"Oh dear," Benton said as he landed face first in the dirt. Immediately, Commander Lataro and Lt. Tomme were at his side trying to help him up. He arose filthy from the dirt and the dust which he calmly wiped away.
"What happened?" Lataro asked.
"I don't know. I seem to be in what looked like to be some sort of control room," Benton said. "Sir? You look sort of red. Are you okay?"
"Yes, Lieutenant. I seem to have a run in with a ray of light." Then, a familiar noise began to resonate in the room. "Everybody. Quiet. Listen. That is the same sound we heard before you disappeared. Quickly; huddle together. Hopefully if we are together they would not be able to lock on to us."
The three of them quickly huddled together. The noise grew louder and louder, similar to the noise preceding the abduction of Benton, which caused them to cup their ears. Just as it reached the familiar pitch, Lataro disappeared in a disintegrating blue light.
"Jon!" Jenara yelled. "Oh no!" Jenara cried and burst into tears anew as she sat back down on the bunk. "What will they do to him?" she said, speaking her thoughts aloud. She didn't expect an answer. "This is like some horrid nightmare that I keep hoping we'll wake up from. I can't even control my own emotions." She sniffed and wiped at the tears on her cheek as she failed to try to settle herself down.
Gently, Benton sat down next to her and tentatively placed an arm around her shoulder. Taking the opportunity, she turned to him and buried her face in his chest and continued to cry. Though he wasn't quite sure what to do next, he simply held her and let her tears fall. It seemed to be enough, but no sooner had she started to quiet down, when the sound started again. "No," she whispered, sensing who the next target would be.
"NO!" she screamed and vanished in the intense blue light.
In a room unlike the other, Lataro was restrained on a large steel table, sprawled on his back. His uniform had been removed, and he now was completely naked; the cold metal made squirm as its coolness touched his back. Benton's description of the room could not be verified, because the large, intense light that the aliens had shone directly in his eyes. All he saw was a bright spot each time he tried to look into the darkness.
"What is your purpose?" a mechanical voice said again, just as it did earlier.
"What do you mean 'purpose'? I am Jonathan Lataro, Commander of the Federation Starship Virgo. We are on a m..." An electric surge pulsated through his body that loaded his senses with intense pain. Lataro arched his back off the table then finally it stopped. The pulse, which lasted a second, felt like it had lasted an hour.
"Why are you here?"
"Fine!" Lataro said with his eyes closed enjoying the moment of relief. "My crew and I are here on an exploration mission."
"Why are you here on Calista?"
"Calista? The asteroid belt?"
"Yes."
"We are here to mine for mineral we need for fuel."
"You mean the megnazite?"
"If that is what you call it."
"Oh." The voice seem to trail off. "You are not here to conquer."
"Conquer what? This hole in the rock?"
"This 'hole', as you say, is our home. We are do not want intrusion from any outsider. We have taken great means to hide ourselves from our enemies."
"Well you did a poor job. The trilithium is nicely stockpiled and the caverns are nicely laid out. That makes a miner happy to see his work is all done for him."
"We see. You have not answered our question. What is your purpose?"
"Purpose? What do you mean: 'purpose'?"
"Well if you are not going to tell us then we will have to find out for ourselves." Suddenly, from the darkness, Lataro heard a whirring sound, similar to a dentist's drill. Then something came into the light. It was a octagonal tool with eight tools each equipped with something that looked like medical tools. Lataro felt a sudden pain in his neck then light the disappeared. Lataro was unconscious.
Slowly, her senses were returning. She could hear voices talking amongst themselves. It was a language that took a second for the universal translator to work on. But she kept her eyes shut, though she wanted to know where she was. What was certain is that she felt cold steel against her back and knew she was lying on an examination table.
"She is unlike the others," a strangely mechanical voice said.
"Yes...we have watched her change her shape at will," another voice replied. "But what is the function of woman?"
"According to the physiology, the woman is necessary for reproduction," said a third voice. "Look at this. It is as if the other subject's anatomy is this woman's other half. Where she is lacking, he has."
"I see. Then we much see."
Though nothing further was said, she could sense them considering some new idea. "Then it is decided," the first voice said. There seemed to be an air of agreement. She didn't seem to like the sound of things. Something ominous was in the air. But just as quickly, she was hit by a blinding pain that emanated from her temples. Suddenly, she realized with a sick heart they were scanning her brain. Unconsciousness came swiftly.
As her consciousness returned once again, she found herself in a chamber alone. She was on a cot of some type. Her head was still aching. She was also very hot. Suddenly, a hand touched her cheek. As her eyes fluttered open, she saw Jon looking down at her. Worry was etched into his face. "I'm glad you're awake," he said. "I was starting to think you were never going come around."
"How long have I been here?" she asked, trying to sit up, but Jon made her remain in place.
"At least for the last three hours. What did they do to you?" he asked, as he gently touched the marks on her temples. Suddenly, Jenara couldn't remember. "I don't know," she replied. There was no mistaking the electricity in the air around them, as Jon gently caressed Jenara's face once more. As their eyes met, they knew what was happening was wrong. But it was also unstoppable. As he leaned toward her, she was ready for his kiss. Nothing at that moment mattered, but them.
Watching from the control room, the beings exchanged smiles. The pheromones released in the room had made it quite impossible for the humans to resist the urge to be with one another. But did it work on all humans? They wondered.
"It would seem that our first test has been a success. When shall we conduct the next test?"
Looking at the screen, the leader smirked. "Observe them. Once they have completed this mating ritual, then begin preparing for the next test."
Jenara and Jon held each with a blanket wrapped around their form. But suddenly, they were started, as that ominous sound began again. Tears sprang to Jenara's eyes. She didn't know why, but she was frightened. "Not again!" she cried. But instantly, they both disappeared in a beam of blue light.
"Wipe his memory of this event and prepare his return."
"Yes, sir."
"Once the next test is complete, repeat the process with the other two. They must not remember any of this."
"I understand."
Benton heard the familiar sound of the transporter beam and watched as Jenara's form was deposited in front of him. Immediately, he was on his feet as she collapsed right into his arms. Regaining herself, she quickly stood up. She was clad in nothing but a silken shift. Her auburn tresses cascading down her back.
"Are you all right?" he said, helping her sit on the bunk.
"I don't know," she replied. "I can't remember anything."
He touched her temples where the marks from the scan still appeared. "They've harmed you," he replied.
What the couple failed to sense was the chamber getting flooded with pheromones that immediately began attacking their senses.
"This is like some strange nightmare where nothing makes sense," she said, tears spilling from her green eyes to trickle down her cheeks. Immediately, Benton looked for something to hand her to wipe away the tears, but there wasn't anything. Instead, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and held her as she cried. He did, however, notice a change in his thoughts toward her. He felt a way he never had before, and his thoughts were picked up by Jenara. She gazed up at him, and knew what was happening. Sensing that he wasn't accustomed to encounters such as these, she leaned toward him, gently caressed his face and kissed him.
"I don't know what's going on, Benton," she said, "but I want you...and I know you want me too."
She was immediately greeted with a kiss that he initiated. Something seemed very familiar about this whole thing, but she was lost in the emotions. She would have to think about it later. Little did she know that later would give her a puzzle that she wouldn't be able to solve.
Lataro was now in the original quarters fully clothed. He looked around, still trying to find a way out. Suddenly, the noise again started, and the missing crew members appeared. Benton and Tomme were now standing in front of him. "Lieutenants. You all right?"
"Yes, sir," Benton said grabbing on to the bed pole. His head swam in circles. Lt. Tomme sat down on the bunk, trying hard to remember what happened. She wasn't sure what happened, but she did feel different.
"Lt. Tomme? You all right?"
"Yes, Commander. A little light headed."
"Okay. We have been playing around long enough. It is time to get out of here. Look what I found." It was a phaser. "I can't believe our captors would be that incompetent, but I don't care. I have had enough." Lataro aimed at a wall and fired full setting.
"Commander!" Benton yelled as the walls dematerialized. Now they stood in a gigantic lab.
"I am tired of this game!" Lataro yelled. "Either you let us go or I start blasting away at everything in sight."
"As you wish." The omnipresent voice said.
"Captain, something happening to the transporter. It started initiating on its own." Suddenly, before Captain Maruu could respond, three forms appeared: Commander Lataro, Lt. Benton and Lt. Tomme. "Its them! Its the away team!"
The three members of the ill-fated landing party were unconscious when they reappeared in the Virgo's transporter room. Lieutenant Loran was manning the controls himself during the crisis. As the three crumpled to the deck, he was already on the intercom to sickbay calling for the medics.
Dr. Nori was rushing from biobed to biobed waving her medical tricorder over her three new patients. "Well, there doesn't seem to be any permanent physical damage to any of them," she said to K'Lara, who was standing as close to Lataro's biobed as the good doctor would let her.
K'Lara looked relieved. She asked, "When can I talk to Jon, Doctor?"
"I'd rather not give them a stimulant, but they should be coming out of it on their own any second now," replied the doctor.
As if on cue, all three patients began stirring.
As the world swam back into focus for Benton, the first thing he saw was Dana Nori working over him with her tricorder. He tried to speak. "Nurse..." was all he could utter. He was still a little groggy.
Nori looked up from her tricorder and said to Benton, "I think you mean 'Doctor'."
Benton looked confused, but before he could pursue the subject he was grabbed from the other side of the biobed by a young, brown-haired woman. She hugged him tightly, lifting him partway off the bed. She had his arms pinned at his sides by her embrace, so he was basically immobile and at her mercy.
The young woman was saying, practically sobbing, "Oh Benton! I was so worried!" She had pretty much squeezed the breath out of Benton by now, so he couldn't reply. Then the young woman seemed to remember that other people were watching, and she tried to regain her composure. She released Benton from her embrace, but Benton wasn't prepared. He fell back and banged his head on the panel at the top of the biobed.
"Ow," he said.
The young woman winced and said, "Ooh! Sorry 'bout that."
"That's all right...aah...Ensign...aah..."
The young woman looked hurt. She said, "It's me! Francesca!"
"Ah. I see. Do I know you?" asked Benton.
Francesca was startled by this question. She looked at Dana. Dana resumed scanning with her tricorder. Benton waited expectantly. After a few seconds, she said, "I can't find anything wrong with you, Lieutenant."
Benton sat up. "Actually, I feel fine. What's been happening? Why am I in sickbay?" Benton looked around the room confusedly. When his gaze landed on Lataro, he exclaimed, "Captain! Are you all right?"
Now it was Lataro's turn to look confused. He said, "I'm fine, Lieutenant. But I'm not the captain. Stephen Maruu is."
Benton's face registered shock. "Captain Maruu is alive?!"
"Either you bumped your head a lot harder than it looked like when Ensign Milano dropped you, or there's something very strange going on here." Milano shot him a look. After a moment, Lataro continued sardonically, "I mean, something strange on top of the fact that we all just woke up in sickbay with no memories of what happened after we beamed to the asteroid."
Dana was watching this exchange. Now she said, "Well, if you all are finished with your 'who's who', you can get out of my sickbay."
"Doctor?" said Lataro.
"I'm certifying you all fit for duty, Commander. Of course, I'm still going to have to run tests to determine why you can't remember anything, or why Benton's memory is mixed up, but there's nothing physically wrong with any of you.
"Very well, doctor. In that case, Tomme, Benton, report to your duty stations," said Lataro as he started towards the sickbay doors.
Benton hopped off his bed and headed out of sickbay himself. Francesca followed him. As the sickbay doors closed behind them, Francesca could be heard saying, "What do you mean you don't remember me?"
Jenara had been dismissed early. But in her quarters she looked at her mirror and noticed that she was glowing. What happened to me? She began to think as the feeling of nausea set in. She was very tired and, in fact, hardly had the energy to pull herself out of bed to get ready for her shift. As she stood up from her bed, she immediately felt sick and rushed to her bathroom, retching into the sink. She immediately tapped her com badge. "Tomme to Dr. Nori, I'm going to need to see you right away."
"You're sure you don't remember anything when the away team vanished?" Dana asked.
Jenara shook her head. "Not a thing. It's like a blank in my memory."
"Well," Dana continued, "there's a reason that you're sick. You're pregnant."
Jenara's eyes opened wide. "What?!"
"About three weeks. The baby is half Tanzaran and half human. Who is the father so that we can notify them and do a work up on them as well."
"Honestly, Doctor, I don't know."
"How is that? You are not a virgin are you?"
"No, not at all."
"Then how don't you know who the father is?"
"I don't know." She lowered her eyes.
"Well, we can find out later when the baby is more developed where we can do a DNA scan."
"Pregnant...?" echoed Jenara as her eyes hit the floor. "I don't even remember what happened and what's everyone going to think?" she said, shaking her head in disbelief.