A/N: I wish all of you a Happy New Year! May it bring us joy and happiness, and health, mostly that. I hope we finally manage to put a stopper to this global pandemic. Stay safe!

Disclaimer: Star Trek and all its characters belong to Paramount Pictures. Carrie belongs to author Stephen King but the words are mine. The characters of the Four Orders (FO*) are entirely my own.

**Time runs in a linear manner – day/month/year

Requested Story by T-Rex-1000

Part Two:

AU/Multiple Star Trek Shows/Carrie: Having become part of 24th century, Carrie White is enlisted in the clandestine organization Section 31 to help protect the Federation from a looming threat that has the power to change Starfleet's future forever.

Chapter 17

45965.65 (19.12.2368) **

Holliday Special – Part One

'Frère Jacques, Frère Jacques, dormez-vous, dormez-vous ?'

A large log fell and hit the two straight into their faces making them lose balance and fall on their backs. They groaned in pain but that did not stop them from setting the pain aside and getting quickly back to their feet. Only to be struck with another log. This time they fell and did not get up.

That log was in the hands of a man. He smiled satisfied and exclaimed, "Starfleet. Merry Christmas, you filthy animals!"

He walked away and the projection ended.

Carrie stood speechless. Moments later, she asked. "Who's that?"

"That," The Professor said. "That is your target."

"What do you want me to do?"

"He has something we need. I have been trying to obtain it for a very long time."

"And that something is what exactly?"

"It is an intuitive predictive algorithm."

"What? That's it? Some math equation?"

"It is a sophisticated software that can provide insight into complex situations. Fed constantly with intel received from various sources, it draws predictive models of behavior that can assist with our missions."

"Isn't that the job of people?"

The Professor smiled. "It is a tool to assist with decisions. It doesn't make decisions for us."

"And you have nothing that can do that?"

"We did once but it developed a mind of its own and nearly cost us everything."

"Well, that's what you get for trusting a single source…"

"Humans are known for being this narrow minded." The Professor reminded. "The use of Monotheistic religion is common for most humans and the other member worlds. Putting our faith in a single mind, a single force…"

"I am not sure that qualifies. God is divine and…"

"And only one," The Professor said. "But even God requires the assistance of Angels. And this algorithm, for us, is the angels."

Carrie was amazed at how the Professor's logic untangled. The man himself did not believe in such silly things as gods, devils or angels but used it well to his advantage.

She looked again at the figure in the recording. The man was tall but averagely built. He had vivid green eyes and wore a brown robe with a hood. There was a playful flame in his eyes. She liked him.

"Where is he?"

The Professor smiled and passed her the data pad. Carrie took it and looked at it. She blinked twice and wondered if the Professor was not making one of his jokes. The planet was called Christmas.

"Seriously?"

The Professor did not reply. He only walked away leaving her to study her mission and her target. She got the hang of being a spy these past few months. There were bumps along the way but she had a knack for it. He was very satisfied with her performance. The others were too. She quickly made friends with the other operatives.

It was not something that was usually encouraged. The spy business is a dangerous one but it helps when you can count on people. And they were a tight community. Also, it did not help the fact that they were playing a double game within the structure of the Federation Section 31. But everyone did their job and the balance of it was maintained.

Carrie left immediately. She did not want to waste any time. On the way, she studied the pad she was given. It contained information mostly on the object to retrieve and the dossier of her target, which was somewhat incomplete. She used the public database to get more information but it was also scarce.

It was a bit unsettling to jump into a mission she knew almost nothing about her target. Of course, part of her job was to deal with such situations. Still, she had very little experience of such situations.

So far, her missions contained ample information on her targets so she could prepare adequately but this one was different. She had to dig onsite for her target and do it somewhat covertly. She did not want to alarm her target of her intentions.

She used the travel time to relax and rest as she had seen very little of it lately. It seemed she jumped from one mission to another just to avoid living a normal life. But then again what is normal these days anyway?

She kept in touch with Ella. She had left the Enterprise and returned to Earth but Carrie had not had the opportunity to go and visit her. Still, they wrote to each other. Ella, now able to walk freely, had found a job in a botanic garden. Lastly, she had written that she got herself a Ktarian boyfriend and she seemed eager to show him to her.

Carrie had dozed off at some point. Her destination was located somewhere near the Neutral Zone. It was somewhat newly discovered and had a sparce population. She did not get much from the guide as there was little information on it.

It was a bit unsettling to go somewhere without any information about it. She had gotten used to knowing things since the Federation database contained almost everything. In a way she felt a bit helpless as she did back in her own time. On the other hand, she felt relieved as knowing too much was not good either. It removed the joy of discovering things.

"Ms. White,"

Someone gently poked her. She opened her eyes. It was the ship's captain.

"We have arrived. I have prepared the shuttle. It contains the coordinates for the landing zone."

"Ah, what, right, yes thank you," She had asked the captain to make all the necessary preparations once they reach their target. She had to board a commercial transport and she had to bring her own shuttle but she paid generously hence the personal treatment.

"Good luck,"

"Thank you, Captain Mendez. It is most appreciated."

"I have input the travel logs so you can find your way back to Earth."

"Thank you,"

She dressed and headed to her shuttle. Her luggage was already in. People are generally nicer when you pay them. She started the pre-flight sequences and soon the shuttle left the ship and headed for the planet.

Planet Christmas was classified as an M class planet though it looked smaller than Earth and was covered mostly in snow. Carrie looked at the screen and followed the instructions for the landing path that was somewhere around the upper north axis of the planet.

"Fitting," She murmured. In a way she was going to the North Pole. As a little girl, she had managed to see images of Santa Claus and knew that he lived there. On Christmas Eve, he would get into his sleigh and deliver gifts to children all over the world. The good ones would get the most wonderful ones while the naughty only coal.

"Still nothing, weird planet," she said as she got lower. The weather was dreadful as there were only clouds and she relied only on sensors.

Soon enough the clouds cleared and she saw the ground. It was fluffy white with high peaks and rolling hills.

"Now, where is the landing pad?" She wondered. The instructions she got hopefully would lead her to it. But everything was white and she hoped the pad was not of the same color otherwise it would be impossible to see it.

As she got closer to the ground, she altered course when she finally saw the pad. It was barely distinguishable. She maneuvered the shuttle over it and landed gracefully. She powered down and got her bag.

On the way out, she saw a woman in weird green attire waiting for her.

"Welcome to Whoville!"

'Welcome to what?' Carrie repeated mentally and shivered as it was damn cold.

"This way," The green lady said.

She followed her down some stairs that she would have never even noticed if not shown. The temperature drastically changed as they entered the greeting area. She felt the warmth of the heating lamps posted on each side of the entrance.

Why would anyone choose to live on this snowball? That was beyond her. Still her target was on this planet and she had to find him but first she needed to settle in and get in a hot tub. She had packed for cold weather she just did not expect it to be this cold.

"Room for one, for 7 days," she said as she approached the front desk. The walk to her hotel from the landing pad was very short. As this was a relatively new planet, the settlers had not gone far from the site they had chosen for landing. "And a hot tub,"

The hotel had several floors and some outdoor buildings, best described as igloos or domed villas. She was led to one of the domed villas. It was huge. One room was bigger than her entire house on Earth and it had several. She felt like a princess.

She left her bag and had the bellhop deliver the rest of her luggage from her shuttle. As the bellhop left, she explored her villa. It had everything one could dream of and more – large bedrooms, bathrooms, terraces, swimming pool and the dreamt hot tub. This was one of the perks for working for Section 31.

She immersed herself in it as soon as she tipped the bellhop. The warmth of the water and the aroma from the bubbly soaps made her drift. This was the life. If her mother could see her now, she would die of jealousy.

She enjoyed herself for some time and then it was time to get to work. She dressed up taking into account the inhospitable weather outside, and the appropriate gear for stakeout. She started asking around for the man in her recording and soon learnt where she could find him. He lived several miles away from the main settlement, deep into the forest hills.

She got herself a snowmobile and proceeded to her target. She shook off some of the advice she had been given. Most people considered the man living there to be a hermit and a loony maniac.

The reports from the previous Starfleet officers that had visited that man suggested he is extremely hostile or inhospitable. But there were not many details as to why. The only thing she found were the medical reports that suggested bruised ribs, bumps on the head, and some frost and heat burns. She had wondered how that happened as the officers themselves had not disclosed that information. This led her to be cautious in her approach to the dwelling of the crazy, reclusive hermit.

She reached the target coordinates several hours later. Her target was a house, very much like any other American house – with wide driveway leading up to a garage door, then a small pathway to the left leading to stairs – one to the main door and a second one to the basement, and another path leading to the back door. It was pretty straight forward. It seemed easy enough. There was also a small hill behind the house, probably overlooking the nearby forest.

At the place, she had reached there were small islands of trees that provided some cover. So, she moved in their direction to set up. She took her gear out. She made the tent and placed the plasma lamp inside to get it warm. She used the camouflage blanket to cover the tent so it would like a snow mound.

Carrie only hoped that the host of the house actually exited it every now and then otherwise her stakeout could take longer than she hoped she would need. She already longed for the coziness of her villa but she had come to do a job and she was going to do it.

The provisions she got were appropriate for the season – gingerbread, chocolate and lots of cookies, and some marshmallows for the fire she wanted to lit at some point. She never had such pleasure while growing up but she intended to indulge. And of course, hot coco, it was the nectar of the gods of Christmas.

For the next few days, she observed the house. The owner of the house did get out. He chopped wood, stood hours to observe his surroundings, went down in to the basement, though Carrie did not see what he did in there, shoveled the extra snow, played with his dog in the backyard, all in all pretty normal activities.

She wondered why then it was that difficult for the others to obtain the information that was needed. She needed of course to get inside the house but the problem was the man did not leave it even for a moment. He was always around the house. That meant she had to find another way in. But with so little neighbors or even people on this planet, it was easy to assume that the man had no friends and therefore no reason to leave.

She figured he must, at some point, leave to get new provisions. She could not see that house having all for the entire winter season. That was provided, the winter was not the only season and if so, that would be a problem.

Still, the man went to bed every night at the same time, around 2200 hours and woke up at 0600 sharp. That provided her with a window of 8 hours to locate the information. As it was an algorithm she sought, she imagined it would be either on a computer console, a pad or some other portable device.

The day before Carrie had the chance to move near the house and look for her target information. She remained outside the house as her tricorder indicated the presence of a force field around the house, which she did not to disturb. Still looking from the windows, she got the layout of the house and was able to identify potential places where the package could be.

She used the time to study the defenses of the house so when the time came for her to penetrate them, she would not raise any alarms. For a reclusive hermit, the man had some piss-poor defenses. So, the only thing she needed to bypass was the force field. She also thought about beaming inside the house directly however she noticed a device that prevented such tricks.

The most important for her was the conversation she overheard when he returned. He was expected at the Christmas party tomorrow so he was going to be away for sure. That gave her plenty of time to access the house and find the information.

She returned to her tent and from there back to her hotel. She needed some things with which to disable temporarily the force field so she can enter and find what she came for and then exit and none will be the wise.

She also needed to freshen up and have a good rest before the heist. So, she indulged into the various activities her villa offered. She also visited the town and joined the festivities so to maintain her cover.

Dec 24th 2368 (45980.19)

Carrie arrived at her stakeout camp. She wore a camouflage vest to easily blend in with the surrounding environment. She expected the owner of the house to leave shortly for the Christmas party down at the original settlement. She was ready to storm the house, penetrate it and find what she came here for.

An hour later, the man left his house and headed to the settlement. Carrie of course had to wait for a bit before proceeding to the house. She wanted to make sure the man had not forgotten something.

"Right," she said to herself. She proceeded out of the tree line and headed for the house. The driveway was just as wide and welcoming as yesterday. She set foot on it and proceeded to the stairs. Sadly, she had made just a few steps when she sensed losing her balance and then falling on her bum. The sensation of hitting the stone driveway was most unpleasant. She slid until the mouth of the driveway.

She picked herself up. Touching the area where she had fallen brought additional pain. How did she not notice that the driveway was completely frozen and insanely slippery? It must have happened during the night. The owner had definitely not noticed as he left with a hover craft. She imagined when he returned, he might as she was him park it before the driveway and then push it to the garage.

She composed herself and ventured again on the driveway trying to maintain balance as best as she could. Sadly, that meant going slower, much slower than she wanted. She had nearly reached the end when she lost balance again. She attempted to remain upwards and started running. From an outside perspective that would seem very weird and funny. In the end she lost the battle falling on her back and sliding back to her starting point.

"This is not working." She said to herself. She moved to the sides of the driveway to avoid the driveway itself as it was obvious, she would not win that battle. Walking on the side, she reached the side of the stairs. She wondered whether to go the basement and from there to the main floor or go through the main door.

"The front door, it is." She walked carefully reaching the railing of the stairs. She made just two steps and discovered how slippery the stairs were too. That mishap pushed to slip forward and landed her head on the stone stair, which jolted her backwards where unfortunately her feet were again on the driveway as she staggered. That resulted again in her being on the driveway, which in turn led her all the way down it.

"Oh, come on," she groaned in pain. She rubbed her forehead. There was a bump. She took out a mirror. "Really?" She took out the dermal regenerator and fixed it as best as she could.

She stood and this time proceeded very carefully back to the front door. She succeeded in maintaining her balance. "Finally." She took out her tricorder and disabled the force field though that took her sometime.

"I am in." Her enthusiasm had her push the front and run in the house. However, that did not have the result she had been hoping for as there was a flash of light and then she saw the opened door. As her momentum carried her out, she found herself again on the back of the house that was also very slippery. So, she glided and then losing her balance fell on the hard surface and slid with increased velocity.

That part was not as painful as the end of the road as that ended in something as sharp as a needle that penetrated her clothing and she screamed in pain. Managing to regain some degree of balance she turned to see the source of the needles. "Cactus, seriously?"

Somehow, she managed to stand up and proceeded with extracting the needles protruding from her body. That was a very painful experience. As she completed this unpleasant task, she turned around and realized she had ended up at the back of the house.

This gave her a pause as to what had transpired. She hurried inside the house then there was a light and she ended up at the back of the house. And it dawned upon her – she was teleported.

"Oh, that is low." She would have never thought anyone could come up with such a brilliant idea but that presented a problem. Now she had to find the sensors that detected her and activated the transport beam otherwise getting in the house might prove impossible.

Reaching the back door, which was now closed, she opened it and examined the frames and the floor with her tricorder. "Oh, come on!" She exclaimed frustrated as the sensors were all over the frame and the floor. Deactivating that however proved an impossible task as it became clear that the control console for that was probably inside the house.

"So, how does he deactivate it?" She wondered. Perhaps it was tied to his biosignature, which she could not simulate as she did not think she would need it. Or perhaps there was a sensor that he deactivated from a distance by inputting some kind of code.

"The basement, it is."

She circled the house until she reached the stairs to the basement. And once again, she forgot to check the stairs as they also were icy and she travelled rather quickly and painfully down them. Getting up took some time too as the floor was very icy but she managed to maintain balance.

She tried the handle of the door but it did not move. She turned and turned until she felt an invasive sensation in her butt. She looked down and saw a rubber stick protruding from the ground straight in her butthole. While it did not penetrate her clothing it certainly was trying.

She wriggled and got loose from it though that she also did slowly as moving too fast was very painful. "What kind of person does this?" She tried the handle again. This time the door opened. She sighed relieved.

She first studied the frames and the floor. She wanted to make sure there was not another transporter. As there was not, she ventured in. It was a simple basement that the owner used for repair and other small maintenance but it was dark. She used a flashlight to get her bearings and moved further in.

She noticed a cord for the light. She pulled it and wished she did not as the cord fell light and quickly fell to the ground. While she wondered, she heard a strange noise and looked up. A rectangular shape occupied her vision and it was growing fast. While she did have the idea to step aside, she simply did not have the time. The brute force with which it hit her made her hit the ground and lose consciousness…

To be continued…

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Lordheaven