As the Phoenix Feather fell Down

Chapter 4

'ADMIRAL, I CAN'T GET a lock!' Lieutenant Tremeni called out.

A small swarm of enemy ships had again surrounded the Starlight. They were small but incredibly swift, and Fujita did not recognize the design. The Admiral was still puzzled as to why they were even fighting these people, and how they could be here. The station was clearly Federation, no aliens – which they presumably were – should be here.

'The station is sending out some kind of energy field that's disrupting our sensors and transporter beams', Tremeni continued.

'I need you to be more precise, Lieutenant', Fujita said.

'I'm sorry Admiral, that's all I can tell you. Sensors aren't working.'

Fujita looked at the small screen next to her chair, trying to get clearer readings than her Chief of Operations could give her. However, she saw Tremeni was right. The sensors did not work.

'We've got to send a shuttle.' Dickson said after a moment of silence.

'I know', Diru responded softly. She looked at the view screen, considering what she had to do, and absentmindedly fiddled with the two golden rings on her necklace. She was fully aware that jewellery was forbidden by Starfleet regulations, however, she could not care less – as was her attitude toward Starfleet regulations more often. Were rules not meant to break? Alright, that was not entirely true, but some regulations were too useless to follow. Although she actually understood the logic of forbidding jewellery, but she was not about to admit that. The two rings on Fujita's necklace were those of her and her James Kirk's wedding. She had managed to get the one from her husband back after he had died, and was not about to ever let go of it.

Fujita knew sending a shuttle to the starbase was their only option to get the unknown passenger onto the ship, but she also knew the risk of doing just that. A shuttle was way more vulnerable to the hostile ships out there than the Starlight was. But it was also less easily detectable and more maneuverable, two qualities they really needed right now. It was the only thing to do here.

'I'll go. Commander B.J., you're with me. Prepare an away team.' Fujita looked at her Security Officer, who obeyed her with a nod. However, Dickson interrupted her as she walked to the turbolift.

'Admiral, you are not allowed to go on an away mission this dangerous.'

Fujita let out an annoyed sigh, but she knew he was right. Man, she hated it when he was right. She had known she could not leave, of course, but she also knew she was the best pilot on this ship, and a good pilot would undoubtably come handy.

'Alright', Fujita said. 'Then you go, Commander. Take B.J., Stacy and two security officers with you. You might need the firepower, I am afraid.'

Without another word, the Commander walked off.

---

The away team had arrived at the space station without too much trouble. They were standing in a darkened corridor. Dickson could not help but notice that the walls of the corridor consisted of a kind of plating that resembled fish or reptile scales, which at the same time vaguely looked like computer chips, as they were covered in angular lines. This was weird, considering that the station had looked completely like any other Federation one on the outside. The corridor looked more like the ships that had been attacking the Starlight.

The hallway seemed to stretch on forever, and disappeared with a slight curve into the darkness. Every now and then, they saw sharp red dots light up all over the walls, presumably from computer terminals or electronic circuits. For now, the corridor was quiet. Thanks to a diversion by the Starlight, the away team had not been discovered.

While walking through the passageway, Dickson noticed that one of the computer terminals in the walls had been left on. The text on it was of a language he did not recognize. This confirmed their presumption that the space station was not – I fact – from the Federation, but supposedly from a species that hid behind a Federation mask I order not to be detected. But they could not worry about that now. They had to find the unidentified man they were ordered to pick up, and he had to be around here somewhere. And then they had to get the hell out of there.

Suddenly, Dickson froze in anguish. Without a warning, the corridor changed into a sea of big, red, flashing lights.

---

Christopher Anderson let out a curse as the alarms started blaring around him. Apparently, the ship that had been sent to get him could not beam him up due to some hidden energy field surrounding the station. Instead, they were sending a shuttle to get him out. That meant he would have to fight his way through the station, though, which was not exactly his specialty.

Why can't these things ever go according to plan? Christopher thought, while making his way back through the corridor he had entered through before. When he detected the life signs of two alien guards coming his way from a corridor on his side, he waited for them to come around the corner. Once they did, he immediately shot both of them.

Quickly, Christopher continued towards the coordinates he had been given of the ship's away team, and he noticed a squadron of guards coming up behind him. Fortunately, he was prepared for situations like this. He installed a barely visible stun mine on the floor of the hallway and increased his pace even further. When he finally saw his pursuers, they fired multiple phaser shots at him, but they fortunately were not too accurate. It only took a few seconds before Christopher heard his stun mine activate, and the shooting ceased.

As his technical overlay detected new life signs right ahead of him, Christopher instinctively aimed his phaser at where they would immerge from the hallway momentarily. Just and instant from when he was about to pull the trigger, he realised that these life sign did not actually read as those of the alien guards. There were two humans, and one more person he could not quite make out the species of. Finally, he had reached the away team.

---

Dickson and his team had been moving towards the position they had received of their target. Fortunately, even though the alarms were still sounding, they had not been discovered. The station's security teams were apparently too occupied with their other intruder to notice them.

They had been carefully progressing through these unfamiliar corridors. At one point, they had spotted a lone guard who seemed to be patrolling an area of the ship. They managed to take a different route and avoid an encounter with him. Now, they were picking up human life signs, which meant they had to be close to their mysterious passenger. The life signs appeared to be only a few corridors ahead, so if they were lucky they could reach the man without encountering any other guards.

However, they were rather unlucky.

A phaser shot from behind them hit one of the security men right in the back of his head. Commander Dickson swiftly turned around, drew his own phaser and fired a shot. He missed. He saw three guards coming their way, all three of them carrying guns that looked a lot deadlier than Dickson felt comfortable with.

'Why didn't our sensors detect them?' he whispered to B.J., who's only response was to shoot at one of their enemies. The shot hit, and the man fell to the floor.

'Now we've made them mad', Stacy said.

Then all four of the officers attacked.