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.

More Tales of the Dominion War...

Rakat Tir was around five years old, which made him a very experienced Jem'Hadar. He served as First on the lead ship of a Squadron of Fighters and cruisers, and right now was working to serve their new Vorta commander, Layla.

Their last Vorta commander had been killed in a fire fight last week. Rakat had commanded the Squadron himself since then. Despite the heresy the thought held, he could not help but imagine how much easier it would be if he could command without any Vorta to interfere.

Especially now.

"Fighter 6, increase your warp drive by 3 percent, you are losing pace," Layla ordered. "Cruiser 2, adjust field harmonics to ease the transit."

That was the tenth such order Layla had issued in the last thirty two minutes, Rakat noted.

"Commander," Rakat began, "such fine adjustments of the formation is unnecessary."

Layla shone a condescending smile on her First.

"If your men would stay in formation properly, my management would be unnecessary," she stated. "Your previous commander must have been lax if he let you become so sloppy!"

Rakat stood his ground.

"The last commander died because he did not heed my advice," he stated. Layla snorted, adjusting her eyepiece.

"I'm sure. Now then..." Her eyes lit up. "Aha. Federation cargo transport, bearing 056. Right along the border. Easy kill. Set course immediately, maximum warp!"

Rakat adjusted his own eyepiece and observed the vessel. His frown deepened.

"Commander," he said, "the cargo ship has no escort. It is running under a high powered subspace field at high warp."

"Your point?" Layla asked.

"A high powered subspace field could conceal the true interior of the vessel," Rakat continued, a bit slower, "this could be a trap."

"Even if it is," Layla stated, "I'm sure eight ships are more than enough to deal with it. Lock on!"

They advanced on the cargo ship, assuming an attack formation. Rakata studied the vessel. It's IFF certainly corresponded to a Federation high speed cargo ship, but it's profile was... Unknown. Unusual. The power output was wrong. As were the harmonics.

"First, order the attack," Layla stated confidently. Rakat paused for a moment. Layla shot him a look.

"First..."

"Fighters, engage target," Rakat ordered. Their six Fighters launched torpedoes. The cargo ship vectored frantically to avoid the missiles, but far too late: All of them converged on the ship and exploded, throwing up a large plasma Fireball.

Layla snorted with a smirk.

"That was far too easy," she stated. Rakat's frown grew as the plasma ball faded... And large portions of the vessel's outer hull fell away. Four nacelles spread into an X-formation, and an arrowhead shaped forward hull emerged.

Layla's eyes widened at the Dara their sensors now registered from the Starfleet warship.

"It transformed?" Laila gasped. "Ship match!"

"No records, Commander," the Second, Tryg Algo, reported. "It's powering up its weapons!"

"All ships, engage!" Laila ordered. Rakat nodded to his gunner, and their cruiser opened fire. The Fighters closed on the vessel in a wedge, firing repeatedly to bombard the vessel.

The ship evaded most of the shots, twisting and spinning in the warp corridor like a fighter. Rakat saw lines begin to glow across the vessel's hull.

"Commander, I urge you: Disengage," Rakat stated. Layla sniffed.

"Enough if your treason! Continue firing!"

"Commander, the ship-!" Rakat tried, but it was too late.

The starship split into three... And reversed their warp drives. They flashed through the Fighters, slicing them apart with phaser fire like swords, cutting them apart and leaving them to explode. Rakat tried to order breaking off, but the three vessels flew back between them, raking their cruisers with phaser and torpedo fire.

Layla screamed and held on for dear life as the bridge was opened to space. He reached out to grab her, and dragged her behind a pressure door into the computer pit. The view from his eyepiece was distorted as the ship's sensors shut down, but the violent shaking showed they had dropped out of warp and were adrift.

One half of the Ship rotated, bellowing fire, thousands of kilometers away. Theirs had no engine power, and was left on emergency batteries. The other cruiser had been blown to bits quite some distance away.

As Layla clung to him in terror, Rakat calculated potential air supplies. Not very much, at his most optimistic projections.

Oh well. If he was to die...

"If we survive, I trust you will listen to me from now on," Rakat stated.

Layla mumbled something in the affirmative. Rakat was silent.

At times, the Founders did provide unique situations in their Order of things.

Captain Robert Adams leaned back in his command chair with a smile. His ops officer, Rosalind Chao, smiled back up at him.

"Enemy Squadron destroyed, sir," she said, "no damage or casualties."

"If only all our battles were so easy," Robert mused. "Prometheus?"

The holographic avatar appeared... Of the teenaged boy in a spacesuit laughing maniacally.

"-AHAHAHAHA! BWAHAHAHA-Er," Prometheus cut himself off and stood at attention, embarrassed. "Sorry sir."

"That's fine," Adams said, "Return from Control Limit Zero and secure your modules back together."

"Aye sir," Prometheus said. He paused and then smiled.

"It was pretty freaking cool though, wasn't it sir?"

"Very cool," Naomi Parquette, the pilot, said eagerly, "er, sir," she said, looking over at the captain. Adams held in a sigh.

With how advanced Prometheus was, not only was his AI programmed young to be able to learn faster-The rest of the crew was quite young as well. A whole group pulled from Starfleet Academy's most recent graduates to learn how to run their most advanced ship. It really showed their desperation.

Some days he felt more like a school teacher than a captain.

"Very cool indeed," he allowed.

Not today though.

"Let's take out that Outpost, while their patrol is in pieces," he ordered, "engage!"

Because you may as well go the full monty for anime cliches when it comes to Prometheus.