บท 13: The Rescue Mission
The other side of the shield was the continuation of the tunnel and, while it was still dark, there was light in the distance. Echo switched off her wrist light and called out Nyka as we all drew our phasers. They were not really our weapon of choice, but phasers could be set to stun unlike our powers.
Nyka shook her body and released a bright, icy blue light. When it faded, she was no longer the cute, house-cat-sized fox, but now, she was the size of a tiger. Her fur had also changed to be sleeker, and she seemed to radiate a cold aura.
The five of us made our way down the path and quickly came upon the source of the light. It was a high-tech door with a light above it and a keypad to the side. Raven walked up to it and then released a flash of maroon light along with a burst of mana. Now, on her back, there was a metallic, semi-circular device with four spindly arms, two reaching above her shoulders, on either side of her head, and the other two going under each of her arms. Under her control, one of the metal arms stabbed into the keypad, but instead of breaking the device, it melded with it and dyed the buttons maroon.
"Invader Zim?" Katye asked me quietly.
"I had thought Doc Ock, but that fits better," I chuckled.
"I can also shoot bolts of pure mana if you want to test me," Raven threatened as one of the legs turned to point at us.
"Sorry, sorry," I said with my hands up in surrender.
The door suddenly opened, and she retracted the metallic arm before dismissing the Soul Construct. She nearly stumbled backwards at the sudden drain on her mana reserves, but I caught her before she could stumble more than a step. While the display of prowess was impressive, she had depleted over half of her internal reserves in a matter of seconds.
"You are wonderfully talented and stubborn, my dear," I said, and then leaned down to kiss her.
Although I could transfer mana to her in any form of physical contact, the lips were just more fun. Katye and Echo passed us without a word, but I could practically hear their teasing remarks. Since I had over ten times the amount of mana as Raven, it only took me a moment or so to refill her expended energy.
"Thanks," Raven chuckled when we parted.
"Can't have you dizzy while we raid a Vidiian compound. I can't replace a stolen organ with my healing," I teased as we followed Katye and Echo into the corridor.
The hallway was dimly lit and empty, thankfully. The walls were made of a copper-colored metal that was difficult to infuse mana into, so it was a waste to try and use our Earth Domain. Thankfully, my Wind Domain could still give me a picture of what was ahead of us and behind us, but it would be cut off by solid walls and doorways.
"Who should I track?" Echo asked.
"Pete Durst, he was the 'red shirt' in the episode, so he is in the most danger," I replied.
"His uniform is yellow," Echo said, confused.
"It's a Trekkie term that started because of the first Star Trek series, in which most security officers and engineers wore red shirts. Practically any away mission would have some grouping of the main characters and then one, barely named person in a red shirt who would inevitably die," Katye explained.
"I guess we're lucky that we are main characters then," Raven retorted.
"Oh, that wasn't enough in 'The 100'. Jasper killed himself with the Death Wave, Monty and Harper were the ones that flew the spaceship to Sanctum while everyone else was in stasis, so they died in space, Bellamy ended up getting killed by Clarke for betraying everyone to the Disciples, and Madi was left in a vegetative state after what Cadogan did to her," Katye sighed.
Raven placed a hand on Katye's shoulder and said, "You did a lot of good, both of you. They're happy."
Echo released a pulse of mana as she activated her 'Eye of the Hunt' and said, "I've got his trail."
"Good, lead the way," I replied.
Echo headed down the hall with Nyka at her side and me on the other. Katye and Raven took the rear and followed behind silently. Although this was our first little mission in the real world, we ran a training program together twice a week with scenarios similar to this since this would not be the last time that a strike team, of sorts, would be needed.
Things were going well, and we made it nearly ten minutes before we ran into the first patrol. There were two of them and they were talking casually as they walked in our direction. Thankfully, there was a corner that we hid behind and my Wind Domain gave us enough of a warning that they did not see us coming. We did not even need to use our phasers since they continued past us in their corridor. Echo and I were able to sneak up right behind them and knock them out with choke holds and a hand over their mouths to prevent them from screaming out.
We tucked them into a dark corner and kept moving. There was a chance that they could be discovered or even wake up, but unless we were willing to vaporize their bodies, they would leave behind some kind of evidence and then there was always the chance that the Vidiians might have sensors that could pick up the phaser fire. We needed to be fast and efficient with this mission, no way around it.
Fortunately, before the alarm could be raised, Echo gave a hand signal which meant that he was close. She led us to a door and Raven opened it while Echo and I were ready with our phasers. As soon as it opened, I saw four Vidiians who were placing Durst onto a table. They looked over at us with the sound of the door opening, but before they could reach for their weapons, Echo and I opened fire, and we took them all down.
We all hurried inside and shut the door behind us, but before we could do anything, an alarm started going off. Raven moved over to a nearby console and resummoned her Soul- Construct. She stabbed the same leg that had opened the first door into it and the alarm shut off a moment later.
"The alarm is handled. I reported that a prisoner was resisting, but they could still send people here," Raven said. "It was a preset code, so there is a chance they may not."
"Alright, see if you can get the shield down while you are connected," I said. "How's Durst?"
Katye was already scanning him with her tricorder and replied, "Alive, all organs accounted for... It looks like we got here right after they sedated him."
I nodded my head and placed a hand on his shoulder. Casting my healing spell, I purged the drugs out of his blood stream. I gave him a little shake, causing him to groan and open his eyes slowly. Memories of what had happened before he was knocked out seemed to click into place as he suddenly rushed to sit up, but I held him down gently.
"Easy, Lieutenant. You're still in one piece," I said, before letting him go as he realized that he was safe.
"Captain Cox?" Durst remarked, confused, as he sat up.
"We realized that something had gone wrong with your away mission and Janeway sent us to find you, Tom, and B'Elanna. It looks like we got here just in time," I explained.
"You did... thank you."
"I've got this portion of the shield down, but there are backups protecting the rest that I can't access here. They would also have to be idiots to not realize that something is wrong here," Raven said as she withdrew her construct's leg.
"Well, that's a start," I said before tapping my comm badge. "Rebecca to Janeway. Do you read me?"
"I've got you, Rebecca," Janeway replied.
"We've found Lieutenant Durst, but Torres and Paris aren't here and we can't get the shields down in the other locations from where we are," I explained.
"They might be in the tunnels. The Vidiians had us digging for them regularly before they took me to..." Durst said, but his words trailed off as he realized how close to death he had come.
"Don't worry, Pete. We have the ability to track them just like how we found you," I said, and he gave me a nod. "Captain, can you lock onto Durst and get him out of here?"
"I can help! I'm..." he started.
"I know, Lieutenant," I said, cutting him off, "but you've been through enough. My crew can handle this."
He sighed and nodded his head.
"We have a lock on his position. Are you ready, Lieutenant?" Janeway asked.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Energizing," Janeway said, and Durst was teleported away.
"We'll contact you again when we find the others," I said.
"Understood."
As soon as the comm channel closed, the doors opened and there were five Vidiians on the other side. Before anyone could open fire, Nyka rushed forward and jumped at them. She released a pulse of Ice mana as she kicked off the chest of one and a hail of icy arrows erupted, attacking all of them. Instead of piercing their skin though, the cold energy invaded their bodies and froze them in place. It was not a permanent state, but it would take a few hours for their bodies to purge the foreign energy naturally.
Nyka walked back to Echo's side with her tails flicking side to side. I smirked at the cocky fox and then looked over to Katye and Raven. While I had been talking to Janeway, Raven had dismissed her Soul Construct and Katye had transferred some of her mana to her, to replace what she had used. They gave me a nod, so I turned back and headed for the door.
"If you will excuse us," I said, picking up one of the Vidiians that was blocking the door.
I set him to the side, still on his feet, and I could see the fear in his eyes, but that was understandable. To him, all that had happened was a fox rushing at them, releasing some kind of icy blue light, and now, he was a prisoner in his own body.
"Don't worry. The effects should wear off in two hours or so and you'll be back to harvesting innocent people's organs in no time," I said mockingly.
"I still don't see why we don't just kill them," Echo remarked as our group moved past the Vidiians.
"I've had my fill of death and blood on my hands... haven't you?" I replied.
"And the people that they will kill after this?"
I sighed, "We can't save the entire universe and trying to will only cause us heartache and more trouble than we can handle."
"It's just the Starfleet way, Echo. Most wars have ended in their territory, and they just try to get along with any races that they meet," Katye said, trying to help.
"Seems stupid to leave behind potential enemies. Their peace has made them weak and foolish," Echo said.
"You're right, and back in the Alpha Quadrant, they're going to get a much-needed wakeup call while we are out here, but this whole universe is meant to show the potential of humanity if we can move past our bigotry and hatred. When the original show was created, America was going through a Civil Rights movement, so it was meant to show the people what we could become if we treated everyone equally," I explained.
Echo huffed with annoyance, but this was not the first time that we had debated the 'nature' of Star Trek, and I doubted that it would be the last. Her past in Azgeda was basically polar opposite to the Federation, and while she was no longer the cold-hearted assassin and spy that she had been raised to be, lessons of the past were hard to forget.
"Who do you want me to track now?" Echo asked as we came to a junction.
"Tom, he should be with one of the B'Elannas," I replied.
"'One of'?" Raven asked, shocked.
I chuckled, "Yep, a human one and a Klingon one. The Vidiians split her DNA in half and reconstituted both sets."
"How is that possible?" Katye asked.
"I don't know," I chuckled. "They never really explained it on the show. The joys of science-fiction."
"I've got the trail," Echo said, one of her eyes turning icy blue.
"Let's go."
Echo led us down the left corridor. We were moving faster now, but we still ran into another two patrols on our way. There was little point in trying to hide our presence, so we opened fire as soon as we saw any Vidiians.
The trail took us into a series of tunnels, just as Durst had suggested. Katye and I activated our Earth Domains which gave us a good picture of the mining operation. There were over two dozen stems that branched off and connected to eight main tunnels. Deeper in, there was a group of people chipping away at the rock with four or five standing back from the others, likely the guards.
We hurried down the tunnel and approached the large group quietly. Instead of simply rushing in, Katye and I pulled Echo and Raven into the Yin Realm. We walked the rest of the way to the stem where the people were working and positioned ourselves between those at the wall and the others that were just standing to the side. When we stepped out into the real world, we had been right about who the Vidiians were and stunned them all before anyone could react to our sudden appearance.
"Rebecca?" Tom asked, surprised.
"Raven!" the human B'Elanna exclaimed.
"Good to see you again, Lieutenant," I said, putting away my phaser.
"How did you... Where did you..." Tom started to ask, but let the words die off each time.
"It's better to just shrug your shoulders and accept that we can do some crazy things," I chuckled. "We found Durst and he is back onboard the Voyager."
"Good... thanks for showing up, I guess," Tom sighed with relief.
"Of course. How are you doing, B'Elanna?" I asked.
"Better," she said with a weak smile.
There were a couple of gasps from the other prisoners, but it was likely because Nyka was walking up. Echo and Katye gathered up the weapons from the unconscious Vidiians, and then handed one to both B'Elanna and Tom.
"The rest of you are free to go, but if you want to come with us, you can as long as you listen to my orders. Our ship will likely agree to transport you all out of here, but I can't confirm that until I can contact our ship," I offered.
There were several nods in the group, and I turned to Echo.
"Can you track a Klingon? It will probably be easier and less confusing than if you try to track B'Elanna herself."
"A Klingon? You mean, they did the same thing with my Klingon DNA?" B'Elanna asked.
"They went to all of the trouble of making you human, so there had to be a reason and it's probably tied to your Klingon DNA. I'm fairly sure that they did the same procedure to both sets of your DNA."
"I've got it," Echo said.
"Good, let's move out," I said.
Echo and I took the lead with Nyka following right behind us. Tom and the human B'Elanna joined the group of former prisoners while Katye and Raven covered the rear. We were slowed down by the addition of more people, but they were all exhausted from the hard work, so we did not push them. The Klingon B'Elanna was probably the safest person in Vidiian custody since her DNA had the ability to fight the phage, but there was a chance that she will have already escaped the head surgeon's lab by the time we found our way to her.
We stumbled across another three patrols while we followed Echo's directions, but all of them were handled with ease due to our quick reactions. Unfortunately, our actions had not gone unnoticed and the Klingon B'Elanna was too valuable to the Vidiians. Shields had been erected in the corridors, blocking our path, and looking into the Yin Realm revealed that there were at least twenty people all gathered in a large room, no doubt where she was being held.
Instead, we changed our plan, and I had Tom lead us to the barracks where they had been held. I remembered from the episode that there should be a security console, so hopefully, Raven and B'Elanna could bring down the shields. They got to work right away and were able to bring all the shields down in this area, but not around the lab.
"Rebecca to Janeway. Do you read me?" I asked, tapping my badge.
"I do," Janeway replied.
"I've found Tom and half a dozen prisoners, but things are a little complicated with B'Elanna," I said.
"Complicated? How so?" Janeway asked.
"She is with us, but... she's human. The Vidiians did something and extracted all of her Klingon DNA. I'm fairly sure that there is a second B'Elanna, but Klingon, and we can't easily access where I believe they are holding her," I explained.
"What?!?"
"I know it's hard to understand, Captain, I don't understand how they did it myself, but the facts remain. I would like to ask that you beam Tom, B'Elanna, and the other prisoners that I freed onboard," I said.
"Alright, we can do that," Janeway agreed.
"Katye, give your badge to Paris. The rest of you gather around him. We'll get you to safety," I instructed.
Katye took off her comm badge and handed it to Tom. The others moved around him, the human B'Elanna too, and he gave Janeway the signal to beam them up. They disappeared a moment later and I let out a sigh of relief since the worst of the danger had passed.
"We've got them, Rebecca. Thank you," Janeway said.
"Of course, Captain. We'll contact you again after we free the Klingon B'Elanna," I said.
"Understood, good luck, Rebecca."
"Thanks, Captain. Rebecca out."
"So, are we done sneaking around?" Echo asked.
"Yeah, they aren't going to kill B'Elanna, so it's time to have some fun," I replied with a smirk.
"Maybe we should have joined the others and gone back to the Voyager," Katye teased to Raven.
"Do you think that they would have been able to figure out how take down the shields without me?" Raven chuckled.
"Breaking it should do just fine," I retorted. "That's how I plan on getting past the ones in our way."
Katye and Raven chuckled, but I did not mind the teasing. We left the barracks and backtracked to the force field that had stopped our larger group. I channeled a large amount of Lightning mana into my right fist and pulled back my arm while the others took a few steps away. I punched the shield and released all of the built-up energy at the moment of contact. An explosion echoed from deeper within the compound and sparks flew from all of the nearby light fixtures as they were all blown out. With a satisfied chuckle, I conjured a ball of white fire to illuminate the surroundings. Katye and Raven looked amused while Echo had a competitive glint in her eyes at my display.
Before anyone could say anything, the door to the lab opened and Vidiians started rushing out. Katye casted her Mana Shield spell to block their phaser fire before they could catch us off guard. I teleported behind all of them while they were distracted, and then started punching and kicking anyone I could see. The violet shield vanished and Echo and Nyka released a blast of Ice mana, freezing all of the Vidiians in the hallway.
I was not as nice with these guards as I had been with the first batch that she had frozen and simply pushed them out of our way. Echo and Nyka positioned themselves at the doorway and gathered their mana. When they were ready, Echo gave me a nod and I opened the door, and then they released their spells. It was almost anti-climactic with how easily we took down the rest of the Vidiians.
We all entered the room and Raven headed straight for the security console. Echo stayed by the door with Nyka while Katye and I approached the table where there was an unconscious Klingon. Something strange was also in the air, like a faint scent that made my nose twitch, but I could not figure out what it was. Katye pulled out her tricorder and started scanning B'Elanna, but I kept looking around and sniffing the air.
"Are you a dog now?" Katye teased as she closed her tricorder. "She is just sedated."
"Don't you smell that?" I asked.
"Smell what?"
"I'm not sure... but there is something familiar about the scent," I replied.
"Echo, can you ask Nyka? She probably has the best nose out of all of us," Katye asked.
Since Nyka could understand us, Echo did not have to actually ask, only translate the huff of a reply.
"She can only smell our scents and the Vidiians'," Echo replied.
"Then what is it?"
"Well, once Raven gets the shield down, you can ask Janeway to send down a science team and do full scans on the room to track it down for you," Katye said dryly.
I gave her a deadpan stare, but I knew what she was getting at. I placed a hand on B'Elanna and started purifying her blood stream. When I felt a kick back, I stopped channeling my energy and gave her a little shake.
"B'Elanna," I said gently.
She slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times. Her whole body tensed up and her breathing went shallow as her eyes looked onto me. I could feel my Soul stir, but this was not like my attachment to Katye, rather it was a primal thing tied to my Dragon side. My instincts were telling me to subjugate her and prove that I was stronger.
"Rebecca!" Katye snapped, her aura flaring.
I realized that my own aura was leaking out of me, and I took a step back, breathing hard. Now that I was back to my senses, I quickly understood what was going on even if I did not know how it was possible. A reaction like that could only mean one thing: that she had a Dragon ancestor. It was heavily diluted, so it was likely the Klingon race as a whole, but I did not know how it would have been possible since dragons did not exist in this universe.
"What is it?" Katye asked.
I slowed my breathing and replied simply, "Dystina."
They all knew what it meant when I said that name, except for B'Elanna, so no one else asked anything. I walked over to Raven and leaned onto her shoulder silently. Any time that my other side would remind me of its existence, I would often cling to Raven since Katye could cause similar problems. There were times that I could not help but question the worth of my life when my True Soul belonged to an ancient creature that was trillions of years old.
Raven pressed herself against me, knowing that I needed her right now, yet kept working at the console. She could summon her construct again, but even with us refilling her mana, she would need a day or two to recover from the heavy burden placed on her Soul. It took longer, but she still managed to get the shield down.
"Rebecca to Janeway," I said, tapping my badge.
"I've got you, Rebecca," Janeway replied.
"We're ready to come home. Six to beam up," I said with a weak smile.
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