Chapter 5: Enemy Mine (Part 3.3)

Long seconds dragged out as the shuttle floundered under the barrage. To say Moore had his hands full was an understatement. What Moore decide not to tell his commander was that,in order to look like they were running away without actually doing it, he had to cut power by about twenty percent. To Moore, it felt like he was dragging the enemy ship on a tether.

"Coming up on the rendezvous point commander" Snowfire informed him.  "No sign of the Dusk "

Redding nodded.

"Glad to hear that. Stand by Moore, on my mark... now!" and pointed at the Doctor who nodded and sent his message.

Moore sighed out "Finally" under his breath and kicked the ship into full power.

The Dawn suddenly came to life and started widening the gap between the two ships causing the Jem'hadar attack ship to redouble its efforts by intensifying their forward fire. So intent were they on the escaping shuttle they never saw the Dusk powering up and taking pursuit of the bug ship until the Dusk was well into their flank.

The Jem'hadar attack ships were efficient for their class, fast and maneuverable, but it could be no match for a Delta Flyer class shuttle in these things. The Dusk pounded mercilessly at their impulse engines, having been give orders to disable the vehicle if at all possible.

Back during the war Redding discussed the nature of the design for the Jem'hadar ships with the Vorta that had been assigned there as well.

"Why so lightly armored in the rear Admiral?" The Vorta had looked at him smugly "Why, they fight for the Founders of course, NO Jem'hadar would ever run from a battle, to.. over armor.. that area would be a waste of resource." He said it with much pride.

Redding mused "We did something like that in our history as well, in ancient times.. Emperors gave their troops breast plates made of the finest bronze to march into battle in, but only cloth in the back." and smiled.

"They loved this Emperor greatly did they?" The Vorta asked feigning interest.

Redding laughed "Hell no! It was to keep them from running away!" The Vorta recognized the meaning of the story and frowned.

Back in the present the bug ship was trying desperately to get a better angle on the Dusk. "Tyvya, target their communications array. I don't care if you destroy it, but take it out."

"Shooting backward blindfolded at the glasses of a man on a running horse in a thunderstorm at night... aye, Sir, " answered the Andorian giantess as she nevertheless stood up to peer through the canopy while her fingers readied their phaser array. Fortunately, a Delta Flyer of the latest design had a full three-hundred and sixty degree arc of fire; something quite handy in trying to shoot down an enemy during such a deadly and furious dance.

Her first shot grazed the pursuing ship's armor. Yet, some of it flew out in a burning trail under the discharge.

"Must have been quite worn out on that spot," she mused as she sent another volley that again vaporized rather easily another armor plate on the top of the flat hull, leaving afiery scar on the bug's head.

Then Redding spoke to Snowfire.

"If it looks like they might get position on the Dusk, tell them to pull back and well move in on their flank." And gave his crooked smile "Repeat as necessary."

That's when he heard Tyvya grunt an unintelligible Andorian expletive to suddenly stand up to run through the back door into the aft section of the shuttle before anyone could utter a word. The deadly dance between the three crafts continued for a good minute and, at one point, a metal-tearing sound came from the stern before she came back, sweating and panting and frantically playing her fingers on the firing controls. Looking intently at the her target, she waited for the moment when the attack ship would start turning forward from the Dusk to engage them anew and then punched the torpedo firing button.

A micro torpedo flew out to hit the upper part of the bugship prow. There were a few armor plates broken over but there was no detonation.

"What the... " Moore began.

"Wait for it... " the giantess answered.

And then, a violent static discharge from the nebula struck the Jem'Hadar ship directly. They were all blinded by the closeness of the energy bolt and the dawn buckled as all the controls flashed in and out, almost burned out by the immense nearby power surge. After a moment, their eyes blinked out of their whitish haze and  their controls did the same to reactivate and self-diagnose to basic operational status.

"What was that?" asked Moore righting their craft and turning around to face once more their enemy.

"I tore off a bed's frame and thrust it at the top back of a warheadless micro torpedo, " started to explain Tyvya, falling with relief in her chair.

Moore understood instantly.

"A lightning rod! That sure took their comm out neatly!" 

"And a bit more, hopefully," added the tactical officer as she pointed with her nose at the scene beyond their cockpit.

The Jem'Hadar ship looked fairly intact except for burned armor and emitters on her bow. But she floated slowly and freely, drifting peacefully, obvioulsy disabled.

"Never doubt the ingenuity of a Andorian." Redding said with a smile.

"Moore dock us, Snowfire.." He said turning to her. "If we extend the navigational deflectors from both shuttles around the bug ship and linked the transporters would we get enough of a signal to use the transporter? and what's the safety margin?"

 Essentially he was asking if the shuttles took parallel positions (on either side of the bug ship) could they beam from one shuttle to the other, and simply stop the transmission at some point inside the bug ship.

"It's possible sir. Risky, and heavily reliant on our deck plans of those vessels being correct. But definitely possible." Snowfire replied. "Set it up then?"

Although he noted she didn't actually give him a treat level, he decided that might be for the best. "Okay then, volunteers only. I need five people from both ships to join me for a bridge assault."

Moore was lining the ship for a hard dock "If your beaming in, why are we even docking?"

"Because lieutenant, we want them to think that's the way we're boarding, any personnel still able to fight will be at the air lock waiting." he said as he opened the weapons locker and pulled out a phaser rifle.

Redding looked briefly at Tyvya and paused holding a rifle, and was struck by a momentary pang of uncertainty. She was one of the captains wives after all, to lose her in a transporter accident and not battle.. but he shrugged it off and handed her the rifle, it was her choice after all.

Tyvya already had just come back from the aft section with tricorders, stun grenades, hand phasers and the combat knives issued by Captain Kheren's own shipboard directives since his days as a security chief on board the USS Lotus where they had first met. She took the offered rifle and put it aside.

"I suggest small arms, Commander. Like Klingon ships, Jem'Hadar ships are compact and cramped with narrow corridors and low ceilings to prevent easy use of bulky rifles and heavy armament," she warned as she brought the ordinance to the cockpit. "A good tactic is to keep a knife in your off-hand to parry any stabbing attempt from their integrated rifle-blade so as to leave your firing hand free to fire. Just for insurance, Sir. I expect most of them will have been at least dazed by the static discharge accross their hull. "

"I expect that as well." He said simply. But it was obvious he wasn't going to take the chance as he continued gearing up. "And for the record, when going against opponents with sword like weapons I prefer something I can block with." And showed an unnecessary dexterity in spinning it in his hands, although doing so showed a great skill at it.

She did not insist however. Like all Andorians, she was used to think of conflict in either individual or small team tactics where everyone had a different role and therefore different choices of gear. If the first officer felt better with an akward weapon who's only advantage was better endurance and long distance aim while they would be in a short engagement in a close range environement, it was his privilege. And he was in command anyway.

"Orders, Sir?" she asked instead with perfunctory discipline.

"Each shuttle has three transporters, we'll simultaneously transport all the volunteers onto its bridge in a three-hundred and sixty degrees arc. If it moves, shoot it," he answered and moved onto the transporter platform just as the shuttle clamped roughly onto the bug ship. "Everyone else hold until the all clear is given and be ready to board. I want the ship under its own power ASAP, even if we have to pull parts off one of the shuttles."

He waited to see who would be joining him. Tyvya was already stepping up to the transporter pad. On the Dusk,  T'ara the engineer would also join the boarding action from their end with Graathrii as added security if none of the doctors would come. Irksos as researcher and Jaxon for ops duty both signaled ready if Leône and K'Leysha, their senior officers, declined to come along.

When they confirmed that they were all on the respective small 3 pad teleporter of their own craft, the big man in red gave the word.

"Energize"

The transport was not the easy flow most had been used to from years of use and both T'ara and Leone were in danger of becoming violently sick. Redding had done many such combat transports over the years and showed no sign of distress and if Graathrii noticed at all he did not show it.

At one of the stations a lone Jem'hadar was pulling it self up the controls but a quick shot from Graathrii put it back on the ground again. "Don't forget." He grumbled "Stun doesn't work on Jem'hadar."

The bridge was atypical of a Jem'hadar assault craft except it seem under crewed as only three Jem'hadar could be seen manning the entire bridge.

After giving his people a few seconds to adjust signaled Graathrii and Tyvya to sweep the area towards the docking port while he and T'ara headed to engineering

"Keep your coms open and don't hesitate to drop anyone you see, there could be as many as 60 Jem'hadar on-board and they won't stay stunned for long, the rest hold the bridge." and headed out with T'ara.

As they moved along T'ara made a left instead of following behind Redding "It's this way sir!" and started following her tricorder.

Before either one could react a literal blur of motion slammed into T'ara and a spray of blood coated the corridor wall as she crumpled to the floor.

Without a second thought Redding charged in and body slammed the blurred object bringing his rifle down and forward like a battering ram and the two of them slammed into the far bulk head.

The Jem'hadars shroud dropped as Redding abandoned his own weapon and grabbed at the Kar'takin, slamming his shoulder into it.

The blade of the Kar'takin pinned the Jem'hadars left arm behind his back against the bulk head and dug into his throat while Redding braced his right foot and pressed his left knee into the Jem'hadars hip, allowing him no chance to regain any leverage.

Their eyes locked and they both snarled as Redding pushed harder, forcing the blade further into his neck. Soon the Jem'hadar warrior starting choking, it's blood spat from it's mouth as blood from its gouged aorta spilled into it's punctured trachea and it struggled furiously to break Reddings hold but to no avail. Soon it started going limp as it's eyes rolled back.

Redding yanked the blade away causing blood to spurt out onto his uniform but he didn't seem to notice. Redding said something that sounded like Klingon "Hegh quvHa'ghach" and raised the Kar'takin over the Jem'Hadar's heart.

At the other end of the weapon, the craggy, spine-rimmed stony face was looking up at him with unblinking eyes. And what redding saw in those eyes startled him.

Tiredeness... or... sadness?

"COMMANDER REDDING!"

The sharp voice of Tyvya stayed Redding's hand at the very moment he was about to strike. Dimly aware of the man, Tyvya tried to use very formal military speech to snap him out of that almost all too familiar Andorian rage he seemed to be feeling.

"Sir!" now stated the giantess forcefully. "We have secured the ship as per your orders. We report merely a skeleton crew, six of them total... and they are all... incredibly old. I respectfully suggest, Commander Sir, that we should start asking questions... "

Redding lowered his weapon but didn't remove his eyes from the Jem'hadar. "See to our wounded first." But his comm badge came to life.

As per standard procedure when boarding an unknown vessel, the comms between the boarding party and the shuttles had remained open and the doctors heard this most recent statement.

"Commander Redding," came the quick, robotic voice of one of the Bynar doctors, which happened to be 011 on the Dawn. "If the Jem'Hadar are old, we would like to study their state of health."

The voice of 110 came from the Dusk, in agreement. "It is amazing they have lasted this long. If from the original Dominion Wars, they have likely surpassed their average lifespan by at least 30 years!"

"It is also impossible that they have been manufacturing more sources of Katracel White, so we need to study how they have managed to even survive for more than a year without it," added Doctor 011.

"Perhaps you could indulge us and beam an unconscious subject into each shuttle, Sir? We can study them while keeping them in stasis."

"I'll see to it you each get a lab rat but we have wounded first as well as a severely injured Jem'hadar with deep lacerations to the neck and arm, 011 get over here and bring your med kit, the transporter's to unstable to attempt wounded or stunned personal." He started allying pressure to the Jem'hadars wound, there was no look of gratitude in his eyes for it.

Then over the open comm "Leone, start downloading logs and any relevant information within their memory banks, we especially need to know if they have spotted the Horizon or the condition of the Polaris's crew. Everyone else get to work on getting this horse back on its feet, we have to get it into Troy as quickly as possible."

"Understood Sir... I'm on it now!" Elisha exclaimed as she swiftly began creating a link to allow her to download logs and any other available information from their memory banks. As she swiftly began deciphering the cryptic information she hailed the commander.

"Commander Redding, Lieutenant Elisha Leône here...from what I could ascertain from their limited information, they show no indication that this vessel detected the Horizon when they found the Polaris. Perhaps it was too deep in the nebula or their obsolete sensors were too low on power... but there is nothing remaining regarding any reference to the Horizon that I could find. Also, it would seem that all logs which are older than a week have all been erased or lost due to time, damage, or perhaps energy rationing."

Then pulling up a workable file the Orion Ops officer continued.

"However Sir, the last sensor record, not yet erased or lost, is about the Polaris and it's active antimatter core registering on their instruments as they were out in the nebula harvesting ion particles with their ramscoop of their unused nacelles for their overused impulse reactors and their batteries."

After a slight pause she added "I'm sorry Sir... but that was all of the information that I was able to gather from their memory banks." 

He turned the Kar'takin over in his hand, studying it. "I've never seen a weapon so well maintained yet so worn." and passed it over to Tyvya. "They've been stuck here a very long time."

"An eternity of damnation our former Gods condemned us to... until came our Deliverer, the Bringer of Life."

The wounded Jem'Hadar at his feet had spoken with a calm, soft but strong voice, the voice expected from a well-seasoned, wise and brave warrior who had seen so many die that his own death was meaningless to him. But his words meaant little if anything to Redding and his confusion showed on his face. The big grey-skinned scaly soldier didn't move from his sprawled position but looked at him with dull eyes.

"He will also judge you and decide your fate."

Before redding could ask him any question, Tyvya was beside him and vying for his attention with a voice ladden with eagerness and even, surprisingly, apprehension

"Respectfully, Commander... we can't go there. "

"I beg to differ, Lieutenant, " then said engineer T'ara returning from her quick inspection of the captured vessel. "This ship has been short-circuited by your... lightning rod but can be reactivated to full operational status from the main power of any of our two shuttles. We can even ractivate their own cold warp core with some of our reserve antimatter if we want to; it's been shut down for decades it seems... but these guys have meticulously kept it in working order nevertheless. Amazingly, this whole vessel runs only on batteries. A full deck has been crammed with them, much more than just what could be needed to power up this ship; seems they used the static charge of this nebula to collect electrical energy from their bussard collectors of their nacelles and store it to bring it back to their base, along with ion particles to presumably convert them into impulse power. very ingenious... I would have expected this from Starfleet engineers, not Jem'Hadars soldiers..."

She then turned fully to face Redding.

"Sir, I can bring this vessel's systems back online in a few minutes with the help of either  Dawn or Dusk..."

But then, the Andorian giantess interrupted with forcefulness.

" Sir! We must return to the Horizon... and fast!"

Looking at his questionning expression, she didn't give him time to voice his interrogation.

" That Starfleet vessel we saw in their dock... I know her; I've seen her before; she's the Achilles! "

T'ara raised an eyebrow in a very Vulcan fashion of startlement.

"USS Achilles? First of the only five of the joint Federation-Klingon class heavy siege destroyer of the Dominion War? Now that you speak of it, the design we saw does match that unique but short-lived class of warship... But, as I recall from Starfleet files, the Achilles was lost in space following a computer and navigational malfunction... And the name and registry we saw were rather confusing, clearly not... "

"What we saw were two registries and two names intertwined from old peeling paint!" again Tyvya said abruptly, cutting short the Vulcan's sentence. "The Achilles had been officially decommissionned and secretly rechristened USS Nemesis after the war... for a highly classified experiment that went terribly wrong... That ship out there... the Artemis found her, fought her a while back from where it was hidden in the Mutara nebula for over thirty years. Commander; she is the USS Nemesis!"

When he had been an Admiral and one attached to Starfleet Intelligence, Redding would have been aware of the full story about the Uss Achilles-USS Nemesis. But in his rejuvenated, out-of-time state, those memories somehow eluded him at the moment; but he did recall something about a much more recent mission report regarding the USS Artemis, the former command of Captain Kheren, being abducted by an impersonator and led to find a ghost ship that was reputed haunting the Mutara sector...

But T'ara was objecting again in her maddeningly calm Vulcan tone.

"There is no logic in your assessment, Lieutenant. Who could have crewed such a huge ship for so long? Certainly not those Jem'Hadars... And how could  this ship, of all ships already improbable as it is for one to be here to begin with, could be the USS Nemesis?"

"How, I can tell you on our way back to the Horizon!" insisted the Andorian security acting chief still looking intently at Redding. "We must get back, warn Captain Kheren and... "

"And abandon the Polaris and her crew?" stated T'ara flatly with denial already etching her controlled voice.

"They are already dead... if they are lucky," retorted Tyvya just as flatly.

"Unless they chose to serve his Excellency... and thus be redeemed and saved... like us," then said the Jem'Hadar from his prone position against the wall.

In the silence that followed, the Vulcan engineer was first to find back her voice, raising again an eyebrow in turn to the wounded soldier and to the much taller Andorian woman.

"His Excellency? Whom is he refering to? A Vorta? Or a Changeling perhaps? 

Tyvya's face was unreadable but her eyes were like torpedo flares.

"I will give you one name..."

"There is no need for a name, Lieutenant." Snowfire spoke up into the back-and-forth conversation, interjecting ahead of the Andorian security officer's proclamation. "And if we require your information verified, I can do that." She tapped her head. "I take no pleasure in the knowledge that I have, but I was trained in how to use my Gift to do this a long, long time ago. If we require it, I can bring the name, and far more, from this one's mind." She nodded towards the Jem'Hadar, then to Commander Redding. "But only if I am ordered to. Yet, despite that, it does not matter. T'ara is right. We have an obligation to our fellows, our captured comrades. If there is even a chance that they are alive, we must try. And...to be utterly blunt, you forget what I was before I became a member of Starfleet."

She faced the Andorian squarely, her own eyes flashing very close to level with those of the giantess with a fiercely calculating violet fire. This wasn't the gaze of a Starfleet officer. These were the eyes of a predator.

But she could see however that this had absolutely no effect whatsoever on one born and raised on a harsh, frozen, unforgiving world where even your child or your parent could murder you at the drop of a hat.

"So it is dangerous; it must be far worse for those of our crewmates who survived and we have a way in. So they have a ship that you have fought, one that is obviously dangerous; it has little power available to it from the scans I conducted, and if it is truly such a threath then you may leave it to me to see it ended." She patter the strap of the bag upon her shoulder.

"And a name, again quite bluntly, will not be enough. We have a duty, and more than that we have orders. I, at least, would wish more than a name before I forsake both of those at once."

"A science officer judging before knowing all the facts... all the more reason to be cautious,'' said Tyvya. There was no mockery in her tone, quite the contrary; there was a deadly seriousness. " And with respect, Lieutenant Commander, let me educate you in the art of intelligent combat; it is called strategy. I'm not talking about abandonning comrades but regrouping to come back with proper forces to deal with the adversity. Rushing to fight a dangerous enemy unprepared, insufficiently equiped and especially ignorant of whom you are facing is not what I was taught in Starfleet. But fortunately, and again with all due respect, you are not in command here; Commander Redding is... and he will know the threat of this one single name... "

And when she did speak the name, even the Vulcan engineer was struck speechless.

"Khan."

It took long seconds of cold silence before even T'ara could recover and speak again.

"What you are saying is most improbable, Lieutenant. According to all reliable data,  Khan Noonien Singh, the genetically enhanced human dictator of the twentieth century that Captain James T. Kirk revived from cryogenic freeze in the twenty-third century, died in the explosion of the USS reliant he abducted in the Mutara sector a hundred and twenty-five standard years ago."

The giantess nodded.

"The real Khan, yes. But then, there was the USS Achilles... and project THETIS."

That last name brought a sudden recollection in the mind of Neil Redding. This was classified information that only commanders and above had access to; about an experiment in artificial intelligence and an attempt by a genius cyberneticist to reprise the infamous M5 project of his own ancestor with a combination of Soong-type android positronic matrix and laws, Mark 1 EMH exponentiality and ethics and gelpack technology. Thus, it would allow a starship to be fully and safely operational under sentient computer control. And that is what Tyvya, although a mere Lieutenant Junior Grade, was now refering to. This could only mean that she had experienced the matter first hand. And that is what she now conveyed.

" After the theft of the prototype USS Prometheus by the Romulans, the Trioptical Humanoid Equivalent Thought Integration System of Doctor Victor Day Storm was conceived specifically for the Achilles class; a class IV heavy attack cruiser developped by both Federation and Klingon engineers with superior armoring, heavy phaser cannons, phallanx multifiring torpedo broadsides, redundant impulse and warp systems and the first ship ever to be outfitted with the, then, experimental Federation made Quantum Slipstream Drive. The idea was to allow maximum autonomous military might with minimal loss of life as well as total crew support for any situation in case such a crew would be in any way compromised. In a sense, the precursor of our current Emergency Holographic Officer. "

She made a pause to let everyone grasp the full meaning of what she was about to say.

"As expected by her creator,  THETIS became sentient and even went brilliantly and in a matter of days through the entire Starfleet Academy curriculum to be assigned like any Starfleet Officer under the name of Tess Storm, as legally recognized sentient life form and yeoman of Ensign rank. But Starfleet Intelligence panicked at the idea of another possible M5-style disaster and planned to shut her down. Finding this out, she in turn panicked, fearing that she would be terminated, and ran away with the ship she was integrated in and the remaining crew of Starfleet engineers that were making final adjustment to the now rechristened USS Nemesis. The ship disappeared in a QSD tunnel and was never found. "

"Until now," then concluded T'ara. 

The Andorian giantess shook her head.

"No; the Artemis found her, more than a year ago."

As she recounted the events, Redding now recalled the mission report of the former command of Captain Kheren. Victor Day Storm, in truth Victor Daystrom, grand son of the M5 creator Richard Daystrom, had impersonated retired Lotus Fleet Admiral Sean Kirkpatrick to subtly hijack the USS Artemis in a false classified mission to the Mutara sector. faking a simple search and rescue mission, his true goal was finding the lost Achilles and correct the THETIS system failure with a fusion with the stolen mind of former Federation genius Ira Graves who's ingrams were recorded in a portable computer since his death. With the invention of the space sonar by the science officer Syntron, the Artemis was able to find the lost starship, hiding for three decades in the Mutara nebula... but then, all went wrong. The terrorist group called the Horizon Children had corrupted officers aboard and tried in turn to take control of the vessel and of the newly found warship while the captain with his first officer and chief engineer were boarding the derelict vessel. They had a sentient Mark 1 EMH in a portable holosystem and tried to overtake the sentient mind of the USS Nemesis as the false Kikrpatrick was trying to contact it. The result was a failed takeover of the unsuspected too-powerful and fearful artificial intelligence in a complex and unpredictable combination of factors that made it adopt the most efficient personality recorded in her files to deal with a threatening Admiral Kirksomething aboard an Enterprise-looking starship in a Mutara nebula: and so, Tess hid behind, and was then taken over, by the reconstructed persona of Khan Noonien Singh.

As science officer Syntron and the rest of the crew quelled the mutiny attempt on board the Artemis threatened by the much more powerful revived sentient starship, the captain and his two officers managed to escape from the USS Nemesis, deprive her of all fuel, auxilliary crafts, communication and sensors and send her far away through a random burst of her own QSD propulsion system.

"And now, we know where she ended up," finished Tyvya.

T'ara pondered it all a moment.

"Somehow, the Jem'Hadar also lost here at the edge of the galaxy found her and brought her back to their refuge. Obviously they had no antimatter left to reactivate the starship enough for attempting to return home."

"And without their "gods" to help them, they apparently fell under the power of the new Khan," added the Andorian woman refering to the Jem'hadar's "Excellency" he talked about earlier.

She then turned to face Snowfire.

"Make no mistake, Lieutenant Commander; we are dealing here with an artificially detailed recreation of a genius madman who enslaved millions before with but a handful of men and easily took over two Starfleet ships before... his vast intellect and even vaster ego now fully revived and amplified to the Nth degree by the most powerful sentient artificial intelligence ever conceived in this galaxy... and in full control of a starship that can destroy an entire space station and it's cover squadrons in one single pass... now crewed by Jem'Hadars!"

She finished looking back at Redding.

"Sir, strategically and tactically speaking, I do not estimate that we can take on such an adversary with merely a dozen people with two shuttles and an old bugship. And if even one of our shuttles' antimatter fuel fell in it's hands, it could..."

Suddenly, her eyes widened and her antennae jerked up.

"Commander! It might already have! "

The Vulcan engineer completed her thought for her outloud.

"The Polaris"