TF01 3,Past Premonitions - Chapter 6 4,by Stuart Mackaness Star Trek: The Vanguard Chronicles ------------------------------------ "Past Premonitions" --------------------- by Stuart Mackaness --------------------- CHAPTER SIX Li Levitt passed the neural scanner over Robert Dean's forehead. He was still detecting residual traces in the upper nodes in the brain. "This isn't right. He should be out of it now that he isn't under the influence of the transmitter." He muttered to himself. Or was he out of range? "Computer, activate a level three dampening field around biobed four." Levitt ordered. "That should stop any signals coming through." There was a dull buzz and a light orange field encased the biobed. Li ran his neural scanner over Dean's head again. "Strange, he's still recieving instructions." After deactivating the field, Li put the scanner on the equipment trolly by his side and reached for a standard tricorder. He passed it over Robert's body. After reconfiguring the search patterns he passed it over again. This time he picked up a slight reading. "Curiouser and curiouser." He quoted. He fingered Dean's communicator. Removing it from his uniform, Li ran the tricorder over it on intensive scan. It appeared to be perfectly normal. He tapped it. "Levitt to Captain Warner." He called. It didn't even chirp to life. Li grabbed a surgical scalpel and removed the front of the badge. The arrow head fell away to reveal the micro-sized innards of a communicator. Or at least they should be. All that was inside was a pulsating green diode and a cylindrical container. Fine connecting wires ran from the cylinder to the diode. Li cut them with the scalpel and the diode immediately stopped flashing. He scanned it again. Then he scanned Dean's brain with the neural scanner. The signals to the brain had stopped. "Bingo." Li whispered triumphantly. *** "Commander Riker, I need to cash in that favour you owe me." Warner said pleasantly from the chair in the conference lounge. On the viewscreen, Riker smiled. "I usually get very nervous when people say that to me, sir." He joked. He too was in the conference room on board the Enterprise. It was much larger and more sumptous than the Vanguard's and Warner felt slightly belittled by the situation. "I did you a favour by taking Commander Halk aboard as my first officer. Quite frankly, the way in which Starfleet demoted her and the label attached to her record meant that no-one else would." Warner said. Riker nodded. "I know that captain. But I feel that Halk is a damn good officer and in my opinion Starfleet was wrong to demote her." Warner waved him off with his hand. "What you or I think isn't really relevant to the situation I am currently faced with." Riker immediately straightened and gave the impression of being on red alert. "I am aware of your past relationship with Commander Halk, I am also aware that that you passed down command of the Vanguard several years ago. However what happened in the past is not relevant now. I need access to your database and personnel files. Hell, I may even need the Enterprise herself. You aren't the closest ship in the sector, but you're the best equipped for what I have in mind. Therefore I am requesting that you convince your captain to aid me in my investigation." Warner explained. Riker considered this for a minute before answering. "With all due respect sir, I'll need more information on your situation before I put this to Captain Picard." "Understood. Unfortunately if my suspicions are correct then my communications may be being monitored." Warner replied. "I see sir. Then can I suggest you send the details of your situation in a random code for each word and then we'll translate them onboard the Enterprise." Riker said. "Timing may be vital in this investigation, how do you propose to decipher the code if you don't even know what form I'm using." Warner asked confused. "It would take the computer days to translate it all if each word were written in a different code." "We won't be using the computer sir, we'll utilise the extraordinary talents of an extraordinary individual." Riker answered, smiling. Warner finally understood. "Commander Data." Riker nodded. "Transmit when you're ready." "That would be fine commander." Warner replied. "Vanguard out." The image darkened and the seal of the United Federation of Planets appeared in it's place. Warner turned round and activated a table-top terminal. He briefly began to outline their situation and added some further instructions to Riker. "Computer." He ordered. "Begin encoding the message on my terminal. Random codes for each word. Select code sequences from all known Federation languages and code formats. Then encode the code frequency with the transponder signal of the starship Enterprise." He smiled at that last touch. He only wished Data had a sense of humour to understand it. *** Gart examined the modified communicator that Levitt had shown him. "It appears to be a relay. It doesn't transmit the signals, it only boosts them to it's target. The emitter could be anywhere." Li leaned against the engineering console. "Where's the signal comming from?" "I don't know. The device is definitely Romulan though. It has a range of up to ten kilometres, give or take spatial densities." "So they could be transmitting from another ship." Li said tentatively. Gart nodded. "That's more than likely." "If it's Romulan, and so far into Federation space then isn't that in violation of the treaty." Levitt asked. Gart snorted indignantly. "If there's a Romulan warbird in Federation space, then the Treaty of Algeron is blown away and we're at war." "Unless the Federation backs down and decides to over look the incident." Li muttered. Gart nodded. "That's more than likely." Li laughed. "I often wondered why Bajor was so slow in opening dialogue for joining the UFP. But since the occupation, I have a feeling we would be slightly too impetuous for the calmer members to put up with. And a good Bajoran knows where they're not wanted." "Which certainly wasn't true on Tellar. We took in more Bajoran refugees during that time than any other member world. Except Terra of course." Gart replied. "Don't call the human homeworld Terra near Captain Warner or Commander Halk. They get quite annoyed by it. They prefer us to call it Earth. I don't know why. Starfleet records clearly state that the planet is named Terra. Just the same as the Andorian homeworld is called Andor and the Bynar homeworld is called Bynus. We couldn't have everyone calling the worlds of the UFP by their native names. Bynus would be something like 100110101..." Li stopped to catch his breath. "...100101011101010110101010101. Or somethng along those lines." "Don't talk to me about human superiority in the Federation." Gart said, suddenly serious. Li looked at him strangely. "What do you mean by 'human superiority'?" "Have you noticed that the standard language for the Federation is Standard English. And that we name most of our starships after humans. And that nearly two thirds of Starfleet consists of humans. Why is it that all of our homeworlds follow a set formula. Tellar for the Tellarites, Vulcan for the Vulcans, Trill for the Trill, Cait for the Caitians and Bajor for the Bajorans? We call them humans but really they're Terrans from Terra. How come sector 001 is the Sol system? Why are we called humanoids?" Gart rushed. Li was taken aback by the outburst from the normally docile engineer. The only time Gart had ever been visibly upset was in the Hunter incident when the power to the replicators was off line and he had to eat TKL standard rations. "This really upsets you doesn't it." He said kindly. Gart's miserable face suddenly beamed a huge smile. "No not really!" "What?" Li said, completly confused. Gart laughed. "I don't care. I've been pulling your leg doctor. I know why the Federation's so centered around humans. It's because what with all of their colonies and offshoots they make up nearly half of the Federation's member worlds. As they all feel a kinship to the original homeworld of the human race, they made it the centre of the Federation." "You smug ..." Li said. Mildly annoyed that he had been taken in so easily. Gart was now choking back the laughter and tears. "You thought that I was serious!" "It's not that funny Gart. Besides, have you conveniently forgotten that there's probably a Romulan warbird cloaked and following us at the momment?" Li exclaimed. Gart rested a hand on the Bajoran's shoulder. "Don't worry doctor. If they haven't blown us away already, I'm sure they won't do it now." Li grudgingly admitted the logic behind this statement. "But still, we ought to tell Captain Warner about this." "And we will." Gart said. "But let me calm down first." *** Captain's log: Stardate 48185.7 We have been in orbit of the New Kelvedon colony now for two days. We have finally established communication with the leader of the colony and have expressed our sorrow at the death of Proffesser Pendragon. I am still locking out the transporters and the shuttlebays untill this investigation is complete. I feel I am nearing the end of this mystery and the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. The only thing which doesn't make sense is the destruction of the Romulan warship near the freighter. After contacting Starfleet and consulting the Enterprise's database I have established that Romulan activity near Galorndon Core is quite intense considering the area is legally off-limits to them. I have been informed by my Chief Medical Officer that Lieutenant Dean is making a full recovery and will be able to return to duty shortly. Further information on the mind-control device has revealed that the Romulan's may have a warbird following us. I have requested the help of the Galaxy and expect it to arrive within the next few hours. If I am to force the renegade Romulans to show their hand, I will need certain items not available on the Vanguard. *** Halk panned her tricorder across Karma's quarters. She was surprised at the furnishings of the room. It was exactly like a set of standard quarters. No sepecial modifications had been made for her height. It was as though Karma was determined not to let her size make her any different from her shipmates. A security guard cross the room and showed her his padd. "Nothing here sir." He said. Halk studied it closely. "What about under the bed?" She asked. "Sir?" He said uncertainly. "The computer says Commander Karma is in this room. I have no reason to believe that it's lying, so she must be here somewhere. We will keep searching until we find her." Halk said determinedly. "Yes sir." The guard replied. With that he walked over to the bed and peered under it. "Hey, what's this?" He called, reaching under with his hand. Halk ran over. "What have you found ensign?" He pulled back his hand. In his palm he held a gold and silver coloured device. Halk took it and slapped her own gold and silver device. "Halk to Captain Warner." "Warner here, go ahead commander." Came the reply. "We've found Karma's communicator. Without it we can't trace her if she gets off the ship." Halk informed him. "I've still locked out the transporters and shuttles. If Karma's been kidnapped or killed, her body will still be on the ship." Warner replied. "Unless she's been vaporised." Halk added. "As I've taken the precaution of activating the internal security systems, no one will fire a phaser without the computer knowing." He said. "If D'Khan's found her and is actually Seruk, he may have a Romulan disruptor on him." Halk reminded him. Warner paused for a second, he hadn't counted on that. "Let's pray he doesn't." "Have you had any luck in scanning him?" Halk asked, changing the subject slightly. "Not so far. He's removed his communicator and seems to be avoiding out internal sensors." Warner replied. "I've already stationed guards on every deck. He won't go anywhere." Halk informed him. She thought she heard him bite his tounge. "He seems to have done a good job so far commander. He's abducted or killed my second officer and has free run of the ship." Halk stiffened slightly. "I hope you aren't blaming me for this sir." "No, no of course I'm not Number one. Just find Karma if you can." Warner said. Halk cut the channel. He had almost sounded sincere. *** Karma awoke in darkness. "Hello?" She realised she was moving up and down inside some kind of container. She ajusted her telekenetic field to give off visible light. She could now see the inside of her prision. It was made of a fabric of some sort. "Great, he stuffed me in a bag!" She grumbled. She thought about what had happened after Macha had told her to see Seruk. Karma had forced the lock on his door with a security over ride and flown in. Seruk was there beating the living daylights out of one of the passengers from the Klingon freighter. At first she thought the passenger was another Vulcan. But the way he was shouting told her otherwise. She had rushed into Seruk and knocked him to the floor. But he had pulled something from the folds of his robe. It was a Romulan disruptor rifle. She only had time to say: "Where did you get that from?" when he blasted her unconscious. And now here she was in a travel bag. She jostled around as the bag was put on the ground. She heard a computer terminal being activated. Karma felt around for a weapon of some sort. Her hand rested on a thin, smooth tube. She continued to grope until she found a button on the bottom of it. She pressed it and a hair sized shaft of light shot out and bored a hole into the lining of the bag. What did a Vulcan Ambassador want with an optic laser? She rotated the laser until there was a hole large enough for her to get out of the bag. She deactivated it and clambered out. She was in a transporter room. The operator and guard were lying prone on the deck. She couldn't tell if they were dead or stunned. If they were dead then why hadn't Seruk killed her? She levitated up level with the transporter controls. Seruk was busy on them trying to alter something. Karma suddenly realised that her communicator was missing. Angrily she reactivated the optic laser. "Hey Syrup, wanna party?" She said jabbing him with the laser. It missed him but instead ploughed into the Romulan padd he had resting on the console. It sparked and then exploded sending out a shower of light. Momentarily blinded by this, Karma failed to see Seruk pull out his disruptor rifle again. "I forgot you Vulcans had an inner eyelid to protect you from bright lights." Karma apologised. Seruk blasted her.