Surefoot 65: Lone Cat and Cub

"Turn it off, Sasha."

She frowned at him, before reaching for her wrist control; the photons and graviton sheath surrounding her seemed to evaporate as if under the desert heat, leaving a disconcerted, taut face. "What?"

Jhess studied her eyes, her real eyes, more thoroughly now. "What did you take?"

"Excuse me?"

"Cordafin? Hyperzine?" He sniffed. "You didn't get any sleep on the way out here. You took stimulants from your medikit."

He waited for her to deny it. Instead she shrugged. "So? One time, Emergency Use Only! I'm not some addict!"

He drew closer, concern suffusing his voice and expression. "Sasha, that was incredibly stupid! You know the harm that can do to you! Your heart, blood pressure, coordination-"

"Oh, now you're an expert on stimulant abuse, are you?"

"Yes! As both a medical professional, and as an addict! When I'd come back from the last War, rather than work through what I'd experienced, I used drugs to regulate being awake and asleep and hungry and happy! Animazine, Axonol, Psilometrol! I thought I had it under control, too! It took a great deal of strength to admit I had a problem, and to fight it."

Sasha stepped back, scowling. "Well... I'm happy for you, Jhess. I really am. But it's not a problem for me as it was for you. Now, how about we drop this kvetching from you, and focus on finding my Dad and baby sister, so we can then finally deal with the fakakta animals who've invaded our world, okay?" She looked down the length of the maglev line, and called out, "CAPTAIN! IT'S COMING!" She looked back at Jhess. "Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll be onboard, huh?"

"Maybe," he admitted. "But what if it has the Enemy instead?"

She shrugged, tugging at the strap that held her sword and scabbard. "Then they really will have reached the End of the Line."

*

Mori was looking over the freshly-dressed Mi'Tree, looking starstruck by the older male's celebrity. "I'm sorry about the quality of the clothes, Mr Shall, someone of your exalted status deserves only the best-"

Nearby Bneea was going through the prepared speech. "Careful, Lieutenant, or he'll burst the front of those trousers."

Mi'Tree harrumphed, but focused on the younger male, all charm. "Quite alright, Dear Cub. A true artiste is not encumbered by costumes and props. I once performed an impromptu monologue from The Tempest at the request of the First Minister when I was wearing only a dressing gown-"

"Oh for Mother's Sake!" Bneea exclaimed with exasperation. "It wasn't requested, you ran into her in the hotel corridor when you stepped out to get the champagne from Room Service, and didn't return for ten minutes! And you didn't even close your damned dressing gown! Now will you please focus on the task ahead!" He handed the PADD to his husband. "Study it! You have to include all the points, clearly and coherently, we need to get this recorded and distributed immediately-"

But Mi'Tree held up a forefinger to cut him off, his focus fully on the text before him. Then he nodded and handed the PADD back. "Thank you."

Bneea blinked. "That's it? Just one look and you know what to say and how to say it?"

Mi'Tree breathed in, his expression sober and confident. "No: it's just one look -- supported by over sixty years in the business -- and I know what to say and how to say it." He fixed a look on Bneea. "I recognise that I might not be able to fend off hordes of Ferasans with my teeth and claws... but I still have a role to play in this fight. I won't let you, or our daughter... or our world... down. I promise you."

Mori stepped back, as if pushed back by the gravitas exuded from both older males. "Well, Sir, I'll be running the recorders, we can always have a few takes, give you a chance to warm up."

As it turned out, Mi'Tree only needed one take. And when it was over, he loved to Bneea, challenging him with, "Well?"

Bneea, thoroughly moved, embraced him tightly in reply.

*

Wrapped in her holographic disguise, Sasha could feel the tension in the surrounding crowds in the streets of Sekuro, and she kept her hand near her weapons as she made her way through the throngs, avoiding the groups of Jem'Hadar and Ferasans here and there, wondering what she had gotten herself into, coming here, trying to find Dad and Sreen in the midst of this chaos. She glanced back, looking for Jhess and Biggles, but they had decided to split up to widen their search, agreeing to meet up near the maglev station at the appointed time... and to otherwise avoid trouble.

She checked her chroniker; it was almost time for-

Her communicator chirped, and she stepped into a side alley that smelled of discarded trash and piss. "Any word?"

She was expecting to hear from Lt Mori. But it was Kami, sounding taut as a wire. "Nothing. What's happening there?"

Sasha glanced around. "They tried to ambush Dad last night at the tavern he was staying at, but he blew it to shit and escaped. They're trying to conduct house to house searches, but the locals are revolting... so to speak."

"There must be a way to track them locally."

"They're two Caitians among thousands, Kami. Anything we might use, Dad would have neutralised to keep the Enemy from tracking them." She paused, adding, "I'm not leaving here until we get them back, I promise-"

Commotion from nearby made her end the transmission and drop her arm, as Jem'Hadar began moving in her direction, and she left her position to swim around the people, using their numbers and agitated state to her advantage. She glanced back to see them go straight to the alley where she had stood moments before. Shit, they must have detected her signal!

*

Thousands of kilometres westward from Pakui Province across the Free Seas, in the temperate forested lands of the Mrell Province where the wild shurises run free, in an abandoned factory that once prepared and packaged the animals for consumption, the members of the Order of the Kaetini collated what they had taken from their Temple prior to the Ferasan raiders.

In one section, where technicians monitored equipment, one male rose and approached an elderly cloaked female. "Mistress Nvell, the Resistance has transmitted the message they wish to have broadcasted to the Motherworld. There is a data packaged attached."

She was kneeling beside a baby shuris, feeding it grain from her paw, stroking behind its ears as its grunted happily to her. "Attach the confession from Hap-Tek of the Black Pelt Pride, and our own collected data, and then transmit to the Syphers for immediate propagation, on all channels, all frequencies. Tell them this takes priority over all else."

"Of course. And the prisoner?"

Nvell rose to her feet again, shooing the shuris calf away with her staff. "He's served his usefulness with us. Now he has one more job to do."

*

In Kaijushima's Command Bay, Kami was keeping herself distracted as best she could with the minutiae of managing their facilities here, planning on meeting representatives of the refugees' families and their Starfleet and Militia relations for the allocation of duties, space, resources... but still silently checking the status boards for any messages, from her husband, from the search party in Sekuro, from the Kaetini.

Silence responded.

Esek... Beloved, please be safe... please keep my baby safe and come back to me...

"Mama?"

She turned, seeing Misha enter, frowning at him. "Sweetheart, why are you here? You should be with the other cubs in the classroom we've set up."

The young cub strode up. "Where Papa and Baby Sreen? Where Sasha and Jhess?"

She dropped down to one knee, casting aside her consternation at his appearance to gain some comfort by taking in her son's scent. "Papa and Sreen are in hiding. Sasha, Jhess and Captain Biggles are looking for them."

"I go!" he declared. "I know how they smell! I track them all!"

She smiled, stroking the truculent fur on the top of his head. "I bet you could, Sweetheart. I bet you could. But you're needed here, to help keep the civilians safe."

He growled in protest.

She drew him into a hug, purring against him and whispering, "That's the official story. The real reason is that I need you near me, to keep me safe, like your Papa would do. But we won't tell anyone else, it might make me look bad, okay?"

He nodded against her head.

"Commander?"

She drew back, turned and rose, holding onto her son's paw; the interruption came from First Mate Cserr, a butterscotch-furred female Communications Officer from a Caitian ore freighter. "What's up? Have we heard from Sekuro?"

"Not... quite, Ma'am. Nothing from Captain Hrelle or our people there, but there's been chatter on the Jem'Hadar channels.

They've... taken prisoners."

*

Hrelle walked up onto the deck of the Highsun with the rest of the crew, Sreen strapped in her harness on his chest, looking out and sniffing the air in wonder at the endless, rolling waves of the Free Seas, watching the crew climb up the masts and check the rigging. They were still powered by the engines, and would be until they reached the best fishing areas, but it was tradition to put the sails up on the first day, a tradition that went back centuries.

"Ooooh bah wayyys!" Sreen declared happily.

He reached up and stroked the backs of her ears, his navigational instincts confirming that they were moving west-southwestward.

In the direction of Kaijushima Island...

TO BE CONTINUED...