Myst in DC Part 33

Myst glanced away from the window and glared at the alien that was poking at his spinning gacha wheel with his finger. “If you break my gacha wheel, I’m going to break your fingers Neelix.”

Neelix quickly pulled his hand back from the strange spinning wheel that was just floating near the strange human, curious how Myst had seen him poking at it as he’d been looking out the window. “I was just looking.”

“No, you were trying to touch something you don’t understand,” Myst replied, a touch of annoyance creeping into his voice. “Looking involves your eyes,” he finished the rest of the sentence in his head, ‘or drones.’ Normally he wouldn’t have bothered having his invisible drones flying around the ship but he didn’t trust some of the crew, namely Seska and the idiotic Maquis that thought selling secrets to the Kazon was a good idea.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm,” Kes offered.

“I didn’t,” Neelix assured her.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you shouldn’t touch stuff you don’t understand,” B’elanna said without looking up from the data pad she was reviewing.

Myst reached up to catch the black hooded cloak that dropped when the wheel stopped then yanked his hand back when he got a precog flash that touching it would result in a rather embarrassing transformation for a couple of hours.

“I got it,” Neelix said as he reached down for the cloak.

“Don’t…” Myst trailed off as Neelix reached down and touched the cloak, “touch that,” he grumbled as a wave of darkness surged up Neelix’s arm, turning the alien’s skin a midnight black as the dark cloud washed over his skin. ‘Fucking idiot, at least it’s not permanent, then again, it would probably be an upgrade. Maybe he’ll think twice before touching stuff he doesn’t understand.’

Neelix dropped the cloak, stumbled back and screamed in horror as his legs twisted and collapsed on him, each of them breaking apart below his knees and reforming into three giant spider legs even as his thighs warped into a twisted spider like abomination.

“What the hell is that?!” B’elanna asked as she pulled Kes away from where the spider creature was twitching and trying to crawl away from itself.

“It looks like a drider,” Myst said as he studied Neelix’s new half elven, half giant spider form, rather impressed that it actually had magic resistance, dancing lights at will as well as levitate and darkness once a day in addition to a magical spider climb ability. ‘At least he’ll change back in two hours, that should keep people from complaining too much.’ He glanced at B’elanna. “They’re basically cursed abominations where I’m from.”

“Meaning the cloak is cursed?” B’elanna asked warily, thinking about some of the tales her mother used to tell of cursed ships and the Klingon afterlife.

“No clue, give me a second to check,” Myst said as he looked at the cloak with his upgrade ability, rather impressed with the enchantment on the cloak, even if it was sort of nasty.

“Neelix?” Kes asked warily as she looked at Neelix, sensing her friend’s mind though his body looked completely different and monstrous.

“Don’t look!” Neelix ordered as he tried crawling toward the door, his spider legs sliding as they flailed at the floor, not yet used to his new limbs.

“Relax, it’s only temporary Neelix,” Myst assured him, mostly because he knew laughing at the annoying alien would upset Kes and he’d rather avoid that. He’d have felt worse about the whole thing if he hadn’t just warned Neelix not to touch stuff he didn’t understand. “The cloak is actually decently useful for females, it turns them into dark elves for as long as they’re touching the cloak plus two hours.”

“What are dark elves?” B’elanna asked.

“They’re basically long lived humanoids with a couple of interesting abilities and pointed ears, basically the top half of Neelix with humanoid legs,” Myst explained as one of his drones found Seska. He reached out with his telepathy and looked through Seska’s surface thoughts, curious if this version of her was as morally bankrupt as the version on the show. “Six or seven hundred years isn’t uncommon.”

“Six or seven hundred years?” Kes asked in surprise, pulling her attention away from Neelix. “Ocampa are lucky to live 9 years,” she admitted.

“I should be able to make the transformation permanent if you want,” Myst offered.

“Would I lose my telepathy?” Kes asked, hoping the answer was no as that would be the only thing she’d miss.

“Why would you want to look like this?!” Neelix demanded.

Myst rolled his eyes, of course he wasn’t listening to the rest of the discussion. “The cloak only turns males into monsters, she’ll be fine.” He wasn’t terribly surprised to find that Seska was planning on escaping as soon as she could now that she knew Counselor Troi wanted to talk to all of the crew. “Worst case, you’ll be stuck without your telepathy for two hours until you change back.”

“We should probably call the Doctor,” B’elanna said as she watched Neelix try to scramble to his feet.

“Probably,” Myst agreed, not looking forward to hearing Neelix bitch for two hours.

Kes reached down and touched the cloak, changing from a slightly battered blonde haired decently attractive ocampa into a stunning girl with midnight black skin, long red hair, purple eyes, full hips, generous breasts and pointed elven ears. She blinked when she glanced down and saw her much larger breasts. “Those are new.”

Myst focused on Kes with his upgrade ability. “No loss of psionic ability, better strength, dexterity and charisma.” He reached out with his telekinesis and put pressure on what passed for Seska’s carotid artery. “About the same constitution and 720 years for maximum life span in this form barring death by violence or disease.”

“I’ll take it,” Kes said with barely a second’s thought, the only possible reason she might have stayed an ocampa was because of a complete loss of her mental abilities.

Neelix stared at Kes, wondering what else had changed and if she’d still need him.

Myst made a mental note to talk to Counselor Troi about Neelix and Kes’s relationship as he glanced between the two aliens. “In that case, let’s get to work upgrading your new form.”

“Is that safe?” B’elanna asked.

“It should be safe enough though we should probably have the Doctor scan her to make sure I didn’t miss anything,” Myst admitted after a couple of seconds of thought.

B’elanna tapped her combadge. “B’elanna to Tuvok, I’m in the aft lounge and I need some help getting Neelix to Sickbay, he touched something of Myst’s that changed him into a half Vulcan, half spider like abomination.”

“Can you repeat that?” Tuvok asked, fairly sure he hadn’t heard her correctly.

“Dark elf, not Vulcan,” Myst grumbled with a touch of annoyance as he watched two crew members find Seska’s unconscious form. He would have killed her for the Bajorian lives lost but exposing her as a Cardasian should be enough to get Chakotay, Riker and Counselor Troi to take a hard look at her which should keep her out of trouble until he could arrange something more permanent.

“The transformation into a half spider, half dark elf should be temporary but Myst wants him checked out and he can’t walk on his own yet and even if he could, someone might shoot him because he looks a bit monstrous,” B’elanna said, fairly sure Myst just wanted Neelix gone.

“I’ll be right there,” Tuvok said as he headed for the lounge, curious how Neelix had ended up transforming into something monstrous.

“Thank you, having security on site should keep people from overreacting.” B’elanna ended the call and focused on Myst. “What else do you still need to upgrade?”

“I upgraded the hull, the windows, replicators and the warp core’s efficiency and speed.” Myst smiled slightly as he watched Seska vanish through his drone, most likely transported to Sickbay. ‘One problem down, several to go.’ He glanced at Neelix as the drider managed to sort of scramble so that he was upright. “Between the upgraded hull and the shields, we should be safe enough, especially if we can take the Kazon ships out one at a time.”

“Hopefully,” B’elanna said absently as she studied Kes’s new form, wondering what it would be like to be a completely new race.

“You’re welcome to touch the cloak and see if you like being a dark elf,” Myst offered as the door opened and Tuvok walked in, having used a site to site transport to get there faster.

“He turned me into a monster,” Neelix whined as he gestured toward his monstrous lower half.

Tuvok stared at Neelix, not sure what to make of the alien. “What happened?”

“I warned him not to touch anything,” Myst explained, more than a little frustrated by Neelix’s whining considering he’d given the Talaxian plenty of warning and the alien wasn’t a child or a primitive, he was a pilot and a scavenger, he should know better than to touch dangerous items that he didn’t understand. “Speaking of which,” he focused on Tuvok as the Vulcan walked over, “don’t touch the cloak if you don’t want to end up like Neelix.”

B’elanna reached down and grabbed the cloak off the floor, a wave of darkness quickly flowing up her arm and covering the engineer for a second before vanishing, revealing her midnight black skin, elven ears and generous curves.

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t he just tell you not to touch that?”

“No, I explained what would happen if you touched the cloak, the enchantment turns females into dark elves and males into driders. I don’t actually care if you touch the cloak, I just didn’t want you to touch it without knowing what it did.”

B’elanna reached up and ran her fingers over her smooth forehead. “They’re gone.”

Tuvok glanced between Kes, Neelix and Torres. “How does the cloak work?”

“It’s magic,” Myst replied. “Which means it’s basically higher order energy manipulation.”

“In other words, you don’t know,” Tuvok stated as he studied Myst.

“One of my gacha wheels popped up labeled cloak, I was hoping that it was an actual cloaking device not a piece of enchanted cloaking.” Myst glanced at Neelix then at Kes. “I was about to grab the cloak when I got a flash of precog that it would be a bad idea and yanked my hand back, Neelix jumped forward to pick it up off the ground before I could say more than don’t.”

“Why didn’t your precog warn you about Neelix touching it?” Tuvok asked.

“Probably because the cloak isn’t technically dangerous and my precog is basically turned down to a point where it only flashes warnings if something is actually important unless I want to check something.”

“What about my dignity?” Neelix complained.

“I should probably tweak the settings a bit on my ability,” Myst offered diplomatically. “Either way, you should get an interesting story out of this.”

“How are we going to get Neelix to Sickbay?” B’elanna asked.

Tuvok studied Neelix’s new form. “Judging by his apparent weight, the transporter would be the most effective method of getting him to Sickbay.”

“You should be fine in two hours Neelix,” Myst offered as he looked over his available gacha wheels. ‘Food for 100, Trinkets for 2,000, Weapons for 200 and Maps for 2,000.’ He selected the Maps wheel, hoping for something useful.

Kes shivered as she something brush her face. “What was that?”

B’elanna blinked as she felt a light wind wash over her skin. “Telekinesis?” she asked as she looked at the spinning Map wheel, hoping they actually got a map of the surrounding region.

Myst shook his head. “No, my magic tends to be be noticeable in certain situations and by certain people, apparently you have enough magical talent as a dark elf to notice.”

“What exactly is an elf?” Tuvok asked.

“They’re basically a species of magic using humanoids that tend to live between six to seven hundred years barring death by violence.”

“The sexual dimorphism seems rather extreme,” Tuvok said as he glanced between Neelix and the girls.

Myst shook his head. “Nah, driders are basically a cursed offshoot of dark elves, dark elves have about as much sexual dimorphism as humans.”

“If that’s true, why did I end up a monster?” Neelix demanded.

“Someone either wanted to punish males or they wanted to create interesting spider hybrids for a costume party.” Myst reached up and caught a vellum map when the wheel stopped. “The items don’t come with tags or instruction manuals, I just know what they do because of one of my other abilities.”

“Any luck with the map?” B’elanna asked.

Myst frowned slightly when he unfolded the vellum, revealing a blank page. “Okay, that’s annoying.”

B’elanna raised her eyebrows when words appeared on the page, “James: If you’re annoyed by a map, you should be a red shirt. Spock: That is illogical.”

“I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good?” Myst asked, thinking about Harry’s map.

“You’re not drunk enough ladie,” Scotty’s words appeared on the page.

“To boldly go where no one has gone before?” Myst asked sarcastically.

“Uhura’s bedroom!” James said as lines appeared on the map showing voyager and a bunch of moving dots that had various names over them. 

“Yeah, pretty sure my power is just trolling me at this point,” Myst muttered as he looked at the map with his upgrade ability. “On the upside, it should help with the infiltrators.”

“Is the map accurate?” Tuvok asked as he studied the map, ignoring Neelix for the moment as he didn’t seem to be in any danger and there was a strange Cardasian name in Sickbay, one that wasn’t on either of the crew lists.

“As far as I know,” Myst replied as he selected the Weapons wheel. “Why?”

“Because we shouldn’t have any Cardasians onboard.” Tuvok tapped his combadge. “Computer, who is in Sickbay?”

“Ensign Seska and the EMH,” the computer replied.

“What’s the matter?” B’elanna asked as she looked at Sickbay on the map. “Shouldn’t that say Seska?”

“Who or what is a Seska?” Myst asked, happy that she wasn’t on the small list of crewmembers that he’d run into.

“A friend from the Maquis, she shouldn’t have a Cardasian name.” B’elanna growled as she realized that someone had taken her friend’s place.

Myst reached up and caught the Klingon disruptor that dropped from the wheel. “I’m guessing you’ll need this,” he said as he held the blaster toward B’elanna handle first.

B’elanna took the weapon. “What if your map is wrong?”

“Then you’ll have something to laugh about over drinks,” Myst said, reasonably sure that his map wasn’t wrong. He bought the Trinket wheel causing the girls to shiver a bit as the mana washed over them like a gentle rain. “Best of luck, I’ll be here if you need me.”

“Let’s go,” B’elanna said as she headed for the door.

Tuvok shook his head. “Stay with Myst and work on upgrading the ship, I’ll handle the infiltrator.” He tapped his combadge. “Emergency transport for myself and Mr. Neelix to Sickbay.”

B’elanna scowled as Tuvok vanished with Neelix. “Great, he doesn’t trust me to deal with a threat.”

Myst shrugged. “More like he’s trusting you to keep me working and upgrading things. What’s next on the list?”

“How much can you upgrade people?” B’elanna asked as she turned to look at Myst, curious about the extent of his powers.

“Enough that you’d make the old Earth augments look like cripples but the Federation frowns on augments.”

“I’m not in the Federation and I haven’t signed anything with Captain Riker yet,” B’elanna replied, not interested in following the Federation’s idiotic rules but fairly sure that Riker wasn’t going to let Chakotay wander off with their ship.

“In that case, let me stabilize your transformation and we’ll make sure you can break Vulcans and Klingons in half in hand to hand combat,” Myst said, looking forward to seeing how far he could push things without Riker putting his foot down.

0o0o0

Deanna felt slightly uneasy, as if she was being watched as she approached the VIP quarters where they’d parked the three people that Q had dropped off. She did her best to ignore the amusement coming from within the room as the door opened before she could ask the computer to notify the occupants, revealing Sabrina sprawled out on the couch sans clothing. “Is this a bad time?”

“No, Dawn wanted to test the sonic shower,” Sabrina said as she gestured for the counselor to come in, leaving her invisible drone in the hallway so that she’d have plenty of warning if someone decided to stop by. “What can I do for you?” she asked with amusement as Deanna walked in, obviously not used to nudity on the ship but not particularly bothered by it in general.

“I had a gap in my schedule and wanted to talk with a fellow empath, I don’t run into all that many human telepaths,” Deanna said, wanting to get a feeling for the strangers that Q had dropped off.

“Cool, take a seat,” Sabrina offered. “You’re the first Betazoid that I’ve ran into.”

“I’m only half Betazoid,” Deanna replied as she took a seat across from Sabrina.

“Close enough,” Sabrina replied as Dawn walked out of the bathroom without a stitch of clothing.

“It’s just not the same as having an actual shower,” Dawn complained as she walked over and sat down next to Sabrina. “I’m Dawn Marie Troy, pleased to meet you,” she said as she held out her hand. “Wait, do they still shake hands in the future?”

“You’re time travelers?” Deanna asked warily.

“Technically we’re from an alternate dimension,” Sabrina explained.

“How many people were telepaths on your Earth?” Deanna asked as she shook Dawn’s hand, curious how common the ability was on their Earth.

“Probably less than 10,000 out of seven billion or so but that’s just a guess considering most telepaths try to keep their powers hidden. In other words, not a large percentage and most of those are barely powerful enough to do anything with it,” Dawn explained, having looked into the numbers once she realized she shared a psychic link with her sister, sharing feelings and occasional thoughts. “My telepathy is barely enough to know what my sister is feeling most of the time.”

‘Testing?’ Deanna asked as she sent a thought to Dawn.

‘Sure, I can hear you,’ Dawn replied, knowing that Sabrina would be able to overhear their mental conversation so it wasn’t like she was being rude by replying mentally.

“Myst should be able to upgrade your telepathy, if you’re interested,” Sabrina offered, rather amused at the idea of improving the crew enough that they’d survive the trip back to Earth.

“I’d be interested,” Deanna admitted, feeling the desire to be a full telepath that she thought she’d buried when she was twelve, reignite like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

“In that case, I’ll let Myst know that you want upgrades.”

“What’s it like traveling with someone that can…” Deanna trailed off, not sure exactly the extent of Myst’s various powers.

“Twist reality and upgrade just about anything he wants other than skills and knowledge?” Sabrina asked with amusement. “Pretty damned awesome. My psychic powers weren’t all that impressive before he started upgrading them but now I can toss a couple tons around without any trouble and contact people half a world away without any trouble.”

“I still need to talk to him about upgrading my flight,” Dawn said as she pushed off the couch and sort of hovered for two seconds before dropping back onto the couch.

“Telekinesis?” Deanna asked, curious how she’d managed to hover for a second.

“Nope, just you’re basic ability to sort of glide with the wind or slow my fall,” Dawn replied.

“How many abilities do you have?” Deanna asked.

“Accelerated healing, gliding, a psychic link with my sister and superhuman agility, durability, reflexes, speed, stamina and enough strength to rip a bulkhead apart,” Dawn said smugly.

“A bulkhead?” Deanna asked in surprise.

“What can I say, I drink milk,” Dawn teased as she turned to look at Sabrina. “Speaking of abilities, you should see if Myst is done upgrading things so we can get our psionic abilities upgraded.”

‘Myst, are you busy?’ Sabrina asked, reaching out with her telepathy.

‘Not particularly,’ Myst replied mentally as he slid the slider on B’elanna’s new once a day darkness ability up until she could use it at will. He spent the mana to improve her ability, then did the same with her levitation ability, causing both of the women to giggle as the mana washed over them. ‘I’ve finished upgrading most of the major systems enough that I’m not worried about the Kazon destroying the ship and I started upgrading Kes and B’elanna.’ 

Sabrina giggled as a wave of mana washed over her. ‘What are you upgrading? I could feel it from here.’

‘My gacha dropped a cloak that temporarily changes females into dark elves and males into driders, I upgraded the transformation for Kes and B’elanna to be permanent and started working on upgrading their new abilities.’

‘Nice, you should bring them to our quarters,’ Sabrina replied as she smiled at Deanna. ‘Counselor Troi is here, she’d like her telepathy upgraded.’

‘In that case, we’re on our way,’ Myst replied mentally as he caught the wrapped ice cream cone that dropped from his Food wheel.