Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile

Episode 32: The Defiant

(Stardate 49023)

By

Jay P. Hailey

And

The Star Trek Players

 

Once upon a time there was a starship named Defiant. She was a proud ship, crewed by the best crew available. She represented the Federation in distant corners of space, and opened new territory to the eyes of Earth people and the Federation.

What ever became of the Defiant? She exists in a place that is not a place and a time where time is an irrelevant concept. The Defiant drifts endlessly outside of time and space, her crew driven mad and then killed by exposure to unreality in strong, undiluted doses. Randomly she reaches the end of eternity and bounces off. It takes no time for this to happen.

Currents that can only be expressed as arcane mathematical probabilities sweep her hither and thither. Every so often she reaches an eddy in the currents of time and space. She swirls around and briefly has contact with what might be called reality before another current comes by and dislodges her, sweeping her away...

-*-

"I have no idea what that is." Crystara Acnapma said. On her screen a subspace anomaly swirled. "I am scanning."

"How large is it?" Jonathan Baker asked.

Crystara looked at him as she tried to phrase the answer in English. "That would be extremely difficult to quantify Lieutenant Commander. A few hundred kilometers maybe. It's an expression of the potential energy density combined with the efficiency of the mechanism for conversion of energy into subspace distortion."

"Does it pose a danger to the station?" Li'ira asked.

"No, Commander. It is a good distance away and it does not appear to be expanding, as far as I can tell."

"How far away?" Li'ira asked.

"Approximately a light year and a half." Crystara said.

"Commander," Tandala MacBier said. "I'm receiving a distress call from inside the anomaly. It's a distress beacon."

Li'ira paled. "Identify the call."

Tandala bent over her station comparing the signal to Federation records. "It's reads as the USS Defiant NCC-1764."

"Oh wow! The Defiant!" Jonathan Baker said. "The Flying Dutchman of space!"

"See if you can open a data channel, Lieutenant." Li'ira said to Tandala. "Mr. Baker, I see you've heard the legends of that ship. Have you read the actual file?"

"Bits and pieces. Lost in 2268, with brief contact by the Enterprise. Encountered in 2315 by another Federation starship. They lost their away team when the Defiant disappeared again. Sighted a couple of times since then by ships all over known space." Baker said.

"Interesting that you don't know the rest of it. There are standing orders in effect about the Defiant. We are to attempt to recover her data banks." Li'ira said thoughtfully.

"After a hundred years?" Baker asked. "There's no way those are going to be intact."

"There is too much subspace interference, Commander. I can't open a channel to the Defiant." Tandala reported.

"What can you tell me about the subspace anomaly that the Defiant is caught in?" Li'ira asked Crystara, her Chief Science Officer.

"I'm reading the reports on it now, Commander. I'll be able to give you a risk assessment in a short while." Crystara said.

"You can't be serious!" Baker said. "The last starship to encounter the Defiant lost their away team."

"It was the Harrier. And the standing orders mean that I have to at least consider the possibility." Li'ira said.

"Weren't you the First Officer of the Harrier?" Baker asked. "Are you saying you..."

"No, That was fifty years ago. I'm not that old. However, that's where I started reading the reports of it. The Harrier's away team reported that there was heavy damage to the internal support systems of the Defiant. Their last communication said that they were going to the main computer banks to try and recover the data first hand."

"And then the Defiant disappeared and no one ever heard from the Harrier's away team ever again." Baker reminded her.

"Can you scan the Defiant?" Li'ira asked Tandala.

"Maybe, Sir. Do you want me to try?" Tandala asked.

"I am forwarding correction data to her station." Crystara said.

"Go ahead."

The brown Australian woman scanned the derelict. "The Defiant's main power is out. So is auxiliary power. I can read emergency batteries, and life support is active at minimum levels."

"After one hundred years? Are you sure?" Baker asked.

"Yes, Sir. I am also picking up intermittent life signs."

"What?" Li'ira and Baker said together.

"They aren't consistent. It's not like anything I've ever seen before. It's as though they are fading in and out." Tandala said.

"Oh God." Baker said.

-*-

Two hours later in the briefing room of Deep Space Ten. Crystara Acnapma gave her report.

"The subspace anomaly is temporary but appears to be stable. If no subspace energy is used inside the anomaly it should remain stable for another forty-five hours before collapsing in on itself."

"If we had something bigger than a runabout here, then I might be able to drag the Defiant out of the anomaly altogether." Birdy said. He was the Chief Engineer of Deep Space Ten.

"But we don't." Baker said.

"Fascinating, Lieutenant Commander. I would like to see your proof." Crystara said.

"The question is, can a team board the Defiant and retrieve the data banks with a reasonable chance of success?" Li'ira asked.

"To hell with the data banks!" Taucia Smith yelled. "Can we evacuate any survivors?"

"I can't say for certain. Only three ships have ever had close contact with the subspace anomaly. The Enterprise, the Harrier and the Defiant. I don't have a lot of information to work with but the hypotheses put forward by the science teams of the Enterprise and the Harrier are quite convincing. Enough so that I will go myself if ordered." Crystara said.

"Me, too." Birdy said.

"I don't understand why Starfleet put the emphasis on the data banks rather than people's lives." Tandala said.

"I don't know why they did, either but I know why we should." Li'ira said. "What ship has had the most experience with the subspace anomaly? The Defiant. With their records at hand, the next ship or station that encounters the Defiant may be able to free her or rescue her crew."

"I have been doing a little reading myself." Dr. Smith said. "It seems that the subspace instability of the region has a very bad effect on the humanoid brain. The team from the Enterprise reported heavy casualties and destruction aboard the Defiant. It seemed as though they all killed each other. I can protect our team from the effects of the anomaly for a short time, but if there have been any survivors, I don't see how they could be treatable after a hundred years."

Li'ira thought about it carefully. "We'll go anyway. Mr. Baker, will you lead the away team?"

Baker thought it over carefully. "Yes, Commander."

Birdy, Crystara and Tandala all chose to go.

-*-

The runabout Shangri-La left Deep Space Ten and warped off to rendezvous with the Defiant. The trip was going to take a little over thirty hours. The away team spent most of the time studying the layout of the Defiant and planning their moves.

The runabout had to hard dock with the old starship. No transporter use was allowed. From the docking port in the saucer section, the team would split into two parts. Birdy, his second officer Silvia Schuler and two security officers, Mileu and Paxton, would go to Engineering and try to pull data from the main engineering computer.

Tandala, Baker and Crystara would start on the main bridge and then work their way down to the main computer core.

Baker looked over Birdy's shoulder and saw that he was reading the arcane math postulated by Spock and Montgomery Scott to explain the weird physics of the anomaly.

"Most of us are studying the layout of the Defiant." Baker said.

"I already know the layout of the Defiant. I'm studying the layout of the anomaly." Birdy said shortly. More than half his mind was still busy with the heavy duty mathematics.

"I might have known you would. Is that why you're going? To have a chance to work on a hundred year old starship?" Baker asked.

Birdy stopped and looked at him intensely. "If I wanted to know about a one hundred year old cruiser, I'd go see the Republic in the museum. It's safer. This is about getting some data and some people out of there."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you." Baker said hastily.

"Hmmm." Birdy thought. "We've been stationed on Deep Space Ten for nearly a year now but we don't really know each other. Why is that?"

"Well, ah, I'm not sure..." The simple fact was that Jonathan Baker didn't really feel like getting to know anyone at Deep Space Ten. How to phrase it delicately?

"It's because you've been sulking about your accident." Birdy said simply.

"Hey now!" Baker said sharply. The mention of his accident stung. The truth of the statement stung worse.

"I bet you were on the fast track, before you got sidelined, weren't you? Lieutenant commander by age twenty six. I bet you had yourself at commander by thirty and a full captain by thirty-five or so. Wasn't that your plan?"

"I don't see what that has to do with anything..." Baker said.

"You're not the first man to get put on the bench, John. You're not the first one to find out that we don't all get to be captains. You've got to decide if you're still in this game, or if you're going to go play somewhere else." Birdy said relentlessly.

"God damn it! One little accident and everyone talks to me like I'm a cripple. I'm not a cripple and I'm not a has been." Baker growled softly. "I'm your commanding officer on this mission and I'll remind you to show due respect."

"All due respect, Lieutenant Commander, you are crippled. You've spent the last several months taking it out on your shipmates. Now we're about to enter a dangerous situation. I generally like to know and trust my commanding officers. You're competent or you wouldn't have been on the fast track in the first place. It's time to decide if you're an ex-wonderkind or a real time officer."

Baker's face was red and his mouth worked. How was he supposed to deal with getting dressed down by member of his team in front of everybody? How was he supposed to handle the fact that the old boor was right? Baker turned around and walked into the back of the runabout.

"Weren't you a little hard on him?" Tandala asked gently.

"I'm an Engineer, not a Counselor." Birdy grumped.

The runabout flew on.

-*-

Jonathan Baker sat on a bunk in the ward room of the runabout and sulked. He didn't want to admit to himself that Birdy was correct. He was just marking time at Deep Space Ten. His fast track command career had ended in a transporter accident. Period. He took a deep breath and examined the feeling. Starfleet Officers sometimes had a reputation of being arrogant. Baker knew that he was at times. A certain amount of arrogant self confidence was necessary to do what Starfleet Officers did. Baker carefully listened to his arrogant side, his resentful side while it raged. He should have been on a starship. He should have been a department chief or a first officer by now. He worked hard. He was good enough. He deserved it. One little accident and it wasn't even his fault! Now, whenever he was transported he became miserably ill. A routine geological survey and a routine beam up turned into an undignified disability. It wasn't fair!

Now his career was stalled, his Commanding Officer was some Green Orion woman, The Chief Science Officer was blue woman from some planet he never heard of, and his Chief of Operations was a hard partying little gnome with a massive disrespect for standard Starfleet procedure. The Chief Engineer kept turning down Command postings, because he wanted to keep his hands dirty with his beloved starships. The Chief of Security was a retired pirate for Christ's sake!

This much non-conformity could only mean one thing. Deep Space Ten was a dumping ground for the square pegs who could not fit into Starfleet's round holes. Baker wasn't one of them. He was one of Starfleet's roundest pegs. He didn't deserve to be dumped with all the weirdoes on a station in the back end of beyond. IT WASN'T FAIR!

Baker realized that his face was buried in his pillow. His fists were clenched, and his teeth were straining together as hard as he could clench them. He sat up and blinked away a few tears. Baker always kept his arrogant inner voice as an edge. He knew that despite his excellent record and qualifications that he was actually rather generic as a Starfleet Officer. A hint of that arrogance made him stand out. He caught the eyes of superiors. His attitude said "I am on the way up, don't get in the way."

For the last year, that voice had been controlling him. It was the voice of a spoiled brat who wanted the moon. He had turned ugly inside. The truth was that Jonathan was a square peg now, too. He felt for a moment that he wanted to cry. No more "Captain Jonathan Baker of the Enterprise." (If you're going to dream big, then why not dream all the way?). He felt himself let it go. He was a square peg now. What did that mean exactly?

Baker thought about it long into the night.

-*-

The next day they began preparations to rendezvous and dock with the derelict. John Baker caught up with Birdy in the front of the runabout.

"Mr. Birdy." Baker said.

"Sir?" Birdy said mildly.

"I've been thinking about what you said yesterday. You had some good points. However, you made them at the wrong time. Maybe I have been acting a little self-centered and childish but now was not the time to bring it up. I want everyone focused on our mission, Okay?"

Birdy nodded. "Yes, Sir."

"All right, Mr. Birdy. I'll ask you to log on and put yourself on report for insubordination. I know it doesn't mean much to an old space dog like you, but I want you to remember that the time to make your commanding officer face his emotional problems is not during a critical away team mission."

Birdy grinned. "Yes, Sir." He turned around and logged on to the computer and noted the report.

"Very good. Carry on." Baker went aft to continue with his preparations.

Tandala said "That was interesting."

"Yeah," Birdy said "But. don't you feel a little better about him now?"

"I guess so." Tandala said thoughtfully. "I guess so..."

-*-

The Shangri-La approached the boundary of the subspace anomaly. Tandala brought the small ship to a stop while Birdy locked down all subspace coils aboard. Warp drives, communicators, the transporter, all of them.

"These communicators use old fashioned radio signals. They might suffer interference from the subspace instability, but they won't collapse the anomaly on us." Crystara said, as she handed out communicators. The comm-badges they wore were disabled.

Back in the main section of the runabout Baker handed the two security crewmen batons. "No phasers." He said.

"Sir? Are you serious?" Paxton asked. Mileu looked similarly doubtful.

"Any energy expression might collapse the anomaly on us. So today your mission is to seek out new life forms and new civilizations and then beat them on the head with sticks." Baker said.

"Back to basics, I guess." Paxton shrugged.

"Ook ook, Ensign." Baker said, grinning.

Mileu essayed a short martial arts kata with her new weapon. "Hmmm, not too bad." She said.

Taucia Smith came through with a hypospray. She gave shots to all of them and handed out hypo-sprays. "This is the treatment against interphase syndrome." She said. She handed out emergency ampoules. "This is more of the drug. The amount I just gave you will work for eight hours. When that's up, use the ampoules. They ought to hold you for another four hours."

"What happens after that?" Paxton asked.

"Well, if what I read is correct, sometime after the drug wears off, you'll become violently paranoid, and try to kill your shipmates before they kill you." Smith said.

Mileu and Paxton measured each other. "Can I have one more ampoule?" They both asked.

Smith and Baker laughed.

"The interphase is only due to last another twelve hours. You have sixteen hours worth of drugs there. If we're not out of the interphase before then, it won't really matter." Baker said.

-*-

The runabout shuddered slightly as they penetrated the zone of warped space.

"We're inside the anomaly." Tandala reported.

The runabout rocked and swayed. "Report." Baker said.

"I'm having problems with the controls. It's as though there are heavy currents or something." Tandala said.

"I'd advise that we slow down." Crystara said. "There are random regions of warped space. It's like flying through a storm only the wind is gravity."

Tandala slowed the Shangri-La's progress through the anomaly and the turbulence decreased.

Soon they were able to spot the Defiant. Tandala moved the runabout closer and they docked with the old cruiser. The best place to hard dock was just behind the bridge of the ship where the shaft for the turbo lift was.

"Link established. Hatches synchronized. Containment fields active. We're docked." Birdy reported.

The crew went and gathered around the hatch. "Is everyone ready?" Baker asked. They checked all equipment and nodded.

"Okay." Baker said. "Open the hatch and let's go."

The hatch opened and the crew found themselves looking eleven decks down the turboshaft.

"Boy that looks pretty far down." Tandala said.

"Lets rig the ladders and get started." Baker said.

-*-

Climbing carefully led them to the doors to the bridge. The doors were jammed. Unjamming them took work and a plasma cutter from the runabout. The doors gave and the crew of Deep Space Ten found themselves standing in a scene of chaos and destruction. There were dead bodies and bloodstains every where.

"Oh God." Baker said. It was worse than anything he'd ever seen.

Birdy was troubled by the carnage, but something else caught his eye. "What in the hell is that?" He pointed. The science station of the bridge had been badly damaged during the rioting that killed the Defiant's crew. Now out of the wreckage there was a slim silvery metal staff that blossomed towards the end into a glowing ball that swirled with pastel colors. The silvery metal flowed into various circuits. It looked like a tree had grown out of the ruins of the station.

Crystara waved her tricorder at it. While she was doing that Dr. Smith was checking the dead bodies on the bridge. Mileu and Paxton were checking around to the front of the Nav/Helm console. A hatch there led below decks.

"It seems to be an electronic device, whatever it is." Crystara said.

Baker went to the captain's chair and looked at the control panel on it. The panel had been smashed and the burned. The captain lay in a pool of blood, his throat slit nearly ear to ear. Something other than the grisliness of the scene bothered him. The blood, sticky, tacky and red.

"Wait a minute." Baker said. "This was a hundred years ago, right?"

"Nope." Dr. Smith answered him. "These people have been dead for about ten hours."

"How is that possible?" Baker asked, confused.

"It's implicit in the math, Sir, but I don't know how to explain it in plain English." Crystara said.

"None of the master command pathways are intact here." Birdy said. "Someone systematically cut the bridge out of the control systems."

Crystara made one more scan. "This is a computer of some sort, Commander."

"Really? I've never seen one like it, before."

"Nor have I, but it's plain that it is trying to interface with the science station computer in some way."

"Is someone after our data files?" Baker asked.

"Not through the science station, Commander. The main command pathways are cut." Birdy said.

"I guess that means we'll have to proceed with our original plan." Baker said. "C'mon let's get to it." He walked around the command console and down into the Defiant.

-*-

The rest of the Defiant was similarly horrific. In some places it was deceptively normal, except for the black soot around the air vents. In other places the bloodshed was incredibly violent, with the dead heaped on top of each other as they died.

In one place they found some one who was not in a Starfleet uniform. He was wearing some other sort of uniform. His tricorder identified him as an Orion.

"What is a dead Orion doing on the Defiant?" Baker asked. No one had any answer. Dr. Smith identified the weapon used. It was a standard Starfleet medical probe. The Orion had been stabbed with it repeatedly.

The Defiant seemed to sway drunkenly. The artificial gravity was weakening as the emergency batteries ran down. In some area there was no light, and all the lights seemed to flicker. All this served to reinforce the image of a ghost ship even more.

The crew arrived at the main computer core, buried deeply within the saucer shaped primary hull. As they approached they could hear a voice. It was shouting. They ran to find out what it was. The main computer core on the Defiant was also the auxiliary bridge. There the First Officer of the Defiant had tried to make his last stand. He was dead but his last log entry played on a repeating basis.

"You've got to warn them! Warn them all! The Shadows! They're coming... Aaaaiiiigghh!" He looked off screen and screamed. The screen flickered. He was back at the beginning, shouting his warning.

"Can we shut that off?" Baker yelled over the repeating image.

"Yes, Sir!" Tandala moved to the master control console and found another alien device attached to it. It was a baroque device, whose decorations and details obscured it's true function. Tandala linked her tricorder with the damaged main computer and shut the recording off and then scanned the device.

"Lieutenant Commander, it looks like you've got it in hand, here, Sir. Shall we get down to Engineering?" Birdy said.

"Yes. Please get on that." Baker said. "Be careful."

"Aye, Sir." Birdy said.

-*-

The Engineering section of the Defiant was in her cigar shaped secondary hull. Birdy knew that he and his team had a long hike ahead of them to get there. Fortunately since it was vital area of the ship, there would be plenty of routes available.

As they walked along the curved corridors, they encountered scene after scene of mass violence. Mixed in with the bodies of Starfleet crewmen were the odd alien and civilian looking person.

"Take a look at this, Birdy." Silvia said.

"What is it?" Birdy said. He sounded a little distant. It was hard to focus standing in and among so many dead bodies.

"This guy isn't wearing any uniform that I recognize, but..." She pointed a man whose skull had been cracked open with a large pipe wrench. His clothing was a dark gray jump suit with a blue sash on the shoulders. She was pointing to a pin on the left side of his chest. It was the characteristic Starfleet arrowhead, only turned on its side, and it trailed a dark triangle behind it, rather than an oval or a rectangle like their own Starfleet badges.

Birdy absently fingered his own badge. Was that a Starfleet Officer from another time frame? How long had they been crawling around this ship, anyway? Birdy decided that it would be safer not to think about it until he absolutely had to.

"Not our problem Lieutenant. Let's keep moving." He said.

"Aye, Sir." Silvia waiting until they rest of the party had turned and then she took the unfortunate man's pin off and slid it into her tool kit. She thought it would make an interesting souvenir. "And besides, that poor shmuck isn't going to need it any more."

-*-

"It's some sort of universal interface." Tandala said.

"Is that how they got the last log entry playing?" Baker asked.

"I guess so." Tandala said.

"Will it interfere with our mission?" Crystara asked.

"Probably not. I bet it would help a lot if we could figure out how to work it." Tandala said.

"I'll enter the prefix codes and see if we can get the Main computer banks opened up." Baker said. He went to the captain's chair and keyed in the code. Now the Defiant was an open book.

Tandala ran a diagnostic program. "The Computer system has been damaged and many files have been scrambled." She announced. "I'll have to download what I can and hope that we can reconstruct some of it back at the station."

"Go ahead." Baker said. "I wonder what the First Officer meant by Shadows?"

"Perhaps he was referring to phantoms of his own mind." Crystara said. "The interphase effect can cause hallucinations as well as paranoia and psychosis."

"The Dreamtime is filled with Shadows." Tandala said.

"The Dreamtime?" Baker asked.

"It's a sort of metaphor for the subconscious, the spirit realm and the unknown, all at once." Tandala explained.

"And it is filled with shadows?" Crystara said.

"Remember when I said that I sing places to make them more real?" Tandala said. "Until it is sung, a place is unknown, it is part of the Dreamtime. Anything can be there. In our myths, shadows are creatures of the dream time. They can have any shape or none. They thrive on the chaos of the dream time. They hate us because when we sing a place then it is another place where the shadows can't go."

"Does this remind you of the Dreamtime?" Baker asked. He didn't know whether to take Tandala seriously or not.

"No. But isn't that the point?" She grinned.

A shout interrupted them It sounded muffled and far away. They looked to the door to see who was shouting. Baker suddenly felt very stupid. He sent his two security people away with Birdy and Sylvia because they had farther to go inside the derelict than he and his team did. That meant little. Baker, Tandala and Crystara were going to have to wait just as long inside the ship to get their jobs done.

The voice resolved itself and a figure came into view. He appeared as if out of a thick fog. In thin air right in front of the startled explorers. He was wearing an old Starfleet uniform, but not as old as the ones the crew of the Defiant were wearing.

The man was gibbering until he caught a glimpse of Baker and then he snarled. He leapt for Baker. Baker met the charge and turned it into a martial arts throw. Another voice appeared behind him. "Uh oh." Baker thought.

He turned to see another raving man in an old Starfleet uniform running at him. The man grappled with Baker, catching around the throat and squeezing with insane strength.

Baker's eyes bugged out. He couldn't help it. It hurt more than he thought it would and the feeling of not being able to breathe was more uncomfortable than he thought. He twisted and kicked the insane man in the groin. The man whoofed with the impact and the pain but kept the grip. Then Dr. Smith crept up behind the insane man and applied a hypospray to his neck. The man's eyes rolled up and he collapsed to the deck.

The first attacker caught Jonathan Baker and bit him fiercely in the leg. "Arrrggghh!" Baker yelled. He fell to the deck and the crazed man started to climb up him, growling.

Dr. Smith applied the hypo to the first attacker's neck and he went limp immediately.

"Thank you." Baker said, breathing heavily. Was he getting out of shape behind his desk on the station?

"You're welcome." Dr. Smith dropped a small curtsy at him. "Next time bring more Security. I can't afford to risk my hands saving you."

Dr. Smith turned and began to administer more drugs to the two figures on the floor.

"Where in the hell did they come from?" Baker said.

"From their uniforms I'd guess that they are members of the Harrier's away team." Crystara said.

"Thank you. How did they get here? They don't look like they are fifty years older than when they beamed off the Harrier." Baker said.

Crystara said thoughtfully. "That may be why the life forms that Lieutenant MacBier scanned were fading in and out. They may be moving in and out of the interphase."

"Great. Could we get caught there?"

"I could not say, really."

"Why don't you help Tandala. The quicker we finish up and leave, the better I'll feel." Baker said. He turned to Dr. Smith. "What about these two guys?"

"What about these two guys?" Dr. Smith asked.

"Do you think we can rescue them?" Baker asked.

"I have given them a short term sedative and a dosage of the treatment for the interphase induced insanity. If they are capable of being rational once they wake up, then we might be able to rescue them." Dr. Smith said.

"Okay, well do the best you can." Baker said.

-*-

Engineering was a mess. There were dead bodies and damaged equipment anywhere. Birdy stepped over the broken hulk of a robot and stopped. He took a scan of the robot. No Constitution class starship he had ever heard of had ever used such a robot. Birdy was getting used to the idea that somehow people from other places must have had contact with the Defiant. He'd love to get the ship free of the interphase anomaly and do a thorough search of the ship. They might find anything.

The fact that the robot had been attacked and damaged worried him.

They found the remains of the Engineering computer. When they tried to turn it on, It informed Birdy that the requested Anti-Matter transfer was not possible. He looked and blanched. The anti-matter feed was broken, badly. Any anti-matter fed through that would explode violently.

He entered the Defiant's prefix code and got control of what he could of the Defiant's engineering computer.

He flipped open his communicator. "Birdy to Commander Baker."

Baker's voice came back. "Baker here, go ahead."

"The Engine Room is a mess down here. I'm requesting permission to jettison the anti-matter pods. I'm not certain how stable they are." Birdy said. Was that someone whispering he could hear over the channel?

"Is it necessary?" Baker asked.

"Who is this?" Another voice demanded, "Identify!"

"This is Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Baker, of Starfleet. Who's this?"

They both waited for a while. No answer came.

"Sir. I think that getting rid of the anti-matter is a good safety precaution." Birdy said.

"Go ahead-" Baker was cut off by a hiss of static, and then a terrible noise. A voice speaking a language that they did not recognize was screaming something. In the background they could hear violence and the sound of howling human voices.

Birdy cut off the channel. "Wheeee..." he said.

He activated the emergency jettison circuits of the Defiant's anti-matter pods. The Defiant confirmed the order and then counted down. While that was going on, Birdy tried to diagnose the condition of the Defiant's Engineering computer. Main control pathways and hardwired programs were mostly intact. The computer was tough. designed to survive and accident in Engineering and still provide enough controls to jettison the anti-matter and the warp core if necessary.

A howl sounded from behind the crew. A woman in a red Starfleet uniform faded in and rushed at Paxton, screaming. Her uniform was ripped and didn't cover the woman adequately anymore. Distracted, Paxton let himself get tackled to the ground. The woman was shrieking and doing her best to claw the security man's face off.

Mileu stepped up behind her and used her baton to get a firmly leveraged hold on the woman dragging her off.

Birdy was right behind her. "Are you all right Paxton?"

Paxton checked his face. He still had both eyes and could see out of both of them. It hurt, but didn't seem like anything was permanently broken. He nodded after his self check and said. "Sure, Chief. I get attacked by hysterical women all the time."

"You wouldn't know it by the way you stood there with your mouth open." Mileu grunted.

"Monsters! Demons! I won't let you get away with it! I'll get you all!" The woman shrieked.

Birdy walked up to her and injected her with one of his emergency ampoules.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Mileu asked.

"No. But I hope it works." Birdy said.

The woman collapsed into Mileu's arms and began to cry.

"Are you okay?" Birdy looked that the woman's remaining sleeve. "Lieutenant, are you all right?"

"No!" She yelled. "Who in the hell are you people?"

"We're Starfleet. I'm Chief Engineer Birdy from Deep Space Ten. We're here to rescue you."

Mileu let the woman go slowly. She slumped to the deck. "How can I be sure that you're not just another illusion?"

"You can't until you're back at Deep Space Ten." Birdy said.

The woman rocked herself back and forth a couple of times and then a light appeared in her eyes. "If you're here, then you've got a ship! Get me out of here!" She jumped for Birdy. Mileu quickly restrained her again, But Birdy could see that she wasn't on the attack, she just wanted off the Defiant. He couldn't blame her.

"Sylvia, Paxton, you two think you can get that data and get the back to the runabout without getting into too much more trouble?" Birdy said.

"Yes, Sir." Schuler said "What will you be doing?"

"I'll be getting the Lieutenant here onto the runabout and preparing take on

more survivors if we can." Birdy said. "Mileu, you're with me."

"Aye, Sir."

Are you ready to return to our ship, Lieutenant?" Birdy asked the Defiant crew-woman.

"Yes, Sir... I can't read your buttons." She said staring confusedly at Birdy's uniform. "You're from the Enterprise?"

"Ah, no. I'll explain it later. Let's just get to the runabout." Birdy said.

"Yes, sir."

They left the Engineering compartment.

-*-

"I'm Ensign Mann and this is Ensign Jefferson, USS Harrier." The man said.

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Baker from Deep Space Ten." Baker introduced himself.

"Sir, do you have a ship nearby?" Mann asked.

Jefferson laughed a harsh laugh. "Fool. This is just another hallucination. They won't save you."

Mann came to attention and waited but Baker could see that his eyes were welling with tears.

"We have a runabout docked to the Defiant. We'll be taking you out with us, Ensigns." Baker said.

Mann's eyes teared up more. He broke down.

Jefferson looked up at Baker spitefully. "Save it for someone who's buying," he sneered.

-*-

The Defiant's computer reached zero and the jettison sequence started. Explosive bolts blew a panel off the secondary hull. Antimatter pods held in carefully arranged sequences started shooting out of the uncovered hatch. One had been tampered with. Phaser cuts in the out surface showed where someone had been trying to get inside the pod. After a timeless eternity, it was unable to hold its load of anti-matter any longer. As it flew away from the derelict, it leaked a small amount of anti-matter. As the anti-matter touched the surface of the pod a violent reaction occurred.

-*-

As Birdy, Mileu and the Defiant crew-woman Lieutenant Burke made their way through the corridors of the Defiant, they were thrown to the deck by a massive explosion.

The Defiant seemed to tumble as its weakened gravity failed to compensate for the shock waves.

"What in the hell was that!?" Mileu asked, pale. never in her experience had an artificial gravity system failed that badly.

Helping Burke to her feet, Birdy said "That was our cue to get the hell out of here."

They began to run.

-*-

"Report!" Baker yelled. He jumped up off the deck as soon as he could.

"Some sort of external shock wave." Crystara said.

"Was that your ship?" Jefferson asked, snidely. "Oops! You're stuck here, too!" He broke down into bitter hopeless laughter.

Baker whipped out his communicator. "Time for us to go!" He sent the call signal and then opened the channel to await reply. What came back was a twisted echo of a thousand voices. "What the-?"

Crystara was grim. "Checking." She pulled out her tricorder and began to scan.

-*-

Sylvia looked at Paxton. He had hurt himself when the ship tumbled. "If it weren't for bad luck would you have any luck at all?"

"Ow! Let's get back to the runabout!" Paxton said.

"We don't have enough of the data..." Sylvia said dubiously.

"To hell with the data, let's go!" Paxton said.

"All right, " She helped him to his feet "Let's get out of here." They began to stumble towards the runabout.

-*-

"The interphase is collapsing. Whatever that was destabilized it." Crystara said.

"You two take these men back to the runabout. I'm going after Birdy's team." Baker said. He started to move towards the door.

Crystara reached out and stopped him. "I'm sorry, Sir. You don't have enough time." She said quietly.

Baker grimaced. It was a command decision, but he never anticipated having to make it. He had to choose between leaving some of his people behind, and failing his mission. He looked at Jefferson and Mann. Mann was still standing at attention, crying openly, now. Jefferson was still laughing derisively. He caught Baker's eye. "Welcome to hell." He said and then broke down into more laughter.

Baker flipped open his communicator and yelled into it. "This is Baker, Deep Space Ten! Get back to the runabout!" He keyed it to repeat the message, and set it down on a console.

"Okay, let's get the hell out of here."

-*-

Birdy smacked a raving man in the head with his tool kit. It was heavy kit, the man went right down. Burke was fighting desperately but Mileu was the real terror in the corridor. There were five raving men in the corridor. Mileu danced through them in quick succession. With the exception of the one the Birdy cold cocked, she disabled all of them in short order, saving the one that was attacking Burke for last.

Burke stared at her. "I'm glad you're on our side!"

Mileu bowed from the waist. "D'omo Arigato. If you and Birdy hadn't distracted the ones you did it wouldn't have been nearly as easy."

They turned to corner into a riot. The corridor was filled with struggling, dying people. Birdy remembered the scene. He had come through the aftermath.

"Not that way." He said. "This way."

They turned down another corridor.

-*-

Schuler and Paxton limped around the corner to find a Borg standing in the corridor. "Aaiiieee!" Schuler screamed despite herself.

The Borg turned to see her.

Paxton said "Turn and walk away."

Schuler turned and began lugging the crippled Security Officer up the corridor as fast as she could go.

"Wait!" Paxton grunted. "The (ugh!) Borg don't (ahh) react to...(Argh!)"

Schuler hurried up the corridor and turned the corner as fast she could go. She could swear that Paxton had just dropped about one hundred pounds of weight.

The confused Borg called after them "Wait! I don't understand..." But they were too far away to hear it.

-*-

Jefferson had stopped laughing and Mann was moving with a purpose, now. They were climbing from deck to deck towards the very top of the Defiant where the runabout was docked.

A hatch slid open and a long, ropy black tentacle snaked out and started feeling around the corridor. Tandala squeaked and scuttled away. Crystara recoiled but backed away scanning.

"It is some sort of subspace life form." Crystara said. "It does not exist entirely in our time space continuum."

"It'll eat you up, though!" Jefferson said. "It'll swallow you right down!"

Dr. Smith shook her head. "Are we hallucinating? Is this real or has the interphase affected our minds?"

"Is there a difference?" Tandala asked.

"We're not going to get out of here, Are we?" Mann asked, hopelessly.

Falling into habit, Baker said "We're going to make it." With a sincere and completely unjustified sense of self confidence.

-*-

Birdy, Burke and Mileu ducked into the emergency sickbay. Burke and Birdy both grabbed the emergency door actuator and with a hydraulic hiss, the door slid shut, closing out the reptilian horror behind them.

Mileu began to look around quickly.

"My god, what was that?" Burke asked.

"Looked like about thirty feet of Komodo dragon to me." Birdy said.

"Where did it come from? I don't understand!" Burke cried.

"You didn't have any komodo dragons on the Defiant?" Birdy asked.

"No."

"Hmmm. That's bad."

Mileu found what she was looking for. She picked up a phaser from a dead man's hand and check it for charge.

"Wasn't there an order about no phaser use, Ensign?" Birdy asked.

Mileu replied. "I don't think I can fight off that big lizard with a baton, Chief." She came to attention. "If you insist, Sir, I will."

"No, that's all right. I guess the anomaly is destabilizing anyway." Birdy said.

"It's getting worse." Burke said. She began to search around the sickbay. She picked up a medical smock to cover for her damaged uniform. "I don't remember it getting that weird."

"Just what do you remember?" Birdy asked.

Burke stopped and thought about it for a long while. "I don't want to remember." She said quietly.

"I don't think we're going to be able to get back to runabout." Mileu said.

With a metallic crunch, the sickbay door started to give. The Komodo dragon began to dig its prey out of their convenient lair.

Birdy thought about it. They were on deck nineteen, and the runabout was docked at a hatch above deck one. That was nineteen floors of riots, komodo dragons and whatever else might be out there to get through.

"I am open to suggestions, at this point." Birdy said.

-*-

Paxton and Schuler limped down a corridor, lost. They had run in a panic away from the Borg.

They turned a corner to find a woman with a brown colored uniform. She had ridges on her nose and a complicated earring on her left ear. He pointed the business end of a delicate weapon at them.

"[Identify yourselves!]" She said. Neither Paxton nor Schuler could understand her. They raised their hands slowly to slow no hostile intent.

"I guess no one told her about the no phasers rule." Paxton said.

"Some time to be disarmed." Schuler complained.

"[Well, I guess you two aren't mad like the rest of these poor people.]" The crew of her ship had all ready evacuated half a dozen raving maniacs from the strange derelict. The explosion seemed to indicate that the anomaly that held the ship was changing. It was time to go.

Taking Paxton under his other arm, the woman said "[My ship is this way! Come on!]"

Schuler didn't stop ask questions the stranger seemed to be willing to help, and that's all that mattered. Briefly Schuler remembered the dramatic presentation showed to all first year cadets. A flat screen production of something called "The Twilight Zone" the episode called "To Serve Man".

"Shut up." She growled to herself. Now was not the time.

-*-

The translucent figure floated in air above the deck. It was man in space suit from the Defiant. He was short and muscular with brown hair and hazel eyes. He reached out beseechingly but none of the team could touch him.

"He's a spirit that can't find his way out." Tandala said.

"Lieutenant, I don't want to sound intolerant or anything but we need a strategy for getting the hell out of here, not magic mumbo-jumbo." Baker said.

"With all due respect, Sir. We're stuck on a ship caught halfway between reality and unreality. We've rescued fifty year old castaways who haven't aged a day, and we're looking at a transparent man float immaterially over the deck. Which world view is better adapted to deal with this?" Tandala said snappily.

Baker thought about it for a moment. They were trapped and things seemed to be getting worse. There was nothing wrong with the 24th century scientific mindset. One of it's primary tenants is that honesty must be the ruling condition. Baker could not honestly say that Tandala's spiritual mumbo-jumbo were any worse than running away from monsters at random.

"I'm game, Lieutenant. If you have any ideas then magic away. It's better than we're doing right now." Baker said.

Tandala looked at him, shocked. "Are you serious?"

Jefferson snorted. Mann said "You're authorizing magic spells?"

Crystara simply started her tricorder recording.

Baker said "I can't say you're wrong, Tandala. Your description of the Dreamtime is very similar to this place. My mind is open enough and desperate enough to give it a shot."

Tandala shot him a sideways look. "I guess getting dressed down by Birdy was better for you than I thought."

"It's only been one day. Let's give it some time." He said.

"To make it through the Dreamtime, you have to follow my instructions explicitly. If you deviate you may wander in this place until another shaman comes through to rescue you." Tandala began to take off her uniform.

"I don't believe that you're going to try magic spells to get us out of here!" Mann said.

"Ensign! That will be enough!" Baker yelled. "Do you have a better idea?"

Mann looked stubborn and unhappy.

"Do you?" Baker asked. "No? Then my decision is made. We'll follow Tandala's advice. What do we do, Lieutenant?"

"We must eliminate as many of the obstructions and distractions caused by the material world as possible. That means clothes and everything. We will sing the basic songs and do the basic dances so that you can keep up. It'll take a while and your soul must be as quiet and pure as you can make it." She finished stripping and recovered her medicine bag and her talismans. The small woman's brown body was slim and covered with tattoos that symbolized her shamanistic status. She assumed a cross legged position on the deck and began to slowly chant in a high pitched voice.

The man in the space suit faded away. Baker began to strip out of his uniform and join Tandala on the deck.

The rest of the team began to strip.

-*-

Some sort of gray goo filled the corridor. Paxton, Schuler and the alien woman had to detour around. "Is it me, or is this getting worse?" Schuler asked.

"Keep going." Paxton grunted. His ankle had been getting worse and worse.

"[We'll have to go up a level and then down.]" The woman said.

They made it to a ladder and the woman pointed the way up it. She began to climb away from them.

"Argh." Paxton commented.

"That's the way we want to go, anyway, isn't it?" Schuler asked. She helped him to the ladder and he began to painfully climb after the alien woman.

-*-

A ball of light, heat and energy floated down the corridor. Occasionally bolts of lighting would shoot out of it and play over details of the ship.

"It's some sort of plasma." Birdy said, scanning it with his tricorder. "I don't know how it's being contained or directed."

"That cuts off our last avenue of escape." Mileu said darkly.

"I can't stay here, I can't!" Burke yelled. it seemed as though she was barely holding on to herself.

Birdy thought it over carefully. "I have another idea."

-*-

"[And thus were our spirits created from the Dreamtime]." Chanted Tandala. The rest of the party repeated the chant slowly and in almost indecipherable accents.

"Repeat that chant, once more. Do not stop." Tandala said.

They began with the creation story again.

Tandala uncoiled from her seated position and danced lightly away humming a little ditty about how dangerous the Dreamtime was unless you were happy.

She returned to her team in a short time with a standard issue paint stick, used for repainting signs and touching up dings on the Defiant.

She sung her song of reality and protection, while marking the proper symbols on Baker's skin with the paint. Baker glanced at the paint stick. It was an industrial device. He wondered if it would be safe for the skin, but Tandala's warning look kept him chanting the sing song chant.

-*-

Birdy led his party aft, towards the far end of the ship. They came across a desperate riot where humans were fighting some sort of primate like race.

The opponents looked like chimpanzees. One sighted the party and rushed at them screeching. Mileu noted that it was wearing a smock with a caduceus on it, as if the chimpanzee was medical personnel. She quickly disabled the chimpanzee but not before getting nasty bruise on her arm.

They kept running.

-*-

The swirling, tumbling feeling of ship grew worse and worse. Schuler, Paxton and their benefactor came around a corner and were confronted by a horde of large ants. The ants were busily carrying away bodies and wreckage from the corridor of the ship.

One large ant scuttled up to the party. It began to feel them with its antennae.

"Hello?" Schuler said.

"We're peaceful!" Paxton said.

"[Do you understand me?]" The alien woman asked.

The ant responded by spraying them with a strange formaldehyde like substance. They coughed and sputtered. The ant backed quickly away, holding it's mandibles wide open and high. As the smell reached the other ants in the corridor they dropped what they were doing and began to back away, but one Ant did not do this. It was twice as big as the other ants and it's mandibles were huge wicked blades. It raised its open mandibles and rushed towards them.

"[Run!]" The alien woman shouted, She pointed to the ladder down. "[Down there!]"

Schuler hoisted Paxton into the ladder way and waited impatiently for him to start climbing down.

The Alien woman shot the warrior ant with a beam from her weapon. It sounded like a standard civilian phaser to Paxton. The ant sizzled and died with an acrid, acidy formaldehyde smell.

More warrior ants appeared at the far end of the corridor.

"God damn it! Move!" Yelled Schuler

-*-

Baker's party was now dancing in a weird conga line towards safety. They kept chanting and placing their feet right where Tandala said. They tried to duplicate the motions she made with varying amounts of success. Baker almost laughed. They had seen horrors and mad crewmen. Nothing seemed to notice them. The just danced on past chanting in the weird high pitched tones.

-*-

Birdy's party reached their destination, the Defiant's shuttlebay.

The shuttlebay was blocked by wreckage. Someone had tried to barricade the door.

Birdy and Mileu started clearing the wreckage while Burke pre-flighted the shuttlecraft.

Using an intact anti-grav unit, Birdy and Mileu successfully cleared the shuttlebay doors. As they finished, Burke asked them. "Do you want the good news first or the bad news."

"Good news." Mileu said.

"The shuttle is in functional condition." Burke said.

"What's the punch line?" Birdy asked.

"Someone drained the power packs and the engines. Without power, the shuttle craft is useless." Burke said.

-*-

As they reached the bottom of the ladder, Paxton and Schuler could see a port open. There appeared to be a ship docked at the end of the corridor. Two men in brown uniforms. The men watched them intently, with ready weapons.

"Trouble!" Paxton yelled at them. "One of your people is in trouble! Come on!"

Schuler started to drag him towards the ship. The guards stayed at the hatch.

The sound of phaser fire caught their attention from the ladder way.

"Come on!" Paxton shouted, waving.

The woman backed out of the corridor, firing at warrior ants.

The guards rushed forwards to help.

-*-

Baker's team danced into the runabout. As soon as they were into the runabout, Tandala said "We're clear, go!" and set about marking magical protection spells on the walls with her markers.

Baker and Crystara settled into the pilots seats. Out of the hatch they could see swirling colors that filled the continuum around them.

Dr. Smith took Mann and Jefferson into the rear of the runabout to start treatment.

Baker keyed the communications system. "This is Baker, Deep Space Ten crew, answer! We leave in three minutes, let us know if you can hear us!"

Incredible squeals and random noise came back to greet him.

-*-

Birdy said "Get into the shuttle!"

"But-" Burke said.

Birdy grabbed the phaser that Mileu had picked up. "Just get in!"

They got into the shuttle and settled themselves. Birdy the opened an access port on the deck of the shuttlecraft. He patched in Mileu's phaser and the shuttle powered up.

"Warning: Extreme Low Power Condition Noted." The Computer warned.

"Emergency launch!" Birdy yelled "Ten second count down!"

"You are not authorized-" The shuttle began

"Emergency launch NOW!" Burke yelled.

Hearing a voice it recognized as a member of the Defiant's crew, the Shuttle launched with nearly all of the power remaining in Milieu's phaser.

They tumbled away from the derelict starship, in a continuum of swirling colors and half seen shapes.

Birdy could see the runabout attached to the top of the Defiant separate and fly

away. An egg shape was docked forward along the secondary hull.

"What is that?" Birdy asked.

The egg shape had spindly struts extending off it at various angles. As they watched, the egg shape detached and floated away. Then membranes were extended along the struts. As they extended the egg shaped spacecraft picked up speed and moved away.

-*-

With a rocking, bucking motion, the runabout cleared the zone of subspace interference. Black space returned and star twinkled ahead of them.

"We did it!" Baker yelled. "We made it out!"

"We're at the coordinates of the anomaly, but I can find no sign of it. There's only empty space there now." Crystara reported.

Tandala left off her spell-marking and took up her station. "I'm receiving a distress call. It's nearby."

"Scan for it. Do you think anyone else got out of there?" Baker asked.

"It's a shuttlecraft. According to the readings it's one of the Defiant's shuttlecrafts. Hailing now." Tandala said

Birdy appeared. "This is Birdy. We ejected in one of the Defiant's shuttles but we only have fifteen minutes of life support left."

Baker said "We'll be right there, Birdy. Did you lose anyone?"

"I lost two but I gained one." Birdy said. "John, why are you naked and painted up like that?"

"It's what any rational man of the galaxy would have done under the circumstances." Baker replied with exaggerated dignity.

-*-

"And so we lost Paxton and Schuler but gained Mann, Jefferson and Burke." Baker reported. He was briefing Li'ira his commanding officer on the events. He was dressed and Dr. Smith managed to remove most of the paint from his skin.

"Burke, Mann and Jefferson have been transferred to Starbase 35 for counseling." Li'ira said "I have their reports but the interphase syndrome they suffered damaged their memories. They can't remember exactly what they experienced, except that it was very unpleasant."

"I'm having a similar effect, myself." Baker said.

"Is that why you used the phrase 'Tandala's skills as a guide' in your official report?" Li'ira said.

"Do you really believe that Tandala's singing escorted us out of the anomaly?" Baker asked

"I don't know what I believe." Li'ira said. Baker's in person report was much more detailed and hard to credit than his official report.

"Tandala said it best as we got back." Baker said "Some songs people are ready to hear and some they aren't."

"Oh well. I'm sorry about Paxton and Schuler. We got some of the data. Maybe enough to rescue them next time." Li'ira said.

"Maybe they aren't there to rescue anymore." Baker said.

"The third ship?"

"We can only hope. Nobody who's stuck there is having any fun." Baker sighed.

"Hmm." Li'ira said. Birdy's report described the other ship seen leaving the Defiant as a Bajoran starsailer. The starsailer was a mythical ship from at least a thousand years ago. If Paxton and Schuler left on it, it was probable that no one in the Federation would hear from them again.

"Is that all, Commander?" Baker asked.

"Yes, You're dismissed." Li'ira said. "Why the hurry?"

"Well I've been invited to a party..."

-end-

Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.