by Jeri Dion
“Let her go she can do you no harm,” ordered Tayce commandingly.
“Prying into matters that don’t concern you Lieutenant Commander is really not wise, it is an houron when you should be in what your race term as sleep, why are you here intruding in matters that do not belong to you?” said the Arkaran Leader holding Treketa.
“You let her go and I’ll tell you, and as for intruding, it’s you that came aboard my cruiser and laid down your request of what you wanted, I have a right to know what that thing is and if it puts my team in any more danger than your already doing,” began Tayce but was cut off.
“I am unable to divulge the nature of this piece of technology of our existence, it is forbidden,” replied the Arkaran Leader through Lance coldly.
“I’d like to point out to you, that you seem to think this cruiser is solely here for you and treat it as it’s yours, but from this moment onwards, enough is enough, I’m in command and you are classed as intruders I would think seriously about any further decisions you make regarding my team and cruiser, if you refuse to cooperate with me you might try and take the life of Officer Largon, but in return, I will make things very difficult for you to return to Arkanoss.” With this Tayce reached into her uniform holster and withdrew her gun, much to Marc and Treketas astonishment, aiming it at the silver tone pillar.
“Your threat will only cost you your life firing on our technology will not harm us, but it will harm you,” said the Arkaran in reply.
“Then tell me what is the use of this thing, because you see Arkarans are not the only ones to have powers there’s a person on this cruiser who would match you make no mistake and like your technology here I like you are not prepared to divulge who it is,” retorted Tayce trying to keep her cool and playing the Arkarans at their own game.
Marc lowered his head thinking that the Arkaran Leader could consider he had had his last warning. He knew what Tayce said, she meant. It was something he would like to see. Tayce match them power for power in gaining the Amalthea and Lance back. After a few minons the Arkaran/Lance who had grabbed Treketa released her. She ran to the safety of Marc. He slipped his arm around her protectively.
“Lieutenant Commander I have no wish to harm you or your team, we merely need this passage of which we are nearly coming to an end now, all we ask of you, is to allow us to continue in peace, in control of your cruiser and your officer, who we have had to use as a means to communicate with you, you have my word all will come to an end soon and will end well, if you allow it to,” began the Arkaran through Lance.
Marc could see that the Arkaran leader had just met his match in Tayce. She hated being vindictive to Lance it went against all they meant to each other, all she hoped was somewhere deep inside, he was urging her to continue on against these possessive beings.
“Let me tell you Arkaran, the way in which you’ve handled your gaining of forced passage, is not how we do things in our Universe, I and my team, if you had gone about gaining a passage to your home world the proper way, I would have cooperated with you to get you to Arkanoss, though the way you have done this act against the team is considered hostile,” stated Tayce, as far as she was concerned, it was time to clear the air between them.
“Lieutenant Commander, these words that you speak make me realise, that we have acted with the wrong approach to this situation, I therefore apologise… a brief word with you if I may?” requested the leader.
“Of course,” said Tayce with Marc giving a look much to say, what are you doing?
She lead the leader out of earshot and out of the Flight Hanger Bay. Marc suggested to Treketa to return to her quarters to get the rest of her sleep, he could handle anything from that moment on. He followed on at a discrete distance after Tayce. Treketa did as ordered and headed back to her quarters, thinking how well Tayce had handled the situation. The Arkarans followed behind Marc, leaving the grey silver metallic pillar to revert back to it’s standby state. Tayce and the Arkaran Leader walked along with a slight distance between them, towards the Deck Travel. Soon they all boarded and the doors drew closed behind them. The Deck Travel ascended to Level 1. Marc had decided to take the Level Steps and on the way up he Wristlinked Midge informing him of what was happening, that he wanted the whole meeting with the Arkaran leader recorded just in case there was any nasty outcome, when they reached Arkanoss. Midge agreed wholeheartedly. The Meeting Centre roughly thirty minons later. She crossed to the meeting table with Marc and gestured for the Arkarans to sit on the opposite side. She and Marc sat in seats next to each other. She thought to herself it was a good job Jonathan didn’t call and want to speak to Lance, at the present time, somehow he would never believe what was occurring on board and to his son. In fact he would probably have a crack security team heading straight for them on finding out, to tackle this uninvited race.
“Lieutenant Commander, I would like to explain something to you, if I may, on why we treat your race with the hostility, but first we have one last request…” began the Arkaran Leader then looked at Marc.
“If it means jeopardizing any more of this team, you know my answer to that question and if you don’t know what that is it’s a flat, no!” replied Tayce she could almost see what he was proposing.
“Your people many centuries ago came to our world and left it in a devastated state, it was classed as exploratory investigation, we called it destroying our evolution, thousands of our powerful kind perished in the many tests they carried out, using various poisonous gasses, many of our kind were in hibernated state and many died there, as a result, they used us and this is why we show no compassion when dealing with your kind to date, so as your Officer Largon is a low ranked officer, allow us to find out if your kind have changed, we need to gain the knowledge and understanding of Commander Dayatso, if you cannot agree I still have control of this Lance form and it would be a pity to end such a young life,” explained the Arkaran Leader.
“No way Tayce,” said Marc standing to his feet angry without thought.
She was caught in a no win situation, once more. This race were a treacherous unpredictable lot she thought and cunning with it. She didn’t want to lose Lance and she didn’t want any more of the team coming under the influence of the uninvited bunch of beings, she sat in thought for a moment, then began, even though it went very much against her authority to allow what they had proposed, to occur.
“I want you to take note of this, you harm Commander Dayatso in any way and I’ll send an emergency report to my headquarters base, they in turn, will have a security team visit your world and arrest you upon your return home for trial of killing an General’s son and a high ranked officer of the Questa fleet, is that understood?” pointed out Tayce, in a tone that showed no patience.
“You have my solemn promise, no harm will come to your Commander here and we thank you in advance,” said the leader nodding obligingly, knowing that he had fooled Tayce once more into getting what he wanted.
All the Arkarans grabbed Marc under protest, with immense force, stronger than his own, as he fought back to stop them attempting the same thing on him, that they had done to Lance. Tayce felt her heart rip right out of her chest at what happened in the following cencrons. One Arkaran took hold of Marc on either side holding him against his will, the deputy being next to the leader walked straight into Marc’s form. Marc cried out and Tayce had to look away. For a few minons, there was a white wavering glow, as the Arkaran adjusted to Marc’s form. Tayce wanted to be physically sick. She swallowed hard to keep what she was feeling from surfacing. Marc looked at her, as she looked back, motionless and with the eyes of an Arkaran. illuminate white with the pin sized pupil. What had she done, she thought, Marc would surely leave the team when he came back to himself for this. She had let him down badly, but she had no choice, as the leader still had hold over Lance and she couldn’t let him die at any cost. Marc was now much against her wishes in
the hands of the Arkarans, she felt awful.
Mornet came round soon enough and as soon as she entered Organisation, she was quickly reminded of what had unfolded the night hourons before, in the Meeting Centre by seeing Marc under the influence of the second of the Arkaran race. She hadn’t told Tom, what had happened when she had returned to their quarters after the incident, she felt too terrible and had lain awake torturing herself thoughtfully for the rest of the night as Tom slept unaware of what had unfolded beside her. Tom and Duncan walked into Organisation next mornet. Both could not believe what they were seeing in Marc’s current condition. Duncan looked to Tayce questioningly, as did Tom. Tayce looked away. Duncan went to his duty position, Tom asked for a private word in the Meeting Centre. He discretely grabbed Tayce by the arm, and ushered her inside. The sound proof doors closed.
“When did this happen?” he demanded in a impatient way, glancing over her shoulder.
“Last night hourons Treketa, myself and Marc decided that we wanted to know what was going on in the Flight Hanger Bay, take a closer look at what the Arkarans were up to there,” she began.
“How come Marc’s now under the influence of these damn Arkarans explain Tayce?” he continued far from amused at what had greeted him on arrival on duty.
“It’s only short term, they asked for Marc because he is a high ranked officer, they said they could gain a better knowledge from him about us, they have promised that no harm will come to him and he will return upon them arriving home,” protested Tayce, she wished he would stop being so defensive she felt bad enough as it was having put Marc through what she had.
“How many more of this team are going to fall under their influence, to get home Tayce,” he retorted in near whisper. He and Marc had become good buddies.
“I had to do it, they would have killed Lance, I couldn’t take that chance, I tried to give them an ultimatum in aiming my Slazer at their pillar type object in the bay, but they renewed their threat on Lance, I’m caught between wanting to rid this cruiser of them forever and wanting to keep Lance and now Marc alive, how do you think I feel, think about it Tom, would you have done any different?” replied Tayce angrily shouting at him, she’d taken enough and she didn’t care who heard.
Tom sighed in exasperation, but knew she had a point, she was trapped, he had to admit it and even though she probably wanted to use her powers couldn’t, at the present time for fear of reprise. He reached out and pulled her in towards him, apologising feeling angry at the unwanted guests.
“You should have told me last night,” he said softly, holding her now close to his warm chest his breathing slowly calming they had just had their first disagreement as a legally joined couple.
“I couldn’t, oh Tom, it was horrible what they did, I witnessed the whole takeover moment between the Arkaran and Marc,” she said near to tears, on his uniformed warm chest.
Tom thought about why they had taken over Marc, there had to be a deeper reason, than just gaining a better understanding of the human race so many yearons later. Tayce began explaining, the human race had visited Arkanoss and did tests that wrecked their planet for centuries, this had made them mistrust humans, so when they were rescued by humans centuries on taking over Lance was their first human since the last encounter centuries ago and it meant a way to find out if humans had changed, for the better, but they could only learn a certain level of knowledge in Lances form, hence them asking to upgrade to Marc, to gain a much more higher understanding of Marc’s thoughts and memories of the past, to get a better understanding of the human race in the present time. Tom fell silent, he understood, but didn’t like it. Tayce went on to explain that the Lance/Arkaran Leader had explained after the takeover of Marc, they had lost twelve home worlds to humans during the tests performed on them. Tom raised his eyes in surprise at the fact, maybe he was misjudging this uninvited bunch. Twelve worlds was a large amount of people to lose in any race. He suggested after all that she’d been through during the night hourons, she go and take some time off duty, get some sleep that she’d missed all night, he would take charge until she returned. Tayce agreed heading on out, not looking at the Arkaran Deputy/Marc, as she walked from the Meeting Centre on out of Organisation. Tom shook his head, this whole situation was one sorry mess.
Two hourons had passed, the Arkaran Leader/Lance entered Organisation and headed towards the controls gesturing for a takeover to his fellow Arkarans. The Arkaran Deputy/Marc ushered Duncan carelessly off his seat. Duncan wanted to answer back, but Tom shook his head, seeing what was happening. Tayce entered back into Organisation, she felt rested. Midge had informed her, that he had heard an Arkaran saying that the final duty was about to commence and figured that she would want to be there for it. She cringed at the sight of Marc still linked with the second Arkaran. She for one, couldn’t wait for this whole affair to cease and everything return to normal. She looked out the sight port at the immediate view, the sight was the obvious home world of the Arkarans. She listened to the conversation between the Arkaran Leader/Lance and the Planetary Control Complex, what was being discussed in a cold precise dull tone, in that they had taken over Amalthea to return home. The Arkaran Leader turned to face Tayce and began.
“Lieutenant Commander Traun, my people on Arkanoss need further knowledge from your Officer Largon and Commander Dayatso and have stated that they will not allow us entrance back to our home world, unless we take these two members of your team, with us,” he said plainly.
“You can tell your people Arkaran, passage ends here, as you have asked for, you stated that you and your three Arkarans the moment you arrived back in orbit of your home world you would release my two officers, this is now, and not for further negotiation, at any cost,” said Tayce without further word.
Upon these words the Arkaran Leader stood leaving the control seat in silence, he commanded his men to follow with one commanding nod. He could see that he had done enough with Tayce and the team. Tayce felt she had gone beyond the borderline of endurance to suffer their passage. He walked from the Organisation Deck. Duncan took back his seat and Tom gave a look of speechless surprise. Before Duncan’s backside got a chance to hit the seat, Tayce called him and Tom, she ordered them to check their Slazers and follow on. Tom, as he did so wondered if Tayce would be using her powers, as she had said earlier, if the worst came to the worst to get the Arkarans off the cruiser, then so be it, he thought. All three headed down the corridor determined to do everything possible to stop the Arkarans leaving Amalthea with Lance and Marc’s bodies. On the way down to the Flight Hanger Bay, Tayce Wristlinked Midge.
“When I give the order you pull this cruiser out of our current orbit away from the Arkaran world understand?” said Tayce in a tone that sounded like the true leader she was.
“I’m ready, you just give the word,” replied Midge.
They headed down the Level Steps two at a time, but kept a discrete distance behind the Arkarans as not to raise suspicion, that they were being followed.
“What do you have in mind?” Tom asked Tayce.
“I’ve decided that the time has come, the Arkarans have outstayed their welcome and I intend to make sure that Lance and Marc are left behind, when they leave,” replied Tayce determined.
“Isn’t that going to be dangerous for you, Marc and Lance, after all, Marc did find out they stop at nothing with their amazing powers, you could be in for a tough time,” said Tom concerned.
“I believe I’m more than a match for them and I’m willing to give it a try, if it means bringing this team back together and getting the Arkarans out of our lives forever,” replied Tayce.
They all stepped onto Level 3 cautiously and discretely going on along to the entrance to the Flight Hanger Bay. Upon reaching the open doorway they put their heads slowly around the opening, looking inside to get some idea of what the Arkarans were up to, so that they would have some idea of wha
t they were up against. Inside the Hanger Bay, the Arkarans were preparing to shut down the pillar and move it into it’s storage container to move it back aboard the craft, they had materialised aboard in. Suddenly the Arkaran Leader could be seen communicating with the main vessel. Tayce heard him and whoever it was confirming that all power had been restored and the Amalthean crew had been fools to think they were dead in space. Tayce felt like she and the team had been used for nothing more than a hostile mind fix. She decided it was time to bring this mess to an end, they had just hit a sore spot in being used, as far as she was concerned, she stepped out and walked over to the middle of the bay. Tom and Duncan followed coming to stand either side of her as she paused. Tayce looked at the Arkaran Leader far from impressed. He left the others packing to leave and crossed.
“Lieutenant Commander your here, I presume to tell me that you have changed your mind, in allowing us to take your two members with us to Arkanoss?” he began
“No I have not Arkaran,” retorted Tayce feeling hostile.
“You’ve noticed that we are packing our vessel to head back into space...,” he began.
“Your wasting your time Arkaran I heard you communicating with your main vessel, it appears that you have restored your power supply, you have been using me and my team in a hostile situation that Questa Headquarters Base would very much like to hear about, I want you off this cruiser and I want my two team members released from your total control, this is not for negotiation,” stated Tayce commandingly.
“As far as your team members are concerned, we have made a decision that we are not going to give them up from this moment forward, until we are on our world, we shall be using them as a guarantee to getting us home, without you or your guidance computer destroying our main vessel, they will gain us entry back on to our own world, without them, we will be terminated of life, for failing to gain your knowledge,” he replied plainly.
