Surefoot 83: The Dragon Gambit

Lamont slapped his combadge. "Ops! The Intruder attacked the Hospital! We drove it off, but lost it in the corridor! Should we pursue?"

Hrelle's voice responded. "Negative, Crewman, remain at your post, protect the Hospital! Ops out!"

Lamont nodded at that, looking to his colleagues with barely-disguised relief. "You heard the man. The staff and patients need us!"

Eydiir grunted, returning inside to retrieve her kligat. "I feel safer already."

*

In Ops, Hrelle stood before the Station Tactical Display, watching alongside Sternhagen and Zir as images of various Security teams were moving from different decks to either secure vulnerable positions, or move to the last known location of the Dragon, Sternhagen breaking the momentary silence to bark, "I'm getting a red light on the force fields protecting the Crew Quarters on 3-Port!"

"Is it the Intruder?" Zir asked.

Hrelle kept fixed, his whole body tense, wishing he was back down there, hunting this bastard once more, even if his efforts to actually defeat it felt pitiful. Face it, Esek, you're well past your prime. "No; there's tertiary damage to the power couplings in that area causing fluctuations." Louder now, he ordered, "Divert secondary power from the Airlock Controls - if it wants to use one of them to go for a walk in the ion storm outside, let it."

"What's the damn thing here for, anyway?" Sternhagen cursed.

"Not to kill me, apparently," he muttered. "Just everyone else." Louder again, he ordered, "Bravo Team, Echo Team, converge on Deck 3! The Intruder's still there!"

"You're moving people from guarding the entrances to Deck 5, Sir?" Zir asked.

He nodded absently, never taking his eyes off the schematics. "The Academy Deck was once the Evacuation Deck, with blast doors, independent systems, shelters; it's the most protected section, except for our deck and the officers' quarters below us." Where my wife and cubs are safe and secure, he added to himself.

Then his attention locked on one section of Deck 3, the Crew Lounge, with Engineering notations appearing beside the schematic. "What work was being done in there?"

Zir checked her PADD. "Chief Sakai had the Lounge closed down yesterday to replace some faulty below-deck gravity plating that was affecting the Holostage-"

She jumped, as Hrelle suddenly roared, "All available Teams, converge on Deck 3's Crew Lounge! The bulkhead's opened up there! The Intruder can force its way down to Deck 4!"

*

The irony didn't escape Urad Kaldron that, despite being literally the strongest one in the room, he felt such a heavy weight upon him. As the senior ranking Security officer present, he led this team currently guarding the Arboretum - and those within, including the Paserak, many of whom remained openly hostile to Starfleet, despite the protection they were receiving here. And he had to keep up with what was happening in the rest of the station, and offer a reassuring presence for his people.

Crewman Grash stood close, leaning against the wall, his rifle at his side as the Tellarite pressed the earpiece so deep into his ear that Urad feared it might get lost in there. "Commodore Hrelle has declared the Intruder to be... a Dragon? With cybernetic stealth and plasma weaponry? Has he been eating rotten shuris?"

"Stow the insults, Grash." Crewman Trinity Evans snapped, gripping her phaser rifle, but looking nervously in the direction of the Paserak, gathered further down on a clearing surrounded by foliage. "I don't like the sound of their talk, Ensign. Maybe we should separate them into smaller groups, keep a closer guard on them?"

Urad avoided following her gaze to the scene behind him. "No, Comrade Evans. Counselor Hrelle is managing matters."

"Yeah, but what if she loses control of them, and they, like, take her and her children hostage or something?"

The pachydermoid grunted. "I do not believe such an occurrence is likely. They are good people."

"I wish I had half your confidence, Ensign," declared Crewman Koga Horumu, the lithe young man of Terran Asian descent. "Or at least a tenth of your muscles."

"Or your experience," Evans added. "You're the only one of us who has seen real action, out there during the War. You're lucky."

Images, memories, flashed unbidden in Urad's mind: of the boarding of the Surefoot by Cardassians and Jem'Hadar during the Battle of Khavak. Of his best friend Tori Emoto being attacked. Of him rushing to her rescue, his rage at the assault upon her making him forget his Starfleet training to crush, literally crush Cardassians within his grip, or beneath his feet. Feeling their pulverised remains under his skin, the splatter of dirt-brown Cardassian blood and guts everywhere and the taste in his mouth-

"No, Comrade Evans," he finally replied. "I was not. Please join Crewmen Fazi and Plage, and recheck the security lock on the doors-"

He paused as something struck the side of his head. The others started, but he caught a glimpse of the object that hit him, and chuckled as he walked over to where the ball had landed, bending down and picking it up.

One of the Paserak children - in fact the one he remembered from his visit to the classroom - was rushing up to retrieve it, but then skidded to a halt and looked up at him apprehensively.

Urad looked past him, to the other Paserak, and to Counselor Hrelle, all them watching, with varying expressions, waiting for his reaction.

He held out the ball in a huge open hand. "Here you go, Little Comrade."

Tentatively the Paserak child drew up, his stubby tail twitching behind him, before he swiftly grabbed the ball, calling back, "Thank you!"

Urad smiled, just as Grash spoke up again, his beady eyes narrowing. "The Intruder's appeared in the Hospital, attacked Lamont's team! It's escaped into another part of Deck 3! And it's resistant to the T100 bullets!"

He frowned now. They had already been warned about the Intruder being able to disrupt their phaser weaponry. What were they going to do now? "We need ballistic upgrades."

"T300s are on their way now."

"What are we going to do?" Horumu asked nervously.

The Hroch looked around, trusting in Starfleet protocols. "Comrade Grash, inform me when our upgrades have arrived. I want all of us paired, phasers and ballistic weaponry mixed."

"And if neither work?" Grash asked.

"Then we use them as clubs. We do whatever it takes to protect these people-"

All heads turned as a noise came from the ceiling at the far corner of the Arboretum, where panelling and tubing burst outward from an environmental maintenance nodule over a large clump of trees. The ceilings here were twice the height of nearly every other deck on Salem One, and the debris rained down onto the trees, making them burst forth leaves, branches and birds in all directions.

And something else dropped down as well, disappearing from view.

Urad moved into action, slapping his combadge. "Intruder in the Arboretum! Evans! Plage! Get the civilians out of here! Fazi! Grash! You're with me!"

He charged ahead, stampeding towards the trees even as he waved the Paserak and the Counselor and her cubs to one side. He would be okay.

No, more than Okay.

Today, he would be Invincible.

*

Like many Caitians, Hrelle was good at managing multiple audio stimuli, and in his younger days had been known to listen to up to twenty different sounds or voices simultaneously. That part of him had waned with age - like so many other qualities - but he could still impress others.

Now, however, as he was coordinating the Security to converge onto Deck 3, his attention jumped to the sound of his own wife from his combadge. "Esek! The Intruder's in the Arboretum-" Then the transmission scrambled with interference.

His heart triphammered, and he ignored wasting time wondering why Kami was there, or whether or not she had the cubs with her, ignored the simultaneous reports from Ensign Kaldron, and turned to Sternhagen. "The transporter-"

"There's some damn inhibitor field being generated! We can't beam anyone out!"

But that won't prevent someone beaming in... "Salvo! All Units! Get to the Arboretum! Evacuate it, and contain the Dragon!"

Then he turned and torpedoed into his office.

*

Mors Vincit, Sed Semel Tantum : Death Wins, But Only Once. It was a phrase Salvo had learned from an early age on Nova Roma, from her mother, a Captain of the Ninth Legion. It was never meant to be a fatalistic philosophy, but an empowering one, a reminder that Death may win the final battle, but all the ones before it can belong to the rest of us.

Salvo led her team down the corridor, still carrying the long metal bar that Hrelle used on the lower deck; it would do until she got her hands on something more effective, and it reminded her of the lancea, upon which she had trained, along with many other melee weapons. If only she had time to sharpen one end, to shove up the ass of that Dragon...

They reached the entrance to the Arboretum just as the doors opened, and Paserak began pouring out...

*

Inside the Arboretum, Chaos Reigned, and Kami clutched a crying Sreen close to her, as Paserak panicked around her, and she called out, "MISHA!" He had been off playing with his friends, as per her plans to lessen the tensions among the more hostile of the community. And now, instead of remaining in their quarters with Sre Gyver Timbrel and T'Varik's nephew Srithik, her selfish foolishness has put Misha, all of them, in danger, however unintentionally.

"MAMA!" Misha snaked his way around the various legs and tails of the reptoids, to grab her free paw and pull her towards the door. "You come, I protect you and Baby Sreen!"

Kami let him, even as she turned and saw Maggiore stumble, before Turikana picked up the elder Paserak, leading her and others around and away from the trees.

*

Urad saw the Dragon's face first, its eyes and inside of its mouth glowing bright blue, as did the plates running along its back, as it emerged from the foliage surrounding the trees. " Ooh, come to me, Jumbo Platter! "

Urad balled his hands into fists. "SCOUNDREL! MEET YOUR-"

Something else emerged from the side, between the larger figures: the Paserak child.

It stopped between them, freezing.

The Dragon opened its mouth, and the blue glow from its outside grew from within.

Urad almost tumbled over himself in his effort to keep from trampling on the child.

The Dragon breathed plasma fire.

Urad grabbed the child and twisted around in place to shield him, turning his back on the Dragon. A tactically foolish move, he knew, but he had to protect the little one. He would be Invincible. He would be Invincible. He would-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!"

*

The bellowing, blood-curdling scream filled the Arboretum.

Salvo entered in time to see the Dragon standing there, pouring fire from its mouth onto the crouched form of Ensign Kaldron. Setting his hide on fire.

Instinctively she drew her phaser and tried to fire, confirming the Dragon's disruption field was still functioning. She threw the useless weapon aside and clutched the bar in both hands, screaming as she continued charging towards the killer, demanding its attention.

The Dragon stopped breathing fire and drew back, flinching as Salvo's and Urad's people fired with their ballistic weapons. Urad was a blackened, smouldering heap... but somehow he was still alive, rising enough to let the Paserak child he had protected slither out from under him.

"Hold your fire!" Salvo called out, not wanting the child shot. She raised the bar over her head and spun it, drawing the Dragon away and letting her people retrieve the child, though they couldn't do anything about Urad, not at the moment.

Rage and fear drove her onward. "FACE ME, SERPENT!"

The Dragon turned, baring teeth. " I'll do more than that, bitch! "

It opened its mouth again.

She pressed forward, somehow moving faster than she ever had before - and swung out, striking the side of its head with one end of the bar, almost losing her grip on the other end, before reaffirming her hold with both hands as she struck and stabbed at it, again and again, keeping it off balance and unable to stop long enough to breath fire again.

Her people took their cue from her and flanked either side, firing at the Dragon without risking hitting each other.

The Dragon snarled and spun in place, letting its tail whip out and catch Crewman Evans, sending her sprawling.

Crewman Horuga continue firing until he emptied the magazine on his rifle, before rushing up to try and slam the butt of his spent weapon against the Dragon's head. Alarm raced through Salvo at the action. "No-"

Too late: the Dragon bared a clawed hand and slashed Horuga's face and throat, drawing sprays of blood and making him drop the rifle and stagger back.

Salvo redoubled her efforts, praying to the Gods to show her how to defeat this demon and keep further people under her from being hurt, or worse.

*

At the Arboretum doors, the Paserak who hadn't left completely watched as Crewman Grash rushed up with the rescued child, letting him leap out of his arms and into his father's. The Tellarite huffed, out of breath, but urged, "Go- All of you- we'll keep it in here as long as possible-"

"No!" Turikana and several others, clutching various tools taken from the Manual Fire Suppression Kit in the corridor outside, racing back into the Arboretum to join the fight.

*

"Ensign Kaldron's been badly burned! We need him transported to Sickbay!"

In Ops, Zir started at the report, her heart racing, but pushed back the shock at the news of her friend's condition to respond, "The local disruption field's still in place! Transporter Team, we need pattern enhancers in the Arboretum-"

"Belay that," Sternhagen interjected. At her reaction, the Station Master explained, "Not while there's a hostile still active. Have them on standby, alert Medical to prepare to receive the Hroch."

Zir almost protested, but knew the human was right, that she couldn't allow her personal feelings to influence her. Still, she'd feel better if Commodore Hrelle was here to support them, instead of having rushed into his office for some inexplicable reason-

"Lieutenant-"

She turned at Hrelle's voice, feeling like he had somehow been listening to her thoughts about him, but instead gasped at what she saw.

*

Salvo jabbed repeatedly at the Dragon's throat, hoping to somehow damage whatever cybernetic mechanisms within might control the fire generator-

It caught one end of the bar with one clawed hand, tightening its grip and knocking her down.

She hit hard against the corner of rock in the corner of a fixture, but ignored the pain to fight to pull the bar from the Dragon's grip, and keep it from using it against her the way she had used it against him. But his strength was superior, and she had lost her leverage-

A sharp blast of bone-white gas to its head caught the Dragon off-guard, and Salvo looked up to see Turikana wielding a portable fire suppressor, as other Paserak worked to retrieve the wounded Horuga, though their attempts to do the same for Urad proved impractical - and left them vulnerable.

The Dragon snatched the bar fully and flung it at the Paserak, striking several of them as it roughly wiped spray from its eyes. " You little shits! Fuck off! "

Salvo grasped the distraction, leaping back to her feet and onto the Dragon from one side, wrapping one arm around its throat and reaching up to jab at its eyes.

The Dragon roared and spun around in place, letting its thick tail knock aside Turikana and other Paserak and sending them sprawling in every direction.

Salvo tightened her grip on her opponent, getting dizzy and feeling the Dragon's spinal plates heating up, knowing if she slipped, if she faltered, she would be killed, even as she knew she couldn't hold on forever-

The sparkle and whine of an incoming transporter beam in the centre of the Arboretum drew everyone's attention, and the Dragon froze as well.

Salvo looked up to see the beam coalesce into the figure of Hrelle, clad in the elaborate chest, arm and leg armour he kept displayed in his office, carrying the embossed round tritanium shield on one arm, and his black Kaetini sword in the other.

*

On beaming into the Arboretum, Hrelle had been glad to have seen it mostly cleared out, so he knew Kami and their offspring were safe. Then he saw and scented Urad Kaldron on the floor, his body still smoking - Mother's Cubs - but he was still alive. For now.

The Dragon stared at him - and guffawed. " Back to join the Game, Kitty Cat? "

Hrelle kept his gaze fixed on his opponent, letting his rage galvanise his limbs. "This is no game. You butcher my crew. You threaten my home." He pointed the sword in the Dragon's direction. "I'm taking your head." He caught Salvo's gaze, motioning with the tip of his sword.

Salvo took the hint and leapt off the Dragon, backing away, even as she signalled for the Paserak to do the same.

Hrelle shifted, further away from Urad. The Dragon followed suit, though Hrelle's motivation behind it would have been obvious. It looked back at Urad. " You don't mind if I have a quick bite first? Crispy Minion is so appetising! "

Hrelle growled through bared, clenched teeth. "Who sent you here? Max Zorin? WHO?"

The Dragon offered a rictus grin of its own. " Fuck You, that's who. "

Hrelle roared and charged. Here goes everything...

The Dragon opened its mouth, its body glowing once more, and spat a stream of plasma fire.

Hrelle kept charging, but held up his shield. He knew a little something about the melting properties of tritanium, that it wasn't as strong as the Caitian arakanium that comprised his sword and armour, but should still-

He staggered back from the force of the blast, and he crouched down to minimise his profile as the fire poured over his shield and around him like a wave. He gritted his teeth - Seven Hells, the heat was overpowering! - and was sure his exposed fur was being singed. But he counted the seconds until the point when he expected the blast would dissipate. Three, two...

It died out, and he charged, recalling his previous encounter with the Dragon, and how long it seemed to take to recharge. And he saw the surprise in his opponent's eyes, and how it began stepping backwards, glancing on either side, its tail twitching behind it nervously. Its skin, and the air around it shimmered, as it began to cloak itself.

No, Bubulah, you're not getting away again... with a roar he ignored his protesting heart and doubled his speed, driving forward with his sword as he leapt up, plunging the point of the blade into the shifting air, feeling resistance, and then seeing coal-black blood spurt into view. The Dragon screamed and turned visible again, roaring back as it spun in place trying to claw and bite Hrelle.

Hrelle slammed into the body of the Dragon, keeping his shield up to block the razor-sharp claws and teeth as he withdrew his sword and stabbed again, piercing hide, muscle, bone. He felt blood spurt on him, and spat some out from his mouth, as his body moved instinctively.

The Dragon fell backwards, its tail whipping up again towards him - until he cut off half a metre of it. The Dragon screamed again until it began choking on its own blood, its eyes rolling into the back of its head as it struggled beneath his relentless assault. I'll learn who sent through via your autopsy, Kussik...