Must not Fail

Harris leaned over to Rashad who was sitting at her seat also monitoring the power fluctuations. "Lieutenant, could that have been caused by a redirection of power to the communication array." He whispered.

"As in someone from Star Fleet Intelligence ?" Rashad responded.

"Yes."

"It is possible. But the power signatures are very different from what I am familiar with. You ?"

*Yes, Commander.* Thought Rashad sadly. *I sincerely want to tell you what I have found out, but unfortunately I cannot risk blowing my own cover. I have been on the trail of this operative for two and a half days now and so far I have only been able to establish it's mission and place Captain Devore's quarters under surveillance to protect his safety. Now it looks like the whole crew is depending on me.... I must not fail...*

Commander Harris called the Captain to the Bridge. Moment later Devore came on the Bridge whereby, Commander Harris immediately told him about the spy he suspected to be on the ship. The Captain brushed it off as a joke at first, but then took it seriously as the Executive Officer commented that the spy was responsible for the sabotage.

*I must get to that operative before he/she harms anyone else or destroys the ship. Prophets be with me, I wish there was someone on this crew I could trust enough to tell them what I know about this case without the danger of exposing my cover... As it is, I am alone to deal with this situation and to eliminate the threat. Ah well, such is the life of a Section 31 field officer... I must not fail...*

Suddenly the alarm on the Engineering consoles went off signifying more severe malfunctions. Captain Devore turned away from Rashad and Commander Harris for just a moment giving enough time for some "invisible" hands to grab Rashad from behind. Just as she was about to use one of her martial arts techniques on her assailant, she felt a sharp stabbing pain in the back of her neck and passed out. Instantly she dematerialized off the bridge. The exchange took twenty seconds.

Rashad's eyes slowly opened. Her whole body was aching as if she had been thrown around in a shuttle accident. She immediately tried to get onto her feet, but was too dizzy to gain foothold and ended up in a sitting position only. Only then did she noticed that the top of her uniform was partially cut and stained green- blood! Her blood. She tried to reach up and feel the wound as instinct but realized that her hands were restrained at the wrists with sonic handcuffs.

"Ah, you are awake, T'Kul." Came the voice from the dark corner of the semi-lit room. "I should have done this days ago ! Now all your snooping has jeopardized my whole mission !"

"And what would that be ? Probably cowardly cold-blooded murder no doubt !" Both of her Vulcanoid eyebrows rose.

"I am just following orders, Lieutenant !" The figure got up and stepped a little closer to Rashad and as the Intel Officer's eyes got used to the dim lights, she recognized the new Engineering officer who had been replacing Lieutenant Shaka at her Slipstream post for the past week. He was still even in his gold uniform. It was... Lieutenant Anderson. "However, now that you know too much, you have to die and it will be my great pleasure to make your death as slow and as painful as possible. I also know how the Romulans take failure... and, believe me, you will see the result of your failure first hand ! Captain Devore will die right in front of your very eyes, Rashad !"

"Lieutenant Anderson !" The Romulan-Bajoran could no longer contain her outrage. "I should have known that it was you ! A new officer appears and, suddenly the only Slipstream drive specialist on the ship gets poisoned and then the new officer replaces her ! So it was YOU who did this to Shaka !"

Despite her daze Rashad jumped onto her feet and lunged forward at "Anderson", somehow managing to hit him with the edges of her cuffed hands. That was the full extent of her success, however, for, at the next moment she felt waves of pain going thought her body, making all her muscles convulse with intense burning, almost forcing her to scream out and blow her cover on the ship. After a few moments, the waves appeared to subside. When Rashad's eyes finally refocused, the Section 31 assassin stood almost right above her with a phaser aimed at her head. In his left hand he was holding a small flat device appearing to be a remote control of some kind.

"You see, T'Kul..." An evil grin appeared on the man's face as he could not stop himself laughing. "I was with Section 31 back when you were an insignificant five-year-old snotty rebel on Bajor ! There is nothing you can do to me that I won't be able to counter, Romulan half-breed ! And, while you were unconscious, I took the liberty of cutting you open just below your left collar bone and inserting a Cardassian pain device under your skin. Now you are are "wired" for pain and I have the control ! This is going to be MORE fun than I have ever imagined !"

At that moment Anderson's SI Surveillance system went off. It was on the frequency of the ship-wide person to person relay.

[Commander Toran. Yellow Alert. I want you to locate and detain Lieutenant Anderson.] Immediately the Yellow Alert klaxons sounded throughout the ship.

Seizing the moment and not listening any further, the Romulan-Bajoran momentarily fought the pain still residing in her muscles and reached out for the operative's leg. She used her restrained hands to hit the achilles tendon.

"Arrgh! You, Romulan bitch !" Roared Anderson in pain as he dropped his phaser and fell to the deck. Rashad tried to reach for the phaser, but at that moment the assassin regained his balance and kicked her in ribs sending a violent shock through her system. He then reactivated the agoniser again. The waves of sharp pain convulsed the Romulan-Bajoran again.

Unable to control her body or even to yell for help, Rashad turned inward to control her mind. *No...must not...fail...* Her thoughts came through the pain in disjoined chunks. Finally the waves stopped again.

"Aha! Now let us see how much your dear Captain really cares about his crew!" Anderson said as he trained his phaser on Rashad's head. He reach up to tap his combadge.

"No, Anderson." She almost yelled at him in defiance. "You are so wrong ! If the Captain did not care for Lieutenant Beard or Dr. Clairidge then do you think he is really gonna be lured here for a life of an Intel operative, whom his whole crew have grown to despise ? Don't take him for a fool !"

"We shall see about that, T'Kul !" Anderson said as he gave out another evil laugh and tapped his combadge. "Devore, Anderson here. Come to Holodeck 16 if you do not want your Romulan half-breed Intelligence Officer to die ! And you'd better come alone !"

So that's where he had brought her ! The disused training holodeck three levels above the Engineering Section... Now she finally realized why she had not recognized it up until now. There had been rarely an occasion that the crew had to use this holodeck, which was serving mainly as a "spare". And now, with the malfunctions all over the ship, even the normal "grid" was not functioning leaving only the emergency lights...

"Captain, no....! It's a trap !" Rashad tried to yell as the assassin activated the agoniser again.

[Go to hell, Anderson !] The Captain yelled. Rashad heard the scanty controlled rage in the Captain's voice, through her burning pain. [Desist your activities right now and surrender or my crew will hunt you down and kill you !]

"Let us see that, Captain !" Laughed the assassin again. "You have fifteen minutes to show up here before Rashad buys a one way ticked to Vor Tavor and I start working my way up the ranks of your crew !"

The waves finally stopped. This time it seemed like five whole minutes, yet Rashad used the utmost of the logic training she had received during the Vulcan Science Academy years to keep her consciousness, even if at a very bare level...

[This is the Captain ! Hostage situation in Holodeck 16 ! Security teams report there immediately !] The voice transmitted through the relay device. Rashad heard a floating voice in mind that echoed in her ears.

*Must not...fail..* She was becoming delirious as, losing touch of all coordinates but those of the assassin, she used the Vulcan telepathy, taught to her eight years before, to force her heavy body to move and suddenly kicked him in the groin and the midsection by flexing and extending her legs. The shock of the kicks made him discharge the phaser before he dropped it and the beam narrowly missed Rashad's head by only a few standard centimeters. Now springing onto her feet she managed to somehow grab hold of the phaser, immediately pointing it at Anderson.

"You bitch !" He yelled out as he tried to reach for the controls of his personal transporter.

"Areinnye'n-hnah, y'kllhe!" <<Go to Hell, you worm!>> She growled at the top of her voice in Romulan, as she vaporized the momentarily horrified figure of the saboteur and the would-be assassin.

*Phew,* She thought to herself, raising her eyebrow, in the same poetic language she had just used to curse an enemy, as the logic training could not control her muscles any more and she collapsed to the deck. *I surely haven't handled any of such people when I served in the JAG Department...*

"What did I tell you before, Lieutenant ?" The face of Commander Harris floated as the Executive Officer holstered his phaser... Then the face of Lieutenant Commander Toran floated past and everything blacked out again.