Star Traks: Melting Pot is based on Alan Decker's Star Traks, which in turn is based on Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry, may he rest in peace. Copyright 2004. Star Traks: Melting Pot The Quests for the Six Spheres of Power - Part 4 "Aggregation" by Paul Cloutier This story is dedicated to Lam Ching Ying, who died seven years ago, in his mid-forties, from liver cancer. No one has ever combined charm, wit, martial arts and a willingness to laugh at himself so successfully! Sifu Lam, you are surely missed! Captain's Log; Stardate Unknown - While we ARE back in our own time, the peculiar radiation of the Omega Configuration prevents us from synchronizing with any Federation Chrono- beacons. Repairs of damage sustained in our battle with the proto-Borg have been completed and we are now ready to commence the third Quest for one of the Spheres of Power, the semi-sentient, coherent energy orbs that will allow the Foreenans to escape from their self-made prison, the OverMind, and re-join the galactic community. Seetamyn reached out and grasped the second Sphere of Power, which had hung in space in front of his command chair on the Bridge of the USS Menagerie since the ship's return from the pocket dimension where the crew had fought against the Borg. The Sphere dissolved at his touch, presumably transferred to its rightful home on one of the planetoids which made up Foreena Four. As it vanished, raw, primal energy flared up from the planetoids forming a new vortex. This vortex would transport the ship and her crew to yet another pocket dimension where they would be tested to see if they were worthy of attaining the third Sphere. Captain Seetamyn gave the order to proceed to Lieutenant Mantron and the ship was once again swallowed by the mirror- like surface of the vortex. After what could have been milliseconds, or could just have easily been centuries, the ship reappeared over a planet. On the Bridge, M'Dral, Mantron and B1 and B2 were busy compiling sensor data concerning their destination. The system that they had been transported too, had a single, Class-M planet. The planet was mostly desert, with a few small bodies of water scattered about like oases in the terrestrial Sahara. The air was breathable and the temperature, while on the warm side, was within bearable tolerances for the crew of the Menagerie. Two things seemed to be missing from the scans, however. "You are sure?" inquired Thog incredulously. "Affirmative, Commander," came the reply from the Science Console. "We have detected bacterial, insectoid, anthropoidal and viral life, but no vertebrates seem to have developed here." "Would any of the bacterial or viral lifesigns offer any danger to the crew?" "No, sir," the Bynars used the gender-neutral title. "Everything seems to be particularly benign." "And what of the Sphere of Power?" inquired the captain, all business, as usual. "We are getting some very odd readings, sir," came the perplexed reply. "The Sphere seems to be everywhere!" "What?" cried Banjo, and Thog. "Yes, we are getting a very diffused energy reading, the essence of the Sphere seems to be omnipresent!" "This sounds decidedly like a mystery," commented Seetamyn. "I think I will, personally, beam down to take a look at this." "Sir, I must protest!" exclaimed Thog. "Just because the readings showed no higher animals doesn't mean that it would be safe for you to beam down there. What if those insectoid or anthropoidal lifeforms are huge? For all we know they could be 20 meters long!" "Well," asked the captain, turning to his Science Officers, "any details on the size of those readings?" "Sir, the insectoid readings seem to be grouped together in massive numbers. We expect that you will find that they are analogous to terrestrial ants or bees. The individuals in these swarms are from one to three centimeters long. The anthropoidal readings are much more scattered. They range in size from about two centimeters to about one decimeter. We believe that they will be the equivalent of terrestrial crabs and scorpions. We have detected no individual lifeforms whose length exceeds one half of one meter." "Does that satisfy your Security Officer background, Commander?" Seetamyn asked, mildly. "No, sir, it does not. Who else did you plan on including in your away party, if I may ask?" "Certainly, Commander. I was planning to include Lieutenant Commander Ustrano and Doctor Pish. However, since you feel so strongly about this, you are welcome to accompany us." "Sir, now I must protest," interjected Banjo. "You would be taking three of the top four officers on board!" "Yes, and leaving YOU in charge," pointed out Thog. Banjo blinked several times, before gathering his thoughts, "Have a nice time down on the surface!" he said with a grin. Thog, Mantron and M'Dral all laughed at the Changeling's sudden change of demeanor. Banjo tried to look indignant, but he too, was soon laughing. he thought. Then, unbidden, a new thought occurred to him, Having summoned the ship's Doctor and Chief Engineer to Transporter Room One, Seetamyn, Thog and Banjo made their way to that same destination. Upon arrival, Thog went immediately to the Room's equipment locker and withdrew a phaser and tricorder and passed them to the captain. She then withdrew another tricorder and two more phasers, for herself. Banjo, for his part, stood off a ways to await Jantoo's arrival. Soon Ustrano arrived, carrying a full engineering analysis kit and his customary twenty phaser rifles. Doctor Pish appeared seconds later with her medical kit and, after a brief, private farewell with Banjo, joined the other three on the transporter pad. Ensign Zamtra wished them well with his customary, "Timpo with his cards marked," and the quartet sparkled away. As the supernumerary-free away team was arriving on the planet, below, another arrival was taking place. Down on Deck 12, in the middle of the Astrophysics Department, Dr. Fidth was visiting his old office. He had been relieved of duty by Captain Seetamyn during the initial investigation of the Omega Configuration. His replacement, Dr. Gau, was the most incredibly fat Arcturian that Fidth had ever seen. Arcturians generally had loose skin which fell in folds about their bodies. Dr. Gau's folds were fully filled with more of Dr. Gau. Fidth wasn't sure who would weigh more, Ustrano or Gau, but he was sure it would be a very close contest, indeed. "Dr. Fidth! I haven't seen much of you around the labs since you were relieved of duty," the massive Arcturian could scarcely contain his glee. He and Dr. Fidth had always been competitors in the Astrophysics Department and now, he, Dr. Gau, had won. "That's right, Doctor," began Dr. Fidth, contritely. "I had been found unfit for duty and so I had tried to keep out of everyone else's way. I didn't want to disrupt anyone else's work." Seeing Dr. Fidth like this, contrite and apologetic, quite made Dr. Gau's day. He wasn't naturally a vindictive man but Dr. Fidth had been truly insufferable to work under. Momentarily disturbed by his own viciousness, the Arcturian asked, "Well, Doctor, what can I do for you?" "Well, sir," said Fidth, really laying it on thick, "as you know, when I was relieved of duty, I was locked out of the more sensitive areas of the computer. At the time I had been working on my paper for the Daystrom Institute on the effects of binary pulsar radiation on dilithium breakdown rates. I would like to be able to at least access my work from my cabin so that I might continue it. If you could spare me a moment on your console to transfer my work up to my personal files, I would be forever grateful!" "I think I could allow that," Gau said graciously, rolling away from his desk. (The man's immense weight required him to remain in his chair at all times in order to be able to move at all.) "Oh thank you so much ... you imbecile!" the contrite, humble Dr. Fidth was immediately replaced with the Dr. Fidth - 'Angel of Vengeance' model. Quickly tapping in a key sequence, Fidth sent a pulse cascading through the ship's computer system, locking out everyone else's command protocols. He had spent the last several weeks hanging around The Pirate's Cove, telepathically eavesdropping whenever Commander Thog or Commander Banjo had been present. He had quickly realized that he couldn't read Commander Banjo at all, but he had persevered and managed to catch Thog's code in his mental net. He now had complete control of the ship and quickly locked out all transporter, comm, shuttlebay and sensor systems. Laughing maniacally, he stunned Dr. Gau with a small, personal phaser he had hidden in his pocket. Deciding that his vengeance required more substantial firepower, he left the Astrophysics Department in search of the nearest armory. Up on the Bridge, it wasn't immediately obvious that anything was wrong. The away team had reported in when they had re-materialized on the planet, and they were not due to check in for nearly another hour. With the internal sensors offline, no alarm had sounded when Fidth had fired his phaser. In fact, Banjo, Mantron and M'Dral were simply relaxing at their stations as B1 and B2 chattered away at each other, speaking too fast for anyone else to understand, when the aft turbolift opened. Only Mantron turned to see who is was who was visiting them, and when he saw who it was his eyes widened in fear. As he shouted out a warning and jumped from his seat, he was hit in the chest by a high-powered shot from a phaser rifle. A psychotic laugh escaped Fidth's lips as he hopped back into the turbolift and made good his escape. Thinking quickly, Banjo slapped his commbadge and shouted, "Ensign Zamtra! Emergency site-to-site transport! Beam Lieutenant Mantron directly to Sickbay!" The panicked reply came, "Sir, I am locked out of the Transporter controls!" "Computer! Release transporter lockout! Authorization Banjo - Delta Banana Ghost!" The reply was a simple three-word reply which shocked everyone on the bridge, "Unable to comply." "What happened to the limericks? What's wrong with the computer?" screamed the nearly hysterical Banjo. "Sir, someone has locked out all higher computer functions! The external comm system is out, transporters are out, shuttlebay controls are out and internal and external sensors are out!" "What about the holo-emitters?" asked M'Dral, strangely calm. "What kind of stupid question is that?" thundered Banjo. "I think Dil is dying! This is no time for a holodeck excursion!" "Computer, activate EMH!" With a sparkle of light, a thin, balding man appeared on the bridge. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency." he said calmly. "That man has been shot by a phaser rifle!" M'Dral shouted. Moving quickly, the EMH knelt over the fallen Betazoid. Making a lightning- quick decision, the EMH quickly called out, "Computer, synthesize, 200 cc's of Tricordrazine in a standard hypospray and replicate it in the Bridge replicator." With a hum and a flurry of lights, the requested instrument arrived. Banjo darted to the replicator alcove and retrieved the hypospray which he hurried back to the EMH. Accepting the hypo with a frown, the doctor administered the drug to the fallen Helmsman. "Why hasn't this man been transferred directly to Sickbay?" the EMH demanded. "The madman who shot him has, apparently, locked out transporter control along with several other systems," responded Banjo. "This won't do at all!" the EMH replied. "This man must get to Sickbay immediately if he is to have any chance of survival at all!" "Very well," agreed Banjo. Ripping off his uniform, Banjo allowed his body to flow into a shape resembling a giant slug. Shooting out two pseudopods, he wrapped Mantron securely in his gelatinous body and slid forward. Here, any semblance he may have had to a terrestrial gastropod disappeared as his new shape literally sped to the turbolift. Requesting Sickbay, he and his cargo were whisked away, arriving on the Sickbay deck, albeit several corridors away, in seconds. Flowing out of the turbolift, Banjo accelerated into Sickbay to find the EMH waiting for him. The two got Mantron into a thoracic regenerator and then the EMH shooed Banjo away to continue working on his patient. Banjo reformed into his humanoid shape and made his way to the nearest replicator to replace his uniform. As he was walking back to the turbolift, his commbadge hummed to life. Sounding light years away, Lieutenant M'Dral's voice could barely be heard, "Sir, with the communications systems out, our commbadges are working on their own, internal frequencies, but we have been cut off from the away team!" Banjo quickened his pace. Thog looked over the depressingly monotonous landscape. Except for a low, rocky outcrop to the away team's north, there was nothing but the peculiar bluish- green sand as far as the eye could see. It wasn't even normal sand, either. The grains of this sand were large, each two or three millimeters in diameter and they made a disconcerting, crunching noise when the team members walked on them. Had any of the four officers been connoisseurs of twentieth-century terrestrial breakfast food they would have noted that it was like walking across a sea of teal Grape Nuts, but none of them were and so a colorful analogy was lost. Thog's melancholia was not shared by the captain. Seetamyn had found one of the arthropods that had been detected from orbit and was busy examining it. While its basic shape did, indeed, resemble a scorpion, there were substantial differences. The tail stinger, for example, had been replaced by an organ similar to a spider's spinneret. This organ allowed the lifeform to cement the sand grains together to form a dome-like shelter. Seetamyn hypothesized that these shelters would protect the creature either from the excessive midday heat or from the bitter nighttime cold. Since the away team had yet to experience either, he had not been able to observe which was the case. Ustrano, opined that it was possible that the structure could serve both purposes and this set off a lively debate between the verbose Captain and the equally verbose Engineer. Thog sighed to herself. She didn't see how this analysis was helping them locate the next Sphere, but she couldn't argue with Seetamyn's point that there was no way to determine what information might be the key to finding the next Sphere. Her tricorder pinged to let her know that it was time to check in with the Menagerie, so she tapped her commbadge to contact the ship. There was no response. Taking off her badge and shaking it to remove any dust that might have blown into it, she retried. Again, no response. Annoyed, she walked over to Pish and asked her to try her badge. Hers too, failed. Becoming concerned, she tried to contact the other away team members. This worked and soon everyone was gathered around Thog and Pish. "Sir, I cannot contact the ship," Thog reported. Seetamyn and Ustrano quickly tried their commbadges, to no avail. Ustrano deftly disassembled its and determined that the problem must be on the Menagerie's end. This distressing news was met with predictable equanimity by the Vulcan and some distress and chagrin by everyone else. Seetamyn responded to the rest of the team's concerns with, "Unless anyone can offer anything constructive to try, we might as well continue our search for the third Sphere. Sitting around worrying about things that we cannot fix is simply a waste of time." Thog, Ustrano and Pish weren't overly happy with the captain's nonchalance, but neither could they argue with his pragmatism. Shrugging, they continued their sensor sweeps. Finally, Thog detected something odd on her tricorder. Again calling over the rest of the away team, she pointed out the anomaly, "There is some sort of semi-coherent cloud approaching us from the southwest." After verifying this odd observation, Seetamyn began to offer further observations, "There is no discernable wind, yet this 'cloud' is closing the distance between itself and us at approximately fifteen kilometers per hour. It will arrive here in six minutes." Ustrano, not being sure how one fought a cloud, reset its phaser rifles to wide-area dispersal and took point, along with Thog. As the cloud grew nearer, a constant humming filled the air. Seetamyn, continuing to monitor the readings on his tricorder suddenly announced, "That is no cloud. It is a swarm of some sort of flying insects." Ustrano and Thog could now see that the captain's description was quite accurate. Hundreds of thousands of flying insects, each approximately two centimeters long, were flying together in a massive swarm. The swarm flew to within two meters of the team and then underwent an amazing transformation. The swarm lost its amorphousness and flowed into a three-meter tall humanoid shape! The swarm and the away team stood staring at each other for several seconds until Seetamyn slowly walked past Ustrano and Thog. "I am Captain Seetamyn of the USS Menagerie. My team and I represent the United Federation of Planets and are on a mission of peaceful exploration." The Vulcan spread his arms wide, making sure to demonstrate that his hands were empty. Thog recognized the 'First Contact Greeting Posture #4', straight from the Starfleet Command Officer's Manual. She hoped it would work as well for Seetamyn as it had for Captain Richard Z'hang. Z'hang had stumbled upon the X'iaoao on his first First Contact mission. As luck would have it, the X'iaoao considered haberdashery to be the ultimate form of expression and had taken the captain's outstretched arms for a request to be fitted for a new suit. Before the puzzled captain had known what was happening, he had been measured and presented with a beautiful suit of X'iaoaoian spider-silk. The suit had been the envy of the entire admiralty when Z'hang had returned to Earth and soon the X'iaoaoians were busy creating incredible outfits for the admirals and the Federation Council. The X'iaoaoians were kept so busy creating new fabrics and styles for the Federation that they neglected their own people and soon a nudist revolution overtook the X'iaoaoians. Unfortunately, the X'iaoaoians turned out to be the most fabulously gorgeous people in the galaxy and seeing them naked made everyone else feel decidedly inferior. Diplomatic relations had broken off and no one had seen any new X'iaoaoian fashions for nearly fifty years. Thog need not have worried. The swarm-creature seemed to regard Seetamyn for a long moment and then swung its right 'arm' forward. As it moved, it elongated and contacted the Captain just above his knees. Seetamyn could have certainly used a tailor at that point as the pseudopod neatly severed his legs and he crashed to the ground! Banjo reached the Bridge as M'Dral and B1 and B2 were frantically trying to assess the ship's current situation. He didn't even have to ask as B1 and B2 turned to him and said, "We have locked out the rest of the computer systems. No one will be able to take control over anything further." "Very good. Do we know the full extent of the sabotage?" "Yes, sir. It is what was first reported - transporters, communications, shuttlebay control and internal and external sensors are all locked out of our control. Presumably, our unknown adversary wants to strand the away team down on the surface of the planet while he carries out his plan, whatever that may be." "Well, I should think that at least part of his plan involves killing Lieutenant Mantron." "Why would anyone want to hurt Mantron? He's been the one who has always worked extra hard for this ship," asked M'Dral. "I may have an answer to that question," the EMH suddenly appeared on the Bridge. "ARRRGGHHH!" screamed M'Dral at the apparition. "Sorry, to startle you, Lieutenant. With the communications system out, it was just easier to manifest here to give my report. Oh, by the way, where is this ship's Chief Medical Officer?" "She's down on the surface with the captain," replied Banjo. "Now what is Lieutenant Mantron's condition and what were you talking about knowing who was behind all this?" "I just finished treating a Doctor Gau for a close-range stun blast. He said that he had been shot by Doctor Fidth." "Fidth!" Banjo, M'Dral and B1 and B2 all shouted. "Yes, now stop interrupting. No wonder your Doctor went on an away mission if all of you continually interrupt like this! Your Lieutenant Mantron is in very serious condition. I was able to repair most of the damage to his chest, but several major arteries have been severely strained. I have him sedated and restrained. If I can keep him quiet and immobile for the next 24 hours, I believe he will make a full recovery." "Unfortunately, we have a murderer stalking the ship and no way to track him. As soon as he finds out that Dil is still alive, he'll probably make another attempt." "Can't we just set up a forcefield or something around Sickbay and send out security teams with tricorders to find Fidth?" asked M'Dral. "Unfortunately, with the internal sensors inoperative, such a search would be difficult at best. Furthermore, while we have taken steps to prevent any more system lockouts, we cannot prevent Fidth from accessing the information grid and discovering what we are doing." "Can't we just lock out his ID?" asked Banjo. "Certainly, but with the computer's higher functions offline, we cannot discover if he has created any additional logons." "Well, we'll just have to use his cleverness against him, won't we?" offered Banjo with an evil grin on his face. "Do you two think that you can reverse the lockouts through logic space?" "Yes, sir. But the procedure might disrupt other systems. It is possible that the EMH or even propulsion might be compromised." "OK. Hold off on that until we catch Fidth." "Sir," asked M'Dral, "respectfully, how do you expect to catch Fidth? He has served on Federation vessels most of his life while you have been on board the Menagerie for only a short time." "Lieutenant, an intelligent hunter doesn't waste time chasing after his prey, he waits for the prey to come to him..." Thog watched in helpless fascination as the swarm creature stripped the flesh from Seetamyn's legs. The white starkness of bone was eerily luminescent against the blue sand. A whack from one of Ustrano's tentacles roused her from her shock. The massive Velvattian had grabbed Seetamyn in several tentacles and bore him aloft. Ustrano then began moving at running speed towards the rocky outcropping that Thog had noticed, earlier. With the lightning clarity that sometimes comes during times of great crisis, Thog noticed that the Engineer had clamped off the stumps of Seetamyn's legs with two tentacles. <> she thought <> Deciding that she wanted to escape her Captain's fate she also started running. Doctor Pish was running alongside Ustrano, but it was soon apparent that the tiny Bajoran wouldn't be able to keep up with the Velvattian for very long. Noticing this, Ustrano wrapped a couple of tentacles around her and carried her along, too. As they approached, Thog's overwhelmed mind drew comparisons between the bare and lonely wind scoured rocks and the swarm-stripped leg-bones she had just seen. Thog and Ustrano reached the dubious security of the rocks and Ustrano began searching among them. Thog turned and observed that the swarm creature was drifting their way. That was bad. Suddenly she realized what Ustrano was looking for - some sort of cave! Frantically, she joined the search. After desperately scrambling over the area for a several panic filled minutes, her commbadge announced that Ustrano had found shelter. Hurrying to its location, she found Ustrano, Pish and Seetamyn on the floor of a dark, shallow cave. Ustrano was frenetically ripping apart its tricorder and several phaser rifles. Tearing her attention from this sight, Thog found Doctor Pish frantically running a cauterizer over Seetamyn's legs. Then Thog heard it - that ominous humming that meant that the swarm creature was back! Ustrano made several last adjustments to its cannibalized equipment and activated a control. Amazingly a forcefield sprang into existence at the mouth of the cave. Thog exhaled deeply, up to this time she hadn't known that she had been holding her breath since arriving in the cave. "How long will the force field last?" she finally asked Ustrano, after she caught her breath. "Counting my remaining phaser rifles, and your and Seetamyn's phasers, we have enough power packs for maybe 20 hours. After that, we will be completely helpless." Ustrano oozed over to Seetamyn and gently removed the captain's tricorder. After fiddling with the settings for a few moments, the Engineer managed to get a clear scan of the swarm creature beyond the force field. Thog joined him at the mouth of the shallow cave, "What in Kahless' name IS that thing?" she asked, terror and fascination fighting for dominant timbre in her voice. "It is a CIFAL," responded Ustrano, with uncharacteristic brevity. "A 'Cifal', What is a 'Cifal'?" Thog asked, her curiosity momentarily overcoming her fear. An opponent that she could face in combat was one thing, a monster made up of countless hungry insects was something else. Growing up in the slums of Qo'noS, dealing with the vermin there, both insectoid and Klingon had given her a deep aversion to creepy-crawlers. She would still occasionally awake in the middle of the night, bathed in a cold sweat with fading memories of dreaming that cockroaches (accidentally imported from Earth) were walking on her. "When I was much, much younger there was a traveling circus that would tour every couple of years on Velvattia. The proprietor, Beeeg had been considered an outcast from polite Velvattian society because he would ramble on and on in a most unbecoming way. Finally, he had left the home world. Somewhere, out in space, he hit upon the idea of bringing the wonders of the galaxy back to Velvattia. Thus was Beeeg's Traveling Oddity Parade & Circus born. We, youths would eagerly await the Beeeg TOP Circus and, truth be told, I think the adults awaited it just as eagerly. In any event, on one particular visit, Beeeg brought with him a creature just like that one out there. He told us it was called a 'CIFAL' or Colonial Insect Formed Artificial Lifeform, and that it was the most deadly predator on its planet. In fact, CIFALs had decimated that planet's higher lifeforms until only the CIFALs were left to prowl the lonely desert. I had always viewed Beeeg's claims with a certain amount of skepticism, until now." As Ustrano was finishing his reminiscing, Doctor Pish walked up to the others. "How is the Captain?" asked Thog. "I have stabilized him. Physically, he has lost a considerable amount of blood and is in deep shock. Mentally, I'm not too sure. He keeps rousing up and asking me if these are Bugle Boy jeans that I am wearing, then telling me to 'just do it'. Whatever 'it' is, he doesn't say," Jantoo was clearly very concerned about the Vulcan. "We are secure for the next 20 hours at least," Ustrano assured the Doctor. "Try to get some rest, we'll keep an eye on the captain while we work on trying to get through to the ship." Gratefully, Jantoo nodded her head and went to lay down near the Captain. Thog and Ustrano stood watching the CIFAL hover outside the force field hoping that it might grow bored and fly away. Their hopes were dashed when Ustrano's tricorder beeped. Lifting it quickly he studied the display for a bit then lowered the device and said quietly, "More are coming." "What about the away team?" asked M'Dral. "They are on a nearly uninhabited planet. I'm sure a few ants or spiders won't bother them too much," Banjo responded. "We must focus on one crisis at a time." "We could have an Engineering Team working on overriding the lockouts in Shuttlebay One. We don't need engineers for catching Fidth or re-initializing the computer. Once we get some sort of manual control over the shuttlebay doors, we can send Sperr down with a shuttle to get the away team. Standard operating procedure clearly states that priority must be given to retrieving any away team in a potentially hostile situation, once communications with that team have been disrupted." "I understand, Lieutenant, but in this case we know very well that the disruption was caused on this end," Banjo explained, patiently. "I'm sorry, sir, but that is immaterial. There must be some way of protecting Lieutenant Mantron, catching Dr. Fidth and rescuing the away team, all at the same time!" Lieutenant M'Dral persisted. "Lieutenant, we don't even know if a 'rescue' is required," Banjo wearily said, "but, since you seem to think it is so important, I will put you in charge of returning access to Shuttlebay One. Take whatever Engineering Staff that you require and I will have a security detail meet you in Shuttlebay One. Once manual control is established, deploy whatever vessels you deem appropriate on your own initiative. I will give you thirty minutes to establish your team and then I am terminating all communications and disabling all computer interfaces. Hopefully that will throw Fidth into a panic and force his hand." "Thank you, sir!" M'Dral jumped from her station and quickly made her way down to the Engineering levels. Banjo turned to B1 and B2, "In thirty minute's time, deactivate the interface protocols and the comm- badge frequencies. You two have the Bridge." Then he moved to the starboard aft Jefferies tube access port and, lifting it open, slid inside. "There must be dozens out there!" Thog said, disgust now joining terror and fascination in her voice. "I count thirty-eight separate CIFALs," Ustrano replied. "They must have some sort of communication capability," Thog mused. It had been nearly three hours since they had found shelter in the cave. Ustrano had replaced power packs twice and would soon need to swap out another. Thog had suggested dropping the force field and firing into the CIFALs with a phaser rifle set to broad beam, but Ustrano had calculated that even if they exhausted the remaining rifles, they would barely destroy 20% of the tiny insects. The Engineer's efforts to establish communications with the Menagerie had proven fruitless. As near as it could tell, the problem seemed to originate on the ship's end. Every now and then one of the CIFALs would move forward and strike at the force field. The tiny zaps of frying insects would have reminded Thog and Ustrano of a summer evening spent on a front porch with a bug zapper on twentieth century Earth, but since neither had ever been on twentieth century Earth, it didn't. As the two sat watching the sliding dance of the CIFALs beyond the force field, the light from outside the cave was suddenly dimmed. It was as though a great cloud had passed between the cave and the planet's sun. Ustrano examined its tricorder and then silently passed the device to Thog. The Klingon took a look at the tricorder's screen and her mouth dropped open. Outside, a CIFAL had appeared that dwarfed the others. This new arrival stood easily one hundred meters tall and was composed of literally millions of the flying insects. Disgust and fascination decided that discretion was the better part of valor and left terror all alone, "Wh, wh, what is THAT?" stammered Thog. "Well, Commander, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that some outside power source has, apparently caused this gigantic mutation in a CIFAL. A beast that size will more than likely be able to crush this cave with us in it, in no time at all. The good news is that I have determined that the power source which caused this mutation is, in fact, embedded in that creature's chest and is, in fact, our third Sphere of Power." "Oh goody," responded Thog, too terrified to really think clearly. Lieutenant M'Dral and Lieutenant Sperr were frantically trying to re-route the computer subsystems in Shuttlebay One to allow manual override of the shuttlebay doors. This was a particularly tricky operation because the shuttlebay was equipped with two sets of doors and a series of force field generators. The force fields had to be erected before the inner and outer doors could be opened, or explosive depressurization would blow everyone out of the shuttlebay and into space. This would, obviously, hamper their efforts. Additionally, magnetic shackles held the two shuttles and one runabout in place, and these had to be deactivated, as well, before anything could be flown out of the bay. So far they had not made much progress. Suddenly, Sperr had an idea, "Why don't we just sever all the power connections to the doors, generators and shackles? Then we can hardwire replacement power sources in place and activate each system, independently." "That might work!" cried M'Dral. Quickly gathering the engineering staff that M'Dral had recruited for this job they outlined their plan. Deciding that time might be of the essence, (both M'Dral and Sperr had some vaguely defined notion that something was wrong down on the planet - in short something was bugging them), it was agreed that the power packs from the two shuttles would be used to jury rig the systems. Several engineers made their way over to the shuttles and, thanks in large part to the modular design of the shuttles, quickly removed the needed power supplies. The rest of the team set to work cutting free deck plates to gain access to the circuitry beneath. The work went on for nearly an hour until Sperr and M'Dral were satisfied. Then Sperr, M'Dral and Ensigns H'uee, D'uee and L'uee, who had been part of the security force that Banjo had sent to Shuttlebay One, quickly jumped aboard the Runabout Maurice Sendak and launched. As soon as they had cleared the ship's outer hull, M'Dral began frantically calling over the craft's radio. Back on the surface, Ustrano had awoken Pish. If the super CIFAL decided to start battering the cave, the Engineer wanted everyone who was mobile to be awake so as to have a better chance of escaping. Escaping to where, Ustrano had no idea. Ustrano was ready to grab the Captain's still form and to minimize the risk of injuring him, Jantoo gave the Vulcan a mixture of muscle relaxants and soporifics to keep him asleep, but pliable. Thog was in a severe fugue state. Terror coupled with intense revulsion had reduced her to a kind of babbling catatonia. Pish readied a new hypospray and administered some sort of stimulant cocktail to the terrified Klingon. Soon Thog blinked her eyes rapidly and regained much of her normal demeanor. "Thank you, Doctor," she said gratefully. "As gruesome as it may be, I'd much rather face death in possession of my faculties." Ustrano, monitoring the situation with its tricorder, soon reported, "Some more of the small ones have arrived. I'm counting nearly sixty of the little ones and the big one is still lumbering around out there, too." "Thanks Ustrano! News like that should help keep me relaxed!" Thog replied with a grin. "Well, Commander, you DO seem a bit more relaxed," shot back the Velvattian. "I'm not sure what Jantoo put in that hypo, but it sure..." Just then, the team was interrupted by the most welcome sound any of them had heard in a while - the two-tone boo-wheep of Thog's commbadge activating. Tapping the badge, Thog excitedly called out, "Yes! Yes! This is the away team! We are SOOOOO happy to hear from you!" after this she began running around in circles shouting "Yahoo!" Ustrano sighed and tapped its badge, which it wore strapped to one of its tentacles, "Lieutenant Commander Ustrano here, please forgive Commander Thog's outburst. We have been under a bit of a strain and Doctor Pish was forced to administer some stimulants to Thog. We have a medical emergency, here. Can you beam us up?" "This is Lieutenant M'Dral. There has been an emergency on board the Menagerie as well. Dr. Fidth has sabotaged the computer systems and shot Lieutenant Mantron. I'm afraid we left quite a mess in Shuttlebay One to be cleaned up. Unfortunately, we cannot beam you. There is some sort of electromagnetic interference very close to you which is interfering with our ability to get a transporter lock on you." Ustrano turned and looked sadly at his makeshift force field generator, "We copy, M'Dral. Unfortunately that interference is coming from a jury rigged force field generator which is the only thing keeping us alive, right now. We are trapped in a cave by several dozen creatures composed of swarms of insects. The captain has been seriously injured, although the rest of us are unharmed. What ship are you in?" "We are in the Maurice Sendak, sir" "Excellent! Can you attack these creatures with the runabout's phasers? Do not use any torpedoes. We are hiding in a cave and I'm not altogether certain that the geological makeup of these caves is particularly stable." "We'll see what we can do, sir. M'Dral out" On the Runabout, Ensign H'uee took over the Weapons Console. Sperr had Helm and M'Dral was at the Ops Station handling communications and sensors. Focusing the sensors on the area that Ustrano's comm signal had originated from, she soon let out a gasp and began hyperventilating. She had detected the CIFALs. Linking the Weapons Console inputs to her station she sent the sensor data over to H'uee. The Klingon Ensign quickly configured the runabout's phasers to low-energy, wide beam dispersal and targeted several of the smaller CIFALs. Just then, Lieutenant Sperr announced, "Atmospheric entry, deactivating shields. Ensign, we are two minutes to firing range." "Affirmative," grunted H'uee. The Maurice Sendak swooped low over the desert. Twin fantails of sand blew out behind the ship as it sped towards its destination. Soon, the giant CIFAL was visible to the naked eye and Sperr's jaw dropped open. M'Dral began puffing even more furiously, causing the cabin to begin to get foggy. Ustrano and Mantron hadn't upgraded the environmental systems on the auxiliary spacecraft yet. Ensign H'uee smiled and shifted the targeting system to lock onto the giant. As the ship closed the distance, he let loose with a barrage of coherent energy which vaporized vast numbers of insects. The fantails behind the ship, took out several of the small CIFALs as the runabout passed by and gained altitude to make another swing. The glee on board at the damage that they had inflicted upon the monster creature soon turned to consternation as they watched six of the small CIFALs fly over to the monster and be absorbed, effectively 'healing' the damage that they had caused. "Well, THAT makes it more interesting," commented Lieutenant Sperr. "Shouldn't be a problem, sir," responded H'uee. "We have virtually unlimited amounts of power while it has a definitely limited amount of insects to replace the ones we kill. Might take a little longer, but that just prolongs the fun!" "Very well. New strafing run commencing." The ship spun about, lost altitude and then straightened for another attack. Again, Ensign H'uee loosed every energy weapon on the runabout at the monster, causing multitudes of its component insects to be killed. Again, Sperr brought the ship up to pass over the monster for another loop. This time, however, the monster swung one of its massive 'arms' at the runabout, bashing it away. Sperr fought desperately with the controls, trying to bring the wildly spinning craft under control. Systems overloaded all over the runabout as it hurdled groundward. Back on board the Menagerie, a quiet, furtive figure slipped into Sickbay. His telepathic ability had allowed the murderous Dr. Fidth to avoid all of the security teams that Banjo had deployed throughout the ship. While he was amused that the idiot Changeling had tried to capture him with such a ridiculously misguided ploy, Dr. Fidth was furious that somehow he had been cut off from the computer. The last information that he had been able to access had clearly shown that his attempt to eliminate Lieutenant Mantron had failed. The ship's EMH had managed to stabilize the no-talent Helmsman. This time, Fidth would not be denied. As he rounded a corner into the intensive care section of Sickbay, he came face to holographic face with that meddlesome computer program. "Lieutenant Mantron is not able to accept visitors at this time. Please return, later," the EMH told Fidth. "I don't think so," replied the deranged Astrophysicist, pulling out a small metal cube which he tossed at the hologram. As the cube was caught by the EMH's holographic hand, it emitted a small, but very intense electromagnetic pulse. The EMH was overcome by the EMP, PDQ. Cackling to himself, Fidth made his way over to the biobed where he saw the pale form of Lieutenant Mantron. Pulling a small hand phaser from behind his back, he took aim and fired, point-blank at the helpless Helmsman. As Sperr fought to regain control of the runabout, it bounced across the blue sand and skidded to a halt. Frantically overriding system status warnings, the Shuttlebay Chief managed to get the runabout airborne again, and returned to more or less level flight. Ustrano must have been observing the battle with his tricorder because, just after the Maurice Sendak had righted itself, M'Dral received a new communication from the Chief Engineer, "We believe that the giant CIFAL has somehow had the third Sphere of Power integrated into its body. The Sphere must be providing extra cohesive energy to allow such a massive CIFAL to exist. I recommend maintaining a standoff distance and firing phasers at the creature to make it absorb all of the smaller CIFALs in the area. Once the small ones have been absorbed, I can deactivate the force field and you can beam us on board. We can then blast the creature until no insects are left and that should release the Sphere." "Now you tell us," muttered Sperr as he tried to keep the runabout stable. The synchronizing circuits had been destroyed and he was being forced to maintain flight attitude by manually controlling each propulsion and anti-grav unit, individually. Adding to his troubles, M'Dral's respirator mist had now filled the runabout with a thick, roiling fog, and Sperr and H'uee were being forced to rely on pure sensor data. This time staying at a safe distance, Sperr gave H'uee the signal to renew the assault and new phaser blasts struck out at the creature. The gigantic CIFAL flailed about itself in impotent, silent rage as more and more of its 'body' melted away under H'uee's onslaught. Even though the damage being done was nearly instantaneously repaired by the absorption of the smaller CIFALs, the creature seemed to sense that this was a battle that it just couldn't win. It wasn't long before the smaller CIFALs had all been absorbed and Ustrano and Thog burst out of the cave and added the beams of the remaining phaser rifles to the bombardment. Now the creature was noticeably shrinking before their eyes. The bombardment continued until, with an audible 'POP' the last CIFAL was destroyed and the third Sphere of Power fell into the waiting tentacles of Lieutenant Commander Ustrano. "I though we were going to beam you guys up?" came Sperr's voice over Ustrano's commbadge. "We decided to have some fun, too," came the response. "Besides, the Sphere can't be beamed, remember? The runabout was going to have to land one way or another." "Understood. Coming to pick you up, now," said Sperr sending the Maurice Sendak into a slow dive. Landing in front of the away team's cave. Sperr quickly popped open the door, allowing everyone to get a breath of the clean air. Fog billowed out of the open door into the dry, desert air where its moisture was quickly dispersed. Ustrano came out of the cave carrying Seetamyn. Everyone on the runabout gasped when they realized the extent of his injuries. Sperr and Thog hugged as the still-giddy First officer babbled out what had been happening to them since they had beamed down to the planet. Ustrano and Jantoo secured Seetamyn in one on the runabout's bunks, then turned to M'Dral with just one question - what was Mantron's status. She quickly filled them in with the sketchy details that she had. Ustrano went forward to make some repairs to the ship as Sperr and Thog finally got on board. Ustrano finished up its repairs and Sperr took the Maurice Sendak up, back towards the Menagerie. Dr. Fidth gleefully stepped closer to the biobed to examine his handiwork. <> he exalted to himself. <> he gloated, barely able to contain his laughter. <> and this time he did laugh. It was the laughter of a man who has blamed all of his life's mis- fortunes on a single individual, and who had then seen that individual die. It was the laughter of a man who suddenly found himself free from the restraints of normal society, who had stepped into the darkness and found it to his liking. In short, it was the laughter of a completely and totally insane sociopath. <> what was left of Fidth's rational mind mused, <> <> <> he though as he was thrown against the Sickbay wall with enough force to crash through the syntheglass partition. Mantron sat up on the biobed and flowed into a new shape. The shape of Chief of Security Banjo! Banjo flew off the biobed and grabbed Fidth again, hauling him up off the ground and staring him in the face, "Why, you bastard?" the enraged Changeling demanded. "Mantron had never done you any harm! You weren't even in the same department! Why try to kill him?" "He wasn't a 'him'! He was just an it!," the Betazoid shouted back, flecks of spittle forming at his lips. "It was just a Level Zero - a talentless waste of flesh! Its very existence embarrassed all of Betazed!" "No," disagreed Banjo, "HE is a Starfleet officer. AND MY FRIEND!" Fidth went sailing through another partition, only to be gathered off the ground again. Banjo shouted again, "HE is a decent, loyal, intelligent man who you tried to murder while he was helpless!" Banjo found himself pounding the Betazoid's head against the floor with each adjective. "Attacking a helpless man? You mean like you're doing now?" the voice caused Banjo to whirl around. Mantron was in the doorway of the morgue. He was supporting himself with one hand braced against the doorframe as his wobbly legs threatened to collapse at any moment. "You should not be up and around, my lucky friend," Banjo said. "I don't see how getting shot with a phaser rifle qualifies as 'lucky'," argued Mantron. "Maybe not, but SURVIVING getting shot with a phaser rifle must surely qualify," came Banjo's reply. "And I repeat - you probably shouldn't be up and around in your condition." "Well, when I woke up in the morgue, I thought I'd better get up to see if I was really dead or not," Mantron tried to joke, but his pale face and weak movements belied the seriousness of his statement. "It was the most secure place that I could think of to hide you," explained Banjo. "Oh, I'm not complaining. The EMH told me that it was you who saved me." "No, it was Lieutenant M'Dral who activated the EMH who stabilized you on the Bridge. I merely carried you down here for further treatment." "Well, I'm sure it was more than that. Now, please do one more thing for me." "Of course, my friend." "Take Dr. Fidth down and lock him in the brig. No further purpose can be served by beating him to death." "My friend, the only way you can be sure that he won't attack you again is if he is dead," argued Banjo. "There is nothing 'sure' in life, Banjo," Mantron replied, sadly. "But look at it this way - what's worse, being killed quickly or living in a penal colony every day for the rest of your life? Besides, even if he does come back after me, I'll still have friends around, won't I?" "Always, my friend, always," said Banjo as he walked over to help steady the weak Helmsman. Unbeknownst to them, Fidth was crawling towards the hand phaser that he had dropped when Banjo had tossed him through the first partition. Reaching his goal he quickly spun, and with a maniacal "Ha Ha!"... was vaporized before he could fire by a security detail who had been alerted to the danger by the sounds of the struggle in Sickbay. Banjo and Mantron stared at the smoking boots that Fidth had left behind, then started laughing. It wasn't exactly the deep laughter of people who had just seen something uproariously funny, this was more the relieved, hysterical laughter of people who had just done something monumentally stupid but had survived their folly, against all odds. As the laughter died down, Mantron looked over at Banjo and said, "Forget everything I just said. Next time, we do it YOUR way!" Banjo then helped Mantron back to the biobed and made him comfortable. "Rest now, my friend," he said. "Hopefully, M'Dral will have been able to rescue the away team by now and Doctor Pish will be able to care for you. I doubt that we'll be able to re-activate the EMH until B1 and B2 are able to reboot the computer." He turned away as he realized that the Betazoid had fallen asleep. Ordering the security detail to stay and guard Mantron, he made his way to Shuttlebay One. Sperr had brought the Maurice Sendak to a halt, just outside the outer doors to Shuttlebay One. He realized that he and Lieutenant M'Dral had overlooked something. With all the computer systems for operating the shuttlebay doors on manual override, and with the ship's communication system down, there was no way tell the engineering staff manning Shuttlebay One to open the doors! He was about to ask for instructions from the ranking officer on board, Lieutenant Commander Ustrano, when, as if by magic, the outer doors in front of him opened. Easing forward, he maneuvered the runabout down into its docking station in the bay as the doors closed behind him. Ustrano carried the captain out of the runabout and, closely followed by Doctor Pish, made its way towards Sickbay. Thog and the Klingon security team headed for the Bridge. M'Dral and Sperr were the last to disembark. As they made their way to the control consoles M'Dral asked, "How did you manage to get them to open the doors?" "Oh, you realized that little oversight, too did you?" grinned Sperr. "Not until we were nearly back at the ship," answered M'Dral, ruefully. "Well, I didn't do a thing," admitted Sperr. Turning to one of the engineers, he asked, "What prompted you to open the door for us?" "We had no idea that you were out there, sir," came the embarrassed reply. "About an hour ago, Commander Banjo came by and congratulated us on getting the Maurice Sendak launched. We were all basking in his praise when he inquired as to how we would know to open the doors for you when you returned. We all just looked at each other, since that had never occurred to us in our haste to launch the runabout. Ensign Diftur suggested just leaving the doors open with the force field in place, but Banjo pointed out that the power supply that we were using for the force field would not last very long at full drain. He then instructed us to open the doors every fifteen minutes to see if you had returned yet. We were as surprised as anyone when we opened them and found you outside." "Well, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good, I guess," grinned Sperr. "Looks like," agreed M'Dral. "Let's get everything back together again, folks." The engineers, Shuttlebay Chief and Operations Officer got to work. Banjo was again seated in the Captain's Chair on the Bridge when the aft turbolift opened. His reaction was, understandably, a bit extreme as he launched himself off of the chair and backwards, towards the new arrivals. Thog was a bit surprised to see the Changeling sailing towards her, but Banjo was able to alter his trajectory enough to avoid colliding with the First Officer. "Sorry about that, sir," he offered, "but things have been a little tense around here." "Ha!," Thog barked. "Tense! You don't know what tense is! We were all trapped in a tiny cave while humanoid-shaped swarms of carnivorous insects attacked us!" "Well, WE had a madman disable most of our computer systems! And Dil was shot!" "Ha! That's nothing! Captain Seetamyn had his legs eaten off!" "Well... actually, you win. That's pretty tense," Banjo conceded. "Damn straight!" thundered Thog. Doctor Pish had administered some counter- agents to the stimulants that she had injected Thog with, earlier. They had taken some of the edge off of her mania, but she was still a bit high-strung. Sensing this, Banjo suggested, "Commander, you have truly had a trying experience. Why not take the rest of the day off and relax in your quarters? We won't be going anywhere until the Bynars get the computer back up, anyway." "I think you're just trying to get rid of me," Thog whined, switching to all-out petulance mode. "Well... on second thought, you're right. You should take over, here. I'm not sure how we managed without you," said Banjo, trying some reverse psychology. "Ha! After all I've been through, you can't handle a little standard orbit? So much for the great superiority of the Founders! Well, you obviously need the practice, so I'm going to leave you in charge while I go relax for a little bit!" And so saying, she marched back to the turbolift and departed. <> thought Banjo. "OK," he said out loud, turning to the Science Console, "everyone is back on board and the situation seems to be relatively stable. How about if you two try to re-establish contact with the computer?" "Yes, sir," came the enthusiastic, stereophonic reply, as the two Bynars made their way off the Bridge. Taking the next turbolift car, they made their way to the residential decks and to their quarters. Rushing through their purification ritual, they deliberately disengaged their logic space timer. There was no telling how long it might take them to undo the damage that Fidth had done. Extending their hands to their special computer interface, each adjusted the galvanic charge of their skin until the 'real' world faded away and they slipped into logic space. They were immediately made aware of the fact that something was horribly, catastrophically wrong! Although human language is woefully inadequate to describe the landscape of logic space, picture a peaceful summer day. Puffy white clouds float lazily by, overhead. A light, gently fragrant breeze barely stirs the flowers in the meadow where you are lying, simply relaxing in the sunshine. That would be normal logic space. Now picture the same meadow, some sort of black fungus has engulfed all the flowers and craters and fissures have distorted the meadow beyond recognition. The gentle breeze has become an army of tornadoes and the puffy clouds are now black, lightning-lit thunderstorms. An eerie red light suffuses the landscape as you are pummelled by wind and rain, deafened by thunder and blinded by lightning. In short, the Elysian Fields have been transformed into Hades. B1 and B2 were tossed about by the chaotic forces at work around them. Desperately, the two Bynars darted to and fro across the transformed topology, dodging digital lightning bolts one minute and virtual tornadoes the next. They soon lost all track of time as they battled the Hellish elements, simply to keep from being blasted or blown right out of logic space. Just as they were loosing hope of ever saving their friend, the computer, B2 noticed a tiny white spark, in the distance. Marshaling all their remaining strength, the two finally managed to make their way to the spark. What they found was the very last vestiges of the computer's consciousness, vainly struggling to remain sane in the new landscape. The two Bynars quickly engulfed the tiny mind in their own, loving embrace, blocking out the terrors that logic space now held. Sending comforting thoughts and moral support at the spark, they slowly managed to coax the computer back to awareness. <> wailed the terrified computer. <> <> <> The spark that was the computer was slowly growing larger and brighter. B1 and B2 could feel the chaos of logic space lessening as well. <> the computer thought, hopefully. <> came the Bynar duet, <> <> <> <> the computer reasoned, his spark dimming a little. <> <> the computer shouted with gleeful anticipation, bursting from the comforting confines of the Bynars' embrace and spreading light and peace back to logic space. Bi and B2 swam about with the renewed computer for some time, making sure that the young sentience had not been permanently damaged by the trauma. Once satisfied that all would be well, they said their goodbyes and exited logic space, returning to the mundane world. They quickly made contact with the Bridge where, oddly enough, they found Banjo still on duty, "Sir, we have re-established computer functions, you should have control of all locked systems, now. And thank you for waiting for us.>> "I thank you for your efforts, but what do you mean 'waiting for you'?" came the Security Chief's puzzled reply. "Sir, you were on the Bridge when we began our attempt and we know that several hours must have passed, yet there you are, still on the Bridge." Banjo's laughter came back over the now-functional comm system, "My friends, two days have passed since you left for your quarters! While I appreciate that your confidence in me has grown, even I need rest from time to time." The Bynars were stunned. Two days! No wonder they felt so drained! "Sir, we request some time off to recover from our efforts" "Granted. Take what time you need. And good job guys," came Banjo's friendly reply. Thinking to themselves that they were not the only ones who had changed, they made their way to bed to get some much needed rest. On the Bridge, Banjo noted that the Bynars had completed their work just in time. Today Jantoo was going to attach Seetamyn's new legs. She had also said that it looked likely that she would be able to discharge Lieutenant Mantron, as well. Leaving Lieutenant M'Dral in charge of the Bridge, he made his way down to Sickbay. Along the way he stopped by one of the secure storage depots and retrieved the third Sphere, thinking the Captain would like to see that they had, in fact, been successful. Idly tossing the Sphere from hand to hand as he walked down the corridor to Sickbay, the Changeling mused to himself that, so far, retrieving one half of the Spheres had cost the crew one deranged madman and two legs. Not a bad exchange, he decided. Finally entering Sickbay, the Security Chief waved cheerfully to Mantron, who was propped up comfortably in his biobed, reading a PADD. Making his way into the operating theater, he found Commander Thog and Doctor Pish chatting. Jantoo had already completed the procedure and two, brand new, legs protruded out from under Seetamyn's blanket. They had been grown via an accelerated cloning process in one of the medical replicators, and were excatly the same as the ones Seetamyn had lost down of the planet. "So, you decided to go with the flesh-colored ones, this time," Banjo kidded Doctor Pish. "Well, I had wanted something more colorful, but the Captain put his foot down," came the giggling reply. <> thought Thog to herself, chuckling slightly. Just then, Banjo detected a strong pulse emanate from the Sphere. This was the first time that the glowing globe had done anything other than, well, glow, since he had received it from Lieutenant Commander Ustrano. He was so surprised that he nearly dropped it. So focused was he on the Sphere that he didn't notice at first that the laughter in Sickbay had stopped. Glancing around, he quickly determined the reason for silence - the Captain's legs were now bright pink! Seetamyn, who had been sitting up practicing moving his new legs at the time of the transformation, frowned slightly, "Doctor, is this some kind of a joke?" "Sir, I have no idea what has happened," the Bajoran defended herself. "I do," responded Banjo, fighting to keep in his laughter, "just as the color change occurred, the Sphere pulsed in my hand. I believe that the Sphere heard us all joking and decided to join in." The Vulcan's taciturn face belied his next statement, "I find that rather disturbing, Commander. May I please have the Sphere." Banjo handed over the mischievous orb and then, unable to hold back the laughter any longer, let loose with a series of loud guffaws that soon had Jantoo and Thog joining in. Mantron, hearing the commotion, got up out of bed and headed over to see what all the fuss was about. Upon arriving, the first words out of his mouth were, "Wow! Nice pink legs, sir!" "Actually," Thog said, as she fought for breath, "they're more of a cerise." "No, no," disagreed Banjo. "They're magenta if they're anything." "You silly men," chimed in Jantoo, "what do you know about colors? Those are fuchsia!" Seetamyn watched stoically as a new round of laughter overcame his crew. He wondered to himself if other Starfleet captains had crews as irreverent as his. Had anyone been looking carefully, they might have noticed the barest glimmer of a smile play about the Vulcan's lips for the briefest of instances. <> he thought, <> The party in Sickbay was interrupted by Banjo's commbadge, "Sir, this is M'Dral. A return portal has opened. What should we do?" Banjo caught Thog's and Seetamyn's eyes and then responded, "Why, take us home, Lieutenant." And, so, she did. TO BE CONTINUED...