Ad Astra :: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive ^{Beam me up, Scotty.}

Chapter Text

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Ensign Rachel Garrett sat alone in the small astrometrics lab, collating incoming information from Starfleet Command regarding the possible whereabouts of the mysterious Jem’Hadar ship. She had moved here from her bridge post with the XO’s permission, as the lab offered greater image resolution than the standard bridge science station.

Young and inexperienced though she may have been, Garrett attacked problems with a single-minded determination that impressed her superiors. The troublesome future-enemy vessel was ultimately just another problem to be solved by the application of data, analysis, and reasoned speculation.

The doors slid open to admit Lieutenant J’etris. “Ensign Garrett, right? May I interrupt?”

Garrett glanced up from her monitor with an immediate smile. “Certainly, Lieutenant. How can I be of assistance?”

There had been none of the hesitation or reticence J’etris had experienced from other personnel aboard ship. Perhaps Garrett was too new to have absorbed the xenophobia some of the others clearly struggled with at the sight of a Klingon in Starfleet uniform.

It was unpleasant, but far from unexpected, and in some ways, sadly familiar; the shortlived conflict between the Federation and the Klingon Empire had likewise been an uncomfortable time to be a Klingon in a Starfleet uniform, and at times J’etris had thought rather bitterly that any ease around her fellow officers had been dependent on letting them forget she was Klingon. Ambivalent though she was about her family and species, it sat very ill with her.

She’d been braced for more of the same here, or worse. Garrett’s reaction, or lack thereof, was very welcome indeed. And, frankly, what she had hoped for. “I have data on the effects of Jem’Hadar small-arms. I hope we will not be boarded, but we should be prepared. I would like to discuss them with you.”

Garrett blinked, clearly confused. “I’d be happy to, but wouldn’t that be more appropriate for Dr. Bennett? He’d be the person treating the wounded.”

“I thought it prudent to consult both of you,” said J’etris. That wasn’t entirely the case–she’d also been looking for an excuse to talk to one of her personal heroes. She was not going to admit that. There was damage to the timeline to consider, and also Chester’s justified outrage.

The young human stood and gestured to a nearby chair. “Please.”

J’etris handed over a PADD–Chester had insisted all the data they brought over be transferred to period-appropriate ones–before seating herself. “They’re polaron-based,” she said. “Note the anticoagulant effects on most humanoids.”

As the other woman’s attention shifted to the PADD, she took the opportunity to look at her more closely. The sacrifice of Captain Rachel Garrett and the Enterprise-C was what had made peace possible, and by extension, J’etris’s career in Starfleet, not to mention her human family. She valued both highly, and more so, she aspired to the spirit and courage that Garrett and her crew had embodied in placing themselves between the Romulan attack and people who had been their enemies as often as not.

Garrett studied the data-slate, her expression pinched. “Well, that’s… horrific. A weapon that causes the victim to bleed to death if not killed outright by the initial blast?” She looked up at J’etris. “Why– who deliberately designs cruelty into a small-arms weapon?” Garrett waved her hand irritably, having answered her own question. “These Jem’Hadar, obviously, but whatever for? Needless savagery for the sake of terror?”

“Exactly that,” said J’etris. “Brutality and fear. Or the threat of them. The Dominion is an imperial power, over a thousand years old, and it doesn’t keep control over all its territories through simple force of arms. Imperial powers seldom do. It uses the threat of the Jem’Hadar, and to be effective, that threat must be overwhelming, and the price of defiance total annihilation. Dominion rule sounds like a series of polite requests–but if you refuse those requests, the Jem’Hadar arrive, and your neighbors will think of you the next time they hesitate in complying. And that weapon,” she tilted her head at the PADD in Garrett’s hands, not bothering to keep the disdain from her voice, “is the Jem’Hadar, and the Dominion, in a nutshell. It is smart, it is efficient, and it is flagrantly and gratuitously cruel.”

In a moment of purely astonished dread, Garrett turned a horrified expression on J’etris. “How will you defeat them?”

“Pluck and luck?” said J’etris, with grim sarcasm. She sobered immediately. “But the alternative is unacceptable.”

Garrett turned away, momentarily overcome. “I don’t envy you your task.”

“It won’t be easy, but we’ve got better tools to fight back than we did even a year ago, and it isn’t as if this is the first imperial power the Federation has faced.” J’etris almost made a face–now she was sounding embarrassingly like Chester. “And we have allies. The Dominion isn’t going to stop with the Federation, and fortunately, the other powers in the Alpha Quadrant understand that.” And you’ll play no small part in that.

Garrett turned back, her expression skeptical. “The Federation and the Klingons? On the same side? That’s remarkable.”

“Less so than you’d think–though I won’t say it hasn’t had its tense moments.” J’etris grinned, enjoying this immensely. “And it’s a good thing it happened before the Dominion showed up, too.”

The science officer stopped herself before asking more questions, though she desperately wanted to know more about what lay ahead for the Federation in the coming decades. She held up the data-slate. “Thank you for this. I’ll make sure Dr. Bennett is fully briefed on the savagery of their weapons.”

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