Ferengi Vessel – Cargo bay

Tal marched into the cargo bay, putting on his most impressive business coat and preparing himself to make the transaction of a lifetime. As he approached the device, Drs. Sutherland and Xan stopped what they were doing and focused their attention on the little Ferengi as he closed them down to inspect the goods.

“Ten minutes are up! It had better be working!” He barked as he adjusted his cuff links.

Xan and Sutherland looked at each other with a glance that between the two of them signified that they were ready to enact their plan. Sutherland stepped forward and gave his final report on the progress he had made.

“Well, I never designed it to be a weapon, but it should work, but we obviously couldn’t test it” said Sutherland.

Tal approached the device and placed his hand upon the cold metallic sphere and smiled. “Guards!, take the Trill back to the brig. As for you Hew-mon, I’m afraid I must ask you to accompany me to my buyers ship.” Tal said fiendishly.

Xan and Sutherland glanced at each other again, “And if I refuse?” He asked.

“Well you have no need for a Doctor any more, for her sake, that would be… unwise.” Tal gestured for his guard to raise a phaser at Molly’s head, there was no doubt about what would happen to her if he refused.

Sutherland nodded and complied, portraying a convincing act that his decision was based on concern for Molly’s welfare, and not that the two doctors had already agreed it in advance.

After a few moments Tal initiated the transport cycle, their patterns began to dematerialise from the deck and slowly faded away leaving Molly and her guard.

Meanwhile – USS Thyanis

“Garcia, anything?” Wallace asked, assessing the performance of their strategy.

“I’m having trouble getting a clear reading sir… there’s too much ‘noise’ being generated from Thyanis, the sensors can’t tell what’s the environment or contamination from the ship’s own signature.” She replied, frustrated. 

“Bridge to Engineering, I need you to power down the warp core and any non-essential system, everything but the thrusters, air, and sensors,” Wallace commanded.

“Sir, I wouldn’t recommend doing that! We ran her engines so hot, they need time to cool down and stabilise before we shut them down. If we do it now, there’s a chance we might never get them started again!” Martin responded over Comms. 

“Sorry Chief but this is mission critical, we will just have to take the chance, rig for silent running!” Said, Wallace. The prospect of losing all main propulsion permanently was deeply concerning, but he knew that the priority was stopping Tal and saving Dr Xan, all other concerns were secondary. 

Martin acknowledged and a few moments later the Thyanis’s lights and non-essential consoles either dimmed or shut off completely. Harris was only left with thruster power to pilot the ship, but this wasn’t a major problem as the idea was to coast silently through the anomaly, like a 21st-century submarine, hunting its prey from the shadows of the deep.

“Much clearer now sir, give me another pulse from the deflector,” said Garcia as she got to work trying to plot Tal’s location.

Wallace nodded over to the ensign currently manning the Ops station and much like an old submarine, there was now a noticeable ‘Twang’ sound that pulsed through the hull as the deflector discharged its burst.

Garcia remained fixated on her screen, she tracked the pulse on its outward journey and looked for any signs of the tachyons co-locating in any particular direction. As seconds turned to minutes she was still struggling to get a fix on the Ferengi’s location. Several pulses later and the bridge crew was starting to worry. Either the Ferengi had given them the slip, or they were so deep in the anomaly the tachyons had not yet reached them, and they had effectively shone a torch in a dark room to reveal their location.

Meanwhile – The buyer’s vessel

Tal and Doctor Sutherland had materialised into a similar-sized cargo bay, not unlike the one on Tal’s ship. It was dark, and despite calling out for a response Tal had yet to receive so much as a hello.

He spread out looking for an exit and trying to work out why no one had come to meet him, or the scientist. He gingerly navigated the room in the dark, his only source of light was a small flame from a Latinum-plated lighter he kept in his jacket; an item he always kept with him in case he intended to do business with a race that burned herbs for recreational purposes, as barbaric as that was.

In his haste to try and find an exit, he had completely forgotten about Doctor Sutherland. He turned back to try and catch sight of him again, but his lighter was too dim to reach more than a few feet in front of him. He stumbled backward, knocking over a crate that came crashing to the floor with an echoing thud. Regaining his footing he turned to see what damage he had caused and discovered a small metal box, approximately one foot by two feet which had spilled its contents across the deck.

Tal kneeled to inspect the contents; dozens of small glass vials filled with an iridescent white fluid. Tal picked up a vial in curiosity and examined its contents, it was somehow familiar but he could not quite recall where he had seen it before.  

Suddenly, his mind wandered back to a phrase his buyer uttered some time ago; a phrase he had foolishly ignored as it indeed held some significance. ‘Victory is life’

“Ketracel white!…. Oh no!” Tal suddenly put the clues together and realised he had been a fool all along. His greed had blinded him to the damage he was about to do to the quadrant, supplying the greatest enemy the alpha quadrant had ever known with the means to destroy thousands of worlds.

Tal felt sick to his stomach, suddenly disgusted about what he had done.

Tal scrambled to his feet, only to turn and scream in terror as his lighter flame illuminated the face of Doctor Sutherland who had been stood directly behind him the whole time.

“Doctor, we need to get out of here now!” Tal quivered as he reached for his communicator. Before he could reach into his pocket, Tal was overcome with the most curious sensation. He felt a building warmth around his heart that almost felt as if it was flowing and trickling down his chest and his back. He felt light-headed and noticed it was all of a sudden becoming harder to breathe. Tal looked down at his chest and brought his lighter up to cast some illumination.

Penetrating his chest, was a long gelatinous mass, he followed it forward and saw that it connected perfectly with the arm of the Doctor standing in front of him. 

Tal’s mouth began to fill with blood, rising from the back of his throat as he immediately realised he had been impaled. 

“Receive this reward from the founders,” Sutherland said with a smile; his face beginning to warp and change into a perfect replica of Tal’s own. “May it keep you strong”

As the lights in the cargo bay finally began to activate, Tal could just about see thousands of similar caches of Ketracel white stacked in rows upon rows. His final thoughts were of the millions of bars of Latinum he had been promised for the deal, he tried to imagine what it would look like in his cargo hold before everything faded to black as he fell into death’s cold embrace. The last thing he would see before losing consciousness was the inside of his own chest as the changeling removed the mass that he had used to impale him and assumed Tal’s form completely.

As Tal crumpled to the floor; slowly did approach a short Vorta male, bowing towards his god as a mark of respect. “Founder!, We welcome you home. Such a shame to have to dispose of the Ferengi, I was looking forward to keeping a pet.” he said, maintaining his bow.

“The Ferengi was incompetent as he was stupid, The Starfleet ship is still out there. The fool didn’t have what it takes to finish them, he was weak” said the changeling, adjusting itself to its new form.

“I can have the Jem’Hadar crush them Immediately great one!” said the Vorta, eager to appease his master.

“NO! Send me back to the Ferengi ship first and wait for my signal, I have something else planned for their captain!” Said the changing. 

Meanwhile – USS Thyanis

“Contact!, Bearing one-nine-six, mark, six-five!” Garcia announced as she read her display.

“Harris bring us to within five hundred meters, let’s get a positive I.D and finish this,” ordered Wallace as he keyed the small display on his chair arm.

“Bridge to transporter room, Standby for transport!” he broadcast over the comms.

Ahead of him on the view screen, though the picture was fuzzy and hard to make out, the shape and form of the Ferengi D’kora class came into view.

“Confirmed sir, it’s the Ferengi!” Harris reported, bringing the ship into station keeping.

“Transporter room, energise!” Wallace gave the command, sending a team of seven young officers into harm’s way once again.

Away team Beam-In Site

Having materialised in the main cargo hold, the seven security officers immediately assumed a defensive formation and scanned the room with mk1 eyeball, looking for any immediate threats to engage. They were alone, and there was no sign of the energy device, Dr Xan or the Oppenheimer scientist.

The team leader took out a Tricorder and began scanning for additional life signs, the device pointed him towards the port side of the bay where a heavy door blocked their path. On the other side, the device was detecting several Ferengi life signs; most likely guards.

“Breaching charge!” The team leader said as he signalled for his team to approach the door. The entire team moved as a unit, sweeping 360 degrees with their phaser rifles. Their tactic was speed and overwhelming force, there was little time for stealth on this mission.

As the breacher moved up and attached a small spacial charge to the door, the remainder of the team stacked up along the wall, waiting for the order to advance. The charge was initiated, and everyone felt the thump of the shockwave in their chest as the blast tore a decent-sized hole right in the middle of the door. The officer at the front of the stack followed up with a stun grenade and like a finely rehearsed and well-timed effort, the entire team breached the door moments after its detonation.

The team flowed into the adjoining corridor and took aim at the group of stunned Ferengi. Their fingers moved onto their triggers and compressed the pull to a point just shy of the simulated break point. 

“WAIT!” shouted one of the Ferengi; lifting one of the hands covering his lobes to signal a surrender. “Don’t shoot!… We surrender!” he said cowardly. 

“We do?” said another in confusion, before suddenly realising he was staring down the barrel of a phaser rifle and quickly changed his mind, “I mean… We do!… Don’t shoot Hew-mons…Please!” The Ferengi added, smiling awkwardly.

“Take their weapons.” ordered the away team leader before addressing the first Ferengi directly. “You’re holding one of our crew mates, where is she?” 

“If we tell, promise not to shoot us?” the Ferengi asked, appearing to sincerely believe that this was a possible outcome.

“We’re Starfleet, we don’t execute prisoners!” replied the away team leader.

With relief on his face, the Ferengi began directing the away team leader, “You want the main brig, go to the end of the hall, turn right!” he said.

The away team leader gave the order to move out, leaving the Ferengi disarmed. The team had no time to capture prisoners, likewise, Thyanis’s brig was only a small two-person holding cell, they simply had no other choice but to let the Ferengi go; at the risk of allowing them to alert their crew mates.

The short walk to the Ferengi brig was uneventful, the quiet was disturbing but no one could complain about the progress. 

The doors to the Ferengi brig slid open but before anyone could put their head past the door a phaser blast shot out of the threshold and into the wall. The team took up a defensive posture with two riflemen laying down suppression whilst a third took his time to accurately locate and engage the shooter.

The moment he saw a pair of huge ears crown above the jailer’s console, he gently squeezed his trigger and prosecuted the threat with deadly accuracy. The only sound that could now be heard was the dull thud of meat falling limp on a hard floor and the unmistakable sound of a phaser scraping across the floor.

The team moved forward and began searching each of the cells, but there was no sign of Dr Xan or the Scientist.

As the last of the team stepped into the room, the doors slammed shut and sealed.

USS Thyanis Bridge

“Away team to Thyanis, we’ve reached the brig, there’s no sign of Dr Xan or the Scientist. The Ferengi seem to have sealed us in, What are your orders?”

“Standby Away team!” Wallace instructed as he walked over to Garcia to work out a plan.

“Can we beam them out?” He asked.

“With respect sir… It’s a brig,” said Garcia, feeling it should be fairly obvious by the compartment’s very nature that it was shielded against external transporters. 

Wallace thumped his own head as if to acknowledge that he had just asked a very stupid question. 

Suddenly Garcia’s console started beeping. “Sir, we are being hailed by the Ferengi Ship… It’s Daimon Tal.” 

“On Screen!” Wallace could feel his anger brewing, but he needed to remain professional. Nothing would satisfy him more than to lay into the Daimon right now, but that would achieve nothing. 

The view screen initialised to show the likeness of Daimon Tal and Dr Xan on the Ferengi bridge. Tal was seated, whilst Xan was confined inside a forcefield. 

“Captain Wallace!”

Wallace knew his options were limited, he knew Thyanis couldn’t take on the Ferengi alone, “Surrender Tal!, this has gone far enough! I’ve already reported your crimes to Starfleet, and the Ferengi Alliance… Ships are on their way to take you into custody!”  

“Don’t try and insult my intelligence by lying to me Captain, we both know that the rest of the Fourth Fleet is days away!… but you are right about one thing. This has gone far enough!… Transport yourself to my bridge Captain, let’s discuss the terms of… My surrender, in person.”

Wallace gave a hand gesture to Lt Garcia to cut the audio so he could speak freely. 

“Something’s not right!” Wallace said quietly. 

“Why does he feel like surrendering all of a sudden? he holds every advantage over us!” Garcia said.

“It doesn’t make sense, Sir this is a very bad idea…” said Harris.

“Maybe it’s not…” Wallace contemplated, working up a plan in his head. 

“Have you lost your damn mind!” Harris jumped in with an outburst, “Even if it wasn’t against every Starfleet protocol, he’s clearly up to something, why the hell would he suddenly want to negotiate face-to-face?”

“I agree with Commander Tan sir, It has to be a trap!” Garcia pitched in her own opinion.

“Agreed, It’s clearly a trap, but I don’t intend to become its victim, my compliance might just push the Daimon into being too complacent,” Wallace said, stroking his goatee.

“Captain!..Sir… I must object!” Harris was lost for words, but he had no wish to see his friend wander so willingly into what was clearly a situation that carried an unacceptable level of risk.

“Noted Number One!, Thyanis to Away team!” Said Wallace

“Go ahead, sir”

“Is there any way you can get through that door?” Wallace asked 

“We’re working on overriding the mechanism, It’ll take some time but I think we can do it!” 

“Work as fast as you can, then proceed directly to the Ferengi Bridge!” ordered Wallace as he started making his way toward the exit.

“Wallace!” cried Harris, “Please don’t do this!” he pleaded desperately. He already had to prepare himself for the possibility of losing Dr Xan, he did not want to have to contemplate the possibility of losing another friend today as well.

Wallace stared at his X.O. and smiled at his concern, before nodding to Garcia to re-open the channel to Tal’s ship. “All right Tal, I’m coming aboard, but if my crew member is harmed in any way… you have my word that I’ll see to it you won’t see the inside of any jail cell… are we clear?” Wallace said, sternly and with resolve.

“Crystal! You have my word!”

“You have the bridge, Harris!” Wallace delivered his parting command as he stepped out onto the deck and towards the ladder on his way to the transporter room.

A short time later – Ferengi Bridge

As the doors to Tal’s bridge opened Wallace immediately set eyes upon Molly who was still confined behind a forcefield. He hesitated to cross the threshold as he was not yet able to see the Daimon. The room was dimly lit, and there were no other crew members at their stations. It looked deserted and that gave Wallace a pit in his stomach that forced him to approach with caution.

“Lieutenant, are you all right?” he asked.

Molly just kept staring, not reacting in any way to the appearance of her commanding officer.

“Lieutenant?” Wallace asked again but she still didn’t react. He drew his phaser and decided to enter the room cautiously, approaching the forcefield slowly all while keeping his head on a swivel and scanning the room visually for any signs of movement or any indication of an ambush.

As he reached the barrier, he looked his crew member directly in the face, “Molly!” he said firmly, trying to attract her attention.  

For a moment, Wallace was somewhat confused until he considered the possibility that he might not be looking at his crew member after all. With his right hand he took a leap of faith and reached out to touch the force field, only to find that instead of being zapped by its energy, his hand passed right through the barrier and through the arm of Molly as he tried to touch her. “A Hologram?” Wallace muttered. 

Wallace was distracted by the image just long enough to neglect his diligence in observing his surroundings. For he had failed to notice a shadow stalking him since he entered the room, just out of sight, in the corner of his eye where his mind would easily disregard it; a shadow that was now slithering closer and closer to him while he remained distracted.

Meanwhile Thyanis Bridge

Harris sat uncomfortably in the centre chair, waiting for any news from his captain or the away team, he couldn’t do anything but stare out at the abyss on the view screen; distorted by static and anomalous artifacts. 

His mind turned to Molly, and how it made him sick to his stomach that she wasn’t yet safely back on board the Thyanis, and what was worse, now he felt a similar feeling for his dear friend and Captain. 

He remained fixated on the view screen allowing himself to become mesmerized by the patterns emerging in the static. He longed to see a normal sky and put this mission behind him.

For a moment he thought he saw a feint purple flash, but dismissed it as another anomalous artefact created by the compromised sensor data. 

‘There it is again’ he thought to himself as he began to sit up straight and pay more attention to the particular part of the view screen. 

Once more he definitely saw a flash, unmistakable this time, this was no anomaly.

“Garcia, Is there any way to clear the view screen image up a little?” he asked, eager to try and get a better look at what was going on.

“I can try re-booting the visual sensor array, Might clear it up for a few seconds,” she replied.

“Do it!” Harris ordered as he now sat forward in the chair and remained fixated on the point of purple he had just seen.

As the viewscreen rebooted, the image became momentarily clearer. Through the dust and debris ahead of them Harris could just about make out the definitive shape of a large Jem’Hadar battleship and its opening barrage of disruptor fire heading directly towards Thyanis.

“Evasive manoeuvres!”