Starfleet Regulation 28843

by ODST1

Substances unstable in an oxygen atmosphere must be handled with care.

7. Chapter 7

"Well, she's not Borg. None of them are. This one is just swarming with nanites!"

Captain Hayes rolled his eyes and threw up his hands as he turned away from the ship's chief medical officer.

Commander Matthias shook his head and gave a hiss. He rubbed his left eye, still bruised and a bit swollen.

Lieutenant Commander Reed took a deep breath, "James, can you please explain what you mean?"

They stood in front of the Belleau Wood's isolation lab window, that separated the unit from the rest of the ship's medical laboratory. It was a mid-sized chamber that combined the two labs to save space. Several staff moved about behind them in the rest of the lab, doing blood work and other jobs needed to treat their sudden influx of patients.

The isolation lab, a small room with windows and an airlock separated it from the rest of the lab, was designed to treat species with foreign atmospheres, specific medical requirements, or in this particular case, treat potential biohazards.

The chamber had its biohazard forcefields online, set to level 10, the highest possible setting. Entrapta was contained inside it.

She sat on the bed, swinging her bootless feet and wringing her bare hands. She studied the medical equipment attached to the sides of the bed. Her hair moved to and fro. She reached up to the sensor cluster on the ceiling and brushed against the field up there.

Two guards stood by the airlock, with armored vests, helmets, and TR-116 caseless projectile rifles instead of phasers.

Two more stood by the main doors of the lab.

The doors opened once in a while, and exposed the interior to a view of the rest of the ship's small sickbay complex. Medical staff moved through the hallway, shuttling supplies and wounded personnel.

The senior officers all stood around the console set against the isolation lab window, confused by their chief medical officer.

"Hm?" The Belleau Wood's chief medical officer asked, looking up from his controls, "She's swarming with nanites, I said. The bloodwork from the rest checks out, there's no nanites in them. She's the only one who has them."

"Dr. McCoy," Hayes said slowly, "how is she not a Borg, then?"

"Well, they're nanites, not nanoprobes," the dark haired Lieutenant Commander James McCoy replied, his New Zealand accent thick and a fascinated smile on his face, "Federation nanites. They have a Starfleet signature."

He pointed at the monitor on the console that displayed an image of a blood sample. There were a few dozen blood cells, as well as several strangely shaped objects. They looked like cartoon spiders, spherical with eight legs, spread out in pairs around the sphere.

The display zoomed in. Various icons and analyses appeared. The computer drew arrows that sprouted analyses and icons. Layers peeled themselves away to reveal circuits, internally stored mechanisms, a power source...

And on the end of one arrow, a Federation insignia sprouted.

"So...she's a...Federation drone then?" Hayes asked slowly, still baffled.

McCoy furrowed his brow, then shook his head with a chuckle, "Oh no, captain. She's a fairly normal human being. So are all the others, or whatever normal they're supposed to be. We checked everything twice, and rechecked. Aside from their abilities, there are no other anomalies. They're as human as you or I. This woman is the only one with nanites."

"Alright then," Hayes groaned, "what does that mean?"

McCoy smiled, ever eager to pass on knowledge, "All You remember the systems administrators, right? The ancestors of these princesses? They each had control devices for their specialties the ones for the terraforming projects, or the prototype weaponry, like the colonel's sword, correct? All of the system administrators had one. Anyone who's close enough to the original owner genetically can use one. Except with her."

He gestured through the window, and Entrapta waved a bit. He waved back, "In princess Entrapta's case, her ancestors were part of the nanite project. She doesn't have a control device, she told me herself, but that's not quite true. She doesn't have one because it's in her blood. She is her control device. She has abilities to match the others, but they manifest differently."

"Which project was this?" Matthias asked.

"The spook said it was the Dwarves Project." McCoy replied.

"So...what? Is her hair made of mithril?" Hayes asked, only half in jest.

"No, but close. They use some sort of carbon nanotube technology to strengthen the hair and use a Borg-based neural interface system to manipulate it. Our technology can't match Borg nanoprobes, so they can't manufacture too much in there, but they can strengthen what already exists. They also enhance her durability, certain brain processes...it actually allows her to speak machine code." he scanned through a readout, fascinated.

"So? Lots of people can code." Hayes said.

Reed tilted her head from side to side, her antenna twitching, "Yes sir, people can code, but speaking directly to the computer with assembler language is insane. We have to use compilers, computer languages that are easier to learn, for us to talk to them. It's possible for a normal person to use assembler language, but it's really, really, really hard. It's like building a house out of toothpicks. You could do it. Theoretically. She doesn't need the translators to make it easier, if I'm understanding it right. She can just...do it."

"So that's why the Borg always smash through our computers? They can sweet-talk the computers?" Hayes grinned a little.

"Yes, unfortunately sir." Reed replied in a deadpan tone. "The boffins must've salvaged something from the early Borg encounters, that explains the resemblance. If they tried to reverse-engineer it, building a whole new operating system would take forever. Why not just edit the old one?"

McCoy continued, "The nanites also give her DNA digital data storage. She can store computer information in her body, and she can recall things a lot easier."

Hayes glanced at Entrapta through the window, "Jeez…I hope they left the kitchen sink out. Supersoldier, hacker, and cure for memory loss? Damn, can I get some?"

At the mention of the word "supersoldier", Matthias looked uncomfortable. "Doctor McCoy, you said there were anomalies in their systems, correct?"

McCoy's smile faded, "Yes, yes I did, commander. The...modifications made to facilitate their abilities."

Normally the medical officer had at least a hint of a smile on his face, as if he always thought of a joke. It felt strange whenever that vanished completely to the opposite side of the spectrum.

Matthias frowned, or the Gorn equivalent, "And…?"

The doctor's face shifted, "yep."

Reed touched the side of her head, "hell."

Hayes groaned, "I was afraid of that. You're positive?"

"Yeah. Their abilities aren't just technological." McCoy said, "There's no doubt about it. These are genetic modifications. Genetic enhancements. This isn't for disease, genetic disorders, or anything else. This is straight up illegal genetic enhancement."

The others fell silent.

"I think we all knew this was the case." Reed said finally, "how else would they have had those abilities?"

"I can understand why they thought it was magic." Matthias commented.

"I was hoping it was purely technological, like Adora's sword," Hayes said, "That's not genetic engineering, that's temporary mutation or something, right?"

McCoy shrugged, "I'm not entirely positive on that myself. I've been a bit busy," he gestured to the rest of the lab for emphasis, "As far as I can tell, they derive most of their abilities from genetic enhancement. Their 'magic', their control of elements? It's organic technology, real cutting edge stuff. I don't understand it fully myself, but their ancestors were altered to allow them to do the things that they do. It's not cybernetics or anything."

He continued, "Princess Adora's sword is unusual compared to the others, of course. This is mostly technological, temporarily applying enhancements to the wielder. I'm not entirely sure how it works, not without deeper tests, or an actual activation of the device, but it's like they took a bunch of different technologies and threw them into a blender. Some of the files I've got on what this could be even come from Voyager. They encountered some aliens that could rapidly mutate someone by manipulating genetic tags. Some of it seems like Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome actually...it's all similar, but what we're dealing with here is far more advanced."

"That doesn't legally count as permanent genetic enhancement, doctor," Reed pointed out.

"I wouldn't have minded a few of those swords in the Corps. One of those can give a single soldier the ability to fire high-energy phaser blasts and tear apart tanks." Hayes commented, "I wonder what vision is like with that sword turned on. We wouldn't need power armor. A soldier could have everything the Augments had, but without the drawbacks or permanency."

Reed shifted in place. Her antenna lowered., "and the rest, sir? The actual genetic enhancements?"

McCoy's earlier jovialness had faded again. "This is going to be a bloody media fiasco."

"Word is going to get out that Starfleet was working on this." Reed said. She frowned, "Command won't be happy with us."

"I'm not happy with command at the moment either." McCoy scowled, "I want to get my hands on those weasels who authorized this stuff. Medical ethics, anyone?"

"What were they trying to do?" Hayes muttered.

"Colonel Sheri said they were trying to bring back all the 'old tricks' from World War III," Matthias said, with a glance at his fellows, "I wonder if this was some sort of attempt to put us on equal footing with the Jem'Hadar."

"It's still genetic engineering, though! What next, cyberzombies?"

"Oh, don't even say that!" McCoy exclaimed.

"Why not? Look at this planet and tell me cyberzombies are beyond what they were doing here!"

"Cyberzombies?" Reed asked.

Hayes furrowed his brow at her, "don't you remember your history, Lieutenant Commander?"

The Andorian noticed the captain's hands were fists.

"Nasty things, Reed," McCoy explained with a grimace, "cyborg weapon during World War III."

"That doesn't exactly narrow it down, James. There were a lot of cybernetic weapons."

"Never mind that," Matthias said, "this is going to heavily affect reintegration. How do we tell them they committed the crime of...being born?"

Reed shook her head, "That's not the problem! We know it's not their fault, there's nothing wrong with-"

Hayes tried not to glare at Reed, "Lieutenant Commander, genetically enhanced people aren't allowed to serve in Starfleet, or any branch of the military. They can't hold most jobs. Their rights have been trampled on by those racist laws!"

Reed blinked, "Captain, genetically enhanced people-"

"Need I remind you that Khan is dead?" Hayes snarled, "Khan is dead. His people are dead. The Augments are dead. They've been dead for a hundred years! The Botany Bay was the last of them! These are a bunch of kids."

Reed narrowed her gaze, "The Augments killed tens of millions of people in the Eugenics Wars. Enhancement was one of the causes of World War III, and that nearly wiped out Earth. Genetically enhanced children accidentally, with no intention, or even knowingly, killed the entire crew of the USS Lantree, and nearly killed the crew of the Enterprise-D. The Dominion fielded nothing but genetically enhanced soldiers if they could help it. This 'kid' -and I'm fairly certain she's at least twenty-two- nearly destroyed our ship, blew a hole in the hull, and we've got two dozen people in sick bay because of her!"

"I'm well aware of the Jem'Hadar. I'm well aware of all of that. But here's the problem. This is a damned racist policy!"

Hayes swept a hand, "most genetically engineered people had no say in the engineering whatsoever! Why are we punishing them for decisions they had nothing to do with? Those are just kids in there! They're terrified of us! They think we're the enemy! They're just kids, Reed! They're just kids!"

"Captain, they're adults by their standards-" Matthias began, and McCoy interrupted.

"Captain, look, I get what you're saying, but the law is the law. We can't change that."

"What law?" Hayes snapped, "you want me to go in there and tell those kids that they have no rights in Federation society, and cripple our negotiation efforts, or lie to them and ensure a political charlie foxtrot? And for what? For a law set down because of a man a hundred years dead who should've been dead four hundred years ago?"

"Captain…" Matthias muttered quietly, and brushed a hand against his arm.

Hayes took a deep breath.

Reed's eyes widened, "captain, you cannot possibly be insinuating that you think genetic engineering is a good idea!"

"I know it's not a good idea!" Hayes hissed, "I hate genetic enhancement, at least this kind! Research for improving lives is one thing, but altering people to become... something else, in Khan's way, that's wrong."

Reed blinked, "I'm sorry sir, but I don't see what the problem is, then."

Hayes took a deep breath. "Getting rid of diseases, medical aid, helping people can survive in certain kinds of environments, that's one thing. But mutating yourself for...for... provincial reasons, is something else. But regardless of that, people who are genetically engineered face a lot of social stigma and institutionalized discrimination. What on earth do you think those laws are for? I can hate genetic enhancement, but that doesn't mean I hate the victims of it. Those kids can't help who they are. If someone is genetically enhanced as a child, without any say in the matter, so they can't help who they are, what justification is there in taking away their civil rights? They can't help being different! Just because of the actions of some monsters who are dead and gone, they don't deserve any rights?"

He shook his head, "those kids haven't actually done anything! I thought the Federation was supposed to judge on character! They deserve just as many rights as anyone else! This isn't the Lantree!"

He glanced at McCoy, "they don't have any diseases, right?"

"Not that I can find."

"So they can control elements and stuff, big deal! What matters is who they are, not what they are! They didn't have a choice! They didn't ask to be like that, they didn't ask for any of it! I hate genetic engineering, but racism against the victims of it makes me sick."

He took another deep breath, "lieutenant commander, can I trust there is none of that here?"

Reed had silently listened to the lecture without any major facial changes beyond some antenna and eye movements.

She didn't answer immediately.

"Captain… you make a good point. I understand what you're saying. But as McCoy pointed out, the law is the law. Even if you convince us, what about Starfleet Command?"

"I don't know," Hayes muttered, catching his breath, "McCoy, what's the rest of their health like?"

McCoy nodded, grateful for the change in subject, "I'm glad you finally let us get a look at them. Even with the biofilters aboard our ships, there's still a risk of disease on both sides. We've got a population that's had a thousand years, vaccines or no vaccines, to develop their own viruses, and us without immunities. And knowing what Intelligence was developing down there? Jesus...I'm glad I could actually get a close look and make sure they're not carrying anything. Remote sensors can never beat blood work."

"You know the rules, McCoy," Hayes grimaced, "Probably better than any of us. We couldn't let you look at them without proper procedure. I don't like it any more myself, but this is a delicate situation. I trust they don't have any bugs though?"

"Nothing I can't deal with. They're all suffering from certain nutritional deficiencies, especially the ice girl, but that's to be expected. It matches some of the problems they had after World War III. Health problems brought on by improper diet, lack of medicine, etc, but nothing unexpected. Princess Adora and the Horde officers are slightly better off, but not by much. And that's not even mentioning the dental problems, eyesight, hearing, and everything that comes without modern technology."

"Do you know what exactly Captain Scorpia is?" Matthias asked, "Was her mom a Tholian or something?"

"Doctor-patient confidentiality, sorry."

"Ah…"

Have you figured out what's wrong with Princess Glimmer?" Hayes asked.

McCoy grimaced, again unusual, "She's burned an awful lot of calories. I think teleportation has something to do with that. I've been a bit swamped so I haven't been able to do much more than get her an IV. Whatever mechanism she uses to teleport doesn't just use a normal human's energy, though. It uses some, burned a heck of a lot of calories, but there's something else. The boy said she regularly has to 'recharge' back in the colony. Our resident spook is real stingy with the information on certain projects. That guy is dressed in red tape. I can't even get the name of the project her ancestors were a part of. I could probably figure out what she needs given time and more resources, but...for the short term, the only way she's gonna get really healthy again is recharging wherever she normally does it. On the planet's surface."

Hayes scratched his chin, "That might be a while, doc. How are the rest of them?"

"Several of them have old injuries that weren't treated properly. Old broken bones that weren't set properly, scars...textbook Leibowitz."

He grinned a little, and they couldn't tell how serious he was, "I've got re-breaking bones to look forward to! As the great Dr. Phlox once said, 'doesn't matter how much pain I inflict so long as I don't cause harm'."

Hayes nodded, then asked "How are the Horde kids doing?"

"They've been pretty docile, actually. I had to treat Force Captain Catra's hands obviously," McCoy replied, "The damage to her nails was pretty bad. She hasn't maintained very good hygiene for a while, she could've seriously hurt herself. She's alright now."

"Docile?!" Matthias said loudly, then cursed and repeated in a lower voice, "docile? She nearly knocked out one of my teeth!"

"Yeah, she's been quiet," McCoy said, "Captain Scorpia has kept an eye on her."

Reed commented, "They both seem pretty shaken up. What exactly happened on that runabout?"

Neither the captain or the XO answered. They looked at each other for a moment, and Matthias shrugged.

"I don't know if Emerson wants us to talk about it yet. But all I can say is…poor kid." Hayes spared a glance at the lab door, "What did they do to them down there? This place is a nightmare."

"We've only just started to contact them and already we nearly lost the ship," Matthias said.

"Physical injuries aside, mentally they have a lot of problems." McCoy reported, "I won't know the exact details without consulting Emerson, or how deep things go. From what I've gathered so far, they're suffering the problems typical of child soldiers, PTSD, depression, that sort of thing. We'll need counselors, dedicated doctors, and we're going to have to set up a care center down there."

Hayes nodded, "Understood. Did Emerson tell you what we should do in response to their little escape attempt?"

McCoy nodded as well, "he said to give the Horde kids back their suite. Revoke some replicator privileges, but be careful with them. Don't take away any database privileges, we're still breaking them out of their cult mindset."

Hayes grimaced, "copy that. That's what I figured, but it helps to be sure."

"Shouldn't we take additional precautions, captain?" Matthias asked, and touched his jaw.

"They're diplomats, commander, officials from foreign governments," McCoy said, "We don't want to declare war this fast."

"More than that, they're still child soldiers," Hayes said, "it's not healthy for them to be locked up."

The captain turned to the others, "We'll talk to the Rebellion kids and try and figure out how to stop this war. Now that the earth-shattering revelations are out of the way it shouldn't be too difficult."

Reed spoke up, "We've still got our runabout to track down."

"That might prove advantageous," McCoy commented, *you could work with these kids to get our people back, and use that as a springboard to talk to their governments."

Matthias nodded, "I agree. We should also step up investigations of the lunar bases."

"We need to step up investigations. Our spook hasn't told us everything." Hayes muttered, "We need to find out what they're hiding."

Matthias nodded again, "Yes sir, but a higher priority is ending the war. Since most Federation power sources on the planet have been drained, most of the electrical power on the surface comes from wireless power transfer from satellites or moon bases..."

"No offense commander, but I read the report." Hayes replied with a glare.

"You haven't slept much, sir. I figure it's better to err on the side of 'as you know'," Matthias replied, with his grinning leer, "what I mean is, we should try and get control of those facilities. If negotiations don't play out well, we could try withholding juice."

"We'd need to be careful with that plan, captain," Reed said, and looked at Matthias, "I doubt it would work. In fact it wouldn't work on the Horde. They use some solar batteries, but for the most part they use fission, internal combustion, and mostly non Federation power sources, if you'll recall. And the Machu Picchu station needs power to maintain altitude. We can't lose that station."

Matthias grimaced, "nuts. I forgot about that."

"Let's take this step at a time, people," Hayes said, "we haven't even started negotiations yet."

A knock on the lab window made them all jump.

Entrapta stood at the window, still with a little smile on her face. She waved a bit, and her mouth moved, but there was no sound.

"Whoops," McCoy muttered, and tapped a control.

"Speak of the devil…" Matthias murmured.

"Hey, hi! Can you hear me?" Entrapta asked as the speaker suddenly cut in, "Is there something wrong?"

McCoy shook his head, "Oh no, sorry! Nothing's wrong."

He stepped over to the airlock, and hit some controls.

The guards stepped back from the airlock, "Captain?"

"Doc, you sure you want to do that?" Hayes asked carefully.

McCoy nodded as the force field collapsed, and the physical airlock doors folded into the walls, "She doesn't have any bugs, and those nanites aren't contagious. Don't worry, I factored in everything from the flu to the Psi 2000 Virus. She's clean, and been given the proper vaccines. It's perfectly fine."

He gestured for her to come to the door. The woman walked over and followed him out.

"I'm sorry for all this," McCoy said to Entrapta with a kindly smile, "It must be very confusing. But we had to be very careful. You've got a clean bill of health. Just lay off the sweets for a while and eat something green more often, okay? And get a different dentist. Your last one wasn't the best."

Entrapta shook her head, "Oh, I don't have a dentist. I drilled them myself!"

McCoy stared at her. "...oh."

At the doctor's expression, she shrugged, "It didn't seem that difficult at the time. I don't like dentists, and I had all the information!" She winced, "...It was more complex than I anticipated."

"Jesus, I'll bet…is this why you eat tiny food?"

"Huh?" she waved a hand. "No, I just like tiny food. It's so cute!"

"You're sure she's harmless?" Hayes interrupted.

"I hope so." McCoy replied, and looked back at the odd engineer, "Are you?"

Entrapta looked at him, "I guess so. What exactly was the purpose of all this? It's extremely perplexing."

She looked around and studied the lab.

She moved to investigate an unoccupied console. "Fascinating! Such advanced equipment! I could spend days just analyzing this equipment!"

McCoy stepped toward her, "Please don't touch that."

"I won't damage it! I don't think…" She looked at him as her hair probed the console.

As she did so, the conversation lurched back on track, "I can understand imprisonment to restrain potential threats and enemy combatants, but you put me in an environmental isolation unit, and took a blood sample. You were threatened by my presence enough to warrant a heavily armed escort, not just for Catra and Scorpia, but for me in particular. You had those field emitters turned up so high I believe they were going to overload." She pointed at the guards, "Unlike most of your guards, these are equipped with projectile-firing caseless battle rifles, depending on your tactical doctrine. Since I don't see any of my friends, and the fact that I believe your ship has only one isolation lab, this isn't standard procedure. What exactly is it about me that you find dangerous?" She glanced around, "...no one's dead, right?"

"No, nobody's dead, fortunately. But ma'am, even if you hadn't hospitalized more than twenty of my crew, we'd be concerned." Hayes said slowly.

"Why? I'm not any good at physical combat, I-"

Several strands of her hair twitched and moved away from the lab console. The guards raised their weapons.

"Your guards are really twitchy, aren't they?"

Reed frowned, then crossed her arms, as if trying to figure out how to phrase a question.

"What was the point of the blood sample?" Entrapta asked, "My blood type is O+, and while I haven't found those tiny machines in anyone else's blood except my family-"

"Tiny machines?" Reed asked, "Princess Entrapta, are you aware of how unusual that is?"

"Oh no! My family has had it forever!" Entrapta said, "It's normal for anyone in my family tree! I'm perfectly aware of how unusual it is!"

"And they are exactly what the blood sample is about," Reed says, "those tiny machines are potentially one of the most dangerous things in this solar system. Are you aware of the concept of nanorobotics?"

Entrapta furrowed her brow, "I've studied papers on the subject, mostly from my grandfather. He thought that the machines in our blood were designed to work as microscopic doctors, capable of repairing our bodies or even enhancing them." She raised a few tendrils of hair, "Considering my physical abilities, he was correct."

Reed nodded, "That's roughly the idea of what nanorobotics are. Clouds of those nanites, those small robots, are designed to perform a wide variety of medical and technical tasks depending on what you need."

Entrapta nodded as well, excited, "Do your people use any? I didn't notice them in wide medical use according to your database, but I got the sense that was extremely limited; not even a civilian database would have that little. I didn't have any time to examine the encrypted portions after I broke through the firewalls, Catra told me to focus on getting off this ship."

"We had to limit your database access for security purposes," Matthias said, "We meant no offense, but we had to be careful."

"That makes sense, I suppose. You don't limit scientific knowledge to your civilian population though, do you? There's nothing is worse than limiting free flow of information. Scientific knowledge can do nothing but improve lives, and exposing as many people as possible to it increases the chance for advancement and change!"

Reed shook her head, "Of course we don't limit it. One of Starfleet's primary purposes is to serve as the Federation's exploratory arm. Scientific study and advancement is a major pillar of our organization. Many of our larger vessels have a dedicated science officer, such as myself."

Entrapta nodded, and her smile widened, "Ah, excellent! I have so many questions! What research have your people put into portals? And do you have medical technology sufficient to treat certain kinds of nervous system failure?"

"Portals? What kind?" Reed asked.

"Ooh, you have multiple kinds?"

"What do you mean nervous system failure?" McCoy asked, "is there someone we should know about?"

Entrapta turned to him, "Hordak suffers from some sort of degenerative disorder related to his status as a clone. We can't tell if it's a problem related to his species biology, if it's a natural genetic trait, or if it's specifically the result of being a clone. He's suffered moments of weakness, his limbs are..." Entrapta thought for a moment, "...they're kind of falling apart. I don't remember the exact terms. Everything below his forearms have been replaced with mechanical substitutes, and he has several life support implants. There's some chemical damage I believe, from these implants, across his torso and limbs. His veins are outlined in grey. As far as we can tell, he has some sort of chronic condition, but we haven't been able to get much more information. He's stubborn when it comes to doctors."

Hayes breathed a small sound of amusement. With these planets he could understand that.

McCoy furrowed his brow, "Hm, I'd need to conduct an examination before I could make a conclusion. Damaged, improperly applied, or poorly designed prosthetics can cause a number of problems, but that sounds like acute blood poisoning."

"I've been able to upgrade his exoskeleton to address some of these problems with some First Ones- Federation tech, but despite my experience with biology, I'm still not a doctor."

McCoy nodded, "Do you know what kind of technology you used? Computer system, power source…?"

"Well, it was a variety of things. Some electromagnetic actuators, batteries, numerous other bits and pieces of equipment- I think I salvaged some parts from an old hospital…" She rubbed her chin, then perked up, "The key component was this one device, it was the computer that held everything together. Sort of a combination of a computer and a power source? I'm not sure what it was actually called. It had its own power supply, but that was supported by the exoskeleton's own power systems…it was sort of a purple diamond-shaped device..."

"Some kind of transtator I bet," McCoy nodded again, "That's good. Pretty simple technology. From the sound of it you also found pieces of servo suits. We use them for people who can't stand on their own. Did you find any drugs, anything to help keep his condition stable?"

"I only had our own medical supplies to work with, mostly antibiotics and intravenous fluids. It's been having an effect but not enough to cure him."

McCoy took out a PADD to make notes, "There's definitely some sort of chronic condition then."

"Princess Entrapta," Reed spoke up, "What do you mean by portals?"

"What do you mean by 'what kind'?" Entrapta asked.

"Well, is it subspace-based, is it transwarp, is it based on a geodesic fold, a graviton catapult, an Iconian gateway, quantum slipstream…?"

Reed trailed off when she noticed Entrapta was writing down everything she said.

The engineer glanced up, and smiled, "I have no idea! But these other concepts are fascinating! I have no idea what any of them mean but I intend to find out!"

Reed frowned, "Okay, let's go simply...can you describe your portal machine?"

"Ground-based, it's a square, with a round hole in the center."

"What kind of power does it take?"

"Mini-fusion reactor. We barely managed to get it to work. We had to salvage some Federation technology to build almost all of the portal, but Hordak provided a lot of math and general understanding."

"What are we talking about here, lieutenant commander?" Hayes asked.

"One second, sir. Entrapta, were you able to run the device? Get it online at all, or at least gather some data?"

Entrapta nodded, "Most of my notes on the subject are back at home, but we were able to at least partially power it up. It didn't activate, we didn't have some pieces, but we did pick up some data."

"Any tetryon scans?"

"No...but there are some I remember…"

She wrote down some units and figures, not quite comprehensible to the rest of the crew, and handed it to the science officer.

Reed frowned, "Hm…that salvaged technology, were there any distinct markings?"

"I can't read the First Ones script very well, but I did get some…" she wrote down more on the paper. "Most of it was danger warnings and stuff like that, but I did find this…"

"Project Morse." Reed read the mangled letters.

"Lieutenant commander?" Hayes asked again.

Reed looked at him, "I'm not familiar with it, captain. But the readings she gave me don't indicate an Iconian gateway. They're similar to wormholes, but they're not identical."

"A wormhole generator on a planet's surface? Why wouldn't it be an Iconian gateway?" Matthias asked.

"And we can't even build wormhole generators, let alone Iconian gateways," Hayes pointed out, "are you sure, Reed? How could the Horde build something like that?"

"Technological development isn't a straight line, captain," Reed pointed out, "Numerous historical cultures have invented advanced technologies without the written word, for example. The Horde could have invented wormhole technology before warp drive. I'm guessing Hordak is combining his own technology with some wormhole research that must've been done before the activation of Project Eternia."

Hayes nodded, "Good point. This could be a problem."

"It explains how they got the drop on the garrison here." Matthias pointed out.

"They've got strategic mobility on us. Even if they don't have the power or range of Iconian tech, they can still jump around us."

"Well, that's not exactly new. We've still got the edge on them in firepower." McCoy commented.

"Captain, we need to recover that tech immediately," Reed said, "this was the stuff Colonel Sheri was trying to protect, technology and weapons like this. We can't let it fall into the wrong hands."

Entrapta noticed an odd little visual exchange among the officers, like there was some implied message or subject she didn't know about.

God I wish reinforcements would get here sooner… Hayes thought.

XXXXX

Adora rubbed her arm around where they'd drawn blood. She hated blood being drawn, but at least for her, she was familiar with it. The Horde required it for medical examinations. The others had never had it beyond blood transfusions, and were a little more resistant.

"Ow! Jeez! You think you got enough in there?" Mermista asked, and finally wrenched her arm out of a nurse's grip.

"Calm down, miss," the nurse growled. He put the sample aside and grabbed her arm again. He ran a dermal regenerator over the wound before any blood could escape, "It's just a precaution!"

"A precaution against what?" Mermista snarled, "Why do you want our blood?!"

"You shouldn't be touching them," a Starfleet guard said to the nurse, their rifle pointed at the ceiling, "we don't know what kind of-"

"First of all, is that your medical opinion, crewman?" the nurse snarled as he swapped his gloves, then gestured to Mermista, "And second of all, do you really think she's assimilated? Out of all of them?"

He gave a sideways glance at the Horde officers a few meters away. Catra sat on one of the biobeds, looking down at her hands with a glazed look in her eyes. Her palms, claws, and fingers were all fully healed, and looked better than they had when she first arrived.

Scorpia hovered nearby, nursing her own healed wound and ready to jump to Catra's defense; she glared around at the two guards who stood watch.

The Belleau Wood's main sickbay was fairly occupied. The half-circle chamber had a dozen biobeds arranged in an arch, six on either side of a central primary surgical bed. The beds were covered in wounded Starfleet sailors, with a handful of walking wounded who stood or sat in chairs. The medical staff moved in and out to with more wounded in or to gather supplies.

The surgical bed was set into its own alcove in the center of the sickbay's back wall, somewhat isolated from the beds on either side. The orange light of the transporter systems glowed in their panels set into the alcove. Two large consoles stood a few meters in front of the bed, each one oriented in positions to monitor either side of the room.

On one of the beds close to the surgical bed lay an unconscious Glimmer, an IV fed into her arm. An exhausted nurse kept Bow from touching the cord or bag, and kept an eye on a number of burn patients.

"What's the point of all this, Adora?" Frosta asked as she rubbed her arm. There was no wound left, but it still hurt.

Adora was a little surprised at the question, and shrugged, "They must be testing our blood. We used to get these every year in the Horde, and vaccines. They wanted to test for diseases, they always said…"

Scorpia clearly had the same thought, and scowled at the nearest nurse, "what are you looking for? None of us are sick!"

"Ma'am, calm down, we just-"

"Where's Entrapta?"

"She's in the iso-lab. It'll be just a few more minutes-"

"She's not sick! Why's she in isolation?"

The nurse rubbed their face, "We're checking all of you in case you're infected with what she's got."

"What does she have?" Scorpia demanded.

"Are you done drawing their blood?" A nearby doctor asked one of the medics, "If you are, get them out of here."

"Thank you sir," a security guard said, and stepped around to corral the group.

Adora shook her head, "We're not moving, we're staying with Glimmer."

The doctor sighed, "You people are in the way and potentially endangering my patients. One or two of you can stay, but we can't have the rest of you standing around. Guards, would you please get rid of them?"

"I'll stay, Adora," Bow said, "You need to talk to the captain."

Adora nodded reluctantly.

"Wait a minute, we need him to understand all the tech stuff!" Frosta said.

"But-"

"You don't need to go far, the captain's just down the hall." a guard said.

Bow looked at Glimmer, then grimaced and stood up, "Alright…"

Scorpia glared around, then nudged Catra, "Hey, we gotta go…"

Catra twitched, glanced up and around, then hopped off the bed. She closed her hands and stuffed them in her pockets.

They were led out into the corridor of the ship's sickbay complex. It was a semi-isolated section of the ship, with two doors on the port and starboard sides that led into a square-shaped corridor. Two hatches forward accessed the medical bay they'd exited, while several others in the square led to surgical suites, ICUs, the isolab, and other medical facilities.

They were just in time to see a stretcher being moved out of a surgical ward with an unconscious Starfleet crewmember.

They looked almost completely healed, despite the serious cases that had been brought in. Federation medicine seemed able to work wonders.

A door opened further down the hall and the Belleau Wood's senior officers emerged, with Entrapta escorted by several guards.

Scorpia immediately rushed over, and skidded to a halt as all the guards raised their weapons, "Hey!"

"Entrapta! Are you okay? Did they hurt you at all?" Scorpia demanded, her tail and claws raised.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" Entrapta said with a wave, "They just wanted to test us for nanites!"

"Miss I'm going to need you to step back." a guard said, and stepped between them, "Again."

"Nanites?" Scorpia asked in confusion, "What? Why was she in the iso...thing?"

"Why'd you want our blood? What's going on?" Adora demanded, and stepped forward to stand beside Scorpia. She looked at Scorpia, took one step to the right,, then glared at the Starfleet officers.

Dr McCoy smiled, "We aren't trying to hurt you. We were concerned that you were infected with…"

"Nanites," Reed said, then took a deep breath. "Do your people know about blood cells?"

"Yeah…?" Adora said, and made a "come on" hand gesture.

"Imagine a machine so tiny it's the same size as one of those red blood cells."

"Okay…" Adora said, and tilted her head.

Reed pointed at Entrapta, "She's full of them."

Adora looked at Entrapta. She looked back at the science officer. She looked at Entrapta. Back at Reed.

"What?"

"Princess Entrapta has a colony of microscopic automatons in her body that are augmenting her physical and mental abilities, and could be the biggest threat to life in the entire solar system." Matthias explained.

"What?" Adora repeated.

"What?" Bow added, with a furrowed brow.

"'Biggest threat'? How could that be? She wouldn't hurt a fly! I mean...she wouldn't kill anyone here!" Scorpia said, with a nervous chuckle.

"What's so dangerous about little bugs in your blood?" Adora asked.

Matthias and Hayes exchanged a look, and the captain sighed. "This is going to be hard to understand... Doctor McCoy, have they invented fillings yet?"

"We have, dunno if they did." Scorpia said, and gestured at the rebellion staff.

Hayes nodded, and sighed again.

Reed stepped forward, "those little machines can be extremely dangerous. One of the greatest threats to the Federation is an entity known as the Borg, a cybernetic hive mind created from billions of individuals, that seeks out new life to inject it with nanoprobes that look just like hers, in order to assimilate it, in order to make more of themselves. They're more like a plague or natural disaster than anything else. They're monsters, no matter who or what you are they'll try and assimilate you."

The Etherians stared at her.

Entrapta furrowed her brow, perplexed. "A fascinating concept. Tell me more! Do they assimilate through an aerosol deliver mechanism, physical contact, or…?"

Reed nodded, a little surprised, "physical contact, typically. They typically inject the nanoprobes through the neck with a pair of tubes. They ride adrenaline to spread through the body, and one by one convert your cells into new machines, and build them bigger and bigger until most of your body is covered in implants, they control your mind, and your individuality is gone, you become a Borg drone."

The Etherians remained silent. They looked at each other.

"Your friend here," Reed said, gesturing to Entrapta, "infected our ship with...materials that looked like Borg technology. We saw her blood was full of nanoprobes - nanites, and we panicked. One Borg drone is a huge threat."

"One? Really?" Adora asked dubiously.

Reed grimaced, and shook her head slightly, "I will admit it's not as bad as it used to be. We might be able to stop one with our caseless rifles, but a few years ago we wouldn't have been able to stop it. We prefer to not take any chances."

"How would they be such a threat?" Entrapta asked, "your medical and tactical systems could surely keep them far enough away to avoid physical contact! Unless they can transport the nanoprobes through your teleportation technology...wait a moment, what utility is there in simply using the body's resources? There's no enhancement there..."

"Typically they try to surgically alter the assimilated individual as quickly as possible. They add external implants to the structure that already exists." Reed explained, "replacing eyes or limbs with cybernetic versions…"

"Oh, now I get it. You said they were a hive mind correct? They must change each drone to fit according to their needs-"

Hayes grimaced, "they're such a threat because of their technological superiority. You think we're terrifying for that? These guys have ships that dwarf ours in size as well as weapons. One of theirs, - one! - managed to destroy nearly fifty of our ships in a single engagement. And that was when we knew they were coming. They can hack into our ships like Entrapta can, and cripple or destroy them. They're one of the Federation's worst enemies."

He crossed his arms, "so I think we can all excuse a little paranoia and blood work."

Utter silence.

"My word…" Perfuma finally muttered.

"So...little robots turn people into bigger robots? Um...okay…" Mermista said.

Bow shivered, "They can replace limbs?! Why would they do that? How far away are they? They're not coming anytime soon are they?! I don't want to be a Borg!"

Reed's eyes widened a bit, "Calm down, they're not coming any time soon. We're just explaining-"

"It's crazy, Bow!" Frosta exclaimed, "It's all ridiculous! How do they expect us to believe that?"

Hayes scowled, then caught himself, "I can assure you we're telling the truth. Our chief engineer can tell you himself. He was on a ship during our second engagement with the Borg, when they tried to invade Earth. We've barely been able to survive by the skin of our teeth. Last time we tangled with them, we won and they were not happy."

"We're not happy either." Adora said, "We don't have any reason to trust anything you say, except those holograms you showed us. And the only reason we can trust those is because Entrapta said we could. Anyone can pick up old records and show them. Why should we trust you?"

Hayes grimaced, "What would it take for you to believe us? Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem like you're doing everything you can to avoid believing what we say."

Adora looked aside for a moment, "Well...we have to be suspicious. We have no idea who we can trust!"

"And how do you know you can trust anyone? We haven't deliberately hurt any of you, have we?"

"You've kept us prisoner." Bow pointed out.

Hayes groaned, and turned away for a moment.

"We studied your activity before we intervened," Matthias said, "We didn't think you would believe us if you weren't… a captive audience. Your planet is extremely hostile, and when a planet is in a civil war, the people on the planet are far less likely to believe we're extraterrestrials. We've had many crews take casualties from this kind of incident. We were playing it safe."

"We still can't trust you." Adora said. She crossed her arms. The rest of her group exchanged looks with each other.

"Entrapta did say though they were telling the truth about the old She-ra." Perfuma pointed out.

The others nodded.

"Adora, maybe we should try listening to them." Bow said.

The young woman scowled and looked off to one side.

"Princess Adora, I know you're apprehensive, but trust me-"

"Trust you?" She snapped, "All I know is a few facts. We don't have any reason to trust you."

"I hate to say it, but neither do we," Scorpia said, "not that I'm taking their side, but you're not exactly on ours, either. You guys have a war with us, not with them."

Hayes grimaced, "it's not a war with you, exactly, your nation isn't the same as the Horde we fought. Do you know anything about their homeworld? Did you know anything about their interstellar empire?"

"Well…" Scorpia scratched her head. "No…"

Hayes found he liked the girl for some reason, despite her imposing size. She was timid, or nervous at times, but polite and could stand her ground well enough.

Adora was decidedly not timid, obviously. He wondered what she'd experienced that made her so paranoid. Child soldiers were bad, he knew, but he'd never really come face to face with any before this mission.

Ironically the fact that they were teenagers made it easier to deal with.

"You don't have to trust us," he said, and spread his hands, "and you can say no. What we want is to help your people. We're not out for conquest, we want to help."

He took a deep breath, "Your countries are independent, but your planet used to be one of our colonies, and Hordak led an attack on it recently from our perspective. We're not here to take over, we're here to ensure justice is done, that the fighting stops, and that the humanitarian crisis is taken care of. We're not out to assimilate you to our way of life, we're here to...to help! That's our whole job! Let us help!"

He suppressed a groan. The Etherians weren't buying it. "Can you at least listen to our proposals? What will it take for you to believe us?"

Adora looked at him, studying his expression.

"There's only one person I know for sure who can tell us you are who you say you are…I need to get back to Etheria to find this person."

She hesitated.

"Yes?" Hayes asked politely, "We're perfectly fine with you contacting higher authority. I'd do it myself in your position. Do you need to contact the queen?"

"Adora, we don't have to-" Bow started, but Adora shook her head.

"No, I have to." She looked at Hayes, "She-they're not in Bright Moon. They're somewhere else."

Hayes raised an eyebrow, but nodded, and glanced at Matthias, "Commander, prepare an away team. Princess, if one of your people wouldn't mind going with Lieutenant Commander Reed? We need landing coordinates."

Adora cocked her head, then shook it and waved a hand, "I don't need any help. I can do it alone."

Hayes' eyes widened and he shook his head, "You're not going down there alone."

"I've fought the spiders before, I'll be fine." She said dismissively.

Matthias balked, "spiders?"

Hayes narrowed his gaze, and asked in all seriousness, "Organic or mechanical?"

"Giant robot spiders that shoot webs. They're not too bad." Adora was a little smug at that she got a reaction like this.

"Okay, now there is no way you're going alone. You're too valuable to get eaten alive. I'm going to guess whoever this person you want to talk to is, they're in an old Federation facility?"

At the mention of value, Adora's right hand twitched.

The captain shook his head, "I'm sorry, but this just isn't going to happen without an escort."

"Just because you knew Mara doesn't mean you have any special authority over me! Adora snapped suddenly.

Hayes rocked back in surprise. The other Starfleet officers looked at each other.

"Excuse me?" Hayes asked slowly.

Adora glared at him silently.

Hayes' eyes flicked back and forth, "I... I'm equivalent in rank to her, but that's not what I was saying at all. This is standard procedure in the Federation defense forces."

"I'm She-ra! It's my responsibility and mine alone!"

"Adora…" Bow tried to step forward but she shrugged him off.

"I don't care how much you knew her," Adora barked, "I don't care what you people knew about her! I don't care if she was your CO! You have no authority over me!"

"What if we went with her?" Bow asked, stepping in front of Adora and putting on a weak smile, "would that-?"

"You don't have to come with me, Bow, I've been fine on my own before-" Adora started, and Hayes shook his head.

"No. We can't send any of you down there alone. We can't risk you getting your heads blown off."

Scorpia looked at Catra. The other girl tilted her head.

"You can't tell us what to do!" Adora shouted, "you have no authority-"

"It's not authority over you! Well- not quite, it's to keep people from getting killed. One sniper is all it takes."

"They haven't hit me before…" Adora mumbled.

"Excuse me?" Matthias asked.

"Okay a couple near-misses, but-!"

"Adora please stop!" Bow hissed urgently.

Hayes raised an eyebrow again, then shook his head, "Okay, that's it. We can't let you go alone, we can't risk losing any of you."

"Captain-" Reed spoke up, but Hayes waved her off.

"No. Princess, you need to understand you can't get everything you want. This is final."

The brief silence was interrupted when Catra softly. She touched the top of a fist to her forehead, laughing.

Her snickering turned to snuffling and angry snorts.

"Catra…?" Scorpia asked.

Catra's snuffling vanished, "I'm fine," she hissed, and her snorting went back to laughter.

Hayes eyed the pair, then slowly turned his gaze forward, "... I'm sorry, princess Adora. This is non-negotiable. You will have an escort."

"And there is Federation property down there," he added, "Even without everything with the colonel, and without all the old tech, we wouldn't let anyone down there alone anyway."

Adora glared at him silently.

Hayes looked from her to the other Etherians.

"What about the rest of you?"

"We're following She-ra." Mermista said, and Frosta nodded.

Perfuma scrunched up her face, and looked to the side.

"We're not doing anything without being sure who you are." Adora said.

Hayes scratched his head.

He looked off into the distance. He snapped his fingers, but they didn't make a sound.

He looked at Adora's determined face, at the other kids.

The captain sighed.

"Is this really the only way, Adora?" He asked. His voice was steady, with no hint of condescension or anything Adora might have expected.

Was he really taking her seriously?

She grimaced, and looked to the side. She threw up her hands, "you know what? I have no idea. No one really has any answers. I thought you people might, but you don't. You're just keeping secrets like everyone else. The rebellion keeps secrets, the horde keeps secrets, she does, everyone does. All I can guess is that she might have something. So I need to get down there."

He nodded, "Alright. Negotiations won't begin until your check-in is done," he said, "I'm going to allow this, but you are not going down without an escort, and that's final. Transporters won't work anyway. The only way down is by shuttle. It's not just the risk to major diplomats, we can't let one of those fall into enemy hands. So we have to send a team down anyway."

Adora huffed, but finally relented, and crossed her arms, "Only as long as I get my sword back."

Hayes considered it, "It will be carried by a member of the away team."

Adora looked to the side, "Fine."

"Captain, what about Charger 2?" Matthias asked.

Hayes cursed. A second time. Then a short string of colorful language under his breath.

On top of all the injured crew, the hull breach, and a barely functioning cruiser, there was that whole fiasco.

"Lieutenant Commander? Can you get me satellite photos?" he asked.

Reed passed him a PADD.

Hayes said, "Entrapta's computer virus infected not just the ship, but several of the shuttles like the one...we flew in. One of them was in atmosphere monitoring our scouts when they stopped reporting in. It's not a communications glitch, because we found the runabout grounded."

He held out the PADD that showed the coordinates and the photos taken from orbit. He zoomed out a bit to give them some landmarks.

Adora took the PADD, and showed it to the others.

"This is near one of the front lines." Mermista commented.

"Which one?" Perfuma asked.

"I don't remember all of them, we've got dozens, right?"

Frosta stood on her toes, then just grabbed the device. "I know this one."

"The crew's missing, and it looks like they did an emergency beam-out." Reed explained.

"Beam-out?" Bow asked.

"Oh. Transporters."

Perfuma tapped Entrapta's shoulder, "Transporters?"

"Matter-energy converter designed to move a person or object from one place to another," the technician replied, "Similar to Glimmer's teleportation abilities but technological- and much more refined."

"...Oh."

Bow's eyes widened, "You have Glimmer's powers?"

Adora looked alarmed, and tensed up. She had this horrific thought that the reason Glimmer was still out was that they were siphoning her abilities. That didn't make much sense though, even by the standards of Starfleet.

Reed put up her hand, "Not quite. It's our own system. We use computers and scanners, it's not attached to a living person."

The Etherians relaxed. Bow just got more excited.

"You have teleportation powers?" he squeaked.

"We call them transporters. I can discuss them in full with you and princess Entrapta later." Reed said politely.

Mermista frowned, "Wait a minute, if you have Glimmer's sparkle powers...what's the problem?"

"What do you mean?" Hayes asked.

"Couldn't you, I dunno, sparkle them back here or whatever? Just sayin'..."

The Starfleet officers exchanged looks, and grimaces.

Mermista raised an eyebrow, "What? Are yours like hers?"

"Do they have a range limit?" Bow asked, and Entrapta nodded.

"I wasn't able to get such detailed information out of your databases, but I thought they could at least go from low orbit…" she muttered quizzically.

Matthias grimaced, "Unfortunately, our transporters are not functioning properly. Even without Princess Entrapta's virus...ah, something about the planet...adversely affects some of our equipment."

Reed nodded, "For the same reason we can't establish contact with them."

"We hoped you could give us some information on how to find them." Hayes finished.

"If they were around your ship, they would likely be safe. Where is the most probable position they would initiate this procedure?" Frosta asked, her diplomat voice on.

Hayes nodded to Reed. She stepped over and drew a line on one of the PADD's maps, the flight path of the runabout.

"They would have beamed down on flat terrain along this route, so they're probably a few klicks back at least. They wouldn't want to go down in the mountains…"

Frosta's eyes widened. "Oh…"

She pointed at a spot on the map.

Mermista winced, "Yikes."

Adora checked it, "This is even more reason for me to do my mission!"

"What? What is it?" Hayes asked.

Reed looked at the point herself. "Captain, they may have put down in the middle of a battlefield."

"They're either captured by the Horde, captured by our side, or…" Bow trailed off, upset.

Hayes muffled a curse again. "Alright. Lieutenant Commander, would you kindly take our guests to one of our labs, and get them to help out with intel? We need maps, coordinates, the works."

Matthias looked at the guards that surrounded the Horde representatives, "Security, take our other guests back to their quarters and report to Lieutenant Bevin for additional orders."

"Yes sir."

A door opened further down the corridor, and in stepped a dark-skinned woman with short dark hair in a red Starfleet uniform, with a captain's pips on her collar.

"Captain Hayes!" She said, and walked over, "sorry to show up like this, I tried to call ahead but your comms are still screwed up. The transporter operator tried to raise you but... but…" her voice trailed off.

Almost as one, the Etherians passed their gaze from her, to Adora, and back. The current She-ra pointed limply, her jaw hung open.

The female Starfleet captain looked at her.

"What?!" Adora shouted. She stepped forward, with an accusing finger, "who are you? What is this?"

The captain looked around in confusion, an eyebrow raised, "Hayes…?" She asked, and looked at the other captain.

"What is going on?" Adora demanded. She held her head with both hands, then pointed at the Starfleet captain, "she is supposed to be dead!"

"Who are you?" Perfuma demanded, and stepped up as well, "why do you look like She-ra - uh, Mara Sheri?"

The captain blinked in surprise, "Um...I'm her sister. Captain Maxine Sheri, Federation starship USS Havoc. Who might you be?"

She could guess pretty well, but regardless extended a hand to Perfuma, who peered at it with confusion for several seconds.

Eventually, she took it, a bit unsure of what to do with it, "I...I... I'm Princess Perfuma...of Plumeria…"

Sheri smiled a little, and shook Perfuma's hand, "Nice to meet you."

"...you...you were her sister?"

"Yes...is there a problem?"

"No! None at all! Uh…"

Adora approached cautiously, "Um...hi, I'm Adora, current wielder of the sword of She-ra...are you… did you ever hold the role?"

"What? Uh...no. What are you talking about?"

"The sword of She-ra, her runestone," Adora said as she took in Captain Sheri, "...you look so much like her!"

"I get that a lot. Well, kind of. How do you know my sister?"

Sheri looked at Hayes. He looked up at the ceiling with an odd expression, "Oh no... Hayes, what happened? What did she do? Why are they looking at me like I'm the second coming?"

"More like the third." Hayes said, and tried to hide a smile, "the colonel…"

"Oh god…" Sheri moaned, "I repeat, what did 'the colonel' do?"

The Etherians stared at Sheri, and exchanged looks with one another.

Adora had a look of utter shock and confusion.

She only grew more confused when Sheri suddenly did a double-take at her, looked her straight in the eyes, and tilted her head.

The captain shook her head, "What is going on here, Hayes? What did Mara do this time? I swear to god I'm gonna find her skull if I have to so I can smack some sense into her!"

Adora's eyes widened and she leaned back a bit. Perfuma gasped. All became even more befuddled.

Hayes groaned, and hissed "You read the briefing right? About She-ra worship?"

"Yeah…?"

"She was the original She-ra!" Perfuma said loudly, and pointed at Sheri, "she's her sister!"

Sheri stared for a moment.

The captain then groaned, and facepalmed.

"Dead four years and she still makes me want to strangle her sometimes!"

The Etherians' jaws hit the floor.

Adora was no less taken aback. Mixed feelings ran through her mind. It was like Mara had walked out of that holodeck. Yet not only was she a different person, she didn't treat Mara with any of the reverence the people of the Rebellion would have.

Frankly she sounded a bit like how she herself once thought of Catra...

"Lady Sheri…" Perfuma said, and broke Adora out of her internal monologue.

The captain chuckled a little. "It's 'Captain Sheri', ma'am."

"Captain Sheri…I...I..."

Adora tore her gaze from Sheri, "Perfuma, you alright?"

Perfuma nodded rapidly, "I...uh…"

She looked up at Captain Sheri. She was just a normal human, in one of their uniforms…

Just a normal human.

"Excuse me…" she muttered, and withdrew to the rest of the group.

Hayes looked after Perfuma in confusion, "We'd better adjourn this meeting for now. Commander Matthias?"

The Gorn nodded.

The rest of the group went out, still gazing at the captain as they passed.

She smiled nervously, "Nice...to...meet you all?"

The door shut behind them. Adora looked at the deck plating as she walked. She passed over some soot from a panel that exploded. That woman sounded just like Mara. She was so similar and yet there was something off.

The body language was different from the recordings.

Maybe they were twins.

What did this mean?

The creators of the sword didn't treat Mara's family as royalty. She was treated like any other officer.

She wore the same insignia, she talked to the captain…

Her mind rushed with a million questions and none at the same time. She couldn't think properly, she was just locked up, she just kept walking.

Adora felt Bow's hand on her shoulder, and he spoke as if from the end of a long tunnel.

"...are you okay?" He repeated.

"Yeah," she said sharply, "I'm fine."

Meanwhile, the captains watched the doors close, and immediately turned to look at each other.

Sheri raised an eyebrow.

Hayes' eyes narrowed, and he jerked his head in the direction of the other doors.

With a confused glance at Matthias, both Sheri and the Gorn followed.

They exited via the sickbay complex's portside door, and headed for the nearest turbolift.

The air in the corridor stank. The air scrubbers were still malfunctioning. The stench of the replicator complex wafted from just around the corner.

"How are the analog systems doing?" Hayes growled.

"The stocks of non-replicated food turned out alright. We checked them twice." Matthias coughed at the smell.

"Do we still have water?"

"Yes sir. The water tankage wasn't hit, so the emergency water reclamation system has plenty to work with. Life support is mostly functional, but we've got a laundry list of other problems."

Matthias eyed Hayes, "I'll send you the list when I get a chance."

They passed blown out relays and scars being repaired by the crew, or autonomous drones. The little white machines couldn't do major repairs, but they did their best to clear the scuffs, chips, and bloodstains off the interior of the ship.

They found an operational elevator, and the captains boarded, but Matthias halted. He grimaced, "I'll get the next one. You two talk whatever it is out. I've got duties anyway."

The doors shut, and Matthias hesitated for a moment. He turned and walked down the hall.

As the commander walked, he took out a personal device and sent a text message to the communications department to request an update on a planned meeting. That was half the reason Captain Sheri was aboard.

They had to have a task force conference to discuss their next course of action, especially with the damage to the Belleau Wood.

"Norge and Matchless ETA 20 minutes: all other command personnel ready."

Matthias could guess what the skipper had to talk over with Captain Sheri.

Hayes and Matthias were old friends. They'd known each other for, what, ten, fifteen years? Since Starfleet Academy.

Hayes had known Mara's family for nearly twenty.

Their old group had always been inclusive but Matthias had strange feelings of isolation with them.

Ever since the war that feeling was a bit stronger. Every time one of the old group came around. Those few who remained.

But what can anyone say will happen when your circle of friends gets cut into thirds; the scarred, the missing, and the dead?

The Gorn pushed the elevator call button.

Matthis hadn't lost any siblings, but he lost a lot of friends.

He'd ridden shotgun on the Evans during Operation Return, and seen new stars briefly materialize on visual scanners.

So many stars…

The turbolift arrived, and there was an enlisted rating inside, dressed in an operations uniform. He was young, and lacked scars.

"Sir!" he snapped to attention, and saluted.

The Gorn opened his mouth to rebuke the sailor, but hesitated.

He returned the salute, and hissed in his scratchy voice, "At ease. How are you...Torpedo Technician? I'm sorry, I forgot your name."

The young rating was taken aback. Most officers didn't even remember what color enlisted wore. "Torpedo Technician Gniewek, sir."

"Ah, thank you. You work in torpedo bank alpha, correct?"

"Ah...yes sir!"

"You and your people do good work down there. Keep it up. You never know when we'll need local control."

"T-Thank you sir."

Matthias smiled. It looked like the technician couldn't decide whether to be intimidated, charmed, or perhaps most importantly, be sick at the prospect of talking to a senior officer.

"You're new here, correct?"

"Yes sir. Well, sort of…"

Matthias smiled, "Technician, I know it may have been different on your old ship, but here the officer salutes first. It's the officer's prerogative to salute as they see fit. If the officer doesn't salute, you don't, and if they do, you salute. I'm guessing your previous commander was one of the older types?"

The enlisted rating went white, "Uh...uh...yes sir, sorry sir! I...I got confused, and I thought...well, with the captain's background, marine enlisted usually salute first, and I know-"

Matthias nodded, "It's understandable. It's still a new tradition. Just get it right next time, sailor."

"Y-yes sir."

There was a long moment of silence.

Matthias furrowed his brow, "When'd you enlist?"

"Oh...just at the end of the war, sir."

Matthias nodded, "So, just a few years."

Fifteen years…

"Yes sir."

The lift finally halted at Matthias' deck, "Carry on, technician. And remember how to salute."

"Sir!"

Matthias stepped out of the turbolift, checking his watch. Starfleet hadn't saluted in years, but with its return to its more marshal roots thanks to the war, they'd reimplemented it. He didn't know exactly why, only that there was a mental discipline component to it. It was the same reason why they still marched in squares despite it being a beyond-obsolete military formation.

The commander sighed. When he'd enlisted the Cardassian War had wrapped up and things looked hopeful. The Borg threat was dangerous, but distant, and they'd beaten them once, despite the atrocious losses in lives and material. Starfleet's PR department had a tough time with that one. But they managed it.

He wondered what the next threat would be. It kept him up at night.

Where would that kid end up a year from now? Dead, or worse? Assimilated? Enslaved?

Matthias saw what the last few wars had done to him and his friends.

He noted the plural.

Gniewek was just five years older than those kids a few decks down.

His heart ached at the memory of their faces. A bunch of kids in a burned out colony fighting a war before they could even drive.

Matthias paused, and closed his eyes. What kind of universe had they just come into?

Matthias shuddered. Where would they end up in the next year? A Borg maturation chamber? A shallow grave?

What were they going to do about this whole thing?

He kept walking.

Fifteen years.

What did he have to show for it?

What was he still doing here?

A bunch of child soldiers, a monarchy, a colony lost through some dangerous technology, Borg tech, genetic engineering, apparent superpowers…

What the hell am I doing?

XXXXX

As the doors closed on the captains' turbolift, Hayes turned to cross his arms at Captain Sheri.

Sheri scratched the back of her head, running a hand through her short hair, giving him a sidelong look. "So...I take it Mara built herself a little cult?"

She grimaced, and looked away, "God, the things she did…did you see the way they looked at me?"

"I did. And I have a lot of questions," Hayes glared, "Max, did you have any idea what the colonel was doing?!"

"What?"

"Why the hell didn't anyone tell me Light Hope, Mara's freaking wife, was a damn colonial governor? Why didn't anyone tell me the colonel was married to the governor of the colony she was stationed on?"

For a moment, there was no sound but the ambient humming of the turbolift.

"You didn't know that?" Sheri raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, I knew she was a colonial governor, but...not that she and the colonel were serving on the same planet! That's utterly nuts!"

He rubbed his face, "Colonel Sheri was married to Light Hope, the governor of the planet she was assigned to garrison. That's nuts…"

He repeated it as if to confirm it to himself.

Max rolled her eyes, "Well, I don't know how you missed it. Maybe she was gonna tell you herself because she knew you'd freak out like you are now! And when she was dead there wasn't exactly much point!"

"That isn't even what I'm angry about! She wasn't just the garrison commander sleeping with the governor, she was also the project head and lead test subject for Project Recharge! Did you know about that, too?!"

"Archer, I-" Sheri froze, then tilted her head slightly like it was a clock. Her jaw opened and closed for a moment. "What…"

Sheri held the bridge of her nose, and held out one hand with index finger extended, "I have to use one of my angry words. Captain Hayes, might I ask, what the fuck did you just say?"

Hayes blinked, surprised, then glared again, "Your sister was testing experimental biological technology on herself!"

"What the hell? You mean to tell me Mara was...was...guh!" She turned around and grabbed her skull, "What was she thinking?"

"That's what I'm asking you, Max! The colonel was crazy, but she was never stupid! That stuff could've killed her! What was she thinking?!"

The junior captain threw up her shoulders, "She...god, that's insane! She had a wife, she had us, she had me, she had our parents, she had...well, you know!

The elevator stopped, and they walked out onto the bridge.

Lieutenant Bevin was the command duty officer monitoring the bridge, and looked up expectantly.

Hayes made a small hand gesture and she went back to work.

The two captains walked into the conference room and locked it. It had gone unscathed. There were no windows, unlike older Starfleet vessels, but there were monitors on the opposite wall, in addition to those on either side of the room. Like most screens, they had depth, allowing one the illusion of windows. They currently displayed the ship's forward visual sensors. Etheria hovered to port.

Sheri listened for a moment, making sure no one could hear her.

She hissed, "I know she wanted to get back in the fight, but...not this badly! I didn't know she was this bad!"

She walked to the other side of the conference room table, and paced back and forth, shaking her head, "What was she thinking? I told her...she knew…god, what was wrong with her?"

She shook her head harder, running a hand through her short ragged hair, "Damn it, Mara. Damn it…"

Hayes' anger had changed, sympathy now rising. She really hadn't known.

"Max, I'm sorry."

He shrugged, "I'm projecting a bit, that purple-haired techie broke my ship."

"No, no, I get it."

She looked out the window monitors. EVA engineers were hard at work patching the hull breach on the dorsal phaser array. "It's a miracle nobody was killed."

"Apparently she did her best to avoid it."

"That's real considerate." Sheri growled.

After a long moment she turned away, and exhaled sharply, "...Project head and a damned lab rat? I thought Mara was smarter than that."

Sheri crossed her arms, looking down at the floor, "I knew she was working on something secret, but...this is nuts."

Hayes crossed his arms as well, a concerned look on his face, "You think maybe that's what made her activate the bubble? Those experiments may have messed with her head."

"I wouldn't be surprised...though, she was working off very little information..."

She turned toward the window, looking at the planet below, and was silent for a long time. Hayes stood beside her, idly scratching his nose.

"The investigative determined that Mara wasn't...exactly at fault, and 'pending any further evidence', she wasn't guilty, but she was emotionally compromised and should not have made the decision she did."

Hayes frowned, "That's an...odd choice. Would've thought they'd have come down harder."

"Yeah. They didn't even tell us all the details until after the war. They didn't give much of anything even for our families. Just that they were MIA in the defense of a colony that was destroyed."

Hayes shook his head grimly, "Official records didn't even give us that much. All they said was they were MIA. No location, no details, nothing. Just 'in the line of duty'."

"It's the 24th century, this isn't the Cold War! How could Starfleet, hell, the Federation do this to us?" Sheri asked.

"The Dominion changed everything…" Hayes muttered.

Sheri nodded, and they fell silent again.

"Believe it or not I'm not exactly surprised at the cult thing. More just shocked. She's done stuff like this since we were kids. You remember when she lost her hand? I walk into the hospital wing, she grins at me and says 'at least it wasn't the weedwacker'!"

Hayes looked at her.

"You don't want to know," she said, holding up a hand, "I had to drag her out of more messes than I can count when we were kids. When she joined the Marines it felt like she was specifically trying to drive me nuts."

"Yeah, I remember both of you talking about that. She was just as nuts in the corps as out," Hayes smiled a little, "and I remember those stories you told that made her blush. No one could make the colonel fidget like you could. Must've been tough being the little sister having to keep her big sister out of trouble."

"Okay, we were fraternal twins, only technically youngest, and second of all, she defended me a couple times. Few broken noses if I was upset." Sheri smiled, "wasn't all me dealing with her. Not all."

After a long time, she glanced at Hayes out of the corner of her eye, and gave a little chuckle, "Archer, you don't have to keep calling her 'the colonel'. As her sister, I gave you my permission. Several times. And we all know you were crushing after her."

"I was not! And she was gay anyway!"

"So? Not like you haven't slept with your superiors before, Kirk!"

Hayes shook his head, his cheeks reddening slightly, "I knew Akdaro since high school! That doesn't count!"

"Yeah, but the way you followed Mara around..." Sheri smiled out of the corner of her mouth, bouncing her eyebrows once or twice.

"Max, I could throw you out this window and tell everyone it was a hull breach."

"Aw, you wouldn't do that…" Sheri chuckled, pushing his shoulder a bit.

Hayes pushed her back, finally smiling a little, "Would I?"

"Nah, you'd get lonely without me to kick your butt."

Hayes laughed, "It would get me a few minutes of peace!"

"Even if you did, I'd haunt you!"

There was a chime at the door. Hayes went to open it, and Matthias was standing there.

"Sir, ma'am, everything's set up."

Hayes nodded, "Thank you, commander. Any other updates?"

"Nothing worth mentioning, sir."

Hayes nodded again, "Good."

Shutting the door, he set the privacy setting again, and went to the head of the conference table, and hit a few controls. Captain Sheri sat beside him.

The visual feed from the window monitors faded out, the beams separating them vanished, and the entire display became one single monitor.

It split into five different windows, each displaying a Starfleet officer in similar conference rooms.

"Commodore, Captain." a human nodded from a small conference room.

"Captain Hayes, Captain Sheri." a Denobulan said from a larger room.

"Good day, Commodore Hayes," a Vulcan acknowledged.

"Captains." nodded an Andorian.

A figure much like a four-foot praying mantis, but with hands, made a gesture of greeting, "Greetings all. Captains, Commodore." the Thranx's conference room was the same as the Denobulan's, but the lights were darker.

"Commander, Commander, Commander, Captain." Hayes nodded in acknowledgement with each one, "the Belleau Wood is back in business. We should have systems repaired within a few days."

"That's great. What's our next step?" the human asked.

"The leader of the Etherian rebel representatives doesn't want to open negotiations until she can verify we are who we say we are." Hayes said, "she wants to speak with someone located in one of the old facilities who she insists is the only one who can. The other representatives won't play ball until Princess Adora says so."

"Which facility is it?" Commander Yelauna, the Denobulan, asked.

"My staff are working to get the details, but from what I heard, it's one with some active defenses. She described arachnid bot units, though I'm not sure if they're civilian or military."

"Are we going to allow her down to the surface?" the Vulcan asked.

"Yes, Commander Onur. It was difficult but I personally had to persuade her to take a security escort. It seems these people, or at least this individual, are used to doing things alone."

Hayes smiled a little ironically, "She's quite stubborn, actually."

The human captain growled, "Why are we listening to her? She's holding up negotiations just to talk to some witch doctor squatting in one of our bases. We don't need them. Let's just go down there and talk some sense into them."

Hayes looked at the man coldly, "Commander Shirazi, just because the Prime Directive doesn't apply in this situation doesn't mean these people don't deserve the bare minimum of respect. Nor does it mean we throw the book out."

"With all due respect, captain, you almost lost your ship because of these people. The Prime Directive doesn't apply, and that should mean we shouldn't have to tip-toe around!"

"So we should just ignore their rights? They're Federation citizens, Shirazi!" the andorian snapped.

"Sh'Rohr, they're Federation citizens who don't even know they're citizens. They use child soldiers, monarchies, and work for the enemy. Speaking softly and carrying a soft stick isn't a good strategy, you know."

"We don't have any experience in this area. Few if any of us have trained for this sort of diplomacy. We can do less advanced societies, we can do devastated Federation colonies, but even the Enterprise doesn't deal with a combination of them." Commander Onur pointed out.

"We're treading new ground here," Sheri said, "but we're not throwing the rulebook out. We have to be careful."

All eyes turned toward her, and for a brief moment, something was wrong. Even Onur had an odd expression on their face.

Hayes nodded, "so the Prime Directive doesn't apply. But we have diplomatic procedure."

"Those procedures nearly crippled a heavy cruiser, and negotiations have completely stalled. We have the system administrators in custody, let's just go down there and talk to their leaders personally." Shirazi spoke like it was easy.

"Are you nuts? They're going to open fire at the sight of a combadge!" Commander Sh'Rohr snapped, facepalming.

"Bullets don't work very well on energy shields. We blanket an LZ with long-range phaser fire set to stun, then move in."

"Wow, that doesn't sound like it'll end poorly." Sh'Rohr snarled.

"Even if that wasn't unwise, we can't just storm the planet," Hayes said.

"Why not?"

Tension faded, and they all looked at the Thranx. She put her hands together, her antenna twitching.

"Captain Fel?" Hayes asked, nodding.

Captain Felmirnizex, or Fel as was her personal name, was one of the most senior officers in the Belleau Wood's flotilla.

"Excuse me for interrupting," she chittered, "I'm not advocating for anything as of yet, but I've noted this since the start of the operation. We're exploring unknown tunnels, we know that. The Prime Directive doesn't apply, we know that. I'm honestly wondering, why are we scuttling around?"

She looked at the others, her large compound eyes somewhat frightening to the uninitiated, but they weren't quite the same as terrestrial insects. That helped some.

"Commander Sh'Rohr, you said it yourself, they are Federation citizens. Regardless of whether or not they know it, we have more freedom than if this were an alien world."

The others nodded.

"What is stopping us from defending our people as is our right against a hostile threat, liberating them from their captors, and restoring the legitimate colonial administration?"

The captains all started talking at once.

"Order, everyone!" Hayes said loudly, "Captain Fel, we can't do that."

"Why not, sir?" Shirazi asked, "why not?"

"We can't."

Fel looked apologetic, "Captain, with all due respect, I understand your feelings, but I believe it would be wrong to not intervene."

She made a gesture of anger and sadness, "I believe in the Prime Directive, but it is frequently limiting, and we have an opportunity here. I cannot stand idly by and watch children subjected to such abuse. I am all for following regulations, but…"

Her mandibles twitched, "even I wish to obliterate those...those monsters. They must be brought to justice. They torture children, captain. They must be brought to justice."

Hayes frowned.

"We don't need to acquiesce to these bastards," Shirazi said, "we call in the Marines, and bust some heads!"

"We can't do that." Hayes repeated.

"Why not?"

"You know very well why, Shirazi." Sh'Rohr snapped, "Starfleet is not in the habit of storming-"

"Just because they were out of contact for a while that means they're not our people anymore? They're not aliens down there, those are our people! We have to help them." Yelauna said.

Sheri grimaced. She was undecided.

Fel, Yelauna and Shirazi were for direct action, while Onur, Sh'Rohr, and Hayes were for...well, something else.

They were split.

And Hayes didn't know which to pick.

Because as obnoxious as Shirazi was, he had a point.

And Fel certainly had a point. If a Thranx was not just angry, but furious, there was a reason.

They loved their kids, and had never used child soldiers beyond ancient history.

Oh god, when Hivehome hears about this…when Earth hears about this...

Hayes grimaced, "we can't do anything without the Marines. Until they get here, we can't do storming of any kind."

"We can get started. Sabotage work could completely cripple the Horde's ability to fight back." Shirazi said.

"If we jam their radios that could cripple their offensive maneuvers, and prevent any further bloodshed." Fel suggested.

"That would only have so much of an effect. They have not developed very sophisticated electronic communications. They could still communicate via courier and signal lights. It is likely they are prepared for such eventualities." Onur pointed out.

"And we might only make it worse, because you know they'll just blame each other," Sheri pointed out, "they might have anything from nukes made of bailing wire and duct tape, or photon bursts from the armories. We could be seeing mushroom clouds in twenty minutes."

There were more odd looks at Sheri.

"A bombardment could prevent all of these problems." Shirazi murmured.

Hayes crossed his arms, and listened for a moment longer.

"Okay, now that we've all expressed our opinions...for now, we're going to play it by the book. Until reinforcements arrive, we are to negotiate, and to make any and all attempts to limit bloodshed. And for now, this means acquiescing to Princess Adora's demands."

"Princesses…" Shriazi muttered, "monarchies…"

"Regardless of our personal feelings in the matter, we're going to do this by the book," Hayes said loudly, "do I make myself clear?"

"Yes sir." Came a chorus of responses.

He nodded, "now then…"

The meeting would be a long one.