Chapter 16
Chapter 15
Stardate 57232
Kitty entered the turbolift and let the door close. Then she slammed her fist into the wall in anger and started cursing viciously.
“I did not understand your choice. Please repeat your destination,” the computer said automatically.
“Shove it up your ass,” Kitty replied angrily.
“I did not understand your choice. Please repeat...”
“Deck seven, officers’ quarters,” she called out in frustration. Then she took a deep breath, as the turbolift started moving, to calm down.
She mulled over the situation. Riker refused to listen to her and was going to send down security teams to try to take out Gladiator. Those people were not trained to go up against someone like Gladiator. He’d eat them for breakfast and spit them out. Kitty had tried to explain it to Riker, but Riker, for all his ability and all his skills, had never encountered a threat like Gladiator before. And he refused to listen to the one member of his crew who had. In fact, he had dismissed her from duty for her defiance of his authority.
The turbolift reached deck seven, and she exited, heading for her quarters.
Well, if he wasn’t going to listen to her, Kitty was going to have to save Riker’s dumb ass without his permission.
She entered her quarters and went to her bedroom. She pulled an old carryall bag out from under the bed and placed it on the bed. She opened the zipper and began pulling out the contents.
A dark-blue leather-looking jacket, slightly lighter colored pants, fingerless gloves, and an eye-mask completed the contents.
Her old X-Men uniform.
If I’m going to do this, she thought, I’m going to do it right.
She began removing her Starfleet uniform, and dressing in a uniform that was much older. The X-Men uniform had several advantages over her Starfleet one. Being made of the unstable molecule fabric developed by the late Reed Richards, it was more resistant to small-arms fire than her Starfleet outfit. In fact, despite its comfort, her X-Men uniform gave protection that was equivalent to a Kevlar vest against any sort of kinetic strike, whether bullet or fist. It would give only limited protection, of course, but better than what a Starfleet officer generally wore. It was also more comfortable to fight in and moved with her body more easily.
And I have a feeling I’m going to need every bit of protection and every advantage I can come up with, she thought. It’s not like I’m going to be able to call for backup.
She finished dressing, laying her Starfleet uniform neatly on the bed. She went to the mirror that hung over her dressing table and looked at herself. She pulled out a rubber band and used it to tie her hair back out of her face. She thought about putting the mask on. Then she decided against it.
It’s not like I have to hide my face or my identity, she thought.
She went to the bottom drawer of her dresser and opened the false bottom that she had installed there. She pulled out several guns... two handguns, an assault rifle, and loaded magazines of ammunition for each. She loaded the handguns. Then she strapped crossed gun belts around her waist, tying two holsters to her hips and thighs. She slipped the handguns, a pair of .44 Barretas, into the holsters. She picked up the rifle, an XM29 bull-pup assault rifle, developed by the US army in the beginning of the 21st century. She checked the two firing mechanisms and loaded both the 7.62mm ammunition and the 20mm grenade shells into the weapon, making sure the safety was on. She checked the laser, heat, and infrared sighting systems. Then she strapped the weapon over her shoulder.
Lastly, she walked over to the wall across from her bed. The sword of the Yashida Clan sat in its sheath on a traditional stand. She dropped to her knees, bowed to the sword, and removed it from the stand. She broke the little paper seal that held the weapon inside the sheath and drew the sword.
Damascus steel glinted in the dim light like a star. There was history etched in blood in this blade --- a thousand years’ worth of history and blood and battles to protect the innocent and vanquish the wicked. And now the holder of the sword, the champion of the clan, was calling on the sword to serve once again.
She held the sword out before her with both hands outstretched. She bowed respectfully to the blade, and in doing so she said a little prayer. Despite her Jewish heritage, she had never been a particularly religious person. She could count the number of times she had been in a Synagogue on the past century on one hand. Yet a prayer seemed appropriate. Not for herself, for as a Samurai she did not fear death. No Samurai ever feared death, because a Samurai knew that death was inevitable, that it came to all things, and that there was no higher honor than dying for one’s duty, and that there was joy in such a death. No, her prayer was not for herself, but for the people she was going out to protect. The hostages. Her friends.
For just a moment, her entire conscious mind was focused on that prayer. Kitty wasn’t quite sure if God was even listening. But she put everything she had into that prayer: a prayer that she would be strong enough, fast enough, skillful enough to save two innocent people from a super-human traitor who intended to kill them.
And then the moment passed. She stood in one smooth graceful motion and sheathed the sword without looking. She put the sheathed sword over her shoulder, baldric-style, and pulled the retention strap tight so that it wouldn’t bounce around as she moved. She was ready.
Then she left her quarters, leaving the Starfleet uniform and comm-badge --- and her career --- behind. She walked out without so much as a glance back, or even a thought. Whatever happened now, her Starfleet career was over. She might live. She might not. But even if she lived and even if she managed to rescue the Captain and Lilandra, she was disobeying a direct order. For that there would be no forgiveness. But she knew her decision to be the right one. And so, she had no regrets.
Such are the decisions that Heroes make, even the ones who don’t see themselves as Heroes, just as people with a job to do. What’s right is right, even if the consequences are tough. Kitty knew what she had to do, and once the decision was made there was no turning back. The Samurai does his duty and accepts the consequences as they come. No regrets.
*****
There was little movement in the corridors. The ship was still at red alert, and almost everyone on the ship was at his or her duty stations. She didn’t have to do much evasion in order to keep from being seen.
She entered Transporter Room Two. She would have to be quick about this. As soon as she activated the transporter, the Bridge would be immediately notified. There was no way to do this without them finding out. It was all a question of whether she was quick enough or not.
Well, she thought, here goes nothing.
*****
“Commander, Transporter Room Two has been activated,” Data dutifully notified Riker.
“By whom?”
“Unknown, sir.”
“Bridge to Transporter Room Two,” Riker called out. No response was forthcoming. “Data deactivate the transporter unit.”
“I am attempting to do so now, Commander,” Data replied. “However, I am having difficulty shutting out the operator of the transporter. Whoever has activated the unit has also placed his or her own security measures to lock out remote operation from the Bridge. It will take time to deactivate those security measures.”
“Cut power to the entire deck is you have to, but shut that transporter down,” Riker ordered.
“Aye, sir.”
“Security alert, Transporter Room Two. Arrest and detain Commander Pryde,” Riker called out.
“Acknowledged,” came the response from Security.
“You think Kitty is trying to carry out her own personal mission against Gladiator?” Deanna asked.
“That’s exactly what I think,” he responded, “against direct orders.”
“You can’t be sure it’s her.”
“Riker to Pryde,” he called out, never moving his eyes off of Deanna. There was no response. “Computer, where is Commander Pryde?”
“Commander Pryde is in her quarters,” the computer responded.
“Computer, internal scan of Commander Pryde’s quarters. How many life signs are you reading?”
“There are no life signs in Commander Pryde’s quarters.”
“I rest my case,” Riker said to Deanna. “She left her comm badge in her quarters so we couldn’t track her movement, but she’s not there, because she’s in Transporter Room Two.”
*****
Damn, thought Kitty, they almost have me locked out. Data is better than I gave him credit for. Her hands flew over the controls of the transporter as she tried to maintain control of the unit and set it to transport her to the surface of Sharra. Data was fast, and he had certain advantages over most people, but Kitty had nearly four hundred years of hacking experience, including some against artificial intelligences. She managed to hold her own against him.
The room suddenly went dark, and the power cut out.
Damn, Riker, she thought. You cut power to the entire deck. Gutsy move. I wasn’t expecting that. I’ll know better next time.
She started to exit the transporter room, but as she passed through the door, she came face-to-face with the armed five-man security team.
“Don’t move, Commander,” said the officer in charge, Lieutenant Commander Michael Johnson. “You are under arrest.”
“Sorry, Michael,” she replied, “but I can’t let you arrest me today.”
“I don’t think you have much of a choice in the matter, ma’am,” he responded.
“You’d be surprised, Michael. I’ll try not to hurt you, but I apologize in advance in case I do.”
“Don’t resist, Commander,” Johnson said. “You’re just making things worse for yourself.”
“I have to do this. Riker doesn’t know what he’s up against, and he’s sending you all on a suicide mission. I have to keep that from happening.”
“We’re Starfleet Security, ma’am,” Johnson said. “We know how to handle kidnappers and terrorists.”
“You’re out of you league, son,” she said. “He’ll eat the whole lot of you for breakfast. You have no idea what you are up against. Gladiator is like nobody you have ever faced. He’s immune to just about anything you can throw at him. And he’ll tear though you like tissue paper.”
“You underestimate us.”
“You underestimate him,” she replied.
“Enough talk,” Johnson said. “You are under arrest. Drop your weapons and place your hands against the wall.”
“No.”
“If you don’t give up, I will have to stun you, Commander.”
“Feel free to try,” she said. “Like I said, I’ll try not to hurt you too much.” Her knuckles cracked as she tightened her fist.
Johnson raised his phaser.
Kitty moved so fast that the security team could barely see her.
Less than five seconds later, all five members of the security team were unconscious.
“Pryde to sickbay,” she called out. “There are five unconscious security guards in Transporter Room Two that could use some medical attention. Pryde to Riker. Will, stop sending security people after me, or they’re going to get hurt badly. I’m not screwing around here.” She was already out the door and moving quickly.
“Neither am I, Kitty,” Riker replied. “Stand down and nobody will have to get hurt.”
“Can’t do that, Will. Not unless you agree to send me down alone.”
“Not a chance. Exactly how do you expect to get off the ship, Kitty? The transporters have all been shut down.”
“Watch and learn, Will,” she replied. “I’ve been doing this for a long time. Do you think I wouldn’t have a backup plan?”
Another security team was waiting for her just ahead. She didn’t even try to avoid them. She slammed into them, and seconds later, the team of five was down, and the arm of one of them was hanging at an unusual angle.
“Riker, send another medical team to deck five. Frazzetti has a broken arm. And stop making me hurt my people.”
“Then give it up. You can’t get off the ship. You’re doing this for no reason.”
“Oh, yea of little faith,” she chuckled.
She came to the Main Engineering deck. Main Engineering had been one of the casualties of the attack by the cloaked ship, and it was completely deserted at the moment. Control of most of the functions of Main Engineering had been transferred over to Auxiliary Engineering, but that was because of problems with structural integrity, not because the systems themselves were inoperable. Kitty grabbed an emergency oxygen mask from the supply of emergency equipment sitting in a cabinet just outside the door of Main Engineering. Then she phased through the door.
A force field had been erected to stabilize the hull integrity around the Engineering deck, and to keep air from escaping. And while the force field was holding, it was not exactly the safest environment in which to work. That was why control had been transferred to the Auxiliary deck. But conditions were just perfect for Kitty, who needed the privacy. And if the force field went down, she had the oxygen mask as backup.
She moved over to the control unit for the anti-matter reactor core. Her hands flew over the control console.
******
“Have you been able to isolate her location, Data,” Riker asked from the command chair.
“No, sir. The internal scanners have been unable to obtain a solid lock on her position. However, I am tracking her by tracking reports of injuries or damage. Based on the evidence available, I project her probable destination to be Main Engineering.”
“Main Engineering?” Riker asked. “Why? Everything is being controlled from Auxiliary?”
“Unknown, Commander,” Data admitted. “I project a ninety-three percent chance of Main Engineering as her destination, though for what reason, I do not know.”
“Security teams to Main Engineering,” Riker ordered. “Tactical, I want to you to be prepared to flood the Main Engineering deck with Anesthezine gas. I want Commander Pryde stopped.”
“Aye, sir,” came the response from the Tactical station.
“WARNING! WARNING!” the voice of the computer rang out, as the ship’s lighting shifted to the deep red of Red Alert. “WARP CORE BREACH IMMINENT. INITIATING SAFETY PROTOCOLS.”
“Geordie, what’s going on?” Riker demanded.
LaForge’s voice rang out over the comm system. “I’m checking now, but we’re not reading a core breach down here. I’m running a system diagnostic, but our power levels are steady, and containment reads strong.”
“Then what the hell is going on?”
“Commander,” said Data, “I believe the engineering safety systems have been overridden. I believe that Commander Pryde has caused the system to activate a false warning of a warp core breach.”
“Tactical, flood Main Engineering with the Anesthezine. Get a team in there as quickly as possible.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Data,” Riker asked, “why would she do that? Why would she cause a false reading like that?”
“Perhaps she was hoping to distract us?”
“Pretty poor distraction,” commented Riker. “She led us right to her.”
“Commander,” the tactical officer reported, “Main Engineering has been flood and cleared of Anesthezine. Security Team Four reports that Main Engineering is empty. However, the escape pod system has been tampered with and pod number three has ejected.”
“So that was her plan,” Riker said with mild admiration. “Once the core breach alarm was activated, she would be able to use an escape pod to get off the ship, and we wouldn’t be able to override it from here. We have the ability to override the escape system except during an imminent emergency. When there is an imminent emergency, even the Bridge can’t override the escape systems. That’s what she wanted. It wouldn’t be too hard to get the system to not tell us a launch had occurred.”
“I am now scanning for the escape pod,” Data announced. “I have located the escape pod. It is increasing range at approximately two thousand meters per second, on a bearing of two-one-four mark seven-three. Range forty-three thousand kilometers.”
“Got her,” said Riker triumphantly. “Activate transporters and beam her in.” He sat back in the command chair and relaxed.
“I am unable to get a transporter lock on Commander Pryde,” said Data.
“Just beam the whole pod into shuttle bay two and slap a level ten force field on it. Tactical send a security team to shuttle bay two.”
“Aye, sir,” Data complied, “beaming now. Beaming completed. Force field activated.”
The tactical officer suddenly became busy at her board. “Sir, there’s nobody in the pod. Security team seven reports the pod is empty.”
“I am reading activation in transporter room three,” said Data. “Beaming has begun.”
“Can you override,” Riker asked, coming out of the command chair.
“Negative, Commander. Beaming has already begun. However, I can interrupt the process and hold the transportee in the buffer. I can also redirect the destination to one of our brigs.”
“Make it so, Data,” Riker ordered. “The sneaky, little bitch. She was never in the pod. She used that as a ruse to get us to reactivate the transporters.”
“Indeed, Commander,” Data commented. “That would be a correct interpretation of the evidence at hand. A most ingenious plan.”
“Sneaky as hell is more like it,” Riker responded. “She may very well be the best I’ve ever seen pull a stunt like that. Where the hell did she learn those moves? And how did she get out of Main Engineering without being noticed?”
“I would assume, Commander, that she... I believe she uses the term ‘phasing’... that she phased out of the Main Engineering deck. Either that, or she simply snuck out when the security team entered.”
“Can our brig hold her?”
I believe so, Commander. The force fields that she would have phased through on Main Engineering are set at level three for integrity purposes only. The brig force fields will be set at level ten. I believe that this level will be sufficient to keep Ms. Pryde from phasing out of the brig.”
“Alright. I’m heading for the brig. Wait until I give the word to beam her in.”
*****
Riker entered the brig, where a fully armed security team was waiting. He activated his comm badge. “Riker to Data, beam Ms. Pryde directly to brig number four.”
“Activating transport now,” came the response from Data.
A transporter effect sparkled and resolved itself into the form of Kitty Pryde. She immediately tried to run at Riker, but the force field held, pushing her back with a shock of electricity. She looked around, and her shoulders slumped in defeat.
“Dammit, Riker, you should have let me go,” she said.
“You disobeyed a direct order, Pryde,” answered Riker. “Drop those weapons... all of them, and step to the wall.”
Kitty unslung her sword, guns, and knives, dropping them on the floor. Then she stepped back and faced the wall as the weapons were beamed out of the brig.
“Yes, I disobeyed an order. It was a stupid order, and it’s going to get a whole bunch of people dead and accomplish nothing.”
“I’m not going to debate the course of action I have chosen with you, Commander. You are a Starfleet Officer, and you are required to obey the orders of your superiors. You not only disobeyed my orders and defied my authority; you also attempted to leave the ship without proper authority, are in the possession of unauthorized weaponry, and attempted to take unauthorized unilateral military action against an enemy force. Your actions have proven you unfit for your rank, and I intend to see to it that you never wear that rank again, or any other in Starfleet. I intend to see you court marshaled and broken. And if I can wing it, I intend to see to it that you do time on a penal planet. You broke the trust that every Starfleet officer has, and that every member of this crew has. And I intend to see to it that you pay for breaking that trust.”
Kitty just looked at Riker. Riker matched her glare with one of his own.
“In the meanwhile,” Riker continued, not moving his eyes from hers, “I intend to continue with the rescue operation as planned. Starfleet officers know their duty, and they are well-trained for that duty. You underestimate their abilities, and you will find that Lieutenant Commander Johnson has come up with a good rescue plan with a high chance for success.”
Kitty stared at him. “You are so involved in trying to prove me wrong, Will, that you don’t even see the pitfalls of your own position. You will be lucky if your assault team makes it back. Likely the full team won’t. And they won’t get anywhere near the hostages. And if Gladiator doesn’t kill the hostages, it will be by pure luck.”
“This debate is over,” Riker said. “It is not open for discussion.”
“I know. That’s the problem,” she countered angrily.
Riker looked at Kitty for another moment. Then he walked out. Most of the security team left with him. A lone, armed, and very alert security guard, a female ensign named Carolyn Wolcott, sat at a brig tactical station, keeping watch on her, and doing work on the tactical station.
Kitty sat down on the bench in the brig. It was going to be a long night.