Star Traks: Banshee "The Dark Fleet, Part III" By Brad Dusen "Should we be worried yet?" Jad asked as he paced the Bansee's bridge. "You pace too much." Axik spun around from her console. "You comment too much." Jad sneered. Velorn got up from his chair, normally Emily's. "There is no reason to panic just yet." He said calmly. "Easy for you to say." Jad turned to the massive new viewer. "I wonder how Star Wars would look on this." Axik groaned as she turned back to her controls. The sewers were dank and smelly, of course, they are sewers, after all. Granted, wading through a pool of solid waste may not seem like a good time, but this was war. A very, VERY, smelly war. 'Oh man, what did that person eat?' Dan thought to himself as he walked slowly through the greenish brown river of muck. It was almost peaceful, serene even, down there. Quiet, save for the sound of flowing water and the occasional pitter-patter of little rat feet on the brickwork. A loud roar, sounding like a lion on helium, pierced the quiet, bringing Dan to attention. 'What was that?' He thought to himself as he looked around. The sewer tunnel was poorly illuminated for all the space inside. He wondered why a sewage passage would have to be so big unless Vorans get REALLY constipated. Another roar sounded, closer. There was splashing in the water a ways away. Needless to say, Dan hit his hover-pack and flew out of there. "Smith to Banshee." Dan said. An image of Jad's face appeared on the inside of his battle armor's helmet. "I have a problem." "Don't tell me, you found Charlotte." Jad started to laugh. He abruptly stopped when no one else joined in. "What is it, Dan?" A roar, closer still, echoed throught the artificial caverns. "I see." Jad said, hearing it on the other end of the communication's channel. "And what do you expect me to do about it?" "Can't you beam someone else down here? Beam me out? Anything." Dan said as the roars seemed to drift closer and closer to him. "I'd love to, but the power it would take might give us away, and we have to figure out how to stop that launch of that warship before anything else happens." Jad smiled. "See if I vote for you in next year's Captain of the Year award." Dan sneered. "I doubt you would have, anyway." "Yeah, you're right. I was going to vote Sisko." "Look, Charlotte and Vince are down there elsewhere, until then just..." Dan fell into the water, screaming as something began biting into him. "AHHH, HELP ME!" "Commander, are you listening to me?" Jad asked. "Anyway, I want you to rendezvous with them near the secondary control room." "AHH, IT HURTS, IT HURTS!!" Dan bellowed. "From there, I hope you're listening now, go to the tunnel just outside the control booth for Sorinak's palace, understand?" "GET IT OFF, PLEASE, SOMEONE GET IT OFF!" Dan screamed. He grabbed his phaser and blasted into the water, boiling it into a foul smelling steam and producing a gurgling sound as it hit the creature. "Commander, are you having problems over there?" Jad asked calmly. "Nothing much, just a Tervack, like the creatures we encontered on Tolkien III." "Well now I'm going to have to start all over again." Jad shook his head. "I'm so proud of you." Emily said happily as she looked at Commander Rachow. "You're the only one who came back who was come to seek counseling." "I don't know why..." Ben shook his head. "Now, I know dying and coming back to life can be tough," Emily began. Ben flased her a somewhat blank look. "But Jesus did it, and he never complained." "He was the son of God, he had no reason to complain." Ben said. "Your lack of faith saddens me." Emily shook her head. "I'm devastated." "Especially given what just happened a few days ago. This crew is the only case of people returning from the dead since that whole Spock thing a hundred years back." "I'm sorry, but I never met God." Ben said. "Well I think that was a judgement call on His part." Emily said. Ben glared at her. "If you won't comfort me in a time of need, then I'm leaving." Ben got up. "And writing a very nasty letter to the Section Thirty-One board of Counseling." "Bastard, may you burn in Hell!" Emily called after him. "Report." Captain Vorezze said as he checked Dan's position at one of the two side stations, one that had been dedicated entirely to science. "I think I'm nearing the main sewage junction underneath Tirixa." Dan's voice said. "I'm totally submerged in sewage, so it's hard to tell." "Please tell me you've sealed the bite marks in your battle armor." "Yes, Captain." Dan said. "Captain, come over here." Liz said as she looked at her readings. "Yes?" Jad walked over to her. Liz pointed to a large dot on the sensor display which was in the main sewage junction. "Something's down there." "A tervack?" Jad asked. "If it is, it must be the parent." Liz looked up. "Vorezze to Smith, do not go any farther." Jad said. "Uhh, I'm submerged in raw sewage at the moment, I don't want to stay here." Dan said. "Commander, you know how you said you found a tervack down there?" "Yeah?" "Well you just found mommy." There was a loud roar over the speakers, rattling half the ship. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!" Jad covered his ears. "Speakers off." He turned to the rest of the bridge crew. "Now would be a good time for a plan." The others looked around blankly. "Let's just hope Dan can make it on his own, then." Jad walked into his ready room. Dan hit his hover pack to maximum, jetting out of the water as a massive mouth mounted on a long, giraffe-like stalk moved towards him, mouth wide open. "And I thought the alligators of New York City were bad!" Dan shouted as he ran into a side tunnel, being pursued by the malicious mouth. "Commander!?" A voice sounded up ahead. It was Vince. "RUN LIKE HELL!" Dan screamed as he ran past him. "Huh..." Vince's mouth dropped open as the mouth came after him, drool dripping from its fangs. One word escaped his lips "Shit..." He broke out into a mad run after Dan, who was headed towards a large, sealed door at the end of the tunnel. Weapons fire sounded from the other side of the door as Dan and Vince started pounding on it. Charlotte was inside with several Voran soldiers, screaming, "Let me out! Let me out!" "Let us in! Let us in!" Dan and Vince shouted in unison. The door opened as Dan and Vince jumped in, tackling Charlotte to the floor as the mouth came rushing in, slurping up the three Voran guards. Dan, Vince and Charlotte glued themselves to the floor as they heard screaming and bone snapping. Vince looked up and saw that the parent tervack's mouth had finished off the three guards and was looking hungrily at Vince. Dan pulled a small, black, lemon shaped object from his side pouch. A photon grenade. He pressed the detonate button as the ten second countdown started. "Here ya go!" Dan shouted as he tossed the grenade into the tervack's mouth. Momma tervack swallowed it quickly. "Three...two...one..." Dan counted. There was a loud crash and a wave of pus and assorted body chunks came rushing at them as the entire thing exploded. Charlotte looked around, finding herself, and all the others covered with nasty bio-sludge. "Thank you, Dan." She said weakly. "No problem." Dan nodded. At least all three still had their helmets on. "So where are we?" Vince looked around. "I think this must be the basement of the Great Temple." Dan said. "What makes you say that?" Charlotte asked. "It says 'Basement of Great Temple' on that sign." Dan pointed up to a sign. "Nothing gets by you, sir." Dan walked off. "Where are you going?" Vince asked. "To find the spacedock's autodestruct controls." Dan said. "Come on!" Vince and Charlotte trudged off after him. "Rayhan, what can you tell me about that ship?" Vorezze asked his temporary tactical officer as he stared out at the massiveness of the in-progress Voran warship. "It's big." Rayhan said. Jad wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or scream. "How the hell did you get on this ship, anyway? Shouldn't you be posted on the Secondprize or the Aerostar?" Rayhan shrugged. "I slept with Admiral Nechayev." Now Jad wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or vomit. He paused, then said, "Look, what technical specifications can you give me about that Voran warship. It is very imporant that I know what we're up against." He said slowly. "Oh." Rayhan said. He looked down at the tactical console. "It is the prototype for the Voran's Deomis-Class warship, therefore it is called the Deomis. It is larger than the Sivax and Triaxis put together, thus making it five times our size, and judging by these readings, equally so in firepower." The jaws of everyone on the bridge dropped. "How the..?" Axik stuttered. "And you people think I'm incompetent." Rayhan muttered as he returned to his work. "They have obliterated your pet tervack, warlord." Terakon said as they stood in the master control room in the Great Temple. "They killed Marsha?" Sorinak looked at the sensor display of the massive pond of juice that had formed where the tervack's head had been. Sorinak's eyes began to water. "Damn them! Damn them all to hell!" He cried out as he pounded against the wall. "I can have a hundred Voran soldiers annihilate them if you like, sir." Terakon said comfortingly. Sorinak looked at Nexal, his chief of staff. "What is the status of... IT?" He asked ominously. "Hungry." Nexal smiled. "And I can have those three led right to... IT!" "Good." Sorinak smiled. "They will suffer the wrath of... IT!" "Uh," Terakon walked over to the two, "May I ask what... IT is?" "You'll find out soon enough." Sorinak turned back to the viewer. "Is it just me or does Voran headquarters seem a little..." Vince began. "Empty?" Charlotte finished his sentence as the three walked through the corridors of the Great Temple. "The tricorder detects no life-forms on this floor or the one above it within the eighty meter scanning range." Dan said as he followed them up a flight of stairs. "And that seems a little too suspicious." "Duh, what security school did you graduate from?" Charlotte looked back as she continued walking up the stairs. "Commander." Dan said. "What?" Charlotte still looked back. "Wall." Charlotte turned, only to plow into a wall. "Oww... that wasn't funny you little mother f***er!" Vince suddenly shouted, "They never proved that, and besides, it was a long time ago!" Dan and Charlotte stared at him with confusion and repulsion, not much of a change. "Oh, uh, you were talking to him..." Vince let out a nervous chuckle. "Carry on." "Look," Charlotte glared at Dan, "This is war, and we don't have time for these little games. Not to mention that this is my time of the month and I'm bloated as HELL!" Dan and Vince slowly inched away from her. "Continue..." Dan said meekly. "I wonder if it ever ISN'T her time of the month." Vince muttered as they headed back up the stairs. After making their way down a somewhat cramped hallway, they came upon a massive room that was somewhere near the Great Temple's roof. It looked like an arena of some kind. "Now where do we go?" Vince asked, his voice echoing. He looked up to see that the ceiling was a massive dome, showing off the dreary storm clouds above them. The door slammed shut as two larger doors opened. Out of one door came a very large, very mean, very angry looking creature that looked like a cross between a Chihuahua and Janet Reno. Out of the other door came an equally large robot, sleek and black and it looked heavily armed. Both began making their ways towards Charlotte, Dan and Vince. The trio immediately screamed the first thing that came to their minds. "Oh SHIT!" "Captain, the Section Thirty-One starship Chimera reports that it and one hundred fifty-nine other vessels have broken through the fleet, have cloaked and will meet us here." Axik reported. "How badly damaged are the ships?" Jad asked. "The Chimera, being a Galaxy-Class, wasn't that badly damaged, but several of the other ships that made it through at this point, such as the Gorgon, Tempest, Falcon and Trueno, have sustained heavy damage." "Hmmm..." Jad began pacing again. "With all do respect, Captain, do you have any idea just how annoying your pacing can be?" Ben asked. "No more annoying than your voice, Commander." Jad sat back down. "Signal the Chimera. Tell them we may need the fleet to help out. We must destroy this warship before it can leave Voran." "Since when was that our mission?" Axik asked. "Since I said so!" Vorezze retorted. "I guess that makes sense." Axik shrugged. "How long until the warship becomes fully operational?" Jad asked. "One hour until they start their warp core." Axik reported. "Is there any way you can delay that?" "Well you could always send Sorinak a message saying that they can't launch the Deomis because you said so." Axik grinned demonically. "You just crack yourself up, don't you." Jad said. "Yup." Axik turned back to her station. "RUN!" Dan shouted, desperately searching for a place to hide from the two hundred foot monstrosities. He spotted a hiding place behind a series of bleachers. "What the hell is that thing?" Vince asked as he ducked behind the bleachers with the rest of them as the two slowly walked towards them. "I don't know, but I'm expecting it to say 'Yo quiero Taco Bell' anytime now." Dan gasped. "What about the robot?" "Probably some kind of Voran attack robot converted into a tournament fighter of some kind." Dan looked at the robot. "I don't think we stand a chance against either of them, much less both." "Thank you for those words of confidence." Charlotte said. "I'll try to remember them when that creature is ripping me to shreds." "Wait!" Dan said. "Maybe, if we can get behind each of them, they will attack each other instead of us!" "And how do you plan on doing that?" Vince asked. "We'll need to distract them long enough for one of us to get behind each one." Charlotte said. "We'll need bait." She looked at Vince. "Yes." Dan smiled, staring at Vince. "We'll need bait!" "NO!" Vince protested, backing off. "Oh come on!" Charlotte said. "If this works, no one will be injured... severely." Vince backed off some more. "No, not on your life!" He backed up even more. "Commander, turn to your left." Dan said. Vince glanced over as he saw that he as clear of the bleachers and the two were walking over to him. "AAAAAAHHHHH!" Vince screamed running across the arena. "Like vaporizing bloodworms in a barrel." Dan said. "Huh?" Charlotte paused. "Never mind." Dan shook his head as they ran out behind the two massive adversaries. "I'm weak, take them!" Vince bellowed. "HEY!" Dan shouted, standing behind the robot. "Down here!" He shot at the beast with his phaser. "Raaaaaaaar!" The Chihuahua-Reno bellowed, charging towards the robot. "Hey metalhead!" Charlotte shouted from underneath the beast. The robot readied weapons, firing at the Chihuahua-Reno. The beast slashed into the robot, causing sparks to rain down as Dan, Charlotte and Vince ran back behind the bleachers. The robot exploded, turning it, into into a blaze of fire that consumed it and the Chihuahua-Reno. "They have destroyed... IT." Nexal said. "What?" Sorinak shouted as he stared at the holoprojection. "...IT has been destroyed." Nexal said. "Both... ITs." "That's it!" Sorinak roared. "No more mister nice warlord! "What are you going to do to them?" Nexal asked. "Toast!" "You're going to toast them?" "No, I was ordering my breakfast." Sorinak picked up a plate from a nearby replicator. "Perhaps we should try a different approach." "Like what?" Nexal asked. "You'll find out!" "Why can't you tell me now?" "BECAUSE I SAID SO!" Sorinak bellowed. "Oh." Nexal said meekly. "Three hundred fourty-seven starships are cloaked and in orbit." Rayhan said. "Tell the fleet to prepare for possible combat." Vorezze said. "They've already prepared." Rayhan said. "Good, then I'll be in my ready room." Jad got up and left. After sitting in his ready room for a few moments, analizing attack plans in case this didn't work, the door chime sounded. "Enter." Jad said. Axik walked in. "Oh what do you want?" He asked. "Captain, do you honestly think that this plan, either way, has any chance of working?" She asked. "I would hope so." The captain quipped. "And if it doesn't, at least we know what's waiting for us." "How supportive." Axik groaned. "Are you thinking about death again?" Jad asked. "Could you take an eternity back there, Jaddy?" Axik smiled. "We'll be fine." Vorezze retorted. "We were given a second chance for a reason." "Yeah, we're the afterlife's rejects." Axik said. "They take some of the most evil people: Hitler, Manson, the Spice Girls..." She shook her head. "And they refuse to take us." "The galaxy works in mysterious ways." Jad shrugged. "Maybe that experience was supposed to bring us together." He walked over and sat next to Axik on the couch. "Do you think so?" She asked. "Yeah. Havn't you ever wondered if there might be someone out there for you?" "I've never really though about it. After all, I've spent most of the last year trying to keep Ben from groping me from the helm console. At least we're farther apart now." Jad couldn't help but to laugh. "Maybe the person out there is closer than you think." "Not as close as Ben, though." Axik smiled. "But yeah, I think that there is the right guy close to me." She moved in a little closer to Jad. "Really?" Jad said. "Maybe even right next to me." Their heads moved closer, their lips almost touching. "Captain, we're getting a message from Commander Burns." Ben said over the comm. The two split apart. "On my way." Jad walked out onto the bridge. "Captain." Charlotte said. "What is it, Commander?" Jad asked. "We've reached the auto-destruct core for the Voran orbital facilities, including the spacedocks." On the viewer was a massive, hollow shaft. There was a single pillar running up the center of the shaft. There was a small bridge leading to the pillar, which contained a small room with a switch. The auto-destruct button. "Well hit the button, we only have five minutes before the warship is launched." "Okay, I'm going." Charlotte said as she crossed the bridge. "Now!" Sorinak said from the control room. The bridge beneath Charlotte began to fall. Charlotte jumped forward, grabbing onto the edge of the control room. If she let go, even for a second, to activate her hover-pack, she would fall. "Someone hit my hover-pack!" Charlotte shouted. Dan and Vince looked at each other. "Enie meenie minie mo, catch a tiger by its toe, if it hollars let it go, enie meenie minie mo." Vince. "I'm coming!" Vince groaned. He hit his own hover-pack and floated out to Charlotte. "Hang on!" Vince activated Charlotte's pack. The two made it to the chamber. Charlotte screamed out "SCREW YOU, SORINAK!!" She hit the button as a one minute countdown began. "They made it!" Nexal shouted. "What?" Sorinak called in disbelief. "The spacedocks are on an autodestruct. Detonation in 55 seconds." "Launch the Deomis!" Sorinak said. "We're going up there!" "Vorezze to transporter room 4, lock onto Commander Burns, Commadner DiSanto and Commander Smith and energize." After a few seconds, Cellis responded with "They're on board and headed for the bridge." "Helm, set a course away from Voran, warp nine." Jad said to Ben. "Captain, the Deomis is powering up. It will clear the space- dock before it explodes." Charlotte, Dan and Vince walked onto the bridge. Though they had removed their battle armor and were in their normal uniforms now, they still had sewer odor permeating from them. Jad coughed as Charlotte walked by him. "Dear god, were you rolling around in your own crap down there?" "No." Charlotte said as she sat down. "Someone else's." Jad shuddered. "Okay, go to plan beta. Order all units to open fire while remaining cloaked." The Banshee shuddered. "What happened?" "Go!" Vince shooed Rayhan from his station. "The entire fleet has been hit by a low powered shockwave let out by one of their defense satellites. It has given away our location to the Voran defense fleet." "So much for the quiet approach." Vorezze sat back down. "All units, decloak, raise shields and open fire!" Sorinak stood on the bridge of the Deomis. "We've cleared the spacedock." Terakon said. "Target the Banshee." Sorinak said. "I want them to be obliterated." The Deomis, in all its massiveness, swung around and opened fire as the Banshee zipped past them. Elsewhere, a fleet of bioships and warships were fighting with Federation and Klingon starships of all shapes an sizes. "Load Cataclysm Torpedoes and target the Deomis. That ship doesn't leave this battle!" Vorezze shouted. "Shields at 5%!" Vince shouted. "One more hit and they'll be-" The Banshee pitched forward as a blast from the Deomis exploded against its warp engines. "Gone." Three Vorans appeared on the bridge. "Intruder alert!" Dan screamed. "Nothing gets past you." Jad said. "Your galaxy shall be purged!" The Voran shouted as he ran over to Ben. "NO!" Vince screamed, tackling the wiry alien before he got a chance to shoot Ben. "Vince, you... you saved me." Ben stuttered. Vince shrugged. "Stranger things have happened." Dan took out a phaser tuned to the Omicron frequecies and shot a turquoise beam into one of the soldiers. Another Voran soldier, this one a shapely female, took a dive towards helm, landing in Ben's lap. "Hey," Ben smiled at the almost attractive looking Voran. "Dreams to come true." The female Voran struggled with her phaser and shot herself. "Awww..." Ben dropped the Voran corpse. With the three intruders gone, Vorezze turned and said "Get the shields back up." "Shields partially restored to 45%." Vince said as he returned to his post. "Have the fleet target the Deomis' engines. We have to destroy that ship, then we can get out of here." Jad shouted as the Banshee shook. "All remaining units are ready." Axik shouted. "FIRE!" Ship after ship, Klingon to Federation, Galaxy to Miranda-Class, nearly three hundred ships released their wrath upon the Deomis. Sorinak looked around the massive bridge of the Deomis as the ship fell apart. "Beam us down to Voran, NOW!" he bellowed. He, Terakon and Nexal vanished in a transporter flash, just as the gigantic ship, the largest in the galaxy, even larger than a Borg ship, vanished in a violent blast of fire and sparks. "Whoo hoo!" A cheer came up from the Banshee's bridge. "Have the fleet set a course for home, maximum warp!" Jad said over the cheering. "The Vorans aren't chasing us." Vince said happily. The battered armada warped their way back to the Section Thirty-One spacedocks. "Captain's log, stardate 51688.3: The Banshee has returned from the Section Thirty-One spacedocks for extensive repairs. There has been no more activity along the Voran border and we can only assume that the war is over... for now. Whether or not the Vorans will try this again remains to be seen, but I do know that, for now, they are most likely concentrating on rebuilding their spacedocks." The lounge was packed for a victory celebration that night. Captain Vorezze held up his glass of champagne. "A toast." He said to the command crew. "To nearly getting out asses kicked and winning with a lucky shots." "A toast." The others said in unison. The others milled around for a few minutes, when Ben walked up to Vince. "Look, Vince, I uhh, just wanted to thank you for saving me from the Vorans yesterday." He said. "If there's anything I can do, just name it." He paused. "Within the confines of my hetero- sexuality." He added. Vince sighed. "I don't care if you think I'm gay, even though I'm not. All I ask is that you treat me as an equal. No more gay jokes or comments. That's all I ask." Ben paused. "I guess." Captain Vorezze walked up to Axik. "Hello, Commander." He smiled. "Hello." Axik smiled back. "Want something to drink?" "Iced tea." He said. A waiter quickly brought his drink over. "So now, what would you have done if we hadn't been interrupted?" She asked. "Well why don't we go to the night beach simulation on the holo- deck and I can show you?" Jad asked. Axik smiled as the two walked out. "Sure." Ben groaned. "He gets Axik and I'm still single." He groaned. "You'll get used to it." Peter smiled. "Shut up!" Ben snapped.