It had taken a while; crawling through Jeffries Tubes and forcing open a couple of doors along the way, but eventually Lieutenant-Commander Alara Ley and her team had met up with Lieutenant Grav and his group.  Between them the Trill and Tellarite discussed what they and the engineers with them had tried so far.

“We fired three phasers at those shields on maximum and still couldn’t penetrate them.”  The Tellarite Security chief grumbled. “It’s drawing on a lot of power to stop us.”

“Not enough that it would need to take power from the warp drive and slow down though.” Alara replied. “There are plenty of redundant systems it could use first.”

‘Including life support.’  The ever present voice inside whispered sombrely. ‘Computers don’t need oxygen.’ That was a dark and chilling thought.  Would the computer really shut life support down, to protect itself?  The problem was she couldn’t rule that possibility out.

“Short of blowing the ship up, I can’t see a way of stopping it before it gets to wherever we’re heading.”  Grav flung his hands up in frustration.

“Klingon space.” Alara informed him. “We managed to figure that much out from the Bridge.”

“Oh, just great. We’re going to start a war, aren’t we?” The Tellarite moaned.

“How could be blow up the ship if we can’t tamper with the controls?” The Trill questioned him.

“Detonate a few torpedoes.” Grav replied after thinking for a moment.

“Look into it.” Alara responded.  “Take an engineer with you.”

The Tellarite simply pointed at the first of the engineers to look in his direction and signalled for the man to follow him.  The Lieutenant-Commander then walked over towards two of the other engineers. “Chris, Niroc; I want the pair of you to check on the shuttle craft.  We may need them in order to get off this ship.”

Lieutenant Grav had sent two of his men off to the Brig; to see if Nurse Folland and Chameleon were being held there.  She was trying to think what else needed sorting out; the voice inside was happy to remind her, with one simple word. ‘Bodies.’  Yes that was it; Doctor Sunny wanted to take all the bodies they’d discovered with them.  He felt it was only fair to treat them with more respect that the Orion’s clearly had, and to find out who these people were.  They could hold key information regarding where they’d been kept.  It wasn’t exactly going to be an easy task, without the use of the lifts.  Then again, nothing seemed all that easy at the moment.

**********

Nurse Sarah Folland jumped, her eyes flew open with a panicked look on her face as she sat up.  Her breathing was heavy and slightly laboured.   A bad dream or reality, her mind was clouded for a moment; vision taking a moment to focus on what little was around her.  A hand touched hers and a reassuring voice asked.  “Are you ok?”

She turned and looked into the eyes of a total stranger and yet someone she’d come to know over the last few days. Sarah nodded.  “I dreamt I was in a prison cell.” She looked around, it was no dream, she was really in a cell.  “How long was I asleep?”

“Around three or four hours.” Chameleon announced.  “Not all that easy to tell.”

“I don’t want to die in here.” Folland pleaded.

“Hopefully you won’t have to, miss.” It was a third voice, which made the nurse look across to the force-field that held them prisoner.  Two Starfleet security guards stood in the main part of the brig. “Crewman Denisov, I’ll have you both out in a moment.” The one on the left introduced himself before stepping towards the key pad that operated the force-field.

The Chief had managed to get access to some of the security codes prior to them boarding the Stavanger: by contacting the last person to hold that position on the vessel, before its retirement; and he hoped no one had bothered to change them since then.  For once luck was on their side, and the energy barrier dissolved into nothing.  Allowing the two captives to step to their freedom.  Sarah was a little unsteady so Chameleon helped by supporting her as she gingerly stepped forward.

“So are you the rescue party then, Mr. Denisov?” Chameleon asked; he still had the appearance of Ambrose Nichols, but this security guard probably wasn’t aware of what Nichols looked like.

“It’s a little complicated at the moment.” Denisov replied.  “For now, please follow me.”

Chameleon put an arm around Sarah’s waist and held her gently her head moved to rest against their chest.  In the role Chameleon once had; forming any sort of attachment to someone was nearly impossible.  How couldn’t anyone love a thing?  A genetically created anomaly; with the ability to look like and become anyone else they’d seen.  Yet having witnessed one of these transformations first hand, this young woman had made Chameleon feel the closest to being normal as they ever had.  It was a weird feeling to have.

**********

Lieutenant Grav had met another ‘brick wall’, or rather force-field.  The computer had clearly figured out or at least those that had programmed in the instructions for it: that the Photon and Quantum Torpedoes could be turned into a bomb.  It had therefore sealed those sections of the ship off.   He and the engineer could get within arm’s reach of the security door, but no closer.

When he arrived back at the crew mess, were everyone had assembled together he noticed his men had returned with Chameleon and Nurse Folland.  She was sitting on one of the tables being checked over by Doctor Sunny.  She looked shaken but otherwise in good health.  Whilst Chameleon was sat over at another table; talking to the Lieutenant-Commander.

“I can’t believe he’s dead.”  Chameleon was visibly stunned.  A large part of why he’d agreed to help with this mission had been the thought of confronting Armitage.  The man they’d spent several years working with, in Covert Operations, and the man who’d tried to kill them.  The former Commander had known who Chameleon was, despite the disguise.  Now everything seemed an anti-climax.  “Why have him killed though.”

“May be he’d become a liability?” Pondered Alara. “Do you need a Starfleet Officer if you no longer have a Starfleet vessel for them to command?”

“If that was the case, why wasn’t that Bellbrooke guy’s body here?” Grav enquired, joining the conversation.

“You have a point Lieutenant.” Agreed Alara. “This all seemed like a rush on the one hand, and yet carefully planned on the other.”

“This Navaar Orci comes across as a rather random and chaotic woman.”  Chameleon mused.

‘You can say that again!’ Alara’s symbiont laughed dryly; but of cause only she heard it.  There was another thought, her own thought.  ‘What made the Chief Engineer stand out?’

“He’s still here!” She blurted out.”

“Who?” The Tellarite asked puzzled by the outburst.

“Bellbrooke is still on or near this ship.” She answered. “No way they had the time to reprogram everything and let her head off unaided.  They need someone close at hand to deal with anything unforeseen.”  The XO was annoyed that she’d not figured it out before; but then again so was Ley her Symbiont who had many more years of experience.

“We need to search the hull of this ship.” Grav announced.  “Security; grab yourselves a suit each, we’re going for a walk.”