a slightly larger ship.
This one was rectangular with one end curved and a small nose jutting outward. A pair of engine pods, not nacelles, were mounted to the sides and hugged close.
Catra couldn't believe her eyes. These ships were huge! They were bigger than most seagoing warships the Rebellion could field, even when they had the resources to do so, let alone what the Horde could deploy.
The power they held, the weaponry...it must have been immense.
So big...How?! How can they be so freaking big?!
"Impressed, force captains?" Hayes asked.
"Why are they all so white?" Scorpia inquired, looking out a few windows.
"It's because…" Matthias winced, and stopped talking when Hayes glared at him.
Catra looked at the phaser in her hand. It was like comparing a sharp rock to a breech-loading cannon.
"Well, with you people and this ship, we'll be able to match your capabilities pretty quickly," She said, an odd tone to her voice, "shouldn't take long."
Emerson got to his feet, and walked forward a bit.
Scorpia held her phaser on him, but he put up his hands, "I'm just stretching my legs!"
She pointed it at the ceiling, "Don't try anything."
"What can I do? All I can do is talk, that's my job."
"Seems like that's all you people do," Catra grunted, "all this firepower, all these ships, toys I can't even begin to guess at, and all you do is stand around and talk."
"Well, Starfleet isn't exactly a military organization." Emerson said, leaning against the bulkhead. He paused, then corrected himself, "...okay, actually we are, by every definition, that was a bad way to say it. I mean we're more than that. We are a military organization, but our job isn't just to fight, it's to prevent fighting."
"Sure you do. And those weapons are all just for self defense, aren't they?"
"United Nations Peacekeepers during the late 20th and early 21st centuries could be heavily armed when they needed to deter the locals. We're not naive, we know some factions don't respect flags of peace. And we know when we need to fight. You saw how scared of the Dominion everyone was during the war. That wasn't just a small group. Everyone was afraid."
Catra slowly turned toward him, "wait a minute...you people. All of you. Not just some dumb blonde. But the Federation. You were afraid?"
Emerson nodded gravely, "They were the second biggest threat the Federation has ever seen. Millions died and thousands of starships from Starfleet alone were lost."
"But...but…" Catra blinked slowly, frustration and confusion evident in her face. She gestured at the windows, "Those ships. Those ships. Did you say thousands? Destroyed? How could you even have that many?! How could you build so many?!"
The Horde could field maybe a few hundred thousand soldiers. They could theoretically operate a thousand ships...if they went to absolutely minimal crew for each one and didn't anticipate casualties, or ground warfare. And these people supposedly had 150 worlds, not counting colonies, which probably meant hundreds or thousands of worlds. Considering these ships...maybe they weren't lying.
Hayes looked at her, "Starfleet has several thousand starships of varying shapes and sizes. Most of the senior officers you've met including myself and Matthias served during the war. Most of the crew enlisted during it, if they didn't fight in it."
"I myself was a Starfleet Ground Forces combat medic," Emerson said, "Not quite as intense as the Marines or the Federation Army, but I saw my share of combat."
Catra chuckled, an odd tone to it, "You guys and your starships. All this pretty tech, the arrogance of that Picard guy, all this stuff...why do you want us? We're a bunch of primates! That's what you think of us!"
The officers looked surprised, and looked at each other.
"I heard your guards talking. You're not as friendly as you say you are, are you? What do you want us for?"
"Etheria is one of our colonies. We're here to help you. We're obligated to."
An alarm blared from the control board. "Warning; warp core is offline."
"Captain, we've got a problem!" Matthias said with alarm.
Hayes turned back to his console, "the warp core's malfunctioning?! How'd that happen?!"
"Equipment malfunction, sir! It's overheating!"
"Was that the same thing that happened to the Belleau Wood?"
"Possibly, I'm trying to shut it down now!"
Hayes tapped a few controls, "killing impulse drive and venting plasma. See if that does anything."
"What's happening?" Catra demanded.
"The ship's been infected by whatever virus attacked the Wood, we have to shut down the warp core."
"What does that mean?!" she demanded, putting the phaser against the back of Hayes' head.
Hayes shoved it off, "It means propulsion is offline and we didn't do it deliberately so don't shoot us!"
"Well, fix it! Entrapta, can you help them?"
Entrapta was looking between her PADD and the console beside her, her brow furrowed. "What is going on? Why does this keep happening?"
"What keeps happening?" Matthias asked politely.
Entrapta looked at him, "Your computer systems could use some improvements. I keep trying to install some, but your systems keep fighting me! The reactors keep attacking my updates!"
"You keep trying to what?!" Hayes demanded, cringing back a little as his raised voice brought two phasers in his direction.
"I keep trying to update your systems," Entrapta repeated slowly, "but your computers keep fighting whenever I do. Do you need me to explain things like Catra needs them?"
Hayes groaned, and Matthias sighed, "Princess Entrapta, are you aware of antivirus software?"
"Of course!" She brightened up, turning more toward the Gorn, "your systems keep throwing up firewalls and activating defenses when I try to update them. They're very basic updates, meant for finer calibration of weapon systems, reactor temperature control...all sorts of things. They have no malicious intent, why are your computers fighting me? Well I did mean to disable your small arms and anti intruder things, but..."
Matthias nodded, "Princess, did you make sure to fill out all the credentials before you installed these updates? Our computers are designed to prevent enemy access to them. We had a bad experience during the Romulan War. Any sort of program that tries to alter their systems and do not have permission or a Federation signature, is considered an enemy program, or at least something to be contained. We are very careful to avoid anything that could risk compromising the ship. I know you didn't mean any harm, but the computer doesn't. All it saw was unauthorized changes to the variables."
"I…" Entrapta had a quizzical look on her face, but nodded in understanding, "oh...Whoops. I'm sorry."
"That's it?" Hayes asked, "Belleau Wood is nearly dead in space because she didn't fill out the paperwork? That's it?!"
"Looks like it, sir."
"But...they're from a Leibowitz world. She was using a tape recorder for crying out loud! How is that possible?! How can she hack isolinear circuitry?!"
"Shut up!" Catra barked, "Shut up and fix the freaking engines! Get us back home now!"
"Princess Entrapta, if you would be so kind as to take your updates out?" Matthias asked.
"Shut up! Shut up! Just stop talking, all of you!" Catra nearly shrieked, beating her fist against the hull.
"Catra…!" Scorpia said with concern.
"Not now!" Catra groaned, "Just everyone stop talking!"
"No one's talking." Emerson said, "It's alright, just take deep breaths."
"Stop being so damned polite!" She barked, "You're hostages! I stole your ship! I kidnapped all of you! What is the matter with you?!"
"You," she said, pointing at Matthias, "you're a Gorn! How are you so calm all the time? The captain's been crazier than you! What's the matter with you? What's the matter with all of you?!"
Matthias crossed his arms, "I believe you are referring to a racist stereotype."
"Oh, did I hurt your feelings? Sor-ee, softie! As if you'd know racism!"
He narrowed his gaze, looking hostile really for the first time. "I'm from Broken Bow. Oklahoma. On Earth. Gorn aren't exactly a common sight on Earth. Broken Bow is a big place for aliens, but there's still some prejudice. There were maybe a few hundred of us for the thousands of humans, Klingons, Vulcans, Andorians, and other races. Some humans didn't like us, and neither did all of the aliens. I had to defend my siblings from bullies. I got beaten up myself. I got threats against my life. And compared to the Klingon kids…?"
"Shut up! You wouldn't understand! You think you can, but you don't! None of you know anything!"
"Understand what, force captain?" Emerson asked quietly.
Catra fixed her gaze on him, "You wouldn't understand!"
"Understand what?"
"Everything! Nothing! Leave me alone!"
"If we don't understand, make us understand. We might be able to figure something out. You might be able to get us on your side. What's the matter?" Emerson's voice was firm, but soothing. He took a step toward Catra.
"What do you care?" Catra demanded, turning her phaser on him, "what does anyone care?"
"I care. That's my job. Caring about other people's problems, even if they don't think anyone does."
"Why?! What kind of job is that?! Who does that?!"
"We do." Emerson was calm, his face impassive. Emotions ran up and down Catra's face, and she backed up against the wall.
"Why? Why would you help people like us?"
"Our whole government is based on the principles of universal rights, liberty, and equality. We want to help people. We help those who can't help themselves. And sometimes it's just the right thing to do."
"The right thing to do. How do you know what that is?" Catra asked.
"It's hard to tell sometimes," Emerson said, settling against the transporter arch, "and sometimes you make mistakes."
He noticed the phaser was shaking.
"You don't understand. You just don't understand!" She said.
"What don't I understand?"
"I...I…" Catra pulled the phaser in close, pointing it at the ceiling.
Her face drew into a scowl, "Nothing! You don't understand anything! Just get us back down to the surface!"
"Why?"
"Whaddya mean why?!"
"What do you intend with this craft? With all of us?"
"Turn it over to the Horde, duh!"
"Why?"
"So they can reverse engineer it! We'll be up here blasting you in no time!"
"Okay," Emerson said, nodding, "playing devil's advocate here, with no sarcasm, you've done a great job. You've crippled our biggest ship, you've gotten away with senior officers who know a lot about the Federation, and you've got a ship to reverse engineer almost all our technology from. This is the perfect situation for you. You'll get a lot of credit, maybe Lord Hordak will find a way to raise you even higher in the ranks...Fantastic work. Now, once you've done this, do you have any plans?"
"Emerson…" Hayes groaned. Evidently the counselor did this sort of thing often. But he noticed the look on Catra's face.
She was utterly flabbergasted. Her face was limp, mouth open, her multicolored eyes wide, and her tail slacked.
Then, she returned to normal. Her face became a scowl, her eyes burning with rage, "I had plans. Sure it worked. But it's not good enough is it?" She hissed, "If we don't get moving soon, your ships will pick us up, right? Everything I did is pointless!"
She punched the wall again, "Not good enough, damn it, not good enough! Nothing...is ever...good enough!"
She punctuated each phrase with a punch. Catra stamped the deck plating, "Nothing! Damn it, nothing ever works! Nothing I do works!"
Matthias and Hayes looked at each other, taking in this distressingly familiar display.
"Catra, that's not true!" Scorpia said, moving closer and raising a claw.
"Yes it is!" Catra roared, her voice cracking, "I can't do anything right! Nothing I do ever works right! Okay fine, I can make things any idiot can do work, but that's it! Any time I try to do something right I fail!"
She kicked the wall, "Damn it, damn it, damn it!"
Emerson spoke "Catra, that's not true of anybody. I don't know you and I can tell that's not true. I've seen a lot of people screw up."
"Right." Catra muttered, playing with the phaser controls.
"That's beside the point, though. So you get all this credit, what are you doing it for? Why do you want to help Hordak?"
"He's the boss."
"But why?"
"Because he's the boss!"
"Do you believe in your cause? What is your cause? It can't be just following orders. That's an unacceptable excuse."
"We're just making things better…" she mumbled, "We were trying to do that…"
"An admirable goal. That's what everyone wants. No shame in that. But why are you following the Horde?"
"It's where I'm from? Loyalty, hello?" she looked aft toward the hatch, "Something some people don't understand!"
"I don't think she can hear you." Scorpia said.
"Oh, she'll find a way…" Catra muttered, "Get to the point, counselor man."
"Do you believe in the cause, or are you following Hordak because it's the only thing you know? He attacked the Enterprise to get that technology you're about to provide him. It's his fault this world suffered so much-"
"So you say," Catra snarled, anger rising again, "So you all say! But how can we tell the truth! There's no way!"
"Incorrect." Entrapta spoke up.
Catra whipped her head around to look at the technician, her neck making a crack.
"What?" she muttered, her tone venomous, with a strange undercurrent.
"Holodeck sensor records were authentic," Entrapta explained, gesturing to her PADD, "Did I forget to tell you? The ones they took were genuine."
"How...how do you know?"
"You told me not to explain the tech details-"
The cockpit rang with the force of Catra's roar, and she threw several survival kits to the floor.
The Starfleet personnel jumped back, hugging the hull.
"No, no, no! That's impossible! He can't...he can't have!"
The force captain spewed more animalistic roars amidst coherent curses, smashing anything she could get her hands on. The steel maintenance hatch on the floor did not flex under her stomps, but it certainly made disturbing noises.
She pounded on the wall, blood staining it as the skin was already bruised from the force field.
Matthias and Hayes looked at each other, then scrambled around looking for the medical kits. No phasers, but Starfleet anticipated this sort of thing. The sedatives were scattered all over the place though…
Catra's vision was red, everything was filled with pain. She wasn't even making coherent sounds anymore. Tears were spilling freely, but she didn't care. Nothing mattered anymore, nothing…
Someone seized her by the shoulders, gently but firmly grabbing her arms and pulling her fists back.
"Hey...hey…"
Scorpia pulled Catra close to her, holding her tightly and not letting her move her arms, despite her efforts.
"Take it easy…"
Catra tilted her head up a little, only making eye contact with Scorpia's chin before she couldn't go any further. She bowed her head, stopped fighting, and leaned against Scorpia.
Scorpia's head tilted back a little in surprise, and her eyes widened.
That's a first…
She hugged the smaller girl tighter.
There was a soft thump. A phaser had appeared on the deck. Emerson quickly snatched it up, setting it to wide beam.
He was pleasantly surprised by Scorpia wordlessly holding two more out, butt first.
Entrapta looked between the two parties, then shrugged, and pulled a phaser from out of nowhere, handing it to Hayes.
He took it, and nodded to her in thanks.
Matthias tapped Hayes on the shoulder, and gestured to the blinking light on his console.
Hayes tapped the control, and a female voice crackled through.
"This is the USS Havoc actual to Charger 1. Captain Hayes, do you need a tow yet?"
Hayes tapped the console again, "Thanks for the offer, Havoc. Everything is under control now. Hostage situation has concluded, repeat, we are no longer hostages. Authorization Hayes Bravo Delta 3-1. We don't need John Deere anymore. We could use some help getting back to the ship, though."
"Understood. we'll beam you all here and drag your ship back with us. Anyway, your entire flight group needs to be checked out. Some sort of virus, apparently."
"We heard about that, Havoc. In fact we found the cause. We need to get back to the ship ASAP."
"Copy that. Stand by."
Hayes glanced behind him, then said in a lower voice, "Charger 1 to Havoc...belay that transporter order. We're not hostages, but we do have a small situation with the hostage taker here. Do not, repeat, do not transport us."
"Copy that, Charger 1."
"Havoc actual, I also need you to come aboard the Belleau Wood once we fix her. I've got some things to talk to you about. In private."
"Understood, Charger 1 actual. See you in a few."