Betrayed : Inside

“So…” The man sat at the large desk said thoughtfully. “My sister-in-law has been busy these past few weeks.”

“It would appear so.” The man standing on the other side of the desk replied. “We’ve not identified the man, but he must have had some Intelligence training because he managed to lose us yesterday.”

“What I would like to know is why it has taken you so long to discover this betrayal.” Drakara enquired a note of anger in his voice.

“We only started to suspect something last week.” The man replied. “She’s been returning to the house late the past week and we decided to investigate, which is when we discovered her involvement with this man.”

Drakara looked at the image of Dan Dare on the Padd.

“Send the images to our sponsors; see if they can shed any light on his identity.” Drakara ordered. “And put security on high alert, just to be safe.”

“What about Scott ?” The man asked. “Should we take her off to be questioned. ?”

“No leave her for the moment.” Drakara replied. “Just keep a close eye on her, see if she meets her ‘friend’ tonight.”

December 20, 2357 : 22:00 Hours

The alarms suddenly sounded in the complex.

“Report.” Drakara barked as he stepped out of the office.

“We’ve lost contact with the surface.” One of the security officers replied. “We’re preparing to investigate.”

He continued towards the turbolift and joined his five companions in the lift cab.

“Prepare the shuttle for launch.” Drakara ordered. “Download the core and destroy then it.”

Drakara continued across the labs and headed into the living area where the two girls, the results of his latest experiment were housed. The twins were something of a surprise and a disappointment to him. During the pregnancy, something had happened to the single fertilised egg his team had implanted. No-one had realised at the time of implantation that Alice had been ovulating and somehow cells from the implanted egg had interacted with the unfertilised egg released, creating two embryos. Everyone had expected Drakara to terminate the experiment, but he had allowed Alice to carry the twins’ full-term.

Now the girls were six months and their mental and physical development was progressing well. Currently they were working on a puzzle on the desk, fitting each piece in the right position first time.

Drakara continued into the room beyond and closed the door. This was his place, where his most prized possession was kept. He pressed a few buttons on the console and a drawer emerged from the wall. Inside was the cryogenically preserved body of a young woman. Quickly he pulled across the portable cryo-chamber and transferred the body.

There was a loud explosion, followed by a short burst from the fire-suppression systems before the lights and power went out. Then the fire alarms went off and Drakara saw fire starting to take hold in the lab beyond. He closed the door and pushed the cryo-chamber out into the back corridor and towards the escape shuttle.

As he arrived, most of the scientists were already onboard, along with two security officers and Drakara’s brother.

"Where are the twins ?” The younger Drakara asked. “Are they with Alice and Amanda ?.”

“I’ve not seen them.” Drakara lied.

“They must still be in the lab.” His brother stated. “We’ve got to go back for them.”

“There’s no point, the entire complex is on fire.” Drakara stated. “We have all that we need, now get on that shuttle.”

The younger Drakara started to head in the direction of the labs, but his older brother forcefully pushed him back. Nodding to his personnel security guards, they dragged him onto the shuttle. The doors to the shuttle closed and Drakara gave the order to detonate the explosive charges.

Debris fell down as the charges blew a hole in the ground above them and the shuttle rose from the deck and headed out into the air and continued into space.

Amanda Scott had been working in the main lab when the security team had rushed past, heading for the turbolift. She realised something was wrong when Drakara had ordered the destruction of the computer core, then headed to the storage lab.

She knew what was kept there, the “dead lady” as Zack had put it. She’d been very angry at Zack when she’d realised that he’d seen Jesikara, cryogenically frozen. But Jes was far more than just a frozen corpse, she was the key to the entire project, it was her DNA that was being grafted onto embryos, her DNA that was going to save everyone from what was to come.

Quickly she realised that Zack was not in the room with her and she started to look for him. He was to say the least a very inquisitive child and she guessed that he would have followed the security men. She headed towards the turbolift shaft, when suddenly she was knocked backwards by the force of the exploding turbolift cab as it hit the bottom of the shaft.

“Mum….wake up.” Zack said to her as she regained consciousness. He was pulling on her left arm, attempting with little success to get her to her feet.

She attempted to get up, but the pain and the rubble above her prevented her moving. She attempted to speak, but as she opened her mouth dust entered, chocking her. Then she heard another noise and realised that Zack was taking to someone. Moments later, the rubble over her face cleared and she looked into the face of Dan Dare, the man she loved.

He was dressed in some kind of black clothing, bulky as if there was something underneath.

*What is Dan doing here ?* She asked herself, before falling unconscious once more as the pain of her injuries hit her.

She woke up several hours later to bright lights. She attempted to get up once more, this time succeeding and looked around. She was obviously no longer in the complex; she had never seen this room if she was. As she looked around, she saw Zack on a bed across the room, obviously asleep. She attempted to get up off her own bed and get to Zack, but she stumbled and fell to the floor.

Moments later a strong pair of arms came up behind her and lifted her back on the bed. As she turned her head, she saw that it was Dan.

“Zack’s going to be fine.” He announced. “A little bit of smoke inhalation and some cuts and bruises.”

“Where am I ?” Amanda asked.

“Safe.” Dan replied. “As are Zack and the two girls we found in one of the labs, looks like you were all left for dead.”

Amanda started to look at herself more closely and saw for the first time why she had fallen. Her left leg was in a medical splint from thigh to ankle. She also had dermal regeneration patches all over her arms and torso.

“You took quite a beating, you need to rest.” Dan stated, pushing Amanda back onto the bed and covering her with a blanket.

“What happened ?” Amanda asked. “And why are you here ?”

“What happened is that things went wrong.” Dan replied. “Badly wrong. As for why I’m involved, well I’ll explain all the details to you when you’ve recovered a little more.”

“You were sent to spy on us ?” Amanda suddenly realised. It had taken her a while to realise, but Dan was dressed in a Starfleet uniform, a uniform of someone from SI.

“Spy is such a harsh word.” Dan replied. “I’d prefer investigate illegal research being performed on Federation soil and financed by Section 31. You should get some sleep; you’ve got a few long days a head of you.”