…

Kirk strode down the white-lit hallways of his ship from the medical bay, Spock close behind. His face was hard, jaw set. He had some questions to ask their new captive. As he neared the entrance to the room that held the beast, he picked up the pace to a jog, yellow dragon scale armor clinking. The silver insignia flashed in the light on his breastplate. He rounded the corner and crossed the room until he stood in front of the glass wall that separated them.

The crimson dragon lay with his tail around his nose in the corner of his cell; smoke curling from his nostrils with his breath. He was about the size of two horses from back home, but still big enough to intimidate the captain. He could tell the beast was impatient, as the word 'BORED' had recently been scratched into the wall. Shezza Holmes, as the dragon claimed to be, made no sign he'd even heard the pair enter.

"Why is there a hatchling in that torpedo?" Kirk asked through gritted teeth.

Holmes sighed, lifting his great head, "There are grown males and females in all those torpedoes, Captain. I put them there." He grumbled, his voice resonating off the walls.

"I get the feeling you haven't told us everything. Who the hell are you?" Kirk's fist clenched.

Holmes didn't answer at first, and seemed to stare through Kirk, "A remnant of a time long past." He finally said, "Genetically engineered to be superior so as to lead others to peace in a world at war. We were condemned as criminals; forced into exile for our crimes. For centuries my brethren and I slept beneath the mountains, hoping that when we awoke things would be… different." The dragon's head swung around and faced Spock behind him, yellow eyes narrowing to slits, "But as a result of the destruction of Vulcan, your Fleets began to aggressively search distant quadrants of space. My home was discovered; I alone was revive."

"I looked up Shezza Holmes. Until about a year ago he didn't exist." Kirk crossed his arms.

"Shezza Holmes was a fiction created the moment I was awoken by your admiral Lestrade." He stood and took a step towards them, towering above the pair behind the glass, "A smokescreen to conceal my true identity." He lowered his head so he was just above eye level to Kirk, "My name, is Smaug." He growled, and the hair on the back of Kirk's neck stood up.

"Why would a Star Fleet admiral, ask a three hundred year old sleeping dragon for help?"

"Because I am… better."

"At what?" Kirk mocked.

"Everything." The dragon turned, tail sweeping across the floor as his claws clicked across the cell, "Gavin Lestrade needed to respond to an uncivilized threat in a civilized time and for that he needed a warrior's mind. My mind." He faced the men again, ignoring Kirk's annoyance at mistaking the admiral's name, "To design weapons, and warships."

Spock was appalled, "You are suggesting the admiral violated every regulation he vowed to uphold simply because he wanted to exploit your intellect!"

"He wanted to exploit my savagery!" Smaug yelled, slinking again up to the glass and coming face to face with the Vulcan. "Intellect is useless in a fight, Mr. Spock. You…" he glared in disgust, "You can't even break a rule how would you be expected to break bone?"

Spock was silent as the dragon continued his tale, "Lestrade used me to design weapons to help him realize his vision of a militarized Star Fleet. He sent you to use those weapons. To fire my egg-like bombs on an unsuspecting planet." His lips curled in a wicked smile to reveal a row of dagger sharp teeth, "And then, he purposely crippled your ship in enemy space leading to one inevitable outcome. The Orcs would come searching for whomever was responsible and you would have no chance of escape. Lestrade would finally have the war he'd always talked about, the war he'd always wanted."

"No." Kirk shook his head, "No. I watched you open fire, literally, might I add, on a room of unarmed Star Fleet officers. You killed them in cold blood!"

Smaug turned away, beating his wings in frustration, "Lestrade took my clan from me…"

But Kirk wouldn't listen, "You are a murderer!" He thought of Pike's dead body in his arms and his anger grew again. He'd still be alive today if it weren't for this beast.

"He used my friends to control me!" the dragon shouted at the wall, not wanting to face the men, "I tried to smuggle them to safety by concealing them in the very weapons I had designed, but I was discovered." Faces of everyone he'd lost ran through his mind, all his fellow clan mates, his family, friends. The guilt crushed him, "I had no choice, but to escape alone. And when I did, I had every reason to suspect that Lestrade had killed every… single… one of the people I held most dear." The memory of a little burglar that once tried to steal one of his gems ran through his mind. Even so, the two became best friends, and were never without each other. He'd taken his fake name from that little hobbit, just so he'd never forget Bilbo. A tear dripped down his scaled face and dripped to the floor, "So I responded in kind." He turned to face the men, not caring if they saw him cry, "My crew is my family, Kirk. Is there anything you would not do for your family?"

Kirk's eyes softened sadly. Before he could say anything though, his connector went off and Sulu's voice scratched through the speaker, "Proximity alert sir. There a fleet at Warp heading right for us."

"Orcs?"

"No, Kirk." Smaug's neck slithered towards him until his nose almost touched the glass.

Sulu interrupted over the connector, "I don't think so, sir. They're not coming from Appledor."

"We both know who it is." The dragon's eyes grew dark. He sulked over to the corner again and curled up, facing the wall. Kirk repeatedly called his name, wanting to know if Lestrade had kept anything else from them, but the dragon didn't even flinch at any sound he made. Finally, he gave up, running quickly after Spock to the main deck.

…