He moved to the sink, turned the water on, and splashed his face and hair, getting his clothes wet. He looked hard into the mirror, thinking that he would see Sarah’s reflection coming behind him, her warm smile plastered on her face despite the fact that she wasn’t a morning person.

Then Captain Chris Harriman realized that, yet again, she would not be there. She would never be there…because she was dead.

How long had she been dead? A month? Two? He honestly didn’t know…in fact, for the first time since the second Devil’s Virus ordeal, he realized that he had lost complete track of time.

Were repairs completed? Was Kalia OK? Did Tom successfully circumnavigate the alien specie’s space? If so…where were they?

These questions seemed to superimpose Chris’s thoughts of Sarah for a moment, but the moment he realized that fact…reality hit him yet again. At first, he was going to check the computer, but now he decided not to. Instead, he moved to the couch in the living room and, despite his wet clothes, he sat down. Once again, he stared out into the streaking starfield as the Dragon moved at warp speed. The front of the phaser cannon was just barely visible to him, but other than that, he had an unobstructed view of the warp-distorted starfield.

Looks like we’re traveling at sub-Transwarp velocity he thought to himself, the thoughts of Sarah once again receding. I wonder just how fast…

He shrugged the thought off again, too depressed to bother to check. So, he simply sat back and thought he’d enjoy another day of doing nothing but sulking…

 

 

Lieutenant Commander Vendar Perkins was ready to slap him. Once again, he was hounding her, trying to get her to go out with him. Despite the lecture she had given him the first time, he persisted over and over…and now her patience, which she had an abundance of…was thinning!

"I still don’t see why you won’t give me a chance!" Ensign Jerry Sukan pleaded.

"Because of the way you first approached me!" she snapped at him.

Taken back, Jerry asked in a baffled voice, "Well how else am I supposed to ask you out?"

"You don’t ask someone out right away!" she snapped yet again. "You have to get to know them first. Doing otherwise shows that you don’t really care about holding a good relationship…it shows that you just want to have someone you think is beautiful go out with you!"

"You’re point?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"My point is that it is wrong to do so! Thinking that all you need is beauty shows just how much of a pig you are!"

Jerry looked honestly insulted by that as he raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I beg to differ, Vendar. In fact…it’s impossible for me to be a pig."

His ability to remain calm while she was angered further made her mad…not to mention what he just said. "How so?!"

"History clearly states that humans descended from apes, not pigs."

It took every fiber of sense in Vendar’s mind to stop herself from slapping him across the face. She felt her face turn hot as anger flooded her.

Finally, she stopped in the corridor and turned to face the Ensign. "Look, I’m getting sick and tired of you chasing me," she stated harshly. "I’ve tolerated it, but I won’t tolerate it any more! Bother me again with the subject and I’ll have you thrown in the brig!"

Jerry simply grinned and pointed out, "You used that excuse the first time we met."

"Only this time, if you don’t, I will have security arrest you!"

He let out a small, defiant laugh. "On what charge?"

Now it was Vendar’s turn to grin. "Simple: sexual harassment. You hounding me like this is almost the prime example of sexual harassment!"

The expression that showed on his face let Vendar know that she had caught him off guard. He apparently hadn’t expected her to use that against him…

Slowly, quietly, and angrily, she said, "I’ve lived with your crap for eight months, I won’t live with it any more."

It took him a moment, but Jerry finally tried to recover. "But you…"

"You are dismissed!" Vendar interrupted.

He was about to say something else, but he seemed to decide against it. Angered, he turned around and stormed down the corridor. Vendar stared after him with icy eyes, hoping that it would be the last time she would hear from him for a long time.

When Vendar turned to continue on her way to the turbolift, she noticed that a few people were staring at her. She was even further angered, but decided she better keep her temper in check.

As she began walking again, she thought weird how the extra energy from that damned virus comes out as anger and aggression…

Events had been hard on her since the second Devil’s Virus ordeal. Anger at the Vorkalai and their creation had still managed to build up since the end of the war, despite the fact that the Vorkalai had been all but wiped out. Despite the end of the war, however, memories of the Vorkalai kept popping up. Crew members here and there referring to memories of the war and the friends they had lost, the Vorkalai warship the Dragon had encountered…as well as the Devil’s Virus.

That had been the hardest on her. Having to deal with something that had changed her personality for the worse, possibly forever, had made her angry. More than once since the ordeal ended, she found her mind wandering, even while on duty. It had already gotten her in trouble three times on the bridge. Furthermore, it had earned her several visits from the Counselor.

Now more than ever, anger was showing its ugly face in her. It was almost as if the evil thoughts of the Virus still existed within her. It was a feeling of losing control, something she did not enjoy.

But then she’d been through all of this already with Terry. He had tried to be a good counselor, but he didn’t seem to be able to snap her out of her anger. She was frustrated with him for not being able to help her, and frustrated with herself for not being able to maintain control.

Over a year ago, she had been able to maintain control. She had more patience than any other crewmember on the ship! Now, however, she always had to be doing something, she always had to be moving. If she didn’t, she simply went crazy. And when she wasn’t doing what she wanted or needed to do, that energy presented itself as anger.

She didn’t know what to do any more…she didn’t know how to feel…

…And once again, she had noticed that her mind had wandered. She was already standing in front of her quarters, two decks up from where she had just been. Though disoriented at first, she finally keyed in her code and opened the door.

She slowly walked in and looked around, her mind still wandering, dwelling on the subject.

Losing control was something that had never happened to her before the Devil’s Virus. Even during her days in high school, she had maintained full control of her emotions. She easily suppressed her hormonal impulses.

Now, however…she was losing absolute control over herself…and she couldn’t bear it.

She collapsed down onto her knees and buried her face. Tears of frustration flowed from her eyes. She felt ready to burst, the frustration turning into anger…which needed some sort of an outlet, or she would go crazy!!! She was genuinely afraid that someday, because of her anger…someone around her would get hurt, emotionally. That, above all…frightened her the most…

 

 

Lieutenant Commander Tom Halkrat looked up as an alarm sounded from the Ops console. R’Sharn immediately checked the alarm.

"Sir, I’m reading an area of severe tachyon disruption off our starboard bow," she stated calmly. "There’s an intense energy signature at the focal point."

This being his field of specialty, Tom decided to take a look for himself. He stood up and moved to his old post, the science station, and began taking a look at the readings. He didn’t have to think twice to realize what it was.

"It’s a temporal anomaly," he stated matter-of-factly. "And it’s slowly expanding…"

The ship began to shake suddenly, throwing Tom off guard. He managed, however, to retain his composure.

"The tachyon emissions are disrupting our warp field!" Lieutenant James Trikal reported from the helm.

As Tom moved back to the command chair, he ordered, "Drop us out of warp."

Immediately, the shuddering stopped, and the vast ocean of stars stopped streaking by. "Let’s see the anomaly on screen."

Immediately, the view screen changed to show what almost looked like some sort of supernova at it’s peak…only it wasn’t a supernova, it was a temporal anomaly… The intense energy of it forced Tom to shield his eyes a moment, but R’Sharn lowered the brightness, which allowed Tom to now look straight into the heart of the anomaly.

"That sure is like nothing I’ve encountered before," he stated as he watched the rays of the anomaly moving around. "Begin a series of scans."

"Wait!" Lieutenant Ada Marquet suddenly interrupted. "I see something near it! To the lower right of the anomaly!"

Tom strained his eyes a moment, looking where she had pointed. At first, he had passed it for a star, but then he realized it was too dull to be a star… "Magnify the section," he ordered.

The moment the screen changed, his heart immediately leapt into his throat. His breath caught and he became motionless…as did the entire bridge. Everyone stared at the view screen, not in awe or wonder…but in absolute fear.

Looming just underneath the anomaly, over one hundred twenty five cubic kilometers in volume, was something no one had ever expected to see here in the Kalium galaxy. It was a sight no one even wanted to see…especially one with armor, and no doubt a weapons arsenal to match the armor.

There, bigger than life…was a Borg cube.

After his lapse, Tom immediately jumped into action, more out of fear than any logical reasoning. "Red alert, all hands to battle stations!"

The lights dimmed, the alert klaxon sounded, and the frozen bridge quickly became a flurry of movement. Conversations seemed to start all at once as everyone began doing their duty, all the while glancing in fear at the view on the view screen.

Knowing when he was incapable of handling a situation, Tom opened a comm channel. "Tarkent to Harriman…sir, we really, really need your expertise up here. You aren’t going to believe this, but we’ve just encountered a heavily armored Borg cube!"

Not expecting a reply, he quickly closed the channel and began pulling tactical information up on his console.

"Kalia, set shields and weapons on rotating modulation. Ada, have security do the same to all hand held weapons on the ship."

"Acknowledged," both replied at the same time.

"James, maintain this distance from the cube and the anomaly," he added. He looked up in time to see Vendar already replacing R’Sharn at Ops. Didn’t take her long to get up here. "Vendar, keep a close eye on that Borg cube, and try to find out how the hell it got here."

Instead of acknowledging him, she stated, "I don’t know how, sir, but the cube is forcing a transmission through the tachyon field!"



Star Trek Dragon graphics and written material copyright Jon Wasik. Star Trek is a registered trademark
of Paramount Pictures, a Viacom company. No copyright infringement intended