"Ghaaaahh!"
Aboard the Tycho Captain Ted let out a shocked gasp as he heard the sound of a lethal phaser discharge through Guy's subsonic transmitter. In horrified astonishment Ted expected the scene on his inner sunglass lenses to go black as the transmission terminated -- along with Guy's life. Instead, Ted watched as the savage grin on the husky lieutenant's face jerked into surprised agony just before he sank, lifeless, to the floor. Ted didn't know what to think about the smile or the question asked by the second Starfleet security officer. Ted just wanted to quickly take advantage this fleeting chance to save Guy.
"Guy! We're almost in orbit. Get ready to beam up!"
Guy shook off his dazed seizure. "Ted, waitaminnit! I think this is my other deep cover contact!" Then, to the standing lieutenant: "ARE you... my contact?!"
The security officer looked at the dead lieutenant on the floor and glanced nervously over his shoulder at the closed comfort room door. "Yes, Liaison Guy, I am one of the deep cover contacts. But we don't have much time." He adjusted the setting on his phaser to 'stun' and handed it to Guy who regarded it with some repugnance.
"B-b-but I thought you would be an Andorian agent?!"
The officer replied with a hint of exasperation, "I AM Andorian, Mister Guy! Let's just say that my makeover is a BIT more sophisticated than yours!" He allowed himself a faint smile. "Your 'pinkskin' makeup is a little.. amateurish."
He stepped over the husky lieutenant's body and shoved the phaser into Guy's hand. "I assume from your earlier comment that you are in communication with the Tycho and that they can transport you. But before you go, you've got to stun me!"
Guy was aghast. "I can't do that!!"
"You've got no choice .. and it's my only chance!" The faux Starfleet officer glared intently at Guy. "Now look, Mister Guy, that dolt on the floor was about to kill you when I killed him! The only plausible way of explaining this to Snavely's crew is if I am also a victim of my own phaser .. which you somehow got away from me while I was trying to 'arrest' you! So take the phaser with you when you beam up!"
Guy desperately seeking alternatives. "Wait! Why don't you just beam up with me?!"
"And waste the years it took to build an identity and infiltrate Starfleet?!!" 'Jimbo' rolled his eyes. "When I wake up I may be reprimanded or even demoted, but I'll still be an effective deep cover agent!" Loud voices started building outside the door. "Guy! Stun me NOW!"
Ted had been anxiously following the conversation. "DO it, Guy!"
Guy raised a quivering phaser point blank at Jimbo's chest, but couldn't seem to make his thumb actuate the firing stud. A loud shout emanated from just outside the door. Guy squeezed his eyes shut and pressed the stud. Then he felt the odd tingling of a transporter beam.
Lieutenant Ken Cunning's eyes popped open as sensations of phaser fire and transport beams flashed through his brain. He sat up in the bed of his darkened quarters feeling totally awake and inexplicably anxious. "Guy..?" The chronometer near his bed indicated ship's time of a little past 12:00 hours. He had been asleep for over 14 hours! But now he felt incredibly vibrant and perceptive.
Springing from his bed he quickly donned his uniform and headed for the transporter station. Rounding a hallway curve he met a purple-skinned Counselor Donna walking toward him.
"Why, KEN!" Donna exclaimed with a pleased smile. "You're up and about already! Do you think you are fully recovered from your Andorian food allergies?"
Ken stopped and stared at her. "I'm not sure, Donna. I feel fine. In fact, BETTER than fine! But I don't quite feel like I'm the same person."
"Uhh.. where are you going, Ken?"
"The transporter station, Donna. Guy just beamed back aboard the Tycho... and I believe something..SCARY happened to him."
"Oh really?!" Donna eyed Ken somewhat suspiciously. "I haven't heard any announcement from the captain."
Ken took Donna's elbow and turned her around. "I think you should come with me, Donna. Guy may be in need of ... some counseling." They hurried on to the transporter station.
AS they entered they found Guy surrounded by Captain Ted, Commander Dianne and a medical officer who was scanning Guy with a tricorder. A hand phaser still lay on the floor of the transporter. "He hasn't suffered any injury that I can tell," the doctor said. "His heart rate is fast and his blood pressure quite high, but that seems to be settling back down."
Guy shrugged his shoulders and gave a wave-off gesture with his hands. "Oh, I'll be OK, Doc." He turned and looked at Ted. "It's just that I never had to..to..."
"SHOOT someone?" Ken finished Guy's thought. All eyes swiveled to Ken.
"Yeah!" Guy stared at Ken thoughtfully. "It's good to see you back on your feet, Ken. But how did you know...?"
Ted, who was studying Ken through squinted eyes, picked up the line. "Yes, Ken. How DID you know?! This just happened minutes ago!"
Ken was a little nonplussed as he considered this question. After a few seconds thought, he blinked his eyes and gave an innocent shrug. "Why it, uhh...it WOKE me up!"
"WHAT woke you up?"
"Guy's nasty experience, I think." Ken paused to focus on his 'dream'. "I was asleep in my quarters when these feelings of terror and phaser fire and transport beams flashed through my mind... and somehow I knew that they came from Guy!"
Ted looked at his medical officer. "Doctor, can you explain any of this?"
The doctor rolled his eyes. "There have been rare, seemingly unexplained cases of 'clairvoyance' throughout human history. But nothing that has ever been medically documented or definitively proven in a scientific study."
Donna stepped forward. "Doctor, as you can see from the shades of our skin, we have recently sustained a reaction to eating Andorian food. However, Ken had the most severe allergic reaction by far. Is it possible that this severe reaction somehow...stimulated a latent potential in Ken's brain?"
This time the doctor added a grimace to his eyeroll. "I suppose ANYTHING is possible! But it would take a much more thorough brainscan study than I can accomplish with a tricorder to try to find anything."
Ted glanced hesitantly between Ken and the doctor. "Then I suppose you should take Ken to sickbay and begin a series.."
"TED!!" Ken stared at Ted reproachfully. "You can't lock me up in sickbay NOW!! There's too much going on!"
"But less than a day ago you were as sick as a.."
"But not any longer, Ted! Right now I feel better than I've EVER felt!" Ken peered intently into Ted's eyes. "Besides, if I did get some sort of telepathic 'brain boost' from my allergic reaction, it could well be only temporary!" Ken cocked his head slightly to one side as he regarded Ted with a sly look. "So maybe you should keep me around to...."
"Strike while the iron is hot!" Ted finished the thought.
Ken smiled. "Exactly!"
Ted straightened his shoulders with an air of decision. "Very well. With the exception of the doctor, we'll all proceed directly to the bridge where I left Marchelle in charge. Ken, you can resume your post as head of security. And I assume you will keep me apprised of any more...." Ted threw his hands in the air; "epiphanies!!"
They were filing out of the transporter station when Ted turned back. "Oh, and Doctor; make certain that all is in readiness in sickbay for possible casualties. Colonel Snavely has probably figured out by now who snatched his phony Andorian 'terrorist' away from him! So I don't imagine he would be willing to let the Tycho leave this system!"
Dianne shot a worried look at Ted. "Captain, surely you don't think Andorian Starfleet would attack one of their own minimally armed science vessels?!"
"Normally no, Dianne." Ted remembered his last view of Colonel Snavely's fluttering eyelid as he authorized 'lethal force' against the alleged 'terrorist'. "But I believe that Andorian Starfleet is under the command of an increasingly desperate criminal!"
As they exited the lift tube just outside the entrance to the bridge, they found Ensign Sherriea Williams awaiting them with a datapad in one hand. "Ensign Williams," Ted said with mild surprise. "I thought you were monitoring communications between SPROC and the command center?"
"Yes Sir. One of my assistants is recording every communique and keeping me advised." Sherriea seemed somewhat agitated. "But..uhh, Captain, that is a fairly routine matter and I thought I would take the slack time to review our deep probe scans of Pandoria."
"Oh did you now?" Ted was moderately impressed with Sherriea's initiative, but also a little irritated. "Well, I'm glad you're being so thorough, Ensign, but we are in a bit of a crisis right now."
"Y..yes, Captain, I understand that." Sherriea's nervousness increased. "But, Sir, I think I've discovered something that is very pertinent to our..uhh, crisis!"
The widening of Sherriea's eyes and nearly frightened attitude gave Ted pause. "Very well, Ensign. Let's have it."
Ken, who had focused his attention on Sherriea, muttered: "Crystals!"
Sherriea launched into what she hoped would be a concise explanation. "Well, Sir, as you know, we began the Pandorian scans in an equatorial orbit above the Andorian and Starfleet outposts. It took us approximately two hours to circumnavigate the planet... ending up back above SPROC and Pandopost." She nervously swallowed and licked her lips. "Now the subterranean crystalline belt underlying the equator of Pandoria has a roughly average width of 5000 kilometers. And both SPROC and Pandopost lie along the northern edge of this belt; SPROC being just a few kilometers northwest of Pandopost."
"Yes.. yes..." Ted nodded a little impatiently. "This was established from our scans."
"Yes Sir", Sherriea continued. "Well, Captain, a more detailed analysis of the scans reveals that at the beginning of the scans the exact width of the belt was 5076 kilometers, with SPROC positioned at the very northern edge. There were also gravitonic radiation emissions coming from the area around SPROC."
"Yes, Ensign, that's why we suspected dilithium mining." Ted's brow started to wrinkle. "And your subsonic listening in on SPROC communications has confirmed those suspicions."
Sherriea coughed nervously. "Yes Sir. Captain I have compiled data I can show you here comparing the beginning conditions of our scans with the ending conditions two hours later."
"Good Lord, Ensign Williams!" Ted exploded. "We don't have time right now to dig through data! Just tell me what you've come up with!"
"Ohh.." Sherriea blanched a little. "Uh.. the exact width of the crystalline belt at the END of our scans was 5084 kilometers...with a kind of little crystalline bulge around SPROC. Also, the gravitonic emissions had increased by a factor of approximately two percent...in two hours!"
Sherriea looked earnestly at Ted. "Captain I think the crystalline belt is GROWING -- at a rather rapid rate!"