Darin smiled to himself as he pressed the play button on his screen. Redford from the medical quarters had recorded another joke for him. They did this whenever they had time; usually it would only be a couple times a week, but with the present lag in action they’d already exchanged four in the past day.
“Okay,” said Redford’s smiling face. “So this Corcan chick’s in a bar, and a Temican guy comes up to her and offers to buy her a drink. She says-“

“Halcyon,” came the voice of the captain, “That doesn’t sound like a navigation simulation to me.”

“I finished all of them yesterday, Captain.” said Darin.

“I see. Well, close whatever you’re watching and pay attention to your controls. We’re making a particularly tricky turn here.”

Making sure that the captain couldn’t see, Darin rolled his eyes. The turn wasn’t particularly tricky; in fact, it wasn’t hard at all. The captain always got like this when nothing had happened for weeks on end. In the middle of a confrontation, he’d expect Darin and Wegei to complete the most complicated navigational moves without any prep or warning, but when there was nothing else to do he generally started making the mundane jobs seem difficult. It was an irritating habit, but Darin didn’t really blame him; they were all bored after the conflict with the Raons. That hadn’t been too scary, but at least it had gotten their adrenaline pumping steering out of the way of their old-fashioned missiles.

But that had been a month ago, and everyone on the ship was pretty bored. Fortunately, they were stopping at some planet nearby for a day or two of research – which one was it again? Darin called up his viewscreen and asked for a map of the star system they were headed to. He knew it was the third planet, and then read that it was called T’Prae. Figuring he should probably re-familiarize himself with the system, he asked for a short briefing, then turned the volume down on his earpiece and pressed play.

“Although there are six planets in this star system, only four are inhabited by animals and only three by humanoids. The sun in this system is called Mol. The closest planet to Mol is T’Mar, which is too hot to support any life at all. The second planet is T’Dria, which has a wide variety of plant life similar to that in rainforests but no animals, nor a research base.

“The third planet, T’Meka, is inhabited by very protective humanoids called T’Mekians who number about 4 billion. Although the T’Mekians are very advanced, even more so than Earth, they rarely venture out into space. Instead, they prefer to remain on their planet and “defend” it from “attackers” who supposedly wish to destroy their civilization.

“The fourth planet is T’Prae and is inhabited by T’Praeons, who are about 1,000 years behind Earth and a 3.4 on the global advancement scale. It may seem strange that such a difference in technology can exist in the same star system, but about fifty years ago, the T’Falians (see: T’Falon) offered the T’Praeons their technology but the T’Praeons refused it and asked instead to remain in contact with other planets and consented to the establishment of a small research base there, but generally prefer to remain ignorant of the technological advancements of the 10-scale planets. The T’Praeons who actually know of a world beyond their own planet number only six or seven; the leaders of their people.

“T’Treli, the fifth planet, is much like T’Mar; that is, it has a global climate much like that of rain forests. However, T’Treli has over one million species. There are no humanoids on T’Treli besides the 62 researchers in the three bases on the planet.

“The T’Falians inhabit the sixth planet, which is called T’Fale.” Darin cut the computer off there for two reasons. One, he already knew about the T’Falians. And two, it probably wouldn’t make Sumak’ros very comfortable to have her planet dissected by a computer. Of course, had she been human she wouldn’t have even been able to hear the computer, but her ears were a lot more sensitive than the average human’s.

Darin rolled his neck to each side and waited, his hands on the controls. It would be another few minutes before they actually descended into orbit, but there was nothing else to do. Finally, the captain gave the order and he and Wegei guided the ship into a comfortable orbit.

“Captain, I just ran a check on the population of the planet.” said Okarof.

“The population is up sixty percent from our last check.”

The captain frowned. “When was that?”

“Just last year. I’ve already run three checks, they all come up the same. There’s no malfunction. Should I check further into it?”

“Definitely.”

Then Danforth chimed in. “Should I tell the technical quarters that they’ll be a delay?”

“That would be Kocre’s job, Danforth, and no. Just tell me who else is on the planet.”

A moment later, Okarof called out, shocked. “It’s… T’Mekians!”

“T’Mekians? But that’s impossible! They hardly ever leave their planet, not even to save one of their own kind! What are they doing?”

In less than two minutes, the ship had gone from boredom to panic. Not that there was any chaos on the deck – no; in fact, that was what clued you in to the fact that everyone was terribly apprehensive. On any normal day, there’d be a quite audile buzzing on the deck as everyone exchanged information, relayed instructions, or gave commands. Now, though, everyone was silent save the captain.

“Why can’t we see what they’re doing, Okarof?” You could tell the captain was really worked up now – he never called Okarof anything but Cyclo, even in the middle of battle. Darin stopped pretending to watch the screen and swiveled his seat around to listen. He saw that everyone was watching the captain except Sumak’ros, although Darin could tell she was listening because her ears were twisted around nearly facing the captain.

“The T’Mekians are far more advanced than us; they’ve put some sort of shield around the whole planet to block our sensors. It acts like a gas of some sort, but it shows up as much more solid than that. I can’t figure it out. A mystery.”

“Do you think a small transport ship could go through it?”

“I imagine so, but Buzz! You can’t possibly be thinking of going down there! You know how vicious the T’Mekians are, and they can’t be down there for any good reason.”

“I know all about the T’Mekians, Cyclo.” The captain was back to his cool, collected self. “I will go down. Danforth, Cyclo, you’re with me. We’ll take three ensigns from security too.”

“Captain, it’s risky to have so many head officers on a mission as dangerous as this,” said Danforth. “They’ll need you up here; I suggest you stay and instead I’ll lead the party.”

“Captain, it’s risky to have so many head officers on a mission as dangerous as this,” said Danforth. “They’ll need you up here; I suggest you stay and instead I’ll lead the party.”

“No,” said the captain, his voice firm and strong. “You are right; you will remain behind. Halcyon?”

Darin stood up right away and walked over to the captain. To be honest, was very nervous about going to T’Prae, but at the same time he was proud that Captain Sisko had asked him. Still, he wished it was under different circumstances.

A few minutes later, Darin stepped into the shuttle. The captain and Okarof were there, as well as three ensigns from security: Brandon Jesse, Nore Afkalah, and Lihi Raffstein. Darin was surprised that he knew all three of them; he had been involved with Lihi for a few short weeks a while back, but she had broken it off, said it interfered with her work; Darin didn't mind too much. Nore was a friend of Wegei's, so he often caught them talking outside the deck. Brandon... well, most people knew Brandon. He was the unofficial bartender of the lower levels.

Just as the shuttle left the interior of the ship, the red light blinked on.

"What?!" thought Darin. Suddenly, the craft began to pull forward. It wasn't the usual movement of the shuttle, that much was clear by the fact that they could feel the motion. All direction caused from the shuttle itself was motion-canceled to make for a more comfortable ride.

"What's going on?" asked Nore.

"They are obviously expecting us." said the captain, and that was that.

After only a minute and a half of crude tugging, the shuttle was allowed to land on the surface of the planet, but Darin knew as soon as they stepped out that this was no friendly welcome. Twenty or twenty-five men (if you could call them that) stood in a circle around the shuttle. Their elongated faces were hidden by cruel metal masks. Darin had heard that those masks could withstand any type of firearm or laser. These were not people you wanted to mess with. He took in the rest of their bodies - they all wore white robes embellished with designs, except for the one right in front of him - he had red robes on, and was clearly the leader.

The raspy, robotic voice of the T'Mekian in red robes went on for a few seconds before the translators kicked in.

"... help your ship, and they can't help you, so give it up. Come with us now, before we have to use force."

The captain stood his ground, and Darin and the others followed suit. "I'm not moving a single muscle until we know why you're here!"

"You refuse to come?"

The captain looked defiantly at him, then cocked his head to the left. A tiny green laser beam issued from the sleeve of one of his partners and Lihi dropped dead beside Darin.

"Do not defy me. Come." He cocked his head again, and another one of his partners pressed a hand to his temple. Between his eyes, a green light flicked on. "He is now recording live. Your ship is watching everything that's going on." He flicked his thumb up and four of the T'Mekians shot laser beams, forming a box around the members of the Antares. "Now."

They walked for a good twenty minutes before they were taken into a large room. There they were separated. The captain remained in the room with Lihi and Cyclo while Brandon and Darin were taken into a silver hallway. Brandon was shoved into the first cell, but Darin walked in front of fourty-two cells (he was careful to count, so he could find Brandon silently if he escaped) before being shoved into a cell of his own. He waited until the first guard was gone and only the second remained before switching his laser to silent. He set it on the tiniest beam, aimed it through the bars, and pressed down. The guard slumped, but only a tiny bit. Because the bars were so close together, Darin hadn't been able to use a larger laser, or enough to kill.

What he had done would make it appear as though the guard was awake, although his eyes would be glazed over. He retreated to the corner and flipped open his transmitter.

"Sumak'ros," he mouthed. Sumak'ros's face appeared onscreen, but she didn't appear to be looking at Darin. "Sumak'ros!" mouthed Darin, stretching his face in a mock-scream. Sumak'ros jumped. "Sorry." mouthed Darin.

Thanks to the face-to-voice technology, down here Darin could mouth a word and up on the ship it would be spoken aloud.

"Don't talk, type." mouthed Darin. He didn't want anyone to hear her.

"How did you escape?" typed Sumak'ros.

"Not escape; they took me away and I glazed the guard. Can you still see the captain? Is he okay? What's going on?"

"We can see him on the screen here; they killed Lihi, and Okarof is next."

"Why?!"

"They want something out of the captain, but we have no sound so we don't know what it is. They are horrible; I don't understand it at all. What could they want that would require the captain to let his crewmembers die?"

"The Antares?"

"Perhaps, but whatever it is it must be crucial."

"And Danforth?"

Danforth appeared onscreen. "They're trying to goad me into attacking; the-" she stopped mid-sentence.

"What?!? What's going on up there?" Darin mouthed desperately.

"We have sound." said Sumak'ros simply.

"What's the captain saying?"

Sumak'ros began to type again.

"...trying to wear me down. You'll never take another planet. Never! What you've done is too... horrible.." Sumak'ros changed the color of the font and continued in his own words. "They're hitting him with some kind of laser beam I suppose, but we can't see it. It's obviously causing him horrible pain, though. You can't see his face, but it's impossible to watch and at the same time impossible to tear your face away. We need to find a way to stop this! If you can find the central power circuit, then you-"

But Darin stopped reading, because he had become aware of a presence. Slowly, dreading the face he would see. He heard the rasping again for a moment before the translator set in.

"Transmitter, Darin Halcyon?"