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» LCARS » Newspaper: The Federation Tribune » Newspaper Archives » 2004 » November 2004 » The Alpha Centauri Mystery - part 17 - Reunions, Part I, by Ben Versteegt
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The Alpha Centauri Mystery - part 17 - Reunions, Part I
Summary: the Starfleet Prometheus class that crippled the Aquinas, the USS Iapetus, has been crippled herself by a Romulan Warbird. Independently, Romulans and Ayer and his team beamed down to the ship to find the crystal samples, which the Romulans had originally tried to steal from a planet in the Alpha Centauri system. These crystals prove to be a source of great power, able to tip the balance of power in the quadrant in favour of the party who uses the crystals. Captain Donovan of the Iapetus has them now, but the Romulans and Ayer are on the move. Having captured Ensign Sandra Burke when they stole the samples, Donovan and his crew attempt to get the information they want out of Sandra, whom they are holding in Sickbay. But they hadn't considered Zaag, the Ferengi who apparently escaped falling victim to a stun grenade, as the rest of Ayer's team appeared to have. He jumps into Sickbay and threatens to kill Captain Donovan. However, Hall, the Iapetus' STC, threatens to kill Sandra if he does...
And now the continuation:
"Well?" Hall asked, his phaser trained on Sandra. "It's up to you, Ferengi." Zaag found the human's grin disconcerting; how could anyone smile under these conditions? Even worse, it seemed as if the security chief was enjoying himself. This was hardly the result Zaag had been hoping to achieve. He had hoped to get out of here instantly and with Sandra, without killing someone, seeing someone get killed or getting killed himself.
"He's serious, you know." Donovan almost sounded amused, and his body posture showed that he was irritated, annoyed, rather than worried or afraid. Zaag felt the control of the situation -- if he ever had any -- slip away from him.
"I'd rather not have to shoot," Zaag replied, pressing his phaser even firmer against Donovan's temple, "but I will if you make me! Now, let her go, or your Captain dies!"
"Careful now," Donovan said in mock-warning. "My STC is rather trigger-happy, if you know what I mean. If you offend him even the slightest, he might get angry and loose control... and then your friend dies. You wouldn't want that, would you?"
Zaag gritted his teeth, determined not to listen to this treacherous Captain. "Let Sandra go." He emphasised every word, but was quite sure that wasn't going to have any effect. It turned out he was right.
"Why not let our Captain go, and then we'll discuss it," Hall countered. "Better make a decision soon, Ferengi." Hall's loud voice reverberated off the bulkheads. It seemed he was getting angry -- but not yet entirely so. Zaag swallowed, and made a mental note never to see this man get really angry. "If you don't let the Captain go *now*, I'll make sure there's nothing left of your ladyfriend besides a foul-smelling vapour!"
It was obvious to Zaag that he had totally lost control of the situation now. With mere moments to go before Hall's patience ran out, the Ferengi had to decide quickly. Releasing Captain Donovan would mean certain defeat, for the moment he released his hostage, he would be shot. Killing Donovan had the same effect. Doing nothing was also not an option, because then Sandra would die. He appeared to have three options, all of them unacceptable.
So he opted for a different way out. "Enbek!" he shrieked.
The doors opened, and immediately as they did, a green disruptor beam shot through the opening. Hall, the chief tactical officer, crashed to the ground before even getting the chance to fire his phaser at the intruder. It took Donovan a while to get over his initial surprise about the unexpected twist in the situation: a Cardassian had just stormed into the sickbay and started to fire randomly at his people. He couldn't allow that to happen. He pushed Zaag away from him and reached for his phaser. If it was up to him, this Cardassian, the Ferengi and even Ensign Burke would die.
It took Zaag only a moment to fire his disruptor. But not at the Captain: no, his target was a wall-mounted console that controlled all functions of the biobed Sandra was lying on. With the console inoperative, Sandra's restraints automatically unlocked themselves. Sandra stood up, and ran towards Zaag -- and towards the exit.
By this time, the security detail Captain Donovan had brought with him to Sickbay had taken up position and was now firing everything they had at the invaders. Donovan had sided with one of the security officers behind a biobed, and was now looking for a chance to shoot down the Ferengi who had taken him hostage. However, Enbek and Zaag laid down cover fire, long enough for Sandra to run through the open doors. Without even so much as a second's pause, Zaag and Enbek ran after her, shooting at Donovan and the security officers even as they left sickbay. They were gone. The whole fight had lasted only a few seconds.
"Damn!" shouted Donovan. "Vince, find them. Now!"
Hall didn't reply. His phaser still firmly in his hand, the chief tactical officer of the Iapetus lay motionless on the floor. He was dead. Killed by Enbek's weapon.
Donovan saw that Hall wasn't breathing and looked away. "Damn," he said softly, while biting his lip and forcing himself to get a grip of himself. "Damn."
****
Sandra had run through the corridors of the ship, her two rescuers right behind her. There was no sign of pursuit, but just to be sure, they had taken erratic turns, gone down a couple of decks, then up another two and hopped in and out of a jefferies tube. They had stopped once or twice to scan for the location of the samples and for any sign of Ayer, Watters and Zjavick, but had quickly started to move again, deciding that staying in one place too long wasn't a good thing to do at that point. Even though there was no such thing as safety on a hostile ship filled with crew who was looking to capture or even kill them, they felt relatively safe in the less than comfortable space of a jefferies tube junction point where they had now crawled in.
"I think we're safe," Enbek proclaimed in a low voice. "I'm not hearing any pursuers."
That was all that Sandra needed to know. Now that the danger temporarily seemed over, she hurled her arms around Zaag and hugged him tightly. "Thank you for rescuing me," she whispered. As she drew back, her smile disappeared. "They told me the Aquinas was destroyed. That there were no survivors."
"They might as well have been right," the Cardassian grunted, still scouting the area around them for possible enemies. "It wouldn't make much of a difference."
Sandra turned to Enbek and her eyes widened, as if she only now recognised him. "You..." she managed to spit out, "what are you doing here?"
"Evidently, rescuing you," Enbek replied dryly.
"He's with us," Zaag explained.
Enbek gave him a look. "For now, anyway."
"Okay, hold on," said Sandra, confused. "Could you please tell the whole story? From the beginning? The last time I met this guy, he attacked me. Isn't he supposed to be in the brig?"
The Cardassian grunted again as Zaag began to explain, "He is. But when the Aquinas was attacked, and the Romulans came--"
"Romulans?" Sandra interjected. "Figures that they're looking for the samples too." She sighed. "Go on. What happened after I was abducted?"
"We ejected the warp core and detonated it in a last attempt to slow our attackers down," Zaag stated. Sandra was too surprised to react and didn't respond. The Ferengi continued, "I suspect the blast did more damage to us than to them. While this ship, the Iapetus, warped away, the Aquinas was left behind, in pieces. We soon received so-called help from the Romulans, though. They boarded the Aquinas and forced Captain Ayer to help them locate the Iapetus. The Captain had no choice but to comply, but when the Romulans had finally located and crippled the Iapetus, we escaped the Romulan ship and beamed in here." Zaag nodded to Enbek. "He was in the brig on the Romulan ship as well. We wouldn't have made it this far if it wasn't for him."
Sandra looked at Enbek. She still didn't trust him -- she could clearly remember what he had done, or almost done, to her back in the Alpha Centauri system. "I guess I owe you an apolo--" she began, but was cut off by Enbek.
"Save it. I'm not interested in your apologies. Now can we finally get the samples and then get out of here?"
Zaag already prepared to leave the relatively safe confines of the jefferies tube junction, but Sandra spoke up before he could climb into the tube. "Where's Uncle Pe-- Where's Captain Ayer?" She swallowed nervously. "Didn't he make it?"
Zaag sighed. He didn't have the heart to tell it -- but apparently Enbek did. "Captain Ayer and his two lackeys are in this ship's brig, probably. We were hiding in some unused quarters, when a stun grenade was thrown in. Only this Ferengi here and myself managed to hide behind a table from the stun field the grenade emitted."
"I'm sorry, Sandra," Zaag said, feeling truly sorry about all of this, "but we had to leave them behind. We were heavily outnumbered, and we couldn't bring them to safety before the security team started invading the quarters. We even barely had time to get out."
"And if you hadn't insisted that we rescued her, we might already be leaving the ship now, *with* the crystals," Enbek said to Zaag. "Although..." he looked at Sandra again. "She did manage to imprison me, so she must be a competent tactician." Sandra thought she could see a faint smile on his face.
"Thanks," Sandra said in response. "And so here we are. I agree that we must try to get the crystals back; in the wrong hands, it could mean... Well, something very bad anyway."
"Eloquently put," Enbek remarked and then started to climb the ladder. "Now come. According to the latest scans I took, the crystals are on the Bridge."
"Are you crazy?" Sandra blurted out. "What do you suggest we do? Take over the Bridge by force? There must be a dozen officers over there, not even counting the extra security the Captain of this ship will have assigned to the Bridge. We can't fight them on our own. No way."
"Then what do you suggest we do?"
"We'll free Captain Ayer and the others," replied Sandra. "We may stand a fighting chance if there are more of us."
Zaag nodded. "I agree. We should free the Captain first."
Enbek obviously didn't agree, and sighed. "It doesn't appear I have much choice, does it? I can't go face everyone on the Bridge alone..." He paused for a moment to think. "Very well. I'll come with you. Let's just hope the Romulans don't get to the samples first, because if they do..."
"We know, Enbek," Zaag told him. "We'll try to hurry, okay?"
Enbek merely grumbled and went down the ladder. It was a long way down to the deck of their destination, and the entire way, no words were spoken. All three of them prepared themselves silently for the unavoidable firefight they were going to get in, and only hoped they would get out of as well -- hopefully with the rest of their team alive and conscious.
To Be Continued...
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