"Admiral, help... AHHHHHH!!!" His plea was cut short as one of them tore his middle leg from him. His left arm soon followed. Apollo, numbed, thought rather distractedly, and morbidly, in fact, that it was as though they were pulling the legs off an insect. He has enough appendages as an insect, anyway. Apollo shook that thought quickly from his mind. The creatures ran out of limbs. One more good yank, and they tore the rest of Xanax in two. Apollo wasted no more time blowing the two of them away.
In another bit of poetic justice, Apollo leaped down and landed on another creature, smashing it to the ground. He glanced at Sam and Circe, huddled in a corner behind a container, firing when they had a clear shot. Apollo stuck his rifle into the head of the creature he was standing on, and leapt as he squeezed the trigger. Gore splattered across the floor, but his leap took him clear of it. "Are you two all right?" he shouted.
"We're fine!" Sam yelled back. "But our weapons are almost out of charge! Where are the others?"
His leap landed him close to them where he could speak to them for a moment. "Jackson and Falstaff have taken a captive, a Vorta we found, back to the ship. As for the others..." he shrugged.
"Great," Circe said. The snap of a creature's jaws drove the women back further into the corner and Apollo off to the side. The creature's secondary set of jaws shot out and clamped onto the end of Apollo's rifle as he pulled the trigger. He rolled away to avoid the acid. He aimed his rifle at more aliens, and noticed that the acid from the last one at away the front half of the barrel, rendering the weapon useless. As he stood, he was suddenly paralyzed.
"Apollo!" Sam said. "What's wrong?"
It was just like his dream. Sam and Circe huddled off to one side, and he was all alone against this monsters. He started to pale again. He heard shouts, but they sounded very far away. His body seemed wracked with fear as they bore down upon him. Suddenly, a strange calm came over him, and his shaking subsided. He remembered what he had said in the vision. Who wants to live forever? And he understood. He looked to Sam and Circe, and they grew even more frightened by the look on his face. If this was to end in his death, then at least he would die allowing them to get away.
He leapt to take on the closest one, when what shouldn't have been unexpected, but was, happened. His aura flared into being, disintegrating his EVA suit, and he felt a familiar cylinder place itself in his hand. He looked at it and somehow understood. Depressing the stud, a brilliant sapphire blade sprang into being. As his leap carried him forward, he brought his lightsaber up. The momentum allowed him to carve through the creature, while his aura protected him from the acid.
He touched the ground and immediately moved aside, as the second creature dove and plowed into the floor where he used to be. Swinging his blade around, he neatly decapitated the beast. The whole time, Apollo was barely aware of his actions... it was as though the sword was doing all the work. He felt remarkably at peace. There was no anger or hatred for these things... he just knew they had to be destroyed to ensure his people's survival.
Apollo whirled and spun in a graceful dance. Each time an alien got too close, it was dispatched with an intricate move. Sam and Circe, for the most part, sat there. They couldn't do much more... there weapons were out of energy. Why Apollo hadn't done any of this before was completely oblivious to Sam, though now that she thought of it, he hadn't used his aura since he returned from his little journey. There were plenty of chances, but he simply used other means. Now, though, he moved as though it were born to him.
Suddenly it was quiet, with the hum of the lightsaber being the only sound in the darkness. Apollo was kneeling, his saber thrust behind him. He deactivated the weapon and stood. The two women moved to him. "My God, Apollo. You had us worried for a minute there."
Apollo shook his head, as though to clear the cobwebs, and looked at them, a little dazed. "Huh?"
"Well, the way you were just standing there, we thought you had forgotten you had your lightsaber. Good thing you remembered."
He looked confused. "What are you talking about? Of course I had my lightsaber. What does that have to do with..."
Sam and Circe looked at each other, then at the admiral. "Uhhh... Apollo. Are you all right?" Out of a flash of insight, Sam added, "What... is the last thing you remember?"
Apollo thought for a moment. "I... was standing in front of these things closing in on me. I had this very real feeling that I was about to die, and then this overwhelming calm fell over me. Next thing I know, you two are here talking to me." The incredulous look told Apollo something more had occurred. "Sam, did you feel anything through the bond?"
She thought for a moment. "Well, I felt your fear, and the certainty that you were ready to die. Then..." she looked puzzled, searching for the words, "it's hard to explain. Do... do you know how you felt when you were standing on that mountaintop, gazing at the landscape, with the sun shining on you."
"Yeah."
"Well... it was like that... only more focused... somehow." She shook her head, exasperated. "I don't know how else to describe..." she trailed off.
Apollo looked at her expression. Her pupils had narrowed to pinpricks. He saw that look in the Vorta's face when he scared the little twerp senseless. But he doesn't scare Sam. And besides, she wasn't looking at him, but behind him...
He slowly turned around. There, approaching them from the darkness, was the biggest, baddest, ugliest of the creatures that he had ever seen.
The queen.
"Sam... Circe..." he said softly, evenly, never taking his eyes off the thing, "go. Get to the access. Get out of here, now."
They slowly edged away from Apollo. He brought his arm up to activate his saber. Then the queen whipped her tail around. It slammed into Apollo, driving him into the wall with a loud thud. His saber was jarred from his grip and it skittered off into the darkness.
Sam and Circe took the opportunity when the queen had its full attention on Apollo. They sprinted for the access. The queen turned to them and did something they hadn't heard the other creatures do. She roared.
Loudly.
The sound drove icicles up Sam's and Circe's spines, and almost paralyzed them with fear. As it was, it took a significant effort for them to get their hands to work enough to find the handholds necessary to pull themselves up. The queen lumbered towards them, her jaws slathered in acidic drool. She almost reached them when she stopped short. She turned to see what was holding up her progress.
A very angry humanoid had a hold of her tail. He was using the dead bodies of her children as leverage, and keeping her from reaching her other prey. She bellowed out another roar, but Apollo held fast. When Sam and Circe were almost at the top, they stopped and looked back. The queen had stopped chasing them, but she instead wrapped her tail around Apollo, lifting him up towards her face. The anguish he displayed told them her grip wasn't a loose one, either.
As she brought him to her face, she started to open her jaws. At the same time, the tip of her tail was coming around, preparing to skewer him. "APOLLOOOOOOOOOO!!" yelled Sam.
A flash of blue appeared in his hand. His lightsaber had leapt up to him, igniting as it traveled. He swung behind him, and it lopped off the end of her tail as it was about to strike. She shrieked in pain. To make matters worse for her, he added power to his aura, her tail, and acid from the end of her tail, sizzled where it came in contact with him. She opened her jaws again, the smaller set jabbing towards him. With a flick of his saber, he severed those, too. Again she shrieked.
Apollo wasn't letting up now. He concentrated, and his aura grew to a point where her tail simply couldn't hold him, and it fell off. It brightened to a point where it illuminated the whole chamber, bathed it in blue light. Though she wasn't holding him anymore, but he remained in place, hovering in midair in front of her face. He brought his saber up in front of his face.
"Go back to hell where you belong, bitch!" he snapped. Flying forward, he sliced into her, and kept going. The room went dark again, as though he were swallowed up by her. Then in a spectacular show, she exploded, revealing Apollo inside an aura even brighter than before. He held his lightsaber with both hands as he stared intently around the beam in front of him.
Sam really looked at Apollo, and saw a completely blank look on his face. She searched through the bond, but couldn't reach him at all. With a little urging from Circe, Sam climbed the rest of the way, and they emerged from the tube. Soon after, Apollo levitated up out of the tube. As soon as he emerged, his aura quickly dimmed to nothing, and he collapsed, his saber once again extinguishing and rolling from his grasp.
Sam rushed over to him and cradled him in her arms. He slowly opened his eyes. "Did... did we win?" he said in a very tired voice.
She smiled, though there were tears in her eyes. "Yeah. We won." She was visibly worried. "You... you're not dying on me now, are you?"
He chuckled, though it seemed to take some effort. "Heh... hell, no. I plan to live forever."
~ * ~
They allowed Apollo to rest long enough for him to be sure he could make it back. As they helped him back to the lab, they noticed everything there was either destroyed or missing. "Jackson and Falstaff must have taken what they felt the Federation could study," Apollo said. He noticed that three things most noticeably missing were the ketrecel-white machine, the critter in the jar, and the creature's head in stasis.
Apollo wearily tapped his combadge. "Racer to Jackson."
"Jackson here, sir. I take it since I'm hearing from you that you accomplished what you set out to do?"
He chuckled. "That's affirmative, Lieutenant. Where are you?"
"I'm at the beamdown point. Falstaff took the Vorta back to the ship. I elected to remain her and wait for you."
"And... what if I didn't return?"
"Well, sir..." he hesitated, "if I didn't see you, the captain, or the commander within the next fifteen minutes, or I saw those big black uglies coming toward me, I would've beamed back up and sent back a timed antimatter charge. If that wouldn't have taken care of these things, nothing would have. I'm just glad I didn't have to use that option."
"So are we. We're on our way back. Give us a few minutes."
~ * ~
We have returned to the Highlander, successful in our mission to prevent the predatory creatures from being able to spread through the galaxy. Starfleet Command has given us all pats on the back for a job well done. Admiral Racer himself has given commendations to those crew members, both living and dead, directly responsible for the mission's success.
After a short stop to Sickbay, Dr. Kellara has prescribed a full day of rest for the admiral. It seems his actions on the outpost have severely exhausted him. We are still not completely certain exactly what he did, but it is his intention to investigate into the matter. Admiral promised Dr. Kellara that he would rest after letters to next of kin were written. After all these years, Admiral Racer has not given up his honorable tradition of ensuring that real letters, on real paper, are hand-delivered to the families who have lost their loved ones.
We are currently on our way to Starbase 47, but instead of bringing with us a prisoner from a mining colony, we have a Vorta. Although he had requested asylum aboard our vessel, the threat from which he requested it has been neutralized. He will most likely be tried for war crimes against the peoples of the Alpha Quadrant.
"If you truly have to, Scotty, by all means, take the warp drive off line. We can travel on impulse for a while... we're not destined to be anywhere soon," Apollo said, propped up on his elbows in bed.
Sam scowled at him. "Will you look at him?" she said to Kellara, "He's supposed to be resting, and he's still giving orders."
Kellara shook her head. "Sam, it's well known that starship commanders and ship's physicians will always lock horns on medical issues, like routine checkups and orders for required rest." She mock-glared at Apollo for the end of her statement.
Apollo shrugged. "Well, how am I supposed to get any sleep when you all are in here?" He smiled mischievously.
Kellara looked at Scotty. "Well? You got what you came for. What are you still doing here? Get back to your engines!"
Scotty raised his hands in surrender. "Aye, I'm goin', I'm goin." He smiled as he walked out of Apollo's quarters.
Kellara then turned on Sam. "And you, young lady. Don't spend too much time here. With him in bed, you have a ship to run. I'll not have you bothering my patient."
Sam stood her ground. "If he's your patient, then why isn't he in Sickbay?" As Kellara had no answer for that, Sam added, "For that matter, why aren't you in Sickbay? You do have patients to tend to."
Kellara gave Sam a wise smile and started backing out. She pointed at the captain and said, "Remember, not long." When she reached the main room where she could maneuver, she turned and trotted out.
Sam then turned her gaze to her husband, who smiled at her softly. She gently placed her hand on his forehand and firmly pressed until he got off his elbows and laid back in bed. He took her arms and brought her down with him, where he could kiss her. She kept the kiss short, though. "I have to go to the bridge."
"Yes, you do," he answered between kisses. "Go play Captain."
"Play?" She got up, and he swatted her backside. "Don't get me started, mister. I won't make it back to the bridge, and you won't get your sleep."
He chuckled. "Go. Before I'm tempted further."
She smiled, blew him another kiss. "G'Night." As she left the quarters, she said, "Computer, lights out."
The doors closed, and it was just the soft glow emanating from Apollo's eyes that lit a small area at the head of the bed. He folded his arms behind his head. He wanted to sleep, but he kept trying to figure out what exactly happened to him on the outpost. Ah well, plenty of time to figure it out. He yawned, suddenly realizing how tired he was. He turned to his side, placed one hand under his head and the other under the pillow. Giving a contented sigh, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.