The Retreat : Off With His Head

Previously..

"Captain, no ! It's a trap ! He will kill you !" Yelled Rashad at that moment as she and Ensign Morriden reached the front of the moving crew.

She drew her weapon, but too late, the boy already had the shuriken in his hand. "You are all very dumb." Sounded the voice of Darwin as the boy spoke. "I will be glad to eliminate you all as part of natural evolution... starting with your Captain !" He roared with laughter and was about to throw the shuriken straight at the Captain's head, when with a smooth swoosh of his sword Eran Dakul cut off the boy's arm.

The throwing star missed the Captain's head and got imbedded in one of the supposedly stone walls of the catacomb.

Surprised, the boy looked at the stump remaining of his right arm and then...roared with laughter. "You may kill me, but I am not as easy to defeat as that !"

This time Rashad and Morriden were close enough and the Romulan-Bajoran drew her sword straight through the boy's midsection. Miko fell to the ground and then immediately dissipated, but strangely, the laughter continued to reverberate through the tunnel as, suddenly, Sq`uerei, with the drawn sword that Rashad had given her, appeared straight in front of the Captain...

Now...

"Got it." Chu remarked as the laugher of Darwin died down. Chu had been scanning the area with the medical tricorder he'd brought into the retreat. He'd surmised that there was a high probability that with the holodecks malfunctioning, the safety protocols may have been effected and as such had expected injuries to the crew. As he'd found out when he and Sierra had arrived, the safety protocols were off-line, but not due to any malfunction. The medical tricorder wasn't much use to the crew whilst they were in the tunnels, it was designed to scan through biological tissue not solid rock, be it real or holographic.

However Chu had managed to adjust the tricorder to track holographic movement, in the hope of tracing Darwin. So far his efforts had been fruitless, he'd managed to detect all the holographic character, bar Darwin. Even the boy Miko had appeared holographic. Chu now knew that Miko was Darwin in another form and now he knew why his scans hadn't traced Darwin.

Chu looked up and saw that the Dalerian Sq'uerei had draw the sword Rashad had given him. From Chu's position towards the rear of the group it looked at first as if he was going to strike the Captain down. Both Rashad and Morriden appeared to be reacting to the offensive manner of the large alien, when Sq'uerei sliced the head off the Captain. Everyone stood motionless for a moment, then the headless body of Devore dissipated into the air.

Chu walked forward and scanned the area where moments before the Captain had stood.

Rashad and Dakul now had Sq'uerei pinned against the wall, with blades at his throat. Sq'uerei for his part made not attempt to escape the grip. Given his size and bulk, Chu doubted whether the two Starfleet officers would be able to hold him if he tried.

"Rashad, Dakul, let him go." Chu said, rising from the crouched position.

"Why ?" Dakul asked.

"We should kill him where he stands. He's just killed the Captain, how can you be so calm about it ?" Rashad remarked.

"Because he didn't." Chu replied, showing Rashad and Dakul the tricorder readings. "He killed a holographic representation of the Captain."

"That was a hologram ?" Rashad said.

"Yes, just like the skeletal warriors we fought a few hours ago. Losing the head destroyed the matrix, again just like the skeletons." Chu replied.

"Then where's the Captain ?" Dakul asked.

"He could be anywhere." Morriden replied.

Major Phanan gripped the Ensign by the throat and pinned him against the wall. "This is all your doing isn't it." He shouted.

Again Lieutennat Commander Barker had to calm the situation. "Major, we'll get nowhere if we fight amongst ourselves. That's exactly what Darwin wants, whilst we're fighting each other Darwin can evade us and do who knows what to the Captain."

Slowly the Major released his grip. "If the Captain's harmed, you'll be the next to lose his head."

Chu sighed and then turned back to the Dalerian and asked. "How did you know ?"

"He didn't smell right. My race have a keen sense of smell when close up, but I was with you at the back of the group. It was only when I moved forward to help defend the group against the boy that I noticed. He had the same smell as the skeletons." Sq'uerei replied.

"Sorry." Dakul said as he release his hold on Sq'uerei.

Rashad just grunted, but like the security officer released her grip.

"So where is the Captain ?" Dakul asked again.

"Try to remember if any of you lost sight of the Captain and Miko, if only for a moment." Chu stated.

Rashad and Dakul both thought hard.

"The only time I can think of was when you tripped, Rashad." Dakul said.

"You're right." Rashad replied. "You helped me back up and we found the Captain and Miko waiting for us around a corner. We probably lost sight of the Captain for six to ten seconds."

"Then that must be when Darwin made the switch." Chu replied.

"OK, so how do we find the Captain ?" Major Phanan asked.

"By going this way." Chu said pointing to the left.

"Are you picking up the Captain's bio-signature." Rashad asked.

"No, Darwin's." Chu replied, pressing a finger to his lip. "Come and have a look."

Chu then signalled Rashad and Jon over and showed them a message on the screen.

The message read.

The walls have ears, be careful what you say. Darwin is not a hologram, he is some kind of technology, that has infected the hologrid. He is the holodeck and he can change it at any moment.

Morriden started to come over, but Chu had already erased the message from the screen. Instead a steady single blip on the screen showed the location of Darwin or so Chu hoped. Where there was Darwin, there was likely to be the Captain. Somehow all of Darwin's energy was aimed at the Captain, the rest of the group was just along for the ride.

Meanwhile..

The Captain awoke in a small room. At first it was very dark, but as his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he could make out banks of monitors and controls. He stood up and started to walk towards the monitors, but was prevented by some kind of force field. Just then the lights came up and blinded the Captain once more. He'd experienced this intense light before, when he and Miko had turned a corner. He couldn't remember what happened next, he couldn't remember anything until he woke up in this room.

"So how are you feeling now Captain ?" Darwin asked.

Devore's sight slowly returned he saw the figure of Darwin stood in the centre of the room. Devore now saw the room for what it was. Unlike everything else in this holographic recreation, this was modern, almost futuristic. The walls were indeed covered in banks of monitors, flicking from image to image. Darwin's attention was totally focussed on the screens. Each image showed an area of the castle, it was almost as if Darwin was searching for something, probably the rest of the crew. It looked as if the crew had managed to evade Darwin's camera's.