By Nyassa Kaiba
Chapter 2-FeralaeIt was an impossible situation. My fellow Animorphs and I had crashed the Rachel into the Bladeship. And when I'd woken up, we were in the Startrekk universe! We were, of all places, on the Enterprise. Still shivering on the medical bed, I stared at Deanna, the Deanna in amazement. "But... that was just a story back home... I mean..."
"A story? Well our ship is legendary I agree, but..."
"That's not what I meant!" I protested. "The Federation was just a story, a TV show!"
Deanna looked at me like I'd lost my mind. She took a deep breath. I was aware of her probing my emotions. "You're telling the truth aren't you?"
"Duh." I stated. "Duh duh and duh! But how did I get here?"
"We transported you out of your ship. You would have died." Deanna Troi replied. "We've got your ship. We're towing it to Deep Space Nine for repair. We have to take Ambassador Spock there anyway." As I watched, the three adults who I'd seen in the office came walking over to us.
"Councilor, thank you for keeping an eye on them." The bald man answered. "I am captain Jean-luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise."
"Feralae, an Animorph of the Rachel." I replied.
"To make matters short, Dr. Crusher scanned your Quantum Signature. We know you aren't from this dimension." Captain Picard indicated the red haired woman.
"So she was telling the truth?" Deanna asked.
"Captain Picard, I grew up hearing stories about the Enterprise. It's an honor." I said with a smile. "And Dr. Crusher, it's a pleasure to meet you."
"She said that in her reality the Federation was a myth." Deanna explained.
"A Television show to be precise." I said helpfully. I tried to sit up again and my head swam. "Ow... headache."
Dr. Crusher scanned me. "You should be fine in a few hours. It's probably leftover from the crash. Lie down for now."
I lay down, propping the pillow so that I was able to look the others in the eye. "Fascinating." The pointy eared man, who could only have been a Vulcan, replied.
"I'm glad you think so Mr. Vulcan." I growled, irritably reaching out a hand to the side for the backpack that I ALWAYS wore. I had grabbed it as we hurtled forward in Maximum Burn. "But I don't think that crashing into an enemy vessel at Maximum Burn is very fascinating at all. Rather painful in fact." I grabbed the top strap of my bag and pulled it into my lap, digging out my discman. "Are the others going to be alright?"
"They're going to be fine. If I may say so Ambassador Spock, I don't think she's in a good mood." Councilor Troi said placatingly.
"I did not mean to give offense."
"None taken." I sighed, digging through the front pouch for the CD I wanted. "Looks like I'm stuck here for a couple of hours. I'm not strong enough to Morph yet." I sighed.
"Morph?" Dr. Crusher asked. "Animorph, why does the term seem so familiar to me?"
"Animorph stands for Animal Morpher. In our reality we had to fight a group of sentient, spaceborn parasites called the yeerks. They controlled a variety of species including the hork-bajir, the Taxxons, and the Gedds. They had targetted Earth. Earth in my reality wasn't like the Earth here. We had no defense. Then Elfangor, an Andilite War-Prince and one of their planet's most legendary heroes broke the Andilite law of Seerow's Kindness to give us the andilites' morphing technology. We fought the yeerks, and we won. But one Blade Ship escaped and eluded Andilite Patrols to the edge of the Galaxy. They kidnapped one of our former Team Members, Captain Aximili Esgarrouth Isthil. Jake had a spaceship left from the yeerk invasion outfitted for a journey through space to track them down and save Ax."
"I recognize it now. There's a series of books from the twentieth century called Animorphs that Wesley was interested in." Dr. Crusher said, surprised. "I read a few of the volumes when I was in the academy, but I stopped reading them in my senior year, there was too much to be done. I should have read more."
"See if you can find them for me doctor." Picard said with a nod. "For now, sleep." He gave a nod to Dr. Crusher, who pressed a hypospray to my neck.
As I blacked out, I hoped that the discman wouldn't fall to the floor and smash. Funny how you never worry about the important things in times like these.
!&&&&&&&&
Marco
I heard them talking, but for the strangest reason, I was too tired to move. I felt weak, so weak that I didn't even want to open my eyes.
At least I wasn't dead, not yet. That had to be a good sign, wasn't it?
The thing that finally woke me up was a familiar roar.
The roar of a ton of very angry grizzly bear, I sat straight up in bed to find a familiar Grizzly bear had cornered three adults in whatever infirmary I had been sleeping in. How the Hell? "RACHEL!" I cried.
Out of my way Marco! Stay out of this Rachel replied.
"Uh, Rachel, it doesn't occur to me that the best way to make a good first impression is to bite a doctor's head off."
And how do we know they aren't yeerks? Rachel demanded.
"I don't even know what a yeerk is." Said a woman with long, waist length black hair.
"There, you see?" I asked.
The red head did. Rachel said, bristling.
"Rachel, the yeerk empire is destoryed, kaput, gone. We took them apart, including the blade ship that killed you."
Wait a minute? Killed me? I died? Rachel demanded. When did THAT happen?
"When Tom morphed Cobra and poisoned you. You don't remember?" I asked. "You bit his head off, demorphed, and a yeerk morphed polar bear broke your neck."
The grizzly shivered. Alright, I'll demorph, but Marco, when I demorph you are telling me EVERYTHING! Rachel growled.
It took approximately thirty seconds for Rachel to demorph. I was introduced to the others and briefed on the situation.
It was incredible.
It was impossible.
But here I was, in the Star Trek Universe. We were enroute to Deep Space Nine. I actually got to meet Spock, and Dr. Crusher, and the oh so beautiful Councilor Troi. Even worse, we were fourteen again.
Somebody smack me awake. I think I'm dreaming.
Then I brought Rachel up to date. I told her everything. How the Yeerks finally signed a treaty with humans and Andilites to create the United Animorphs Alliance, how the Blade Ship had escaped and kidnapped Ax. I told about how we used the yeerk ship, christened The Rachel, to pursue the Blade Ship and rescue Ax. I told Rachel how we got there too late. Ax was gone, taken over by the One. Better to die than to be a controller, we had said, oh so long ago. Based on that decision, Jake had told me to ram the Blade Ship.
I thought we would die.
Obviously not.
"So wait a minute, how does this factor into me coming back to life?" Rachel asked, annoyed.
"I don't know. Maybe the Ellimist's rules changed and he wanted to take us someplace safe." I suggested. "I mean, he did seem kind of sad about you dying. So was Tobias. He flew off and disappeared."
One by one the others woke up. And one by one we were briefed on what had happened. Feralae was the last to wake up. But she had woken up already and been put back to sleep. "So yeah, that's what happened." Feralae explained to Jake. "So fearless leader. What do we do now?"
"Nothing." Jake answered. "I've had it with doing anything. We beat the remnants of the yeerk empire and I refuse to get sucked into another conflict. So forget it."
"I cannot BELIEVE you Jake!" Rachel demanded. "You don't have to mourn for me anymore. I'm alive again. And I REFUSE to let you give up on us. We've got to find a way back to our own universe!"
"I don't think there is." Feralae said softly. "I think we're here for a reason. We should just start over. I think that's the point. Uh…" She hesitated, looking nervously towards the three adults. The Vulcan had left already, having heard the explanation for our being here once. "Hey, have you guys heard anything from your old friend Q recently?"
"You think it was him?" Deanna asked, curious.
"He's the only one with powers like the Ellemist."
"That's not completely true." Pointed out Cassie. "Didn't you see the episode called the "Squire of Gothos?"
"I read about it, but I don't watch the old show. They tend to portray Kirk as a Space Cowboy, and that's just off putting."
"That's not the point. The point is who brought us here and why." I growled. I would normally have continued with this sort of sparring. Feralae and I like to argue points when we're discussing missions. Usually Cassie will have something interesting to say.
"There are other points too." Feralae said with a sigh. "Where are we gonna sleep? I mean, come on. The Rachel is a wreck. And there wouldn't be room for Rachel or Tobias. There aren't enough rooms."
"They can share one." I said with a smirk.
Rachel growled. "Marco, if you make one more nasty comment about my relationship with Tobias I WILL morph grizzly and you WILL not like what I DO!"
Deanna's head was turning from one, to the other, to the other. Dr. Crusher was staring at us, as if she couldn't believe the track the conversation was taking.
Feralae straightened her uniform. "And what about Lexus and Jag? Jag will trash the place if we leave her alone too long."
"Who?" Deanna asked.
"My pets, Lexus is a Golden Eagle and Jag is a Doberman Pinscher." I explained. "They've been with me through EVERYTHING." She sighed.
Feralae had a very interesting uniform. She had come up with morphing outfits for us, back when the military needed a uniform for it's morphers. Officers could decorate their uniform however they wanted. But the simplest uniform was a tight blue body suit with the head of the Animorph in question's favorite morph. If they didn't have a favorite, or hadn't acquired a morph yet, then they had a brown pawprint on the right shoulder. But since Feralae had created them, she got to decorate hers. And decorate she did, with a sapphire blue cape that had a white lion on it, leaping towards her right shoulder with it's claws extended. Feralae has always been a dextrous weaver/tailor. The lion looked like it would leap out of the cape.
Back when I had been in show business, Feralae had designed costumes and weaponry for my TV show, as well as being my costar. We were one wonderful team. But there was a subtle chemistry between her and Cassie. I mean, I know they're in love, but it seemed to go deeper than that, an in the soul bond. But Feralae has always been strange. This is the girl who dyed her hair blue and silver permanently and has andilite eyes, bright, green, alien andilite eyes.
"The captain asked us to take you up to his ready room when you were awake enough." Deanna said, speaking up. "He wants to introduce the senior crew. When Feralae went back to sleep Captain Picard decided that each of you would be staying with a member of the crew until the Rachel has been fixed on Deep Space Nine."
"That settles that." Feralae said with a warm smile.
Cassie sighed, wrapping an arm around Feralae's waist. Their eyes met for a long moment, a long pause. Then they broke eye contact and Cassie leaned into the grip. Feralae whispered something in Cassie's ear. She nodded and smiled over at the others.
Jake rolled his eyes. "Okay guys? Everybody ready?" There were nods of general ascent from the group.
Deanna pinned Feralae with an inquiring stare. Feralae shrugged. "And you stare why?" She asked, amused at the dumbfounded look on the older woman's face.
Deanna sighed. "This way." We followed her down the halls to the turbo lift, getting stares from crewmen who knew who Deanna was but wanted to know what we were doing following her around. And flat out stares at Ax and Alloran that said 'OMG WTF,' but were too polite to say anything about it.
We were met halfway by a woman in ornate purple robes with dark skin and knappy hair sticking out from under a headdress of some kind. "Deanna, on your way to the meeting?"
"Yes, about the business we discussed earlier, Guinan." Deanna told her. "Care to come along?"
"I doubt I'd fit into the turbo lift. I'll come in a few minutes after you do." The woman replied.
Feralae gawked at her dress. "I thought that I was flashy." She said, shaking her head as soon as Guinan was out of earshot. She hitched up her cape so that she wouldn't trip over it and scurried after Deanna.
I sighed. Here all the aliens were humanoid, with odd coloring or features. What was it like for the crewmen, who saw Ax and Alloran were nothing even remotely human, or for Feralae, who's blue hair and bright green, slitted eyes definitely marked her as not human? I sidled up to her. "Hey Feralae, notice people staring."
"Yeah, I always hated being the center of attention." The bluenette replied. She sighed. "Oh well, it can't be helped."
We reached the lift and Deanna called out, "Bridge." Her tone was neutral, as if she didn't want to give anything away. The lift was crowded, but it managed to carry us.
The Bridge was almost deserted. I figured that the senior crew were probably in the meeting room. Sure enough, Deanna lead us into a side door. Feralae paused, taking a deep breath, then took a seat across from the one Deanna took. Cassie sat next to Feralae, and the rest of us took seats in order of seniority. I saw Feralae put a hand on Cassie's leg. Cassie took the hand, twining her fingers with Feralae's briefly. They gave each other that secret stare, and then turned their attention to the crewmembers filing in.
I didn't need the introductions to know who was who. Captain Picard sat at the head of the table, with commander Riker next to him. Beyond Riker were Geordi and Data. Beyond Data sat Deanna and Dr. Crusher next to her. Beyond Crusher sat Worf. Guinan was the last to arrive, settling herself in a position where she could see everybody at the table.
Picard took a deep breath, and spoke. "I've told you all about what has happened. These Animorphs come from another dimension. They're children, but they have the power to change shape into any animal whose DNA they can acquire. Unless we can find some way of protecting them Starfleet will probably want to recruit them to fight against the Dominion, perhaps even the Borg as well, should they mount an attack on the Federation."
Feralae nodded. "I suspected that was what they'd do captain. While I think we could handle a battle against a changeling, I doubt we'd fare well against the Borg. And Borg implants are mechanical, I doubt we could morph them if they got into us. It might even destroy our ability to morph."
"What makes you say that?" Riker asked.
I spoke up then. "Once, when we were infiltrating a Yeerk base in shark morphs, we were caught by a yeerk machine and implanted with a mind control device. It ruined our ability to morph anything smaller than the implant in question. If we hadn't destroyed the yeerk base we STILL wouldn't be able to morph small creatures. When the base was destroyed, the implants liquefied, restoring our morphing powers. I doubt the Borg have advanced far enough to create something like that."
"You're right." Picard said with a nod. "Starfleet studies of Borg technology have shown nothing like what you have just described."
Captain, there is another problem. Ax said, speaking up. There is an andilite law against sharing technology without approval from Andilite High Command. It is known as Seerow's Kindness. We have made exceptions for the humans from our dimension, because the yeerks have already given their human hosts morphing powers, and the humans salvaged a morphing cube from the wreck of my brother Elfangor's fighter. But other than that we make no exceptions. I am a War Prince. We have standards to uphold.
"Ax this is no situation to worry about Seerow's Kindness. Besides, how often have YOU broken that rule yourself?" Rachel asked. She ticked off the points on her fingers. "Altering the radio telescope to contact Andilite high command, helping Marco's father complete his Zero-Space transmitter, there are at least a half a dozen instances of one of us breaking that rule for the sake of survival, need I go on?"
This is not a case of survival. Ax pointed out. If what this Picard says is true, then it will be for the sake of victory, of one empire dominating the other.
"But these are humans Ax!" Feralae protested. "Well, most of them." She admitted. "A human is a human, no matter what the dimension. That means that the Treaty of Elfangor still stands."
I concede that you have a point. Ax said, But I think we should learn more about the politics of this dimension before making a decision. We could still make a deadly mistake.
Captain Picard watched as we debated. "Aximili, what is this Treaty of Elfangor?"
The Treaty of Elfangor states that Humans have access to any advanced technology left behind by the Yeerks in orbit, that Andilite Technology may be passed to Humans, because they are our Allies, and that the Morphing Technology may be shared for a Military, Medical, or Law Enforcement purposes. Ax replied. It was named after my elder brother, Elfangor Sirenial Shamtul, for his part in founding the Human Resistance to the Yeerks on Earth.
"Then under this Treaty you are allowed to pass on Morphing Technology?" Riker asked.
We may, for Military, Medical, or Law Enforcement purposes. Ax replied.
I could see the gears turning in Feralae's head. Okay, two for, one against, so far.
"We don't need to deal with this now." Jake spoke up for the first time. "We need to figure out where we're going to stay. What we're going to do now that we're here, we need to have a plan."
Deanna cleared her throat. "I put together a plan while you were unconscious." She placed a data pad on the table, and said calmly. "I think if you were each to stay with a different senior crewman, then between us we could teach you what you need to learn about this dimension. Some of you would have to double up, but we could manage it."
"Great, which of us stays with which of you?" Rachel asked.
"Direct as always." Cassie said, rolling her eyes.
Deanna took a deep breath, stole a look at her crewmates as though she was about to tell them something they wouldn't like, and said. "Erika will be staying with Guinan, Alloran will stay with Worf, Jake and James will be staying with Beverly. Cassie will be stay with me. Ax and Tobias will be staying with Data. Marco and Craig will stay with Geordi. Rachel will be staying with Will. And Feralae will stay with the captain."
Captain Picard's eyes widened in surprise. He had obviously not been expecting that. Neither had I. I would have thought that Deanna would place Jake with Picard, because Jake was our leader. Obviously not. What standard was she going by? Okay Alloran with Worf would have been expected. They both have the soul of a warrior. Tobias had become pretty stoic after spending most of his life in the body of a hawk, although Ax probably shared Data's propensity to not know a joke if it bit him on the nose. Rachel and Riker were an obvious team. Erika's mystical outlook on life would be strengthened by Guinan's serenity and reserve. Craig and I had both picked up some engineering skills aboard the Rachel, so we both would be the logical choice to stay with Geordi.
The assignments made me wonder. What did Deanna see in us? What did she think each crewman would have to offer us? What did she think we could offer them?
"With all respect Counselor," Data began. "I do not know much about parenting, the incident with Lol…"
"Then be a mentor Data, not a parent. They need somebody who can teach them how to use equipment and how to survive in this dimension. If you need help, then feel free to come ask me okay?" Deanna said with an encouraging smile.
Data nodded, clearly thinking about this, making plans.
Feralae was utterly frozen. "You're awfully quiet Feralae." Cassie commented.
"I was just thinking, that's all." Feralae replied.
"That's Feralae, always thinking." Rachel rolled her eyes. "You haven't changed once in how many years?"
That was where she was wrong. Feralae had changed. She had changed so much over the voyage away from Earth that I hardly recognized the carefree, compassionate, creative dreamer that had looked me in the eye when she joined the war and said that she wanted to save her parents. Only two of us had ever lost relatives in the War with the Yeerks. Jake had lost his brother Tom. And Feralae had lost her mother, Merika. Feralae had plunged into the diplomatic work that brought the Andilite world, and the Worlds once occupied by the Yeerks, together into the United Animorphs Alliance. But that hadn't been a stroke of Genius, it hadn't been a lightning inspiration. It had been the effort of a troubled Teen to lose loss, if that made any sense. Some people couldn't take loss, but they reacted to it in different ways. For example, when my father thought that my mother had died, he fell apart. Feralae, however, became possessed of an almost manic energy and a conviction that if we stood together, there would never be another Yeerk Empire, and a little girl would never lose her mother again.
There was a long, thoughtful silence. "I think that's that for us." Jake said calmly.
"We'll meet again tomorrow before supper." Picard agreed. "Dismissed."
The others stood. Feralae remained where she was, lost in thought. Picard watched her. This was going to be an interesting confrontation. Feralae was a powerful animorph. She had the power, the best combination of morphs, the creativity, the compassion, the love, the bonds between her and her friends. She was easily the smartest out of all of us. But the one thing that she lacked was confidence. Perhaps that was what Deanna sensed in her, the lack of confidence. If that were so, then she was in good hands. I turned and followed Geordi out to the lift.
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Notes: Okay by now you're probably wondering how the Hell the Prophets managed to leave the wormhole and follow the Enterprise. And for the wonderful explanation you'll have to wait until the crews reach Deep Space Nine and a very distressed Kai Winn. Of course, I prefer to call her Kai Witch Bitch. But that's not her official name. Oh well. And happy St. Patrick's Day. Q, bring on the Romulan Ale!
Q: (downs mug of ale) Yeay! Hey, here comes Kai Witch Bitch now!
Kai Winn: I can't believe they would do something like… hey what are you drinking?
Q: Romulan Ale! Want some?
Kai Winn: NO! I can't believe you're drinking when the Prophets went and…
Q: SHHHH! You'll ruin the surprise! (covers her mouth)
Kai Winn: (Bites his hand)
Q: OW! WHY YOU LITTLE!
Let me take care of her Q, I'll chibitize her!
Q: What's that?
Well when I did The Generation, Tobias from the Animorphs gave me a chibitizing ray. Let me demonstrate! (shoots Kai Winn with the Chibitizing Ray.)
Kai Winn: (shrinks into Chibi) AAAAHH MY EVILNESS IS SHRINKING! CURSES!
Q: cool! Can I borrow it and chibitize Picard? Just to drive him nuts?
I'll think about it. But Picard's a good guy. I don't want him to suffer! No, the ray is only for bad guys.
Chibi Kai Winn: Hey! I resemble that remark!
No comment. Enjoy the fic people, and the ale!