Defeating the Nemesis

"What is she waiting for? We are sitting cranes out here..." grumbled captain Kheren.

"Sitting ducks, Sir," corrected his wife Lyrya from his left.

"Registering what looks like a small explosion aft port side of the bridge deck of the Nemesis," reported his other wife Tyvya from her tactical readouts.

"Captain; I'm getting a minute burst of oxygen and nitrogen outside her hull... and another lifesign out there, Sir," added Norbert Baoule at Science 1.

Kheren sat straighter. he had been on board the warship once. He had boarded her from her bridge and knew the layout perfectly. He understood immediately what his officers were telling him.

"The main bridge's emergency hatch; it's been blown open. That's K'Leysha out there!"

He stood up, looking at the Edoan ops officer manning the console at the very front of their command center right before the main viewer showing the distorted image of the enemy vessel.

"Is the Polaris docked yet?"

"Aye, Captain," the shrill high-pitched voice of the six-limbed officer confirmed. "Lieutenant Leône completed the maneuver and is coming up to the bridge with Commander Redding."

"And their rescue shuttle?"

"Docked right back into the Polaris mere seconds before she herself went into her docking port," answered Aguk Snow. "That Moore pilot is quite good."

"High praise, coming from you," offered Tyvya sitting beside him. She had been with the Inuit helmsman since the early days of their service under Kheren aboard the legendary USS Artemis. She had seen him pull off successfully piloting maneuvers no Starfleet textbook ever mentionned... or recommended. For him to be impressed by another helmsman was no mere statement. And Kheren himself was also quick to notice it.

"Let's see if he can prove himself that good again," he said as he tapped his combadge. "Transporter room; lock on Mister Moore and beam him directly to shuttlebay 1."

Without pause, he tapped his communicator again.

"Mister Moore, take the Dawn out and go get Lieutenant Commander Snowfire. Coordinates are sent to her nav comp. And hurry... while we still have time."

The pilot was barely coming out of his confusion of being wisked off from one small shuttlebay to a huge one when he heard the captain's orders.

"Ah... aye, Captain. On my way."

He was half running towards the barely resting Delta Flyer the next instant, grumbling all the way.

"I hope they won't turn this into standard procedure..."

He went into the arrow-shaped shuttle and the access hatch closed behind him as he slided into the still heated pilot seat. The engines hadn't even had time to cool down completely since the harrowing escape from the asteroid-prison camp; in an instant, he was airborne and shooting out from the back end of the immense saucer section of the Horizon, all authorization protocols barely completed at the same instant.

By now, he was getting used to the navigational difficulties of the nebula and flew manually and with direct eyesight towards the oddly quiet shark-shaped warship. He glanced only from time to time at the sensor readings of both his own instruments and that transmitted by the much more powerful sensor array of the colossal starship behind him to help his search, but it is with his own eyes and some clever deducing that he found the drifting suited body moving away from the Nemesis on portable thrusters. Deftly, he moved as close as possible on an intercept course, spun around and opened the aft access hatch for Snowfire. As soon as she was safely on board, he kicked the impulse drive at full throttle back to the Main launching pad of the Horizon.

When he finally reached it, still nothing had happened. Only the intermittent flashes of the nebula's static discharges had bursted the blue and red fog of space dust.

"What is she doing?" wondered Captain Kheren all the while as they all watched in dreadful silence the redoubtable heavy siege destroyer  floating inert before them in the haze. Her engines were online but she hung almost motionless after backing up to point blank range. Her torpedo ports were open but nothing now came out.

He did not acknowledge Redding, Oseno and Leone coming back to assume their stations on the bridge. All his attention was on the enemy starship.

"Something happened there. Mister Cheonghi... Can you tap into her comm system and get me an image of her bridge?"

"I believe so, Sir. It will be easier with a Starfleet vessel and from this ship than it had been the first time First Officer Spock of the Enterprise tried it with a Romulan intruder back in the twenty-third... There, Sir, I think..."

The forbidding, distorted image of the half-hidden warship was replaced with a hazy, static filled image of the Nemesis bridge. Kheren recognized it instantly, and noticed that there were no dead bodies left on the seats like he remembered. But like everyone else, his attention was immediately drawn to the two figures moving around the warship's command center. There was the unmistakable white-haired, tatter-clothed person of Khan, as he recalled him from both historical images of his last days and from his own recollection of their brief but intense confrontation the day the Artemis had found the missing USS Achilles-Nemesis in the original Mutara nebula. But now it was not the Andorian facing him; it was another, a tall, powerfully built elderly Human also wearing an old-style uniform with Admiral markings on it.

Despite the poor quality of the transmission, Kheren's sharp quadriscopic vision recognized him; he had met him on Lotus Fleet's starbase during the Borg Invasion... and he was now serving in a rejuvenated form right at his right hand.

"Redding? Admiral Redding? How..."

Glancing at his Number One, his gaze also caught up Oseno Jureth standing right behind him. Then he remembered... and understood.

"The data chip... There was a holoprogram in it?"

"Honestly Captain, I don't know" Redding said still looking at the screen.

"But... Sir, the Nemesis AI has perfect defenses from such computer intrusions," Tyvya reminded him. "When the Horizon Children tried to board and take control of that ship with a sentient hologram of theirs, it had been destroyed even before it could even emerge from the system."

"And that's what gave birth to this Khan in the first place, " acknowledged Kheren. "But this time..."

Before their very eyes, an astounding drama was playing out. Both holograms were fighting one another with superhuman speed and strenght, throwing one another accross the bridge  only to come back with powerful blows that dented the rails, walls and consoles around them. It was like watching Achilles fighting Hector during the mythical war of Troy; two superhuman warriors facing one another in a fight to the death.

Except none of them was truly alive... at least, not as mere mortals anymore.

After another furious exchange of blows, Khan suddenly disappeared.

Alone on the bridge, the holographic Redding took a moment to look around, but like a man seeing nothing. Then his face lifted up towards the ceiling.

"You can't hide from me, Khan. Not on this ship; not while we are both part of the same core, powered by the same energy source, shaped by the same emitter grid. It's you and me, Khan... now and forever."

Then, the older version of the Horizon's first officer looked straight at the viewing screen.

"Horizon... get back to Federation space. I will keep our friend busy... until the end of time if need be."

He was about to turn away when he stopped and glanced sideways at the screen.

"Oh, Kheren; do take good care of her.  And... Commander Redding... When you see Philter... tell him I understand it from his side now... and that I... wish him the best."

As if he could clearly see the uncomprehending expression on the face of the younger man seated in the exec chair, he flashed his crooked smile.

Then, his face became darker, harder, angrier. He took a deep breath into his powerful chest and lifted his big fists in front of him.

"KHAAAAAAAAN!"

With this last raging shout, he disappeared. The screen filled with static. The image went out, replaced by that of the USS Nemesis. Slowly, the big warship turned away, her bow lifting up as she turned like an ancient seagoing vessel slowly sinking into the depths. There was a series of lightning like static discharges etching starkly her elongated hull. And then, her entire form disappeared behind blue and red waves of cosmic dust.

Silence filled the bridge of the Horizon. Even the ship's powerful sensors were now mute. Bursts of lightning were all that moved within the large room, so silent that it was almost as if the people frozen in there could hear the discharges accross the dust-filled void of the nebula outside. The turbolift doors wooshed open and science chief  Snowfire K'Leysha walked in to relieve the black-skinned man from the main science station. 

"Who's... Philter?"

Helmsman Snow's question remained unanswered. Even Neil Redding looked back with the same question in his eyes.

"Her?"

This came from both Lyryya and Tyvya, looking together at their husband in the command chair.

Kheren did not answer. he did not look back. His gaze stayed on the now quiet, empty vastness of  the nebula.

"Get us out of here, Mister Snow."

In a majestic arc, the immense Lotus class starship veered away from what was left of the blasted asteroid and plunged into the depths of the nebula, towards it's edge and open space.

As they moved out of the dense cosmic cloud, Kheren sat back in his chair but kept his gaze on the screen.

"Commander Redding... Commander Oseno... Lieutenant Commander K'Leysha... Lieutenant Leône... glad to have you back safe and sound. I look forward to get your reports from your... little adventure out there. You will see to it, Number One. And it looks like you need some medical attention, Mister Oseno... See to it first."

Oseno acknowledged the captain's order with a nod, but addressed the stoic Andorian

"Sir, there was another intelligence aboard the Nemesis...she helped me...helped us. I can't help but feel as if I failed her by leaving her there."

"Tess..." Kheren said, nodding with droping antennae. "She also saved my life once, mine and that of my chief engineer and first officer of the Artemis the day we first encountered the Nemesis. She was the original AI of the ship, you know... She had fled her starbase, killing the maintenance crew on board because she taught Starfleet was going to deactivate her... kill her because she had become self-aware.  For decades she had been alone, confused, hidden in the Mutara nebula. Her creator impersonated a retired Lotus Fleet Admiral and sent us after her but then, terrorists took over my ship and threatened her. Reflexively, she reactivated herself with the strongest persona she could find in her databanks to save herself... and inspired by her surroundings and circumstances, brought back to life the most dangerous tyrant in History. "

The Andorian sighed.

"We would have brought her back with us right then, if only her sentience had not made her much too complex for any available data storage unit available... If only..."

"If only she had had a way out?" Snowfire spoke up softly from her position, a very gentle smile catching at her lips. "What if she did?"

She reached down and lifted something from where she'd placed it a few moments before. It was only that movement that truly showed how exhausted the normally tireless Ilythirii actually was, the lifting motion taking far longer than it should have, but she persevered nonetheless.

"The Commander's datachip is a storage device that in many ways surpasses the capabilities of any current similar ones. And Khan was so fixated on the Admiral that...well."

The smile was obvious now, even if it was lined with exhaustion, as she lifted the very same data unit into view of the entire bridge. 

"I've run a diagnostic, Captain, and she's all there. Currently on stand by; something very close to the idea of biological sleeping, but this time in a place without nightmares. Her mental state is fragile, and she'll certainly be needing a lot of counselling to regain who she really was. But just the fact that she is safe, and surrounded by those who are sworn to protect her as a sentient being, will help more than any words possibly could."

Kheren looked at her with wide eyes, antennae curving inward on top of his white-haired head.

Lieutenant-Commander Snowfire K'Leysha, you have earned not only her gratitude, and ours, but the admiration of every person on board believing in the core values we all signed up for to get aboard."

She placed the chip down on the front of her console, smiling still, and then swayed in place as the cost of her use of Fetching started to really catch up with her.

Redding placed a hand on her shoulder to steady her, but his eyes followed his memory chip.

"And now, Captain, may I have permission to report to sickbay? There is a cost to what I did to save that chip, and I would rather make less of it than more."

At the secondary science station, Both Norbert Baoule and Valencia Irksos came up each side of her to help her.

"Please do, Lieutenant-Commander; and take some rest. "

As he spoke, Lyrya went to pick up the datachip.

"I will take care of this, Sir. And since she knows Lieutenant-Commander K'Leysha, Commander Oseno and to some extent Commander Redding, it would help to have them with me when we will... wake her. Oh, and you as well, Captain. And our good doctors and you too as well, Lieutenant Leône."

"How long do you think it would take to remove this Tess from the chip? I'd like to have it back at some point." asked Redding.

Oseno's heart leapt at the news that Tess had been recovered, and in tact no less. He moved closer to Snowfire, and locked his eyes on those of the Ilythirii and said...nothing. He couldn't find the words, but he hoped that his facial features, though weathered, would convey his gratitude to her. Out loud Jureth acknowledged Lyrya's request with a wince and he faced her.

"I wouldn't miss it...just as soon as I see our good...ow...doctors."

But then words were scarcely needed for a Gifted Ilythirii, especially one as tired as Snowfire was now. She knew her shields weren't at their best and that combined with the connected she'd held with the Commander for almost the entire duration of their time aboard the Nemesis made his emotions all but impossible to not sense. And to him, battered and broken as he was now, the reply was equally wordless. It had been the right thing to do.

She nodded faintly as Lyrya spoke up, leaning heavily now on her seconds but refusing to leave just yet.

"I will be there, Counsellor. And not just as a member of Starfleet." It was such a small thing those last words, yet she knew the far deeper meaning that Captain Kheren would be able to glean from them. And with that, she turned away with Irksos and Baoule supporting her and walked slowly towards the turbolift.

If it were possible, the Orion Ops officer blushed as her green-tinted skin slightly deepened as Lyrya spoke.

"I would be honored to be present at this... awakening" Elisha confessed, as she moved in a little closer to the group.

Although she still felt like a bit of an outsider on the ship most of the time, she was gradually learning to acclimate to this new environment and the team aboard the Horizon.

One step at a time Elisha thought as a small smile made its way onto her expression.

Kheren nodded, then looked back at the screen showing the receding cloud of the blue and red Mutara class nebula, the cosmic fog where a lost starship was doomed to perdition with two unliving souls at each other's throat for eternity.

"Who could have ever beleived the Admiral truly had a heart? No offense, Number One."

Redding was quiet for a few seconds before replying, measuring his words.

"I don't understand why he did it Captain, he had to erase the chip to make room for her.. I don't think I would have done the same if I had been there."

Then he smiled at his Captain.

"Unless you mean fighting Khan until the end of time, sir. That I can believe."

Kheren couldn't smile back, but his tone of voice did it well enough for his rigid face.

"Well then, I am glad that you are on our side, Number One."

He tapped his combadge.

"Mister Sisko; now we need to get back home."