Fic: Wanderers Far At Sea, STXI/Buffy/Angel fusion, Kirk/McCoy, R (4/5)
Title: Wanderers Far At Sea
Author: sail_aweigh
Artist: votaku
Mixer: vengefuldemon69
Betas: thistlerose, lindmere
Series: AOS
Characters/Pairings: Kirk/McCoy, Uhura/Spock, Spike/Surprise Guest, Khan, Marla McGivers, Joanna McCoy
Warnings: beheadings and gore, swearing, minor character death
Rating: R for violence and language
Word Count: ~39,000
Summary: STXI/Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series fusion. Jim has kept one part of his life a complete secret from his best friend Bones, but now it appears the bizarre occurrences happening to Joanna McCoy may force him to reveal things to Bones that will either sunder their friendship forever or bring them closer together than either had ever expected. Can Bones trust Jim with Joanna's life, when he's been lied to by his best friend about his very nature?
Jim found himself being manhandled out into the corridor by his CMO as soon as Bones had recovered from his spell of nausea. He would have resisted more except that he didn't want to get into an argument with Bones in front of Chalmers. Chris would cut his meeting short as soon as he realized Jim was on an unscheduled stop on planet.
"What the hell, Jim? What do you think you're doing?" Bones' voice was rough and the breath that wafted across Jim's face had the sour smell of bile. Jim pushed Bones down the hallway to where he could see a water fountain jutting out of the wall.
"Drink, then we'll talk," Jim commanded. Bones glared at him out of eyes that were just a little too wide and skittish, but complied without comment. Jim waited until he'd drunk deep, rinsed a couple of times and then wiped his mouth. By then, the wild look in Bones' eyes had diminished and he just looked pissed.
"Would it be too much to have some warning before you go doing shit like that? And maybe an explanation or two?" Bones combed his fingers through his bangs, pushing it aside where it had fallen over his forehead while he bent over the fountain. Jim wanted to do that for himself, but he wasn't really sure what kind of touches might be accepted right now. Even though Jim was still a little angry about the previous night's outcome, he had to feel sorry for all the shit Bones had to put up with since they'd hit DS6 that morning. It left him itching to comfort Bones regardless. Jim recited the Starfleet code of conduct concerning public displays of affection in uniform in his head to convince him to keep his hands to himself. Later, he'd make it up to Bones later. The least he could do right now was listen to Bones and try to answer his questions, allay that fear that never seemed to quite leave him.
Jim took Bones by the elbow and steered him towards an alcove with two chairs and a small table between them. He perched on the edge of one chair and placed his elbows on his knees, his chin perched on top of his clasped hands. "I've been trying to explain to you for weeks now. Every time I think you've accepted the supernatural and come to terms with it, something sets you off on another of your sarcastic diatribes. You need to understand that this is going to be Jo's natural environment from now on and the sooner you accept that, the better it is for the both of you. It made me a little touchy last night. I'll try to answer your questions, but if you're not willing to really listen to me, there's nothing I can do to reassure you. All I can do is ask you to trust me."
Bones scrubbed his hands over his face, then looked at Jim with exasperation. "I do trust you. Did I give you any shit about almost getting eaten by a vampire today? You saved my life! I get that there's all kinds of ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night out there. Can I just get a little warning when you're going to yank me halfway across the universe against my will? I barely tolerate shuttles, transporters give me the heebie-jeebies, but at least they work on the known mechanics of the physical laws of the universe. Magic, well, I have no reason to trust it yet. But I trust you, so give me a break."
And that left Jim feeling all kinds of foolish. Thinking the hell with regulations, he sat up a little and reached out one hand to touch Bones' knee. When it was covered immediately by one of Bones' broad hands, he gave him a sheepish grin. "Yeah, sorry. I know firsthand the infinite flavors of your neuroses when it comes to interstellar travel. Next time, I'll warn you to bring some Dramamine for the trip, okay?"
Bones rolled his eyes, but squeezed Jim's hand in acknowledgement of the apology. "Could you just maybe, give me a list of the kinds of things you can do with magic? If I even knew what to expect, it wouldn't be such a shock all the time. Even though I've known you for nine years, I feel like I don't know anything about you anymore."
Jim nodded at the request, at the reasonableness of it. "I can do that. There's only so many basic ways of manipulating the psionic field and it follows rules, just like science. It even helps to know Latin, but be careful where you use it. The list will have to wait until we get back to the Enterprise, though."
The sound of a throat being cleared broke into their self-absorption, the two men drawing apart and bringing their hands back to their own laps. Christopher Pike stood there with a small smile tipping the corners of his mouth up. "Gentlemen, you seemed to be in a bit of hurry earlier, yes or no?"
Jim jumped up, jerking his head at Bones to follow him as he walked over to greet the admiral. "Admiral Pike, we have a number of things that need immediate attention. May we talk in your office?"
"By all means. Let me tell Yeoman Chalmers to hold my calls." Pike turned and headed down the hallway back to his office, Jim and Bones trailing in his wake. After speaking with his yeoman, he ushered both men into his office and closed the door behind them.
"What can I do for you today, Jim? You've set the coven in a tizzy with that stunt, 'porting into HQ without prior approval. You're lucky they didn't fry you to a crisp on the carpet in front of Yeoman Chalmers." Pike's head turned sharply at the choking sounds coming from the doctor seated to one side.
"Damnit, Jim! When were you going to explain that part of teleporting to me? After my remains had been delivered to Jo?" Bones looked on the verge of storming out of the office, so Jim laid a hand on his shoulder to keep him in his seat. Surprisingly, it didn't get shaken off. leaving Jim with a warm feeling inside. Bones did trust him; his words were just a knee-jerk reflex of anxiety and fear, but where it mattered--Bones trusted him. He had been so stupid. Maybe he was the one who didn't trust, and wasn't that a kicker.
"You got that out of your system, now, Bones?" Jim squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. At Bones' nod, he let go of him. Reaching into a pocket, Jim pulled out his communicator and pressed a few buttons. He looked back up at Admiral Pike when he was through. "I've sent a set of letters to you that Bones and I received from his daughter. The most important one is the last in the series; it was received today. After you read it, I think we can agree that Jo McCoy is a Potential and should be assigned a Watcher."
Admiral Pike turned to his comm console and pulled up the letters, perusing the list until he reached the last one. Reading it quickly, his eyebrows rose at the description of the sarcophagus and the transcribed symbols. He turned back to Jim when he was done reading. "What did Uhura have to say?"
Jim summed their discovery up for him. "The sarcophagus is that of an Old One she identified as Falgoreth. Since we know that Illyria is the only extant Old One, we believe this dream to be a true instance of slayer precognition."
Pike nodded in agreement while he activated another button on his comm panel. "Yeoman Chalmers, contact the Watcher's residence; inform Xander Wells he'll be leaving in the morning for Georgia, he's got a new Potential to evaluate."
"What's going to happen to Jo, now?" Leonard asked in a subdued voice.
"Xander will contact her and your ex-wife, make arrangements for Jo to transfer to the academy here in Sausalito. We offer a complete high school curriculum in addition to the more specific training required of a slayer. It is, of course, an all-girls school with the exception of a few boys who are children of active members of section 31 and can benefit from receiving full room and board while their parents are off planet. Most parents see it as a desirable alternative." Pike pulled a PADD out of one of the desk drawers and handed it to Bones. "When you have a chance, this explains everything that will be expected of Jo and what the facilities are comprised of, the opportunities that will be available to Jo. We are, at the heart of it, nothing more than a very selective boarding school."
Jim laid his hand on Bones arm again when the doctor remained silent at the end of the admiral's spiel. "Is that acceptable, Bones?"
Dragging his attention away from the graphic displayed by the PADD, Bones nodded and placed the PADD by his side for later perusal. "Yeah, it sounds really good. I'm just not sure Joce will go for it. She's a bit of a control freak."
Jim smirked. "Not like anyone else I know, I'm sure." He received and returned a grimace that included tongue that was on par for children around the age of five. Pike's disapproving voice interrupted their bickering, Jim and Bones jerking forward at the reprimand.
"When you two are done playing footsie, can we get to whatever pressing matters caused Jim to nearly drain half the coven to get you two here?" Pike tapped his fingers impatiently on the edge of the viewscreen set into his desk.
Jim straightened up in his chair, bringing his attention back to Pike. "Sorry, Admiral Pike. It won't happen again."
Pike snorted. "Like hell, but get on with it."
For the next few minutes, Jim outlined McGivers' covert activities and how they'd concluded that she was actively searching for the Botany Bay in hopes of resurrecting an Old One. Whether just to interview it or to worship it, they had no way of knowing, but it was going to backfire on the inquisitive Slayer if Jo's dream was to be trusted.
"I have to agree, I think that young lady is in for a world of disappointment if she continues on her misbegotten quest. Do you think you can find her?" Pike punched up a few numbers on his comm panel, sending alerts to a wetworks team notifying them to be ready to leave instantly on a bag and tag mission for a rogue Slayer.
Jim leaned forward in his chair, gazing at Pike intently. "There's something else going on, I'm not sure just how it ties into the McGivers affair, but it has to do with the original reason my mother was sent out to Tarsus."
Pike's hands stilled. "Did you find it?"
Jim waved the question away with one hand. "Not exactly. After talking to Uhura, we've determined that the Mutari generator is pretty much a red herring. It can't be used to resurrect any of the sarcophagi on the Botany Bay."
"It would still be good to have it in our custody, though. Who knows, they might even decide to reverse engineer it. Although, one can't imagine a demon bothering to take a degree in--" Pike broke off when Jim made a sound of disgust.
"We think they did, though." Jim raised his hands and pressed them to his forehead. "We were attacked by a vampire on DS6 in the open. No stealth was attempted. But after talking to Spike and Uhura, we determined he must have had some kind of device on him that could nullify the psionic field he projected because neither of them could sense him on the station. That had to be based on the technology of the Mutari generator."
"Wait, that sounds familiar. Let me check a few things." Pike pulled up a search box and, after typing in a query, reports started to quickly pop up on on his desktop viewscreen. After the search was complete, he arranged them in chronological order. "For the past six months, we've been getting reports of vampires that have managed to breach the anti-vampire wards around a number of the space stations in the Beta Quadrant, the same quadrant as DS6. We thought they were coming in with a magic user who could nullify the wards on the space stations, but from what you've just contributed we could be very wrong."
"All in the Beta Quadrant, Admiral? Could you plot them out for us?" Jim rubbed his hands together nervously, things were starting to come together in a way he didn't like.
Pike sent a command to his console and a hologram of the Beta Quadrant appeared over his desktop. "The bright green dots are where we had the breaches." The dots were spread out over about half the quadrant with no apparent pattern.
"Mark DS6 in red, please, Admiral?" Jim looked at the updated display and considered the ramifications of the data. "Now, can you vary the color gradient of the green dots by time?" The green dots shifted so it was now obvious that the security breaches started at one side of the quadrant and moved to the other, DS6 being the culminating endpoint to date, but there were still random outlying occurrences. It was the outliers that set off an alarm in Jim's head.
"Plot the Enterprise's course for the past six months in yellow." Pike quickly punched up the additional request and it became clear to Jim that the Enterprise was being stalked.
Jim pointed at one dot. "Look, Bones. That station is in the Kitalphar system. That's where I had the run-in with the Fyarl demon."
Bones looked at him with one eyebrow cocked. "What the blue blazes is a Fyarl demon, Jim? I still haven't made it past the B's in that bestiary you loaned me."
"Remember when I got clawed in the arm by that creature? The one I stabbed with my knife? You wondered why I didn't use my phaser on it?" Jim prompted his memory.
Bones eyes lit up in recognition. "Yeah, I said you may as well have used a pointy stick. That was a Fyarl demon?"
"Yes, and the only way to kill them is with silver." Jim lowered his hand down to the knife in his boot and slid it out partway where it glinted shiny silver against the black of his boot.
Bones raised one hand to his mouth in thought before he spoke. "So, silver."
Jim slid the knife back into his boot. "Good against a variety of other creatures, too. Best to have weapons on hand that are multipurpose. I also have one that's made of cold steel."
"All right. But I'm sure that's not the first or the last time you've run into a supernatural critter in the past six years."
"Not as frequent as you think. Demons are very conservative in their behavior. They've been around for a long time and are slow to change. Most of them don't like space travel, except for vampires. They follow humans because that's what their diet necessitates. Look at the date of the vampire breach at the Kitalphar starbase--it was the same day. I think they were waiting for us, have possibly been following us." Jim looked up at Pike for another request. "Admiral, could you open a subspace channel to DS6? Spike and Uhura have been evaluating some anomalous readings that Uhura has been tracking for a while. They may play into this."
Pike did as Jim requested and shortly afterward they had Spike on the desktop viewscreen. "Well, well, if the great and powerful Oz hasn't decided to pull back the curtain. What can I do for you, your highness?"
Pike rolled his eyes. "Would a little professionalism kill you, Agent Pratt?"
"Didn't hire me for my diplomatic skills, ya ponce." Spike swiveled in his chair and the men in Pike's office could see him throw his feet up on his desk, his attitude broadcast as loud as his words that he didn't care what the other man thought.
"You forget, we didn't hire you; we inherited you along with the trappings of the Council of Watchers. One of these days, we're writing you out of the will," Pike joked, jabbing a finger at him.
"Eh, you need me too badly. You don't chuck away almost 400 years of experience in the field over a little lack of personal dignity." Getting back to business, Spike dropped his feet down to the floor and leaned in toward the viewscreen. "But you wouldn't be calling me just to exchange unpleasantries, Pike. What do you need?"
"The data you and Uhura are working on--have you plotted out all the anomalous readings she took yet?" Pike waited for the answer with an intent look on his face, fingers tapping restlessly on the desktop.
"Yeah, we've got it all. Hang on a mo', I'll send it to you." Spike reached for his console and they could see him hit a few buttons and then an incoming chirp at Pike's panel signalled the arrival of the data.
Pike added the new data up into the cloud of dots above his desk, barely half a dozen points showing up in bright blue. It was immediately obvious that all the anomalous readings that Uhura had detected followed the same path as the Enterprise.
Jim considered the hologram carefully. "Not a lot of data points, but we are being followed. By whom and why, though?"
"Do I have to come over there and play connect the dots for you?" Spike's voice held an edge of exasperation. "Look at the dates. The anomalies started around the same time that McGivers dropped off the 'net and went walkabout."
"Okay, fine; it's McGivers. But why?" Jim felt frustrated at his lack of understanding. What was he missing?
"I'm thinking she's keeping an eye on Uhura. Maybe reporting back to someone on the Enterprise's movements," Spike offered tentatively.
Jim frowned. "That's not good. Didn't you say she had an Old One fetish, Spike?"
The three in Pike's office could see Spike's head nod on the desktop. "Yeah, she couldn't stop talking about them to anyone who was willing to listen to her. She did a competent enough job as a Slayer, so it didn't matter if she was a bit of a nutter over a bunch of long dead demons."
"Long dead except for me," Uhura broke in.
"So McGivers is tracking you. And possibly reporting that back to someone. We have vampire and other mercenary-type demons showing up wherever we do. What's the connection?" Jim struck the arm of his chair, still unable to come up with a unified theory.
Spike's voice interrupted Jim's ruminations. "You mean those M'Fashnik demons I cleared out of the cargo bay? Weren't that many of them. Not enough to do more than threaten a mugging or two before I found them all."
Jim filled Spike in on the encounter he'd had with Fyarl demons some weeks earlier. "Not just them, I ran into a Fyarl demon on Beta Kitalphar. You know they aren't loners, they're usually used as foot soldiers in packs, but I couldn't find any signs of others. I'm starting to wonder if there were more of them and they were carrying those nullifying devices. Shit, Spike, you may still have more of those bastards on DS6 and we wouldn't have any way of knowing."
Pike sat up at attention at Jim's words. "We may be looking at some kind of an invasion or a takeover. Spike, notify the security team at DS6, have them post extra watches on all the docking bays and transporter facilities, then start a compartment by compartment search of all storage and utility bays."
"Will do, Brigadier. Do you want me to--" Spike's words were cut off abruptly, the viewscreen on Pike's desktop suddenly reverting to static before being replaced with the Starfleet logo.
Pike punched buttons in an attempt to reactivate the connection, but it timed out with a grating buzz. "All right, you two; this does not seem like a coincidence. Get over to the Coven and have them boost you back to DS6. I'll have a squad meet you there for support." He hit another button on the console, throwing out orders to the section leader as Jim took off at a run out of his office, Bones on his heels.
"Where are we going?" Bones panted after Jim as they jogged down the corridor.
"The Coven has a sanctuary here; there's usually at least five to six heavy magic users on site. We'll have them 'port us back to DS6." Jim turned right and headed for a domed atrium filled with plants and trees.
Bones groaned. "I don't have any anti-nausea drugs on hand. Do I have to do this?"
"It's the fastest way, Bones. Suck it up." Jim strong-armed the door into the sanctuary, glad to see that Gwendolyn Giles was waiting for them in the center of the room with four other witches as he'd asked her through a mental link he'd thrown out as soon as he left Pike's office. Grabbing Bones' hand in his he came to a stop next to the head of the Coven.
"No time for introductions, Gwennie love--give us a boost?" Jim gave her his winsomest smile.
"Only you, James. At least you gave me more warning this time than that time when you were twelve and decided to drive a car off a cliff." Gwendolyn sniffed at him in disapproval. Before she could say more, eight more young women dressed in form-fitting black jumpsuits jogged in carrying a variety of weapons, most of them archaic. Jim gave a slight nod to the blond carrying a shiny red scythe, glad to see that the .
"Form up!" The lead Slayer barked at the others.
Jim and Bones quickly found themselves surrounded by the group of Slayers. The coven members spaced themselves evenly around the group, everyone with at least one hand touching a member of the group being transported. Once everyone had made contact, Jim nodded at Gwendolyn and then they were hurtling through time and space towards DS6 once more with Bones last epithet ringing in Jim's ears.
"Goddammit, Jim!"
"Status report!" Jim demanded as soon as they'd materialized back in Spike's office. The slayers took up watch by the door as Spike started outlining everything he knew.
"Station communications have been shut down, the transporter room has been occupied by an unknown number of demons and the computers have been locked down and are inaccessible. Personal communicators are being jammed; only Blue here has been in contact with her honey through their fancy telepathic bond. According to Spock, the Enterprise has been similarly attacked." Spike related this all in clipped tones while pulling weapons out of a concealed cupboard built into the wall behind his desk.
Jim picked out a sword and over-the-shoulder harness. He watched as Bones looked over the weapons, tentatively reaching for a double-bladed axe and approved of his choice. It didn't take any fancy knowledge, just brute force, and Bones had a decent amount of upper body strength. Surrounded by slayers, he'd be relatively safe.
"Was Spock able to report how they got aboard the Enterprise?" After buckling the harness straps over his chest, he shrugged a couple of times to settle the blade between his shoulders comfortably. A quick reach over his shoulder verified that it was in the right spot for a fast draw.
"He stated that he was 98.4 percent certain they came in with a supply team bringing in spare parts through the shuttle bay. The description he gave was that of M'Fashnik demons." Having already changed into her armored form, Illyria chose a six-foot pike with a number of spikes and razor sharp protuberances along the shaft. Jim had seen her practice with javelins before. The weapon was as sleek and deadly looking as Illyria herself; in her hands it became poetry in motion when she wielded it.
Jim stood to one side as he watched Spike show Bones how to wield the axe--the best grip, how to swing it--while he continued questioning Illyria. "Did Spock say how many hijackers there are?"
"He was unable to ascertain an exact count. The humans manning the space were ejected and gave conflicting reports before internal communcations were disabled. But by his best estimation, the force that took over the transporter room was composed of ten large demons. Mr. Scott has been locked out of engineering along with the rest of the engineering crew. He reported that they counted approximately eight intruders and a female lieutenant in a red Starfleet uniform. It is his belief the lieutenant had access codes to disable the computer on her command." Illyria recited the numbers as she shouldered her way through the squad of slayers towards the door.
Spike had slung a crossbow over his back and was choosing a sword from the weapons closet when Jim looked over at him. "Wankers must have had more of those demon-cloaking devices; I thought I cleaned that entire nest out. And McGivers! Silly cow has gone native."
"Not your fault, Spike. We'll just have to make sure we do a thorough search-and- destroy mission when this is done. Good thing we've got a little extra help." Jim smiled at the squad of slayers. "What about the station security force--what's their status?"
"Locked in quarters with everyone else on the station. Doors won't respond to voice or manual control." Spike scowled. "We'll have to brute force our way out."
Jim nodded in agreement. "All right, ladies; let's get this show on the road. I want half of you with Spike and Illyria, the other half with me and the doctor. Spike, take your squad to the main engineering bay and see if you can get the computers back under our control or at least re-establish communications. My squad will take the transporter room. When we've secured those, we'll rendezvous at the docking bays. Once that's ours, we'll transport over to the Enterprise to break Spock and the crew out."
Standing by the door, Illyria drew a fist back and punched a hole through the wall next to the control panel. Reaching inside, she ripped the wiring out amidst a shower of sparks. "Follow me; I will ensure the soft-shelled atrocities arrive at our destination unmolested."
Spike laid a hand on Illyria's shoulder to hold her back. "Ah-ah, Blue. You may be the God-King, but I know the layout to the station. I'll play point, you take rear guard. It's where we can use you best."
"Your evaluation is sound, my pet. You would flourish by my side as a great general, if you ever chose to give up this pusillanimous existence serving a deluded quest for good." Illyria waited while the four slayers in her squad pried the door open, allowing everyone to file out into the corridor.
"I don't think your Vulcan honey would appreciate being part of a menagerie." Spike smirked at her, his tongue curling up behind his teeth. "I'm flattered you've never gotten over your taste for old Spike."
A cough from one of the slayers in Jim's half of the squad drew Spike's attention and his look turned into a more languorous smoulder at the blonde who leaned on her scythe, one foot tapping the floor in impatience. "Don't get your knickers in a twist, luv; I'll never give up serving my greater good." Jim stifled a laugh, though, when Spike's leer merely evoked an eyeroll from its target.
Jim clapped his hands. "Time's a wasting, people. Let's hit our objectives hard and fast so we can give the Enterprise a hand; we're going to shut these demons down. Be advised, we have a rogue slayer working with them. McGivers' loyalty is very much in question right now; but we still want to take her alive, folks. Be on your best."
After receiving affirmatives all around, the two groups formed up and started heading for their respective targets, Spike in the lead of one group and the blonde squad leader of the Slayers leading the other. Jim briefed Spock quickly over a psychic link that they were launching their counterattack on the space station. Then he was concentrating his whole being on the current mission. Still, he placed himself shoulder to shoulder with Bones instead of at the front. For the first time in his life he was going to acknowledge that there was something more important to him than the mission and that was Bones.
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2264.49
God, Dad!
They found Jonathan's body behind the Double Meat Palace today. He was drained of blood and his heart had been ripped out of his chest. Not cut, ripped; that's what one of the EMTs told the manager. I guess he was kinda heartbroken, after all. Sorry, that was sorta mean. I didn't like the guy, but no one deserves to have that done to them.
Nobody knows what could have done it, though. It wasn't an animal, but a human isn't strong enough to rip a heart out. Well, I think I am, but I'm a freak. And I wouldn't do something like that! Is there an alien that likes hearts? Was it a Romulan, or maybe a Klingon? They all seem pretty bloodthirsty to me. I wish you and Uncle Jim were here, you'd know what was going on, I'm sure.
Love,
Jo
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"Behind you!"
Jim spun at Bones' shout, bringing his sword around in a slash that thudded into the shoulder of the demon lumbering toward him, leaving a bloody tear through the meat of the muscle. The demon staggered under the blow, but persisted in its forward movement toward Jim and the squad of Slayers. Cursing, Jim drew the sword back for another blow when a blur of blonde hair and shiny red metal swooped past him. The blade of the scythe swished easily through the neck of the demon. Its head bounced away in a gout of greenish blood as the creature dropped to the deck where it gave one last twitch before going still.
"Shit. Thought we'd gotten all of those. Thanks, Aunt B." Jim wiped his sword off on the demon's clothes and slid it back into the scabbard secured to his back. "They're like fucking cockroaches."
Bones came over to his side and looked down at the recently dispatched demon. "Good thing for us cockroaches don't come this big; I'm sure there's more of them out there than demons."
"Been around just as long. Hey, I wonder if cockroaches are actually demons?" Jim asked. "It would explain why they can live for so long with their heads cut off."
"Jesus, Jim, I've barely got used to the idea of demons as it is, don't go giving me nightmares about what might lurk under my kitchen sink." Bones shuddered a little at the thought.
Jim scoffed at him, poking him in the side with an elbow. "As if a cockroach would ever dare to set foot in your kitchen, Bones. I'm sure you're the boogie man of the mundane critters from microbes to millipedes." He jerked his chin over at the other side of the docking bay. "C'mon, we need to go join everyone else. You can make plans for the complete extermination of cockroaches at another time."
The two men jogged over to join the rest of the group clustered around one of the maneuvering tugs used to tow the massive starships away from the space dock.
Jim came to a stop in front of the blonde Slayer. "Status report, Agent Summers."
"Transporter room is secure with Molly on watch and a twelve-man security team standing by. Siobhan is standing guard over Engineering with Chief Engineer Nabbit rerouting all computer and communication access back under his control. No fatalities or major injuries, mostly bumps and bruises. Xiuping lost some skin off her left hand; she'll remember better than to get in the way of Fyarl snot, now. And I've told you, Jimmy, don't call me Agent Summers; it gives me the wiggens. Bad memories go with the wiggens." Agent Summers pouted at Jim.
Bones nudged Jim in the arm. "What's so special about Fyarl snot?"
"Paralyzes you, then hardens up into a cement-like substance. Get it in the face and you can suffocate," Jim's face scrunched up in disgust at the thought.
"That sure would fuck your day right up." Grabbing Jim by the elbow, Bones pulled him a short distance away from the rest of the group, tipping his head toward the Slayer that provided the status report. "Now tell me, did you just call that young lady 'Agent Summers'?"
Jim looked at his feet and then back at Bones. "You caught that, huh?"
"Is she a relative?" Bones' question carried a suspicious edge to it. He'd been holding up well under the pressure of eliminating the demons on the space station; he'd even been responsible for dispatching a couple on his own. Still, this next revelation might tip him into denial again and Jim wasn't looking forward to the explanation. Maybe he could leave the exact details out; his charm had to count for something.
"She's my aunt. Sort of. It's complicated, but she really knows what she's doing. Aunt B. is the best Slayer they have in Section 31; she's legendary. Don't let the Valley Girl speak fool you. We should get back to the others; some of them may need your skills, regardless of what Aunt B. said." Jim turned so he was crowding Bones, trying to get him to move back towards the larger group. He found himself bumping chests with him, but getting nowhere fast.
Bones grabbed the back of his neck with one hand and held him so they were staring eye to eye. "Uh-uh. There's more to it than that. Spill, or I tell Spike about the time on Risa you got drunk and passed out in the Talaxtan ambassador's bed with his underwear on your head, minus the ambassador even in the same room."
Jim huffed. "Fine. Yes, she's my Aunt Buffy. Remember, I told you about my great-umpty-grandmother Dawn and her sister Buffy?" Jim briefly tipped his head towards her. "That's Buffy."
Bones looked at him steadily for a moment, then pulled his tricorder off his hip. Turning it on, he ran it over Jim's head a couple of times. "You don't look delusional. Brain scans are perfectly normal, wave patterns all within your normal parameters. No suspicious substances in your blood. You're not drugged, high or under the control of another intellect; so what the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I'm not shittin' you, Bones. That's great-aunt Buffy. Seriously, you've met vampires, multiple species of demons, witches and warlocks; why should it surprise you to meet a human who is nearly three hundred years old?" Jim stuck his chin out. It was time Bones just gave up his attempts to hammer the supernatural pegs Jim handed him into mundane pigeonholes that they didn't fit.
Bones tucked his tricorder away and gave a weary sigh. "I don't know. I hate to quote Spock, but it's just not logical. It defies the laws of science and nature."
Jim shook his head. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Bones, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. It's magic, it can't be explained. Like faith, and love, it just has to be believed."
"But how is she even here?" Bones insisted, his voice getting louder.
"I died; then I got over it. Argue about it later, boys; we've got a problem." Buffy interrupted the heated exchange between Jim and Bones. "Take a look at Illyria."
Jim turned and felt all his blood head south in panic. "Oh, crap."
Bones craned his neck over Jim's shoulder and Jim heard him suck in his breath at the sight. "Is that--?"
"Yeah, that's Illyria's original form. The only thing that can restore it is the power of the Mutari generator or very, very powerful magic. No one here has that kind of power, so it's got to be the Mutari generator." Jim took off across the docking bay at a jog, Bones and Buffy following him. "Hopefully, we can reason with her in this form. It kind of goes to her head. The last time this happened, she tried to destroy Los Angeles."
They all looked up to that head that towered over them, mounted on top of a body that looked like a cross between a cockroach and a squid on steroids. Illyria's head and upper body were bent down by the ceiling of the docking bay, while a couple of her many tentacles that extruded from her hardened carapace curled around the overhead electrical conduits for stability. The remaining Slayers had spread out around her, their weapons at the ready.
Jim pulled up to the ring of Slayers, pushing the weapons of the ones closest to him down towards the ground. "Stand down, ladies. This is just Illyria's original form, everything is under control." He hoped. Jim wouldn't know until he tried talking to her.
"Uhura! Can you sense the Mutari generator?" Jim shouted up toward the ceiling of the docking bay, some thirty to forty feet above them. He waited a few moments to see if she would, in the guise of the God-King, acknowledge his appeal to her vestigial humanity without squashing him in a fit of petulance. The next thing he knew, he was being lifted up into the air by a tentacle as thick around as his thigh and brought up to the level of Illyria's head.
"Yes, I sense it. I sense, too, the miserable creature, Falgoreth. His essence is tainted by the shell, but it is him. I will crush him beneath my eminence. The galaxy will bow down at my transcendence, then all will--" The words resonated throughout the cavernous bay, vibrating Jim's skull like a struck tuning fork. He needed to nip that train of thought off like an aphid-infested vine.
"Then, we will destroy any remnant of the Scourge and dispose of the remaining sarcophagi of your old buddies from the Primordium. Right? No more competition for you? We can destroy that Mutari generator for once and for all, for the good of the galaxy and so you can return to your bondmate, Spock." Jim pulled out all his powers of persuasion as he spoke. He hoped his appeal to the remnants of Fred and her most recent manifestion as Uhura would remind her of ties to humanity, bring her back down to size, so to speak.
"Spock, he could rule by my side. With his intellect we could--" The tentacle around Jim's waist tightened a little, he wasn't sure if it was to prevent him from saying more or if she had just forgotten she was holding him. Regardless, he needed to get her to bring her thoughts back to a more human perspective.
Jim broke in again, his words coming in bursts as he struggled to breathe. "You could help keep the galaxy safe from others who wish to subjugate it. There are people depending on you, Uhura. Spock is depending on you, on your linguistics skills, on your affection for him and his people, his peaceful people. We are all depending on you because only you can give us what we need right now." He emphasized her human name when he spoke. As long as he kept appealing to the human side of her, the very merest sparks of humanity, he thought there was some chance he could keep her from deciding to go on a spree of conquest.
The tentacle loosened a little as he was brought closer to Illyria's eyes. "Affection, yes, I feel affection towards you. You are the little worm that makes my mate happy with your challenge to his genius, although you do not accede to his puissance nearly as often as is seemly."
"Aw, Uhura, are you saying Spock likes it when he loses at chess to me?" Jim smirked into Illyria's left eye.
Another tentacle reached up and poked him in the back of the head. "My mate would never admit to an emotion, however, your encounters do elicit a positive response from him. I find them quite enjoyable in the aftermath."
Jim's smirk wobbled a little at the corners. "I think that's a little more information than I really needed, Uhura. Now, could you put me down so we can get this show back on the road? We're burning daylight here."
"There is no sun out here, nor would daylight burn if there was one. My mate is correct in saying your speech and thus the workings of your mind are quite illogical. However, I will confess as a linguist, I find it intriguing." Jim found himself being deposited on the floor of the docking bay, the tip of the original tentacle now lying lightly across the back of his shoulders. He gave an internal sigh of relief that the God-King had taken a back seat to the persona of Uhura. Now they could get shit done without worrying about all of them becoming fodder for Illyria's ascension to Master of the Universe.
Letting out a sharp whistle to get everyone's attention, Jim outlined the next plan of attack. "Listen up, people. We have three things we need to accomplish to free the Enterprise: retake the transporter room, retake engineering and reestablish ship control to the bridge, and neutralize the demon invasion. We're going to have to work fast; we don't know if any of the demons we subdued here had a chance to fill in their counterparts on the Enterprise. We have to assume we've lost the advantage of surprise at this point, so we have to go in swinging as hard as we can. The only thing they don't know is that we now have a fully ascended Old One with us; Uhura is our secret weapon."
Jim looked up at Illyria. "Uhura, can you sense the location of Falgoreth inside the Enterprise? Chances are, wherever he is, we'll find the majority of his followers."
"The spineless grub is in the landing bay with many of his acolytes. We must go quickly, before he comes fully into his power. The Mutari generator is still operating, so he cannot be at full strength yet. I will crush him like an gnat's egg." Two of Illyria's tentacles slapped at the air like she was swatting a fly.
"Fine, you do that." Jim turned back the to the waiting Slayers. "Spike, I want you and Aunt B. to get to the transporter room, each of you take half of the security team and do whatever it takes to secure Engineering and the transporter room on the Enterprise. Our people are in danger and we can’t llet these demons retain control of a warp-capable starship. Bones and I are going with Uhura and the rest of the Slayers to take out Falgoreth and his followers. I'll let Spock know to expect our counter-attack. We'll wait here until you're in the transporter room; we'll all beam to our respective targets together."
Jim watched the Slayer and Vampire fall into step with each other as they walked across the docking bay. Buffy bumped shoulders with Spike and smiled up at him. "C'mon, Fangface, let's go play with the kiddies. Think you've got enough weapons on you to feel all manly for them?"
"You know me, pet, I'm all about the manly. Wanna let me practice being all manly with you later, try out my new handcuffs? I think you just might not be able to break this pair; I picked them up on Risa. Said they were impervious to Klingons and Gorn." Spike swung an arm over her shoulders as they walked, the amiable banter fading away as they reached the corridor leading to the transporter room.
"Those two seem to be pretty familiar with each other. Have they always been a couple?" Bones stood close behind Jim, his breath ruffling the hair on the back of his neck. Jim turned to look at him, taking in the tired look in his eyes. They needed to wrap this up soon. Everyone was starting to get a little fatigued; tired meant lack of attention to detail and accidents. He didn't want any accidents that Bones couldn't easily fix with a dermal regenerator and a hypospray.
"Yeah, mostly. For as long-lived as they are, they've been together more than they've been apart. Buffy was with Angel for a number of years after he Shanshued, but when they realized she wasn't aging they went their separate ways." Jim took a few moments to relax, throwing an arm over Bones shoulder and leaning into him, encouraging Bones to do the same. He was pleased to feel Bones lean into him, molding to his side comfortably; he was even more pleased by what Bones admitted to him next.
"I'm sorry I keep acting like I think you're crazy, Jim. I just never had any idea that there was a whole other world out there of things that made up humanity's worst nightmares. All those books you gave me still felt like they're fairy tales written for gullible fools. But, I figure if I can accept all the alien species that make up the Federation, I guess there's no reason I can't accept that the things that go bump in the night are equally real." Bones mouth twisted in a small grimace of self-mockery. "If I can believe we're a result of an alternate timeline, why shouldn't I believe that these creatures came from another dimension or reality, too?"
Jim gave Bones' shoulders a quick squeeze. "Don't sell yourself short, Bones. Plenty of people still can't see what's right in front of their noses. Back in Buffy's high school days they used to write off vamp attacks as kids on PCP. The human propensity for rationalization and disbelief is a long as the Nile. You can make it up to me later, though, if you feel the need." He gave Bones a wink, then dropped his arm and moved to stand in front of Illyria and the waiting Slayers.
"Form up, everyone, this is it. Spike and Buffy are ready to beam over to their respective targets. We'll be taking on an unknown number of demons with an Old One who is attempting to ascend. Keep an eye out for the Mutari generator, we need to get it shut off and out of the hands of whichever demon is controlling it. Work in pairs, watch your backs and kick ass!" When everyone was in place and had one hand on their neighbor, Jim mentally alerted Spike, Buffy and Spock to be ready on the count of three with a brief psychic message. For the sake of the people around him, he repeated it out loud.
"Three, two, one....now!" Reality twisted at him, turned him briefly inside-out and deposited him along with the rest of the party in the corresponding docking bay on the Enterprise. He barely had his footing under him, when his sword was out and swinging. From the corner of his eye, he could see his Slayers bringing the wrath of Section 31 down on the Scourge demons congregated in the docking bay. They appeared heavily outnumbered, but he wasn't worried. These Slayers were battle-hardened veterans more than capable of withstanding the forces in front of him. His biggest worry was Illyria and the awakening Old One, Falgoreth. He was less worried about Falgoreth, than he was Illyria.
As long as the Mutari generator was operating, she was gaining in strength, a strength that had once nearly resulted in an explosion that would have wiped half the state of California off the map. Finding the generator was the single most important thing they needed to do and they needed to do it now.
Part 5
Author: sail_aweigh
Artist: votaku
Mixer: vengefuldemon69
Betas: thistlerose, lindmere
Series: AOS
Characters/Pairings: Kirk/McCoy, Uhura/Spock, Spike/Surprise Guest, Khan, Marla McGivers, Joanna McCoy
Warnings: beheadings and gore, swearing, minor character death
Rating: R for violence and language
Word Count: ~39,000
Summary: STXI/Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series fusion. Jim has kept one part of his life a complete secret from his best friend Bones, but now it appears the bizarre occurrences happening to Joanna McCoy may force him to reveal things to Bones that will either sunder their friendship forever or bring them closer together than either had ever expected. Can Bones trust Jim with Joanna's life, when he's been lied to by his best friend about his very nature?
Jim found himself being manhandled out into the corridor by his CMO as soon as Bones had recovered from his spell of nausea. He would have resisted more except that he didn't want to get into an argument with Bones in front of Chalmers. Chris would cut his meeting short as soon as he realized Jim was on an unscheduled stop on planet.
"What the hell, Jim? What do you think you're doing?" Bones' voice was rough and the breath that wafted across Jim's face had the sour smell of bile. Jim pushed Bones down the hallway to where he could see a water fountain jutting out of the wall.
"Drink, then we'll talk," Jim commanded. Bones glared at him out of eyes that were just a little too wide and skittish, but complied without comment. Jim waited until he'd drunk deep, rinsed a couple of times and then wiped his mouth. By then, the wild look in Bones' eyes had diminished and he just looked pissed.
"Would it be too much to have some warning before you go doing shit like that? And maybe an explanation or two?" Bones combed his fingers through his bangs, pushing it aside where it had fallen over his forehead while he bent over the fountain. Jim wanted to do that for himself, but he wasn't really sure what kind of touches might be accepted right now. Even though Jim was still a little angry about the previous night's outcome, he had to feel sorry for all the shit Bones had to put up with since they'd hit DS6 that morning. It left him itching to comfort Bones regardless. Jim recited the Starfleet code of conduct concerning public displays of affection in uniform in his head to convince him to keep his hands to himself. Later, he'd make it up to Bones later. The least he could do right now was listen to Bones and try to answer his questions, allay that fear that never seemed to quite leave him.
Jim took Bones by the elbow and steered him towards an alcove with two chairs and a small table between them. He perched on the edge of one chair and placed his elbows on his knees, his chin perched on top of his clasped hands. "I've been trying to explain to you for weeks now. Every time I think you've accepted the supernatural and come to terms with it, something sets you off on another of your sarcastic diatribes. You need to understand that this is going to be Jo's natural environment from now on and the sooner you accept that, the better it is for the both of you. It made me a little touchy last night. I'll try to answer your questions, but if you're not willing to really listen to me, there's nothing I can do to reassure you. All I can do is ask you to trust me."
Bones scrubbed his hands over his face, then looked at Jim with exasperation. "I do trust you. Did I give you any shit about almost getting eaten by a vampire today? You saved my life! I get that there's all kinds of ghoulies and ghosties and things that go bump in the night out there. Can I just get a little warning when you're going to yank me halfway across the universe against my will? I barely tolerate shuttles, transporters give me the heebie-jeebies, but at least they work on the known mechanics of the physical laws of the universe. Magic, well, I have no reason to trust it yet. But I trust you, so give me a break."
And that left Jim feeling all kinds of foolish. Thinking the hell with regulations, he sat up a little and reached out one hand to touch Bones' knee. When it was covered immediately by one of Bones' broad hands, he gave him a sheepish grin. "Yeah, sorry. I know firsthand the infinite flavors of your neuroses when it comes to interstellar travel. Next time, I'll warn you to bring some Dramamine for the trip, okay?"
Bones rolled his eyes, but squeezed Jim's hand in acknowledgement of the apology. "Could you just maybe, give me a list of the kinds of things you can do with magic? If I even knew what to expect, it wouldn't be such a shock all the time. Even though I've known you for nine years, I feel like I don't know anything about you anymore."
Jim nodded at the request, at the reasonableness of it. "I can do that. There's only so many basic ways of manipulating the psionic field and it follows rules, just like science. It even helps to know Latin, but be careful where you use it. The list will have to wait until we get back to the Enterprise, though."
The sound of a throat being cleared broke into their self-absorption, the two men drawing apart and bringing their hands back to their own laps. Christopher Pike stood there with a small smile tipping the corners of his mouth up. "Gentlemen, you seemed to be in a bit of hurry earlier, yes or no?"
Jim jumped up, jerking his head at Bones to follow him as he walked over to greet the admiral. "Admiral Pike, we have a number of things that need immediate attention. May we talk in your office?"
"By all means. Let me tell Yeoman Chalmers to hold my calls." Pike turned and headed down the hallway back to his office, Jim and Bones trailing in his wake. After speaking with his yeoman, he ushered both men into his office and closed the door behind them.
"What can I do for you today, Jim? You've set the coven in a tizzy with that stunt, 'porting into HQ without prior approval. You're lucky they didn't fry you to a crisp on the carpet in front of Yeoman Chalmers." Pike's head turned sharply at the choking sounds coming from the doctor seated to one side.
"Damnit, Jim! When were you going to explain that part of teleporting to me? After my remains had been delivered to Jo?" Bones looked on the verge of storming out of the office, so Jim laid a hand on his shoulder to keep him in his seat. Surprisingly, it didn't get shaken off. leaving Jim with a warm feeling inside. Bones did trust him; his words were just a knee-jerk reflex of anxiety and fear, but where it mattered--Bones trusted him. He had been so stupid. Maybe he was the one who didn't trust, and wasn't that a kicker.
"You got that out of your system, now, Bones?" Jim squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. At Bones' nod, he let go of him. Reaching into a pocket, Jim pulled out his communicator and pressed a few buttons. He looked back up at Admiral Pike when he was through. "I've sent a set of letters to you that Bones and I received from his daughter. The most important one is the last in the series; it was received today. After you read it, I think we can agree that Jo McCoy is a Potential and should be assigned a Watcher."
Admiral Pike turned to his comm console and pulled up the letters, perusing the list until he reached the last one. Reading it quickly, his eyebrows rose at the description of the sarcophagus and the transcribed symbols. He turned back to Jim when he was done reading. "What did Uhura have to say?"
Jim summed their discovery up for him. "The sarcophagus is that of an Old One she identified as Falgoreth. Since we know that Illyria is the only extant Old One, we believe this dream to be a true instance of slayer precognition."
Pike nodded in agreement while he activated another button on his comm panel. "Yeoman Chalmers, contact the Watcher's residence; inform Xander Wells he'll be leaving in the morning for Georgia, he's got a new Potential to evaluate."
"What's going to happen to Jo, now?" Leonard asked in a subdued voice.
"Xander will contact her and your ex-wife, make arrangements for Jo to transfer to the academy here in Sausalito. We offer a complete high school curriculum in addition to the more specific training required of a slayer. It is, of course, an all-girls school with the exception of a few boys who are children of active members of section 31 and can benefit from receiving full room and board while their parents are off planet. Most parents see it as a desirable alternative." Pike pulled a PADD out of one of the desk drawers and handed it to Bones. "When you have a chance, this explains everything that will be expected of Jo and what the facilities are comprised of, the opportunities that will be available to Jo. We are, at the heart of it, nothing more than a very selective boarding school."
Jim laid his hand on Bones arm again when the doctor remained silent at the end of the admiral's spiel. "Is that acceptable, Bones?"
Dragging his attention away from the graphic displayed by the PADD, Bones nodded and placed the PADD by his side for later perusal. "Yeah, it sounds really good. I'm just not sure Joce will go for it. She's a bit of a control freak."
Jim smirked. "Not like anyone else I know, I'm sure." He received and returned a grimace that included tongue that was on par for children around the age of five. Pike's disapproving voice interrupted their bickering, Jim and Bones jerking forward at the reprimand.
"When you two are done playing footsie, can we get to whatever pressing matters caused Jim to nearly drain half the coven to get you two here?" Pike tapped his fingers impatiently on the edge of the viewscreen set into his desk.
Jim straightened up in his chair, bringing his attention back to Pike. "Sorry, Admiral Pike. It won't happen again."
Pike snorted. "Like hell, but get on with it."
For the next few minutes, Jim outlined McGivers' covert activities and how they'd concluded that she was actively searching for the Botany Bay in hopes of resurrecting an Old One. Whether just to interview it or to worship it, they had no way of knowing, but it was going to backfire on the inquisitive Slayer if Jo's dream was to be trusted.
"I have to agree, I think that young lady is in for a world of disappointment if she continues on her misbegotten quest. Do you think you can find her?" Pike punched up a few numbers on his comm panel, sending alerts to a wetworks team notifying them to be ready to leave instantly on a bag and tag mission for a rogue Slayer.
Jim leaned forward in his chair, gazing at Pike intently. "There's something else going on, I'm not sure just how it ties into the McGivers affair, but it has to do with the original reason my mother was sent out to Tarsus."
Pike's hands stilled. "Did you find it?"
Jim waved the question away with one hand. "Not exactly. After talking to Uhura, we've determined that the Mutari generator is pretty much a red herring. It can't be used to resurrect any of the sarcophagi on the Botany Bay."
"It would still be good to have it in our custody, though. Who knows, they might even decide to reverse engineer it. Although, one can't imagine a demon bothering to take a degree in--" Pike broke off when Jim made a sound of disgust.
"We think they did, though." Jim raised his hands and pressed them to his forehead. "We were attacked by a vampire on DS6 in the open. No stealth was attempted. But after talking to Spike and Uhura, we determined he must have had some kind of device on him that could nullify the psionic field he projected because neither of them could sense him on the station. That had to be based on the technology of the Mutari generator."
"Wait, that sounds familiar. Let me check a few things." Pike pulled up a search box and, after typing in a query, reports started to quickly pop up on on his desktop viewscreen. After the search was complete, he arranged them in chronological order. "For the past six months, we've been getting reports of vampires that have managed to breach the anti-vampire wards around a number of the space stations in the Beta Quadrant, the same quadrant as DS6. We thought they were coming in with a magic user who could nullify the wards on the space stations, but from what you've just contributed we could be very wrong."
"All in the Beta Quadrant, Admiral? Could you plot them out for us?" Jim rubbed his hands together nervously, things were starting to come together in a way he didn't like.
Pike sent a command to his console and a hologram of the Beta Quadrant appeared over his desktop. "The bright green dots are where we had the breaches." The dots were spread out over about half the quadrant with no apparent pattern.
"Mark DS6 in red, please, Admiral?" Jim looked at the updated display and considered the ramifications of the data. "Now, can you vary the color gradient of the green dots by time?" The green dots shifted so it was now obvious that the security breaches started at one side of the quadrant and moved to the other, DS6 being the culminating endpoint to date, but there were still random outlying occurrences. It was the outliers that set off an alarm in Jim's head.
"Plot the Enterprise's course for the past six months in yellow." Pike quickly punched up the additional request and it became clear to Jim that the Enterprise was being stalked.
Jim pointed at one dot. "Look, Bones. That station is in the Kitalphar system. That's where I had the run-in with the Fyarl demon."
Bones looked at him with one eyebrow cocked. "What the blue blazes is a Fyarl demon, Jim? I still haven't made it past the B's in that bestiary you loaned me."
"Remember when I got clawed in the arm by that creature? The one I stabbed with my knife? You wondered why I didn't use my phaser on it?" Jim prompted his memory.
Bones eyes lit up in recognition. "Yeah, I said you may as well have used a pointy stick. That was a Fyarl demon?"
"Yes, and the only way to kill them is with silver." Jim lowered his hand down to the knife in his boot and slid it out partway where it glinted shiny silver against the black of his boot.
Bones raised one hand to his mouth in thought before he spoke. "So, silver."
Jim slid the knife back into his boot. "Good against a variety of other creatures, too. Best to have weapons on hand that are multipurpose. I also have one that's made of cold steel."
"All right. But I'm sure that's not the first or the last time you've run into a supernatural critter in the past six years."
"Not as frequent as you think. Demons are very conservative in their behavior. They've been around for a long time and are slow to change. Most of them don't like space travel, except for vampires. They follow humans because that's what their diet necessitates. Look at the date of the vampire breach at the Kitalphar starbase--it was the same day. I think they were waiting for us, have possibly been following us." Jim looked up at Pike for another request. "Admiral, could you open a subspace channel to DS6? Spike and Uhura have been evaluating some anomalous readings that Uhura has been tracking for a while. They may play into this."
Pike did as Jim requested and shortly afterward they had Spike on the desktop viewscreen. "Well, well, if the great and powerful Oz hasn't decided to pull back the curtain. What can I do for you, your highness?"
Pike rolled his eyes. "Would a little professionalism kill you, Agent Pratt?"
"Didn't hire me for my diplomatic skills, ya ponce." Spike swiveled in his chair and the men in Pike's office could see him throw his feet up on his desk, his attitude broadcast as loud as his words that he didn't care what the other man thought.
"You forget, we didn't hire you; we inherited you along with the trappings of the Council of Watchers. One of these days, we're writing you out of the will," Pike joked, jabbing a finger at him.
"Eh, you need me too badly. You don't chuck away almost 400 years of experience in the field over a little lack of personal dignity." Getting back to business, Spike dropped his feet down to the floor and leaned in toward the viewscreen. "But you wouldn't be calling me just to exchange unpleasantries, Pike. What do you need?"
"The data you and Uhura are working on--have you plotted out all the anomalous readings she took yet?" Pike waited for the answer with an intent look on his face, fingers tapping restlessly on the desktop.
"Yeah, we've got it all. Hang on a mo', I'll send it to you." Spike reached for his console and they could see him hit a few buttons and then an incoming chirp at Pike's panel signalled the arrival of the data.
Pike added the new data up into the cloud of dots above his desk, barely half a dozen points showing up in bright blue. It was immediately obvious that all the anomalous readings that Uhura had detected followed the same path as the Enterprise.
Jim considered the hologram carefully. "Not a lot of data points, but we are being followed. By whom and why, though?"
"Do I have to come over there and play connect the dots for you?" Spike's voice held an edge of exasperation. "Look at the dates. The anomalies started around the same time that McGivers dropped off the 'net and went walkabout."
"Okay, fine; it's McGivers. But why?" Jim felt frustrated at his lack of understanding. What was he missing?
"I'm thinking she's keeping an eye on Uhura. Maybe reporting back to someone on the Enterprise's movements," Spike offered tentatively.
Jim frowned. "That's not good. Didn't you say she had an Old One fetish, Spike?"
The three in Pike's office could see Spike's head nod on the desktop. "Yeah, she couldn't stop talking about them to anyone who was willing to listen to her. She did a competent enough job as a Slayer, so it didn't matter if she was a bit of a nutter over a bunch of long dead demons."
"Long dead except for me," Uhura broke in.
"So McGivers is tracking you. And possibly reporting that back to someone. We have vampire and other mercenary-type demons showing up wherever we do. What's the connection?" Jim struck the arm of his chair, still unable to come up with a unified theory.
Spike's voice interrupted Jim's ruminations. "You mean those M'Fashnik demons I cleared out of the cargo bay? Weren't that many of them. Not enough to do more than threaten a mugging or two before I found them all."
Jim filled Spike in on the encounter he'd had with Fyarl demons some weeks earlier. "Not just them, I ran into a Fyarl demon on Beta Kitalphar. You know they aren't loners, they're usually used as foot soldiers in packs, but I couldn't find any signs of others. I'm starting to wonder if there were more of them and they were carrying those nullifying devices. Shit, Spike, you may still have more of those bastards on DS6 and we wouldn't have any way of knowing."
Pike sat up at attention at Jim's words. "We may be looking at some kind of an invasion or a takeover. Spike, notify the security team at DS6, have them post extra watches on all the docking bays and transporter facilities, then start a compartment by compartment search of all storage and utility bays."
"Will do, Brigadier. Do you want me to--" Spike's words were cut off abruptly, the viewscreen on Pike's desktop suddenly reverting to static before being replaced with the Starfleet logo.
Pike punched buttons in an attempt to reactivate the connection, but it timed out with a grating buzz. "All right, you two; this does not seem like a coincidence. Get over to the Coven and have them boost you back to DS6. I'll have a squad meet you there for support." He hit another button on the console, throwing out orders to the section leader as Jim took off at a run out of his office, Bones on his heels.
"Where are we going?" Bones panted after Jim as they jogged down the corridor.
"The Coven has a sanctuary here; there's usually at least five to six heavy magic users on site. We'll have them 'port us back to DS6." Jim turned right and headed for a domed atrium filled with plants and trees.
Bones groaned. "I don't have any anti-nausea drugs on hand. Do I have to do this?"
"It's the fastest way, Bones. Suck it up." Jim strong-armed the door into the sanctuary, glad to see that Gwendolyn Giles was waiting for them in the center of the room with four other witches as he'd asked her through a mental link he'd thrown out as soon as he left Pike's office. Grabbing Bones' hand in his he came to a stop next to the head of the Coven.
"No time for introductions, Gwennie love--give us a boost?" Jim gave her his winsomest smile.
"Only you, James. At least you gave me more warning this time than that time when you were twelve and decided to drive a car off a cliff." Gwendolyn sniffed at him in disapproval. Before she could say more, eight more young women dressed in form-fitting black jumpsuits jogged in carrying a variety of weapons, most of them archaic. Jim gave a slight nod to the blond carrying a shiny red scythe, glad to see that the .
"Form up!" The lead Slayer barked at the others.
Jim and Bones quickly found themselves surrounded by the group of Slayers. The coven members spaced themselves evenly around the group, everyone with at least one hand touching a member of the group being transported. Once everyone had made contact, Jim nodded at Gwendolyn and then they were hurtling through time and space towards DS6 once more with Bones last epithet ringing in Jim's ears.
"Goddammit, Jim!"
"Status report!" Jim demanded as soon as they'd materialized back in Spike's office. The slayers took up watch by the door as Spike started outlining everything he knew.
"Station communications have been shut down, the transporter room has been occupied by an unknown number of demons and the computers have been locked down and are inaccessible. Personal communicators are being jammed; only Blue here has been in contact with her honey through their fancy telepathic bond. According to Spock, the Enterprise has been similarly attacked." Spike related this all in clipped tones while pulling weapons out of a concealed cupboard built into the wall behind his desk.
Jim picked out a sword and over-the-shoulder harness. He watched as Bones looked over the weapons, tentatively reaching for a double-bladed axe and approved of his choice. It didn't take any fancy knowledge, just brute force, and Bones had a decent amount of upper body strength. Surrounded by slayers, he'd be relatively safe.
"Was Spock able to report how they got aboard the Enterprise?" After buckling the harness straps over his chest, he shrugged a couple of times to settle the blade between his shoulders comfortably. A quick reach over his shoulder verified that it was in the right spot for a fast draw.
"He stated that he was 98.4 percent certain they came in with a supply team bringing in spare parts through the shuttle bay. The description he gave was that of M'Fashnik demons." Having already changed into her armored form, Illyria chose a six-foot pike with a number of spikes and razor sharp protuberances along the shaft. Jim had seen her practice with javelins before. The weapon was as sleek and deadly looking as Illyria herself; in her hands it became poetry in motion when she wielded it.
Jim stood to one side as he watched Spike show Bones how to wield the axe--the best grip, how to swing it--while he continued questioning Illyria. "Did Spock say how many hijackers there are?"
"He was unable to ascertain an exact count. The humans manning the space were ejected and gave conflicting reports before internal communcations were disabled. But by his best estimation, the force that took over the transporter room was composed of ten large demons. Mr. Scott has been locked out of engineering along with the rest of the engineering crew. He reported that they counted approximately eight intruders and a female lieutenant in a red Starfleet uniform. It is his belief the lieutenant had access codes to disable the computer on her command." Illyria recited the numbers as she shouldered her way through the squad of slayers towards the door.
Spike had slung a crossbow over his back and was choosing a sword from the weapons closet when Jim looked over at him. "Wankers must have had more of those demon-cloaking devices; I thought I cleaned that entire nest out. And McGivers! Silly cow has gone native."
"Not your fault, Spike. We'll just have to make sure we do a thorough search-and- destroy mission when this is done. Good thing we've got a little extra help." Jim smiled at the squad of slayers. "What about the station security force--what's their status?"
"Locked in quarters with everyone else on the station. Doors won't respond to voice or manual control." Spike scowled. "We'll have to brute force our way out."
Jim nodded in agreement. "All right, ladies; let's get this show on the road. I want half of you with Spike and Illyria, the other half with me and the doctor. Spike, take your squad to the main engineering bay and see if you can get the computers back under our control or at least re-establish communications. My squad will take the transporter room. When we've secured those, we'll rendezvous at the docking bays. Once that's ours, we'll transport over to the Enterprise to break Spock and the crew out."
Standing by the door, Illyria drew a fist back and punched a hole through the wall next to the control panel. Reaching inside, she ripped the wiring out amidst a shower of sparks. "Follow me; I will ensure the soft-shelled atrocities arrive at our destination unmolested."
Spike laid a hand on Illyria's shoulder to hold her back. "Ah-ah, Blue. You may be the God-King, but I know the layout to the station. I'll play point, you take rear guard. It's where we can use you best."
"Your evaluation is sound, my pet. You would flourish by my side as a great general, if you ever chose to give up this pusillanimous existence serving a deluded quest for good." Illyria waited while the four slayers in her squad pried the door open, allowing everyone to file out into the corridor.
"I don't think your Vulcan honey would appreciate being part of a menagerie." Spike smirked at her, his tongue curling up behind his teeth. "I'm flattered you've never gotten over your taste for old Spike."
A cough from one of the slayers in Jim's half of the squad drew Spike's attention and his look turned into a more languorous smoulder at the blonde who leaned on her scythe, one foot tapping the floor in impatience. "Don't get your knickers in a twist, luv; I'll never give up serving my greater good." Jim stifled a laugh, though, when Spike's leer merely evoked an eyeroll from its target.
Jim clapped his hands. "Time's a wasting, people. Let's hit our objectives hard and fast so we can give the Enterprise a hand; we're going to shut these demons down. Be advised, we have a rogue slayer working with them. McGivers' loyalty is very much in question right now; but we still want to take her alive, folks. Be on your best."
After receiving affirmatives all around, the two groups formed up and started heading for their respective targets, Spike in the lead of one group and the blonde squad leader of the Slayers leading the other. Jim briefed Spock quickly over a psychic link that they were launching their counterattack on the space station. Then he was concentrating his whole being on the current mission. Still, he placed himself shoulder to shoulder with Bones instead of at the front. For the first time in his life he was going to acknowledge that there was something more important to him than the mission and that was Bones.
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2264.49
God, Dad!
They found Jonathan's body behind the Double Meat Palace today. He was drained of blood and his heart had been ripped out of his chest. Not cut, ripped; that's what one of the EMTs told the manager. I guess he was kinda heartbroken, after all. Sorry, that was sorta mean. I didn't like the guy, but no one deserves to have that done to them.
Nobody knows what could have done it, though. It wasn't an animal, but a human isn't strong enough to rip a heart out. Well, I think I am, but I'm a freak. And I wouldn't do something like that! Is there an alien that likes hearts? Was it a Romulan, or maybe a Klingon? They all seem pretty bloodthirsty to me. I wish you and Uncle Jim were here, you'd know what was going on, I'm sure.
Love,
Jo
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"Behind you!"
Jim spun at Bones' shout, bringing his sword around in a slash that thudded into the shoulder of the demon lumbering toward him, leaving a bloody tear through the meat of the muscle. The demon staggered under the blow, but persisted in its forward movement toward Jim and the squad of Slayers. Cursing, Jim drew the sword back for another blow when a blur of blonde hair and shiny red metal swooped past him. The blade of the scythe swished easily through the neck of the demon. Its head bounced away in a gout of greenish blood as the creature dropped to the deck where it gave one last twitch before going still.
"Shit. Thought we'd gotten all of those. Thanks, Aunt B." Jim wiped his sword off on the demon's clothes and slid it back into the scabbard secured to his back. "They're like fucking cockroaches."
Bones came over to his side and looked down at the recently dispatched demon. "Good thing for us cockroaches don't come this big; I'm sure there's more of them out there than demons."
"Been around just as long. Hey, I wonder if cockroaches are actually demons?" Jim asked. "It would explain why they can live for so long with their heads cut off."
"Jesus, Jim, I've barely got used to the idea of demons as it is, don't go giving me nightmares about what might lurk under my kitchen sink." Bones shuddered a little at the thought.
Jim scoffed at him, poking him in the side with an elbow. "As if a cockroach would ever dare to set foot in your kitchen, Bones. I'm sure you're the boogie man of the mundane critters from microbes to millipedes." He jerked his chin over at the other side of the docking bay. "C'mon, we need to go join everyone else. You can make plans for the complete extermination of cockroaches at another time."
The two men jogged over to join the rest of the group clustered around one of the maneuvering tugs used to tow the massive starships away from the space dock.
Jim came to a stop in front of the blonde Slayer. "Status report, Agent Summers."
"Transporter room is secure with Molly on watch and a twelve-man security team standing by. Siobhan is standing guard over Engineering with Chief Engineer Nabbit rerouting all computer and communication access back under his control. No fatalities or major injuries, mostly bumps and bruises. Xiuping lost some skin off her left hand; she'll remember better than to get in the way of Fyarl snot, now. And I've told you, Jimmy, don't call me Agent Summers; it gives me the wiggens. Bad memories go with the wiggens." Agent Summers pouted at Jim.
Bones nudged Jim in the arm. "What's so special about Fyarl snot?"
"Paralyzes you, then hardens up into a cement-like substance. Get it in the face and you can suffocate," Jim's face scrunched up in disgust at the thought.
"That sure would fuck your day right up." Grabbing Jim by the elbow, Bones pulled him a short distance away from the rest of the group, tipping his head toward the Slayer that provided the status report. "Now tell me, did you just call that young lady 'Agent Summers'?"
Jim looked at his feet and then back at Bones. "You caught that, huh?"
"Is she a relative?" Bones' question carried a suspicious edge to it. He'd been holding up well under the pressure of eliminating the demons on the space station; he'd even been responsible for dispatching a couple on his own. Still, this next revelation might tip him into denial again and Jim wasn't looking forward to the explanation. Maybe he could leave the exact details out; his charm had to count for something.
"She's my aunt. Sort of. It's complicated, but she really knows what she's doing. Aunt B. is the best Slayer they have in Section 31; she's legendary. Don't let the Valley Girl speak fool you. We should get back to the others; some of them may need your skills, regardless of what Aunt B. said." Jim turned so he was crowding Bones, trying to get him to move back towards the larger group. He found himself bumping chests with him, but getting nowhere fast.
Bones grabbed the back of his neck with one hand and held him so they were staring eye to eye. "Uh-uh. There's more to it than that. Spill, or I tell Spike about the time on Risa you got drunk and passed out in the Talaxtan ambassador's bed with his underwear on your head, minus the ambassador even in the same room."
Jim huffed. "Fine. Yes, she's my Aunt Buffy. Remember, I told you about my great-umpty-grandmother Dawn and her sister Buffy?" Jim briefly tipped his head towards her. "That's Buffy."
Bones looked at him steadily for a moment, then pulled his tricorder off his hip. Turning it on, he ran it over Jim's head a couple of times. "You don't look delusional. Brain scans are perfectly normal, wave patterns all within your normal parameters. No suspicious substances in your blood. You're not drugged, high or under the control of another intellect; so what the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I'm not shittin' you, Bones. That's great-aunt Buffy. Seriously, you've met vampires, multiple species of demons, witches and warlocks; why should it surprise you to meet a human who is nearly three hundred years old?" Jim stuck his chin out. It was time Bones just gave up his attempts to hammer the supernatural pegs Jim handed him into mundane pigeonholes that they didn't fit.
Bones tucked his tricorder away and gave a weary sigh. "I don't know. I hate to quote Spock, but it's just not logical. It defies the laws of science and nature."
Jim shook his head. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Bones, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. It's magic, it can't be explained. Like faith, and love, it just has to be believed."
"But how is she even here?" Bones insisted, his voice getting louder.
"I died; then I got over it. Argue about it later, boys; we've got a problem." Buffy interrupted the heated exchange between Jim and Bones. "Take a look at Illyria."
Jim turned and felt all his blood head south in panic. "Oh, crap."
Bones craned his neck over Jim's shoulder and Jim heard him suck in his breath at the sight. "Is that--?"
"Yeah, that's Illyria's original form. The only thing that can restore it is the power of the Mutari generator or very, very powerful magic. No one here has that kind of power, so it's got to be the Mutari generator." Jim took off across the docking bay at a jog, Bones and Buffy following him. "Hopefully, we can reason with her in this form. It kind of goes to her head. The last time this happened, she tried to destroy Los Angeles."
They all looked up to that head that towered over them, mounted on top of a body that looked like a cross between a cockroach and a squid on steroids. Illyria's head and upper body were bent down by the ceiling of the docking bay, while a couple of her many tentacles that extruded from her hardened carapace curled around the overhead electrical conduits for stability. The remaining Slayers had spread out around her, their weapons at the ready.
Jim pulled up to the ring of Slayers, pushing the weapons of the ones closest to him down towards the ground. "Stand down, ladies. This is just Illyria's original form, everything is under control." He hoped. Jim wouldn't know until he tried talking to her.
"Uhura! Can you sense the Mutari generator?" Jim shouted up toward the ceiling of the docking bay, some thirty to forty feet above them. He waited a few moments to see if she would, in the guise of the God-King, acknowledge his appeal to her vestigial humanity without squashing him in a fit of petulance. The next thing he knew, he was being lifted up into the air by a tentacle as thick around as his thigh and brought up to the level of Illyria's head.
"Yes, I sense it. I sense, too, the miserable creature, Falgoreth. His essence is tainted by the shell, but it is him. I will crush him beneath my eminence. The galaxy will bow down at my transcendence, then all will--" The words resonated throughout the cavernous bay, vibrating Jim's skull like a struck tuning fork. He needed to nip that train of thought off like an aphid-infested vine.
"Then, we will destroy any remnant of the Scourge and dispose of the remaining sarcophagi of your old buddies from the Primordium. Right? No more competition for you? We can destroy that Mutari generator for once and for all, for the good of the galaxy and so you can return to your bondmate, Spock." Jim pulled out all his powers of persuasion as he spoke. He hoped his appeal to the remnants of Fred and her most recent manifestion as Uhura would remind her of ties to humanity, bring her back down to size, so to speak.
"Spock, he could rule by my side. With his intellect we could--" The tentacle around Jim's waist tightened a little, he wasn't sure if it was to prevent him from saying more or if she had just forgotten she was holding him. Regardless, he needed to get her to bring her thoughts back to a more human perspective.
Jim broke in again, his words coming in bursts as he struggled to breathe. "You could help keep the galaxy safe from others who wish to subjugate it. There are people depending on you, Uhura. Spock is depending on you, on your linguistics skills, on your affection for him and his people, his peaceful people. We are all depending on you because only you can give us what we need right now." He emphasized her human name when he spoke. As long as he kept appealing to the human side of her, the very merest sparks of humanity, he thought there was some chance he could keep her from deciding to go on a spree of conquest.
The tentacle loosened a little as he was brought closer to Illyria's eyes. "Affection, yes, I feel affection towards you. You are the little worm that makes my mate happy with your challenge to his genius, although you do not accede to his puissance nearly as often as is seemly."
"Aw, Uhura, are you saying Spock likes it when he loses at chess to me?" Jim smirked into Illyria's left eye.
Another tentacle reached up and poked him in the back of the head. "My mate would never admit to an emotion, however, your encounters do elicit a positive response from him. I find them quite enjoyable in the aftermath."
Jim's smirk wobbled a little at the corners. "I think that's a little more information than I really needed, Uhura. Now, could you put me down so we can get this show back on the road? We're burning daylight here."
"There is no sun out here, nor would daylight burn if there was one. My mate is correct in saying your speech and thus the workings of your mind are quite illogical. However, I will confess as a linguist, I find it intriguing." Jim found himself being deposited on the floor of the docking bay, the tip of the original tentacle now lying lightly across the back of his shoulders. He gave an internal sigh of relief that the God-King had taken a back seat to the persona of Uhura. Now they could get shit done without worrying about all of them becoming fodder for Illyria's ascension to Master of the Universe.
Letting out a sharp whistle to get everyone's attention, Jim outlined the next plan of attack. "Listen up, people. We have three things we need to accomplish to free the Enterprise: retake the transporter room, retake engineering and reestablish ship control to the bridge, and neutralize the demon invasion. We're going to have to work fast; we don't know if any of the demons we subdued here had a chance to fill in their counterparts on the Enterprise. We have to assume we've lost the advantage of surprise at this point, so we have to go in swinging as hard as we can. The only thing they don't know is that we now have a fully ascended Old One with us; Uhura is our secret weapon."
Jim looked up at Illyria. "Uhura, can you sense the location of Falgoreth inside the Enterprise? Chances are, wherever he is, we'll find the majority of his followers."
"The spineless grub is in the landing bay with many of his acolytes. We must go quickly, before he comes fully into his power. The Mutari generator is still operating, so he cannot be at full strength yet. I will crush him like an gnat's egg." Two of Illyria's tentacles slapped at the air like she was swatting a fly.
"Fine, you do that." Jim turned back the to the waiting Slayers. "Spike, I want you and Aunt B. to get to the transporter room, each of you take half of the security team and do whatever it takes to secure Engineering and the transporter room on the Enterprise. Our people are in danger and we can’t llet these demons retain control of a warp-capable starship. Bones and I are going with Uhura and the rest of the Slayers to take out Falgoreth and his followers. I'll let Spock know to expect our counter-attack. We'll wait here until you're in the transporter room; we'll all beam to our respective targets together."
Jim watched the Slayer and Vampire fall into step with each other as they walked across the docking bay. Buffy bumped shoulders with Spike and smiled up at him. "C'mon, Fangface, let's go play with the kiddies. Think you've got enough weapons on you to feel all manly for them?"
"You know me, pet, I'm all about the manly. Wanna let me practice being all manly with you later, try out my new handcuffs? I think you just might not be able to break this pair; I picked them up on Risa. Said they were impervious to Klingons and Gorn." Spike swung an arm over her shoulders as they walked, the amiable banter fading away as they reached the corridor leading to the transporter room.
"Those two seem to be pretty familiar with each other. Have they always been a couple?" Bones stood close behind Jim, his breath ruffling the hair on the back of his neck. Jim turned to look at him, taking in the tired look in his eyes. They needed to wrap this up soon. Everyone was starting to get a little fatigued; tired meant lack of attention to detail and accidents. He didn't want any accidents that Bones couldn't easily fix with a dermal regenerator and a hypospray.
"Yeah, mostly. For as long-lived as they are, they've been together more than they've been apart. Buffy was with Angel for a number of years after he Shanshued, but when they realized she wasn't aging they went their separate ways." Jim took a few moments to relax, throwing an arm over Bones shoulder and leaning into him, encouraging Bones to do the same. He was pleased to feel Bones lean into him, molding to his side comfortably; he was even more pleased by what Bones admitted to him next.
"I'm sorry I keep acting like I think you're crazy, Jim. I just never had any idea that there was a whole other world out there of things that made up humanity's worst nightmares. All those books you gave me still felt like they're fairy tales written for gullible fools. But, I figure if I can accept all the alien species that make up the Federation, I guess there's no reason I can't accept that the things that go bump in the night are equally real." Bones mouth twisted in a small grimace of self-mockery. "If I can believe we're a result of an alternate timeline, why shouldn't I believe that these creatures came from another dimension or reality, too?"
Jim gave Bones' shoulders a quick squeeze. "Don't sell yourself short, Bones. Plenty of people still can't see what's right in front of their noses. Back in Buffy's high school days they used to write off vamp attacks as kids on PCP. The human propensity for rationalization and disbelief is a long as the Nile. You can make it up to me later, though, if you feel the need." He gave Bones a wink, then dropped his arm and moved to stand in front of Illyria and the waiting Slayers.
"Form up, everyone, this is it. Spike and Buffy are ready to beam over to their respective targets. We'll be taking on an unknown number of demons with an Old One who is attempting to ascend. Keep an eye out for the Mutari generator, we need to get it shut off and out of the hands of whichever demon is controlling it. Work in pairs, watch your backs and kick ass!" When everyone was in place and had one hand on their neighbor, Jim mentally alerted Spike, Buffy and Spock to be ready on the count of three with a brief psychic message. For the sake of the people around him, he repeated it out loud.
"Three, two, one....now!" Reality twisted at him, turned him briefly inside-out and deposited him along with the rest of the party in the corresponding docking bay on the Enterprise. He barely had his footing under him, when his sword was out and swinging. From the corner of his eye, he could see his Slayers bringing the wrath of Section 31 down on the Scourge demons congregated in the docking bay. They appeared heavily outnumbered, but he wasn't worried. These Slayers were battle-hardened veterans more than capable of withstanding the forces in front of him. His biggest worry was Illyria and the awakening Old One, Falgoreth. He was less worried about Falgoreth, than he was Illyria.
As long as the Mutari generator was operating, she was gaining in strength, a strength that had once nearly resulted in an explosion that would have wiped half the state of California off the map. Finding the generator was the single most important thing they needed to do and they needed to do it now.
Part 5