“I’ll kill you.”  Pandora Crawford simmered from her restraints.

Lieutenant Jordan Reid glanced up from her console at the foot of the intensive care bed.  She’d read the files on Pandora.  Her history – both in the mirror universe and here was a horror show of blood, death, and destruction.  Her father’s death in the wastes of deep space and her extended stay in a Starfleet prison had been a perfect storm for revenge.  She’d bested the Romulan murderer, Patra, and swiftly conquered his empire.  “Maybe.  I’ve got my own reasons to keep alive besides the justice you’ll be facing once we’re back home.”  She checked the units that were working to reconstruct her skin and internal organs that had nearly failed due to her radiation-burned injuries.  “You’re going to live, and you’re going to answer for what you’ve done.”

The battered woman cackled, “There’s a long list of people who ‘have their own reasons.’  Get in line, lady.”  She eyed Reid, and the question slipped out of her mouth, “What reason do you have doc?  I murder a patient or something?”

Jordan kept her distance, but her eyes drifted into Crawford’s. “Ambrose Harris.”

“Oh.  If my plan had worked, you’d be dead already.”  She grumbled, “You and your Starfleet had to stop me in the middle of it.”  She answered the look on Reid’s face, “I was going to program him to kill you all – starting with Pete and that little shit that has my name.  He was going to be my masterpiece.  You all had to screw it all up.”  Crawford watched and waited for Reid to respond, but no reply came.  “You gonna just keep staring at me all day?”

She stared at Crawford for several more minutes, mutely observing a horror show.  Jordan gathered her thoughts, “There’s a darkness in you that I can’t reconcile.  A deep evil that would aim to reverse the curse of death not for the benefit of anyone…but for the sole purpose of mayhem and murder.  You don’t make sense…and I mean that on both a literal and a metaphorical level.  We’ve saved your life from the worst fate I can imagine…and the instinct inside of you reverts to violence.”

Pandora spit at her, missing as Reid dodged it.  “So why don’t you just kill me?  I deserve death.  Somewhere in that pretty little head of yours is the whisper.  The urge to close out this story.”  A smile crept across her face, sending a shiver through Jordan, “You can make me go away.  End this nightmare.”  Reid shook her head in quiet contemplation, and Pandora shouted, “End me!  END ME!”  Her breathing became ragged as she shouted louder, the meters on the equipment alarmed with low and high klaxons.  “I’m not worth all of this.”

Reid tapped at her console, her hands shaking slightly.  She replied, “I’m human.  I have my feelings about what you’ve done – all of it.  It would be so easy.”  Breathing evenly once again, she added, “I won’t surrender who I am in answer to a wild and uncontrolled anger…If I were to do that, I could never live with myself as a Doctor or a Starfleet officer.  You’ll live, Pandora Crawford…and you will face justice and judgment…just not from me.”  She cycled in a supply of medicines to draw the curtains of sleep across Crawford’s eyes.

Pandora protested weakly as it took effect, “You’ll regret this…I’ll…find….a….wayyyy…..”  Her eyes closed.

Jordan let out the breath she’d been holding.  The sooner they could hand her off to Starfleet Security, the better.

“So the good news is they’re small.”  Ensign Jake Shaw mused as he sat in the science office working through the scans they were completing as the Douglas moved around what appeared to be the boundaries of The Unknowns.

Lieutenant Fowler circled the holographic display as she tapped at the PADD in her hands, “That’s also the bad news.  They don’t appear to be tied to a planet – and that ship is their mothership, capable of building smaller and medium ships.”  She added two more ship signatures to the display, “They’ve added two scouts in the last four hours.  It might take them some time to power up that dreaded drive, but they can still move and shake their way around.  The aperture is a problem.”

Atega interjected from her place on the couch against the wall, “Well if the Cardassians get their way, they’re going to bring it all down.”  She held up the report she had been reviewing since they’d received updated details through the Bajoran wormhole.  “I’m not sure I disagree with them on a personal level. We had a tough time with the Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans, and everybody else before this…thing exploded across the universe.  Give some of the badder actors in our rogues gallery access to anyone’s space with just the flick of a console. That Romulan mess will look like a cadet’s fanfiction compared to what will play out.”

Sadie and Jake read the report again. She asked, “But what about the possibilities? I mean, Underspace has long been one of the most unknown and understudied phenomena.  The things we could learn…the discoveries we could make!  We know enough to be dangerous, but imagine somewhere in there is the cure for something…or the next big invention that changes the face of our century?”

Atega gave her friend an understanding glance, “You are such a science officer – I love you for it.”  Sadie grinned at the compliment.

Jake sighed and shrugged his shoulders at their stares, “It’s just…a lot.  Apertures opened up all over – no pattern.  Sure, we study it, but suddenly, we’ve got Klingons consolidating power and planets.  Who says the current leadership will be satisfied with just taking back the old and busted Romulan sectors?  How long will he be able to hold onto power if some major houses get motivated to reopen old wounds?  How long will they wait until someone thinks about using Underspace for their own motivations?  You put enough minor houses together…all it takes is a major house or two before we’ve got political splintering.”

Fowler finished her glare at him, “I warned you about your Klingon conspiracy theories, Ensign Shaw.  I understand it was a part of your academy study, and you’ve taken the time to study it at length…there’s an old Earth expression – you need to touch the grass.”

Jake groaned, “Not the first time I’ve heard it said.”  He tossed his PADD onto the table, “I think we all need a break…maybe take in a picnic in a field in the holodeck?”  He smiled widely at both women, “You do remember what the sun looks like, don’t you?”

They rolled their eyes at him but followed him out into the corridor.