Reviews

Dchimera

I'll avoid the alternate version thing in this story. I've used it before, and there's no reason for their to be a version of Gothic in the Trek Mirror Universe. That way later in the story the rebels fighting the Alliance can try get his help.

His ship is pretty much a runabout with wings, but also the nacelles can move under or further away from the ship. Its also bigger than a runabout.

cjcold2

Kira is getting on the job training. She only seems lacking in certain skills because she's working with an augment and now someone who went to the acadamey. But clearly she does have some training because she ran Deep Space Nine for years with her education being an issue, at least as far as I remember.

Yeah Ro and Kira are strong women, but that doesn't stop them from being women who have a desire to please their partner. I rather like how I balance out those two things.

A foundation, that's a good idea like the Bajoran orphan fund that I was sure got mentioned a few times in DS9, only this would be a fund for a planet.

Other Reviews

Thanks for the support.

Augment Gothic

Part 16

Rebel Base. Jeraddo.

On the Bajoran moon named Jeraddo, the newly formed "Gothic Cell" or "Team Gothic" as I had joked in the privacy of my own thoughts, occupied what had been, until now, an abandoned moon base. The reason for creating the new cell off planet wasn't just because I was becoming increasingly well known and popular among the rebels (and feared by the Cardassians), but also because their leaders wanted me out of the way. Out of sight, out of mind and all that.

To be fair, though, Shaakar was not so shallow a person to worry about me being liked more than he was, but he was worried about the long-term implications of the rebels relying on an outsider too much for their most notorious and substantial victories, and about those same victories not being credited to native Bajoran freedom fighters. Give the man some credit, he was thinking beyond the here and now and trying to imagine life on Bajor after the Cardassians were long gone.

This, I could certainly understand, it was their world and their freedom that was at stake, so I hadn't protested when I'd been offered command of my own cell on one of the moons. I'd taken Kira and Ro with me, of course, as one person did not a resistance cell make and we were an incredibly effective team when working together. My fierce, beautiful and deadly ladies were happy to stay by my side.

My new cell also been assigned Neela, a mechanically gifted and sexy young Bajoran woman, who was currently overhauling a small squadron of sub-impulse raiders along with Kira and Ro. These vessels were also a good reason for why I was here. I had replicators and very decent tech skills of my own, so it made sense to put me in charge of them.

I'd also brought a number of replicators I had picked up on Earth, to be distributed to and used by rebel cells across the planet. Of course, they weren't strictly able to pay me for them, they could barely afford the non-stolen weapons they needed to fight the Cardassians, but I had made a good deal to get a lot more land than had originally been promised to me once the Occupation was over. With so many cells involved it'd definitely be honored once the Cardassians were gone and the Bajorans as a whole were pretty honorable when it came to their deals. The Klingons could learn a thing or two from them.

This concession along with the right to choose anywhere I wanted on the planet, as long as it wasn't owned already, was going to pay huge dividends. Besides, I'd gotten the replicators in exchange for Federation Credits so they hadn't really cost me anything. They were generic replicators anyways, only good for providing food, clothing, other odds and ends, as well as small parts for machines. Still, these were replicators available to Federation citizens on Earth, so very damn decent in quality and a lifesaver for many Bajorans. Everyone was happy with the deal in the end. With so many displaced or dead, there was a lot of unclaimed land available across the planet.

The real money, though, came from Section 31, who were more than happy to buy any and all information on the Collectors from me that I hadn't simply sent to Starfleet. This included the data I'd gathered from my tricorder, which hadn't been shared with Starfleet, unlike the rest. I now had a VERY large sum in gold pressed latinum that could be used just about anywhere in the alpha quadrant. A 5 percent reward to both Kira and Ro Laren for their parts in the whole thing made both very happy and rich women. I had actually tried to give them a larger cut, but they wouldn't hear of it considering we hadn't actually gotten into combat. Again, Bajorans were pretty honorable people for the most part.

Tricorders were good and all, I just wished I was having better luck with my idea for creating an omni-tool equivalent, which I wanted to be built seamlessly into the vambrace on my left forearm. It would serve as a hidden tricorder/comm system/control system for my armor and have inbuilt holographic controls and displays. Unlike the physical buttons and display of a tricorder, I wanted everything to be holographic and able to be projected from a small holo-emitter built into the vambrace.

It wouldn't be a fully interactive hologram like you'd see on a full sized holodeck or suite, but it would have just enough substance to provide some physical resistance when I wanted to type something or manipulate some data from its scans. In my opinion it was a huge leap forward in both design and functionality, if not necessarily technology. Maybe Data could again help with the design work. He seemed to have a knack for it and had enjoyed the design challenges he'd helped me with in the past. He also worked fast and for free, which was always good!

I was also hoping to take my personal shield device, which I had had since I was first on the Enterprise, and add it into the prototype or maybe into my standard armor as a whole. However that was proving quite a problem due to power, space and weight issues, not wanting a heavy power pack strapped onto my wrist to power all of this technology. Plus I wanted to add a sexy Cortana from the video game series Halo as a pseudo VI that I could give verbal commands to and who could interact with me, again for my personal use, so the power and space requirements were already high enough. Yep, a lot of design obstacles were standing in the way of my badass omnitool coming to fruition. I had faith, though, the glimpse of the future the orb had given me seemed to indicate it was only a matter of time before I figured it all out.

A much simplier bit of tech were the Bajoran Raiders, as they were called, they were lightly-armed sub-impulse (meaning thrusters only) raiders used by the rebels. The Bajoran resistance engineers who had originally designed the craft had designed them without any comfort in mind, in a strictly utilitarian style to reduce resource costs and complexity. This required occupants to bend their knees to fit in the seats, for example. Although capable of achieving a high-altitude orbit, and some limited space travel, these vessels were most effective in atmospheric combat. For weapons, the vessels were armed with dual phaser emitters and were equipped with fire extinguishers under the seats

The raiders were shared amongst many cells, scattered across the planet. Each cell that was able to providing and maintaining their own group of raiders. Although various cell members would freely share technical knowledge between factions, there were cells that simply didn't have the resources or know how to maintain any kind of transport.

While they were downright primitive compared to what the Federation had, or even my own ship, they were decades ahead of what NASA had on my world. The Raiders could fly from the moon to Bajor in next to no time at all, and while they were hard to keep running and combat effective, they had little trouble with things like re-entry. I figured the nations of my Earth and time would have happily killed to get their hands on even a single Bajoran Raider.

As for the new woman in my life, from what I'd been told, well, warned really, Neela liked to test her boundaries, both in her technical skills and her abilities as a fighter. Neela was also easily the most religious of any member of the newly formed Gothic cell by a long shot.

Neela, who was quite attractive in her own right, also wasn't having sex with me, surprisingly, since she didn't seem to like me all that much. She didn't dislike me either, but this made sense. She'd never known a Bajor that wasn't occupied by a foreign power. So while she knew I wasn't a Cardassian, and that I was definitely helping to free Bajor, she still saw me as an outsider.

At least this wasn't causing friction when it came to our work. All three Bajoran women in my cell had made a game of repairing and overhauling the raiders under our care. Each had three raiders to care for and maintain. The first to complete their work on their assigned ships would require the others to buy them a drink as soon as they were somewhere that served booze. It was a fun way to motivate each other.

As for me, I was spending most of my time going over the data we'd stolen from the Hur'q moon ship/mobile hive, but there was so much to go through that I wasn't really getting anywhere.

Even after weeks of intense study I still didn't know much about the Collector's tech or how it work. Their society, however, was much easier to understand.

They were essentially bugs that lived in hives, each Hur'q caring little for itself and lacking much in the way of a personal identity. They served the hive, but not so much the Queen. While there was only a single queen per hive, and they were certainly important, she could be replaced easily enough so she wasn't 'served' so much as she was cared for. Plus she got the best food, as I'd seen first hand.

A Hur'q hive was a big family, only not in the way a human would understand it. All the drones the queen produced were more or less the same being, but with advanced genetic engineering they weren't just copies, each Hur'q was modified extensively according to the current needs of the hive.

This gave them a strict caste system. Warriors, technicians, pilots, food gatherers, laborers, engineers, and so on were modified extensively to serve their one role. Each caste then having its own leaders, but they were groomed for the role from birth, well, hatching, and had the required skills implanted.

They had no music, or art of their own, or even any proper researchers as far as I could tell. They didn't even invent new things, but they were masters at copying other people's tech. I suppose that required a kind of creativity.

This might explain why they had taken relics and tech from other species, because they had no way of making their own from scratch. However, the race had obviously changed greatly since their exile from our dimension so perhaps long ago they'd had art and culture of their own and even proper scientists. For some reason they'd lost their creativity.

Also, the Hur'q had no gender, as we knew it. Well, the Queen did, but the rest were drones, so no sex either, no real culture, much like the Borg. For that reason alone I felt better about killing them; they were like robots, than people. Hell, Data was more alive than any Hur'q.

I also learned that they were not a truly united foe as each mobile hive/moon ship answered to a greater hive that had a mobile planet of all things. The power requirements for that, well, I didn't even want to think about it anymore. There had been a few mentions of exactly what powered their ships, even the planet sized one. It had stunned me. Using an artificial singularity for a power source wasn't an unknown technology in the Alpha quadrant; the Romulans powered their ships that way after all. The stunning part was the sheer scale of the thing. As far as I knew the Romulans used a miniscule singularity to power even a state of the art warbird. The Collectors somehow knew how to create and safely harness a singularity many thousands of times bigger. That was far, far beyond anything any Alpha quadrant powers were capable of. No wonder they could move planet ships.

And the amount of fighters the planet ships could carry…it was in the millions. Millions of fighter craft all willing to throw themselves recklessly to their deaths at any time if their weapons weren't enough. It was bloody scary, and that was before taking into account the sheer amount of ground troops they could shuttle down onto a planet.

Worse than that was the fact that there was more than one hive planet, but thankfully they didn't answer to any central authority. This meant if there was an invasion of this galaxy that we might only face a small fraction of their race, rather than the whole lot.

Not that this would make much difference. The Hur'q had mobile planets and the ability to move them to different realities. From their records they'd already scouted many alternate Trek universes, and perhaps places that weren't, while looking for their original home, and this galaxy appeared to be the one they were searching for, or at least close enough not to matter.

Their tech, from what little I understood, was scary advanced. They could produce enough energy to move planets at FTL speeds. They had hand held weapons more lethal than any phaser. They had grenades, a few of which I'd stolen, I found out, but they rarely used them since they wanted to study their enemies' bodies as well as their tech. That was part of the reason why their genetic engineering was so advanced.

Sadly, there was no information in what we'd stolen on their sensor tech and their engines, or if their planet hives had ship-to-ship weapons or not.

They did have weaknesses, though, no proper space ships for one. They had mobile hives, but the only defense those hives had, other than running away, were their fighters. Which made some sense as bee hives sent drones out to sting a predator until they either died or went away. Drones were expendable and easily replaceable so suicide runs made sense for them as there was a very short period between hatching/birth and full maturity, so they'd definitely have an edge over any species, like humanity, that took a decade and a half or more of growth to be useful in combat. A male human didn't even reach full physical maturity till 22 or so!

Secondly and thankfully, their warp engines were slower than ours. Mostly due to having to move such ridiculously huge masses I imagined, something we weren't even capable of. Their next weakness was that most of the hive slept during journeys. If they had things like cruisers, I was sure they'd be able to keep up with the best ships in any of the Alpha Quadrant fleets.

They also didn't have any kind of transporter tech yet, or ways to jam such technology. Though that might change soon enough, as while they weren't inventive like humans were, they weren't exactly stupid either and their skills at reverse engineering were great.

Their bio-armor was totally beyond my understanding at the moment especially with the tools I had available, and that galled me because I definitely wanted to take some of its capabilities for my own. It was made of something organic, like beeswax, only clearly it wasn't something that soft, with advanced cybernetic parts that interfaced between the Hur'q drone's mind and the armour itself. This allowed it to move as if it was part of their bodies, like an exoskeleton with dense artificial muscle fibers, which suggested that beneath the armour they didn't have any natural exoskeleton and might be just as fragile as humans without it.

Sadly with this level of advanced armour you could forget about stunning them, a definite problem for Starfleet officers. I didn't think even the Klingons would have much luck stabbing them with their knives, although swords had proven effective as Collector armour had weak spots, the eyes, neck and joints for example.

There was next to nothing on their weapons in the database, though I figured this had something to do with members of the tech caste having that knowledge directly implanted when they were young, rather than a true security precaution. Their database was pretty much open, meant for the leaders who needed knowledge that wasn't implanted, perhaps only to be accessed when they came across things that the species didn't normally deal with, or it was simply where info was downloaded from when a new Hur'q needed it. This was how they avoided making endless copies of data which was a bad idea as such information could be corrupted that way. No, if I was going to learn anything about their weapons' technology, I'd have to do it the old fashioned way, by attempting to reverse engineer the few that I had stolen.

My computer beeped and I read the incoming message. We had orders for a new mission I was very eager to go on as all the recent study had gotten dull.

"Ladies!" I called out. "We've got a job to do".

Ro and Kira didn't bother wearing much, or anything at all, when it was just me around. I ran a pretty relaxed operation unless something important was happening, but with Neela around now there was less random and impromptu sexual fun for me. Not that I minded too much, the Occupation was quickly coming to an end, that was easy to see even for an outsider. The Federation was applying a lot of political pressure on the Cardassian Union to withdraw and with the new treaty the Cardassians would have access to habitable and mineral rich planets that didn't have angry locals on them. Once the treaty was finalized the Union would want to divert their resources to colonizing those worlds rather than stay on Bajor. Of course if they had known there was a stable wormhole in Bajoran space there'd be nothing that could entice them away. Thankfully, they wouldn't find out till it was too late and the Federation had been invited in.

Still, the planet wasn't liberated yet, and I had a Section 31 mission to complete.

"Yeah boss," said Ro as she came over to the computer I'd been working at. "What's the job?"

Once the Bajoran women were gathered around I began explaining what bloody fun we'd be having today.

(Line Break)

Two Bajoran raiders, one piloted by myself, the other by Kira, with Neela and Ro as our respective gunners, departed Jeraddo, as the sun seemed to slip over the horizon on the moon.

We'd timed our flight well and had several minutes before the Cardassian picket ship in orbit around the opposite side of the planet came into view. The raiders were pretty hard to pick up on sensors. A Galor-class, with its state of the art sensors, would have detected us, but the spoon head were already withdrawing their front line military forces from the planet, so we didn't have to worry about that.

I figured it also helped that there had been a rumored battle between several Cardassian warships and an unknown enemy. Who knows, it could have been another Hur'q mobile hive, or someone else. The spoon heads weren't exactly a popular race and had a lot of enemies.

As the raiders dove into the atmosphere, I was again impressed at just how easy and fun these little ramshackle vessels were to fly, the controls being pretty simple compared to that of my own ship and somewhat alike at least for sub-impulse flight. These things were meant to be flown by people who weren't classically trained pilots after all. There were no ultra realistic holographic flight simulators for people to train on in the resistance. It was pretty much learning on the job so the ship needed to be as easy to fly as possible.

In our eagerness to get into the fight we pushed our thrusters to the point that our physical heat shielding threatened to melt away. There were no fancy energy deflectors on these babies.

The need was pressing though. The Shakaar resistance cell had begun liberating the labor camp at Gallitep, a very big deal in the show, which was another sign that the Occupation was seeing its final days. The allies had similarly liberated the camps of the Nazis during the end of the German occupation of Europe when they were pulling back to Germany.

What mattered right now, however, was that the raiders would provide air support for the rebel forces on the ground. I felt that my skills and abilities would be better used down there, in the thick of bloody ground combat, but I knew it was important for Bajorans to see Bajorans liberating those camps. A human doing the heavy lifting would be helpful, and it would definitely save more lives, but it would damage their pride, and they didn't have much to be proud about. It was more about morale than ego. I couldn't argue with the long-term benefits, even if more people would die in the short-term because I wasn't there.

My 'Bajoran Babes' and I (they didn't mind me calling them that by the way) had just entered the atmosphere and any moment now we would be making our first pass over the labor camp. This was vitally important, as while there were still a few Galor class battleships in the sector, the more immediate concern were the nearby patrol ships and small fighters that could destroy the rebel ground forces and everyone in the camp.

This was why the two raiders I was in charge of quickly veered away from the camp once we were spotted to draw the spoon head ships away. We were bigger targets, and much more dangerous than the ground forces. If the spoon heads ignored us we could fly around and destroy many of their people with strafing runs from our heavy weapons.

Of course, we weren't the only Bajoran Raiders involved in this operation. I couldn't see them, as my current ship had less sensors than a garbage scow, but I knew other cells had sent ships and they would be dog fighting in orbit so that no spoon head craft could bomb the camp from space. The Cardassians wouldn't care about civilian casualties, or about the lives of a few remaining Cardassians if the camp had already fallen.

Sadly, from the communications I was hearing the space battle was not going very well. Raiders, no matter how well designed, were no match for modern patrol craft so Shaakar ordered the remaining pilots to go to ground and temporarily link up with other cells if they couldn't get back to their home bases.

Which was an issue for the two raiders under my command.

(Line Break)

Bajor. The Hill Provinces

The Hill Provinces was the name given to a large mountainous area on Bajor which was mostly unpopulated. I'd seen that while flying over it and then promptly crashing my damaged Raider into a mountain. Of course I'd not been in the Raider when it crashed, that was what parachutes were for. And yes, I said parachutes. Did I not mention how these craft were the height of utilitarian?

Crashing the damaged Raider should hopefully lead to the spoon heads thinking that we were dead, but in case I was wrong about that Neela and I were laying low until the heat died down.

Getting a new Raider wouldn't be much trouble, they were designed to be pretty easy to build, the frame being the hardest part to make. Using a replicator I could then assemble the smaller bits and put them together. I had the tools and the help of young Bajoran women with the right skills and plenty of enthusiasm.

"Let's recruit members for a new Resistance cell we'll start ourselves," I heard Neela say as we moved towards the nearest village.

She knew this area so she was showing me where to go. Also, in a village or town she would blend in with the locals far better, I certainly wouldn't, at least not up close, but buildings typically had many places to hide.

"They probably already have one nearby," I pointed out. "And it'd be better to join that one, rather than start over from nothing. Besides, we have our Cell, we just need to get back to the moon". Even now it was best to not identify which moon I was talking about, you never knew who was listening.

Our base was currently visible in the night sky, and it was just one of many. Some of them looked so close that I imagined I could reach out and grab one. It was a beautiful sight. Bajor really was a beautiful planet; and part of me was quite looking forward to choosing some land for myself and building a home there. Of course I'd still go on adventures in my trusty ship, but having a well stocked home would be nice for downtime. I could even build a lab and fabrication shop and a landing pad for my ship. Now that I was thinking about it more, maybe an island with a high central hill to build on? One with great views and miles of clothing optional beaches that were all mine sounded lovely. With my ship and transporters it didn't exactly have to be close to the major cities.

"Yeah, we'll make it back," she responded, not realized I had been daydreaming for a bit there. "I'm an engineer. My skills are in high demand. And you're... what can't you do?"

I could understand the sentiment. She hadn't been around me very long, but she'd heard Kira and Ro wax poetically about me and my prowess in combat and in the bedroom. No doubt they'd filled her head with the idea that I was some kind of superman. Which to be fair, I kind of was, but that didn't mean I wasn't mortal just like her. My ego certainly wouldn't mind being told I was a sex god or something though.

"And we already have our own weapons," Neela added.

This was a good thing, because as we made our way into the village, we ran into a Cardassian patrol. Normally I'd have avoided such a thing, but I was lacking my normal equipment and I was working with someone I didn't know that well. Plus I was totally unfamiliar with the area.

"Hold," the officer in charge ordered. "Identification. Now!"

The four troopers under the command of the low level officer fiddled with their weapons. Clearly they were not here just to intimidate the locals; they didn't need five heavily armed men for that. Besides, if they'd been here having fun they would have been noisy enough for me to hear them long before I got inside the village's walls.

Neither I nor Neela had ID. Well, actually, we did, just not on us, the rebels made pretty good fakes these days as travel was forbidden without them. But they weren't something you thought to take on a mission that involved flying a freaking raider! Also why I didn't have a rifle on me. I had a pistol and a knife on hand, but not much else. I felt practically naked right now! If the Raider had been even a bit larger I would have prepared better, my natural paranoia and tendency towards overkill being what it was, but space was at a premium.

"Is there a problem, sir?" Neela asked innocently, trying to sound meek as well.

Somehow I didn't think her harmless little girl act was going to cut it. She could probably get away with being here, but I was human. There were certainly other humans on the planet, to be sure, but we tended to be visiting merchants, or people from a Federation world come to study the planet, we weren't typically wandering around extremely remote villages in the dead of night after a major rebel attack.

"I haven't seen you two in this village before," the officer said with obvious suspicion. "Travel is restricted without ID and travel papers. But you knew that already, didn't you?"

With great effort I forced a smile.

"Look, sir, as you can clearly see, I'm not Bajoran," I explained. "I'm a Federation citizen. I'm just out here enjoying the local culture, if you know what I mean, my lady friend and I were just out enjoying the countryside and my speeder broke down. All my identification and travel papers are in the transport".

From the looks on their faces and the steadily rising tension in the air, I could tell that there was no sense trying to talk my way out of this. A bribe might possibly work, and could have smoothed things over a bit, but again, I had no currency on me.

"Come with me," the officer instructed. "I will hand you over to-"

As I pushed Neela to the ground my stiff knife hand crushed the windpipe of the officer in charge before anyone even realized that they were now fighting for their lives. As the troopers raised their weapons to fire I spun the wheezing and slowly dying Cardassian officer around and used him as a living shield.

Multiple beams of deadly crimson energy then hit and killed their own leader, who couldn't order them not to fire, his body jerking wildly in my hands before going still. Holding up this newly dead weight was child's play for someone with my strength, and raising my pistol over the dead officer's shoulder I quickly and efficiently gunned down the four remaining troopers before they could fire again. It was all over in about two seconds. Mess with an augment at your own peril, mother fuckers.

Well honed instincts and plenty of recent combat experience meant that I then quickly and efficiently head shot each one of the still bodies on the ground to make sure the job was done. No sense taking chances.

"Just don't stand there my children, take a weapon!" I heard a female voice order.

It was a Bajoran voice so I followed the command. Neela and I both grabbed a rifle from the dead soldiers as villagers appeared to tidy up the scene and bury the bodies.

"So which cell do you two belong to?" The woman, who was a Vedak, asked Neela.

Naturally we didn't admit we were rebels, there were traitors around after all, and the spoon heads weren't above letting their own soldiers die if it would lead to a rebel cell that they could capture alive. While the military might not do that, the Obsidian Order certainly would. Those fuckers loved to interrogate people.

"Oh please, people with your skills don't just drop out of the sky," the Vedak said

Well, we sort of had.

"Sometimes they do," Neela remarked, obviously thinking along the same lines as I was.

We exchanged a smile at that and I was glad that she wasn't mad at me for knocking her to the ground. To an outsider it would have been clear that I was protecting her. A Vulcan would see the action as very logical and have been grateful, but Bajorans were more like humans in that they sometimes didn't react the way that they should.

"So what are your names?" the Vedak asked.

Telling her that wasn't dangerous, the Obsidian Order would already have that information. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't already a fairly in depth file on me and my cell complete with psychological profile and whatever information they might have stolen or gotten their hands on from Starfleet. Section 31 would probably be closely monitoring attempts to get more information on me, but they weren't infallible.

"I'm Gothic and this is Neela," I answered succinctly and not offering even an iota more information.

With the woman's hood up, I couldn't see her face.

"No family names?" the Vedak wondered aloud, sounding confused rather than offended.

On Bajor the family name always came first, unless you knew the person or persons you were taking to very well. As such Neela should have used her family name and then 'Neela.' As a human, saying my name the human way would be fine, in other words first name and then family name, but I still should have given it. Just calling myself 'Gothic' was a bit rude in the Bajoran culture.

"We'd prefer to keep them to ourselves," Neela said. Caution always trumped politeness when your survival and that of your entire family was on the line.

Which also made sense since the spoon heads couldn't target a family unless they knew the name for that family.

"As you wish my children," said the holy woman. "Now we must get out of sight. The Cardassians will return and in greater numbers when they realize their soldiers are missing".

Since even I couldn't fight an army, at least not without proper time to prepare and my full load of gear, this seemed like a very good idea.

(Line Break)

Rebel Base. Hill Province.

The Vedak, who still had her face hidden by a hood, led us underground and to the local resistance cell, which wasn't named. According to its leader it was just called the 'Hill Cell.'

Naturally, the leader, who also never gave us his name, had several questions, the first of which was where we had come from.

"We actually came to your Province by way of Lunar Base V," Neela explained.

While all the rebels by now knew of the super human in their ranks, and my many victories with the resistance, they'd had decades of aliens pushing them around so they were more comfortable speaking directly to one of their own.

"You have raiders?" the leader asked.

Well, there were some waiting at the base. And if I was really desperate or in a serious emergency I could call my own personal ship by instructing the computer to travel to my location and beam me up. Although with the spoon head ships on high alert and without a good pilot at the helm it would most likely be shot down and that sure as fuck wasn't going to happen if I could help it. A ship's auto pilot always took the most direct and boring course at a safe speed, which was fine if you were running cargo under benign circumstances, not so good if you needed to escape some space Nazis in a combat situation. Though now that I thought about it, if the Flighty Temptress had a cloaking device, even a direct and boring course would be fairly safe. Of course getting my hands on a good cloaking device was easier said than done, but with the right contacts and enough money nothing was beyond one's reach.

"Not anymore," I said. "Why do you ask?"

We were soon given a sort of answer.

"Gul Dukat had every vedek, ranjen, and prylar who openly supported the Resistance rounded up," we were then told. "We have Vedek Winn with us, but it's only a matter of time before the patrols find her".

Vedek Winn as in Kai fucking Winn!

"She's here?" Neela blurted out.

She had to be the woman in the robe.

"Yes, Winn is known to everyone in our Province. She used to tour through here quite regularly preaching and attending to the sick," was what the rebel leader told us next. "Until recently the Cardassians overlooked the offense of travelling without permission, for the Vedaks at least. Then word came from Terok Nor to take her and every religious figure like her who might be aiding us up to the station".

Now I understood, they were meant to be hostages.

"We have to get her out of here," Neela suddenly insisted.

Her passion about this was surprisingly intense. I'd not known her that long, of course, but I'd never heard her sound like that before.

"Is this personal for you?" was what I wanted to know.

Neela nodded her head slowly.

"Winn saved my family from a Cardassian officer that was going to execute them because the Cardassians wanted our land," Neela explained. "We were still displaced, but we were taken to a monastery and sheltered there. Eventually I left to join the Resistance; my family is still there to this day".

Every member of the Bajoran Resistance had a sad story like that, well, not me, as I had no family here to worry about. Even my dimensional counterpart's family in this dimension had been dead for hundreds of years. As far as I knew there was no one left from that family line even today.

"So you want us to get the Vedak out of the province," I summarized.

"What is your plan for our escape, child?" Winn inquired, as she lowered her hood. Pretty presumptuous that she immediately thought we'd agree to risk our lives to save her.

As the rebel leader answered I struggled with the very strong urge to shoot the possible future Kai right here and now. Doing that in the middle of a Bajoran rebel camp would be a very bad idea, they'd almost certainly turn on me and I might have to kill a few in self defense. To cover it up I'd likely have to kill all of them.

With that in mind, along with the fact that Winn hadn't actually done anything bad yet, as far as I knew, I stopped myself from killing her. I might change my mind later though. I would not let things progress to the point that she started worshipping those Pah-wraiths, or Soul Wraiths to give them their true name. They were pretty much super powerful demons as far as I could tell. Though maybe that was always her role and the Prophets would be super pissed with me if I messed up the timeline, but wouldn't they already know if I was going to? What a mess.

"Our plan is for two members of our cell to escort one of the villagers, who will be dressed up as a Vedak, out into the hills and from there evade our pursuers and reunite later on," was the plan.

Not a bad plan, albeit incredibly dangerous for those three people. I doubted many spoon heads would know the difference between an imposter Vedak and the true one. A least not without some way of checking with a computer.

"What I want you to do is to take the real Vedak to one of our hideouts and wait for the patrols to move on," the rebel leader said. "Then take her to your ship and off world if need be, or at least to somewhere on Bajor far from here".

That sounded simple enough. Once the heat had died down I could risk calling my ship in. Then transporting us up wouldn't be much trouble, I had a transporter after all.

"Then shall we go then?" Winn said to Neela.

(Line Break)

"Follow me, your eminence," Neela insisted as she led us.

Neela brought Winn and myself to a cave hidden by several boulders. Inside the cave were food, blankets, and a pair of Cardassian rifles. Not that we needed more weapons now, they were here in case the rebels ever fell back to this hideout in an emergency.

"Won't the Cardassians be able to detect us in here?" the holy woman asked.

I doubted it or it wouldn't be much of a hideout.

"The boulders visually obscure the entrance so our lights and our thermal signatures are hidden," Neela explained, "and the hillside is rich in kelbonite. The mineral blocks sensors so their sensors won't be much help to them".

Even my tricorder, which was Starfleet issue, would have trouble finding people with such exotic metals all around. Though if Bajor wasn't so mineral rich, then the Cardassians would never have come in the first place.

"So can't we just wait here until the Cardassians give up and abandon their search?" Winn inquired.

That was the plan

"Yes, your eminence," Neela responded.

Which was going to be oh so boring when sex was off the table. Neela, I could have worked on, she was semi hot and a good person, but Winn was definitely not an option. I know Dukat banged Winn in the show, but I wouldn't fuck her with a borrowed dick.

"Very well," Winn replied, seeming nonplussed. "And now child, how do I know you?"

So Neela told the holy woman about her family and the story jolted Winn's recollection,

"I remember your family. Your sister is doing well," Wynn said.

It was a while before anything else was spoken that I actually cared about.

"And your travelling companion?" Winn asked.

The less she knew about me the better.

"Gothic leads our cell," Neela explained. "He's an excellent fighter and pilot.

Before she could ask more about that I changed the subject.

"You'd best get some sleep now," I advised. "Come morning the Cardassians will be out in greater numbers and we may have to have flee the area quickly".

I had no intention of making any kind of stand in a cave that only had one exit as far as I could tell. Unless there was something I wasn't seeing, this seemed like a poor choice for an emergency hideout. I'd seen many a former farmer turned resistance fighter make some pretty questionable decisions in my time on Bajor.

"I'll take first watch," I offered.

Being an augment meant that I could function at peak performance without food or sleep for much longer than other people. Much like Vulcans could, whose bodies had evolved on a very inhospitable desert planet.

"Very well, child," Winn agreed, "but try and get some sleep as well".

It seemed unlikely that Winn would turn on her only protectors, but I wouldn't be taking more than a quick nap with her around.

"I will," I promised.

And I'd sleep with one eye open and my hand on my gun. I gave a dark chuckle in the privacy of my thoughts, future role or not I was going to blow that bitch's head off if she even looked at me funny. Accidents happen all the time with jumpy people after all.

(Line Break)

Rebel Base. Jeraddo.

A full week went by like this, a fucking week stuck in a cave listening to Winn and Neela discussing the Prophets at length. I didn't believe the Prophets existed, I knew they existed, and given their power I saw no reason why they shouldn't be worshipped as gods. Heck I even knew they had a plan for the galaxy that I was a part of even before the Prophets knew we existed, which was confusing until you fully accepted and grasped the idea of living outside of linear time, as much as we were able.

I was pretty sure that by the end of it that Winn could have had Neela eating out of the palm of her hand, if I hadn't been there at least to limit Winn's ability to influence Neela, which made it even more tempting to consider Neela collateral damage when killing Winn, but she was a part of my group, even if she was new and I wouldn't sacrifice her so easily.

Besides, I had years to kill Winn, and by keeping her alive I had a better idea of what the future held. Like I had long ago decided with regard to my future knowledge, while I wasn't opposed to flipping the script, there had to be a compelling reason for it with plenty of upside. And besides, she didn't become a truly evil bitch, rather than just a shady religious/political figure, until the later seasons of DS9. She was just an annoying sanctimonious bitch right now. Plus the Prophets might actually be annoyed if I killed one of their priestesses, especially with her important role in the future. Or they might not. Maybe I'd ask first. I knew where they lived.

What had made the week even more horrible was not knowing what had happened to Kira and Ro. Thankfully now we all were back at the moon base safe and sound.

"I just heard from the Shaakar Cell," Kira told me as I worked at my computer. "The plan worked, though a lot of our people died making it successful. We liberated the camp and its prisoners; people are celebrating. It's like we've already won in their minds".

They hadn't, but they also had. The spoon heads weren't packing up to leave just yet, however. Despite the losses the rebel movement was growing stronger day-by-day and certainly as our victories became better known. Victories always helped with recruitment. It was really just a matter of time now.

Still, there was something bugging me. Like I'd forgotten something important. Something was worrying me about Neela spending so much time with Winn. I didn't recall Neela being in Deep Space Nine, the television show, but to be fair I had watched the show a very long time ago and while I had a super human mind now, it wasn't perfect, and I hadn't had that augmented mind when I watched the shows back then. The finer details and random bits of dialog from the show were hazy at best, at times.

"The spoon heads will strike back," I warned Kira. "Don't get cocky; there are still months of hard and bloody work ahead".

She didn't seem too concerned.

"No reason you and I can't celebrate," she suggested with a lascivious smile and a rather brazen rubbing of my cock.

I looked into her eyes and saw that lustful look again. So it was going to be that sort of celebration. I was happy to help and hopefully Ro Laren would join in when Kira really got going and started screaming to high heaven. Part of me was also hoping in true "porno style" that my ladies' screams of pleasure would finally break down Neela's walls and make her super horny. That dusty pussy of hers wanted me, I just knew it. It was practically a public service to help her!