This is my first story to upload. Please R&R.

The characters of the Enterprise in this story belong to Star-Trek - The Next Generation. The other characters I made up.

Dragon's Zeal
The Last Queen Dragon

Chapter 4
The Rescue

After much discussion, it was finally decided that the Away Team would consist of Deta, Worf and Gril. They stood on the transporter pad awaiting their queue, while the ship warped into transporter range. When the ship came to a full stop, Captain Picard ordered,

"Transporter room, beam them to the site, now."

The Transporter Engineer pressed the buttons, shunting their molecular structures through the transporter buffers and reconfiguring them again at the proper site.

As soon as they were fully materialized, to the surprise of the negotiating Nekabries and Xixgons, Worf pivoted to put his back against Deta's back, thus protecting them both. Deta grabbed the packaging containing the precious Golden Egg and tossed it to Gril's awaiting hands. Gril teleported himself and his valuable cargo back to the bridge. The Xixgons attacked Deta and Worf. "Two to beam up, quickly!" called Deta into his com-badge as he fended off three Xixgons. Two Xixgons charged Deta and Worf, one from either side, just as the transporter beam grabbed and dematerialized them-leaving the Xixgons to crash into each other instead of the invaders.

"I have them, sir," the Transporter Engineer relayed to the bridge as soon as the two had materialized.

"Helm, get us out of here, reverse course, warp six," Captain Picard ordered. The pilot touched several buttons and the ship jumped into warp.

Deta and Worf entered from the turbo-lift just then, and took their places. Deta read his console and turned to the others.

"Sir, the Xixgons are in pursuit."

"And, they are gaining on us," Worf added.

"Go to warp eight," Picard ordered.

Gril stepped forward, still holding his priceless package. "Captain, may I make a suggestion?"

Picard nodded.

"Gradually slack off your speed until the Xixgons overtake you. Let them fire on you, of course, you fire back, making it look like a real battle. If you could make it look like your shields have failed, that would be very helpful. If you could detonate a small amount of antimatter behind you, Traveler and I will link with your ship's systems and engines, just as the antimatter explodes, we will jump the ship to a safe distance, beyond their scanner range, leaving the illusion of an exploding ship. Therefore the Xixgons will think that the Enterprise is destroyed and they will stop perusing you."

Captain Picard regarded Gril for a long while.

"What about the lack of debris left behind?" Commander Riker asked.

"The Xixgons are a warrior race," Gril continued, "but not particularly bright or curious. They mostly take things at face value, believing what appears to be. Most of their technology is pilfered from other races, many times along with slave operators," Gril concluded.

Captain Picard looked at Commander Riker. Riker shrugged. "Sounds reasonable to me. He's our expert here. We know nothing about the peoples of this sector."

Captain Picard nodded once, "Make it so."