Captain Elric - Earth Spacedock
Elric made his way into the open area of Deck 47 in search of Zeta. He'd only met the android spider, but the arachnid proved to be quite helpful. Zeta had previously revealed he was created by a human cyberneticist, something Elric found quite impressive.
*Click!?*
Next to a console, Elric found Zeta conversing with a civilian human woman, as best as a non-verbal unit could. "Sorry to interrupt," Elric said. "But we were going to go over those scans aboard the Amaterasu."
"Your spider friend here sure has a healthy sense of humour," the woman said. "The name's Claire, by the way. Zeta just chirped me a Klingon opera."
Elric smirked as Zeta leapt onto his shoulder. "He sure is full of surprises. Visiting the station?"
"My father always said this place was worth the transporter credit. There is nothing like the up-close views of all these ships. We sit in the mud, and reach for the stars."
The Captain tilted his head for a moment. "Russian literature? However much you knock at nature's door, she'll never answer you in comprehensible words."
"That's quite a memory, my friend," Claire smiled. "Well, I'd better go check out the food court. I hear that borscht is on the menu. Nice to meet you."
*Chirp! Nice to meet you* Zeta repeated as he and Elric departed.
It was then Elric felt the weight and volume of his grey, Starfleet issue satchel empty. Opening it, he discovered the medallion was missing. "Wait a second." But when he turned to go back to where he came, he found that Claire was gone.
*Cccclick!*
Elric nodded as he peered into the crowd of miscellaneous people. "That's an understatement. We just got pickpocketed."
---
Operations
Captain Nat walked over to the window, motioning to a small blue dot near the Firestorm-F. "Jim, raise the shields, NOW!"
A moment later, and the Firestorm-F's shields lit up with energy, as the blue dot expanded into a temporal portal. A Mobius Temporal Destroyer, the Chronostorm, emerged, escorted by a squadron of four Paradox Temporal Dreadnoughts. They all locked tractor beams on the Firestorm-F, almost immediately.
Admiral Nat ran out and looked out the window in shock. The descendant soon followed and spoke up. "I knew it!"
The ship turned towards ESD, its deflector glowing brightly. The changeling fell to the floor, in agony, then stopped looking in pain and got up slowly. Mirror Nat appeared nearby in a flash of light.
Admiral Nat couldn't help but notice that Scott had started to walk back in, surprised by Mirror Nat's arrival. The admiral threw his hand up in the air, eyeing to Scott, who ran back out. The admiral moved his focus to his mirror counterpart. "You're early."
---
Deck 47
Commander Scott ran out and soon found Elric frantically. "Mirror Nat's stolen the Q powers. Get that medallion to your ship and fuse it with the artifact again, now!"
---
Operations
Mirror Nat raised a hand, and a sizeable fireball manifested itself. Everyone could already feel the heat emanating from it. "One move and it becomes a full size sun, right here in your precious Earth Spacedock." Admiral Nat stepped back, surprised. Mirror Nat focused his eyes on him. "Oh, yes... I'll destroy this whole station, and your Earth, even."
The changeling, unnoticed, pulled out some kind of Iconian device and started working on it. It may have been some kind of transmitter. He pressed one last button on the device and then stood up and started walking towards Mirror Nat. "You know, if you're going to start delivering threats like that, you should consider making sure that nobody is going to show up and take your power from you, hmm?"
Mirror Nat deadpanned the changeling. "Like who? Your precious medallion has been lost, hasn't it? You might just have a problem on your hands."
An Iconian gateway materialized, and vanished just as quickly. Sarah stepped back, horrified. It was The Infamous, in his typical leather attire. The changeling turned to him, unfazed. "I know you've been trouble up until now, but could you at least be reasonable and take this guy out before he blows up your precious homeworld?"
Admiral Nat stepped back as well, bringing a hand to his mouth, shocked. "You..."
The Infamous, as it were, looked tired. Empty. Almost as though his soul, what one might even call that, was entirely gone. Something definitely wasn't right about him. But, in any case, he started walking towards Mirror Nat, pulling out a revolver. Mirror Nat glared down at him, backing away, noticing the medallion that the Infamous was wearing. Another anti-Q medallion, safe to say. Mirror Nat put up some kind of shield, separating himself from everyone else. He hovered there, glaring angrily, and spoke up. "Leave."
The Paradox dreadnoughts outside soon retreated back into mirror space, evidently going away to fight off another threat. The changeling turned to the descendant. "They've got a full scale war with the Terrans to deal with now. I wouldn't expect them to come back anytime soon."
---
Food Court
Elric weaved and squeezed through crowds of officers and station visitors, looking for his thief. By the time he reached the Food Court on another deck, he had exhausted his energy. Elric approached the replicator and thought for a moment.
"Borscht," he ordered, seconds before he was interrupted.
To his left, leaning back in a chair with her feet up on the table, Claire was casually examining the medallion by way of gloating. "Russian literature, huh, Captain? You know, this is a fascinating find. I believe the pictograph on the back of this resembles one found at Leora IV."
"What do you think you're doing??" Elric turned to her in shock. "That object is absolutely dangerous and needed to stop a mad man from destroying Earth Spacedock!"
Zeta suddenly spoke up. *Click! Chirp! Click!*
"He's already been stopped? Well, that was fast," realized Elric.
Claire got up and stretched ever so confidently. "Either way, it's mine now. You ever hear the adage, You snooze, you lose? I had it inscribed on my energy card."
"How's this for adage?" Elric went for her and attempted to grab the El-Aurian medallion but she moved it out of the way.
Claire smirked and took on the challenge, launching a fist for the Captain. Elric leaned back, slightly, beyond its reach and then countered with his own punch. Claire dodged, returned another attack, and Elric dodged. They both sped up their attacks, multi-jabbing, dodging and ducking, with neither landing a touch until Claire kicked Elric in the chest and sent him onto a table.
"Ugh! You never answered me!" Elric gasped, attempting to catch his breath. Zeta then leapt off him and flew for Claire, shooting three cables at her.
The woman weaved around the three lengths as she ran out, which, instead connected to the floor. Elric got up and ran for her, pushing past a few unsuspecting people and entered the Promenade. There, he accessed a nearby console and emergency site-to-site transported himself a few meters in front of Claire's escape path. She stopped in her tracks, impressed.
"No transporter credits required," she observed. Claire tossed him the medallion.
Elric caught it, and eyed her. "You're no tourist. You're a treasure hunter."
"I was just admiring your little gem, whatever it is. Can't a girl appreciate the finer aspects of ancient archaeology? That, and I'm poor as hell."
The Captain scoffed. "Well it's not like you'd find a buyer in Federation space, and now I'm supposed to arrest you for theft."
"Oh, you sure do like to play," she smiled, amused, as she was suddenly flanked by two Starfleet security officers. "But, don't you have to run off before another bad guy makes an appearance? They literally flock to you guys in droves."
Elric nodded to the officers, prompting them to grab her arms. "I can't argue with that. Anyway, I'll meet you in the Security office after I'm done. You should get a nice view of the cell from there."
---
Operations, Command Ring
Captain Elric returned to meet Jade and the Nats. Mirror Nat had been scared off, and the Q-powers were back on the Firestorm. Elric held up the medallion, a little too late. "Sorry guys. I could have eradicated the Q-power using this and the El-Aurian box currently being scanned on my ship. How'd things go?"
"Scared Mirror Nat, probably stopped his invasion entirely, and stole his flagship," Krystal replied in a matter of fact tone.
"Shoot. I missed all the fun again. Anything I can help with here? Other than I still plan to mend the weakened space near Earth Spacedock."
"Got any ideas on how to dispose of the captured Q powers so that no one can get them again?" Krystal asked.
"Black hole? I mean, that's the most obv-- Oh, wait, the El-Aurian artifacts, of course. We could initiate them at the source. Though, if you don't mind my asking, where did the technology come from that is able to contain Q-powers?"
"Apparently the Firestorm has some kind of device with that capability. And I had already suggested a Black Hole. Got shot down."
Captain Nat replied to Krystal. "Black holes dissipate over time. If they have temporal technology, they could somehow speed up that process, or time travel to when the black hole has dissipated entirely, and claim the then free to claim Q powers."
Sarah motioned to the Infamous, who was still standing there, quiet. "Er... are we gonna do something about this guy?"
The changeling shrugged, but then turned to Krystal. "You were saying you had no way to contact the Infamous armada. There you go."
Sarah facepalmed and then deadpanned the changeling. "How'd you manage that, anyway? I didn't think it'd be possible to control him that easily."
The changeling chuckled. "It wasn't. You know how many nanites, futuristic technology, nano-weapons, assorted threats, neural surgeries and all kinds of other stuff it took to even get him to actually listen? Believe me, I still hardly have any control over him..."
Krystal approached the person who was supposed to be The Infamous and crossed her arms across her chest.
"He seems a little... sedated," she said.
Zeta climbed up onto Elric's shoulder as the Captain joined them. The android spider started poking the man repeatedly with one of his eight legs. "What? Zeta, stop that."
*Click!?* the spider blurted.
"Zeta says he appears to be an empty clone," Elric said. "Anyway, now that I've got the El-Aurian medallion, I'm going to join it with the box on my ship at the centre of weakened space. If what undecipherable data I've got from scans of these alien materials, Leora IV and past behavioural observation is true, it should restruct normal space, and, if the Firestorm-F is in range, the shockwave will annihilate your stored Q-powers."
Elric went over to a holo-console and activated the transporter system.
---
I.S.S. Amaterasu, Bridge
The Captain and crystal spinner-looking android spider beamed onto the vacant command center of the mirror Prometheus-class vessel. He approached the helm, where Zeta leapt off his shoulder and began crawling around.
"Zeta, take us into position," Elric ordered as he headed for the turbolift. "I'll join the artifacts."
The spider perked in acknowledgement. *Ccchrrrip! Take us into position. Click!*
"I know that's not your job," Elric argued. "If Command would give me a crew, I'd order them around. But they blame me for their deaths, so they're not onboard for that. Anyway, just do it."
---
I.S.S. Amaterasu, Engineering
Elric approached the jury-rigged control deck at the centre of the room where the El-Aurian box was being analyzed by an over-reaching device. He scrolled through the data as the Amaterasu relocated to an area of starship debris.
"Here goes nothing," Elric said to himself as he placed the medallion in the box's slot. When nothing happened, he took out the object and moved the scanner over the find. A few moments later he realized the alien make-up was nothing like the box. "It really is nothing. It's a faaake!"
---
Earth Spacedock, Operations
Admiral Nat walked over to a window, and saw that nothing happened. He waited a moment. Still nothing. He used a comm panel and hailed Elric aboard the Amaterasu. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
---
I.S.S. Amaterasu, Bridge
Elric returned to the Bridge and answered the hail. "Sorry, Admiral. It looks like the medallion I had was a replica. I know exactly who to investigate."
Admiral Nat replied. "Good. If you need any help doing so, let me know. I'll give you whatever resources you need to track it down."
"Understood, sir. Thanks. Oh, just a side question, but, now that Mirror Nat has been driven back, are we going to prosecute the changeling for threatening Earth?"
The admiral turned to the changeling. "Eventually."
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