In the Arms of the Goddess
Chapter 4
Notes:
To set the record straight, Telepathy , Thoughtspeak
In other news, I tried to draw an anime picture of Dax last night. It sucked. (growl) Why is it that I can write two hundred pages of fanfiction and I can't draw to save my life?
Q: I'm going to pull a prank.
YEAY! A PRANK! What are you going to do?
Q: I'm going to turn Kai Winn into a frog.
YEAY! Winn froggy doggy!
Q: I am going to do it now. (flicks hand at Kai Winn and turns her into a frog)
YEAY! Come here froggy!
Winn Froggy: AH GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE! (tries to hop away)
(scoops up Winn Froggy) I'm going to hug you to death!
Winn Froggy: PUT ME DOWN YOU BRAT!
Hey Q, I thought frogs weren't supposed to talk!
Q: You're right! (zips Winn Frog's mouth shut) Now say ribbit!
Winn Froggy: ribbit!
Q: There's a good frog.
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&&&Feralae&&&
I speant the morning reading through the ship's history files. Most of the kids in my class back home had found History boring. But to me History was important. Besides, I wanted to know what I had missed.
"Captain, we're picking up a distress call. It's from the Defiant." Worf said, looking up from his station.
I looked up from the lesson to watch as the Defiant came into view. She reminded me roughly of Alloran's ship, the Jahar. Only the Jahar was smaller. The Defiant also didn't have a weapons 'tail.' "Put her through Worf." Picard said, I could tell that he was excited.
"Captain Picard, good to see you again." A black man with intense looking dark eyes wearing a captain's uniform came up on the screen.
"What's the situation Captain Sisko?" Asked Picard.
"A shapeshifter somehow managed to stow away on the Defiant. So far it's put two of Odo's best men in Sickbay. I'm worried that it might decide to attack one of my crewmen or Gul Dukat, who's on his way to the station for diplomatic talks."
"Is there anything we can do to help?" Picard asked.
I should have kept my mouth shut. "I could help." I offered.
Every face on two bridges turned to look at me. "Who's this?" Captain Sisko asked.
"My name is Feralae captain. I'm an Animorph. The ship that the Enterprise is towing belongs to my Leader, Jake Berenson." It was true enough, even if Sisko didn't understand what an Animorph was.
"With all respect Feralae, I don't think this is a job for a chi…ld." He stopped when I started morphing.
My hair and skin turned white, bright pure white. Fur rippled from my nose down my body. My muscles doubled, tripled in strength. My face began to puff out into a lion's muzzle and my hair thickened into a mane. My fingers sucked in and became paws, with three inch long, hooked claws as sharp as knives. The data pad slipped to the floor and I skirted around it to come into better view. That was about the time that my tail sprouted out of my butt like a weed. It was followed by the gurgle of rearranging organs. My knees reversed with a sickening crunch and I fell forward onto my paws. My feet rearranged themselves, slipping out of the boots that Picard had gotten for me. The last vestige of humanity, my eyes, (that weren't so human after all, but andilite,) changed from bright green to amber gold.
I padded forward on lion's paws. Still think that it's not a job for a child?
Sisko stared. "Is she a changeling?"
Are changelings also telepaths? I asked. Do they use thoughtspeak like I'm doing now?
"It's a long story Captain." Picard said with a small smile.
"I suppose she could try, provided that she has escort. I'll ask Dax, Kira and Odo to escort her."
"I think Deanna should also go along, to see if we can reason with it." Picard said with a nod.
Deanna stood. "Ready to go Feralae?"
I demorphed, shaking myself out and lining my boots, cape and backpack up along the far wall. Lastly I strapped on my wrist chrono. "Let's do it!"
It wasn't a long trip to the nearest transporter room. "Right." Deanna told me as we climbed up on the platform. "It's disorienting. When the beam is active, be sure to hold as still as possible. The world will seem to dissolve around you."
I nodded. "I've got it, hold still."
"Right. Energize." Deanna told the operator.
The world did seem to dissolve around me. When it faded back in I stumbled out of the beam on the Defiant. "Welcome." A woman with short brown hair and a series of ridges on her nose stood at the forefront of the trio. On her right was a woman with long black hair and spots from her forehead and along her neckline. On her left was a man whose face appeared to have been sculpted from clay. "I'm Major Kira Nerys. These are Odo and Lieutenant Jadzia Dax."
I smiled. "I'm Feralae of the Rachel."
"I'm Councilor Deanna Troi." Deanna shook hands.
"I hear you've got a changeling problem." I said with a grin.
Odo scowled at me. "If that's how you choose to put it."
"Show me the last place that you saw your renegade." I told them, shaking hands around the group. "With any luck my wolf morph should be able to pick up the changeling's scent."
Odo sighed resignedly.
"What's wrong?" I asked as we followed Kira out the door.
"I'm just not used to dealing with children." Odo stated.
"I'm actually twenty two."
"Really?" Dax asked, brightening. "You look thirteen."
"Yeah, well, an accident shrank me. So I'm stuck as a thirteen year old again." I sighed. "I hate having to grow up all over again. I'm lucky that it didn't destroy my morphing powers."
"How do you do that anyway?" Major Kira asked. "I was on the bridge when I saw you morph."
"My adopted people, the Andilites created a technology that enables them to morph into Animals for two hours. After that I'd be trapped." I told them. "But it's good enough." I told them. "I should be able to catch your stowaway. Did he or she leave anything behind?"
Dax shook her head. "We think the renegade changeling is a she, but she managed to tear a piece of one of our security guard's uniforms." She held up the piece.
"I should be able to track her based on that." I said cheerfully. "Since she touched it she might have left a scent."
"Here's where we last saw her." Major Kira said calmly, stopping at a point in the corridor. Sure enough, there were bloodstains on the carpet.
"Eeew." I stated as I bent over to look.
I closed my eyes and focused on the Wolf morph. The first thing that happened was that my hands and feet shrank. I overbalanced and fell over. "Ouch." I stated as the fur began to grow. I decided that it was time to take control of the morph. I made the fur ripple along my body as my hair sucked in. I made my ears slide up the side of my head and my face puff outward to form a wolf's snout. As the wolf's face took hold so did the eyes and teeth. That was good, now the tail, then the insides. My body began to shape itself according to wolf proportions. The tail came out of my rear, like a dog's tail, only gray. The senses came on, the instincts came with it. The wolf smelled blood, alien blood, but blood nonetheless.
Okay, I think I've got it, do you have the cloth? I asked.
Somebody, I think it was Dax, held the cloth in front of my nose. I sniffed. Yes, there was human there, but there was also changeling. It smelled kind of like milk, mixed with water and some other chemical. The wolf thought that it smelled awful.
I put my nose to the ground and picked up a similar scent. I've got it. I followed the scent a few yards down the corridor and paused in front of some kind of hatch. I think it went in here. I said, scrabbling at the hatch.
"A Jeffries tube, great." Major Kira sighed, resignedly. "We could chase it forever in there."
"Dax to Bridge, Benjamin Feralae has found the Changeling's scent. It went into a Jeffries tube on deck 4. The hatch is about five yards beyond the earlier battle site." Dax was saying. I couldn't see her face from here.
"Be careful Old Man." Sisko told her.
"We will." Dax assured him.
Odo shifted into a red and silver furred fox. Major Kira primed her phaser rifle and opened the hatch. "Don't go in yet." She shot a stun bolt through the tube before motioning us in.
I was lucky. The passage way wasn't too small for me to walk through. So I didn't have to crouch. I sniffed, following the scent to a junction. It leads to the right. I told them.
Dax slipped a standard phaser around the corner and shot down the passageway, just to make sure. She was keeping up a stream of regular reports on our location to Sisko so that when the fight was over, they could get help to us easily if we needed it.
I turned and continued until I came to another junction. This one was larger. And just beyond I saw…
"OH NO!" Deanna cried. The two crewmen were security, no doubt about that. They'd been clawed bloody by some creature. What kind of animal leaves traps for their enemies? Leopard? Panther? Deanna scurried forward.
DON'T DO IT! I cried, trying to haul her back.
It was too late. The leopard roared, lunging forward. I knocked Deanna aside as Odo reformed into a cheetah and leapt forward to take the blow. His fangs sank into the creature's neck. The renegade changeling slipped from his bite and reformed into a white wolf with wings. Using it's wings the creature propelled itself forward, leaping faster than I could track. Odo dodged aside and I leapt from the tunnel, howling in rage. Leave her alone! I shouted as I followed Odo into the attack.
Odo reformed into a small dragon and hissed at the oncoming changeling. I leapt. The creature responded by opening it's wings and sailing straight up through the Jeffries tube. Odo growled and flew after her.
ODO YOU PUNKASS! LURE HER DOWN HERE SO I CAN GET HER! I shouted. A roar of rage was the only reply I got. Then the two of them streaked back down. The winged wolf slammed Odo into the deck with a resounding boom. Odo reverted to humanoid form and staggered back. The wolf leapt at him. I leapt at the wolf/changeling.
The three of us smashed into the wall and fell to the floor with a roar of claws and teeth and wings and superhuman punches. I grabbed the wolf by the tail with my teeth and dragged it back. The wolf howled and twisted, trying to get at my vulnerable neck. I leapt onto the winged wolf's back, twisting at her wings. Another howl, this time of anguish and pain. She sat down and tried to throw me off, but I leapt up to the ladder above us. The wolf growled and leapt after me. I scrabbled at the handrail, but without hands I couldn't expect to stay long.
The winged wolf leapt at me, fangs sinking into my vulnerable back. At the same instant I heard a TEWW noise. It was not Major Kira who had fired, nor was it Dax, and Odo didn't have a weapon on him. Nope, dear gentle Deanna Troi had stunned the wolf, which reverted to humanoid form and fell unconscious to the deck. I fell after it, passing out.
I came too in a tiny, cramped, unfamiliar sickbay. I was still wolf, and I couldn't feel the lower half of my body. Crap, how long had I been stuck here? Had I been trapped? I focused bleary eyes on my wrist chrono. FIVE MINUTES LEFT!
I focused with all my might on my human form. But it soon became clear that I had been sedated. It took forever to morph back. The last vestiges of wolf disappeared with one minute left. I sighed in relief and sat up on the medical bed. The morphing had also taken care of whatever sedative that the doctor on this ship had given me.
I looked over. The female changeling that we'd been fighting had also been sedated. She looked about fourteen or fifteen and had black hair instead of blonde like Odo. Her face had that same sort of sculpted look on it.
I yawned. That was when the ship's doctor came out of his tiny office, Dax and Deanna behind him. "Hi, all three of you do me a favor. If I ever get knocked out in morph again, hunt down a nice big syringe of adrenaline and jab it into me. Because I nearly got trapped in a crippled morph!" I said with a cross sounding growl.
The man in a doctor's uniform made a face. "You seem to be alright then. Let's just have a look." He pulled out a medical tricorder. I sighed, waiting patiently. "Amazing, not a single sign of injury."
"That's because my morphing powers heal whatever injuries I get in battle." I explained. "My name's Feralae. I'm an Animorph from the ship, the Rachel." I held out a hand to shake his.
"I'm Dr. Julian Bashir. Pleased to meet you Feralae." He took it. "And you've met Dax."
"Feralae, that was wild. You've got to teach me how to morph sometime." Dax said with a grin. "Although I don't think calling Odo a 'punkass' was a very good idea."
"So I've got a foul mouth." I said with a shrug. Then I looked worriedly at the changeling on the medical bed. "Is she alright?"
"She'll be fine." Dr. Bashir assured me. "We'll have to put her in the brig once she recovers, but other than that."
"But what exactly did she do? I mean, as far as I can tell it was a simple case of being a stowaway. She probably only attacked because she was being chased." I said worriedly.
"Captain's orders." Bashir said with a shrug. "He's worried that since Gul Dukat is on the Defiant, that the changeling might cause a disruption, maybe even hurt him."
"I doubt anything could harm HIM." I said, with an emphasis on the last word.
"You may be right, but we don't know that. So into the brig she goes."
I nodded. "I guess." I sighed.
"So can you tell me a little more about this morphing power of yours?" Dax asked, curious.
"Sure. It allows me to acquire the DNA of any animal and then become that animal for a maximum of two hours. After two hours though, I'd be stuck in that morph, permanently. And I can't become a plant, for example, or an inanimate object. It's entirely based on the DNA of creatures in the Kingdom Animalia. The morphing technology also makes whoever uses it capable of a form of telepathy called thought speak, allowing for communication between morphers in battle."
That was about the time the captains came in. "Captain!" I said cheerfully.
"I'm glad you weren't hurt." Picard said. I could hear and sense the worry in his voice.
"You don't need to worry about me captain. I made it."
"It was irresponsible of me to…"
"To let a kid go on a mission?" I asked, arching my eyebrow with a growl. "You have no idea what this 'kid' accomplished on her own captain. I fought a war at age thirteen, for two and a half years and then I won. After that, I went to the Andilite version of the Academy and started an interplanetary alliance that brought peace to the galaxy. I think I can handle battling a changeling." I stated.
Captain Picard was taken aback by this little speech. Captain Sisko on the other hand didn't take any bull. "You are thirteen once again, you cannot do the things that you were capable of when you were eighteen, for example, or twenty. Feralae I think you should remember that."
I hate people trying to protect me. I really do. They think that just because I'm little I can't do anything, or I'm weaker somehow than the other Animorphs. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was the second strongest Animorph aside from Rachel. I was smart and creative. I was fair. I was kind. I did things that no child has ever had to do in history. I made history and I brought peace to my people, both my peoples. The one thing I hated was somebody even suggesting that I couldn't take care of myself. "With all due respect Captains. I've done just as much during my previous incarnation as you have during your careers. I think I can handle a one on one battle." I said stiffly.
"And what if you get hurt?" Captain Sisko asked, reasonably.
I rolled my eyes. "Morphing is done from DNA, as long as the DNA of my humanoid form is intact I won't get hurt, because the process of demorphing repairs any injuries I sustain in a morphed body. The thing that I actually needed most right then was a surge of adrenaline to wake me up. But after two hours in any morphed body I would have been trapped, hence the need to stay conscious, no matter how bad my injuries may get."
"Well excuse me." Stated Captain Sisko. "But you're onone of our ships, and as long as you're on our ships you'll obey our rules." He turned to Captain Picard, who nodded.
Great, talk about a parental figure. Of course, Sisko has a teenage son, so he knows how to handle willful children. "It comes down to this captains. I HATE people trying to protect me! The other Animorphs did it all the time during the war. I was the littlest Animorph. I was always being left out because the others were worried that I couldn't handle it. Well this time around I won't be left out again."
Deanna rolled her eyes. Dax sighed. "Feralae, all we're saying is that you have to be more careful. After that incident in the Jeffries tube we don't think you might be able to handle a full-scale battle." Dax said reasonably. "That happened to me the first time I changed hosts. I wasn't used to what the new body could do and I ended up straining it."
"And I'm saying that I can handle it." I said stiffly. "And I'm saying that if I didn't push the limits during the war I wouldn't have survived. And I'm saying that I hate people who are older and stronger than I am telling me that I'm not capable of doing something."
That was when the changeling on the medical bed stirred. "Ooooh."
Every head in the tiny sickbay turned.
"What the Hell hit me?" The changeling asked as she sat up, rubbing her head. "Huh? Who are all of you?"
"I am Captain Benjamin Sisko of the Defiant, the ship you stowed away on." Sisko said sternly.
"Damn! You're the first captain to catch me." The Changeling said with a sigh. "I've wandered forever and a day, no name, no home, with only what I can store in my head for company."
"You don't have a name?" I asked worriedly.
"No name, no origin, none." The teenage changeling said sadly. "I'm a rogue."
"Well, I know what you are. You're a changeling." I told her. "As for a name, I think you should choose one."
"Well… I'll try to pick a name…. How about Taka-Okami, or Okami for short."
"You mean the winged wolf of Japanese Myth?" I asked.
"The very same." Okami replied. "I've been hiding in the Defiant's Jeffries tubes since it left Cardassia. I'd had enough of those lizards anyway."
I saw Sisko roll his eyes. Captain Picard had a smile on his face. "I don't think she needs to go to the Brig." Picard said to Sisko.
"For safety's sake she should. But I have an idea. Why don't we put Odo in charge of her? He never gets to meet any of his own species, it would be good for him."
"Sounds feasible." Picard agreed.
So Sisko called Odo down. "What's your name?" Asked Okami.
"My name is Feralae." I said, and we shook hands.
Before Picard, Deanna and I would have left for the transporter room to go back to the Enterprise Picard's combadge beeped. "Riker to Picard."
"Go ahead number one." Said Picard.
"You have a visitor in your ready room." Riker sounded annoyed. "He's waiting for you."
"Prepare to beam us directly to my ready room then." Picard told him.
We reached the transporter room. I stepped up onto the pad and said, at the exact same time as my Captain. "Energize."
The transporter room faded out, the ready room faded in. When Picard saw who the visitor was, he growled angrily.
That made me pay attention. The visitor had wild brown hair and mischievous brown eyes.
"Q!" Picard growled. "What brings you here?"