Benton walked over to where Spot's cage was sitting on the floor to check if Spot was okay. He froze. Spot was gone!
"Oh dear..."
Well, there was no use looking, Spot was quite good at eluding search parties. And there was no use calling Spot's name in hopes that Spot would return, Tribbles didn't have ears. If Spot wanted to wander off like that, that was his own business. He'd be back as soon as his craving for jelly doughnuts became too overpowering. Benton just hoped he didn't cause any alarm amongst the rest of the crew if he popped up in unexpected places. Based on the way Spot was welcomed a few hours ago, Benton had his misgivings, but Spot could take care of himself. He was half Glommer, after all.
It was cold. Damn cold. The place: Siberia. Garek was dressed in winter survival gear. His snow pants and parka were snow white. The perfect camouflage out here. He re-did his gloves and then checked his goggles again. Garek reached into his parka and took out the chief weapon of most MI Six agents. His Walter PPK.
Their was a a full clip loaded in the gun. He had two extra on his belt. This is it. Time to make my move. Garek got up and snuck in towards the radar facility. His mission: disable the radar dish, which is transmitting a signal to an orbital satellite containing a nuclear weapon. If detonated, this weapon would reign an electromagnetic pulse all over the countryside disabling all electric equipment within a 250 mile radius.
He ran forward up to the door. He looked through a small window and saw two guards. Garek took out the PPK and attached a silencer. He looked down the outside wall of the building and saw a ladder. Garek began climbing. As he reached the top, he saw what he was looking for. A maintenance hatch that led to a nearby staircase.
Garek descended the staircase. He leaned up against the wall and peered around the corner. There were the two guards he saw through the window. He turned and fired. Garek scored a clean hit in one of the guard's torsos. He dropped to the floor. Shooting again, he shot the second guard in the knee, then in the chest. He dropped to the floor.
Garek moved swiftly, picking up the soldiers' weapons. An AK-47. One of the world's most powerful weapons (for the 20th century at least). He took the clips that the other soldier was carrying and stored them in a jacket pocket. He loaded the assault rifle and headed up the stairs once again.
He finally came across the door to the control room. It was locked by an electronic key panel. Garek reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device. The device fit into the the key card slot easily. It then began cycling through the different number combinations on the key pad. Finally, it scrolled down to the digits, and the door unlocked.
Garek kicked the door open and waited for gunfire. There was none. He proceeded in slowly. The room was empty. It seemed easy. A little too easy. He moved in a little bit more, then the gunfire started.
He ducked behind a control panel. It was an automated gun turret. Two ceiling mounted machine gun turrets. Exactly what he needed. Reaching onto his belt, he pulled out a "sticky" bomb. It was simply a magnetic bomb that he could arm for a set amount of time, throw it against a wall, and it would stick there.
He set the timer for 10 seconds. Garek then pressed the arming button, and the counter counted down. Ten...nine... He threw the sticky grenade, and it hit the turret. He counted mentally.
Five...four...three...two...one... There was a horrendous boom. The ceiling mounted gun turret exploded. He peered back up, and all that was left was a piece of smoking, twisted metal. Excellent.
Garek rose quickly and ran over to the main computer terminal. He powered down the satellite dish. Then, he took out a package of C4 explosives. Garek attached the explosives to the back of the console. Attaching a timing device to the explosives, he set them for two minutes. He then started the timer and ran out of the building.
Garek took up position behind a snow bank. "Three...two...one..." The satellite dish blew up in a cloud of thick, black smoke. A ball of orange flame shot up from the control room. The building then started to collapse upon itself. The dish fell in through the building, smashing into the ground. "Now, to get out of here."
He reached into his pocket, and pulled out the plans that were made out. He was to locate the runway that was near the facility, and steal one of the small transport planes that are in use. Then, what Garek had feared the most, happened.
<Time limit expiring. Please save program now, or it will not be saved.>
Damn! Stupid two-hour time limit. "Computer, save program Loran Bond Three."
<Program saved. Program time expired.> The holodeck reverted back to it's familiar black and yellow grid. The temperature changed from a frigid 13 degrees Fahrenheit to a balmy 70. Garek took off the parka and slung it over his shoulder. He figured it was for the best, since he had some work to be doing. The giant holodeck doors in front of him opened, and he exited.
The Lambda Flier sat in Shuttle Bay Two. Scorch marks gave her hull a sense of character. They didn't, however, work well with the white Federation paint. They would have to be removed, along with multiple shield projector modules. Without wasting any time, he went to work. The first bit of work today was the life support air filtration systems, the phaser cannons, and the cloaking device. Tomorrow, or possibly tonight, the sensor suite.
Garek entered the command code, opening the main access hatch. He walked in, seeing a blown out engineering panel, and an access panel blown out of the wall. Figures, he thought. At least the warp core is intact. He walked over to the blown out panel and opened up his engineering kit. The main problem that he could see was a fried ODN network module. This module was similar to the ones in Engineering. Garek, tapping his com badge, said, "Ensign Ek'Ra, please have one ODN module brought to Shuttle Bay Two. I'll be needing it."
[Sure thing, Lieutenant. I'll have Crewman Phanan bring it down in a moment.]
"Thanks, Ek'Ra. Loran out." One problem solved... Garek looked at a PADD containing damaged elements of the craft. ...another 23 to go.
"So, what was it like down there?" K'Lara walked with her arm in that of Commander Lataro's. They were walking towards the Mess Hall to have some lunch with each other.
"Actually, it all wasn't that bad, considering..."
"Considering what?" She looked into his eyes.
"Well, considering the fact that I wasn't killed, and I taught a people to stand up for themselves as a whole." Lataro smiled at her.
"Well, I guess you're right then." She rested her head on his shoulder. "So, you just have to tell me more about Nalia."
"Why? Are you jealous?" He grinned playfully at her.
K'Lara shot him a playful evil stare, and they continued down the hallway.
Lieutenent Benton was readily adjusting to his new life on the Virgo. Spot was "sitting" on his bed, eating the remainder of his breakfast. A quarter of a bagel and some links of sausage. "Now, be sure to behave yourself when I'm not here. The last thing I need is you making anymore trouble. I'm lucky Jenara found you before you managed to make your way to the Mess Hall."
The small creature stirred, appearing to be annoyed by that comment.
Benton smiled and pet the creature. He then started to make his way to Shuttle Bay One, where he was to meet Lt. Loran.
<The time is now 1400 hours.>
"Dammit! Already?" Garek sighed. He had just finished work on a damaged ODN network and Engineering display. He didn't, however, want to be late for his meeting with Benton. Garek had been itching to see the transwarp shuttle, but just hadn't found the time to do so. Garek closed up the engineering kit and then exited the Lambda Flier. He tapped a panel locking the fighter and left Shuttle Bay Two on his way to Shuttle Bay One.
Arriving in the main Shuttle Bay, he saw Lieutenant Benton already standing next to the shuttle. "Ah, Lieutenent Loran. Glad you could make it. I know you're a very busy person."
"To say the least," Garek replied. He looked over the shuttle. It appeared normal except for some noticeable "bulges" on the rear of the warp nacelles and a large deflector dish. He also noticed what appeared to be some panels that probably opened during flight for something. "So, let's open this thing up." Garek followed Benton around to the back of the shuttle. Benton opened the rear panel, and both men stepped in.
Benton stepped forward into the cockpit and powered up the panels. "I'm rerouting engineering controls to your panels now."
Garek sat down in the starboard seat and looked over the panels. The main display showed a diagram of the transwarp drive. From what Garek could gather, the transwarp drive was powered by an enhanced dilithium crystal matrix. Nearly that of trilithium. The neural gel pack ODN network was replaced with some type of network that he had never seen before. It seemed to be make up of a mix of reprogrammed Borg nanoprobes floating in electrically charged neural gel. He'd have to talk with Dr. Dana about this.
"Very impressive," Garek said as he looked over the schematics. "The warp nacelles don't appear to be made of duranium."
"Because they're not," Benton offered. He watched as Garek gave him a confused look. "Duranium wouldn't be able to stand up to the pressure of transwarp flight. They're a mixture of a highly tempered ablative armored duranium and triadium."
"Triadium?" Garek asked. He had never heard of such a material before.
"Triadium is an enhanced version of duranium. We found it in debris of Borg ships and found that it withstood the pressures of transwarp flight. However, we haven't been able to find any of this metal in the Alpha Quadrant. The Romulans won't grant us permission to look for it in their portion of the Beta Quadrant, and we can't go deep into the Gamma Quadrant for obvious reasons with the Dominion."
"I'm wondering..." Garek trailed off.
"Pardon me?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. We have captured a Kirusan vessel. It's sitting in one of our cargo bays. It contained a type of metal that I wasn't able to identify. Perhaps this is the metal we need."
"It's a good possibility. We haven't searched the Gamma Quadrant as I've said before. I'd be glad to help if you need anything."
"I might just take you up on that. Thanks a lot." Benson nodded and headed out of the shuttle, leaving Garek alone with his thoughts.