Star Trek: Eleventh Fleet

Ep4: Chapter 2: A Noble Sacrifice

Kal crawled over and under sections of the bulkheads blown apart by the collision. More than once, he changed his direction because of fires. As the damaged sections grew worse, his heart raced faster. A shadow graced his mind at all times, a dread of seeing Sakura's lifeless body among the debris. Could he handle that? How could he breathe again if she was dead? He had already felt dead inside before thinking she was gone, but to see her broken body would be too much to handle. No, he forced himself to think of hope. The signal was being sent. Someone was alive down here in the lab and it had to be her and Tojann.

Eventually, he found a section of laboratories with less damage. The communications and computer technology laboratories were still intact. His rattled heart jumped for joy. "SAKURA!" He called out.

"In here!" She answered.

Profound relief filled his body as he rushed over a few more broken objects and headed into the lab. The first thing he should have noticed was the fallen security officer near the door. However, standing there, alone, was the woman of his desires. She smiled at him, her tail flipping around.

"Sakura! You're safe." He rushed over to her and gave her a big hug.

She returned the affection and said, "Yes. This area survived the impact. But it has caused some serious computer problems."

Kal let go of her and smiled at that cute feline face. "The repair crews will take care of the computers. Let's go... where's Tojann?"

She pulled him toward the computer. "No, this is too serious to wait. The comm systems are all going to go down if we don't undo this program."

Kal wasn't sure why she completely ignored his question about her mentor, but he was sure she had her reasons. Checking the screen, he found a complex fractal algorithm running on repetition. "Wow, this is an amazing code. Why on earth did it activate? I didn't even know it was in our systems."

She grew frustrated. "Why does it matter where it came from? It is blocking all access and I need to get into this program. Surely, your command level override will bypass this program."

Kal leaned in and checked the program, seeing what it was blocking. "This... is strange. It's blocking access to the anti-virus protocols, nothing else. Why would it be doing that? Why would that be a problem now?"

"Why are you arguing with me about this? Get it out of my way?"

Kal felt something was wrong. He stood back away from the computer and looked at her. "Why can't you take it down? You created it, or Tojann did. This isn't a standard Federation program. Where is Tojann anyway?"

She bared her teeth at him. "I don't care where he is. This program is preventing me from doing what I need to do and you can remove it. So, remove it."

Kal slowly pulled his phaser, "Sakura, this isn't like you. Tojann is your mentor and one of your closest friends. Why do you want me to take out that program?"

Sakura's resolve softened. She gave him that cute smile. "Sorry, Captain, I'm just a little overwrought today. Please, I just need your help."

Kal softly asked, "What do you call me?"

"Captain... Captain Henderson, of course."

"Wrong." He fired the phaser and sent her flying across the room. She slammed into the far wall when he fired the phaser, and although this should have killed her, she merely lay on the ground, holding her side where he had hit her. Not lowering his phaser, he asked, "Who are you?"

She reached up and her arm turned into a liquid tentacle. He fired, but her body transformed into goo and opened a hole where the beam merely hit the wall. That tentacle wrapped around his neck and lifted him.