Surefoot 66: By Fire and Water

She stared, wishing, wishing he would just suddenly start telling her it was all a big joke on his part. "No- please, you can't do this- it's not just about my life- turning me over will be helping the Ferasans and the Dominion- they're killing and enslaving hundreds of thousands of our people-"

He made a harsh sound, his tail twitching. "Our people? You're not one of us." He smirked. "I had a look around you when you were knocked out, just to make sure."

She froze. "You... what?"

"Just a peek, here and there, to satisfy my curiosity; I never met an alien before." He smirked again. "It's strangely comforting to know you're not entirely furless."

Sasha swallowed, pushing down her disgust and revulsion at his confession of his casual violation of her while she was unconscious. "Listen to me: if the Ferasans get a hold of me, they'll question me for information on the Resistance. They'll torture me. They'll rape me. Then they'll most likely eat me alive. You know this.

And with what information they will have taken from me, the Resistance will fall, and there will be no one left to stop them from butchering and plundering the planet. Please..." When there was no response, she snarled, "Don't you give a damn about anyone but yourself, you mercenary piece of shit?"

He never even looked over at her, just shrugged and replied, "Insult me all you want. The Rat-tails will soon put that mouth of yours to better use. All your holes, in fact."

She swallowed again... feeling her anger now boil away her fear. "What's your name?"

He paused, seemingly considering the request, before looking at her and replying, "Navesh. Why? What good is it gonna do you where you're going?"

Sasha fixed her gaze on him, her voice now low and dangerous. "Because now, when I escape from here and report on what happened to me, I'll be able to finish the report with the sentence, 'And then before I left, I cut off Constable Navesh's head, as an example to all traitors to the Motherworld.'"

He chuckled. "Save that fire, Ape. I think you're gonna need it." Then his attention returned to a small screen before him. Then he rose to his feet, checking his police pistol and her phaser, before tucking both down the back of his waistband. "They're here."

"Mr Navesh," Sasha breathed to him. "This is your last chance to get out of this alive. Let me go, and I'll forget all this."

But he made an impatient sound and departed, closing the door behind him.

And then Sasha began moving more openly, recognising the bindings on her wrists as being cuffs designed for Caitians and Ferasans, to keep them from using the tendons that let them extend their claws. The cuffs were very effective on both those races.

Not so effective on races like humans, with a slight but important physiological difference to their respective arms, wrists and hands. And for someone like Sasha, who'd practiced on them for a long time, enduring the ribald jokes from her friends who watched her do it-

She slipped out of them, with just a little scrape of her skin, but forwent any jumping jack celebrations, for fear of triggering the infernite currently pressed between her perfect boobs.

This was her own fault, she knew. If she hadn't been self-medicating and taut as a wire, she might have seen through the bastard's lies. That was on her.

As for the rest... Oh Mister Navesh, you are so quintessentially fucked...

* * * * *

Closer than she could know, outside another building, Jhess Furore and Captain Biggleshen moved through the winding stacks of crates and barrels in the warehouse in which they had spent the night, sleeping fitfully, trusting in the people who had found and secreted them here, while they sought Sasha's whereabouts.

Ahead of them, Ashen, an older male with russet fur and a slight limp, glanced behind him. "Keep up, cubs! I could dance rings around you!"

Just behind Jhess, Biggles grunted, muttering, "Cubs, indeed. I'm in my fifties. Who does he think he is?"

Jhess glanced once more at their benefactor, and the sword strapped to his side, with the same Kaetini symbol on the pommel that he had seen many times on Sasha's own sword. "I'm not sure who he thinks he is. I think he's our only hope of finding Sash."

Inwardly, his guts churned, from more than the meagre meal he had forced himself to down this morning. Guilt wracked him, from the way he badgered Sasha when they last spoke about taking stimulants. She had been correct; she was an adult, capable of making her own decisions, and he was only the nanny to her siblings and parents, and had no right to interfere. Stop trying to Counsel the Galaxy, Jhess.

"Such an adventure," Biggles noted, tugging at the lapels of his brown leather flyer's longcoat.

Jhess glanced at him. "All in a day's work for the Skycats, I imagine."

He grunted. "Hardly! Myself, Berti, Aljinon, Jinjer, we merely recreate the exploits of our illustrious ancestors. Mere performing actors-"

"-Who have been invaluable in tirelessly ferrying the families of Starfleet and Militia personnel to safety. Don't dismiss your value so easily." Inwardly, Jhess grimaced. What was that about stopping trying to Counsel the Galaxy again? "Mr Ashen, how are we going to find Sasha?"

The old male turned a corner, popping his head back at them. "You won't fight her dawdling back here, will you, cubs?"

The other two males caught up, turning the corner to find an open area of the warehouse... with an open square hole in the concrete floor, and a square grill plate resting next to it, beside a young coffee-furred male cub of about age ten, with a suspicious glare at the other males.

Ashen indicated him. "Gentlemen, this is Shuul, who does odd jobs around my shop in exchange for bags of Claw Flakes and Rula Punch to share with his brothers and sisters."

The cub looked up at Jhess and scowled. "Why are you spotted?"

Jhess shrugged and smiled warmly. "I was born this way."

"Hmph." But then Shuul looked at Biggles, still frowning... but lacing it now with interest. "You look like a Skycat!"

Biggles glanced at Jhess, before straightening up and saluting. "I am, Young Sir: Captain Majes Biggleshen, at your service."

That impressed the cub, and made Jhess smile, as Ashen explained, "Shuul has reported that his mother M'Troia had taken Captain Hrelle and his infant daughter in last night after the incident at the Benbow Inn. They left port early yesterday morning."

The news, the first they had heard about Esek and Sreen, made Jhess' tail wag. "They're okay? Where are they? Where'd they go?"

"They went on a fishing boat," Shuul announced. "The HIghsun. They went out onto the Free Seas."

Now Jhess frowned. Fishing? Was he kidding? But no; he knew enough about cubs and cub psychology to tell that this one before him was being truthful. "Why? Why would he board a boat?"

"Maybe he didn't have a choice?" Ashen suggested. "With the Enemy in town, searching, and a reward for information on him displayed everywhere..."

Jhess and Biggles glanced and nodded to each other, Jhess noting, "Well, that's something, anyway."

"And the fishing boast of the Free Fleet have safety transponders," Ashen informed them. "You can track them down and pick them up."

"We need to update the Exchange, let our people know what's happening. And we need to find Sasha."

"I might have a lead on her," Ashen told him. "There was reports of her being seen with a local Constable Belan Navesh."

"A Constable? Good!"

The older male shook his head. "No. Not when we're talking about this particular Constable..."

* * * * *

It was a pointless exercise, Kami knew. If news from anyone had come through, it would be forwarded to her, wherever she was in the Island facility.

Still, on a regular basis, she would return to the Command Bay and ask if there was any word from those missing: her husband and daughter, her bond-daughter and allies, Nenjo and her team.

Nothing. Yet.

She tried to distract herself with a hundred other little tasks: quelling disputes between parties, assigning work details, inspecting security arrangements... and offering bland reassurances, a thousand times over, about the state of the world, the War, and how long they might be there.... answers she didn't really have.

She had been in the middle of one of those when she suddenly stopped, everything around her growing distant and unfocused. Then she absently excused herself, turned and walked to the lift, entering and ascending to the surface.

The air outside was hot, thick, swaddling, and filled with a million unfiltered scents of the jungle around her, and the prehistoric animals and plants that inhabited this remarkable miniature ecosystem. She paced, her boots kicking moist, pebble-dotted dirt ahead of her, her tail a stress-galvanised whip, as she made harsh, guttural noises, teeth and claws bared, her release of anxiety escalating into hoarse roars to the beasts around her.

Spent, exhausted, she collapsed to her knees, her head pounding, her mane unravelling from its hold together to collapse over her face and muzzle, as she punched the dirt.

"Kami..."

She didn't look up at the new arrival, didn't have to, knowing her father's voice and scent, but she didn't respond to him.

She listened to him draw closer, carefully so as not to set off her aggressive instincts, even as she was calming down and returning to her controlled, civilised self.

Mi'Tree knelt in front of her, gently reaching out and taking her paws in his own, squeezing lovingly. "It's alright, my Little Nova... just let it all out..."

She tried shaking her head, tried sobbing, but she was spent, could barely catch her breath, her voice raw and staccato. "Can't- Can't- S-Sorry- D-Don't- Don't know- What's wrong- what's wrong with me-"

Mi'Tree tightened his hold. "My dear, there is nothing wrong with you. There is just too much wrong with the world. Our world is broken. You're tired. We're all tired. And it's perfectly normal to be overwhelmed by our poor world and everything that is broken in it, and all the ways it breaks people and families and lives. It is foolish to think we can just carry on with our usual energy and enthusiasm indefinitely. No one could.

Your mother couldn't."

Kami wiped her eyes with her fingers, shaking her head. "N-No- Mama... Mama was-"

He pressed his forehead against hers, purrs running through him as he crooned, "Your mother was not the Great Mother... except in the eyes and hearts of her Little Nova. She was as mortal as you. And there were times, in seclusion, when she would be in a position very much like I have found you here, thinking and feeling very much like what you're thinking and feeling right now."

He drew her into an embrace as he continued. "And at those times, Bneea and I would remind her that she was not fragile, because of the pain and weariness of carrying these burdens.

She was strong.

You are strong."

The father held onto his daughter.

* * * * *

Sasha managed to remove the explosive charge from the harness and carefully set it on the control panel, before lifting up her head to peer through the glass, wondering where she was.

She looked down into a stark, open area, with what appeared to be a long serving bar along one side, and sets of large lights strung overhead: some sort of nightclub, probably closed for the Lockdown in Sekuro, and a venue that Constable Navesh thought would be suitable for the exchange. And she was in an overhead control booth for the music and lights, though the floor below was empty, save for one dark figure she guessed was him.

She saw her various confiscated devices, and collected them again: her holosuit controls, ship remote, energy deflector strips, Pummels, and of course her sword, glad she had it in her hands. Navesh had taken her phaser with him... but she could do what she had to do without it.

She began starting up panels, examining the controls and perusing what the Constable had been looking at before: a live view of the outside of the club, where Ferasans had gathered and stood guard, and others were entering now.

She had to move.

She set some commands on a countdown, before creeping to the door and carefully opening it, finding near darkness outside. The Caitians and Ferasans would have an advantage over her in terms of visual acuity in this low level of light, but there was nothing she could do about that. She found a ladder leading down to the ground floor, and balanced her sword carefully in one hand as she descended, just out of the view of the centre of the club, where she saw Navesh standing, now speaking with a half-dozen Ferasans standing in a semi-circle.

Sasha drew back out of sight as she continued downwards, her eyes adjusting to the darkness as she got her bearings. She was in the rear of the club, near the toilets and what were probably storage rooms, and a few metres away, the bar... but it was a few metres of open space where she couldn't help but be seen. But that was okay, if her timing worked out.

Then she heard the voices heating up, and she stopped and peered back out again. She saw Navesh holding out her Starfleet pistol, presumably a sign that he did indeed have her to offer, but the Ferasans were barking demands, one of them moving closer-

Until the phaser in Navesh's paw flipped and dropped into his grip, pointed at them, while he held up his other paw... with the control rod he showed Sasha before, as he bellowed, "CROSS ME, AND THE FAT HUMAN FEMALE IS BLOWN TO THE SEVEN HELLS!"

She frowned. I'm big boned, you pervy fakakta turncoat. She checked the chrono on her sleeve; she didn't have much time. She looked across the open space at the bar, gauging how quickly she could get over there, then crawl her way to the other side, and with no stops to sample the spirits either. Just a few seconds-

Assuming the cats on the dance floor didn't erupt into a firefight first.

Three, two, one-

She squeezed her eyes shut as her pre-programmed commands to the booth controls switched on every light in the room to a blinding, strobing brilliance, and the music joined in with some screeching, chaotic music at full volume, a din that made the very air throb in pain.

Keeping her eyes closed, she moved in the direction of the bar, even as she thought she heard disruptor fire-

She stumbled and fell as a fireball erupted from above- Navesh must have set off the infernite, thinking to kill her. And it would have, if she hadn't left it up in the booth. Pain shot through her as she tumbled into the corner of the bar and fell.

The fire spread out, killing the lights but leaving the music, and the fire.

Now... She drew out her sword, rose and raced along the back of the bar, sacrificing cover for speed, even as she saw she had caught the Ferasans' attention, and they began firing in her direction, and then finally charging towards her.

Sasha couldn't stay behind the bar now and risk being trapped and killed there, so she hopped and rolled over the bartop, taking a bottle of something with her and hurling it at the face of the nearest Ferasan, watching it smash and making him scream as the broken glass cut his eyes and snout to ribbons. The others continued to fire, but the deflector strips returned to the sleeves of her holosuite absorbed most of the energy, and her sword did the rest.

They dropped their disruptors to launch and almost-simultaneous attack on her with their teeth and claws.

And she danced with them, her sword cleaving limbs and other body parts, their blood spurting out onto her as she cut a path to what she hoped was the exit. Around her, Ferasans fell, their screams drowned out by the awful music, while lighting fixtures fell from the ceiling, smashing to the dance floor while she dodged them, like some game.

She didn't see Navesh anywhere.

* * * * *

Belan Navesh was a survivor.

He had grown up on the streets of Sekuro, running with the other cubs, getting into trouble... but always getting out of it. He only got better at it when he joined the local Constabulary, and used his knowledge of this city and its people and ways, learning to skulk through the shadows of legality and make a little extra on the side with under-the-table deals and looking the other way when necessary.

Stumbling upon the human, recognising her even through her holosuit disguise, was like finding a treasure trove. The Ferasans proved to be as repulsive as he had been told, but he found their money very attractive. It was meant to be the sweetest deal of his career.

And then the ape had to go and screw up all his plans.

He blinked as he stepped outside into an intersection in the morning air and light, blinking and coughing and getting his bearings. Around him, he could see the local citizenry, still on lockdown but watching from their windows. Too many witnesses to say he had been in there. So he came up with an alternative story, about the human hiding in the club, the Ferasans finding her in there, and in the fight they killed each other. He tried to race in there to help, but-

He looked down in confusion as a black blade, coated in bright blood, emerged from the centre of his chest, as if had been inside him all along. He froze, dropping the human's Starfleet phaser, before disappearing back inside him as he dropped to his knees, unable to move his limbs.

Oh. It was the human's Kaetini sword.

He spent the remaining vestiges of his voluntary control to turn his head and look behind him, watching a bloodied, furious Sasha swing down her blade in a wide arc towards his-

* * * * *

Ashen had stopped Jhess and Biggles in the side alley when he heard the explosion. Then he motioned to him. "Come on."

Jhess gripped his blaster tighter, wanting to question the Kaetini agent's wisdom in continuing in what could be potential Enemy activity, but instead he nodded to Biggles and followed, aware of the citizens of Sekuro, still on Lockdown but watching everything happening.

They emerged into an intersection outside some sort of club that was smouldering, to see a blood-covered Sasha standing over a decapitated male Caitian body, her sword in one hand and what was obviously the severed head of the body held high in her other hand, as she roared to the many witnesses in the surrounding windows, "LOOK AND LEARN! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO TRAITORS TO THE MOTHERWORLD! THIS!"

"Sasha!" Jhess called out, glancing around for the inevitable reinforcements of the Enemy to arrive as the three of them rushed up to her. "Are you... Are you okay?"

She glanced at him, dropping the head to let it roll next to the stump of the neck. "Better than some."

"Who in the Seven Hells is that?" Biggles asked, looking appalled.

"That is the aforementioned Constable Navesh," Ashen replied, staring at the body, his own weapons drawn. "An agent of the law as crooked as a barrel of fish hooks."

"He tried to sell me to some Ferasans I left inside," Sasha announced, sheathing her sword.

"Then he got what he deserved."

"And you think you two will convince the local Constabulary of that?" Jhess exclaimed.

Before anyone could respond, more Constables raced up, sonic pistols drawn, one of them shouting, "DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"

Ashen turned to face them, displaying his sword and announcing calmly, "No. Drop your weapons."

And they did, the Constable who spoke staring at the body. "Is- Is that Constable Navesh? What happened to him, Mr Ashen?"

"Blame it on the dead Ferasans in the club," the elderly male replied, "I have to get these people away before the Jem'Hadar show up. You never saw us here." As smoke poured out of the front doors, he added, "I'm hoping someone is calling for the firefighters."