Chapter 13
Chapter 12
Stardate 57228
She moved silently through the brush, like a cat. There was no sound but the natural birds and insects, and the rustle of leaves in the wind, as she made her way through the humid jungle brush. Her senses were strained to their utmost as she tried to sense the positions of her opponents.
There. One of them was just ahead of her, well hidden. She saw him, though, and knew that he had not yet spotted her.
The Jem’HaDar warrior was stealthy indeed. His scaly, grayish skin allowed him to blend into the underbrush like a chameleon. But now that she knew where to look...
She made her way around the perimeter. It took time, but she had all the time in the world. Rushing things just wouldn’t do; some things simply take time.
The Jem’HaDar had his back to a large tree, and his weapon was trained outward in the most likely direction of her approach. He had good cover... but not good enough. Kitty managed to silently sneak up to the opposite side of the tree. She pulled her combat knife from the shoulder sheath.
Then she struck.
She came around the tree, blade swinging around as she came. The blade pierced the Jem’HaDar’s armored vest, piercing ribs, lung and heart with a single mighty blow. The Jem’HaDar died before he even knew he’d been struck.
And then she was moving again. She heard the shots of other energy weapons striking the trees behind her as she melted into the jungle again. She heard the Jem’HaDar following, racing after her on foot.
That’s right, she thought. Break cover. Come and find me.
By the time the Jem’HaDar warriors following her had gotten thirty yards into the brush to follow her, they’d lost her.
There were three of them, and they were well trained. They worked well as a unit, each of them covering a zone so that they had three hundred sixty degrees of visual coverage. They moved almost as silently as she had. They didn’t rush, but they weren’t too tentative either. They moved with methodical, deadly purpose.
For all the good it did them.
She dropped down from the branches overhead with an animal roar, landing directly on top of one of them. The warrior that she landed on went down and rolled away, but he wasn’t out of the fight. Her blade sliced outward and upward, and another of the Jem’HaDar looked down at the rifle that had fallen out of his hand. Then he realized that his hand was still holding the rifle, and he stared in shock at his severed right wrist.
She was still moving, never stopping. The third warrior wisely dropped his rifle--- it was useless at such close range anyway --- and drew his knife. He struck at her, and she blocked the strike, steel against steel, and then dropped low, striking at the warrior’s leg a glancing blow. The warrior gasped in shock and lowered his blade slightly as pain lanced through his injured leg. Her hand reversed direction cutting back in the opposite direction at a higher angle, slicing neatly through the Jem’HaDar’s pectoral muscle. She reversed direction yet again, slicing through the side of his neck. Blood sprayed as she cut through his jugular vein. His hand clamped over the deadly injury trying to stem the flow of blood, and his guard disintegrated completely. She kicked his right knee out, and the Jem’HaDar hit the ground hard. By the time he tried to stand again, he had already lost too much blood.
The first Jem’HaDar came at her and she met his charge, twisting sharply. Her Aikido throw spun him through the air to land heavily on his shoulders. He rolled with the fall and tried to get back to his feet, but she stayed with him, catching his head in a chokehold from behind. She purposely fell backward, pulling him on top of her, and wrapping her legs around his body. She squeezed his neck till he stopped struggling. And when his body stopped moving and relaxed, she TWISTED as hard as she could, snapping his neck. She pushed him off and rolled to her feet.
Then she approached the one with the severed hand. He was screaming now, but a quick blow from the back of her knife to his head stopped that quickly enough....
Moments later, four more Jem’HaDar melted out of the brush, converging as a group on the scene of the fight. They saw their two dead compatriots, and the warrior whose hand had been severed was still there as well, dazedly staring at his hand. One of the Jem’HaDar approached his wounded comrade...
There were sudden sounds as holes appeared in the heads of all four warriors. And then another sound as the one with the severed wrist was also shot between the eyes from the unseen sniper.
She stepped out of the brush and dropped the Jem’HaDar rifle she had just used to such great effect. She paused for a moment, sniffing the air around her. There, she thought as she caught the scent of her enemies. To the east, three more.
She melted back into the brush silently.
*******
Kitty exited the Danger Room with a grin on her face. She joined Lilandra, Picard and Geordi who were in the Danger Room’s control center, having just observed her “workout”.
Kitty had set up a particularly intricate combat scenario in a jungle setting, which had pitted her against 20 Jem’HaDar opponents. Kitty had defeated her artificial opponents through evasion, stealth and combat tactics that would have done the most experienced veterans of Starfleet’s special forces proud. Picard had once again been impressed with the abilities of his new Tactical officer.
Kitty had been right in her description of the Danger Room. It was very much a “holodeck on steroids,” combining state-of-the-art holographic and robotic technologies to create the most realistic artificial environment Picard had ever seen. Geordi had commented throughout the exercise at the realism of the scenarios and the technology involved in its creation. Picard was under the impression that Geordi was going to be able to write more than one paper on the subject to submit to Starfleet Engineering for their review. Without a doubt, Starfleet would start incorporating some of “Geordi’s” ideas into the next generations of Holodecks.
“Have fun?” Picard asked Kitty as she entered.
“Absolutely,” came Kitty’s heartfelt reply. “It feels really good to cut loose like that after so long. I really needed that.” She stretched some sore muscles happily. “Care to give it a try?”
“No thank you, Commander,” Picard replied wryly. “I fear that after that performance, my own would pale in comparison. I wouldn’t last two minutes in a scenario like that one.”
“We can decrease the difficulty level to one you would feel comfortable with, Captain,” answered Lilandra. “Or if you would prefer, we need not make it a combat scenario at all. The system works quite as well for entertainment.”
“When was the last time you had a good ride on a horse, Captain?” asked Kitty.
“It’s been quite a while,” admitted Picard.
“Then go ahead, Sir,” she suggested. “The sim’s already in the Danger Room’s memory. I think you’ll like it.”
Picard warred with himself for a moment. “Perhaps another time, Commander, Your Majesty.”
“Well, if you change your mind, the Danger Room is open to you and your staff for the duration of your stay --- barring, of course, the needs of the Imperial Guard for training purposes,” Lilandra replied. “Consider this a standing invitation. In the meanwhile, if you’d like, we can complete the tour of the Imperial Guard’s headquarters.”
“Thank you,” replied Picard. “I would enjoy that very much.”
Kitty grinned. “Give me five minutes for a shower and I’ll join you.”
******
As they exited the headquarters, Picard turned to Lilandra. “Thank you very much for this tour, Your Majesty. It was very enjoyable.”
“You are quite welcome, Captain.”
“I would like to invite you and your entourage to tour the Enterprise as well,” he added.
“We would like that,” replied Lilandra. “Of course, if we do that, then I must insist on a similar tour of the Starjammer.”
“Perhaps tomorrow, then?” Picard inquired.
“That would do very well.”
“Excellent. I will have Commander Pryde make the appropriate arrangements. In the meanwhile, I really must return to my ship. I’m sure that Commander Riker is looking forward to some free time planetside, right about now,” he said with amusement.
“Very well, then, Captain,” Lilandra replied with a smile of her own. “I’m an old soldier myself. Far be it from me to get between a man in uniform and his shore leave. Until tomorrow, then.”
*****
When they had beamed back to the ship. They headed for the bridge and relieved Riker, who made a hasty exit.
Picard turned to Kitty. “That went well,” he said.
“Yes, it did,” Kitty answered. “I think she may be loosening up a bit.”
Picard looked at Kitty for a moment. “What’s on your mind, Kitty?”
“I’m just going through what happened today in my mind.” She sat back in the chair next to his.
“Is there something in specific that’s bothering you?”
“No not really. I guess I’m just getting old... the magic is wearing off.” She smiled at him. “Ever go to an amusement park when you were a kid?”
“Of course,” he replied. “One of my fondest memories was a trip to the Disney Land in my native France.”
“Have you been back there since?”
“Once. It wasn’t the same.”
“Exactly,” she concurred. “You had grown up. The magic had worn off. I guess you could say that you saw the hidden strings.”
“Yes.”
“That’s how being back here in the Empire is for me,” she said. “I was very young the first time I came here. It was so magical for me; a trip through the stars, meeting a technologically advanced race. But now --- I don’t know. Every time I’ve been here before, I still felt that magic. But this time, I can see the strings.”
“Meaning what?” Picard asked.
“When I first came here, their technology was, I dunno, twenty generations ahead of ours. Now, it’s only three or four.” She smiled ruefully. “Don’t get me wrong, Captain. That Danger Room session was fun. It always is. But when Lilandra told us that the Danger Room tech had been advanced, I was expecting more. I guess being older and having a better understanding of the technology took away some of the excitement for me.”
“Twenty generations, you say? How long ago was that?” Picard asked.
“A lot longer than you would think, Captain,” she answered. “I’m a lot older than I look. But even given the amount of time in question, they should be making technological advances just as quickly as we are. We seem to be catching up to them, tech-wise. We’ve been in space for only about three-and-a-half centuries. The Shi’ar have been in space for nearly five millennia. And while humans tend to be great innovators, we should not have been able to catch up to the Shi’ar so quickly. Not if they were developing as quickly as they should be.” She turned to Picard. “Thank you, Captain. I think you’ve help me hit on the problem that’s been bothering me.”
“What could be causing a slowdown in Shi’ar technical development?” asked Picard.
“I don’t know, Captain,” she said resolutely, “but now that I know that the problem exists, I intend to find out.”