Ryan and Samiz hid behind a wall
waiting for the shift change. They were outside a small, single storey building
within the grounds of the Medical centre. According to the official map, this
building contained one of the medical centre's water recycling plants. In reality
and according to the information given to them by Admiral McCaffee it was infact
a security office and gave access to an underground complex.
Given the lateness of the hour and the fact that the external doors were secured,
no one would be manning the office. A single guard left the building, the last
one to leave. The two hidden officers watched and waited until the guard was
well out of site before coming out of their hiding place.
Quickly they moved across to the door panel. Ryan removed the tricorder he was carrying and switched it on. He selected the first of the security codes and the door locks released with a quiet click. Ryan punched in another code into the panel beside the door and they slid open.
Ryan quickly looked around, before they both entered the building heading towards the security office. Behind the office was a second set of doors. Ryan entered the office and activated these doors, showing that behind them was a tubolift.
They both entered the lift and Ryan tapped yet another code into the panel on the wall. The doors closed and the lift descended down deep below the medical complex. After about a minute, the doors opened again.
"How deep do you think we are ?" Samiz asked as they left the lift.
"Maybe a couple of miles or possibly more." Ryan replied. "Hard to believe that all this is hidden underneath our feet."
"It must have been here over a century, that's when the medical centre was built." Samiz remarked. "There's no way all this could have been built after that."
"The medical wing is over in that direction." Ryan said pointed down the corridor to their left.
Suddenly they heard footsteps and ducked down a darkened corridor. As they hid, two armed officers passed by. When they were sure the coast was clear, Ryan and Samiz continued down the corridor.
Finally they came to another locked door. Ryan pulled out the tricorder again and placed it on the scanner pad on the wall.
"This is going to be the tricky part." Ryan remarked. "If this hand scan by-pass program doesn't work, we're goners for sure."
There was a soft click as the door unlocked and slowly started to open. Ryan breathed a sigh of relief.
Quickly they passed through the doors and entered a brightly-lit area.
"The medical bays should be over towards the back." Ryan replied.
Luckily, the medical centre was empty. All the rooms sat unoccupied and there was no one else around to see the two intruders.
Finally they reached the back of the complex and entered what at first appeared to be a surgical theatre. They soon realised that this was as much a morgue as a theatre, as they noticed the bank of stasis chambers set into one of the walls. Samiz was curious about what was concealed in these chambers and started to examine the data displays.
"We don't have time for site-seeing." Ryan remarked.
Off to one side, there were a number of small examination rooms. Ryan was the first to find the room Klara was in and Samiz gasped in shock when she saw the young woman in the room.
The room was dimly lit and Klara was locked down onto a bio-bed, connected to various pieces of medical equipment. Some of it was monitoring Klara, others were pumping drugs into her. Her head was completely shaven and there were fresh surgical scars across her head. Her arms were also scarred and there were dozens of puncture marks on both her arms and legs.
Samiz quickly entered the room and started to examine the equipment.
"They're pumping her with some sort of drug that I can't recognise." Samiz said. "And look at these brainwave patterns. She's being kept in a deep coma."
"Probably to suppress her abilities." Ryan replied. "Can you bring her back to consciousness."
"I think so, but it will take some time to get the drugs out of her system." Samiz said.
"How long ?" Ryan asked.
"At least a couple of hours, maybe more." Samiz replied.
"That could be cutting it tight, in three hours the shift changes again. You'd better get started. Is there anything I can do to help ?" Ryan asked.
"See if you can access the medical records, maybe they can give us some insight into what's been happening." Samiz asked.
Nearly three hours passed before either of the 'intruders' spoke, Samiz had been busy removing the various probe inserted throughout Klara's body. Meanwhile Ryan had been attempting to break into the medical files about her.
Suddenly Ryan gave a shocked gasp as he read the files he had just found.
Samiz came over to see what had shocked Ryan. What she saw even shock her a medical professional. The files showed details of every procedure that had been performed on Klara from the day she's arrived.
They had even amputated one of her fingers, which according to the files had grown back within a day. It would appear that Klara wasn't as human as everybody had thought. Small traces of alien DNA never seen before was somehow bonded to her own DNA.
"These are worse than I'd expected." Ryan remarked "Having read the files we were given, I was ready to accept some cruelty, but not this."
"Captain, we can't allow these files to survive." Samiz said.
"But how can we destroy them, I'm no systems engineer and you're a doctor." Ryan remarked.
"With this." Samiz replied bringing out a second tricorder. "My brother's box of tricks as he called it. He left it with me when he first joined the Leviathan."
Samiz scrolled through the files. "Here's what we need, a worm virus. All we need to do is program it to seek out any information about Klara and it should do the rest."
"What about any backups ?" Ryan asked.
"They should be wiped when they attempt to restore the data." Samiz replied. "Done."
Suddenly there was a groan from behind them.
"Captain Ryan ?" The voice said softly. "Where am I ?"
"Klara, how are you feeling ?" Ryan asked, moving away from the console and towards the medical table.
"A little groggy." Klara replied, attempting to rise.
"Lie still for a moment, the drugs you've been given are starting to wear off, but there not totally gone." Samiz remarked.
"Tricia." Klara exclaimed, her eyes open wide.
"Yes, she's not well. She suffered a head injury and now no-one can explain all the brain activity that she's experiencing." Ryan explained.
"Yes, I can feel her. She's part of me, as I am part of her." Klara replied. "I've known that the mind meld had caused her some problems, but I've been able to suppress them. What I feel, she now feels. Everything that is happening to her is because of me. But wait, Captain Ryan there's a third mind, another Tricia ?"
"No time to explain, it's time to go." Ryan said, the shift change will be starting in ten minutes, we have to reach the turbolift and escape before then."
"We must introduce the worm and destroy the data." Samiz said, starting the download.
"We don't have time." Ryan remarked.
"Done, now let's get out of here." Samiz said. "Klara are you able to walk unaided ?." She asked.
"I don't think so." Klara replied.
Between them, they supported Klara as they left the medical centre.
"Shit." Ryan exclaimed as they neared the turbolift. Outside, stood two armed guards. "The shifts must have changed over."
"Both of you take a hold of my hands." Klara said, attempting to stand without support. "Walk fast, but steadily, the remainder of the drugs are wearing off, but I don't know how long I can keep it up."
Samiz looked across at Ryan.
"Trust her." Ryan said.
Quickly, they walked towards the turbolift doors, hand in hand. As they walked upto the doors, Klara said "Good morning Fred, Good morning Barney. See you tomorrow."
The three of them walked into the lift and headed back to the surface.
"What happened there ?. It was like they didn't see us." Samiz asked.
"They didn't." Klara said, a smile crossing her face. "Fred and Barney seemed like such nice boys don't you think. Shame they'll not remember us isn't it."
As the reached the surface level another problem came to mind.
"How are we going to get past the security guards outside ?" Ryan remarked.
"Leave that to me." Samiz replied.
Samiz tapped her comm badge and the three of them disappeared from the lift cab, just before the turbo lift reached the surface and the doors opened.
The security guards stood each side
of the door came to attention. When no one exited the lift, they turned around
and took a look inside. They both scratched their heads puzzled at why no one
was in the lift.
