CHAPTER 6: The Wrath Of Khan (Part 1B)

Tyvya listened to the Illythirii's explanations and nodded once.

"You're in command, Lieutenant Commander. As good a plan as any under the circumstances. Just try not to get killed; I hate the paperwork following the death of an officer. Jaxon, get ready. Phasers on level 1 setting. "

As they both went on each side of the hatch, the engineer looked askance at the Andorian giantess.

"Lieutenant... Jem'Hadar will not feel a stun setting."

"Remember our practice sessions, Ensign," retorted Tyvya as she indicated to Snowfire to stanf further away from the hatch door as it began to click open . "Android assault simulation 1."

"But these are not... aaah, I see... "

The towering Andorian's antennae curved inward in lieu of the wide smile her rigid facial muscles could not convey. The jest escaped the science chief but there was no time for explanation. The hatch swunfg open and two stout, poweerful silhouette appeared in the opening.

Both phasers whined at the same instant. The thin beam struck from each one of the Jem'Hadars right in the eyes.

Momentarily blinded, they did not hav a achance against the prodigious strength of the acting chief tactical officer. As a rule, Andorians were easily twice as strong as humans and their was no dissimilarity between males and females in their species except that the females were much more agressive. And Tyvya, with her gigantic body dwarfing even the usually taller females of their kind, had a strength only a Vulcan could match and, on board the Horizon,  only the Saurians and Captain Kheren himself could surpass. Stretching her long, deceptively thin arms between both surprised warriors, she caught them both by the throat and lifted them off the ground to slam them skull first on the round metallic doorframe. 

The grey-scaled, spinned soldiers were just dazed, and still blinded, but that was enough. producing a hypospray with the kind of needle used to pierce the thick chitinous Andorian skin, Jaxon sedated them both in short order.

"Go," said Tyvya to Snowfire as she took point and looked about for any incoming reinforcement and sign of alarm. "And good luck, Lieutenant Commander."

With that, she followed the smaller engineer who guided them both with a tricorder in one hand, phaser in the other and a toolkit belt on her hips.

From a viewport of the rocky corridor showing the outside area, Snowfire could see that the Nemesis was docked on the other side of the roughly-hewned dockyard. The main corridor they had emerged in seemed to follow the inner face of that part of the asteroid, and her objective in the opposite direction taken by her two colleagues. At a run, she could be there in a couple of minutes... if she had a couple of minutes left.

From her viewport, she saw that two grey and black space-suited figures had come out of a hatch midway between her and the expected hatch to the Achilles class starship. They were gliding along a tow cable toward the underbelly of the nearer USS Polaris and an antimatter container taken out of her own reserves. When they met the large floating cylindrical container, they used again their grappling guns to connect with the aft section of the USS Nemesis and start pushing the antimatter tank toward it.

Then, behind her, from the direction Tyvya and Jaxon had disappeared, she heard weapons fire and the echoes of a violent struggle.

Time was indeed running out. But not enough of it had run through the hourglass quite yet. She tapped several keys on her wristcomp, sending a sheath of black rippling across her uniform - a golden emblem that only a bare handful of Starfleet officers, all of whom were involved in diplomatic contact with her people, would recognise flowing into being on her right breast. This was going to take some...fancy footwork. And that might be underestimating things. But there wasn't another choice. She reached out with her mind, tapping purposefully on the wristcomp as she caught the mental presences of the two Jem'Hadar and the display on the device flickered as the mix of Federation and Ilythirii technology translated their relative positions. There was a soft ping to signify a lock, and Snowfre smiled thinly before drawing two more things out of her bag.

The first item was a smooth hemisphere that she placed on the side of the corridor. Little more than a highly advanced dart gun, the small clip held within it would be more than sufficient to sedate a single Jem'Hadar. Contact sedatives were like that. She set the device to fire on any Jem'Hadar lifesign that came within its sensor range, and then held up the other object as the thing smile on her face turned decidedly grim. This wasn't a Starfleet phaser. It wasn't a disruptor either, at least not a disruptor as most of the quadrants would understand it. The weapon had no stun setting, nor even a selector switch. In their place was a single button that could be slid along a section of the long, flared, rod. It was a Talya neural disruptor, a weapon that by all rights she shouldn't even have, but was now sadly glad of. For all her lack of knowledge in dealing personally with Jem'Hadar, she had read about their physiology. And they still had a brain stem. They still had nerves. All the genetic engineering in the universe couldn't get rid of that. And as long as those existed, a single touch from this weapon could kill you. The reason behind the - arguably barbaric - weapon lay in her people's past. Specifically their multiple century border war with the Borg. But right now, all that mattered was that it was as utterly lethal to beings of flesh and blood as it was to those of steel, synthetics, or even light itself.

She twirled the weapon faintly, the training of long-ago decades flowing back through her, and then 'bounced' her mental presence from the Jem'Hadar moving towards the rear of the Nemesis to one that seemed to the two standing guard over the entrance to the commandeered vessel before bouncing again to another mental presence within the ship itself. Not the sharply focused mind of Commander Jureth, that she knew well, but...another one. Not one who was truly real as a mental being, but something that she could still sense due to part of her training. The theory behind what she had done with Scream back during the operation to halt the Azimuth Horizon was the reason for this actually, a result of many long years fighting a technically non-organic entity. She tapped a few short sequences into the wristcomp, isolating the position of the surging electronics, and then her finger froze for a moment over the final key in the sequence.

What she was about to do was arguably crazy, but it was also perhaps the only way that she could stop the Nemesis from powering back up again. She didn't want to do it, but in the end she might have to. And despite the possible danger that could be obviated by taking more time to get to where she needed to...there probably wasn't that time anymore. A single ebony finger stabbed down and the device on her wrist whined under sudden strain. This was the fruit of an experiment that an old friend had managed to use to bring down one of the most hateful organisations in the Federation. And now she would use it to aid her in reaching into the very heart of a threat orders of magnitude more lethally dangerous. The device on her wrist grew hot for a moment as its power systems were stretched to their very limit, and she vanished in the swirl of light characteristic of an Ilythirii transporter.

Her destination? The Nemesis's AI core. Its brain and its heart. And, perhaps, the means for her to save not just the lives of her comrades, but also of an innocent whose own parent had accidentally led her into her own destruction.

And then, the Illythirii was completely taken aback by what she saw.

Before her spread a computer core unlike anything she had ever seen or even imagined. It was at least several decks in height and looked to occupy most of the space within each of those decks. It was nothing less than a mountain of gelpack units arrayed in a colossal four-part hemisphere pattterned much like a positronic brain, pulsing with trillions of blue and white flashes every second in an almost hypnotic dance of sparks and lights, softly humming with power. It looked just like a titanic living brain made of semi-organic, semi-artificial components even the most advanced current computer technology did not equate yet, let alone surpass, in this or any spacefaring civilisation Snowfire knew of; even Borg technology looked medieval in comparison.

The only other thing in the room with her was what looked like a very modern comm station... and on the floor near a wall there was a modern phaser rifle, Federation issued, it's power indicator dead.

As she tried to take all in the awesome technological marvel looming before and over her, the chief science officer of the Horizon immediately assessed the situation; first, that this was nothing less than the genuine brain of the entire starship. Powered by the vessel's own power sources and most assuredly equiped as well with a well protected emergency power source dedicated solely to itself, there was no way any handheld device could ever affect it; nothing short of another starship's power would be needed. Second, part of that power was encasing the vital parts of this monstrous artificial brain with a level 10 forcefield; physical damage would also require much more than what any handheld weaponry could produce, as seemed to be evidenced by the dead rifle discarded on the floor. And third, the designer of this artificial brain evidently  took into account the possibility of even telepathic tampering, as it was structured much like the four-lobed brain of the Ferengi, rendering it totally immune to mind-reading, hypnotic suggestion and all other psionic manipulations.

As she considered these, Snowfire could also look at the monitor active on the one station in the huge circular room. The main screen was showing what looked much like electroencephalogram readings as used in Starfleet ships' sickbays. She could clearly recognize the broken line pattern moving from left to right on the tridimensional graph background doted with small complex numbers. In fact she could see that the line was rather blurred, somehow as if there were two different superimposed wave patterns recorded there.

And now, a third reading seemed to start joining the other two.

"You should not be here..."

The voice came from behind, As she looked, Snowfire saw a very young Human female, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, wearing a grey and black uniform of a definitely outdated Starfleet design, with a single pip on her golden collar. She was looking this way and that, like a child afraid of being caught doing something wrong. her voice was definitely pleading.

"Please... go away... You can't stay here... He will hurt you. Go before he notice... "

Snowfire wouldn't deny the elegance and power of the device in front of her but it was also so...so crude. This wasn't how you gave a starship a mind. This was a cheat, an elongated long-cut that would never really give you what you were looking for. She shook her head, almost sadly, at the mass of beautifully flickering lights before her. But there wasn't time to lament the peculiar blindness of the Federation in this as she reached once more into her satchel. The disruptor had never been her intended kill switch - Federation engineers were very good, and something this advanced she'd known would have defences - although it would still be capable of being a rather sizeable distraction. Physical pain was something that a lot of AIs had...trouble with. Especially after as long wrapping themselves tighter and tighter through that mental loop as Khan had certainly had. Her free hand fell back towards her satchel again, as a  flurry of needles rose around her like steel wings unfurling, before going shooting off into the mass of circuitry before her.

Then the voice came, and she spun in an instant, her weapon spinning in her hand towards the source, then stopping abruptly as she saw her. She cocked her head gently to one side, as if examining the person in front of her, and then it clicked.

"Tess, isn't it." She said, voice soft. "I wondered where you'd got to."

"It won't work, you know, " Tess then said pointing at her needle weaponry. " This is a level 10 forcefield with multiphasic programming directly fed by the ship's power and backed-up by the internal power source of the system. This entire vessel would have to be destroyed before any form of matter or energy could go through it. Even Borg transporters would be repelled.''

Snowfire turned back to the station in front of her, looking carefully at the display. "He doesn't come down here, does he. Not unless it gets drawn to his attention."

"You're proceeding through a flase assumption; he can be anywhere on the ship at any moment... but he is never in more than one place at once. Somehow he loathes the very idea of having another like himself about... ''

Snowfire resumed the motion of her arm, pulling the device she sought fully from her bag and kneeling down. She placed a black hand on the featureless globe of the same shade and focused. A pronounced 'click' echoed across the space around her and Tess, and she smiled grimly as it started to hum very softly.

"Well, if all goes well it's going to be drawn to his attention quite soon." 

She shrugged, looking back at the terrified personality with a softened expression of almost sisterly affection before it hardened once more, lips curling harshly. "And then he's going to find more than a few wheels coming off. You're going to want to run Tess. This isn't going to be pretty, and you don't want to see it."

Tess was looking at her device with strangely blinking eyes, as if she was a tricorder beeping while analyzing it. Then she shook her head.

"I told you; matter and energy, even out of phase, will not affect the protective shell unless it destroys the entire vessel along with it. And an attempt to upload a computer virus or intruder program will not go beyond the first gelpack cell before being instantly detected, isolated inside and physically destroyed along with it, with a specialized internal replicator system replacing the surgically removed part with a brand new one and back ups reinitiallized in a matter of milliseconds. It had been tried already you know, even with a sentient program... Your apparatus is as useless as this rifle over... ''

And then, the girl suddenly showed signs of alarm.

''Too late... he... he knows!"

And then she simply vanished.

She let her mind tumble back through the lessons from decades past, the refresher courses she'd gone through, dredging up every shred of knowledge that might help her here, and then she smiled faintly as she felt the Jem'Hadar begin to move back out of the Nemesis towards the Polaris. A part of her wished that she could let Redding know what she was about to do, but this was going to need some very intricate footwork. Letting the Commander know would probably mess that up somewhere. So she held her silence as she waited for that jaw of the trap to swing shut, occupying herself by looking over the single panel in the massive room. Who knew, there might be something that could help in there.

But then, another voice resounded behind her; deeper, accented, full of self assurance if not outright arrogance.

And rightly so; Snowfire now found herself trapped. Her wrist device registered that another similar focefield was now erected around the entire room, nullifying even her own personal transporter as the suddenly appeared presence spoke.

"I don't know you...  and I never forget a face.''

Now in place of Tess stood a powerfully built Human with dark hair bound in a short ponytail falling behind his broad back, his definitely thirtyish Hindu features highlighted by very intense eyes and a cold, hard smile. he wore a pair of black polished soft boots under calf-lenght black pants and a full red shirt over a black one that molded his muscular physique like a second skin. It was the kind of uniform Starfleet engineers and security personel had worn in the mid-twenty-third century.

''I am Khan," the imposing figure then said.

As he spoke, lights flared up around them. From the huge computer core came an increase in the speed of the flashes and a slight humming sound. But there was another, more heavy, thrumming noise now coming from deeper within the starship; the unmistakable sound of an active warp core.

"At last! Again I hold the power to conquer and rule!"

His attention then went back to the black-skinned woman silent before him.

"Now tell me; why are your here? And tell me, where can I find... Captain Kheren."

"Curiosity and purpose intertwined." Snowfire replied calmly. "Mostly the former though. Purpose can be such a bore." She gestured behind her at the multi-level computer core, a very slight smirk playing across her lips. "It's always so impressive what the Federation can build when it's backed into a corner, is it not?"

"Everything changes... except Man," the tall, powerful figure of the Hindu man answered, nodding to Snowfire. He gestured also towards the computer core as he added; "improved mechanical devices... but improved Man... Yes, it seems that I will do well in your century."

And then, his gaze became predatory.

"But first things first; tell me, why are you here? And tell me, where can I find... Captain Kheren..." he repeated, using the exact same intonations as before.

As the Ilythirii kept silent, the figure of Khan looked at her as if he was not seeing her anymore. Then his face showed sudden understanding.

"Ah, I see... I just picked up an encrypted transmission within the base. I don't need to decipher it to understand that you are trying to distract me while your colleagues are attempting some kind of military action. Excellent... "

There was a sudden humming and the deckplates under her feet were thrumming; the warp core was flaring up to full activation. A distant clanging sound reverberated across the entire hull. That sound too, although somewhat unfamiliar, could only mean that the mechanical magnetic clamps holding the huge warship had disengaged.

The Nemesis was moving out.

Snowfire chuckled. "Better men? There are no such things." She shook her head, expression sardonic. "Everyone makes mistakes, even you. And the sheer destructive power of any vessel this powerful can blind one to other possibilities. As to colleagues," She chuckled again, a slender hand brushing the matte black and gold she wore. "Is this a Starfleet uniform?"

Khan shot her back a wry smile.

"For someone claiming to live in a better society, a world of progess, enlightenment and advancement, you sound just as prejudiced and obtuse as the people of my era. "

Then the smile faded into a predatory grin.

"And don't insult my intelligence, woman; you can wear a burka for all I care, but it is obvious you come either from the Starfleet shuttle captured or from the attack ship of my people as a prisoner from the ship that launched that shuttlecraft, since such a short range craft could never have come this far on it's own, even through the space phenomenon that threw my warriors here. And it is definitely a Starfleet encrypted signal I picked up; people that as obviously came with you. I will deal with them presently."

He moved towards her, his eyes like those of a shark.

"Now, I will ask this one last time; where is Captain Kheren?"

Again, the black-skinned pointy-eared woman remained silent. As he came right before her, looming over her with his impressive physique, he finally sighed.

"No matter; now that I have power I will be albe to restore the intergalactic propulsion of this vessel soon enough,. Then I will hunt him down... 'round the moons of Nibia , 'round the galactic maelstrom and  'round Perdition's Flames before I give him up!"

He took a deep breath.

"But you... we can't have you run around and do all kind of mischievelous things now, can we?"

His large hand went to her deceptively slender wrist. In an instant, his superhuman grip crushed the device she was wearing like so much tin foil. Wrenching the crumbling debris from her limb, he finished gringing it between his fingers, all the while looking at her from under half-closed eyelids. 

"Your other devices have been deactivated. As for you... I will deal with you later."

The Illythirii felt the familiar tingling of a transporter beam and, the next instant, she was looking at the telling blue haze of a forcefield at the doorway of a small duranium cell. She instantly knew she was in the brig of the Nemesis... and her combadge had not followed her. The computer had scanned her during transport for any device and suspended them in transit to send her here with no equipement left whatsoever. Anyway, by now, instruments were not required to know that this energy barrier would extend all around her to prevent beam outs... in addition to the standard practice of imbeding transporter inhibitors within the thick reinforced walls around her. And of course she would being constantly monitored by sensors and computer. But, contrary to standard Starfleet ships, this brig had only a bunk and a small disposal unit for personal wastes. And there was no guard visible beyond the door.

All around her, she could hear the thrumming of the warship's warpcore growing in pitch and loudness. Any space battle veteran would instantly recognize the sound of a starship powering up for combat.