Paint and Powder
A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
"The Search, Part 2"
By Me
Defiant was waiting for Commander Sisko when he entered his ready room/quarters. He looked upon her fondly, but concerned.
"Defiant?" He asked.
She stood at attention, but she was anxious. Filled to bursting with nervous energy.
"Commander," Defiant replied, "per Operational Command Log 2223.1, I do have to ask about contingencies for worst case scenarios."
Sisko nodded, and sat down in his chair at his desk. He turned around to face the shipgirl.
"Glad that's still in your memory," he said. Defiant smiled wryly.
"I wouldn't forget," she said, "you made me too well."
"Well," Sisko began, "the fact of the matter is, a lot of the contingencies we devised for the Borg don't apply to the Dominion's Founders. Whoever they are, they are running a polity as we understand it. An empire. So I would prefer diplomatic options first."
Defiant nodded.
"Yes sir... And how far can I take those diplomatic options?"
Sisko stared at Defiant. The shipgirl held her ground.
"You made me to be a warship, Commander," she pointed out, "that is my mindset. And despite the excellent work that Chief O'Brien and you have done, well..." She winced. "I'm not at one hundred percent. My anti-boarder systems aren't even fully operational!"
Sisko nodded slowly.
"I understand... All right. Let's start running through the worst case scenarios then..."
Defiant woke up. Huh. Was that a dream? Or was she just cycling through her memories while in lockdown mode?
Why had she been in lockdown mode? Even now, she was slowly reactivating, to avoid giving information on her status to anyone aboard her. She carefully looked through her cameras.
Oh. That was a lot of Jem'hadar and Vorta. Why were they aboard her? Where was her crew?
She reconnected with her backup memory core... And winced.
Ah. That was why. The Jem'hadar had seen through her cloak, fought her, and captured her. Commander Sisko had ordered her into lockdown mode, and she'd complied.
Now she was in orbit of an unknown planet. She couldn't be sure, but there was an 81.3 percent chance she was in the Omarion Nebula based on her limited observations. She was also being escorted by three Jem'hadar fighters.
Right. Don't panic. Find your crew.
Human, Trill, Bajoran lifesigns: Yes, on the planet. Not as many as she started with, but she would mourn the dead later. She even found one Romulan lifesign, so it looked like T'Rul had survived. That was good.
... In principle.
There was also a huge mass of lifeform readings in some kind of liquid state-Like a small ocean of lifeforms. Strange... They were almost identical to Constable Odo when he was in a liquid state-
Ah. Yes. Many facts were now combining into a hypothesis. One she didn't like.
She didn't imagine Odo would like it either.
Defiant extended her sensor range out, just a bit. She could detect another squadron of Jem'hadar fighters, about five minutes away at maximum sublight. Aside from them, she couldn't pick up any other enemy ships in range.
Good. That made her plans easier.
... In a sense.
She manifested on her bridge, after making absolutely sure none of her crew was still aboard. Well, the living ones anyway.
The Jem'hadar sitting in her captain's chair rose up and held his blaster on her, as did the rest of her boarders.
"Identify," the Jem'hadar ordered.
Defiant smiled.
"You don't deserve to know my name," she stated... Just as she hit full reverse on her impulse engines, and deactivated her inertial dampeners.
The Jem'hadar didn't even have time to be surprised... Before they were slammed against her bulkheads with fatal gee forces. All their lifesigns ended at essentially the same time, and their bodies stayed intact.
Good. She could beam them out easily. Clean up made simple.
The Jem'hadar fighters outside continued flying on, reacting far too slowly to Defiant coming to a relative dead stop. She checked her weapons options.
Despite the damage she had suffered, her weapons were still fully operational. Which she demonstrated mercilessly, firing her phaser pulse cannons in a deadly barrage.
The first Jem'hadar fighter exploded, as its wingmen tried to circle around to engage her. She fired on the second, blowing it to smithereens just as quickly. The third flipped down on its x-axis and fired a polaron beam. A burst of her thrusters, and she managed to dodge it.
Well, mostly. It grazed the upper portion of her armor plating, or what was left of it. Her phaser cannons dealt with that fighter, blowing it out of the sky.
On some level, Defiant knew that as a Federation starship, she shouldn't take joy in the deaths of other sapient beings... But there was a feral grin on her face as she felt something... What was the term?
A battle zen. She was destroying her enemies, bad people, who deserved to die. She was going to rescue her crew.
And, failing that? At least she'd ensure they'd all go out with a bang...
Kira had known something was wrong from the moment Odo had brought her to this world after Defiant was attacked. He had found his homeworld? All right, fine. That had been his dream for as long as Kira could remember. They were shapeshifters, just like him. They'd welcomed him happily.
Yet so much of this puzzle hadn't made sense. And her questions had been ignored.
How did the Changelings hide from the Dominion? A race of shapeshifters would be an obvious threat to such an empire.
Well... It was clear they hadn't been hiding from the Dominion. The proof was found behind a secret door in a nearby mountain. Behind the rural, primitive conditions... Were sophisticated facilities. Facilities that were holding the rest of the crew of the Defiant in some kind of stasis.
She and Odo had gotten in, begun looking around... Which is when the Female Changeling who had welcomed Odo arrived. With a Vorta, and armed Jem'hadar.
"You're kidding," Kira gasped, "you're part of the Dominion?"
The Female Changeling gave her a cold look, as though she were a malfunctioning bit of machinery about to be thrown out into the scrap heap.
"Major... We are the Dominion," the Changeling stated, "the Founders. We established it because solids like you need to be controlled. And if you will not be controlled? You will be exterminated."
"No!" Odo growled, hurt and betrayed. Kira couldn't help feeling for him. To come so far, to find his people... And learn they were... This.
"I'm sorry Odo," the Female Changeling said, "but these solids are dangerous. We have been testing them for days in simulation. They will resist any attempt by us to properly control them. And so, we must destroy them."
"We're not dangerous to you!" Kira tried, "we wanted to try to establish peaceful relations-!"
"There is no making peace with solids," the Founder stated, "you solids cannot be trusted. You cannot stand the thought of us existing. Superior to you in every way. You will try to destroy us. You always have-"
"These solids won't!" Odo tried, already moving in front of the crew in their stasis pods, "they're my friends! They make mistakes, yes, but they are not a threat to you! They will only resist if you try to harm them!"
The Founder stared at him.
"I understand you may have become attached to these lifeforms," she said slowly, so condescendingly it made Kira's hackles rise, "but they are temporary. Limited. We are your people, Odo. They are not. What can they offer that we cannot?"
"Friendship! Loyalty! Freedom!" Odo spat. "Justice!"
"All irrelevant next to order," the Founder sniffed, "they will be destroyed."
The Jem'hadar raised their guns, targeting Kira. Odo immediately shapeshifted, extending himself into a wall between her and the guns now pointed at her. She moved back to the stasis pod controls, trying to figure them out.
"You told me no Changeling has ever harmed another," Odo declared, "you can't harm my friends without harming me."
The Female Founder shook her head.
"You cannot hold that form forever, Odo," she stated, "we will eliminate them. And it seems to be for the best, given your attachment to them. In time, you will learn-"
She was interrupted by a device on the Vorta's belt frantically beeping. The Vorta held it up, wincing a bit at the Female Founder's look.
"Yes?" He asked.
"Hello," said a familiar female voice, "I'm looking for the Founders of the Dominion? This seemed the most likely device to call in order to get to someone in authority?"
Sisko woke out of his stasis induced stupor first. He grimaced, processing the voice.
"Defiant?" He managed to murmur. The shipgirl AI's voice changed, sounding happier.
"Oh! Hello Commander!" She chirped.
"You said that the Alpha Quadrant ship's AI had been disabled," the Female Founder said coldly to the Vorta. He winced again.
"We... Believed it had been disabled, but-"
"I wasn't. Now, as a Federation Starship, I would like to ask if you would please return my crew to me. Unharmed and alive, please," Defiant said.
The Founder's glare intensified.
"Have their ship destroyed," she ordered.
"I'll take that as a no," Defiant said, "okay then! You leave me no choice."
"Where is that ship?" The Female Founder demanded. The Vorta checked his comms device... And his eyes widened.
"It's... Heading here," he said.
"Here?" The Founder asked, confused for a moment. Sisko smiled, a grim smile Kira had never seen on his face before.
"Here," Sisko stated emphatically. The Vorta's eyes widened as Defiant laughed over the comm device.
"Yes. In case of crew capture and inability to return to friendly space by a hostile power that is a clear and present threat to the Federation," Defiant said, "General Order 24 is enacted: I will destroy the entire surface of this planet with myself as the weapon. I will do this in sixty seconds."
The Female Founder's expression was harder to read, but Kira got the impression she was horrified. Good.
"I have calculated that the energy release from the detonation of my warp core, fusion reactors, and weapons, coupled with my inertia," the AI went on, in a maddeningly cheerful tone, "will exceed 50 gigatons. This is sufficient to cause an extinction level event for your world, destroying the entire biosphere and 99.9 percent of all lifeforms on it. Forty five seconds."
"It's a deception," the Female Founder stated, "you would never commit genocide. It is against Federation principles."
"And yet you said no solids could be trusted," Kira shot back, "that we're all violent. Make up your mind!"
"Intercept the ship!" The Founder ordered, a hint of fear in her voice. The Vorta grimaced.
"They won't be in firing range in time-"
"Thirty seconds," Defiant warned.
"No Changeling has ever harmed another," Odo stated, eyes narrowed, "let us go... And neither of us will do that. Or is your pride more important than our people?"
"Twenty seconds!" Defiant shouted. They could hear the roar of something screaming through the atmosphere, making the mountain facility rumble. The Female Founder would probably be gritting her teeth if she had any.
"Ten seconds!" Defiant cried over the communication device.
"... We will return your crew. We will allow you to return to the Alpha Quadrant," the Female Founder said, "now call off the strike!"
"Defiant! Rescind General Order 24!" Sisko shouted. "Abort!"
"Understood! Strike aborted!" Defiant cried. They were all driven to the floor as Defiant pulled up and flew over the mountain, making it shake hard with her passing. A few moments of silence ensued, as everyone got back up. The Female Founder locked eyes on Odo.
"... Your place is with us, Odo," she said, "in the Great Link."
"... Perhaps," Odo allowed, "but not today."
Defiant was waiting anxiously for her crew to arrive on the bridge. She was beaming them up as quickly as she could. Odo had come aboard first-Using himself as a shield to protect them. She gave him a small smile as he arrived. The Constable didn't return it... But he did nod to her as he went to the back of the bridge.
"Thank you, Defiant," Sisko said, smiling and resting an arm on her shoulder, "you did well."
Defiant blushed, and nodded back.
"Thank you sir," she said, feeling as light as a feather.
"Soon as the crew is aboard, get us out of here," he ordered, "maximum warp for the wormhole."
"Aye sir," Defiant said, as cheerfully as she could. The entire crew was tired and melancholy... Especially Odo.
When they were underway, she flickered to the back of the bridge. She sat down across from Odo at the small planning table. The Constable stared at her. She fidgeted, but pressed on.
"For what it's worth," Defiant murmured, "I'm sorry."
Odo stared at the AI for a long time. She winced. She'd gone too far, she knew she had.
Odo then shook his head, and let out a soft breath.
"You have... Questions, correct? About who you are? What your purpose is?"
Defiant blinked, and slowly nodded.
"Yes... Sometimes..."
Odo fixed her with a grim expression.
"Pray that you find better answers than I did," he stated.
Defiant nodded slowly.
"I... Yeah... I will..."
She got back to her duties. What more was there to say?
Maybe she'd saved her crew, and escaped back home. However, there were some things she couldn't fix.
It wasn't a pleasant answer... But Odo was right. It was better than what he had gotten...
Because I wanted to make this better than the rather underwhelming episode...