SEASON 3: EPISODE 04

TO DELIGHT IN THE INHUMAN WORD: Part Seven

  Benton pulled her flight helmet off as she disembarked from her fighter.  Her feet touched down on the shuttlebay deck of the Akira class vessel; unfortunately it was not that of the Swiftfire instead it was the shuttlebay of the USS Fury.  Her flight had continued to follow the Swiftfire and the Centaur as they started to move towards the edge of their sensor range.  In the meantime she had sent an urgent transmission to the nearest Federation vessel, which had been the Fury.  She had quickly briefed the Fury and it had made its way to intercept them at its best possible speed.  By the time the Fury caught up with them the Swiftfire had been long out of their fighters’ sensor range.

  She made her way to the person waiting for her.

  “Wing Commander Benton.”

  “Captain Werfel, it’s good to see you again,” she said as they shook hands.  “I just wish it was under better circumstances.”

  “How long since you lost contact with the ships?”

  “Thirty minutes.  We tried our best to keep up but just couldn’t do it.”

  “I don’t doubt, wing commander.  We received your data on the ships’ last known heading and speed and are extrapolating possible destinations the ships might be heading to – none of them good.”

  That was just what she was expecting.  The ship’s last known heading was towards Dominion territory and it seemed likely that the ship had been captured by the Dominion and was making its way to one of their bases to be pulled apart for information.  The unfortunate crew would be sent to a prisoner-of-war camp where some would be interrogated for what they knew.  However, it was also possible the ship might be headed elsewhere.  Once they lost contact with the ship it could have easily adjusted its course without their notice.

  “It could be headed anywhere, sir.  Once it was out of sight who knows what happened?” Benton voiced.

  “I realise that.  We’ll be doing our best to track her down.  However, one possibly good note is that we haven’t intercepted any Dominion transmission confirming the capture of the Swiftfire.”

  “If it isn’t the Dominion who would it be?” she asked.

  “Pirates, the Orion Syndicate, mercenaries, they’re all possibilities.  So before the ships left you behind you received no sign the Swiftfire was in trouble?” asked Werfel.

  “None what-so-ever,” she confirmed.  “We got nothing out of her; just silence answered our hails when we noticed something was not right with the situation.  It was quick, sir.  I’m talking about just a few minutes from everything’s fine to the ship ignoring us.”

  Werfel nodded, a frown creased his face.  “That means we’re looking at a very well planned and executed operation.  To stop a ship from signalling for help they would need to take either the bridge or engineering, or both very quickly.”

  “We only detected one life sign on the other ship,” she pointed out.

  “There are ways to get around bio-scans.  Since the ship did appear to be legitimate I doubt anyone looked too hard and just concentrated on rescuing the lone survivor.”  Her jaw set at Werfel’s comment, which Werfel noticed.  “It is understandable,” he continued.  “The enemy used our concern and loyalty to others who wear the uniform to their advantage.”

  Benton knew that Werfel would not suggest anything that put the crew of the ship in a bad light; he had worked with them before and was a friend of Captain Masters.  But everyone made mistakes, even the crew of the Swiftfire.

  “What about the other ship?  Have you made any progress on identifying it?” she inquired.

  Werfel sighed.  “No, we still have a list of eight Centaurs that are a possible match for your mystery vessel.”

  “Eight?” she said shocked.

  “You’d be surprised at the number of ships that seem to disappear or whose fate is still open to interpretation.  It also could be that it was cobbled together, you grab some parts from an Excelsior and some parts from a Miranda and bash them together and you have a passable Centaur.  Though it is difficult to believe anyone would want to do that.”

  “How can a ship’s fate be open to interpretation?” she asked.

  “Quite easily it would seem.  The USS Tempest was abandoned on the edge of the Klumtet Void after losing power.  The USS Anuradhapura was hulled in an asteroid field and left for the field to grind up.  The USS Chiron was...”

  “I get the point,” Benton interrupted Werfel.

  “These ships have been in service for a long time, since the 2300s.  They were meant to be the ‘new’ Miranda class, a cheap all purpose starship and they built a surprising number of them over the decades.  We’re lucky it wasn’t a Miranda you saw...that list would be nearly endless,” Werfel joked.

  “Do you have any likely suspects?”

  He shook his head.  “Without knowing who has captured the Swiftfire it is impossible to take one over the other.  Knowing the ship might help us derive its heading but without that information for all we know the ship might be heading for the Dominion’s Ralix III starbase or the pirate’s haven at Blood Nest station.  Unfortunately that is still one of the unanswered questions of this entire event.  ”

  This entire line of conversation was starting to dishearten Benton, she had hoped that the Fury’s crew would have been able to figure out the identity of the mystery Centaur and they could then use that information to chase both ships down.

  “How many ships has the admiral dispatched?”

  From Werfel’s hesitation she knew she was not going to like his answer.  “One,” Werfel said finally.

  That was exactly what Benton thought Werfel was going to say.  She felt anger well up inside of her that was directed at Rear Admiral Douglas, though she knew that the admiral had more than just the fate of the Swiftfire to worry about it did not ease what she was feeling.

  “Just the Fury?” Benton asked.

  “Yes.  The admiral has also decided to reinforce our lines.  She’s ordering all ships to pair up.  Luckily we’re the odd one out and since we’re without a partner we can go looking for the Swiftfire.”  She let out low growl.  “Don’t worry; you’re not the only person displeased with this.  Captain Amphlett was demanding to be let loose to go after the Swiftfire as well.  I almost feel sorry for any Dominion ships that might run across her while the Swiftfire is still unaccounted for.”

  That did not surprise her; Amphlett and Werfel were Masters closest companions amongst the commanding officers of the task force.  She had no doubt if the Fury had not responded to her call for assistance Werfel would be trying to get the admiral to release his ship to go after the Swiftfire as well.

  “Didn’t you do something like this a few months ago?” Werfel asked.

  She nodded.  “Pretty much but on the Sparrow that time.”

  Benton recalled the event vividly.  It had also occurred near the Kalandra sector, however that time the Swiftfire had been separated from an attack group from the task force and forced to hide from the Jem’Hadar until it could make its run back to friendlier territory.  She had again been separated from the ship and that time it was the USS Sparrow that had gone looking for the Swiftfire.  She also remembered the mission for another more heart-wrenching reason; after they found the Swiftfire she learnt that the planet of her birth, Betazed, had fallen to the Dominion.  Her parents, Harriar and Katherine, were on Betazed at the time and she still had no idea about their fates.  Not a day went by where see did not think of them but there was little she could do about the situation.  The best she could do is hope and wish for their safety until the planet was liberated.

  “But you were successful.”

  “We were,” she admitted.  “However, that time the ship wasn’t trying to run from us.  I think this is going to be a bit tougher.”

  Werfel nodded.  Benton also suspected that Admiral Douglas had allowed the Fury to go after the Swiftfire as it had the power to stop, and by that she meant destroy, the Swiftfire if need be.  Benton just hoped it would not come to that.

  “You’ll join my 121st Fighter Wing for now,” ordered Werfel.  “Temporary assignment to the Golden Hearts squadron.  You won’t be in command of the squadron but will remain in command of your flight; I won’t be splitting your pilots up.  Will that be an issue?”

  She shook her head.  “No, it won’t.  However, if we find the ship I want to take part in getting her back.”

  “What if that means firing on the ship, possibly injuring or killing your friends and ship mates?” asked Werfel

  The thought of having to do that turned Benton’s stomach.  Despite that she knew where her duty lay.  She had made an oath to the Federation and if she had to she knew that she would be able to fire her weapons on the ship she had called home for over a year if it came down to it.

  “If it comes to that so be it,” Benton said steely-jawed.  “I am not going to just let the Swiftfire silently disappear into the black.”

  Rachel Daley started to stir.  She felt rather uncomfortable and lifted her head.  She felt a jolt of pain as she moved her stiff neck and went to rub it and found she could not.  She tried again but the sharp pain she felt in her wrists soon told her what was going on, her hands were cuffed.  She looked around her confused; she was sitting upright in a chair with her hands cuffed behind the chair.

  “What the hell?” she muttered.

  “Good morning, Rachel.”

  She looked over to the voice and saw there was a shadowy figure at the darkened desk in the room.

  “What’s going on?” Daley asked groggily.

  “We’ll I think it is more traditional for me to be the one asking the questions.  But I’ll let you have that one,” quipped the shadowed figure, a woman if the voice was any indication.  “Your ship is under my control and you’re secured to a chair so that I can ask you the aforementioned questions.”

  “Who are you?” she asked as she again tested the cuffs.

  From the feel and sound they were metal cuffs with a metallic chain joining them.  It allowed her a bit of slack to move her arms for a centimetre or two, but nothing that would be useful.  As she moved her arms up she felt chains tighten around her feet.  It seemed that the cuffs behind her were connected to a chain that also wrapped around her feet.  She dropped her arms but the chains did not loosen enough for her to free her feet.  She was very securely tied to the chair.

  “Don’t you recognise me?”

  The woman stood from behind the desk and moved closer to her.  In the dim light of the room she made out more of her features.  She was humanoid with around shoulder length blonde hair.  Daley searched her mind but could not find any recognition of the voice or face.

  She shook her head at the woman. 

  The woman looked slightly disappointed but quickly shrugged it off.  “I guess you shouldn’t since we haven’t actually met in person.  That and I have adjusted my appearance recently.”

  “Since the last time we didn’t meet,” Daley commented.

  That brought a wide smile to the woman.  “You have attitude and spark,” she said.  “I can see why Captain Masters would be attracted to you, apart from your obvious physical form.  From what I understand you two met before you were assigned to the ship but decided to keep your relationship on a personal level, then you both get marooned on a uninhabited planet and the common consensus on the ship becomes that you two should be in a relationship, yet you both courted each other for weeks before taking a step that your comrades considered obvious.  Human courting is quite fascinating.”

  Daley hid her discomfort of the unknown woman’s knowledge of her personal life.  She had to suppress a shiver up her spine at the thought of the creepiness of been tied up and having someone recounted your personal life.  “How about we get off my love life and back on to who the hell you are?”

  The woman just continued to smile at her.  The woman took a step closer to her and leant forward.  “Does the name Jasis mean anything to you?”

  Daley was about to shake her head again but the name suddenly tugged at something in her mind.  It suddenly clicked that she had heard the name before but the person before her did not seem to match the image she had in her mind.

  “The only Jasis I’ve heard of was a Vorta,” Daley stated.

  The woman pulled back her hair and Daley could clearly see the long elongated ears that ran down the side of her head in two ridges almost to the woman’s jaw line.  With the woman closer Daley also noticed the purple irises of her eyes.  The woman was a Vorta.

  “It’s amazing what a new hairstyle can do,” commented Jasis as she flicked her hair with her hand.

  Jasis’s blonde hair made the typical Vorta pale skin tone seem less stark when compared to the typical dark hair of the other Vorta Daley had seen.  Jasis’s hair also almost completely covered her long ears making them basically unnoticeable.  Daley had to admit that the new hair did make Jasis barely recognisable as a Vorta.

  “It looks good on you,” was all Daley could think to say.

  “Thank you,” replied Jasis, sounding genuinely pleased.  “I know that conformity and order are the tenets of the Dominion but a little variety never harmed anyone.”

  Daley could not help but imagine what Weyoun would look like with his hair blond.  She dismissed the image; obviously it did not work for everyone.

  “I thought you were dead,” Daley asked the most pressing question in her mind.

  “I was...or at least my predecessor was.  I was her replacement.”

  “I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you’re presence here is not a coincidence.”  Jasis just smiled back at Daley, neither confirming nor denying the accusation.  “So are you here to catch up with Jono and talk about old times?  I’m sure if you ask really nicely he’ll show you how your predecessor died.”

  Daley’s comment broke the confident, smarmy attitude that Jasis had exhibited since she had stepped out of the shadows.  She face darkened and Daley saw rage and hate in her eyes.  “I remember it quite well enough,” she spat out venomously.  “I remember how Captain Masters butchered me like a pig.  How he murdered an unarmed prisoner.”

  “What?” Daley said confused.

  Daley’s knowledge of Jasis was as the Vorta who had been briefly captured with Jono when he was a prisoner of an unstable Starfleet officer earlier that year.  Masters had told her he had killed Jasis to prevent them from falling into Dominion hands; she had never asked exactly how that had played out.

  “Did he not tell you that part?  Your Jono just about cut my head off when I was the prisoner of the other Starfleet officer.  I was unarmed and I wasn’t attacking him.  I just touched a nerve and he butchered me.  Then he left my body to rot in that jungle.”

  As Jasis spoke her hand crept up to her throat and lightly ran across it.  It was not a gratuitous action; rather it was almost as if she was feeling it to make sure the wound was not there, as if she was unconsciously reliving the event.

  “What did you expect him to do?  Bury you?  Carry you out?  He was a hostage at that moment.”

  That seemed to snap Jasis back to the present.  “Where is he?” she asked aggressively.  “Has he left the ship?  When is he scheduled to return?”

  She gave Jasis a confused look.  Daley immediately regretted it.  Her look had answered Jasis’s question as well as if she had spoken the words themselves.

  “You don’t know what I’m talking about, do you?”  Jasis’s smarmy smile returned.  “He’s still on the ship isn’t he?” She said gleefully.  “He must have gone without his combadge when he left the room.  No matter, my men will find him eventually.  Once we do...then things will get interesting.”

  Daley felt fear; however it was not for herself.  The fear was on the behalf of Jono because the look she saw on Jasis face told her that Jasis was there for blood: specifically the blood of Jonathan Masters and that she would not be satisfied until she had extracted the last drop from his broken and dead body.

  Masters, Thopok, Mon’kor and G’Ethza crawled through the Jefferies tubes towards the armoury.  Masters had taken the lead with G’Ethza and Mon’kor behind him and Thopok bringing up the rear.  So far they had not run into anyone else, though Masters knew it was unlikely for them to run into any boarders in the tubes.  That was why when he rounded a corner he nearly had a heart attack when he found himself at the business end of a phaser.

  “Captain Masters?” came a surprised call.

  It took him a moment to move his focus beyond the barrel of the weapon and he saw that it was a Starfleet Marine holding the other end.

  “Yes,” Masters replied.  “Do you mind lowering your weapon?”

  From behind the marine came a nearly impossibly large marine, one that was smiling widely.

  “You’re not out!” said Tiki and he roughly patted Masters on the shoulders with his giant paws.  “I didn’t think anyone else avoided the attack.”

  “Neither did we,” he said.

  The rest of his group was still around the corner so he backed up and allowed Tiki to look around it.  Tiki gave Masters a look that spoke of the interesting company he was keeping at that moment.

  “You don’t need the masks anymore; they, whoever they are, cleaned up the air a while ago.”

  Masters had gotten use to the mask and had forgotten he was wearing it.  He noticed that most of the Marines were not wearing any either, save for two.  He guessed they were still wearing them in case of another attack.

  Masters pulled off his mask.  “We have Petty Officer G’Ethza to thank for still being up and around,” he explained.  “It didn’t affect her and she revived me, Thopok and Mon’kor.  How did you avoid the attack?” he asked.

  “I was doing a training exercise with two squads from first platoon in the Jefferies tubes.  We’d closed them up, vented the atmosphere and turned off the gravity.  Your typical zero-g inside an enclosed space exercises.  The attack happened while we were still training.  When we finished switched back on the atmosphere Stark noticed that someone had pump anesthezine into the atmosphere so we keep ourselves sealed up and weren’t affected.  We knew it was also a very bad sign when we couldn’t access the internal communications system and or that our own private communication system wasn’t getting a reply.  We’re making our way to the armoury to better arm ourselves, we only have hand phasers on us at the moment.”

  “That’s more than we have,” said Masters showing his empty hands.  “We’re also heading for the armoury but our main focus is bio-dampeners to keep us off the ship’s sensors.  At the moment all it would take is one of the boarders with a tricorder walking in a nearby hallway to detect our movements.”

  Tiki gestured behind him.  “We’ve been using Lieutenant Dyson to keep us off the sensors.”

  “Dyson is with you?” he asked surprised trying to look around Tiki to spot the Trill engineer.

  Tiki nodded.  “The lieutenant was the one who set up our training zone.  He was monitoring it from the outside to make sure no one stumbled into it.  Of course when the gas attack happened it knocked him out and we found him unconscious in the tubes.  We brought him back to the land of the living and he’s been making us ghosts since.”

  “Have you seen any of the boarders?” Masters asked.

  Tiki shook his head.  “I was hoping you had.”

  Masters let out a sigh.  Not knowing who was wandering his ship was something he wanted to correct as quickly as possible as once they had an idea they could plan the recapture of the ship accordingly.

  “Well, we shouldn’t hang around here.  The sooner we arm up the sooner we can retake this ship,” said Tiki.

  Masters smiled grimly, that was easier said than done.  “You read my mind, colonel.”

  G’Ethza lent back on the wall of the Jefferies tube glad to give her knees a rest.  When the captain had come to an immediate stop in front of her she had nearly panicked thinking that they had been found by the enemy.  She was immensely pleased when the large form of Colonel Tiki glanced around the corner; they had run into Starfleet Marines.

  G’Ethza had no trouble with admitting she was scared.  She had the minimum of combat training and she had not fired a phaser since her last skills assessment nearly six months ago.  She did not like her chances if they ran into any hostile boarders when she was armed let alone unarmed.  She was not a big or particularly physically strong individual.  She got a bit of comfort from the presence of the captain, he had years of combat experience.

  She even was assured by the presence of the Klingons.  More so Thopok than Mon’kor.  Mon’kor did not attempt to hide that he did not like the captain or her, no doubt purely because they were not Klingons.  If they were attacked she doubted Mon’kor would lift a finger to save her life.  As for Thopok, she had a higher opinion of him.  One that was probably clouded by what she felt for him.

  G’Ethza looked down the tube towards Thopok.  As her gaze crossed Mon’kor he scowled at her.  She ignored him until her eyes settled on Thopok.  Unlike Mon’kor who was slumped against the wall looked bored and unhappy Thopok’s face did not betray any emotion.  Thopok took the opportunity to rest but he also kept a eye on the tube behind them ready for the first sign that hostile forces might be coming after them.

  Thopok looked back up the tube and caught her eye.  He held her gaze for a second until G’Ethza looked away.  She was glad for her encompassing mask as it meant that Thopok could not see the embarrassment on her face at been caught staring at him.  G’Ethza pretended to just stare at the wall opposite until the feeling that Thopok was still staring at her went away.

  In front of her Masters turned around.

  “Ready to keep moving?” asked the captain.

  G’Ethza nodded.  “Yes, captain.  Are we still going to the armoury?”

  Masters nodded.  “We’ll follow the marines; actually we’ll be sandwiched between them.”

  “I’m glad to see that they also avoided the attack,” she said hoping not to sound too relieved.

  Masters did not hide the relief on his face.  “You and me both.  The chances of us taking back this ship went up markedly,” he commented.  A slight smile came to his face.  “Instead of no chance we now have a slim chance.”

  Masters smile quickly faded at the lack of response from G’Ethza.  She was still too nervous to laugh and even if she had smiled Masters would be unable to see it through her mask.  Masters was called by one of the marines.  He turned spoke to the marine and turned back to them.

  “Okay, let's keep going.”