Fiction Home - More by Cooper Brain - More in Action and Aventure

Part One

Lately Cooper had been having trouble sleeping, even more so than usual. His dreams had been haunted by thoughts of death and destruction and it was very disturbing. Cooper had for some time been having flashbacks of sort, reliving old battles, the losses of old friends and the sort.

For Cooper's sake he had gone to the medbay, which always made him nervous after his last incident there with wrong medications. The scans showed that there was nothing wrong with him. Dr Talgen suggested that he was probably just experiencing some stress and needed to relax, she asked if he needed something to help him relax. Cooper immediately said no. He could find his own way to do it.

With no hope of sleeping well, Cooper paced the halls of Farpoint, searching for something to take his mind of his strange dreams. Cooper had walked up the halls several times when he heard a strange noise. It wasn't necessarily strange as it was just out of place. Cooper had come to learn the sounds a ship or station makes. This one stood out, it seemed to be a high pitched chirping sound that had a slight echo, and Cooper decided to investigate the noise. He walked down the narrow hallways until he had pinpointed its position, Cooper was slightly disappointed. The noise was coming from a maintenance access hatch. Obviously something was broken Cooper thought about opening the hatch and seeing if he could fix it himself but decided to do the smart thing and called for an engineer. Lt. McKenna answered the call and said that he would be down shortly to investigate. Cooper decided to wait for Lt. McKenna to show up before he headed off. About that time Cooper saw Andy round a corner, obviously Andy saw him because he changed his direction and headed towards Cooper.

"What are you doing up this late?" Andy asked

"Trouble sleeping, I decided to walk around and try to wear myself out, but then I heard a weird noise so I am just waiting for maintenance to get here so I can get back to walking."

"Ohhh, so you're the guy skulking up and down the hallways at night, making everyone just a little bit nervous." Andy said with a grin on his face.

Cooper's response was immediate, "Yeah, well someone has to patrol to keep you out of all the women's rooms at night."

The bickering went on back and forth for a few minutes until finally the engineer appeared. Cooper and Andy stepped to the side to allow him to access his work space.

The last thing Cooper heard was the engineer saying "What the hell is that?" before there was a large flash of light that knocked Cooper unconscious.

The explosion had been heard by several people in the area who immediately rushed to the scene and saw the carnage that lay before them, three bodies lay strewn about the floor, The engineer appeared to have a broken leg and severe burns on his face, chest and hands. Andy seemed a little worse for wear; he was already coming too and seemed slightly dazed but appeared to have no major injuries, just some cuts and bruises. Cooper had been thrown across the hallway and had impacted against the opposite wall. He had fallen face first onto the floor. Cooper had been between Andy and the explosion and had taken the brunt of the force. He had minor burns on his face and hands, but miraculously had no major wounds.

As Cooper began to regain consciousness, he saw Andy staring down at him. Cooper could see his lips moving but couldn't hear anything except for a loud ringing sound. Cooper was no lip reader but he could make out Andy saying "Are you okay?" Cooper responded by giving a thumbs up signal and pointing to his ears, in a gesture meant to show that he could not hear. About this time Cooper, Andy and McKenna were all taken to the medbay to be examined.

Soon after he was released from the medbay, his hearing returned. Soon after, Cooper was called into Security.

"Sergeant Brain," the officer started, "I am very glad to see that you are still with us, do you know what happened?"

Cooper told him the story about the mysterious noise and calling for an engineer. He then waited while the Security Officer, whose name was Lieutenant Gorlan, looked through some notes. Gorlan was a large man, even by Rogue standards. He had Dark Brown hair that had been cut into the traditional military standard crew cut. His shoulders were broad and powerful. He was middle aged and his face bore several scars, showing the toughness that is common amongst security officers. His uniform was pristine down to the shine on his boots. Cooper could tell that he was cocky and by the book. Both traits that are staples for Security Officers.

"So, you were the first person to hear this mystery noise?"

Cooper took offense to that remark. "What, are you insinuating, that I had something to do with the explosion? That's crazy!"

The security Officer replied. "Really, that's crazy? Okay. Well I am showing that there was some type of an unknown explosive device placed in a non-sensitive area of the station. You were the first person to report it and you seem to be uninjured, despite being in an explosion, now let me ask you, do you think that is any bit suspicious?"

Cooper immediately replied, "I don't care what you think. I wouldn't destroy anything on this station, that's absurd."

Lieutenant Gorlan sat back in his chair and bridged his hands together forming a temple over his nose, "Maybe, just maybe, you didn't want to destroy anything. Is it possible that you were just doing it to get attention for yourself? Maybe you are so desperate for attention that you would be willing to blow yourself up to get it."

Cooper couldn't help but chuckle. He then said, with a tinge of anger in his voice, "I think you have an I.Q equivalent to that of three gerbils, and you have no clue what you are talking about. Now if you think it was me, arrest me, other wise leave me alone. You security guys have been having a bad string of luck since the Colonel Vrecken incident."

At the mention of the Vrecken incident, Lieutenant Gorlan stood up, and raised his fist to strike Cooper. Cooper stood up and took a step back, trying to get out of a situation that was quickly spiralling out of control. The lieutenant moved from around his desk and approached Cooper, "I don't care how smart you think you are, I will get you. I will. I guarantee it."

Admiral Fel then walked through the door, "Gorlan stand down and back off."

Gorlan immediately apologized to the Admiral, "I am sorry sir, my temper just got the best of me."

Admiral Fel responded, "Be sure that you get your temper under control. And before you start making accusations as to who our saboteur is, you might want to find some evidence first."

Gorlan had been humbled, "Yes, Sir."

Admiral Fel then turned to Cooper and said, "Nice to see you up and around. Go on and get back to your quarters."

"Yes sir, not a problem."

That night the nightmares were back. This was different however. Cooper was having dreams about things that he didn't remember. Things that he didn't know or recognize were appearing in his dreams. There was a language he didn't understand, he saw the faces of people he'd never met, but felt he knew deeply. Places he had never been, but somehow he felt deeply connected. It was all very disturbing. It was a very frustrating situation. Cooper tossed and turned all night trying to get comfortable, He teetered on the brink, but kept hearing a woman's voice. It was a beautiful voice, it repeated the words "Ras sal doun" over and over again. Cooper had no idea what it meant, but in a way it was very calming. After a while he was calm. Cooper fell into a deep sleep with those words still running through his mind. "Ras sal doun."

After he awoke , Cooper met up with Andy during chow. They started with their usual banter back and forth which included comments about each others looks, comments that were only made worse by the bumps, bruises and cuts from the explosion. After a while though, they both settled down and began their real conversation. Cooper started the conversation. "Last night was the first night I've slept in quite a while.

Andy answered, "Yeah it's been a while for me too, but last night was different, I lay down and tossed for a while, then, I heard a voice in my head. It was a beautiful voice and for some reason it calmed me and I passed out."

Cooper looked up at Andy, "Are you kidding? Please tell me you're joking."

"Joking about what?" Andy responded looking somewhat confused.

"I had the same thing happen to me last night; tell me something, did it say "Ras sal doun?" Cooper asked.

Andy sat there a moment in stunned silence, food in hand about an inch away from his mouth. Cooper thought for a second that Andy had an aneurysm. After what seemed an eternity Andy spoke "Yes, yes that is exactly what it said. How did you know?"

"I heard it as well, last night in my sleep." Cooper answered.

"Something is going on here, this is some pretty weird stuff." Andy replied.

"We have got to tell someone about this." Cooper said in a cold tone.

"Who do we tell? The division of paranormal investigations? Where exactly does this fit in the complaint department?" Andy spoke and the disbelief was apparent in his voice, he didn't know what to do.

"Well we need to tell someone, this isn't right." Cooper said

Cooper and Andy discussed what to do over the rest of their meal. It was finally decided to tell Colonel Thorn. They wanted to find out if she had heard of anything of this nature.

Cooper and Andy left together and headed towards the research labs. After all if anyone can help you, a scientist can.

Andy reached the lab first, followed closely by Cooper. Andy asked the first person if Colonel Thorn was available. The researcher, a women named Danicha Styrs said she was not in.

"Well maybe you can help me," Andy said.

He started off with an explanation of the dream, going into vivid detail. Out of the blue, Cooper saw a flash before his eyes; he winced and knelt in pain. Andy did the same thing. Cooper was on the ground screaming in pain and Andy was curled up in a fetal position whimpering. Cooper had thoughts and violent images going through his head, images of torture, pain, suffering they were such awful images. Then, as suddenly as it came, the images disappeared. Cooper and Andy stood up and looked at each other. Cooper saw that Andy was covered in sweat; he looked like he had been dragged through the fiery gates of hell. The pain was evident in his eyes. Cooper could only assume that he looked equally as bad as Andy did.

Then Coopers mind went blank. Andy and Cooper turned and walked away from the research lab, their destinations known not even to them.


Part Two

Cooper awoke in his darkened room. He felt drained, as though he had been on a physical training exercise with an angry infantry commander. He could feel the sweat dripping from his pores, his muscles ached. He got out of bed and walked towards his mirror and turned on the lights. What he saw scared him . His skin
was pale and his hair was wet from sweat. Yet. the most disturbing thing of all was that Cooper was covered in blood and he had no clue where it came from.

Cooper immediately began to remove his clothing to check himself for any wounds. To his dismay, when he examined his abdomen, he found several small wounds. Wounds that resembled claw marks.

"What the hell happened?" Cooper said out loud. Suddenly, he heard a noise in the back of the room. Cooper looked but didn't see anything. He pulled out his vibroblade and went boldly into the dark, to see what was in his room. As he rounded the corner he pinpointed the source of the sound. Cooper was taken aback. He saw a body, to be more precise, he saw a human body. The body was also covered in blood. Cooper gasped in disbelief; quietly he pleaded for this to be a dream he would soon wake from. Somehow he knew that was not possible. Everything felt real, almost surreal. Cooper reached down and tried to get a pulse on the unnamed body but couldn't find one. Not necessarily a bad thing considering the various races but it definitely scared Cooper. He called the med bay and stated that there was an emergency in his room.

Very soon after the call went out medical showed up, along with security. Cooper watched as the medical staff worked on the mysterious Rogue. Judging from the uniform the person was a naval officer, but Cooper didn't recognize the face. Recognition would be hard enough anyway, due to the massive amount of damage that had been done to the face. Cooper watched and hoped as the medical teams tried to resuscitate the naval trooper.

Cooper was jarred when a security officer tackled him to the ground and arrested him. Cooper knew it was coming, he didn't resist although he wasn't very happy about the way it happened. Two more security officers joined in and escorted Cooper to the stockade.


Part Three

Cooper was all too familiar with the stockade. He had been there before, under better circumstances. The room still smelled strangely damp and was painted grey it seemed to him the color of misery swallowed by despair. Cooper had been waiting for what seemed like eternity before Lieutenant Gorlan entered the room. Immediately, Cooper noticed he had a disgustingly sadistic grin on his face. He walked towards Cooper's cell with a stride that reeked of ego.

"So Mr. Brain, are you going to tell me that the body found in your room was planted there, or do you have some other line of fodder you are going to feed me?"

Cooper took a deep breath, and exhaled. He paused for a moment and then began to speak, "I know that you will not believe me, but the truth is that I have no clue. The last thing I remember is being with Andy in the research lab, the next thing I know, I'm in my room with a body. I have no clue what happened."

Gorlan chuckled, "Yeah, that's kind of what I thought you would say. Well Sergeant, today is your lucky day, that body in your room belongs to Petty Officer Zylar, He is still alive, despite the fact that you tried to beat him to death, he made it."

"Well that's good. The last thing we need around here is one more death." Cooper responded.

"I doubt, seriously doubt, that you care about another beings life. You are a sick and twisted individual. I am going to make sure you get the punishment you deserve for this." Gorlan spouted off a few more things, including swears about anything he could think of when he was finally interrupted by Cooper.

"All I care about right now is finding out what the hell is happening." was Cooper's response.

Apparently Gorlan was disappointed that Coopers wasn't being agitated by his comments, he looked at Cooper for a second and then he skulked off.

Later that night in his dreams, the woman appeared to him again. She spoke the same words and Cooper was knocked into a further level of unconsciousness. Suddenly he was awaken by a loud thud.

Cooper jumped out of bed and turned to see the origin of the noise that had broken up his peaceful dream. That was when he saw Andy on top of the guard. He had delivered a sharp blow to the head rendering him unconscious, and now he was looking for the access cards to drop the force fields and let Cooper out. Something about the way he was acting didn't seem right to Cooper. He had known Andy for a long time. They'd both joined Rogue Squadron around the same time and had become friends. In all the years he'd known Andy, Cooper had never seen Andy move, or act like he was now. Suddenly Cooper saw a blinding flash of light and he fell to the floor. The pain was unbearable, He grabbed at his head. He felt as though his head would burst into a million pieces. Then just as suddenly as it started, it was over.

When Cooper awoke. He was lying on the floor in a dark corner of Farpoint Station. His hands were covered in blood. Next to him lay the body of Andy, he too was covered in blood. Cooper searched through his belongings and found a blaster pistol, food, a knife and various other items. Cooper didn't know why he had these things, or even how he got them. He didn't know what was going on, He was a bit scared.

He gently shook Andy awake. Andy looked up at Cooper with his eyes partly closed. He let out a scream as he looked down at his bloody hands and uniform. "Oh my god what have I done?"

"I don't know, but I think we are in a lot of trouble," Cooper answered.


Part Four

"What do you mean you can't find them?" Nick yelled, "They are responsible for attacking several of my officers. They nearly killed two of them. They have escaped from custody they are violent criminals. You better find them."

"Yes, Sir," was Gorlan's only answer. He had his head hung in shame and was obviously distraught over the recent events. After Sergeant Brain's escape from the stockade, aided by Andy, they had attacked a second security officer at knife point nearly killing him. Then, they broke into the supplies and stole several highly lethal weapons and explosive devices they also stole several items for survival on the surface of Farpoint.
They had not been seen since.

Security was sweeping the base in teams of three and the remainder of the base was ordered to lockdown when not on duty.

The third member of Rogue Squadron involved in the apparent act of sabotage had been cleared to return to duty. His stint in bacta had been productive, as it always is. He had been having some strange dreams involving a female with a beautiful voice speaking to him in some strange language that he didn't recognize. Despite not recognizing the language it somehow put his mind completely at ease and helped his time pass quickly in the bacta tank.

Lieutenant McKenna felt a headache coming on. He tried to work through it but soon found that impossible, he nearly collapsed while working on a power relay that had been fluctuating. He decided to go to medical.

He walked in and noticed that everyone in medbay was on edge, obviously from the situation currently taking place with Cooper and Andy. "Dr Talgen," McKenna called out, "I'm sorry to bother you but this headache is a killer."

Dr Talgen responded immediately, "Well let me check it out." She grabbed some equipment and approached McKenna and as she did she saw something horrifying. Lieutenant McKenna let out a horrible, gut wrenching scream and fell to the floor holding his head. She could hear him muttering something under his breath and as she approached him he quickly stood up and struck her in the face, knocking her to the floor, rendering her unconscious. He then made his way towards the exit. Unfortunately for him, three security officers were just finishing up their security rounds, which included the medical facility. As they entered the room they saw Lieutenant. McKenna making his way towards them at a break neck pace. They saw Dr Talgen on the floor with blood trickling down her nose, they reacted by team tackling McKenna. One grabbed him by the right arm, the other grabbed for the left and another went for his legs, he was down and restrained, although still fighting within seconds. They helped him up and two escorted him to the stockade while a third called for help for Talgen and then tried to figure out what had happened.

"What do you mean different?" Nick said, "I am going to need something a little better than different."

"Well sir," Dr Talgen said, "He walked in and seemed pretty jovial although he was complaining about a headache. Then suddenly he grimaced in pain, screamed and collapsed. I rushed to help him and when I got close, he sprang up and hit me. He was acting differently then I have ever seen him act, and the collapsing bit, I can't explain it."

This was when Colonel Vrecken decided to step in, "I find it hard to believe that the sudden change in behavior of three people is not somehow related. All three were recently wounded in an explosion; I bet that somehow that is what caused their sudden aggressive behavior."

"I agree." Viper said, "Let's just hope they don't try anything stupid and end up getting hurt. Triple the guard in the stockade,"

Nick then said, "Let's see what we can get from Lieutenant McKenna. Make sure he is secure and run some tests on him. See what you can come up with, and then let's see if we can figure out who planted the bomb in the first place. Sabotage seems to be coming too easily around here."

* * * * *

Andy and Cooper's brief stint of clear consciousness ended quickly, soon after they had succumbed to whatever it was that was controlling their minds. Whatever it was that was influencing them, it had a plan, and Cooper and Andy set out to accomplish that plan, no matter what the cost.

They began by regaining entry to Farpoint, which at this point wasn't necessarily the easiest thing to do. They managed to sneak through an unmonitored hatch that had once been used to vent noxious gases, but hadn't been used for a while and was slowly, unbeknownst to all of Farpoint was falling into disrepair. Once they had accessed the station they went to work. Their first task was to get to the power core.

Cooper and Andy became one with the shadows as they crept around in absolute silence. Their minds no longer theirs and their hearts hell bent on destruction. Suddenly footsteps were heard in the distance, Andy and Cooper turned and entered the first room they saw, the door was locked so they forced it open using an interface near the door and a small computer uplink they had managed to steal. The door opened and revealed officers quarters. Cooper and Andy then laid low and waited for the security patrol to pass. They listened anxiously as the footsteps neared and then slowly descended as the officers passed the room. Just as Andy and Cooper were to leave, another set of footsteps could be heard. Cooper took up a position near the door and Andy withdrew his vibroblade from its sheath and stood directly across from Cooper, both at the ready. The footsteps could be heard nearing the door and then they stopped. The access codes could be heard being typed into the door and as the door opened, Lieutenant Gorlan appeared.

Quickly and without warning Cooper reached out and grabbed him around the throat, placing his hands directly around the windpipe, effectively silencing Gorlan, then Andy moved to silence him forever with a knife slash, Gorlan saw it and quickly dodged it, he then grabbed Cooper's arm with his free hand and twisted it, forcing Cooper to let go. He tried to get to his comms, but Cooper knocked it away from him. Andy and Cooper had Gorlan encircled, Cooper leapt out and grabbed a hold of Gorlan's arms and held him there, Andy went in for the kill. He put the blade next to Gorlan's Carotid artery and held it there, what Gorlan saw next amazed him. Cooper and Andy both immediately grabbed their heads and grimaced in pain. Cooper looked up at Gorlan with fear in his eyes and said "Help us" and then immediately passed out. Andy seemed to shake it off and went after Gorlan again with the ferocity only seen in nature. He swiped at Gorlan and managed to put a large gash across his chest that immediately spurted blood. Gorlan withdrew to the front door and exited, but as soon as he had stepped into the hallway, Cooper, apparently back in the fight tackled him and began hitting him squarely in the face, breaking his nose on contact and spraying blood everywhere. Andy sheathed his knife and began kicking Gorlan in the ribs. The sound of them breaking was loud and obvious. Then Cooper and Andy came too again, looked at each other and down at Gorlan, their words were simultaneously spoken "Oh no, what have we done" they dragged him to his room and Cooper snatched his comms and called for medical. Quickly the two were under the control of something again.

Slowly Cooper and Andy made their way to the reactor. It was heavily guarded but Cooper and Andy managed to catch a break, they alarms had been set off and all the security personnel went running, in the direction that Cooper and Andy had just come from. There were only a few engineers and 3 security officers left in the room. This would be easy.

At the sound of the alarm, Nick and Viper immediately got on the line with the Operations center to find out what was going on. They were told that Cooper and Andy had struck another victim, Lieutenant Gorlan was severely wounded and apparently Cooper himself had called for medical.

Meanwhile in the research center, several people had gathered around Lieutenant McKenna. They had attempted several tests on him in an effort to figure out what had happened to him.

Dr Pierce was the first one to discover any abnormality. "See this, it looks like a growth on the frontal lobe. We need to get a sample because I know that it wasn't there before."

Dr Talgen agreed, "The frontal lobe controls body movement, coordination and planning and consciousness. If someone could link themselves to this part of the brain, it may be possible to control them."

Colonel Thorn jumped in, "Maybe we have an answer, the explosive device that Cooper, Andy and McKenna all saw was not meant to have been destructive. It was meant to recruit someone. If you gain control of someone's brain, they would be a very, very good spy."

"There is a problem with this theory," Dr Pierce said, "If that was their intention the control would not be absolute, It would be at a subconscious level."

"Maybe that is why after they attacked Gorlan, they called for help, they are trying to stop themselves but can't." remarked Talgen.

Cooper and Andy had made their move and taken out the security forces near the reactor. Their attack was brutal and swift leaving the guards lying unconscious on the floor and bleeding heavily. Andy and Cooper went to work sabotaging the reactor, they placed charges at the key points and left. Unbeknownst to everyone on Farpoint, they were about to lose defensive capabilities.

Cooper and Andy then went to their next target. The targets name was Nick Fel.

The next meeting of the minds consisted of Fel, Viper, Thorn, Talgen, Pierce, and the new acting Chief of Security for Farpoint, Colonel Nas Brockert.

Brockert started, "We have discovered the cause of the explosion, it seems a device was smuggled onboard during our last restock. Its origins are a mystery still, but it is not a regular explosive device."

That was when Thorn jumped in, "It does create a large violent explosion, but a side effect of the accelerant used is that it creates a growth of neurons on the frontal lobe that makes whoever was near the explosion more susceptible to outside influence. If someone found a way to perfect this method, they could control them from far away."

Nick replied, "So I have two pilots and an engineer who are now being controlled by some external force, for purposes unknown, is there a way to block whatever signal they are using?"

"Maybe, we could run something through the shield generators and see what we come up with."

The meeting was interrupted by a comms signal to Colonel Brockert "Sir, it looks like Cooper and Andy tried to sabotage the reactor, they took out three guards and placed explosives on the vital points of the reactor. Their current location is unknown."

Immediately Nick stood, "Scan the surrounding systems, if they were trying to take out our shields and our defenses, their might be a fleet somewhere."

Cooper was covered in sweat, his hands had blood on them, and he had no memory of how he came to be where he was, in fact, he didn't remember where he was. All he knew was that he had just watched from his own mind as he attacked and tried to kill several people, it was only his last minute battle within himself that had stopped him from killing them. He was a prisoner in his own mind and couldn't free himself from it. It was horrible.

Their first plan had been foiled, Andy and Cooper had returned to the depths of the shadows from whence they had come. They had failed their first task for their new masters, but Cooper and Andy would not fail again. They would succeed in killing Admiral Nick Fel.


Part Five

Cooper felt dirty. It was the same for Andy. Both men were covered in blood, dirt sweat and god knows what else. They had not bathed in so long, Andy could only imagine how the smelled

Cooper was finding it difficult to tell the difference between imagination and reality. The images and thoughts going through his head changed constantly and he had trouble keeping them straight. He had lost all track of time. As far as he could tell, he had been awake for several days and had killed several people, or had he? He didn't know for sure.

Suddenly he got another signal and his brain shut down. He wasn't sure what was about to happen, but he was scared; he didn't want to hurt anyone else.

"Sir, they've been sighted." Came the report from Brockert, "We are sending more staff to that area but beware, they are on base and up to something."

"Frell" Nick cursed under his breath, "Where were they sighted?"

"In sector 5, near the armory," was the immediate reply.

As the communication blinked out Nick wondered, "They already stole supplies from the armory, why would they go back."

Nick immediately stood and went to investigate, taking a Zat with him just in case the situation got bad.

Cooper and Andy had snuck into Farpoint. Their goal was to lure Admiral Fel into the open and then to quickly kill him. Because as the old saying goes, "you kill the head the body dies."

Andy and Cooper separated, hoping to increase their chances of running into the Admiral.

As Andy was running up a non-descript grey corridor, he encountered security staff, He exchanged fire with them and they held their ground, forcing him to turn back and find another way.

Cooper was unprepared for what happened as he turned the corner. He heard a voice say, "Stop right there." As Cooper stopped, he palmed a small dagger to obscure it from sight. As he turned to face his captor he saw a small female security Officer, the top of her head came to Cooper's chest, he could tell she was scared but she stood her ground. "Get on the ground and put your hands, fingers laced behind your head." Cooper went down to one knee, and as she took a step forward he unveiled his hidden weapon He slashed her across the hand. She dropped her weapon and cried out in pain. Cooper grabbed her arm and threw her down, he picked up her weapon and pointed it at her, it was at this time that Cooper got hit by a zat blast and fell to the floor. Admiral Fel walked towards Cooper's slouched body, kicked away his weapon and said, "One down one to go."

Cooper was then escorted away by two security Officers and Admiral Fel went to look for lunatic number 2.

Andy had managed to stay away from the grasps of the security officers by using back routes and diversionary routes. Pure dumb luck. Andy and Cooper had several late night meanderings through Farpoint from lack of sleep and because of this, they knew this place, and knew it well. Andy didn't know what to do, the voice in his head was speaking to him but it didn't make any sense.

Andy was trying to do the right thing, he knew that he had to be stopped and soon, before any one else got hurt. He picked up his blaster and set it to stun, he pointed it at himself and tried to pull the trigger, and was unable to. Something in the back of his mind prevented it, then, yet again, he was knocked to the floor by the pain in his head.

When he regained consciousness it was the same story. He had been pushed to the back of his mind and the demon inside took over. He set off to blow some things up.

Meanwhile, Cooper had been secured in medical, with researchers and doctors all around.

Cooper could overhear bits and pieces of the conversation going on around him, and about him.

"Scanners are not detecting anything; however he has a fever and is showing all the symptoms of a highly invasive virus."

Cooper suddenly felt his head begin to hurt and he blacked out. When he awoke he felt like he had been stung by millions of bees, he tingled all over and knew immediately that he had been stunned.

"What happened, what did I do?" Cooper asked weakly.

"Well, we are very fortunate you were restrained, you tried to grab one of our staff. We had to stun you to get you to let them go." Dr Talgen answered. "Could you tell me what's been going on?"

Cooper muttered something that Dr Talgen couldn't understand. So she approached, carefully and said, "What was that?" Then Cooper lifter his head ever so slightly looked at Dr Talgen squarely in the eyes and screamed at the top of his lungs, "Pain, Voices, Voices bring pain and doing bad things hushes the voices." Then He started to scream a sick twisted animalistic scream and began to violently shake.

The paralytic that the Doctor gave him quickly worked its way through his body and his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he stopped yelling and collapsed back into the bed.

Dr Talgen analyzed the entire spectrum of medical tests attempting to find out exactly how to reverse the Neuron growth without damaging any of the surrounding brain tissue.

* * * * *

Andy was in dire need of something, but what it was he did not know, the last few hours, or days or whatever they had been, had been strange and confusing. His mind had been showing him images of terrible things that he had done, but he wasn't sure if they were dreams or were reality. The constant state of anxiety and fear had been damaging to Andy's psyche. He was paranoid, tired and stressed to a level far beyond the normal breaking point, but the device that had changed him allowed him to deal with it.

"We are unable to track the explosive device responsible back to anyone. It seems that Farpoint is having a continued problem with sabotage, I am sure that we have an infiltrator at some level, but I cannot tell you who it is based on what I have so far." The Brockert stated in a glum tone. He seemed embarrassed and appeared to have been humbled by the fact that his investigation had turned up no leads.

"Well," Viper stated, "We only have one problem left to solve then, where the frell is Andy?"

"No, now we have three questions. Where is Andy? What is his target? And can we stop him in time? Okay pull the pilots not on regular duty and join them with the security officers, have them double our security rounds and check and recheck the perimeter and lesser used areas of the base. Search everyone's quarters, every laundry closet, access panel, garbage chute and whatever else we need to look in that could possibly hide a human." The tone of anger was imminent in Admiral Fel's voice.

All of the Officers slowly excused themselves from Nicks Ready room and slinked away, except for General Moore who said, "What seems to be your problem?"

"My problem is that I have a saboteur on board who has struck several times and leaves no trace. His sabotage has resulted in several deaths and injuries. It even drove Cooper to the brink of Suicide. Cooper and Andy are doing things they would never ordinarily do, it just bugs me and I think the problem is going to get worse before it gets better."

Viper looked at Nick for a second and grinned, "you mean things sometimes get better before they get worse?"

Andy was currently crawling through the air vents that pulled the air and whatever other gases were needed through the station. He was making bad time, mostly due to the restraining cramped space he was navigating. He was managing to make his way though. He was going to try to break Cooper free from medical. He assumed from his current position he would be ready to break him free with 10 minutes.

"Sir, I am detecting an unidentified heat source in the atmosphere control systems, I have already taken the liberty to recheck and it is confirmed. And on a side note I thought that you would want to know that it is moving, very slowly but it is moving," The call came into Admiral Fel's room.

His response was immediate "Seal off that section and isolate the source of the heat, vent in some gas and let's see if we can put the heat to sleep."

A team was dispatched to the section, the found the heat source had stopped moving and was trapped between two force fields in section 13212. They immediately began the removal procedure which involved a lot of cutting bending and twisting of that particular piece of ceiling. They spotted the crumpled, sleeping body of Andy and verified his condition with scanners; he was unconscious; although the snoring had already given that away. He was shackled and restrained and taken to medical.

Several hours later after Cooper and Andy had been sedated Dr Talgen finally believed that she had made a breakthrough.

"Nanites." She said proudly

"Nanites." The Admiral looked at her questioningly.

"Yes, nanites," She continued, " I have already started the process of programming them, essentially each one will be equipped with a microscopic energy source, the purpose of which is to destroy the extra Neurons one at a time. Once the process is over I will enter the code and they will all shut down and at that point they will become harmless. However there is a 75% chance of permanent brain damage to Cooper and Andy. I can't guarantee they will be fine, but we can't leave them like this."

The admiral dropped his head and switched his gaze from Talgen to Cooper, and then to Andy, "75% sounds pretty good to me, go ahead Doctor."

"Yes sir, the procedure should take a few hours."

"Call me when it's over."

As the Admiral turned to leave the room, Cooper and Andy both cried out in pain

"I thought they were sedated" Nick said to Talgen

"They are sir," she replied, "Right now they have enough sedatives going through them to knock out a Wookiee."

As Talgen approached Cooper, she was horrified when his arm reached up and grabbed her around the throat, and slowly began to squeeze, Nick advanced towards Cooper's position, but then Andy jumped completely out of his medical bed and went after Admiral Fel. He grabbed for his arm but Nick fought off the motion and countered it with a swift palm heel thrust to Andy's face. Andy recoiled and backed off, the momentum was lost however as Cooper let go of Talgen and grabbed Nick from behind, Talgen, now free from her captor commed security. Nick threw Cooper off him and Cooper rolled into a standing position facing the Admiral. Nick was caught off guard by a chair that had been thrown at him by Andy, the chair hit his head and knocked him to the floor, however he quickly stood up and drove an elbow directly into Andy's ribs, he heard several of them crack on impact. Andy dropped to the floor and nick directed his attention to Cooper. He had the look of a rabid dog his eyes were practically burning a hole through Nick. At once they both advanced and Cooper caught Nick with a forearm that knocked the Admiral on his back, he quickly spun and swept Cooper's legs out from under him. As he regained his standing position they squared off again

The Admirals thoughts centered on why it was taking security so long to get there. Fel spied Talgen in the background, she had readied a Zat and was prepared to fire it, but she didn't have a clear shot due to the Admiral being between her and her target. The admiral quickly sidestepped, trying to clear the path but it was without substance because as she tried to fire, Andy still on the floor grabbed her legs and bit her on the shin, drawing blood. Talgen fell to the floor crying out in pain and holding her leg. Cooper used the distraction to his advantage and charged the Admiral, he took him to the ground and tried to subdue him using his fists, or anything else he could find, but the Admiral is skilled in many areas of combat, including ground fighting, he managed to avoid most of the blows and pushed Cooper off of him. As the Admiral stood to retrieve the fallen zat from the floor he noticed that Cooper had grabbed it. Cooper held it in his hands. Nick saw that Coop had already changed the settings on it to kill and he pointed it at the Admiral. He fired but Nick jumped away just in time to see the bolts go right over his left shoulder. Nick used anything for Cover and just as he thought that this was getting absurd the doors to medical opened and three security officers entered, they aimed their weapons at Cooper and fired. Cooper immediately went down, hit by E-11s on the stun setting. He dropped like a rock, at this time Andy grabbed the thrown away Zat and stood up, he aimed Nick and called out, "Anyone of you move, and the admiral turns into dust."

The three security officers held their ground, as did Andy his hand was trembling; suddenly he shouted "No." He pointed the Zat at the Admiral, the three security officers and then he turned it on himself, as he tried to pull the trigger Nick kicked the Zat out of his hand and the Security Officers hit him with a stun blast and he fell to the floor. Both Andy and Cooper were unconscious.


Part Six

Several hours later, after Talgen had tended to her wounds with the help of Dr Pierce, and Talgen checked out Nick to see if he was okay. Dr Talgen performed the operation on Andy and Cooper.

Nick waited silently in his room, reviewing reports of the last few days' happenings when he received a call

"The operation has been a success; they are both awake and asking questions. It seems they don't remember much of what happened, they describe it like being a dream." Talgen said.

Nick thanked her for updating him and switched off the comms. He spun in his chair and approached a viewport and stared out it distractedly. He thought to himself, "I have a saboteur on board. But at least Cooper and Andy are okay, I just hope this situation doesn't get any worse."