Drawn Into A Trap

"Captain, I'm picking up a distress call from a small vessel," Ensign Jenkins said at the conn station.

It was the first hour of my graveyard shift, and I was in command. Things had been quiet as most nights were, so I had been reading transporter manuals in hopes of learning more about the Space element and increasing my teleportation range. I set my pad aside and brought up the distress call on the console built into the chair. It was a Vidiian signal requesting medical assistance, so I could not help but sigh when I saw it. Before I could decide how to respond, Pedira paged the Bridge.

"Pedira to the Bridge."

"Yes, Pedira, we are also picking up the distress call," I replied.

"It's my cousin. The alert is a level five meaning that her life is in danger," Pedira explained.

I sighed, knowing this had been bound to happen, and said, "I'll contact Captain Janeway and see what we can do."

"Thank you," she replied.

"Ayala, start scanning for any other Vidiian ships," I instructed then tapped my badge, "Bridge to Janeway."

"Yes, Rebecca?" Janeway replied.

"We have picked up a distress call from a Vidiian ship. Pedira says that it's her cousin is on the ship and I've started scanning for other Vidiians, but there is a class nine nebula less than a light-year away," I explained.

"Go to Yellow Alert and call the Senior Officers to the Bridge, Pedira as well. I'll be there shortly," Janeway ordered.

"Yes, Captain," I replied then tapped my badge again. "All Senior Officers to the Bridge. Yellow Alert. Rebecca to Pedira, please come to the Bridge."

"So much for a quiet night," Jenkins complained.

"You wanted a life in Starfleet, right?" I chuckled as I typed out a message to the Fae Dragon, so that Katye, Raven, and Echo could get ready.

She smirked and nodded her head. Janeway was the first to arrive with Pedira, Tuvok, and Chakotay right behind her. While I explained the situation to Chakotay and Tuvok, B'Elanna, Harry, and Tom walked out of the turbo lift and relieved the people at their stations.

"I must point out that this is likely a trap. Our sensors cannot penetrate the nebula," Tuvok remarked.

"I agree, which is why I suggest that I take my ship to investigate since we can stay cloaked the whole time," I offered.

"We would need to drop out of warp to launch your ship, so if they are monitoring us, it would alert them of your possible presence," Chakotay warned.

"True, but it puts the Voyager at a lesser risk. The Fae Dragon is designed to use 'hit and run' tactics, so we can break out of an encirclement far easier than your ship can, if it really is a trap," I replied.

"Tom, come to a complete stop. We'll wait here and be ready to jump to warp or come to your aid," Janeway decided.

"Yes, Captain," Tom agreed.

"I'll alert my crew and take off as soon as I'm onboard," I said.

"Thank you, Rebecca," Janeway replied, sitting down in her chair. "Pedira, you can sit beside me."

I gave her a nod then headed to the turbo lift. Leaning against the back wall, I tapped my badge and said, "Rebecca to Fae Dragon."

"We got your message, Becca, and the ship is ready to fly," Katye replied.

"Thanks. Janeway is sending us to investigate the Vidiian ship while keeping the Voyager back and ready to run," I explained. "I'll be there in a minute."

"Alright, we'll take off once you are onboard."

The doors to the turbo lift opened and I stepped out. It was a short walk to the Fae Dragon, and I felt the ship take off when the door shut behind me. When I reached the Bridge, I found Raven at the Conn station, Echo at Tactical, and Katye was at Operations. I smiled at them as I walked over to the Science station and sat down.

We were traveling at warp, and I could already see the pinkish nebula ahead. The Vidiian ship was still not visible, but we had another two minutes before we dropped out of warp. Raven approached the side of the vessel so that it was between us and the nebula while Katye tried to hail the ship and I scanned what I could around us.

"There's no answer," Katye said.

"Well, she is supposed to be dying by her distress call and our sensors are only picking up a single, weak life-sign. If the convenient setup is real, she could be too sick to respond," I replied.

"And what are the chances that it's actually real?" Echo mocked.

"Meh, I'd give it a twenty percent chance that she truly is in trouble," I retorted as I stood up. "The real question is whether or not she had anything to do with it. Any objections to Raven coming with me to check out the Vidiian ship?"

"No," Katye replied while Echo simply shrugged.

"Alright, Fae, transport Raven and I over to the Vidiian ship," I said.

I felt Fae's sensors lock onto us, and then transport us to the other ship. The ship's layout was the same as Pedira's, with a large centralized lab area, a Bridge, an Engine Room, and a set of quarters. There was a Vidiian woman laying a few steps away from the door to the Bridge, so Raven and I walked over to her. I knelt down as I pulled out my tricorder and scanned her.

"She's still alive, but barely. Can you check the logs and see why she was out here?" I asked.

"Sure," Raven agreed and headed to the Bridge.

I gently rolled the woman over, and saw the bio-neural implant that I remembered Danara having. If she was having the same problem as she did in the show, then her problem was in her brain, so I touched her head and started channeling my healing spell. Thanks to the boost in Soul Power, and my regular practice with it recently, I could control the spell with much more precision than when I had healed Pedira, so by the time that my tricorder noted that her vital signs had stabilized, the difference in her appearance was not too obvious.

"So, good news, bad news," Raven's voice said from my comm badge which meant that she also had Katye and Echo on the line. "It's Danara Pel, and she has nothing to do with the Sodality's plan to capture L'Naan and Becca. The downside is that she is fleeing the Sodality because they tried to take her into custody, but she managed to escape with a friend's help. They targeted her after Pedira's research spread through the upper levels of the Sodality."

"Do you know why she is by the nebula?" Katye asked.

"She was hiding from a patrol, but recognized that her condition was deteriorating quickly, so she was forced to come out and send the distress call," Raven replied.

"It's too convenient. If she was running from her government, the last thing anyone should do is broadcast their signal and that they are weak," Echo argued.

"People do stupid things when their lives are in danger," I retorted.

"Or they were just using her as a distraction, five Vidiian warships just dropped out of warp around the Voyager," Katye said.

"Damnit! Beam us back," I growled, picking up Danara.

Fae's sensors locked onto us and beamed the three of us aboard. Raven headed for the Bridge while I carried Pedira upstairs. I laid her down gently on my usual couch and turned to the pixie and fox.

"This is a friend and Pedira's family member. She's sick, but stable for now. Can you two watch over her?" I asked.

"Of course," Filigree agreed.

"We are about to get into a battle, so be careful," I said.

The little pixie nodded, so I headed back downstairs. We were already at warp and the image of the Voyager's Bridge popped up on the main screen as I walked onto the Bridge. It was clear that they had already taken some damage, but only Pedira seemed stressed currently.

"Captain, how is Voyager holding up?" I asked.

"We've been better," she said dryly after they were rocked by a volley of hyper-thermic charges.

"We're on our way with Danara onboard; unconscious, but stable. Once we are in range, if you can drop to impulse, we can help even the odds," I offered.

"A single ship, even one as powerful as yours, cannot match their fire power," Tuvok warned.

"They were hunting Danara and used her as bait to draw us into a specific location. We can keep running, but that just gives the Vidiians more time to call in reinforcements. Katye and I have a couple of tricks that we have not revealed yet. The two of us can match up to another ship, possibly two, since we have not tried to use these powers directly against a vessel, but it's your call, Captain," I replied.

"I'm picking up another three Vidiian ships on an intercept course at heading one five nine, mark eight. We are heading straight at them!" Harry announced.

"How much longer until you're in range?" Janeway asked.

"We need another minute," Raven replied.

"The additional Vidiians will be here in ten," Harry added.

Another volley of charges must have hit the Voyager as sparks flew, smoke spewed from the ceiling, and several people were thrown from their positions before the feed cut out.

"There was a direct hit to their starboard nacelle. Their warp engines are off-line, and the ship is leaking plasma," Katye explained.

"Well, I guess that settles the fight or run question. Your exo-suit can still cloak you when you are in your Dusa form, right?" I asked.

"Yes, but the cloak will deactivate once I cast any spells, just like the ship does when it fires, or my old ring, which the enchantment is based off of," she replied.

"Alright... Raven and Echo, take the ship into a defensive position around the Voyager, but keep a lock on Katye's signal. Katye, you can stay cloaked while you prepare one of your large-scale spells, then once the power of it has been released, Fae can beam you back to the ship and then you can beam back out once your cloak can reactivate. I'll provide the distraction and see just how strong my Dragon Body is," I said, giving them a rundown of my plan.

"Do you really think this is the best time and place to test your Dragon Body? Without a helmet, your exo-suit is useless," Raven asked, looking back at me like I was crazy.

"It's not like I can get you or Voyager to do the testing," I retorted. "True Dragons are renowned for their physical bodies throughout the Endless Firmament, and I will be able to use my Chaos Storm better in that form. It's not as crazy as you think... I hope."

"Katye," Raven said, hoping for some help.

"We don't have a lot of options with the Voyager's engines disabled," Katye sighed. "But you better be careful."

"When am I not?" I asked and then chuckled at the deadpan stares of all three women. "Okay, don't answer that."

We dropped out of warp and could see the Voyager exchanging fire with four Vidiian ships, so they must have managed to disable one of them already. I gave Raven and Katye a quick kiss while Echo held me off with a glare.

"You better be safe," she said.

"Of course, ai homplei," I replied before teleporting myself into open space.

Immediately, I transformed into my Dragon Body, feeling every inch of me swelling with power. It was an intoxicating sensation, one that I could easily see myself becoming addicted to, as I felt strong enough to take on the Q, but I still knew that there was a large gap between me and them, unless I released the Chaos inside of me.

Our ship was still cloaked, but I could sense a void in the region around me, so I knew it was them. With a flap of my wings, I charged into the fire fight between the Voyager and the Vidiians. I was ignored at first, but I proved that it was a mistake as I released a breath of crimson lightning at the first ship and then slammed my body into it. I managed to dig my talons into the hull as they were thrown back by my momentum, but when I tried to bite the ship, the shields prevented my teeth from sinking in.

Another ship was coming around to help the one that I was attacking, so I released another blast of lightning at point-blank range before I kicked off the ship. I conjured my Chaos Storm Clouds and manipulated them to hide my large frame in a thick blanket of fog. My vision was unaffected, but the Vidiians were not so lucky and missed me when they fired their phasers, managing to hit the first ship I had attacked.

The Fae Dragon uncloaked as it started firing on the ship that had tried to attack me, so I let them have that ship and turned to the other one that the Voyager was not focusing on. I rushed at them, and they managed to dodge my main body, but I used my Chaos Storm to lengthen the reach of my tail and I whipped them backwards along my course. I released another stream of crimson lightning, before I grabbed the ship in my talons. I let my Chaos Storm cover the entire ship and used it to drain power from it.

There was a massive burst of mana that I recognized as Katye's, so I turned my head and looked in her direction. A beautiful violet lotus bud formed around her Fairy form and hid her as the mana became fully opaque. It twisted in space so that it was pointing at the first ship that I had attacked and then bloomed, shooting a beam of pure mana at it. The ship was already damaged, so when the beam hit, it cut a long streak across the side of it's hull, which caused several small explosions a moment later.

I pulled back my storm clouds and tore several holes in the ship when I kicked off it. The Vidiians seemed to realize that they were outmatched, and the ships that could, started retreating. I flew over to where Katye and the Fae Dragon were floating in space. Like it was the most natural thing, and with our past lives it might have been, I held out a claw and Katye landed on it, before she reached out to touch my snout.

{Raven says that the other Vidiian ships have dropped out of warp and are keeping their distance. We're safe for now.} Katye's voice echoed through my mind.

I nodded my head slightly, but she understood the meaning. She jumped off my claw and was beamed back to the Fae Dragon. I looked back at the four Vidiian ships, two of which were towing the other two away, before I moved closer to the Fae Dragon and transformed back to my normal appearance as I teleported myself back onto the ship.

Although I was a little tired, there was a big smile on my face. That had been one of my favorite times fighting anyone, or anything, and we had handled it with ease. There were still challenges ahead of us, but we had more strength than I thought.

I walked into the Bridge where Katye, Raven, and Echo were. The ship was flying back to its usual spot in the Voyager's Shuttle Bay, but Fae must have been driving since Raven stood up and rushed over to me.

"Are you hurt?" Raven asked.

"No, the ship missed me," I replied, pulling her into my arms.

I kissed her happily which she returned. Katye gave me a relaxed smile when Raven and I parted while Echo also gave me a smile. The ship landed, so the four of us headed to Engineering, and I continued on upstairs to pick up Danara. Filigree and Nyka followed me back downstairs, and we already had a guest aboard.

"Danara!" Pedira exclaimed as she hurried over to me.

"She was unresponsive when we arrived, but I was able to stabilize her vitals," I said.

"Thank you so much," she said softly, looking down at Danara in my arms.

"Of course, Pedira. Do you want me to take her to your ship or Sick Bay?"

"Sick Bay, if there is anything else wrong with her, the Doctor will be better at treating her."

"I should go see if B'Elanna needs any help with the repairs," Raven said.

I nodded and she walked off the ship, but that allowed us to see Janeway approaching the ship.

"I'll take Danara. If there are any injuries, I can also help the Doctor. Filigree, why don't you come as well?" Katye offered with open arms.

"Thanks," I replied and transferred Danara to Katye carefully.

Katye, with Filigree on her shoulder, and Pedira walked off the ship while Janeway entered a moment later.

"Care to join us for a drink, Captain?" I asked with a smirk.

"We're not out of danger yet," Janeway reminded.

"I don't plan on getting drunk, but I've learned to celebrate the small victories. How about a cup of coffee, at least?"

"That, I can do."

"Then come on up," I said then started up the stairs. I grabbed a bottle of wine from the fridge and said, "Fae, replicate a cup of coffee, black."

Echo took a seat on one of the stools as I placed the bottle down and then picked up the cup of coffee, passing it over to Janeway.

"So, Captain, what can I do for you?" I asked as I poured a glass for Echo and me.

"For starters, are you okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, the Vidiians only got a single shot at me, and it was a miss."

"Then you really were that..."

"Dragon; yes, that was me," I chuckled and took a sip from my cup.

"How long can you be in that form?"

"Just be in it? As long as I want to, but fighting like that, I can probably push myself to ten minutes before I run dangerously low on mana. And for your next question, Katye can probably fire twelve of those energy beams, but not back-to-back since it takes time for her to cast spells like that. She's also vulnerable while casting which is why her exo-suit has cloaking capabilities."

"The more time I spend with you and your crew, the more I understand why Starfleet keeps your race classified," Janeway said, rubbing one of her temples, which made me laugh. "The Vidiians retreated, but until they are out of sensor range, I'd like for you and your ship to be on standby."

"Of course, Captain. This will be my only drink, and I plan on refilling the ship's core before meditating to restore my own strength," I assured.

"Thank you, Rebecca," she replied.