Surefoot 43: Mamageddon

His face turned scarlet, and his hand shot up to his mouth as he grasped the scope of what he had said to her. "Oh God, Kami, I'm sorry, I didn't know- I swear to ya, I would never intentionally say anything bad like that-"

She drew in her claws again and calmed down. A little. "It's okay, Zeke, I believe you. You couldn't know. Caitians... have a reputation for loving all children unconditionally, something the Great Mother was said to instil in us.

But it's not a universal trait. Some of us are less than sympathetic to those who are different from them, a holdover from our schism with the Ferasans. In fact, some Caitians can be downright bigoted about it. They might even intimate that the cubs who have this are better off... dead."

She stopped and breathed in before continuing. "The word should have died out long ago, but it expanded into a general insult towards anyone perceived as slow, clumsy or stupid. I didn't mean to snap at you, I'm still processing all this. Now... please tell me there's a cure. Cloning, gene therapy- we can fix so many other problems that way."

His reaction told her enough; his words elaborated. "Cloning is not an option for problems with the brain or the central nervous system. And the nature of how this particular genetic condition arises means that standard gene therapies will cause more problems than it'll fix.

But there is a cytoleptic therapy now recommended by the Caitian Medical Authority." He called up a new set of images on his PADD for her. "Basically it involves prompting Sreen's body to rebuild her nervous system from the ground up, so to speak, but this time with stronger, surer connections and frameworks."

Kami grasped the lifeline - but saw enough in the doctor's eyes to prompt, "So what's wrong?"

Masterson set down the PADD. "It's a lengthy, protracted process, that will have to start when she's still in utero and continue into childhood. And... because of the nature of the therapy, there will be an overstimulation of the nerves.

She'll... experience pain. And we won't be able to sedate or neutralise that pain, not without affecting the readings required to ensure the therapy was working." He reached out and took her hand in his. "I'm sorry, Kami. But, you know, there's still the possibility that she doesn't manifest the condition, and even if it does, the vast majority of cases are mild, even for those who forgo the treatment."

She accepted his touch, still sorry she hadn't waited for Esek to be here.

Then she rose to her feet. "Thank you. It wasn't something I wanted to hear, but..."

He rose as well. "When the Captain returns, I can talk to him about this."

"No need, thank you, I'll do it." She breathed in. "And I want you to prepare for that cytoleptic therapy."

He frowned. "Did you want to speak to Esek about it first? To see if he would approve?"

"Asking you to prepare for it doesn't mean I'm going to go through with it. I'm going to think about it, research it. I just want you to be ready." Then she eyed him. "And just so we're clear on this: the final decision about what happens to my daughter falls with me, so long as I'm of sound mind."

He nodded. "Yes, Ma'am."

She reached for her hitherto-untouched spice tea, taking a sip. "That's nice, I'll have to remember that. Now, if you'll excuse me-"

"I-" His pained expression told her clearly how reluctant he had been to give her this news. "I may have caused you a passel of fretting over nothing, if she turns out not to manifest it, so I'll apologise in advance if that's the case. Y'all can kick my ass later if you want."

"Don't be silly." She hugged him, adding as she drew back, "I'm the Captain now. I can have you court-martialled and shot."

As she stepped out of his office, she contemplated going into the Crèche and hugging the stuffing out of Misha... only the cub would immediately pick up on her anxious state, get fretful himself and demand answers that she wasn't prepared to provide to anyone, having only just received the news herself.

She left Sickbay and found the nearest public hygiene chamber, entering and locking the door before staring blankly into the mirror over the sink... unable to look away from the bump in front of her, and the precious life she was carrying within it.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, tears welling in her eyes despite her repeatedly wiping them away. She forgot. She forgot how fragile these bundles of life can be. To have their lives changed so profoundly by a simple genetic switch being switched on.

It wasn't fair! Damn it, it just wasn't fair! They lived in an age of medical miracles, undreamed of even a few generations ago! So many illnesses and conditions that Caitians, that many sentient races, once suffered from, were now consigned to the history books! Why should there still be anything that affected health nowadays?

But she knew that answer already: they weren't Gods. And sometimes, viruses and genetic quirks can be stronger than any vaccines or other medical marvels.

Her eyes fixed on her belly. She wanted to believe Masterson, that there was still a chance that Sreen wouldn't contract the condition... but her dread refused to let her see anything other than the worst case scenario: her daughter, trapped in her own body, requiring a hover chair or an exoskeleton to move around, and still falling behind her brother and her peers with even the most basic life skills.

Assuming Kami didn't authorise the cytoleptic treatment, despite the pain Sreen would undergo. It went against everything she was, as a Caitian, as a mother, to intentionally cause pain to her cub. But it would be worth it, to avoid a lifetime of difficulty, of struggle and handicap.

Wouldn't it?

And Esek... he was going to be devastated... he talked about how far Sreen would go in life...

She contemplated contacting him - but then shook her head. There was nothing overly urgent to be discussed now, nothing that couldn't wait until his return later that day. They would be together again in six hours-

Her combadge chirped, and the voice of her niece and Acting First Officer filled the enclosure of the hygiene chamber. "Lt Shall to Captain Kami Hrelle: you're late for Bridge duty, but we're prepared to turn back the chronometers so it doesn't go on your record."

Suddenly hating C'Rash for sounding so chirpy, despite her ignorance about the news Kami had just received, Kami smacked her combadge so hard she made herself wince, but ignored the pain as she snarled, "I'm on my way! Kami out!" She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to punch the walls until bones broke, and bite and kick and-

Focus, Esek told her once during one Command training session. Focus on the job. There have been plenty of times when I wanted to run to you and Misha, to hold you, to protect you both myself, do anything but sit there in the centre of the Bridge and do my job. But I had to do my job, because... no one else could do it. Focus on the procedure, the minutiae, one task at a time, one report at a time, one order at a time.

She calmed herself, even allowing herself a smile at Esek giving her advice on emotional control. Then she emerged and proceeded to the Bridge, stopping at the doorway as she watched C'Rash, sitting in the seat beside the Captain's chair, rise and face her, announcing loudly, "Captain on the Bridge!"

Alpha Squad was manning the various stations for this shift, and now all rose from their seats and faced her, at attention - except for the Horta Stalac, who manned the Science station via interfaces built into the floor to accommodate him, but now rotated in place to display the combadge bolted to his mineral hide.

Kami almost barked at them for this display of nonsense - before she saw their expressions, the looks of genuine respect and regard they were showing her. It wasn't banter, it was honour.

It shook her from her shock and her morose thoughts. And she straightened up as well, looking to each of them with a smile. "Thank you, all of you. Resume your stations, please." She descended to the inner circle, taking the Captain's chair, snaking her tail through the hole in the back. Though she had sat in it plenty of times before, she remarked, "This is comfy." She glanced up and behind her at Zir at the Ops station. "I expect to see you here in a few years' time, Ms Dassene - and not as a cadet."

The young Orion woman flushed a dark green and grinned. "So do I, Ma'am."

As Kami faced forward again, C'Rash caught her eye, the younger, sable-furred Caitian sitting beside her and silently mouthing You okay?

Kami ensured her mask of affability was fixed as she smiled and nodded, before looking ahead and announcing, "So, Lieutenant, what is our mission today? Is the Great Whatsit threatening the Galaxy? Is there a planet about to fall into a black hole? Have the Klingons stolen my husband's secret snack box?"

"None of the above, Captain: the Surefoot has been assigned to go to the fifth planet in the Sherman system, a gas giant, and obtain readings on its magnetosphere. The Sherman government is trying to mine the giant's atmosphere for rare gases, but previous attempts have failed due to the unusually strong properties of the planet's magnetic fields on the robot ships, and they'd like some baseline readings from us so they can provide sufficient shielding for their next attempt."

Kami knew all that already, of course, and didn't have to mention it for her crew to do their jobs, but she had made it official for the benefit of the others. As Esek once told her: An informed crew, kept in the loop about what's going on, always functions better. "Thank you, Lieutenant. Mr Stalac, do you think you can devise a sensor analysis pattern that will dazzle the Shermans?"

The lump of orange-brown rock rumbled as he replied, "Dazzle? I intend to positively blind them, Captain."

She smiled; there was nothing like the enthusiasm of youth to lift the spirits of an old cat like herself. "Well, who knows, if it's that good, they might reward you with some tasty platinum or sapphire."

Stalac rumbled happily. "Please, Captain, you're making what passes for my mouth water."

Kami chuckled and looked forward. "Helm-"

Alone at the Helm, Michel's slender fingers danced over the controls and turned in her chair, her face a picture of puffed-up satisfaction. "Course for the fifth planet already plotted and laid in, Ma'am."

"Really? Because I was going to order you to plot a course back to the Triton for additional sensor equipment."

The young human's face creased in confusion. "You were, Ma'am?"

"No. I was kidding."

C'Rash leaned forward and fixed her gaze on Astrid. "Cadet, anticipating your Captain's orders is an admirable trait... but give them a chance to speak. It props up their self-esteem."

"Uh, yes, Lieutenant."

Kami smiled. "Now... plot that course, Warp 2."

*

USS Triton, Deck 2 Fore, Main Conference Hall:

T'Varik frowned at her commanding officer. "I must admit to my ignorance of the term 'Hot Foot'."

Hrelle chuckled, keeping his eyes focused on his old friend Weynik, the diminutive Roylan standing near the front of the Hall talking to his father, Admiral Tattok. He leaned in closer to her. "It's when you stick a piece of flammable material under the boot of someone and light it while someone else distracts them, and wait until they start to feel the heat from it."

"A practical joke," she concluded, comprehending. "That is not in the least bit practical. Starfleet boots are safety rated to temperatures of 980 degrees Centigrade, the Triton's fire control systems will immediately detect and extinguish the flame before it was detected by your victim... and you are far too voluminous to not be noticed crouching behind Captain Weynik to deliver him a Hot Foot."

"Volum- are you saying I'm fat?"

"You have reduced your waistline in recent months" she admitted. "And gained upper body strength and muscle mass with your increased workouts. But regardless, you remain a... larger-than-life figure."

"Thanks," he grinned. "So I'll distract him, while you set his foot on fire."

"I think not, Sir. Such a role would prove too flame-boyant for my tastes."

Hrelle stared at her, blinking, before leaning in, murmuring with astonishment, "Commander... did you just make... a pun?"

T'Varik pretended to be distracted by something to her left. "Certainly not, Captain. I must have misspoke."

"Of course you did-" He stopped and frowned, sniffed the air, his tail swishing happily behind him as he smiled and turned. "Sasha's here!"

Both officers now faced the young human with strawberry blonde hair who strode up to them, stopping and bracing herself as her father rushed up and hugged her tightly. She made a noise. "Thanks, Dad! Way to embarrass me in front of all the command officers!"

"One would think you would be accustomed to your father's effusiveness by now," T'Varik quipped, watching as Hrelle released his daughter to let her catch her breath. "But I fear one can never get acclimatised to it. Good morning, Lieutenant Hrelle. It is a pleasure to see a member of your family without four pips on their uniforms."

Sasha straightened herself up. "Good morning, Commander. I take it Kami's still doing her Solo Mission today?"

"It seemed an efficient use of our resources," the Vulcan noted. "And an opportunity to allow the Counselor to perform without..." She glanced at Hrelle, who was moving around behind his daughter. "Interference."

"I'm sure she'll be fine-" Sasha frowned as she caught Hrelle sniffing around her. "Stop that, Dad! You're not gonna smell any men on me!"

"Oh? Is that mean little butt pimple Captain of yours not letting you date? I'll have words with him-"

She pointed a finger at him. "You know Captain Weynik lets me date... if I want."

"Oh, I see. So you're still seeing that beefy fellow, Lieutenant Madison?"

She snorted. "Kiss my ass if you think I'm telling you anything!"

"Such disrespect." He looked at T'Varik. "I'll bet Sreen will be far more polite to her father."

"Yes," the Vulcan agreed. "At least until she learns to speak."

Before he could respond to the jibe, the Red Alert klaxon sounded, and the entire room turned towards the front, where Tattok slapped his combadge. "Bridge, what's going on?"

"Admiral! A large swarm of objects is moving in at transwarp speeds towards the Fleet!"

"Transwarp? Are they Borg cubes?"

"No Borg energy signatures, Sir, and the objects are smaller than shuttlepods! There's hundreds of them!"

The room had erupted into a cacophony of questions and confusion and aborted attempts by Captains and First Officers to contact their respective ships. But Hrelle's Caitian hearing allowed him to focus on the continued conversation between Tattok and his Bridge, and he fought his way through to get to the Admiral, who was asking, "Where did they come from?"

"From the direction of the Klingon Fleet, Sir!"

Hrelle felt his heart jump into his throat. Seven Hells, did the Klingons take advantage of all the experienced commanding officers being here on the Triton to launch some devastating new weapon to take out their fleet at once? Why didn't they think about something like this happening sooner?

He joined Weynik at the nearby workstations; the other Captain had tapped into the tactical sensors on the Triton, and now called up displays of the approaching wave and the Fleet ships. "They're moving in swarms, like locusts-"

Hrelle agreed, watching it shift in ever-changing shapes, exactly like a swarm of insects or fish, swooping and diving as if to unseen cosmic currents. "Striking the shields with energy weapons on different frequencies-"

"Testing for weaknesses- the Cochise, Minotaur, Oregon, they're losing shields-" Weynik looked up. "They need to modulate-"

Hrelle didn't need to hear the rest, as Hrelle barked at Tattok, "Admiral! Send the word out, they need to continually modulate shield nutation!" He looked back to see the Fleet ships losing shields, and then having their power dampened. He called up scans on one of the objects in the Wave: black, teardrop-shaped, barely two metres in length, lacking any nacelles or visible external ports. "Automated drones-"

"Or very small pilots," Weynik reminded him. "Size isn't everything, Wide Load. In this case, it's numbers; their collective power and tactics are too effective- they're sweeping the unshielded ships with scanner beams-"

Hrelle nodded. "In the bioscanner range- wait, are those transporter-type beams, too, on the same frequencies?"

"You're right-" Weynik raised his voice now. "Admiral, they're taking people off the ships!"

Hrelle ground his teeth as he watched the Revere and the Thunderbolt fire phasers even as the Wave swept over and disabled them, too. "Idiots- they're wasting energy-"

"Yes," Tattok agreed, contacting the Bridge, "They're coming this way! Get a coded Priority Signal to Starfleet Command! Arm the tri-cobalt warheads, maximum spread, avoid our ships but hit the Wave-"

The assembly watched as the warheads shot forth, detonating and taking out many of the vessels... but the others simply diverted around, like a river around a rock... and then they were on the Triton, striking the shields dozens of times a second, each at different frequencies-

Hrelle watched helplessly, seeing the inevitable: they identify the frequency, then the ones that follow modulate their energy weapons to compensate and-

"Our shields are collapsing!" Weynik cried.

A dampening field overloaded their main power systems, weapons and engines, as an emerald sheet of energy quickly raced through the ship and everything and everyone in it, reminding Hrelle uncomfortably of a lethal baryon particle sweep.

Everyone had stopped.

The power remained at a minimum, as Hrelle and Weynik struggled to tap back into the internal and external sensors, Weynik succeeding first with the former. "Beamed away- taken from the Triton's classroom, private quarters- children! The eight children-" He looked up in horror. "NAIDA! Dad, Naida's gone!"

Hrelle's head shot up. Naida... Weynik's daughter, Tattok's granddaughter!

But even as he felt alarm for his friend, his attention was drawn to the screens confirming that the Wave fleet was headed in the direction of the Surefoot...

USS Surefoot-A, Deck 2 Bridge:

Kami stared at the swirls of pink, purple and blue that made up the atmosphere of the gas giant directly below, a beautiful image now being eaten up by static on the viewscreen. "Is there a problem, Cadet?"

Stalac grumbled at his station. "The magnetic fields are unusually strong, Ma'am, even at this altitude; I can see why the Shermans have had problems sending ships into the atmosphere itself. We can still compensate, however- with your permission?"

"What do you intend to do?"

"Several years ago, the Enterprise-D successfully tested a program for metaphasic shielding, for work within the coronae of stars, allowing it to temporarily withstand the pressure, radiation and energy found there. It is energy intensive, and not normally employed, but we can divert power from the warp drive, we won't need it while we're here taking the readings, and won't need it for very long."

Kami looked to C'Rash, who shrugged and offered, "Don't ask me, Captain, Ma'am, I'm just here because this seat smells like T'Varik."