The Voyage Without

[Hiver]

I peered at the screen and slowly nodded, "Alright," I said, turning my head to Kiara, "We have power. Hit it."

She tapped a couple of buttons on her console, "Transfering power... now. Activating Kazon computer core."

It had been set up in isolation in cargo hold four.

"Computer core booting up," she reported.

"Excellent," I said, "Let's see what we have then."

What we had was encrypted data. Which was expected, who has their data in plain text, really?

I set the computer chewing on the algorithm and had just about enough time to turn away before it beeped at me. I blinked and looked back.

Operation successful?

Okay, what broke. I'm good, but I'm not that good.

As it turned out, I did fuck up. I vastly overestimated the Kazon. I slowly blinked at the screen, "...1024 bit encryption?" I said, "Are you serious?"

"Isn't that pretty simplistic?" Kiara asked from next to me, "I could break that with my tricorder."

"Oh, it is. I'm from a prewarp world as you know," I said, "We had that shit. We had a lot better too."

This might not be plain text as such, but it was basically a 'please keep out' post it note attached to the computer. What is it with every species I try to hack having crappy computer security. I'm almost insulted.

I tapped on the console, digging into it. It had to be some sort of 'false gate' or something because there is no way anybody seriously thought that would stop even a middle schooler from... nope, no false gate, no trap, no... nothing. They were apparently just fucking crap at computer security. The computer could do a lot better, thousands of times better, but it's like someone just didn't turn it on so it was left at the default settings.

It's like Dave from HR running the IT department because he knew how to switch the HDMI on the tv in the break room.

With a snort of disgust, I tapped a couple of buttons on the console to download the entire database before I tapped my combadge, "Zephyr to Tuvok. The data should be available now."

"That was fast, Lieutenant," he answered.

"I wish I could take credit, sir," I said, "But this was a case of less about how awesome I am and more about how crap their security was. I'll leave you to your research, but I'll tell you this much... computers are not their speciality."

"Acknowledged. Tuvok out," he said, already sounding distracted.

He had a bit of anthropological training, so he had put together a small team to figure out what the hell was up with the Kazon. Besides, he used to do security and knew what to look at.

The more we knew, the better.

"Good work, Ensign," I said, giving Kiara a nod.

"Thank you, chief," she said with a nod in turn, "That was tense."

I nodded, "It was. I suspect it was Commander Tuvok's idea. But we really need this information if we're going to be wandering around their space gathering resources for our trip back home. Hopefully, Neelix's tips pan out."

"Yeah. Hopefully."

"Get some rest, Ensign. It's been a long day."

She gave me a nod and left the cargo bay. I turned my head and eyed the computer core before glancing at the console again.

Download complete.

Turning to the second console, I tapped the button to power it down before I physically disconnected the thing. I did not want to wake up tonight only to discover the damn thing was a sapient AI that had been toying with us only to take over the ship.

Paranoid?

Yes. But that didn't mean I was wrong either. I didn't think that likely in this case, if the Kazon had something like that they would have already ruled the quadrant. But I did know how much havoc something simpler could cause as well.

After all, I was on the team that built something like it for SI. Or as close as we could get anyway without disassembling Data.

Pushing that thought away, I sighed and stretched a bit, taking advantage of the greater space in the cargohold before turning and taking my own advice. It really had been a long day and I needed rest.

What I did instead, was head for the mess hall. I fully intended to go pass out in my cabin after, but I was getting hungry.

To my relief, I didn't find even a sniff of Neelix when I got there. I could barely make out his scent, so he must have been away for hours. I wasn't surprised either really, we were hours away from mealtime.

What I did find was Ensign Kim and The Convict talking by one of the tables.

Ignoring them for the moment, I crossed over to the locker at one wall and started to extract carnivore survival packs. Soon, soon replicators will be back online.

Piling a tray high, I carefully balanced it on one paw as I turned around.

"Want to join us, Lieutenant?" Ensign Kim offered.

Not seeing a polite way to decline, and knowing that I'd be stuck with them on the ship for decades at least, I nodded, "Of course," I said and moved to put the tray on their table, sliding the chair on that side to the side before sitting down, "Ensign Kim, Lieutenant Paris," I greeted them.

"Lieutenant Zephyr," Kim said, looking up at me as I started to dissect one of the survival packs with my claws, "How did things go on the Kazon ship?"

"Well enough," I said and pulled the brick of protein, minerals and supplements from its packaging before placing it on my tongue and swallowing it, ignoring the lack of anything approaching taste, "No survivors. While I am less than impressed by the Kazon's technical capabilities, I am impressed by their spirit. They seemed to have died at their stations."

Paris leaned back in his chair, coffee cup in hand, "What I am worried about is how many more of those attacks we can take. Two ships, sure, but they have more than two ships."

"That's where their nature comes into play, Lieutenant," I said as I swallowed another brick of supposed meat, "One thing we're fairly sure from what Neelix has told us is that they are fractured into clans in a constant mess of alliances and conflict. Even if they felt like doing it, even a major clan would likely be unable to muster a large fleet to track down and find us without risking weakening their own position."

Kim slowly nodded, "So as long as we keep moving and don't walk into a trap, we'll be good?"

"Perhaps," I agreed, "But if we become dangerous enough, they may unite against us. From what we've seen, we represent a significant bounty in technology for them. Whichever clan captures Voyager or our technology is going to be at a significant advantage over the rest."

"So we should leave their space as soon as we can."

I nodded to Kim, "Correct. However, it would be unwise to do so before we're ready. The Kazon seem manageable, however we are low on resources, and moving into possibly even more dangerous unknown space before we're fully supplied and operational seems unwise. Hopefully Neelix's list of places where we may find what we need is accurate."

"That still leaves us wandering around here from world to world for the better part of a year," Paris pointed out, "That's a lot of time for the Kazon to get their act together."

"In which case, Mister Paris," I said, "We best hope you're as good a pilot as you think you are."

 

[Hiver]

Captain Janeway and Captain Chakotay were the last two to enter the meeting room. I was present via Muninn while I was in my quarters.

Ensign Kim and the Convict had arrived a minute ago while Commander Tuvok had been there even before me, silently reading a PADD in his seat.

It felt... light.

We didn't have a science officer or a chief medical officer.

Neelix was present as well. Dinah was across the table from him.

Captain Janeway moved to sit down, "Alright, let's get started. Commander, what have you found?"

Tuvok walked over to the display and tapped a couple of buttons, bringing up an image of a Kazon.

"The Kazon did not build these ships," he started, motioning at the screen, "From what we were able to determine, until very recently the Kazon were a slave race beneath the rule of a species known as the Trabe. It does not say for how long, but a significant time ago, likely at least hundreds of years, the Trabe conquered the Kazon homeworld just as the Kazon started to work bronze. They enslaved the population and used them as laborers. As the Kazon population grew and the Trabe lived in luxury, the Trabe population shrank from lower birth rates. Eventually enough so that the Kazon saw their opportunity and attempted to overthrow their oppressors. Apparently they succeeded."

"So they can't build new ships?" Kim asked.

"As far as we can tell, no. In fact, even their ability to conduct repairs are limited to what they can get the computer to instruct them to do. They barely understand their technology at all, even now," Tuvok answered.

I snorted, "So we have cavemen running around in stolen starships. Well, that's just great."

Tuvok nodded, "You are not far off, Lieutenant. The Trabe seems to have intentionally kept the Kazon as ignorant as possible while still having them be useful. No education other than what was necessary for a specific task. The Kazon have lost a lot, their history barely kept alive through tradition of mouth."

Chakotay frowned but didn't say anything.

"Which explains why they wanted to trade for water," Janeway commented, "It's a rather abundant element."

"To say the least," Chakotay agreed, "The Kazon are at a real risk to backslide as they are. If they can't build new ships and barely understand the ones they have, they may eventually lose warp capability."

"Agreed," I said, having Muninn nod for me, "Which actually put us at greater risk. They know how advanced Voyager is, it may be enough to unite them in an effort to capture us. They're likely ignorant, not stupid. Nobody stupid manages to overthrow an interstellar empire and figure out how to fly starships."

Tuvok nodded, "Just so," he agreed, "The Kazon are split into sects, posturing and warring with each other. So far we have run into them in singles or doubles. But the Kazon as a whole have many hundreds of ships."

"A dozen ships is more than a match for Voyager," Tuvok pointed out, "They would not need to all join forces. A pair of allied sects would be a very real threat."

Chakotay nodded once more, "I recommend we try to leave their space as soon as possible to stop this from happening. Seska believes that as little as a hundred lightyears may bring us out of their regular patrol paths."

Janeway considered it before she looked at Neelix, "What do you think?"

"W-well," he said, "We should be able to find what we need. We can rework our courses and stop after our next one to a safer space. She is right though, if we change to that area of space we will significantly lower our chance of encountering the Kazon."

"Get with Mister Paris and Captain Chakotay and figure out an optimal course," she told him, "But on that topic, what can you tell us of the planet we're approaching. You said they were friendly and a good source for food supplies?"

Neelix nodded, "Yes. A primitive people, but mostly friendly. The Toliax are always happy to sell you any supplies you need, but only basic goods. Food, minerals and such. They don't have any real technology to speak of."

"They don't have warp ships?" Janeway asked with a frown.

"Oh no," Neelix said, shaking his head, "They didn't even have any way into orbit last time I visited. You have to contact them via radio and then land to trade."

Janeway sighed, "Neelix, the prime directive forbids us from interacting with pre-warp civilizations."

"May not apply here, Captain," I said, "It's there to stop us from interfering with their natural development and culture. In the case of them already being contacted, and seemingly in common contact with alien races, the point is a bit moot. As long as we keep technology within their own limits or raw materials as currency, we're well within the spirit of the prime directive."

She looked thoughtful for several long moments before she nodded, "You may be right, Mister Zephyr. I'll consider it. If we do trade with these people, I want you to lead the negotiations."

I blinked in slight surprise, "Me, sir?"

"Your file says you grew up in a capitalist society. You'll have a better handle of currency than any of us," Janeway said.

"I suppose I would," I admitted, "It's not the same as trading resources for resources, but I'm willing to give it a go. But us overpaying is likely not an issue at all, we'll just stop by an asteroid on the way and harvest a couple of tons of platinum and gold. That should be sufficient for any trade we need."

"They do like those," Neelix agreed, "I usually just traded them some trinket however."

"If we trade with these people, we're not giving them any technology," Janeway said firmly, "Resources only."

"Yes, sir," I agreed.

Janeway nodded, "Mister Paris, set a course to the closest asteroid field. We'll extract the materials first, even if we decide not to trade with these people, they may be useful in the future. Let's get to it," she then added as she got up.

Everybody started to file out. I waited out of habit as I considered the problem.

Mining the materials wouldn't be difficult. Just find a rock as pure as possible, cut a small piece with phasers, move it to the hangar bay with a suttle tractorbeam and then cut into pieces small enough to fit in a replicator for disassembly.

The junk atoms could be put to the side and elementally pure bars or whatever we decide on of the material we need replicated.

Then we just throw the stuff we don't want outside.

With the right rock, operations should only take a couple of hours or so. As the door closed, I noticed that Muninn wasn't the only thing still in the meeting room. Chakotay was standing and looking out the window.

Hmm.

Wonder what's going on there.

"Captain?" I asked as I had Muninn stand up and walk up next to him, "You are thinking of something relevant?"

He glanced at the drone as if a bit surprised to see it before he shook his head, "No, Lieutenant. I'm thinking of the Kazon and my own people."

"Your people, sir?" I asked, mildly interested.

Chakotay sighed, "My ancestors were driven from their homeland. By the Spanish, then by deforestation, then the eugenic wars. We lost so much then. World war three was even worse, we lost..." he said and shook his head, "We don't even know how much. Our culture, our identity. We gathered what we could, tried to recreate what we could, built a new colony, tried to... find ourselves again."

"Did you?"

He smiled a bit sadly, "Some. But no, too much was lost. We've tried to piece things together, but... it's traditions from a dozen tribes. We even discovered that some we thought were right, were just fabrications from old popular media. My people had no writing, just oral traditions. We just lost too many people."

I had Muninn nod, suddenly understanding why he joined the Maquis. Have his people go through all that and then the Cardassians roll in and do it all over again?

In fact, I think he may had been remarkably restrained about it.

"You're seeing parallels with your people and the Kazon?"

"Some," he sighed, "I empathize at least. They were pulled into a world they were not ready for, lost their identity. My people have a saying, 'Judge not the river rock for the movement of the water'."

"Indeed," I agreed, "And it was not an uplift either. They were pulled into slavery. I do not blame them for lashing out over what happened to them, but that does not mean we should roll over for them either."

"No it doesn't," Chakotay agreed, "But we have to be careful."

"We go," I said before I shifted Muninn's head to study him, "...So what do you do with those traditions? How do you filter out the right ones?"

Chakotay smiled a bit, "We don't. Our faith may not be identical to our ancestors, but at some point you just have to go with the intention behind them rather than the fine details. That is how the original rituals formed in the first place."

I considered that for a moment before I nodded with the drone, "Sensible."

I knew some about being pulled into a brand new world not of my own against my will.

 

[Hiver]

I relaxed in the cargo bay, my head resting on the block of platinum as I waited. The cargo hold of the shuttle was not the largest, but at least I could lay down if I curled my tail a bit.

Ensign Kim was piloting us down to the surface while Dinah provided security.

The Toliax had been fairly friendly when contacted. They had given us a flight corridor to land at a pretty isolated location on the southern continent. From the sensor scans, it looked like a base of some sort.

Which made sense in my mind.

I wouldn't want unknown aliens wandering around in my cities either, especially if these people are pre-spaceflight. But they clearly had traded with people that were.

We had talked to them on subspace and while their tech seemed to be somewhere equivalent to humanity back in the nineteen nineties, using fossil fuel powered vehicles and such, we had detected the signature of several much more advanced fusion reactors.

I kept an eye on the sensors in my visor. On the way through the lower atmosphere we had been joined by a pair of what had to be military fighter craft.

Feeling a bit bored, I poked a bit at their computer security. As expected, it was kinda crap. But while I could listen in to their communications, I couldn't outright take control of their craft.

Either they weren't computer controlled or their fly-by-wire systems were isolated.

Which wasn't exactly foolproof, but would make me work for it..

They seemed to find the design of our shuttle interesting from the chatter. Their weapons were radar guided, so I added a macro that would scatter radar to trigger if we raised shields.

They'd need a nuke to get through our shields, but there was no need to be sloppy about it.

"On final approach, Lieutenant," Ensign Kim's voice said through the comm system.

"Acknowledged," I responded and pushed myself up to sit with a jawn.

Then I simply waited for the small shudder of the shuttle to settle down before I moved towards the ramp. Huginn got up from its seat and moved to hold a hand above the open control panel before waiting.

I checked the readings.

All showed as clear.

I nodded and the ramp started to lower. There was a hiss of equalizing gasses and sunlight filtered in along with the scent of the outside. It smelled dry.

Unsurprising, we were in a desert.

Several vehicles were approaching at a low speed. They looked like personal vehicles, not military. No weapons and they didn't look armored.

Each of them painted white as well and seemed to be of the same rounded models.

They came to a stop about a hundred meters away, engines quieting.

I walked down the ramp, Huginn and Muninn following behind me as I stretched a bit on the way down, wings rising high and wide before I folded them again.

Then I stopped a dozen meters from the ramp and simply sat down on the hot concrete to wait.

No movement from the vehicles.

That's right, you may admire my magnificence. Either that or keeping me waiting was a negotiation tactic. If that was their plan, they would be kinda disappointed.

I really rather enjoyed the feeling of being outside again and feeling a real sun against my scales.

So I just let my eyes half close as I enjoyed the bright sunshine.

Maybe five minutes later, the door of the middle vehicle opened and three people got out.

The aliens were avian in appearance. Humanoid, blue feathered with beaks and... okay, they looked like giant bipedal budgies. There was no way around it, down to the damn white heads and black streaks.

They were slightly larger than humans, but not significantly.

What seemed to be the lead one was wearing a bright scarlet robe, the other two following were wearing hot pink ones.

Fascinating, status indicated by the fullness of colors? Anything at this point would be idle speculation of course. It may be as simple as he's wearing new robes and theirs have been through the wash too many times.

They approach, bringing a scent of peppers with them.

The budgie aliens smelled like peppers. That's a giant step up from human stink, could I make some trades perhaps? I doubt Captain Janeway would approve, but maybe I could at least switch out Neelix. That would greatly save on my nose.

They stopped maybe five meters before me, the lead one spreading her arms, "I am Envoy Trillk. Welcome to Toliax, strange one."

"I am Zephyr. I take your greeting and return it equally, Envoy Trillk," I said, "We have come to trade for supplies with your people."

"We do not recognize your species," she said, lowering her arms again, "Nor the design of your craft."

"We are simply passing through this area of space," I explained, "We transmitted a list of what we require as we entered the system as requested. I take it that you have reviewed it?"

Trillk spread her arms once more, this time in a more encircling motion, "We have. For what you wish of us, we would like a fusion reactor."

"No."

The feathers on the top of her head rose a bit, "No?"

"No," I said again before I clarified, "This is not a negotiation tactic. It is against one of our most important laws to trade our technology to less advanced species. We can offer cultural materials or raw resources. Even some limited technology within your band that you do not have yet, but no advanced technology."

She was quiet for several moments before she lowered her arms, "In which case, perhaps we do not have what you wish."

"Envoy," I said, "If that is the case, then we will leave. Stopping at your world is convenient, nothing else. We can easily find an uninhabited world to gather the supplies. Trading with you does nothing but save us a bit of time to gather it ourselves. But perhaps you would wish to reconsider?"

I motioned with one paw and Huginn reached into the bag it carried over one shoulder and pulled out three small bars.

It held them up so they could see it before walking forward to stand in the middle between us, holding them out towards the Envoy.

She hesitated before motioning towards the flunkey to her right.

He cautiously approached, clawed hand trembling slightly as he reached out to take them before he retreated back to his two companions.

He showed her and they poked and prodded a bit at the bars before she turned back to me,

"This is... gold?"

"One bar of gold, silver and platinum respectively. Do you find these materials valuable?"

She hesitated, "...We do..." she admitted.

I thought so, she was wearing a couple of rings of what looked like gold around several fingers.

"Those are molecularly pure with no subsurface contaminants. We are willing to pay for our supplies in any metal you wish. It can just as easily be platinum as iron," I explained, "Or even more advanced materials. More valuable materials are simply easier to transport."

Envoy Trillk was quiet for several seconds, a bar of platinum slowly turning around in her claws as she studied me before she glanced towards the shuttle, "The shuttle seems small for your species," she commented.

"It is. Most beings on our crew are closer to your size," I confirmed, "I was chosen to negotiate with you because I have experience with civilizations at your level of development. I decided to come alone, I am aware I am intimidating enough without adding more people."

The feathers on her head stood up again before she motioned with her left hand, "What of these two?" she asked, indicating Huginn and Muninn.

"They are machines, no people," I explained, "Nothing more than computer controlled robotics. Some things people your size use are too small or insignificant to bother with, so I have them to assist me with such matters."

Her feathers slowly lowered, "I understand," she said, "We would need to discuss trading for these metals. We would prefer advanced technology, to trade for metals instead, even something as gold, we would need a significant amount."

"Do not discuss for too long," I cautioned her, "Like I said, we do not need to trade with you, it's simply a matter of convenience. And I know the value of such metals. While we are willing to pay, do not be tempted to ask too high a price."

Trillk's feathers went right back up before she spread her arms, "I understand," she said before handing the platinum back to the same flunkey and he started to step forward.

I raised one paw and he froze, "No need to return them," I said, "Consider it a sample and a gift."

He backed up and her feathers fluffed out a bit,

"We thank you, Zephyr," she said, "We will return with our offer in a quarter solar cycle."

"That is agreeable," I confirmed.

As they retreated back to their vehicle, I waited until their doors closed before I spoke again, "What do you think, Captain?" I asked over the open comm channel.

"Well done, Lieutenant. You don't think you pushed them a bit hard?"

"No, they'll fold. They have even less of those metals on their planet than Earth did, our orbital scans showed so much. Each of those bars I handed her is worth more than she makes a year, even at her likely level of income. They'll fold to greed, the question is simply how much they ask for. Whatever it is, I'll say it's too much and negotiate them downwards. They'll argue and we'll end up with a trade around eighty percent of what they want."

"Why would we bother? We can easily mine more."

I snorted, "Because it's what these primitives expect. If they realize we find it worthless, they'll be suspicious. As for now, we simply wait. And I'm going to be staying right here, enjoying their sunlight."

 

[Hiver]

"Voyager to away team."

I activated my comm, "Zephyr here."

"We have detected three vessels entering the system. We believe them to be Kazon. Return at once."

I got on my paws, "Acknowledged, returning to the ship," I confirmed as I turned.

Something hit the side of my head and it felt like somebody had punched me. There was a booming sound in the distance.

I turned to look, but didn't see anyone. Did somebody just shoo-

Smack!

Something hit the side of my neck and ricochet off into the distance with a whirring sound.

Bang.

They are shooting at me!

How dare they!?

"Zephyr to shuttle, I'm taking fire," I said and continued on my way, "Some cover if you please before they realize they need something of a higher caliber."

"Navari to Zephyr, I'm extending the shields!"

I felt a pressure flow across me and there was another small flash of light in the middle of the air followed by another boom, "Appreciated. Take off as soon as I'm onboard," I said and bounded up the ramp, smacking the close button with my tail on the way, "Go."

As I felt a small shudder in the deck, I laid down and connected my visor to the shuttle's computer, bringing up the engineering systems and sensor data. The data link from Voyager told me all I needed to know.

"Away team to Voyager, we'll arrive almost a minute after the presumed Kazon ships reach you," I said and then checked the local sensors as a muffled explosion reached my ears.

A quad of those local fightercraft were on an intercept course and even as I watched, four blips disengaged from them.

"And we're taking fire from the locals. That can be disregarded, they don't have anything that can touch our shields," I continued.

"Acknowledged, away team," Janeway answered, "The Val Jean is moving to delay them and we're shifting to a closer intercept."

"Appreciated, Voyager," I said and then turned my attention to the local fighters and their approaching missiles.

They're not going to catch us, we'll be hypersonic in thirty seconds and too high in twenty for anything they had to reach us. But those missiles will hit us in ten. It's not impossible they have some sort of advanced warhead in those, they had traded with aliens after all.

How are they tracking us? We should be invisible to both radar and IR by now from our shields. Optically maybe?

I checked the sensors, detecting a coherent light amplitude beam from a ground installation aimed in our direction. Oh, I see. They have some actual sensors there and used them to aim a targeting laser at us to guide the missles.

Cute.

Taking control of one of the phasers, I dialed the power down and then fired, sending a beam straight to hit the laser emitter. The beam went away and the missiles seemed to lose track.

Now, about those fighters. They shot at me, I don't like it when people do that.

But they weren't a threat, it felt wrong to just blast them from the sky. But I did manage to figure out their comm system on the way down...

Quickly, I set the shuttle to transmit music from my favorite bands on max volume on every single frequency the locals seemed to use. I poured some real juice into it too, I likely blanketed every transmission this side of the planet.

Enjoy some 'Godslayer' arseholes. Maybe you'll learn some honor.

"How're we looking?" I then asked, connecting to the flight deck.

"Twenty seconds from intercept, Lieutenant," Ensign Kim answered, "The Kazon ships are engaging the Val Jean."

"Get us onboard and we'll go help them," I said and curled my claws slightly, scraping against the metal deck. Treachery!

We went down to trade and they contacted the Kazon. What more, the Neelix was the one to tell us to go here! If he was in any way involved, I'd vent him into space.

From across the ship, I'm not going near him if I can help it. Or maybe it was Kes. I didn't know anything about her other than that she helped rescue Kim and Torres. The fact that she thought the Neelix was attractive was immediately suspicious.

Growling to myself, I watched the sensors. The Val Jean was twisting through space, trading fire with three Kazon vessels. I had to give the Maquis this, they knew how to handle their ship.

Was likely one of the reasons why they had been such a pain in the Cardassians' wide necks.

We landed hard in the shuttlebay, enough so that the emergency tractor beams latched on to slow us down in time, but even then I felt a thump as we hit the deck and I winced. If I felt that through the inertial dampeners despite the catching tractor beams, we hit it pretty hard.

Kim, you better not have dented my fucking deck! If you did, I'll have you hammer it back into shape with a rubber mallet!

Growling to myself, I got to my paws and headed for the hatch.

Dinah, despite having been on the small flightdeck, beat me to it.

She dodged around me and slapped the opening button. The ramp had barely lowered half way when she darted out and ran as fast as she could towards the closest turbolift in her haste to get to the bridge.

"Engineering, report," I asked as I headed towards the closest cargolift, leaving Huginn and Muninn to bring up the rear.

"Everything nominal, Chief," Carey reported, "We're transferring additional power to shields."

As I entered the lift, I brought up the sensors on my visor again. We were leaving the planet, accelerating to assist the Val Jean. She was clearly the better ship, but with three ships attacking her, it was having an effect.

I was reading her shields at fifty percent.

The Kazon were fighting smart, staying spread out at high weapons range. They were moving in, firing and if the Val Jean moved to engage, it would turn away while the other two moved in to engage.

A pack of wolves fighting a bear.
´
Which was usually bad news for the bear, but also meant that they were being careful, cautious. The moment Voyager joined the fray, they should flee. They should do that anyway if they had any kind of sense, but they were literally cavemen in starships so who knew.

From the cargolift, it wasn't far to get to engineering and I entered less than a minute later.

The warp core hummed smoothly. We were moving into battle, but in my domain there was calm. Everybody is doing their jobs.

Putting the sensor readings into a small window top right, I moved to sit down and bring up the engineering systems instead.

Best make sure they don't break my ship again.

 

[Hiver]

There was a slight tremble through the deck plates and I flicked through the information.

Shields holding at 84%.

"Sir, I'm getting an increase in temperature in section fifty seven Beta," Crewman Jones said.

"Keep an eye on it," I told him, "If it spikes, lock it down and flush it. Redirect through alpha."

"That'll drop our engine power while it's flushing," Carey warned me.

"Better than blowing a plasma conduit," I said and flexed my claws against the deck, careful not to scratch it, "I'll give Paris this, he sure can fly," I admitted. One eye on the sensor readings of space around us as I mostly focused on the status board of the ship.

He was throwing Voyager around like she was a ship half her size.

I might not trust the convict, but he sure had flying skills.

The ship shuddered and a part of the ship turned yellow. Shields at 76%.

"We have some bleedthrough," I said, "Kiara, damage control, section five, deck seven."

"I see it sir, thruster damage," she agreed and gathered four others before grabbing tool boxes and heading out.

Shields may be up and strong, but if unlucky there may still be damage done. Especially when taking damage from something like those plasma warheads. Some thermal energy may bleed through or kinetic energy transfer.

So shields can be fully up and at close to full strength and you can still take some damage.

A glance at the sensor readings showed the Kazon ships having broken off and were moving away at high warp. Well, high warp for them.

"This is the Captain," Janeway's voice said through the ship, "Stand down red alert, senior crew to the meeting room".

Because I don't have actual work to do apparently.

"Carey," I said while sending Muninn to go to the meeting room just off the bridge, "Damage report?"

"Nothing serious," he said as he scrolled through his console, "We took some bumps, but the biggest damage is to that thruster."

"The shuttlebay?"

"Sensors read no significant damage to the shuttle deck."

You are so lucky Kim. Because I swear, rubber mallet if you break it, you're the one hammering it back into shape.

Climbing up to the upper level, I moved around to settle down to the side to join the meeting. I timed it pretty well, when I brought up the feed from Muninn the drone was just walking in through the door.

Everybody else had already been on the bridge it seemed so Muninn was the last one there.

Janeway looked away from a PADD Tuvok was showing her and at Muninn as it walked in, "Lieutenant," she said, "What happened?"

"What you heard happened," I said as Muninn sat down, "Treachery. When we didn't give them what they wanted, they contacted the Kazon and told them where we were."

Janeway frowned, "Alright, Lieutenant? You were hit."

I snorted, "Low caliber projectile weapons. They bounced off my scales."

It's significantly annoying, there was a scratch on one of my neck scales and at the side of my nose! Did they have any idea how difficult it was to keep scales shiny between moltings!?

Outright rude it was.

Janeway nodded, "Even so, I want you checked out in sickbay," she said before she turned to Neelix, "What happened?"

"I-I don't know," he admitted with a shrug, "These people have always been friendly if a bit nervous anytime I traded with them."

"It seems clear we will not be able to trade for supplies until we leave Kazon space," Commander Tuvok observed.

Janeway nodded, "Agreed," she said with a small frown, "Neelix, do you know of any uninhabited systems where we can take on supplies?"

"Oh, absolutely captain! I know several that have plenty!"

Janeway nodded, "Get together with Commander Tuvok and mister Paris, plot us a course for everything we need," she said before tapping her com badge, "Janeway to Chakotay."

"Chakotay here."

"How's your ship doing?"

"We're fine over here. We took a bit of a beating but nothing we can't fix. We'll have our warp drive back up in thirty minutes. It looks like we have to locate supplies somewhere else."

"Agreed. Neelix says know of some uninhabited systems where we can gather enough supplies. Hopefully things will improve once we leave Kazon space."

"We can hope. Chakotay out."

Janeway turned to me again, "How soon can we get going?"

"When the Van Jean is ready. We only sustained minor damage," I answered, "I agree with Commander Tuvok, we should avoid the locals for the moment."

She nodded, "Alright. How are we on engineering supplies?"

"Good for now. But we best start looking for a way to replace photon torpedoes. We already lost over ten percent of our supply. I have some ideas, but I have to look into if any of them are possible."

"That should be a priority," Tuvok observed.

"Yes, Commander, I'll make sure to balance that against keeping the ship from falling apart," I told him a bit dryly.

"Alright," Janeway interjected, "Do what you can. Let's get going."

I disconnected from Munnin and turned my head to see Carey climb up onto the second level and approach with a PADD in his hand, "Yes?"

"Report from the damaged thruster. It's fixable, but somebody needs to go outside to weld a line," he said without preamble, "It works, but less efficiently right now."

I considered it for a second or two before I shook my head, "Leave it until we're in a parking orbit somewhere. Just alert the helm to be aware of it, we shouldn't stick around here longer than necessary."

"Yes sir," he agreed, "Other than that, the damage is mostly cosmetic. Shuttle two needed a look over, however; it had a bit of a rough landing."

"To say the least," I agreed with a small growl, "Put someone on it when we're underway."

 

[Hiver]

"We should do something."

I slowly blinked beneath my helmet and turned my head to look at Dinah. She was leaning against the wall of the shuttle's cargo bay, arms crossed. I was curled up the best I could to fit. Even so, I was on top of a lot of equipment.

Five people on the flight deck, another twenty going down in the second shuttle and another ten from the Val Jean in their shuttle.

I had to say, The Neelix may have come through this time. We had stayed in orbit around the M class world, scanning it and the surrounding system for a full day before deploying our shuttles.

No traps, no signals, no sign of Kazons or locals.

"...We're in the delta quadrant. There is not much to do."

"Just because we're in the delta quadrant does not mean we can't do stuff. Look, we're going to gather a bunch of food on this planet. We should have... I don't know, a harvest party or something when we return. Good for morale."

I tilted my head in thought, "That's not an awful idea I suppose. You should bring it up with the Captain."

"I will. And you could work on being more social."

I snorted at her, "I'm social."

"You're not social. I knew you during the academy, remember? You needed to be poked and prodded then and you do now too. We're going to be stuck on Voyager for decades, likely longer. You need more than one friend."

Growling at her, I then looked away.

Dinah rolled her eyes, "Zeph, stop being difficult. You know I'm right. Challenge Commander Tuvok to a game of Kal-toh or something."

"I never played Kal-toh."

"That one, not the point, and two, completely in your wheelhouse so you'd like it," she said with a frown, "What would your counselor say?"

"Likely something about social bonds being important," I grumbled.

She raised an eyebrow at me, "So?"

I sighed, "You're a pest, Navari."

"I'm also right."

I shifted and tried to get comfortable with a large cargo crate digging into my side, "Fine. I suppose you have a point."

"At least stop growling at people."

I growled at her and she laughed,

"Yes, like that."

Glowering at her from beneath my helmet, I then shook my head and a voice came from the comm system,

"Thirty seconds out. Landing site looks clear from here."

"Acknowledged," I answered Paris and settled down to wait for the last little bit. Damn it, shuttles were cramped without also being filled with cargo.

True to his word, the shuttle soon shuddered slightly and the soft hum died down to nothing.

Dinah climbed over a cargo box and hit the button to lower the rear ramp.

Sunshine filled the cargo bay and as the ramp lowered, more and more of thick vegetation at the edge of the clearing started to come into view. It was a mix of thick green and dark purple.

I slowly started to back out of the cargo bay, seeing the other two shuttles coming in to land close by.

Sniffing the air, I listened to the call of the flying... whatever they were in the distance, they didn't look like birds. If anything they looked like some sort of bird sized bat.

The air was full of smells.

Some more familiar than I liked as The Neelix climbed out of the other shuttle. It was tolerable out in the open air however so I ignored it.

"Everybody listen up," Chakotay said as he and his group walked up to join us. Janeway had allowed him to take charge of the away team.

Some good PR outreach thing I think.

"We'll set up the base here, starting with the perimeter fencing," he said, "That's our first priority. We'll start collecting supplies tomorrow, but we need to have the structures and defenses up before tonight."

As he rambled on, I instructed Huginn and Muninn to start unloading the shuttle to a spot a dozen or so meters away.

Meanwhile I smelled the air and stretched my wings, just enjoying the feeling of not being confined in a shoebox for once. The holodeck helped and so, but it just wasn't the same as the real deal.

"Lieutenant?" a voice asked and I turned my head.

"Torres," I acknowledged her, "My drones are unloading the fence components now. Enough for an area forty meters a side, I'm thinking we set it up in the middle of the clearing?"

My half klingon counterpart on the Maquis ship crossed her arms and nodded, "Seems as good a place as any," she agreed, "I'll get my people on it if your people set up the tents?"

"That seems reasonable," I agreed, "Just mark out the designated area where the fence will be."

It was just simpler to keep people down here to gather and collect than shuttle people up every night. It would take at least a few days to gather everything we needed so might as well be efficient about it.

Also, gave Carey and his group time to weld that thruster.

I activated my com, "Kiara, the Maquis group is going to mark out the fence location, get our people to set up the structures in that area."

"Understood, sir."

Closing the channel, I dug my claws slightly into the soft... not grass exactly? On closer examination it looked more like a kind of sort of fern than anything else.

Well, if they were doing that, Huginn and Muninn were unloading, I might as well make myself useful in turn.

Getting up, I took some running steps to gain some speed, spread my wings and climbed skywards. It was slightly more difficult than on Earth as the atmosphere was a hint thinner, but not significantly.

I circled around the clearing and then activated my tricorder as I started out over the forest.

Might as well use the excuse of mapping the area and scanning for food sources as I got some flying time in. Besides, I might spot something useful from up here if we're lucky. Like a fruit tree or a herd of animals or-

...A T-rex.

I looked down as I flew above the large animal I spotted through a breach in the trees. I shifted course to circle around for another look and damn if it didn't look like a t-rex. Not exactly, it was fuzzy for one thing.

It was covered in what looked like short brown fur and clearly had four eyes, but the proportions and size were damn close to spot on from what I remember..

"Zephyr to Chakotay," I commed.

"Chakotay here. How can I help you, Lieutenant?"

"I'm scouting the area from the air and thought I'd let you know that some of the locals are big and bitey. How do you feel about dinosaurs?"

He was quiet for a moment, "How big?"

"Well, I'm looking at a furry t-rex right now," I said and slowly circled, "I'm five kilometers from camp and it's moving slowly the other direction. You may want to hurry with that fence and we might have to rethink our gathering strategy."

"Acknowledged, keep me informed. Chakotay out."

 

[Hiver]

I shifted course slightly, adjusting my glide angle.

The deer thing made squeaking sounds and started to bounce away as it spotted me. It clearly was not used to escaping from flying predators.

I snatched it from the air mid leap, adjusting the position of my wings to take the additional weight and started to climb towards the sky as my claws cut through flesh and bone.

Banking around, I started to regain altitude back towards the camp.

The two days spent on this planet had been pretty enjoyable and the hunting was easy. The proto-deer had no clue how to deal with me and didn't seem to learn either. At the start I tried to land on them, but I soon learned to just time it to grab them mid jump.

No need trying to take off carrying a dead deer when I could just start in the air, way easier and faster. They tasted pretty good too, it was such a waste to put them in the hopper back at camp to be turned into emergency predator food packs and replicator slurry.

I need to try to bring one back intact for a replicator scan, that way I can have one anytime I like.

Maybe if I try stunning the next one instead of snatching it, that way I can bring it back alive and get the best possible scan.

Yes. That's a plan.

We don't have a food grade replicator big enough, but I'm sure I can rig something up. They're not that complex machines.

I swept over the camp before banking in a lazy S curve as I turned around, bleeding off speed before coming in for landing inside of the protecting forcefield fence. Picking the proto-deer up in my jaws, I headed for the processing tent.

Ensign Kim no longer turned slightly green when I approached, which was likely good but less amusing.

He motioned towards the machine set up outside the tent, "Hoppers free, sir."

I nodded and dropped the proto-deer in. The hatch closed and there was a humming sound as the... actually it's the same mechanism as a replicator... started to disassemble the animal into its various molecules.

I snorted, "Such a waste."

He frowned, "How do you mean?"

"Turning good meat into the same replicated stuff as everything else," I said and licked some blood off my muzzle, "Efficient, yes. Effective, yes. But they're good eating as is."

"Soon we won't need to hunt them at all, the algae we're growing in hydroponics produce plenty of protein," He said and focused on his tablet, "In a month or two we should reach a critical mass."

I nodded, "I suppose," I admitted, "And the other plants?"

"A bit longer, but they're coming along. It's good for morale to have non-replicated food around. And for our energy reserves." he said, "Kes is doing a really good job. "

"Yes she is," I said and stretched my wings a bit before folding them again, "How are we doing on supplies?"

Kim glanced on his tablet, "About three quarters. We're almost good on replicator feed, but we have a lot of supplies to ship back to the ships. The shuttles are on the way to load another set of those strange roots."

I eyed a large container that seemed filled to the brim by some sort of root Neelix insisted was a good source of food.

I was dubious. But I wasn't going to be eating it, and it scanned as non-toxic, so... worst case, we drop them into the recycler.

That gave me an idea however, "The food grade storage containers have a cooling element, don't they?"

"Yes, they can bring the contents down to negative forty celsius if necessary. Why?"

"I'm going to need one, I'm going to fill it with deer," I told him, "Emergency supply."

"I'm sure we can spare one, Lieutenant," he said and tapped on his tablet. He was slightly green again.

Well, he's new, he'll learn.

"Hey!"

I looked over, seeing Dinah and a group of gatherers approaching, escorting a cargosled piled high with some sort of purple fruit. Connecting to the net with my helmet, I turned off the section of fence they were approaching and moved to meet them.

"How did it go?" I asked.

Dinah shrugged, letting her compression rifle hang from its sling, "Went fine, some bitey things as you call them tried to nose about, but some phasers set on stun brought them down. None of the real big ones though, smaller quadruped ones."

"No F-rex on the sensor grid," I agreed, "But still, be careful."

I had dropped some sensor pods on a flight around the general area. Anything larger than me approaching sent out an alert to everybody.

"Don't want to run into a Faux Rex," Dinah admitted, "With my luck, it'd be phaser resistant."

"Maybe you should look into a projectile weapon. Phaser resistance is rare, immunity to just focused kinetic energy even more so."

Dinah grinned and reached up to redo the bob of black hair on her head, "What, one of those ancient elephant guns?"

"I was more thinking of a military caliber battle rifle, something from world war three or so, but sure," I agreed, "Or something more modern. Most space faring civilizations mostly use energy weapons for a reason, but I'm sure there is a place for a kinetic slugthrower in our arsenal."

"There actually are a few modern projectile weapons," Dinah mused, "I know TDD has a precision long range railgun. I don't think we have the plans for it in the database, but I have to check. Because you're right, it would be good if we had a few options if necessary, especially out here. We're in unknown space, for all we know phaser resistance is common out here."

I nodded, "If you don't find anything that fits, send me the requirements and I'll see what can be done. I'm sure I'll have the time to look at it sometime during the next fifty years."

She grinned, "I'll do that. How are you looking for food?"

"Replicator feed is about done, I'm going to see what I can snatch to put in a cooling container. Emergency rations."

That raised an eyebrow, "You know, we will just replicate emergency rations, right?"

"...Alright, it's mostly if I get snacky. I ate one and it was good."

Dinah shook her head and reached up to pat the end of my snout, "You do you, Zeph. Just keep safe, I don't like anyone wandering around out there on their own."

"I'm armed and a dragon," I said, pulling myself up to my full height, "There is nothing on this planet that can endanger me."

"Just keep an eye out, I don't want to find out you were wrong and an F-Rex managed to sneak up on you," She said with a small frown.

I snorted at her but nodded, "Of course."

"And don't eat too many deer, you'll make yourself sick."

"...Yes mother..." I grumbled and bumped her shoulder with my nose before carefully backing off and moving to somewhere I could take off again.

Critical resupply done, time to fill the snack box.

 

[Hiver]

Something tugged at my left horn, "Hey, wake up!"

I slowly blinked my eyes open and looked up at Dinah, "Huh?" I asked smartly. It was still dark out, the stars shimmering above. The only light was a faint glow from the forcefield fence, all other lights were off.

"Get up, we need to move," she said, her voice serious, "We got a call from Voyager, half a dozen Kazon ships are on the way, they'll reach orbit in ten minutes."

"Shit, they could swat us from orbit," I said, instantly awake and pushed myself onto my paws.

Dinah nodded, "Or send down landing craft. Voyager and the Val Jean are bugging out and will try to draw them off. There isn't time to take the shuttles up, we're evacuating the camp."

Into the dinosaur infested forest.

Isn't that just awesome.

"Come on, Chakotay is having everyone gather by the south fence for a briefing," she said and started in that direction. There were some additional lights there, looked like hand units.

I shook my head once, trying to get the last sleep out of my brain before I reached and put my helmet onto my head. Then I followed her towards the gathered group.

Chakotay looked around, "Alright, that's everyone. We don't have a lot of time, so I'll be brief. Our best shot is to split into small groups, no more than two or three. This will make it harder for their sensors to pick us out from the native wildlife. It's not in the Starfleet manual, but we learned that one in the Maquis."

"One concern," I said, "Two or three will be very easily eaten."

Chakotay shook his head, "We have phasers, Lieutenant, but firing them will show on sensors. Even if they don't have any handheld ones, their shuttles will. So everybody should avoid using them if at all possible. Spread out through the forest and find a tree to climb, keep away from the local wildlife."

Not really helping my monkeys thing, Chakotay.

"We can also put our tricorders on sensor scattering," Dinah said, "But keep it low level, just enough to disrupt your species signature. Keep them guessing."

"Alright, we're out of time," Chakotay said, "Everybody, spread out and keep com silent. Voyager or Val Jean will contact us when they return."

Everyone broke into teams and Torres walked and turned off the fence. The slight hum died down, and we were left with just the silence of the night and the hooting of some animal in the distance.

Dinah patted the side of my neck, "And I'm staying right next to the dragon."

We're dispersing through the jungle. Our best shot was to spread out, Chakotay was right there, but I could do things most of them couldn't. I discovered that much in training.

In fact, carrying gear would make me more easy to spot, not harder.

Hesitating for a second, I thought it through. My gear involved my helmet, which had a phaser in addition to my tricorder. Was the chance for it to get spotted worth having the phaser and tricorder?

The damn thing was painted Starfleet white. It'd stand out like a spotlight in a dark forest.

Damn it.

I turned my head and glanced at her, "You are not, you're going into a tree. I'm already almost impossible to pick up on sensors, I'm going to watch them land," I said and then reached up, taking off my helmet and passing it to Huginn, "Huginn, Muninn. Stealth mode, avoid and enter energy savings."

Both drones took off running towards the forest.

Dinah frowned at me in the darkness, "What are you doing?"

I started to remove my equipment harness, "Removing what will get me spotted. Now git and find a tree," I told her, "Stay safe."

Dinah looked like she wanted to argue, but there wasn't time. Instead she grabbed one of the Maquis, Seska I think, and they ran towards the edge of the forest.

The last buckle dropped and I stretched my wings before heading for the forest in turn with long strides.

I was barely half way when a flash drew my eye and I glanced up towards the stars. Weapons fire somewhere in orbit an-

For a second the landscape turned as bright as the day and I quickly looked away as something large detonated in orbit. That was a warpcore breach. I had seen those before.

I doubted they had taken out even the Val Jean that fast, so that had to have been one of the Kazon vessels. Well, if they're blowing up in orbit, they're not sending shuttles right now, nor have the attention to spare to fire at the planet.

Slowing down my stride, I focused out into the darkness and sniffed the air.

There were things in the darkness. Something was watching me from the edge of the forest.

I could see its eyes glint in the light of the stars and the battle above.

I growled softly, turning my attention in its direction and it disappeared into the underbrush.

That's right, look upon my magnificence and despair.

As I reached the edge of the forest, I glanced upwards again.

Lights seemed weaker.

The battle was moving away. Those fucking Kazon better not break my ship! I growled once more at that thought before I moved into the underbrush in a half circle until I found a good protected spot where it would be hard to sneak up on me while also giving me a view of the camp.

Making sure I wouldn't lay down on a nest of ants or something, I then settled down to wait.

As it was, I didn't need to wait that long. Soon contrails were forming above and circling around, soon resolving to the shape of four shuttles in the same kind of bronzeish red the Kazon coloured their ships in. Or rather, the colour their ships were in. It was base metal, you'd figure even primitives would have figured out paint, but apparently not. Well, not like it really mattered in space.

They circled above the abandoned camp before three of them started to go down to land while the last one started out over the forest, heading towards my right.

Kazon.

They exited their shuttles, weapons raised as they spread through the camp. One of them reached one of our shuttles before pressing one of the buttons by the ramp. It didn't lower.

We had kept them closed when not accessed to keep the vermin out.

Seems like it was working.

He then hit the panel with the butt of his weapon before wandering off towards one of the tents. As I watched, one of them yelled something and motioned above his head.

The leader?

He looked pretty much like the rest of them, no fancy hat or anything. But the rest seemed to listen to whatever he said as about half of them joined him and started towards the forest as the rest started to gather things from the camp to bring towards the shuttles.

The group heading towards the forest slowly spread out as they walked.

Slowly getting up, I eyed them.

The odds of actually finding anyone of the away team was tiny. But the longer we were in the forest, the more likely it was that somebody got themself eaten or forced to use their phaser and then spotted.

Taking a deep breath, I let out the loudest roar I could.

The Kazon froze in place.

Then they started to argue, weapons raising towards the forest to aim more or less in my direction. I just ducked and slowly moved away.

I just about kept them in sight as they finally continued towards the forest, this time in groups.

They want to play at hunting?

Very well, let's hunt.

 

[Hiver]

I moved slowly through the jungle, keeping somewhat low as I hunted my prey.

This was not how I was meant to hunt.

It felt slow. Silly even. No swoop down from above, just slow movements between trees. But these were not deer, they were thinking beings armed with energy weapons.

Which meant flying would not make me the hunter, it would make me skeet.

Which was blatantly unfair of them.

Still, they were pretty easy to track through the forest. Stepping on branches, pushing others aside.

Some even talked.

The sounds were getting closer and I stopped and waited. Movement, lights between the trees. I shifted slightly and waited as the duo was approaching. If I had judged their approximate course right, they were coming right towards me.

I closed my eyes to keep them from reflecting any of their light and listened, waiting.

"This is ridiculous! How can we possibly find anyone in this!?"

"Shut up, the Maje gave you an order. If we find the humans, we can use them to capture their ship!"

"But how are we going to find any-"

Opening my eyes, I judged the distance and pounced. My forepaws slammed into the front one, bringing him down as I snapped out with my jaws, catching the arm carrying the weapon of the second.

The first one didn't scream.

The second one certainly did as I ripped it off. Then he stopped as I swiped at him with my claws.

I dropped the arm onto the forest floor and continued on, making a point of crushing their weapons on the ground in case somebody tried to recover them.

I stopped and eyed the bodies while trying to get the taste of Kazon out of my mouth.

Ew.

Damn, what a useless species.

While planning, I had debated trying to take them both quietly, but decided it was too dangerous. Too easy to fuck up if I focused on that and let one of them get a shot off.

The screaming was a double edged sword really. It would make the rest alert that something had happened, but it might also get them to fuck off which would be even better.

Or it might draw them in this direction.

I continued on through the thick forest, moving silently and carefully.

A couple of minutes later, there was another scream followed by weapons fire somewhere in the distance. Then silence.

In the opposite way that any of the crew had moved off towards, which meant that the local wildlife were also giving them some troubles. Useful, not only giving me cover, but also helped possibly drive them off.

Anything that bought time for Voyager and Val Jean to get back here was a good thing.

The weird thing? I was actually trained for this.

While my role on SFI had been mainly research and development, SERE training was mandatory, which it wasn't in the regular fleet. I had spent two weeks in the Cambodian jungles, first learning and then taking a week long test where I had to avoid being captured.

Apparently, my natural camouflage along with my resistance to sensors made that really difficult for the ones hunting me.

Three days in I had gotten bored and started to hunt them in turn.

Then it had been 'tag, you're out'.

Now it was a lot more serious. I may be able to just leave and they'd never find me in this, but my crewmates were not that lucky.

I froze. Yelling ahead.

A weapon fired somewhere in the direction of the yelling.

More yelling.

Shit, they found someone.

I sped up slightly in that direction, still careful not to make any more sound than I had to. Seeing lights between the trees, I slowed down once more and started to circle around towards a spot between them and their shuttles.

Then I started to move closer again, finding that they had indeed found someone.

Chakotay and some Maquis I didn't know the name of, a blonde woman were both on the forest floor, arms cuffed behind their backs.

The blonde woman was unconscious, but Chakotay was most definitely awake and trying to talk to them.

The Kazon seemed to find this funny.

Problem was that there were half a dozen of them and even as I watched, another pair came crashing out of the underbrush to join them.

And they were all armed, no way would I be able to take all of them at once without one of them getting a shot off.

Sure, I could tank it if it was on stun, but if it was set any higher I would get seriously hurt. And while they were trying to find prisoners, I didn't trust these primitive screwheads not to fuck it up.

Damn.

I should have kept my helmet. It may show up on scans a lot easier than I do, but at least then I would have had my phaser. Lesson learned.

Didn't help me now, however. I had no clue where my drones had gone to ground and currently no way nor enough time to issue a recall signal.

My best chance is overwhelming force.

Hit them so hard and fast they didn't have a chance to effectively react and hope that if one of them did get a shot off, it would miss or be set on stun.

That was a bad fucking plan and I hated it.

What options did I have?

I could do nothing and just wait. They would take them back to their shuttle and then have hostages to threaten the rest with if they didn't surrender. If anyone did, that gave them more hostages.

I could wait until they were moving. But that would make them spread out and even more could arrive by then, making things even more dangerous.

Did I have any other options?

The best odds were to attack now.

Fuck, I hate that idea. Even so, I started to creep forward, keeping low and slow, eyes half closed to limit accidental reflections.

"You don't want to do this," Chakotay said, looking up at the Kazon I assumed was the highest rank in their current group, "We ca-ooph!"

He got a kick to the stomach for his trouble. The one facing more or less in my direction turned to look at the rest and laughed.

I charged and pounced, more or less jumping over him, slamming down with a rear leg and driving him into the ground as I swiped at the rest. I brought a second down with a foreleg as I landed and I slashed at two more as I tried to bite the last.

One went down, the other only got snagged and stumbled back, screaming.

The leader managed to just about avoid my bite, but I caught his weapon and tore it from his grasp. I spun around, smacking him hard enough to break bone with my tail as I pounced the one that I barely snagged.

His weapon went up one handed and he fired.

There was a searing pain against my chest and I slammed into him, bringing him down onto the ground with a snarl as my claws dug deep and there was a sound of snapping bone.

Growling, I looked down at myself, fearing the worst.

The scales on my chest looked scorched, but I didn't seem seriously damaged. It ached a bit, but I could move.

I turned my head, looking towards the one I smacked with my tail. He was laying in a heap next to a tree.

Growling a bit deeper, I turned towards Chakotay and the other Maquis.

He was laying very, very still.

"Chakotay," I told him as I moved closer, "I'm not a rabid animal. Playing dead would not help even if I were here to hurt instead of saving you."

"Didn't think you were," he answered with a cough, his voice strained, "Can you get these cuffs off?"

I eyed them and then hooked a claw into the links, feeling it, "...Not without risking hurting you. Which of them has the controller?"

He struggled up to sit and motioned with his head towards the leader crumbled on the forest floor, "That one."

I nodded and headed towards him when a pair of Kazon rushed out of the underbrush ten meters away.

They looked as surprised to see the scene before them as I was to see them.

Fuck, I didn't hear them at all!

They raised their weapons and I felt a surge of fear and fury even as I twisted to face them. They were too far away!

I roared in defiance.

The Kazon burned.

 

[Hiver]

Something tugged at one of my horns, bringing me out of my unconsciousness.

Into a splitting headache.

My eye slowly opened to glare up at the tiny monkey jabbering at me while tugging at my horn. For several long seconds I could neither recognize nor understand it, I just wanted it to die.

Or kill him.

Luckily for Chakotay, that would require moving so all I could do at the moment was wish doom on him and his entire ancestry back to when they climbed out of the ocean.

Slowly, slowly the ability to understand language and memories started to filter back in.

Understanding him didn't help my headache.

"-tenant Zephyr! You need to wake up!" he said, giving my horn another tug, shaking my head, "More will be coming, we have to move!"

More?

More what?

Fire burned at the other end of the small clearing. Shapes in the fire, a tree had started to burn as well.

The scent of burning flesh. Kazons. We were being hunted by Kazon.

...I breathed fire at them.

Memories kept flooding in. My head felt like somebody was holding a sledgehammer competition inside it, I could feel my blood flowing through every vein.

I am so glad my heart didn't beat as such and instead formed a constant flow due to eight chambers.

"Do you hear me!? Their shuttle will be heading to this location!"

I slowly blinked at him before I growled, "Stop shaking me," I said and pushed myself slowly to my paws, "I have a headache."

"Are you alright? You... breathed fire at them and then passed out?" Chakotay asked. He sounded worried.

"Never used those nerves before, not sure they were strictly ready," I said and half closed my eyes against the glare of the fire, "Go find a tree or something."

And please stop looking at me, it's not helping.

"They'll see the fire, they'll come here. We need to move, we're not leaving you here, Lieutenant."

The other human was sitting on the forest floor, her head in her hands.

"You two go," I said, "I have better odds alone. They can't use sensors to find me."

"You were shot, can you move?"

I rumbled a growl, "Barely scorched my scales," I said and forced myself onto my paws. Hell, compared to my exterminatus sized headache, I barely felt it, "Now go," I told him before I started towards the forest, instantly stumbling.

I hit the forest floor before I could do anything to stop it.

Chakotay scampered back and managed to avoid me landing on him. So I guess he had some sense.

He let out a curse in some language I didn't know and looked around before scooping up one of the Kazons weapons and looking at the other human, "Jessica, can you move?"

"I can," she answered and picked herself off the ground. She looked about as good as I felt. She walked over to the base of one of the trees and picked up a pair of hand phasers before tossing one of them over to him.

Chakotay caught it before turning back to me, "Lieutenant, on your feet! We're not leaving you, you can barely stand, yet alone fight. We need to move and we can't carry you! So get up!"

Growling, I considered snapping at him, but I couldn't find any actual problems with his logic.

My head hurt.

I wanted to sleep.

But I pushed myself back onto my paws. Chakotay gave my side a push, "Just walk, straight ahead, one foot in front of the others."

The other human, Jessica something I think, she was a crewman on Voyager, was poking at her tricorder as we started to move, "I'm increasing the strength of the scattering field. That will help cover us."

"Good," Chakotay said, "I'll keep him moving, see what you can do about covering our tracks."

Later, I could barely remember what happened next. It was mostly a blur of pushing through thick brush in the middle of the night.

Next thing I remember clearly was opening my eyes and finding the uncomfortably bright as the sunlight filtered in through the forest canopy above. Something had woken me up and- the sound of an explosion echoed through the forest.

Chakotay and the other human Jessica were on their feet, phasers in hand as they scanned the forest around us.

Chakotay's combadge buzzed and he tapped it, "Chakotay here."

"Chakotay, this is Janeway. Are you alright?"

"We're alive, but I don't know about the rest. I have a member of your crew and Lieutenant Zephyr with me. We spread out into the jungle when the Kazon started to land."

"We're contacting the others now, we just blew the Kazons airborn shuttle out of the air," Janeway answered, "Return to camp, we're sending two more shuttles down to take the area back."

"What of the Kazon ships?"

"We retreated to the moons of the outermost planet and managed to set up an ambush, they have left the system," Janeway said, "I'll explain more later. But we should drive the rest out of camp and get our people off the surface as soon as we can."

I pushed myself up to sit, "No, Captain," I said, "We need to pack our gear up. We have time."

"Lieutenant, the Kazon may be going for reinforcements."

"No, Captain," I said, wishing that she would talk more quietly, "That does not fit their psychology, they're scavagers and we scared them off. If they had more ships, they would have brought more ships to start with. Likely this was a single clan and that may have been all their ships in the area. We have time."

Chakotay slowly nodded, "I think he may be right," he said as he looked at me, "We should hurry, but if we don't bring what we gathered here all of this would have been a waste."

"...Alright," Janeway finally agreed, "Launching shuttles now, they'll be on site in ten minutes. We have been able to reach all members of the away team. There's some injuries, some of which are serious, but everyone is alive. Transmitting a rendezvous point now."

Chakotay pulled his tricorder and checked it before he nodded, "Got it. We'll get moving. Chakotay out," he said and tapped his com badge before looking at me, "Glad to see you awake, Lieutenant."

I slowly blinked at him, "Thank you, Captain," I said before I snorted, "...I'm not sure how much use I will be for a while."

He smiled briefly, "Don't worry about that, you've done plenty. All you need to do is to follow us."

I nodded and quickly closed my eyes, regretting that fact before I answered, "...Set your tricorder to send out a beacon on 3.1415 megahertz. It'll recall my drones to our position. They may be of use."

And they'll bring my helmet which I can set to filter out a lot of this damn light.

Oh and it had my phaser in it, but at the moment that seemed way less important than my apocalyptic migraine.

"Done," He said after a second, "We need to move, we're two kilometers away from where we're meeting up with the rest."

Oh, joy.