Before the Dawn

 The thinning ribbon of stars that delineated the far away edge of the galaxy shimmered, as if in pain.

Then, a luminous hole swirled into existence, from which emerged the compact, streamlined knife-like shape of the USS Alsea, half a kilometer of shiny metal and powerful energies flowing from its triangular bow to its slim quad of nacelles.

At the same moment, barely a few thousands of kilometers on its port side, there was a flash of light from which jumped into view the kilometer long graceful silhouette of the USS Horizon, saucer and twin upward nacelles glimmering like jewels to the light of distant suns. Right behind it, a blue streak of dancing lights let go of a shark-shaped vessel with low stunted nacelles, torpedo ports not only near its massive cannons but on its top flanks as well; the USS Achilles.

All three ships assumed a conical formation facing towards the galactic center. But their actual destination was much, much closer; and so was their destiny.

On all three ships, a powerful yet perfectly controlled voice was heard on all decks:

''All hands, this is Captain Redding; we are now into Federation Space. Until further notice, this is to be considered enemy territory. Maintain yellow alert. Priority to sensors and communications. In twenty minutes, the following senior officers will report to the main briefing room of the flagship: Captain Kheren; Captain Syntron; Captain Jureth, Commander David Rogers; Lieutenant-Commander Sorripto. Stay sharp people. Redding out.''

Rising from his command chair, Redding went straight to the door leading to the spacious briefing room, speaking without looking at anyone.

''Helm; station keeping. Ops; starting now, send all Starfleet communications and ship movements in the sector to the ready room display, on a continuous basis. I'll be studying them in the ready room. Commander Aron'Son, you have the con.''

The imposing Jem'Hadar in Starfleet grey with three pips on his collar stood in front of the vacated seat, frowning.

''Do we advise Starbase Lotus, Sir?''

''Total radio silence until I say otherwise. And have us and the other ships go into low power status; including life support.''

''Minimizing our chances of being discovered Sir?''

The big man smirked as the door closed behind him.

''Never forget the lessons of the Jem'Hadar.''

Deep-seated thoughts swirled like merging rapids of meditative reverie within the mind of the Vulcan until they were suddenly fragmented as a voice reverberated throughout the darkened quarters. As he guided himself back into a cognizant state, he stood up then increased the luminosity of his quarters. He mentally reconstructed the words that were spoken then processed the meaning.

He proceeded towards a cabin closet then dressed into a retrieved uniform. After gathering a few essentials, he exited the room then headed towards the nearest transporter location. Arriving, the sole transporter operator, sent over from the depleted crew of the Horizon, enthusiastically greeted him.

“Good day Captain Syntron! Are you requesting transport to the flagship?”

“Affirmative,” the Vulcan responded calmly as he stepped into position on the transporter pad.

 “Energizing,” the young operator announced just before the molecules of the Vulcan dematerialized.

As his atoms reassembled on the transporter pad of the USS Horizon, he was greeted by familiar faces; in front of the pad, the dark blue, silver-eyed athletic former commander of the flagship, Captain Kheren; beside the door, the lighter shade of blue of the giantess Andorian Tyvya, towering more than a head above everyone; behind the console, the snow-white complexion of skin and eyes of counselor Lyrya, the Aenar who was also wife to the Andorian captain; and operating the console, Lieutenant Snow of Starfleet Academy.

All three Andorian's antennae flexed their second set of oculars at Syntron; even Lyrya's, as only the eyes of her face were blind.

The deep voice of Kheren greeted him.

''Welcome aboard, Captain Syntron. Catpain Redding is already waiting for us in the briefing room, pouring over communications and ship traffic accross the sector. Lieutenant Snow will escort you to the main briefing room. I will be waiting for Captain Jureth, Commander Rogers and Lieutenant Commander Sorripto.''

The two Andorian women only bowed their head. It was clear to the Vulcan that a conversation was still pending between the three spouses. But despite their flushed faces, they showed the firm discipline and composure of Starfleet officers.

Syntron subtly nodded an affirmation as he stepped off the transporter pad. His keen eyes surveyed the immediate area, including the recognizable faces in proximity.

“There will be much to discuss,” the Vulcan responded unequivocally to his Andorian counterpart before turning to follow Lieutenant Snow. Before leaving the room, he inquired to Captain Kheren, “Have sensors or communications detected any activity within this region since our arrival?”

Kheren's antennae curved inward, one more than the other; the Andorian equivalent of a smirk his face couldn't convey.

''It is quite frantic out there. But it was thus even before we came out of transwarp; and the Alsea from her quantum tunnel. Nothing about us... yet. But even as vast as a sector is, it should not take that long before we are noticed by someone. We will not have that much time to discuss.''

A brow elevated ever so slightly on the brow of the stoic Vulcan.

“Then we must commence expeditiously. Our presence here is precarious at best.”

David closed the small hatch as Captain Reddings' all hands report came through his comm badge. Looking at the readout on the panel beside the small door he grunted and stood up, stretching the tenseness out of his lower back. A couple steps brought him to the flight ops and he took the seat, powering up the shuttlecrafts four RCS thrusters.

With a quick visual check to re-affirm the autopilot settings of the main bridge, David toggled the shuttle bay doors to open and allow him egress. Smoothly, the sixteen meter shuttlecraft lifted off the deck and proceeded out of the Achilles' bay, banked hard to starboard and proceeded across the small gulf separating the heavy cruiser from the Horizon. With another trepid look at the computer console to his right David reached forward and tapped the comms access and spoke to the immense ship looming larger in his forward window.

"Shuttle Ligyron to Horizon; Requesting docking clearance."

''Shuttle Ligyron, this is Horizon; dock is clear, spacedoors open. You are free and clear to proceed.''

Rogers brought the Type eleven to a holding position astern of the Horizons very large aft shuttle bay, awaiting clearance. He had spent six hours teasing two very large programs out of the Achilles' secondary computer core. They were both now compartmentalized in this shuttle's core. Although Kheren had suggested that David delete both files, he had not been able to bring himself to condemn the Redding program to inglorious death just to rid the galaxy of the other program. And to top off his conundrum, Rogers couldn't tell the one from the other with absolute certainty. Thus he was bringing them along.

Hopefully a certain science officer could break the impasse these two massive but identical looking programs presented to David.

 At least he hoped so.

Once the shuttlecraft was magnetized to the shuttlebay floor and it's access doors closed and secured. It took a moment to pressurize the enormous landing deck. As the craft’s hatch opened, Rogers was greeted by a dark, stout, furry officer in a commander's uniform identical to the one he wore. There was a deep growl and heavy sniffle before a gruff voice was heard from between tusk-like teeth under a snout-like nose.

''So, this is how you keep your clothes on now. And you call yourself an engineer; pathetic.''

 With a slight glare toward thestout, black as coal Tellarite's comment, Rogers spoke back over his shoulder to the shuttle computer

"Computer. Lock down authorization; Rogers Aplha two-niner. Limit access to either myself or Captain Redding of the USS Horizon."

The dispassionate voice of the Ligyron's computer responded; 'Shuttle locked out to any and all personnel excepting Commander David Rogers and Captain Neil Redding.'

Turning his head back to face the stout engineer at the bottom of the ramp, David took the three steps to the deck as the access folded closed behind him. A short pause ensued as the two stared at each other, then David began a retort.

"Look here shorty, if you ..."

Meanwhile aboard the Alsea, Sorripto did his best to ignore the alarm he had set for himself. With numerous panels open the Cardassian hated to leave a job unfinished, but he also knew he was expected aboard the flagship. Finishing the last of his modifications Sorripto closed the panels and headed towards the transporter room.

The doors to the Transporter room opened with a whoosh and Sorripto activated the controls and stepped onto the pad.

“To transporter room one. Computer energize”. Sorripto commanded.

The hue of the transporter engulfed the Cardassian and he rematerialized into an empty transporter room. Looking around the Cardassian was momentarily confused.

“Computer what is my location?”

“Transporter room 3”. The computer responded.

“Three?... Oh well close enough.” Sorripto chuckled to himself.

With a bit of a longer walk Sorripto headed towards the briefing room.

He barely stepped into the corridor that he heard a deep stern voice over shipcom.

- '' Sickbay, emergency in transporter room 1! Do not, I repeat, do not use emergency medical transport! EMH offline! Send medical team fast!''

Sorripto knew that tone. Quickly checking over his kit he ran into action. A transporter malfunction and an EMH offline called for an engineer, but Sorripto wanting to help anyway he could swung by a triage locker and grabbed a medical kit. With both kits Sorripto grabbed his site to site transporter from it's slot and began to program it.

"Wait, maybe best to not use any transportation right now." The Cardassian thought grimly.

Putting the device back Sorripto quickly ran off towards the nearest turbolift.

The call was heard all the way to the main shutlebay, interrupting both Rogers and Sangliar mid-banter. Although the emergency in as of itself was dire news, David glanced over the Tellarite engineer toward the nearby transporter room, then across the bay to the exit doors at the rear. Stepping around Sangliar, Rogers started toward these exits, throwing a short quip over his shoulder at the old engineer.

"Good thing I know when not to use a transporter, hey Shorty? I bet you were the last one to work on transporter 1."

Expecting a retort, but also expecting Sangliar to accompany him, David began to move faster toward the docking bay exits. And indeed he read both his heavy footseps and his growling voice following him.

''You wish, Ferengi; then I could have sent you and your garbage scow back to that antique of yours! Now, to introduce you to the 25th century.''

He tapped his combadge.

''Sangliar to Transporter room 1; what have you done with my stuff?''

The deep resonant voice that retorted had the same clipped tone.

''Sangliar? What, did you just thaw out? Put all transporters offline and start diagnostics on them and the computer system. Have the bridge contact Sorripto on the Alsea or Rogers on the Achilles to debrief you about inserted disruptive programs!''

It was as if a photon grenade exploded in the corridor.

'' Debrief me? Why you... ''

'' No time for Tellarite banter, Mister!''

"All due respect, Sir, You're not the captain anymore, Sir! ''

A low, autoritative voice that then filled the air; that of Neil Redding.

''But I am, Commander. Follow Captain Kheren's instructions. I'll contact the Achilles and the Alsea. I'll ask captain Syntron to work on the main computer.''

The Andorian's voice came back.

''Sorripto is already here, Captain Redding. But Rogers must be told at once to not try link with the Horizon's transporter grid.''

When the Cardassian arrived, the door slid open to show him a dimly lit transporter room with emergency lights flashing all over the console. The Andorian giantess Tyvya was going over computer diagnostics. The Aenar counselor Lyrya was kneeling with Kheren besides a Starfleet grey-clad body sprawled at the base of the transporter pads dias.

It was Captain Jureth Oseno.

Sorripto ran over and stood behind Kheren who was already working on his fallen friend.

Almost arriving to the briefing room, the emergency announcement reverberated throughout the corridor. Syntron turned toward his escort. With a mere glance, they both darted off toward the transporter room.

As they crossed into the room, his eyes ignored the flickering emergency lights and focused on the inert body surrounded by Kheren, Sorripto and counselor Lyrya.

“What is the status of Captain Jureth,” the Vulcan inquired as he moved toward closer proximity of his fallen comrade.

Lyrya looked at her husband before answering the Vulcan.

''For all intent and purposes, Captain, he is... in stasis. Even his mind. As for the cause... a telepathic probe reveals... nothing. When I mean nothing, I mean in the philosophical sense as much as the physical sense. Plainly put; his mind is gone.''

The Aenar looked back at Kheren.

''It's exaclty like when I try to touch your mind.''

The Andorian grunted.

''Except that I am here; and he's not. Just his body. And it's dying.''

There was a medkit sprawled between them. The tri-ox compound and cordrazine hyposprays were already discarded, empty. Kheren was manually forcing the Bajoran's chest to pump air into his chest and rubbing vigorously to maintain blood flow and internal heat. His grunt became a hiss.

''One minute; where is that medical team?''

"Here!" Sorripto yelled.

He handed Kheren a makeshift device which looked more like a tribble taken over by the borg than anything you would find in sickbay. Using the makeshift skills he had become known for, Sorripto basically threw together a CPR machine designed for Bajoran physiology.

"Place this on his chest." Sorripto shouted. "It will act as an external pump and a circulator. Even someone with the stamina of an Andorian will get tired."

Kheren could not help but grin as the fruity smell of his sweat permeated the room. He sighed with relief as he put the strange device on Jureth's chest.

''As a matter of fact, we have much less stamina than humans. You're most welcome, Mister Sorripto.''

“Of course, my mistake.”

The Vulcan moved in closer.

“If the medical team does not arrive promptly, we may need to carry him to sickbay ourselves,” Syntron noted as the Andorian continued to implement CPR methods on the motionless Bajoran body.

Sorripto grabbed his engineering kit and then began to scan the room, he had only moments to build a makeshift stretcher. Fortunately, the antigrav stretcher floated through the opening door, with Doctor Elliago Nasaro-Myth in tow. So atuned was he to his emotional surroundings, the Deltan instantly assessed the situation. one hand hovered over the lying form of the Alsea's commanding officer while the other scanned with a medical sensor.

''Put him on; quickly but gently.''

Kheren's strength was more than enough to do it. As soon as the Bajoran was lying on the floating stretcher, Nasaro-Myth removed the contraption from his chest, applied a hypospray on his neck and activated a stasis field arround Jureth. With a simple glance from him, the orderly with him took the stretcher away as Jureth looked like he was simply asleep, breathing even, colors coming back to his face. The doctor then looked at them all.

''Your prompt reaction, Captain Kheren, and your ingenuity, Lieutenant Commander, has saved his body. As for his mind...''

''Lyrya's telepathy failed to touch it,'' Kheren said puzzled, looking at his confused wife. ''As if it was gone, she said; like mine.''

''Not like yours, Captain. Yours has been permanently altered by your experience as a transformed Undine; it's just too convoluted now to register on the perceptions of anything born of our universe. jureth however... All his neuro-electric impulses, all but those of his reptilian brain maintaining his bodily functions, have been... somehow... removed.''

The Andorian looked at Tyvya finishing her diagnostics on the transporter console. Frustration was turning her face purple.

''Would a transporter malfunction cause such a thing? ''

That's when the Andorian giantess barely managed to retrain the powerful slap she gave to the console.

''I've done a level 3 diagnostics, Sir; there is no malfunction detected or recorded. If there is anything, it will require an engineer to do a level 4 or maybe even 5.''

“I will take a look.” Sorripto said.

The Deltan doctor grunted, his violet eyes blinking.

''I will leave the technical investigation to you, people. I'm going to do a thorough examination of Captain Jureth. If there is any clue in his body, I will find it.''

He exited the transporter room at a brisk pace. Kheren looked at the door sliding behind him but spoke to both Syntron and Sorripto.

''I know, gentlebeings, that you are as aware as I that this is too specific and weird to be accidental. There must be something in the system... or in the computer... or both.''

“If there is something hidden in the transporter itself, or the computer system, I will find it.” Sorripto said.

''I think you know what to look for. Meanwhile, I will report to Captain Redding. We will delay the meeting until you and Doctor Nasaro-Myth are ready to make a preliminary report.''

The door closed with a woosh leaving Sorripto alone in the transporter room. Grabbing his tool bag, he got to work taking apart the transporter controls. Removing the panel under the transporter control console Sorripto looked over the system first visually.

“Nothing looks out of place.” He thought while running a quick scan with his tricorder.

Realizing he would need to be in two places at once, Sorripto connected the tricorder to two PADDs and started running an external diagnostic. The scanner was running a cascading scan of each component and isolinear connection, this would take approximately thirty minutes. In the meantime, the Cardassian walked over the transporter pad itself and started to remove the panels from the front by the stairs.

“What the hell?” Sorripto’s confusion was such that he was now talking aloud. “What is that?”

Removing only the second panel, he immediately noticed that connections and circuits had been cross connected in such a way he had never seen before. Sorripto grabbed his diagnostic scanner and began to scan the clearly modified system.

“Son of a…”

Sorripto’s narration was cut off by the alarms of his scanner.

Looking at the readings, the Cardassian’s heart sank. He had a working theory now and was hoping, for the first time in his life, that he was wrong.

Sorripto pulled a third panel off and followed the connections scanning each relay as he went. The cross connections tied the transporter buffer system to another system further down the line. As Sorripto continued to scan his gut feeling turned out to be right. The buffer system was tied to the ID circuits used to identify organic matter and combadges.

Sorripto removed an extra combadge from his bag, programmed it, and then placed it on the pad next to his own badge. Using remote access, he activated the transporter and the two badges disappeared in hue before returning a moment later. Sorripto grabbed them both noting the second badge felt warm to the touch. He scanned them both.

“Damn.”

Sorripto began to put his thoughts together and figured the transporter was sabotaged to target a specific combadge, which running through the pattern buffer would allow specific parts of specific people to be altered or removed. There was a lot of power being used by the makeshift circuits, which means whatever was being removed was being sent somewhere.

Sorripto opened the computer and transporter logs and was met with a blank screen.

“Damn”.

Tapping his combadge Sorripto spoke.

“Sorripto to Kheren, I have found something you are going to want to see.”

There was a moment before the deep voice of the Andorian came back.

''On my way.''

Despite the immense size of the flagship, the distance between the main briefing room and the main transporter room needed barely a minute to cross. It took much les time for the four coulars of Kheren to notice the work done by the cardassiana engineer and his somber grey face.

''Captain Redding is listening with the others in the briefing room. What have you found?''

“We were sabotaged.” Sorripto responded.

Gesturing to the transporter pad Sorripto continued.

“The transporter was intentionally hardwired to cross the identity circuits with the pattern buffer.”

Sorripto walked over to the open panel and kneeled in front of it.

“What I found is that someone set the sensors to identify certain bioelectric subatomic particles, in this case specific combadges, and crossed it with the biofilters inside the pattern buffer system. Once a certain person was identified, dematerialized, and their pattern stored, then the rigged system would remove certain elements and transfer them.”

Standing up Sorripto walked over to the transporter controls.

“The way the filters are designed to remove a virus or foreign material, the buffer was programmed to remove parts of the person stored there. In this case their conscious mind.”

Sorripto pointed to the transporter controls and sighed.

“And now for the bad news.”

“The compressed data was sent elsewhere, but I cannot say where because the same cross wiring also cleared all transporter and transfer logs as soon as the transport was complete.”

“As for the targets, you lucked out sir. From what I can tell the system was wired to target Syntron, Captain Jureth and yourself. You and Syntron were not affected because your civilian combadges did not register.”

A brow elevated involuntary on the brow of the Vulcan listening from the conference room.

“The equivalent of Jureth’s katra was removed from his body and transported to a remote location or vessel tantamount to a katric ark?” Syntron queried.

The voice of Doctor Nasaro-Myth then came accross the wooshing of the briefing room door.

''Not so mystical as that, my dear Captain Syntron; but just as dramatic and confusing; his bioneural net was not beameed along with his body.''

He brought a PADD to Redding while speaking.

''My examination report, Captain. All of his synaptic emissions where not reintegrated with the rest of his physiology. Only the rhombencephalon, the hindbrain, remains active. That's the part assuming autonomous functions, sensory input, coordination, balance and equilibrium. Hence why he didn't die immediately. His condition is stable but, without higher brain functions, Captain Jureth can only remain so while under medical assistance.''

The Deltan's purple eyes flashedwith as much annoyance as his soft yet stern voice.

''As for how or why... and especially who did this...  Mister Sorripto seems to have found how, although I would be hard pressed to explain it medically. The only similar instance I could find through medical archives was the brain transfer system pioneered by the late Doctor Ira Graves; the one he used to transfer his entire consciousness into the body of the android Captain Data. The actual device was never found. And his mind was irretrievably lost when transfered again into a standard computer.''

He looked straight at Redding.

''As to whom and why; your guess is as good as mine.''

The captain of the flagship nodded.

''Bodysnatchers.''

The voice of Kheren came through their channel with a definitively puzzled tone.

''Bodysnatchers?''

''A very old Earth story, Captain Kheren; about alien lifeforms replacing people by inhabiting copies of their bodies. Older still are stories of demonic possessions; evil spirits overtaking body and mind of people.''

"We had similar stories on Cardassia. Although people being abducted at night was probably more common than on Earth." Sorripto replied.

''We never had any such things on Andoria. We make our demons and do our evils all of our own. But there are recorded instances of lifeforms taking over living bodies; the entity that killed females for centuries from Earth to Argelius for example. Or the Lights of Zetar we ourselves encountered in the Azimuth universe.''

Elliago Nasaro-Myth again looked at Redding.

''That could explain a great many things; like the here and now.''

The Vulcan turned his attention to the Deltan as the doctor concluded his statement to Redding.

“Then would it be theoretically possible to return the missing synaptic portions of his mind via the transporter by placing his body on the pad and reintegrating the stored data in the buffer while being transported back to sickbay? The complete data contents could be garnered from his most recent use of a transporter prior to energizing here aboard the Flagship.”

Elliago frowned a moment then shook his head.

''The transporter is a remarkable device; but not a miraculous one. What you suggest would be like using the photograph of a dead person to ressuscitate that person. If we were to use the transporter as you suggest, what we need are the actual synaptic signals of a living brain; preferably his own... that which was taken from him."

"I could do it if I had the code." Sorripto said. "If we can find whoever, or whatever, stole his synaptic code, then I could reintegrate it into the pattern buffer. It would require reconfiguring the hesienberg compensator and integrating it, but it could work."

Redding's voice as firm as it was calm.

''That will now be part of our upcoming mission. Doctor, make sure Captain Jureth remains safe and sound until we do so. Lieutenant Commander Sorripto, Captain Kheren, please join us in the main briefing room. There is much to discuss and plan for; and I maybe not much time before us.''

 Main Shuttle Bay: USS Horizon

David stopped as the Tellarite informed Captain Redding that Rogers was with him and had heard the transporter system warning. As Sangliar started toward the exit, presumably to head to fix the ships' computer systems David fell in step and brought his fellow engineer up to speed on what they had found on the Alsea.

"We found extensive tampering within most of the systems on the Alsea. Sorripto fixed the tampering within the main deflector. Someone had modified the deflector controls overload protocol's to create a feedback loop during separation. It would have overloaded the secondary generators of the Beta and Delta sections, causing them to explode and destroy the pair of them.''

Sangliar grumbled.

' This ship has saucer seper, an auxilliary craft and a detachable nacelle.''

 As the pair exited the bay, Rogers continued.

"There were also camouflaged nonstandard equipment hidden in the tactical systems that I removed, and Syntron removed hidden subroutines in the computers. They could override ship functions with encoded signals. Jureth found alterations in the sensors that could alter situational analysis' and Kheren found that the standard tactical patterns had been altered."

The other nodded without looking at him.

''The Polaris, our integrated escort, most assuredly has also been tampered with then.''

With that David followed the fast-moving Tellarite into the main engineering bay and they stopped at the 'pool' table, where David finished bringing the short engineer up to speed.

"After a week of work, we purged all that out of the Alsea and tested everything, even to the showers in the crew's quarters. The damn ship had been turned into a remote-controlled weapon."

 With a slight pause David glanced around the large engineering room and then back to Sangliar.

 "So, what can I do to assist? I don't think we have a lot of time to spare!"

''Agreed. Since you found out how the Alsea has been sabotaged, let's start by looking at the Horizon to see if the same alterations were made. Knowing now what to look for, it should be quick. Then we will start looking for anything else.''

Things were dire indeed. Since they left the shuttledeck, not one barb had come out of the dark Tellarite.