WHiMS IV: The Infected Home

WHiMS IV: The Infected Home

By Corporal Coral

Dedicated to the WHiMS, especially our newest member...

Disclaimers as usual...

Private Pampers kicked off her boots - narrowly missing Katie's head as she did so - and leant back in her chair and began to tuck into her hobnobs and ice cream. Around the room, the other WHiMS members were also engaged in recreational activities, including Charon, who was practising her darts technique on the lifesize Michael dartboard.

"And in that way, the warrior began to know the thue meaning of peace..." Chakotay's voice came.

"Door!" Kim yelled.

Coral looked at Kim in admiration as Charon rushed to answer it. "How d'you get it to do that, anyway?"

"Oh, it was easy," Kim said as Charon let out a wild shriek.

"What's up, Charon?" asked Pam, too absorbed in her hobnobs to move.

"Jay's sent us a new member!" Charon answered, entering the room with the girl in tow. "This is Kate2."

The WHiMS crowded around the newcomer, giving her hugs and various shouts of welcome to the group.

"Chakotay?" Kate2 gasped, noticing a slightly calmer person in the room. "What are *you* doing here?"

"You think I *approve* of the relationship?" Chakotay asked sensibly.

"Well... but... you're..." Kate2 seemed somewhat speechless, and a few of the WHiMS members chuckled. At first, Kate2 looked put out, but a slow smile eventually creeped across her face.

"We made Chakotay an honorary member," Katie explained. "He's very useful."

"A mean dab with sellotape," Coral grinned, thinking back to their last mission.

The door 'bell' went again, and Corporal Coral dashed to the door, followed closely by Charon.

"Hello," Coral said, opening the door.

"Oh, he's *hot*!" Charon whispered as she got an eyeful of the delivery boy standing outside.

Coral smiled sweetly and stepped heavily on Charon's foot. "May we help you?" she asked.

"Delivery from-" he checked a piece of paper "-Jay the Spy, for the WHiMS group?"

Charon's eyes strayed to the five lorries parked outside the HQ. "That's all for *us*?"

"God bless Jay!" Coral exclaimed with a grin.

"She sent this message too."

Charon snatched it out of his hands and quickly scanned it. "50000 Hobnobs? Baileys? Jay's outdone herself this time!"

"What's up," the Private asked, coming out to the door.

"Look at this delivery from Jay the Spy. "50000 hobnobs. Plus replacement dartboard covers for the Michael dartboards, and more weapons."

Pam broke into a wide grin, then turned back and called the other WHiMS. "Delivery!"

The WHiMS girls rushed out, dragging the inexperienced Kate2 with them. Chakotay followed at a slightly more sedate pace, and 10 minutes later, the entire load had been moved into the HQ, and Pte Pampers looked around with a satisfied grin. "I'm glad Jay's on our side, and not the MiB's."

"MiB's?" Kate2 asked, munching on a hobnob.

"The Michael international Bodyguards," Katie explained seriously. "Hejira defected to join them."

"Traitor," Coral commented, making a face.

Pam suddenly looked around with a concerned expression. "Tribbles! Who's guarding the anti-michael shrine room?"

Coral and Kim looked at each other guiltily. "Oops."

As one, the WHiMS dashed to the room and flung the large doors open. The girls stood stockstill. All the banners had been changed to say "Yay Michael" and "Michael Is Cool" and other pro-Michael messages.

"Noooooooooooooooooo!" Katie screamed. "NO!"

Chakotay looked around at the pictures of Janeway and Michael together that dominated the room now and started crying.

Private Pampers looked around at the transformed room with exasperation. "Damn those MiB's!" she yelled. "I don't care of they wanted a truce - this is war!"

"Hejira," Kim concluded glumly. "She must have given them her old access codes."

Pamper's eyes shot flames, and her voice went cold as ice. "Kim. You deal with Chakotay. Reassure him, do whatever you need to do. Just get him sorted out. Charon, Coral. You're our banner people. You get these repaired. Katie, I need you to check out the computers. See how they got in, and place boobytraps to stop it happening again. Understood?"

Kate2 spoke up nervously. "Uh, Private? What should I do?"

"You and I are breaking out the Leola Root Compression Phaser Rifles and beaming up to the Tomahawk. We need to make sure she's secure. We can't let our ship fall into enemy hands."

Coral shuddered as she looked around the room. "Can't we just blow this lot up?" she asked nervously.

"No. We can't waste resources. What if Jay gets captured again?" Private Pampers pointed out.

Coral nodded her understanding. "Then let's get to it!"

"Private's Log. The MiB's have completely destroyed our Anti-Michael Shrine Room, transforming all the banners and pictures into ones that more suit their tastes. I was willing to keep the truce, but, no, those MiB's had to go and ruin it all, didn't they? I am *not* a happy bunny, and I am beaming up to the Tomahawk with Kate2, to make sure that there are no intruders aboard her. I'm sure that the rest of the WHiMS will be able to restore the Shrine Room in record time."

Katie growled, causing Charon and Coral to look up from the banner they were rewriting. Katie had been working on the computer system for the past hour, trying to work out how the MiB's had breached all their security measures and got in to wreck their havoc on the Anti-Michael Shrine Room.

"There's no obvious tracks," she moaned. "I can't even find a log of their biosignatures! It's as if they were never here."

"They must have done," Coral insisted. "Who else would change the banners?"

"I don't know," Katie admitted frustratedly, "but it was Hejira's code."

"So it *must* have been them!" Coral argued.

"Wait a minute," Charon said slowly, causing both the other girls to stop arguing for a moment. "What do these traces indicate?" she asked, pointing to part of the screen, and Coral and Katie's eyes followed.

"It's photonic energy," Katie said off-handedly. "The sort left by..."

Realisation dawned on all three at the same time, and they chorused, "By holograms!"

"Michael," Charon gasped, "It must have been!"

Katie entered a few commands, pulling up another window. "It *was* Michael!" she exclaimed, "But it's *these* readings that worry me. There's more than one signature."

"Tribbles!" Coral cursed. "Multiple Michaels!"

"Where did they go?" Charon asked urgently.

Katie checked the readings, and checked them again. Then she checked them once more. Charon looked over her shoulder. "Tell me that doesn't mean what I think it does."

"It does," Katie replied grimly. "The Tomahawk."

With a grim expression that, though she did not know it, mirrored Katie's very well, Pampers raised her rifle and swept it around the bridge. She jumped a little as she noticed the lifesize Michael dartboard, but kept her head.

"I think we're clear up here," Pam said aloud. "Let's head down to engineering."

Kate2 nodded nervously as they got into the turbolift. "Private, what if they're planning a trap?" the newest WHiMS member asked, wondering where the hour they'd spent getting ready had flown to. Now, time was slowing down...

"We've got to take that chance. They destroy entire banners, and we fall back. They destroy the J/C relationship, and we fall back. They invade our HQ, and we fall back. This far, and no further! No more! The line must be drawn here!"

Kate2 looked at pampers curiously. "Are you on a First Contact high or something?"

Pampers shrugged. "Just enjoying myself a little, but I'm a bit stressed too," she explained as they walked out of the turbolift, phasers at the ready. "We spent ages on those banners and stuff."

"Why would they do this?" Kate2 asked.

"It's almost tradition now," Pampers grinned. "Has anyone told you about the time Janeway chucked the entire WHiMS group in the brig?"

Kate2's eyes went wide. "What did you do?" she asked breathlessly.

"We deleted Michael Sullivan," Pte Pampers grinned.

"Then how come the war's still going on?"

"The MiB had back up copies."

"Behind you Pampers!" Kate2 suddenly yelled.

Pampers spun on her heel, raising her rifle and firing. The holographic Michael behind them disappered, but more took their place.

The two WHiMS were surrounded.

"Katie to Pam."

"Uh, Katie is this urgent?" Pampers voice came over the commline via the computer console.

"It wasn't the MiB, Pam! It was an army of holographic Michaels!"

"Katie, I am being advanced on by those holographic Michaels!"

"Ah - oh, uh, sorry, Private..." Katie said. "Do you want us to get some help up there?"

She waited for a minute before realising that the lack of an answer was abnormal. "Tribbles! Where is she?" She turned back to the console as Charon and Coral watched helplessly. A look of despair passed over her face.

"What is it?" Charon and Coral asked fearfully.

"They've been kidnapped!"

To Be Continued...