The Voyage Without

[Hiver]

I lounged on the deck, eyes flicking between readings on my visor.

Looking good, looking good…

Energy readings ready and flow steady. All looking good. I flexed my claws against the metal deck as I glanced up at the viewpoints from Huginn and Muninn.

The new Soong inspired designs did wonders in efficiency. Too bad they were complete idiots compared to Commander Data. Such a pity Soong took positronic matrices with him to the grave.

But at least they lasted way longer with their new power cells and the humanoid forms made it easier for them to navigate the humanoid environment I often found myself in.

The stations they were manning were looking good.

Ensign Johnsson climbed up the ladder close by up onto the second level, "Everything looks good, sir," he said and ran a hand though his short brown hair, looking up at me, "We're ready."

I nodded and flicked my eyes to a menu, selecting an option, "Captain," I said, "We're ready to proceed with warp core ignition."

"Acknowledged, Zephyr. You may proceed when ready. Good luck."

"Don't you worry, sir. If there is a problem, you'll find out," I said dryly and cut the link before looking at Johnsson, "You may begin."

He nodded and clambered down the ladder again, walking towards the console just before the warp core. I kept my eyes on the readings as the engineering crew, my crew, got to work.

"Muninn," I said softly, "Increase flux to three point two."

One hand shifted in the view from the android to make the adjustment.

There was a slight humming sound and I glanced towards the warp core and then back to my readings in my visor.

Flow steady.

Containment field, steady. Dilithium crystals… aligned.

The warp drive flickered before gaining a steady glow as the hum slowly started to fade.

"Matter/antimatter reaction is steady," Crewman Keltok reported from my right where he manned a console, "Power increasing."

"Watch the containment field," I warned, "Hunt."

"On it, sir," Ensign Hunt answered from the lower level, "Adjusting field strength, calibrating field frequency."

Tilting my head slightly, I looked towards the warp core, glancing at the readings, "Keltok?"

"Power steady at estimated levels," he reported, "We have a steady warp reaction."

I opened the channel to the Captain, "Zephyr to bridge."

"Grey here," the Captain answered, "We're still here I see."

"Indeed, sir," I answered, "I would like to report we have a stable antimatter reaction. We are ready to proceed at your command."

He didn't answer for a second before his voice came through my comm, "All ready up here. Transfer power to thrusters and engines."

I flicked through the menus, "Power transferred. All power steady. All systems nominal. Voyager is yours, Captain."

"Well done, Lieutenant. Grey, out," he said and the channel closed.

Pushing myself up to sit, I rested one forepaw on the railing, "Well done everyone, but this was the easy bit. Getting it started is one thing, but keeping it running is another. We all know that the bridge crew will try their best to break it, so we'd best do our best to stop them. Let's get to it."

There was a smattering of laughter and a cheer and then everybody went back to their work. I stayed where I was for a while, keeping an eye on the readings coming in from across the ship.

My Ship.

The Captain may think it was his ship, but he was merely allowed to borrow it. He best not fucking break it.

I blinked slowly and shifted my wings slightly before starting to clamber down from the upper level and onto the lower one.

What time is it anyway? A glance at my hud revealed the truth. Four in the afternoon. I had been at this for the last…

Uhhm.

Three shifts I think? No, four. But we got it done in time, I thought we wouldn't for a bit there.

"Janeway to Zephyr."

I flicked my eyes to open the channel, "Zephyr here."

"Lieutenant, I'm having a bit of trouble with the main sensor array," she said, "Resolution goes… very bad past a lightyear or so."

"Normal space or subspace?"

"...Both actually," she said, a frown in her voice, "Those are completely different arrays. You're thinking of a power issue?"

"I do, Commander," I agreed, "It is most likely an issue with the frequency in the plasma flow. I'll put somebody on it. We should have it fixed by the time we reach Earth."

"Excellent, Lieutenant. Janeway out."

I took a deep breath and then looked to the side, "Johnsson, grab a team. We likely have frequency fluctuations in the plasma flow, it's interfering with ship operations. Handle it."

He nodded firmly, "Yes, sir. Simons, Sulak, you're with me," he said and headed towards the Jefferies tube, gathering a pair of crewmen on the way.

I shifted my wings slightly, my claws flexing against the metal deck and I carefully turned around, looking up at the pulsating blue glow of the warp core.

Chief engineer. It's going to be good to be out of the workshop for a bit, exploring was what I originally joined Starfleet to do after all.

I had a good feeling about this.

 

[Hiver]

I paused in surprise on my way down the corridor on the way to the turbolift, "Dinah? What are you doing here?"

She grinned as she headed towards me, "Just got transferred onboard," she said. She looked different to when I saw her last. She had put on some more muscle and her previously long black and curly hair now only reached shoulder length.

I lowered my head to bump my snout against her shoulder, but I didn't get that far before she smacked my nose.

"It's been years and I have gotten... what, two messages?" she said with a scowl, "What the hell!"

"...Sorry," I said and cringed back slightly, "I spent a lot of time out of contact. But I could have done better."

Dinah was right to be pissed, I had promised I'd stay in contact, but that was before I ended up on an SI research blacksite. We literally didn't have access to send messages!

"Damn right you could have," she said before she smiled and held her hand out.

I lowered my head to bump my nose against it and she slid it up to scratch between my eyes, "Missed you," I admitted.

"Missed you too, Zeph," she said and smiled, "And look at you, Lieutenant! Chief engineer even!"

"You're a lieutenant as well."

"Junior grade, you're the full thing," she pointed out with a smile, "So what have you been doing? You were very vague in what messages you did send."

I shook my head, "A lot of it is classified, but it was mostly engineering stuff. Even if I could tell you, it would sound a lot more exciting than it really was. I spent most of my time staring at screens or poking around in workshops."

"You like staring at screens and poking around in workshops."

"...Well, yes, but you would find it boring."

"True," Dinah agreed and then leaned to the side to peer past me, "Wait, is that.. Huginn and Muninn?"

I shifted closer to the wall, "It is. Do you like the new version?" I asked, "Huginn, step up."

Huginn walked past me to stand before Dinah. The drone faced her, arms at its side. They both wore what were fully black rankless starfleet uniforms. Usually I had just left the faces as blank metal with some sensors attached, but apparently humanoids found that unsettling, so I had sculpted them to be somewhat draconic in appearance, relocating optical sensors to where the eyes should be and all that.

"Wow," she said and raised a hand to poke it between the eyes, "...How smart are they? Which version is this?"

"Smarter than they used to be," I said, "Mostly capable of autonomous operation but I wouldn't trust them for anything complicated. These would be MK19, they can go a full week without a recharge during normal operation. It's the reason I stopped with the antigrav, it was just too much of a power hog. They're actually based on Doctor Soong's work."

"Like Commander Data?"

I mimicked a shrug with my wings, "Yes and no. They're not running a positronic matrix. But in addition to their normal processors, they do also make use of a bioneural gel pack for fuzzy logic. Works pretty well. Smart enough to follow commands."

She slowly nodded, "So not sentient?"

"Not yet. It's a work in progress," I said and then tilted my head in thought, "...And as practical as that would be, it's ethically problematic to take them that far even if I could. They are meant to be assistants after all."

Dinah nodded again, "So... if they're that capable, are we getting more of them?"

"That is one part I worked on I can discuss," I said happily, "The MK18 is currently undergoing testing for manual labor roles that require a humanoid body plan as well as personal assistants. They're not as smart as these, but more than capable of simple tasks."

"Really? Wow!"

I bumped my nose against her shoulder, "Soon they will be available for anyone that needs them, from mining operations to supporting people in their daily lives. I have already arranged for one to be delivered to Becca as soon as they clear testing."

Dinah grinned, "Wow, that's so cool! Seriously, what are you doing here!? You should be running a department somewhere!"

I shook my head a bit, "Got bored."

"Got bored? You're literally changing the fabric of society! If they pass testing, they'll be everywhere in a couple of years."

Snorting, I shook my head again, "Not what I joined Starfleet for, I joined to explore. Besides, my drones were just a private side project. Nothing says I can't keep working on those here as well."

Dinah stared at me for a second before she raised her hand to scratch the top of my nose again, "Well... I'm glad to see you again."

"What about you?" I asked, "You stayed on the Enterprise for a bit?"

"I did," she agreed, "Even after the entire... well... you know," she said with a small frown, "Borg thing, it was still the best assignment I had. Working on the Enterprise was amazing. But my tour there ended and I got a transfer to Starbase Fifteen. Came with a promotion, I did security at the docking arms there. Got put in charge of about a quarter of the docking slots."

"That's a big job."

Dinah nodded, "Certainly kept us busy," she agreed before she blinked, "...You were going somewhere, am I keeping you?"

"Status meeting with senior officers in thirteen minutes," I said and bared my teeth slightly, "Don't like meetings. I'll likely just send one of the drones in the future most of the time, but I figure I should attend in person now when we have a mostly full complement of personnel for the first time."

Dinah nodded again, "I heard we're picking some more up later after the shakedown cruise," she agreed, "Talk to you later, okay?"

"Definitely," I agreed and headed on before pausing when I reached the turbolift, "Huginn, Muninn, return to my quarters," I said.

Squeezing into a humanoid sized turbolift was cramped enough even without them following around. I didn't see myself needing them for this anyway.

The drones wandered off and I squeezed into the lift, letting it take me to deck one before heading to the meeting room just off the bridge.

I was actually only the second person to arrive, "Commander," I greeted her.

Lieutenant-Commander Kathryn Janeway looked up from her PADD, "Lieutenant," she greeted me in turn and got up, "Good to finally meet you in person."

She was a human woman of slightly below medium height with red hair pulled back into a kind of bun, wearing a uniform with the blue shoulders of science. She was the ship's chief science officer.

I nodded and lifted my right paw, offering a claw to shake, "Same, sir," I said, "Things have been a bit hectic."

She smiled and carefully took my claw, "So I understand," she agreed, looking up at me, "...Say, I have to ask... turbolifts?"

"Very cramped," I said and lowered my paw back onto the floor, "Humanoids are tiny. I can access most decks through the cargo lifts however, so it's not so bad."

Janeway nodded, "I imagine it would be like living in a Jefferies tube. Not sure I could do that," she admitted.

"Holodecks and other open spaces help, and it's not too bad. Combining a pair of quarters into one and putting it in a place that can give me a bit of extra headroom puts it within calculated living space for my species," I told her seriously, "I want to explore, this is the price I have to pay."

"You plan to attend meetings via video link in the future?" she then asked, picking her PADD back up.

I shook my head, "No, I'll likely send a drone and use it as a remote presence. It's more natural for people to interact with."

"Drone?" she asked, but that's as far as she got before Commander Cavit walked in to join us, "Commander," she greeted him.

He's a tall human male with dark hair, greying towards the temples. He was the ship's first officer.

"Commander," he said, giving us a nod, "Lieutenant. Captain is running a couple of minutes late. Coffee anyone?"

"Yes please," Janeway said with a smile, "Lieutenant?"

I shook my head, "No thanks. Never got a taste for it and it does nothing for my species. But I wouldn't mind a bowl of water."

Bloodwine would have been nice, but replicating bloodwine was just wrong.

 

[Hiver]

The star streaks of the warp field flew past the window outside my cabin. My cabin was actually meant to have been two cabins, but when I had been confirmed for the chief engineer role, the joining wall between a pair of family sized cabins along with the interior walls had been removed.

It was still not perfect, but because of where it was on the rear edge of the saucer section, they had managed to squeeze out another full meter of headroom compared to normal quarters. So it wasn't bad actually.

The Intrepid class was meant to be able to do long term missions into deep space. Like in the old days, where you could be out of touch for five years at a time or even longer, so it had been important to keep crew morale up.

So despite being a pretty smallish ship compared to some like the Galaxy class, Intrepids were actually fairly roomy inside.

Which was the only reason I could even serve onboard. In fact, even these quarters were on the low range of what was calculated as long term living space for me by Starfleet.

I had been hesitant about accepting the role on such a small ship until I toured her during her construction.

Dinah slowly turned in a circle, "...Still don't go in much for furniture, do you?"

I shook my head, "Don't need it. Would only get in the way."

"And when you have friends over?" she asked.

Looking at her in amusement, I sank down to lay on the floor, "I guess I can get her a chair.."

Dinah frowned, "Zeph, you did make more friends than me while you were away wherever you were, didn't you?"

I mimicked a shrug, "Wasn't really that sort of place. I know some people, but friends may be exaggerating it."

"Well, you'll make friends here."

I mimicked another shrug, "Maybe."

Dinah frowned at me, "Zeph..."

"I'm a not very social species, I'm perf-"

"Don't give me that shit, you were plenty sociable at the academy."

I raised my head to look at her, "I don't think that's strictly true."

She frowned at me, "...What happened? You always were a bit introverted, but..."

"The Borg happened," I told her directly.

Dinah hesitated for a split second before taking half a step closer, "We never really did talk about what happened. Not even after the memorial service."

I bared my teeth at her, feeling a warning growl bubble up through my throat.

Dinah reached out and smacked the tip of my nose, causing me to cringe back, "Don't give me that shit!"

Taking a deep breath, I snorted at her, "Don't go there, Navari."

She didn't buy it. Instead she stepped up, wrapped her arms around my head and rested her forehead between my eyes, "...I miss him too..." she said softly.

I snorted again before I sighed and leaned my head slightly towards her, thinking she'd let go eventually.

That didn't happen.

"...You're not letting go until I talk to you, are you?" I finally asked.

"Nope. You never told me… what happened. Not in any detail. I need to know."

In fact, I think she hugged a bit harder.

"...Charles was so right calling you a limpet," I grumbled, flexing my claws against the floor.

"According to my previous girlfriend, yes."

I blinked and crossed my eyes the best I could to look at her, "Previous? And you had a girlfriend?"

She neither moved nor took the bait, "You would know either of those if you had kept in touch. Now talk."

If I really wanted to, I could make her go away. She was just a human after all.

...but she was my friend.

One of my only friends.

Damn it.

I sighed once more, "I was on the bridge," I said quietly, "We were taking hit after hit, it was ripping pieces off the ship. When we lost a nacelle, Captain Torr ordered us to abandon ship."

She didn't say anything, so I just continued, "I was... furious. Afraid, yes, but mostly furious. Nothing we were doing was doing anything to the Borg, I'm not even sure they even noticed anything the fleet did. They just swatted us aside like nothing. All our accomplishments, all our dedication, all... none of it mattered. Captain Torr ordered an evacuation and I moved from my station."

"Towards the escape pods?"

"Aft of the bridge, yeah," I said, "Captain Torr ordered Charles to transfer the helm to the captain's console, announcing his intent to ram the cube. I'm not sure why I paused, if I was waiting for my friend or because I was surprised by the Captain, but... that's the last time I saw either of them. Captain sitting in his chair, the cube on the view screen and Charles just getting out of his. Next thing I knew, I woke up drifting in space. I'm likely never going to remember what happened, but recovery of the ship's computer storage revealed that a weapon hit the front half of the bridge and cut straight through the hull. The weapon... it may have missed me, but it threw me into space."

While bouncing my head against at least one bulkhead on the way.

"You couldn't have done anything."

I felt another growl rumble through me, "I am aware," I said and took a deep breath, "And that pissed me off more than anything else. They came here and thought they could threaten, to take what was mine! I want to hurt them, I want to rip them apart, I want to exterminate every single one of them!"

Dinah shifted slightly to look into my right eye, "Yours?"

"...Some sort of instinct," I grumbled, "I think my species is territorial. I mostly have a handle on it."

She nodded and finally let go. She just kept a hand on top of my head as she started to sink down to sit. I lowered my head with her until I rested my chin across her legs,

"I was... so afraid," Dinah admitted quietly, "I knew you two were on the fleet coming to stop the Borg. Seeing your ship's name on the list in the briefing... It was terrifying. The entire situation was terrifying."

"We were worried for you too," I admitted quietly, closing my eyes, "How did you manage to stop the cube? Even where I worked it was classified."

"Classified," she sighed, "But it's unlikely to work again. It's part of how we saved Captain Picard," she said before she frowned, "...Fuck it, I don't know the details anyway, I spent most of it stationed outside engineering other than a quick mission to board the cube. Commander Laforge and Commander Data did something. They kinda put the Borg to sleep, which caused them to self-destruct. That's really all I know about that anyway."

I considered that for several long moments, "Some sort of failsafe to keep their technology out of our jaws," I agreed. It confirmed my suspicions.

I never got the details as such, just the general overview.

"I think so," she agreed and rested her hand on top of my head, "So that's what you did while you were away? You built anti-borg weapons?"

I shook my head slightly, "Worked on a ship design among other things, and tinkered on some various projects for SI," I said quietly, "All I can really say. I... did develop several others as well on my own, but they were all rejected by Starfleet."

"Why's that?"

I snorted, "Apparently because 'we don't make weapons of mass destruction'," I grumbled, "Like every starship isn't already. But no, a ten thousand kilo antimatter warhead on a long term deployment warp capable artificially intelligent missile is a step too far apparently. Same objection to most effective ideas I had."

Dinah's hand had been stroking between my eyes until then stopped for a second before resuming, "...I can see why," she admitted quietly, "Even having something like that would exponentially ramp tensions up in the entire quadrant."

I growled at that, "What part of 'existential threat to all life' do people not understand? New ships are all well and good, but I'd like to see them try to adapt to being hit in the face with a star."

She didn't answer for several moments before she spoke up, "Remember our talk about the Prime Directive?" she asked before she continued, "Same deal here. If we lose who we are... be it by death or by turning into what we're not, what does it matter if we win or lose?"

That made me growl and I raised my head to her eye level, "Because they try to take what is mi-"

That earned me another smack at the tip of my snout, "Stop being a stereotype!"

I grumbled and put my head back down, "You're talking about us stopping being the Federation," I admitted, "And stopping being Starfleet."

"Yes. After something like this, it would be easy to turn to xenophobia and fear," she said, her hand returning to between my eyes, "But that's not who we are, Zeph. I know that's not who you are. You're one of the strongest people I know, you're so much better than that."

I didn't answer, just closing my eyes. We stayed like that for a long time before I finally spoke up, "...your legs have fallen asleep, haven't they?"

"Like twenty minutes ago, you're heavy. So?"

Sighing, I lifted my head off her, "You're right," I admitted, "And I may have let my instincts of wanting them dead for invading my territory have more of a say than I realized. I still think overwhelming blunt force is our best option however. No fancy trick in adapting to it."

I still wanted to exterminate every single last borg, but that side didn't get a vote.

For now.

Dinah nodded, "In which case, how about we check out the mess hall? As soon as my legs wake back up."

"...Alright," I said and studied her, water glittering on her dark skinned face, "You have been crying."

She smiled a bit, "Maybe I should visit the bathroom first. Help me up?"

 

[Hiver]

Vulcan.

Home planet of the Vulcans.

Funny how that happens.

Not that I had time to go down and sightsee, we were only stopping for less than a day, taking on some more supplies and personnel before continuing on to Deep Space Nine to pick up our last group of crew.

"-and check the antimatter flow regulators," I said, finishing off the what felt like kilometers long list of potential issues that had been found on the way to Vulcan, "Then there is the port sensor array, it's been acting up since we dropped out of warp, it did not like that subspace vibration the tuning problem in the warp field caused. Zheng, I'm putting your group on those."

She nodded and made a note on her PADD, "Yes sir."

I nodded, "That's all I think. Unless somebody has something to bring up..."

Davies put his hand up a bit, "Actually sir, I was wondering if you know anything more about our mission?"

I let out a small snort, "Unfortunately no. At this point, I know as much as you. Some Maquis ship got themselves lost in the badlands and we're being called in to track them down. So let's get all of these issues hunted down. I don't know about any of you, but if we're going into the badlands, I want the ship in top shape."

That got nods of agreement all around.

"Let's get to it then. Dismissed."

Everybody started to wander off and I raised my head to look at the warp core, its constantly shifting blue of matter annihilation was pretty to look at.

The badlands. I did not look forward to going there. The entire place was a constantly churning plasma storm of subspace disruption and... it was just bad. I understand why they called in Voyager, the Intrepid class was one of the few ships in Starfleet with the right mix of maneuverability, speed and toughness as well as sensors to be able to survive in an environment like that.

The main door to engineering opened and I glanced in that direction before fully turning when I saw who it was.

Captain Grey walked inside. He was a man of medium height in his fifties of a medium build and I couldn't even begin to pinpoint his ethnicity. I was bad at that sort of thing in the first place, but his ancestors liked to travel it seems, and the end result was neither dark nor light. He looked very tan more than anything else.

He kept his head shaved other than a thin mustache.

"Captain," I greeted him with a nod, "How can we assist you?"

He smiled and shook her head, "Just taking a walk, Lieutenant. I like seeing what's going on, not just reading reports."

I nodded in understanding, "We're tracking down any issues discovered during the trip here. The list is... extensive."

"New ship, Lieutenant," he said in an agreeing tone, "That's why we do shakedown cruises."

"Yes, sir," I agreed and then shook my head, "Nothing that's a mission stopper has been found. Worst is the subspace harmonic when dropping out of warp, but I have a team on it right now. Looks to be the port nacelle plasma flow regulators."

The Captain nodded, "Keep at it, let me know if there is an issue."

"No, I was thinking of keeping it a secret, sir," I told him dryly.

That drew a grin from him, "Think we'll be ready in time?"

"We should. Like I said, nothing major has crept up on us," I said and mimicked a shrug, "Not overly happy about the badlands, but she'll be able to handle it."

Grey nodded, "Well, I'll leave you to it, Lieutenant," he said and wandered off, leaving through a different door than he entered by.

I looked after him for a second before I returned my attention to the readings in my vis-

"Fitzgerald to Zephyr."

I sighed at the interruption and then flicked my eyes to accept the com request, "Zephyr here."

"Please report to sickbay. You have yet to do your onboarding checkup."

"...Bit busy here, Doctor. Can it wait?"

"Engineering is always busy. And no, it can't. You're one of the last people onboard not yet processed."

Resisting a sudden urge to growl, I instead answered, "On my way. Zephyr out."

Damn it, I really didn't have time for this.

But I still turned and padded out towards the closest cargolift. I had been examined enough by now, surely they could just pull something from my file?

"Ah, Lieutenant," Doctor Fitzgerald said as I entered the sickbay, "I see you found some time after all."

I didn't growl at him, but I may have shown a bit more teeth than strictly necessary as I answered, moving to sit down on the floor so not take up the entire place, "Well, I'm here, Doctor. Do your thing."

He nodded and opened a locker, pulling out a medical tricorder three times the size of normal. We had finally managed to build a mobile one that mostly worked on me and I just brought one along when I changed ships, putting in sickbay for their use.

Way faster than having to build a new one each time.

Turning it on, He started to run it across me, "Have you experienced any symptoms?"

I keep getting annoyed at monkeys jabbering at me when I have a list of work longer than I am.

"None."

He nodded, waving the tricorder beneath my chin, "Any changes in diet?"

No, but if you don't stop that, I might make an exception.

"None."

Doctor Fitzgerald nodded, "Lower your head," he said before asking, "No headaches, pains, anything else?"

I did as he said, "Nothing that can't be explained by having pulled double shifts for the last while. It'll calm down once the ship calms down and stop trying to fall apart."

"I think we would all appreciate it if it didn't do that," he commented, "...And your file wasn't kidding. Even with this I can barely get any readings through your skull. The rest of your bones are just as bad, but at least I can scan around them."

"Indeed," I agreed, "But I assure you, there is something in there."

"I don't doubt it," he said equally dryly before he sighed, "But if you have a head injury, that may be a problem. Looks like we will need to build that larger scanning array you have on file. The one from the Institute, that could get images good enough to see blood vessels at least."

I looked at him in some amusement, "Unused to not have clear scans to a cellular level, Doctor?"

He smiled a bit wryly, "Haven't had to make do without it since medical school. And considering you're an unfamiliar species, I have quite a bit of studying to do."

"Let me guess, you want a blood sample?"

He smiled, "Like you read my mind. Let's see what I get when your cells are away from your bones."

"I like my cells next to my bones, that's where they belong," I grumbled before I stuck my tongue out so he could take his damn blood sample without needing to go through my scales.

Ow!

Why did it have to be the tongue of all things!?

That's never not going to be unpleasant.

 

[Hiver]

I slowly blinked my eyes open, not bothering to move yet. Outside my window dust streaks against the warp field flowed past.

With half open eyes, I just watched the shifting lights for several long moments as my brain slowly started to find a gear, any gear.

Ever slept so well that you wake up having no idea what year it is?

Slowly intelligence started to creep back in from somewhere hidden and I blinked slowly.

"Computer, time?"

"The time is 05:32."

Hour and a half until my shift starts. From now on, no more double shifts either. Last night we finally hunted down and killed the last gremlin on the 'medium issues' list. Now there was just the minor issues list left. Like the random sonic shower that somehow hit a resonance with itself on deck five and vibrated itself apart. But none of which needed my personal attention and could be left to my people.

Now... sleep another hour and skip breakfast? Or have a leisurely breakfast?

Food.

Yawning again, I pushed myself up to sit, shifting my wings before slowly stretching with another yawn, my tail hitting the ceiling.

After work, I'm going to go flying. If I get the time.

Maybe one of those holo novels where I got to fight knights, that was always enjoyable. I liked the crunch their armor made.

Hope there's time.

Prediction… unlikely.

Yawning once more, I then licked my muzzle and headed towards the door. Muninn disengaged automatically from its charging dock and followed me.

It wasn't far to the mess hall, just a lift and a couple of corridors away.

I was a bit late for third shift dinner and early for first shift breakfast, so there was only a pawful of people there already, which suited me just fine. Gave me plenty of room to move about and I moved to settle down in the far corner by one of the tables as Muninn headed for the replicator. I looked out the window as it returned, carrying a twenty liter container of water and a large curly straw. It put it on the table before wandering off again. I sipped the water.

"Lieutenant," a voice said and I turned my head, spotting Commander Cavit approaching with a tray in his hands, "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all, sir," I said and motioned towards the chair at the other side of the table with my muzzle.

He sat down and picked up his spoon. He had something like oatmeal I think, with some sort of berries I didn't recognize.

To be honest, as I couldn't really eat any of them, I didn't pay much attention to learning about alien fruits.

He tasted his breakfast before he looked at me, "How's things? Settling in alright?"

I nodded, "Yes, sir," I agreed, "Now when things are starting to calm down some, I may actually be able to do more than work and sleep. I've barely seen my cabin since I came onboard."

Cavit smiled, "Yeah, I know that feeling. Paperwork for a new posting is one thing, paperwork for a new posting and a new ship?"

I just nodded, "Same on this side," I said as Muninn returned with a large tray stacked with whole roast chickens. It put the tray on the table before picking one up, holding it for me. I took it between my teeth before letting it roll on my tongue before swallowing it whole.

Cavit looked in fascination before returning to his own meal before looking at Muninn as it picked up another chicken, "So, I have to ask..."

"How smart they are?" I asked and ate another chicken, "Very. As for how thinking they are, not very. They are running an adaptive and generative mind matrix with predictive algorithms. For example, I just left my cabin this morning. Muninn here figured out on its own what I wanted based on time, destination and any number of factors and moved to assist without being explicitly told to. Think of them like holodeck characters but without a personality subroutine. They do things that might seem intelligent, but... well, the light's on, but nobody's home."

"Fascinating."

I ate another offered chicken, "I've been working on making them smarter. It's been a slow process and none can hold a candle to somebody like Commander Data, and I suspect none will until we manage to get a positronic matrix stable again. But for now, they're good enough."

Cavit nodded, "Seems practical," he said before chewing on a berry.

"Very."

"So what do you think of our mission?" he then asked, sipping a glass of some sort of green juice.

I sipped my water to gain a couple of seconds to think before I answered, "I think the Federation fucked those colonists over and I'm not surprised at all that they fought back."

Cavit frowned slightly, "The treaty stopped the war. Besides, Cardassian colonies ended up on our side of the new border as well."

I snorted hard enough that the water in my container rippled. I ate another chicken before I answered, "The Cardassians knew the 'soft' Federation would treat those colonists well. Not only that, but they gained a valuable intelligence pathway in and out of Federation space. Not so much for those colonies that ended up on their side. They were mostly populated by people that have already been driven from their homes historically. They had found a new home, built it up and then some people hundreds of lightyears away changed the lines on a map and suddenly the Cardassians arrived, jackboots marching to kick them out of their homes."

"So tell me, Commander," I continued, looking at him, "Say the same thing happened to your home. Lines in a map changed and suddenly Earth is considered Cardassian territory. Would you not tell the Federation to take a flying leap out an airlock and pick up a phaser?"

He let out a sigh and sipped his juice, "The treaty stopped the war. The dying."

"Not for them. And the war only stopped temporarily. A culture like the Cardassians can not tolerate not having total control. They'll build back up while doing whatever they can to destabilize us and in twenty, fifty, maybe a hundred years they'll come at us again."

"Maybe," he agreed, "But then we'll stop them then too," he said before he smiled a bit wryly, "This is a bit too heavy for this early however."

"You started it, sir," I pointed out and ate another chicken.

Muninn picked up the tray and headed for the replicator.

Cavit looked after it, "...How many of those can you eat?"

"A lot. But breakfast is usually about ten or so," I said and suppressed a yawn before licking my muzzle, "Not looking forward to today," I then admitted, "Getting things working means that other things have had to be pushed back. Such as paperwork, reports and whatever... it's been piling up a bit."

Cavit smirked, "Welcome to being a senior officer," he said before he regarded me, "...I'm a bit surprised you accepted the assignment to be honest," he then said, "I don't have access to your entire file, but I do know you were offered a position at Daystrom."

I shifted my wings, mimicking a slight shrug as Muninn returned with more chickens, "Building things is fun," I admitted, "and I did enjoy my time doing that. But that's not why I joined Starfleet. I wanted to explore, to see what's out there."

He slowly nodded, "So why Voyager? She has to be a bit small for you."

I looked at him in amusement, "Because she's a brand new, cutting edge, long range scout and research vessel. Yes, she is on the small side for me, but as she is made for long duration missions, she is roomier than most ships her size. I'm not quite that large yet."

Cavit smiled, "Now that I get. I'm not sure what our next mission is, but I'm pretty sure Captain Grey wants to get back to what we're really meant to be doing."

I nodded, "We're not set up for a long duration mission," I pointed out, "We'd need to do some significant resupplying after this mission. Basically the only thing we're stocked on right now is probes."

"It's because of our current mission, we'll pick up photon torpedoes when we reach Deep Space Nine. Our departure was a bit rushed because we got this mission," he admitted, "But it won't be a long mission and we'd be good for months. I can't see this taking more than a week or two once we're in position."

"Agreed," I said and ate another chicken, "If we can't find their ship in a couple of weeks, it means they either escaped or were destroyed and continuing is pointless."

"So what do you think about going into the badlands?"

"...not a big fan," I admitted, "The ship can handle it, but not looking forward to testing it, if you get what I mean."

Cavit nodded, looking out the window, "I very much do."

 

[Hiver]

Say what you will about Cardassians, but at least their space stations are nice and roomy.

I paused for a second and stretched my wings vertically before relaxing again, folding them on my sides. Dinah looked on with amusement,

"Enjoying the space?"

"Wouldn't you?" I asked, turning my head to look at her.

She shrugged, "I guess I would," she admitted, "So... ideas?" she then asked.

Everybody had some shore leave, but as we were only staying for a day and there was still a lot of preparation to do, we only had some three hours before we needed to rotate back and let somebody else have a go.

"I don't know what there is to do," I admitted, "I mostly wanted to see what a Cardassian space station looked like from the inside."

The outside had not been very impressive. A circular shape with six docking pylons around a central hub.

The insides so far were... Well, better at least. I liked the space.

"So let's have a walk around the circumference and see what we can find," she said, "There has to be something to do around here."

I nodded in agreement. Like usual, people were gawking at me. What, you never seen a dragon on a space station before?

I did my usual thing and pretended they didn't exist. They were allowed to behold my magnificence if they wished as I waited for Dinah who had stopped to buy some sort of treat on a stick.

"You sure you don't want one?" she asked as she returned, biting the tip of the thing, "It's sweet."

I shook my head, "If it's sweet, it's full of starch. It's bad for me," I said before eyeing her, "...In fact, if it's sweet it's bad for you too."

"Oh bite me, I work out two hours a day. I'm allowed a treat from time to time," she grumbled but held it out for me. I lowered my head to nose at it before quickly pulling back. It smelled like somebody had somehow candied sugar.

A kind of cloying sweetness.

Dinah grinned at me as I shook my head, trying to get the smell out of my nose.

Then there was a movement that caught my eye and I turned to look to see a strange tall man in a brownish orange uniform, his back pressed against the wall as he stared at me with wide eyes. As I focused on him, he froze for several seconds before he rippled and... melted. In his place was a little bird which quickly took wing and flew away.

I slowly blinked and looked at Dinah.

She stared at the spot and then looked down at her sugar on a stick, "...What's in this thing?"

"No, I saw that too," I admitted, "What the hell."

Dinah groaned, rubbing her eyes, "Oh damn it. I should probably report that, it could be important. Find us something to do, I'll find you after I locate someone to report a... man bird to."

"But however would you find me?" I joked.

Dinah rolled her eyes and headed off.

Raising my head, I looked around before continuing around the ring. There really didn't seem to be much to do here, so I headed for what seemed to be some kind of local bar/gambling parlor.

"H-hey! Who let that thing in here!?"

I blinked and looked at the Ferengi behind the bar who was pointing at me, "Excuse me?" I asked him.

"Wait, you talk!?"

I growled and stalked forward, "I talk. And I demand compensation for the insult!"

Ferengi. This could be fun.

He seemed to grab the first bottle he could get his hand on, his eyes never looking away from me as he put it and a glass on the bar, "On the house!"

Letting out a snort, I sat down by the bar, resting a paw and claws on the bar as Muninn stepped forward to pick up the bottle and pour a glass before holding it up for me to sniff, "What is this?"

"Tarkarian Brandy. A pretty good year," the Ferengi said, seemingly starting to find his spine, "I am Quark, the owner of this establishment."

"Zephyr," I introduced myself and opened my muzzle, allowing Muninn to pour some of it onto my tongue, "Not bad, but too sweet for me," I said and carefully slid the bottle back to him, "Do you have any bloodwine?"

"...Real or replicated?"

I eyed him and bared my teeth, "Replicated bloodwine?" I asked, "Who asks for replicated bloodwine?"

"I barely have any non-klingons ask for any bloodwine," he said, "...I have a cask of five year old. That'll work?"

"I'll try it," I said and looked away, leaving him to go scurrying off. The sounds of the bar seemed to have started to go back to something approaching normal and I relaxed slightly.

It didn't take long for the Quark to return, carrying a metal tankard which he put before me, "Blood wine, from Qo'noS."

Lowering my snout, I sniffed it before I nodded. Muninn picked it up before holding the tankard up to pour some onto my tongue.

It... wasn't bad actually. Fairly good quality.

"How much is the cask?" I asked, returning my gaze to the Ferengi.

"One bar of gold pressed latinum."

I bared my teeth, "I find your attempt of scamming me humorous and obvious, Quark. Try again, but this time please act like I possess a brain that's larger than your entire head."

Quark stood his ground this time. As expected by a Ferengi with money on the line.

"I really can't go lower than ten strips. With import fees, purchasing fees, storage fees. I'll tell you, it was not easy to get such good quality bloodwine all the way out here."

"Good quality may be pushing it," I said, "It's decent, I'll give you that, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it good. Seven strips. And you throw in a couple of bottles of that brandy, I know somebody that'd like those."

Quark shook his head, "I really can't go any lower than nine. You're taking food out of the mouth of my family here!"

I snorted, "From the amount of gambling going on here, I don't see them doing anything but going to bed fat and happy. You'd have to be a moron to lose money owning a gambling house, even if it's honest. Seven strips, fifty slips."

"Oh come on, you're in Starfleet. What do you really need money for?" he said with a smile, "I can see that uniform rank on your very impressive harness, Lieutenant."

Ah, so that's where he found his bravery. He figured out I was unlikely to eat him.

"I grew up in a capitalist society more competitive than yours, Ferengi. Even water was not free. Be grateful I do not go into business as I would own your world before the end of the millennium. Very well, eight strips. You throw in twenty spins at the dabo wheel, two bottles of that brandy and you deliver everything to my ship."

"Deal!"

My com beeped at me and I tapped it, "Zephyr here."

"Lieutenant Zephyr, this is station ops. Please report to operations."

"On my way," I answered and turned to leave, "Muninn, pay the barkeep," I said.

The robotic assistant started to count out the money onto the bar.

 

[Hiver]

The lift onto Ops was extra uncomfortable. As spacious as the Cardassian stations public deck were, they seemed to make up for it in lift size. What's more, the idiotic thing had an open front!

I had to really squeeze in there in a most undignified way that really couldn't have been good for me or risk losing a limb.

The actual control room was thankfully large enough for me to move around and when the lift came to a halt, I carefully untangled myself from the lift, silently cursing the tiny builders of this place.

"Lieutenant Zephyr?" a short haired Bajoran woman asked, "Major Kira."

"Major," I greeted her, "I was summoned."

She grimaced and then nodded, "Come, Commander Sisko wants to talk to you."

Nodding, I followed her around the edge of the room to an office overlooking it from a couple of stair steps up. Interesting design choice. Cardassian design, forcing everybody working to literally look up at their leader.

Interesting.

The doors opened and to my complete lack of surprise, I actually fit in the room as long as I curled my tail. Made complete sense, it was a status thing.

Commander Sisko was a tall man, dark skinned and with black short cut, almost buzz cut hair. His office was fairly sparse, no real decorations. Everything but the furniture looked like it was part of the original Cardassian structure. Only thing standing out was a baseball sitting at the corner of his desk.

Dinah was already there, standing next to his desk.

He leaned back in his seat, regarding me as the door closed behind us, "Lieutenant Zephyr, I am Commander Sisko, commander of this station," he said, "Lieutenant Navari brought an incident to our attention and I am curious to hear your side of the events."

Commander Sisko. Benjamin Sisko. We had met before during the design of the Defiant. He was on the general design team of the Defiant while was loaned to the project and did some work on the targeting and computer systems. But as far as I knew, it was still classified who was on the design team and if he wanted to play it like we never met, that's fine by me.

Well, that or he had forgotten me, but I rated that probability low.

I shifted to carefully sit down as I nodded, "Yes sir," I said, "But there is not much to tell. We had just left one of the stalls where Lieutenant Navari had purchased some horrible thing on a stick when I saw a man. He was wearing what seemed to be the uniform of one of your security personnel. He was tall and thin, non-human. I did not recognize his species. He stared at me, his back against the wall before he suddenly melted into a golden liquid and turned into a small bird. He flew away."

"That man," Major Kira said, "Was Constable Odo, our chief of security. What did you do to him!?"

"Major," Sisko said, glancing at her before looking at me, "Constable Odo is not somebody I ever knew to be nervous. Why would he run from you?"

"I don't know," I admitted, shifting slightly in a sudden surge of annoyance,, "I have never seen him before in my life, or even his species for that matter. Perhaps asking him would be a good first step?"

Sisko frowned, "We would, but we have been unable to locate him. He is a shapeshifter, he can take basically any form. If he is hiding, he may be close to impossible to find."

I let out a snort. Some chief of security.

"What did you do after he left?" Major Kira asked.

"Once Lieutenant Navari went to report the incident, I looked for something to do. I saw nothing I could find interesting, so I went to the local bar. I had just finished purchasing a cask of blood wine when I was summoned here."

She frowned, "You know Quark?"

"I did not before today. Today was actually the first time I met a Ferengi in person. He tried to scam me, so their reputation is intact."

Kira muttered something beneath her breath and shook her head.

Sisko sighed, "If you can think of anything else, Lieutenant, please let us know."

"There is one thing, sir," I said, "I have an artificial assistant. It records the last twenty four hours of its sensor data for troubleshooting. It should have a full recording of the interaction. If you wish, I could summon it and transfer the relevant sensor records."

Dinah looked at me in surprise, "It does?"

I nodded, "Of course. It's a prototype and constantly a work in progress. If something goes wrong, I need to be able to find the source."

Sisko nodded, "Please do so."

I reached into my harness and slid my visor out of their pocket before settling them across my eyes. A couple of seconds later, I sent a recall order to Muninn for it to find its way back to me.

"It will be a couple of minutes, sir," I said, "It is approaching the lift now."

"So how do you find Deep Space Nine, Lieutenant?" Sisko asked me.

"It's a nice change, sir," I admitted, "While my preferred posting is on a ship, human sized spaces are... small."

He nodded slowly, "I can see that they would be. Must be difficult."

I mimicked a small shrug with my wings, "You get used to it, sir. But it's a good thing I'm not claustrophobic... I am aware of my appearance as well. I know I can look scary for those not used to me. But I don't think I had anybody outright run away from me before."

Sisko frowned slightly, "Constable Odo is not somebody I would characterize as easily frightened, so I don't know how to explain it."

"Maybe a phobia, sir?" Dinah suggested, "They don't have to make sense. Sure, Zephyr is big and has sharp teeth, but I wouldn't call him scary."

Kira turned to stare at her for a second before the door to the office opened and Muninn walked in.

I turned my head to it, "Muninn. Download a full external sensor record of everything happening ten minutes before to ten minutes after the man turned into a bird. Burn the data to a data chit."

It turned its head in my direction and after a couple of seconds it reached up and ejected a data chit from a slot at the base of its neck before holding it out for me.

"Deliver it to Commander Sisko," I ordered and the drone stepped up and held it out to him.

Sisko reached out and carefully took it, "Thank you... what is it?"

"It's a prototype artificial assistant," I said, "Designed it myself to assist in areas where a humanoid form is required."

"Or thumbs," Dinah injected.

"Or thumbs," I agreed, "Most useful."

"I can see that," Sisko agreed before sitting back again, "We'll let you know if we have any more questions. Lieutenant Zephyr, Lieutenant Navari, dismissed."

 

[Hiver]

Dinah waited as I untangled myself from the lift before motioning for me to follow.

I watched her curiously but did so, following her along before making our way up to the less populated upper level by a set of stairs I barely fit through. We move another hundred meters or so to a fairly empty bit of deck by a window overlooking empty space before she turned to me,

"What the hell was that?" she asked quietly.

I tilted my head in question, "What do you mean? Is it the sensor recording thing?"

Dinah frowned, "What? No! The attitude!"

"...What?" I asked, blinking at her in surprise.

"Zeph, I know you," she said, "But I literally never seen you that annoyed before, even during Puke Month back at the academy. And don't think I can't read your body language, we'd been friends for years."

I bared my teeth at her only for her hand to smack the tip of my snout,

"And don't you bare your teeth at me!"

I shifted back slightly, "...I don't know," I admitted, "Maybe it was almost being accused of something I didn't do, maybe it's because I've been working double shifts for most of two months getting the ship ready."

Dinah frowned, "Been more annoyed than usual?"

"Yeah," I admitted and sighed, "I think it's been the work. I like what I do, but it has been..."

"A lot," she agreed with a small sigh, holding her hand up.

I shifted to press my nose against it and she scratched up between my eyes, "I've just been stressed," I continued, "Now things have started to calm down."

Dinah nodded and then sighed, "Okay," she said, "And I say this as your friend, but you really should talk to the ship's counselor. You know it helps, they're good at what they do."

"Thanks," I sighed and shifted closer, touching my nose to her shoulder, the closest I got to a hug, "And I plan to once he gets onboard after this mission."

Dinah frowned, "Wait, I thought we were getting the rest of the crew here."

I snorted, "Transport delay," I said, "Heard about it in this morning's senior staff meeting. He and half of the science staff were on a transport that had to divert because of an ion storm. They'll be a week late and we can't wait for them."

Shaking her head, Dinah wrapped her arm around my snout, resting her head against the side of it, "You'd think after five hundred years we'd figured out logistics," she sighed, "Come on, let's get back to the ship."

"Sounds like a plan," I agreed, "Sorry you didn't get to see more of the station."

"Eh, looks boring anyway. Can always check it out when we get back," she said with a smile before she eyed me.

"...What?" I asked.

"If you'd been doing double shifts for the last month, when was the last time you went flying?"

"...Uhm," I said as I tried to remember, "Not sure to be honest. Likely that long, I was too busy to visit the holodeck."

Dinah rolled her eyes, "And you wonder why you have been irritable. This is literally the largest space you've been in for months. If I had to stay in a Jefferies tube for two months, I'd be biting people's heads off!"

I felt slightly dumb.

"Oh."

"Come on, we're going now," she said and turned, heading back towards the ship.


#######


The door of the holodeck closed behind us and I sniffed the air. The wind flowed up from the valley beneath the mountain from the ocean in the distance, bringing a scent of grass, salt and a bit of rotting fish.

"See?" Dinah said with a grin as I stretched my wings wide and high, giving them a testing beat, "Better?"

"...Better," I grumbled, "Thanks."

She smiled, "What are friends for?" she asked and then motioned, "Shoo. Off you go!"

"...Actually," I said and turned my head to her, "We never did get around to going on that flight we discussed. Wanna try it?"

That got another grin, "Really? Awesome! What should I do?"

I moved to settle down on the ground, "Just clamber on and hold on to the harness. Stay clear of my wings."

Dinah nodded and climbed onto my back and I got back onto my paws. Humans really don't weigh anything, I could feel she was there, but she was maybe seventy, eighty kilos at that. I have literally eaten more in one sitting before."

I started to move about, walking in a circle before turning it into a run, "Got a good grip?" I asked as I stopped, turning my head to look back at her.

Dinah shuffled around some before wrapping her hands in the harness across my back just in front of my wings, "I think so," she admitted.

"Alright," I said, "Well, the safeties are on, so worst case you'll fall a couple of meters before the forcefields catch you."

"No, the worst case is that you fall and land on me."

"...Okay, fair," I admitted and moved towards the edge, "Whatever, let's get this done. I need to check that the last cargo has been stowed away."

"Hey now," Dinah pointed out, "That's not your job. That's the ops officer... hell, it's not even them, it's one of the people reporting to them."

I turned my head to glance at her, "That cargo involves thirty eight photon torpedoes. I for one want to see that the antimatter weapons on my ship are secure."

"...Oh. Yeah, good point," she admitted.

"Besides," I said with an amused snort, "Somebody in logistics fucked up."

"Oh, say it's not so," Dinah answered, "What did they do?"

"Well, we got thirty six photon torpedoes," I said with a snort, "And a pair of tricobalt warheads."

Dinah made a small choking sound, "What!?"

"Don't ask me why logistics thought we needed those, but we're not giving them back now," I said, "And if anybody asks, we didn't see anything."

Dinah laughed and patted my back before squealing as I spread my wings and threw myself out into the air.

My wings caught the air and I started to rise and the squeal turned into laughter.

Okay, yeah.

I really should have gone flying more.

 

[Hiver]

Captain Grey nodded slowly as he leaned back in his chair, "Thank you, Doctor," he told Fitzgeraldt as he finished his report, "Ensign Kim," he continued, "That neatly bring us to ops. I'm aware you just came onboard last night, but have you gotten an opportunity to review matters?"

Ensign Harry Kim had black hair and was of asian descent. He was also young and so green that if he laid down on a lawn, he'd disappear. Brand new from the academy.

Seriously, had we ever been that new?

Kim nodded and touched a PADD laid on the meeting table before him, "Yes, sir. At least gotten started, I thought that our remaining supply requests were priority. I consulted with Commander Cavit and none of the items were a showstopper so I arranged for them to meet us on the way back so not to delay our departure. As for other operational matters, nothing to report, Sir."

Captain Grey looked at me, "Lieutenant, how's my ship doing?"

As it was the first meeting the majority of senior officers were onboard, I had decided to attend in person.

"You mean my ship, Captain," I said and then shook my head, "All systems finally started to perform up to what I consider spec. Only major issue still remaining is a receiver in the port sensor array; it has a cracked housing. We'll pull it if we get the opportunity, but somebody needs to go outside for that and we can't do that under power. We've compensated with the rest and should still have 98% effectiveness on that side."

The Captain nodded and then looked to his right, "Comments?"

Lieutenant-Commander Janeway shook her head, "I see no issues, sir," she said, "With how much sensor effectiveness is degraded inside the badlands, it should make no difference."

"Alright," he said with a small smile, looking around the table, "We have a day until we reach the badlands, but then we need to find them. Kathryn, any thoughts?"

Janeway looked thoughtful, "I discussed the matter with Lieutenant Zephyr. We think it may be possible to increase our coverage a great deal with a full spread of class ten probes."

"The problem is the sensor linkages," I injected, "The probes can navigate that environment and their sensors, while worse than on the ship, will be quite useful in increasing our coverage. The problem is getting that data back to us. Subspace comms are close to useless in the badlands."

Janeway nodded, "We decided to keep the probes close and in formation, that would allow them to act as signal relays for each other. It means they won't spread out as much, but with the reduced sensor ranges it's less of an issue."

Grey looked thoughtful, "Sounds like a plan. Exec?"

Commander Cavit smiled, "It's a solid plan. If my math is right, the ten probes we have should double our sensor coverage?" he asked, looking at me.

"Approximately two points seven times," I said and then let out a small snort of annoyance, "Best guess anyway. We have to see how soupy the badlands decide to be today."

"Can we really expect to find anything?" Doctor Fitzgeraldt asked,"It's already been weeks."

Captain Grey shook his head, "We hope so," he said with a small frown, "Commander Tuvok is on that ship. If it survived, he should find a way to have let us know. Maybe a buoy or an engine trail."

Janeway nodded, "I have known Tuvok for a long time. He is very resourceful, if there is a way, he'd find it."

The Captain glanced at his PADD, "And on that note, we have twenty two hours until we reach the badlands. Let's get to it."

I flexed my claws against the floor, looking out the window as everybody started to file out.

"I'll get started on the probe modifications," Janeway said as she walked up to me.

Turning my head to her I nodded, "I'll assign somebody to assist. Should finish with plenty of time for some sleep before we get there, it's mostly loading new software."

"Agreed," she said, looking out the window.

I tilted my head in thought, "What do you think of our... guest?"

Captain Grey had taken onboard a former Maquis. A human named Thomas Paris. Actually the son of one Admiral Paris. That had to be an awkward family reunion.

Janeway smiled a bit wryly, "It was actually my idea," she admitted, "If we can't find any trace of the ship, he might work as a native guide, so to speak. Give us a chance to pick up the track somewhere else."

I considered that for a moment, "Assuming we're not led into a trap."

She shook her head, "He looked like he was in it for the money, not the cause. He's been promised a reduction in his sentence."

"So he got three people killed, tried to hide it, confessed, got kicked out of the academy, joined the Maquis for money, got caught and thrown into prison and is now willing to sell them out for less prison time?" I asked and bared my teeth in disgust, "Sounds like an intelligent and trustworthy individual."

Janeway sighed, "He has clearly had a troubled life. But maybe this can serve as a fresh start."

I snorted in annoyance, "Ever the optimist, Lieutenant-Commander. How much of a fuckup do you have to be to fall into a life of crime in a moneyless society?"

Shaking her head, Janeway looked up at me, "We'll see. He'll have his chance to prove himself."

"I suppose," I agreed.

Once Commander Tuvok is back onboard, I'll suggest we search Paris before he leaves the ship, just to check he doesn't try to nick the silverware.

That's a thought. Technically against regulation, but after this meeting I'll set the ship's internal sensors to track his movements and alert me if he gets close to any vital systems. He used to be a terrorist after all, no matter how much I may feel for the cause of the Maquis... well, my compassion goes away when they start to attack civilian targets.

Janeway smiled slightly, "I'll get started on those probes."

"Yes, sir," I said with a nod and she left.

I looked out at the stars in thought, the occasional dust streak drifting past in the warp field.

Something was bothering me and it wasn't that I never did find out exactly what scared that Odo on Deep Space Nine. We had left before they found him and they had not contacted us yet so I can only assume he was still cowering somewhere.

No, it was something else.

Maybe I was just nervous. This was the first real mission with me as chief engineer after all. I have never been responsible for an entire ship before. Or maybe I just didn't like the idea of wandering into the badlands.

Or maybe it was a combination of all of it.

I tapped my com badge, "Zephyr to Berger."

"Berger here."

"Report to probe launchers and assist Commander Janeway. We're loading new software for the badlands sweep."

"On it, sir. Berger out."

Lowering my paw back onto the deck, I looked at the stars before I snorted in annoyance and carefully turned to return to engineering.

Let's get this over with so we can go back to exploration.

 

[Hiver]

Up on the bridge, I was sure they were discussing something really exciting, such as how to hunt down the Maquis ship, but in engineering things were pretty typical.

When it involves antimatter, you want things to be typical with absolutely zero surprises.

So having put out the thankfully metaphorical fires of the morning, I was now laying on the floor of the upper level in engineering to keep out from everybody's feet while I was reading through the logs of beta and gamma shift.

Nothing had been highlighted for the shift hand off, but it was still good to get an overview.

One thing did draw my eye though. One of the plasma relays had apparently started to show borderline in sickbay of all places. Well, not surprising really. Brand new ship, there's bound to be manufacturing flaws. Even the Federation's manufacturing techniques were not perfect.

Considering it, it likely wasn't critical, but we should replace it. It would mean bringing everything in sickbay offline however as changing it meant removing most of a wall and while I hardly expected a single small Maquis ship to cause anybody to get wounded even if we did manage to find it, bringing the entire sickbay offline during a mission was just a bad idea.

I marked it for replacement as soon as we got back to the station. That'd mean we have a second sickbay in easy access in case of a medical emergency.

Even if the Maquis didn't cause it, somebody could hit their head or something.

When we get back would have to be soon eno-

The flights flared to red and an alarm sounded through the ship, "Red alert! All crew to stations! All crew to stations!"

I surged to my paws, dismissing the report in my HUD, "Carey, report!"

"Bringing it up now, sir," he shouted back from the lower level, "It seems like we're being scanned by a tetryon beam. We- oh shit!"

"All hands, brace for impact!" the voice of Captain Grey rang through every speaker of the ship.

I wrapped the claws on one paw around the railing, digging the rest into the deckplate, "BRACE!" I commanded, "BRACE! BRA-"

"-ir!"

Slowly my little hamster started to run, cobwebs and rust being slowly shaken off the gears as the little thing struggled to get the wheel turning.

I slowly blinked my eyes open, trying to get them to focus on whomever was bothering me, "...Hunt," I said as I focused on the crewman.

She smiled grimly, "Are you alright, sir?" she asked, "You had a pretty awful tumble."

She had blood on the side of her face. The air smelled of smoke, hot metal and blood.

Am I alright?

What the fuck happened? I tried to get a feel for my body as I slowly and carefully rolled onto my stomach. There was a sound of ripping metal behind me and I glanced at it. Apparently one of my horns had pierced a console and I had accidentally ripped it free.

Red alert. Brace.

I glanced up. Oh. I was on the lower level now. Welp, that explains why I hurt.

"...report," I said and carefully shifted each limb. Nothing seems to be outright broken. The wing I had been laying on was hard to move, but it didn't feel broken, likely just tweaked it by landing on it.

Hunt looked up at me, brushing her short hair back, "Davies' dead. So's Berger. We can't reach the bridge and nobody from sickbay is answering."

Fuck.

I nodded firmly once, instantly regretting it as it made it feel like my brain was bouncing around inside my head, "Alright," I said and then raised my head, looking around at everybody, "All stations, report!"

"Sir, we're having a problem here!" Carey yelled from the console by the warp core, "Diagnostics shows a microfracture in the warp core!"

Suddenly I forgot all about my aches and pains and bounded onto my paws, moving over to him while bringing the information onto my visor hud, "Shit, pressure is spiking."

"Eject!?"

"No, lock down the magnetic constrictors, that'll buy us time," I said, "Hunt, get down there with a micro welder!"

"On it," she answered and pulled out a tool pack.

"Sir, if we lock down the magnetic constrictors at this pressure, we may not be able to reinitiate the dilithium alignment," Carey protested.

I growled, "Yes, and if we don't, I'm sure our free floating electrons will be very happy not to have to deal with the issue. Lock it down, we deal with potential problems after the definite ones."

He nodded and got to work.

I looked around, one eye on the readings as I moved over to a console, unlocking the warp core ejection just in case.

I tapped my comm, "Zephyr to sickbay, multiple medical emergencies."

Nothing, comms were still down.

Well, they should soon be up. Everybody not on duty during a red alert or emergency is on the damage control team. Comms were a priority system.

"Bridge to engineering."

There we go.

I tapped my com, "Zephyr here," I answered.

"Zephyr, this is Janeway. The Captain and first officer are dead, I'm taking command of the ship," she said grimly, "Report."

Captain Grey. Commander Cavit.

I pushed that thought to the side, we had more important issues, "We're having a mild warp core breach, we're dealing with it. We have casualties."

"Sickbay is not responding, I have sent a runner."

"Acknowledged, Zephyr out."

"Got it!" Hunt announced and hauled herself out of the well.

I nodded and turned my head in their direction, "Release the constrictors, watch that core pressure!"

"Releasing... now," Carey reported, "Reaction stable... pressure... twenty three thousand kilopascals. Holding steady."

"Alright," I said, "Now, injured, report in!"

I got half a dozen answers. Cuts, burns, a pair of broken arms.

"If you can work, you stay. If you can't hold a tool, get your tails to sickbay," I commanded, "Now, triage and damage control. We haven't blown up yet, so I want a full diagnostic of each system in order of criticality. Carey, I need you to-"

As I watched, he shimmered away in a green mist. As I watched, everybody else disappeared.

What the fu-

"Computer, end program!" I commanded. Nothing happened.

"Computer, arch!"

Nothing happened. Not a holodeck.

"...Well, fuck," I said to the empty room.