Log Entry 130810.74

That moment, standing in front of the Helvetian, stretched out endlessly. I was filled with indecision. Should I say something thereby admitting my presence, or keep my mouth shut?

I also couldn't ascertain whether he was looking at me or just looking at where he thought I was. I decided to step to one side to test him and somehow—don't ask me how, I managed to get my feet tangled up in themselves. I fell over landing awkwardly on my buttocks and let out an undignified squeal.

The Helvetian laughed heartily.

"But you are not as stealthy as you are rumoured to be," he hissed. "Do not let your masters discover that!"

I sat perfectly still, not daring to move.

"What? You still deny me an audience? I am soon to die. Would you not grant me an audience as my last wish?"

What did he mean by that—soon to die? And why was he imprisoned? Was he an enemy of the Dancers?

I realised that although I knew of the Helvetians, I knew nothing about them. The evidence of my eyes suggested that they were not on the best of terms with the Dancers. This one certainly wasn't; he was imprisoned, but why? Was it just this Helvetian or were all Helvetians at odds with the Dancers? There was only one way to find out.

"Tell me about the Helvetians?" I demanded.

"Aaah! So you acknowledge me. At least now I will die happy, die knowing that it was not for a myth."

Myth? What myth?

"You're talking in riddles. Tell me who you are."

"I am Warrior Troy."

"No! Not your name! Tell me who you are! Who are the Helvetians? Who are the Dancers? Why are we here?"

Warrior Troy tipped his head to one side.

"You do not know?"

"I'd hardly be asking if I knew now, would I?"

"But you are the Creature. This is your war!"

"War? What war?"

"The war your race began."

"My race isn't at war with you. Your race, or at least the Dancers, are snatching people from our realm, bringing them back here and murdering them."

The Helvetian fell silent and thoughtful.

"But you are a Dancer."

"No, I'm not."

"The Dancers are your masters—"

"No, they're not!"

Warrior Troy stepped back, looking somewhat startled.

"Then with whom do your loyalties lie?"

"Starfleet."

"Starfleet? Who is Starfleet?"

"It's an exploratory and defence service maintained by the United Federation of Planets."

"Who?"

"The United Federation of Planets."

"I've never heard of them." He looked puzzled.

"Probably not. We're from another realm."

"Another realm? Now who is talking in riddles?"

He was right. Just as I had little conception about this place, he had even less about mine. I stood up and walked nearer to the front of his enclosure, straightening my back and standing proud.

"I will tell you of my realm, if you tell me of this one."

Warrior Troy stepped as far forward as he dared and stared hard at me. I wondered ... could he see me now? His tongue flicked across his lips as he thought hard.

"You say you are not a Dancer, yes?"

"That's right."

"Then what race are you?"

"I am Human."

"That cannot be. I have seen Humans and I cannot see you at all."

My heart leapt.

"You've seen Humans?"

"Of course, I have. I have studied this place for years before my final capture. I have seen many Humans and their sub-species."

My heart sank again. He was not talking about my crew. He was talking in general terms.

"I don't understand!" I cried. "Who are you?"

"I am Troy—"

"NO! Not your name, you stupid beast!" I screamed. It wasn't the Starfleet way and I could feel T'Roc's disapproval even though she wasn't there.

"Oh!" he exclaimed softly, feigning innocence. "You mean my history."

"Yes! Your history."

"And in return? What will you give me in return?"

I didn't answer. Of course, he would want something.

"I suppose you want your freedom."

"Of course, but you won't give me that. I am your enemy, so I'll settle for knowing what you are, Creature. If you are not a Dancer, what are you?"

"Tell me what I want to know first, and I will tell you my history."

The Helvetian laughed evilly.

"Where would you like me to start?"

"At the beginning."

Log Entry 130803.73

It really doesn't matter how invisible you seem to be, it's distinctly unnerving walking among an alien race that you know is incredibly dangerous, trying to avoid all physical contact in case it should break the spell and make you visible again.

It doesn't help that I'm finding this all strangely fascinating in a Bairn kind of way—the kind that usually got us into trouble! I just can't help running little experiments. I keep finding myself standing in front of them, peering into their eyes and suchlike. Interestingly, their reactions vary.

Some are completely oblivious to me, but others show discomfort. They keep looking over their shoulder but reassuringly, not at me; just at where I was at the time.

I'm not sure then, if I am actually invisible or just beyond their perception, so to speak. In the same way that the kaleg was invisible to us, am I out of sync with them? Maybe I am and that my ability to see them, but not the other way around, is because their sensitivity to it is more finely tuned than mine. They perceive things within a smaller bandwidth. I don't know if I'm right, but it's a plausible explanation.

They are odd creatures too. I had thought they must be energy-based judging by their appearance, but no. They are distinctly corporeal although the glow that they have is more than luminescence. They are physically blurred around the edges—I can't quite explain it. I'd love to touch one or take a look at a skin sample under a microscope. Tempting though that is, I have resisted. I know touching them would be a mistake and give the game away completely.

So, resisting the urge to carry out more tests, I continued on my way, creeping around the place like a naughty little girl getting out of bed in the middle of the night. I had no idea where I was going, but continued on deeper and deeper into the vessel. The Dancers became more abundant and dodging them in the corridors was becoming harder and harder. In the end, I had to duck into a room to avoid being walked into. The fact that the door opened at my approach was disturbing. The ship's sensors obviously knew I was there, which meant that the Dancers could detect me if they used the ship's systems. It would be prudent not to give them any hints as to my presence.

Once through the doors, I found I was in another, short corridor. I proceeded to the end where a second door opened at my bidding and I stepped through into a large, round room. Around the periphery were six more rooms. They reminded me of the brig with open fronts and a bed inside. One of them had a forcefield of blue bars in place. It was indeed a brig.

Inside was an occupant laying on a bench that served as a bed. He was black as night, but his skin glistened as though speckled with glitter. He was reptilian in form with a face that reminded me of an iguana. He even had a large round scale on each cheek like an iguana, but he also had a crest of four horns adorning the back of his head. His mouth was wide and stretched from ear to ear, and his flesh was scaled and jagged like a lizard's. It looked tough and reminded me of the black body armour the Marines use. His eyes looked to be small like a Human's, but they were closed so I couldn't tell. I moved closer.

He awoke and his eyes flicked open. They were black and shone like obsidian with a pinprick of a white pupil. He lay there for a moment, his eyes staring at the ceiling and then he swung his legs over the side of his cot and stood up. He rose tall—he was easily seven foot high and looked like evil personified, more intimidating than even a Gem H'Dar. This was a Helvetian warrior!

"Creature," he suddenly said. His eyes, like cold balls of polished stone, flashed in my direction. He looked blindly at me, and my feet froze to the spot.

"I had begun to believe that you were a myth, a lie, but now I know that I was wrong. You are real."

I could not speak—I dared not speak.

"Creature. I cannot see you, but I know you are there," and then his eyes seemed to focus on me, and I felt a long, cold shiver run down my spine.

Log Entry 130727.72

I awoke some hours later awkwardly sprawled across my chair, a chronic crick in my neck and my right arm numbed to the bone. I opened my eyes and lifted my head. A bolt of pain shot down my neck. I winced but had no time to pander to it because as I looked around, I found I was alone.

I tried to stand but found that my left leg wouldn't co-operate. It too was numb having been twisted off to one side. I rubbed it to try to get the blood flowing again and was rewarded with an excruciating case of pins and needles. With pains throughout my body and a muggy head, I settled for exercising my joints and taking deep breaths until my head cleared. I needed to think straight and for my limbs to function properly.

The main viewer was blank so I limped over to the operations station to get some data. It was blank too, as was the helm. Power had been cut to the bridge. Nothing worked, but the air was fresh which indicated that some systems were still operational. I decided to head towards engineering.

As I wandered through the corridors, there was no sign of anyone. Where had they all gone? Why had I been left behind? How long had I been out cold?

For some strange reason, I detoured to the shuttle bay. Maybe I was thinking that it might hold some clues as to everybody's whereabouts: missing shuttles, that sort of thing. It did hold answers for me, but not the kind I was expecting.

As the door shushed open, I could see that the main shuttle bay doors stood agape, but instead of the expanse of black space that I was expecting beyond them, I saw the wall of a huge, silvery blue building chequered with windows.

Dumbfounded, I stepped closer to see and discovered that it wasn't a building at all. I was inside, what must be, a huge space dock that was big enough to accommodate fifty Earharts.

The structure was built of icy pale blue metal-like material with ducting and pipe work picked out in tones of black and white. Its walls curved gently around into a huge circle. It had a sterile air and through the windows, I could see beings moving about: the Dancers!

Although humanoid in shape, they gleamed and glistened like dark grey, silvery light, not translucent but quite solid. They were unlike anything I had ever seen before, but my amazement didn't stop there.

The Earhart was suspended in the middle of the enclosure like a Christmas bauble hanging on an invisible thread. It's only physical connection to the space dock that I could discern was a long, white path. It ran from the lip of the shuttle bay to the far wall, twisting and turning for no apparent reason until it disappeared into the mouth of a tunnel some five hundred meters away. Instantly, I knew that I would have to walk it in order to find out where my crew had gone, but how would I do that without being seen?

I stepped up to the edge of the path and stood on the shuttle bay's threshold. The path was eerily translucent and I could see through it to the ground below. It was a very, very long way down and it made me feel sick to look at it. It was flat. I looked up and noted that the ceiling was flat too. The docking station was cylindrical in shape with no apparent way in, but then if the kaleg transported matter, rather like our transporters did, it wouldn't need doors big enough for a ship to pass through. My mind though, was soon drawn back to the matter of the path. It was made of pure energy like a forcefield, but would it take my weight?

Gingerly, I stepped forward to press one foot onto the path to test its rigidity, but no sooner did my foot touch it than I was snatched from the shuttle bay and pulled along the path at breakneck speed.

It was like a ride on a rollercoaster! I hurtled along, lurching wildly from one side to the other as the path twisted and turned. With only one foot secured to it, I span around like a ratchet rattle, spinning first one way, then the other and then back again. I was confused and travel sick all at the same time—and then I felt my foot leave the path!

My stomach lurched into my mouth as I flew through the air not knowing where I was going to land. My surroundings whizzed past me and I was expecting to see the bottom of the dock hurtling up towards me, but I didn't. Instead, I felt the cold, hard smack of the tunnel as I was catapulted through its opening and hit the ground. I rolled along it a good way before I came to rest and lay dazed for a moment, gathering my senses. Then, slowly, I clambered to my feet, turned and looked back along the path I had just travelled. That was one heck of a way to travel and I appear to have come up through the floor! The deck ran away from me and dipped down into the chasm where the Earhart was docked. It reminded me of the tunnel in a sports stadium from where the team emerges from their underground locker rooms prior to the game. I felt queasy and was sure there must be a knack to travelling it. Shame I didn't know what it was, but at least I was where I wanted to be. The problem was, had anybody seen me?

The sound of voices came to my ears. Dancers! Damn! And they were coming down the tunnel towards me! I must have been spotted!

My heart leapt, and frantically, my eyes searched for somewhere to go, somewhere to hide, but there was nowhere. All I could do was step up against the wall and hope I'd blend in, which was really stupid. The wall was made of the brushed, pale blue metal and I was in Starfleet uniform. I couldn't have stood out more if I'd painted myself fluorescent pink and put a flashing light on my head! So, pressing myself up against the wall, I waited for the inevitable.

Two Dancers appeared at the end of the corridor. They were talking and comparing notes on datapads. They weren't looking for anything ... and then one of them looked up, directly at me!

... And then it looked back at its datapad!

I couldn't believe that it hadn't seen me! It was impossible for it not to have seen me!

The two continued on their way, undisturbed by my presence. They passed me by without a qualm. I dropped in behind them, filled with curiosity, but still there was no reaction from them, so—and please don't ask me why because it was a really stupid thing to do, but I intentionally coughed. Just a little one, but a cough nonetheless.

One of the Dancers stopped, turned and looked directly at me. We were standing less than five feet apart looking directly at each other. IT HAD TO HAVE SEEN ME! But no! It turned back to its colleague, mumbled something about how it found these aliens unnerving, and then they carried on their way.

I followed along behind them, dumbfounded, until they stepped onto the path and were snatched from me. I watched in awe as they travelled the path with far more decorum than I had, gently shifting their weight at each turn until they reached the other side and sedately stepped off the path into the Earhart.

More importantly though, it appears that I am invisible to them, but why? How? They can see everybody else, surely? Otherwise, how would they have taken them all? And where had they been taken?

I had to continue into the ship.