Star Trek Lineage Ch 05

For those of you not familiar with the terms, port is the left side of a ship, and starboard is the right side.

A Seat at the Table

2230, Deck 19, Battle Bridge, 1721 hours

"This is never going to work," Sahar cried. From her post at the Tactical Station, she watched the battle unfold on the viewscreen and console in front of her. Kara, now a Lieutenant, sat to her right at the Helm.

"Quiet, Lieutenant," ordered Commander Sull from the captain's chair behind them.

"Aye, sir," Sahar sighed.

She was pushed nearly off her seat as the

Athena

turned sharply to the left, banking hard into the turn. There was a buzz, and the dorsal phaser arrays fired. Sahar watched them strike the aft shield of their enemy. "No effect, sir. Their shields are too strong."

"We're just peppering them," Sull replied. The

Athena

came out of the turn, and their opponent filled the main viewscreen. It was large and bulky, not at all sleek like Federation ships. The color was mixed brown and dark green. The main hull was a tapered, rectangular-shaped mass, thin in the front, with two large pylons jutting forward from the aft portion of the ship. It looked to Sahar like a strange, geometric horned snake head.

"We're closing in," Kara called out as the

Athena

accelerated out of the turn, the sound of her engines straining to push the ship faster filling the room.

"Firing torpedoes," said Sahar. Loud, thrumming pulses came from above and below them, and shimmering red gems streaked forward towards the hostile ship. They struck the aft shield, the glittering sparks and explosions flashing brightly in dimly lit room.

"Effect?" Sull yelled out to Sahar over the engines.

"Direct hits, aft shield... holding at 27%!"

"Dammit!" he yelled. The

Athena

passed over the enemy ship, and was now fully exposed.

"Incoming!" shouted Sahar as she saw the sensor readings spike on her console. Before any of them could react, the ship shook violently and the lights flickered. Above her, a power conduit overloaded, showering her with sparks. "Sir...!" she started to yell, but was cut off as another blast rocked the ship. This one was much stronger than the first, and knocked Sahar from her seat onto the deck. Alarms sounded, and there was an explosion behind her.

"Damage report!" screamed Sull as Sahar returned to her station. She scanned her console before looking back over her shoulder. Behind Sull, a vent had ruptured, spewing steam into the room and obscuring her vision. Sahar could make out Suvak at the Engineering Station, working quickly to assess the damage.

"Aft shield is down. Direct phaser hits to Engineering Section, decks 15, 19, 20, 21, and 16. Damage to the warp nacelles. Aft Photon Torpedo Launcher is offline. Lateral Phaser Array is offline. Hull breaches on deck 19. We are venting warp plasma," Suvak said calmly, reading off her console.

Amber lights pulsed on the ship layout on Sahar's console, blinking for a few seconds before turning red. "Intruder alert!" she yelled.

"Seal the room!" Sull called back, but it was too late. Pillars of shimmering green light appeared around the room, accompanied by a crackling hum. As she heard them, Sahar stood and drew her phaser, leveling at the nearest one. In moments, the lights faded and coalesced into a figure.

The intruder was tall, nearly 2 meters, with scaly, dark green skin. Its head was reptilian, with no ears, a short snout, and rows of teeth. The eyes shined silver, and it held a large rifle in its larger, clawed hands. It wore a shining gold tunic and trousers, leaving its clawed feet bare.

"Stand down!" Sull ordered, but Sahar had already squeezed the trigger. The orange blast streaked from her phaser, striking the intruder square in the chest. The creature hardly moved, snorting in response. All of the consoles returned to normal, the lights came up, and the ship stood down from Red Alert.

"Fuck!" screamed Sahar, ripping her helmet off and throwing it to the floor.

"Thatsss three ssstraight for usss," hissed the creature.

"Yeah, yeah. Victory for Gorn Hegemony!" she said sarcastically, waiving her hands in mock celebration.

"Lieutenant, take it easy," Sull ordered her. "Next exercise is in 36 hours. Dismissed."

"Aye, sir. I just hate losing. Come on, Riss, I'm buying. Again," Sahar sighed as she trudged off towards the exit. "You wanna come?" Sahar asked Kara.

"I'll meet up with you later. I still have some work to do."

"You don't have to pay," Riss pointed out, following behind Sahar.

"I know that! It's a figure of speech," she sighed. "Gecko," she muttered.

"Monkey," laughed the hulking Gorn.

******

Deck 10, Crew Lounger, 1800 hours

"That was fucking stupid," Sahar cursed into her lemon Sharbat.

"Yesss, it wasss," Riss smiled, or as close to smiled as a Gorn is capable.

"Closing to point blank with a Gorn dreadnought. What do you think is going to happen?" she growled to herself.

"We will crussssh you!" the Gorn bellowed loudly as he lifted his large drink, drawing glances from other tables.

"You guys aren't very subtle, are you?" Sahar laughed.

"Why sssshould we be? You warm-bloodsss can't sssstand againssst usss, and we can't ssssneak around like you can." Sahar just grunted, taking a sip of her drink and staring out the window. "Sssspeaking of not being ssssubtle, where issss your mate?"

"What?" Sahar choked on her drink. "What are you talking about?"

"Your mate. The female who issss going to meet ussss."

"What, Kara? She's not... we aren't... how is it that you know everything?"

"Gorn body language issss very precisssse. Your'ssss issss not."

"What else have you noticed?" Sahar asked curiously.

"I have not been aboard you sssship much. I have sssseen little," he "smiled" again.

"Don't play dumb with me," Sahar warned him, leaning forward.

"I ssssee that your crew fearssss ussss."

"Like hell!" Sahar scoffed.

"Not terror, apprehenssssion," he explained. "They are afraid to act, unssssure of how to deal with ussss, sssso they don't. They flee or hide until they can't anymore. When that time comesssss, they don't know what to do, so they do whatever they would do with each other."

"We don't know what to do about you, so we just do what we always do?"

"Yessss! And it ssssuitssss ussss!"

"God, cover your mouth if you're going to hiss that much," Sahar teased, pretending to wipe her face off.

"Then don't sssshed all that fur on me!" he laughed, deep and loud, the sound echoing through the room. Sahar was about to respond when she spotted Kara and Casana enter the room. She raised a hand, waiving to them.

"Hey, over here!" she called, but they were already on their way over. Casana bounded over ahead of Kara, taking a seat at the round table between Sahar and Riss.

"Hey, Harry, how ya doin'?" she asked gleefully as Kara grabbed a chair and sat down next to Sahar.

"Don't call me 'Harry'," she growled, pushing Casana gently. Their relationship had recovered since the crash, and they were again friends. Casana had also taken to Kara quite quickly, likely due to the human's sense of humor. "And I'm pissed."

"Ahh, what's wrong?" Casana asked sweetly.

"We got our bloody asses handed to us," Kara chimed in.

"Yessss, we defeated you ssssoundly!" Riss said proudly.

"Aww, I'm sorry, Harry," Casana mewed, leaning briefly on Sahar.

"Don't call me 'Harry'!" Sahar hissed. "What has you in such a good mood, anyway? It's really annoying," she teased Casana.

"Oh, you wouldn't believe it!" Casana squealed. "Dr. Slir brought some of the Gorn's more exotic specimens and we had a chance to examine them! It was awesome! They had this venomous bird, and it produced this alkaloid neurotoxin. It's stronger than cobra venom. And there was this mammalian exoparasite that..."

"Okay, you can stop right there. I really don't want to hear about your vampire mouse," Sahar said.

"It's really more like a rabbit," Casana corrected her.

"Oh, that's much better," Kara laughed.

"Yeah, I can just imagine: Vampire rabbits. Thank you very much for those nightmares," Sahar snickered, poking Kara gently in the side. Suddenly, she had an idea. "Come on, Kara, we have to go!" she said, grabbing the smaller woman's hand and practically dragging her out of the room.

"Gahh, I don't want to think about ssssuch a thing!" Riss roared.

"What, a swarm of bunnies?" giggled Casana.

"No, thosssse two mating!" he howled, laughing deeply.

Casana couldn't breathe, and fell out of her chair.

******

Deck 10, 1830 hours

"You aren't usually this impulsive, love," Kara laughed as Sahar pulled her down the corridor. They turned a corner sharply, heading for the turbolift. "We going somewhere... private? I'd love to lay you down and spend hours teasing your...."

"Armory," Sahar said as they entered the turbolift.

"Not the word I would have used."

"What? Oh, no, that's not what this is about," Sahar told her.

"That's unfortunate," sighed Kara. Sahar turned to her, smiling slyly.

"That comes later," she said, giving Kara a peck on the cheek. "Right now, I need your opinion on something."

"Oh, good. I've got plenty of those," Kara laughed.

"Yeah, I noticed." Sahar pressed a button on the comm panel. "Tehrani to Suvak, can you meet me in the Armory?"

"Of course, Lieutenant."

"What are you up to?" Kara asked suspiciously.

"I have an idea," Sahar replied as the turbolift doors opened. They exited and traveled the short distance to the Armory. "Hey, Zula, I need your help with something," she said as the Armory door opened.

"Sure, what is it?" Zula asked from behind the Quartermaster's desk. The new rank insignia gleamed on her jacket, and she smiled broadly, leaning back in her chair.

"Enjoying your new position, Master Chief?" Kara asked as they approached.

"Why, yes I am. More than 30 years in Starfleet, and now the highest ranking noncom on board."

"You definitely earned it. Sad to see Anlor retire, though," Sahar sighed. "Loved that grumpy blue fogey."

"Yeah, I'll miss him, too," Zula said sadly, looking down at her desk briefly. "I hear they put you on the rotation for Tactical."

"And I'm getting the Helm!" Kara chirped.

"Must be nice, being at the heart of the action," Zula smiled.

"Oh, yeah, it's great. Why, today, I got to sit in the Battle Bridge and watch!" Sahar said sarcastically. "They put me on the reserve crew."

"At least you ain't guarding a fucking door," Zula pointed out.

"Yeah, whatever."

"So, what do you have for me?"

"You have access to the sensor records from the exercises, right?"

"You never did take losing well," Zula said, shaking her head. "Yeah, why? You got a plan brewing?"

"It's still cooking, but I'd like us to go over it a few times when Suvak gets here."

******

Deck 19, Armory, 0120 hours

"Is this what 'a few times' means to you?" Zula asked as Sahar started to recording yet again. There was no response. "Hey, we've been here for hours. What are you looking for? Hey!" Zula said, poking Sahar in the side, hitting the bruise left by her fall.

"Shit!" Sahar cried, rubbing her side. "That fucking hurts! Hey, Suvak, could you guys take it easy with the inertial dampers next time?"

"It is important to simulate combat conditions as thoroughly as possible in order to maximize the effectiveness of the exercise."

"I take it that's a 'no'," Kara yawned.

"That is correct." They had set up the recording of the last combat exercise to display on the main screen in the Armory, usually reserved for the internal security schematic. They sat side by side in fours chairs, staring at the recording. On the screen, a computer-generated representation of the

Athena

made the sharp turn around the back of the Gorn dreadnought. The Federation ship fired its phasers, striking the port shield.

"Wait!" Sahar shouted, jumping to her feet. "Computer, freeze!"

"What?" Zula asked, confused.

"There!" Sahar said, pointing to the aft of the Gorn ship.

"I don't see anything," Kara shrugged.

"One of our phasers struck the aft shield instead of the port shield," Suvak said.

"So what?" Zula asked.

"Computer, display tactical sensor readouts for threat vessel," Sahar said excitedly. The computer chirped in response, and two schematics of the Gorn ship appeared, showing the craft from the side and from above, each surrounded by four small arcs, representing the shields. "Got you!" she yelled through clenched teeth. Sahar turned around to see three deeply confused faces.

"I think you might want to get some sleep," Zula said quietly, as if she was afraid of offending Sahar.

Sahar grunted in frustration and turned back around to face the screen. "Computer, roll back recording five seconds and play at one quarter speed, and show tactical sensor readings." The computer chirped again, and split the screen into two. One half showed the recreation of the engagement, while the other showed the sensor analysis of the Gorn ship. As they watched, the

Athena

banked into its turn slowly, firing its phasers in rapid succession. Each shot struck the port shield except the last, which struck the aft.

"Interesting," Suvak said.

"What? I still don't see a damn thing!" cried Zula.

"Computer, playback last 1.5 seconds," Suvak said. "Watch the aft shield strength." Zula stared at the readout. As the phasers struck, the bright arc representing the port shield gradually faded. With the last shot, the aft shield darkened slightly, then brightened heavily as the other shields dimmed.

"Clever bastards," remarked Kara.

"They reinforce specific shields after one takes a hit, drawing power from the others," Zula said.

"It must be done automatically. It is too fast for manual control," Suvak pointed out.

"And we are going to use that to beat them!" Sahar grinned.

"How?"

"Shuttles." This was met with silence.

"Huh?" Zula asked after a few silent moments.

"We use the phasers on the shuttlecraft to trigger the shield reinforcement on multiple shields simultaneously, while the

Athena

hits one of the others with everything we have."

"Are you crazy?" Zula cried. "Those shuttles won't last long outside our shields."

"They don't have to, just long enough for us to bring down their shields and beam the strike team directly onto their bridge, winning the exercise," Sahar explained. Again, the room was silent.

"Your logic is sound, but you are making a critical assumption," Suvak said.

"And what's that?"

"You are assuming that they will react to multiple attacks the same way they react to a single attack."

"They will," Sahar said confidently.

"How do you know?"

"Cause if they don't, we're screwed."

"Those shuttles are going to get hammered," Kara said.

"They won't see them as a threat. They're just shuttles," Sahar smiled wickedly.

"You mean vampire bunnies?" Kara laughed.

"Exactly."

Zula and Suvak looked at each other in confusion.

******

Deck 10, Crew Lounge, 0830 hours

Sahar sat in the window frame, staring out into space, well apart from everyone else in the lounge. She had just taken her findings to Commander Sull, who had reacted enthusiastically, and promised to present her plan to the captain. As she waited for Captain Lowe's decision, she went over her plan again. Or at least she had intended to. Her mind had wandered, thinking back over the last few years, wondering about her parents, and worrying about the next few hours.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Casana plopping down on the other end of the frame. "Hey, Harry, what's going on?" she asked cheerfully.

"Don't call me 'Harry'," Sahar said automatically. "I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

"About tomorrow's exercise."

"Yeah, I heard about your little scheme," Casana smiled.

"Kara?"

"No, Suvak. She asked my opinion on Gorn psychology."

"She told you my theory?"

"Yup."

"And?"

Casana shrugged. "I don't know. Sounds reasonable, I guess. It's not really my area of expertise."

"What is?" Sahar asked pointedly.

"You know: Exobiology, Chemistry, Military Science."

Sahar turned to look her in the eye. "No, that's not what I mean," she said.

"Oh, you mean my... ancestors? It varies. The Commission likes to mix it up a little. Let's see..." she sighed, closing her eyes. "Well, the last one was a surgeon."

"Figured that would be in there somewhere," Sahar grunted.

"Yeah, that came in handy," she giggled. "Let's see, he was-"

"He?" Sahar said in surprise.

"Huh? Yeah, the last host was a male."

"And you remember that? What it's like, I mean?" Sahar asked curiously.

"To be male? Sure, why?" Casana replied casually.

"Well, to us non-sex changing races, that's kinda weird. Especially for humans. We've spent a good deal of our time trying to explain what being one sex is like to the other."

"And how did that work out?" Casana said, tilting her head.

"Mostly, we just argued about it. One side would try to explain to the other, who wouldn't understand. Then that side would make a statement about the first side, and they'd get pissed, and there'd be marches and boycotts and riots and crap. And we just went on and on like that, taking turns being offended."

"And nobody ever got it?" Casana laughed.

"No, they just got pissed," Sahar sighed. "Hell, for most of human history, those fights ended with men telling women to shut up and go back to making dinner and not voting." Casana laughed softly. "So, what's it like? To be a man?"

Casana shrugged. "I don't know, I can't really explain it. It's different, but not really."

"That was helpful," Sahar sneered.

"Well, okay," Casana began, sitting forward. "It's different in a way because your body is different. Men are bigger, bulkier. They're bigger and stronger. And everything is rigid, stiff."

"Yeah, I know that." Sahar snickered.

"That's not what I meant."

"And women?"

"Women are smaller, more compact. They can stretch and they can glide. But it's all window dressing."

"What do you mean?"

"The big difference isn't what you are, it's what other people think you are. People think men are strong and brave and horny, so they are. And they think women are small, fragile, and shy, so that's how they are. But it's all an act."

"An act?" Sahar asked skeptically.

"It's unconscious, but, yeah, it's an act. It's not really who they are that matters, it's who they think they are. "

"So, what, we've all brainwashed each other into thinking we're different?"

Again, Casana shrugged. "Sort of."

"Again, not very helpful."

"Well, it's sort of a yes-and-no kinda thing. On the yes side, our expectations of others direct their behavior, just as their expectations of us direct our own. We all just go along with it because it's all we've ever known, and we don't question it."

"What? Of course we do! We question it all the time!" Sahar scoffed.

"Yeah, intellectually. But people don't do things for intellectual reasons, they do them for emotional reasons. And emotionally, it's a lot easier to just accept what we have always believed."

"And the on the 'no' side?"

"Well, the reality is right there in front of us, and no matter how much we ignore it, we eventually realize that we aren't all that different. Eventually, something wakes us up."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. It depends on the person. Maybe something big, maybe not. One way or another, the reality that we are all alike sneaks through, and we glimpse the truth. Sometimes, it changes one person, sometimes it changes a whole species."

"I suppose I can see that," Sahar admitted. "Before the Third World War, humans were obsessed with what it meant to male, and what it means to be female. We spent a lot of time figuring out where everyone was meant to be in society, what was natural and what wasn't."