章節 28: An Unforeseen Weakness
Days in the Aeroponics Bay were usually quiet. The first hour, I would check all of the systems, spray down the roots, then pluck whatever was ready. The rest of my time, I would alternate between speeding up the growth of the plants and meditating. Because of how much I enjoyed working here, Kes and I were the only ones that worked in here with occasional visits from Neelix, so while I only saw one or two people in a shift, I could still hear the new rumors.
"I doubt that you'll be seeing much of Raven tonight," Neelix remarked as I helped him bring some vegetables up to the Mess Hall for dinner.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"The whole crew's talking about it. They found some kind of android and B'Elanna, Raven, and even L'Naan have been trying to figure out how to repair it. Apparently, B'Elanna cleared Engineering for ten minutes after it was brought in except for those two," Neelix replied.
"You don't say? I guess I'll have to swing by Engineering on my way back to our ship," I said.
That little clue was enough for me to recognize that this was an episode, since it was a favorite of mine. B'Elanna would figure out how to adapt Voyager's warp plasma to work in the alien power unit which saved the bot, but things quickly went downhill when Janeway refused to allow B'Elanna to make a prototype power source which could save the synthetic race, since it was the only thing that they could not duplicate. The android kidnapped B'Elanna and they nearly destroyed the Voyager before she negotiated for their safety in return for making the power unit.
While I could go around the three engineers and talk to Janeway directly to avoid everything from happening, Raven would probably kill me if I did, even if she was the one who would get kidnapped. This whole episode was perfect for her and her skills, so I felt that we should take advantage of this. My little council was starting to rub off on me, and I was more willing to take some risks, but this was an episode long plot line, so I had faith that we could handle things.
What I had not thought about was the fact that it had been over a month since I had seen L'Naan. The stubborn Klingon had kept to herself, and I had quickly gotten wrapped up in the holo-deck, so I had let the problem slip my mind. When I walked into Engineering, I caught her scent and could hear her arguing with B'Elanna and Raven, but she quieted down before I had taken more than two steps inside. I neared the warp core and found the three of them around a silver android wearing a black outfit. Raven was rubbing her temples, and I could sense that she was low on mana. Both of them turned to face me with various looks of guilt for different reasons which B'Elanna noticed and turned around to see me.
"How many mana crystal did you use?" I asked with a smirk.
"Only five," she replied with a sheepish smile.
I shook my head and sighed, "Was it worth it?"
"He's incredible! He is a fully sentient android, and his mind is even more complex than the Voyager's computer core and nearly on par with Fae. Whoever built him was incredible," Raven replied excitedly, forgetting momentarily about her migraine.
"Come here," I sighed when I saw her wince in pain. "So, what's the problem with Mister Roboto?"
Raven walked over to me, and I placed a hand on her shoulder, channeling some of my mana into her.
"The plasma inside his power node is degrading and hemorrhaging energy like a bleeding artery. We hooked it into an EPS power conduit, but the energy simply isn't compatible, and he won't last more than eighteen hours if we can't fix it," B'Elanna explained.
"Then can't you do a transfusion of sorts? I mean, your ship runs on plasma, doesn't it?" I asked since, despite not remembering the exact solution, I did remember her conversation with the Doctor that gave her the inspiration to figure it out.
"We thought of that, but the Voyager's warp plasma is far too highly charged," Raven replied.
"Like giving a Bolian a transfusion using Vulcan blood," I remarked. "But there have been times when people have had to use incompatible blood by genetically altering it. Is there nothing like that, that you could do to the warp plasma?"
"If we used anodyne relays, attached them directly to the robot's power module... it could act as a sort of regulator to make the warp plasma compatible with the robot's energy matrix," B'Elanna said, piecing together the clues that I had given her.
"I'll go get the relays. Thanks for your help, babe," Raven said and gave me a kiss on the cheek before walking off towards the storage room.
"You're welcome. I'll head out and let you gals do what you do best; I just wanted to see what everyone was talking about," I said, excusing myself.
I could feel L'Naan's eyes on me, so I sighed internally and silently cursed the Botha. The two of us had finally gotten comfortable around each other and his little stunt had ruined it. Approaching her was not easy since, if I was right, it would only lead to a more uncomfortable situation with my current relationships. I was not sure if there was room for a fifth member in our 'crew', even if Tori suggested it, and it was not something that I could decide on my own.
Nothing was going to be resolved today, so I just walked back to the Shuttle Bay and headed inside the ship. Music was playing and, when I reached the second floor, Echo and Katye were chatting while Katye was prepping food. I walked over and kissed Katye's cheek before moving to stand by Echo.
"So, have we lost Raven for the night?" Katye asked.
"If not longer," I chuckled.
"Is this an episode?" Echo asked.
"Yep, and it will be interesting to see how this will play out with Raven and L'Naan helping B'Elanna. Originally, the robot would kidnap B'Elanna and force her to make a prototype power module since they are unable to make one themselves. Their ship is much stronger than the Voyager, so despite Janeway's order to not help them, she didn't have a choice once they crippled the ship," I explained.
"And you didn't mention any of that to Raven?" Katye chuckled.
"Meh, she should have realized that this was an episode since I helped them figure out how to fix the power module, but even if I did, do you think that would stop her?"
"You could talk to Janeway," Echo suggested.
"I could also just destroy the robot myself since both would land me in the same hot water with Raven," I retorted. "We're here to learn, right? Can you think of anything more appropriate for her to study than a robot?"
"Then she should use the pendant."
"You need to stop trying to pass it off onto her. There is a chance that she might face some danger with this, but they will want her alive if the bot takes her instead of B'Elanna," I replied.
Echo huffed but did not argue.
"So, how was L'Naan? It's been a while since she came by for a meal or invited you two to the holo-deck," Katye asked with a knowing smile.
I rolled my eyes and complained, "Quiet once she realized that I was in the room. Things had finally eased between us, but we're practically back to day one, at least for her. Fucking Botha."
"What's her problem?" Echo asked.
"Honestly, I don't know for sure, but the illusion that trapped B'Elanna in the episode was of her... spending quality time with Chakotay," I replied, the last part was a bit of a chuckle. "So, following that bit of logic, what do you think the Dragon blooded Klingon was entranced by?"
"You, but I still don't understand why that's a problem. You've said it yourself that you're attracted to her," Echo retorted.
"I forgot that you were raised with Grounder ideals," I sighed, rolling my eyes.
"Because a relationship with three women is perfectly normal in our original past lives," Katye teased.
"Things between us started after nearly a year of living together, just the five of us, not two months and a handful of interactions," I countered.
"Semantics," Katye chuckled.
"Call it what you want, but I'm not going to fuck someone just because my Dragon side thinks it's a good idea," I grumbled.
"Stubborn Fool as always," Katye teased with a smile.
Without Raven around, the pair enjoyed teasing me for the night before we finally went to train in the Mental Plane. She did not return to the ship before our next shift, but none of us were surprised. Anytime that she got a new toy, she would become obsessed until she had figured out how it worked, and we all knew it.
The next couple of days, we only saw her a few times as she spent most of her time with the android, B'Elanna, and L'Naan. She did remember to ask if this was an episode the next time that we were alone together, which I confirmed without giving her the details. After giving Katye and Echo all of the details that I could remember from the episode, they agreed that the overall risk to Raven was minimal, so we were going to let her make her own mistakes with this situation. Events followed the episode with B'Elanna asking Janeway to build a prototype power module for the Pralor robot, but the Captain refused the request, saying that it was a violation of the Prime Directive.
Conveniently, the day that the Voyager found the Parlor ship was a day that I had duty on the Bridge. If I was not already so used to things like this happening, I probably would have rolled my eyes when Harry announced that he had picked up the ship on long range sensors. Janeway had Tom change course to rendezvous with the ship and then alerted B'Elanna that we would reach them in a few hours.
"The alien vessel is entering visual range, Captain," Tom said.
"Yellow alert," Janeway replied, standing up. "Slow to one quarter impulse. Put them on screen, Ensign Kim."
"Aye, Captain," Harry acknowledged then changed the viewscreen to a silver ship that looked like an odd 'x' shape.
"Magnify," Janeway instructed.
There was a chime from Tuvok's console, and he said, "We're being scanned, Captain."
"That's all right, let them take a look," she replied. "Open a channel."
They answered our call and the screen changed to an identical robot to the one that we had saved who asked, "Pralor Automated Personnel Unit 6263 requests that you identify yourselves."
"I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation Starship Voyager," Janeway introduced.
"What are your intentions Captain Kathryn Janeway?"
"We rescued one of your crew members, Unit 3947, and we'd like to return him to your ship," she answered.
"We will prepare to receive the Unit. Thank you for your assistance," the robot said before cutting off communications with us.
"Very polite, these automated units," Tom said with a bit of sarcasm.
Janeway had a smirk on her face when she turned around and came back to her seat. She had Harry alert B'Elanna that it was time to send the android back to his ship then turned to me.
"I'm sorry that I could not agree to B'Elanna's request to create the prototype for the androids; I've heard that Raven is even more enthralled by the technology than B'Elanna, and that's saying something," Janeway apologized.
"Don't be; I've barely seen her in the past few days. I'll be happy to have her back, though I imagine that she'll hole herself in her workshop when she isn't on duty for the next couple of weeks, coming up with designs for her own robot," I replied with a chuckle.
Janeway chuckled as well, but before either of us could say any more, Harry's console beeped a few times.
"Captain, I'm detecting a chromo-dynamic energy discharge in Transporter Room Two," Harry said.
"Bridge to Transporter Room Two," Janeway said, tapping her badge, but there was no reply. "Janeway to Torres," she tried again, but still no reply.
"Captain, there are two different groups initiating a site-to-site transport. One is B'Elanna and the robot, and the other is... Raven," I said, checking the console between our chairs.
Janeway gave me a look, but I was just as surprised as she was. While I knew one of them were bound to be kidnapped, Raven had been in Engineering when she transported herself to the Pralor ship. She had not been too upset at the fact that Janeway had refused to help them make a prototype because she had scanned the android with a device that linked directly to Fae's systems, so I had no idea why she would leave the ship.
"Override them," Janeway order Harry.
"I can't block either of them. All three patterns are already in the buffer," Harry said. "They're gone."
"Transport our people back now, mister Kim," Janeway ordered as she stood up and headed to his station.
"I can't get a lock on either of them," Harry said. "They have erected some sort of subspace defense field around their vessel. Our targeting scanners cannot penetrate it."
"Hail them," Janeway said.
"They're not responding."
Janeway walked back down to the main level of the Bridge and instructed, "Open a channel on wide-band subspace."
"Channel opened," Harry confirmed.
"This is Captain Janeway. Your abduction of our crew members is a clear act of aggression. If you do not return them immediately, we will be forced to retaliate... Confirm that they've received the transmission, mister Kim."
"They heard us all right. They're just not answering," Harry said.
"Mister Tuvok, power the forward phaser banks. We'll give them five minutes. Rebecca, my Ready Room," Janeway ordered.
I sighed but understood why she had called me out; I just had no explanation for what had happened. Janeway led me into her office while I tried to figure out what could have happened. An ancient memory surfaced to my mind, and I understood what had likely happened.
"What do you know about this?" Janeway asked.
"I didn't know that Raven would be beaming herself over to the Pralor ship, if that's what you mean. She accepted your decision not to assist with the prototype... but there is another possibility that I did not think of until now. One of Raven's abilities is a Soul-Construct which allows her to directly link herself to new technologies so that she can get an understanding of it and even manipulate it, but she had never used it on a sentient computer before. There is a chance that the robot 'hacked' her mind in a certain sense and made her help them," I explained with a frown.
"If that was a possibility, why don't you have protocols to prevent her from..."
"Our abilities don't come with some instructional manual, Kathryn! I only remembered this because of the past life that I discarded and the memories that it has. If this had not happened, I still wouldn't know what the dangers were for her power; it's extremely rare and unique to the individual," I cut her off.
Janeway sighed, "Fine, but I expect that you will ensure that this doesn't happen in the future."
"You have my..." I started but was cut off by the ship rocking.
The ship shifted into Red Alert, confirming that we were under attack. We both rushed back onto Bridge.
"Report!" Janeway demanded.
"The Pralor ship has opened fire on us and is targeting the Shuttle Bay. Shields are down to fifty-three percent," Tuvok said.
"Damnit, they're trying to prevent my ship from launching," I said.
"Get to your ship, Rebecca. Tuvok, return fire. Paris, evasive maneuvers, don't let them target the Shuttle Bay," Janeway ordered.
"Yes, ma'am," I agreed and hurried over to the turbo lift.
While I rode it down to Deck Ten, I paged Katye and Echo and asked them to meet me on the ship. I was the first to the ship and started all of the pre-flight checks while I waited for them to get here. Once they were onboard, I did not even wait for them to make it to the Bridge before I took off.
"What's going on?" Katye asked as she walked into the room with Echo and Filigree.
"I think Raven's mind was hacked by that stupid robot. Her Soul-Construct is a double-edged sword. If she linked herself to something with a stronger Will than hers, she could be suppressed and forced to help them," I explained without looking back at them.
"How do you... Rebecca, you need to calm down!" Katye started, but changed what she was saying when I looked back at her.
"No, I need to hold myself back long enough to get in range of the Pralor ship!" I growled, turning back to the console.
Katye sighed, but Echo just took her position at tactical and started powering up our weapons. The Voyager was taking a beating, so I steered us into the line of fire since our shields were a little stronger than theirs. Katye took over at the conn station for me while I summoned the exo-suit out of my ring.
"Fae, hail Voyager," I said, taking off my helmet.
The computer chimed and the Bridge of the Voyager came onscreen.
"Captain, I need sixty seconds to get past their shield. Can Voyager draw their fire with our ship's help and then retreat out of their weapon range?" I asked.
"What are you planning, Rebecca?" Janeway asked.
"I'm going to disable their ship," I replied.
Janeway did not look happy about my decision, but as another volley of quantum resonance charges hit both of our ships, she nodded her head and agreed, "We can give you sixty seconds."
"Thanks," I said, putting on my helmet.
Katye disconnected from the Voyager and then stated in a cold tone, "I'll give you half an hour and then we are coming after you two, with or without the Voyager."
That tone told me just how frustrated she was with the current situation, and I could not blame her. Not only had Raven's mind been taken over because we did not know the danger of her Soul-Construct, but there was little that she could do with her mana sealed. She was not really the type to sit back and let someone else handle a problem, none of us were, so this did not sit well with her.
"I understand, and I'll be careful," I said.
I looked back at Echo who was glaring at me, but I did not have time to deal with it. She did not have an exo-suit, nor could she use the Yin Realm to travel on her own.
"I'm sorry, but I need you to watch over Katye," I said, before teleporting myself outside of the ship.
I did not waste any more time and shifted into my Dusa form. The Voyager and the Fae Dragon were circling around the Pralor ship, firing their phasers while the Pralor shot silvery-blue orbs of energy. I flapped my wings and flew towards the underside of the Pralor ship while shifting into the Yin Realm.
The barrier around the ship was shining bright green, which contrasted greatly in the normal black and blue world. No wonder our ships could barely scratch their shields; the amount of electrical energy in them was more than three times the amount that the Voyager used. I charged my body with Lightning mana and activated the shield right before I crashed into the shield at my maximum speed, making my body as small as possible.
Battling against crazy Mortals and Gods, day after day, I had learned to trust my instincts. The shield broke and flickered as it tried to reform. While the shield did snap back into place in less than a second, I made it through. The giant ship was nothing but lines of blue now that I had pierced the shield and there were two golden lights that I focused on.
When I neared the pair, I stepped out of the Yin Realm. The next thing that I knew, a blast of mana, similar to a handheld phaser, hit me. Although it stung a little, the strength behind it was not enough to cause me serious damage. The person who had attacked me was none other than Raven, but when I looked at her, I could tell that she was possessed by something as her eyes were a solid silver color.
"Damnit, Raven, fight it! You don't want to hurt me!" I yelled, still in my Dusa form.
"We need B'Elanna for the survival of our race. Our enemies must be destroyed. You follow your Captain's orders therefore you are our enemy," Raven replied in a mono-tone voice.
Raven's Soul-Construct erupted from her back, and I could only curse because using it against me in a serious situation put her life at risk. We had sparred a few times, but her abilities and mine did not align in a combat sense, not that Katye's or Echo's did any better, so I could easily dominate her. She knew this, just as much as I did, so the fact that she tried to fight me this way meant that the real Raven was struggling against the robotic programming that was left in her mind.
I needed to end this quickly, or Raven could kill herself with the expenditure of using the Soul-Construct. I shifted back to my normal appearance since the hallways were too small for me to move around comfortably in my larger form. Two of the mechanical arms fired thin beams of maroon energy at me that I dodged by twisting my body as I sprang forward towards her. She used the other two arms to block my palm thrust while the two that had fired at me moved to catch me.
I teleported behind her, but she was used to fighting against me. The moment that I disappeared, she jumped forward and used the arms of her construct to catch herself while sending a double kick towards my face. I caught her feet and silently apologized for what I was about to do. Violet bands of electricity rolled off my arms and into her body. She let out a scream of pain and she collapsed as her construct dissolved.
Before she could hit the ground, I pulled her into my arms and cradled her as I channeled some of my mana into her. Blood was dripping from her eyes and nose because she used too much of her mana. Thankfully, the shock that I delivered was enough to knock her out too, or she would be suffering the nastiest headache of her life.
I had been so absorbed by Raven's attack that I had not looked around the room yet. B'Elanna was in here along with one of the robots, no doubt the one who they had saved. My eyes narrowed as I glared at him and stood up with Raven in my arms.
"You are going to tell whichever bot that is in charge to disable the shields and hail the Voyager, or I am going to destroy every last one of you on this ship," I growled.
"I am afraid that I cannot do that," the robot replied.
I carried Raven over to the workstation and placed her down carefully. "B'Elanna, watch over her for me."
"He called for reinforcements as soon as you appeared," B'Elanna warned.
"Good, perhaps if I break enough, they will understand that their best choice is to let us go," I said.
"Can you avoid their power cores?" she asked.
"Before I break you, Personnel Unit 3947, why don't you tell us how your Builders were killed?" I growled.
"We eliminated them when they tried to stop the war because our usefulness would be gone," the robot replied.
B'Elanna gasped with shock.
"Do you still think they are worth saving? After he took over Raven's mind, do you think I will spare them?"
Before she could reply, the door opened and twenty identical robots walked into the room carrying phasers. I called out my exo-suit and activated the shield before they could fire at me. The moment it turned off, I threw myself at them as I increased my speed to my maximum.
I literally tore them apart with my bare hands in a matter of seconds, and I made sure to break each of their power cores. I was not going to let them rebuild themselves after touching my reverse-scale. The sheer fact that I was willing to give them a chance to surrender was a kindness that no one would have gotten before we joined the Voyager.
"You just lost twenty more units, 3947. Are you going to surrender, or do I need to keep going?" I asked.
"Your strength and speed exceeded my expectations, but we must preserve our race," he said.
"This is your last chance to end this with some of your units on-line. I will destroy you all," I promised with a growl.
"Please, just let us go," B'Elanna pleaded. "There won't be any of you left if you don't stop now."
"Automated Personnel Unit 3947, the probability subroutines indicate that we will not succeed in stopping the new individual. Shield controls and communications have been rooted to your workstation. Please allow the organics to access the console," a mechanized voice said over the intercom.
"Good choice," I said.
"The console is here," 3947 said, motioning to the console behind him.
"B'Elanna, can you hail the Voyager?" I asked as I approached Raven's side.
"Yeah," she agreed.
I touched Raven's cheek with simmering anger, but it was not directed at her. If this was not Star Trek, I would not have given these robots the chance to surrender as I unleashed my full anger on them. In fact, I was debating on staying here after Raven and B'Elanna were beamed back to the Voyager, but that would only make Katye and Echo madder, though it was more because they would worry for my safety than wanting to save the bots.
"Captain, they are allowing us to leave. Can you beam us back?" B'Elanna asked.
"We'll be in range in a few minutes," Janeway replied.
I slid my arms under Raven and picked her up. Gritting my teeth, I resisted the urge to break the robot that caused all of this to happen, but there was still a chance that they could reactivate their shields, so I could not act rashly. Thankfully, I sensed Voyager locking on to us and we were beamed off the ship before I could fully lose my temper.
A/N: Until the end of February, I can only promise one chapter a week. Sorry, but my job is crazy and I can't devote as much time as I normally do.
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