It had been quiet and dark for a long time. By Soran's estimate, which was pretty close, it had been 6 hours, 42 minutes, 35 seconds since he had been deposited where he lay. He had no idea how long he had before the Retarnee decided how to dispose of his body.
Would they dissect him for scientific study? Or simply toss him in a garbage dump?
He began to bring himself out of his deep meditative state, his heart started beating faster, he started breathing again. And he realized his body temperature was rising. It was the human. His mind was struggling with the presence if the alien personality. While there was a well documented case of a human carrying a Vulcan Katra, There was no known precedent for what he was attempting to do.
Opening his eyes he found himself lying on a hard floor in a darkened room. There were several other bodies around him, and he was startled to see a Vulcan shipmate among them. Quickly he crawled over and touched the man's cheek. But there was no life there to be found.
Standing up, uneasy at first, he groped to the door and found the light control, bringing up the level to just where he could see. Apparently he was in a collection room, sure he was not intended to be disturbed anytime soon. Some of the bodies were badly decomposed. Finding the door control he opened it, peering down a long corridor. There were no guards, not a sound. Seeing he had little options he headed down the corridor and came upon a viewing portal overlooking a large shuttle bay. Off the flight deck he could see he was on some planet surface, not on a ship.
Retarnee were everywhere on the flight deck. Tending ships, carrying cargo. The answer to the obvious question of how to commandeer a ship eluded him. He crouched at the edge of the window for several minutes and realized there was one small craft off near the far wall. It looked to carry no more than 4 individuals. And the hatch was open as one lone Retarnee carried a crate of some type to the ship from a loading platform.
It took several minutes to find his way around the shuttle bay, avoiding passers by. Looking around the area just in the bay he found a place to hide among the crates, not a dozen yards from his objective. What he needed ....was a diversion. But what?
He saw a creature servicing an impulse coolant manifold on a ship towards the center of the flight deck. If he could.....
With all of his concentration he reached out with his mind to the creature. The Retarnee was so absorbed in his work he took no notice of the intrusion in his mind. It took longer than Soran thought it would but slowly he began to see the engine compartment thru the creatures eyes. With all his will power Soran took control of the creatures hands and re-routed the coolant line into plazma injector feed. Just as the creature was about to open the line it was as if he realized what he was about to ...but it was too late.
The valve snapped open and the explosion was instantaneous..
All eyes were on the center of the flight deck as the craft lifted off the floor, pieces of engine flying in all directions. Soran himself had to duck and weave the flying debris as he sprinted for the his ship.
Leaping thru the hatch he landed just behind the cockpit. A Retarnee was just standing from the pilots seat, shocked at the sight of the Vulcan. So shocked he was unable to respond to the blow Soran delivered to his head, crashing him down to the floor. With one smooth motion he tossed the creature out the opening and shut the hatch.
A secondary explosion rocked the bay and more creatures rushed to the burning ship, trying to extinguish the blaze before other craft were damaged.
"That was smooth.' Soran heard in the back of his mind.
"Marcus?" he thought to himself.
"Where are we?" he heard.
"Trying to get out of here. You're not helping. Please, don't think."
Soran looked over the controls, they were so alien it was taking time to figure them out. And time was running out.
"Engine start sequence, that button to your right." he heard Marcus say.
"You sure?"
"You sure it isn't, punch the damn thing!"
Soran did as instructed and the impulse engines came to life. One of the Retarnee turned and looked at the ship, pausing in his effort put out the blaze.
"Anti grav on your left, thrust control to the center, Lets get out and figure the rest later!" Soran heard Marcus behind him.
At once the ship lifted off the flight deck and Soran nudged it towards the bay doors. Now all the Retarnee were looking at him, some rushing to the bulkheads, grabbing hand weapons. Soran was nearly at the bay doors when the first blasts of disrupter fire shot past him.
Without help from Marcus, Soran hit maximum acceleration and the tiny craft streaked out the door and up into the atmosphere. Phaser cannon blasts surrounded him as the atmosphere slowly thinned and he was back into space. Racing his eyes over the control panel he found the warp controls.
Staring warp core sequence he found he had a ten second delay. Ten seconds. If he had ten seconds.
Alarms started sounding as one of the phaser blasts found its mark. The ship rocked, the computers struggled to keep the nose on heading. Sorans head felt like it was on fire, the pain so sharp he thought he was injured. But it was Marcus. His body was fighting against him. He watched as the last seconds ticked off ...three, two...... one... and the ship was hit again. It spun on its axis, its roll and yaw out of control... and yet......in a snap the ship disappeared into a warp field, leaving the Retarnee planet behind.
Soran fell into unconsciousness.
The ship speeding away without direction.
A Post by Marcus Dinn
