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== Omoikane 01 - Space Dragons ==

We were mapping out the spinward frontier past the Galra and the Jigufor. Things were not stable in that area, and more information would be helpful.

There was a zone of subspace static. Noise. Interference. We were trying to find out the reasons behind it. It clouded our view past that area.

An alarm sounded on the tactical console.

"Whups! Weapons fire off the port bow. Range, seven light years," Stephanie Anderson said.

"Set course and engage, best speed. Galaglan, once you're ready, we'll advance to flank speed." I said.

The USS Omoikane (Oh-moi-kahn-ey) turned and rushed in the direction of trouble. She was a big fish. One of the newest Amani-class cruisers. Her warp drives ate up the distance quickly.

We saw a small ship versus a large ship, but we couldn't get much detail at that range. They exchanged weapons fire. It looked like polaron beams and torpedoes versus something plasma-based. The ships merged. I hadn't seen a hostile docking and boarding operation for quite some time. It’s an aggressive and risky move. The victim of the boarding can do almost anything and mess things up for both parties very badly. Like both ships exploding, badly.

When we were an hour out, the bigger ship disengaged and left. It made a high sublight speed dash into the region of the north pole of the star they were near. Then it disappeared into the magnetic and radiation interference caused by the star's pole. I figured they'd wait until the wrong moment for us and then come rushing out.

We dropped sublight very near the victim ship. Time was of the essence.

From the remains, It looked swoopy. It was a stealth ship. Something tickled the back of my brain. No time for that now. "Hail them. Scan for life forms."

Vaurpuchu hailed the ship. Tillean scanned for life forms. "I'm reading humanoids. Orion, mostly."

The ship had been blasted and then torn. It looked like old scans of large grappling hooks used 400 years ago by Orion Pirates. Hull plates ripped in parallel, triangular tears.

There were semicircular bites taken out of the hull. The edges were melted. Some sort of plasma-edged grappling hook. One of the warp nacelles was shredded and partially missing and showed the effects of the violent grappling.

It sort of made sense. Even ruined warp drive coils could be sold for recycling. But the attack was exceptionally violent. The stricken ship would have been worth more as a prize if it had been taken relatively intact.

We closed at high impulse. "Rescue stations, when we get close enough, start beaming those people off of there."

The screen cleared to show a yellow/green Orion man. He was wearing some sort of techno-looking headband. The universal translator synced "What are you doing? You'll summon the dragons!"

"Would you like us to beam you off your ship?" I asked

"Yes, please! Then flee!"

We got into transporter range and beamed 83 people off the stricken ship.

The last one to beam aboard was the man we spoke to. He was carrying things. Some looked like crystalline memory units.

"Welcome to the USS Omoikane," I said. "We are a starship of the United Federation..."

The lights flickered, and the display screens scrambled briefly. "What in the hell?"

The transporter officer was looking at her control panel. "Some sort of subspace interference, Captain. It’s powerful."

I turned "I'm Captain Hailey. Put your stuff down, it'll be safe. Then come with me.”

"Lieutenant Sharmarlaz," He said, putting down his belongings. "You should escape, now."

We headed for the turbolift to the bridge.

On the way, Red Alert sounded. "Captain to the bridge!" Li'ira called.

-*-

We bombed out of the turbolift and onto the bridge. The Omoikane was turning away from the wrecked ship.

"The raider has come out of the zone of interference. We think the subspace blast was him. It was very powerful. We're hailing."

Sharmarlaz said, "He's called his fellows."

"Captain, I'm not sure what I'm seeing here, except it's not good." Stephanie Anderson said.

I went to the Tactical panel.

The scan of the raider was weird. Just weird. At this range, we should be able to see the opposing captain’s breakfast plates.

What I was seeing instead was a mass. I could see the hull plates. They were some very odd form of tri-phased duranium, coated in crystalized silicon and carbon. They overlapped strangely. The raider was running very hot. Melted metals hot. It was an ellipsoid body with a long neck and a pod on the front, not unlike the Klingons or the Romulans.

The Warp Engines were symmetrically mounted along the top of the main hull, but... they were ... moving, almost like some sort of liquid, or tendrils.

There was one life sign, and it covered the whole raider.

"What in the hell?" I said

"You've never seen a dragon before?" Sharmarlaz asked

Tillean looked at the scan. "It's a life form, Captain! A molten metal life form!" She was equal parts scared and excited.

"I have a visual." Varupuchu put it on the screen

It was a dragon. The pod on the end of the boom was its head. I yelled, "Are you KIDDING me!?" Its scales gleamed in the sunlight.

We could see some damage from the dead scout ship fighting back. Not much. The dragon opened its mouth. Rows of teeth turned into arc lights. They were coated in plasma. It looked about as hot as our drive plasma.

"Engines to full, evasive maneuvers! Engineering, we'll need warp drive if this guy doesn't listen to reason! Hail him!"

<nowiki>**</nowiki>Warp Drive at your discretion,**

The dragon spread its wings. Weird liquid metal, the same stuff as our own warp coils, but in liquid form. How did it stick together? How did it stay in shape? On the scans, I could see energy doing very interesting, very wrong things.

"He's going to warp!" Stephanie called

"No, He's not," Sharmarlaz said

Plasma played across the liquid warp drive wings, and there was a burst of light.

The Omoikane shuddered

"Static warp bubble!" Stephanie called, "Warp drive offline until we get out of it!"

"Full power to impulse drives. Helm, get us away from that thing."

The Dragon opened its mouth again. A ball of horrid fire erupted from it.

"Plasma Torpedo! Class R!" I couldn't tell if Stephanie was enjoying herself or was scared.

"Arm Phasers, target that torpedo, fire at will!" I was NOT enjoying myself.

The Omoikane seemed to tilt as Ensign Tarla fought to keep things moving in our favor.

The phasers lit up. It was the first time we'd fired them in anger. Although plasma torpedos are scary, phasers could damage them a bit. Our phasers sliced through the plasma and the magnetic field, causing some of the plasma to spill. The torpedo was weakened.

The Omoikane shuddered again as it hit, but it wasn't a bad hit. "Shields down by thirty percent in that facing," Stephanie said.

Then the dragon fired beams out of its eyes. I was interpreting them as eyes. I guess they were weapons emplacements. Two beams of hot green plasma raked across us.

"Light damage in upper aft quarter, Shields down by another fifteen percent," Stephanie said.

"He's closing. He's faster at sublight than we are," Li'ira's voice was quiet and tense.

I looked at the closure rate, and did some math, "Tarla, fly straight away from him. Engineering, dump warp plasma into the impulse engines."

<nowiki>**</nowiki>Please confirm?** Galaglan said

"Confirmed!"

The Omoikane leaped forward. Bless her, Galaglan isolated one of the engines on each side. If worst came to worst, we wouldn't be entirely immobile.

Even so, the dragon closed, although more slowly.

"Divert energy reserves into the aft shields."

More beams. Our shields were still holding, mostly.

Varupuchu's board beeped happily, "We're clear of the static warp bubble."

"Warp two, engage!" I said

The Omoikane leapt to warp speed.

"Set course ninety mark zero, galactic reference," I said.

The dragon came warp and gained on us.

"Advance our speed to match his," I said.

I watched his warp bubble. It was wonderfully subtle and elegant. A side effect of living liquid metal warp ... wings

And there it was. He crested the energy peak and reached his next energy plateau. "We win. He's using dilithium moderation."

The Omoikane was using disodium. We could outrun him.

He was blasting subspace static.

I had a thought. "Tarla, set course Z minus 90 galactic reference."

Our ship nosed down. "Keep increasing speed until he tops out. I want to know how fast he can go."

"Signal from the ... creature," Varupuchu said, "audio only."

I nodded, and he put it on the speakers.

"Meat things. I see you. I will enjoy eating you soon."

"Can we talk about this?"

"I fail to see the benefit to me."

"Are you sure we can't hurt you?"

"Perhaps, but never permanently. Run while you can. I will find you. Maybe one of my siblings or my children. Your ships are tasty treats. I enjoy eating them."

"The Federation is an organization of peace, but we will defend ourselves if need be. We'd much prefer talking and negotiation."

"I can see where that makes sense for you. My preferences are different. Please feel free to build battle fleets and challenge us. The denser the metals of your ships, the tastier they are for us."

The dragon broke off the pursuit and wandered back towards the wreck.

It was using an Ancient Orion frequency and code to talk to us.

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