Deep Freeze
June 5, 2154
"Now leave!"
Maalik's final, barked command echoed in the captain's mind as he stepped backward, his shoulders slumping, reeling from the casual murder. He had misjudged the situation, misread something somehow, somewhere; the proof was in the now-dissipated remains of the dead scientist.
But there would be time, later, for recriminations; time later to reassess his analysis, his conclusions, his consequent actions. For now, there was only one thing to do.
"Lieutenant Mayweather." Archer's voice flagged with disheartened fatigue. "Take us back."
...
"I don't have the code!" Dr. Lucas exclaimed, his voice wavering with palpable fright. He sat trussed to a chair in the station's control hub; the other captives were seated against a wall behind him, far from his line of sight. "It's kept back on Earth!"
"You know what, Doctor?" Maâlîk bent down over the doctor. "I don't believe you."
"But it's true!" Lucas jabbered loudly, eager to convince the interrogator of his sincerity. "When the gas was activated, the storage core was automatically locked down! The access codes aren't given to anyone on the station!" He shook his head emphatically, jostling the flesh of his checks. "The codes are kept on Earth!"
"Curious," Soong murmured, soft but discernable; he was pacing slowly about the room, holding a knife in one hand and pricking the tip of a finger on the other. "You know, Dr. Lucas, I was once the Senior Medical Director on Deep Freeze," Soong continued. Though his tone was purely conversational, carrying not a hint of malice, Lucas still shuddered. "They gave me the lockdown access codes. Perhaps…"
Soong paused mid-sentence, watching the knife as he twirled it; it seemed to bite deeper into his finger, but the doctor gave no sign of discomfort. "Maybe you simply forgot for a moment. There's no harm in that; humans—well, baselines," he added, shrugging, "forget things. I promise I won't be mad. But the time has come, Doctor, for you to remember." Soong yanked the knife away from his fingertip, its edge glistening in red.
"I told you," Lucas repeated. "I don't have them! After what you did, the policy was changed." Sweat ran freely down his brow as he spoke. "I can't even request it!"
Soong waved the knife point in the air, punctuating his comments as he spoke. "Do the lights in your office… 'flicker' every now and then?" he asked Lucas, flipping his voice to a superficial affability.
"Every two hours," Dr. Lucas responded, relieved to have a question that he could safely answer. "Drives me crazy."
"Faulty power relay," Soong explained, with a vague air of a collegiate confidante. "You wouldn't believe how many times I asked them to fix it. Ten years later, they still haven't done a thing. But then again…they must've had more important things, things that took ten years." Soong's voice rapidly switched to that of steel command. "Put him with the others," Soong ordered, gesturing his head towards the other captives.
"What?" Maâlîk's head darted around in astonishment. "You can't—"
"I believe him." Soong grabbed the stunned Augment, dragging him into a corner. "I don't know what you think you're doing, Maâlîk," Soong hissed furiously. "I am in charge here. If you question me again—"
"I know, I know," Maâlîk countered angrily, not quite daring to look Soong in the eye. "You have my obedience, Father."
Maâlîk's eyes burned red-hot as he spoke.
...
"I need ideas, people." Archer groaned silently as he ran a hand through his hair, feeling the slick grease and tacky sweat that left his coif a matted mess. Breaks had been rare in the preceding days, and a ship—and crew—that had been pristine just a month earlier now was now battered and enervated.
"Can't we destroy it?" Travis asked hopefully, speaking up first. With the others, he was clustered in the rear alcove of the bridge, standing around the central display console. "I mean, it would kill the scientists, too," he added hurriedly, almost stumbling over the words. "But…"
"Yes," Archer replied, giving his navigator a forgiving smile. "The staff is considered secondary. I'd like a different option, but…"
"It doesn't matter, Captain," Malcolm countered gruffly. Like the others, he appeared fatigued, his curly hair beginning to droop. "We can't even dent that thing with our firepower." His exasperation with their tactical choices was clear. "It's built like a fucking fortress."
"So what can we do?" Hoshi asked, eyeing the tactical chief.
"The only way to destroy it is from within," Malcolm answered. "And that won't be easy. We'll have to get in deep, towards the storage core. Even thermonuclear explosives would be overwhelmed by the volume of rock." On the console, the vast amounts of dense rock taunted him, teasing Malcolm with their ability to thwart his every weapon.
"How do we do that?" Hoshi replied hopefully. "How do we get in that deep?"
"If we're writing off the scientists…then we don't have to worry about the hostages," Travis added, cringing again. Man, I sound callous today.
"You're skipping the key point," Verena countered, weighing in to the discussion for the first time. "Can an assault team board the station and plant the explosives at all? There is, what, how many Augments in the way?"
"That's not our only problem," Malcolm admitted. He turned to Archer before continuing. "Captain, the Bird-of-Prey must be out there somewhere. If we move in, they'll come after us. And it does outgun us."
"There's another possibility here," Hoshi said suddenly, her voice perking up.
...
One task complete—more or less—Soong turned his attention back to the central computer units, focusing the ragged, dirt-blond hair of the Augment sitting behind the console. "Tell me," Soong ordered, crossing over to join the young man.
"It's a hexadecimal password," Lôchêsh answered. His head twisted upward to acknowledge their father. "I'm creating an algorithm to compute the possible combinations, a few hundred of them. It may take a few minutes."
Soong whistled appreciatively. "I can't believe I held you back in math," he joked.
Four heads turned about to look at her. "What's that?" Archer asked, beating the others to the question.
"Deep Freeze has a self-destruct mechanism, right?" Hoshi waited for a nod of confirmation before continuing. "There has to be some option for triggering it remotely."
"It's worth checking on," Archer added, feeling a refreshing sense of optimism flowing into him.
Like that, the decision was made. "Hoshi, contact Starfleet Command, and track down the self-destruct codes. Malcolm, plan your assault; it's our plan B. Travis, Verena, that leaves the two of you in charge of dealing with the Bird-of-Prey. Unless there's anything else—"
"One thing, Captain." It was Travis who spoke up. "What about the scientists? Are we going to try to rescue them?"
"Don't worry, Travis," Malcolm replied, giving the younger man a slight chuckle. "No one thinks that you're trying to kill them. I'll add a rescue in with my assault plan…but realistically…" he shrugged his shoulders. "I hate to say it, but they are expendable."
"Captain, one other thing…" Hoshi hung back while the others filed out.
"What is it, Lieutenant?"
"You asked me to talk to Starfleet Command." Hoshi paused for response, but none was forthcoming. "Would you prefer to talk to Admiral Forrest yourself?"
Archer sighed deeply as his shoulders sank. "Not unless I have to, Hoshi…the admiral and I aren't on speaking terms right now."
...
"There's another layer of encryption," Lôchêsh reported from the central computer console. "It appears to be on a quantum level."
"How long?" Soong barked, visibly displeased.
"Longer than I thought, maybe a lot longer." Angry as he was, Soong knew that there was nothing he could do; Lôchêsh was the best, and if he needed more time, then he needed more time.
"Keep working," Soong said, punctuating his command with a frustrated punch to the console.
...
The Ba'Sugh had lurked, hidden, against the veil of space for several several days, waiting for this very opportunity; and as the Enterprise flew past, the Bird-of-Preyeased itself out of its hiding place, stealing up behind the Starfleet vessel with the cunning of a hunter. Its disrupters fired, and fired again, spitting out bolts of green energy across the void.
...
The Enterprise rocked from the collision of the energy packets, relays blowing out across the ship, showering the crew with sparks; thickened smoke and superheated air blasted across the bridge, enveloping the command crew within the hellacious confines of sulphur and brimstone.
"Starboard nacelle!" Travis announced, reporting on the target of the Ba'Sugh's weapons as the ship rocked again, nearly tossing the navigator from his seat. A couple more blasts would fry the nacelle, and force them to shut down the main engines.
"Return fire!" Archer ordered.
...
"He lied," Maâlîk's voice crossed the circular control hub. "Doctor Lucas, about the embryos." Maâlîk's voice had a silky lining as he handed Soong a data pad. "Station access log," Maâlîk said, indicating the contents. Maâlîk kept his display of emotion in check, but inside he was seething: if he was in control of this mission, they would have already accomplished their objective. Soong's weaknesses were causing unacceptable delays, and had nearly allowed Dr. Lucas—a mere human—to thwart their mission. You could always trust one human to fall for the wiles of another.
Soong's anger increased, but now it bore a target. Angry at Dr. Lucas' efforts at obfuscation, and angry at his own failure to see thru it, an irrational fear spoke quietly but persistently in the back of Soong's mind: you've lost face in front of your children. You showed them that you're frail, weak. You must be strong, decisive, or else lose their obedience.
Disturbed, Soong sought to silence the thought. "Get Lucas in here," he ordered. Not only was he going to get the information he needed, but in the process, he was going to remind Maâlîk of who the rightful leader was.
...
"They fire, then move off," Malcolm reported, as the ship shook under multiple impacts. With sudden aplomb, he dove to one side as a panel blew off over his head.
The Ba'Sugh was dogging the Enterprise, following every maneuver, keeping herself out of the Starfleet vessel's weapons range. "They're trying to draw us away from the station," Travis explained at a semi-shout, his hands gripping the sides of the helm console.
...
Dr. Soong. Their father, their mentor, the man who raised them and guided them, had revealed a flaw, exposed his less-than-perfect human genes, falling victim to the wiles of a mere human, was hesitant, weak. Against that, the ruthless, determined strength of Maâlîk, offering to lead the Augments, not thru fancy words, but by his own actions and example.
After all, wasn't Soong a mere human? Maâlîk had worked hard, speaking to the other exiles, convincing them of his claim to leadership and the righteousness of his cause. And didn't Soong himself teach that we were born to rule over all humanity?
With a vicious back-handed blow, Maâlîk sent Dr. Lucas' head whip-lashing backwards. The station's chief of staff was tied to a chair in the control hub, his face becoming a bloodied pulp from the force of Maâlîk's interrogation. Beside him stood Câîm, gazing on dispassionately, unmoved by the atrocity in front of him.
Maâlîk reached out and grabbed the lapels of Dr. Lucas' lab coat, bringing the corpulent man forward. Dr. Lucas' head hung backwards, his body unable to summon the strength and control to hold himself upright. Both eyes were swollen shut, and blood dripped from his nose, his mouth, and a dozen other cuts. With an incensed roar, Maâlîk drew his arm back, ready to strike again.
"Maâlîk!" Soong interrupted, exercising his remaining control over the youth. Grudgingly, Maâlîk yielded as Soong stepped in front of him to address Dr. Lucas.
Soong stared down at Lucas, telegraphing fire with his eyes. "I want to put an end to this, Doctor," Soong said, his voice snarling a threat.
"So do I," Lucas wheezed, futilely trying to escape Câîm's hands, which held Lucas immobile in the chair.
"We know you can get to the embryos. You accessed the stasis chamber just last week."
"That's a mistake in the log."
Lucas' resistance impressed Soong, but he had no desire to applaud it. He needed to maintain his tenuous control over the Augments, and he could not allow them to see Lucas thwart the interrogation.
"I implore you," Soong said to Lucas, his voice not bearing a single note of imploration. "Give us what we came for, and we'll leave you in peace."
With a grimace, Lucas turned his head to one side, and muttered a few words.
"What's that?" Soong mocked. "Can't talk?" Soong leaned down to Lucas' level, placing his ear next to Lucas' mouth. Lucas repeated his comment.
Soong stood back up, glaring down at the brutalized scientist. "That language is unbecoming of a man of science," Soong taunted, masking the vehemence in his voice.
"Father." As Soong turned to walk away, Maâlîk stopped him with a hand on Soong's shoulder. Gesturing with his head, Maâlîk led Soong away from the other Augments, to a secluded section of the control hub. "Some men are braver with their own lives than they are with the lives of others."
Soong glanced towards the isolation lab, where the remaining scientists were still being held. Time was short, and while he detested torture, Maâlîk's suggestion bore a strong chance of success.
"Bring in one of his colleagues," Soong commanded. Displeasure gleamed in his eyes.
"No, not here," Maâlîk hissed immediately. "In there." The youth pointed to an upright to an isolation tube, just large enough to hold one humanoid.
Soong stared at Maâlîk, horrified disapproval etched on his face. We are not murderers, the doctor thought to himself. What happened to the Maâlîk that I knew, that I raised from a baby? Is there no shred of evolved decency?
Maâlîk gestured to a computer console, words tumbling out as he laid out his master plan. "There are thousands of pathogens stored here," he told Soong. "Some kill within minutes!"
"No!" Soong barked.
Maâlîk pleaded his case. "The longer we're in this facility, the greater the chance that more ships will come. They might not back down like Enterprise."
Soong gritted his teeth, and brought himself face-to-face with Maâlîk. "It—isn't—necessary," Soong said, clenching his jaw with each word, barely restraining himself from lashing out with angry vitriol.
"It's the only way to make him talk." Maâlîk whispered to Soong, as though imparting a great secret. The Augmented youth backed down only slightly. "Is one human being worth all our lives and everything you've worked for?"
Unsure of himself, unsure of his plan, Dr. Soong looked around the room at the faces of his children.
...
Several more packets of energy hit the ship, wham, bam, one after another; and in rapid succession, a series of explosions ripped through a bridge conduit, sending acrid smoke into the command deck. "A few more like that, we're going to be a part of this asteroid field!" Trip called out, coughing lightly.
"Hold your course." Archer spoke with steel. "Target the facility."
...
Not caring whether or not he caused any injuries, Maâlîk roughly dragged Dr. Wen from the lab, and hauled the doctor across the control room to the isolation tube, practically tossing the man into the cylinder. As Maâlîk touched the controls to close the doors, Wen, panicked, tried to hold them open with his bare hands, but was unable to stay their advance. He pounded on the walls, losing any semblance of self-control. A disgraceful display, Maâlîk thought to himself. He's weak.
Dr. Lucas peered thru slit eyes, and thru the red haze, saw his colleague trapped in the tube. Giving Lucas a second to perceive the threat, Soong laid out the terms.
"Are you familiar with Cymbeline blood burn?" Soong said menacingly, fixing on Lucas with a steel glare. "The vascular lining literally…'boils away'."
"You son of a bitch," Lucas growled, showing a reservoir of strength that Maâlîk could not appreciate. "You can't do this."
"Believe me, I don't want to, but I'm out of options, Doctor." Soong punctuated every word. "The code, Doctor! Give me the code!"
Lucas sat silent, in absolute defiance of Soong's commands. In the background, Maâlîk followed the interchange closely, standing ready to fulfill his duty.
"This is on your conscience, then, not mine, Doctor," Soong spat out.
Câîm entered the final command into his control panel. As Dr. Wen frantically glanced around, panic causing him to hyperventilate, a hissing sound filled the isolation tube. Barely a moment passed before Wen starting coughing.
The spectators watched, unmoved. Soong bore an angered look of malevolence; Maâlîk, a steady gaze of indifference; and Pêrsîs, rattled by the violence that she had brought about. For his part, Dr. Lucas gazed on, his face frozen by the beating he had received, but emanating a calmness that escaped the others in the room.
Dr. Wen started coughing up blood.
...
Blood splattered the transparent walls of the isolation tube as Dr. Wen shrieked in pain, his body ravaged, his blood reaching the boiling point.
"His temperature's rising quickly." Soong was focusing on Dr. Lucas. He didn't want the Augments to see his own queasiness, and his interrogation of Lucas allowed Soong to screen out the suffering only meters away. "Blood pressure's approaching critical. There's still time, Doctor. Just say the word, I'll release the anti-pathogen."
In the isolation tube, Dr. Wen's skin began to break out in boils, taking on the mutilated countenance of subdermal burns. Dr. Soong grew more alarmed as the disease quickened, anxiously waiting for Lucas to break. Maâlîk looked on, fascinated.
"Right about now, his extremities feel like they're on fire," Soong hissed, "but it's the capillaries, starting to burst. Watch!" Maâlîk grabbed Lucas' hair, forcing the chief of staff to look at his colleague.
Wen was starting to moan. "Please! Let me out!" he begged, his skin erupting into tiny red tracks.
...
Soong broke first. "I'm asking you, one doctor to another," he pleaded. "Stop this!"
"I-I can't!" Dr. Lucas sobbed, his body shaking from the emotional pain.
"Is it worth this man's life?" Soong beseeched, his own body starting to quake. He would not, could not, give the order to cease the torture until he had the codes.
"I have orders!" Lucas responded, his bloodied face melting in a river of red tears.
"I can save him!" Soong begged, inches away from Lucas. "How can you let this happen?" Soong's voice rose to a screech.
"How can you?" Lucas spat back.
Soong grabbed Lucas, shaking him vehemently. "Tell me the code! The code!"
"GO—TO—HELL!" Lucas screamed, and fell backwards, becoming a blubbering mass of tears.
Soong reached the end of his fortitude. "Release the anti-pathogen!" he ordered Maâlîk, his voice rueful and resigned.
Soong's order was met with disbelief. "Father?" Maâlîk questioned, momentarily unsure of what to do. Then his purpose, his goal, crystallized in his mind. "NO!" Maâlîk responded. His father was weak, too weak to deserve his loyalty, and he would not let this—this human—stand in the way of destiny.
Maâlîk took his hands off the controls as Soong starred at him, panic and terror evident in the doctor's eyes. Everything else, the Augments, the embryos, the station itself, dissolved before him, and Soong saw only one thing: Dr. Wen falling to the floor of the isolation tube, miniature explosions ripping his body apart, blood everywhere.
None of the Augments moved to save Dr. Wen.
Dr. Soong ran across the room to Maâlîk's console, and pushed the youth out of the way. He frantically entered the commands, evacuating the poisonous air from the isolation tube, but it was too late. Dr. Wen fell silent as he slumped on the ground.
Dr. Soong hung his head, appalled by the scene, appalled by his own actions. Maâlîk patted the doctor on the back, a reassuring, paternal touch. Around them, Lôchêsh, Câîm, and the other Augments stood indifferent to the red mass at the bottom of the tube. After all, what was the momentary suffering of a lower life form, compared to the greater order and security that they were destined to bring to mankind?
...
The sight was beautiful.
Nestled in hundreds of spheres, filling every wall, every nook, every cranny, were embryos.
Hundreds of little lives, held in stasis for two hundred years, still glowing with the promise of what they contained.
"They're beautiful," Lôchêsh murmured, stunned by the vista in front of him. He could scarcely blink.
"I came here so many times just to look at them," Soong responded, equally mesmerized. "I remember where each of you was kept." He pointed to an empty receptacle. "You were there, Lôchêsh, right next to Câîm. Pêrsîs. Bêrîth." Soong pointed to the others. "It was so hard to choose twenty out of so many." Soong spoke with love, trying to keep the tears from his voice.
"Father?" Lôchêsh said softly, momentarily concerned by Soong's hypnotic trance.
All those years of incarceration, the planning, the scheming, and here I am. "I never thought I'd see this sight again," Soong whispered, gently. Trials and tribulations. At that moment, nothing else mattered to him.
...
"We have to hurry," Pêrsîs reminded Maâlîk, glancing around at the shaking station. "All of the embryos are loaded on the shuttle."
Maâlîk stared, distracted, at a computer panel. On it, a list of the station's virulent pathogens was scrolling by, listing maladies like Rigelian fever, Synthococcus Novae Type A, and xenopolythycemia. "Telurian plague," Maâlîk muttered to himself. "I like the sound of that." The screen changed to read transfer complete.
"What are you doing?" Pêrsîs asked. Her voice dropped low, dangerous, distrusting.
"Identifying the most dangerous pathogens."
"You're taking them with us." It was a statement, not a question.
"Can't hurt to have a little insurance." Maâlîk pointed to the screen. "They've been transferred to the stasis modules. Take two people with you, load them onto the shuttle."
Pêrsîs nodded her understanding and slipped away down the corridor.
...
"The station's launching a Denobulan shuttle," Commander Reed reported suddenly, interrupting the brief lull in combat as the Ba'Sugh veered away from the Enterprise.
Archer, already on his feet, took a step closer to the screen as if he could make it out with the naked eye. "What's going on over there?"
Verena fielded the demand. "The bird-of-prey's moving to intercept the shuttle." It was a matter of seconds before the shuttlecraft disappeared, swallowed into the bay of the Klingon warship.
On the bridge of the Enterprise, Archer readied himself for a return to combat, but the Ba'Sugh turned its rear end to the Starfleet ship; and with a flaming red glow and a clash of light, the Bird-of-Prey leapt into subspace, from therewith invisible.
Jonathan Archer slumped back in his chair. Dr. Soong, the Augments, and the embryos were gone, vanished in the void of interstellar space.
...
In the dark, soundless expanse of interstellar space, the Bird-of-Prey moved silently, fading into the background signatures of dust and radiation. The vessel's dark green colors provided an added modicum of camouflage, and its curved hull plates refracted sensor beams, giving the Ba'Sugh an added degree of stealth as warped to its destination.
In the bulbous head of the vessel, Maâlîk had assumed the Klingon commander's chair, which sat poised on a dais, allowing him to survey the bridge beneath. The chair was hard—harsh metal, with no padding—but Maâlîk barely noticed; instead, he felt quite comfortable.
Behind him, the doors hissed open, and Dr. Soong stepped onto the bridge. Maâlîk waited, keeping his gaze focused forwards, until Soong came up beside the command chair.
"We've crossed one parsec," Maâlîk informed Soong, finally recognizing the doctor's presence. After a second of mutual glaring, Maâlîk stood up, relinquishing the command chair to Soong. Following their confrontation on Deep Freeze, Pêrsîs had voiced her displeasure to Maâlîk; her respect for Soong was too offended by Maâlîk's outright contempt for the doctor to let it continue. Under her coercion, Maâlîk had agreed to make the effort to work with Dr. Soong. Now, the relationship between the two men was almost as warm as summer on Andoria.
"Where's Enterprise?" Soong asked, looking at Pêrsîs, who stood at attention beside the chair.
"They're holding position," she reported.
"Archer's not foolish enough to follow us," Soong said, almost gleefully. Despite the twists and turns, his scheme was proceeding in full throttle.
But there was an unhappy task; and Soong lowered his head, grimacing. His struggle to contain himself was evident; his anger, warring with disappointment, both hobbled by a feeling of impotence, all conspiring to thwart his poise and self-control. He took a deep breath, trying to release the pent-up stew, and when that failed, he brusquely pushed past Maâlîk and stepped to the rear of the bridge, his harsh body language punctuating his feelings.
Soong turned back towards Maâlîk, shaking a fist. "No one was to be killed," he barked, his voice nearly breaking with fury, "without my express order!"
Maâlîk held back his smile. "I had no choice," he told Soong, silkily. Assured of his status, he was unconcerned; his decision to placate the doctor was merely a tactical effort to show a façade of respect. He let a tinge of defensiveness creep into his voice.
Soong crossed the deck plates separating him from the youth. He didn't believe the explanation for a second. His voice shook, his face contorted, as he struggled to rein in his fury. "If you disobey me again, I'll lock you in the targ pit," he snarled, face-to-face with Maâlîk. "You won't see the light of day for a month! Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes," Maâlîk answered calmly, adding a belated "Father."
Unsatisfied, but with nothing left to say, Soong ended the confrontation, and paced back to the navigation station. Maâlîk also strolled away, and found himself on the receiving end of Pêrsîs' accusatory eyes. Her displeasure was evident.
"What's our speed?" Soong asked the dark-skinned Augment manning the console.
"Holding at warp three-point-eight."
"Not fast enough," Soong responded. He looked over the readout. "The port inducer assembly's been damaged. Go to Engineering and repair it." The last order was directed at Maâlîk; Soong wanted to remove the youth from the bridge.
"I'm not an engineer," Maâlîk answered, with the disregard reserved for one tired of taking orders from a half-senile old man.
"You're a bright boy, Maâlîk," Soong said scornfully. "I'm sure you'll figure it out."