Log 22

**** Catava Okal ****

I don't know how I had gotten here.

It was a seemingly beautiful planet. Lush grasses and reeds. Beautiful bodies of water and trees as old as the planet itself. Rocks and boulders that carried history in their core. I know we had tried to find out about the tear in subspace. I was carrying out my orders to do a long range scan to see how long and deep the rift was. I saw my hand try to tap a button on my console, then my entire background was exchanged for this heavenly creation. Xenia was apparently surprised to see me. Can't say as I blame her. I was a little startled myself. I took the solitude of the planet to patch the friendship Nu'Daq and I shared. Taite was important to me. He made me feel like a free-spirited school girl. But Nu'Daq was just as important. I knew I could count on him if I ever needed his help. I helped Nu'Daq for an hour or so trying to figure out how to fix the rift with the elaborate computer the Q had provided them before my timely arrival.

"I can't believe I didn't see this before."

"Come look!" I waved Xenia and Morgan over. "The cause of the rift was a resonance interference between the artificial singularity powering the warbird and the wave pattern of the folded transport device. All we have to do is to disrupt this interference pattern."

Nu'Daq had a wave of realization cross his face.

"A carefully tuned Donaldson radiation wave patterned after the frequency of the resonance combined with an antimatter charge should disrupt the interference pattern and close the rift."

That lifted everyone's spirits. It wasn't long after that the the Hur'q appeared. Living with my parents in the isolated Bilaren system shielded me from knowing anything about theses beings. They were ugly. And they hey were tall. At least four metres. And that was looking at them from a distance. One was apparently a leader and the other three of a warrior class. Nu'Daq was the ever brave Klingon and prepared to combat the three Hur'q. In my haste I ran to where Xenia and Morgan were standing.

"Xenia, we have to do something! They're going to kill him!" I don't know why I blurted it out. None of us had any weapons. And with the solanagen inhibiting their abilities, the Q weren't much help either.

"No," she said, "he will win."

She was much calmer than I would've been. In our focus on the battle, Morgan, the Q nor I were quick enough to save Xenia from the clutches of the leader. Nu'Daq was sacrificing the universe for Xenia. I had to do something. I took a few slow steps back, clutched a rock as big as both of my hands and I got as close to the Hur'q as I could. I hurled it with all my strength at his head. Nu'Daq took the oppotunity to pounce on him and killed him. We had to get out of there and quick. A large group of Hur'q appeared. Nu'Daq told us to flee east. I was to grab Laizia and run as fast as I could. I understood. I didn't understand why Xenia was staying behind. Before I could run much farther, the male Q caught up with me. He ripped the injured Lai from my arms and held her up in the air.

"Look at this Irrisi! Do you see?! You will never have the key!! We have her now, and you will not win!!"

With that and the last of his power, he disappeared with Laizia. As did the Hur'q. And again the planet was calm.

**** Xenia Rafko ****

I'd never been so glad to see the Infirmary before. I got Lieutenant Janor onto a biobed and then had one of the nurses take a look at her and make sure the lieutenant was stabilized.

I was feeling a bit woozy from all of the excitement and the fact that Nu'Daq had nearly gotten us killed, well, that had really turned my stomach.

It's not that I'm a coward - I'm just not *Klingon* and I certainly don't have a death wish.

I headed into my office and pulled out my hypospray from a drawer. As I filled the medication, I noticed that Cardassian, Leget, enter Sickbay, looking a bit uneasy. I wondered what was his story.

"Okal to Rafko." My friend's voice was very low and a bit strained.

"Rafko here. Something wrong?"

"The Q took Laizia."

"What?" my already jittery hands dropped the hypospray. I looked through the glass windows at the Cardassian who was engaged in some kind of conversation with one of the nurses. "Where are you?"

"Turbolift. I was just on the Bridge. The Romulans are back."

"That means Captain Worf and Commander Dax are busy. What happened?"

"He just took her."

"We have to go back then," I said. "Is there a way to get those last coordinates?"

"I can triangulate the approximate position."

"I'll meet you in the transporter room then. Rafko out."

I hurried out and did a quick check on Janor, who was apparently feeling much better, but still required bed rest. I looked at her as sternly as I admonished her to take it easy.

"I don't want to," she moaned.

"If I find you out of your quarters, I will relieve you of duty," I told her. "Don't push me, Lieutenant."

I hurried out of sickbay; it was very important that we find Laizia before the Captain and First Officer found out.

Okal was already waiting for me in the transporter room. She handed me a phaser.

"You come prepared," I told her dryly.

"I don't have any intention of facing a hoarde of Hur'q unarmed," Okal answered.

"I don't know what got into me," I said. "We better go."

Okal punched in the coordinates and a few seconds later, we materialized back on the planet. I shivered slightly.

"It's cold," I said. Okal looked at me weirdly.

"No, it's not," she said.

"Fine."

I pulled out my tricorder and started scanning the area. No Laizia. The Q could have taken her anywhere. I sighed. I was feeling very, very tired.

"Catava," I said gently. "She's not here."

"I have to find her," my friend said stubbornly. "She was my responsibility. If we were in trouble before..."

"Tell me about it."

We searched for another hour or so, and knowing that time was running out, we prepared to beam back to the Valjean. At that moment, Okal picked up something on her tricorder.

"Xenia," Okal said. "Look here."

We followed the readings to a small cave, not far from where Laizia and I had been trapped earlier. Okal led the way. We walked in about seventy-five meters and there, in front of us, was this huge glowing orb.

"What is it?" Okal wondered. I circled it, noting the anomalous readings on my tricorder.

"I don't know," I said. "I've never seen anything - wait, I'm picking up signs of Laizia."

"Over here!"

"Laizia?" I called. Okal was already heading in the direction of the plaintive cry. Laizia was sitting on the floor behind this glowing orb. She looked frightened, but my scans showed that she was not injured seriously. "Can you walk, Lai?"

She nodded and took my hand. I was still fascinated by the glowing orb and I could tell that Catava was equally impressed by this strange object.

"It has some kind of inter-dimensional force," Okal was saying. And then a second later, I felt the familiar grip of the transporter beam and we were back on the Valjean. Okal and I looked at each other in confusion. At least we had brought Laizia back with us.

"I'm going to take her to Sickbay," I said shakily.

"Right," Okal said. "I think... I think I'll go to Engineering."

"Right."

We parted ways. As Laizia and I walked down the corridor, I was so lost in my thoughts that I bumped right into a half-human, half-Trill.

"Oh, sorry," I said apologetically. I noted that this individual was quite tall and from his uniform, either in Engineering or Security. "I should really watch where I'm going."

"It's quite all right," the man said easily. "It happens to the best of us."

He kept walking and I turned around to watch his retreating figure. After a few seconds, Laizia pulled on my hand.

"Doctor?" she asked.

"Sorry," I said automatically. "Right. Let's get you to sickbay."

My stomach churned and I wasn't quite sure if it was because I had already missed my medication or because of something else.

**** Mora Arsinoe ****

Arsinoe watched as Nu'Daq, Rafko, and the injured Janor limped out of the transporter room and as the door slid shut behind them, narrowed her eyes uneasily. She frowned for a moment and then quickly slipped out of the door herself, going the opposite direction, back towards her quarters.

She knew that there was some incident happening on the bridge involving a rift and Romulans, or something of the like, but in truth, she really did not care all that much. She would do her duty, nothing more. She had no reason to be there, and she trusted her crew mates to save the ship, if nothing more themselves at this point...

Arsinoe entered her quarters and to her relief found that her roommate was not there. They had only spoken a few times before the information had come back on her as well. Mora narrowed her eyes again... She would put in for a room transfer as soon as possible she decided, if only it didn't look suspicious....

She had been weeding through the information that Markus had sent her for the past few days. It had been so busy that Dax had yet to remind her of any urgency of the assignment, so she had taken her time reading file after file of compiled information on each crew member.

It was only after a little while that the information seemingly became more and more condemning for her crew mates. She sat down lightly on her bed and retrieved the PADD that she had locked in the small box next to it. She skimmed through the files quickly until she came back to the one that had interested her. She read the information again with disbelief. Nu'Daq and Rafko had seemed so nice and loyal (though she supposed that she too came off that way) when she had first met them, as had Catava Okal, whom she had spoken with a few times. As for Tenjou Utena, she had not really met her yet. But there they were for each of them, records of transmissions contacting certain "deserted" outposts, receipts for supplies shipped in their names, and the fact that each and every one of them had drastic reason to hate Cardassians for all they were worth.

Arsinoe shook her head with amazement... a Maquis conspiracy aboard the ship... She would have never guessed it, especially with the Maquis supposedly gone, but it was the only conclusion to be made. Dr. Rafko's and Lt. Tenjou Utena's background's made them obvious candidates, along with the medical records that seemed to imply something that Arsinoe could not quite figure out, as did Nu'Daq's Klingon-ess and his apparent connection to Rafko. However, she was surprised by Catava Okal's motivation. She looked at the file again with disbelief, then skimmed forward to the file regarding her room-mate, Veena Pari.

She had seemed the nicest of them all and yet it was she who Mora could hardly look at the face of now. A Dominion conspirator... she went against the heart of Mora's personal mission itself. Mora let out a growl and then shut the PADD off with disgust and threw it back into the locked box. It was certainly not a ship to be trusted, she decided, that much was clear, as was the commander's intuition to notice it. She sighed- the commander. She would have to give Dax the update soon but she didn't know which information would be best to be passed along. Most of it, of course, said nothing as Janor, Katja, and even the strange woman Morgan had nothing turn up interesting on them. However, the conspirators.... perhaps they could be used for better purposes.

On the other hand, she reasoned, as she stalked out of the room towards a holodeck, which she was quite sure would now be empty, if she could discredit Nu'Daq now, when it came time for her mission, he would not be able to stop her. Ah, that was a good plan. She smiled to herself as she arrived at the holodeck. She would remove the information about Veena Pari for her own use, but alert the commander as soon as the crisis was over of the impending conspiracy.

Arsinoe entered the first holodeck, still preoccupied and found herself, when she suddenly realized her surroundings, already amidst her personal sword fighting program. She gave a start and then called to the computer for a light broad sword of her, the weapon she had switched to after she could no longer bear to look at a rapier. She looked around the holodeck, which was now a painfully familiar, primitive looking village surrounded by a small forest. It was eerily silent until she turned a corner of one of the buildings and found a tall Trill-looking man fighting off one of the programmed attackers, one of the hated Dominion foot soldiers. He struggled against the Jem'Hadar for only a moment before finishing him easily.

"Computer, freeze program." Her voice startled the man who was intent on the fight. He turned suddenly to face her, sword raised. His eyes widened slightly at seeing another live being but he then lowered his sword.

"Who are you?"

**** Ensign Leget ****

Seeing the doctor leave as quickly as he entered, Leget decides to take things into his own hands. The Q have locked them out of Main Engineering and there is now a warp core breach in progress. Leget knows that the personnel that are trapped in Engineering including the Chief Engineer must be working to eliminate the warp core problem. Leget grabs his phaser and begins to mauever through the Jefferies Tubes to gain access that way which he does. Upon his enterance Leget sees the Chief Engineer barking out orders to the staff. Leget submits himself for orders.

**** Cooper ****

Cooper was killing again, it was all he seemed to do now, granted they were holograms but the safeties were off and he could feel them slowy die as his sword struck. He had arrived over an hour before hearing of some Romulan threat or something or another. He didn't care, why should he? He didnt know these people. copper had managed to get his small collection of his belongings to his quarter, his collection of swords, his clothes, Amy's picture.

He found out that the captain was indisposed; it didn't matter, he would get assigned later. At the moment he was angry, he was getting angry often lately for no reason, just angry. He found himself with a sword in front of the holodeck for some uynexplainable reason. After entering he found that a few training programs were in the computer. He activated one and found himself surronded by Jem'Hadar, he grinned. He had killed mainly all of them and was finshing off one of the last when "Computer freeze program" a voice commanded. Cooper moved away from the frozen Jem'Hadar to see the figure in the mists. Going into a defensive stance.

"Identify yourself,f" He commanded into the mists....

**** Nu'Daq ****

Nu'Daq was feeling good again. He was back on the bridge, the rift was closed and the 5 romulan warbirds were disabled. The captain was in his ready room negotiating with the romulan commanders about sending engineering teams to get them back in shape - and to make a full, mutual report about the plot against the peace talks by the Tal Shiar and the Dominion to the Romulan Senate. It turned out, that the 5 romulan commanders all had been temporarily relieved of duty by Tal Shiar representatives - all of which were now in the brig, after the romulan commanders had learned about the conspiracy between part of the Tal Shiar and the Dominion.

It seemed like everything was alright again. They could even make it to the peace talks on time. Very well. He was still curious to what had happened to the Hur'q. And since the Q's were still here, he might as well ask them. He went over to the male Q and asked him about it. "They are back where they belong, safely locked up. Now go away, Q and I want to talk - privately." Nu'Daq gave a snarl and returned to his station.

Then the turbo lift opened. It was Laizia. Nu'Daq was surprised. She never came to the bridge, but probably the recent events had shaken the little girl and now she wanted to see her mother. Commander Dax was sitting in the captain's chair and got up, as little Laizia entered the bridge. "Laizia, my child, what's wrong?"

The little girl jumped into Dax's arms. "I missed you. I was all alone, and this mysterous orb was there, and it glowed and all...." Dax looked at her with a mysterious look in her eyes. "Lai, what are you talking about"....

Out of the corner of his eye Nu'Daq saw the two Q's talking. It seemd to be a rather heated debate. But then they seemed to reach some kind of agreement. At that moment everything went crazy. Suddenly the red alert started, something was wrong with the warp core. Dax jumped to her feet and sat Laizia down in the captain's chair.

"Report!"

Nu'Daq checked his console. "The warp containment field seems to be collapsing. It is at 73% and falling."

She turned and looked at him.

"Cause?"

Nu'Daq checked again. "Unknown. Now at 69% and falling."

She activated her communicator: "Dax to Engineering". But there was no answer. "Lieutenant, are there still people in Engineering? Alive?"

Nu'Daq looked at his console. "Yes, ma'am. There seems to be a problem with the communicators in sickbay."

Commander Dax hurried up to his console. "What is going on? All the entrance doors to Engineering are locked, the communications are down and a warp core breach is imminent. Something is wrong here. This must be engineered by someone."

And they both knew it and cried out: "Q!"

At the same time they heard Laizia give a small cry. Everyone looked up and saw the two Q's in front of the bridge, the male Q holding Laizia in his arms. He looked at Dax: "Sorry, my dear, but we are going to need your daughter. I'm sure you will be able to manage the small problem with the warp core...." And before anyone could react, they were gone......

**** Emallia Janor ****

I know I shouldn't have left sick bay, but, they made the mistake of not hiding my clothes this time.It was only an infection. I've had worse.

"I know someone is there, so come out!"

Hhhhmmmmmmm, so the rumours were true. Cooper is here. It's been a while since I've seen him. Okay, a very long while.

"I see the rumours of your death HAVE been greatly exagerated." I said as I came out of the mist.

"God damn it Emallia! I've know you for how long and you still don't listen to me!" He said with an exasperated sigh as he lowered his sword.

"What can I say, it's a gift." I said as I aproached him. My limp coming back.

"Still sore eh?" he said as he came over. He always could read me.

"Yeah well, I never was the brightest spark in the flame. Anyways, when did you get here?" I asked as we sat down in the fog to get to know each other again. Maybe the old spark would still be there.

**** Cooper ****

The ground was cold but it didnt matter, it was six..no seven years since he last saw Emallia.

"So what department are you in" she asked.

"Engineering, Security, it doesn't really matter."

"You're not the optimistic sort are you, Cooper?" she replied with a laugh. "So when did you get here" she asked still chuckling. Cooper paused.

"This morning sometim,e" he replied a moment later, "Iv'e already moved in and have been 'excercising' ever since" he said with a sigh.

"Do you still have all those ghastly swords?" she hesitantly asked.

"Afraid I have even more" he laughed as she cringed.

"Come on, lets get out of and go get a drink this is no place to reminisce," she informed him while getting up.

"Sure why not...Computer deactive program" he got up as the simulation went out of existence.

Cooper stepped back and headed out the door with an old freind.

**** Janor ****

The walk to Ten Forward was very quiet. I was quite nervous.

"Are you afraid someone's going to kill you?"he asked witha bit of a smile as we got on the turbo lift.

"Well . . . ." I said nervously, "Given the way things are already going. I've been kidnapped, Phasered, fainted. twice now I think and our CMO has it out for me.

""Been sneaking out of sick bay again eh?"he said as the doors opened and we exited the lift.

"What can I say, I'm not fond of adorning sick bays."he gave a small laughat that. "I'm sorry about your wife. I wanted to tell you sooner, but I couldn't find you." I said as we sat down and ordered.

"Thoes black holes are gonna kill you some day."

'"I'll be fine, you tea drinker!"

"So," he said as he played with the rim of his glass. "Is there anyone new in yourlife?"

"Well," I said, blushing, "There's this Dr. on DS9."

"You fell for Julian Bashir? You could do better!" he said as he raised his voice.

"Oh, you're going all protective, that's so sweet!" I said sarcastically. "I'm a big girl Cooper, I can take care of myself."

"Oh, like that time you challenged a Nausican to a wrestling match?"

"I was drunk!"

"Like always."

"Just because I knew how to have fun . . . ." I said as I took a drink.

"Right. But of course, I had to bail you out. Again!

"Speaking of which." I said as I saw _____________ come in. I knew that they'd squeal.

"Cooper, I was never here!" I said as Itook my drink and snuck out.

Cooper just laughed. "Same old Ally." He said to himself.

**** Rafko ****

After checking Laizia out and making sure that she had not suffered any permanent injury due to all of the, um, excitement down on the planet, I released the child from sickbay.

"You're all set," I told Laizia. "Try not to get kidnapped, okay?"

She looked at me like I was crazy; I didn't blame her. After the events of the past few days, I certainly did feel crazy. I walked into my office, took my medicine and immediately felt a thousand times better. It was only then that I realized that one Emallia Janor was missing.

"Damn it!" I stood up. I stormed out of my office, feeling completely energetic - more energetic than I had felt in days. "Where is Lieutenant Janor?"

My medical staff looked completely bewildered; I didn't understand.

"Computer, locate Emallia Janor."

"Lieutenant Janor is in Ten Forward."

"Right. Rafko to Security."

Ensign Arsinoe's calm voice came over the comm.

"What is it, Doctor?"

"Lieutenant Janor is in Ten Forward. Could you please confine her to quarters?"

The ensign did not answer me right away, but then she responded in the affirmative. I waited until I heard Janor was in her quarters and then I headed down there myself.

Janor looked properly irate.

"What are you doing?" she screeched at me.

"You've been relieved of duty," I told her coolly. "You will stay in your quarters until I judge you fit to return to duty."

"I feel fine."

"You sustained a serious head injury. A couple of them, as a matter of fact. You could suffer brain hemorrages, which could be potentially deadly."

"That's not fair!"

To my surprise, Janor fairly pouted and I could almost see her stamping her foot.

"Look," I said. "You won't stay in one place and I need to make sure that everyone on this ship is in the best medical health possible. If something happened to you while you were under my care, I wouldn't forgive myself. I'll have someone check on you every few hours. And don't try to leave, please. Security will be posted outside your door."

"I'll complain to the Captain."

I eyed the young Trill coolly.

"You do that," I told her. "But I wouldn't recommend it."

With that, I turned and left. I was feeling very tired - it had been a long day so I headed back to my quarters. I was just slipping out of my uniform and into off-duty clothes when there was a chirp at my door.

"Come," I called.

The doors slid open and Okal walked in.

"You're not going to believe this," she said. "But the Q have taken Laizia... again."

I looked at Okal and wondered why I had ever bothered to come back to Starfleet.

**** Janor ****

"You don't have to hold onto me Ensign, I know the way to my cell," I said as she led me to the turbo lift.

"I'm just making sure you don't make a break for it. You seem to have a knack for doing that." She said with a small smile as we got in the lift. The rest of the ride was spent in silence as I comptemplated how to get out of my quarters without security finding me. But, then again, maybe this time I would be lectured by Commander Dax. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you. I get a lecture from her, then the captain and then I start to face disciplinary actions.

"Here." she said as she opened the door. "Get in. I REALLY don't want to have to deal with you again." she said.

I sarcastically saluted her.

"YES SIR!" I said as I turned and went in. "Stupid doctor, I'm fine! Oh well, Maybe now I should read that letter from Julian," I said to myself as I walked over to my desk and took the letter out of my desk and just started at it, not daring myself to read it for fear of what it might say.

**** Cooper ****

Cooper laughed to himself as Emallia ran off; doctors who needed them? Cooper stood up and walked out, what to do he asked himself as he strolled through the corridors. the captain was still indisposed as far as he knew and he didn't have a post yet so he decided just to roam.

Near engineering, a Cardassian pretty much running out of Engineering rammed in to him. With a murrmured apology the Cardassian hurried off, "Wonder what's up with him?" he asked himself. Cooper decided not to think about it and went to see if he could find any more old friends.

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