Title: Star Trek-Infinity: Confrontation [PG] (MISC)

Author: Charles Rando (trando@worldnet.att.net)

Series: MISC

Rating: [PG]

Part: NEW 2/2

Disclaimer: Paramount owns the characters in The Next Generation and Deep
Space Nine, and Peter David owns the Selelvian race (see his book, Strike
Zone). I'd like to think that the characters I've invented and the story are
mine. :-)

Summary: The Infinity is badly damaged. Enemy forces have infiltrated the
ship. Can Captain Rando and his crew escape from their dark reflections and
return safely to their own universe? Maybe... but sacrifices will be made!

"I don't understand why she had to send me," Lieutenant Monty was saying as
she and Lieutenant Remley crouched in a Jeffries tube near the secondary
computer core.

"You are not to question the Counselor's orders," Remley growled at her.
"She wants us to rescue Ensign Libby from his captors, and that's what we're
doing."

"She's never shown that much concern for him before," Monty protested. "And
neither have you."

Remley fought the urge to slap the girl, but knew he would get his chance
soon enough. He still needed her to help him get past the security of this
ship. After he had completed his mission and "rescued" Ensign Libby, her
presence would no longer be necessary. "I've traced his location to either
sickbay or deck 15. I have a feeling that the Ensign Libby in sickbay is
their Ensign Libby, so we will head towards deck 15." He gestured to the
ladder a nearby shaft. "We have ten decks to go. Start climbing."

Monty wanted to protest, but decided nothing could be gained by doing so.
She turned around and started to crawl towards the ladder, feeling the
presence of Remley close behind her.

CHAPTER FOUR

"Lieutenant, where is Captain Rando?" Commander Witherell asked the officer
filling in for Lieutenant Remley.

"The computer places him still in Counselor Kassal's quarters," Lieutenant
Schroeder replied. "They seem to spend a lot of time in there, sir, ever
since that time I convinced them to come with me to the holodeck during that
outbreak of love on the ship...."

"Yes, Lieutenant, we all know about that," Witherell said.

"He really is stuck on that, isn't he?" boomed a voice from all around them.

"J.W.!" Witherell exclaimed, responding to the voice that had come through
the ship's speakers. "Where have you been?"

"I've been attempted to prevent the Pagh Wraith on that other ship from
reprogramming this computer. I hope I haven't missed anything," J.W.
replied.

"Check the ship's logs if you're really interested, J.W.," Witherell said,
"I don't have time to fill you in now. Can you get us out of here?"

"If we were to escape now without incapacitating the Pagh Wraith, we would
still be threatened by him," J.W. said. "We have to take care of the Pagh
Wraith before we leave."

"You keep on mentioning 'Pagh Wraiths,'" Witherell said, "what are they?"

"The Pagh Wraiths are false Prophets who had to be expelled from the
Celestial Temple eons ago in your timeline. We banished them to the Fire
Caves of Bajor, hoping they would not harm anyone there. Apparently, we were
wrong."

"So how do we deal with this Pagh Wraith?" Witherell asked. "How does one
kill a Prophet?"

"I hesitate to tell you in case you might try to use the method on me in the
future," J.W. said.

"J.W."

"Very well, very well," J.W. responded. "A chroniton beam will disrupt us
enough that we lose coherence. In that way, we die."

"So what we need is a way to create a chroniton beam without affecting you,"
Witherell said. "I don't suppose you have any ideas on that."

"Unfortunately no," J.W. told him. "As I said, I've been too busy trying to
ward off his assaults. He got past me once and reprogrammed a holodeck that
Lieutenant Remley was using. I must not allow that to happen again."

"But if he's been distracting you so much, J.W., how is it that you're able
to talk to us now?" Witherell asked.

"Somehow the radiation of this sun is able to block his attempts to access
our computer system, although I'm not sure why. Of course, it also means I
cannot access their computer systems."

"That gives us an advantage and a disadvantage," Witherell commented. "J.W.,
it seems we've been in this universe before, if our instruments are correct.
We've detected the same radiation cloud around this Trill as the one we
discovered in the future."

J.W. cut him off before he could continue. "Apparantly, the last time we
were in this universe, the ship's sensors were sent false information from
him, although he was too far away from me to sense his presense."

"They were probably taking the opportunity to learn as much about us as they
possibly could," Remley commented, "before they started their invasion."

"Indeed," J.W. replied. "Oh, by the way, you missed three of their
infiltrators. One of them is currently in holodeck three, while the other
two are heading in that direction."

Witherell swore before tapping his comm. badge. "Lieutenant Remley! We have
an invader on holodeck three and two more moving in that direction!"

"Aye sir. We'll handle them," Remley's voice said.

"Lieutenant Williams and Commander Neddek to the bridge," Witherell then
ordered. "We need a game plan."

******************************************************

"I wonder how long it'll take them to get here," Libby said as he paced back
and forth in the small room they were hiding in. Once they had arrived in
the town, Becky had led them to an old inn whose innkeeper was apparently a
good friend of Lysander and Raphaella. He had agreed to let them hide in the
back of the inn, a room secured from the inside with a heavy metal bar and
also equipped with an escape tunnel.

"Do you really think they're coming after you?" Bayreuther asked him. "It
seems like a lot of trouble for one person."

Libby grimaced. "If they were to allow another officer to escape their iron
grip, it'd look really bad to the Empire. Heads would definitely roll if
they were unable to bring me back, especially since Joy defected less than a
year ago."

"Well maybe they've all been captured," Becky said. "I mean, I'm sure by now
that Lieutenant Remley and his security team have...." She was interrupted
by a commotion in the front of the inn.

Libby pressed his ear against the door and said, "It looks like Lieutenant
Remley missed a few." Seconds later, there was a pounding at the door. "I
don't think Gregor was too successful in holding them back! Get to the trap
door!"

"I'm not going to leave you here!" Bayreuther protested, but Libby insisted
again that she must. With a look of defeat, Becky opened the small trap
door, entered the tunnel it concealed, and waited.

Although she could not see much from her hiding place in the side wall,
Becky could hear everything that was happening, from the pounding on the
door to a voice that sounded distinctly like Lieutenant Remley's. She could
also hear the faint, but rapid breaths Jeff made as he waited by the door
with a heavy piece of wood in his hands, hoping to surprise their attackers.
She then heard Remley's double swear loudly before the whine of a phaser
filled the room. Seconds later, the door had been vaporized.

Ensign Libby brought his board down quickly on the first person to enter the
room, hoping that it would be Lieutenant Remley. When he saw Lieutenant
Monty collapse to the ground, holding her head, he realized his mistake.
When he felt a fist connect with his face, he immediately regretted it.

Becky heard Libby's gasp of pain as he was hit and scrambled out of the
hidden passageway to help him. Unfortunately, she found Lieutenant Remley's
double had a phaser leveled at her.

"Well," he said, a nasty smile growing on his face, "I never thought I'd get
the chance to kill you again, little lady. Let's see if it's any better the
second time."

"No!" Libby screamed, leaping between Remley and Bayreuther the instant the
former fired his phaser. The phaser was, of course, set to kill, but it was
a slow and painful death that Ensign Libby experienced. His screams actually
seemed to linger after his body had vaporized.

Remley laughed. "No more distractions, Red. It's just you and me. Watch the
door, Monty. Now that we've fired our phasers, it won't take them long to
track us."

As if on cue, a voice called out, "Stay where you are! Drop your weapon!"
Lieutenant Remley grinned evily as he realized it was his own.

Remley and a group of security officers made their way to the back room of
the inn. Although Remley was leading the pack, their was a look of slight
panic in his eyes. He was going to come face to face with his double, and he
knew the confrontation would not be a quiet one.

Lieutenant Monty, startled by the sudden intrusion of Lieutenant Remley's
security team, raised her weapon instead of lowering it. One of Remley's
officers saw her movement as a threat and fired his phaser to stun her
before she could attack.

What Monty expected was the quick grip of unconsciousness. What she felt was
a sudden burst of energy explode throughout her body as the beam hit her.
She screamed in pain as her body dissolved into nothingness.

"Lower your weapon!" Remley ordered again. His double, a wide smile on his
face, complied quickly, dropping the phaser on the wooden floor. Remley was
surprised by how easy that was, then he came to the conclusion that his
double was going to try something.

"My work here is through," the other Remley said instead, raising his hands
to show he was unarmed. "There's no reason for you to kill me too."

Remley motioned for two officers to bind his double. He then turned towards
the officer who had shot and apparently killed the other Monty. "Lieutenant,
what happened?" he asked.

"I don't know, sir," the junior grade lieutenant replied. "My weapon was set
at stun." He showed it to his chief. "See?"

"Murdering someone just because they reacted in fear," Remley's double
chided, "and you still maintain that your morals are so much higher than
ours!"

"Get him out of here!" Remley ordered the men holding his double. As soon as
they were gone, he turned to Bayreuther. "Are you all right?"

"Everything happened so quickly," she said. "I'm still not sure what exactly
happened."

"Well, I'll take you down to sickbay," Remley said. "You can see Jeff while
you're down there."

"He's alive?" Becky asked excitedly. "Thank God he's alive!" She paused as
she left the inn's back room, where Jeff's double had sacrificed himself to
save her, and she realized she wasn't exactly sure what to feel.

CHAPTER FIVE

"I just want to thank you for giving me this opportunity," Counselor
Kassal's voice said inside Captain Rando's mind. "When my Charlie died, it
was relatively quick and painless. I never got to repay him for attempting
to hold me back. This is just as good."

Rando continued to roll in agony on Counselor Kassal's, his Counselor
Kassal's, bed. The Counselor that sat next to him on the bed was enveloped
in her own world of pain to notice, while the Counselor causing them pain
was on the other Infinity . Slowly but surely, that other Sonja was taking
away his reality, attempting to strip away his sanity. She rehashed painful
incidents from his past, and changed pleasant memories into horrible,
twisted ones. He tried to hide from her, but it was as if she knew his mind
better than he did. Wherever he went, she found him, and she always punished
him for attempting to escape her.

"Why do you resist me?" the voice in his head asked in a mockingly sweet
way. "As long as you continue to fight me, I will have no choice but to
continue the pain. If you submit to me, I may consider ending your life
quickly."

Rando didn't answer her. He couldn't concentrate hard enough to answer her.
All he could do was run from her mind and pray that help would come soon. He
wasn't sure how much more of this torture he could take.

"Submit to me, Charlie," the voice in his head continued. "You know you want
to. I can offer you so much more than this poor copy of myself can. She's
never even allowed you to become... intimate with her, because she doesn't
really love you. Come to me, Charlie, let me love you. Let me give you
pleasure unlike you have ever...." Her voice suddenly disappeared, as did
the pain. Then, as if he was listening from far away, he heard her say,
"You! How did you get in here? No! You can't defeat me! No!!" And then she
was silent.

Rando then felt hands helping him to sit up and heard a voice say, "Charlie,
are you all right?" At first he recoiled, thinking that the evil Counselor
had found her way back into his mind, but the tone of the voice was sweet
and caring. He opened his eyes to see his Sonja looking at him in concern.
"I'm sorry you had to experience that," she whispered.

"What happened?" Rando asked weakly. He was completely exhausted, mentally
and physically.

"My double wanted to dispose of you to facilitate her taking over the ship,
but she couldn't get past the simple mental blocks you had constructed. She
decided that the only way to get into your mind was to get into my mind, and
then make you come to me, and to her. All she needed was a foot into the
door of your mind, and she could kill you from the inside out. But she
didn't think I would be strong enough to fight back against her, which I was
able to do once she was completely distracted by your mind. I'm sorry I had
to use you like that, but it was the only way to say you."

"What did you do to her?" Rando asked.

"I forced her unconscious, like I did when Lieutenant Prior attacked me,"
Kassal said. She looked down. "I just hope I never have to do that again."

"With all do respect, Counselor, so do I," Rando told her.

******************************************************

"Neddek to Commander Witherell. We have finished the modifications to the
photon torpedo."

Commander Witherell clapped his hands. Finally, something was truly going
right! All of the invaders from the other ship had been thrown into the
brig, and they now had a weapon against their enemies: a photon torpedo that
would release a chroniton field upon detonation. Unfortunately, Captain
Rando would not be able to view the battle on the bridge. Counselor Kassal
had called in and reported that the Captain was currently incapacitated, and
so command of the Infinity had passed to Witherell.

"Their sensors will most likely pick us up before we can pick them up,"
Lieutenant Remley told him. "It will be necessary for us to fire the torpedo
the instant they show up on our sensors. The longer we wait, the closer
they'll get, and the closer they get, the more chance the field could affect
J.W. as well as their Pagh Wraith."

"Ensign, do you think you could dazzle us with another evasive maneuvers
routine?" Witherell asked Ensign Marit.

The Bajoran nodded, a slight smile on her face. "They'll never be able to
catch us."

"Well then," Witherell said, "I think we've hidden in here long enough.
Ensign, take us out of the star. Lieutenant, you know what to do."

Remley nodded as Marit's fingers raced across her CONN panel. Remley knew
there was another important reason to stay ahead of the other ship: in the
few seconds it would take the ship to switch from multiphasic shields to
regular shields, they would be completely defenseless. One shot could
cripple them, and take away their advantage. He watched his tactical display
for the other ship to appear, and then suddenly there it was, bearing down
on them.

"Firing photon torpedo!" Remley announced.

The viewscreen displayed the torpedo streaking towards the other ship, and
the entire bridge crew was practically sitting on the edge of their seats.
They openly voiced their frustration when the torpedo was destroyed by the
other ship's phasers.

"Damn," Witherell said. "Now what?"

"Commander, I suggest we fire the other torpedo," Commander Neddek's voice
said. Witherell had apparently forgotten to close the channel, but he was
glad he hadn't. And he was glad the Vulcan had had the foresight to modify
another torpedo.

"Fire all weapons!" Witherell ordered. "Let's hope they don't get this one."

The viewscreen showed a volley of photon torpedoes being launched at the
other ship, only one of them having a chance to do any damage. The other
Infinity fired at the incoming torpedoes, but was not able to destroy all of
them. The ship cheered when one torpedo struck and the other ship's shields
flashed with electrical energy. The chroniton field had been activated.

"Finally," J.W. said, "I can sit back and not worry about him taking over
the ship. Unfortunately, they cannot say the same." The viewscreen showed
the other ship come to a stop and then completely power down. "That was too
easy," J.W. gloated.

"Lieutenant, hail the enemy ship," Witherell commanded.

"Hailing frequencies open, sir," Remley replied joyfully. Witherell wondered
if he was gloating as well. He couldn't wait until he had full access to his
telepathic powers again so that he wouldn't have to wonder.

"Captain McCue," Commander Witherell greeted as the image of the other
ship's bridge appeared on the viewscreen. "Commander Witherell."

His double stood from his chair. "Have you contacted us to request our
surrender?" he demanded. "I promise you, we will fight to the death first!"
"Actually, I've called to let you know I'm sending your away teams back,"
Witherell replied. "We're transporting them now."

More than twenty officers from the other ship began to appear on the other
ship's bridge. Witherell noted that their Lieutenant Remley quickly went to
his tactical station, and then slammed his fists against it when he realized
what had happened. Then, for some reason, Lieutenant Remley noticed
something off screen and smiled. Captain McCue, on the other hand, looked
very concerned. He stood and walked forward towards the viewscreen.

"Commander, why haven't you beamed back Lieutenant Monty?" he asked. "Do you
intend to keep her as your hostage? I plead with you, take me instead of
her. Let her go, please!"

Witherell shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Captain, but your Lieutenant
Monty was killed in a firefight under very unusual circumstances. She was
hit by a phaser at stun, but her body was vaporized completely. I regret
that we don't know how it happened."

McCue turned to glower at his Remley. "You! You did this, didn't you? You
killed her!" he shouted.

Remley shrugged. "I was just following the Counselor's orders," he replied
with a grin. "She said something about being tired of the competition. She
also ordered me to take you into custody if this mission failed." He pulled
out a phaser. "I would say it has, wouldn't you, Commander?"

The other Witherell nodded but didn't say a word.

McCue turned back to the viewscreen. "Commander! I request immediate
political asylum!" In what seemed like an eternity but was only a split
second, Rando nodded his approval, and McCue suddenly disappeared off of the
bridge of his ship and onto the bridge of the Infinity. "Thank you," he
finished. Lieutenant Remley raised his phaser to cover the other ship's
captain.

"How did you get him over here so fast, Lieutenant?" Witherell asked Remley,
motioning for the channel between the two ships to be shut off.

"I had a feeling that the Captain was going to grant our friend here asylum
as soon as he requested it," Remley replied, still keeping a close eye on
McCue. With J.W. in control of the other ship, Remley could turn his
attention elsewhere without worrying about it attacking. Seconds later, two
security guards emerged from the rear turbolift to move Captain McCue off
the bridge. "I had a transporter lock on him just in case."

"A good thing too," J.W. replied. "A few seconds later, and they would have
killed him. Now, I know that everyone on this ship has a strong desire to
return home, and so without further ado...."

"Wormhole opening in front of us, sir," Ensign Marit reported. "We're
entering it."

Lieutenant Remley's console began to beep. "Sir, we're receiving a message
from the other ship. Audio only."

"Put in on, Lieutenant," Rando said. "Let's hear what idle threats they have
to make."

"Captain Rando, this is Commander Witherell. Actually, Captain Witherell
now, after you stole our commanding officer. We just wanted to let you know
that your... proposed officer exchange has been accepted. We will enjoy
teaching your young Mr. Libby everything there is to know about our
universe. Until we meet again, Captain."

Rando muttered a curse under his breath as realization struck and tapped his
comm. badge. "Rando to Libby." There was no response.

"Computer, locate Ensign Jeff Libby," Witherell tried.

"Ensign Libby is in sickbay," the computer replied.

"Rando to...."

"Rando, allow me," J.W. requested. "I just checked all throughout the ship.
Libby is not onboard."

"Then you have to turn us around, J.W. You have to get us back to that other
universe!" Witherell demanded. The Infinity was not going to leave anyone
behind in that... hell.

"Unfortunately, I cannot, Witherell," J.W. told him, with almost a touch of
sadness. "We have already exited the return wormhole, and the effort to open
that wormhole has already weakened me considerably. Not only that, but I
would have no idea how to find that exact universe again. We were not
present there long enough to get an exact fix."

Witherell turned to his Captain. "There must be something we can do,
Captain."

J.W. cut in. "There's only one thing we can do, Witherell. One of these
days, we'll encounter that ship again. And when we do, we'll retrieve your
missing officer. Until then, we'll just have to wait."

CHAPTER SIX

"I've placed our guest in secure quarters until we have a chance to debrief
him. Starfleet will probably want to talk to him to, and we're still not
sure what to do with him after that," Witherell said.

"I'm sure Starfleet will figure something out," Captain Rando replied
weakly. The cortical monitor on his head was distracting, but wearing it was
the only way Doctor Calabretta would let him out of sickbay. The two men
were conferring in the Captain's ready room.

Witherell nodded. Because of his recent link with his Captain, he knew why
Rando was disturbed by McCue's presence on the ship. Witherell had seen the
fierce battle going on inside Rando earlier when McCue had requested asylum.
Now Rando had granted it, and there was no turning back.

"Ms. Monty's already seen me three times about him," Witherell continued.
"She's begging me to let her see him."

"And we both know why that is," Rando said, remembering that Commander
Witherell was very aware of what had happened in Lieutenant Monty's past, as
well as his own. "I'm sorry, Commander. I don't want anyone seeing him until
Starfleet says it's safe."

Witherell nodded. "I'll pass the message on for you, sir." He took a breath
and then continued. "Lieutenant Krodel has requested a transfer off the
ship. Even though Commander Neddek is not pressing charges, Krodel says he
doesn't feel comfortable working with him. He's been offered the chief
engineer's position on the Trinity , and I think he wants to start over
again."

Rando nodded again. "Neddek will have to find a new assistant chief, then."

"Apparently he's chosen Lieutenant Maiser to fill that slot," Witherell
said. He checked his PADD, and then changed the subject. "Doctor Calabretta
says that sickbay is under control again. There were no casualties."

"Except for one," Rando added.

"I've made up a preliminary list of replacements for Ensign Libby... until
we get him back," Witherell said.

Rando nodded, looking at the PADD Witherell had handed him. "I would have to
say that Lieutenant Johnson could use some time out of the transporter room.
He IS the assistant operations chief, even though we keep him closed up in
that transporter room."

Witherell made a note of Rando's decision. "That would move Johnson to OPS
and D'vis to assistant chief. And for transporter chief?"

Rando sighed. "Pick someone, Commander. I can't think about this anymore. I
think the entire crew could use shore leave after this nightmare."

"I'll see if I can arrange it, sir," Witherell said. He didn't bother to
mention right now that Commander Neddek had ruled out warp drive until the
massive hull breach in the side of the ship was repaired. "Now, I hope I
don't have to remind you that your shift, or what there was of it, ended a
minute ago?"

Rando stood from his chair. "Yes, Commander, I'm going. You don't have to
tell me twice." The two men walked out of the Captain's office, and Captain
Rando continued to the turbolift.

A minute later, Rando arrived at his quarters and opened the door. The room
was pitch black, but yet Rando was able to sense a presence there. A
familiar presence.

"Lights," he called. He smiled when he saw Counselor Kassal waiting for him,
feeling his worries slip away. "Sonja," he said. "This is a pleasant
surprise."

Kassal stood up from her chair and walked slowly over to Rando. She was
dressed very casually in a robe like the one Rando had put on her yesterday,
a fact that interested him. She had never before left her quarters without
being fully dressed, so Rando guessed something important must be on her
mind.

"I've been thinking a lot about my double," she said as she led him over to
sit side by side on Rando's couch. "She was very different from me, in very
extreme ways. But we also shared some things. Years ago, she loved her
Charlie with all her heart. She still loved him when her telepathic powers
began to grow, but the desire for power corrupted her enough that she
decided to kill him. Although she would never admit it to anyone, she still
regretted her decision." She stood up, uncomfortable with the direction she
was about to take. "Her... promiscuity... was in a desperate attempt to find
someone to replace him, but not even Captain McCue could take his place. And
then when our ship arrived, she had the opportunity to be with her one love
again: you."

Rando shook his head. "She had a funny way of showing it," he said.

"She displayed her feelings for you the only way she knew how," Kassal told
him. "You were the closest she could get to the life she had given up
before. But in the end, I could tell, it wasn't real."

Rando sighed. "To be completely honest, Counselor, I'd rather be friends
with you, like this, than be involved in a relationship like our
counterparts had. It's just so much easier this way." He flashed her what
could be best described as an elfish smirk. "After all, I get to live."

Kassal looked at him and laughed. "I was hoping you'd still feel that way,"
she said. She sat down next to him and put her head on his shoulder.
******************************************************

"I still can't believe he's gone," Bayreuther was saying. Lieutenant Maiser
placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. "I don't know how I'm going to go
on without him. He was my life... he was my everything."

Maiser nodded and appeared to sigh. He knew he wasn't any good when it came
to dealing with human emotions like loss and grief. If only D'vis had been
there to comfort Bayreuther... but he was resting after being alert for the
entire time they were in that other universe. Maiser literally had no idea
what he should be doing, but he wished he could do something.

Bayreuther looked at him. "How did you do it, Maiser? How did you deal with
such a major change in your life?"

Maiser thought about this for a second, and then pointed at his Starfleet
uniform. Starfleet had helped him recover from his life with his people.
Starfleet had given him purpose to continue.

"You think that Starfleet will help me get through this, Maiser?" Bayreuther
asked. "Somehow, I doubt it."

The Breen shook his head and tugged at his uniform again. If only he could
take off his helmet and communicate... damn these humans and their love for
intense heat! Then, he noticed something on the table. He picked it up,
worked on it for a few seconds, and handed it to Bayreuther.

"What you need to find is a purpose. It is doubtful that you will be able to
do it here, because you will be constantly reminded of what you lost. You
need change," Bayreuther read aloud. She put the PADD down and looked at
Maiser. "But I'm not sure if I can leave just yet," she cried. "If I leave,
I'll truly be alone."

Maiser retrieved the PADD and typed two words: "Then don't."

Bayreuther hugged the Breen and rested her head on his shoulder. Until she
found a new purpose, she was going to need her closest friends to help her
heal.