Title: "Hitting the Peak" (Part 1 of 2)
Author: Lt. Commander Garek Loran
Stardate: 2460551
Earth Date: July 20, 2383
Location: USS Virgo

"Enter," Captain Maruu called from inside his ready room. The *Virgo* was cruising along at Warp 5, towards a nearby nebula for study. The "Inbox" of report PADDs was empty, and he held the last of them in his left hand.

Through the door stepped Lieutenant Commander Garek Loran. A scruffy goatee was starting to grow. Garek was going for a new look, and figured that this would suffice. Right now, however, it was nothing more then stubble, and felt like sandpaper to the touch. Garek admitted it wasn't the best right now, however, he kept telling himself it would get better.

"You called for me, sir?" Garek asked.

"Yes, Garek. Please, have a seat."

Garek walked over and took a seat in one of the chairs across the desk from Maruu. Instead of sitting, Stephen rose and walked around his desk behind Garek, where he started to pace.

"Are these reports accurate?"

"As far as I can figure," Garek replied. "I've been going over the inventory, and the Borial gods just packed us up with all of the supplies we could've needed. We have such a surplus of dilithium crystals; we could warp
back to the Alpha Quadrant, and back here at maximum speed."

"I see." If Garek new Captain Maruu, he was chewing this situation apart analytically, and coming to a decision. Being a Betazoid, Garek could've just read Maruu's thoughts, however, he didn't believe in probing the thoughts of others without their permission.

"You bring up an interesting idea. Not that any of your other ideas are boring, however, this one is truly fascinating."

"Thank you, sir."

"You say that there would be enough tridanium left over to be able to put 15 inches of ablative armor on the *Virgo*?" There already was ablative armor on the *Virgo*. However, it only covered the bridge, Main Engineering, Sickbay, and the Holodecks. That, and the armor was tempered from the less strong duranium metal used in starship production. By covering the entire ship in tridanium ablative armor plating, it would definitely give the*Virgo* a tactical advantage in combat.

"Well, my engineers still have to finish lacing the warp nacelles with the tridanium when we drop from warp, however, after discussing with with my team leaders, they agree that it can be done." Ensign Eric Wiley, leader of Gamma Team even jumped at the idea of getting out in a modified type-9 shuttle with the tridanium to do the welding of the metal to the hull. *Of course,* Garek thought, *he'd be cozy in his shuttle, shuttling the metal
out into space while his engineers, and some of the support crew, were in zero G work suits doing the most of the welding.*

"How long of a time do you project it will take to finish?"

"Well, a few factors have to be taken into account. One: the time. As far as we can estimate, it could take as long as two to three weeks to finish lacing the hull with the multiple layers of tridanium plates. Secondly, if we were to do it in phases, applying the armor when we stop to get supplies, we have to take in the possibility that the *Virgo* could have gone into battle with a whole slew of enemies. This could flake away the armor, and we
wouldn't be able to readily replace it in the field without going out and mining more tridanium. Lastly, if we were to stop and put this all on at one time, we'd be somewhat sitting ducks until we get my people onboard. We'd
have to find a suitable moon or planet we could orbit that would disguise our energy signature from normal shipping lanes and such."

Maruu thought for a moment, still pacing across his office. *True, the idea of having an extra 15 inches of a strong metal for protection was a great advantage to the ship and crew. However, the time it was requiring was
immense.* He finally looked over at his Chief Engineer.

"Garek, as much as I'd like to have that extra layer ofprotection, the time it is requiring is too great right now. I just want the ship to be able to withstand the pressures of transwarp flight at this point. You have already laced the leading edges of the ship with tridanium?"

"Yes, sir," Garek replied, a little dejectedly. He was looking forward to spearheading this project and making it work.The less damage the *Virgo* sustained in battle, the less he had to worry fixing later. "Three weeks isn't a long time to wait to have this type of armor applied if I might add."

"I know, Garek," Stephen replied. "However, we don't have the time to stop and do this type of work."

"Normal technicians at a spacedock could take nearly five to six weeks to apply only a foot of duranium! We are constantly at threat here, and that layer of protection really helps. All I can ask is that you just look over
the advantages and disadvantages of my plan again."

"I will, but right now I just can't allow it. Maybe once we're in a little safer position..."

"Forgive me for saying, Captain, but once we're in safer space, it's not going to make that much of a difference now would it? What are we gonna do with it? Go beat up some Steamrunners or something?"

"Commander Loran," Maruu called out sternly. "My decision is final. Your plan is not needed at this point in time. When we stop, I want those nacelles lined with tridanium, and that's final."

"Yes, sir," Garek replied. He had an evil glare in his eyes as he took the PADD back from the Captain.

"Dismissed." Garek about faced, and exited the Captain's ready room.

"Hello, Garek," Commander Lataro said, as he exited the turbolift. Garek gave him a casual glance and grumpily entered the turbolift, the doors closing behind him.

"What's his problem?" Lieutenant Commander K'Lara shrugged as she made a small course correction at the helmstation.
_________________________________

"Main Engineering," Garek said sternly. The computer replied with the familiar beep, and the turbolift started on it's way.

Garek could see some of the reasons why Maruu wouldn't let him lace the hull of the *Virgo* with the tridanium. However, with the tactical advantage that having this extra layer of protection would give them, how could he refuse? It was insane. Garek leaned up against the back wall of the turbolift listening to it hum on it's way through the shaft towards the stardrive section of the vessel. Garek could feel the inertial dampeners compensate as the turbolift came to a halt.
 

The doors opened revealing the portside wall in the main "foyer" of Main Engineering. Garek exited the turbolift to see that Beta Team had just came on duty. A few stragglers from Alpha Team were finishing up a few of their
experiments, observations, etc. before heading off to get lunch.

"Hello, sir," Jacob Celchu called from the railing thatran around the warp core. Garek didn't glance at Jacob, but held up a hand for a wave as he walked into the Chief Engineer's Office.

When the team leaders saw Garek do this in recognition of their call, they knew that: A, something was going wrong, or not to his liking, and B, he wanted to be left alone.

"Great," Jacob said to an ensign that was next to him. "The boss is ticked off about something."

"Computer, privacy mode." Garek said upon entering his office. With that, the doors hidden inside the bulkheads that made up the entrance archway to his office shut, and the glass windows from which he could see the warp core fogged over. It wasn't the best thing in the world, but it gave Garek some privacy in Engineering that sometimes he felt he really needed. For the past few days, Garek's empathic abilities had started to, for lack of better words, become more hyperactive, flooding his consciousness with emotions from everyone he passed buy. He could sense the slightest bit of resentment, joy, happiness, sadness, madness, anything that a person was feeling. Garek had been working to repress these emotions as soon as they hit him. However, now, they were becoming too much, and Garek, was at times, becoming a little to overemotional. Especially when it came to being angry. Garek breathed heavily, trying to clear his consciousness and to restrain himself from exploding. However, it just wasn't working as well as he hoped it would. The main thing that really bothered him was that he didn't know why this was happening.

After spending nearly half an hour in his office by himself, Garek finally brought himself back under control.

"Computer, normal mode." The office restored to its normal openness. The glass defogged revealing the warp core init's 'out of warp' mode. The matter and anti-matter feed was at 10%, which was the the level at which the warp core powered systems of the vessel along with the fusion generators.

"Chief, I have something for you to look at." Jacob said, as he walked over. He held a PADD in his hand.

"All right. Let's see it."

Jacob handed the PADD over to Garek, and stood back, as if expecting Garek's head to explode.

"Ease up, Jacob, I'm not going to blow up." Garek looked over the PADD indicating that they were having slight problems setting up the transwarp inducer, and that the the EPS feeds into the portside warp nacelle were
functioning at sub par. "All right. I'll look over the transwarp induction system when I come back from the Bridge. Also, the EPS feeds have been acting up for the past few days. I'll request we stop for awhile to get them fixed."

"Thanks, Chief." Jacob retreated back over to the construction they had on the side of the M/ARA chamber, scanning it again with a tricorder. Garek made his way back into the turbolift, heading back towards the Bridge.

The turbolift doors opened, revealing the Bridge. Garek stepped onto the Bridge quietly, hoping that he would neither be seen nor heard. He had little chance of success, but it was worth a shot anyway. "Welcome back,
Garek," Commander Lataro said. He was behind Garek, standing at the Tactical station.

"Thank you, Commander. Is Captain Maruu in his ready room?"

"I believe he is."

"Thank you, sir." Garek made his way around to the otherside of the Bridge and pressed the door chime.

[Enter,] came the captain's voice over the small intercom by the door. Garek stepped through the doorway.

"I don't have time to argue with you again, Garek. My decision's made up."

"I have something to say, Captain. I'm sorry for my behavior earlier." Maruu looked up from his personal display, a little surprised. "For the past few weeks ever since we left Xenon III, and that time that I spent in that alternate universe, my empathic abilities have been running rampid. I've been absorbing feelings, thoughts, and emotions from everyone off this ship anytime I pass by someone. The problem is, I don't know what in the hell is causing it! It always feels as though my head is going to explode from the pressure that it's under. Needless to say, during this time I've been highly objectionable, but this thing is just getting the best of me. I apologize,
sir."

Maruu rose from his seat and straightened out his uniform jacket. "I understand completely, Garek. At least, what it feels like. Why don't you go to Sickbay and have Dana check you out? Then, take the rest of the day off, and get some rest. I'll confer with her on the best way to handle this." Garek nodded.

"If that's what you think is best."

"Get better, Garek."

"I hope to." Garek the turned, and left the Captain's ready room on his way to Sickbay.
 

Title: "Hitting the Peak" (Part 2 of 2)
Author: Lt. Commander Garek Loran
Stardate: 2460551
Earth Date: July 20, 2383
Location: USS Virgo

Lieutenant Commander Maruu held her medical probe up to Garek Loran's head. The flashing red lights circled around, taking in readings which were fed into the medical tricorder. Dana looked at the medical tricorder, and then into Garek's eyes, as if to see into his soul.

"Garek, I don't know what to say. My readings say that you're fine." Garek sighed, looking at the floor. He then looked up at Dana.

"It feels as though I have a constant splitting headache. Even worse, then having to listen to my engineers." Garek smiled, and then placed his elbows on his knees reaching up torub his temples.

"I can give you something for the pain if you want. Some painkillers maybe?"

"Pills or injections?" Garek asked.

"Either."

"I'll go with pills."

Dana disappeared over into the second ward and then returned with a small tube filled with small blue pills. "All right, two of these about every four to six hours or so. No more then three in a one hour time span. Got it?"

"You're a life saver, Dana." Garek smiled, and took the tube of pills.

"Call me if you need anything else," Maruu called as Garek exited Sickbay.

Garek entered his quarters and looked around. Gratefully, the alternate version of himself didn't do anything to them. At least, nothing that he could see. From what he heard from Francesca Milano, he had spent most of
the time in the ship's library.

Garek opened the tube that Dana had given him and popped a pill into his mouth. Garek made his way over to his quarter's small sink and grabbed a glass. He filled it, and took a drink, washing the pill down. As soon as
this happened, an immense wave of pain came over him, moving through his head. Garek gave off a horrible yell, but managed to tap his com badge. "Loran to Sickbay..."

Garek drifted into unconsciousness.

[Garek?] Dana's voice was heard over the com badge's smallspeaker unit. [Garek, are you there? Hello?]
_________________________________

Once again, Garek Loran was in Sickbay. However, this time he was unconscious. The massive waves of emotions, thoughts, and feelings had knocked him unconscious from the power the wave had.

"What happened to him?" Captain Maruu asked. He stood at the side of Garek's biobed, looking the Chief Engineer over.

"That's the thing, I don't know exactly," Dana replied. She then began her explanation. "Betazoids, as we all know, have empathic abilities. They can read minds, sense emotions, read people's feelings, et cetera. However, one thing that I'm not sure of is why he's had headaches such as these. I have discovered one thing, though. When a Betazoid comes of age, their empathic abilities hit their peak. However, the symptoms aren't listed, and we don't have any record of someone going through these transitions."

"You think Garek might have hit his peak?" Captain Maruu asked, concerned.

"I don't know, Stephen. I just don't know. The only thing we can do is sit and wait."
_________________________________

Garek awoke and looked around. He was standing on what appeared to be a floating asteroid in the middle of space. Off in the distance was what appeared to be the *Virgo*, and near it was a large moon.

*Well, this is nice,* Garek thought or, for all practical purposes, dreamt.

"Greetings," a voice from behind Garek called. Garek quickly snapped himself around to check out the person that had greeted him. The being was about Garek's height, with blue, scaly skin. It's head came up into the form of that of a squid, with large eyes mounted on the side of it's head. The barbells around its mouth wobbled as it spoke.

"Who are you?" Garek asked, as he looked the creature up and down.

"I am Karel," the creature responded. "You are passing through our space."

"Your space?" Garek asked. "Needless to say I'm slightly confused. How am I standing on an asteroid in space?"

"You merely perceive that you are," Karel responded. His barbells twitched as he spoke. "Our species cannot be seen, except by those who have highly attuned empathic abilities. We exist in a different plane."

"A different plane?" Garek asked, slightly intrigued. "I don't understand. Why haven't you made contact with any other members of my crew? We have other empaths onboard the *Virgo*. Why me?"

"Your abilities were the only one's powerful enough to establish contact with." The creatures eyes blinked.

*I must have reached the "Hightening"*, Garek thought. The "Hightening" was the time in every Betazoid's life where their empathic abilities hit their highest point of activity. The ages varied in most Betazoid's from anywhere from their teenage years up to their late thirties. Garek's "Hightening" obviously hit somewhere in the middle of these times.

"Well, I guess this would constitute as a 'First Contact' situation. I'm Lieutenant Commander Garek Loran of the Federation Starship *Virgo*." The creature gave what appeared to be a smile.
_________________________________

Captain Maruu sat in his chair on the Bridge of the *Virgo*. Commander Lataro was walking along the rail of the bridge, looking over officer's shoulders as they went about their duties.

Suddenly, the *Virgo* rocked, not giving any chance for the inertial dampeners to counteract. People flew from their chairs, and hit the deck hard.

"What in the hell happened?!" Maruu yelled out.

"We appeared to have hit a type of "quick sand" pocket of space, sir." Lieutenant Valdago was just as surprised at what he was saying as much as Captain Maruu was.

"Care to explain?"

"Sir, the anomaly that Lieutenant Valdago is referring to is known as the 'Sandtrap'," began Lieutenant Jenara Tomme. "It's a part of space heavily distorted by warp flights. This distortion caused by subspace pollution can
create a dangerous pocket if not corrected by flux pollution inhibitors. When a ship gets stuck in one of these pockets and gives more thrust, they only get stuck even more." Lt. Tomme straightened out her hair which was
knocked out of place when she was knocked out of her seat.

"So the more we pull, the more it pulls back?" Commander Lataro asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Jenara's right. The more I try to move forward, the more I get pulled back in," K'Lara added from the helm.

"Structural integrity is down to 90 percent. Each time we pull, we lose more of it," Lieutenant Wallace chimed infrom the Tactical console.

"All stop." Captain Maruu ordered. *Could've used that ablative armor now,* Maruu thought to himself. "Why keep pulling when we're not going anywhere? If I assume right, we won't get pulled in even deeper if we don't struggle?"

"Well, sir," Jenara started, "tough to say. Chances are we'll still sink, just not as quickly."

"I don't like that answer much either." Maruu quieted himself for a moment to think. "All right, let's start working on a way to get us out of this thing. I'm going down to Sickbay to see if it's safe to awaken Commander Loran. Jonathan, you have the bridge."

"Aye, Captain," Commander Lataro called after Maruu as he left the Bridge.
_________________________________

Doctor Maruu scanned Garek's body to make sure the "little" bump they hit hadn't done anything to any of his organs and such.

"Dana, can we wake him up?" Stephen asked as he enteredSickbay.

"I don't know," Dana turned to face him. "I really don't want to chance it. Waking him up may put major stress on his neural cortex."

"Well, right now we don't have much of a choice. We've got a situation brewing. If you're willing to risk it we'll have to take a chance."

"Of course, Stephen," Dana called back.

"What are you looking at?" Karel asked, as he walked over beside Garek. "It's the stars..." Garek drifted off for a moment. Then another wave of emotions hit him.

Anxiety, despair, agitation.

"Something's happening. It's... coming from the *Virgo.*"

"Yes, it is." Karel replied, looking at Garek with one of his eyes. His eyes closed, and he exhaled slowly. "They are trapped."

"Trapped?" Garek nearly yelled out. "How? Where?"

"They have come across one of our nets."

"Nets? Explain."

"We use the nets to stop space going vessels."

"Why would you do that though?"

"To stop them, obviously." Karel glared at Garek. "They pollute our space and disturb us in our state of being. We put up the nets to detour them from flying through this area."

"How will anyone learn not to fly through their space if they cannot get out of your nets?"

"Their people learn from example. The people that fall into the nets are examples to their people, not to pass through this area."

Garek was speechless. They would let a crew of people die to protect their peace and quiet. They didn't even offer assistance to ships that entered their nets. He was going to have to inform the crew of the *Virgo*, but how?

"Karel, is it possible for me to go back to my ship?"

"Of course," Karel said. He paused for a moment."If you insist on going back to your ship and helping them get free from our net, you are welcome to. However, I cannot tell you how to do so. The elders created the nets, and we have yet to know how they created them. If you are to discover a way out, it would be on your own."

"Well, thanks for your help," Garek replied. *Amazing the mental capacities of these creatures.* Garek closed his eyes momentarily.

When he opened them, he was staring at the Sickbay onboard the *Virgo*.

"He's coming to," Dana said, looking at Garek. Captain Maruu walked over, to get a look for himself.

"Welcome back to the world of the waking." Stephen gave a smile. Garek swung his legs off the bio bed and stood up, catching his bearings.

"I have to get to Engineering. We've got problems." Garek brushed pass the two without saying a word and left Sickbay.

"How did he know?" Dana asked. Stephen shrugged, without knowing himself.
_________________________________

"Hey, Chief!" Ensign Jacobsen yelled out as Garek entered Engineering. All of the teams were brought on duty during times of emergency, and this was no exception. Ensign Antilles had been running things in Garek's absence and was relieved to see that the Chief Engineer was back on duty. Garek nodded his head as he passed behind Jacobsen.

"Sir, am I glad that you're here," Jennifer started. "We're stuck..."

"...in a type of subspace anomaly like quicksand, and we have to get out before we're permanently stuck here and die. Yeah, I got that part." Jennifer looked on, slightly confused and astounded that Garek knew what was
going on, even when he was unconscious in Sickbay. *Does he ever sleep?* she thought.

"All right, here's what I plan to do. I want to angle the ship moving the ship's primary hull down into the anomaly itself. Then, with the navigational deflector we'll use it as a type of spring to push us up and out of the main chunk of this thing. Then, if we go full reverse thrust while using the navigational deflector, we should be able to pull ourselves out of this thing, and then get out. Any questions?" Garek looked around. "Good. Jacobsen, get on those simulations. Wiley, get the navigational deflector running at 150 percent. Antilles, get the warp core up to maximum efficiency, and Celchu, you're with me. Let's move people."

Jacob Celchu walked over to Garek. "You want me to accompany you, sir?"

"Yes, you and I are going up to see the Captain."

"Sir?"

"I like to perform in front of an audience." Jacob shook his head, and grinned. Then, he followed the Chief Engineer to the Bridge.

After a few minutes in the Captain's ready room with the Captain and Commander Lataro, Garek explained his plan to the two senior officers. Jacob entered his comments edgewise, to strengthen Garek's case, and the two both agreed that this plan could work. Lataro looked over at Maruu, and he in turn looked back.

Maruu then looked at the two engineers. "Would you both please leave the room for a moment?" Garek nodded, and Jacob followed him out. As soon as the doors closed, the two senior officers started conversing.

"Do you think it'll work?" Stephen asked. Lataro looked out the window.

"It sounds as if it will. I'm just more concerned and fascinated at the fact that no one briefed him on what was happening, yet he knew, and devised a plan to get us out as if it had happened before."

"I know. Needless to say, I'm rather intrigued as well. Can we trust that this will work?"

Maruu looked up from his chair at the XO.

"It sounds as a good a plan as any," said Lataro.

"Come in." The two engineers entered the room again."Go ahead with your plan, and get us out of here. If you need any resources, please contact us."

"Aye, sir," both Garek and Jacob replied in unison. They then turned and made thier way towards the ready room doors.

"Oh, and Garek," Maruu added.

"Yes, sir?"

"I would like to talk to you in private when this is over."

"Yes, Captain." The two made their way out of the ready room.
_________________________________

Nearly three hours had passed since the conversation in the Captain's ready room. The engineers had finished their tasks, and now this was the moment of truth. Garek looked at his PADD and went down the checklist he had prepared.

"Antilles?"

"Warp core is at 99.5 efficiency, sir," Antilles yelled back, standing at a control console on the warp core's guardrail.

"Celchu?"

[We're ready up here, sir,] Jacob's voice replied over the intercom. He was on the bridge with Lieutenant Commander Lataro. He would watch the engineering displays on a side panel, and inform her to make course
corrections when needed.

"Wiley?"

Ensign Wiley was in the navigational deflector control room, monitoring the deflector dish's output and stress levels. "We're running at 99 percent, Boss."

"Jacobsen?"

"Engineering teams are ready to go."

"Good." Garek looked around and took a deep breath. On the outside he appeared cool and collective. On the inside it was much worse. He had a constant headache, butterflies in his stomach, and was suffering from severe anxiety. He would definitely need to get some sleep after they were out of this thing.

He then tapped his com badge. "Captain, we're ready to proceed."

[Understood. Go ahead, the *Virgo's* yours for now.]

Garek stood at the craps table monitoring the different panels which were displaying science readings, tactical readings, and operations displays. The nerve center of the ship was now being displayed on the consoles in front of him.

"All right, let's go. Wiley, bring the deflector up to fullpower for 10 seconds. Then, power down and engage program Escape 03."

[Aye, sir.] The reply came in crisp and clear.

Program Escape 03 was the best of the programs that they had run. What would happen is that the Navigational deflector would work by establishing a type of shielded bubble in which thrusters would be engaged pushing them out of the distortion. Then, shell would be dropped, allowing the distortion to fill the gap which the deflector occupied. Then, they would once again activate the deflector which would push the ship upwards through the distortion some more. They best estimates they could come upwith was after five repetitions, they would be clear enough to swing the ship on its y-axis bringing the saucer of the ship upwards, at which time they could engage the warp engines, and get away from this area. A loud hum could be heard as the deflector dish projected it's invisible field of energy which pushed the *Virgo* upwards.

"Engage the thrusters," Garek spoke into his com badge.

K'Lara engaged the rearward thrusters, pushing the ship upwards some more while the deflector was running. Celchu watched, closely monitoring the effects of the graviton distortions on the aft section of the ship. The hull
integrity of the *Virgo* would have to be in pristine condition in order to allow a high enough warp propulsion to get free. However, both he and Garek had a surprise planned.

[Structural integrity falling in the back end.]

"All stop, shut down deflector."

[Aye!] Wiley's voice came back over the intercom.

"Get engineering teams to where the reports of structural integrity began to fall. Let's get out of here in one piece."

"I'm on it, sir." Jacobsen called back. He gathered a group of engineers, and made his way towards aft of the ship.

Half an hour had passed, and Garek had figured that they would be free after going about another 20 meters. After that, Jacob and Garek would spring their surprise.

[All right, everyone,] Garek said from engineering, [one more push. Wiley, bring the deflector online. Celchu, ready thrusters.]

"Aye, sir." Celchu responded. He looked at his panel, and then watched as the projection of the navigational deflector's energy field activated.

[Go ahead, Commander."]

"Here we go," K'Lara added. She activated the thrusters. The *Virgo* moved up slowly. "It's like trying to push a piece of wood broadside through water."

"Watch it, K'Lara. Don't talk about my ship like that." Stephen smiled.

"Sorry, sir." K'Lara grinned.

"Five more meters." Jacob watched with anticipation. "Three meters. Two meters. One meter. We're free!"

The eruptions of joy and cheers could be heard throughout the ship. Their plan had worked, now, to get out of here.

[Jacob, engage program Escape Beta 10.]

"Aye, sir." Jacob smiled. The time he had been waiting for. From his panel, he entered an access code, and it brought up a schematic of the transwarp drive activation device. Garek's activation code was already entered, along with Jennifer Antilles's, Marcus Jacobsen's , and Eric Wiley's.

*Hope everyone buckled up,*

Celchu grinned, and entered his activation code. The schematics showed the transwarp activator powering up.

"Come on, come on," Garek said to himself. He watched the large apparatus built onto the side of the reaction chamber begin to power up. The injection system began glowing green, and then, it finished. "Bingo!" The *Virgo's* warp engines powered up, and a small tube began to form in front of the *Virgo* itself. Then, with a flash of a bluish, greenlight of the warp core, the *Virgo* entered a transwarp conduit for the first time without
structural damage.

"Sir, I must be reading this wrong." K'Lara drew herself away from her celebration and looked at the warp speed indicator.

"What is it K'Lara?" Jon Lataro asked.

"The speed is indicating that we're going way faster than maximum warp! We're at a speed of warp 24 and rising!"

"What?!" Jon yelled out. Both he and Stephen walked over to the control panel. Jacob stood there, with a beaming smile on his face, his arms crossed across his chest.

"What's going on?" Captain Maruu asked.

"Garek wanted the ship to go out with a bang. Consider the *Virgo* transwarp compatible." Jacob smiled, and quietly made his way off of the Bridge, and down to Engineering.

Engineering was alive with celebration. Streamers had been 'smuggled' into Engineering by someone, and were being thrown about. Unbeknownst to Garek, Ensign Wiley had been able to get ahold of a champagne-type drink from one of their shore leave stops earlier. Holding the bottle's neck with a death grip, he began removing the wrapper on top of the cork, and then uncorked the bottle. The cork flew across engineering, banging off of thewarp core's reaction assembly, and then hitting a bulkhead coming to a stop on the floor. He then reached for some glasses and started dispensing the beverage among his
fellow engineers and colleagues.

The doors to Engineering opened, and Commander Lataro and Captain Maruu walked in. Everyone became silent and the engineers made a vein attempt to put their drinks behind their backs.

Maruu looked around, noticing pieces of brightly colored, metallic ribbon and small pieces of confetti and streamers overchairs and consoles.

"What is this?" he asked, looking around.

"Just a small celebration, sir," Garek replied."We've freed the ship from a
spatial distortion that could have drained us of all our power over time and
killed us. We've got a working transwarp drive, and no one was hurt." Garek
walked over to the Captain, and looked into his eyes. "Is that a problem,
sir?"

Maruu looked around. "It can be. I'll allow it on one condition."

"Yes, sir?" Garek asked.

"You pour me and Commander Lataro here some of the champagne you smuggled aboard." A broad smile formed on Garek's face.

"Can do, sir." He then turned around to face his wild bunch. "You heard the Captain. Get the man a drink!" He was greeted by yell by the crowd.

"You still have the matter of explaining to me exactly why you went into unconsciousness, along with those headaches. I don't want you injured to the point where you can't preform your duties."

Garek handed the Captain a glass of champagne, and suddenly felt a wave of warmth come over him, like being wrapped up in a blanket. "I'll explain later, sir."

Maruu nodded, and smiled. He then patted the Chief Engineer on the back, and, within a few minutes, it seemed like the whole ship had made their way into Engineering for a party.
 

Title: "Improvements"
Author: Lieutenant Richard Wallace
Stardate: 2460553
Earthdate: July 21, 2383
Location: USS Virgo

Lieutenant Wallace was sitting at a table alone, going over reports made a month before after the battle with the T'rais.

He was trying to get a better picture of the situation. After reading the reports, he decided that the ship was outgunned.

Richard sat back, drank his coffee, and thought hard. The *Virgo* was the first ship he served on as chief tactical officer. He felt that his duty was to ensure that the ship could stand up against an enemy.

*Come on! Seventeen years of experience must help in some way.*

After a while, it hit him, and it hit him with full force. He grabbed a PADD and started to write the information down. Some minutes later his ideas were on the PADD.

He felt pretty good about himself and wanted to share the news and sense of happiness with someone.

At that moment Lieutenant Commander Garek Loran came in, followed by Yeoman Harper.

"Commander, may I speak with you? It's rather important," Richard yelled from one end of the lounge to the other.

Garek ordered a drink and walked over to Richard's table followed by Harper.

"Sir, I have something that needs to be studied by an engineer and sort of needs your approval," Lieutenant Wallace said.

The PADD was handed over to Garek and he read it out loud.

"Improvements to increase firepower of the *USS Virgo*. One: Build and install pulse phaser cannon on each of the warp nacelles. Two: Reuse plasma to power shields and phaser banks." Garek liked the ideas but was a little uncertain. "I've been working on covering the ship in ablative armor and, frankly, these ideas will require a lot of research. I've heard of reusing plasma and thought about it but I just don't think it's a feasible idea. And
as far as pulse phasers, we have the materials, but not the time. I'll look into it after we're done with the ablative."

"Sir, if we run into the T'rais once again, and I know we will, we'll lose. I have lost four battles in my lifetime, and I don't care to lose a fifth one."

"I realize that but unless you can find a way to make plasma recycling feasible or put together two pulse cannons, these are not going to be done any time soon. I'm sorry."

Lucy Harper gave Wallace a shrug and an apologetic look as she and Garek walked to the bar.

*Do it myself? That may be a good idea.*
 

Title: "Convalescence"
Author: Lieutenant Commander Benton
Stardate: 2460589
Earthdate: August 3, 2383
Location: USS Virgo

Slowly, ever so slowly, a distant and faint speck of light grew in the center of Benton's field of vision. It grew larger and brighter, slowly replacing the darkness before his eyes. In a few more seconds, vague, blurry shapes began resolving themselves in the brightness. Faint, muffled sounds intruded into his ears.

He opened and shut his eyes a few times trying to clear his vision. His surroundings finally swam into focus. He realized then that he was lying on his back. Over his head, attached to the ceiling were medical diagnostic
clusters. He was in sickbay. How had he gotten here?

Suddenly he remembered: the knife fight with the alternate Johnny Chee! In a reflexive burst of anxiety, Benton tried to sit up... and made it about six inches off his pillow before the stabbing pain that shot through his body
and skull immobilized him. He slumped back onto his bed with a load groan.

This drew the attention of Doctor Maruu, who sauntered over to have a look at her patient. After determining that Benton hadn't actually hurt himself, Dana said, "Well now. Let that be a lesson to you. Now just lie there until
*I* say it's okay for you to get up."

"Yes, ma'am," was all Benton could manage to groan out.

Satisfied, Doctor Maruu turned and began walking away, but she checked herself and turned back toward Benton's bed.

"Oh! I almost forgot," she said, smiling. "You've had a visitor." Dana pointed and winked, and Benton turned his head as far as he could to look at the table next to his bed. There was a large bouquet of flowers on it.

"Thank you, doctor," said Benton.

When the doctor had gone, Benton slowly and painfully slipped his left arm from underneath the covers and reached over to the flowers and the small card that was stuck in amongst them. He retrieved the card and opened it. He detected a familiar fragrance coming from the card. The flowers were from who he thought.

"Oh dear."

Benton,
Get well soon.
Love, Francesca
XOXOX
___________________________

Later that day, Doctor Maruu returned to check on Benton, and this time he was recovered enough to ask a few questions.

"How long have I been here, doctor?" Benton asked.

Dana closed her tricorder and stepped closer to the biobed. Benton still had trouble deciphering human expressions sometimes, but he could read her current expression well enough. She had some bad news to tell him.

"I have some bad news to tell you," she began. "You've been in sickbay for more than a month."

Benton blinked in surprise. "A month?!" he stammered.

"Yes."

"Thirty days?!"

"Thirty-four actually."

"I see." Benton tried to come to grips with that figure.

"You were very seriously injured in your struggle with the alternate Chee. And the fact that you ran around *after* the injury occurred only worsened the situation."

"I had to stop Chee's counterpart and then capture the alien creature before..." Benton began, trying to defend his actions.

"I understand," interrupted Dana with a small smile. "I'm well aware of your dedication to your duty." Benton's dedication had saved them all more times than what was easily countable.

Dana continued, "The surgery we had to do was very delicate and dangerous, and afterward we had to place you in near-stasis to keep you alive. Your natural Kelvan mental healing instincts were interfering with our treatments. That's why you've been here for a month... because of the stasis." She hefted her tricorder and smiled a little. "But, according to these latest readings, you've made an almost complete recovery. Your Kelvan
constitution had more than a little to do with that."

Dana looked down at the deck, and Benton noticed her smile fade. He had also heard the word 'almost' in the doctor's diagnosis. When she didn't say anything more, Benton prompted, "But...?"

"But...," began Dana, "...there was a slight complication during your operation." She paused again, gathering strength for what she had to tell her patient. Benton waited patiently.

Finally, Dana was ready. She looked Benton in the eye and said, "To save your life, we had to clone several replacement organs for you. The new organs will function perfectly and normally for the rest of your life, but
as you know, there is a small genetic deviation that occurs when anything is cloned."

Benton knew what the good doctor would say next.

After but a moment's further hesitation, Dana laid it on him. "The deviation is enough to prevent you from ever changing back to your natural Kelvan form."
 

Title: "Coming to Terms"
Author: Major Johnny Chee
Stardate: 2460589
Earthdate: August 3, 2383
Location: USS Virgo

*That had to qualify as absolutely, positively, the worst shore leave I've ever had!* Johnny thought to himself as he thought about his release from sickbay nearly a month before. Fortunately, having been in good physical
condition and having received what care Valdago, Dana, and Sandra could give him aboard the alternate *Virgo* had helped speed his recovery.

Others, however, had not been so fortunate. Benton had laid comatose in sickbay until only yesterday; the wounds Johnny's alternate inflicted upon him had almost cost the security chief his life. Johnny had made it a point to stop by Sickbay everyday after his duty shift to check on Benton even though Dana had assured him it was not necessary; that she could notify him if there was any change to Benton's condition.

Johnny didn't know why he was doing this... Perhaps it was because a version of him had caused harm to one of his best friends. Perhaps it was because he hadn't been there for Jenara when she needed him, and was trying to ease his conscience by being there for someone else.

Or perhaps there was a part of him he needed to confront. As much as Johnny hated and feared to admit it, what he had learned about his alternate was not entirely far from what lay inside him...

"Doctor," Johnny asked Dana, "I've got a favor to ask of you."

"Certainly, what can I do for you?" she replied.

"My alternate from the Kullinari universe: do you know if they saved his neural engrams? I'd like to study them."

Dana went to her desk and checked her terminal. "Yes, they did. Why do you ask?"

Johnny thought for a moment. "Call it discovering one's inner child. I had a second minor in psychology back at the Academy, and I've always been interested in the concept."

"I don't like the sound of this..."

"Don't worry about it! If I run into any difficulties, I'll let you know as soon as possible!"

Still dubious about the whole enterprise, Dana sighed and sent the data to Johnny's office terminal.
_________________________________

A half hour later, Johnny stood at the entrance to Holodeck Two. "Computer, initiate program Chee 52."

<Working. Program ready.> The holodeck door hissed open. Inside the familiar yellow grid on black indicated the holodeck's neutral state. Exactly what Johnny wanted: no distractions.

In the middle of the room stood the image of a man, about Johnny's height and build: in fact, an exact duplicate of Johnny. His face, however, looked harder and was more heavily scarred, the result of many fights which may or may not have been in the line of duty. The uniform he wore looked more appropriate for John Phillip Sousa than a Starfleet Marine. His hair was longer, about shoulder-length, and tied in a knot behind his head. Only one difference existed between the simulacra before him and the monster who had terrorized the *Virgo* a month earlier: the influence of the Kullinari parasite had been subtracted from the alternate Johnny's neural engrams. Johnny wanted to see what this man was *really* like.

"So, you're the one who was running around here pretending to be me," Johnny said.

The alternate Johnny laughed. "One could say the same thing of you," he commented. "You've no idea what you've been missing out on, hiding from your true self!"

"If what I've heard about you is any example, then I'd just as soon miss out on my true self!"

The alternate Johnny laughed again, a deep, malevolent laugh. "Do you realize what you could have had? Power, influence, any woman and any thing you could possibly want! You've controlled what is truly you and ended up one of thousands of Starfleet officers: an accomplishment, but nothing truly great. Now me, I am a truly free man, accountable to no one!"

"Except for me," Johnny replied. "You almost killed Benton and would have killed others had he not stopped you. Why? He posed no threat to you!"

"Because I could! Is there any other motivation? And what do you know of my other plans? I could have gone directly to the Captain's quarters and assassinated him. I could have gone to your troops and taken your place..."

"They would never listen to you! You would have been found out!" Johnny replied. If nothing else, Maxon's telepathic abilities would have spotted the difference immediately. Though two bodies could be exactly identical,
two minds could never be perfectly matched.

"Then I would have had to deal with them, of course. A little anesthezine gas in the environmental system, or a hypospray, and soon the bodies are out the airlock. Mutiny isn't as hard to deal with once you've abandoned any pretext of ethics. Young man by the name of Zelansky found that out a few months ago."

*The fact that you had to deal with a mutiny led by an idiot like Zelansky gives me hope for the other universe,* Johnny thought.

The alternate continued, smirking. "And then there's Jenara... I'll bet you're still pursuing her, aren't you? I've had her for months now: one of my finest concubines, I'd say. She proved most tractable after a bit of... gentle persuasion. I wonder how the Jenara in this universe would respond to such persuasion. Perhaps I would have found out."

Johnny wanted to attack this pathetic excuse for everything he'd ever hoped to be. But that would have been giving in. "But you didn't find out. Benton left you bleeding to death in a Jeffries tube before you could even get as far as my quarters! You may be brutal and extreme, but you would never have lasted more than a day in this universe because you haven't the slightest idea how to control yourself. You've as much business being here as a Klingon at a *yeibichai* singing... less, if you ask me."

"Nobody talks to me that way, nobody!" the alternate yelled as he charged at Johnny. Johnny stepped out of the way as the hologram stumbled past.

"I generated you to learn more about me. I've learned something, all right: what I would have been had the balance shifted just a little bit. I was a bastard when I was younger, but I grew out of it. I grew *up*. Beyond all
the bluster, all the bravado, you're just a spoiled little brat whose temper tantrums have only increased in scale and effect!"

"You sound like my father; he didn't last long after talking that way to me, and neither will you!" the alternate yelled, taking a swing at Johnny. Johnny stepped back, and kept going.

"Maybe I do, but that's because I listened to *our* father. Hard to believe that we're both of the same stock, but then again we are what we make ourselves. I made my mistakes and moved on, learning from them. You've
embraced your mistakes and wallow in them. I was wrong: we are *nothing* alike. You share my face, my body, my DNA, but *you are not me*. You're nothing more than my ghost, and you belong once and for all in Ghostland. Computer, end progra..."

Johnny was cut off as the alternate tackled him. The two struggled, rolling about on the deck. Johnny took a hard blow to the jaw, shook it off, and responded with a kick to the belly of his alternate. The alternate collapsed, and Johnny kicked him in the ribs several times, finally picking up the hologram and delivering a hard right cross to its nose. Its nose broken and bleeding badly, the alternate finally dropped to the deck, grasping at its broken ribs.

"Go on, finish me. You know you want to!" the alternate goaded.

"Yes, I do. I would be lying if I said otherwise. I would love nothing more than to beat the living crap out of you and shove you out an airlock. But then I would *become* you. Nietzsche said it best: 'Stare into the Abyss,
and it will stare back into *you*.' I've had enough of the Abyss for one lifetime. Computer, end and delete program Chee 52; I've had enough of this... *thing*!"

The battered, bleeding hologram faded from existence.

Johnny felt as if he was seeing a piece of himself fade from existence. Perhaps he was. But it wasn't a piece he never really wanted after all.

He straightened his uniform and left the holodeck. He had *important* things to do.