Chapter 5

Holding cell

Unknown place

Unknown sector

Stardate: Unknown

"Captain." Thell shook the unconscious form. No response. "Timothy!"

"What!" Beamer bolted up right out of his slumber. Upon looking at his surroundings a part of him regretted not remaining in the bliss that was unconsciousness. "So it wasn't a dream."

"More like a nightmare." Thell offered and hand to his brother and pulled him onto his feet.

"Where are we?"

"My guess would be the alien ship we saw."

Beamer took a moment to take in the surroundings. They were in a small room about the size of a type 2 shuttle. The walls were of a distilling shade of grey and had no visible wall panels. Judging by the low hum and the faint reddish glow of the wall, they were surrounded on all 6 sided by a forcefields of Antiprotons. A pretty sparten environment; just what you'd expect from a prison cell. He had all but been stripped of everything of value save his uniform, and found Thell in the same predicament as well. Bottom line: they weren't in a very good position to escape. "Our hosts don't appear to be the trusting type."

"Can't say I can't blame them. They have to know we'll exploit any avenue of escape."

"Question is, why do they want us?"

"Because you've betrayed them." Beamer turned around to see someone he never thought he'd see again.

"Karen."

Acting captain's log stardate 89198.65, Commander Spink recording. The captain and Lt. Clark have been abducted by an unknown vessel making the use of monatronic distortions as a means of travel. The senior staff and I have reconvened on DS9 to discuss possible courses of action to rescue our officers.

"They're Iconians." Tuusan stated bluntly.

Everyone in the room was very confused, although probably none more so than James Kurland. Why this "stand-off-ish" man would say it was a long dead race that kidnapped the Admiral and Lt. was beyond him. "Weren't they killed off several millennia ago?"

Blab added, "In an orbital bombardment."

"That was what was widely believed in Section 31 until 2 years ago."

That's right he's in 31. James mentally kicked himself for forgetting DSI's dealings, Beamer's dealings with Section 31's pet project Shadow Blade.

"On stardate 88007.25" Shadow Blade continued, "the federation encountered an unknown vessel of similar configuration to ours in orbit around Iconia. It was later encountered on stardate 88173.91 where it took Empress Sela's damaged ship through a monatronic distortion. Based on information gathered prior we now know it's the Iconians."

"And these Monatronic distortions are created by Iconian Gateway technology?" Ginglerx asked.

"Essentially yes, which means we have a way of tracking them once we reach the Andromeda Galaxy." A face of confusion and puzzlement shortly became the predominant feature of everyone in the room save for the commander who's impassive gaze remained looking at the monitor he was presenting from.

"Hold on, how do you know that the Iconians are stationed in Andromeda?" Bilazz inquired. By the rather unimpressed look on the Commander's face, James knew that was a stupid question to ask him.

"'The section knows all' Lt." judging by the sheepish look he immediately sprouted, He had realized it.

Tuusan nodded and continued, "Using a T-55, we'll arrive at Andromeda within 3 hours. At that point we'll look for an exact match to the monatronic signature of the vessel that took the Clarks with the aid of Dr. Belop here." The Dr. stepped forward and what were immediately apparent was his aquatic nature and his height of about two meters.

"I have only one question. When do we leave?"