Chapter Text
Maya couldn’t guess how long she had been lying back in bed, staring at the ceiling. Her thoughts were racing in her head, but her body was exhausted, and her limbs felt too heavy to move. She hated this. Nothing to occupy her mind, nothing to push aside the painful thoughts and memories that tried to twist through her head, and worst of all nothing to make her feel at all useful or competent. Each time she tried to take action she made everything worse, and the list of “things Maya can’t get right” only grew.
There was a chime on the door. “Come in,” she answered. Truthfully, she was in no mood to talk to anyone, but she welcomed the break in the monotony. The door slid open, but Maya did not move.
“I think I may have a plan to start setting things right.” La’an said, still standing in the door frame. Maya sat up, quicker than she should have, and saw that she held the jar with the Ceti eels in her hands.
“Good luck with that. My understanding was that I very thoroughly ruined everything.”
“There’s no need to give up hope.” La’an stepped inside, and the door closed behind her. She sounded gentle, even encouraging. “I need your help. How would you like to set a trap?”
“I take it I’m the bait,” Maya teased, a little more brightness returning to her mood. “Who are we trying to trap?”
“Suzette Ling. She seemed to be in charge, even if the other Maya acted like she was the leader herself.”
Maya looked down at the Ceti eel in the jar and could easily guess what La’an had in mind.. They were fully awake now, squirming and moving around the jar to look for an escape. “A little while ago, I wouldn’t have wanted to harm her. In our universe she was one of the few augments who were kind to me, but here…” Maya stopped. She didn’t want to say what was on her mind, how someone she wanted to trust caused her to experience the worst night of her life. “I wouldn’t shed a tear for her.”
“Glad to have your cooperation. We need to meet Captain T’Ralia in sickbay, we have everything planned out. We only need for you to follow directions.”
“Wait…” Maya stood up, again too quickly even though she hadn’t yet recovered from sitting up too quickly. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples to keep the room from spinning. “Now I have to be the one to tell you to slow down and think before acting. She’s far stronger and faster than you can imagine, so how do you play to restrain her long enough to give the eel a chance to get inside her head?”
“The captain suggested sedatives.”
Maya smiled. “Hope she’s got something strong enough.”
There were no patients in sickbay, but it wasn’t quite empty. Captain T’Ralia was there, along with a muscular Andorian man and an almost as muscular Terran woman. The trio stood gathered close to one another near the entrance. Clearly they were expecting La’an and Maya.
“Admiral Noonien-Singh, Maya. I would like you to meet Ensign Shyraal and Lieutenant Vinneau.”
“A pleasure and an honor. Especially you, Ensign. I still don’t approve of Terran methods, but I still want to thank you for your role in T’Ralia’s promotion.” She offered a slight but respectful bow of her head.
Shyraal’s eyes widened and he tilted his head ever so slightly as if he was unaccustomed to such a show of reverence. “Approve or not, I had no alternative.”
“I understand. and when we aren’t trying to keep up appearances I prefer to simply be called La’an.”
“Very well, La’an.” T’Ralia answered. “We each have a part to play in subduing Suzette Ling. Shyraal and Vinneau are both known for strength and skill in martial arts. La’an, I understand you have the same talents.”
“I have the training, yes, but I’m long past my peak,” La’an replied with a shrug. “What I have been doing is tinkering with a phaser to give it lower energy settings. I should have a reliable heavy stun.”
“Stun won’t do anything to her,” Maya interrupted.
“Why not just do a Vulcan neck pinch?” Vinneau asked.
“That won’t affect her either, “ Maya answered again.
“Correct/” T’Ralia took charge of the conversation again. “Our greatest odds of success are for the four of us to physically restrain her long enough for me to administer the sedative.” T’Ralia gave Maya a pointed look. “I have prepared a higher dose in anticipation of Suzette’s augmented physiology.”
“And what is my role in this?” Maya asked. “Beyond just being the bait.”
“It’s not much beyond that.” La’an replied. “You’re here to lure Suzette to sickbay. If she thinks you’re the Terran Maya, she comes to help you, if she doesn’t she comes to catch you.”
“Simple enough. Is she on the way?”
“Not yet.” T’Ralia looked to each of the people gathered in sickbay to confirm that they were ready. She took the communicator off of her belt. “Captain T’Ralia to Suzette Ling.”
“Go ahead.”
“I need you to come to sickbay. Immediately.”
“Shouldn’t you be on the bridge, Captain? At any rate, why do I need to go to sickbay? I am uninjured.”
“I am off duty. I have been using my spare time to continue to treat my established patients who require individualized care. Your health is not my present concern, but Maya Noonien-Singh’s
“Oh?” Suzette sounded interested, curious.
“Her shoulder has been reinjured. I understand that you were the first to treat her initial injury. Your insights would be appreciated.”
“Is that so?” There was something sly and taunting in her voice. “I’ll be right there, Captain. Or should I say Doctor?”
“Either will suffice. “T’Ralia out.”
“It sounds like she already suspects us,” La’an pointed out.
“Indeed,” T’Ralia agreed. “Expect extreme hostility.”
La’an scanned the area, making final tweaks to her strategy before giving her orders. “Maya. Sit and wait on the biobed on the far side of sickbay.” She pointed to the exact location. “Two of us will take cover on either side of the entrance, ready to restrain Suzette the moment she arrives. Maya, do you know if Suzette is right or left handed?”
“Right handed.”
“T’Ralia and Vinneau will be on the right, Shyraal and I on the left. Position everyone, Suzette will be here any moment.”
The anxious waiting drove Maya up the walls. She sat silently on the biobed and watched the others. They seemed calm yet alert, and Maya envied them for it. Maya could hardly remember a time when she wasn’t hiding a storm of frenetic energy, and all of the hardships from this universe only made it worse. Her mind ran faster than unaugmented humans, she knew that, to be able to tolerate stillness just seemed foreign.
Her heart jumped when she heard the doors to sickbay slide open. Her spine went stiff and straight, but she exhaled a sigh of relief to see that the person who entered was only a Terran crewman who was unsteady on his feet and gripping his stomach in pain.
T’Ralia moved from her position to speak to the man. “I’m sorry, but unless this is a medical emergency, I cannot give you my full attention at this time. Am I correct in assuming you are experiencing severe nausea?”
“Yes, doctor…captain,” he answered in between dry heaves.
T’Ralia set down the hypospray with the sedative and picked up a different one from the nearby table. “Any other symptoms?” The patient shook his head.
“Come back in an hour. For now I need you to leave immediately.”
The patient turned to go, and T’Ralia began to walk back to her position by the door. Before she was back, however, the doors slid open again. T’Ralia froze for just a moment before she clutched the hypospray with the sedative. On the other side of the door stood Suzette Ling, her narrowed eyes glaring directly at Maya.
“Bold of you to think I’d be so easy to fool.” Suzette drew her phaser and aimed at Maya, the three who were still waiting on either side of the door pounding in like a pincer on either side. Shyraal and La’an were able to take control of her left arm, but Vinneau on her own was unable to hold her on the right side. She still hung on tenaciously to Suzette’s right forearm to keep her from firing her phaser. In the chaos, the queasy crewman ducked for cover behind a desk, and Maya dived off of the biobed to hide behind it.
Suzette fired her phaser and, thanks to Vinneau’s interference, she only hit a computer console. The burst of energy made the console burst into an explosion of sparks and shrapnel. The three who had Suzette restrained struggled, but soon T’Ralia was close enough to inject the sedative into her neck. She fought for only a few more seconds before her body went limp. La’an stepped away and let Shyraal and Vinneau hold up Suzette’s limp body.
“She’s under sedation now. It worked. It’s safe to come out now.”
The queasy crewman could be heard dry heaving. He probably wasn’t moving any time soon.
“Let me know when it’s done.” Maya answered from behind the biobed. She couldn’t stand to see another mind taken over, even if it was sure to be much more peaceful if the victim was sedated. Those damn things killed her mother, she made choices that led to the Albrecht from her universe having her mind utterly broken with those. She knew it was necessary, that was why she took such risks to be sure they had them, but the thought still made her uneasy. “I’m sorry. I’m too weak for this.”
“It isn’t weakness, Maya.” Footsteps. Maya peeked out from behind the biobed to see La’an walking toward the desk to pick up the jar that contained the Ceti eels. She dived back to her hiding place. Her heart began to race, and her breathing became rapid and shallow. She closed her eyes and made herself focus on taking slow, deep breaths.
Damn her enhanced senses! Only half augment, but she could still her La’an unscrew the lid of the jar. She could hear the forceps reaching in to pluck out a larval eel, but that was it. Even worse was the silence that followed. She knew what was happening in the silence and could imagine what was happening. The eel was crawling into Suzette’s ear. If she hadn’t been sedated, she would be screaming in pain.
“It’s done.” La’an finally said. Her voice was firm, yet gentle.
Maya still had her eyes closed. “I don’t think I can stand yet. Once she’s out of sedation,you can ask her anything. She can’t lie in this state.”
“Captainl, I’d rather not waste time waiting for it to wear off. Do you have an antidote?” La’an asked.
“I do. One moment please.” T’Ralia crossed the room and punched a few commands into a wall console. With a new hypospray in hand she crossed back to Suzette and injected the antidote into her neck.
She was still limp and groggy but she lifted her head.
“Can you speak?” T’Ralia asked.
“I can.” Her speech was slurred.
“How did you know this wasn’t the Maya from your universe?” La’an asked.
“Katya told me.”
“Do the other augments know?”
Suzette nodded. “Yes, and fifteen members of the crew who are planning a mutiny.”
La’an stepped back and gave T’Ralia a concerned look.
“Fifteen?” T’Ralia asked. “That is a significant number. Do you have the names of those crew members?”
“Helmsman Reese, Ensign Fitzpatrick…those are the only names I know, but I could identify photos from a crew roster.”
“We’ll get to work on that soon.” La’an replied. “Who do you think I am, the La’an from your universe or the other?”
“I can’t be certain, but after talking to Katya, I think you’re from the other universe.”
La’an looked away. That meant others might suspect her too. “I’m going to release you as soon as you’re strong enough to walk on your own. Keep your place as the leader of the augments, do whatever you can to keep them from taking any action.”