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Switched

Chapter 40

"A third of a light year is a long way to transport someone," the Doctor said as the Delta Flyer soared uncloaked through space. "I had no idea such advanced transporters exist."

"They exist all right," Vic said, sitting at the helm with a mug of coffee, "and are used a lot by criminals, but are illegal as they're still in the experimental stage. Of course, that doesn't matter to men like Taron. These transporters are convenient so they use them. They've killed hundreds as sometimes they cut out mid-transport, but there's nothing much we can do to stop their manufacture as their blueprint is widely available in the underworld."

"Thank heavens it didn't cut out when they took Chakotay," the Doctor said. "Because presumably he was taken the same way. And let's hope Ms Brenton arrived in one piece."

Kathryn, who was busy monitoring the space ahead, spoke. "It's not her safe arrival I'm worried about, Doctor. It's what state she'll be in on departure."

"Then don't worry," the Doctor said. "As long as she has vital signs, the chances are I'll have her as good as new in no time." He turned to Vic. "Not to blow my own trumpet, Detective Elliot, but my skill and diagnostic ability is superior in almost every way to flesh and blood doctors. It takes the most extensive of extensive injuries for a patient to die on me."

"Well, speaking of dying," Kathryn said. "Your coffee, detective, is killing me. Doctor, would you...?"

The Doctor sighed and got to his feet. "Black coffee coming up."

"How close to the transport co-ordinates will we need to be before we can start scanning for Taron's ship?" Vic asked

"I've already initiated auto-scan," Kathryn replied, "and it will alert us as soon as it depicts a cloaked vessel."

"Then expect an alarm party," the Doctor said, manually replicating a coffee, "because I can't imagine Taron is the only villain to be flying around this space in a cloaked vessel. Surely it would be better to scan for Cayla's lifesign."

"I'm doing that too, but the chances are she's behind a security shield that makes her invisible to sensors. Our best bet of finding her is to find a cloaked ship in the area B'Elanna has traced the transport too, and then try to penetrate its security system so we can scan for Cayla. True, we're likely to pick up a lot of cloaked ships, but we'll pursue first the one closest to the co-ordinates. How long it will take to show up will depend on how long it takes for our scanners to crack its cloaking frequency."

A light flashed on the console before her and a bleep sounded.

"The chorus begins," the Doctor said.

"Which promises us success," Kathryn said, studying the find, "but this ship is too far away from the transport co-ordinates to satisfy me that it's Taron's. However, I'm logging the location and cloaking frequency of every ship, just incase we need to hunt them down later."

The Doctor handed her a cup of steaming black coffee and Kathryn took it gratefully. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Normally I'd remind you that you need to cut back, but at times such as this coffee down the hatch is better than nothing. But next time you ask, I'll make it a nutrishake."

Another bleep sounded, followed by another, but these ships were further from the co-ordinates than the last.

"If we find Cayla," Vic asked, "will we be able to beam her out? Because if we have to fight Taron for her I don't much rate our chances. He won't be traveling alone. There'll be at least another ship. And fighting for Cayla won't do much good anyway because Taron will kill her as soon as he knows we're on his trail."

"I'm hoping we can beam her out," Kathryn answered. "It depends on whether or not we can breach their shield long enough to do it. As I'm sure you know, it's impossible to transport through a shield otherwise. But don't dismiss a victory in battle just yet. When it comes to combat, it's skill that's everything, not size. And if there's one thing I've learnt in the Delta Quadrant, it's how to deal with bullies like Taron. Get him unawares and he'll be too busy trying to save his own life that he'll forget about Cayla's."

"And you haven't seen the Captain in battle," the Doctor said. "I doubt a dozen Taron's would get the better of her. She beat the Borg, you know."

"I dread Taron more than the Borg," Vic confessed. "At least the Borg fight openly. Taron always hides in the shadows. I fear the enemy I can't see more than the one I can."

"Well, Taron doesn't frighten me," Kathryn replied. "There's only one way to deal with bullies and that's to confront them."

"I just hope that if we do have to confront Taron it isn't until back-up arrives," Vic said. "Or at least until they're on their way. Because as soon as we locate Taron's ship I'm calling them. My hope is that we can beam Cayla out, flee unpursued, and leave my team to close in on Taron."

"If we cloak and flee," Kathryn replied, "Taron will flee too. Then we'll be back to square one. Taron will still be seeking Cayla and none of us will be free. We have to end this. We have to catch or be caught. Because I'm not spending the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. If all goes to plan and we're able to beam Cayla out, then we'll bait Taron into a game of cat and mouse. We'll be the cat, him the mouse."

"How?" Vic asked. "Taron never takes a bait."

"He'll take this one. Because we won't flee uncloaked at first, at first we'll cloak. Then we'll make it look like our cloak is failing and then like it's failed completely."

"Ah," Vic said. "I get it. Then he'll come after us, hoping to get Cayla back, and we'll lead him straight into the cheese trap that is my back-up team."

"Exactly," Kathryn replied.

Another bleep sounded, then another, then another, and Kathryn turned back to her console.

"This might be it," she said, "Taron's squadron. There's a large ship, in the shape of a V, moving west of the transport co-ordinates and it's flanked by two smaller ships. They're cruising at a speed of warp 2 which would have put them right at the heart of the co-ordinates at the time of transport. This has to be him, guys. This has to be Taron."

"Agreed," Vic said. "It's him. V's his mark. My God...to be this close!"

"Any sign of Cayla?" the Doctor asked.

"Not yet," Kathryn replied. "As I suspected, their shields are preventing internal scans. To penetrate them, I'm going to have to determine their frequency and that might take some time. But it's going to take us the best part of an hour to be within transporter range so we've got that time."

"I just hope Cayla does," Vic said. Tears filled his eyes. "I can't bear to think of what he's doing to her, I can't."

Kathryn could see his anguish in his eyes, in every taut line of his face, and her heart went out to him. It was obvious that despite everything that had happened between them, he was still in love with Cayla. It was obvious from the way he was risking everything to save her, from the affection in his voice when he spoke of her, but most of all from the way he looked at herself when he saw not her but Cayla. Gently, Kathryn reached out and put her hand over his. "We're going to get her back, Detective," she said. "No more doubts, no more maybes. We're going to beat Taron and we're going to get Cayla back."

END OF CHAPTER 40