Uninspired Voyages
A Star Trek: Voyager fanfiction by Andrew J. Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: Voyager, Deep Space Nine, The Next Generation et al are the property of CBS Television, Para creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
Back on Earth...
Ben Sisko had taken some time to rest by a fountain near Starfleet Headquarters, trying to collect his thoughts. After a bit, a surprising face showed up.
"Captain!"
Sisko looked up in shock at what appeared to be Miles O'Brien.
"Chief? What are you doing here?"
O'Brien gave Sisko a friendly look, filled with condescension.
"You don't look so good!"
"There's no way the Defiant could have gotten here so fast," Sisko observed tensely, as O'Brien sat down next to him.
O'Brien shrugged.
"I didn't say I came on the Defiant."
Sisko put it together in an instant. He got up, to alert security...
"Sit back down. I'll be gone before your forces get here," the Changeling said, still in O'Brien's form. Sisko scowled, walked back, and sat down.
"What do you want?" Sisko ground out.
The Changeling laughed.
"Oh... You solids and your paranoia! I just wanted to chat! You see... What if I were to tell you that there were only four Changelings, not counting Odo, on Earth? Just four of us, and we've brought your capital planet to its knees. You can't trust anyone, you're falling apart."
"I wouldn't say that," Sisko retorted, but the Changeling O'Brien just laughed again.
"See, this is why you should be under our control. You're stupid, panicky animals. Like a herd, so easily spooked. We don't fear you the same way you fear us. We're better than you, superior in every way."
"Then why the Dominion?" Sisko deadpanned, "you're putting a lot of effort into destroying people you claim aren't a threat to you."
"Oh, I didn't say a threat," O'Brien stated, "just that it's the way of things. We've been around a long, long time. Your Federation is a blink of an eye to us. And because of how much you fear us, we'll win. It's as simple as that."
Which is when something burst from the fountain behind Sisko, and he threw himself towards cover!
Sitting underwater for hours on end wasn't Manny's idea of a fun time... But he had a hunch. And thanks to over a century of experience, he'd learned when to follow his hunches.
In theory, providing security for Sisko was not the kind of task for an agent of his caliber... But Manny had read everything he could about the Changelings. Every report, every interaction, every recording. He'd also studied Odo extensively, though not out of any animosity towards him.
Honestly, he respected Odo for not obeying his people and sticking to his principles. Far too many beings just let their culture dictate their actions, forfeiting their responsibility as thinking beings with free will. That made beings into slaves... And Manny was no slave.
No Horta would be. It was antithetical to their entire existence.
So he had waited. Just as he had waited at a hundred other locations, watching Captain Sisko and Odo, and waited some more.
Because he had figured something out about the Changelings.
They had a significant weakness. One common to many, many other beings across the galaxy, and probably the universe as well:
Pride.
This Changeling felt so confident that he approached Sisko right out in the open, in a form that was sure to alert the security cameras around Starfleet HQ, just to belittle him and the Federation. That was how cocky, how egotistical these beings were.
And well... Manny could admit, Starfleet had dropped the ball a lot when it came to the Dominion. But there were advantages to being underestimated.
The forcefield went up around the fountain the moment the portable projector Manny tossed landed on the ground, isolating everything above and below the fountain and the tiling. The O'Brien Changeling immediately shifted into a bird to try and flee, but smacked into the field and fell. Undeterred, it turned into a gigantic burrowing creature to try and get through... But it ran into the subsurface forcefield there, blasted back by the shock.
Manny landed on the pavement, and pulled out his phaser rifle.
"Surrender, and you won't be harmed," Manny shouted, "resist and-"
Manny leaped aside, narrowly avoiding a tendril whip from the Changeling.
"Harming you it is, then," Manny decided, tossing a hand phaser to Sisko. "Captain!"
Sisko, being no fool, laid down suppressing fire on the Changeling who shot about like a fluid under high pressure. It leaped at Manny with a piercing shriek, forming into some kind of multilegged monstrosity. Manny tackled the brute in midair with a jump of his own, and they went rolling right for the fountain. Manny extended his spines, their points driving into the Changeling, who pulled back with another screech before it shifted into a reptilian monster.
Sisko fired! The orange beam ripped through the Changeling, making it shriek in pain. Manny pulled out a container, and tossed it over nearby the shrieking Changeling!
"Herd him! HERD HIM!" Manny shouted, firing his own phaser. Sisko complied, the Changeling slithering away, right towards the container.
It looked like it might try to lash out again... Then Manny hit a control on his tricorder.
The container lit up, and a mighty thrum went through the air. Wind rushed towards the container, as the gravity generators within went active and began pulling the Changeling. The fluidic creature tried to escaped, expanding its size, but phaser blasts from Sisko and Manny kept it in a liquid state.
The entire gooey mass was slurped up into the container... Whose top hatch closed, and locked with a loud click!
Within the transparent aluminum walls of the container, the gravity emitters kept the no doubt furious Changeling concentrated into a small, dense sphere.
Manny waited, as did Sisko.
The ball stilled. The container beeped, and a green light blinked on top.
"Contemplate your superiority inside your new cage, asshole," Manny declared.
Sisko shook his head.
"Thanks... But we have another problem."
"Leyton?" Manny asked. The Horta snorted.
"Let's take him down!"
Sisko grinned, holding up his phaser.
"With an officer like you? How can we lose?"
"Damn straight!"
Just a bit more of Manny being awesome.