Zevil crouched down to get a closer look at the items before him. "Phaser, heavily modified to
improve aim and output. Standard tricorder and tool kit. Shon had both the last time I saw him."
He picked the remains of a combadge with his mind, carefully looking over the pieces.
"Completely broken. Whoever took Shon and Kererek, they didn't want to risk us tracking them
with it or trying to contact them." Zevil was very calm right now. Outwardly at least, because he
had to be, but he was very angry. Someone was manipulating the situation and picking them off
one by one.
He slid his gaze to Lydana, that persistent feeling of suspicion of her wrong doings coming over
him again. It couldn't be though, she was with him and Worf and he'd been watching her like a
drake watches a scale sheep on his homeworld. She could be using hidden agents or the facility's
automated security, but that felt far-fetched at best.
He psychically picked up the tricorder next and manipulated the controls. "His tricorder is still
recording, but there's a four minute gap, so it's useless to us." He looked to Lydana who was
tapping away at the console connected to the machine that must have been the targeting array
Shon had mentioned. "Any luck with the array?"
"It's definitely a targeting array, and it's similar to our own transporters, but I can't tell you
anything beyond that. It's way too advanced for me to make sense of, let alone use it to get us
home." Lydana heaved a sigh, pausing for a moment before continuing. "I know what you're
thinking, " she told Zevil. "I know you want this to be my fault, to justify whatever you think
about me. But even you can't honestly believe this was me."
"Can't I? You're certainly capable, ruthless, and willing enough to do something like this." Zevil
didn't even look at her as he said this, just picked up the tricorder and phaser, pocketing both and
hoping he got the chance to return them to Shon. "Given that you had your mirror counterpart
murder an entire city on her Bajor, orchestrating something like this isn't outside the realm of
possibility." Zevil looked at her now and he sneered as Lydana's eye widened in shock. "Don't
like it when you're spied upon? Now you know how the rest of us feel. At least I have the
integrity not to blackmail you with what I know."
"You marched into my office," Lydana started, her voice dangerous, "you threw wildly
inaccurate accusations around, and then to top it all off, you threatened me. Did you honestly
expect to get out of that without any repercussions?" Lydana scoffed, looking away from a man
she no longer knew. "And thank you for confirming something I had merely suspected until now
- I'm sure you and Captain Harper must get along astonishingly well."
Worf watched them argue, frustrated and concerned on what this infighting will do to their
escape, how it might affect their survival, and the survival of the other Activation escapees. With
thoughts on the others and their safety on his mind, Worf spoke up. "This does not bode well. We
should rendezvous with the Generals and the others."
"Agreed. There isn't anything remotely helpful here." Zevil glared at Lydana, including her in
that statement. All three turned and went through the hall that had led Shon and Kererek to the
array room, all moving quickly, but it was futile. The room was empty of people, the only thing
left were the supplies and some weapons.
"Gone." Worf said, looking around at the scattered items on the floor. "They would not have left
willingly without their supplies and weapons. Can you hail them?"
"Zevil to security." Zevil said as he tapped his badge, but no one answered. "Zevil to J'Vasa,
please respond." Still nothing. "Zevil to anyone, respond!" Zevil rounded on Lydana, fury in his
eyes and his tone dangerous. "Alright, I've had enough of this! What did you do to them?"
"You do think I did this!" Lydana snapped. "Now I know you've gone insane, Xavius, because
only someone insane would think I even had the resources to do something like this, against our
own people!"
"You would love for me to be insane, or at least seen as insane, wouldn't you? It would lend
credibility, that you don't have, to what you've been telling everyone at command for months!"
Zevil growled and then his eyes narrowed. "Is that what this is? Did you kill those people and
kidnap the others to blame me and justify your slander?" Zevil's voice was arctic cold, but Worf
heard the rattle of items around the room belaying his cold demeanor.
Zevil was losing control, and Worf knew all too well how men like Zevil became when they lost
their carefully maintained control. He was taken back to the bridge of the Defiant, when Sisko
gave the order to fire upon the Maquis, all to get the biological weapons and to get the traitor
Michael Eddington to surrender.
Worf had to de-escalate this situation and get these two back on the same side.What would
Deanna do? He asked himself, like he had many times over the years since he became an
ambassador. Worf came to a conclusion and lowered himself into a seiza posse: kneeling down
with his legs together and resting his weight on his heels and calves.
Both admirals stopped their arguing to stare perplexed at the Klingon. "Is…everything alright
ambassador?" Zevil asked, with equal parts concern and confusion.
"No, it is not." Worf said calmly, gesturing in front of him. "Sit."
"With the greatest respect, Ambassador, I don't think we have-"
"You may sit willingly or I can make you sit. I would rather not have to do so…broken legs take
time we do not have to heal." Worf told them calmly, but the threat was crystal clear, so both
officers sat. Once they were giving him their undivided attention, he began. "Kahless once said
'A house divided cannot stand'." Zevil looked like he was going to say something, possibly to
correct the ambassador, but thought better of it and stayed quiet. "I have listened to both of you
bicker and slander one another and it has caused suspicion and ire form not just between the two
of you, but among the others as well, distracting all of us from working together and finding our
way home." Worf gave them both a disapproving glare and the two officers had the grace to look
chagrined. "If I were younger and you were Klingon, I'd have you fight till one of you were dead
or till you conceded defeat, but I am older and wiser and you are not Klingon. So, that leaves me
with how I would deal with squabbling officers I was in command of: dressing you both down
and talking it out.
"You are Starfleet officers. Act like it." Worf shook his head and pointed at them. "That uniform
means that you have a duty to work alongside your fellow officers to better and protect the
galaxy, to overcome your differences and strive for peace. Among the other denizens of the
universe and among each other." He looked them both in the eyes, one after the other. "I have
seen what happens when even the best of officers and warriors let grievances such as yours
fester, and it cost them and others greatly."
Both officers were quiet, until Zevil spoke up. "Damnit…Lydana, he's right." Zevil turned so that
he was facing her and Worf. "We can't keep going like this and expect to get out of here alive. I
truly did mean for us to have a truce while we figured our situation out, but clearly that hasn't
worked, so I propose we deal with this once and for all." Zevil put out his hand to her and to
Worf. "Submitting to Valix's Truth shall resolve all of this."
Despite everything going on between them, Lydana still felt the surge of trust and reliance on her
old friend, and without hesitation she took his hand. Zevil took her's and Worf's wrist, Worf
taking her other wrist to complete the circle. "Now, both of you, close your eyes and open your
minds. We will hear the truth and no lies." Each of them felt a rush of emotions that were not
their own, before it calmed and they felt connected. "The trinity is established. The ambassador
will act as witness to our honesty, since trust is not present." They felt rather than saw Zevil turn
to Lydana. "Are you behind this, Lydana?"
"Absolutely not," she said calmly, certain this would at least end her friend's accusations.
"I sense truth. Does the witness concur?" Zevil asked and both he and Worf felt the woman's
irritation on still not being believed.
"I do." Worf said.
"Well, now that that's settled." Lydana moved to take her hand back, but Zevil tightened his grip
to keep her in place.
"One more question: Did you send Captain Pezhal to Starbase Eighty-Two, even after seeing the
sensor logs that showed that there was most definitely Borg there?" Zevil's grip tightened to
almost painful levels and she could feel his rage, "fully cognizant that she was nowhere near
ready to face them and that it could have gotten her whole crew killed at best or assimilated at
worst?"
Lydana winced as her friend's grip tightened, but she still held on.
"This again?" she asked, as Zevil's nails dug into her hand. "No, I didn't " she said, "like I told
you before…I had no information about what was there."
Zevil opened his eyes as he felt the truth of her statement. That couldn't be right…could it?
"A-ambassador?" Zevil asked shakily, prompting the others to open their eyes.
"I feel no lies from her, Admiral." Worf told him. Zevil's face morphed into several different
emotions in the span of almost a minute: disbelief, then confusion, followed by anger, then
sadness, and finally acceptance.
"Lydana, I'm so sorry. I never intended for this to get so out of hand." Zevil's eye were desperate
and she could feel the honesty coming from him. "Nor did I mean to threaten you when I said I
was going to Quinn with my evidence, evidence that did exist. Six and Burgess both saw it and I
had them triple check the logs before I brought them to you.
"The evidence they found had your electronic signature all over them and there was no sign of
tampering. I wanted to know why you did it and help you if I could, but when you threatened to
blackmail me, it was clear to me that you had started to turn bad like other Admirals had before
you." Lydana was hit with his feelings of betrayal and a tear fell unbidden as she felt the depth of
it and in turn, Zevil felt her shame. "I am sorry for what I have said and done, Lydana."
"He is telling the truth, Admiral Kassai." Worf said solemnly, genuinely moved by the honest
apology.
"Likewise, Xavius," Lydana said sombrely, "and I admit that the blackmail was a step too far. I
have since deleted the recording I had."
Having been subject to Xavius' unique form of mind meld before, Lydana knew that he would
detect the truth in her words. She genuinely had deleted the recording she'd played for her
friend, the one that outed him as a Delta Recruit.
However, he wouldn't know about the several backups she had made, and sent to several other
trusted officers. Given Xavius' state of mind, Lydana knew she had to hold onto any evidence to
leverage support against him if necessary.
"Then I believe we're done here." Zevil said, letting go of the other two's wrists and breaking the
connection. "Now, we need to find the others. Any ideas on that front?"
"The only way left to us is the path the generals took earlier." Worf said as he smoothly rose
from his sitting position. "It's possible that the medbay they spoke of may have an access point to
the rest of this facility."
"Scans showed that this place is huge, so it can't just be the five rooms we know about." Lydana
said as she got up, dusting non-existent dust off herself.
"Agreed, however I think it would be prudent to continue on better armed." Zevil reached out
with his mind and three rifles lifted off the ground. "An automatic disruptor rifle for the
ambassador," Worf took the offered weapon and looked it over expertly before nodding his
approval, "Lydana is quite good with a plasma beam rifle if I remember rightly," Lydana eagerly
took the gun, primed it to life, and sighed in satisfaction, "and I'll take the sniper phaser rifle,
cause I'm still the better shot between her and I."
Lydana glared at him and he smirked playfully at her. It was almost like old times between the
two of them, there was still a lingering specter of distrust, but for now they were focused and
willing to be the team they had been in the past. Armed and ready, the team of three walked
through the door and started down the hallway towards the medbay. This hallway was longer and
more winding than the last two, which would explain why they didn't see the security drones till
it fired on them.
"Get back!" Worf yelled out to the admirals as he laid down covering fire, backing back behind
the turn in the hallway to give them some meager defense. "I counted only two drones, but they
may be armed with other kinds of weapons and countermeasures to incapacitate or even kill us."
"The fact that we've found no bodies so far has been reassuring, but I'd rather not test the theory
they want us all alive." Zevil said as he peeked out from cover to let off a few test shots, not
hitting anything vital, but noticing that there was no telltale shimmer or glow of shields. "I don't
think they're shielded." He told them, then looking to the shortest among them. "Lydana, can
you disable them remotely without destroying them? Hacking them or with a scrambling field,
something like that?"
Lydana was already tapping commands into her tricorder, a wry smile on her face.
"One step ahead of you there, old friend " she muttered, finishing her work and hitting one final
key. She was rewarded with the sound of two drones crashing to the floor, a small section of
casing rolling past the corner the team were sheltering behind.
Lydana looked up at Zevil, and grinned.
"After you."
Both Worf and Zevil kept their weapons trained on them, but when it was clear that they were
truly offline, Zevil crouched down to look them over, glad that Lydana's cyber attack knocked off
some of the armored plating. "Definitely made by our captures. I'm seeing more similarities to
Iconian technology, but it's different enough to imply that it was developed by someone not as
technologically sophisticated as the Iconians."
"This damage is not all from their crash. Notice the slash marks here and here." Worf pointed
them out to the two. "These could have only been made by a bat'leth. J'Vasa's Shard, if I'm not
mistaken." Worf growled low in his throat. "I fear she and her sister have been taken as well."
"They said they were in the medbay up ahead, there must be more evidence there." Zevil said as
he got back up and all three of them continued on.
They reached the door and as it opened they saw that it was a large room with bright lights on,
clearly eliminating the area. Inside was a single console with some kind of raised dais in front of
it and a strange operating table. It was more like a torture device, with a restraint that went over
the torso and arms, some kind of restraining cage that would hold someone's head in place, and a
mechanical arm with some kind of sinister surgical instrument. It looked familiar to Zevil, but
Worf recognized it straight away.
"I…I know this place." He said, nearly under his breath, but the other two still heard him and the
vulnerability behind his words. Shaking himself with a growl, Worf continued in a stronger voice
"I have been here before."
It came to Zevil like a ship going to warp 9. "Subspace! Solagen!" Zevil ran in and went up to
the table and began to examine every inch of it. "The table! How could I not see it till now!?"
"No, you were right Xavius, you're completely sane," Lydana said flatly, hiding her genuine
concern for her friend's mental state with dry wit.
"Stardate four-six-one-five-four point two to four-six-one-nine-one point two, Lydana! We, as in
Starfleet, have encountered these aliens before!" Zevil almost looked excited, and Lydana knew
it wasn't madness that gripped her friend, but his zeal for Starfleet history. "Ambassador, am I
correct in assuming that this-?"
"Yes." Worf said, his eyes never leaving the table. "It is the same as the one I saw on the
Enterprise." Worf could still feel the coldness of the table, see the bright blinding light, and hear
that incessant clicking. "While I served on the Enterprise-D, we drew the attention of aliens that
were solagen based and existed in subspace. They…abducted us. Experimented on us." Again he
was brought back to that day in the holodeck with Deanna, Geordie, Riker, and that civilian
woman Kaminer as they pooled their experiences to form the very table he stood before now.
"We did not know why, but their actions went far beyond mere curiosity." His voice was a growl
now, deep and menacing. He felt like the young brash man he once was, and he did not like it.
"As I recall from Admiral Picard's and Admiral Riker's logs, you and your crew were able to
stop them before these aliens established a pocket of subspace onboard the Enterprise, but not
before they sent out a burst of energy through, correct?" Zevil asked and frowned at the look
Lydana was giving him. "What?"
"How do you just know that off the top of your head?" Lydana asked. "I know you're a nerd for
our history, but this is bordering on obsession." She paused for a moment, inclining her head in
thought. "Actually, it's very similar to my feelings on Voyager and her crew's adventures. Yeah,
forget I spoke."
"At any rate," Worf said, a small amount of annoyance in his voice, "you are correct about the
energy burst, but we were never able to learn what its purpose was." Worf was thoughtful a
moment as a thought occurred to him. "But if these aliens serve the Iconians…"
"Then that could have been a message." Zevil said, finishing the Ambassador's sentence and
asked the question on all their minds: "But what was in the message?" They were all quiet as
they digested on the implications of that, none more than Zevil and Worf who knew exactly what
the aliens had done to the crew of the Enterprise.
"As fascinating as this all is," Lydana said after a moment, "we need to get back on track. Shon,
Kererek, and the K'gor sisters are still missing, and we need to find them before anything
happens to them. After that, we figure out how to get out of this Prophets-damned place. Outside
of those two things, anything else is secondary at best."
"She's right." Zevil looked around the room. "If I know either of the K'gor sisters, they won't
have gone down without a fight." He tapped the table with a single claw. "Add to the fact that
this table has not been used, I wager that our missing generals are being held with the others in a
holding cell. The ambassador and I will look over the room and see if we can find anything on
where they might be held." He pointed towards the lone console in the room. "Lydana, see if you
can find anything useful on that. We might be in luck and they haven't locked it out."
They quickly got to work looking around and taking in more of the room now that the table
wasn't their sole focus. Worf found and scanned a pool of lilac and green colored liquid slowly
mixing together, a discarded bat'leth in the center where the blood mixed. "Blood." Worf said as
he put his tricorder away. "Klingon and Romulan. The sisters did indeed put up a fight, but
where is the Shard?"
"Over here." Zevil said in a strained voice as he slowly pulled out the weapon from within a
downed drone where it was lodged. It took a few tries, and Zevil using his foot on the drone for
leverage, before it finally came free, almost causing Zevil to fall. "She must have been hit from
behind as she took this drone out." Zevil said as he studied the weapon, before turning around to
offer it to Worf. "I'm sure she would prefer you take custody of this." But as he stepped forward
to give it to the older Klingon, Worf stepped back.
"I…do not think it would be wise for me to do so." Worf eventually said, his eyes never leaving
the blade that looked so much like another blade he once held. He still felt the power of the
Blade of Kahless and how it whispered of blood and glory in his and Kor's minds, thank Kahless
Jadzia had been there to stop them from killing each other. "J'Vasa will not be offended if you
act as its steward in her absence. I will hold on to General Thirteen's instead."
Zevil eyed the officer turned ambassador for a moment, wondering what the anxiety he was
feeling from the elder Klingon was about but decided he would let it go as he slid the blade in
between him and his rifle, the magnetic harness in his jacket taking hold of it. "Lydana, have you
found anything?"
"Thirteen, J'Vasa, Shon…they've got data files on all our missing people!" Lydana called over,
still scrolling the information. "There's still a chance to save them if we move!"
She unslung her rifle, hurrying towards the next door, where she stopped and pulled the rifle to
her shoulder in a perfect shooting stance.
Not for the first time, Zevil was shocked by how much she seemed to have grown. Lydana had
always been more than competent as an officer, scarily so in fact, and always had a confidence
that you really had to look at to see she didn't fully believe in. There had always been a feeling of
unease and insecurity regarding her role sometimes, but he didn't see it or feel that now. 'Therapy
clearly works.' Zevil thought as he took out his weapon and formed up with the others at the
door. They cautiously made their way down the hall, pausing as they reached the first curve.
Worf slowly looked around the curve to scout the rest of the hall. "I see the door and only one
drone." He turns back to the other two. "We could over power it, but a more subtle approach
might be better." He looked pointedly at Zevil's sniper rifle and the Admiral got the message.
Zevil moved beyond the curve in a crouch taking aim at the large purple circle that the drone
uses to see and then fires just as the drone sees him, hitting it dead center. "Clear." Zevil tells
them as he stands and they all proceed to the door, but it doesn't open. "They must have sealed it.
Lydana?"
Lydana doesn't even ask, simply taps away at her tricorder to see if she can override the system,
but she shakes her head. "Looks like we're locked out for now." She considers the door and then
looks at the drone, a smirk that Zevil has seen before spreading on her face.
"Well…so much for stealth." Zevil says with a sigh. He proceeds to lifts the drone with his mind,
pulling out his tricorder to scan the large drone. After a moment of scanning and going over the
data, he tells them. "I believe we can overload the power cell of this drone and use it to blast this
door open." He told them as he continued to tap away at his tricorder. "The blast will have the
added effect of disorienting any enemies nearby, if not killing them outright. I'm priming the cell
now, we just need to set the drone in front of the door and press the button." He placed the drone
and offered the tricorder to Lydana. "Care to do the honors?"
As Lydana gave a little giggle of excitement at the offer, Worf reassessed the two officers now
that they had put their issues to rest for the momen. They seemed to work in sync and even fed
off each other's energy, anticipating their next move and even improving on their existing
strategies. 'It is like watching Bashier and O'Brien.' He thought, almost seeing his old crew
mates and friends in the two younger officers as they continued to banter and it almost made the
old warrior smile. He turned back to the situation at hand as he took out his Kur'leth. "Be ready,
there will undoubtedly be more of these drones beyond this door."
Both officers nodded, their faces serious now as they took out their weapons and formed up
behind Worf. Lydana pressed the button, the drone exploded, taking the door with it. Worf
stepped forward before the smoke cleared, weapon at the ready, looking like a hero out of the
lore songs of his youth, ready to end the lives of any that stood in his way.
But it seemed someone, or rather someones, beat him to the punch. It was two someones in fact,
as the K'gor sisters were fighting the drones with nothing but a D'k tahg dagger each and their
bare hands. To their credit, they were doing better than expected. Several drones laid broken and
smoking at their feet and were even being used as makeshift projectiles, shields, and weapons by
the two.
"By the Night Cloak, they really are a force of absolute destruction." Zevil said, only half
surprised by the carnage before him. He had fought against and with J'Vasa in a melee setting
before and knew how savage she could be, but that paled in comparison when she fought
alongside her sister. The two women were like a whirlwind of annihilation as they brought down
drone after drone with savage and brutal attacks.
To everyone's shock, J'Vasa threw her sister at a drone bearing down on them, and the adopted
Romulan latched onto its "face" and proceeded to stab at its central optic and rip out its inner
components as it began to fall to the ground.
"They may be formidable, but they lack the true skill of a Klingon warrior." Worf pulled out the
smaller bat'leth while turning to Zevil, holding it out to him. "It would be best if you sent these
to them, Admiral."
It took a moment for him to understand, but clarity came over Zevil as he psychically picked up
both the offered weapon and the Shard. "Generals!" He shouted to get the two women's attention
before he launched the weapons towards them, the bladed weapons spinning as they flew. Both
women gave feral grins as they jumped and caught the weapons, downing the last two drones
before they even landed. However, upon landing and seeing the weapons they held, they made
faces of disgust because they had grabbed the others bat'leth.
"Here sister, you can have your child's toy back." J'Vasa sneered in mock contempt as she offered
the bat'leth that did indeed look like a child's toy in her massive hands.
"And you can have your Elder's Battle Walking Stick back, you need the support." Thirteen shot
back, just as good naturedly, before both women laughed and clapping each other on the back
with all the force Klingon warriors can muster.
"I don't know why you rushed yourselves," Thirteen panted, grinning like a child with a new toy.
"That was some of the most fun I've had since we got here."
"Do not get swept up in the blood lust of battle, daughters of K'gor." Worf scolded as he
approached them while Zevil and Lydana started opening all of the cells to let the others out.
"While the battle may be glorious, you must not lose sight of your goal: getting everyone out of
this place and back home."
"We have not forgotten our purpose, Ambassador." J'Vasa said, a note of challenge in her throat
even as she and her sister bowed their heads, chagrined. "We were going to open the cells after
we had ripped these mechanical p'taqs to scrap metal. All of those that were taken by the drones
would have been freed."
"Not all of them, I'm afraid." Zevil said as he, Lydana, and A'dranna joined them. "Shon and
Kererek weren't in the cells."
"Forget about them! There's no more time!" A'dranna shouted at them, very distressed and on the
verge of manic. She wasn't looking good, the loss of sleep not mixing well with their current
plight. "We need to stop wandering around and get back to New Romulus! Staying here is only
going to get more people killed!"
"No." Worf said with such finality no one dared argue. "If there is still someone missing and can
be saved, we will not leave them."
"I don't know Kererek very well, but I know Shon." Zevil spoke up, drawing all eyes on him.
"He saved my life and the lives of many of my crew, sacrificing his ship in the process." He
faced A'dranna. "So I know that, if the roles were reversed, he would definitely save you- risks
be damned."
The Romulan looked suitably chastised when Lydana added, "honestly, I thought you would
have learned more from me by now - we are Starfleet, we don't leave anyone behind that can be
saved." She checked her tricorder and looked around the room, stopping when spotted one other
door. "Now, it seems like that is our only other way out, so let's get a move on."
Without waiting for anyone's agreement, she readied her weapon and began moving onwards,
leaving A'dranna thoroughly ashamed.
They all moved as one towards the door: Zevil, Lydana, Worf, and the K'gor sisters at the front,
the research team behind them, and the remaining security officers at the back in case of a
surprise attack. The five upper ranked officers nodded to each other and stepped close enough for
the automatic doors to open to reveal a long hallway that they proceeded to walk down, everyone
keeping their eyes open in case of another attack. They made it to the door at the end of the way
and the commanders at the front readied weapons as they opened the door and stepped into the
new room.
Inside the room, they got their first look at their alien abductors. The aliens had bulbous eyes,
beaks, and clawed, three-fingered hands. Most of their bodies were hidden by hooded metallic
robes and they spoke in a language that consisted of clicking. The clicking was everywhere and
sounded panicked when they saw that their prisoners had escaped. They quickly ran to the door
on the other side of the room as several drones came flying through openings in the ceiling,
firing weapons to cover their creators' escape.
"The cowards flee!" Sneered J'Vasa as she and the other command officers took cover behind
some machinery and crates on either side of the entrance, the rest of the survivors safe behind the
now closed doors. "We cannot let them escape without answering for their crimes!" she growled
as she crouched behind a some kind of storage unit to the right of the door with Lydana and her
sister.
"Shon and Kererek are the priority now, J'Vasa, not the aliens!" Zevil shouted from his place
with Worf behind a console to the left as he took a shot at one of the drones, hitting it but not
downing it. Zevil risked taking a look beyond the drones and saw two more of the same
examination table from the previous room, with both Shon and Kererek strapped to them. "I see
them! We need to end this fast, I'm barely reading anything from either of them!"
"Then it is time to get serious!" J'Vasa reached behind her back and took out a wicked looking
disruptor rifle, which had been hidden under the General's cloak. It was wicked looking, with a
curved bayonet attached under the barrel, had clearly been modified with a second larger barrel,
and what looked like Borg tech attached to it.
"You had that this whole time?!" Zevil demanded, incredulity and annoyance in equal measure in
his voice. 'What is wrong with the women in my life and keeping secret guns?'
"Lay down covering fire!" J'Vasa yelled as she cocked the fore-end of the lower barrel and came
out of her cover without waiting for the others to do so.
Getting a better look at the weapon, Zevil recognized it and yelled out "J'Vasa, wait, dont-!" but
it was too late, she had pulled the trigger. Instead of a blast of energy, a grenade fired out from
the bottom barrel and hit a drone in the middle of the others, exploding on contact and taking out
the drones around it.
"Burn in the fires of Gre'thor, you mechanical taHqeqs!" Roared J'Vasa as she cockally rested
her rifle against her shoulder with one hand, a vicious grin on her face. "Korath will be pleased
that his new weapon was a success!"
"His experimental weapon!" Zevil hissed as he stomped over to her, Worf walking calmly behind
him. "You know damn well that Admiral D'Vak hasn't signed off on fleet-wide distribution of
these things for a reason! That madman Korath is still trying to stop this thing from blowing up
when it overheats!"
The rifle in question was a Task Force Omega project that was being worked on by both Starfleet
R and the House of Korath, a house of some of the best engineers and scientists in the
Empire. The head of this house and its namesake was Korath, a brilliant if unscrupulous scientist
that had no qualms about sending his dangerous creations out into the galaxy.
"Clearly the error has been fixed." J'Vasa sniffed and dismissed Zevil's concern with a
dismissive wave of her hand. "Our enemies lay dead at our feet, that is all that-"
"Can you two cut the bullshit and help me over here!" Lydana yelled, who had clearly gone
straight to their two captured comrades.
"By the Night Cloak, what have they done to them?" Zevil asked as he ran over to Lydana,
hearing Worf call A'dranna and the others in to see if they can help Kererek.
Shon was pale and unresponsive, his breathing shallow and laboured. As Lydana checked her
tricorder, she could see his pulse was dropping fast.
"He's had so much shit done to him, I barely know where to start," she said, hurriedly scanning
the medical tools nearby and grabbing the ones she needed. "He's had his left arm and both
antennae amputated and reattached, an unknown substance has been introduced into his lymph
nodes, and his superior vena cava has collapsed." She pulled a small hypospray from her jacket,
pressing it to his neck. "He's lucky I keep any pain suppressant on me at all, but this will still
hurt, as Elisa would say, like a motherfucker."
She began operating immediately, making a series of small incisions to begin purging his lymph
nodes, ignoring his groans of distress as she moved to the next device in the collection she'd
taken.
"Shon's cardiovascular and lymphatic systems have been seriously damaged by whatever
they've done," she told her companions as she worked, "if I don't do this here and now - and
keep doing it - he will die."
She began the laborious process of regenerating his veins, a task made difficult by having to
balance haste with meticulousness - if he was to survive, Shon needed all of his veins to function
properly, and fast.
After what felt like an age, Lydana swapped device again, this time working over his chest as she
fought to restore Shon's circulatory functions.
Suddenly, a rapid tone sounded from the tricorder she'd set up next to her, to use as an
easier-to-read medical display.
"Wha- nonono, shit!" Tossing the tools to the side, she vaulted onto the restraint bed, straddling
Shon as she began administering chest compressions.
"What's happening?" Seville asked, confused for a variety of reasons by what he was seeing.
"He's gone into cardiac arrest!" Lydana shouted, still performing the chest compressions.
"Someone find me something to administer an electrical shock, or else I'll have to crack his
chest open and start his heart manually!"
Zevil looked around the room when his eyes landed on a pair of cables connected to the bed.
"Lydana move!" Zevil reached out with one of his hand and made a grabbing motion before
yanking it back, the cables following the motion as they were ripped from their housing by
telekinetic force and sparking with electricity. With a gesture from his free hand, Zevil ripped
open Shon's uniform and the undershirt beneath to reveal the blue skin underneath.
"Where do they need to be placed on an Andorian?" He asked and Lydana pointed to the two
spots once she was off him. Zevil hovered the cables over the spots and shouted "Clear!" as he
hit Shon with the cables, the motion looking like he was being attacked by a pair of vipers.
Shon's body jerked then laid still and right as Zevil was about to hit him again, Shon's eyes flew
open as he gasped and coughed as he took big lungfuls of air. "Thank the Night Cloak, you're
alive." Zevil sighed in relief as he safely dealt with the still sparking cables.
"Wha….what happened? How….can you help Kererek?" he asked weakly, and Lydana shook
her head as she focused on repairing the minor damage of his body.
"Whoever they were, they replaced Kererek's blood with some kind of synthetic polymer." She
spared a sad glance over to the other bed where the surviving Romulans stood vigil over the dead
man's body. "I'm sorry, Shon, he's dead."
