Larssen came to a dead end. She stopped short,
slightly startled, for she hadn't even seen it coming
until she was only a meter or so away from the blank
wall. Thinking back, she realised she had been
walking steadily onward for a while, the little ditty
running through her head. ~One two three four five
six seven...~ she could almost hear it, even now.
On her left was another blank wall. On her right, a
door.
~Just an ordinary door.~
Which was opening.
Larssen dropped into a crouch and raised her phaser,
hands slippery with sweat and heart pounding. Through
the doorway she could see lab tables, some equipment,
a terminal. Everything was as it should be, for a
Starbase science lab. Larssen had seen enough of them
to know. They were all laid out along the same lines,
and this one was too new for its occupants to have put
any marks of individuality on it. The familiar
ordinariness of it should have been reassuring, but
instead it was surreal.
"Boiled and fried and saut ed rooting garbage..." she
whispered under her breath.
Still holding her phaser up in the approved Starfleet
Academy manner, Larssen edged forward. She wished she
had more confidence in her ability to fire at and hit
anything threatening her, but even lessons from
Shimona had been insufficient to improve Larssen's
reflexes and aim. She took another step, bringing
more of the empty room into view, and then another,
and then a third over the threshold.
~Not so empty, after all.~
A little girl sat on one of the lab benches. She had glossy
brown hair, and freckles. She was wearing a blue dress
and swung her dangling feet back and forth in the way of
children everywhere since the dawn of time.
"Everybody left me." she announced. "Except my mom.
And then she started to *smell* and she got green and
wouldn't talk any more. So I came here."
~Oh, Ifni,~ Larssen thought, not wanting to imagine what the
child had endured. Moving slowly so as not to frighten
her, she holstered her phaser and stood up. "I'm here to
help you, honey." she said. "I'm from Starfleet, and that's
what we do."
"I know." the girl said. "My name is Loretta. What's
yours?"
"Cory." Larssen said. "My name is Cory."
"Not if you're in Starfleet." Loretta said, regarding Larssen
with the oddly calm gaze of shock. "Starfleet all have
three names. Well, mostly."
"My three names are Lieutenant Corrina Larssen." Larssen
said, and took a step forward.
Into hell.
"I insist you open this door! I insist you open this door!"
"I'll have to check, sir, I'm sorry." Zharagnassidi said.
He raised his comm. "Just a moment, sir. Commander
Scott, sir?"
He never finished his request. Whittaker's phaser blast, set
to heavy stun, toppled him instantly, and the commodore
retrieved the fallen comm. and switched it off. He went to
the door and studied it.
"Computer, open door to Cargo Bay 11."
"Command authorisation required."
"Computer, Command Authorisation Commodore
Whittaker Alpha 1."
"Command authorisation inadequate."
"Command override, Commodore Whittaker Alpha 1 -
Napoleon Caesar."
"That code is sufficient." the computer said, and the door
hissed open.
Commodore Whittaker holstered his phaser, but kept his
hand resting on it just in case, as he stepped forward and
glanced around the cavernous room.
"My name is Commodore Whittaker." he announced to the
refugees sitting sullenly here and there around the bay. "I
have come to release you from your captivity."
~Nice ring to that,~ he thought, well pleased with himself.
~Mr Scott trying to keep these people locked up so they
couldn't tell their stories, indeed! Just because they'd been
witness to an Enterprise crew member's disgraceful
misconduct!~ Well, he, Jack Whittaker, was the man to deal
with that! Not to mention the fact that Captain Kirk had
left the ship and left a mere Commander as officer of
record when he, Jack Whittaker, was available!
~Well, that won't last long, either.~
Uhura took a breath and tried to swallow with a mouth as
dry as sand. "Drandin, stop that, please."
"- little lamb, little lamb. Mary had a -"
"I said *stop* it!"
"It's in my head, too, ma'am." Eclson said. "Just going
round and round - round and round - round and round the
mulberry bush -"
"Don't think about it!" Uhura said, feeling her own
thoughts catch on to the simple tune and start to echo it.
"Think about something else! Drive it out!"
"I can't, ma'am." Eclson whispered. Her eyes were distant.
"I can't. I just can't."
Uhura looked wildly around. She had managed to find half
a dozen Enterprise crew, but many of them had been
nearly catatonic, muttering meaningless gibberish or
humming to themselves and paying no attention to events
around them. As time went on, more and more were
succumbing to this syndrome, and as Uhura felt her lips
automatically forming the words to "Ba ba black sheep" at
a momentary lapse in concentration she knew that it would
not be long before she, too, was sitting in a corner staring
at her hands.
She grabbed Eclson's collar and dragged the lieutenant to
her feet. "Come on, girl! Think about something else!"
Inspiration came to her - fire with fire. "Sing! Sing
something else, something complicated."
"Like what, ma'am?" Eclson asked. "What?"
Uhura's mind went blank. She looked around at the men
and women and non-gendered persons who were her
responsibility. If only the clouds in her mind would part
and let her think clearly! It seemed impossibly hard to
remember any of her training, as if Starfleet Academy was
another time, long ago and far away, in the mists of a
semi-mythic past. Could they really be Starfleet officers,
here, where the walls wept blood? Could their ideals
mean anything, among these dark, satanic -
"Got it." she whispered aloud. "I've got it, do you hear me?
Do you hear me, whatever you are? I've got it!"
The murmuring in her ear seemed to grow louder,
alarmed, growing angry, but Uhura was smiling.
"Listen up, people. We have two months before the next
round in the massed choir sing-offs and I think now is a
good time to practice. Pay attention. And one, two three -
And did those feet, in ancient times, walk over -"