***********************************************
USS Cuffe
Captain’s Ready Room
His Jem’Hadar guards threw him roughly into the darkened room. Terrence crashed into a chair. “Are you alright my love?” A familiar voice called out to him in the darkness, her sweet, familiar voice totally confounding him.
“Jazz,” he muttered. He looked up and saw his wife sitting behind his desk, her silhouette outlined by the starfield in the window behind her. Glover must’ve taken another knock to his head and was hallucinating.
“Lights, low illumination,” she said softly, and the room filled with dim lighting. A tall, beautiful, dark-skinned woman, her Starfleet uniform accented by a mustard green collar, sat in his chair. She gazed at him with almond shaped, caramel eyes that Terrence had been mesmerized by since he had first met her, though he never would’ve told her that.
“Jasmine,” Terrence said, slowly realizing what was happening. “Stop it,” he demanded. The thing wearing Jasmine’s face smiled, and Glover’s heart twinged because the shape-shifter had captured her gestures perfectly. He wanted to look away, but he forced himself to stare at the Founder, while steeling his gaze and his heart.
“I thought you might be more amenable to this guise,” the Founder said, shrugging. “But I suppose not.” Jasmine’s face folded in on itself as her body became a golden blob that briefly morphed into the visage of Ipotane that changed once again. Now another sepia-toned feminine face, this one with blazing yellow eyes stared back at him.
“Nice look, but I’m pretty committed to my wife,” Terrence joked. The shape-shifter shook her head.
“You don’t get it do you?” She said, her tone very disapproving. “I’m not a Changeling. I’m a Chameloid.”
“Yeah, right.” The shape-shifter sighed loudly in response.
“Not only am I a Chameloid. I’m a Starfleet Intelligence officer.” This made Glover sat up in his seat. He was dumbstruck, as the woman continued. “I want to know what you are doing here because you severely frinxed up my mission!”
“Cut the crap,” Glover snapped. “Because I’m not buying it.”
“Humans!” The shape-shifter sighed, throwing her hands up in frustration. She then proceeded to rattle off a special identification code that only a Starfleet Intelligence operative or a high-ranking Starfleet officer would be privy to. Glover wagged a finger at the woman.
“You guys are master infiltrators. I don’t think it would be too hard for you to murder the agent you took that code from and then impersonate them. That’s what happened with Ambassador Krajensky which I’m sure you’re aware of.”
“I am, but not for the reasons you think. But his death is part of the reason why I am here. SI figured if the Changelings can masquerade as Federation citizens, why couldn’t we return the favor? My mission was to neutralize and take the place of the Vorta we had assumed would be leading this mission, with my ultimate goal being to remove and replace the Founder commanding Dominion forces on Cardassia Prime. The presence of another Founder onboard threw a wrench in that plan. I had to improvise and assume its identity.”
“You’re one hell of a story teller,” Terrence flippantly remarked. “Care to tell me another whopper.”
The woman frowned, but continued. “I hadn’t expected the Founder to recognize I was a shape-shifter, and so when she tried to link with me, assuming I was a Changeling, I had to kill her, and then you’re ship attacked, and everything went to hell.”
“On that we can agree,” the captain said, retaining a mocking tone.
“Stow the cockiness,” the shape-shifter snapped. “Millions of Federation lives are at stake.”
“Because of you,” the captain shot back.
“Captain Glover I need you to release the codes to this ship’s mainframe.”
“Fat chance,” he replied.
“The longer we stay here, the greater the likelihood that my cover will be blown,” the woman said, her voice and expression fraught with tension. “If you release the codes, I can get you and your crew out of this alive.”
“So, you’re saying you will help us retake the ship?” Glover asked, still skeptical.
“No,” the woman shook her head. “I can’t do that. I’m sorry. I can’t allow my true identity to be discovered. This mission is too vital to the war effort.” She looked down, staring at the polished surface of his desk. “Your sacrifice won’t go in vain.”
Glover clapped. “Bravo.” The woman looked back up at him, confused. “Great performance,” he added. She snorted.
“When this is all said and done, at least I tried,” she remarked glumly.
“I assume we’re done here,” the captain said.
“Captain Glover, we haven’t even begun,” she said, her arms whipping forward from her body to knock him out of his seat, driving him against the wall. “You will give me those codes.” Holding him with one hand, Glover struggled helplessly as the shape-shifter’s other hand reared back, morphing into a hammer-like shape. “Last chance,” she offered.
“Do your worse,” he challenged, and she did.
************************************************
USS Cuffe
Nacelle Control Room One
Lt. Commander Pedro Rojas was disappointed. He had really wanted to retake Main Engineering, but once the team had reached the Jeffries Tube that would allow them to drop down into his station, they saw Jem’Hadar crawling over every inch of Engineering. There was no way they could take them all, and even if by some miracle they could, Pedro was certain that at least one of the horny toads would call for backup.
What galled him almost as much as the presence of the Jem’Hadar was the fact that the brutes were touching his consoles, his master systems display, and his tools. It felt like they had invaded his home, and the violation made him boil.
But as much as he wanted to shove the first hydrospanner he could get his hands on into the nearest Jem’Hadar’s face, Pedro knew the way to beat them was to outthink them. The Dominion forces might have numbers and arms on him, but there were very few who knew the Cuffe as well as he did.
After their plan had been aborted, another idea had come to him after they had reconnoitered in the Arboretum. If they couldn’t yet gain control of Engineering, they could cripple the ship long enough to keep the Jem’Hadar busy still. Though it pained him to continue, he had outlined a plan to sabotage the magnetic constrictors on the warp coils housed in the Cuffe’s twin nacelles. The disruption would cause a plasma buildup in each nacelle that might create a warp breach if the Jem’Hadar couldn’t figure out how to solve it.
Commander Bheto had caught on quickly, and she had finished his plan as if she had plucked the idea right out of his mind. “We’ll sweat the Jem’Hadar out,” she had said.
“Commander, it has not been proven if Jem’Hadar have pores,” Nurse Wyd had pointed out. Pedro had chuckled, but the XO had pressed on, oblivious to the unintended humor of the well meaning Grazerite’s comment. For his part, Wyd’s face wrinkled even more with confusion.
“We’ll force them to surrender if they want to prevent the warp core from breaching,” the Andorian had concluded.
“And if they don’t surrender?” Pedro had asked, not for his benefit, but so that the green crewmen around him knew the true direness of his plan.
“We’ll let the warp core breach,” Bheto answered. She had paused, glancing around the small circle. The expressions ranged from solemn to grim to hopeless, but no one voiced any dissent. Pedro had nodded with pride. There were no whiners or quitters in this bunch, he had marveled.
“All right, we’ll split up and each take out as many constrictors as we can before meeting back here in one hour,” Bheto had explained. Pedro still was marveling over how easily the once demur Andorian had assumed command of the group, taking his idea and turning it into a workable plan.
He stood now, with a phaser in his hand, staring up at the large, softly pulsating rings above him. He aimed at the metallic constrictors connecting the long string of coils, adjusting the weapon’s setting. The plan was to offset the coils, knocking them out of alignment, not to destroy them. Doing that would speed up the warp core breach. He nodded at Lt. Cha, and she reluctantly raised her weapon as well. When the chronometer on his wrist beeped he nodded at her, and they both began firing.
*******************************************
USS Cuffe
Captain’s Ready Room
His Jem’Hadar guards threw him roughly into the darkened room. Terrence crashed into a chair. “Are you alright my love?” A familiar voice called out to him in the darkness, her sweet, familiar voice totally confounding him.
“Jazz,” he muttered. He looked up and saw his wife sitting behind his desk, her silhouette outlined by the starfield in the window behind her. Glover must’ve taken another knock to his head and was hallucinating.
“Lights, low illumination,” she said softly, and the room filled with dim lighting. A tall, beautiful, dark-skinned woman, her Starfleet uniform accented by a mustard green collar, sat in his chair. She gazed at him with almond shaped, caramel eyes that Terrence had been mesmerized by since he had first met her, though he never would’ve told her that.
“Jasmine,” Terrence said, slowly realizing what was happening. “Stop it,” he demanded. The thing wearing Jasmine’s face smiled, and Glover’s heart twinged because the shape-shifter had captured her gestures perfectly. He wanted to look away, but he forced himself to stare at the Founder, while steeling his gaze and his heart.
“I thought you might be more amenable to this guise,” the Founder said, shrugging. “But I suppose not.” Jasmine’s face folded in on itself as her body became a golden blob that briefly morphed into the visage of Ipotane that changed once again. Now another sepia-toned feminine face, this one with blazing yellow eyes stared back at him.
“Nice look, but I’m pretty committed to my wife,” Terrence joked. The shape-shifter shook her head.
“You don’t get it do you?” She said, her tone very disapproving. “I’m not a Changeling. I’m a Chameloid.”
“Yeah, right.” The shape-shifter sighed loudly in response.
“Not only am I a Chameloid. I’m a Starfleet Intelligence officer.” This made Glover sat up in his seat. He was dumbstruck, as the woman continued. “I want to know what you are doing here because you severely frinxed up my mission!”
“Cut the crap,” Glover snapped. “Because I’m not buying it.”
“Humans!” The shape-shifter sighed, throwing her hands up in frustration. She then proceeded to rattle off a special identification code that only a Starfleet Intelligence operative or a high-ranking Starfleet officer would be privy to. Glover wagged a finger at the woman.
“You guys are master infiltrators. I don’t think it would be too hard for you to murder the agent you took that code from and then impersonate them. That’s what happened with Ambassador Krajensky which I’m sure you’re aware of.”
“I am, but not for the reasons you think. But his death is part of the reason why I am here. SI figured if the Changelings can masquerade as Federation citizens, why couldn’t we return the favor? My mission was to neutralize and take the place of the Vorta we had assumed would be leading this mission, with my ultimate goal being to remove and replace the Founder commanding Dominion forces on Cardassia Prime. The presence of another Founder onboard threw a wrench in that plan. I had to improvise and assume its identity.”
“You’re one hell of a story teller,” Terrence flippantly remarked. “Care to tell me another whopper.”
The woman frowned, but continued. “I hadn’t expected the Founder to recognize I was a shape-shifter, and so when she tried to link with me, assuming I was a Changeling, I had to kill her, and then you’re ship attacked, and everything went to hell.”
“On that we can agree,” the captain said, retaining a mocking tone.
“Stow the cockiness,” the shape-shifter snapped. “Millions of Federation lives are at stake.”
“Because of you,” the captain shot back.
“Captain Glover I need you to release the codes to this ship’s mainframe.”
“Fat chance,” he replied.
“The longer we stay here, the greater the likelihood that my cover will be blown,” the woman said, her voice and expression fraught with tension. “If you release the codes, I can get you and your crew out of this alive.”
“So, you’re saying you will help us retake the ship?” Glover asked, still skeptical.
“No,” the woman shook her head. “I can’t do that. I’m sorry. I can’t allow my true identity to be discovered. This mission is too vital to the war effort.” She looked down, staring at the polished surface of his desk. “Your sacrifice won’t go in vain.”
Glover clapped. “Bravo.” The woman looked back up at him, confused. “Great performance,” he added. She snorted.
“When this is all said and done, at least I tried,” she remarked glumly.
“I assume we’re done here,” the captain said.
“Captain Glover, we haven’t even begun,” she said, her arms whipping forward from her body to knock him out of his seat, driving him against the wall. “You will give me those codes.” Holding him with one hand, Glover struggled helplessly as the shape-shifter’s other hand reared back, morphing into a hammer-like shape. “Last chance,” she offered.
“Do your worse,” he challenged, and she did.
************************************************
USS Cuffe
Nacelle Control Room One
Lt. Commander Pedro Rojas was disappointed. He had really wanted to retake Main Engineering, but once the team had reached the Jeffries Tube that would allow them to drop down into his station, they saw Jem’Hadar crawling over every inch of Engineering. There was no way they could take them all, and even if by some miracle they could, Pedro was certain that at least one of the horny toads would call for backup.
What galled him almost as much as the presence of the Jem’Hadar was the fact that the brutes were touching his consoles, his master systems display, and his tools. It felt like they had invaded his home, and the violation made him boil.
But as much as he wanted to shove the first hydrospanner he could get his hands on into the nearest Jem’Hadar’s face, Pedro knew the way to beat them was to outthink them. The Dominion forces might have numbers and arms on him, but there were very few who knew the Cuffe as well as he did.
After their plan had been aborted, another idea had come to him after they had reconnoitered in the Arboretum. If they couldn’t yet gain control of Engineering, they could cripple the ship long enough to keep the Jem’Hadar busy still. Though it pained him to continue, he had outlined a plan to sabotage the magnetic constrictors on the warp coils housed in the Cuffe’s twin nacelles. The disruption would cause a plasma buildup in each nacelle that might create a warp breach if the Jem’Hadar couldn’t figure out how to solve it.
Commander Bheto had caught on quickly, and she had finished his plan as if she had plucked the idea right out of his mind. “We’ll sweat the Jem’Hadar out,” she had said.
“Commander, it has not been proven if Jem’Hadar have pores,” Nurse Wyd had pointed out. Pedro had chuckled, but the XO had pressed on, oblivious to the unintended humor of the well meaning Grazerite’s comment. For his part, Wyd’s face wrinkled even more with confusion.
“We’ll force them to surrender if they want to prevent the warp core from breaching,” the Andorian had concluded.
“And if they don’t surrender?” Pedro had asked, not for his benefit, but so that the green crewmen around him knew the true direness of his plan.
“We’ll let the warp core breach,” Bheto answered. She had paused, glancing around the small circle. The expressions ranged from solemn to grim to hopeless, but no one voiced any dissent. Pedro had nodded with pride. There were no whiners or quitters in this bunch, he had marveled.
“All right, we’ll split up and each take out as many constrictors as we can before meeting back here in one hour,” Bheto had explained. Pedro still was marveling over how easily the once demur Andorian had assumed command of the group, taking his idea and turning it into a workable plan.
He stood now, with a phaser in his hand, staring up at the large, softly pulsating rings above him. He aimed at the metallic constrictors connecting the long string of coils, adjusting the weapon’s setting. The plan was to offset the coils, knocking them out of alignment, not to destroy them. Doing that would speed up the warp core breach. He nodded at Lt. Cha, and she reluctantly raised her weapon as well. When the chronometer on his wrist beeped he nodded at her, and they both began firing.
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