Rage against the machine?
Ssaak'll watched the lone Iconian ship warily as his drones worked to stabilize the critically wounded Aenar. The Doctor had been hurting the white skinned being for some time from the wounds the poor soul showed. He would not regain consciousness for some time and when he did? He would be in great pain. Part of the Gorn wanted to rush to the operating theater to assist as best he could. But he knew that was not the best choice. He had larger problems than one life right now. He had to stay where he was, in command.
The rest of his attention was on the Denali which hung in space, crippled by his boarding parties, if only temporarily, and Madren's Majesty which was fighting the tractor beam. And-
Wait a minute! Was that a hail that went from the Ferengi ship to the Iconian? It was! It wasn't encrypted.
"We have something you want. You have something we want." The Ferengi sounded as if he thought he was in control. Did he? If so, he was even sillier than Ssaak'll had though, if that was even possible! There was no reply from the Iconian ship and Madren tried again. "Shall we trade? We can both profit from this."
"Is he insane?" An unexpected voice sounded close at hand. Ssaak'll opened his flesh and blood eye to see the android step into his chamber, escorted by a drone. Her empty eye socket still dripped energy and her skull was still laid bare, but she was mobile. This was the safest place on the ship and he had thought to bring her here. Had he commanded that? The Gorn drone shook its head as Ssaak'll thought that, smiled at him and left! Ssaak'll felt shock mixed with joy! Some of them were regaining their individuality! Maybe there was hope. She sounded as she had before, not even remotely organic.
"Many of us have who have encountered that Ferengi have asked that, my dear." Ssaak'll waved for the android to step closer and she did so, wary. Then again, he was a Gorn and he was connected to many pieces of what were clearly Borg tech, so wariness was totally understandable. "Are you well?"
"I am damaged, but functional." The android was clearly confused by all this, but his kindness was soothing her. "Will you assimilate me?"
"No." Ssaak'll was quick to reassure her. "As I said on the Denali, I am not Borg. I do not do that unless I am given no choice. You are not one of those I came to rescue, but I am happy to have done so. I am not sure who made you or why, but your days of being damaged are over. No one will harm you again while I live." That was an oath.
"I…" The android seemed at a loss for words and then she scrutinized him carefully. "Can I help? I had access to some of that ship's systems. Not much."
"You are the reason the ship did not do as much damage as it could have, no?" Ssaak'll waved for her to join him on the dais and expanded his sensor access to include her. A massive of show of trust and a danger. She could do great harm to the ship from here if she was hostile, but she was not. She did not move and the Gorn shook his head. "My dear, you have nothing to fear from me. I know what it is to wake in horror. Out of control. You are free and will remain that way. I will not harm you."
"I do not know why, but you feel so familiar." The android said softly. "You are a being of layers, but not of lies."
"I have had to lie many times, my dear. Lies of omission as well as others." Ssaak'll said with a frown. "Sometimes, they are needed, but they never sit well with me. Add to that? Most sentient beings do not like being lied to. When they discover that they have been, they usually react badly. For almost thirty galactic standard years, I had to live a lie. To be simply Ssaak the Gorn. It was hard and I did things that I regret. This.…" He waved towards the screen that showed the Dera system and the ships in it. "This I do not think I am going to regret."
"We need to get Herald Jhinis off that ship." The android stepped to the Gorn's side and paused as he reached out, offering a hand. She took it carefully. Androids were usually far stronger than most beings, but Gorn were very close to their strength and durability, if not their speed. "T'Ket herself cannot be far now and when she arrives,… This will get bad."
"Indeed." Ssaak'll said with a sigh. Then he paused. "Do you have a name or designation?" The android looked at him and he shrugged. "Calling you 'My dear' will get old. You do not know me, do you?"
"You seem familiar, but you are not in my records. You said your name is Ssaak'll." The android said slowly. "But that is an insult in Gorn!" She protested.
"Yes, it is. My father was not happy with my choices." The Gorn said as turned back to the screen. "He wanted me to return, take my place. He was going to have all my implants ripped out and not replaced with anything to show how strong we Gorn were." Even now, the memory of that conversation made his blood boil. The android stared at him in horror as he stared off into space with his flesh and blood eye, fighting for calm and winning. "My father was going to destroy the ship and all the drones aboard that I fought so hard to rescue. He would have had them all vaporized because they were not 'Gorn enough' for him. They were 'people' enough for me." He stilled as the android squeezed his hand gently.
"I am sorry. I remember a designation, but I do not know if it was mine or not. My memories begin five years ago, but this body was not constructed until last year. My matrix took time to form. I had a lot to learn and there was no one I could trust." The Android did nothing more, just held his hand and he gave hers a gentle squeeze.
"What name?" Ssaak'll inquired as he focused on the tableau outside Madren was still hailing the Iconian ship which utterly ignored him.
"M'Tara." The android said softly and Ssaak'll stared at her. "I know. That was the name of an Iconian. The only true Iconian to fall in the War. I am not Iconian."
"No." Ssaak'll said slowly. "May I scan you?" He inquired and she tilted her head in assent. His implants swept her with scan beams and he frowned a little as the readings came in. Most of her body was a standard Federation android, but inside her chest was a dark space. The energy that was falling from her eye came from that. The energy was familiar! Now that he had close range scans, it was familiar enough to be terrifying.
"What?" The android asked, aware of his sudden discomfiture.
"You have a piece of the Iconian M'Tara inside you." Ssaak'll said softly. "I do not know how the Federation spies acquired that or why. All I know for certain is that you are not her. She would have killed the Doctor and Aenar when she woke. She would kill me right now if she stood where you are."
"Why?" The android said, backing up a step. Ssaak'll let her go. "You have done nothing but help me. You have been very kind to me, far kinder than anyone else has. Mary has tried to help me, all unknowing and even while unconscious. She was and is in agony from what I tried so hard not to share with her." She bowed her head. "Poor girl."
"That is a story for another time." Ssaak'll said with a growl as Madren's Majesty started to move. They had managed to repair the impulse engines. Some. It wasn't moving very fast. It was moving away from the Denali. "For now, know that you are not the Iconian M'Tara. I knew her. You are not her." He could not restrained a shudder and the android stared at him, her sole remaining eye going large.
"You… M'Tara hurt you." The android said softly, stunned. "How? Why?"
"It was war. As I say, 'another time'!" Ssaak'll said sternly as he spun back to his display. "We need to get Jhinis off that ship. Now! What can you tell me?"
"The Aenar is a stasis pod that has been frozen cryogenically." The android said slowly. "Any sudden movement may damage the pod. Even a transporter may damage it."
"And if Madren thinks he can profit from this madness, he won't just let us abscond with her either. He has learned some lessons. He has shielding set up across parts of his ship internal structure to inhibit transporters." Ssaak'll said with a growl. "He is just the type to have weapons aimed at it in case of any rescue attempts. In such a case, even an Iconian transporter could not grab it quickly enough to prevent damage that would be fatal to Jhinis." He paused. "Might that be why T'Ket is not attacking yet?" He shook his head. "No. She is not that subtle. She has dealt with Ferengi before. She knows not to trust anything they say."
"She has?" The android asked, curious.
"Yes and she was not happy with what they did." Ssaak'll frowned as he saw the course that Madren's Majesty was taking. It was heading towards the Iconian ship! "He must be insane! They don't want to talk to him and he still trying to hail?"
Ssaak'll set the Xrathis' Honor in pursuit, matching the Ferengi ship's speed. When Madren tried to speed up, Ssaak'll slammed him with another tractor beam. The Ferengi ship's shields were still down, so if he wanted to flood the ship with drones, the Gorn could. But he would lose many to the AI and he was loathe to do so.
"Jhinis' pod was in a cargo hold near the port side hangar bay." The android said softly. She pointed a spot on the holo of the Ferengi ship. "There. I tried to touch her mind, too soothe her pain and it hurt." She shuddered in memory. She seemed far more alive than any Federation androids that Ssaak'll had seen and occasionally fought. "The AI did not like me."
"It was odd. Golden?" The android nodded to the Gorn's question, her metal face almost fearful. "I only sensed it for a moment." The Gorn said slowly. "I know better than to play with such things. But you are not infected with the weapon they put in Mary." The android went utterly still and the Gorn nodded to her. "The Doctor and her Federation allies were using her to try and attack the Iconians. I suspect they got energy from what was placed in you to make the weapon, but you are not contaminated by such."
"Are you sure?" She begged, sounding so scared that he held out his hand to her again.
"I am sure." Ssaak'll reassured her as she took his hand gingerly. "After the war, I had some contact with Iconians. It wasn't all pleasant, but it did work out in the end. You are free of them if you so desire."
"I…" The android paused and her tone shifted, just a little, becoming less of the dark and sinister tone that had been her norm ever since she had spoken to him on the Denali. "I had to be scary. I did not know what to do. I knew that Mary was important. I knew I had to try to help her, especially when the Romulans would have killed her, but I do not know why. I am afraid." She admitted in a very small voice.
The Gorn almost scoffed at that and then he reminded himself sternly that is she was only five years old. Add to that? If she had been created in a super secret Federation spy lab, then she was likely not faking her worry. Her lack of experience with others was totally understandable. He did take precautions, of course. He wasn't stupid.
"I will protect you as best I can." Ssaak'll said firmly as the android looked at him, but his focus was on the situation unfolding outside the former Borg ship. "If the worst should come to pass, I will see you and the Aenar here removed from this ship to a place of safety. For now? We need to see if we can rescue Jhinis. Would you like me to call you M'Tara?"
"You do not like the name." The android said softly. "Whatever your reasoning, you hate her." He turned to look at her and she frowned. "I do not know how I know that, but I feel that you are justified in your rage at her. Why would I feel that?" She asked, confused.
"I don't know." Ssaak'll admitted. "I have reasons to be upset with her but she is gone. A remnant of her is inside you, but I do not blame you for what she did. You are not her."
"I hope not. And, if you can put aside such rage as I feel you are entitled to, you are a far better being than I am. Far stronger and far wiser." The android said softly. "I… Until I can find a better designation, I will call myself M'Tara. Perhaps I can help you get past whatever she did to you. If harming me would help-" She broke off as he gave her hand a stern squeeze, one that had her metal fingers squealing in protest.
"Present situations aside, I try very hard not to cause harm anymore." The huge green skinned lizard's voice was flat now. The android tried to retreat, but he did not release her hand and she froze in place. "I will call you M'Tara. For now, our focus must be rescuing Jhinis from the Ferengi. Do you have any suggestions? I can carve bits of the ship off with tractor beams, but that will cause structural damage and put the Herald at risk."
"The AI is deploying more drones and-" The newly named M'Tara paused, sensing a change at the same time Ssaak'll did. "What are those?"
Both of them stared at the new set of drones that flew out to surround the Ferengi ship. These were very different. Where the ones that Ssaak'll had slaughtered before had been utilitarian Federation designs, all grays and blues, these were golden and white. And odd. They were smaller, for one thing. Almost tiny. None of them looked as if they had impulse or warp capability and all seemed to be hovering close to Madren's Majesty. Their white hulls were not quite triangular, with a rounded section on the bottom that had oblong golden hoops on each side of the rounded section. Smaller golden hoops were set on extrusions that jutted out from each side of the triangle. There was also a golden hoop on the front of it. They were clearly drones, there was nowhere for even the tiniest of sentient beings to pilot such a thing, but they were odd.
"Are they repairing the ship's shields?" M'Tara inquired carefully as blue glows swept out from each drone to hit the Ferengi ship. As they coalesced, they seemed to be building a blue sphere around the ship. Said blue energy hit the green of the Borg tractor beam and seemed to skitter away from it.
"They seem to be trying." The Borg-ified Gorn said dryly as the shields on the Ferengi ship fluttered and died again. "Not very successfully." He sighed as a photon torpedo burst from a launcher on the rear of the Ferengi ship and slammed into the shields of his Juggernaut. Said shields barely flickered. "And now, Madren is just being silly."
Two insanely powerful plasma beams speared out from the Juggernaut before M'Tara could reply and slammed into the Ferengi ship. Whereas the torpedo impact had done nothing but irritate the Gorn, both plasma beams tore into the un-shielded Marauder class ship and left huge rents in its aft superstructure. M'Tara stared at the angry Gorn as he flipped a section of glowing hologram and spoke in a cold, dead voice.
"If you continue to anger me, Madren, I can and will rip your ship apart until I get what I want." The Gorn's voice was now terrifying. Machine, but not. Calm, but not. "I would rather not, since there is a chance that I could harm the one you kidnapped, but if you keep annoying me, I will swat you like the bug you truly are and chance that I can heal her after. I should not enjoy obliterating such as worm as you, but I would."
"You!" Came a horrified voice from the com and M'Tara stared as a hologram of a terrified Ferengi appeared in mid-air. He knew the Gorn? And was clearly not happy about that knowledge? The again? Angry Gorn who had been a Borg? Ouch. "What do you want?"
"You will surrender the Herald and you will do it now." The Gorn's tone was still cold, dead and emotionless. "I care not where you go or what you do as long as you do not get in my way or my Captain's way. Did the last time not teach you anything?" He inquired, still cold. "I personally do think you would look much better with your intestines clawed out of your body and wrapped around your neck until you stop breathing. Apparently, you think the same?"
"You don't have any idea what you are doing, you crazy lizard!" The Ferengi was somewhere between terror and rage.
"I don't?" Ssaak'll inquired. "Odd. You seem bent on getting yourself fried by T'Ket, and normally, I would be the last to hinder you in such foolishness, but pray tell. Who are you going to try to sell the Herald to?"
"I just want that thing off my ship!" Madren snapped. "This deal went sideways even before you and that monstrosity of yours got here! I am trying to salvage something, anything from this crazy deal!"
"Why are you surprised?" Ssaak'll inquired, a hint of humor rising through his cold malice. "When you have no intention of keeping any deal that you make, it tends to sour people on making deals with you. Betrayal always stings. Many of us who try to keep the peace out here have learned that lesson with you."
"I didn't go back on the deal! They did!" Madren protested anew and then gasped. "No! NO!" he yelped and his holo vanished to the sound of...- What was that noise? Then it clicked in the Gorn's memory. Those were gunshots! Reports from an archaic projectile firearm? Who would be using such a primitive weapon?
"Okay." Ssaak'll said with a deep hissing sigh as he cast his emotionless mask aside, much to M'Tara's evident relief. "Who did he try to scam this time?"
Neither of them were ready when the holo appeared again and a figure who was nothing like a Ferengi stood in the middle of it. The being was not human, but was human proportioned. His hair was black and his skin and oddly metallic looking. Not quite golden but close. He wore the black jacket and trousers of the Federation spy agency but he was not a Federation species that the Gorn knew. His arms were elongated and his fingers likewise as he tapped controls. Were his eyes glowing golden? They were!
"Ah, that is better." The being said with a smile. "You seem much more civilized than that ignorant long eared brute. Perhaps you will assist?" The Gorn just looked at him and the other frowned. "Oh, where are my manners?"
"I am Prince Robert Lorinos of Orokin and I am here to ask your help, Prince Ssaak'll."