Once Lataro had reached the privacy of his office he began the investigation.
"Computer, replay visual from sickbay, time index 1114 hours."
The visual that was displayed confused the First Officer. The door opened but now one was there. Ensign Yosh stepped out into the main room, turned around, and a phaser shot came from nowhere. If she hadn't moved at the last second, she would have been vaporized. The klaxon went off. Then the containment field around Valdago was deactivated. Valdago's body disappeared, and the door opened again. It was then only a matter of seconds before the security team arrived.
Lataro was very confused.
Valdago ran down the corridors of the Virgo.
"CLEAR THE WAY! ENEMY APPROACHING!" He tapped his com badge. "Security to Deck 10, Section 14." He ran into a turbolift. "Security." The turbolift doors opened again. Valdago ran down the corridor right into Lataro's office. Lataro seemed to be going over a security visual of sickbay. He quickly turned around as the out-of-breath, half-Kirusan ran in.
"Solacetta was right behind me with a phaser rifle!"
Lataro ran to the wall and opened a panel. Behind it was a row of five phaser rifles. He took one and threw it at Valdago and then took one for himself. "Good to see you're still on our side. These are set for stun, make sure to adjust it to kill." He began to work on his. Valdago simply raised his rifle to Lataro's chest.
"Stun you say. Good, drop your weapon." Lataro starred at the Senior Ops Officer in disbelief. "NOW!" Valdago fired a shot right over Lataro's shoulder destroying the wall panel and setting off the klaxon. Lataro dropped the rifle.
If I can only hold out for a few minutes a security team will be here. Though I don't like the idea of getting caught with my pants around my ankles. At least not because of Valdago.
"Do you really believe you can get away with this?"
"No," said a voice from nowhere, "but WE can." Solacetta decloaked in another corner of the room. "As you can see, you not only gave me a cloaked shuttlecraft with a full weapons array, but also a wonderful piece of technology. I've been able to adapt it quite well to my circuitry. But, that can wait. Right now we have an escape to make."
"Computer," Valdago said, "execute program Purity One."
<Executing. Initiating transport.>
The trio disappeared just as a security team made it's way up from the false alarm on Deck 10.
Loran had been working on the fusion reactor so long that he had almost forgotten what he was trying to do. But, everyday after his shift, he would head down to the reactor and work. Sometimes he only used the computers to adjust settings or use simulations. Today he was trying the oldest engineering trick: the Reboot.
He opened up the side panel. He had made some repairs and adjustments in there. This time, he began to shut the reactor down. He had already tapped power from the warp engines to compensate once the reactor was down. There was a slight dimming of the lights that was to be expected.
[Maruu to Loran. I take it you've successfully shut down the fusion reactor.]
"Yes, Sir. I was hoping to transfer power better so the power dim wouldn't be so obvious, but I'll have something to shoot for next time."
[You don't think this is too much trouble for 1%. I don't want to be caught with the reactor down if something were to happen.]
"No problem, Sir. It'll be back up in two minutes. Of course there will be a slight power surge this time."
[I'll be waiting. Maruu out.]
Captain Maruu smiled to himself. His Chief Engineer was a perfectionist about the ship. But, of course, that was a job requirement.
"Sir, we've got something very strange readings in Shuttle Bay Two," Tara told him. "It looks like a ship, no, it's the LaForge, has decloaked down there." Immediately, Maruu knew that trouble was going to begin. But, he had no idea how much.
"Explanation," Maruu demanded.
That's when the klaxon sounded.
"Captain," said Ensign Tara from his station at Tactical, "I'm getting reports from security. A phaser was fired in the Chief Security Officer's office. The security team has not arrived at the scene yet."
By the Prophets! Solacetta got to his second First Officer. He couldn't afford to loose any more. "Maruu to Lataro."
Nothing.
"Lataro, Acknowledge!"
Nothing.
Hopefully he had not been present when the phaser was shot, but the evidence wasn't promising. "Find out if anyone is in that office."
"A security team just arrived. They report that the office is empty," the Tactical Officer told his captain. He was just as worried as Maruu was. Lataro had been his friend and role model since this mission began.
"Damn it. I'm going down to Shuttle Bay Two." I will stop her from taking anyone else away from me. No one else may die!
[K'Lara to the captain. The LaForge has just decloaked in Shuttle Bay Two and now there is phaser fire in Lataro's office!]
"I know, Commander. I'm headed down to your position now. Just don't let Solacetta away if she's in there."
Captain Maruu headed for the turbolift. "Mr. Tara, you have the bridge."
K'Lara had just begun to assemble parts of the hull when the power flashed for a second time. Suddenly, a ship began to decloak inside the shuttle bay. It was the LaForge. It was hovering above her, but when the cloak was disengaged it began to fall. K'Lara and the other crewmen dove to the floor. K'Lara covered her head with her hands as if they would protect her when an eight-ton shuttlecraft landed on her.
The shuttlecraft got closer and closer to the floor until, only two feet away from K'Lara's head, it stop and regained it's hover. The Klingon rolled out from under it and pulled out her phaser. That's when a klaxon went off.
"Garza," since they had become friends through Jon, they always ignored titles, "turn that alarm off. We know what's going on." He ran to the nearest panel and stopped the alarm.
The klaxon went off again.
"I told you to turn that off, Garza." Immediately, he began a more thorough search of the ship's systems.
"It's a...it's a ship wide alert. There's been phaser fire in Commanders Lataro's office."
Oh God! This is not happening. Not to my Jon! thought K'Lara.
"K'Lara to the captain. The LaForge has just decloaked in Shuttle Bay Two and now there is phaser fire in Lataro's office!"
[I know, Commander. I'm headed down to your position now. Just don't let Solacetta away if she's in there.]
Thomas Galen started taking some readings. "According to my readings, the ship is empty."
That's when three forms began to materialize in the air where the LaForge was. It was Lataro, Valdago, and Solacetta. Lataro seemed to be in a bad position with Valdago holding a phaser rifle and Solacetta standing near them. When they were fully materialized and the ship's artificial gravity could affect them again, they fell down and landed on top of the LaForge. Solacetta and Valdago were able to land fairly well, but Lataro's body crashed limply upon the roof of the shuttlecraft.
K'Lara aimed her phaser at Valdago who held a rifle. She fired and had a direct hit, but it had still been set on stun and the effect was only an extremely angry Valdago. He aimed his phaser rifle and took out all four crewmembers one at a time in a matter of seconds.
"We've got to hurry. We won't have much time," the android pointed out. She jumped off the shuttlecraft. Valdago handed the body of Lataro down to her. "Cover me while I open the shuttle bay doors."
Valdago aimed his rifle at the main entrance while Solacetta dragged the First Officer into the LaForge. After a short while, the captain came running into the large room.
"Where's Solacetta?" he asked immediately. Then he turned and saw the other crewmen, then he turned back to Valdago and saw the phaser rifle in his hands. "So, it's come to this. I thought you were with us."
"You don't understand. I need to do this." The shuttle bay doors began to open. A force field held the air in place. The two looked at each other for a second. Solacetta quietly looked out of the shuttle to see what was happening. Then, utilizing his more advanced eye sight, Valdago noticed a twitch in the captain's phaser hand. He fired his weapon. Maruu fell to the ground unconscious.
"I knew where you stood. Let's go before another security team comes down here," the android told her companion.
Valdago walked into the LaForge. As it started to rise, a security team entered. They fired at the shuttle, but it's shields were up. The LaForge then flew through the force field (the shield harmonics were set to match) and flew into space. Once there, Solacetta lowered the shields and engaged the cloaking device.