The Fury of Mama and Papa

Posted on Mon Jan 18th, 2021 @ 8:16pm by Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD
Edited on on Mon Jan 18th, 2021 @ 8:16pm

Mission: The Gauntlet
Location: Unnamed Class-M world, Federation space
Timeline: Two weeks after "Not a time for heroes"

WARNING: this post has extreme violence. Really, really extreme. This is the sort of violence that goes beyond anything Star Trek has done on-screen and would not be out of place in an 18+ film. While we believe that this violence is necessary for the story that we’re trying to tell, this nevertheless may not be to everybody’s tastes. If extreme violence is not palatable to you, please, don’t read any further.






The past few weeks had been the hardest weeks of Shae’s life. Balanced precariously in an emotional torrent between grief, sorrow, and rage with just the tiniest dash of hope, she would randomly bounce between righteous fury and tears as she and Cailus travelled to the location they had been given. The nights offered no reprieve as when she started to drift off to sleep was when she devolved into uncontrollable sobs. She didn’t know how to process their loss; the child they had been raising had been a clone, a fake, but that fake was still an innocent child that had struggled and fought her way back to health and had earned her rightful place in her parents’ hearts! How would they reconcile that with the child they were going to rescue? How could she grieve properly when her ‘real’ child was still out there?

Shae splashed some water on her face then looked into her bleary eyes in the mirror, evidence of the sleepless night she’d had; regardless of her conflicted feelings, she needed to push it all down and get her game face on, they would be arriving at the coordinates anytime now. Another splash of water and then a rub at her tired eyes seemed to return a much more serious demeanor, and once she dried off she left the bunks and headed up to the cockpit where her husband and mate was piloting their shuttle.

“How far out are we?” she asked Cailus as she entered the cockpit, punching in the code to the replicator what passed for tea on this shuttle.

“Five million kilometers,” Callus responded. As wrecked as he had been following Aoife being taken from them, he had focused like a laser since being given a target. Buried deep, below layers of ice fury and determination, there was a seed of guilt; like this, he was a poor husband, incapable of helping Shae the way she needed, of being with her throughout the grief. Nevertheless, he didn’t let it affect him. The mission, the other Aoife, came first. Beyond his needs, beyond Shae’s, beyond anything.

“Nothing on sensors, and they shouldn’t catch us unless we light up the impulse engines.” he said, glancing at Shae. “We’re set for insertion.”

“I’ll take us in when we’re ready to hit atmo,” Shae replied, then sipped at her poor excuse for tea, the hot liquid hitting her gut like a lead weight. Her stomach was in knots as she’d ended up heaving during her crying fit that night, and she was disappointed to find that the condition of her stomach hadn’t improved. “I trust that all our gear is ready?” she asked as she sent the faux-tea back through the replicator then sat down beside her husband.

Callus nodded, looking ahead out the viewport. The planet was visible now, and growing larger slowly but surely. Thick bands of green, with only occasional splashes of blue for the planet’s sparse oceans. The world hadn’t even been in the Pandora’s computer, concealed through some spy trickery, and it had taken extraordinary means to find it and get there.

Nevertheless, they had arrived. Aoife was there, waiting. Her parents were coming. Cailus’ own stomach was a mess, despite his glacial demeanour. It had occurred to him more than once that the child they were going to rescue was one who had never met him, had no idea who he was. Realising where that line of thought was headed, Callus shook it off, working the controls.

“Can you run a scan for lifesigns without them detecting it?” he asked, glancing at Shae. “This place doesn’t show up on any maps. These people might just be arrogant enough to not bother shielding their base.”

“They’re arrogant, but not stupid,” Shae said, her demeanor now taking on a similarly icy veneer as Cailus; with her emotions bottled up, she on the mission. “Keep us on target, I’ll see what I can do,” she said, knowing that there were a few tricks she’d learned from her former masters that might get a read on lifesigns, or at least one lifesign in particular. After a few minutes, the planet in the viewport grew closer still as her fingers danced over the console, and in the end she answered his query with a sigh and a shake of her head.

“No luck, they’re shielded,” she said. “I’m able to read a lifesigns cluster, but I can’t pinpoint a specific one without alerting them. We’ll be blind going into the facility.”

Callus frowned. “We’ll make it work,” he said dismissively, and working his own console as the planet grew yet larger in the viewport, a hologram of the planet popped up in front of them. He highlighted the cluster of lifesigns that Shae had identified on the far side of the planet. It was late afternoon there, although the shuttle’s sensors determined that the weather was atrocious.

“Take us down, Shae, ten kilometers from the facility to the south, behind that ridge,” Callus ordered. Even though neither he nor Shae were wearing uniforms (indeed, the shuttle was technically stolen), the habits of a lifetime were hard to break. “The storm will give us good cover, but it should pass by sunset. We’ll trek up to the perimeter, camp, then attack an hour before dawn.”

Finally a glimmer of realisation struck through Cailus’ obsessive concentration. He grunted to dispel the tension in his throat, glancing at Shae. “Sorry. Habit. You’re the expert, you take the lead. Can you land us safely in that storm without the impulse engines?”

“‘Safe’ is a relative term, I would highly advise wearing the safety restraints,” Shae cautioned as she buckled her restraints then took control of their heading. “And don’t apologize; I may be a specialist, but you have always been a leader and I have no qualms about accepting orders from you,” she said as the heat of their entry into the planet’s atmosphere caused flames to flicker and dance around the edges of the viewport.

“Right,” Callus said, pulling on his own restraints, refocusing. The shuttle began to shudder violently at the steep angle of descent, the shields flickering blue out the viewport at the tremendous friction against the atmosphere. Although normally a perfectly safe maneuver, Shae’s reliance on only the atmosphere to slow them from orbit was straining the shuttle’s tolerances to the limit.
He didn’t voice it, but Cailus was half-ready for a phaser blast from the ground to vaporise their shuttle in a flash despite Shae’s flying. It was an insane thing that he and Shae were doing, almost suicidal, but it hardly mattered. They were always going to do it anyway, no matter what the odds.

Alarms blared but soon enough they were through the most dangerous part of the flight. The Section 31 people hadn’t detected the shuttle’s arrival or else Cailus and Shae would’ve surely been dead already. Kilometers below, a thick roiling black mass awaited them, the stormclouds looking profoundly ominous from above. It was a stark contrast to the bright sunshine above them, the empty blue skies around the shuttle looking remarkably peaceful as it descended towards the storm.

“Transferring power from the shields to inertial dampeners,” Callus said as he worked the controls. “Still nothing on sensors.”

Shae simply nodded in reply, so intensely focused was she on their descent. As the shuttle entered the storm clouds, Shae sharply leveled off their descent, sending them coasting through the darkness to burn off the rest of their speed, but the maneuver had Shae looking positively green as her stomach threatened to revolt against her once again, so much so that a fine sheen of sweat broke out across her face. Breathing through the strain in her body, she kept the shuttle on target, piloting through the turbulent storm and making their landing just where Cailus had ordered. When the shuttle finally came to a stop, she leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes and breathing hard as her head rolled back.

No sooner had they landed then did Cailus release his restraints and stand up. He tapped the button that lowered their shields entirely, and immediately wind and rain began to hammer on the hull, the distant sound of thunder rumbling powerfully. His mind full of tactics, equipment loadouts and the like, it took Cailus a good few seconds to realise Shae wasn’t standing up too. Moving between the chairs, he crouched down to eye-level with her.

“Shae?” he said with a frown of concern, his true self peeking out beneath the soldier.

Shae’s facade faltered as well as she turned her head and opened her eyes to meet his. Smiling sweetly, she brought her hand up to caress his cheek. “There you are…” she said softly, glad to see the loving gaze of her husband one last time before they headed out. “I’m okay, just had a rough night,” she said in answer to his unasked question.

“We’ve had a few of those lately,” Callus said with a sigh, looking over Shae with plain worry. Taking her hand, he kissed it lightly before gazing at her again. “This is going to be the most dangerous thing either of us have ever done,” he said softly. “We both need to be at 100% if we’re going to save her. We can wait twenty four hours, get some proper rest…”

“No, I won’t let her stay there a moment longer than she has to,” Shae said firmly, finding the strength to lift her head and begin removing her restraints. “Besides, the longer we stay, the greater chances of being found. No, I’m good to do this, I just needed a moment after that maneuver,” she affirmed as she slipped back into her role, ready to head out. Wiping the sweat from her face, she stood, then followed Cailus back through the shuttle.

Besides, they could rest once Aoife was safe and they were off this god forsaken planet.

The following few hours were tedious, if taxing. After waiting in the shuttle for the storm to pass, Callus and Shae faced a lengthy trek through the alien jungle to reach the concealed base. It was dangerous. Various wildlife emerged from hiding in the aftermath of the storm, ranging from nasty looking reptilian creatures to one enormous creature that looked like a mix between a spider and a wolf, and far more deadly than either. Only their tricorders and Shae’s sharp senses kept them out of danger, but as the sun set, the journey grew even more dangerous.

Only the light of three large moons illuminated the jungle, casting everything in an eerie light, the light filtering inconsistently through the jungle canopy. Nevertheless, staying silent themselves so that Shae could focus on listening for threats, the two marched on. Unable to use their phasers for fear of detection, they relied on the most primitive of weapons; Callus’ sword, Shae’s bow and arrow. Forced to maintain a quick pace, the trek was enormously physically demanding, Callus forced to cut his way through dense foliage. At one point, only a desperate slash of the sword saved Cailus from being snapped by a carnivorous plant, he and Shae running away for a good ten minutes afterwards. Two hours later, Shae’s arrow only just killed a monstrous red snake which had been sneaking up on them as they took a break.

Finally, exhausted, Callus and Shae arrived at their destination, the edge of a cliff that looked down on a valley below. Carrying all their supplies and weapons so that Shae could stay light on her feet, Callus’ strength was nearly spent after the arduous journey and he dropped the rucksack with no small relish. Trees surrounded them still, the ground still wet from the storm, but now that they were at the cliff edge, Shae and Cailus could see the stars twinkling above.

But more importantly, they could see the edge of a building down in the valley. Aoife.

Had they not been on this mission, Shae would have been head over heels as a scientist; despite the danger, this place was a marvel that she would love to come and study, but that all got pushed back as she knelt at the edge of the ridge and peered down at the building below. Her eyes cut through the darkness, allowing her to trace out the shape of the facility nestled amongst the trees; thankfully, it was a familiar layout, and if the interior was anything similar to other buildings she had been in, then they would not be going in completely blind.

Shae returned to Cailus and briefed him on what she had gleaned while they set up camp.

“So once we get inside, I recommend you go find Aoife while I take out the shields and plant the explosives,” she said in conclusion, retrieving a ration bar from the pack and sitting on a log to nibble on it.

“Agreed,” Callus said. The tent was set up and carefully camouflaged, a simple sensor alarm providing them a modicum of security, enough that Cailus was comfortable enough to take off his weapons. There were a lot of them: a phaser rifle, two smaller phasers, his sword, a combat knife, photonic grenades. Sitting down on a different log opposite Shae, Callus grabbed a ration bar as well.

“How do we get inside?” he asked as he took the wrapper off and took a deep bite. Taking a moment to chew and swallow, he added, “The last time I attacked a place like this, I had eighty troops with me, and most of them died in the attempt. Stealth is not my specialty.”

Shae smirked with a huff of a laugh. “I know, you told me,” she said, pausing to chew on her ration bar. “The journal you left me in the Bubble, I read it… memorized it, actually. I would hear it in your voice when I thought of you,” she said, but her voice bore none of the emotion normally attached to such words. “Anyway, I’m thinking of how to get in; Section 31 rarely leaves openings to exploit,” she added with a sigh.

Callus grunted in reply, wolfing down the last of his ration bar. With that he took a deep swig of water, gasping as he finally finished before lapsing into silence as he gazed at the ground, deep in thought. A minute later, he looked up at Shae, then out in the direction of the valley.

“Some of these people are trained like you were, and the rest were probably trained like Starfleet Security,” he said slowly. “Stealth. Infiltration. Small teams, minimum casualties. Precision and efficiency. Their defence plan for a small team of infiltrators probably expect people like them. Like you. Maybe you specifically.”

There was a truly vicious look in Cailus’ eyes as he looked at Shae. “They won’t be ready for someone who uses my tactics. Maximum collateral damage. Loud, noisy. Use of distraction tactics and overwhelming force.”

Shae tilted her head in thought. “If all eyes are on you…” she mused aloud; then maybe they wouldn’t be looking for her… “We don’t have overwhelming force on our side, but we can still disrupt the order of the facility. Fire… we burn it all down, the whole valley if we have to… The grenades you brought should shake things up enough to get them to come out and I can sneak in behind them and clear the way for you to enter.”

“Yes,” Callus said coldly, unaffected by the prospect of the slaughter they were contemplating. “I’ll set up at the front entrance and wait. You flank around to the back entrance. Plant some explosives on your side and detonate. Then I attack. They’ll think the explosions are nothing more than a distraction for my move. If these people are trained like Starfleet, I can handle a couple of security teams and get to Aoife while you deal with the shields and...whatever else you need to do. Then we blow the damn place to hell after we beam back to the shuttle.”

Shae nodded. “In case they don’t fall for it, we should have a backup plan… I can handle the assault should they come through the back entrance instead, so just keep raining down havoc on them until they respond to you, but if they’re insistent on pursuing me, I’ll give them the chase of their lives to make it easier for you to move freely through the facility.”

“Agreed.” Callus said curtly as he reached into the rucksack and pulled out some more water, handing it to Shae. The silence around them was almost unsettling, given the murderous intent they shared; the jungle itself seemed quiet now. One of the moons had set, reducing the light a little, the air thick with the smell of damp vegetation after the storm.

Callus’ brow furrowed as he looked at Shae. As much as he wanted to focus, to simply to go into the tent and sleep until it was time, a thought niggled him. It wormed its way into his mind, demanding attention.

“Shae,” he said quietly, “this...this is going to be hard, but if it comes to a choice between saving me, and saving Aoife…”

“Don’t,” Shae said with a hard gaze. “Don’t go there. I know this plan is insane, but I’ve already lost you both before, I have no intentions of losing either of you again. If it comes down to it, I’ll choose in the moment based on what option has the highest probability of successful escape. But don’t you dare tell me to choose her over you, because I love you both too damned much for that kind of nonsense.”

Callus met Shae’s hard gaze with a glare, but even he could see that Shae wouldn’t bend, not on this, not with that look in her eyes and her ears flat like that. Finally he sighed, relenting.

“Fine,” he grumbled. “I can’t argue with you when you’re using that logic. We’ll just have to do whatever it takes to avoid that being necessary.”

Shae grinned; she knew she wouldn’t have to turn this on him, asking him to take care of Aoife should something happen to her because that was something that had already been discussed, and with their marriage and the adoption, it was a foregone conclusion that Cailus would love that little girl with everything he had.

“Get some sleep, dearheart, morning isn’t far off,” Shae said, then turned her gaze towards the valley to keep watch.

Gazing at Shae, Callus hesitated, opening his mouth to say something, but not finding the words. He couldn’t say it, how he couldn’t stand to lose any more, not after Aoife, how much he loved Shae, how terrified he was of losing her, of living on without her. Instead, he settled for standing up and squeezing Shae’s shoulder lightly, hoping that she understood, before moving inside to get some much needed sleep.

Once inside the tent, Shae glanced towards the camouflaged structure with a wistful smile; she did understand, having heard the breath caught in his throat as he struggled to find words and knowing exactly what was left unsaid.

“I know, my love, I feel the same way…” she whispered softly into the breeze, then returned to her watch.

Hours later, the distant horizon only just beginning to brighten with the coming sun, Callus and Shae were ready. They parted without ceremony, both focused on what was coming, Callus taking a concealed position near the front of the entrance while Shae seemed to disappear into the jungle. Lying on the ground, watching the unguarded front entrance, Callus simply waited. Festooned with weapons, clad in grey fatigues and wearing an armband to cloak him from sensor detection, his position was deeply uncomfortable. The butts of the phasers dug into his ribs, occasional insects crawling near and over him.

He didn’t react, though. He stayed perfectly still, ready for explosions that would mark the time to attack. Settled in an odd state of mind, carefully balanced between white-hot fury and machine-like calm, he waited. The only thought in his mind was that of little Aoife on the bathroom floor, a half-eaten cookie in her hand, grinning up at her shocked soon-to-be father, her little fluffy tail wagging happily.

Shae’s mindset was of a similar vein as she made her way around the back, remaining calm and focused as she found the back door and placed the grenades, then she paused for a moment to remember Aoife’s smile, her laugh, her little chirps of excitement and even the unique chirps she had to identify her parents.

’Hold on, my little starlight, mama and papa are coming…’

Shae set off the grenades, quickly ducking behind a sizeable rock for protection, then waited. The sparse seconds that passed felt like eons, and when the grenades finally went off and blew fire over her head, it all felt strangely distant, like a slow motion out of body experience with the sounds of chaos all muted around her. She rose, her bow in hand and armed with an arrow, and moved forward, firing one shot after another as personnel appeared through the smoke, felling them one by one until the smoke cleared to reveal that her way was now clear. Time seemed to snap back into pace and she grinned and entered the facility; now the real fun could begin!

When the explosions came, Callus’ only movement was to slowly draw one of the phasers holstered at his hips, slowly increasing the setting up...and up...and up. All the way up. He counted to ten, to twenty, to thirty, before finally standing up as well, aiming the weapon at the large front door of the base and fired.

The detonation was enormous, the screech and subsequent thunder of the phaser blast ringing through the jungle. Without pause, Callus switched his aim to a wing of the building with expansive windows and fired again, a massive gouge being taken out of the building and debris falling around him. A third shot, this time at the top of the building, destroying sensor arrays, a hulking phaser turret and various other things.

Throwing the depleted burnt-out weapon away, Callus dispassionately unslung his phaser rifle and walked forward with steady inevitability. Heedless of the debris and bodies around him, he moved in through the door, following the directions Shae had suggested. Two black-clothed humans with phaser rifles of their own, a man and a woman, ran around a corner only to instantly fall to pinpoint phaser fire, vaporising with pained screams.

Callus didn’t even break his stride.

Shae could hear the chaos brewing at the front end of the facility and she grinned like a madwoman! Her heart was racing with the thrill of combat as she raced down the halls, leading a group of armed personnel on a merry chase until she had decided that they were grouped well enough for her to turn mid stride and throw another grenade. The sound of their screams amidst the explosion caused a maddening laughter to escape her as she resumed her pace down the hall. As she hit a turn, she leaped up to run along the wall so as to not break her momentum, merely redirect it, she launched several arrows into more personnel responding to the explosion. Finding herself now in a room that seemed to contain a computer core, she came to a halt and cleared the area to make sure no one was left standing. Shouldering her bow, she approached the main console to see what kind of trouble she could get into.

Shields? Not any more…

Shuttlebay? Lock those down!

It was then that Shae turned her attention to the data on any experiments going on within the facility. She tried to find any relevant data on Aoife, and on herself seeing as that would likely be stored here as it was relevant to any research done regarding Aoife, but there was truly too much data for her to sift through to find what she was looking for, so she glanced around. Yes! A portable data drive! She grabbed the drive, no bigger than a standard PaDD, and set it on the console to link it, then started downloading everything, or at least as much as could fit on the drive; with any luck, she would get the data on Aoife and herself, and if not, then at least she would have other valuable data to turn over to Starfleet Intel as a consolation prize.

Meanwhile, Callus was in trouble. A trail of bodies had been left in his wake, but finally the shocked Section 31 agents had amassed a response as he reached what had to be the corridor that accessed where Aoife was being held. The past three teams had attempted various tactics; an ambush at an intersection had failed, Callus charging into their midst and slashing madly with his sword. The second, a coordinated flank on both sides of a corridor by two teams, had fallen victim to grenades that incinerated both teams within seconds. The third, a co-ordinated phaser barrage by one team holding a strongpoint, lasted all of five minutes before pinpoint phaser fire cut them down, Callus not even bothering to take cover as he’d advanced on them. All failed at Cailus’ hands, his reckless and almost suicidal actions enough to win through and kill them all. Alarms blared throughout the facility, red alert lighting flashing, an increasingly anxious voice barking orders through the base intercom.

Now, though, some bright spark had finally found a tactic that might work. As Cailus peered around a corner, he saw yet another black-suited team standing in the corridor and raised his rifle to fire, only realising too late that the Section 31 security team were armed not with phasers, but with batons, a large device of some sort sitting on a tripod between them...

The phaser rifle, overheating from overuse, exploded in Cailus’ hands, burning his face and hands as he cried out in pain. The security team rushed him, but Cailus was still conscious, still as obsessive and rage-filled as before, and he had enough awareness to unsheath the katana from the scabbard on his back. A fresh memory; the sword’s former owner at only seven years old, black-haired and full of life, looking up at her father and asking when he’d be back from space.

The security team mobbed Cailus, one grabbing the hilt of his sword while the other three hammered him relentlessly with their batons. Callus reacted instinctively by stepping back violently, pulling one of the team with him, punching the woman with his free hand. The instant she let go at the thunderous punch to her jaw, the katana moved with unnatural speed, beheading the woman in a single stroke.

The sheer violence of the act seemed to stun the rest of the team, but only momentarily as one of them drew a particularly nasty Klingon knife, a d’k tahg. Glaring coldly at them, Callus waited only a moment before attacking, the sword flashing without pause, killing another security officer in seconds, stabbing the Vulcan through the heart. The final two lasted longer, before finally one of them got through, stabbing the knife into Cailus’s shoulder before pulling it back out.

The wound was enough to stagger Cailus backward, but it only stopped him momentarily. Moving even quicker and more savagely than before, he charged the two security agents and killed them in quick succession with rapid slashes and stabs to the heart.

His face visibly burned on the right side, his hands shaking with the same burns and his shoulder bleeding profusely, Callus still looked completely impassive as he continued on, checking the door codes as he went before finally finding the one he needed and opening it.

In the computer core, the data was nearly finished downloading, but Shae had been anything but idle. In between taking out any staff that entered the room, Shae had also been attempting to locate Aoife to make it easier for Cailus to get to her. Instead she found a room of horrors, stasis beds lined up in a bay, all full of deformed monstrosities of her! This sucked the breath out of Shae as she accessed each chamber one by one. Some looked ‘normal’, but the medical record showed internal deformities, while the majority of them looked grotesque, but that didn’t stop the scientists from trying to figure out why her genetic code was the way it was. Much to her relief, most of the subjects were dead, their corpses kept in stasis for ‘research purposes’, but there were a few still alive, if one could consider machines forcing the bodies to breathe ‘alive’. It was a gut-wrenching sight and it took all of Shae’s willpower to not lose her composure right then, but then she resolved to save one of her explosive charges for that room; deformed or not, these beings did not deserve to suffer!

Swallowing past the lump in her throat, Shae continued looking for Aoife and nearly cried out in joy when she found her. Stars above, there she was, alive! Alive but in pain; surrounding the tiny, frail child were three medical personnel, one holding her down, one drawing fluids with an extractor, while the third prepared additional tools. Aoife lay still, not daring to move or make a sound, but Shae knew she was alert because she saw the child blink on the security feeds.

“Cailus,” Shae said over her comm device, her voice breaking ever so slightly. “I’ve found her. She’s in medical bay 3. Be careful, the staff have her out for testing.”

Pulling the communicator from his belt, Callus glanced both ways down the corridor as he stood outside the door, blood still dripping from the katana. “Acknowledged. I’m outside the medical bays now. Rendezvous here as soon as you can.”

It would’ve been smarter to wait for Shae, Callus knew, but he wasn’t thinking straight in that moment. His body ached horrendously, his burns on his face and hands almost overwhelming, any movement of his shoulder sending lightning bolts of pain throughout his chest, but the pain just fed his cold calculating rage. His last remaining phaser was useless in the dampening field generated by the device on the tripod behind him, so Cailus pulled a tiny circular limpet from his belt and attached it to the door. It promptly opened, revealing a small medical bay that was clearly intended for only one person. Three medical personnel stood beside the table, but they weren’t whom Cailus saw first.

The sight of Aoife on the table, so identical to the bright child Cailus had loved and raised, took his breath away. One of the medical technicians, a Vulcan, stepped forward, unarmed, but Cailus didn’t care a whit, the katana once again beheading the man in a flash of green blood and steel. The sword moved on its own accord by that point; Cailus barely even noticed.

Only just remembering that Aoife was there, Cailus forced himself to stop, panting, his hands shaking with the sword. His shoulder, still bleeding, was hurting even worse now, his heart hammering so hard it felt like it’d burst. “Leave,” he ordered the other two medics in a shaky voice, glaring. “Now.”

The little girl on the table fixed her eyes on the bloody and burned man and they shimmered with recognition. Daring to defy her captors, she drew on strength and courage she didn’t know she had to raise a hand out towards the bloody man, knowing to the core of her tiny body that he was her savior, but more importantly than that, he was…

“Papa,” she said in a whisper soft voice, raspy from lack of use.

The sound of Aoife’s voice, broken, pained, was enough to break through to Cailus through his cold rage. He moved away from the door, keeping the sword raised, but the med techs knew better than to test him, the two survivors hurrying out the door without a second look.
Sheathing the katana, Callus looked over Aoife, wincing at how thin she was. “Yes, Aoife, it’s me,” he said, so overwhelmed that he didn’t even question how she could know him. As carefully as he could, ignoring the pain from his shoulder and the burns, not to mention the blaring alarms of red alert, Callus picked Aoife up. He set her in her usual position on his hip, as if it was just another day on the Pandora. “Mama is here too, okay? And we’re all going home now, I promise.”

Aoife released a pained whine and simply nodded in response. Without the strength to hold herself upright, she leaned into his chest and clutched his jacket tightly.

“How touching.” Callus’s eyes snapped up, his free hand diving down to his phaser, only to stop halfway when he saw that it was pointless: he was caught. A black-suited older man stood in the doorway, a phaser aimed squarely at Cailus’ head. White-haired and with craggy features, the man looked at Cailus with cruel disdain.

“Set her down, Commander,” he commanded. When Cailus hesitated, the man narrowed his eyes. “The alternative is little Aoife watching your head explode. Set. Her. Down.”

Slowly, carefully, Callus acquiesced, setting Aoife back on the table before standing straight. His wounds ached even more now, but Cailus couldn’t find his center, not with Aoife there as a distraction. He was left to just glare at the man who held him at phaserpoint, helpless.

“An impressive attack, Commander,” the man said mockingly. “I’m sure that Kalin is around here somewhere, but she will be dealt with in due course by my security teams. You came close, I admit. The loss of my staff is unfortunate, but it’s only a setback. Recapturing Kalin is well worth the price. Capturing you...well, we’ll figure out what to do with you soon enough. You are a genuine hero of the Federation, someone who has tragically been misled by a confused young woman. We will remedy that, I promise.”

The man considered Cailus with an analytical eye. “I am also a protector of the Federation, Commander, a Director of Section 31, a clandestine subunit of Starfleet. Everything we do here, everything Kalin has done, everything even little Aoife will one day do, is to preserve billions of lives. It is a shame that you don’t understand that.”

“Like hell,” Callus retorted, his voice thick with rage as he looked at the muzzle of the phaser. The phaser.

The phaser.

Without hesitation, Callus reached up and drew the katana from its scabbard in a lightning-fast movement. The Director frowned before pressing the button on the phaser...except nothing happened. He only had a second to react, his eyes widening, before Cailus was upon him.

Except it didn’t matter. The man moved with impossible speed, ducking under a slash of the weapon and slamming a fist into Cailus’ ribs. Callus tried to slash again only for the Director to dance to the side, stomping hard on one of Cailus’ knees and drawing an agonised cry from him.

Again Cailus tried to attack, this time with a dummy before the real blow, a stab, but the man seemed to predict him, catching the katana with both hands on the bloodstained steel, the point of it mere centimeters from his heart. Callus grunted as he pushed, strength matched against strength, but he was losing, his ravaged shoulder betraying him; the Director twisted the blade to the side, his own cold determination identical to Cailus’s, his pitiless eyes fixed on Cailus’s.

Then the Director twisted the sword violently the other way, sending the katana flying from Cailus’s hands to bounce loudly off the wall. Callus had the awareness to duck, hammering the Director’s ribs with his fist in retaliation, but the Director seemed to hardly notice. A flurry of blocks and punches followed, almost too quick to see, but the Director was faster than Cailus. Although Cailus managed to slam his fist into the Director’s nose, surely breaking it, the older man responded with a savage backfist to the head that sent Cailus staggering, stunned by the blow.

From then on, it wasn’t even a fight. Callus tried to fight back, a punch here and a kick there, but the Director was brutally sadistic. Each punch was blocked or evaded, each kick deflected. The Director retaliated each time with savage blows; jabbing Cailus’ shoulder wound, stomping again on the same knee, repeated and calculated strikes to his ribs.

Callus was getting thrashed, knew it, and couldn’t do a thing about it. It was a humiliation, but more importantly, defeat meant losing Aoife. He tried to rally, managing to grip the Director and throw the man bodily onto the floor, but the Director skillfully managed to pull Cailus onto the floor as well. Before Cailus could react, he was lying on his back with the Director kneeling on his chest, the older man landing thunderbolts on Cailus’ skull with his fists.

It only took three punches for Cailus to stop resisting, lying limp on the floor under the relentless assault.

“STOP!” came a tiny cry from the table. Aoife had watched her Papa fight and knew she had to fight too, but her little body was simply too frail, she could barely crawl across the table. But somehow she had managed the maneuver, even propped herself up on her elbows, and in her hand was a laser scalpel. A faint memory bubbled up in her head as she activated it, one where her Mama said she would rather die than to ‘go back’. “Stop,” Aoife repeated as she pointed the shiny laser end at herself.

“Aoife,” Callus whispered painfully, his eyes swollen and his lip bleeding as he looked up at her. “No…”

The Director, however, had indeed stopped at the threat, a fist frozen high in the air. “Okay, little Aoife, okay, I will stop now.” He glanced down at Cailus with a snort of dismissal. “Well, I’ll stop if he will.”

The Director stood up, wiping his bleeding nose with irritation, although when he looked at Aoife, he seemed oddly impressed. “Remarkable. It worked. You can put the scalpel down now, Aoife, there’s a good girl. See? I’ve stopped hurting him.”

Even with this minimal exertion, Aoife’s hands started to shake, but she didn’t lower the scalpel. If anything, she seemed more determined to go through with her threat, but what had once started out to be a threat now only needed to be a bluff as she saw someone standing in the doorway.

“Big trouble now,” Aoife said with a weak smile, then dropped the scalpel and flopped weakly onto the table.

Just then, the Director felt a warm breath against his neck and all the color drained from his face; there was only one person who could sneak up on him so silently, so he had no need to see who was behind him to know that he was well and truly fucked. He found himself flung across the room like a helpless doll, then suddenly Shae was atop him, her features looking more and more wild and feral by the second. She was growling, a low gutteral sound that was felt more than heard, as she remained poised above him as though waiting for something, possibly the sound of him begging for his life.

“Oh Kalin, you are a magnificent creature, aren’t you,” he said instead.

Apparently, that was enough for Shae, pushing her over the edge of the feral transformation that had been creeping up on her. Suddenly, she was a towering beast, lifting the Director with one hand around his neck and holding him above her head against the cabinet lined wall. Then with her other hand, she traced a line down the center of his chest with a claw, ripping open his jacket and the shirt underneath to reveal the bleeding welt from her claw. Then with a savage snarl, she plunged her hand through his breastbone, and when she removed her now bloody hand, within she held his heart. As she watched the consciousness and life fade from this worthless sack of bleeding meat, she took a bite out of the heart, only to spit it out with disgust. With a snort, she tossed the man aside, then turned to look at her mate and her child.

Beaten and broken, Callus struggled to get back to his feet, his head ringing painfully. He looked at Shae, scarcely believing what he had seen as she had bitten into the heart, blood staining her fur.

“Shae?” he asked cautiously, leaning heavily on the table for support.

The beastial Shae padded closer, reaching out to touch his cheek as she so often did, her touch so lovingly gentle even in this form. She leaned in to nuzzle against his cheek, and by the time she pulled away, her fur was starting to recede and her stature slowly diminishing. Then she looked at Aoife, her darling child, and moved closer to pick her up.

“Oh my poor little one,” Shae said softly as she hugged the child close, her shape now nearly back to normal. Little Aoife, her courage spent, devolved into heart wrenching little sobs of relief now that she was safe. “Come, my love, I’ve set the facility’s power generators to overload and the charges are set,” she said to Cailus, freeing up a hand to offer it out to him.

Callus took Shae’s hand, letting her steady him. He glanced at the grisly scene of the dead Director and the headless Vulcan, the once pristine medical bay now a mess of red and green blood. Taking a breath to steady himself, Callus moved over to carefully pick up the sword before returning to Shae and Aoife.

“It’s finished,” he said looking between mother and child as he pulled the communicator from his belt. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

With that, he tapped a button on the device. A moment later, all three of them vanished in a whirl of blue sparks, never to return. Yet another team of Section 31 agents rushed into the medical bay just as they beamed out, but it was far too late, the family having escaped.

Ten minutes later, Shae, Callus and Aoife watched from high above in orbit as a bright light shone on the planetary’s surface, marking a titanic antimatter explosion as everyone involved in the nightmare was utterly erased from existence.

END