Surefoot 49: Tooth and Claw

The Vorta rose to her feet, arms spreading out and smile broadening. "Greetings, Captain Weynik! My name is Nauveh, a humble representative of the Dominion. Would you care to sit?"

He took in the surroundings, seeking weapons, escape, a diversion-

Pridemaster Eukanna smacked him on the back of his head. "Pay attention, Ragdoll!"

Nauveh displayed a mildly shocked look - one that, Weynik noticed, seemed as much a shallow front as her greeting. "Please, Pridemaster, there's no need for such displays of aggression. We can all behave like civilised individuals, even if we're on opposing sides. Isn't that right, Captain?"

He folded his arms across his chest. "Civilised individuals don't needlessly wound prisoners and then refuse to allow them medical treatment."

Nauveh looked to the Ferasans curiously, allowing Eukanna to explain gruffly, "We needed to make an example of one, to quell rebellion and spare the rest the same fate."

The Vorta took this in, making a sound of understanding as she looked back at Weynik. "That seems quite reasonable, Captain: one life, to save many others. Don't your Andorians having a saying? 'The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few, or the one'?"

"It's the Vulcans."

"Well, whichever race thought of it, I'm sure your wounded colleague would agree with the sentiment. Don't you?"

"Maybe. But he wasn't given the option to choose."

The Vorta offered an expression that Weynik guessed was meant to be sympathetic, but, like so many other expressions, seemed to be indelibly tainted with simpering insincerity. "Such a shame, to be debilitated in this way."

"Debilitated?"

She nodded. "Many of the species of the Federation seem to place an inordinately high value on individual lives; you will risk your own to try and protect members of your crew, of your society, regardless of their actual value... even people you don't know.

True strength, Captain, lies in subsuming the individual for the whole." She indicated the Jem'Hadar soldiers behind her. "Our warriors are bred in the millions. And each one has ingrained in them the understanding of their purpose for existing: not for themselves, but for the Founders, the Dominion." She looked over her right shoulder. "Iyalan'dak, tell the Captain what the Jem'Hadar say as they prepare for battle."

The Jem'Hadar lifted up his - her? Weynik wondered. Its? - head, the spiky, segmented face inexpressive, but its voice surprisingly emotive as it responded. "'As of this moment, we are all dead. We go into battle to reclaim our lives. This we do gladly, for we are Jem'Hadar. Victory is Life.'"

"Victory is Life," Nauveh echoed, smiling. "We understand this well, Captain. Were our positions reversed, and one of the Jem'Hadar was lying wounded and dying on the floor, we wouldn't have allowed it to stop us in our resistance to capture."

"And what if it was you?" Weynik asked.

Her smile never wavered. "If my suffering and death served the Founders, served the Dominion, then I would gladly suffer and die."

"Prove it."

The Vorta gave a soft laugh. "Perhaps another time, Captain." She looked to Eukanna. "And how goes the capture of the Ajax, Pridemaster?"

The Ferasan gnashed his teeth with pleasure. "I have a boarding party over there on their Bridge right now, seizing control of their ship. It will soon be in my hands."

"Our hands, Pridemaster," Nauveh corrected gently. "Remember?"

Eukanna bristled, his hairless tail twitching, but he assented, "Yes. Your hands."

Weynik controlled his reaction as he listened, even as he gauged the possible outcomes. Security Lockdown, Chief Maryk would run an internal scan, maybe flood the Bridge with neurozine-

The Vorta nodded graciously. "Still, I must say, you appear to be passing the audition beautifully."

"Audition?" Weynik finally asked.

Nauveh returned to the Starfleet officer. "Yes, Captain. As the Dominion seeks out allies in the Alpha Quadrant, in preparation for what seems will be a tragic but inevitable war with the benighted Federation and Klingon Empire, we test potential candidates for alliance. In this case, the Ferasan Patriarchy was tasked with capturing your ship and crew, with a little help from captured intelligence, and one of our antiproton sensor beams. And so far, they have been successful." She indicated the Roylan. "As you have seen for yourself. And soon, we will gain invaluable information on Starfleet from your ship, your crew... and yourselves."

Weynik folded his arms across his chest. "I think you'll find that to be more difficult than you might imagine."

She offered a simpering sad face. "The Vorta were not gifted with imagination, Captain. We are bred, like the Jem'Hadar, only to serve our Gods to the best of our abilities. But we are not without compassion, and we do not wish you or anyone else to suffer needlessly." She walked around the table to face him. "Perhaps your people could use inspiration, inspiration from a redoubtable leader such as yourself, to set an example for them? An example of how cooperation will inevitably benefit all of you. What do you say, Captain?"

He looked up at her. "Name: Weynik. Rank: Captain. Serial Number: JE-977-111."

Nauveh feigned disappointment. "I see. Would you be a little less stubborn if another member of your crew joined your wounded colleague?"

"Name: Weynik. Rank: Captain. Serial Number: JE-977-111."

"Captain, I was hoping that our conversation could be more fruitful, before you and your crew were transferred to one of our Internment Camps for enhanced interrogation, but-"

The Vorta's words were cut off, as the door behind Weynik slid open, and a Ferasan rushed up to Eukanna. "Pridemaster, two of the Starfleet prisoners have escaped! The female, and the wounded one!"

"Track them down! She can't have gone far dragging that dying lump of flab!"

"They beamed away! The Caitian scum gave them some sort of portable transporter!"

Eukanna smacked the other male across the snout. "Did you not search the prisoners first? Fool! Alert our boarding party on the Ajax!"

"We're trying, Pridemaster, but they are not responding-"

Suddenly something overhead caught everyone's attention, and Weynik looked straight up through the dome, to see the Ajax veer away, and jump into warp.

All were silent, until Nauveh intoned, "Oh dear. How disappointing."

Weynik watched his ship disappear - good girl, Sash, get out of here and get help - and looked down again, past the Ferasans to the open doorway, and bolted for it. Some of them reached out, but he used his size and strength to surprise them, flipping one of them into the other.

"Stop him!" Eukanna roared.

Weynik was almost out the doorway, when two more Ferasans appeared from the corridor and tackled him, trying to rake him with their claws, though his ossified skin proved tougher than they expected, and they settled for pinning him down.

"Bringing back a Defiant-class vessel for study would have been most auspicious, Pridemaster," Nauveh informed Eukanna, sounding very much to Weynik like some teacher scolding an underperforming pupil.

The Ferasan leader looked to her, looking and sounding agitated, almost desperate now to stay in the Vorta's proverbial good books. "We still have the Starfleet prisoners! A starship Captain and his Bridge officers! They will surely be valuable enough for your Founders to agree to an alliance!"

Nauveh offered him a reproving look. "Perhaps. But maybe you should finally have the prisoners secured pending the return of our ships?"

"Of course, of course... but-"

"But, what?"

"The Caitian! He will be of no use to you strategically! May we deal with him in our own way for his actions?"

"Hmmm... well, I suppose-"

"NO!" Weynik cried out, struggling beneath the weight of the Ferasans piled upon him. "M-Major- Major Ctuuri- is a member of my crew- he's- under my authority- my protection-"

"Some protection, Ragdoll," Eukenna sneered - driving a boot hard into Weynik's face.

*

Sasha was deep in darkness, and pain, a huge thunderous roar pounding inside her, and she fought to try and reach the surface, moving towards the sounds and voices far above her.

"-evere lacerations along the right temporal scalp are repaired, along with the deeper cuts in the left tibalis anterior, the abdominal muscles, the left breast, the serratus and rhomboid muscles-"

Jim's anxious voice cut through Nurse Okeke's words. "Never mind that! Did she suffer any brain damage?"

Now the sibilant voice of Roke'naar, the civilian Gorn doctor serving onboard the Ajax, slithered into Sasha's consciousness. "That particular injury looked worse than it was, Lieutenant Madissson. Certainly nothing compared to what she did to her attacker... ahhh, she awakensss. Nurssse, 20ccs anaprovaline."

Sasha blinked open, immediately regretting staring up into the nova bright lights of Sickbay, and shielded her eyes with her hand, noting Jim closest to her, holding her other hand tightly and looking ashen. "Sash! Don't move! Amara, where's her painkillers, she must be in agony, hurry, hurry-"

Okeke shoved him out of the way. "Shut up, Man Mountain, or I'll sedate you." She pressed the hypospray in her hand against Sasha's bicep, adding more softly to her, "Take it easy for a few moments."

Sasha licked her lips, feeling the pain subside already, moving from the nurse to Jim to the reptoid doctor. "I'm not dead?"

Roke'naar hissed with amusement. "Not today, Lieutenant."

She nodded weakly. "Didn't think so. Hurt too much to be dead-" She half-sat up, regretting it but remaining in that position. "The Ferasans- Kohanim- what- what happened-"

Madison grew even more pale. "Lie down, Sash, you've been through so much-"

"Someone give me a report!" she barked, her face wincing in residual pain. "Consider that an order."

"Lieutenant Commander Kohanim will recover," Roke'naar reported. "He was in critical condition, but you got him back to us jussst in time."

She nodded, looking over at the Intensive Care Unit, seeing the Zakdorn lying there, being monitored. "The Ferasan boarding party?"

Madison looked sickly again. "You disabled three of them, they were treated and moved to the Brig. The fourth- the one who attacked you last- he's dead."

"Dead..." The right side of her head felt cold.

"Yesss," the Gorn doctor confirmed. "You did not leave much of him for me to autopsssy."

She pulled her hand out of Madison's hold and tentatively touched up there, feeling around, noting the reactions of the others... and the bare scalp.

"The Ferasan you killed had caused an avulsion of the right side of your scalp," Okeke explained gently. "What they used to call 'de-gloving', a peeling back of dermal layers..." She paused. "The details aren't important. We had to remove your hair on this side of your head to perform an effective treatment, but we can stimulate follicle growth later."

"Hair seemssss overrated anyway," Roke'naar noted.

Sasha's hand moved along the side of her head, not recalling whenever she had ever been able to actually touch her scalp so easily before; she felt scars across her forehead, touched along the ridges.

"We'll take care of those as well," Okeke promised.

"Yes," Madison smiled at Sasha, trying to hide his obvious shock over what happened to her. "Everything's going to be fine-"

"How long was I out?"

"Thirty minutesss," Roke'naar told her.

Now, it all seemed to tumble down over her, like some overstacked pile of junk. "The Captain- Major Ctuuri, the others- we have to rescue them-" When she saw the humans present glance at each other, she demanded, "What?"

Madison looked to her. "We're leaving the system."

"What? On whose authority?"

"Chief Maryk took command," Madison replied. "She's non-commissioned, but her seniority and ship role-"

Sasha swung her legs out over the side of the biobed and rose, momentarily clutching onto Madison for support. "Gotta get to the Bridge-"

"What?" Madison exclaimed in disbelief. "No! You're not going anywhere! Not after all you've been through! You have to stay here!"

She looked up at him, appreciative of his concern for her, but not having any patience for it now. The longer they travelled away from the Blacktalon, the harder it would be to find them and rescue the hostages. "No, I don't, I'm fine-"

"The Hell you are!" He looked to the Gorn. "Tell her, Doctor!"

Sasha looked to the Gorn as well. "Did I hear right? That there was no brain damage? No reason to keep me here?"

"Yesss, Lieutenant."

"Then, if you can spare a little adrenazine for a boost, I can leave."

"No!" Madison repeated, cutting her off, staring in shock. "Sasha, you suffered a massive trauma- you were savagely attacked-"

[the flesh tore under the claws tore like paper like old cloth blood down her face into her eyes]

"I know."

"You killed the Ferasan!"

[down her face into her eyes she turned and clamped onto fur soft hot flesh blood]

"I know that too-"

He gripped her tightly, almost pleadingly. "Sasha... you ripped open his carotid artery with your teeth! Gouged out his eyes! There was blood everywhere! Yours! His!"

[she tasted his blood sharp tangy felt her fingers dig into his eye sockets scooping out his eyeballs he screamed into her ear deafening pumping God God God] "I..."

He held her steady, his eyes welling up with anguish over what she had gone through. "You have to stay here."

[her Beast her Beast lived and roared and rose up in sweet terrible ascendance]

"I..."

Madison touched her cheek, assuring her, "You've done more than enough."

She looked up at him.

And drew back, not needing his support here and now. She swallowed. "No. I haven't." She looked to Roke'naar. "When the Captain and the other hostages are back, then I'll rest, I promise. In the meantime, get me that shot of andrenazine." She looked back at Madison. "You follow me."

*

Sasha was quickening her pace as she stepped through the sliding doors and onto the Bridge, tensing instinctively, until she saw the Starfleet officers manning the stations instead of Ferasans. The place had even been cleaned up-

No. No, there was still dark stains on the floor near her station-

[the flesh tore under the claws tore like paper like old cloth blood down her face into her eyes]

-but she ignored them as she stepped forward. "Chief."

Maryk was in the centre seat, but now spun around and faced her, starting at Sasha's appearance. "What the hell are you doing out of Sickbay, Hrelle?"

"I have work to do. Where are you taking us?"

"I'm getting us back to the Fleet! What else do you think I'd be doing? We've lost the Captain and three officers, our First Officer's been critically injured-"

Sasha stepped forward, looking to the Helm Officer. "Mr Atkinson, turn us around, take us back to the Blacktalon, Warp 9.8."

Maryk rose from the Captain's chair. "Hold it right there, Hrelle-"

Sasha ignored her, looking to the others. "Ms Zallam, the Ferasans detected our Prowl cloak with a Dominion antiproton beam. We might be able to counteract it by adjusting the Prowl's resonance frequency; study the system logs of our encounter and the schematics Major Ctuuri made available to us. Mr Madison will assist you-"

"Hey, Hrelle-" Maryk continued.

Now Sasha glanced at her. "That's Lieutenant Hrelle, Chief. I earned that rank, and the position of Second Officer. Remember that." She shot a look at the Helm again. "Is there a reason you're not following my orders, Mr Atkinson?"

The young Ensign shot a confused look between the two women, stopping at Maryk. "Uh, Chief, what should I do?"

The older woman never took her glare off of Sasha. "You keep us going back to the Fleet, Mr Atkinson." Then she stepped closer. "Have you seen yourself, Lieutenant Hrelle? You look like shit."

Sasha never broke her own glare. "You should see the other guy... what's left of him. Mr Atkinson, you can follow my orders, or you can end up in the Brig. Along with Chief Maryk."

The Russian Chief stiffened. "You are not qualified to command this vessel, or to launch any kind of half-assed rescue mission of Captain Weynik and the rest! You're going to end up blowing us to Hell, or getting us captured too! Now get back to Sickbay where you belong!"

Sasha stepped back... and tapped her combadge. "Security to the Bridge, on the double!" As she closed the channel, she raised her chin. "You have until they arrive to decide where you want to spend the next couple of hours." She raised her voice as she looked around her. "The same goes for anyone else here! We do not leave our people behind! Ever!"

The Bridge doors slid open, and two Security crewmen strode in, phasers in hand, the senior of the two, Crewman Emily Roth, asking, "Lieutenant Hrelle?"

Sasha looked back at Maryk, but spoke to them all. "'We're Starfleet officers. We don't give up. We don't fail and we don't surrender. Never leave anyone behind or say die.

Our history is long and even though we're from different species, different worlds, different genders, and different societies, there is one thing that we have in common when you put on this uniform.

We're family. We're brothers and sisters in Starfleet and together we can overcome any challenge, any obstacle, and every fight. Together, we're stronger than apart.'

Captain Weynik's father, Admiral Tattok, once told me that.

Captain Weynik, Shanek, Grel, Bump, Major Ctuuri... any of them would do anything to save any of us. We owe them the same loyalty. I need your help to get them back, Helga. Will you help me?"

Maryk regarded the younger woman... and stepped back, her gaze narrowing. "You heard the Lieutenant, Mr Atkinson: get us back to the Ferasans, Warp 9.8."

"Aye, Ma'am... Ma'ams. ETA 32 minutes."

Sasha offered the other woman a look of appreciation, glanced at the chronometer over the main viewscreen and announced, "Attention All Hands: as of Stardate 50838.6, I am assuming command of the Ajax, and we are returning to rescue Captain Weynik and our fellow crewmen. Yellow Alert."

The Yellow Alert klaxon sounded, and Sasha breathed in and turned to Madison. "Lieutenant, assist Ms Zallam with adjusting the Prowl." She watched her lover nod and comply, and then faced the Security crewmen. "Ms Roth: you'll be leading a team to rescue our people from the Ferasans. We have scans of the interior of their ship, get them studied, work out where the prisoners might be held. The Ferasans have duonetic fields onboard, disabling phasers and combadges, and they use ballistic weapons; I want you and your team equipped with body armour, transtator-based communicators and TR-100 ballistic pistols."

Roth nodded. "Yes, Ma'am." She moved to the Tactical station.

She turned back to Maryk. "The Blacktalon's weapons are no match for ours, but we might also face the Jem'Hadar. We'll need to keep the weapons and shields offline to make the Prowl effective, but I want to be able to get them online in a heartbeat."

Maryk adopted a completely professional attitude. "We'll have it, Ma'am."

Sasha glanced around again. "And launch a Warp Marker with all our updated logs back to the Fleet."

"Aye, Ma'am." Maryk eyed her. "You need a break before we get there, Lieutenant?"

Sasha smiled weakly. "Good idea. I'm curious to see if I look as hideous as everyone's reactions to me suggest."

Maryk glanced up reflexively at Sasha's shaved, scarred right scalp. "It's not that bad looking, Lieutenant."