Osmosis – a STXI fanfic
Chapter 15: Don't Start None, Won't Be None
If men swear that they want to harm you when you are asleep, you can go to sleep. If women say so, stay awake. - African proverb
Warnings: none this chapter. TOS fans will recognize reference to The Corbomite Maneuver episode, written by Jerry Sohl.
Port Town, planet Alpha Cachette
Inside the Federation Medical Building
The connecting door between the office and the examination room slid back jerkily, as though its controls malfunctioned.
"Damn it, who tore this place up?" McCoy muttered, entering the examination room. Blood spotted the floor. Medical supplies lay scattered and broken over the floor and a table, spattered with more blood. A door on the opposite side of the room was propped open with a chair; wires and metal parts spilled from a damaged security panel next to it.
"Who's in here?" McCoy barked, stepping over a puddle of spilled disinfectant. Someone shoved him hard from behind, and he staggered forward. An examination screen fell onto his head, tangling him in fabric panels. McCoy lost his balance and fell to one knee. He heard running footsteps. Swearing, McCoy pushed the screen away and got to his feet; he slapped his palm against the alert button built into a wall panel. Alarms wailed.
Keeping close to the wall, McCoy looked through the open door and into the long corridor just in time to see a person run around a corner, clutching one arm. He pulled his communicator from his belt, speaking in a low voice as he pursued. "Dr. McCoy to building security and Enterprise crew. Intruder, wounded arm, ground floor clinic, Medical. I am unarmed, following at a distance."
"Confirmed, Doctor," Sulu answered. "Support coming –"
A phaser blast struck the wall of the corridor just before McCoy moved around the corner. Someone screamed. McCoy heard objects falling and more phaser blasts.
"Phaser fired, abandoning pursuit. Y'all best hurry up," he said, and slid the communicator back onto his belt. Better to take cover. He returned to the small office and examining room. "Computer, secure door. Contact local security."
...
Port Town Center, planet Alpha Cachette
Mayor Tutto didn't scold the aide who tapped her on the shoulder, interrupting her slow dance with Captain Kirk. As Jim kept one hand on her waist, he felt her body go tense while the aide told her of the disturbance at the Federation Medical Building in Port Town.
"Shots fired? This sort of thing doesn't often happen in Port Town. I'm glad that Dr. McCoy is safe, but—"
"Aurelia – Mayor – don't worry. Starfleet will help if we can."
Still clad in their evening finery, Enterprise crew members headed for the town center to offer assistance and find out what was happening, accompanied by the Vulcans Donstelralth and Stelen. Serran and Gaila seemed to have left the party early.
The bridge crew and others went to the Federation Medical Building in small groups. Nyota was surprised to see Scotty and Charlene arrive from the direction of the beach cabins, but quickly turned her attention to the loud conversations of the townspeople. Some gave eyewitness accounts in Standard, others in Pidgin. The Federation Medical Building underwent a search after the few personnel working the evening shift were evacuated.
"Lieutenant Uhura, could you please help us?" Two members of the Enterprise medical crew tended to a crying woman sitting on the curb. "The same guy who broke in and shot the phaser knocked this woman down and stole her transport vehicle, caused her to cut her forehead and hurt her shoulder. She's upset and having trouble expressing herself in Standard."
"Of course. Madam, we want fi help…" Nyota spoke soothingly to the woman, translating while the crew members treated her wound, then placed her into the care of local medical personnel. As Nyota bid the woman goodbye, she heard a man speaking vociferously and defensively in Pidgin.
"Fi di last time, I tell you, 'tis not normal for Alpha Cachette, dis trouble," the agitated man said. "Doctor, Captain, Commander, Engineer – lissen! I know Port Town got problems like everybody else, but most addicts we got, they don't smash up de place and shoot at innocent folk. Why fi not do dat here until after Starfleet come? Flying thing part of this mess, hear me? I did see what I tell you I see, I not lying. Starfleet think dey know all." He crossed his arms and scowled at Kirk, Sulu, and Spock.
Sulu tried not to sound impatient. "Sir, no one thinks you're being untruthful. It's just that we're a bit surprised by your description of the object you saw. Please don't take our reaction as disbelief." Usually Sulu could easily calm down upset witnesses, but this man seemed to take his questions as some personal affront.
Spock glanced around them, considering ways to defuse the tension. One of the omnipresent vulva images was carved into the stone façade of the Medical Building. "Mr. Sulu, Captain," he said quietly. "Perhaps Lieutenant Uhura can assist us."
Jim blinked at Spock, and looked at the frowning man again. A tiny vulva pendant hung around the man's neck.
"Right. Thank you, Mr. Spock. Lieutenant Uhura, would you join us, please?"
Noticing the local man's bristly demeanor, Nyota smiled gently at him and nodded in greeting. The man's shoulders relaxed and lowered.
"Blessed lady, listen. Yesterday, we di see small flyer an colored lights inna Port Town. Fly-fly, quick like. Nobody catch it. I did see wey it go: Federation buildings, Town Hall. Some think, Starfleet. I di know better."
"Wetin' be dis 'flyer' ?" she asked the man in Pidgin. "We di go say 'spycraft' or 'probe' on Enterprise. An wey be Starfleet in dis palava?" (What is this 'flyer'? We do say 'spycraft' or 'probe' on the Enterprise. And where does Starfleet belong in this discussion?)
"See here. Dis drone mek crash self dis morning." The man displayed a series of images on the screen of his communicator.
"Please, moment, kind man. We di need show Captain an First Officer wetin yu di see." Nyota nodded to Jim, Spock, and Scotty, who examined the pictures of a damaged object resembling the drone on the Enterprise.
Scotty nodded. "It's a match for the one I saw."
Spock said, "Our spies consistently use the same craft." He made the tone of his voice calm as he spoke to the man. "Sir, do you still have the pieces of this object?"
"Yah, we di keep it. I tek yuh nar shop where it crash."
"Thank you for being so careful," Kirk said. "Security will accompany you to the location, along with Engineer Scott and Lt. Masters, who observed a similar object aboard the Enterprise."
"Indeed, sir, we appreciate your assistance. You will also need to make a statement to the Federation representatives. Wi mek thanks," Spock finished in pidgin, producing a surprised expression from Jim and a pleased half-smile from Nyota. During the past year, she'd noticed that Spock made more frequent efforts to connect with others, moving beyond politeness to demonstrations of empathy.
She praised him across their bond. Well done, sweetheart.
I do try, tal-kam.
…
A rural road on the outskirts of Port Town
Two different hyposprays finally eased the pain and bleeding in his arm. Steap almost wished he'd taken McCoy hostage, scared him and roughed him up a little bit in return for the way the doctor had challenged him earlier…after he'd forced him to treat his arm, of course. With the security cameras disabled, his getaway should have been clean. Instead he'd bled everywhere and broken things. He hadn't managed to get the damned disk completely out of his arm; two of its prongs were still embedded in his flesh and he'd formed a lumpy wrapping around the rest of it. He planned to keep the wound covered and pay off a doctor at the first planet he landed on, someone who wouldn't ask questions about removing it. At least he hadn't hit an artery or fainted from the pain. Nobody knew how tough he really was.
Colored lights flashed across the front of the stolen transport, and Steap hit the brake, barely keeping his seat. He paused on the empty rural road, glancing around him. He heard a low whoosh and the small drone flew past him again, and then faced him, hovering.
Steap's hands shook. The drone matched the one he'd carried from the cold surface of the football-shaped planet onto the Enterprise.
The contraband communicator he used to communicate with the aliens buzzed on his belt. Steap sat frozen, unwilling to pick it up. It kept buzzing. He slowly reached for it and looked down.
We told you to come tomorrow. Why impatient? Return to Port Town or you have nothing.
Steap hit the voice command. "No. You pay me now, or else. If I go back to Port Town, I'll sell your information to the Federation. This is my game now."
A long pause, then:
You come to house here in two hours and get what we owe you.
Steap snarled and ended the connection. The drone hovered several meters away as he gunned the engine of the transport, seeking an alternate route.
…
Port Town Center
The Medical Building, safely searched, reopened and the staff returned to assess the damage:
* One phaser stun
* One dislocated shoulder
* Twenty upset staff
* One dented maintenance robot
* A partially disconnected security system
* Damaged or stolen medical supplies
* One irate Dr. Leonard McCoy
The burglar also made off with painkilling and disinfecting hyposprays but no narcotics or other drugs, lessening the possibility that the crime was a common drug theft.
Amid the chaos, Captain Kirk, ever mindful of his crew's well-being, asked Sulu to check on Enterprise personnel. Sulu's staff fanned out through the dwindling crowd, relaying and receiving messages.
"All accounted for except for one, Captain. Dr. McCoy's safe. No sign of Ensign Charles Steap. Crew members saw him at the party, but not here."
"Thank you, Mr. Sulu. I asked some of the Ensigns to speak informally with people in the town square, help them understand that we're here to help. Maybe Steap joined them. I don't want locals to think that Starfleet is the source of either that drone or the disturbance. I'll go to the town square and see if he's there. There's nothing more I can do here until Scotty, Spock, and Alpha Cachette's security call me with further information about the drone they found."
With his phaser preset to stun, Jim set off alone, letting the cooling night air clear his thoughts.
The broad Port Town streets were adequately lit, but Jim still wondered why a woman would walk alone at night, matriarchy or no matriarchy. The curvy physique moving through pools of light and shadow ahead of him looked familiar. Jim increased his pace.
"Mayor? Aurelia?"
Mayor Tutto stopped, turned, and looked at Jim in the semidarkness.
"Why do you follow me, Captain Kirk?"
"No disrespect, Mayor Tutto, but why are you alone? You may think it's safe to walk around a space harbor town without an escort, but I disagree. Call your police force and ask them to take you home, or I'll call Starfleet security to do it."
She looked up at him, her goosebumps prickling along her skin. He was too tall, too broad, too handsome, and overprotective.
"Young as you are, you dare command me? This is my town, not your ship, Captain Kirk. Other planets may be dangerous places, but we are peaceful territory." She tilted her chin up and began to stride away. Jim clasped her shoulders, turning her to face him.
"Your planet has court systems and jails just like any other. I'll take you home myself and see that you get inside safely."
"Funny. Usually when a man offers to take me home he offers to do more than just lock me up for the night," Mayor Tutto said.
"Ask me to stay and see what I can do for you behind a locked door." Jim gazed down at her, smiling.
"So...after flirting with me all night, you are serious?"
"When I want someone, I don't play. Do you want me, Aurelia?"
"Yes," she admitted, "but you're young; there are things you don't understand."
"So teach me, gorgeous." Jim eased his Midwestern inflection back into his speech; the regional accent had charmed even the most world-weary people. "I promise you, I learn quick. Or slow, if you like it better that way."
Mayor Tutto rested her hands on his broad chest. She'd meant to stop him from moving closer, but now she changed her mind. He felt warm and solid and good.
Jim bent his lips to her ear. "When this situation's over, take me to your place and let me show you what I already know. I'll make it good for you. I've been told that I'm pert' near a prodigy."
"No modest men in Starfleet!"
"Got nothing to be modest about. That'll be to your advantage." Jim winked at her.
"Hard body, hard head."
"Hard body, huh? So you were checking me out earlier."
When had Jim put his hands on her hips? "Let me go before somebody sees us like this," she said reluctantly. Jim did, immediately.
"Why do you pursue me, Jim?" Mayor Tutto asked.
"You're smart and beautiful. Why not? Also, we've got something in common. You're a Mayor, I'm a Captain. We lead. Sometimes I want to be with someone who likes me, not just my title. You probably know how that feels, right?" he replied. "Soon I hope that you'll ask me a different question. Like 'Can we do that again?'"
Jim pulled his communicator from his belt, tapping in a request for Security to join them. "This is Captain Kirk. Please dispatch two Enterprise security officers to my location immediately and notify local police that I will escort the Mayor to her home office."
The communicator chimed a confirmation tone. "Aye, Captain. We'll be there on the double."
"Thank you. Kirk out." Jim ended the transmission.
Aurelia Tutto shook her head. "Do all Iowa farms grow such wild creatures as you? Jim, you aren't even afraid that your men will guess you're seducing an older elected official!"
"You admit that I'm seducing you? Good." He amped the Kirk Smile up from lustful to dazzling. "Still worried about what people think? Let's make the age difference work for us. We can sneak off for hours to play and they'll just think we're having tea and discussing the Federation."
He gently stroked a finger along the side of her face, then down the part of her shoulder bared by her evening dress. "Just you wait, Mayor. We're gonna have a right fine time, you and me."
…
A rural road outside Port Town
Small town people were trusting fools. Steap didn't even have to hack the transport vehicle's mapping system because its owner used no password. Alpha Cachette's people were pushovers, distracted by their silly vulva worship. Steap got alternate directions back to the beach cabins on a lightly traveled road.
He looked down at his bloody sleeve, annoyed. Unfortunately he hadn't found any spare shirts at the medical clinic. His escape route involved flying and beaming through four different spaceports and he had little time to buy new clothing. The rest of the crew was probably in the town center, distracted by the incident at the Medical Building; if he hurried, he could grab some clothes and leave for the farmhouse unobserved.
...
At the Beach Cabins
Outer Port Town
Nyota knew it was risky to return to the beach cabins during the state of emergency, but it was difficult to participate in a search party in formal wear. Reluctantly, Spock allowed her and other crew members to return to change clothes. Nyota returned to the cabins with Charlene Masters, Ensign Carmelita Miranda, and the young Vulcan Stelen, who insisted upon volunteering his protection. The other apprentice, Serran, was nowhere to be seen; nor was Gaila. Wondering if either knew of the disturbance, Nyota wrote a quick message and sent it to Gaila's communicator.
In sunlight, the long rows of pastel-colored cabins were cheerful. After dark, the winding paths and bunches of tall, swaying grass seemed to hide shadowy figures, despite the presence of solar cell-powered lights. The group kept their voices low and phasers ready.
They moved as a unit to each woman's cabin so that she could change into her uniform and boots. Stelendos flushed deep green as Charlene changed behind her bedroom door, almost tortured by the soft sounds of her removing her dress and donning her uniform.
"I'm ready, ladies – and gentleman." Charlene emerged, phaser and other gear on her belt, looking determined. She casually patted Stelen on the shoulder. His eyes widened, but Charlene didn't even turn around.
She doesn't know. Nyota bit her lip, frowning. Better plan for some girl talk with Charlene...and get advice from Spock.
"I'm glad that was uneventful. Let's check on the search -" Nyota paused, her communicator in hand, as Ensign Miranda held her finger up to her lips, waving her other hand at them. Everyone froze and fell silent. Miranda quickly pulled her phaser, aimed towards the next row of cabins. There was a sound like someone kicking at broken dishes, then footseps.
Crouching low with phasers drawn, the women spread out into a defensive formation. Nyota and Ensign Miranda pressed their bodies along a cabin wall for cover. Charlene moved into the cover of a different cabin, gesturing at Stelen to keep behind her. Cautiously, they moved forward.
Charles Steap was tall; Nyota's ears told her how close he was, and she hit the ground just before he pronounced the b in "Stay back!" and fired towards them.
Following her instinct, the others also hunched down. Chips of stone and paint flew over her head as the phaser blast hit the side of the cabin, followed by another shot. The second shot went wild; he was either too agitated to shoot straight or he found it difficult for some reason. Taking a risk, Nyota adjusted the sight on her phaser and shot back, hoping to stun him. Something fell to the ground but it sounded too light to be a body.
"All!" Nyota shouted to her crewmates, and the women fired simultaneously.
"Surrender!" she yelled. Carefully, she peered around the corner, protected from Steap's view by a section of the cabin's porch. Steap hadn't been hit by her phaser but the traveling bag he'd carried lay on the ground. Fragments of the clay vulva sculpture once mounted over his cabin door were scattered as though he'd kicked them.
The sight of the broken vulva made Nyota uneasy, and she opened her mental bond with Spock to request help. Behind her, Carmelita Miranda pulled herself forward on her elbows so that she could also see.
"I can take out his phaser," she murmured to Nyota in Spanish.
"Hacerlo," replied Nyota.
Miranda aimed and shot the phaser from Steap's hand.
"Nice," Nyota whispered admiringly. She stood and shouted, "Hands up, Steap!"
He raised his hands to waist level silently, as the women advanced.
He's sizing us up, Nyota thought as Steap eyed Charlene. "I said, hands up. Higher."
"Aww, but I'm wounded," he said mockingly. Nyota saw that he had one sleeve rolled up, a patch covering part of his forearm. "Can't you see that?" he snapped.
"Watch it, Steap. Don't start none, won't be none," Charlene warned him. "Get on the ground."
Steap bent as though to comply, then lunged and tackled Charlene's legs. Stelen dove towards Steap, intending to pull him away from Charlene, but the other man pulled Charlene's phaser from her hands and fired at Stelen, stunning him. Nyota and Miranda aimed at Steap; both heard a whoosh and ducked as a bunch of colored lights flew so close to them that it struck their phasers, throwing off Nyota's shot and knocking Miranda's phaser to the ground.
The beam from Nyota's phaser went wide and hit the power unit on a nearby light, darkening the area where they stood. There was shoving and scuffling as the women tried to take down Steap. Steap had a phaser in his hand again, but she couldn't tell whose it was. He fired at Charlene, then Miranda.
"Stop!" Nyota shouted. "Starfleet already knows what you did." He laughed at her bluff. Nyota reeled under the force of a punch. She straightened up and hit back.
"Ooh, good one, Uhura," Steap sneered, and hit her again. She blocked it with her forearm, but the force made her stagger.
Years ago, her Auntie 'Chelle had insisted that all girl children in the family study martial arts. As she fought back in the darkness Nyota remembered her aunt telling her, Strike towards the sky. When moved towards her again, Nyota ducked and swung from her hips, putting her weight behind an elbow strike. She drove the blow into Steap's solar plexus as though she meant to go all the way through and reach for blue sky.
It worked. He wheezed, leaning forward, and she scurried away, her fingers searching the ground for a weapon. The bunch of colored lights circled back and sped towards her; she ducked, protecting her face, but it came so close that she felt its heat through the fabric of her uniform. Nyota gasped and tried to find shelter near the porch as the object flew over Steap's head.
The lights didn't strike him. Instead they circled, rose up, hovered, then turned and moved away from the cabin, two meters above the ground. Nyota growled in frustration as Steap turned and ran, following the drone into the darkness. She heard a transport engine start. Could she pursue him? No, she couldn't abaondon her crewmates and Stelen! At least she still had her communicator. Nyota knelt by her fallen crewmates, issuing voice commands.
"Open channel, emergency. All crew, this is Lieutenant Uhura. Ensign Steap attacked us. Assistance requested at beach cabins." Her fingers moved rapidly while she spoke, touching Charlene and Miranda's necks and arms and Stelen's side, finding pulses and heartbeats. She sensed Spock through the bond, he was relieved, but concerned.
"Steap escaped. Armed, injured, dangerous, following a drone. He's driving east in a transport. Crewmates Masters and Miranda and our guest Stelendos of New Vulcan are alive, but stunned by phaser blasts."
"Confirmed, Lieutenant. Spock already spread the alarm and is sending support. We're on our way now." Jim's voice was tense. "Be careful, Uhura, in case that drone comes back. Don't want to lose you. Kirk out."
Nyota felt fear, then guilt through the bond with Spock, followed by anger.
He hit you.
Yes, and I hit him back.
Humans often described anger as hot. Spock's anger could be very, very cold.
Honey, you know you can't hit him just because he hit me.
No, but I can give him cause for regret.
Stelen muttered a few swear words in a colloquial form of Vulcan as he regained consciousness. He turned his head, saw Charlene lying on the ground a few meters away, and made a sorrowful sound as he embraced her.
"Stelendos, nam'uh hayal (be calm)," Nyota said in Vulcan. "Charlene was stunned by the phaser, just as you were. The crew is coming with medical help. Are you well?" Although the young Vulcan's background seemed to include a few rough years, Nyota suspected he was more familiar with fist fights than phaser blasts.
Blinking, Stelen turned to Nyota. "Yes, Okosu Uhura. I am well. Is Okosu Miranda also safe?"
"Yes, looks like she's coming around now." Nyota helped Ensign Miranda to sit up, supporting her with an arm around her shoulders.
Stelen sat on the ground next to Charlene and lifted her into his lap, brushing dirt and small stones from her hair. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead. "Charlene, t'nash-veh kyi'i marom-veh (my brave fine one), awaken," he whispered in Vulcan.
Nyota was intimately familiar with the sound of Vulcan endearments. She turned her head to see Stelen embracing the groggy engineer. Curtained beneath the fall of his hair, Stelen did not see her surprised expression.
The warm touch was soft, but Charlene responded. "I'm all right," she murmured. "Where's Steap?"
"Gone. You are safe with me. Enterprise crew come with help."
"Scotty too?"
Stelen hesitated. "I do not know." Why Charlene did ask for her workplace supervisor? Perhaps she was truly dedicated to her work aboard the ship. Humans did not always like being spoken to directly, Donstelralth had told him once. What was the Standard word? Hint, suggest that Charlene consider the safer alternative of life outside Starfleet.
"Charlene, New Vulcan is at most times more peaceful than this."
She responded with a wry smile. "I'll bet it is! You have a very dry sense of humor at times, Stelen. I think that I can stand up now. Thanks for helping me." She stroked his face. Stelen responded with a mumble, and stood up with her in his arms.
EnsignMiranda exchanged a look with Nyota.
"We'd better take cover in case that drone returns, though I doubt it will," Nyota said loudly. "Charlene's cabin is closest."
A few members of the Enterprise crew arrived just then; Stelen reluctantly set Charlene down. Scotty leapt out of a transport vehicle and hurried over to them, accompanied by Dr. M'Benga.
"Everyone all right?" Scotty asked. "Charlene?" His hands opened and closed, as though he wanted to reach for her. Aware of the gaze of others, he didn't. "Miranda, Stelen? P'raps a bit more adventure than ye bargained for, eh, lad?"
"Yes. Much more."
Dr. M'Benga went over each of them with a small medical scanner. "Everyone's clear. Get rehydrated immediately – we brought liquids in the transport."
"What about Steap and the drone?"
Scotty grinned. "There's a chase afoot, Lieutenant. Captain Kirk and Spock are leading it now. Once that lady he stole the transport from calmed down, she remembered that she'd installed a tracking device on the transport he stole. Spock relayed permission for you to join this search, Lieutenant Uhura."
"You know I'm on it. I want to catch him."
Charlene returned her phaser to its holster and looked at Scotty. "Requesting permission to accompany your search team, Engineer Scott."
Scotty gave her an admiring look. "Lieutenant, you're always welcome on my team. Miranda?"
"Yes, sir. He's as good as caught already."
"Onward then, ladies! Try to leave enough of him intact for us to give to Starfleet. Stelen, please join crew in one of the transports; you're still under Starfleet protection and perhaps we shouldn't leave you here alone now, eh?" Satisfied that he hadn't sounded particularly possessive of Charlene, Scotty exhaled in relief as the group loaded into two separate transport vehicles and left the area.
...
A rural area outside Port Town
Steap sped along the dark roads into the countryside, trying to ignore the throbbing in his arm. The drone flew overhead for a few minutes, then zoomed forward and vanished. Good. The drone made him uneasy, even though it had prevented his capture by Uhura and the others. Circumstances were finally turning in his favor at last. The aliens must have finally realized he could ruin them, and that was why they'd sent the drone. Really, the aliens should have been in his service all along.
The farmhouse looked old and vacant. Pole-mounted utility lights cast a harsh glow over empty wheelbarrows and unplanted fields. Behind the house Steap saw a long, gleaming ship. The ship hardly looked big enough to house all of the different aliens he'd communicated with during the past several weeks. No welcoming party? No problem, he only wanted payment.
"I'm here now. Where are you?" Steap looked around the farmhouse's large central room, seeing only dim rounded shapes. No response. He'd make those aliens pay if they'd ripped him off. "Computer, lights on."
Steap's mouth fell open as he surveyed the odd scene in front of him. Wigs, false beards, fake teeth, and several sets of clothing lay spread over a large table. A few meters away, a camera linked to a computer faced a large humanoid figure made from metal and carved wood. It looked familiar.
Multiple sets of transport wheels ground to a halt outside the house. A phaser blast tore open the front door and additional blasts forced open the windows. Steap pulled the phaser from his belt and whipped around.
Burly Starfleet redshirts, Uhura with phaser in hand, even Masters and Miranda? Spock and Kirk backing them up, too. Where were the aliens?
Miranda, eyes narrowed, watched his hands. Charlene Masters aimed her phaser right at his chest. The hard look she gave him made it clear that there would be no second chance with her.
"Drop your phaser, Ensign Steap." Nyota watched him carefully through the sight of her phaser "You are now in special custody of Starfleet."
"Oh, I beg to differ, Lieutenant...Uhura, if I recall correctly, based upon Charles' reports?" The voice was pleasant, almost melodious.
A short, white-robed figure stood in the doorway on the opposite side of the large room. Beside it rested a massive, cannon-like gun on wheels. The gun was aimed at her and the crew.
"Starfleet people, I must please request that all of you drop your weapons. Steap now belongs to me, you see."
Thank you for reading! There may be less of a delay before the next chapter, work schedule & health permitting. Please take a moment to comment if you like.