To Tell The Truth Series 04 Sunfire

by Melanie

Chakotay instantly shook off the remaining worry the Doctor's news about the Captain's expected recovery and began firing off orders. "Red alert," he ordered. "All hands to their stations."

  -------

  Tom's refusal to talk continued. After administering yet another dose of buryate, Alpha Two had permitted "Alpha Three" to enjoy another physical session with Tom, who currently was sprawled on the deck after a mean upper cut from the hologram. The Vulcan had decided to give the hologram this one last chance before admitting she had failed and forcing a mindmeld with his wayward protégé.

  Tom was correct in his assumption Alpha Two secretly derived a lot of pleasure from imposing his will on others, especially if it meant he was justified in forcing a mindmeld with him, her, or it. Had he been on Vulcan or living amongst others of his kind, he would have been hospitalized for therapy to work this deviancy out of his personality. But his position as a Protector meant he felt his atypical Vulcan behavior was acceptable. If acting improperly for Vulcan was what it took to bring AlphaOmegan 41783 back in line and see if he was lying then he would do it. The thrill he derived from it was irrelevant.

  At last he could not wait any longer and switched off the protesting hologram. Just as he bent over Tom to drag him off of the floor and place him back into his chair, The Diogenes shook with weapons fire impacting on the shields. With Alpha Two knocked off balance, Tom immediately seized the opportunity offered him. He grabbed the overturned instrument tray he had slammed into only seconds earlier and brought it crashing down over Alpha Two's skull as hard as he could.

  Alpha Two did not move.

  Automatically, Tom dropped his mangled weapon. Part of him wanted to jump for joy while another part merely wanted to join the tray on the deck plates. He finally had killed the reason for so much of the pain in his life. Or had he? He leaned down to check for a pulse when the ship was rocked again and he lost his footing. With a cry, he came crashing down to his hands and knees. Another blast impacted on the shields as he used the wall to drag himself to his feet.

  'Forget about him,' part of him urged. 'He has to be dead after that blow. You have to think about yourself now and getting out of here.'

  So instead of confirming the Vulcan's death, he forced himself to flee the hated room. He knew he had to run now or never have the chance again, especially not after having killed a Protector. Determinedly, he dragged himself out of the room and into the corridor.

  -------

  *Now's the time,* the voice told Sunfire. *They're distracted by the attack.*

  After checking on Tom, the small ship known as Sunfire used her tap into The Diogenes' systems to open the shuttle bay doors and escape. With luck, the voice was right and no one would have the time to pay attention to her launching. If they did, they probably would think she was attempting to help them fend off the enemy. It would not be until too late before her true purpose was known.

  -------

  "Going somewhere?" a voice taunted Tom the moment he rounded a corner.

  Slowly, Tom turned his head towards Raven who nonchalantly leaned against a bulkhead, smugly grinning. Both men had waited for this moment for a long time, nearly as long as Tom had waited for his freedom from Alpha Two.

  In spite of Raven's nonchalance, Tom knew not to take him at face value. He knew this man, knew how ruthless and deadly The Protectors had made him. 'Almost as ruthless and deadly as AlphaOmegan 41783,' part of Tom thought. 'Almost, but not quite.' It was upon that slight difference between himself and Raven that Tom was betting. Hopefully it was going to be enough of an edge to defeat his adversary.

  The uninjured man shook his head sadly. "Oh, my you really are in trouble now, Sunbird. I was watching you and saw you kill Alpha Two. Tsk-tsk. You've finally gone too far." He snorted. "And it was high time you were taken down a peg or two anyway. Alpha Two's favorite. A Chosen One. After this, you're nothing. Without Alpha Two around, no one's going to champion you now. You won't be able to get away with anything anymore, Mr. Perfect AlphaOmegan Soldier."

  "It really got to you, didn't it, Raven?" Tom rasped, his voice rough from days of non-use. "The fact I always was better at everything than you. The fact they didn't sacrifice me after I went rogue. That they brought me back into the fold again."

  "The only reason they brought you back was because they needed you for a Mission or you never would have been let live." He examined his fingernails in exaggerated calmness. "Speaking of your time as a rogue, you should thank me, you know."

  "For what?"

  "For letting you know about dear Daddy's capture and torture. Didn't you ever wonder how you just happened to see his file? It's thanks to me."

  "How'd you get away with snooping through my file to find out who I really was?"

  "I made a comment to Alpha Seven about the internal security and she gave me permission to attempt to breech it. It was a bit of a chore, but I made it into The Protectors' files. Once I was in, it was simple to find out who you were and about your father and your strong attachment to him."

  "And I always thought the beefed up security measures were because of my little wanderings through the files."

  "You are so self-centred!" he shouted furiously. "Everything's always been about you! We came here to get *you*. We played out this charade with the Voyager crew to find out about *you*. Alpha Two's spent days working to bring *you* back. This is where the *you* ends. Now, it's going to be about *me*."

  He withdrew his phaser from its holster. "Now I'm going to have it all." He pointed the phaser at his intended target. "And I get to do what I've wanted to do to you for a long time."

  "You think once I am dead you'll have my position, is that it, Raven?"

  He grinned. "I have it. And your team. And your mate."

  Tom's eyes focused on Raven's collar. "I see three rows of black braid, not four, *Commander*." The manner in which he stressed the last word caused the other man to grind his teeth. "And none of them are edged in white so they haven't made you a Chosen One like me."

  "It is only a matter of time. I am the best they have."

  "You'll always be a pale imitation of me, Raven. You know. The Protectors know it. And I'll wager my team knows it. Do they actually follow you because they trust you or do they do it out of fear?"

  Raven's expression hardened.

  "As for B'Elanna, doesn't it bother you in the least that the only way you could catch her interest was through what amounts to drugging her?"

  Raven ignored Tom's taunt for another of his own. "Doesn't it bother you they all know what you are now?"

  "They only know a skewed version of the truth."

  "Like they would have believed the truth. That crew's Starfleet. Even those who were Maquis are Starfleet now. They couldn't comprehend the reality we know to be true, that The Protectors realized long ago, that everyone else in the Galaxy were a bunch of self-destructive morons who needed protecting from their own stupidity."

  "The Protectors have gone far beyond merely protecting them, Raven. Because of their orders we've murdered thousands of people, all to maintain this artificial peace they've fostered."

  "It has kept the Alpha and Beta Quadrants free from major conflicts for a long time."

  "That's gone now, isn't it? They finally encountered someone they couldn't control."

  "The Dominion's leaders are Changlings. Their fluidic nature makes it impossible to-"

  "To mentally condition them the same way they did us. And they can't issue them Implants because once they revert to their natural state, the Implant would be expelled." Tom grimaced. "And thanks to The Protectors trying to force them into line by other means, the peace is shattered, possibly forever."

  Raven frowned ever so slightly.

  "You didn't know that The Protectors knew about the Dominion before everyone else did, did you? They knew not long after the wormhole at DS9 was opened that the Dominion existed and they told no one. If they had warned everyone about them, the moment they knew they existed, inste
ad of keeping them a secret until they had control over them, the Alpha and Beta Quadrants would have been prepared for the war to come. But they didn't. How many civilians have died because of their silence, Raven? How many

  of our own people?"

  "Like the Dominion wouldn't have attacked if everyone knew about them. There's no way they could have prepared for them."

  "There always are options."

  Raven slashed at the air with his phaser. "There is no sense in debating what might have happened," he barked. "What is done, is done. It is time for you to disappear from my life forever."

  "How are you going to explain to The Protectors what happened to me? They want me back very badly. You can't claim you killed me having to defend yourself. The internal sensors will show you're lying."

  "With Alpha Two dead, I am now in charge of this Mission. I can delete the sensor logs and say you did it."

  "They won't believe that. Added to that, they still haven't got the information from me that they wanted."

  "Oh, but the Vulcan might just have it. I'm sure that someone will be able to extract the knowledge from his mind. I never believed his story that you never revealed what you knew. I'll just take him, and the Borg and that hedgehog creature and the EMH and the ship's logs of course, and go back home."

  "After doing what to the crew?"

  "Oh, I'll take care of them. Or rather the surprise The Protectors hid on Voyager will." He smiled malevolently. "Tuvok says you couldn't remember the real reason you were on Voyager. Does Delcorus ring any bells?"

  Hearing the name of the small planetoid deep within the Badlands did, ring some bells, but Tom did not permit his face to show the horrible thing he was remembering about Delcorus. He always had suspected the reason The Protectors had permitted him to be placed on Voyager was not something he wanted to remember. Now, with one little word, and the whole awful truth was coming back to him.

  "Doesn't ring any bells? Pity. Will I enlighten you?" Raven seemed to mull the idea over. "I'll tell you this much: there's BoB hidden on Voyager and one signal from me and that's it for the intrepid crew of the U.S.S. Voyager," he smirked. "After I've removed those I want to save, of course. As for the ship, itself... I still haven't decided if it is worth the effort to bring her home with us. Rather a lot of work to refit her, especially since we already have downloaded all the information from her." He shrugged. "I'll have to think on that. There's plenty of time to-"

  The Diogenes shook from yet another strong volley from the Gherop ships, knocking them both to the deck. Tom instantly made a move to grab Raven's weapon, only to feel the tingle of a transporter beam catch him.

  "You are not going to win this time, Sunbird," Raven growled as he got to his feet. "Not this time.

  Computer, locate AlphaOmegan 41783."

  "He is no longer on The Diogenes," it responded.

  "Where is he?"

  "He was transported off the ship to Sunfire."

  His full lips thinned and nearly disappeared. "Beam me to Voyager's Bridge."

  -------

  When the beam released him, Tom was on a familiar Bridge.

  "Dammit, Sunfire," he moaned. "I could have finished him."

  "But Sunbird-"

  "I have to be in command of The Diogenes in order to get everyone home. That means Raven has to be dealt with."

  "Soon there won't be anyone to get home." She showed him the Gherop fleet swarming Voyager and The Diogenes. "Can you fly?"

  Squaring his bloodied shoulders, he nodded. "I'll have to," he answered, stepping up to the Conn. "You're patched into The Diogenes' computer."

  "Of course."

  "Then stop Raven from transporting anyone from Voyager."

  "There's a transport in progress. He's *going* to Voyager."

  Tom growled in a fashion of which B'Elanna would have approved. "Get those transporters off-line until I say otherwise."

  "Aye, sir."

  "I have to get to Voyager to stop whatever he's up to," he insisted, taking control of Sunfire's Helm. "There's a BoB somewhere on Voyager. Find it. I doubt he'll activate it with himself on board, but one never knows with him."

  "How long do they have if he does activate it?"

  "Not long."

  "Then we'd better make short work of these idiots, huh?"

  Though Tom's jaw hurt to do it, he smiled at the familiar refrain from his partner as he guided her into the fray.

  -------

  At the same moment Tom and Raven were sparring, Alpha Two was returning to consciousness. Groaning, he lay there for a moment then lifted his bleeding head. 'AlphaOmegan 41783 is loose,' he thought. 'He has to be brought back.'

  "Computer, locate Raven."

  "Raven is no longer on The Diogenes."

  Wiping the blood away, he shakily stepped out into the corridor and touched his combadge.

  -------

  Padd of findings in hand, Vassanji ran down the corridors to the turbolift. He did not know why Alpha Two had not answered his combadge for the past few minutes, but he had to get to him to tell him what he had discovered about Paris' program before something happened. One ship-wide announcement and they all were in trouble.

  As the lift doors opened, he started to step inside just as Alpha Two's voice did exactly what he had not wanted him to do and sounded over the ship-wide P.A. system.

  "No!" he screamed, only to fall to the deck, unconscious.

  -------

  Around him, AlphaOmegans littered the deck plates. Alpha Two did not stop to check their vital signs. He had to reach the Bridge to see what was going on. Every once in a while, he could feel weapons fire shake the big ship as it impacted on the shields and he wanted to know why he had not been informed they were under attack and by whom. The chances of the enemy fire breaking through the shields was minimal, but still, he wanted to know who was daring to fire upon them.

  As he came around a corner he saw a pair of grey-clad legs sticking out of a turbolift. There he found Vassanji, also unconscious, clutching a padd. Automatically, the Vulcan scooped it up as he shoved the body out of the lift doorway so the doors could close. On the trip up to the Bridge, he reviewed the padd's contents, hoping it contained the technician's findings about the program Tuvok had attempted to upload to them. He did not for an instant doubt Paris' role in what had happened to everyone on board The Diogenes. It was precisely the sort of thing he would do.

  And his suspicions were well founded. In the padd's memory was the disturbing answer to everything.

  "The contents of the program," it read, "is a refined version of the akoonah frequency that caused AlphaOmegan 41783 to Awaken. The refinements mean it no longer requires contact with an actual akoonah; instead, a ship's own internal communications can be used to transmit the frequency to everyone who is on board the first time a ship-wide announcement is made.

  "The probable explanation for the Bynars who first accessed the program being the only ones to be affected by it is that the first attack was a stalling tactic used to concentrate our investigation in one direction while the program established itself in the communications systems. Now that the program is loose upon the ship, it may be impossible to remove. If AlphaOmegan 41783 cannot furnish us with a way of stripping his program from our systems, safety measures will have to be enacted and The

  Diogenes will have to be destroyed before it can affect any other ships.

  "If the program is activated, everyone on board the infected ship, with the exception of the Alphas, will Awaken. The one saving grace is that once the announcement is over, the program returns to its dormant state."

  The Vulcan nearly growled in frustration and anger. AlphaOmegan 41783 was not going to win this battle. "Computer, beam the AlphaOmegans on Voyager back to The Diogenes."

  -------

  "Tom," Sunfire murmured, "Alpha Two wants the AlphaOmegans back on The Diogenes."

  Negotiating a difficult maneuver, Tom blanched. "He's still alive?"

  "Yes
."

  Tom used a lovely bit of profanity he had picked up in one of the seedier dives on Lue Cha. "That makes things more difficult."

  "Everyone else on the ship is unconscious."

  "Then he's activated my program. Damn, I'd planned to be there on the ship when that happened. How are their vitals."

  "They're doing okay."

  He sighed. "Good. Have you located Raven?"

  "Yes, he's appeared on the Bridge."

  "Then give him to Alpha Two. No one else. They should keep each other busy until I can deal with them."

  -------

  "Sunfire is acting erratically," Dumar pointed out, puzzled as he joined the group of AlphaOmegans assembling in the right front corner of the Bridge.

  They had realized the Voyager crew was better equipped to handle their ship in this emergency. Voyager was their ship; they knew her best. The AlphaOmegans planned to return to The Diogenes to figure out why she all of a sudden had stopped defending herself and why no one was responding to Voyager's hails. They had been preparing to beam back to their ship when they had become distracted by the scene on the main viewer.

  "Tuvok, has she taken a hit? Is she a danger to us?" Pardan wanted to know.

  "Yes, she's taken a few hits," the Security Chief answered, "but her shields are holding. It does not appear that she is out of control."

  "That flying is familiar," T'Kara interrupted, staring at the screen while taking a place beside Bartoq. "It is *his* flying technique."

  Pardan smiled. "Then he is back with us."

  Chakotay frowned. "I thought Raven told us Sunfire was dead?"

  "Her body is, Commander. Her mind is not."

  He stared at the small ship zigzagging through the Gherop attackers. "Dr. Graves' research?"

  "Yes, she was transferred to the ship's computer moments before death."

  Everyone only half-heard the Romulan's words. Everyone was watching Sunfire perform a rapid change of direction and the two ships pursuing her collided, exploding in spectacular fashion. That left only four Gherop left on Voyager's tail and seven on that of The Diogenes.

  "He certainly is back," Bartoq approved.

  "Who is *he*?" Harry asked.