Rescue of a Khanite

[CassandraSanders]

“Quickly children, this way,” Dr. Kingsley said. She hustled four of the children down a corridor, glancing behind her constantly.

The children were radiating alarm from every pore and the doctor could feel it. Their thoughts were screaming in her head. What’s going on? Why are they attacking us? Are we going to be okay?

She wished she could take the time to answer them. She wished she knew all the answers. But as she pushed them down the corridor, she knew they could read the thoughts she was having and realized that she was as in the dark as they were.

The attack had been sudden and swift. One moment they were going about their normal daily routines, the next moment their emergency shuttles were being destroyed from orbit, and groups of black-clad commandos were storming the research station.

“Come on children, into the lab,” she said. The four children in front of her moved quickly. Though they were all under the age of ten, they were physically far more developed and moved with a grace and fluidity that most people would need years to develop.

As she ushered them into the lab and locked the door behind her, the children followed her lead and found hiding places in cabinets and such, keeping out of sight.

“No, it’s not the crew of the Enterprise,” Dr. Kingsley said to an unspoken question. “I don’t know who these men are. Now please, I can’t talk anymore.”

She sat down at a terminal and pulled up an overview of the station. The Darwin Genetic Research Station wasn’t fit with many security devices, but they did have motion sensors for when the children were roaming around. There were blips showing up all over the station as more commandos stormed in.

She checked on their location. They were in a remote lab off the side of the station and it had been her hope that it would take them time to search the main parts of the station before they moved out.

The attack had been swift and deadly. Doctors and technicians were being transported or dragged out. Those who tried to offer resistance were shot. The children were dragged screaming and crying, shouting for the doctors, their parents, to save them.

Sara Kingsley didn’t consider herself much of a hero, but in her twenty-eight years this was the most important thing she’d ever done; she’d be damned before she let someone destroy her work and the lives of her children.

A blip on the screen showed a single life form heading down the corridor towards the lab she was hiding in. She picked up a phaser from a storage unit and got down behind a desk, ready to defend herself and the children as best she could.

The doors opened and a figure walked in. He was clad in a black commando uniform like the others, with a helmet over his head, obscuring his face. He looked around the room and her eyes widened in horror as his gaze stopped in the four places the children were hiding.

When he finally turned his gaze towards her, she pointed her phaser at him and fired. He flew backward into the door, but before she could decide what to do next, he pulled himself back to his feet. *He must have some kind of armor on,* she thought.

The man stood up and shook himself off, walking over to a shaking Doctor Kingsley. He unlatched his helmet and took it off. “You can put your phaser away Doctor,” he said in a quiet voice. “There’s no need for it.”

“NO!” came a small shrill voice from one of the storage cabinets. A young blonde girl, looking about twelve years old came rushing out and glared at the man in the suit. He suddenly flipped backwards over a counter and landed on the deck flat on his face.

“Amber!” Doctor Kingsley scolded. “You shouldn’t have come out.”

“He was going to hurt you!” Amber protested, looking at the man who was now pulling himself back up.

“Damn!” the commando said, slapping the counter and chuckling. “Kid has some punch.”

“Yeah not bad for an eight year-old,” Amber retorted.

The man’s eyebrows went up near his hairline and he folded his arms across his chest. “Doctor,” he said, “if I was wearing a hat I’d tip it to you. I’d read the reports on this place, but I hadn’t realized just how impressive your work was.”

“Is this some new form of interrogation?” Doctor Kingsley said. “Friendly chat before we’re dragged out of here?”

“Doctor,” the man said, “before you go taking the high ground remember that it was you who violated the genetic engineering laws.”

“And that justifies abducting innocent children?” Sara said, furious. “What have you done with them?”

“I haven’t done anything with them,” the man said, his voice hardening. He stepped closer. “I’m here to help you.”

Sara looked at him, and could hear Amber’s voice within her head, warning her not to trust him. “Help me how?” she said.

“I know a few places I can hide the children,” he said. “I’ve been able to pull three others away before they were caught. I can do the same for the four in here.”

“Three in here,” Sara said, attempting to correct him.

“Doctor,” the man said, his tone making it clear that he knew she was lying. “If you want them safe, give them to me.”

Amber stepped out again and stared at him but this time he was ready and crouched down, grabbing her bodily and lifting her up, spinning her around and dropping her on the floor, buying himself time while she was forced to get her equilibrium back.

“I have a ship in orbit,” he said. “I can beam you up and get us away before anyone realizes they’re gone.”

Sara thought it over. Four voices were shouting in her head giving their own opinions. Finally she put her hands over her ears and shouted, “QUIET!”

A hush fell over the room. The other three children slowly came out of hiding and walked over to the trio, standing next to Sara and Amber. “All right,” she said.

“Doctor,” Amber hissed.

Kingsley silenced her with a gesture. “Who are you?” she said.

“That isn’t necessary to know right now,” he said.

Amber’s eyes narrowed as she tried to read his mind, sweat forming on her forehead.

“That will do young lady,” the man said sternly. “Borg technology is a good mask for telepathy. Don’t give yourself a migraine. “He gave her a scolding look and tapped his combadge. “Admiral to shuttlecraft: six to beam up.”

They materialized inside a cramped runabout, three children already huddling in the corner. When they saw Doctor Kingsley they stood up and moved to her quickly.

Kingsley quickly shushed them and pushed them into seats in the vessel before sitting in the copilot chair next to the Admiral. “You swear you can keep them safe?” she said.

“I’ll do everything in my power,” he said, bringing the engines online and swinging the shuttle away.

“How did they not detect you?” Kingsley said.

“Hiding over one of the magnetic poles,” Markus said. “Old trick.”

They were suddenly reminded about the downside to old tricks: everyone knows them. The shuttle rocked as one of the enemy ships fired upon it, Markus’ flying reducing the shot to a glancing blow.

He spun and dipped, avoiding shot after shot as the ships chasing him fired. “Can they do anything?” he said to Kingsley, nodding back towards the children.

Kingsley shook her head. “Flipping over a person is far different from moving a Starship. It’s thousands of kilometers away. They’re not magicians.”

“All right,” Markus said, bringing the ship about. “If we can’t hurt them, we’ll scare them.”

“Are you insane?!” Kingsley shouted, finally seeing just how large the ship that was chasing them in fact was. It wasn’t a design she’d seen before, but it most definitely wasn’t Federation. *So who is this man?* she thought once again.

They sped faster towards the alien ship, watching it grow in the viewscreen. The children were screaming, Sara Kingsley was ready to, but Markus just stared calmly at the front. As the ship approached the enemy’s shields, Markus suddenly dipped down underneath the enemy ship and out of range of its weapons.

The enemy ship spun around quickly, trying to catch the shuttle in its sights, but the shuttle was more maneuverable and was keeping out of range.

“They could have fired on us,” the little blonde girl said.

“They wouldn’t waste the energy at such close range. They’d just let us hit their shields and destroy ourselves.”

“How did you know they wouldn’t move?” she said.

“They want us dead. Moving out of our way wouldn’t accomplish that,” Markus said simply.

Amber digested that and nodded slowly. “Now what?” she said.

“Now we get away,” Markus said. He spun the shuttle around again, taking it between the nacelles of the pursuing ship. As the ship moved and made a tight turn to follow them, he stayed with it, letting the ship’s own engines mask them. When they had a clear path away, he fired the engines to their limits and they sped away.

When they had gotten a fair distance away with no further encounters, everyone relaxed.

“What’s your name?” Amber said.

“Markus. Admiral Markus,” the man said. “And yours?”

“Amber Jones,” she said.

“Good to meet you Amber,” Markus said. “Ever thought about serving on a Starship?”

[CassandraSanders]

Amber wiped a stray strand of hair out of her eyes and looked around the corner. She clutched a disruptor in one hand, and held the hand of a shivering male in the other. What should have been a simple rescue mission had gone horribly wrong. She’d received distress calls from two of her former schoolmates from Darwin. The messages had been brief and buried in codes so that only someone of her intelligence would be able to figure them out; or so she’d thought.

What they’d told her had chilled her to her superior bone structure: someone was after them and had already dispatched four of the other children that had survived the Research Station’s purge. They’d each had people snooping around their homes, break-ins, and when she’d tried to inquire about two of them, she’d found they’d both died in ‘accidents,’ the details of which would have caused her to vomit had she been an ordinary human.

Now she was on the trail of the last two of her brethren, trying to track them down before whoever was doing this could. She’d gotten close to one, but their adversary had beaten her to him. She’d found him split into several pieces at the bottom of an embankment by the Golden Gate Bridge. At each point she was always one step behind, but had finally discovered the pattern. It was too late to save the assassin’s latest victim, but there was still one more chance. She’d arrived to find a man named Adam who was still alive. She’d had a harder time finding him and she credited that to their pursuer not finding him yet either.

She’d beamed down in the middle of a firefight between him and someone she couldn’t see, but she could hear him taunting them. She’d found Adam in an alley, hidden behind a stack of cargo pods. He had managed to defend himself as best he could, but despite that he had sustained several injuries. She’d managed to pull him out of the building he’d been hiding in, but they were now pinned down by the shots from a Yiridan disruptor.

*Hang in there Adam,* she thought.

*Would be easier if I had some assurance we’d make it out of here,* he thought back.

She shook her head. The shuttle she’d been using had been shot down above the planet. Jadara IV wasn’t exactly a border world, but it wasn’t covered by the Federation and people tended not to ask questions. She’d sent a distress call to Markus’ ship, but no one had come charging in yet.

“Coming for you little ones,” the voice said, taunting her again. She had no idea how he was projecting it so far. It sounded as if he were right on top of them. They’d both tried searching for him with their minds, but whatever training he’d had as an assassin, it had included shielding against telepathic species.

Shots whizzed by again and they ducked as bits of a wall chipped off and hit them. Amber reached around and fired again, trying once more to reach out with her mind and sense where the assassin was. She was having a hard time with all the distractions, and Adam’s pain was hitting her like a ton of bricks.

“..kus to …Jones,” her combadge chirped. She slapped it quickly. “Jones to Kiawasha!” she said quickly. “Request emergency beam-out!”

She helped Adam to his feet as they prepared to beam aboard. As the transporter took her however, a disruptor shot lanced out from a darkened alley in the complete opposite direction from where they’d focusing, and struck Adam in the chest. He arched his back and the look of pain and shock on his face stayed with him as the transporter took him. She watched it happen and screamed in frustration as they dissolved.

Amber helped the ship’s CMO try to bring Adam back. The weapon’s beam had hit him directly in the heart, and despite his superior physiology, he was fading fast. The ship’s CMO worked furiously, using everything she could think of to keep his body stable, but finally she shook her head and accepted the inevitable. Amber was more stubborn. She shoved the Doctor out of the way and dove in, pounding Adam’s chest, trying to jumpstart his heart, but she was pulled back.

“Jayme!” she shouted at the CMO. “Help me! We’ve got to do something!” Two technicians tried holding her back, but they suddenly flew backwards and Amber dove forward again.

“Nurse Jones!” Dr. Maranda said, snapping Amber’s attention back to her. Amber stopped and looked at Jayme, sobbing. “Ensign,” Jayme started, then her face softened. “Amber, it’s over. He’s gone.”

Amber already knew that. She felt nothing from his mind. She’d just hoped that somehow, the inescapable truth could be made into a lie.

Amber was the last one of her kind.

[CassandraSanders]

“As an honorary member of the gang
That no one alive ever leaves
You gotta snatch and sneak
Or else your future’s bleak.

We got a lifetime contract
That you’re bound to keep

You wanna save your skin,
Ya better fit right in.

Wel-wel-welcome to the
Wel-wel-welcome to the
For-ty thieves!

The music died and the dining room broke out into cheers and applause. Lieutenant Commander Jones stepped down from her seat at the head table and walked over to one of her friends, smiling and giving him a hug.

“Congratulations,” he said.

Amber shrugged. “Well it’s a double-edged sword. Don’t make Chief Medical Officer without taking on a lot more responsibility.”

“Bah, you can handle it,” he said. “Who better than you to take over for Doctor Maranda?”

“Thanks Jim,” she said.

“Excuse me,” a man in an ensign’s uniform said, coming up to Amber. “Doctor Jones?”

“Yes, Ensign…?” she said, faltering for a name.

“Kindesh,” the man said. “Argelian. New recruit.”

Amber nodded, but was curious why she couldn’t remember his name. She’d gone over the files for all the new recruits. Or so she thought. Maybe she missed one. “What can I do for you Ensign?”

“My stomach is cramping and I’m starting to experience pains along my...um…” He groaned and held his stomach, bending over.

“Okay, let’s get you to the infirmary,” Amber said. “Computer, two to beam directly to the infirmary.”

They rematerialized into an empty bay. *Everyone’s at the dinner,* she thought. She helped him onto the biobed and turned around to get a tricorder. She flipped it open and initialized it but then felt two strong arms encircle her. One went around her arms, and the other held a laser scalpel to her neck.

“It took me a long time to find you,” Kindesh hissed in her ear. “But even with the expense, the bounty will more than compensate me.”

She shuddered as the memory of that voice suddenly hit her. There were no Yiridian disruptor shots this time, but the danger was the same.

She felt his breath on her neck and his hands against her skin. Her ears pricked up as he whispered in them. “You’re taller than you were when I last saw you.”

Amber smiled slightly. “I’m more focused as well.”

Suddenly the man’s hand flew from her neck. The other arm snapped away from around her arms and she turned around to see him hovering, spread eagle over the floor.

He stared at her in complete bafflement as he tried to pull his limbs back under his control, but they wouldn’t respond to his will. Something far stronger had him in her grasp.

“My only real regret,” Amber said calmly, “is that I couldn’t do this to you back then.”

The assassin screamed as he was drawn-and-quartered by invisible chains, his limbs pulling abnormally far.

“Who’s offering the bounty?” Amber said, almost conversationally. A scream was her only response as she tugged a bit harder. When that didn’t get the response she wanted, she lessened the pressure on his limbs to a tolerable level. The laser scalpel levitated however, and hovered in front of his face. The trigger activated and the blue laser leapt out, stopping millimeters before her attacker’s left eyeball.

“I asked you a question,” she said.

The man was breathing hard, his eyes squinted shut, and he smiled in a way that was not pleasing. “You might as well kill me,” he said.

“As you wish,” Amber said. “But there are so many ways to go about it.”

She stepped forward, and she was in his mind. Aside from telepathy, Amber had some skill in dissecting the mind. It was one of the many talents her fully developed brain had afforded her, thanks to some brilliant ancient Vulcan texts for guidance.

She looked his mind over the way someone might look over a book, deciding what chapter to open up to. She traced a mental finger over his mind, sending rockets of pain throughout his nervous system. Though they only lasted a few seconds, in his mind it lasted hours. She continued to send bursts of impulses through his brain until his mind finally broke open, spilling his thoughts out like jewels through her fingers.

She sorted out the ones she wanted. Misdeeds, murders, dealings, fine times with various Orion women. One of those thoughts led her to an Orion slave trader. He was the one who had paid for the price on her life. But the thoughts led to other thoughts, and she realized that the Orion was middle man as well. But that’s where the man’s mental trail ended.

By now the thoughts were running hot as the man’s brain slowly overheated. She sifted through for any other useful information before the man’s mind finally fried, offering him the only relief he could hope for: death.

Amber stepped back as the would-be killer crumpled to the floor and tapped her combadge. “Jones to Markus. We have a breach.”

She closed the channel at sat down. Somehow, despite Markus’ paranoia with new crew, someone had snuck on board. And if there was no way for her to know who was after her, only one thing was certain. There would be more.

She’d just have to be ready.