Chapter 2

Three hours later Starling's chief of security finally finished her preliminary investigation. Codi and Karla had been allowed to grab a robe to cover themselves up before they were ordered to leave Codi's quarters. Cathy and Terri looked at them both strangely when they were escorted into security chief Seleka's office and saw how they were both dressed.

The room Cathy and Terri shared was closely examined to make sure there was no booby-traps left for them to trigger. The sweep came up clean and it was determined that there was nothing else in Codi's room either. It was still considered a crime scene however so Codi was assigned new guest quarters. Karla was given the option to go off duty but she chose to stay on with Codi instead.

Codi's new room was even larger than her previous quarters. She had had a chance to get something to eat while discussing her findings about the sabotaged computer code with Commander Seleka. Codi had also reported what was happening back to the Pizon. She was ordered to take extra precautions and Commander Bralin received assurances from Captain Velaria that extra security precautions would be taken to protect Codi and the others.

Karla was waiting in the room and stood up when Codi walked in. Codi could see that the young woman had been crying and quickly gathered her in a hug. Karla buried her face in Codi's shoulder and sobbed openly. Codi didn't say anything but just held Karla and gently stroked her hair and let her cry herself out.

Codi sat then laid down on the bed pulling Karla down until she was lying next to her. Codi and Karla were still wearing only the robes they had left their old quarters in. Karla continued to cry quietly and Codi just held her close until she fell asleep in her arms. Codi pulled up the covers and pressed herself against Karla and was soon asleep herself.

Sometime in the night Codi woke. She felt fingers moving gently between her legs. She realized she was wet and let out a little moan of pleasure. Her eyes opened and she looked at Karla. "Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked quietly.

"Yes. Brandi wouldn't mind and I just need to feel alive myself."

Codi sat up and pulled Karla with her so that she could pull off the robes they were still wearing. She then laid back down and pulled the blanket back over them both. Karla returned her hand between Codi's legs and began to rub against her clit. Codi leaned closer to Karla and pressed their lips together opening her mouth and running her tongue against Karla's teeth.

Codi wrapped one arm under Karla's neck to pull her head closer and used the other hand to gently squeeze her breasts. She gently pressed one of Karla's nipples against the webbing between two fingers and pressed her fingers together.

Karla continued to rub Codi's clit with her thumb and slid her middle finger inside her pussy. Codi clenched down on the finger and continued to french-kiss Karla. Karla pulled Codi's hand away from her breast and pressed it between her own legs and raised one knee to give Codi free access. Codi began to slowly fuck her finger in and out of Karla's wet pussy.

"More." Codi added a second finger. "More!" Codi slipped two more fingers inside Karla's sopping wet pussy. "Put them all in me, damn it!" Codi pressed her thumb tight against her palm and slowly pressed it inside Karla's pussy until her wrist bone was all the remained outside.

"Yes! Fuck me hard! Make my pussy burn!"

Codi was growing scared of Karla's manic attitude and tried to pull her hand out. "No!" Karla grabbed hold of Codi's arm and forced her hand to fuck in and out rapidly. Karla began to pant and moan out loud and Codi had her hand used like a dildo. Karla finally cried out and her pussy clenched tightly around Codi's hand as it was soaked with cum.

Codi was finally able to pull her hand free as Karla slumped back breathing hard. "Thank you ma'am. I needed that." Karla took Codi's soaked hand and began to lick it clean. She continued down Codi's arm then across her shoulder. Before long Karla was licking Codi's nipple. She returned her hand back between Codi's legs and began to bring Codi's clit back to life. Codi tried to kiss her but before she could do so Karla had scooted under the covers. Karla was soon licking away at Codi's wet pussy fucking her tongue inside every now and then.

It did not take Codi long before she felt her orgasm build and gasped with pleasure when it washed through her body. Karla slurped up her cum before working her way back up to rest her head outside the covers on Codi's chest. Codi hugged her close but didn't say anything more. She fell asleep feeling Karla toying with her nipple and her warm breath blowing across her skin.

The next time Codi woke it was to the alarm telling her is was time to get ready for duty again. Karla didn't wake but made a little groan of protest when Codi worked her way out from underneath her. She took a shower by herself and when she came out with a towel wrapped around herself she saw Karla had woken up and pulled the cum stained sheets from the bed.

Karla had pulled on her robe again, when she heard Codi walk back in she said, "Good morning ma'am." Karla tried to smile but Codi saw it was still sad. Codi opened a drawer where her uniforms and underwear had been moved to and picked out what she would wear for the day. Karla had finished re-making the bed so Codi sat down and started to dress.

Karla made an effort to get up and help Codi but she waved her off. "Please. I appreciate you wanting to help but I can tell your heart isn't in it right now."

Karla slumped onto the bed next to Codi. Codi finished closing up her top and wrapped an arm around Karla's shoulder. Come on get dressed. You can join me for breakfast before I get back to work.

"Thank you ma'am that would be nice."

Karla quickly ran to the head for a quick sonic shower, Codi was just finishing brushing her hair when Karla came back out and quickly got dressed in her own uniform. Codi helped her straighten her hair before the two women stepped out into the corridor and headed for the galley.

When they got there, Cathy and Terri were already there eating. They looked up when Codi and Karla joined them at the table. "Good morning ma'am," they said together.

"Morning ladies. I invited Karla here to join us. She has been helping look after me while we've been on the ship. It was her friend that was killed last night."

"I'm sorry for you loss," said Cathy.

"Thanks," Karla said smiling.

Everyone finished eating their breakfast in silence. When they were finished Karla excused herself and Codi and the others returned to engineering. Codi checked the diagnostics console and confirmed that the computer had completed scanning the matter/anti-matter reaction control routines and that they were ready to be transferred back to the reactor controller.

Codi established the connection between the two systems and transferred the programs. "Lt. Brock to the bridge. I'm ready to bring the main reactor back online. Awaiting your order."

"Thank you Lt. Please proceed," came back Captain Velaria's reply.

"Acknowledged. Initializing reaction. Bringing power to 5 percent."

Terri and Cathy were monitoring the power readings. "Power readings are nominal," Terri reported.

"Very good, raising output to15 percent."

Codi and her team continued slowly raising the power levels until they were finally at full power. "Lt. Brock to the bridge. Everything looks good down here. I recommend slowly increasing speed and let us monitor the warp field."

"Thank you Lieutenant. I have let your ship know we will be leaving the system to test the engines and should be back in 12 hours."

After 8 hours the Starling had been brought to its maximum speed of Warp 9.6 and maintained that speed for over an hour. The Captain finally ordered the ship to drop back out of Warp. Codi ran scans on the warp coils. There appeared to be no unusual signs of stress on them.

Captain Velaria ordered the ship to reverse course and head back to the system they had left the Pizon at. The moment the navigator entered the command the warp core, Codi and her people had meticulously worked to get back online, instantly shut down. All lights in the ship went dead, the grav-plates went offline and the most ominous of all, the subliminal sound of the ship's life support systems went quiet.

Codi waited a terrifying 30 seconds that felt like hours, before emergency lights kicked in throughout the compartment. The gravity was still out and Codi knew that if life support was not quickly restored it would quickly start getting hard to breath. Codi and the others floated towards the environmental controls. Codi touched the controls and the display came back on showing the central computer had sent it a shut down command.

Codi entered commands to isolate life support from central control and manually brought it back online. She breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the circulation fans start back up. It was only after she had done so, that she started to wonder about how easy it was to get into the systems.

It was not a Federation ship but her and her team had been given command codes to allow them to get into the warp control systems, so she could only assume life support would be the same. For the moment she decided not to worry about it and instead worked to get the gravity back online as well. It was not hard. There was actually nothing wrong with any of the systems. Once she reverted the controls to local control is was simply an matter of bringing it back online.

The central control system was under the impression the ship had been moth-balled and had simply shut everything down waiting for it to be scrapped. Codi brought the gravity back up slowly to try and avoid injuries throughout the ship. She was trying to figure out the communication systems and jumped when she heard a loud clunk against the blast doors leading out of Engineering. With a hiss the door lock released and they separated a few centimeters.

"Okay ladies," Codi heard the Captain say, "All together, one-two-three!"

Codi and the others hurried to the door and worked together to try and pull the doors open enough to allow entry. "I see you've been busy," Captain Velaria said with approval. "Any idea what happened this time?"

"Not yet ma'am." Codi replied. "All I know right now is that the main computer shut down all systems. I have had to disconnect everything from that to bring it back online manually. It appears all command codes have been disabled. I think our saboteur has been busy again."

"I think you are right. I've ordered Commander Seleka to head up the investigation into the computer intrusions along with the explosion in your quarters. Please let me assure you we will get to the bottom of this."

Three hours later all systems were finally back online. Checking the logs showed the moment the navigator attempted to reverse course the ship went into total shut down. It was blind luck that they had chosen to reverse course, back towards the last system the Starling had come from. If they would have deviated the slightest from their course, the ship would have shut down sooner. Codi shuddered to think what would have happened if a crash drop from Warp would have occurred without inertial dampeners online. The ship itself likely would have survived but its delicate occupants would have been smeared very finely across the ship's bulkheads.

Captain Velaria had requested Codi and her team help secure their computer systems. Codi had some basic encryption routines stored on the shuttle's computers that she was able to adapt to the Starling's systems. In the Federation it was a publicly available algorithm and easily cracked by anyone that knew what they were doing but she hoped it was enough to stymie someone that had never encountered such routines before. The Captain had decided to take the calculated risk and not have Codi share the unlock commands with any of the crew. They still did not know who was sabotaging the ship and she did not want to risk compromising the computer systems again.

Codi watched the readings as the ship again entered Warp, they quickly reached Warp 9 and maintained that speed. Two hours later with no sign of problems Codi started to relax. It had been a long day so she decided to let Terri and Cathy take a break while she kept monitoring.

She heard Cathy gasp when the doors opened. Codi looked up and saw a young officer that she had not met before standing holding a disruptor pointed at the two women. Codi was reaching for her communicator when a disruptor blast hit the deck in front of her making her stop.

"Step away from the console," the young woman said.

Codi slowly got out of her chair and slowly stepped into the open being carful to keep her hands visible. She saw the eyes of her attacker were strangely empty. If Codi understood the hair style and uniform colors correctly, the woman trying to take them hostage, was an Ensign from the science department.

The woman walked to the console and entered commands to shut down the engines. The whole ship shuddered as they dropped back out of Warp. "Bridge to engineering. Why have you shut down the engines?" came the Captain's question.

Codi was about to answer when she had the gun pushed hard against her breast making it clear she should keep her mouth shut. "You will turn the ship around and head back to the planet you designated S31572. If you do, nobody gets hurt. If you don't, I will first; kill my hostages, then I will destroy the ship."

"Who is this?" the Captain asked.

"Captain, you have 1 minute to decide, turn the ship around and I will bring the Warp engines back on line. Keep fucking with me asking stupid questions and you will all die! Do I have to shoot someone before you believe me?

"Thirty seconds!"

The readings showed the ship turning around again and heading back towards the system at maximum impulse power. The woman entered commands and the Warp engines came back online again. The ship returned to warp but, did not go past Warp 3.

The Captain's voice sounded again through engineering. "I am outside the doors. I am unarmed and alone but I am coming in."

The blast doors opened and the Captain walked in holding her hands in the air. "Stop," the woman ordered after the blast doors had closed again. "Strip!"

"Excuse me?" the Captain asked in surprise.

"Don't argue. Strip so that I can make sure you don't have any concealed weapons. In fact all off you strip and stand together in that corner," she said pointing to a spot furthest from the door or any control panels.

The Captain without hesitation began to remove her uniform. Codi followed suite hoping to set an example for her people.

"You can't make me do that! I refuse!" Terri cried out.

"Do it that's an order!" Codi commanded.

"Yes ma'am." Terri looked down dejected but slowly started to remove her uniform.

When all four women stood naked and shivering in the cold air the woman walked up to each of them. The woman grabbed some conduit ties and tossed them on the floor close to where they stood. "Bind each other's hands behind your backs," she ordered.

"Ensign Talishia, what is this all about?" asked Captain Velaria.

Talisha ignored the question and began to closely examine the Captain's body running her hands over her skin and finally probing her ass and pussy presumably looking for any concealed weapons hidden there. Codi watched Talisha's face closely and could not detect and sign of excitement or disgust over what she was doing. It was completely clinical and her eyes remained empty.

Codi and the others were treated to the same examination, Terri let out a little squawk of protest but didn't say anything further as her pussy was probed. Talisha finished her examination. Keeping her gun pointed at them all she moved to a communications panel. "We will be leaving engineering. You will clear everyone from the corridor from here to Lab 3. If I see anyone along the way, I will start shooting. You have 5 minutes to comply."

After the allotted time Talisha gestured for everyone to move towards the door. Codi saw Terri look longing at her uniform lying in a heap on the deck but she continued naked out into the corridor. Codi followed Captain Velaria towards the lab. Inside all the lights were turned off. But, sitting on a table in the middle of the room, was a large crystal emitting a light of its own.

Cathy looked around in wonder. "What causes the light?"

The Captain looked surprised too. "It certainly wasn't doing this when we collected it, however it might help explain the energy readings we detected."

Talisha walked up to crystals and laid her hand on it. The light grew blinding for a moment before returning to its previous levels. The emptiness had left Talisha's face and was replaced with a look of pure ecstasy. When she spoke however, her voice was still flat and unemotional.

"The part must be made whole again. It is torture to be alone. The part would rather be destroyed than be apart. The part demands to be made whole again, or the part will be destroyed."

The Captain looked confused. Codi saw her look at the crystal and Talisha's hand on it. "Ensign I think you should step away from that."

"This biological unit is being used to facilitate communication with other biological units. Such crude forms of communication, is foreign to the part, but the part will continue to use the biological unit. Do not attempt to interfere, or the biological unit will be destroyed."

"Very well," the Captain replied reluctantly. "What happens when we arrive?"

"This biological unit will carry the part to a shuttle and the shuttle will be flown, so that the part can be made whole again. This biological unit will then be free to return to the other biological units."

"Is it possible for me to talk directly to the Ensign you are controlling?"

"That would be acceptable."

Talisha's hand left the crystal and for the first time Codi saw emotions in her eyes. "Captain! Please forgive me. I can't control myself."

"That is alright Ensign. Are you okay? Can you tell me anything about the crystal?"

"It is fascinating. Its presence feels so vast and infinite to me, but the mind itself is in pain feeling isolated. It took several days for it to recover from the shock of being severed like it was. It truly just wants to be made whole again."

Before Talisha was able to say more her eyes went dead again and her hand moved back to the crystal. "The part demands the ship go faster. The part must be made whole again soon."

"If you will permit me to talk to my first officer I can order our speed to be increased," the Captain offered.

"The part accepts the offer. The Captain biological unit will move slowly towards the communication device and forward the part's demand."

The Captain tried in vain to raise her hands still bound behind her back high enough to hit the button to open a channel but was unable to do so. "This would be much easier if you would allow me to use my hands. It would be considered a sign off good faith to my people if you provided a concession like that."

"The part finds this acceptable. The biological units may remove the bindings from their manipulator appendages."

The captain managed to work open a drawer. Inside she pulled out a pair of shears. She was able to use those to free Codi's hands. Codi took the shears and freed the Captains and then the other two women.

Terri and Cathy stood rubbing their wrists while the Captain moved back to the communicator and hit the button. "Captain to the bridge, situation blue. Maintain current heading but increase speed to maximum Warp."

"Situation blue acknowledged, increasing speed now."