Chapter Thirteen: Eclipse
"Alright, if we're going in, we're not going in unarmed this time. Not with what we know about them now."
Charlie had taken a breath after hanging up with Kate, a sense of purpose flowing through her blood. She knew where the Black Sun's base was, and where they were holding that little girl. God only knew what they were doing to her, or why they had taken her in the first place she thought with a shudder. She turned to the crew then, her steps steady and her back straight. No more hiding. It was time to take the fight to them.
"I agree," Jim confirmed after Charlie explained the situation. "We underestimated them last time. I don't want to make that mistake again."
"Aye, but where do we get these weapons from?" Scotty asked. "Even now, most are banned, aren't they?"
"Guys, my mom works for the CIA," Charlie said matter-of-factly. "Pretty sure I can get us something. And you can still get shotguns and hunting rifles here. My question is though – do you guys even know how to shoot?"
"You're kidding me right?" Sulu glared.
"Hey, phasers don't have anything close to the recoil that a 9mm has," Charlie quickly supplied, her hands raised in surrender. "And modern weapons don't have the accuracy of phasers. This would be like me trying to use a musket."
"Charlie's right," Jim defended. "I had to use one of their weapons when we were at the base in Colorado. They're bulky, heavy, and their recoil is like a punch in the shoulder. We'd need to train with them."
"You are missing a fundamental law of our world," Spock interjected, a hint of exasperation. "Pursuant to Starfleet Order 2, no Starfleet personnel shall unnecessarily use force, either collectively or individually, against members of the United Federation of Planets, their duly authorized representatives, spokespersons, or designated leaders, or members of any sentient non-member race, for any reason whatsoever."
"Sentient is a strong term for them," McCoy argued dryly.
Spock glared at the doctor. "There is also Regulation 157, Section 3, Paragraph 18: Starfleet officers are required to take all necessary precautions to minimize any participation in historical events."
"This isn't an historical event," Charlie countered.
"That you are aware of," Spock argued.
"Yeah well Article 14, Section 31 allows for extraordinary measures to be taken in times of extreme threat," Jim added. "I'd say kidnapping a child, trying to kidnap me, attempting to kill members of my family, and sending us back in time all count as an extreme threat."
"We need to get the girl, I agree," Uhura interjected. "But we have over two hundred years' worth of knowledge on them. Can we not defeat them without sinking to their level? Isn't there a way we can incapacitate them, instead of killing them?"
"I never said we were going to kill them," Charlie snapped.
"But Uhura has a point, Spitfire," McCoy defended. "Your weapons are brutal; they tear flesh apart, rip open organs, obliterate bone. It's not pretty."
Charlie wanted to argue. Felt the anger boil under her skin. Didn't they understand? The Black Sun kidnapped a child. Destroyed the ceremony honoring hundreds of lives lost. Desecrated the very principles of the Federation. They deserved to be crushed like an ant under a boot for even attempting to hurt her family.
But then a thought wormed its way into her brain. That's not what the Federation was about. It's no longer about unnecessary war, but peace among all. Soldiers were replaced with Explores, Generals with Admirals, Nationalism with Universalism. Peace and order, not chaos and destruction. That was the Vril and Black Sun wanted to unleash. It wasn't about winning this one battle, it was about the galaxy as a whole. They needed to get the girl, and prevent the Black Sun from succeeding in whatever plan it was they had. But they needed to do it in a way that kept their principles alive, and that meant the Black Sun's members were to keep their life.
"Fine, then how do we do it?" Charlie posed. "We don't have phasers set to stun. We only have one tricorder that can emit one stun blast and we're done. We don't know how many we're going against, and their weapons will not be set to stun. They want me dead. So how do we stop them without anyone losing their life?"
"Who's to say you don't have phasers?" Sybok spoke softly, drawing the attention to him.
"Wait, are you saying you have phasers? Our century weapons?" Jim barked.
"I have a Vulcan ship," Sybok answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Do you honestly think I would take it into one of the most dangerous centuries in Terran history without being fully equipped? As my brother would no doubt say, that would be illogical."
"Thanks for holding out on us—" Charlie muttered.
"Fully equipped?" McCoy spoke next, his attention becoming alert as his head lifted up from where it rested on his hand. "Do you have a fully stocked medical bay?"
"I do, Doctor."
"Well that changes things," McCoy added, seeming almost giddy. "Let's go get those sons of bitches."
"We need a plan," Uhura cut it as the captain made to stand. He paused, then lowered himself back onto the wooden chair at Uhura's stern stare.
"Preferably one where we know how to get in and get out," Sulu mumbled.
"Hey, we got out of the base," Charlie argued.
"Did you plan on the way we got out?"
"Yes." Sulu raised his brows while Uhura sent her pointed glare. "Ish."
"We need information to formulate a predictable encounter," Spock spoke from the corner. "I agree with Mr. Sulu, we need to develop the appropriate response including entering, locating the child, dispatching of those who have held her captive, and then exiting. There are many variables we do not know."
"Sounds like we need to do some recon," Charlie nodded, a plan already forming in her mind. She turned to Jim, "May I?"
He gestured to the others, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms across his chest. "Go ahead."
"Cool, Scotty, you and Sulu work on getting the schematics of the address that Kate sent me. Hacking into Edinburgh's zoning database should be easy-peasy for you. We should know where the weak points are on the walls, if they have any sewer access we can utilize, hell if they have a damn backdoor. Sulu, you know what points I'm looking for. I want to know where they'd hide, and how we can one up them."
"You got it, Lassie," Scotty said, his stare hard and his eyes resolute. He knew what Charlie did, they were in his territory now.
"I'll make sure there's no corner they can hide in we don't know about," Sulu added.
"Awesome," Charlie grinned. "Uhura, can you and Spock use the hamm radio again? See what chatter you can pick up. I want to make sure they don't move the girl before we get there – or what they're planning."
Uhura had a smirk on her face as Charlie began, enjoying not having Kirk in charge for once. "We'll get on it."
"That'll leave Jim, Bones, and I to check out the ship for supplies and weapons." Charlie turned to Sybok, a smirk on her face. "Ok, brother of Spock. Where's your ship?"
"Why did you have to hide this thing at the bottom of the lake like some damned Loch Ness Monster?" McCoy growled as the Vulcan ship rose from the depths of the water in front of the cottage. Jim, McCoy, and Charlie stood on the shore as the water cascaded off its red hull, the U shaped warp nacelles extended out like tusks on a warthog with its nose sharp and angled like a dagger. It hovered with barely a sound, floating in the air as if lighter than a feather. Sybok glanced back at his ship, the back hatch open and waiting for the others to enter and take inventory.
"Where else should I put it, Doctor?" Sybok asked, his tone patronizing as he turned back to McCoy. "I'm afraid it doesn't quite fit on the drive."
"Will this thing even fly in space after you've kept it rusting like a submarine?"
"While this ship may be older than your Enterprise, she's as strong as any in the fleet," Sybok responded dryly, his arms folding behind him like his brother. "Now, are we going to ogle at her, or are you going to retrieve the items you need? I don't like to keep her out during the daylight; we wouldn't want to locals catching wind of her."
They entered the ship, the floors reflective of the geometrical walls. There didn't seem to be one right angle in the ship, everything in hexagonal or pentagonal shapes similar to the patterns on Sybok's chest. The computer displays were opaque unlike the Enterprise's clear panels and the information ran in Vulcan, streaming upwards in similar fashion to Japanese.
"You know, I've always wondered what these things looked like on the inside," McCoy remarked as they walked the walls.
"Never been in a Vulcan cruiser, Bones?" Jim asked, surprised, turning to McCoy.
"Never had a reason too," the doctor shrugged, turning the corner following Sybok. "Makes me appreciate the Enterprise that much more."
"Scotty will be happy to hear it," Jim grinned.
"Well, Doctor," Sybok announced as they stopped in front of a door. "This is the medical area. Take what you need." He entered a code and the door opened. "If you two will follow me." He turned without seeing if Jim and Charlie followed and continued down the hall. A twist here, a turn there, and they found themselves entering the armory. Vulcan phaser rifles and handheld phasers hung along the walls, along with a few Lirpas, the Vulcan version of a spear.
"Will this be sufficient?" Sybok asked, although by his smirk they knew he already had the answer.
"I mean, a couple phase cannons would be nice—" Charlie tried, unable to keep a straight face. Jim just rolled his eyes.
"How are we going to get this to Edinburgh?" Charlie asked once she took stock of how much was there.
"How about how are we getting ourselves there?" McCoy asked as he walked into the weapons room, his arms laden down with tools.
"Never thought I'd be this happy to see a hypospray," Jim remarked with grimace.
Bones grinned. "Let's hope I don't have to use it."
"Right," Charlie said, thinking. She glanced over the ship when an idea came. "Hey Sybok, you're probably going to hate this but—"
"You said that the Black Sun stole a child from our timeline, correct?" Sybok interrupted.
Charlie caught Jim and McCoy's eye. "Yeah."
"You may use the ship to get her." Charlie blinked, surprised by the lack of argument. "There are certain things that are reprehensible," he added, as if reading her mind. "That unlike my rule-burdened brother we must fight against. Use this ship, and all within her to retrieve the child."
"Oh, well guess I don't need to use the argument I was coming up with in my head," Charlie muttered.
"Thank you," Jim replied sincerely. He turned to Charlie and McCoy. "Let's get the others."
They waited until dark, the guise of night and the rolling clouds as a cloak to hide them from those below. The ship was silent, it's running lights switched off or hidden as they floated just above tree line and below local radar.
"Right-o," Scotty mumbled as the crew gathered on the bridge. Sulu had taken command of the one pilot chair with Uhura to his right at the communications station. Jim stood in the center, the lack of a captain's chair somewhat unforgiving in his eyes. "The building has three main access points, and two other shall we say alternative entries." Scotty opened the blueprints of the structure, having already scanned and ran them through the ship's computer with Spock's help for translation. "Of course there is the front door, but where's the fun in that. There's a rear door ta the east that faces the wharf, and a central loading dock ta the south. Now, according ta the rezoning commission, there was excavation work done below the warehouse here and I think they may a built a tunnel out. But where it leads, I donnae know."
"Could be to the water or the hills," Jim noted as he scanned the terrain.
"Exactly. Now, I cannae guarantee it's even there, but I was a wee bit suspicious of how fast the work was approved, and how little they inspected it. Compared to the rest of the permits I found, I think they had someone on the inside approving it."
"Makes sense," Charlie noted, checking the weapons over. "This isn't a small operation. They probably have spies everywhere."
Scotty blinked. "Well that's comforting."
"What's the other entry you mentioned?" Jim asked.
"The roof."
"I'm sorry what?" McCoy's eyes about bugged out of his head. "You're not suggesting we have to repel down like a bunch of spiders?"
"Ah, yeah, that's exactly what I'm sayin'," Scotty answered with a nod, his blue eyes unblinking. "Look, these cruisers are too wee to have an operational transport pad inside them." Scotty couldn't hide his distaste at being in the Vulcan ship. "So we have ta do this the old fashion way. Which since we're in the old fashion, it makes a bit of sense.
"Now, I'll stay up here with Mr. Sulu and monitor yer location. The rest of ya will have to get the wee lassie."
"Can we use the scanners to see if we can find her first?" Charlie asked as Sulu announced they were two minutes out. "I don't want to be wandering around if we can pinpoint her location."
"Aye, I've adjusted the tricorder to pick up her signal." Scotty handed the machine to Spock, who flipped it open and began dialing in the readings as the team headed to the rear door of the craft. "Thanks to Doctor McCoy, I narrowed down a specific DNA amino acid that we have that those from this century don't. Should be able to guide yer way to her."
Charlie turned to McCoy. "That's a thing?"
"Evolution, Spitfire," the doctor answered, adjusting his med kit on his belt, his lip in a sneer at the thought of having to repel down. "We're seven generations past yours. That's enough to show a subtle change."
"Get ready to repel!" Jim ordered, grabbing the belts from the wall as the others followed, looping them around their hips and between their legs. Once everyone was hooked up, Jim spun to the crew. "Spock and I will go first. Followed by McCoy and Charlie. Uhura, you take up the rear. They shouldn't know we're coming, right?"
Uhura was hanging onto the bar near the door, her hair in long braid down her back and her eyes hard. "They don't appear to. All we heard was about them trying to find us in London. I don't think they know we're up here."
"Good," Jim nodded just as Sulu opened the door, the cold winds rushing in and blowing them around. They hovered above the structure, the lights shining through the glass roof of the warehouse were softened by the passing clouds and fog that blew across. Jim glanced over his shoulder at the decent before addressing his crew.
"Alright team. This could get dicey. Don't use your weapons unless you need to and keep them to stun, but know that theirs won't be. They will be aiming to kill you, so don't be a hero."
"You're one to talk, Kirk," Uhura smirked.
"Hey, I'm not that bad."
"Yeah, you are," both Uhura and Charlie echoed together, both breaking out into a grin as they caught each other's eye.
"Whatever," he grumbled. "We stick together, no splitting up since we're uneven. And I want to run as silent as possible until we have no other choice. We get the girl. We get out. That's it." Jim stared pointedly at Charlie who shrugged nonchalantly. He knew her enough to know she'd put a few punches in if she could.
"Mr. Sulu and I will be listening fer yer signal. Once yer ready to go, meet us at the end of the docks. There's a bit of coast where we can pick you lot up."
Jim nodded once. "Alright, let's go."
Spock threw down the thick black rope after tying it to a bulkhead, he and the captain sliding down first, followed by the others. As Uhura's boots softly connected with the gravel on the roof, the Vulcan cruiser lifted higher while Scotty hauled in the line.
The soft sound of waves on rock along with the cold breeze sent a shiver down Charlie's spine. The silence made her nervous, and the anticipation of confronting the very people trying to kill her made her blood run cold. She had to keep reminding herself that she had Jim, and Spock, and McCoy, and Uhura there to protect her. She trusted each and every person standing with her on that roof in a way that had become innate. She didn't doubt they'd take a bullet for her, some already had, but as they cautiously made their way to the window frames in preparation of descending, she prayed they wouldn't have to.
They descended in silence, the cloud cover lifting to reveal the full moon shinning down on the docks. While the light was helpful in navigating the space without the use of artificial light, Sulu and Scotty were going to be sitting ducks when they returned to get the crew.
A door closed somewhere in the cavernous warehouse, its echo reverberating off the brick as Charlie's heart thudded in response. They ducked down behind a pile of boxes and crates, peaking around as a small group traversed the main access across the open room. Spock pulled out the tricorder, it softly illuminating his high cheekbones in its blue glow.
"I'm detecting many life signatures, Captain," he whispered. "At least twenty-two on this level, thirteen throughout the floor below and another ten below that. The tricorder cannot penetrate further."
"Are any of them the girl?" Uhura asked.
"Scanning." They waited a few baited breaths, the shuffling of people sent Charlie's nerves to tingle as she continuously scanned the dark corners. She'd memorized the layout and potential hazards but the targets were not stationary. She needed to be prepared for anything.
"Affirmative," Spock announced. "She is in the basement, in the northeast corner of the structure. She seems to be locked in a small room."
"What's the fastest way down to her?" Jim questioned.
"Rear staircase. But Captain, there are at least twenty hostiles between us and her. The chances of being detected are over eighty percent."
"That's it?" Jim grinned cheekily. "This'll be a piece of cake, then."
"So says the man who's died and come back to life," Charlie grumbled as the team shifted, using the walls as cover as they slinked around.
They turned the corner and came to an abrupt stop, their way blocked by two men who stood talking, their arms crossed over their chests. One shifted the hair from his eyes, a clear tattoo of an eclipse dotting his wrist. Jim and Spock glanced at each other, realizing as they all did that there was no way around them if they wanted access to the door leading to the basement. With a subtle nod, both Jim and Spock carefully tiptoed across the concrete floor of the warehouse toward the men. Before either knew what happened, Jim had stunned one, while Spock merely grabbed the other by his shoulder, the man dropping without a sound.
"Sleep well, gentlemen," Jim muttered, patting him on the cheek.
They dragged them into the corner where Uhura and Charlie threw a canvas tarp they'd found over their bodies.
"Let's hope the rest go just as easy," McCoy grumbled as they made their way down the staircase, each member with their hands on their weapons.
"Thanks for jinxing us," Charlie accused.
"Quiet," Jim ordered with a sharp whisper, voices reverberating around the dark hallway they found themselves in. "Spock, what's the tricorder say?"
"Three hostiles in the room up head to the right. Four others to the left. Staircase to the next level is up two hundred meters to the right."
They kept themselves low to the ground, and although the doors were closed to the rooms Spock indicated, they still had glass windows that could easily give them away.
The final level was just as dark as the rest, but something about it sent a chill up Charlie's spine. The air was damp and cold, the walls weeping with it. Flickering light barely filtered through as if a dark cloud kept it to only a few square meters. The air pulsated with something that caused goosebumps to form, and Charlie's skull to throb with it. She reached up, rubbing her forehead as her eyes squinted against the uncomfortable pain.
"Do you feel that?" Charlie whispered to Uhura, her teeth wanting to chatter.
"The cold?"
"No, the pulsing."
"What pulsing?" McCoy added, overhearing them.
"Don't you feel it? It's a deep drumming, almost like a bass."
Spock, Uhura, and McCoy turned to Charlie, confusion evident in their eyes. But when Charlie looked to Jim, his eyes were unfocused, and she knew he felt it too.
"C'mon," he said, the barest hint of crack in his voice. "Let's keep going. How much further?"
"Other side of that wall," Spock pointed with the tricorder. "Based off Mr. Scott's schematics of the structure, there are two hallways and three doorways we must pass to make our way around."
"No use waitin' for an invitation," McCoy muttered. "Faster we find her, faster we get out of this hell hole."
They wound through the halls as quietly as they could, the tricorder guiding them to their destination.
"There is a larger room through this door," Spock announced as they came to a stop, Uhura facing back the way they came with her phaser high in the air. "From there the child should be found in a smaller, adjoining closet."
"Is it just me, or has this been too easy?" McCoy muttered, as Spock tucked the tricorder into his belt, grabbed his phaser and slowly opened the door.
"After all the shit we've been though, I'll take easy," Charlie answered. "Especially with – what the hell is all this?"
Charlie had never seen anything like it. The room was the size of a large convention room, its ceiling ten to twelve feet high and at least a football field long. The dim, yellow emergency lights were the only illumination until Charlie flipped the wall switch, everyone sending out a collective gasp by what they saw.
At one end was a large machine, like a human sized old tube TV that instead of a screen was open to step into. It narrowed down the further you walked, making Charlie wonder what it was for. Dozens of wires radiated out from the piece, connected to various computer docks, servers, and other unidentifiable technologies.
Lab materials came next, several metal tables with glass equipment lined along them. Bunsen burners, beakers, and jars of unlabeled substances rested on shelves, waiting for the next person to grab them. Some tables were clean and orderly, others looked like they were halfway through their experiment when they abruptly left.
A long, low table was propped against the wall closest to them. It was covered by black fabric, while various ornaments made of gold stood in some type of symbolic order unknown to the group. Dotted throughout were the radial sig symbol and the sun eclipsed. Maps speckled the walls, similar in fashion to the ones Kate developed with much of the same data highlighted. Lines were drawn, linking various points together in an indeterminate pattern stretching across feet and onto the floor.
Beside the maps were pictures of Khan, Jim, and a dark skinned child that Charlie recognized from the ceremony. All the pictures looked like surveillance, each one showed the person in an active state, oblivious to the camera pointed at them. The thought had Charlie's blood run cold, thinking that she and Jim had been followed long before the first bombs fell.
"What is this place?" Uhura whispered as they filed in, McCoy gently closing the door behind them.
"I don't like it," Jim frowned, eyeing his picture especially. "Spock, what do you make of this?"
Spock already had the tricorder pulled out and was scanning the room, heading first to the device in the back.
"Fascinating," the commander muttered. "If the tricorder is correct, it appears they've developed a rudimentary transporter."
"Is that even possible?" Uhura couldn't keep the disbelief out of her voice. "They don't even have warp technology yet."
Spock inched closer to the device, the tricorder beeping and flashing as it took reading after reading. "This has similar components to our own transporter, although much of it is more mechanical than our own."
"Didn't think they'd have tritanium mining chambers, did you Spock?" McCoy remarked dryly as he scanned the research equipment with his own device. "What the hell is this?" he muttered as his scanner started flashing and beeping loudly.
He picked up a jar filled with black goo, twirling it as its thick viscosity kept it sticking to the sides of the container. McCoy set the jar back on the table, and grabbing a pen, he dipped it into the substance pulling it out in one long stream. To Charlie, whatever it was seemed closer to molasses than anything else.
"That's disgusting," Jim remarked with a scowl.
"What do you believe it is, Doctor?" Spock asked.
"Haven't a damn clue," McCoy growled, taking a quick sniff and wrinkling his nose. He grabbed a piece of paper, and smeared some onto it before he folded it up and placed it in a plastic zip lock bag. "I'll bring this back with me. Sybok's got better lab equipment than the thing I have."
Suddenly whispers began filling Charlie's ears, garbled messages her brain couldn't decode. The pain was immediate, her hands snapping over her ears as she dropped to the floor, trying to squeeze the intensity from her body. She clamped her teeth together to stop from screaming, her jaw muscles flexing and popping in strain. Distantly she heard Jim call her name, felt hands on her with the flashing lights of the machines swirling around.
As fast it came it ended, Charlie panting as sweat broke out across her forehead.
"Charlie!" Jim had his hands on her shoulders his concerned blue eyes staring into her own dark ones.
"I'm- I'm ok," she said shakily. Her legs were jelly as McCoy and Kirk hauled her to her feet. Jim kept his strong arm around her waist, his warmth seeping through the chill of the shock.
"What the hell was that, Spitfire?" McCoy remarked, his tricorder scanning her. "Your blood pressure has spiked and the hell? Your neural activity was acting like there was two of you in there."
Although the shivering continued inside her, Charlie stamped down the fear and the weakness that had mysteriously coated her limps. "I don't know what just happened." She scanned the concerned faces gazing at her. "The sooner we get the girl, the sooner we can get out of here. I can't explain it, just something about this place."
Jim rounded on Spock. "Where's the girl? Let's get out of here."
There was no other indication except a quick firming of his lips and a flash in his dark eyes. Spock gave a quick nod, his desire to get the child and get out was also feeding his logic. They'd already wasted twenty minutes getting the child, ten minutes longer than they wanted.
"Over there, Captain." Spock indicated toward a curtain in the back corner. The team rushed over, the rest of the room and its mysteries forgotten. They didn't feel it as strongly as Charlie had, but as she collapsed, something skimmed across their skin like wind through reeds. It caused a shiver to run up their spines, like they were being watched.
Uhura pulled the heavy red curtain to the side, a pocket door revealed with a heavy deadbolt lock and a keypad blocking their entrance. It only took Spock thirty seconds to crack the code, the pad lighting up in green before a click was heard and the deadbolt could be unlocked. McCoy and Jim grabbed the heavy door and pulled, the little bit of emergency lighting shinning into the closet. As the room was illuminated, Charlie had a flashback to a similar prison with its red lights, hot, humid air, and tight quarters.
There sitting on the bed Charlie saw herself as she must have looked three years before. Wide dark eyes were glittering in the light, squinting as the brightness finally reach her. The face said how brave she was, but the eyes unable to hide the fear. She was smaller than Charlie remembered, her arms skinny to the point of malnutrition and her cheekbones prominent. Even though they had met for only a moment before, Charlie knew there was a difference in the child.
She scooted back from the crew, her back colliding forcefully with the wall behind her, the thin, blue blanket around her shoulders now a shield as she pulled it tighter.
"Hey, it's ok." Charlie was the first in, the only one to know what to do. Charlie made herself as small as possible, lowering herself to the child's level and being as unthreatening as possible. With a jerk of her hand behind her, Charlie waved the others away. "It's ok, we're the good guys. We're here to get you out of here. What's your name, little one?"
The dark eyes jumped from Charlie to those behind her then back. She was judging whether to trust Charlie. Charlie smiled, letting the child make the first move. "Lucy." Her voice was strained and soft.
"Well Lucy, my name is Charlie, and we're going to take you back home, ok?" The girl's dark orbs widened in disbelief.
"I want my mother." Tears built then, the hope and trust of child who still hadn't experienced the world fully was swift. Charlie didn't know what Lucy had gone through – but the way she flinched as Charlie laid out her hand for her to take said more than had the child burst forth with her story. The anger was hot and quick, and Charlie suppressed the urge to growl.
"I know, baby girl. I know. We won't let those bad people hurt you anymore. We'll get you back home to her." That did it. Lucy scrambled off the bed, her dark hand reaching for Charlie's. "What's that on your wrist?" Charlie noticed the black bracelet on the girl's arm, unseen because of the blanket.
"I don't know," Lucy answered raising her arm, her voice soft and but her London accent was strong. "They put it on me this morning." There was surprise by the vehemence in her tiny voice.
Her brows drawn low and a question on her lips, Charlie was interrupted as an alarm blared the second she and Lucy stepped into the main room. The girl screamed, trying to flee back into her cave but Charlie kept a grip on her hand as her other one ripped out the phaser from its holder, her eyes snapping to the door.
No sooner had Charlie raised her weapon than a stream of people poured into the room, assault rifles, shotguns, and handguns raised and pointed at the crew. There were no capes this time, instead they were dressed in tight black clothing but their faces were still covered by the signature white masks with the eclipse on the forehead.
The crew was trapped.