SEASON SIX

EPISODE 2: SACRIFICE

By: X_C

 SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER. THESE ARE THE VOYAGES OF THE WWF TITANPRIZE. IT'S MISSION: TO EXPLORE AND ENTERTAIN NEW SOCIETIES AND NEW CIVILIZATIONS.  TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO WRESTLER HAS GONE BEFORE!

TITANPRIZE CREW:

Captain Vincent K. McMahon
First Officer, Commander Shane McMahon
Chief Engineer, Commander Stephanie McMahon
Chief of Chiefs, Commander Linda McMahon
Chief of Security, Commander Kane
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Taker
Diagnostics Officer, Lieutenant Commander Jericho
Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Commander Austin
Transporter Chief, Lieutenant Commander Debra McMichael
Communications Officer, Lieutenant Rock
Counselor Al Snow (assisted by H.E.A.D.)

... And many more!
 

WWF TITANPRIZE-CAPTAIN'S READY ROOM

    "Captain's Log, Stardate 061553.00. I don't want to brag, but I think the whole crew's noticed the huge grin that my wife Linda's been wearing, and who put that on her gorgeous face? The love machine, Captain Vincent Kennedy McMahon, that's who! Computer-end l-"

    Whoops.

    "As for the TitanPrize, we're plowing through some unexplored regions of the D'masian galaxy and it's boring as heck. You know, there are times when you just want to get on your hands and knees and beg for a little excitement..."

    "Computer. Now end log."

*    *    *

THE SMACKDOWN

    "Terri, you are being, like, sooo totally unfair!" Christian said indignantly, as the petite blonde tried to shove him away from the back of the bar. "This is perhaps one of the greatest scientific discoveries of our time!"

    "It's just a mirror!" Terri said in exasperation.

    "Just a mirror?" Ensign Edge was looking at her like she'd just sprouted horns. "Just a mirror? Terri, the lighting around this miraculous pane of glass has enhanced our natural beauty exponentially! There must be supernatural forces at work!"

    "And if it can make us look this totally awesome." Christian said enthusiastically. "Just think of what it can do for a righteous skank like you!"

    "That's it!" Terri fumed. "I'm calling Commander Kane!"

    "Commander Kane?" The few drops of Aerialian D.N.A. in their blood moved Edge and Christian like greased lightning. You only played with that kind of fire if you wanted to get burned!

*    *    *

    "Idiots." Ensign Matt shook his head, watching the blonde Kanatians beat a hasty retreat from the Smackdown.

    His brother, Jeff, half-smiled. "You're warming up to them. Yesterday they were morons."

    "That hasn't changed." Matt frowned into his synthehol. "Sorry. I'm not in the greatest mood today....I'm uhhh....in the doghouse, I guess you'd say."

    "With Lita?" Lt Hardy almost laughed. Matt apologizing for being in a bad mood? He was the one who'd been such a depressing, self-involved twit lately. "I mean, I noticed that she was sort of....unhappy with you earlier."

    "What gave it away?" Matt demanded with a scowl. "My black eye or the way she closed the Holodeck door on my hand?"

    Jeff did snicker this time. "She has a bit of a temper doesn't she? And I'll bet she was talking to Stephanie before that."

    "Most people don't tell chicks with short fuses about sucking face with their boyfriends!"

    "I'm actually surprised Steph waited this long," his little brother said. "It's like sticking a catchphrase in front of Lt Rock, you know he's just got to use it."

    "Jericho's right." Matt rubbed his throbbing wrist. Women.... "Commander McMahon-Helmsley is the devil."

    Jeff suddenly leaned across the table, a mischievous gleam in his eye. He really wasn't interested in discussing his brother's love life...for some irrational reason it made his blood just boil..."Hey, you know that Resian facial cream Edge and Christian keep harping on?"

    "Of course." Matt nodded. "They've only beaten that dead horse into a pulp."

    "So...." Jeff grinned. "What if it were replaced with....oh...I don't know." He mocked being deep in thought. "Aerialian Emeroxide?"

    "Emeroxide?" Matt raised an eyebrow. "Yeah but that's pretty much just green hair dye."

    "As Ensign Edge might say." Lt Hardy lowered his voice. "Give me DUH for two hundred credits."

    "Jeff, man." Matt was laughing so hard his stomach muscles started to cramp up. God, when was the last time we had this much fun together? "Geez kid, you're a Lieutenant now. You can't mess around like that."

    "That's true." Jeff frowned. "I am a Lieutenant."

    His eyes clouded over. Matt felt his heart sink.

    "And, dear brother, who but a Lieutenant would have the necessary command codes to override two cocky Kanatian ensigns' private room locks?"

*    *    *

ENGINEERING

    "And so these two skanks walk into a bar...." Lt Commander Jericho already had the young Houdianian in stitches, even though he wasn't sure Ensign Crash even knew what a skank was.

    "I suggest you stand at attention when a superior officer enters the room, Jericho!"

    The Y2J Unit was sure he was experiencing a malfunction in his respiratory array, what with the way his artificial breath caught in his throat. Commander McMahon-Helmsley stepped off the turbolift, hands on hips, eyes on fire, glossy chestnut hair falling in soft waves to her shoulders.

    She looked well for a woman that had just gotten over a violent flu the day before.

    He pulled himself together. "Unable to comply, Commander. Though I'm sure there are plenty of young Ensigns at attention right now."

    "Hmpf! And here I thought you were becoming somewhat respectable towards me, Lt. Commander!" Stephanie replied, and tossed her hair as she stomped over to her station.

    "Au contraire," Jericho winked at Crash, who knew a potential battle when he saw it. No way did he want to get caught in this crossfire! "That's French for 'I think you're a tramp', by the way."

    Stephanie fixed him with a cold smile. "Ahhh yes, very amusing Chris. And of course, I would be an expert on French wouldn't I?"

    Darn, he thought. She was getting quicker all the time.

    "Hmmm you are in a PMS-level mood aren't you Stephie?" Jericho's eyes narrowed as he scanned his internal chronometer. "You must be going on... five minutes without a young Ensign trying to aim his ... *ahem* phaser at you."

    Stephanie willed herself to ignore his crass jokes.  "Where's that Hardy creep?"

    "Jeffrey is finishing a game of basketball with Ensign Too Hottie in Holodeck 9." Jericho replied. "And I suggest you don't call him on it. The extra time off is doing wonders with what little personality he has."

    Stephanie shrugged as she focused on her warp core diagnostics. Menial, detail-oriented tasks were just what her mind needed right now. The commander smirked. She'd shown that catty Aerialian Lita a thing or two earlier; told her all about kissing Matt in the Airlock, exaggerated how much he'd responded...

    "Commander!" Before she knew what hit her, Lieutenant Hardy was hugging Steph cheerfully. She stiffened. "Welcome back! Finished puking?"

    "Did you just touch my backside, Hardy?"

    "Gosh Commander." Jeff didn't crack a smile. "It's kind of hard not to, isn't it?"

    Jericho couldn't exactly restrain the laughter that exploded from his chest. He high-fived the young Aerialian.

    "Did you just give me lip, Lieutenant Hardly?" Stephanie demanded, trying to quash the fury that was rising inside her. He seemed to be hanging around Lt. Commander Jericho FAR too much lately.

    "Er....not in the past week, no." Jeff appeared mildly confused, but before Stephanie angrily turned her back on him, she could have sworn he blew her a kiss....

*    *    *

ENGINEERING - 10 HOURS LATER

    "Oh." Stephanie wore the expression of someone who'd just had a dead cat thrown in her lap, at least that's how Y2J would've described it. "I forgot you things didn't require sleep."

    "I think you took a wrong turn, Skankanie," Jericho didn't look up from his padd. "Men's bathrooms are three doors down."

    "Why would I want those?" Stephanie snapped.

    "Just thought you might like to erase all those nasty messages Ensigns have been scribbling in the stalls." he replied. "Call Stephanie McMahon - will do anything on her back for two credits."

    "And no doubt they're in your handwriting." Stephanie retorted, as she approached the warp core, tri-corder in hand.

    "Didn't you have an anniversary party tonight in the Smackdown?" Jericho gazed at her out of the corner of his eye.  She was in her civilian clothes, silk that shimmered so prettily on her in the blue glow of the warp core. He blinked quickly. "Not that I received an invite to the social event of the year."

    "I've discovered a few minor anomalies here." Not that she could read them. Her eyes were swimming, the digits on the tri-corder blurring in a river of hot, stinging liquid. An unbearable lump was crystallizing in her throat, making it hard to breathe.

    Hunter had spent ninety percent of the night laughing it up with those degenerates of his, making it very clear that they would always be just that tiny bit more important than her. Oh and the gift...his heart-warming anniversary gift, a diamond necklace Stephanie had seen with her own two eyes being purchased by Tori!

    God, Tori had picked out her anniversary gift two weeks ago! Hunter had probably never touched the sparkling piece of jewelry until he'd put it around her neck that very evening! Steph suddenly wanted to rip it off her throat and throw it into the deadly plasma generator at the base of the warp core, watch it explode in a blinding flash of light....

    "What've ya got?" She felt Jericho's warm breath against her hair. He was leaning over her shoulder, blue eyes focusing on the tri-corder. "They don't look that bad Stephie. No need to cry, for pete's sake."

    "Like I care about the damn warp core." She angrily brushed several tears away from her face, wishing she had just pretended her work was making her weep. She'd never give Jericho the satisfaction...."That silly wench Lita wore the same dress as me tonight! It was so awful! The way Edge and Christian laughed and pointed, like they were the freakin' fashion police!"

    "These anomalies aren't anything but loose ions that cleared our filtration system." he assured her. "Happens all the time. Just forget about it and get some sleep."

    Stephanie reluctantly let the hand with the tri-corder drop to her side.

    She doesn't want to go back to her room, Jericho realized, because there's no one to go back to.

    Hunter had gone through the motions of celebrating his marriage for a couple hours, and he wasn't gonna give much more than that, no matter what his wife needed from him.

    Desperately needed.

    "Actually." he said quickly. "Maybe you ought to watch those ions for a couple hours - never know when the jerky little things might cause trouble."

    Stephanie shrugged. "Fine."

    "Keeps the Ensigns safe too, having you in the standing position." Jericho added hastily.

    Stephanie punched a few buttons into the tri-corder, requesting the current temperature. It was so cold all of a sudden - her blood felt like slushy ice, the delicate hairs on the back of her neck and all along her arms stood as if being touched by a chill breeze. The arctic snap in the air curled around her nerve endings, icicles formed in the pit of her stomach.

    All her Engineering instincts kicked in. She KNEW this ship! She KNEW when something wasn't right... and right now, something DEFINITELY wasn't right!

    The ions in the warp core were-----

    "Jericho!" Stephanie threw herself at the android, a surprising rush of strength and adrenaline combining to force him to the ground. A sudden surge in antimatter forced the core to vent a stream of plasma, the ray of turquoise fire attracted by the natural electrical charges in Commander McMahon-Helmsley's body.

    The nerves at the base of her spine died on impact.

    "Stephie baby," Jericho shoved her off, like deadweight. "I know you want me, but geesh, couldn't you be more subtle about it?"

    Stephanie was too stunned to speak. She waited for the initial shock to wear off, for the tingling in her legs to just stop. It did. Then there was nothing, absolutely nothing.

    "Stephanie?"

    "Chris..." She gazed up at him with wide, pleading eyes. "I can't, I can't move."

    "Just take a few deep breaths." Jericho was running his own tri-corder over her limp body. Dammit! He was an android - his hands should have been more steady than a surgeon's! "Plasma makes the nerves go into shock for a few seconds. You'll be fine."

    The tingling danced up her arm. She couldn't....it was getting harder and harder to force breath in and out of her lungs. She started to gasp, trying to swallow as much air as she could. It felt like it was running out....

    "Chris-"

    "For once in your life Stephanie, shut up!" Jericho hadn't meant to sound cruel, but the commander was struggling to draw in oxygen as if she were drowning. Talking wasn't helping! He fumbled with his comm badge, knowing he needed to get Sickbay now!

    He looked over his shoulder, up at the promenade that wrapped around Enigneering, a balcony set up so other species and visitors might observe the operations of the TitanPrize. Jericho wouldn't have bet his valuable android life on it, but he could have sworn he saw a fleeting shadow, a flash of blonde hair....

*    *    *

SICKBAY

    "So when's the operation, Doc?" Stephanie sounded meek, child-like as her eyes peered up at Dr. Taker. They seemed like puppy dog eyes, innocent in the way they begged him to tell her something he couldn't.

    Dr. Taker stared placidly back, ignoring the thing that stabbed at his big dead heart. What was that? Emotion? He spat on the ground, deciding that human feeling tasted worse than almost anything. "Commander, you're a Wrestlefleet officer, so I know you'll take this like one. It might be different if your spine was crushed or snapped, but the nerves in your back have been fried by unstable plasma. There might be therapy..."

    Dr. Taker's voice trailed off. Oh yes, Stephanie would take this like the Wrestlefleet officer she was. Besides, what was the point of crying if you couldn't enjoy the satisfaction of good, full-bodied sobs?

    "So there is no real therapy?" Stephanie smiled bitterly. "And hey, how safe can this condition be? I could die at any moment right?"

    Dr. Taker frowned. Far too young to be such a realist. One thing he hated about Wrestlefleet was how it made Federation youth jaded to the whole idea of death....

    "Stephanie...your heart could spontaneously stop, your lungs could collapse, you could  experience a lethal blood clot that you can't feel coming. But-" Dr. Taker's had a smile of his own, and it chilled her with its ghoulish determination. "I'm gonna make damn sure that doesn't happen."

    "My nerves are dead." she murmured. "But not all dead things stay that way, do they?"

    A minor facial twitch was all that gave away Taker's surprise. Did she remember...?

    Stephanie tilted her head slightly. Something or someone had caught the doctor's eye. "Chris."

    His jaw was set stubbornly, his bright blue eyes burning laser holes through her bio-bed.

    "You stupid little-" Jericho shook his head in disbelief  as he loomed over her. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

    "Uhhhh, you're welcome, jerk." Stephanie rolled her eyes. Thank god that part of her still worked.

    "You want me to thank you?" Jericho hissed, banging his fist against the surgical tray next to her, scattering gleaming stainless steel scalpels and hyposprays all over the floor. "Oh yeah, thanks for nothing, skank! Do you realize how easily my positronic net could have absorbed that plasma?" He sneered at her. "Or did little Miss Stephie read in Cosmo that wheelchairs were the latest thing in fashion accessories?"

    Stephanie felt the moisture on her face, couldn't stop it at all. "Why are you so angry? I was just acting on instinct - I couldn't, I wouldn't willingly save your second rate robot behind!"

    "Don't upset her, Jericho." Dr. Taker's warning came over them like a dark shadow. "Your stank ass doesn't want any part of me."

    Jericho's emotion chip was experiencing wild surges that his android logic couldn't keep up with, couldn't comprehend. He was so damn angry, so full of rage, but not at Stephanie. Yet it was towards Stephanie, the foolish, foolish thing she'd done, the unnecessary sacrifice....He knew he was looking down at such a fragile thing, that her life, whatever it was worth anymore, could just expire at any moment.

    Humans, he thought scornfully. The way they got attached to each other was just plain stupid. Their lives just got snuffed out in the blink of an eye.

    "Look Steph." Jericho said briskly. "I'll find out who did this."

    "It was an accident." she said quickly, too quickly. "Or is your paranoia program as fully functional as the rest of you?"

    She'd seen something, someone. Jericho was certain of that. And if she wasn't willing to talk...."Hang in there. They will pay for this."

    Stephanie gulped and watched him leave. No, what she had seen was an illusion. He wouldn't....

*    *    *

SICKBAY-2 HOURS LATER

    "You got more visitors." Taker announced without ceremony.

    Stephanie was starting to feel like some sort of freakshow, on display for all the little officers to gawk at. It was a wonder they hadn't started taking pictures.

    "Oh lord." She sighed. "You've come to get your revenge haven't you? Here I am, laying all helpless on the bio-bed, numb from the neck down, and you've come to get a piece."

    "You have a really high opinion of us." Matt said dryly.

    "Well...I did sort of hint at Lita that we... er... you know." Stephanie hoped she sounded more regretful than she felt.

    "Hint?" Matt arched an eyebrow. "You showed her a bruise on your neck and said I gave it to you when we were necking."

    "Did I?" Stephanie asked innocently. "Not my fault the silly girl believed me."

    "Actually Matt and I are here for purely friendly reasons." Jeff assured her solemnly. "We wanted to see if it were true that you were on your back and fully clothed. Considering how the chances of that are equal to lightning striking in the same place

twice--"

    "Lieutenant Hardly!" Stephanie snarled at him. "You've really picked a bad time to get your sense of humor back! When I get off this bio-bed I am going to officially kick your skinny ass!"

    "It's a date."

    "Pardon?" Stephanie sighed. She was very tired all of a sudden. "Did I mention this was a really bad time to hit on me too?"

    "Well, I'll tell that to the next fine young ensign that comes in with two credits." Jeff told her. "But I'll tell ya what...as soon as you walk out of Sickbay, I'll let you take the first shot."

    Stephanie smiled up at the young, rainbow-haired Lieutenant, shuddered at the memory of his icky, nasty lips on her, his snide little cracks. Oh yes, one shot at Jeff Hardy was worth trying anything for a miraculous recovery. "When I'm done mopping the floor with your freaky head, you just remember you asked for it!"

    "Boys." Lita gave them both a friendly tap on the shoulder, although Matt was certain she had tapped hard to leave a mark. "Steph." She made a face. "I'm here Dr. Taker! Let's rock and roll!"

    "You do understand this is highly experimental." Taker's voice was flat. "I can't make any promises, Ensign Lita..."

    Stephanie found that her mind was seeking out sleep; her eyelids grew heavier and heavier...Why was Lita here? Maybe Taker had decided to put her to sleep, and that red-headed witch had volunteered to handle the lethal hypospray.

    "Lita?" Jeff looked at her quizzically. "What's going on?"

    "Oh nothing special." She smiled and hopped up on a bio-bed to await Taker's probing scans of her spinal column. "Just saving Commander McMahon-Helmsley's life!"

    The Hardyz exchanged worried glances. From the radiant spark burning in her beautiful eyes, there was no doubt this little rescue mission carried a high degree of risk.

    And Lita was enjoying every minute of it!

    *    *    *

THE SMACKDOWN

    "You know what Chris?" Jericho shrank back as the Ninth Wonder of the Universe leaned over the bar, her dark eyes boring into his. "I think your attitude totally sucks!"

    "I asked for a synthehol, Chyna." he said with a sigh. "Not a lecture."

    Chyna thrust a mug at him, spilling all the foam and half the drink. "Believe me, Chris, I am the last person who would defend Slutephanie McMahon, but the way you've treated her since the accident is disgusting! Hunter ignoring her is more compassionate than whatever you're trying to pull!"

    "I'm not paying for this."

    "Great." She smiled sweetly. "Then you won't mind if I do this."

    Jericho watched as the golden liquid was poured onto his lap. It was cold, but not as frigid as the feeling inside his data chips.

    He was an android. He could answer any question in the known universe, solve any equation, unlock ancient puzzles....but he couldn't find one damn simple answer to one very simple question - why in the name of all that was holy did Stephanie step in front of that plasma blast?

    He always knew everything, could find the key to any mystery. It infuriated him to come up so short...

*    *    *

    "Dr. Taker is a certified nut!" Jeff ran his hands through his tangled red and purple hair, a nervous gesture he'd had since childhood. "What's he thinking?"

    "Sounds kind of logical to me." Matt said. "Injecting Stephanie with nerve cells from an Aerialian female...they're extra tough, flexible, could work."

    Jeff kept hearing the words of Dr. Taker....highly experimental, potentially fatal. Jamming a huge needle into the center of Lita's spine to withdraw the valuable cells, so many things could go wrong.....

    Matt watched his brother, watched the brightly colored Aerialian ice cream melt in prism-like puddles in front of him. "Hey." He poked Jeff's arm. "Imagine if it's 100% successful? Stephanie could have a spine so flexible she could serve two Ensigns at once!"

    Lt Hardy laughed, despite himself. "Hey...remember that time Lita put this gooey stuff all through my hair! Took Mom two hours to wash it out."

    Matt was quiet for a moment. He had a very vivid snapshot in his mind of that warm summer day, when he'd been 14, Jeff a couple years younger. Lita, of course, had been developing her firecracker temper since the day she'd been born. "She was so mad at you....caught you kissing that Kanatian exchange student. You're lucky I talked her into the ice cream." Matt grinned. "She was gonna set flesh-eating blue grasshoppers on you while you slept."

    "I thought she was mad cause I beat her during the cliff-diving competition." Jeff said with a frown.

    Matt sighed. "You little dope."

    Jeff carefully checked the time on his tri-corder, and Matt pretended not to notice. Lita and Stephanie had been in surgery for four hours, and it was driving him just as crazy. At least he could show it though. No matter how much baby brother tried to fake his way through this, his agitation, his concern went beyond lifelong friendship. Matt was starting to realize he'd stepped into something he shouldn't have, put the natural flow of certain relationships off....but how did you fix something that didn't seem to want to be fixed?

    "Lt Commander Jericho is being a real s.o.b. about this whole thing." Jeff's eyes darkened. Course, his fierce loyalty to his commanding officer was a real obstacle to true love as well, never mind Matt's involvement.  "I mean, he's just peeved cause Steph did something selfless for him and now he has to confront the fact she might actually care about him. God forbid!"

    "Like it's such a newsflash." Matt rolled his eyes at the android's lack of romantic comprehension. "He just better tell her before this death thing actually sticks to her. He keeps getting it too cushy if you ask me."

    Jeff nodded. He kept meaning to tell Lita, he did...should have told her today, before Dr. Taker had sedated her and thrown them out of Sickbay. He'd been having these dreams about her...dreams of her lips almost touching his on the balcony of the Garden Deck. It seemed so real, the way the starlight coming through the windows would highlight the jade color of her eyes and the fiery red of her hair....but then his dream would have to come at the expense of his brother's.

    And he couldn't do that. Could never do that.

    "Lt Hardy!" Ensign Edge seemed to appear out of thin air. "I-I fear I won't be able to report for work for....for as long as it takes for my beautiful Kanatian skin to recover it's lunar-like glow!"

    There were actual tears sparkling in Edge's eyes, and they did look quite dazzling set in his almost neon green face. The brothers almost had to bite through their own tongues to keep from laughing.

    "Er, there is something a little different about you, Ensign." Jeff said seriously. "Are you trying a new shampoo?"

    "Uh, hello Jeffrey!" Edge was wide-eyed.  "Fortunately my fabulous mane of gold was unharmed by this totally uncool prank! If this creme of Dr. Taker's doesn't work soon, I fear I will have to become a recluse!"

    "You were just in Sickbay?" Matt demanded. "What about Steph? Lita?"

    "Stephanie? Lita?" Edge gave them dirty looks. "If there was a spotlight here, it would be focused on me right now! This a drama starring....just me!"

    But the Hardyz weren't sticking around for Act 2-they were running for Sickbay....

*    *    *

SICKBAY

    "Be careful Hunter, I'm still a little woozy." Stephanie swayed, almost off the bio-bed, as her husband helped her sit up. "I think I might throw up."

    "I would too." he said grimly. "If I had that tart's cells floating around in my spine."

    "Geez Hunter." Stephanie gripped his broad shoulders to keep from tumbling. He went rigid when she touched him, but he was probably just tense...and worried about her. "That tart saved my life. I wouldn't be sitting up right now if it hadn't been for Lita."

    "You can thank Dr. Taker." he insisted. Hunter was feeling restless. He was only here cause Vinnie Mac had been badgering him about Steph's condition...."Any old Aerialian nerve cell would do."

    "Well, I know he just pulled off one heck of a history-making operation." Stephanie conceded, leaning on him, feeling only cool where she should have felt warmth. "But considering Lita was the only Aerialian female on the ship, and this was such a risky procedure..."

    "Yeah, yeah." Hunter looked over the hypospray Taker had dropped in his hands. Anti-Rejection medication. "Don't forget to take this four times a day babe."

    "You could remind me..."

    "I'm very busy on the bridge hon." Hunter said impatiently. "You understand."

    "Sure."

    Like hell she did!

*    *    *

    "Lita." Matt practically whispered, so as to disturb the sleeping Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley in the next bio-bed. Jeff was in charge of Engineering for a shift, while Lt Commander Jericho conducted an investigation of the warp core accident that had paralyzed the Captain's daughter.

    Only thing was...Jericho was the sole officer who thought it was worth investigating. A million people's trace evidence had been found on the engineering promenade, and security logs showed no one up there at the time of the near-fatal plasma discharge.

    It was just a few loose ions - usually a harmless condition.

    "Hey, Red." Matt kneeled down beside Lita, touched her hair lightly. She'd gotten the nickname for her tendency to go from happy to angry in a matter of seconds, not for her boldly-colored locks. "You did it girl."

    Lita's lashes fluttered. She was still doped up, her eyes almost crossing in the most goofy, adorable way. "Hmmmm?"

    "You're a hero." he told her with a smile. "Steph's sitting up and everything."

    "Jeff?"

    "Jeff..." Matt closed his eyes. He knew, but it still felt like an Aerialian dagger right through his heart. "He'll be here soon, don't worry."

    Lita smiled an intoxicated smile, as she drifted back into a blissful state of drug-induced tranquility.

    Matt sighed, squeezed her hand. "I do love you Lita."

    "Love you too Jeff."

    "Visiting hours are over son." Dr. Taker's hands were on his shoulders, turning him towards the doors. "And I think you've had enough."

    The doctor was right. Enough was enough.

*    *    *
 

TURBOLIFT 18A-ENGINEERING

    "Don't you think you're pushing it a little?" Jericho watched with carefully concealed concern as Stephanie hailed the main turbolift in Engineering. "Wasn't it just three days ago you were flat on your back, sweetie?"

    "I've been meaning to discuss that with you, Chrissie." Steph rolled her eyes. "Thing is, I'm not your sweetie, no matter how hard you dream of it!"

    "Truth is I have dreamed of it." the Y2J Unit dripped sincerity. "Then I wake up screaming, clinging to my bedsheets."

    "I think my being around quarters so much is getting on Hunter's nerves." Stephanie said casually, as she tapped her foot impatiently. Damned turbolifts were just sooo slow. "Guy like that...needs his space you know."

    Yeah, Jericho thought. Needs it so much he's willing to vaporize you with a phaser....

    "Maybe I'll ride with you." Jericho said. "Sorry, let me rephrase that so you don't get confused. I will ride in the turbolift, stand a few feet from you, and get off - no I mean step off the lift when I arrive at the Smackdown."

    "Ride with Jeff and Lita." Stephanie jerked her head towards Turbolift 19. "Doubt they've had fantasies about chucking you down a lift shaft."

    "Nah." Jericho accompanied the Commander onto the speedy TitanPrize elevator. "I think they want to be alone. Poor Lita was dumped by Ensign Matt, probably needs comfort."

    "Cry me a river." Stephanie tapped a few buttons on the control panel. "Though...I've been thinking, ever since Lita saved me from a life on my back - and you don't need to say word one here Chris, that well....when I was lying there, unable to move, all I wanted in the world was to be able to walk again. She gave me that."

    "Your compassion for her romantic plight is thanks enough." Jericho assured her.

    "Ooooh... funny," Stephanie scowled at him, as she reached her hand underneath the panel and carefully loosened two strategic wires. "Anyways, it came to me...what if I could just give Lita the one thing in this whole entire universe that she desired?"

    "You're going to jump off a bridge?" Jericho asked.  "Hey! What the-"

    Jericho experienced a brief moment of chaos, as every single light in the lift blew it's fuse, the pitch blackness that descended making the lurching of the passenger car even more disorienting.
"Disaster." he muttered. "Must be your fault."

    He could almost see her angelic smile and shrug in the dark. "Tried to persuade you to take another lift."

    "Slutephanie-"

    "Don't fry a circuit Jericho." Stephanie cut him off. "We should only need an hour for Lita and Jeff to realize that sparks are flying."

    "Stephanie." he groaned. "Nothing good has ever come of you interfering with the Hardyz and Lita! Knowing how your magic touch works, they'll probably kill each other in ten minutes."

    "Please. I'm an excellent matchmaker."

    "Cupid with poison arrows." Jericho corrected her. He tapped his comm badge. "Jeff? Lita? You alright?"

    "Er besides this bump on the back of my head, we're fine." Lt Hardy answered. "What happened?"

    "Complex turbolift malfunction." Stephanie sang out. "Should take about an hour to fix. Commander McMahon-Helmsley out." She pushed on Jericho's comm badge to cut the communication.

    "Ground rule #1." the Y2J Unit said with a sigh. "Touch me not."

    "Worry not," Stephanie slumped against the wall, fatigue creeping up on her like some sort of ghost in the shadowy darkness. Maybe she had pushed herself too hard today.

    "What's the matter?" Jericho asked sharply, as heard the familiar hiss of the hypospray being injected into someone's skin. In the pale watery emergency lights, Stephanie's face seemed as colorless as a corpse's.

    "I think I just put off my medication for too long." Stephanie said faintly. She didn't need this now - having Jericho play nursemaid once was yucky enough. She closed her eyes to shut out the vertigo that was spinning the small space around, tried to pretend her spine didn't feel like it was melting....

    "Steph, not again!" Jericho tapped his comm badge. It chirped. Then there was a storm of static. "You still there?"

    "Yeah." But she didn't know for how much longer. She could feel the pins and needles in her feet, her heart being compressed..."I don't think the medication is working Chris."

    Jericho reached underneath the panel, tried to activate the comm from there. "Taker? Sickbay? Anyone? We have a medical emergency in in Turbolift 18A! Stephanie-"

    "Lt Commander Jericho!" Lita's voice interupted him. "It's no use. The comm is dead in the water! Lift to lift communication is barely functional! What's wrong with Steph?"

    "I think she's rejecting your cells." Jericho replied urgently. "She just gave herself another dose of meds, but it seems to be making her worse."

    A pause.

    "Chris..." Lt Hardy seemed reluctant to offer up whatever was weighing on him. "You said you thought someone was purposely out to hurt you or the Commander right? Check her hypospray."

    Jericho whipped out his tri-corder, which took a few minutes to blaze to life. "It's not her prescription. Dammit! It's a muscular stimulant of some sort."

    Hunter! He was the only viable slimebag suspect in this. The Y2J Unit wanted to tear a hole in the metallic flesh of the turbolift and stalk that piece of dirt down, tear his throat out-no, no, no. Couldn't think of that now-there was no real proof and it wouldn't help the patient.

    "Jericho..." Lita's voice was very soft. "Aerialian biology is such that muscle stimulants make our cells go crazy, and since Stephanie is still so weak...."

    "Thank-you Ensign Lita."
 

*    *    *

TURBOLIFT 19

    "The original malfunction seemed to come from Steph's turbolift." Lt Hardy reported matter of factly, as he scanned what he could with his own tri-corder, which turned on and off at random times. "Oddly enough, it had to be caused through man-made sabotage."

    Ensign Lita laughed as she sat on the floor of the lift. She wasn't stupid. She knew exactly what Commander McMahon-Helmsley had been trying to, after all, she'd tried it before.

    "That's funny?"

    "Oh Jeff...." Lita slowed it down to a giggle. "You wouldn't understand."

    "Guess not." He frowned and returned to his scanning. "Then there seems to be a shipwide malfunction - major flux in all power systems. Other than that..." He angrily threw the instrument on the ground. "Damn piece of bargain basement Wrestlefleet garbage!"

    "Oh my goodness Jeff." Lita realized she was laughing uncontrollably, but couldn't keep it bottled up. "I thought you'd forgotten how to lose your temper!"

    He shook his head in disbelief. "I don't get you, Lita. Steph is dying in the next lift and it's all a big joke? Maybe you could explain the punchline?"

    "It's just that she-she." Lita's shoulders were shaking, and the salt the she suddenly tasted on her lips told her it wasn't from the humor of the situation. "She was trying to thank me."

    "Thank-you? Oh man." Jeff kicked the wall in frustration and then sank down beside her when he realized that wasn't going to get him anywhere. "If that's true, she's more twisted than you are."

    Lita sniffed. "Your brother's a jerk."

    Jeff looked at the carpeting, studying the decorative swirls as if they were deeply fascinating. "About that...I kinda feel-well-responsible. I think Matt has some crazy ideas running around in his head."

    "Really?" Lita drew her hand across her eyes, hoping he didn't notice her girly little tears. "What crazy ideas are those?"

    She wasn't supposed to ask. Then again, Lita was more direct than an electric charge sometimes. "Ummm… this is really, like, psycho and stuff, but Matt seems to be under the impression that I, uh, that I sort of have a crush on you or something."

    "Well?"

    "Well what? Ow!"

    Lita had kicked him. "Don't play stupid! Do you have a crush on me or what?"

    "If I did, you just cured me of it!" Jeff rubbed his leg; she had connected with that tender spot just beneath  the shin. Good lord....

    "You're as bad as Jericho is with Stephanie!" she snapped. "Makes me wish I'd had those flesh-eating grasshoppers 12 years ago..."

    "Surprised you didn't sick em on me after I played kissing games with Stephanie." Jeff taunted her. "You seem to have a real problem with me doing stuff like that."

    "I hope you caught Resian lice from her!" Lita folded her arms and turned her back to him.

    "Here's a credit!" He threw a coin at her, which got tangled up in her fiery red mane. "Call me when you grow up!"

    Well, so much for that delicate exchange of feelings.....

*    *    *

TURBOLIFT 18A

    "Skank?" Jericho nudged her with his foot, determined not to let her taste his fear, his stupid illogical... who the hell knew where it came from... fear. It would only upset her, make it harder to breathe...."Try and stay awake would you. Pretend it's the early shift on a Greenwich street corner."

    "Too bad you're fireproof, Chrissie." Stephanie's voice was a hollow whisper. "Cause I'd just love to pop a photon grenade between your lips and watch you go up like a roman candle."

    Jericho grinned. "Bloodthirsty little wench aren't you?"

    Stephanie opened her eyes a little. "Hunter likes that about me."

    "Hm." Jericho scanned with his tri-corder again. Major power flux all over the ship, if the blinking piece of tin were to be trusted. And something else too....bizarre bio-signals outside the hull. Nah. D'masian space was empty, dead, except for the fuel-burning of massive stars. There was nothing alive out there. "Can you still feel your legs? Want me to pinch them again?"

    "No." Stephanie frowned. "It still stings."

    "Whoops." the Y2J Unit winked at her. "Didn't mean that of course."

    The lift began to sway. Sway? Gravity should have held it firmly in place. But, Jericho realized grimly as the floor seemed to disappear beneath his feet, that gravity was no longer playing nice....

*    *    *

TURBOLIFT 19

    "Lita?" Jeff almost passed out as a sharp pain traced a path through his head, making the world tilt wildly for a second. "Lita?"

    Lita groaned. "What the hell was that?"

    Jeff gingerly eased his badly twisted leg out from underneath her, one hand on his tri-corder. "Ow, damn, seems our lift plummeted 12 decks before we were caught by an emergency gravity field, and none too gently either."

    "Wow." Lita sat up and absently touched her cheek, which felt tender and swollen. "Your leg Jeff....it's broken. That must hurt like a bi-"

    "It's fine." Jeff said hastily, straightening it out the best he good, trying not to throw up as white-hot lightning bolts of pain shot from his knee to his ankle. "Your face?"

    "Just a scratch." Lita assured him. "Though if I were Edge or Christian, I might be arranging for plastic surgery."

    Jeff laughed, cringing as the slightest movement made him want to jump out of his own body. Aerialians did feel pain alright, they were just more stoic about it....

    "Geez Jeff, don't try and run this scam on me." Lita sighed. Why couldn't men just cop to their agony? She lightly touched his knee, frowning as his eyes almost rolled back in his head. "Tell me it hurts, Hardy, or I swear I will squeeze the joint right out of its socket."

    "Man, you're evil." Jeff was grinning though. "It hurts so bad I'd almost rather listen to one of Ensign Angle's nursery rhymes than suffer like this."

    "There's no medkit." Lita chewed on her lip. She could almost feel her own knee throbbing in sympathy. Turbolifts didn't carry First-Aid, as they were supposed to be easily accessible. People didn't get trapped in these ultra-modern elevators.

    At least, not until today.

    "I'll live." Jeff was starting to sweat bullets. Of course, he couldn't pass out, that would be too merciful. "And I do have a crush on you."

    "What?"

    "Just wanted you to know." He shrugged. "In case the pain killed me."

    "Wow, that's real romantic." Lita scowled at him.

    "Take it or leave it."

    Lita frowned, but was careful not to nudge his injured leg as she leaned over him...and finally discovered what it would've felt like to kiss him, like she came so close to doing in her dreams night after night.

    Dreams paled next to reality, that was for sure....

*    *    *

TURBOLIFT 18A

    "This is a nightmare." Jericho muttered, hovering over Stephanie, who clutched at his uniform, desperately trying to drink in air as she went into cardiac arrest. Her eyes were wide with pure panic.

    "Chris-"

    "There's no freaking medkit!" He was furious. Whichever idiot had engineered this oversight would be shot! "Slow your breathing down Steph! Don't lose it on me now."

    "Jericho! I can hear you." Lita sounded mildly out of breath herself. "What's happening?"

    "Total heart failure." Jericho heard his own voice crack. What the-? "Dammit Lita, she's stopped breathing!"

    He touched her neck - barely a pulse fluttering beneath her skin, no soft breathing coming from her lips....

    "Lt Commander Jericho!" Jeff snapped him back to reality. "CPR!"

    "Huh?"

    "Old-fashioned way to start the heart Chris!" Lt Hardy sighed in exasperation. "Mouth to mouth, chest compressions, you know?"

    "Right!"

    Mouth to mouth?

*    *    *

    "Chris..." Stephanie murmured. "Ummm, Jericho!" Her half-hearted attempt to push lightly against his chest didn't register. Maybe it was an oxygen depravation dream, waking up in a dark turbolift with his mouth pressed against hers....

    "Steph...."

    "I'm ok now, Chris." She smiled. "Thank-you."

    Jericho pulled back abruptly, tugging at his uniform to smooth it out. "Uh yes well....it was touch and go there for a minute."

    "More touch than go it seemed." Stephanie's lips were tingling, but she was pretty sure it wasn't the Aerialian cells this time.

    "I'm a little rusty with my CPR, okay wench?" Jericho said defensively, relief flooding his positronic net as the lights in the lift flared back on, accompanied by the steady hum of the engines. "Don't flatter yourself."

    "Jericho..." Stephanie met his gaze squarely. "What did you whisper to me when I stopped breathing...?"

    "You were blacked out," he said, his eyes hard as polished stones. "I didn't say anything..."

    "I heard you say something, Chris."

    He turned his back on her as the doors opened. "I'm telling you I didn't, Steph! There was no oxygen getting to that silly, frivolous brain of yours! You didn't hear me say anything!"

    Stephanie watched him storm down the corridor, into the Smackdown. She didn't follow. She really needed to get to Sickbay. Even if the effects of the stimulant on her Aerialian cells had worn off, she was obviously delusional from lack of air....

*    *    *

THE SMACKDOWN

    "This really was all our fault..." Matt said, bowing his head in mock shame as Road Dogg practically threw three Aerialian cocktails on the table. No one seemed to mind as bright orange liquid sloshed on the surface. "If Christian hadn't been so distracted by what we did...."

    "....He wouldn't have driven the TitanPrize into an entire field of microscopic interstellar life forms...injuring thousands of them...." Jeff said.

    "...And ticking them off so much they invaded our ship's systems to teach us a lesson." Matt finished with a sigh.

    Lita just stared at them.

    "What?" Jeff asked.

    "You guys are like so totally creepy." she declared, sipping on her rainbow-colored drink.

    Matt and Jeff looked at each other and shrugged in unison. They were worse than twins, the way they finished each other's sentences and sensed what the other was thinking. It would've been sweet, had it not been so weird.

    "Hey don't forget we're going on the Holodeck hiking trip with Chyna and Eddie." Lita reminded Jeff with a smile. "It's at 1400 hours sharp."

    "I won't." Jeff squirmed in his seat. He wished she wouldn't be so obvious in front of his brother....

    "You guys have a lot of nerve." Matt's tone could have frozen hell over.

    "Matt, I'm sorry..." Lita sometimes spoke before she thought-she knew that.

    "You should be." Matt frowned at them. "Dr. Taker told me Jeff's leg had been broken. You guys didn't need to keep that a secret did you?"

    Jeff almost laughed with relief. "Just didn't want you to go calling mom is all."

    "Lieutenant Hardy?" Stephanie smiled sweetly at him. She seemed a little too sweet at the moment, but hey, it wasn't the usual nasty smirk she greeted him with.

    "Stephanie?" He stood, as was proper protocol when addressing a superior.

    He wished he hadn't. She kicked him so hard and so viciously that while he was seeing stars he hoped that Lita never wanted to have children...

    "You did say I could have the first shot, Hardly."

    "I guess she's got you on a technicality kid." Matt consoled his brother.

    "See you at work tonight." Stephanie nodded at Jeff and spun on her heel to leave.

    Lita found she had to stifle a smile. Maybe during that transfer of Aerialian cells, Steph had also gotten a little bit of her temper too.....