Chapter 70 - Springing Traps
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Sorenson paused as they walked along the hall to flip open his tricorder and set the scanner. Grey was walking just behind point, 'listening' for anyone who might notice them in the all-but abandoned guest housing wing of the station. She'd been bored enough watching him 'play with the techie toy' that she'd teased him and now that she was all business, he was a little tempted to think something decidedly unprofessional and see if she reacted. But she needed to concentrate and she was frankly concentrating too much on him already. (Yeah, and not in the way we'd like her to. ... Shut up, Erik).
She glanced back and he gave her a small smile, thinking very hard of looking for any trace of a signal similar to the Klingon source they'd found in the last device. She nodded just as he felt Spock's presence at his shoulder. Between the two of them, he was beginning to feel like a straying sheep herded by two determined border collies. They both certainly had the stare down.
He adjusted the tricorder, letting the group move slightly ahead. Spock stood waiting. "Have you found something?"
"Just checking." He glanced over. "You don't have to be quite so on guard. I'm a little fractured, but I'm basically still me," he whispered. "I promise I won't morph into Mr. Hyde."
Slanted eyebrows inched upward. "I had no expectation of any such radical transformation."
"Good. Then you can stop watching me like that." He grinned a little. "You're going to make Ms. Uhura worry we're gay."
One eyebrow edged a little higher, but there was a tell-tale twitch at the corner of the Vulcan's mouth. "I doubt very much that that is likely."
Allen smiled at him and resumed walking. "I'm glad for you, by the way. And if you don't propose to her soon, your sanity is more questionable than mine."
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Kirk watched as Sorenson uncoupled his PADD from the access board. "Okay. I've disabled the alarm on the lock."
"The tricorder indicates no life signs within." Spock reported. "However, as such signs can be masked, I would advise caution."
Jim looked at Selina. She shook her head. "I detect no mind within, but that also can be masked."
"Baker, Ramirez - you watch the hall." Kirk drew his phaser and nodded to the rest. "We enter on my signal. Formation alpha-delta. ...Now."
They sprang through the door fanning out to cover corners and interior alcoves. One by one each called 'Clear'.
Kirk exhaled and shook his head. Nothing. The place looked just like empty guest quarters. There were few things more disappointing than finding the bad guy's lair and busting in only to find the place completely unoccupied. If the lock hadn't been bugged, he'd wonder if they had the right room. "Okay. Let's have a look around."
Uhura walked to the center of the room holding up her tricorder and rotated until she was facing the left wall. She pointed. "The receiver should be in that cabinet."
The nearest ensign began to open it. Prongs of electric blue light arched with a crack sending him and the man nearest flying backward. Kirk rushed to them, checked for pulses, and snapped open his communicator. "Kirk to Enterprise. Beam Mr. Liew and -"
"Wait." Sorenson called. "If there's anything set to sense a transporter beam that could set off another booby trap."
Damn. Kirk motioned to another ensign. "Kim, help me get Liew and Moore into the hall and then get them to sickbay. Everybody else, stay where you are and don't touch anything."
Spock and Sorenson advanced cautiously toward the offending cabinet.
"Did you two not hear the captain's orders?" Selina asked pointedly.
"It's alright, Grey." Allen said, looking around. "There's no dust on top of the cabinets. Either our bad guy is total neat freak or station maintenance comes in here to clean periodically. So I'm guessing any traps are set specifically to catch snoopers."
"You are guessing?"
"A guess with a 94.7621 percent probability of accuracy in my estimation," Spock examined his tricorder. "I would also expect that whoever utilizes these quarters will have some provided some means of simultaneously disabling the traps while here."
"A logical deduction, Mr. Spock."
"Thank you, Mr. Sorenson." Spock inclined his head. "I believe I have a faint energy signature. Shall we triangulate?"
Sorenson flipped open his own tricorder and the two began to move slowly in opposite directions. After a moment, Spock looked up from his instrument and pointed toward a small side table near the door. Sorenson nodded and he, Spock and Kirk went to examine the area. Kirk dropped to his knees and looked under the table. "Hey, there's a button here." He pushed it.
A muffled static sounded briefly in the room. Spock and Sorenson exchanged a look. Sorenson raised an eyebrow. "And your doctor thinks I'm crazy."
"In fairness, he does hold the same opinion of the captain." Spock observed.
"C'mon, what else could that button have been for?" Jim asked.
"You mean something like an alarm or maybe self-destruct?" Selina asked sarcastically. "Len is right about both of you." She looked at Spock. "And you are not much better."
"She has a point about the alarm." Allen said. "When SI sets up an operations room, there's always at least a log of whenever security systems are activated or deactivated."
"I still show no transmissions out of this room." Uhura reported. "But it could be masked or there could be a local silent alarm that's hardwired."
Kirk turned to the remaining security officers. "Parks, tell Baker and Ramirez to take points further down the hall. You and Kim watch the door, but take positions a couple doors down. If someone comes this way, I want them to think security is interested in a different room."
"Let's take a look at that cabinet." Sorenson said, flipping it open.
"Faf!"
He held his hands up. "All clear."
Selina gave him an exasperated look. "It is not all clear. I still cannot 'hear' in this room."
"If you will allow me this time?" Spock examined the device inside somewhat more cautiously before touching its control panel. The screen brightened, but remained stubbornly locked.
"Give me a minute." Sorenson hooked his PADD to the data ports, while Kirk and Uhura joined them for a closer look.
Uhura smiled as a small longboat flashed on the PADD screen and then turned her attention to the attached comm equipment. "The components all look like Federation technology, but I've never seen anything quite like this before."
"I have." Sorenson's beard bristled as he turned away, beginning to open other cabinets and pull out items. "SI equipment - most of this other stuff is too." He slammed the side of the nearest cabinet and then shook his hand.
Selina put a hand on his shoulder. "Maldi has captured an SI before. This equipment might simply have been taken from him."
"Maybe." Kirk said thoughtfully. "Or maybe this Bubnova coming to get Maldi is just a little too timely."
"Bubba is my least favorite SI, but I can't believe that even of him." Sorenson gave a mirthless laugh. "He wanted to get Maldi too. There's still a lot I don't recall, but I remember..."
He paused, looking down at Selina questioningly. "I remember. Even before you patched me up, when I talked to Stone, he said his name and all at once I remembered. He was furious with me for taking Volmari down first, but he wouldn't accept my data and I was not going to sacrifice another ship so he could gather more evidence." He closed his eyes.
"Faf, you must not -"
He waved her off. "We're alright, Grey."
We? Kirk watched as Spock and Selina exchanged a look. Sorenson pinched the bridge of his nose. "I mean, I am alright."
"You are overtaxed." She said firmly. "You should not be involved in this."
"Truer words were never spoken." A short, solidly built man pushed through the door and stood glaring at Sorenson.
"I'm sorry, sir." Parks said from just behind him. "He has SI ID."
"And who exactly does he claim to be?" Kirk studied the man with a scowl that would have made Bones proud.
"Anton Bubnova, Captain." he said smoothly. "Very pleased to meet you."
Kirk looked at him suspiciously. "You're a little early, aren't you?"
"Hardly. In fact, I haven't left yet. I had intended to close up shop before coming to collect my two charges."
Spock's head tilted as he examined the newcomer. "Are we to understand that this is your base of operations?"
"One of them, yes. I've spent a long time carefully working my way into Maldi's organization, earning his trust so I could bring the whole thing down, only to have this lunatic ruin it again." He narrowed his eyes at Allen. "You have no idea how much I'm going to enjoy dropping you at Albans."
Albans? Kirk looked a question at Spock, but he had resumed his excellent imitation of a stone wall. Selina's expression had also gone to granite, although there was a dangerous flash in her eyes that made Jim suspect that if her telepathy was working in here he might find himself consumed with another sudden impulse to throttle someone.
"Lunatic? Really?" Sorenson advanced on the man until he was literally towering over him. "And in that year of careful work, I don't suppose you noticed a plot to blow up a trade conference?"
"Of course, and I tried to ensure that blast would be small but it wasn't something I could blow my cover over." He stared calmly straight up at Sorenson. "For someone so keen on chess, you have a remarkably difficult time grasping the necessity of sacrificing a few pieces for the sake of the end game."
Now Kirk really did want to hit him, but he was afraid that Allen was actually going to. He noticed that Spock seemed to be positioning himself to take one or both down with a nerve pinch if necessary, but Selina moved first, wrapping a hand around Allen's arm.
Bubnova smirked, his eyes wandering over Selina. "The lady's probably saved you from another stay in sickbay, Erik. The least you could do is to introduce us."
Sorenson shifted and Selina dug her fingers into his arm so hard Kirk almost thought her nails were going to puncture the sleeve. "Don't you know her, Bubba? She's one of the game pieces you were willing to sacrifice."
"Ah, this is Ms. Chandri then." He made an attempt to take her hand and she pulled it way with a look that could have frozen the heart of a star.
"Forgive me; You're a telepath and I'm sure the interference in here is beginning to grate." he said smoothly. "You should step out. You're going to feel like you have cotton in your mental ears for some time if you stay in here too long."
She managed to express with a single elegantly arched eyebrow precisely what he could do with his interference device and his suggestion.
"You could turn it off." Spock suggested. Although his face betrayed nothing, his shoulders were tense and Jim wondered if it was bothering him as well.
"I'm afraid that's a bit complicated and there's really no reason for any of you to be in here, so-"
"Something isn't right." Sorenson said suddenly, staring at the agent.
"Of course something isn't right: you're here instead secured in a straight-jacket." Bubnova rolled his eyes. "Now, a good part of this equipment classified, so I need the lot of you to step out while I pack."
"I think we should all step out." Kirk said, signaling to Parks, who drew his phaser.
"Captain, there's no need for that." Bubnova held his hands up, but just slightly. "I understand your caution. I even commend it. But I have a schedule to keep if I'm to rendezvous with my assigned escort. We can resolve this easily enough by contacting Commodore Stone." He moved toward his comm device and saw that Uhura was examining it. "Lieutenant, move away from there. That equipment is sensitive and you don't know how to use it."
"I think I do." Uhura turned, pointing her phaser straight at his chest. "And something isn't right; you're working for Maldi."
The man struck with the speed of a viper. Uhura fired, but the phaser sparked in her hand and the next thing she knew she was being thrown into Spock, who had lunged the moment the man moved. Selina dodged around them with a look that would have made a Klingon consider surrender, but the man pressed something on his console and she and Spock both fell clutching their heads.
Kirk saw red and he was pretty sure it was his own reaction this time. He launched himself, heedless of Sorenson's yell and Parks clutching a scorched hand while calling for the rest of the security squad. Just as he hit him, the man pulled a short wand from his sleeve, slamming it into Jim's gut. Pain exploded through him like nothing he'd ever felt before. He grabbed at the wand and saw a blade appear Bubnova's other hand.
Sorenson swung his tricorder like a mace, smashing the wand, but the man caught the strap and pulled him off balance, ramming his knife into Allen's shoulder. He drove him against the cabinet, twisting it in. "You never could fight without a computer, could you Cerveny?"
Jim rolled, gasping in relief, and looked up, orienting himself for another lunge. Selina was doubled over in pain and Spock was crawling across the floor with the expression of someone resisting a bore drilling through his skull. Uhura had grabbed something with a wicked barb from one of the cabinets and was turning toward Bubnova with a look like Murder Incarnate as the security force poured around her.
"I wouldn't," Bubnova warned, placing a hand on his console, "unless you'd like to see blood coming out of the Vulcan's ears and Ms. Chandri's."
"Stop!" Kirk ordered. "We'll give you Maldi and you can take me as a hostage. Just let everyone else go."
The man laughed. "You can keep Maldi. I've no further use for him. I'll be taking Ms. Chandri." He smiled evilly at Sorenson. "You'll talk to save her, won't you, Erik?"
Sorenson looked up wild-eyed. "She calls me Fafhrd." He threw his head back and howled. "Teq ghuHm!"
Bubnova stared at him in shocked surprise. "You really are cracked."
A short high-frequency buzz sounded, followed by a crackle of static from the console. As Selina and Spock began to shake off its effects, Bubnova looked up to see Uhura smirking at him, tricorder in hand. Kirk hit while he was still distracted, smashing a combination punch to face and gut. As he fell back, Sorenson grabbed his PADD with his working hand and cracked it across the man's skull. "Computers make damn good weapons Bubba."
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As security dragged Bubnova away, Selina moved to Fafhrd's side and knelt beside him, shaking her head. His right arm hung useless, almost nailed to a cabinet by a stiletto. He reached over to her with his good hand. "I was afraid he hurt you. You should have stayed on the ship."
"A strange sentiment coming from you." She looked pointedly at his blood-stained shoulder. "You were supposed to avoid ill-advised heroism."
"You're the one who tagged me Fafhrd..."
She frowned just enough to make it clear that if he wasn't injured, she'd smack him.
"I'll be okay. Spock's making sure there aren't any other nasty surprises before they try to beam me out. The bleeding's mostly stopped and I think there's some sort of paralytic on the blade. I can't even feel it." He grinned a little. " 'Just a flesh wound'."
"You are not the Black Knight." She tugged the edge of his beard. "What am I going to do with you?"
He smiled at her playfully, but after a moment looked concerned. "Are you alright?"
"I seem to have the telepathic equivalent of noise-induced hearing loss. It should resolve in an hour or so."
He cupped her cheek in his hand. "So you can't tell what I'm thinking at all right now?"
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"Okay, I think we're set." Kirk turned back toward Allen and stopped. The fingers of his good hand were laced in Selina's hair and she was holding his face in both hands, kissing him in a careful but decidedly more-than-friendly manner.
Jim looked at Spock, but he seemed to have developed a sudden fascination with ceiling tiles. Uhura, however, was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Damn. He should have been working on the friendship thing with her too.
No, wait. There was probably another explanation. Sting? No, Bubnova was gone. Thank you? He had clued Uhura in on how to shut down whatever was hurting her and Spock. Come to think of it, Allen had taken a blade meant for him, so being jealous right now was probably not cool.
...On the other hand Bones would be pissed if he delayed getting an injured man to sickbay. Jim cleared his throat.
They released each other and Sorenson looked up with a smile much broader than appropriate for someone with a knife in his shoulder. "I've always wondered what that would be like."
Jim stifled a laugh at the perplexed look on Spock's face.
"Fafhrd." Selina scolded.
He gave her a thoughtful look. "Strangely, I think I like the other way better."
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AN:It runs against the usual ST trope, but just once being Vulcan and/or having abilities beyond the normal human had to be a disadvantage.
Teq ghuHm - Klingon for 'remove alarm'. Sorenson's Klingon is marginal, but Uhura still got the message.
