Star Trek: Dark Horizon

SHADES OF DARKNESS

Written by Michael Gray

Based upon Star Trek

created by Gene Roddenberry

Copyright 2003, 2011 by Michael Gray

=/\=

Chapter 1 - The Broken

The U.S.S. Chamberlain moved slowly through the large field of debris floating in space that had once been the starship Balthazar. Alongside tangled pieces of charred metal, bodies, disfigured by energies never meant for flesh, turned end over end colliding occasionally with a large chunk of bulkhead.

Jack McCall’s heart raced. His mind could not accept the vision before him on the ship’s viewscreen. The Sovereign class starship his father had commanded and his wife had been on lay shattered beyond all sanity. Not a single piece of recognizable debris had been found by the sensors of the Chamberlain which now methodically searched for any sign of life.

Jack fought back the swirling anguish that gripped his heart. His father, his wife, and five hundred others gone. No sign of life had been discovered in the last five minutes since they’d come across the wreck of his father’s starship. The debris was scattered across an area of over three thousand kilometers. It would take hours, if not days to search it all. He didn’t know if his mind could resist coming apart before then.

Mei! Please Mei! Be alive! he begged of the Universe, but so far the Universe seemed to be denying him any hope. He had started to tremble just a minute or two before, but to him it seemed he had been doing nothing else for days and weeks, even months. If she was gone…No! his mind screamed in defiance of the reality his eyes tortured him with. He would not accept it! He would not allow himself to accept it!Jack turned to see Kyle Hoffman at the science station, a tear running down his cheek.

How dare he even imagine he was allowed to shed a tear for her! Jack felt an urge to take out all of his building rage and let it strike Hoffman. He would have if he’d thought it would bring Mei-Wan and his father back to him, but he knew it wouldn’t.

He rose to his feet. He wanted to scream with every bit of strength he had as he staggered toward the conn station where Nedj s’Felis sat plotting their course through the wreckage.

Hank Evans walked up to Jack the moment before he lost control and grabbed hold of his arm.

“Jack,” he said under his breath, “Keep it together. You can’t do her any good if you fall apart.”

He turned to Hank not sure he’d really heard him. “What?” he asked.

“What you do in the next five minutes will chart the course for the rest of your life,” Hank told him “Don’t go to pieces– not here, not now.”

“Get away from me,” Jack spoke in a whispery emptiness.

Hank took stronger hold of his friend’s arm. “You’re a starship captain, damn it. Act like one.”

Jack closed his eyes. Hank was right. He couldn’t do anything if he fell apart. He walked to his command chair and sat down. He faced forward, but avoided the gruesome scene before him.

“Any sign of escape pods?” Jack finally got out.

Hank had made his way back to the tactical console and checked his scans. “None yet that aren’t in multiple pieces.”

Negev, Jack’s Andorian executive officer, came up to the science station.

“Any evidence of energy signatures or subspace traces?” he asked Kyle Hoffman.

The science officer glanced at his displays. “There is a massive energy field near the center of the debris.”

“Mr. Evans,” Negev said, “Put up a tactical display of the debris with that energy field in place.”

Hank did so and the panorama of destruction was replaced by a diagram with straight and curved lines, plots of the largest pieces of debris, and notations of local peaks in temperature. The center of the wreckage had the highest temperature still, but there were hot spots farther away and much smaller. Negev hoped some of those might be escape pods with still functional energy systems.

“Plot out the most likely candidates for survivors or operational escape pods, Mr. Hoffman,” Negev ordered.

Despite the trouble they had gone through recently, Jack was now very glad Lak Negev was on the bridge. He might be a pain in the ass when it came to the Prime Directive, but he knew how to keep his cool in moments of crisis.

“I got one!” Hank Evans called out.

Jack and everyone else on the bridge looked at him.

“An intact escape pod, bearing 301 mark 27,” Hank said. “Its systems are still operational.”

“Life signs?” Negev asked.

“It’s hard to tell,” Hank responded. “There’s part of a plasma conduit nearby that’s interfering with some of the scans, but I think there are minimal life readings.”

Jack stood to his feet. He knew the chances of that pod carrying Mei-Wan or his father were remote, but this was the best news to come along so far. He longed for even the tiniest amount of hope at this point.

“Bring it aboard,” Jack said. “Check for survivors and then I want a full analysis.” He turned to Hank. “I want to know who did this.”

Evans began the process of bringing the pod aboard the Chamberlain. He just hoped for Jack’s sake that a miracle was about to happen.

=/\=

“Damn it!” Hank shouted as he stood on the deck of Shuttlebay Two. The escape pod sat charred and beaten a few feet away. A technician had just informed him that the atmosphere inside the pod was seventy-eight percent carbon dioxide and only three percent oxygen. There was no way anyone inside could still be alive.

“Crack it open,” Hank said to three engineers standing by.

They began their work as Melissa Vargas walked up. “He’s on his way,” she said.

“You sure you want to be here?” Hank asked the noticeably shaken Vargas.

She nodded. “If she’s in there I want to know, Hank.”

Doctor Preston walked up to them with several nurses.

“What do we have, Mr. Evans?” he asked.

“Looks like three dead bodies the best I can tell,” Hank answered.

The engineers opened the access door of the escape pod. Hank pulled out a phaser and motioned everyone else back. Melissa followed him in.

The pod had seats for nine, but only three of them were occupied. Two Human women and one male Vulcan sat slumped over, held in place by belt restraints.

Hank examined each of them. “Well, that’s not what I expected,” he said.

“What?” Melissa asked as she stepped up next to him.

“These people didn’t die from lack of oxygen.”

“Then what?”

Hank pointed to a charred area, stained with green blood, on the Vulcan male’s chest. “They were killed with energy weapons at close range.”

Melissa looked quickly at the two women and didn’t know if she should be relieved or saddened that neither of them were Mei-Wan. It left them still not knowing if she was alive.

Hank turned around. “Everyone out!”

Preston who was now inside frowned. “I’d like to get the bodies out.”

Hank shook his head and pointed at two seats across from the other three. Several pieces of ripped fabric were stuck to the belt restraints which had obviously been torn out of their latches.

“Someone boarded this pod,” Hank said. “And I don’t want any of the evidence disturbed until I can figure out who did it.”

As they made their way out, Jack walked up to the pod.

“Well?” he asked.

“Neither your father or Mei-Wan are in here, sir,” Melissa said.

Hank pointed to the outer hull of the escape pod where several indentations could be seen. “That confirms it.” He turned to Jack. “This pod was taken aboard another ship, someone forced out of it and the three left behind were killed.”

“By who?” Jack asked.

“That’s what I’m going to find out,” Hank stated.

=/\=

Jack stood at the window in his ready room waiting. He hated it. But this day he hated a lot of things, most of all his inability to change what had happened. Aside from that, he hated not knowing.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath remembering when his life was simpler, when the only questions plaguing his mind were where he and his friends would run off to for the day. He didn’t think so at the time, but now he knew that being ten years old had certain advantages.

Back home the warmth of spring would have started bringing life back to the living things his mother always spent so much of her time with. As a kid he had hated how the loneliness weighed upon his mother while his father cruised about the Galaxy in his starship. Now he wished Mei-Wan had lived the same life– away from the danger that had taken her from him.

Jack had sent a signal to his mother an hour earlier, but knew it would be more than a week before she received it. He hoped in that time he’d have a chance to find out what had happened. He knew his mother would suffer horribly and wished he could free her from the pain, but he knew he couldn’t do that any more than he could free himself.

Jack exhaled and forced his eyes open just as Melissa Vargas walked up to him. He wondered how long she’d been standing behind him.

“Evans have anything yet?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I just came up here to see how you were holding up, sir.”

Jack didn’t try to hide his agony. He didn’t see the point.

“Better than I thought I would an hour ago, but that’s not saying much,” he replied.

She nodded.

“I know you and Mei were having troubles lately,” Melissa said. “But you have to know she loved you very much.”

Jack was afraid to talk about the turmoil between him and Mei-Wan. It tore at his heart that they had wasted so much time on what now seemed so insignificant.

She started to go, but Jack didn’t really want to be alone. Not now.

“Melissa,” he whispered.

She stopped. “Sir?”

“Thanks,” he said as he forced a smile. “I love her so much…” he started, but the tears couldn’t be fought off.Melissa Vargas gently touched his arm.

Jack looked in her eyes and saw the pain she felt. Mei-Wan and Melissa were best friends and while he had found it difficult being around Melissa because of that the last several months, he was now glad he had at least one person with some understanding of the pain gripping him.

Suddenly the entrance to the ready room opened, breaking the silence between them and a moment later Hank Evans and Doctor Preston made their way to Jack and Melissa.

“The pod’s recorder confirms your father’s transponder signal,” Hank said. “He was definitely on board.”

Jack hesitated, unsure if he should take that as good news or not.

“Since all flag officers in Starfleet have a transponder imbedded within their bone marrow, that very signal is all anyone would need to find him,” Preston said.

“But those are classified,” Melissa responded.

“They’re supposed to be,” Hank said with a frown.

Jack guessed the doctor had other news.

“We found some…,” Preston paused a moment. “Some genetic material, blood and skin samples, on one of the other seats in the pod.”

Jack closed his eyes. Part of him wanted it to be her, but he was afraid of what that might mean.

“According to my analysis, Lieutenant Mei-Wan McCall was aboard as well,” Preston stated.

Jack turned away from all of them. When all of this happened, she was still alive. Someone had taken Jack’s father and his wife from that escape pod.

“Any idea who was behind this,” Jack asked, turning to Hank Evans.

“It was the Levalum,” Hank said.

Jack tapped his comm badge. “Mr. Negev, set a course for…”

Hank waved him off. “Jack, no.”

Jack thought a moment before speaking again. He didn’t want to delay another second.

“Standby,” Jack said softly before turning to Hank. “What?”

“You can’t deal with this like that,” Hank told him.

“Are you sure it’s them?” Jack asked.

“The energy signatures on the wreckage match my records and a half hour ago we found some debris that is consistent with Levalum vessels.” Hank stated.

“Then I’m taking the Chamberlain into their territory and…” Jack began.”If you take this big ass ship into Levalum territory all you’ll do is start a war the Federation can’t afford to fight,” Hank said. “You want to find Mei and your dad, we have to do this a different way.”

=/\=

Ten minutes later, a green-skinned M’naran stormed her way into Lak Negev’s office.

“Don’t let him do this!” she insisted.

“I assume you’re referring to the captain and Hank Evans leaving,” Negev said.

“Stop him, Lak,” Akala Wilmarza said. “You can order him to go through a medical review. I’ll certify he’s under severe strain, and unable to carry out his duties.”

“I would imagine his response would be to take a leave of absence, which would only help speed his departure.”

“You don’t understand what this will do to him if he goes off like this and finds her dead,” Akala said, standing on the other side of his desk.

Lak Negev’s antennae moved slowly forward. “Akala, considering the situation and Mr. Evans description of the Levalum I find it hard to argue with the captain’s choice.”

“You can’t be serious,” she said, shaking her head. “I thought you agreed Captain McCall was having serious psychological problems.”

“I do and before we received the distress signal from the Balthazar I was strongly considering your suggestion to force him to take several weeks leave to work with you on them,” Lak said.

“Then do something to make him stay.”

“Akala, he’s going off to find the Starfleet admiral who commands the Third Fleet, and an archaeologist that Admiral Simmons thought so important that she had been recalled to Kel-j’na,” he stated. “Once Simmons replies back to the report I sent five minutes ago, I’m sure he will concur with Captain McCall’s plan of action.”

“McCall shouldn’t be the one to go,” she said, placing her hands down on the desk and leaning toward him.

“Perhaps, but if I force the issue he’s likely to just resign from Starfleet. Is that the best thing for him?”

“No, but he needs extensive counseling,” Akala answered.

“I would agree,” Lak said, standing. “But if it were you, could you stay?”

“You know they’re probably dead,” she argued. “If he goes this may very well destroy him.”

She walked slowly to the door, knowing it was pointless to try to change the Andorian’s mind. “When he comes back, I hope you’ll be able to live with yourself, Lak. I know he won’t have that luxury.”

=/\=

Kadan Loftus held Hank Evans tightly, hoping she could keep him in the bed– keep him from leaving on a mission she feared he might never return from.

“It’ll be okay,” Hank said, trying to reassure her.

Loftus wasn’t buying it.

“But you’ve told me these people can be ruthless,” she said, her voice nearly breaking.

“They can be.”

“Then take more officers,” she pleaded. “I can have my pilots ready. With us backing you up…”

“We’d all get killed,” he told her. “Force won’t get Jack’s father or Mei-Wan back. This requires a more thoughtful approach and a less obvious one.”

“But we could still help.”

Hank turned to her. “We have to go alone, Loftus.”

She lowered her eyes. “Are you sure McCall’s up to this?”

“He’s gonna have to be up to it,” Hank said without a trace of emotion. “I doubt I could talk him into staying behind.”

“What about you?” Loftus asked, looking into his eyes.

“Me?” Hank smiled. “I’ll be fine.”

She shook her head, knowing there was no point in continuing. He had made up his mind and that was that.

“Just come back to me, Evans,” she whispered.

Hank drew her close to him.

=/\=

Jack McCall shoved several shirts into the small piece of over the shoulder luggage lying on his bed. Hank had told him to bring along several changes of non-standard Starfleet issue. Jack still wondered where exactly they were going, but Hank had refused to tell him.

Jack checked for another pair of pants when a picture of Mei-Wan caught his eye. It sat atop a small bookshelf next to the bed and displayed her smiling from a far happier time in their lives.

When the hell was that? he asked himself, trying to remember when it had been taken.

He picked up the picture and stared at if for nearly a minute, lost in thoughts about where she might be and…

No! his mind shouted. He took a deep breath and set the image back in its place. She has to be okay!

The door chime sounded and Jack moved to close up his luggage, but hesitated, staring at the image of Mei-Wan.

The door sounded again.

Jack grabbed the picture and stuffed it into his bag, then after closing it, slung it over his shoulder.

He walked to the door, stopping a few steps away. “Enter,” he called out.

The doors parted revealing Akala standing in the corridor.

“Counselor?”

“Captain,” she began. “I think we need to talk.”

“I’m afraid I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

She gave him a determined look that said she wasn’t likely to back off.

He exhaled and stepped back, allowing her in. “All right,” he said. “I can give you two minutes.”

Akala Wilmarza walked slowly into her captain’s quarters, taking a brief look around to make certain they were alone.

“Captain, I think you should reconsider going.”

He shook his head. “Not a chance.”

“Let Evans take someone else,” she insisted. “You’re not fit to go on a mission like this.”

Jack was about to yell at her, but caught himself. She was just doing her job.

“I have to go,” he murmured.

“Tell me something, Captain– would you allow an officer under your command to go off on such a mission if he was in need of psychological help?”

Jack stood silently.

“Well, Captain McCall? Would you?” she insisted.

Jack’s patience was all but gone. “This is different,” Jack said. “We’re talking about my father and my wife.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” she shot back. “Would you let such an officer go?”

Jack took a deep breath. “At least he’d have a chance to do more than sit back and let the Universe steamroller over his life… again,” Jack whispered.

Akala reached up and touched his arm. “Jack,” she said tenderly. “That’s not what’s happening here. Give yourself the chance to…”

The door chimed cutting her off.

“Enter,” Jack said, glad for the interruption.

Hank Evans stepped in. “You ready?”

Jack nodded.

“We better get going,” Hank said, turning to Akala.

“Thank you for your concern, Counselor,” Jack said.

The captain of the Chamberlain walked past her into the corridor beyond.

Akala sighed and walked up to Hank who stood on the other side of the doorway. “Hank, if he gives in to all of the pain and rage that’s built up for…” She stopped, feeling she was losing the battle for Jack McCall. “This could destroy him,” she finished.”If he doesn’t go, and face that pain and rage head on, it will destroy him.”

She leaned against the doorframe. “He’s not ready to face them head on yet.”

Hank met her eyes. “I’ve found the Universe rarely gives anyone the luxury of getting ready… for anything.”

He let silence hang between them a moment.

“You either are, or you aren’t,” Hank said.

=/\=

Chapter 2 - The Hidden Places

Jack and Hank walked out of the turbolift on Deck Twenty-two with Melissa Vargas toward the doors to the Captain’s Yacht. They arrived at the entrance stopped. Jack turned to Melissa and nearly shuddered when he saw the same look in her eyes he’d seen in Mei-Wan’s when her friend Robin Nelson had died. It was a look that said: Please, do something.

“Good luck, sir,” Melissa said.

“Thanks,” Jack responded.

Neither of them were in the mood to give the other false hopes.

“Be careful, sir,” Melissa got out barely above a whisper.

He smiled at her and nodded.

Hank touched the control next to the doors and they opened a moment later. Hank Evans entered the small craft.

Melissa stepped closer to Jack. “I hope…” she started, but couldn’t finish.

He put his arms around her and held her tight. “I know, Melissa.”

Jack released her and took a step back wishing there was something he could say to her– to himself– that would make things any better, but he knew the only thing that would help would be to bring Melissa’s best friend, Jack’s wife, back alive.

He quickly entered the yacht, leaving Melissa to stand alone in the corridor.

Jack entered the pilot’s section of the yacht where Hank was already working to get them going. The Chamberlain’s captain stowed his luggage in a compartment and sat in the seat next to Hank.

“You know, this is the ‘Captain’s Yacht’,” Jack said, a bit irritated with his friend.

Hank sat at the pilot’s station continuing to work, not even turning to Jack.

“There’s one thing you need to understand,” Hank began in a stern voice. “Once we take off, I’m the one calling the shots.”

“Now just a damn minute…” Jack got out before Hank cut him off.

“No, you wait just a damn minute,” Hank said. “You don’t have a clue where to go or who to see about your father and Mei. You have zero contacts in the Kel-j’na Region. I on the other hand have thousands, but they won’t talk to a Federation starship captain. They will talk to me. So you make up your mind here and now.”

Jack took a deep breath; mad as hell at Hank for pulling this.

“You decide how important getting them back is to you,” Hank said. “We do this my way or we don’t do it at all.”

“Go to hell, Evans,” Jack spat.

Hank grinned “That’s one thing you still have to learn, kid– giving up control over the things you never had control of in the first place.”

“Hank…” Jack grumbled.”I’m not trying to be an ass,” Hank said quietly. “But you have to decide which is more important, your pride, or your wife and father.”

“You know the answer,” Jack said, his head lowered.

“I know. I just wanted to make sure you knew.”

Jack looked up as the yacht’s systems came to life.

Hank turned to him. “This won’t be easy for you, Jack. You’re going to have to make some hard choices before this is over. Harder choices than you could ever imagine. I just want you to understand that whatever I do and whatever I ask you to do that it’s to help us save Mei-Wan and Jeremiah.”

“I know, Hank. I know,” Jack said with a nod. “You call the shots on this one, no matter how much I bitch about it.”

“Good,” Hank said, touching several controls on the panel before him. “We’ll have a little time to talk some things out on the way there.”

“On the way where?” Jack asked.

“The Jykasda system.”

=/\=

Some seventy-five light years away from the U.S.S. Chamberlain, a Skorr cruiser moved about the outskirts of the Bornoq star system. The large craft’s bussard collectors illuminated the thin hydrogen gas present as the ship passed through it.

Aboard the vessel, a young woman sat in the command section of the ship listening to communications supposedly from the system they were just entering to determine what kind of civilization might be present on the fifth planet. Instead Ahwi Dasari adjusted the panel in front of her to listen for other signals.

She stopped as something caught her attention and adjusted the gain on her equipment. An encoded transmission played itself out in the small receiver in her right ear.

After it finished, she made other adjustments.

“This should be easy,” she whispered.

The two Skorr officers who were at the helm and navigation stations didn’t bother to turn around. They rarely paid her any attention. She liked that, especially now.

The transmission replayed itself in her ear. “To all Federation starships, from Admiral Fergus Simmons, Commander in Chief of the Kel-j’na Region, stationed…”Ahwi frowned and skipped forward. “I doubt that part is worth listening to,” she said. “Can’t that old windbag ever shut up?”

The transmission with Simmons’ voice started again. “… point one three, near the Haborym system, the starship Balthazar was attacked and destroyed. It is believed that Admiral Jeremiah McCall and Lieutenant Mei-Wan McCall were captured and taken prisoner during this attack…”

Ahwi’s brow tightened and her eyes narrowed as she continued to listen.

“…rescue operations are currently being planned. However, little information is known about who is responsible or why they did this. Any ships in the area with pertinent information, please forward it immediately to Starfleet on Kel-j’na. This is Admiral Fergus…”

“Well, you’re up late,” a deep voice said behind Ahwi.

She turned quickly and touched a control on her panel, stopping the replay of the transmission. She smiled as she saw the source of the voice was Janus Osmand.

“Janus,” she said with more volume that she’d wished.

He hesitated a moment as he sipped a steaming liquid from a ceramic cup.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Just listening,” she answered, taking a deep breath and forcing a smile to her face.

“Something interesting, I hope,” he said, trying to get a better look at her panel and the information displayed on it.

Ahwi touched several controls removing all evidence of the Starfleet transmission. “Not really. Just some Federation chatter.”

“Anything important?” he asked.

“Not really,” she sighed. “Just some of the usual crap about keeping an eye out for you and some Federation ambassador sending encoded messages back to the Federation Council about what to do about Cajma.

“Cyrus Wakernaggle,” Osmand said. “I know about him.”

She stared at Osmand a moment. “You know ‘about’ him?” she asked with a smile. “That sounds quite intriguing, Janus.”

“Perhaps later I’ll tell you some interesting stories about Mr. Wakernaggle.”

“Oh, come on,” she pleaded.

“Not tonight, girl,” Osmand said with a grin. “You should get some sleep.”

Ahwi shrugged her shoulders. “I tried.”

“Did you take anything?”

She shook her head and went to work again at her communications panel.

“Go down and see the medical officer,” Osmand suggested.

Ahwi glanced up at him. “I like staying up late. Listening for stray signals always calms my mind.”

He looked at her a moment. “Are you still having dreams about your parents?”

‘Not so much now,” Ahwi shrugged. “Not nearly as much as last year.”

“You miss them very much, don’t you?” he asked gently.

Ahwi nodded.

“Seeing your parents die when you were so young will be with you the rest of your life, Awhi,” Osmand said. “But I know you can work past it.”

She turned to him as if to say something, but her eyes filled with tears.

“You know I’m here for you, child,” he said.

“I know, Janus.”

He walked slowly out of the room, leaving Ahwi to her listening.

She took a breath to force back the emotion she felt building in her. She didn’t have time for such indulgences anymore. She had things she had to do and very little time to do them and she still had far too many details to work on.

Always the details, she thought. Why can’t anything be simple?

=/\=

Ensign Natalie Fowler walked down the corridor on Deck Seventeen at 2334, hoping she’d get a chance for some sleep before too long. The new commander of the Archaeology Section, Lieutenant Sunita Mahajan, was driving her crazy with inventories of equipment and other crap that Natalie felt was better suited to the new members of their section, Ensign Albert Tainey and Ensign Carmela Navarro, but Sunita, in her wisdom, or lack of it as Natalie decided, thought it was the perfect job for her.

“Bitch,” Natalie whispered under her breath.

Give someone a promotion from Lieutenant Junior Grade to full Lieutenant and the power goes to their head, Natalie thought as she made her way to the science officer’s array of labs and offices.

She strolled through the outer office area toward the lair of the head of the Chamberlain’s Science Department wondering how to get back at Sunita, but she knew the anger would pass by morning. Natalie was only using it to hide from all of the bad news they’d gotten lately.

Natalie Fowler respected and looked up to Mei-Wan McCall, not just as a fellow officer, but as someone whose career she’d followed and wanted to emulate. They’d become close the last several months and aside from a few weeks of indecision on Mei-Wan’s part, Natalie considered her someone she could talk to, and on a certain level, a friend. She was glad to learn from Melissa Vargas a half hour earlier that they now believed Mei-Wan hadn’t died in the destruction of the Balthazar, but had been taken away from the ship’s wreckage to some unknown location.

Natalie hoped the captain and Hank Evans found her.

The young red-headed ensign touched the panel next to the science officer’s door and waited. She held up the PADD in her left hand and was tempted to take a peak, but decided it might not do good things for her career.

A moment later the door opened and Kyle Hoffman greeted her.

“What is it, Ensign… Ensign…”

“Ensign Natalie Fowler,” she said. “From the Archaeology Section.”

Kyle’s eyes brighten a bit at that. “You’ve been on the Chamberlain for a while, haven’t you?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, finding it hard not to smile. After a moment she offered the PADD to him. “Lieutenant Commander Vargas asked me to deliver this to you, sir.”

Kyle accepted the device, but kept his eyes on the shapely young ensign. “Come in and take a seat,” he said. “If you’re not too busy.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Kyle walked around the desk piled several inches high with various personnel and department reports. He sat as Fowler took the seat across from him.

“I’ve been trying to get a chance to speak to everyone in the department the last couple of days, but haven’t gotten around to the Archaeology Section just yet,” Kyle said as he quickly scanned the information on the PADD she had brought.

A moment later a frown came to his face. “Damn.”

“Something wrong, sir?” Natalie asked.

Kyle set the PADD down and stared ahead, not looking at Fowler, but seething with anger at someone else.

“Sir?” she asked again.

He turned to her, breaking his fuming. “Yes?”

“Is there something wrong?”

He forced a smile, but his jaw tightened despite the face he wanted to present. “Uh, just some bookkeeping from my former command.”

She nodded, figuring there was more to it. “Well, if there’s nothing else…”

Kyle sat up a bit taller in his chair. “Were you close to Lieutenant McCall?”

“She was my section commander, but I’d like to think we were friends too,” Natalie replied.

“She’s a talented scientist. It would be a horrible waste if…” He smiled warmly and looked at Fowler. “You remind me a lot of Mei-Wan when she started out,” Kyle said. “Did you know I was her section commander on the Farragut?”

“Yes, I believe she mentioned that once,” Natalie said.

“We were good friends too,” Kyle said softly.

Fowler leaned forward in her seat. “Do you know much about the escape pod that was found?”

“No, just that she had been aboard it when it left the Balthazar,” Kyle responded. “The captain, Evans, and Vargas have kept most of the details to themselves.”

“But you’re the science officer.”

Kyle let out a long breath. “Captain McCall doesn’t like me very much.”

“You’re a friend of his wife, why wouldn’t he…”

“It’s because I’m her friend,” Kyle interrupted.

Natalie understood.

He rose to his feet. “You know, I was just about to get something to eat. Would you like to join me?”

Natalie stood as well and started to shake her head. She really wanted to get some sleep.

“We could discuss where you see your career going and where you’d like to be in the next five years,” Kyle said with a growing smile.

“Right now, I’ve got an inventory to finish,” Natalie remarked.

Kyle frowned. “Why would you being doing inventories? Didn’t Archaeology get a couple of new personnel?”

Natalie slowly nodded and grinned. “Yes, but that’s not my call.”

“That’s absurd,” Kyle grunted. “Didn’t you work with Mei-Wan on the Ancient Progenitor materials?”

Natalie tried her best to suppress a smile. “Yes.”

“I want you back on that,” Kyle said. “I’ll talk to Sunita tomorrow morning. We’ll get you off that inventory duty. You’ll start working where Mei-Wan left off.”

“Thank you, sir!” Natalie said, finally smiling.

“Now,” Kyle began, stepping up to her. “How about some dinner?”

She agreed and they vacated the office. Kyle Hoffman left behind the PADD with his orders to report to Corvanis for the inquiry into the death of the Ravenscroft’s crew. He had more important things to do with his evening.

=/\=

Five days later, the yacht Bucephalus, cruised through space at warp speed toward a destination Jack McCall knew only by the name of the system. Hank Evans had so far refused to tell him why they were headed there. Jack was less than pleased.

Hank sat at the pilot’s station as Jack walked up to him.

“You get much sleep?” Hank asked.

“A little,” Jack answered as he took the seat in front of the yacht’s communications panel.

“You really should get some rest, Jack. Once we get started on this you may not have much opportunity for it.”

Jack turned to him. “Exactly when are we going to get started?” Jack asked, more than a little irritated.

Hank dismissed his question. “We’ll need a better ship than this piece of crap for one thing and we’ll need some hard currency,” Hank said. “And a lot of it.”

“All right, Hank,” Jack said, his frustration reaching the breaking point. “I want to know right now where we’re headed and why!”

Hank took a long breath. “Jack, just calm down and take it easy.”

“Calm down?” Jack shouted. “Calm down?! My wife and father may be out there dying somewhere and all we’ve done is lollygag across this godforsaken region of space the last five days! And you want me to calm down?”

“Yes.”

“Go to hell!”

Hank stared at him for almost a minute. “You feel better now?”

“No!”

“I suggest you get this out of your system, Captain,” Hank said, biting off the last word. “Or I’ll send you back to your damn ship and let you stew there.”

Jack folded his arms across his chest.

“I’ve done this kind of search almost a hundred times, Jack. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.”

Jack felt like screaming, but he turned away instead.

“That’s better,” Hank said. “I want to get Mei and Jeremiah back too, but running off without any idea of where we need to go might make you feel better, but it won’t do a damn thing for them.”

“I know,” Jack whispered. “It’s just being stuck in this ship, I feel like I’m doing nothing.”

“There’s not much I can do about how you feel,” Hank said firmly.

“Why won’t you tell me where we’re going?”

“Because there are some secrets I still want to keep,” Hank replied.

“Now who’s not showing trust?”

“I do trust you, Jack, but you’re a Starfleet captain. You’re loyalty is to the Federation and as such, I need to keep a few things from you until I’m sure you intend to go through with this.”

“I don’t have a choice.”

“Yes you do,” Hank said. “You can still go back and just accept that Mei and your father are gone.”

“No,” Jack told him. “I can’t do that.”

“At some point you may have to accept that as the outcome of this little trip, Jack. I can’t make any promises.”

Jack closed his eyes not wanting to consider such a thing. “We’re not at that point yet.”

“All right,” Hank said, spinning his chair about to face Jack. “First, you’re going to have to empty all of that Federation indoctrination you’ve had crammed in your skull for most of your life.”

“What?” Jack asked.

“Just listen and shut your mouth for a change, McCall,” Hank said with a slight smile. “I may ask you to do things that run contrary to everything you believe in.”

Jack leaned back in his seat, but held his tongue.

“I won’t ask just to be cute,” Hank continued. “But if you don’t do as I tell you, not only won’t you ever see Mei or your father again, you’ll probably get the two of us killed. The places we’ll be going don’t operate under your Federation philosophy or Starfleet’s code of ethics.”

Jack gave him a nod.

“But there are rules, Jack– rules that you follow or you’ll end up a mess of goo in some back alley on a world you’ve never heard of,” Hank said.

Jack watched Hank, wondering what he was getting himself into, but he didn’t care. He had to find his wife and father.

“Do I have your word that you’ll do whatever I tell you?” Hank asked.

Jack looked down at the deck for a period of time lost in thought, certain only of his desire to find two of the most important people in his life.

“Yes,” Jack answered quietly. “I’ll do whatever you ask.”

Hank observed Jack for several seconds making sure of his younger friend’s determination. “Good,” Hank replied, turning back to the piloting controls. “Prepare to drop out of warp.”

Jack got up from the comm station and went to the navigator’s panel.

He peered out the front viewport and watched the stars stop streaking past as they entered normal space. In the distance he saw a large gas giant planet surrounded by a field of asteroids.

“Now,” Hank began. “I have to do this just right to trip the sensor buoys.”

Hank touched several controls that made the yacht bank quickly to port and head toward the asteroid field.

“You sure about this?” Jack asked.

Hank grinned. “Relax. This’ll just take a minute.”

The craft cruised past several dozen small asteroids going faster than Jack thought warranted or sane. There were several points in their journey through the sea of city-sized hunks of rock he was certain the inertial dampeners were sure to fail, but fortunately for Jack and the contents of his stomach, the system continued to function.

Hank smoothed out their course as they approached a very large, roughly spherical asteroid which filled their field of view.

“That’s it,” Hank said. He turned to Jack. “This thing handles like a wheelbarrow. You really need to have Starfleet give you something else for a yacht.”

Jack watched as they took up a low orbit about the asteroid. “Now what?”

Hank got up and walked over to the communication panel. His fingers danced across the controls. “Now, we go in.”

“You have to send some ‘open sesame’ message?” Jack asked with a smirk.

Hank lifted his brow. “Not exactly.”

A flash of energy filled the yacht’s control room for only an instant, but it was enough to hurt Jack’s eyes.

“What the hell was that?” he demanded.

“We’re in,” Hank said as he went back to the pilot’s station and began shutting the yacht’s systems down.

“Is that so?” Jack asked. “I didn’t see any secret doorway open and I certainly didn’t feel us move.”

“Come on,” Hank said, satisfied the craft was shutting down. “Get your gear.”

Jack shook his head, but followed Hank anyway.

The rear airlock of the yacht opened and Jack followed Hank into a large hanger where the craft they’d spent the last five days rested.

“How the hell did we get in here?” Jack asked as he looked up at the ceiling, two hundred feet above.

“Dimensional displacement,” Hank said with a smile. “A little bit of technology I picked up several years ago.”

“Nice,” Jack said looking about the hanger with its endless array of pipes and conduits overhead. “I assume we’re inside that asteroid.”

“Yep,” Hank said. “There’s no exit to the surface.”

“How far down are we?”

“About thirty kilometers or so.”

“Well, well, well,” a sultry voice echoed through the hanger.

Jack and Hank both turned to look for its source.

A beautiful blonde glided toward them wearing a low cut, full length, silk night gown that highlighted her ample breasts. Jack guessed she was in her early twenties, but her eyes seemed to belong to someone much older and wiser.

“I was beginning to wonder,” the woman said in a low, almost raspy voice. “It’s been almost two years, Hank.”

Jack looked at Evans wondering first, why Hank would leave a woman waiting here for him for that long and second, how he could leave this woman here alone for that long.

Hank and the woman embraced and joined their mouths in a kiss that lasted more than a minute by Jack’s reckoning.

Finally they pulled themselves apart; both smiling.

“Jack,” Hank said. “Meet Daphne. Daphne, this is Jack McCall.”

“So you found him,” Daphne said, smiling at Jack.

“Well, not exactly,” Hank told her. “But that’s kind of a long story.”

“I do have the time, Hank,” she remarked with a grin as she ran her hand seductively down his arm.

“The problem is, we don’t,” Hank said.

=/\=

Chapter 3 - If I Only Had A Soul

Hank Evans entered a small ten foot by ten foot room crammed with various pieces of equipment, each with its own flashing display, listing off a never-ending parade of text. He sat in a chair in front of the equipment, operating the controls on the devices. Joining the displays was a loud cacophony of various languages coming from a number of speakers in the room. Hank leaned to one side in the chair to take it all in for several moments.

He made some minor adjustments to a few of the controls and listened again. He walked out of the room. The equipment continued running through a variety of different signals, processing each for later inspection.

=/\=

Jack sat at a table in a large kitchen area with gray metallic walls while Daphne worked on making coffee. Jack couldn’t help noticing her nightgown was far too loose fitting to prevent him from gaining the occasional glimpse of parts of her body that he doubted she wanted him looking at. He did his best not to stare.

He folded his hands in front of him on the table.

“You certain you don’t want anything, Jack?” she asked him, purposely stepping into his field of view.

“No thank you,” he replied. “I’m sure Hank intends for us to leave soon.”

Hank walked in and put his arms around Daphne’s waist. “How about a couple of steaks, sweetheart?” he asked her.

“Sure,” she answered. She walked over to a large counter and went to work.

Jack frowned at Hank. “I thought we didn’t have time.”

“Unfortunately, it’ll take my systems a bit to go through the local comm traffic,” Hank said. “We should have some answers in another six to eight hours.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “We don’t have time for this. Why don’t we just go and let the yacht’s computer analyze whatever you need?” Jack asked, exasperated.

“First, we’re not taking the yacht,” Hank said. “Second, you need to rest.”

“I can rest on the way there.”

“And where is that, Jack?”

“Wherever it is we’re going,” Jack said.

“That’s the problem,” Hank told him. “I can narrow things down to about seven possible systems, but the chances are we wouldn’t get to the right one for a month or so. By morning I’ll know exactly where we need to go.”

“How difficult can it be to find a force that could destroy a Sovereign class starship?” Jack asked.

“Understand there are thousands of operators within the Levalum Clans,” Hank began. “I’m guessing it was one of the majors. This mission required precise timing and an intimate knowledge of Starfleet. They knew your father’s transponder frequency. My guess is he was the target.”

“But Mei, she…” Jack started, but was unable to finish.

“She was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time, Jack.”

Jack let his head tilt down.

“Though, in one sense she was in the right place,” Hank said. “If she’d been in another escape pod she’d have ended up like the rest of the Balthazar’s crew.”

“What the hell would the Levalum want with my father?” Jack said, looking up at Hank.

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Hank answered, frowning. “Usually the Levalum wouldn’t take on something as well armed as a Sovereign class starship. It just isn’t worth it. And if they were to take on a ship that strongly defended they’d certainly capture all the females alive for…” He raised his brow. “Well, for one of their more profitable business interests.”Daphne walked over to them setting a tall glass on the table for Jack and then one for Hank.

“My god, you don’t think that’s why they…” Jack began.

Hank shook his head. “Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, Jack. Worrying about what may or may not have happened to Mei won’t get us anywhere. We need hard information.”

“Then let’s go get some!” Jack demanded.

“That’s why I’ve got my system checking the comm traffic,” Hank said. “It’s sending inquiries that should draw some of the players out into the open.”

Jack frowned as Daphne poured golden liquid into each of their glasses.

=/\=

An hour later, Jack sat on a small bed in a roughly twelve foot square room. He wore a T-shirt and pair of shorts, both with the emblem of Starfleet Academy emblazoned proudly upon them.  He stared at the gray metal walls of the room.

Hank walked up to his door and peered in. “You doing okay?”

Jack kept staring at the wall. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay again.”

Hank opened a closet near the door. “Find yourself three or four changes of clothes in here. I think there’s stuff in your size.”

“I didn’t figure I’d be wearing my Starfleet uniform,” Jack said.

Hank considered sitting down and talking with Jack for a while, but he couldn’t think of anything he could say that would help his younger friend. “We’ll leave after breakfast.”

Jack only nodded.

Daphne came up behind Hank. “There you are,” she said affectionately.

“Just making sure Jack was set for the night,” Hank said.

“He looks a little old to need tucking in,” she remarked with a grin. She put her arms around Hank’s waist. “How about you tuck me in instead?”

Hank smiled and the two of them left the room.

Jack stood and closed the door and shut off the lights.

He got into bed and wept quietly in the darkness for more than ten minutes before finally falling asleep.

=/\=

The next morning Jack walked down the narrow hallway toward the kitchen area wearing a set of dark pants, dark gray shirt, and a tight fitting jacket. He had showered and gotten dressed, but hadn’t fully awakened until he made his way into the hall where his nose came to life taking in the smells filling the air.

Jack succumbed to it and stopped. He closed his eyes and inhaled the delightful smells into his nostrils in one large breath. The warm aroma of fresh baked bread hit him first with a longing to sink his teeth into the lightly browned outside and delicate fluff inside.

Next, the smoke from crisp bacon frying in an open pan made his mouth water as he heard it sizzling away. It had been some time since he’d had fresh bacon and this he could tell wasn’t some concoction out of a replicator. There wasn’t much else Jack preferred for breakfast over bacon.

He also caught the delicious smell of eggs, hash browns, steaming fresh coffee, and was that cinnamon? By god, it most certainly was! If he wasn’t mistaken it had just the faintest touch of sugar to it.

He walked into the kitchen just as Daphne placed a tray of steaming cinnamon rolls on the counter. She looked up and smiled at Jack.

“Good morning,” she said as he continued to stare at the rolls. “You sleep okay?”

Jack tore his gaze away from the rolls and saw the bacon, eggs, hash browns, and brewing coffee nearby. He felt as if he’d fallen into some time warp and ended up several hundred years in the past when a morning meal like this was commonplace. Despite those simpler times, human beings knew how to enjoy things like a good breakfast.

Mei would love this, he thought. She’d enjoy the… he stopped. The twenty-fourth century slammed into his chest like a ton of bricks. He forced a smile.

“I slept fine,” he said.

Daphne placed numerous strips of bacon on a plate. “Well, sit down,” she urged him. “You like hash browns?”

He sat. “Yes please.”

She placed a full serving of the steaming potatoes on the plate along with a hot cinnamon roll.

“The bread should be done in another few minutes,” she told him as she set his plate in front of him on the table.

“Daphne, you’re worth your weight in gold,” Jack said with a smile, sniffing the warm air off his plate.

“I certainly cost a hell of a lot more than that,” she responded, serving up his scrambled eggs.

“What?” Jack said, giving her a puzzled look.

“Didn’t Hank tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

She shook her head and walked back to the counter. She picked up a glass of orange juice for Jack.

Jack’s eyes widened the next moment as Daphne evaporated away. The glass of juice fell to the floor, shattering with a loud crack.

Three seconds later, Daphne reappeared. She looked down at the floor now covered in orange juice and pieces of broken glass.

“Damn it!” she yelled.

Hank walked in. “What’s wrong?”

Jack stood to his feet pointing at Daphne. “She just vanished!”

She frowned. “Of course I did,” she remarked, turning to Hank. “That damn emitter is going out again. The stupid thing has gone bad three times since you left.”

“Did you replace it?” Hank asked, getting a vacuum unit to clean up the mess.

“Yeah,” she said. “Three times!”

“She’s a holographic projection?” Jack asked, surprised.

Hank smiled. “I thought you knew.”

“How the hell was I supposed to know that?”

Daphne grinned and walked past them. “I’ll get another emitter and you two can replace it. I need to do a diagnostic of the system. I’d hate to give you food poisoning.”

She left the room.

“You slept with her last night, didn’t you?” Jack asked.

Hank finished the cleaning and got his own plate from the counter. “Daphne’s a hell of a lot of fun, Jack.”

“She’s just a phantom of energy fields and computer patterns… from a machine!”

“So she’s mechanical,” Hank said as he sat down next to Jack. “She’s great to come home to after a long trip.”

Hank ate a strip of bacon while Jack continued to stare at him.

“You act like she’s real,” Jack pointed out.

“She is,” Hank said with a sly grin. “In more ways than one.”

“But she’s a computer program and…” Jack began.

“What do you call that collection of neurons up in your head?” Hank asked.

“That’s completely different,” Jack answered, turning to look at his plate. “She’s just a bunch of energy fields.”

“And your body is given the appearance of solid material from the interactions of electromagnetic fields in your atoms.”

“I don’t disappear if the power goes out, Hank.”

“But if I alter the probabilities of the collection of particles we refer to as Jack McCall, you’d wink out of existence too,” Hank returned.

“Last I checked most ‘real’ people don’t have that happening to them,” Jack said eating one his own strips of bacon.

Hank chuckled. “If you ever got a look into some of the secret archives of the Federation, especially those ghouls in Temporal Investigations, you’d change your tune on that, young captain.”

Jack took a bite of his cinnamon roll. He quickly forgot their discussion of Daphne’s existence as the warm sweetness of the roll melted in his mouth. “Damn,” he whispered.

“Great stuff isn’t it?” Hank asked. “And you want to argue about whether she’s real or not?”

Jack smelled the rest of his food. For now he’d forego any further complaints about Hank’s “friend.”

Daphne strolled back into the kitchen carrying a small box with labels in a language Jack didn’t recognize. “Here’s the emitter,” she said to Hank. “Please fix it before you leave.”

“Not to worry sweetheart,” Hank replied.

“Sorry I gave you a fright,” Daphne said to Jack as she poured him another glass of juice. “I just assumed someone had mentioned that I was a holographic person.”

She brought the glass over and set it down next to Jack’s plate.

“Thank you,” he responded.

She brought her own plate of food over and sat across from the two men.

“You eat?” Jack asked.

“Blame that on Hank,” she smirked as she began eating. “He decided to make some modifications to the program.”

“A good meal isn’t worth much if there’s no one to enjoy it with,” Hank remarked as he took a bite of eggs.

“How does that work exactly?” Jack asked with a grin.

“The computer could probably tell you,” she said. “I can access the information if you want.”

“I thought you were the computer,” Jack said.

“No, I’m Daphne,” she responded with a wide smile.

“Her personality is a separate system,” Hank said. “She’s connected to the main computer, but she’s definitely her own… person.” Hank stared at her for a moment while she smiled at him.

“If you hadn’t seen her fade away for a second you’d never have known, Jack,” Hank said.

“Is she the holographic system you had to finish paying those two Levalum individuals we met last year?”

“Yeah,” Hank said. “They expect I’ll have to come up with the money soon, but they don’t know I deactivated their little payment insurance system.”

“Payment insurance?” Jack inquired.

“They had it set up so that if I don’t pay them by a certain date, Daphne will try to kill me… in bed,” Hank explained.

“We couldn’t let that happen, now could we?” Daphne said with a grin.

Jack looked at her wondering if Hank was really as clever as he thought. “Are you certain about that?”

Hank laughed. “Yes, I’m certain. Trulfulsa and Galfalda may be ruthless as hell, but they’re cheap. They wouldn’t pay anyone to do a really good job securing their merchandise. I know those guys.”

Jack went back to work on his food. Despite his reservations about who fixed it, he wasn’t going to let it get cold.

=/\=

An hour later, Jack stood inside the small communication center as Hank studied various displays and lists of information.

“How much exactly did this whole setup, the asteroid, the hangers, the life support system, all cost you, Hank?” Jack asked.

“Plenty,” Hank answered. “But I’ve got money to burn.”

“You must have kept busy.”

“It’s a good life, Jack. If you hadn’t gotten married I was going to ask you to join me,” Hank said.

Jack’s jovial attitude faded as Hank’s comment brought Mei-Wan back to his mind. The food and all the rest had actually allowed him a brief moment away from the pain.

Hank leaned back in his seat with a frown. “This isn’t good.”

“What?”

“From what I can tell it was someone based in the Antenora system,” Hank answered. “This is going to be rougher than I thought.”

“I’ve never heard of it,” Jack said.

“The wealthiest of the clans live there. They also happen to be the nastiest,” Hank explained. “We’re going to have to be very careful or we’ll end up worse than dead.”

He turned in his chair to face Jack. “We may need some help.”

“You want me to contact the Chamberlain?” Jack asked.

Hank rolled his eyes. “I said help, not cannon fodder.”

“What’s with the attitude?” Jack asked.

“What attitude?”

“The one you’ve got about Starfleet and the Federation,” Jack pointed out.

“Starfleet is good at exploring, not at what we have to do,” Hank contended. “We do this Starfleet’s way and you’ll never see Mei or your father again.”

Jack stared at him. “That’s the attitude.”

“You can call it what you want, Jack. I’ve done this enough times to know what does and doesn’t work.”

“How about we just get going?” Jack asked.

Hank stood to his feet. “After we get some supplies.”

After going through a series of corridors, Jack followed Hank to a large door that required a series of codes to open it. Once they entered, Jack understood the reason for all the security.

The large room– it was more like a cavern– stretched half a mile into the asteroid Hank Evans called home. Everywhere Jack turned, large crates stood stacked one upon the other up to the fifty foot high ceiling. In the more than twelve years Hank had been an independent trader he had amassed quite a collection of treasures.

“What is all of this?” Jack asked as Hank opened a large metal locker.

“Some of it’s things I bought with the money I made, others are objects I found on worlds you’ve never heard of,” Hank said as he pulled out several items handed one to Jack. “Here, take this.”

Jack noticed it felt a lot heavier than a standard issue phaser. “I assume this is a weapon.”

“Be careful with that,” Hank said. “Don’t release the safety unless there’s someone you want dead.”

“No stun setting?” Jack asked.

Hank shook his head. “Where we’re going people don’t believe in stun settings.”

“Wonderful,” Jack remarked as he checked the safety. He attached the holster that held the weapon to his belt.

Hank handed him another object. This was about the size of a poker chip, but square instead of round.

“What is it? Jack asked. “A bomb?”

“No, it’s a dimensional displacement device,” Hank explained.

“Like the thing that brought the yacht into this asteroid?”

“Yeah,” Hank said. “But much shorter range.”

Jack flipped it over in his hand and noticed several small controls on the unit. “How do you set the destination?”

“You don’t exactly,” Hank answered. “It seeks out the area of lowest density within a set distance. Try not to use it down in a deep hole or inside a ship. Youre likely to end up buried alive in solid rock or metal.”Jack wasn’t certain he wanted to keep something like that anywhere near him.

“Don’t worry, it’s got several safety features,” Hank said with a smile. “It’s not gonna go off on its own.” Hank closed the locker after placing one of the displacement devices in a pocket of his jacket. “Oh, the density is adjustable, but never set it to zero. Some folks like to keep vacuum containers around to catch idiots who don’t know any better.”

“Don’t tell me you use this to kill people with.”

“I use them to get my ass out of nasty situations, Captain,” Hank said. He turned to walk out of the large vault. “My guess is we’ll find ourselves in a few of those on this trip.”

=/\=

A half hour later, Hank and Jack walked with Daphne toward a large hanger next to the small one the yacht Bucephalus sat berthed in. At the end of a thirty foot length of gantry sat a hundred meter long ship that looked as if it had left its best days behind some time ago. It was longer than it was wide and had warp nacelles that extended only a short distance away from the sides of the hull. Emblazoned on the port side of the craft was the name…

“Gladys?” Jack inquired with a grin.

“Hey, what’s the matter with it?” Hank asked. “It’s a good name.”

Jack shook his head as Hank went to Daphne and gave her a kiss.

“Take care of yourself,” Hank told her.

“Try to get back before another two years passes,” she said with a frown.

“I will,” he said.

Hank made his way across the gantry toward the ship. “Come on, Jack.”

Jack McCall started to go when Daphne caught the edge of his jacket and stopped him.

“Please keep an eye on Hank,” she said with pleading eyes. “He’s not as young as he likes to think he is.”

Jack found himself more than a little surprised that a computer simulation was worried about Hank, but then he thought she was probably programmed that way. Or was there something more here?

“I will,” he said.

She smiled. “Oh, about the name,” she whispered. “Gladys was his mother’s name.”

Jack returned Daphne’s smile.

=/\=

Inside the Gladys, Hank Evans was busy turning on power systems as Jack entered the cramped pilot’s cabin.

“Not very roomy, is it?” Jack remarked as he squeezed sideways past a panel of equipment.

“She’s a good ship,” Hank replied. “You take the pilot’s seat this time. I’ll take navigation.”

“I’ve never flown a ship like this, Hank.”

“You’ll figure it out along the way,” Hank said getting up from the seat and sitting in the chair behind it and to the right.

Jack made his way to the vacated seat and shoehorned himself into it. He looked down at the control panel and got lost in the hundreds of indicators and switches. “You’re sure about me flying this thing?”

“Yeah, there’s nothing to it.”

“Okay, but don’t blame me if I break it,” Jack said.

Hank laughed out loud at his friend. He got up from his chair and started taking Jack through the basics of operating the craft that would be their home for the next several weeks.

=/\=

Ten minutes later, the Gladys appeared in a bright flash in orbit of the asteroid and soon after soared away as its reactors came to life, leaving the Jykasda system behind.

=/\=

Chapter 4 - Getting There Is Half The Fun

In her quarters on the Skorr cruiser in orbit of the planet Bornoq Five, Ahwi Dasari stood at the center of the room, her eyes closed and her arms extended outward. She took several breaths, then folded her arms in front of her. She held that position for ten seconds, ending her pause by again extending her arms out to her sides. The sixteen year old moved with the grace of a ballet dancer as she slowly turned about putting one arm in front of her and raising the other above her head. Her arms stopped their motion as she took a slow deep breath.

Suddenly her five foot one figure exploded in a fury of lightning fast moves similar in form to Tae Kwon Do, but much more chaotic, yet still predetermined.

Ahwi somersaulted in place, swinging her legs around in the air as if to kick an opponent. However, no one else was present. This was only practice for her.

She stopped only four feet from the door.

A footstep…

Her eyes darted to the door, the rest of her body stood frozen in place.

A breath…

Another step…

The door opened and Janus Osmand stormed into the room.

For a fraction of a second the instinct to defend herself nearly overwhelmed Ahwi, but at the last moment, her mind regained control.

She relaxed as he went ballistic.

“I just learned that Mei-Wan McCall has been captured!” he yelled.

“And that’s my fault?” Ahwi asked sarcastically as she inhaled fresh air to recover from her interrupted workout.

“You were monitoring communications!” Janus howled. “You had to know I’d want to know about that!”

“Am I supposed to take note of every starship that’s attacked?” she inquired. “I was monitoring communications from Bornoq. Other than that, I only paid attention to Federation signals that mentioned you.”

Janus stepped closer to her. “You damn well knew I’d want to hear about Mei-Wan,” he grumbled. “I tried to contact the Chamberlain, but Jack McCall has already left in search of her. We could have helped him!”

“I guess he’ll have to rely on his own abilities this time,” Ahwi said with a grin.

“You think this is funny, Ahwi?!” Janus bellowed. “Mei-Wan is one of the most talented students I have ever taught! She could be invaluable to us!”

“Yeah, I’ve heard the Mei-Wan McCall story all before. Blah, blah, blah… it’s all I ever hear.”

Janus looked down at the deck, frustrated. “From here on out, any communication concerning Mei-Wan, the Chamberlain, or Jack McCall will be forwarded to me. Is that clear?”

Ahwi nodded. “Certainly, Janus.”

He turned and left.

Ahwi took a deep breath and resumed her practice.

You have no idea the kind of hell I helped you avoid, Janus.

=/\=

Jack sat in the pilot’s seat of the Gladys looking out at the stars through the wide front viewport as the ship maintained warp eight. He wished they could make better time, but Hank assured him it was the best they could do.

Over the last twelve days Jack and Hank had settled into pretty much the same routine they had aboard the Bucephalus– Hank rested as much as he could while Jack spent his time catching brief naps and staring out the front window. Neither of them spoke much, except some questions from Jack about the ship and some very short answers from Hank.

Jack did his best to keep his mind away from the unanswerable questions swirling through his head. He couldn’t dwell on Mei-Wan and his dad. It only made things worse.

Hank meandered his way up to the pilot’s section drinking a steaming cup of coffee.

“It won’t be much longer,” Hank said. “Another two days.”

“There any more of that back there?” Jack asked, motioning to Hank’s coffee.

“I’ll get you some,” Hank answered, disappearing through the narrow walkway.

Jack closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair crossing his arms across his chest. He’d gotten used to that position and had even fallen asleep a couple of times. He’d awakened with some back pain, but he didn’t mind as long as he avoided deep sleep. He was afraid of what his dreams might present him with– whose dying eyes he might see.

Hank returned with a cup and handed it to him.

“Thanks,” Jack said, taking a sip. The warmth brought him away from the creeping slumber that had inched toward him the last few hours. “So, what makes you think this planet…”

“Antenora,” Hank reminded him.

“Yeah, what makes you think that’s where Mei and Dad are?”

“I don’t know if that’s where they are,” Hank replied. “But three weeks ago a group of sixty-five Levalum cruisers left that world on a course for Haborym. That’s a lot larger than the clans usually do things.”

“You think they’re the ones who attacked the Balthazar?”

“Most likely,” Hank said, looking out the forward viewport. “A good portion of those ships returned to Antenora three days ago.”

Jack looked at Hank with trepidation in his eyes. “What about after that?”

Hank shrugged his shoulders. “There’s no way to tell at this point,” he said. “We’ll have to wait until we get there.”

Jack nodded and turned forward. He’d learned the last several days that there wasn’t much use in pushing Hank for answers that he couldn’t give.

Hank relaxed in his chair and took another sip of his coffee. “I doubt it came across your desk yet, but just before she left, Mei completed her tactical certification.”

“I didn’t even know she was going for it.”

“Negev signed off on it,” Hank said. “She’s on her way to Lieutenant Commander.”

“Did you…”

“Go easy on her?” Hank asked. He shook his head. “No. She’s actually got a good mind for tactics, as long as she can keep herself free from distraction.”

Jack frowned. “Hank, if you’re trying to tell me she could figure a way out of whatever’s happened to her, I’m not buying it.”

“No, I doubt she could,” Hank responded. “It’s just Mei has the capability to figure out her options in a given situation and make the necessary choices.”

“As long as she’s not distracted,” Jack repeated, certain there was some point Hank was trying to make. But he wasn’t in the mood for counseling. He’d gotten enough of that from Akala the last several weeks.

“Remind you of anybody?” Hank asked with a grin.

Now Jack was sure he wasn’t in the mood for it.

“You have some point to make, Evans?” Jack asked.

“Who, me?” Hank smirked.

Jack took a drink of his coffee. “How about instead of me, we peer into your life for awhile.”

Hank settled into his seat and closed his eyes. “Not much to talk about.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “Right,” he whispered. “I’ve been wondering what the real story behind you rejoining Starfleet was and now that I’ve seen that setup you have back on your asteroid I’m even more curious.”

Hank kept his eyes closed. “What’s there to be curious about, young captain?”

Jack smiled. “Well, for one thing you’re obviously wealthy as hell and that… Daphne, while she’s not real in the sense I like my women, she’s not exactly painful on the eyes.”

A faraway look came to Hank’s eyes. He’d never thought that much about his own life, and he’d only shared what he’d had to with others. Something within him wanted to tell Jack McCall. Every man needed someone he could bare his soul to.

“I spent the first fifteen years of my career on perimeter action ships.”

Jack sat up in his seat, his face serious. “I never knew that.”

Hank’s brow raised a bit. “It’s not something I talk a lot about. Not much of anyone from TacFleet does,” Hank explained. “It’s hazardous duty, but if you survive, it’s hard to walk away from. It gets under your skin, becomes a part of you.”

Jack knew perimeter action duty was the most life threatening assignment in Starfleet. Those ships patrolled the borders of Federation Territory as the first line of defense. Most people that thought of the Borg incursion of 2367 thought of the Battle of Wolf 359; few knew of the five perimeter action ships that gave all they had to stop the Borg before the cybernetic menace attacked the New Providence Colony on Jouret IV. Even Starfleet didn’t learn of their sacrifice until some six months later when their recorder buoys were discovered along the Borg cube’s path of death.

Those who served aboard those fast and fierce ships knew what they were signing up for– the threat of combat on a moment’s notice with little or no chance for survival. The ships were small, cramped affairs that lacked the amenities most Starfleet officers enjoyed. The perimeter action ships had only one mission– defending the Federation frontier. About half of them never made it to decommissioning. Jack figured Hank must have either been very lucky or been on one hell of a ship.

“It changes your perspective about a lot of things,” Hank said, appearing lost in thought for a moment. “But after fifteen years, I wanted a change. I was tired of putting my ass on the line for a bunch of people who didn’t have a damn clue about how things really were out here.”

Jack watched Hank talk, seeing a bitterness he’d never noticed before in his old friend.

“I got aboard the Bonifacio with Chris Hancock and liked it,” Hank continued. “I actually started thinking of having an honest to goodness life again. When you and Larissa James came aboard, fresh out of the Academy meat grinder, I had a lot of fun training your group.” He paused a moment, smiling. “Seeing the two of you together made me realize what I’d missed out on.”

He looked up at Jack. “I know when Larissa died it hit you hard, Jack, but you weren’t the only one,” Hank said. “After that I had to live my life, not something concocted in the bowels of Starfleet– something I no longer believed in.”

“So you went out to make your own way in the Galaxy,” Jack said with a smirk.

Hank chuckled, realizing how it sounded more than a little arrogant now. “Something like that, but my thought was to sell my services– my knowledge of tactics, hostage situations, and general ass-kicking to people who might be willing to pay enough to make ends meet.”

“Well, you certainly did better than that,” Jack said.

“There’s not a whole lot of market for saving lost relatives,” Hank told him. “Most folks just give up. So, I turned to trading and scouting.”

“That how you got that storehouse of goodies?” Jack asked.

“That and other ways,” Hank said.

Jack decided to leave that topic to another time. He was beginning to realize there were parts of Hank Evans’ life he really didn’t want to know about.

“Anyway,” Hank continued. “Once I found the wormhole to the Kel-j’na Region things really took off. I was making more money than I knew what to do with and I had built myself a nice reputation.”

Jack took another drink of his coffee. “Which brings us back to why you returned to Starfleet.”

“Like I told you before, Hancock asked me to go find you,” Hank said. “I already had an arrangement with Starfleet Intelligence during the war, so it wasn’t too hard for him to track me down.”

Jack took a breath. “You could have left after we escaped the Glazyalans, Hank.”

“I had my reasons.”

Jack shook his head. “What’s the big mystery? Why the hell won’t you tell me why you rejoined?”

“Because there are some things you’re better off not knowing,” Hank answered.

Jack was getting tired of people telling him that– Admiral Hancock, the Vedala, and now Hank. “What– am I going to fall apart if you tell me?”

Hank looked directly at him. “No, but it certainly won’t do you much good.”

“I think I have a right to know.”

“I don’t see it that way,” Hank replied.

“I could order you to tell me.”

Hank frowned. “I’ve been ordered not to tell you.”

“Hancock?” Jack asked.

“Chris Hancock asked me to be your tactical officer,” Hank said finally.

“Why?” Jack demanded.

“He was worried about you,” Hank answered. “He showed me your psych evaluations and was worried you might crack up.”

“Then why the hell did he give me the damn ship in the first place?!” Jack yelled. He was reaching his limit with the behind the scenes dance that gave him the Chamberlain.

“He didn’t,” Hank murmured. “He fought against it.”

Jack’s eyes widened. He had always assumed his old mentor had been the one to push for him to get another command.

“He felt you needed another year to eighteen months away from the center seat,” Hank almost whispered. “But the Federation President insisted you get one of the new Oceana class ships. So, Hancock made sure he was in a position to watch over you.”

Jack tilted his head to one side. “I don’t think I need any watching over.”

“Oh really?” Hank asked, his eyes wide and doing his best to keep from laughing. “How about the problems you have sleeping, your increase in alcohol consumption, and how about the way your marriage is such a mess it’s the subject of jokes aboard the Chamberlain?”

That last remark hurt more than anything else. Jack figured the crew had been talking about his and Mei-Wan’s marital problems, but jokes? He couldn’t stand the thought of Mei-Wan as the butt of some smart-ass ensign’s humor.

“So, why hasn’t Akala relieved me, if I’m such a walking disaster?” Jack asked, more subdued now.

“I really don’t know,” Hank told him. “She had some meetings with Simmons while he was aboard and my informant on his staff told me they were discussing you. My guess is Simmons is making her hold off until there’s no other choice.”

“I doubt Simmons gives a damn about me or my career,” Jack remarked. He looked at Hank. “So, why haven’t you gotten me relieved?”

“Just before we heard about the attack on the Balthazar, I considered going to Negev to push for it,” Hank revealed, knowing the pain it had to inflict and knowing how much more the next thing he said would hurt. “You’re not fit to command a starship– most certainly not the Chamberlain. At least not right now.”

Jack turned away and watched the stars streaking by.

“Jack…”

“Shut the hell up, Evans,” Jack grumbled. “I don’t want to hear it.”

“You’re going to hear it,” Hank hammered on. “You could be one of the best damn commanding officers to come out of that cookie cutter Academy in a long time, but there’s one person you still need to convince.”

“And who might that be? Hancock? Simmons?”

“No,” Hank said softly. “Yourself.”

Jack shook his head, dismissing Hank.

“You’ll never be worth a damn to anyone again until you decide you want to be,” Hank explained. “Not to Mei, your father, Starfleet, or the Federation. All you’ll be is some tired, third rate CO who doesn’t deserve anyone’s respect.”

“Go to hell, you son of a bitch,” Jack said under his breath.

“I’m not gonna be here to carry you forever,” Hank told him. “After I help you find out what happened to your father and Mei, I’m thinking I might return to the life I had.” He waited a moment to see if Jack would respond, but wasn’t too surprised he didn’t. “I don’t plan on sticking around to watch you finish destroying yourself.”

“So you think I ought to go through more counseling with Akala?” Jack asked, refusing to face Hank.

“Sitting with a counselor for hours on end may help get you through never being the most popular kid in the third grade,” Hank said with more than a touch of sarcasm. “Or help you deal with memories of your mommy and daddy fighting while you were growing up, but…” He walked a step nearer to Jack. “You open your eyes to what life has to teach you and you won’t need a counselor.”

He stopped at the door to the pilot’s section. “The Universe has been trying to teach you some things, Jack McCall,” Hank said. “You’ve just been too preoccupied to see it… and too bullheaded.”Jack gritted his teeth, wanting more than anything to toss Hank around like a rag doll, but he knew that wasn’t likely to happen. He knew he couldn’t best Hank in hand to hand combat. He’d tried once, years ago.

“It’s time you learned to stand on your own,” Hank finished as he walked out.

Jack closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep again, but he was just too damn angry.

Hank Evans and Jack McCall didn’t speak at all for the next two days.

=/\=

But at the end of those two days, they didn’t have much choice. They had to talk if they wanted to get on with why they had come to the sprawling world that now pulled the Gladys into an orbit around it.

Hank stood next to Jack who sat in the pilot’s chair making adjustments to their course.

“They’ll be expecting our beacon,” Hank said as he threw a switch above Jack. A moment later, the comm station alerted them to an incoming signal.

Hank paused, trying to remember how to speak a language he hadn’t used in two years.

The comm speaker squawked, “Klav avwa Antenora kmotaj jekmeh.”

“Antenora kmotaj jekmeh, klav avwad Hank Evans owemir cuvuh Gladys,” Hank replied. “Muzav ef fa vu kla ef ke.”

“Don’t like the universal translator?” Jack asked.

“People here like to jam them too much for fun and profit,” Hank explained as he waited for a response from the ground controller.

He didn’t have to wait long.

“Pei jihuom ke hofir ef kla fa va ke ke te,” the controller said over the speaker. “Guh ke Antenora.”

“Take us in on course one, three, nine, six, two, two,” Hank said. “And don’t deviate from it.”

Jack adjusted the controls and a few minutes later they were down through the atmosphere of Antenora and cruising over a large city of tall buildings and narrow streets that sprawled out in every direction to the horizon.

“This one of the places you go for fun?” Jack asked.

“No,” he answered. “This place is a lot of things, but fun isn’t one of them.”

Hank thought for a moment. “Now, there’s a place about a hundred and fifty light years away called Booluci’s, a bit out of the way and kind of hard to get to, but great entertainment and excellent food.”

“Where is it?”

“Like I said, it’s hard to get to,” Hank said with a grin as Jack followed their course.

Soon they came over a spider web of landing platforms and support facilities with strands of pavement connecting them to the hub at the center which stood more than ten stories tall.

“Just stay on the designated course,” Hank told him.

“I am,” Jack retorted.

Another few minutes, they landed and Jack busied himself with shutting down the Gladys’ systems. He had actually begun to like the ship about as much as he had begun to despise Hank. He wished he could search for Mei-Wan and his father without Evans, but he knew it just wasn’t possible. Hank knew this world and he didn’t.

Just as Jack got out of the pilot’s chair, Hank walked up to him.

“You need to remove your Starfleet comm badge,” he told Jack.

“Why?” Jack asked.

“One, so no one else can track us, and two, it might interfere with some scanning I need to do,” Hank explained.

“What about translating the local languages? Without our comm badges we lose the universal translator.”

“The standard Starfleet issue doesn’t handle unknown languages as well as you might think and besides,” he said as he pulled out a handheld device somewhat resembling a tricorder from his jacket. “This will do all the translating we need.”

=/\=

Jack watched Hank lead them down a wide concourse where they saw only a couple of maintenance workers tending to some piece of machinery in a wall. They were so deep into their work, and the wall, that Jack didn’t get a very good look at them, but could tell they were irritated about something. A moment after they passed Jack heard the two arguing with each other in the same language Hank had spoken earlier.

They arrived at a check-in counter of sorts where a large purple skinned female humanoid of a species Jack didn’t recognize, at first seemed to argue with Hank, but after a few seconds she and Hank were laughing as if they were old friends. Jack suspected the small folded item Hank handed her had something to do with her more jovial attitude.

Soon after they exited the spaceport and caught a ground vehicle that Hank assured Jack was more than safe despite the rust, a missing panel over its engine unit, and the plumes of black smoke belching out of that same uncovered engine unit.

After several minutes the vehicle stopped, making Jack happy to put the bumpy and near nauseating ride behind him. However, once off the vehicle, nausea was all he thought about.

“What the hell is that smell?” Jack demanded.

Hank grinned. “That’s the smell of the Universe… the way it really is.”Jack tried to figure out what the overwhelming odor was, but the more he thought about it, the more he didn’t want to know. It seemed some sort of cross between elephant urine and burning rubber that brought out the worst of both. A few seconds later, urine wasn’t the only animal waste product he thought he smelled.

Jack felt his throat constrict, signaling the passage of the contents of his stomach on their way up his esophagus. He used every bit of will power he had to keep it from completing the trip.

The other aspect of the street they now stood on making life difficult for Jack was the incredible amount of noise that assaulted Jack’s ears. He tried to pull any one sound out of the cacophony of chaos, but found it impossible. There were too many people, machines, craft flying overhead, and land vehicles passing by. There was too much of everything on this world.

Hank grinned and handed Jack a small pill. “Here, take this,” Hank said. “It’ll help with the nausea.”

Jack quickly downed it, but was afraid it might cause the thing it was meant to prevent.

“Close your eyes and think of your mother,” Hank said.

“My mother?” Jack barely got out.

“Just do it,” Hank said, exasperated.

Jack followed Hank’s instruction and to his surprise, a minute or so later the nausea wasn’t gone, but it was bearable.

“Thanks,” Jack said, taking deep breaths.

“Don’t worry about it,” Hank said. “We’re near the city sewage plant. We’ll be able to catch another ride in a minute or so and go to a less offensive part of the city.” He grinned. “Well, at least as far as smells are concerned,” he corrected himself.

Jack finally opened his eyes again, hoping this was all worth it and they found his father and Mei-Wan amidst this hive of madness.

=/\=

After more than three hours of catching a ride on a large public transport to one part of the metropolis and then another to another section, Jack was beginning to wonder what exactly Hank was up to. Each time they stood waiting for the next transport Hank pulled out his little device, looked at it for several moments, then put it away. Jack was certain he was doing some sort of scan, but so far Hank had refused to say what for.

On the twelfth repetition of this pattern, Hank pulled out his small tricorder-like unit again.

“You don’t expect to find my dad and Mei this way do you?” Jack asked. “Crisscrossing the city will take forever at this rate.”

“No,’ Hank said. He continued scanning.

“Then what are you doing?”

“It’s a long shot, but I thought I’d check first to see if…” Hank stopped and adjusted the device.

“You find something?”

“Damn straight I did,” Hank said. “A Starfleet comm badge.”

“Can you tell whose it is?” Jack asked with more excitement in his voice than had been there for more than a week.

Hank closed his eyes a moment, then turned to Jack. “Now look, this may not mean anything.”

“Whose is it?!”

“It’s Mei’s comm badge,” Hank said finally. “But don’t go getting your hopes up.”

“Which direction?” Jack demanded while unsnapping the strap holding his weapon in place.

Hank grabbed his arm. “Damn it, Jack. Take a deep breath and hold up. This is our first real lead and I don’t want to blow it.”

After a moment Jack nodded. “Okay, okay.”

“We’ll move in slow and observe,” Hank said. “The last thing we need to do is walk into some sort of trap.”

Jack agreed. The last thing Mei-Wan or his father needed was for Jack and Hank to get taken, ending their rescue before it started.

Hank looked at the scanning device again. “Looks like it’s four kilometers or so away. Probably the restaurant district.” He put it away. “We’ll see what the situation is and who the players are before we do anything else, understood?”

“So this was your big plan?” Jack asked. “To scan for their comm badges?”

“You eliminate the simplest possibilities first,” Hank responded.

=/\=

Chapter 5 - The Exchange

Jack stood on a street corner watching a multitude of various aliens, most of which he’d never seen before, walk past while Hank, thirty yards up ahead, ordered some sort of food from a street vendor. They’d been canvassing this street for the last hour and Jack wondered why they hadn’t moved in yet.

Hank walked up to him taking a bite of what appeared to be some large breaded meat wrap. Steam rolled out of the end Hank had eaten from.

“You have to try this, Jack,” Hank said taking another bite.

Jack took a smell and nearly vomited. “What the hell is it?”

“A derlaval ulsdin.”

“That really helps me,” Jack replied with a frown.

“Well,” Hank said, looking at his lunch. “It’s meat from a Xalbuan derlaval, a large grazing animal, and there’re vegetables from…”

“Did you find where the comm badge signal is coming from?” Jack asked, cutting him off.

Hank took another bite. “Yeah, there’s a guy at a small place down the street who I think has it.”

Jack exhaled. He’d hoped they’d found where Mei-Wan was, not someone who had her comm badge. “You think he knows where she is?”

Hank shrugged his shoulders as he finished his food. “We won’t know until we talk to him, but we follow him first.”

Jack looked down at the pavement, his mind racing with what he’d do to this person.

“And Jack,” Hank said. “I’ll talk to him.”

The hell you will, Jack thought. He’ll answer to me.

Hank turned slowly to look down the street. His eyes darted back to Jack. “There he goes.”

Hank moved through the crowd with Jack not far behind.

“Which one?” Jack asked.

“The dark orange skinned creature with the white hair,” Hank said.

Jack quickly picked their target out of the mass of other aliens. “He’s going into that shop,” Jack said.

“Damn,” Hank whispered. “He probably made us.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, you follow him into the shop. I’m going through the one next door and out the back.”

Jack increased his pace. He intended to get his hands on this individual before Hank made it to him.

Jack entered the shop where a small dark green being with long fingers looked up at Jack with two red eyes on the end of three inch stalks.

“Bop a luhd pei?” the creature said as Jack rushed past. “Glumu omu pei zeafz?

Jack didn’t bother to find out what he was saying. The orange skinned being had already made his way out the back.

“Vlak Luor!” the proprietor shouted as Jack left through the rear door.

Jack exited into a fenced in area and a moment later felt something hard hit the side of his head, sending him to the ground.

“Glok re pei gofk!” he heard shouted somewhere above him just before he felt a foot kick him in the side.

The foot moved to kick him again, but Jack fought through the pain just in time to catch it and twisted hard causing the person attached to it to tumble.

Jack gave a kick of his own making the person on the pavement next to him howl loudly.

“I guess you don’t think that feels good,” Jack said as he got to his feet.

He saw the orange skinned alien holding what appeared to be his gut as he moaned in pain.

Jack pulled out his weapon and hauled the creature to its feet.

“Hold it, Jack!” Hank Evans shouted as he came around a corner.

“I’m not gong to kill him,” Jack said as he pushed the alien against a wall.

Hank had his scanner out checking again for the comm badge. The device squealed and Hank shut it off. He reached into a pocket on the creature’s shirt and searched through it for a moment.

“Bingo,” Hank said as he pulled out a golden Starfleet comm badge.

“Where is she?!” Jack demanded as he shoved the alien hard into the wall.

“Glok?!” the being cried out.

Hank adjusted the scanner and they could hear the creature’s speech translated.

“I didn’t steal it!” the alien’s voice said through the scanner.

Jack pointed his weapon up to the creature’s head. “Tell me where the woman who had this is or I’ll blast a hole through your damn head!”

The orange alien looked at Jack a moment, then smiled. “How much is she worth to you?”

“Tell me now!” Jack screamed.

“I can get her if you have enough,” the creature’s translated voice said.

Hank shook his head. “He doesn’t know anything.”

The alien turned to Hank. “I can take you to her!”

“He knows where she is!” Jack shouted.

“No he doesn’t,” Hank insisted. He pulled his own weapon out and pointed it between the creature’s two dark blue eyes. “Where did you get this?” he asked holding the badge up.

The alien hesitated, turning his head back and forth from Hank to Jack.

“Okay,” he replied. “I won it.”

“Where?” Hank demanded.

“At… at Mok Tijin’s.”

“What’s that?” Jack asked.

“It’s a small casino,” Hank answered, putting his weapon away. He turned back to the alien. “Who’d you win it from?”

“A Levalum who was there,” the alien said. “I didn’t get his name.”

“Let him go, Jack.”

“He said he knew where she was!” Jack yelled, his weapon still pointed at the creature.

“Because he thought he could make some money from you.”

“But he tells you the truth?” Jack asked, frustrated as hell.

Hank turned back to the orange skinned being. “Yes, because he knew I’d kill him if I didn’t get it.”

“How do you know he didn’t think the same of me?”

The alien laughed. “I could tell you wouldn’t kill me,” came the translation.

Jack stepped away, letting him go.

“I want it back!” the creature said.

Hank pointed his gun at the obnoxious being. “Leave now.”

The alien ran off quickly.

Jack leaned against the wall of the shop and put his weapon away. “I have killed before,” he whispered.

“But he could tell you weren’t going to kill this time,” Hank explained. “That’s a skill most of the creatures around here develop. There’s a lot of survival value in it.”

“But you were going to kill him?”

“If he’d have said another word his carcass would be smoking on the pavement in front of you right now,” Hank said as he put his own weapon away.

Suddenly, the orange skinned creature came back around the corner. Now, he had ten others with him.

“Damn,” Hank said as he looked about the alley for a way out.

“We’re trapped,” Jack told him, pulling his weapon out again. “Now what?”

Hank watched the group of angry aliens approaching them. He reached into his pocket. “Use the displacement device.”

“What?!” Jack responded more than a little worried.

“Meet back at that street vendor,” Hank said as a flash of light signaled his disappearance.

Jack saw the aliens hesitate only a moment, then resume their march, faster than before. He closed his eyes as he activated the small device.

The next moment, Jack found himself standing in front of a shop of some kind. Within a few seconds, he knew which one. The dark green shop owner came out and threw a small box at Jack.

“Vlak Luor!” the owner shouted, his eye stalks flailing wildly.

Jack didn’t know what “Vlak Luor” meant, but he was certain there was no point discussing it with the angry alien. He beat a path quickly down the street in search of Hank.

A minute later Jack found Hank Evans staring hungrily at more of the street vendor’s dubious culinary offerings.

“Where to now?” Jack asked, out of breath.

“Now we go to the Exchange.”

=/\=

Thirty minutes later Hank led Jack around a corner into a raging river of people all moving toward a large open area ahead. Jack looked up and saw the largest and tallest building on the planet. Nearly five miles in diameter and a mile high, the Exchange stood as a mountain in a sea of movement. However, the movement wasn’t the anarchy Jack had seen on the other streets of this world. It was intense and directed. The thousands upon thousands of beings from hundreds of worlds that Jack walked among knew where they were going and why.

It was the “why” of it that astounded Jack the most. These weren’t ruffians, thieves, or barbarians; at least not in the usual sense those titles are applied to someone. Accountants, managers, and bureaucrats formed the mass of sentience he followed Hank Evans through, along with analysts, financial planners, and brokers of commodities. They formed a whole larger than the sum of its parts. They were the engine upon which Levalum society truly ran.

As they approached the entrance Jack watched the absolute order of regimented behavior and straight lines enforced by armed sentries who stood watch while people waited to enter. Hank pulled out some form of ID and flashed it to the guardian of their gate and a moment later they were waved through.

Once inside, it was still crowded, but Jack at least felt like he had some room to breathe. The guards inside were even more conspicuous, displaying their large rifles to all who passed by. Their armor alone told Jack these were not people he wanted to mess with.

Hank motioned Jack toward a set of doors and they entered an elevator twenty feet wide and twenty feet deep. Jack figured it for some sort of freight lift Hank had bought access to, but as soon as they stepped into it, a stampede of aliens more varied than the Federation Council filled the confined space with them.

A minute later they exited onto level fifty-seven of the Exchange and contrary to his expectations, Jack saw, not a dark and dirty marketplace, but a slick, bright, and pleasing array of displays, music, and ads that promised everything from a cure to whatever ailed you, to the satiation of desires you never knew you had or could think to survive once fulfilled.

This wasn’t a group of barbaric maniacs bartering with threats, but a highly sophisticated combination of stock markets, commodity exchanges, and trade agreements transpiring with the apparent levity of a sideshow. Whole worlds worth of resources were exchanged in moments right before Jack’s eyes. The Levalum Clans didn’t need military power to rule, they had something far stronger and pervasive– the best glue one could hope for in any social order– enlightened self interest powered and supported by a well honed economic empire.

The other thing Jack quickly noticed was that unlike the rest of Antenora, this place was clean. Hell, forget clean, immaculate was more like it, but even that was an understatement. Jack figured he could probably eat off the finely carpeted floor except for the maintenance people who came by with some sort of vacuum every thirty seconds and seemed to be even more plentiful than the ever present guards.

The floors weren’t the only things that were clean. For the first time on this world that he had been nursing a real hatred for, his nostrils weren’t being assaulted by every foul odor in the Universe. Here the air wasn’t just fresh, but reminded him of the warm fragrances from his mother’s garden after a thunderstorm on a lazy summer afternoon.

They walked down a two mile long aisle past several large booths where various items and services stood on display for any who passed by. Hank stopped at one and spoke to a humanoid male with blue skin wearing an elaborate suit of a rainbow of colors. Behind the blue man, three women from different worlds wore collars made of a dark metal around their necks, waists, and upper arms. They expressed about as much excitement as you might expect from models showing the latest in cleaning supplies.

“Well, well, well,” the blue male said with a smile. “Hank Evans, come back to make his fortunes among the working class again.”

Hank grinned and gave the man a big bear hug. “Kolastis, how you been?”

“Business is okay,” he said. “But not as good as it used to be. Nobody wants my units since those Domobeifk bastards rolled theirs out last year.” He grinned and leaned toward Hank. “You mind going down to their display and setting it on fire for me?”

Hank looked at him. “You gonna keep the patrols busy while I do?”

Kolastis laughed. “That’s your problem– you’re too practical. Live on the edge for a change.”

“I’ve lived on the edge so much I’ve damn near fallen off both ways,” Hank remarked.

Kolastis turned an eye toward Jack. “You interested in my stock?”

Hank started to speak, but Jack jumped in. “What do you sell?”

Kolastis’ green eyes perked up and he motioned one of the women over. She wore a tight fitting jumpsuit that covered all the right areas or the wrong ones depending on what you were interested in.

“Only the finest enhancement and security devices known throughout the Levalum sectors and beyond,” Kolastis said with a wide smile as he touched a stud on the metal collar around the woman’s neck.

“What does it do?” Jack asked.

Hank jumped in. “I think we can pass on this, Jack.”

But Kolastis had moved too quickly. He lifted the woman’s head away from the rest of her body and offered it to Jack.

“What the hell?!” Jack yelled as he nearly fell backward trying to get away.

Kolastis seemed dismayed, but regained his composure. He tilted the woman’s smiling face toward Jack. “See, she’s still conscious,” the blue alien said.

Hank sighed. “She’s okay, Jack.”

“But…” that was the only word Jack could get out as he saw what he considered a horror. He looked past Kolastis at a section of the metal collar which remained attached to the woman’s neck. Her body stood with her arms crossed.

Kolastis turned to Hank. “What’s the matter with your friend, Evans?”

Hank walked up to Jack. “It’s called a dismemberment unit, but it doesn’t really remove any part of the body. Her head’s still connected to her neck.”

Jack pointed as the woman’s face grinned at him and widened her eyes.

“Pei gofk ke kmp bu eik?” she said to Jack who was beyond amazed.

“She can talk?” Jack asked, less troubled now.

“It forms a sort of field effect between the two halves of the collar to let them separate in normal space while remaining connected in subspace,” Hank explained.

Jack took a step toward the woman’s head that Kolastis cradled in his arm. “Can she move her body?”

“Yeah, but it takes a bit of coordination,” Hank said.

Kolastis spoke to the head, “Zacu hakha rofjec.”

Behind him the woman’s body started a sensuous dance intended to illicit specific responses from males.

Jack smiled after a moment. “Incredible,” he said. “How far can the body and the head be apart?”

Hank frowned. “Only about a hundred meters or so.”

“What happens beyond that?”

“Decapitation,” Hank said dryly.

Jack’s smile faded. “I take it they’re for entertainment of some sort?”

Hank smirked. “You could say that.”

“Among other things,” Kolastis said. “You use my products and your property will never wander off.”

Jack gave Hank a worried expression. “Slavery?”

Hank only shrugged his shoulders and turned to Kolastis. “Who’s got the best merchandise these days?”

The blue alien placed the woman’s head back on her neck, adjusted the collar, and the faint hum Jack had just noticed faded away. She walked back to join the others who were talking in hushed words and pointing occasionally at Jack.

“Probably Cherufe,” Kolastis said. “You know him?”

Hank shook his head. “I’ve heard of him. I thought he got into trouble with the Naitr’m a while back.”

Kolastis smiled. “He did, but somehow he managed to escape a year or so ago. He’s rather touchy about the whole thing.”

Hank nodded and turned to Jack. “I think we’ll go see what he’s got.”

“Don’t forget to come back here if you do buy anything from Cherufe,” Kolastis said as they walked away.

Once they were out of earshot of Kolastis, Hank pulled Jack aside near a booth advertising a mind-altering substance guaranteed to reveal the secrets of the Universe to the user. The banner promised to help the buyer set up a sales network to maximize profits.

“Jack, maybe you should wait here,” Hank said.

“Why?” Jack asked, frowning.

“Because if you screw this up we may lose a chance to find Mei.”

“You think she’s on this world, don’t you?”

“It’s possible she either is or was here,” Hank said.

“Then I’m not going to miss the chance to get her back.”

Hank drew Jack nearer. “Look, if we find her in here, we may not get her back– at least not yet,” Hank told him.

Jack’s eyes went wide. “The hell I won’t get her back!”

“Lower your damn voice,” Hank said as quietly as he could.

Jack spoke just above a whisper. “All right.”

“If she’s here, there’s no way with a hundred men we’d ever get her out alive,” Hank said. “You’ve seen the guards?”

“Yeah,” Jack said.

“The clans get a cut of every transaction that takes place in here,” Hank told him. “In return, they provide the troops to enforce the rules. Everyone’s interests are protected, providing an environment where business can be conducted.”

Jack listened and tried to relax.

“You may not like it,” Hank said. “But it works. If someone’s property is stolen, then those nice gentlemen with the big guns will blast a hole through the thief’s skull,” Hank told him.

Jack’s eyes widened. “You think Mei is here as someone’s property? As a…” Jack couldn’t use the word in his mind.”Not by her own choice,” Hank said. “But if she is here, if whoever took her and Jeremiah decided to sell her to someone, then she is nothing more than property in the eyes of everyone else. You try to take her, you’ll be shot as a thief and she’ll be handed back to her owner.”

Jack closed his eyes, now wishing he wouldn’t find Mei-Wan or Jeremiah on this godforsaken planet. Part of him felt if they were here, they’d probably be better off dead.

No! his mind recoiled. Whatever state they were in– whatever their legal status on this hellhole– he wanted them back, alive.

“Okay,” Jack finally told Hank. “We’ll look, but I’ll follow your lead.”

Hank watched Jack’s expression, not to see if he was lying, but to see if Jack appeared able to keep his word.

Hank gave Jack a last glance and walked down the aisle. “Come on.”

Jack followed Hank to a large area where a tall man with dark purple skin and dull orange hair stood in front of a group of ten scantly clad females of various species. Hank’s walk slowed and he started looking the women over.

“Hello, I’m Cherufe,” the purple figure said with a growing smile. “These creatures are just samples of my stock. If there’s a specific species you’re interested I’m sure I can accommodate you.”

Jack did his best not to react while Hank continued his browsing. Instead he looked about Cherufe’s showroom. Unlike the other booths they had seen, this one was at least three times larger and with more colorful displays. What they said, Jack didn’t know because they were written in the alien language that seemed to be everywhere. However, he was sure they made promises meant to insure a sale.

“These your best or what?” Hank asked.

Cherufe retained his smile, but didn’t appear pleased that his merchandise was being questioned. “Let’s say they’re a representative sample.”

Hank grinned. “I take it the quality merchandise is reserved for your best customers.”

“Something like that,” Cherufe replied. He paused a moment. “Have we met before?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Hank said.

“You do seem familiar.”

“Hank Evans.”

Cherufe’s smile became more genuine. “I heard you were dead.”

“Actually,” Hank said with a grin. “The last two years I’ve been worse than dead.”

Cherufe chuckled as Hank continued looking the women over.

“I’ve been in a place where they have his notion that everyone can live together in peace and work out their problems by talking,” Hank said, giving Jack a glance.

“So you’ve been in a mental institution?” Cherufe asked with a chuckle.

“Pretty close.”

Hank walked behind the women.

“I hear you owe Trulfulsa and Galfalda a lot of money,” Cherufe said.

“I’m still alive aren’t I?” Hank responded.

Cherufe laughed. “Knowing Trulfulsa, that says a lot,” he said, now clearly relaxed around Hank. “Whatever you want, I’ll take off fifteen percent.”

“You’re too kind,” Hank said, acting appropriately surprised.

“Anything for a friend of Trulfulsa.”

Hank walked back up to him. “I’m setting up a new club on Ulos. I’m thinking seven to ten women to start out.”

Jack hoped this was just a part Hank was playing and that he wasn’t doing some extra business on the side while they were here.

“Ulos, huh?” Cherufe asked. “Mostly Kel-j’na and independents come through there.”

“Independents with more money than sense,” Hank said with a grin.

Cherufe nodded.

“I tried to make it here for the auction, but got held up,” Hank remarked, watching the women closely.

“There was a lot of good stock this time,” Cherufe said. “Who’s he?” he asked pointing to Jack.

“New guy,” Hank said, still watching the women. “I’m training him.”

Cherufe looked Jack over giving him the feeling of being sized up like a side of beef. “He’s a bit uh…”

“Yeah, I know,” Hank said. “He’ll get past it. He’s got great potential.”

Jack forced a smile trying to avoid reacting out of character for the game Hank was playing.

Hank walked up to one of the women, a bright eyed, mostly human looking female, with large plumes of bright red hair. “This one looks fairly new.”

“You’ve got a good eye, Evans,” Cherufe said, smiling.

“Any chance I could…” Hank began.

“In the back,” Cherufe answered and pointed. “I don’t expect anyone to buy without sampling the merchandise.”

Hank smiled and led the woman toward a door.

What the hell is he doing? Jack thought as he watched Hank disappear into the back with the shapely young woman. This is insane!

“Would you like to try one of the others?” Cherufe asked Jack in complete seriousness.

Jack barely kept his first reaction from coming to the surface. He’d been with women who sold their services a few times when he was younger, but the thought of a woman being enslaved to do such a thing made him sick, especially since they might find Mei-Wan in the same situation.

He did his best to smile, but knew he was probably less than successful.

“No,” he finally got out. “I, uh… we had a wild night and I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to get a good sense of their… performance.”“Oh,” Cherufe said. A moment later he brightened up. “I could give you something for that. No charge.”

“Mr. Evans always tells me to never judge the merchandise under the influence of chemicals,” Jack said, hoping the lie worked.

“Good policy.”

=/\=

Twenty minutes later, Hank pulled his pants up and sat back down on a small bed in the ten by ten room he shared with the woman with bright red hair. She took a deep breath and slipped her own clothing back on.

“How’d I do?” she asked him.

“Just fine, red,” Hank answered as he reached for his shirt.

“My name is Zarthia,” she told him.

He turned toward her. “Cherufe bought you in the auction a few days ago, right?”

“Five days ago,” she said.

Hank pulled out a small display device and touched a couple of its controls. “Tell me,” he said handing the device to her. “Did you see this woman at the auction?”

Zarthia looked down at the image of Mei-Wan McCall displayed on the small screen. She stared at it for a lot longer than Hank would have expected. For Jack’s sake, he hoped this would turn out to be a dead end.

“No,” she finally said. “I’ve never seen her before.”

“You’re certain?”

“I would have remembered her,” Zarthia said. “Her eyes are quite attractive.” She glanced at Hank. “She your daughter?”

“No. She’s the wife of the man with me.”

Zarthia handed Hank back the display. “I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” Hank replied, now fully clothed again.

“So, that’s the only reason you came here?” she asked. “You’re not going to buy me, are you?”

A minute later, Hank and Zarthia walked back toward Cherufe. Jack turned to Hank trying to get some sense as to what he was doing and why.

“How did you like her?” Cherufe asked.

“Exceptional,” Hank stated as he handed the tall purple alien a card unit. “I’ll take her.”

Jack used every bit of internal strength he had to keep his jaw from dropping, but he had promised Hank not to react and so he didn’t. But he knew he couldn’t hold back for very long.

Cherufe took Hank’s card unit and slid another device under it. “Could I interest you in any of the others?”

“No,” Hank said. “I think I’m going to take my time and do this right.”

“Trulfulsa always said you were smarter than you looked.”

Hank chuckled.

“I should have more merchandise in a few days,” Cherufe said. “Come back and I’m sure I can make it very much worth your while.”

“I’ll be certain to return,” Hank said with a nod.

“Here’s her registration and your certificate of ownership,” Cherufe told Hank as he handed him two small metal cards.

“Thanks.”

A moment later, Hank, Jack, and Zarthia left.

=/\=

“Are you out of your damn mind?!” Jack yelled as the three of them walked out of the Exchange onto the still crowded street. Jack had contained himself as long as he could.

“Jack…”He wasn’t interested in listening. “Does she know anything about my father or Mei?”

Hand exhaled. “No.”

“Then why the hell did you buy her?” Jack marched several steps away. “I thought you might sink pretty low, Evans, but buying slaves?! What the hell do you plan on doing with her?”

“Jack, we’ll talk about this later,” Hank replied as thunder rumbled through the air and a fine mist of rain began to fall.

“We’ll talk about it now!” Jack demanded, heading back to Hank.

Zarthia moved between them. “Get back!” she told Jack.

“You’re defending him?!”

“He’s my owner.”

Jack stomped off into the spattering rain.

“Jack where are you going?” Hank asked as he and Zarthia stood, getting wet.

Jack spun about. “You’re a Starfleet officer! Buying and selling sentient lifeforms is so against regulations and what we stand for…”

“Please spare me the Starfleet mantra, Jack,” Hank said. “In case you haven’t looked around, we’re nowhere near Federation territory.”

Jack walked back toward him. “That shouldn’t make a difference!” he yelled, water dripping off his hair into his face.

“The rest of the Galaxy doesn’t use Federation ethics as its moral compass,” Hank said, the rain now pouring down. “Where the hell did your IDIC concept run off to? Aren’t you supposed to respect all cultures?”

“You think this is funny?” Jack barked. “You just bought this woman. She is your property!”

“Which makes her my business and not yours.”

As all three of them were getting soaked, Jack stood, incredulous at what he’d just heard. “What the hell happened to you out here?” Jack asked him. “You’re not the same man I used to know.”

“Me?” Hank threw back, shaking his head. “You’ve got no room to ask anyone about their life. At least I can sleep at night. What about you?”

Jack’s jaw tightened. “I don’t buy and sell people, Evans.”

“I don’t have to answer to you or anyone else about how I do things,” Hank whispered, staring at Jack.

“I’m your commanding officer, Evans! You most certainly will answer to me!” Jack shouted.

Hank took a breath into his lungs and less than a second later pinned Jack against the nearest wall. “I have had about enough of your mouth, boy,” Hank said softly– too softly. “I came here to help you, and all I’ve gotten is a lot of back talk about my lifestyle this, my ethics and morality that. That’s over with.”

Jack could tell Hank wasn’t making a request.

“I asked you before we started if you could put away your Starfleet mindset,” Hank pointed out. “Since you have a problem doing that, you can go stay on the Gladys and I’ll do this on my own. You got me, kid?”

Jack eyes widened. He pushed Hank away from him. “Stop calling me that!” he bellowed through the falling rain. “I’m not some ensign straight out of the Academy anymore! I’m forty-three years old, a starship captain, and your superior officer, damn it!”

Hank watched Jack, then slowly nodded. “Then start acting like it,” he said quietly.

Jack was about to continue, but Hank’s words caught him off guard.

Hank allowed him several seconds to calm down. “I have informed the captain what is required for this mission to succeed. You consented to follow my lead,” Hank reminded him. “Respectfully, can you accept that, and finally move on… sir?”

Jack looked at Zarthia, wanting to argue that buying slaves wasn’t what he had agreed to, but Hank had warned him, and given him the opportunity to stay behind.

“Yes,” Jack forced reluctantly out of his throat.

Hank took several steps back and turned to Zarthia.

“Here,” Hank said, handing her a small card. “This is a credit voucher. You can get transport off world.”

She looked at him confused.

He took out her registration and the certificate of ownership. Hank ran another small card across both, then handed the new one to her. “This is a copy of your registration. Anyone asks, you tell them I have you out doing work for me.”

“I don’t understand,” Zarthia whispered.

He held up her documentation. “As long as I own you, no one else can legally buy you,” he said with a grin. “For all intents and purposes, youre free. Go have a good life.”She smiled wide, at first not believing it. “Thank you.” She kissed him. “Thank you.” She walked away quickly through the now heavy rain.

Jack walked up to Hank. “Why didn’t you…”

Hank spun about to face Jack. “Because I didn’t want to do this here! I didn’t want to risk the wrong people seeing me free her. They have laws against buying slaves just to set them free, you stupid bastard,” he explained, frowning.

The rain came down in sheets, drenching them both.

“I bought her to start a business relationship with Cherufe,” Hank stated. “If we discover Mei is a slave, he could prove very useful getting her back.”

“All you had to do was tell me that,” Jack said.

“All you had to do was trust me,” Hank told him.

Several claps of thunder reverberated through the air around them.

“It’s late,” Hank said. “We need to find a place to stay.”

=/\=

Chapter 6 - Making The Deal

Jack stood on a balcony looking out at the massive skyline that stretched to infinity in every direction. The rain did its best to beat down the smog rising from the guts of the city more than a thousand feet below, but it was losing the battle. More noxious fumes made their way slowly up through the forest of metal than before the rain began its attempt to wash the stench away. Jack doubted if forty days and forty nights of rain would begin to make a dent in the wretchedness of this city.

How can they all live like this? he asked himself, trying to imagine the lives that inhabited the windows of the towers around him. He was glad he couldn’t see into them. He knew it would only depress him.

A soft crack of thunder sounded in the distance. Jack looked up trying to watch for lightning, but unless a bolt struck nearby he didn’t think he’d see it. The rain and clouds brought a darkness that flowed out from the horizon and over the city, encasing it in a cocoon of gloom. Once the rain passed, the corrupt beast that was Antenora would emerge to once again buy and sell things never meant to have a price attached to them.

He feared if he remained much longer he’d suffocate in it… or worse, get used to it… or worse still, thrive in it.

He’d already gotten used to the stench of urine and burnt rubber that seemed to be everywhere and even more so up this high above the streets. If he could get used to that, what else might he accept?

The room they had gotten was dirty and infested with some sort of small insect that Hank assured him was harmless, but Jack thought it best to stay on the balcony as much as possible. Hank seemed more upset with the small size of the bedrooms than the bug problem. He told Jack they could have a room better than the finest luxury hotels in the Federation nearer to the Exchange, but too many eyes and ears kept tabs on people in those places. Hank liked more out of the way establishments.

Establishment, hell, Jack thought. This is a damn dump.

Hank walked out onto the balcony eating a plate full of green globs. “You want some?” he asked, holding up a spoonful of the slimy substance for Jack.

“No,” Jack whispered with a frown. The consistency of the globs was about the same as that of soggy, milk drenched cereal. “What is it?”

“Hanoric eggs.”

“What’s a hanoric?” Jack inquired, though he really didn’t care.

“Hell if I know,” Hank said, forcing more of the runny substance into his mouth.

Jack rolled his eyes and turned back to the city.

“Look, Jack,” Hank began. “I’m sorry about earlier.”

Jack thought it best to say nothing since he was certain with his luck he’d just make it worse… again.”I thought maybe we’d get some sort of line on Mei from Cherufe,” Hank said. “That was the second dead end of the day and I guess the frustration got to me.”

“No,” Jack finally said. “I jumped to conclusions and put us both at risk. You’re trying to help me find my wife and father and all I can seem to do is make things more difficult.”

“You have been a help, Jack. Really.”

Jack shook his head, thinking Hank was saying it just to make them both feel better. “I owe you for this one, Hank. And I’m going to owe you for the rest of my life… no matter how it turns out.”Hank smiled and nodded. “Just wait until you get my bill, kid.”

Jack forced a grin.

“How about we go get a drink?” Hank asked.

“A drink?”

“I know just the place.”

=/\=

“You sure that girl didn’t know anything about Mei?” Jack asked as he and Hank Evans sat in a dimly lit bar at a six foot wide table whose top glowed brightly.

“She hadn’t seen her at the auction,” Hank said taking a drink from a tall glass of red liquid. “If they were going to sell Mei, that’s the auction she’d have been at.”

Jack took a sip from his own glass, frustrated they didn’t have any leads at this point, but pleased this particular direction had gotten them nowhere.

“How does this society function?” Jack asked. “Is everything for sale here?”

“I haven’t found anything yet that wasn’t,” Hank responded as a young eight foot tall, bald Kel-j’na woman, wearing little more than a towel around her waist, walked up to their table and smiled.

“I’m Nilsuna,” she said as Hank and Jack watched her step up onto the table. A few moments later loud music started playing in the bar and Nilsuna began dancing.

“For crying out loud,” Jack said, turning to Hank.

“Hey,” Hank replied. “This is the entertainment.”

Jack rolled his eyes and did his best not to look up at the blue skinned woman as her body swayed back and forth.

“You like her?” Hank asked. “I can loan you some money if you’d…”

“I’m here looking for my wife, remember?” Jack said. He took another sip of his drink. But one thing still bothered him. “If I hadn’t mouthed off, you were still planning on setting that girl free weren’t you?”

Hank turned slowly to him and just stared.

“I take it that means yes,” Jack said, hoping he was right.

Hank continued staring until Jack looked away. He then let a slight grin come to his face.

Several more people entered the already crowded bar and Hank made mental note of each one. He tapped Jack on the shoulder. “Take a look at the woman over talking to the bartender.”

Jack rolled his eyes. “No thanks.”

“Not for sex,” Hank said. “She may have information we might find useful.”

Jack slowly swiveled around to see a tall, short haired woman speaking to the barkeep in hushed tones. Jack caught a glimpse of her face and outside of himself and Hank, she was the most human-looking person he’d seen in days.

She wore what appeared to be a tight leather suit, but…

As his eyes traveled down her slender body Jack saw that from mid-thigh down, her legs were replaced by mechanical limbs that gleamed in some parts, but in others seemed to have almost rusted over.

“Who is she?” Jack asked.

“Her name’s Befana,” Hank replied under his breath. “She’s got people infiltrated into most of the major business interests on this planet.”

“Why didn’t we just find her when we first got here?”

“She’s not easy to track down,” Hank told him. “She’s off world most weeks out of the month. She’s based on Xalbu, a world about a hundred and seventy light years from here.”

Jack watched her as she began to laugh at something the bartender said. “Do you really think she’ll know something?” Jack asked.

“Mei’s comm badge was here which means either she was brought here at some point or someone who had something to do with the attack on the Balthazar came here,” Hank said. “Either way, my guess is, Befana knows something about it.”

Jack turned to Hank. “How do you want to play it?”

Hank grinned. “I think we’ll try it your way this time.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“You go talk to her.”

Jack thought a moment, then smiled. “Okay.” He stood from their table and walked over to where Befana stood.

Hank shook his head and finished his drink.

Jack strolled up next to Befana and gave her a quick smile. “Hello,” he said to her.

“Hello,” she responded with a sultry voice.

“My name’s Jack.”

“Hello, Jack.”

He asked the bartender for another drink. “You let me buy you another of what you’re having?”

She looked at him a moment. “Did you really come up here to buy me a drink?”

“Not really, no,” he said as the bartender gave him a new glass.

“Then why don’t you get to the point,” Befana said. “I’m busy.”

“Can we go somewhere a little quieter to talk?”

“We can go to the office in back.”

She immediately headed toward the back of the bar leaving Jack to follow.

In the alley behind the bar, Jack McCall sailed out the door and crashed into a set of large metal boxes covered in dirt and grime. He hit the ground hard, but did his best to get up.

“All I want to do is talk,” he said as Befana stepped out into the alley.

“Right,” she said as she picked him up by the collar and tossed him farther down the narrow alley. Her metal feet clanked each time she took a step, nearing the new place Jack had landed. “How long have you been following me?” she demanded as she grabbed him again.

“I haven’t!” Jack shouted as he reached for his weapon.

Befana smiled. “Wrong move.”

She threw him up against a wall, knocking the weapon out of his hand. She held him in place as she gently brought her metal right foot down on his left foot.

“Last chance,” she said. “Who are you?”

“My name is Jack McCall,” he said as she applied pressure with her foot. “I’m here searching for my father and my wife…”

Jack howled in pain as she pressed down with vise-like pressure on his foot.

“And why don’t I believe that?” she asked.

“Because you were never a very trusting person,” Hank’s voice said from behind them.

Befana quickly pulled a weapon and tried to point it at Hank, but she was just a millisecond too slow. His own weapon now pointed at her head.

“Too bad the arms aren’t mechanical too,” Hank said as he took her gun. “You might have beat me to it this time.”

Befana frowned and looked at Jack. “You’re with him?”

Jack nodded. “Yeah.”

She released Jack who slid down to the pavement. More than hurt, now he was angry. This planet seemed to have it out for him no matter which way he turned.

Befana stepped back as Hank walked up next to her. “How you been Evans?”

“Not too bad,” he answered.

“I hear you owe Trulfulsa and Galfalda a lot of money for a holographic system,” she said.

“I heard that too,” Hank replied.

“What’s this?” she asked pointing to Jack.

“Captain Jack McCall,” Hank said. “Commander of the Federation starship Chamberlain.”

“A starship captain?” she chuckled. “I would have figured him for someone who kept herds of large grazing animals.”

Hank looked down at Jack. “He does have kind of a farmer look to him, doesn’t he?”

“Very funny!” Jack yelled. “Why didn’t you talk to her instead of sending me?”

“Because I wanted to see if anyone else in the bar would follow you out,” Hank responded. “For now, I want to avoid the wrong kind of attention.”

Befana offered her hand to Jack. “Sorry about a minute ago, Jack,” she said with a smile, helping him to his feet. “You don’t survive on Antenora unless you’re careful.”

Jack forced a grin across his face. “That’s okay,” he said in a jovial tone.

“You seem to still be in one piece,” she stated.

He nodded.

Jack suddenly swung his fist, landing a solid punch to her jaw. Unprepared, it knocked Befana back and to the ground.

“Jack!” Hank yelled, running to her. “What the hell was that for?!”

Jack McCall smirked at Befana. He’d had all of this world he was going to take. She’d been the last straw. “Don’t grab me like that again unless you intend to kill me.” He turned and walked leisurely down the alley.

Hank helped her up.

“He’s not as docile as I thought,” she said with a chuckle.

=/\=

Jack remained quiet as they returned to their room with Befana. The only thing he cared about was what she knew about Mei-Wan and Jeremiah.

The three of them sat down on the ratty looking furniture that gave off a smell that matched its appearance.

“There was a lot of activity several weeks ago,” Befana said. “But I think part of that involved the Zeparans. There was some big confrontation between them and the clans.”

“But you’ve heard nothing about an attack on a Federation starship?” Hank asked.

“Not a thing. And if any of the major clans had been involved in something like that I would have heard about it, Hank,” she replied.

Jack hung his head down, looking at the floor. He was beginning to lose the last bit of hope he had.

“You love her very much, don’t you?” Befana asked.

“Yes, I do,” Jack answered softly.

“I wish I knew something. I really do.”

Hank looked over at Jack. “Maybe you should get some sleep.”

Jack forced a smile. “I’ll be okay.”

“Jack, we’ve come up empty so far,” Hank said. “We should rest and start fresh tomorrow.”

Finally Jack exhaled and nodded. He stood up and walked to one of the two bedrooms without another word.

“He’s not looking good,” Befana said.

“I know.”

=/\=

The next morning, Jack walked out into the common room and found Hank asleep on the couch. He couldn’t help smiling.

“What’s so funny?” Befana’s voice asked from the balcony. She stood drinking a steaming cup of something as her short, dark hair about blew about in the morning breeze.

Jack joined her on the balcony. “Nothing.”

She frowned. “You expected Hank and I to sleep together last night, didn’t you?”

“He’s slept with about every other woman we’ve met on this trip,” Jack remarked.

She leaned on the balcony railing. “Hank and I were involved for a while, but…”

“He didn’t stick around?”

“Something like that,” she responded. “I’d trust him with my life without a thought, but not with my heart.”

Jack thought he understood. He gazed at the city just as the sun was rising over the horizon. The dense smog left its appearance a dull blob of light instead of a blazing disk in the sky.

“I contacted my people before I went to bed,” Befana said. “I’ve got them checking every source and informant I have. If the Levalum were involved, hopefully we’ll find something.”

“Thank you,” Jack replied. It wasn’t much, but it was far better than scouring the streets again.

“Hank told me last night that you’d found something that belonged to your wife here on Antenora,” Befana said.

Jack searched through his pants pocket. “I think I’ve still got it.”

“I could have my people run a trace on it and…” she stopped as Jack pulled out the comm badge. “That’s it?”“Look, I know it’s just a little trinket, but…”“No, that’s not it at all,” Befana said, her eyes wide. “I met with Galfalda five days ago about some business we had and he wore something that looked exactly like that.”

Jack placed the comm badge in the proper position on his shirt.

“Is this where he wore it?” Jack asked.

Befana nodded. “Yes, just like that.”

Hank stepped out onto the balcony rubbing the sleep out of his tired eyes. “Can you two please keep it down. I’m trying to rest.”

They both turned to Hank. Jack’s face was filled with more determination than Hank had seen in a long time.

“I think we should go see your Levalum friends, Hank,” Jack said. “I think we should go right now.”

=/\=

The trip out to see Galfalda didn’t take them long. Befana made contact with one of her people and soon after a shuttle landed on the roof of their building and flew them out some fifty kilometers away from the center of the city to a palace, a miniature city of its own– the main base of operations for one of the more powerful clans of the Levalum.

On the way, Jack learned that Befana was indeed as human as she appeared, but she didn’t reveal where she was from or what had happened to her legs, though Jack suspected Hank knew the full story. But finding out wasn’t high on Jack’s list of things to do just now.

After setting down on a landing pad, Jack, Hank, and Befana were escorted through the large estate past huge gardens and vast pools of still water to a gargantuan dining room with a vast array of murals on its walls and a table that easily measured a hundred feet in length and twenty feet in width, filled with a wide variety of strange foods. Yet, the table seemed small in comparison to the rest of the room. Everything in it had precious metals and stones inlaid within– the chairs, the table, lamp stands, and picture frames. Jack felt as if he’d stepped back in time to walk through the palace of some great European monarch’s castle, but done twice as large and with an alien sensibility to it that made him uneasy.

It didn’t help Jack’s uneasiness that their weapons were confiscated the moment they stepped off the shuttle either, but he had half expected they’d be disarmed.

Their escort told them to be seated, then left.

Finally, a single, yet well armed, guard accompanied a light green skinned, six foot five figure into the room. Jack recognized him as one of the two Levalum they had encountered in the Parxula system several months earlier.

“Hank Evans,” Galfalda said as he slowly moved to the head of the table. “It’s so nice of you to visit. You on Antenora on business?”

“Something like that,” Hank answered.

“And Befana, my dear. To see you and Evans together again gives me such a good feeling.”

“I’m glad we brought a little bit of sunshine to your otherwise dreary day,” Befana said with a smirk.

The creature looked at Jack as he sat down. “But you… wait I do know you.”“Captain Jack McCall,” he responded.

“Oh, that’s right,” Galfalda said. “You had that rather nice sized ship. Is it possible you’ve decided to sell it to me?”

Jack jumped in before Hank did. “If you have something I’d consider trading for it, perhaps.”

Hank’s eyes widened. He wondered what Jack thought he was doing. They had agreed beforehand to let Hank do the talking.

“Well, that certainly is worth the interruption of my schedule,” the Levalum said. “What did you have in mind?”

Jack held up Mei-Wan’s comm badge. “You seen this before?”

Galfalda sat back in his chair. “I don’t believe so, no.”

“I saw you wearing it the last time we met,” Befana said, her eyes narrowed.

“Was I?” he replied. “Someone must have given it to me. You’d be surprised by all gifts I get.”

Jack stood to his feet. “This would have been taken from someone.”

Galfalda sneered. “I don’t think I like your tone Captain Jack McCall. I don’t think I like it at all.”

“Ask us if we care,” Befana said, glaring at him.

Jack walked slowly toward the head of the table. “You see this particular item belonged to a specific individual– someone aboard a Federation starship which was attacked.”

“Perhaps she was rescued by one of our ships and gave that object as a sign of her gratitude,” Galfalda said with a weak smile.

“She?” Jack asked.

The room became silent as Galfalda realized he’d let something slip. His brother, Trulfulsa, would have beaten him for such a mistake if he’d been there.

However, that was the least of his concerns as Jack McCall got nearer to him. Galfalda motioned the guard to come closer. If he couldn’t talk his way out of this the guard might have to protect him, but he didn’t trust the guards. They were all on his brother’s payroll.

“What would you be willing to pay for information about the woman’s whereabouts?” he asked, now more timid.

Jack smiled at Hank who used his eyes to remind Jack about the guard. “I suppose I could let you leave this room alive.”

Galfalda let out a laugh. “You’d be the one not to leave alive, Captain. I have hundreds of guards just outside these doors. Ask your friend Evans what would happen if I were to be killed.”

Jack didn’t bother.

“Evans tell him!” Galfalda shouted as Jack got nearer.

Hank remained silent. He enjoyed seeing Galfalda frightened.

“If I don’t get the answers I want, I don’t give a damn if I live much more than a minute or two longer than you do,” Jack said, glaring at the Levalum.

“All right,” Galfalda said. “I know what happened.”

Jack stopped moving. “Let’s hear it.”

“I can’t tell you,” their frightened host told them. “We were instructed to keep the operation a secret.”

“I don’t care,” Jack said, taking another step.

“The woman wasn’t the primary objective!”

“My father was,” Jack whispered.

“Your father?” Galfalda said. “That admiral was your father?”

“Yes,” Jack answered. “And the woman is my wife.”

Galfalda’s eyes grew wide like a trapped animal’s. “Guard! Restrain him!”

The guard hesitated a moment.

“I said restrain him!”

Finally the sentry moved to block Jack’s path. Jack stopped and stared at him.

“Evans, explain to your friend how business arrangements like this work,” Galfalda pleaded.

“I’m waiting to hear the details on this one myself,” Hank said. “I’m curious to hear who was so hell bent on capturing a Starfleet admiral and why they wanted to use your bunch of dirtbags.”

“You don’t tell them no,” Galfalda said.

“Them?” Jack asked. “Who?”

The Levalum remained silent.

Hank looked at Jack with a confused expression on his face. The plan they came to this place with was definitely out the window and he didn’t like the direction Jack seemed to be taking this.

Befana lowered her hand to her right leg and touched a tiny metal stud. A section of the leg opened and she pulled a small weapon out.

“Jack!” Befana called out as she tossed it his direction.

Jack spun about and caught the gun in his hand and a moment later had it pointed at the face of the guard.

“You,” he said to the guard. “Get out!”

Galfalda started to get up, but Jack quickly fired a plasma burst from the weapon, hitting the wall a few feet to the Levalum’s right. He fell back into the chair, cringing.

Jack swung back to the guard. “Tell your friends out in the hallway that your boss won’t be hurt as long as no one tries to come in here. We just want to talk to him.”

The guard shut the doors behind him, leaving Galfalda in a full blown panic. Jack walked up to their host.

“You can’t do this!”

Jack pointed the weapon at the Levalum’s head.

Hank gave Befana a wide eyed look as they got up to join Jack at the head of the table.

I wonder when they came up with this plan? Hank asked himself, rather proud of Jack’s ingenuity.

“I told them to search you!” Galfalda whimpered. “Those guards never look out for me when Trulfulsa’s gone!”

“Maybe you should get better help,” Hank suggested with a grin.

Jack pressed the end of the gun to Galfalda’s temple. “Before I leave you’re going to tell me what happened to Mei-Wan and my father.”

“Just tell us so we can get out of here, Galfalda,” Hank said.

“You’ll all die for this!”

“I’m sure you were paid well for this operation,” Befana said. “I wonder how the other clans would feel about you and your brother going off on your own without consulting them.”

Galfalda let out his breath, his eyes went wide with fear.

Hank smiled. “I don’t imagine they’d be too happy with you two keeping all that money for yourselves. They’re sure to want their cut.”

“We were told not to tell them!” Galfalda shouted. “We didn’t have a choice!”

“You don’t have a choice now, you sorry son of a bitch,” Jack said through clenched teeth as he pushed the end of the gun more into Galfalda’s temple.

“It was the G’voda!”

Jack and Hank looked at each other.

“What the hell would the G’voda want with a Starfleet admiral?” Hank asked.

“Who are the G’voda?” Befana inquired.

“Nasty customers who fly ships that create they’re own wormholes,” Hank explained. “We watched them take out several Borg cubes.”

Jack looked at Galfalda. “Why did they want my father and my wife?”

“They wanted the admiral for intelligence information,” Galfalda said, now a bit more calm. He was glad that Jack seemed less angry now.

“But why destroy an entire starship to get him?” Hank asked.

“We were given a transponder frequency to locate the target,” the Levalum said. “And told to leave no survivors.”

Jack glanced at Hank and could tell he had come to the same conclusion Jack had– someone within Starfleet was working for the G’voda.

However, Jack remembered one man who might have been able to access his father’s transponder frequency. It was the same man who had sent signals for months from the Chamberlain and who had killed Cynthia Pederson– his former science officer, Duncan Zachary.

Now he wished he’d been able to blast Zachary to hell before he’d escaped.

“And the woman?” Jack asked, applying just a bit more pressure with the end of the weapon.

“We found her aboard the escape pod the Admiral was on,” Galfalda said, with a slight tremor in his voice. “Understand, our orders were to leave no one alive.”

Jack’s finger started to press against the trigger. If he heard certain words, what passed for brains in Galfalda’s head would decorate the wall behind him for some time to come. “What happened to her?” Jack asked with a whisper.

“The others… the other three on the pod had been killed, but the admiral was protecting the woman,” Galfalda told them. “He refused to come out of there. He had a weapon. So we used a neural gas we have which left them both unconscious. We were going to leave the woman in the pod to die, but the G’voda who’d come along to supervise demanded we turn her over to him as well.”

“You gave them to this G’voda?” Hank asked.

“Not exactly gave,” he said with a grin. “We were well paid. He gave me that trinket off her uniform too. He told me to wear it in good health.” Galfalda frowned. “I still don’t understand what he meant by that.”

Hank laughed. “It meant that he knew if we ever came across you with the badge you’d end up where you are right now, with a gun to your head.”

Galfalda looked as if he’d just been punched in the gut. “Why does everyone treat me like this?! Why am I the one to suffer all the time? My brother never goes through this!”

Befana turned to Hank. “I wouldn’t be surprised if good ol’ Trulfulsa set his brother up for this.”

“It could be they knew we’d come looking for Mei and Jeremiah, that we’d follow the trail here, and make our way to this stooge,” Hank said, pointing at Galfalda. “Jack would take out his revenge, case closed.”

“That might explain why the guards haven’t been rushing to get back in here to save him,” Befana added.

Jack’s mind raced. Too many things still didn’t add up. Why would a species that could fight the Borg with ease need information from a Starfleet admiral? What possible threat did the Federation pose to them?

He took a deep breath. Another question was far more important at the moment.

“Where did they take them?” Jack insisted.

“Uh…”

“I’m not going to ask again,” Jack said, his finger tightening on the trigger.

“To… to the planet Nybiros,” Galfalda whispered.

“Where the hell is that?” Jack asked. “Will it take us long to get there?”

Hank shook his head. “It’s in Fashod territory.”

“I don’t care whose border we have to cross,” Jack responded. “How far?”

“It’s more than two hundred light years from here,” Hank answered. “But Jack, the Fashod are not to be angered.”

“They don’t tolerate trespassers,” Befana said. “Even the Levalum leave them alone.”

Galfalda chuckled.

“You think something’s funny?” Jack asked, tightening his jaw.

“The Fashod are a farce,” Galfalda said. “They were conquered five hundred years ago.”

“Then who…” Hank started, but he didn’t need to ask. He’d already figured it out.

“The G’voda,” Jack said. He guessed they must have been masquerading as the Fashod for five centuries.

“They’re very insistent on secrecy,” Galfalda told them. “They’ve had Trulfulsa and I do quite a bit of work for them. I think they enjoy having organics serve them.”

“Organics?” Befana asked.

“The G’voda are machines,” Galfalda stated with a wide smile. “Living machines.”

Jack didn’t care if the G’voda were elves, fairies, or goblins– they had his wife and father.

“Nybiros is a world of living machines,” Galfalda said. “Their defenses are impregnable. Even with a thousand of your starships you’d never blast through their planetary defense shield.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have data on it, would you Galfalda?” Hank asked with a raised brow. “Could it be you ran a scan or two?”

Galfalda grinned. “I might be convinced to sell my data.”

Jack nearly blasted a hole through his skull at that moment. “The price is your life!”

“No,” Befana said, smiling. “We’re conducting business here, Jack.” She looked at Galfalda. “How much?”

“How about I turn the data over to you and that settles our account?” the Levalum said, smiling from ear to ear.

Hank shook his head. Galfalda might be a spineless little coward hiding in his brother’s shadow, but he was Levalum, and he wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to make a deal, especially when the deal was so much in his favor.

Befana took a deep breath and nodded. “Agreed.”

Jack realized this probably cost her a lot. He didn’t know how he was going to pay her back or explain this one to Starfleet, but he was certain they could eventually figure out something.

“But, I’m telling you now,” Galfalda said. “It won’t matter. You’ll never be able to penetrate that shield. That world is a fortress.”

Hank grinned. “The data?”

Galfalda smiled. “We have a deal?”

Befana agreed and the Levalum took a small data chip out of a pocket and tossed it to her.

“Now just one thing left to do,” Jack said staring at Galfalda.

“Jack,” Hank said cautiously. “We’ve got what we came here for.”

“He took them, he…” Jack fought back the building rage. “He and his men killed over five hundred Starfleet officers. Someone has to pay for that.”

“He’s just the middle man, Jack.”

“Jack, listen,” Befana said. “We have an agreement with him. He has to let us go. If he doesn’t my people will notify the other clans about what he and his brother have been up to.”

“No!” Galfalda yelled.

Hank grinned as he took a step toward Jack. “He knows what the other clans will do. If there’s anything else we need from him, we can always threaten him with that. Don’t throw this advantage away, Jack.”

Jack closed his eyes and all he could see was Mei-Wan suffering in pain and a million worse possibilities.

He opened his eyes and looked down at the loathsome creature at the end of his gun. He hated Galfalda more than any other single being in the cosmos. His hatred demanded satisfaction.

“Jack, don’t do this,” Hank implored him.

Everything about this world sickened Jack, and most especially the creature sitting in front of him. They had taken Mei-Wan from him and all he wanted was to repay that. Everything on Antenora had a price. Jack was going to extract one from Galfalda.

He pushed all of the air out of his lungs and his finger pulled on the trigger.

This world, he thought. So much pain, so much wrong, so much emptiness.

Jack’s lungs waited. The reflex to inhale remained patient.

Galfalda turned to look up at Jack. His eyes stared, and while unlike most Jack had seen, they were still eyes.

He’d seen that look before.

Jack had seen it in Robin Nelson’s eyes as she cried out for someone, anyone to save her. He’d seen it in Larissa James’ eyes as he held her while she took her last breath. He’d seen their eyes so many times, over and over again. They haunted his dreams and his soul.

Jack’s finger moved away from the trigger. His lungs finally inhaled.

“No more eyes,” he whispered as he took a step away from Galfalda. “No more.”

The Levalum sat frozen in place. He was too frightened to hope he’d live.

Jack tossed the weapon back to Befana. “Let’s get the hell out of here.” He went toward the door.

“How dare you…” Galfalda shouted. But he was cut short by Befana pointing the weapon at him.

“Remember,” she said. “Anything happens to us and the other clans get told you’ve been holding out on them.”

Galfalda buried his rage.

Jack and Befana walked out the door while Hank took a piece of fruit off the table and took a bite out of it.

“Take care of yourself, Galfalda,” Hank said.

=/\=

Chapter 7 - Necessary Evils

Jack stood on the balcony looking out at the city again as numerous small craft buzzed about the buildings like a swarm of flies. He hated this world– this pit of unbounded and monstrous passions. He couldn’t wait to leave, but he realized a part of him never would. That part had died here.

“You want something to drink?” Hank asked from behind him.

“No,” Jack answered absently.

Hank joined him, gazing at the city as the darkness of night fell once again.

“I sent the message to Simmons on Kel-j’na,” Hank told him. “I’m sure they’ll send a ship to go scout out Nybiros.”

Jack didn’t react.

“You know, I thought you were…”

“I did too,” Jack said.

“So when did you two come up with that little trick about the gun in her leg?” Hank asked with a grin.

Jack’s face showed no emotion. “While you were getting dressed.”

“Why didn’t you guys tell me about it?”

“Befana said she wanted to get you back for something, but wouldn’t say what,” Jack answered.

Hank nodded and started to go back inside.

“There’s still hope we’ll find them, Jack,” Hank said. “It may not seem so right now, but there is.”

Jack took a step forward. Hank watched him for some time to make sure Jack wasn’t considering jumping. Then he went back inside where Befana walked up to him with a drink.

“Your friend okay?” she asked as she handed Hank the glass.

Hank exhaled and shook his head. “I doubt he’ll ever be okay again.”

“Shouldn’t we try to talk with him?”

“No,” Hank told her. “He has to face his demons alone.”

Jack stood, looking out over the seemingly endless city holding Mei-Wan’s comm badge in his hand, turning it end over end. It was the one thing here that gave him some sort of connection to her.

Mei! his heart cried out. I’m so sorry! I’ve failed you!

“You did not fail her, Jack McCall.”

Jack spun around and saw a creature covered in bluish white fur– the Vedala.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Jack demanded.

“I had wanted to speak to you much sooner,” the Vedala named Kalastia said. “But we had to be certain it was safe to do so. The Ladeo Jutamfa are free from their prison on Hel’yra.”

Jack watched the Vedala and thought he saw more than caution in its expression as it looked out at the city. “They were defeated before by the Ancient Progenitors’ sacrifice– a sacrifice given so that the rest of us might live,” the Vedala told him. “If they had not, all life in this Galaxy might have perished. Our fear is that, this time, the Ladeo will be unstoppable.”

Jack didn’t care about the rest of the Galaxy at that moment. All he cared about were his wife and father.

“The G’voda have Mei-Wan,” he said.

“We know.”

“You have the power to bring her back to me… her and my father,” Jack pleaded.

The Vedala stared into the night sky. “To do as you ask would destroy all the Vedala. The Ladeo would overwhelm us in mere moments.”

“What?” Jack asked, confused. “The G’voda are on Nybiros.”

“And so are the Ladeo.”

“Certainly you could get Mei-Wan and Dad away from there before…”

“I am sorry, Jack McCall, but their sacrifice is necessary.”

“I can’t accept that!” Jack yelled, his words fading into the smog filled air of the city.

“We dare not even look upon Nybiros,” the Vedala said. “There are some things that even we fear.”

“But…” Jack began to protest.

The Vedala raised its fur covered hand to stay his words.

Jack closed his eyes as an updraft blasted air past the balcony they stood upon.

Mei, forgive me!

=/\=

“Lieutenant…”Nothing.

An endless haze without light, but not total darkness…

“Lieutenant McCall…”

Where am I? her mind asked.

“Time to wake up.”

What? When did…

Through the fog, alert klaxons blared. Everything felt as if the world had turned upside down. She floated for a moment then hit the floor.

“You don’t want to miss this, Lieutenant.”

She had to get to the pod. They were out of time. “Strap yourself in!” Then her stomach fell through the floor. They were away, but only five of them. Surely others got out. Surely…

“Wake up!”

Mei-Wan McCall’s mind burst into consciousness. She tried to open her eyes, but a blinding light from above forced them closed again.

“Now that’s better,” a mechanical voice to her left stated.

“What?” she got out just above a whisper.

“Your eyes will adjust in a minute,” the voice said. “I can wait.”

Mei-Wan took several breaths. “Where am I?”

“You are home– your home from this point forward.”

She forced her eyes open and saw a face, but not a human one. Its shape was human, but instead of flesh, shiny metal covered its surface. Some parts were exposed, revealing a mass of power conduits and artificial muscles. But the eyes stood out above everything else. They were featureless orbs within their sockets that emitted a dull red light.

“How do you like it?” the machine asked her, pointing to parts of its body. “I know it’s not finished yet, but I do think it’s coming along nicely so far.”

Something about the voice, the attitude…

“Yes, I have shed my mortal coil and moved on to the next life, but I haven’t forgotten you, Lieutenant. I’d never forget you.”

It finally hit her through the dissipating fog in her mind. “Zachary?”

“Not just Zachary,” his machine voice stated. “Consider me, Zachary reborn.”

His metal face contorted into what was meant to be a smile, but instead of conveying happiness it only frightened Mei-Wan.

“What happened to you?” she asked, still believing none of this was any more than a twisted nightmare.

“The G’voda granted me the opportunity of a lifetime,” Zachary told her. “They gave me a new body, a new life, and a new purpose. They freed me from all the instincts and drives of humanity.”

He leaned closer to Mei-Wan. “I am a new creature, better than the original, but still Duncan Zachary.”

Mei-Wan closed her eyes hoping she’d wake up, but her wish went unfulfilled. “My god, what have you done to yourself?”

“Your gods are indeed the issue,” a voice to her right said.

Mei-Wan turned to see a familiar face walk up to her. “Jeremiah?”

“Hello Mei-Wan,” he said warmly, still wearing his admiral’s uniform. “I’m sorry for all of this.”

She tried to move, but found her arms and legs restrained by metal clasps at the wrists and ankles. Another metal brace held her waist.

“Help me get out of here!”

“Oh, we can’t do that just yet,” Zachary said. “And don’t think your dear husband will come flying in here, guns blazing. I’ve made certain he’ll find an appropriate target to vent his anger upon.”

Jeremiah looked up at the machine. “That’s enough, Zachary,” he ordered. “There’s no reason to torment her.”

Zachary gave a quick nod and took a step back.

Jeremiah watched Mei-Wan. “Your gods, or rather your Ancient Progenitors as you call them, are responsible for all of this I’m afraid.”

Mei-Wan struggled frantically against her restraints. “Let me go!”

Jeremiah McCall placed his hand on her shoulder. “Dont do this, Mei-Wan. You’ll only make it harder on yourself. Please.”“What are you doing, Jeremiah?!”

“The part of me that was the being you call Jeremiah McCall wishes he could help you, but I’m afraid that’s not going to be possible,” he said. “I truly am sorry.”

“Who are you?” she demanded, becoming angry.

“I am a victim,” he said. “A victim of the Progenitors, those we knew as the Beota. I was their first victim.”

He stepped away from her, lost in thoughts about a time billions of years before. “I am a victim of their unwillingness to see things from a different perspective.” He smiled. “However, thanks to Captain Gann, I was the first released from the prison the Beota placed me in more than five billion years ago.”

“The being from Cajma? One of the Ladeo?” Mei-Wan asked. “But how… where’s Jeremiah?”

“He’s still here,” he explained, pointing to his head. “He’s asleep now. I’m afraid we can’t both operate at the same time.”

Mei-Wan looked at Jeremiah’s face and noticed how pale his skin was, and how much older he seemed. She glanced down at her own restrained body and saw dirt on her uniform as well as rips in the material.

“The Balthazar– we were attacked,” she said, looking at him. “By you?”

“No,” he answered. “The unfortunate thing about being locked away for billions of years is that your servants begin to operate on their own.”

Jeremiah frowned at the machine inhabited by the mind of Zachary.

“They do things that are counterproductive like conquering the Fashod and making their presence too widely known,” he said. “However, the attack on Admiral McCall’s ship was an excellent way to get more information about your Federation.”

He looked back to Mei-Wan. “That operation had already begun by the time we made it here to Nybiros. Though, my abilities did make the retrieval of Jeremiah’s information much simpler. I have immediate access to everything he knew, felt, or imagined.”

He turned as another machine, this one on four legs and at least ten feet tall, entered the large circular room which Mei-Wan was at the center of.

“You freed the others?” Mei-Wan asked.

“I wasn’t left with many choices,” he explained. “Not even our servants, the G’voda, could rescue us. The nebula around Hel’yra was deadly to them.”

“The Ancient Progenitors must have had a good reason…” Mei-Wan began to insist.

His face twisted in rage. “Our struggle against the Beota, your Progenitors, had nothing to do with reason! It wasn’t forced upon us because of differences in philosophy, political points of view, or ideology!” he yelled. “The Beota wanted nothing less than our extermination!”

“I don’t believe it,” Mei-Wan stated. “Their culture, their technology, they…”

“Only sixty of my kind remain,” Jeremiah said, now more calm. “Out of tens of billions, only sixty… because of your revered Ancient Progenitors. They refused to co-exist with us.” Jeremiah looked up from the display device in his hands. “The Vedala! That species of sycophants still exists!” He glanced at Mei-Wan. “I see from the scan of your mind they…” He stepped away.

Mei-Wan wondered what else they had learned from the scan. She hadn’t even been aware the G’voda had done such a thing to her.

Jeremiah turned to the large four legged G’voda. He held up the display device. “This is why we were so concerned about your blatant activity! You fools!” he screamed at the machine.

The G’voda stepped back cringing under the rebuke of its diminutive master.

“According to her thoughts, the Vedala have evolved to a state of near godhood! They might very well attack at any moment!”

“The Ancient Progenitors are gone,” Mei-Wan told him. “Your fight is over!”

“No, they live on in you and your kind,” he said. “Doesn’t their seeding of this Galaxy with their genetic material, altering the ecology on millions of worlds, prove to you they only wished for their own kind to exist? Why can’t you believe they would want to exterminate us?”

Mei-Wan had never considered that side of the Progenitor’s actions. She had always assumed they’d only seeded uninhabited planets.

“Despite our power, Mei-Wan, and it is considerable, there are still things we must fear,” Jeremiah said. “You and your kind are our greatest fear.”

“How could we ever harm you?” she asked him. “You destroy entire worlds!”

He closed his eyes. They were the progeny of the Beota. They would never allow his kind to remain alive. “You will see who destroys, Mei-Wan. It won’t be us. It has never been us. We needed the life energy on Cajma, Ninaz, and Ikenga. I stopped the others at Parsandra. I told them it was a world of sentient life, that we could find other worlds.”

“Too bad you didn’t realize that with Cajma and Ninaz,” she threw back at him.

“Those on Cajma had used me as a source of energy, and Ninaz…” his words trailed off into silence. “The others were nearly dead, they would have perished without energy from the beings on Ninaz. The deaths on that world were unfortunate. I mourn their loss.”“That does them a hell of a lot of good,” Mei-Wan told him. “They were just on the verge of space travel. Their entire future was ahead of them.”

“I know. We possess all their memories,” he said with pain in his voice. “They will haunt us for as long as we live.”

He stood looking at her. “I have sacrificed more than you can imagine to reside in this body,” he said. “But I did it willingly to save the last of my kind. You would do no less.” But, he did relish the pleasures of a physical body. It had been so very long since any of his kind had known such joys. They had been forced by Mei-Wan’s Ancient Progenitors to leave them behind.

Too many sacrifices! his mind screamed. Even anger brought him joy. It produced a flood of sensations so intoxicating it nearly let him forget what he had given up to inhabit Admiral Jeremiah McCall’s body– nearly.

He more than any of the others now had to be extremely careful. He was vulnerable in ways he had not been for billions of years. He hoped it would be worth the risk.

He gave the display unit back to the four-legged machine. “Proceed.”

The metal creature touched a control on the display and several other G’voda entered the large room. One of them was a humanoid looking machine similar to Zachary, but female in design, and her outer metal shell was complete. They all moved to positions around Mei-Wan.

“What are you doing?” she pleaded.

Jeremiah kept his back to her. “I am sorry for what they are going to do. Their plan is sound and… necessary.”“You’re being given a gift, Lieutenant,” the machine Zachary stated. “They are usually so selective about who they bring into their number.”

Mei-Wan’s eyes widened.

“You will become one of the G’voda, Lieutenant McCall,” Zachary said, contorting his metal face into a grin. “Just like me.”

“No!” she screamed. “You can’t do this!”

“There has been only one other who tried to refuse this gift,” he turned to the female humanoid G’voda. “But you learned to enjoy this life, didn’t you, Cilda?”

The female G’voda only nodded briefly and stepped up to a control panel near Mei-Wan that rose out of the floor. She began touching the controls as soon as they were within her reach.

“And so will you, Lieutenant,” Zachary said with glee.

“Stop torturing her!” Jeremiah snapped at Zachary.

Zachary and the others stopped in place.

Jeremiah almost looked as if he might cry. Mei-Wan couldn’t tell if that was the Ladeo within him or some part of her father-in-law getting through.

“She can’t help what she is,” Jeremiah said sadly. “None of them can.”

He left the room as Cilda touched several controls.

“Full transference,” Zachary told his female counterpart.

“And the body?” Cilda asked.

“Keep it in storage. It may prove useful at some point, especially if one of the masters wishes to inhabit it,” Zachary said. He turned to Mei-Wan. “Sorry I can’t stay, but I have a Borg Queen to interrogate.”

Zachary and the other G’voda exited the chamber leaving only Cilda and Mei-Wan.

“Please!” Mei-Wan cried out to her. “I dont want this!”“I didn’t want it either,” Cilda answered her. “You’ll learn to adjust. The centuries will pass and all those you knew and loved will be gone. After five hundred years I have learned to accept what is.”

Several large metal devices came down from the ceiling to just a few inches above Mei-Wan. She struggled trying to free herself from the table she was strapped to, but she didn’t have the strength.

Cilda’s metal hand reached for a last control, but hesitated. She looked at Mei-Wan for a moment.

“Please…” Mei-Wan whispered.Cilda touched several controls on the panel. The devices over Mei-Wan began to emit a high pitched whine as sections of them glowed.

Mei-Wan’s vision clouded over as the sounds of the machines above her intensified.

“No!”

Her mind drifted.

Did I have a choice about us? We’re together because of the whims of that bastard, Abolas, in that prison camp.

For a moment she thought she was back on the Chamberlain talking to Jack.

No, that’s what I said when I left, she told herself.

You’ve slept with him, haven’t you? she heard Jack’s voice ask… again.

The world went dark. She could no longer see the room or the machine named Cilda.

Suddenly a flood of memories exploded in her mind.

But Robin, he’s the Captain! she heard herself say.

So what, he’s cute, Robin Nelson’s voice answered.

The rush of past events intensified in her mind, coming so quickly now they overlapped in a jumble of different times, places, and people.

You’re an excellent student, Cadet Lau, but there is more to life than archaeology.

Come on Mei, there’ll be a bunch of cute guys there.

Do you think I have nothing better to do than pick up after you! her mother’s voice scolded her.

Archaeology? That’s hardly a real science.

How’s my little girl today?

Your mother lost the baby, her father’s voice said.

Then we can play chess if it rains.

You’re such a sweet child.

Quiet down, Mei-Wan!

Mei-Wan!

Mei…

Then… only sensation remained.

Warmth, cold, hunger…

Hunger…

A flash of light and cold and noise.

Quiet. A point of light… flickering, flickering… gone.

Darkness… nothingness… emptiness.

TO BE CONTINUED…

=/\= =/\= =/\=

Discover more Star Trek fan fiction by Michael Gray at:

http://darkhorizon.4mg.com/

Dark Horizon Story and Characters Copyright ©2003, 2011 by Michael Gray