Cold comforts

For a long moment, the Gorn just looked at the black clad being on his screen and then he slowly shook his head.

"I knew Madren was opportunistic and always on the prowl for a quick profit no matter the cost to anyone else, but this level of sheer stupid is unexpected." Ssaak'll said without a hint of what he truly felt. The newly named android did not move. She could tell more was going on here than a simple conversation, but she had no idea what.

"We can be civilized about this." The figure on the screen said quietly. "Madren was and is a fool. You are not."

"A fool?" Ssaak'll mused. "Yes, he often is. His desire for profit often outstrips what little sense the Ferengi seems to have. Then again, their entire culture is based on the acquisition of wealth so, he is hardly the only one of his kind who acts in that manner. I do not seek profit."

"What I have seen and heard says that you seeking something far greater than riches." The apparition on the screen was just as quiet. "Perhaps we can be of service to one another?" He went still as the Gorn did.

"Give me the Herald." The Gorn's tone flattened and the android stared as his claws started to flex. "Now."

"You have something I need." The other replied. "I will surrender the Herald if you give me the doctor and the android."

"No!" The android gasped and tried to retreat, but Ssaak'll shook his head.

"I do not know what you did." The Gorn said very slowly. "But I do understand T'Ket's reluctance now. That is totally atypical for her. She is more of a 'blow stuff up' kind than one to talk. But you…" He shook his head again. "I am not even surprised that you are working with the furred witch and her agency. I only heard bits while M'Tara tried to remake me…" Again the android gasped, but Ssaak'll did not release her. "...but I do seem to recall your name coming up while she and a sister of hers discussed non consensual intercourse, Prince Robert." The title 'Prince' was heavily sarcastic

Even with all of his implants and abilities, that time was a haze of pain and fear. Now? Add rage to it. There were many things he simply did not understand about mammals, but he did understand the need to dominate others. His family had all been about that. That was one reason he had left, gone into space. To get away from all of the arguments and petty differences. Then again, there were a few things that they all agreed on. What the Iconians he had overheard had implied that this being had done was one of those things. None of his people would take such a thing lightly. Not even his father and brother had ever dared to do that. Barely, but not.

"I do not know what the Iconians did to you, but they can be stopped." The golden skinned being on the screen was still calm and quiet. "The girl is the key."

"So you will abuse her. Of course you will. Like the doctor did before." The Gorn's soft words held contempt now. "At your orders, I assume."

"The girl has already been changed." The non-human on the screen was feeling his words with care now. "Once she is done, I can give her a new life."

"As a slave to you." Now, Ssaak'll's tone might have cut a diamond.

"This does not need to become violent." The being who called himself Prince Robert said. "We can both profit from this."

"And now, you attempt bribery." The Gorn's flat reply showed how he felt about that.

"There is a difference between a bribe and an offer." The other retorted. "I am offering."

"Yes." The Gorn allowed just a hint of the fury he felt to rise to the surface. "You are offering me what the Borg did. What M'Tara did. A life free of free will." Again, the android gasped, but this time, she did not retreat. She slumped. "I fought the Borg off and then I held M'Tara off. Whoever or whatever you are, you are nowhere near her power. What could possibly make you think that I will accept your lies when I rebuffed hers?"

"You don't have a choice." The other was still quiet.

Ssaak'll went still as the sensor plot changed. Ships were appearing. Not decloaking, simply appearing. Two, five, ten, two dozen of them! The ships were all clearly Federation designs, but oddly archaic looking. Their hulls were triangular, each with four warp nacelles slung behind them. None of them had life signs aboard. A warning popped up in his vision, a drone had identified them as Section 31 automated cruisers. AI run, highly efficient and utterly ruthless. Four of them surrounded the Denali and yes, drone swarms were sweeping around them. AI meant that he could not hack them easily and any of his drones he sent to board the ships would be in danger of being subverted. Far from cowed, the Gorn smiled! It was not a nice smile.

"That is actually quite funny." Ssaak'll snickered and the being on his screen stared at him. "It is a very old human joke." Now, both the android and the odd being in black gawked at him. "'That is what she said'!"

He was chuckling even as the drone ships moved to englobe his Juggernaut. He fought his chuckles back even as mirth spread through his small Collective.

"You are heavily outnumbered." Prince Robert warned.

"And?" Ssaak'll inquired, a bubble of mirth still echoing in his tone.

"And I have no wish to destroy you." The odd being snapped, patience fleeing. "You and your ship will be of great value when I build up forces to retake what is mine."

"As if you could." Ssaak'll sneered at the other. "I have faced entire fleets of Borg cubes. What makes you think-"

He broke off as a hissed groan sounded and the viewscreen split. A Gorn was pushed into the view on the other screen. Prince Robert smiled at the expression on Ssaak'll's snout as he saw her. Her Starfleet uniform was tatters around her and she had a collar around her neck that blinked ominously. Her scales were unmarked with caste markings, so she was either royal or outcast. It didn't matter. Fury rose in him that was matched by his Collective. This was not going to end well.

"If I am not mistaken, according to Gorn culture, any male Gorn is bound to protect any female Gorn, no?" The golden skinned being said with a wide smile.

"If I was still a member of Gorn society, that might be true." Ssaak'll said as the female Gorn stared at the screen, eyes huge. She was bleeding from a deep cut on her scalp, but her scales were intact, so she wasn't in immediate danger. From that anyway. "However, I was cast out. I am not bound by their cultural rules. There is also the minor problem that she is not nesting. We are supposed to protect nests, not any random female we may find on the street."

"She will be shortly." The Prince said and went still as Ssaak'll seemed to swell.

"If you do that, there is nowhere in this universe you can go that I will not follow. If you leave this universe, I will follow you wherever you flee. I will find you and I will find out how long it takes to pry that gold off your bones with my claws." The Gorn said very slowly, making sure to be utterly clear. The android at his side stared at the hurt Gorn on the screen in horror and then her metal face hardened. "My family did not care about honor, but I do."

The golden skinned Prince opened his mouth to retort, but the hurt Gorn on the screen screamed before he could.

[PRINCE!] She shouted in Gorn even as a golden form hit her with something that crackled. Through a scream of pure agony, she shouted again. [END THIS!] Her scream cut off and Ssaak'll stared at her as she collapsed into golden arms. Then he bowed his head.

[As you wish.]

Before the startled Prince of Orokin could react, Ssaak'll gave further voice to his rage with the full firepower of his Juggernaut.

Space

"Holy shit!"

The voice of the weapon's officer was hushed. Commander Tarsi didn't blame her. Their carrier was hopelessly crippled and the crew was evacuating in shuttles. The carrier's full complement of fighters was up, protecting the vulnerable convoy as it edged away from the sudden carnage. No one was shooting at them. No one was going to waste time on shuttles and fighters right now!

It had been nerve wracking to fly out of the hangar in between all of the drone swarms as well as all of the ominous, silent ships that were straight out of the Federation's worst nightmares. None of those had so much as twitched however. All had been focused on the Juggernaut that held the Ferengi ship in its grip. The broadband hail had been odd. Neither of them spoke Gorn, but the intent had been clear even before the former Borg vessel had shown the true extent of a fallen Prince's wrath.

From the moment it had appeared, it had been quite clear that the Xrathis' Honor was no ordinary Borg ship. Borg were no joke at the best of times, but this? This was way beyond even the Borg's ability. Plasma beams, tractors beams, plasma torpedoes as well as more varied armaments lashed out from the misshapen ship to strike the Ferengi ship and all of the others at the same time!

"Boss…" Eshades' voice was hushed as the Juggernaut took dozens of phaser hits, shrugging them off as inconsequential to focus on its enemies. Its shields wavered, but held! Torpedoes and mines passed through the shields, plowed into the massive hull and exploded, blowing pieces off, but the Juggernaut's firepower was undimmed. Multiple weapons lashed out again and again to slam into Madren's unshielded ship and everything else that surrounded the former Borg vessel. Two of the silent AI cruisers simply evaporated in a massive plasma ball, two more were crushed into tiny metal lumps by tractor beams and all the others took damage. The drones swarms closed in, but dozens of them flared and vanished in some kind of energy field. Getting anywhere near that battle was not a good idea for small craft. "What do we do?"

"The only smart thing. We run away." Tarsi said flatly. "We have to protect the Denali's crew and- Ah shit."

The drones were attacking the shuttles! Her fighters swept in and cleared the area before any of their charges could take more than superficial damage, but more drones were arcing away from the battle and towards the convoy. Through it all, the Iconian raider sat at the edge of the system, watching.

"Get out of here!" Tarsi snapped to the lead shuttle as she arced her own Peregrine to intercept the closest drones. Eshade fired and the aggressors vanished, but there were more. Another swarm was moving to intercept her and she sighed as she saw more and more of the sinister things flying from the silent Federation type ships. One on one, none of them had a chance against her Peregrine, but there were dozens of them now turning towards the harried convoy. Maybe hundreds.

"Ramping up to warp." Came the reply from the lead shuttle and Tarsi smiled as the tiny ship vanished into faster than light travel but more drones were closing and now they were firing! Tarsi was hardly the only one to give voice to rage and grief as a shuttle was wiped away, the occupants never even having time to scream. More of the shuttles were clear and going to warp, but the drones just kept coming even as her fighter's weapons fired again and again, each time wiping out drones. But the drones were firing back and one, two, three of her fighters, her friends, vanished!

"Get-" Something slammed into Tarsi's ship and they were spinning, Eshade was yelling as Tarsi fought her controls. Something else hit the ship as she finally got their spin under control, throwing her back out of control and this time, their shields were down. At least six drones were in pursuit and-

The drones seemed to stop in space as a blue beam stabbed out and grabbed Tarsi's fighter. A Klingon ship had decloaked nearby. A familiar ship! The Fencer had its shields up. Was it her imagination that the drones shuddered? If they were going to run, they waited too long and half a dozen incredibly precise bursts of disruptor fire vaporized each and every one of them.

"Denali Fighter." Came the familiar voice from the Klingon ship. This time, he was unamused. "You alive?"

"Yeah." Tarsi was focused on her controls, fixing what she could of her ship's systems. "What are you doing here, Fencer?"

"My job." Came the reply. "Can you maneuver?"

"Um…" Tarsi swallowed hard as shes saw red across her status displays. Her small craft was battered and engines were offline. "No. I still have weapons though. Aim us at the enemy!"

Eshade growled agreements. Of the two wings of fighters that had started this battle, three damaged Peregrines showed on her screens. She didn't dare ask how many of the shuttles had made it to warp.

"You are brave Starfleet. I saw that when we spoke the first time." Came the voice of what had to be the Klingon Commander. "But this time? There is no need. It took an irresistible prize for him to come out of hiding, but it worked." His tone changed. Harder, colder, totally in charge. "All ships! The AI and the scum who made it are on the Majesty! The trap succeeded! Its warp is disabled. Deploy!"

Tarsi's eyes went huge as three ships dropped out of warp next to the Fencer. Two were Klingon in design, one was not! The Constitution class ship Organia moved to flank the D7 marked Naght'ha and both of them made way for the massive bulk of the K'Valk's Honor! Then they shimmered, the Klingon and Federation ships all suddenly showing matching colors. Alliance! The former Klingon carrier opened her hangars and two Birds of Prey shot out. Then tractor beams grabbed hold of Tarsi's broken survivors and pulled all four of them towards the newly come monster ship as two more Birds of Prey launched.

"Hey! I want a piece of that fight!" Eshade protested.

"You will get your fill of battle today. There is little honor if facing such foes, but the threat needs to be stopped." The Fencer's captain said quietly as the forces assailing the Juggernaut realized there were new threats and tried to redeploy, but the Xrathis' Honor was having none of that! All of its weapons were still firing even with huge gaping holes torn in the superstructure! Now, his tone turned dry. "If of course, the Gorn Prince leaves us anything to do."

"There are hostages on the Majesty." Tarsi said as her ship was pulled in and… She went utterly still as she saw Klingon ground crews working on what had to be an Iconian Baltiim escort. Were they readying that for launch? How? Why? "What the hell?"

Tarsi's Peregrine was set on the deck and a blonde haired woman in Alliance uniform stepped up to the ship. But she wasn't Alliance! The arc of metal that hung over her brow said it all. Iconian! But she was human and wore Alliance uniform, so… What? She looked normal otherwise except for the faint hint of scars across her face.

"Commander Tarsi?" The woman said quietly and her words came through the ship's speakers! That wasn't possible, but she did it! She broke through every firewall to access the ship's internal com system!"My name is Mary Owlna. I need your help to end this. Your ship will be repaired while we talk."

"Um, boss?" Eshade sounded subdued. "Is that the girl we were transporting?"

"I am not sure." Tarsi said softly. This woman was a far cry from 'Fresh out of the Academy' and she had blonde hair where the other had possessed raven locks. This officer stood confidently, waiting for Tarsi's response. This wasn't a rookie. Not a chance. The Andorian sighed and nodded to her weapon's officer. "Shut down. We can't fight like this anyway. I will see what she wants."

The Andorian shut her own systems down and then rose from her chair, grimacing as aches pervaded her. The straps on the chair were a back up in case inertial dampening failed and in this case, had been needed. The ride had been very rough. She looked at the weapon rack by the hatch and shook her head when Eshade eyed a question at her. Carrying heavy weapons would send the wrong idea to their rescuers. She stepped out of the hatch, her eyes on the girl or whatever that stood there and fell, the steps that should have been there had been slagged by battle damage.

She did not hit the deck! Instead, cold hands caught and held her off the deck as Mary gasped in shock. One look at the hands and Tarsi knew she was in deep trouble, but the Iconian Thrall just set the Andorian on her feet and stepped back to stand by Mary! The Thrall did not have a staff in hand! Tarsi had never seen one of the dreaded servants of the Iconians without the bladed staff that was their hallmark. It did not move and its helmet never left her face.

"Commander Tarsi won't attack me. She has more sense than that." Mary said firmly as the Thrall and Andorian stared at each other. "We need her. Back off!"

"Our orders are clear." The Thrall's voice was flat. It didn't move and did not look away from Tarsi. "You will be protected."

"She is not going to do anything! She is surprised. Can you blame her?" Mary snapped and then sighed as the Thrall ignored her. "Gah! If we survive this, I am going have some words with my Mother!"

"Who is your mother?" Tarsi kept her hands still and well away form her phaser pistol as she dared to glance at the upset woman. The Thrall did nothing.

"I do not know who my birth mother was." Mary calmed a bit, but but was clear she was still upset. "But my adopted mother is the Iconian L'Miren." She held up a hand as Tarsi scoffed and the Thrall tensed. "Look, we can explain, but we do not have all the answers. We also have very limited time before the AI on the Majesty and its master finds other reinforcements. We need to end this and we need your help to do it."

"My help?" Tarsi could not keep disbelief out of her voice and didn't bother trying, truth be told. "What do Iconians need me for?" She demanded scornfully.

"They don't. I do." Mary replied, now fully calm.

"For?" The Andorian all but threw that word out.

"Legal cover. I want to keep this as close to legal as we can." Mary's words were not what the Andorian expected and she stared at Mary before jerking her gaze back to the Thrall which still hadn't moved.

"What do Iconians care about anyone else's laws?" Tarsi snapped, her anger rising. She paused as Mary looked sad. "What?"

"They don't." Mary repeated. "I do."