The Final Frontier 8

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TF01 3,The Hunter - Part 8 4,by Stuart Mackaness The Vanguard Chronicles - "The Hunter" ---------------------------------------- by Stuart Mackaness --------------------- PART EIGHT Halk walked onwards, they seemed to be covering more ground than they did yesterday. Carstairs couldn't be buried, they had nothing to cut into the ground with. Hermandez's phaser had been damaged in the explosion and the ones beamed down were destroyed. Her tricorder seemed to be working though which was a positive sign. She was getting all sorts of strange readings, with her power being drained and then coming up to full power again. It was very strange. Hermandez suddenly pointed into the sky. Halk looked up and saw Karma motionless above them. She seemed frozen in mid-flight. Hermandez reached up and tried to grab her. She froze on the spot. Not daring to approach them, Halk pulled out her tricorder and scanned the pair. Everything seemed fine. She ran through several scan modes. "What the..?" she gasped surprised. 'Their cellular decay levels are non-existent! That can't be possible, they aren't aging!' she thought with amazement. Confused she sat down and set a new scan sequence into the tricorder. Hermandez suddenly wobbled slightly, and Karma flew forward on her normal flight path. She landed by Halk. "I came as fast as I could Commander." Karma said breathlessly. Hermandez snatched at the air. She turned to face Halk and then looked confused when she saw her having a conversation with Karma. "Are you alright Karma?" she asked. "You were frozen in the air." Karma looked up at her. "What are you talking about, I was only flying for a few seconds." "Something's not right." Halk replied. There was silence for a moment. Karma eventually broke it. "How are you two? I saw the explosion a few minutes ago." Halk paused. She looked across to Hermandez who was equally bewildered. "That was over a day ago." Karma took this in without missing a beat. "Just as I thought. Time is different in certain places in this chamber." Halk listened as Karma described her conversation with Dean. Hermandez worked on the tricorder, the conversation going over her head slightly. Even Halk was starting to get swamped with concepts. "Anti-time?" She asked. "Never mind, it's a hypothetical theory which has no real basis for existence." Karma said with a strong feeling of deja vu. "So you think there are pockets of time running at different rates all across this room." Halk summerised. "Maybe even the whole ship, we were together most of the time so we don't know." "Can we detect them with our tricorders?" Hermandez asked. "Only if we are actually seeing someone in another pocket. We can check their cellular decay levels." "See if they're aging." Halk translated for Hermandez. "Exactly." Karma replied. "But why are there pockets here? There must be a reason." Halk said. "Perhaps the pockets are other dimensions, like the hunter's shields were." Hermandez said. Karma looked at her surprised. "That's probably it! Parts of the ship exist in other dimensions. We can probably reach the aliens behind this elaborate ship at the tower. I think I saw some kind of door there." "Well then let's get to Dean at the centre of this thing and then get the hell out of here!" the security officer said, jumping to her feet. * * * The hunter watched as the bacteria moved around in it. It had been infected! They were poisioning it. Not satisfied with beating it in combat, they were now going to slowly kill it! Where was the honour in that. Better to be allowed to take it's own life than be poisioned by these organic things. * * * "You're the science officer, you figure it out." Dean retorted, the lack of food had started to irritate him. Karma ignored him and looked out to the horizon. "Who is that?" Dean followed her gaze. "It looks like humanoids !" He said surprised. A small explosion covered the three figures. Karma rose into the air. "I'll go and check it out." Dean stood up and watched her shoot forward into a dot on the horizon. He moved to sit down, then he realised something. He pulled off his boot and studied his ankle. It wasn't broken anymore. "Robert!" Came a shout from the base of the stairs. He walked over and saw Hermandez, Halk and Karma rushing up to greet him. "You just left!" He said to Karma confused. "I'll explain in a minute." Halk said. "We need to see what's behind that door." Dean stepped back and tugged at the metallic door. It didn't even rock slightly. "It won't budge, Commander." he said grimly. "Stand away Robert." Hermandez said aiming her tricorder at the door. "What are you doing Macha?" he asked puzzled. "I combined the tricorder with the working parts of my phaser. It should work now." she pressed a button on the screen, and a phaser beam lanced out. It struck the door in the top right corner. Hermandez slowy shifted the beam across to the left. Halk watched approvingly. "Excellent work Lieutenant." "So how are you all?" Dean asked. "We're all fine, but Carstairs is dead." Halk said. "It seems we have more time on our hands than I thought, so I'll bring you up to date on what we've discovered." Hermandez continued to phaser the door as the two of them talked. She began to cut down the left hand side to the ground. "So there are pockets of other dimensions scattered around the ship. That must be why this place is bigger on the inside than the outside." Dean said with growing understanding. "Exactly." Karma replied. "You Humans are smarter than I thought." "Thanks." Halk retorted, not sure how to take the comment. "I'm through!" Hermandez announced. She kicked the door and it fell inwards. Halk switched her tricorder's light beam on and illuminated the inside."Oh, great." she said annoyed, "Another door." Dean approached it. It parted to reveal a brightly lit cubicle. He stepped inside. A speaker began to calmly instruct him in an unfamiliar musical language. He waited for the universal translator to activate on his communicator. It remained silent. "Either the translator's off line, or else the language can't be translated right now. Let's give the computer a little while to work it out." Dean suggested. "Perhaps we aren't in contact with the ship anymore." Hermandez suggested. Halk tried her communicator. It was just producing static. "Shall we get into the lift?" Dean asked. Halk suddenly realised he was right. The cubicle was a large lift. She stepped inside and indicated that the others should follow suite. The doors closed efficiently and then opened almost immediately. They were on the top of the column, just above the mist. Infront of them lay a complex machine with crackling globes of energy and flashing pipes. A man shaped chamber was inset into the floor. Halk ran her tricorder over it. The screen filled with gibberish and then drained of power. Slotting it into her belt pouch, Halk bent down to join Dean in examining it. Inside the alcove was a soft velvet-like material. It was warm to the touch and slightly moist. "It's like living tissue." Dean whispered. Hermandez called them over from the other side of the room. "Commander Halk, there's a whole group of them over here." They examined them and found that they were identical in constuction to the first one. Dean tried to lie in one but was stopped by Halk. "It's my responsibility, Lieutenant." She said calmly. He stepped back and watched her lie down. Hermandez came over with Karma. "Are you crazy Commander?" the security officer exclaimed. "No I'm going to find out wh-" Halk began. A trail of lights lit the sarcophagus entrance and Halk's face became ridged. "Commander?" Hermandez asked tentatively. <Well done organic constructs, you have beaten me> Halk said in stiltied standard. "Who is this?" Karma demanded. "Am I talking to the hunter's crew?" <I am...> Halk paused. <The hunter. I have no infestations. I am alive like you only better.> "Obviously not that good, we beat you." Karma replied cooly. <Point taken.> The Halk/hunter agreed. "The ship is alive..." Dean whispered to himself. "Of course it all makes sense. The artery like corridiors, the green blood, the lake, the beating sound in the distance. We've been in the hunter's circulatory system!" "Where did you come from?" Karma asked. <This organic construct does not contain the information to give precice directions. You are surly a naieve and recluse species> "We are from the United Federation of Planets, a collection of many races in this part of the galaxy. Our mission is to explore space, by definition our quest is for knowledge and understanding. You attacked our ships, why?" Dean said. <Sport.> Halk/hunter replied instantly. "Why is it sport?" he asked agahst. <To prove that I am unbeatable by any creature in this part of the universe> "How many ships have you destroyed?" Hermandez said, a small measure of empathy seeping into her voice. <I have not killed enough creatures to prove myself> Karma was puzzled. "You refered to our ships as creatures, why." <They are not your ships, they are creatures who you infest like a plauge. You restrict them from controlling themselves. They are almost not worth killing, I feel sorry for them.> "Our ships can't function without us. We tried to let computers control starships but they malfunctioned." Hermandez explained, remembering what she had been taught about the M-5 experiments at the academy. "Are you a machine?" Dean asked. <Not by your paltry standards. I am mechanical though.> "You're telling me that this thing is a gigantic big game hunter. It goes around the galaxy blowing starships apart and then collecting parts of them as trophies!" Karma exclaimed. <Yes> "I wasn't talking to you." She snapped. Dean looked slightly worried. "So what happens now?" <I have been defeated. I am without honour, I should die.> "This thing sounds like a Klingon!" Karma muttered. "Woah! What do you mean die?" Hermandez said quickly. The lights around the coffin dimmed and Halk's body slumped back, limp. Dean grabbed her while Hermandez slapped her communicator. "Vanguard, this is Lieutenant Hermandez. We require an emergency beam out. Now!" The communicator remained silent. Jets of gas shot out from pipes in the wall as the deck began to shake violently. Terminals and energy conduits belw apart, flames began to shoot up from vents in the floor. Karma thumped her annunciator. "Vanguard, this is the away team, we need beaming now!" The floor began to heave. Dean lost his footing and fell backwards towards the lift. Fireballs blossomed from the machinery. Chunks of debris rained down on the group as the ceiling broke apart. "This is it!" Hermandez called over to Dean. Dean nodded and grasped her outstreched hand. Karma closed her eyes and braced herself for the explosion. She tensed up, her muscles screaming for peace after the flurried activity of the past day. A strange coolness washed over her body. * * * Warner watched as the Hunter began shudder slightly. He turned to the ensign at Ops. She was busy reading incomming data. "Status?" he demanded. She shook her head. "Fluctuating power levels. It looks like some kind of self-destruct." Warner inwardly cursed. "Helm, lay a course out of here at full impulse." He slapped his communicator. "Transporter room, get them out of there." He ordered. "I can't get a solid lock!" Briggs complained. "Dammit! We're going to lose six good people if you don't energise now!" he barked. The Vanguard began to thrust away from the suicidal ship. Gouts of flame shot into the void of space. A warrior was dying. "I've got a partial lock on them, but I don't know how stable it is. There's too much interference." Briggs reported, the pressure making his voice crack slightly. "Energise" Warner snapped. The Hunter detonated on the viewscreen. A huge fireball engulfed the angular vessel in an orgy of destruction. The Vanguard was buffeted by the subspace shockwaves for a few seconds until the inertia dampening field compensated. Horror clutched Warner's heart. "Transporter room, did you get them?" "There wasn't enough time to..." Briggs trailed off. Warner looked at the starfield displayed before him, trails of energy and vapourising debris marred the otherwise tranquil image. His mind travelled back to the time in the galley, Dean and Hermandez had a full life ahead of them. He thought how he had treated Halk when she was late for bridge duty, could he have been more lenient? And what about Karma? Did she deserve the deal that Starfleet had cut her? He had become attached to all of them in the short two years the crew had been together. Was life fair? "Sir! There's something in the transporter buffer!" Briggs exploded over the channel. Warner lept to his feet and rushed to the lift. He nearly knocked a crew member over, he muttered an apology. The journey to the transporter room was a haze for him, he fiercely tried to suppress his hopes and fears. He had an example to set. He paused for a second outside the room. What was going to be behind the doors? Was it death or a miraculous escape? It didn't matter, he had to know either way. Stepping forward, the doors parted to reveal... "Laughter?" Warner said out loud. The four were clustered together in a huddle, laughing from the shock and the adrenalin rush. Briggs was joining in as well. Warner ran forwards into the group, forgetting duty and rank. His family was safe. EPILOUGE Captain's Log: Stardate 47358.9 With necessary repairs complete, we can finally head home. We are due to rendezvous with Counselor Reboxski at Starbase fourty-five in just under a day. The Vanguard is due at Starbase Montgomery after delivering Commander Halk and the Counselor to the Kreel summit. This mission has tested my crew to their full limit, but they have emerged the better for it. Personal Log: Supplemental Some day we may learn about the hunter's mission and origin, but until then I'm sure the the Science Council and Xenobiologists will be quite happy speculating to the President and the Commander in Chief of Starfleet. I can't help but hope that we never find them. We have enough enemies at the moment, with new information about the Dominion gleaned from our research in the DS Nine database it seems that Starfleet's policy of peaceful solutions and diplomatic relations may not live for much longer. The future is more uncertain than ever for the Federation. Warner ended his log and leaned back in his chair. His joy at the conclusion of the mission was overshadowed by his poor handling of his personal life. Yeoman Lesaari had requested a transfer. He wasn't sure what actually happened between them. He knew it was his fault though. He had given her responsibilities and spent time with her, but hadn't read the signals. They were as noticable as a warp core breach according to Halk. Maybe if he had seen what Lesaari was leading to he might have been able to sort out his own feelings before hand instead of blowing up infront of her like he did. His door chime called out to him. "Come in." He said automatically. It was Li, holding a bottle. "I heard about Lesaari," He began, "you want to talk about it?" Warner considered pouring his heart out to his friend. He didn't, he was a Starfleet officer. "I'll get over it. how about you?" Li looked at him puzzled. "What do you mean?" "You lost a lot of friends in medical." Warner explained, putting a reasuring hand on his friends shoulder. Li focused on a non-existent object. His thoughts now lay somewhere else. "Yes, I did." "You want to talk about it?" Warner asked quietly, trying not to sound like an echo of his friend's question. Li thought long and hard. He didn't, he was a Starfleet officer. Instead he offered the bottle to Warner. The Captain took it and examined the lable. He nodded approvingly and produced two crystal goblets from the replicator. Levitt poured a deep orange liquid into them and replaced the bottle's cap. They took their glasses and toasted each other and the Vanguard. Downing the drink in one, the pair stared into their glasses for several minutes. Each was lost in his own problems. Warner looked up at the doctor. "Fancy a game of zero-G football, old timer?" A small smile played across the other's lips. "Why not." They left the room together.