Mist of Shadows
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Myst in DC part 37
🕑 Added 2020-01-10 18:39:38 +0000 UTCMyst barely resisted the urge to use his telekinesis to slam the doors shut on Tuvok when he used his security code to override the door lock on the lab he was using. He glanced away from the collection of freshly replicated parts that he was assembling and focused on the Vulcan that was interrupting his work. “Is there a reason that you’re bothering me?” he asked over the Celtic music the computer was playing.
“Computer, stop the music,” Tuvok ordered as he glanced at the device that Myst was assembling on the workbench. “Are you aware of how many regulations you are breaking?”
“You’ll have to be more specific,” Myst replied dryly, resisting the urge to tell the computer to resume playing, mostly because he knew Tuvok would just override his command. ‘I need a spell for playing music. Scratch that, I need two, one for music I actually want to listen to and another for playing music that I can’t hear, preferably the worst gutter trash I can find.’ He pulled his attention back to Tuvok. “Last I checked, playing music wasn’t against the rules, nor locking the door to keep out nosey idiots.”
“Your work on the cloak,” Tuvok said, slightly annoyed as he could sense the stranger’s annoyance, which was annoying as he knew Myst was allowing the emotions through whatever mental defenses he had.
“Ah, technically speaking, none,” Myst replied as he went back to assembling the phase cloak, using Riker’s memories of the cloak as a blueprint and trying to ignore Tuvok.
“Researching or running a cloak on a Federation ship is illegal,” Tuvok stated firmly.
Myst slipped the next piece into place and held it with his telekinesis as he turned to look at Tuvok. “First of all, the treaty was stupid and second, I’m not a member of the Federation and I am merely borrowing a lab and access to a replicator in trade for giving you a fighting chance to make it home.”
“You asked B’elanna for help,” Tuvok pointed out.
“B’elanna is a criminal and malcontent that the Federation abandoned, the same as it did everyone in the colonies the Federation traded to the Cardassian Empire for empty promises which means they lost the right to call any of those people their citizens as far as I’m concerned. Maybe Riker uses the phase cloak or maybe he gives it to Chakotay so he can act as an advanced scout, either way, I’m just making sure he has the tools to get everyone home.”
“If you truly wanted everyone home, you could upgrade the engines to the point that we’d be home in a month,” Tuvok said.
“If I upgraded the drive to that extent, you’d be back in the Federation in a week or two and the courts would toss everyone from Chakotay’s ship in prison for fighting the Cardassians, actions that I consider completely justified, considering the idiotic deal the spineless bastards in the Federation signed. Luckily for the Cardassians, I don’t care enough about their empire to deal with them in a way that would work, so it’s best that I just head to the next dimension and not worry about it.”
“How would you deal with them if your family had been on one of the planets the Cardassians attacked?” Tuvok asked, curious about the stranger’s character.
“If my family died?” Myst asked, knowing Tuvok wouldn’t consider his answer logical or reasonable.
“Yes.”
“I’d start with the ship that attacked my home then I’d track the orders and start killing my way through their leaders until I found the idiot that authorized it. Once I found him, I might kill him or I might crush every one of his hopes and dreams before I rip out his eyes and make sure he lives to understand his mistakes.”
“That sounds excessive,” Tuvok said.
“No, excessive is acquiring a cloak from a Ferengi or Romulan trader and installing it on a large asteroid with some engines and shields then sending it to destroy the Cardassian homeworld. Either way, I have Riker’s permission to use the lab, which means unless you have a legitimate security issue, I’d like you to leave.”
“Is there a reason you dislike me?” Tuvok asked, having sensed an undercurrent of hostility directed his way since their first meeting, which wasn’t the case with anyone else.
“Beyond the fact that you’re wasting my time?” Myst asked as he went back to work on the cloak.
“You disliked me before I opened my mouth,” Tuvok said, wanting to get to the bottom of the stranger’s hostility.
“I think your intelligence is suspect and your moral fiber lacking, you try to suppress your emotions to the point that you’re not in control when you fail, something that is inevitable. The entire practice of suppressing emotions to that degree is dangerously shortsighted and illogical.”
“Vulcan’s are susceptible to emotional fluctuations that can be comparable to human’s that have been diagnosed with schizophrenia,” Tuvok argued.
“From what I understand, most Vulcans go for control, not complete suppression and seem to have better luck.” Myst teleported the last piece into place then looked at the phase cloak with his upgrade ability, shocked that the cloak actually worked, for a given value of worked. It was dangerously unstable and would probably burn out the components after an hour or two of continuous use, but it was a start which meant upgrading it until it worked was a perfectly viable option. “Either way, is there a reason you’re still here?”
“I wanted to discuss your upgrades of the Maquis,” Tuvok said.
“What about them?” Myst asked as Dawn and B’elanna stepped into view of his invisible drone watching the hallway.
“I’m concerned that upgrading the Maquis will force the crew of the Voyager to accept the same upgrades in order to avoid increased tensions leading to all out mutiny.”
“I think you are drastically underestimating Riker’s ability to keep the crew under control. Besides, I didn’t upgrade any of the idiots from Chakotay’s crew beyond increased wisdom and self control, something most of them needed. Truthfully, I’d be honestly surprised if Riker doesn’t have everyone working together like they had been for years, inside of a month.” He smiled at B’elanna as she walked in with Dawn. “I need you to take some scans of the cloak.”
“Let me guess, you can’t figure out the tricorder?” Dawn teased as B’elanna walked over and picked up the tricorder sitting on the workbench.
“Being able to turn the scanner on and push a couple of buttons doesn’t mean I’ll understand what it’s telling me,” Myst said as he lifted the information out of B’elanna’s mind on how to activate the tricorder. “I’m planning on upgrading the phase cloak until it’s reliable, I’d like a series of scans so someone can reverse engineer the changes and figure out how everything works so they can repair or replace it after I leave.”
“Why didn’t you do that for the rest of the ship?” Tuvok asked.
“Mostly because Riker already has a team scanning everything that is more than capable of handling it.”
B’elanna frowned as she noticed several problems with the way some of the pieces of the phase cloak fit together. “I’m done with the first scan, I don’t think I’d want to use the cloak without some serious adjustments.”
“Everyone's a critic,” Myst said sarcastically as he spent enough mana to make it 2% more reliable. “Okay, that should be 2% more reliable, go ahead and scan it.”
Dawn grinned as she felt the mana tickle her sides. “Having a decent cloak should help when we get back home.”
B’elanna scanned the cloak a second time and relaxed when she realized that one of the connections had improved. “There are noticeable physical improvements in the cloaking device after you upgraded it. This might actually work, even if it will take a few hours.”
“Should I move it up by 5% each step?” Myst asked, willing to follow her lead as she was the best engineer they had.
B’elanna compared the scans. “No, stick with 2%. We’ll get a more complete picture that way and it takes less than three seconds to scan.”
“How long until we jump worlds?” Dawn asked as Myst upgraded the cloak, enjoying the mana that washed over her.
Myst turned to look at Dawn while B’elanna scanned the phase cloak. “I’m opening a portal as soon as I upgrade Kes’ planet and scrap one of the Kazon raiders for parts. I’d love to stick around and hit some salvage dealers for strange alien tech, but I have a feeling we’re supposed to leave soon, unless we want to miss an interesting opportunity.”
“What type of interesting opportunity?” Tuvok asked.
“No idea, I didn’t get a vision this time, just a feeling.”
“Are you planning on recruiting anyone?” Dawn asked as she glanced at B’elanna.
B’elanna was more than a little tempted to volunteer to go with them, as she’d never really fit in at Starfleet but wasn’t willing to leave Chakotay in a lurch as they were short of crew.
Myst upgraded the cloak another 2%, sending out a small wave of mana. “Short of duplicating people, I doubt anyone that I’d want to recruit would be willing to leave their friends, so probably not.”
“If we weren’t short of engineers, I’d probably take you up on your offer,” B’elanna said as she re-scanned the phase cloak.
“You’re always welcome,” Dawn offered, knowing she wouldn’t be able to recruit her without being pushy and it probably still wouldn’t work and would just sour relations with the former half Klingon engineer turned dark elf. “On that note, I’ll talk to Kes, she’s enough of an explorer that she might let us duplicate her, especially if we promise to come back and share stories with the version that stayed.”
“Best of luck, Kes is awesome,” Myst said as he upgraded the phase cloak.
Dawn smiled as she left the lab and headed off to find Sabrina.
0o0o0
“Nice touch with the planet,” Q said as he studied the planet that been a desert wasteland twenty seconds ago. It wasn’t the trees or the grass or even the interesting dolphin-like creatures in the oceans that held his interest so much as the magic that flowed over and through the planet. You could find a dash or a pinch of magic in out of the way locations, scattered around the galaxy that had spilled in from elsewhere, but he doubted there was half as much magic in the entire dimension as the three planets Myst had changed with his power.
“Thanks,” Myst replied as he turned to look at the familiar figure standing by the lounge window as if he’d been there the entire time, which of course he hadn’t. “It’s time, isn't it?”
“For now,” Q replied. “No last minute questions or requests?”
“Would it matter?” Myst asked with a touch of amusement. “I’d ask you to save Annika Hansen from her fate with the Borg, but I’m planning on coming back to handle that myself. Besides, there are an endless number of Annikas in an endless number of realities that never get rescued, what is one more or one less to a Q?”
“It wouldn’t have the same impact if I snapped my fingers and rescued her,” Q replied as the door opened, revealing Riker, Deanna, Sabrina, Dawn and a pair of Kes’. “Ah, captain, so good of you to join us in wishing farewell to our guests.”
“It’s the least I can do after all of their help,” Riker replied, steeling himself to deal with Q as they walked into the room.
Myst smiled at Riker. “Give my regards to Picard when you see him and don’t forget that being true to yourself is more important than any rules or regulations.” He pulled a small wooden box out of his inventory and floated it over to the original Kes, happy that he could feel the difference with his telepathy. “Inside the box you’ll find a stone, the stone will allow anyone that wants to change into an elf, to change their destiny.”
“Thank you!” Kes said as she rushed forward and pulled Myst into a hug, excited as she thought about more people becoming dark elves and increasing their number.
Myst patted her on the back as he gave the Kes that was coming with them a smile. “Feel free to save the Ocampa that are worth saving.”
“I will,” Kes said as she released Myst and took a step back. “Thank you for the extra vanishing cabinets, so I don’t have to choose between my home and adventure.”
“You’re welcome to stay,” Deanna offered, knowing he wouldn’t but knowing he’d appreciate the offer anyways.
Myst shook his head. “I’d go crazy stuck on a ship and we have people waiting for us.”
“Are you sure I can’t talk you into using the twin spell and coming with us?” Sabrina asked Deanna.
Deanna glanced at Riker. “I’m sure, I think two of me is enough for now.”
“In that case, we’ll see you around,” Myst pulled the portal device out and opened a portal after adjusting the settings. “One free piece of advice, ask Paris to locate the nearest subspace tunnel, it should save you a lot of time.” He turned back to look at the portal. “To the next adventure.”
“Live long and prosper,” Dawn said cheerfully then stepped through the portal after Kes’ twin stepped through.
“Be excellent to one another,” Sabrina said and then snickered and walked through the portal, wishing that B’elanna had shown up to see them off, of course, they’d already said their goodbyes, but it would have been nice to make one more attempt to convince the engineer to come with them.
Q waited for the strangers to step through the portal then moved the destination to another location in the same world and summoned Quin from his prison on the asteroid. “It was a privilege and an honor knowing you,” he said as he shoved his fellow Q through the portal then closed it, hoping his friend would find a reason to live, now that he was lost to the collective.
“What did you just do?” Riker demanded.
“I took a chance to change a friend’s destiny.” Q vanished with a snap of his fingers, wishing he’d been brave enough to leave himself, but knowing he had responsibilities that he couldn’t, in good conscious, abandon.
Riker sighed as he realized there was nothing he could do about Q’s weird behavior. “Let’s go talk to Paris, we have a long way to go before we’re home.”
0o0o0
“Good Anakin, kill him now!” Sheev Palpatine ordered with a vicious smile as he watched Anakin struggle with his emotions while Dooku gave him a heartwarming look of shock. He shivered as the force trembled and a vortex of purple energy ripped the air apart in the middle of the room, causing Anakin to pull his lightsabers back and kick Count Dooku away from him rather than killing him as he’d ordered.
Anakin shivered as four humans or near humans stepped out of the swirling vortex one after another. “Who are you?”
Myst grinned as he glanced between Anakin, Palpatine and a very much alive if disarmed Dooku. “Myst, apprentice magic user and world traveler at your service.”
“Sabrina Shadows, witch and eldritch grimoire,” Sabrina said cheekily as she tossed a stunner at Dooku, knocking him unconscious as the man failed to dodge in time, most likely because he was already worn out and injured.
“Are you here to rescue me?” Palpatine asked, not liking the way they’d interfered with his plans for Anakin and wondering if it was time to escape his restraints and grab his hidden lightsaber or if he could turn their arrival to his advantage.
Myst looked at Palpatine with his upgrade ability, not really surprised that the Force registered as magic rather than psionics or even that Palpatine had a fair amount of corruption built up. “Of course, it’s hard to find decently trained Sith.”
“You think the Chancellor is a Sith?” Anakin asked in surprise. “I’d be able to sense it.”
Myst tossed Dawn a mental message, ‘Float off the ground a bit.’
“You should probably work on that,” Dawn said as she floated a foot off the ground, playing along with Myst’s idea.
“There are ways to hide the ability to use magic, can you sense my abilities?” Myst asked with amusement as he psionically teleported Dooku to his hands and stuffed him in his inventory, wanting to make sure Anakin didn’t execute the man.
“I can’t,” Anakin admitted warily.
“I assure you, I’m no Sith,” Palpatine lied.
“He’s lying,” Kes spoke up, able to sense the Chancellor’s dark thoughts. “He’s mentally screaming about us ruining his plans.”
“What plans are those?” Anakin asked, figuring he’d humor the strangers until he could figure out what was going on.
Myst upgraded Palpatine’s already impressive tendency to grandstand and monologue to the point that he would have had quite a future in the theater if he so chose. “He wanted a new apprentice, Dooku had outlived his usefulness, so he sent you visions of your mother in danger and arranged the attack. He’s also the one sending visions of Padme in danger.”
“Why would he do that?” Anakin asked as he glanced between Palpatine and Myst.
“Because he’s a racist asshole-” whatever else Dawn was going to say was cut off as Palpatine hit her with a blast of Force lightning causing her to take a step back in surprise. “Hey!”
Palpatine laughed as his restraints snapped open and he got to his feet. “Fine, you’re quite correct, I’m a man of many talents.”
“You sent the visions about my mother?” Anakin demanded, feeling the Force surge through his body.
“To warn you my dear boy,” Palpatine lied. “All I’ve ever done was to help you.”
“Including trying to kill Padme?” Myst asked, knowing Anakin wouldn’t take threats to Padme well.
“You’d have tried to kill her if you had to spend five minutes with her,” Palpatine replied dryly. “Always talking about the good of her people, it’s sickening.”
“I’ll kill you!” Anakin snapped as he jumped toward Palpatine, intent on killing him.
“Yes! Feel the rage! Give into the darkness!” Palpatine taunted as he used the Force to throw Anakin across the room near Obi-Wan. “Summon your rage boy and fight me!”
Myst gestured toward Dooku’s lightsaber and teleported it to his hand. “Challenge accepted!”
Palpatine turned to look at Myst. “You’re not a Jedi.”
“You’re right, I’m not. Summon forth your rage and power, show me the fire of your convictions!” Myst taunted as he walked toward Palpatine, smirking when the man tried to grab him with the Force and failed. “I’m sorry, you’ll have to win with the skill of your blade…” he trailed off as Palpatine blasted him with lightning. “You really are a slow learner, aren’t you? Then again with a name like Sneev, what do you expect?”
“It’s Sheev,” Palpatine snarled as he advanced toward the stranger, trusting in his skills with a lightsaber to defeat the man.
“Sorry, my mistake,” Myst replied sarcastically as he unchained his precog ability and gleefully went to town fighting with Palpatine, using his supernatural agility and ability to see the future to match the exceptionally skilled duelist. ‘Make sure he can’t toss anything at anyone that can’t take it,’ he mentally sent to Sabrina.
‘No worries,’ Sabrina replied mentally as she teleported everyone over to where Anakin and Obi-Wan were sprawled out, ready to toss up a shield if she needed to.
“Cut his head off!” Dawn called out cheerfully as they watched the back and forth duel.
“I’m going to enjoy breaking your friends,” Palpatine snapped as he increased his pace.
Myst blocked Palpatine’s lightsaber with a grin. “Where did you hide all of your holocrons?”
“Are you Dooku’s apprentice?” Palpatine demanded.
“If I was his apprentice, I’d be a better duelist,” Myst replied as he skimmed through the creepy bastard’s mind looking for the location of his holocrons, passwords and darkside treasures. “Oh, nice, you have a forge for lightsaber crystals.”
“Who told you that?” Palpatine demanded.
“I read your mind,” Myst replied with amusement as he took a step back and continued blocking the Sith’s increasingly erratic strikes. “Do you know the problem with rage and hate?”
“Is this where you give me some vaunted Jedi wisdom?” Palpatine asked scornfully as he did his best to kill the man.
“No. I’m just surprised that you actually care about the Jedi. You could have ignored them and if you were half as good as you think you are, they’d never have found you. You could have taken what Plagueis said about Sith Alchemy and ran with it or you could have trusted him enough to try for immortality.”
“How do you know that?” Palpatine demanded as he tried to cut off Myst’s hand.
Myst pulled his hand back and blocked the man’s sword almost lazily, happy that his boosted agility and multitasking ability made keeping up with the Sith easy. “I’m a telepath, I read minds. Speaking of, did you have a recording of this fight?”
Palpatine laughed. “Let me guess, you want evidence you can use against me?”
Myst blinked when he realized that Palpatine hadn’t recorded the fight, probably so that he wouldn’t be caught gloating. “Have you actually figured out how to cheat death?”
“I’m a Sith lord!” Palpatine snapped. “It is only a matter of time!”
“Huh, I was sure you’d already figured it out.” Myst smirked as he blocked Palpatine’s blade then hit him in the chest with a stunner, dropping him unconscious. ‘You’re way too dependant on your precog.’ He stuffed the unconscious Sith Lord and his new lightsabers into his inventory then headed over to where Sabrina was healing Obi-Wan.
“How did you make his body vanish?” Obi-Wan asked, wary of the strangers he couldn’t sense, despite the fact that the young man had obviously used the Force.
“Magic,” Myst replied with a grin. “How are you doing?”
“I’ll live. Is he dead?” Obi-Wan asked, knowing the council would want to put him on trial.
“As good as,” Sabrina offered, fairly sure Myst wasn’t going to let him die until they were in another dimension where he couldn’t become a Force ghost or jump to a clone.
“Feel free to tell the Jedi Council that the Sith master won’t be a problem anymore,” Myst said with a grin as he reached down and loaned his regeneration ability to Obi-Wan. “That should have you back on your feet in a minute.”
Obi-Wan blinked as his wounds regenerated before his eyes. “How?”
Myst briefly considered saying ‘magic’, but figured they weren’t in the mood for jokes. “One of my abilities lets me loan someone my regeneration until they’re healed or I take it back.”
“Can it keep someone from dying?” Anakin asked, thinking about Padme.
“Sure, but I doubt you have to worry about Padme and your children without Palpatine around.”
“Your children?” Obi-Wan asked, looking at Anakin with a disappointed look.
Anakin snorted. “Like you didn’t know.”
“I didn’t officially,” Obi-Wan said with a smirk.
“Which means they’re going to throw me out of the Order,” Anakin complained.
“Not if you leave first,” Myst suggested.
“That’s the same thing,” Anakin complained.
“Not really. Letting them kick you out means they get to control the narrative, leaving on your own means that you get to take time off to help your Padawan and spend time with Padme. You don’t need to mention the fact that you’re never coming back, and this way they’ll be forced to try and court you to try and get you to rejoin the order.”
Obi-Wan stood up, relieved that his injuries were completely gone. “He’s right, Ashoka could use the help and I know things in the Senate are going to get worse before they get better, which means Padme will need someone to keep her safe.”
“Besides, this gives you a chance to learn new tricks,” Sabrina suggested.
“New tricks?” Anakin asked.
“How would you like to never get cold or be able to walk through fire and lightning without issues?” Sabrina asked with amusement.
“Or fly?” Myst asked as he pointed at Dawn who was still floating above the floor.
“Why are you helping me?” Anakin asked, surprised that a group of obviously powerful force users would come out of nowhere to assist him when things had seemed at their worst.
“You’re an excellent mechanic and we sort of need a ship. Besides, Dawn needs someone to teach her to fly a ship,” Myst explained. “Consider it a trade of services.”
Obi-Wan twitched. “You’ll want someone slightly more… stable for that,” he suggested delicately and only half joking.
“Hey, my flying is fine,” Anakin complained as the entire ship shook. “That was not my fault!”
“We need to get off the ship, we’re in the middle of a battle,” Obi-Wan said urgently as he herded everyone toward the door.
Comments
Alex Wierzbicki
Awesome
Mist of Shadows
Thanks.
Robert Buniff
I like. I like a lot. Keep up the good work
