by Melanie
"Sunbird," the Cardassian grinned.
Chakotay moved closer to Baytart at the Conn. "I know that flying too," he murmured. "Impossible, unless...."
At just that moment, Raven materialized beside Tuvok's station. The eyes of everyone on the Bridge leapt to him.
"Why isn't The Diogenes firing back?" Chakotay asked. "That big ship is giving her a real pounding. Not to mention what the smaller ships are doing. I hope that secret weapon of yours is charged up."
Ignoring the confusion he felt at hearing his ship was not fighting back, Raven opened his mouth to drive the last metaphorical nail into Tom's coffin when the transporter caught him once more. The only words he was able to utter -"Paris has" -- hung in the air long after he had departed, puzzling everyone as to their meaning.
-------
Tom's enemy appeared The Diogenes Bridge, mouth still open and finishing his sentence. "- killed Alpha Two and -- "
"I can assure you I am not dead," the male who had brought him there informed him.
"You're alive!" Raven looked around the Bridge. "What happened?"
"That program of his is active."
"And it did this?"
"Yes. Where are the others? I ordered them beamed here also."
"Sunfire has taken Paris. My guess would be she's controlling our transporters."
"Then break her control. I want the others back here."
Though Raven nodded and assumed the Conn, he was anything but following his superior's orders to the letter. As he sat, his hand "innocently" brushed against the device concealed in his tunic pocket, sealing the fate of all on board Voyager.
-------
"I've found the BoB." Sunfire told Tom as he stepped out of the piloting circle. "It's behind the dedication plaque." She paused. "And it's just become live."
"Raven," he growled. "Beam everyone on the Bridge to Engineering," he instructed as he filled the first of four vials with his own blood.
"What do I do about Alpha Two's order to Raven to lock me out of their computers?"
"Initiate the Backdoor Program and let them think you're gone. Then fake a malfunction in their Transporter controls."
Moments later, she spoke again. "All done."
He set aside the last full vial with its companions. "Beam those and the padd to Yana in Sickbay."
They disappeared immediately.
"Sunbird, don't you think that was a bit too much blood for you to give when you've lost so much already?"
"On the contrary, I just hope it is enough. If that BoB goes off, they'll need as much of my blood as they can get if they are going to synthesize the antidote from it."
"But surely you'll be able to disarm it. You've done it before."
"But if I can't, I want them to be able to administer the antidote to the rest of the crew. Now, you've taken care of The Diogenes?"
"Just waiting for your orders."
"Good. Beam me straight to Voyager's Bridge and when the next Gherop ship attacks Voyager, let The Diogenes see what I want them to see," he ordered, grabbing a tool kit.
"You can't go there like that."
Tom glanced down at his briefs and blood stained body.
His AlphaOmegan uniform materialized on the chair beside him. "Put that on."
Nodding, Tom donned the hated uniform, hopefully for the last time.
-------
In Voyager's Sickbay, Yana and the Doctor were treating some minor injuries stemming from the attack by the Gherop when the padd and vials of blood appeared beside the Orion. Curious, she picked up the padd and began reading the message there.
The EMH read over her shoulder, confused by her sudden grin. "What's going on?"
Laughing, Yana grabbed the hologram and gave him a noisy kiss on the lips then ran into the lab with the vials.
The patients and the Doctor exchanged puzzled looks then he motioned them out of his Sickbay.
-------
It was a toss up who was more surprised by the unexpected arrivals in Engineering- the arrivals or those who already were present. The stunned stares everyone gave each other only increased at the sound of a familiar voice.
"Raven's no longer in command of our team," Tom announced from the Bridge. "I am."
All of the AlphaOmegans, even T'Kara, seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
It was short lived.
"There's a BoB on the Bridge. T'Kara? Tuvok?"
"Yes?" the Vulcans answered.
Voyager's pilot began speaking to them in flawless Vulcan, which was quite a surprise to everyone in Engineering, especially Tuvok. Tom was the first human he had ever heard speak the language as well as a native and he had not known of this talent of the helmsman. Once the instructions were delivered, T'Kara took the Helm from Baytart and Tuvok rushed to another console to access the Tactical systems.
Working at the console next to Tuvok's, Harry saw something strange in the readings. "Why have you sealed the Bridge?" he asked the Vulcan beside him.
As if in answer, Tuvok pressed his combadge. "Tuvok to the crew. There is an explosive on the Bridge. Evacuate Decks Two, Three, and Four immediately. Tuvok out."
"Explosive!" the First Officer shouted.
"I can disarm it, Commander," Tom assured.
"How the hell did it get there?"
"It's been here since Voyager was built."
"What?"
"Look, I'm a little busy right now. We'll have to discuss this later." There was a clatter of tools on the Bridge then Tom spoke again, this time in Klingon then Cardassian. Seconds later, Bartoq and Dumar together rushed out of Engineering.
"Souris?"
"Aye?"
"Get to Sickbay, Mousey, and help Yana and the Doc work on the antidote."
Stepping out of the AlphaOmegan's way as she ran out, Chakotay grabbed Pardan's arm. "Why are you people taking orders from him?" he softly asked in a voice showing all the signs of vindication. "If he's the enemy, shouldn't you be trying to retake the Bridge?"
"Pardan," Tom interrupted, having heard the Commander's comment over the open commline, despite Chakotay's attempt to be quiet. Seemingly for the Commander's benefit, he spoke in Earth Standard instead of Romulan as he would have if he had followed his pattern. "Forget AlphaOmegan orders to the contrary and tell them what really was going on here."
"Now, sir? We're in the midst of a battle."
"And so am I up here. If this thing goes off before I can disarm it, I want at least those in Engineering to know what is going on so they'll trust us enough to accept a shot of antidote. If they take it, the others will too."
"But the Gherop-"
"T'Kara and Tuvok are more than capable of taking care of the Gherop. And Sunfire is doing her part too. You do yours."
"Aye, Captain."
"Sunbird out."
"Antidote for what?" Chakotay demanded.
"The explosive isn't really an explosive," Pardan explained, "but I agree with Mr. Tuvok's incorrect descriptor of it as being the best way to get your crew to evacuate those sections. What it really is, Commander, is a biological bomb. We call them BoBs for short. When they are triggered, they release a virus or some biological element into their surroundings. With the Bridge sealed, if it does go off, the virus will be contained there."
"So why is it on our ship?"
"I don't know. Sunbird says it has been there since the ship was built. Why it's there, I don't know."
"So why are you trusting him? You don't even know for certain that there is a bomb. He could be lying to you to gain control of the ship."
Leading Voyager's First Officer out of the way of the engineers who were trying to repair the damage of the Gherop attack, Pardan began following his orders from Tom. "We were ordered to lie to you about him, Commander. He is not a criminal. He is one of us. AlphaOmegan 41783 to be precise and our team's Captain."
Rapidly developing a headache from trying to keep all the AlphaOmegan lies straight, Chakotay massaged his temples. "But Raven
said you did not use numbers. He said it was codenames."
"That is his serial number. Sunbird is his codename. The Captain goes by either one, depending on who is addressing him."
"He's a Captain?"
"Yes."
"And he didn't kill the people Raven said he did?"
Pardan turned his head to watch the controlled chaos in Engineering. "I don't know all of his past Missions. I do know one of the things The Protectors trained him to be was an assassin."
"So he did kill them."
"As I said, I don't know, however quite possibly it is the case, yes."
A quick intake of breath brought the Romulan's eyes back to him.
"Our mandate is to maintain a balance in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, Commander. Through that balance, peace is to be achieved."
"By killing people?"
"Sometimes it is necessary to eliminate problems in that manner, yes. It is regrettable, and only as a last resort when other methods have failed."
"Who gave you this *mandate*?"
"The Federation President."
"You're saying the President condones what you do?"
"Actually, the Federation President doesn't even know we still exist."
"What?"
"In the early days, the Federation Council quickly realized the Federation was vulnerable. There were many people who wished to see it not survive its infancy for many different reasons. Some thought it was going to destroy their culture's uniqueness. Other thought it would destroy their world's or system's economy and reduce their people to poverty. Still others thought they had enough government bureaucracy controlling their lives without yet another layer added to it. There were so many fears and resentments,
both on the Federation worlds and the unaligned ones. The Council realized there was a very legitimate reason for concern that someone might attempt to sabotage the Federation just as it was being constructed."
"So the AlphaOmegans were created."
"No, the Council created Section 31. They were to ferret out any threats and neutralize them. It was *supposed* to be done legally and by the rules, but it quickly evolved into a witch hunt. But by that point they had justified to themselves the need to sever all ties to the Council so they could operate totally independently, without being influenced by anyone."
"That is what Raven said about the AlphaOmegans."
"And it is true. When we were created to bring Section 31 back into line, we were accountable only to the Federation President who created us. He gave us our mandate and allocated the materials and funds for us to do whatever we had to do. But then it was not long before The Protectors took us in the same route as Section 31 had gone."
"So what does this history lesson have to do with Paris or this antidote?"
"Obviously, Sunbird knows what is in the BoB and has passed the antidote to Yana and your Doctor for replication. But right now, your crew thinks he is a criminal. With the 'history lesson' as you call it, I am trying to explain who and what we are. So you'll understand we are the 'good guys,' despite the lies we've been ordered to tell."
"How about telling us why you're really here? If he's one of you, why all the subterfuge about him being some criminal?"
"We were following our orders. Apparently he knows something and Alpha Two wanted to know it too. What it is, I don't know, but it is important enough to bring us here." Pardan shook his head. "But none of that matters now. He is in charge of this Mission. Clearly, Alpha Two got what he wanted or he wouldn't be here. Right now, all you have to concentrate on is trusting us."
"Trusting you?" Chakotay gasped. "You've admitted you were lying to us before, but now you say you're trustworthy."
"Commander, if he can't disarm the BoB, then-"
"How do you expect us to trust him? Tuvok and the Doctor say they saw him *shoot* the Captain. We saw him in his cell, showing no remorse for anything, but now we're supposed to trust him?" Chakotay's eyes widened. "Or was it really him?"
"No, it was fake. All of it. Except for your captain being hurt. That was done by a hologram of him on The Diogenes' Holodeck with a real phaser. The feed from the cell was more of the same."
A couple of the nearest engineers literally stopped what they were doing long enough to shoot Pardan a startled glance.
"I knew it was totally out of character. He would have shot himself long before he'd ever hurt her."
"Alpha Two said it had to be done to convince you of the story Raven was telling you. Hardly any of your crew believed it and no one was telling us what Alpha Two wanted to know. Even before we got here, he knew further convincing would necessary, you'd need to see things with your own eyes, so he concocted the holodeck -"
There was a shower of sparks and Harry went flying. He crumbled into a heap a couple meters away, a nasty bump forming on the back of his head and a dazed look in his eyes.
"Chakotay to Transporter Room," he shouted. "Medical emergency. Beam Ensign Kim directly to Sickbay."
-------
"Sunfire's sustained a massive damage," Raven reported from the Conn. "She's out of control."
Stunned, both watched as the small ship, having destroyed the last of her attackers, headed on a collision course with Voyager.
"Tractor beam," Alpha Two ordered.
"It's not responding either. I don't know what Sunbird and Sunfire did, but *nothing's* responding to my commands."
Helplessly, Alpha Two had to watch as the small ship ploughed through Voyager's hull, both ships exploding in a spectacular display. 'AlphaOmegan 41783 is gone,' he silently sighed.
Quite understandably, Raven did not feel the acute sense of failure and loss that his companion did. What he felt upon seeing the space dust that had been the pair was relief and elation. The man he despised was dead and good riddance.
"Return us to the Alpha Quadrant," the Vulcan murmured from behind him.
"Aye, sir." He began entering the sequence of commands to open the gateway to their home quadrant. Seconds later he grunted. "I can enter the commands, but they won't initiate."
"Keep trying."
-------
"L'Roc?"
The middle aged Gherop turned to his commanding officer. "Yes?"
From her command chair on the largest Gherop ship's Bridge, she gestured to the two ships on there main viewer. Voyager and Sunfire hung motionless in the inky blackness dotted with pinpricks of light. "Why are they not helping to defend their ally?"
"Perhaps they are not allies?" he suggested. "Perhaps this ship we now fight was attempting achieve the same goal as us. Perhaps they too wished to take over Voyager."
"But why then would the little ship be so close to Voyager? Have they already succeeded in assuming command?" She swiveled her chair to glare at her communications officer. "Why haven't you tapped into their communications?"
"This ship is too well shielded," the Rachar hesitatingly explained. "As for Voyager and the other, we are too far from them to tell."
"L'Roc, send Ships Four and Seven closer to Voyager. Shields to maximum setting. Weapons to the ready."
-------
Barely paying attention to the reports from his sole AlphaOmegan, Alpha Two was staring at the two small Gherop ships who had abandoned the attack on The Diogenes and now were moving away. 'Where are they going?' he wondered. 'There is nothing there to be on guard against, yet they have their weapons powered.'
The Vulcan's puzzlement only lasted a moment longer for one of the Gherop ships suddenly began firing at nothing then exploded seemingly for no reason and the other turned tail and ran. 'There had not been any indication they were damaged and in danger of self-destructing,' he mused. 'Then why would they do so?'
"Raven-"
"I have full control back," the man smugly informed him. "Gopher Hole open and entering now."
At the same moment he was saying this and the leading edge of The Diogenes entered the Gopher Hole, the display beside Raven filled with static then cleared to show what actu
ally was happening behind the ship.
"They're not destroyed?" Raven gasped.
"AlphaOmegan 41783," Alpha Two observed. "He is smarter than I thought."
"We have to go back. We can't let him get away with-"
"There is no going back now. The Diogenes has begun entering the Hole. Once that process is begun, there is now reversing it." The words were delivered dispassionately, the seething anger he felt not showing through.
"Then we have to fire-"
"If we fire weapons, it could destabilize the Hole and destroy us."
"But-"
"He has won." The Vulcan returned to his command chair only to sit upon the padd of Vassanji's findings. Rising he removed it from his seat and remembered he was not weaponless. "Or not." The irony of using Paris' own weapon against him secretly amused the Vulcan. All it needed was a little refinement of his own and an open channel to Voyager.
-------
"Sunfire? What's happening?"
Unable to stop the delicate work he had undertaken, Tom could only keep calling to his partner who had been keeping him apprised of the situation outside of Voyager.
"Sunbird," she shakily answered after a couple more calls, "those two ships who broke off to come after us... I've taken a couple bad hits but I'll live. I've lost control of The Diogenes' systems. The damage," she explained simply. "We're visible."
"What about the two Gherop?"
"One's still here. The other is making a run for it."
"Defend Voyager and let the other one go. What is The Diogenes doing?"
"They're- Sunbird, they've opened the Gopher Hole!"
"Stop them! I need that ship here, in this quadrant to get everyone home."
"I-"
Before Sunfire could tell him she was too damaged to do much more than hold her position and fire back at anyone close enough, there was a crackle as Voyager's ship-wide comm system was opened.
"Farewell then, Voyager," Alpha Two's voice called out. "It was an interesting interlude. A pity it is doubtful we will she each other again."
-------
Down in Engineering, everyone had been rushing about as the list of necessary repairs grew. In the back of their minds, they wondered if Pardan's story and what Tom allegedly was doing ten decks above them actually was real or another elaborate lie. What they did know was after The Protector's farewell was over, every AlphaOmegan in Engineering abruptly fainted.