The Fates Series 07 A Gambit Set

by Alys Landale

  In one move, Paris had pushed himself into the open doorway. He began discharging his weapon, hitting as many people as he could. Danag and Sargon raced in and found cover as Tom distracted the security officers.

  A huge smile covered Sargon’s features as he fired at those of his own species. “I really needed this.”

  Tom tried to push the man’s words out of his mind. Sargon might be bloodthirsty at times, but currently their weapons were only set on stun. These engineers might not feel too good for a week or two but they would live.

  On the other hand, the Empire’s guards weren’t half the humanitarians. The weapons they were firing with were rapid-fire projectiles. A few shots hit the wall frame next to Paris’s head. *It might be best if I get down now,* he thought.

  He found cover under a nearby console as more weapon fire discharged above his head. Tom shot three more of the men down before he decided to tally the amount of officers left.

  There were only six left.

  “We’ve got a sec....” One of the guards began to call security for help, but Sargon managed to shoot him down before he was able to finish his sentence.

  Danag got two more guards. His heart was racing. The odds were even now, but the danger was more evident. Before they had been working under controlled circumstances. No one knew that they were here. Now an entire security force could be here in a matter of minutes.

  Adrenaline was flowing through every corner of his body. Excitement was surging. Sargon loved it all. Throughout all of his life, he had found this type of situation the most comforting to him. His mind was so occupied, he couldn’t think of the tortures he had endured. All of the hardships. All of those that he had lost.

  If one thought, one died. He had learned that early on. Now he let his instincts prevail as he found another target. From his position, he couldn’t get a good lock though. A small partition prevented the man from being hit, but it didn’t prevent him from unleashing a large spray of bullets on Landis.

  Rune was unable to move and Danag could barely shoot straight. That meant it was up to him. *Well, Meylin, I might be seeing you sooner than expected.*

  Standing up from his position, he got a good lock on the man. “Bye,” he said and pulled the trigger. The man was only able to catch a glimpse of Sargon as the shot hit him straight in the chest. The officer fell to the ground.

  Sargon failed to notice the Parvanian standing ahead of him. The sound of the gunshot caught his attention and he was just able to turn around slightly before a stream of fire seemed to rip through his chest.

  *I suppose I was right,* he thought. He could hear nothing after that. He was barely aware of himself falling to the floor. The last thing he remembered was a sharp thud as his back hit the floor and then the darkness consumed him.

  Danag was at his friend’s side the instant he hit the ground. He pulled the wounded Parvanian out of the line of fire.

  Paris had heard the shot. He had finally been able to get free enough to begin firing again when Sargon had shot the guard. But he hadn’t been fast enough. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as one of the security officers raised his rifle to fire. There had been one shot. Then Sargon had fallen.

  Paris quickly took out the two remaining guards. He then made his way over to Sargon. The Parvanian was deathly still. A thick black liquid had soaked his clothes from where he had been hit.

  Tom walked over to Danag. The look on the man’s face wasn’t good.

  B’Elanna had this feeling that something had happened. She couldn’t explain it. It was just a thought that had erupted a few seconds ago. She looked up from her engineering console. So far, she had done little work. There had been little to do.

  Joe walked over to her. He had a worried expression on his face, but he said nothing.

  She shook her head to clear it, but the thoughts wouldn’t go away. Somehow, she couldn’t shake the morbid feelings that were running down her spine.

  Paris silently approached his junior officers. That entire shooting fray had lasted no longer than thirty seconds, yet one of his men lay crumpled on the floor already. He knelt down and put a finger to Sargon’s neck to see if there might still be a pulse.

  Danag knew that Sargon was dead. He had to be. All of the blood. There was no way he could withstand a wound such as that.

  Both men’s thoughts were similar so they were each surprised as the Parvanian let out a muffled groan when Paris touched him.

  Tom’s eyes focused on the wounded man. “Sargon.” he said.

  Sargon gave a slight cough and barely opened his eyes. “Looks like...my luck finally left me.”

  Paris smiled slightly. “We’re going to have to get you back to the ship. Danag, keep an eye on him. I’m going to bring down the station’s shielding. If they don’t know we’re here, they soon will.”

  Danag nodded. He then turned to Sargon. “I told you to stay down.” He said in mock scolding.

  The Parvanian laughed slightly, “You think I’d... listen to you... half-breed?”

  Danag smiled. He put a hand on Sargon’s chest to stop the bleeding. It was by the Spirit’s intervention that his stomach didn’t turn as he felt his hand sink into the blood covered clothes on Sargon’s chest. The wounded man let out a sharp groan and cursed a few times but said nothing else.

  Tom linked himself to the stations main engineering console. The main systems would all be routed through this one console. Or at least they should. Paris gave a slight curse as he discovered a new variable in their planning. It seemed they would need a lot more help if they hoped to take this station.

  He finally made his way into the main shielding grid. He couldn’t access all of the controls from here, but he would be able to make a small hole in the stations shielding for about a minute or so. It wouldn’t be large enough to cause any damage, but it could allow someone to transport in or out.

  After a few seconds he had created a small tear in the shielding. It could go unnoticed for up to three minutes. After that, he would have to close it again. That meant he had to work fast.

  Patching an encrypted signal through to the armada, he prepared to inform his colleagues of the recent turn of events.

  “We’re receiving an incoming message. Audio only.” Harry said.

  “Put it through.” Janeway ordered. Paris hadn’t said anything about patching a signal through at this time. She sighed.

  Things never went as planned.

  “I’ve created a hole in the station’s shielding.” Paris said over the comm. “However we are unable to bring the weapons off-line at the moment. Sargon has been wounded and we need at least three more people to take control of the station.”

  Janeway was the first to respond to the message. “We’ll beam Sargon to sickbay. I’ll have....”

  “I’ll transport over to the station.” a voice interrupted.

  Janeway looked up. “Lieutenant Torres, you...”

  “Are needed more over there.” B’Elanna finished. “Captain, Joe can take over down here and I’d be more useful over there.”

  Janeway had to admit the woman had a point. “Alright. B’Elanna and Chakotay will beam over to join you.”

  “As will I,” said another male voice.

  The officer was not listed aboard Voyager. His response sounded over the comm line to all of the ships present. There were muffled protests from his ship’s comm line, but he continued. “The three of us will beam aboard the station in one minute. Be ready.” He then cut his signal.

  Janeway placed the voice, but she couldn’t believe he would be going. “Was that the consul?” she asked.

  Maris took a rifle from one of the security officers on his ship.

  Raken then walked over to the older man. “Consul, you don’t have to go over there. We can find someone else.”

  Maris ignored the captain. “Everyone else is needed here. I’m not doing anything. Over there I will be of use.”

  Raken was about to protest again, but
Maris stopped him. “I know what I’m doing, Captain. Beam me over to the station.

  The captain finally gave in. “Aye sir,” he said.

  Maris stood motionless as the transporter beam took him away. He had been almost completely useless for the past week.

  At least now, he could make a contribution to the battle.

  “Try and get them again.” Takma ordered.

  The officer did as he was told. So far, they had been trying to contact Engineering for the past couple of minutes with no luck. Sweat was beginning to gather on his features as he realized what would happen if there actually was a problem. He would be blamed. Anything after that, he didn’t want to think of.

  He tried to get through to engineering once more. Praying to the Fates, he entered in the commands and waited for a reply.

  Paris watched as Sargon was beamed away. Danag stood there staring at the puddle of blood where his friend had been lying.

  “Danag, we need to get to work.” Tom said in a low voice.

  The other man nodded and joined Paris at the terminal. At that moment, a voice cut through the silence in the room.

  “Engineering, respond.” came a voice from the comm line.

  Danag turned to Paris. Tom motioned for the man to answer it.

  Danag tried to remember as best he could, the way one of the guards had sounded before. He tapped in a few commands and said in his best Imperial voice. “Yes, this is Engineering.”

  The two heard the man on the other line let out a sigh of relief. “I have been trying to raise you. Why haven’t you responded?”

  Danag stumbled for an answer. “The... We were facing technical difficulties and were unable to register a comm signal.”

  Another voice then cut through the transmission. It was a deep feminine voice that said. “Officer, report you name and security access code at once.”

  Danag recognized the voice as Takma’s immediately. “My access code?”

  Tom watched as Danag fumbled for an answer. They just needed a few more minutes. All that was keeping them there was the other members of their team who hadn’t yet arrived.

  Paris’s attention was then turned to the side of the room as three other crewmen materialized near him. They could finally leave now.

  “I said your access code,” repeated Takma. “Who are you? You’re not one of my officers.”

  Paris motioned to Danag that it was time to leave. The Ops officer quickly wrapped up the conversation. “Sorry, I think the warp core just exploded. I’ll have to get back to you later.”

  Takma expected this to be an intruder, but she had not expected to be talked to in such a manner. She turned to the guard next to her. “Have all the drones reactivated and send half of them to Engineering. Have the others sent out to search for the on all levels. I want these intruders found and killed now!”

  The officer nodded and quickly ran to do her bidding. Kail then turned to her. “There’s no telling where they are now. They have obviously found a way to fool our sensors,” his thoughts then turned inward. “If they were able to fool internal sensors....”

  “Then they could external as well,” Takma finished. She quickly hit her communicator. “Scan this entire sector down to the molecule. If anything looks the slightest bit strange, fire at it.”

  “Aye sir.” Came the reply and then the communication was broken.

  Takma turned back to Kail. “It seems that things have suddenly fallen apart,” she muttered. “We’ll just have to take charge of the situation as usual.” She turned to leave but stopped in her tracks. “Oh and one more thing General. Remind me to make sure to have that man assimilated before we leave.”

  The five members of the away team slipped out of engineering as quickly as possible. B’Elanna, Chakotay, and Maris were each outfitted with the same armband as Danag and Paris. They had little threat of sensors picking them up; however, that wouldn’t matter much if an army of drones came marching around the corner.

  “If we want to get this station’s shielding down, we’ll have to do it manually. There’s only one terminal that will accept the commands to shut down weapons and shielding, and it’s heavily guarded by drones. That means we’ll have to find each power coupling and disconnect them systematically.”

  The others nodded. They knew what they were about to encounter. But as their minds created every virtual scenario possible, they failed to imagine that they would be found out so quickly.

  Two groups of drones were approaching them from either side. Paris led the group farther into the station, and as he did so, the drones closed in even more. Within minutes, Takma’s orders would be followed through.

  Janeway was getting impatient. She hated waiting. Especially when it was her people who were in danger. And now she had three crewmen facing unimaginable odds and even greater danger.

  “Any word?” she asked.

  Harry shook his head. “Sensors aren’t picking up any comm signals and everything seems alright.”

  She nodded. After a few seconds, she began tapping the arm of her chair. Something was going to happen soon. She could feel it.

  Harry as well as everyone else on the bridge felt the same way as Janeway. The ensign hoped that everything was alright. So far, only Sargon had been injured, and Doc had given them no word on how the Parvanian was doing.

  Tuvok’s voice then caught his attention.

  “Captain, the Imperial vessels are charging weapons,” he said stoically.

  Janeway felt her throat constrict. If they already knew that there were ships out here, then that would mean the away team had been....

  No, she didn’t need to think about that now. She was not going to allow herself to jump to conclusions when there was no evidence to prove anything. Instead, she turned to her helmsman.

  “Mr. Baytart, prepare evasive maneuvers. Keep us cloaked though. I won’t let them scare me into raising shields when we don’t even know if they can see us or not.”

  The helmsman nodded. Janeway then turned to Harry, “Notify all the other ships in the Fleet. Tell them to get ready. We might be in for some trouble.”

  They were getting nearer to their target. B’Elanna hung to towards the back of the group. She and Danag kept an eye on the group’s back while Paris led them through the station’s corridors.

  “Did you hear that?” she asked Danag. She could have sworn she heard someone behind them.

  Danag shrugged. “What?”

  She turned her eyes towards where the sound had come from. Someone was following them. “We need to pick up our pace.” She said. “We’re going to have company soon.”

  Danag said nothing but nodded.

  Tom’s attention was fully focused on finding the power couplings and pattern buffers to the station. Unlike most bases, these weren’t in Engineering, they would be deep within the station’s Main Power Room. That meant more time spent trying to find them, and more time for security to find the intruders.

  What time had they left Engineering? It had to be three maybe four minutes by now. Paris looked around him. He hadn’t realized how long they had been gone. Security should have a lock on them by now.

  Or maybe they already did. Tom stopped the group. “Security should have found us by now.” he whispered.

  Chakotay realized this as well. “How much farther do we have before we reach...?”

  His voice was cut off by Danag. “Get down!”

  Paris barely had time to push Chakotay to the floor before a spray of gunfire had sailed through the area he had just occupied. *Why didn’t I notice this before?* Tom asked himself.

  His entire group was on the floor now. Gunfire ricocheted off the walls around them so loudly that they had to yell to hear one another.

  “Where is it coming from?” the consul asked.

  All of the group were firing at anywhere they could. Shots seemed to be raining down on them from all directions.

  B’Elanna held her phaser and fired wildly. *Where are they?* she w
ondered.

  It was then that she got her answer. A wall of drones seemed to appear from nowhere. Her eyes widened as she saw the numbers coming toward them.

  “We’ve got to pull back!” she yelled.

  The answer that returned to her was not at all what she expected. “We have nowhere to pull back to!”

  Xara could see what was going on from her vantage point above the group. Drones had surrounded the team and were now beginning to close in. None of them had any cover. She knew they wouldn’t last much longer.

  *I’ve got to do something,* she told herself.

  Taking the Padd she had taken with her, she went in search of a computer console. The corridor that they were in had to floors to it. She was currently on the platform above where all the shooting was going on. A computer terminal was next to her.

  *Okay, Aria told me how to do this. Rune told me how to do this. I can do it.*

  Taking the Padd she had brought with her, she began to download its contents into the terminal. After a few seconds it was done. She stepped back. Now came the tricky part.

  “Computer, play audio transmission,” she said.

  There was a sharp beep and then the computer replied. “Invalid message command. State file name and command.”

  She could hear the shots continuing down below. Time was running out, she had to hurry. “Umm, Computer, play the audio transmission that I just downloaded on the loud speakers.”

  Another sharp beep sounded, “Invalid message command. State file name and command.”

  Her breathing was beginning to speed up. What was she supposed to say?

  *Computer play audio file gamma delta five three one on all comm systems,* came a voice within her.

  Xara thanked the Spirit for that little message. She also silently thanked Aria as well.

  “Computer play audio file gamma delta five three one on all comm systems.” she said.

  There was a softer beep this time and the computer responded. “Playing file, now.”

  Xara smiled. Everything would be fine for now. Her thoughts then turned to another peril she was about to encounter.