Star Trek: Deep Space 9
The Distant And Not-So-Bright Future – Part 2
Disclaimer: I do not own nor did I invent Star Trek: Deep Space 9 or any of its concepts, nor do I own or did I invent Warhammer 40k or its concepts. Extant characters are used for recreational reading only and no profit. Any characters I have created are purely for interaction purposes with the universes borrowed and portrayed. Please enjoy this bit of challengefic fluff. Reviews are welcome, flames will be laughed at. Glory to the Emperor of Mankind!
Phase II- Uncomfortable Truths
"You seem unconcerned by your current quarters." Dax commented lightly as she stood outside the holding cell. Within the enclosed space, Andraeus sat on the reinforced bed that provided the only furnishing.
"I have stayed in worse," he replied honestly. "And to be frank, a Space Marine's accommodations are usually rather spare. We have no need of fripperies and such."
"Sounds like a pretty frugal life and not much fun," she mused. "If you're the foremost warriors of the emperor of the galaxy, aren't there any perks to go along with it?"
"You are comparing us to the chivalric knights of ancient Terra," he answered. "No, our lives are of necessity one of constant battle and martial discipline. You do not become one of the Adeptus Astartes for fortune or favour, you become one to ensure that you see that humanity survives for another day in a universe that wants us dead. The emperor's approval is all the reward we need."
"But Benjamin said that according to you, this emperor has been dead or next to dead for nearly ten thousand years." Dax pointed out.
"And through all that time we have remained true to his vision and his intent for humanity," Andraeus said proudly. "Humanity survives because we will not surrender or yield. What other reward could possibly be necessary? Every Astartes is a legendary hero and trillions of people live in awe of our sacrifice."
"Is still seems a sad life." Jadzia suggested.
"Mayhap, but nonetheless necessary. The enemies of humanity care not for our weariness and desire for an end to the constant conflict." Andraeus said in a dark tone. "Would you not do whatever it took to save your species from extinction? Whatever measures were necessary?"
"I understand what you are saying, but frankly I doubt I could." Dax said. "I am not sure I would so willingly trade my 'humanity', so to speak, for my continued survival. Becoming something I am not or am repulsed by for my own continued existence is not really appealing."
She realized that her words were somewhat flawed in conveying her intent. Andraeus looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "You are inferring that my becoming a Space Marine is too high a price to pay? Do you consider me a monster and inhuman?"
"No, I... I am sorry, Andraeus, I didn't mean it how it sounded." Dax said apologetically.
"I am aware of this."
"Oh, that's right," she said, smiling slyly. "Julian told me you are telepathic and failed to reveal this to us. Naughty boy."
"It didn't really seem relevant, and I am trained to seek tactical advantage in all situations." Andraeus said simply.
"So can you only ready human minds or are we pesky aliens also open books to you?" she asked whimsically.
"Humans, of course, I read them with ease if I choose." Andraeus admitted. "Those Ferengi aliens, however, I cannot read. I can see and hear the thoughts of Klingons and these Bajorans."
"What about Trill?" she asked in a daring tone.
Andraeus shrugged. "I hardly need telepathy to read your intent, lieutenant."
Dax sighed. "I can see coaxing you into not calling me 'lieutenant' is going to be a rather monumental task."
"You would not be so insistent on my using your given name if you were less focused on courting my intimacy."
Dax blushed for a moment, at a complete loss of words thanks to Andraeus' bluntness. She heard the Bajoran security officer chuckle at the console in another corner of the room and her head snapped around to scowl at him. He cleared his throat and resumed looking at this console.
"Do not worry, he will forget everything we just said." Andraeus commented. "Also, I believe I wish to see more of the station..."
Andraeus stood and look at the security officer. "You may drop the force field now. There will be no need to concern yourself with me."
The Bajoran frowned but dutifully deactivated the force field of his holding cell and watched in mild confusion as Andraeus strode out, accompanied by a somewhat reticent Dax. She looked up at him.
"That wasn't very nice, he was just doing his job, and you know that, right?" she said with reproach.
"And I am just doing mine," Andraeus replied. "I was willing to allow your Constable Odo the dignity of putting me away for a time, but I cannot afford to be sequestered away like this. If it makes you feel any better, your Captain Sisko knows that I fully intended to leave the holding cell at a time of my own choosing and he made sure that the commanding officer of the Klingon I killed has been informed that he had it coming."
"I normally find frankness refreshing, but I am seeing that you take it to a rather unnerving level." Dax observed. "In any event, since I am still responsible for you while you are here, what is it you wish to do?"
"Perhaps you could show me one of these 'holosuites' you spoke of?" he suggested.
"Now, you're talking my language." Dax said breathily. "I'll go get my bathing suit..."
"This? This is why I pulled out my smallest and most expensive bikini?" Dax declared in exasperation as she stood in the holosuite with the hulking Ultramarine. She was wearing a very small bikini, shades of gold in colouration, the top of which barely contained her ample breasts, did not at all conceal her behind and left almost nothing to the imagination in front either. She was standing in a dead and blasted landscape, with a burning sky and surrounded by barren rocks, all of which was glared upon by a blood-red sun.
"I was indeed wondering why you chose to arrive dressed in such delicate and spare apparel," Andraeus confirmed.
"I freely admit I was expecting something a little less apocalyptic and perhaps a little more relaxing." Jadzia grumbled. "I wonder what on earth I was thinking."
"It's... a very nice outfit." Andraeus said in a conciliatory tone. She sniffed at his offering.
"I will have you know I paid a great deal for this outfit on Raisa."
"And I am sure it- did you say Raisa, lieu- I mean, Jadzia?"
Yes, I did," Dax replied, somewhat surprised by Andraeus' perplexed look. "Raisa is a pleasure or paradise world, if you will. It is one of the most coveted vacation spots in the Alpha Quadrant. Why do you ask? Have you heard of it?"
Andraeus coughed. "I have actually fought there. I am afraid that in my own time it is not a paradise or pleasure world, it is a hell world, where only the strongest or most crazed can survive. I... this environment I picked is actually the Raisa I know of."
Dax looked around her almost in horror. What had happened? She looked at Andraeus in astonishment. "How..."
"I do not know," he said flatly. "It was sad coincidence that I happened to pick Raisa."
Jadzia recovered and sighed heavily, pushing the images around out of her mind. "Computer, please input Dax Raisa Program One."
The landscape around them shifted and disappeared before being replaced by a beautiful beach, skirting an ocean that was an exquisite jewel blue. The sand was fine and white and the clouds overhead were fluffy and perfect. Dax smiled from ear to ear in delight.
"Now, Andraeus, I need to ask you something," she said in a mock serious tone. "Are you Ultramarines conditioned to not be able to... you know..."
"Copulate." Andraeus finished bluntly.
"Not the word I would have chosen, but yes." Dax agreed. "Have you been so heavily conditioned and altered by the emperor to become his chosen that you have no urges any more?"
Andraeus shook his head. "No, we are fully functioning from a sexual point of view," he said simply. "I know of some chapters that eschew such things, but certainly we of the Ultramarines are capable of such physical expressions as you seek, and I know the Salamanders and Space Wolves are as well."
"Well, now that we've established that," Dax purred, slowly undoing the knot at the back of her bikini top and letting the tiny item fall away. "What do you have to say about this?"
Andraeus stared for several seconds before speaking. "It... makes me wish you were a human."
Jadzia closed her eyes and summoned the strength from deep inside herself to not shoot the man. She took a breath and looked up at him.
"Well since you can see inside my mind and already know that I mean you and humanity no harm, how about you just pretend I am a human girl for a while..."
And with that she took him by the hand and led him off to a more secluded area of the beach. Just in case anyone happened to stroll in...
Major Kira was standing at one of the operations consoles on the bridge when Dax came up on the turbolift and assumed her duty station, saying nothing. After several minutes of nothing, Kira could not take it anymore and sidled up next to the Trill science officer.
"So?" she began.
"So what?" Dax replied non-chalantly.
"So... how did your little date go with Mister Andraeus last night?" Nerys said, almost giggling. "What else could I possibly be referring to?"
"I am not sure it is anyone else's business," Jadzia commented in a neutral tone. "Besides, it's bad form to talk about those sorts of things."
"That is such a lie," Kira said, rolling her eyes and smiling. "Really, Jadzia, was it all that bad? I remember you were worried he might not have a clue how to-"
"That wasn't the problem." Dax said flatly, cutting her off.
"Then what?" Nerys pressed. "Would he not because you're an alien?"
"It was an initial problem, but apparently I look human enough that he was able to overcome that particular prejudice." Dax admitted.
"Then what?" the Bajoran asked again, unwilling to allow Dax to not give her all the details. "Come on, we tell each other everything. Don't hold out on me now!"
Dax sighed and turned away from her station, leaning back against it and folding her arms.. "He's a superhuman, enhanced killing machine. You might say he's 'enhanced' all over."
Kira's eyes widened. "You mean he's... it's..."
"There were some logistical obstacles my delicate frame could simply not overcome. I'm not a shapeshifting Founder..."
Dax waited patiently while Kira giggled so hard that tears were running down her face. She finally composed herself before looking at her compatriot and then having to turn away to laugh again.
"Your understanding and sistership is greatly appreciated, Nerys." Dax grumbled.
Kira finally got control of herself and sighed. "So where is our guest?"
"Last I checked, he was in one of the hollow suites, practicing with one of the hand-to-hand combat programs," the Trill said sullenly. "I went to check on him but left the holosuite very quickly."
"Why?" Kira asked.
"It was too violent in there, even for Curzon," Jadzia murmured. "He was practicing on difficulty levels I didn't even know existed."
She turned to look at Kira and she was concerned. "It frightened me, Nerys. What kind of galaxy does he come from where our existence isn't even recorded and our enemies seem trivial to him in comparison? Klingons don't faze him one bit. He has spoken of enemies called Orks, Eldar, Tau, Necrons and Chaos in his own time."
"So he thinks we're small potatoes," Kira said. "A part of me hopes he's right, because I am not sure that I could manage to live or even survive in his galaxy."
Chief O'Brien now approached them and sighed. "Whatever is going on with the phase inverters that power the shields, it's certainly taking its sweet time running through the diagnostic. I am being quoted another seven hours before the initial scan finishes, forget the deep-system scan."
"Do you have any idea or theories whatsoever?" Kira asked, knowing that the shields were operating erratically as long as this error occurred. "Is it some Cardassian protocol or program flaw?"
"I don't think so," O'Brien mused. "It's just, well... slow. The system is just running very inefficiently and for no reason I can fathom."
"And my scans aren't revealing anything either," Dax added. "I know Benjamin is getting a little tired of telling Starfleet that we're working on it."
"It's been less than seventy-two hours that we've been encountering this error, but what's bothering me is that we've never had one like it before," O'Brien added. "The first I saw of it was when Dax submitted that report about the efficiency drop in the relay terminus yesterday about fifteen hundred."
Dax frowned. "Chief, I didn't submit any report like that. I got one from Ensign Geist an hour before you're saying I sent one."
"Wait a minute," Kira said, trying to straighten the matter out. "So Jadzia didn't send a report that the Chief received concerning the recent upgrades to the shield generators? And Ensign Geist has been on shore leave for the past three days, he travelled home to Marcos."
The three of them considered what they had just put together and there was a dreadful moment of silence. Someone was tampering with records and now the shields were barely operational...
Sabotage.
Andraeus was standing at one of the public terminals, reviewing the Federation's and Earth's history with fascination. So much knowledge had been lost during the Dark Age of Technology, assumed gone forever, but here he was with free access to it.
He had been stunned by the images of sacred Terra, a rich and green world vibrant with life, not the hollow shell he knew, grown over with a single endless city harbouring untold billions of souls. It was like a fanciful story to him, completely unrealistic. He understood a little bit better now how the people about him might be justifiably sceptical of his own account of the galaxy.
Somewhere... somewhere in this Federation... He was here, living amongst them and they don't even know it. Could they possibly understand how blessed they were? What would happen if He somehow, against all odds, encountered Andraeus? Would He recognize the Ultramarine as some infinitesimal scion of His own immortal being?
Could that single chance meeting, one in a trillion, be the event that started it all?
He shook such egotistical and whimsical notions free of his mind as the door to the room he was in opened. In swept Captain Sisko, accompanied by Major Kira, Lieutenant Dax, Chief O'Brien and a security detail, all armed with the 'phaser' rifles the Federation warriors seemed fond of.
"Put your hands over your head!" Captain Sisko ordered. "I do not want to fire on you, but I will if you do not cooperate!"
Andraeus rose slowly, keeping his hands where they could see them. What had gotten into them?
"You almost had us, Andraeus," Major Kira said sternly. "To think we nearly believed your story about coming from the future."
"Dare I ask, what has convinced you that I am not?" he queried.
"Your little ruse with the phase inverters and sabotaging our shield generator." Dax said harshly. "Very sloppy, we figured it out. I'd expect better from a Founder."
Andraeus kept his arms raised but stalled for time while he probed their mind to finds out what had caused this turnabout and what in the name of Sanguinius a 'founder' was.
He saw it. They were accusing him of being one of the beings who controlled the Dominion, their great enemy. Apparently these beings were shape-shifters and had infiltrated the Federation before, committing acts of sabotage and rendering them understandably paranoid.
Perhaps his arrival was distressingly coincidental, especially since they found him on a world they suspected of Dominion activity.
Justifiable paranoia or not, this had to end. He now knew what was happening.
"Don't try anything," Kira warned. "These guards aren't your biggest threat. This room is now surrounded by an inverted quantum stasis field. If we activate it you'll be rendered unconscious and lose your solid form so quickly that your morphogenic enzyme will be knocked right out of you!"
"Is that so?" Andraeus challenged. "I suggest you try it then, alien."
Kira flushed angrily and tapped the communicator on her breast. "Computer, activate quantum field!"
The room hummed but Andraeus neither went unconscious nor melted. His would-be captors seemed confused for several moments, clearly expecting some result. He glared at Dax and his eyes glowed dangerously.
"Take your bracelet off and throw it away!"
Almost woodenly and with fear in her eyes, Dax removed the ornate bracelet she was wearing on her wrist beneath her uniform and even as she tossed it away her eyes rolled into her head and she collapsed into what looked like a heap of bronze pudding.
Everyone nearby backed up in amazement and alarm at the unexpected transformation. Sisko recovered quickly and began giving orders.
"O'Brien, find the real Dax now! Major Kira, take the Founder to a holding cell and keep her in that liquid form! Get Odo! Have Doctor Bashir do a quantum sweep of the entire station, deck by deck, with security teams on high alert!"
The all rushed out of the room, leaving the Captain alone with the hulking Space Marine. Sisko seemed to not know quite what to say.
"It is alright, captain," Andraeus said without worry. "It was an understandable mistake, given the timing of my arrival and all. Thankfully I could read in your minds what you thought was happening and I noticed that Dax was closed to me, or at least trying to be."
"Apparently not even the Founders are a match for the telepaths of the future," Sisko said dryly. "And while I appreciate your utility in this incident, please try to refrain from probing people readily, it will make life difficult if they suspect you are inside their heads."
"I promise you that much," Andraeus snorted. "There are too many alien minds aboard this station of yours, I find their touch distressing."
Sisko rubbed his temples for a moment to clear his thoughts but then his comm badge bipped at him. He pressed it and spoke wearily. "Sisko, go ahead."
"Captain, the shield generator is not functioning!" rasped Odo's voice. "We just lost it completely! Phaser banks and torpedo launchers are down as well!"
"Red alert!" Sisko said loudly. "Battle stations! Get that shield operating somehow! If the shields are down, that means that the Dominion is coming and they're probably on top of us already!"
The lights around the entire station began to pulse red and a tinny, droning siren began to echo. Andraeus made a wry face at the unpleasant noise. He put a hand on Sisko's shoulder before the officer turned to leave.
"Captain, I know I am not a member of your crew, but if the Dominion is coming, I think it might be best if you let me retrieve my armour and weapons. I know my way around a fight with aliens."
Sisko paused for half a second and then nodded. He pressed on his comm badge and spoke. "Odo, you are to make sure that Mister Andraeus is given his weapons and his armour. I am thinking that he might come in handy for us in just a bit."
"Acknowledged, captain!" came the curt response.
Andraeus followed Sisko, his giant strides allowing him to keep pace easier with the smaller human.
It was time to see what humanity's enemies in this era were made of.
Andraeus stood now on the bridge, towering over all assembled, his already considerable bulk made even more imposing by his power armour. In his hand he carried his massive bolter rifle and on his belt he wore a bolt pistol and a wicked-looking sword. Everyone except the recently rescued Dax gave him a wide berth.
Sisko paced back and forth as he announced the plan of action to the crew. "The Dominion will be coming and they'll want to destroy the station because our shields are down," he began. "What will prevent them from firing on us is the fact that we captured their Founder infiltrator and they cannot take the risk of harming one of their gods. If we cannot convince them to back off, then they will no doubt begin beaming aboard the Jem'Hadar to try and take the Founder back, and that means lots of fighting and hand-to-hand combat."
Andraeus noticed the grimace on everyone's face, intimating that the Jem'Hadar were proficient in melee. Good, he would welcome the challenge.
"In addition to the Federation and Bajoran security teams, we have thirty Klingons who have volunteered to fight. We will get General Martok's approval later. The teams are to be spread throughout the station and guarding the civilian areas. We are shuttling and beaming as many civilians to Bajor as possible, but at this rate there will probably be as many as two thousand left aboard if the Dominion arrives soon."
Sisko paused and looked up at Andraeus. "Mister Andraeus, you asked to fight and you seem ready. What do you need? Do you wish to be assigned to a team?"
"To be honest, captain, I doubt any of your teams could keep up," he said honestly. "If you wish to assign one to me, that is your business, my only request being that they are humans. If I encounter these Jem'Hadar, my intention is to either kill them all or push them off the station. I have no intention of fighting defensively."
Sisko looked at Odo, who considered for a moment. "Mister Parmenio can work with Federation Team Delta-One guarding Section Six of the promenade."
Andraeus scowled. "Near the Ferengi's bar?"
"It may be near the Ferengi bar, Space Marine, but it is also close to the hab rings," Odo said derisively. "You will have ample opportunity to express your keen interest in preserving your species from that point."
"Enough!" Sisko barked. "Everyone to your assignments! Go!"
The teams dispersed. Before Andraeus left, Dax put a hand on his gauntlet. He turned to gaze down at her.
"How did you know it wasn't me in the room when they came to get you?" she asked.
Andraeus shrugged. "I could sense the being who looked like you trying to block me from their mind or give me false readings."
"Oh..." Jadzia murmured.
"But even if I hadn't been able to reach their mind, I would have known anyway." Andraeus offered. "To be honest, their mimicked heartbeat didn't match yours and... well... they got your breast size wrong."
Dax blushed furiously. "I thought you didn't notice that sort of thing."
"Hard not to in your case." Andraeus replied. "I will see you after the battle."
He exited the bridge in the turbolift, noticing that her eyes were still on him.
"Captain, there is a Jem'Hadar battle cruiser that has just appeared on our scanners, they are within firing range... they're hailing us!" called an ensign.
"Open a channel." Sisko replied, sitting in the captain's chair, his fingers steepled.
The vidscreen blinked and the image of a Vorta appeared, surrounded by Jem'Hadar warriors. The alien smiled.
"Captain Sisko..." he began in his mellow tone.
"Weyoun." Sisko replied. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected visit?"
"As I am sure you have deduced by now, captain, our saboteur has struck and your station's shields and weapons are inoperable." Weyoun said. "Since we both know that Bajoran space is contested ground between our peoples, we felt the need to press the issue and make you see reason."
"Do go on..." Sisko answered levelly.
"And since we do not want to see so many innocents die, I am pleased to tell you that I am authorized to give you a chance to abandon the station to my Jem'Hadar soldiers forthwith and no one will be hurt."
"And if I choose to resist?" Sisko asked.
Weyoun spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "Then I am afraid I would have little or no choice but to test out the armaments of this new battle cruiser we have developed. I daresay its firepower is at least equal to that of the Klingon flagship, the Negh'var."
"And I would hate to cost you such a golden chance to play with your new toy, Weyoun, but there is just one small hitch in your plan..." the captain pointed out. "The problem, as I see it, is that your saboteur got sloppy and we captured them, even though they managed to knock our shields out. I somehow doubt that blowing up this space station is an option for you with one of the Founders aboard."
Weyoun's face was grim as he listened to Sisko. He had no reason to doubt the captain's statement, since he was plainly not surprised to see the Jem'Hadar warship.
"Oh dear..." the Vorta intoned. "That does complicate matters for both of us, captain. In taking a hostage, you have turned what was supposed to be a simple fight into a rescue operation. I cannot allow you to hold one of the Founders against their will. I have over seventeen hundred Jem'Hadar shock troops ready to board the station to save our god. I am sorry, captain, but there is no longer room for mercy. Everyone aboard your station will now die. I salute you, captain."
"I'll be waiting, Weyoun." Sisko said sternly.
The Vorta made a gesture with his head and the screen went black. Sisko stood ad called out to the security detail on the bridge. "Make sure those subspace scramblers are active, we can't let them take control of the bridge. All hands, prepare to repel boarders!"
And then all hell broke loose.
The entire deck shook as the Jem'Hadar polaron weapons raked across the upper pylons, making it feel like the universe itself were coming apart at the seams. Dax steadied herself against a wall while she stood outside the infirmary, accompanied by a security team of Bajorans. She looked around, waiting for signs of the inevitable foe.
"I notice a lot of the human Federation security teams volunteered to accompany Mister Andraeus," one of the guards muttered. "Very clannish, these humans."
"I imagine it has more to do with being smart rather than clannish or speciesist..." Dax replied, waiting, making sure her phaser pistol was set to maximum power. "I imagine that wherever he happens to be is the safest place on this station right now."
The Bajoran snorted. "Come on, he can't be that lethal."
Dax pursed her lips, hearing the first sounds of weapons fire not far away. The Jem'Hadar were aboard the station. "He took out five Klingons in about as many seconds without breaking a sweat. I almost feel bad for the Jem'Hadar. Trust me, it won't be pretty."
The first enemy unshrouded nearly directly in front of her and she shot quickly, dropping him before he could strike. Four more burly warriors were upon them and she lashed out with the Mek'leth she now carried- she had, in times past, preferred the reach allowed by the larger Bat'leth¸the Klingon weapon favoured by her former host Curzon, but she had to admit that the her smaller, more lithe frame complimented the close-fighting dagger more, not to mention that the Jem'Hadar were fast enough to get within the myopic zone of the Bat'leth unless it was wielded by a true master.
She ducked the rifle butt of a foe and then swiped her blade across his collar, severing the tube that fed the enzyme Ketracel-White into the Jem'Hadar warrior's carotid artery. He reeled backwards in shock while she aimed her phaser and shot another who was about to slay one of her comrades.
"How can they be firing?!" called one of the security officers frantically as the deck shook again, the station reeling from another salvo fired by the battle cruiser. "Are they not afraid of hurting the Founder?"
"They're targeting non-vital areas we will not keep him in!" Dax yelled back as she wrestled with another ceratopsian enemy. "They're keeping us busy while they scan the station and pinpoint his locale!"
She hoped the ECM and jamming systems were up to the task of shielding them from annihilation.
"Keep watch!" Sisko shouted as he pummelled the final Jem'Hadar aboard the bridge to the deck, making sure he lay still. He looked around, panting heavily as he surveyed the shape of his command- they had set up several local phased scramblers that would make it difficult for the Dominion forces to transport directly to the bridge, but even the few that had made it through were proving difficult to manage and contain. Nearly twenty of the Jem'Hadar lay dead within the confines of the bridge, but how many dozens or hundreds more waited?
Five more forms began to materialize, but only two solidified. One of the Jem'Hadar shot a security ensign before he was killed and the other died as he aimed at Sisko. The captain stood tall, letting his men know he was fine and they were still in control.
"Grab weapons if you need them and make sure you're ready," he announced loudly. "This little donnybrook is far from over!" He touched his comm badge. "Major, how is everything on Level Seventeen?"
"We've seen better days, captain!" Kira called back as she ducked back behind a bulkhead, barely avoiding the lethal pulse of a polaron rifle. She snapped off a shot around the corner, elated to see her target drop as she hit him in the thigh. "We're holding, but only barely!"
"Keep those civilians safe, major, that is your primary objective!" Sisko ordered.
"Good to know it's that simple, captain," Kira retorted, snapping off a shot with her phaser pistol. "I was worried you were going to say that defeating the Jem'Hadar was my primary concern!"
Sisko grunted and checked on other security points, making sure that he knew what was happened in his beleaguered station. Deck Nineteen was overrun, as was C Section of the Docking Ring.
The problem was that a fighting withdrawal was what made the most tactical sense, but he could not protect the civilians still aboard if his troops pulled back and he harboured no doubt that the Jem'Hadar would massacre every man, woman and child if they were left undefended.
What good was the advantage of defence if he could not utilize it effectively?
He needed another, unlooked for advantage.
The security officer frowned as he waited behind the wall, noticing that the titanic warrior, who had called himself a 'space marine', wore his helmet on his hip, rather than on his head. The massive warrior waited with them, his eyes distant.
"Shouldn't you be wearing that helmet?" the man asked.
"I need my faculties to be unimpeded for what is about to happen," the strange warrior grunted, not looking down at him.
"Seems like a waste to me," replied the security officer. "Be careful, it is said that Jem'Hadar weapons contain some ion that prevents the coagulation of wounds, so even if you are just grazed, you can still bleed to death."
"Duly noted." Andraeus said, intrigued to find out if his enhanced physiology and Larraman's Cells could handle such a wound. They would know soon enough.
"They are coming. Prepare yourselves, if you intend to fight..." he said in a low growl. The officer listened, frowning.
"I don't hear anything."
"Who said anything about hearing them?" Andraeus declared as he spun around the corner, his massive bolt gun ready. He had correctly guessed there was fifteen of them, taking in the sight of the aliens and analyzing quickly- they were roughly the same size as Klingons, with a tough, bluish-grey skin, permeated by scales and horns. Their armour was light and ablative, meant to dampen energy discharges from the weapons favoured in this era.
A grave tactical mistake for them, one they would regret quickly.
His bolter rifle roared to life, the terrible and thunderous chattering noise carrying through the bulkheads and even reaching nearby decks. His Federation allies froze in shock and even the Jem'Hadar seemed stunned into momentary inaction by the sheer cacophony his weapon emitted. The first target's head exploded in a pink cloud as one of the rocket-propelled projectiles punched through his skull. Another collapsed as a large hole appeared through his chest. His shot went wide, raking along the bulkhead wall, but he was stone dead before the misfire even occurred.
Andraeus' diminutive allies rallied and charged around the corner, adding their phaser rifle fire to his barrage. They were stunned to see that their titanic comrade was not holding his position or even firing from cover but actually advancing toward their foes, his horrific weapon chewing devastating holes in the Jem'Hadar, something even those genetically-engineered alien warriors seemed unbalanced by initially.
The Dominion forces recovered after the initial shock and fired back, surging forward, realizing that their armour or any shielding they possessed was not at all proof against the massive foe's archaic-seeming weapon.
A polaron pulse splattered against the huge pauldron that protected Andraeus' shoulder and he noted with some satisfaction that the ceramite held, the energy of the attack dissipating over the armour, melting and scarring perhaps the outer layer, but it would be proof against several more hits at this rate.
The Jem'Hadar, perceiving Andraeus to be the principal threat, concentrated their fire on him, meaning that his comrades were almost free to fire at will, picking their targets and shooting while advancing slowly behind him. His armour took several more hits and he listened to it intuitively, ready to change tactics at just the right moment.
Three more of the vile aliens fell to his boltgun and one of their polaron pulses creased along his cheek. He felt the sear of pain and he snarled as he surged forward, covering the distance between the two forces in almost a single leap. Before even the feared Jem'Hadar were ready he was among them, his sword now in hand. He had flicked the activation button and the anachronistic weapon hummed to life, surrounded by an eerie, inexplicable glow.
His own allies stopped dead and watched in horror, their weapons hanging limp in their hands, their part in the engagement forgotten. What had been a struggle for control of this section of the station was now a gruesome duel between forces they could not understand.
Andraeus whirled about in a bloody battle-frenzy, his blade severing limbs and fraying the meat from his enemy's bones, never stopping its ancient and tried kata. Even the enhanced bodies of the Jem'Hadar were no match for the wrath of the venerable blade, wrought and blessed in the mighty Emperor's name to bring death and destruction to the foes of humanity.
Without thought of remorse or pity, he slammed the sword directly down the middle of a foe's skull, bisecting the Jem'Hadar in a hiss of bone, blood and guts. His huge, armoured boot crashed into the ribcage of another alien, sending him hurtling against the bulkhead and shattering every bone in his body. He slumped like a rag doll and did not move.
"Ensign, what the hell is that noise?!" shouted Captain Sisko's voice over the comm badge.
The ensign leading the security detachment assigned to Andraeus tapped his badge. "It's... it's a good noise, I think, captain..." he stammered. "It is Mister Andraeus' rifle."
"I'll be damned if they can't hear it all the way over on the Jem'Hadar ship!" Sisko yelled, obviously engaged in yet another firefight. "Be careful, our sensors indicated that a hundred of the Jem'Hadar are converging on your position, probably in response to whatever Mister Andraeus is doing! They just transported there moments ago! Hold as best you can, we will try to find a team to reinforce you!"
The hideous noise of battle had ended and the ensign took a moment to turn away and compose himself, sickened by what he saw- Andraeus' armour was covered in gore and his foes lay in bloody ribbons at his feet. The promethean warrior turned to look at them and not one could meet his gaze. His eyes blazed with a terrible ferocity they had not even seen in a Klingon's face.
Could any human, altered or no, ever be capable of such pitiless savagery?
"Stand your ground, pick your targets and stay with me," he said sternly, his eyes gazing down the hallway from whence the enemy would come. "Stand now and prepare to destroy the enemies of humanity. "No fear, no mercy. They come to destroy us and we will give them exactly what they deserve… death."
Somehow, against all the odds, the ensign and his comrades felt heartened by the strange warrior's words. They were eleven against as many as a hundred Jem'Hadar, but each of them did not doubt their inevitable victory. Instinctively they scurried to their position in line with him, ready not only to protect themselves, but also in a pattern that would allow them to advance, to drive the enemy back and slay them for daring to board their station.
Dax and her security team raced along the corridors, ordered to reinforce Andraeus and his men, who were about to be hit, hard, by the Jem'Hadar. The infirmary had been secured and no further attacks seemed forthcoming, so she and her men were ordered elsewhere, leaving two teams under Doctor Bashir to guards his charges.
Something ominous was about to happen but she could not tell what. Her race was not telepathic, psychic or prescient in any meaningful way, so this implied that these feelings were so strong as to be imposed up on her, and probably everyone else aboard the station.
Andraeus...
Some time earlier, she had heard dull, echoing thuds through the promenade, thinking that maybe a series of charges had gone off, or far off fire against the pylons from the Jem'Hadar warship, but then it was revealed to be the space marine's weapon firing, possibly the loudest noise ever heard aboard Deep Space Nine, barring any explosions one might have been standing next to. It unnerved her considerably, as she had been quite a distance away.
Could even Andraeus Parmenio hold against the assault of an entire company of the Dominion's elite storm troopers? Surely he was a masterful warrior, but quantity had a quality all of its own and his position could be easily overrun.
She ran faster, knowing that every second counted in battles like this. The Jem'Hadar would take the station apart to find the captive Founder, section by section, piece by piece...
Body by body.
Ahead of her came the distinctive cacophony of battle, along with the dreadful, chattering roar of Andraeus' boltgun.
She only hoped she and her men were in time.
"So many of them..." whispered one man as they saw the Jem'Hadar storm down the corridor, charging to optimal firing range.
"Their numbers matter not," Andraeus said flatly. "I have fought more dire foes at worse odds and yet I live. Strength is in one's self, weakness and vulnerability in the enemy. You must simply reach out and seize it for yourself."
"What weakness do you see in them?" asked another trooper.
"They care nothing for their own survival, they seek only victory. They fight because they are bred to believe something, there is no choice on their part, no resolve. They fight for nothing, so we shall make them die for nothing. You hear me? They are nothing!"
"They are nothing!" shouted one man, his courage rising, his eyes flashing with an aggressive defiance.
"Here they come, brace yourselves and await my signal." Andraeus growled.
The Jem'Hadar came closer.
"Steady..." he warned.
The Jem'Hadar in the front ranks of their man began firing, their polaron beams filling the wide hallway.
Andraeus roared and thust his palm out in front of himself in a stopping motion, his eyes blazing with power that arced and cascaded over his huge armoured body.
The security troopers watched in amazement as the Jem'Hadar's weapons-fire glanced and bounced harmlessly off a shimmering force field that stood before them, seemingly at Andraeus' call. More polaron pulses flickered and coruscated against the psychic barrier.
One man shouted out in shock and defiance, elated to be alive when moments ago he should have been dead.
"Ready yourselves!" Andraeus snarled, seeing that the Jem'Hadar were given pause, baffled that their weapons were not destroying the foe.
"Fire!" the Ultramarine shouted, letting the defensive shield drop. No sooner had he spoken that his bolter roared to life, the rocket-propelled rounds punching holes in the targets they found, the alien armour unable to resist the terrible inertia or explosive charges of the projectiles.
Shouting in fury, their hatred for these abominations roused to unimaginable levels, the Federation troopers all fired their phaser rifles, striking down their foes in a barrage of righteous fury.
Andraeus concentrated his rage and his revulsion into a burning corona and launched a terrible, almost human-like beast made of living flame hurtling forwards into the Jem'Hadar, engulfing them in fire. Nearly a dozen fell, their charred forms smoking in grisly, stinking monuments to their folly for daring to harm humanity.
Still the enemy came on, heedless of their casualties, enslaved by their single-minded devotion to their breeding and designated purpose, devoid of choice and acting only on implanted compulsion.
So very like the Tyranids he had fought on a dozen different worlds or within the monstrous bowels of their hive ships. Thoughtless and bent on destruction, they were so much less than human.
Lightning lanced from his gauntlets and arced between the Jem'Hadar soldiers, cooking several of them inside their suits, leaving them as shrivelled, smoking husks on the ground. Relentless, they continued their charge, firing their weapons. His armour hissed and crackled as it absorbed the assault of their weapons.
Nearly forty of them had fallen, but still they persisted, undaunted.
Very well, then. Let them taste our fury, blade to blade.
Andraeus drew deep within himself, stilling his soul and forsaking the world around him. As his prodigious mental abilities extruded him from the linear progression of the universe, he attained a prescience and alertness that would crack the mind of a lesser being. He could see things before they happened and react before the foe was aware of his own actions.
Phaser fire behind him, piercing down the hallway, striking into their foes, led by the enigmatic alien mind of Jadzia Dax. Reinforcements had arrived and they would be welcome, if a tad late for the fight and only in time to see the finale.
Before anyone around him could react or even see him move, Andraeus had surged forward again, his glowing force sword ready. Time was a fluid and irrelevant thing now, all nonsense and a weapon to be manipulated against his enemy. His entire body moved more quickly than another would bat an eye or their muscles could even twitch.
One thing that had always fascinated him about his abilities as a psyker was his new understanding and appreciation for the universe on some mathematical level. Though he had shown some aptitude for such endeavours as a young man on Ultramar before he had been chosen, it was only after he had been inducted into the ranks of the Ultramarines' librarians that he began to realize the cosmic common sense of things.
What normal men strove to understand about reality with their calculations and formulations, he now could simply witness and feel flowing all around him, as if he controlled and commanded the numbers and concepts that united all of creation in one simple magnetic force.
The myriad and endless computations and calculations of possibility laid themselves out for him to read and discern now, each foe's very being a simple mathematical equation to be subtracted from existence while he and his allies grew ever stronger via simple multiplication at a geometric rate. There was an elation to the simplicity of it all, feeling his mind escaping the bonds of percieved reality and yet rejecting and forcing his will upon the cold logic of equations and numerical empiricism.
He twisted and dodged between the energy pulses of his foe's weapons and then was deep in their midst. He could see the cunning glint of a ruthless intelligence in their eyes, but attesting to his assessment, they were also devoid of passion and true resolve. They were machines, bred for battle and victory, but simply organic machines. They had no soul to fight for.
As he spun and struck, knowing that his Jem'Hadar enemies would only just be cognisant of his presence now, he knew he had effectively cut them off, close to their rear where he would be least expected and most likely to cause shock and disorder. Enemy after enemy fell, victim to the vicious bite of his force sword or the point-blank devastation of his bolter, the bullets of which would literally blow them apart at these close quarters.
He was dimly aware of his allies' weapons, still digging into the Jem'Hadar, attempting to slow their advance. He could feel their aggression towards these soulless aliens, he knew they were moving forward and closing the range, heartened by his words.
He also felt their lives departing as they fell to the Jem'Hadar polaron rifles, struck by the horrendous energy beams. No matter what he did here, would there be enough of them to win this engagement? Would he be the only one left?
He could not let that happen. Even as he fought beyond the subjective chains of time, faster than any corporeal being could follow, he began planning his next move and how to win the following phase of this engagement. He had to compel the Jem'Hadar to retreat. They were not after him and they were all over the station. Even he couldn't protect the entire place at once.
It was a calculated risk, but he dropped himself out of the temporal bubble he had created, coming back to real time and space. His own actions now seemed sluggish and wearisome, like those of the foe that roiled around him. They may have been initially shocked by his presence but they recovered quickly and converged on him, attempting to tear him apart.
He fought against the teeming foe methodically, but his mind was elsewhere. It reached out into the stars, looking for the enemy ship, knowing that what he sought would be found there...
Captain Sisko glared at the screen, the laceration that ran down the side of his head to his cheek burning fiercely, but he ignored it. From the large viewer, looking on impassively, the Vorta Weyoun addressed him.
"Captain, surely you must see the hopelessness of this situation," he crooned. "Best that you just lay down your lives and let it be done with, why resist? I may even be able to convince the Jem'Hadar to allow the Bajorans to live, quite possibly the children. Let us be practical, the Dominion's dispute is with the Federation, not Bajor. Why drag them into this and make them suffer?"
"That's one of the things I like about you, Weyoun, you sound so reasonable and talk such a good game." Sisko replied, trying not to show how winded he really was. Another Jem'Hadar attempt to storm the bridge had been repulsed, but only barely. "It almost makes me wish I could play baseball against you, but unless you're trying to arrange that, then we really don't have much to say to one another!"
Weyoun's eyes hardened slightly. "And you, Captain, are always direct and to the point. So be it. This is my final offer. Surrender the Founder to me unharmed and I promise you that the civilians will not be hurt."
"No offense, but I've learned the hard way not to trust the word of a Vorta," Sisko spat as he spun and shot another Jem'Hadar warrior who materialized randomly inside the bridge. "And while tiresome, I am completely confident in my ability to hold this station against your vaunted Jem'Hadar soldiers, thank you!"
Weyoun smiled almost dolefully. "Captain, surely you are not positing the notion that humans or Bajorans are a match for the finest warriors of the Gamma Quadrant, are you? I might be convinced that the best-trained Klingons draw some form of parity, but not you."
"I think you would be surprised what we humans are capable of, Weyoun, allow me to demonstrate!" the captain snarled, finally tired of the Vorta's condescending tone. He centered on the section where the most fighting was taking place and allowed the video feed to go to Weyoun's ship.
The Vorta frowned initially as he watched trying to make sense of the wild images he was seeing. It somehow appeared that twenty security officers were holding off over a hundred Jem'Hadar. Then he caught sight of something, or someone- a titanic armoured warrior, deep in the midst of his troops, locked in a bloody melee with them, using a terrifying blade that cut them to ribbons and some heavy projectile rifle at point blank range, blowing them apart. In spite of their numerical superiority, the Jem'Hadar could not seem to defeat him. He was a whirling engine of destruction unlike anything Weyoun had ever seen before.
And he was most certainly human.
"Impressive, captain," he mused finally. "But I have several hundred or more Jem'Hadar waiting to take the fight to this stranger and your paltry internal scrambler fields cannot stop me from transporting them all to that location. This secret weapon of your will be overwhelmed and then the station will be ours. There are not enough Klingons to aid you."
"Are you sure he is the only one?" Sisko said threateningly.
"My dear captain, I am disappointed in you, for clearly you don't understand how closely we study our foes," Weyoun seemed to mourn. "If the Federation had more warriors like that man aboard the station, they would already be fighting, so that it was plain to us that retreat was our best option. That way, you would protect your precious civilians from casualties. You Federation officers are so noble but also so transparent in your actions; you make horrible liars."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Sisko said levelly, suddenly wishing he were better at lying. "But it looks to me like my oversized friend is holding up quite nicely."
Weyoun looked at the screen again, watching the battle. It may not have been obvious to the Captain Sisko, but this huge warrior was clearly learning as he fought, targeting weak spots and vulnerabilities on the Jem'Hadar as he found them or learned of them. He evidently had a holographic memory. His armour was scored with the marks of melee weapons and also polaron rifles, but it seemed intact and ready to take more.
This was indeed a complication he had not foreseen. He watched the screen intently, trying to work out a solution to the dilemma that did not involved pouring the rest of his Jem'Hadar into the fray, as they would doubtless suffer horrendous casualties that he would called upon by the Founder to answer for.
And then the massive warrior was simply gone.
The Jem'Hadar paused, confused for a moment before their impeccable training and instincts took over and redirected them back toward the Federation troops who were still holding their position and firing at them from just down the wide corridor. They charged, bent on slaughter.
Weyoun smiled at Captain Sisko. "Well now, captain, I must thank you for such an entertaining interlude. I will admit you had me worried there for a moment, but life returns to normal now. I have given you chances and you have thrown them back at me scornfully, so I am afraid this is the end. It truly has been a pleasure."
Sisko's mind whirled. Where had the space marine gone? He prepared to give orders to be ready for another wave of Jem'Hadar. His defence had not been hinging on Mister Andraeus and even if that seemingly valuable gambit was no longer available, he had no intention of losing.
When Andraeus materialized again, he was inside an engine room of alien design, its great core thrumming and calling out with a dreadful power that chilled him to the bone. How could these fools not know or understand what they were tampering with?
A Jem'Hadar warrior spotted him, but it was too late- Andraeus had snapped his neck before he could raise his weapon. Other aliens around the multi-decked room raced toward him, obviously knowing better than to fire their weapons inside what was basically a barely-contained bomb capable of levelling a star system.
Within moments, he had killed seven of them with his force sword and the room was temporarily clear. He glanced around quickly, trying to identify things he had gleaned from the memories of the scientifically-minded Federation officers he had been staying with. It was Chief O'Brien's keen experience that aided him most now, for though the Jem'Hadar ship was laid out differently from Federation vessels, all starships of this era obeyed the same elementary laws of physics, and one of these consoles would control the fusion-powered impulse engine systems...
Based on O'Brien's reasoning, he founds the giant drives and placed several shaped melta charges on them. He then located the impulse engines' control console and pointed his bolter at it, unleashing a torrent of hellfire into the station. Immediately the alarm lights activated and an automated alien voice began chattering urgently. He knew more Jem'Hadar were already on the way, but he had something else he wanted to attend to, now that this ship was doomed...
Sisko watched as the alarm systems aboard the Jem'Hadar warship began sounding and a series of explosions caused the ship to tremble. He saw Weyoun frown and begin giving orders to his bridge crew. The Vorta began checking the consoles and the readouts on his eyepiece, clearly agitated.
"Problems, Weyoun?" Sisko taunted.
"I'm a little busy at the moment, captain, so if you don't mind..." Weyoun hissed, trying to ignore the impudent human. He busied himself with the incoming data, growing paler as he processed and analyzed the reports.
"Impulse engines crippled, overload imminent!" snarled one of the Jem'Hadar working at a console behind him. "The safety system and all circuits are completely destroyed, we cannot stop it! Fifty four seconds!"
Weyoun was about to say something when the massive human warrior was suddenly on the bridge with him. Captain Sisko looked nearly as shocked as the Vorta when Mister Andraeus appeared out of nowhere. The space marine shot a Jem'Hadar warrior through the head and clove another in two before he was upon Weyoun and gripped him by the back of the neck, causing the alien to go limp. He held Weyoun aloft by strength alone and glared into his violet eyes.
"Let it be known that the Federation has defenders the likes of which you can never match, alien," Andraeus hissed in the Vorta's ear. "I and people like me will be the annihilation of your whole race."
And then he was gone.
Weyoun collapsed to his knees for a moment before getting back on his feet. The countdown to the breach continued.
"Turn the vessel about one hundred and eighty degrees and get us away from the station, full thrusters!" he ordered desperately. "The Founder must not be harmed by our demise!"
There was a moment where his eyes locked with Sisko's before the screen blinked off and the Vorta's image was gone. The sensors watched as the massive Jem'Hadar warship came about and peeled away at its best available speed, straining to reach open space...
It almost looked like a nova when the ship destroyed itself, a corona of raw energy pulsing away from the doomed vessel as it disintegrated. Sisko bit his lip as the shockwave reached the station, rocking it so badly that the stabilizers were barely able to maintain the axis and orbit. He was thrown from his feet, slamming against a console but standing tall quickly.
"Report!" he shouted. "I want news of any damage from that blast and somebody tell me what the hell is going on with the fighting aboard my station!"
A political leader from the pre-spaceflight era had once been quoted as saying "If you are going through hell, keep going."
That was exactly what Captain Sisko intended to do.
The battle had see-sawed for several moments after Andraeus disappeared randomly, with the Jem'Hadar closing to almost melee range. More security squads had come rushing up to reinforce the defenders, but the sheer impetus of the Dominion charge was too much for them to cope with.
And then Andraeus was back somehow.
Initially Jadzia was elated, but as she stepped aside behind a bulkhead for a moment to recalibrate her weapon, she took notice of something that she had not seen before or maybe was trying to avoid seeing- there was a glint of something akin to glee or satisfaction in the titan Ultramarine's eyes as he slew the Jem'Hadar, like a sense of personal accomplishment.
The station had rocked violently as something exploded in the space beyond and several combatants on both sides had been thrown from their feet. Andraeus, of course, had not been and pressed his advantage. Stranger still, the Jem'Hadar seemed confused, as if suddenly devoid of orders or a general purpose. They resumed fighting, but something had happened, something that had shaken their coordination, if not their resolve.
While the Federation troops initially held back and attempted to keep the Dominion warriors within firing range, Andraeus' appearance caused them to shout and then charge headlong into the Jem'Hadar, something that the Federation would normally consider suicidal.
Something in the way the security troops fought chilled her. They too seemed eager to slay the enemy, not because it was their duty, but something much more primal, an instinct that Star Fleet training was supposed to repress.
She watched in horror as one of the troopers knocked a foe down with a phaser rifle butt across the jaw and then leapt onto the down alien, using his combat knife to tear his throat apart. The trooper's eyes were wild with what she could only call blood lust. She noticed it on the face of the other human troopers and she wasn't the only one- their Bajoran comrades seemed stunned, many of them simply watching, their rifles limp in their hands as the massacre ensued.
Two more security squads now joined the fray, this time approaching from the rear of the Jem'Hadar. To Dax's distress, these squads were both Federation and the troopers seemed to share the affliction she had already noticed in those engaged. They fired into the Jem'Hadar as they charged but then closed to melee, fighting with a ferocity she was used to seeing only in Klingons or possibly the Naussicans.
She wanted to looked away but could not- she watched on in rapt dismay until the battle was over. She reflected on all she had seen over her several lives and centuries of experience- the agonies of defeat, the thrill of victory and the simple joy of having survived another day. But now, watching the humans standing over the seemingly numberless bodies of their dispatched foes, seeing them wild with their triumph and cheering, she felt sickened, for she could almost hear the savage chanting in their heads, words she had never wanted to hear...
Death to the alien.
She closed her eyes and composed herself, thinking about the station and the fact that it was still vulnerable. Giving herself purpose, she gazed one more time at the carnage and her eyes met those of Andraeus. He was standing tall, surrounded by his fellow humans, who were cheering and lauding him for leading them to a spectacular victory over the Jem'Hadar. She noted the grim satisfaction in his face and realized that his power over people would be the ruin of them all.
Author's Notes: I was amused by people taking issue with my choice of Marine chapter for the protagonist, but this is simply fanfiction, no more. Once again, you will just need to deal if Andraeus' powers do not seem canon enough for you.
Yes, yes, having an Ultramarine do the hunka-chunka with an alien is probably odd (for any Space Marine chapter), but the notion of Dax trying to have sex with him tickled my funny bone. Various howls of rage will be cheerfully endured.
I am trying hard to get the manner of speech for various people from the DS9 cast right. I think I'm doing pretty damn well with them so far, especially Sisko. I liked how Weyoun sounded and Dax as well. Should have a little more play for the other people in the following chapters, so hang tight.
A few people had the critique that the background goings-on of DS9 were not examined or displayed deeply enough. As with all my fics, that will get a little more in depth as the chapters go on.
Doubtless someone will squawk that Andraeus is ridiculously powerful compared to his surroundings, but I'm okay with that. He's meant to be unlike anything they've ever seen before in Federation space. I've made him a powerful Ultramarines librarian, not an average one, if that helps. Imagine the fun I could have had by dropping Tigurius or Mephiston back on DS9...
Anyhoo, this has been the second chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it. I've gotta get my next chapter for The Young Conqueror up in time for Chinese New Year, so this will resume shortly after that.
Keep your stick on the ice and death to the alien!
- Management