The Voyage Without

[Hiver]

"It's heavier," Dinah said as she lifted the coilgun.

"Nope," I said, lounging close by as I watched, "Feel it again."

She glanced at me with a slight frown, shifting the weapon in her hands, hefting it slightly, "...You're right, it's not heavier. It resists my movements a bit."

"You wanted an internal inertial dampener," I told her, "You get an internal inertial dampener. It dampens inertia."

Dinah frowned, "Gonna make it a bit awkward to use."

"Can't just turn it on for a millisecond when you fire," I explained patiently, "It takes too long. You can spike it when you fire, but it has to be at a certain level already."

She nodded and loaded a magazine. The weapon whined softly for a second and the back of it turned green. She raised it towards the target some thirty meters away, visibly braced herself before she took aim.

Then she pulled the trigger.

There was a sharp crack of displaced air as the metal dart that was the projectile exited the weapon at several times the speed of sound and absolutely obliterated the watermelon.

The dart had actually been one of the more interesting things in the project. The rest had been fairly simple, some even using off the shelf components, it was just a matter of putting them together.

But the actual projectile I was kinda proud of. It used the same kind of aerodynamic properties as hypersonic in atmosphere crafts used to minimize sonic booms. Because of the size and the sudden impact with air at the end of the vacuum filled barrel, you couldn't be rid of all of it.

Even so, it wasn't any louder than slamming a book on a table.

What more, the default version was designed to collapse into a kind of, almost dust like material when it impacted anything more solid than air. Which at that speed was almost anything. So not only was there no risk it'll go straight through half the ship or puncture the hull, it also put all of its energy into the target instead of wasting any of it by going straight through. It had significant kinetic energy.

There was also a version that was just a solid penetrator.

When you did want to puncture the hull or armor of something instead of making the target explode from hydrostatic shock.

Dinah lowered the weapon and worked her shoulder, "That's a lot better," she admitted, "It still kicks a bit, but nowhere near as much."

"Can't spike it any higher in that short a time."

She nodded and flicked a small switch with her thumb before she frowned and moved it back and forth, "You added another fire mode."

"Three round burst," I agreed, "A middle mode."

Dinah nodded and moved the selector to it before she raised the weapon again and took aim at the respawned melon.

Craaak.

It exploded once more.

"That didn't feel any stronger," she commented.

"More time, so it can ramp it up higher," I agreed with a nod.

Dinah nodded slowly, "Any progress with your drone idea?" she asked.

I snorted, "I dropped the manager idea, it wasn't feasible with the time and resources available. I have a new one. The ship has plenty of bio-neural gel packs in use. I'll have the drones offload that part of their processing to the ship. I'm working on the software to make it as seamless as possible."

She frowned a bit, "Isn't there a danger that they won't work right in an emergency?"

I glowered at her, "So get me an example of how to make working positronic matrices and I'll get you an army of Datas. I can only work with what I have access to. The Federation has the resources of hundred and fifty member worlds. What do I have?"

"Alright, alright," she agreed and flipped the switch, taking aim and bracing before she fired a long burst.

The melon never knew what hit it.

"Damn," she mused, lowering the weapon, "Didn't kick at all, it just pressed against my shoulder and held there. Kinda difficult to shift my aim though."

"Inertial dampening resists movements," I agreed, "Kinda in the name."

"Yeah, yeah," she agreed as she reloaded, "What's the idea with the sight on this thing? I haven't seen an iron sight since the last time I was at a war museum."

I shifted my wings to mimic a shrug, "Backup when everything else fails. Figured I'd keep it simple for the prototype. You can fit whatever you like on the mounting spots on top."

She nodded, "Hey, could you give this thing smart ammo? It does not have the aim assist of a phaser, so I was thin-" she trailed off as she saw the look I was shooting her.

"Dinah, do I need to remind you how many hours a day we have?"

"...No..." she admitted, "Sorry. So underslung phaser is out too?"

I snorted, "I can get you a roll of tape and a hand phaser."

She grinned, "Yeah, I guess we can just carry a regular hand phaser too. This is a bit of a specialty weapon, isn't it?"

"Yep," I agreed, "In pretty much every situation where the target is not immune to phasers, phasers are a better choice. They give you more options, easier to resupply, easier to use, easier to repair."

"You know," Dinah mused, looking at the weapon in her hands, "I bet it would work great against Borg."

"Possibly," I agreed, "To my knowledge, nobody has tried projectile weapons against their drones. But it seems like such a blatant weakness that I can't see them not having shields capable of dealing with it. What I can see is them being less efficient about it. Projectile weapons are not exactly common, can't see them having specialty equipment on them for it. They would need to tune the personal shields for kinetic projectiles. That's… not efficient for personal shielding."

They ground out against the floor whenever you move. Maybe they had a way around that, but as it was not a common thing to need to do, I would bet against it.

Dinah nodded, "You're likely right," she said, "Alright, seems to be working a lot better now. I'll bring my team in and we'll run it through its paces in the holodeck, see if we can find any bugs and how it will integrate in doctrine. Assuming we find none, how fast can you make them?"

I shook my head, "They're nothing special, they replicate just fine out of the box. Only thing that needs anything exotic and doesn't replicate is the power cells and they take standard phaser ones. Once you have what you want, I'll put somebody on translating it into a replicator schematic from the hologram. Say another week or two building one by hand from the replicated parts to make sure it's actually serviceable and then you can replicate however many you want."

"Awesome," she agreed and then looked thoughtful, "Can't see us needing more than half a dozen really. Phaser resistant beings are not that common."

"Dinah, you're talking to one."

"And how many others have you met?"

I tilted my head, "On my first away mission I beat the crap out of a giant alien lizard that took phaser blasts to the face and didn't even care."

"Alright, but in the context of the galaxy it's not common."

"If it was, we'll be armed with slug throwers and not phasers," I agreed, "But having options just in case is a good thing. We're Starfleet, our backups have backups."

"Damn right they do. Now... dinner?"

I shook my head, "Not if Neelix is there."

"Damn, forgot. He's not that bad, just a bit musky as he gets close."

"Dinah, you're human. Your species is as close to nose blind as any in the galaxy. Mine is a lot better. Not full spectrum, but I can smell blood and smoke from kilometers away. And his... natural scent... is smack in my highest perception area. I suspect I could seal him in a spacesuit and still be able to detect him."

"That does make things more difficult," she said, "I see your point, we could eat at the lounge? I have some replicator rations."

"Alright," I agreed.

 

[Hiver]

I kept half an eye on the sensors of the ship as I went through the reports and logs from deltashift.

A dozen ships could be seen moving about, from small shuttles to one that looked like some sort of bulk freighter. We were currently visiting a trade station Neexlis thought may have some of the rarer materials we needed.

Specifically for the guidance system of photon torpedoes.

Personally, I thought this was the spot that had the highest risk of an ambush. Plenty of traffic to hide their approach in.

At least we wouldn't be docking, the away team would shuttle over to the station to see if they could find what we wanted. Hopefully we could get some or I may have to go with Torres' idea and start building older generation torpedoes.

Which honestly, we likely should anyway.

Nothing we encountered so far really rated modern photon torpedoes, other than the Caretaker's array.

Still a bit pissed at Tuvok for using our only tricobalt devices on that one. Antimatter would have been plenty. But I guess I couldn't blame them too much, we couldn't let anything as crazily advanced as fucking teleportation tech come into the hands of the Kazon.

Or maybe we could have, I doubt they would have been able to figure it out.

Nothing to do about it now.

The ships moved slowly back and forth, a pair of small shapes moved what looked like a massive container from the large ship and headed towards the station. As I watched, a shuttle left Voyager for the station.

Neelix, Harry Kim and Tuvok.

"Hey, Chief?"

I banished the reports from my visor, "Yes Hunt?"

She was looking back at me from her console, "Wanna have a look at this? I have... something strange."

Getting to my paws, I crossed over to peer over her shoulder at the readings, "...That has to be a sensor glitch," I said after a second, "I really doubt the captain's ready room is at sixteen hundred kelvin. You'd think she would have mentioned it."

"That's what I thought too," she said, "But diagnostics shows clear on it."

"Is the captain's ready room currently a raging inferno?"

She shook her head, "No, sir. I even asked Ensign Dormes to check."

He had the Ops station during Alpha shift if Kim was unavailable.

"And?"

"No raging inferno," she admitted again and sighed, "I just can't figure out why the temperature sensor thinks it is. Diagnostics says it's fine."

I nodded, sitting down, "Go through the diagnostics steps. Is it the issue with the sensor, the computer or the environment?"

She frowned, brushing her hair back, "...Diagnostics says the sensor is fine. The ready room is not actually on fire. Has to be in the computer."

"Then that's the next step," I said, "Run a diagnostic."

Hunt turned back to her screen and tapped through the LCARs interface. She frowned and then shook her head, "Everything shows green."

Interesting.

"And the sensor?"

"...Still shows hot," she said.

"Next course of action?" I asked her.

She frowned for several seconds before she shook her head, "I'm going up there, I need eyes on that sensor."

I nodded and got up, getting out of her way, "Sometimes the best way," I agreed, "Let me know what you find."

"Yes, chief, thanks," she agreed and moved to grab a toolbox and head out.

Hunt's a good engineer. She just has a tendency to trust the computer a bit too much and has some trouble sometimes in making leaps of logic.

"Computer," I said, "Run a diagnostic of the power system in the captain's ready room. Are there any anomalies?"

"Confirmed. One anomaly detected. Power drain detected."

Yep. Something was arcing a bit. The temperature sensor was usually mounted by one of the lighting panels. Bet there was a tiny spark just by it.

She'll get there.

I checked the external sensors once more. The shuttle was almost at the station.

No signs of Kazon vessels so far. Problem was that if they showed up here, we had no solid proof it was or wasn't someone on the Val Jean that was working with them. Somebody on the station could have called them in.

So in many ways, this was the worst time they could show up.

I moved back to my usual spot, climbing up to the upper level before settling down and going back to my reports.

There were times I regretted taking the chief engineer position. Even disregarding the entire 'thrown across the galaxy' bit, I spent a lot less time being claws on now than ever before.

But it was part of the job.

And this was really the last position where I got to do any of it.

Next step up from chief engineer was executive officer. That was something like ninety percent managing the crew and ten percent bridge duty.

Step after that was Captain and those two switched around a bit.

Neither of which involved being horns deep in mechanical stuff, tinkering.

But that's the price to pay if you want your own command.

And admiral? Forget it. Politics, resource allocation discussions. Meetings upon meetings. Usually station or planet bound.

So maybe being stuck out here wasn't the worst that could happen. What's worse however, is that I'm third in command.

Tuvok and Janeway better keep themselves alive, I don't want to be stuck doing their jobs for the next seventy years. I'll invent a hyperdrive out of pure self defense before I let that happen.

"Hunt to Zephyr."

"Zephyr here."

"I found the issue, sir. There was a power short close to the sensor, it was throwing the readings off. All fixed."

"Good work, Ensign."

 

[Hiver]

I looked out the window. The station was clearly visible a couple of kilometers away from the ship.

"It seems like this was not the spot," I finally said, turning my head back to Janeway.

"At least not yet," she said, standing next to me in the mess hall, looking out the window. Once again, it was ship's night, close to one in the morning.

But apparently she had to make sure she didn't get too much blood in her caffeine stream or she'll revert to human form from coffee elemental.

"Hmm," I agreed, "If I were them, this is where I would do it. The place is not heavily defended and plenty of traffic to blend in with for a surprise attack."

Janeway sighed softly, "I had hoped you were wrong."

I looked at her in surprise, "How come?"

"Because I thought that Chakotay was to be trusted."

I considered that for a long moment and then shook my head, "Not sure about trust, but even if he's not, I'm fairly sure he's smart enough to know that working with the Kazon is idiotic. Even if they win, they won't let him have the ship."

Janeway turned to me, leaning a hip against the table, "I'd think that anyone would be smart enough to figure that much out. So what's the motive?"

She had a point.

It was the only thing that made sense, but what was the motive? Not like they could have the Kazon take Voyager and then sneak off with it while they were squabbling about who would keep it.

Hell, even if they did, and had the entire Maquis crew to help, they couldn't run a ship this size.

We're on a skeleton crew as is, that's why I'm working on the drones!

"I don't know," I admitted after a long moment, looking at her, "You have an idea, Captain?"

Janeway sighed, "I've been thinking about what the motive might be. I have come up with two."

"Which is?"

"Somebody that's given up on trying to get back home," she said and sipped her coffee, "Either because they don't want to or because they don't think they will survive getting there and don't want to live their lives on a cramped raider. So they're using this to buy standing and status among the Kazon."

I slowly nodded, "That... almost makes sense, but the Kazon would never honor anything like that."

"There is also the second factor. Either alone, or combined with the first," Janeway said with a small dry smile, "Revenge against me for stranding them here."

"That works as a motive," I agreed and then tilted my head, "and in case you wonder, Captain, I do not blame you for ordering the array destroyed. It was an urgent and dangerous situation. The Kazon could not be allowed to gain access to that kind of technology."

She just nodded slightly, looking at the station in the distance.

"Nor do I think anyone in the crew are," I continued seriously, "There is regret they won't see their families for a while, but this is why we're out here in the first place. To explore the unknown. And it does not get much more unknown than this."

"That is one way to look at it," Janeway admitted, "Thank you."

"Of course, if we'd been in... say Andromeda instead of just across the galaxy, people may have been a bit more miffed," I then mused, "We actually have a chance to get back from here, assuming I can hold this tub together."

She nodded, "How's things going with the drone project?"

"Progressing, but I had to go back to the drawing board when it comes to the programming to add a more distributed architecture. The Managing programming didn't work out, too many variables. So I'm having the drones offload the difficult parts of the thinking on the ship's bio-neural backed computer. It's not ideal and has issues of its own, especially during emergencies, but it'll work for now."

"Any timeframe?"

I shifted my wings in a slight shrug, "Having the computer doing tests on the code as we speak. Assuming it'll work out, I plan to flash the new OS on one of the test units tomorrow. A couple of weeks of testing and if it works, we can deploy them as quickly as we can build them."

"That's great news."

"If it works," I cautioned her, "Captain, this is quite a departure from my normal design and a big leap from one that's being tested back home. There are a lot of things that can go wrong."

Janeway nodded, "I understand. But even if they could take over the most menial tasks, that will save our people a lot of manhours."

"Indeed," I agreed, "I also plan to do some special units. Dumb as the current model, but tougher, larger, armored and for away missions. I'm thinking of one assigned to each person on the away mission. Carry equipment, lift heavy things, get in the way of phaser fire, that sort of thing. Let us not only enhance our people, but preserve them as well as we can."

She smiled, "I like it. Get me the proposal as soon as you have a design ready."

"Will do in my copious amount of free time, sir."

Janeway regarded me, "You do realize that preserving the crew includes yourself? I can't have my chief engineer burning out."

I snorted in annoyance, "And our alternative is what at the moment?"

"Just try to take some time to disconnect sometimes," She said and then sipped her coffee, "I'll make it an order if I have to. We're going to be traveling for decades, I need you functioning."

I took a breath and glanced towards the station and then back to her, nodding, "I will, Captain. It will get better once we start getting to a critical number of drones, unloading my people. That'll ripple upwards, freeing everyone up. And taking that project off my plate as well."

"Any other ideas?"

"Millions," I said and bared my teeth slightly, "Very few practical. And sadly none that actually shorten our trip... well, for the rest of the galaxy anyway."

"Oh?"

I nodded, "Had a vague idea about time dilation. Reconfigure the warpdrive to power a shield before the ship and then soup up the impulse engines and turn the ship into a light hugger. We'll be home in a couple of years, subjective."

Janeway frowned, "You could do that?"

"In theory I think I can get the ship reconfigured into being able to pull something like it," I said and shrugged my wings, "Only problem is that it's subjective time. By the time we reached where we were going, seventy thousand years would have passed. It would be a bit of a moot point in going by then, it wouldn't be home anymore. Might as well set up a colony here if we're considering that. Would be safer and have the same effect."

"Not much point," Janeway admitted, "I had not even considered that idea."

"Nope," I agreed and then tilted my head, "...I actually looked it up in the database, did you know that Starfleet actually has two lighthuggers in operation?"

She looked at me in surprise, "We do?"

"Yep. On a five hundred year round trip, left a hundred years ago," I said, "USS Hope and USS Panacea. Both crewed completely by people suffering of Derugi Blood Plague. Built and launched in hope that by the time they return, there would be a cure. Subjective, their trip will take about a year."

"We know where they are?"

I nodded, "Starfleet have them on track. We don't have a cure yet, but we know where they are so when we do, we can signal them to slow down early."

"I wonder why they chose that instead of cryostasis."

"Maybe because they wanted to see what was happening and not just trust themselves to some vault somewhere," I said and then mimicked a shrug with my wings, "I should get some sleep. Good night, Captain."

"Good night, Lieutenant."

 

[Hiver]

Alarms blared and something somewhere was filling the air with foul smelling smoke, making it impossible to see from one end of engineering to the other.

Everybody, including me, had donned breathing equipment, but it didn't help much.

"I can't get the flow converter online!" Carey yelled somewhere from the top level.

"Hunt!" I said loudly, "We need the flow constrictor on now or we'll lose her!"

"Working on it!" she answered from somewhere behind the warp core. The deck shuddered again somewhere and another section of the schematic in my visor display lit up in red. We just blew a primary EPS conduit.

We lost most of port side deck three along with it.

"Chief, it's not engaging!" Hunt yelled, "The flow constrictor is fused inside the core!"

Shit.

"Alright, everybody out!" I yelled, "We're dumping the core!"

"We'll be dead in the water!"

"And if not, we'll just be dead! Out! Now!"

Everybody evacuated, running for the closest exit. I watched the pressure quickly rise and the ship trembled as another conduit blew in the port nacelle.

As soon as I was sure everyone else was out, I bounced towards the closest exit and slammed the emergency lockdown button.

Heavy blast doors closed in less than two seconds, sealing engineering off from the rest of the ship.

My claws scraped against the deck and my side slammed against the corridor wall from the speed, bringing me to a halt.

"Computer, eject the warp core, no delay. Authorization Zephyr-Gamma-Tau-Iota-Omicron," I said loudly, ears still ringing from the alarms.

There was a ripple fire sound of explosive bolts from inside engineering and then a K-THUNK sound like somebody had just jump slammed a locomotive, the deck kicking against my paws and then silence, the alarms kicking off.

"Well, Crap," Carey sighed, rubbing his face with both hands.

"Not too bad," I said and pulled away from the only slightly dented walls, raising my head and looking around, doing a quick headcount, "Well done everyone. Exactly according to procedure."

"Does not exactly help us, does it chief?" Crewman Anders asked, crossing his arms.

"No, but that's why we practice," I said, "I'm sure every single one of you can follow procedure in your sleep by now, you'd been running drills since the academy, but we're seventy years from the closest repair ship," I told him, "So we need to be better than that. We're already the best crew in the fleet, now we need to be the best crew in the galaxy. Which is why the drill hasn't ended. We have a warp core to reinstall."

They stared at me.

I stared back, "Well? Do you need a written invitation? Go fetch!"

That got them moving, Carey directing about half to the shuttlebay to go retrieve the core. Meanwhile, I unlocked engineering, the doors sliding back up, revealing a good mess.

And an empty spot with a sealed emergency bulkhead at each end where the warp core used to be.

Debris from the explosive bolts everywhere, the air thick with dust as the environmental system struggled to slowly clear it.

So glad this is in the holodeck and not for real. Reinstalling the warp core is a pain in the tail as is, but it needed to be repaired first outside the ship. But even that was less work than cleaning up this mess.

"Any idea where we went wrong yet?" Carey asked as he walked up next to me, looking out over the mess.

I shook my head, "Not yet, but I bet it has something to do with the antimatter flow regulator. I don't think the backup ever kicked in."

"That's an unlikely fault."

I snorted, "No kidding. But put enough light years in and I bet we get all kinds of unlikely faults. I asked the computer to make something up."

"True that," He agreed and let out a sigh, "Well, if we're reinstalling the core, we'll be here for another six hours. Might as well get to it."

"Indee-" I started to say before my com beeped, "Zephyr here."

"Lieutenant, report to the bridge," The Captain's voice said.

"Acknowledged," I said and tilted my head as I closed the channel, "...Well, damn."

Carey looked amused, "Too bad you just became a casualty, chief," he said, "How would you like it to be?"

"Slipped on a piece of debris and fell into an EPS conduit," I said, "Seems like you're in charge now," and then headed out of engineering, "Computer, Arch."

Exiting the holodeck, I left all the dust, smoke and debris behind, the door closing and even removing all the noise.

I shook my head and snorted.

That damn burning plastic smell seemed stuck in my nose however. Sometimes the holodeck was too realistic. Still couldn't pull off taste however.

Finding the closest turbolift, I folded myself into it and headed for the bridge. Luckily, it was only some twenty seconds before I could exit onto it.

I flexed my wings slightly and moved around the side of the bridge, "Captain?" I asked, looking at her.

She motioned towards the viewscreen, "What are your thoughts on this?"

I turned to look and for a split second I felt rage as hot as the hottest star.

The black cube shape floated in empty space, but it wasn't a Borg cube. In fact, it seemed made from black obsidian, slowly tumbling through the nothing. And the scale said it was maybe a hundred meters across each face.

Slowly sitting down, I watched the view screen before I shook my head, "I have no idea, Captain. Energy readings?"

"Nothing," Kim answered from behind me, "But it's a perfect cube. It was a complete accident that we even saw it: it was in our way or we would never have noticed it from a random space rock."

"Solid?"

"As far as we can tell," Kim agreed, "No markings, just smooth sides. Sensors say it's made mostly from silicon dioxide and iron sulfide."

"Glass," Paris said and glanced back towards us, "Black glass?"

Hundredish meter cube of black glass? Completely uniform?

That was not natural in any way.

"Not a warning I think," I mused, "For it to be a warning, people need to easily spot it. Some sort of monument? Artwork? Memorial perhaps."

"All possibilities," Commander Tuvok agreed, "We should take careful readings, but should take care not to disturb it in case it is a monument."

"Agreed," Janeway said with a nod, "Mister Paris, bring us in a circular path around the object, one kilometer distance. With the tumble, we should be able to get a full scan of the artifact from all angles."

I eyed it. Last time there was a seemingly passive piece of junk, it slithered into my brain. But this one didn't seem to be reacting at all.

I moved towards one of the consoles at the side of the bridge, "I'll back calculate a course," I said, "Figure out where it came from."

 

[Hiver]

I looked around the meeting room, "Well, the computer managed to calculate the track of the artifact back about four million years before the variables become too much to be accurate," I said and brought the path up onto the main screen on the wall using a flick of my eyes in my visor.

"Four million years," Janeway said, "Old. Very old."

"Actually," I continued, looking at her, "It's over eighty million years old."

"How do you figure that?" Kim asked.

I glanced at her, "The ship's computer lost track after about four million years due to gravimetric variables, stellar drift, orbits, slingshots and such. The thing in my head had no such issues it seemed and narrowed the possibilities down, just don't ask me how it did it. I finally found a real use for it. I looked at all the data we had and if all of it is accurate, this is the system that was the source of the artifact," I continued and zoomed out, extending the course, "Approximately eighty seven million years ago."

"Eighty seven?" Janeway asked with a frown, "Is that accurate?"

"Well," I admitted, "I don't know. But so far my ancient alien supercomputer has yet to be wrong. And that cube out there is even older than it is. For all I know, the same people built it."

"It is known that the galaxy has sustained advanced life for well over a billion years," Tuvok said, "We may think of the Iconians as an ancient lost race, but they were lost a mere two hundred thousand years ago."

I nodded, "You know what bothers me about knowing that? Where are they?"

"It is a long time, Lieutenant," Tuvok said, "Things decay with time. No civilization lasts forever."

"Perhaps not," I admitted, "I don't see why, but that's a different matter. Say life started getting advanced enough for space travel a billion years ago. We should be seeing dyson spheres all over the place. Dyson swarms, ring worlds, megastructures. Swarms of abandoned ships. Yes, space is big, but a billion years. What do we find? The random artifact left behind. Nothing else."

Dinah shifted in her seat, looking towards Janeway.

Janeway slowly nodded, "Actually Lieutenant, that's not… quite accurate."

I turned my head to her, "What?"

"We have found one dyson sphere," she said, "It's classified, captains and above, unless there is need to know. Lieutenant Navari knows however."

I stared at her, "You do!?"

Dinah nodded, "I was there when it was discovered. It was just before I left the Enterprise."

I slowly blinked, "...Why is it classified? That's… that's the biggest xenoarchaeology find of… ever!"

Literally.

"And it's much more advanced than we are, than any known species," Janeway said, "The technology found may be the key to defend the Federation against the Borg."

A dyson sphere.

Effectively unlimited living space. And we had one.

"Can we use it?"

Janeway shook her head, "The star is unstable, randomly washing the inside with radiation. Largest non-plant based life found is about the size of a gerbil."

"That's amazing," Ensign Kim said, "But… Why let us know, Captain? If it is need to know?"

She smiled, "Because it may become relevant. Besides, I don't see it still being a secret by the time we get back home."

I slowly nodded, "I have so many questions. Could I gain access to those files? That's fascinating."

I know what posting I'm applying to as soon as we get back home! Hell, if I knew about it back then I would be there, not here!

The Captain nodded and then motioned towards the screen, "Yes, But we are a bit off topic. How far to that system?"

"About a thousand lightyears," I said and sighed, "So that's a good trip," before I shifted my wings, "Luckily, it's not that far off our course! If we shift course slightly after meeting up with the Val Jean, we'll be able to get there in roughly a year, delaying our return by about a month."

Captain Janeway leaned back in her seat with a thoughtful look on her face before she looked to Tuvok, "Commander?"

"If there was a civilization there still, they may very well be able to assist us," he said, "However, it is unlikely."

I nodded in agreement. Oldest known space faring species was the Rokiti. They had a small ten system empire in the Alpha quadrant and they had been spacefaring for about fifty thousand years. Kinda gecko like. If you squint hard.

They were not an expansive species. Their technology was more advanced than ours but not by a lot, and they were friendly enough, but had no interest in other species nor expansion.

They had an ambassador on Earth to the Federation, I knew that much. I think it was mostly to keep us from bothering them however.

"If they're still there, they might also be hostile," Dinah cautioned, "But I think it's worth the risk. All likelihood, we'll not find anything but dust."

"Even if they lasted for millions of years after they launched this… whatever it is…the likeliest thing is that they have been gone for dozens of millions of years," I agreed, "For there to be anything left, they would need to build extremely tough. Even stuff in orbit is likely to be gone by now, just from orbital drift."

"Could be worth a shot," Paris said, "Even if they're gone, we might be able to find something."

Kim nodded, "Yeah, even if it's only a couple of artifacts it could be worth the detour."

"Alright," Janeway said, "Mister Paris, plot the course change for after we meet back up with the Val Jean. We have all the readings we're getting, we might as well be on our way. How are we looking for our next destination?"

Paris nodded, "We're about five days out if we leave now at cruising speed. We lost about a day here, if we step it up a bit, we'll be back to schedule."

"Make it so."

 

[Hiver]

"Hey Zeph."

I glanced up from the decent sized PADD laying on the table as Dinah approached, "Hey. Shift over?"

"Shift over," she agreed and sank down across from me, "So… I've been thinking."

"Yes?"

"I want to see the fire breath."

I blinked at her, "...I don't even know how to do it again," I admitted, "and I'm not sure I want to. It put me off my paws and gave me a splitting migraine."

Dinah nodded, "I know, but you said you had a headache from learning to fly too and it went away with practice. And wouldn't it be really good to be able to pull that out if necessary?"

Growling softly, I shook my head, "...I hate that you're right."

"So?"

I sighed and slid the PADD to the side, Huginn picking it up and putting it into a bag, "Where to? Holodeck?"

Dinah smiled, "Actually, I was thinking shuttlebay. Holodeck would work nicely enough I think, but I'm thinking shuttlebay, aimed at the forcefield. Just in case it does not act like normal fire, it is a psi thing after all."

"Yeah, make sense," I agreed and let out a sigh as I got to my paws. That forcefield was tuned to keep only air inside, it'd let any kind of energy straight through.

This was going to suck. But she was right. I had to know if I could do it again, and even more, if I could do it without knocking myself out.

But I knew how badly it hurt last time.

Learning to fly was nothing compared to that. I moved to follow Dinah, Huginn bringing up the rear.

As we walked, Dinah glanced back at me, "Should I call Kes? In case we need a medic?"

I shook my head, "No, no use. If it knocks me out, nothing to do about it. Just wait for me to wake up," I grumbled, "Maybe throw a pillow beneath my head as I drop."

"I'll see what I can do?" Dinah said with a raised eyebrow.

I chuckled as we entered the docking bay. The shuttles and worker bees were to the side, giving us plenty of space. As we walked out into the open space, I did my habitual stretch.

Ooooh, that's good.

Dinah looked at me in amusement but didn't comment. I folded my wings and sighed softly before heading towards the center, glancing at her, "Here seems good?"

"As good as any," Dinah agreed and pulled out a tricorder, "Whenever you're ready?"

I didn't really want to do this.

Turning towards the dark window facing the stars that was the entry to the docking bay, I looked out at the star streaks of the warp field.

Only then I realized I had no idea how to actually breathe fire. Last time had been purely instinctual, fueled by rage.

Shifting a bit I opened my mouth and breathed out hard.

"Awesome job," Dinah said with an amused grin, "You know, how about I get you some garlic, that might also work as a breath weapon."

I shot her a glare and then turned back to focus, shifting position slightly.

Fire. Rage. Danger.

Taking a deep breath, I tried again, trying for the feeling I had when using my wings.

"Does it usually come with that much slobber?"

I glowered at her, "I'm fifty times your size and made of teeth and claws."

Dinah just looked amused, "Go on, don't let me interrupt."

Growling to myself, I turned back towards the empty space. I closed my eyes and took slow deep breaths, raising my head.

Focus.

Dark forest. Sounds. Cracking of branches.

Kazon bursting through the bushes, weapons raising towards me. Threatening me, taking what's mine.

A Cube floating in space, green lights.

Opening my eyes and opening my jaws and fire ignited, lashing out in front of me towards the forcefield.

Starting as a thin stream, it exploded into a firestorm meters wide until it smashed against the exterior forcefield and was turned aside, blooming outwards.

I snapped my jaws closed and raised my head, the fire dying down to nothing.

How's that for slobber?

"Wow!" Dinah exclaimed, "Do you have any idea what temperature you hit there!?"

"Not really," I said and then moved to sit down, "...But a better question is, how am I still conscious?"

"How's the headache?"

"...It isn't," I said, "I don't feel any different than normal. It's strange."

Dinah frowned, "Really? Not at all?"

I shook my head, "No headache, no nothing," I said and shifted my claws, "I… huh."

"What?"

I tilted my head, "Well," I mused, "...We're pretty sure the alien supercomputer in my head was built by my species, right?"

"Best theory we have anyway," Dinah agreed, "You think it's helping?"

"...Best I can figure," I agreed and then snorted, "Thinking about it, I can't remember having had a headache since it infiltrated my brain. Here's a better question, is it actually helping or just masking the symptoms and if I use the fire again now, I'll blow a circuit?"

Dinah frowned and closed her tricorder, "Let's not find out, alright?"

"That's what I'm thinking too," I agreed with a nod and then looked at her, "...How hot did it get?"

That drew a grin, "The hottest part, just where it formed just before your muzzle? It would melt through steel."

I didn't preen.

Rumors of such are hurtful and inaccurate.

 

[Hiver]

The EMH studied the readings from the big sensor he had stuck to the side of my head.

To stop it sticking more things in through my nose, I had some specialty sensor equipment built. Even more powerful than the stuff from the Institute. A similar design, just poured more power into the scan which helped a bit.

That along with direct contact worked pretty well actually.

Not as good as a regular medical tricorder of a vulcan or human, but well enough.

"Well?" I asked after it 'hmmed' for the third time.

"Well," the EMH said, "I don't detect any sign of damage or stress after your experiment. But something is going on, the alien mechanism has grown."

My eyes widened slightly and I looked at it, "Grown!?"

"Approximately two centimeters further along," it confirmed, "It now fully covers your brainstem and has started on the spine. This is actually excellent news."

I stared at the EMH, "...In what universe is an alien supercomputer slowly engulfing my central neurosystem good news!?"

The EMH raised an eyebrow, "One where it grows with you and doesn't crush your brain as it tries to get larger but isn't allowed to because it's surrounded by close to invulnerable smart matter."

Oh.

"Good point," I admitted, "Still, that's worrying. What is it growing from?"

"Presumably it gathers what it needs from your food and bloodstream," the EMH mused, "if the rate stays constant, it'll take close to half a century for it to reach the end of your tail. Of course, that's only if it keeps to the spine and by then you will be even larger. If it also starts to branch out along your peripheral and collateral nerves, it'll likely never catch up with your growth, assuming it keeps to current rate of replication."

I nodded in agreement, "More of it could create more of it?"

It shrugged, "Unknown, I can't even speculate on how it's doing it at this time. But even if it were, it would be limited by how much material it can harvest to replicate. As you have not noticed being hungrier than usual and as it's not stripmining you to grow, it seems very careful not to harm you."

I slowly shifted my wings slightly, "So if I adjusted what I ate, I could likely slow it down or speed it up?"

"Possibly. if we could figure out what it's made of."

He had a point. To every scanner we had, it seemed to be normal inert material. Mostly gold. Nothing I ate had any gold in it.

For all we knew, it pulled on my psionics to make more of itself or pulled energy from subspace or fucking fairydust.

I felt like a caveman trying to figure out a countergrav module.

There had to be more to this thing than a calculator and gravity sensor! Fucking gecko sitting on the dashboard of a shuttlecraft, catching some sun.

The light through the window was nice and warm, so it has to be there as a heating spot.

Not sure what's more frustrating, that I fucking poked the thing in the first place or that I couldn't figure out how to make it work!

I refuse to believe somebody made something like this so they wouldn't have to carry around a pocket calculator. And the user interface sucks. Just have the information appear in my mind like I always knew it? With no track of how I got there!?

At least show it like a HUD, you stupid piece of crap!

Nope.

Nothing. I just looked at sickbay. Gravity like it had been since I woke up with this damn thing in my head.

Huh. That was something to test, how far away could I feel the gravity. Kinda dumb I didn't think of that before now.

I looked around the sickbay. I could feel it in here, that's for sure.

Closing my eyes, I focused on knowing the strength of gravity. I couldn't feel any big balls of it, so it wasn't interstellar range, so that's inter-

What.

I can't feel it in the corridor. But that's closer than the other side of sickbay! And I knew gravity there was 9.8 meters per second per second. Exactly, the grav plates in sickbay were well calibrated.

Getting to my paws, I walked out into the corridor where Dinah was waiting. I looked down each end of it, slowly sinking down to sit, "It's fucking line of sight!? That makes even less sense!"

Dinah frowned at me, "What?"

I sighed, "Long story short, I'm fine, the thing seems to be growing slowly, and I just discovered that that gravity sense it's giving me? It's line of sight."

Dinah looked at me strangely, "Hang on, back up. It's growing!?"

"Slowly along my spine, it has gotten about two centimeters," I said and waved a forepaw, "It's not important right now. If it wanted to flesh puppet me, it already all across my brain and brainstem, it doesn't need the spine. What bothers me is the gravity sense it gives me. Since when is gravity line of sight!?"

Dinah blinked, "...It's not. In fact, it's notoriously hard to contain at all as it's a curvature in spacetime."

"Correct. So how come I can know the strength and direction of gravity only when there is a direc-"

I stumbled as I suddenly felt the entire ship, knew the strength of gravity in every single nook, every direction, variation, every disturbance, every fold in space. I could feel the bending of the warp field around us, every fluctuation, the slight shifting of gravity waves through the level of spacetime we were moving across, how they interacted with the warp field and inertial dampeners, how-

I wanted it gone. I wanted it gone. I wanted it go-

The torrent the size of an ocean stopped as suddenly as it started and I sagged, leaning against the wall, panting, my eyes closed.

"Zeph!" Dinah exclaimed, "What happened!" as she rushed up and took my muzzle in her hands, "Are you alright!?"

I slowly blinked, trying to get my brain working again, "I... there is a fluctuation in carbobay six, port corner," I said, sounding as stunned as I felt, "And I think I got my answer."

"What?" she asked, sounding worried.

"The thing gave me exactly what I asked for," I said and slowly pushed myself up to sit on my own, "It stopped filtering from line of sight and gave me everything. I suddenly... knew gravity in the entire ship, not just here. And not just the ship, every fluctuation, every shift of the warp field, everything. It was just too much. And then stopped when I wanted me to."

"Oh," Dinah said, her eyes wide, "You got it to answer you!"

"I..." I slowly blinked, "I got it to do something. Something that wasn't just automatic."

"And it almost burned out your brain."

I slowly shook my head, "No... no, it didn't," I said slowly, "I don't think it would hurt me, I think it's there to help me, I think that's what my people made it for in the first place. It was just a lot, too much for me to handle, but it didn't hurt me. I wonder if..."

I focused again, once more on my gravity sense. Not a lot, just try-

Oh.

"That works!" I exclaimed, jumping to my paws, causing Dinah to quickly pull back, "I can adjust it! I know gravity in a twenty meters sphere! And back to line of sight and back to sphere and next room over and YES!"

Dinah eyed me, "You have control?"

I nodded, "Yes, when it comes to gravity sense at least. It's..." I said and shifted my wings, thinking on how to explain, "It's a bit like focusing your eyes. You don't think about it, you just do it."

She nodded slowly and then pointed at the door I just came from, "Back to sickbay, time for another scan."

"Best," I agreed and let out a sigh before carefully turning to walk back inside.

But I couldn't be too annoyed, I was too happy that I actually managed some conscious control of the thing for the first time!

 

[Hiver]

"Well, they sure are smarter," Carey said where he stood next to me as we watched Zero and One conduct maintenance to the shuttle's main deflector dish.

The order Zero had been given had been 'look after shuttle three'.

The drone had walked up to it, run diagnostics, found a fault I created in the deflector dish, realized it needed more hands and gone fetch One from the charging station in engineering.

Then both proceeded to get to work.

So far, they seemed almost as capable as Huginn and Muninn.

"It's a bit weird that they don't talk though," he then continued after a minute.

I blinked and turned my head to look at him, "...You want them to talk?"

"It's just a bit weird that they give you a PADD with what they want instead of just telling you," he said with a shrug, "Seems like a flaw in case of an emergency."

I liked that my drones didn't babble on. But I also had a visor to make the entire thing more seamless.

"...I'll make adjustments so they can speak to you," I sighed, "Just don't complain when they're not exactly good conversationalists. They're not made to be anything of the sort."

"Just sounds a bit more user friendly," he agreed, crossing his arms as the two drones slowly extracted the deflector dish from the shuttlecraft.

Not to me, but what do I know, I'm not a monkey. Besides, trying to keep humans from anthropomorphising things is a lost cause, I caught people naming their tools.

Might as well let them do what makes them happy.

I should put a section for a nametag on them, where the combadge would be if they were people. If I don't, people will start to mark them themselves to be able to tell them apart.

"I'll leave you to it," I said and headed out of the docking bay.

Another week of testing and then I think we could start production. Fifty or so should give us a nice amount of slack in manpower that we desperately need. It'll free up crewmen from routine maintenance, which would put less pressure on officers and let them do more interesting tasks. Which would increase morale.

The entire thing would ripple upwards and the end result would be me not needing to do twelve hour days anymore and may actually be able to put some effort into trying to find us a way back early.

Alright, that was a bit of wishful thinking.

But if I didn't have the time to actually try, the chance was zero which is a lot worse than almost zero.

Besides, I had seventy years to work at it, surely I'll be able to figure out something to get us home.

'Success! I have invented the wormhole drive! We will be home in less than a week!'

'We arrived two months ago,' says Dinah's grandchild, the current Captain.

'Fuck.'

I wasn't sure if I wanted to be amused or annoyed at that thought, so chose amused. Still, that was an interesting thought. Nobody has ever made a functioning artificial wormhole before, but in theory there was nothing to stop you from doing so. We already messed about with bending subspace using warp drives as a matter of course and a wormhole was basically a fold in spacetime between two points in space, using a tunnel through subspace.

Any thoughts, supercomputer?

I'm hungry,

...Fairly sure that was from me and not the alien supercomputer in my brain. Even so, it was a good idea and I headed for the lounge. It was mid shift, which meant Neelix would be in the mess hall. So I went to the other end of the ship to eat.

As I walked, I played with the gravity sense. I had not dared to try for max size again, that had been seriously too much. But shifting it around, growing and shrinking it was really neat.

It could even let me perceive subspace in a way, if indirectly.

Honestly, this was better than the calculator function, if more circumstantial.

Even so, gecko on the dashboard of a shuttlecraft. Look at me, I'm sunning.

Frustrating.

Grumble grumble.

Entering the lounge, I moved towards my usual table by the window as Huginn changed course and headed for the replicator, soon moving to put a large tray of mixed meats before me. Some cooked in various ways, some raw.

Yum.

"Lieutenant, do you have a moment?"

I looked away from my meal and swallowed a raw chunk of seal to find Tom Paris standing next to the table. I regarded him for a moment before I motioned towards the opposite chair, "if you don't mind me eating."

He shook his head and moved to sit down, "No, of course not," he said and frowned, being quiet for a long moment, waiting for me to swallow a roast chicken, "You don't like me."

I eyed him, "I feel like we had this conversation."

Paris nodded, "We did," he said and sighed, "And... it has been stuck in my mind."

"And?"

He took a breath and then let it out, leaning back in his chair, "...You were right in a way," he said, "That's who I was. It's not who I want to be. Who I am now."

"Words can be as light as a feather or as heavy as a star. There is no way to know which until they meet reality. You say you want to be better? That you are now?" I asked, "Don't tell me about it, just be."

Paris lips pressed together for a second before he nodded firmly once, "Alright," he said, "I... have a favor to ask."

"Asking is free."

"Once you've eaten, I would like you to come with me to see the Captain. There is something I need to tell her and I want you there as an... unbiased witness."

Swallowing a chunk of raw Taranodon, I then tilted my head in question, "I don't like you. I don't trust you. Hardly unbiased."

"Regarding this, I think you would be," he said and crossed his arms, "And I think Captain Janeway would appreciate you being there as well."

"Any hints?"

He shook his head, "Best if I only tell it once."

"Very well."

 

[Hiver]

I followed Paris into the Captain's ready room and moved to sit down as the door closed behind me.

"Alright, what's this about?" Captain Janeway asked with a smile as she looked between us.

"I have no idea," I admitted and motioned towards a very serious looking Paris with a forepaw, "This is his show, he wanted me as a witness for some reason."

Janeway nodded and looked at him, "Very well, Tom. What's going on."

"There is something I need to tell you," he said and sighed, "And I wanted Lieutenant Zephyr here for it for security."

Her eyebrow went up, "Security?"

"Yours, Captain. What I will tell you, will make you uncomfortable," Paris said and moved to sit down on the couch on the other side of the room, "With good reason. I was born second of May, 2347. I was born with a birth defect that had been missed. Have you heard of GGSA?"

Janeway nodded with a small frown, "Gelidus Gene Sequence Anomaly. It's caused by being subjected to radiation during the gestation process without it being discovered. It causes brain damage."

Paris nodded, "Correct."

"But it can be cured with gene therapy," she continued.

Paris shook his head, leaning back against the couch, arms resting along it, "Cured. Yeah, it can be cured," he said dryly, "For a version of cured. I went from never being able to learn to tie my shoelaces, to being able to do basic mathematics."

I studied him, my wings shifting slightly.

He smiled a bit, "Big guy gets it."

Janeway looked at me and I just nodded and kept my eyes on Paris, waiting for him to continue.

"It was not good enough for my father," he continued, his voice a bit quieter, "He wanted me to follow in his footsteps into Starfleet, be an exemplary specimen of the Paris family line. Instead he got me."

He took a breath and let it out, "So he fixed the problem. Genetic engineering got me to stop drooling, a little more to get me up to a normal level surely wouldn't be too bad."

Janeway didn't say anything, so I did.

"And what would be a little extra hurt," I said, "Nobody would notice if you got a little extra edge, right?"

Paris snapped his fingers and pointed at me, "Enhanced memory, enhanced reflexes, enhanced hand-eye coordination, perfect balance and spatial sense" he confirmed, "All 'technically' within human limits."

I snorted, "Camouflage? You expect me to believe that you were a screwup all your life to hide?"

He shook his head, "No," he said and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, "Don't need genetic enhancement to be a fuckup. It just makes me better at that too."

Janeway regarded him for several long seconds before she asked, "So why tell us now? After all this long?"

"Because I'm tired of hiding it. I'm tired of being afraid of saying the wrong thing, accidentally revealing I remember something I shouldn't," he said quietly, looking at the floor, "Move too fast to catch something falling. I had a talk with Zephyr a few months ago, asking what he had against me, why he seems to dislike me so much. He said some very forceful and... true things about my character. When I was stuck in that cave, I... I couldn't keep thinking that if I was out in the open, maybe I could have kept someone from getting hurt."

He raised his head and shook it, "No, I didn't slow down to keep hidden and let someone get hurt," he clarified, "But... I don't know, I kept thinking that if they knew, maybe I could have gone first or been in a position to tackle both of them out of the way and not just Harry."

"Observe, the scary augment in his natural habitat; self loathing," I said dryly, "Behold, the ubermensch in all his glory."

That got a reaction and he got to his feet, glaring at me, "What the hell is your problem!?"

"Oh woe is me, I'm slightly better at playing Memory and Darts than the rest of the monkeys, whatever shall I do, how will I possibly go on," I snorted, "It's my daddy's fault I'm no longer completely inferior in ability to a random Vulcan."

He stared at me and then collapsed back into the couch again, rubbing his face with the palms of his hands for a second, "You truly do not care."

"Not even slightly," I said, "So you're genetically enhanced to be the perfect fuckup. Is that meant to be impressive?"

Janeway got up from her chair and rounded the desk, walking to sit down on the couch, shooting me a look on the way before she turned to Paris, "If this came out at home, Admiral Paris would be ruined. Prison time would be likely," she said.

Paris nodded, "I figure he'll be long dead by the time we get back anyway," he said and then shrugged a bit, "And quite frankly, I no longer care. I want to do better, be better than I have been, Captain. And I can't do that while trying to hide."

She just nodded in turn, "If you are going to be open about it, there may be members of the crew that have problems with it," she told him.

"You're not putting me in the brig then?"

That got a smile from Janeway, "And be rid of my best pilot? I don't think so. Besides, the only crime of yours was hiding it when signing up to Starfleet. Being the one modified, you are the victim, not the one breaking the law."

Paris took a deep breath and nodded, "I'm done hiding," he said "I just wanted to let you know first, Captain. I'll tell everyone else during tomorrow's senior staff meeting."

"Hopefully with less melodramatics," I commented.

Seriously, why am I even here? I have actual work to do.

"Before then," Janeway said, "I want you to go to sickbay and let the doctor do a full battery of tests. Including testing your enhanced abilities."

Paris nodded, "Of course, Captain. And I'm going to stop sandbagging. From now on, You'll get my full abilities."

I regarded him for a second, "How good is your memory?"

"Fully photographic," he said and shrugged, "I remember everything I see, hear, read, everything. It's really easy for me to pick up new skills. I still need to practice to get good at them however."

"Good," I said with a nod, "Memorize the ship's technical manual. That might be useful in case all computers go down to have somebody else that knows it inside and out."

"I already have," he sighed and crossed his arms, looking at Janeway, "so what now, Captain?"

"Now, you have a sickbay appointment," she said, "And I'm glad you finally decided to tell us."

"You're not disappointed?"

"Surprised, that's all," she said, "But none of what was done to you was your choice. And I always knew you could do better than you were. Just know that I expect you to do so from now on."

That got a smile from him and he nodded, "Yes, Captain. I will."

"I still don't like you," I told him, "I still think you're a problem waiting to happen and lack anything approaching a spine. This is proof of nothing, one datapoint does not make a trend."

He just nodded to me once, "I know. I'll show you that I can be better than I have been. Thank you for coming with me, Lieutenant," he said before he got up, "Captain," he said and then left the ready room.

I remained, looking towards the door before I snorted and shook my head, "Yes, I'm sure I was necessary for this. I'm sure you were terrified of the scary augment, Captain."

Janeway stood up and walked up to me, "What he just did was very difficult, Lieutenant," she told me with a disapproving frown.

"It was," I confirmed, "Brave, even. But like I said, one datapoint does not make a trend. Until he's proven he can be trusted not to fold to pressure and get us all killed, I don't trust him. Me lying to him about it helps nobody, let alone him," I said and then looked at her, "Will this cause issues, Captain?"

She shook her head, "I'm not sure," she admitted, "Everyone knows Tom at least somewhat by now, that will help. But some people still have strong feelings about augments."

I just snorted.

Humans.

Even this far in the future, everyone is accepted other than this specific group because they're scary and different.

"Yes, of course. Because when I see Paris I think 'he reminds me of Khan Noonien Singh'," I said, "The likeness of them is uncanny, they could be twins. Mind if I get going? I need to get back to engineering."

"Go ahead, Lieutenant."

 

[Hiver]

"Can you believe Tom is an augment?" Dinah asked, sitting on the craggy rock.

"For several reasons, no," I said, turning my head to look at her, "For one thing, Paris is not an augment. He was genetically resequenced in his childhood. Augments were designed before being implanted in a womb. And second, no, I did not suspect it. I am impressed, he's an even bigger fuckup than I ever suspected. It takes talent to fail so hard while being superior to most people around you."

Dinah frowned, "You really don't like him, do you?"

I shook my head and turned back to look out across the grasslands beneath the tall cliff, "I don't. When things get tough, he folds, gives up and looks for the easiest way out. The man can not be trusted and I have no idea what the Captain is thinking making him a pilot, no matter his skills."

"He really isn't a bad guy."

"Never said he is bad," I countered, "I said he'll likely get people killed," and then launched off the cliff, spreading my wings as I headed down. I swept across the rocks and out over the grasslands towards the small herd of green deer things.

They spotted me, letting out squeaks and tried to run.

I swept across the group and dove down, my foreclaws finding their mark, digging through bone and flesh as I pulled up, beating my wings hard.

Climbing back into the air, I banked and headed back up onto the cliff.

Circling above once, I dropped the deer far in on the cliff so it didn't bounce off before I came in to land again opposite the direction of the wind.

Spreading my wings, I flared and caught the wind, my paws setting down on the ground and I headed back to settle back down next to Dinah again.

She sighed, "I get that this entire thing was made by Starfleet counselors, but do you have to hunt things as cute as that deer?"

I eyed her in amusement, "Would you suggest targs instead?"

Dinah shook her head, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs, resting her chin on her knees, "Not really," she admitted, "It's just different from most of humanity."

"I'm not human."

"You were, once."

I tilted my head before shaking it, "Maybe. Either I was human and was turned into a dragon, or was a dragon with either real or fake human memories imprinted. The end result is that I have been running on a dragon brain for a long time now. And just as a brain injury can change your personality, so did this. I may or may not have been human, but what I am is a dragon. If my species actually exists or not is up in the air, but I am the way I am because I am what I am."

"Spent a lot of time thinking about that, huh?"

I chuckled, "Quite a lot, yes," I agreed and then bumped the tip of my snout against her shoulder, "...Does any of it bother you? You asked to come today."

Dinah smiled a bit and shook her head, lifting a hand to rest on the bridge of my snout, "Zeph, you're my best friend. You can be scary when you want to, but you don't scare me. You can be judgmental and incredibly stubborn when you set your mind to it. I'd almost call you arrogant if you weren't almost as good as you think you are."

I snorted, "What do you mean, almost?"

She grinned and rubbed along the bridge of my nose, "My point is, that you're my best friend. So yes, you do things that bother me sometimes. As I'm sure, do I."

"You can be overly loud and energetic and have way too big social batteries. And you're my best friend too."

"No! Do-"

I gave her a big lick straight along the face.

"-n't. Damn it, Zeph!" she groaned and ran her hands down her face, "stop that!"

"Stop what?" I asked innocently.

She glowered at me before she grinned, "I'll get you back, you know."

"You will try," I agreed and settled down, putting my head on the rock next to her, "So things about Paris bother you?"

"...A bit, I guess," Dinah admitted and looked out over the grasslands, "I thought we had gotten to know him."

"Had you not?"

"I don't know, this is kinda big, you know?" she said and looked at me, "You didn't grow up with it, you don't know. Not really.. But we learned all about the eugenic wars in school. Augments were these... Zeph, they were monsters the lot of them."

"And that's different from any other wannabe dictator ever?"

She shook her head, "I'm serious. Sociopaths, smarter, stronger, faster. There weren't a lot of them and they still almost conquered the entire planet, and did it from the shadows so people didn't even notice until it was almost too late. In the uprising, hundreds of millions died and was the seed to lead to world war three."

"Paris is not an augment."

Dinah frowned, "There is a saying that stuck to me. Superior ability breeds superior ambition."

I snorted, "That's stupid. Ability can be natural or not. I'm superior in ability to most forms of life. What of it?"

Dinah's eyebrow went up, "Zeph, you claim the universe and everything in it as yours."

"As is natural," I agreed, "But that's my instincts talking, besides not the entire universe, simply the local group. I'm not sure my species were made to be spacefaring and see more than across the horizon. But that's not my point. My point is that ability or not has nothing to do with ambition, it only lets you reach your ambition. Saying superior ability breeds superior ambition says that your species are bound to want to conquer. Do you wish to conquer the world?"

"Not particularly, no."

I nodded, "If you could, would you?"

"No. Would you?"

I blinked up at her, "Why would I? It's already mine and the current caretakers are doing a decent enough job. Can you imagine having to do that directly, I wouldn't have time for anything fun," I teased and raised my head, "No, superior ability does not breed superior ambition. All it does is give you a better chance of succeeding. And the only ambition I see in Paris is to be able to hustle somebody at cards. In a moneyless society."

Dinah smiled a bit, "I guess you have a point," she said and shook her head, "I guess I'm mostly hurt because he lied."

"Did he?" I asked, "Has the subject come up? Have you told him every one of your secrets? If you had any that could scuttle your career, would you tell him?"

"I get it," she sighed, "When did you get so good at emotional stuff?"

"Weekly counselor meetings for years," I pointed out and turned my head to look out over the grasslands below as I caught movement, "And while I may not think like one, I do remember what it was like to be human."

Also, I thought this entire thing was so dumb.

Dinah's hand came up to the tip of my snout to turn my head away from what I was looking at, "Will you stop killing harmless woodland critters!" she protested.

"This is literally a hunting simulation," I told her, "It's good for my mental health."

"Could we go for a flight instead? That's fun."

I nodded, "Sure. Want me to put my uniform on so you have something to hang on to?"

"If you want me to actually be able to stay on your back," she said and shook her head, "We tried without once, it did not end well. Maybe I should try for an actual saddle or something at some point."

"I thought primates are meant to be good at climbing. You dishonor your entire evolutionary line."

"Your back is smooth! There is nothing to hang on to!" Dinah protested and climbed to her feet, "Ah! My legs have fallen asleep!"

I shifted my head to be in easy grabbing distance in case she was about to fall.

Can't believe I used to be human once, they're such a silly species.