~Pirates of the Federation~
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Written by MTrek
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Chapter 3: The Fight and the Stab
For L and Izzy. I hope you like fight scenes, girls! ;D
Even with bound hands, Lore made better time in the Jeffries tubes than the officers attempting to track him on the decks. He headed to one of the schematic maps in one of the intersections on his knees, looking for the correct area. Good, only a deck above, he thought to himself.
Down in DS9's command center, the operations officer was sitting lazily a ways off from his post. A small alert flashed up on the display:
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Spatial Anomaly Approaching
Unknown Origin
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
But it was ignored when the strong demanding voice of Chakotay spoke over the station. "Attention all Starfleet personnel. There is an armed, dangerous renegade currently aboard the Dauntless. Set phasers on kill."
Outside the station itself, the Bajoran sun wavered in light intensity. The anomaly, a large fog-like mass, was approaching.
Lore tapped in the coordinates of his desired beam point into the Dauntless transporter then stepped onto the pad. Materializing away from the ship, he beamed over to the one next in line – the Enterprise. Inside another Jeffries tube, he continued on to engineering. He needed to find some way to get his cuffs off, and he deduced that there had to be some cutting tools down there. Navigating his way through the more extensive tubes of the much larger ship, Lore finally exited into engineering. The blue and red coils of the warp core pulsed slowly, at rest, and the section appeared to be deserted to his good fortune. He also took note of the only other way out was the main door, slightly hidden by the walls. No nearby turbolifts. On the walls though, were the tools he had been looking for – laser spanners.
He began to advance to the far side of engineering, but a noise from across the room made him instantly go on alert. Searching for the source, he saw a dark skinned man asleep on one of the tables. It was Commander La Forge, snoring soundly and unaware of him. Creeping over, Lore intended to remove his VISOR, but found that he no longer wore it. Frowning, Lore decided that from the rhythm of La Forge's breathing that he was sleeping deeply enough for Lore to be safe.
Finding a strong enough laser, he used both of his bound hands to activate the beam. The metal began to glow, turning from red to bright orange. Had he been human, Lore's skin would have melted away from the intense heat of the cuffs. Once the metal was pliable enough, he let his artificial strength to do the rest. The manacles easily bent off and they fell to the deck. Free!
The sound of a door hissing open caused him concern again. Darting behind one of the walls, he attempted to hide.
Commander Data walked into engineering. Having left the ceremony early, he had been on the ship for some time. Although the second he'd heard about the incident on the neighboring ship and that his brother was now on the Enterprise, he'd immediately begun to search. He saw his best friend asleep on the diagnostic table. Geordi had been there since early that morning and Data didn't want to disturb him, but he needed help finding the Lore.
Something unusual caught Data's eye before he could wake him. On the deck was the mangled pair of cuffs, still red hot. He made his way over to pick them up, but he felt an ice cold prick on the nape of his neck when he knelt down. Freezing in place, Data's gaze snapped behind. An echo of his own face looked right back at him, holding a nasty silver blade. Slowly coming to a stand, Data turned to his identical twin.
A spiteful smile came to Lore's mouth. "Data… always a joy to see a familiar face."
"I cannot say I share your feelings," said Data coldly. He hadn't seen his brother in several years, since before he had his emotions. Now that he had them, he felt a slew of angry, hostile fervor. They
both stared at each other in silence, waiting for the other to make a move. Without breaking his gaze with Data, Lore checked his internal chronometer impatiently. "I'd love to stand here with you
longer, but I'm on a tight schedule these days. So if you'll excuse me…" He began walking away, the blade still pointed at Data.
"Emergency Security Alert, Engineering!" yelled Data into the com system. "We have located the intruder."
Lore's arms fell to his sides and his shoulders sagged, only having got three steps away. Rolling his eyes, he put his free hand on his hip. "Do you really think that was wise? Inviting humans down here will only cause unnecessary deaths."
Data glared at Lore as he moved towards one of the walls with saw-style laser cutters.
"I wouldn't do that, Data," warned Lore. "We both know that weapons can't typically injure us, but do you really want to go up against the only being that knows your internal layout like I do?"
His gaze unmoving, the first officer picked up one of the largest cutters. "You threatened Lieutenant Nine."
Extending his blade ten centimeters, Lore jutted his lower lip out contemptuously. "Only a little."
Another strong surge of emotion went through Data. His cutter was similar to Lore's but its purpose was entirely different. With heated teeth, it looked like a hand-held saw as he leveled it with Lore's blade. His older brother chuckled under his breath. He was so confident, it was nearly amusing; but what really made him laugh was how easy he predicted this to be. He had many years of cold combat under his belt and playing under dirty rules. Tauntingly sliding his edge along Data's cutter, Lore lunged at him faster than any organic life could manage. Luckily, Data wasn't organic.
He fainted in response and parried right back. The two exchanged defensive and offensive moves, blurring as they reached their top speeds. Lore was disappointed for a fraction of a second -- Data matched him perfectly. What did you expect, Lore? he thought to himself. If you know him like he knows you, it isn't going to be easy.
Five point two seconds and sixty-seven moves later, they stopped a little bit closer to one of the Jeffries tube entrances. Lore regarded his brother appraisingly with a smile and one last swipe. "...Ta!"
He darted for the tube. Data turned up the heat level to maximum on his cutter and launched it at the entrance controls, directly for the closing circuit. Embedding itself all the way through, even the hilt disappeared as the small doors closed in Lore's face.
Slowly turning around, he faced Data again. "Nice trick." He began to advance toward him again. "Except, once again, you are between me and my way out." He twirled and flipped his blade over his hand easily.
Data grabbed one of the last cutters off the wall, this time a larger one just in time to block another jab from the viroblade. As they kept fighting, Lore spoke up, "You know what you're doing, I'll give you that."
Trying to intimidate him, Data replied, "I have had the chance to be exposed to 452 different styles of personal combat throughout my years on the Enterprise."
Lore attempted to throw a reverse slash at Data's weapon arm, right where his axial servo was, but failed. "Ha, really! I thought you weren't built for combat, Little Brother. You need to find yourself a woman; you spend too much time deluding yourself behind those computer screens. You're forgetting your principal programming!"
Data did a side swipe, stopping him off from continuing. The combatants circled around the warp core, but the commander still managed to keep himself in between Lore and the exit. Catching his cutter in an over hand strike, Lore pushed hard against his brother's equal strength. "Or, maybe you're so absent minded as to study 452 different styles of combat because you've already found one. But due to your android nature, you are therefore incapable of courting said woman." He grinned nastily at Data.
Data set his jaw at the remark, pressing harder on Lore's blade. That was getting too close to the real truth of his feelings for Seven. "I have retained various styles of combat so that when I am approached by a pirate, I may dispose of him properly!" This time Data planted a firm kick to Lore's chest, causing him to fall back against the wall.
In the corner of Lore's eye, he saw a bundle of power cords. Before Data could react in the small space, the pirate cut through the cables and set off a volley of sparks in Data's face. It overloaded his optical sensors, causing him to drop his cutter and stagger several steps back.
When he recovered his sight shortly thereafter, he found a disruptor barrel pointed between his eyes. Data's anger flared indignantly. "I believe this would be classified as cheating."
Lore smiled smugly. "Pirate... what did you expect?"
They were both closer to the exit now. The entire fight had lasted only a minute and thirty-six seconds, and the back up security still had not arrived. Lore stepped forward, but Data had yet to give up, even with a gun in his face.
"Move away," said Lore warningly.
Data stood his ground. "No."
Lore was feeling a little panicked. That team would be there any second. "Please move?" he implored sarcastically.
"NO! I cannot just step aside and let you escape."
Clenching his teeth, Lore armed the disruptor with a whine of power. "......This shot is not meant for you."
Data frowned in confusion, cocking his head slightly.
Suddenly, a forgotten Geordi creeped behind Lore and flipped his off-switch. The android froze in place then fell face flat on the deck, unconscious.
Just arriving as well, a security team led by the armed Chakotay and Kira jogged into engineering. Upon seeing their prey, Kira smiled through her panting. "Nice work, Commanders! Saved us the trouble of taking him down."
Chakotay stood over the motionless pirate in quiet triumph. "I believe we will all remember that this was the day that 'Captain' Lore almost escaped."
The security team began to haul Lore away. Data watched them leave, relieved his brother was finally back in custody. But he was still puzzled... why didn't Lore shoot?
So what do you think? I apologize for the LOOONG delay, but classes and quarters... you know the story. ;D Reviews and comments are welcome! ^^