Boldly Go!

Posted on Tue Nov 18th, 2025 @ 3:42am by Ensign Talyn Daughter of Moya & Petty Officer 1st Class Akaathaan Saarnosh & Commander Zhora zh'Roothi & Lieutenant Commander Kuzos & Lieutenant Urvasi Elandorn & Lieutenant Rio Kholin MD & Lieutenant Amber Laurell

7,484 words; about a 37 minute read

Mission: Madre
Location: Tchema
Timeline: 2439-07-03, 12:15

Bedran watched as his soldiers continued their attempts on the alien intruder's ship, their weapons and spears striking against the invisible field and not even making a dent. When the intruder's craft arrived, he had been happy, excited that the call for help that his ancestors had placed generations ago had finally be answered. When he first spoke with the aliens and they said that Tchema had wanted the Vorta to leave, having a Vorta be the one to share the demand, it had ignited a fire inside his stomach. To think that anyone would claim to commune with Tchema aside from the High Priestess, and demanding that they leave their home no less, was sacrilege.

Ordering his second to continue the fight, Bedran had chosen to go to the Priestess to ensure her safety. The temple wasn't far from here and he knew that his wife would be there in consultation. Maybe, just maybe, she would be able to ask Tchema for help. After all it seemed Tchema wanted these intruders gone anyway. The ground had never before shook like that and now Tchema was heading for a star. They needed to stop her, to convince her that they were working to save her from the intruders.

Running as fast as he could though a thought kept nagging at the back of his mind: what if the aliens were right? What if Tchema really did want them to go? It was preposterous. Tchema had only ever spoken with the High Priestess and her family in the recorded history. Tchema had not asked for them to leave, his wife would've told him. Even though their technology was limited, they would have found a way to meet her wishes. No, it wasn't true. Tchema hadn't wanted them to leave. The intruders did. The intruders wanted Tchema. That had to be it.

Running toward the temple, Bedran would get his answers soon enough.

On board the Shuttle, the listening had been going well until Tchema began feeling pain from somewhere and letting those about know.

Urvasi rushed over to her controls and made sure the navigation shields were holding as she began following the landing party back to the shuttle. She would stop the shields at the usual 20 meters from the Hull as the returning party moved within that distance. Before anything else, she would await a sitrep from Zhora.

Amber sighed, “We have to convince the Vorta to leave or the Tchema will do it itself, question is what would happen to the Vorta?”

"They will either have to find a new planet for a colony or the Founders will see that they are returned to our home world." Kuzos replied. "However, that would on the Vorta here if they wanted to return."

Monitoring the Navigational shields, Urvasi commented, "XO, the Navigational Shields are so far easily holding. The forces of the weapons are way less than space debris clearance." Her status given, she turned to listen in to the status and what the next plans of the XO and Commander Kuzos would be.

"Thank you Lieutenant," zh'Roothi acknowledged but hadn't expected anything less. "Any update from the Enterprise, or why the situation has changed regarding Tchema's behaviour?"

Urvasi shook her head, "Nothing yet at this time, Sir."

Ensign Talyn, instead of worrying about the creature or the Vorta, followed the orders she received from the XO, "All members of the away team are visually accounted for, Sir." The Klingon woman walked over to the wall mounted workstation and logged into the Tactical controls. Glancing at the window she noticed that the leader of the Vorta had run off.

She whispered, "Coward."

"Very good Ensign," the Commander responded glad Kuzos had the sense not to disobey or re-engage with the locals. The sight of Bedran quickly retreating behind the lines of attacking Vorta caught her eye.

She moved closer to Talyn: "Track him if you can," she instructed. "We may need to pay the central neural cluster a visit."

"I've locked his coordinates, Commander," the Ensign answered. "I'm deploying one of those Sensor Drones that we have to follow him. Commander Sevek, could you assist with the programming?" They were a device more commonly used by the Science Division, she didn't want to muck it up.

“We have to convince the Vorta to leave!” Amber stood looking at Kuzos. “I know this is their home, or at least as they see it, but this creature is in pain. They’re hurting it and they don’t even realise it.”

"You do not have to convince me counselor, I believe you." Kuzos replied. "The Vorta here are the ones who need convincing. I fear if they remain here, a dire fate will befall them." Kuzos replied ominously.

Rio approached Kuzos and Amber who had returned to the shuttle and were discussing the situation. "If the Founders would return the Vorta to the home planet, or the alternative, or end result, whichever, is for them to find another planet to inhabit, then I do understand that the trauma of a move and the difficulties of a reinhabitation of somewhere new would be arduous and upsetting for them, surely that's a lot less of a bad outcome than either allowing them to continue to harm Tchema or leave her no choice but to expel them into space or worse? Couldn't we find some way of getting the Founders to initiate returning or relocating them? They won't like it, but wouldn't it save the day?" She asked.

The Klingon Ensign turned, "I'm thinking these Vorta may've killed their Gods, Doctor. My people did and we've never looked back. These are the children, of the children, of the children of the followers of the Founders. With how they treated Kuzos I don't know if they'd care if the Founders came or even know who they were."

"I agree," zh'Roothi turned her gaze away from the mob. "We cannot rely on any connection to the Founders to aid us here. These people have been isolated for generations - convincing them to leave will take more than a few polite words, even if they come from a friendly face."

"I am afraid that Commander zh'Roothi is right. I do not believe if a Founder showed up right now it would have any bearing on how they feel. This is their home; it is all they know. Their minds are closed off to listening or accepting anything else I am afraid." Kuzos replied with a dejected tone. Feeling he had failed his people.

The computer console beeped rapidly before her. Talyn started typing, "Commander Sevek, we're having trouble keeping in contact with the Drone. Can you locate it?"

Urvasi called out, "XO, the Enterprise is trying to contact us. I am putting it on forward view Screen Overlay."

The image of the bridge and of Targaryen was grainy and flickered slightly as zh'Roothi moved closer. "Can you clear this up a little more, Urvasi?" she asked before addressing the Commodore.

Urvasi turned to her console as she replied, "Working on it..."

"See if you can help them with that, Lieutenant," Wilkan directed to Blake, opting instead not to wait and get right to it, "Commander, we don't know how much time we have so let's get to it. What's your status?"

The Andorain shifted her weight uncomfortably: "Talks with the local Vorta have broken down. They refuse to leave and will no longer listen to reason, additionally instructed us to leave. At present they'll attempting to assault the shuttle craft with primitive weaponry." She stole a glance to the nearest port confirming the barrage hadn't let up. "The forest has become unstable as Tchema appears to be heading toward the nearby star in apparent distress deduced by Counsellor Laurell."

As Urvasi worked on clearing up the interference, she noticed it was rhythmic, almost like the background noise on Comms channel 7, which was supposed to be the channel for speaking with the creature, Tchema. Wait... what if... Urvasi called out, "Captain, XO, what if the interference isn't interference, but Tchema trying to communicate? The video interference is following the same pattern as the audio background noise on Comms channel 7. So, what if it's speaking is higher or lower than our audio range?" Then she realized something else as she added, "Others may not have heard it, my hearing is from 5 Hz to 38 KHz... so, try a seven second delay to slow the pattern down on comms 7 and see if we can make heads or tails of it?"

"If the seven second delay does anything to help - or any other adjustment to the wavelength or frequency of Tchema's attempt to communicate, then that would be the best result and unblock the impasse. Other than that, I have no suggestions as to how we could reach her, other than if we knew how to ease her pain. I doubt if we have either the data to construct a medication to help just long enough to get through to her and let her tell the Vorta what she needs them to stop doing, and even if we did. I also doubt we would have sufficient of whichever minerals, chemicals or elements we would need to give her anyway." Rio offered, shrugging with dismay at how unhelpful this all seemed to sound.

Sitting at the front of the runabout, Urvasi said, "Working on it now..." to let others know she was doing what she could.

Silently, Wilkan listened to the back and forth between the Away Team and the Beta Shift crewmembers on the Bridge, intrigued by how well they were working together to try to resolve the situation that they were all facing. Speaking to this Tchema was looking more and more like the play they needed to move after. The Enterprise's Commander was about to issue the order when Commander zh'Roothi continued.

"We're currently tracking Bedran, the leader of the Vorta whose wife, a high priestess is able to communicate directly with Tchema via a central neural cluster." zh'Roothi continued. "He fled when the area began to destabilize, and we assume he'll be heading to her to discuss our story. I had intended to gain a clear understanding of the situation from the neural cluster," the XO paused her gaze shifting around the bridge despite the flickering images. "I'm open to other options."

Sora nodded at the XO's report. "Based on what we were able to determine through scans from our end, something attacked the creature's - you call it Tchema? - neural centre from within. We don't know what, why, or with what, but that seems to have led to the creature's reaction. It wants to use the star's heat to burn out anything living inside, is what we're assuming. Anyone who doesn't evacuate ASAP will be burned to a crisp."

"We may know what," the Commodore answered as he looked at Lieutenant Sulu. "Sensors detected a rapid nadion effect a few minutes ago, those are consistent with Phaser discharges. I'm not sure why they'd be attacking the runabout with stone knives and bearskins if they had access to Phasers, but it does fit the potential facts." He turned back toward the viewscreen and walked toward it, "We're going to have to try to stop whatever is going on at that neural cluster. Exec," he referred to zh'Roothi, "get to the neural cluster and disable the threat to Tchema by whatever means necessary." The Commodore wondered how Commander Kuzos would take the order that he'd given, after all Wilkan had potentially issued the death warrant for whoever was behind this.

On the viewscreen the Andorian woman glanced towards Kuzos expecting the Vorta to speak after the discovery of advanced technology being used despite the low key appearances. She returned her gaze forward and nodded glumly: "Understood."

Kuzos had indeed heard the commodore's order and he stood silent and rigid. His face for once an inscrutable mask. There was no sign of any emotion on it. His thoughts were his and his alone.

Urvasi listened to the slowed down 7 second delay signal with a scrunched muzzle. It sounded like repeating noise with a specific change in patterning following the previous.... wait... phase shifts with pattern changes... maybe... Urvasi quickly created a wide dispersion speaker from planer fields and then pointed at herself. She stood up then shifted out of her chair, faced the speaker with face, hands, and tail while in a crouch, then played the 'sounds' at their original 50 kHz to 150 kHz. There.. her vibration sense picked up the signal.. each repeat pulse was a new picture, each change was along the vertical and horizontal planes... pictures.. Tchema was communicating in pictures.

Wilkan considered the next part very carefully, "Enterprise will be entering the alien to recover the Vorta and place them into protected custody." He turned to the Bridge, "Security will need to be on full alert and begin patrol of the ship to maintain the safety of all hands aboard. I don't expect this to be easy," he looked at the Helm, "but I expect you to make it at least look easy. We're going to try to give the Sol a wide berth, but you're going to need to closely keep an eye on us. Science will help keep you all updated on where Enterprise is and help keep us from being the next permanent addition to Tchema."

To Sora, "Exec, we need a plan to mass transport the Vorta aboard the ship. See to it."

Sayori immediately got to work. "Remotely linking our scan data over to the Sol. Well, as best as can be done with the current transmission, I expect it'll get better once we are inside. And I'll look for any potential weak points we could use as an emergency exit.

"This is going to take a lot of power from our reserves and quickly. Ash, Mira, you're both going to have to work closely to keep the Enterprise powered. We may be working against the very life-form we're trying to save," Targaryen explained.

Emma raised an eyebrow at the 'Mira' and decided she liked that shortening of her name. With that out of the way in her mind, she responded, "Aye Aye Captain, I shall do my best." She only spared a brief glance at Ash sitting in the specialists seat, then returned her full attention to the Engineering console even as she looped her tail behind her. That way, if Ash came over to help, a touch on that tail would let Mira know to make room for her.

"This all calls upon one key component though," he directed this to Counselor Laurell, "Tchema spoke with you first, Counselor, it has a bond with you. Use the comlink to speak with it and ensure that Tchema knows that we're trying to help. Hopefully we may be able to pull this off," Wilkan finished, "but we need to keep a close eye on the Counselor to make sure that the strain of contact doesn't become too much."

Amber nodded. “I’ll do my upmost Sir, I don’t want to see any harm come to Tchema, or the Vorta.”

Rio Kholin nodded as well. "I'll keep a monitor on her all the time Sir" she reassured the CO. "Any sign of problems I'll be right on it."

"We're on the clock," Commodore Targaryen said as he walked around the Bridge, "so get moving."

Urvasi called out, "Captain, XO, Tchema isn't sending words, but changing pictures, video. I can see them with my vibration sense when I returned the signal to its original KHz range. Okay, do a phased 256 QAM decode of the signal from 50 KHz to 150 KHz and you should see the moving pictures as well. Tchema is empathic for emotions and is sending us a camera eye view of what is happening. We can probably communicate back with her by creating the same type of phased 16 x 16 changing information for 320 x 240 pixel pictures with the moving information changing at a rate of 35 KHz of what we are desiring to do. Think of it as old low resolution MPEG broadcasts." Urvasi hoped that was enough information for sciences to quickly put together something to better talk with Tchema.

"I like the theroy," zh'Roothi stepped towards her shuttle pilot. "However, given the pain Tchema is experiencing plus the phaser pulses I don't think we'll be heard."

“That’s an interesting idea” Amber offered Urvasi a smile. “I’ll keep trying as well, at least until you can get something up and running.”

Sensing there was winning here zh'Roothi relented: "Just don't over exert yourself in the process Counsellor."

"We're running out of time," Wilkan reminded, "Get going. Enterprise out."

Urvasi looked up from the comms system at the front of the Runabout. She was expecting sciences or the Enterprise to hop in for actually working with the signal, but according to Amber, it was totally up to her. She thought for a second, then decided best way was to act as the translator and get that directly to the Counselor. She rigged up the planar speaker again, but this time set up two more, one right beside her. She said out loud, "Counselor, May I ask you to touch my neck and send to me what pictures you want to send to Tchema over touch telepathy? My quickest best guest, I am going to use my senses as a translator. I will decode with my vibration sense what Tchema is sending me and let you read it from my foremind, then in how you want to respond, I will create that picture using the runabout computer, change it into the shifting static response so that I see it exactly as Tchema's sending looks like, then send that exact created signal to Tchema over channel 7. And, once we are getting responses..."

Urvasi looked at zh'Roothi, "XO, I will create the signals to send to Tchema about the Enterprise coming inside to help, then leaving, send them to Tchema, and hopefully get a response back for Amber that Tchema will allow us. Sound good?"

The Andorian was still sceptical. She looked towards the Counselour: "Your call," she reminded.

Amber nodded, it wasn’t something she’d tried before but it was worth trying. “I’ll warn you now I’m not used to doing this, before now I rarely used my telepathy this much. Whatever is happening, I can feel pain from Tchema and it’s not getting any better.”

Ursasi once more shifted into a crouch, her face and wrists facing towards the now two force field planar speakers with her tail up and behind that, shifting as the unheard signal but felt along her many vibration whiskers along muzzle, forehead, wrists, and tail. There, a node, a place where Tchema had a neural ganglion exposed for 'chatting', two were doing something at that node, causing pain. She hoped Amber was seeing this as well as it formed within her mind. Within her mind, she sent to Amber, ~Okay, Tchema is trying to let us know why the pain... I am going to now try and ask how to get there, okay?~
b>
~Hurry!~ Amber was trying not to concentrate on the pain, but with empathic senses it was difficult not to be overwhelmed by it.

Rio kept monitoring Amber but her agony was clearly rising alongside that of Tchema. "You must let go if it continues to get worse like this." she advised the Counselor softly. "I know you feel you should stick with her but there's no point in you both damaging yourselves. You must let me know if it's too much. PLEASE?" she begged holding tightly to Amber's hands and resting her forehead in sympathetic support on her forehead.

Now Urvasi telekinetically shifted pictures on the computer console asking for directions via pictures of checking among terrain, questing, then sending that to herself and varying the signal hitting her vibration senses until it matched in her mind how the original signal was producing its pictures. As she said earlier, using her vibration sense as the translator from and to Tchema. Now, using the runabout controls, she sent that specific signal over comm 7 to Tchema. If this worked, they could get to the node quickly as well as next ask for the Enterprise to come inside to get the annoyances out of Tchema's ecosystem. Hopefully, this would work and slow down Tchema driving towards the nearest sun.

Ensign Talyn interrupted, "Commander, sensors indicate that the Enterprise has penetrated the outer barrier of Tchema."

"Understood," zh'Roothi nodded. "Let's not get in their way."

Urvasi said out loud, "Understood" as she kept trying to create the specific sequence to help Amber communicate with Tchema.

"Daughter, please!" the High Priestess cried out in terror as she knelt beside the neural cluster. "You're killing Tchema!"

Niyan watched from afar, amazed by the spectacle before him. When his sister told him to come with her, Niyan had no idea that this was what she was planning, or pulling off for that matter. As father and his soldiers fought the aliens, he and Nimivis had raced to the temple. In one deft movement, Niyan watched as Nimivis disabled the elite guards in one swift strike. As the guardians fell to the ground, she quickly invaded the temple and went right to the central cluster, facing only their mother to gain entry.

It wasn't even a fight.

Now he watched as Nimivis stood before Tchema's brain, attacking their home only with the power of her own mind. A rarity among the Vorta, Nimivis was capable of generating powerful blasts of telekinesis that she could use to attack an enemy. Normally, the strength of her attacks only stunned an opponent, but Niyan could feel that this time things were different. This time she was pulling from an inner strength that the young Vorta wondered if even his sister knew she possessed. She was killing Tchema, or at least making it into a subservient dog.

And there was nothing that he could do.

Niyan stood, stunned at what he saw. Pulses of violet energy rose from his sister's mind and slammed into the neural node, tearing through it with raw power. The node had been a brilliant color only moments prior, but already it was dying before them. He wanted to stop her, he knew he had to stop her, but he couldn't. It was like he couldn't move, that his mind was screaming for his entire body to move, but his body didn't remember how.

"Please, daughter, stop!" Mother cried again, tears flowing down her cheeks.

Nimivis remained silent as another pulse tore into the ground of their home. Niyan could hear someone coming, another to try to stop the onslaught that was befalling Tchema. He turned, his body allowing him at least that small courtesy, to see their father coming inside.

He looked terrified the moment he crossed the threshold into the temple. He should be.

"Stop her! She's killing Tchema!" Mother protested to Father.

Bedran grabbed his weapon, running toward his own daughter. The fight didn't last long. With a single glance he stopped dead in his tracks, weapon ready to deliver a blow. Instead, it was Nimivis who struck. One of the pulses meant for Tchema crashed into Father, sending his entire body flying back into the wall of the temple.

Nimivis returned her attention to her assault, knowing it wouldn't be much longer now.

At the Tactical workstation in the cockpit of the runabout Sol, Ensign Talyn's fingers raced across the control console as she did everything she could to try to get answers. The sensor drones reported that the leader of the Vorta had entered the temple. She tried to run a scan of the area, but the interference was off the charts. Even the drone was losing its connection.

Her ashen fingers tapped the monitor, "I think we found the brain."

Amber was starting to struggle, the pain flooding her senses from Tchema was impossible to block out. ~Pain…so much pain!~

Kuzos was beside her in an instant. "Counselor you must sever the tie with Tchema before any permanent damage is done to yourself." He urged her.

"Send the co-ordinate to the helm," Commander zh'Roothi instructed before taking the controls. She shot a glance at Laurell hoping she could somehow break the connection and grimaced at the risk she had put herself in. Guilt crept into Zhora's thought as Sol lifted off the ground knowing she'd authorised the Counsellor to undertake such a feat thus entangling the women into the situation.

As Amber was in so much pain, the Brain access located, and with the XO taking the helm, Urvasi settled into the co-pilot seat and raised the main shields to try and cut down on the pain getting to Amber. She said, "XO, I am trying to get the shields modulated to try to help get the pain that the Counselor if feeling reduced."

"Coordinates sent," the Klingon said after pressing the appropriate control, an alien spear bouncing off the window above her as she said it.

Rio did all she could, adding as much pain-killer to Amber without overdosing her system. She put warm wraps over her brow and replaced them with cool ones, alternately, trying every idea she knew, old or new to help. Massaging the Counsellor's temples as before, she felt helpless as nothing seemed to ease the pain. She had tears on her own cheeks witnessing the distress of her friend and colleague but being so helpless to stop or even reduce her agony.

"I agree Amber, you have to disconnect. It's unbearable to witness you in so much pain and your suffering doesn't help Tchema to stop hers either. Is she even aware of you still?" she asked gently.

Urvasi, working with the shields, called back to Rio and Amber, "Doc, Counselor, I am not sure. The signal on Comm Channel 7 was breaking up with bursts of static, which I believe is a picture representation of Pain. Bare with me, I am trying to modulate the shields to cut down on what is being sent to the Counselor."

While the others worked the Andorian woman eased the shuttle into the air and towards the coordinates provided. Below the Vorta began to scatter, brandishing their weapons high but their voices were lost into the down draught of the thrusters.

The flight was short but not without incident as they weaved over the treetops that continued to sway as Tchema withered and dived to avoid a flock of fleeing birds. "Approaching the coordinates," zh'Roothi called. Jutting out from the forest edge, almost consumed in shadows a decorative building could be seen, with its ornate masonry there was little doubt this was the temple Bedran and spoke of. "Taking us down into the clearing," she announced and manoeuvred into position. "Once we're down Talyn, Kuzos you're both with me. The rest of you secure the shuttle and stay put. Understood?"

“Understood” Amber nodded glad she wasn’t having to move out right now, whether she wanted it or not she was attuned to Tchema and the pain it was experiencing. “We have to stop the pain…Tchema is suffering!”

"I understand." Kuzos replied using as few words as possible. As his emotions warred over what he was witnessing.

"Understood, XO. I will remain at the shields to drop and raise them for your safe passage," Urvasi replied.

The Klingon Security Officer nodded as she rose from the Tactical workstation, "Understood, Commander." She walked over to the locker and entered her security code, the door popping open with an audible hiss. Earlier they had armed themselves with basic Phasers for defense purposes, this time they wouldn't be so under prepared. Pulling three Phaser Rifles from their housing, the Security Officer gave one to Commander zh'Roothi and Commander Kuzos.

"They're set to heavy stun," the Klingon explained, "but can be set higher with Commander zh'Roothi's authorization."

As instructed, the CMO remained at the shuttle. She wondered silently if, with the Phaser rifles of the team set to heavy stun and perhaps higher, she might perhaps turn out to be of some use after the events of the rescue of Tchema had taken place, but she imagined she could be called for, if and when needed. Rio wasn't looking to risk her life, nor to get in the way of the rescue mission, but it might be that speed of medical aid could be important.

However, it wasn't more than a guess and she accepted the orders to remain anyway just because it was an order and also because the opposite might turn out to be the case and she could just as easily be of best use here, out of the way. She continued to monitor the Chief Counsellor as she had been doing and in between this she kept alert, in case the other Vorta were to re-appear suddenly.

"Heavy stun should be sufficient," the XO accepted the offered weapon, gave it a quick inspection before heading once again toward the exit. This, time however they weren't being created by curious faces, they were against the clock to ensure the Vorta were moved to safety before it was too late.

Hurrying across the open grass and into the undergrowth towards the temple zh'Roothi paused momentarily at the sight of the fallen guards at the entrance way. Cautiously she crouched over the nearest and sought for a pulse while her eyes travelled the length of body expected to see injury or phaser burns based on the intelligence from Enterprise.

"They're alive," she confirmed. "But no obvious phaser burns or injuries."

"They have suffered from an extreme shock." Kuzos noted as he looked towards the temple.

The Klingon Ensign knelt down near to one of the downed guards, "How'd they go down without an obvious Phaser shot?" She activated her Tricorder, quickly running the bracelet scanner over the guard. A large holographic display appeared above the device, the Ensign quickly examining the readouts.

A sudden scream from inside the temple cut them off.

"Come on," zh'Roothi leapt up and hurried inside.

Kuzos didn't nod, didn't acknowledge the order. He simply followed zh'Roothi toward the temple.

Closing out the scanner, Talyn followed behind.

Another pulse from Nimivis slammed into Tchema's neural cluster, the structure pulsing and cracking from the strike. While the telekinesis of her people was strong, it was taking a lot out of her, perhaps even more than she could withstand. She didn't know if she'd be able to survive the attack, but she knew that her people would. That was all that mattered.

"Daughter," her mother pleaded one last time, "please..."

Nimivis repeated, "We need this, mother, we need to control the beast."

"This is no beast, daughter, this is our home," the Priestess defended.

"A home where we are held back," Nimivis charged, "a home where we don't rule. Now, we rule."

Another pulse rose from the body of Nimivis and floated above her a moment. The violet-colored sphere of energy crackled and pulsed before slamming back down into the cluster. As the pulse dispersed through the neural cluster, the away team entered.

"Stand back," the Priestess pleaded, "she's killing Tchema!"

The crackling energy resounded around the chamber caused zh'Rooth's skin to tingle unpleasantly. The Andorian took in the scene quickly noting the unconscious Bedran close by, the fear stricken elder child and priestess powerless to stop the assault.

"Stand down," Zhora commanded levelling her rifle towards Nimivis.

The Vorta child looked at the First Officer of the Enterprise, "Tchema must be stopped and you must leave this place!"

"Your actions are harming Tchema," Zhora wanted to reason with the child, though the minor had proven her ability to endanger others the Commander did not want to stun her if it could be avoided. "Right now, we're on a collision course with a star as Tchema resists you. You're putting everyone's life in danger. Stop this now, before it's too late."

"You're lying! You all want Tchema for yourselves. I won't let you," she pulled upon the energy within her body, bringing another telekinetic pulse to bear. The purple energy rose upward and slammed out toward the Starfleet away team, forcing them to take cover.

After scrambling for cover the Andorian continued to negotiating: "That's not true, we only want to help. Tchema doesn't want any of us here - heading towards the star is an act to purge all life. My ship and I can take you all to safety before impact."

Sending another pulse, "Liar!"

Zhora retreated deeper into her hiding space as the pulse rolled over: "Why would I lie?" she shouted. "What would we gain?"

"You demand we leave and Tchema is supporting it!" She fired again, this time with the pulse hitting Tchema.

Opening the Tricorder function on her bracelet, Ensign Talyn looked at the sensor details regarding Tchema, "Commander, maybe three more hits and Tchema will have irreversible damage."

"Damn you," the Andorian sighed. Time was running out and for the second time in one day negotiation appeared to be failing. Dialing down the setting on the rifle zh'Roothi prepared to step out from her hiding position: "If Tchema dies, so will you and your family, is that what you really want?"

"You're lying to us!" She protested again, but instead of attacking Tchema, she attacked the away team once more. A telekinetic pulse of energy rushed toward the position of Ensign Talyn, missing the young Klingon by mere centimeters.

"If you don't leave I will kill you!"

Talyn commented, "I'm starting to think this kid is really pissed off, Commander!"

Kuzos stood up. "ENOUGH!" He said to the young Vorta. "I am Vorta like you. I do not lie. it is not in my genetic makeup to lie. These others." He gestured to zh'Roothi and Talyn, "Are honorable people. I can say that because the Dominion was once at war with them and now we are in an alliance with them They have accepted me as a member of their crew and while there are those who resent me, most are open minded. We are here to help you and the other Vorta, Tchema reached out to our counselor and relayed it's pain to her. I believe you are so close you do not see what your continued presence is doing to Tchema." He paused, "I truly wish to help you and the others. Accept our help. It is all we ask."

Nimivis listened to the Vorta that had traveled with the aliens, wondering if he could be trusted. She felt that Tchema had been lying to all of them, had been trying to force them to leave, but what if they really were hurting it? What if she really did want them to leave and this wasn't all a lie to make them leave their homes? The young Vorta woman looked between her horrified mother and the Starfleet officers as they waited for her to make a decision. Then she turned to her brother.

Right in time to watch him release the arrow from his bow.

The arrow slammed into Nimivis' chest, knocking her from her feet to the ground below. Her blood started to flow from the wound, her heart penetrated by the impact of the weapon. She struggled with her energy, pulled every ounce of her strength, "Mom?"

The High Priestess ran to her daughter's side, "I'm here."

"We must," Nimivis collapsed from the strain, dead.

"No," the High Priestess yelled. She looked at her son, "Why?"

Niyan looked at his mother, "Tchema demanded it."

"No!" The High Priestess yelled again, "She didn't. She doesn't communicate with anyone! It's not what she wanted." The High Priestess nestled her head against her daughter's lifeless body.

"NO!" Kuzos screamed in pain at the senselessness of this action. He tapped his combadge. "Kuzos to shuttle, we have a wounded child. Beam her aboard! Do it now!"

"There's too much interference," zh'Roothi spoke up having been momentarily stunned by the actions of the elder Vorta child. She moved towards the fallen child and mother, placing a gentle sympathic hand upon her shoulder. "Our shuttle is just outside, we may be able to revive her."

Behind, Kuzos walked slowly over to Niyan, took the bow from his hands and broke it over his knee, only then did he speak, "I am Vorta. I am proud to be a Vorta and i have never said this to another Vorta until today. I am ashamed to be a Vorta, to see what you have done to your own sister. You have shamed all Vorta's with these actions." Then he turned on his heel and slowly walked away, heading for child and mother along with zh'Roothi. He bent down and gently picked the girl up, cradling her in his arms and headed for the shuttle. His pace brisk and with a sense of purpose. "Kuzos to shuttle, Doctor, we have a medical emergency. I am on my way to you."

Inside the shuttle Amber felt a change, Tchema had seemed to have stopped screaming to her for help, but at what price? She hoped the medical emergency wasn’t to do with Tchema’s relief, though in reality she knew it most likely was.

In the wink of an eye the Enterprise flew above the away team and their emplacement with the Vorta near Tchema's neural node. Transporter beams quickly enveloped the entire away team and the Vorta refugees, but it seemed as if it had failed. In the distance they could see the Enterprise flying away and exiting Tchema, the Vorta cheering in the distance at their winning against the Starfleet forces. For the away team, they were simply gone.

Akaathaan Saarnosh let out a sigh of relief as she slid her lizard like fingers down the control interface of the Enterprise's Transporters. The transports had been successful. Enterprise had been able to bring all of the Vorta aboard the ship and safely place them in the Holodecks. She had been able to pull the Away Team aboard at the last minute, just before the system overloaded. It would take some time to repair, but it was well worth it.

"Transporter room," the Commodore's voice interrupted, "do you have them?"

The Selay answered, "Safely and soundly."

"Let them know our status, Chief, and ask them to report to their stations. Targaryen out."

"I'm sure you heard him," she joked. "You all gave us quite the scare. The Transporter just gave out with that forced transport of all Vorta."

Rio materialised on the Transporter Pad and turned immediately towards Kuzos "Your emergency?" it was a rhetorical question as she instantly took the child into her own arms and stood back on the transporter circles. " When everyone is off the platform, please transfer me and this child direct to Sickbay" she directed Akaathaan. The Selay nodded and complied right away, the blue lights and instant dematerialisation recommencing over the CMO and her acquired patient.

In the Main Sickbay, Kholin rematerialised again and had to admit that she felt a little dizzy at having done this twice in such a short space of time but the ACMO, Cali was ready and waiting for the incoming casualty having been informed of what had been happening whilst it was going on. Cali stood closer to Rio and steadied her whilst reaching up to take the limp body of the child Vorta from the CMO's arms and carrying her to a bio-bed.

Rio thanked Cali and propped herself for a minute whilst her staff prepared the bio-arch and raised it above the head of the girl. "Are we too late?" Rio asked but Cali shook her head. "Is that a yes or a no?" Rio clutched her own forehead in an effort to clear her mind. Cali was already setting up the bio-bed's controls, her nimble fingers flashing over the LCARS. "It was a NO, we're not too late. Her brain hasn't been without oxygen for too long" she reiterated for Rio. "Someone get the CMO a glass of water please" she added and a nurse did that.

Cali began the process for a forcefield around the Vorta girl's head and filled it with oxygen, she then set up some cardiac shocks, scaled down for the size and age of the child in question. The initial shocks failed to get a reaction but then the second group did the job and the little Vorta girl coughed and cried and then, once she had got her breath back, Cali reduced the oxygen input and the girl began to wail.

By this time, Rio had drunk the water and was feeling better so she joined her colleague at the bed-head.

"i/v plasma for blood loss?" she asked softly and Cali nodded.

"Done" she replied. "...and i/v anti-infiotic" she added with a smile.

Rio smiled back. "Good job, kid!" she called Cali by her affectionate nickname for her, the two being good friends already despite not having worked together for very long.

"Analgesic?" Rio quipped.

"She's Vorta, she doesn't need that!" Cali said with a straight face but at the same moment putting her finger against the lights on the med-screen showing that pain killers had been noted as given.

"Of course! Silly me." Rio grinned, putting an encouraging hand on her ACMO's shoulder.

Cali took down the oxygen even further and upped the analgesic a level. Rio nodded and moved forward to take the patient's hand and make soothing sound but Nimivis began to struggle to get free and began screaming about how she had to finish off Tchema.

Cali looked at Rio and raised one eyebrow. "30mg?" she asked, not being specific about what medication she was asking to give.

Rio nodded but checked the pulse reading and said "50" quietly and Cali obliged with the sedative dose as instructed.

Nimivis slowed visibly and her thrashing arms began to wilt. Her eyelids fluttered and she reverted to her original wailing. "Noooooooooo" her objection became fainter. "You cannot do this to your body after so much shock to your system. You'll harm yourself. You MUST rest little one. It is crucial, vital, life-saving." Rio soothed as the child sank into unconsciousness and her heartrate fell back to normal as did her blood pressure at last.

"She's lost too much blood to be certain to survive as it is." Cali added, stopping to make the necessary call to let the Commodore and the XO know that the child was 'still critical but at least alive and on the mend, hopefully.'

Rio switched the bio-bed and arch to the Intensive Care Mode and set a nurse to sit over Nimivis to watch her and her monitors carefully and raise any necessary alarm should there become a need for it.

Urvasi saw the transport on the sensors of the runabout. She was surprised that the runabout was also beamed aboard the Enterprise as she thought that she would have been the one to fly the runabout out of Tchema and rendezvous with the Enterprise later in space. She lowered the shields, then raised the runabout from the flight deck and over to where the runabout cradle was for after mission checks and any maintenance. However, as she approached the cradle, she saw a damage control team standing by with power coupling hookups.

The flightdeck control room contacted her, =/\= Runabout Sol, Enterprise Flight Control, after landing in cradle, do NOT power down. Engineering crew is to hook up Sol's output power to Enterprise Power Grid for maintaining Holodeck of transported Vorta in Tchema environment for transplant to another world.=/\=

Urvasi hit the intercom, =/\= Enterprise Flight Control, Runabout Sol, instructions understood. Runabout Sol signing off.=/\=

She landed in the cradle, then left the impulse and warp engines active. She opened the hatch to let engineering staff on board. She existed and found the crew had already dropped outside panels and were busy connecting power feeds to Sol. She gently yiffered as she called out, "Sol is all yours, enjoy."

Urvasi made her way to Flight Control to get a rundown on what the current mission had become as well as volunteer for any help with other craft. The time showed her stint at the helm of the Enterprise was long over as the position was changed out every 4 hours for alpha and beta shifts, then every 2 hours for gamma to allow Flight Control crew a chance on the bridge for flying the Enterprise.

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