Star Trek: Eleventh Fleet

Ep4: Chapter 3: Rage

 Upon seeing the flash of rage on the Founder's face, Kal quickly stood up and exclaimed, "SCOTTY, SECURITY TO..." In an instant, the Founder seized him and flung him against a wall.

"You...you arrogant, pitiful solid. I'm going to make your death long and painful." The liquid creature lifted a small tentacle holding Kal's comm badge and smashed it, crumbling its remains to the floor. "HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED THIS DAY! I WILL KILL EVERY SOLID ON THIS STATION, STARTING WITH YOU!" He lashed out and grabbed Kal by the arm and threw him up against the ceiling again and then flung him up against the buzzing computers, destroying screens on impact.

Kal felt bones breaking as this insane creature assaulted his body. However, just as it slammed him once more into the ground, Kal found his face next to the unconscious security guard. He grabbed her phaser and pressed and locked the fire button, sending a non-stop wide beam at the founder. The gel creature screeched as the beam hit its rippling form.

Not wasting time to watch this, Kal got to his feet and limped out of the room, sure that he was only making his injuries worse with each painful step. He hoped the monster would focus on him and leave the security guard alone. "I have to find help."

Just as he rounded a corner, he heard the founder come crashing out of the laboratory and slam into a wall. It was an immense mass of gel lashing out and screaming in a dozen different voices. Not willing to face this thing unarmed and already injured, he continued down the corridor. This wasn't the best plan. He could see that most of the corridor was without power and damaged, with the hallway collapsed at the end and damage or naked space blocking all other routes.

"Where do I go?" He whispered and stopped, looking down two smaller corridors of labs. Could he find a weapon here, something among the chemicals or equipment? Then he saw a lab that caught his interest, one that studied power cells and technology. It might have something for him.

Taking a few stumbling steps toward this lab, he realized something. He hadn't heard the beast behind him in a few moments. No screeching, no loud thumps. It had gathered its senses and was now after him quietly. His painful steps grew faster as he forced himself to think about his goal and not his agony. He reached the door of the lab and yanked down on the emergency release arm to open it manually. It slid open with significant resistance.

"Okay, all I need..." The floor under his feet shifted backward violently as it lurched up. As the floor lurched up, the Founder, who had been hidden within it, twisted into a long tentacle and grabbed his foot, slamming him face-first into the ground. Kal watched the lab go by in a flash as it threw him right through that door and up against a wall. This time, he felt his back break. He could not feel his left leg and his right leg was in unbelievable agony.

The founder came together, assuming a humanoid figure. Unlike the calm, collected figures that the founders often take, this one was shaky, dripping, and moved with a jerky motion. "Oh, how much fun this is, Captain! You solids do feel such deep pain, we superior beings don't feel pain like you. We have no bones to break, no nerves to injure. How deep the agony must be right now. This is splendid, watching the fear in those eyes. Perhaps I shall do this to all the solids on this accursed station. Not just kill them, but let them suffer for hours, days perhaps. Such music shall be the screaming I will enjoy. Just as I enjoyed the agony of the experiments I conducted before on those people you tried to save, so shall I enjoy this."

Kal had been using this blathering idiot's time to get a firm grip around a special set of cords. He pulled himself up slightly by them, using his weight to break parts. He bought some time, "you disgusting people think yourselves gods, yet you torture and experiment on those you want to worship you."

"I saw the way you led that courageous... though pointless, rescue on my station. Gathering up those solids. You only delayed the inevitable. Now, I think I am done with you."

"No, I'm done with you." Kal gave one last pull and the heavy, clear cords broke free. He threw them at the Founder and then slammed his fist into a control circuit inside the console. Power erupted from within and the cord energized, sending raw electrical currents into the Founder's partially gelatinous form. The Founder flew backward, taking the cord with him. When he and the cord landed on the deck plating outside the room, the whole corridor lit up with sparks and tendrils of electricity. The humanoid form quickly turned once again into that goo monster, writhing around in the surging power.

Kal lay there, the power in this lab flickering on and off as the independent power source fed that test cable system. He wanted to watch this monster turn to dust as it fried. However, while it struggled, it grabbed the cord and wrapped a tentacle around it, pulling it hard. It ripped the cord free of its body and then tore it from the wall beside Kal.

"CRAP!" Kal rolled to the side just as the junction port overcharged and exploded. The wall blew apart and sent Kal rolling into another hallway.

A loud buzzing filled his ears and his eyes were blurry, but he wasn't dead. What happened to the Founder, he didn't know. However, he realized very little could stop these creatures. His body jerked when he heard the tricking sound of liquid, but it wasn't the changeling. It was coming from another destroyed lab. A chemical poured out across the floor. When he looked up, he saw what it was and realized that the hallway just past this lab had become exposed to space. Suddenly, air blasted by him, and then stopped. The force-field holding out space was failing.

"I... have to... try." He whispered to himself. Using the limited strength left in one arm and one leg, he crawled toward that liquid. Each motion of his body was excruciating, each breath felt as though it may be his last, but he wouldn't stop fighting.

To his dismay, he heard that same mocking voice behind him. "Clever... solid. How often I have said that about you and your people? Truly, you surprise me, which is something that I thought impossible." This founder was merely walking behind him as he crawled in desperation. "What drives you so hard? Is it devotion to your Federation? Is it jealousy of our superiority? Or... dear Captain, is it love?" When that word came out, it was not the mocking male tone of this founder but the sweet voice of Sakura.

Kal paused in his agonizing crawl. He refused to look and see this demon imitating the woman he loved. After a moment, he continued, hoping he could get there in time, and that the Founder did not see where he was going.

"Come on, Captain, surely you want to see my face, enjoy looking at my alluring naked body. Isn't that what you solids really like, the sight of all this exposed body? Disgusting, really, the way you mate with one another to make more solids." He continued sauntering behind Kal, "I saw the way you cradled this poor, sweet girl as you rescued her from my clutches. You helped the others, but it was this one you kept right there, in your arms. How tender, how... pathetic. What is she to you?"

Kal stopped crawling and laid his head down, breathing heavily under the intense strain, "What... what have you done to her?"

"First, tell me who she was to you?"

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!"

The Founder came around to the side of Kal, leaning down, and speaking to him in that same voice, in that same body of Sakura. "Oh, this one was the sweetest kill of all. I found her thwarting my plans, interrupting my glorious mission to build a stronger Dominion. No god would allow insignificant insects to ruin their plans. I ripped the tail from her body, I tied it around her neck, and then I squeezed it hard enough to feel the bones snapping, the muscles breaking, the heartbeat throbbing so hard that it felt as though it would beat out of her precious chest. Then, it stopped, she stopped, it was over so quickly. Sad, really, I enjoy hearing them scream."

Kal felt the tears falling from his eyes. Through all this pain, he has yet to shed one tear. Only now was he unable to contain them.

The founder came within inches of his face and asked again, "Who was she to you?"

Grabbing the glowing blue tube laying on the ground, Kal turned and shoved it into the Founder's chest. Instantly, a unique coolant flooded into the founder and turned its body into ice. It screamed as the freezing consumed its ability to turn to liquid. Kal's hand also froze, holding that tube connected to the enemy. He was now a part of this creature. He whispered to the screaming mass of evil, "She was my reason for living."

For a brief few moments the monster fought against this, turning parts of itself into liquid, but the icy part couldn't change. That coolant filled tube frozen against it, along with Kal's blue hand. In a last effort, it lurched at Kal, ready to impale him with hundreds of spikes formed from what little it could still transform. However, those tentacles froze solid. Kal looked up to see his enemy, a statue of ice, incapable of moving. Suddenly the field failed again and a harsh blast of wind rushed out, shattering the founder into tiny particles and sucking them into space. This included Kal's hand, breaking it off of his wrist.

He watched as long as his strength would allow. It was finally over. The world went black, and he was ready for all the pain to end forever.