Course Correction Studio

Tag: Suliban

  • Edge of Heaven – Chapter 17. We’ll Always Have Risa (or Will We?)

    Archer and Dani emerged from his ready room.

    “I’ve taken the liberty of asking Commander Tucker to join us,” Reed said.

    “What’s the problem?” Archer asked, walking over to Reed’s station.

    “We’re having trouble balancing the warp field,” Reed said.

    Archer studied Reed’s computer monitor. “Looks fine to me.”

    “It’s odd,” Reed said. “It’ll be stable one moment, and then, for no reason, it’ll go slightly out of alignment.”

    “What are you guys doing to my engines?” Tucker asked, stepping from the turbolift onto the bridge.

    “The auto-stabilizers aren’t functioning properly,” T’Pol said.

    “The computer ran its last diagnostic on them less than 10 minutes ago,” Tucker said. “They look fine.”

    “Well they’re not,” Reed said. “We’ve had to realign the field a dozen times over the last hour.”

    “Load torpedoes, and stand by all weapons,” Archer said, alarm rising in his voice. “Deploy the beacons, Travis. Modify the viewscreen, and aim the beacons aft.”

    The viewscreen displayed six green blobs in formation just beyond the nacelles.

    “Swing them down slowly,” Archer instructed. Another six blobs came into view on the screen.

    “It looks like we’re in a swarm of cloaked bees,” Trip observed.

    “Charge the phase cannons,” Archer said.

    “We’re being hailed,” Hoshi announced.

    “Put it through,” Archer said.

    Silik’s bumpy face appeared on the viewscreen. “I wouldn’t advise using your weapons, Jonathan,” Silik warned. “Perhaps if we decloak, you’ll understand why.” Silik cut the transmission from his end. The image that replaced him was a view of Enterprise’s hull surrounded by dozens of pods.

    On Archer’s order, Hoshi suspended the transmission with Silik. Archer turned to Reed. “Malcolm?” he said, seeking confirmation.

    “They’re all armed with high-yield particle weapons, sir,” Reed reported.

    “How many could you take out?” Archer asked.

    “Before they could open fire?” Malcolm asked. “Not enough sir.”

    Archer nodded at Hoshi, who resumed the transmission with Silik.

    “One of my ships is approaching your starboard docking port,” Silik said. “I’d like Danielle Janeway to board it immediately.”

    Archer and Dani looked at each other before turning back to the viewscreen. Of all the things they’d anticipated coming out of Silik’s mouth, that hadn’t been one of them. “What do you want with her?” Archer demanded.

    Silik ignored Archer’s question. “You have five minutes,” he said. “If you don’t comply, I have permission to destroy Enterprise.”

    “How do I know you won’t destroy Enterprise either way?” Archer asked.

    “You have my word, Captain,” Silik said. “And you also have four and a half minutes left.” He ended the transmission.

    Dani looked at Archer briefly before turning and walking toward the turbo lift. She hadn’t said a word, but Archer, knowing the kind of person she was, already knew what she had in mind.

    “Dani—where are you going?” he asked, following her.

    “You heard what he said,” Dani said. “If I don’t go over there, he destroys Enterprise.”

    “So it’s as simple as that?” Archer asked. “You’re just going to go over there, and everything will be made perfect.”

    “That’s the plan,” Dani said. The lift doors opened , and she stepped in. Archer was right behind her.

    “You don’t know what he wants with you,” Archer said as the turbolift doors closed behind him.

    “I have an idea,” Dani said.

    “He could kill you,” Archer said.

    “I’m not supposed to be here anyway, Jon,” Dani said. “If I die, it’s not going to make a difference.”

    “Damn it, it’ll make a difference to me!” Archer said. “I can’t just let you go over there and commit what basically amounts to suicide.”

    “Jon, it’s imperative that your mission continue,” Dani said. “I can’t tell you why – one day, it’ll make sense. But you can’t die, and Enterprise can’t be destroyed without serious ramifications to the future of Starfleet. Everything makes so much sense now.” Her eyes welled with tears. “It was never going to be my time to go back home.”

    Archer shook his head. “Don’t say that.”

    “It’s my destiny, Jon.”

    “No!”

    The turbolift came to a halt, and the doors opened. “What if you go over there, and he kills us anyway?” Archer asked. “Have you thought of that? Then you will have sacrificed yourself for nothing.”

    Dani paused to consider Archer’s point, but only briefly. “If I don’t go over, then it’s certain death for you, Enterprise, and everything I’ve ever known,” she said. “If that happens, I won’t have anything to go back to anyway.”

    Dani stepped out of the turbo lift and into the corridor. Archer stepped out with her.

    “There’s another way,” Archer insisted. “There has to be.”

    “Tell Kyle to tell my parents what happened,” Dani said.

    “I will.” It was Kyle who spoke. Archer and Dani turned to see him rushing toward them. “Trip commed me and told me what was happening.”

    “Don’t try to talk me out of this, Kyle,” Dani said. “It feels like it’s something I have to do.”

    “I know,” Kyle said. “When Trip told me Silik wanted you, I figured it had to have something to do with your original mission from the 24th Century. And it makes sense to try to do whatever you can to save Enterprise.”

    After a brief pause, he said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Dani…for Dukat.”

    “No, Kyle, don’t apologize,” Dani said. “You had no way of knowing. You were trying to protect me.”

    She pulled him to her and hugged him. “Good luck,” he told her as he let her go.

    When Dani turned to Archer, he quickly pulled her into his arms and crushed his lips against hers.

    “We’ll always have Risa,” Dani whispered to him before turning and walking toward the airlock. It took every ounce of will that she could muster to raise her hand to the panel on the wall and open the door leading to the airlock. It was like opening the door to her own casket, intending to climb in.

    The door opened, and Dani resisted the urge to look back at Archer and Kyle before stepping through. Once she was inside the airlock chamber, she could see the Suliban pod that had been sent for her just beyond the outer airlock doors. She hesitated momentarily as she contemplated what she was about to do. Then, she shut off her thoughts, opened the outer airlock, and stepped into her destiny, waiting for her in the form of the Suliban pod.

    In the Suliban pod, Dani found that the vehicle was unmanned and pre-programmed to fly to Silik’s ship. The controls had been locked down, but Dani had had time to study Suliban technology after she’d first arrived on Enterprise. That knowledge she’d gleaned, combined with what information she knew from studying them in the 24th Century, enabled her to hack into the computer.

    Once she actually had access to the computer, it didn’t take her long to see that the system wasn’t very sophisticated at all. She had access to weapons, communications, engines…she was faced with three courses of action.

    She could try to run, but then Enterprise would be left to deal with the Suliban, and they would likely be destroyed.

    She could also try fighting the Suliban herself. It wasn’t a particularly attractive notion, but it certainly sounded better than delivering herself into certain death at the hands of the Suliban. Her sacrifice would ultimately be in vain, though. After she was dead, Suliban would surely destroy Enterprise in this scenario, too.

    Trying to communicate with the Suliban likely wouldn’t get her far, so that left her with one viable and effective option. Dani worked quickly as the pod continued to pilot itself towards Silik’s ship.On Enterprise, Kyle and Archer returned to the bridge.

    “Travis,” Archer began, “what’s the status of the Suliban shuttle?”

    “Still on course for Silik’s ship, Captain,” Travis reported.

    Archer desperately scoured his brain for something – anything – that he could do to stop this. But his mind couldn’t produce a solution.

    Kyle stepped up beside Archer. “It’s okay, Captain,” he began. “There’s nothing that any of us can do. There’s nothing we’re supposed to do. This is supposed to happen.”

    Archer turned to Kyle. “How can you say that?” he asked. “Right now, your friend is marching to her death.”

    “Captain, Silik is hailing us,” Hoshi announced.

    “Onscreen,” Archer immediately responded.

    Silik’s face instantly filled the viewscreen at the front of the bridge. Something seemed…off about him.

    “Just what do you think you’re trying to accomplish, Jonathan?” Silk demanded. He was not happy at all.

    Archer shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

    “I’m getting reports from all of our ships that their crews are suddenly becoming violently ill,” Silik seethed. “They’re dying!”

    “I assure you, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Archer insisted. “We haven’t done anything other than what you’ve demanded.”

    “Captain, the Suliban ships are falling out of warp,” Reed reported.

    Archer, astonished at the incredible turn of luck, looked at Reed. Then he turned to Silik on the viewscreen. Archer didn’t know a whole lot about Suliban physiology, but Silik didn’t look well. The skin on his face looked like it was shriveling up.

    “Silik?” Archer asked.

    Silik looked as if he were about to respond, but instead, he keeled over and fell out of view. The comm line was disrupted, and the image of Silik’s empty seat was replaced by the starfield.

    Archer turned to Kyle, not believing what he’d just witnessed but beginning to comprehend what it all meant. “What happened?” Archer asked.

    “I can’t be totally certain,” Kyle began, “but if I had to guess, I’d say that this is Dani’s work. Maybe she triggered the release of some kind of toxic agent on the Suliban ships. She must’ve somehow sent a command to all the ships.”

    Archer looked to Hoshi. “Can you get her on the comm?”

    “I’ll try,” Hoshi responded.

    Archer turned back to Kyle only to find that he was no longer standing there. His brow knitted in confusion, and he looked around. “What happened to Lt. Hicks?” he asked.

    “Who, sir?” Malcolm asked.

    “Lt. Hicks,” Archer repeated. “Kyle Hicks. He was just standing right here.”

    The bridge crew, confused, looked at one another, wondering why the captain was acting so strangely.

    “Captain, we are the only individuals who have been on the bridge for the last 20 minutes,” T’Pol said. “A ‘Lt. Hicks’ has not entered nor left the bridge.”

    “You’re telling me that you didn’t just see Kyle Hicks standing here beside me not more than five minutes ago?” Archer asked skeptically.

    “Captain, I do not know anyone by the name of Kyle Hicks,” T’Pol said. “Further, I’m not aware of any member of this crew by that name.”

    Archer couldn’t conjure any words. He’d thought that he knew what was going on, but now it was very apparent that he didn’t. Unless…

    “You’re not losing your mind, Captain.”

    Archer whirled around. Daniels was standing behind him. Meanwhile, everyone else around him was frozen in place.

    “Daniels,” Archer said. “Why am I not more surprised to find you standing on my bridge?”

    “You know me too well by now, Captain,” Daniels said with a small grin.

    “What’s going on?” Archer asked. “What happened to Dani?”

    “Let’s just say she completed her mission?” Daniels said.

    “Completed her mission?” Archer repeated. “What the hell does that mean?” He didn’t have the patience for Daniels’s riddles today.

    “She’s safe.”

    Archer watched as Daniels approached. “She went back to her own time,” Archer guessed.

    “What she accomplished here has made a significant impact on your time and hers,” Daniels said. “She’s set the course of history straight.”

    “I’m never going to see her again, am I?” Archer asked.

    “No,” Daniels said, “but it’s not going to matter to you in a few minutes.”

    “Why is that?”

    “Because you won’t remember her.”

    Before Archer could say another word, Daniels disappeared. Archer stood for a moment staring at the the blank space in front of him. Had someone just been standing there? It seemed like someone had been standing there, but there was no one now, and he couldn’t think of anyone who would’ve been standing there or any reason why they would’ve been.

    “Captain?” T’Pol asked, walking towards him. His strange behavior was beginning to concern her. Archer turned to her. “Are you well?”

    Archer nodded cautiously. “I believe so,” he answered. “It’s just that…I could have sworn someone was just standing here.”

    “You just mentioned that you believed a Lt. Hicks was standing beside you moments ago,” T’Pol said.

    “Lt. Hicks?” Archer repeated. “The name sounds familiar, but I don’t believe I know anyone by that name.”

    “Perhaps you were mistaken,” T’Pol offered.

    Archer thought for a moment, then nodded. “I-I guess so.” He walked over to Reed’s work station. “Any sign of any Suliban ships, Mr. Reed?” he asked. They had any encounters with the Suliban in weeks, but Archer couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling he had about them at the moment, like he was expecting them to randomly pop up on their scanners.

    “No, sir,” Reed answered.

    Archer lingered at Malcolm’s station a few moments longer before he was finally satisfied to some degree that they weren’t about to be ambushed by Silik and his troops. He nodded at Reed and returned to the center of his bridge, near his chair. T’Pol continued to watch him closely.

    “Travis, maintain heading and speed…” Archer ordered. Reluctantly, he lowered himself into his chair. His uneasiness was receding, but he still wanted to know what had caused it in the first place. Maybe he would never know. Sometimes, feelings could out of no where for no reason.

  • Edge of Heaven – Chapter 16. She’s All Yours, Captain

    “Reed to Shuttlepod Two,” Reed commed from the bridge.

    “Archer here,” said the captain, who was inside Shuttlepod 2 with Dani and Kyle.

    “She’s all yours, Captain,” Reed said. “Good luck.”

    Archer handed phase pistols to Dani and Kyle. “If Daniels is right, there shouldn’t be more than 20 Suliban for us to deal with,” he said.

    “I’ve heard that one before,” Dani said.

    The shuttle pod launched from Enterprise and flew toward the Suliban cruiser to dock with it. Once the shuttle pod docked, Archer used his scanner to open the doors to the Suliban cruiser.

    “The stun grenade’s on a three-second delay,” Kyle said. He threw it through the opening and into the Suliban cruiser. Five Suliban fell from the corridor ceiling. Kyle, Archer, and Dani climbed out of the shuttle pod and headed down the corridors. It was a running firefight as the group made its way along the corridor. Kyle threw another stun grenade to stop anyone from following them as they entered a control room. Inside the room, the team was confronted with several control panels.

    “Which one?” Dani asked. This all seemed so familiar, yet she knew it wasn’t deja vu that was responsible. She’d been confronted with a similar situation during the mission that had initially landed her on Archer’s ship.

    Archer crossed the room and sat down in front of a set of panels. “Here,” he said. He opened one of the panels and removed the discs. “Go.”

    The team returned to the corridor and found Suliban moving along the floor and ceiling toward them.

    “They’re all around us,” Dani said.

    “Archer to Reed.”

    “Go ahead,” Reed said through the comm.

    “We need some help here,” Archer said.

    “I see them,” Reed said. “You’d better take cover.”

    Dani, Kyle, and Archer ducked behind a corner and braced themselves for whatever it was that Reed was about to throw at the Suliban cruiser. The cruiser rocked with the attack from Enterprise, and an resulting explosion momentarily knocked the Suliban out.

    “Go,” Archer ordered. The team scrambled and made it back inside the shuttle pod just as more Suliban got into the airlock.

    “What’s the problem?” Archer asked.

    “I can’t release the docking clamps,” Kyle said. Everyone looked up at the shuttle pod airlock door. On the other side,Suliban were trying to force their way in.

    “Ignite the thrusters,” Archer instructed. Kyle did as instructed. The shuttle pod trembled but still didn’t break free of the Suliban cruiser. “Go to full power,” Archer said. Kyle increased the thrusters to full power, and after a slight rumble, the shuttle pod finally ripped free.

    “Archer to Mayweather,” Archer said to the comm.

    “We see you, Captain,” Mayweather said over the comm.

    “Set a course backward to the Vulcan ship,” Archer said. “Go to warp four as soon as we’re aboard.”

    “Yes, sir,” Mayweather said.

    xxx

    “It was 10 months ago. He brought me back 10 months,” Archer said. He sat at the desk in his ready room, and T’Pol stood, listening to him convey his experience with Daniels. “But I knew everything I know now. How is that possible?”

    “As I’ve told you,” T’Pol began, “the Vulcan science directorate has concluded that time travel is impossible.”

    “Well good for the Vulcan Science Directorate,” Archer said, rising to his feet and take a few steps toward T’Pol. “Maybe they can tell me how I woke up yesterday knowing exactly where that Suliban ship was or how I suddenly had the ability to construct a quantum beacon to see through its cloak. And while they’re at it, they might as well tell me how I knew where to find those discs.”

    “All valid questions,” T’Pol conceded. “But to conclude that the only answer is that you acquired this information from a dead crewman who transported you back through time is illogical.”

    “Why don’t you give me another explanation?” Archer suggested.

    “I can’t,” T’Pol said.

    “Because there isn’t one. I got a call from Trip, something about inspection pods. It was the exact same call I got the day before they found Klaang. Word for word.”

    “Perhaps you were dreaming.”

    “Possibly, but it certainly is odd that Dani was in my dream and that she remembers experiencing exactly what I experienced without any variation,” Archer said. “Listen – I never thought this was possible, either, but I traveled through time, and I need you to believe me.”

    “Why?” T’Pol asked.

    “Because it’s hard enough trying to fathom all this without having my science officer, a colleague who I trust and rely on, accusing me of being an hallucinating mad man.”

    “I don’t remember accusing you of anything.”

    The chime to the ready room door sounded. “Come in,” Archer beckoned.

    The door slid open, revealing Dani on the other side.

    “I didn’t know you were in a meeting,” Dani said. “l’ll come back later.”

    “That won’t be necessary, Commander,” T’Pol said, making her way to the door. “I was just leaving.” She bid farewell to Archer as she left him alone with Dani, who took T’Pol’s place inside the room.

    As the doors closed behind T’Pol, Archer walked over to Dani.

    “You did it,” Dani said.

    “We did it,” Archer corrected her.

    “I feel like I can’t enjoy it because I’m waiting for Daniels to show up at any moment and tell me it’s over for us.”

    “Don’t think like that,” Archer implored. He kissed her.

    “Bridge to Archer,” Reed commed.

    Archer reluctantly parted from Dani and took a few steps over to the comm panel on the wall. “Yes?”

    “We’re getting some strange readings, sir,” Reed reported. “It might not be a bad idea for you to come out here.”

  • Edge of Heaven – Chapter 15. These Dreams

    Dani didn’t remember going to sleep, but when she woke up, she was in her quarters onboard Enterprise again. Had what she’d just experienced in Archer’s bedroom – his bedroom in San Francisco – been real? Or had it only been a dream?

    “Archer to Janeway.“

    Dani rose from her bed and walked over to the comm unit on the wall. “I’m here, Jon,” she said.

    “This may sound a little strange,” Archer began.

    “I bet it won’t,” Dani said. “I just had a really strange dream, and you were in it…but I don’t think it was a dream.”

    “It wasn’t,” Archer said. “It really happened.”

    Dani looked at the chronometer on the desk. Any minute now, Kyle would be setting their plan in motion to steal the temporal transporter. But after her and Jon’s visit with Daniels, she knew that couldn’t happen. She must prevent Kyle from going through with the plan.

    “Jon, I’ve got to go,” Dani said. “I’ve got to stop Kyle from doing something.”

    “What?”

    “I don’t have time to explain right now. I’ll fill you in as soon as I can.”

    xxx

    “Don’t do it,” Dani said. She’d caught up with Kyle just as he was about to walk into Engineering.

    “Why not?” Kyle asked, turning around to face her. “You can’t tell me you don’t want to go home?”

    “You know I do,” Dani said. “But this isn’t the way to get there.” She stepped closer to him and lowered her voice. “There have been some developments that I think you should know about.”

    Archer had wasted no time summoning his senior officers to the bridge and setting his own plan into motion.

    “The circuitry in there isn’t compatible with our technology,” Archer said. “We’ll have to create an interface.”

    “What for?” Hoshi asked.

    “We’re going to be retrieving some Suliban data discs,” Archer said. “I have no doubt you’ll be able to handle the content, but before you can do that, we’ll have to find a way to access the data.”

    “And Daniels claims this is Suliban technology?” T’Pol asked.

    “Everything he’s told me has checked out so far,” Archer said. “I have no reason to doubt him about this.”

    “We’ll do our best, Captain,” Hoshi said. Archer began to head to the turbolift.

    “Captain,” T’Pol began, “the Vulcan ship we were headed for, it’s no doubt detected we’ve altered course.”

    Archer stopped walking and turned to Hoshi. “Have they tried to hail us?” he asked.

    Hoshi shrugged with mock innocence. “I wouldn’t know, sir. Our comm is on the fritz.”

    Dani and Kyle followed Archer into the turbo lift. “I think Kyle and I should be the ones to retrieve the discs from the Suliban,” Dani proposed once the doors closed behind them. “We have experience with their ships – I do, at least. I can’t speak for Kyle.”

    Kyle nodded. “I’m more than qualified,” he confirmed. “We’ll leave it at that.”

    Dani looked at Archer. “We’re not even supposed to be here,” she said. “So it would be minimal risk.”

    “It would not be a minimal risk,” Archer countered.

    Dani’s brow knitted in confusion. “Sir?”

    The turbo lift came to a stop, and the doors slid open. Archer looked at Kyle. “Could you give us a moment, please?” he requested.

    Kyle nodded. “Of course,” he said. He stepped out of the lift, leaving Dani and Archer alone as the lift doors closed again.

    “I don’t understand,” Dani said. “What is it about my plan that doesn’t make sense? I honestly can’t see how this doesn’t mitigate the risk for you.”

    “I think there’s one hell of a risk to you,” Archer said. “These people are serious. If they catch you…there’s no telling what they’ll do to you.”

    “This isn’t my first mission like this,” Dani said.

    “I realize that,” Archer said. “I know that’s how you ended up here. But I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if anything happened to you, especially because of me.”

    “It wouldn’t be because of you,” Dani said. “I’m volunteering.”

    “Dani,” Archer said, “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

    Dani leaned back against the turbolift wall. “Let’s say something happens to me,” she proposed. “Wouldn’t that make some of your problems go away? You wouldn’t have to worry about trying to send me back to my own time. And that would be one less thing to distract you from your duties.”

    Archer closed his eyes. “I was wrong,” he said. “I was upset, and I didn’t mean it. I regret saying it.” He stepped toward Dani. “What I don’t regret is any moment I’ve spent with you. I’ve cherished them.”

    Neither Dani nor Archer noticed that the turbolift had begun to move again after Kyle had gotten off, and they were surprised when the doors opened and someone almost stepped into the turbolift with them. Archer and Dani both flashed the young man a look that told him he’d better not step onto the turbolift. The man, a crewman, seemed to understand and nodded. He took a step back and let the turbolift doors close.

    Archer turned his attention back to Dani and stroked her face. “I may not get another chance to say this,” he said. “I love you, Dani.”

    “Don’t say that,” Dani said.

    “Why not?”

    “You’ve only known me for a few months. How could you possibly know that?”

    “When you know something, and you feel it, you don’t need a lot of time to figure it out,” Archer said. “You don’t feel the same way?”

    “I do. But it’s not fair because I’m going to have to leave you – one way or another,” Dani said. She pressed a button on the wall, halting the turbolift at the current level, and she stepped out.

  • Edge of Heaven – Chapter 2. The Fire

    In preparation for the mission that had been assigned to her earlier in the day, Dani sat in her quarters, on her sofa, thinking about what she would be facing in only a few days.  She’d started preparing for it almost from the moment her mother had briefed her and rest of the team.  The mission instructions had assigned each team member a specific role in the mission:  Chakotay would be the mission pilot; Dr. Bashir would be there to essentially begin studying samples of the virus and to oversee the destruction of the remaining virus samples;  both would remain on the runabout for the duration of the mission.  Sisko, Dani, and Will would comprise the team on the ground.  Tuvok, who had been the strategic force behind the mission, would not join the team on the actual away mission.

    Dani had been devouring everything she could find concerning the Suliban.  Her readings led her to the first mission of the U.S.S Enterprise NX-01.  That mission had initially been just a transport to Kronos but had evolved into something much more complicated.  During this mission, Captain Jonathan Archer, Enterprise’s CO, made the first documented contact with the Suliban race in what could easily be termed a hostile encounter.  Using their amazing stealth abilities, Suliban agents had sneaked onboard Archer’s ship to retrieve a Klingon the Enterprise was transporting to Kronos.

    Dani was about to start reading about the outcome of that mission when her door chimed.  “Come in,” she called, reluctantly looking up from the PADD in her hands.  The door slid open, and Will Riker entered.  “Hi,” Dani greeted.

    “Hey,” Will said, approaching the coffee table.  He would’ve sat down beside Dani on the sofa, but the space was currently being occupied by about a dozen PADDs.  Instead, he opted for the chair next to the sofa.  “I just came to see how you were feeling,” he said.

    “Oh, I’m fine,” Dani said.  “I’m just doing a little research on our friends, the Suliban.”  She handed Will one of the PADDs that had been occupying what would have been his seat.

    He skimmed it briefly and then studied Dani.  “Are you nervous?” he asked.

    “Yes, but this has to be done,” Dani replied.  “Our whole existence probably depends on it.  And for reasons I still don’t fully understand, Admiral Nechayev feels that I am the best candidate for this mission.”

    “You won’t be alone, you know.”

    “I know.  Do you think I’d be sane right now if I didn’t know you were coming with me?”

    “Everything’s going to work out for the best,” Will said. “You’ll see.”

    Dani wanted to believe Will, but in her mind, she didn’t exactly have the best track record when it came to missions of this nature.  There were so many things that could go wrong, but that was true of all missions.  The difference this time was the gravity of the consequences if they failed.

    Will sensed that his words of encouragement made little difference for her, and he understood why, considering her history.  “I know that going on another mission like this is one of the last things in the universe that you want to do, but this is a completely different situation than last time.  It’s a whole new mission.  You’ve got to keep that in mind.”

    “I know,” Dani said.  “It’s kind of silly that I’m still not completely over that.  It’s been over a year.”

    “There’s no time limit on how long it takes people to get over something like that,” Will said. “It was a traumatic experience for you.  If you think this new mission will be too much for you, I don’t think anyone would object if you decided you want to sit this one out.”

    “That’s taking the easy way out,” Dani said. “I won’t do that.  I’ve got to prove that I can do this.”

    “Dani, you don’t have to prove anything to anyone.”

    “Yes, I do.  To myself, if not to anyone else.”

    “I think you may be putting a little too much pressure on yourself.”

    “It’s possible, but I don’t want people to treat me with kid gloves for the rest of my career.  That’s not why I went to the Academy.  Can you understand that?”

    Will nodded.  “Yeah,” he said. “I can.”  He understood why she felt the way that she did, but he still didn’t think it was the best attitude for her to have, especially at this stage in her life, coming off of an exceedingly difficult experience.  True, it had been a year since Dani had returned from Cardassia, but Will wasn’t convinced that she’d completely recovered from it, not enough to embark on another difficult covert mission.

    xxx

    The team was a day into its mission and still a day away from its destination.  Thus far, Dani had been successful at keeping her nerves calm.  She didn’t know if she would still feel that way in 24 hours.  Sitting alone at the table in the runabout’s living quarters, she’d tried to do it by keeping her mind occupied with the mission logs of the Enterprise NX-01.  But her mind kept wandering. Despite having had one file open for at least an hour, Dani hadn’t scrolled past the first two paragraphs.  She was preoccupied not with the catastrophic what-ifs of her current mission but with the memories of one night and two lifetimes:  the night that Q2 had surprised her by showing up in her bedroom at her parents’ house in Indiana.

    Will ventured to the runabout’s living quarters and found Dani alone, staring blankly at the table.  “Dani?” he said.

    “Hey, Will,” Dani said, looking up at him from the spot on the table.

    “I just came to check on you, see how you’re doing,” he said.  “You’ve been back here by yourself for nearly the entire trip.”

    “I’ve had a lot on my mind.”

    “About the mission?”

    “Some,” Dani said.  “But I’ve mostly been thinking about something that happened after I came back from Cardassia.”

    Will joined Dani at the table, taking the seat to her right.  “Was it something serious?”

    “Yes,” Dani said.  A small nervous laugh escaped her lips.  “Um, Q showed up at my parents’ house in Indiana while I was staying there.”  When Dani saw Will roll his eyes, she quickly added, “It was Q’s son, and it wasn’t what you think.  He didn’t cause any trouble while he was there.  He actually helped me out – a lot.”

    “Q?” Will asked skeptically.

    “Yeah.  I haven’t told this to anyone, except Counselor Troi, but after Cardassia, I was considering leaving Starfleet.”

    “You’re serious?”

    “It seemed like my career was getting off to an unusually bumpy start, and I was doubting whether this whole thing was for me.  I thought that maybe some of the decisions I’d made were wrong, that I was supposed to go right instead of left at some points.  Q showed me how wrong I was.”

    “You’re talking about us?”

    “Partially,” Dani said with a shrug.

    “You said he showed you.  How?”

    “He gave me a chance to experience what life would have been like for me if things had been different for us, if we’d stayed together.”

    “What was the result?”

    “Not good.  Painful, actually, on several levels.”

    “I get the feeling it’s not something I want to hear about.”

    “Trust me, it isn’t.  Just believe me when I say that I don’t think it was meant to be between us.”

    Will nodded.  Then, a thought occurred to him.  “How do you know Q was showing you the truth, and not just some warped version of reality?  He could have been showing you what you he wanted you to see.”

    “I thought about that possibility, but I can’t figure out a good explanation for why he would want to do that.  What would be the point?  I like to think that he was sincere in what he was showing me…He also showed me what my life would have been like if Dukat had lived.”

    “Was it any better than what happened with us?”

    Dani shook her head. “No.”

    “So, he allows you to experience two different scenarios, both devastating.  How does that convince you to remain in Starfleet?”

    “By showing me that even though things don’t always work out like we want, they happen because they’re supposed to, and any other way wouldn’t be right.  That doesn’t mean that you’re doing anything wrong, necessarily.  It’s just the way things are supposed to be.  He also told me that I can’t leave yet because I’m going to be part of something important that will have a bearing on the survival of the Federation.  Of course, he couldn’t tell me what that something was, but the prospect was intriguing.  And the way he said it – there was something about it that I can’t explain.  He was dead serious, and I knew I couldn’t leave, that I had to stay.”

    Dani sighed.  “I’m tired of talking about me, though,” she said. “How’s the wedding planning coming along?”

    “Well, I have to say this is one time I’m glad that Lwaxana is the kind of person who loves to take charge of things,” Will said.  “It’s been a lot less stressful than when you and I were planning our wedding.  I think she’s practicing for her next wedding.”

    xxx

    Traveling at warp 4, it had taken the team a total of two days to reach Tandar Prime.  Landing on the surface would be too risky, so the runabout was to remain in orbit, hidden behind one of the planet’s two satellite moons.

    “I know I don’t have to tell you to be careful down there,” Chakotay said, “but I will anyway.  And watch your back.”

    “You know I will,” Dani said.

    Chakotay turned to Will and said, “Good luck.”  There was more behind those words than what had been spoken.  Of course the surface meaning was genuine, but Will knew that he had just been charged with ensuring that Chakotay’s daughter made it back from this mission.

    Will responded with a quick nod before turning and stepping onto the transporter pad.  Dani and her father shared a final look before she turned and joined Will.  Sisko stepped onto the pad with them, rounding out the group.

    “Energize,” Sisko said.  The trio dematerialized on the Rio Grande’s transporter pad and rematerialized inside the basement of the Suliban facility, just as planned.  They’d beamed in prepared for an immediate fight, so they were surprised to find that there was no one else in sight.

    The room was dim.  Each of the away team members had done their homework on the Suliban.  They were well aware of the race’s advanced stealth abilities and were wary that the Suliban might have been expecting a visit from Starfleet and were waiting in the shadows for the team.  They didn’t have time to dwell too much on it, though.  There was a mission to complete.  The three of them took out their modified tricorders and started scanning.  The clock had begun.

    Almost immediately, Will’s tricorder began beeping wildly.  “I think I’ve found it,” he said.

    “Where?” Sisko asked.

    “It’s directly above us,” Will said.

    “Above?” Dani asked. “I thought it was supposed to be in the basement?”

    “Either our intel was wrong, or they’ve moved it,” Will said. “Either way, up is where we need to go.”

    The three of them drew their phasers, as they prepared to leave the facility’s basement via a narrow staircase.  Everyone’s head was turning, and their phasers were drawn, as they emerged from the staircase and stepped into a corridor on the main floor of the building.  Dani, leading the way, was constantly scanning for Suliban biosignatures.  Of course, if they were cloaked, scanning would do no good.  This part of the mission was starting off on the wrong note, in her opinion.  Maybe the incorrect location really was a simple case of bad intel.  But what if it was more than that?  It could be that the Suliban knew of the plan to infiltrate the facility, and the away team was walking right into a trap.

    Once they cleared the top stair in the flight and approached the first of many intersections in the corridor, Dani’s tricorder indicated that they would need to turn right at the second intersection to get to the lab where the samples were housed.

    “It’s this way,” Dani said, her eyes on the schematic displayed on her tricorder.  “To the right.”

    Dani stopped short of rounding the corner.  “What is it?” Will asked.

    “Two Suliban,” Dani whispered.  “About 20 meters down this corridor.”

    “Where are we in relation to the samples?” Sisko asked.

    “According to this, it’s at the end of this corridor, in a room just past our two Suliban friends here,” Dani replied.

    “I’m willing to bet they have all kinds of sensors in this place.  We risk alerting everyone else here to our presence the moment we fire our first shot,” Will said.

    “They’re going to know we’re here anyway the moment we try to leave with those samples,” Sisko countered.  He crouched and peered around the corner, then took careful aim at one of the Suliban on the other end of the corridor.

    “Hold on,” Dani said quickly.  Sisko held his fire but didn’t take his eyes off his targets.  “There’s another way in,” she said.

    xxx

    Crawling through a ventilation conduit hadn’t been part of the plans, but when an opportunity presented itself as a solution to an immediate problem, you had to be prepared to take advantage. A scan had revealed that there was no one in the lab.  This fact, coupled with being able to access the room via an underground ventilation system, meant that they were extraordinarily lucky.  Or they were walking into a trap.  There was no way to tell which applied to their situation, and they didn’t have any option but to take the opportunities as they came, but that didn’t mean that Dani felt any more at ease with all of it.

    Will pushed up against a vent in the floor of the lab and poked his head through, quickly looking around the room.  Just as the tricorders had indicated, the lab was seemingly devoid of humanoid life.  He quickly pulled himself out of the environmental conduit he and the others had used to gain access to the laboratory.  Kneeling, he helped Dani pull herself out next.  Finally, Sisko emerged.

    Immediately, Dani started scanning for the samples.  She fought to focus, constantly blocking out thoughts of whether they were being watched by surveillance cameras, or whether they’d tripped a silent alarm, or whether there were cloaked Suliban in the room with them right now.

    “Here it is,” she said, eyes on her tricorder.  A flashing indicator on the device represented its proximity to the samples.  That indicator was no longer blinking but was now a continuous light, which meant the tricorder was within ten feet of the samples.  Dani looked up from her tricorder. “It’s in this cabinet.”

    That cabinet was a freezer, and when Will walked over and tried to open it, he quickly found that it was locked.  He took a few steps back, leveled his phaser at the door of the freezer, and fired a quick burst.  The door flew open.

    Sisko, Will, and Dani stared at the open freezer and their mouths hung open.

    “I thought there were only supposed to be a few vials?” Will asked.

    “The intel must have been wrong, again,” Sisko said, scowling.

    In front of the away team was a freezer full of vials, each containing an identical amount of the same blue liquid.

    “There must be hundreds of vials in there,” Dani said.  She stepped up to the open freezer and passed her tricorder back and forth past the vials.  The signal never wavered.  According to the tricorder, all the vials contained a sample of the disease.  They wouldn’t be able to take all of them.  They hadn’t come prepared to take this many.  Even if they took as many as they could, the Suliban would still have plenty of samples that could be used to synthesize more of the disease.  Dani reached out and took one vial from each row in the freezer.  She wasn’t going to walk away from this mission empty-handed.  They might not be able to destroy the disease, but they could at least get some samples back to Starfleet so that they could analyze it.

    A phaser blast landed on the wall immediately beside Riker’s head.  Riker whipped around and returned fire, while Sisko and Dani ran across the room and took cover behind a counter.  Will took refuge behind a counter on the opposite side of the room.

    “Away team to Rio Grande!” Sisko shouted.  “We’re under fire!  Get us out of here!”

    Dani unholstered her phaser and began to shoot at the two Suliban who’d attacked.  Now that she was in a position of relative safety, she recognized them as the two Suliban they’d seen outside the lab earlier.

    “Standby, away team,” Chakotay said through the comm. “I’m bringing you up now.”

    The next thing Dani should have felt was the tingling sensation of the transporter.  Instead, she felt the heat of a phaser blast as it zipped past her head.

    “Rio Grande, what’s going on up there?” Sisko asked, understandably impatient.

    “There’s shielding around the room you’re in,” Chakotay responded.  “If you can’t disable the field, you’ll need to get clear before I can bring you up.”

    Sisko fired across the room at the Suliban before answering.  “Understood,” he said. “Riker, did you hear that?”

    “Loud and clear,” Will said, holding his own in the firefight with the Suliban.

    The Suliban guards were blocking the only two exits that the away team was already aware of, the door and the floor vent.  Dani sunk down behind the counter and pulled out her tricorder.  She pulled up the schematic of the facility, hoping to find another way out of the room.  According to the map she was looking at there should be a corridor behind the wall on the right side of her and Sisko.  She looked at it but didn’t see any sign of a door.  She set her phaser to the maximum setting, pointed it at the section of the wall where the tricorder indicated a door should be, and fired.  The wall shimmered before dissolving upon contact with the phaser beam.  The holographic wall had completely dematerialized, revealing the previously concealed access point.

    “Janeway to Riker,” Dani said.

    “Riker here.”

    “Did you see that?” Dani asked.

    “I sure did,” Riker said.  “Looks like we’ve found our way out.”

    “We’ll cover you,” Sisko told him.

    Sisko and Dani looked across the room at Will, who nodded his assent.  Dani and Sisko concentrated their fire on the guards, drawing their attention from Will.  Will sprinted across the room and slipped through the doors as they slid open for him.  The doors closed behind him momentarily before sliding open again.  Will stuck his hand out and started firing his phaser at the Suliban.  This gave Dani her opportunity to join Will in the corridor they’d just discovered.  Once she was outside, both she and Will continued firing at the Suliban as Sisko made it over to the door and temporary safety.  Sisko fired a few final shots at the Suliban before retreating with Dani and Will into the darkness of the corridor.  The door slid shut behind Sisko, and he promptly fired his phaser at the control panel, hopefully disabling it, even if only temporarily.

    Sisko tapped his comm badge.  “Sisko to Rio Grande.”

    The door that Sisko had just closed slid open following the muffled sound of a small explosion.  Three Suliban ran into the corridor, sending the away team on the run again.  Where they were running to, they had no idea.  For the moment, they only knew that they needed to get away from the Suliban chasing them.  They ran straight ahead, through a set of double doors and into a new room.  As soon as they’d entered, they’d expected to find the Suliban right on their heels.

    But they weren’t.  And there weren’t any waiting for them inside the room, either.

    xxx

    The Suliban stopped short of following the intruders into the room.  Only those with the highest level of clearance were allowed to enter that particular room.  It was off-limits to everyone else.  That it had even been unlocked in the first place came as a shock to them.  The three looked at each other, knowing that they should go after the intruders.  They also knew that if one valued his life, he didn’t dare enter without clearance.

    xxx

    Sisko refused to believe that the away team had escaped the Suliban that easily.

    “It couldn’t have been that easy,” Will said aloud, putting into words what everyone was feeling. “The door wasn’t even locked.”

    Sisko moved his hand to tap his comm badge.  “Sisko to Rio Grande,” he said.  When there was no response, he tried to raise them again.  “Sisko to Rio Grande,” he said. “Rio Grande come in.”

    Still, there was no response.  “There must be a field around this room, too,” Dani said. “Why didn’t they come in after us?”

    “I don’t know,” Will said. “But I’m sure as hell not complaining.  Right now, we’ve got to find a way to get you and that biomatter out of here.”  He looked around the room.  There were no windows or doors other than the one they’d used to get in.  There weren’t even any vents.

    The only thing in the room was some kind of giant archway in the center of the floor.  Dani opened her tricorder and began to scan the device, slowly circling it.  As she stepped closer to it, the indicators and panels on it lit up.  Dani froze, looking up from her tricorder at the device.

    “What happened?” Sisko asked.

    Dani referred to her tricorder.  “Whatever this is just powered up,” she responded.

    “Must be motion activated,” Will surmised.

    Cautiously, Dani stepped closer to the device to get a closer look at the control panels.  Will and Sisko, equally cautious, followed suit.

    “I can’t make out the language on any of these panels,” Will said.

    Dani studied her tricorder, attempting to analyze the language.  Under the circumstances, she surmised that it was a Suliban language, but it appeared to be a variety that the tricorder couldn’t translate.  “The tricorder can’t make heads or tails of it, either,” she said.  “But I am picking up strong temporal signals from the device.”

    “Temporal,” Will repeated.  He and the others knew that the Suliban Cabal had been using time-travel for at least a century.  The fact that the Suliban had the ability to travel through time wasn’t a surprise, but actually finding the device they used to accomplish it certainly was.  He looked at Sisko and Dani, and he knew that they’d each reached the same conclusion he had.

    “This is how they travel through time,” Sisko said.

    *Thump, thump, thump, thump*  Someone was running down the hall towards the room to join their Suliban comrades out in the corridor.

    Sisko looked at Dani.  “Get in,” he said.

    Dani looked at Sisko as if he were crazy.  “Sir?”

    “That’s an order, Commander,” Sisko said.

    Dani looked to Will, but he didn’t appear to disagree with the order that Sisko had given.

    “You have to get away with those samples,” Will said.  “If you don’t, this mission was a wasted cause.  If you get away with the samples, we can get them to back to Starfleet so that they can analyze them.  Getting in and going somewhere else is the only option right now.”

    “How will I get back?  We don’t even know where – or when – it’s set to.”

    A low-yield phaser blast hit Dani squarely in the chest, and she collapsed to the ground.  Will whipped around to see Sisko pointing a hand phaser directly at Dani.  “In a matter of seconds, who knows how many Suliban are going to come through that door, Commander,” he explained.  “We don’t have time for arguments.  Now, help me get her inside.”

    Will and Sisko picked up Dani and gently placed her on the floor of the chamber.  Will looked at the controls and, using what little he knew about Suliban control panel layouts, took his best guess.  He pressed a short sequence of buttons on the panel and watched Dani shimmer out of existence in a red haze.  As soon as the haze had completely disappeared, Sisko raised his rifle and aimed at the time travel device.

    “What the hell are you doing?” Will asked.

    Sisko didn’t bother providing an answer.  He trained the rifle at the control panel on the time portal and fired.  The instrument panel sparked and smoked until it exploded into bits just as a team of Suliban stormed into the room, weapons drawn.