Surefoot 40: Baptism of Fire

Misha looked at him directly, looking stunned now. "Sasha no family?"

Hrelle reached up and gently smoothed down the truculent tufts of fur on the top of his son's head. "Of course she is! It doesn't matter if I helped make her, or if I was married to her mother, or if she was adopted or just came to live with us. You don't have to share blood or race or marriage to be family! All you need is Love. I'm her Papa, as I'm yours, and she's your sister-"

An alert from Tactical caught his attention, and he looked over to see C'Rash frowning, her tone and speech changing. "Captain, we're in sensor range of the Ajax now... but they've just jumped to high warp."

"Are they coming here to meet us?"

"No, Sir- they're heading- it looks like the direction of the Klingon Front..."

"What? Have we received an alert about an enemy offensive that I wasn't told about?"

"No, Sir!"

He glanced at Lt Neheru at Ops. "Hail them." He looked back at Misha. "Go to your Mama in Sickbay."

Misha picked up the tension in his father's voice and scent. "No, I stay, I help-"

"No, you go. Now." He looked over at Ensign Yeager at the Auxiliary Engineering station. "Nancy, take him there, and hurry back." He rose and approached Ops, waiting and listening for his son departing before barking, "Report."

Neheru glanced up at him. "They're not responding, Sir!"

"Captain!" C'Rash cut in. "The Ajax has launched a volley of torpedoes, aft! Six, detonating, one after the other- but I'm detecting no vessels in pursuit-"

The Cosmostrator... "Red Alert!" As the klaxon sounded, he continued. "Helm! Set a course to intercept, Maximum Warp! Tactical, arm all weapons!"

As the crew moved to obey, he faced forward, watching the space dilate around them as they cheated physics once again to cross the immense distances to reach his daughter. His heart felt like it was racing even faster out to her.

Beside him, T'Varik drew up. "Captain-"

He never looked away from the screen. "There was an incident, involving Weynik and myself, before I met Sasha's mother... we fought the Cosmostrator-"

"I am unfamiliar with that vessel."

"It wasn't a vessel, it was... Classified. But those torpedoes, in that sequence, is a signal we developed at that time for each other."

"And the signal, Sir?"

"'We're In Trouble. Help.'"

*

The fighting had paused, for which Sasha was grateful; the disruptors were getting hot in her hands.

"Starfleet!" one of them called out to her. "What are you called? We want to know the name of the one we are sending to Sto-Vo-Kor in a moment!"

She had managed to slide open the adjacent locker, looking for weapons -- no, of course not. There's everything else: antigrav units, fire suppression blankets, sealant kits, thruster packs for exosuits, degaussers, torches... "Lieutenant Sasha Hrelle, Second Officer, USS Ajax." After a pause she added, "Daughter of Captain Esek Hrelle, USS Surefoot."

That shut them up... and gave her a heartbeat to formulate a plan.

She drew out one of the thruster packs, confirmed it contained quaratum: powerful, but potentially highly flammable... under the right circumstances.

"Surefoot?" the Klingon echoed. "You are the daughter of the one who destroyed the Guvagh Task Force with one ship? You are the daughter of the Fat Cat?"

She grunted, checking which disruptor had more power remaining, before opening one of the blankets and unfurling it. "He's not fat, he's big-boned."

The Klingon laughed. "I have seen you, Lieutenant. You don't have his looks!"

She checked out the size of the blanket; it should work. Hopefully. "I don't need his looks. I have his balls."

The Klingon laughed again. "Well said, Lieutenant! It will be an honour to kill you! Today is a good day to die!"

She readied herself, holding one of the thruster packs in her hand. "Sorry, Bubulah. Dying's the last thing I'll ever do." Shit. Shit, shit, shit, she was really going to do this, wasn't she? She leaned out into the alcove and swung her arm out in a wide arc, sending the thruster pack in their direction, watching it strike the side of their barricade and bounce onto their side -- staying in view.

Swiftly she raised the disruptor and fired repeatedly, striking the pack, cracking it open. The Klingons made sounds of alarm and began firing back at her. She kept still, kept firing, it had to work, it had to work-

It flared a blinding white, and she released her hold on the disruptor and dropped into a fetal ball, pulling the blanket up over her head. There was a deafening roar, swallowing the cries of the Klingons, and the overpressure and heat suffused the blanket. She took a last breath, closed her eyes and covered her nose and mouth with her hand, feeling like one of those meal packs that cooked in their own bags.

And she realised that this was how she was going to die...

*

Deck 3 Mid -- Shuttlebay 1:

Weynik emerged from the bottom of the hatch, starting as he saw Lt Madison, crouching over the bloodied body of a crewman. He raced over, phaser in hand, identifying the wounded man as Crewman Narevl. "Report!"

Madison's hands moved between an open medical kit and the wounded man. "We found him by the Cockpit, Sir!"

He looked around. Sasha... "Where's Lt Hrelle?"

"Down there, holding them off! She needs help! Should I-"

"Stay here, keep working! I'll go." He raced outward and down the corridor. If they've hurt her, he'll rip them all to pieces, all of them-

A wall of heated air struck him like a wave, sending him backwards to the floor, and he raised a hand to cover his face as the air was quickly followed by red-orange flames that ate the air and painted the walls, ceilings and floor, rushing towards him...

But then ebbing, and stopping about three metres away from him, and finally dying away, leaving thick, acrid smoke, and a corridor covered in a thin, black ash.

Bloody Hemra... He coughed, covering his mouth even as he heard the ship's fire control systems drawing out the smoke and cooling the heated surfaces.

The silence was broken with a chirp from Weynik's combadge, and Kohanim's voice. "Sir, something's happened, we've regained full control again-"

Weynik cut him off. "Red Alert! Bring us to a full stop! We need Medical, Security and Damage Control teams to Decks 2 and 3 Forward! And contact the Surefoot, tell them to get here, fast!" He helped himself back to his feet and raced forward. It had been a flashfire, and the smell reminded him of a quaratum burn he once experienced during an exosuit malfunction in a Shuttlebay on another vessel.

Then he turned the corner, and saw the heart of the flashfire.

"SASHA!"

*

She felt like she was swimming in blackness, lost, not knowing which way was up.

Then she moved towards the voice that announced, "She's coming round."

She felt a large, warm, furry, familiar hand around hers, and with a weak whisper and what she hoped was a smile she identified it. "Dad."

"Got it right the first time, Runt of the Litter."

She felt hands at her temples, removing something from her eyes, as a strange, sibilant voice informed her, "Lieutenant, we have repaired the damage to your retinas and eardrums and the burns to your skin. You can be released from here tomorrow, but you must take it easy for the next couple of days."

She nodded, opening her eyes -- and starting at the sight of the reptilian figure standing beside her Sickbay biobed. For a horrible, embarrassing second, her mind shot back to the Vlathi, before she reminded herself that this was Roke'naar, the Gorn civilian medic onboard the Ajax as part of a medical exchange program. She forced herself to relax, looking up and saying, "Thanks, Doctor. Wenss Sssiv."

The Gorn hissed with what sounded like pleasure at what she hoped had been a good attempt at thanking him in his language, before departing the enclosed area, leaving behind her visitors: Dad, Captain Weynik and Lieutenant Commander Kohanim. Dad was smiling down at her and squeezing her hand. "That's my darling! See, Short Round? I told you she'd recover!" He indicated the Roylan. "He was already lining up a replacement for you."

"Your father is, of course, talking crap," Weynik informed her. "But then you should be used to that after all these years."

She swallowed, letting Dad feed her from a small cup of water before asking, "K-Klingons?"

Dad looked to Weynik, who looked to Kohanim. "Would you care to fill in our Second Officer on what we learned while she was being treated?"

Kohanim looked different from when Sasha last saw him -- intimidated? -- and for a moment she wondered if Weynik or her Dad or both had... talked with him about her. If that was the case, she would give either or both of them a piece of her mind... when she had recovered enough to spare it.

But then the Zakdorn was replying. "Of course, Captain." Kohanim focused on Sasha. "The Klingons had obtained intelligence on the Defiant-class control systems, and our current maintenance status, from a civilian contractor from Cyberdyne Industries. They set their Bird of Prey on autopilot and distracted us with an attack, while beaming onboard and using the subsequent confusion to initiate a takeover of each system... at least, until you intervened.

Three of the Klingons survived the flashfire; they're in Critical Condition on the Surefoot, but should make a full recovery by the time they reach the POW camp on Sherman's Planet. The quaratum fire quickly burned out, leaving only superficial damage to the Cockpit systems, and we have already commenced repairs."

She killed. She had killed. Again. Of course, she knew that this would be the likely outcome of her actions, that it was War, that it was either their lives or that of herself and her crew. And she would have done it all again if she had to. But still...

"Kami will be stopping by later to talk," Dad informed her gently, obviously understanding her reaction as he squeezed her hand again.

She nodded gratefully, and looked back to Weynik. "The crewman we found, Sir?"

"Crewman Narevl will recover," the Roylan informed her with satisfaction. Then he looked at Kohanim again. "Was that all you had to say to her, Mister?"

Sasha saw the look Weynik -- and Dad -- was giving the First Officer, but before she could intervene, Kohanim continued, his face reddening, "Lieutenant Hrelle, my initial impression of your suitability for a role of such responsibility had been grossly mistaken. You are... a very capable young officer. I have placed a note of commendation on your record. And I look forward to working with you in the future."

"Thank you, Lieutenant Commander."

Weynik looked around. "Can I have a minute alone with my Second Officer, please?"

Kohanim left. Hrelle paused to lean in and rub his muzzle against her face, whispering, "Don't do that again if you can help it, Sasha. I have enough grey fur from your brother. He'll be by later with his mother, with a picture he made for you."

She smiled. "Looking forward to it."

As he left her alone with Weynik, the Captain drew closer and lowered his voice. "What's wrong, Lieutenant?"

She swallowed. "Captain... you should get a new Second Officer."

He folded his hands behind his back. "Oh? Don't you think I should be the judge of that, Lieutenant?"

She swallowed, reaching for the water and drinking before continuing. "Captain, I took... extreme actions. Put myself and others in danger."

"You and the rest of us were already in danger. We were working on recovering control of the systems from them, but had you not taken the extreme action you did, they might have done something like open the airlocks on us. Or, I might have had to trigger the self-destruct systems. Those seem like more extreme actions to me."

She looked away, staring at a tray near an adjacent empty biobed. "I- I don't know what I was doing down there."

Weynik drew closer, pride in his voice. "Then allow me to enlighten you: you charged in without hesitation to stop a pack of Klingon invaders, so Mr Madison can rescue a critically-wounded crewmember. You then risked your life to save this ship. And you did all this on your first day onboard." He smiled. "Mr Madison filled us in."

"But- But it could have gone wrong. Wrong in so many ways."

"Sasha, there's something you need to understand: it can always go wrong. Some of the greatest victories of the likes of Captains such as Mackenzie, Archer, Kirk, Sulu, V'Lon, were as much down to sheer dumb luck as it was to the abilities and experience. Your Dad will back me up on this."

She regarded him. Was she just being nice to her because of her injuries, because he was her Dad's best friend and had appointed her? "I- I could have been wrong-"

"Sasha, I promise you: if I think you do something wrong, you'll be the first to know. I won't hold back because you're my best friend's cub. Got it?"

She smiled now. "Thank you, Sir."

He smiled back. "You get some rest, I have to torment your father some more-"

Sasha held up a hand, feeling her face redden, and wondering what she was doing bringing this up now. "Wait, Sir... um, I, ah, wanted to ask you about shipboard regulations involving... relationships between officers. I know that it's at the Captain's discretion, so..." She raised her eyebrows expectantly at him.

"Relationships? Anyone in particular?" He smirked. "Mr Madison, perhaps?"

Now her face burned. "Forget I said anything, Sir."

Weynik crossed his arms. "It's probably for the best anyway, Lieutenant. I take a dim view of shipboard relationships. It's bad for discipline and-"

From outside, Dad's voice carried back into them, his Caitian hearing as acute as ever. "STOP BEING SUCH A MEAN LITTLE BUTT PIMPLE, SHORT ROUND, AND LET HER HAVE A BOYFRIEND!"

Sasha winced, the heat in her face doubling or more. "Sorry, Sir." Louder now, she shouted back, "STAY OUT OF THIS, DAD, OR I'LL TELL KAMI ON YOU!"

"I'M NOT AFRAID OF MY WIFE!" he declared defiantly.

"AND I'LL TELL GRANDMA MA'SALA, TOO!" she added.

Silence.

Weynik smiled at her. "I was kidding, by the way. You're mature enough to put your life on the line, you can manage your private affairs." He glanced behind him at the doorway. "Lieutenant Madison, we were just talking about you."

Sasha looked up; Madison stood there, his huge frame seeming lessened by the vulnerable expression on his face as he nodded to their Captain. "Sorry if I'm interrupting, Sir-"

"Not at all. I'll leave you two youngsters alone."

She looked up at the newcomer. "Hello again, Mrs Madison."

"'Mrs Madison'?" Weynik asked, shaking his head. "Kids..."

As he departed, Sasha focused on Madison. "I heard you kept Mr Narevl alive. My compliments."

He grunted. "You're giving me compliments? After everything you did?" Then he drew closer, his expression sobering. "Sasha, I'm- I'm sorry."

"Sorry? For what?"

He breathed in. "I- I should have done more down there to help-"

She waved off his words. "You followed my orders. You saved a life. You did everything you were supposed to do."

"But I should have- should have come back to fight-"

"Why? Because you're a man? If you say something like that to me, I'll punch you in the nuts."

He laughed, relaxing. "Then I'd better not say something like that. And I'm looking forward to learning more on that date you promised me."

She smirked at him. "You still want a date? I must look like seven shades of shit." She leaned back. "Well, I'm stuck in here until tomorrow, but I suppose I'll keep my schedule free for tomorrow night."

He grinned. "Great. We'll split a pizza."

From the other side of Sickbay, Dad boomed with laughter and announced loudly, "GOOD LUCK TRYING THAT, CUB! SASHA DON'T SHARE!"

"SHUT UP, DAD!" Her face turning scarlet as her father continued to laugh, and she looked up at Madison and admitted, "He's right, though: Sasha Don't Share..."

THE ADVENTURES OF THE SUREFOOT WILL CONTINUE